Tales of Symphonia Advanced Coliseum FAQ By Josh Laddin, aka Stormeagle6 Version 1.65 - July 9, 2007 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) Introduction 2) Version history 3) Single Mode General Strategies 3.a) Velocidragon and Dragon Rider 3.b) Crush Tortoise 3.c) Drake 3.d) Ice Warrior 3.e) Dragon Knight 4) Single Mode Character Tips 4.a) Lloyd 4.b) Kratos/Zelos 4.c) Presea 4.d) Sheena 4.e) Regal 4.f) Colette 4.g) Genis 4.h) Raine 5) Cheesing 5.a) Genis and Raine 5.b) Sheena 5.c) Sheena and Colette 6) Party Mode General Strategies 7) Bonus Battles 7.a) Seles 7.b) Tales Series Characters 8) Rewards 8.a) Weapons and Items 8.b) Equipment Drops 8.c) Titles 9) Closing ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 - Introduction ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Welcome to this, my second FAQ, for the outstanding RPG Tales of Symphonia. This FAQ is only to help you survive some of the most difficult battles in the game in the Advanced Coliseum Class in Meltokio. While there really aren't any spoilers here, you won't need to read this until you reach the last part of the game anyway since that's when the Coliseum is available. The Beginner and Intermediate Classes will not be covered since frankly they're just too easy, and if you can't beat them you really shouldn't be here. Moreover, you only have to clear the Single Mode Beginner and Intermediate Classes with one character (aka Lloyd, unless you have a fetish for another character) to unlock Advanced for all the characters. I won all of my battles in the Coliseum while my characters were between level 70 and 75 - that should serve as a good measure for your preparedness. Make sure to have every useful tech learned for all your characters, good equipment, and good accessories. In other words, it's best to do the Coliseum after you've cleared out the last dungeon of everything but the final boss. And always make sure to save before you battle, so you can reset and not lose your money if you lose the fight. That's about it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 - Version history ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Version 1.65 - July 9, 2007 -Added yet another bit of info about Seles Version 1.64 - May 22, 2007 -Added more suggestions for Lloyd, Zelos/Kratos, Sheena, and Regal -Added a party makeup suggestion for Party Mode Version 1.62 - September 19, 2006 -Added a tip for Raine -More info on the Tales Character battle Version 1.60 - June 18, 2006 -Added a tip for Sheena Version 1.59 - May 25, 2006 -Added some strategy and tips for the Tales Character battle Version 1.58 - March 25, 2006 -Added a tip for Lloyd Version 1.57 - March 5, 2006 -Added some tips for Regal Version 1.56 - January 21, 2006 -Added yet another Seles strategy Version 1.55 - December 18, 2005 -Added a Seles strategy Version 1.52 - November 6, 2005 -Added an Ex Skill suggestion for Regal Version 1.51 - August 6, 2005 -Added another strategy against Seles Version 1.5 - June 30, 2005 -Added accessory suggestions -Added an Ex Skill suggestion for Colette -Added an Ex Skill suggestion for Raine -Added a strategy for Lloyd against the Ice Warrior Version 1.44 - April 1, 2005 -Added a detail about the Seles fight Version 1.43 - January 4, 2005 -Added a cooking suggestion -Added an Ex Skill suggestion for Lloyd -Added an Ex Skill suggestion for Kratos/Zelos Version 1.4 - November 28, 2004 -Added an Ex Skill setup for Raine -New equipment recommendation for Kratos/Zelos -New strategy for Seles battle -Extra tip for Lloyd -Added suggestions for Raine's equipment -Added a note for Raine Version 1.31 - October 19, 2004 -Extra tip for Colette Version 1.3 - September 16, 2004 -Ex Skill recommendation for Colette -Extra tips for Kratos/Zelos -Added how to enter Party Mode -A little change in wording here and there -Slight addition to Dragon Knight battle Version 1.25 - August 27, 2004 -More info in the Tales Series Character battle -Added a couple combo charts for Regal -Even more info on meeting Seles Version 1.2 - August 10, 2004 -Slight correction to equipment changing -Added more info for fighting Seles -Corrected misspelling of Colette's name throughout the FAQ -Extra tip for Lloyd Version 1.15 - August 9, 2004 -Added the location of the Extreme Symbol -Inserted Turquoise gem info in appropriate places -Tip on changing equipment added to General Strategies -More info in getting Seles -More strategy added for Seles -More strategy added for Tales Series Characters -Extra tips for Lloyd -Extra tips for Genis -Extra tips for Regal Version 1.05 - August 6, 2004 -Minor grammar and spelling fixes -Altered Raine's strategy slightly Version 1.0 - August 4, 2004 -Initial Release ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 - Single Mode General Strategies ---------------------------------------------------------------------- In this section I will give the stats for each enemy you face, a brief description of the battles, and tactics universal for most, if not all, characters. Stats are for normal battle rank. Remember, you can cook after a battle! This is the best way to restore HP and TP, so make sure you go in with plenty of ingredients for your recipe of choice. I recommend Miso Stew (in the game, not real life. Yuck!). --> Maxmagnus20019 recommends cooking Meat Stew with physical characters, such as Lloyd, for the HP restoration and attack increase for the next battle. --> I have also been reminded by Aveothopios2 that you can change equipment in battle, so it would be wise to switch to weapons and armor that will give you elemental advantages over the competition. Maxrpg has pointed out, however, that you can only change equipment in the beginning of the battle, and soon after the option can no longer be selected. 