General Help Guide and Walkthrough - Guide for Kagero: Deception 2

General Help Guide and Walkthrough for Kagero (Deception 2)
by Zhou Tai An - [email protected] - Version 1.4 (Added more useful info.)

This FAQ and all it's contents copyright Zhou Tai An. Wanna use it for 
anything? Give me a quick mail and I'll be sure to authorize usage for 
worthy causes. 

Hmmm. Second FAQ for an English game. Looks like I'm setting a precedent for
myself here. ^_^ (The market's been getting more US-friendly these days it 
seems...)

Just as a side note, Kagero means "Shadow Dungeon". (caught a glimpse of the
Japanese version in a shop window, read the kanji)

And now the final note - as of Version 1.3, I really am not going to have the
time to update this guide anymore. About 7 other games are taking up my
attention. ^_^ So that means no walkthrough etc. I will, however, still be
collecting and editing\updating any information sent to me by other gamers,
so stay tuned. 

******

General Tips :

1. Be aware of everything. The layout of the rooms, the charge times of
your traps, the enemies' movement patterns, how Millenia moves - as much and
as many of the aspects of the game that you can. I'll be going into more 
detail for most of these later anyway.

2. Familiarize yourself with the terrain of the area you're fighting in. In
the initial stages of the game that will be the mansion, later, the castle
and the shrine. Know also that letting your enemy enter the altar room when
you're not occupying it will spell instant death for you as they will set
off the bomb in the altar. In the shrine dungeon, as Yocal warns you, don't 
let anyone enter the TDM sanctuary or the story will take a turn for the 
worse.

3. You're faster than the enemy. Know this and use it well. With the 
exception of quick classes like Thieves, Shadows and Ninja, no one in the
game equals Millenia's walking speed.

4. Don't get hit by your own traps. This may sound stupid but is not - 
blindly setting off traps wil get you nowhere, especially when you may be an
inadvertent target. In rare cases, it's worth it using a large bomb when your
quarry is near; you'll get hurt but you ensure they do too. On the same note;
know where the castle traps are and don't wander into them either.

******

Traps :

This is the only means of damaging the enemies in the game (besides the other
random effect traps scattered throughout the various dungeons) so a thorough
knowledge of their placement and usage is essential. Here are some tips :

1. Traps are divided into different categories - 

Falling Objects (Vases, Rocks, the Basin) : Rocks are your main high-damage 
weapon of choice, whereas Vases tend to be enemy-irritants or traps that you
use to set up bigger combos. Some notable traps of these varieties include
the Spike Rock (good damage, same charge time as Mega Rock) and the Lava Vase
(does decent damage for a short charge time). I personally never use the
higher level Rocks (Flare, for example) because they require far too much 
Ark to obtain. The Oil Vase is worthy of notice as detonating an explosive
Bomb or using a Fire Arrow will set it's victim on fire, dealing additional
damage. 

Note : Rocks will also roll down stairs or other smooth surfaces, though they
disappear when they come to a stop.

Gases (Slow, Berserk, Evil) : The main advantage of using Gases is probably
their large area of effect when compared to the other single-space traps. 
Personally, I don't rely on them too much (I'm a direct damage player, not
a harasser) but Heat Breath is my Gas of choice - does great damage and once
activated successfully prevents its victim from moving out of the area of 
effect. Berserk is also moderately useful as it does cause poisoning. 

Bombs (Flash, Small, Blast) : Good damage, and the more powerful ones such
as Hellfire really pack a wallop. Choices? Blast Bomb, undoubtedly - 
excellent combo potential and damage with wide blast radius and good charge 
time. Small Bomb has the shortest charge time of any trap in the game, which 
makes it the ideal choice for finishing off a wounded foe.

Floors (Spring, Magnet, Vacuum) : Haven't really experimented with these
much, but in my limited experience Spring is good for throwing enemies into
the path of other castle traps so you can set up a quick triple combo - you
did remember to have an Arrow lined up at the other side of the wall didn't
you?

Walls (Attack, Press) : As with Floors, don't use them often - their short
(2 squares average) distance makes Arrows a much better choice IMHO.

