=============================================================================== Yu Yu Hakusho: Tournament Tactics Gameboy Advance FAQ/Walkthrough Version 1.00 by KerntheGerm =============================================================================== _,,,-----------,,,__ _,-' '--,_ Tournament '-,_ ,' ', Tactics ', , ', , ', / \ / .----. _____ ______ ,----,,----, ,, \ ,----- ---- \ \ \ \ ', ',| |\ \ \ \ | | \ | | \ \ \ \ ', | \ \__' \ | '. ' | \ \ \ \ ', | \ | | ', | \ \ \ \ '. | ',___,,,- | '. | \ \_ | | | ,-''''. '. | \ | | _|_ ,-, ,-, | ,-, \ | \ \ \ / /__,-' \ \ \\ \\ -,' | | \ \ \_______,'__ ,--\ \ '---,\ - \\____,-' | \ \ ,--, ,-, | |\ \ \ \\__\'--' , | '---_ | ', \ | | \ \ \-'' / | ,--, ,-'\ | |\ \ \ \ \ |',--' / | \_\ \ | |_\ \ \ ', '---' / \ \ | \ \ \ _,-' / \ \ ,--,,' --- ,' \ ,-. \ __| ,' \ \ \ \ ,' --- -' ,-' '-,__ ,-' '--,________,---' =============================================================================== All junk Copyright KerntheGerm 2004. This FAQ is to be hosted on GameFAQs only. If this FAQ is seen anywhere else but GameFAQs, please contact me immediately, that I might deliver swift and vengeful retribution. If you spot any errors in my guide, even trivial ones, please E-Mail me about them so I can correct them. Also feel free to E-mail me tips or suggestions you think would work well in my FAQ. You will be credited. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Introduction and Game Information II. Gameplay Basics A. Controls B. Rules of Engagement III. Cast of Characters A. Yusuke B. Kuwabara C. Masked Fighter D. Kurama E. Hiei F. Yukina G. Chu H. Rinku I. Jin J. Touya IV. Area walkthroughs and Strategies A. Dock B. Hotel C. Forest D. Cave E. Swamp F. Ocean Cliffs G. Hanging Neck H. Dark Arena I. Bonus Dungeon: Dark Mountains V. Thanks and Contact information Control+f the Roman numerals and character names to quickly find them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I. Introduction and Game Information ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A sequel to a game I've never played. Yu Yu Hakusho: Tournament Tactics is a turn-based strategy RPG that follows the Dark Tournament saga of the Yu Yu Hakusho series. Released by Atari in November of 2004 for the Gameboy Advance handheld system. Atari also made the Dragonball Z: Legacy of Goku series, which is about as awful as its YYH series so far. Typical dime-a-dozen halfass RPGs based on already existing (and popular!) series that rely on an already made storyline and already made publicity to sell themselves. Yu Yu Hakusho is a series that follows the life and times of one Yusuke Urameshi, a high school student who died and became a Spirit Detective. The manga series ended rather abruptly due to conflicts between the artist, the publisher, and the funding. The anime series had 5 extra episodes beyond the end of the manga which are widely regarded as a much more satisfying end to the tale. YYH:TT has some fairly interesting new ideas. At least, I've never seen them before in a tactics game. Admittedly, I'm not really a fan of tactics games. In fact I kind of hate them. What is unique in YYH:TT is that there are no "turns" like in most regular Tactics games. Every enemy and ally on the board runs on his own internal clock. If someone uses a move that takes a long time from which to recover, he has to wait a long time before he can make his next move. This has the rather nice effect of letting your slower characters (who are not performing any action during their turn) catch up to your faster characters (who are still waiting from their attack). It also makes for a much more tactical decision as to whether or not you want to squeeze off a really powerful move and have to wait forever to get going again or if you want to use a weak move and then just keep going. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- II. Gameplay Basics ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------- A. Controls ----------- There are different control set-ups for the main map, for battles, and for the menu and its subsets. Let's take a look at each in turn. Controls on the World Map and in area maps: Directional Pad - Move from location to location Select Button - Bring up status menu Start Button - Bring up save menu "A" Button - Select location "B" Button - Return from area map to world map Left Shoulder Button - No Function Right Shoulder Button - No Function Controls in the Main Menu are self-explanatory. Left and Right shoulder buttons can be used to toggle between Status Portrait, Skills sub menu, and Main Menu. Controls in the skills sub menu Directional Pad - Select a different stat, increase selected stat Select Button - No Function Start Button - No Function "A" Button - Confirm stats selected for increase "B" Button - Return to Main Menu Left Shoulder Button - Bring up Status portrait Right Shoulder Button - Return to Main menu Controls in battle: Directional Pad - Move cursor Select Button - View initiative order Start Button - View goal/quit menu "A" Button - Confirm selection "B" Button - Cancel menu, selection, or command Left Shoulder Button - enter Free Look mode, exit Free Look mode Right Shoulder Button - enter Free Look mode, exit Free Look mode In battle, when I say "north" I do not mean "the direction north would be if your GBA were a compass," I mean "the direction your cursor goes when you press the up button." And when I say "west" I don't mean "the direction west would be if your GBA were a map," I mean "the direction your cursor goes when you press the left button." And so on and so forth. Don't get confused. W N \/ /\ S E A rough directional guide, for all you visual folks out there. ---------------------- B. RULES OF ENGAGEMENT ---------------------- 1. Casts the spells that makes the peoples fall down. A. Range and Movement are vital B. Hit as many people as possible and in the back as often as possible C. Don't use a long, expensive attack where a quick, cheap attack would do D. Don't use big attacks unless its an instant kill or you can clean up fast E. Taunt like you mean it. F. Overdrives are your friends. 2. Casts the spells that makes the peoples stand up. A. Enemies can do it too, you know. B. Charge and Mend C. Potions are free. Use them. D. Learn to love Yukina. E. People die. But you can fix that. Elaboration on rule 1 --------------------- Your objective is typically to kill things. Sometimes you want to kill just one thing in particular, sometimes you want to kill everything, and sometimes you want to kill everything within a certain time limit. but the general name of the game is killing. The secret to doing this successfully is in understanding the ins and outs of YYH:TT's combat system. Each character has a library of moves that are unlocked when you put upgrade points into certain growth categories. The growth categories also govern how your stats look at any given moment. As for which spells are good and how to get them, that's a topic for another time. There are two parts to attacking people: moving to a point where you can hit them with something, and hitting them with something from where ever you have moved. Because of this, movement and range are very important. Movement allows you to move to more places from which you can attack, and range allows you to attack from more places to which you have moved. These two are the most crucial parts of building your character. So now that your character is learning the right skills and is ready to attack, you can start worrying about placement. Some attacks hit a 3x3 square in front of your character, some attacks hit a 1x5 row extending out from him, some can hit a single square just in front of him, and so on and so forth. Side attacks hurt more than front attacks, and back attacks hurt more than side attacks. So the general rule here is try to hit as many people as possible at a time and in the back as often as possible. After that you have to worry about Spirit Energy costs and charge time. Most attacks are Spirit attacks that deplete your SE as you use them. Generally, a more powerful attack costs more Spirit Energy. Physical attacks, however, cost no SE whatsoever and can typically only be used at point-blank range. Each attack also has a charge time, also higher as the attack increases in power. The general rule here is that you don't want to use a long, expensive attack when a quick, weak attack would have sufficed. The next thing to worry about is area of attack. Go east and hit one guy with Sprit Combo, or go west and hit three guys with Spirit Shotgun? You'll have to make that choice every turn with every person. Area effect spells are usually very expensive, so do not, for the love of God DO NOT waste them on just one enemy. An area attack spell usually has to hit 2 or 3 for it to be worth using, and even then you have to be sure that you can finish the enemies off quickly with other characters, otherwise you'll be mobbed after the long charge time. The general rule here is not to use the skill unless it will either kill every enemy it touches, or unless you can be sure that you'll finish the enemies hit by it in the next few turns. Taunting is a valuable tactical move that can not only let you have finer control of battles, but can actually save you from total defeat in the clinch. What Taunt does is take every enemy within a certain radius and force him to change targets from whatever he was attacking before to just the Taunter. At the very least, you can taunt to make enemies change direction, so it will be easier to hit them with back attacks. It has more complex uses as well. Build a wall with melee fighters and taunt with the sniper behind them and enemies will become easy pickings wandering aimlessly trying to target someone out their range. When one of your units is surrounded and near death, Taunt enemies away from him to another fighter to give you time to heal the wounded. Taunt a sniper enemy with someone, have him run away, and then let your characters punch the sniper in the back as he pursues the fleeing Taunter. The things you can do with Taunt are endless. Learn to use it well and you'll be unstoppable. Finally, there's Overdrives. Overdriving a move basically makes it do double normal damage for free. The only drawback is that once used, your Overdrive meter falls back to zero and you must rebuild it again by attacking. Usually, you will only use Overdrives on bosses. Since bosses are the toughest of enemies, naturally you'll want to kill them as quickly as you can. If you wanted, you could use overdrives on every map by returning to the first battle and Taunting until everyone is back to full. While effective, that is quite boring. If that's your cup of tea, go ahead. The point is this: Overdrive attacks are free and have no drawback. Walking around with a full Overdrive bar is