SUPER ROBOT TAISEN : ORIGINAL GENERATION by BANPRESTO released in America by ATLUS for GAME BOY ADVANCE 08/08/2006 US Release 11/22/2002 JP Release This guide's two main features, at this point, are the character section and the Walkthrough for Ryusei's route. Kyosuke's route is not yet in here, but it's the same as Ryusei's for chapters 23+, excluding a few in the 30s. In other words, the guide can still be used for Kyosuke's route, just not to its full potential. To go to a specific section, search (ctrl-F in most browsers) for what part you want to go to. For instance, to start Ryusei's walkthrough, search for 3.0 1.0 Introduction 1.1 What is Super Robot Wars? 1.2 What is the purpose of this guide? 1.3 Terminology help 1.4 Secrets 1.5 New Game + 2.0 Characters 3.X Ryusei Route, where X is the number of the chapter 4.X Kyosuke Route 5.0 Closing + Thanks === 1.1 === What is Super Robot Wars? === In Japan, the Super Robot Wars series is a long running multi-platform epic featuring cameos from more robot shows than any one person has any business recognizing. It's huge, but in America we never got to experience it due to various copyright problems (the same reason we'll never get Jump Superstars, etc.) Then Banpresto, the SRW company, threw us a bone. They made a new universe featuring only original characters from their previous games, and only original mechs, and because of that there are no copyright issues! (ban)Presto! We get Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation (and it's sequel, OG2) in America! So the game in question here was made after dozens of prequels. Because of that, it has a very refined game and combat system compared to the earlier games! If you ever find youself annoyed at this game, take pleasure in the fact that if you were playing an SNES Super Robot Wars game you'd probably have eaten it by now. (Note: These two paragraphs were stolen unapologetically from my review of this game. The only thing I changed was to fix a typo...) === 1.2 === What is the purpose of this guide? === This guide is written so that anybody can enjoy Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation to its fullest, their first time playing it. SRT:OG's difficulty scales to the skill of the player, and the bonus mission is only available if you get a certain percentage of "Battle Masteries." Unless you know what you're doing, this can be pretty difficult; in fact, I didn't even do it on my first playthrough of the game. But with the suggestions and recommendations I outline in this guide, even a first time player can get every secret and Battle Mastery in the game. === 1.3 === Terminology Help === More as I come across things people have trouble understanding. DC - Divine Crusaders. The villains in the first arc of the story. (SPOILERS AHEAD!) They are led by Bian Zoldark in an attempt to strengthen the Hagane's elite pilots so they will be able to counter the coming alien threat. Only a few people in the DC realize their true goal is to lose, and this causes a problem later on. Real Robot - A realistic robot made with Earth technology. The vast majority of them specialize in long range attacks and evading rather than defending. RR - Real Robot SR - Super Robot Super Robot - A more fantastical mech that uses unexplainable attacks like swords that appear out of nowhere or beams that appear out of their chest. They often have an odd energy source that can be anything from a Black Hole to the power of Courage. They are usually short range attackers, with a lot of HP and defense but terrible dodging skills. === 1.4 === Secrets === I have notes throughout the guides, telling you when to do certain things in order to earn these secrets. To play the Bonus Episode, Episode 42, you need to get 32 Battle Masteries throughout the game (and thus be on Hard Mode) at the end. Secret Mechs: Huckebein 008L (Ryusei Route) - Ingram level 32 or higher by the end of Chapter 29 Huckebein 008L (Kyosuke Route) - Viletta level 22 or higher by the end of Chapter 19 Gespenst MkII-S (Ryusei Route) - R-Gun destroyed in chapter 30 Gespenst R (Kyosuke Route) - Gillian level 22 by the end of chapter 19. Grungust (Kyouske Route) - Destroy the R-Gun in chapter 30, but don't fulfill the Huckebein 008L's requirements Guarlion (Both Routes) - Defeat Leona with Tasuku or Rai in Chapter 24 Valsion Custom (Both Routes) - Reduce Shine's Valsion Custom to below 10% HP within 5 turns on Chapter 28 (this is the Battle Mastery objective) Secret Weapons: Shishioh Blade (Ryusei Route) - Ryusei has 50 kills by the end of Chapter 26, and be in Hard mode Graviton Cannon (Ryusei Route) - Kyosuke has 55 kills by the end of Chapter 32, and be in Hard Mode Shishioh Blade (Kyosuke Route) - Kyosuke has 70 kills by the end of Chapter 26, and be in Hard Mode Graviton Cannon (Kyosuke Route) - Ryusei has 55 kills by the end of Chapter 32, and be in Hard Mode Secret Parts: Hero's Mark (Ryusei Route) - Daitetsu level 35 by the end of Chapter 34, and have 27 Battle Masteries Steel Soul (Ryusei Route) - Lefina level 38 by the end of 37, and have 30 Battle Masteries Hero's Mark (Kyosuke Route) - Lefina level 35 by the end of 34, and have 27 Battle Masteries Steel Soul (Kyosuke Route) - Daitetsu level 38 by the end of 37, and have 30 Battle Masteries === 1.5 === New Game + === After beating the game once, you unlock New Game + mode. Start a new game by loading your clear data from a previous game and you'll start from the beginning with all of the money and PP from before. What DOES carry over? All of the Money and PP you earned and used throughout the whole game What does NOT carry over? EXP and levels, mechs and weapons and all those things. Because you'll be starting the game with a ton of PP, you can upgrade your characters from the start, making it easy to get some of the pesky Battle Masteries in the early game if you couldn't do it the first time. Also, when you beat the game again, your next New Game + will have the combined totals of all your previous games. In this way you can keep playing through until you start with millions of dollars and hundreds of PP (maximum of 999) === 2.0 === Characters === Both routes of this game have the same characters for the most part. You've got a different main character, and the focus in the early part of the game is on a different set of people, but by the end you'll need to decide between the same large cast when assembling your final team. Some characters are only permanently available on a certain route. In this section, I will give brief summaries of each character. Aya Kobayashi Spirits: Gain, Trust, Focus, Attune, Valor, Renew Skills: Telekinesis, Support, Mental, 3 blanks Aya is the support for the SRX Team, and is very closely tied to the plot in this game. She's a pretty powerful TK User, though not the best. She's a decent pilot, especially once she gets the R-3, but again, not the best. Her spirit Renew makes her essential to mass damage in the end-game, though, and for that alone she's useful. Brooklyn "Bullet" Luckfield Spirits: Alert, Strike, Gain, Focus, Valor, Spirit Skills: Telekinesis, In-Fight, 4 blanks He's a pretty good character that keeps himself close enough to the storyline that you pretty much need to use him. He doesn't get his own custom mech until the next game, but he handles his Huckebein Mk-II alright here. Consider giving him the Wildschwein instead. Bullet prefers to be a short range pilot, but his default mech doesn't allow it. You can give him a Steel Knife or some other short range weapon to help. Daitetsu Minase Spirits: Strike, Guard, Guts, Mercy, Fury, Valor Skills: Command, Support, 4 blanks Daitetsu is the captain of the Hiryu Custom in the prologue, the Shirogane at the very beginning, the Hagane throughout most of the game, and the Kurogane at the end! Wow! He's the stereotypical noble captain type, reminiscent of Captain Gloval from Macross. Daitetsu is the type to volunteer on a suicide mission if it means victory for his forces. Elzam V. Branstein Spirits: Focus, Accel, Sense, Faith, Valor, Fury Skills: Command, Genius, SP Up, Mental, Support Elzam is just an amazingly skilled pilot. He plays support to Sanger and makes it clear that's how he likes it. Elzam is another Real Robot specialist with no real personalized mech until the next game (His Huckebein is the Trombe, but that doesn't really mean it's any different) Excellen Browning Spirits: Daunt, Focus, Snipe, Valor, Assail, Love Skills: Hit&Away, Support, 4 blanks Excellen is probably the game's best sniper, helped along greatly by her custom mech the Weissritter. She has the unique spirit Daunt, which adds to her usefulness. Above all that, though, she's just hilarious and a fantastic character that I always wanted to have around. Garnet Sunday Spirits: Bless, Cheer, Focus, Trust, ____, ____ Skills: Support, Lucky, SP Up She's not as bad as Giado, since she's got useful support Spirits. But aside from that, no. She's great in the cutscenes, though, since she always dresses the girls up in provocative clothes and creates awkward situations! Giado Beneldi Spirits: Spirit, Accel, Strike, Valor, Faith, ____ Skills: Counter, Support, Hit&Away I wonder if his being a pilot is a joke. He's certainly not useful at all, and as soon as you have enough units that you get to choose who to send you'll probably be benching Giado. He's not a good pilot and he doesn't have useful spirits, so what's his redeeming quality? Oh, right, he talks with a Jamaican accent. That must be it. Gilliam Yager Spirits Scan, Sense, Accel, Valor, Spirit, Zeal Skills: Prophesy, Attacker, Hit&Away, SP Regenerate, Counter, 1 blank You won't really discover the mysteries behind Gilliam until well into OG2, but for now he plays the part of a former aggressor and pretty