3.a) Velocidragon and Dragon Rider Velocidragon HP: 2300 TP: 0 Attack: 406 Defense: 30 Element: None Weaknesses: Ice Strengths: None Dragon Rider HP: 2680 TP: 0 Attack: 425 Defense: 37 Element: None Weaknesses: None Strengths: None For some characters (magic users mostly) I consider this the hardest battle in the Advanced Class because it's a 2 on 1. One hit will make the Rider fall and then you'll have to deal with both. Though the Rider has better stats, I find it easier to go after him first (except with casters) because it's easier to hit him with combos and dodge his attacks. Don't let up on him, and when he's down, go after his pet. Sometimes the way the Dragon staggers from hits will keep it out of range of the next hit, which can be annoying when trying to combo it. Still, once you've taken one of them out, the other will go down fairly easily. 3.b) Crush Tortoise HP: 9400 TP: 0 Attack: 904 Defense: 121 Element: Water Weaknesses: Lightning Strengths: Water, Ice This guy is pretty simple. Although his Attack stat is high, he doesn't seem to do much damage. All he does are close range bites and stomps, or he'll go into his shell and launch himself at you. All of these attacks are easily dodged or blocked and then countered. Just be wary, since if he blocks your attacks he can counter surprisingly fast. If you use a character that knows healing magic, distance yourself and heal if you need to. 3.c) Drake HP: 11850 TP: 1000 Attack: 630 Defense: 54 Element: None Weaknesses: Ice Strengths: Fire, Lightning I consider this third fight to be the "breather." Not only is it very easy, you should be able to heal yourself back to full before the end as long as you wear the Holy Symbol or cast magic. I keep all characters without healing magic (except Genis) equipped with a Holy Symbol (or Turquoise!). Anyway, all he does is breathe fire in front of him and occasionally cast Spark Wave. Run underneath him in between his attacks and stay there. His breath cannot hit you, and if you see him charging Spark Wave, just run at full speed in any direction to avoid the spell and get back under him. If you have the Holy Symbol equipped, just stand under him and dodge his magic until your HP is back to full. If you can use healing magic, obviously do so as it is much faster. When you're ready to end the fight, bring him to the ground with a jump attack and just go to town with whatever attacks you like, and you shouldn't take any damage at all. 3.d) Ice Warrior HP: 4320 TP: 0 Attack: 668 Defense: 59 Element: Ice (Duh!) Weaknesses: Fire, Lightning Strengths: Water, Ice He's...really slow. If he shoots ice balls run out of range, but basically the best tactic is to run up to him, block a slash, and counter. If you need room to cast a spell, he's fortunately just short enough to jump over and run to the other side. Just watch out for his overhead swing if you jump over. The annoying thing he does is his charged up slash, since it knocks you into the air even when blocking or using your defensive skill, preventing you from countering! But he's still not that big a deal. Kill him and cook some food for the final battle. 3.e) Dragon Knight HP: 13500 TP: 0 Attack: 1485 Defense: 250 Element: None Weaknesses: None Strengths: None The Dragon Knight can be really difficult or really simple depending on the character. If you're attacking physically, the best way is to get close enough to initiate his attack, backstep out of the way, then run in close and block. If he swings his axe, run back in after it knocks you back. You want him to shoot his fireballs. After blocking all three you can counter with your strongest combo. Then back away and repeat. Consider yourself lucky if he does his flying fire breath. It's easy to dodge if you're at a distance, and if you're close you can run beneath and behind him to pummel him when he lands. If you need to heal by way of the Holy Symbol or Turquoise, it's important to note that all his attacks are triggered by standing a medium distance away from him. Stand there to get him to attack you and then backstep to dodge it, run back up to the same distance and repeat. With practice, you will not be hit at all while you wait for your HP to regenerate. Lloyd and Presea can pretty much just keep smacking him to death, but the other characters may take some time to keep their HP comfortable. Also, some characters are short enough not to get hit by the fireballs when standing right up next to the Dragon Knight. You'd be suprised - even Lloyd sometimes can stand next to him without being hit, in prime position for a combo. Presea and Sheena can do this almost all the time (strange, Sheena doesn't seem that short). Try it out. --> Angelos says that if you get right under the Dragon Knight as he flies up, he'll land right on top of you and you can cast spells on him without fear of retaliation. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 4 - Single Mode Character Tips ---------------------------------------------------------------------- I've listed these in order the order of difficulty that I found, easy to hard. This section is for legitimate fighting only! If you want to do really cheap stuff to win for some of the more difficult characters, scroll down to the "Cheesing" section. But I would recommend that you try doing it the honest way for the satisfaction and bragging rights. I will list the accessories I used for each character too. --> Stormage has informed me that the Turquoise gem is better than the Holy Symbol as it also restores TP. Use it instead! --> Maxrpg has mentioned that if you equip both the Turquoise and Holy Symbol you will get double the regen. Good call! Here are my choices for the best accessories overall: Faerie Ring (50% TP consumption) - an absolute must for Tech users Holy Symbol (3% slow HP regen) - if the character can't use healing magic, you should slap one of these on them Turquoise (3% slow HP and tp regen) - Ahh, now I know what this does! Better than the Holy Symbol or Spirit Symbol Mystic Symbol (Faster spell casting) - good for Genis and Raine Extreme Symbol (Stronger attack) - good to round out a character's equipment, won in the Advanced Party Mode --> watcher0's choices for good accessories include the Force Ring (dropped by the Hell Knight) and the Reflect Ring (dropped by Origin). These provide increased physical and magical defense, respectively. 