Arrows (Slit, Flame, Triple) : Great multi-purpose harrowers - against the
more powerful foes Fireball and Laser Arrow will have to be used though, 
because normal Chain Needles and Arrow Slits will bounce right off. Chain
Needle is a great mage-killer and Fireball travels up and down stairs - both
are excellent additions to your trap arsenal.

2. Set your traps up in patterns to seal of as much of the room as possible
and for combo potential. A good practice is to place area effect traps at
whatever doorways the room has and an Arrow type trap in the middle - this
combination ensures that your enemy has a hard time getting to you. If 
enemies are chasing you, however, then shift your pattern to placing as 
many traps as possible in their path, comboing if possible. Another effective
strategy is putting powerful traps like Iron Balls in areas which you KNOW
the enemy will travel through - doors, narrow corridors, bridges etc.

Generally speaking :

Doors - Rocks, Gases, Arrows (effective for those pesky enemies who won't
run into the room to fight you - just place a Chain Needle at the other side
and watch them become walking pincushions.)

Open Areas - Area-effect weapons, Arrows to cordon off sections.

Corridors, narrow stairs - Arrows. 

Stairs - Area effect weapons. Be careful about setting Arrow weapons near
any stairs since the railing will usually deflect the shots.

Water - Spark Rods and the like. Don't be in the water when you set the
trap off. ^_^

3. It's also possible to head off enemies in a single room and not make them
chase you - of course, you'll always want them chasing you so you can watch
them die horrible, messy deaths and you and your traps' hands, but sometimes
(as when you're defending a key area) it's not possible. In that case, instead
of blocking exits, section off key areas in a given room with traps chosen
carefully by enemy. For example, if fighting a Chemist and Fighter, you'll
want an area-effect weapon to catch the rushing Fighter and a well-placed
Arrow one to get the slow-moving Chemist. Learn to adapt to different patterns
and room structures.

4. Enemies will usually chase you. Make use of this fact. Place traps in front
of them and watch them dash unsuspectingly into their doom! Against magic-users
this is not as effective - simply place an Arrow weapon right in their paths.

5. Research only the traps that you need. In the beginning of the game, my
recommendation is to go straight for Spike Rock (damage), Chain Needle 
(sectioning off multi-hit, mage killer), Heat Breath (all-purpose) and 
Blast Bomb (general badass weapon) then develop for the rest later. Pick
the traps that suit your playing style and ignore the rest. This is important
as good traps will ensure that you take no damage - thereby allowing you
to get the No Damage Bonus and a hefty amount of Ark.

6. Look. No, I mean it. It's a very risky proposition indeed to try setting 
off traps when you have no clear line of sight to the enemy - no matter
how sure you are that your trap will score, look first. Use the L1 button
for a high view of things and the R1 for a quick about-face turn. If you're
being attacked from all sides and can't do either, you can resort to using
the trap view subscreen to see where your enemies are. This is sometimes a 
better proposition as doing so will allow you to determine their EXACT 
position (on the squares) saving you considerable guesswork.

7. Some enemies will not chase you (see point 4 above) - the magic-using 
ones. In that case, place an area-effect trap next to them and run in circles
so that they stay in the same position; when the trap has finishing charging
let'em have it.

******

Combos 

As with fighting game combos, there's really only one rule to remember :
combo often, combo well. In this game well means :

1. Doing lots of damage.
2. Using as many traps as possible.
3. Linking them smoothly. 

The last point is worth a little elaboration on; you have to make sure each
trap hits either exactly as another does or at the very longest 2 to 3 seconds
later - if not the combo breaks.

Now let's talk about money, or rather Ark in this game. The more damage you
deal, the more Ark you get (no damage, like from traps such as Slow Gas, 
means no cash) Certain special effects will also net you more dough, listed
below :

1. 2-Hit Bonus, 3-Hit Bonus, 4-Hi...you get the idea.
2. Initial Trap (about 100 Ark) Comes from the first use of a trap on an
enemy.
3. Bingo! Killing blow. Not sure of the exact effect but I suspect it adds
a bit more to your Ark by a percentage value.
4. Bullseye. Only for Ceiling traps. Again, not sure what it does but is
triggered by having your trap hit the enemy directly in the middle of the
target square; if it's even a little off to the side it doesn't count.
5. Long Range Hit. Caused by arrows and such from across the room (5 or
more tiles away or so) Seems to add a little bit to Ark earned.
6. Double Hit. Catch two people in the same trap. Adds about 20% to total
Ark.
7. Counter Hit. Either 1. You hit the attacker after he hits you, or 2) you
hit he as he he\she's ABOUT to hit you.
8. Aerial Hit. Self-explanatory. Seems to give you more Ark too.

