(insert ASCII here)

                             Xenogears
                       No Upgrade Challenge Guide
                             Version 1.31
______________________________________________________________________________
==============================================================================
==================Section 0====================Introduction:==================
==============================================================================
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.1 Version History:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Version 1.00:  Wrote Guide, while attempting challenge.
Version 1.10:  Formatted, stuck in table of contents, etc.
Version 1.20:  Added Appendix B - D & disclaimer
Version 1.30:  Reformatted to fit 79 characters per line
Version 1.31:  Reformatted to replace tabs with spaces



------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.2 Overview:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Xenogears is an awesome Playstation game made by Squaresoft, the makers of the
celebrated Final Fantasy series. In a nutshell it is a sci-fi RPG focusing on
combat with giant robots and a street fighter like combat system with 2
dimensional sprite characters in a fully 3D world and an overdose of plot
twists. As an avid Final Fantasy fan, I thought this would be an interesting
game, but I now consider it to be quite possibly the greatest game ever made.
It has an incredibly deep and twisting plot, even by Square’s standards. The
battle system is innovative and fun. The sound and cut scenes are incredible.
The graphics are often disappointing, while at other times amazing.

In order to take in the entire story, which is very complicated and often
confusing I played through this game several times. Having found every item
and secret I could, and having beaten every enemy there is, I eventually found
myself trying to think of an interesting challenge for this game. I have
played various challenges for other Squaresoft games, including the FF7 No
Materia Challenge, the FFX no sphere grid challenge, the FFT solo Ramza
challenge, and the incredibly difficult FF8 no junction challenge.
Due to the nature of this game, any sort of time attack or low level challenge
would just be silly(no offense intended to anybody who may have tried either).
What I thought of is below.

The no Upgrade Challenge:  Play through the entire game without ever upgrading
your Gears. This means you may not purchase new frames, engines, or armor.
This means all gears must essentially keep their initial equipment. You may
however purchase and equip any gear accessories or weapons that you choose.
Optional:  You may or may not be allowed to refuel you Gears; this does not
greatly increase the challenge. You may do whatever you wish with your
characters. Even as I wrote this guide, however, I was not sure if this is
possible to do, but it proved possible.

This guide is intended to be a general guide to this challenge. It is intended
for players who have already beaten the game once or twice and are looking for
a new challenge. I will try to keep it as spoiler free as possible, but make
no promises. I will include reminders of attainable rare items and such, even
when they are not necessary (or even helpful for this challenge). This is not
a complete walkthrough, so I will not include help with things that will be
the same with or without the challenge (i.e. where is Margie hidden?  How do I
get the RPS badge? Etc.). There are plenty of great walkthroughs that answer
hese questions, but I may throw in a few tidbits anyways.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0.3 Table of Contents:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

0      Introduction
0.1            Version History
0.2            Overview
0.3            Table of Contents
0.4            Disclaimer
0.5            General Strategies
1      Walkthrough, Disc 1
1.1            Lahan Village
1.2            Mountain Path
1.3            Blackmoon Forrest
1.4            Dazil
1.5            Desert
1.6            Sand Ship
1.7            Sand Cavern
1.8            Pirate's Lair
1.9            Bledavik
1.10           Nisan
1.11           Stone Terrace
1.12           Fatima Castle
1.13           Border Guard
1.14           Nortune
1.15           Sewers
1.16           Central Administrative District
1.17           Underground Dock
1.18           Goliath Factory
1.19           Yggdrasil
1.20           Thames
1.21           Aquvy
1.22           Ethos HQ
1.23           Orphanage
1.24           Ethos Transport Ship
1.25           Ethos HQ
1.26           Ethos Dig Site
1.27           Yggdrasil
1.28           Babel Tower
1.29           Shevat
1.30           Nisan
1.31           Ignas Gate Cave
1.32           Gate Generator 2
1.33           Sargasso
1.34           Solaris
2      Walkthrough, Disc 2
2.1            Taura's House
2.2            Anima Dungeon 1
2.3            Anima Dungeon 2
2.4            Mahanon
2.5            Merkava
2.6            SnowfieldHideout
2.7            Yggdrasil
2.8            Taura's House
2.9            Nortune
2.10           Lighthouse
2.11           Duneman Isle
2.12           Anima Dungeon 1
2.13           Anima Dungeon 2
2.14           Deus
3      Appendices
3.1            Appendix A:  Battling Guide
3.2            Appendix B:  Experience Chart
3.3            Appendix C:  Contact information
3.4            Appendix D:  FAQ
3.5            Appendix E:  Credits

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0.4 Disclaimer:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This guide and the No Upgrade Challenge described herein are created by and
copyright 2005 Matt Weinstock. You may use them however you wish, however if
you wish to cite or copy either of them on your website or in print, you must
credit and inform me. Xenogears, Gears, and pretty much every capitalized word
in this guide is the creation and sole property of Squaresoft (SquareEnix or
whatever they may change their name to, but Xenogears' credits still says
Square).

