_________________________________________________ / \ / BUSIN Z E R O \ / \ \ W I Z A R D R Y A L T E R N A T I V E N E O / \ / \_________________________________________________/ FAQ/WALKTHROUGH BY JERROLD NG (JIYAU@YAHOO.COM) VERSION 2.0 Disclaimer ========== This FAQ is for private and personal use only. It can only be reproduced or placed on a web site as long as it is completely unaltered, with this disclaimer notice appearing in full, and with permission granted by the author. The web site carrying this FAQ should make sure that it is the latest version, which can be obtained through http://www.gamefaqs.com. This FAQ is not to be used for profitable or promotional purposes; this includes being used by publishers of magazines, guides, books, etc. or being incorporated into magazines, etc. in any way. With all that in mind, feel free to distribute this FAQ among the RPG community! __________ _B_U_S_I_N___Z_E_R_O__________________________________________/ CONTENTS \ \________________________________________________________________________/ INTRODUCTION CREATION - Race - Attribute - Personality - Class ADVANCED - Rows and Ranks - Allied Actions & Trust Levels - Good versus Evil - Changing Classes - Advanced Classes - Party Suggestions - Reaper - Playing Hints MENUS GUESTS SPELLS - Priest Spells - Mage Spells - Mutated Spells ALLIED ACTIONS - Offensive AA - Defensive AA - Assisted AA - Spell AA MONSTERS WALKTHROUGH - B1F - Extinct City - B2F - Twin Shaft - B3F - Great Sanctuary - B4F - Way Of The Lava - B5F - Lost Shrine - B6F - Ancient Metropolis - B7F - Den Of Organism - B8F - The Coleopterans - B9F - Evil Deity - B10F - Crystallize City - B11F - Incongruity Hole - Bonus Dungeon - La Thbade SIDE-QUESTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS _______________ _B_U_S_I_N___Z_E_R_O_____________________________________/ INTRODUCTION \ \________________________________________________________________________/ It was around December 2001 that Atlus sneaked out what was arguably one of the best RPGs no one played:- Wizardry Tales of the Forsaken Land (which henceforth in this FAQ will be referred to as TOFL). An incredible effort by developer Racjin gave us an absorbing dungeon-crawler experience; it was addictive, engaging, blessed with some of the best fantasy-styled artwork to ever grace a video screen, and had one of the best-written storylines in any RPG. It was a pity that Atlus half-assed the advertising for the game, because no one saw it coming, and it just came and went with little fanfare. It was however, very well received in Japan, and Racjin began work on it's sequel, Wizardry Alternative Neo which finally arrives after two years. So does it recapture the glory of old-school RPGs that it's prequel did? Well, yes and no. Racjin went in with the idea of "if it ain't broken don't fix it" approach to making the sequel. Those who have played TOFL will certainly recognize the game system, artwork, music and so on; in fact, at first glance you may even have trouble telling them apart. Those looking for originality best look elsewhere; this is strictly a new story, new dungeon, but same gameplay. That's not to say it's identical to TOFL, of course. The dungeon here is new and improved, a ways larger than that of TOFL. Difficulty has been upped drastically, especially in the early going. The combat system utilizing the highly innovative Allied Action system has gone through some tweaks to make it much more customizable. The same art designer who excelled in TOFL is back, and his work on the character and monster designs are just as good, if not better, than his previous work. Will you enjoy the sequel? Well, it somewhat depends. Those who played TOFL and hungered for more will gobble this game up; in its heart it is still an excellent old-school RPG. Those who are looking for something new after TOFL will be sorely disappointed. And for those who haven't played either, I urge you to try them both out. If you are even remotely interested in RPGs, they are both keepers! Okay, enough with the reviews. As of this version of the FAQ, Atlus has no announcements regarding a North American port of the game. I have written this FAQ/Walkthrough based on the Japanese version. Since I do not know Japanese, I do not know any of the story, item names and such, so I'm afraid I can't answer any questions based on those. If there's anything at all you wish to contribute to this game, be it translations, stuff I missed, general comments, anything at all, give me a holla at jiyau@yahoo.com. I may not have the time to answer all the e-mails, but I do read 'em all! Version History =============== Version 1.0 (Uploaded 15th December 2003) - First version of the FAQ. Covers the Japanese version of the game. Highly incomplete, please contribute stuff I've missed! Version 2.0 (Uploaded 12th February 2003) - Added tons of new info courtesy of thecrimsondiablo; names, quests, new classes, and much much more - Put in menu translations, since there were requests for them __________ _B_U_S_I_N___Z_E_R_O__________________________________________/ CREATION \ \________________________________________________________________________/ When you start a new game, you will kick off with character creation. Here you will create a party leader, which will basically be YOU. Before you actually start, some planning is required; you want your party to be a good balance of front rank attackers and back-row spell casters. Decide on whether you want NPCs (story characters that join your party) versus PCs (characters you manually create) in your party. All this affects what kind of class and race your party leader will be to best fit his or her party. If I had my way, I'd make my party leader a priest, then a bishop; there's just no good NPC bishops in the game unless you create one. Race ==== There are six types of races in the game, each with their own male and female counterparts. Which race you choose, and which sex you decide on, affects many things; initial stats, stat changes on leveling up, behavior and class choices. Human Both male and females have fairly balanced stats, making them suitable, just not the best choice, for most classes. Their low faith, however, makes them poor candidates for a priest. Elf High wisdom and faith makes them ideal spell casters. They have poor physical prowess, so sticking them in the front row as a fighter-type means leading them to an early grave. They have decent speed so they can also fare pretty well as high-speed classes such as monks, thieves or ninjas. Dwarf Massive strength and constitution makes them the ideal candidate for front-row fighters. They have decent faith as well, which allows them to become fairly good knights and monks, and average priests. I gotta say it... dwarven women are UGLY! Gnome Tailor-made to be a priest with their high faith. Above average speed as well, so they work well as a thief. But otherwise fairly unimpressive altogether. Hobbits The fastest race. They are tailor-made to be thieves, and later, noble thieves and ninjas. They have average wisdom and faith, so making them a pure spell caster is probably a bad idea. Making them fighters are an even worse idea. Attribute ========= Attribute, or Alignment, as other RPGs will call it, is another important factor in the game. A party with a constant attribute will level up faster in trust levels (more info on that below). If you are "Good" you should not be attacking friendly monsters, and should only choose the positive option when talking to other people. Do anything else and your other good party members may lose their trust in you. If you are "Evil" you should go around slaying even friendly monsters and pick the negative option when talking to other people. If you don't, your evil friends will think less of you. "Neutral" means it really doesn't matter either way. If you don't act your attribute, especially in regards to friendly monsters, you or your party member's attribute can change, making your party even more confused and assorted. Personality =========== The choice of race and attribute will give rise to different personalities. While it doesn't affect your party leader, it will affect everyone else in your party. Everyone has his or own queer personalities in this game; if you act positively according to their personality, their trust in you increases and vice versa. Class ===== Perhaps your most important choice when creating a character. The character's class dictates what skills and stats a character gains, what equipment he can equip, and what spells he can cast. A well balanced party goes a long way in your little dungeon adventure. Fighter The party's resident damage-eater/giver. He can use just about any weapon or armor in the game, making him perfect front-row material for the party. A fighter can be of any attribute, and has the requirement of 15 Power at the very least. A fighter can be of any attribute. Mage Can only equip the barest minimum equipment, and extremely low life makes him a back row-only character. He's got some nice spells that you just can't do without; he's one of the two classes that can learn level 7 mage spells. He can be of any attribute, and requires 15 wisdom to create. Priest The user of all things holy. He's your main source of healing, and a much-needed party member when fighting undead with his turn undead ability. He's one of the two classes that can learn up to level 7 priest spells. He must be either Good or Evil, but not Neutral. The minimum of 15 Faith is required to make a priest. Thief He's handy to have around as he can simplify traps (two less trap commands) you need to disable, and you will encounter a fair bit of them. Also, thieves raise the chance of defeated monsters dropping treasure by 10% x the no. of thieves in your party. And he also raises the percentage of success rate of fleeing from an enemy. He can also learn up to Level 3 priest and mage spells, making him a fairly versatile character at the start. You'll want to give him a long- ranged weapon and stick him in the back row with your mages and priests; he's unimpressive as a front row guy, despite being fairly hard to hit. A thief can either be Neutral or Evil, but not Good. You will need a minimum of 15 Agility to make a thief. That's all the class you can pick from at the moment; unless you strike it rich and get a massive 40+ point roll to distribute to your stats (you normally get 10-20 points only; these high rolls are VERY rare, the odds are 1/100, but you can get up to a maximum of 80 points!) you cannot create advance classes. When distributing points, note that when your level goes up, your stats will go up in the ratio at which you distributed your points. For example, if you toss a lot of points to Faith, expect to gain just as much, if not more, points into that stat per level, especially if you are a priest. You will need to plan ahead in point distributions to quickly make the requirements for the advance classes, if you want them in your party. Check the section below on Advanced Classes to find out more about these requirements. You're ready to start the game now. The next section will cover some more stuff you will want to know as you are playing the game. __________ _B_U_S_I_N___Z_E_R_O__________________________________________/ ADVANCED \ \________________________________________________________________________/ Rows and Ranks ============== Your party consists of six members, three in the front and three at the back. The ones in the front are the only ones that can attack with short-range weapons. Of course, they are also the ones who will get hit by short-range attacks. The back row can only attack with ranged weapons. When any of your front row members get killed, the person behind him/her will move forward to the front row. Obviously, fighter-types like the samurai, fighter, monk and knight should be in the front, and the thief, noble thief, priest, mage, bishops and alchemists at the back. Ninjas can go either way, but they are better at the back. When you run into a monster with his back turned or on the side, there's a good chance you will surprise your opponent, giving you a full round of free attacks. But if a monster runs into you, then there's a chance he will suddenly attack you, giving him a full round of attacks. These also happen at random when you simply walk face first into a monster. When you get attacked from the behind (i.e. a monster walks up behind you) your rows are reversed, forcing your back row guys up to the front. It takes a full round to swap back to their original positions, meaning the monsters get two free rounds of attacks on you. Therefore, DON'T get attacked from the back. When exploring an area, unless you're absolutely sure there's no monsters around, keep your back to the wall at all times. Allied Actions & Trust Levels ============================== Allied Actions (or AAs, as I call them) are special commands that have a few members of your party work together for a variety of effects. It is a fairly unique system that worked well in TOFL, and works even better here. You can gain Allied Actions in one of two ways; by finding them in the dungeon, or learning them during battle. To perform an Allied Action you will need to "equip" it to your party, and it costs something called Allied Points to equip them. Every AA costs 2-4 Allied Points to equip. You can change your AA configuration during a battle, but that will cost your party an entire round, so it's best to equip your AAs beforehand. You start off with 12 Allied Points, meaning you can equip four or five AAs at most. This is where your Trust comes in; as your party member's trust in you grows, so does your overall party trust rank (indicated by a large Japanese character on the lower left corner of the screen). The higher your trust rank, the higher your Allied Points; at the maximum of eight trust levels you get 30 Allied Points. That's actually still not enough to equip all the AAs you will learn (and you will learn a lot of them). So you will need to level up your AAs. Every time you use an AA, that AA will gain "experience". When you gain enough experience, that AA "levels up" and it's Allied Point cost reduces by one. Theoretically, if you level up all your Allied Actions to the max, you can actually equip them all! New to this game are AA variations. An AA does not work the same all the time; I've noticed that trust levels, AA experience levels, even equipment, can change how an AA looks and works. For instance, a Double Slash (the first AA you'll get) at Trust Rank 1 is just two front guys rushing in to attack one poor monster. When you raise your trust rank, you will notice that you sometimes will use a "Critical" version of Double Slash, in which your two fighters will throw a wave of energy at the enemy, demolishing him and even injuring anyone behind him. The higher your party trust, the greater the chance of you using this version. If you perform a high-trust Double Slash with a samurai equipped a katana, will do a version of this AA where you throw the katana like a boomerang at the enemy, injuring him and several monsters all at once! Others I've noticed include Converge Attack turning into Crisscross (and old TOFL AA that isn't in this game), a triple damage Hold Attack and so on. Eventually, every battle will hinge on what AA you use, and how to combine them effectively. Thus AAs and trust levels are important things to keep an eye on as you venture down those lonely corridors under Duhan. Good versus Evil ================ As you proceed down the dungeon, you will want your party to gravitate towards good (and neutral) members only, or evil (and neutral) members only. From my experience, having an evil party does not pay. When you meet friendly monsters, a good party can just say hi and walk away, but an evil party has to fight them in order to maintain their evil status. Of course, you can just choose to fight, then run away, but that is just plain dangerous. Of course, being evil isn't entirely without any advantages. The most important advantage of an evil party is the ability to create ninjas, one of the better classes in the game. Also, you will find equipment in the game only evil characters can equip, and these are pretty good stuff (though there's not that many of them). However, evil classes mean missing out on creating Knights, and there are also equipment that only Good characters can equip, as well. Changing Classes ================ Any characters that you have created can change classes. To do so, you have to head over to the guild. There you can check the requirements to change to each class; anything with a big red cross mean you have not met that particular criteria just yet. You should do this eventually to have all the benefits that an advanced class acquires. A PC who has just changed classes cannot change classes again until thirty game days have past, so think long and hard before you go change him/her and then save the game. When you change class, You lose whatever special ability that your previous class had, but not your spells. However, your MP will be recalculated for your new class, so you may or may not be able to cast them in your new state. All your other stats will undergo minor changes as well, and your experience level will also be recalculated for your new class, which may result in you going up or down a level or two. Note that NPCs cannot change classes in the guild; the only way to change their class is through class-change orbs. You can get these once your shop is able to sell class change orbs. To have a particular orb for sale you have to be able to change to