4.a) Lloyd My accessories: Holy Symbol Extreme Symbol There's really not much to say for Lloyd. He's overpowered, especially if you did the Abyssion sidequest to get his Nebilim swords. If you can't beat the Coliseum with Lloyd, you'd better go out and get a lot better. Be as aggressive as you can and take the fight right to your enemy with your favorite combos. --> Angelos mentions that if you get behind the Dragon Knight and set Raining Tiger Blade to neutral B, you can keep mashing B and he won't be able to recover. --> Aveothopios2 reports that you can abuse Rising Falcon over and over to dish out huge damage to all your enemies. Whatever floats your boat! --> Daide notes that you if the Ice Warrior blocks your attacks, you can use a Tiger Blade tech (he recommends Raining Tiger Blade) to break the block for a real combo. --> yahiko has a strategy for the Ice Warrior in which you run right up to him at the beginning and let him slash you, then do a normal four hit combo, Tiger Blade, Fierce Demon Fang, and Raining Tiger Blade. With this combo, you should be able to do a guard break on him over and over. --> Assassin105 has a technique in which you knock an enemy to the ground with a Beast move, then stand next to them and use Demon Fang. This should make them stand up immediately, and if you hit them with Twin Tiger Blade right away it will knock them down again. Repeat to get high combos. --> Patrick Da Silva recommends the following Ex Skills: Lvl 3 - Add Combo Lvl 2 - Vitality This will give you Sky Attack, which allows you to use special attacks in midair. When the Dragon Knight uses his fireballs, use Tempest in the air and you will sail over him. Then knock him down from behind. --> Yet another way to slay the Dragon Knight was sent by Mike Lambert. If your health is low (in the red) you can just equip the Material Blade and hit A+B+X to do Falcon's Crest, which should probably kill the Dragon Knight in one go. --> Icezera says "with Lloyd, the 'tiger blade'-'twin tiger blade' -'demon fang' combo lets you endlessly keep up a combo. I equipped him with a faerie ring to reduce tp cost on the expensive twin tigerblade." 4.b) Kratos/Zelos My accessories: Extreme Symbol Faerie Ring They're good physical attackers like Lloyd, but they can't rack up or take quite as much damage. Fortunately, they have First Aid. Make one of your shortcuts First Aid and use it when there are gaps in your enemies' patterns. Otherwise the strategies should be pretty much the same as Lloyd's. --> plastic_chochi has sent me tips on the Ice Warrior and Dragon Knight. If you hang back far away from the Ice Warrior and use Demon Fang continuously, you will kill him easily since he moves so slowly. Likewise, you can let the Dragon Knight corner you and Demon Fang him repeatedly. To avoid the fireballs you hold guard and hop backward over them. This Demon Fang stuff can also work for Lloyd. --> Elmador recommends equipping the Cleric's Hat and Omega Shield on Kratos/Zelos and giving them Turquoise and Black Onyx for accessories. This will give your character more HP and therefore lots more HP regen from all the equipment. --> SOS brought to my attention the excellent Ex Skill setup for Super Blast: Lvl 3 - Eternal Lvl 3 - Super Chain Lvl 3 - Slasher Super Blast lets you have the six combo hits from Slasher, and follow with special attacks. This is great for long combos and lots of damage. --> From Icezera: Zelos/Kratos should use 'light spear'-'demon fang' until your enemy is backed into a corner. It pushes them back a lot. Then, you do 'light spear'-'super lightning blade'-'demon fang' over and over. It takes up a lot of TP so equip a faerie ring. 4.c) Presea My accessories: Holy Symbol Extreme Symbol Presea is simply a tank. Since she can't use magic she's got a nearly identical strategy to Lloyd: Hit very hard and very often. Her defense is incredible, too, so you shouldn't have to worry about your HP. Remember to take advantage of Presea's height and stand right next to the Dragon Knight when he shoots fireballs. This is a real advantage since most of the damage in the Dragon Knight fight comes from having to block his attacks before you counter. 4.d) Sheena My accessories: Holy Symbol Faerie Ring I thought the Coliseum would be really hard with Sheena since she doesn't have a lot of HP and can't heal herself, but she's real quick and can pull off some strong combos, making the fights go rather quickly. I like comboing with Life Seal + Demon Seal. It's powerful and knocks the enemy down to give you some space. Remember the enemy weaknesses too. Use S. Seal Ice on yourself for the Velocidragon and Drake, S. Seal Lightning for the Crush Tortoise, and S. Seal Fire for the Ice Warrior to give your attacks extra power. --> TripleJump suggests that, if you have a lot of hp left going into the Dragon Knight fight, you can just deliberately take a beating until you overlimit and just kill him with a strong summon. If you go into overlimit during any other fight, you should also summon while you have the chance, but I think that goes without saying. --> Icezera also adds that Sheena's Cyclone Seal is extremely useful as it's a long range attack. Against smaller enemies (so no dragon knight) it'll deal lots of damage and lift them up. If you have the Hard Hit Ex skill and Force Seal the enemy, you can easily do the 'power seal pinion'-'life seal'-'demon seal' combo for lots of damage. Power Seal Pinion obviously lowers enemy def. so you drain more life and do more damage. 