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0.5 General strategies:
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1. Characters:

Always bring your best Gears to Gear battles. I.e. don’t bring Heimdal along
to the Tower of Babel. Additionally, if you have to bring along a character
with a weak gear, it might be a good idea to have them on foot if possible.
Normally, the farther you get into the game, the better parts will become
available, and any newer characters come equipped with up to date parts. For
this challenge, however, it means that your old Gears quickly become obsolete
and are replaced by newer ones.

2. Ether:

You will often have a hard time piercing your enemy’s defenses with your
Gear’s physical attacks due to a lousy engine. Fortunately ether attack is
independent of physical attack and defense stats, and is therefore also
independent of engine quality. Using your gears ether attacks is probably the
best way to fight. There are many ways to increase your damage done with ether
attacks. One of the best is to increase your gears ether amplification. All
gears have a natural ether amplification of 10, which means the Gear’s ether
attack power is exactly 10 times the character’s. By equipping certain gear
accessories this number can be increased. If you increase your ether
amplification to 30, your ether attacks will be 3 times as powerful as when
you normally use ether in your gear. Additionally, you can also increase your
character’s ether power. This can be accomplished by raising your level, by
using drive, or by equipping certain items. Finally, there is the Ether
Doubler, which doubles the effect of every ether attack as well as their cost.
This is generally a fair trade. This also doubles the cost of support and
healing ether spells unnecessarily, and doubles the power of non EP consuming
ether attacks, such as Aerods and Billy’s ether gun, without doubling fuel or
AP consumption.

3. Deathblows:

Another alternative when your enemy’s defense is too high for your puny attack
is to use more powerful attack techniques. It is a good idea to store up your
attack level by using you fast (triangle) attacks and then unleash your most
powerful attacks. In order to use these, your character must learn their
deathblows as well (except for Maria). If that still doesn’t work you’ll have
to use infinity attacks or ether.

4. Infinity:

When a gear reaches attack level infinity they can unleash extremely powerful
attacks for the next 3 turns (or 6 turns if character has holy pendant). You
will probably only see these on disc 2. There are 3 ways to reach attack level
infinity. The first is to use System Id. The second is to launch a non
deathblow attack when at attack level 3, and the third is randomly automatic
upon taking damage for certain characters. The probability that the second
will occur is equal to the Gear’s Hyper mode, which goes up when the gear uses
deathblows or loses HP, but is fixed at 99% for Xenogears.

5. Response:

Response is a curious Gear stat that is increased by equipping certain
accessories. It affects both accuracy and evasion considerably. This evasion
aspect is very important because if you have a lousy frame and armor even a
single attack can be devastating, so high evasion is a must.

6. Chu-Chu:

Though normally a really weak character, she has the unique feature that her
strength in Gear battles is determined solely based on her character’s stats,
allowing her to become theoretically very powerful. Also, for the purposes of
this challenge, she is a great defensive character.

7. Quick Refuel:

At anytime when you have control of the Yggdrasil you can instantly restore
your Gears’ fuel and HP by going to the bridge (Square Button) then launching
again. This is useful for leveling in the desert. Also, this is why I say
that not refueling does not greatly affect the challenge.

8. Saving:

Save often, even if you think you know what’s ahead, a seemingly easy battle
may prove surprisingly difficult in this challenge.


==============================================================================
============Section 1====================Walkthrough: Disc 1==================
==============================================================================

NOTE:  As I said before, I won't mention everything, only the things that are
pertinent to this challenge, and I may just summarize some other things, like
the presence of cut-scenes and dialogues.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.1 Lahan Village:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No changes from regular strategy
You may want to level up and learn some deathblows early, which can be done
outside of village or on mountain path.
You may also want to collect the
Spider Web, the Eyeball, Power Ring, and some hidden cash.

Be sure to collect Mermaid Tear and RPS Badge, you won’t get another chance
later.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.2 Mountain Path:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Still no changes from normal strategy, this is still a good time and place to
train on weak monsters because you can be healed for free.

Be sure to catch the spider.
You may also want to take the bird’s egg.
You can always come back for it but you may want to get Midori’s Ring while
you’re here too.

******************************************************************************
BOSS: 2x Musha Mk100

Is it even possible to lose to these guys?  Just mash buttons and you’ll be
fine.
******************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.3 Blackmoon Forest:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is another great opportunity to gain some early deathblows, but still no
real change in strategy.