that particular class in the guild. Advanced Classes ================ Advance classes are just that; they are advanced classes that cannot be made on the get go (unless you get REALLY lucky on your rolls). They all have stiff stat requirements before you can make one, but their special abilities more than make up for that. Ninja (NIN) These sneaky little buggers are blessed with uncanny dodge ability; it's damn near impossible to hit a high level ninja! They are also capable of instant-killing :- any physical attack they perform, ranged or otherwise, has a chance of instantly killing the opponent upon contact. They can learn both mage and priest spells up to level 2, so you shouldn't bother having them cast spells at all, really. Ninjas work best when in the back row equipped with Shurikens. Having a ninja in your party make traps slightly easier to disarm (by one less trap command, not as good as a thief though). The only tough part is that you have to be of Evil alignment to become a ninja. You will also need a minimum of 25 to Power, Life, Agility and Luck. Samurai (SAM) An advanced version of a fighter. These guys a dervishes of destruction; they can equip just about anything a fighter can equip, and stat wise they advance much faster than that of a fighter. They can also learn up to Level 5 mage spells. Samurais (and Onmitsu's) are the ones capable of equipping katanas, which are among the strongest weapons in the game, simply because katanas are the only weapons that can occasionally instant- kill, just like the ninja's skill. To become a samurai, you need to be either Good or Neutral, and have a minimum of 23 Power, 20 Wisdom, 20 Life and 20 Agility. Bishop (BIS) An advanced version of a priest. A bishop is an impressive spell user; he can learn up to level 6 of both priest and mage spells. And he's got a mighty handy ability of identifying unknown items, and you will find a lot of those in the game! On a side note, if you try to identify a cursed item your Bishop can get inflicted by fear. Their ability to equip stuff falls somewhere in between that of a priest and a mage. A major downside of having a Bishop is that they are the slowest class to level up; a bishop is usually about two levels lower than the party average. To become a bishop, you have to be either Good or Evil (no Neutral folks here), and have 23 Wisdom and Faith. Knight (KNI) The ultimate party tank. Knights are the best at equipping armor, and coupled with great HP advancement, you can expect a knight to be the last man standing in a grueling battle. They can learn Priest Spells up to Level 5, and can also Turn Undead like a priest. Curiously, they can also equip a variety of bows as well as pole arms, all long-range equipment that allows them to go to the back row! Though their tank-like HP and armor makes them much more suited to be in the front row, in my opinion. To create a knight one needs to be of Good attribute, as well as a minimum of 20 to Power, Wisdom, Faith, Life and Agility. Alchemist (ALC) Just as the bishop is a natural advancement of a priest, an alchemist is a natural advancement of a mage. A new class not found in TOFL, an alchemist is also a powerful spell user; he can cast learn up to level 4 mage and priest spell. An alchemist's specialty is that he can combine ingredients to make magic stones while in the dungeon, and access automatter options (assuming you have one) to feed it. Note that he will sometimes mess up when attempting these sorta things, so if it's not an emergency, you should do your magic stone creation in the mage's tower back in town. Also, having an alchemist in your party increases the odds of monster dropping monster parts after battle. Alchemists are pretty good when it comes to equipment; at least equivalent to a priest, if not better. They can also equip bows and crossbows, making them very effective in the back row. To become an alchemist one needs to have 30 in wisdom and faith; they can be of any attribute. Noble Thief (GIZ) Gizoku, or Noble Thief, is something like Robin Hood; basically he's a very good archer. This is another new class not found in TOFL; they are a natural advancement of a thief. They keep most of their thief abilities :- traps become easier to disarm when they are in the party (two less trap commands), they can learn up to Level 3 worth of Priest and Mage Spells, and can equip decent armor. A useful skill they have is the Steal ability; the odds of you successfully stealing from an enemy is 50%, or 70% when an enemy is disabled (by paralysis or sleep). True to their nature, they can also equip a number of very powerful longbows and Crossbows; these usually have special abilities such as randomly paralyzing a foe, or even randomly instant-killing a foe. Obviously, they make excellent back support members. To become a Noble Thief, you need to be either Good or Neutral (no baddies here) and have 20 Wisdom, 30 Agility and 30 Luck. Monk (MON) Yes, another new class not found in TOFL! Monks are a rather odd class in that while they have big advantages, they also have big disadvantages as well. The main advantage of a monk is their uncanny dodge; they are unnaturally hard to hit (though not in the same league as a ninja). They also have insanely high HP, the highest of any class, actually. As a matter of fact, all their stats grow much faster than any other class. Also, when you have a monk in your party, the Slay Crush AA turns into the incredibly powerful Soul Crush AA. The big disadvantage is the fact that they can equip next to nothing otherwise; their armor equipment is around the same as that of a mage. That makes them a liability because when they do get hit, they will get hurt, BAD (probably why they were given such high HP). You can't put them in the back row; they don't have access to any decent long-range weapons. Other than that, a monk can also learn up to level 5 priest spells, and they can also turn undead. To become a monk, you will need be either Good or Neutral, and have 30 Power, 20 Faith and 25 Life. Paladin (PAL) This is a special class that one NPC comes with, and it is pretty much the strongest class in the game! Basically a souped-up knight, he can equip anything a knight can (which means just about anything). He can also learn up to Level 6 of Mage and Priest spells, making him one of the best dual spell caster in the game. He can turn undead as well as a priest (yes, better than a knight), and finally, his most handy ability, a healing aura. Just having him in your party lets you all regenerate HP at a very high rate (the healing rate is equal to 1/3 your paladin's level); so you are pretty much guaranteed to be in full health before every battle! That's enough to put priests out of business. Also, he is an exceptional party tank; he automatically adds 20% extra defense to any defensive equipment he puts on! Yes, it's nice to have this fella in your party. In order to be able to create a Paladin, you must first gather paladin equipment scattered around the dungeon. Note that some of these are only found in La Thbade, the bonus dungeon (that means you CANNOT create one until you finish the game). Once you've gathered them all go to B9 and find the statues of good and evil and offer up the equipment. You can only do so if your main character is a knight. Afterwards they will become available in the guild. Dark Knight (???) The anti-paladin, if you may. I have not seen one myself, but in order to create a dark knight, you need to gather dark knight equipment in a few quests as well as in the bonus dungeon (meaning this class only becomes available AFTER you have finished the game, like the paladin). Again, you need your main character to be a knight; offer up the equipment to the statues in B9. They can turn undead like knights, and can also equip any cursed equipment without ANY negative factors. That's amazing power, considering most cursed equipment are the strongest in the game. They can also learn up to level 6 mage spells. Onmitsu (ONM) An Onmitsu is basically a very high-ranked ninja, respected by all ninjas alike. He's poor when it comes to armor, around that of a monk. However, he can use practically any weapon you can think off... katanas, shurikens, monk claws, longbows, you name 'em, he can equip 'em! Just like a knight. He's also got the ninja's ability to instant-kill. The ability to equip bows and shurikens make him very effective in the back row. He simplify traps by two commands, and also cancels any damage you get by barriers and poison traps. They also let you see in darkness zones in the later levels of the dungeon. He can learn up to level 3 worth of priest and mage spells, like a thief (better than a ninja anyhow). To create your very own Onmitsu, you will need a character that is Evil, and have a 90 (yikes) points to Power, Life, Agility and Luck. Shogun (SHO) Basically a high-ranking Samurai. They have all the abilities that a samurai has, and more. The most powerful new ability they have is the ability to dual-wield one-handed weapons in each hand; they can then attack with both weapons during battle! Add the katana's instant-kill ability and double hit to that and laugh as you deliver four-hit combos of death all over the place. A shogun is capable of learning up to level 6 mage spells. You can access this class by completing a series of shogun quests (tavern quests 10, 11 and 12). To become a Shogun, you'll need to be either Good or Neutral, and have 90 Power, Wisdom, Agility and Luck. High Thief (HIG) Another one in the advanced advance class category. He's somewhat similar to the Onmitsu in terms of equipment (average armor, decent weapons). Like the Noble Thief, he has the Steal option (even better actually, his steal percentage is 70%, 90% of disabled monsters). He also reduces trap commands by two. He also raises the percentage chance for random treasure in the dungeon, which becomes crucial when you start adventuring inside La Thbade. He can learn up to level 4 priest spell and mage spells, better than your average thief. To become a High Thief, one must be Good, and have a massive 100 to Wisdom, Agility and Luck. Freeder ======= Upon clearing one of the tavern quests (no 16, to be precise) you will get a curious new member to your party, Freeder. She's an automatter (her class is marked by "AUT") which you can customize to your liking. She's pretty darn expensive to upkeep as she can't get experience the normal way; rather she consumes magic stones and bug parts to raise her stats. However, upon completely maxing her out she can become the most powerful member of your party. Upon picking her up at the Mage's Tower after completing the tavern quest, go to the guild and add her into your party. Now go back to the Mage's Tower and observe the event. A new option bearing her name now appears. In this menu there are two options; Feed Magic Stones and Create Bug Parts. If you have magic stones, use the Feed Magic Stones option to give it to her and watch her stats go up (very slowly...). Create Bug Parts require you to put together certain weapons together to create parts that she can equip. As you can imagine, upgrading Freeder is a VERY expensive and time-consuming affair, but with enough patience (and money; lots of money) she can be the most powerful addition to your party yet. Upon returning to the Mage's Tower a second time, you'll get another option; 10000 G to create another Automaton doll! This time you can choose the sex and allocate bonus points like how you make a normal character. Now you can have a whole bunch of robots in your party rather than real people! Note: automatters aren't too friendly to anyone except their master (i.e. the party leader) so they won't do AAs with anyone except him. PCs vs. NPCs ============ Back in TOFL, there was once a lively debate concerning which one was better, PCs (characters you create) or NPCs (storyline characters that join your party). PCs are highly customizable, but offer nothing in terms of story advancement, while NPCs will occasionally chip into conversations, adding more insight to the story. Though in Busin Zero their storyline contributions have dropped significantly; besides the first three or four NPCs that join you, the rest stay pretty much silent throughout the entire adventure. NPCs also cannot change class easily; you'll need class-change orbs for that, and to get it you need to max out your store level, which takes a lot of time and money. However, most NPCs come with certain hidden talents that may be drawn out when they level up while sleeping in an inn. These talents are very powerful, almost to the point of unbalancing the game! So it's really your choice, I'd suggest a healthy balance of both in your party. Party Suggestions ================= Which bring us to party suggestions. If you're going the way of the PC, you're pretty much spoiled for choice as to what members you can put in. I've had some success with the following party :- Front Row - Back Row - Of course, once advanced classes become available, the above will become :- Front Row - Back Row - You can sub the extra samurai for another knight for big HP if you want. If you want variety, you can also sub the extra samurai with a monk, though I tried it and didn't quite like it. You can also sub the noble thief for a ninja. You'll need an evil party for that, of course, unless you put the NPC ninja in your party (you can get one). If you're going NPC, I'd rather not stick to keeping the NPC mage and priest you get at the start; having a PC alchemist and bishop is much better. Especially in the case of having a bishop; if you don't have one you're going to go broke spending gold identifying the stuff you find littered all over the dungeon. Right now, I have a very strong party going, but this isn't really available until pretty much at the end of the game :- Front Row - Back Row - This party reeks of power, but it's going to be very late in the game before you can make such a party. If you're wondering, I had an item whose special power turned my Noble Thief evil, so I could turn him into an Onmitsu even though the rest of my party was mostly good and neutral. Reaper ====== You'll meet up with the reaper upon reaching B3F on the dungeon. Basically, this roving spirit will appear when you spend too much time in any single floor, and start chasing you. He can go through walls, go up and down sub-floors; you're not going to be able to outrun him for long. In fact, if you fails to catch you after a while, ANOTHER reaper will appear and both will proceed to try and corner you. I've never lasted long enough to see if a third will appear, though. So what happens if he catches you? He will possess on of your members. Then it becomes dangerous; if a reaper-possessed member is killed, he or she is killed PERMANENTLY. No chance to resurrect at all, he or she will be wiped right out of the game on death! Also, a possessed member will lose trust very quickly; you'd best head back to the town temple and cure him or her (it's quite expensive too). However, strangely enough, there are some advantages in getting reaper-possessed. A possessed member seem to be under the effect of the Yaiba spell; he can hit much harder than normal, and can even hit undead despite not having equipped a magical weapon. Also, in every floor of the dungeon you will find reaper doors; these doors can only be seen when at least one member has been possessed by the reaper. Behind these reaper doors are large unmappable areas which hide a usually decent treasure chest. But then again a dark medal remedies that, when you are able to buy them from the goblin (see below). Stage Performances ================== If you look at the game screen, you'll notice something new; a date indicator. Once your store level has gone up sufficiently (lv 14 and above), you'll get the option to build a stage where performances will be held according to these dates:- Day 1-5 You can register to join the Wigger Friends Club for 5000 G. From now on you can participate in various activities to earn yourself Wigger Points. Day 6-15 The Automatter Master will appear. This event only comes up after you have cleared the game. He will evaluate your automatters, and tell you how many spirit points they have earned during their time in your party. If they have earned enough, you can make them more human by buying them a heart in the Mage's Tower. This lets them perform AAs with other party members as well, but they will also develop personalities and have trust levels too. Because of this, you party trust level can go down quite a bit. Day 16-20 A medal-selling goblin will appear. You can purchase tavern and darkness medals from him. Tavern medals are the ones you earn during the trap game; so if you really want an exchange item but aren't really all that good with the game, you can buy medals with cold hard cash instead. Darkness medals basically let you enter reaper doors without being possessed (you'll get one from a quest early in the game). Once you enter the reaper zone, the medal breaks. If you have the cash, you can get 10 medals (one for each floor) so you don't need to get possessed to go in. Day 21-25 A fortuneteller will appear in town. If you have your fortune told, a special fortune quest will appear in the tavern quest list. Her "fortune" basically reveals the hidden talents your party members (especially your NPC members) have. Day 26-30 During these few days you can exchange your Wigger points in a lottery game. The top prize include the AA Warp Attack (i.e. the cheapest AA in existence), so it's not a waste of time by any means. The Library =========== Press the Square Button at any