Shin Megami Tensei: Digital Devil Saga Secrets
This page details some of the more sought after "secrets" in Digital Devil Saga, including optional areas and bosses. It's meant mostly as a quick reference, saving users from having to hunt down the same information in FAQs. If you cannot find what you're looking for here, simply check out our FAQs page.
The Three Keys
Blue Key: After defeating the demon form of Harley, Asura Hayagriva, make your way back through Svadisthana. Talk to the man in Harley's old room, where the boss fight took place. He will give you the Blue Key which will dismantle any Blue Walls you come across.
Yellow Key: At Coordinate 136, a chest holds the Yellow Key in the second jet coaster room on 6F. This room comes just before the boss of the area, Asura Rahu. You'll need to climb around and ride a few coasters to reach it, but the whole thing is rather straight forward. Don't forget that you can look around in this room with the right control stick if you're confused.
Red Key: This one is located in the Northern Samsara Tunnels. You'll need the Oxygen Tank, but you should have that to get this far anyway. The Yellow Key is also required. You'll come across a large waterfall in your travels that you'll be able to walk behind. Follow that path past a Yellow Wall and into the Water Pump. Like the Water Pump before it, this one will push you out when Solar Noise reaches its maximum. The Red Key itself is located in a secret room.
Once your in the pump follow these directions: South, South, West, South, South and North. You will be in a room with a plate that, once examined, will change the flow of the water. At this point go South, East, East, North, North, East, East and South. You will wind up in a small area that contains the Red Key. If these directions somehow trip you up, check out Starion's Water Pump map on the FAQs page.
Karma, Atma and Macca Gaining Spots
General Tips: Gaining Karma and Atma is obviously far easier with certain Mantra equipped. It's in your best interest to always have Mutual Karma set for the characters not in your active party. It's also smart to set one of the higher level hunting attacks to devour weakened or frightened demons for extra Atma. Setting this along with AP Divide will spread Atma out nicely to all characters. Atma Bonus will take you the longest to unlock, but once you do equip it alongside the others for even faster Atma gain. With Cells, be sure to sell them only when Solar Noise it at its highest. The higher the Solar Noise, the more Macca you'll receive (the opposite is true for the Jack Cell, however).
Ajna: Inside the mansion activate the Red Pillar and head to the northwest and up the stairs. Wander around this corridor (there's a Small Karma Terminal attached to it if you're confused) until you come across High Pixies. They appear in other sections but seem most frequent in this hallway. High Pixies call for Queen Mab reinforcements at a rather high rate; Queen Mabs, for whatever reason, seem to possess a rather high amount of Atma for their point in the game and drop Organic Cells semi-regularly.
You'll want either Null Element or some sort of void/drain Elec spell equipped and, of course, a hunt attack such as Consume. Iron Stomach is also strongly recommended. You can kill off a couple of the High Pixies (usually between two and four appear at once), but I recommend leaving at least two around. Once a Queen Mab is called into the battle (they only are requested one at a time) cast Void Elec or Drain Elec. On the enemy turn there's a very high chance that the High Pixies (which move before Queen Mab) will cast Zionga or Mazionga. If you drain or void these attacks there is a very high chance that all enemies onscreen will be frightened at once. At this point, get the Queen Mab's HP down a bit and have one of your characters hunt her. Just repeat this process until you grow tired of it. This process will comparatively quickly master many of the early and mid-section Mantra on your grid and you'll make some decent Macca in the process.
Tunnels of Manipura: After fighting humanform Beelzebub, head to Manipura and go through the eastern door. You'll find that a block is removed and you can descend into a new dungeon. Make your way through to the second Large Karma Terminal (it's directly adjacent to the room containing Beelzebub). This is probably the best place to hang out because the lower level demons in this dungeon do not appear here.
Wander around and get into fights. You'll come across several different demons here and most of them are worth decent Karma, Atma and Macca. Several of them drop Noises and Cells at semi-common rates as well. In this area I watch out for groups of two or three Isis demons, in particular. This is very similar in concept to the High Pixie/Queen Mab process listed above. When you encouter the Isis group, lower their HP as much as necessary (I found that a non-boosted Mabufudyne did the job) and then use a hunt attack such as Consume on all but one. The one will call out for a new Isis to join the battle, upon which point you can devour that one and then work away at the new one. Isis are worth decent amounts of Atma as well as very high amounts of Macca (about 15,000 each) and drop various items. With this method I managed to raise some of my higher level Mantra at a quicker pace than normally possible.
The main "problem" with this area is that two Arahabakis appear as reinforcements after you defeat the first set of enemies on a regular basis. These things have incredibly high HP and defense to nearly everything but Ice based attacks. Using Bufu-based spells works and freezes them for further critical attacks, but the SP cost outweighs the benefits. In this case, your best bet is to set your characters' with Cocytus (this can be gained from the King Mantra you get after beating King Frost) which freezes demons far more often. In the case of the Arahabaki, the are frozen by Coctyus at a very high frequency (sometimes one, sometimes both, sometimes neither; I'd say there's a 75% chance that at least one will be frozen by this spell).