Don’t forget to unequip Elly’s rare equipment before she leaves.
You may also want to fry some Hobgobs with her fire ether for Hob-Steak.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Rankar Dragon

No changes from regular strategy
******************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.4 Dazil:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No changes from regular strategy
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.5 Desert:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No changes from regular strategy

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  2x Trooper

No changes from regular strategy
******************************************************************************


******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Wyrm

No changes from regular strategy
******************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.6 Sand Ship:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No changes from regular strategy

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Brigandier

NO changes from regular strategy
******************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.7 Sand Cavern:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here is where things start getting interesting, because you get the first
option to upgrade here. DO NOT UPGRADE. That defeats the entire purpose of
this guide. First, you should probably teach Bart some deathblows, so have him
train in hand to hand while Fei rides Weltall. Beware of May Fly, it is pretty
tough in this challenge. There is a Gold Nugget here, but be sure to get the
Iron GWhip, it will help Brigandier quite a bit. Also, you will want to do
plenty of leveling and deathblow training before calamity. And while you’re at
it you get some cash too. You’ll want both characters to learn their third
deathblows, if not their fourth. In order to use them, you must reach levels
16 and 22 respectively.

If you decide you consider refueling to be a form of upgrade you can find
Nomad Fix Bots in the area by the terraces.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Calamity

This is it, where you really start feeling the challenge. You’re going to have
to really understand your Gear’s assets to pull this off. First of all you
want to have full or near full hit points and fuel. Once the battle begins use
Wild Smile as soon as you can. Immediately begin using booster for both Gears.
You should be strong enough for at least the third deathblow, if not the
fourth (level 22). The only attack that you need to worry about is his rocket
launchers, which does upwards of 450 damage and never misses. Thanks to Wild
Smile all of his other attacks will miss most of the time. Fei will be unable
to do any damage with his standard attacks and around 120 with his deathblows,
but Bart’s whips give him a decent edge to doing 150 with his third deathblow.
Follow the pattern of launching two quick (triangle) attacks then use your
deathblow then repeat. When you drop below 200 fuel change that Gear’s
strategy and get up to attack level 2 then charge repeatedly (with boosters
still on) until you have around 800 fuel. Then go back to the original
Strategy. If either Gear drops below 500 HP don’t bother charging past 170,
because you might not get a chance to use very much fuel. You can allow Fei to
run out of fuel then use his Guided Shot if this happens. This does involve a
bit of luck, so hope he doesn’t use his missiles too often, and doesn’t
concentrate on wiping out one character first, particularly Bart. Also keep
track of his HP, he has around 2500, and don’t be surprised if somebody dies
before you reach it.
******************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.8 Pirate’s Lair:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This should probably go without saying but be sure to save, you just finished
a tough battle and there’s more ahead. This is your first opportunity to buy
new Gear Accessories, which if you check the rules is not considered
upgrading, so go buy some stuff. You should have gotten plenty of cash while
training in the last area. I highly recommend buying Magnetic Coats, and
equipping them immediately. These will allow your Gears to evade most attacks
with ease. You can buy a Snapper GWhip in the Yggdrasil but you won’t be able
to equip it just yet.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Swordknight

Start off with a Wild Smile and he is as good as beaten, then just attack like
crazy. Those pirate Gears will do a decent amount of damage. Seven or so X
attacks will bring this battle to a quick end, and you probably will take
little or no damage in that time.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Aegisknight

This is another easy fight. Thanks to Heimdal, you can easily overpower this
guy in just a couple of turns. Just use the usual strategy.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  2x Wandknight

Wild Smile doesn’t really help much this time, just bash away and take them
down one at a time.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Clawknight

Once again you are overpowered, but this time you have those Magnetic Coats
equipped, so you will hardly get hit at all. Use your most powerful deathblow
2 times and your X attack other wise and he will go down.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Schpariel

Another tough one, but now its 3 on one and Citan is at full power. Just use
Wild Smile, boosters, X attacks and deathblows, and this fight shouldn’t be a
problem. Fei won’t be terribly helpful anymore except as a decoy, but this
battle will still be pretty easy.
******************************************************************************

NOTE: Right now would be a great time to go outside to the dessert to
increase your level, skills, and cash. Trust me, your going to want a lot of
cash in the immediate future. You can also make an early trip to Nisan, but
that isn’t necessary.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.9 Bledavik:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Other than that side note, its business as usual since there are no Gear
fights in the immediate future.
Be sure to get the Wedding Dress from Dan.
Be sure to grab the Gold Nugget in the water, get the H&S Badge and lend the
kids 1000G before you leave.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Ramsus

This can be a tough battle, but no tougher than usual. For strategies, see
some other guide.  No changes from regular strategy.
******************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.10 Nisan:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You MUST purchase an Ether Doubler while you are here. This costs a very hefty
38000G. You should also have a nice number of Rosesol and Omegasol. At this
stage of the game the best way to make that money is by fighting Gears in the
desert. Once you tell Bart that you’re ready to leave you won’t get another
chance to buy one for quite a while. Equip Fei with the Ether Stone, Wedding
Dress and Ether Doubler, and Weltall with 3x Magnetic Coat; you’ll be keeping
this setup for a while. Also unequip the other characters; you won’t need them
much in the immediate future.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.11 Stone Terraces:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