time during the game to access the in-game library. It stores practically every piece of info you need to know, from items to monsters to conversations to job info and even additional notes. Especially handy to keep tabs of how much of the game you have completed. Playing Hints ============= - DO NOT RUSH THE GAME. You are meant to stay awhile in each floor, fighting and leveling up quite a bit before you go down. If you try to rush through the floor, you will get killed very quickly. This is especially true at the start of the game; in fact at the very beginning you will not last more that three or four battles, and you will not be able to afford bringing dead party members back to life over an over; it's expensive! So go slow; kill a few monsters, head back to town and rest, repeat. - If you've got a few members lagging behind in levels, drop a few high-level members and go down. You get more experience fighting with a smaller party. Just don't get them killed. - While not quite as important as it was in TOFL, Trust still play a good part in the game. The higher your trust, the more AAs you can equip at a time. Other than bosses and guardians, you won't know exactly what monster you will fight when you bump into a monster party, so it's best to have a wide variety of AAs at your disposal at any given time. And for that you'll need high Trust. You should also level up your AAs. The higher the AA level, the lower the cost for equipping them, hence more AAs available! - Explore every floor until you fill up all of it's map if possible. Go back to town to level up and sell off/make spells of the junk you've collected a few times per floor. And find shortcuts! They are fairly easy to locate, and save you plenty of time and patience. - At the early going, ALWAYS have at least one transfer potion handy. You won't last very long in the dungeon, and a hasty retreat may mean fighting a few party of monsters before you reach the exit. Monsters drop them, and you can get them by playing the trap game in Luna Light. - Once you have a good supply of monster parts, you will want the few vital spells in the game :- Town Portal (works like a transfer potion), Through (no monsters for a short while), Protect Against Traps (does what it says), Repeal (allows you to keep picking a trapped chest a few times without triggering the trap), Entrance Warp (warps you to the entrance of the floor; handy when you are being chased by a reaper). You'll get some of these via quests, but it's best to get them for a few members as well so you can still cast them if your caster bites the dust. These spells make your dungeon explorations MUCH easier. Some of these spells are mutation spells; you can't get them normally. See the spell section for more info on how to make these. _______ _B_U_S_I_N___Z_E_R_O_____________________________________________/ MENUS \ \________________________________________________________________________/ This section deals with the most basic of the basics, menu translations. Status Menu (Press /\) =========== -> Item / Equipment Lets you use items or put on equipment. If you select an equipment you'll get five options - Equip (or Unequip), Identify (only if a bishop is in the party), SP (releases the item's special power, only for certain items), Pass (pass to another member) and Discard. For usable items there are only three options, Use, Pass and Discard. When an "E" appears next to an item that means it has been equipped by that member. -> Spells Lets you cast spells. Scroll up and down to select the spells of the particular level, and scroll left and right to select different spell levels. For classes with two spell groups (Mage and Priest) press L1 or R1 to switch between them. Mage spells are colored with a red background, priest with a blue background. Pressing /\ lets you view the spell descriptions. -> Status Shows your party member's status. His trust and trust level, level, EXP, stats, status, no. of spells, they're all here. Pressing L1 or R1 displays the spells they have learned. -> Party Arrangement Rearrange your party formation. Pressing /\ here automatically switches your front and back rows, which becomes handy in the aftermath of a back ambush. -> AA Setup This is where you set up your AA. First option is the AA Equip Menu, where you can set which AAs you are using (yes, you have to equip them to use them now). The bar indicates how many AAs you can equip at the moment. Press left and right to select different categories of AAs to equip. /\ displays the AA description, [] lets you move your AA up and down the bar (not sure what's the use of that), and >< exits the menu. The second option in the AA Setup menu is Unequip All (unequips all your AAs) and third is Last Equip (returns your AA setup back to how it was before). The final option is to exit the AA setup menu; upon selecting it you'll be asked to confirm the setup, if you have changed it. -> Quests If you are currently doing any tavern quests, this menu will list them. Select Menu (Press Select) =========== -> Save / Quicksave When you're anywhere in town, this option lets you save your progress to your memory card. When in the dungeon however, this option turns into Quicksave. Quicksaves are not permanent; once you quicksave you will quit the game, and when you load a quicksave it will be deleted. -> Load Loads a saved game. -> Options Set up various game options here. More detailed translations are welcomed. -> Quit Game Returns to the main menu without saving. -> Exit Exits the menu and resumes your game. In Battle Menu ============== Note that you won't get all these options immediately. -> Allied Actions Use Allied Actions that you have equipped. Obviously, you'll need to have AAs, and have equipped them, in order for this option to appear. Press Left and Right to scroll through the different categories of AAs available. -> Individual Action After you've set allied actions, everyone else not participating in them must perform individual actions. The options here are:- -> Attack Attacks opponent. May not be available depending on your placing; short-ranged attacks cannot attack if they or the monster they're targeting are in the back row. -> Defend Defends against attacks. Damage will decrease while defending. -> Cast Spell Casts a spell. -> Use Item Well, what do YOU think this option does? -> Special Certain classes have special options here. For instance, priests have the turn undead option here, a high thief and noble thief has the steal ability here and so on. -> Switch Final option lets you swap positions with a party member. -> AA Setup This one is same as the AA Setup option in the Status Menu, so look there. Changing your AA Setup in battle wastes a round; the monsters will get a free round to attack you! So don't use it unless it's absolutely vital to your survival. -> Rank Swap Swaps your front and back rank. You'll use this only when you get ambushed from the back. And yes, this also uses up everyone's turn, so it's ANOTHER free round of attacks for the monster. -> Escape You'll attempt to run from your enemies. You may sometimes fail, indicated by you tripping and falling down like an oaf. In this case the monsters get a free round of attacks on your party. Most other menus are pretty much self-explanatory. Though many seem to have problems with the Guild menu, so I'll translate that too. Guild Menu (enter the Guild and select the first option) ========== Scroll up and down to see a list of all your available members. Your party leader is marked with a yellow box, a created member in a red box, and a guest member in a green box. The rest are not currently in your party. Slots with dashes and a whole bunch of portraits are free slots; you may create a member here. [] rearranges your members using a certain criteria. /\ removes the info box so you can view your member portrait in it's entirety. Press L1 or R1 while the info box is open to view various status info of that particular member. Upon selecting a member another menu with four options will appear. First option is to Add/Remove from party, second is Rename, third is Delete (members cannot be deleted when they are in your party; guests cannot be deleted period), and the final option is Class Change. In the class change menu, stats are listed in this order :- Level HP Attribute Power Wisdom Faith Life Agility Luck Classes are listed in this order:- Fighter Thief Mage Priest Ninja Samurai Bishop Knight Alchemist Monk Noble Thief Monk Onmitsu Shogun High Thief Not sure where the Paladin and Dark Knight fits in, though. Big red crosses indicate that you have you fulfilled that particular stat requirement (shown on the right of your stats) to change class. ________ _B_U_S_I_N___Z_E_R_O____________________________________________/ GUESTS \ \________________________________________________________________________/ In this section I'll list out all the NPCs available for recruiting throughout the game. Thanks go out to crimsondiablo@hotmail.com for translating most of these names. Knowing the Busin series, they've probably hidden tons more NPCs in the game; if you've found anyone I don't have, please contribute! -=Freeder=- Race - Female Automatter Class - Automaton Attribute - None To get Freeder into your party, complete the simple tavern quest no 16. She's pretty darn expensive to upgrade, but sky's the limit for her stats, so with lots of patience and money, she can be the strongest member of your party. -=Veala=- Race - Female Human Class - Knight Attribute - Good She joins your party right at the start, in the Luna Light tavern. She's not particularly powerful, but then it's a long way off before you can make a knight anyway, so you might as well keep her. She has the hidden potential "Weapon Sense". -=Ehrika=- Race - Female Elf Class - Priest Attribute - Good She joins when you visit the guild for the first time. Not too bad, but I'd rather have a bishop instead. -=Konde=- Race - Male Human Class - Mage Attribute - Neutral This mage will join you when you visit the inn for the first time. The fact that he has the Creta spell will help you tremendously at the start, but after a while you'd want an alchemist instead. He has the hidden potential "Mental Power". -=Earis=- Race - Female Human Class - Monk Attribute - Good She'll join a little after you get your first AA. Not very powerful at all. Then again I never did find monks all that powerful to begin with. But she is an advance class, and you won't get a monk for a while, so feel free to put her in your party if you want. She has the hidden potential "Aiming Sense". -=Deulgoe=- Race - Male Elf Class - Ninja Attribute - Evil When you find the silver key in B4, unlock the door near the entrance of B3 and take the teleporter there to B10. He'll be there, battered and bruised; after some chatting, he will join your party. He's a pretty good ninja, and comes with a rather good shuriken weapon too. He has the hidden potential "Sixth Sense". -=Aoi=- Race - Female Human Class - Samurai Attribute - Neutral She'll join automatically after an encounter in B6F. Pretty good addition to your party, if you want her. Kinda late, though. She has the hidden potential "Dodge". -=Belgrano=- Race - Male Human Class - Paladin Attribute - Good He joins when you return to town after clearing out most of B9F. He's simply the BEST NPC in the game solely because of his class! Get him in your party quick. He has the hidden potential "Charisma". -=Veltan=- Race - Male Dwarf Class - Fighter Attribute - Good He joins right after the boss battle(s) at the end of B9F. Better late than never, I suppose. Despite being a simple fighter, he's got insane power, but is otherwise nothing to shout about. He has the hidden potential "Steel Body". -=Vile=- Race - Female Human Class - Knight Attribute - Good Good? She looks awfully evil to me. And just look at her name! Anyways, she will join a little after the boss battle in B8F. Stat-wise she's better than your first NPC knight, so sub with her if you want. -=Emilia / Ryute=- Race - Female Elf Class - Mage Attribute - N Around the time you're messing around in B9F, go back to the castle and after a long chat, you can pick one of these two elf girls to join up with you. First option nets you Emilia, the one with black hair, and the second option nets you Ryute, the one with white hair. They are practically identical save for some minor stat and spell differences. -=Ridy=- Race - Female Human Class - Noble Thief Attribute - Neutral Once Ridy opens her information store, buy all the information she has and she'll join your party. Not particularly powerful, unless you want a Noble Thief in your party. -=Yuri=- Race - Male Elf Class - Alchemist Attribute - Evil You'll meet him at B10. Once you've seen him, before going to kill Aurora, go back up to the junkyard in B5 (you went there to clear the automatter quest) to get him into your party. He has the hidden potential "Detach". -=Yoppen=- Race - Human Male Class - Fighter Attribute - Neutral You can get him after completing the dungeon quest no. 7. Don't have him yet, so I don't really know much about him. -=Melanieh=- Race - Female Elf Class - Mage Attribute - Neutral You get her after completing tavern quest no. 22. She's got an annoying personality, making for very crappy low trust levels, so don't put her in your party! ________ _B_U_S_I_N___Z_E_R_O____________________________________________/ SPELLS \ \________________________________________________________________________/ Spells in this game are tackled as such :- when you start finding bits and pieces of monsters, bring them back to the Mage's Tower in town and combine them to form Spell Stones. These stones can then be used to learn spells. There are two category of spells, Priest, which focus on healing and improving party performance, and Mage, which focus on attacking and weakening monsters. After learning a spell, certain spells can be leveled up; to do so simply keep use the same stone on the caster. Leveled up spells are stronger in their effects, obviously. A little note about learning and casting spells; if you check all the class descriptions, you'll find out what level of priest and mage spells that class can learn. Learning means gaining or powering up a spell. Once you learn a spell, if you have enough MP you can cast it no matter what class you are. So, if you REALLY want your fighter to cast level 7 mage spells, turn him into a mage, learn the spell you want, then turn him back to a fighter. Obviously, the MP adjustments when you change class make it pretty hard to do so in reality, but it is possible. There are certain spells in the game that cannot be made simply by combining ingredients; these are called mutated spells. Basically, when mixing ingredients for a certain spell, there's a chance that some of the stones created may "mutate" into another spell. The more stones you make of that spell, there higher your chance of getting mutated spells, naturally. Some of these mutated spells are extremely useful; try to get them as soon as possible! The following are a list of all the spells available in the game, the priest or mage level they are at, and how many individual levels they can gain until you MASTER the spell (they're at the best possible level, you can get them any better than that). Target indicates how many characters or monsters the spell targets; None means it's an effect spell, it does not target anyone, Single means it targets one character or monster, Row means it targets a single row, and All means it targets everyone. Priest Spells ============= Name Master at Target Description ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Level 1 ======= Feal 40 Single Restores some HP Barrets 30 Single Injures a single enemy ???? 1 None Shows no. of unopened treasure chests ???? 20 Single Raises the DEF of a single member Level 2 ======= Sarome 1 Single Silences a single enemy ???? 20 Single Reduces an enemy's DEF Conair 10 Single Raises the EVA of a single member Poizkea 1 Single Cures poison Level 3 ======= Strain 1 Single Paralyzes a single enemy ???? 10 Single Reduces an enemy's EVA Parazkea 1 Single Cures paralysis ???? *1 1 None Warps you back to the floor entrance Level 4 ======= Safeal 50 Row Restores a lot of HP ???? *2 1 Single Cures darkness ???? 10 None Lets you redo an failed chest disarm ???? 30 Row Damage enemies with blades of air Level 5 ======= Lafeal 60 All Restores a lot of HP to all members ???? 1 Row Poisons a row of enemies ???? 20 Single Increases spell protection on one member Undepps 1 Single Cures fear Level 6 ======= Will 10 Single Restores a lot of HP and cures conditions ???? 1 Single Undoes cursed equipment Carcass 5 Single Resurrects a dead member ???? 24 None Infinite stamina for a period of time Level 7 ======= Stigma 50 All Holy damage to all monsters ???? 1 All Destroy undead Revive *3 1 Single Caster erased, full revive to one member ???? *4 1 Single Caster erased, kills any monster Mage Spells =========== Name Master at Target Description ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Level 1 ======= Teal 20 Single Damages one monster with lightning Creta 50 Single Damages one monster with fire Spleem 1 Row Sends a row of monsters to sleep ???? *5 ?? ???? ???? Level 2 ======= Zateal 60 Row Lightning damage to a row of monsters Yaiba 20 Single Raises OFE + ability to injure undead Through *6 20 None No monsters for a period of time Leap *7 1 None Warps you back to town Level 3 ======= Kuld 10 Single Damages one monster with ice blades Zakreta 30 Row Damages a row of monsters with fire Kowt 20 Single Raises AGI of a single member ???? 12 None Immunity to traps for a short time Level 4 ======= ???? 