________________________________________________________ | Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga Walkthrough | | By: JaggedJim | | Date: January 12, 2006 | | Version: 1.2 | ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ This is my walkthrough for Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga. You can always find the latest version of this guide at: http://www.gamefaqs.com http://www.geocities.com/jagged_jim/FAQ ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||E-mail Notice||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— If you have any questions, comments, or you have something you want added to this guide then feel free to email me at “jagged_jim@yahoo.com” (without the quotation marks, of course...) Some things to note before you email me: -Make sure you put “DDS” somewhere in the subject line. If you don’t I will likely think that the email is junk and delete it. -Please read the guide before emailing me, it is quite annoying having to answer a question that I have already answered in this guide. (...of course if you’re not reading the guide then what are the chances that are going to read this warning?) -I am notoriously bad at checking email. (...and even worse at answering it) So if you are trying to contact me then you will just have to be patient. -Do not, not, not, not, NOT send me ANY attachments with your email. I don’t care what the attachment is, I won’t look at it and I will likely delete the email immediately. (Also I will NEVER send any attachments with my emails, so if you receive something from my email address and it has an attachment on it, delete it, immediately.) -Please use proper spelling and grammar in your email, it’s just common courtesy. I don’t care if it’s perfect, as long as you make the effort. Emails with “si teh awsome” in it, however, will likely be ignored. -A pet peeve of mine is when people replace “you” with “u.” It’s only two extra key strokes people, jeez. _______________________________________________________________________________ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||Table of Contents||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Version History [#001] Introduction [#002] Basics [#003] Characters [#004] Mantras and Hunting [#005] Hints and Tips [#006] Walkthrough [#007] -The Black Haired Girl [#007.1] -An Ill-Fated Alliance [#007.2] -Two Princes [#007.3] -A Three Hour Tour [#007.4] -A Brutish Encounter [#007.5] -Journey to Nirvana [#007.6] Side Quests [#008] -Omoikanes [#008.1] -Coordinate 136 Revisited [#008.2] -Subduing Beelzebub [#008.3] -Anahata Waterways [#008.4] -The Four Guardian Beasts [#008.5] -Metatron [#008.6] -Huang Long [#008.7] -Junkyard Nocturne [#008.8] Appendix [#009] -Key and Wall Checklist [#009.1] -Combo List [#009.2] -Physical Combos [#009.2.1] -Fire Combos [#009.2.2] -Ice Combos [#009.2.3] -Elec Combos [#009.2.4] -Force Combos [#009.2.5] -Earth Combos [#009.2.6] -Almighty Combos [#009.2.7] -Expel Combos [#009.2.8] -Death Combos [#009.2.9] -Human Form Combos [#009.2.10] -Healing Combos [#009.2.11] -Support Combos [#009.2.12] -Vendor and Cell Price List [#009.3] -Mantra List [#009.4] -Physical/Hunting Mantras [#009.4.1] -Elemental Mantras [#009.4.2] -Healing Mantras [#009.4.3] -Support Mantras [#009.4.4] -Extra Mantras [#009.4.5] Miscellaneous [#010] Frequently Asked Questions [#011] Contributors [#012] ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||Version History [#001]|||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— 0.1 – 4/26/05 1.0 – 7/9/05 1.2 – 1/12/06 – A minor housecleaning update this time. I corrected a few typos and fixed a few other things. I also added an alternate strategy to the Demi-Fiend section that may help. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||Introduction [#002]|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Digital Devil Saga is the latest game in the long running Megami Tensei (or MegaTen, as it’s referred to by fans) series. The game is the first part of a two-part story about the inhabitants of the Junkyard and their struggles to reach Nirvana. Although the game does re-use a lot of game play elements (like the graphic engine, battle system, and even several of the demon models) from Shin Megami Tensei: Nocturne, the game is unconnected story-wise to Nocturne. (And anybody who tells you otherwise is wrong.) Some differences between Nocturne and Digital Devil Saga: -You only have three characters in battle, instead of four. -You can’t recruit enemies into your party this time around. There’s no Fusion, either. -The game is a lot more forgiving than Nocturne was. This is mostly due to the fact that the entire party has to be killed for a game over, instead of just a single character. I also noticed that there are also a lot fewer Physical Immune monsters running around the Junkyard. -A whole new skill system. The big difference is that you can change your equipped skills at will instead of just at level-up and un-learned skills are NOT lost forever. -There is now an Earth Element to go along with Fire, Ice, Electricity, and Force. -Some of the demons that were in Nocturne have had their resistances switched around. So to you Nocturne veterans out there don’t be surprised if you cast a spell expecting to hit a weak point and instead just do normal damage or worse, get blocked. -Turn order is decided by party order and not by each character’s agility. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||Basics [#003]||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Controls -------- -Directional Buttons/Left Analog Stick – Moves that silver-haired dude on the screen around, and it moves the menu cursor around too. Amazing! -Right analog Stick/L1+R1 Buttons – Rotates the camera. Note that the shoulder buttons moves the camera around a bit faster than the analog stick. -X Button – This button lets you talk to people, open doors, and make menu selections. In other words, it’s the all-purpose “Action” button that all RPGs have. -Circle Button – This button cancels selections. -Triangle Button – This button brings up the map and turns on/off Auto-Battle. -Square Button – Opens the menu. If you use it during a battle you will automatically pass your turn. Facilities ---------- -Karma Terminal – These come in two varieties, Large and Small. All Karma Terminals regardless of size allow you to save your game and purchase Mantras. You can also use them to teleport to any Large Karma terminal in a dungeon. Finally, you can restore your HP and MP at Large Karma Terminals, but it will cost money to do so. -Life Terminal – These allow you restore your HP and MP. -Vendor – You can buy and sell items here. -Rejuvenating Light – These Rejuvenating Lights will completely restore your party, and unlike Large Karma Terminals and Life Terminals they are completely free to use. Unfortunately there are only two of these in the game: one in Manipura and one in the Deserted Ship. Solar Noise ----------- If you look in the upper left you will see a black circle with a number inside it. This number represents the current amount of Solar Noise there is. Solar Noise works kind of like Kagutsuchi did in Nocturne, where there are eight (well technically there are nine, since we are including zero here) levels of Solar Noise and is represented by the current level of Solar Noise over eight. After about every 15-18 steps you take, the amount of Solar Noise will shift. Solar Noise starts at MIN (0/8) and the amount of Solar Noise will steadily increase until it reaches MAX, (8/8) at which point it will steadily decrease until reaches MIN again, and then it will cycle back around towards Max again, and so on and so on. Truth be told, you shouldn’t worry too much about Solar Noise too much, because it doesn’t really affect the game all that much. Solar Noise affects things like the price of Cells, along with certain skills like MIN Critical and MAX Critical, and the effects of the Estoma Spray and Magic Reed will only last until the next MIN Solar Noise. If a character is suffering from an ailment there is a 50% chance of that ailment being cured at MIN Solar Noise. ============= ================================|Battle System|================================ ============= Digital Devil Saga uses a unique battle system called the Press Turn System. If you have played Nocturne before you already have a good idea on how the battle system works, because DDS uses the same battle system as Nocturne with a few minor tweaks. Battles in DDS are turn based, with one side acting first, and then the other side gets to act, and so on until one side is defeated. If you look in the upper right hand corner you will see a number of hexagonal shaped icons. Each of these icons ostensibly represents the number of actions you can do, but depending on the result of those actions you can either end up with additional or fewer actions. The total number of icons that each side gets for their turn is equal to the number of living characters that side has. (Although this is not always the case, as some random enemies along with most bosses will get 2-8 icons per turn, and some enemies can use Rage/Psycho Rage to boost the number of icons the have by two or four flashing icons respectively. Nobody ever said life was fair.) Normally whenever you attack or use a skill or an item then it will consume one icon. If that attack or skill is a Critical or hits the target’s weakness, however, it will cause one icon to start flashing. The next action will then consume this flashing icon, basically giving that side an extra action. If you already have one or more flashing icons and the next action is another critical/weakness it won’t consume that flashing icon, it will instead cause the next icon to start flashing too. This will continue until all the icons are flashing, at which point every action will consume one flashing icon regardless of whether it was a critical/weakness or not. Watch out though, if an attack fails or is blocked then two icons are consumed, and if it is repelled or drained then ALL remaining icons are consumed and it becomes the other side’s turn. -Note: For skills that have a probability of working (like Hama or Mudo) there is a difference between a failed attack and one that just didn’t work. If it didn’t work then you will see a “Miss” and it will only consume one icon, but if the attack fails then you will lose two icons. Finally, If you decide to Pass a character’s turn and there are no flashing icons then it cause an icon to flash, but if there are already flashing icons then it will always consume a flashing icon. ____________________________________Ailments___________________________________ As you go through the game you will inflict and be inflicted with a variety of status ailments. The following section lists all the ailments in the game, along with how to prevent them from happening and how to cure the ailment if you are affected. Some ailments will only last until the end of the current battle, while some are permanent, they will last until they are healed by an Item or a Life Terminal. Ailments that are not permanent may also end at the start of a turn, depending on the afflicted character’s Luck stat. Also, a character can only be affected by one ailment at a time; if another ailment is inflicted then the first ailment is cancelled. -Note: If you use a physical attack skill that has a chance of causing an ailment and that attack gets Blocked/Repelled/Drained than the ailment will have no chance of affecting the target. Stone ----- Permanent? – Kinda. You won’t recover from this mid-battle, but it does wear off after the battle is over. Prevent – Anything that protects you from Death Cure – Dis-Stone, Petradi When a character is turned to Stone they will not be able to act and will automatically lose their turn. If a character that has been turned to Stone is hit with a physical attack there is a very high chance that they will shatter and be killed. Despite what it may look like, a shattered character is treated like a dead character and can be revived with a Revival Gem or something like that. Curse ----- Permanent? – Yes Prevent – Anything that protects you from Death Cure – Dis-Curse, Cursedi When a Cursed character attacks they will receive the same amount of damage as they inflicted. If the target is killed then the cursed character will receive no damage. If a Cursed character doesn’t attack then nothing happens. Poison ------ Permanent? – Yes Prevent – Void Poison, Null Poison Cure – Dis-Poison, Posmudi When a character is poisoned they will take damage after every action they make. A poisoned character outside of battle will also lose a few HP every few steps Serph takes. Mute ---- Permanent? – Yes Prevent – Void Mute, Null Mute Cure – Dis-Mute, Closedi A character with the Mute ailment will be unable to use any skill that costs MP to use. It is kinda fun to inflict Mute on a magic-heavy enemy and watch them fruitlessly try to cast their spells. Charm ----- Permanent? - No Prevent – Void Charm, Null Charm Cure – Panacea, Patra, Me Patra A charmed character will automatically do one of the following actions: do nothing and lose a turn, attack their own party members, or heal the enemy. This is a pretty nasty status ailment to be hit with; you definitely want to heal this as soon as possible. Panic ----- Permanent? - No Prevent – Void Panic, Null Panic Cure – Panacea, Patra, Me Patra A panicked character might do what you tell them to do... Or they could randomly use one of their skills, Revert to human form or withdraw from battle completely, or they just do nothing and lose a turn. Thankfully panicked characters don’t drop Macca like they did in Nocturne... Sleep ----- Permanent? – No Prevent – Void Nerve, Null Nerve Cure – Panacea, Patra, Me Patra A sleeping character will automatically lose their turn, and when they are physically attacked there is a high chance of a critical hit. Unlike in Nocturne, characters do not recover HP or MP while they are sleeping. Stun ---- Permanent? – Yes Prevent – Void Nerve, Null Nerve Cure – Dis-Stun, Paraladi When a stunned character attacks they have a much higher chance of the attack failing. When they are attacked they also have a much higher chance of being hit with a critical. Ache ---- Permanent? - Yes Prevent – Iron Stomach, not using Hunt skills Cure – Dis-Ache, Achedi This ailment is a bit different than the others, as the ache status is a direct result of using Hunt skills. A character with a stomachache will randomly lose their turn. Also, they will NOT gain any AP after the battle. Freeze ------ Permanent? – No Prevent – Anything that protects against Ice attacks Cure – N/A Whenever an Ice attack is used there is a chance that the target will be frozen. Any physical attack against a frozen target will automatically be a critical. A frozen target will also lose any Null, Repel, and drain protections they had. Frozen status will last only until the next turn. Also Hunt skills are much less effective against frozen enemies. (I guess demons don’t like frozen food...) Shock ----- Permanent? - No Prevent – Anything that prevents against Elec Attacks Cure – N/A Whenever an Elec attack is used there is a chance that the target will be shocked. This status ailment is more or less just like Freeze, except shocked targets don’t lose their protections like they do when they’re frozen. Frightened ---------- Permanent? – No Prevent – N/A Cure – N/A The frightened status ailment can only affect enemies. An enemy that has been frightened will take triple damage from damaging Hunt skills, and instant death Hunt skills are guaranteed to work. Enemies will only remain frightened until their next turn. Bat --- Permanent? - No Prevent – Nothing Cure – Wait a few turns Your character has been transformed into a bat. A character that has transformed will have their stats lowered to next to nothing, and they will also become weak to Force attacks. You only have to deal with this ailment during a single battle. Mad --- Permanent? - No Prevent – Nothing Cure – Wait for Sera to use Song of Grace There are only two times in the game when you can be hit with the Mad ailment. A character under the Mad ailment will either attack one of their own party members or take damage and lose a turn. _____________________________________Macca_____________________________________ When you are victorious in battle you will be awarded with among other things, Macca. The exact amount you get, however, depends on how quickly you can defeat the enemy party. If you can defeat the enemy party on your first turn you will get the maximum amount of Macca, but if you can’t then the amount of Macca you get will decrease. On the second turn the amount of Macca you get will decrease by a fifth. After the third turn the amount of Macca is reduced by a further sixth, which is the lowest it will go. Obviously it’s in your best interest to try to kill the enemy party as soon as you can. If your characters level is higher than the monster you are facing then you will be assessed a penalty to the Macca that enemy will give at the start of battle. This penalty is equal to one-forth of the maximum Macca they give. ================= ==============================|Leveling Up Areas|============================== ================= Trying to get enough AP to master your mantra, along with the money to purchase the Mantra in the first place can be a major pain. Fortunately there are a number of places in the game where you can gain large amounts of both Macca and AP quickly and (relatively) painlessly. Before you take on these areas there are a few skills you should have. First off you want to have either Consume or Insatiable, along with Iron Stomach, AP Divide, and Atma Bonus. You also want either Rakunda or Taunt to lower the enemy’s defense, and Tarukaja and Power Charge to raise your attack power. Pixie Farming ------------- This is the earliest of the level up areas you can get to, you don’t have to do anything special to get here as its part of the story. About two-thirds of the way through the Svadhisthana Waterways you will sometimes encounter a lone pixie. Don’t attack the Pixie or it might run away, instead have your characters heal, cast Tarukaja, or just have them pass their turn until the Pixie uses Reinforcements to summon a High Pixie. When this happens kill off the Pixie and then wait for the High Pixie to use Reinforcements to summon a Queen Mab. When Queen Mab is summoned use Power Charge and then Consume to devour the Queen Mab. After this heal up, Wait for the High Pixie to summon another Queen Mab, devour that Queen Mab and repeat until satisfied. 3F Brutes Base -------------- To get here you must first defeat Asura Ravana in Ajna, this will unlock the Anahata Waterways. Go to Anahata and enter the Waterways. Follow it to the end, past Orochi and all the way up to Brutes Base 3F. On this floor you will encounter Horus exclusively here, and with a Magic Reed in effect you will often have several extra Horus show up as reinforcements. They are weak to Death so a single Mudoon will take them out. Watch out though, they can cast Magic Repel which will prevent Mudoon from working. Although Horus do give better Karma, Macca, and AP than Titanias do, (Horus gives up around 950 Karma and up to 21000 Macca each, while a single Titania gives around 800 Karma and 15000 Macca) and that you don’t need anything other than someone who knows Mudoon to take advantage of this area I can’t really recommend this area for leveling up because of the simple fact that this place is so freaking remote. If you need to change Mantra then you need to hike all the way back to the Small Karma Terminal in the Waterways and back, and if you need healing it’s an even longer march. (YHVH help you if you need to visit a Vendor...) Titania Hallway --------------- After defeating Beelzebub (Human) in Svadhisthana the Manipura Waterways will unlock. Enter the Manipura Waterways and from the first Large Karma Terminal follow the path west through the door. Climb up the first ladder you come to and go through the door to reach a long hallway. While you are in this hallway just about the only enemies encounter here is a battle against three Titanias. (You do occasionally get into a battle against a lone Pixie here, but this Pixie doesn’t use Reinforcements to summon a High Pixie, so you can’t do any Pixie Farming here.) There is also a chance of meeting two Arahabaki as Reinforcements after the Titania are dead. This is a good area for Macca as the three Titanias give up to 45000 Macca total, and if Arahabaki shows up they will add another 60000 Macca to that. Also Titanias will often drop Theory Cells (worth up to 60000 each) and Arahabaki rarely drop Fusion Cells. (Worth up to 192000 Macca each) To be able to take advantage of this area you will need to have everyone set an all-target physical attack (Attack All or Chi Blast or Bloodbath) along with Cocytus. When fighting the Titanias have everyone use their all-target physical attacks, and hopefully you should be able to kill them in a single turn. If the Arahabaki show up pelt them with Cocytus until both are frozen, then hit them with physical attacks. If you have a reasonably high (60+) Strength you can try hunting Titanias instead. Have the character in your first slot set Insatiable and Power Charge, and then set Taunt on the second character. When you get into combat have the first character use Power Charge, the second taunt, the third pass, and finally have the first character use Insatiable and you should be to devour all three Titanias at once. _________________________________Noise hunting_________________________________ If you are looking to buff up you characters even more you can win noises from certain enemies in the game. These noises will permanently raise a character’s stats by 2 when used, so it well worth the time spent trying to get them. Probably the easiest noises to acquire are Magic (there is an area in the game where you fight nothing but Horus) and Luck (Use the Pixie Farming method described above, but keep the Pixie around and go after the high Pixie instead) Noises, while the hardest noises are Strength and Quick Noises because the enemies that drop them are so freaking rare. Anyway, without further ado, here is the list of enemies that drop Noises and where to find them. -Power Noise: Ongyo-Ki – These guys are VERY rarely encountered in the second half (Elevation: 4000+ft) of the Karma Temple. They can also show up as reinforcements in the battle with a Kin-Ki, a Sui-Ki, and a Fuu-Ki in the Anahata Waterways. Their only weakness is to Guns, so when you fight them, it is probably best to have one or more characters revert to Human Form and shoot them. -Vital Noise: Arahabaki – Shows up as Reinforcements in the Manipura Waterways. Just hit them with Cocytus until they are frozen and then Critical them to death. -Magic Noise: Horus – These guys be found either in The Karma Temple after the Temple 4 Large Karma Terminal or on 3F of the Brutes Base. On 3F of the Brutes Base you will fight Horus exclusively, so if you are looking for Magic Noises then that is the place to go. They are weak to Death, so using (Ma)Mudoon or the Murder Rock will take care of them quickly. -Quick Noise: Garuda – These guys are found in the Karma Temple after the Temple 4 Large Karma Terminal. They don’t appear very often, but at least they show their faces more often than Ongyo-Ki... -Luck Noise: High Pixie – She can either be summoned by a Pixie in the Svadhisthana Waterways or encountered as regular enemy in the Brutes Base. Oddly enough she can also be summoned by Girimehkala. -HP Noise: Girimehkala – They can be found in the Brutes Base or the Karma Temple. The best place to find these guys is in B1 of the White Configuration of the Brutes Base. These guys can be a pain, not only do they repel Physical attacks, but they also use nasty attacks like Demon Rage and can use Rage/Psycho Rage too... -MP Noise: Isis – They are found in the second half of the Karma Temple and occasionally in the second half of the Manipura Waterways. They also repel Physical attacks, but they don’t really have any attacks worth worrying about. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||Characters [#004]||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— ===== ====================================|Serph|==================================== ===== -Demon Form: Varna – Strong: Ice, Weak: Fire -Human Weapon: Handgun – Targets a single enemy. Serph is the leader of Embryon and the main character of the game. Serph is also the only character that you have direct control over stat distribution. I usually concentrate on Strength, Vitality, and Magic, while putting a point into Agility and Luck every second or third level. With this build you end up with a well-rounded character that can use both magic and physical attacks equally well. He won’t be able to match the raw damage output of either Heat or Argilla, but he’ll be able to more than hold his own. As for skills, I usually have him concentrate on learning the –Kaja and –Kunda skills, while taking time out to learn the Fire and Ice Elemental Mantras and Healing Mantras. If you are looking to “max out” your characters then have Him put a point in Strength and Agility every level, because Strength and Quick Noises are the hardest Noises to get. (or at least the enemies that drop those noises are the rarest...) ==== =====================================|Heat|==================================== ==== -Demon Form: Agni – Strong: Fire, Weak: Ice -Human Weapon: Grenade – Targets all enemies. Heat concentrates on Strength and Vitality almost to the exclusion of everything else. This makes him fantastic at physical attacks, but rather deficient at magic. This can leave him at a disadvantage at the end of the game, when you start running into Physical Immune monsters regularly. His low Magic score also means he will take more damage from magic attacks. Have him concentrate on the physical and hunting Mantras, since it is about the only thing he can do. ======= ===================================|Argilla|=================================== ======= -Demon Form: Prithivi – Strong: Earth, Weak: Force -Human Weapon: Rifle – Targets a single enemy. Argilla uses the classic mage build, with high Magic and rather mediocre Strength and Vitality. She can easily be your biggest damage dealer when she uses –Dyne level spells with the corresponding Amp and Boost spells set. Also her high Magic stat means that magic spells cast against her will do a lot less damage to her than the other characters in your party. (She can get hit with a Mazandyne spell and still take less damage than Heat does.) You want to concentrate on having her master the Elemental and Healing Mantras, obviously. ==== =====================================|Gale|==================================== ==== -Demon Form: Vayu – Strong: Force, Weak: Elec -Human Weapon: Assault Rifle – Targets random enemies. Gale is a rather well balanced character. He puts most of his stat points into both Strength and Magic. I usually have him concentrate on learning the Elemental Mantras and use him as a backup spell caster for Argilla. ===== ====================================|Cielo|==================================== ===== -Demon Form: Dyaus – Strong: Elec, Weak: Ailments (ack!) -Human Weapon: Submachine Gun – Targets random enemies. I don’t like Cielo; first he puts all his stat points into Agility while leaving his Strength, Vitality, and Magic scores lagging behind. But the real killer is that he is weak against status ailments. As such I hardly ever use him outside of the one dungeon where you are forced to use him. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— |||||||||||||||||||||||||||Mantras and Hunting [#005]|||||||||||||||||||||||||| ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— Before you can set and use a skill they must be first learned from a Mantra. Mantras can be purchased from any Karma Terminal (Small or Large) soon after completing the first dungeon. Every Mantra has one to four skills attached to them, but before you can use those skills the mantra they are on must be mastered first. To master a Mantra you need AP, and you get AP by defeating enemies. After a battle every character (whether they participated in the battle or not) will gain AP. Mantras are arranged along several linear pathways, when you master a Mantra it will unlock the next Mantra in the path, and when that Mantra is mastered the next one will unlock, and so on. Remember that each character has a separate Mantra Grid which is independent of the other character’s Mantra Grid. (...and yes, that does mean you will have to purchase every Mantra five times. That’s just the way it is.) -Note: If you purchase a new Mantra before mastering the old one you can go back and re-download a Mantra that you have purchased but not Mastered. To re-download a mantra, just go through the steps to purchase the Mantra on the Mantra Grid again. It doesn’t cost anything to re-download a Mantra you have already purchased and it will retain all the AP it had before you switched Mantra. It is still in your best interest to master Mantra one at a time, but if you learn a different skill quickly don’t worry about losing your progress on the old Mantra. ======= ===================================|Hunting|=================================== ======= The main difference between Digital Devil Saga and Nocturne is that you don’t talk to demons, you EAT them! The basic idea behind the Hunting system is simple enough, you use a Hunt skill to defeat an enemy and you get extra AP when the battle is over. Of course, if you just randomly use Hunt skills you won’t get very far, as damaging Hunt skills by themselves are rather ineffective, they just don’t cause that much damage and the instant death attacks have such a pitiful chance of actually working. -Note: Only the character that devoured the enemy will get the extra AP. The other characters will get no AP from that enemy. To be able to Hunt effectively you must first make your opponent frightened. To do this you must first hit them with a critical attack, hit their weak points, or Block, Repel, or Drain one of your opponent’s attacks. (Every one of your opponents will be frightened if you block an attack, and if the enemy becomes fightened because of a blocked attack then they will automatically lose any turn icons they had left and it will become your turn.) When an opponent is frightened they take about three times as much damage from Hunt skills and instant death hunt skills are guaranteed to work. Unfortunately, enemies will only stay frightened until their next turn, when they’ll return to normal. So you had better be ready to take advantage if the enemy does become frightened. Every time you successfully Hunt an enemy there is a chance that your character will come down with a Stomachache. A character with a Stomachache will not only randomly lose their turn but they will NOT gain ANY AP. You can either use a Dis-Ache or the Achedi skill to cure the Stomachache, or you can set the Iron Stomach skill to prevent your character from getting a Stomachache in the first place. Other useful skills for Hunting are AP Divide (Gives AP to the non-hunting party members) and Atma Boost. (Gives more AP for the character that sets this skill.) =========== =================================|Field Hunts|================================= =========== Scattered throughout the Junkyard are areas where weak demons congregate. When you find one of these areas, (marked as a purple area on your map) you can participate in a Field Hunt. A Field Hunt is a mini game where you have to destroy a certain number of demons to make a Mitama appear. You can then battle these Mitama in a normal battle and if you kill them you will get a LOT of Macca and AP for your troubles. When you start a Field Hunt Serph will transform into Varna and you have to destroy all the orb-like demons before the time limit runs out. The demons will appear in groups, and you have to destroy all of the demons in a group for the next group to appear. The key to successfully completing a Field Hunt is efficiency. Never stop moving and try to destroy each group as quickly as possible. Fortunately the demons all appear in the same places every time you do this, so you can memorize the order they appear and destroy them quickly. Killing Mitamas --------------- Okay, so you’ve managed to get a Mitama to appear, so now what? Well, Mitamas are nearly invincible, as they don’t take much damage from physical attacks and block nearly all elemental damage. They do have an elemental weakness, but they still take next to no damage from it. So what are you supposed to do? Make them frightened and eat them, of course. To do that you need a couple skills: -A party-targeting elemental spell corresponding to the Weakness of the Mitama you are facing. -A hunting skill, obviously. Preferably one that does instant death, as you might not be able to cause enough damage to kill them otherwise. -Iron Stomach. You do NOT want to get a Stomachache and miss out on all that delicious AP now, do you? -Atma Boost, AP Divide. Getting more AP out of this encounter is always nice, isn’t it? When you battle a Mitama just hit them in their weaknesses until they become frightened and then use hunt skills to devour them. The Elemental Weaknesses of each Mitama are: -Ara Mitama: Ice -Nigi Mitama: Fire -Kusi Mitama: Force -Saki Mitama: Elec ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||Hints and Tips [#006]||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— -Explore every place thoroughly and use your map to look for places you might have missed. -Save often. Although you are not one Mudo spell away from a game over like you were in Nocturne, battles can still go south on you pretty quickly if you aren’t careful. -Know thy enemy. As you go through the game try to keep track of things like what the enemy’s Resistances are and what skills they use. Knowing how to best attack the enemy and defend yourself is a key part of being successful in combat. -On a similar note, you should always try to exploit an enemy’s weakness. Doing more damage and getting extra turns is always a good thing, right? -Don’t be afraid to retreat. If the battle starts to go against you it’s usually better to just run away and regroup instead of trying to stick it out. -Hunt skills don’t count as physical attacks and will work even on Physical immune monsters. Just thought you’d like to know. -Do NOT ignore Agility and Luck when you are raising Serph’s stats at level up. Although they don’t have immediately noticeable effects like Strength, Vitality, or Magic does, Agility and Luck does play an important part in how effective Serph is. (Without Agility Serph will hardly ever hit anything or get to attack first in battle, and Luck effects how often you critical, what items that your enemies drop, and a bunch of other things.) -Make sure that you use the Elemental Boost and Amp skills. These skills can significantly enhance the damage of elemental magic and makes them the most effective attack in the game, but watch out for resistances when you use them. (Getting an Amped Mazandyne bounced back in your face is not fun...) -The elemental Resist skills will override a character’s weakness to that element. For that reason you want to try to get each character to the end of the Elemental path of their weakness as soon as you can. -Remember that the various shield skills will only last one turn and you can only have one of them up at a time. If you already have a Shield skill active and you use a second one then the effect of the first shield is cancelled. -When a character leaves your party for story reasons and returns, they will have mastered the Mantra they had equipped when they left regardless of how close they were to mastering it when they left. Keep this in mind when you know that a character is about to leave. -Try to fight in demon form as often as you can. Although there are demons out there that are weak to Guns, it’s usually a waste of time to spend a turn reverting back to take advantage of the weakness. You also can’t use any skills while you are in human form, either. -A character’s human form has different resistances than their demon form. They take normal damage from all elements and they are immune to Expel attacks. -Remember that most of your money should be put into purchasing Mantras, not buying worthless crap at the vendor. Try to limit your purchases to Healing Items and even then only if you are about to run out of that Item. -Never EVER buy ammo from a vendor. Like I said before, you will hardly ever do any fighting in human form, and the Ammo found in the field should be more than enough when you do. -The price that Cells... sell for fluctuates depending on the amount of Solar Noise there is. Always sell your Cells at MAX Solar Noise for maximum profit. The sole exception to this is the Jack Cell, which sells for the most at MIN Solar Noise. Go to a place where you won’t get attacked outside a Vendor (like Svadhisthana or Ajna) and run around in circles until the Solar Noise reaches MAX. -The effects of an Estoma Spray or a Magic Reed will only last until the next MIN Solar Noise. To get the most out of these items, use them while Solar Noise is at MIN and it will last until the next MIN Solar Noise. -Make sure that you save before attempting a Field Hunt, and if you mess up during the Mitama battle, (you get a Stomachache, or a Mitama runs away) reload and try again. -It’s a good idea to use one of your inactive characters as a mobile Life Terminal, have them set a Dia- spell and as many ailment-curing skills as they know. After battle if anyone is injured or suffering from an ailment have the inactive character heal them. ******************************************************************************* ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||Walkthrough [#007]|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— For the most part this walkthrough will not hold your hand through the dungeons, as I will assume that you have explored each area thoroughly and therefore I will only point out the important spots. I have included a listing of the Items you can find in each area. The Items in parenthesis indicate items that are found in Ammo (yellow) Nodes. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ SPOILER NOTE: Although this walkthrough is more or less spoiler-free, it is NOT totally free of spoilers. So if you are trying to avoid spoilers, don’t read ahead of the spot you need help in. You have been warned. +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+ ============================== ========================|The Black Haired Girl [#007.1]|======================= ============================== ___________________________________Muladhara___________________________________ -Items: Revival Bead Chakra Drop x 3 Soma Drop Dis-Poison x 2 Ration x 5 After the opening cinema you start the game inside the Embryon base. There really isn’t anything to do here other than searching the place for some goodies. When you are done here leave the area. Your destination is the Vanguard’s base in Svadhisthana, but before you go there make a pit stop at Ground Zero. Talk to an Embryon Member there and he will give you five rations. __________________________________Svadhisthana_________________________________ -Items: Soma Drop Panacea x 2 Ration x 3 Chakra Drop x 3 Revival Bead Chakra Drop x 3 Soma Drop (Charge Shot) Ice Blast Chakra Drop Revival Gem There are no enemies in the first part of the fortress, so take your time and search for treasures. When you come to a wall blocking your way eastward you can just flip the switch in this room to lower the wall, but before you do that take the south door and climb the stairs. You will be able to cross over the raised section of wall to reach an Item Node. Just past the first Small Karma Terminal is the first battle of the game, a pair of Ghouls. Just have Serph cast Bufu on them and the other characters attack physically and they will go down quickly. After you defeat the Ghouls you will start being randomly attacked. Also, Argilla will not gain any AP while you are in this dungeon, and since you can’t buy Mantra yet you are stuck with the ones you are currently equipped with. (In case you were wondering, Serph currently has the Devourer Mantra, while Heat has the Fire Spirit and Argilla has the Earth Spirit Mantras.) Chase after Harley and when he tries to block your progress with a wall go back and climb the first set of stairs you find. Cross over the raised wall to find a Vanguard Member who will turn into a Cockatrice and attack. He is weak to Ice, so hit him with Bufu and he should go down quickly. Continue on and past the Small Karma and Life Terminals you will be ambushed by a pair of Empusa. Have Serph cast Void Ice and the other two use normal attacks for an easy fight. In the next room you will see Harley run off again, but don’t go chasing him around like an idiot, because he’s running around in a circle and you’ll never be able to catch him that way. Instead go through the other door and up the stairs there. Flip the switch you find up there and there is a cut scene of Harley running through the newly opened door. Follow him through that door and just past another Small Karma and Life Terminals you will finally corner Harley, who transforms into Hayagriva and attacks you. Before the battle make sure that Heat has mastered the Mantra he has equipped and that he has set the Void Fire skill. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Asura Hayagriva -Null: Fire/Expel/Death/Ailments, Weak: Ice -Recommended Level: 6 Since this is the first boss of the game, don’t expect anything too challenging. He has a lot of Fire attacks that can hurt, (especially if he targets Serph, since he’s weak to Fire) but if Heat has Void Fire set this shouldn’t be a problem. Have Serph use Bufu (If Hayagriva uses Void Ice then have him attack normally) and Heat use Void Fire while Argilla either attacks or heals with Dia. He should go down with out too much trouble. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After Hayagriva is dead and the cut scene is over leave Svadhisthana and return to Muladhara. After some more scenes here your next destination is Sahasrara. Go to Sahasrara, and head north and enter the Karma Temple. Inside go north, go north, go north, and so on. Ride the tram and enter the Dissemination Room for yet more cut scenes. After they are done, go back the way you came, and as you leave the Karma Temple you will be stopped by an Embryon member who will inform you that you can now purchase Mantras from Karma Terminals. Let’s do so now. ----------------------------------Mantra Check--------------------------------- -Serph: You should start him on the Ice Demon Mantra so he can learn Mabufu. After that have him learn Shura and Battle Demon Mantras, and finally give him the Protection Mantra so he can learn Dia. -Heat: Have him get the Devourer Mantra so he can learn Devour, and then set him up with Battle Demon and then Raksas Mantras. -Argilla: She hasn’t mastered the Earth Spirit Mantra yet, but since she has finally started to eat she should master it pretty quickly. When she Masters the Earth Spirit Mantra have her learn the Devourer, Shura, and Battle Demon Mantras. After she masters all that, give her the Fallen Hero Mantra when you get the money so she can learn Media. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Return to Muladhara, and after still more cut scenes you decide to go to Manipura. ------------------------------Digital Devil Saga 2----------------------------- When Serph is asked what he thinks about the plan, answer “We will help them without betrayal” Heat will call Serph naive, and when you get to DDS 2 Argilla will learn a new skill. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Before you go to Manipura head back to Svadhisthana, and make your way back to the room where you fought with Hayagriva and talk to the Ex-Vanguard there and he will give you the Blue Key. You can now use this key to destroy Blue Walls. There is one in the Vanguard’s base which leads to a Vital Noise and Power Noise, and one in Muladhara that leads to an elevator that takes you down to the Lower Layer. Here you will find two MP Noises and two HP Noises along with another Blue Wall that leads to a Great Chakra. When you have finished with all that, head out for Manipura. ____________________________________Manipura___________________________________ -Items: Revival Gem Dis-Poison x 3 (Error Cell) (Active Cell) Brave Ration (Frigid Shot) (Active Cell) Chakra Drop x 2 Dis-Ache x 3 (Devil Cell) (Battle: Ikusa x 2) Revival Gem Odd Morsel Chakra Pot After the cut scene is over but before you enter the Maribel’s Base swing around to the east to find a side entrance that leads to an Item Node. Enter through the main gate, here you will find a Vendor and a Large Karma Terminal. Continue on and when you reach Gate #1, flip the switch right next to the gate to open it. You will find another Blue Wall here, with a Wild Card and a Quick Noise behind it. You will also be attacked by a Cockatrice as you explore this area, but it shouldn’t be any you can’t handle by now. When you go through Gate #2 you are attacked by 4 Pretas and a Yaka. Take out the Pretas first then use Bufu on the Yaka to take it down. You will find another Blue Wall here, which leads to a Great Chakra. Gate #3 is a bit different than the others as the switch to Gate #3 is not right next to the gate, instead you will have to climb a ladder and then run along the rooftops to reach it. When you go through Gate #3 you will be ambushed by three Macha. Just transform back into demons on your first turn and then fight them. In this area you will also find your first field hunt in the game. -----------------------------------Field Hunt---------------------------------- -Time: 60 seconds -Mitama: Ara Mitama x 3 This field hunt is pretty simple, it has you running back and forth between two rooms, just keep doing this until Ara Mitama shows up in the northern room. The problem here is that you probably haven’t had a chance to learn any of the skills needed to take down a Mitama. Hopefully Serph has learned Mabufu and Heat has learned Devil Feast from the Battle Demon Mantra because there is just no way that you can take one of these guys down otherwise. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Continue on and climb down the ladder, you will soon be attacked by Three Yakas, then another Five Yakas, and finally a Gyu-Ki. Use Mabufu to take out the Yakas quickly, but the Gyu-Ki is much tougher. He gets two turns per round and usually uses them to do a Power Charge + Body Rush combo that can take off 70+ hit points off of a single character. Ouch. Heal anybody that gets hit with Dia and hit Gyu-Ki with Tera. After Gyu-Ki is defeated unlock Gate #5 which opens up a shortcut back to the beginning of the dungeon, then go through Gate #4 which leads to a boss battle. -Note: Before you fight the boss you should go back to the Vendor at the beginning of the dungeon and sell the Cells you have collected so far and stock up on supplies, as you are going automatically to the next dungeon and there is a section in there where you will be cut off from the Vendor for a while. Be sure to buy some Dis-Mutes and Dis-Stuns too, they will come in handy. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Asura Camazotz -Null: Expel/Death/Ailments -Recommended Level: 13 Before the battle make sure Argilla has the Tera and Media skills set and rearrange the party so that she goes first. At the beginning of the fight just hit him with physical attacks. As he takes some damage he will start using Rage to him two turns, then Spiral Edge which hits everyone, and then Guard which blocks all damage except Earth. Have Argilla hit him with Tera to knock him out of his Guard stance, and then follow up with more physical attacks. If you need healing have Argilla cast Media. He should go down pretty quickly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After you beat Camazotz you are taken directly to Anahata, your next destination. ============================== ========================|An Ill-Fated Alliance [#007.2]|======================= ============================== ____________________________________Anahata____________________________________ -Items: Dark Veil x 2 Shock Bomb x 2 Blast x 2 Wind Wall x 3 Bolt Wall x 3 Moldy Roll x 3 Dis-Mute x 2 Chakra Drop x 3 Dis-Stun x 3 (Error Cell) (Damage Trap) Revival Gem Medical Kit Dis-Poison x 2 (Code Cell) Revival Gem (Active Cell) Vital Noise (Battle: Nue x 2) (Code Cell) Brave Ration Soma Drop Revival Gem The Citadel can be bit tricky, as it’s a lengthy dungeon and you have to go through a good portion of it without any access to restoration or Vendors outside of the items and skills you brought with you. There are no enemies in the first part of the Citadel, so take the opportunity to search the side rooms for goodies. Just past the first Small Karma Terminal you will be attacked by a pair of Archangels. These guys are supremely annoying, as not only are they resistant to physical attacks, but they can also use Mute Blow, which does good damage and can cause the Mute ailment. (This is why I told you to stock up on Dis-Mutes earlier.) If you happen to know a Mudo spell you can try that on them, as they are weak against Death magic. ----------------------------------Mantra Check--------------------------------- -Serph: He should have mastered Protection by now, when he does start him on the Angel Mantra. After that is mastered follow the mantra path with both the Throne and Spirit Mantras. -Heat: Unfortunately, the Mantras in the physical path get expensive pretty quickly, and are probably far outside of your price range at the moment. You can either wait until you scrounge up the money for the more expensive physical Mantras, or have him learn some low-level elemental mantras to pass the time. -Argilla: After mastering the Fallen Hero Mantra start on learning the various Elemental Mantras, Starting with the Earth Shrine Mantra and working your way up. Your goal is to try and get her the Ma- Level spells for each element. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Continue on. There is a Blue Wall at the bottom of the stairs that leads to a Magic Noise. Past the second Small Karma Terminal you will run into the main gimmick of this dungeon, the statues. If you step onto the floor tile in front of a Statue whose eyes are red you will be caught in a pit trap and dropped into the lower levels of the Citadel. Statues with Green eyes are safe to cross, and ones with yellow eyes will change to either Green or Red (usually Red) as you get near them. Unfortunately, at the moment the only place you can go is right in front of a red-eyed statue. Go ahead and stand in front of the Red-Eyed statue and get dropped into the lower levels. -Note: When you get dropped you will not be able to get back and are basically cut off from being able to heal and buy stuff for a while. Make sure you are ready before continuing. This area is filled with “Poison Gas.” It really isn’t that dangerous despite what Heat and Argilla say. All that happens is that you occasionally get a message that you are feeling Dizzy and it will turn you around 180 degrees. If this happens to you just use the map to re-orientate yourself and continue on in the right direction. While you are down here if you get a message that says something about a commotion in the next room when you try to go through a door down here, you will get attacked by a Gyu-Ki when you go through them. It is worthwhile to fight them, as after they are dead you will find Item Node containing goodies in the room. Climb the ladder in the southern area to leave this area. Continue on and in the next room you will see a door blocked by two Red-Eyed Statues. Your goal is through that door, but to get there you first need to find two keys to change both statues’ eyes from red to green. Take the northern exit and you will come to an area with a very welcome Large Karma Terminal and four exits. The southwest and northeast doors just lead to treasure. (There is a trapped Ammo Node in the southwest area, so be careful.) Go through the northwest door and weave your way through the room with the Red-Eyed Statues until you came to a Small Karma Terminal. In the next room you will be attacked by a Valkyrie, Not only is she strong against physical, but can also counterattack, so you should probably use magic against her instead. (Don’t use Fire, though, as she’s immune to it.) When you beat her take the L Statue Key from the Ammo Node and unlock the door here to unlock a path back to the first area of the Citadel. Take the Southeast door and you will come to another room full of statues. Your goal here is the northeastern door, to get there you will need to cross in front of a Yellow-Eyed Statue that turns green as you get close. You will be attacked by a Tarrasque, He will attack with Zio spells, hit him with Tera or Agi. When Tarrasque is dead take the R Statue Key from the Ammo Node. There is also a Blue Wall here that leads to a Field Hunt. -----------------------------------Field Hunt---------------------------------- -Time: 60 Seconds -Mitama: Ara Mitama x 4 This one is even simpler than the last one, as you are basically just running up and down a single long hallway with a small room at the end. You do have to be quick though, as you don’t get a lot of time here. When you reach one of the ends of the hallway, remember to use the circle button to center the camera behind you, as it’s quicker than using the shoulder buttons to spin the camera around 180 degrees. By now everyone should have Devil Feast set and both Serph and Argilla should know Mabufu, so everyone should be able to eat a Mitama with one leftover. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With the two keys in hand go back to the two Statues. Turn the R Statue Key to the Left and the L Statue Key to the Right, if you do this then it will turn both statues’ eyes green. Be aware if you turn a statue key the wrong way then it will cause the statue to turn and face you, dropping you down a pitfall. Continue on and past the Large Karma Terminal you will come to Mick’s room. Inside you will have to fight your way through two waves of four Ikusa, then finally a Turdak with another two Ikusa. Take out the Ikusa with Zan spells, the Turdak is a bit annoying because he can both poison and curse you, but you should be able to take him out without too many problems. After the battle is over continue on until you reach ANOTHER Large Karma Terminal and a Vendor. (Yay!) Sell off those Cells you’ve no doubt accumulated during your time in the Citadel. When you are done go out the front gate for a Boss fight. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Asura Usas -Minion: Unicorn x 2 -Null: Expel/Death/Ailments -Recommended Level: 21 Make sure that someone has Void Expel set before the battle, if you don’t you could be in big trouble. At the start of the battle attack her physically until she summons a Unicorn. When she summons a Unicorn make that have a Void Expel shield up at all times, as not only do the Unicorns cast Hama, but Usas can do a Combo attack called Seraph Lore that takes off 9/10 of your current HP of the entire party. Concentrate on Usas and as long as you keep up a Void Expel shield you should do okay. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After you defeat Usas leave Anahata and return to Manipura. ____________________________________Manipura___________________________________ -Items: Dis-Poison x 3 (Code Cell) Dis-Stun x 2 (Quantum Cell) Dis-Curse x 3 When you arrive here there is a cut scene where Gale joins your Party. ----------------------------------Mantra Check--------------------------------- -Serph: By now you are probably noticing that Media is starting to have problems with keeping up with the damage that you are taking. So you should concentrate on getting both Serph and Argilla the Fierce Spirit Mantra and have them both set Diarama. This way you can combo Diarama with Argilla to get Mediarama. After that is done start him on mastering the Elemental Mantras for Fire and Ice. -Heat: He’s going to be leaving your party in a moment, so be sure that you buy him a new Mantra and he will have mastered it when he returns to the party. I would recommend the Demon Lord Mantra. -Argilla: Have her learn Diarama from the Fierce Spirit Mantra as soon as you can. After that is done send her back to mastering the mid-level Elemental Mantras of Elec, Force, and Earth. -Gale: You know the drill, first master the Devourer, then Shura and Battle Demon Mantras. After that is done start him on mastering the Elemental Mantras. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Note: You are heading into another area where you are cut off from leaving the dungeon or accessing a Vendor for a while. Make sure you are ready before continuing on. When you first arrive here all the enemies you meet here will run from you the first chance they get. Just ignore them and head to the place where you fought Camazotz and... guess who? --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Asura Camazotz (Again) -Minion: Baphomet x 2 -Null: Expel/Death/Ailments -Recommended Level: 22 The first thing you should do is switch out Heat for Gale, since Gale comes with Void Death pre-set, which is absolutely vital for this fight. It is also a big help to set Hama on either Serph or Argilla. At the start of the fight Camazotz will use Psycho Rage to give him four turns, then he will summon two Baphomets, Go into his Guard stance, and finally casts Void Expel. To get him out of his Guard stance you need to first kill the Baphomets. Be sure to cast Void Death every turn as those Baphomets love casting Mudo spells, and have the other two characters use Hama to soften up the Baphomets and finish them off with physical attacks. (Camazotz does cast Void Expel however, so watch out for that.) When the Baphomets are dead Camazotz will finally get out of his Guard stance and start attacking you. He mostly attacks by first using Rage/Psycho Rage and then hitting you with multiple Spiral Edges. Just attack him and heal when necessary and you should come out on top here. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the battle Heat will run off and the rest of the party gets locked in. Head south and you will find a room with a Small Karma Terminal and a Rejuvenating Light, which will heal you completely and for free too. Cool beans. When you go through the west door you will have to fight your way through several waves of Kelpies. These guys are pretty annoying, as they love to put you to sleep with Comatose. Hit them with Fire spells to make them go down quicker. Watch out for Nues in this area, as they can cast Mudo. Or curse you. Or just be general nuisance. Keep up a Void Death shield and use Mazan or Gale’s Shock Wave to finish them off quickly. Continue on until you reach Gate #7. The gate is unlocked, but as you approach it the Solids will lock the gate. When you reach the Switch you will have to fight another multi-wave battle, this time against Nues. Keep up a Void Death shield while pounding them with Force spells. Make your way to Gate #5 and you will have to fight yet another multi-wave battle with Onkots. They are weak against Elec, so hit them with Mazio for an easier time. Go through Gate #5 and you are almost home free, but standing in your way to freedom is an Atavaka. Fortunately you only have to fight one of them this time. He is strong against Physical attacks, and uses strong physical attacks like Executioner on you. Keep your health up and pound him with Earth spells. After you beat Atavaka leave Manipura and return to Muladhara. After more cut scenes Heat returns to the party and your next destination, Coordinate 136 is revealed. ==================== =============================|Two Princes [#007.3]|============================ ==================== Hooray for foreshadowing! _________________________________Coordinate 136________________________________ -Items: Magic Noise (Quantum Cell) MP Noise Moldy Roll x 3 Soma Drop Chakra Pot (Battle: Taown X 2) Luck Noise (Nerve Shot) Revival Gem (Yellow Key) This is one of the more story-heavy dungeons in the game with several puzzles standing in your way. ----------------------------------Mantra Check--------------------------------- -Serph: Try to have him master Fire Leader as soon as you can, and then work on mastering Ice Leader Serph can use Agilao and Bufula. When that is done get him started on the Cherubim and Karma Mantras so that he can learn more of those wonderful stat-changing spells. -Heat: Is he working on those Physical Mantras? Good. Keep him working on them. -Argilla: Have her master the Hiten Mantra so she learns Zanma first. After that have her master the Ancient God and then Outer God Mantras so she knows Chakra Walk. -Gale: Even if you’re not planning on using him here, make sure that you keep him mastering Mantras and have him participate in some battles so that he gains experience, if you don’t you will likely regret it in the next dungeon when you are forced to use him. Have him concentrate on mastering the Healing Mantras through Fierce Spirit so he can learn Diarama. After that have him continue to master the Elemental Mantras. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For the first puzzle start by examining the Princess’ Portrait. This will unblock the eastern and western doors. To continue on you have to Make your way through this area and find the Good Prince’s Portrait. If you stand in front of one the Evil Prince’s Portraits you will activate a pitfall and be dropped down to B1 and you will have to make your way back. While there are some good treasures down there, but it is annoying since you have to spring nearly every pitfall trap to get everything. (...to say nothing of the Baphomets that prowl the area...) For the correct route through this area consult the map I made at: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/digital_devil_saga_136.png Examine the Good Prince’s Portrait and then return to the Princess’ Portrait. Examine the Princess’ Portrait again and the gate blocking the Stairs up will be opened. On 2F there is just a pair of Yellow Walls and the stairs up. When you try to climb the stairs, however, you will be attacked by the HipHop brothers, A Jack Frost and a Pyro Frost. Concentrate on one at a time and use Bufu(la) on the Pyro Frost and Agi(lao) on the Jack Frost. One annoying thing about the Jack Frost is he tends to use Mediarama when he gets low on HP, so you will have to be able to do over 200 HP per round on him to make any headway against him. When you win you get a Jack Cell, (remember to sell this one at MIN Noise) continue on to the next floor. On 3F you will need to solve three puzzles where you manipulate mirrors to shine a beam of light from the Princess Statue to the Good Prince Statue. If the light hits an Evil Prince Statue the light will be broken. There are no battles inside the puzzle rooms, so just take your time and they should be easy to figure out. If not, well that’s what this walkthrough is for. Probably the easiest way to explain this is to use my poor ASCII art skillz to draw up a crude diagram of each puzzle. The symbols of each diagram are: P – Princess Statue E – Evil Prince Statue G – Good Prince Statue 1, 2, 3, 4 - Movable Mirrors /, \ - Set Mirrors -First Puzzle: +---------+ ^ | | N | / 1 | | | | G E P | | | | / | | | +---------+ This one is easy, turn the Princess statue to the right and move mirror 1. When you solve this puzzle the treasure chests in this room will be unlocked, (Organic Cell, Revival Gem) and the door to the second puzzle will open. -Second Puzzle: +-----------+ ^ | | N | / 1 \ | | | | E | | G E P | | | | 3 2 | | / | | | +-----------+ Turn the Princess Statue to the right and move mirrors 1, 2, and finally 3. Solve this puzzles and the treasure chests in this room will be unlocked, (Quantum Cell, HP Noise) Continue on to the third Puzzle. -Third Puzzle: +----------------+ ^ | / \ | N | | | 4 E3 2 \ | | | | G E P | | | | 1 / | | | | \ / | | | +----------------+ This one is actually a lot simpler than it looks at first glance. Turn the Princess Statue to the left, then move mirror 1 and the light should be shining all the way to mirror 3. If it isn’t, just move mirror 2 so that the light shines on mirror 3. Move mirror 3 and the light will shine on the Good Prince Statue. Mirror 4 is not used in this puzzle. Not only will the treasure chests in this room be unlocked (Magic Noise, Soma) but the stairs to the next floor will also be unblocked. On 4F you have to bring a Statue of the Good Prince to face the Statue of the Evil Prince. To do this you will need to ride the coasters in this room. Again, this puzzle isn’t as difficult as the game makes it out to be. Before I get into the solution I should label each coaster using another of my ASCII diagrams. 4 3 ^ 2 N 1 Ride coaster 1 and you will end up next to a switch, flip it and you will move a section of the track. Make your way back and ride on coaster 2 (the one with the Good Prince Statue on it) and it will take the Good Prince Statue to face the Evil Prince Statue and open the door to the next level. On 7F is the final puzzle of the dungeon. Examine the cracked plaque next to the ladder and Heat will use an “Illogical Outburst” to break the plaque and shine a ray of light into the room. To continue on you have to shine this ray of light onto the picture at the northern end of the room. Start by riding the two western coasters down to the lower level, after that flip the switch on the lower level to move a section of track. Go back to the upper level and ride the eastern coaster and you will end up on a platform with a moveable mirror. Move the mirror then ride the coaster back to the upper level. Return to the lower level and flip the switch again to return the track to its original position. Go back to the eastern coaster and ride it and when you reach the end you will complete the puzzle and the picture will be destroyed, revealing the path ahead. Before you leave this area go back and flip the switch to move the track while the eastern coaster is on the lower level. Ride the coaster and you will end up on a platform with an Ammo Node that has the Yellow Key in it. With the Yellow Key in hand you can backtrack to 2F and destroy those two Yellow Walls you passed earlier. The western wall will lead to a Quick Noise, two Magic Mirrors, and a Chakra Pot, while the eastern one leads to a Field Hunt. -----------------------------------Field Hunt---------------------------------- -Time: 90 Seconds -Mitama: Nigi Mitama x 4 This is another one of those “run back and forth between two rooms” Hunts. First go to the northern room and destroy the demons there then make your way to the southern room and destroy those demons. Go to the hallway in between the two rooms and destroy the demon there then go back to the southern room to find the next batch of demons. Form here on out its just running back and forth between the two rooms until the Mitama appears. Remember that Nigi Mitama is weak to Fire. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Continue on up the tower until you reach the Princess’ Bedchamber. Go inside the Bedchamber and out onto the Balcony for a bunch of cut scenes culminating in a boss battle. ------------------------------Digital Devil Saga 2----------------------------- But before you get to the boss battle there is the first a in a series of dialog choices that determine whether or not you will get a hidden character to join you in Digital Devil Saga 2. Choose “No, I can’t” here for the first step in getting that hidden character. The second dialog choice is inconsequential, although if you say that you forgot Heat will say that Serph sucks. :-) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, anyway, on to the boss battle. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Asura Rahu (Body) + Asura Rahu (Head) -(Body) – Null: Force/Expel/Death/Ailments, Weak: Fire (Head) – Null: Fire/Expel/Death/Ailments, Weak: Force -Recommended Level: 32 Have everyone equip a single target Fire and Force spell. (...along with the corresponding Boost skill if they have it) Having someone with Void Earth set is not a bad idea either. This boss is actually two separate enemies. On the first turn the Head will use Dragon Thrash to capture one of your party members and the body will use Dragon Quake, a powerful earth attack. When a party member is captured by the Head they will be drained a little bit of HP after every turn that your non-captured party member’s makes. The only way the Head will release the captured party member is if the Head drains off the captured party member’s entire supply of HP, or you kill either the Body or Head. Concentrate on the Body, because it has less HP and is the one that does all the damage. Pound on the Body with Fire spells, you may want to set up an anti-earth shield, but I would prefer to focus you efforts on killing the Body as quickly as possible. When you kill the Body you still have to get rid of the head, but the Head alone isn’t that much of a threat. (Unless you have Gale in your party, as he does cast Zionga regularly) Use Force Attacks to take the head down. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After Rahu is dead Cielo will join the party and you will automatically leave the castle. Talk to Argilla, Gale, or Cielo and you decide to finally do some trapping of your own at the Deserted Ship. But before you go there you should use that Yellow Key to destroy those Yellow Walls you’ve come across during your travels. Start by going to Svadhisthana, In B1 There is a Yellow Wall that leads to a Vital Noise. At Manipura there is one Yellow Wall that is located in the area behind a Blue Wall that leads to a Soma Drop and another that leads to a Power Noise. In Anahata there is a Yellow Wall on 3F that has an Iron Shot. ========================== ==========================|A Three Hour Tour [#007.4]|========================= ========================== Sorry, I couldn’t resist. _________________________________Deserted Ship_________________________________ -Items: Medical Kit x 3 Hero Ration x 3 Attack Mirror x 2 (Quantum Cell) Medical Kit x 3 (Theory Cell) (Organic Cell) Chakra Drop x 3 Revival Gem Magic Noise Hero Ration x 2 (Neutron Shot) (Battle: Mothman x 2) (Organic Cell) Before you enter the Deserted Ship make sure that you take moment to check your Mantras. ----------------------------------Mantra Check--------------------------------- -Serph: For this dungeon MP is going to be at a premium, so you will want to have both him and Gale master the Ancient God Mantra so they can use MP Thief. After the Ancient God Mantra have him concentrate on the Earth Elemental Mantras through Earth Temple, as Terazi is useful to have against the boss. -Heat: He’s just about to leave the party again, so purchase a new Mantra for him and he will have it mastered when he returns. -Argilla: She’s going to be leaving your party too, so give her a new Mantra and it will be mastered when she comes back. -Gale: After mastering the Ancient God Mantra have him concentrate on mastering the Earth Temple Mantra. -Cielo: Say it with me now, Devourer, Shura, Battle Demon. After that have him work on mastering the Healing Mantras. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When you are ready talk to the Embryon member outside the ship and you will enter the dungeon. Be careful, when you enter this dungeon you will not be able to leave, so be prepared. Heat and Argilla will also leave the party at this time, so you will be stuck with Gale and Cielo for this dungeon. Be sure to put Gale and Cielo into your active party before you enter the dungeon, as the game doesn’t automatically put them in when Heat and Argilla leaves. Some enemies to watch out for in this dungeon are Phantoms, Not only do they cast Mudoon, but they are immune to physical attacks too. (The first physical immune demon of the game) They are weak against Force, but it’s probably better to just run when you encounter them. Keep an eye out for Chatterskulls too, as not only do they use Mudo, but when their HP gets low they use Death March, a kamikaze attack that does a LOT of damage to your party. (I’ve had this thing wipe out my entire party more than once) Use Fire or Expel and try to take them out in one turn. After the cut scenes are over make your way to the bottom of the ship. (Gale will yell at you if you try to go the wrong way.) When you reach 1F Gale will explain that you have to set eight bombs, one for each floor. You will have to make your way back to the beginning of the dungeon, planting the bombs in set rooms as you go. The locations for each of the rooms that you need to plant the bombs in are as follows: 1F -- After planting the explosive here you can go back the way you came or you can continue on to find some goodies along with another Rejuvenating Light. While you are in this area you will be attacked by three Nagas, use Fire attacks and they will go down quickly. 3F -- No, I’m not doing this out of order; you reach the bomb room for 3F before the one on 2F. The bomb room is to the west of the elevator you came down in. there is also a Life terminal nearby. When you leave the bomb room you will be attacked by two Taown, Don’t use physical attacks against them because they have High Counter, use Earth against them instead to finish them off quickly. Go north to find an elevator up to 4F and 5F, but first... 2F -- To get to the bomb room you have to take the stairs down from 3F. The stairs you need to take down is directly south of the elevator up to 4F and 5F. 4F -- This one is simple, just ride the elevator to 4F and the bomb room is right there along with a Small Karma Terminal. Go back to the elevator and ride it up to 5F. 5F -- From the elevator go west and then north and you will eventually find a room with a Small Karma terminal and the bomb room to the east of that. When you set the explosives here watch out, because you will be attacked by three Chatterskulls. Try to finish them off quickly using Fire or Expel attacks so they don’t have a chance to use Death March. Return to the elevator room and take the eastern path to find the stairs up. 6F -- There’s nothing here other than a Life Terminal and the bomb room. 7F -- The bomb room is located to the south of the staircase. When you set the bomb you will be attacked by a Gurr and two Phantoms. Be sure to keep up an Anti-Death shield at all times, and then use Elec to take out the Gurr and Force to take care of the Phantoms. There is a Small Karma Terminal located in the northwestern part of the map. 8F -- Immediately after you climb up the stairs you will be attacked by three Sui-Kis. Put up an Anti-Ice shield and use Fire attacks to take them out. The bomb room is in the southern part of the map. Once that bomb is set you are finally ready to take on the boss. From here you just have to make your way back to the beginning of the dungeon to meet an old friend for the last time... --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Asura Camazotz (Heaven or Hell) -Null: Expel/Death/Ailments, Strong: Force -Recommended Level: 38 MAKE SURE YOU HAVE FORCE REPEL/DRAIN SET FOR THIS BATTLE! You also want to have everyone set Tera(zi) along with Earth Boost. Argilla will join the party for this battle, but since you don’t have a chance to set any skills for her you should probably leave her on the sidelines for this one. He still has his Guard stance that makes him immune to everything except for earth, but this time he also has a really nasty new trick. He now uses a skill called Zotzilaha Bane that transforms one of your party members into a bat for a few rounds. (...as well as giving this walkthrough writer a really bad mental image...) When a character is turned into a bat their Max HP and MP are halved, their statistics are lowered to next to nothing, and they will also have a weakness to Force in bat form. The Force weakness is bad because Camazotz will use Wind of Hell, a strong Force attack that can kill a transformed party member in one hit. When a party member is transformed have an Anti-Force shield up at all times and keep them at full HP. Don’t bother with having the transformed party member attacking, as they won’t do much damage and will likely miss anyway, so just have them pass and wait for the transformation to wear off. As long as you can keep your transformed party members alive you should do okay. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After you beat Camazotz for the final time you are automatically taken to Embryon Base 2 for more cut scenes. (Although the dialog choice after the Camazotz battle seems important, it really isn’t.) After the cut scenes are over Heat will rejoin the party and your next destination is revealed to be Svadhisthana. -Note: Since the Deserted Ship has been destroyed you will obviously not be able to return to it. ============================ =========================|A Brutish Encounter [#007.5]|======================== ============================ __________________________________Svadhisthana_________________________________ I would recommend using an Estoma Spray while you are inside the Vanguards Base, as the enemies here are the exact same enemies you fought way back at the beginning of the game and are little more than annoyances now. The game is a little vague on exactly where you are supposed to go in Svadhisthana. Take the stairs in the room with the Vanguards Base B Small Karma Terminal down to B1 and out of the base. Outside of the base talk to Lupa and the next dungeon, the Svadhisthana Waterways will be open. ----------------------------------Mantra Check--------------------------------- -Serph: Try to get him to master both Seraphim and Illusion Mantras. After that have him work on mastering the Insane God Mantra, as being able to cast Dekaja and Dekunda without having to resort to a combo will be a big help in the coming battles. -Heat: Physical, Physical, and more Physical. I’m running out of stuff to put here... -Argilla: As soon as you get the money, have her purchase the Calm Spirit Mantra so that she can learn Mediarama. After that it’s more Elemental Mantras for her. Try to get her through the mid-level all-target Elemental mantras for Elec, Force, and Earth. -Gale: He should also be working on those Elemental Mantras. -Cielo: Unfortunately, Cielo will likely become a casualty of finance from here on out, as there just isn’t enough Macca to keep all 5 characters continually learning Mantras. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- _____________________________Svadhisthana Waterways____________________________ -Items: MP Noise (Logic Cell) Chakra Pot (Organic Cell) Revival Gem (Theory Cell) (Battle: Gorgon x 2) Luck Noise x 2 Great Chakra Revival Gem (Forged Shot) Power Noise Ration x 2 Some monsters to watch out are the Decarabias, which are not only this dungeon’s resident Mudo user, but he also has Revert, which will transform you back into Human Form. The Tan-Kis that you run into in the second half of the dungeon definitely fall into the “more trouble that they are worth” category. Not only do they have a lot of HP, but the only way that you can really do any damage is through Earth attacks. Finally, if you run into a Pixie, she will either try to cast Megidolaon (she doesn’t have enough MP) or will use Reinforcements to summon a High Pixie. This High Pixie will then use Reinforcements herself to summon a Queen Mab. (A nifty little Nocturne reference there...) You can keep the Pixie or High Pixie alive and repeatedly kill the High Pixies/Queen Mabs that are summoned for extra experience and AP. (High Pixies also drop Luck Noises) In the first area you will be attacked by a Sui-Ki and a Fuu-Ki when you enter a treasure room. Use Fire on the Sui-Ki and Elec on the Fuu-Ki. Continue on and talk to the Wolves member near the Small Karma Terminal and he will give you the Oxygen Tank that you will need to navigate the upcoming Water Pump Maze. When you enter the maze the Solar Noise will be set at MIN and every time you ride a current the Solar Noise will be advanced by one. You have until the Solar Noise reaches MAX to complete the maze, otherwise you will be swept out of the maze and you will have to try again. To get through the maze go North, West, North, North, North. After you get through the Water Pump Maze there is a Large Karma terminal. Further on there is a Yellow Wall that leads to a Theory Cell and a Small Karma Terminal. (?) Continue on and you will eventually be forced into a battle against a Kin-Ki, a Sui-Ki, and a Fuu-Ki. Watch out, because they can do Megidolaon as a Combo attack. Try to get rid of one of them as quickly as you can. Use Earth on the Kin-Ki, Fire on the Sui-Ki, and Elec on the Fuu-Ki. Deeper in the dungeon you will come to a Life Terminal. Near this Life Terminal is a sorta-hidden passageway behind a waterfall that leads a Yellow Wall that blocks another Water Pump Maze. This Water Pump Maze is much more complicated than the last one, not only do you have a full Solar Cycle (MIN to MAX and back to MIN) to complete the maze, but you will also have to use a Valve that will reverse the flow of all the currents when turned. The quick and dirty solution get you through this is South, South, West, South, South, North, turn the Valve, South, East, East, North, North, East, East, South. Your reward for going through this maze is the Red Key. When you have the red Key you can return to the Red Wall in the first part of this dungeon that leads to an Attack Mirror, a Fusion Cell, and a Field Hunt. -----------------------------------Field Hunt---------------------------------- -Time: 90 Seconds -Mitama: Saki Mitama x 4 This Hunt has the largest and most complex floor plan of all the Field Hunts. Start by destroying the five demons on the path in front of you, and then cross over onto the inner path and destroy the two demons there. Quickly return to the outer path and destroy the three demons there, and along with three more demons that show up further along the outer path. Go to the inner path and destroy four demons on the inner path along with two demon hiding inside the room. Go and destroy the two demons on the outer path and the next batch of demons will appear in front of you. After they are destroyed return to the inner path and destroy the four demons there, along with the two demons that will show up inside the room there. Destroy the three demons on the outer path and the Mitama will show up at the end of the path. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is another Large Karma Terminal up ahead. Here you will see a Blue Wall that leads to a Logic Cell along with a Yellow Wall that leads to another Logic Cell. You can also find two rations on the corpse of a Wolves Member here. Approach the ladder to the north of the Large Karma Terminal and you will have to fight a Boss battle. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Asura Cerberus (R) + Asura Cerberus (C) + Asura Cerberus (L) -Drain: Fire, Null: Expel/Death/Ailments, Strong: Elec/Force/Earth -Recommended Level – 44 First of all, you must be able to cast both Dekaja and Dekunda (through combos if nobody knows the skill) to have a chance in this fight. You should also set whatever –Kaja and –Kunda skills (Preferably Tarukaja and Rakunda) you have along with Void Fire/Fire Drain. Although this is technically a single demon, the three heads are each counted as a separate enemy and all three heads must be destroyed for you to win. The Right Head uses –Kaja and –Kunda skills and occasionally throws up an Ice Repel shield, He is also the only one with Dekaja and Dekunda. The Center Head is the attacker of the group, with several powerful Physical and Fire attacks. Also if he is the only head left he will start using Psycho Rage and strong attacks like Gate of Hell. The Right Head primarily casts Diarama on the center head. He also has a combo attack named Pyriphlegethon, (if you have taken out one head then it will just be called Phlegethon) a fire attack that hits all your party members for big damage. The strategy for this battle is to concentrate on killing the Right head first, then the Center Head, and finally finishing off the Left Head. You could also start on the Left Head if you want, but I think the healing is much less annoying than the –Kaja and –Kunda. Whatever you do, do NOT leave the Center Head for last, as he will probably slaughter your party with multiple Gate of Hells if you do. Make sure you keep up an Anti-Fire shield while using Physical and Amped Bufudyne to take out the Right Head. After the Right Head is gone spend a few turns using whatever –Kaja and –Kunda spells you have, as he cannot counter them with the Right Head is gone. Concentrate on the Center Head next; you will have to deal with the Left Head casting Diarama, but with 4 x Tarukaja and/or Rakunda you should be able keep up with them. When the center head is gone it’s just a matter of finishing off the Left Head. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the boss battle you will automatically enter Ajna. ______________________________________Ajna_____________________________________ -Items: Revival Gem Dekaja Rock Magic Mirror (Theory Cell) (Battle: Titania x 2) (Poison Trap) (Fusion Cell) Attack Mirror (Logic Cell) HP Noise x 2 (Logic Cell) MP Noise x 2 You know, I was expecting the Brutes’ base to be something completely different... ----------------------------------Mantra Check--------------------------------- You know what? By now you should have a pretty good idea on how to build your characters, and Macca and AP should be plentiful enough to master most of the low-to-mid level Mantra easily enough, so having this section is unnecessary. (Plus I’m getting sick of making these sections...) Just make sure that everyone who is going to participate in the upcoming battles to have mastered the Force Elemental Mantras through Hiten so that they know Force Repel. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This dungeon is unlike any you’ve been in before; it sort of reminds me of the Amala Temple in Nocturne. This dungeon has four different configurations with a boss at the end of each. At the start of the dungeon you will only be able to access three of the configurations. When you defeat the bosses of all three configurations the final Configuration will be unlocked. To change the configuration of the dungeon, examine the Columns of Light in the lobby. Blue Configuration ------------------ Go through the northwestern door and keep on going until you reach the Stairs up to 2F. There is a Red Wall here that blocks a Fusion Cell. After that go through the door to the west for a boss fight. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Dragon Nidhoggr -Minion: Nidhoggr x 4 -Null: Expel/Death/Ailments -Recommended Level: 48 For this boss you want to set the strongest multi-target attacks you have. Multi-target elemental skills with the appropriate elemental Boost (and Amp, if you have it) skills, or physical attacks like Chi Blast or Power Wave are a good choice. Although there are five Nidhoggr at the start of the battle, the real boss is the one in the center. The other four only have about one tenth the HP as the center one. Every turn the center Nidhoggr will use Cannibalize to devour one of the other Nidhoggr and grow bigger. The key to this battle is preventing the center Nidhoggr from devouring his comrades. To do this you have to be able to wipe out the other four Nidhoggr within one or two turns using multi-target attacks. If all of his buddies are dead then the center Nidhoggr will use his turn to summon another Nidhoggr. As long as you can keep killing the Nidhoggr the Center Nidhoggr summons then he won’t be able to attack. If the center Nidhoggr does manage to get to full size, however, this battle becomes a lot trickier. He will buff himself with Tarukaja and Makakaja and then pound you with strong Physical and Ice attacks. Be sure to counter his buffing with Dekaja before hitting him with your best attacks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Green Configuration ------------------- Go through the southeastern door and up the stairs. Continue on until you reach the boss. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Deity Isis -Repel: Phys, Null: Expel/Death/Ailments -Recommended level: 48 This battle is absurdly easy once you know the secret. Start by picking an element, (it doesn’t matter which element you use here, I usually chose Ice because of the chance to freeze) then have everyone set their strongest attacks for that element along with the appropriate Boost and Amp. Next have someone set a Repel/Drain shield of the same element. You see, when Isis attacks she will use the same element as the last attack you have used against her. (So if you used a fire attack she will use Agidyne against you. If you haven’t attacked her yet she will physically attack you. Watch out, if you use an Almighty attack she will start using Megidola against you.) Just have one character concentrate on keeping up an elemental shield while the others pound her with you’re your chosen elemental and she will never touch you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Red Configuration ----------------- First go through the Northeastern door to a Yellow Wall that has a Soma behind it. After that is done return to the lobby and go through the southwest room to reach the stairs to 2F and a boss battle. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Beast Catoblepas -Repel: Elec, Drain: Earth, Null: Expel/Death/Ailments, Weak: Fire -Recommended Level: 48 You absolutely must have Void Death (or Death Repel) set for this fight. Catoblepas uses Stone Eye and Gate of Hell with alarming frequency, and an Anti-Death shield is the only way to prevent your characters from being turned into stone and then shattered. He is weak to fire, so hit him with your best Fire spells while keeping up an Anti-Death Shield and he should go down quickly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- White Configuration ------------------- Go through the Northeastern door and continue on to the north and west until you reach the boss room. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Asura Ravana (Form 1) --------------------- -Null: Expel/Death/Ailments -Recommended Level: 52 Have every character set Force Repel for this battle along with their best elemental attacks. This boss has two different forms. The first form is completely invisible; you are given six targets with Ravana hiding in one of them. Attacking wily-nily here won’t get you very far, since guessing wrong will count as a failed attack and cost you two turn icons. After a few turns of hitting nothing but air Sera will help you to locate Ravana. She can be a bit vague, however. (When she says right she can mean the far-right target or the second to the right target) Still, it’s better than nothing. Fortunately, the first form doesn’t have a lot of HP and doesn’t have any really nasty attacks, so as long as you keep at it you should make it through this battle alright. Asura Ravana (Form 2) --------------------- -Null: Expel/Death/Ailments, Strong: Phys This form has an attack called Hunger Wave that has a chance of causing the Mad status to all characters. A character under the Mad status will either attack one of your own party members or do nothing and take damage. Mad status can’t be cured by normal means; instead Sera will use Song of Grace to cure one (and only one) character of the Mad status at the start of every turn. Ravana also has an attack called Infinite Wind that does a lot of Force damage to the entire party. You want to keep up a Force Repel shield at all times while hitting Ravana with your best Elemental skills. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After Ravana is dead go up the stairs and into the room up there for more cut scenes. ------------------------------Digital Devil Saga 2----------------------------- Here is the second choice in DDS 1 that decides whether or not you get a hidden character in DDS 2. Answer “It doesn’t matter” here. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After these are done it’s time to go to Sahasrara and finish the game. =========================== =========================|Journey to Nirvana [#007.6]|========================= =========================== What is it with MegaTen games and really tall towers? ___________________________________Sahasrara___________________________________ -Items: HP Noise x 2 (Fusion Cell) MP Noise x 2 (Fusion Cell) Soma Drop Magic Noise x 2 Revival Gem Chakra Pot (Layer Cell) Earth Wall x 2 Fire Wall x 2 Soma Drop Dekaja Rock x 2 Revival Gem Chakra Pot Great Chakra (Fusion Cell) The first thing you notice when you enter here are the pair of Temple Guards blocking the path to the Karma Temple. They aren’t going to let you into the Temple without a fight, so give it to them. They are immune to physical, so pelt them with your strongest Elemental magic until they fall. After they are dead continue on into the Karma Temple. ------------------------------Digital Devil Saga 2----------------------------- Outside the entrance to the Temple you will see an Ex-Solids hanging out with your party members. When you talk to him he will ask you for a favor. He wants you to deliver a message to someone named Amelia. Agree to do this and you will open up a little side quest in DDS 2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Inside the Temple you will have to face another pair of Temple Guards. Defeat them and continue on until you reach the Dissemination Room. Take the elevator in the center of the room down to the Sea of Milk. When you try to enter the elevator to the west of the one you came down in, Vasuki will show up and attack. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Dragon Vasuki -Drain: Ice, Null: Expel/Death/Ailments, Strong: Phys, Weak: Fire -Recommended Level: 54 Make sure that someone has Void Ice or Ice Drain set for this fight. Vasuki uses Hima Alaya, real nasty Ice attack that hits everyone and has a good chance of freezing your characters, and Vasuki will then proceed to critical any frozen characters with impunity. Unfortunately, Vasuki is pretty smart and won’t blindly cast Hima Alaya when you use an Anti-Ice shield, instead Vasuki will switch to casting Maziodyne and try to shock you. This is a good thing, because Maziodyne has far less of a chance to Shock you than Hima Alaya has to freeze you. (Unless you bring in Gale without the Elec Resist skill set) Overall this is a simple battle, just pound Vasuki with your best Fire spells while keeping up an Anti-Ice shield. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After Vasuki is dead go into the elevator that Vasuki prevented you from entering and ride it up to Elevation: -492ft. (The floor names in Karma Temple are all listed as elevation.) Climb upwards until you reach Elevation: 0ft and you will find a Large Karma Terminal. Continue on until you reach Elevation: 98ft and you will find two Yellow Walls right next to each other, one leads to a Great Chakra, the other one leads to a battle with Samael. Samaels are the toughest non-boss enemy in the game; they have a lot of HP and nasty attacks like Bloodbath and Marevert. About the only thing that you can really do here is try to poison him with Venom Claw or Fang and then try to outlast him. Continue on until you reach another Elevator and ride it up to Elevation: 394ft. Up ahead you will have to deal with glowing sections of the floor that will either drop you down a pitfall or pull you through the wall. Take the elevator up to Elevation: 1902ft, the elevator you need to take up is right there, but to get to it you will have will have to cross a glowing section of floor which will drop you down to Elevation: 1837ft and work your way back up. First go down to Elevation: 1804ft to find a Red Wall with a Fusion Cell behind it. After that is done go to Elevation: 1837ft and you will find another Red Wall with a Field Hunt behind it. -----------------------------------Field Hunt---------------------------------- -Time: 60 seconds –Mitama: Saki Mitama x 3 This Field Hunt has a rather simple floor plan; it’s just a door, some stairs, and a small room. The problem is that you are hardly given any time to complete this hunt, so you have to be quick. Start by destroying the two demons in front of you and go through the door. Destroy the two demons on the stairs then the three demons in the northwestern corner of the room. Another demon has appeared on the stairs; when you destroy it turn around as seven new demons have appeared inside the room. Destroy them and climb the stairs and go through the door to find another demon at the end of the hall. Destroy it, along with a second demon that will pop into existence right in front of your eyes. Go back through the door and destroy the demon on the stairs and then the lone demon in the southwestern corner. Climb the stairs and go through the door then destroy the two demons at the end of the hall. Turn around and go through the door and destroy the three demons in the eastern part of the room, and then the three demons that are in the western part of the room, after that destroy three more demons in the eastern part of the room, and then ANOTHER three demons in the western part of the room. Destroy the lone demon on the stairs, and then destroy the demon in the northwestern corner of the room. Go through the door and destroy the demon at the end of the hall and the Mitama should appear right in front of you. That wasn’t so hard, was it? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Continue on up and on Elevation: 1870ft there is yet another Red Wall with a Layer Cell behind it. On Elevation: 1902ft there is ANOTHER Red Wall with ANOTHER Field Hunt behind it. -----------------------------------Field Hunt---------------------------------- -Time: 60 seconds –Mitama: Saki Mitama x 4 This has the same floor plan as the previous Field Hunt, just rotated 180 degrees. Go through the door and destroy the eight demons in the room. After that climb the stairs and go through the door and destroy the two demons at the end of the hall. Turn around and go through the door, destroy the two demons on the stairs. After that destroy the three demons in the western part of the room, then the three demons in the eastern part of the room, after that destroy three more demons in the western part, and then another three demons in the eastern part of the room. Destroy the two demons on the stairs and go through the door. Destroy the three demons at the end of the hall and then go back through the door. Destroy the demon on the stairs and the demon in the southeastern corner of the room. Finally go back through the door and the Mitama will be waiting for you at the end of the hall. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take the elevator up to Elevation: 4100ft, in the next area are walls that will either appear or disappear as you approach. It’s not too difficult here, just pick your way through and you’ll find the right way eventually. From here on out you will start running into Laksmis, watch out for them, because the will use Dormina to put your characters to sleep, then use Calm Death witch will instantly kill anybody who is asleep. To prevent this from happening have everyone set the Null Nerve skill to prevent Dormina from putting you to sleep. When you climb to Elevation: 4264ft you get to go outside for some fresh air. Make you way around the outside of the tower, flipping switches and then stepping in the Columns of Light that appear. When you reach the end of this section those two that have been circling around the tower will attack. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Aerial Jatayu -Repel: Earth, Null: Fire/Elec/Expel/Death/Ailments -Recommended Level: 58 With the proper skills set this boss shouldn’t be too much trouble. He does get three attacks per turn, though. He spends most of his time casting –Kunda skills, but he does throw in an occasional Mamudoon. An interesting thing to note is that although he can dish out –Kunda skills, he can’t take them because he doesn’t have Dekunda himself. Make sure that you can cast Dekunda here, along with some kind of protection from Death. As long as you immediately Dekunda his stat changes you should do all right. After Jatayu is dead then Garuda will show up as reinforcements. Aerial Garuda -Null: Ice/Force/Earth/Expel/Death/Ailments, Strong: Fire/Elec Garuda’s strategy here his simple, he will try to use powerful attacks like Power Wave and Megidola augmented with Power Charge and Mind Charge and try to pound you into the ground. There isn’t much strategy to this fight; just try to keep your HP as high as you can then hit him as hard as you can with your best physical attacks and hope you can come out on top. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After both Jatayu and Garuda are dead head inside to see the final Large Karma Terminal of the Karma Temple. As you might expect from the last leg of the final dungeon, the enemies from here on out are the strongest the game has to offer. Both Jatayu and Garuda will show up as random enemies, and you will also start running into Samael here too. Take the elevator up to Elevation: 12694ft. You get to deal with both glowing sections of floor and appearing/disappearing walls together. (joy...) The elevator you need to take is right in front of you, but there is one of those invisible walls blocking your path. You are going to have use the nearby glowing section of floor to drop down to Elevation: 12300ft and then work your way back up. Take the elevator up to Elevation: 21832ft, use the Life and Small Karma Terminals here then climb the stairs. You will run into Ananta who will make a last-ditch attempt to get you to go away, but when that doesn’t work he will attack. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Dragon Ananta -Drain: Earth, Repel: Force, Null: Expel/Death/Ailments -Recommended Level: 62 This guy gets seven attacks per turn and he uses a lot of status attacks, so needless to say this can be an annoying fight if you’re not properly prepared. Having everyone set Null Nerve and Null Panic can go a long way in this battle. With both of these skills set he won’t be able to Stun, Panic, or put you to Sleep so he’ll be stuck with normal physical attacks against you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, this is it, the final room of the game. Before continuing on be sure to spend all the Macca you have on a Mantra-buying spree, as purchased Mantra will carry over into a new game, while Macca does not. ------------------------------Digital Devil Saga 2----------------------------- If you are planning on importing your save data into DDS 2, however, you should NOT spend anything here, as the Macca you have affects your starter’s purse in DDS 2. You want to have at least one million Macca for the most effect. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Note: If you are trying to get the Four Guardian Beasts to appear just making it to this room is not enough, you have to climb up the stairs and stand on the platform that Heat and Gale are on before they will appear. The location indicator in the upper-right hand corner of the screen should say “Topmost Floor.” When you are done here talk to Gale and tell him you are ready. Climb the stairs to the top and face the final boss of Digital Devil Saga. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Onmyo Harihara -Null: Expel/Death/Ailments, Strong: Almighty -Recommended Level: 64 You know, for the final boss of the game she is kind of a disappointment. With the proper skills and the right strategy Harihara will probably be little more than a speed bump on your way to the ending. For this battle elemental magic is the way to go. Have all of your characters set an all-target –Dyne level elemental skill along with the appropriate Amp and Boost skill. Make sure that each character is using a different element and that your lead character has the single target –Dyne level elemental skill too. Stay away from Almighty damage skills, as they will hardly do any damage to her. This boss has three different forms. Well, technically she has five forms; you have will have to fight through each of the first two forms twice. (Form 1) Her first form primarily uses –Kaja and –Kunda skills. She also has Hunger Wave and an attack called Vaikunta which hits everyone and has a chance of turning them to Stone. Her first two forms only have about 1000 HP, so this form should go down quickly. (Form 2) This form is a bit more direct than the last one, she uses –Dyne level elemental along with powerful physical attacks like Genocide and Executioner. This form’s big attack is Bhairava, which can easily do enough damage to kill a character outright. (I’m talking 1000+ damage here) Be ready with Samarecarm or a Revival Gem when she does this. After you beat the second form she will go back to her first form for round two. After going through the first and second forms again she will finally go into her third and final form. (Form 3) This forms starts out with six Cores: one for each of the five elements and a Gold Core for Physical. Each Core will repel their chosen element and will extend a Repel shield to Harihara herself. Each core has about 400-500 HP, but Harihara can replace one destroyed Core per turn as a free action. Be careful, if there are two or more Cores alive she can use a combo attack called Reincarnation, which does a lot of Almighty damage to all characters. The key to this fight is killing those Cores as quickly as you can and keeping them from coming back. If you have a decent magic score along with Amp and Boost set then you should be able to take out a core with a single –Dyne level elemental spell. With her Cores gone she is left with her physical attack, (which hits your entire party) along with using Vanity and Hunger Wave. The status effects can be annoying, but without her Cores pounding you with –Dyne level Elemental Spell and nasty physical attacks she really isn’t that much of a threat. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After Harihara is defeated sit back and enjoy the ending. -----------------------------------New Cycle----------------------------------- After the credits are over, you will be prompted to make a “New Cycle” save. When you load this data you will be able to start a new “Cycle,” (basically a replay of the game) with some stuff carrying over from your previous game. -All mastered, purchased, and unlocked Mantra will carry over into the new cycle. All of your skills will carry over. -Your combo list and Time Played will carry over. -All characters will automatically learn the “Human Form” skill. When you set this skill you will always start battles in human form. (um... yay?) -Your character’s Levels, Stats, Macca, and Items will NOT carry over into the New Cycle. -The Vendor’s item list resets. You will also have to earn all of the Cell bonuses all over again. -You will be able to battle a very special super secret Boss during subsequent playthroughs. Importing New Cycle data to Digital Devil Saga 2 ------------------------------------------------ You can also load this data into the sequel to this game you can get some nifty bonuses depending on what you did in this game. Remember that if you play through the game multiple times, then only the last play through will count toward getting bonuses. -First off, the Mantra and skills you learned in DDS 1 will NOT carry over into DDS 2. -Just importing a DDS 1 save will unlock Hard Mode in DDS 2. -A character will get a bonus to their stats depending on how many Mantras they mastered in DDS 1. The maximum Bonus a character can get is +5 to all stats with all DDS 1 Mantra mastered. -The amount of money you start out with in DDS 2 is affected by how much Macca you had in DDS 1. For best results you want to have at least one million Macca at the end of DDS 1. -Gale will learn a unique skill when you import any DDS 1 save. -Before going to Manipura for the first time you will have a dialog choice, answer “We will help them without betrayal” and Argilla will learn another unique skill. -If you agreed to deliver a message for the Ex-Solids outside the Karma Temple to Amelia you will be able will find her in DDS 2. -If you defeated certain optional bosses in DDS 1 you will be able to acquire Special Karma Rings. The Bosses that you need to defeat are King Frost, Beelzebub, (Fly Form, beating the Human form of Beelzebub doesn’t count) Metatron, Huang Long, and the Demi Fiend. -You can get a “secret” character (he’s not really a secret, you’ve met him before...) to join your party in DDS 2. To do this you need to make several dialog choices over both games. -In Coordinate 136 when Heat challenges you, answer “No, I can’t...” -In Ajna after defeating Ravana answer “It doesn’t matter.” Of course this is only the first step, you then have to import into DDS 2 and make two more dialog choices over the course of that game. I would recommend getting the correct choices in DDS 1 and then deciding on whether or not you want the secret character in DDS 2. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- To be continued... In Digital Devil Saga 2! ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||Side Quests [#008]|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— ================== ==============================|Omoikanes [#008.1]|============================= ================== This really isn’t a side quest, but this is about as good as any place to put it. Anyways, as you’ve traveled the Junkyard you’ve no doubt run into a strange Brain/Squid monster called an Omoikane. These monsters will babble something about their treasure before they hit you with Debilitate a couple times and then run away. Not only that, but just about every thing you throw at it will barely scratch it. They do take damage from guns, but when you revert they will definitely escape the first chance they get. So how can you defeat these guys, you ask? To even have a chance of taking down an Omoikane you will need to have at least Forged Bullets and some way of countering their Debilitate. (Preferably Taunt, but Dekunda, Rakunda, or Debilitate can also work.) Equip either Serph or Argilla (Heat doesn’t do enough damage to single enemies, and Gale and Cielo are too random to be reliable) with the ammo of choice and stick them in the second position. Then put the character with the support skill in the lead, and put whoever you want in the third slot, as they won’t be doing anything during the Omoikane fight. (You should give them a hunt skill, though) Now it’s time to find one of those damn things. Omoikanes can show up in any dungeon in the game, from the start of the Vanguard’s Base to the top of the Karma Temple. They have the exact same chance of appearing in each place. (Which is to say, not bloody likely...) I would say to do your Omoikane hunting in an earlier dungeon where you can handle the enemies without too many problems, but still give enough experience and Macca to make it worth the time you spend waiting for an Omoikane to show up. When you finally encounter an Omoikane, it will say its little spiel and then hit you with Debilitate. When it’s your turn have the first character Pass, the second Revert, the third pass, back around to the first character who casts their support skill, and finally have the second character shoot and hope you score a critical. (Yep, that’s the entire strategy...) With this setup, if you score a critical and the Omoikane still doesn’t go down, there is still a chance that the Omoikane will be fightened and you can Hunt it. (Yes, they can become frightened. Don’t count on it happening too often, though.) If you can’t kill it with a single shot you will either need to find stronger bullets, or you can try and risk spending a turn just casting Taunt/Rakunda/Debilitate on the Omoikane before trying to kill it. This is risky as there is a chance that the Omoikane will run away. So what do you get out of all this madness? Why, a LOT Karma and Macca, of course. -Note: The exact amount of Karma and Macca you get from an Omoikane depends on where you fight them. An Omoikane in the first dungeon will only give about 2000 Karma and 15000 Macca, while an Omoikane in the final dungeon will yield 50000 Karma and 225000 Macca. An alternate strategy is to put your shooter in the lead and the support character in the second slot. When you face an Omoikane have the lead character Revert, the second cast their support skill, the third Pass, and finally have the first character shoot. The problem with this strategy is that when it comes time to shoot there is only a half-turn left, as opposed to a full turn with the above strategy. Alternate Omoikane Strategy (submitted by SteveO 528) ----------------------------------------------------- First off, make sure that you have these skills set: -Equip each party member with their most powerful/lethal Hunt Skill. -Equip Dekunda/Debilitate/Sukukaja. -Make sure your Luck stat is high, and equip the Critical skill on everyone. -If you have leftover skill slots, equip the MIN and MAX Critical skills. Attack the Omoikane with your normal attack each turn, or use a support skill like Dekunda/Debilitate, and then begin your assault. Since the Critical skill has no effect while you're in Human form, everyone must be in Demon form for this to work. With a bit of luck, you can land a Critical Hit, Frighten the Omoikane, and devour it right away with a powerful Hunt skill such as Consume or Ingest. Even if you screw up with that method, there's a fair chance that the Omoikane will stick around, since no one's in Human form. Just make sure you keep your Agility high with Sukukaja/Dekunda, and you should be able to pull it off pretty often. ================================= ======================|Coordinate 136 Revisited [#008.2]|====================== ================================= You can do this at any time after you defeat Asura Rahu at Coordinate 136. When you return to Coordinate 136 you will notice that a gigantic treasure chest has appeared in the lobby of the castle. Talk to the Pyro Jack standing (well, floating) in front of the treasure chest and he will say that if you can find the key to the chest he will give you what’s inside. Head deeper in the dungeon until you reach the puzzle where you rode the platforms to bring the Good Prince to face the Evil prince in a duel. This time ride the number 3 platform and you will find a Titania. Talk to her and she will attack you, kill her and take the Sugar Key she drops. -Note: You can also find a Silver Key, a Gold Key, a Wood Key, and a Metal Key scattered around Coordinate 136. These keys are absolutely useless; they don’t do anything at all. Don’t worry about them. There is also a Red Wall nearby; behind it you will find another one of those light puzzles. This one is a bit more complicated, you have to shine light from two Princess Statues onto two different Good Prince statues to lower the bars around the two treasure nodes. Here’s another crappy ASCII map of the Puzzle. +-----------------------+ ^ | | N | 1 \ | | | | 2 4 5 | | | | G E P P E G | | | | 6 E 7 / | | | | \ / | | | +-----------------------+ Starting from the Western Princess Statue to the right then manipulate mirror 4, then mirror 2, and finally mirror 7 to shine the light on the eastern Good Prince Statue. After that move the eastern Princess Statue left, and finally mirror 1 to shine the light on the other Good Prince Statue. When both Good Prince Statues are lit up and the bars blocking a Soma and a Logic Cell will drop. Take the Sugar Key back to the Pyro Jack and he will open the treasure chest, but will take the treasure and run off to give it to his King. Now go through the entire dungeon and when you reach the Princess’ Bedchamber at the end you will run into King Frost who will attack. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Fiend King Frost -Minion: Jack Frost x 2 -Drain: Ice, Null: Fire/Expel/Death/Ailments, Strong: Physical -Recommended Level: 40 To win this battle you will need to have one character have Ice Drain (not Repel) and the other two with Boosted Mid-Level Elec, Force, or Earth elemental spells. (If you managed to get Amp + Boost –Dyne level spells this battle will be even easier) You should also have Dekaja ready just in case. King Frost gets three icons per turn. He uses Frost Rush which despite the name is a single target physical attack. He also has Cocytus, a multi-hit Ice attack that hits all party members. (It also has a higher chance of Freezing your characters than a normal Bufu- spell) Finally, he can use Celestial Gift to Summon a Jack Frost. These Jack Frosts will use –Kaja spells, but for some reason they never cast them while you have an Anti-Ice shield up. Have one character cast an Anti-Ice shield every turn while the others hit King Frost with Elec, Force, or Earth attacks. Don’t bother with the Jack Frosts he summons, as he will just summon more. As long as you can keep up an Anti-Ice shield you should do alright, as the only magic they have are Ice attacks, and the only real damaging physical attack they have is King Frost’s Frost Rush. (You also don’t have to worry about getting frozen and then critical-ed nine times in a row...) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After you defeat King Frost he drops an Ice Crystal. The next time you visit a Karma Terminal the Ice Crystal will be taken away and the King Mantra will be unlocked for every character. ------------------------------Digital Devil Saga 2----------------------------- With King Frost dead you will get a special Karma Ring in DDS 2 that protects the wearer from Ice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- =========================== =========================|Subduing Beelzebub [#008.3]|========================= =========================== After you find the Red Key you can start a little side quest to take one of your tribe members that has gotten uppity down a peg or two. Start by going to the Vanguard’s Base in Svadhisthana. ________________________________Vanguards Base_________________________________ -Items: (Logic Cell) Luck Noise x 2 Great Chakra (Layer Cell) Al Azif In B1 of the Vanguards Base there is a Red Wall, there is an Ex-Vanguard nearby who will tell you that the Red Wall has trapped some other Ex-Vanguards deeper in the dungeon. Use the Red Key to destroy that wall and further in this new area you will find another Ex-Vanguard who will explain that one of their own has gone crazy and started devouring his own comrades, so they have locked him up and cut the power to prevent him from escaping. Since the power is out none of the switches down here are working. To get them working again you will need to trip the circuit breaker at the far end of the dungeon. When this is done flip the nearby switch to open the way to a Field Hunt. -----------------------------------Field Hunt---------------------------------- -Time: 60 Seconds -Mitama: Kusi Mitama x 4 Start by destroying the demons in the north hall. Go into the Northern room and destroy the Demons there. Leave the room and destroy the demons that have appeared in the northern hallway then take the T intersection south, destroying demons as you go. Enter the southern room and destroy the lone demon there and quickly destroy the lone demon there. Leave the room and go back to the T intersection. Destroy the demons that have appeared in the northern hallway and then destroy the Demons that will appear in the southern hallway. Go back to the northern room and destroy the demons there and the Mitama will appear in the middle of the northern room. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When that is done go to the Northern switch and flip to lower the Wall and open the route to the boss. Go down the ladder here, but before you go to the boss make a quick side trip to the west to find a Red Wall, behind it is a room with a Theory Cell and a Soma. Continue on to the east and you will find the troublemaker. It seems that he’s decided that he would make a better leader of the Embryon tribe than you would and attacks. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Fiend Beelzebub (Human) -Null: All except Phys/Fire/Almighty -Recommended Level: 50 For this fight set either Agidyne with Fire Amp and Fire Boost or your strongest Physical attack with Critical and MIN/MAX Critical. You also want somebody that that has the Dekaja and Null Expel skills set. (You can get by with Dekaja combos and Anti-Expel shields/having someone Revert to Human form, but it’s more of a nuisance than Dekaja and Null Expel) If you use Gale here he should set Elec Resistance to prevent Beelzebub from getting more Turns than necessary. At the start of the battle Beelzebub is rather tame; he will only attack you physically and use Mazionga occasionally. After you knock off some of his HP, however, he starts getting serious. He will use Tarukaja and Mind Scream, Mahamaon followed by Mamudoon, (This is why you want Expel protection, it will eat up his two turn icons and he won’t be able to get off the Mamudoon) and finally, he will use Makakaja followed by Megidolaon. There isn’t much you can do about the Megidolaon combo other than try to keep your HP as high as possible and immediately Dekaja him afterwards. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After defeating Beelzebub the sore loser will promise to get stronger before running off. That’s all there is to do down here, so leave Svadhisthana and go to Manipura when you are ready for Round Two. _______________________________Manipura Waterways______________________________ -Items: Power Noise x 2 Vital Noise x 2 (Charm Shot) (Logic Cell) (Fusion Cell) After defeating Beelzebub in Svadhisthana the Waterways under Manipura will open up. From the outside of the Maribel Base (The area where you can talk to your party member) take the Side Entrance to the east of the Main entrance and you will find a ladder down to the Manipura Waterways. There is a Yellow Wall right at the entrance that you will have to destroy before you can even explore this dungeon. Before I continue I should warn you about one enemy you will encounter down here, namely the Arahabaki that show up as reinforcements. Arahabaki may seem daunting when you first encounter them: they have a lot of HP, can cast Diarahan, are immune to everything except Ice, (which they are weak to) Expel, and Almighty, and they can use Gate of Hell and Last Word. But with a certain spell the Arahabaki become a lot less fearsome, and yes, even a welcome sight. The spell I am referring to is Cocytus. (From the King Mantra) Cocytus has a higher chance of freezing Arahabaki than a normal Bufu- spell, and once they are frozen (it shouldn’t take more than two or three castings to freeze both of them) they will go down very quickly to physical attacks. If you don’t have Cocytus then this battle becomes a whole lot more difficult, you can try to freeze them with (Ma)Bufudyne, waste a lot of MP using Almighty spells that will likely get healed anyway, or you could hope you get lucky with Hamaon and are able to finish them off before they can cast Diarahan. Killing the Arahabaki is worth it, not only do they give up to 60000 Macca when defeated, but they also drop Vital Noises and Fusion Cells too. In the first area you will find a Blue Wall that has a Damage Trap, and a battle with three Shiki-Ouji behind it. (...maybe you should just skip this one...) A bit deeper into the dungeon you will come to another Water Pump “Maze,” only it isn’t really a maze, it’s just a single current that connects both exits together. Continue on and you run into not one but four Blue Walls right next to each other, To continue on go through the northernmost door behind the northern Blue wall. But first search behind the other walls to find a Theory Cell, a MP Noise, a Logic Cell, and a Fusion Cell. You will come to a Red Wall, Destroy it and continue on until you come to a Large Karma Terminal. Immediately after the Large Karma Terminal you will be attacked by the bigger, badder Beelzebub. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Fiend Beelzebub (Fly) -Null: All except Phys/Fire/Almighty -Recommended Level: 60 Yikes. Fly form Beelzebub is definitely one of the hardest bosses in the game. Unless you are totally prepared this guy will cream you and even if you are prepared it is still a pretty rough battle. First off everyone absolutely must have Null Death set. If you don’t have immunity to Death you won’t stand a chance in this battle, and it just isn’t practical to keep up an Anti-Death shield at all times. Also be sure that at least one person has Dekaja. Also, if you bring in Argilla or Gale, Be sure that they have Force Resist or Elec Resist respectively set. Giving Beelzebub extra turns is a bad thing, mkay? It’s also a good idea to have everybody set Mediarahan. Finally, you should set Debilitate along with any –Kaja and/or –Kunda skill you have. (Preferably Rakukaja) Beelzebub does cast Dekaja and Dekunda, but he does it infrequently enough for it to be worthwhile, and every little bit helps. He has more or less the same attacks as he did the last time, but they do a lot more damage than they did the last time you faced Beelzebub. He does have one really nasty addition to his arsenal, an attack called Death Flies. Not only does Death Flies do a LOT (like 400+) of Almighty damage to the entire party but it also does Instant Death to anybody that isn’t immune to Death. (It’s even worse that he usually casts Makakaja before using Death Flies...) He starts out by just physically attacking and casting Maziodyne along with Mazandyne. After you knock off a bit of HP he will start to get serious. He will do his Mahamaon + Mamudoon combo along with his Makakaja + Megidolaon combo, but his big attack is when he casts Makakaja and then Death Flies. This attack is painful, but if everyone has Null Death set and has Rakukaja cast it should be survivable. (If it isn’t you should probably just give up for now and come back when you have more HP.) There isn’t that much strategy to this battle, hit him as hard as you can with physical attacks (with Critical + MIN/MAX Critical set) along with Agidyne (with Fire Boost + Fire Amp set) and hope you can outlast him. Always try to stay as close to full HP as you can, and if he uses Tarukaja or Makakaja immediately use Dekaja. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After you finally beat Beelzebub you’re not quite done here, keep on going until you reach a ladder up. Climb the ladder up and... hey, does that background music sound familiar? Yep, you come out in the lower layer of Muladhara. Destroy the Yellow Wall and go through the door behind it to find three Ammo Nodes with a Tyrant Skull, a Magatama bullet, and a Murder Rock in them. The next time you visit a Karma Terminal with the Tyrant Skull the High Priest Mantra will be unlocked. ------------------------------Digital Devil Saga 2----------------------------- With the Fly form of Beelzebub dead (defeating him in Human form won’t count) you will get a special Karma Ring in DDS 2 that protects the wearer from Death attacks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ========================== ==========================|Anahata Waterways [#008.4]|========================= ========================== -Items: (Battle Ongyo-Ki x 3) (Fusion Cell) (Layer Cell) After defeating Asura Ravana in Ajna the waterways under Anahata will open up. To get to the Waterways you have to warp to The Citadel 2 Large Karma Terminal, then head north and turn left and take a left at the T intersection. Enter the room and you will find the Ladder down to the Waterways. Overall this is a pretty short and nondescript dungeon. For the most part the enemies here shouldn’t give you too many problems, but you will have to deal with not one but two Samael as reinforcements down here. Personally I just set Quick Escape and run whenever they show up. There is a Blue Wall that blocks the entrance, destroy it and continue on. You will come to a Yellow Wall that will (eventually) lead to a Great Chakra, a Magic Noise, and a Logic Cell. After that is done destroy the Red Wall here to open the path onward. You will come to another Water Pump Maze. This one is a sprawling maze where the main challenge is just making it to the exit before an entire Solar Cycle (MIN to MAX and back to MIN) is completed and you are washed out. The quickest route through here is South, West, South, South, East, Northeast, East, North, East, East, West, West, and finally West. Now then, see that big snakey-thing next to the bridge? Well, it’s going to attack you when you try to cross that bridge. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Dragon Orochi -Null: All except Ice/Elec/Almighty -Recommended Level: 60 First off, to be able to damage this guy you will either need Bufudyne or Ziodyne set. (With their respective Amp + Boost skills) For defense make sure that every character has the elemental Resist skill that corresponds to their elemental weakness along with Null Mute set. Orochi gets 8 attacks per turn; while his individual attacks may not be terribly powerful, but they add up quickly. He can cast single-target –Dyne level elemental magic, but his big attack is where he casts Makakaja four times in a row and then unleashes a Megidolaon. There’s not much you can do against this other than hope you survive it and immediately Dekaja him. Fortunately, Orochi has one fatal flaw: he has a rather pitiful amount of MP for such a magic-heavy boss. In fact, he will probably burn through his entire supply of MP in about 5 turns. He will try to recoup some of his MP by using MP Thief, but Null Mute will prevent this from happening. After all of his MP are gone he will resort to using Mad Rush eight times in a row. While the damage from eight straight Mad Rushes is not negligible, it is nowhere near what he could do with his four Makakaja plus Megidolaon combo. Also, no MP means no Dekaja or Dekunda, so you are free to use Debilitate and –Kaja spells with impunity. With Orochi fully Debilitated and your Party fully -Kaja-ed he should go down pretty quickly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After Orochi is dead continue on and climb up the ladder. You end up in B5 of the Brutes Base. Climb all the way up to 3F and you will find a corpse. Examine the Corpse and take the Red Ring. After that you get to walk a-a-a-all the way back to the Small Karma Terminal before the Orochi fight. -Note: On 3F of the Brutes Base the only enemy that you will encounter here are Horus. Horus is weak to Death, and they only attack one at a time, so use Mudoon against them for a quick battle. This is good, because they not only give good Macca, and AP, but they also drop Magic Noises too. Use a Magic Reed to increase the encounter rate and raise the chance of more Horus appearing as reinforcements, set “Auto Repeat” in the Config Screen to On, then just auto-cast Mudoon for quick and easy noise collecting. ================================= ======================|The Four Guardian Beasts [#008.5]|====================== ================================= After you reach the Topmost Floor of Sahasrara leave the Karma Temple. Outside of the Temple you will find an Embryon member who will tell you about four strong demons that have suddenly appeared out of nowhere. He will tell you that they have taken up residence in Svadhisthana, Ajna, Anahata, and Manipura. You can fight the Four Guardian Beasts in any order. They are all hiding behind colored walls. When you come upon a wounded gang member who will warn you about a strong demon nearby you know you are close. -Note: When the four beasts Drain an element, they regain 10 times the strength of the original spell. So stay away from those elements or else. __________________________________Svadhisthana_________________________________ Head down to B2 where you fought Human Beelzebub. There is a Red Wall there and behind it you will run into Feng Huang. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Aerial Feng Huang -Super Drain: Fire, Null: Phys/Earth/Expel/Death/Ailments Strong: Force -Recommended Level: 65 Have everyone set Bufudyne along with Ice Boost and Ice Amp. Make sure that Serph has Fire Resist set too. Feng Huang starts out by using just Agi and Maragi, but as she takes damage she will start using Agilao/Maragion and finally (Mar)Agidyne. Also if you set up an Anti-Fire shield she will stop using Fire attacks and instead use Physical attacks like Power Wave and Bloodbath. Overall this is a pretty simple battle. First use whatever –Kaja spells you have, and then just hit her with Bufudyne while using Dekaja and she will go down pretty quickly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You will automatically get the Crimson Orb after Feng Huang is dead. ______________________________________Ajna_____________________________________ Go inside the Brutes Base and set it to the Red Configuration. Go through the northeastern door and past the Yellow Wall to reach Dragon Long. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Dragon Long -Super Drain: Ice, Null: Expel/Death/Ailments Strong: Phys/Earth -Recommended Level: 65 Make sure that you have Dekaja and Dekunda set for this fight. It is also a good idea to have everyone set Null Mute along with someone who has Debilitate. If you are using Heat make sure that he has Ice Resist set. Unlike the other Four Beasts, Long doesn’t gradually use stronger and stronger attacks as he takes damage, he goes all out throughout the entire fight. He will usually spend an entire turn casting Tarukaja twice and then Power Charge, and the next turn he will use Revelation. Or he will cast Makakaja twice then Magic Charge, and the next turn he will use Mabufudyne. He will occasionally use Dia (yep, plain old Dia...) twice and then finish with a Debilitate. He may seem a bit daunting at first, but he has one critical weakness: he can’t use Dekaja or Dekunda. He can cover himself sort of with Debilitate, Tarukaja, and Makakaja but he has no way of defending himself against Rakunda and Sukunda. Hit him with four Rakundas and be sure to Dekaja or Dekunda immediately after he uses Debilitate or –Kaja and he should go down rather easily. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You will automatically get the Azure Orb after Long is Dead. ____________________________________Anahata____________________________________ Teleport to the Citadel 1 Large Karma Terminal and then head north until you reach the stairs up to 3F and you will find Gui Xian behind a nearby Yellow Wall. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Dragon Gui Xian -Super Drain: Earth, Null: Expel/Death/Ailments, Strong: Phys -Recommended Level: 65 First off, don’t even bother with physical attacks against him, as he is so resistant to them that you will be lucky if they even do double digits against him. The only way to really damage him is through non-earth –Dyne level Elemental spells with Amp + Boost set. Forget about –Kaja and –Kunda skills, too, as he will immediately use Dekaja and Dekunda. You also want to have someone with Earth Repel set. At the start of the battle he starts out pretty tame, he just uses weak attacks like Mad Rush and Tera. When you take off about a third of his HP, however, he starts getting nasty. He will start casting Magic Repel at the start of every freaking turn. With this up along with his resistance to physical the only way to normally cause any real damage to him is to use Almighty attacks. Fortunately there is a trick to get around this, and that is to set up an Earth Repel shield. When he casts an earth spell it will bounce off you and hit Gui Xian, canceling his shield. Unfortunately he doesn’t always use magic, when he doesn’t just heal or use a Wild Card/Bomb or something and bide your time until he does use an earth spell. As long as you keep your HP up and canceling his Shield you should be able to take him down. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You will automatically get the Copper Orb after Gui Xian is dead. ____________________________________Manipura___________________________________ In the southwestern corner of Manipura is a Yellow Wall with Beast Baihu hiding behind it. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Beast Baihu -Super Drain: Force, Null: Expel/Death/Ailments, Strong: Phys/Ice/Elec -Recommended Level: 65 This guy will High Counter physical attacks, so use Agidyne or Teradyne with the appropriate Amp + Boost skills instead. He also uses a lot of strong Physical attacks, so Phys Resist can be a big help in this battle. Make sure that Argilla has Force Resist set. He’s pretty good at casting Dekaja and Dekunda, so don’t bother with -Kaja or –Kunda skills. There isn’t much strategy for this battle, just keep your HP as high as you can while pounding him with magic. As long as your level is high enough and have the right skills set you should come out on top. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You will automatically get the White Orb after Baihu is dead. ================= ==============================|Metatron [#008.6]|============================== ================= After you defeat the Four Guardian Beasts and you have found the Red Ring item from the end of the Anahata Waterways go to Ajna. You will see two women standing outside the entrance to the Brutes Base who will mention that a demon with “Beautiful Silvery Wings” is running around inside the base. Go inside the Brutes Base and set the configuration to White. Go through the northeastern door and you will run into a guy who will accost you. It doesn’t matter how you answer him, he will transform into Metatron and attack. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Aerial Metatron -Null: Expel/Death/Ailments -Recommended Level: 68 With the right skills set this should be a rather simple battle. Metatron uses Mahamaon way too often, so having everyone set Null Expel for this fight will be a big help. For offense you want to have your best attacks ready. (-Dyne level Elemental spells with Amp + Boost, physical attacks with Critical and MIN/MAX Critical and so on) Having Tarukaja/Makakaja/Rakukaja along with Dekaja is also highly recommended. Metatron starts out mainly using Mahamaon and Maragidyne. When you take about 2/3 or so HP off he breaks out his big gun, an attack called Fire of Sinai, which despite the name is an almighty attack that not only does pretty decent damage, but can also hit your party multiple times. What’s worse is that he can use Makakaja and Mind Charge to boost the damage caused by Fire of Sinai through the roof. Be sure to immediately Dekaja whenever he uses Makakaja. Metatron does have one weakness; he is totally lax when it comes to using Dekaja. He only uses it rarely in the beginning, and when he starts using Fire of Sinai he seems to forget about it entirely. (He is a little better with Dekunda, though, so you do have to be a little more careful when it come to Debilitate) So you can use Tarukaja and/or Makakaja along with Rakukaja four times each for a rather easy battle. In fact, with four Rakukajas about the only way Metatron can harm you is if he uses Magic Charge and then Fire of Sinai in the same turn. (Which will still hurt a lot, even if you are fully Rakukaja-ed) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After Metatron is dead you will automatically receive a Seraph Quill, and the next time you go to a Karma Terminal the Gyokuza Mantra will be unlocked for everyone. ------------------------------Digital Devil Saga 2----------------------------- With Metatron dead you will get a special Karma Ring that will protect the wearer from Expel. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- =================== =============================|Huang Long [#008.7]|============================= =================== After defeating the Four Beasts you can take on their boss that they kept mentioning when you fought them. Go to Sahasrara and talk to the Embryon Member on the ground and he will tell you that an incredibly powerful demon has gone into the Karma Temple. Enter the Karma Temple and climb all the way up to Elevation: 12530ft. You have to use one of the glowing floor sections to come to a hallway with a Red Wall. Destroy it and go through the door to come face to face with Huang Long. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Dragon Huang Long -Variable Resistances (see below) -Recommended Level: 70 Phew... this guy is really hard, which is what you would expect from the penultimate boss of the game. This is a unique boss; He has several “modes” where he changes his attack patterns, skills, and even his resistances. You can tell when he switches modes because he will growl at you at the start of his turn. What mode he will change into is random. (the sole exception to this is his Defense Mode, which he always goes into after Attack Mode.) These modes don’t have any official names, so I just gave them names myself. There also isn’t any indication (for the most part) about which mode he goes into, but it should be easy to figure out which mode he is in by the skills he uses. (i.e. if he uses Mabufudyne he is in Ice mode.) When he goes into Attack Mode his Growl will be a little different than the other modes. (It will end in a “!” instead of the usual “...”) Huang Long has a variety of attacks but his most dangerous one is Celestial Ray. Celestial Ray not only does a whole lot of Almighty damage (which is made worse because he usually serves up a Celestial Ray with a Megidolaon chaser) but it can also inflict almost any type of ailment on your characters. To protect yourself from the ailments part of Celestial Ray you really need to have Null Ailment set on all characters. Yes, I know the Mantra it comes on is quite expensive (to say nothing about the cost of actually unlocking the damn thing) but it is simply the best way to protect yourself from the ailment portion of Celestial Ray. (Of course there is nothing you can do about the Almighty portion of Celestial Ray, but that’s life.) You can have someone with Salvation that can work too. Just be sure to set Null Charm and Null Mute along with maybe Null Nerve and/or Null Panic to try and mitigate some of more annoying ailments. I would really recommend against depending only on Items in this fight, as you’ll be suffering through quite a few ailments during the course of this fight. You will want to be using your best attacks for this guy. This means either strong physical attacks (with Critical and MIN/MAX Critical) or –Dyne level elemental spells. (With the appropriate Amp and Boost skill set.) If you don’t need Salvation then use Mediarahan instead. Don’t forget to set Dekaja and Dekunda, along with Debilitate and Rakukaja. If you can fit them in, it is a good idea to set Tarukaja/Makakaja and Power/Magic Charge too. Here are the modes he can use, along with the skills each mode can use: -Support Mode -Null: Expel/Death/Ailments Strong: Phys/Fire/Ice/Elec/Force/Earth Huang Long starts out the battle in this mode. This is the only form that uses Dekaja and/or Dekunda, and this form will always use them to erase any –Kaja or –Kunda spells you might have cast during any of his other modes. Unfortunately, this mode can also use both Celestial Ray and Megidolaon, sometimes one right after the other, and you’ll have to take the full brunt of those attacks since you can’t use any –Kaja or –Kunda skills beforehand. -Fire Mode -Super Drain: Fire, Null: Expel/Death/Ailments Strong: Phys/Elements This form uses Maragidyne along with Makanda and Mind Charge. -Ice Mode -Super Drain: Ice, Null: Expel/Death/Ailments Strong: Phys/Elements This form uses Mabufudyne along with Makanda and Sukunda. -Force Mode -Super Drain: Force, Null: Expel/Death/Ailments Strong: Phys/Elements This form uses Mazandyne along with Makakaja and Sukunda. -Earth Mode -Super Drain: Earth, Null: Expel/Death/Ailments Strong: Phys/Elements This form uses Materadyne along with Makakaja and Mind Charge. -Attack Mode -Null: Expel/Death/Ailments Okay, now he’s pissed, and he has stopped playing around. When he is in Attack Mode he will use Celestial Ray and Megidolaon, one right after the other on every turn. Watch out, if he has a Makakaja (or worse, a Mind Charge) lingering from one of his earlier mode it will boost the damage he can cause even higher. Fortunately, if you managed to hit him with a couple Debilitates along with a Rakukaja or two this mode’s attacks should be survivable. This is the best time to attack him, as not only does he lose his resistances in this mode, but he actually becomes more vulnerable to your attacks. Every one of your attacks will do double damage to Huang Long when he is in attack mode. With a strong attack along with Tarukaja/Makakaja/Rakunda you should be able to easily chop off more than 1000 HP per attack. -Defense Mode -Null: Phys/Fire/Ice/Elec/Force/Earth/Expel/Death/Ailments/Almighty (!) Yep, He is totally invincible when he goes into his defense mode. He always goes into Defense Mode immediately following his Attack Mode. When he is in Defense Mode he will just growl at you and then pass his turn. There is not much you can do here except heal yourself and maybe use some –Kaja or -Kunda skills while you wait until he switches modes. This ends up being a rather long, boring battle punctuated by a few rounds of all out fighting. The only time you can do any real damage to him is while he is in his Attack Mode, because the other modes just have too many resistances for you to be able to cause any significant damage against him. Try to use -Kaja and/or –Kunda skills when you can, and if he cancels them wait until he changes modes again before using them again. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After Huang Long is dead continue on and destroy the Red Wall you come to and take the Golden Orb from the Ammo Node, and the next time you visit a Karma Terminal the Five Gods Mantra will be unlocked. ------------------------------Digital Devil Saga 2----------------------------- With Huang Long dead you will get a special Karma Ring in DDS 2 that will reduce the amount of damage the wearer takes from Almighty attacks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ========================== ==========================|Junkyard Nocturne [#008.8]|========================= ========================== After completing the game once and replaying the game from a New Cycle save you will be able to fight a super-secret, super-powerful boss. After reaching the Topmost Floor of the Karma Temple return to Anahata. Warp to the Citadel 1 Large Karma Terminal (and save your game, for YHVH’s sake) then go down the ladder to the poison gas maze on B1. At the entrance to one of the small side rooms down you will get the standard boss warning (“You feel a (insert adjective here) presence”) and when you go through it you will find yourself thrown into battle with a very big blast from the past. --------------------------------------Boss------------------------------------- Demi-Fiend -HP: 18000 -Null: All except Gun/Earth/Almighty -Recommended Level: 99 (Seriously) Now this is a battle. Unless all of your characters have maximum statistics and have mastered nearly every Mantra he will kick your ass all over the Junkyard and even if you do winning this battle will still depend more on luck than anything else. If you are someone who has to budget for replacement controllers that have been broken in rage you may want to just skip this battle and go play Soul Calibur or something. What makes this battle jump from merely very difficult to hair-pullingly infuriating is a single skill that Demi-Fiend uses, Gaea Rage. Gaea Rage is an all target almighty attack that... oh yeah, does well over 10000 HP worth of damage to you. (Considering your max HP can only go up to 999 I don’t need to explain why this attack is bad news.) Whenever one or more of your characters becomes immune, repels, and/or drains any element/ailment/whatever he will immediately retaliate with Gaea Rage. If you have a Null- skill set he will immediately use Gaea Rage at the start of the battle, and if you set up a shield (either through a skill or even an item) then he will use Gaea Rage on his next turn. For this reason, as a rule of thumb any skill with Void, Null, Repel, or Drain in its name is strictly forbidden in this battle. There are two exceptions to this rule: Null Critical and Null Sleep. (more on this later) Demi-Fiend’s other attacks are almost as bad as Gaea Rage, but not quite. Most of the time the Demi-Fiend use either Javelin Rain or Xeros-Beat, both are all-target attacks that can cause ailments. (Javelin Rain causes Mute and Xeros-Beat causes Stun.) He occasionally uses Heat Wave, another all target attack which thankfully doesn’t cause any kind of ailment. Very rarely he will do a normal attack. All of his attacks will do well over 300 and if he gets a critical (which he does a lot) he’ll cause even more damage. He also brings backup for this fight. At any time he will have two demons fighting along side him and when you kill one of his buddies he will use is next turn to summon a new demon. The demons that he will summon are not random; he has a clearly defined sequence of six demons, and when he reaches the end of the sequence he will start over at the beginning of the sequence. (So when you kill a Parvati then Demi-Fiend will summon a fresh Cu Chulainn.) The list of demons and what they do are as follows: -Cu Chulainn: He spends a lot of time casting Taunt, (to which the next demon in line will use Dekaja to erase the Tarukaja aspect of this skill) when he doesn’t he uses physical attacks like Bloodbath and Executioner. -Girimehkala: When he’s not Dekaja-ing Cu Chulainn’s Taunts he’s casting Mamudoon every freaking turn. -Pixie: She mainly pelts you with Megidolaon while throwing in the occasional Maziodyne for spice. -Arahabaki: He uses Blood Curse, Gate of Hell, and Debilitate. -Titania: She uses all of the –Kunda skills against you, along with the various Ma-*-Dyne spells. -Parvati: She’s the only demon of this group that uses any kind of –Kaja skills. She also likes to use Mahamaon. Every one his demons have Dekaja and Dekunda, which they will use to immediately counter any –Kaja or –Kunda skills you might cast. (actually, that’s not entirely true, it seems that each of the demons will only have either Dekaja or Dekunda. From what I’ve seen it seems that Cu Chulainn, Pixie and Titania have Dekunda, while Girimehkala, Arahabaki, and Parvati use Dekaja) After every third demon he summons (Pixie and Parvati) on his next turn he will use Gaea Rage. When he summons a Pixie or a Parvati the first turn that Pixie/Parvati will use Dormina, and the Demi-Fiend’s next move after that will be Gaea Rage. Unfortunately you can’t just leave his backup alone and concentrate on the Demi-Fiend exclusively. Every one of his demons has an internal counter, after every move they make (that is not Dekaja or Dekunda) their counter will increase by one, and when this counter reaches 30 the demon will use Recarmdra, which will completely heal the Demi-Fiend. Also, the first time you reduce the Demi-Fiend’s HP by half one of his demons will cast Mediarahan and completely heal the Demi-Fiend. (Thankfully they will only use Mediarahan once.) I should also point out that the Demi-Fiend gets an extra Turn icon, meaning that he will always get to go twice. (...and this isn’t taking in account his abnormally high chance of causing criticals, if you are especially unlucky he might be able to squeeze out three attacks.) So, now that I’ve said all that how the heck are you supposed to beat this guy? Well first off I would not even try this battle unless every character has at least 80 Vitality along with at least 700 Max HP. This is just a bare minimum; you want to Max out both Vitality and Magic as well as raise your Maximum HP as high as you can. (This means that you will have to do a bit of Noise hunting, fortunately Vital, Magic, and HP Noises are relatively easy to get if you know where to look.) Next you want to stop off at a Vendor and buy 99 Dis-Mutes along with some Dis-Stones and some Panaceas too. Be sure to also buy the Revival Orb if you haven’t already. It costs 600000 Macca, but it will be invaluable for the Demi-Fiend fight. You also want to stockpile as many Great Chakras, Somas, and Dekaja Rocks you can. As for characters, the one character that is absolutely essential for this fight is the one you would least expect. That’s right, Cielo finally gets a chance to shine in this battle because... well... he’s weak to ailments. (no, I haven’t lost what little sanity I might have had, just trust me on this one) For the other two I have Serph, with his Strength boosted to 99, and Argilla, because I like her. :-) Now it’s time to set the skills you’ll use. Remember what I said earlier about not using skills with “Null” in their name, and how there were two skills that wouldn’t get you Gaea Raged? Well those two skills, Null Critical and Null Sleep are vital to your success in this battle. You need to have Null Critical because Demi-Fiend criticals way too often and the last thing you need is to give this guy any more turns, and you need to have Null Sleep set to have a chance of surviving Gaea Rage. So be sure to set both Null Critical and Null Sleep set on all three characters. So that’s two skill slots filled, next you need Death Resist to protect yourself from Girimehkala’s Mamudoon and Arahabaki’s Blood Curse and Gate of Hell. The Titania uses a lot of elemental spells and Maragidyne in particular, so have Serph set Fire Resist to keep them from getting any extra turns. I’ve never seen her cast Mazandyne, so I guess you can get away without having her setting Force Resist. Cielo doesn’t have any elemental weaknesses so he doesn’t have to worry about setting an Elemental Resist skill. You can expect to do a lot of healing, and have a lot ailments inflicted on you during the course of the battle, so every character will need Salvation. (Mediarahan just won’t cut it here) You will also be hit with a bunch of –Kunda skills so be sure to set Dekunda on multiple characters. Dekaja isn’t as important, as only one of the demons will ever use a –Kaja skill, so you can get away without setting Dekaja and just use Dekaja Stones. This is risky, though, because if you run out of Dekaja Stones you are effectively borked. If you have 10 or more Dekaja Stones this might be worth trying it and freeing up a precious skill slot. Either way I wouldn’t have more than one character set Dekaja if you do use it. So, now that you have 5 or 6 skill slots filled is there anything else you need... Oh, yeah! You still need some way to actually damage this guy! If you look back all the way to the beginning of this section you will see that the ONLY way to damage is by using Earth or Almighty spells. (Well, you could also revert to human form and shoot him, but I don’t recommend it as you can’t use skills in human form and the damage you can do with guns is not great. Although there is always the chance of getting a critical when you use guns...) This rather limits what offensive skills you can use here. Celestial Ray does the most damage consistent damage of all you skills, so it is the recommended skill to have. (Unfortunately the Demi-Fiend and his posse are all immune to ailments, so don’t plan on using this to inflict some payback on them.) Just keep in mind that Celestial Ray will also hit his demon buddies, so every time you use this you are bringing yourself one step closer to another Gaea Rage. You could also use Fire of Sinai if you are so inclined, but the damage caused by Fire of Sinai is too random for my tastes. Having someone set Ragnarok is also highly recommended, not only because it does a good amount of damage, but because it has a Rakunda effect attached to it, which means that one of the Demi-Fiend’s cronies will waste a turn using Dekunda. Last Word does decent damage to a single target, so you don’t have to worry about inadvertently killing one of his demons before you are ready. Teradyne has a much lower MP cost than Last Word, but unless you are willing to sacrifice a skill slot for Earth Amp the damage caused is too small to really be effective. There are some other skills that are nice to have, but there might not be enough skill slots to put them in. You may want to set Close Call just in case Null Sleep doesn’t save you from Gaea Rage. I can’t recommend this skill, however, as when this skill kicks in you will be stuck in human form. This means you can’t use any skills and you have to waste one of your turns reverting back to demon form, which makes it much more difficult (but not impossible) to recover from Gaea Rage. Even when he’s not Gaea Raging you the Demi-Fiend’s other attacks still cause way too much damage so you may want to set Phys Resist to blunt the damage he inflicts. Recarmdra is a good skill to have when a single character survives a Gaea Rage and you can use Recarmdra to revive the other characters, and then one of the other characters can use the Revival Orb next turn to revive the Recarmdra character. Try to get Recarmdra on Cielo at least. The Black Sun combo (Ragnarok + Megidolaon + Salvation) may seem tempting, since it is the most damaging attack in the game. (It does a little over 1500 damage to all targets) I would advise against using this, however, because although two of the skills are useful in this battle, the third one (Megidolaon) is not and will likely be dead weight in this battle. The biggest problem about using Black Sun is that it will take all of your turn icons to use it. That means you won’t be able do any healing or casting Dekaja/Dekunda for that turn, and turns where you aren’t low on HP or suffering from some kind of Ailment, or need to use Dekaja and/or Dekunda are few and far between. Here is how I would set my skills: -------------------------------------------------------------------- | Serph | Argilla | Cielo | -------------------------------------------------------------------- | -Ragnarok | -Celestial Ray | -Last Word | | -Last Word | -Last Word | -Recarmdra | | -Dekunda | -Dekaja | -Dekunda | | -Salvation | -Salvation | -Salvation | | -Death Resist | -Death Resist | -Death Resist | | -Fire Resist | -Phys Resist | -Phys Resist | | -Null Critical | -Null Critical | -Null Critical | | -Null Sleep | -Null Sleep | -Null Sleep | -------------------------------------------------------------------- This is a rather Magic-heavy set up, and you will likely burn through a lot of MP over the course of this battle. But that’s alright, you can use Cielo’s Recarmdra to restore Argilla’s and Serph’s MP, and if you are desperate you can always dip into your items and use a Great Chakra/Soma to restore everyone’s HP/MP. All right, after all that it’s FINALLY time to fight this damn battle. At the start of the battle you will face Demi-Fiend with Cu Chulainn and Girimehkala supporting him. They will always go first, so you can expect to have been Taunted or hit with a Mamudoon, and have someone (Cielo) either stunned or Muted before you even get a chance to move. (Remember, if he uses Gaea Rage on his first turn, it means you have a bad skill set.) The key to this battle is facing as few Gaea Rages as possible. For this reason you to try to get the most out of those 30 turns before a demon uses Recarmdra. You probably want to keep a piece of scratch paper handy so you can keep a tally of how many turns each demon has made. When a demon is first summoned spend a few turns lowering its HP down to the red zone. After that concentrate on Demi-Fiend with Last Word/Teradyne until they are just about ready to Recarmdra and then they should go down in one or two hits. I would also recommend trying to kill both of the demons that are out at the same time so it is easier to keep track of turns. Cu Chulainn has 3000 HP and Girimehkala has 3500 HP. When one of them goes down get ready, because Pixie is next, and that means its Gaea Rage time! After Pixie is summoned she will use Dormina. You had better hope somebody falls asleep, because the only way to survive the coming Gaea Rage is Null Sleep, and that only kicks in you are asleep. (Of course it usually works out so that Pixie will cast Dormina, but the Gaea Rage won’t come until the next turn, which means your characters might wake up before Demi-Fiend can use Gaea Rage. That sucks. A lot.) Assuming you survived Gaea Rage you will now have Pixie and Arahabaki to deal with. Be careful here, because Pixie only has about half the HP that Arahabaki does. (Pixie has 1700, while Arahabaki has 3500) Next up is Titania and Parvati, and Parvati means another Gaea Rage is coming your way. Even if you survive the Gaea Rage these two are the most annoying demons out of Demi-Fiend’s posse. Titania loves casting –Dyne level elemental skills, which if they hit one of your demon’s weaknesses can really ruin your day, while Parvati uses Mahamaon a few too many times for comfort. An interesting strategy to try for these two is to have one of your characters revert to human form. If a character is in human form then Titania can’t hit that character’s weakness and if Parvati uses Mahamaon the human character will block it and they will lose two turn icons. Demi-Fiend is not immune to guns so the human character can still damage him (although it doesn’t do a whole lot of damage, even if you have 99 Strength and Magatama Bullets) and he won’t Gaea Rage you because of the human’s natural resistance to Expel. Titania has 2000 HP and Parvati has 1800 HP. After Parvati its back to Cu Chulainn and this whole mess starts all over again. One last thing to note is that the first time you take off half of the Demi-Fiend’s HP (that’s 9000 HP for those of you keeping score) then one of his demons will cast Mediarahan. This can be used as a barometer of how well you are doing in this battle. If it takes until after he summons Parvati for them to use Mediarahan then things are not going good and maybe should think about think about cutting your losses and reloading. The Red Star Strategy --------------------- If you are having trouble defeating Demi-Fiend you might want to try the so-called “Red Star Strategy.” (named after the poster on GameFAQs who first came up with it) The basic idea behind this strategy is to “stun lock” his demons by having them cast Dekaja and Dekunda every turn. When you fight Pixie she will usually run out of MP before she uses Recarmdra. You can take advantage of this by using Debilitate and she won’t be able to Dekunda it. To start off you need to have set Debilitate on one or two of your characters, and a –Kaja skill (preferably Sukukaja) on the other. When the battle starts fight normally and kill both Cu Chulainn and Girimehkala and he will summon Pixie and Arahabaki, (That means you will still have to survive a Gaea Rage...) when he does it’s time to implement your strategy. When Pixie is unable to cast Megidolaon because of insufficient MP cast both Debilitate and your –Kaja skill on every turn. She still has some MP so she can still use Dekunda a couple of time, but when you drain off the rest of her MP she will try to use Dekunda, but will fail because of insufficient MP. When this happens you can Debilitate them four times and they won’t be able to erase them. With Demi-Fiend fully Debilitated he is a lot less threatening, he will rarely hit you and when he does he will hardly cause any damage, (You will still have to deal with his ailments, though) and your attacks will cause much more damage. Make sure to cast the –Kaja skill every turn to keep Arahabaki wasting his turn on Dekaja. (A nifty thing about this strategy is that when you take off half of Demi-Fiend’s HP, Pixie will try to use Mediarahan, but can’t since she doesn’t have the MP for it.) Note that this strategy is not foolproof, as by the time Pixie is unable to use Megidolaon anymore she is dangerously close to a Recarmdra, and if Demi-Fiend gets in a critical before you get rid of the rest her MP then she can use Recarmdra. (and don’t forget that you still have to survive until you get to Pixie and she runs out of MP) The Red Star Strategy still depends a lot on luck, but not quite as much as the normal strategy, so if you are having trouble you might have more success with this one. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- See? That wasn’t hard at all! *ducks* ------------------------------Digital Devil Saga 2----------------------------- Apparently you will get an Amala Ring in DDS 2 if you manage to beat the Demi-Fiend. Good luck on actually getting it, though. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ******************************************************************************* ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||Appendix [#009]|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— =============================== =======================|Key and Wall Checklist [#009.1]|======================= =============================== ____________________________________Blue Key___________________________________ -Found: After beating Asura Hayagriva return to the room where you fought Hayagriva in Svadhisthana and there will be an Ex-Vanguard that will give you the Blue Key. Muladhara --------- -In the Middle level there is a Blue Wall that blocks two HP Noises, two MP Noises, and another Blue Wall. -In the Lower level of the base there is a Blue Wall that blocks a Great Chakra. Svadhisthana ------------ -On 2F there is a Blue Wall that blocks a Vital Noise and a Power Noise. Manipura -------- -After Gate #1 is a Blue Wall that blocks a Wild Card and Quick Noise along with a Yellow Wall. -After Gate #2 is a Blue Wall that blocks a Great Chakra. Anahata ------- -Near the stairs up to 3F is a Blue Wall that blocks a Magic Noise. -In the Area to the Southeast of the Citadel 1 Large Karma Terminal is a Blue Wall that blocks a Field Hunt. Svadhisthana Waterways ---------------------- -Near the third Large Karma Terminal is a Blue Wall that blocks a Logic Cell Manipura Waterways ------------------ -There is a Blue Wall in the first half of the dungeon that blocks a damage trap and a battle with three Shiki-Ouji. -There are four blue walls together that blocks a Theory Cell, a MP Noise, a Logic Cell, and a Fusion Cell. Anahata Waterways ----------------- -You have to destroy a Blue Wall before you can explore this dungeon. ___________________________________Yellow Key__________________________________ -Found: on 6F of Coordinate 136. You will have to manipulate a switch and ride a coaster to get it. Muladhara --------- -After making your way through the Manipura Waterways you will come to a Yellow Wall that blocks a Tyrant Skull, a Magatama bullet, and a Murder Rock. Svadhisthana ------------ -In B1 there is a Yellow Wall that blocks a Vital Noise. Manipura -------- -Behind one of the Blue Walls is a Yellow Wall that blocks a Soma drop. -In the Southwestern corner of the map is a Yellow Wall that blocks a Power Noise and Beast Baihu of the Four Beasts. Anahata ------- -On 3F of the Citadel is a Yellow Wall that blocks an Iron Shot and Dragon Gui Xian of the Four Beasts. Coordinate 136 -------------- -On 2F is a Yellow Wall that blocks a Quick Noise, two Magic Mirrors, and a Chakra Pot. -On 2F is a Yellow Wall that blocks a Field Hunt. Svadhisthana Waterways ---------------------- -In the second part of the Sewers is a Yellow Wall that blocks a Theory Cell and a Small Karma Terminal. -Near the Life Terminal is a Yellow Wall that blocks a Water Pump Maze, through that is the Red Key. -Near the third Large Karma Terminal is a Yellow Wall that blocks a Logic Cell. Ajna ---- -In the Red Configuration is a Yellow Wall that blocks a Soma and Dragon Long. Sahasrara --------- -At Elevation: 98ft is a Yellow Wall that blocks a Great Chakra. -At Elevation: 98ft is a Yellow Wall that blocks a battle with a Samael. Manipura Waterways ------------------ -You have to destroy a Yellow Wall before you can explore this dungeon. Anahata Waterways ----------------- -There is a Yellow Wall that blocks a Great Chakra, a Magic Noise, and a Logic Cell. ____________________________________Red Key____________________________________ -Found: In the Svadhisthana waterways behind a yellow wall. You will have to go through a Water Pump maze to reach the key. Svadhisthana ------------ -On B1 is a Red Wall that blocks another section of the dungeon and Demon Beelzebub (Human). -In the extra section of the dungeon is another Red Wall that blocks a Theory Cell, a Soma, and Arial Feng Huang. Coordinate 136 -------------- -On 4F there is a Red Wall that blocks a light puzzle and a Soma and a Logic Cell. Svadhisthana Waterways ---------------------- -In the first section of the Waterways is a Red Wall that blocks an Attack Mirror, a Fusion Cell, and a Field Hunt. Ajna ---- -On 2F of the Blue configuration is a Red Wall that blocks a Fusion Cell. Sahasrara --------- -At Elevation: 1804ft is a Red Wall that blocks a Fusion Cell. -At Elevation: 1837ft is a Red Wall that blocks a Field Hunt. -At Elevation: 1870ft is a Red Wall that blocks a Layer Cell. -At Elevation: 1902ft is a Red Wall that blocks a Field Hunt. -At Elevation: 12530ft is a Red Wall that blocks Dragon Huang Long. -At Elevation: 12530ft is a Red Wall after Huang Long is beaten that blocks the Golden Orb. Manipura Waterways ------------------ -You have to destroy a Red Wall complete the dungeon. Anahata Waterways ----------------- -You have to destroy a Red Wall complete the dungeon. =================== =============================|Combo List [#009.2]|============================= =================== -Note: For combos that use HP instead of MP the game will average the max HP of all the characters doing the combo then calculate the amount of HP that it will take from that. So if two characters, one with 200 Max HP and one with 100 Max HP do a combo that takes 10% of max HP, then the game will average both characters max HP to get 150 HP, 10% of that is 15 HP which is what the combo will cost both characters to use. (Thanks to SteveO 528 for this clarification) ___________________________Physical Combos [#009.2.1]__________________________ Vile Blade ---------- Costs 12% of Max HP, a Physical attack that does damage relative to HP to all targets. -Mad Rush -Agi -Tera Gang Blast ---------- Costs 13% of Max HP, a Physical attack that does light damage to all targets. -A single Target Skill -A single Target Skill -A single Target Skill Primal Dance ------------ Costs 17% of Max HP, a Physical attack that does heavy damage to one target. -A hunt Skill -A hunt Skill -A hunt Skill Triple Threat ------------- Costs 18% of Max HP, a Physical attack that does heavy damage to one targets. -A single Target Skill -A single Target Skill -Sukukaja Genocide -------- Costs 20% of Max HP each, a Physical attack that does damage relative to HP to all targets. -Comatose -Power Wave -Hell Fang _____________________________Fire Combos [#009.2.2]____________________________ Maragi ------ Costs 5 MP each, a Fire attack that does light damage to all targets. -Agi -Zan Maragion -------- Costs 10 MP each, a Fire attack that does moderate damage to all targets. -Agilao -Zanma Maragidyne ---------- Costs 20 MP each, a Fire attack that does heavy damage to all targets. -Agidyne -Zandyne Trisagion --------- Costs 40 MP each, a Fire attack that does mega damage to all targets. -Fire Amp -Force Amp -a Megido skill _____________________________Ice Combos [#009.2.3]_____________________________ Mabufu ------ Costs 5 MP each, an Ice attack that does light damage to all targets. -Bufu -Tera Mabufula -------- Costs 10 MP each, an Ice attack that does moderate damage to all targets. -Bufula -Terazi Crystal Dust ------------ Costs 8 MP each, an Ice attack that does moderate damage to all targets. -Frost Breath -A Kaja Skill -A Kaja Skill Mabufudyne ---------- Costs 20 MP each, an Ice attack that does heavy damage to all targets. -Bufudyne -Teradyne Frimbulvet ---------- Costs 40 MP each, an Ice attack that does mega damage to all targets. -Ice Amp -Earth Amp -A Megido skill _____________________________Elec Combos [#009.2.4]____________________________ Mazio ----- Costs 5 MP each, an Elec attack that does light damage to all targets. -Zio -Bufu Mazionga -------- Costs 10 MP each, an Elec attack that does moderate damage to all targets. -Zionga -Bufula Maziodyne --------- Costs 20 MP each, an Elec attack that does heavy damage to all targets. -Ziodyne -Bufudyne Narukami -------- Costs 40 MP each, an Elec attack that does mega damage to all targets. -Elec Amp -Ice Amp -A Megido Skill ____________________________Force Combos [#009.2.5]____________________________ Mazan ----- Costs 5 MP each, a Force attack that does light damage to all targets. -Zan -Zio Mazanma ------- Costs 10 MP each, a Force attack that does moderate damage to all targets. -Zanma -Zionga Sky Thrust ---------- Costs 10 MP each, a Force attack that does moderate damage and has a chance to stun all targets. -A Force Skill -A skill that causes Stun -A single-target physical attack Mazandyne --------- Costs 20 MP each, a Force attack that does heavy damage to all targets. -Zandyne -Ziodyne Vayaviya -------- Costs 40 MP each, a Force attack that does mega damage to all targets. -Force Amp -Elec Amp -A Megido skill ____________________________Earth Combos [#009.2.6]____________________________ Matera ------ Costs 5 MP each, an Earth attack that does light damage to all targets. -Tera -Agi Materazi -------- Costs 10 MP each, an Earth attack that does moderate damage to all targets. -Terazi -Agilao Materadyne ---------- Costs 20 MP each, an Earth attack that does heavy damage to all targets. -Teradyne -Agidyne Titan ----- Costs 40 MP each, an earth attack that does mega damage to all targets. -Earth Amp -Fire Amp -A Megido skill ___________________________Almighty