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RPG Speedrun Anthology Project KadMony draft qui chemine. © who cares about Copyright. Qu’est-ce donc? This set of notes is supposed to be taken as an anthology of RPG speedrun, providing com- prehensive route explanation as well as being focused on both route/speedrun history and glitch explanations on each game it gets interest into. The main objective of the project is to provide a general class with good publication standards which will be useful to add more and more chapers through times (the present file contains already of thousands of lines of code) This version is a rough draft, we hope to get it public when the FF6 section will be filled. If you speedrun an RPG and would like to add one chapter about your game -wanting the same level of explanation and publication standards as already written chapters- feel free to contact me and take part into the project. iii Contents Qu’est-ce donc? iii 1 Xenogears 1 1.1 General information Xenogears’ speedrun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 1.2 Xenogears’ speedrun route . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 iv Versions History version 1.00 -> 2.00 -> 3.00 -> 3.10 -> only Xenogears. version 3.13, Xenogears only taking account of Bif and Petrole’s remarks. To be added : Elly Bloody combo management, Bart stalactite cave human management, Movement optimization (jumping tricks), Sufal Mass HP, Party Change p125, Battle Deus Radiance, Bledavik Petrole order, Dora Tr. v you shall be as gods. you shall be as gods. you shall be as gods. you shall be as gods. you shall be as gods. you shall be as gods. you shall be as gods. you shall be as gods. Deus ∼ Ω 1 1 Xenogears 1.1 General information Xenogears’ speedrun . . . . 2 1.2 Xenogears’ speedrun route . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 1 1.1 General information Xenogears’ speedrun 1.1.1 History of the run After contributing on Xenogears’ in several ways for some years -working mainly on script, hacking and translation- I began getting some interest into Xenogears’ Speedrun in June 2012. At that time a rather embryonic route of the game was held by several japanese runners. The first set of these notes -which were at that time solely dedicated to Xenogears- was written around 1 year and are the result of the study and enhancements of this japanese route. After some more unpleasant months of training I finally got a satisfying time. Surprisingly a topic was opened at the very same time as i was finishing the first version of the notes and route on SDA by Rudyxx (www.twitch.tv/rudyxx) in order to gather some information on an possi- ble community routing of the game. The first known Xenogears speedrun is attributed to M. Masahiro Kimura -reported in Famitsu Weekly of the 29th of May, 1998- with a segmented run of 18h50min. Note that due to the numerous dialog boxes, the run is around 3h30 slower in US version. The time remains still amazing, notably since the game was then released for a couple of months only. It took more than ten years for a consistent RTA route to emerge in the japanese community, the last contributor of the route being the runner UG. Considerable improvements were implemented in the 2013 notes, including the desert skip, enhanced strategies for almost all bosses, money route update, new Babel Tower route and emergence of camera optimization. There remain certainly new strategies discover and develop, lots of energy has been put on since 2014 but no substancial improvement has been brought up yet. 2 1.1.2 What’s next? Since 2018 we now know that there are some new game breaking techniques which allow to save several hours, and will require new general foundations for the route of this speedrun. This task is slowly worked out by my the teams. The present route is thus can be already seen as the legacy of a no major glitch category which will occur at some point. 1.1.3 Standard policies When bringing up Xenogears’ speedrun out of Japan I decided to follow the standards settled by the Japanese runners. The timer is started when hitting the New Game button in the main menu, and stopped once the Xenogears Episode V, the end has appeared, at the end of the game. This does not match with the standard poli- cies applied for RPG Speedruns outside of Japan, namely the usual New Game > last input set-up. Still this is what came out from Xenogears community and I like it, notably since the Did you know? last screen of Xenogears The End has a personal strong emotional aspect. Autofire and Gameshark are not Through the famous allowed for RPG speedruns out of Japan without fur- control panel i was using for ther notice, and Xenogears is no exception to the rule. my first modified runs, we The speedrun on the US version thus involves mashing know that the button is hit with bare hands. The big amount of slow textboxes in about around 450 000 times in the game makes a consistent mashing one of the key a single Xenogears run. ingredients to get a satisfying run of the game. 3 1.1.4 Versions and categories Systems comparison The game was initially speedran on Playstation 2, as many Playstation RPGs. Surprisingly the Xenogears speedrun community was the first to brought up the non-trivial timing differences which can occur with the