20 Single Reduces an enemy's OFE Jateal 70 All Damages all monsters with lightning Zakuld 20 Row Damages a row of monsters with ice ???? 1 None Flee from battle immediately Level 5 ======= Jakreta 40 All Damages all monsters with flames ???? 20 Single Reduces an enemy's AGI ???? 13 Single May kill one monster immediately ???? *8 10 Single Some sort of protection? Level 6 ======= Jakuld 30 All Damages all monsters with ice ???? 1 Single Reflect magic on a single member ???? 9 Row May instantly kill a row of monsters ???? 20 Single Steals HP from a single monster Level 7 ======= Megadeth 30 All Massive damage to all monsters Valhalla *9 1 None Grants a wish, castor loses a level ???? 5 All May kill all monsters immediately ???? 10 Single Massive damage to a single monster All spells marked with *'s are mutation spells. Mutation Spells =============== *1 - This spell may appear when you create Strain (Priest Lv3, first spell) using Broken Horns (can be gotten from Gremlins) as the first ingredient *2 - This spell may appear when you create the Air Blade spell (Priest Lv 4, fourth spell) using Giant Flesh (from Fire Giants) as the first ingredient *3 - Don't know about this one; you can get the stone for it if you finish the third spring quest at the tavern. Doesn't really matter, it's a stupid spell anyway. *4 - This spell may appear when you create the spell that destroys all undead (Priest Lv 7, second spell) using Slime Jelly (from slimes that appear starting from B7 onwards) as your first ingredient. *5 - Don't know this one either *6 - This spell may appear when you create Yaiba (Mage Lv2, second spell) using Bogey Bird Claws (from Harpies) as the first ingredient. *7 - This spell may appear when you create the spell that counts the number of unopened chests (Priest Lv 1, third spell) using Angel Wings (from angels or archangels) as your second ingredient. *8 - This spell may appear when you create the Instant Death spell that works on a single monster (Mage Lv 5,third spell) using a headless' head (from a headless, obviously) as the first ingredient. Does not work if you combine two headless' heads though. *9 - This spell may appear when you create that massive damage single attack (Mage Lv 7, fourth spell) using an undead dragon wing (from undead dragons, naturally) as your first ingredient. ________________ _B_U_S_I_N___Z_E_R_O____________________________________/ ALLIED ACTIONS \ \________________________________________________________________________/ This section lists all of the allied actions I have found through the game. They are divided into four categories; Offensive AAs (in red), Defensive AAs (in blue), Assisted AAs (in yellow) and Spell AAs (in green). I'll also list the amount of Allied Points (AP) required to equip each AA, and where they are found. Offensive AA ============ Double Slash (3 AP) You'll get this one automatically halfway through B1F. Two front members will rush in to attack a single monster. The damage done on the monster is usually more that both your attacks combined, making for big damage. When you get a few multi-slash weapons together, the damage increases even more. When you use it often enough, you can perform a critical version of Double Slash, where both your members will put their weapons together to create a strong energy wave, doing massive damage to a single monster and also slightly injures the monsters that may be behind him. For more fun, combo a Samurai katana with any non-katana for yet another special attack where the other attacker will "bat" the katana at the foe, doing damage to one monster and a few other behind him! Stun Attack (2 AP) You can get this in B3F. A back row spell caster will cast a spell onto the attacker in front of him, who then attacks an enemy. If his attack connects, it has a chance of paralyzing the enemy. Not particularly useful since the Stun Attack doesn't connect very often. I'd use Hold Attack instead. At higher levels the odds of stunning an enemy increases. Hold Attack (2 AP) You can get this in B2F. A back row spell caster will use his or her magic to hold a monster, then the attacker in front of the caster will rush forward to attack. The hold spell also reduces the enemy's DEF. At high levels, the Hold Attack can critical, meaning low enemy defense + double damage! This one is perfect for very fast monsters such as ninjas and wyverns. Jump Attack (2 AP) You can get this in B7F. A back row spell caster will levitate the attacker in front of him. Since he's high up in the air for most of the round, no physical attack can hit him (spells and breath weapons still hurt him though); and at the end of the round he'll come down on an enemy of choice with increased OFE while the enemy has decreased DEF. A very good AA, especially when you combine with restrict shot to protect everyone in the front row! Slay Crush (2 AP) TOFL veterans will know this better by it's other name, End Lash. This one is another vital AA; it can be gotten by finishing tavern quest no. 9. What it does is that two of the front members will attack the monster party on either sides, damaging the monsters that are on the outermost flank of the party. This is especially useful against monster parties that have a spell caster in the back row; it becomes quite easy to hit them then. Another nasty trick is when you meet a single monster; since there's just him on that row, he will be hit by both sides for BIG damage. If you have a monk in your party this turns into Soul Crush, an even more powerful attack. Hold Double Slash (4 AP) This one is found in B8F. Basically a combo of double slash and hold attack; two spell casters in the back will hold down an enemy while two front attacks will double slash him. This one does insanely huge damage to a single target, but the major drawback is that it takes up four character's turns, so you're left pretty vulnerable if the enemy does survive it, or has friends around. Converge Attack (3 AP) This is found in B6F. I still can't believe that the same flaw that was in TOFL is still here :- Converge Attack is weaker than Double Slash! Basically, three front attackers will combine and attack one opponent. Ironically, it takes up three turns and still doesn't match the damage that Double Slash is capable of! Though at higher levels, the move just turn into a rather unique maneuver where the two side attackers will double slash the enemy, then as he's getting up the third attacker will give him a massive blow (that's Crisscross, an old AA from TOFL not found in this game). Though this critical version STILL does not match the damage of the critical version of Double Slash. Save your 3 AP for something else. Back Attack (3 AP) This one you can get in B4F. Here, one character in the front row will act as a decoy; when a monster attacks him, the other two front attackers will run around to the back of the monster and double slash him for mucho damage. What's nice is that only the decoy's turn is used up; the other two front attackers can perform other attacks normally. Also, it works multiple times; if monsters keep attack the same decoy, they will get nailed over and over by the other two members! Note that the decoy will not attempt to block anything during the round, so use someone with high HP, like a knight or a monk. Rush (4 AP) You can get this in B1F through a learning process; check the walkthrough section for more info on that. Rush basically has your entire party running into the enemy ranks in complete craziness; every monster in the battlefield will be hit (except for undead, who will suffer 0 damage). This uses up everyone's turn, so if there's any survivors you will be totally defenseless. The damage done is always the same for every monster, and is determined by the sum total of everyone's experience levels (their individual equipment will not affect it). So the higher your levels, and the more party members you have, the more damage you will inflict. This is great for clearing out weak monsters that come in large groups (spiders, kobolds, etc...) Triple Slash (3 AP) Can be found in B9F. This one uses up all the front row's turns. The two side attacks will each attack a single enemy, while the middle attack will jump into the air and come down on the enemy, automatically doing critical damage. In total it still does rather mild damage, but the most powerful thing about it is the fact that the third attack has a chance of killing the enemy INSTANTLY. Powerful stuff, but it's kinda hit-or-miss. Sweep Attack (3 AP) This one can be found in B7F. Your front three members will sweep across the front row enemies, doing big damage to everyone there. Their attacks also have increased accuracy, so this one is particularly good for big groups of ninjas or other fast monsters, as well as a long row of weak monsters. Warp Attack (??? AP) Probably the ultimate AA. Basically, one spellcaster behind warps away your entire front row. Any attacks whatsoever targeted at them automatically misses. At the end of the round, when everyone else has taken their turn, your three front men warp onto a single monster of your choice (even back row monsters) and hit it. Hard. The monster is considered having ZERO defense for this triple whammy. This AA is incredibly overpowered, since it combines near flawless defense and offense simultaneously (despite using up four character's turns). Mix it up with Spell Cancel to have the ultimate combo attack. Bosses don't stand a chance! Defensive AA ============ Front Guard (3 AP) Can be found in B1F. Your front three attackers group together to form an impenetrable shield, protecting everyone in the party. Your members will all have increased DEF, and will be warded off against poison, paralysis, and most importantly, an enemy's Rush attempt (yes, enemies do it too). Of course, it also takes away the turns of your front row attackers, meaning great defense, but much less offense. Spell Shell (2 AP) This you can find in B6F. Here, two of your back row spell casters will use up their turns to erect a spell shell, which significantly reduces the damage of attack spells cast on your party. Handy if you are facing three or more spell casting monsters (if it's any less, just use spell cancel instead). Dispel Magic (3 AP) Can be found in B9F. This one goes one better than Spell Shell. Despite using up the turns of your entire back row, it dispels all magic cast on your party members. Again, good for big parties of spell-happy monsters. Any less and you might as well just stick to using spell cancel. Create Shadows (3 AP) Can also be found in B9F. This one works the opposite of Dispel Magic; your entire back row will use up their turns to create shadows around your party members, effectively rendering physical attacks totally useless against your party. Other attacks such as spells and breath weapons can still hit your members though. Quite useful! Deploy (3 AP) Found in B4F. This one is great when fighting dragons and other monsters that use breath weapons. What is nice is that this is the only AA that doesn't actually use up any of your party member's turns. All breath weapon attacks will have their damage halved, but in return, all your party members will have decreased DEF against everything else. A fair trade off, considering how much damage a breath attack can do to your party. Assisted AA =========== Restrict Shot (2 AP) Found in B1F. This is a key AA you will utilize to protect yourself from physical attacks throughout your adventure. Here, two back row members will "guard" two front row members. Any monster that tries to do a physical attack on these two front members will get nailed by a face-full of arrows, knives, shurikens or whatever your back row pair can throw at them (incidentally, if a back row member in unarmed, he will laughably throw a rock at the enemy). You front row pair will remain unharmed through all this. Spell Cancel (2 AP) You'll get this in B2F. Spell Cancel is handy if you've got one or two spell casters hiding in the back row; when they attempt to cast a spell, two ready back row members will throw stuff at them to cancel their spells, waste their turn as well as injure them. This one will take up the turns of two back row members for the duration of the round. Be warned; monsters use this AA too. Back Guard (2 AP) Found in B5F. This is basically the opposite of Restrict Shot; two front members will guard the entire back row against any monsters that can use physical attacks on the back row. Good against Gargoyles are other flying monsters, but useless otherwise, considering that it does take up two front member's turns. AA Guard (3 AP) Found in B4F. Virtually useless as far as I can tell; basically, everyone in the front will be on guard for any monster trying to do Offensive AAs such as Double Slash or Converge Attack; if they attempt it the front row will counter with back attacks for decent damage. The problem is, you'll very rarely find monsters capable of such a feat, so it's a waste of 3 AP to keep it equipped. Spell AA ======== Sweep Spell (3 AP) You will quickly get this in B2F. Using up all of the turns of the back row, this AA enlarges the area of a single spell. A spell that targets one character or monster will now target a row, while a spell that targets a row of characters or monsters will target everyone instead. Handy in the early going of the game when you only have rather weak spells; becomes quite useless once you get spells with better range. Spell Sword (2 AP) This is another learning spell that you can get in B9F. It's fairly powerful if you've got good attack spells. Later in the game you will find monsters that have spell immunity; this AA basically gets rid of that so your spells can hit them. A front row member will first strike an enemy for low damage while removing his spell immunity; next a back row member will cast a spell that's guaranteed to hit him. Note that no matter the range of the spell, it will only hit that one target. Use Megadeth with this AA for big damage on your bosses! __________ _B_U_S_I_N___Z_E_R_O__________________________________________/ MONSTERS \ \________________________________________________________________________/ Below is the (incomplete) list of monsters you will encounter in your adventure. This list is mostly to facilitate you in looking for monster bits to create spells with. Note that these aren't official names; I got the names of the old monsters from TOFL, but the rest I made up myself. Monster List ============ Name First Appearance Material ---------------------------------------------------------------- Archangel B10 Angel Wings Arch Priest B11 Priest's Hair Bishop B10 Bishop's Bracelet Giant B3 Giant's Flesh Undead Kobold B2 Rotten Flesh Gremlin B1 Broken Horn Vampire B8 Vampire's Claw Vampire Lord B11 Vampire's Claw Will O'Wisp B10 Spirit Essence Elder Demon La Thbade Devil's Horn Ogre B4 Broken Sword Orc King B5 Broken Sword Goblin B1 Broken Sword Goblin King B3 Broken Sword Iron Maiden B6 - Gargoyle B5 Devil's Horn Gas Dragon B3 Dragon Heart ??????? ??? ???? Chimera B8 Chimera's Head Greater Demon B10 Devil's Horn Gaze Hound B5 Hound's Ear Cerberus B4 - Centaur B5 Beast's Hair Gold Dragon La Thbade Dragon Scale Kobold B2 Broken Sword Succubus B6 - High Ninja B9 Ninja Hood Shade B3 Rotting Flesh Giant Spider B7 Cocoon Giant Toad B2 Frog Tongue ??????? ??? ???? Silver Slime B9 Slime Jelly Stonefly B10 Demon Egg ??????? ??? ???? Ghost B2 Spirit Essence Spell Demon La Thbade Devil Horn Nightmare B9 Beast's Hair Angel B8 Angel Wings Swordsman B11 Broken Sword Zombie B3 Rotting Flesh Orc B1 Broken Sword Hatamoto B8 Samurai's Beard Deathbringer La Thbade Broken Sword Headless B6 Headless' Head Undead Dragon B10 Undead Dragon Wing Dragonfly B3 Demon Egg ??????? ??? ???? Necromancer La Thbade Sorcerer's Earring Berserker La Thbade Broken Sword Harpy B1 Bogey Bird Claw High Wizard B11 Sorcerer's Earring Pied Piper B11 Pied Piper's Pipe Fuma Ninja B11 Ninja Hood Shogun B11 Samurai's Beard Bubbly Slime B1 Slime Goo Phantom B1 Eyeball Pixie B1 Pixie Wing Huge Spider A B1 Spider Web Huge Spider B B5 Spider Web Fire Giant B4 Giant's Tooth Fire Dragon B8 Dragon Scale ??????? ??? ???? ??????? ??? ???? ??????? ??? ???? ??????? ??? ???? Highwayman B3 Thief's Blood Acolyte B2 Priest's Hair ??????? ??? ???? Frost Giant B6 Giant's Flesh Poison Giant B7 Giant's Blood Boring Beetle B4 Demon Egg Bogey Cat B1 Bogey Cat Fur ??????? ??? ???? ??????? ??? ???? Phantom Thief A B9 Thief's Blood Phantom Thief B B7 Thief's Blood Phantom Thief C B9 Thief's Blood The High Master B7 Ninja's Hood ??????? ??? ???? Medusa B7 ???? Revenant B11 Spirit Essence Raver Lord B9 Broken Sword Lesser Demon B6 Devil Horn Red Slime B7 Slime Jelly Leprechaun B5 Leprechaun Mask Rogue B1 Thief's Blood Rotting Corpse B5 Rotting Flesh Werewolf B5 Werewolf Fang Wyvern B4 Eyeball Lv 1 Ninja B2 Ninja Hood Lv 1 Bishop B6 Bishop's Bracelet Lv 1 Priest B3 Priest's Hair Lv 1 Mage B4 Sorcerer's Earring Lv 3 Samurai B3 Samurai's Beard Lv 3 Fighter B1 Broken Sword Lv 4 Thief A B4 Thief's Blood Lv 4 Thief B B4 Thief's Blood Lv 5 Priestess B8 Priest's Hair Lv 6 Ninja B4 Ninja Hood Lv 7 Mage B7 Sorcerer's Earring ???????? ??? ???? Lv 8 Fighter B6 Broken Sword Lv 8 Priest B5 Priest's Hair Lv 10 Thief B8 Thief's Blood Lv 10 Bishop B10 Bishop's Bracelet ???????? ??? ???? ???????? ??? ???? Skedim B2 - Skedim B9 - ???????? ??? ???? Reaper B7 - Flesh Golem B9 - Majikimu B8 - ???????? ??? ???? Au-Rora B10 - Ashira B11 - Star Slime B11 - _____________ _B_U_S_I_N___Z_E_R_O_______________________________________/ WALKTHROUGH \ \________________________________________________________________________/ This walkthrough is meant to be as spoiler-free as possible (barring whatever has already been spoiled in the sections above, naturally). This section is only for the main quest at hand; side quests will be covered in the next section. I'll also list where each allied action is learned, in case you're missing some. On with the show! ____________________ / TOUR OF DUHAN \ \____________________/ As usual, the game kicks off with you arriving in the perpetually night-time city of Duhan, and get accosted with a weirdo (that's pretty much how TOFL started out too, come to think of it). You'll also meet with an elf priestess Ehrika. She's awfully conservative in her dressing, quite unlike the priestesses in TOFL, no? Before you hit the dungeon proper, the game will give you a grand tour of the facilities available in the city. It's not quite complete though; more locations will pop up after a while. TOFL veterans should have no trouble figuring what each location does, but this is for new players unfamiliar with the Wizardry Alternative system. First up is the tavern, Luna Light. You'll start off with a brief chat with a large Amazonian woman Veala and the barkeep (wow, I want the barkeep in my party instead, he looks cool). After chatting, select the top option and the Veala will join up, becoming your first NPC! She's a knight; you're not going to be able to make a knight so soon, so she's a keeper, despite being ugly as hell. She also comes with a handy pole arm weapon that can hit all the way from the back row, should you see the need to throw her behind for some reason. The tavern has the following options for :- 1) Quests - Lets you take on a side-quest. You can take up to five quests simultaneously. 