Combos [#009.2.7]__________________________ Micro Nova ---------- Costs 5 MP each, an Almighty attack that does light damage to all targets. -Agi -Bufu -Tera Megido ------ Costs 15 MP each, an Almighty attack that does moderate damage to all targets. -Hama -Mudo -A Kaja Skill Megidola -------- Costs 20 MP each, an Almighty attack that does heavy damage to all targets. -Hamaon -Mudoon -A Kaja Skill Megidolaon ---------- Costs 25 MP each, an Almighty attack that does mega damage to all targets. -Mahamaon -Mamudoon -A Kaja Skill Vanity ------ Costs 15 MP each, an Almighty attack that inflicts random ailments to all targets. -An ailment skill -An ailment skill -An ailment skill Black Sun --------- Costs 99 MP each, an Almighty attack that does extreme damage to all targets. -Ragnarok -Megidolaon -Salvation Demon Fury ---------- Costs 25% of Max HP, an Almighty attack that does heavy damage and lowers the defense of all targets. -Last Meal -Gate of Hell -Debilitate ____________________________Expel Combos [#009.2.8]____________________________ Mahama ------ Costs 8 MP each, an Expel attack that reduces all targets’ HP by half. -Hama -Media Mahamaon -------- Costs 15 MP each, an Expel attack that reduces all targets’ HP by 2/3. -Hamaon -Mediarama Damnation --------- Costs 13 MP each, an Expel attack that reduces all targets’ HP by 4/5. -An Expel skill -An Expel skill -An Expel skill ____________________________Death Combos [#009.2.9]____________________________ Mamudo ------ Costs 8 HP each, a Death attack that has a low chance of causing instant death to all targets. -Mudo -Death Spray Mamudoon -------- Costs 15 MP each, a Death attack that has a high chance of causing instant death to all targets. -Mudoon -Death Blow Millennia Curse --------------- Costs 10 MP each, a Death attack that has a high chance of causing either instant death or Curse status to all targets. -A Death Skill -A Death Skill -A Death Skill _________________________Human Form Combos [#009.2.10]_________________________ Crossfire --------- Costs 10% of Max HP, a Gun attack that does heavy damage to one target. -Gun (Any) -Gun (Any) -Gun (Any) Ice Shot -------- Costs 3 MP each, an Ice attack that does light damage to one target. -Gun (Serph) -A Void skill Freeze Shot ----------- Costs 6 MP each, an Ice attack that does moderate damage to one target. -Gun (Serph) -A Repel skill Blizzard Shot ------------- Costs 9 MP each, an Ice attack that does heavy damage to one target. -Gun (Serph) -A Drain Skill Fire Shot --------- Costs 6 MP each, a Fire attack that does light damage to all targets. -Gun (Heat) -A Void skill Flame Shot ---------- Costs 12 MP each, a Fire attack that does moderate damage to all targets. -Gun (Heat) -A Repel skill Inferno Shot ------------ Costs 18 MP each, a Fire attack that does heavy damage to all targets. -Gun (Heat) -A Drain skill Earth Shot ---------- Costs 4 MP each, an Earth attack that does light damage to one target. -Gun (Argilla) -A Void skill Quake Shot ---------- Costs 8 MP each, an Earth attack that does moderate damage to one target. -Gun (Argilla) -A Repel skill Seismic Shot ------------ Costs 12 MP each, an Earth attack that does heavy damage to one target. -Gun (Argilla) -A Drain skill Wind Shot --------- Costs 5 MP each, a Force attack that does light damage to random targets. -Gun (Gale) -A Void skill Gale Shot --------- Costs 10 MP each, a Force attack that does moderate damage to random targets. -Gun (Gale) -A Repel skill Tornado Shot ------------ Costs 15 MP each, a Force attack that does heavy damage to random targets. -Gun (Gale) -A Drain Skill Elec Shot --------- Costs 6 MP each, an Elec attack that does light damage to random targets. -Gun (Cielo) -A Void skill Thunder Shot ------------ Costs 12 MP each, an Elec attack that does moderate damage to random targets. -Gun (Cielo) -A Repel skill Neutron Shot ------------ Costs 18 MP each, an Elec attack that does heavy damage to random targets. -Gun (Cielo) -A Drain skill ___________________________Healing Combos [#009.2.11]__________________________ Media ----- Costs 8 MP each, a healing skill that restores all party members’ HP by a little bit. -Dia -Dia Mediarama --------- Costs 12 MP each, a healing skill that restores all party members’ HP by a lot. -Diarama -Diarama Mediarahan ---------- Costs 22 MP each, a healing skill that completely restores all party members’ HP. -Diarahan -Diarahan Angelic Grace ------------- Costs 8 MP each, a healing skill that restores all party members’ HP by a lot and raises defense. Basically a Mediarama + Rakukaja together. -Dia -Dia -Dia Me Patra -------- Costs 10 MP each, a skill that cures the Sleep/Charm/Panic status for all party members. -Patra -Media Seraph Grace ------------ Costs 16 MP each, a healing skill that restores all party members’ HP by a lot and cures any ailments they have. -Media -Me Patra -Recarm ___________________________Support Combos [#009.2.12]__________________________ Makajamon --------- Costs 7 MP each, a skill that has a chance to cause the Mute status on all targets. -Makajam -Makajam Phys Repel ---------- Costs 20 MP each, a shield skill that repels Phys attacks for one turn. -Void Phys -Phys Resist Magic Repel ----------- Costs 20 MP each, a shield skill that repels all Magic for one turn. -High Counter -An Elemental Repel skill Dekunda ------- Costs 6 MP each, Removes all –Kunda effects on all party members. -A –Kaja skill -A –Kaja Skill Dekaja ------ Costs 6 MP each, Removes all –Kaja effects on all enemies -A –Kunda skill -A –Kunda skill Debilitate ---------- Costs 17 MP each, this skill lowers the statistics of all enemies. -A –Kunda skill -A –Kunda skill -A –Kunda skill =================================== =====================|Vendor and Cell Price List [#009.3]|===================== =================================== ________________________________Vendor Item List_______________________________ The items that a Vendor will have for sale depends on how far in the game you are. As you finish dungeons the list of items for sale will grow. You can also expand the Vendor’s inventory by selling the cells you find over the course of the game. Every Vendor has the same list of items for sale, so it doesn’t matter which one you go to. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Start of game: Ration 100 Revival Bead 500 Dis-Poison 200 Dis-Stun 100 Panacea 150 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Sahasrara (First Time): Dis-Ache 150 Dis-Mute 150 Dis-Curse 200 Molotov 500 Ice Blast 500 Thunder Rod 500 Sonic Stone 500 Land Mine 500 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Manipura (Second Time): Brave Ration 500 Holy Arrow 2000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Coordinate 136: Hero Ration 2000 Dark Veil 2000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Deserted Ship: Revival Gem 10000 Fire Bomb 3000 Frost Bomb 3000 Shock Bomb 3000 Blast 3000 Magni Bomb 3000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Svadhisthana Waterways: Medical Kit 5000 Dis-Stone 300 Wild Card 4000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Ajna: Wild Bomb 8000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Cell Bonus 1: Muscle Drink 2000 Spyglass 5000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Cell Bonus 2: Chakra Drop 3000 Magic Reed 3000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Cell Bonus 3: Graven Shard 50000 Chakra Pot 10000 Estoma Spray 3000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Cell Bonus 4: Graven Image 150000 Chakra Elixir 200000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Cell Bonus 5: Revival Orb 600000 Megido Fire 300000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________________________Vendor Ammo List_______________________________ The Vendor’s list of Ammo available for purchase also expands as you progress through the game. There is only one type of Ammo that is available as a Cell Bonus, and it becomes available when you get the last Cell Bonus. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Start of game: Shot Shell 800 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Sahasrara (First Time): Charge Shot 1500 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Anahata: Metal Jacket 5000 Frigid Shot 6000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Coordinate 136: Hollow Point 10000 Tranq Shot 10000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Deserted Ship: Iron Shot 15000 Nerve Shot 15000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Svadhisthana Waterways: Silver Shot 25000 Neutron Shot 25000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Ajna: Forged Shot 50000 Charm Shot 50000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Cell Bonus 5: Dead End 300000 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ________________________________Cell Price List________________________________ | Min Noise | Max Noise -------------|------------|---------- Devil Cell | 800 | 1200 Active Cell | 1600 | 2400 Error Cell | 3200 | 4800 Code Cell | 6400 | 9600 Quantum Cell | 12000 | 18000 Organic Cell | 16000 | 24000 Theory Cell | 40000 | 60000 Logic Cell | 64000 | 96000 Fusion Cell | 128000 | 192000 Layer Cell | 240000 | 360000 Jack Cell* | 24000 | 16000 *Remember that Jack Cells sell for the most when Solar Noise is at Min. ==================== =============================|Mantra List [#009.4]|============================ ==================== This section will list every single Mantra in the game along with the skills they come with. If you are having trouble figuring out what these mean then refer to the template I’ve provided below. (Name of Mantra) ---------------- -Cost: How much Macca it costs to purchase the Mantra. -Difficulty: The more * there are, the more AP need to master the Mantra. -Unlocked: how to unlock the Mantra. (Skill Name) – Here I will list what the skill does, along with any comment I have about the skill. You got all that? Good, because here we go. ______________________Physical/Hunting Mantras [#009.4.1]______________________ Devourer -------- -Cost: 1000 -Difficulty: * -Unlocked: N/A Devour – Costs 12% of Max HP, A Hunt skill that does light damage to a single target. This is a basic hunt skill that every character should have. Hell Thrust – Costs 12% of Max HP, A physical attack that does light damage to a single-target. Not much to say about this one, it does a little more damage than a normal attack. Demon Beast ----------- -Cost: 4000 -Dificulty: ** -Unlocked: Master Devourer Mantra Feed Frenzy - Costs 26% of Max HP, A Hunt skill that does light damage to random enemies. A nice and cheap multi-target Hunt skill, unfortunately, it doesn’t always hit the monster you want, and hunting multiple enemies means that there is a greater of getting a Stomachache. Venom Fang – Costs 18% of your Max HP, A Physical attack that has a chance to Poison and does damage relative to HP to all targets. This is a pretty good skill early on, it does pretty good damage and the damage caused is relative to your remaining HP. Ingest Mana – Gains MP after a successful Hunt. Personally, I think the amount of MP gained is rather miniscule and not worth the trouble of getting an enemy fightened. I would much rather use MP Thief for in-battle MP regeneration, but your mileage may vary. Holy Beast ---------- -Cost: 50000 -Difficulty: **** -Unlocked: Master Demon Beast Mantra Consume – Costs 15% of Max HP, a Hunt skill that does heavy damage to a single target. Basically an upgraded Devour, it’s definitely worth a slot if you have it. Hell Fang – Costs 16% of Max HP, a Physical attack that does moderate damage to a single target. An upgraded Hell Thrust, yup. AP Divide – Gives your party members AP for a successful hunt. Normally, when you kill an enemy with a Hunt Skill only that character will get any AP, but with this skill set your other party members will still gain some AP. Hooray. Iron Stomach – This skill prevents Stomachaches. If you are planning on doing any serious hunting you should have this set. Godly Beast ----------- -Cost: 300000 -Difficulty: ***** -Unlocked: Master Holy Beast Mantra Insatiable – Costs 32% of Max HP, a Hunt skill that does moderate damage to all targets. This is my personal favorite Hunt skill; it does good damage and will kill all but the strongest enemies when they have been frightened. Mind Scream – Costs 24% of Max HP, a Physical attack that does moderate damage and has a chance to stun all targets. It does good damage, but stun isn’t really that great of a status to inflict, so meh. Atma Bonus – Increases the amount of AP gained. More AP = more fun. Unfortunately, despite what the description says this skill apparently doesn’t work on other characters in the party. (or at least it isn’t as effective for the other characters.) Shura ----- -Cost: 1000 -Difficulty: * -Unlocked: N/A Venom Claw – Costs 12% of Max HP, a Physical attack that does light damage and has a chance to Poison to a single target. Meh. If you want to poison your enemy you should hold out for Venom Fang. Mad Rush – Costs 15% of Max HP, a Physical attack that does light damage to random targets. Probably the earliest multi-target attack you’ll get, but it is quickly out-classed by better skills. Raksas ------ -Cost: 2500 -Difficulty: ** -Unlocked: Master Shura Mantra Poison Dart – Costs 12% of Max HP, a multi-hit Physical attack that has a chance to Poison a single target. See Venom Claw, it more or less the same skill. Raving Slash – Costs 12% of Max HP, a Physical attack that does light damage and has a chance to Panic a single-target. Panic really isn’t that great of a status effect to inflict. Skip it. Life Bonus – Raises Max HP by 10%. Just like it says. Critical – Doubles the chance of a critical. If you are planning to use a lot of physical attacks this is a worthwhile skill. Priestess --------- -Cost: 15000 -Difficulty: *** -Unlocked: Master Raksas Mantra Comatose – Costs 18% of Max HP, a single target Physical attack that does light damage and has a chance to put the target to Sleep. Blah blah isn’t that great blah blah. Stun Needle – Costs 15% of Max HP, a multi-hit Physical attack that has a chance to stun a single target. Meh. Null Critical – Helps to prevent critical attacks. It’s just not worth a skill slot. Quick Cure – You have a greater chance of recovering from an ailment at the beginning of every round. Ditto. Maiden ------ -Cost: 50000 -Difficulty: **** -Unlocked: Master Priestess Mantra Charm Slash – Costs 18% of Max HP, A Physical attack that does moderate damage and has a chance to Charm a single target. Charm is actually a rather nice ailment to inflict, so I like it better than the other attack + ailment skills so far. Close Call – When you are killed, there is a chance that you will be automatically revived with 1 HP and in Human form. Although there are far fewer cheap game-overs here than there were in Nocturne, this is still a nice “safety net” skill to have. Just keep in mind that it doesn’t always kick in... MIN Critical – You have a much higher chance of getting critical hit when Solar Noise is at MIN. This skill won’t guarantee a critical, like Dark Might did in Nocturne. This skill does stack with Critical. Overall this skill is rather limited for random battles, but it is useful for boss fights where you can wait for MIN Solar Noise to come around before triggering the battle. Queen ----- -Cost: 150000 -Difficulty: ***** -Unlocked: Master Maiden Mantra Sakura Rage – Costs 23% of Max HP, a random target Physical attack that has a chance to Charm the targets. Not bad... Not bad at all. Life Gain – Raises Max HP by 20%. Having more HP is always nice, isn’t it? Phys Resist – Reduces the amount of damage you take from physical attacks. You will be facing a lot of physical attacks during the course of the game, so taking less damage from them is always nice. MAX Critical - You have a much higher chance of getting critical hit when Solar Noise is at MAX. It has the exact same effect as MIN Critical, but it works at MAX Noise instead of MIN. Wikipedia --------- -Cost: 600000 -Difficulty: ******* -Unlocked: Master both Godly Beast and Queen Mantras Last Meal – Costs 38% of Max HP, a Hunt skill that has a high chance of instant-death to all targets. This is necessary if you want to hunt some of the stronger enemies in the game, and it does have a chance of working on non-frightened enemies, too. The only problem is the enormous HP cost. Bloodbath – Costs 30% of Max HP, a Physical attack that does heavy damage to all targets. It’s a nice skill, as it does the most damage of any all-target physical attack in the game. Personally I prefer the chance to cause ailments that Revelation or Gate or Hell gives over the minor amount of extra damage that this skill does. Devour Mana – Gain 50% of your MP after a successful hunt. By the time you get this you’ll probably also have Chakra Walk or Mana Walk, which I think is a more reliable way of recouping your MP. Battle Demon ------------ -Cost: 4000 -Difficulty: ** -Unlocked: Master Shura Mantra Devil Feast – Costs 18% of Max HP, a Hunt skill that has a low chance of instant death to a single target. A decent hunt skill, and it’s pretty much required for hunting Mitama. Don’t bother using it if the target is not afraid, though. Death Spray – Costs 14% of Max HP, a multi-hit Physical attack that has a chance to curse a single target. Eh... Curse is okay, I guess... Vile Blade – Costs 16% of Max HP, a Physical attack that does damage relative to HP to all targets. This is a pretty decent attack and it will do more damage as your HP increases. Taunt – Lowers all target’s defense while raising their attack. This is basically two Rakundas and two Tarukajas rolled into a single skill. This one is a double-edged sword, it makes it easier to damage your enemies, but it also it easier for them to damage you. The best way to use this skill is to have the first two characters taunt the enemy, then have the third use Dekaja. This leaves the enemy fully Rakunda-ed without the benefit of the Tarukajas. Demon Lord ---------- -Cost: 25000 -Difficulty: *** -Unlocked: Master Battle Demon Mantra Ingest – Costs 22% of Max HP, a Hunt skill that has a high chance instant death to a single target. A nice hunt skill that has a good chance of working even if the enemy is not afraid, although if the enemy is afraid it works just as well as Devil Feast does. Power Wave – Costs 22% of Max HP, Physical attack that does moderate damage to all targets. It’s a pretty good skill to have. Mute Blow – Costs 22% of Max HP, a Physical attack that does damage relative to HP and has a chance to mute a single target. Mute is a nifty status to inflict, and it does good damage too. Demon God --------- -Cost: 100000 -Difficulty: **** -Unlocked: Master Demon Lord Mantra Great Feast – Costs 34% of Max HP, a Hunt skill that has a low chance of instant death to all targets. It’s okay if you manage to get the entire enemy party frightened, but don’t bother with this if they aren’t frightened. Skull Cleave – Costs 22% of Max HP, a Physical attack that does damage relative to HP to a single target. A decent attack, and that’s all I have to say about it. Chi Blast – Costs 24% of Max HP, a Physical attack that does moderate damage to all enemies. This skill apparently has a higher chance of causing a critical, and that makes this a very good skill to use. Cruel Leader ------------ -Cost: 300000 -Difficulty: ***** -Unlocked: Master Demon God Mantra Executioner – Costs 25% of Max HP, a Physical attack that does mega damage to a single target. This is probably one of the best attacks in terms of raw physical damage, and it doesn’t drain your HP too much. It’s definitely a worthwhile addition to any Physical fighter. Demon Rage – Costs 26% of Max HP, a Physical attack that does damage relative to HP to random targets. Compared to the other skills on this Mantra, this one really isn’t that good. It does have the chance of hitting multiple times, however... Revelation – Costs 29% of Max HP, a Physical attack that does heavy damage and has a chance to mute all targets. This is one of my favorite physical attacks in the game. Not only does it do good damage, but it also causes mute too. Ogre ---- -Cost: 25000 -Difficulty: *** -Unlocked: Master Battle Demon Mantra Double Slash – Costs 17% of max HP, a Physical attack that does light damage to random enemies. It’s almost exactly like the Mad Rush skill, but when you get this skill you will also have Mad Rush, and it costs more HP than Mad Rush too. Skip it. Counter – When you are hit with a physical attack you have a low change of countering for light damage. Eh, it’s an okay skill, but doesn’t kick in often enough for my tastes. First Strike – Increases the chance of going first in battle. Nice. Going first in battle means you take less damage and defeat your enemies quicker. Violent God ----------- -Cost: 100000 -Difficulty: **** -Unlocked: Master Ogre Mantra Death Blow – Costs 24% of Max HP, a Physical attack that does moderate damage and has a chance to curse all enemies. Its okay, I guess... I don’t really like Curse because it’s dependant on the enemy damaging your characters to work. Power Charge – Costs 5 MP, Causes the next physical attack to do more than double damage. This is probably a waste to use it for normal attacks, but if you use this and then something like Bloodbath or Executioner you can do some really big damage that way. This also works on damaging Hunt skills. Void Phys - Costs 20 MP, Nullifies Physical attacks on the entire party for one turn. It’s a shield skill that blocks Physical attacks. Yup. War God ------- -Cost: 300000 -Difficulty: ***** -Unlocked: Master Violent God Mantra Genocide – Costs 27% of Max HP, a Physical attack that does Damage relative to HP to all targets. This is one of the better physical attacks, and well worth a slot. Phys Repel – Costs 30 MP, Repels Physical attacks on the entire party for one turn. Another shield skill, I’m not too keen on repel shields personally, but whatever. Counterstrike – When you are hit with a Physical attack you have a moderate chance of countering for moderate damage. An upgraded Counter, that’s all I have to say. Attack All – When this skill is set your character’s normal attack will target all enemies. This is a great skill, but do watch out for those Physical immunes. If you use this then you might want to also set a single target physical skill just in case you run into a group of enemies with a Phys-Immune demon in it. Amatsukami ---------- -Cost: 600000 -Difficulty: ******* -Unlocked: Master both Cruel Leader and War God Mantras Gate of Hell – Costs 30% of Max HP, a Physical attack that does damage relative to HP and has a chance to petrify all targets. This is a great attack and petrify is a great status to inflict. Phys Drain – Costs 25 MP, Drains Physical attacks on the entire party for one turn. High Counter – When you are hit with a Physical attack you have a high chance of countering for heavy damage. Now we’re talking. Not only does it trigger often, but it will also do about twice the damage as a regular attack. Destroyer --------- -Cost: 1200000 -Difficulty: ******** -Unlocked: Master either Wikipedia or Amatsukami Mantras Ragnarok – Costs 35% of Max HP, An Almighty attack that does heavy damage to all targets and lowers their defense. This is one of the best skills in the game. Not only does it do a lot of unblockable damage, but it also has a Rakunda effect attached to it that makes all your subsequent attacks do more damage. Null Phys – A passive skill that makes you immune to all physical attacks. Awesome. Life Surge – Raises Max HP by 30%. __________________________Elemental Mantras [#009.4.2]_________________________ Fire Spirit ----------- -Cost: 1000 -Difficulty: * -Unlocked: N/A Agi – Costs 3 MP, a Fire attack that does light damage to a single target. Void Fire – Costs 3 MP, a shield skill that blocks Fire attacks for one turn. Fire Demon ---------- -Cost: 2500 -Difficulty: ** -Unlocked: Master Fire Spirit Mantra Maragi – Costs 8 MP, a Fire attack that does light damage to all targets. Fire Boost – A passive skill that boosts damage caused by Fire attacks. Fire Leader ----------- -Cost: 10000 -Difficulty: *** -Unlocked: Master Fire Demon Mantra Agilao – Costs 6 MP, a Fire attack that does moderate damage to a single target. Flame Breath – Costs 12 MP, a Fire attack that does moderate to random targets. Fire Repel – Costs 5 MP, a shield skill that repels Fire attacks for one turn. Fire Lord --------- -Cost: 25000 -Difficulty: **** -Unlocked: Master Fire Leader Mantra Maragion – Costs 16 MP, a Fire attack that does moderate damage to all targets. Fire Drain – Costs 5 MP, a shield skill that drains Fire attacks for one turn. Fire Emperor ------------ -Cost: 100000 -Difficulty: ***** -Unlocked: Master Fire Lord Mantra Agidyne – Costs 12 MP, a Fire attack that does heavy damage to a single target. Fire Amp – A passive skill that greatly boosts damage caused by Fire attacks. This skill will stack with Fire Boost. Fire God -------- -Cost: 350000 -Difficulty: ****** -Unlocked: Master Fire Emperor Mantra Maragidyne – Costs 32 MP, a Fire attack that does heavy damage to all targets. Fire Resist – A passive skill that makes the character strong against Fire attacks. This skill is vital for Serph, because it overrides his demon form’s weakness to fire. Ice Spirit ---------- -Cost: 1000 -Difficulty: * -Unlocked: N/A Bufu – Costs 3 MP, an Ice attack that does light damage to a single target. Void Ice – Costs 3 MP, a shield skill that blocks Ice attacks for one turn. Ice Demon --------- -Cost: 2500 -Difficulty: ** -Unlocked: Master Ice Spirit Mantra Mabufu – Costs 8 MP, an Ice attack that does light damage to all targets. Ice Boost – A passive skill that boosts damage caused by Ice attacks. Ice Leader ---------- -Cost: 10000 -Difficulty: *** -Unlocked: Master Ice Demon Mantra Bufula – Costs 6 MP, an Ice attack that does moderate damage to a single target. Frost Breath – Costs 12 MP, an Ice attack that does moderate damage to random targets. Ice Repel – Costs 5 MP, a shield skill that repels Ice attacks for one turn. Ice Wolf -------- -Cost: 25000 -Difficulty: **** -Unlocked: Master Ice Leader Mantra Mabufula – Costs 16 MP, an Ice attack that does moderate damage to all targets. Ice Drain – Costs 5 MP, a shield skill that drains Ice attacks for one turn. Ice Master ---------- -Cost: 100000 -Difficulty: ***** -Unlocked: Master Ice Wolf Mantra Bufudyne – Costs 12 MP, an Ice attack that does heavy damage to a single target. Ice Amp – A passive skill that greatly boosts damage caused by Ice attacks. This skill stacks with Ice Boost. Ice God ------- -Cost: 350000 -Difficulty: ****** -Unlocked: Master Ice Master Mantra Mabufudyne – Costs 32 MP, an Ice attack that does heavy damage to all targets. Ice Resist – A passive skill that makes the character strong against Ice attacks. This skill is vital for Heat, because it overrides his demon form’s weakness to ice. Bolt Spirit ----------- -Cost: 1000 -Difficulty: * -Unlocked: N/A Zio – Costs 3 MP, an Elec attack that does light damage to a single target. Void Elec – Costs 3 MP, a shield skill that blocks Elec attacks for one turn. Bolt Lord --------- -Cost: 2500 -Difficulty: ** -Unlocked: Master Bolt Spirit Mantra Mazio – Costs 8 MP, an Elec attack that does light damage to all targets. Elec Boost – A passive skill that boosts damage caused by Elec attacks. Lightning --------- -Cost: 10000 -Difficulty: *** -Unlocked: Master Bolt Lord Mantra Zionga – Costs 6 MP, an Elec attack that does moderate damage to a single target. Bolt Flare – Costs 12 MP, an Elec attack that does moderate damage to random targets. Elec Repel – Costs 5 MP, a shield skill that repels Elec attacks for one turn. Bolt Emperor ------------ -Cost: 25000 -Difficulty: **** -Unlocked: Master Lightning Mantra Mazionga – Costs 16 MP, an Elec attack that does moderate damage to all targets. Elec Drain – Costs 5 MP, a shield skill that drains Elec attacks for one turn. Bolt Master ----------- -Cost: 100000 -Difficulty: ***** -Unlocked: Master Bolt Emperor Mantra Ziodyne – Costs 12 MP, an Elec attack that does heavy damage to a single target. Elec Amp – A passive skill that greatly boosts damage caused by Elec attacks. This skill stacks with Elec Boost. Bolt God -------- -Cost: 350000 -Difficulty: ****** -Unlocked: Master Bolt Master Mantra Maziodyne – Costs 32 MP, an Elec attack that does heavy damage to all targets. Elec Resist – A passive skill that makes the character strong against Elec attacks. This skill is vital for Gale, because it overrides his demon form’s weakness to Elec. Dragon ------ -Cost: 1000 -Difficulty: * -Unlocked: N/A Zan – Costs 3 MP, a Force attack that does light damage to a single target. Void Force – Costs 3 MP, a shield skill that blocks Force attacks for one turn. Dragon Lord ----------- -Cost: 2500 -Difficulty: ** -Unlocked: Master Dragon Mantra Mazan – Costs 8 MP, a Force attack that does light damage to all targets. Force Boost – A passive skill that boosts damage caused by Force attacks. Hiten ----- -Cost: 10000 -Difficulty: *** -Unlocked: Master Dragon Lord Mantra Zanma – Costs 6 MP, a Force attack that does moderate damage to a single target. Shock Wave – Costs 12 MP, a Force attack that does moderate damage to random targets. Force Repel – Costs 5 MP, a shield skill that repels Force attacks for one turn. Sky Dragon ---------- -Cost: 25000 -Difficulty: **** -Unlocked: Master Hiten Mantra Mazanma – Costs 16 MP, a Force attack that does moderate damage to all targets. Force Drain – Costs 5 MP, a shield skill that drains Force attacks for one turn. Sky Wizard ---------- -Cost: 100000 -Difficulty: ***** -Unlocked: Master Sky Dragon Mantra Zandyne – Costs 12 MP, a Force attack that does heavy damage to a single target. Force Amp – A passive skill that greatly boosts damage caused by Force attacks. This skill stacks with Force Boost. Wind God -------- -Cost: 350000 -Difficulty: ****** -Unlocked: Master Sky Wizard Mantra Mazandyne – Costs 32 MP, a Force attack that does heavy damage to all targets. Force Resist – A passive skill that makes the character strong against Force attacks. This skill is Vital for Argilla, because it overrides her demon form’s weakness to Force. Earth Spirit ------------ -Cost: 1000 -Difficulty: * -Unlocked: N/A Tera – Costs 3 MP, an Earth attack that does light damage to a single target. Void Earth – Costs 3 MP, a shield skill that blocks Earth attacks for one turn. Earth Shrine ------------ -Cost: 2500 -Difficulty: ** -Unlocked: Master Earth Spirit Mantra Matera – Costs 8 MP, an Earth attack that does light damage to all targets. Earth Boost – A passive skill that boosts damage caused by Earth attacks. Earth Temple ------------ -Cost: 10000 -Difficulty: *** -Unlocked: Master Earth Shrine Mantra Terazi – Costs 6 MP, an Earth attack that does moderate damage to a single target. Avalanche – Costs 12 MP, an Earth attack that does moderate damage to random targets. Earth Repel – Costs 5 MP, a shield skill that repels Earth attacks for one turn. Earth Lord ---------- -Cost: 25000 -Difficulty: **** -Unlocked: Master Earth Temple Mantra Materazi – Costs 16 MP, an Earth attack that does moderate damage to all targets. Earth Drain – Costs 5 MP, a shield skill that drains Earth attacks for one turn. Earth Emperor ------------- -Cost: 100000 -Difficulty: ***** -Unlocked: Master Earth Lord Mantra Teradyne – Costs 12 MP, an Earth attack that does heavy damage to a single target. Earth Amp – A passive skill that greatly boosts damage caused by Earth attacks. This skill stacks with Earth Boost. Mother Earth ------------ -Cost: 350000 -Difficulty: ****** -Unlocked: Master Earth Emperor Mantra Materadyne – Costs 32 MP, an Earth attack that does heavy damage to all targets. Earth Resist – A passive skill that makes the character strong against earth attacks. Dark Leader ----------- -Cost: 700000 -Difficulty: ******* -Unlocked: Master either Fire God, Ice God, Bolt God, Wind God, or Mother Earth Mantras Last Word – Costs 66 MP, an Almighty attack that does mega damage to a single target. It does pretty good damage, but it is the only Almighty attack in the game that only targets one enemy. Megidola – Costs 45 MP, an Almighty attack that does heavy damage to all targets. I personally don’t use Almighty attacks all that much, they cost too much MP to use regularly and while there are no enemies that are immune to Almighty, there are also no enemies that are weak to Almighty either. I would rather use a -Dyne level elemental spell with Amp + Boost that hits an enemy’s weakness than this one. Mind Charge – Costs 10 MP, This skill causes your next Magic attack to do more than double damage. This is basically the same as Power Charge, but it works on Magic instead of physical attacks. Magic Repel – Costs 30 MP, a shield skill that reflects all magic attacks for one turn. This is probably the best shield skill in the game, as it not only protects against elemental magic, but also against other magic like Mudo or Hama. About the only thing that this doesn’t protect you from is Physical and Almighty. Dark Lord --------- -Cost: 1400000 -Difficulty: ******** -Unlocked: Master Dark Leader Mantras Megidolaon – Costs 60 MP, an Almighty attack that does mega damage to all targets. This does nice damage, but the high MP cost prevents it from seeing regular use. Null Element – A passive skill that nullifies all Fire, Ice, Elec, Force, and Earth attacks. Nice. ___________________________Healing Mantras [#009.4.3]__________________________ Protection ---------- -Cost: 1000 -Difficulty: * -Unlocked: N/A Dia – Costs 3 MP, restores a small amount of HP for a single Party member. You’re not going to get far in this game if you can’t heal yourself. This skill is good for the early part of the game, but the amount of healing is too miniscule to be effective long term. Patra – Cost 10 MP, heals Charm/Sleep/Panic Ailments. I don’t really like any of these ailment-healing skills, as I would rather just use an item instead of wasting a skill slot on these skills, but whatever floats your boat... Analyze – Costs 2 MP, shows the HP/MP and resistances of a single enemy. This skill won’t work on bosses. You can buy the Spyglass early on for a mere 5000 Macca that does the exact same thing as this skill. Skip it. Fallen Hero ----------- -Cost: 10000 -Difficulty: ** -Unlocked: Master Protection Mantra Media - Costs 10 MP, restores a small amount of HP for the entire party. A bit more useful than a plain Dia, but it still doesn’t heal enough to be a long term solution. Posmudi – Costs 5 MP, heals Poison ailment. Use a Dis-Poison instead. Achedi – Costs 5 MP, heals Ache ailment. Use a Dis-Ache instead. Fierce Spirit ------------- -Cost: 15000 -Difficulty: *** -Unlocked: Master Fallen Hero Mantra Diarama – Costs 7 MP, restores a moderate amount of HP for a single party member. This skill heals a pretty good chunk of HP, its well worth getting as soon as you can. Paraladi – Costs 5 MP, heals Stun Ailment. Use a Dis-Stun instead. Me Patra – Costs 15 MP, heals Charm/Sleep/Panic ailments for the entire party. I like this one a bit more than other ailment-healing skills, because it work on the entire party and it heals some of the more annoying ailments that you can be hit with. Calm Spirit ----------- -Cost: 100000 -Difficulty: **** -Unlocked: Master Fierce Spirit Mantra Mediarama – Costs 18 MP, restores a moderate amount of HP for the entire party. You should try to get this on at least one character as soon as you can. This skill heals so much HP that it will likely last you throughout rest of the game. Closedi – Costs 5 MP, heals the Mute ailment. Use a Dis-Mute instead. Cursedi – Costs 5 MP, heals the Curse ailment. Use a Dis-Curse instead. Death Spirit ------------ -Cost: 250000 -Difficulty: ***** -Unlocked: Master Calm Diarahan – Costs 15 MP, restores one character to full HP. It’s a nice skill, but I prefer to stick with Mediarama because it works on the entire party. Petradi – Costs 5 MP, heals the Stone ailment. Use a Dis-Stone instead. Adamant ------- -Cost: 3000 -Difficulty: ** -Unlocked: Master Protection Mantra Dream Haze – Costs 5 MP, attempts to inflict the Sleep Ailment on a single target. Personally I’m not too keen on these Ailment-inflicting skills, as if they miss then you just wasted a turn. Foul Breath – Costs 8 MP, A poison attack that does light damage to random targets. If you are looking to poison an enemy I would recommend Venom Fang instead. Still if the enemy is weak to Poison this might be a good choice. Void Charm – Costs 3 MP, a shield skill that blocks the Charm ailment for one turn. I’m not too fond of the ailment-blocking shields, but Charm is a rather annoying ailment to be hit with. Void Panic – Costs 3 MP, a shield skill that blocks the Panic ailment for one turn. Meh. Kichijyo -------- -Cost: 15000 -Difficulty: *** -Unlocked: Master Adamant Mantra Stun Sphere - Costs 5 MP, attempts to inflict the Stun ailment on one target. Void Poison – Costs 3 MP, a shield skill that blocks the Poison ailment for one turn. Void Mute – Costs 3 MP, a shield skill that blocks the Mute ailment for one turn. Null Panic – A passive skill that automatically protects your character from the Panic ailment. Vidya Raja ---------- -Cost: 25000 -Difficulty: **** -Unlocked: Master Kichijyo Mantra Sonic Wave – Costs 9 MP, attempts to inflict the Panic ailment on all targets. Stun Wave – Costs 10 MP, attempts to inflict the Stun ailment on all targets. Void Nerve – Costs 3 MP, a shield skill that blocks Nerve (Sleep/Stun) ailments for one turn. Null Charm – A passive skill that automatically protects your character from the Charm ailments. Holy Leader ----------- -Cost: 50000 -Difficulty: ***** -Unlocked: Master Vidya Raja Mantra Tentarafoo – Costs 24 MP, a Panic attack that that does Moderate damage to all targets. This is a nice skill, it does good damage and it works on Phys-immune monsters. Null Mute – A passive skill that automatically protects your character from the Mute ailment. Null Nerve – A passive skill that automatically protects your character from Nerve (Sleep/Stun) ailments. Null Poison - A passive skill that automatically protects your character from the Poison ailment. Hades ----- -Cost: 18000 -Difficulty: **** -Unlocked: Master three different *** Mantras Recarm – Costs 20 MP, Revives a dead ally with some HP. Remember that dead characters are automatically revived with 1 HP after the battle, and the Revival Beads/Gems you find during your adventure should be plenty if you have to revive mid-battle, so you really shouldn’t need this skill. Six Realms ---------- -Cost: 150000 -Difficulty: ***** -Unlocked: Master Hades Mantra Samarecarm – Costs 35 MP, Revives a dead ally with full HP. Same deal as Recarm, if you have to rely on this skill often then you are probably doing something wrong. Goddess ------- -Cost: 500000 -Difficulty: ******* -Unlocked: Master both Death Spirit and Six Realms Mantras Allure – Costs 13 MP, attempts to inflict the Charm ailment on all targets. Mediarahan – Costs 36 MP, restores the entire party to full HP. Pretty awesome skill, your enemy will have a hard time killing you with this skill set. Recarmdra – Cost 1 HP, the person that uses this skill is killed, but the other characters in the party are revived (if they are dead) and their HP and MP are fully restored. Although this is meant as a last resort type of skill, it can be used for a quick pick-me-up. Have the first character use Recarmdra and then have the second character follow up by using Samarecarm or a Revival Gem on the first character for a near complete party restoration. ___________________________Support Mantras [#009.4.4]__________________________ Yaksa ----- -Cost: 3000 -Difficulty: ** -Unlocked: Three different * Mantras Mastered, and one ** Mantra Mastered Mudo – Costs 6 MP, has a low chance of instantly killing a single enemy. Being able to instantly kill an enemy is pretty neat, but this skill has such a small chance of working that it isn’t worth using on anybody not weak to death and even then it’s still a gamble. Skip it. Void Death – Costs 3 MP, a shield skill that blocks all Death attacks. This is such an awesome skill; it not only protects you from instant death, but also from the Curse and Stone ailments. I made sure that at least one of my characters had this set at all times. Quick Escape – A passive skill that increases the probability of successfully retreating from battle. For this skill to be effective the character with this skill set must be the one who initiates the retreat. Eh, since there isn’t any “100% guaranteed escape” item/skill in DDS it is marginally useful, but with a decent Agility I never had a problem escaping even when I didn’t have this skill set. Evil Spirit ----------- -Cost: 25000 -Difficulty: *** -Unlocked: Master Yaksa Mantra Mamudo – Costs 15 MP, Has a low chance of instantly killing all targets. Bleh, it still hardly ever works... Stone Gaze – Costs 5 MP, attempts to turn a single enemy to Stone. Although Stone is a nice ailment to inflict on an enemy, it is better to kill the enemy outright with a Mudo skill than dink around with ailments. Curse – Costs 10 MP, attempts to inflict the Curse ailment on a single enemy. Again, just use a Mudo skill instead. Death Resist – A passive skill that makes death attacks less likely to work on a character. Nice. Dark Spirit ----------- -Cost: 100000 -Difficulty: **** -Unlocked: Master Evil Spirit Mantra Mudoon – Costs 10 MP, has a high chance of instantly killing a single enemy. This is a nice skill, especially against those weak to Death as it is almost guaranteed to work against them. Blood Curse – Costs 15 MP, attempts to inflict the Curse ailment on all targets. Use a Mudo skill instead. Death ----- -Cost: 250000 -Difficulty: ***** -Unlocked: Master Dark Spirit Mantra Mamudoon – Costs 25 MP, has a high chance of instantly killing all targets. Death Repel – Costs 5 MP, a shield skill that repels death attacks. As a rule of thumb the enemies who use Death attacks tend to be immune to Death themselves, so this is more or less the same as Void Death. Angel ----- -Cost: 3000 -Difficulty: ** -Unlocked: Three different * Mantras Mastered, and one ** Mantra Mastered Hama – Costs 6 MP, has a small chance of reducing a single target’s current HP by half. This skill has changed quite a bit since Nocturne; Hama skills are no longer instant death, but instead they have become something akin to the Demi spells in Final Fantasy games. This change is not for better, as it can’t kill an enemy by itself and doesn’t always work. Stay away. Tarunda – Costs 12 MP, reduces all enemies’ Physical attack strength. This skill can be cast up to four times. Keep in mind that unlike in Nocturne, this does NOT affect Magical attacks. Void Expel – Costs 3 MP, a shield skill that blocks Expel attacks. Since Expel has been nerfed big time in DDS I hardly ever use this. Thrones ------- -Cost: 15000 -Difficulty: *** -Unlocked: Master Angel Mantra Mahama – Costs 15 MP, has a small chance of reducing all target’s current HP by half. Meh. I wouldn’t even be bothering with these Mantra if they didn’t come with the –Kunda skills attached... Sukunda – Costs 12 MP, reduces all enemies’ agility. This skill can be cast up to four times. This can be pretty good, an enemy that has been Sukunda-ed four times will hardly ever hit anything. Expel Resist – A passive skill that makes Expel attacks less likely to affect a character. Since Expel is more of annoyance than a threat in DDS, Meh. Cherubim -------- -Cost: 50000 -Difficulty: **** -Unlocked: Master Thrones Mantra Hamaon – Costs 10 MP, has a high chance of reducing a single target’s current HP by two-thirds. Marginally better than Hama, as it now has an actual chance of working once in a while, but it still can’t kill anything... Rakunda – Costs 12 MP, reduces all enemies’ defense. This skill can be cast up to four times. Nice. Any skill that lets you cause more damage is all right in my book. Makatora – Costs 50 MP, raises one party member’s current MP by 50. This skill basically allows you to shuffle around MP to a character that needs it. The best way to use this skill is set this skill on your physical fighter, and then they can funnel MP to your magic user when they run low. Personally I would rather just use MP Thief and/or Chakra/Mana Walk instead of this, but to each his own. Seraphim -------- -Cost: 150000 -Difficulty: ***** -Unlocked: Master Cherubim Mantra Mahamaon – Costs 25 MP, has a high chance of reducing all target’s current HP by two-thirds. Meh again. Makanda – Costs 12 MP, reduces all target’s Magic attack strength. This skill can be cast up to four times. This is another good skill, especially late in the game when enemies start using really nasty magic attacks. Expel Repel – Costs 5 MP, a shield skill that repels Expel attacks. Evil God -------- -Cost: 500000 -Difficulty: ******* -Unlocked: Master the Death and Seraphim Mantras Debilitate – Costs 48 MP, Reduces every combat statistic for all targets. This skill can be cast up to four times. What a fantastic skill, this is like a Tarunda, Sukunda, Rakunda, and a Makanda rolled into a single spell. The only downside to this skill is the somewhat steep MP cost. Null Expel – A passive skill that automatically blocks Expel attacks. I think I’ve already explained my views on Expel, so I won’t waste anymore time with this skill. Null Death – A passive skill that automatically blocks Death attacks. Nice. Spirit ------ -Cost: 15000 -Difficulty: *** -Unlocked: Master Angel Mantra Pulinpa – Costs 5 MP, attempts to inflict the Panic ailment on a single target. Makajam – Costs 4 MP, attempts to inflict the Mute ailment on a single target. Dormina – Costs 9 MP, attempts to put all targets to Sleep. Tarukaja – Costs 12 MP, raises allies’ physical attack strength. This skill can be cast up to four times. This skill is great if you use a lot of Physical attacks. (...and you probably will) I always have this skill set on one of my characters. Karma ----- -Cost: 50000 -Difficulty: **** -Unlocked: Master Spirit Mantra Marin Karin – Costs 5 MP, attempts to inflict the Charm ailment on a single target. Rakukaja – Costs 12 MP, raises allies’ defense. This skill can be cast up to four times. Sukukaja – Costs 12 MP, raises allies’ agility. This skill can be cast up to four times. Illusion -------- -Cost: 150000 -Difficulty: ***** -Unlocked: Master Karma Mantra Makajamon – Costs 11 MP, attempts to inflict the Mute ailment on all targets. Calm Death – Costs 16 MP, This skill will instantly kill any sleeping enemy. Interesting skill, it always works against sleeping enemies, but if you use it against enemies that are awake then it will count as a failed attack and use two turn icons. I didn’t get much use out of this skill, as there really isn’t any reliable way putting the enemy to sleep. Makakaja – Costs 12 MP, raises allies’ magical attack strength. This skill can be cast up to four times. Insane God ---------- -Cost: 500000 -Difficulty: ******* -Unlocked: Master Seraphim and Illusion Mantras Xanadu – Costs 36 MP, an Expel attack that does heavy damage to all targets. Hey, how about that? An Expel attack that can actually kill an Enemy! I’m shocked... Dekaja – Costs 10 MP, cancels any -Kaja effects on all enemies. Nice. Dekunda – Costs 10 MP, cancels any –Kunda effects on all allies. Also Nice. Vicious God ----------- -Cost: 1000000 -Difficulty: ******** -Unlocked: Master either Goddess, Evil God, or Insane God Mantras Vanity – Costs 25 MP, attempts to inflict a random status ailment on all targets. This is a nice skill because the chances of inflicting something are pretty good. Salvation – Costs 50 MP, restores the entire party to full HP and cures all status Ailments. For the most part it is easier to just use Mediarahan and then use items to cure ailments. It does come in handy when you are against a couple of ailment-heavy bosses though. Mana Surge – Raises Max MP by 30%. Ancient God ----------- -Cost: 15000 -Difficulty: *** -Unlocked: Master two different ** Mantras HP Thief – Costs 5 MP, an Almighty attack that drains HP from a single target and gives them to the caster. On paper this sounds like a great skill, because it allows you to heal yourself while weakening the enemy. In practice, however, the pathetically miniscule amount of HP this skill inflicts makes this skill worthless. MP Thief – Costs 2 MP, a Mute attack that drains MP from a single target and gives them to the caster. Try to have every character learn this skill ASAP, being able to restore MP without scurrying back to a Life Terminal is not only convenient but it will save you a fortune in restoration costs, which means more money for Mantras. (say that three times fast) Do remember to keep an eye out for resistances when you use this, however. Outer God --------- -Cost: 50000 -Difficulty: **** -Unlocked: Master Ancient God Mantra Chakra Walk – Restores a small amount of MP every time the Solar Noise advances. This skill only works for members in the active party. This is a fantastic skill to have; it heals MP passively, so there’s no need to waste turns leaching MP with MP Thief, and you won’t have to worry about running out of MP as much. Try to get this as soon as you can afford it. Mana Bonus – Raises Max MP by 10%. Secret God ---------- -Cost: 250000 -Difficulty: ***** -Unlocked: Master Outer God Mantra Mana Gain – Raises Max MP by 20%. Mana Walk – Restores a larger amount of MP every time the Solar Noise advances. This skill restores about twice as much as Chakra Walk does. It’s a nice skill to have, but don’t break the bank trying to get it, as Chakra Walk should be able to keep up with your MP usage just fine. Mitama ------ -Cost: 20000 -Difficulty: **** -Unlocked: Master three *** Mantras Shared Karma – An inactive character with this skill will gain half Karma after every battle. Save your money and don’t bother with this one, as there is a much better skill on the way. Soul ---- -Cost: 75000 -Difficulty: ***** -Unlocked: Master four **** Mantras Mutual Karma – An inactive character with this skill will gain full Karma after every battle. ____________________________Extra Mantras [#009.4.5]___________________________ Gyokuza ------- -Cost: 1500000 -Difficulty: ********* -Unlocked: Defeat Metatron and take the Seraph Quill to a Karma Terminal Fire of Sinai – Costs 70 MP, an Almighty attack that does Heavy Damage to Random targets. This skill has the chance of doing the most damage of any attack in the game, since it can hit enemies multiple times. It’s a bit too unreliable for my tastes. Repel Expel – Not to be confused with Expel Repel, this skill is a passive skill that automatically repels all Expel attacks. Repel Death – Not to be confused with Death Repel, this skill is a passive skill that automatically repels all Death attacks. High Priest ----------- -Cost: 1200000 -Difficulty: ********* -Unlocked: Defeat Beelzebub (Fly) and take the Tyrant Skull to a Karma Terminal Death Flies – Costs 80 MP, an Almighty attack that does Mega damage to all targets and will instantly kill any enemy not immune to Death. This skill is king of the random battle, as not only will it kill any enemy not immune to Death, but will also cause so much Almighty damage that it will likely kill enemies that are immune to Death anyway. Have a character set Death Flies and Auto Soma and they’ll be able to blow through most areas with minimal effort. Repel Element – A passive skill that automatically repels all elemental attacks. Godly Spirit ------------ -Cost: 1200000 -Difficulty: ********* -Unlocked: Have someone master the Destroyer, Dark Lord, and Vicious God Mantras. (It doesn’t have to be the same character, you can have three different characters master one of these Mantras and it will work) This Mantra will then be unlocked for all five characters. Auto Soma – A passive skill that automatically restores a character to full HP and MP after every battle. Fantastic. Null Ailment – A passive skill that blocks almost all Ailments. This skill does NOT protect against Curse and being turned to Stone, for those you will need Death protection. This skill doesn’t work against the Bat or Mad ailments, either. Monotheist ---------- -Cost: 2000000 -Difficulty: ********* -Unlocked: Master the Fire God, Ice God, Bolt God, Wind God, AND Mother Earth Mantras Null Attack – A passive skill that automatically blocks all attacks except for Almighty. With this skill set you are more or less invincible, and makes the game laughably easy. This skill won’t protect you from Bat and Mad Ailments, as they are considered to be Almighty. Five Gods --------- -Cost: 2000000 -Difficulty: ********* -Unlocked: Defeat Huang Long and take the Golden Orb to a Karma Terminal Celestial Ray – Costs 99 MP, an Almighty attack that does Mega damage to all targets and causes random Ailments to enemies. This skill is does the most damage of any attack in the game, and it has the highest MP cost to go with it too. The Ailments this skill causes are more or less an afterthought, as most regular enemies will be dead or near death with this skill, and bosses are immune to ailments anyway. Phys Absorb – A passive skill that automatically drains all physical attacks. King ---- -Cost: 100000 -Difficulty: ***** -Unlocked: Defeat King Frost and take the Ice Crystal to a Karma Terminal Megido – Costs 30 MP, an Almighty attack that does moderate damage to all targets. Bah, the damage caused is way too miniscule to justify the MP cost of this skill. Cocytus – Costs 20 MP, an Ice attack that does moderate damage to random targets. This skill will usually hit all enemies 2-3 times, doing about the same amount of damage as a Mabufudyne, and it has a higher chance of freezing the enemy than a Bufu- spell. Null Sleep – A passive skill that allows a sleeping character to evade all attacks. This is... an unusual skill. When I say all attacks, I mean ALL attacks; even Almighty attacks won’t affect a character when this skill is active. Unfortunately, this skill only kicks in when the character is asleep, which make this skill impractical to say the least. In fact, this skill will probably only come in handy during a single battle. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||Miscellaneous [#010]||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— ======= ===================================|Nirvana|=================================== ======= -http://dds.yosuga.net Nirvana is a Fansite dedicated to both Digital Devil Saga games. It has just about anything you could want to know about the games. From story info, (Watch out for spoilers) info about the game’s naming conventions, and a large media section. I highly recommend this site for all DDS lovers. ====================== ============================|Digital Devil Database|=========================== ====================== -http://www.digitaldevildb.com This is another Fansite, this is dedicated to MegaTen games in general. It’s a nice site with message boards. ========================================== ==================|Hardcore Gaming 101 Megami Tensei Overview|================= ========================================== -http://hg101.classicgaming.gamespy.com/megaten/megaten.htm If you are curious about just how freakishly huge the Megami Tensei series is you can check out this article that contains an overview of (almost) every game that falls under the Megami Tensei label. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— |||||||||||||||||||||||Frequently Asked Questions [#011]||||||||||||||||||||||| ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— -Q: Why is Argilla not gaining AP? A: At the very beginning of the game Argilla will not gain any AP. Don’t panic, as this will clear itself after you finish the first dungeon. -Q: Can you do anything with Cells other than selling them? A: No. The only thing that cells do is sell for Macca. (Well they do expand the Vendor’s inventory, but that happens when you sell them, so whatever.) -Q: How do I block Almighty attacks? A: You don’t. Almighty attacks are unblockable; the only thing you do is to try to take the edge off them with Rakukaja and/or Makanda. -Q: How do I leave the Sea of Milk? A: Check your map; you will see a second elevator directly to the west of the elevator you came down on. Take that elevator to leave the Sea of Milk. -Q: What does the Red Ring do? A: The Red Ring is required to fight Metatron later in the game. -Q: How do I get to those three Ammo Nodes at the bottom of the Lower Layer of Muladhara? What about that Ammo Node on the balcony in Ajna? A: You need to unlock the Manipura Waterways by defeating Beelzebub in the basement of Svadhisthana. Then go through the Waterways, fighting Fly Beelzebub on the way and you will end up in a section of Muladhara where you can get at those three Ammo Nodes. To get to that Ammo Node in Ajna you will need to go through the Anahata Waterways and climb all the way to Brutes Base 3F. There you will find a door that leads to the balcony with the Ammo Node. -Q: When I used a Karma Terminal I got a message saying that one of my characters is an “Asura Anomaly.” What does that mean? A: It means that character has mastered the entire Mantra Grid. That’s all. -Q: Will I ever be able to set more than eight skills at one time? A: No. At the start of the game your characters will only be able to set four skills. When they reach level 10 they will then be able to set six skills, and when they reach level 20 they can set eight. The number of skills you can set will remain at eight for the rest of the game. ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||Contributors [#012]|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| ——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————— -SteveO 528 clarified a few things and submitted an alternate strategy for Omoikane hunting. _______________________________________________________________________________ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ Stupid Demi-Fiend... Please don’t put this walkthrough up on any website without my permission. This document is Copyright 2005-2006 James “JaggedJim” Ramsey. In loving memory Mae Vanek: 1930-2002