different versions of the Playstation 2. Indeed playing Playstation games on a Playstation 2 is done through a build-in emulator called PS-Driver which has several versions depending on the version of the Playstation 2 you are playing on. Many issues appear through the PS-Driver -notably the famous Deus glitch- and time difference between the fastes and the slowest models of PS2 is of several hours. Version Differences US Version Even though it remains hard to determine accu- The fastest system playing rately the pace of a system many researches have Xenogears’ US version is been done to determine the best version to run the old SCPH-7xxx version the game. Of course another important param- of the Playstation 2. eter to determine on which system to run is the It displays the game around Deus glitch (see below for more detail). As for the 45 minutes faster than any build-in PS-Driver emulator of the Playstation 2, other system each run! the platforms allowing to play the game through its PSN version (Playstation 3, PSP, PSTV) also include a build-in emulator called the POPSloader. Fortunately the POPSLoader is quite easy to update through standard firmware updates, and thus the Deus Glitch was removed for the first time on the PSN Version of the game during 2013 and the 6.XX firmwares of the PSP. We refer to the upcoming Glitches section for a detailed account on the Deus Glitch appears and we 4 will display shortly the systems which prevent or allow this bug to appear. Here is a simplified list of all the known systems, ordered from the fastest to the slowest. The run of johannhowitzer (www.twitch.tv/johannhowitzer) revealed how fast SCPH-7xxx is, while Endy (www.twitch.tv/endymion1744) ran the game on the very slow PS3 hard- ware. In the next table systems with * correspond to the ones on which the Deus Glitch occurs. PS2* SCPH-7XXX > PSTV > PSP 6.XX+ FW > PSP* old FW > PS2* SCPH-9XXX > PSX > PS3 Japanese vs. US version Speedrun-wise, the most important difference between the Japanese version of Xenogears and the US version is certainly the textboxes which are much slower and laggy in the latter version of the game. Apart from this some slight differences occur : • the camera angle is 45° more to the left on the Japanese version of the game when enter- ing for the first time Nisan’s Cathedral, for some reason. I conjecture that this is the first incarnation of the Margie Stairs skip which is not the same in the US and the Japanese version of the game : in the Japanese version of the game, the team is directly warped from the first floor of the cathedral to the second floor, skipping the stairs room. • several tiny bugs were fixed through localization to US (mainly equipment duplication Glitch, and Iron Mail glitch which roughly speaking allows to get as many Iron Mails as you want). Those tiny bugs are not used in the speedrun. 5 Categories One of the unique bugs in Xenogears is the No-Load Glitch (see below). Since the interest of this glitch -even in terms of pace- is quite low, the main category for Xenogears Speedrun is thus any% (no No-Load Glitch). A few Japanese runners produced some runs in the ’true any%’ category using the No-Load Glitch -whose times are roughly equivalent to the No-Load Glitch runs- but non-Japanese run- ners usually stick to the any% (no No-Load Glitch) category. Some new gimmick categories are likely to appear in the future : notably the 100% category which should not differ a lot from the standard category of the speedrun but will show-off many new parts of the game. 1.1.5 Game Mechanics Unfortunately the in-game mechanics of Xenogears are either hidden or not explained at all during the game, we thus gather here some of those which will be fundamental. Xenogears’ speedrun relies highly on abusing the game mechanics, notably through Ether manipulation and trying to outspeed ennemies as much as possible. Human mechanics and Ether manipulation Depending on the party, the human fight strategies rely on outspeeding opponents as much as possible, while damage is dealt by elementary physical attacks or Ether. There is almost not any RNG in the starting ATB of the party members, making the use of Speed Rings powerful. • using the a priori defensive Ether abilities of Citan on Ennemies lower their elemental defenses. Assorted with the Items allowing attacks to become elemental, standard attack 6 become devastating (see the Grahf-Executioner fight); • as far as Ether based attacks are needed, the Etherstone and EtherDoublers equipment will be essential (in particular for Gears fights, through Ether Amplification). Even though almost no grinding is done during the run, some deathblow acquisition have to be achieved here and there. Learning combos in Xenogears does not rely on experience points but on the movements the character performed since the very beginning of the game. Getting new deathblows is not only important for the sake of humans fight, but also essential since hu- man combos determine the acquisition of Gears combos. A character learns a combo when he has performed a fixed number of actions since the be- ginning of the game (and if he has enough Ap/lvl). For example, Fei acquires his Raijin combo when having performed 30 x and 10 x . Combo Acquisition There is some slight subtlety here : attacking with The present route of will not give 2 x but only two different Xenogears’ Speedrun uses : the must thus not all be counted together. the following deathblows. The formulas which determine deathblow acqui- Fei : Raijin - Senretsu sition are quite complicated since each character Citan : Ukigumo - Jinrai as endowed with a coefficient which varies dur- Bart : Rythm Shock ing the different sections of the game (see Elly’s Elly : Screamer Screamer learn in Bloody’s fight). The system is still well understood and in this run all the combo acquisition is optimized, you will only have to perform the actions as explained. Here is first a little list of all the combos which will be specifically acquired during the run, and then the time/actions related in the run which are now detailed. 7 Fei • Raijin : this is the most technical deathblow to learn during the game. Fei has to perform 30 x and 10 x to get Raijin and we want it to be learned before the Rankar fight to ensure Weltall’s first combo. Simply buffer and attacks on the way through the Mountain Path and the Black- Did you know? moon Forest. Since the enemies encountered Even if you escape during the Blackmoon Forest forced fights are from a fight or a character dies, numerous and weak, i recommend getting out the movements performed are of the Mountain Path with 2 x and as much still counted for deahtblow as possible. Stick to killing each Forest Elf acquisition! You can thus for with an assorted with somes more example grind the Screamer if needed and recall that if you did not get any Combo while escaping in the random battle going to the four Hob Gob fight in Reapers’ Ship and unlock it at the Blackmoon Forest, you still can trigger more the end of the Bloody fight. fights versus Hob Gobs later. • Senretsu : the combo is acquired in two steps : first add 1 x and 4 x in Black- moon Forest’s Rankar fight after getting the Raijin to dump Fei to 11 x , 34 x . Then in the Cargo ship semi-forced fight (see Split 8-9) add three to learn Senretsu at the end of the fight, unlocking the Weltall’s Reppu combo for the next Bartholomew Gear fight. 8 Citan • Ukigumo : acquired in the semi-forced Cargo ship fight by attacking the right guards with , , , , . Acquiring it prepares for the pre- Bledavik combo grinding fight and also unlocks Heimdal’s Kentsui combo which will be needed during Bart’s hideout Gebler intrusion. • Jinrai : acquired in the combo grinding fight before entering Bledavik (adding 10 x and 12 x , see the route notes for more details). We want here Citan to acquire some combos, already preparing for the Redrum fight. Bart • Rythmn Shock : the combo is acquired in three steps. First, Bart does 2 x in the Stalactite cave. He then gets 3 x and 4 x in the combo grinding sequence preceeding the Bledavik phase (we refer to the route notes for more details). Finally Bart gets 4 x and 4 x in the unavoidable fights during Shakhan’s castle intru- sion and thus unlocks Rhythm Shock right before Ramsus fight, for which it is essential -notably for the first phase-. Elly • Elly unlocks her Screamer deathblow in only one turn, attacking Bloody with a in Reaper’s ship. It is essential to learn Screamer for the Elements fight in Ethos dig site, since combo attacks ensure 100% Sleep status rate on Seraphita. Note that due to Elly coefficient modification, performing the same actions before the Nortune phase will not allow Elly to learn Screamer. 9 Gear Mechanics Most Gear mechanics remain unexplained in the game. Among all Gear stats, only two have synergy with Human equipments : Ether Amplification and Evade. Attack notably is only af- fected with the Engine of the current Gear and cannot even be enhanced with most equipment. The main point in Gears physical fight is thus to get a good Accuracy stat to avoid misses and also as much Evade as possible. These two stats can be enhanced with the very powerful and unexplained Response statistic -which will be enhanced through Old Circuits, Resp. Circuit and Magneticoat during the run-. Talking about Magneticoat is a good opportunity to get to the hidden stats of Gears. One of the most important stat in Gears fight is not even mentioned in the game and is usually ref- ered as the Weight statistic. The way it works is quite simple : to each Gear equipment of the game is attached a Weight value, and each Gear of the game has its specific Weight itself. Once the Weigh value of a Gear added to the Weight of its equipment go over some fixed values the Agility of the Gear decreases drastically. It is thus essential to ensure getting first turns to give some modulation on the equipment of Gears, and notably when equipping heavy equipments, such as Magneticoats or Power Magics (we refer to Renmazuo’s fight during the Shevat Genera- tor sequence for a precise example of such manipulation). The key equipment of the run is of course the very expensive EtherDoubler which can be bought in the early shops in Nisan. We will get three of these on the way -fortunately without any Gold grinding with the sharp money route-. The main damage in the game is done with Ether attacks, and the Etherdoubler allows for the caster to use 2 times more EP and to deal 2 times much more damage. Assorted with Ether boosting equipments in both Human and Gears -mainly EtherStones and Power Magics- Ether attacks become devastating even at very 10 low level since those equipment stack. With proper Ether Manipulation it is even easy to beat Alpha Weltall near Raziel with a low-level party. Even better, there are lots of attacks in the game which are considered as Ether but don’t use EP ! These attacks include Billy’s Ether guns, and most of Gears Special Options. The game still applies all EtherDoubler, Power Magic and EtherStones effect to these even though there cost is not changed... We can thus abuse the battle system en destroy all bosses easily -see the Opiomorph fight-. These Ether manipulation becomes much stronger than any other strategy of the game, hence neither a System ID nor an Infinite Mode will be used during the run. 1.1.6 Glitches Although the run has far more skips than glitches/bugs, there are still some very important (and mainly negative) glitches which occur in a run. • The No-Load bug : The no-load bug is a very intriguing glitch which occurs on all Xenogears run. Since the game was not designed to be single segmented, some very strange things appear if you play through the game far enough without saving and reloading. The stats of the game get at one point completely screwed, some Gears stats decrease and equipment is also affected (Stier gets a 99999 Frame, other Gears equipment become useless…). The bug already appears in the first Rankar fight during the Blackmoon Forest phase and is even more visible in Bart’s hideout, where his colleagues get 0 attack if the no-load bug is not removed. Although we don’t have discovered all the effects of the no-load bug, many investigations have been already made, and the only known way to remove the bug is to Save the game, Reset the hardware and Load the game again. The usual place chosen 11 to do this swift soft-reset is usually in the stalactite cave, near Balthazar’s house. • Nisan’s Intrusion Guards glitch : During Nisan’s intrusion (see Splits 49-50) the party is being attacked by Shakhan’s guard. It appears that in some situation (e.g. if two guards are hit at the same time, or if their sprite clip together) finishing one fight actually makes the two sprites both disappear. It is thus possible to reduce the number of fights in this sequence. This certainly is an interesting gain of time, however there is no consistent setup known to get this glitch in each run. The glitch is in fact usually done by luck even on standard playthroughs. • RodG’s glitches : There are several glitches involving the Rods which can be equipped by Vierge. For example, if Vierge is equipped with a RodG which does some additional effect (element-based, abnormal status…) the effect is cancelled when saving and reload- ing the game, until the player launches a Gear Menu. Another important place where we must get rid of glitched RodG is the sequence of fights versus the Dominia and Kelvena in the Babel Tower (see Splits 51-53). At this point if Vierge is equipped with, say, the StoneRodG, Vierge will heal Marinebasher. The only RodG which is not affected by this bug is the FlareRodG, this is why we buy it in Shevat and equip it upon entering those fights. • Skips : The run is full of skips, whose gain of time is between few seconds and 10 min- utes. Here is a short list of those skips with a short description and the related section. – Moutain path warp (New Game∼Split 1) : warping optimization to get di- rectly into the Mountain Path from the other side of Lahan. 12 – Dazil Buggy (Splits 6∼7) : avoid the loading zone of the buggy to get directly to the rent room. – Aveh desert skip (Splits 6∼7) : warping optimization allows to get out of Aveh desert in three screens, usually with 0 or 1 random encounter. – Maison/Citan skip (Splits 12∼13) : in&out to avoid following grandpas Maison and Citan walking upon entering Bart’s hideout. – Elevator/kids skip (Splits 13∼14) : in&out when the kids use the elevator down to skip the cutscene and don’t wait for the elevator to come back up. – Bledavik enter skips (Splits 15∼16) : in&out upon entering Bledavik to avoid Bledavik introduction. Escape the load zone of the ‘free room’ cutscene thereafter. – Margie stairs skip (Splits 16∼17) : in&out to warp the little Maria on the top of Nisan’s cathedral stairs (works for first floor only on the US version). – Zzzz plan skip : launch a menu during Citan’s dialog box during the second part of the plan to be warped at the end of the sequence (see split 18). – Norturne box skip (Splits 28∼29) : jump over the boxes as good as possible to get directly on the other side of the room. – 11 monk HQ talk (Splits 37∼38) : talk 11 times in a row to the right Monk toggle Fei being healed (see Split 37 38 for more details). – Thames 2 skip (Splits 40∼41) : 10-15 min skip : while leaving Ethos HQ, don’t go to protect the Thames but head directly toward Ethos dig site. – Forced fight skip (Splits 41∼42) : avoid the load zone of the first forced fight in Ethos dig Site. Zeboim escape cutscene skip (Splits 42∼43) : right after ID’s fight, 13 get out of the room fast enough not to let the cutscene load. – Babel Tower rope skip (Splits 43∼44) : jumping far away in the water from the top of the first floor of the Babel tower, get into the warpzone toward the relay station. – Babel tower relay station cutscene skip (Splits 43∼44) : avoid the load- ing zone of the cutscene in front of the relay station’s door. – Babel tower train cutscene skip (Splits 43∼44) : avoid the load zone of the cutscene near the first ladder inside the train. – Babel tower Floor 2 first Level Skip (Splits 44∼45) : get on the right pixel floating in the air and jump to clip directly on the second floor. – Merkava short dialog skip (Split 76) : jump to avoid the dialog box when activating the switch. 