2) Bulletin Board - Other adventurers will post hints for conquering the dungeon here. Check back here every now and then for more updates. 3) Finished Quests - Checks out the quests you have finished. 4) Trap Game - Here you can play a little trap game. For those who are unfamiliar, the game utilizes a series of random button presses to unlock trapped chests and dodge traps in the dungeon, and this trap game is a good place to train for that. In fact, there's a new addition from TOFL; besides training for free, you can pay 500G to play trap game. The longer you last, the more dark medals you earn, and these medals can be exchanged for some nice equipment. 5) Exit - Once you're done fooling around the tavern, choose this to leave this joint and check your next facility. Which would be the temple. You'll meet a rather freaky fellow who happens to be the head priest, and he'll be around when you need to get rid of status ailments, remove a death curse, and bring your character back to life. Note that this time, if you get cursed by a weapon, he's not your man; that is done elsewhere. After this you'll visit the inn where you'll meet the innkeeper for the first (and last) time. You'll also meet a red-robed mage Konde, and during conversation if you pick the first option he'll join your party, making him your second NPC! The inn allows your party to restore their health and magic points, as well as level up. That's right, you only level up when you rest at the inn. Next on the agenda is the guild. Here you can create new members to join your party, and add or remove existing PCs or NPCs. After a brief chat with a stately-looking fellow Belgrano (whom you'll be seeing pretty often from now on), your little tour guide priestess Ehrika will also join your party, making her the third NPC in your party! Feel free to create another two PCs to round out your party, or more if you want to toss an NPC or two out of your party. After that, it's finally time to bring your raggedy little party into the dungeon! ____________________ / B1F - EXTINCT CITY \ \____________________/ Allied Action - Double Slash, Restrict Shot, Front Guard, Rush Attack First of all, realize that your party starts off EXTREMELY weak. You won't be able to survive past three or four monsters at the start, so stay around the first area if you want to survive. You will first meet with a mysterious knight who will give you a magic gauntlet; that's going to be the main source of allied actions for the rest of the game. You can talk to the knight again by going straight north then take the east door. He'll fill you in on some miscellaneous info. The door to the west leads you to an encounter with an old hobbit Ingo (or gnome... or even dwarf, it's really hard to tell all these short races apart). He'll teach you all about treasure chests you'll encounter throughout the game from now on. Keep on bugging him for a while and he'll leave, and you'll get some decent treasure in the room he's in. Fight a few monsters, then head back to town to uncover a new facility, the Mage's Tower. Here you can bring all the grisly bits of the monsters you killed and make magic stones from them; and from these magic stones you can then learn new spells or power up old spells. You're going to visit this little spot pretty darn often, I'd reckon. Next head to the inn to meet with two little elf seers, Emilia and Ryute. Strange-looking as they are, they really are nice little girls. Go take a rest at the inn, you probably need it. When you leave, a goblin will come up and advertise his new shop. Go check it out now! Here you can sell your unwanted junk, identify unknown items, and remove cursed equipment. Later into the game you can also store your items here. Upon leaving another new spot will open up. This one is a one-time area, once you leave it and go elsewhere, it will be gone. You'll meet a young girl who will try to sell you stuff. The 700G small shield is a nice equipment, if you can afford it. Well, now that you've finally gotten the full tour of the place, go back to the dungeon already! Further into the dungeon you'll meet a female monk Earis. She'll be in your party in a little while, but for the moment proceed to the next area (if you're confident enough, that is). Here you'll find a blocked off door going west, a door to the east that's also blocked off, and a door going north. Not really much in a way of choice here. Check the rubble near the north door (marked as a red square) to find a little pouch. The next room goes roughly in a circle, with an exit to the east. Before you proceed to the exit, check the nearby rubble twice. A strange-looking fella will appear, and you'll give him the pouch you found earlier. The next room has three staircases all going up and towards the east. Take the middle one; you'll end up in a battle against two gremlins, a bogey cat and a harpy. Hopefully you'll be able to take them out; afterwards your new gauntlet will show a little reaction. Then the knight you met before will give you a transfer potion; use it to get back to town. There's two new areas in town now, the castle and a little housing area. Check both out for more story progression; you will eventually learn your first allied action, Double Slash! On the way back you'll see some commotion going on. Enter the dungeon and you'll meet some more characters, and you'll be offered a treasure of your choice as well as some money. Now return to where you left off. Along the way you'll meet Earis again, and this time she'll join your party for good! Back at the three staircases, take the south-most one (the north-most one is empty). Among the bones of this room you'll pick up two more AAs, Restrict Shot and Front Guard; this will be your major defense AAs for the rest of the game. Check out the few doors around here; the ones going west SEEM empty, but at the end on the south-most one you'll hear what seems to be some creepy sounds. That's actually a sign for a reaper door; you'll need one of your members to be possessed by the reaper to see this door, and that won't happen until B3F the earliest. If you explore the what's beyond the reaper door you will eventually net yourself a fairly good shield. The door going east leads to a well- guarded treasure. You'll meet a guard-type monster party for the first time here; they are white in color and basically stand on the spot to guard whatever is behind them. They do not go away, so the only way past them is to put a sword in their guts. This particular party is a rather large group of goblins and a goblin king; they shouldn't be too difficult if you've brought up your party well. Nab the unidentified armor and then head back to the three-staircase room. Go back up the middle one again to proceed. After a few rooms you'll reach a junction with doors going east and south. There's also a little note on the wall at the far end. Heed the note's advice and run through the nearby broken wall. You'll uncover a locked door here; it'll be a while before you can unlock it, so skip that and proceed east. Pick up a nice sword, then finally go south. Next up is a large area. Can't do much here for now, keep going south. At the southern portion of this area there's a door leading to a lever. Flip that to raise some platforms. Now go back a room and proceed along the new path. First take the south door. Next up is a little introduction to the twister pad (which you will grow to hate, trust me). On the east side of the room you can find a nice dagger as well as an eastern door leading to an altar. Nothing much here unless you've picked up a quest that can be finished here. The other door will eventually lead you to a lever. This one will open up a very nice shortcut that will allow you to skip much of the level! Handy. Go back to the large area and now take the final door going west. You've reached the stairs down! Going further west will take you to a few rooms with treasure and even an unmanned shop (those who have played TOFL might recognize this one). One of the more important items you can buy here is a rusted key, which opens red locked doors. However, being rusty as it is, it will break when you use it. So you have to keep restocking on this key. Further east of this shop will lead to the shortcut, which should take you quite close to the exit of the dungeon, if you need a break. While you're at the stairs going down to level 2, take some time to learn an AA, Rush Attack. Basically, you'll go into "learning mode" (you'll notice your character HP indicator will flash in multiple colors during battle) when you fight monster parties with two or more slimes or spiders. The best shadow type is of course the spider shadow monster party, since they are likely massive parties of slimes or spiders. Keep killing these using normal physical attacks and you will learn it after a while. __________________ / B2F - TWIN SHAFT \ \__________________/ Allied Action - Sweep Spell, Hold Attack, Spell Cancel If you were laughing at the monsters at the end of B1F, you can stop laughing; the monsters here are much, much tougher. You'll occasionally run into large packs of kobolds that just love to rush (if you don't front guard the rush you will suffer severe casualties, but if you do you won't have much in terms of attack... decisions, decisions...). You'll also meet ninjas for the first time here, as well as spell casters. Ninjas are a big problem because you WILL have trouble hitting them; make sure you have a good supply of spells. This floor is so named because it basically revolves around two shafts that you need to explore. As you enter, you'll immediately be faced with a fork going east and west, each leading to a different shaft. You will want to explore the west shaft first, so head over there. At the end of the west corridor you'll find a door going south. Rather than going in there however, turn north and run right into the broken wall there to get to the western shaft. At the floor you start off, go east to reach a guarded chest containing a robe. Just a single zombie, but he's got plenty of HP; fry him your spells. Going north from the shaft takes you to a bridge and a dead end, so skip that if you wish. Head back to the shaft and take the ladder down. Going west and south will lead you to the same corridor littered with jail cells. One of the cells will lead you to a big battle with eight harpies, but nothing of interest otherwise. Back at the shaft, going north will lead you to an empty room. Well, wasn't that a waste of time? Go climb up two floors. Up here the door south is locked; go either north or east (they both lead to the same place). There's another guardian monster here in the form of a Cerberus; he should go down quickly with double slash. Past the beastie you'll find a lever that will open up a staircase elsewhere. You're done with the shaft here; go back down to the middle floor. Now go south back to where you came, and go south into the door you skipped. That's where the stairs you just opened is located. At the far end of the next few rooms is a lever, which you, of course, flip. Now go back to the entrance of this floor and take the east fork. At the far end of the corridor you MAY spot a strange-looking door going east. This is a reaper door, which usually only appears when at least one of your party is possessed by the reaper. Not sure why this one is visible though. Enter and explore the area; there's nothing much behind it other than a series of rooms with a treasure chest in one of them. Upon leaving the room the door will disappear. Anyway, take the door north to the east shaft. Take the west door and check the dead body slumped on the wall to score yourself another new AA, Sweep Spell. It's a handy little AA that extends the range of your spells. Anyhow, back to the shaft; the other door going north is locked, so take the ladder down. Here the south door leads to a nice shortcut, but you have to unlock it first! North is a treasure chest, and east is an empty cell. Great, another time waster! Climb the ladder up the shaft two floors. Take the door going east or south (they both lead to the same long corridor). The south-west end of the corridor is a door leading to a battle with a bunch of goblins. Once you beat them all you can nab whatever they're guarding (and all those goblins are guarding is... one antidote? It's true, goblins are just plain dumb). Go back out and check out the door at the other end of the corridor (northeast). Here a poor soul will teach you another new AA, Hold Attack. A must for ninja-slaying! Now go back to the shaft and take the north door. It eventually leads to a bridge (which you lowered when you flipped the lever earlier). At the end of the bridge is a room with yet another lever. Flip that and a pit appears nearby. Okay, stop right now and go back to town and rest. Level up for a bit afterwards. Why? Because once you jump down this pit, your first real boss battle will occur, and it is going to be TOUGH. All ready? Well, hop into the pit then. After dropping a few levels, you'll reach a scene of a massacre, and after some gruesome events (wow, I figured he would last longer than that), your big boss battle will occur. -=Skedim=- The very first thing you should do is front guard, because the very first thing he will do is rush! Getting nailed by his rush is almost guaranteed to wipe out your party almost immediately. Once you've whittled away the undead in front of him, he'll start attacking. He can do double action (basically act twice a round). His most annoying ability is to climb the ceiling and drop down behind your party, immediately reversing your ranks. Otherwise he isn't so hard with restrict shot handy. If you have NPCs in your party they'll all start getting chatty for a while. You can then go over to the flashing dead body to earn yourself another AA of utmost importance, Spell Cancel. Past this room, head over to the lever and flip it to open a little shortcut, then go up the stairs to reach the floor exit. _______________________ / B3F - GREAT SANCTUARY \ \_______________________/ Allied Action - Stun Attack Great Sanctuary? More like old and dusty sanctuary if you ask me. This one is probably your biggest floor yet; be prepared to spend a while here. This is also the first floor where the reaper will start appearing if you spend too much time exploring. Trust me, you won't clear this floor before he appears! From where you start off, the door going east is locked, and the path going west is blocked off. Well, not much choice then is there? Next area is a large oval room. Again, going west is a dead end, so proceed east instead. You'll end up going up about three floors. Oh, watch out for pits. Along the way you can pick up a new AA, Stun Attack. Not too useful, but nice to have nevertheless. At the top you'll help out your short little friend against two ninjas (which should not take you very long with Hold Attack and Restrict Shot). Go south first. Another short friend of yours will give you another artifact. Wow, everyone is feeling generous today. Keep going after that to reach a large room with doors going north, west and south. The south door will lead you back the way to came, so go check out the north door first. Past the twister go east, and in the next room with another twister, go north. There's a chest and a pit here; loot the former, ignore the latter (the pit is linked to a dungeon quest you'll do later). Go back out of the room and head east. A few rooms later you'll be at the scene of another massacre, and you'll also get a glimpse the game's main villainess, Au-Rora. After this, take the north door; there's a lever here, flip it. Now go south. You will eventually meet a guardian monster; a fairly tough combo of two ogres and a orc king (the orc king can cast spells). Use restrict shot and double slash (the spells used by the orc king is weak enough to be negligible). Now back track