4.e) Regal My accessories: Holy Symbol Faerie Ring I'm not very good with Regal so it was probably tougher than it should have been. Also I chose stupid accessories since I forgot Regal can heal himself. But anyway, fight a lot like you would with Kratos/Zelos. I don't know Regal's good combos, but I used Triple Kick and Eagle Dive a lot and it got the job done. Remember to heal yourself when needed. --> Edrynion submits the Ex Skill setup of: Lvl 3 - Add Combo Lvl 4 - Flash This gives you Air Jump, and the way to use it is to double jump over the Dragon Knight and unleash combos on him from behind. --> Niraj Lakhia says that a good combo for Regal is Triple Kick followed by Dragon Dance with the Add Combo Ex Skill. --> iggy91519 and a lot of others have mentioned that Mirage is a killer tech for Regal. Use it to get behind your enemies (especially Dragon Knight) and hit them while their backs are turned. --> Here are two great combo charts sent in by Jack, cause we all know that Regal's all about combos: ---------->"Eagle Fall" "Dragon Dance"---- --->"Wolverine" ---------->"Eagle Dive" ------ --->"Triple Rage Kick" I I I "Triple Kick" ->"Eagle Fall" ->"Crescent Moon" - "Crescent Dark Moon"-- ->"Eagle Dive" -I ->"Eagle Fall" I -->"Wolverine" ->"Eagle Dive"------------ -->"Triple Rage Kick" I I I "Triple Kick" --> Ice Magus uses the following Ex SKills: Lvl 2 - Vitality Lvl 3 - Guard Plus Lvl 4 - Guilt Lvl 4 - Flash to make the compound Ex Skill Glory, preventing most staggering. He also suggests the Turquoise and Faerie Ring for accessories. His tactic for killing the larger enemies (like Velocidragon and Dragon Knight) calls for standing a medium distance away and Miraging into them. You can end up inside the monster and can heal yourself freely because it can't hurt you (except for the Dragon Knight's thrust attack). --> Icezera says that Regal can just endlessly combo with 'crescent moon' then 'eagle rage.' 4.f) Colette My accessories: Holy Symbol Faerie Ring Once you get past the first fight, the rest actually aren't that bad with Colette as long as you have Para Ball and/or Torrential Para Ball. If not, I'd suggest you learn these S techs. Once you get a feel for the Para Ball's range, you can keep tossing them at your enemies to keep them at bay. It takes a while, but it's a nice way to kill your enemies while keeping yourself relatively safe. Also, the Para Balls stun enemies quite frequently, which will let you run up and combo. --> Jack has submitted an extremely useful Ex Skill setup as follows: Lvl 3 - Resurrect Lvl 3 - Eternal Lvl 4 - Stat Boost Lvl 4 - Angel Song This gives you the "Angels's Tear" compound Ex skill which revives you automatically once per battle! Quite nice. --> ages_boy submits the following Ex Skills: Lvl 2 - Vitality Lvl 3 - Spirit Lvl 4 - Stat Boost This should give you Life Thief and Spirit Thief - now if you continuously cast Stardust Cross, you will restore your HP and TP. Simply repeat it until your enemy is dead. -->AllPainful recommends using Hammer Rain to deal lots of damage to the Dragon Knight. If you run up and stand under him when he flies up to breath fire, you can hit him with Hammer Rain to dish out tons of damage. 4.g) Genis My accessories: Heal Bracelet Mystic Symbol I don't use the Holy Symbol for Genis because his fights end too quickly for it to be effective; either you or the enemy will die fast. Instead I use the Heal Bracelet for 10% HP regain when he kills enemies. It's a more substantial gain in the long run. I also subbed the Mystic Symbol for the Faerie Ring, also because the fights end too quickly to come close to burning through all your TP. Genis and Raine must absolutely have the "Concentrate" Ex Skill if you want to win legitimately. For Genis this requires: Lvl 3 - Rhythm Lvl 4 - Spell Save Lvl 4 - Speed Cast Lvl 4 - Spell Charge This prevents you from staggering when hit while casting a spell. With that in mind, cast your strongest Ice magic to kill the Velocidragon and any strong spell to kill the Rider. Lightning will tear up the Crush Tortoise and Ice will take out the Drake, although the Ice spell Absolute will not usually hit him since he's flying. But it's the Drake, so you can kill him with pretty much anything. Use your strongest Fire magic against the Ice Warrior and cast Meteor Storm nonstop against the Dragon Knight to wipe him out quite easily. Cook often with Genis since he'll take a beating while casting. 4.h) Raine My accessories: Mystic Symbol Faerie Ring As above, you want the Ex Skill "Concentrate". For Raine this requires: Lvl 3 - Speed Cast Lvl 4 - Item Pro Lvl 4 - Spell Save Lvl 4 - Happiness Raine's entire offense is composed of only 2 spells, which makes the strategy pretty simple. While her advanced offensive spells have the potential for more damage, the number of hits they do can vary, and it takes a while for the hits to actually connect, leaving you open longer. Photon does less damage but hits quickly and accurately. Balance them as the situation dictates. In the first fight, keep blasting the Velocidragon until it's dead (hopefully before you). Then immediately cast First Aid over and over until you're back up to full HP. The Rider will hit you, but not for nearly as much as you get healed each time. The second, third, and fourth fights shouldn't pose much of a problem with your healing power. The Dragon Knight can be trouble. Mix up your casting with First Aid and offensive spells as appropriate. Unlike the other enemies, the Dragon Knight can damage you for more than you heal at a time, so choose wisely when you cast. --> Ryan Johnson recommends using the Blue Talisman and Turquoise for battles 1 and 5, and