I generally had my first character cast Cocytus (someone with high magic in this spot is best such as Argilla or, possibly, Serph), the second character critical attack one that was frozen and the third character critical attack that same one. At this point that one will likely go down, but if it didn't I would have my first character cast Cocytus again which will take out the weaker one and likely freeze the other Arahabaki if it wasn't already. At this point just continue with the critical attacks. If this works out, they won't even have a turn. However, if they do, they cast Gate of Hell every single phase if they can, which has a very high rate of Stoning your characters. I wound up with all three turned to Stone several times in this process, which is obviously incredibly frustrating (of course, if you somehow have Null Ailment at this point, you won't have to worry about this).
If you manage to win you'll wind up with about 45,000 extra Macca and some decent Karma, Atma and item drops. If these guys follow an Isis group you can expect around 100,000 plus Macca for the fight, which is nothing to scoff at.
Optional Boss Fights
For boss strategies, I recommend checking out Zhou Tai An's DDS FAQ. Strategies will not be listed here; this is simply a basic starting point so you can figure out where to go and what to do to reach these enemies. Many of these fights are worth it simply for the Mantras they unlock.
King Frost: If you return to Coordinate 136 after completing the main quest within it, you'll come across two Pyro Jacks at the entrance. Your challenge here is to find a special key that will open the chest they're carrying. During your search you'll come across many keys, but the one you're looking for is the Sugar Key. It's located in the first Jet Coaster room. Just follow the main path until you reach the room. The coaster you need is straight ahead through the door, just slightly to the left. Ride it, enter the door you come to and continue on until you see a woman in a green dress. This is Titania, Queen of the Faeries, and you must fight her for the key. Don't worry, she's a pushover.
Once you have the Candy Key, make your way back to the chest at the entrance and talk to the Pyro Jack in front of the chest. This will allow you to fight King Frost who is all the way on the top balcony. If you manage to defeat him, you'll unlock the King Mantra.
Beelzebub (Humanoid Form): Once you get the Red Key and finish off Varin, make your way to Svadisthana. Near the rear exit you'll come across a Red Wall which you are told was put up to keep some sort of crazy demon locked in. As you progress through this newly unlocked area you'll find out that the curcuit breaker powering the lights and wall switches has been turned off. Make your way to B2 and return the breaker to its on position. At this point you'll be able to use the two wall switches and make your way to the fight with Beelzebub.
Orochi: After the Varin battle make your way to Anahata. Teleport your way to Citadel 2 via the Karma Terminal. Make your way through this area and you'll eventually come to a large, multi-headed snake-like dragon. After defeating him, you'll be able to continue on and pick up some items. Make sure to examine the corpse you come across because it holds an item required to fight Metatron later on.
Beelzebub (Demon Form): After your fight with the humanoid version, Beelzebub will flee to Manipura. Once there take the Northeast gate and make your way through Tunnels of Manipura. You will eventually come across Beelzebub (near a Large Karma Terminal in his new form) which is easily one of the more difficult boss fights in the game. It will likely require you to be a substantially higher level than what you were at when you defeated him in his humanoid form, but if you're prepared it should only take a single try. I put him after Yamato simply because of his strength; you're probably best off tackling Yamato first. Beating Beelzebub this time will unlock the High Priest Mantra which is worth the effort.
Four Holy Beasts: Once in the Karma Temple make your way all the way to the topmost floor (it will say that in the top-right corner, it's the room where Gale makes sure you want to continue through the door). Once there, talk to Gale and tell him you don't want to enter the next room. Teleport your way all the back down and leave. Outside of the Karma Temple you'll come across a Tribe member who informs you that they've lost communication with four separate areas. These are Ajna, Manipura, Svadhisthana and Anahata. These demons make up four of the five Japanese/Chinese Heavenly Creatures. The Engish version of Digital Devil Saga goes with the Chinese names which are different from the Japanese ones you'll likely come across in FAQs.
Each are located within the main area and are all found behind different colored walls. Basically, just look for a colored wall that leads into two separate rooms (if you've been to these before, one was empty and the other contained an item). They're each located within the room without the item. Defeating them all gives you four orbs that will be required to unlock the future optional bosses. If you've been doing these in order, these battles shouldn't give you much of a problem.
Metatron: After the Four Holy Beasts, head back to Ajna. Go inside the mansion and activate the white pillar. After the map shifts around head through the northeast door and continue to the next room where you'll run into Metatron. Again, after all the previous bosses, this guy won't be much of an issue. Defeating him gives you the Seraphim's Quill, which unlocks the Gyokuza Mantra.
Huang Long: Huang Long is the Fifth Holy Beast, the Yellow Dragon. FAQs refer to him as the Japanese form, "Kohryu". After defeating the Four Holy Beasts, return to the Karma Temple. Use the Large Karma Terminal and teleport yourself to the fourth one. At this point you have to make your way back up to 12,530 Feet. On this floor you'll have to find a Red Wall that's located in the southeast section (just play around with the transporters there, it's not too hard to find). Once you reach it, break the wall and continue onward to the battle.
Huang Long is easily the most difficult boss you can fight the first time through. Preparation is difficult, particularly because the beast switches what spells give him health and what hurt him the most every time he roars. A Bufu-based spell when he is draining Ice attacks heals what amounts to his entire HP. The unfortunate part is that you have absolutely no idea what he changes to when he roars, but it's the opposite of whatever elemental spells he happens to cast next (for example, if he's casting Agi spells, cast Bufu spells). Your best bet here, however, is to stick with Ziodyne because it's the only thing he never absorbs. Perpare yourself for a long battle. If you manage it, you'll get the Five Gods mantra.