about seven rooms to the large room with a door going west that you skipped earlier and go in there. You'll recognize this room from when you pulled the lever earlier; you can now descend the staircase here to the almost identical round area below. Go south here and flip the lever to open up a handy shortcut. Back in the main circular room, there's a gap for you to jump down to the floor below; do so. Now go west and proceed south. West is a small twister room that seem to lead to a dead end. Hear that growling? That's a reaper door. If you're possessed, go in and run around until you find the treasure (it's a decent amulet). Otherwise go back and run through the east wall. This will take you back fairly close to the entrance of this floor. Go back there and take the path west (which used to be blocked). From here keep going west until you find a lever to pull; this will make the stairs in the three-floor circular room accessible. Head back there, go up a floor and take the north door you missed. Off to the next floor you go! _______________________ / B4F - WAY OF THE LAVA \ \_______________________/ Allied Action - Back Attack, AA Guard, Deploy Phew, it's hot in here. Monsters here are, once again, very much harder than the floor above. Be especially careful for spider parties; the large group of spiders also have the ability to rush, and will take out half your party in a flash if you're not careful. Check out the area you're in. Nab the treasure in one corner and take the only available door west. The first few rooms are pretty straightforward; find a lever, flip it, proceed along the newly opened path, find the next lever, flip, proceed, repeat ad nauseum. Near the end of this series of rooms you'll find a little frozen room with a guardian beast. It's your first encounter with a werewolf! He's in the absurdly fast category, so normal attacks will likely miss. Slap 'em sideways with hold attack while using restrict shot to protect yourself. Easy! Afterwards check the sphere he was guarding; a new AA, Back Attack, is now yours! Keep going. Next up you'll reach a little reservoir. Another nasty monster, the Succubus, will take you on next. She's a nasty spell caster, and she can call for help as well, so finish her quickly with double slash and spell cancel. After the battle, take the door south. At the next room go east for a treasure chest and a locked door. Nothing much you can do about the door for now, so just nab the chest and go back a room, then take the south door. You'll eventually meet the evil queen Au-Rora face-to-face here. At this complete wreckage of a room, proceed east. Keep going and you will eventually reach another cold room. The beastie here is a poison giant, and is probably your greatest challenge thus far; he's got absurd defense, very high spell tolerance, and hits VERY hard. Use restrict shot, sweep your yaiba through your front row then hit 'em with double slash. He'll go down after a while. Behind him is another cold sphere; this one will net you the allied action, AA Guard, where your front guys will counter any attempted AAs on your party. Go back the way you came. There's a reaper door just one room back, if you haven't noticed already. There's a piece of armor inside. Return back to the ruined room and take the door north this time; this will take you to stairs going down, eventually to a lever. Flip that to drain the pool where you fought the succubus. Go down the stairs and flip the switch there to open up some staircases. Now proceed east. After a little chat, check the north part of the room for a broken wall with some decent treasure behind it. Keep going east; once you go down the staircase steer to the south. You'll bump into some goblins being harassed by thieves; go save their green behinds. Keep going south after that. The corridor will eventually reach all the way back to the start of the floor, but it's locked. You'll need to find a key first. The door going east here is empty, by the one going west is your last cold room. This monster here is a headless; very powerful, but not as powerful as the poison giant you fought earlier. Restrict shot and double slash should take him out fast. This cold sphere will net you Deploy; uber handy as B5F has quite a number of breath weapon users roaming about! Go back north and go east this time. There's two doors here going north and south, as well as the floor exit down to level B5F. Check out the south door first; it's a teleporter going straight up to B1! But don't start celebrating yet, it's locked from the inside! You'll be given a quest to unlock the door here and thus opening a B1 to B4 shortcut. Well, nothing much you can do except head back down to B4. The door on the opposite side holds some gremlins; they are actually the ones with the key you need, but you'll have to accept their quest too. They want a certain artifact on the floor below, so no choice right now except to head down there. ___________________ / B5F - LOST SHRINE \ \___________________/ Allied Actions - Back Guard Too bad Twin Shaft was already taken, or else you'd call this floor Twin Shrines. There's really two map areas here, separated by teleporters, and both are fairly similar. From where you start off, you can go north, east and west. North will eventually be your shortcut out of the level, but of course, it's not available now, so skip that for the moment and go west. Whoa, lotsa twisters here. These are all 180-turn twisters, meaning you can go ahead by walking in with your back turned. There's really only one way out, and that's north, but directly south of that door is a reaper door. Explore that if possible for a powerful morning star. North you go. This room has a locked door to the west and doors going north and east. Go north first. There's a guardian here; it's a massive party of leprechauns. They do nothing but rush, so front guard, and have your back row spell extend a teal to knock them all silly. Search whatever they're guarding for an artifact. That's the artifact the gremlins wanted; return back to B4 and give it to them to claim yourself the all-important Ingo's Key! You can double back to their room to claim a helmet too. Use the teleporter up to B1 and unlock the door to clear the other quest as well. Now you can go and re-explore B1F to B4F to unlock all the doors with silver locks if you want more loot. The most important locked door is east of the B3 entrance. Here you get a warp that goes down a massive seven floors to B10F, but of course it's locked. However, you can nab yourself another NPC, Deulgoe, here. Need a ninja? He's your man. All done? Let's continue. Go back to where you found the artifact and take the door east. You're now in a long corridor going east. Take the door north first and flip the lever. Nothing of interest in the door to the south, so proceed further east. The next room holds the teleporter to the "other" shrine, but it's in flames so skip it and keep going. The next room is a bit of a crossroad, but check the rubble in the center for a new AA, Back Guard. This one is basically the opposite of restrict shot as your front row protects your back row instead of the other way round. Now go east. Nothing much here, except a monster guarding a treasure chest. It's a poison giant and a medusa; take care of the giant first (he should be easy by now) and use stun attack on the medusa. Should be over soon enough. Now go back to the crossroad room. The path south will lead you back to the entrance of this level, so go west. There will be staircases here leading you to the other side of the map, but where you want to go is further up; there's a set of stairs that go up in between the other two staircases. On either side are rooms leading to pits; the east pit will drop to a switch that will remove the flames around the teleporter, and the west pit drops to a treasure chest (it contains a kickass katana). Drop down one, then back track and drop down the other. Once done, head over to the teleporter to warp to the "other" shrine. In the next shrine, flames guard the door going east, so go south (like you had a choice?). You'll eventually reach a similar teleporter; this one will take you back to the previous shrine, so skip that for the moment. Next room has doors going north and east; go east first. The room after that room has a twister and pools of toxic mush all around. Claim the treasure here and go back a room, then this time go north. Here there are stairs going up, then down. At the very top you may notice a gap you can jump down from; skip that for now and go down the stairs to the next area. You'll be in a long corridor (similar to the one on the other shrine). First go into the north door and flip the lever there to remove the flames to the door in the west (providing a little shortcut for you) then go east. The next area is strangely unmappable; beware of traps. First try the door south. You will reach a strange-looking room and get forced into a battle with a new monster, a pair of iron maidens. Yet another monster in the uber-fast category, so use hold attack to take care of them. Nab their monster bits and return to the unmappable room and go east this time. Just a trapped chest here with a transfer potion, no biggie. You've now explored as much as you can of this shrine. Now go back to the stairs and jump down the gap. You'll now find another set of stairs going north and south; go south first. You'll find a warp here; don't bother taking it as it will just take you back a few rooms. Go on ahead to the next room. There's nothing here really, I just lead you here for some good old-fashioned plot advancement! Go back down and take the stairs north. Keep going and you'll eventually find a lever which you of course, will flip. Don't worry, you would not have seen where that platform is. But wait! Before you leave, look carefully; one of the walls is broken. Run through it and take the teleporter you find. Flip the lever you find here; this will open up the shortcut from the entrance to the exit. Wait, did you say exit? Yeah, just take the door here and you'll be at the exit down to level B6F! There's also an absolutely useless shortcut here that goes up to B3, just so you know. __________________________ / B6F - ANCIENT METROPOLIS \ \__________________________/ Allied Actions - Converge Attack, Spell Shell Ah, a nice change of scenery from the boring drab that was B5F. Don't appreciate the scenery all that much; B6F is quite possibly the most annoying stage in the game. A quick exploration of the initial area will show you why; there are numerous rooms that are chock full of traps. To proceed, most of these rooms require you to step on a pressure pad on one side of the room, then proceed to the inconveniently-placed exit on the other side of the room. Every step of the way will yield traps of some sort. Sounds bad? Having a thief or a noble thief, or just that trap-warding spell will help somewhat. Anyways... First room in front of you holds a teleporter that will whisk you right to the end of this level; too bad it's blocked by barriers (you didn't think it was THAT easy, did you?). Ignore it and go down the stairs. Here's the start of your nightmares. Locate the pressure pad on the east side of the room. The door here is one long dead end, but there's a claw weapon on the first lamp you pass by. Step on the pad, then head north through the now barrier-less path. Next room is thankfully without barriers and pads, so just walk right through to the north door. Next room is quite similar to the first one, with a pad in the north-west corner of the room and the exit in the north. Take a deep breath, then proceed to the pad, and next to the exit. No pads to step on here, just a door in the north and west. Ignore the door to the north; it will lead to the dead end previously mentioned. It's also a one-way door, so if you do exit through the north you'll have to go back and do the last few rooms AGAIN. So don't make the same mistake I did. Take the door west. This next area is a series of nine rooms arranged in a three-by-three pattern. There are twisting pads in the center of most of these, and traps on some of the corners of each room. Explore all nine rooms if you wish; you'll need to do some walking since a lot of the doors here are one-way doors, so you usually will have to go the long way round. The south-eastern room has an exit south that will lead to treasure. There's also an exit in the south-western room (going south) but ignore that for the moment. Head to the north-western room and take the exit west first. You'll find yourself in front of three staircases. Take the center one first; this will lead to a room with a lever which you should hit. This will lower some gold platforms in a room you've no doubt have not encountered yet. Note that these will reset if you leave the level; so don't forget to hit them again if you're forced to leave (mostly likely due to reaper appearances). Head back down and then take the southern-most staircase. Yes, it's more of THOSE rooms again. Step of the pad in the south-west corner of the room (ignore the door there) then proceed south into another trap room. No pads to push here, proceed south. Same deal here; hit the pad on the south-west corner (ignore the door here too), proceed south into another trap room, go south again. You're in a wide corridor. Go east from here. Proceed to the next area, up and down the stairs, until you reach a guarded room. Just a bunch of ninjas, shouldn't be a big deal if you've been leveling up properly. Inside is another switch which lowers some more gold platforms. The door north of the room seems to lead to a dead end, but that's actually the (currently blocked) exit to this floor. Nothing much you can do here at the moment, so proceed back to the wide corridor. Wait, you're stuck? No, the horror! Actually, the western-most wall of the corridor is a breakable wall, so charge into it to proceed. There's a reaper door to the south-west if you're interested in a nice pair of boots. Go north through the door here. There's another guarded room to with west with more ninjas. Behind them is the final lever room; hit the lever there to lower the last set of golden platforms. Leave the room and go north and check the decor in the corner to net another handy allied action, Converge Attack! Proceed to through the other west door (if you can't tell by now, the doors to the east take you back to the second set of trap rooms). Follow the path and ignore the locked doors and eventually you'll bump into a battle with two warriors then a specter, neither of which are all that hard. At the end of the battle you'll net yourself a new AA, Spell Shell, and another new NPC for your party! She's Aoi, a nice little Samurai girl. Keep going after that and you'll end up descending the northern-most staircase of the three staircase room. Now your next destination is that pretty golden platform room. Go back to the 3x3 room and take the south-western exit you've bypassed. After some walking you'll be in a four-staircase room. When you are at the top you can jump down but don't do that just yet. Keep going and you'll reach the room with all the golden platforms. The door to the west lead to treasure, the door to the south leads to a little story encounter, the door to the east leads to... nothing? Look carefully, there's a crack on the east wall. You know what to do. Behind that you'll flip the all-important switch that removes all the barriers barring you from the exit. To leave the area, go back to the four-staircase room, and now drop off when you're at the top. You should know where you are; proceed east to where you flipped the second lever. Incidentally, the teleporter in the very first room of this floor will take you to this lever room; a very nice shortcut, no? Now you can take the north door, past the now barrier-less path which will lead you to the next floor, and that is... _______________________ / B7F - DEN OF ORGANISM \ \_______________________/ Allied Actions - Sweep Attack, Jump Attack Eww... seems like an RPG staple these days to have you clear a dungeon that look like monster innards, eh? Anyway, this dungeon is somewhat convoluted, so follow the walkthrough carefully lest you get completely lost. Leave the room you're in to explore the larger outer room. The big eye-thingy by the south door has a helmet you can use. Both the east and west door here lead to dead ends, so ignore those for the moment and take the south door. The next room is a circular ring room; rush at the broken walls here to get to the south-west part for some treasure, then keep going east. Wade through all the mulch here and drop down below. There isn't much of a choice here, so keep going. After a brief chat with the white elf seer, search the big eye in the corner to get the Sweep Attack AA. Wish you had this when you were fighting those rows upon rows of insects and kobolds, eh? Past this room you'll be in a big circular room with ribcage aplenty. Sick. There's a teleporter above if you climb the ribcages, but ignore that for the moment and take the south door and drop down that hole. Here you'll notice that a big blob eye thingy is blocking a door. Well, not much choice here except go north, then east. A circular room here, and there's a breakable wall leading to a door going north. Ignore that for the moment and take the other door in this room that leads south. After a long chat to further the story, you'll be chucked into a battle with a rather familiar beastie... -=Reaper=- Death has learned some new tricks since your last encounter with him in TOFL. He uses a breath weapon that HURTS; you