the Reflect Ring and Persian Boots for battles 2 - 4, with the Spirit Robe equipped for all of them. --> Garuda notes that Ray will hit for maximum damage on the Dragon Knight if you cast it on top of him. --> Murasaki has contributed this Ex Skill setup: Lvl 2 - Personal Lvl 3 - Add Combo Lvl 4 - Spell Save Lvl 4 - Happiness She gets the Compund Ex Skills Nimble Mage, Hard Hit, and Reducer. The most important is Nimble Mage, since it allows her to move again immediately after casting, as the spell hits. This is a good setup if you want to try an alternate way of going through the Coliseum (not Concentrate). --> Rock M suggests this setup: Lvl 1 - Magical Lvl 2 - E. Guard Lvl 3 - Guard Plus Lvl 4 - Item Pro This combination gives the following - E Block Auto Aid Blood Magic Auto-Aid randomly casts First Aid as a counter to taking damage (non-blocked), and Blood Magic regenerates Raine's TP when she's hit in battle. --> [ho1ysword] has a tip for the first battle. If you need to heal, let the Velociraptor kick you in the air or the Rider knock you in the air with a jumping slash, and just hit the ground. When you get back up, you will flash briefly and have enough invincibility time to cast First Aid, allowing you to recover the HP lost and a significant amount more. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 - Cheesing ---------------------------------------------------------------------- None of these cheesing strategies come from me, but some clever users of the gamefaqs message boards. They're pretty dishonorable ways to win, but if you don't mind that, go ahead and use them. These can probably work in any battle, including the bonus battles. 5.a) Genis and Raine This is an almost surefire way for Genis and Raine to kick ass in the Coliseum posted by Yeblos, and it requires the "Randomizer" Ex Skill for Genis or the "Quick Spell" Ex Skill for Raine. The setups are: Genis: Lvl 1 - Tough Lvl 3 - Rhythm Raine: Lvl 2 - Neutralizer Lvl 4 - Spell Save Lvl 4 - Happiness These skills give a small chance of casting a spell instantly, supposedly a 1/10 chance. The idea is to use "spell canceling". If you haven't noticed yet, you can cancel a spell as it is being cast and instantly go back to a neutral stance without any lag time just by guarding. So the simple process is to take a powerful spell like Meteor Storm or Ray and put it on your neutral B button shortcut. Then in battle just mash B, X, B, X, B, X, etc. over and over as fast as you can because each time the random chance will be reset. You will usually be able to cast a powerful spell in much less time than you would normally, although on some unlucky occasions you might end up taking longer. But overall it works very effectively and you should conquer the arena without any problems. 5.b) Sheena This is another one of Yeblos' ideas, what he calls her "semi-infinite combo". It involves having Sheena's "Hard Hit" Ex Skill which requires: Lvl 2 - Dash Lvl 3 - Prolong This makes the enemy stagger more from your hits. You also need the T tech Serpent Seal Pinion (or as Yeblos calls it, "SSP"). Learn the move if you don't have it, because it has the shortest recovery time of Sheena's techs. There are two ways to pull this off. If you can get behind the enemy and hit it before it turns around, all you do is continuously normal combo behind its back + SSP. It won't be able to turn around and you can just keep smacking it. This won't actually form combo hits, but it's still a way to just slaughter your enemy. If you can't get behind the enemy's back and hit it in time, you can first use Force Seal on the enemy to further increase it's stagger duration. Now, as long as Force Seal remains active, you can do the same process from the front of the enemy and it will count as a combo. 5.c) Sheena and Colette This infinite combo was developed by magnomanX on the gamefaqs boards originally for Colette, but it can be used by Sheena as well. Like the strategy for Genis and Raine, it involves spell canceling. I will use Colette as the example for this: Set one of her angel spells to the neutral B shortcut. Colette can only do a 2 hit normal combo, so you go up to the enemy and hit A twice, then you spell cancel with B and X, and it negates the recovery time after the original combo. If you do it fast enough you can launch another 2 hits while the enemy is still staggered, which will add to the original combo. In essence you continuously tap A, A, B, X over and over. Once you get the timing down you can do it indefinitely and kill anything. Sheena can do the same by spell canceling with her S. Seal techs. This strategy is more useful for Colette, though, since it's not too hard for Sheena to win in the Coliseum anyway. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 6 - Party Mode General Strategies ---------------------------------------------------------------------- You wouldn't believe how many people have problems entering Party Mode. To enter, all you need to do is talk to the girl to the left of the one you talk to for Single Mode! Even the battles in the Advanced Class are pretty easy on Party Mode. The real strategy comes in your character choice, since you can only use 3 characters for these battles. I think Lloyd and Raine are a given. For the third character you should use either Genis or another physical attacker. I personally used Regal since I don't think just Lloyd is enough as a meat shield. Anyway, on with the battles. Stats are for normal battle rank. --> Icezera suggests using Regal and Zelos/Kratos/ and Lloyd. Regal and Zelos can both heal you. Remember to go to strat section and put everyone to the 'attack same' tactic. Battle One: Beast Ogre HP: 3420 TP: 0 Attack: 578 Defense: 43 Element: None Weaknesses: None Strengths: None Druid (x2) HP: 3810 TP: 420 Attack: 758 Defense: 70 Element: None