worse than wasting an Overdrive on an enemy with one health. At least in the latter case you're actually doing something effective with it. Don't be stingy with your overdrive bar. It's there for a reason. Elaboration on rule 2 --------------------- In addition to the timer running out or the target escaping, there is a second way to lose a battle: Let all of your allies die. This is, of course, the last thing you want to have happen, I'm sure, so you need to think of clever ways to stay alive. Also of note is keeping your Spirit Energy high so that you might stay vigorous in battle. The first, best way to keep your guys at full health is to not let them get hit in the first place. While this is usually impossible, there are ways to minimize damage taken. Remember: If you can do it to an enemy, he can also do it right back to you. This means you should never, EVER turn your back on an enemy without damn good reason. A turned back is just asking for trouble. Next, remember that enemies also have area attacks. Clustering in a group may seem like a good idea when you're killing that pesky Lion, but then when the Guard comes up behinds you and hits all of your guys with an irradiating attack you feel stupid. Do not ever gather into big groups. Even if it means passing up a good chance to use a strong melee attack on an enemy's back, you should just ease off and shoot him from one more square away. Otherwise the guy next to him will just pump all three of your guys full of some devastating area attack. After you're hurt, you're going to want a way to restore that lost Health. First is the built in healing: Focus commands. There is a focus to restore Health, a focus to restore Spirit Energy, a focus to simultaneously restore Overdrive and force enemies to re-target, and a focus to reduce damage. I found the defend command to be largely useless, so I'm going to pretend it doesn't exist. If you can find a special place in your heart for it, by all means go with it. More important to me, though, are Charge and Mend. Charge is a focus that you can use any time to restore depleted Spirit Energy for a hefty charge time cost. Mend will restore depleted Health for an even higher charge cost. Both are handy skills in a pinch because they heal based on a percentage, so you can always be sure that you'll get enough, and because they are always available. Unfortunately, there are other, much better ways of restoring HP and SE, so you probably won't use the Focus skills as much. Next is potions. Each potion heals a given amount of Health or Spirit Energy when used. You can use potions on yourself or a nearby allies. What makes potions great is that they don't have nearly the charge time that Mend and Charge do. But even better than that is the fact that they're free. Free free free. They just drop out of the sky after boss battles. Why not use them? Make sure that you actually use the potions when you put them in your inventory. Not much is more annoying than running out of SE in front of a tough boss, reaching into your pack for that potion you saved for a rainy day, and then drinking it only to discover that it was only a Spirit Drop that only refilled 25 of your 300+ Spirit Energy. No point in dragging around a potion that you never use. So drink up! Yukina is the only character in the game with healing commands. ONLY. Her ability to make immortals of your characters well offsets the loss in attack power suffered from not putting a more powerful character in your party. But there's a catch: Her healing spells only affect an area just around her. If you want to be healed, you'll have to cluster. To use Yukina properly, hold her back. Have her trot along just behind your fighters, not making a single attack at all. That way she can be ready the moment you need healing. The best time to heal is just after having finished of the enemies in a particular quadrant of the map, first of all because that's when you'll need it, and second, that's when it will be safe to cluster. You can also know you're safe if none of the enemies around you have any area attacks. Even if you take all the precautions, even if you use your potions, even if you brought along Yukina, sometimes your characters will still die anyway. No one can stop a critical back attack. What happens when a character dies is that he is taken out for the rest of the battle and you can't use him again until the fight is over. If you immediately try to put someone back into battle after they've fallen, they'll only start at half health and half Spirit Energy. The best way to circumvent this is to truck back to an easy level if someone dies and then just pop in for a quickie. After the fight, everyone will go back to full HP. There's absolutely no reason to start a battle at half health when it's so easy to fix it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- III. Cast of Characters ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ========= A. Yusuke ========= Health: ***** Melee: ***** Range: ***** Speed: ** Overall: ***** Yusuke Urameshi is a brash, tough high school student that died. Then he went through a bunch of godawful gyrations to keep his spirit from being devoured or sentenced to eternal roaming exile or some other nasty fate, and eventually became a Spirit Detective thanks to king Koenma. He learned his fighting technique from Genkai (the mean old woman in the tutorial), and has been invited as a guest to participate in the Dark Tournament. Unfortunately, being a "Guest" means you have no choice but to take part in a horrifically deadly and dangerous battle against countless demons of incredible strength. Thus we begin Yusuke's story. --------------- Battle Overview --------------- Early game, he's a god with that Spirit Gun. Pump his movement and Spirit Energy and he'll just run around offing people. Later, his incredibly low speed really hits hard. Fortunately, his Spirit attacks are so farging powerful that you really don't need him to hit anything more than once. Spirit Combo will replace Spirit Gun as your main attack. Shotgun sees some use if enemies clump properly, but he's really too slow to make much use out of it. Even though it is powerful as hell, Wave's immense cost and charge time just compound Yusuke's already low speed, making it a move that's not really used. If you see some enemies grouped properly to hit them with Spirit Wave, they'll have already moved by the time you get there. Spirit Mega Gun just rips enemies to pieces. Not an enemy in the game can live through SMG overdrive. I'm not exactly sure what triggers it, but sometimes he can gain a star under his name that will increase all of his stats slightly. I think you have to get all possible skills for the main 5 guys (including Yusuke), and each one will give you a star. ------ Skills ------ Spirit Kick: *** Spirit Gun: **** Spirit Combo: ***** Spirit Shotgun; **** Spirit Wave: *** Spirit Mega gun: ***** =========== B. Kuwabara =========== Health: **** Melee: **** Range: * Speed: ** Overall: * Kazuma Kuwabara is a high school student that Yusuke used to know, and actually used to be his arch rival owing to the fact that he was always just a bit short of Yusuke. He puts on a tough front, but he's actually a very caring person. He possesses an unnaturally strong ability to sense spirits, which is how he was able to help Yusuke as a spirit. His Spirit Sword is incredibly powerful, but he lacks the technique of the more experienced fighters. He's a bit of a doofus and a clown, but can still be relied on in times of crisis. He's also got this huge crush on Yukina. --------------- Battle Overview --------------- Obtain: Hotel Mission A Slow. Slow as hell. And what's worse, he has no ranged attacks. And even worse is that all of his good moves have a ludicrously long charge time, so even if he does manage to get to the front of the pack, you'll just leave him behind in another turn. Not a guy I'd take into battle if I could help it. Spirit Sword is good until you get Double Sword, which is good until you get Spirit Swatter. Long Sword Strike is fantastic. His only decent move. Unfortunately, he's not often going to be in a position to use it well, so it ends up just being his only ranged attack. Energy Blade storm is also powerful, but again he's not going to ever get much use out of it. Super Sword has far too long a charge time and too high a cost for its piddly damage and tiny area of effect. You should probably leave this guy out of battle as soon as you get someone else. ------ Skills ------ Spirit Sword: ** Long Sword Strike: **** Double Sword: *** Energy Blade Storm: *** Spirit Swatter: **** Super Sword: *** ================= C. Masked Fighter ================= Health: ** Melee: *** Range: ***** Speed: ***** Overall: ***** A weird guy with a mask. Not much else to tell about him. Wait until you find out his secret! --------------- Battle Overview --------------- Obtain: Hotel Mission D Ridiculously fast, incredible Spirit, a fantastic character. Rapid Punch is about as strong as Spirit Kick early on and has both less charge time and takes less SE, so that will probably be your main attack. Spirit Gun Double rules early game by having supreme range. Air Shotgun is powerful, but Reflection Blast outdoes it in nearly every way for only a bit longer charge time. Giant Blast Gun kicks major ass. If you want to take out an enemy in a hurry, GBG can do that for you. Lack of a really strong melee attack is really his only drawback. ------ Skills ------ Spirit Kick: *** Rapid Punch: **** Spirit Gun Double: ***** Air Shotgun: *** Reflection Blast: **** Giant Blast Gun: ***** ========= D. Kurama ========= Health: *** Melee: *** Range: *** Speed: **** Overall: **** Youko Kurama is a centuries-old fox demon that has a plant affinity. He became a spirit to evade pursuit from the demon world, and possessed an unborn human child after nearly being killed. He was going to stay in the child's body for a mere ten years in order to regain his strength, but he became attached to his human "mother" and found himself unable to leave. He's really really old, and that makes him incredibly intelligent and powerful. --------------- Battle Overview --------------- Obtain: Hotel Mission F Most of his moves seem to be melee attacks, and unfortunately he doesn't really have very good strength. Rose whip is a unique attack that will suffice as range until you learn Death Seed, which will probably end up being his main attack. Thorn Wheel is not as powerful as it should be, so it doesn't see much use unless like 4 enemies just happen to get into the exact right position. Whip Slash Fury suffers from the same problem of being too weak, but it has a really small SE cost and a short charge time, so it's not as bad. Yoko Death Plant is powerful enough, but other people's "ultimate" moves seem to be a lot better. ------ Skills ------ Snap Kick: *** Rose Whip: *** Death Seed: **** Thorn Wheel: * Whip Slash Fury: *** Yoko Death Plant: **** ======= E. Hiei ======= Health: **** Melee: ***** Range: ***** Speed: ***** Overall: ***** Hiei is a fire demon that was banished from the his hometown the Kingdom of Ice because, obviously, fire and ice don't mix. Hardened by this, he grew up as a cruel assassin and thief that delighted in the screams of his tormented foes. After being implanted with the Jagan, a third eye in his forehead, by a demon surgeon, he gained incredible power that most demons do not possess. He became friends with Kurama while searching for his lost sister, and eventually became a Spirit Detective after finally finding her (though she did not know he was her brother) and reclaiming the gentle side of his nature that was lost when he was banished. This is where he met up with Yusuke and our story begins. Hiei is a badass powerful swordsman. --------------- Battle Overview --------------- Obtain: Hotel Mission F One of the Best characters in the game. He's kind of crap at first, because 18 Slash Jagan is a really weak attack and he has almost no physical attack power, but once you get a hold of Darkness Sword and Mortal Flame, he'll start being a lot more useful. Darkness Flame is probably the only row move in the game that will ever see any use because not only is he fast enough to get into a good position quickly enough to use it, but it's actually powerful enough to be worth using! Sword Splitter isn't very good, considering it has 50% more charge time than Darkness Sword and only does 75% the damage thanks to Hiei's low strength. Dragon Summon is really powerful, and is a damn fine attack. ------ Skills ------ 18 Slash Jagan: ** Darkness Sword: ***** Mortal Flame: **** Darkness Flame: ***** Sword Splitter: ** Dragon Summon: ***** ========= F. Yukina ========= Health: * Melee: * Range: * Speed: **** Overall: ***** A girl from the Kingdom of Ice that has the power of healing. Her tears become fantastically rare and valuable pearls when she cries, and this got her kidnapped by greedy types. Yusuke was the assigned the job of rescuing her. She is looking for her long lost brother but has no clue what he looks like. Kuwabara is a huge crush on her. --------------- Battle Overview --------------- Obtain: Forest Lock Mission Another great character, despite her apparently low ratings. She's the only one in the game to have any healing skills, and holy hell is she good at them! She will start out very weak, with only minimal healing skills and very low attack power. Her first skill is Frozen Wind, a melee attack that has a surprisingly higher attack power than you'd expect. Then are Focused Healing and Healing Ring, two mediocre healing spells that you probably won't use much. But then she learns a really kickass spell, Rallying Strength. It has a 2 square radius, and it heals BOTH your Health and your Spirit energy. It doesn't cost as much SE as it should, and it has a ridiculously short charge time. Totally awesome. Then she learns another weak attack skill. Her final skill is Hero Healing, which heals your entire party, no matter where they are. So now she can stay back at the start location and not ever have to worry about getting hit! Yukina is definitely a character you want to take along with you for boss fights. With her around, you don't have to worry about Spirit Energy costs or damage at all. ------ Skills ------ Frozen Wind: ** Focused Healing: *** Healing Ring: *** Rallying Strength: ***** Frozen Tears: * Hero Healing: ***** ====== G. Chu ====== Health: ***** Melee: ***** Range: **** Speed: * Overall: *** Chu is the leader of Team Rokuyukai, also part of the Dark Tournament. He fights Yusuke's team after one of his team members is killed and he kills two others for trying to escape. He is an incredible martial artist because he is a master Mission of the drunken fist boxing style. --------------- Battle Overview --------------- Obtain: Cave Mission A Powerful. Mad powerful. An absolute tank. He starts out with two fairly unimpressive melee skills, Stumbling Fist and Rapid Jabs. Pump his spirit and he learns Spirit Ball Shot, an excellent ranged move. His two big melee skills, Crusher Kick and Head-Butt, are second to freaking none. Excellent charge time for such powerful attacks. His last skill, Power Shot, isn't really all that powerful, but does have the longest range of any row move in the game. He'd be ten times better if he weren't so blurdy slow. His incredibly low speed just kills any use you might have for him. By the time he gets his turn, other characters will have already finished off all the close enemies on the map, so he barely ever sees any action. Another problem is that he rarely has the Spirit Energy to sustain his attacks, most of which already have a high cost as it is. ------ Skills ------ Stumbling Fist: *** Spirit Ball Shot: **** Rapid Jabs: *** Crusher Kick: ***** Head-Butt: ***** Power Shot: *** ======== H. Rinku ======== Health: ** Melee: *** Range: * Speed: ***** Overall: ** Also a member of Team Rokoyoukai. He may be small, but he's very fast. He uses a yo-yo as a weapon. What a freak. --------------- Battle Overview --------------- Obtain: Cave Lock Mission Another very quick character. But otherwise not any good. He starts off with just Quick Kick and Yo-yo Shot, two skills that are decent enough early on but pale rather quickly. Then he learns Poison Strike, which is an excellent move that is among the few capable of poisoning the enemy. Serpent Snare is far too weak for the SE and charge time it costs. Yo-yo Shock bite is a fairly decent melee skill, but not really powerful enough to make a difference. He finally starts doing well when he learns Serpent Calling. Serpent Calling is a lot like Thorn Wheel in that it hits every square around him, but this time not only is it powerful enough to be worth using, but Rinku is definitely fast enough to make it into position in time, especially considering that none of his other moves are worth using, so he won't ever have to waste time using them. Let me take that back, actually. He sucks forever. Definitely not a character worth using. Like Chu, he suffers from a sever lack of SE to back up his expensive attacks. ------ Skills ------ Quick Kick: * Yo-yo Shot: *** Poison Strike: *** Serpent Snare: * Yo-yo Shock Bite: *** Serpent Calling: ***** ====== I. Jin ====== Health: ** Melee: **** Range: *** Speed: ***** Overall: **** A carefree goblin with the power of wind, also in the Dark Tournament. He very quickly becomes a close friend to Yusuke, and has a very jocular nature. He becomes close friends with Yusuke after being defeated by him in their match. --------------- Battle Overview --------------- Unlock: Swamp Mission I The last of the high-speed characters. Like Chu, Jin suffers from both a severe lack of Spirit Energy and some ridiculously expensive skills. The first two you gain, Tornado Fist and Tornado Raid, will probably be the moves you use most often. Fly By Kick isn't really as powerful as it could be, so it ends up being a rare move. Really, you'll probably use Fly By Kick a lot, considering it doesn't use up Spirit Energy and Jin has this habit of running out of it all the damn time. Double Crush is FAR too expensive, has way too much charge time for the amount of damage it deals. Not worth it. Wicked Tornado costs like 90% of your Spirit Energy, but since it's a really powerful-ass move, it's not a problem. ------ Skills ------ Rapid Punch: ** Tornado Fist: ***** Tornado Raid: **** Fly By Kick: *** Double Crush: * Wicked Tornado: **** ======== J. Touya ======== Health: **** Melee: ***** Range: * Speed: **** Overall: **** A member of another Dark Tournament team who is able to create and control ice. He likes to make swords out of ice and his best technique is Shards of Ice Blast, which is impossible to dodge, due to the multitude of, well, ice shards that it fires. --------------- Battle Overview --------------- Unlock: Swamp Battle L A hardy melee fighter like Kuwabara, except that isn't nearly as slow. Frozen Fist Combo is his first move, a typical 10-charge-time melee attack. Cold Spires is his only ranged move, and it isn't too powerful, nor does it have much range. Good if enemies are grouped right, otherwise it just looks like a cross. Ice Driver is a great melee attack that's quick and cheap. Ice Sword Swing has a longer charge time and higher cost, but doesn't seem to do any more damage. I think it has a higher critical rate, though. Shards of Ice Blast wins the award for longest attack name ever, but drains too much SE for it to become a well-used move. Icicle Falls hurts a whole hell of a lot, but unfortunately guys like Hiei can do that kind of damage to more enemies at a time and have enough SE to do it twice, so it's not really that great of a move. ------ Skills ------ Frozen Fist Combo: *** Cold Spires: *** Ice Driver: ***** Ice Sword Swing: ***** Shards of Ice Blast: ** Icicle Falls: ** ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IV. Area Walkthrough and Strategies ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- =============================================================================== A. Dock =============================================================================== Easiest map ever. Just give the lone Ram a swift Kick in the ass to smoke him. =============================================================================== B. Hotel =============================================================================== (A)-----------(B) \ ---------(C)---------- \ (D) / ------------- / (E) \ ---------------(F)--------------------(G) Oh man, I wish there were an easier way to do this. Unfortunately, the mission selection screens in YYH:TT Aren't exactly linear, so I can't just number them off 1, 2, 3. Not everyone likes the ASCII, but it's not like there's anything I can do about it. On with the guide! --------- Mission A --------- Objective: Destroy all enemies. Jump off the pier first thing and fire off a Spirit Gun at the closest Ram down below (or a Spirit Kick if you wasted your level up point on something stupid), which should finish him off. His partner will probably be milling about aimlessly, so sneak up on him and give him a good Spirit Kick in the back to smoke him. Congrats on your first mission! Unlocked: Kuwabara --------- Mission B --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Two Rams up front, one off a bit to the East. Rush the closest Ram and finish him quick. The second Ram will start moving into position to attack, or perhaps actually make an attack if you got close enough to him. The third Ram may or may not have noticed you, but he's not important yet. Work around the second Ram and hit him in the back, which will wake up the third Ram. Finish him off to complete the mission. If you level up Kuwabara, put it into Offense to give him his first ranged attack, Long Sword Strike. --------- Mission C --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Three rams just to the north, and a Ram and a Turtle to the east. The turtle is the first ranged enemy you've encountered so far, and his AI script consists of shooting, running, shooting, and running. This will not change for the rest of the game, so anytime you see an enemy with a ranged attack, you can bet you'll have to chase him down to kill him. Anyway, try to take out the Rams without moving too much. Let them come to you. Once they're out, move east and tackle the fourth Ram. For the Turtle, have Kuwabara taunt him so he'll be too busy attacking to run. Then shoot him down with Yusuke's Spirit Gun to finish him. Make sure you learn how to Taunt with some measure of skill; it can really make later battles stay in your control. --------- Mission D --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies You start out behind a bottleneck. This is also a trend that will continue for the rest of the game. Send Kuwabara out to take the Rams while Yusuke finishes the Turtle to the north. Then have Yusuke follow Kuwabara and sweep the rest of the map. Done deal. Unlocked: Masked Fighter --------- Mission E --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Have Mask take out the first Ram, Kuwabara move up, and Yusuke take out the Turtle to the east. Kuwabara and Mask should move forward and attack while Yusuke stays back and cleans up with Spirit Gun. Once you start leveling up Mask a bit, make sure to dump everything you can into Spirit Energy and the rest into Movement. Mask has excellent Spirit moves and Speed, so you want to capitalize on that. Spirit Gun Double is a fantastic move and you'll want it as soon as possible. --------- Mission F --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Have Yusuke and Mask take out the two closest enemies while Kuwabara moves West. Yusuke will probably need to Spirit Gun the Turtle to the west, but the one up on the kill can be taken by the group. Unlocked: Kurama --------- Mission G --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies This mission is a big pain in the ass. The closest group of enemies will be easy to deal with. But the far group will give you trouble. There's three snipers up there, and they get to take pot shots at you while your guys clog up in the bottleneck, and one of them has more range than you, AND he can poison you. Keep Yusuke back to snipe right back at them while everyone else moves forward. If Mask has Spirit Gun Double by now, it will be a hell of a lot of help in the battle. Otherwise, have mask use Rapid Punch exclusively to keep things moving quickly. You may need to do some fancy Taunting and Mending if you get caught up in an unlucky formation, so be prepared. Unlocked: Hiei =============================================================================== C. Forest =============================================================================== (C)-----,_ / '---------[L]- _----------' \ / | (B) | / \ | / | \ / \ (F) (H) (A) (D) / \ / \ \ / '---,_ _,----' '----(I) '--_ , \ / '(E)' (G) --------- Mission A --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Hiei's not going to start of with anything good, so don't think he'll bring any new skills to your team. Long Sword Strike and Spirit Gun are probably going to be your only range right now, so keep that in mind. Move everyone up and take out the enemies one by one. Taunt the Turtles with someone to keep them from running too much. --------- Mission B --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies This will be your first introduction to Floodgates. Basically, they exist only to piss you off. They'll spawn a bunch of monster and take forever to kill, so everyone hates them. Take three of your guys to the first floodgate, while the other two take care of the nearby Turtles. The group of three should then keep moving West and kill any enemies they find there, while the two-man team makes its way to the Floodgate and the enemies that spawned there. You probably won't be able to get the second floodgate before it has a chance to spawn a second group of enemies, so don't worry about it if you don't. This level has a lot of enemies in it, much more that previous levels have had, so you really need to keep an eye on your health. --------- Mission C --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Before you start the mission, put Kuwabara in the first or second position, because there's an enemy formation right there just waiting to get Spirit Long Sworded. That will be two quick kills you won't have to worry about later. Have a two-man team on the east side kill the Rams there one by one, while Yusuke and Mask clean up with Spirit Gun. The Turtles at the north end of the map may give you a little trouble because there's 4 of them and the east team may have lagged a bit behind, but it shouldn't be too much to handle if you can kill even just one or two of them in one hit with a back attack. --------- Mission D --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Put either one or both snipers in the 4 and 5 positions before the battle starts and have them take the northeast part of the map with all the Turtles in it. The other three should go east and get to the northwest hill as quickly as possible. With luck, both teams may finish at about the same time, so you won't have as much trouble with the second group of snipers up on the north hill. If you haven't learned some ranged moves on Hiei or Kurama by now, I suggest you take the time do so around this time. Ranged moves are absolutely essential in this early part of the game where you don't have enough movement to be able to get close enough for melee, let alone get any back attacks with it. Kurama learns Death Seed by upgrading Spirit Energy, Hiei learns Mortal Flame by upgrading Offense. --------- Mission E --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies There will be some Rams immediately nearby your position, so take them out first. The grassy knoll to the northeast is absolutely swarming with snipers, so take Yusuke and Mask up there to fight back with their Spirit Guns. Don't worry about the Wingeds on top of the hill. If you try to go after them, it will take forever to climb up there and they'll be shooting you and poisoning you the whole time. Not worth it. Just wait for them, and they'll attack you when they're ready. Off the hill, they're much easier to group attack, so you should make quick work of them. --------- Mission F --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Position 5 will be stuck behind everyone else when the map starts, so don't put anyone quick into that spot. Your fastest characters should be in spots 1 and 2 so they will not only be closer to the enemies, but will also be able to move out of the way of your other characters as quickly as possible. The two Rams should be easy enough to take care of. For the Turtles, spread out a sort of fan formation to the northwest and north, where most of them are standing. Then take everyone with range to storm up the small hill where the Wingeds are. Kill them quickly because they're faster than you, have more range than you, will poison you, and be almost impossible to catch up with and finish off if you let them go. --------- Mission G --------- Objective: Timed Destination Hiei is probably your fastest right now, so send him up north to the red destination square. Yusuke and Mask should cover him with Spirit Guns. Send Kurama and Kuwabara east to tie up the Turtles there. You'll probably finish most of the enemies on the map before getting to the red square, considering how slow your guys are right now. It is important to note that Hiei is never to stop moving. He should always move to the furthest he's capable of, he should never attack an enemy unless it happens to be in range or is blocking him when he stops, and even if he does have an opportunity to attack he should only use 18 Slash Jagan. Just let the two snipers finish the enemy off. It's more important that Hiei keep moving. You should finish the map with around 50 left on the timer. If that seems like a lot, consider yourself lucky that you didn't get blocked off from the destination square with 10 left on the timer and no Spirit Energy left. --------- Mission H --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies First there's two Rams, then 5 Turtles, then 3 Wingeds. There's a lot of guys to fight on this map, and not a lot of room to move around in, so be careful. Take out the Rams first, obviously. The Turtles may be a problem, so try to Taunt them so they'll sit still while you attack. Work your way east across the map, making sure not to leave either any enemies or any allies behind. There's also a lot of obstacles and debris on this map, so that will probably slow you down, too. A pretty boring map. ----------------------- Mission I: BOSS MISSION ----------------------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Aah, your first boss mission. This is the map that you've been saving your Overdrives for. You'll fight against Zeru, Chu, two Lions, and two Wingeds. As for the Anteater that spoke in the fight intro, who knows what he hell happened to him. The enemies are lined up perfectly for you to hit them with a good Spirit Long Sword, so take advantage of that. If you were careless and left someone's side or back open to Zeru and Chu, they'll probably double team you and kill that guy with their first attacks. Chu has a nasty melee attack as well as a powerful ranged attack, so watch out for that. Zeru has a melee attack that can hit two people, so be sure to put your fighters in an alternating pattern so that he can't hit you with that. Use all your overdrives on the two bosses, then kill the Lions, and worry about the Wingeds last. Unlocked: Lock Mission ------------------------------------- Mission L: LOCK MISSION, BOSS MISSION ------------------------------------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Roto and Rinku show up with Yukina as a hostage. They want revenge for how you just owned Zeru and Chu. They come with three of each Lions and Rams, so you won't really need to worry so much about ranged enemies. Take out all the guys on the lower level first and don't worry about Roto and Rinku. Rinku has a mean range attack, and Roto has a wide movement radius, so the first person to reach the hill is in for a serious beating. Wait until you're done at the bottom and are Charged back up before trying to take them on. I suggest using your fastest person to Taunt them and then run away. Once they're off the hill, flank them for a fast kill. =============================================================================== D. Cave =============================================================================== _,---[L] _,---(C)-,_______,----------'' / \ .' / \ / / \ | / (F) | / | | / / (B)---, _,--'' .-' (I) | \ .-' | | | \ / _,-(E) | | | / __,,--' | | / \ | __,,---'' / | / '--(D)--''' | | / \ | (A) (G)--------------(H) --------- Mission A --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Two Wingeds, four Turtles, and one Guard. You should be able to take out the Wingeds and the closest Turtle without a problem. If you stay at the right distance, the crystal formation in the center of the room can disrupt the Turtles' attacks, making it easier for you to surround them. The Guard has an attack that can irradiate you, which is kind of like poison, except that you aren't capable of using it back on him, and it hurts a whole hell of a lot worse. Guards will become a problem later, but this one is at the end of the map, so he isn't as much of a threat. Just be on the lookout. Unlocked: Chu --------- Mission B --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Now here's where Guards start becoming trouble. They've got twice as much HP as any monster you've seen so far, so they'll take twice as long to bring down. You've got two Guards up front with two Wingeds, and a third Winged and Guard in the rear. It's up to you who to kill first. You can either bring down both wingeds or one guard. The guard can Irradiate, which is twice as bad as poison, but his regular attacks aren't all that much worse than a Wingeds. I like to take out the closest Winged first, then the two Guards, then the other two Wingeds on my way north. Keeps everyone organized. --------- Mission C --------- Objective: Timed Destroy All There's a lot of guys here, and it's a very small arena. Bring along anyone in your party that has learned an area attack yet, which will probably be only Kuwabara. Try not to clump (hard, considering the bottleneck you have to get through before you can attack) because both Guards and Lions have an area attack. You might also want to think about bringing along Yukina, because her healing skills are going to look mighty inviting when your guys are half dead from radiation. Don't worry about the timer. You'll be able to finish off all the enemies before it even gets half through. --------- Mission D --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies This one starts you out with another lovely bottleneck. In addition, there are 5 Wingeds to poison you, two Turtles to throw fire at you, and and Lions that can also hit you while you take forever tripping over your guys trying to get out of the bottleneck. Start moving IMMEDIATELY. Move first, then worry about who you're going to attack. Positions 1, 3, and 5 are on the outside, so put your fastest characters there and get them out of your way as soon as possible. Everyone is going to get poisoned at some point or another, so Yukina will be a lot of help in this level as well. Try to bring along as many ranged attacks as you can, you're going to need them. --------- Mission E --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Take out the two Turtles first, obviously, but be sure not to gather in a big group, because three Guards are right behind them. The big threat here is right at the beginning, so if you can get past the guards without too many people being irradiated, you should be fine. Just head north and finish off the rest of the map. --------- Mission F --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Three each Turtles, Wingeds, and Guards. The Winged just to the north of your starting position can snipe you and poison some of your guys early if you're not careful, so be sure to stay south as you move west. The guards are the tough ones. They'll surround and irradiate you while the Wingeds snipe and poison you. Take the Guards out first and then worry about the snipers. ----------------------- Mission G: BOSS MISSION ----------------------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Another typical boss battle with a big hill at the end. How much you want to bet that Babaki has a devastating ranged attack that he can pound you with while you scramble up his hill? Luckily the normal enemies in this level are few. A pair of Rams and a trio of Wingeds. As usual, take out the Rams before worrying about the Wingeds. Once you're ready, take your guys up to the hill where Babaki is waiting. You can taunt him if you like, but you probably won't have to. His trident is surprisingly powerful but will still only be able to hit just one person before you can kill him. ----------------------- Mission H: BOSS MISSION ----------------------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies So Rugby shows up and his judgment on the purpose of the sport from which he gets his name is surprisingly accurate. Anyway, this a really hard-ass fight. I'm not kidding. It's HARD. You've got a boss, AND a pair of Floodgates. Yech. Definitely take along Yukina and anyone that doesn't use up too much Spirit Energy for his moves. There's no chance you'll take the first Floodgate before it spawns anything, so don't even bother wasting your Overdrives trying. First hit the Lions right in front. Send one or two guys to kill the Turtles to the west, and have the rest focus their attacks on the Floodgate. Try using range on it so you don't catch Rugby's attention just yet. If you have any area attack skills, it would be Overdrive them and hit the near gate AFTER it spawns monsters to take them out as well as hurting the gate. Once the west team gets about even with where the Floodgate was (because you should already have destroyed it by then), Rugby will start to move in on them. There's a small bottleneck right between the pit and the cliff where you should station one good melee fighter to block Rugby, with Yukina and/or a good ranged fighter directly behind to give support. By now the two snipers that were previously on the Floodgate should also be moving west to support. Just when you've finished off the enemies that the second Floodgate pooped out, it will excrete another pair. If you're still in good enough heath, they should not pose a problem for you, though I imagine your Spirit Energy would be running quite low by now. You may be in worse shape if you lost control of the fight earlier, and if so you should retreat now to Mend, Charge and use items. When you're ready, finish off the remaining enemies and the Floodgate to end the level. Whew. ----------------------- Mission I: BOSS MISSION ----------------------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Dr. Ichigaki shows up with M1, M2, and M3, his mind control slaves. M3 has a nasty 3-range row attack, M2 has a 2-range row attack, so be sure not to let your guys get into a row like that. M1 is just a standard sniper and has the least health of the three, so nothing to worry about from him. You can probably take him out in one or two attacks. As long as you don't ever get into a position where M2 or M3 can use their row attacks on you, you ought to be fine. Unlocked: Lock Mission ----------------------- Mission L: LOCK MISSION ----------------------- Objective: Timed Destroy All The Lions up front, three Guards in the middle, one Gatasubal and one Ogyoku in the back. The Lions are just begging to be area attacked, so if you've got any, Overdrive it to kill them all in one fell swoop. The area just to the west of the mushrooms is completely blocked off by the crystal formation and the crack there, so don't go putting any of your melee fighters there. The two bosses only have as much range as a Spirit Gun, so put one of your snipers there to lure them forward a bit and still be able to retaliate. You're going to need someone to hold their attention while your fighters make their way through that bottle neck between the shrooms and the frozen pond. Both of them are real monsters, so focus your attention on one at a time. Take them out and the map will be over. Timer probably won't even get to 500. Unlocked: Rinku =============================================================================== E. Swamp =============================================================================== (C)---------------[L]_ / | '-, / / '-,_ / | (J) / / \ / | ----(I) (A)-------(B) (D) (G) __/ \ \ ___/ | \ / | \ / ---(E) | (H) '---------(F)-------' --------- Mission A --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies First, kill that Guard. No one likes him. Once that's done, the Floodgates will then each spit out some enemies for you to kill. So carefully and quickly make your way through the bottleneck that opens this level and take on the first of the Floodgates. It will have some Anteaters by it, enemies capable of a ranged attack that irradiates you. You'll want to take them out first. Quickly off them and take care of their Floodgate, and then move north to the second one. Surround it as quickly as possible to prevent it from spawning more Lions. Getting close to it and plugging it is more important than killing it because while you may or may not be able to kill it before it spawns something, you will *definitely* prevent it from spawning by standing next to it. --------- Mission B --------- Objective: Pursuit Your first Pursuit mission! Glee! Bring along anyone fast and anyone that needs EXP. Ignore all the monsters and just gun down the Runner to end the mission. He'll go down in two hits, and that typically means move and attack with Mask, move Hiei, then move and attack with Hiei. Done in three turns. And the rest of the guys on the team can just soak up the EXP. Stick around and level up on this map if you want. --------- Mission C --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Three Lions, four Minotaurs, three Anteaters. The Anteaters will be a pain because of their irradiate attacks, but it shouldn't be too much trouble. The Minotaurs will go down easy since they seem to have no Spirit defense at all. As long as you don't waste time on physicals, you should be fine. Take out the Lions close up, then try some area moves on the Minotaurs. That ought to show them who's boss. Finally hunt down the Anteaters. --------- Mission D --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies You start out with two Guards, an Anteater, and a Minotaur up front, a bottle neck in the middle of the map, and three Minotaurs with a Guard in the back. Focus on the Anteater first, because he'll be a big pain in the ass if you let him live long enough. Then take the other three. There's a huge bottleneck right in the middle of the map, and you sure as hell don't want to get stuck behind that, considering that that Minotaurs have a powerful 2-range row attack and the Guard can irradiate 6 people at once. So what yo have to do is taunt them over to it and let THEM get stuck behind it while you use your own area attacks to kill them. --------- Mission E --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Four Minotaurs, three Anteaters, all scattered about the map. Don't worry about the lone Anteater just to the north. He's out of range, so you couldn't attack him even if it was a good idea. Just keep heading west and take out anyone you see. Not much strategy here. --------- Mission F --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Before you start the mission, placement is important. Spots 2 are at the opening of a long bottleneck. If you feel confident with a particular pair of your characters, especially if they happen to be on the quick side put them in the second and third positions and have them rush north through the bottleneck while your other three take the long way around. If not, have them in 1 and 2 and just take everyone east as a group, circling the map clockwise. The terrain on this map tend to be a bit on the narrow side, so take care that you don't block yourself up. --------- Mission G --------- Objective: Destroy all enemies This level is really cramped. There's just two Floodgates and a handful of enemies, so break into two teams, one for each. You won't make it to the gates in time to stop them from their first spawn, so prioritize getting your area attackers up there first. Be careful not to get caught in bottlenecks, because it can really cut your attack power down by preventing any good area attacks. You're going to take a whole hell of a lot of damage, considering your team will be split in half, but it's well worth it to be able to take out both Floodgates at once and prevent a second spawn. --------- Mission H --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies As usual, you start out in a really bad position. Before the battle starts, be sure to set up your team in order from fastest to slowest, because if you don't get the front guys out of the way quick, you'll never get out of the bottle neck. Take most of your guys counter-clockwise; you'll only need a sniper or two to harry the Anteaters over on the west side of the map. Two might be a better choice, as there are more enemies over there. ----------------------- Mission I: BOSS MISSION ----------------------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Bakken, Jin, and Risho show up with just one lonely Anteater. A good, long row attack can hit both the Anteater and Bakken at once once the map starts, so try to bring one along. Take the Anteater first, then work on Bakken. All three of them have some pretty devastating area attacks, so you better be damn sure not to get into a group. If you find that you have, just taunt them with someone quick and run for it. Jin's is the worst, but you only have to worry about one because he doesn't have the Spirit Energy to use it twice. Take them down one at a time, and they should be finished in no time. Unlocked: Jin --------- Mission J --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Two Lions, three Guards, two Minotaurs, and two Anteaters. One of each on both sides of the river. Well, actually the second Lion is kind of in the middle of the river. Anyway, crossing the river is a big huge bottleneck, and it's also a big pain in the ass. The Anteater will irradiate all your guys and the Lion will use his farging Area attack to hit three or four at once. Not a pleasant map. Finish off the near side of the river first, concentrating on the Guards and the Anteater. Then get your team recharged and ready before storming across the river. Take the Anteater first and then get whomever is closest. ------------------------------------- Mission L: LOCK MISSION, BOSS MISSION ------------------------------------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Gama busts in and, true to the fight intro, he is a very close-range fighter. He's also quite slow, so you can easily kill him before he even gets a chance to move. After he's gone, work on the two Minotaurs and the Anteater. Save Touya for last because he's got some pretty hard-hitting area and melee moves. Unlocked: Touya =============================================================================== F. Ocean Cliff =============================================================================== (A) (D)---------------------(E),_____ \ / '''''--------(F) -(B) | / \ | / \ | / ----(C)-------------[L]-,,,____ / | '''''----------(G)--------(J) | | | | | | (I)-,_______ | '-, | '-, / '-------------------(H) --------- Mission A --------- Objective: Pursuit Another easy Pursuit mission. Just take your fastest two fighters and gun him down in the first turn. Done deal. Level up here if you want. --------- Mission B --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies This is a bizarre one. For some reason, your fifth fighter simply does not show up at all, so you're left with only a 4-man team. Positions 1 and 4 will be in one location, 2 and 3 will be slightly further south. Put your snipers in the Positions 1 and 4. Three Lions close, two Huge Demons far, three Anteaters up on a cliff. Take out the Lions as a group before they start any trouble. The north team should take the Anteaters immediately. The south team will continue west and kill the Demon there, before turning north as well and helping with the Anteaters. Then take everyone north to get the final Huge Demon. --------- Mission C --------- Objective: Timed Floodgate This is a new kind of level. To win, you must stand on the red squares until the timer runs out, at which point the Floodgates will be destroyed, and you must also kill all the enemies. Though not necessarily in that order. The gates will only spawn once, so don't worry about getting to the red squared with overmuch haste. Take the Anteater just to the west of your start location and be sure to position your guys so as to receive the enemies the enemies about to spawn from the first Floodgate properly: With area attacks. Or, if you're real sneaky, you can just block the gate so no one can spawn. Owned. Once they're done, put your slowest/weakest character on the red square and leave him there to rot for the rest of the mission. Take everyone else west to the second Floodgate and get a fast sniper, probably Mask, to stand on the red square up there and just shoot wildly. Everyone else should just lay about wildly and attack. The last enemy should fall at about the same time the Floodgates die, and that will end the mission. Don't worry about taking too long. The Floodgates can only spawn one time. --------- Mission D --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies First get the Cat, the Lion, and the Anteater that are right up front. Just to the northwest is a small peninsula with another Lion and Cat on it, so send a slow fighter and a fast sniper up there to take care of them while the rest of your team continues east. Take one person to each little area and kill all the enemies there at once. The fast sniper you sent NW should be done by now, so have him sweep West and help clean up. So many freagin bottlenecks. It's a real pain sometimes. --------- Mission E --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies A very sparse map. Three Lions up close, two Minotaurs in the middle four Anteaters up on the cliff, and two Cats that don't even know where the hell they are. Take it west, but don't go too far north, otherwise the Anteaters will start shooting you. Once you've swept west all the way to the Cat, start taking it north. You want to get to those Anteaters last, because being irradiated at the end of the map is better than being irradiated at the beginning of the map. Maybe keep move one good character north at the beginning to take on the Anteaters, if you feel really confident fighting alone. --------- Mission F --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies A huge map. Very Huge. Three Minotaurs up in front, a pair each of Cats and Lions to the far west, and a quartet of Anteaters on the northwest cliff. There is some grass just to the west that makes a barrier, and to go around it you'll probably wake up the Anteaters in the process, so send a fast person or a good sniper up there to keep them busy while you go by. Then just take the rest of your team west and pound everyone. --------- Mission G --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Before the fight starts, Masked Fighter unveils his identity! OH SNAP! Actually you probably already knew, so no biggie. This mission is cramped and loaded. A trio of Cats and Anteaters and a pair of Lions and Demons. They're all right up close to each other, so you won't have a chance to try any fancy tactics. Just bust out some area attacks and hope for criticals. What I've found works running around the edge of the map. If you get in the center, they'll all jump you at once. So cut down on the number of guys you have to fight at a time and run the periphery. --------- Mission H --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Two Lions, two Minotaurs, three Cats, and two Huge Demons. There's no ranged units on this map save the Huge Demons, but they prefer melee anyway so it won't be a problem. No fancy tactics needed here, just keep heading west and kill everything. --------- Mission I --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Oh man, this level is bottlenecked up so hard. Two each of Wingeds, Anteaters, and Huge Demons. Which means that you can be poisoned OR irradiated at any time during your navigation of the pain-in-the-ass cliffs on this level. Bring your snipers if you value your sanity. Send all but one on the north path. The south guy should just kill the Huge Demon and then just keep heading west. The north team should break off, sending a few guys west to kill the Wingeds, and a few guys south to assist the south guy. After that, just clean up any leftovers. --------- Mission J --------- Objective: Destroy all enemies Oh, this level is such a pain in the ass. Bottleneck in every direction, two Floodgates to take care of, four paths to fight on. Blech. Take either of the Floodgates first. If you're daring, maybe take them both on at the same time. I suggest you stock up on your potions for this mission or at least bring along Yukina. Carefully placed Overdrives may be able to take out the Floodgates before they even get a chance to spawn once, so go for that if you think you can do it. But you have to Overdrive exactly right and know exactly how much damage you're doing with each one for it to work. ------------------------------------- Mission L: LOCK MISSION, BOSS MISSION ------------------------------------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Don't bother giving Mask any items. You won't need them. Younger Toguro challenges a 1-on-1 battle with Mask. His health never depletes, so don't bother trying to kill him. I even hit him with a critical Overdrive Giant Blast Gun right in the back for 980 damage and it didn't even faze him. So just take it like a pro and lose the fight. Afterwards, Mask will leave your party. =============================================================================== G. Hanging Neck =============================================================================== (B)--- ---(G)-----(I)-------(J) / \ \ / | \ / \ ------(E)-------(F)-- | | | \ | | | \ / | (A) (C) (H) (K) \ / \ | -------(D)-----[L] Go to the dock, and the old man will be all like "NO WAY." so skip it and head north to Hanging Neck. --------- Mission A --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Three Minotaurs, three Huge Demons, and two Brains. Send two guys north to take out the Huge Demon and Brain there. The rest go south and work on the Minotaurs group. After both teams are done, work your way back to the center and get the remaining Huge Demons and Brains. --------- Mission B --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies You start out in a bottleneck, so you're going to want your fastest guys in positions 1 and 2 so they can hurry up and get the hell out of your way. There are two floodgates in this level. You can probably kill the first one before it spawns anything if you throw some dedicated overdrives at it, but don't even think about doing that with the second. Killing the first gate probably means not killing that Brain, so if you've got any firepower to spare, focus it on him. Next get the second Floodgate. Most of your guys will probably be still waiting for their turn after the massive attacks you pulled on the first gate, so they might be a bit vulnerable and slow. Just wait it out and then concentrate on the second Floodgate. Once it's done, then you can start worrying about those Wingeds to the west. Finish them and then clean up. --------- Mission C --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Position 2 is a bit far back, so don't put anyone quick there. Position 1 is way far ahead, so don't put anyone slow there. The most obvious and glaring threat is that Minotaur, so kill him first with your concentrated group. Next will be the three Wolves. Send one man after the eastern Wolf while everyone else concentrates on the western two. Past them is a another path split. Send a sniper to help out the one guy who killed the east Wolf, and take them both east again and fight the Cats. The rest of your crew should kill the Minotaur, circle around, and then help finish off the Cats. --------- Mission D --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Have your snipers hit that brain to the west, while the rest of your group moves south to take on the Minotaur and Cat. Once they're done, send one good fighter south again to take on that Brain, while the rest of the group heads southwest. The Brain guy might finish before the group does, so have him catch up and do some sniping. --------- Mission E --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies A very small and crowded map. Three Cats in the middle, three Wolves to the far north, and four Anteaters scattered about the map. Take out the nearest Anteater first thing. You don't want to have to worry about him shooting you in the back. Take your main group north and start fighting the Cats. You may need to send one or two guys east and west to take care of those annoying Anteaters, but I find it's much easier to just keep moving as a group. The three enemies to the farthest north are just begging to be sniped, so take them out with some long range attacks. Or, even sneakier, block them off at their bottleneck and use area attacks on them. --------- Mission F --------- Objective: Timed Destroy All There's a Wolf just to the south and an Anteater just to the north. Take three guys up north and kill the Anteater, while the other two corner the Wolf and make short work of him. There are two Anteaters up on the far north cliff, so harry them with a sniper or two. By the time you main group engages with the Wolves and Cats at the north end of the group, your southern guys should be just finishing up that Wolf and should start heading north for support. The biggest pain will be the four Anteaters to the northeast. Two bottlenecks to get to them, and they're snipers, and they can irradiate you. Heal up after getting done in the middle of the map, then storm east and finish the Anteaters off quick. You shouldn't have to worry at all about that timer. Those things never even run halfway out. --------- Mission G --------- Objective: Timed Floodgate If Hiei has learned Dragon Summon by now, you can put it to use here. Have him run up and camp the first Floodgate and blow everyone away with an Overdrive as soon as they spawn. The rest of the team should follow behind and kill anyone that Hiei passed up while rushing to get to the Floodgate. Make your way slowly around the map and kill everything you come across. Once you get to the red destination square, plop a sniper down on it so he can help clear out the north Floodgate. The rest of your team should be killing the guys at the second gate and cleaning up any mess left in the level. You'll probably kill everyone before the floodgate timer runs out, so just wait around until they blow up. --------- Mission H --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Four Huge Demons, two Cats, two Wolves. Take everyone east and camp out in that clearing. None of these guys has an area attack, so if you want you can just cluster around Yukina and have her Rallying Strength you to your heart's content. All the enemies are melee fighters, so there's no need to go running around trying to catch them. But, hey, there's no real reason not to either, right? If you want a little excitement you can try taking the fight to them. Either way is fine, really. --------- Mission I --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Big huge bottleneck to start this level. Surprise surprise. The first three enemies are all Cats, so they shouldn't give you much trouble. Once you get out of that box you start in, all three Brains will have an opportunity to start throwing ranged attacks at you, so watch out for that. You'll probably be done or nearly done with them by the time the Wolves to the far west wake up and notice you, so they should be easy to gang up on and finish off in a jiffy. --------- Mission J --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Start moving west. Be careful not to stray too far south, as the Brain there will hit you if you get too close. First, take on the closest Wolf and Brain to your start location, just to the west. If you can, try to Taunt the other Wolves and Brains in as close as you can get them. Ignore the Anteaters on the far west cliff for now, and they'll ignore you too. Draw in the rest of them and finish them off before working on the Anteaters. Most of the enemies here tend to favor melee attacks, and that can lead to some pretty severe clumping. Take out any groups you see with area attacks. Try the rocks in the middle of the map to divide the enemies into two groups if you can, then pick them off one by one. Of course, if you're not careful you may get a taste of the Brains' area attack spell, so watch out for that. After they're all finished, turn your attention to the Anteaters. ----------------------- Mission K: BOSS MISSION ----------------------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Three Brains, a Shishiwakamaru, and a Shizuka. Everyone is quite close in this battle, so trying to separate them won't really work. First take the South side, then go for the North. The Brains aren't really that important or dangerous, so Focus your attacks on the two bosses. If you happen to be able to multitarget a decent enough tech to hit the Brains as well, so much the better. Take your fastest characters and Overdrive Shishi from the back and sides. Two or three attacks should knock him out. Finish off the South Brain with your next few fighters, but don't Overdrive it. Then go for Shizuka in the north with any overdrives you have left. Then mop up the remaining Brains for the win. The whole thing should take only about one or two attacks per character, three perhaps for the fastest ones. Unlocked: Lock Mission ------------------------------------- Mission L: LOCK MISSION, BOSS MISSION ------------------------------------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Ura Urashima and Makintaro challenge you to a fight with typical boss banter. As usual, you start out behind an obstacle. Two Brains and a Wolf are directly west, so take them out first, Stick around behind the western rock obstacle and wait for Kuro Momotaro to make his move. Taunt him a bit if you'd like. Gang up on the Wolf as soon as it enters, then gang up on Kuro. Then head out into the open and lure Ura Urashima, the Wolf, and the Brain a bit South so you won't have to deal as much with Makintaro. Take them out and then bum rush Makintaro up on the hill. =============================================================================== H. Dark Arena =============================================================================== (K) | (C) (E) | [L1] (J) \ \ | / / \ \ [L1] / / \ \ / \ / / (B)----------(D)------ -----(H)-----------(I) \ \ / \ \ / \ \ / | | | | | | | | | (A)-------(F)--------(G) --------- Mission A --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies A quick little map to get you warmed up for the tourney. There's a Huge Demon to the east that needs taking care of first. He so close that you can pretty much just rush him with everyone. Then attack the Brain just to the north. Once you start attacking him, two Wolves will come out of the grove of trees, sort of like an ambush, only you already knew they were there. Just waste them and the last brain to finish the map. --------- Mission B --------- Objective: Timed Destination What a fantastically easy level. If you've maxed out speed on your faster guys like Hiei, Jin, and Rinku this map will be a cinch. Just waltz right up to the red square and stand on it. Easy as pie. You're so fast, none of the enemies on screen will even get a chance to move, let alone stop you. If you want, take one guy to the red square and have everyone else just wail on the enemies. Most of them start with their backs turned, so it should be fairly easy to finish an entire group with an area spell. Whoever gets to the red square can also attack the monsters; the mission will only end at the end of his turn. Don't waste any time getting to the Destination square, but once you're on it, feel free to drop a Dragon Summon or Fierce Tornado on them. You can level up easily here if you want. --------- Mission C --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies There's a Brain right in front of you right from the get-go, so take him out first. Once you get out into the open, everything on the map will just rush you all at once, so be careful. If you can, try to circle the map counter-clockwise and hope that the enemies don't all notice you at once. A well placed Taunt can really keep things in an orderly flow. --------- Mission D --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies There's no cover in this level, so fancy strategies are out. Just rush in, and waste everything. There will be three Huge Demons just to the east, so finish them off first. Next will be a pair of Wolves, who shouldn't be much trouble. The two Brains at the far north end of of the map don't really seem to do much but mill around, so gather your troops just far enough away from them so that they don't notice, and then jump them both at once. ----------------------- Mission E: BOSS MISSION ----------------------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Kurama will show up to challenge you, and he's brought along some Wolves and Brains to fight you, three of each. There will be a Brain right next to your start location, so finish him off first. Then work your way clockwise around the map. Kurama is at the far north end, so make sure not to show him your back. Once Yusuke gets a turn you can just cap Kurama with an Overdrive Spirit Mega Gun to make short work of him. If you don't have SMG yet, I suggest waiting until you've got a few really good fighters free, circling him, and just pounding the crap out of him. Once Kurama is out of the way, just mop up the rest of the bogeys to finish the level. --------- Mission F --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies First things first, you need to know before you even start the mission is that positions 4 and 5 will be separate from 1, 2, and 3. Positions 1,2,3 will have two Wolves right nearby. If you've got Spirit Wave, Fly By Kick, or anything else that hits one square and the square behind it, put them in the first group and hit the wolves with it first thing. Two such attacks should be enough to take them out. Then there's another brain and a Wolf on the first path, easy enough since most of your characters will be on that side. The second path has a wolf right up against you, and a Brain further on. Not really much to worry about. I put my fastest characters in the second group so they can finish those few enemies off quickly and work around to the first group in order to hit up the enemies from behind. The two paths are close enough that you can even aid the other team with some ranged attacks. A quick level if you're prepared. --------- Mission G --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies This is an enormous level. It should be no problem to keep the enemies here under control, especially considering how far apart all the enemies here are. Take out the closest ones first and then sweep your way east to clear out the stragglers. If you want, you can try some fancy Taunting to group them up and clear them out faster, but it's not really necessary. A very simple, straightforward level. --------- Mission H --------- Objective: Pursuit Fantastically easy. The very best map to level up on. Two turns is all it takes to gun down the Runner. Catch him, pound him, reap the EXP. If you haven't got your main team picked out and leveled to 32 by now, I suggest you do so in this map. Unlocked: Lock Mission 1 --------- Mission I --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies This map has two different levels of elevation with a single stairway at the far South end connecting them. Stay as far East as you can and try not to attract any attention from the enemies in the upper grid. Sweep the lower grid and maybe keep a few snipers down there to take care of anyone with his back turned. If you want a quick victory, though, you can just run up to the cliff face and Taunt them down. Even better, you can also just haul your ass straight up there and pound them yourself. Taunting seems to work quickest, though. --------- Mission J --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Like most Floodgate levels, enemies pop up soon after the level begins. Lucky for you, they're far enough apart that you don't have to worry about getting swamped with enemies. Just take your time and finish off the gates one by one. You might be able to finish off the closest gate before it even spawns a monster if you're quick. You'll definitely be able to take out the second one before it spawns a second time. The third one is probably too far away to for you to be able to get it before it spawns as well, but it should be possible if you want to drop an Overdrive Spirit Mega Gun on it. I suggest not, as you will be needing that Overdrive quite soon. -------------------------------------- Mission L1: LOCK MISSION, BOSS MISSION -------------------------------------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Bui shows up with a rather motley, if small, assortment of fighters. One Wolf, one Guard, and one Brain. They're pretty close, so you might hit two or three with a 3x3 or 2x3 spell, so bust those out first thing. Bui will fall quickly to an Overdrive Spirit Mega Gun, like just about any other enemy in the game, so you only need to worry about him for one turn. After that, finish off the remaining enemies and call it a day. Unlocked: Lock Mission 2 -------------------------------------- Mission L2: LOCK MISSION, BOSS MISSION -------------------------------------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies The Elder Toguro shows up with three Huge Demons. As usual, try to off as many of them as you can before Yusuke's turn, during which he should kill Toguro instantly with Overdrive SMG. The three Huge Demons are too far apart for most spells to be able to hit more than one of them, so watch out for that. Try to hit two at once if you can, don't worry about it if you can't. Once Toguro the Elder goes down, mopping up should be easy. ----------------------- Mission K: BOSS MISSION ----------------------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Before the battle starts, stock up Yusuke with your best Healing and Spirit restoration items. He's going to need them later in the mission, and you won't have another chance to stock up his inventory with anything once it starts. Younger Toguro starts off at 80% power, and he's got a pair each Brains and Wolves. They're all over the place, so don't even think about trying to get in any group attacks. Just take them out and then pop Toguro with SMG. Save your overdrives for the next battle. Objective: Destroy all Enemies Toguro pumps up to 100% and turns turquoise. You fight the second battle one- on-one with Toguro. The Overdrive you saved up since the last battle will be put to good use here. Just pump him in the back with an overdrive SMG. He's got just enough health to survive it, so you better pray he doesn't hit you with a critical attack in the meantime. Next turn, just hit him with anything to finish him off. Congratulations! You just beat the game! Roll credits. Once it's over, you'll get a secret character back. =============================================================================== I. Bonus Dungeon: Dark Mountains =============================================================================== (E) ----------(B)------ / / \ / / \ / / \ | | | | ---- | \ \ | \ | (C)-------------- \ / \ \ / ----------(D) / (A) Get all of your characters to level 32 to unlock the bonus dungeon on the second dock that you couldn't do anything at earlier. --------- Mission A --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Four Guards and one Captain. The Captain is an absolute pushover. He's not any stronger than the Guards with him. You can wipe them out quickly, especially with those brand new Level 32 characters of yours. Hot. --------- Mission B --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Four Brains and one Genbu. Yeah, he's supposed to be dead. The brains are nothing you haven't faced before, but Genbu is a toughie. He'll do a lot more running than attacking, so finish him off quick. After the battle, spin for the new Team Heal and Team Boost. Woo-woo. --------- Mission C --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies What an incredibly annoying map. It's this giant, long, winding path that's only one square wide in most places. So not only does it take forever to get to Byakko distance-wise, but your guys will be clogging each other up and slowing the whole train down. On top of that, you can't hardly ever get behind anyone, so all the enemies will be taking minimum damage. Things will speed up around the middle of the map when the enemies finally get off their asses and start trying to attack you. If you stand on the far north end of the area in the middle of the map, Byakko can attack you. This is good for luring, but not so good for your health. If you want to lure Byakko over, put a high health character there. But don't accidentally put anyone weak there, or he'll die. --------- Mission D --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Seiryu shows up won another winding map. Fortunately this one is small enough to be quick, and also it allows some of your ranged fighters to snipe. Just work your way around the S until you get to Seiryu, then pound him with your best skills and overdrives. A very straightforward map. --------- Mission E --------- Objective: Destroy all Enemies Okay, then we have Suzaku. Don't bother trying to kill him, he'll just make some clones of himself and then start another battle. If you're feeling lucky, I think you might actually be able to destroy him in the first battle. Try rushing him with Hiei or Mask, and throw your most powerful overdrive at him. There's a slim chance it might critical, and I think that would kill him in one go, though I've never done it myself. Really, all you have to lose is just one character's Overdrive bar. Beat up the clones and be done with it. The clones are all grouped very tightly, so if you've got any one fast that has a wide range attack (3x3 preferred) then rush in and start shooting. The clones will prefer to run around and use ranged attacks, so be aware that if you don't kill them all with your first attacks, they'll hit you with pot shot after pot shot while you wait for your charge time to run out. Now would be a good time to use those Team Heals you picked up in the earlier boss battles. Congratulations! You just beat the bonus dungeon! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- VI. Thanks and Contact Information ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thanks to: -Pojo's YYH site and Ladyshock's YYH page for the character bios. -8-Bit Theater, from whom I shamelessly stole a joke If you spot any errors or have any suggestions, e-mail me at kernthegerm at yahoo dot com.