It's actually possible to have bigger than 3-Hit combos along you can only
set off 3 traps; see the Good Combos section below for more hints.

As final note, traps don't count Ark past the 10th hit, and the maximum
amount of Ark gained in a level is 65536. (Not that you could get that much
anyway...)

******

Good Combos :

Here are various painful and effective ways of doing in your opponent that
either I or fellow Kagero players have managed to come up with - enjoy and
feel free to send in your own personal method of damage-dealing.

1. Spike Rock-Fireball-Blast Bomb. Alternatively, substitute a Heat Gas for
enemies who are immune to Rocks. This combo should shatter any defenses your
foe has and deal pretty hefty damage (about 70-100 points) to him\her 
besides. You'll need to place the Fireball so it hits the door in order for 
this to work.

2. Power magnet at door drags enemy into corner, Spike Rock slams, and Blast 
Bomb obliterates. 

OR

Fire arrows to stun the enemy at the doorway and then blast them back with a 
floor trap like a Bomb or a Back slam. You can substitute more powerful
versions of any of these traps (Flare Rock, for instance) for added damage.

3. In the Altar room (Second Castle), set a Land Mine by the door (down 
stairs) set a Lave Vase on the second block straight from the Mine, set 
a Spike Wall on the wall opposite to the door. Get up the stairs and watch 
the enemy as he comes in, activate the Mine (this lands him two block ahead 
of him), activate the Lava Vase, now SET UP a Rising Floor as soon as you can
by the Spike Wall, wait until the enemy runs into the wall with the Vase on 
his head, activate the Rising Floor, SET UP an Oil Vase as soon as you can on
the 4th block away from the wall, wait for the enemy to land, activate the 
Spike Wall when he's GETTING UP (this will buy some time for the Oil Vase to 
charge up), drop the Oil Vase on him, SET UP a Fire Arrow as soon as you can 
in place on the Spike Wall, activate the Fire Arrow. There you have it, a 
7-hit combo. 

Another good point raised by the sender of this mail was that all Vases
cause the enemy to start running around stupidly, making him\her - you 
guessed it - a perfect target for more traps. On the same note, other traps
with similar properties (Berserk Gas, Magnets etc) can be also be used to 
sucker enemies and set up combo opportunities.

this from Ron Newcomb :

I think I found an infinite combo (or at least an infinite string): on
semi-narrrow (about 4-5 blocks wide) corridors, put a Attack/Spike
Wall on one side, a Spring Floor on the other side (that shoots them
toward the wall, of course), and Confuse Gas in the middle. Wait until
the opponent is about to recover from one trap before springing the
next upon them, to give the traps enough time to recharge & reset. (I
think that was the 3 traps I used in unison.)  Cold Claw is another
one I use for extending combos since it holds the enemy for so long.

A tactic I use to quickly kill off people is rig up a three-hit trap
combo at the door. As soon as they step into the room, 1-2-3 it's
usually all over. Especially when using high-damage traps such as the
Lava Rock in conjuction with environment traps. Killed Ramda as soon
as he stepped into the room, for example. My total time for the game,
first time played, was listed at just under 10 hours.

also from Mr Newcomb :

Last one I used was Volt Magnet on the wall, Cold Claw right
underneath it, and Confuse Gas in front of it all. Since the magnetic
pull causes the character to face away from the wall, the Confuse Gas
causes them to walk straight forward, staying within Volt Wall's
narrow attack area.

from [email protected] (yeah, I got bored with re-editing and compiling these
hints and decided to use the original format - working on three FAQs at the 
same time can do that to you. ^_^

	as for another combo, try setting a rising floor under a fan, and
a land mine two spaces infront of the rising floor.  Set off the land mine
when the invader approaches, he'll land on the rising floor which you
activate, the fan will hit him at lease 7 or 8 times (I forgot how much).
Note you can probably use any wall attack with will add to the damage.  Try it
out!

from Jay Yen :

Dunno whether you can get anything higher than this, but it can be done.
Magnet setup such way that spring floor will shoot enemy straight into
it.  and the magnet also pointed to any preset trap, like saw.