More of the same enemies you saw in the Stalactite Cave. If you come across a
May Fly use you Ether. There is a Gold Nugget a Rosesol S and a Magnetic Coat
along the way. Be sure to save at the top. Additionally, you may opt to switch
one of your Magnetic Coat for the Beam Coat. You’ll want full HP, fuel and EP.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  2x Wandknight

Turn on the Booster immediately, then commence using Guided Shot, they should
go down with 2 hits each. Take out one before starting on the other.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Clawknight and Swordknight and Aegisknight

Same as above, booster then Guided shot. First take out the Clawknight then
the Swordknight. You will probably run out of EP around now, so turn off
Booster and use some Rosesol. Fortunately the Aegisknight will probably never
hit you. You want to end this battle with most of you HP and EP and around
half of your fuel
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Vierge

Same again, switch on booster and use your ether.  After a couple of turns the
dialogue commences. Expect to take a lot of damage in this fight, her attacks
rarely miss and hit pretty hard.
******************************************************************************

Now you have to do some more platform jumping, but everything in this area is
the same as before the bosses. If you are taking the no refuel version of this
challenge you can get the Nomad Fix Bot to fight you by telling him you can’t
trust him, although they occur randomly in this area as well.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.12 Fatima Castle:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No changes from regular strategy but be sure to save on the Yggdrasil.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.13 Border Guard:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Try to avoid as much damage here as possible. Ideally, you should try to avoid
all unnecessary fights, which is possible to pull off. You may opt to replace
your Magnetic Coats for the A/C and a few x C Circuit+1, thus giving you great
speed. Also, for these little battles with the Troopers you may want to
unequip your Ether Doubler because you can beat these guys without it, but be
sure to put it back on before the Kefeinzel.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Main Gun and 2x Small Gun

The Small Guns are your primary concern, because without armor upgrades they
will hit you for 200+ damage very often. Turn on Booster and use your Guided
Shot to take them down. They will take 2 hits each. The Main Gun will only
take 3 hits, so you have some extra time, it should be 3 turns, use it to
restore your MP.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Dora

This is tough.  You will probably have very little HP left at this point, but
fortunately you have some help. Unfortunately, none of your Gears can break
through his armor, so just have them attack. Turn on Weltall’s Booster then
use Guided Shot. Fortunately, with your Magnetic Coats, this guy will
practically never hit you. If Fei dies after you break Dora’s Armor you can
keep on fighting with the pirate Gears and you can still win. Your main goal
is to just keep blasting. When Fei runs out of EP the Dora is almost dead
anyways, so you can just smash it with regular attacks.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  ?

No more (or less) impossible to defeat then ever, just let it happen.
Another chance to save after a big battle and also this is your last chance to
unequip Bart for awhile.
******************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.14 Nortune (D block):
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No changes from regular strategy, but you should change Fei’s equipment back
to normal now.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Leonardo

No changes from regular strategy
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS: Heinrich

No changes from regular strategy
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS: Vargas

No changes from regular strategy
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS: Suzarn

No changes from regular strategy
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Rico

No changes from regular strategy, you can't win.
******************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sewers:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No changes from regular strategy
Be sure to get all the treasures here and have Rico learn some deathblows.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Redrum

No changes from regular strategy, if you’re having difficulty consult a guide,
you just might need it.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Wiseman

No changes from regular strategy, it doesn't matter what you do.
******************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.15 Central Administrative District:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Get the Power Magic in the basement. Equip it to Weltall, nearly doubling his
Ether power. When you meet up with Rico, you can change his equipment. Take
the MomentoChain and equip it, then equip 3 Magnetic Coats on Stier.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.16 A Block:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No changes from regular strategy just be sure that you’re stocked up.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.17 Underground Dock:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No changes from regular strategy
Make sure you save, its going to get rough. You’re almost guaranteed to die a
few times before you get it right, which is really annoying since there will
be a lot of repetitive cut scenes between the fights with no chance to save.

Equip Fei with the Ether Stone and the Ether Doubler. Equip Weltall with the
Power Magic, Frame HP50 and Resp circuit, which can be bought here, because
the Magnetic Coat would slow you down.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Rankar R

Make sure you’re equipped with the Ether Doubler, and you can take this guy in
a single Guided Shot.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Aegisknight R

Use your Guided Shots, which now hit even harder thanks to the Power Magic. No
need for Booster as this will only take a two hits, and his first attack
never does any damage.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS: Swordknight R

Be careful, this guy could kill you with one turn and is arguable the toughest
fight in this challenge, but probably will only do around 1000 damage with
each turn. Immediately switch on your Booster. Whenever you take heavy damage,
which will probably be every turn, restore your HP. Otherwise, blast away with
your Ether. 2 Guided Shots will bring this guy down, but that’s more than
enough time for you to find your self at or near death’s door. With any luck,
you will beat this guy, but it will probably take several tries. If you have
hit him once already, blast him again and finish the battle instead of
healing.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Clawknight R

You will probably low on HP, and this guy does around 800 damage with his
attacks. If you have under 800 damage you must heal your first turn, and then
use Booster. From here its easy sailing, heal if your under 800 and use Guided
Shot otherwise. Just keep telling yourself that you’ll never have to fight
with only Weltall again.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  2x Wandknight R