skilled pilot. His main problem is the Gespenst MkII-R is not very good in this game. Nonetheless, once he finally joins you he's a pretty effective grunt killer. Irmgult "Irm" Kazahara Spirits: Focus, Sense, Spirit, Valor, Accel, Love Skills: Prevail, In-fight, 4 blanks Irm is good in this game and even better in the next. He's your first Super Robot pilot and is very proficient at it. He'll probably be one of your best damage dealers in the game, and if you're going to attempt to get all the Battle Masteries, using Irm is next to essential. He's also a pretty funny guy, with a bit of a lolita complex. Kai Kitamura Spirits: Spirit, Valor, Guts, Sense, Focus, Drive Skills: Command, Expert, Attacker, Hit&Away, Support, 1 blank Kai will only join you permanently on Kyosuke's route. On Ryusei's, you can only use him for a couple missions. His stats and spirits lend him to pilot a Super Robot, but there's just not one for him in this game unless you want to give him the Grungust Type 2 (which isn't such aterrible idea, he's probably better for it than Kusuha!) Katina Tarask Spirits: Strike, Valor, Assail, Accel, Alert, Drive Skills: Prevail, Revenge, Attacker Her spirits and skills directly reflect her personality. No Focus here, she's not the type. But she has an incredibly cheap Valor, and has Revenge and Attacker... so yeah, she's the aggressive type. Her spirits really lend themselves to something with a big weapon, but she doesn't have any default mech like that, so it's not a bad idea to put her in the Giganscudo and try that out. In OG2, she's perfect for the Gigan, but it's a toss-up in this game. Kusuha Mizuha Spirits: Strike, Guard, Focus, Valor, Zeal, Love Skills: Telekinesis, Support, Mental She's the strongest TK user in the game, and doesn't use a mech that benefits from it at all. How unfortunate. Kusuha makes a pretty good pilot for the Grungust Type 2, though she prefers to be a nurse. Oh well, some people are just destined to fight. Kyosuke Nanbu Spirits: Accel, Focus, Assail, Valor, Sense, Fury Skills: Fortune, Counter, ???? (after a certain event, this becomes Command), 3 blanks Kyosuke is one of the game's main characters, and as such he's a very competent pilot. He specializes in short range attacks and once he gets his custom mech, the Alteisen, he's set for the rest of this game (and most of the next). You really can't avoid using him, not that you'd want to. Latooni Suvota Spirits: Scan, Focus, Sense, Assail, Valor, Enable Skills: Genius, Gunfight, Support, 3 blanks Arguably the best Real Robot pilot in the game, but she doesn't have her own mech to speak of. Give her whatever you want and she'll kick ass with it, though by the end of the game you may want to use her more for her ability to use Enable than to attack with. Lefina Enfield Spirits: Vigor, Gain, Trust, Bless, Rouse, Hope Skills: Command, Support, SP Up, 3 blanks Lefina is a battleship pilot. She's not bad by any means, but because the Hiryu Custom doesn't have a post-movement attack, it's inferior to the Hagane in this game. Her spirits are very helpful, though. Leona Garstein Spirits: Accel, Fury, Focus, Valor, Guard, Sense Skills: Telekinesis, Attacker, Hit&Away, Support, 2 blanks Take a look at that spirit list, as it's probably the best in the entire game. Leona is a very talented Real Robot pilot. Her Guarlion is pretty perfect for her, though she will excel in just about anything long range you put her in. She's related to Rai and Elzam, so piloting must come in the genes. Lune Zoldark Spirits: Guts, Alert, Gain, Focus, Valor, Spirit Skills: Gunfight, Support, Attacker Lune joins you after you kill her father, but she's not really bitter. She pilots a mech that's very similar to the Cybuster, but her Spirit list sort of hurts her in this game. Not being able to use Strike means she can't reliably hit the bosses. Regardless, she's not a bad character. Masaki Andoh Spirits: Focus, Alert, Luck, Valor, Spirit, Strike Skills: In-Fight, Counter, 4 blanks Masaki is the ever loveable pilot of the Cybuster. He pilots it alongside his two talking cats. He's not from Earth exactly, yet nobody really delves into it in either OG game. He's onstantly on a mission to catch Shu. The Cybuster is pretty good, though many say it doesn't have a niche because it can't decide if it wants to be a Super Robot or a Real Robot. Masaki has a terrible sense of direction, so I suppose that's why his Strike costs a ludicrous 30SP. Radha Byraban Spirits: Focus, Alert, Bless, Attune, Hope, ____ Skills: Prophesy, SP Regenerate, Support, 3 blanks She plays a support role, basically. Character-wise she's the obligatory indian person that's in love with Yoga. What's not to love? Raidiese F. Branstein Spirits: Focus, Accel, Sense, Snipe, Valor, Fury Skills: Genius, Hit&Away, 4 blanks Rai is with you from the beginning on Ryusei's route and he is an effective ranged attacker throughout. Once he gets the R-2 you can focus on upgrading it to its maximum potential. Rai isn't as good as his older brother, but with shoes that big to fill who is? Rio Meilong Spirits: Alert, Gain, Valor, Strike, Focus Skills: Telekinesis, Prevail, Support Another example of a pretty good pilot that just doesn't have a good custom mech yet, Rio is neat because of her fairly low cost Valor. I usually like to put her in something speedy, like the Wildraubtier jet mode. She's very competitive and has a bit of a relationship with Ryoto. Russel Bergman Spirits: Strike, Guard, Trust, Cheer Skills: Prevail, Support, SP Up Just look at the guy's face. It just screams "I don't want to be here." He's a below average pilot that only exists to counter Katina's rashness, though his very cheap Cheer is handy for leveling up. Ryoto Hikawa Spirits: Focus, Gain, Mercy, Strike, Valor, ____ Skills: Telekinesis, Support, Gunfight, 3 blanks Poor Ryoto joins as... someone that's not very good. And sadly, that's just how he stays. He's just not that great of a pilot, and he's next to a ton of really good pilots, so it stands out even more. He won't get his custom mech until the next game, though he does have an enemy mech to use here which isn't bad for the early game. His only redeeming quality is he's the only non-battleship unit to be able to use Mercy. Which is useful in like 2 missions. Ryusei Date Spirits: Focus, Alert, Strike, Luck, Valor, Zeal Skills: Telekinesis, Prevail, 4 blanks One of the main characters, he's a complete newbie to the military world at the start of the game but he catches on quickly. He specializes in close range combat, and once he gets the R-1 he'll stay in it forever. He's a good guy, if not a little too stereotypical in the JRPG Hero sort of way. Sanger Zonvolt Spirits: Sense, Spirit, Guard, Accel, Valor, Drive Skills: Command, Counter, In-Fight, Hit&Away, Prevail, blank aka Zengar Zonbolt or some variations throughout the internet, Sanger is pretty much the biggest badass out there. On Kyosuke's route you get to use him in the beginning, but in both routes he's gone for most of the game, only appearing occasionally to bail you out of trouble. When he finally joins you at the end he's instantly one of your strongest end-game attackers. And did I mention he's a badass? Sean Webley Spirits: Mercy, Strike, Luck, Guard, Snipe, Alert Skills: 6 blanks Sean is the XO for the Hiryu Custom, In this game, XOs do not earn PP along with the pilots so you won't really be able to do anything with him. Except watch his hilarious comments toward the women on the ships... Tasuku Shinguji Spirits: Strike, Luck, Accel, Guard, Valor, Love Skills: Telekinesis, Lucky He's one of the few people to have the skill Lucky, so that makes him unique. Tasuku is a decent pilot for the Giganscudo, his default mech, but there are better pilots for it honestly. He's a nice guy with a fun relationship with Leona, but in combat he's really nothing to write home about. Tetsuya Onodera Spirits: Trust, Focus, Cheer, Faith, Assail, Spirit Skills: 6 blanks Like Sean, he can't get Skills in this game. He's the XO of the Shirogane / Hagane / Kurogane along with Daitetsu, and he's the up and coming kind of guy. He's cautious at first but becoming a good captain by the end. Viletta Vadim Spirits: Scan, Focus, Accel, Snipe, Valor, Sense Skills: Fortune, Support, Mental, Gunfight, In-fight, 1 blank She's not with you a whole lot in this game, but the enigmatic Viletta is always a treat. She's got a fairly good spirit list, though wasting a spot with Scan is unfortunate. She's suited to the R-Gun, her usual default mech, but when she arrives in the Gespenst MkII-S she's not bad either. === 3.0 === Game introduction === The game starts with a little backstory. The Hiryu Custom, captained by Daitetsu Minase, encounters aliens by Pluto. Their only defense is a large mech designed more for exploration than fighting, the Giganscudo. They are forced to retreat. If you feel lost amid all the factions and acronyms, take heart! It will all make sense eventually. === 3.1 === Episode 1 === Second Contact === In this mission you play as only Elzam, in a Gespenst MkII-R. You may only have one pilot, but at least he happens to be one of the best in the game! Battle Mastery: All enemies shot down within 4 turns Use the spirits Accel and Focus to close in on the enemies and take them out. Notice that the bugs you're fighting take two shots to kill them. For that reason, always attack one of the full HP ones and rely on your counterattacks during their turn to finish them. I know the usual instinct is not to spread damage, to take out enemies one at a time, but in this situation and with such a time limit this is really the best way. If you're having trouble getting them in 4 turns, notice their ranged attack has 2-5 range. If you stand 6 spaces away, they'll