0 0000 000 0000 0 0 000 000 0000 0 0 0 0 0 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0000 0 0000 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0000 0 0 0 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 00 0 0 0 0 0 0000 0000 0000 0000 0 0 000 000 0 # ### ## ##### ##### ### ##### ######## ####### ##### ##### ######## ######## ##### ####### ##### ####### ######## ##### ######### ##### ###### #### #### ###### ######### ##### ###### #### #### ####### ########## ##### ###### #### #### ####### ######## ##### ###### #### #### ############## ##### ##### #### #### ############ ##### #### #### ##### #### ########## ###### #### ##### ##### ######## ######## #### #### ##### ####### ########## ### ### ###### ###### ##### ###### ## ####### ###### ##### ###### ####### ###### ##### ####### ###### ##### ######## ###### #### ######### ###### #### ########### ###### #### ######### ###### #### ##### ###### ### ###### ## ###### ## # #### # ### # # # LEGEND OF KAY FAQ/WALKTHROUGH VERSION 1.4 Written by ManicLaugh (Callum D Simpson) Writing began: 22/06/2012 Version 1.00 completed: 17/07/2012 Most recent version completed: 20/06/2016 O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | BEFORE WE START: [CNT] | | CONTENTS | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O *** Search function: Using Ctrl + F, you can search the guide for the character strings in the square brackets below. (Include the square brackets in your search.) Each character string appears only in the contents list and at the heading of the relevant section of the guide. *** Before We Start =============== [CNT] | Contents [LGL] | Legal/Copyright [INT] | Introduction *Please read* [VER] | Version History Game Basics =========== [BSC01] | Characters [BSC02] | Controls [BSC03] | Items [BSC04] | Gameplay Elements Walkthrough =========== [WLK01] | Cat Village [WLK02] | Mystic Forest [WLK03] | Meridional Forest [WLK04] | Dragoncave [WLK05] | Wild Boar Boarax [WLK06] | Nebula Islands [WLK07] | Marshland [WLK08] | Frog City [WLK09] | Turtle Fort [WLK10] | Crocodile Temple [WLK11] | Lone Swamp [WLK12] | Forsaken City I [WLK13] | King's Palace [WLK14] | Ancient Dungeons [WLK15] | Forsaken City II [WLK16] | Beach of Waa-Lo [WLK17] | Harbour [WLK18] | Volcano [WLK19] | Showdown with Shun Additional Information ====================== [DMN] | Demon Portal Locations [LOC] | Rare Item Locations [EXT] | Extras and Unlockables [TRO] | Trophy/ Achievement List [MAP] | Maps [FAQ] | Frequently Asked Questions For Advanced Players ==================== [OVR] | Overkill [SCR] | Maximising Score Gain [PLA] | High Scoring Playthrough [CRY] | Big Crystal Quick Reference Guide [CHA] | Challenge Playthroughs [SPD] | Speedrunning the Game [THX] | Contact Information and Thanks O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | BEFORE WE START: [LGL] | | LEGAL/COPYRIGHT | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O This FAQ/walkthrough is copyright 2012-2016 Callum D Simpson This guide is for private, personal use only. This guide cannot be reproduced, hosted on a website or otherwise distributed without explicit written consent from the author. Using this guide without permission except for private, personal use is a violation of copyright law. All trademarks and copyrighted materials mentioned or appearing in this guide are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. If you want to host this guide on your website, be sure to e-mail me first (see contact section). This walkthrough/FAQ is currently available on the following sites: - gamefaqs.com - neoseeker.com O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | BEFORE WE START: [INT] | | INTRODUCTION | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O *** PLEASE READ THIS SECTION BEFORE CONTINUING! *** Welcome to my FAQ/walkthrough for the 2005 action-adventure game Legend of Kay, and the 2015 re-release Legend of Kay: Anniversary Edition! The game stars Kay, a cat from the island of Yenching, who embarks on a quest to save the island of Yenching from the dictatorial "Din" regime of the rats and gorillas, with the help of his friend Su Ling and the Master, his martial arts sensei. The purpose of the walkthrough is essentially to show you how to beat the whole game on normal difficulty, and finish up with a really high score. There are additional sections after the walkthrough which provide extra information to allow you to find more treasure or hone your combat skills, and to provide further challenges for players who are more familiar with the game. I will be as thorough in describing the early areas of the game as I will be with the last boss, but please do not think me patronising- the guide is written for someone who is completely new to the game. That said, there will undoubtedly be some SPOILERS along the way, which will creep in without warning. The plot is quite predictable, so I make no apologies for this- you won't be missing out on many surprises. To make the best use of the walkthrough, set the minimap to ABSOLUTE rather than RELATIVE in "game settings" within the options menu. This holds north in a fixed position, and will allow me to give directions based on this. Unfortunately, this option does not save with your game, so you will have to re-select absolute every time you play. I would also strongly recommend turning autosave OFF in the options menu before you start playing. There are at least two bugs in the game that will ruin your save file if you are unlucky enough to encounter them, and you may have to start the game all over again. The best way to avoid this is to save manually, save regularly, and save on different files. This way, if one file is ruined by a bug, you can load up another file without backtracking too much in the game. Finally, I hope you find this guide useful and enjoy playing Legend of Kay as much as I have these past years. Best of luck! *** APPEAL FOR FEEDBACK! *** Please e-mail your feedback on the guide to the address in the "contact" section. Letting me know what you liked about the guide and what you would like to see improved helps me to keep making the guide better! If you found the guide useful, and are reading on GameFAQs, please "recommend" :) O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | BEFORE WE START: [VER] | | VERSION HISTORY | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O Version 1.4: Completed 20.06.2016 - Rechecked the entirety of the walkthrough in some considerable depth, making dozens of alterations to improve accuracy, clarity, detail and readability - Added section on challenge playthroughs - Added maps - Expanded even further the section on maximising score gain Version 1.3: Completed 22.12.2015 - Added section with strategies for high scores on every level - Added section on optimum colours for big crystals - Expanded section on maximising score gain - Updated FAQs section with questions asked since anniversary release - Updated extras/unlockables section to include information from T Murphy - Added T Deacon's information on a bug in the Crocodile Temple Version 1.2: Completed 31.07.2015 - Added section on overkill - Added section on trophies and achievements following anniversary release Version 1.1: Completed 10.08.2014 - Added section on rare item locations - Added section on gaining high scores - Added section on extras, and secret unlockable weapons - Included Alex R's information about Nong Bao's optional quest - More corrections and minor additions made, and formatting improved Version 1.01: Completed 11.07.2013 - Included J Meleu's information about the +5 chest on the volcano - Guide generally polished up, corrections made and readability of some sections improved - Added locations of a few extra lives and chests Version 1.00: Completed 17.07.2012 - Full walkthrough completed, including optional quests - Added sections on game basics including characters, controls and items - Added section on demon portals - Added FAQs section O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | GAME BASICS: [BSC01] | | CHARACTERS | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O Primary Characters ================== Kay: An excitable young orphan who lives in the cat village with his Uncle Shen. When the rats and gorillas close his Master's fighting school, Kay springs into action to put an end to their torment of Yenching. He is athletic, confident and not afraid to charge into battle against the odds. Kay is the only playable character in the game. The Master: Kay's teacher at the fighting school. It has been said that he was once the greatest warrior in Yenching, and he teaches Kay everything he knows. The master does not fight any more- he would much rather sit outside in the sun and drink nettlemead. Throughout Kay's quest, the master is always with him... in spirit, or something like that. Su Ling: Kay's best friend and love interest, the game would not be complete without some cheesy romance and the presence of a strong female character. She is driven and wise, and her alliance with the pandas allows her to plan a counter-strike against Shun's armies on Waa-Lo. The Merchant: Conveniently, this enigmatic entrepreneur sets up shop in each of the areas Kay plans to travel through. He seems to lack political association and is prepared to help whoever has the coin to pay him. The merchant sells items, armour and weapons at increasingly exorbitant prices. Be sure to pay him a visit before venturing into a dungeon! Tak the Alchemist: The devious and scheming king of rats, Tak uses the power of Shun's armies to further his own malicious plans. He intends to betray Shun once the songstone weapon is complete to become the most powerful being in Yenching. Minister Shun: The power-crazed lord of the gorillas, Shun makes up for in brute strength what he lacks in intellect. He relies on Tak's expertise for the creation of the ultimate weapon, which he will use to gain unimaginable power. Shun is the primary antagonist against peace on Yenching, and is considered a highly dangerous adversary. Shun's Bodyguard: A powerful, high-ranking gorilla that is well-trained in deadly combat techniques. He will protect Shun, even if it means risking his own life. Secondary Characters ==================== Uncle Shen: Kay's adoptive guardian, for whom Kay has considerable respect. Shen lives in the cat village and clearly has the patience of a saint to put up with Kay's loud and energetic nature. Mayor Ou Bai: Mayor of the cat village, Ou Bai has met the demands of the gorillas and rats to protect the cat population from a fight that would mean the loss of many lives. However, this makes him seem cowardly, and some cats would rather he stood his ground. Boarax: A dangerous boar that terrorises the cat and hare populations. Attacking him head-on is widely considered to be a bad idea, and the accepted response to his presence is running for one's life. Mayor Tu Lao: A timid but charismatic hare, and leader of the Haretree. His aversion to fighting means that he must look to the dragon Tor Chi for help in driving the rats from the forest. Tor Chi: This dragon remains hidden in his cave of treasures near the hare city. Few have ever seen him and lived to tell the tale. It is said that he has a particular hatred for rats. Explorers beware; he will kill first and ask questions later. Mayor Gu: The leader of the frog population, he resides in Frog City. Rather than fighting against the oppression that the rats and gorillas have brought upon his people, his concern is the preservation of the frog eggs that will ensure the continuation of his species. The Ferryman: With his shop set up near the Frog City, he is not at all happy that the gorillas have been dumping explosive waste in his river. He has a reward for any challenger who can prove they are a better boatsman than him. Pan: This crafty panda of the Forsaken City is part of Avalanche- the band of rebels led by Su Ling. His sharp wit and knowledge of the city and its history have been invaluable in generating Avalanche's plans to escape the city and attack Waa-Lo. O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | GAME BASICS: [BSC02] | | CONTROLS | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O *Please note that these controls apply to PlayStation controllers only Menu Controls ============= Directional buttons - Navigate menu X button - Accept Triangle - Cancel/Back Cinematic Controls ================== X button - toggle subtitles on/off Triangle (hold) - Skip cinematic Movement Controls ================= Left analog stick - Move Kay Right analogue stick left/right - Move camera Right analog stick up/down - Change camera zoom R3 - Centre camera behind Kay R3 (hold) - First person view (press R3 to exit) Directional buttons up/down - Change minimap zoom Directional buttons left/right - Show/Hide minimap X button - Jump Square - Attack Triangle - Block/Combo jump O button - Crouch (while stationary), roll (while running) START button - Pause SELECT button - Open quest menu L1 button - Use item L2 button - Change item R1 button - Throw enemy R2 button - Change weapon X + X - Double Jump Pressing X at the peak of your first jump will give you maximum height. Pressing X after the peak of the first jump will give you greater distance. O + X - Somersault Jump quickly, gaining a lot of height but very little horizontal distance. Good for evading enemy attacks and reaching high ledges. Can be performed while running or stationary. X - Reflection Jump The technique can only be used on reflection walls, and you can count on one hand the number of times it is actually useful in the game. With a bit of practice you can get the timing right and scoot happily up these walls to whatever interesting thing is at the top. Combat Controls =============== Square + square + square - Triple strike A hard-hitting combination of three strikes that will knock over an enemy. Requires a brief recovery time. Enemies can block this attack. Jump + Square OR Double Jump + Square - Jump attack An attack that is especially effective against enemies on the ground. Requires a short recovery time. Enemies can block this attack. Somersault + square - Somersault attack A very powerful attack. Works best against enemies on the ground. Requires a long recovery time. Enemies can block this attack. Enemies killed with a somersault drop a heart. Hold square- magic attack A powerful attack that hits all enemies close to Kay. Will knock enemies to the ground. Takes a short time to charge up. Enemies cannot block this attack. Requires 5 magic points to use. Crouch + square - uppercut Will knock an enemy to the ground, and can inflict high damage to standing enemies. Cannot be blocked by most enemies, and requires very little recovery time, but requires Kay to be stationary for a moment. Roll + square - Roll attack Will knock an enemy to the ground, cannot be blocked and requires almost no recovery time. Useful when there are many enemies, especially when they are spaced out or capable of dodging attacks. The quick recovery time, range and speed of this attack make it a personal favourite of mine. Fully rotate left analog stick + square - spin attack Like a regular attack, but hits all enemies within a small radius. Requires very little recovery time, but having to spin around before the attack leaves Kay vulnerable. Useful in some situations, but not an attack to rely on. Square, while knocked to the ground- standup attack Like the spin attack, this hits all enemies immediately surrounding Kay. It also allows Kay to stand up faster, and requires very little recovery time. I can't think of a reason not to use this attack every time you get knocked over. Move left analog stick in direction of enemy + triangle + square - Combo attack You need a combo of at least +1 to perform this attack. This is more powerful than a regular attack, and requires almost no recovery time. This is also the attack with the highest range. It is quick and will knock enemies to the ground. It is a very useful attack to use against groups of enemies that are spread out or enemies that can fly. R1 - Throw For this attack to work, you must be behind the enemy. This is a very powerful attack that requires a moderate recovery time. It will knock the enemy to the ground. The throw attack takes a long time, but if it hits successfully, Kay will be IMMUNE TO ALL DAMAGE for the duration of the throw attack, and can only be hit again from the start of the recovery time. This is very useful to bear in mind late in the game and while playing on harder difficulties. Throwing with the hammer also knocks over other enemies within a small radius. Not all enemies can be thrown. Roll + triangle + move left analog stick slightly left/right - roll around This technique is difficult to get the hang of, but is very useful. Roll towards an enemy and press triangle, while also moving the analog stick to one side. You don't have to move the analog stick much- if the enemy is right in front of you (12 o'clock position), move the analog stick to the 11 or 1 o'clock position. This move does not require any recovery time, and allows you to attack the enemy from behind, preventing blocking, or throw the enemy with R1. This technique is especially useful for hitting demons in the back, as they use shields and cannot be thrown. Boar/Wolf Controls ================== Left analog stick - steer X button - jump O button - jump off animal L1 - skid left R1 - skid right Boat Controls ============= Left analog stick forward - accelerate forwards Left analog stick backward - accelerate backwards Left analog stick L/R - steer boat (note: you can't turn while stationary) X button - jump from the boat Dragon Controls =============== Left analog stick - steer X button - speed boost Square - shoot fireball L1 - turn sharply left R1 - turn sharply right O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | GAME BASICS: [BSC03] | | ITEMS | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O Consumable Items ================ Health potion: Restores all of your health points. A very costly item, but you should always have one in reserve for a big fight. Magic potion: Restores all of your magic points. Moderately costly, but very useful for high scoring playthroughs or for those who like to use magic in combat. Berserk Potion: Doubles the damage of all your attacks for a while (the manual says 10 seconds, but in reality it is more like 30). Also gives all of your attacks the ability to break an opponent's guard. This is especially suited to the triple strike, as the first strike breaks through the enemy's defence, allowing the other two strikes to deal massive damage. This is a high-price potion, and is without a doubt the most useful and valuable item in the game. Demon potion: This trippy concoction lets you see and travel through the demon gates for a very brief 10 seconds. See the demon portal locations section of the guide so you don't waste any of these. They are cheap, and are not essential unless you want a big boost to your score. Players aiming for high scores should know exactly where and when to use these. Bottle of hornets: This cheap flask is very effective in some situations. The hornets attack enemies for about 20 seconds, dealing some damage and disrupting enemy attacks, making some larger fights easier to handle. Unfortunately, there are usually far more important items to carry around with you, and so hornets tend not to be used much. Bomb: Very cheap, and deal big damage. Useful near the beginning of the game to break enemies' armour before you have the hammer, and can also be used to break down crumbling walls in the hare forest and the beach of Waa-Lo. Enemies will regularly run from bombs unless they are backed into a corner or knocked onto their backs. Flash bomb: A cheap item that is not available at the start of the game for no apparent reason. It causes a blinding flash that prevents nearby enemies from blocking your attacks or moving for a brief period. I mostly use these to allow me to charge up a magic attack or position myself for a hammer throw when I am overrun with enemies. Keys: Cannot be bought in the shop, they must be found in boxes or given by friendly characters. It is not hugely surprising that these handy little doodads open locked doors. Collectable Items ================= Crystals: Crystals exist only to give you points. Collecting five of the same colour in a short space of time increases your score multiplier, allowing all of your score-earning actions to give you even more points. The multiplier increases more on harder difficulties, allowing you to earn even MORE points. Collecting a different colour of crystal, or earning no points for a brief period resets your multiplier to x1. More information on score and crystals can be found in the Maximising Score Gain section of the guide. Big crystals: Big crystals cannot be collected directly, and must be broken with a magic attack. By hitting the crystal with a melee attack, its colour will change, allowing you to choose the colour of crystal that it will fragment into. They provide a great boost to your score multiplier. Coins: Coins can be spent in the shop, and also add to your score. Each type of coin has a monetary value and a score value, where score value is ten times monetary value. COIN MONETARY VALUE SCORE VALUE Copper coin 1 10 Silver coin 5 50 Gold coin 10 100 Yuan Bao 50 500 Jade coin 100 1000 Heart: Restore one lost health point. If you have not lost any health points, it acts as a silver coin. Enemies drop these if they are killed with a somersault attack. You are more likely to find hearts in pots instead of treasure if your health points are low. Magic point: Restore one lost magic point. If you have not lost any magic points, it acts as a silver coin. Enemies will drop these unless they are killed with a magic attack. Heart container: Gives you an extra health point, and restores all of your health. Go the extra mile to pick these up, and put them near the top of your shopping list when visiting the merchant. Magic container: Gives you an extra magic point, and restores all of your magic points. Pick these up when you can; make them your third priority at the shop, behind heart containers and new weapons. Light potions: Let's be honest, they look nothing like potions. Still, they're moderately handy to keep you on track through the darker areas of the game, and don't take up an item slot. Extra life: Grants you an extra life, to keep GAME OVER at bay that little bit longer... Tip of the Day: The merchant reveals information about combat, enemies, or the location of a nearby demon portal. Acorn: Allows you to keep the boar under control. Meat: Allows you to keep the wolf under control. Chilli pepper: Increases the speed of your animal for a brief period. Armour: Will save your ass in the later stages of the game. As well as extending your health by several points, it will limit any damage done to you to one point. That's right, getting hit by a giant hammer, skewered by Boarax or having bombs detonated under your feet will only cost you one armour point instead of 2-4 health points. Armour is pricey, rare, and absolutely worth getting at every opportunity. ARMOUR COLOUR ARMOUR POINTS Green 5 Red 10 Black 15 It is worth noting that armour points are not restored by collecting hearts, and damage done by falling into pits, drowning or choking on smoke is not absorbed by armour. Weapon Upgrades: Obtain at all costs- these are indispensable. They are all fairly easy to find, and any optional weapon upgrades that are not collected are available from the merchant in the next level of the game. WEAPON OPTIONAL? LOCATION/ REQUIREMENT Wooden Sword No Given by the Master, Cat Village Ancestral Sword No Obtained after Cat Village Dragon Sword Yes Find all cat statues in the Dragon cave Shadowsword Yes Swamps of Death Basic Claws No Turtle Fort, Nebula Islands Razor Claws Yes Bought from Merchant, Forsaken City I Mantis Claws Yes Southeast room, King's Palace Basic Hammer No Given by Pan, Forsaken City Ancient Hammer No Obtain 3 keys from pandas in the Ancient Dungeons Bullhammer Yes Bought from Merchant, Harbour O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | GAME BASICS: [BSC04] | | GAMEPLAY ELEMENTS | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O Zhongs and Combo Mode ===================== Zhongs are large floating deelies that have silly faces on them. Breaking a Zhong, destroying enemy armour or defeating an enemy increases combo by 1. While combo mode is active you can zip around between Zhongs or enemies to your heart's content with the triangle button by pushing the left analog stick in the direction of the object you want to combo towards. When combo mode is active, "COMBO +X" will be displayed on the screen. X can be any number between 1 and 20. After a brief period of not breaking Zhongs or armour, or killing enemies, your combo will decrease in a similar manner to score multiplier. It is important to try and maintain combo of at least +1, as this will allow you to use combo attacks. Additionally, the higher your combo is, the more damage your attacks will do. Attacking with COMBO +20 is a sure-fire way to end a fight quickly. ZHONG TYPE APPEARANCE PROPERTIES Wooden Zhong Brown colour Takes one hit to destroy. Stone Zhong Grey colour Can take up to three hits to destroy. Metal Zhong Shiny/metallic Can take up to five hits to destroy. Sword Zhong Has sword symbol Destroyed in one hit by the sword only. Claws Zhong Has scratches on it Destroyed in one hit by the claws only. Hammer Zhong Has hammer symbol Destroyed in one hit by the hammer only. Energy Zhong Dark with pink sparks Cannot destroy. Cause damage if touched. For more information on how to exploit combo mode, see the Overkill section of the guide. Cat Statues =========== Cat statues are found in almost every area of the game. They are usually linked to compulsory quests, but some optional cat statues lead to great rewards. Take the time to find all of these if you can. Demon Portals ============= The demon portals are difficult to find, and the demon realm is a dangerous place to be. But fear not! The locations of the known portals can be found later in the guide, and the Tip of the Day sold by the merchant can often be helpful in leading you to them. Novice players need not worry too much about these, but for experienced players they are a valuable source of massive score gain. Timers ====== Various challenges within the game are timed. No timers are displayed on screen, so the time remaining to you is given as an audio beat, which increases in tempo as the time runs out. Magical Barriers ================ Magical barriers are conjured by rats to prevent Kay from progressing. Simply killing the rat is not enough to cause the barrier to dissipate- all enemies in the area must be disposed of. The barriers cause one point of damage if you touch them. Chests ====== It is perhaps useful to bear in mind that red chests contain consumable or collectable items like potions, lives, keys, armour or hearts. Green chests contain only coins. Use this information to determine whether or not it is worth jumping over bottomless pits and avoiding enemies for a green chest if your bank balance is healthy enough already. Save Points =========== On easy/normal difficulty, save points restore all of your lost health, as well restoring up to five magic points. Don't bother using expensive potions if there is a save point on the horizon that can do the job for free. On hard and nightmare difficulty you lose this luxury- prepare for a tough fight! Stamina ======= Stamina is used in three situations: it determines how long you can hang onto the back of an animal, it determines how long you can swim for, and it determines how long you can breathe in a smoke-filled room. The stamina display is a coloured circle that appears above the map when Kay is in one of the situations detailed above. If stamina runs out when on an animal, Kay will be thrown from the animal's back. If stamina runs out while in water, Kay will drown and lose one health point. If stamina runs out while in a smoke-filled room, Kay will asphyxiate and lose one health point. You can slow the loss of stamina while swimming by not jumping in the water. Acrobatic Objects ================= Balance beams: These narrow beams are easy to fall from if you try to run across them, but if you move slowly enough, Kay will never lose balance. If you are in a hurry, it is usually not too difficult to simply jump across these beams. Balance posts: Kay will stand still on these posts and resist movement with the left analog stick. It is easy to jump from post to post without falling. Swing poles: Timing your jump from these poles will determine the height and distance that you will travel. Vertical jumps are possible, and are sometimes needed to reach treasure. It is not possible to change the direction of your jump or your swing. Ropes: Ropes can be jumped from, or swung from to build momentum. The direction of the swing can also be changed. O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | WALKTHROUGH: [WLK01] | | CAT VILLAGE | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O /----\ X - Start point / Boss \ C - Cat statue <-----------\ | Fight| K - Key | | /-+--##-/+---\ T - Tang Mu's children | | |~~ |Rat | # - Door /-------##------\ | |~ Camp| @ - Padlocked door | | Boar \--\ \- --/ ~ - Water | Farm of #-->Race \ / * - End point | Nong Bao / \ /--/ | / | | | / / K+----\ \-/-#--\-\ \----\ |C #Ai | |Nong| \ \------\ \ |Tan | |Bao | \----\ \ | +----/ \----/ \--------\ \--/ | \ | /---\ /----\ | /Glade\-----\ |Tang# | | T C \ | Mu | | \ /--\ \ /-------+--+----+ | \ / \ \ | |Store T| | /--------\ / / \ \ /--------------#---/ | / \-/ / | | | | / Holey / | | | /--@--\ /--#--\ | | Hoop / | | | |Jug | |Lib- | | | Hop / | \ | |Store| | rary| | \ / \ \ | +-----+ +-----/ | \ / \ \-/ | | |Hist-| | \--------/ \ | | |orian| | \---\ \-----/ \--#--/ | | | /----\ | T /-----\ | |Su | / --| Ou | /--\ |Ling| / | Bai | | | /--+-#--+-------/ \--#--/ | | / ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ # | / ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ /---#-------/ X| / /-----------\ # Uncle Shen | /--/ /---\ ~ ~ \-----------\--------------/ | | ~ ~ ~ | Saint |--\~ /---\ ~ |Wellspring ~ * |Cliffside | |--/~ \---/ ~ \----------/ ~ ~ ~ After the opening cutscene, you will find yourself in Uncle Shen's house. Talk to Shen and leave the house to get your first quest (how exciting!). NEW QUEST- Take the message to the rat camp (obligatory) Reward: None After talking to Ou Bai, head north to the rat camp. Through the wooden arch just beyond the save point, there is a fork in the road. Head slightly right; the other path is not yet accessible. Continue to follow the path until you find yourself in the clearing with the waterfall. The rat camp is on the right. QUEST COMPLETE- Take the message to the rat camp NEW QUEST- Return to Ou Bai with another message (obligatory) Reward: None Another dead easy quest- just head south; back to Ou Bai. He is standing where he was before. If you get lost, Uncle Shen's house is marked with a yellow i on the minimap, and the mayor is not far from there. QUEST COMPLETE- Return to Ou Bai with another message NEW QUEST- Take your first fighting lesson with the Master (obligatory) Reward: Wooden sword, heart container. Now it's time to explore a bit more of the cat village. To the far south, near Uncle Shen's house is a river. Tai Bang will teach you how to cross is using the ropes if you walk near to him. Staying in the water too long will cause you to drown, but there isn't really much danger here. Follow the creek past the house and through the cave to reach Saint Wellspring. The master is on the porch of the house on the right. NEW WEAPON- Wooden sword In this lesson, you will learn three new combat techniques- the triple strike, uppercut and jump attack. QUEST COMPLETE- Take your first fighting lesson with the Master. Time for a cutscene- King Tak reveals his plans to utilise the songstone for some evil purpose. When you regain control of Kay, collect the crystals in the water and leave Saint Wellspring. You now have access to all of the areas of the cat village, and it's time to do some exploring. Head back through the main body of the cat village, and through the wooden arch near the save point, towards the fork in the road you passed earlier. On your immediate left as you go through the arch is a house. Go in and talk to Tang Mu, whose children have run off somewhere. NEW QUEST- Find Tang Mu's children (optional) Reward: Heart container Now that the quest has started, visit ALL of the houses in the main village. You will find a health potion and one of Tang Mu's unruly kids in the storage room, and a magic potion in Major Ou Bai's house. Another kitten can be found behind Ou Bai's house, and crystals and treasure can be accessed by jumping on the boxes here too. Note that one of the houses is locked- we'll deal with that later. Make your way back to the fork in the road at Tang Mu's house, and this time head west. You will be taught how to somersault, and if you can traverse up the cliff fast enough you'll receive some cash at the bottom. Following this path takes you to the farm area, where you can learn to ride a boar. Completing the boar race unlocks another path from the main village, and can net you come coin if you're really quick. Don't expect to do better than 17.00 seconds on normal difficulty. To complete the boar race you must break through all of the wooden barriers and make it to the end of the course within a set time. You can repeat the race as often as you like afterwards to try for a faster time. In the clearing where the boar race starts, talk to the cat wearing purple to start the honeycomb game. Jump on the grassy platform to access the rope overhead, and collect all of the honeycombs in 20 seconds to win some coin. You don't have to jump from the rope- all of the honeycombs can be collected by swinging. Run back to the fork in the road at Tang Mu's house, and go back northeast towards the rat camp. On the right, outside Ai Tan's house there is a metallic- looking grey stump thing on the ground. Stand on this and then somersault into the air to get up to the rope above, then jump off to the left at the end and activate the cat statue (1/2). NEW QUEST- activate the 2 cat statues (optional) Reward: 50 coin Go back to the main village and head west behind Ou Bai's house to the only path we haven't taken yet. You'll be taught about the reflection jump, where timing is key. Following this path up the cliff face lets you find the last kitten and cat statue (2/2), giving you access to the snazzy Yuan Bao on the pillar. QUEST COMPLETE- activate the 2 cat statues South of the pillar is the second boar challenge, a Holey Hoop Hop. This involves jumping through 7 rings before time runs out, and is much easier than the first boar race. You may have to skid left to line yourself up for ring number 4. When you are finished, collect your prize (a magic container), and return to Tang Mu's house at the wooden arch. Now that her children have returned, it's time to claim your reward- a valuable heart container. QUEST COMPLETE- Find Tang Mu's children Let's take a break from optional quests for a moment, and get on with the story. Return to Uncle Shen and he will send you to see Ai Tan, who is on the path to the rat camp, under the first cat statue. She is wearing blue and can be found next to the gorilla that is pacing up and down. NEW QUEST- Retrieve Ai Tan's pumpkins (obligatory) Reward: Key First, you need to pick up the bananas. These can be found in Ai Tan's house. Now head past the rat camp and talk to the gorilla at the gate. He'll open the front gate for you, and the three pumpkins are on the grass outside. Simple, until you try and head back into the village... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOSS: Boarax Difficulty: Tricky For your first enemy, Boarax is a punishing test of whether or not you are getting to grips with the controls. He will deal two points of damage with his charge attack, so if you haven't picked up the heart container from Tang Mu, you're dead in two hits. To win, run in a wide circle around the area, staying close to the trees at the edge. When Boarax charges at you, keep running- he will crash into the trees and become dazed. Now run right up to face him, and press square when prompted to perform an impressive attack that deals loads of damage. Repeat until he loses half of his health to win. You can also attack him normally when he raises his head to roar, but this only deals 1 point of damage and so is probably not worth the risk. Experienced players may wish to use the uppercut attack when Boarax roars, as it will make the fight go a little quicker. The rest of the game is the same regardless of the result of this battle. You don't lose a life and you still get the reward if you lose, so don't worry too much about the outcome. It's certainly not worth wasting a health potion over. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- QUEST COMPLETE- Retrieve Ai Tan's pumpkins NEW QUEST- Take your second fighting lesson with the master (obligatory) Reward: Magic container, extra life, berserk potion With your new key, open the locked house in the cat village to find loads of money in the clay jug store. Returning to the farm (west from the fork in the road at Tang Mu's house) and speaking to Nong Bao the farmer triggers a new optional quest. NEW QUEST- Free Nong Bao's hens (optional) Reward: Coins, extra life Big thanks go to Alex R for telling me about this quest, which I had completely missed over a dozen or more playthroughs! To free the hens, go to the rat camp in the north and sneak through the side entrance on the south side, which is unguarded. If any rats spot you, you will be thrown out of the camp. Avoid the rats patrolling around the tents and open the cage and chest here for some money. Speaking to Nong Bao about your success after the quest has been completed earns you the additional reward of an extra life. QUEST COMPLETE- Free Nong Bao's hens With all the optional quests in Cat Village now dealt with, return to Saint Wellspring via the creek in the southwest to take another fighting lesson with the Master. This lesson teaches you how to block, use the somersault attack and introduces you to combo mode and Zhongs. When practising your magic attack, a free magic potion is available to the right of the rat statues. It will then be time to head for the cliff. Swing on the poles to the left of the Zhongs you just smashed, pressing X at the right time to achieve maximum distance, then combo jump to the next platform. The cliff is on the other side of the cave. There is a chest on the south side of the cliff- you will have to jump down to get it. The Master will challenge you when you get to the green X on the map. He isn't tough to fight. The best strategy is to block his attacks, then use an uppercut or roll attack to knock him over and two jump attacks when he is on his back. Indeed, this is a good strategy against most rats in the early stages of the game. If he beats you, you will lose a life and have to try again. QUEST COMPLETE- Take your second fighting lesson with the master Another cutscene- the fighting school is shut down, and to Kay's disappointment the Master seems to have given up. Kay hatches his plan to go after Tak, and leaves cat village. O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | WALKTHROUGH: [WLK02] | | MYSTIC FOREST | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O /---\ | * | X - Starting point /-+-#-+-\ B - Big crystal | Bear | D - Demon portal | Fight | K - Key /---++ - - - +-+--\ M - Merchant | |~ ~ | K| # - Door /--+ | ~ ~ \--| @ - Padlocked door | @ B | /----\ ~ | % - Crumbling wall \--+---/ | | ~ / ~ - Water | ~ ~| \---\~/ * - Endpoint /---------\ \-----/ |/ / \ /O /-----/ / /-----\ \ /--/ / / Swing \ \---+/------\ /--------\ | | Poles \ /# Rat | | M | | | \----/+ Camp | | X| \ ~ \ /--/ | B | | | \ ~ \--------/ O/ \-+-#-+-/ | /----/ \ ~ ~ ~ ~ / | | | | \------------/ | \------\ /--------/ | \ \ / D / \-------\B | |~ /--------/ Rolling| | | ~| Logs | | |~ | +@@+ | ~| | \----/ | \ B / /--+-+-\ /----/ /------> % | | | \--+- -/ \---\ Boar | Boar | Race <------- Forest | | K | \---------/ NEW WEAPON- Ancestral Sword NEW QUEST- Head for the Haretree (obligatory) Reward: None You start this level next to a shop. Buy a demon potion and heart container. A magic potion may also be useful if you don't already have a couple from the Cat Village. Proceed along the forest path to discover the location of the first demon portal. Use your demon potion at the big tree stump and jump into the portal. There are two big crystals here, four chests of money and a chest with a magic potion. Choose red for both big crystals. You will need to use a magic potion if you want to collect both of them. When you leave the portal, rush off south to keep your score multiplier going, and cross the water using the Zhongs. Take out the rats that appear- they're not too tough, provided you don't get surrounded. Free the hare in the cage by attacking the cage. You'll have to do this many times throughout the game, and the freed animal gives you some money as a reward. Choose red at the big crystal next to the cage, and try to time your magic attack so that most of the rats are also hit. The gates at the next save point are locked, so head through the tunnel to the southwest. Talking to the hares in the Boar Forest reveals that their friend has catapulted himself to Godknowswhere and he has the key to the rat camp. The only thing to do is jump on the boar in the west tunnel and find the hare. Completing the race in any reasonable time will take you to the hare you seek. Chop down the bamboo behind the hare to obtain a bomb, and drop it against the crumbly-looking wall in the arch to the south. Note how the wall looks before you destroy it- you'll come across a few more crumbling walls in the coming levels, so it's always wise to have a bomb or two handy. Go through the space where the wall used to be and talk to the hares to receive the key. You can repeat the boar race for money now, but you won't beat 56.00 seconds on normal difficulty. Leave the boar forest by going north, back to the save point. Open the gate and run along the forest path, somersaulting or double jumping over the logs that roll towards you. You can stand right behind the ramps that are set up to avoid logs too. Choose yellow for the big crystal, touch the next save point to restore MP and head into the rat camp. Choose yellow for the big crystal again here to really get a multiplier going. You'll only have to fight two rats to begin with here, but more will join the party as time goes on. After six of them have bitten the dust you can open the cage and proceed to the west. The plants here don't give you coins, but it may be faster to combo between them than run past, and if you can make it to the swing poles with a yellow multiplier going, your score will go sky high. Follow the crystals and drop onto another path with more plants that leads to a wide clearing with a lake. There is a berserk potion behind the hare and a save point to your left. Get it and jump down to deal with the rats. The usual strategy applies here- keep your distance and pick them off one by one with roll and jump attacks. Press the switch that the rats were guarding to activate the zipline to the south of this area. However, before using the zipline you should press the white switch beside it to start a timer and make some Zhongs appear. Combo up to the chest before time runs out to earn a key. Now use the zipline and choose any colour for the big crystal on the ledge. Open the locked gate next to the crystal with your key for loads of cash, and then use the second zipline to find a dangerous enemy waiting. This is the first bear you have faced and the first armoured enemy. He has loads of health and can block many of your attacks. I would recommend using a berserk potion, which will allow you to break through his defences, and just hammering him with the best attacks at your disposal. Consider also using a bomb on him when he is knocked over and cannot move away from it, but keep at least one bomb in reserve for the next level. When you are not berserk, use uppercuts and roll attacks to knock him over, then jump or somersault attacks when he is down. Note that you can block all of his attacks. The battle will probably be the longest so far, but you shouldn't lose too much health unless you fight recklessly. Proceed through the opened gate to finish the level. O--------------------------O | SUB-AREA: FIGHT TUTORIAL | O--------------------------O The Master meets you once again to give you a lesson in more advanced fighting techniques: the combo attack, roll around and throw, as well as teaching you about combo seals. Nothing else happens here; leave when you are finished learning. O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | WALKTHROUGH: [WLK03] | | MERIDIONAL FOREST | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O /--------\ /--------\ | G | Rockfall | R | | Hidden | Chasm |Haretree| | Glade \-----------------\ \ ~ ~ / \ B | \---\ / \------/----\ /------\ | | | | | | | | \--\ | | /---/ +---\ | C| \--/ | % C | | /--/ \---\ \---+ | | /---------\ | \ | / | Rat <----\ Cave \------\ | | / | Camp | | /-----\ /--+---+---/---\ | | | | | | \---> R | | ~| G |~ C| /-/#\---/#\-\ \---\#/---/ \ | To | \ / /---+-------/ Seven \ | | |B | Dragon ~ ~ Pillars |----/ \ / | Cave * ~ \+---\ /--| Clearing # \ /--> R | | ~ ~ | | M | \ C X /----\ | | \-----/ | ~ ~| \---/ \---\#/-----/ | \------\ | \-----------/ | | \ <-/ Broken | | /----\ \---+-%-+/ Bridge | \--/ ~ ~ \ | C | |~ ~ /-\ | \---/ | C /-/ | ~| \--/ | | /-------\ |~ | X - Starting point / +-----/ | B - Big crystal | /--\ | ~ ~ ~| C - Cat statue | \--/ +-----+--+ G - Dragon statue \ / | | M - Merchant \----\ / | | R - Ruby dragon's eye | | / | # - Door /----/%\------/ / % - Crumbling wall /-+ / ~ - Water | % /------/ * - Endpoint \-+ | | | \--\ /-/ | G | \---/ This level is the first which has a significant sidequest, as I will describe later. Kay runs headlong into a fight here, but fear not! If your health is low, don't use a potion- simply jump up to the save point at the northeast to restore all your health and 5 magic points. You will face four rats in the clearing, one of which is equipped with light armour. A magic attack would be useful, and it may be best to turn your attention to the armoured rat when you have an active combo, as you will do more damage. Winning the fight unlocks the tree portal to the Haretree in the northeast, but before we leave the clearing, there is a cat statue behind the bamboo in the southwest for you to activate (1/6). NEW QUEST- Activate 6 cat statues (optional) Reward: Green armour, 360 coin Heading through the northeast tree portal now will take you to the bug nest. You should kill a bug here to get combo of at least 1, then combo up to a Zhong at the upper left side to access a chest with an extra life. If you kill all the bugs and let combo run out, you will not be able to access this chest. When combo is active, an orange arrow will point in the direction of the Zhong which you have to aim for. Follow the arrow of blue crystals to find another cat statue behind more bamboo (2/6). Stand with your back to the cat statue after you activate it and somersault to reach a set of swing poles that lead to another extra life. Now backtrack a little, and follow the red arrow to the Haretree. In the water to the east there are islands with a heart plate and a Zhong. Break the Zhong to start a tricky Zhong challenge- you must destroy all the wooden Zhongs before time runs out and without falling into the water. The last Zhong setup is the toughest- a ring of energy Zhongs move into the centre of the island, followed by a group of wooden Zhongs. The trick here is to double jump in the centre when the energy Zhongs get close, and then use a spin attack on the wooden Zhongs when they draw in. You should still have enough time remaining to pick off any Zhongs which remain. I wouldn't recommend using combo attack at any point. If you are successful, you will be awarded a magic container. Now go through the only open door in the Haretree to meet Mayor Tu Lao. QUEST COMPLETE- head for the Haretree NEW QUEST- Activate the 3 dragon statues (obligatory) Reward: none NEW QUEST- Find Tor Chi (obligatory) Reward: none Your new task is to find three dragon eye rubies, which are used to activate dragon statues. This will repair the bridge leading to the dragon's cave, allowing you to visit and enlist the help of the dragon Tor Chi. Pick up the first dragon eye from behind Tu Lao (1/3) and leave the Haretree, returning to the seven pillars clearing. Tak will find you in the clearing and set his henchmen on you. There are 5 rats this time, but only one is armoured. Again, a magic attack is the best way to open the fight. Remember that a save point will restore up to 5 magic points, so you can save your magic potions for tougher fights or big crystals. Now that all of the tree portals are open, it would be useful to you to know where all of the paths from the clearing lead. Clockwise from north: NE - Haretree E - rat camp (initially locked until another area has been visited) SE - the way you came in (blocked) S - fish river W - merchant, dragon cave NW - rockfall chasm Let's head to the fish river first (south). There are fish, bugs and plants here, but nothing major to worry about. Bear in mind that you can't kill the fish, so you'll have to time your jumps well to avoid them. When you get to the jump with the rope swing, intentionally fall- there's a chest down there, and it is combo locked, so you will have to kill the plants to be able to open it. After crossing the rope swing you will be confronted by five rats guarding a dragon statue. They all rush towards you at the start of the fight, so a magic attack will work well here again, although the fight is not particularly difficult in the first place. When the rats go down you can access the dragon statue (1/3). After it is activated, return to the clearing where you fought the rats and find the two crumbling walls that you can destroy with bombs. Bombs can be found in pots next to the dragon statue if you don't have any. One of the crumbling walls leads to a chest, and the other to a new path- go through it and take out the bug. Then head east and combo around the Zhongs in a circular path. Your combo should now be high enough to activate the switch here, causing wood platforms to appear above the river. Use the platforms to head back to the seven pillars clearing, but be aware that the darker, narrower platforms will fall shortly after you step on them. Making it across all the platforms and through the Zhongs will allow you to reach a cage and a cat statue (3/6). Upon returning to the clearing, more rats will come from the rat camp. It would be best to clear the rat camp next as rats will respawn every time you return to the clearing otherwise. Go through the gate to the rat camp (east), where you will meet two rats at a fork in the road. Go left at the fork to get into the heart of the camp. You will have to fight a group of three rats, then four rats, then two rats and a gorilla. The gorilla is armoured, and with a long axe he has a larger attack range than the rats. However, he is slow and so if you keep your distance from him you can take out the rats first without being in too much danger. Then use the standard roll attack/ jump attack technique to kill him, or you may wish to practice the roll around/ throw combination. If you have a berserk potion to hand, now may be a good time to use it, and if a lot of enemies get too close, consider using a magic attack. One of the pots around the camp contains a health potion, and another contains a bug. When you are done here, enter the cave to the east. In here you will find some plants, a cage, a big crystal (choose blue if you still have multiplier, yellow if you don't) and most importantly, the two remaining dragon's eyes (3/3). Leave the cave through the other side and jump over the dangerous plant to find bamboo on your left. Break it and destroy the crumbling wall with a bomb to access cat statue number four (4/6). If you don't have a bomb, pay a visit to the merchant. I'd also recommend having a berserk potion to hand shortly- there's a big fight coming up. When you're fully equipped, head for the rockfall chasm (NW at seven pillars). In the clearing with the yellow crystals there is a crumbling wall to the east with a cat statue behind it (5/6). Go north, jumping the rocks which roll towards you. At the next corner there is a big crystal below you. Choose yellow if you still have multiplier, otherwise choose red. There is an extra life in a red chest protected by falling rocks to the left, which isn't too tough to get. As you walk through the tunnel to the end of this area, make sure you have either a berserk potion or enough magic points for a magic attack, preferably with a magic potion in reserve. Use a health potion if you need it too, you're about to face a tough fight. Hidden glade is the toughest fight you've met so far, but there are things you can do to make it easier. You are going to face four bears (yes, four, but fortunately they are unarmoured), as well as an armoured rat. Bugs will also join the scene after a few seconds. I think of this battle as being split into two phases- the fast, aggressive phase, and the slow, tactical phase: Fast aggressive phase: Your best bet is to take out the bugs first, comboing from one to the other to finish as many of them as you can before touching the ground. This should increase your damage potential with a big combo. Only turn your attention to the land enemies when all of the bugs have been killed. Now cast magic near a few bears, or preferably bash in with a berserk potion. The rat will probably be easiest to kill and can be used to further build combo. Keep moving and make the most of being berserk. You may have to use a health potion, but it is important that you deal as much damage as possible. Use up all your bombs as well- there are no more broken walls to smash through. This phase of the battle lasts until combo and berserk have run out. Slow tactical phase: This phase of the battle is about playing smart and conserving health. If you need a bit of time to think and some breathing space, stand on the grassy steps to the north- the bears can't hit you there. Pick your moments to attack when the bears are more widely spaced apart. Make full use of the camera controls to keep an eye on your enemy's movements. Take your time and remember that you can block all of the bears' attacks. Also, bears are highly resistant to being thrown, so roll attacks and jump attacks should be used instead. Good luck! To summarise the strategy for this fight: 1 Build combo by 2 Use a berserk potion 3 Kill the rat with roll and jump attacks 4 Target the bears with roll and jump attacks until combo and berserk run out 5 Kill any remaining bears by fighting cautiously When then battle is won, you can activate the dragon statue (2/3) and get the heart container from the chest behind it (which will thankfully restore your health). Now it's time to head for the broken bridge, despite the fact that we still have two quests to finish here. The bridge is accessed by going through the tunnel at the west of Seven Pillars Clearing, past the merchant. At the bridge, leap across to the last dragon statue and activate it (3/3). QUEST COMPLETE- activate the 3 dragon statues From standing in front of the last dragon statue, cast your eyes to the east. Beyond the rope that is hanging down is a little alcove with that elusive final cat statue (6/6). It can be seen clearly on the minimap if you are struggling to find it, to the northeast of the dragon bridge area. QUEST COMPLETE- activate 6 cat statues Make your way back around the balance posts, up the cliff and to the Seven Pillars Clearing, where you can claim your reward for the cat statue quest- green armour! Now it's really time to leave the forest via the broken bridge and enter the dragon cave, we've been here more than long enough and it's time to chase Tak down. Make sure you have a magic potion with you for the next level. O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | WALKTHROUGH: [WLK04] | | DRAGONCAVE | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O * | | /--/ \--\ X - Start point /--/ \ B - Big crystal | | Tor | C - Cat statue |W # Chi | D - Demon portal \--\ / W - Sword upgrade \--\ /--/ ~ - Water | | * - Endpoint /-/ \-\ | | Dragon's | | Belly | B | \-\ /-/ | | /-/ \-\ | D | | | \-\ /-/ | | | \--/---------------\ \ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~\ \---\-\ /-------\~ | | ~| /----| ~| Dragonbreath /~ | | /-/~ / | ~| |C ~ ~/ \~ | | \---/ /-----| ~| \----/ | /-/ | | ~ ~/ | \---/ +- ---/ | | Dragon's | | Gullet | | \-\ /-/ | | /---\ /-/ \-\ /----------\ /----------\ | | | |--| Dragon's |--| |-\ | /-/ | Teeth B X| |O|-------O |--| |--| |-/ | | \-----/ \----------/ \----------/ /---/ \---\ / \ | /-----\ | | \-----/ | \ | / \--+ C|---/ \--/ Pick up the demon potion in the first room and choose red. There is a green chest in the bowl in the southeast corner. In the next room, Tor Chi will attack you, and you will have to dodge his fireballs as you make your way to the other side of the room. When you get to Tor Chi's side, he will fly away and you can continue to explore. Be careful that you do not get hit with a fireball and consequently fall down the bottomless pit. When you reach Dragon's Gut (there is fire coming up through a grill in the floor), read the red notice on the left side, you'll get a new quest. NEW QUEST- Find 2 cat statues (optional) Reward: Dragon sword Don't leave this room by the main exit; instead jump down the hole in the southwest corner. Down here is a magic container , a health potion and a cat statue (1/2). You will have to crawl under low hanging rocks with the O button to find the latter two; follow the red crystals or look at the minimap to see what I mean. Once you have all the items climb up the ladder and head north to once again be confronted by the dragon. Allow Tor Chi to hit the boxes left and right of the entrance with fireballs- they contain Yuan Baos. This isn't much different to the first encounter, but the trick here is to wait next to the green chest while the moving platform comes towards you so you are not left vulnerable when you are on it. Collect the treasure in the next room and then jump into the water. Do NOT jump around in the water in this next area as your stamina simply won't last long enough. Be sure to stop at all of the platforms on the way too to allow stamina to fully recharge. When you approach the T junction, go right to access the second cat statue (2/2) at the east end of the water. You might have to cut corners and not follow the line of crystals exactly to shorten the route and ensure that you have enough stamina. QUEST COMPLETE- find 2 cat statues Great, your new sword is waiting for you in the last room of this area, but you still have much to do before you get there. Head to the next main room, back along the west branch of the T. This room is full of bright blue mushrooms. Use the save point and get ready for trouble- there is a demon portal at the bottom of the stairs in this room, between the obelisks. Use everyone's favourite hallucinogen (the demon potion you hopefully picked up at the start of the level) and jump in to the trippy demon realm. If this is your first time in the demon realm you won't like it one bit. If you stopped by at the beginning of the mystic forest, you're in for a big shock, because you're about to be introduced to the demon warriors, and boy do they pack a punch. Choose blue at the crystal and pick up the berserk potion from the chest- you'll need it. When you drop down into the main room you'll be greeted by two fat demons and a fire demon. Both are capable of casting up a shield that can block ALL of your attacks, and rolling into the shield causes you to get stuck under it, crawling near a very scary demon and unable to attack or defend. Therefore, normal rolling attacks are strongly discouraged. Fire demons breathe fire, which cannot be blocked, and to make matters worse, the fat demons can teleport right in front of you and hit for two points of damage. Your greatest ally here will be the roll around technique. This allows you to avoid attacks and get around shields to hit the demons in the back with a triple strike (since you can't throw them). Use a magic potion, choose blue at the central big crystal to keep multiplier going, and a berserk potion to keep the fight quick and to allow you to break through the demons' shields. Don't be afraid to heal if you have to. There's an extra life in one of the pots, and in the final room another crystal (choose blue) and a whole chest full of Yuan Baos. Worth fighting for, I think. Handled well, the portal will give you in excess of 1.5 million points, which will probably triple your score thus far. Back in the real world, use the save point, head up the stairs and meet the dragon again. Choose blue if you still have a massive multiplier from before, and red if you don't. Focus here on getting to the other side quickly, and collect the crystals after Tor Chi leaves. It's best to save the big crystal for then too. If you zigzag between left and right platforms, this room isn't too tough. Normal jumping gives you an ideal jump length here- doubling jumping actually makes things harder. Pick up the treasure from the green chest on the right of the far platform as before you move on. Now we just have loose ends to tie up- head to the final room to chat to Tor Chi. QUEST COMPLETE- Find Tor Chi NEW QUEST- Follow Tak to the swamp (obligatory) Reward: none NEW WEAPON- Dragon sword Your new sword is waiting for you in the west room. It increases your melee damage and the power of your magic attack, as well as making you more shiny and stylish. Anyway, head out to the north, we have some unfinished business to deal with... O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | WALKTHROUGH: [WLK05] | | WILD BOAR BOARAX | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O / Boar / <--- Race <---\ / | | K| / | / \ \------------/ / \ / /------\ \---/ @\ / \ / /--------\ \---/ \-- To | | \ # BOARAX # -->* Cloud | | \----\ /-- Forest | \--------\ \ / | | \------/ | | | | \-----|-----/ X - Start point | K - Key /------\ | M - Merchant / \ | # - Open door / Holey \-/--+----|---+--\ @ - Padlocked door | Hoop | | M| * - Endpoint \ Hop /-\ | \--+ \ / |--/ | \------/ | \---\ | X | \------------------/ The sign at the start of this area tells you to "Make the Zhongs point the way". With this in mind, you can advance and find an arrow formed by energy Zhongs, with wooden Zhongs around it. You must clear out all of the wooden Zhongs, leaving only the arrow, which points the way to the next set of Zhongs that appear. It may be useful to you to note the arrangement of the Zhongs in the arrow before you clear the wooden Zhongs, as the next set of Zhongs contains only wooden Zhongs, and you must make an arrow the same shape as the first one. You should first make the arrow point east, as this will allow you to visit the shop. All of the Zhongs will then reset and you can make the arrow point west to move on. The diagrams below show the setups of the Zhongs, where 0 indicates a Zhong that you should destroy, and # indicates a Zhong that you should leave. To visit the shop: To move on: 000#00 00#000 0000#0 0#0000 ###### ###### 0000#0 0#0000 000#00 00#000 If you hit the wrong Zhongs, a warning tone will sound and the Zhongs will all reappear. The shop here sells green armour, and as we have already found out (the hard way), Boarax can deal two damage with every hit. Fortunately, armour reduces any damage dealt to one point, so it will be worth your while picking some up. Making the Zhong arrow point west allows you to access a high ledge, where there is a switch to activate the zipline in the north of this area. Also on the west ledge is a tunnel that leads to a Holey Hoop Hop which you can complete to earn a heart container! It's not particularly tough as the route is well defined, but you will have to skid quite sharply to the right to get hoop number nine. Following the zipline in the first area with the Zhongs, you will be confronted by three rats. The rat in the centre is more heavily armoured than most you will have faced so far, but don't let that put you off. Now might be a good time to try out your new sword's magic attack- as you will see, it packs a far greater punch than before. Midway through the fight you will be joined by three rats dressed in blue. They attack with odd fork-looking things ("hookknives", apparently), and become a real hassle later in the game, but for now, just use standard roll attack/ jump attack tactics. In the next area, you will have to complete another boar race. The switch in this area can also be used to reverse the zipline, presumably in case you wish to revisit the merchant. The boar race is tougher than those previously- you will have to watch out for rolling logs, and there are a lot more chilli peppers than usual. This is the first race that is a real coin-earning opportunity, even in normal difficulty, so if you want the money, commit to getting a time of 48.00 seconds or under. If you know the locations of all of the chillies, it isn't an unreasonable target to aim for. Finishing in a time of just over a minute (or better) will award you the key to the next area, where you will face an old adversary. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOSS: Boarax Difficulty: Straightforward He hasn't changed since last time, but you have significantly more health, armour, damage-dealing potential and many more hours of gameplay experience. The odds are now well stacked in your favour. That said, Boarax isn't going down without a fight, and you'll still get your ass handed to you if you're not on the ball. Also, the vines around the perimeter of this area are dangerous, dealing one damage point if they are touched. The best strategy here is the same as before- run around the perimeter while he charges at you, as he will miss if you keep moving. After crashing, he will become dazed and you will be prompted to grab him by pressing the square button, dealing high damage. After Boarax is hit, he will thrash around a bit, then raise his head and roar. Use this opportunity to hit the amulet controlling him. If you picked up the dragon sword, you can deal three points of damage with a regular attack, and five with an uppercut. This is much more significant than during the first fight in the cat village, and so I would now strongly recommend using the uppercut- it's a gamechanger here. When Boarax falls to below 50% health, he will cause boulders to roll outwards when he crashes into the wall. You should be quick here to move so that Boarax is between you and the point of contact with the wall, as his massive bulk will block the boulders for you. Then just grab him as normal to attack. It is also possible to jump over the boulders if you are finding it difficult to position yourself behind Boarax correctly. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- When you have finally defeated Boarax, congratulations! You have finished the set of objectives of the hare forest- now it's time to move on to the swamp. Save and continue through the only exit available to you. If you fought well your armour may still be intact. O------------------------O | SUB-AREA: CLOUD FOREST | O------------------------O There are quite a few tricky jumps here to get your agility up to standard for taking on the challenges that the swamp presents to you. Failing any of these acrobatic manoeuvres will result in losing a health point to the bottomless pit. The path itself is quite linear, despite the area being very open. Jump along the first two spinning platforms and use the hamster wheel to gain access to the upper level. Zipline down and use the second set of spinning platforms and second hamster wheel (there is a chest with a health potion near it) to make it up to ropes that you can climb across. The next platform only rotates in an arc before changing direction, so bear that in mind when timing your jump. From the next spinning platform, jump to the swing poles in the southeast. Next you will find another zipline that allows you to leave this area and view the introductory cutscene for the frog kingdom. O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | WALKTHROUGH: [WLK06] | | NEBULA ISLANDS | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O X - Start point /---\ Small B - Big crystal |C W| Turtle /---\ C - Cat statue \-#-/ Fort /----------\ | C| D - Demon portal | | | | \---/ M - Merchant /-/ \-\ /---\ | First | ~ ~ W - New weapon (claws) /Turtle \--/ \ | Turtle | /-$-\ $ - Bamboo in water | Stage ---- Boat ---- Fight | |~ ~| # - Door / M B /--\ / | | \-$-/ * - Endpoint / /-----/ \---/ \------ ---/ ~ ~ /--+-/ /--/-\ | / ~ $~ ~ $ ~ C| | / ~ /+-----+--\-/ Logs and / ~ / Boards | | /--\ /------\ | | | | ------ Snail| | | | | | |Island| /--- --\ | | | | \------/ /---\ / | | \---/ \-----\ | | / /- -/ \ | | \-----\ / / | \-----\ /---\ | | --- / | | | D| \-\ /------/ \--/ Zhongs Lily \--/ | | | /--\ pads /-/ \-\ /-- --\ | | | / \ | | \ \-- --\ | | | C | / \ \ X / \-----/ / Nodal \ \-----/ Mushrooms | Point | /-\ \ / \-/ / / /*/\------/ It's time for the first big jump in difficulty. From this point on, armour and health potions are going to be more valuable, and enemies are going to wear more armour, move faster and hit harder. You're going to be severely outnumbered most of the time- think hidden glade for every fight. Be ready. On arriving in this area you will be greeted by a frog who tells you that Tak is in the swamp and that you should go to the frog city to talk to the mayor. QUEST COMPLETE- Follow Tak to the swamp NEW QUEST- Go to the frog city (obligatory) Reward: none This area is vast and sprawling, and without a clear path through. To make it out, you will have to find a way to cut down bamboo while swimming, so let's get on with that first. Be careful about the mud here- if you stand in it and do not move, you will sink within a few seconds. You should try to jump out of the mud, but if you are not back on solid ground by the time you land your third jump, Kay will sink. Expect to lose a few points of health this way. There are three mission marks on our minimap; the first one to aim for is in the northeast. Cross the bridge from the first island, and follow the yellow crystals at the fork in the path. 5-10 paces before the next bridge, drop off the right hand side of the island- there are platforms below that you can land on, and some Zhongs to combo around. Following the Zhongs will land you next to a chest containing an extra life. Now head back to where you dropped from the island, and cross the bridge to the east. The path will take you past a save point to another Zhong. Destroy it and combo across two more. Dropping straight down at the third Zhong will let you land safely on a platform. There are other platforms to jump across that will allow you to access an island in the far southeast. On this island is a cat statue (1/4), and some treasure down a hole in the ground. It's risky, but if you jump on the mushrooms in the direction the cat statue is facing, you can find an extra life and some coin in chests behind the big tree. NEW QUEST- Find four cat statues (optional) Reward: Berserk potion, heart container, red armour Now you can use the Zhongs to the north of this island to get closer to the main path. Dropping at the fourth Zhong lands you next to a chest with a combo seal containing an extra life. You should now be able to see logs and boards in the mud to the north. Make your way across these to continue. There are also bugs here that will fly down to attack you, but don't be tempted to combo from one bug to another- you'll end up in the middle of the mud. Wait for the bugs to come to you. The green toxic gas that is intermittently released from the swamp causes your left analog stick controls to reverse (forwards becomes backwards, left becomes right). The best thing to do if you get caught in the gas is to stand somewhere safe until its effects wear off. Heading northwest over the mud instead of north will let you find a chest with another extra life, but be aware that the barrels close to the chest will explode if you get too close. On arriving at the island to the north (it is the most north-eastern of the nebula islands) you should see two rat tents and a ring of red crystals. Be ready for a fight. After dispatching the four rats (one is heavily armoured but the fight is still straightforward, especially if you use a magic attack) two turtles will arrive on a boat. They have heavy armour and block frequently. Use a similar strategy to the rats on them- roll and jump attacks or roll around and triple strike are the best methods. During the fight with the turtles, bugs and dark bugs will arrive on the scene (dark bugs are like bugs but with more health). You should use these enemies to build your combo before turning your attention to the turtles. After the fight, you can activate the cat statue (2/4), collect green armour and open a cage on the small island just to the east of the one you fought on. Jump into the water in the east to find a barrel that you can jump on to access swing poles. Swing straight upwards from the highest pole to catch some treasure, and combo across the Zhongs back to the main island to open a combo sealed chest with yet another life. Time to move on- head to the west side of this island to find a boat and press square to use it. Zoom all the way out on the minimap; you are trying to steer the boat west towards the next green X. Use speed to minimise the risk from the exploding barrels, as the boat turns best when moving quickly. If you do find yourself in a sticky situation here, jump out of the boat and into the mud, and jump back into the boat after the explosion- you won't lose any health! After leaving the boat, follow the red crystals to the turtle stage. Choose red at the big crystal to keep your multiplier going, and take on the rat, three turtles and the crocodile. The best strategy is to open with a well-timed magic attack that will hit as many of the turtles as possible. The crocodile should be targeted next, as the other enemies are more slow-moving and are less likely to blindside you. The rat can then be dealt with, leaving the turtles for last. This is a tough fight- make sure you don't get boxed in, and make the most of your magic attack to break the big crystal when lots of enemies are close. Enter the small turtle fort when you win. Crocs are going to be a real bugbear to you over the next few levels. They can use throwing weapons like boomerangs to damage you from a distance, they are very fast and their spin attack renders them invincible while they use it. They also tend to stand away from other enemies, which makes magic an inefficient way of killing them. When facing a few crocodiles, especially armoured ones, you may wish to consider the roll around technique, coupled with the triple strike or the throw. Otherwise, the usual strategy will suffice. Unarmoured crocs shouldn't give you major problems if you target them first. There are no enemies in the turtle fort- so explore at your leisure. Things to find include a cage down some stairs, a cat statue (3/4), plenty of coins, and of course, the claws. NEW WEAPON- Basic claws These weapons can be used while swimming and are more effective than the sword against unarmoured opponents. They have a fast attack speed and so are effective against flying enemies, but cannot deal any damage to enemies with armour. They claws can chain 5 regular attacks together, which is very useful when coupled with the roll around technique. When you leave the turtle fort, you will find the merchant has set up shop. Now you have the claws, you may wish to return to the island where you first met the turtles (you will have to steer the boat again)- there is some bamboo in the water that you can cut down to access a chest with a demon potion. You'll need one of them shortly. Return to the turtle fort area and drop into the water to the southwest, breaking through the bamboo to the southeast to find the final cat statue (4/4). QUEST COMPLETE- Find four cat statues Next, cut through the bamboo in the west to find a long path leading south. This is made tricky by the bombs falling from above. Just keep moving as quickly as you can to pass through unscathed. Some of the boards will also crumble beneath you. At the corner of the boardwalk, you will see stone Zhongs that lead to a chest with an extra life, and from there you can jump to swing poles and reach a Yuan Bao. The pillars that you lowered with the cat statues can be found a little to the northeast of this area. Cross them to get to Snail Island, and claim your reward for the cat statues- a berserk potion and a heart container. Descending down the centre of Snail Island using the ropes, you can land on a lily pad that carries you across the mud, collecting coins and reaching Zhongs that combo together to let you open a combo sealed chest with red armour back on the boardwalks. Just south of Snail Island you will see a trail of red crystals. Follow them, and use a demon potion to enter the portal at the very end of the trail. As usual, this demon portal is full of treasure including two big crystals (choose yellow both times), a magic container, and loads of coins. It also contains two fat demons, an energy demon and a fire demon, but considering they are unarmoured, you should be able to make short work of them with the roll around technique and some regular attacks with your claws. Energy demons are capable of hitting you any time you go close to them, so it would probably be best to kill another enemy first so that you can combo towards them quickly without being hit. A berserk potion is recommended, and targeting the tricky fire demons early is likely to be a good strategy. Stay moving and you'll be fine. When you are back in the swamp, you should cross the lily pads to make your way south, towards the final mission marker on the minimap. The normal lily pads will sink after a few seconds, and the ones with thorns are capable of dealing damage, but it isn't tough to get across. There is a health potion in a chest near the lilies too. At the south island there are lots of red crystals, as well as a turtle and two rats. You will have to keep moving in this fight- rats in lookout towers are throwing bombs at you. Use the roll attack style of fighting with the sword- throwing takes too long to recover from. Fortunately, the rats can damage their own troops with bombs. When the first three are down, another armoured rat and two turtles put in an appearance. This time, dark bugs will be flying around overhead. Use the claws to build up a combo from the bugs first, and then take out the turtles with the sword to finish the level. The fight can be simplified by dropping bombs near the lookout towers, which will destroy the towers and stop the rain of explosives from ruining your combo or multiplier. To this end, bombs can be found in the jars and chests around the battlefield. Don't forget to collect any treasure on and around this island before moving on. O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | WALKTHROUGH: [WLK07] | | MARSHLAND | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O X - Start point 2nd B - Big crystal Turtle Fort Island /--> Boat race D - Demon portal /------------\ /---\ | | M - Merchant | /----\ | | D ------------\ /-#------\ | W - Sword upgrade | ~ | | ~| \- -/ | |~ ~ # <---/ # - Door | \##/ | | | | ~ ~ | @ - Locked door | ~ | | ~ | | | | -----\ ~ - Water | / \ | | /----\ | |Ferryman| * - Endpoint | ~/ \ ~| | | W ----/ \--- ----/ | | | | | \----/ | | ~\ / | | Swamps ~ ~ | ~ | \ / ~ | | of /--------/ | ~ | | | | Death | ~ ~ ~ | ~\--/ ~ | | /- -\ | ~ ~ | \----------- @ |Froghead \----/~ /----/ \- -/ / / /-----\ ~ | /-------\ / ~/ | M --\ | ~ | |----\ | | | | ~ | | | | \ ----/ | | ~ \-\ /-/-\ | ~ | ~ ~ | ~ | ~ | | ~ | | \-- ~ Whirl ~ | ~ | ~ ~ /-- ---\ |~ ~| | --- Pools ----+ \--------- Mayor| /-/ \-\ \----- ~ ~ ~ | ~ ~ | Gu | | B | ~ ~ | ~ ~ /----+--##--+----\ | \---/ | ~ | ~/------\ | * | | | \--- | | Frog | | /---\ | ~ ~| | | City | | |~ ~| | Croc ~ | X | | | |/ ~ \| Temple ~\------/ | | |~ /-\ ~| ~ ~ | ~|@|~ | \--+-+--/ Talking to the frog as you enter the marshes triggers a new quest. NEW QUEST- Open the Froghead (obligatory) Reward: none This is a massive quest that will take ages to complete, and is actually made up of many smaller objectives. It is therefore very easy to get lost and not know what to do next, wandering the marshes and not doing anything productive. To avoid this, I have summarised all of the important points in dealing with this quest, including the optional ones. (1.) Get the final sword upgrade from the swamps of death This is optional, but very much recommended. You should do this first. (2.) Visit the ferryman and earn the secret key for the crocodile temple Also optional, and not really important. 