Fei is probably very low on EP and fuel by now, but fortunately Rico comes to
help. No real strategy is necessary, since Rico could beat these guys on his
own, but use whatever is left of Fei’s ether so he doesn’t have to.
******************************************************************************

Finally, you have a chance to save. Not only is the worst of it now over, its
now clear sailing all the way since some very powerful allies will be joining
you from here on in. Replace Weltall’s Resp Circuit with the Beam Coat, since
there won’t be any physical attacks in this fight. Also, use an Omegasol on
Fei, since he must be just about out of EP by now.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Hecht

This is not a very tough boss, especially since you’re not alone anymore. Have
Fei use his Guided Shot and Rico just smash stuff. Since all of her attacks
are ether based, Weltall’s crappy armor doesn’t matter at all.
******************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.18 Goliath Factory:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now for the first time you actually have a choice of who to bring along, and
the choices do make a difference. To make things simple, bring Rico and Elly,
since the coming dungeon is all Gear battles, and Heimdal is almost as weak as
Weltall. Equip both Weltall and Stier with three Magnetic Coats. Equip Vierge
with a Power Magic, a Beam Coat and a Def Circuit. Equip Elly with the Ether
Stone and the Ether Doubler. Honestly, you won’t need the Doubler until the
next boss, but you might as well equip it now, it’s not as if an Omegasol is
expensive. You can buy a new rod for Vierge, but honestly, when are you ever
going to use her physical attacks?  Now you can enter the dungeon. From now on
Vierge will be your best gear to attack with. Elly’s awesome ether abilities
will allow her to beat almost any enemy in a single hit, and she is fast as
hell while doing it. The only drawback is her incredibly low HP, but the boys
should take the brunt of the damage.  If Elly ever starts to get low on HP,
you can switch to a Frame HP, heal, and then switch back between battles,
since you don’t really need her fuel anyways. The same goes for the others,
but it’s most important for Elly. Also, be sure to keep a constant eye on her
EP, and use an Omegasol whenever it gets low.

Once you start fighting inside the factory, you’ll pretty much be using Elly’s
ether every turn. Rico’s X attack can take care of some of the enemy Gears,
though he is so slow his main purpose is as a tank, while Fei is so useless he
should just charge every turn (you might as well just have him get out and
walk). When there are swarms of Mechanics, Use her more powerful spells.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Fis-6

This guy is pretty easy. Just have Elly throw on the Booster and blast away.
Fei won’t be of any help except to use Rosesol on Elly. If she started out
full, she won’t need any. You really can’t lose this battle. Even if he only
ever attacks Elly she will still beat him first.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Grahf

You don’t need to win this fight, but it’s easy enough to do, just fight your
hardest with the same setup from before.
******************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.19 Yggdrasil:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

While you’re here, buy some D Circuits and equip them to Brigandier
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.20 Thames:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There is plenty of stuff to do and get here. Buy at least 5 E Circuits.
Change Vierge’s equipment to 3 x E Circuit.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Haishao

Have Elly blast with Ether and she can finish this battle in 2 turns. Just to
make sure she doesn’t get attacked, have Bart use Wild Smile.
******************************************************************************

Be sure to restore your HP between fights, and unequip Fei of anything
important.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Bladegash

Noticing a pattern here?  Elly will end this battle in 2 hits as well.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Haishao and Miang’s Gear

Same as above, just hope Elly doesn’t get killed. You should also have Bart
use Wild Smile, both to prevent his attacks and to make Miang waste her turn
removing it.
******************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.21 Aquvy:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before launching the Yggdrasil, I recommend changing your party to include
Rico and Elly. You can now end any random battle in one hit with Aerods, and
get that one hit in before they have a chance to fight back.

Also, now would be a good time to put all that extra money you’ve been saving
to good use. Take a detour back to Nisan and buy some more Ether Doublers.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.22 Ethos HQ:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No changes from regular strategy
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.23 Orphanage:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No changes from regular strategy
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.24 Ethos Transport Ship:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

While this is a character dungeon, there is a Gear boss at the end, as well as
a character boss. If you don’t want to get killed in the Gear battle, which
you don’t, you should bring a party with good Gear power, ideally Rico and
Elly. However, you also need decent character power, which both Rico and Elly
leave something to be desired. However, this is an easy enough dungeon and you
should be at a pretty high level, so that shouldn’t be a problem.  If it does,
change the party to include Citan and Elly. Once onboard the ship it’s
business as usual. I should also point out that the Ether Doubler doubles the
strength of Billy’s square attack both in and out of gear.