1.confuse gas then, 2.spring floor right the way,
3. magnet (change spring floor to cold claw, set right next to magnet)
4. confuse gas, 5 cold claw (change magnet to press wall right way)
(change confuse gas to lava vase, 2 block a way from press wall)
6. press wall, 7. lava vase, and finally 8, initial floor trap (saw)
(when people got hit by lava vase, they will go straight, and move
into initial trap).  A total of 8 hit, and include
aerial hit (1), Bullseye(7), and possible Bingo (8).
The initial floor trap may hit 2 times, instead of 1.
Also, if you lure your enemy to attack you in front of spring floor trap.
you may get counter hit bonus as well.

from Bej :

In the third castle there is a combo which can give up to 3400 ark for
the final
hit!  this is in the room with 2 acid pools and a volt wall.  You'll
need the "evil
kick" trap, which is obtained by getting the fourth ending.  Set a volt
magnet on
the stairs opposite the volt wall, set a thrust floor one space infront
of the magnet.
Set a gas trap on the stairs, if you want.  I usually use evil gas to
lower defense.

The key is setting the traps off in the correct order.  First gas, then
thrust floor.  When
the enemy lands, quickly reset the thrust floor on the square next to
the magnet, so
the enemy gets sucked on to it.  Now activate the magnet as the enemy is
getting up.
At this point you can set a boulder on the other side of the room, if
you want.  When
the magnet runs out, quickly replace it with the evil kick.  Now use the
second thrust
floor.  By the time the enemy lands, the evil kick should be powered up,
so send that
sucker flying.  He will hit the volt wall on the opposite side of the
room.  Most enemies
will be dead by now, but drop the boulder if he is not.

I have gotten over 16000 ark for one stage by repeatedly using this
trap.  Hope this
is useful to you!

Not a combo, but this info for [email protected] could be useful :

Just thought I'd mention a few things I found out.  It's not much and it might
not help you at all, but here we go.  Weapon :  The buzz saw weapon pushes a
victim clear across the other side of the room (Just like the evil kick).  The
bezek gas is great since It causes the enemy to run to you reguardless of
what's in his way or if he can't reach you.  The oil vase even when miss timed
will cause all invader to slip on fall.  Use the blast bomb on them and they
will be on fire.  

>From Wagner Fukuhara :

About combos:   In first scenario (mansion) in the torture room, have
you use Press Wall to push enemie on the eletric chair?  Set press wall
on end of stair targeted to chair. (note:  works with PRESS WALL.
otherwise enemy only flies above chair)
  A combo I like to use requires lots of ARK and only is possible
with... ending 4, I think.  Using Evil Kick and Flare Rock( can be Spike
Rock or Iron Ball too).  In straight stair or corridor, put Evil Kick in
the extreme wall.  Then a Flare Rock just in front it. When a enemy, or
a file of them are there, first drop flare rock on floor. Before it
vanish,  activate Evil Kick and Flare Rock will be expelled at
incredible speed, hitting everybody in straight line, look like
something between football and snooker.  Its so fast that NOBODY can
evade, don't stay in the way... Only works well with rocks that doesn't
disappear with first blow.

Good stuff from Ron Huber :

When using vases and walls to build combos, remember that push and
spike walls will leave the enemy facing the same direction he was
when hit, the attack wall turns the enemy 180 degrees.

For a good, simple 10 hit combo worth a lot, equip 3 types of vases
(I usually use regular, oil, and the special one you receive at one 
ending), a push, spike, and attack wall. For the floor try a bear 
trap, heavy claw, and heaven's floor (or evil upper and magic bubble
if you've received them).
Basically, it just takes practice to time the combo, but it must be
done where stairs end 2 spaces from a wall.
Start with vase, push wall, and evil upper/heaven's floor 
1-regular vase on enemy descending stairs towards wall.
2-evil upper/heaven's floor just before wall (make sure evil upper is
faced to the wall as well), giving your 2nd and 3rd hits
4-set oil vase at 1st part of stairs, then use push wall to push enemy
back to stairs before recovering from evil upper
5-drop oil vase on enemy, he will start walking back towards wall
6-set spike wall in same place as push wall, catch enemy with bear
trap.
7-set lava vase or that mask thing on stairs again, hit enemy with 
spike wall
8-drop vase on enemy (wait a bit longer than push wall to drop it),
set heavy claw or magic bubble and attack wall (or laser arrow/buzzsaw
or whatever)
9-catch enemy with last floor trap
10-kill or fling enemy with last wall trap.