3. Enter the frog city and earn the key to the crocodile temple 4. Clear out the turtle fort to earn one part of the Froghead amulet This can be done at any time, but I tend to clear the turtle fort before the croc temple, as the fort is easier. 5. Clear out the crocodile temple to earn one part of the Froghead amulet 6. Exit the swamps through the Froghead Steps 2 and 3 can be done in any order, but must be done before step 5. Now, let us increase Kay's badass-ness by +5 and get him a really cool sword. Proceed over the platforms towards the icon for the merchant on the map. For the swamps of death you are going to need at least one bottle of hornets, preferably two. You may need to throw away some items or use them unnecessarily to clear some space in your inventory. There is also a demon gate coming up soon, so have a demon potion to hand if you want to boost your score. Talking to the frog next to the shop (don't you just love their accents bruddah?) will trigger a new quest, equivalent to step 3 in our quest breakdown. NEW QUEST- Find the crocodile tear (obligatory) Reward: none Run to the northeast corner of this area where the sand slopes down into to the mud, and cast your eyes to the southeast- you should see a boardwalk. It is difficult to describe because it is tucked well out of sight, but this is the boardwalk you must follow to find the frog city. If you do not see four pots in a row at the end of the boardwalk, you have gone the wrong way; go back to the merchant and try to follow my ropey instructions again. Following the correct path will take you to Mayor Gu. QUEST COMPLETE- Go to the frog city Gu invites you to enter frog city, but doing so will trigger a new quest and lots of fighting, and you'll want a new sword for that. We'll return here shortly, but first run north across the balance beams and you'll find the Froghead, currently locked. Head northwest at the Froghead to enter the swamps of death, where many hornets are waiting for you. While you have a flask of hornets active, you are immune to attack from other hornets, but speed is still of the essence here- you will want to avoid using your own hornets until the last possible moment, and will want to cover as much ground as you can before they disperse. Luckily, the route through the swamps is linear and straightforward. If you are quick and don't bother to collect the crystals you can make it to the first island of the swamp without using hornets. From this island you will be able to spot a Zhong challenge, where Zhongs are circling a bent over tree. This challenge offers an introduction to weapon specific Zhongs. The idea here is to destroy all of the white Zhongs quickly by changing weapon with the R2 button. Use the sword against the sword Zhongs (duh) and the claws against the Zhongs with scratch marks. It's an easy challenge, and you'll receive a heart container for your trouble. You'll probably have to use your bottle of hornets soon after leaving the first island, so don't stop at the second island; instead continue on at top speed, to make the most of your immunity. You will often find more bottles of hornets in pots along the way, and there is a cage off to the right to boost your bank balance. If you're really good, you will make it to the last island without using another bottle of hornets, but don't feel bad if you have to. On the last island is red armour, the final sword and two more bottles of hornets- more than enough to get you back to frog city safely. NEW WEAPON- Shadowsword This is the most powerful sword in the game. If you are going to use a magic attack, switch to the sword first, as the more upgraded a weapon, the more magic damage you can do. The claws have not been upgraded and so won't be as effective in casting magic. On the way back, things are just as difficult. You should stop when you get to the second swamp island- this is between the cage and the island with the Zhong challenge and it has a ring of mushrooms on it- if you see the chest that contained the heart container, you've gone too far. Near to this island is a big dead tree with a Yuan Bao atop it. If you execute some very long jumps you can make it to the base of the tree from the island, but it probably isn't worth the hassle for 50 coins, especially since there is a demon gate on this island! Use your demon potion- the portal appears in the centre of the ring of mushrooms. Once in the demon realm, you'll notice that the main room is this time looking quite bare. Strange, but usual tactics apply, the claws are probably your best friend here, and you'll have to use the roll around to guarantee a hit. There are three fat demons, an energy demon and a fire demon here. Remember that fat demons are nigh impossible to hit when they are spinning unless you are berserk, and so using a berserk potion is encouraged. Your reward for surviving is an extra life and a butt-load of money. If you picked up the armour with the sword, you shouldn't have any problems here. Head out of the swamps of death and return to the Froghead. This time, take the route to the northeast, and follow the short path to the ferryman, who is probably my favourite character in the game. He is super cool, a really top guy, but he's worried about the lake being dangerous. After the first conversation, follow him into his store and continue to chat, and he'll propose a challenge to your boating skills. The boat is out front- it's time to race. Control the boat as usual, but bear in mind that it doesn't turn well at all when moving slowly. You must pass through all of the checkpoints in the river and finish in 1:20.00 or less to win the crocodile amulet. There are two forks in the course where you have to choose to go left or right- you should go left both times, as it makes subsequent turns easier. Finishing in less than 1:07.00 is tough but possible, but don't go mad trying for a fast time- remember that those barrels do real explosive damage, and the few coins you get for going fast just aren't worth it. Now we should head inside frog city, where there is a lot of fighting, so it might be wise to visit the merchant first and stock up on some supplies- a berserk potion or two and a magic potion won't go amiss here. Upon entering the frog city, Kay takes a nap, but when he wakes up, it's time for action! O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | WALKTHROUGH: [WLK08] | | FROG CITY | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | Gu| E \- -/ /------\ | | / \ /- --\ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ /-/ First \ |X * ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pontoon | \----/ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ \-\ Fight / ~ \ /E ~ ~ \------/ ~ /-#-\ ~ ~ Holy | | ~ Shrine| E | X - Start point ~ ~ | | B - Big crystal Rice ~ \-#-/ E - Frog egg Storehouse ~ /--------------------/ # - Door /-----+-----\ /~ ~ - Water | #--/ ~ * - Endpoint | | | ~ /--/-----\ /-\--#--+-----/ ~ ~ | # | House of / | ~ | | | the Chen House /--#-\ /----/ ~ ~ | \---+ +---\ Clan of the | | / ~ ~ \ | | Wu Clan| | | ~ ~ ~ \-\ |E #----+---- /---+-- -+ | ~ /---\ ~ | | | ~ \ ~ ~ |E | | | ~ / B \ /-\ | \-----/~ \ ~ ~ /------\ | | \ ~\ / |B|~ | | ~ ~ #---\ ~ / \ \---+----/ \~ \---/ \-/ / /-----\~ / \ /-/ Second \ \ /-----\ \ ~ ~ / | | ~ \ E/ ~ Pontoon | / E \ | ~ ~ / /---+ |~ \---/ \-\ Fight / House | | | ~ ~ | | +---/ ~ Dr Man ~ \ /E of Prof \ # | ~ ~ | # |House Chu Fu ~ \------/ Ping \-----/----/ ~ ~ \--\-----/of the Pong Clan NEW QUEST- Find 8 frog eggs (obligatory) Reward: Crocodile tear Alright guys, this is tough. And not only that, but the map for frog city is fragmented up, and there's not a lot of flow to the quest. I've tried to get things moving in as linear a fashion as possible here, but if anyone out there has a better route, feel free to e-mail me. First, make your way east along the barrels, timing your jumps to avoid the toxic gas. Bear left at the fork in the river to get into the first big fight, and it's a really, really tough one. Three gorillas and a rat face you here, and that's just for starters. To make matters worse, the rat and one of the gorillas are wearing heavy armour. Stay agile, and try to take out the rat first, since he is fastest and weakest. Opening with a magic attack would be very beneficial. A berserk potion is also recommended, but you could also use a flask of hornets if you have some left over from the swamps of death, since they will interrupt the enemies' attacks. After the rat has been killed, equip claws and go after the unarmoured gorillas. Leave the armoured one for now. Midway through the fight you will be joined by two armoured crocs and two unarmoured crocs. At this point you risk being completely overrun, and since the crocodiles can attack from a great distance away, it will be very difficult to find a safe spot on the pontoon. Unarmoured crocs will now continually join the fight until all the gorillas are dead, so you should focus on bringing down the remaining gorillas quickly with your strongest attacks. Experienced players could consider using the claws on the unarmoured crocs BEFORE turning their attention to the armoured gorilla, as this will make the battle go faster, but if the gorilla is likely to take you a while to kill, then this strategy is not recommended. Kill the armoured crocs when the final gorilla is dead, and no more will spawn. You will be free to collect two frog eggs from the buildings when the fight is over (2/8). Expect to lose at least 5 points of health/ armour there, and if you did better than that, bloody good job, it's one of the toughest fights there is. To summarise the strategy for this fight: 1 Open with a magic attack 2 A berserk potion is recommended 3 Kill the rat 4 Kill the unarmoured gorillas (5 Experienced players may use the unarmoured crocs to build combo) 6 Kill the armoured gorilla 7 Kill the remaining crocs Now follow the river south until you see a sword Zhong. Beneath it is a very quickly filling bubble of toxic gas which keeps the platform that you need to access the Zhong in a constant envelope of poison. It does seem that you would have to complete the Zhong challenge while under the influence of this most putrid of effervescences. But, an alternative strategy makes this tricky Zhong challenge really quite straightforward! Simply jump onto the platform and become contaminated with the filth spewing from the water below. Now jump and strike the Zhong with your sword- the Zhong challenge will start, and remember that to jump towards the Zhong you have to push the analog stick away from it. Then fall into the water, while still holding the analog stick in the same direction. Swim a few feet and stop, waiting on the poison to wear off. Since you now have COMBO +1, you can jump from the water, combo towards the Zhong and strike it with the sword. The Zhong challenge will start and you will be clear- headed! The challenge itself is easy enough; you have to combo towards the white Zhong of the two Zhongs that appear, as the other will be an energy Zhong. All the Zhongs are breakable by the sword only, and you will be rewarded with a heart container. I'm really proud of this strategy, can you tell? Now for another fight. Head south on the barrels and you will see the three turtles, two unarmoured crocs and one armoured croc in the distance, but you should bypass them for now if you want a big score. Jump into the water and head off to the right, where there is a save point and a big crystal. Choose red at the crystal, then run headlong into the fight with the turtles and crocs, and choose red once again. If you manage to hit all three of the turtles with the magic attack from your sword, it will knock their shells off, allowing you to take out five of your six opponents here with your claws alone. As always, deal with unarmoured enemies first, then switch to the sword. On the upper tier of frog city is a massive ring of red crystals, so if you finish this fight with both red multiplier and combo, you should zip up to the higher level using the Zhongs above your head, then run a quick lap for massive points. If your multiplier ran out, don't worry, head back to the save point near the other big crystal you just destroyed. From the save point on the lower level, climb up the netting to the northwest to find a chest with combo seal of 7. There is a corresponding chest on the opposite side, and a long chain of Zhongs that link them. Head across the Zhongs to get green armour from a red chest, and then head back to get loads of money from the green chest. We will start exploring the houses from the green combo sealed chest. If we imagine the upper level of Frog City as a clock face, this chest is found at the 10 o'clock position. Walk counter-clockwise (south) around the walkway a little to find a big gap. You'll need to jump between the houses to get across it. We are aiming to reach the house in the far south west of Frog City. When you enter it, "House of Professor Ping" should display on screen. In this house, you must time your jumps carefully to avoid debris falling regularly from the roof. The house consists of a single room, and has one frog egg inside (3/8). We will make our way around the circle, moving clockwise, so our next house to visit is next to the green chest: the "House of the Wu Clan". The first room is very similar to the previous house- timed jumps are all that is required. The second room is like something from a Saw film: weird flaming bags and pulleys and arms and swinging and platforms coming out the walls... jeez. As well as dodging the bags, you should be careful of the poles that they are attached to. The large sacks can only hit you if you stand on the second board coming out of the wall- standing on the board closest to the wall is safe. Following the red crystals will take you to a good old box o' cash and, a little higher, an extra life. Backtrack to the earliest platform at which the higher of the two bags can hit you, then move clockwise around the room until you can drop in front of the target door. Look around mode (hold R3) might be useful in this case to plan your route. If you can find the large platform that is on fire and is throwing up a huge plume of smoke, your target door is just anticlockwise from there. Don't break the pots in the second room- they contain dragonflies, not treasure. In the third room there are ropes to swing towards the frog egg (4/8). There are also enemy hornets in one of the pots that you will have to run away from. And fortunately, it is easier to leave the third room than it is to get there. Back outside, ignore the next building. It is the Rice Storehouse, and we will come back here last. Use the ropes to go past the save point and run into the next house, at the upper level's 1 o'clock position. This is the House of the Chen Clan. The first room has ropes and a pot of enemy hornets, but this will not be a problem. The second room is a different kettle of fish, as it is filling with smoke. If Kay runs out of stamina here, you will have to start this puzzle again. Various buttons here can influence the fire, and you must clear the flames from the frog egg by pushing the boxes onto the correct buttons. Here is a diagram of the buttons: Entrance The first box starts in the position marked A 1 2 The second box starts in the position marked B B Switch 2 is engulfed in flame Frog 3 4 5 Egg Exit A 6 7 8 9 Push Box A onto switch 7. This removes the flames from the frog egg. Collect the frog egg (5/8). Push box A into the flames on switch 2. This removes the flames from the exit. Leave the house. It's that easy! Two moves and you're done. You don't even have to move one of the boxes. Since you've gone out the back door of this house you have access to platforms leading out into the darkness. Collect an extra life from a chest you will see on the left and then follow the platforms to the right, where there are broken bridges which you can cross to get to the next house. This house belongs to Doctor Man Chu Fu, and I've heard he's crazy. There's a pot of hornets in his house, and some ropes that are easy to swing around. Another frog egg in the bag here- no problem (6/8). When you have the egg, head outside and around to the back of the house to find Zhongs that take you down to the lower level. A high combo will be handy here, since you're landing right into a fight with three heavily armoured gorillas and a heavily armoured rat. Get a berserk potion on the go right away, and you may also wish to throw magic, and hornets if you have some saved up. Since there are no unarmoured enemies at the start this time, I would recommend using only the sword when you go berserk and taking out the rat and gorillas before you turn your attention to the crocs that appear. When the gorillas are dead, take out the unarmoured crocs with claws, then the armoured ones with the sword. This battle follows exactly the same pattern as the first big pontoon fight, and the unarmoured crocs will continue to respawn again until all of the gorillas area dead. Refer back to the previous strategy if you're having any problems. It's going to be a really tough fight again, and definitely one you should use a berserk potion in; if you didn't use one during the last big fight, you'll really notice the difference in difficulty this time- it's a massive help. When you're done, pick up the frog egg (7/8) and if you still have combo you can head back up to the last house via the Zhongs. If not, there is a rope ladder below the house to help you up. Return to the main circle of Frog City via the broken bridges, platforms and then through the House of the Chen Clan. You may now proceed directly to the Rice Storehouse in the northwest to retrieve the final frog egg, or go to the House of the Pong Clan in the southeast for another room of swinging flaming sacks. The Pong house is entirely optional, but collecting all of the crystals inside and opening the green chest at the top nets you about a million points. There is also a health potion in this house, which you may need if you have been taking a beating in the last few fights. With one frog egg left to find it is time to return to the Rice Storehouse that we passed earlier; it's the first door on the right after the rope swings, at the 11 o'clock position in the City. The first room of the storehouse is another block and switch puzzle: B The first box starts in the position marked A 1 Exit The second box starts in the position marked B A Switch 1 and box B are engulfed in flame 2 3 4 Entrance Push box A onto switch 4. This removes the flames around box B. Push box B onto switch 3. This removes the flames around switch 1. Push box A into switch 1. This removes the flames around the exit. Climb up the ropes in the next room to exit into the fresh air of frog city. Use the zipline here to land on a little platform next to another zipline. Take it down to the final building- the holy shrine. This makes a mockery of all the hardcore fighting you've been doing up to now: three turtles and a rat are hardly going to be much of a challenge. One magic attack with the sword is all that is needed to remove all of their armour, and they can thereafter be finished off with the claws, provided you can hit them all at once with magic. Collect the final frog egg (8/8). QUEST COMPLETE- Find 8 frog eggs Now return to Mayor Gu (the green X on the map, in the far northwest of the city). The zipline outside the shrine will take you most of the way. Now that you have achieved such a "sweet conclusion", it's time to head back out to the marshes, Boss. O-----------O | MARSHLAND | O-----------O Have an interesting chat with Gu and obtain the crocodile tear from the chest. In theory, you could now go to the crocodile temple, but it is really tough so we will just put it off for as long as possible. It's turtle fort time! QUEST COMPLETE- Find the crocodile tear NEW QUEST- Find Su Ling in the Forsaken City (obligatory) Reward: none Head back to where the merchant is and replenish your items if you need to. Don't buy any armour, you will find some shortly. Head southwest from the shop, and take the path to the right, jumping over the rolling logs towards the whirlpools. To avoid the gas at the first whirlpool, go around it clockwise, jumping from lily pad to lily pad. You will see a trail of red crystals off to the left which lead to the croc temple, but as we do not want to visit there just yet, follow them only until you collect the green armour in the red chest, and then turn back around. The turtle fort is to the north of the whirlpool area. If you fall into the water, keep jumping to reduce the risk of being sucked into a whirlpool. You will face four turtles and an armoured rat outside the fort. As usual, open with a sword magic attack to de-shell all of the turtles. They run towards you at the start of the fight so it isn't too difficult to hit them all. You can then finish the turtles off with the claws to build as much combo as possible. Two heavily armoured crocs (the toughest you have seen so far) and two unarmoured crocs will then join the fray. Take down the unarmoured ones first with the claws, and leave the armoured ones till last. The fight is no more difficult than you are used to, but it may take a while to knock the crocs' armour off if you lose your combo. Consider using hornets against the crocs if you have some spare. After the battle, collect the health potion from the chest to the north; it is on a tree stump rising from the water. There is also a cage to be opened before you enter the fort. O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | WALKTHROUGH: [WLK09] | | TURTLE FORT | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O Armorchamber /------------\ X - Start point /----------\ | C | B - Big crystal | | | B | C - Cat statue \----\ /---/ | | F - Froghead amulet part | | | Sports | K - Turtle amulet key /-----/ \------/ Arena | # - Door | | @ - Amulet locked door | /---\ |----------+----/ * - Endpoint | | \ # | | | \--+--\ Turtle| | | /-----\ | Nest | | | | | | B | | \-/ | \-------/ | Kitchen---------------------------\ | /-\-----/ | | | | /-/ \-\ /----------\ /----/ \------\ /-------| |---| |---\ | | |*@ X Elevator \ | /------\ | \-------| |---| |-\ | | | | \------\ \-\ /-/ \----------/ | | | | | Under | | | /-/ \---\ \---+ @ Elevator| /---| |-----\ |Weapon K| \------/---------/ | | | | |Chamber | /----+-|-\ | \-- | \--------/ | | | \ ----/ | F| | \---- | +-@-+ | Prison | \--------/ NEW QUEST- Find the turtle amulet (obligatory) Reward: Froghead amulet piece, extra life, green armour, approx. 750 coin You'll be greeted by two teenage mutant ninja turtles at the bottom of the stairs. Use roll attacks and jump attacks; this fight isn't worth wasting magic on. Follow the red crystals (north), and continue to the end of the corridor to face a single turtle. Go right at the light potion and then take a slight left to follow the stairs down into the sports arena in the far northeast of the fort. Fight three turtles and an armoured rat here (use magic) and choose yellow for the big crystal. Another two turtles will appear after you have taken out their comrades- use roll attacks on these guys. Collect all the treasure in here, including an extra life, and activate the cat statue to continue. When you get to the top of the stairs outside the sports arena, head sharply left, almost doubling back on yourself to find a way that was not open before. This leads down to a dark room with four turtles and a big crystal. Choose yellow and try to get as many of the turtles as you can with the magic attack you use on the crystal. Two red chests will appear after this fight, one with a berserk potion and the other with an extra life. These turtle fights are becoming old hat now, aren't they? Hopefully you will still have a score multiplier active- as you leave the dark room, turn right to find the armour chamber and some more gold. Return to the original room at the entrance to the fort and go east- the passage opposite the door where you originally came in. That cat statue you activated has raised the elevator, allowing you to access the weapon chamber, after fighting two turtles of course! The weapon chamber contains plenty of treasure, as well as the turtle amulet. QUEST COMPLETE- Find the turtle amulet Before leaving this area you have to get a part of the Froghead amulet, and there is also some treasure for you to pick up. Head back to the first room again, and this time follow the blue crystals down a huge spiral staircase. This takes you to the prison, where there are three cages and a part of the Froghead amulet (1/2). Next, return to the original room and north through the corridor that led to the sports arena. This time, go right before you get to the light potion to find the kitchen. There is a magic container in here; be sure to pick that up. Continuing through the kitchen and down the stairs will allow you to get under the elevator, where there is a door that you can now unlock. In here is loads of treasure, green armour and an extra life. We've cleared the turtle fort, so go back to the first room and head west to find the exit. O-----------O | MARSHLAND | O-----------O Head back over the lily pads and the whirlpools to return to the red chest that you found green armour in earlier (to the southwest of the whirlpools). If you need items, you can always pay the merchant a visit as well, then return to the red chest. Berserk potions are going to be pretty much invaluable for the next area- having at least two with you will be highly advantageous. From the red chest at the whirlpools, continue over metal walkways and past a save point. SAVE YOUR GAME ON MORE THAN ONE FILE AT THIS SAVE POINT, AND DISABLE AUTOSAVE. There is a potential bug coming up that could ruin a save file, and so you should make a backup. Thanks to T Deacon for letting me know about this one. At the end of the walkways you will face a group of crocs- FOUR unarmoured and one armoured. I bet you can guess what our strategy is going to be here: claws and combo against the unarmoured ones, and then roll attack or throw against the last man standing with the sword. It's still not going to be easy- you may not even have any armour left by the time you finish. Next is a really tricky set of platforms- they are safe to jump on when they are in the raised position, but jumping on one in the lowered position will cause arrows to be fired at you. The best way to tackle this is to hang on the edge of every platform, and haul yourself up onto it only when it is safe to do so. At the T junction there is a heavily armoured croc on each side- don't worry, they won't attack at the same time. Choose red at the crystal and take out at least one of the crocs to get the extra life from the chest. Get all of the treasure here, then press the big switch in front of the red crystal arrow to make platforms appear that will allow you to reach the temple. Before you enter, explore behind the crocodile head to find some green chests. O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | WALKTHROUGH: [WLK10] | | CROCODILE TEMPLE | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O /---------\ X - Start point | C | B - Big crystal | Water | C - Cat statue Northern |Lily Pond| D - Demon portal Water Cycle \---+@--+-/ F - Froghead amulet part | 1| K - Key /----+--#+---------\ # - Door | | @ - Padlocked door /--------+ /---@------\ +--------\ ~ - Water | | | | |Training| * - Endpoint /---/ Boxes | |Repository| | Room | | K Room 1# | (Secret | #2 C | \---\ | | Room) | | | | | | | | | \--------+ \----------/ +--------/ | | \-------\ + /------/ | | | | | | /------------+-------/ + \-----\ #1- Doors open prior to pressing ---|Entrance | B | the switch in the pump room * <--- X Hall F B K @ Pump Room | ---| | D | #2- Doors open after pressing \------------+-----^-\ + /-----/ the switch in the pump room /-----|-+ | | /----> C| | | | +-------/ + \------\ | | | Southern | | /----------\ | Water Cycle | | | | | | | | | +--+--------\ /----------+--+ | | #1 | Mud | |Wildwater @ 2# | | | Vapor | /----+ Room +--+ | | +--+ Bath | | | | \----------/ | | | | /-+----------/ | | \--------/ | \----\ | \-----------+--#--+/ | ----/ | 2 | \-------/ Upper level | |Interrogation path back to | |Room pump room |K | \-----/ Right from the off, you will see why this is a tougher dungeon and best kept until last. Face the four armoured crocs and the rat here to progress to the main area of the temple. A berserk potion is advised, as magic will be of limited use due to the crocs keeping their distance from one another. Take out the rat first to build combo, before roll attacking and jump attacking the crocs. They should attack in pairs, which makes the battle just a little easier. LEAVE the big crystal for the moment. If for some reason you do not have a berserk potion (I did recommend bringing some!), there is one above the entrance. You will have to somersault up onto the torch bracket that has not been lit to be able to reach it. There is a red chest of hearts up there too, if you are running low on health. NEW QUEST- Find three cat statues (obligatory) Reward: Froghead amulet piece ***** WARNING ***** SAVE GAME DESTROYING BUG ***** ********** CROCODILE TEMPLE ********** Use the key from the red chest to open the door and descend into the pump room. T Deacon reports that sometimes the door will not open, despite having acquired the key. This means that you will be unable to progress through the temple, and so you should reload your last save game. If you have autosave enabled, then this bug could potentially ruin a save file. I hope you saved on multiple files before entering the temple! There is no known work-around for this bug, and no known cause. Please e-mail me if you have any more information on this bug. ********** END OF WARNING ********** In the pump room there are two flowing bodies of water, a big machine, and a big crystal, which you should leave for just now. Jump into the water closest to the door where you came in- it will take you through the southern water cycle. During your time in the temple, you should jump onto platforms to restore your stamina as often as possible, as you will need lots of stamina to get into the rooms and around the water cycles of the temple. Both of the water cycles are arranged like squares, and the only room accessible from the southern cycle just now is on the third side of the square. This room is called mud vapour bath, and contains a cage, an extra life and some treasure. To get around you just have to jump from platform to platform, and so this is one of the easiest rooms in the temple. When you are finished here, return to the pump room and then head into the northern water cycle. In the northern water cycle there is a room accessible on the second side of the square, but you need a key for it, which you will not have just yet. Opposite the entrance to this room is another door leading to the secret room in the centre of the northern water cycle. If you paid the ferryman a visit in the marshes earlier you will be able to enter this room (the Repository), which contains lots of points, treasure, a health potion and red armour. On the third side of the northern water cycle is another room with an open door. You have to push the blocks here so that you can jump on them from the north-eastern corner of the room to the centre of the western side without touching the ground. A setup like this is ideal: North 0 - no box 000000000000 # - box 0000000000#0 00000000#000 00000#000000 Target 00#000000000 Entrance 000000000000 000000000000 000000000000 000000000000 000000000000 Moving the boxes around is slow and tedious- advanced players may wish to use only three of the boxes in a similar configuration to the one shown above. This makes the jumps more difficult but requires much less setup time. Once the boxes are set up climb the ladder in the northeast and press the button to raise the water. If the boxes get stuck together there is a button to reset them in the southeast. When the water is raised cross the boxes to earn a key. There is also an extra life above the entrance to the key room, but you will have to somersault from the base of a pillar to reach it. Now return the way you came, drop the water level and leave. You will have to do another lap of the northern water cycle to open the door on the second (northernmost) side, opposite the secret room with the key you just earned. This leads to the water lily pond, another easy room. Remember to avoid the lily pads with the thorns. Activate the cat statue (1/3), then press all of the buttons in this room before time runs out, comboing across the Zhongs that appear. You will reach a chest of bombs, which you probably don't need. Return to the pump room and press the button near the save point. This reverses the water flow and allows you to access the other rooms of the temple. Jump into the water flow closest to you now to be taken back to the southern water cycle. A door on the second wall of the square will take you to the interrogation room. Two armoured crocs will confront you: use roll attacks and jump attacks to take them out. The Zhongs that will subsequently appear will allow you to reach the key in the southwest. A second door can be found in the southern water cycle. It is on the third wall of the square and requires your key to enter it. Don't worry too much about getting the crystals in the wildwater room; just get over the whirlpools and pass the save point at the other side. In the next area you will have to carefully time jumps across lily pads and then ascend up a room full of platforms and explosive barrels. The best strategy here is to jump onto the platform, then immediately backwards onto the one before it, to allow any explosions to go off before you proceed. At the top of this room, before you start following the blue crystals, you will find a demon potion in one of the pots. Don't miss it- you'll be needing one shortly. The next area involves fighting three crocs while dodging arrows that are being shot down the corridor. You can either run down the stairs at the end of the room to fight the crocs down there, or you can fight the crocs in the path of the arrows, since they will be damaged by the arrows too. However you do it, passing this area will grant you access to a cat statue (2/3), and bring you out at the pump room. Visit the save point to heal if you have to (I usually still have my red armour), then head through the northern water cycle. There is a cage on the left as you go in. The only door here is on the third wall of the square- it leads to the training room, and a very tough fight. Four armoured crocs on the go all at the same time is going to be tough to handle, and since we plan to visit the demon realm next, your battle strategy should be based on the items you have left. If you have two magic potions, use a lot of magic in this fight. If you have two berserk potions, use one of them here. Remember that there is a berserk potion above the entrance to the temple that you may not have collected already, which would be available for you to use in the demon realm. Don't bother switching to claws at all- these guys move so fast that when you think you are chasing an unarmoured one, an armoured guy will run in front of you, and you don't want to miss any opportunities to deal some damage here. Once you've started laying down some punishment with roll and jump attacks, use combo attacks to gain the upper hand speed-wise. When you are done, activate the button above the cat statue to unlock the statue itself (3/3). QUEST COMPLETE- Find three cat statues Return to the pump room and save. Before we collect the amulet, we have a demon potion to use. The portal is located in the southwest corner of the pump room. If you haven't already collected them, and provided you have a magic potion, choose blue for the big crystal in the pump room, then quickly go the entrance room and do the same. Return to the pump room, enter the demon realm, use a magic potion and rush on to choose blue at the next big crystal (it starts on yellow, but it's not easy to see, so hit it once before you cast). You will earn a massive multiplier this way, ideal for taking on the two energy demons, three fat demons and one fire demon that now stand in your way. I hope you still have a berserk potion in your inventory! You can obtain quite a few items from the pots in the main demon room. In the last room of this area there is a big crystal (why wouldn't you choose blue?), loads of health and enough money to buy a small west African republic. When you have everything, leave the demon realm, pick up the amulet piece in the pool (2/2) in the entrance hall and leave the temple. Well handled, this portal is worth 2.25 million points. O-----------O | MARSHLAND | O-----------O I've had about enough of this place, haven't you? It's time to leave via the Froghead, now that we can open it. In case you can't remember where it is, follow the linear path from the croc temple to the whirlpools, head east to the rolling logs, northeast past the shop (buy items if you need them- as usual, two berserk potions wouldn't go amiss), southeast to the frog city and northeast to the portal icon on the map. QUEST COMPLETE- Open the Froghead O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | WALKTHROUGH: [WLK11] | | LONE SWAMP | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O /-----\ / \ | | To X - Starting point X-----#-| |-#------> * Dragon # - Door | | Swamp * - Endpoint \ / \-----/ It's been a while since we had a decent boss fight, don't you think? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOSS: Jia-Gu the Giant Turtle Difficulty: Average He is undoubtedly meaner looking than the turtles you have faced thus far, and he's probably been on the protein shakes or something, cos he is laaaaarge. He will lunge out with his long neck and try to bite you, so keep running around the ring of boardwalk and be ready to double jump out of the way. When he lunges forward, you have your chance to jump onto his tail and attack the amulet on his shell. Use triple strike with your sword to drain almost half of his health in a single fell swoop. Repeat this a second time, but after a single hit Jia-Gu will throw you from his back, and get really, really pissed off. He gains another attack when his health drops below 50%- he can spew out noxious gases, which do not disorientate like the gas in the swamp, just deal regular damage. You can't hit him when he uses this attack, but it is easy enough to jump over and dodge. His regular lunge attack now has the ability to destroy boards, which is a massive nuisance, so you want to finish the battle as quickly as possible, before the battlefield is reduced to only mud. Wait for him to lunge, then triple strike him in the back again, leaving him with just a little health. Repeat this once more to win. It is important to finish him off quickly, as the battle becomes really difficult when the boards get smashed up. If he has smashed all the boards and you don't want to lose a life, but can't see how you can beat him, deliberately drown yourself in the mud. You will lose one point of health, and respawn next to the save point, which you can use to restore all of your health. You'll have to start the fight again, but using this sneaky tactic will mean you never lose a life against him. There are also two health potions on the lily pads outside the circle of boardwalks, which you can use if the battle drags on. Be careful not to sink in the mud after you kill Jia-Gu; you will respawn at the save point and have to fight him all over again. The difficulty of this boss scales exponentially with game difficulty- his increased health on hard and nightmare difficulties make the battle last longer, which results in much more of the boardwalks becoming destroyed. Good luck trying to take him down on nightmare! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Exit this area for a cutscene, where Shun shows that he's not as daft as he looks. O------------------------O | SUB-AREA: DRAGON SWAMP | O------------------------O You will then have to make your way through the dragon swamp, where dragonflies try to attack you. They don't drop treasure, so just run through this short area and don't worry about killing them. If you absolutely have to fight, use claws. In the next area you will have to fly on the dragon Tor Chang, who happens to be Tor Chi's nephew. Use fire against the mines with the square button, and be tapping X constantly to get enough speed to make it through the rings on time. For the most part, it is easier to dodge the mines than spit fire at them, but there are some which obstruct your path through the rings, and of course these should be destroyed with fire. Regular turning will suffice for most of the way through the canyon, but after rings 5, 16, 17 and 20 you may have to skid depending on how you are lined up. Breathing fire is really inaccurate, and those mines are a real pain, but this is the only dragon flight in the game, so you'll just have to put up with it and hope you get the hang of the controls in time! O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | WALKTHROUGH: [WLK12] | | FORSAKEN CITY I | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O X - Starting point /---------------------\ A - Ancestor statue | Palace | To B - Big crystal | Stairway K B B @* -> King's C - Cat statue | | Palace K - Key /-----+--@-----+------------/ M - Merchant | Northern A | O - Hammer plate | Town | W - New weapon (hammer) | /------ | # - Door | | | @ - Padlocked door | | O | ~ - Water | \----\-|--/ * - Endpoint | | | \-----\ | | /---\Storage | ^ | \------------> | Room \-|-/ | \--\ | | | | | /--/ /----------|-\ /-----\ | C | | Old O | |~ ~ ~| \---/ | Pottery +----+ ~ ~ | /--+----#-------+ |Dry | | # M|Dock | /--\ | | \ ~ ~ / |C | | B | ~ ~ ~ | | /----+ | / ~ ~ \ | \----+ # +----+-+---/ | B @ /-+ Main # B | \-------+ | | Square |Prison| /--------\ | | | |------/ /---\ | | | | | | /-----\ /-+ A +-+ Back +-/ | +- -+-----------+ | X | | # Yard # | | # K K W | \-\ /-+ | /-----+ +----/ \---+ Avalanche | | # | | | | | \-----------/ | \-+--/ | \--------/ | | \-+ B +--/ \---/ Welcome to the Forsaken City! It's another big area, but it's far more varied and enjoyable than the swamp. Difficulty goes up another notch here, but we have access to a new weapon in the not too distant future- the game is about to get really interesting. Also, I'm sure you'll be glad to hear that there are no crocs in this area! :D For the most part, they'll be replaced with gorillas (hooray). From the starting courtyard, you can go through a door on the left hand side into Li Na's house. It has a few points inside, and not much else, but there is a known bug associated with the door to the house- it will disable your minimap, which is very inconvenient. If you are following the directions of the walkthrough, then it's not worthwhile to pick up the hundred or so points from this house at the expense of being able to navigate the rest of the city- give this house a miss. At the top of the first set of stairs, Kay will meet two rats. What you don't see to begin with is that they have backup in the shape of a gorilla with a hammer/mace just round the corner. Choose red at the crystal around the corner and use roll and jump attacks on the rats first- with your upgraded sword they should go down easily. The gorilla is a different matter altogether- when he strikes the ground with his hammer a shockwave is generated that knocks Kay off balance, rendering him immobile and unable to defend himself. To make matters worse, the gorilla is capable of dealing many points of damage with a single hit, and is also in the habit of using a spinning attack that can be difficult to dodge. You may have to knock him over several times to kill him. Value the practice you are getting here- the gorilla is a standard enemy in this level. Just before you go through the big gates after Kay meets the panda, look right. There is a fence here that you can get over to earn red armour, and this will be invaluable in the next fight, just through the gates. You will face two heavily armoured hammer gorillas here, and four heavily armoured rats. A magic attack will be very handy if you have enough MP remaining. A berserk potion may also be required. Get rid of all of your hornets over the course of the next few big fights if you have any left; they are starting to outlive their usefulness. Finish the rats off first, then take on the gorillas. When the battle is nearly over, barrels will be rolled down from the corners of the courtyard- these can damage your enemies as well as you, and so should make the battle go a little faster. Be very conscious of not staying in one place for too long, as you will be a sitting target for the barrels. Single jump attacks will be preferable for finishing off the gorillas, as opposed to two jump attacks or somersault attacks. When the original two gorillas have been killed, four lightly armoured axe gorillas will join the fight. These are the guys you have been used to fighting, and cannot generate shockwaves like the hammer gorillas. Still, there are quite a few of them and so you should stay agile and cautious when fighting them. The first phase of the fight however, is much tougher than this second phase. Following the linear path for a little longer you will encounter three more armoured rats. When you fight them, bombs will start dropping from up above you. Fortunately, these interrupt the attacks of the rats and deal them damage, so as long as you can avoid them easily they can be moderately useful- keep moving! As the battle progresses, another three rats appear, equipped with forks. You may remember seeing these enemies before, prior to the fight with Boarax. This time, they are armoured and have the ability to throw bombs. When you encounter these enemies, you have to keep moving and take them down quickly. The trick is to use roll attacks constantly and to cycle your attacks around each of the bomb rats in turn to keep them all on their backs, only using jump attacks when they are all knocked over. Incidentally, this tactic is useful against large groups of rats for most of the rest of the game, as bomb- throwers become more common. The rats are more likely to use bombs if Kay is farther from them, as they will not damage themselves. The next area is the main courtyard of the Forsaken City. Our panda friend is in a spot of trouble, so Kay, being the top bloke that he is, will help him out. The first stage of this fight involves two axe gorillas and two armoured rats, but armoured rats will continue to join the fray until the gorillas are dead. Choose red at the big crystal and hope to catch some enemies with the magic attack. Then finish the gorillas, and finally the rats. Rats will continue to respawn until the gorillas are dead, and so this fight requires a departure from our usual battle sequence of rats then gorillas. The door to the prison will then open- head inside. Choose red at the big crystal to wipe out the armour of the four rats that you will encounter, and finish with claws if necessary. Next two axe gorillas and two rats will be sent to take you down. If you have a berserk potion, now would be a good time to use it. If not, another magic attack would be helpful here. Kill the rats first to build combo, then the gorillas with combo attacks and jump attacks. Finally two hammer gorillas and two axe gorillas will give you some hassle. If your combo and health are high you will be able to take them down without getting too much of a beating, but again, opening with a magic attack would be beneficial. When everything is dead, run up to the panda to talk. It turns out that by breaking into a prison and killing all of the guards, you are on the "side of justice". Despite this panda's clearly odd moral standing, he has connections with a group of rebels called the Avalanche, and shows you into their hideout. Head upstairs to see a familiar face... QUEST COMPLETE- Find Su Ling in the Forsaken City Have a chat with Su Ling to discover that the Avalanche have a boat to take resistance fighters to Waa-Lo, but they cannot launch the ship because the Drydock channel is, well, dry. You'll need to activate three cat statues to fill it back up. NEW QUEST- Flood the Drydock (obligatory) Reward: none Talk to Pan downstairs for a key, and then return to the main courtyard of the city. The rats here will respawn regularly. Kill them until they stop giving you money, after which time you should simply run past them. Be aware also that rats will now regularly use attacks that deal two points of damage, instead of the one damage attacks you have been used to so far. To the left of the prison door there is a gate. This leads through to a shop and the Drydock which you are trying to flood. There are chests in the Drydock which you should open now, lest they be lost to the rising waters you are about to release. A claw upgrade is available quite cheaply from the shop. NEW WEAPON- Razor claws Now head back through the gate that brought you into the main courtyard originally, and backtrack to where a locked gate is marked with a X on the map. Open it, choose whatever colour you like, and break the bamboo to find a chest and a hole in the wall to the right. Through this hole you can find and activate the first cat statue (1/3). Head back to Avalanche HQ at the main square and relentlessly flirt with Su Ling. Next, talk to Pan to receive a free one-way ticket to Damageville. NEW WEAPON- Basic Hammer The hammer is slow, very slow, but oh-em-gee will it tear enemies apart. You hit with a hammer, but rats appear to get hit by a bus. It is not ideal to use the hammer against aerial enemies, but it can do very heavy damage to enemies with armour, and at this point in the game, that's just about all of them. I would say that the hammer's speed makes some attacks unusable against large groups of enemies; you are simply too exposed while recovering, but the hammer throw hits all enemies within a small radius, and so is ideal for big fights. Wherever possible, stick to throws, jump attacks and roll attacks, and avoid triple strikes, combo attacks and somersaults. Go directly across the courtyard from the avalanche hideout and through the north door to "old pottery". Down the stairs here is a crumbling floor that you can break through with the hammer's jump attack. Emerging a little further on at the northern side of town, you will have to dodge barrels being thrown at you by gorillas. When you get up the stairs at the end of the barrel passage, you can go up a ladder to fight the gorillas. This is entirely optional, but is a good way to break in your new hammer, and you'll be rewarded with red armour. Behind the save point is a locked gate that we will come back to later. You can find a cage behind the tower with the golden statue in it. Southeast of the save point you will encounter three rats (use the hammer) and another ground plate for you to destroy with the hammer. The storage room below seems quiet... too quiet. Prepare for a fight when you activate the cat statue (2/3) and try to leave the area. You're going to be faced with three bomb rats and five spear rats, and of course they are all armoured. Take the battle to them by running ahead and meeting them before they have a chance to spread out, dropping a magic attack with the SWORD (not hammer!) right away. You may well be caught up in an explosion here courtesy of the bomb rats, but this will kill just about everything, provided you hit them all, so it's well worth it. If there are quite a few still left, use a throw or two with the hammer (rolling around the enemies will be tricky as there isn't a lot of space, but still worth the risk) to thin the crowds, followed by roll attacks to decimate the remaining foes. It's not going to be easy- if some of the bomb rats get lucky with their tosses you'll spend a lot of time on your ass. Return to Su Ling again to learn that you are on the wrong side of the river to activate the last cat statue. Damn, but not to worry, there is plenty more for you to be doing, like finding a nautical chart that will allow Avalanche to navigate safely to Waa-Lo. NEW QUEST- Obtain the nautical chart Reward: none Pan will give you a key downstairs. You will have to return to the northern town through old pottery. Before you do this, please visit the merchant. Aim to proceed to the next area with red armour, a health potion, a magic potion, and two berserk potions. If you're tight on cash, at least carry one berserk potion. Next to the save point in the northern town, near where the gorillas were throwing barrels at you before is a locked gate, behind which lies a tough fight. Be ready. To begin with you will face two axe gorillas, a hammer gorilla and two bomb rats. There are another two axe gorillas waiting at the top of the staircase, so run up there first and have them chase you down to the other enemies- with the hammer throw, as with magical attacks, the more enemies that join the party, the better. Choose red at both big crystals and kill the rats with hammer roll attacks to build combo. The rats will eventually respawn, but will no longer throw any bombs, making them virtually harmless and allowing you to focus on the gorillas. Utilise hammer throws against the most heavily armoured gorilla- the slow attack speed of the hammer gives you long periods of immunity and hitting the most heavily armoured gorilla each time will gradually reduce the health of all enemies and make the most of the hammer's "splash damage". Once the first wave of gorillas have been defeated, reinforcements will arrive in the form of a hammer gorilla and three axe gorillas. As usual, you should avoid the shockwave attack at all costs, while using the hammer throw, or roll attacks when there are fewer enemies. The high damage potential of the gorillas means that armour will be invaluable here, and without it you may have to use a health potion. A berserk potion in the early stages of this fight will make things go a lot more smoothly. To summarise the strategy for this fight: 1 Run to the top of the stairs and have the gorillas there chase you 2 Break both big crystals with magic attacks 3 Kill the bomb rats to build combo 4 Use hammer throws against the most heavily armoured gorillas 5 Use hammer roll attacks when there are fewer enemies remaining 6 Repeat steps 4 and 5 for the second wave of gorillas 7 Kill the rats which have respawned After the fight, a key will appear at the top of the stairs that will allow you to proceed. O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | WALKTHROUGH: [WLK13] | | KING'S PALACE | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O To Ancient /---------\ B - Big crystal X - Start point Dungeons <- * | C - Cat statue # - Door | B | D - Demon portal @ - Locked door \---\ /---/ K - Key ~ - Water | | M - Merchant * - End point /---/ \---\ W - Claw upgrade | Boss | | fight | \---\ /---/ | | /----------------\ /-----/ \-----\ /----------------\ | | ~ | | | | | | | | |C @ ~ | K | | Central | | K | @ C| | | ~ | +----| room |----+ | | | |---/ ~ \---#--| B | K K | B |--#---/ \---| | ~ | | M | | | | West @ # # @ East | | Area | \-------------/ | Area | | ~ | | | | ~ | Central | | | ~ |----- Area -----| | |--+-------#-----| |-----#-------+--| |C | K | ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ | | C| | @ |~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~| K @ W| \----------------| |----------------/ | X | | D | \-----------------------/ This place is brutal, gruelling, and the hardest single area in the game. Your best friend here is undoubtedly going to be the hammer. Use roll attacks and keep moving to minimise damage, and be prepared to spend a small fortune in the shop. Oh, and by the way, the crocodiles are back. NEW QUEST- Find four cat statues (obligatory) Reward: none The entrance to the palace is also the entrance to the demon realm, but I'll go on the assumption that you don't presently have a demon potion, so we'll come back here later. In the water channel, on the east side is a claw Zhong. Destroying it triggers a Zhong challenge that requires you to change weapon in the air while comboing and destroying Zhongs. Time is tight on this one, so there isn't much margin for error. The sequence of Zhongs is claws (the one you break to start the challenge), then claws, claws, sword, hammer, claws, sword. You will be rewarded with red armour from the combo sealed chest for completing the challenge. There are two pairs of rats in the first area, one on each side of the main central room. Choose blue for the two crystals here, and if you can catch both rats in the magic radius with the sword, it will kill them outright. Proceed into the main central room in the north when you think you are ready. You won't be ready, but you'll think you are. This is probably the toughest single fight in the game. I hope you picked up the armour from the Zhong challenge, and have a berserk potion to hand. Use it right away. There are four unarmoured crocs, two armoured crocs, two armoured rats and two hammer gorillas here. Of course, the unarmoured crocs should be your first targets with the claws, use combo attacks and roll around with regular attacks for speed. Then take out the rats with the hammer- use roll attacks and jump attacks here. Next, move on to the armoured crocs with the hammer, using roll attacks and jump attacks, then take down the gorillas either with roll around throws or roll attacks and jump attacks. If your combo is really high (maybe +10 or greater, which is not unreasonable to expect if you are overkilling enemies), then you no longer need the bolstered damage of the hammer, and switching instead to the much faster sword to deal with the gorillas and armoured crocs will make this fight much easier. When your combo is low, you will not be dealing enough damage to end this fight quickly, and so you should use the hammer over the sword. Attack priority in this fight: 1 Unarmoured crocs with claws 2 Rats 3 Armoured crocs 4 Gorillas But wait, there's more! Two hammer gorillas and two bomb rats will arrive to really get the party started. Open with a magic attack, roll attack the rats with the hammer, then throw or roll/ jump attack the gorillas. The second phase of this fight is much easier than the first. If you finish this with your armour still intact, you've done well. Collect the two keys you earned from here and go back out to the starting area. On the west side, where you fought two rats earlier is a locked door. We'll head in here first. Walk a few steps in this area, then immediately return to the main room where you had that big fight. A shop will have been set up, and you should replenish any items you have used. Return to the area in the west and explore the main room here. The chain of stone Zhongs leads to a locked door, which you should unlock to find the first cat statue (1/4) and a health potion. In the northeast of this area is a door which does not require a key. Head inside to be confronted by a single unarmoured hammer gorilla. This seems far too easy with the claws on your side, and indeed when DOZENS of all kinds of rats start pouring in the difficulty is raised by a notch or two. I haven't been able to work out exactly what makes them stop spawning, as eventually they will stop giving you money, but one thing is for sure- you will have to kill a whole load of them. Don't be afraid to use a magic attack every now and then to speed things up a little, and otherwise rely on roll attacks only with the hammer, rolling from rat to rat to keep them all on their asses till they die. When your combo reaches +20, it won't take too long. With high combo, you could consider switching to combo attacks with the sword, which allow you to have more agility and evasiveness, but do the same job as hammer roll attacks- use whichever weapon you prefer. Target bomb rats over regular rats preferentially, as they pose a greater threat. After loads of rats have died, three more hammer gorillas appear, two armoured this time, and another horde of rats. Continue to roll attack everything that gets close enough, damaging the gorillas while keeping the rats at bay. Remember to use magic every so often to thin the crowds; any magic points you gather when your magic is full are wasted for a measly 5 coins, so it is much more useful to unleash magic attacks regularly. It's a long and tedious fight, but not any more difficult than you are used to. You will be rewarded with a key for winning. Return to the main central area for healing and items if you need to. Now head off to the south of the main western area, through another door where you will face a single bomb rat with... no reinforcements. Dead easy, get the key from the chest (you should now have two), pick up an extra life and then open the door and activate the cat statue (2/4). If you try to leave however, you will meet the rather frightening masked hammer gorilla. The mask is the highest level of armour in the game, and confers to this gorilla a quite ridiculous HP total. He has four unarmoured regular hammer gorillas and multiple rats with him. Opening this fight with a sword magic attack would be a really, really good plan- if it hits every enemy, all of the rats will die and the regular gorillas will be sweating. The claws can then be used to take down any enemies that are unarmoured. When only a few enemies remain, hammer roll attacks and hammer throws can be used to finish them off. The masked gorilla is likely to take many additional attacks after all of the rest of the enemies have perished. Return to the shop in the central area if you have to. There is also a save point to the north if this area if you need to heal. Proceed through the locked door to the east set of rooms. The main east area has plenty of treasure and some exploding barrels to dodge, and the first room you should visit here is to the south. In this room there is a single unarmoured rat (use claws), as well as a few skull bugs (the highest class of bug with the most health) and carnivore plants. Use claws and combo attacks here to win with ease- this is the easiest room of the palace. You will be rewarded with a key, and after testing your claw abilities you can look forward to a new set of claws and a cat statue (3/4) in the locked area of this room. NEW WEAPON- Mantis claws They are very powerful, but share the limitations of the rest of the claws- only useful when a reasonable proportion of the enemies you will face are unarmoured of flying. Your claw magic attack is now as powerful as your sword magic attack. Next we must clear the room to the northwest of this area. There are two masked hammer gorillas here and two rat bombers. Standard tactics apply here- use rolling attacks until the rats go down, then introduce jump attacks as well as your roll attacks to finish the gorillas. If you are unarmoured it would be advisable to use a magic attack against the rats to minimise the time you will be exposed to high damage. The key you earn here can be used to access the final cat statue in the northeast of the eastern area (4/4). QUEST COMPLETE- Find four cat statues Return to the shop or save point if you have to, and make sure you have a demon potion- before we progress there is a portal to explore through. The pandas at the front of the palace are facing the portal: indeed, it is pretty much on the spot that Kay starts. Proceed through and choose blue at the crystal. Avoid if you can the yellow crystals in the centre of the main room to keep your multiplier going as you fight the three fire demons and three fat demons here. As usual, roll around coupled with regular attacks from the claws and combo attacks once you get some kills under your belt are the keys to success here. In the final room you will find the usual lottery win in a chest, as well as a bottle of hornets and a berserk potion, amongst other goodies. Back to reality and it is time to head to the far north, where it is boss time! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOSS: Shun's Bodyguard Difficulty: Reasonable In the opening chat (in which we get my favourite line of the game from Kay: "You see one, but I am many") you will find that Shun's bodyguard has brought two rats and two hammer gorillas along to this private party. Additionally, you might spot many pots in this room. I'll let you into a secret- they're all full of skull bugs. But that's ok, since they'll let you build combo really quickly. Begin by running around a bit, claws equipped, until some bugs break free from the pots, then dispatch them for massive combo. Risk-takers may wish to break a few pots in each corner of the room, letting the bugs escape and speeding up the whole process. When all the bugs are dead and all the pots broken, go after the rats and gorilla henchmen with the hammer. If you've been fortunate, the falling bugs may have already weakened or killed them. You will now be mano-a-mano with the bodyguard. He's tricky, and fast, but you should still equip the hammer. Use a roll attack and a single jump attack, then get out of the way before he uses his standup attack. He doesn't have a health bar, but it shouldn't take too long to beat him. If your health is taking a bit of a hit, a berserk potion will make the battle go even more quickly. This certainly isn't as difficult as some of the other fights you've faced in this level. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Choose red at the crystal in the next room and head down the stairs to encounter a handful of rats guarding the entrance to the ancient dungeons. Use a magic attack with sword or claws to put them out of their misery quickly, picking off any stragglers with the hammer or claws as appropriate. Head into the dungeon and if you are arachnophobic, put all of the lights on in your house. You're not going to like this one bit. O-----------------------O | SUB-AREA: PALACE RACE | O-----------------------O To reach the dungeons you have to ride a wolf (controls are the same as the boar). Being hit by a spider along the way will impair your vision and make the controls less responsive. Overall, beating the target time of 1:10.00 is barely a challenge at all. As usual, you can always replay for money. After the second barrier that you crash through you can go to the left and get chillies while jumping explosive barrels. This is the faster of the two routes but will you will usually take one damage point going this way. With a bit of skill, you can beat 48.00 or even 47.00 if you're really good. The prize for beating 45.00 is 1000 coins- you can decide whether or not it is worth the effort. O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | WALKTHROUGH: [WLK14] | | ANCIENT DUNGEONS | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O X - Starting point /------------\ /--------\ B - Big crystal /--| Crypt of | |Killing | C - Cat statue |C # the King's #------- Floor ------\ J - Panda giving Jade Lion \--| Guards | \--------/ | K - Trading panda (Key) \------------/ | W - Hammer upgrade /------------\ | # - Door /-----\ /------ Light in the -/ @ - Padlocked door | W | /----\ | | Darkness | O - Hammer plate \-\@/-/ |The | | \------------/ * - End point |@| /--#Void#--+ |@| | | | | /---/ \---\ | \----/ | /------------\ | | | | | | | /---\ | /- --\ | /----------\ | /---- ---\ | | * | | / \ | | | | |Thousand| | | O | | |Abyss | | | Riddle | | |Spikes --- \-@-/ -- of | | | of | | | K | | K | |Blades| \------ J the C| /--#--\ \---- ---/ | X | \ / | Ancient | / \ | \---------/ \----/ | Kings | / Ring \ | /-------\ | | |B of B| /----#---\ | | \----------/ | Champs | | Spider #----/ | \ / | Pits B | | /-----\ \O / \--------/ | |Web | |--#--/ \--#Works| | | | J C | | | /---------------\ \-----/ | | |BBQ | | \----- Pits|--|K |C| | | |B| /--- ----\ \--+-#-+----^-+-/ |Heaven's| | O| | | Stair | \--|/ | \--------/ | | \--J--/ Talk to the panda in front of you as you start. There is also a save point next to you if you need to heal. NEW QUEST- Find three jade lions to trade with the pandas (obligatory) Reward: Key x3. NEW QUEST- Get three keys to obtain the new hammer (obligatory) Reward: Ancient hammer There are loads of pandas in this dungeon and by helping some of them you will earn jade lions. These artefacts can be traded with other pandas for keys. And those keys will unlock the gates to the new hammer. You should, therefore, talk to every panda here, to find out if he needs help, or wants to trade. The panda next to the burial chamber for example, is one that wants to trade. There's not much in the way of combat in the dungeons really, which provides a welcome break from the combat-intensive palace level. There are however, some nasties that you should be prepared for. The most significant of these nasties are the spiders that have hidden themselves in pots and are waiting to ambush you. This will really freak you out the first time it happens. You can intercept a spider attack by opening all pots with the claws, and you may also want to hit each pot multiple times to be extra careful, just in case a spider is lurking inside. Spider poison screws with your left analog stick in the same way as the toxic gas in the swamp, so avoid being bitten at all costs! Alright, let's get on with our exploring. Take the west exit from the entrance hall to find the tower of the thousand spikes. The panda at the bottom here is a trader. There are some spiders in the pots, an extra life above the entrance, and a green chest around the back of the tower. Make your way up the tower carefully, and note that any one group of spikes will raise every three clicks. Jump towards spikes that have just gone down to stay safe. Go to the very top of the tower, and follow the yellow crystals, not the red ones- we'll come back for them later. You will make your way through a dark corridor where there are bats. Be cautious about jumping up to kill the bats as it is easy to fall into the abyss below. Don't even think about using combo attacks. This leads to the ring of champions, where there is a known game-losing glitch. ***** WARNING ***** SAVE GAME DESTROYING BUG ***** ********** RING OF CHAMPIONS ********** To progress from the ring of champions you must kill all of the rats. There is a save point in the centre of the ring that you can use to heal. However, YOU SHOULD NOT TURN OFF YOUR CONSOLE AFTER SAVING AT THIS SAVE POINT! If you do turn off your console, any rats that you have killed may not respawn the next time you load your saved game, and even if you kill the remaining rats, the door to the next areas will not open. You cannot backtrack, you cannot proceed, and you are doomed to remain in the ring of champions forever. Your saved game is useless, and you will have to start again. I have lost a save file to this bug before, and I implore you- do not make the same mistake as me! My best recommendation would be to simply never use this save point to save, only to heal. Do not switch off your console when you are in the Ring of Champions. This bug can also be prevented/mitigated by saving often, and saving on different files. ********** END OF WARNING ********** Anyway, there are six rats in the ring of champions. Kill them all with the hammer and open the chest near the entrance when you have combo. Choose yellow at both crystals for a score boost. Once the rats are dead and the doors have been reopened, you are free to save without risk of losing a save file. In the southwest of the