would want to deploy. He'll also attack the front row with a nasty physical attack and the back row with Teal. Injure him enough and he'll attempt Underworld Cry (causes fear to the whole party). That one is unblockable, unfortunately. He does seem to favor physical attacks more than magic, but that could just be me. Use spell cancel or restrict shot paired with deploy (and double slash if you can). He's not very hard if you don't get nailed by Underworld Cry too often. After that battle, I'd personally suggest you head back to town to rest and save. The castle is open again so you can proceed there and get more of the story as well as a new AA, Jump Attack! Back to B7F. From the entrance, return to the ribcage room and take the teleporter above that you skipped earlier. Drop down and proceed to the next teleporter. You're now in... the ribcage room again? Well not really, it's another one. This teleporter takes you back a room, so skip that and go down to the circular floor below. The door south leads to a drop off that takes you to the room east of the entrance, so that you can skip as well. The door east here takes you to a pit, which you should hop into. The room west is a dead end, to take the east door and hop into the next pit (it's hidden). Another same room? This time east is dead end, west is your next drop off. You're at the bottom now. East is blocked off, so go west. From here going south will net you a nice bow, but only for fighters, knights or noble thieves. There's a breakable wall to the east of the chest. One big room, then one room with a red floor. This particular room is filled with traps but there's a nice weapon for knights in the (trapped) chest here. Keep going to reach a lever and flip that. Proceed west and you'll be back to the room just before the one where you fought the reaper. This time take the north door and hop into the teleporter here. Past a room full of toxic pools and you'll next be in a huge room that stretch three floors up. Get to the top via the walkways. The south door leads to a series of rooms with a monster guarding a chest. It's a row of slimes, a bishop and an iron maiden. Time to use that Sweep Attack AA you just learned! Combo that with Spell Cancel and this battle is pretty much won. And your reward? A trapped chest with... a cursed shield. Now wasn't that rather pointless? Well, the monster is also guarding something else; there is a reaper room right behind him with a good piece of armor. Now you can go back and take the north door; this will eventually lead you back the room west of the entrance. It's a good time to take a breather. All done? Retrace your steps back to the ribcage/teleporter room. Take the teleporter and drop down, as usual. You'll now notice the ribcage path you opened when you flipped the lever a while back; proceed there and take the teleporter. The door north is locked, so proceed south to a slimy pit of a room. a trap-filled slimy pit of a room. Past this is your THIRD ribcage/teleporter room. Well it's also going to be your last ribcage room since the exit to this floor is just a few rooms south of here! But before you do, hop into the teleporter and flip the switch in the next room. This will unblock two doors. First door is a few rooms before your reaper battle. To get there, head to the first ribcage/teleporter room and go south, down into the pit. The door to the south is now open, and guarded by a beastie, Nightmare. His main attack is his breath weapon, which hits pretty hard, and he's got double action, so he can potentially hit you with two breath attacks in one round! His other attacks are fairly weak otherwise, and he's got low HP. Deploy, restrict attack, and he's done for. Take the teleporter here to go right to the exit. It's a pretty long walk, but is still a decent shortcut. The other unblocked door is at room with the alternating dead end and pit drop. If you don't remember, it's accessible by going to the second ribcage and teleporter room, then go east and drop down. The unblocked door leads to a chest with a rather good helmet. However it's a long walk back, so it's up to you whether you want to go through all the trouble or not. In any case, your next destination is... ________________________ / B8F - THE COLEOPTERANS \ \________________________/ Allied Action - Hold Double Slash What the hell is a Coleopteran anyway? Should have just called the "HR Giger Floor" instead. We're just waiting for aliens to pop out of the walls now! While this stage isn't too bad, and nowhere near as convoluted as B7F, there's one new problem... the reaper now appears alarmingly fast (he's probably terribly annoyed that you bashed him hard a floor back). So be prepared to high-tail back to the entrance to reset the reaper countdown every now and then. Anyhow, proceed past the bridge to the teleporter ahead. The next few rooms are heavily trapped, so be careful. At the next big room with exits on all sides, search the center... uh... thingy to pick up a new AA, Hold Double Slash. Very powerful for single monsters, despite using up four character's turns. The next few rooms are basically nine interconnected rooms arranged in a three-by-three fashion. The Hold Double Slash room is at the center. The placement of the obstacles here seem to mean something, does it not? Well it doesn't, not that I know of, anyway. Head to the north-east room and take the east exit, and follow the path until it gets to a cross- shaped room with a twister tile in the center. Going south takes you to a one-way trip back to the 3x3 room, so go east instead. You'll be thrust into a fight with a couple of angels (they look nasty, but looks can be deceiving). After the battle check the object in the south-east corner of the room for a nice new throwing knife for your weapon-deprived back row. Up next is a nasty combo of twisters, traps and invisible pits. The main idea here is to fall into one of the southern pits. Below, locate a broken wall and bust through it, then flip the switch inside. This opens up the blocked door directly east of the 3x3 room, which I'll go into detail later. Go take the ladder back up and proceed to the door at the south-east corner of this area. There's a lever here that drains the pool you saw a while back. There's another door in the area that goes west into another pool room (undrained); you will have to leave that for later. Before you go down the drained pool, head over to the newly unblocked room. Inside is a VERY handy shortcut that allows you to go back to B5F. At B5F examine the rubble near the teleporter to lower the platform; no more running through B6F and B7F! New shortcut aside, head back to the pool room and proceed down. Below are doors going north, east, northwest and southwest, as well as a trapped chest containing a nice little amulet for your spell casters. Go take the east door. Seems to be a dead end, but right in front of you is the familiar grunting of a reaper door. There's also a crumbly wall nearby. Behind you'll eventually reach a trapped chest (it's been a while since you've found an untrapped chest, no?) with a not-so-powerful axe, as well as another broken wall that will lead you to the area behind the north door. There's a guarded room here, and this little beastie is a combo of a vampire lord and two corpses. Use restrict shot; the vampire lord's touch can level drain! He's also got massive HP, so expect this battle to last a while. Note that everyone here is undead; hopefully you have some magical weapons in hand, or a good spell or two. The room they are guarding contains a better axe, so nab it and head back to the big room again. The northwest door is a dead end with a locked door, so skip that and take the final unexplored door, the southwest door. That will lead you to more doors, one going west, one going south. The south door leads to an empty room, so take the west one first and flip the lever there to drain the second pool. As you leave the room, something evil this way comes; you'll find out what soon enough. Head over to the second pool (west of the twister/pit/trap room, if you've forgotten). There's a few ominous cut scenes here which eventually leads to a massive boss battle with... -=Majikimu=- Your main target is, of course, the ugly stitched up demon Majikimu at the back row. He doesn't really do anything until he gets to the front row; but when he does he'll start doing double actions, which is fairly annoying but manageable. He will repeatedly call for reinforcements, so fighting those are a lost cause; focus all your attacks on him once he's up front. You know he's about to go down when he starts splitting into two; now only magical weapons or spells can hit him. Use restrict shot when he's up close, his physical attacks can cause paralysis. Not too hard if you've brought your party up well. Moving right along. You'll find doors going south and west; take the south door first. You'll meet a guardian monster, an undead dragon. If you're outta juice after the Stitched Demon battle, go back to rest before fighting this nasty. He's undead, so use magic or magic weapons. As with all dragons, deploy. Should be child's play after beating the Stitched Demon. Beyond this room you'll pick up Vile, that female knight you've been seeing a lot of lately. There's also a chest here with a massively powerful sword. Now backtrack and take the door west. It's the exit! Short level, this is. __________________ / B9F - EVIL DEITY \ \__________________/ Allied Action - Create Shadows, Dispel Magic, Triple Slash, Spell Sword Nice floor, though I have no freaking clue where all that sunlight is coming from. I mean, you ARE nine floors underground, aren't you? Moving ahead. The next few rooms are fairly straightforward so there's no real explanation required. You will eventually meet the Au-Rora again; now go back to town (trust me). The castle is open again, go in and watch the scene. You will net yourself an absurdly powerful AA, Create Shadows. Afterwards, upon leaving the castle, you will meet up with Emilia and Ryute; one of them will offer to join you. The first option nets you Emilia (the one in red), second option Ryute (one in white). Both are mages, but have different spells and stats; pick whichever you want! Back to where you left off; just keep going. Don't miss the fairly good monk/ninja armor in one of the side corridors. You will next reach a corridor with a broken wall on the side; this will reveal two doors going north and south. The door going east before the broken wall and the door going south both lead to the same room, which is empty. Still rather straightforward. Hey, where's the challenge? You'll eventually reach a big room comprised of three floors, with exits going north and south at the lowest floor, and an exit going east at the highest floor. Check the higher door first; it's pretty much a dead end, but hidden behind a broken wall here is a very nice shield. Now go to the lower floor and take the south door. Here there's three doors here going east, with the north-most one locked. Take the middle one to pick up a new AA, Dispel Magic (disables use of attack magic). The last door going east looks empty, but the requisite Reaper Door is here. Inside is a nice little ring if you can find it. Finally proceed to the north door. It forks east and west here; the west leads to a little room that's blocked by a barrier. Make a mental note of that and proceed east. There's three staircases going up, leading to three doors going east; all of them with a teleporter inside. It's a little teleporter trick here; taking the wrong teleporter may send you right back to the entrance. First, you may take any of the three teleporters. They will take you to a series of four square rooms, one center room, and rooms to the north, east and south of it. You'll appear in different rooms depending on which teleporter you take. The next teleporter you want to take is the south-most one. Now you're in a series of three square rooms, arranged in a column. Again, take the south-most teleporter. You're in a throne-room-ish area now; watch the scene and then jump into this teleporter. You'll appear in a room identical to the last one, but the teleporter here is guarded by a flesh golem. Hey, remember him? This guy has an extremely nasty physical attack, but strangely enough he uses spells much more often, so spell cancel. This guy has insane defense; sweep a yaiba spell on your front row first. What, no golem flesh? Jump into the teleporter. Another identical room, another guarded teleporter, ANOTHER flesh golem. Repeat the drill. One warp later, and it's ANOTHER IDENTICAL ROOM (well almost, there's a chest with a good shield in one corner), ANOTHER GUARDED TELEPORTER and... yeah, you guessed it, ANOTHER FLESH GOLEM. Well, take a breather after this... no more flesh golem! Take the warp here to reach a big long room where an brief encounter will net you a new AA, Triple Slash, but it comes with a price... -=Skedim=- Yipes, him again?! He's obviously beefed up since you last saw him, so he's no less annoying. In fact, he's gained a new trick; his very first attack can paralyze your ENTIRE PARTY for a round or two. There's no blocking it either, and he'll do it every couple of rounds afterwards for massive damage. Once you take out the three fighters, he'll move to the front and start using his breath attacks (usually twice) as well as some hard-hitting physical attacks. Deploy, then hit him hard with whatever you have and he should go down in a hurry. After the battle, that roided-up dwarf Veltan joins your party (better late than never, I suppose). Take the final teleporter. You're now inside the little room you passed by earlier. Flip to switch to remove the barrier for a much-needed shortcut. Head back to town for some R&R and story progression, and yet another new member in Belgrano. He's a Paladin, and you probably can't make one yet, so he's VERY handy to have in your party. Anyway, back at B9. While you're here, hunt down spider-type monsters; they will usually be massive groups of slimes. If you attack these groups you will realize that you're learning something! Keep at it to gain a new AA, Spell Sword. At the entrance of B9 you'll notice that the barriers on either sides near the entrance have disappeared, allowing you to drop down to pick up a fine longbow. From this point take the one-way door south and after a short walk (you should know where you are) you'll be at the little room again, all ready to descend to... _________________________ / B10F - CRYSTALLIZE CITY \ \_________________________/ Allied Actions - None Almost there... again, you just have to wonder where all the lights are coming from, now being ten floors underground! You'll start of in a huge room with exits going west, north and south (the latter doors are upstairs). The north door is locked. First take the south door. There's a little pouch on the floor, but as you go pick it up you'll be jumped by some wimpy monsters. Hmm... I guess it's a decoy? Finally take the door going west. Ignore the door ahead (it's an empty room) and proceed ahead. Pretty straightforward so far. There's staircase up ahead, but you'll have to look for a switch so you can use it, so make a mental note for later. You will eventually reach a huge room with doors going north, east and west (the east and west doors are downstairs). Going north will eventually net you a rather meh sword, so take it if you're feeling bored. The door going west leads to another currently-inaccessible staircase, so go east, and in the next room go east again (not really much of a choice, all the other doors here are locked). Now go north and nab a nice strong shield while admiring the hole in the ground. Okay, enough sightseeing. Keep going ahead to meet a familiar face, and a new artifact for your collection. The doors going east lead to the same small room with a broken wall you can't break from this side, so take the south door instead. Keep going south to net you an amulet only a samurai can equip. Now go back a couple of rooms; notice that there's a broken wall here; explore it to find this floor's reaper door. Afterwards, take the east door. Upon reaching the room with doors going north and south, take the south door. You'll be in a dark room that doesn't seem to appear on the map! If you stumble around going south you will eventually reach a teleporter that will take you to a large room with three doors going west and one door going east. The east door takes you back to familiar ground, so be a little adventurous and try the west doors. The center one is the most important, as it nets you the gold key, that allows you to open all the gold locked doors throughout the dungeon! This will also allow you to use the shortcut from B3 to B10 (where you got your ninja friend). The other two doors lead to levers that open up two staircases for you to use. Now go back to the junction leading to the dark rooms and this time go north. Here you'll find one of the staircases you just opened up. Climb it to reach another lever, and flip that too. You'll unblock a corridor near the end of this floor. Go back down the stairs and go west. The door going east here leads to an empty room, so take the door going west. There's a guard monster up ahead, and it's the good old pied piper from TOFL! He's of no challenge whatsoever, though. Beyond him is a weak little shield and a broken wall that you should be familiar with. Now go back a few rooms and locate the staircase you opened. That leads to a lever that opens another staircase (that's the one west of the large circular room). There's a teleporter here that will take you