******************************************************************************
BOSS: Bloody

No changes from regular strategy.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Giant Wels

You have Elly, right?  Now it's time for Aerods to do their thing. This battle
should be over in two rounds with the help of Aerods and Billy’s square
attack, but be careful; those two rounds could be enough for the Wels to kill
off Elly. If that happens, you can finish the battle with Billy and Rico’s
attacks.
******************************************************************************

As soon as you can, change Renmazuo’s equipment to a Power Magic and 2x E
Circuit.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.25 Ethos HQ:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No changes from regular strategy, bring whomever you wish.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.26 Ethos Dig Site:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No changes from regular strategy, bring whomever you wish.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Tolone and Seraphita

No changes from regular strategy.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Id

No changes from regular strategy.
******************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.27 Yggdrasil:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unequip your characters; the next fight is in Gears

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Alkanshel

You can choose your characters, and Elly is an obvious choice. For the third
you might want to bring along Bart for his Wild Smile to prevent Elly from
getting killed off by a physical attack. Rico isn’t really necessary with
Billy’s high HP and attack power, but either way the third character choice is
fairly moot. Use Aerods and Billy’s square attack to sink this guy. Since his
first attack is always to halve your HP, you are guaranteed at least 2 rounds
of Aerods, after which point Billy can easily finish this guy off if Elly
dies. One final warning, this guy has a final attack that will damage all of
your characters, and may very well kill off Elly and or Bart, but Billy will
almost definitely survive, so you still win.
******************************************************************************

Oh goody, now Fei is back. You’re once again stuck with the crappiest Gear,
but you have enough others to do all the dirty work. First of all I should
Point out that the entrance of Babel Tower is a point of no return, and is
your absolute last chance to go to Nisan and buy any more Ether Doublers, or
Holy Pendants or Life Stones for that matter. I suggest no less than 3 Ether
Doublers, the one Holy Pendant that came with Billy is enough, and Life Stones
aren’t that crucial. If you need some more cash you can now return to the
B-info store.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.28 Babel Tower:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Now you have to choose your characters again, and it’s a choice that you’ll be
stuck with for a long time. You’re stuck with Fei, and Billy is an obvious
must. You have some choices for the third character, however. One excellent
choice is Elly, who with her awesome ether attacks as well as Billy’s
guarantees a quick victory to any fight. However, you are getting to the point
where her low HP is a real minus. Rico offers some excellent defense, but
Billy will wind up your main character due to the overwhelming difference in
speed and offensive power. Another factor to consider is that you’ll be stuck
with these characters in a pretty tough character dungeon in Shevat, in which
enemies have strong attack and elemental defenses, making Billy a poor choice.
Both Elly and Rico leave something to be desired in character combat, so you
might want to consider bringing Citan as your third character. Though he sucks
in Gears, Billy will be able to carry the weight of the entire team through
Babel Tower, and Citan will be a definite plus in Shevat. Technically, they’re
all valid choices, except for Bart, so here it’s up to you. Personally, I
recommend Elly, but that’s just me.

Equip your characters like this:

Renmazuo is equipped with a Power Magic and 2x E Circuit
Weltall (and Heimdal or Stier if either is in your party) is equipped with 3 x
Magnetic Coat
Vierge, if in your party, is equipped with 3x E Circuit

Billy should have an Ether Doubler and an Ether Stone
Equip Fei with the second Ether Doubler and stuff to raise his Ether Defense,
i.e. Wedding Dress, LongDarkCoat, etc. unless Elly is in the party, in which
case she gets them.
If Elly is in your Party, she should have the third Ether Doubler and stuff to
raise her Ether Defense. NOTE:  She only really needs the Ether Doubler for
the Bosses, since she can kill most enemies in a single hit without it. If you
are cheap you can safely remove it for much of the dungeon.

When fighting random battles inside the dungeon, you should adhere to the
following:

Fei will just charge, so he can restore his damage between fights.
Alternatively, he may use Guided Shot on the weaker enemies in this dungeon,
such as the Traffic Jam, but his attacks are useless.
Billy will use his square attack on anything that moves, that’s what he’s here
for.
Citan will just charge, so he can restore his damage between fights.
Rico can use his most powerful physical attacks to take down your weaker
enemies, such as the Traffic Jam, in a single hit.
Leave the stronger enemies to Billy.
Elly will use her Ether attacks, and use Omegasol to restore her EP between
fights if necessary. She will save her Aerods for harder times and to save her
fuel for HP restoring.

The bottom part of this dungeon is easy. Every battle consists of a group of 3
x Traffic Jam. If you use Fei’s ether, and didn’t bring Citan, you can finish
every battle before the enemy gets a chance to attack.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Wyvern and Miang’s Gear

This fight is disappointingly easy. In Ramsus’ defense, his gear has excellent
accuracy and evasion, and would be pretty formidable against Gears with only
physical attacks. Against powerful ether attacks, he’s pretty defenseless.
Billy can finish him off easily. If you brought along Elly, you can take him
in one attack with Aerods.
******************************************************************************

The next part of the dungeon consists of smaller groups (1 or 2) of different
enemy Gears, none of whom pose a significant threat. There is also an enemy
known as Fuel Tank that will restore your HP and fuel like the Nomad Fix Bot.