come to you and attack you. The mission ends as Elzam captures another bug. Intermission: Most of the options here are locked out for now, so really you just need to save your game and proceed. Here you get a scrolling text briefing on the current events in the world. === 3.2 === Episode 2 === Personal Trooper === The hero of our story starts the game by winning his own video game tournament. Enemies appear, friendly planes launch missiles, and one enemy crashes into the dome that the tournament is in. Ryusei notices an empty mech, and when the friendly planes leave he takes it upon himself to pull an Amuro and get in. Battle Mastery: All enemies shot down in 2 turns The only way to get the Battle Mastery in this level is to move within range of the leftmost enemy on your first turn. The correct spot is on the eastern part of the dome. If you stand there you will get the Battle Mastery without really trying, because of counterattacks. === 3.3 === Episode 3 === Training === Sad to say, but Ryusei starts off as a bit of a moron. Battle Mastery: Map cleared in 4 turns. You now have three units to deploy. This is the first mission with "disposable" units. In other words, you don't necessarily fail the mission if you lose somebody. They don't permanently die like in certain other strategy RPGs. The only downside is not getting to use them in the rest of the level, and paying a repair fee after the stage ends. Not that I expect you'll go getting yourself blown up... yet. After beating the initial troops, there are reinforcements to the north and south. You'll probably want to split up to get them faster. All of the enemies will target Ryusei because of his stupidity, so keep using Focus every turn to dodge their attacks. The mission ends early if Ryusei dies, though it's not a game over. However, you won't get the Battle Mastery if this happens, so don't let him die. The best way to avoid this is to do a quicksave at the end of your turn (press Start) and if Ryusei dies on the opponent's turn then reload your game. Intermission: This is the first real intermission screen with everything unlocked for you. The only thing you can really do at this point is use your meager amount of cash to upgrade. (A note about upgrading before we continue: Upgrading weapons can either be very practical or not worth it at all. Go to Weapon -> Customize and choose any weapon, and see how much it would cost to fully upgrade it. It will end up being $110,000, $165,000, $275,000, $357,500, or some other similar amount For the most part, weaker weapons cost less to fully upgrade while the strongest weapons will cost the most. However, there are a few weapons that are decently strong and only cost $110,000, these are practically essential to getting all of the Battle Masteries in the early game. These are the Steel Knife and the M95 Machine Gun. For only $110,000 you get a weapon with a stronger attack power than anything else in the early game, and the M95 has a ton of ammo so it's really an amazing deal. You'll probably find yourself using these two weapons on at least some mech even atthe end of the game, so keep that in mind) Your first "goal" of upgrading will be to fully upgrade an M95 Machine Gun. You'll probably want to equip it to Ryusei for now, though Rai will benefit from it more in the long run. === 3.4 === Episode 4 === Fear Game === In this mission, you have a training exercise gone wrong (do they ever go right?). Before the mission starts, Ryusei will suggest equipping the M95... but we already did that, and upgraded it at that! Haha! In this mission we meet Tenzan, whom Ryusei mentioned at the beginning of the game. He's just about the worst stereotype of a gamer possible, so cherish your opportunities to beat him. Battle Mastery: Destroy Tenzan. This is easy, since he won't retreat or anything. Just don't destroy all the other enemies, ignore some planes and focus on Tenzan. Intermission: Upgrade the M95 some more. === 3.5 === Episode 5 === Atrocity === And here we are in Antarctica. After some dialogue you'll see the Shu Shirakawa in the Granzon attack everybody and start a war. Don't worry if you can't follow exactly what's going on here, I'm just now fully understanding the motives and implications for the first time as I write this, and it's my 3rd time through the game! Battle Mastery: Defeat all enemies within 2 turns. This isn't too hard, be aggressive and you'll even get help from the yellow units (people who aren't your team, and aren't enemies either). After the battle, Shu goes crazy on the remaining units. He'll attack you, but don't bother countering, you're not NEARLY strong enough to stand a chance. Just dodge when he attacks. After a bit, Masaki will arrive chasing Shu and the level will end. These events spark what will soon be called the DC War. Intermission: M95. === 3.6 === Episode 6 === Divine Crusaders === Here we get Latooni, Giado, and Garnet on the team. Giado is really worthless throughout the whole game, and Garnet is a terrible pilot but she learns great Skills to at least contribute something. Latooni, on the other hand, is one of the best pilots of Real Robots in the game. The interesting thing about her is that she never has her own special default mech, you can pretty much stick her anywhere and she'll be good. Battle Mastery: ____ Anyway, in this mission if you have Latooni Focus and fly right into the middle of the enemies they will pretty much kill themselves trying to hit her. She'll never be hit in her plane. On the 3rd turn the SRX Team arrives to help, so if you want you can move up Ryusei to help out. Latooni will basically solo the enemies in time for the BM though. After your efforts, the enemy launches a MAPW at the base - think of this as a nuclear warhead, only more powerful. The orders are to retreat, but Ryusei isn't too happy about it. Intermission: Go ahead and keep upgrading the M95, but also notice you now have a Repair and Supply module. You equip them as weapons, and they allow people to heal/supply on the map. I usually prefer having my battleship be the healer and supplier, but if you don't have any other use for Garnet and Giado at this point they can do the job well. They certainly won't be killing too many enemies! === 3.7 === Episode 7 === Kanmon Strait === The objective here is to wound, but not destroy, two enemy subs. The idea is that it's a nuclear sub and will detonate if you sink it, but that really doesn't make a whole lot of sense since you'll have destroyed dozens of enemy subs by the end of the game... this is the only time the nuclear issue is brought up. Anyway! Listen to Kai's advice, don't use beam weapons on underwater targets. If you fly a Focused Latooni straight into the enemy planes she'll take care of them herself and everybody else can focus on the subs. You do have to get both of the subs without letting them escape, and that can be tricky. If you're having trouble getting them in time, you can surround them with your units and they won't be able to move. No, it doesn't make sense to block a submarine with a jet, but it works! After your 3rd turn, Tenzan shows up and taunts Ryusei. This finally reveals the Battle Mastery. Battle Mastery: Shoot down Tenzan within 3 turns of his arrival. Like last time, he won't retreat or anything so you can just whittle his HP down. After beating him you can resume attacking the sub. Be careful - if you complete the regular objective, disabling the sub, before you beat Tenzan, he'll retreat and you won't get to complete the Battle Mastery. This is the first really good time to start making use of Garnet's Cheer and Bless spirits. You'll want to Bless people when they're about to destroy a submarine or boss unit, because they already give good money and doubling that is even better. Cheer is good for whoever gets the finishing blow on a boss unit. After the mission, Garnet will talk to Ryusei. He'll finally have a reason to fight, and from now on he's a lot more bearable to have around. ===3.8 === Episode 8 === The Hagane === From now on you can decide which units to deploy on your missions. Of course, there is no reason to deploy less than the maximum allowed, and for quite some time you'll be allowed to use everybody, so it's really more of a formality at this point. This level has your first really difficult objective. You can't be careless, and you have to have a plan or you'll be getting some game overs. The goal is to not let any enemies enter a certain square on the map - the Hagane's hatch. Don't underestimate the enemies or think you can distract them, they're smarter than that! Some enemies will fight you but others will head straight for the hatch. Your best shot is to send all of your units down to the hatch area and block it off by standing in the spaces around it. Of course, like in previous levels, flying Latooni right into the enemies isn't a bad idea. After a few turns Elzam shows up with some reinforcements. Battle Mastery: Destroy all enemies (except Elzam) within 7 turns. Not that hard, once you get past the hatch issue. On turn 5, the Hagane launches and you gain control of it. Feel free to use it in combat, though you'll probably have to use Strike to ever hit anything. Hagane is neat because it has a post-movement attack, unlike the Hiryu Custom. After completing the objective, a MAPW appears. Ryusei gets superpissed and won't let another base be destroyed, so he deploys in the unfinished R-1 and takes the missile down in one shot. He's either extremely lucky or he's got Char-level skills somewhere in there. After this, Elzam leaves you with a mysterious comment and the mission ends. Intermission: Around this point you probably have enough money to finish upgrading your M95. Next up is a Steel Knife. Since Ryusei