ring you can find a very tough-to-spot crumbling floor tile. Break it with the hammer to get to Heaven's stairs, a difficult and really frustrating set of risky jumps that vaguely reminds me of a Led Zeppelin song. If you get to the top, you'll be rewarded with a heart container, and there is also green armour a short way up. This is by far the hardest heart container in the game to obtain, and since missed heart containers are later available from the shop, you don't absolutely have to get this one right now. Proceed south from ring of champions when you are finished here. The next few corridors are smoke filled, so you should jump around to move since Kay walks too slowly. Pay attention to the fire jets and time your jumps and rolls to get past them. Use combo attacks on bats in front of you to gain a bit of time. At the T, take the left hand path until you are clear of the smoke. You will see a panda to talk to- he's a trader- and can now head across the bottomless pit using the platforms on the north wall. When you clear the pit, there is a switch in front of you that opens a gate near the panda you just spoke to. Watch out for spiders here- they can jump at you from quite a distance away, but fortunately you can block against this and use claws when they get close. Combo attacks will also be useful against them. After you hit the switch head north and follow the corridor for more spiders, a big crystal (choose red) and a cat statue that acts as a quarter of the lock on the burial chamber door (1/4). NEW QUEST- Find four cat statues (obligatory) Reward: none Return past the switch and go south for another spider and what appears to be a dead end. Then go back across the bottomless pit via the platforms on the south wall. Head around the south side of the passage back towards the ring of champions and cut into the room on the left that was opened by the switch a moment ago. In here is a crumbling floor tile that you can break with the hammer, leading down to narrow passages with a spider and a cage. Freeing the Liang the panda from the cage awards you with a jade lion (1/3). Climbing the ladder here and crawling through a narrow gap returns you to the area near the switch- you will have to cross the bottomless pit again before talking to the panda next to the save point to receive a key (1/3). Don't forget to talk to the panda! He doesn't actively engage you in conversation, so you have to approach him and press square. There is nothing more to find along this path, so you should backtrack through the smoke-filled corridors and ring of champions to the tower of the thousand spikes. Descend down the tower a little and find the red crystals that we passed earlier. Follow them past some spiders to find the spiderpits. Oh dear. There are three rats down here, and perhaps half a dozen spiders. Take out the spiders first with combo attacks with the claws, then the rats with magic, the sword or the hammer. There is a combo sealed chest with health in it in the centre of the room- when you have built enough combo you can consider opening it, but honestly keeping all of your fighting to the outside of the room is the best strategy here, and opening the chest in the middle means you are likely to be blindsided by a jumping spider. The gate to the next area will open when all of the enemies area are dead. Following the linear path you will be diverted through the entry chamber to a room with a cobweb blocking the door. I think I am right in saying that along with weapon Zhongs and bamboo, this is one of the few objects in the game that is immune to the hammer. Pointless trivia aside, enter the next room where there are a few spiders and a cat statue. Don't jump into the middle of this room as you'll be bitten in the back (ouch, stingy). Instead, work from one side of the room to another, so that no spiders blindside you. Killing all of the spiders nets you another jade lion (2/3), and of course you should activate the cat statue (2/4) before you leave. Return to the entrance hall by dropping down from the ledge outside the webworks, and take the previously unexplored east passage to the abyss of the blades. There are crumbling pillars here which you should be quick to jump from, but across the blades and spikes you should take it easy- it is safer to take a moment and work out the rhythm of the blades and spikes than run through and hope you don't get cut down. When you see the blue crystals off to the right you should continue past them, where a tricky little blind jump will reward you with green armour. From the platform closest to the blue crystals you will also be able to jump to the big central platform for a green chest, but it's probably best to save that chest for the way back. Following the blue crystals will take you through a smoke filled corridor (timing is key there) to the Void, where there are trapdoors in the floor that you should avoid. Enemies will never make the mistake of stepping on them unfortunately. Here you will face four hookknife rats (use a magic attack then the hammer, fortunately they don't use bombs) and of course Kay will make an Elvis reference because he is just super cool. Collect the cash in the chest and move on, following the blue crystals right at the T junction to pass a save point on your way to the riddle of the ancient kings. This riddle is a sliding box puzzle, but is very different to the ones in frog city. There are two main aims here: to escape from the far side of the maze by not blocking yourself in with boxes and to have at some point stood on the switch within the maze to unlock a gate in this area. You can always use the switch north of the entrance to the maze to reset the boxes if you make a mistake. ########## ## ## #### Exit<-- # #### A-N - Boxes ## N # X - Switch ##### # # Z - Box reset switch ###### # ######M### ###### ## ## KL## ##X#### ## ## # ## ## J # ## ## I ## ## ## GH## ## ##F # ## E ## ##D E # | ## # ## North <--+--S ## #### ## | ## # ## ## W # B C # ########A##### # ^ # Z Entrance # This is the solution to the riddle of the ancient kings: 1. Push box A two spaces forwards into the recess. 2. Push box B two spaces to the left and into the recess. 3. Go straight up and push the box above one space forwards (box F). There should now be three boxes in a row in front of you, like so: ##X#### ## ## # ## ## J # ## ## I ## ## ##FGH## ## ## # ## 4. Push the leftmost and rightmost boxes one space forwards each (F and H), and then push the box that was in the centre (G) one space left. There should still be three boxes in a row in front of you: ##X#### ## ## # ## ## J # ## ##FIH## ## ##G ## ## ## # ## 5. Push the middle box of the three (box I) two spaces forwards. 6. Step on the green switch (X) to open the gate. 7. Backtrack to the very bottom left corner of the maze (to box B) without moving any boxes to get there. 8. Go up a little and follow the first passage on the right. Push the box here (D) one space up. 9. Moving this box allows you to push box E on the right one space to the right and into a recess. 10. Stand next to the box you just pushed right into the recess, then head straight up to find two more boxes next to one another (K and L). 11. Push box L, on the right, one space up and box K, on the left, one space left. This should allow you access to box M slightly further up. 12. Push this box two spaces up so that it touches box N. ## N # ## N # ##### # # ##### M# # ###### # ###### # ######M### ---> ###### ### ###### ## ###### L## ## KL## ## K ## ##X#### ## ##X#### ## ^ ^ 13. Run around the pillar and keep pushing the uppermost box (N) to the left until you can exit the maze. There is a cat statue at the top of the stairs (3/4), and treasure around the outside of the maze. Be careful not to fall down or you'll have to go all the way back around for this next bit. Walk down the narrow strip on the north side of the maze (the left side if you were standing in the maze). This strip extends from the cat statue to almost the entrance of the maze, just on the other side of the wall from the box reset switch. There is a ladder here that will take you up to the gate you opened. Inside, you can free a panda and get some treasure. If you don't go back the way you came you can pick up even more treasure from the ledges surrounding the maze area. Talk to the pandas on your way out for the last jade lion (3/3). QUEST COMPLETE- Find three jade lions to trade with the pandas Return back the way you came and follow the red crystals that we left earlier. There is a T junction separating two paths with flames spurting from the floor and walls- take the path on the left (north). In the last alcove on the right in this corridor there is a switch that you should press. This opens a door on the opposite side of the flaming paths, and going through this door allows you to free a panda that gives you money rather than a jade lion or a key. Continuing on to the east past the flames you will meet a few bats in a corridor, and then come across a room called the killing floor. This is an area like abyss of the blades, but without a bottomless pit, so it is a little easier. If you are very lucky, you can combo up to the bats flying high overhead and drop onto one of the final platforms, skipping most of the room (happened to me once). Bear in mind that if you hang on the side of a platform, the blades can't hit you, and you can flip up when it is safe. Take it very slowly along the balance beams. When you reach the crypt of the guards choose red at the big crystal. Going too close to the cat statue awakens the terracotta warriors. These guys have laser eyes (well of course they do, that's totally normal), can only be damaged by the hammer and cannot be knocked over or thrown. The slow speed of the hammer and the fact that their attacks cannot be interrupted makes them actually tough adversaries. On top of that, their regular attack deals two points of damage. You'll have to just try and stay agile and expect to be hit a couple of times. The roll around technique, coupled with single swings of the hammer is the best way to avoid being hit. Activate the cat statue (4/4) in the end room when the gate opens. QUEST COMPLETE- Find four cat statues You may remember passing stationary terracotta warriors on the way into this final room. They are now all alive and ready to take you down. On top of that, loads of spiders have now spawned in just about every room from here to the entrance hall- be ready to switch between hammer and claws at a moment's notice, or to simply run past all the enemies since they don't give you much treasure. As you head back to the entrance hall via the killing floor, the void and the abyss of the blades, you will also be confronted by two rats. Kill them in whichever way you like- be creative! When you get back to the entrance hall, save and trade with the panda at the burial chamber (2/3), then head west and trade with the panda at the foot of the tower of the thousand spikes (3/3). This gives you the three keys you need to unlock the gates to the north of the entrance hall. Collect the new hammer. QUEST COMPLETE- Get three keys to obtain the new hammer NEW WEAPON- Ancient hammer Not much to say about this one- it's like the regular hammer, but who can say no to increased melee and magic damage? The hammer throw is now the clearly superior choice for large groups of armoured enemies. Break the floor tiles of the burial chamber, and descend into the darkness... 0--------------------------0 | SUB-AREA: BURIAL CHAMBER | O--------------------------O ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOSS: Qian Bei the Ancestor Difficulty: Easy How could you developers? How could you? Qian Bei really looks the part; they could have made him a brutal damage junkie with seemingly endless HP, but they didn't. They gave him a massive number 1 on his back and had him summon minions so you could combo him. How utterly disappointing. As for his attacks, the Ancestor will hit the ground causing a shockwave, just like the gorillas. Rocks will also fall onto your position simultaneously, so it the shockwave hits, you'll suffer two points of damage. He can also summon four terracotta warriors, but you need only hit one to then launch a counterattack with the hammer. Aim for the combo marker on his back and just bash away- three aerial strikes with the hammer will reduce his health by half on your first shot. Incidentally, the terracotta warriors can now be disposed of with a single rolling attack, due to the power of your new hammer. During the second phase of the battle, when he has 50% or less of his health, he will attack more quickly with the shockwave, he will summon more terracotta warriors at once, and while the terracotta warriors are attacking he will hurl fireballs at you. Overall, if you keep moving and jumping over the shockwaves, you cannot be hit by any of his attacks. Again, roll attack one warrior and combo to his back. Game over, kitty. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fetch the nautical chart from the next room and exit the area. O---------------------O | SUB-AREA: CITY RACE | O---------------------O Read the sign teaching you how to ride the wolf. I know you know how to do it, I just think it's funny that the pieces of meat you collect are called "bacons". ^_^ Anyway, you have to finish the race in 1:15.00 or less to proceed. There is a shortcut in this race: after you go up a narrow flight of stairs that turns to the right and has rats on it, and down a narrow flight of stairs that turns to the right, you go through a small and large barrier at pretty much the same time (your timer will read about 32.00-35.00 on a good run), swerve sharply left. You will see a flight of stairs that you should go up, and then swerve sharply left again to break through some bamboo. Following this route cuts off a big corner and gives you access to some chillies. Using this shortcut will let you get times below 50.00 seconds. I don't see how below 47.00 seconds is possible on this difficulty. O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | WALKTHROUGH: [WLK15] | | FORSAKEN CITY II | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O X - Starting point /---------------------\ A - Ancestor statue | Palace | B - Big crystal | Stairway B B | C - Cat statue | | K - Key /-----+--#-----+------------/ M - Merchant | Northern A | O - Hammer plate | Town | W - New weapon (hammer) | /------ | # - Door | | | @ - Padlocked door | | O | ~ - Water | \----\-|--/ * - Endpoint | | | \-----\ | | /---\Storage | ^ | \------------> | Room \-|-/ | \--\ | | | | | /--/ /----------|-\ /-----\ | C | | Old O | |~ ~ ~| \---/ | Pottery +----+ ~ ~ +---\ From /--+----#-------+ |Dry | | City---># X # M|Dock | | /--\ Race | | \ ~ ~ / | |C | | B | ~ ~ ~ | | | /----+ | / ~ ~ \ +---\ | \----+ # +----+-+---+ @ | | B # /-+ Main # B | | B +-#-+-\ \-------+ | | Square |Prison| | | | /--------\ | | | |------/ | K | |Suburbs /---\ | | | | | | \---+ C | /-----\ /-+ A +-+ Back +-/ | +- -+-----------+ \-----/ | | | # Yard # | | # * | \-\ /-+ | /-----+ +----/ \---+ Avalanche | | # | | | | | \-----------/ | \-+--/ | \--------/ | | \-+ B +--/ \---/ We're back in the Forsaken City. Visit the hideout of Avalanche just south of where you start in this area, and talk to Su Ling. She's pleased to see you, and I'm not sure it's just because you have the nautical chart *_^ QUEST COMPLETE- Obtain the nautical chart NEW QUEST- Awaken the ancestors (obligatory) Reward: none A really easy quest- head west outside the Avalanche's hideout, then south, then west again to reach the X on the map. Hit the golden statue with any magic attack to activate it, and we're halfway done already (1/2). Our next target is old pottery. If you can't remember where that is, head back to the courtyard outside Avalanche's hideout- it is the building to the north. Go down the hole in the basement and climb the ladder to emerge in the northern town. The ancestor statue is in a building in the northeast corner. Use a magic attack once again to activate it (2/2), then return to the courtyard outside Avalanche's hideout. At the northeast of the courtyard, head through the gate and the ancestors will join you. It may be useful to pick up some armour from the shop before you cross the drawbridge. QUEST COMPLETE- Awaken the ancestors Cross the drawbridge to get into a fight with two bomb rats and two hammer gorillas. Use rolling attacks and jump attacks with the hammer to get rid of the rats, and eventually two more will join the fray. Where this used to be a recipe for a tough fight, you should make short work of your adversaries now. You can rack up a high score if you choose red at the big crystal during the fight. Winning will grant you the key you need to proceed. Go through the house and into the yard behind. Leave the cat statue for the moment and instead turn your attention to the switch next to the pots and the cage. Standing on it triggers a Zhong challenge. You will have to hit five Zhongs and make your way to the chest behind the cat statue, but you don't have much time. The first Zhong is a sword Zhong, and the next three are hammer Zhongs. The hammer Zhongs move together, so by timing your swing right, you can take out all three at once. There is a claw Zhong on the stairs, and by hitting them all you can open the chest to get a heart container. It probably won't take you more than a few tries to get it. If you don't skip the cutscene that shows the Zhongs appearing, the position of the Zhongs in the final seconds seems to be more favourable. Activate the cat statue before you leave (3/3). QUEST COMPLETE- Flood the Drydock Now that we have finished the missions here, it is time to head back over the drawbridge to Avalanche HQ and talk to Su Ling. As she puts it, it's time to sail to Waa-Lo and kick some ass! O----------------------O | SUB-AREA: THE MI-NOH | O----------------------O Head up the stairs behind Su Ling, and up the ladder to find Pan at the wheel. Talk to him to proceed with the story, when you get bored of the pandas singing to you. Upon talking to Pan and returning to the deck, the ship will be attacked. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOSS: The Dreaded Chei Ni Difficulty: Fair This guy is one of those bosses you can't just take down in two hits. It's going to take a little more time and agility to do the job here- probably THREE hits! There are a few different ways to handle this guy, and you can choose between them based on your skill level and personal preference. In terms of the battle dynamics, you will be fighting up to three rats throughout the battle. These rats cannot be harmed by Chei Ni's attacks, and when three are killed, three more will take their place. The sea monster starts by using a few strike attacks, which you can avoid by simply running around, and then uses a breath attack, which you can jump over or roll/crouch under (jumping is easier). He then lifts his head right up, and is vulnerable to damage. Provided you are in combo mode, you can reach the Zhongs overhead, and then combo attack Chei Ni. The boss's breath attack lasts longer when his health is low, and will probably be Chei Ni's main source of damage. Standard strategy: I would recommend killing two rats and leaving one, as they will respawn very slowly as long as one is alive. Avoid all of Chei Ni's attacks until he lifts his head. Then kill the one remaining rat with the hammer to enter combo mode so that you can attack the boss. Alternative (advanced) strategy: For higher difficulties, it will be useful to deal additional damage to the boss by attacking with a high combo. As many rats as possible should be killed to keep combo well into the teens- hammer throws may be considered, as they will make Kay immune to Chei Ni's attacks. If combo is high enough, sword combo attacks could be considered, provided they can kill the rats in 1-2 hits. Damage inflicted to the boss will subsequently be greatly increased. If you are skilled enough to be able to handle the extra fighting, this method will make the battle go faster on harder difficulties. Ultimately, the rats will probably do more damage than the boss here. If you had full health on the way into this battle, you shouldn't have to use a health potion. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | WALKTHROUGH: [WLK16] | | BEACH OF WAA-LO | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O Basalt Grottos /---------- ~ ~ ~ /------\ /------\ / ~ ~ ~ To the | ~ ~| | ~ ~| / D ~ ~ ~ Harbour * <-# ~ --- ~ ----- ~ ~ /---\ | ~ ~| | ~ ~| | ~ | | ~ \------/ \------/ | Clandestine ~ ~ \---/ /---\ / Beach ~ ~ ~ X - Starting point | %+---------- ~ ~ ~ B - Big crystal \---/| \ ~ ~ ~ D - Demon portal | \----------- ~ ~ ~ M - Merchant | # - Door | /---\ /---\ % - Crumbling wall /- -\ | M | | | ~ - Water | B | \- -/ \- -/ * - Endpoint \- -/ | | | | # /------%-------%--- ~ ~ ~ | / ~ ~ ~ /---\ \--- Second ~ /---\ ~ /--- | | beach ~ ~ | | | \- -/ | area ~ \---/ ~ % | /---\ | /--------------- ~ ~ ~ | \--- --% / /----- ----\ \---/ | | /-| Cave | | \ | fight | | \--------------- ~ ~ ~ \-| | /--% First ~ ~ /---\ \----- ----/ | | beach X ~ | | ~ % | \ area ~ ~ \---/ | /---\ | \--%--------------- ~ ~ ~ \------ B --/ | | \---/ \-/ NEW QUEST- Get to the harbour (obligatory) Reward: none Behind your starting point you will find a small island with a save point and an unlimited supply of bombs- this will be useful for the areas ahead, and in this level you should probably allocate two spots in your inventory to bombs. On the beach you will be attacked by seagulls (use claws) and a crab will rise from the sand to challenge you in each of the rings of crystals. You can get "jammed" under the crabs with the rolling attack like you can with demons, so use roll around and regular attacks with the hammer to kill them and get round their block which they use frequently. Alternatively, you may wish to use the uppercut attack when they raise their claws. Roll around combined with uppercuts is an even more formidable combination! When you have killed the three crabs in this area, a Zhong will appear next to a high rock. Jumping on the rock causes more Zhongs to appear, and you must destroy all 17 without touching the ground. With a few attempts you will be able to plan your route in such a way that you do not end up with an isolated Zhong that spoils your attempt. Succeeding earns you a heart container. Now head to the far west of the beach, up against the cliff, and follow it north, past a save point and loads of bombs to the second beach area. This is similar to the first in that there are three crabs and some seagulls to kill. Upon killing all of the crabs, a new Zhong challenge will become available, and can be accessed from the island in the east. This challenge is similar to the one in frog city, but in fact is even easier. You must combo to the only wooden Zhong out of the ones that appear. Completing the challenge earns you a magic container. In the cliff to the north of the second beach area there are two crumbling walls that can be broken with bombs. One leads to a cage and the other to a shop- you should buy a demon potion here later, but for just now your inventory space is probably being used for other things. Remember that you can return to the island east of the first beach area to resupply with bombs if you have to. While back in the first beach area, open the cage through the rusty iron bars to the south for some extra cash: you will need a bomb to get in. Now that the beaches are cleared, it is time to turn our attention to the cliff in the west. Work your way from south to north up the west side of the cliff, destroying crumbling walls as you go. The first tunnel is just next to a sign, and leads to a big crystal (choose yellow) and a crab. Breaking the iron bars at the end of this room will take you to a larger cavern, in which you will be attacked by four axe gorillas, one masked axe gorilla, three lightly armoured rats and two heavily armoured rats. I would recommend using a berserk potion here, and as usual you should open with a magic attack, and take out the rats first to build combo. After a while a whole swarm of bats will appear which you can use to build your combo with the claws. Remaining gorillas can then be dealt with using the hammer. As usual, throws will be more useful if several enemies remain, while roll attacks are more beneficial when there are only a few opponents left. When the fight is over, press the switch to the west, and prepare to be ambushed by four crabs as you leave. Consider using a magic attack to soften these enemies up and save yourself some time and effort. On the way out of this area as you follow the path around there is more treasure, bombs and a single crab. This tunnel will take you out at the save point between the two beach areas. The stone passage in the northwest has been opened by the switch we just pressed, so head there now. There is a cage to open here, two crabs to kill and a big crystal (choose red). On your way through the next tunnel to the Clandestine Beach, there is a crumbling wall on the left that hides a small alcove with a crab. Killing this crab awards you some money and bombs. A crab is waiting for you near the save point at the Clandestine Beach too, as is a Zhong challenge. This challenge is similar to the one in the King's Palace in the forsaken city, as you have to switch weapon very quickly to destroy the Zhongs. The sequence of Zhongs is: sword, hammer, sword, claws, hammer, sword, sword. To translate this into how many times you have to switch weapon between the Zhongs: once, twice, twice, twice, twice, not at all. You will be rewarded with red armour for completing the challenge. This is a tough one- don't expect to get it on your first shot. Use your demon potion before you move on. The portal is right next to the northwest tunnel away from the beach. This demon portal will be tougher since you have space in your inventory wasted by bombs. Consider throwing away bombs for a health and magic potion in the first room, provided you don't have one of each already. You should collect the blue crystals above the moving platform before breaking the pots in the first room to increase your score multiplier. In the main room there are four fat demons, three energy demons and a fire demon (oh my), so you're in for a tough fight. As usual, stay agile- go for a fat demons first to give you a combo, then target the fire demon as he will cause havok otherwise, clear up the rest of the fat demons and leave the energy demons for last, as they are the least aggressive. In the final room there is an extra life, a flash bomb (seriously?!) and not as much cash as you are used to in the demon realm (0.75 million points). When you return to the beach, take the exit to the northwest to find yourself in the grotto. The grotto is just a jump challenge, and is not terribly difficult when you have the timing worked out, since the red crystals lead the way. Don't worry about collecting all of the crystals. After the first set of platforms there is a set of Zhongs leading to the switch that turns on the second set. The next room uses the same idea as its predecessor, but with only one set of platforms this time. Pressing the switch in the second room opens the gate to a rainy harbour, and one stop closer to a confrontation with Tak. QUEST COMPLETE- Get to the harbour O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | WALKTHROUGH: [WLK17] | | HARBOUR | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O X - Starting point /----\ /---------\ B - Big crystal /---\ | K | | Throne | K - Key | | /--# B @--# Room | M - Merchant \- -/ | | | | | # - Open door | | \----/ \---------/ @ - Padlocked door /--+-------/ ~ - Water | * - Endpoint | /---- --\ To /---\ /-| | Loading * <--- -- Smithy | Lamp \---/ \-| | \---- --/ ^ /-------\ | /------ | | | | | Depot -> Elevator | /--- | | | | \-------/ | B | | /-- -- --\===================== | | ~ ~ ~ ~ | Dock | ~ ~ ~ \ ---\ ~ ~ ~ \------/ ~ \ ~ ~ //~ \ ~ ~ ~ // ~ /\ ~ ~ // ~ /---/ \ / ~ ~ // M / ~ B ~ ~ // ~ ~ X / \ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ NEW QUEST- Defeat Tak (obligatory) Reward: none There is a shop on the walkways at the start of this area- and it stocks something very, very exciting... NEW WEAPON- The Bullhammer Available for a very reasonable price, each strike with this hammer has the power of several metric tonnes of TNT. Prepare to destroy everything as the sword becomes all but obsolete. Only now use the claws against flying enemies and spiders- no other weapon can possibly compare to this. Masked gorillas beware, for now you have mere seconds to live. That is not an understatement; combat just isn't fair any more. Choose red at the big crystal and proceed on across the jetty to find three rats. Vaporise them with the hammer, and bask in its awesome greatness. That's right, you can destroy ALL of a FULLY ARMOURED rat's defensive plating with A SINGLE NORMAL SWING. There is an extra life under the jetty just before the rats. In the shorter of the two tunnels leading out of this area, there is a big crystal and some small blue crystals. Of course you should choose blue. In the Depot there are two hammer gorillas (one is masked), two axe gorillas, and four bomb rats, one of which is wearing heavy armour. Usual tactics apply here- open with a magic attack, take out the rats with hammer roll attacks while avoiding shockwaves, then turn your attention to the gorillas, roll/ jump attacking if they are spread out and throwing if they are close together. Stroll into the eastern elevator when you are finished, leaving a crumpled mass of endangered species behind you. A berserk potion will be handy here, especially if you find that the rats are throwing a lot of bombs in the early stages of the battle. When you leave the elevator, run north, opening a cage as you go and follow the corridor around to the east, where you will have to avoid the flames spewing from pipes. Visit the small room off to the left for some cash, then follow a very linear path past a save point to the rat barracks. The rat barracks consists of a series of fights: 1 Three bomb rats- choose any colour at the big crystal and finish with hammer roll attacks. 2 Three bomb rats, one of which is heavily armoured- use hammer roll attacks. 3 Three heavily armoured bomb rats- use hammer roll attacks. You will then be rewarded with the key to the throne room (the next room to the east). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOSS: Alchemist Tak, King of the Rats Difficulty: Gruelling The toughest boss so far. His attack pattern is as follows: he will perform a series of lunging attacks, then a jump attack. These attacks may be repeated. Tak will then charge his bomb attack and will glow pink. You should be ready to evade bombs at this point, as he will throw a large number of them out randomly into the room. The number of bombs he throws is dependent on his health- less health, more bombs. At later stages in the battle, Tak can also use magic like the energy demons' that cannot be blocked or countered. You will be hit by this attack; it can't be helped unless you are a significant distance from him. Ensure you go into this battle with either 7 or so points of armour, or a health potion. Tak will also receive constant support from armoured spear and bomb rats, which you should just try to run away from rather than fight. The strategy for avoiding Tak's attacks is primarily to keep moving, and to stay far away from him. The fact that his henchmen can use bombs too makes standing still very risky. His spear attacks can be blocked and since he moves very quickly, blocking is the best way to avoid damage from them, but it does mean staying still for a few seconds. His bomb attack can best be avoided by keeping a good distance away from him when he uses it, and as has already been explained, you cannot dodge his magic attack at close to mid-range. Tak can be hit during the recovery phase after his jump attack, and also shortly after his bomb attack. However, what makes him difficult to fight is his ability to automatically block all strikes that do not land within the very narrow recovery window when he is vulnerable. Since it is unwise to be close to him during the bomb attack, the best time to damage him is after blocking his jump attack. Use an uppercut if you have time for higher damage, or a regular hit with the hammer if you need to get moving again quickly. Single hits will prevent you being vulnerable for too long. It is a fast paced battle, and there is a lot to remember, notice, and act upon, but hopefully you should pull through without too much difficulty. Like most bosses, there is a way to defeat Tak in only two turns. The trick here is to use a hammer uppercut immediately after blocking his jump strike (roll attack will not work!), which throws him onto his back. Follow this with two jump strikes of your own to decimate Tak's health. If you have any bombs left over from the beach, you can drop a bomb on Tak after knocking him onto his back for massive damage. These alternative strategies are more difficult, but arguably no more dangerous than fighting him normally. Good luck! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- QUEST COMPLETE- Defeat Tak NEW QUEST- Find Shun (obligatory) Press the switch next to the throne to lower the elevator, and head back to the Smithy. Travel to the upper level in the elevator and collect the health potion from the chest before going through the arch to the loading ramp. The loading ramp is a short room in which you must head up the slopes to kill the gorilla at the top, while avoiding the barrels he throws down towards you. It isn't really that tough provided you don't get preoccupied by collecting all the crystals. The door leading to the volcano is behind the gorilla. O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | WALKTHROUGH: [WLK18] | | VOLCANO | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O O---------------------O | PART 1: VULCANOSIDE | To O---------------------O Hell's * Gate ^ X - Starting point ~ | ~ B - Big crystal ~ /--@---\ ~ C - Cat statue / \ D - Demon portal ~ | K B |~ K - Key \ / M - Merchant ~ \--- -/ ~ # - Door ~ \ \ @ - Padlocked door ~ \ \~ ~ - Lava ~ ~ \ \ ~ * - Endpoint ~ /-----\ ~ ~ / / |C | / / ~ /---\ /---\ ~ |Bears| ~ ~/ / ~ | | | | \-- --/ ~ / D/ \-#-/ /---\ | | ~ | ~ / / ~ | | M | |---| C ~ | ~ ~/ / ~ X--+ \-#-/ ~ ~ |~ ~| ~| | ~ / / | /----\ /----\ | ~ ~/--/ ~ \---\ | ~ | ~ / / ~ \-- | | -----+------ # --+---+---+----/ ~ | | | | ~ \---\ /---/ ~Blaze ~ | ~ \-- -/ \- --/ ~ ~ | | Valley |~ | | /---/ / ~ C ~ | /------\ | \-----/ ~ \- Bat -/ Volcanic |Cavern| Eruption \------/ To the left of the start of this area is a sliding box. Behind the box (push it out of the way) is a hole leading to a room filled with explosives. Detonating said explosives nets you loads of coin to spend in the shop. Proceed up the slope, avoiding the fire and falling rocks to get into a fight with some gorillas in hot air balloons that drop bombs. Skull bugs will arrive on the scene after a few seconds, so equip the claws and take them out. The balloons can be brought down by a hit or two with the claws, so treat them the same as skull bugs. You may be able to finish this fight without touching the ground. Continuing on up the hill will take you through a cavern full of bats. Use them to build enough combo to open the chest in this area and earn an extra life. There is also a cage and a rat in this area, but nothing too difficult. Upon leaving this cavern you will be forced into a more challenging fight against four armoured axe gorillas, a rat, two masked axe gorillas and two gorillas in balloons. Use the Zhongs in this area to combo up to the gorillas in balloons, and take them down with the claws. The gorillas and rat should then be dealt with using a berserk potion, and the hammer. Bear in mind that even with the bullhammer you are not invincible- without armour you may only survive four attacks without having to heal. Remember to keep the enemies on their asses with roll attacks, and consider using magic to knock over all enemies in range. Just before the next save point is a hole you can crawl through to reach a shop- buy a demon potion and some armour, as well as a couple of berserk potions if your bank balance allows. Your ideal inventory at this point will look something like this: 1 Demon potion 2 Magic potion 3 Berserk potion 4 Berserk potion 5 Health/ berserk/ magic The next area along the path is called "volcanic eruption" and while you are traversing the narrow path over the lava you are vulnerable to damage from falling rocks- scoot through this area as quickly as you can to minimise the risk. Heading left and across the ropes after the narrow lava path will take you to five switches arranged like this: A (BOX) ================ LAVA ================ B C D E =============== LAVA (BACK WHERE YOU CAME FROM) You should press the switches here in the order B, E, C, D, and then push the box onto switch A to open the door to the next area. Just before leaving through the now-open door in the northeast, head south for a cage and some health. Meet Pan (he's the man) just beyond the door. He tells you about a mountain you have to move. NEW QUEST- Find three cat statues (obligatory) Reward: none Pass the save point and follow the red crystals as they lead away to the left. The path here is narrow, and there is a gorilla in a balloon overhead that you cannot reach to kill. Fortunately, very few of the bombs that he throws will land on the narrow path as you run along, so you should reach the cat statue (1/3) and make it back the way you came without any real problem. Back in the main chasm, follow the yellow crystals to the northwest. Along the narrow path here there are falling rocks, but they cannot hit you if you stay on the path. On the platform at the end you will face a rat, two masked hammer gorillas and four armoured bears. I tend to open this battle with a magic attack against as many of the bears and rats as I can, before resorting to hammer throws against the masked gorillas (you can't throw bears!) and roll attacks on the stragglers. Although this fight doesn't seem desperately difficult on paper, I always seem to take a bit of a beating from the bears here; perhaps I'm just not well-practised at fighting them since there are only a few of them in the game. If you also find yourself taking a few hits, use a berserk potion (I always do, this is probably my most hated battle of the whole game). Collect the extra life from the chest and activate the cat statue (2/3) before returning to the main chasm. Following the path highlighted by the blue crystals takes you through a series of platforms with bombs dropping from above, before reaching a cat statue (3/3) guarded by absolutely nothing at all. Head back to Pan to save and heal, then proceed to the northeast. QUEST COMPLETE- find three cat statues Beyond the top of the rocks you moved you will find that parts of the path crumble away into the lava when you step on or near them; they can be easily spotted and jumped over due to their different colour compared to the rest of the path. A little further along you will reach the bottom of a flight of stairs. Boulders and bombs are being thrown from the top, so move quickly and be ready to jump at a moment's notice to get out of danger. You can run up the stone on either side of the stairs themselves to avoid most hazards in this area. At the base of the staircase there is a combo +5 chest. HUGE thanks and a big shout out to Jack Meleu for explaining to me how to open this. He tells us to head back to the second last part of the path that falls and drop onto the platform created by it. A Zhong challenge will then appear, consisting of three hammer Zhongs, a claws Zhong and a sword Zhong. Completing the challenge allows you to open the combo +5 chest. Thanks for the information Jack, I'd never have found this myself. Fortunately, this Zhong challenge has no time limit. The sword Zhong floats back and forth across a distance of lava. If you destroy it right away, you will not be close enough to the chest to combo to it, and you'll fall to your death. Instead, you should keep the claws equipped and slash away at the sword Zhong until it is close to the chest, before switching to the sword and destroying it. This will keep the Zhong intact until you are in a safe position, and you will not fall into the lava. This is the only time in the game that you have to "ride" a Zhong in this way. If the sword Zhong is at the chest when you are at the claw Zhong, "ride" the claw Zhong by hitting it with the hammer. The chest contains black armour. Use your demon potion at the top of the stairs to find the last demon portal in the game. Collect the crystals in the first room and move into the main room, where you will be greeted by four fat demons, three energy demons and three fire demons. Holy crap, these guys will hand your ass to you if you're not careful. Choose blue at the crystal in the room and throw a berserk potion immediately. As usual, take down one fat demon for combo, then defeat the rest of the demons in the order fire, fat, energy. In the last room you will find thousands of coin, literally (7 million points!!!!!), as well as hearts, black armour and an extra life. Return to the top of the stone stairs. If you beat all of the demon gates in the game, well done you! ^_^ Continue northeast at the top of the stairs, jumping over and around the jets of fire and steam to reach the next save point. Just beyond here you will receive red armour, which if you visited the demon realm is totally unnecessary. A really big fight is coming up. On the next big platform you will encounter four bomb rats (one has heavy armour) and a few terracotta warriors that can now be killed with a single rolling attack. The rats can be killed by choosing any colour at the big crystal in the centre of the platform. With the rats out of the way, four armoured hammer gorillas will join the party. Use throws if they are close together and roll attacks if they are far apart to keep shockwaves to a minimum. This is probably the best phase of the battle to use a berserk potion in. During the fight another eight terracotta warriors will start to converge on your position. For your convenience and speed, a magic attack can take them all out if you wait until they are close enough. Fortunately, their laser eyes will inflict high damage to the gorillas you are fighting. Phase three of the fight begins once the gorillas and warriors are dead. Enter stage left two armoured hammer gorillas, and enter stage right an armoured hammer gorilla and a masked hammer gorilla. This time reinforcements come in the form of crows, which you can tear apart easily with the claws to build combo. Use throws when the gorillas are on their own, and rolling attacks when reinforcements are there, as the battle will tend to open up more then. Sixteen or so terracotta warriors appear after the crows, and are best left until they close in before being zapped with magic. When you win, you will be rewarded with a key. Hopefully you manage to hold onto your armour during this fight- without it you may find that your health drops quickly. The key you just earned opens the door in the northwest and allows you to exit this area. To summarise this fight Phase 1: 4 armoured rats, 4 terracotta warriors Phase 2: 4 armoured hammer gorillas Then 8 terracotta warriors Phase 3: 3 armoured hammer gorillas, 1 masked hammer gorilla Then ~8 crows, 12 terracotta warriors O---------------------O /--------\ /---------\ | PART 2: HELL'S GATE | | K | | Last | O---------------------O /----- Field @--- line of # * | |of lava | | defence | X - Starting point /---@---\ \--------/ \---------/ B - Big crystal | K | K - Key | Ammo | # - Door | Depot | @ - Padlocked door \--- ---/ * - Endpoint | | /--@--\ / K\ \ B / \-- --/ ^ /------\ | | -> Lava | /--/ Chase | | | \--\ | | | /--/ | | | X | \---/ You will meet Su Ling as you enter the next area, who will tell you about the gorillas' last line of defence that you are now approaching. NEW QUEST- Break through the last line of defence (obligatory) Reward: none Black armour is available from the immediate right as you start this area, but you'll have to be quick as your stamina doesn't last long over there. Head to the northwest and follow the path past lots of things that are exploding, then go up the ladder. What action game through a volcano would be complete without running from an ever-advancing river of magma? A very original idea here from the developers. This isn't really that tough, provided you are already pushing the analog stick forwards when you regain control of Kay after seeing the lava. A split second delay can make all the difference here, so remember not to follow the crystal trail exactly. Be ready for areas of rock in front of you to collapse for you to jump over. You're not safe until you get to the top of the next ladder, so don't hang about! Next comes a fight with some bomb rats in a smoke filled room. Assuming you use a magic attack on the big crystal (choose red) and use the hammer to fight, you will finish the fight before even a quarter of your stamina is lost. Collect the extra life in this room before taking the key from the chest and moving on. The next room in the ammunition depot, where there is another big fight. For starters, you will face a masked axe gorilla, an armoured hammer gorilla and two armoured axe gorillas. Use whichever combat method you prefer- roll attacks or throws, and remember to watch out for the explosive barrels on both sides of the room. After the gorillas are out of the game, four heavily armoured spear rats and three heavily armoured bomb rats square up to you. Use either rolling attacks or preferably a magic attack to thin the crowds, and finish with the hammer as usual. This fight isn't any more difficult than the others you have faced, so finish up, grab the key and move on. In the next smoke filled room there are a series of platforms moving left to right. Use these to make your way to the far left where there is a key in a chest. You can use this key in the door to the east. After this very easy room, you will find yourself at the last line of the gorillas' defence. Alright, here we go. This is a hell of a fight, and you can make it even worse for yourself if you choose to flank enemies instead of keeping the fighting close to the centre. Explosive barrels around the sides of the room will release bugs and spiders if you go too close, so keep fighting to the centre of the room at all costs. You risk being surrounded very quickly here, so try to make sure you always have room for a roll around/ throw combination. You have to face a heavily armoured rat, six bomb rats and four masked gorillas- two with axes, two with hammers- to continue. This is the last big fight in the game, so just throw all of your items at it. Use a berserk potion if you have one, and if you have a magic potion then you could potentially have half a dozen magic attacks at your disposal! Magic attacks and berserk hammer throws in the centre of the room are without a doubt the keys to success here. Getting rid of bomb rats early will be very helpful. Finish with roll attacks as usual and clear the outsides of the room with claws only when everything else is dead. Proceed when you are ready- it's time to end this, once and for all. QUEST COMPLETE- Break through the last line of defence O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | WALKTHROUGH: [WLK19] | | SHOWDOWN WITH SHUN | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O _ / \ | M \/----------\ /-------------------------\ \ \ | | X - Starting point \ /----\ \ /--/ | M - Merchant | / \ |--| | # - Door |X | * | # # | * - Endpoint | \ / |--| | \ \----/ / \--\ | \ / | | \----------/ \-------------------------/ This is it. Before visiting the shop, note that there are health and magic potions at the ends of the beams extending out to the machine in the centre, so don't waste your money on them in the shop. Having said that, this is the final shop in the game, so feel free to go on a spending spree. Magic potions and indeed magic attacks are pretty useless now, so I would recommend taking five health potions into your inventory, as well as buying new armour, no matter how beat up your current suit is. When you are suitably prepared, go through the door to the east. Shun is waiting. Use the save point to your immediate right as you go through the second set of doors as it will soon be swallowed up by the rising lava. Meet your enemy at the top of the stairs; it's show time. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOSS: Minister Shun, Lord of the Gorillas Difficulty: Tough As per usual, gorilla henchmen are here to blindly support the Din regime, go to their deaths for their master and swing very hefty-looking weaponry in your direction. Prepare for four gorillas, either heavily armoured or masked and equipped with axes to be constantly on your back during this fight, and for that reason on the whole it is best to keep moving. As with the rats in the Tak fight, your best bet is to just run away from these gorillas. Like Tak, Shun has attacks similar to Kay's triple strike and jump attack which can be easily blocked and countered, provided it is safe to stand still. Shun opens with his physical attacks and then teleports, vanishing from the battle for a few seconds. Use this time to put some distance between you and Shun's henchmen. Shun will then reappear a good distance away from you and shoot fireballs with his lance. These are not too difficult to dodge with a jump or roll. Finally, Shun will dart towards you at lightning speed to deliver another physical attack, so be ready to move. He repeats this pattern over and over, so learn it and use it against him. The trick to damaging Shun is to defend during his physical attacks and then quickly counter with a triple strike before he teleports away. The window of opportunity here is very, very small, and as a result the hammer is too slow to connect with more than one hit before Shun vanishes. I would therefore recommend using the sword or claws against Shun, as you can land at least three attacks before he disappears, as long as you are quick enough with the attack. (Sword is probably preferable as the claws can do nothing to hold back Shun's henchmen.) After a short while the floor will open to expose a pit of lava, which restricts your movement by quite a bit. Keep your wits about you- it goes without saying that you should not fall in! With a sound battle strategy here, the fight with Shun is more predictable and ultimately (I think) a little easier than the fight with Tak. It still won't be totally straightforward, but the big ape is certainly a manageable adversary. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Oddly, opening your quest menu will show that you have not yet "found minister Shun". Anyway, jump on the throne to ascend to the top of the Songstone machine. Use the save point, heal up on the heart plate if you have to, and ascend the ladder. It is final boss time. Hours of work have led to this moment. Kay is ready. You are ready. Now... now the sun rises on a warrior! Let's do this thing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOSS: Monster Shun Difficulty: Gruelling Firstly, let us observe the battlefield. There is a ring of eight Zhongs around it, and falling off will cost you one health point and cause you to respawn at the save point you have just touched. The green smoke rising in the centre is not dangerous, so feel free to use all of the space you have. Going clockwise, the sequence of the Zhongs is: sword, hammer, claws, sword, hammer, claws, sword, hammer... Since the number of Zhongs is not divisible by three, you will have to change weapon twice at one of the Zhongs to make a complete circuit. This is confusing and easy to get wrong, and so I would advise against making complete circuits of the arena using the Zhongs. Moving in complete circuits also puts you at a greater risk of falling from the battlefield if you are hit, which restarts the fight and is tremendously frustrating. You should use the hammer for this battle, as it is not possible to hit more than once at a time, and the hammer does the most damage. Shun's attack pattern starts with a series of physical attacks which cannot be blocked. He then shoots fireballs from his lance and disappears for a second. Four "Shuns" then appear, with only one being able to take damage. This is the time at which he is vulnerable. After a few seconds, or after he is hit, the fake Shuns disappear and the real Shun starts the attack pattern again. So what can we do about these attacks? Firstly, you should always have combo of at least +1 during this fight, to allow you to combo out of trouble when you need to. Pick a hammer Zhong and break it, combo to the next Zhong and let yourself drop here without breaking it. Wait a second until Shun catches you up, then combo to the next Zhong and do not break it. Repeating this strategy means he cannot hit you with any of his attacks. Only destroy another hammer Zhong when your combo is about to run out. As for damaging Shun, the only opportunity you have is when he summons his three doppelgangers. Of the four Shuns, the true Shun has red sparks coming from the amulet on his chest. If you know what you are looking for, it isn't too tricky to spot. Combo towards the real Shun and give him a quick smash with the bullhammer. Repeat these strategies until Shun goes down, taking Din and his evil plans with him. Undoubtedly, you will be hit a few times- he has a massive lunge to his attacks and the fireballs are spread out across a wide arc, but keeping agile and keeping a combo of +1 will let you dodge most of his attacks, and if he can't hit you, you can't lose. Don't stand too close to the edge of the platform, so that you don't fall even if you do get hit. That's all our loose ends cleared up, right? We win, don't we? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- BOSS: ????? Difficulty: Brutal Whatever the hell *that* is, you're going to have to fight it. Like Shun, it starts with a physical attack. However, it then causes a shockwave which it follows up with a fast lunge attack, so be prepared to combo off the ground or double jump to dodge. Comboing around the Zhongs without destroying them is another useful strategy for staying out of trouble here too. This beast is much faster and more aggressive than Shun, so you will have to be a fair bit more agile with your jumps and combos to stay safe. The lunge attack is particularly prone to knocking you off the edge of the platform, and if this happens, you will have to do the first fight all over again. Make sure you stay away from the edge of the platform unless you are comboing around the Zhongs! After its physical attacks, the beast jumps into the centre of the arena, where it releases fireballs from its lance. Two sets of fireballs are released one after the other, and they do a pretty good job of covering most of the arena. Dodging the fireballs is really, really tough, and does require a degree of luck, or very quick reactions. Your best bet is to keep moving. Unfortunately, if you are hit by a fireball you are unlikely to be able to damage the beast on this turn. After the fireballs have been released, combo up to the monster and hit it with the hammer to deal some damage. The combat pattern may be easier to learn than Shun's or Tak's, but the attacks that your opponent uses here are much more difficult to dodge. If you are doing well, use health potions to keep yourself alive long enough to win- this is the last fight in the game and beyond this potions have no use. Best of luck, and enjoy the closing cutscene when you are successful. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CONGRATULATIONS! You have beaten Legend of Kay! ^_^ If you want to get even more out of the game, why not play on a harder difficulty, or try a speedrun? O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: [DMN] | | DEMON PORTAL LOCATIONS | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O Here are the known locations of demon portals. Finding all of these earns you the "All cats are grey in the dark" achievement in the anniversary edition, and so it can be assumed that this is a complete list. I have also included an indication of the points available in each portal, measured on an average run on normal difficulty. As you can see, there is wide variation in the reward one earns for discovering these portals! Level Location Points 1. Mystic Forest Tree stump at the beginning of the level 100,000 2. Dragoncave Between the obelisks in the blue mushroom room 1,500,000 3. Nebula Islands Jetty near Shell Island 1,000,000 4. Marshland On the second island in the Swamps of Death 750,000 5. Crocodile Temple Southwest corner of the pump room 2,250,000 6. King's Palace Entrance, in front of the pandas 2,500,000 7. Beach of Waa-Lo To the right of the exit from Clandestine Beach 750,000 8. Volcano At the top of the stone steps 7,000,000 O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: [LOC] | | RARE ITEM LOCATIONS | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O 1. HEART CONTAINERS (12 available) 1 Cat Village Given by the Master during the first fighting lesson 2 Cat Village Find Tang Mu's children 3 Mystic Forest Bought from the Merchant 4 Meridional Forest Behind the dragon statue in the hidden glade 5 Merid Forest/Boarax Bought from the Merchant 6 Wild Boar Boarax Prize for winning the Holey Hoop Hop 7 Nebula Islands Found on Snail Island after activating the cat statues 8 Marshland Complete the Zhong challenge in the Swamps of Death 9 Frog City Complete the Zhong challenge 10 Ancient Dungeons Ascend Heaven's Stair (Ring of Champions) 11 Forsaken City II Complete the Zhong Challenge in the suburbs 12 Beach of Waa-Lo Complete the Zhong Challenge on the south beach 2. MAGIC CONTAINERS (11 available) 1 Cat Village Prize for winning the Holey Hoop Hop 2 Cat Village Given by the Master during the second fighting lesson 3 Meridional Forest Complete the Zhong Challenge at the Haretree 4 Dragoncave In the tunnels below Dragon's Gut 5 Nebula Islands Bought from the Merchant 6 Nebula Islands Found in the demon portal near Snail Island 7 Turtle Fort Found in the kitchen 8 King's Palace Bought from the Merchant 9 Beach of Waa-Lo Complete the Zhong challenge on the north beach 10 Beach/Harbour Bought from the Merchant 11 Volcano Bought from the Merchant *Please note that if magic or heart containers are available from the merchant and the level simultaneously, you should buy from the merchant first. Collecting the container that can be found in the level first will result in the other container being removed from the merchant's inventory. It will not be available until a later level, and will be more expensive. O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: [EXT] | | EXTRAS AND UNLOCKABLES | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O Many players wonder about how to unlock the extras, and it is a common topic of discussion online. I have had a good many emails and messages about what is needed to unlock all of the extras, and further discussion is always welcome if anyone can shed more light on the situation. I am very grateful to T Murphy for helping me to investigate this. A minority of extras (videos and races) are unlocked by game progress alone. The special weapons are unlocked by score gain alone. All other extras are unlocked through a combination of score gain and game progress i.e. models, pictures and music are unlocked by passing a certain point in the game with a score that is above a minimum value. Therefore all extras will be unlocked by completing the last level of the game with a sufficiently high score. The level being played dictates which extras are unlocked. For example, music from the Meridional Forest is unlocked by finishing that level (or any subsequent level) with a certain score. The model of Jia-Gu will not be unlocked until after the Lone Swamp, even if your score was sufficiently high earlier in the game. The final extras relating to the last bosses will not be unlocked until the end credits scene. If score is not high enough at when an extra becomes available, the extra may be unlocked at any subsequent level when the correct score has been achieved. No further extras can be unlocked after the last boss without starting a new game. I have managed to unlock all of the extras in a single game by scoring 69 million points on hard difficulty. I'm not sure what minimum score is needed to unlock all of the extras, so I'd recommend aiming for >60 million on Hard difficulty. I have also played on nightmare difficulty and unlocked all of the extras, and so difficulty setting does not seem to be a factor affecting which extras are unlocked (although it will influence your score). However, T Murphy has reported scores of >100 million on nightmare difficulty, without unlocking the final extras associated with the last level. This seems like a lot of very hard work with no reward, and the only factor we can isolate as being a probable cause for this is playing the Anniversary Edition of the game on Wii U (my scores were taken from the PS2 and PS3 versions). Further concrete information on this topic is always more than welcome. Here is a complete list of the unlockable extras: PICTURES - Kay - Enemies Vol. I - Cats - Weapons and Armor - Enemies Vol. II - Friends - Enemies Vol. III - Rendering - Bosses - Special VIDEOS - Prologue - Inspecting the fountain - Kay embarks - The slavery trail - Shun inspects - On board the Mi-Noh - The Din-Chi is disturbed - Launching dragonmouth - The happy ending MODELS - Uncle Shen - Master - Su Ling - Dai - Nong Bao - Guo Mei - Tang Mu - Sha Ma - Ai Tan - Ou Bai - Chicken - Carnivore plant - Lu Wu - Tu Lao - Spear rat - Bear - Scratch Bug - Tor Chi - Boarax - Boar - Kay without weapon - Tiao - Gu - Ferryman - Turtle soldier - Toad - Crocodile - Dragonfly - Fire demon - Jia-Gu - Kay with sword - Axe gorilla - Mace gorilla (hammer gorilla in the walkthrough) - Hookknife rat (light blue tunics, bomb rats in the walkthrough) - Lightning demon (energy demon in the walkthrough) - Han Tou - Wolf - Spider - Clay warrior - Kay with claws - Quian Bei - Bodyguard - Seagull - Crab - Fat demon - Tak - Bat - Kay with hammer - Shun - Shun Mutation 1 - Shun Mutation 2 MUSIC (I think this is one of the game's real strengths, so enjoy!) ^_^ - Main theme - Cat village melody - Home town blues - Masters school - Let's go shopping - Riding the boar - Visiting the forest - Seven pillars clearance - Running rivers - There the hare - Inside the dragon - Dragoonia - Fighter's melody - Canyon Cadence - Boom Boom Boarax - Demons' realm - Swampland melody - Marshland - Fate of the Frogs vol. I - Fate of the Frogs vol. II - Crocodile style - Cha cha Jia-Gu - Hymn of death - Handle your weapons - Turtle march - Windy tunes - Sound of Forsaken City vol. I - Sound of Forsaken City vol. II - Call of the ancients - Tame the wolf - Dark deep dungeons vol. I - Dark deep dungeons vol. II - Qian Bei's song - Hit'em hard - Do Re Mi-Noh - Master your weapons - At the beach - Music from the harbor - Tak's overture - Gorillas' percussion - Shun's overture - Shun's mutation - Shun's crescendo WEAPONS (see below) - Sword - Claws - Hammer RACES The races are at a high level of difficulty, and so there are a lot of chillies to cut down your time. Try and beat my best times from 5 attempts. - Forest race (0:48:51) - Ramp race (0:45:85) - Palace race (0:43:02) - City race (0:47:92) SPECIAL WEAPONS =============== The special weapons are pretty cool. Probably included by the developers just for a laugh, they certainly add a bit of fun for a committed player. A really high score is needed for these- normal difficulty simply isn't enough to unlock the hammer. Activating the specials in the extras menu changes the appearance of the swords, hammers and claws in the game to something amusing or comical- enjoy playing with these :D *****SECRET WEAPON SPOILERS***** Swords (around 12 million points needed) - The wooden training sword does not change - The ancestral sword becomes a banjo - The dragon sword becomes a viola - The shadowsword becomes an electric guitar Claws (around 21 million points needed) - The basic claws become cutlery - The razor claws become gardening tools - The mantis claws become a spray bottle and sponge Hammer (around 38 million points needed) - The basic hammer becomes a fly swatter - The ancient hammer becomes a tennis racket - The bullhammer becomes a giant hand *****END OF SPOILERS***** O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: [TRO] | | TROPHY/ACHIEVEMENT LIST | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O In July 2015, Legend of Kay Anniversary was released for modern platforms to celebrate 10 years since its original PS2 release, and so you can now earn achievements for playing through the game. The trophy type (PlayStation) or gamerscore value (XBOX) is also listed here. Platinum (PlayStation only) ======== Collect all the other trophies to unlock Story Achievements ================== Weak as a kitten Bronze, 10 Complete the first sword training Let the cat out of the bag Bronze, 15 Complete the second fight training lesson Not enough room to swing a cat Bronze, 10 Win the first fight against Boarax Turtle Twister Silver, 25 Win the fight against Jia-Gu Gorilla Killa Silver, 25 Win the fight against Shun's Bodyguard Hard as a rock Silver, 25 Win the fight against Qian Bei the ancestor Cat versus Snake Silver, 25 Win the fight against The Dreaded Chei Ni Ratatouille Silver, 25 Win the fight against Alchemist Tak Is it over yet? Gold, 150 Win the fight against Minister Shun Like the cat that got the cream Silver, 50 Finish the game on Hard difficulty Hellcat Gold, 100 Finish the game on Nightmare difficulty (GOOD LUCK!) Combo Achievements ================== Look what the cat dragged in Bronze, 5 Get a 5x combo Put the cat among the pigeons Bronze, 10 Get a 10x combo Make the fur fly Bronze, 15 Get a 15x combo Fight like Kilkenny cats Silver, 20 Get a 20x combo Weapons Achievements ==================== Dancing with the blade Gold, 75 Collect all swords in the game Cat in gloves catches no mice Silver, 50 Collect all claws in the game Hammercat Silver, 50 Collect all hammers in the game Gameplay Achievements ===================== Fat cat Silver, 50 Upgrade your health points to the maximum Cat Chi Silver, 50 Upgrade your chi (magic) points to the maximum Enough to make a cat laugh Gold, 30 Upgrade your extra lives to 9 Steel Fur Silver, 50 Collect all the three different armour types All cats are grey in the dark Gold, 75 Find and activate all demon portals Race Achievements ================= Like a cat riding a boar Bronze, 10 Finish the first boar race Curiosity killed the cat Silver, 50 Win an extra race without collecting a chilli O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: [MAP] | | MAPS | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O Here is a collection of all of the maps from the walkthrough. The following symbols are used throughout the maps: X Level start point A Ancestor statue J Jade panda * Level endpoint B Big crystal K Key C Cat statue M Merchant # Open door D Demon portal O Hammer plate @ Padlocked door E Frog egg R Dragon's eye ruby % Crumbling wall F Froghead amulet part T Tang Mu's weapon ~ Water G Dragon statue W Weapon/ weapon upgrade $ Bamboo in water 01: Cat Village =============== /----\ / Boss \ <-----------\ | Fight| | | /-+--##-/+---\ | | |~~ |Rat | /-------##------\ | |~ Camp| | | Boar \--\ \- --/ | Farm of #-->Race \ / | Nong Bao / \ /--/ | / | | | / / K+----\ \-/-#--\-\ \----\ |C #Ai | |Nong| \ \------\ \ |Tan | |Bao | \----\ \ | +----/ \----/ \--------\ \--/ | \ | /---\ /----\ | /Glade\-----\ |Tang# | | T C \ | Mu | | \ /--\ \ /-------+--+----+ | \ / \ \ | |Store T| | /--------\ / / \ \ /--------------#---/ | / \-/ / | | | | / Holey / | | | /--@--\ /--#--\ | | Hoop / | | | |Jug | |Lib- | | | Hop / | \ | |Store| | rary| | \ / \ \ | +-----+ +-----/ | \ / \ \-/ | | |Hist-| | \--------/ \ | | |orian| | \---\ \-----/ \--#--/ | | | /----\ | T /-----\ | |Su | / --| Ou | /--\ |Ling| / | Bai | | | /--+-#--+-------/ \--#--/ | | / ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ # | / ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ /---#-------/ X| / /-----------\ # Uncle Shen | /--/ /---\ ~ ~ \-----------\--------------/ | | ~ ~ ~ | Saint |--\~ /---\ ~ |Wellspring ~ * |Cliffside | |--/~ \---/ ~ \----------/ ~ ~ ~ 02: Mystic Forest ================= /---\ | * | /-+-#-+-\ | Bear | | Fight | /---++ - - - +-+--\ | |~ ~ | K| /--+ | ~ ~ \--| | @ B | /----\ ~ | \--+---/ | | ~ / | ~ ~| \---\~/ /---------\ \-----/ |/ / \ /O /-----/ / /-----\ \ /--/ / / Swing \ \---+/------\ /--------\ | | Poles \ /# Rat | | M | | | \----/+ Camp | | X| \ ~ \ /--/ | B | | | \ ~ \--------/ O/ \-+-#-+-/ | /----/ \ ~ ~ ~ ~ / | | | | \------------/ | \------\ /--------/ | \ \ / D / \-------\B | |~ /--------/ Rolling| | | ~| Logs | | |~ | +@@+ | ~| | \----/ | \ B / /--+-+-\ /----/ /------> % | | | \--+- -/ \---\ Boar | Boar | Race <------- Forest | | K | \---------/ 03: Meridional Forest ===================== /--------\ /--------\ | G | Rockfall | R | | Hidden | Chasm |Haretree| | Glade \-----------------\ \ ~ ~ / \ B | \---\ / \------/----\ /------\ | | | | | | | | \--\ | | /---/ +---\ | C| \--/ | % C | | /--/ \---\ \---+ | | /---------\ | \ | / | Rat <----\ Cave \------\ | | / | Camp | | /-----\ /--+---+---/---\ | | | | | | \---> R | | ~| G |~ C| /-/#\---/#\-\ \---\#/---/ \ | To | \ / /---+-------/ Seven \ | | |B | Dragon ~ ~ Pillars |----/ \ / | Cave * ~ \+---\ /--| Clearing # \ /--> R | | ~ ~ | | M | \ C X /----\ | | \-----/ | ~ ~| \---/ \---\#/-----/ | \------\ | \-----------/ | | \ <-/ Broken | | /----\ \---+-%-+/ Bridge | \--/ ~ ~ \ | C | |~ ~ /-\ | \---/ | C /-/ | ~| \--/ | | /-------\ |~ | / +-----/ | | /--\ | ~ ~ ~| | \--/ +-----+--+ \ / | | \----\ / | | | | / | /----/%\------/ / /-+ / | % /------/ \-+ | | | \--\ /-/ | G | \---/ 04: Dragon Cave =============== * | | /--/ \--\ /--/ \ | | Tor | |W # Chi | \--\ / \--\ /--/ | | /-/ \-\ | | Dragon's | | Belly | B | \-\ /-/ | | /-/ \-\ | D | | | \-\ /-/ | | | \--/---------------\ \ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~\ \---\-\ /-------\~ | | ~| /----| ~| Dragonbreath /~ | | /-/~ / | ~| |C ~ ~/ \~ | | \---/ /-----| ~| \----/ | /-/ | | ~ ~/ | \---/ +- ---/ | | Dragon's | | Gullet | | \-\ /-/ | | /---\ /-/ \-\ /----------\ /----------\ | | | |--| Dragon's |--| |-\ | /-/ | Teeth B X| |O|-------O |--| |--| |-/ | | \-----/ \----------/ \----------/ /---/ \---\ / \ | /-----\ | | \-----/ | \ | / \--+ C|---/ \--/ 05: Wild Boar Boarax ==================== / Boar / <--- Race <---\ / | | K| / | / \ \------------/ / \ / /------\ \---/ @\ / \ / /--------\ \---/ \-- To | | \ # BOARAX # -->* Cloud | | \----\ /-- Forest | \--------\ \ / | | \------/ | | | | \-----|-----/ | /------\ | / \ | / Holey \-/--+----|---+--\ | Hoop | | M| \ Hop /-\ | \--+ \ / |--/ | \------/ | \---\ | X | \------------------/ 06: Nebula Islands ================== /---\ Small |C W| Turtle /---\ \-#-/ Fort /----------\ | C| | | | | \---/ /-/ \-\ /---\ | First | ~ ~ /Turtle \--/ \ | Turtle | /-$-\ | Stage ---- Boat ---- Fight | |~ ~| / M B /--\ / | | \-$-/ / /-----/ \---/ \------ ---/ ~ ~ /--+-/ /--/-\ | / ~ $~ ~ $ ~ C| | / ~ /+-----+--\-/ Logs and / ~ / Boards | | /--\ /------\ | | | | ------ Snail| | | | | | |Island| /--- --\ | | | | \------/ /---\ / | | \---/ \-----\ | | / /- -/ \ | | \-----\ / / | \-----\ /---\ | | --- / | | | D| \-\ /------/ \--/ Zhongs Lily \--/ | | | /--\ pads /-/ \-\ /-- --\ | | | / \ | | \ \-- --\ | | | C | / \ \ X / \-----/ / Nodal \ \-----/ Mushrooms | Point | /-\ \ / \-/ / / /*/\------/ 07: Marshland ============== 2nd Turtle Fort Island /--> Boat race /------------\ /---\ | | | /----\ | | D ------------\ /-#------\ | | ~ | | ~| \- -/ | |~ ~ # <---/ | \##/ | | | | ~ ~ | | ~ | | ~ | | | | -----\ | / \ | | /----\ | |Ferryman| | ~/ \ ~| | | W ----/ \--- ----/ | | | | | \----/ | | ~\ / | | Swamps ~ ~ | ~ | \ / ~ | | of /--------/ | ~ | | | | Death | ~ ~ ~ | ~\--/ ~ | | /- -\ | ~ ~ | \----------- @ |Froghead \----/~ /----/ \- -/ / / /-----\ ~ | /-------\ / ~/ | M --\ | ~ | |----\ | | | | ~ | | | | \ ----/ | | ~ \-\ /-/-\ | ~ | ~ ~ | ~ | ~ | | ~ | | \-- ~ Whirl ~ | ~ | ~ ~ /-- ---\ |~ ~| | --- Pools ----+ \--------- Mayor| /-/ \-\ \----- ~ ~ ~ | ~ ~ | Gu | | B | ~ ~ | ~ ~ /----+--##--+----\ | \---/ | ~ | ~/------\ | * | | | \--- | | Frog | | /---\ | ~ ~| | | City | | |~ ~| | Croc ~ | X | | | |/ ~ \| Temple ~\------/ | | |~ /-\ ~| ~ ~ | ~|@|~ | \--+-+--/ 08: Frog City ============= | Gu| E \- -/ /------\ | | / \ /- --\ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ /-/ First \ |X * ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Pontoon | \----/ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ \-\ Fight / ~ \ /E ~ ~ \------/ ~ /-#-\ ~ ~ Holy | | ~ Shrine| E | ~ ~ | | Rice ~ \-#-/ Storehouse ~ /--------------------/ /-----+-----\ /~ | #--/ ~ | | | ~ /--/-----\ /-\--#--+-----/ ~ ~ | # | House of / | ~ | | | the Chen House /--#-\ /----/ ~ ~ | \---+ +---\ Clan of the | | / ~ ~ \ | | Wu Clan| | | ~ ~ ~ \-\ |E #----+---- /---+-- -+ | ~ /---\ ~ | | | ~ \ ~ ~ |E | | | ~ / B \ /-\ | \-----/~ \ ~ ~ /------\ | | \ ~\ / |B|~ | | ~ ~ #---\ ~ / \ \---+----/ \~ \---/ \-/ / /-----\~ / \ /-/ Second \ \ /-----\ \ ~ ~ / | | ~ \ E/ ~ Pontoon | / E \ | ~ ~ / /---+ |~ \---/ \-\ Fight / House | | | ~ ~ | | +---/ ~ Dr Man ~ \ /E of Prof \ # | ~ ~ | # |House Chu Fu ~ \------/ Ping \-----/----/ ~ ~ \--\-----/of the Pong Clan 09: Turtle Fort =============== Armorchamber /------------\ /----------\ | C | | | | B | \----\ /---/ | | | | | Sports | /-----/ \------/ Arena | | | | /---\ |----------+----/ | | \ # | | | \--+--\ Turtle| | | /-----\ | Nest | | | | | | B | | \-/ | \-------/ | Kitchen---------------------------\ | /-\-----/ | | | | /-/ \-\ /----------\ /----/ \------\ /-------| |---| |---\ | | |*@ X Elevator \ | /------\ | \-------| |---| |-\ | | | | \------\ \-\ /-/ \----------/ | | | | | Under | | | /-/ \---\ \---+ @ Elevator| /---| |-----\ |Weapon K| \------/---------/ | | | | |Chamber | /----+-|-\ | \-- | \--------/ | | | \ ----/ | F| | \---- | +-@-+ | Prison | \--------/ 10: Crocodile Temple ==================== /---------\ | C | | Water | Northern |Lily Pond| Water Cycle \---+@--+-/ | 1| /----+--#+---------\ | | /--------+ /---@------\ +--------\ | | | | |Training| /---/ Boxes | |Repository| | Room | | K Room 1# | (Secret | #2 C | \---\ | | Room) | | | | | | | | | \--------+ \----------/ +--------/ | | \-------\ + /------/ | | | | | | /------------+-------/ + \-----\ #1- Doors open prior to pressing ---|Entrance | B | the switch in the pump room * <--- X Hall F B K @ Pump Room | ---| | D | #2- Doors open after pressing \------------+-----^-\ + /-----/ the switch in the pump room /-----|-+ | | /----> C| | | | +-------/ + \------\ | | | Southern | | /----------\ | Water Cycle | | | | | | | | | +--+--------\ /----------+--+ | | #1 | Mud | |Wildwater @ 2# | | | Vapor | /----+ Room +--+ | | +--+ Bath | | | | \----------/ | | | | /-+----------/ | | \--------/ | \----\ | \-----------+--#--+/ | ----/ | 2 | \-------/ Upper level | |Interrogation path back to | |Room pump room |K | \-----/ 11: Lone Swamp ============== /-----\ / \ | | To X-----#-| |-#------> * Dragon | | Swamp \ / \-----/ 12: Forsaken City I =================== /---------------------\ | Palace | To | Stairway K B B @* -> King's | | Palace /-----+--@-----+------------/ | Northern A | | Town | | /------ | | | | | | O | | \----\-|--/ | | | \-----\ | | /---\Storage | ^ | \------------> | Room \-|-/ | \--\ | | | | | /--/ /----------|-\ /-----\ | C | | Old O | |~ ~ ~| \---/ | Pottery +----+ ~ ~ | /--+----#-------+ |Dry | | # M|Dock | /--\ | | \ ~ ~ / |C | | B | ~ ~ ~ | | /----+ | / ~ ~ \ | \----+ # +----+-+---/ | B @ /-+ Main # B | \-------+ | | Square |Prison| /--------\ | | | |------/ /---\ | | | | | | /-----\ /-+ A +-+ Back +-/ | +- -+-----------+ | X | | # Yard # | | # K K W | \-\ /-+ | /-----+ +----/ \---+ Avalanche | | # | | | | | \-----------/ | \-+--/ | \--------/ | | \-+ B +--/ \---/ 13: King's Palace ================= To Ancient /---------\ Dungeons <- * | | B | \---\ /---/ | | /---/ \---\ | Boss | | fight | \---\ /---/ | | /----------------\ /-----/ \-----\ /----------------\ | | ~ | | | | | | | | |C @ ~ | K | | Central | | K | @ C| | | ~ | +----| room |----+ | | | |---/ ~ \---#--| B | K K | B |--#---/ \---| | ~ | | M | | | | West @ # # @ East | | Area | \-------------/ | Area | | ~ | | | | ~ | Central | | | ~ |----- Area -----| | |--+-------#-----| |-----#-------+--| |C | K | ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ | | C| | @ |~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~| K @ W| \----------------| |----------------/ | X | | D | \-----------------------/ 14: Ancient Dungeons ==================== /------------\ /--------\ /--| Crypt of | |Killing | |C # the King's #------- Floor ------\ \--| Guards | \--------/ | \------------/ | /------------\ | /-----\ /------ Light in the -/ | W | /----\ | | Darkness | \-\@/-/ |The | | \------------/ |@| /--#Void#--+ |@| | | | | /---/ \---\ | \----/ | /------------\ | | | | | | | /---\ | /- --\ | /----------\ | /---- ---\ | | * | | / \ | | | | |Thousand| | | O | | |Abyss | | | Riddle | | |Spikes --- \-@-/ -- of | | | of | | | K | | K | |Blades| \------ J the C| /--#--\ \---- ---/ | X | \ / | Ancient | / \ | \---------/ \----/ | Kings | / Ring \ | /-------\ | | |B of B| /----#---\ | | \----------/ | Champs | | Spider #----/ | \ / | Pits B | | /-----\ \O / \--------/ | |Web | |--#--/ \--#Works| | | | J C | | | /---------------\ \-----/ | | |BBQ | | \----- Pits|--|K |C| | | |B| /--- ----\ \--+-#-+----^-+-/ |Heaven's| | O| | | Stair | \--|/ | \--------/ | | \--J--/ 15: Forsaken City II ==================== /---------------------\ | Palace | | Stairway B B | | | /-----+--#-----+------------/ | Northern A | | Town | | /------ | | | | | | O | | \----\-|--/ | | | \-----\ | | /---\Storage | ^ | \------------> | Room \-|-/ | \--\ | | | | | /--/ /----------|-\ /-----\ | C | | Old O | |~ ~ ~| \---/ | Pottery +----+ ~ ~ +---\ From /--+----#-------+ |Dry | | City---># X # M|Dock | | /--\ Race | | \ ~ ~ / | |C | | B | ~ ~ ~ | | | /----+ | / ~ ~ \ +---\ | \----+ # +----+-+---+ @ | | B # /-+ Main # B | | B +-#-+-\ \-------+ | | Square |Prison| | | | /--------\ | | | |------/ | K | |Suburbs /---\ | | | | | | \---+ C | /-----\ /-+ A +-+ Back +-/ | +- -+-----------+ \-----/ | | | # Yard # | | # * | \-\ /-+ | /-----+ +----/ \---+ Avalanche | | # | | | | | \-----------/ | \-+--/ | \--------/ | | \-+ B +--/ \---/ 16: Beach ========= Basalt Grottos /---------- ~ ~ ~ /------\ /------\ / ~ ~ ~ To the | ~ ~| | ~ ~| / D ~ ~ ~ Harbour * <-# ~ --- ~ ----- ~ ~ /---\ | ~ ~| | ~ ~| | ~ | | ~ \------/ \------/ | Clandestine ~ ~ \---/ /---\ / Beach ~ ~ ~ | %+---------- ~ ~ ~ \---/| \ ~ ~ ~ | \----------- ~ ~ ~ | | /---\ /---\ /- -\ | M | | | | B | \- -/ \- -/ \- -/ | | | | # /------%-------%--- ~ ~ ~ | / ~ ~ ~ /---\ \--- Second ~ /---\ ~ /--- | | beach ~ ~ | | | \- -/ | area ~ \---/ ~ % | /---\ | /--------------- ~ ~ ~ | \--- --% / /----- ----\ \---/ | | /-| Cave | | \ | fight | | \--------------- ~ ~ ~ \-| | /--% First ~ ~ /---\ \----- ----/ | | beach X ~ | | ~ % | \ area ~ ~ \---/ | /---\ | \--%--------------- ~ ~ ~ \------ B --/ | | \---/ \-/ 17: Harbour =========== /----\ /---------\ /---\ | K | | Throne | | | /--# B @--# Room | \- -/ | | | | | | | \----/ \---------/ /--+-------/ | | /---- --\ To /---\ /-| | Loading * <--- -- Smithy | Lamp \---/ \-| | \---- --/ ^ /-------\ | /------ | | | | | Depot -> Elevator | /--- | | | | \-------/ | B | | /-- -- --\===================== | | ~ ~ ~ ~ | Dock | ~ ~ ~ \ ---\ ~ ~ ~ \------/ ~ \ ~ ~ //~ \ ~ ~ ~ // ~ /\ ~ ~ // ~ /---/ \ / ~ ~ // M / ~ B ~ ~ // ~ ~ X / \ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 18: Volcano =========== O---------------------O To | PART 1: VULCANOSIDE | Hell's * O---------------------O Gate ^ ~ | ~ ~ /--@---\ ~ / \ ~ | K B |~ \ / ~ \--- -/ ~ ~ \ \ ~ \ \~ ~ ~ \ \ ~ ~ /-----\ ~ ~ / / |C | / / ~ /---\ /---\ ~ |Bears| ~ ~/ / ~ | | | | \-- --/ ~ / D/ \-#-/ /---\ | | ~ | ~ / / ~ | | M | |---| C ~ | ~ ~/ / ~ X--+ \-#-/ ~ ~ |~ ~| ~| | ~ / / | /----\ /----\ | ~ ~/--/ ~ \---\ | ~ | ~ / / ~ \-- | | -----+------ # --+---+---+----/ ~ | | | | ~ \---\ /---/ ~Blaze ~ | ~ \-- -/ \- --/ ~ ~ | | Valley |~ | | /---/ / ~ C ~ | /------\ | \-----/ ~ \- Bat -/ Volcanic |Cavern| Eruption \------/ O---------------------O /--------\ /---------\ | PART 2: HELL'S GATE | | K | | Last | O---------------------O /----- Field @--- line of # * | |of lava | | defence | /---@---\ \--------/ \---------/ | K | | Ammo | | Depot | \--- ---/ | | /--@--\ / K\ \ B / \-- --/ ^ /------\ | | -> Lava | /--/ Chase | | | \--\ | | | /--/ | | | X | \---/ 19: Showdown with Shun ====================== _ / \ | M \/----------\ /-------------------------\ \ \ | | \ /----\ \ /--/ | | / \ |--| | |X | * | # # Shun | | \ / |--| | \ \----/ / \--\ | \ / | | \----------/ \-------------------------/ O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: [FAQ] | | FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O Q: I don't want to play on normal difficulty. How do I change difficulty in game? A: Difficulty cannot be changed in-game. To play on a difficulty other than normal you have to change the difficulty in the "Game options" menu on the title screen, before selecting New Game. Q: Can I use your guide for the Nintendo DS Version of the game? A: Unfortunately not, the Nintendo DS version of the game is completely different. The Wii U version of Legend of Kay Anniversary however, is the same as the PlayStation/ Xbox versions, and so this guide could be used for Wii U players. Q: Do I need a game manual? A: No, between the tutorials in the game and the "Basics" section of this guide, all of your questions should be answered! Q: I lost the first fight against Boarax in Cat Village; how will the game be different for me? A: A difference between games in which Boarax is beaten in Cat Village and games in which he is not has never been found. The fact that you don't lose a life when you lose all of your health against Boarax is testament to the fact that nothing happens, win or lose. In fact, even if you lose against Boarax, Tor Chi will still identify you as the guy that "took out" the boar. You still get the key to the clay jug store if you lose too. Q: I can't beat the minimum time in a race. A: Try playing on a harder difficulty. In nightmare for example, the checkpoints (barriers) that you have to knock down are smaller, but there are far more chillies. This means that the races are harder, but there is the potential for a really fast time. Not all minimum times can be beaten on normal difficulty. Q: What items should I carry with me? A: There are a few safe bets that will always be useful and should be a staple part of your inventory; namely health potions, magic potions, and berserk potions. The remaining space can be allocated to items which suit your particular play style, or which would be useful in the current situation. For example: STANDARD SETUP SPEEDRUN SETUP 1 Health Magic 2 Magic Berserk 3 Berserk Berserk 4 Health/Magic/Berserk Magic/Berserk 5 Demon/Hornets/Bomb Magic/Berserk/Hornets NIGHTMARE SETUP HIGH SCORE SETUP 1 Health Magic 2 Health Magic 3 Magic Berserk 4 Magic/Berserk/Hornets Berserk 5 Magic/Berserk/Bomb Demon/Berserk/Hornets/Bomb Q: How can I earn a lot of coins? A: Choose armour over health potions in the shop to save money, as armour is more efficient with its damage reducing ability. Also, consider investing in a demon potion, as the demon realm is full of treasure. Break every pot, complete every optional quest and kill every enemy, and money will never be an issue. Q: How do I unlock the special weapons? A: You need a very high score (around 38 million points)! See the extras and unlockables section of the guide for more detailed information. Q: How many points do I need to unlock all of the extras? A: Somewhere in the region of 60-70 million points are needed, which constitutes a near-perfect run on hard difficulty. Some versions of the game may be bugged, which could make unlocking all of the extras impossible. See the extras and unlockables section of the guide for further discussion. Q: The game is quite easy. How can I make it more exciting? A: Play on nightmare difficulty, try a speedrun or consider setting yourself a challenge. See the challenge playthrough section of the guide for more specific information on how these games might be set up. Q: I have a better battle strategy than you/ I know how to unlock the extras etc. Will you put me in your guide? A: Yes! E-mail me the information that you have. If the advice you have given is sound, it will be included in the next update. I especially welcome any new information on how extras are unlocked. All contributors to the guide will be credited within the guide and in the thanks section. O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | FOR ADVANCED PLAYERS: [OVR] | | OVERKILL | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O Overkill is a useful concept that I stumbled across by accident after too many years playing the game. Looking through various online sources and other walkthrough/FAQs, I have not seen it ever mentioned by anyone else; indeed, it is not ever mentioned in the game or manual. Overkill makes combat against multiple foes much more straightforward, allows you to kill faster to preserve score multiplier, and makes playing on nightmare difficulty much more manageable. Really exploiting overkill is one key aspect of playing Legend of Kay like a pro, so I felt it deserved to be discussed in its own section. What is overkill? Overkill is based on the principle that hitting enemies multiple times after they have been killed increases you combo by +1 for every hit that you land. When Kay lands a death blow against an enemy, coins scatter everywhere, and the enemy can no longer attack- he has been killed. However, most enemies fall to the ground slowly, or collapse backwards, and so are still moving for a second or two before they lay on the ground, still. During this short window of opportunity while the enemy is moving, overkill is active. Every time the enemy is hit during this period, Kay gains +1 combo. Continuing to attack enemies as they fall to the ground allows you to boost your combo by +3 or +4 for every enemy that is killed, instead of the usual +1. How can I best use overkill? Overkill can be used on any enemy that falls to the ground when it dies i.e. all rats, gorillas, turtles, spiders, crabs and crocodiles. It cannot be used on demons, bugs or terracotta warriors as these enemies disappear when they are killed. When an opponent is sweating, consider hitting them with a triple strike so that if they are killed by the first blow, a few extra hits can be landed before they fall to the ground. The claws make this much easier as they have a short recovery time between attacks. Somersaults, uppercuts and the hammer all make overkilling more challenging. You should continue attacking until the enemy is completely still on the ground. When surrounded by enemies, or when bomb rats are nearby, it may not always be advisable to continue to hit an opponent for longer than is necessary, but IN THE VAST MAJORITY OF CASES, OVERKILLING IS HIGHLY ADVANTAGEOUS AND STRONGLY RECOMMENDED. It is possible to achieve +3 combo on most enemies when using the sword. Which enemies have long overkill periods? Fortunately, some of the toughest opponents in the game provide you with the longest windows of opportunity for boosting combo with overkill. Most notably, the crocodiles have an overkill period of several seconds, as do some gorillas. This is incredibly useful on tougher difficulties when fighting multiple enemies at once later in the game. The fight between the marshlands and the crocodile temple springs to mind here- when facing half a dozen crocs at once in a relatively small area, being able to easily quadruple your combo could mean the difference between losing a life, and finishing the fight with your armour still intact. Seriously, the effectiveness of overkill cannot be overstated- use it, and use it often! O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | FOR ADVANCED PLAYERS: [SCR] | | MAXIMISING SCORE GAIN | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O If you have played Legend of Kay for a while, you may have already realised that there are many aspects of your gameplay which come together to determine whether or not you will achieve a really high score in a given area. These are: 1. Game difficulty setting 2. Utilising big crystals 3. Maintaining score multiplier 4. Finding demon portals 5. Keeping your bank balance low 6. Luck 7. Maintaining full health Let us consider each of these factors in turn. 1. Game difficulty setting ========================== Selection of difficulty before starting a new game determines how much of a score boost you will get for collecting 5 crystals of the same colour in quick succession. The harder the game difficulty, the higher and faster the score multiplier increases. However, this must be balanced against your ability to maintain a high score multiplier through long and difficult battles. On nightmare difficulty, enemies will take so long to defeat that it may be very challenging to keep a multiplier up. It should be noted that all of the bonus weapons can be unlocked by a very good run on hard difficulty. The score multipliers for the various difficulties are as follows: Easy 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 7 - 10 - 15 - 20 - 25 - 35 Normal 1 - 2 - 5 - 7 - 10 - 15 - 20 - 25 - 50 - 75 - 150 - 200 Hard 1 - 2 - 5 - 10 - 20 - 30 - 40 - 50 - 100 - 150 - 200 - 250 Nightmare 1 - 5 - 10 - 15 - 25 - 50 - 75 - 125 - 175 - 250 - 500 As you can see, from around the fifth column of the above diagram, the score differences are huge, and playing on a higher difficulty could easily double your score during areas of the game through which you have a reasonable score multiplier. For your first high scoring playthrough, I recommend using hard difficulty, but if you can maintain a multiplier when playing on nightmare, even higher scores will be possible... 2. Utilising big crystals ========================= In the main body of the walkthrough, I have described what I think are the simplest and best colours to choose for each of the big crystals in the game. Knocking out the crystals should be the first thing you do before a fight, and before opening green chests, as they will provide the score multiplier necessary to increase the value of coins you earn. In areas where there is some degree of "backtracking" through the level, the best time to break big crystals may be on your way back towards the entrance. For example, I leave the demon portals in the King's Palace and the Crocodile Temple until the end of these areas, and so you may choose to leave the big crystals in the courtyard or the pump room until this time, to give a better score boost in the demon realm. If you are playing for a high score and know the game pretty well, then the Big Crystal Quick Reference Guide might be useful. 3. Maintaining score multiplier =============================== Building score multiplier through a combination of difficulty selection and big crystals is vital, but the multiplier must be maintained for the duration of Kay's point scoring actions. The most difficult part of achieving a really high score is the fighting strategy that must be mastered to allow for a steady cash flow that prevents score multiplier from dropping. The strategy can be summarised as follows: 1. Get a weak enemy on low health 2. Target and kill other enemies until your multiplier is about to drop 3. Refresh multiplier with coins or crystals lying on the ground, or by killing the weak enemy 4. Repeat until all enemies are defeated This method is best demonstrated through examples: Example 1: Meridional forest, rat camp battle, third phase (2 rats, one axe gorilla) Let's assume we have a good multiplier active and there are no more coins or crystals on the ground after dealing with the preceding two phases of the battle. The third phase of the fight involves two rats and an axe gorilla. It would be straightforward (and indeed sensible) to deal with the rats first, build combo, and then turn our attention to the gorilla, but this method risks us losing multiplier before we have time to kill the gorilla. The normal strategy must be changed to better suit a high score gain. The first action to take is to reduce one of the rats' health to as close to 0 as possible, without killing him. Killing the rats early in the battle is a waste since out multiplier is not about to drop. When the rat is sweating, we should turn our attention to the gorilla, hacking away as quickly as we can. It is unlikely that we will be able to kill the gorilla before the multiplier falls back to x1. When we have only a few seconds to spare, we should kill (and overkill) the weakened rat and collect one coin to restore a healthy multiplier. The remaining coins should only be picked up when they are about to disappear (lost coins are lost points) or when the multiplier is about to drop. Now there are no enemies on low health, and so we should attack the one remaining rat until he too is sweating. We can now turn our attention back to the gorilla again, and we have the benefit of a lot more time and one less rat to worry about. The other rat should be left alive until the gorilla is dead or until we are about to lose multiplier with no coins left on the ground. The first priority in many larger fights is to reduce the health of a few enemies so that they can be easily killed when we need a quick injection of points. Other enemies which will take longer to kill should then be targeted, until the multiplier is about to run out. The decision over how many enemies should be left on low health is a difficult one. Leaving many enemies alive makes maintaining multiplier easy, but also makes you more likely to lose a lot of health. It could also be argued that leaving many enemies alive makes you more likely to get boxed in or knocked onto your back, which would make collecting coins at the last moment very difficult. Experienced players can probably get away with only leaving one enemy on low health, which optimises score gain without making the battle too challenging. Example 2: Harbour, depot (masked hammer gorilla, armoured hammer gorilla, 2 armoured axe gorillas, 4 bomb rats) Firstly, I would recommend never leaving bomb rats alive with only a little health, unless you have no alternative, particularly if you are planning to use the hammer to fight. They can interrupt all of your actions with explosions, and it is easy to lose multiplier in the final seconds because you have been knocked onto your back. There is a ring of crystals on the floor, and you should already have a strong multiplier active from breaking an earlier big crystal. It is always sensible to collect only as many crystals as will actually increase you multiplier. So, if you are starting a fight with no crystals collected, and there are 17 crystals on the floor, you should only pick up 15 of them. The remaining two will not increase the value of coins, and so can be left, and picked up to restore score multiplier when it is about to run out. In difficult battles (such as in the frog city, or towards the end of the game), leaving 2-3 crystals can be the difference between keeping multiplier and losing it. After boosting your multiplier with crystals, take out the rats. This will allow you to build combo and scatter some coins around the battlefield which you can use later. Remember to collect coins if they are about to disappear, even if you don't need them for your multiplier- you're only losing points by leaving them. Once all the rats are down, turn your attention to an armoured gorilla and bring him down to low health- avoid killing him. Then attack the masked gorilla until your multiplier is almost lost. With a few seconds to spare, finish off the weaker gorilla and use his coins to restore multiplier (leave a few coins for later of course). Continue to alternate between the most armoured gorillas and the ones with lowest health until the battle is over. The hammer roll attack is useful for reducing the health of multiple enemies at once. I hope these examples have given a good sense of the methods for maintaining score multiplier through long battles. Essentially, having one enemy on low health at all times is the best way of ensuring coins will be available when you need them! 4. Finding demon portals ======================== As much as half of your total score may come from visiting the demon realm and so it is absolutely essential to find the 8 demon portals in the game if you are aiming for a high score. The demon portal section of the guide shows the locations of the portals, and the walkthrough gives details on the enemies and treasure that can be found in each of them. To give the best chance of maintaining score multiplier, claws should be your weapon of choice, as the demons are capable of dodging attacks. The roll around technique should be utilised frequently to get around shields, but bear in mind that the demons cannot be thrown, and that normal rolling attacks will cause the shields to jam you in a crouched position. If you are attempting a near- maximum-score playthrough, then a berserk potion should be used for every portal (except the first), to ensure that score multiplier is maintained. If a high multiplier is lost in the demon realm, this may cost you between 500,000 and 5,000,000 points. You may wish to reload your most recent saved game and attempt to clear the portal again. 5. Keeping your bank balance low ================================ To prevent you from having too much money too early in the game, the loot available in pots will be dramatically reduced if you are carrying more than a set amount of coins. For example, if you are carrying more than around 7500 coins in the Nebula Islands on normal difficulty, then the most treasure you will find in a pot is a single copper coin! Obviously, this will have a massive impact on your score, and so you should be keen to spend plenty of cash with the merchant at the early stages of the game. Don't be shy to make full use of berserk potions early, even though the combat is easy- at least you'll have something worthwhile to spend your money on. If you still find yourself carrying too much cash, it may be best to simply buy health potions and then throw them away. The threshold above which treasure in pots is reduced increases as you progress further through the game. 6. Luck ======= Getting a really high score is all about skill, but getting a really *really* high score has an element of luck attached. I reckon that the proportion of your final score that is dependent on luck is somewhere in the region of 2-3%, which might not seem like much, but for an excellent run on hard difficulty this could make a difference of perhaps +/- 2 million points. Luck factors into which pots have coins in them, and which pots are empty. This can be very frustrating, as one run through a level could yield cash in the majority of pots, while an identical run on a different day could yield cash in only half of the pots. As a result, 100 identical runs through a level will result in 100 different scores, which makes finding a maximum score on a level impossible, and may result in fairly significant variations between scores of similarly skilled players. Finding many pots in a row that are all empty may result in you losing multiplier, which could prompt you to reload from your last save if you are aiming for a really huge score. Luck also determines how many small crystals are released when a big crystal is broken, and this has caused me to reset many more times than empty pots. The variation in numbers of crystals released is somewhere in the range of +/- 2 from an average value, and so this can easily mean missing out on getting a higher multiplier. In hard mode for example, not managing to gain 250x and having to settle for 150x instead would result in all subsequent treasure earning you 40% fewer points, which could severely impact on your overall score. 7. Maintaining full health ========================== The loot found in pots in the game is based around supply and demand, and if you have been playing the game for a long period of time, you may have noticed this already. The lower your health is, the more likely you are to find a heart in a pot, and on full health you will not find any hearts at all- only coins. Since hearts do not refresh your score multiplier at all, you can understand how pots containing hearts instead of money could result in losing a high multiplier, especially in areas where there are only a few pots. Keeping your health as high as possible and using armour whenever you can is a good way of ensuring that you can maximise your chances of finding money in pots when you need it. When you are unarmoured, use somersault attacks to finish off enemies, to ensure that they drop as many hearts as possible. This will keep your health topped up and increase the chance of finding treasure in pots instead of hearts. O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | FOR ADVANCED PLAYERS: [PLA] | | HIGH SCORING PLAYTHROUGH | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O In this section I will share my high scores for hard and nightmare difficulties, and explain a strategy for each level that will enable you to match these scores. These may not necessarily be the perfect scoring strategies for every level, but they should come pretty close. Do feel free to get in contact if you know of a strategy that gives consistently higher scores than these! Please note that I have divided the scores from the swamps in the same way that the walkthrough is divided, so your scores may vary for these areas depending on when you visit the demon portal in the swamps of death etc. All scores are rounded down to the nearest 1000 points. I have tried to split each level into "runs". Each run starts with the first crystal that you collect and ends when you lose your multiplier, collect a different colour of crystal or end the level. Some runs are fairly basic e.g. at the first big fight in Frog City you collect the crystals that are around you, and your multiplier will run out before you get to the next area. I have summarised the more complex runs that span large areas or involve a lot of backtracking at the beginning of each section, where I describe them in more detail. Remember to turn autosave OFF if you are aiming for a near-perfect score. You will have to reload from your last save if you lose multiplier at a key moment during a fight, or if you fall from a platform in the cloud forest, for example. I would recommend saving your game after every big run that you are happy with. 01: Cat Village =============== Hard score: 66,000 Nightmare score: 129,000 Big runs: 1 Yellow: Yuan bao pillar -> Clay jug store -> Cat village houses -> Uncle Shen's house -> Base of cliff at Nong Bao's farm The map is small and the path is non-linear here, so it is easy to backtrack and clear much of the level in a single multiplier. Start by unlocking all areas and completing all challenges and sidequests, but do not open any green chests, break any pots or collect any crystals. Activate both cat statues, win the boar races and find all of Tang Mu's children. You may open the green chest and cage in the rat camp. When it is time for the second fight tutorial, you may start collecting coins. Clear the red crystals above Ou Bai's house first to allow you to come back for the chest here later with a higher yellow multiplier. The highest multiplier available in this level comes from the yellow crystals around the pillar with the Yuan Bao (cat statue optional quest). As much of the level as possible should be cleared with this multiplier. The only remaining crystals can be found at the zipline above the master's house. Collecting these crystals with combo +1 active will allow you to combo back up to the top ledge and get the green chest on the cliffside with a high multiplier. 02: Mystic Forest ================= Hard score: 2,062,000 Nightmare score: 4,119,000 Big runs: 1 Red: Zhongs at merchant -> Cage before boar race -> Demon portal 2 Yellow: Rolling log area -> Rat camp -> Swing poles -> Final area with bear Pick up a demon potion from the shop and then proceed to the cage before the boar race area without collecting any coins on the way. This will start a red multiplier with the crystals surrounding the Zhongs over the river. Choose red for the big crystal here, then open the cage, kill the enemies and backtrack to the demon portal. Coming back for the demon portal allows you to clear the demon realm with a significantly higher multiplier, which nets you 1,250,000 points more on hard mode than the conventional path through this area. Maintaining yellow multiplier through the rolling logs and rat camp is also very important in this level. The normal linear path can be followed as normal after the boar race. It might just be possible to open the green chest behind the locked gate in the last area with yellow multiplier still active, but it is not possible to do this consistently and so I do not recommend resetting for the sake of this chest. 03: Meridional Forest ===================== Hard score: 1,247,000 Nightmare score: 2,408,000 Big runs: 1 Yellow: Big crystal at Rockfall Chasm -> Seven Pillars Clearing -> Fish River As with the Cat Village, this map has a focal central area that makes backtracking easy, and so all treasure in the Seven Pillars Clearing should be left until the very end of the level when all quests have been completed. Treasure in Rockfall Chasm and the Fish River between the cat statue and Seven Pillars Clearing should also be left. The highest multiplier available here is yellow from Rockfall Chasm. The big crystal here should be left, and not broken before the fight at hidden glade, and the small yellow crystals should also be avoided on your first pass through the area. When the level is cleared, my scoring run starts from the big crystal in Rockfall Chasm (choose yellow), back to Seven Pillars Clearing, where I collect all of the treasure here and claim my reward from the cat statue quest. I then proceed to the start of the Fish River where there are another few pots to break. Most of the points from this level will come from the run described above. Handling the rat camp well and opening the cage next to the dragon statue at the Fish River with a multiplier active also contribute a lot of points. 04: Dragon Cave =============== Hard score: 4,006,000 Nightmare score: 7,718,000 Big runs: 1 Red: First room -> Dragon's Gut -> Cat statue in swimming area -> Dragon sword (final room) Complete all three Tor Chi encounters without collecting any coins or crystals. Make sure Tor Chi breaks the boxes during the first encounter to uncover Yuan Baos. Activate the first cat statue and collect the magic container and health potion from Dragon's Gut. Leave the crystals between the ladder in Dragon's Gut and the cat statue. Return to the start of the level. Choose red in the first room, then proceed through the whole level quickly, collecting everything as you go. Activate the cat statue in the swimming area on the way past, and ensure that you leave some crystals behind on the way to that cat statue, so that you can refresh your multiplier on the way back. Choose red for the big crystal at the third Tor Chi encounter. Do not use your demon potion yet- simply proceed through the rest of the level. You can make it from the entrance to the end of the level on a single multiplier. Now collect the Dragon sword. Finally, backtrack and enter the demon realm for even more points. 05: Wild Boar Boarax ==================== Hard score: 307,000 Nightmare score: 537,000 There is no real secret to this area, and there are not a lot of points available. Don't fall in the cloud forest! 06: Nebula Islands ================== Hard score: 2,349,000 Nightmare score: 5,309,000 Big runs: 1 Yellow: First islands -> Bridge (east) -> Zhongs to south -> Cat statue -> Mushrooms 2 Red: Island with tents -> Boat across mud -> Turtle Fort Firstly, follow the red crystals off the side of the first main island and loop around using the Zhongs to the combo sealed extra life chest. Cross the bridge, collecting the yellow crystals and use the Zhongs to go south to the cat statue. Open the green chest in the mud by crossing the mushrooms, and break the pots underground next to the cat statue with yellow multiplier active. Move north to the first fight with the turtles, killing bugs on the way to increase combo and make the fight easier. Finish off the enemies and clear the whole island, including the cage, with red multiplier active, but leave the Zhongs and the blue crystals off to the east for the moment. Now quickly take the boat west towards the Turtle Fort. It is possible to choose red here and maintain red multiplier throughout the whole fight to allow you to gain a load of points in the fort. You may have to use a berserk potion, and you will have to be able to rapidly cross the mud in the boat. This run is very important in securing a high score for the level. You should not lose your multiplier between fighting the first group of rats and turtles and clearing the Turtle Fort. After the Turtle Fort is clear, return to the island with the tents and pick up the demon potion. Also collect the blue crystals and open the combo sealed chest if you have not already done so. Proceed to Snail Island using the normal route. Collect all of the crystals in this area so that you do not break multiplier with them later, but leave all of the treasure for now. Now clear the demon portal, choosing yellow, and then return to Snail Island to pick up all of the treasure. Finish the level by completing the fight at Nodal Point as normal. 07: Marshland ============== Hard score: 2,918,000 Nightmare score: 9,018,000 Proceed to the swamps of death as normal, but leave as much treasure and crystals behind as you can. Collect the shadowsword. On the way back, be sure to collect a few crystals prior to entering the demon realm, so that you can max out your multiplier with the crystals that you will find there. Failing to collect crystals prior to entering the demon portal will result in opening the final chest with 150x multiplier instead of 250x for example, which will have a huge impact on your score. When you return from the demon realm you should clear as much of the swamp as you can before your multiplier runs out. Visit the ferryman on your way back to Frog City. 08: Frog City ============= Hard score: 4,309,000 Nightmare score: 10,636,000 Big runs: 1 Red: Save point on pontoons -> Pontoon fight -> Upper level -> Frog city houses -> House of the Pong clan -> House of the Chen clan As a general rule of thumb here, just don't open any pots unless you have a high multiplier active. When a multiplier is not active, you can focus on the frog eggs. From the fight with turtles and crocs on the pontoons in the centre of the city, you should have a red multiplier active. You should also remember to break the big crystal over next to the save point before the fight on the pontoon. Combo to the upper level of the city using the Zhongs, and make your way around the houses on the boardwalk with maximum multiplier. Leave every fourth crystal or so on the boardwalk to allow you to backtrack if needed- you will easily be able to max out your multiplier here. Most of the houses either contain crystals, or consist of a single room with pots at the bottom. Simply drop in, pick up the treasure, and leave again. Aim to come back for the frog eggs later. You should be able to clear the majority of the houses in the city in this single multiplier, as long as you are smart and leave some coins or crystals to refresh multiplier on the way back to the boardwalks. Be selective about which buildings to clear and what order to clear them- remember that leaving crystals on the boardwalk will allow your route around the city to be much more flexible and leaves a greater margin for error. Make sure you clear House of the Pong Clan with maximum multiplier. It is the biggest source of points here. Leave the rice storehouse and the House of the Chen Clan in your initial pass through the city, as you could easily lose multiplier here. Once all of the other buildings are clear, use House of the Chen Clan to access the big fight beyond the House of Man Chu Fu. Work your way back to the House of the Chen Clan using the multiplier you gain from that fight. You should leave all treasure on the way out unless you still have multiplier, so that you can collect it on the way back after the fight. You are likely to have to reset a few times here, not due to the difficulty of the area (fortunately, the toughest fights here don't have so many points attached to them), but because you will have to keep a single multiplier active for 5-10 minutes, which is very challenging. Mistakes will inevitably happen, but don't be disheartened- this is the highest scoring level you have met up to now. Save immediately after you are happy with how you handle the red multiplier. The rest of the city, and the big fights with gorillas and crocs, can be completed as per the walkthrough. Once you have finished with your multipliers, collect any pots that may have been left and finish the main quest here. 09: Turtle Fort =============== Hard score: 3,663,000 Nightmare score: 5,531,000 Big runs: 1 Yellow: Boxing ring -> Turtle nest -> Treasure room under elevator -> Weapon chamber -> Prison 2 Red: (Marshland) Whirlpools in Marshland -> Unarmoured croc fight at Croc Temple -> Treasure around and behind Croc Temple -> Armoured crocs at extra life chest Clear the whole fort except the turtle nest (the dark room that opens after the fight in the boxing room). Kill all turtles, don't open any pots or chests, and collect small blue and red crystals only, as our main pass through this level will be with a yellow multiplier. Don't even enter the turtle nest, as Kay collects some crystals during a cutscene, and we are going to need every crystal that we can get here. Open all of the turtle amulet doors except the one that will allow you to leave the level. Opening these doors later can cost you a valuable few seconds. Return to the boxing ring and choose yellow. Then head to the turtle nest and choose yellow again. Clear the treasure from the whole fort with yellow multiplier. Your route around the fort can be flexible, but I tend to go from the turtle nest to the kitchen and the treasure room below the elevator, which clears one wing of the building. Then I cross the elevator to the weapon chamber, before returning to the central room again to take the stairs down into the prison. It is important to save some pots in the central room and kitchen to allow you to backtrack a few times. You may wish to repeat this level on a few different save files, as bad luck can result in reduced numbers of yellow crystals being released from big crystals. Use the save file that got you the highest multiplier, and head to the Croc Temple. On the way to the Croc Temple, don't lose red multiplier. It is advisable to use a berserk potion for the big croc fight outside the temple. Do not fight the heavily armoured crocs next to the combo sealed chest, as they take too long to kill, but do choose red at the big crystal here. Pass the armoured crocs to collect all of the treasure around the temple entrance. Don't forget the two green chests behind the entrance itself. Once you have all of the treasure, you can backtrack a little to kill the armoured crocs and open the red chest. 