For a souped up version of this, use the room in the king's palace 
that has the huge staircase with the huge rock above it. Instead
of evil upper, use another type of claw (so as not to go over 10 hits)
 the evil helmet-vase (it holds enemies for 15 seconds), as well as a
catastrophe bomb (to knock the boulder loose).

Basically the combo is the same, except that at the end after the
spike wall drop the evil helmet on the enemy. He will walk towards the
wall for a long time, giving you time to set the attack wall and 
catastrophy bomb. Set off the catastrophy bomb so that the boulder
comes rolling down just as the attack wall sends the enemy flying.
 The aerial hit (as well as kill) should give you 65536 arks.

Using these types of combos you should be able to purchase every
single trap in the game by the 10th-12th stages.

******

Enemies :

1. Know your enemies. 

Fighters and Knights will rush at you to strike with their weapons. Sucker
these guys into Bombs, though anything works. Some Fighters have wicked
flying kicks which they can use to get you from behind, so watch out -
certain Fighters also shrug off Arrows and weak Bombs.

Heavy-hitters like Crushers and Sentinels generally shrug off Arrows and
light weapons easily enough, so Bombs are good. (Sentinels actually fling 
entire Spike Rocks away!) However, they are stupid enough to rush blindly 
into almost anything - use that to your advantage. Shoguns also fall into
this category, but NEVER let them get their bearings or a straight line of
sight on you - they will unleash a deadly rushing slash that can cover more
than half the screen, in addition to being immune to many traps.

Psychos and Thieves will leap to strike you, so take that into consideration
when planning your strategy. Thieves, along with Ninja, often disappear, so
be careful...I find that luring them into Arrows as well as using slowing
devices (Magnet, Slow Gas, Bear Trap) work well. Shadows are major pains -
they don't even show up on your map! They will, however, appear close to any
other characters, so take down their allies and than catch them with a Bomb
when they rise from the floor.

Hunters will alternate thrown weapons with sword swipes. Don't get too close;
these ladies can be fast when needed. Arrows and other long-distance weapons
should be effective enough.

Archers are basically mages with a faster weapon and more life but lack
the nasty attacks and regeneration capabilites of true magic-users. Arrows
and other normal traps should prove more than adequate weaponry against them.

Voodoos (and all the other magic-using classes) will fling spells at you from
afar - also, they can heal simply by walking around and also possess the 
ability to heal their allies. For this reason, killing mage-type enemies at one shot is far preferable to dragging the fight
out - if you leave to dispose of other foes, they will return with full life
at a later date. Worse still, they've bring their friends. Because of their
slow movement speed I like fast Arrows when dealing with these guys. Of all
the mage classes, the Pyromaniac and Magician attacks are the most difficult
to evade - get as far as you can from both of them when dealing damage, 
because the triple fireball of the former is hell to duck and the latter's
lighting, impossible.

Chemists and Bombers are easy enough - even their long-range weapons are
slow and give you plenty of reaction time. Sucker them into whatever you
think is good.

Clones suck - one blast from them and you go flying, usually not getting up 
in time to avoid the next. Careful with these fellows - I advise Bombs and 
choice Gases. Stay far away, and be especially wary of the final teleport to
your side they use as a last resort.

Drones are DAMN HARD. Besides being resitant to just about everything (and
having a high defense as well) Gahoda has a homing fire blast (avoidable;
see point 4 below) but Gordis has an eyebeam which can't miss. Stay far 
away and use their limited movement speed to lure them into room after 
Spike-Rock filled room.