is in the Wildraubtier he'll make good use of the M95, so the Steel Knife can go to anyone else. === 3.9 === Episode 9 === Silent Service === In this unique mission you only control the Hagane. The mission is to escape in 6 turns, but you're more worried about the BM, right? Battle Mastery: Destroy all 5 enemy subs. You will fail this mission if you focus too much on the northernmost sub. He's a red herring. Ignore him and get into range of the lower subs, the northern one will come to you. You'll beat the enemies in time via counterattacks and get the Battle Mastery no problem. After the mission, you acqure the Huckebein 008L. It's a decent mech, though not exactly suited to its current pilot. Oh well! === 3.10 === Episode 10 === Vengeance === Battle Mastery: Destroy all enemies within 4 turns (Once Tempest arrives, he's exempt from this) On turn 2 Tempest will arrive with some reinforcements that must also be destroyed. Once you get the BM you can swarm Tempest to deal with him. There's really not much to say about this level. === 3.11 === Episode 11 === Elemental Lord === Battle Mastery: Destroy all enemies within 6 turns. Everybody is making out the cannons to be some sort of unstoppable force, but they're really nothing to worry about. Plus, if you attack from right next to them you're inside their range and can't even be hit. After a few turns, the enemy will spring an ambush, but even now you shouldn't be too worried. Masaki will arrive in the Cybuster to help you, and he'll take care of all the cannons in the middle with your first MAP attack. Once the enemy sub launches a missile, Daitetsu announces the Hagane will take care of it. You can now move the Hagane, and in order to get the BM in time you do need to move north on that turn. That puts you in range of the missile in time to get it. If you just wait forthe missile to come to you, you won't have time to beat it. If you're having trouble taking out the enemy sub on time, just bring whoever has your M95 around to it earlier in the mission and focus on it. Remember to Bless/Cheer when killing big things like Submarines! Intermission: Around this point you might want to start upgrading some mechs. Of the ones you have now, you'll probably only be using the Cybuster and maybe the Wildraubtier until the end of the game, so keep that in mind. Definitely don't bother upgrading a Gespenst or anything! Upgrading EN is really cheap, so consider doing that for anybody that relies on Energy to attack. It's especially good for Cybuster, as you can use his MAP attack more often. Aside from that, keep working on a Steel Knife. === 3.12 === Episode 12 === Grungust Irm starts the mission in a plane, and he needs to meet up with the Tausendfussler. Just use Focus every turn and he'll be pretty much unhittable. Once he meets up with his father, Irm will appear in the Grungust, your first Super Robot. Have fun kicking ass with it. On turn 4, the rest of your team appears and the BM reveals itself. Battle Mastery: By the end of the 6th turn, either defeat Elzam or everyone besides him It's definitely a unique objective. You'll probably have an easier time ignoring Elzam and focusing on everybody else. If for some reason you really want to beat Elzam, just use your M95/Steel Knife combos as well as the Grungust's best available weapons and you might stand a chance. Intermission: You receive two spare Gespenst MkII-Ms, and the Huckebein 008L that Irm was previously piloting is now empty. It's time to consider reassigning some pilots. If you're enjoying Latooni's skills as much as I do, you'll want to consider giving her the Huckebein 008L for awhile. It's up to you if you want to keep Giado and Garnet in their Messers or give them the new Gespensts. Also, even though this is a very expensive endeavor, you are going to need to start upgrading the Grungust's Darkness Slash a little bit at a time. This will serve as your Boss Killer in the middle portion of the game, and it will probably end up as one of your strongest attacks all the way up until the end. Upgrading Grungust's EN is a priority as well, or else he can only attack a few times per mission! === 3.13 === Episode 13 === Bian Zoldark === This is a pretty easy level. Your mission is to defeat the Troye Unit, the all female personal bodyguards of the UCC's Commander Maier. We won't get into why Rai and Elzam's dad has all female bodyguards... As you beat them, Rai and Leona will talk about their family problems. After beating all of the Troye mechs, Commander Bian of the DC arrives in his custom mech, the Valsion. As for Valsion's strength, let's just say you have as good a chance of beating him as the PS3 has of ever outselling the XBox360 (there's a slim chance this statement will be hilarious in about 8 years.) Battle Mastery: Reduce the Valsion's HP to below 80% in 3 turns. 80% isn't too bad, just attack it with everything you've got and it should be enough. After succeeding, Masaki will launch and Bian will leave. A few more Lions arrive to fight you, but they're just fodder by now, right? Intermission: Around this point your main fighters have enough PP to start upgrading their skills. In this game, it's important to get at least one level of Support on everybody. Everybody. Once a character has 50PP, get Support. After that it's up to you. Gunfight is good for your long range attackers, along with the damage bonus it raises the range of your attacks by one at level 4 and 7 of the skill. On the opposite side, Infight is alright for close range fighters, and it raises your movement at those levels. Personally I skip those and save up for Mental and/or SP Regenerate. Being able to use Spirits more often is my style, and it does help at the end of the game when you have to fight multiple bosses in a row. === 3.14 === Episode 14 === Cross the Line === Battle Mastery: Defeat all enemies within 9 turns Here you face Barrelions in a long line. It's sort of unique. Barrelions are like flying tanks, much more defensive based than previous Lion mechs. The same strategies apply, just brute force your way here. After a bit you'll be flanked by enemy reinforcements, but even then you shouldn't worry because your team is more than strong enough to win this. Eventually Tenzan will get pissed off and launch a MAPW at you that you'll need to take out. Cyflash can be pretty useful in this map, especially on that missile. 9 turns is really more than enough. I got it in 6. === 3.15 === Episode 15 === Thomas's Trap === Pay attention to the Victory and Battle Mastery conditions. If you attack Ryoto at all, the mission ends (so you can end the mission in one attack, making this potentially the quickest level in the game... possibly in any SRW game?) Battle Mastery: Shoot down Thomas Thomas won't even counterattack or dodge. He just sits there and defends and lets you beat him. He does have 18,000 HP so it takes a bit, but really this is probably the easiest Battle Mastery in the game. Just make sure you dodge/defend every time Ryoto attacks you. === 3.16 === Episode 16 === Starbuck Island === Battle Mastery: Defeat all enemies in 6 turns (Tenzan and Thomas can be forced to retreat) This is a fairly hard BM. Your heavy hitters will need to start focusing on the Rhinoceroses right away. On Turn 2, Ryoto deploys in his Lion to help you. The problem is doing enough damage to the Rhinos to kill them, and enough damage to Thomas to make him retreat (Tenzan has low HP and is no problem.) Don't hold back on the Rhinos, and in this case it might be okay to let a weak link on your team die. By this I mean if all the enemies are targeting one of your weak units that can't counterattack and survive or something, instead of trying to dodge/defend you can just let them die so the enemies will attack somebody that can counter and rack up some damage on them. It's mean, but effective. After defeating the enemies, Shu arrives in the Granzon. Everyone is ready to fight and avenge the Shirogane, but Capt. Daitetsu wisely orders a retreat. The objectice is to move the Hagane to the edge of the map, but it says nothing of the units. If you really want to you could attack Granzon while the Hagane is moving, though it's a bit of a fool's errand. You'll only build up the repair cost for after the mission, you don't stand a chance against him yet. === 3.17 === Episode 17 === Last Batallion === The BM is a mystery at first, so just move the Hagane south while everybody else fights the elite enemies. Once the Hagane gets to a certain point, Tempest appears to ambush you. Ryusei launches in the R-1 and you finally reveal the BM. Battle Mastery: Shoot down Tempest. Just like with Thomas a few levels ago, this isn't hard at all. Intermission: Go ahead and start upgrading Ryusei's R-1. He'll be in it for the rest of this game, and its sequel, so the upgrades won't go to waste. Make sure to give him a gun with good range for when he's countering enemies that are far away. At this point you should probably give him the upgraded Steel Knife, because upgrading his T-Link Knuckle just isn't very economic in this game. The Wildraubtier now needs a new pilot. I gave it to Aya and kept her in Jet mode all the time, and it served me very well. Raubtier's jet mode has a good 2-4 range beam attack and is evasive enough to stay alive. Also make sure to equip a Repair Kit to the Hagane right now in the Parts menu. It will come in handy in just a second. === 3.18 === Episode 18 === Isle of Hades === The objective is to move the Hagane to a certain spot in the Aidoneus Island bay while everybody else provides cover. You'll start by attacking some missile turrets, if you attack from right next to them they can't hit you. Once the Hagane moves a few times the enemy ship Kurogane arrives, piloted by