Weaknesses: None Strengths: None Come on, this is simple. Kill the Druids first so they don't use magic while you hit the Beast Ogre (which should always be used as a general rule). Battle Two: Boar (x2) HP: 6840 TP: 0 Attack: 891 Defense: 82 Element: None Weaknesses: None Strengths: None Baby Boar (x3) HP: 3760 TP: 0 Attack: 799 Defense: 37 Element: None Weaknesses: None Strengths: None You may be a bit outnumbered here, but that doesn't make the battle much more difficult. The babies barely do anything at all. Focus on taking out the big Boars first, and the babies will fall in seconds flat. Battle Three: Red Mantis (x2) HP: 2780 TP: 0 Attack: 520 Defense: 43 Element: None Weaknesses: Fire, Lightning, Ice Strengths: Water Feather Magic (x2) HP: 3580 TP: 68 Attack: 603 Defense: 58 Element: None Weaknesses: Earth Strengths: Wind, Lightning Go for the Mantises first since they're easier to hit and have less HP. If you see a Feather Magic casting a spell, quickly run over and slash it, then resume pounding on the Mantises. Once they're done you can finish off the Feather Magics with ease. Battle Four: Cutlass HP: 9800 TP: 0 Attack: 1010 Defense: 95 Element: None Weaknesses: None Strengths: None Evil Teddy (x2) HP: 7800 TP: 800 Attack: 1250 Defense: 230 Element: None Weaknesses: Fire Strengths: None Hey, these guys actually put up a respectable fight. Though the Cutlass has more HP, the Teddies actually take longer to kill because of their significantly higher defense. Still, since they can cast some dangerous magic you're better off going for the Teddies first. This battle will be the longest yet, but you shouldn't have a problem as long as you don't get careless. Battle Five: Druid (x2) HP: 3810 TP: 420 Attack: 758 Defense: 70 Element: None Weaknesses: None Strengths: None Dragon Knight HP: 13500 TP: 0 Attack: 1485 Defense: 250 Element: None Weaknesses: None Strengths: None This battle is actually easier than the last because the magic users go down faster. You'd think they'd use some stronger magic users than just a couple more Druids, but whatever. Target the Druids first, and then go to town on the Dragon Knight, who is loads easier with three characters than he is in Single Mode. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 7 - Bonus Battles ---------------------------------------------------------------------- These are much more difficult battles than the normal Coliseum battles. They also drop great items that you can't get anywhere else. Be prepared before you fight them, and always reload if you lose. 7.a) Seles To fight Seles, you must have Zelos in your party and fight a couple matches in the Coliseum to see some cutscenes involving her. Then play as Zelos and win the Advanced Class Single Mode. She will challenge you to a one-on-one battle. NOTE: Alex Nelson contributed to my understanding of the conditions for fighting Seles with Zelos in your party: "If you've beaten the beginner and intermediate classes, then you'll see the needed cutscenes. Just beat [Advanced Class] once to see the final Seles minicutscene, and twice to fight her (not neccessarily using Zelos)." I've found further clarification of this indicating that you can fight her with any character as long as you use that character to win twice in a row. Zelos must still be in your party to meet her at all, though. --> Wrath of Anubis from the gamefaqs message boards also states that if you challenge Seles with Zelos and lose, she will be available to any character that completes Advanced Class until you beat her. Now, if you went for Kratos instead of Zelos, you can fight her a second time after opening the final door and viewing the final scene before the boss. If you go back to the arena she should challenge you to a second match. But be warned, you MUST have beaten her once with Zelos in your party before losing him or you cannot fight her at all, let alone a second time. --> DragonKnightKain points out that you don't neccesarily need to BEAT Seles to have her come back to avenge Zelos after the final scene. You only need to see her in battle before that particular event. --> Mylinda Antoinette provided even more info, stating that it seems you only need Zelos in your party for the first three scenes with Seles, and that you don't need to actually fight her with him in your party before coming back with Kratos. She will still challenge you. Hopefully, this exhausts all the info needed for fighting Seles! Seles: HP: 12000 TP: 800 Attack: 1300 Defense: 420 Element: None Weaknesses: None Strengths: Water, Wind, Fire, Earth If you're fighting with Zelos, this can be tough since he's not the ideal character for the battle. Using Lloyd would make it much easier, but this is the strategy I used for Zelos: Have the Faerie Ring equipped (essential), and basically keep your distance to make her cast Absolute and Freeze Lancer over and over. Start guarding when she begins to cast, and if it's Absolute, backstep to dodge the spell completely. If it's Freeze Lancer, push down to activate Guardian. Keep doing this until she runs toward you, which means she's out of TP. Now run toward her and jump over her head when you get close. She should slash the empty air where you were. While she does that, attack her exposed backside with your best combo. Then back away, run at her again, and repeat until she goes down. Be wary of her special techs, though, like the hammer smashes. They have a long range. I know this isn't the best way to fight her, but it's how I won. Ice resistant equipment can also help a lot. --> trowabartan recommends hanging back while she casts a spell and jumping over her as soon as she casts to do a back attack combo. I couldn't quite get the hang of this myself as it seems her casting time varies, but it does work effectively when you can pull it off. Also, if you block her entire sword strike air combo thing she will land with her back to you and open for a combo. Back away from the hammer smashes since you can see them coming pretty early and run in for a combo after she misses. --> Lastjustice has a strategy using Lloyd if he's a T type. Run toward Seles right at the start, avoiding her spell. Use Sword Rain Alpha on her immediately after her spell, while she's open. Before Sword Rain Alpha finished, combo it into Rising Falcon, which will hit her and send you through to her other side. While she's still facing the other way, do the Sword Rain Alpha into Rising Falcon combo again. Keep doing it and she'll be defenseless the whole battle. --> ArmyLeprechaun2 submitted this strategy that was written for Presea, but can be adapted with other characters' appropriate moves in place of Endless Infliction: "At the start of the fight, Seles will start casting a spell. Immediately run towards her and, if possible,jump over her. Wait for her to cast the spell. If it's Absolute, just back step it and repeat. If it's Freeze Lancer, immediately run to her back and use Endless Infliction. The second you finish the attack, backstep. If she runs at you, run forward and jump over her again. If she doesn't use Sword Buster (or whatever Light Spear mimic attack she has), use another Endless Infliction. If she uses Sword Buster, wait until the final down strike to run, and use Endless Infliction on her anyway. The key is Endless Infliction, back step, forward, jump, repeat." --> A strategy using Zelos/Kratos from Dave Higaki: "Ok, Seles will first go out and start casting a spell. Move 1/2 way towards her until her spell is cast, then either Guardian if it’s Freeze Lancer, or back step for the Absolute (you mentioned this). Now she should be casting again. Run up to her and lay on a Fierce Demon Fang. This WILL juggle her into the air and cancel the spell. Now guard, for she typically does a two-swing counterattack, then smack her with a 3 hit combo. The trick now is if she pops guards; if she does, use the! Fierce Demon Fang to juggle again and quickly lay on a Super Lightning Blade. If she doesn’t, just use the Super Lightning Blade and Block again. Around this point, she’ll use her Sword Breaker combo thing, so just block. She should jump over you, so quickly turn around and lay on a combo against her exposed backside (I prefer 3 attacks, Fierce Demon Fang, Super Lightning Blade in that order ). Keep close so she’ll prefer to use melee over magic and rinse and repeat until she loses her hat. At that point, back up while she’s casting. She’ll cast Prism Sword as her choice always after losing her hat. As soon as the spell forms below Zelos, run towards her and smack down a combo again. Do the guard her attack/counter attack with a combo strategy as above, but watch for her Mini Meteor. She gives an announcement so you can quickly Guardian the attack or back step if you’re quick enough." --> Another Zelos/Kratos strategy, this one from Douglas Pantaleon, involves running as far away as possible from her in the beginning of the fight. Once you are at maximum distance you can just hit her repeatedly with Double Demon Fang. This interrupts her spells but she will keep trying to cast. Then when she tries to attack you physically just use your best combos to finish her off. 7.b) Tales Series Characters To get this battle, all you have to do is beat the Advanced Party Mode and they will challenge you. Fortunately this is an exhibition match, so you are allowed to use items. It would be unbelievably difficult without them. These are characters from previous Tales games that have teamed up to challenge you. Garr: HP: 20000 TP: 150 Attack: 1650 Defense: 450 Element: None Weaknesses: None Strengths: Earth, Lightning, Ice, Darkness Farah Oersted: HP: 20000 TP: 150 Attack: 1705 Defense: 455 Element: None Weaknesses: None Strengths: Fire Meredy: HP: 16000 TP: 1450 Attack: 800 Defense: 390 Element: None Weaknesses: None Strengths: None This battle gets very hectic. Your top priority is to go after Meredy in this one. She can cast Resurrection on a dead comrade if you don't take her out first, which can completely screw you over. The problem in going after her first is that the other two seem to like going after your magic users a lot. Farah is very annoying when she keeps attacking Raine and interrupting your healing. Plus her beast move is really strong and knocks you down. Try to attack Farah and/or Garr every once in a while to make them target you instead of Raine, though the first priority is taking out Meredy. She will revive once, however, with a portion of her HP left. When she's down for good the battle's not so bad. I'd go after Garr next since he hits from long range, but either of the remaining 2 make prime targets. --> Drum Kero has also conducted tests and told me that it is not simply Meredy who revives, it's whomever you kill first. The AI apparently allows one revive to whichever character you defeat first. After playing them again, I found that if Meredy is killed first, Garr simply uses a Life Bottle. So whomever you kill first will come back through either Resurrection or a Life Bottle, but apparently only once. I still prefer to go after Meredy first because she's the annoying caster and an easier kill with less HP, but the choice is yours since the revival factor can be applied to all of them. UPDATE: MiturBinIzdrti has found that if you kill one character and they get revived, then kill a different character before finishing off the first one, the second character gets revived as well. So to be safe, you should make sure and finish the revived one completely or risk more reviving from your next target. --> Namu_the_king has a number of suggestions for the battle: -Use Zelos/Kratos as your third character -Have max numbers of every gel -Use First Aid primarily because of its short casting time and small TP usage -Be a high level (duh) -Kill Garr first, because he hits hard from both long and short range -Give Lloyd the Add Combo Ex skill and use A, A, A, A, Tiger Rage, Hunting/Raging Beast for an effective combo -Hit Farah every once in a while to grab her attention because she likes going after Raine Don't be stingy on your item use in this battle - you're allowed to use them for a reason! An all-divide would work well in this battle, although I didn't use one. You'll eat through a bunch of life bottles and gels by the time you're done. Have Raine constantly cast Revitalize to keep your HP up, and you should be able to pull through. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 8 - Rewards ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.a) Weapons and Items Every character gets a really powerful weapon for beating Advanced Class Single Mode the first time, but you must have opened the door to the last boss, gone inside, and watched the scene. Once that's done, go back out and you will be able to receive these awesome weapons in the Coliseum. They are: Lloyd - Valkyrie Saber Colette - Angel's Halo Genis - Final Player Raine - Crystal Rod Kratos/Zelos - Excalibur Sheena - Divine Judgment Presea - Bahamut's Tear Regal - Kaiser Greaves The first time that you beat Advanced Class on Single Mode you will be awarded a Krona Symbol, which blocks all status effects and makes for some pretty cheap leveling when combined with the Demon's Seal. Michael Blaker, Chaos Stryker, and a number of others have informed me that you win the Extreme Symbol from the Advanced Class Party Mode. Thanks everyone! 8.b) Equipment Drops You get some pretty sweet equipment from winning the bonus battles. They are also the only source for these pieces of equipment as far as I know. For beating Seles, you will win the Last Fencer, a weapon for Zelos that's even more powerful than the Excalibur. She also drops an Elemental Circlet which is perfect for Raine. For beating the Tales Series Characters, you get the Mumbane, a great armor for Lloyd, and the Star Cloak, a great cloak for Genis. 8.c) Titles Every character earns a fantastic title for completing the Advance Single Class the first time. They are: Lloyd - Sword of Swords Colette - Super Girl Genis - Ultimate Kid Raine - Gladiator Queen Kratos - Conqueror Zelos - Grand Champion Sheena - Rose of Battle Presea - Deadly Flower Regal - King of the Coliseum Lloyd will also receive the title of Tactical Leader if you win the Advanced Class Party Mode with him. All of these titles offer great stat boosts for all stats and are well worth earning. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 9 - Closing ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Questions? Suggestions? Comments? Send them to stormeagle666@yahoo.com. Everything is welcome except pointless hate mail. If you expect credit, please give me a name to credit you by if it's not evident in the email. *I've got more Seles strategies now than you can shake a Kendama at, so please no more of those* Legalese: This document Copyright 2004 by Josh Laddin. All trademarks and copyrights contained in this document are owned by their respective trademark and copyright holders. This document may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal, private use. It may not be placed on any web site other than: -www.gamefaqs.com -www.neoseeker.com -www.supercheats.com -www.tales-central.com -www.1up.com or distributed publicly without written permission from the author. Like anyone ever reads this anyway. I'd like to thank: -Nintendo and Namco of course! You need the game before you need a FAQ! -Yeblos of the gamefaqs message boards for his Sheena, Genis, and Raine cheesing strategies -magnomanX, also from the boards for his Colette cheesing strategy -Stormage (and many others) for the info on Turquoise -Maxrpg, for the Turquoise/Holy Symbol combo and an equipment note -Niraj Lakhia, for some Regal tips -Angleos, for Lloyd, Genis, and Regal tips -trowabartan, for some more Seles strategy -Alex Nelson, for information on getting Seles -Aveothopios2 for a Lloyd tip, equipment tip, and Tales Character battle tip -Michael Blaker, Chaos Stryker, and others for where the Extreme Symbol comes from -iggy91519 (and others) for a Regal tip with Mirage -Daide for a Lloyd tip -Wrath of Anubis, for more Seles info -Jack, for the Regal combo charts and also Ex Skill contribution -Drum Kero, for contributing information about the Tales Character battle -plastic_chochi, for Kratos/Zelos tips -AllPainful, for a Colette tip. -Assassin105, for a Lloyd tip. -Ryan Johnson, for suggestions on Raine's equipment. -Garudam for a Raine note. -Lastjustice, for a strategy against Seles. -Elmador, for a Kratos/Zelos equipment recommendation. -Murasaki, for a Raine Ex Skill contribution. -Maxmagnus20019, for a cooking suggestion. -Patrick Da Silva, for a Lloyd Ex Skill contribution. -SOS, for a Kratos/Zelos Ex Skill contribution. -DragonKnightKain, for a detail on the Seles battle. -Rock M, for a Raine Ex Skill contribution. -watcher0, for accessory suggestions. -yahiko, for a Lloyd tip. -ages_boy, for a Colette Ex Skill contribution. -ArmyLeprechaun2, for a Seles strategy. -Edrynion, for a Regal Ex Skill contribution. -Dave Higaki, for a Seles strategy. -Douglas Pantaleon, for another Seles strategy. -Ice Magus, for some Regal tips. -Mike Lambert, for a Lloyd tip. -Namu_the_king, for tips on the Tales Character battle. -TripleJump, for a Sheena tip. -MiturBinIzdrti, for more clarification in the Tales Character battle. -[ho1ysword], for a Raine tip. -Icezera for a few single character and one Party battle suggestion. -Mylinda Antoinette, for even more info on getting the Seles fight. -As always, you, the readers. Good luck in the Coliseum!