TDM characters, despite how powerful they're supposed to be, are actually
rather weak - the only thing you really have to watch out for is their 
quick and constant regeneration. Otherwise, just nail them with whatever
presents itself - it's that easy. In fact, they will stop regenerating 
altogether once they have recovered approximately 3 times their life bar in
health. You've probably killed them by then of course...

I'll go into the specialist character classes (Keith's Slasher etc) in the
walkthrough itself.

2. Certain enemies have built-in invulnerabilites to various traps - the Bomber
is immune to Gas and Bombs, certain Knights will shrug off Arrows and weak
Bombs easily, Crushers take pitiful damage from Arrows, and Drones are 
resistant to practically everything. By the same token, certain traps are 
deadly to certain enemies - all mages take major damage from Arrows and 
Rocks, for example. Keep all this in mind when selecting traps for the next 
mission.

However, it's also true that many enemies seem to lose these invulnerabilities
once hit with a powerful trap\s that they susceptible to : for example, I once
threw a Spike Rock followed in quick succession by a Fireball than Blast 
Bomb at Keith - after taking the first two the last one hit without any
difficulty.

3. When an enemy appears that wasn't in the Enemy Data during the intermission
screen, you can always re-select that option in the Triangle Button submenu
to get the skinny on them.

4. To avoid distance attacks such as arrows, magical blasts etc, run. Not
straight backwards, but in a sideways direction the moment you see the
attacker readying his\her shot. You can even evade the homing fire of Drones
this way (not their eyebeam though) as long as you're far away enough.

5. Note that all enemies will begin to stagger and move extremely slowly once
their life has been reduced to a low enough level. Take this opportunity to 
finish them off from a distance with a well-placed, quick-charged trap. Why
distance? Because even a weakened foe still attacks with the same speed 
he\she possessed when at full health - in the case of the Shogun's speed chop
or the Psycho's leap this can be deadly. (And don't forget that mage 
characters can restore life...)

******

That's basically it for the tips and intro section. Now for the walkthrough.

(Under HEAVY construction.)

Note : I don't know for certain how particular actions, yes\no answers and
such will affect the storyline - for the most part I'm just guessing, but I'll
tell you when I'm sure. I'm hoping some kind readers out there will play the
game long enough to fill me in on the details anyway. ^_^

Chapter 1 :

Listen to Yocal's explanations of trap-setting if you want; it's not 
important. I don't know how answering her question affects the game, but
regardless of whether you answer yes or no you CAN kill her - a quick 
Rock-Bomb-Arrow combo should do the trick and she'll be hale and hearty when
you next meet her anyway. (Must be that TDM regeneration again...)

This is an easy mission. Go find Daar and drop a rock on his head - he won't
move. If you want you can let him go.

Chapter 2 :

Slash comes to the mansion - with Daar if he's alive or with Livia if he's
not. Kill them all. Easy pickings. (You should take the opportunities 
presented to you in the first few easy scenarios to score as many No Damage
Bonuses as possible, thereby racking up the Ark needed to survive in later
missions.)

Chapter 3 :

Gastone and Hawk venture intrepidly into the haunted mansion - to die at your
hand of course. Yet another easy mission. Careful of Gastone's high life.

Chapter 4 : 

Answering "...ummm" to the Knight's question will let you get off scot-free
without having to set off a single trap. No bonus if you choose this option
of course. Want the first ending - kill them.

Chapter 5 :

The group of soldiers that enter the mansion are easy enough, all things 
considered - do be careful of Hunna's fast attacks though. She will also
leave after having sustained serious damage, so watch out if you're going for
Perfect Genocide or the first ending. 

Chapter 6 :

Deadmoon (or rather his double) will summon his henchmen ninja, Hagane, to
his side the moment he sees you, so be careful and run before engaging them
in combat. Hornstein is easy enough (he will run away from you in fact) so
your main concern is the double's energy bolts.

Chapter 7 :

For this and quite a few later missions, letting an enemy get to the altar
without you being in the same room will kill all of you as the unsuspecting
thief sets off the hidden bomb there. Be wary of this and head off any 
enemies who get too close to the room for comfort. No, you can NOT stop this
from occuring even if you're in the altar room itself. (I tried.)

As for the mission itself, nothing special other than the fact Legard cannot
be hurt by Gas or Bombs due to his suit.