Elzam. Battle Mastery: Destroy the Kurogane within 7 turns. This seems impossible at first. Kurogane is way on the top of the map. But when you move the Hagane into the aforementioned spot in the Bay, the Kurogane automatically rushes down to attack with its drill. It does a ton of damage to the Hagane, but it's now close enough that all of your mechs can target it. Don't waste time trying to beat the enemy subs in the bay, just focus on Kurogane and any other enemies that fly down right now. After Hagane gets hit by Kurogane, it will start being targeted quite a bit. Defend as much as possible, and definitely make use of the Repair Kit you equipped - it'll make your life a lot easier. Note that once the Hagane parks in the bay and the Kurogane comes down, the Win/Lose conditions change. You now have to get all allies inside the base, and you lose if ANY ALLY DIES. This is a really rare condition in this game and it makes the mission quite challenging. If an ally died prior to the objective switch, you're fine, but once it does you need to keep even your frail units alive. You can dock them in the Hagane until the end, if that helps. You already know to save at the end of your turn in case the enemy turn doesn't go your way, but this is probably the first situation you'll want to use the "save during enemy turn" trick. It's not really a trick so much as something not everyone knows you can do. After an enemy attacks, and the EXP/PP box pops up, you can press start and save your game in the middle of an enemy turn. This way if all the enemies are focusing on one poor unit and you need to keep reloading so he dodges enough shots, you can save throughout the enemy's turn to make it easier. Once you defeat the Kurogane and get the Battle Mastery, you can take your time and destroy everything else on the map at your leisure. This is a pretty good place to make some EXP/Money, with Subs and Rhinos to beat while using Bless. Intermission: This is a very important intermission because the next mission can be extremely difficult if you're not prepared for it. To make your life easier I've assembled achecklist of suggestions - - Ryusei with a good melee weapon (fully upgraded steel knife?) and Support - Rai with a good ranged weapon (fully upgraded M95?) and Support - Masaki with the Cybuster's EN upgraded and Support - Irm with Darkness Slash at least partially upgraded, Grungust's EN upgraded (at the very least), and Support - Someone not mentioned above needs to equip the Energy Taker. It will help you if this person also has Alert or Sense (Latooni is a good choice). They also need Support. - Someone ELSE with a Supply Module. This isn't necessary, but it can help. Preferably all of these are durable mechs, meaning no Jets. If you can't take a hit, you're going to be cannon fodder in this level. === 3.19 === Episode 19 === The Dawning === After watching the conversation, take a look at what you face. The Valsion is your toughest enemy yet. To complete the mission you must destroy it. The Granzon will just spectate the match. Battle Mastery: Reduce Granzon's HP to below 40% This adds a lot to the difficulty, since you can't "blow your load" all at once on the Valsion, you have to get the Granzon a bit first. If you're having trouble getting this Battle Mastery, don't fret too much. It's easily the hardest in the game, and you can still miss a couple without any negative consequences. People that require a high Will to use their best attacks need to take the lead and destroy the cannons. This is Irm and Masaki, probably. The last thing to notice on the map are the little Batteries you can stand on. These restore your EN/HP. If things go bad and you need to regroup, you can use these. Though if you've wasted too much SP... you may as well restart if things go bad. If you take too long to destroy the grunts and turrets on the map, Bian will move to attack you. It is imperative that you ignore him and dodge his attacks, you can't fight him now. You may need to save/reload enemy turns so he doesn't blow up your mechs. Once Irm and Masaki have the right amount of Will, you can bring everybody up to face Granzon. When everyone isthere, assume this position: _____________ |_1_|_E_|_2_| |_3_|_5_|_4_| |___|_6_|___| |_8_|_7_|___| E is the Granzon 1 and 2 are Ryusei/Irm in either order 3 and 4 are Rai/Ingram in either order (I used Ingram because he was my next strongest ranged attacker after Rai. It doesn't need to be him) 5 is Masaki 6 can be any attacker 7 is your EN Draining unit 8 is your Resupplier (optional) Attacking Granzon or Valsion while they still have enough EN to use their shields is pointless. You can't win that way. Because of that, you must use your EN Drainer to eliminate their shields and do as much damage as possible in one turn. Use Sense (or Strike+Alert) with your EN Drainer, then do the same with your #6 character. Attack with #6 and adjust #7's Support so they fire the EN Drain. THEN you can use #7's turn and fire another EN Drain. (A quick note about Support attacks - if you're wondering why two people aren't supporting when they should be, check if one is in the air and the other is on the ground. You can always Ground your flying units to make it work.) That should just about take out their EN. If they have a bit more, attack them with other "cannon fodder" characters to wear down the rest of the EN. Once they are out of EN, you can begin the assault. Most likely your strongest attacks are Darkness Slash and Steel Knife. Attack first with 2 and 4 (Rai/Ingram) so that 1 and 3 (Ryusei/Irm) get in their Support Attacks. Then attack with 1 and 3 again. Then use Cybuster's Cosmo Nova. Make sure to Valor as many of these attacks as possible. Finish the turn with as many other character's attacks as you can. If everything went well, you probably did enough damage to get Granzon below 40% in less than one turn of attacking. If things didn't go so well, start the next turn by Resupplying your EN Taker and just repeat until you're done. Once you get the Battle Mastery and Shu leaves, reorganize your units and do the same basic strategy against Bian. It will probably take two full turns to beat him. This is the basic strategy to do mass damage in this game. Of course I won't walk you through it in such detail anymore, now that you grasp the basics of manipulating EN Draining and using Support attacks. There are only a few more fights that require so much planning, anyway. === 3.20 === Episode 20 === Invaders === Battle Mastery: Complete the map in 5 turns This isn't too hard. Reinforcements will arrive in the north, then some Spiders in the south, and finally enemies in the west. Once the last group shows up, Masaki comes to help you. === 3.21 === Episode 21 === Little Princess === Battle Mastery: Destroy the Rhinoceros (It retreats at 30%) This is the first Battle Mastery that requires you to kill an enemy that retreats if he gets to a certain low HP, in this case 30%. This is why I recommended upgrading Irm's Darkness Slash to kill bosses with. Get the Rhino as close to 30% as possible (save before every attack as you whittle it down) then unleash a Valored Darkness Slash supported with something strong like an M95. It should be more than enough damage. All units that aren't on "boss kill duty" need to proceed immediately toward the castle. On the enemy's 3rd turn, reinforcements led by Tenzan arrive. If you're not careful, they'll reach the castle and you'll fail the mission. It's hard to kill all the Barrelions before they reach the Castle, especially since some will fight you but others ignore you and go straight down. For this reason, it may serve you well to block the castle with your own units and let them come to you. Just make sure not to step on the castle itself (and win the level) until you get the Battle Mastery. === 3.22 === Episode 22 === R-1 vs Alteisen === Battle Mastery: Complete the objective in 4 player turns without destroying Alteisen This is not a hard mission. It's more about the dialogue and getting to meet new characters. You finally get to try out Rai's R-2, and you can see the Grungust Type 2 but Kusuha isn't up to piloting yet. The actual objective is to reduce Alteisen's HP to below 40%, which should be no problem at all for Ryusei. After the mission a space colony sized object appears between Earth and the Moon. We get our first glimpse of the "real bad guys" of the game talking it out. Intermission: You now have the ATX Team's mechs on your side. You should probably spend whatever money you have upgrading the Alteisen and Weissritter a bit so they can compete with everyone else. Bullet, Kyosuke and Excellen start with 50PP, so give them support (Excellen already has it, so you can save up or give her something else). It's also a good idea to give Alteisen a long range weapon just like the R-1, for when it's getting sniped. The Boosted Rifle you just got is a good one. === 3.23 === Episode 23 === Neviim Emerges === Katina rushes off to fight the Spiders, so everybody else is basically tasked with making sure she survives. Battle Mastery: Complete the mission in 6 turns. This is another mission where you fight waves of Aerogaters. In this mission, Katina is yellow - you don't control her, but she still fights. You can heal her with Russel and Lefina's Trust, though. Once all the initial enemies are dead, some bugs appear in the west. After them, new aerogater enemies appear even further west. At this point Shu appears to help you fight. A turn later Masaki arrives and (grudgingly) agrees to fight alongside you and Shu. It's actually fairly difficult to beat the 3rd wave of enemies in time to earn the Battle Mastery. It helps if you get Giganscudo over as soon as possible, then unleash a Valored Giga Burst