10: Crocodile Temple ==================== Hard score: 3,940,000 Nightmare score: 8,056,000 Big runs: 1 Red: Training room -> Wildwater room 2 Blue: Corridor with arrows -> Pump room -> Demon portal Do not collect treasure in the pump room, and leave the big crystals in the pump room and the entrance hall with the pool until later. The first half of the croc temple is easy, as there are no long multipliers to deal with. Clear the rooms in the following order: Mud Vapor Baths- S cycle, east wall Boxes room- N cycle, west wall Water Lily Pond- N cycle, north wall Secret room (crocodile tear from ferryman) - N cycle The second half of the temple is much more challenging: Interrogation room- S cycle, south wall Training room- N cycle, east wall Start a red multiplier in the training room, then deal with the four crocs there. A berserk potion is recommended. Leave some treasure in that room until after you activate the cat statue, and then collect it as you leave. It is tricky, but not impossible, to make it all the way to the wildwater room on the west side of the southern watercycle without losing your multiplier. You will have to utilise pots in the watercycles and the pump room, and hope that they are not empty! You can then attempt the equally tricky job of maxing out your multiplier on the whirlpools before opening the chest next to the save point. You will lose multiplier while ascending the platforms with the explosive barrels. Don't forget to pick up the demon potion before starting a blue multiplier in the corridor with the three crocs and the arrows. Proceeding through this area returns you to the pump room, where you can choose blue at the big crystals and travel to the demon realm. Choosing blue in the demon realm will net you a really high score. This can be a frustrating level as you must rely on only a few pots to get you from the training room to the wildwater room. I have had to reset a few times due to losing a multiplier by opening empty pots. It would be a good idea to pick up a couple of berserk or magic potions on your way to the Froghead to make Forsaken City I easier. 11: Lone Swamp ============== Hard score: 1,000 Nightmare score: 1,000 There is no high scoring strategy for the lone swamp as there are no crystals. 12: Forsaken City I =================== Hard score: 7,202,000 Nightmare score: 13,132,000 This is the third highest scoring level in the game, but it is also one of the most challenging, as it includes two very long runs. Big runs: 1 Red: Starting area -> Courtyard fight -> Main square -> Prison 2 Blue: Palace stairway -> Store room -> Cage behind ancestor statue -> Gorilla fight on building -> Old Pottery -> Drydock Choose red at the first fight before killing the enemies. Leave pots until you are ready to proceed. The second fight is very tricky, and you should be prepared to use magic, berserk and hornets as much as is needed to maintain multiplier. It is perhaps better to leave several crystals on the floor and risk completing the fight with a slightly lower multiplier than to risk losing multiplier altogether by collecting all of the crystals. Choose red for the crystal in the main square and the prison, but leave all of the treasure in the main square until later. This first run should take you from the start of the level to the hideout of Avalanche without losing multiplier. Leave all of the treasure in the Northern Town and Old Pottery, but collect the yellow crystals on the ladder next to the gorillas throwing barrels. Don't kill the gorillas. Leave the blue crystals and rats on the way into the storage room. Reducing the health of the rats will make them faster to kill later. Activate the cat statue and kill the rats in the storage room itself, but leave all of the treasure. Be sure to save immediately before the fight on the palace stairway. Choose blue for both big crystals during the fight. Once all of the enemies have been dispatched, return to the storeroom, collecting most of the crystals and killing the rats on the way in, and picking up the final crystals on the way back out to refresh your multiplier. Then open the cage behind the tower with the ancestor's statue, and scale the ladder to kill the gorillas on the roof. This is one of the most challenging parts of this run, and you may have to reset a couple of times. A magic attack is strongly recommended, and you are likely to also need a berserk potion on nightmare difficulty, not because the enemies are tough, but because they have more health than you have time. Finally, make your way back to the merchant via Old Pottery and the main square, collecting all treasure on the way. You can also now open the green chest in the Drydock- even though it is covered with water, you can strike the chest with a jump attack with the claws during a dip between waves. Timing is key, but you will be rewarded with a lot of points. Despite the reward available in the Drydock, I would not recommend resetting for the sake of this chest- there will be an opportunity to pick this up again later, albeit with a lower multiplier. If you lose multiplier, leave this chest unopened. 13: King's Palace ================= Hard score: 6,852,000 Nightmare score: 12,399,000 Big runs: 1 Blue: West big crystal in central area -> Central room -> Main room of west area -> South room of west area 2 Yellow: East big crystal in central area -> Main room of east area 3 Blue: Demon portal -> Central room -> End room with rats Leave the rats in the main central area to use for cash later whenever multipliers need to be refreshed. It may even be wise to reduce their health so that they are easy to kill if necessary. Choose blue for the crystal just west of the central room, and then clear the central room of enemies. Leave pots in the central room for later. Quickly move to the west area and enter the south room with your blue multiplier still active. Clear this room and then relax- you can let your multiplier run out. Visit the merchant if you need to resupply. Now clear the north room of the west area and then open the door to the cat statue in the west area. The west area should now be totally cleared. Choose yellow on the east side of the main central area, where you should still have left a rat. Then use this multiplier to clear the east area central room by collecting all of the crystals, then working your way back through the ruins, opening pots before finishing with the green chest on the pillar. Clear the rest of the east area. Multiplier is not important, so I usually start in the south to get the upgraded claws and then move to the north room. The cat statue room will be the last to be opened. Next, fight Shun's bodyguard and buy a demon potion. There should hopefully still be at least one rat alive in the central area and some pots left in the room with the merchant. Enter the demon potion with only x1 multiplier. Choose blue and avoid the yellow crystals in the centre of the main room. Clear the portal and make your way towards the end of the level, using the rat and the pots that we left earlier to keep a multiplier going. Choose blue in the final room and kill the rats to finish the level. 14: Ancient Dungeons ==================== Hard score: 4,524,000 Nightmare score: 10,380,000 Big runs: 1 Red: Entrance hall -> Tower of the Thousand Spikes -> Spiderpits -> Webworks 2 Yellow: Tower of the Thousand Spikes -> Ring of Champions -> Cat statue 3 Blue: The Void -> Riddle of the Ancient Kings 4 Red: The Void -> The Killing floor -> Crypt of the King's Guards -> The Void -> Abyss of the blades Go west from the main burial chamber and take the red path to the Tower of the Thousand Spikes. Scale the tower rapidly to increase your multiplier further with red crystals there. Leave at least one crystal behind at the top of the tower. Drop back to the bottom of the tower and collect all treasure from the bottom up. Use the red crystal you left to keep your multiplier going as you proceed past where the red crystals were to the Spiderpits. After choosing red and clearing the Spiderpits, proceed quickly to the Webworks. You may let your multiplier run out after clearing that room. Take the yellow path from the Tower of the Thousand Spikes to get to the Ring of Champions. Choose yellow twice here, then move quickly to the next area and avoid the fire while maintaining yellow multiplier. There is another opportunity to boost your multiplier by choosing yellow on your run out to the cat statue. Visit Heaven's Stair on your way back. Going east from the main burial chamber takes you to the Abyss of the Blades. You should leave all treasure here for the moment. In the room with the rats and the trapdoors, collect the crystals and kill the rats, but leave the green chest for later, as we are setting ourselves up for a long run back here. You should be able to maintain blue multiplier until you get to the Riddle of the Ancient Kings (by following the blue crystals). Despite there being a lot of treasure in this room, most of it cannot be accessed with a multiplier. If you wanted to be very clever you could backtrack to pick up the keys and hammer upgrade before going to the Crypt of the King's Guard. It takes a couple of minutes, but is probably worthwhile overall. Taking the red path after the trapdoor room allows you to pass fire traps to get to the Killing Floor. You should maintain your red multiplier and leave all of the treasure in this room. In the chamber with the terracotta warriors, choose red and try to maintain a multiplier. This is very difficult and may take a few attempts, especially as you must rely on only a few pots. If you lose health while fighting the statues then you may find hearts instead of coins, which could force you to reload from your last save. On nightmare, the statues have a lot of health and will prove very challenging, especially if you are trying to preserve your hit points. A health potion used after the fight will improve your odds of finding treasure in the pots. It may also be necessary to use a berserk potion to kill the armoured rats on the way out of the Crypt of the King's Guards, especially on nightmare. This is a frustrating waste of a valuable potion, but it may be the only way to maintain your 500x multiplier. You should endeavour to make it all the way back to the room with the trapdoors (or even the abyss of the blades) with your multiplier still active. Fortunately, there are spiders on the way back that will help you out a lot! You should now be able to get the hammer upgrade and fight Quian Bei to complete the level. 15: Forsaken City II ==================== Hard score: 222,000 Nightmare score: 260,000 Choose any colour at the big crystal and try to get all of the treasure on the other side of the drawbridge with this single multiplier. Also open the green chest in the Drydock if you haven't already done so. You may as well use some items as you will need space in your inventory for bombs shortly. 16: Beach ========= Hard score: 8,956,000 Nightmare score: 23,519,000 This is the second highest scoring level in the game. Big runs: 1 Yellow: South beach crystals -> Cave fight -> South beach chests and cages -> North beach chest and crystals -> North beach cage -> Clandestine Beach Open all of the exits from the two main beach areas with bombs. Kill all of the crabs in the main beach areas and complete the Zhong challenges. Collect the red and blue crystals, but not the yellow crystals. Do not collect any coins. Collect the yellow crystals from the first (south) beach area and then proceed through the tunnels to the west, choosing yellow just before the big fight. Maintain multiplier throughout the cave fight and leave through the other side of the cave system. Be sure to activate the switch in the caves too. Return to the south beach to open the green chests and the cage. Collect the yellow crystals at the second beach area and open the green chest and cage there too. Make your way through the second cave system towards the Clandestine Beach. There is a lot of treasure on offer as you make your way around, but you will not be able to reliably open the green chest on the Clandestine Beach with a multiplier still active. Once your multiplier has run out you can backtrack to any areas of the previous beaches that you missed. Kill the crab on the Clandestine Beach and complete the Zhong challenge here, then collect the red crystals on the beach. Enter the demon realm and clear the first room with a red multiplier still active. Then collect the blue crystals above the moving platform and finish the rest of the portal as normal. This method gives slightly more points than clearing the first room with blue multiplier. Open the green chest on the beach when you leave the demon realm. If you fall quite early on in the grottos then you may still be able to reach the end with a good multiplier on your second attempt. However, if you fall quite far along then you will lose your multiplier and give up a large point scoring opportunity- consider reloading from your last save. The difference between 350x and 500x multiplier will affect your score by more than 0.5 million points, so use that to guide your decision on whether or not to reset. 17: Harbour =========== Hard score: 4,231,000 Nightmare score: 8,581,000 Big runs: 1 Blue: Big crystal at merchant -> Depot -> Dock -> Smithy Collect the red crystals at the dock, but don't kill or collect anything else. Allow these crystals to be wasted for the greater good. Choose blue at the merchant, then keep the multiplier going through the big fight at the depot. Backtrack through the tunnel (you should leave some blue crystals every time you pass) to return to the dock, and then clear the dock and depot area with maxed out multiplier. Take the elevator to the smithy and clear as much as possible while your blue multiplier is active. Ideally your multiplier should last until the save point before Tak. Make short work of the rats and Tak in the smithy before completing the level as normal. 18: Volcano =========== Hard score: 12,315,000 Nightmare score: 23,844,000 This is the highest scoring level in the game. Big runs: 1 Blue: Starting area -> Cave area with bats -> Hidden room in starting area 2 Blue: Demon portal -> Cat statue area 3 Red: Lava chase area -> Smoke filled room -> Ammunition depot Move the box in the first area but don't collect the treasure in the hidden room beyond. Proceed up the slope, leaving behind one blue crystal to refresh your multiplier later. In the second area with the balloons, leave all the treasure. Using the Zhongs to help you reach the balloons will get you some more blue crystals. In the third area (cave) collect all of the crystals and treasure, then backtrack all the way to the box that you moved earlier. You can allow your multiplier to run out after you collect the treasure in the secret room. In the fourth area there is a bigger fight that you can clear with red multiplier from crystals nearby. Pick up a demon potion from the merchant on the way past, and have a berserk potion or two to hand. The route is linear and there are no interesting strategies to speak of until after all of the cat statues have been activated. After the area with the cat statues, leave all treasure. Clear the demon potion normally with a blue multiplier and then return to the cat statue area, collecting all of the treasure that you passed on the way. This is probably the highest scoring run of the game (in excess of 18 million points on nightmare difficulty- that's more points than you score for the whole game up to the second Boarax fight). The last major fight can be completed with any colour of multiplier. After you escape the advancing river of lava, you will have a high red multiplier. You then face three rats in a smoke filled room. Kill the rats and collect the key before choosing red at the big crystal, as this will allow you to maintain your multiplier through the fight in the ammunition depot. 19: Showdown with Shun ====================== Hard score: 1,000 Nightmare score: 1,000 Choose any colour at the big crystal. Hard Scores =========== O---------------------------------------------------------O | | Cumulative | Level | % of total score | | Level | Score | Score | from this level | O------------+------------+------------+------------------O |Cat Village | 66,000 | 66,000 | 0.1% | |Mystic | 2,128,000 | 2,062,000 | 3.0% | |Meridional | 3,375,000 | 1,247,000 | 1.8% | |Dragoncave | 7,381,000 | 4,006,000 | 5.8% | |Boarax | 7,688,000 | 307,000 | 0.4% | |Nebula Is | 10,037,000 | 2,349,000 | 3.4% | |Marshland | 12,955,000 | 2,918,000 | 4.2% | |Frog City | 17,264,000 | 4,309,000 | 6.2% | |Turtle Fort | 20,927,000 | 3,663,000 | 5.3% | |Croc Temple | 24,867,000 | 3,940,000 | 5.7% | |Lone Swamp | 24,868,000 | 1,000 | 0.0% | |Forsaken I | 32,070,000 | 7,202,000 | 10.4% | |King's | 38,922,000 | 6,852,000 | 9.9% | |Dungeons | 43,446,000 | 4,524,000 | 6.5% | |Forsaken II | 43,668,000 | 222,000 | 0.3% | |Beach | 52,624,000 | 8,956,000 | 12.9% | |Harbour | 56,855,000 | 4,231,000 | 6.1% | |Volcano | 69,170,000 | 12,315,000 | 17.8% | |Shun | 69,171,000 | 1,000 | 0.0% | O---------------------------------------------------------O Total score: 69,171,000 Turtle Fort, Forsaken City I, King's Palace and the Volcano are worth proportionately more points on this difficulty than on other difficulties. Nightmare Scores ================ O----------------------------------------------------------O | | Cumulative | Level | % of total score | | Level | Score | Score | from this level | O------------+-------------+------------+------------------O |Cat Village | 129,000 | 129,000 | 0.1% | |Mystic | 4,248,000 | 4,119,000 | 2.8% | |Meridional | 6,656,000 | 2,408,000 | 1.7% | |Dragoncave | 14,374,000 | 7,718,000 | 5.3% | |Boarax | 14,911,000 | 537,000 | 0.4% | |Nebula Is | 20,220,000 | 5,309,000 | 3.7% | |Marshland | 29,238,000 | 9,018,000 | 6.2% | |Frog City | 39,874,000 | 10,636,000 | 7.3% | |Turtle Fort | 45,225,000 | 5,351,000 | 3.7% | |Croc Temple | 53,281,000 | 8,056,000 | 5.5% | |Lone Swamp | 53,282,000 | 1,000 | 0.0% | |Forsaken I | 66,414,000 | 13,132,000 | 9.1% | |King's | 78,813,000 | 12,399,000 | 8.5% | |Dungeons | 89,193,000 | 10,380,000 | 7.1% | |Forsaken II | 89,453,000 | 260,000 | 0.2% | |Beach | 112,972,000 | 23,519,000 | 16.2% | |Harbour | 121,553,000 | 8,581,000 | 5.9% | |Volcano | 145,397,000 | 23,844,000 | 16.4% | |Shun | 145,398,000 | 1,000 | 0.0% | O----------------------------------------------------------O Total score: 145,398,000 Marshland, Frog City and the Beach (especially the beach!) are worth proportionately more points on this difficulty than on other difficulties. On nightmare difficulty, levels are more evenly weighted. *Please note that I was more selective over scores that I was happy with, and more inclined to re-load and try again, on my nightmare playthrough compared with my hard playthrough. O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | FOR ADVANCED PLAYERS: [CRY] | | BIG CRYSTAL QUICK REFERENCE GUIDE | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O Here you can find a list of all of the big crystals in the game and what colour I would recommend choosing for them to maximise your score. I hope that you find this useful- it should be easier than having to scour through the walkthrough to pick the best colour if you have a good handle on the game's maps already. Where there is no obvious colour to choose, I have tended to pick red by default. 01: Cat Village =============== None 02: Mystic Forest ================= R Demon portal R Demon portal R At cage before boar race Y At rolling logs Y Rat camp Y Clearing with zipline 03: Meridional Forest ===================== B/Y Cave after rat camp- blue if multiplier from rat camp maintained, yellow if multiplier from rat camp lost Y Rockfall chasm 04: Dragon Cave =============== R First room R Third Tor Chi encounter B Demon portal 05: Wild Boar Boarax ==================== None 06: Nebula Islands ================== R Outside turtle fort Y Demon portal Y Demon portal 07: Marshland ============== Y Demon portal Y Demon portal 08: Frog City ============= R Pontoon next to save point R Pontoon with turtles 09: Turtle Fort =============== Y Boxing ring Y Turtle nest R Outside croc temple 10: Crocodile Temple ==================== B Pump room B Entrance room with froghead amulet part B Demon portal B Demon portal 11: Lone Swamp ============== None 12: Forsaken City I =================== R Starting area R In main courtyard, outside prison R Prison R Locked area with cat statue B Palace stairway B Palace stairway 13: King's Palace ================= B West of central area Y East of central area B Demon portal B Final area after bodyguard fight 14: Ancient Dungeons ==================== R Spiderpits Y Ring of champions Y Ring of champions Y Far room beyond ring of champions, next to cat statue R Crypt of the King's guards 15: Forsaken City II ==================== R Across the Drydock 16: Beach ========= Y Southwest cave system Y Northwest cave system 17: Harbour =========== B Jetty B Tunnel leading to depot B Room before Tak 18: Volcano =========== B Demon portal R Last fight after red armour chest R Fight after lava chase in smoke filled room 19: Showdown with Shun ====================== R Next to merchant O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | FOR ADVANCED PLAYERS: [CHA] | | CHALLENGE PLAYTHROUGHS | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O This section outlines a variety of different ways to play Legend of Kay for players who are very familiar with the game and looking for a new challenge beyond simply aiming for a high score. Some of these suggestions will be accessible to novice players, but many will be particularly gruelling, even to experience and skilled players. I haven't been able to play through and test all of these, and so while I have tried to give some estimation of difficulty, in reality some challenges may be even tougher than I have predicted. Select game difficulty based on your own skill level. On the whole, there will be a significant escalation in difficulty between playing these challenges on "normal" and "hard" modes. Of course for these playthroughs, as for Whose Line is it Anyway, "the points don't matter"! Focus on just finishing the game without aiming for a high score. O------------------O | BASIC CHALLENGES | O------------------O No Magic ======== Rules: Don't ever use magic attacks. Exceptions: Second fighting lesson with the Master in Cat Village, awakening the ancestors in the Forsaken City. Difficulty of challenge: Low This is probably the easiest challenge playthrough, and is comfortably achievable at whichever difficulty you usually play on without too much extra stress. If you collect a fair amount of cash over the course of the game you will find that you can simply use berserk potions more often for fights against multiple opponents. Sword Only ========== Rules: Only use the sword for the whole game. Exceptions: Claws can be used to break bamboo in the water. Hammer can be used to break floor plates or when facing Quian Bei/ terracotta warriors/ crabs. Weapon-specific Zhongs can be broken as normal (although all challenges related to these Zhongs are optional). Difficulty of challenge: Low A sword-only playthrough is probably quite manageable for the vast majority of players on normal difficulty. Experienced players could likely attempt this on hard difficulty without much trouble at all. In fact, you are unlikely to notice much of a difference in difficulty until after the Ancient Dungeons, as this is when the hammer usually comes into its own. Demon portals will be more difficult without the claws. Purists may wish to kill terracotta warriors with magic instead of the hammer, but unfortunately Quian Bei cannot be killed in this way, and so a true sword- only game is not technically possible. I allow myself to use the claws when roaming around and opening pots for reasons of speed and convenience alone. Ancestral Sword Only ==================== Rules: Only use the sword for the whole game, and do not collect or buy the sword upgrades from the Dragoncave or the Swamps of Death. Exceptions: Claws can be used to break bamboo in the water. Hammer can be used to break floor plates or when facing Quian Bei/ terracotta warriors/ crabs. Weapon-specific Zhongs can be broken as normal (although all challenges related to these Zhongs are optional). Difficulty of challenge: High Now we're talking. This can be challenging even on normal difficulty, and will certainly be very testing on hard. From around Frog City/ Croc Temple, most combat situations become protracted and difficult. Combo mode and berserk potions are still moderately effective, and magic proves useful through the middle of the game. Latterly (when magic becomes rather hopeless too) only a great deal of patience and good judgement will lead to success. Jia-Gu is especially tough as he will take much longer to kill and will cause more destruction to the boardwalks around him. During some fights, keeping bomb rats alive may be useful, as they will probably do more damage to their own allies than you can achieve with your sword! The final battles with Shun and Monster Shun take a really, really long time. Speedrun ======== Rules: Complete the game as fast as possible. Measure time from the beginning of the first cutscene to the end of the last cutscene. Exceptions: Do not use cheats, out-of-the-map glitches etc. to bypass huge chunks of the game. Difficulty of challenge: What you make of it! Speedruns are a huge part of gaming culture, and are taken very seriously, so I expect that this will be the most common challenge playthrough that players will take on. The level of challenge here is related to how strict you want to be with your times- there are some games that people have played over and over again to shave a second or two from a best time of several hours. I don't for a second think that Legend of Kay should be treated like this, but this challenge is certainly fast paced and enjoyable, and if players want to strive for perfection, then feel free to share your best times with the rest of us on the GameFAQs message board! You can select your own difficulty for this challenge. I suspect that a future update to this guide will include a section devoted entirely to strategies for speedrunning the game, and so I will not discuss them at length here. No Armour ========= Rules: Don't collect or buy any armour throughout the game. Exceptions: None Difficulty of challenge: Moderate This is an interesting challenge that will allow you to feel the true brunt of enemy attacks. If armour is picked up by accident, then you should be hit on purpose at the start of the next fight until the armour is destroyed. It would be sensible to rely on the sword more than the hammer, as longer recovery times will leave you vulnerable to being hit. There will of course also be an increased reliance on health potions, which will be expensive. On normal difficulty, save points will do the majority of your healing for you, but on hard difficulty it will be useful to keep your health topped up by killing enemies with somersault attacks if they become separated from the pack. No Merchant =========== Rules: Don't visit the merchant at any point throughout the game. Exceptions: At your own discretion, you may choose to pick up the Razor Claws and the Bullhammer, as these are not conventional items that can be acquired by any other means. Some players may also pick up heart and magic containers (provided they were not available from the merchant as a result of being missed in previous levels). Difficulty of challenge: Low if weapons and containers are permitted. Moderate if no weapons or containers are permitted. If weapons and containers are permitted in the shop, then the biggest issue is a lack of berserk potions, which should not have a major impact on your game and should make this a fairly easy challenge. If containers are not permitted, then you will have to finish the game with 13 health points and 11 magic points, which is still easily manageable, even alongside the lack of potions. There is so much armour available late in the game that a slight reduction in health will not pose a significant problem. If weapons are not permitted in the shop, then the absence of the Bullhammer from your arsenal will likely lead you towards using the sword through most of the latter stages of the game. Nonetheless, utilising magic and combo attacks with a fully-upgraded sword should make this challenge straightforward on most difficulties. No Items ======== Rules: Don't use any items throughout the game. Exceptions: Bombs to break down crumbling walls are permitted only when these are compulsory to finish the level (i.e. not linked to optional quests/ cat statues). Difficulty of challenge: Moderate Not having access to the "big three" items (berserk potions, magic potions, health potions) will be frustrating, but by far the biggest hindrance of these will be the lack of berserk potions. This challenge will probably be of similar difficulty to a No Merchant playthrough- on the one hand, a No Item playthrough has access to the Bullhammer, but on the other hand, a No Merchant playthrough has access to berserk potions. On the whole, I suspect that a No Item playthrough will be easier for players who favour the hammer, and a No Merchant playthrough will be easier for players who favour the sword. You should pick up armour whenever possible as you cannot use health potions. O------------------------------------------------------------O | COMBINATION CHALLENGES- AN EVEN HIGHER LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY | O------------------------------------------------------------O THE UNDERDOG CHALLENGE ====================== Ancestral Sword Only + No Magic + No berserk potions + Hard/Nightmare Rules: - Only use the sword for the whole game, and do not collect or buy the sword upgrades from the Dragoncave or the Swamps of Death. - Don't ever use magic attacks. - Don't ever use berserk potions, except in non-combat situations to make space in your inventory. - Play on Hard or Nightmare difficulty. Exceptions: - The Claws can be used when breaking bamboo in the water. - The hammer can be used when fighting Quian Bei/ terracotta warriors/ crabs. - Magic is permitted during the second fighting lesson with the Master in Cat Village, and when awakening the ancestors in the Forsaken City. Difficulty of challenge: Very high This is a combination of challenges that will take away your reliance on magic attacks and berserk potions when attempting the Ancestral Sword Only challenge. The beginning of the game is played entirely normally, but as the sword upgrades are left behind, difficulty will escalate very rapidly. Combat towards the end of the game is going to take a really, really long time due to the significant nerfing of your offensive abilities. Once again, bomb rats may be your main allies. THE NO POCKETS CHALLENGE ======================== No Merchant + No Items + Hard/Nightmare Rules: - Don't visit the merchant at any point throughout the game. (Strict- no containers or weapons.) - Don't use any items throughout the game. - Play on Hard or Nightmare difficulty. Exceptions: - Bombs are permitted to break down crumbling walls only when these are compulsory to finish the level. Difficulty of challenge: Moderate/High If playing on a higher difficulty setting, this becomes a more significant challenge. All of the factors together (lack of berserk potions, reduced armour availability, reduced health and magic points, absence of the Bullhammer) give this a more interesting spin, but ultimately it is the easiest of the combinations of challenges presented here. Armour is the cornerstone of survival, especially towards the end of the game, and of course you are likely to rely on the sword. THE PAPER TIGER CHALLENGE ========================= No Armour + No health potions + Hard/Nightmare Rules: - Don't collect or buy any armour throughout the game. Purposely destroy any armour you collect by accident. - Don't use any health potions throughout the game. You may throw away any health potions that you collect by accident to make space in your inventory, but only when you are on full health. - Play on Hard or Nightmare difficulty. Exceptions: None Difficulty of challenge: Very High Now *this* is a challenge. You have your normal arsenal of weapons, and you can buy and use items as much as you like, but will it actually do you any good? Obviously, the key here is to just not get hit, as you will lose health so readily and not be able to replenish it with potions. As you are also playing on a harder difficulty, save points will be of very limited use too. You will have to re-evaluate your entire combat style, and change the way in which you measure risk in relation to attacking enemies. When once you would have taken the chance for a hammer throw, it is now probably not worth the risk to try a roll-around in a densely packed group of enemies. Attacking at a distance with magic and combo and roll attacks while berserk will of course be the way to go, and you will probably have to use the sword out of necessity for the majority of the latter parts of the game, to reduce recovery times. Somersault attacks will be your sole reliable source of health regeneration between heart containers. You should leave heart containers and only collect/buy them when your health is low. THE APOCALYPSE CHALLENGE ======================== Ancestral Sword Only + No Magic + No Items + No Armour + Hard/Nightmare Rules: - Only use the sword for the whole game, and do not collect or buy the sword upgrades from the Dragoncave or the Swamps of Death. - Don't ever use magic attacks. - Don't use any items throughout the game. - Don't collect or buy any armour throughout the game. Purposely destroy any armour you collect by accident. - Play on Hard or Nightmare difficulty. Exceptions: - The Claws can be used when breaking bamboo in the water. - The hammer can be used when fighting Quian Bei/ terracotta warriors/ crabs. - Magic is permitted during the second fighting lesson with the Master in Cat Village, and when awakening the ancestors in the Forsaken City. - Bombs are permitted to break down crumbling walls only when these are compulsory to finish the level. Difficulty of challenge: Impossible Plainly, this is absurd, and I don't really expect anyone to try it. As well as being unable to heal or defend yourself, you also have absolutely no firepower whatsoever. I suspect that by Hidden Glade you would already be losing patience, and by the Crocodile Temple you would either have either destroyed your console in a fit of frenzied rage or lost your sanity altogether. It's hard to think of a decent strategy to implement here, besides somersault- killing everything and really, *really* taking your time. I thought about including No Merchant too, but the only thing that would achieve is limiting your maximum health by two points, so I've omitted it to at least give you access to all of the heart containers. Please don't attempt this, I only really include it here as a discussion point about how far we could potentially go with challenge playthroughs, but if you do fancy giving it a shot, good luck. O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O | CONTACT INFORMATION AND THANKS [THX] | O-----------------------------------------------------------------------------O I am happy to receive e-mails regarding Legend of Kay for as long as this paragraph appears here. If at any time I decide not to respond to e-mails regarding this game, this paragraph will be updated accordingly. E-mails should be sent to: callum.carluke[a.t]gmail[d0t]com *** APPEAL FOR FEEDBACK! *** Please e-mail your feedback on the guide to the above address. Letting me know what you liked about the guide and what you would like to see improved helps me to keep making the guide better! If you liked the guide, and are reading on GameFAQs, please "recommend" :) A few things to note when e-mailing me: - Make sure the phrase "Legend of Kay" appears in the subject line. - You can e-mail me to ask to host the guide on your website, offer corrections, point out mistakes, contribute new information or ideas, or give feedback on the guide. - You can write to me to ask for additional help with the game, but try to make sure that your question hasn't been answered in the guide already. - Please write in English or German. I will reply to most e-mails in English. I would like to say a huge thank you to: - J Meleu for contributing information on the Zhong challenge on the Volcano - Alex R for contributing information on Nong Bao's mission in the Cat Village - T Murphy for helping to investigate how extras may be unlocked - T Deacon for contributing information about a bug in the Croc Temple Thanks also to all of you for reading. All the best, ManicLaugh "Tomorrow... tomorrow the sun will rise on a warrior." ==END OF FILE==