to a new area, a corridor which you unblocked earlier. Upon reaching a column of light, your battle with the evil queen Au-Rora is upon you! -=Au-Rora=- She's predominantly a spell caster (Megadeth is her particular favorite) so spell cancel her to kingdom come. Take out the front row of iron maidens first, then focus on her, and then finally the will-o-wisps (use sweep attack if you're fast enough). Too darn easy! Once you've beaten her and her minions to pulp, step into the light and you'll be off to... _________________________ / B11F - Incongruity Hole \ \_________________________/ Allied Actions - None Here you are, the last stage. You probably won't need any help in this stage since it's straightforward to a fault. Basically, you just go down, down and... down some more. Needless to say, the monsters here are pretty darn strong, so your walk down isn't going to be as easy as it sounds. About three floors down, you'll reach a little teleporter puzzle. Basically you need to get to the teleporter on the other side of the large area, but there are invisible teleporters along the path that will warp you back. Hint: get to that nice-looking pad in the center then go straight ahead. Right past that, it's end boss time. Gear up your loins, it's... -=Ashira=- Don't use spells unless you destroy the two pillars on either side of her; their purpose is to constantly spell cancel. Actually, you too should constantly spell cancel, since you can't block her physical attacks anyway. If you can do three AAs, use Spell Sword + Double Slash (the enhanced one) + Spell Cancel. If you can only do two, or need to use a healer, use Triple Slash + Spell Cancel. Strangely easy for a final boss, don't you think? Congratulations, you've completed Busin Zero, Wizardry Alternative Neo! Sit back and watch the rather short and crappy ending! The piano piece is rather nice though. After the ending you can save the game. If you load the completed save game, you'll spot a new entry in town. Yeah, it's a bonus dungeon called... uh... ___________________________ / Bonus Dungeon - La Thbade \ \___________________________/ This dungeon is as tough to clear as it is to pronounce. It's basically totally randomized, with every floor using one of the graphics of a certain floor of the main dungeon. The floor is randomly littered with traps, and it's also chock full of insanely strong monsters, of course. To proceed, simply look for a warp that's sorta spiraling upwards - these could be ANYWHERE, from right by the warp you came in from, to rooms and rooms away. La Thbade is fifty floors tall. Every ten floors, there's a miniboss (the room they appear in look different from the rest of the floor). They are just a randomized group of monsters, nothing really challenging. At the 50th floor however, you will challenge a rather familiar foe... -=Nine Tails=- Yes, it's that thing from the TOFL endless dungeon. Thanks to the massive amount of levels you've built on your way up here, you should have no problems destroying him utterly. _____________ _B_U_S_I_N___Z_E_R_O_______________________________________/ SIDE-QUESTS \ \________________________________________________________________________/ Quests can be obtained in the Luna Light tavern. Note that the quests do not appear in the order listed below, so don't worry if some quests did not pop up at first; they'll appear later after you've gone down a few more floors or cleared some other quests. Note that some quests are time-limiting; these are marked with big red crossed swords. Usually you will be given a certain number of days to complete it, or else you will fail the quest. Special thanks go out to theCrimsonDiablo for providing EVERY (yes EVERY ONE) of these subquests. <> 1) -=A Full Party=- This one takes the cake as being the easiest sub-quest ever in an RPG; simply have a full party of six, then go back to the tavern and you'll instantly finish it! Easy money. Reward - 500 G 2) -=Create a Creta Stone=- This little pixie girl wants a Creta stone and she wants it now! Go make one (the ingredients are all available in B1 itself), keep it in your inventory, and then take this quest to instantly finish it. Reward - Accuracy Amulet (Accuracy +3) 3) -=Her Lost Possession=- To clear this one, simple head over to the shrine area in B1F; it's just past the room where you encountered twisters for the first time. When you're there just examine the altar and you're done. Reward - Darkness Medal 4) -=Create a Healing Spring Pt.1=- Your job here is to create a spring, which restores either HP or MP (the client will let you choose when you take the job; first option is HP, second option MP). I'd suggest an MP spring myself; you can always have a priest heal your party, then use the MP spring. The proposed spring room is in B1, east of where you saw the sign teaching you how to break crumbly walls for the first time. In the room examine the little stream by the side to create your spring of choice. Then go back to the tavern to complete you quest. You have two days to take the job; if you don't do it on time rivals will appear and poison the water and you will fail. Reward - Leap Stone (teaches you how to teleport back to town!) 5) -=Create a Healing Spring Pt.2=- Yep, you have to create another spring at B2. This one is at the room where you fought the B2 boss Skedim; again, you can choose to create a HP or an MP spring. Again, there's a 2 day time limit or rivals will poison your spring. Reward - Fear Stone (teaches you Remove Fear) 6) -=Create a Healing Spring Pt.3=- Feel like a plumber yet? This is your third and final spring, and it's located in B6; it's a fountain at the center of the 3x3 room just after the first series of trap rooms. You'll get a Stone of Revive this time; it's pretty darn useless since it stupidly kills the caster (a life for a life?). Again, two days is the amount of time given. Reward - Stone of Revive 7) -=Lending a Hand=- Go to B5 and take the warp to the second shrine. From the warp room, go south to a small little room with a sign by the side. Check that and a Orc King and a bunch of Ogres will attack you; cream them and you're done. This one has a time limit of two days, so hustle! Reward - Battle Axe 8) -=Store Owner's Interview=- This one is easy. Just head over to the goblin's shack where you usually go to sell and ID stuff to do the interview. You may pick any answer when he asks you questions; the goblin is just really dumb and doesn't care who runs the shop anyway. After this, go down the dungeon and come back; a new facility is now available in the shack! You'll now manage your own store with the help of your new assistant. The key here is to drop off items for the shop to sell; as time passes the shop level goes up and you can then BUY stuff from the shop as well. At the highest shop level the shop can sell class-change orbs; so it's a pretty good investment in the long run. Reward - You get hired 9) -=Paper, Rock & Scissors?=- Go down to B2, go down the west shaft and then go straight ahead. Here you'll meet the leprechaun whom you will play a game of Paper, Rock & Scissors. When he's about to throw out his sign, some of his speech letters will start shaking. If it doesn't shake much, he's throwing a rock (use paper, third option), if it shakes quite a bit, he's throwing a scissors (use rock, first option), finally if it shakes like hell he's going to use paper (use scissors, second option). If you fail, you'll be warped back to town, so try not to. Afterwards, you'll then need a broken sword (goblins, orcs, fighters drop these; you probably have a ton of 'em at the moment). He will then teach you the Slay Crush AA. By the way, don't dilly dally; there's a three-day time limit for this quest. Reward - Slay Crush AA 10) -=Path of the Shogun Pt.1=- Note that you CANNOT select this quest if your main character is a samurai. Change his class to something else first. Upon selecting this quest, a new area will pop up in town; head there and the shady barkeeper will give you a katana. Now go to the inn and talk to the samurai there to clear the quest. You'll get a Samurai Orb that, when used, will turn any character into a Samurai! Nice... leave it for your NPC members. Reward - Samurai Orb 11) -=Path of the Shogun Pt.2=- Once again, you cannot take this quest if your main character is a samurai. Here you need to locate a katana in B4. Go to the room just before the Reaper door, where there's lava on one side. Look towards the lava and search and you'll find it. Reward - Nagafune Katana 12) -=Path of the Shogun Pt.3=- Your final Shogun quest. Simply have your main character be at level 36 or higher and have at least one samurai in your party. Now go down to B1, to the room with three staircases going up. Take the north-most one (it's a empty room) and win the series of three battles here. You will get a Bugen Helm for your troubles, but more importantly, you are now able to create a Shogun! Reward - Bugen Helm, option to create Shogun in the Guild 13) -=All this for a Freakin' Cloak=- First, get your main character killed. Then go to the temple. You will be asked questions; the answers are in the job description file. If you can't read Japanese though you just have to go through it with dumb luck. Your reward is... well... a freakin' cloak! Reward - Bishop Cloak 14) -=The Non-Violent Solution=- For this job to appear, you must have reached B8 and went to rescue Duelgoe in B10. Simply go down to B8, see the battle event, and choose not to fight (second option). If you fight your client ditches you and you fail. After that event, go back to the tavern to claim your (crummy) reward. You have two days for this quest. Reward - Stun Flail 15) -=I see Dead People=- Insanely easy. Simply get one of your party members possessed by the reaper, then take this quest to instantly score yourself some decent cash. Reward - 20,000 G 16) -=Getting Freeder=- A rather interesting quest. Go down to B3, take the three flights of stairs up at the start (where there were pits along the way). At the top, take the door south to another room. At the south wall is what looks like a junkyard, search there to trigger an event. Now head back to the tavern to complete the quest. Now you can go to the Mages Tower and get yourself Freeder! Check the Advanced section for more info on how to customize her. Reward - Freeder, the ability to create Automatons 17) -=Hunting Pixies=- Easy, but very time-consuming. You need to kill 50 pixies. Just go to B1 and rush 'em all to death. You can check the library to see how many you have killed, in case you lost count. Once you're done, go to the unmanned shop in B1 to get yourself the rather meh reward. Reward - Steel Helm 18) -=Hunting Succubi=- Similar to the previous quest; this time you need to kill 50 succubi. They first appear en masse in B6. Once you've done the deed go back to the unmanned shop in B1 and claim the equally meh reward. Reward - Flame Mace 19) -=Your Very Own Enterprise=- For this quest to appear, your store level should be above level 4 and you should have gone down to B4 at least. After selecting this job, go to the goblin shop and get some documents. Now head over to where you saw the sign in B1; it should be clear now. Go into the room and you'll fight a Gas Dragon; de-gas it and you'll earn yourself a nice plot of land... which you can then proceed to open yourself a shop! Reward - Your Shop 20) -=Test your Trigger Finger=- In order for this quest to appear, you'll need to have gone down to B5 AND have a high score of at least 50 in the tavern trap game. It's a trap game contest! Go play the trap game in Lunar Light Tavern and get 100 pts high score. Note that you only have 2 days to do it; don't go down the dungeon, or sleep even. Keep resetting until you succeed. It's tough work, but the reward isn't too bad. Reward - Kotetsu Katana 21) -=The Dungeon Survey=- You have to fill up a survey; go back to where you first met Ingo in B1 (right at the very start, in the room to the west). Talk to the knight there, then once you're sent out, go back in and choose the first option to begin the survey. The answers are Belgrano (3rd option), Orutorude (second option), 6, 4, and No (second option). You'll get 3000 G regardless of whether you answered them right or not, but if you did you'll also get a Holy King Amulet. You have five days to complete this. Reward - 3000 G, plus Holy King Amulet if you answered correctly 22) -=Melanieh=- You have to clear the dungeon quest where you need to find Kunnal (dungeon quest no. 6, see below) for this quest to appear. It's easy. Simply have an alchemist in your party and you'll get a new party member in Melanieh. Reward - Uh... Melanieh 23) -=Your Fortune=- First you must have had your fortune told; the fortune teller will appear in town during the 21st to 25th of each month. This quest will then appear in the tavern. First go to B9 and go to the altar. Find the nearby body and search it. Now go back to the fortune teller (if you missed it, you'll have to wait until the 21st-25th again). You're done. Reward - Silver Hair Piece 24) -=The Tour Guide=- Probably rather familiar to those who have played TOFL; this quest will only appear if you have finished all the other quests. Basically you play a tour guide and visit various hot-spots in the dungeon. For all that trouble, you will get the best shield in the game, the Ultimate Shield (how's that for lacking in imagination?). Reward - Ultimate Shield <> New to Busin Zero are Dungeon Quests; these are found inside the dungeon rather than in the inn. 1) -=Pixie Savior=- You must have cleared Tavern Quest 16 and saw the event at the mage's tower for this to appear. Go to B3 and you'll hear something. First go to the hole at the very top section of this floor, right in the north part of the map. Throw yourself down the hole and flip the lever there to open up another hole; this time in the lever room just north of where you first saw Au-Rora (the room with the big massacre). Once you leave you'll be able to sign up for the quest proper, then head for the newly-opened hole. You'll get the Through Stone (very handy, that) for saving the pixie's tiny behind. Reward - Through Stone 2) -=Ridy's Store=- From B4, warp up the B1 shortcut. You'll meet a Ridy, a thief, who challenges you to open the locked door here. Complete the dungeon quest below and get Ingo's key; go back up and unlock the door and you're done. You'll get an artifact called a Thief List, and Ridy's Information Store will open in town. On a side note, buy all the info Ridy offers (save up a lot of cash; she's got lots to sell) to get her into your party. Reward - Ridy's Information Store opens 3) -=Key to the Red Doors=- You get this quest in B4, from an imp near the exit of the floor. Go down and kill a large party of leprechauns, get their mask (it's an ingredient for magic stones), then go back up to the imp to get yourself Ingo's Key, which unlocks all the red doors in the dungeon. Reward - Ingo's Key 4) -=See Job Below=- Job 4 and job 5 are inter-related. You have to read the client's request in the BBS at the tavern. Go and trigger the event in a small room in B4, then clear job 5. Now go back to the client and you can get one of the three rewards. Reward - Spirit Short Sword, Blessed Chain Mail or Mage Boots 5) -=See Job Above=- This job will appear when you trigger job 4. Go to B5, in the north-west corner of the map, and talk to the client there. Then to a room to the west and clear out the monsters there, then go back and talk to the client to finish this job. Might as well head up to B4 to clear Job 4 while you're at it. Reward - Stamina Boots 6) -=Finding Kunnal=- Not sure how this is triggered, but you have to find that fella Kunnal, who is at B6, near the crossroads. This will trigger tavern quest 22. You don't get anything for this quest though. Reward - Nothing 7) -=Yoppen=- First you must clear out tavern quests 17 and 18 (the pixie/succubi hunts). Then go down to B7 and fight an event battle with a sleeping succubus. After that, a fella named Yoppen will join you. Reward - Uh... Yoppen 8) -=Relocation=- Get 20 tavern medals (from the tap game or from the goblin during the 16th-20th, then go down to B8. There's a room here with an imp in it; give him the dark medals and you will be given the option of relocating your shop from B1 to B8, which is very handy. For this to appear, you must have opened up your shop (Tavern quest 19), obviously. Reward - Relocate your shop 9) -=Transportation=- Final quest. This one is triggered when you go down from B9 to B10 (by walking, don't use the B3-B10 teleporter). Simply take the client down to B10. You'll get a mage brace for your HARD HARD work... Reward - Mage Brace __________________ _B_U_S_I_N___Z_E_R_O__________________________________/ ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS \ \________________________________________________________________________/ - RACJIN, for making this sequel to a great masterpiece! - Atlus, for publishing this game... but we want it in English, please - Http://www.gamefaqs.com/ for hosting this FAQ/Walkthrough, go here for the latest versions - Special thanks to thecrimsondiablo, who supplied tons of info on all kinds of stuff, and also proofread and corrected a bunch of errors! - All the helpful "old fart" members of Gamefaqs board - UPLUMCRAZY, Kotonk, hectorm71, synbios1978, dmarine, and so much more that I've forgotten, who kept the old TOFL board going through thick and thin! ____________ _B_U_S_I_N___Z_E_R_O________________________________________/ END OF FAQ \ \________________________________________________________________________/