on as many of the enemies as possible. Be careful, though, Giga Burst DOES hurt your allies unlike the rest of the MAP attacks in the game. Intermission: Everybody is finally together! You now have both battleships, plus an extra Repair and Supply Module, so from now on I recommend making both ships your Repair/Suppliers. === 3.24 === Episode 24 === Lune and Valsione === From this mission on, you have way more units in stock that you can dispatch for any one mission. You're free to send your favorites, though it will serve you better if you use at least some of the objectively better mechs like R-1 and Alteisen. As everyone meets Lune, the remaining UCC troops show up. Lune will be Yellow for this, and will help you fight the UCC. Battle Mastery: Shoot down Siebel (retreats at 30%, or 11333HP) Also pay attention to Leona on the enemy team. You need to shoot her down with either Tasuku or Rai to unlock an extra mech. If you save Siebel for last, Lune will attack him and mess up your Boss Kill preparations, so you should probably leave a Peregrine alive for her to focus on. After beating all of the UCC members and earning the BM, Lune heals herself to fight you. Go ahead and take her down. You'll see she was sort of expecting that and isn't in a bad mood at all. In the scenes following the mission, the Captains convince Leona to fight with you. She keeps her Guarlion if Rai or Tasuku beat her. You then receive orders to return to the Far East Brigade, where we left Shine with the overly suspicious Hans. === 3.25 === Episode 25 === Viper Fangs === So Hans is a traitor. Who didn't see that coming from, like, the first mission? He wasn't even secretive about it. Anyway, there are DC to the left and top right and you start with only Kai. Battle Mastery: Complete the mission in 6 turns. To do this, Kai is basically going to have to take out all the Lions on the left by himself. You'll probably want to use some save/reload action on this one. When the Hagane arrives, just move out and take down all the enemies. No problem. Intermission: Aya is back, and she has the R-3 working now. If she was your Wildraubtier pilot, like she was mine, then you'll need to give the mech to somebody else. Rio makes a decent choice, though it wastes her Drive spirit. === 3.26 === Episode 26 === His Resolve === I almost feel bad for Katina. Almost. Masaki and Lune leave on recon, and Katina follows them. This level can be tricky because it can be hard to keep Lune alive. If you have this problem, go ahead and give her some good Parts before you try it again. You can always give them back to their normal owner for the next level. At the end of your second turn, Lune gets surrounded. Because of this you should use Focus on your second turn, and Lune will be able to dodge the attacks. On your 3rd turn, Katina and Russel arrive to "help" but if they're as useless in your game as they were in mine you'll just want them to stand back. On Turn 4 you can pick your battleship and reinforcements. NOTE: Make sure Ryusei has 50 kills by the end of this mission, in order to get a secret. At the end of Turn 4, Sanger shows up to challenge you. Battle Mastery: Shoot down Sanger (retreats at 13,500HP) If you're prepared with a good boss finisher, like I've mentioned a few times now, this won't be too hard. If you're not ready for this, though, it's essentially an impossible task. By now I had Darkness Slash fully upgraded, and with Valor it was doing about 16,000 damage. Intermission: If Ryusei has 50 kills by the end of this stage, and if you get the Battle Mastery, AND if you're currently in Hard Mode (which you should be, if you're following this guide), you will get the Shishioh blade here. This is just about the best equippable short range weapon in existence. Canonically it's the weapon of choice for Bullet, but I preferred giving it to Ryusei just because R-1 is so much better suited to short range combat than Bullet's Huckebein MkII. It's outrageously expensive, but you should start upgrading the Shishioh blade. By the time you're done, you'll have an attack that does around 10,000 damage, every turn, without Valor, and can be used unlimited times. Very fun. === 3.27 === Episode 27 === GEIM System === If you can't figure it out, the GEIM system is basically this game's version of the ZERO system. Watch as it improves the pilots skills many times, but makes them lose their minds. Tempest is here for his final showdown, and he's piloting the first of the Valsion Customs. Battle Mastery: Reduce Tempest's HP to below 60% within 3 turns. Focus everything on him to make sure you get this. Unlike the original, this copy of the Valsion doesn't have that pesky barrier so regular attacks are fine. Because he starts diagonally from you, you can send your flying units directly to him while your ground based ones take the road around. After achieving the Battle Mastery, Tempest activates the GEIM system and Hans shows up with a ton of reinforcements scattered right amongst your troops. Tempest has fully healed, but he's now insane. Because the enemies are right in your ranks, you can tear them up with some Cyflash / Psyblast action, then just finish everybody off like normal. === 3.28 === Episode 28 === Crusaders' End === As you saw in the scenes with Adler and crew, this is the last stand of the DC. You get to sortie 16 units, more than usual, so if you don't normally send out Support units (like Garnet, Radha, or Russel) this is a good chance. All of the enemy grunts are to your south, so send everybody down to intercept. However, send a few units over toward the Assembly Hall in the middle. At the end of Turn 3, Adler shows up with 5 Rhinoceroses and another Valsion Custom - Shine's. It seems you can still save her if you can critically damage her Valsion (<10% HP) before turn 6. Battle Mastery: Critically wound Shine's Valsion before the end of turn 5 NOTE: Earning the Battle Mastery on this mission also lets you use the Valsion Custom in future missions. Shine starts every turn with Alert and Strike. When going to attack her, hit her first with a weak attack that doesn't mean much to you so she'll waste the Alert, then actually damage her. When she attacks you, you'll either have to use Alert or just get hit (it's not too bad, just Defend if you're unsure). Just like every other time you have to carefully reduce someone's HP, save often and try out different attacks. The reason I told you to send a couple units to the Assembly Hall should be clear now, they can start hitting Shine right away. Once you destroy Shine's GEIM system and rescue her, Lily will attack Adler as per Commander Maier's last order. Adler will retaliate and kill Lily, which forces Sanger to make an appearance. Sanger finally confirms what you've been assuming for a long time - the true objective of Maier, Bian, Elzam and Sanger himself was to train up and strengthen the Hagane and Hiryu's crew in order for THEM to defeat the Aerogaters. They were setting themselves up to lose, and to be the bad guys, just to better your chances. Sanger will now join you as you get revenge on Adler for all he's done. Of course Tenzan is here too, under the control of the GEIM system, so go ahead and let Ryusei get that kill. It's just better that way. After beating Adler, Bullet asks Sanger to join you. He refuses, saying his crimes are too great to be associated with you. === 3.29 === Episode 29 === Geneva Scourged === Another "kill the waves of Aerogaters" level. Battle Mastery: Complete the level in under 4 turns. NOTE: Make sure Ingram is level 30 by the end of this mission and you'll get a special mech after the next episode. Use Accel and slaughter the enemies as fast as possible. After beating the initial Aerogaters, the first Aerogater Boss shows up. Just wail on it a bit and it retreats after you wound it. Then enemy MAPW appears, so Daitetsu and Lefina have to abandon Geneva. Load all your units onto your ship to complete the new objective. It seems Geneva wasn't the only place to be destroyed. Osaka, Melbourne, Shangai, Birmingham, and Rio de Janeiro are also gone. Kyosuke and Radha are getting suspicious of Ingram, since he predicted the Aerogaters' attacks perfectly. Viletta is now seen as an enemy agent for the aliens. Intermission: If you don't have anybody piloting your Valsion Custom, now is a good time to put somebody in it. === 3.30 === Episode 30 === Betrayal === You can't deploy Kusuha or the SRX team at the beginning of this mission. You can't see the Battle Mastery, so just attack the enemies at your leisure. After taking down the initial enemies, the Aerogater ship from Antarctica arrives with a bunch of new units. The SRX team and Kusuha launch to help, but you can't actually use Ingram or Kusuha yet. After beating a few of these new enemies, Ingram orders the SRX team to perform their transformation and assemble the SRX. The transformation fails, so Ingram officially betrays you and shoots down Aya in the R-3. Battle Mastery: Shoot down Ingram. Ingram retreats at 50% HP (17500) After doing a little bit of damage to Ingram, an Aerogater ship arrives and starts trying to ram the Hagane. Before Daitetsu can react, Elzam appears in the Kurogane to help you. Since the Kurogane's drill makes it the perfect ship for ramming things, this is no problem. Also, Elzam is such a good pilot that he can actually dodge things in a battleship. Amazing. Beating Ingram is much the same as beating Sanger a few missions ago. After getting the Battle Mastery, Viletta appears and kidnaps Kusuha. Intermission: You now have the R-Gun, which is a cool mech but is incredibly frail. If you upgrade its EN/HP/Evade it will serve you well. By beating Ingram, you also unlocked the Gespenst MkII-S, but you won't get that for awhile. I'm