======================================================================== ======================================================================== Gungrave OD For Playstation 2 FAQ/Walkthrough Version 1.5 By NightingaleNT Xardion@tokyo.com ======================================================================== ======================================================================== Hello! This file should be useful in answering your questions regarding Gungrave: Overdose. First of all, a few pointers for you if you have never actually played OD or its predecessor: If, at any point in time in your life, you have played games like "Yoshi's Island" or "Mario Paint", this game is not for you. If you have any objection to the death penalty, this game is not for you. If you hate senseless killing and explosions, this game is not for you. So, if this looks pretty good so far, you're all set to play! Let's get started: ======================================================================== Version History: 1.0-4/6/04 Initial release; This FAQ is probably filled with holes. THAT'S why you e-mail me! 1.1-5/29/04 First Edit. Added stuff to Extra's/Customize/cheats. Updated controls. Updated Boss section of stage 8. Updated mini-boss section of stage 9. Added an new "Information of Gungrave OD" section. 1.2-10/27/04 Second Edit. Updated info on demolition shots. Updated important info on customized/extras. Added contributions section. 1.2a-10/28/04 Fixed the STUPID wordwrap and tweaked a few strategies. 1.3-1/1/05 Updated some DS info. Added EVOLUTION FACTORS Updated boss strategy for stage 6. Updated Bunji strategy. Updated the Extra's/Customize/cheats section. Little more clear now. Updated informtion on Gungrave OD. Added alternate strategy to stage 9's first four rooms. Put up some more stuff for contributions. 1.4-1/29/05 Updated strategy on Stage 6 boss. Updated notes on Jyuji. Updated Bunji strategy. Updated Sherry/Sheri strategy. Updated Garino Strategy. Fixed a few more spelling errors >_<. Added a section for the Nightow Angel. As of now, it's incomplete. Added more info on the extras/customize. 1.5-3/18/05 Updated notes on Billy. updated info on Shot/melee levels. Added contributed Fangorum (first form) Strategy. FINISHED Nightow Angel section! *high fives self* Fixed more spelling errors...I'm sure there's a few more. ======================================================================== Contents: ---The Basics--- Controls Demolition Shots Beats Art Evolution Factors Jackpot Time Tips ---The Walkthrough--- Brandon Heat (Beyond the Grave) Notes on Jyuji Kabane Notes on Billy ---Miscellaneous--- Extra's/Customize/cheats Nightow Angel Information on Gungrave OD Contributions Odds&ends ________________________________________________________________________ Controls Left analog: This controls the characters movement throughout the game. Right analog: manipulate camera angle. D-pad: select demolition shot. X: Jump. By combining the left analog and X, you will jump in whatever direction you are pushing. L1: Lock onto target. L2: flip character 180 degrees. R1: Switch target. R2: Similar to pressing X and circle. This not only stuns enemies, but damages them as well. Be careful, though, as using this takes a fraction of a second...and you might need that whole fraction to live. Square: Primary weapon. This will shoot whatever long range weapon you have, be it twin guns or an electric guitar... Both Billy and Grave can charge their weapons when you press square, but Billy's attack will do more damage. Also, keep in mind you can jump in a certain direction AND shoot at the same time. The bullets will come out much faster as you are jumping, so do this when you're on the move. (Don't stop to shoot!) The final thing to know about shooting is that you can increase the amount of bullets released each second if you stand still and constantly press Square. You will see your character begin to dance around and shoot at anything that comes by without even requiring a lock-on. You can change direction by moving the analog stick around, but you CANNOT move when engaged in this mode, so don't do this too often, or you'll wake up dead. Update: Jacky Bryant has informed me--among other things--that if you hold "down" while firing rapid-fire style, you can shoot differently. Other than destroying the control panel in stage two, I really don't now how this is useful, but I guess it's something to keep in mind. Triangle: This will be your savior! Press triangle to unleash one of your nine demolition shots, selected by moving around the d-pad. Circle: This button has quite a few functions. First of all, pressing this once without pushing a direction on the stick will result in Grave using his melee attack. If you push forward and press circle three times, Grave will do a three-hit combo, with the third hit being a charged up shot. Something else Jacky pointed out to me: If you press backward and circle at the same time, you can use your weapon as a shield! Be careful, though, as your life and shield bar will still drain, albeit a little slower. The boss of stage six is really the only place to use this, but even then his gun is so powerful that it becomes unwise to just sit there and take the ass beating...especially on kick-ass mode. Also, Standing in once place and rapidly pressing circle will result in a constant stream of melee attacks. Doing this will Billy is...a little strange... ________________________________________________________________________ Demolition Shots A big part of the fun of this game rests in the demolition shots. Each character can have up to nine shots; three for each category. When you view the demolition shot select screen, something that has an outlook similar to this one will appear: 1_2_3 4_5_6 7_8_9 The first row, which contains one, two, and three, are all the same kind of demolition shot for each character. That is, the character is facing whatever direction you have him facing and will launch an attack that will go in a straight line until it hits the wall, damaging whatever lies in its wake. the first position, "one", is there from the moment you start the game. this is the weakest straight demolition shot, and requires only one complete gauge to use. Before I go any further, I figure this would be a good time to tell you about the gauge itself. The only way to fill it up is to collect a certain amount of beats. ("Beats" explained later) After you collect so many, you will see the blue bar that was increasing disappear. After this happens, one of the four slots that are adjacent to the gauge will turn from black to yellow, meaning you can now perform a level one demolition shot. To perform a level two demolition shot, you must fill up at least two slots, and for a third level shot, three. There are a total of four slots, so if you fill up all four and use a level three demolition shot, you will have one left. Basic math, right? Anway, after the first level--or any level--you will be awarded a new demolition shot...if you had a good enough of a performance to earn one. It is possible to earn all nine in just the first time through the game, but you must do very well on each stage to earn them. I earned them in this sequence, but it's been confirmed they aren't all earned in this order.However, you must complete the first column before earning anything in the second column. Again, this is how _I_ earned it...it's rumored that your playing style affects how DS are unlocked. 1_5_8 2_6_9 3_4_7 So, back to where I was before I distracted myself...you start off with Position one. After you have done well enough, you will receive the second shot, which is in the second row of the first diagram I made (and coincidentally in the second row in the second diagram). This shot you've just earned is your first "group" shot...it will inflict damage to enemies all around you, regardless of your position...but is weaker than your straight shot. Again, you will receive a level two version of the shot, as well as a level three later on. VERY IMPORTANT: Using a demolition shot will replenish a portion of your shield. A level one shot will heal about half, level two; 3-4/5, and a level three will completely heal your shield. ________________________________________________________________________ "Beats" are what fuel the demolition gauge. In order to have a high beat count, you must kill/shoot enemies in an UNINTERRUPTED fashion. Beats are very important to getting a high score at the end of a level, so try to get that number as close to 999 as possible. Remember, if you pause your attack for a few seconds, the flame on the number of your beats will slowly start to disappear, meaning your time to add to your current beat count is going fast. To keep your beat count going when there are no ememies around, shoot the wall, pillars, groceries, tombstones, my ex-girlfriend (please), or whatever is in sight to keep the beat going until more enemies come. In every room, there's something to shoot at besides enemies. However, once the enemies are gone, and the room's decorations are gone, your beat count will go as well if you don't move on to find something else to shoot. ________________________________________________________________________ Art Art points can be irritating to get. Keep in mind, they are just as important as beats. Why? Because the final tally of points at the end of the level gets some sort of multiplier at the end of each level on a scale of 1-9, and you don't want art to bring down your chances of getting a new demolition shot at the end of the level, do you? BTW, art points and beat count are tallied in separate columns, so don't think your excellent beat count will ride on into your poor art count. Now, just exactly what is art? It's something no one understands but bleeds our government out of millions of dollars each year. However, as far as Gungrave OD is concerned, art is something a little different, and can be accumulated in two different ways: 1) The easiest way. Each time you use a demolition shot, you gain art points. It may only be five or six, but on long levels when you use a lot of DS, those can go a long way. 2) deflect a missile using your melee attack. This will only give you one or two points each time you do it, but the missile goes right back to sender, dealing damage. But no matter how cool or artistic you are, the maximum amount of points you may accrue is 200. Try and shoot for at least 100 for each level, and you will earn DS' on basically each level (Assuming you don't suck in other categories). ________________________________________________________________________ Evolution Factors Apparently, there is a portion of the instruction booklet that hints at some sort of powerful attack, but no way of executing this attack is given. Well, someone discovered it (I forget who) and here's how do to this powerful move: note:you must have at LEAST 50 art points to do this. 1) Get your shield to disappear. Wait till you get the "shield gone" status on the screen to be sure. 2) Jump. While in the air, use your melee to perform a stun attack. On coming back down, the enemies around you should be somewhat harmed and temporarily stunned. 3) Press and hold R2 immediately after landing. Then simultaneously press and hold shot+melee. 4) Release R2. There you go. At this point, you can let go of shot and melee. The result? You perform a bullet dance, but instead of regular bullets you shoot charged up shots. Time is slowed down and YOU ARE INVINCIBLE. Watch your art points, though, because they are running out. If you get 200 art points, and use them all, you will still have 200 when the final tally is made at the end of the level so don't worry about losing points for using EF. EF can be cancelled. I forget which button does it, but just mesh the controller and you'll stop. Make sure to spin around to hit all of the enemies. You don't want to waste art points. Use R1 to lock onto any enemies you want to hit. Be careful...on kick-ass mode, this can be a dangerous move to execute, because you need to have your shield depleted before this move can be executed. On that difficulty, you can be killed in the time it takes to actually activate EF. I didn't know about EF when I wrote this FAQ, so it isn't included, but I have to say on kick-ass it isn't exactly going to help you that much. Perhaps on the rooftop on stage 3, or in the corridors of stage 4, and most likely the most useful in the fourth room on stage 9 (In the four chamber rooms, the last one). Well, I'm not in charge of you. Just use it at your discretion. It'll be hard to activate the first few times you do it, so I reccommend you first try this out in a room ALONE. On kickass mode in the fourth room of stage 9, you most likely won't have a second chance to execute it. ________________________________________________________________________ Jackpot Yet something else you will be graded on at the end of each level. The way to get jackpot points is ONLY done by using a DS. The more people you kill, the higher the jackpot. My personal best is 540...if anyone has reached 999, let me know. Also, when you use the status affect DS, Jackpot will be counted by how many beats you had while in that status. Like anything else in this game, use a level three DS for best result ^_^ Note:A big jackpot can restore your red lifebar...how much depends on how high the jackpot is. ________________________________________________________________________ Time You will be graded on how long you took to finish your killing spree. Try and keep it under 10 minutes to get the maximum point multiplier. ________________________________________________________________________ Kills You will also be graded on how many kills you had. The maximum number varies from level to level, but just kill everyone (don't bust a move, bust a GENOCIDE) and you should get the maximum amount of points. ________________________________________________________________________ Tips If you find yourself low on shield--the long blue bar, NOT the ds blue bar--or just out of shield, find a safe place. Don't jump, don't shoot--although you can hold a charge--just sit still or walk around and your shield will automatically regenerate. HOw cool is that? This is one of the better innovations of the game...and it also takes away any excuse you have to die. Unless you are recharging your shield, always stay on the move. Those who stay still get hit, simple as that. Also, don't feel the need to use the lock-on function all the time. The game knows who to kill, just look in the right direction. NEVER EVER CONTINUE. If you die, just load from your last save point. If you continue, allof your kill count and beat counts for the level so far will be wiped and you will NOT likely receive all of the DS' on your first play through. This walkthrough will be of great help to you IF you are on kick-ass mode. If you're playing any other mode, even hard mode, I doubt you really need any help (You have no excuse fordying on easy mode! That's why they call it easy!). ========================================================================The Walkthrough ======================================================================== Let's start out with Brandon Heat, aka "Beyond the Grave." At this time I will remind you an angel dies for every second that goes by that you haven't watched the anime. It's just incredibe. Anyway... *THIS WALKTHROUGH WAS WRITTEN IN KICK-ASS MODE. The techniques used here should be applicable for ALL modes of play, though.* You start off right in front of the house where Grave was sleeping. No need to do anything special, just stand there and get a beat count going. After the wave of baddies die, there is a CGI sequence featuring the reunion of Brandon and Mika. Afterwards... You find yourself in a graveyard (appropriate, no doubt) surrounded by enemies. No worry, these guys are the weakest of the bunch. Just try and get uesd to the gameplay as you navigate around the area. After you've killed them all, you will be told to "go." An arrow will appear under Grave telling him to move. You will come to an alley with a fallen tree in it. use your melee to make quick work of it, and move on. After you turn the corner, you will find the first swordsmen in the game. They can block your bullets, so you can A) Wait until they stop blocking, or preferably B) Melee attack Your melee will go right through their block, so don't worry about them too much. In the next area, you will find the first rocket guy. Here you can rush him and melee him to death--as his shield blocks your bullets--or practice your rocket deflection and wait for him to lauch a rocket at you. When he does, use your melee to deflect, thereby racking up some art points. Go down a few more corridors until you reach your first giant. Honestly, I can't figure out Why the mofia spends so much money on tailoring these guys nice suits. It's a waste of money and time, but I guess no one wants to see a naked giant (think he's anatomically proportional?) You'll notice he takes a few more hits to take down, and he's more powerful, but you can make short work of him anyways. Wander down a few more corridors. Eventually, Spike will mention something about using DS',so no is the time to start playing with that. To rack up a high kill count, stick around and kill everything until they stop coming. Otherwise, use your newly acquired skill to bust the gate open. Congratulations! You just made it through training mode. Although, it really isn't much of a victory. Seriously, if you died during this training stage...you're going to have problems. Come on...if I can do it in Kick-ass mode, can't you do it on easy? A few CGI's later, and we find ourselves at... ======================================================================== Stage 1: Gargoyle Hotel ======================================================================== When you first enter the hotel, there are targets on either side of you, guarded by rocket guys. Take out anyone in your way (The premise of the game) and destroy both targets. Then, destroy the front desk and head up either staircase. When you ascend, kill everyone around you. After they're dead, someone will shoot a missile at the statue directly in front of you, which falls right smack in your direction. But because you're dead, getting hit in the eye with a 700 pound statue doesn't really hurt that much, so... In the parking lot. Keep going, killing everyone in the way, until some cars come by. Kill the goons inside and keep going. Watchout for a giant hiding in an alcove on the right immediately following this incident and hit him with a DS (or not, it's up to you). Keep going. You run into a few more cars. Take care of them, the pink things that got out, and move on. You run into your first red giant. These guys can be pretty devastating with their machine gun, so take them out first. Move on. By the time you get to the part where the cars come out of the wall--which should kill everyone inside anyway, but nevermind--you might have a beat count going around 400-500, depending on the difficulty level and your skill. That alone should get you the point multipliers for the level you need. Advance past them to get to a save point, and enter the main part of the hotel. When you first get off, another rocket attackk occurs, limiting your movement around the hotel. Get out into the main area and turn left. Keep going until you get to another corner, and go down the hole in that corner to find yet another elevator shaft. Kill the bad guys and get on. When you get off, go out into the main area and turn left. run/jump over to the rocket guy and melee him to death and proceed inside the hotel room. Once inside, watch out for another rocket guy and his friends. Then, shoot through the wall. Careful! There's a rocket guy on the other side, waiting for you to bust through. The best thing to do is to rush him before he can let a shot off and continue on your way. Turn left down the hall, then take a right. You'll have a fair share of guys to kill on the way, so have fun. Watch out for guys hanging off the ceiling...Go into the elevator room and do that thing you do best. Get on the elevator and continue. Save. Get off the elevator and kill the guys in the room. The next room can be kind of tricky. You can do it however you want, but I did it like this: I rushed the guys that were on the stairs and killed everyone in my path. I went all the way back to the other side and hung a left, coming back around to where I started, killing everyone in my path again. I continued around this time, making a complete circle. By the time I was done, everyone was dead, and I was unharmed. And then... MINI BOSS MINI BOSS MINI BOSS Helicopter: This guy is pretty easy. Just unload whatever DS' you've saved into him--make sure to lock on first--and let him have it. If that doesn't kill him, them start hitting him with charged up shots or normal bullets. When he starts going back and forth with the gatling gun, just start diving to either side and you'll miss all the damage. Just watch out for the missile he sometimes launches...it can be nasty. I believe he only fires one missile at a time, after that you're safe until he hides and comes back. MINI BOSS MINI BOSS MINI BOSS Continue. Walk down the hall and into the elevator. When you get off, there isn't anything special...just kill until you get into the room with two stairscases. To be safe, just run up one staircase and down the other, over and over again, until there's only the red giant left. The odds are, he'll be inbetween the two staircases so you can recharge your shields if you want. When you're ready, take him out, and go through the door to find the most innovating wheelchair you've ever seen... BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT You're going to want to take out those nasty gatling guns first, so move in circles--a technique you will use throughout the whole game--and hit his guns as he's turning to face you. Then, he'll start using his missile lauchers on the head of his chair. If you're an agile fella, you can just avoid this whole mess and aim for the guy head on. Don't shoot any part of the chair, especially the back. It won't do any damage. Shoot the GUY. Eventually, his chair will overload, and you will land in a familiar area. Right off the bat, avoid his sliding advance on you, lock on, and start shooting/using remaining DS. He will start shooting at you and walking around, so just jump around him and keep firing. Eventually, you'll get him. Watch as he goes out the window...and EXPLODES?! I guess carrying C-4 in your suit wasn't such a good idea after all, boss. Anyway, sit back, listen to the cool music and watch one of the coolest scenes in the game. Save. BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT ======================================================================== STAGE 2: SEED HUNT ======================================================================== Hopefully, you did well enough to unlock Bullet Dance, as you'll be needing that... You start off in...a shopping mall?! Whatever. Start killing everything, and I mean EVERYTHING. The walls, the pillars, and even the guys on carts sliding around with machine guns. Creative, aren't they? All it doesn't for them is make their death "faster", but oh well... If you get a beat count less than 350, you've done something wrong. Eventually, after the rolling guys are through, a rocket guy and giant will come out. Kill them, and go to where they came from. Take a right. Kill the guys that tried to set you up and head down the stairs. Advance a bit, and... MINI BOSS FIGHT MINIBOSS FIGHT MINIBOSS FIGHT Disco comes back alive with this weird-ass boss. use your new group DS to clear out the wreckage, meat, and the stray guys so you can concentrate on the roller baddie. You can try and shoot him with your single DS as he's rolling past you, or you can jump up to him as he's take his turns and melee him. Either way, he isn't too hard. Save. MINI BOSS FIGHT MINIBOSS FIGHT MINIBOSS FIGHT New area. SLOWLY advance and kill the guys as they jump out of the boxes. Take the first right you can. Watch out! Unless you want to get hit by some construction equipment, charge up your shots and let it have it until it's dead. Go past the wreckage and turn left, killing everybody in your path (From now on, let's just assume that so I don't have to keep saying it). Jump up on the stacks of boxes, and then turn right and look over to see a whole row of boxes. Get too close, and a few giants and their friends pop up. When they're dead, Jump over and proceed. Lots of giant killing to do here. Be fast about it, though, because there are three strategically placed rocket guys on top of boxes. You can ignore them if you so desire, and move on. Once you do, hang a fast left and charge up your gun. Press L2 and release your load on the oncoming forklift, and do the same to the lift that is perpindicular to the lift you just killed. Go down the alley that is across from where you first came in to find a dead end. No point in going down here...just more kills for you. Go down the only path you haven't been to yet and kill everyone down there to proceed through another gate. Try not to get hit by the oncoming cars and proceed to kill the occupants. Clear the area. Once it's all clear, run over by the doors to the warehouse closest to where you first came from. It will open. Kill the guys that run out, go in, and save. Get ready for one hell of an ambush! There are two ways to do this without getting hurt. The first is that you just stay right where you are and keep tapping square until you start dancing, and just start picking them off (don't lock on, just guide the analog stick) or JUMP rush into the center of the area and do your group DS. Either way, this was pretty easy. Things will clear out until you get to the stairs, where you will be enemy rushed heavily. Run up the stairs and destroy the target, which opens the passage to the other side. Run back down and go across, but watch out! You've got some Taliban on your tail! Suicide bombers will start rushing you, and you don't want them getting near you, right? Shoot them dead before they can get close and go up the stairs. Kill everything in your way and advance to the next part of the stage. Start off by going down the stairs and killing the miscellaneous forklifts. Watchout for suicide bombers, there's going to be two of them hiding out here. Advance when told to--after you've killed everything on that side--and advance to the miniboss. MINI BOSS FIGHT MINI BOSS FIGHT MINI BOSS FIGHT I don't know who that old steroid-ridden guy is, but that asshat stole the RX78-gpo2a's Nuke launcher. Bastard. (Gundam 0083) Not too hard, if you watch yourself. Kill the goons that surround the platform you need to get on. If at any point in time you need to hide andrecover your shield, go the the edge of the platform on the LEFT of where you came from and you'll be safe from the old guy's attacks. Just kill any little guy that comes along to bug you there. Other than that, it's a little safe spot for you. Cool, right? It won't happen again...for a while, anyway. If you have any spare DS', use them on him to drain his life pretty fast. Or, if you're just in a pinch and need the shield FAST, fire a DS at anything, even the wall. You don't need a high jackpot to regenerate the shield. (A high jackput CAN restore life, however) Oh, and if you feel so bold, try reflecting his missiles with your melee. It'll not only distract him, but it'll do some damage. MINI BOSS FIGHT MINI BOSS FIGHT MINI BOSS FIGHT Okay, remember when I said you'd want that first level group DS? Well, now's the time to use it! Enter the big room with all the machine guns and jump into the middle of the whole thing. You might take some damage, but your shield will regenerate when you use your DS any way, so it doesn't matter. If you don't have the second DS, or don't have the gauge filled up enough to do it, then just take out the targets on your immediate left or right. Advance--SLOWLY--down one side or the other of the room and take out the machines one at a time. If you take too much damage, just go back to where you came from and hide until your shield regenerates, and continue on. Kill them all and continue. In the next hall, rush the two rocket guys before they can fire a rocket. Get inbetween them and do a melee attack, killing both. Continue. You find yourself in another big room. In here, use another DS--you more than likely earned another one from the last room--and take out the machines. If you don't have the second DS, just quickly kill the targets surrounding you and slowly advance on the machines again. Be sure to kill the target that is inside the semicircle of machines, or else you won't be permitted to advance. When you finally do, you will be in a narrow corridor with slot machine guns on each side. Just stay next to one wall and fire at the other side's machines until they die, and repeat the process for the other side. Advance. BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT This guy is pretty easy. Start off using your group DS--you are REALLY hurting if you don't have this spiffy thing--and clear the area. Otherwise, just pick off the individual goons and chase the boss around the table, hitting him with normal shots. Don't stop moving, and occasionally use your melee to successfully beat this guy. BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT ======================================================================== STAGE 3: DARK CITY ======================================================================== This stage starts off very linear. Just follow the path, and be careful not to eat rockets along the way. Eventually, you will be outdoors and on some narrow stairs. Quickly ascend the stairs to kill the guys sitting there. Avoid or shoot the barrels coming at you. Then, unleashing your level one DS group shot to kill the guys shooting at you from another building. If you do it right, the building will collapse. (NOTE: BY THIS TIME YOU SHOULD HAVE YOUR SECOND DS. IF YOU DO NOT, I'M SORRY, BUT YOU SUCK AT LIFE AND VIDEOGAMES) So, I'm just going to assume you have the group DS by now. Bullet dance is going to be VERY useful soon... More linear combat. Be careful of guys hiding in cracks and small alcoves adjacent to your path, but other than that just keep on truckin'. You will come to another door that leads outside. Get your shield primed up before you go out there, because you might have a tough time keeping it in this next battle...especially if your on kick-ass mode. First of all, go up the stairs and clear off everyone on your side, including the ever annoying rolling barrels of doom. Then, aim yourself over to the other side, where guys are shooting at you. Press L1 to strafe, and jump and fire and press right on the analog at the same time. Not only should you avoid taking damage, but you'll take out a few guys on the way down the stairs (Don't worry about falling off the building). After you've recovered, either stay down there and heal your shield, or go back up to get some more guys. After they are all gone, another wave will come. The two guys that come across you can melee to death pretty easily--although you may lose some shield from the guys across the street--and repeat the jumping technique I mentioned earlier. Another wave of guys will come. Repeat the process and continue. When you get into the next room, kill all the bad guys and start going down the hall. Uh-oh! when you try to go down to the next area, a fence drops, and guys start popping out. Immediately jump back and either stay in the same place and dance around shooting, or run into a corner and fire at anyone that "comes out of the closet." When you can finally go up the stairs, watch out! A rocket guy tries to stuff you one at the top of the steps. You just stuff him one in return and move on. The next area is your first bloodbath, so bring some soap and some ammo. When you first get out, get into the center of the rooftop and start dancing in circles, shooting anything you swing across. Eventually, it will get really crowded, so use a group DS every once in a while. Also, it will become unsafe to stay in one place and shoot rapidly so use the strafe-jump-run-shoot technique. Just outline the top of the roof, basically, and keep firing. Be careful about stopping in a corner, though, because the rocket guys seem to get you one up the butt if you do that. I CANNOT stress to you how much fun this level is with Jyuji. Just slice, slice, and slice some more until your beat count gets to 500 (or more). EDIT: YOU ARE GOING TO DIE if you are on kick-ass mode with the above instructions (not the jyuju part). What I mean is, using the first level group DS WILL GET YOU KILLED due to the fact that this part of the game is so radically difficult on kick-ass. If you want to live, you will HAVE to use your status affects...I reccommed you use the first level status DS so you can save your gauge that way. Also, if you ARE playing on kick-ass, that means you've all ready beaten the game once, so you SHOULD have it. Also, when the guards come--the big ones--make sure you use a charged up attack on them, especially while using your time DS. After that button-mashing fest, save your game and take a break. Go jogging; I've heard good things about it (but I don't do it enough, so my six pack is slowly fading...sad...). Advance through the narrow corridor and into the big room. Uh-oh! Your trailer is about to get assaulted! Go in for the kill. Attack the little guys first, and save the big guy for last. If you've lost any of your shield in the process, just kill every guy but the big guy and lock onto him BUT DON'T SHOOT. Just circle him and wait for your shield to regenerate, and THEN proceed. A few green giants <_< will jump down with swords, so take them out. Then, a group of goons followed by a red sword guy, a big guy with a bazooka, and a big guy with a bazooka and shield. Take out the bazooka guy first, then the one with the shield, and the guy that has only his melee last. I ignored the little guys...but you can kill them if you want to. Time to defend the trailer! This part should be pretty easy, on any difficulty level. Just take your time and know when to back off. The next part, however... BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT The odds are, if you are just starting out this game, you are going to die in at least two places...and this is one of them. Don't feel bad. It'll happen to everyone. Most likely, you've just been depending on Grave's brute strength so far, and as you'll find out here, brute strength alone won't do you a whole bunch of good. The key here is to never stop moving in a circle. The bulldozers have three weak points: the dozer itselft, and the two supports of the thing in front of it. So, you COULD lock on to the supports, or just lock onto the main body. I say you try to keep your lock onto the body. Grave isn't as fast as the other characters--especially his lateral jumping--but you can still jump to the sides and release a charged-up shot or a DS of your choice. You COULD try to do your group shot, but you need to focus on the strong armor of the dozer, so I say you use the focused power of your single shot DS. As you're jumping around with the lock on the dozers, you will most likely kill the irritating goons that are trying to get in your way. Just jump and shoot, or charge, jump, and shoot your way to victory. Believe me, there are harder fights ahead. If you didn't die, kudos to you. But you will, so stop smiling ^_^ ======================================================================== STAGE 4: MERCENARY UNIT ======================================================================== This part isn't so bad. Just go up and down what little space you have, shooting through the glass. If you need to recharge your shield, just go hide in either of the corners and after a while they stop coming. When you've killed a few of them, a bunch of big mercenaries will break through. Face them, and strafe and shuffle around a little bit to avoid lateral fire while simultaneously firing at the big guys. Once they're dead, you will be told to advance. Clean up the guys that are left and continue on up either stairs. This place can be difficult, but just try to stay AWAY from getting into the middle of some cross-fire. Keep your distance, lateral-jump-shoot, and use the bookshelves as shields if you need them (that's why they're there!). Keep in mind the big mercenaries can do nasty damage, so that's the reason you need to keep your distance. DO NOT charge your shots to fire at them. It will do good damage, but you must stand still to fire the shots, and I guarantee you will get you ass fried if you stay still too long in a situation like this. Anyway, kill the tank that comes through the wall to advance. Personally, I don't think bookshelves really fall like that and go throught CONCRETE, but that's just me. Maybe it's an old building...whatever. Just save and continue. This next area is another area that is REALLY fun with Jyuji, but first you've got to beat this with Grave to get there, so let's continue... You can do this area a number of ways without sustaining major damage. One way is to jump into the center of the room and use your group DS to clear a good portion of them out, and then just lateral-jump-shoot to death the rest that come later. Next area. Advance into the room...STOP! See those suspiscious-looking things on the floor? Well, those are mines...when you get near them, they begin to flash. Once they start flashing, jump backwards to avoid taking any damage. Put a charge on your guns and continue. As soon as the door opens up, you will see some guys coming out. While you are still far away, let your charged shots rip them apart (They won't fire back because they are so far away). Go to the sides of where the guys that you just killed to see a few stragglers hiding. Turn around, and repeat the process to the door that you just came from. From there, they will just continually appear from both sides, so: A) Use your group DS occasionally to clear the room. B) Use your stats DS to help you (You might have your level TWO stats DS. This depends on how well you've performed over the last three stages) C)--my preference--don't use any DS' at all and use raw skill to clear the whole level up to the boss. Hopefully, you've gotten good enough by now to just use option C. If you are trying this out on normal mode and this is your first playthrough, I'd say you can do it. *Has faith in j00* BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT For some reason, a LOT of people have trouble with this boss. First of all, that giant pillar is in the center for a reason. They can't launch missiles or hit you with anything while the pillar obstructs their view of you. Due to the overpowering nature of these machines, you WILL need to hide behind that pillar from time to time. When the first machine comes out, run out from beind the pillar fire a few NORMAL shots. Odds are, you will take some damage, but you can heal it immediately as long as you have the pillar between you two. At some point, the robot will try to get on the wall and run around a bit. Especially in Kick-ass mode, DO NOT try to approach it while it is on the wall or you will wake up dead. You CAN try to hit it when it stops on the wall, though. When it fires missiles, just avoid them and keep shooting with your lock-on. There are some guys out there that have the balls to just try and charge that thing. I'll tell you right now...sometimes it works...most of the time you eat machine gun. Even on easy mode, if you eat a focused machine/missile attack, you will die very fast. Play it safe, and just try and take potshots from around the pillar. After you kill that weird-ass machine, two more of them stop by! Don't worry; for the most part they stay on the same side, so you can still recharge. This would be a good time to use those four level one single shot DS' you've been saving. If you just start from the last save point, you SHOULD have enough beats to fill the DS gauge at least four times (I told you not to use your DS' on the other guys!) Once you get the feel for these guys down, it shouldn't take too long to kill all three. Definately not the hardest boss...and certainly not the easiest. BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT ======================================================================== STAGE 5: THE RESIDENCE ======================================================================== Start off by dasing up the stairs, killing as many guys as you can on the way. When you get to the top, you will see a whole group of rocket guys. HOLD FORWARD on the analog stick, and press circle. You won't do your usual coffin swing, but you will take out them out by swinging AND stepping forward. Not usually a useful move for Grave, but one you will NEED for Jyuji. Hang a left or a right and hide in the corner to heal any missing shield, and take out anyone that climbs up the stairs to attack you. When everyone is dead, some goons will come out from the doors upstairs and downstairs. Take out the guys on the top first, because there isn't a giant mercenary in their ranks. Again, hide upstairs until you've regained some shield and head on down to assault the guys below. When you get down there, a whole bunch of guys will appear from the top. Hopefully, you've gotten good enough at lateral-jump-shooting to stay down there and kill the guys that charge you, all while avoiding rockets from the top. Once you've dispatched the big guys below, take care of the rest in any way you like, as it isn't that hard. Next, you have a choice. Facing the door you initially came from, go left. Why? Because I hate republicans. Seriously, you don't need a gun more than you need a brain tumor. Stupidgroup of asshats... Continue to that left door. From the moment you enter, either charge your gun and take out the advancing goons or JUMP VERY FAST over to them and melee them to death. For the next part, you MUST charge your guns. When the giant mercenaries break through the wall, you can kil half of them before they even have a chance to shoot back! Lateral-jump-shoot the rest--or however you see fit--and continue. In the next room, you should use your group DS (You MIGHT have level 2 group DS if you've done very well, if so, use it) Kill anything that is left. If you still have to kill the two chess pieces (weird...) then Stay back from them and fire from a distance. Do NOT get between the two and try to kill them that way, as you will wake up dead shortly after. If you are feeling rather lazy, use your single shot DS on them to finish them off. When every one and the targets are dead, a giant will pop out from behind you at the door. Kill him. (obviously). When you step over his corpse and go down the hall, a small team of guys will come out from a previously unavailable room. Kill them--stay at a distance while doing so--and continue. This next room could be tricky, depending on how you approach it. The best way to approach it is...safely! Get in front of the room--don't enter it--and kill the guys you can see. Get inbetween the room and the hallway and kill what you can see again. You SHOULD be able to clear out the entire room without ever setting foot inside. Charge your shield and go inside... Once you get down the stairs, immediately turn around. The door you just walked through will be swarming with baddies, so kill MOST of them and get into the open area of the room. You must do this because rocket guys will be coming through the other door, and four of them aiming at you can be a problem while standing in front of the door with your back turned! Once out into that area, move around and kill the guys that just entered from where you entered. Then, focus your attention on the rocket guys. I say just use your melee to deflect the missiles rather than trying to shoot them while they are vulnerable, but that's just me. After they are dead, a few giants will appear out in the hallway. Kill them as only you know how and continue. This next area seems to happen differently every time I enter, but I can offer you this piece of advice: Use your stats DS every time your shield gets low. When there aren't many guys left to kill, DO NOT finish them off, or the next wave will appear. Instead, be like me: a completel coward that runs off to regenerate his shield each time it gets low. You can do this up on the corners of the balcony, or UNDER the balcony, across from the door you started this stage out from. Three waves of attacks later, you can go on into the next area. In the next area, a group of guys attacks. Shoot the ones that you can, and when it's all over the rocket guys will still be standing. Wait for them to fire their rockets and use it against them. You can now go straight or left. I think going straight is easier, but do what you want. I can't stop you from going left...yet... Once you get the room--assuming you did the smart thing and went straight--turn left and kill the guys standing around. Just go left and right repeatedly to take care of the chesspiece; don't worry about having to get too close to hit it. When the door opens, just get to the side of it and wait for guys to flood in. When they are finished, get in front of the door--but don't cross--and take out as many guys as you can from there. Watch out for rocket guys. If at any point in time you need to recharge your shield, just go back into the chess piece room and wait. Another door will open up with guys coming in. Again, watch out for rockets, kill everyone,and continue. Okay, back to the big room AGAIN! This is the last time, but the hardest by far (At least for me). This room is actually easy if you're on your second play through, because you could just use the TOTALLY KICK ASS DS called "Executioner's Blood" to quickly kill everything in here. If you don't have that attack--and if this is your first play through, you won't--then just use your first level stat DS, circle around the chess piece, kill as many goons as possible, and fire AT the chess piece when not being fired up. Not using ANY kind of DS in this room is hard. If you can do it, kudos to you. BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT Easiest boss in the game! Literally, just circle him around with the jump, shoot, and keeping the lock-on. He won't hit you even once. Easy 500 beat count. BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT ======================================================================== STAGE SIX: LABORATORY ======================================================================== This is a pretty fun stage. Start out by doing the usual killing stuff, but be sure to watch out for the giant with a bazooka and shield. Also, there are two rocket guys behind the counter. After you've cleared the room, one of those red guys with swords will come out. Ignore him, and wait for another bazooka giant. Kill him first, and then deal with the other shooting giants, and then the red guy. Rinse, lather, and repeat a few more times to continue. Go through the double doors. This area is VERY different on different levels, especially kick-ass mode. A whole bunch of blue machine gun giants will come out of the door. Use your level TWO group shot for a nice jackpot around 80. After this, another blue giant and two accompanying red sword freaks will come out. Dispatch the blue one quickly, and kill the red guys before they can get to you. Come into the next room with a full shield and charged gun. As soon as you open the door, a new kind of giant that fires rockets will jump at you. Before he can let a shot off, pump him full of your charged (presumably) lead so he'll die before he can do a damn thing. There are two other's here as well. When they are dead, charge up your gun again. When the next wave comes, you should be able to take out two of them and easily surround and kill the third. Continue. This next room can get a little hectic, so back out and recharge your shield when necessary. When you've killed the first group, FOUR red sword guys drop in. If you can, kill them as they come with charged shots, or just back out of the room and take them on individually. Regardless, continue. This next area is dangerous, but good for your beat count. The embryo's on the wall can be shot at for points, so make sure you get a few of them. The guys that appear on the ledge directly in front of you appear what I believe to be endless, so either kill the first wave and ignore the rest or ignore them altogether. When you turn the corner, watch out! jyuji could quickly kill them all, but you haven't unlocked him yet, so back off and charge your shots. Let'em rip on that barricade of freaks and lateral-jump-shoot the rest. Don't worry about locking on; there's enough guys there for your AI to decide for you. If you need to recharge your shield, just hide under the ledge to the right of the group of guys you just encounteted (that way, you don't have to go back to where you came from and risk getting hit by the goons on the platform). Repeat this process throughout the next turn you take and continue. This room can irk you a bit, but like everything else, knowing what to do makes it simple. While still on the opposite side of the table, charge your shots and kill the guys across from you. If you angle yourself correctly, they won't come around, so just keep charging and shooting until they die. Now to fight four of those HUGE blue gatling giants. Keep a good charge and kill them with charged shots, or lateral-jump-shoot them. If you need to, use a DS, but I'd recommend using the stats one if you do. That way, you've got more time to make a decision, and you can restore lost life with your tremendous jackpot. Continue. For some reason, a lot of people have a problem with this elevator part. Just keep in mind that two lateral-jump-shoot attacks can destroy those hover cars, and your melee can deflect the missiles they shoot right back at them. After you destroy the first two, a few suicide bombers come along. A few quick shots will take care of them in no time. Two more hover cars, same technique. A big blue guy will get dropped onto the platform. Charge-shoot or three Lateral-jump-shoots will kill it. Just be quick to do so, as you've got a hover cars on the way, and if they sneak up on you, the you'll be quick to find out the machine guns are worse than the missiles. If you feel you are getting swamped anyway, Use your stats DS to give you some extra shield and time. Eventually, a few bazooka giants and another blue giant come along. Again, just keep using your stats DS when you need to and prioritize what you need to attack. Keep in mind that damaging a hover craft through 3/4 of its life will disable its shooting functions, so you can ignore them temporarily and fight more pressing issues. Save, and continue. This next part takes a while, but it's very easy to get a beat count of 800 (!) going. Just keep a safe distance from the bad guys and kill EVERY box. A few of them have bad guys inside them (Remember, send your bad guys FedEx overnight for instant terror anywhere in less than 24 hours) so watch out. Specifically, one of the small boxes on the left of where you get off has four red sword giants squashed inside, and the box furthest from where you start has eight or so orcmen inside. After you've finished your little onslaught, go through the door. See the fence on the left? The boss of the game is over there, but you can't chop through fences, so you'll just have to skip him for now. In the next area, if you are on kick-ass mode, there's pretty much no way you can avoid that blue guy draining your shield completely without using a DS, so go ahead and use your stats DS and take him out first, then wipe the floor with the rest of them. DEFINATELY get your shield primed and ready for what lies beyond...'cuz your gonna need it... MINI BOSS FIGHT MINI BOSS FIGHT MINI BOSS FIGHT Many people believe this is the hardest boss fight in the game next to fangorum. (sp?) But, many people obviously have no strategy. Let's break this fight down based off of two difficulty levels: Easy+Normal, and then Hard+Kick-ass. Easy+Normal: Heh. Bob poundmax never looked uglier. Anyway, the boss doesn't really do a significant amount of damage, so you can basically ignore him and go for the five targets that you must destroy in order to kill this boss. You can occasionally turn around to fire a DS to keep your shield up and get him (or should I say "them?") off guard. Your beat count will rise rapidly when shooting the targets, so don't worry about running out of DS' if you use them sparringly. Not that bad. Hard+Kick-ass: Okay, this time you need to really know how to play the game to make this work. Their attacks are so powerful you can't ignore them, so listen up to these facts: -You must destroy the five targets to kill him. You can drain his life bar all you want, but he will just keep coming back. -MAJOR UPDATE: Stand as close as possible to him while attacking. This limits two of his attacks and makes it easier to deflect the rolling balls of doom. -He has four basic attacks, and EACH ONE can be blocked: 1) Machine gun: avoid this by laterally jumping. You may take a few hits, but not that many. If you really are having a hard time with this, just launch a DS to interrupt his attack. Use the WEAKEST single-shot DS you have (i.e., level one) the goal here is to distract him so he'll stop firing, not to waste your DS gauge. This attack cannot be used if you stand as close as possible to him. 2) Rolling balls of doom: Like that title? I'm sure that's what it's really called. When he starts to shake, just STAND STILL and swing your coffin around. This should take care of the majority of the balls, just lock on and shoot the stragglers or take the hit. For some reason, one seems to get by the melee attack from time to time. I can't explain that. If you are really paranoid, use your level ONE group shot. Update: If you melee early enough, destroying the balls CAN cause significant damge to the boss. MAJOR UPDATE: You CAN actually block each and every one of those balls without ever getting hit. Stand as close as possible. When he starts to shake, you know it's coming. He say some string of gibberish. As SOON as that gibberish is over, just PRESS melee. Not forward+melee, just melee. You won't be hit and he'll suffer incredible damage. 3)Swinging blade: Just jump straight up. Sometimes he swings multiple times, so jump accordingly. When his blade gets stuck in the wall, use that opportunity to unload on him. If you see the blade coming but for some reason can't jump in time--or don't feel like it--just use your single shot level one DS and he'll stop the swing before it can get to you. He can't use this attack if you stand as close as possible to you. He'll just try to hit you with his fist, which can easily be jumped over. Also, he does it a few times in succession, usually. 4) Bob Poundmax ball of exploding pain and doom: This is the easiest one to defend against. The freak will open its mouth at you, and when it does, just lock-on to the mouth and fire. It will deal between 1/4 and 3/4 damage to the boss, so it's critical you get this hit each time it happens. If you lock on and you're aiming at the head, it won't do you any good. Press R1 to switch targets and fire into the mouth. If that doesn't work--and sometimes it doesn't, don't know why--just get as close as possible to it and DON'T lock-on, and your bullets will find their way into the freak without guidance from you. -between each of these attacks, he will pause. Shoot him. -during the attacks he will be open. Shoot him. -if you get stuck in a bad spot, use a single shot level one DS on him. -Do NOT waste your DS' on the targets. You need these to restore your shield, and forlater encounters in the level, so just use your dancing attack by standing in one place and rapidly pressing square to dance around and shoot the target. -Note for the above-don't lock-on to the barrels, just dance. -Note for the above-make sure you're actually HITTING the barrels. This is critical for defeating him and not looking like an ass in front of your friends (Not that I've done that or anything...) -IF YOU REMEMBER NOTHING ELSE REMEMBER THIS: ONLY, ONLY, ONLY shoot the targets while the freak is down regenerating. Do NOT turn your back on this thing. You will know it's back when the boss gauge re-appears, so you don't need to keep pressing L2 to turn around every five seconds to see if you're about to get a sword up the ass. Also, you should use charged up shots to hit each of the four targets if you're playing as Jyuji. His regular shots are too weak. That wasn't so bad, was it? Don't worry, you'll get used to it. He is REALLY easy after about the fourth or fifth time you've done this, on ANY difficulty. Interesting how he says "DIE!" Right before he starts attacking. Grave is all ready dead... MINI BOSS FIGHT MINI BOSS FIGHT MINI BOSS FIGHT SAVE. SAVE. SAVE. YOU SAVE'N YET? After you've had your fun, head back the way you came from, with the boss of the game on your right this time (You still don't have the power to break through the fence...you got NUTHIN on the fence, man! NUTHIN!) Get on the elevator. But, on your way out, Bob, Balladbird, and Bear (The BBB) want to say goodbye in a very special way... BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT Okay, this time WHAT you are locking onto is extremely important. If he's sitting on the platform, make sure you've pressed R1 to lock onto his head, not his hands. Shooting his hands with normal shots will be worthless. You can lock onto his "tail" but I don't quite know what that does...Anyway, as soon as he appears, just charge up your guns fully and let it rip. He will hang off of the platform after a few shots, and the final charged shot will send him off. When he jumps back on, he will jump right at you, so keep strafe-jumping so that he won't land on you and cause massive damage. He might jump again, so stay alert. Also, watch out for his laser attack...it will COMPLETELY drain your shield. Either charge shoot him in the face, DS him, or get into one of the corners and jump when it goes off. That's basically all I can tell you. Just rinse, lather, and repeat for desired affect. Well, I could tell you one more thing. Try to knock him off of the platform so that he gets sent flying in the direction that the ELEVATOR HIS HEADING. That way, he gets run over by the elevator, and does additional damage...just like in real life. MAJOR UPDATE: If you did the mini-boss fight correctly, you should have all of your DS' after you beat him. Otherwise, shoot the crates to get what you don't have. Once you see the boss, get behind him so that the angled up part of the shaft is in front of you. Make sure the freak is between you and the shaft. Use a level one DS. If you did this correctly, he'll fly off and hit the shaft, causing damage. Then he will GO UNDER THE ELEVATOR, which will also cause major damage. You can't kill him by doing this, but you can get him down to a sliver of life. Just shoot him once in the head to finish him off. VERY easy, if you've followed these directions carefully. BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT You really earned this round's demolition shot or custom/extra, haven't you? Take a break, and remember Mountain Dew is your friend. I'd get one right now, but it's hard to get up when you have a ten pound cat in your lap that claws you when you stop petting it. Yes, I've spoiled them. ======================================================================== STAGE 7:DECISIVE BATTLE ======================================================================== Want to get a beat count of 999? Well, hold on... Right off of the bat, start massacaring everything you see. This is a room that seems to change the sequence in which the bad guys pop out, so I can't tell you what to initially expect, but just use what skills you've acquired so far to not get hit. Watch out for a new attack they have. One of the mercenaries can stun you, leaving you open to attacks and rockets. Also, watch out for rocket mercenaries hiding behind boxes. Try and destroy every box for a nice beat count, but you'll get an even bigger count soon... Eventually, a group of giants will come out of the gate opposite to the one you came through. To finish them quickly, get close and use your level two group shot, or just see if you can kill them without using a DS at all. However, I find on Kick-ass mode that it's difficult to kill them withut using a DS...well, use your own discression. After you've killed them, a swarm of little mercenaries will come and get you. Lateral-jump-shoot your way to victory and proceed. Right off the bat in the next room, kill as many mercenaries as possible before they can hit the ground and start firing at you. Watch out for rocket mercenaries perched on ledges throughout the room. Be careful as you take that left turn and use the same caution. If you are having problems, use your stats DS or group DS (either level) and if that isn't enough run back around the corner to hide and regenerate. Proceed. Okay! The next room is your 999 room! Just walk into it, stand still, and let'em have it with your mad skills. Because of the sheer volume of guys in here, I can't tell you justexactly what to expect, in all scenarios there is a rocket giant waiting not far from where you start out at, so watch out. Watch out for rocket guys taking pot shots at you from behind boxes. Once you get so far into the room, a tank will break through the wall. To end this faster, just kill the tank using your level two single shot DS and a few charged shots. Otherwise, just ignore the tank and have fun. Like the last room, use a stats or group DS if you get cornered, but you should try to avoid using the group DS, as it will destroy many of the boxes in this room, and you won't get your 999 beat count. Oh, and that green thing that is following you around is the lock on of the tank...don't find yourself in its sight ^_^ Advance. Stand still and fire until the bad guys stop coming. A rocket guy will come along. Jump over and melee him fast. Go up the stairs, but avoid/shoot the barrels coming down, because here, just like in real life, falling barrels can hurt a lot. Go up the stairs, kill, and continue. This is another room that a lot of people seem to have problems with...your first priority is to take out the guys carrying the missile towards you (!) and then just kill the guysin the order in which they appear. Charge your guns, continue, and fire a shot off at the suicide guy. fire the rest of the shots off at the guys behind the wall. Turn right, don't advance, or you'll be getting shot at from two directions. Kill everything in this little alley, and make sure you kill EVERYTHING. A few late-comers seem to stop by sometimes, so make sure it's clear before you continue. Charge your guns and take out anyone that jumps at you. If your shield gets low, retreat, or use a stats DS. Make sure you take care of everything before you blow up the blocks that have the last guys of this part of the level. Behind those blocks are a group of mercenaries and a blue gatling giant, so be careful. I usually launch a single shot DS that knocks them all off balance, and I lateral-jump-shoot the rest to death. Watch out, because as soon as those blocks blow, some mercenaries will jump out from BEHIND you, so deal with the blue guy and his friends quickly, or face consequences. GIANT consequences. Save. BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT Yet another area that it's helpful to just lateral-jump-shoot your way to victory. You will see a bunch of mercenaries using trap doors to jump out and attack you, so before they can get organized, kill them all. The actually boss won't come out with each wave, but you'll know when he does because the boss gauge will turn a bright red. You will need to take out the bosses first gauge of life--he has two--and then he will retreat. Fight a few more waves. He comes out again. Repeat. On his THIRD appearance, he will stay out to fight to the death, so just kill all the mercenaries around him (single, group, stats DS, whatever you like here. You shouldn't need to use a DS to kill him though. Just be cheap like me and keep circling him. He'll go down. Other things to know: -You NEED to keep moving around. The mercenaries will trap you in chains, and the boss will launch a missile right at you. -The boss will lay mines around as well, so watch out for that. BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT ======================================================================== STAGE 8: CHASER ======================================================================== There's two very special guests in this stage, so be on your toes for visitors from the previous installment. Start off by killing the suicide bombers. Then, start killing the tanks in the manner of your choice. I killed them by lateral-jump-shooting them, but...to each his own. Watch out for flying suicide orcmen (three words not commonly grouped together) and take out the other tank. Occasionally, walking suicide bombers will run your way, so watch out. A blue gatling giant will appear. Jump when he hits the ground, and shoot while jumping...laterally (Yet another way of saying it). Advance to find more flying suicide orcmen. Okay, this part can get tricky. There are two helicopters here. Don't worry, the second one only comes after you've killed the first one. Now, if you've done REALLY well, you might have your level THREE single shot DS. Use it. Or, use your level two group DS. It won't do as much damage as the level three--duh, pardon my french--but still do some. Otherwise, charge your shots, and always back up from the helicopter as it's coming. Standing still will give it an advantage. Let loose the charged shoot, and start diving left and right to avoid machine gun fire. Shoot at it while doing so. (another way!) Keep this process up for a while and it will go down. As will the second one. Note: As the gauge on the helicopter goes down, it will start using missiles. This means more time for you to attack, but more danger. Note: Watch out for suicide bombers while attacking the helicopter. I believe there's an unlimited amount here, so be weary. Advance. There's another tank, and a few more blue gatling giants. I'm not sure how many, but it may be unlimited...or at least quite a few. Anyway, kill the tank as quickly as possible to cap the giants' appearances and continue. Again, watch out for flying suicide orcmen. Keep going. You may find a few blue gatling giants here and there, but not much else (no more helicopters!) Eventually, two tanks will pull up in front of you, and two blue giant gatling freaks will accompany them in the rear. This would be an EXCELLENT time to use executioner's blood, but if this is your first play through, you won't have it. Go BEHIND the two that appeared behind you by sneaking around the far left or the far right side and just work your way back up, killing tanks and giant blue gatling guys. Enter the gate, and... MINI BOSS FIGHT MINI BOSS FIGHT MINI BOSS FIGHT One of my personal favorite characters of all anime, Kugashira Bunji, appears (Yes! He's still wearing the bad-ass glasses!) And this time, he's a mummy that controls spirit wolves! Bunji just gets cooler and cooler, if cooler is a real word. For some reason, Bunji seems to act differently with his attacks, depending on which character you're playing as. For Grave, though, you shouldn't have too much trouble. Just sit back,fight, and enjoy the KICK ASS MUSIC that is played (It's only natural they play music ascool as the boss here, right?) Bunji can do the following: Summon wolves: He will summon a whole bunch of wolves to attack you. They will either explode if you shoot them too close to you, or grab you. Once they grab you, Bunji attacks, so whatever you do make sure you kill those wolves! Summon big wolves: I've only seen him do this on kick-ass mode, but he MIGHT do it on others. Just stay away from them and shoot them. They won't grab you, they will just explode when they touch. Just like the above technique, kill them from a long distance. Bunji charge: Bunji powers up and charges at you. You can tell he's going to do it because he starts to glow green. Bunji shoot: Typical boss stuff. Just don't stand still and his twin 9 mm pistols with infinite ammo (I want one of those...) won't really do much to you. Bunji Tower shoot: Bunji charges up and shoots you from one of the four towers. It's hard, but you can shoot him while he's up there. Just get close, but not too close, and let the AI aim at him or try pressing L1. Bunji Tower Charge: Bunji stands on the tower and charges his HP! You definately don't want him doing that! Hit him before he can charge and you'll knock him back down to Earth. Just a few shots will do. Bunji will use any of these attacks on any difficulty, but he'll be more clever about using them on higher difficulties. Especially the tower charge. He'll do something to distract you and then hop up on one of those towers, which is why you need to keep close tabs on him at all times. MAJOR UPDATE: On kick-ass mode, the best way to fight Bunji is by constantly stepping backwards. In other words, just stay out of his range and shoot as he's approaching. Don't stray too far, because eventually he'll jump up into a tower to charge his health. So stay far, but not too far. He also gets shy after a while...not sure why. He'll pick a post, stick by it, and you have to chase him down just to get a few shots in. Just be careful to not let him charge his health. Notes: You can easily hide from him and charge, but you run the risk that he'll do the same! So try to just rely on using DS' to charge your shield if you need to. WHY MUST I KILL BUNJI?!?! WHY??? He's a playable character in the "customize" section, so don't be like me and cry openly...it'll be okay...*sob* MINI BOSS FIGHT MINI BOSS FIGHT MINI BOSS FIGHT Okay, this next section can be easy or hard...depends on what your beat count is. To make this easy, just jump right into the middle of the room, avoiding all the missiles and fly death around you, and unleash your level two group DS. This should take care of just about everything. If you are unfortunate enough to NOT have this attack, don't worry. Just keep laterally moving around the back of the room. The odds are you'll eat a few missiles, but there isn't much you can do about that. As soon as you get enough beats for a level two attack, jump into the middle and use it. Continue. MINI BOSS FIGHT MINI BOSS FIGHT MINI BOSS FIGHT Sherry--or Sheri, depending on your translation--isn't too happy you killed her husband and her dad in the previous game. Hell, you killed her dad again on stage 6...along with hisfriends...again. Let's face it, you've killed quite a few people, and that's not how you make friends. Sherry is pretty fast, but that's about her only strength. She is another boss I've NEVER died on, and you shouldn't either. She has: Sherry's weak ass wave attack: This attack is easily avoidable by simply using constant motion to your advantage. Sherry's really fast running: She runs around behind you or beside you to attack. Just keep jumping and/or running around, and this won't bother you. Other than that, she doesn't do much for this first part except run around. Once her first gauge is completely defeated, she will school her own weapon and take you on bare-handed. At this point, she becomes infinitely more irritating to hit, but she's still easy. If you can squeeze a single shot DS in on her, go ahead. It'll be hard to successfully land one on her due to her speed. She will then have (Additional attacks reported by Person with many ali): Sherry's kick: a flying kick that knocks you to your feet. Again, easily avoidable. Just keep moving around. Sherry's Punch: Punches you. Again, just move around. Sherry's Grappling hook of Kung-Fu Doom: She actually shoots out those blade things directly at you, which ties you up, she flys over and does the "suspended in the air and kicking you in the head multiple times" thing. It's an attack in a straight line, so easy to dodge. Sherry's other grappling hook thing of doom: She shoots her blades up in the air, and they're supposed to drop down on you, only that since you're running around all the time, you should NEVER be hit by it. I've never gotten hit by it, so I have no idea what happens when you do. Second phase is fun. Don't bother trying to shoot her, she just dodges most of your shots and goes out of your view, and makes things longer. She'll charge in a straight line at you, you just run at her as well, Forward Melee and knock her away. Repeat. She though, has: Sherry's Jump on Your Head, and she can run up to your face, do a hand stand and do a Street Fighter Spinning Bird Kick. But since your Meleeing her first... I usually kill her so fast--and you should too--that she doesn't have the opportunity to use most of these attacks. I guess the stereotype of "women are the weaker sex" is true in this game: on any difficulty, this is just as easy as the boss of stage five. Save. MINI BOSS FIGHT MINI BOSS FIGHT MINI BOSS FIGHT This plane must be made out of Wolverine's claws, because the hull can take quite an ass kicking. Anyway... Kill the approaching orcmen. Charge your guns and take out the giant blue freaks. Some orcmen will come in behind you, so watch out. A whole group of rocket orcmen will approach from the other side and make a barricade. Jyuji could make quick work of them, but maybe not Grave, so I just wait until they fired and reflected the shot back at them. Next room. Watch out for the ambush that happens right beyond the door, and particularily watch out for the bazooka orcmen. Take out as many guys as you can at the door, and proceed. As soon as you can, rush to the other side and stand next to the door. Melee EVERYTHING that comes through. Eventually, a blue giant gatling freak will come out. Melee him for a little bit, then back off and finish him off before he can get a chance to shoot you up close. Kill any stragglers and continue. Observe the usual treachery. Corsione should have known the blonde guy would betray. Anyone that looks like Azrael from Gundam Seed will betry...they just look nuts. Anyway...get ready for an interesting fight. BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT Okay, there is no excuse to lose to this boss. Why? Becasue you can run around and heal your shield at any point in time you desire. Corsione: Don't stay to close to him, or you'll be katana'd. Keep a good distance. ONLY ATTACK WHEN THE RED EYE IS OPEN. Otherwise, your shot, melee, or DS won't connect. Corsione's balls of following doom: He (it?) shoots balls out of his top that can do significant damage if they hit. Just walk around...you don't even need to jump to avoid these. Try shooting him to make him stop sooner. Shoot multiple areas on him for best effect. Note: this is probably the best time to recharge your shield if you so desire. Corsione's machine guns: just run around to avoid these. They are SO much more irritating on Kick-ass mode, but still easy to minimize damage. Corsione's grab you with my freak hand and smack you around: He will fly off of the screen. use the target icon below you to determine his direction. Once you see him, jump laterally as he's coming at you. If he skims you, you will be knocked to the side. If he hits you head on, you will be tossed into the air and slammed back down onto the plane. Corsione's Spinning X's of annoyance: I HATE THESE THINGS. Especially on Kick-ass mode. They are pure evil. The only way to get out of an encounter with these things alive is to stay away, lock on, and lateral-jump-shoot each one to death. Remember, if your shield ever gets low, just walk around in erratic paterns to avoid getting hit and to recharge. When there aren't very many of these machine-gun firing X's, they will start suicide attacking you for MASSIVE damage. It is imperitive you kill these things, and kill them fast. Each time, or just about each time Corsione lands, hit him where his katana is--his main body--to do a few points of damage each time. He'll go down. It'll take a while, but he'll definately go down. If you're on kick-ass, this fight is going to suck. Make sure you use a Level three single shot DS on him right away to take most of the HP away from him right off the bat. Make sure you target hit first for maximum damage! UPDATE:Try doing a lvl 3 DS single shot, but make sure you aim ONLY when his eye is open. BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT BOSS FIGHT After this, fall some 30,000 feet, get out of the 10-foot impression you made in the ground and advance to the last stage... ======================================================================== STAGE 9: STARSHIP ======================================================================== I told you you'd be back here! Jump down through the now-broken fence and go into the hole. Instead of breaking your legs and dying, you find yourself in the first area with enemies. Very important! The MOMENT you can move, jump towards the opening door. As the bad guys are coming out, let loose with your melee, killing 70% of them before they can even start to fight. After that, just back off, and take your time killing the rest of them. If done properly, you shouldn't have lost ANY life on ANY difficulty. Go into the second room with your guns charged and jump a few times towards the middle. Make sure your charged shots kill the BIG bazooka freak, and MAYBE the little guys. As soon as you run out of charged shots, Use a level one stats DS to give you some time and extra shield to kill everyone in the room. By the time the DS runs out of time, you should only have a handful of guys left to kill. You may have lost SOME life, but not much here (and getting a high jackpot in the next room will give it back to you). Charge your guns and continue. Kill the blue gatling freak that appears immediately with your charged shots, and finish him off with a few regular bullets. Kill the two bazooka giants that surround him. A group of bazooka guys will come in next. Guess what? Just stand there and use your melee, and they'll all die. Continue. At this point, you still should have little or no life lost. When the next group comes in, just hit them with your charged shots and kill the stragglers anyway you like. The next group is going to be pretty big, so after you've taken out as many as you can with your charged shots (Hint: aim for the big guys first) use your stats DS to slow down time and gain life. Two big blue gatling freaks will enter, followed by two other freaks. Either use another stats DS, or a group DS. If you can get all four blue gatling freaks inside and use a level two group shot, you'll be okay. The challenge is to live that long...can you do it? Don't e-mail me about technique here, it's all skill to live to the point where you can unleash the fury. I never used a group DS...I just kept using stats...and quite a few of them, too, because of the beat counts you can get here. If you die in this final part of the section, don't worry. I died a few times before I got it, and you will too (Just like in real life...we all die before we can get it right). ==== alternate strategy, after someone asked me to redefine this to make it easier: It can be difficult, especially on kick-ass mode. There are two different ways to do this, so the easiest thing to do is to do both at once. First, if you really want an easy time, just start the stage of and keep dying until you've continued to the point where you start of with four demolition shots. Next, the first room. As soon as you start off, jump forward to where the guys are and use your melee for a second or two--any longer and they'll eat you alive. Jump back, and take out the shooters first, and then the guys with swords for arms. You shouldn't use a DS in the first room. If you have to, just eat some life energy away...don't waste the DS. In the second room, Get over to the other side again as quick as possible. have your guns charged up to take out the the three guys with rockets. Again, it's just skill to avoid getting killed in this room. Last as long as your shield will let you, then let loose with a time DS. Keep doing that until the entire room is empty. The third room is a joke, and it was only inserted to help you. Have your guns charged, and take out the gatling giant first. Ingore the other two guys. Then you'll just have two rocket guys. Stand back, and keep pressing melee. You will accumulate art points, and YOU'LL NEVER GET HIT. Do the same for the next wave of guys...just stand back and press melee repeatedly. The sword guys will be killed by your melee, and the rocket guys will get killed by their own missiles. By the end of this, you should have 200 art points...the maximum. Then, the fourth room. Rush over to the edge and shoot with your charged shots.Quickly take out as many as you can by "dancing"--pressing square rapidly and not moving--or by using your melee. Do both, especially on the rocket guy. You can melee him once or twice, and then jump back and shoot while he's vulnerable, killing him. Hopefully, you'll have four DS' here. Use a time DS if you must, but wait untill ALL the gatling giants--four of them, if I recall correctly--are in the room. Let loose with your level three group DS...it'll KILL EVERYTHING, or just about. If you don't have three DS, you could try the level two group DS, but that's much less effective. There is the other option: Evolution Factors. Do you know what Evolution Factors is? Here's how to do it: First, you must have NO SHIELD. Wait until you see the "shield broken" before attempting. This makes this move dangerous, and that's why you should practice this before actually trying this in combat. Anyway, your shield is broken. Life is at stake. Jump in the air, and press melee. It's your stun attack. IMMEDIATELY press and HOLD R2. After you've done that, press and hold Shoot AND Melee at the same time. Still holding those two buttons, RELEASE R2. You've done it! You can move, and time has slowed down,but you're INVINCIBLE, but watch your art points because once they hit zero, it's over. Make sure you lock on with R1, or you'll waste your shots. You can cancel at any time if you press L1 (or L2, I don't remember). CAUTION! Evolution Factors CANNOT be activated if you have LESS than 50 art points. Hope that helps. Anything else? End of alternate strategy for first four rooms ==== Next section. Just advance very slowly here, and you'll do okay. First off there are two hover crafts up ahead. Again, I just take it slowly here...so I backed off, and waited for them to send missiles at me, which I would send back to them. When they were too far destroyed to send missiles any more, I went for the kill. See those egg pod things? An unlimited amount of guys can pop out of those, so hurry up and kill the first batch and before they can come back, destroy the target to in turn destroy the egg pods. The gate lowers, and you continue. Two more hover crafts here. Just remember, there's a hover craft for every new section you go too. Also, you can always hear them before you can see them, so keep an ear out. As you advance, you'll be ambushed by guys coming off of a balcony you can't get too. There is an infinite amount of them, so kill as many as necessary and move on. Just keep up the same thing for a few turns, always to be weary of when guys will pop out at you. Remember, if at any point in time you are scared or running out of shield/life, RUN AWAY! As they say in Monty Python. Eventually, you will destroy a pylon that will result in a blue giant gatling freak and a multi-hit bazooka guy (I really wish I knew what they were called) When the bazooka guy fires, just reflect the shots back at him, and advance. Charge your guns to fire at the gatling giant so you don't need to be near him, and watch out for stragglers. After you've taken them out, another blue giant freak will appear. Get a well-earned save, and continue. Here it is VERY VERY VERY x10 to the 100 power IMPORTANT that you do not go down those stairs in that next room. Kill the guys that immediately surround you and JUMP over to the next platform. Remember, you must be VERY close to the edge to complete the jump, and you'll have to start the whole process over if you miss one. Be careful, or you'll be in this room a lot longer than you have to. When you make your first jump, a group of guys will appear across from you. Kill them before you proceed. Another group will appear as you reach the other end. Get'em, but melee the guys that appear on your side first. Jump. As soon as you do, go to the other side as fast as you can and use your melee. Kill those guys with it, and then turn to face the guys that appear on the next platform. BE CAREFUL ABOUT YOUR direction, and lateral-jump-shoot them to death. Jump. Kill the guys on the other end, and make your last jump. Don't miss! As soon as you get to the other side, stand next to the door. Start swinging your melee and don't stop till the gatling giant is dead. Turn to the other guys and strafe-fire them to death, get ready for what _I_ think is the hardest fight in the game. Go through the door, and SAVE. MINI BOSS FIGHT MINI BOSS FIGHT MINI BOSS FIGHT Odd accent that guy has, isn't it? Fangorum (my spelling) has a few interesting attacks: Fangorum's hit the floor with my oversized Wolfwood gun: This causes you to A) Be paralyzed momentarily and B) be stuck between a piece of rizen floor. Just wiggle your way out of it and move around with a lock on the boss. Whatever you do, don't let him get you in his sights when he's charging to fire his gun at you. This is your opportunity to pump him full of lead. Do NOT use a DS right now...you'll need it later. Fangorum's Random shooting spree: He takes his Trigun-ripoff gun and randomly fires in circles...you do the same, just run around in circles shooting at him while he does this (But try to have better accuracy!) After you drain his first gauge away, you knock his hat off...and that pisses him off! He's basically the same except for one LETHAL difference: While hitting the floor, he may do it multiple times, so the entire room will be filled with floor, and you can't even move! This is the time to use your level two group DS (If you have it, do NOT use your level three group DS, it's overkill and a waste of gauge). You will get a jackpot between 300 and 600! Sweet! NOTE: On kick-ass, you may have to use your level 3 group DS, as I'm experiencing difficulty clearing all the deformations with only the level two. If you do find yourself trapped, try and make sure it happens while you are far away from him, so you might have a chance to run around and not be shot. Again, to avoid getting trapped, stay on the outside and run like mad...don't get hit with that gun of his. Hopefully, you'll be able to keep your beats up so you can keep doing your level two group DS. He'll go down...eventually. UPDATE: I've found that sticking on the outside of the arena--but still as close as possible to him--will allow you to not be affected by the rising floor sections. Also, in the first part of this fight, if you stay away from him, he'll be less likely to fire off one of his random attacks. ~ALTERNATE STRATEGY~ While I was playing this game on Kickass mode, I stumbled upon a pattern exploit that allows you to defeat his first form and some of his second form without fear of his ranged attacks. Simply get close to him, and make him whiff his melee attack. As he is putting Center Head away, shoot-dodge up to him, bullet dance for a few seconds, and then jump back. He'll try to melee you again, "locking" him into this pattern until you deplete his first form's lifebar or you mess up the pattern. When he gets to his second form, he seems to not be vulnerable to this anymore, but oh well. Maybe someone else can find an exploit for his second form as well. ~ALTERNATE STRATEGY~ MINI BOSS FIGHT MINI BOSS FIGHT MINI BOSS FIGHT I don't care what you say...that fight irks me each time I do it...especially on kick-ass mode... The next area is in is just there to get your beat count up...so use it. Kill each one of those tubes before you enter the boss of the game's area. Don't worry about the boss. I've NEVER died with him, or come even close. He's a joke. FINAL BOSS FINAL BOSS FINAL BOSS There's a major difference about this fight as opposed to other fights. About a minute into the fight, your demolition gauge will start to increase automatically. This is a good thing ^_^ Pylon attack: The pylons glow orange and hit anything in their line of sight. The way to avoid this, obviously, is to get out of sight! Do this by diving. Another attack that comes up often is the dark mirrors that pop out and hit you. Use a time DS to avoid them and counter the time slowdown, but I don't really care...on kickass mode, you need that precious DS gauge fillng, so I wouldn't waste it on that. The first thing you need to do is kill the targets on either side of you. You can't lock on to them, so just get as close as possible, aim as best as you can, and use the highest single shot DS you have. You MIGHT have the final one, depending on your performance. Two shots from a level two, or one shot from your third DS will do it. Watchout! An uber giant RED gatling freak will pop out! GET THE HELL AWAY FROM IT and kill it from a distance, as it's quite the ubergiant. You'll know what I mean if you try to melee it... Repeat this process for the other target. For the final target, you can only hit him when his shield is down, so let out a level three group DS, or just kill the pylons however you see fit. As his shields are down. get relativly close, and LOCK ON. Let loose a level one single shot DS to finish him. End of part one. Next part. He still has his shield with him, but he'll let it down after he's done with his turn of attacking. Attacks: He teleports near you and tries to engulf you in a blue ball, where he hits you with missiles. To avoid this--it's VERY hard to do--jump back at the right time, jump right or left to avoid the missiles, and jump ahead to avoid whatever else he has. This must all be done at key times, or you'll get hit in some part of the process. He also can slow down time. On kickass mode, this is a great burden...use your lvl one time DS to counter his time slowdown, and another _IF_ you want to actually slow down time in your favor. I wouldn't recommend it. Anyway, if you don't use the time DS, he'll be moving around at a regular rate of speed and you'll be just about stuck. He also has the ability to shoot rays of light from his hands. This is just standard boss stuff here...no where NEAR as nasty as the above. Take care of him with the highest single shot DS you have, and he'll go down in no time. A direct hit from your level three single shot DS will take away half his life...an indirect hit will take away less than a fourth. Be careful with your aim. On kick-ass mode, you will probably die a few times. Basically, you've got two chances to kill him with two consectutive direct hits from your level three single DS before his second blue ball attack...I say this because the odds are against you that you will dodge it either time. It's all in slow motion, so take your time aiming your DS. You'll get it. FINAL BOSS FINAL BOSS FINAL BOSS Sit back, relax, and enjoy the ending. ________________________________________________________________________ NOTES ON JYUJI KABANE Jyuji is my favorite character. You might be saying to yourself, "Gee, doesn't his long-range attack suck?" The answer is yes, but that is to handicap the pure awsomeness that is his melee. Unlike your playthrough with Grave, you will use Jyuji's swords predominately throughout the game. Make sure when attacking large groups that you push the analog stick in whatever direction you want to take your killing spree in. So, these are the notes I will write for this version. I will add more as they come to me, so if you have a suggestion to add just throw (or send) an e-mail my way and I'll add it here. -Jyuji cannot charge his shots. However, he CAN charge his melee attack, so use that if you need to. -You probably have noticed that Jyuji doesn't do very well with the blue gatling giants...just charge your swords and use THAT against them; they'll die pretty fast that way. -Jyuji's lateral and backwards jumps are phenomenal. Make sure you get some use out of it. -On stage six, the best way to beat the boss while he lurks in his lair is to use charged up shots on the four containers. His regular shot is too weak to do much damage. ________________________________________________________________________ NOTES ON BILLY Billy is...wow. On a scale on 1-10 on the weirdness scale--and in Gungrave, it gets maxed out quite a lot--Billy is a 32.5. I'll just say this about him. When using him: A) Open a door. B) Get in the middle of the room, make sure no one is around, and rapidly use your melee. I'm not going to say anything about his orientation, but I guess he's just a "rocker", which is a culture in and of itself. Anyway, here's the basic's on mister oddball: Billy's charged attacks seem to be more effective at close range. SO, if you can, fire a charged shot at point blank on the blue gatling giants and your first shot alone will take out 95% of his health. Billy is opposite to Jyuji. Whereas Jyuji specialized in short distance attacks, Billy is lethal with his guitar. At first I thought the whole idea of a guitar was stupid...and I was right. However, I was shocked to learn that he is INCREDIBLY powerful using it. Just as Jyuji has a weak long-range, Billy has a weak short range. Billy has another shortfall, though. He seems to be wearing shoes that do little with friction, so be prepared to slide around quite a bit. He also can't lateral-jump-shoot, either. Still, if you don't have Action Replay or Gameshark--Game Genie, as well called it back in the day--codes, Billy is the guy to use. He's a walking cheat code. YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE TO DIE USING BILLY. If you do, you clearly suck so bad your parents will eventually hold you up for adoption. Anyway, here are the pointers. Just like before, I'll add more as they come to me, so hurry up and e-mail me so my FAQ doesn't get as bad as your skills--assuming you've ever died using Billy. -Billy cannot lateral-jump-shoot. -A single series of charged shots can kill a giant gatling freak. -Try to avoid using his melee unless you really need too. ________________________________________________________________________ EXTRA'S/CUSTOMIZE Thanks to Beyond the GraVe, here are a list of Extra's/customize in the game: "Customize: -Invincible -Unlimited Demolition -All Explode(everything explode when shot) -Camera Angle(u can select between Near(tends to be like FPS)and Far(default) -High Speed(faster gameplay) -Different Characters(GraVe in his original cowboy-like costume,Jyuji changed to Bunji,Billy changed to Garino) -Secret Character(Nightow Angel,not playable but it'll sometimes appear in the game to help u keep your Beat unbreakable) Extra: -Stage Select -Boss Rush -Enemy Rush -Play Movie -Play Conversations -Play Sound Effects well,there u go..." Using stage select will not give you new customized/extras. Shot/melee levels are earned differently from the other customized/extras. There's a reason the game is counting the amount of bullets you shoot: once you hit certain benchmarks, you unlock new levels of shot/melee. The first level occurs after you've totaled (I believe) 40,000 shots, and I think the last is about 400,000. It's a lot. Just shot lavishly, and you'll get everything you need. In the Japanese version, it's been confirmed that the only way to unlock items is by skull/bullet counts. Here's a sample, contributed by tenryu0: INVINCIBLE: Beat on HARD or KICK ASS. INFINITY DEMOLITION: Make 50 Nightow Angels appear. ALL EXPLODE: Have 90 BEAT skulls and clear the game. CAMERA ANGEL: Beat the game without continuing at any point. ALTERNATE CHARACTER: 1) Beat with all 3 Characters 2) Have 100 Life Skulls and clear the game. HIGH SPEED Beat the game with 90 TIME skulls. HIDDEN CHARACTER: Fire 500,000 rounds (totaled from all plays). Anyway, aside from SECRET CHARACTER and SHOT/MELEE levels, which are unlocked by bullet counts, everything else is apparently unlocked by skull counts. Just get at least 90 skull points in each category and you'll unlock everything. Oh yeah, also shoot 500,000 bullets. MORE INFO: After 200,000 bullets, you get shot level four. After 400,000 bullets, you get melee level four. In the American version of this game, just clear kick-ass mode once and you will unlock everything. You can use shot and melee level cheats, apparently in doing this, but no others. Needless to say, the American release is significantly easier. Also in that same topic, GraVe gave a link to a site (www.agscc.com) that supplied the following AR2 codes: Gungrave OD (NTSC/J) CB codes.(M) FA2A006F 32F89F00 (unknown) 2A2F35E1 100000A0 (unknown) 2AE735FC 3442800B 2ADF35BD 10000008 (unknown) 2A1B35D0 56D69876 DEMOLITION SHOT COUNTER 1A5B2BD4 00000004 DEMOLITION SHOT GAUGE MAX 2A4F3640 34020708 DEMOLITION SHOT 2ADB2179 34010001 2AC72179 A04100C4 (the above refers to "options" and "data", no idea what it meant) CUSTOMIZE EXTRA 1A9F3473 00000303 2A532AB8 01010101 2A5F2AB8 01010101 2A5B2AB8 01010101 0A972262 00000001 Okay, the above code gets all the extras and customizable stuff. Good luck figuring out what the rest of them do...I've been told they all WORK, but not what they do. Keep in mind, you've all but killed the replay factor here if you use the codes to unlockall this stuff. You really should do it all yourself. By the way, all these codes are for the Asian release. Not guaranteed to work on the American release. ________________________________________________________________________ NIGHTOW ANGEL So what exactly is the Nightow Angel? It's a funny little characature of Yasuhiro Nightow, the creator of Trigun and--surprise!--Gungrave. Here's what happens when you get an angel: 1) Your beat count automatically goes up by 100, almost entirely filling a DS gauge. 2) For the 15 seconds the angel is with you, your beat count CANNOT disappear during that time, even if you just sit there. 3) The little counter you see when you press "pause" will go up by one. The only way you can see this counter is to activate SECRET CHARACTER from the CUSTOMIZE screen. Don't worry about cheating, as this is the only "cheat" in the game that the game does not recognize as an actual cheat, as witnessed by the fact a cheat symbol doesn't appear below your shield like it would for your other cheats. In other words, you don't have to worry about messing up your ability to unlock stuff by using SECRET CHARACTER. As mentioned in the above section, SECRET CHARACTER is rather easy to unlock. Just fire 500,000 bullets totalled from all your playthroughs and it'll pop up in your cheats menu. What are the benefits of finding the Nightow Angel? In the American version, the answer is very simple: none! You can find all 50 and nothing will happen, because the best way to unlock EVERYTHING in the American version is to beat kickass mode. Sure, you COULD ignore kickass mode and read the next paragraph, but why? Kickass mode is easier than finding all 50 of these guys. Okay, you've go the Japanese version. You get nothing for beating hard/kickass except INVINCIBLE, which really wasn't worth your time. You want to unlock everything in the game, but you're only missing one thing, even after getting 90 skulls on each category and firing millions of bullets. What on Earth can you do? What exactly are you missing?! The answer is UNLIMITED DEOMOLITION. This is probably one of, if not THE best cheat in the entire game. Just fire as many DS' as you wish...sounds nice, huh? Well, you're going to have to earn it...you need to find all 50 Nightow Angels, which theoretically can be done in one playthrough...if you know where they all are. I spent a LOT of time finding all these, as few people have this game, and fewer still have the Japanese version. As far as I know, this is the most complete list of Nightow Angels on the Internet...kind of sad, really, but it'll definately help you out if you just started looking. Where can the Nightow Angels be found? That's the bitch of it. Anywhere. They can be found in walls, objects, doors, windows, basically anything but the ceiling and floor. How do you find them? Shoot! Shoot everything! The Angel can be found in anything your bullet can hit. Unfortunately, I didn't write down the locations as I went, so I can't remember certain areas. Also, back when I got the game in March of '04, I accidentally found two angels. I know this because when I took up the hunt my counter read "2/50." This is bad because I can't remember where I found them. Now, let's be a little more specific on "where" these angels can be found. There is only ONE angel per loading screen. In other words, once you find one, you can stop looking and just proceed to the next area of the game. No need to keep looking. SPECIAL THANKS: To Abo_BAKEMONO, for confirming what I forgot I had, and to Alpharhino, for finding angel's 44 and 38. Especially 38. I have no idea how he found that on his own >_< Without further ado, here is my list that I've put ~entirely~ too much effort in: STAGE 0: 1. Right to the left of the cabin, on the wall. 2. Past the tree you need to destroy and the rocket guys. There's a stack of three boxes that once you've blown them up, hit the wall and an angel pops out. 3. With the overly large gravestones along the left wall. STAGE 1: 4. As you enter the building, there is a desk you need to destroy. Turn right at the desk and there will be two collumns behind a fence that you can't jump over. Jump up and shoot the wall on the incline plane. 5. Wait until the cars burst through the wall. Once they do, jump through the hole they create and veer straight and left...there is an enclosing which has an angel on the right wall. 6. Get off the elevator and head right. It's in the last door. 7. In the second hotel room you go through, in the furthest window. 8. Where the stairs connect to wall on the far side of heaven's bar (right side). 9. In one of the statues in the hallway just before the boss. 10. In the section of wooden panels closest to the window. STAGE 2: 11. After the big area you start out in, go to the room on the left when you come to a T. It's a small closet. On the right wall. 12. In the room with afro warrior. On the shutter door to your right. I don't remember this one, but this is what I'm told. 13. Just before you enter the area that has the two cars laterally sliding towards you. I mean JUST before. Climb up to the second level and go back towards the forklifts. In the right corner. 14. In the warehouse, go up the stairs immediately on the right. On the door closest to the crumbling section. 15. In the area with the bazooka mini boss. You know that square area you can jump up on to attack him? It's on the wall of the square, on the furthest side. 16. In the first semicircle of slot machines, on the wall. 17. In one of the statues on the left in the boss fight. STAGE 3: 18. After you break throught the second barrier, under the stairs that go to the left, on the wall. 19. Just before you go up the stairs to get to the roof, there is a passageway that doesn't go anywhere. At the end of that passageway, on the wall. 20. On the rooftop, on the wall that has the door you just came from. 21. Right behind you as you start out on the next section. On the wall. 22. In the cul-de-sac, somewhere on the wall. STAGE 4: 23. On the OUTTER wall that is OPPOSITE the "go" signal. 24. On the wall between the tank and the bookcase. 25. Second room, first glass case on the left. 26. Above the door you enter to fight the boss(es). STAGE 5: 27. Go up the stairs and take a right. Then take another right. It's the last picture on the left. 28. In the chapel, it's in one of the stained-glass windows. 29. In the office just before the library (the office with a chess piece in it) on the white screen on the left wall as you enter the room. 30. As you face the boss, it's on the left and back corner, on the left wall. STAGE 6: 31. Last room before the stairs. Towards the left wall in one of the machine. 32. In the room with the four gatling giants. As you enter the room, look just right of the first gatling giant container on the left. In the vent that touches the floor. 33. In the corner closest to the elevator you use to exit the big room. On the wall. 34. In one of the small containers in the room where the boss is. Quarter way around the right side. STAGE 7: 35. On the wall in the big room you start out in. On the right wall, towards the gate. 36. Behind the tank and to the left, on the wall near the corner. 37. At the end of the maze, just before you enter the boss room. It's on the wall where all the desks are. 38: Boss fight. Oh god is this one evil. This was the last one, and for a good reason...I never would have found it by myself. Look to your left as you enter the boss room: see the trap doors the bad guys jump out of? When they open up, use a lvl 3 time DS to and the bottom side of the trap door as it's up. If it doesn't work on the first try, keep going at it, you'll get it. STAGE 8: 39. By the number three marker (right side) on the fence. 40. Left power station as you face Bunji. On the side facing the wall. 41. It's on the opposite wall of the one you start out by. To the right of the tank. 42. On the door opposite to where you start fighting Sherry. 43. Second seating area. On the ladder right as you enter the room. 44. On the rightmost engine, just outside the field of play. STAGE 9: 45. On the wall you're standing on as you start the level. Just drop down into the next level, turn around, and it's on the rightmost pipe. 46. In the fourth room. On the wall you just came from. 47. You know those doors that go down when you shoot the crystals? It's on the second door. (Don't shoot the crystal too soon or the door will disappear!) 48. In the room just before Fangorum, on the back wall. Not the actual back wall, but the wall of the platform you use to get to Fangorum. 49. In the corner as you fight Fangorum. The right corner just as you enter the room. 50. In area with the SEED containers. Right wall, halfway up the first block. There you go ^_^ You're welcome. ________________________________________________________________________ INFORMATION ON GUNGRAVE OD Yes, there is an English dub to this game! Unlike in the first, the characters speak English. This game doesn't have Graveyard finishers like in the first game...technically. The finishers are in CGI. As soon as you drain a boss of his life, there's a CGI sequence of the boss getting OD'd on death. Interesting ^_^ You Unlock kick-ass mode by beating normal or hard mode. The "Nightow Angel" is a little doll of the creator of Trigun and Gungrave, Yasuhiro Nightow, that appears to help keep your beat count up. He can appear once every load screen, so if you have this option enabled just shoot everything and he'll appear. It has been confirmed that getting all 50 sightings of him does nothing. ________________________________________________________________________ CONTRIBUTIONS I was browsing through your GunGrave OD FAQ on CheatCC, and I happened across your strategy for beating the last boss. Now, admittadly, the last boss is a joke, but there is an easier way to take down the first two targets. (I'm not sure about Kick-ass mode, but this is how it works on normal.) The two things worth mentioning are that, 1.) garino abuses the time freeze. I, for one, find this irritating, although some people don't. So, if you're like me, than it's good to know that using a level one time DS will cancel out his, and everything goes back to real-time. 2.) The targets have a shield around them, so you can't shoot them. that's why your beat count doesn't go up when you fire at them. You can just unload DS after DS to break the sheilds, but there's away to take the sheilds down. When the battle starts, you see three floating prism things. It's hard not to see them, because they don't stop shooting you. Shooting them doesn't do much, because they just come back after you destroy them. (I'm sure you've noticed this much.) But if you look closely, one of the prisims is a different color - destroy that, and the sheilds around the targets go down for a few seconds - you can use a demolition shot, if you can pull one off before they go back up, but I found it easier to use a level 3 time DS and just shoot. From Rober Provencher. I don't know about that...on kick-ass mode, using time DS is wasting the DS gauge. I still recommend that you save up the gauge and hit the targets on either side with a lvl 3 single shot DS, but that's just me. Do what you like ^_^ _____ First off, thanks for writing a guide, it really helped on those hard boss fights. I just wanted to give a few techniques I used to further help on a few areas of the game that you, and others, may find helpful. Obviously, if you don't want to use it, that's fine, just wanted to let you know and hear your feedback on it. First off, the Stage 4 boss fight. If you go into the room and approach the door, without actually triggreing the boss fight, you can go arround the room and destroy every pillar (including the center one) without breaking the beat count. This not only gives you about a 350 beat combo, it also fills alot of your DS shots if you're short. Why destroy the pillars? because they give you the same cover wether they're destroyed or not. But there's another reason. Sometimes the bots try to chase you, which I'm sure you've noticed. If you stand behind a smaller pillar, with the bot on the other side, you can actually fire shots on it and hit it almost every shot if the pillar is destroyed, plus it won't be able to hit you! This really helped me out alot, so I think it's worth a shot if you're curious. The second thing I wanted to say is pretty petty and not all that important, but still worth mentioning I guess. On Stage 8, when the helicopters come out, I found a fun and easy way to fight them. If you stand on a downed tank while it's away and then lock onto it when it comes back, you'll have a nice opportunity get a ton of normal shots on it by diving sideways and shooting. Grave gets in about 2-3 times more shots off on it due to his added height, which comes to about 15 hits in about a second. Like I said, petty and dumb, but man it's fun. Th last thing I wanted to share was that after reading the last boss section of your guide, I had trouble at first because I didn't know how to damage the targets on either side. You have to destroy the floating prisms to lower the sheilds, and their color coded. I'm sure you probly knew this, but you didn't put it in the guide. That's what triggers the black mirrors, which gaurd the targets. Not a big deal, but it might be worth putting in. That's all I have. Thanks again for writing a great guide to a great game! From althean_genesis@yahoo.com ____________________ chewinggum34@hotmail.com has quite a lot to say, so I'll just paste all his stuff right here rather than worrying about where to stick it in this FAQ: well... today I bought the US ver. of Gungrave and Gungrave O.D. for only 30 bucks together and it was cool. I beat Gungrave and I now am on hard mode on O.D. while playing O.D., I found out that if you well, you know the camera angle changes with the right analog... right? Well, if you switch your view, and press the R3 like a button, it stays fixed on that view. press R3 again to go to the behind view... anyways that might be new... it's either i didn't see it in the guide, u know it and didn't feel like putting it up or u didn't know it, so bottom line... control view with R3-press R3 at favored view and you'll stick that way-R3 to cancel and go back to default view. well try playing through a stage with a different view... I cleared the first stage with Jyuji fixing the view on the top of his head... well, that's another addition, and happy holidays... well, Jyuji was pure fun, but I didn't earn anything with him! and same with grave in kick-ass and hard. well, my idea is if u beat kickass, you don't get anything, since if you use a cheat, it's not like the first time through, and you didn't have kickass the first time through. i beat it like this Grave(easy)-Grave(hard)-Grave(kickass/no cheat earned)-Grave(normal/no cheat earned)-Jyuji(easy/no cheat earned) and I didn't use any cheats for the gameplays. anyways, the japanese/korean (region 2) versions seem to be more punishing, since i hear that the american version gives everything when beat in kickass... well and in stage 6's subboss in hard mode, you can go as close to him and fight since the balls of doom doesn't have a recoil, but in kickass... they have a recoil, so they knock you back. and you can simply outrun his machine gun in hard, but in kickass, he has a faster aim, so you will take hits. well, thanks and happy GGODing. Subject: beat kickass, didn't get ANYTHING! + strategy for Garino's final form in kickass Yeah those napalms... in kick-ass, they rip off your WHOLE shield and over half of your life! well, you're not going to get an easy fight out of him, so here goes (kick-ass difficulty) Obvioulsy the napalms are your greatest threat, and it is hard to dodge his time-freeze sphere, so you'll have to get hit a few times. First of all, if you stall enough, you'll have two Cerberus O.D.'s to throw at him. don't have it even in kickass after beating the game once or more? well, i'll skip that part later... first, your HP can withstand two of those nasty napalms, so brace yourself. First, when you begin the fight, don't unload anything but shots. ANYTHING but shots. if you unload a Cerberus O.D., you'll probably miss, and if you unload anything else, it's better off saving it up for your Cerberus O.D., so unload shots, and rip off as much as HP as you can off him. Then he'll teleport behind you, and use the time sphere attack. you want to get hit the first two times, because then he'll shoot orbs at you, and that's the best time for the CerberusO.D., since a demolition shot will make him napalm you again. Get napalmed again, you won't die since your beats from the last Cerberus O.D. would have given a minimum of 7 beats, healing the HP a teeny bit, and a giving you a full on shields, just enough to withstand another napalm attack. Then Cerberus O.D. him again like before. Now with your life at stake, you'll be finished if one more napalm hits you. Timing is the key here. right when he reappears, (as I told you, a DS makes him do the napalm attack) use a lv 1 stats DS. level one since it can multipully cancel out his napalms, whereas the lv 3 only cancels one. he then will go to orb shooting, then unload on him, till he disappears. Good thing your DS regenerates, you will have 2 DS's every turn, but rpeating the Stat DS ing and unloading procedure two times will be enough to kill him. Repeat the Time DS procedure, and he will soon wake up with you and CO. charging their best DS's, and annihilating him. so bottom line... Unload shots-Get hit-Cerberus O.D.-Garino disappear-Reappear-Get hit-Cerberus O.D.-Disappear-Reappear-Stat DS-unload-Disappear-Reappear-SDS-...So on and so on... So time DS will cancel out his napalm, and make him vulnerable during his orb shoot process, which he will skip tho. Some people use a GDS when he reappears, but that will instantly make him disappear, and it wont give much damage. It's a nice strategy, but his disappearance time doesn't give you enough time for another DS gauge, so Stat DS is the only easy way. Well a long strategy... eh? Dang, i guess for the Korean version Kick-Ass gives you nuthin'... well, thanks, and see ya... Yeah, I beat fangorum and experimented a bit... Here's how to sidestep his attacks... Center-Head ground pound: shoot him while diving forward to get as close as possible to him, which will trigger his... Center-Head charge shot: for the first few seconds of his charges, shoot him, and start going around him as close as possible, and his gun will always be a goot two feet away from you, and he will shoot, two feet off you, then you start shooting, try it it works, just round and round, and shoot him after he shoots, which will trigger his... Center-Head Melee: (only used when you are close to him) just dive backwards and shoot at him, and he'll miss Shooting Spree: Get as far back as possible, lock on him, and dive left and right shooting him, you may take a fatal shot, but only one will cut it out. then he'll ground pound, then repeat. When you knock his hat off, he will multi ground pound, so go as close to him, and go around him while he charges, which is more than enough to recharge your shield. If you're stuck, use a GDS to get out, then recharge your shield. He might shot spree while you are engulfed in the deformations, so use a GDS to knock out the deformations which will cancel his attack, or evade as best as you can, (which i prefer) and he will knock the deformations with his spree and give you 100~250 beats enouch to give you a few DS's. your stratrgy of going outside and fighting, I notice will almost guarantee you get hit with his charged shot, knocking off your shield unless you timely dive. well I see that this strategy is safer and a bit faster especially if you pull off a Cerberus O.D. after he gives you the beats off his shooting spree (which he will use on you near or far) so it will not be as hard as it is. Notes: if you press up and rapid fire, you will shoot differently, and it will shoot faster and longer range to a concentrated spot, so if your shield is low, and you rechage, and are afraid you get shot again, ust this from a distance to finish off a goon quickly since it will concentrate shooting on one spot. (especially works best on stage seven and two) anyways happy holiday and thanks Ps: yeah i really neber tried hard mode, but i got kick ass! I got to stage five today, and it wasn't so bad, well talk to ya later... I looked at your guide on CheatCC and wanted to ask a few stuff... First of all, you were great at writing those guides, thanks. they helped A LOT>.< This is an easy way to fight to the final boss. start off by going around, diving to avoid the prisms. Around a minute later, your character will be enraged and start filling his DS automatically. Now go back to the hole where you came from and guard, with the darkness to your back, the walls to your right, and the coffin on your front, you have a semi-perfect barrier on all of the attacks, as the mirrors will not reach you. you can unload a FDS to build up on your art and jackpot, giving you around 50~90 jackpot for a lv1 or 2 and healing your hp. When all 4.9 of your DS Gauge fills, go a little bit to the left or right, (I'll pick left), and go to the point where you can see the TARGETS and guard while facing the target from a 20degree angle in the left third of your screen (if you are aiming for the left target that is) and when you filled up, wait until the corresponding prism to the TARGET comes ahead of you, and unleash a lv2 FDS destroying the prism and the shield (or a lv 3 to be sure), and another lv 2 at the TARGET, obliterating it. Then a new kind of gattling freak comes out, and do your best to kill it with your shots(charge your sword with Jyuji as meleeing with all three characters will be hard), and go back to the hole, repeating the semi-perfect barrier step. Repeat for the other target, and when you have only 1 prism left (that would be blue), unload a lv3 FDS, then quickly (or pause) switch to a lv2 GDS, (lv2 GDS doesn't work for Jyuji, but a lv2 FDS while facing Garino works) and shoot to destroy the final shield and garino's first form. Note: when you are destroying the second target, if you destroy both of the prisms and quickly destroy the target, sometimes Garino will not be able to regenerate his shield. feel free to use this strategy in your contributions section... And back to the FAQ, if you beat GunGrave O.D. on Kick-Ass, do you get all customize AND extra or only all customizes? o.O Just wanted to know... thanks and have a nice day... That was so much information I couldn't possibly categorize it in this FAQ, so I thought I'd just C+P it here. All of his questions I've answered, but hopefully the answers are in this FAQ. _______________________________________________________ ODDS&ENDS Here's all the stuff that doesn't have any other place to go. -Gungrave, the orginal game, isn't quite up to par with this one. If you disagree, you're simply wrong. -Gungrave has an anime out. So far, I've seen 23 of the 26 episodes and I must say that I'm now back into anime because of it (I lost interest for a while). It's really worth a try. gotwoot.net ^Has all of the episodes--fansubbed, of course--so you can download them right away. Also, they have a show called "Naruto" there as well. Ignore that, as it's a remake of Dragonball Z. Just like DBZ, it is currently enjoying popularity that it doesn't deserve. -AonE is also subbing Paranoia Agent. That's a great show as well. Try it. -Speaking of killing all sorts of people while being outnumbered, I'm all for gun control. Personally, I think only the police and the military should be allowed to possess firearms of ANY kind. You don't need a gun. You may think you do, but you don't. -Some guys are more prone to this kind of game than others. Not sure why. Not too many of my friends are into it, but those that are are pretty hardcode about it. I guess it's like the Yankees...you either love them, hate them, or don't watch baseball (I am a member of the third option). And that's right, I said guys. Someone said on the Gungrave OD message board that she was female, but I don't know about that. Every girl I know--at least the cute ones--really hate this kind of stuff. To prove me wrong about that, send topless pics to my e-mail address, and I'll believe you...what? >_> -rightstuf.com Has all sorts of anime DVD's available. That's where I get mine. They've got Gungrave, too ^_^ They also have two other shows I recommend: Shingetsutan Tsukihime and Get Backers. All good stuff. ________________________________________________________________________ Gungrave: Overdose FAQ/Walkthrough -J.D. End.