1.1.7 les trucs de TAS avec Bif 14 1.2 Xenogears’ speedrun route We now describe the complete route of the game, each subsection corresponding to a split. 1.2.1 New Game The first cutscene is the only one which can be skipped during the whole game : be sure to mash even if it is lovely. Taking the control of Fei for the first time, hold to jump over the artistic tools and find Fei’s hidden money below his bed before getting out (do not rest, of course). On the upper floor hold to get next to the door and mash to be intercepted by Dan. Exit still holding and mashing and dodge Did you know? the fence of the central place holding a little. The little kids playing in front of Alice’s house To avoid safely that may interfere or even softlock the game if their the hitboxes of the kids and hitbox overlaps either the hitbox of Alice’s Aunt the door overlap, you can or of the door... be careful! jump on Alice Aunt’s head Hold inside Alice’s house and go upstairs to while she talks. She’ll drop you trigger the cutscene involving Alice. Once the on the right spot when getting cutscene is finished, hold while Mashing away from the door. to exit the house with optimized movements. Outside go in order to dodge the old woman and then hold . Get out of the village at the right spot to get warped to the mountain path directly (as shown in the next screenshots). 15 1.2.2 Split 1 : Mountain Path To get to Citan’s house start with and take the bottom path. Jump two times to reach the bridge and grab thereafter the Spider in the last tree before Citan’s house. To take it jump into the last tree and jump then again walking toward it mashing . Inside Citan’s quarters, go and hit two times before getting into the house. Once inside talk to Yui holding (be careful not to mash too soon or you could talk to Midori). Look thereafter for Citan in the warehouse outside and check the music box. 1.2.3 Split 2 : Omen After the meal cutscene, go and return to the mountain path. Optimize camera angle before reaching the middle of the bridge by hitting either or so that you look toward East. Af- ter Citan gets on the bridge, take one step , then and yet after again right after passing 16 through the tree to get down with a swift slide. Hold then in order to get back to Lahan. 150 hp Battle : Musha MK 180 exp Put Weltall on Booster on its first turn. Each one is killed with an and a attack. You can either go for first for the faster strategy or begin with to play safer as Musha MK tends to often dodge or guard. Did you know? 1.2.4 Split 3 : Musha MK One of the numerous unexplained mechanics of After some long cutscenes, controls are taken back on Gear fights is the following : world map. Once there simply hold and then performing an attack, the after one or two steps while mashing to enter Black- Gear’s ability decreases drasti- moon Forest. Inside the forest head toward without cally during the next turn. The rotating camera and jump over the rock to reach the loss of speed is less severe if a trunk. Head to the rock and face forced fight versus attack is performed. Hob-Gobs, avoid the rock and meet a mysterious girl. 17 Forced Fight 1.2.5 Split 4 : Blackmoon Forest Elves,Dive Bombers Elly kills each Dive Bomber The strategy of the forced fights versus Forest with her Anemo Bolt Ether Elves depends on your advance in Raijin learning while Fei finishes the needed (we refer to the dedicated section in the first part movements so that he of this guide for Raijin learning). The essential learns Raijin at the end of part remains to get 30 x and 10 x before the the fight. We need this so Rankar fight and leave the Blackmoon Forest that Weltall gets his first level having performed 34 x and 11 x . Swiftly combo facing Rankar. unequip Elly as you take controls back. Menu when awakening with Elly • Elly : Empty - Empty - Empty • Fei : Martial Wear - Ether Stone - Empty Hold taking controls back and optimize camera angle with 3 x when reaching the block. 18 Jump right after to the exit of the Blackmoon Forest by using the item bag as a step. After the forthcoming cutscenes of the Forest Elves/Bombers fight, hold to trigger the Rankar Fight. Battle : Rankar 480 hp 348 exp The first part of the fight is dealt with bare hands. Add 1x and 4x so that Fei’s move- ments reach 34x and 11x . There are two different strategies for the second part, depending on Fei’s ATB at the end of the first phase : • if Fei’s ATB is more than 80% filled go for Booster and attack with , . Rankar then uses Slow on Weltall, thus another Booster has to be done before killing Rankar with standard , combos (slow pattern). • if Fei’s ATB is below 80% go for , then hit Booster after the Slow attack of Rankar before finishing it with the usual , . 