a big fan of R-Gun, so I gave it the new Custom CPU and put Latooni in it - it was basically invincible. === 3.31 === Episode 31 === Under the Mask === Since Ingram is gone, the captains conference and agree to promote Kyosuke to Battle Commander. Irm, Katina, and Aya were higher ranked but none of them wanted the job for various reasons. Kyosuke makes a good leader, so this works out. If you've noticed his pilot skills had a ???? throughout the game, that has now changed to Command, so he has a leadership aura. Everyone else also gets a promotion, though it doesn't have any significance to gameplay. NOTE: Make sure Kyosuke has 55 kills by the end of this mission in order to unlock a secret weapon after Episode 32. In Kyosuke's first mission as leader, you just have to take out some Aerogaters at first. Go fairly fast here. Once you take out the initial enemies, some spiders appear and Kyosuke warns everybody to expect more enemies. When the screen is clear of enemy activity, a boss named Galuin shows up with more grunts to fight. This time, though, Gilliam arrives to help you in his Gespenst MkII-R. Battle Mastery: Shoot down Galuin within 7 turns. He retreats at 30% HP (9600) This isn't hard at all, provided you have enough turns left. If you took too long at the beginning you might have a problem, but beating Galuin doesn't need as much careful preparation as bosses that retreat at higher HP. You should have several attacks that do in excess of 10000 damage to beat him with. === 3.32 === Episode 32 === Strings Uncut === The SRX team is currently under investigation to see if they are traitors like Ingram. You can't deploy them yet. Battle Mastery: Shoot down Gaza (he retreats at 30% HP, or 12900HP) As a note, Bullet needs to survive this mission for plot purposes. At the end of the 2nd turn you get a warning of incoming enemy reinforcements to the west. After killing most of the initial enemies, these reinforcements appear with a brainwashed Kusuha as their leader. Kyosuke thinks you can still save her, so the objective becomes "Reduce Grungust Type 2's HP to below 10%" Save Kusuha for last and keep killing grunts until you're ready to beat Gaza for the Battle Mastery. Intermission: You get the SRX team back now, but all of their parts and extra weapons you had equipped to them are unequipped. It's like flashbacks to Yuffie stealing your materia. Reequip them and put R-Gun's pilot back, since that doesn't happen automatically. Also, you should start saving your money right about now. Just don't spend any more of it for awhile, and you'll be thankful in about 5 missions. === 3.33 === Episode 33 === Delusions === In this intro, Masaki, Lune, and Excellen go scouting and encounter some neat stuff. Battle Mastery: Complete the map in 7 turns. Masaki and Lune are facing their worst nightmares here, but Excellen is only against a bug. This is your first hint that there's something special about her, and you won't find out the depths of this until well into Original Generation 2. After a few turns, Atad arrives to steal the Cybuster and Excellen can attack her. This ends the illusion attack and really pisses Atad off. A ton of Aerogaters arrive, as well as your own forces. NOTE: Get Daitetsu as much EXP as possible in this level. He needs to be level 35 by the end of the next level. The best way for him to get EXP is not to fight enemies but to resupply people every turn. If he resupplies someone that's a higher level than him, it'll give somethinglike 800XP at once. You've only got a few turns left to beat everybody and get the Battle Mastery, so take advantage of Cyflash, Psyblast, and even TK Missile to hurry things up. You do need to beat Atad, but she doesn't retreat or anything so it's not too much of a problem. === 3.34 === Episode 34 === Steel Colossus === Note the losing objective, as Ryusei, Rai, Aya, and Bullet must all survive here. Just start out by moving and attacking. After killing some enemies, Aya notices that "he" is coming. Once all the initial enemies are dead, Ingram arrives with Kusuha and some grunts. Kusuha's HP must be reduced to below 10% again, but this time Bullet must deal the final blow. It's not hard to do this, take your time and watch Bullet in action. Once Kusuha is rescued, Kyosuke warns Ingram that he's next. Attack the R-Gun, but don't waste your best weapons and spirits yet! After beating the regular R-Gun, which isn't hard at all, Ingram unveils his true mech - the R-Gun Rivale. Battle Mastery: Reduce Rivale's HP to below 40% before turn 8. Give him everything you've got. The Rivale is by far the toughest thing you've faced so far. It has over 100,000 HP so it appears as ????/???? for awhile until you get him below 99,999. It's got a shield, so you'll need to use EN Drain to even get to him. Once he's down to about 70% HP, he'll automatically attack and hit Ryusei. This causes the R-1 to release its limiter and allow the SRX to finally be formed. You probably won't be able to use SRX's ultimate attack, unless your Ryusei is way overleveled for right now, but even the attacks you do have access to probably do in excess of 10,000 damage. Once you weaken Ingram enough to obtain the Battle Mastery, he flies off. In the scenes that follow, Ryusei and Bullet apologize for going at each other before and we find out the SRX can't be formed anymore for the time being. === 3.35 === Episode 35 === Ark at the Pole === Before you arrive, Elzam and the Kurogane confront the remaining members of the EOT council that are hiding on the Shirogane. Suddenly Aerogaters attack, so Elzam deploys in the Huckebein Trombe to fight them. After a turn, Elzam finds himself surrounded and Sanger comes to the rescue. You need to defeat all enemies except the Aerogater ship. After doing so, the Hagane arrives and Elzam and Sanger disappear as usual. Battle Mastery: Defeat all enemies within 5 turns after your arrival. This is no problem. You can take your time with Elzam and Sanger since the Battle Mastery specifies after the Hagane's arrival, and 5 turns is more than enough to clean up the enemies. Once you finish the enemy ship, Viletta appears and destroys the Shirogane's bridge, killing the rest of the EOT council. There is now nothing stopping the Hagane and the Far East Brigade from doing what they want. === 3.36 === Episode 36 === Marionettes === The enemy is right here at Izu base, and there are a lot of them. Both Gaza and Galuin are here. Battle Mastery: Complete the mission in 10 turns. You really do have to move fast to get this one. Once you get Gaza's HP below 20,000 or so, he freaks out and launches a bunch of MAPW at you. You have to reduce them to below 20% HP without destroying them (that's 1000HP) and still beat the regular enemies on time. You really don't have time to waste attacking them all individually, so this is a good time to make use of your own MAP attacks. I found the Psyblast did either too little or too much damage (depending on if I Valored) but a Valored Giga Burst from Giganscudo did just enough to reduce them to below 20% in one attack. If you can get some, or most of them with a Giga Burst or equivalent attack it'll really help. You'll probably have to do a lot of saving/reloading to get the missiles down effectively. === 3.37 === Episode 37 === Black Phantom === The Aerogaters are attacking Mao Industries on the moon as a test, so Ring will defend it herself until the Hagane arrives. Battle Mastery: Clear the map in 7 turns. On turn 3 the Hagane arrives. From now on, and this is only on Ryusei's route, but you can form the SRX whenever you want. NOTE: If the Hiryu Custom's pilot Lefina is level 38 by the end of this mission, you get a secret part. If you want to try for it, do it like you did with Daitetsu earlier - resupply people as much as possible. Just move out and take out all the enemies, including Galuin's Gespenst Type-S. === 3.38 === Episode 38 === Operation SRW === Okay, here's a rundown of Operation SRW. Phase 1 is Grunts charging the Aerogaters as a distraction. At the start of this level, this has already occurred. Phase 2 is launching nukes at the White Star. Phase 3, if Phase 2 fails, is to move in some ships and attack the White Star witht he Tronium Cannon and Gravity Cannon. If Phase 3 fails, Phase 4 is for your units to go inside the White Star and destroy it from within. Note that you can deploy 18 units here, the most yet. Some support units will help, and make sure you bring a few people that can cast Bless like Garnet and Radha. The objective is to defend the allied ships. Battle Mastery: Defeat all enemies before allied ships reach the White Star. This seems hard but it's really not. In a bit, you'll get control of Hiryu Custom and Hagane, so you control when they get to Neviim to end the mission. You effectively have as much time as you need. After beating the initial troops, the nukes reach the White Star but explode at some barrier before reaching their destination . The Aerogaters retaliate by blowing up two allied ships and sending out 12, yes 12, of their own ships between you and the White Star. From now on, your allied ships automatically progress toward Neviim and to earn the Battle Mastery you have to destroy all 12 ships. Move the Hagane and Hiryu Custom at your own pace. Note that these ships are worth $20,000 apiece with Bless, so don't forget to cast it. This is your last good opportunity to earn money before the final missions. It's also a great time to level your ship captains, so repair and resupply away. === 3.39 === Episode 39 === Shoot the Star === The Earth troops are failing fast, so Daitetsu is going to skip to phase 4. We need to get the Hagane in position to fire its Tronium Cannon within 5 turns to blast a hole to get inside. Battle Mastery: Get the Hagane in position within 4 turns. Just press forward and this isn't too hard. Once you get into position, Gaza appears and attacks the Hagane, damaging the Tronium Cannon so it can't be fired from long range. Daitetsu is ready to sacrifice himself as a kamikaze, but Tetsuya has a different idea. The new objective is to get the Hagane to the marked space on the White Star. There is no longer a time limit. On the enemy's next turn, Gaza attacks and destroys Viletta, calling her a traitor. After she explodes, a fleet of Aerogater ships appears behind Gaza. As things are looking bad, Elzam and Sanger show up to help. You need to fight enemies that are standing on Neviim. Notice that standing on any piece of it heals 30% of your HP and EN every turn. On the plus side, you can use attacks that drain a lot of energy like Darkness Slash and Rampage Ghost more often, but you also need to be aware that the enemy is healing a lot of damage every turn if you don't finish them. Spreading damage here is a bad idea, focus on one ship at a time and bring it down. You do not need to destroy all the ships, and I wouldn't bother with Gaza at all. Once you're ready, just move Hagane into position to end the level. Intermission: Have you been saving since I suggested it? You now have Sanger and Elzam and if you can't upgrade their mechs they're fairly useless in these last few missions! Upgrade the Grungust Type O and the Huckebein Trombe, give Sanger Mental for sure, and put some kind of Generator on the Grungust so he can use his Collosal Blade more often. Speaking of which, with any extra money upgrade Sanger's blade as much as possible. === 3.40 === Episode 40 === Insect Cage === As the mission starts, you have no objective and no enemies. Kind of creepy. Go ahead and move everybody up. At the end of turn 2, a bunch of DC mechs with brainwashed pilots appear. Some of your pilots have obvious apprehensions about killing humans (regardless of the fact that they were at war against said humans a month ago and killed them all the time) but apparently they can't be saved, so it's alright to put them out of their misery. After beating the DC mechs, Aya gets some TK feedback because of some strong Psychic approaching. Suddenly 4 Valsion Customs appear. Battle Mastery: Destroy all enemies within 6 turns. It's not as tough as you might fear, these copies aren't as tough as the originals. They have 36,000 HP and no shields. After beating them, Viletta of all people arrives to help you. She's in a Gespenst MkII-S (assuming you beat the R-Gun on chapter 30) that's really pretty awesome. Then the strangest bunch of enemies yet appear to your right: copies of yourself. You need to conserve some SP while fighting these guys, but they aren't bad at all. Most of them are in the same default mechs you're in, with some exceptions like Bullet in the Wildschwein (hmm, I guess he wouldn't be too bad in there...) Once you beat all the copies, Atad and Gaza appear on the western cliff along with a few more DC units. This is the final part of the level so go all out on them. All of these Guarlions and Barrelions are really tough, and Gaza's new mech has 80,000HP. Atad is last, with 87,000HP and surprisingly good accuracy on her strong attacks. It takes awhile to beat her down, since you're probably about out of SP at this point, so just keep trying. Atad finds out from Ingram that she's not a true Balmarian, but just another brainwashed Earthling. It seems none of the Aerogaters here are true Balmarians. With Viletta on your side and Gaza and Atad dead, all that's left is Levi (aka Mai) and Ingram. Intermission: Blow all your money if you can even find anything to upgrade at this point. The Gespenst MkII-S could use some upgrades. Teach new skills to your pilots, set up energy drainers, just prepare for the end and a hard last boss. === 3.41 === Episode 41 === Double-Edged Sword === This is it. Objective: Shoot down Ingram. Battle Mastery: Shoot down Ingram within 7 turns. Don't be tempted to ignore the other enemies and focus on him, you're going to need the Will upgrades. Your best bet is to EN Drain him 3 times then Armor Break him by someone with Fury (Rai and Leona) This is the only time I'm doing this in the guide, but I'm going to list my mechs and what they were using at this point as a suggestion if you're wondering something. R-2 - Armor Breaker Guarlion - EN Drain R-Gun (Latooni) - EN Taker Valsion Custom (Katina) - EN Drain / Attack when needed Grungust Type O - Collosal Blade, fully upgraded Grungust - Darkness Slash, fully upgraded Grungust Type 2 - Doomblade Giganscudo - Giga Uragano Cybuster - Cosmo Nova Huckebein MkII - Steel Knife, fully upgraded, or G-Impact Cannon Alteisen and Weissritter - Rampage Ghost R-1 - Shishioh Blade, fully upgraded Valsione - Cross Smasher Gespenst MkII-S - Mega Blaster Huckebein Trombe - G-Impact Cannon Wildraubtier / Gespenst MkII-R - whatever weak weapons R-3, Radha, and Russel on support spirit duty Just like when facing Bian, once a unit has the will it needs to do its part move it into position and wait.You should start the grand assault on Turn 6. EN Drain him 3 times and hit him with a Furied Armor Breaker, then go crazy on him. I got him down to 50,000 HP on turn 6 and finished him on the next turn. Don't forget to EN Drain and Armor Break on the second assault too. After defeating Ingram, Daitetsu will destroy the core of Neviim and you will reunite with the Hiryu Custom in space. Before you can celebrate, Levi arrives with a small army of custom mechs. Everything from the last fight is reset - all your EN and HP are back, but your will is back to default as well. There is no Battle Mastery here, as it's the true last mission. Hiryu and Kurogane start off weak from being attacked in the intro, so have them heal each other. Like the last time you fought in front of Neviim, don't spread the damage or they'll just heal it between turns. Focus on one at a time and bring them down. Of course, take advantage of Neviim's healing yourself. Also of note, you lose if the Kurogane is destroyed but for some reason it's okay to let the Hiryu Custom die (not that I recommend it!). Attack Levi with everybody to see their own reactions, even Russel has something to say to her! Once Levi is down to about 40%, she'll talk to your team and Ryusei will attempt to convince her to stop. Unfortunately it's no good and the fight continues. Once you eventually beat her, ASSUMING YOU MEET THE CONDITIONS (see Secrets section above), Levi will laugh at you. Apparently when a race is deemed a suitable threat - that is, when they destroy Judecca, the Adjudicator awakens to destroy the race. Intermission: Any last minute upgrades? This is really "it" so go ahead. === 3.42 === Final Episode === The Adjudicator === Septuagint, formerlly Meteor 3, has absorbed Aidoneus's defense forces and deployed them against you. These are Rhinos, F21 Messers, and even some Aerogaters. The mission is to destroy Septuagint, and there is no Battle Mastery. Starting enemies: Type 71 Waldung x4 (3625HP) F28 Messer x8 (2500 HP) Rhinoceros x3 (35,000HP) Habakkuk x4 (12,000HP) Ezekiel x4 (16,800 HP) Septuagint has incredible accuracy, even hitting people like Excellen with ease. Once you start wailing on it, give it a good EN Drain / Armor Break combo and have at it. When it's down to about 80%, he summons some more enemies. Reinforcements: Huleh x4 (60,000 HP) Now, you only need to destroy Septuagint so you could ignore these reinforcements, but for an added challenge you could always try to take them all out. Alternately, this is your last chance to earn money and PP for your New Game +, so maybe it's in your best interest to fight them all? I wouldn't bother though. At 60%, Septuagint summons more enemies. Reinforcements: Vayyikra Ben x8 (29,000 HP) When Septuagint is at about 40% HP, it will freak out and try to summon Judecca. Your time limit is now 5 turns. Once you beat Septuagint, enjoy the conclusion! === 5.0 === Closing === Thanks for using my guide. I've attempted to provide an easy to use, easy to understand guide for this game. Sadly, the Super Robot Wars fanbase seems to have trouble doing this for their guides, which usually focus on only one route or aspect of the game and with very poor (obviously non-native) English. While I appreciate any other FAQs, I do wish more people would make them accessible. Thank you to Ed Bellis, whose What Would You Do contest got me off my ass and writing this thing. It's been a goal of mine to write this guide for a long time, since I played the game in 2006, but it took this contest to finally get it done. Thanks to Loudon for making GunEVA RPG (www.guneva.net) and spawning my enduring love for Mecha. Along with the rest of the GunEVA Crew, special thanks to Manuel for introducing me to Super Robot Wars so many years ago. Thanks to Fencedude and the rest of the Super Robot Taisen: Original Generation Board users on GameFAQs. They answered so many of my questions when I was first playing through, it's great to finally pass on that information in a nice, consolidated format. A huge thanks to Atlus for releasing these amazing Banpresto games in America. I don't know exactly how sales went, but how about continuing releasing the OG Games at least? Original Generations for the PS2 looks awfully pretty, and I'm probably going to have to play it imported soon if I don't hear about an American release date... Thanks to Chris McIntyre for introducing me to Evangelion, and thus, Mecha, so many years ago. And thanks for letting me borrow those VHS tapes of it, man. It seems like forever ago, and it sure was a simpler time! Copyright 2008 Joshua Turck This may be not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright.