Patapon 3 FAQ/Walkthrough ~ Legal Informaciones This guide is being written expressly for the GameFAQs.com FAQ Bounty program. If you'd like to host this guide on your website, please send me an E-Mail at ForkNToaster@gmail.com acknowledging that you're using this on your website. That's right, you don't need to even ask me for permission. I just like to know where my guides are posted for bragging rights. The only exception to this rule is if, on the following line, I list that your website is an exclusion, in which you can't host the current version of the FAQ that has that written there. Websites banned from hosting my guide: None ~ About the wonderful moi My name is Toaster J. Forkington. I'm a FAQing machine. Writing FAQs is perfect for me since I only play games to break them apart in a day. This is also why the only FAQs I've created thus far are for portable games. If you have personal requests for FAQs, feel free to E-Mail me. I don't request payment, but if I don't have access to the said game then It's probably not going to happen unless it mysteriously appears in my mailbox. Wink, nudge. I'm also a very harsh critic that has a Bachelors in Game Design. Oddly enough I don't want anything to do with the creation of video games anymore. If you want your game broken apart in a review, I'm your man. If you just want a bad review for the sake of a bad review, I'm also your man. ~ About this guide This is a blind run guide, meaning I've had no more experience in this series aside from playing the demo for Patapon on the PSN. There might be less effective methods described and alternate strategies, feel free to send me opinions and strategies and you'll be credited accordingly. ~ About this game Alright, this game is probably the most racist game you'll ever come across. And it has two prequels, freaking amazing, right? It's also extremely cute, addictive and overall amazing. There are demos available on the PSN, and I highly suggest you try them out if you're on the edge about buying one of these games. Basically you're a god. You lead a tribe to victory through the use of your drums. It's a 4 beat game, what that means is that between you and the patapons, you hit 4 buttons to do specific actions. After you input 4 beats of your drums, the Patapons will sing, and then it's your turn to input another command. They'll sing again, so on and so forth. Sounds kinda pointless, right? Well they're freaking adorable, so it's worth it. I promise. There's also a combo system for successfully entering commands, and at 3+ you enter fevermode, where these little bastards go berserk. Love it. ~ Digital Vs. Retail The Retail version comes with a free strategy guide that is downloadable from the Playstation Network. I'm not sure if the digital version has the same thing going on, but this might be the only way to get a free strategy guide that makes this entire FAQ/Walkthrough obsolete. *cough* Just kidding, it doesn't include much, but it lets you get a good feel for the Uber Heroes. I also haven't found clarification if the Digital copy comes with the Online code which you need to use the Sony network infrastructure, which is required for certain game modes and unlocking Djinn. If you're buying this game second hand, be warned you'll have to pay $9.99 us for the online entitlement. Since most game stores (lol only gamestop anymore, freaking monopolies) only cut the price of used games by 10%, you'd be shelling out more in the long run. ~ Table of Contents The Walkthrough....................................[TWAK] Patapon Training Grounds...........................[MPTG] Field of Angry Giants..............................[FoAG] Arena of Valor.....................................[AroV] Cave of Valor......................................[CaoV] Snow Field of Sullied Tears........................[SFST] Range of Purity....................................[RoAP] Tower of Purity....................................[TwoP] Plateau of Pompous Wings...........................[PoPW] Range of Justice...................................[RoaJ] Castle of Justice..................................[CoaJ] Greedy Mask Jungle.................................[GrMJ] Arena of Earnestness...............................[AroE] Estate of Earnestness..............................[EsoE] Bottomless Stomach Desert..........................[BoSD] Racing Alley of Restraint..........................[RalR] Labyrinth of Restraint.............................[LabR] Volcano Zone of Lazy Demon.........................[VlZD] Range of Adamance..................................[RngA] Evilmass of Adamance...............................[EvlA] Savannah of Envious Eyes...........................[SoEE] Arena of Tolerance.................................[AroT] Temple of Tolerance................................[TomT] Post Game..........................................[Post] Equipment and Junk.................................[EQaJ] Dark Hero Mode.....................................[DHMo] Frequently Asked Questions.........................[FAQ] Downloadable Content...............................[DLC] Credits............................................[Cred] ~ The Walkthrough [TWAK] Well, the first thing I can say is to turn off all sound distractions. It doesn't help that much, but it does help. I also installed game data, but honestly MHFU is the only game that justifies game installation because of two minute load times. It may or may not affect your gameplay, so install at your own peril. As soon as the game starts up, you're welcomed with an extremely awesome cutscene where apparently Patapons have become Power Rangers and the most amazing theme song ever. Once you start up, in this game you pledge to take the form of an Uberhero to lead your army to victory. At this point you can also import Patapon 2 data, but I don't have that, so I don't need it! Now you get to choose between the three Uberhero types. I chose Shield because the visual guide had Titan's Grip. It also looked pretty well rounded. Now we're introduced to the drums; - Pon is the bravery drum, it's assigned to the O button - Chaka is the Triangle Drum - Don is the X Drum - Pata is the Square Drum Repeatedly strike Pon to awaken the hero. Here we've gotta deal with hitting the fourth of a sequence since a minion is controlling hte Pata button. Just hit it every third Pata to get the Pata at the end of the map. After you get the Pata drum, just pata-pata-pata-pon to reach the end of the map and complete the first quest. The Hideout Alright, we get a short cutscene and then we're allowed to check out our hideout. Frickin' sweet. - Armory, it's where you can go through items. - Team totem, this allows you to play in multiplayer. - Sukopen, he tells you of dangers he can spot. - Silver Hoshipon, the silver floating star with a beard, he tells you what to do. - Master Obelisk, this is where you go to take on missions. !Mission Patapon Training Grounds [MPTG] - Advance! Attack! This map teaches you both the Advance and Attack commands; * Advance, Pata-Pata-Pata-Pon * Attack, Pon-Pon-Pata-Pon Before we take on the mission though, we're sent to the Barracks to change equipment, skills, classes and then we can deploy with the start button. I equipped the stronger version of each weapon to each character besides one Sword to Chin which I didn't replace. When ready, deploy and then we'll start. In here we've got a time limit to proceed and destroy buildings and Birdies. Each time you hit a sign your time limit is increased. After you complete the map, Hoshipon will introduce you to the blacksmith. Here you'll spend Ka-ching to level up gear. After that, it's time to take on the next part of the Patapon Training Grounds. - Defense Practice This map teaches you how to defend properly. * Defend, Chaka-Chaka-Pata-Pon Before we take off, be sure to equip your UH with the strongest defensive gear. There are three waves, you can do all three now or just one to proceed. I was a shield UH, so I chose three. Basically you just Defend over and over. After each wave, your party is healed. For now, don't do wave three. They suggest you be level 5 for it for good reason. You'll essentially die and lose everything! After successfully clearing Defense Practice you can stay in the training grounds or move on to the field of Angry Giants. Let's finish Practice, first. - Attack and Dodge Practice * Dodge, Pon-Pata-Pon-Pata In this stage, the Sign will tell you when to do what. Dodge immediately then attack. - March and Jump Practice * Jump, Don-Don-Chaka-Chaka This one is kinda annoying. Head forward a few times then jump, head forward, jump to infinity. Each sign will add bonus seconds, 40 for the first and 30 for the second. Just jump to claim treasure chests while below them. After this map, it's time to start the real missions. !Field of Angry Giants [FoAG] - Traverse the Field of Giants This map isn't much of a problem if you've been doing the practice quests. There's obstacles, small Bonedeth flinging spears and Giants to deal with. The first Giant mostly just flings boulders. The biggest problem is if you're like me and accidentally keep pressing Forward instead of Attack. Even then, if you've been equipping Ice and Sleepy weapons it'll stop them dead in their tracks. This map will also level your characters, so rejoice, we can now upgrade to +2. After this map, we've got two more available. One where we hunt a Cyclops and one where we deal with the Bonedeth Hero, Ragewolf. - Ragewolf and the Mysterious Birch Grove Along this path we've got lots of Bonedeth and towers with small blockades. Near the middle of the map Ragewolf pops up, he's not that strong so he's not much of a problem, you get healed right before him. He'll flee once he takes enough damage, then it's just more Bonedeth and a living tree. After clearing this map, you'll likely hit level 3 and unlock an array of new classes. Clearing this map also unlocks the Arena of Valor - Hunt the Cyclops: Part Deux Not much going on in this map, kill a couple giants and get low exp and crappy loot. The next, however, is completely different. - Birch Bonedeth Brigade This is an amazing map. If you're having problems in the Arena of Valor, come back to this map and farm it. There's not as much Ka-ching, but there's lots of loot and reliably 1200 exp per completion until level 5, then it'll dip down to 600 and below 200 at level 7. Nonetheless it'll be amazing for catching up your offleveled classes if you're having problems in the Cave of Valor. ! Arena of Valor [ARoV] - Proving Grounds and Crescent Moon Alright, this is a Proving Grounds challenge, I take it. It's kinda like king of the hill. You rush to the center to claim the center tower, then you either sit there protecting it for the five minute duration, or you keep progressing. The enemies will respawn but your characters will not. If you capture the enemy flag then you win! Completing this map leads to some mumbo jumbo about some Djinn but not much more information as well as unlocking the Battle Arena. - Will the Angry Wolf see a Full Moon? This is a much harder version of the last. The enemies do much more damage and respawn quicker. My biggest advice is to take the middle and then next tower then sit out the rest of the match. Ragewolf gets extremely strong near his flag even when his tower is down, so it's best to fodder with lower amounts of damage than to wipe because your shields died. ! Cave of Valor [CaoV] - Archfiend of Valor This map isn't hard. At the end you can choose to continue or leave the hide out, I left and met with some kamisutra or something on the way out. I told him I didn't lose a chest and received Yarigami's sutra, my first summoning. Be warned though, if you leave you have to start over at the beginning. Floor 2 has a suggestion of fire breathing dragons. Might want to take precaution and equip some Ice Shields and Helmets. At the first gate you need to jump, follow the path along and save your Fever Djinn until the dragon, which isn't really that hard if you pop your Djinn and faceroll. Like with the first floor, leave if you feel like you'd rather take your treasure and some EXP. Floor 3, in here we've got probably our first real boss fight of the game. It's a Dodonga! Some big black dinosaur/dragon lookin creature. He's not that bad, to be completely honest. He has a charging attack that isn't as obvious but somewhat easy to defend through or just keep attacking. The real threat comes from him looking straight up for the duration of one charge, in which you should retreat to avoid his fire breath. Charge up attacks if needs be, but he's not that big of a threat. After clearing this map we unlock Meden Mart to buy some basic materials and equipment as well as.. - The Secret Of The Cave Of Valor About the same in difficulty as the last version except for the boss of this floor, a blue cyclops. He does massive amounts of pain, easiest to avoid it by continually retreating and then charging attacks to his face. If you're having problems you wont be able to clear floor 2 easily. The final floor features Dodonga again with a free key and high chance of jeweled chest. ! Snow Field of Sullied Tears [SFST] - Big Chills in Pure Snow First things first, equip all of your Flame based gear. It'll help against Freezing. This map is a pain in the ass if you have any characters without it. There are large ice golems in the ground that will pleasurably rip your eye out of your body if you give it the chance. The biggest piece of advice I can give you is to Dance often. If you don't have at least one piece of Fire gear for a sepcific job, try out another job that can equip the pieces available, otherwise you'll be wasting commands with dancing often. After this map we'll meet Naughtyfins, doing a poledance with her pike. If worst comes to worst you can just clear out the Cave of Valor's new mission or Field of Giants for some loot. Destrobo is the easiest Shield class to take care of this mission because of psuedobladestorm with a +3 or higher mace. As another side note, sometimes the large enemies will bug, and will be impossible to kill, at this point just die since even a Djinn can't damage him. - Naughtyfins and the Ice Forest of Introversion First things first, switch your archer to the healing class since arrows are useless in this map. If you've unlocked it already, the black magelike also works. Piekron's rain can also offset the freezing affects of the blizzard. As you progress, you've got four salamanders, try not to march too far forward and continually retreat. If characters die then wait until you see the Ice fortress before summoning your Djinn I however am terrible at summoning, so I decided to be cheap and take 30 minutes to clear this map using a healer and base shield uberhero. Cheap tactic, but it helps with rythmless white people out there! - Hibernating Dragon Another heavy frost map filled with Ice Golems and a new type of enemy if you're doing this before the last, the Ice Salamander. These guys aren't that threatening, but when they die they kamikaze, which is almost guaranteed to one shot anything, so just continually retreat. Two Ice golems and two Salamanders with a few bonedeth for decent exp. Doing this map again will double the enemies and give you a fifth salamander protecting a frost dragon. His breaths are somewhat easy to notice and jump over or defend through if you're using a Guardia or Shield type UH. - Blizzard Tower and the Bonedeth Brigade This is Birch Bonedeth on crack. It's a lot shorter (Two blue/purple cyclops) and the blizzard tower and it's over. I've gotten a jeweled chest every three times I've run it on average. ! Racing Alley of Purity [RAoP] - Mermaid's Tears and the Great Snow Race Alright, so another minigame setup. Both armies start at the left and progress to the right, so it might be a good idea to bring in some Destrobo and maybe switch your UH to something highly offensive. As the good guys, we destroy red obstacles, the red army destroys blue obstacles. Neutral objects need to be destroyed for either to pass, so you can kick back then progress after the enemies do it or do it yourself. The first neutral set is an ice cave with snowball machine, the second is a tower with snowball machine, then the last is an Ice Golem. After that it's two more Red obstacles then home stretch. Your team tends to walk further than the foe, so if worst comes to worst just level up to 8 to guarantee a win. There's lots of fire going out, and you can easily lose if you rely on a djinn, so you might want to split Burn and Freeze resistance accordingly. - Ephemeral Dreams Dashed It's the same thing except higher level enemies and they move much quicker, so grabbing the blue orbs becomes somewhat important. ! Tower of Purity [TwoP] - Archfiend of Purity Another three floor dungeon. Remove most, if not all of your burning protection gear since it's not as useful in here and replace it with more Freeze protection. Floor 1, few Salamanders, lots of Bonedeth and two Ice Golems one regular and one freaking ginormous. The end boss is, as you'd expect, the second golem. Defeat him for the key to this floor and proceed, it's pretty easy with any offensive UH class. This floor has about 1600exp a clear until level 9, then it drops down, so it's a great floor to farm to raise class levels if needs be. Avoid using classes without Shields since they tend to die quickly. Floor 2, when we first enter we have a chest hiding up top, just jump underneath it to break through. We've got four rooms to deal with. The first has an ice dragon, the second an ice salamander, the third another ice dragon and the fourth a giant ice golem and ice salamander. Floor 3, the boss room, whoo! Stone Goliath a gogo. This guy doesn't seem like that big of a deal. kick back and charge up then start off with the face destruction. Finishing this level unlocks the Plateau of Pompous Wings, controlled by some douchebag namd the Archfiend of Justice. What a prick. The next area is filled with burning, so back into the ice gear. - Bound for Higher Heights Just a slightly more difficult redeux of Archfiend of Purity. ! Plateau of Pompous Wings [PoPW] - Underworld Guard Dog of the Pass This map doesn't have a lot going on. It introduces a big wolf like enemy which isn't that bad. It takes on the tradition of slowly attacking while you deal with tuba players in the background. - Standoffish Sonarchy and the Perilous Mist As you'd expect, it's another map dealing with Darkheroes. First we've got Ragewolf, then we've got Ragewolf and Naughtyfins, then we've got all three as giant pillars and barrages of soundwaves try to destroy us. No big deal. - Thunder Lion of Svanki Pass Slow progression map with a lot of terrain to destroy. Multiple wolves and a couple of cyclops, the real problem is the Lion Wolf as you might expect, it does lightning ball breaths that like to paralyze and attacks somewhat quickly. While it's "howling" it takes little damage, so get ready for a defense and slow fight if you're continually getting paralyzed. Don't expect to have an easy time with this mission before your teens levelwise. If you're unlucky, you'll get a very active thunderstorm which typically paralyzes you ever 30 seconds. - Rocky Range Golem and Bonedeth Brigade Not that long of a map, bunch of bonedeth, two decently sized forts, one small and an enormous rock golem. The rock golem is a lot more resistant than his brothers you've met before, so be prepared to guard for his rock sprays that shoot a little further than the snowflake version. ! Range of Justice [RnoJ] - Bird or Beast? Offense or Defense? It's really easy. You hit the lever right in front of you to shoot off missiles to destroy enemy territory. If you're a shield classer, then you just need to use uberhero chaining with tondenga, otherwise it'll take you more than 56 seconds for a win, just continually attack and retreat when it's knocked down to save a little bit of time. After an assured win, the castle of Justice appears. - Total Ultrasonic Air Defense Following the tradition of minigames, this is the version slightly on crack. This time the missiles tend to fly lower and the enemies get attacks through somewhat quicker. Quite possibly one of the quicker ways to farm level 13 chests since the exp is minimal at best, but it's not like anything great comes out of those chests anyways. Level 3 pink, level 5 purple at best. It does have the benefit of helping with class skills at least. Tondengo uberhero or pataponian's charged attack will continually disrupt the foes for a cheap win as well. ! Castle of Justice [CaoJ] - Archfiend of Justice Floor 1, multiple rooms that you have to dance in front of the flame then hit the switch before proceeding or rocks will fall from the sky. Two large golems signal the end of the map. Also if you have a key already from the training missions, there's a chance the key wont spawn for the first floor. Coming back through this floor again will, however spawn one key. Floor 2, make sure you've got burning resistance on everything before coming here. There's Flame Salamanders here, and they aren't a joke. They come in small and large variety and do massive damage compared to their size. The real problem comes when you're burning before you can reset to your original position and get blown up. Also, before moving onto floor 3, remember that this place gives almost twice as much exp as the suggested leveling map, Rocky Range Golem and the Bonedeth Brigade so you might want to push off finishing this map since the repeatable version is a tad bit harder, but not much. I found it somewhat easy to come back and level my Uberhero's main class to unlock others at this point. Floor 3, Kanogias, badass name, weakass enemy. He moves pretty quickly and has high knockback rates, but all in all his attacks are easy to read. Charge-> Attack, you probably wont even need to charge defend. After you rock his socks off, it's off to grab your jeweled chest. After we'll meet the new Darkhero, Rottenlee Ravenous, simply the baddest ass in the history of badassness. It also makes me question if Naughtyfins is an M type or just very bubbly. ! Greedy Mask Jungle [GrMJ] - Man-eating Shark of Nuchara Swamp New enemy, the sharks! They're just fins in the ground, you can force them up with a Tondenga Charged attack that causes earthquakes and leaves them doing nothing. Lot of brushfire going through, so leave your [fl] at home if you're not wearing much burning protecting. - Duel with Ravenous in Tahi-Tahi Forest Alright, so Naughtyfins to the rescue. She clues us in that we can destroy the Cinder Trees without setting them on fire much, much easier and there's no Bonedeth in this map so we can effectively never activate a tree. After the second tree, we've gotta go toe to toe with all of the Dark Heroes, which aren't much of a problem, even with their blue Cyclops added in to the fray. One more setup of a Blue cyclops and tree after that then it's a baby structure and we're home free. - Cinder Beast Deth Treant This map is just about a bitch. The progression is slow, but it's always raining, and when it's raining the Trees restore hp every few seconds. The end boss restores 48500 hp every 5 or so seconds, so if your damage isn't up to snuff then avoid this map. - Bonedeth Brigade in Tahi-Tahi Forest Leveling map once again. Very short map, permanently raining so leave your rain dance at home if applicable. Literally just a few bonedeth and one cinder tree before the end map. ! Arena of Earnestness [AroE] - A Greedy Raven Spies Three Outposts It's minigame time.. again. Now, don't ask for instructions, we wont beg! And it's not like Ravenous tells you anyways. What in the world could this mysterious battle bring!? It's just Ragefang's battle part deux. Longer map, lot more structures, and no bonedeth spreading burning. Ravenous can bust out Djinn, and large scale tornadoes, but he doesn't tend to do much else. Continually push east for an easy victory. - Anything for a Rare Item Alright, redeux of part 1. It's fairly simple using an attacking UH and a great shield, he'll push forward and protect the troop while you deal devastation and destruction. The enemies drop purple potions pretty often which makes this an easy farm, and since you're destroying enemies and buildings you'll get on average about 1200 exp until level 16. ! Estate of Earnestness [EsoE] - Archfiend of Earnestness Floor 1, I'm not sure what in the hell is going on here. Honestly. There's some big alien thing that can throw rocks and summon bonedeth in a really long hall. Just keep attacking it and you'll get the key and proceed, where there's threat of a Treant that we need to burn. Might suggest switching your Spear class away from a rain dancer for this. Seriously, you wont be able to proceed if you bring one along, you have a massive Blue flamed tree with 138k hp ticks. Floor 2, flame salamanders and cinder trees out the ass. Hit the switch and race to the left. You have lots of time with an offensive team. Using only a Staggering [FL] Axe +11, and Dvangeki for offensive weapons, I finished this at 1:58, hit the switch behind the giant cinder to pause the count down. Floor 3, It's boss time. This time we face Snookie. What a dastardly plant like thing. It has a gas it releases from the base every ten or so seconds that puts units to sleep, so work Dancing into your rotation. If you're using a Jamsch with any horn, it should be able to keep him frozen through most of the duration to open up with Charged attacks or UH Modes. After this, we don't get a scene. I know, I'm sad too. I'm starting to miss old Naughtyfins. ! Bottomless Stomach Desert [BoSD] - No Heavenly Bounty on a Scorched Desert This is the introduction to the desert, mostly just bonedeth and one Cyclops. It also introduces a new enemy type, the grim reaperesque dude. He doesn't attack quickly, but he does push your characters back, which can be fatal with Cyclops around. - Buzzcrave and the Oasis of Eternal Sleep This is a major pain in the ass. It's designed so either you need to focus on using long distance attacks to start, or let your Spear and Archer die. There's two forts with two painful cannonballs a piece. Destrobo works well with launching boulders with charged attacks here. At the second fort pop your Djinn and make quick work of the four Dark Heroes. - Death, Lord of the Desert Standard high level boss map. When he strikes he strikes hard, but luckily he'll almost always blow sleep spray first so you have much time to prepare. Blue Cyclops line the map with slight annoyance Bonedeth and Death spawns quickly. At the end it's usually just a level 9 gold chest. - Bonedeth and the Oasis of Eternal Sleep Standard leveling map of this zone. Pretty short compared to earlier zones. It has two baby dragons, one small one large that are somewhat bulky and do an open mouth staggering charge. The real problem is how fast burning spreads. There's one super fortress in the center of the map to deal with then it's all clear sailing after that. ! Racing Alley of Restraint [RAlR] - All-out Desert Drag Race That's right, it's the race.. again. Luckily enough we just have to deal with slight cannon fodder and massive towers instead of ice. Switch everything to an offensive class, Jamsch works decently for shooting sonic balls into the distance, but I'd suggest using a Yamiyacha with your best crossbow. Also unequip Tailwind if you've been using it, it'll only help your opponents. By the time you get to the second tower, half your team might be dead so use your Djinn there. - A Horse's Pride That's right, it's the race again but once again. The enemies do a bit more damage and are a good bit faster. Other than that, no big deal. ! Labyrinth of Restraint [LabR] - Archfiend of Restraint Floor 1, filled with cyclops and bonedeth. Not much trouble, the first cyclops in the room wont be able to hit you from ranged until you pass through the doorway, so use that to your advantage. Floor 2, We've got one death per room and a different flavor enemy accompanying him. First room is a Fenrir, the second is a Dragon. Remember to dance if anybody is put to sleep, and make sure you've got burn resistance up. Floor 3, we get to meet an old friend. This boss fight isn't hard, but it sure is long. I'm not sure if it even takes damage before it activates, but it absorbs a lot of damage throughout the fight. It took me three minutes to down him with an average level of 21. After you defeat him, grab the key and a shortcut from b1 to b4 is unlocked. Might as well leave and take your prizes with you and make absolutely sure that everybody is loaded with +10 ice gear. Floor 4, the only way to describe this room is pain. Okay, you believed me? You shouldn't have. It's really simple, just come in with either decent ranged damage or an offensive Uber Hero. There are small split rooms with doors you have to destroy that are filled with low damage flames. Just equip Ice based gear for Burn resistance and Fire resistance and you're good to go. Floor 5, real boss time. Ciokina, Queen of the Mountain awaits! She's fairly bulky, but unfortunately she's just Death. She puts your group to sleep then hits for massive damage. She has a massive amount of life, so if you haven't Arched up your blacksmith with your primary attacker, this is a time to start. - Volcano King of the Labyrinth Beefed up version of the Archfiend of Restraint, 5 floors in total. ! Volcano Zone of the Lazy Demon [VZLD] - World's First Hoshipon Convention Alright, first things first, the only missable Djinn in the game is here. Luckily you can get it from Multiplayer content. It's simple, just don't cross the map's finish line until Hoshipon shuts up. The map involves Salamanders, Bonedeth and your first Balrog, yay! The Salamanders are the same old same old, be sure to bring Ice elemental or neutral [po] or higher. The Balrog is a lot like Cyclops, but he only charges and attacks low. He's fairly bulky, so be prepared. Burning might also heal him, I wasn't paying much attention to be fair~ After you complete the map, let the little gold hoshipon go on and on until he drops you a Jeweled chest and Tetrigami's sutra! It's a defensive Djinn that pushes enemies off and forces all of your units to defend. We'll then meet Slogturtle, pretty much the baddest of all asses ever. - Black Hoshipon Strikes Back Alright, Slogturtle is a god damned wall. He has an antimagic field that will ignore any ranged damage incoming, but Jamsch and Yamiyacha work well on this map so they can take care of the Bonedeth sitting on top of the Forts he protects. Slogturtle will retreat after sustaining enough damage, and we'll progress to the next Dark Hero trap, a small fortress with a Salamander, Balrog, Sonarchy, Sloggy and Buzzcrave. Just remember to retreat off when the Salamander is about to explode, the rest is smooth sailing. After we clear the map, we're confronted with yet another duel. I wonder what's awaiting us there! Also, did I mention how much I love Sonarchy's sprite? Looks just like Spike from Gremlins. - Extreme Demon is Off the Charts This one isn't that terrifying. We've got Salamanders, Bonedeth, one Fenrir and multiple Balrog, along with the grand daddy Balrog that continually brings in Salamanders. The Balrog is pretty easy to watch, however, since all of his attacks require he lift up his belly. Then his pitchfork is only slightly problematic, save your Djinn for this guy and it'll be smooth sailing to a level 12 iron chest, baby. - Bonedeth Brigade at Kule Krater This map is straight up annoying, but any map with Salamanders is. Sometimes they'll randomly just freeze you, even though they're fire elemental and you've got no Freezing support equipped to anything. God damned Patapon. Anyways, good amount of enemies and chest opportunities. ! Range of Adamance [RngA] - Slogturtle the Mobile Shelter It looks so foreign and strange and Slogturtle isn't giving us any help! !Spoiler!Alert! it's Sonarchy's battle with some defense tacked on the front. Jamsch works well for missile support and double Tondenga charging slams destroy this fight. The only thing that's greatly different is that the Towers need to be destroyed first, the large missiles will arch over them and Slogturtle will protect the middle with his massive shell. Ravenlee also busts out a massive greatsword that likes to stop missiles. - What He fights For Rematch time. It rewards low experience but a level 25 Iron Chest, which can pop out some decent items. You're better off back at the latest Bonedeth Brigade mission, though. The benefit to this mission compared to the last is that we have Towers and a Rocky Structure for some destruction exp. ! Evilmass of Adamance [EvlA] - Archfiend of Adamance Before I get started, I'm going to rant for a bit. The difficulty curve is somewhat high, and the available experience from the designated leveling map is kinda low. You might find yourself grinding this first floor for a while if you can. The best setup I found was Two Tondengo, Yarida and Jamsch. Also, at this point, you should have a +20 weapon, preferably [po] or [h], and all your armor should be at least +10. This is also the point that regular armor at 16+ will outplay purple gear at +10, but still suck in comparison to Tahla Helms. If you're having problems then back track a bit to level and grind out Kaching to upgrade some gear. Floor 1, this floor is brutal. If you noticed, there's a lovely little countdown ticking down at the top of your screen. There's also this mysteriously inviting contraption not too far off ahead of you. Every time that clock ticks 0, that wonderful hug machine hugs you. Sounds pretty enticing, right? Well everything caught within it takes 999,999 damage. To top things off, Bonedeth like to chill at the start of it, so you have to kill them and push through. If you wait too long though, in comes Flame Salamanders which will either kill you with their explosion or force you back into a potential Guillotine. Near the end there's a Balrog with your name on it. With the setup you might get eaten or eat one of his Pitchforks or Shockwaves, so just jam Pon until you're released, which takes roughly about four times as long as Fenrir noms. Floor 2, It's not as bad but it can be a lot more annoying. This time the guillotines aren't timed and have a pressure pad, so you have to wait for enemies to walk through. Fret not, though, the first guillotine houses a purple potion in the blocks supporting the treasure chest. Don't stall going to floor 3 like I've suggested with past areas unless you've got some amazing treasure chest you've gotta keep and you've got zero confidence in yourself. The boss isn't hard at all and the next area has much better Exp rates. Floor 3, He's a whole lot like death. He'll shoot out a sleeping breath then jump back, then jump forward and attack. This leaves room for a dance, charge, attack and defense before you're hit. - What Lurks Beyond the Guillotine As you'd expect, it's the repeatable version of the Evilmass of Adamance. Not a great grind, do it once if you want the key badly as well as the somewhat decence chance for a level 25 jeweled chest. ! Savannah of Envious Eyes [SoEE] - Ravenous: Duel of Fate This match can be incredibly easy or incredibly hard. To make it easy, don't push too far forward until the Dark Dragon retreats. He wont take much damage unless you're hitting him in the face, so a fully extended Tondengo UH wont be taking too much residual damage. Grenburr tends to push too far, otherwise rely on Poison and Charged Attacks to deal damage. When he sustains enough he'll begin the retreat and then take normal damage. - Covet-hiss Loves Cannons Very short, very easy map. The real problem is the massive amounts of cannon fodder, so bust out the Cannons or heavy melee attackers, Charged Grenburr attacks work nicely even though it's an inferior slash type damage. After all of the cannons go down, there's one battle against the Dark Heroes and then the structure, after that the map is done. - Wipe the Grin off the Gargoyle <3 The last new type of enemy we meet is the Gargoyle, it floats around holding a treasure chest. Apparently they're somewhat vulnerable to stab attacks, but most importantly very susceptible to sleep. Bust out that Jamsch and charge attacks to infinity. Plenty of Death spawning in this map, as well as one Tree, avoid fire unless you're using rain dance since there's no bonedeth to ignite it. - Bonedeth on the Cliff This is an extremely short map. There's one gargoyle with a random chest gold or lower up to level 27, one structure, tons of bonedeth and one balrog then one final small structure that spawns Deaths every third population, then the map is cleared. Low Exp, but decent chance for treasures. Grind this map at your own peril. * Because of the common spawn rate of the Golden Gargoyle Chest, this map is advised to be used for grinding uniques, however they wont be above +13 and they'll never be super uniques. It is, however, more common than grinding level 25 jeweled chests which have a much lower spawn rate in the Gargoyle boss quest. ! Arena of Tolerance [AroT] - Dark Heroes' Last Stand As you might have guessed it, this is the Vs. multiplayer match. It's a lot like the first competition with Ragefang, except it's incredibly long and the damage output on the enemy's side is massive if you try to push too hard. Jamsch out back and bulky up front will stall and allow for more kills to claim a victory. It helps if you push right after killing Slogturtle since he's the premiere staller in this game. Buzz has a lot of bump damage output, but he dies incredibly fast. The only reason to stall the match to 0 is if you've got little to no slash/crush damage to take down structures. - Uberheroes Never Rest Same as above, damage output is slightly higher, decent leveling map until 30, then you should probably stick it out in Tomb of Tolerance until the boss is no longer a problem. ! Tomb of Tolerance [TomT] - Archfiend of Tolerance Floor 1, The wonderful hug machines are gone and replaced with happy axes and a timer. That's right, reckless movement is reprimanded, try to position it so only your Shield types will eat an axe to the back of the head, otherwise sit near the center when the timer is about to swing and jump. There's a single hut that spawns one frost and one fire salamander, but they're fairly weak. Along the way you'll be greeted with a single gargoyle, has a high chance for purple potion drops. After the hut is down it's just working your way to the exit. Floor 2 isn't as forgiving, however, so preserve any decent level jeweled chests you might have ganked. Remember if you're bad with timing the axes, just defend through them. Floor 2, alright, it's not really as bad as I said. There's one axe, and it'll kill somebody. Guaranteed. Hit the switch and death. The gargoyle and ledge both hold a purple potion, so no big deal. As we proceed, there's deaths, balrogs and one blue cyclops guarding a dark dragon. After that it's on to the final level. Floor 3, Final boss time, kiddos. He has multiple phases and is fairly big, which leaves him extremely vulnerable to Grenburr and Cannobang uberhero modes. The flaw with using both is that they're rather fragile. At this point you should be happily using a +27 or higher weapon of your choice for your uberhero and leaving the other slots as support. Phase 1, he has three primary attacks. If he leans back with arms in the air, he'll shoot out three eyeball sperm. If he backs off he'll have a little head pop out of the ground, which will leap forward and try to omnom all the delicious Pons. The other one is a massive spike from his belly at the middle of the map, jumpable but only if you time it properly. Phase 2, he turns into a box. Mostly floats around, sometimes disperses into a large sum of bats and swarms around. Phase 3, he turns into a box and hides on the right side of the map while he lords over with electric tentacles, just rush across and hit the box to force him back to phase 2 and repeat ad infinium. He's very susceptible to Poison and Sleep, so Jamsch it up. Also, if you try to Djinn it up during transition phases, it'll immediately break your fever from what I can tell, so be careful and Djinn early if needed. After that, we've beaten the game! yay! We're given three options after a few scenes; - Breathe life into Me! - Let me die in peace! - Offer my soul, and save the Patapons... !Spoiler!Alert! 1 unlocks dark hero mode. 2 unlocks multiplayer temple of tolerance (depths of jealousy maybe?) 3 unfreezes all patapons and they litter your hideout. ~ Post Game [Post] What to do now? If you've gotten into a nice little clique, it's time to grind Vs. matches to level fastest. Otherwise it's just grinding up class skills, class levels The level cap is 40, and there's an array of "peerless" set skills to learn at level 32 which are exclusive to uberheroes. At this point in the game, it's almost exclusively a gotta collect 'em all items, djinn and PvP notoriety. There's a few multiplayer dungeons and DLC content, but all in all it's a waste of time seeing how you can only get level 40 jeweled chests from march beat fever. So it only really leaves competetive play, in which you'll have to find a group to get you into it and teach you the ropes. I however am going to move onto other games. <3 ~ Equipment and Junk [EQaJ] Alright, I'm sure you've been wondering to yourself what all this wonderful bracketed terminology means, correct? It's simple, with purple gear, you get enchantments, basically. Weapons: [fl] Flaming, possibly the worst enchantment to actively use. [st] Strength, it's the second weakest even though it being tailored. [po] Poison, adds poison and higher damage than st. [h] Deals higher damage to dead foes, which is almost exclusively death. [sl] I haven't encountered this yet, but it's above holy. [de] Deals higher damage to structures, more damage than previous. [G] I haven't encountered this yet, but it's the highest damage enchant. Armor: [hp] Increases Stamina by a little amount, trash enchant. [ar] Increases stamina by a higher amount. [w] Increases stamina further and adds attack type resistance. [ic] Forsakes attack type resistance for much more stamina. * there's more armor enchants I haven't encountered. Unique Unique items are the orange colored items with specific names that you can't enhance through the blacksmith. These are wonderfully powerful but generally worthless compared to purple gear. A +10 orange has about the same damage output as a +15 [po] Super Unique Super Unique items are the pink colored versions of unique items. Their stat ratios are much higher. A +5 is about the equivelant of a +20 [st] weapon in terms of damage. The problem is that you can only get them above level 13 in the Depths of Jealousy multiplayer dungeon and the perfect beat march fever. Weapons in General are either useful or crappy. Useful; * Axes * Greatblades * Howitzers * Spears * Hammers * Longbows * Crossbows Not Useful * Everything else. Seriously. Everything else is either weaker versions or tied to a useless class. They fit their specific roles, but you can cheese the game with any of the above. ~ Dark Hero Mode [DHMo] If you selected the first choice at the end of the game you can access dark hero mode. In here, you can only play as one of the 7 Dark Heroes, and you can only play Vs. Mode. To start a Dark Hero mode save file, just start a new game and when prompted, select the dark hero option. Each Dark Hero has it's own draws and flaws, and you're loaded up with all of their items. Pretty sweet deal. Too bad there doesn't seem to be any random match making setup, so go enjoy chatango, taterdengo setups and slowly leveling up to a point where you can compete! ~ Frequently Asked Questions [FAQ] Q: Which uberhero is for me? A: I chose shield so I have a secondary protection for that weakling flag carrier. If your shield is dead the flag carrier can take damage, and as soon as he died it's the end of that map. Also, tondenga's Bladestorm is god tier, especially at level 10 when they can equip axes. The spin damage doesn't seem to differ based on attack speed so as soon as you get a decent weapon. The thing to remember with Uberheroes however is that you're stuck with that main class until level 15. Taterazay has very low damage output due to not having a sustainable Uberhero mode and does less damage in comparison to Yarida and Yumiyacha. In the Justice Plateau you can easily level up to 15 in the Castle of Justice, so it's then a question about which you find easier, bearing with a Charge->Attack method to do any damage as your uber hero. Q: I'm having problems with perfect beats, what should I do? A: I sometimes have this problem where my brain just can't register the timing. What I do is turn up the volume and stop looking at the screen. This works amazingly with the newly released DLC for the March practice. Q: Are there some easier methods to remembering commands? A: Practice makes permanent, that's all I can say. It'll become second nature the more often you use certain commands. If worst comes to worst, you can always sing along with the drum beats for memorization. Q: X character is underleveled in Y job so he keeps dying in Z often, how can I make him bulkier? A: If you're a shield UH, then level it as Tondenga and your shieldpon as a Greatshield Guardia. The guardia will push ahead and protect the back lines, then it's just relying on charged attacks or heavy damage dealing classes. Q: Are healers worth using? A: Yes and no. Most of the time doing more damage will remove the need for a healer. Other than that, ice walls are freaking amazing. Healers synergize well with Taterazay UHs because they can stall any fight virtually infinitely with charged defense heals and enhanced defending. Healer UH also work well with leveling Bowmunks class skills if you don't have anybody to play Vs. with. Q: When is a good time to charge? A: It depends on if it's synergestic with whatever classes you're using. If you're using, say Taterazay, Destrobo, Piekron and Oohoroc, always charge before an attack, it vastly improves all of their damage. If you're using a highly offensive UH mode, then probably never. Q: I'm having problems with Summoning, what should I do? A: I had problems with this too. If you watch youtube videos, you can see one specific thing, it's not about matching with the rhythm as much as it's properly spacing the "Don"s. The game misleads you slightly when it tells you that the command is Don-DoDon-DoDon, since double tapping it will almost always break your fever. With - as a second long space, the fourth and fifth Dons will be played on your fourth rhythm. Effectively it goes like; Don - Don Don - Don Don. The DonDon shouldn't be played as a super quick multitap, just hit it twice and wait a second before hitting the second Dondon. It's easiest just to listen to it on videos, though. Q: Why am I always burning? I have over 70% burn resistance! A: It's a stupid game mechanic. I haven't been able to find any supporting evidence, but it feels as if a higher level enemy initiates the burn, it'll last much longer and occur more often than the resistance percentage would indicate. Just get ready to Dance your night away in heavy brush fire areas. Q: What's the best cheese in this game? A: Ice Howitzer [po] or higher with Charibassa, Jamsch, Tondenga and Cannobango Uberhero. Charibassa super powers the group, Jamsch offers status afflicting support and the UH and tondengo deal massive damage. A level 40 Tondenga UH can effectively solo anything with the proper skill set, but before you've got a capped damage weapon at the ready, Cannobango is king. Q: How do I get me some princess? A: Just always ask about Naughtyfins when given a choice. When you're met with her as she's dying, remember she's a princess then hug her. She'll then chill in your hideout. ~ DLC [dlc] As of when I wrote this FAQ, all DLC was free. The DLC includes high level enemies with unrewarding treasure and little to no experience. The most important part of DLC is what just came out, the Beat March practice, which is the only way to get level 40 Jeweled Treasure Chests. DLC: World Map, this is required to access any DLC. DLC: Mission Pack 1, this includes a cyclops grind and multiple boss fights ranging from level 65 to 115. DLC: Mission Pack 2, this includes five boss fights from former games and rare encounter versions. Levels range from 65 to 115. DLC: March Beat Fever, basically a practice map that helps you get used to the timing of the rythm. The further you progress, the higher level the chest rewards and the more chests you'll receive. During the progression of the map, there will be Hochimochi spitting at you, which will do massive damage at lower levels but still wont typically hit your shieldpons. Great for getting PataPata class skills leveled (Tondengo and Pyokorider). If you stop to attack the map is over. Every time you pass a signboard you're rewarded with a, progressively better rewarding chest type. DLC: Hats and junk, they were a limited release back in March from what I gather. No longer available. ~ Credits [cred] This guide is credited greatly to the New Game Smell. My friend told me about a New Game smell and I never actually tried it out. I regret to inform you all that it does exist and it's not as good as the new book smell. This guide is also credited to that friend, who got Skyrim a week before release as soon as her Gamestop got it in stock. She was told to tell nobody, so of course she told me, so I'm telling all of you. If it weren't for her, this guide would have never existed. This guide is also credited to the Donnie of the US Postal service, a friendly gent that always makes sure that I get my mail to me as soon as it gets in. A six pack shared with a postman will take you a long way in life, kids. This guide is also partially credited to Gods Eater Burst, for being an all around terrible game. It helped me to realize that if I wanted a Monster Hunter Lite I should just stick to Phantasy Star Portable 2. This guide is furthermore credited to cute things. If it wasn't for cute things, I wouldn't have given the demo for the first game a chance. Racism also helps. I mean come on, in the first game you controlled a bunch of tiny black people chucking spears. Really? Shaka Zulu is turning in his cement pit.