19 1.2.6 Split 5 : Rankar After some cutscenes hold to get close to the exit of the Blackmoon forest and trigger an- other citscene involving Gebler’s main ship. Get out thereafter of the forest and once beck on the world map hold to go toward Dazil. Do not worry either on amera angle or on the en- trance of Dazil you choose here : then lead to the same spot. 1.2.7 Split 6 : Dazil Head toward Dazil’s Ethos Workshop, starting with and rotating camera angle with one or two on the way. Right after the meeting of Citan and Fei over the bridge go for 1 x and go near te buggy renting agency. Do not forget to skip the buggy cutscene load zone by jump- ing over the amphora, and enter the agency. Once Citan has left, go directly toward the World Map with . Once there hold and run until Fei gets into Aveh’s desert. The warp zones and movements optimizations of the desert are meant to decrease the num- ber of random battles -which can be deadly- between 0 and 3. Hold during first screen to get out through the right side. Hold simply during the second screen to follow the standard gears. Finally, hold during third screen to get to the very limit of the load zone. After some cutscenes involving Citan and Weltall a pair of Troopers appear. Battle : Trooper x 2 180 hp 360 exp Activate Booster on the first turn. Hit then one of the two foes with a attack, then use to kill the second one. Finally finish off the first Trooper with an attack. 20 1.2.8 Split 7 : Grahf After some theatral entrance and cutscenes, Weltall faces... a worm. 200 hp Battle : Wyrm 1044 exp Weltall activates Booster during the first turn and casts thereafter Guided Shot each turn until Wyrm is defeated. The fight is highly RNG-dependent and relies on Fei’s Ether. Ether RNG 1.2.9 Split 8: Cargo Cutscene The growth of all character Controls taken back in the transport ship, hold stats when gaining a level is and talk to Citan to toggle more cutscenes. random. Fei’s Ether during Getting back again go , then and then hold Wyrm fight can take any toward the ladder. On the upper floor’s entry value between 10 and 13, and don’t move and push once during the short di- thus killing it can go alog. Follow the / path to reach a semi-forced from 2 to 4 turns -,-. fight versus guards (the trigger zone of the fight may be skipped, but we want get some more deathblows). During this fight Fei kills the 3 left guards with attacks and thus should learn the Senretsu deathblow - - at the end of the fight. On his side Citan kills a first guard with a attack and then kills the two remaining guards in four turns, using and on each of these. This way Citan should learn Ukigomo - - after the fight. Heimdal will thus get his level 1 combo in Bart’s headquarters sequence. Take the ladder at the end of the corridor and go through the so-called nightmare platform, the perfect place to waste time falling because of the poor perspective. 21 Battle : Bartholomew 800 hp 1600 exp As often, activate Booster on the first turn. Bart will at his first turn use Wild Smile, de- creasing drastically both Accuracy and Evade of Weltall. To prevent too much misses, kill him using only attacks and Reppu combo - -. If Fei’s Ether RNG is very good, the physical attacks may be replaced by Guided Shots. 1.2.10 Split 9 : Bartholomew Getting controls backs inside the Stalactite Cave, hold and jump if needed. Right after the second jump over the wreck, hit two times and go for to reach the big rock blocking the way. Observe it it and push it with Bart to trigger some cutscenes. Check this very big rock and in the next room hold to open the chest containing a Gold Nugget. Hold then to get toward the next room through the left exit. Menu into Stalactite Cave Gear • Weltall : Empty - Empty - Empty • Brigandier : Old Circuit - Empty - Empty Put Bart on foot (out of his Gear) Go through the second and third rooms holding . Enter the fourth room holding fol- 22 lowed by while jumping to reach Balthazar’s house near the Save spot. Even though you have to escape all fights in the Stalactite Cave, don’t forget to make Bart attack with two times. Those two attacks can be achieved either versus Medusoids or Nomad Fix Bot. Medusiods give fair amount of exp and Nomad Fix bot give good money, it is thus a matter of taste, wheter you prefer better stats or safer money route -and as long as RNG cooperates-. 1.2.11 Split 10 : Balthazar Get inside Balthazar’s house. After the first part of the dialog hold and talk to him again. Af- ter the second part of his dialog talk to him again in order to do some Gear shopping (options 3-1). Get next to the exit while he talks and adjust camera by pressing . Gear shop Balthazar’s goods Sell all Gear Parts Buy Engines for Weltall and Brigandier It is now time to remove the No-Load Bug : exit Balthazar’s house and use the save point outside. First put Bart on foot again and second save, soft-reset and reload the game. 1.2.12 Split 11 : No-Load bug remove Go and jump toward the north-eastern exit. Hold / in the fifth room -no need to play safe here, you can’t fall down-. In the sixth room hold from the beginning and adjust camera angle by pressing three times when necessary. 