Chapter 13 : Small Sacrifice

As far as I know this is one of the (if not the) deciding chapter in the 
game. Depending on whether you killed Emelia's brother\father in the 
previous mission determines your path, the 1) human or 2) Timenoid path. 
I still don't know to what extent (if at all) your previous answers/questions
affect this.

The enemies are your standard fare - look sharp and be liberal with trap use.

Chapter 20 : Timenoid Shadows/Master's Strings

As far as I know this chapter remains essentially the same whether or not 
you allow news of the grail to be leaked to Keith. Lure Gadoha and then
Gordis to death using Rocks and other high-powered traps such as Fireball etc
 - as the Enemy Data screen says, they can't be hurt by normal attacks. In the
event that you kill Vogues first, Gordis still appears.

Chapter 23 : Torn Thoughts 

Ramda will use a final teleport to do you some damage, so get ready to move 
once you see his life go down. (Alternatively, finish him off with a large
attack so he doesn't get to use it.) Sigma is easy enough, but be careful of
the Shadow who will also appear to attack you.

Chapter 25 : Anguish

This is the final chapter in the second ending game. Kill Yocal (who will
let you attack first) to finish it up. Besides that, the enemies are identical
to the first ending game's Chapter 24.

Chapter 26 : Eve of Destruction

If you've got this far, you don't need me helping you - about the only piece
of concrete advice I have is to take down Loongear ASAP; he heals more rapidly
and better than any other healer in the game. Also, DO NOT CLOSE ON DUSK -
he will FRY you with multiple blasts of purple lighting if you let him. Near
to the end of the stage, any other characters and he will close on you from
two sides. Don't let them or you'll be sorry.

The King is surprisingly easy; although he shrugs of Rocks without any 
difficulty, most other attacks will hurt him. Be careful of his regeneration
rate and powerful attacks (the orb in particular) and you should be more than
okay.

******

Endings (SPOILERS AHEAD)

Thanks to some of my readers, I've gotten information on the other endings 
as well. There seem to be only 4 - if you've discovered any more please
mail me.

Ending 1 : You're supposed to get this one after you kill everyone in the 
game (i.e, all those people who try to escape - you need a full 100 Soul
Count) Millienia will then be transformed into a Timenoid by a demon.

Ending 2 : You let the grail be discovered and kill the King first, then
Yocal. Millienia leaves sadly to search for the true meaning of war and
death.

Ending 3 : Let Keith's men find the grail and then answer yes when Keith
beats you later and asks you to go with him. Millenia will leave with her
brother to find somewhere they can live with their sins.

In response to readers' difficulty in getting this ending, here's some
assistance :

*I found that if you let Julia go tell Keith that Millenia is alive and then 
in the first mission in the ruins you just kill the knight after his heart 
warming speach, but let the ninja and the priest go you can get this ending.
Of course you have to let the Red Bloods get the grail, but hey it's all in 
the name of fun!*		

Ending 4 : You complete all your missions successfully but don't kill everyone
(let off anyone you can, in other words) The King will consider Millienia too
dangerous to be left alive and will try to exterminate you - failing, of 
course. With the King's demise the rule of the TDM is broken and chaos 
ensues thoroughout the land.

Each ending also gets you a new trap to use. If you get all 4, you can select
a yellow one-eyed ball of a monster called a Suezo (for those of you who've 
played Monster Rancher, yes, this is the same guy) that does a whopping 150
damage.

******

Credits :

Tija Lung for ending info, Loi Nyugen for some combos, bengster for 
miscellaneous assistance, Tom Biuso for more combos, Bondan Wibisono for 
ending confirmations, Ron Newcomb from nice mails and even more info, Robbie
De Arras from ending 3 info, and [email protected] for demolishing the
two-player myth. Also, Daryl for Astarte info, Bej, Jay Yen and others for
combos. Thanks, guys!

******

Codes and Suchlike :

Sound Test:

At the "Press Start" title screen, press R1(4), R2(6). If you entered the 
code correctly, you will hear a scream. Then, a "Sound Test" option will 
appear in the "Mode Select" screen.

The two player-mode has been confirmed as an error by Tecmo. ^_^

Entering your name as Astarte will get you an extra 2800 starting Ark.