23 In the next room, go first followed by to activate the sensor. Go back to the path leading to Balthazar’s house -south-west / -. In the eighth corridor start with and adjust cam- era angle pressing once when necessary, then get out holding . In the next room hold and then go . At the end of the corridor be sure to both deactivate the sensor and open the chest containing an Iron Gwhip before returning to the exit leading to an usual path toward Balthazar’s house. Now go back to Balthazar and talk to him twice so that he opens the gate. Once outside after some subtle revelations, go and out to get to the next zone. Open the menu as soon as possible. Menu On the way to Calamity Gear • Equip Iron Gwhip on Brigandier Put Bart on foot (out of his Gear) 24 In the next room go toward next to the gondola. Get into it to reach and activate the power supply. Come back thereafter in the gondola and head toward the elevator. Once down with the elevator hold and a bit, then jump avoiding the little grid. If RNG was not cooperative previously, it is still possible to grind the needed Bart attacks in this part of the Stalactite Cave. After getting on the second elevator, hold to meet Calamity. 2500 hp Battle : Calamity 8642 exp Both Brigandier and Weltall activate Booster on their first turn. In the sequel Weltall at- tacks with the usual , Reppu - - combo while Brigandier first uses Wild Smile on Calamity and then also goes for his level 1 , combo sequence. Repeat physical attacks until Calamity is defeated. 1.2.13 Split 12 : Calamity Once Calamity is defeated, go toward the exit of the Stalactite Cave (which is reached through some easy jumps). After some cutscenes controls are taken back inside the Yggdrazil, near Gear’s 25 Shop. Hold and get into there. Gear shop Yggdrazil’s Gear Shop Sell Brigandier’s original Weapon Buy Engines for Weltall and Brigandier Go right away to the bridge and talk to Sigurd. After some cutscenes the team discovers Bart’s Heaquarters and makes acquaintance with Maison. Skip Citan and Maison’s slow walk enter- ing the HQ with an in&out of the dorm - -. Get into the south-west door for an informative discussion with Maison. At the end of the meeting hold and then go to shop downstairs. Be careful not to talk to any NPC here to avoid long cutscenes. 26 Item/Accessory Shop Bart’s Headquarters Items • Sell the Scale, Eyeball and Gold Nugget • Sell all accessories (if no mistake you should have slightly more than 8000G) • Buy 2x Speed Star, one or two Aquasol/Aquasol S (keep more than 6000G) Accessories • Buy 5x Speed Ring Hold outside until you reach the projection room and adjust camera angle with x2 on the way for camera optimization. 1.2.14 Split 13 : Fatima history After the scroll cutscene, hold and go in&out again in the dorm to avoid waiting for the kids to use the elevator. Take this elevator down and keep on going toward until you get inter- cepted by Bart for some more cutscenes. After a bunch of dialogs go and take the second elevator down to reach the paddocks. Once there go and talk to the mechanic facing Weltall, adjusting camera angle for looking toward 27 West (camera optimization). At the end of the custcene go and take the elevator again. Once up head for the dorm . Inside the dorm hold and mash to sleep (options 2-2). Once awaken rudely by alarms, go for followed by , go out and take the elevator down. Battle : Gebler Forces Swordknight (800 hp) The fight is fast enough so that no booster is needed. Bart attacks with an and one of his allies also goes for an (the third Gear Charges). Brigandier finishes Swordknight with a level one combo . Aegisknight (700 hp) Either activating Booster or not is more or less the same here. Simply spam and level one combos until Aegisknight is defeated. Wandknight x2 (620 hp) Still no need activate Booster here. Brigandier and Heimdal kill each of their respective opponent with an attack and a level one combo . Clawknight (600 hp) I prefer activating Booster on first turn here to reduce time loss in case of miss. Weltall kills Clawknight with a attack followed by a Reppu . As in most Gear fights until Ether attacks take the show, the main point in all the physical Gear fights is to get as much the Response statistic as possible (in order to increase Accuracy and 28 Evade). Of course, another priority is to get sufficient damage output buying proper Engines. The only way time can be lost in this serie of fight is by getting too much misses. Battle : Schpariel 5963 HP 17889 exp On their first turn activate booster on Brigandier, Weltall and Heimdal. Brigandier first uses Wild Smile on his second turn and then attacks with the standard , . Weltall and Heimdal chain respectively with their level one combos , and , until Schpariel falls. Did you know? 1.2.15 Split 14 : Hideout Attack Citan learns Jinrai in Aveh desert preparing for Taking controls back hold and talk to Sigurd to leave Redrum. Bart needs 3x and Bart’s Headquarters (option 1). Once on World Map 4x more to learn Rhythm hold and head a bit toward Bledavik. Don’t go too Shock : these will be added close to it and get out on the road toward Nisan (this during the forced fights during way you will be closer to the direction of Nisan when Shakhan’s castle infiltration. leaving Bledavik). Before entering Bledavik, launch a menu and grind combo in the desert. Citan should add 10 x and 12 x to his total, while Bart must perform on his side 3x and 4 x . Citan (resp. Bart) thus attacks 2 turns with (resp. Bart attacks once with ) and then does adds ten times (resp. then Bart adds three turns). This short 29 Deathblow grind phase is the only one during the whole run and may last for one or two fights, depending on RNG (the best situation being facing either two Tin Robots, two Troopers or a Spear Trooper). Menu World Map Gear • Brigandier : Empty - Empty - Empty • Heimdal : Empty - Empty - Empty • Weltall : Old Circuit - Old Circuit - Old Circuit • Put Bart and Citan out of their Gears Equip • Bart : Speed Ring - Power Ring - Speed Ring • Citan : Speed Ring - Speed Ring - Speed Ring 1.2.16 Split 15 : Bledavik Hold while entering the market of Bledavik to get out and skip Bledavik’s main street in- troducing cutscene. While on Blevavik’s map adjust camera with 2 x and come back to the market. Once inside hold and then , jump over the shops and adjust thereafter with 4 x in order to prevent the hotel introduction cutscene to trigger. Head directly to the weapon shop and buy the Whipasnappa for Bart, which is equipped right after. 30 Menu once the Whipasnappa is bought Equip • Bart : equip the Whipasnappa • Citan : Empty - Empty - Empty Out of the weapon shop, go toward the sewer’s manhole. Talk to the old guy sitting back- ward, then check the manhole (so that he says no good, you can’t open it). Keep on toward North-West while he speaks and hold in and after the stairs to find the secret passage lead- ing to the hide&seek kid. Talk to him and choose « no », then leave the place by taking the secret passage to leave the market place through the northern exit with / . Hold on Bledavik’s map and enter Shakhan’s square. Inside Shakhan’s square go for and reach the exit (option 1). Back on Bledavik’s map go to reach the arena. After a short dialog entering the arena hold and mash to sign up for the tournament. While signing up, adjust 31 camera with 2 x and then come back to the old man near the manhole. Get thus through Shakhan’s square again, enter the main market place and jump toward the old man. Talk to him (option 2) and while he speaks adjust camera looking toward west. Once he has finished his speech, go toward the other side of the place, go toward the door. Inside the house hold and go upstairs. Upstairs hold to go through the window. Outside hold and mash to get inside the hotel through its window. 32 When the Cutscene with the nun is finished hold Forced fight Gonzales and mash to talk again to Citan, get some Gonzales counterattacks to rest (option 2). The next day choose option 1 and deathblows with a 120 go toward the arena (no need to get inside ̃attack and to normal attacks Shakhan’s square this time on Bledavik’s map). dealing either around Inside the arena go , go through the first guard 30 or 60 damage. Fei thus on his right and through the second guard on his goes for a Raijin at first turn, left. Right after and mash to get inside the followed for the subsequent tent and talk to Dan. turns by attacks. Controlling Bart again, get away from the Hotel through the window holding . Outside either hold , go down and then hold to reach the manhole or try Rudyxx’s jump over the fence to be led to the water supplies of Bledavik. Getting back to the tournament let simply Fei die versus Gonzales. 33 Menu right after Gonzales fight Equip • Fei : Speed Ring - Speed Ring - Speed Ring It’s now time to infiltrate Shakhan’s castle with Bart through the sewers. Be sure to hold and from the very beginning to avoid being held by the first high tide and loose around 1 minute. Adjust camera angle with 3 x and go through the first fence, straight forward. Take the left turn going inside it and adjust with . Keep on straight forward and follow left. When turning right, hit to avoid losing too much time with the high tide. Get along the following holding without any camera adjustment. Once in the final fork, go only once in the mid- dle path. Hol simply until the gate opens enough so that you can get below it. Out of the sewers, go and then toward the ladder, avoid the grandfather and take the second ladder to get in the very middle of Shakhan’s castle. 34 Inside Shakhan’s castle, start holding and get through the south big door between the guards. Don’t jump in the middle of them, you may waste speed and can get caught. In the next room go and take the left stairs up to the second level. Adjust camera angle with a 180° turn to enter the big door up going . Outside go and take the first door on the right. Get out of the room right away and go to the Forced fights Aveh Guards next right door a bit further before being caught. Kill the 4 Aveh guards Inside the room, go for , adjust camera angle by encountered in Shakhan’s 2x and get out through the second door. castle with a attack. Back in the corridor, go and take the door at This way Bart should the end. Inside the big room, take the first stairs learn the Rythmn shock to the right and adjust camera angle by 2 x . deathblow right before When upstairs go throught the begining of the entering Margie’s room. next stairs, adjust again with 2 x end jump over to face the first unavoidable fight. In the next room hold , and go to the second forced fight at the door of Margie’s room. Before getting out of the room and facing Ramsus, be sure note to forget the following swift menu. 35