There is a Self-repairing Robot in the final vertical section of the dungeon.
If you are not doing the no-refuel version of the challenge you can use his
assistance, but since you’re just using cheap ether attacks there’s no risk of
running out of fuel anyways.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Seibzehn

This is another easy boss. Just use the same strategy as you did with Ramsus
and this battle will be over before it began.
******************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.29 Shevat:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The only affect this challenge has on this area is who you brought along;
otherwise there are no changes from regular strategy. Be sure to get the
Wiseman’s treasure and the Chu-Chu tribe’s treasure if you have the badges,
while you’re here.

When Maria joins you, don’t take Billy along, he won’t be much help. Bring
your other character; it will work out fine whoever it is. Citan is ideal, but
Elly or Rico will do just fine, especially if Fei has the PowerCrisis.

Buy 5x or so Power Magic while you’re here.
Also buy plenty of Ether Stones, and whatever other stuff you might need, such
as ammo for Billy.

A little trick that’s worth mentioning is that Maria’s character ether attacks
are based on Seibzehn’s stats. Equip Seibzehn with 3x Power Magic whenever you
have Maria in character battle so she will have the offensive power she needs
to crush her enemies with a single blast.

There are some pretty tough monsters in the emergency shaft, and any character
that would have been helpful in Babel Tower will leave a bit to be desired
against them. Normally I would have suggested bringing Citan, but as I
mentioned earlier that will be a problem in this challenge. If you went with
Elly like me, you will find that around this time she starts being able to
actually do some damage with her rods, but she’s still not really a fighter.
Beating this dungeon with Elly, Fei and Maria isn’t terribly difficult, but
watch out for the Tears, if Fei gets killed you just might lose.

Now comes the big fight. Remember when I said that the battle against
Swordknight R was arguably the toughest in this challenge?  Well here comes a
close second. This is going to require a bit of strategy. You have four
generators to protect, and can assign only one Gear to defend each.
Fortunately you also get to pick the order of the fights and reequip between
them. The problem is that you can not assign anybody to more than one of the
fights, so you have to pick who fights which fight. This spells big trouble
for the no Upgrade Challenge, because only a few of your Gears have any real
power at this point.
So, who do you choose?

Battle one just screams for Elly, a single blast of Aerods and this fight is
over. Even outside of this challenge this is the only way to go.

Billy is your best fighter now, so he should get either Battle 3 or 4, since
they will be the hardest. Put him on battle four.

That’s two battles down, and all of your best ether attackers are already
used.

Any of Heimdal, Brigandier, or Weltall can get killed with one hit by either
Citadel or Avalanche, and Rico is the only one powerful enough to stand up to
either, but they all lack the offensive power necessary to win.

Believe it or not Fei actually comes in handy again, as does Bart. They can
both use ether attacks.

Assign your characters like this:

Generator One:  Elly
Generator Two:  Fei
Generator Three:  Billy
Generator Four:  Bart

Equip your Gears like this:

Brigandier and Weltall:  3x Magnetic Coat
Vierge:  3x E Circuit
Renmazuo:  Power Magic and 3x E Circuit

Equip your characters like this:

Fei, Elly, Bart and Billy:  Ether Doubler and 2x Ether Stone
If you only have 3 Ether Doublers, Elly doesn’t really need one.

Excuse me for being repetitive, now for your actual strategies:
Once you’ve gotten everything assigned and equipped, be sure to save so you
can just run to Zephyr and start the battles.
I recommend fighting in this order: 2, 4, 3, and 1 in order to get the fights
you are most likely to lose out of the way first. Any way you look at it, this
is going to take a few tries at least you don’t a half hour of cut scenes
between the last save and the fights this time. Fei and Bart’s fights will
stop you many times, but once you beat those two victory is almost guaranteed.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  6x Solaris Guard and 2x Littlefoot Gear
</pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
Just use Aerods, battle over. Some of the Solaris Guard may attack, but there
attacks are ether based and only do around 220 damage, even with Elly’s low HP
and even if they all attack you  that still leaves around 100 HP, so there is
no way they can kill you.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  3x White Knight

Next to Generator four, this is the hardest, and there is a good chance of you
getting killed here, even before you get a single hit in. Immediately turn on
Booster, and hope you don’t get killed too quickly. Use your Guided Shot 3
times and you’re golden, however this involves surviving 7 or 8 rounds of
attack that, if they connect, take over two thirds of your HP, or a third if
you manage to block. This comes down to place all bets on high evasion and
pray. The odds of victory are less than fifty/fifty, but on the plus side this
battle will be over very quickly, one way or the other. You should probably
get this one out of the way first. One final note is that if you always attack
the White Knight whose turn came up least recently you can lap one of them and
get away with only 7 attacks.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  2x White Knight and Citadel

Throw on Booster. You can use your JessieCannon on the Citadel to take it down
in one hit. Then use your square attack to wipe out the White Knights. You
should have a much better chance of survival than either Fei or Bart, although
there is still a slight chance that you will lose.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  2x White Knight and Avalanche

A very tough battle, although not as tough as number two, you can still be
killed before you have a chance to attack. I suggest you get this one out of
the way early, since you’re somewhat likely to die here too. Immediately turn
on the Booster. Your first priority is the White Knights. They are much faster
and can kill you in as little as two hits. Granted, Avalanche can kill you in
one, but it is much less likely to ever get that one hit in. Use Heaven Cent
to take out the two Knights in your next two turns. Thus you only have to
worry about five attacks from these guys. In your fourth turn, cast Wild Smile
on Avalanche, and he will probably never hit you at all. Now you can use your
Ygg D.Charge for about 1000 damage, but you only have enough fuel to use it
once, so you’re main weapon will be your Heaven Cent, for around 340 damage
each. You will probably run out of EP before killing him, but you can just use
a Rosesol. Keep it up and he should go down before he ever hits you, and
shortly before you run out of fuel.

Alternatively, if you have at least 48 EP you should do the following: On your
first turn take out one of a White Knight with Heaven Cent. If you have taken
no damage by your second turn, cast Wild Smile on Avalanche then cast Heaven
Cent on the other White Knight on your third turn. If you have taken damage,
cast Heaven Cent on the other White Knight then cast Wild Smile on Avalanche
on your third turn. Then use the Ygg D.Charge for the next two turns, and then
use your Heaven Cent for the next 9 turns to finish off Avalanche.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Achtzehn

No changes from regular strategy, although I’m pretty sure you can’t actually
lose this battle. Good thing too, since you sure wouldn’t want to fight the
generator battles again.
******************************************************************************

You now have two strong new additions to the team, Chu-Chu and Maria. Seibzehn
is an extremely powerful Gear, though a tad on the slow side, but superior to
any other Gear in every other way.
Chu-Chu pales in comparison to Seibzehn, but has her uses, including that she
is unaffected by the conditions of this challenge, allowing her to be helpful
in a clutch. Read more about Chu-Chu in the general strategies section.

As if that weren’t enough you can now access your 7 AP deathblows thanks to
Gaspar’s removing the Limiter.

Also it is about this time that you will realize how much money you have been
saving by not upgrading, in spite of all the special shopping you have had to
do (Ether Doublers, etc.)  Unfortunately, there is really nothing to spend it
on that will help you at all right now. So just keep on hoarding the wealth.

Now you can fly to any place on the map. You can now start Battling in Nortune
for some great prizes. You can put this off until after you get Emeralda, but
it won’t be any easier until disc 2, and for this challenge getting some of
the prizes early will help a bit. Also, after what you just went through in
Shevat, you could use a little break from the danger. While Battling is
exactly the same in this challenge, it is more important than usual to get the
rare items from this minigame early on, whereas normally I would recommend
just coming back on disc 2 when this will be a lot easier, so I will provide a
brief guide to Battling, see Appendix A

This is also you’re last chance to sell Hobgob meats to the B-info store on
Disc One, so you might as well sell yours off while your in town.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.30 Nisan:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, you’re back, and extremely rich, but the accessory shop has closed down
for good. It’s a good thing you saved up enough to buy those Ether Doublers
earlier, eh?  Just a couple of character battles here so bring whomever.

Mausoleum/ Fort Jasper:

This is interesting, a character dungeon with a Gear Boss at the end. Also,
you’re stuck with both Fei and Bart, so you only have once character choice.
Fortunately neither the dungeon nor the boss is particularly tough, no matter
who you choose Fei and Bart can take care of things on their own so you’re
choice of a third character is not really that important. Personally, I
suggest Billy, because he’s awesome in a gear and pretty decent out of one.

Finally, Brigandier is replaced by Andvari. Although it is the weakest
Omnigear in the game, Bart can now actually do damage in Gear fights again.
However, it’s still the same old Bart, just with much more brute strength, and
a little bit of Hyper Mode.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  2x Neo Etone

A real easy fight, Andvari can take these weaklings on his own. Fei will be of
no help whatsoever, but whoever you brought as your third can give a helping
hand.
******************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.31 Ignas’ Gate Cave:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It’s a small Gear dungeon (only 2 fights) and Bart is still required. Bring
somebody with a powerful Gear along. Elly or Billy can blast with Ether and
make short work of your enemies. Alternatively, you might want to bring Maria
or Chu-Chu as a defensive character to see what they can do in a real battle.
Be sure to buy and equip the SBlood GWhip in town before heading in.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Shakhan

He has a lot of HP, some decent attack power, and counters every attack and
can heal himself for 1000HP.  If you brought Elly or Billy you can do some
serious damage and end this battle much more quickly, but risk them getting
killed as well. Turn on your boosters and smash away, just avoid any attacks
when he is not hooked up to the Gate.
******************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.32 Gate Generator 2:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

And now, even more Gear Battles. It is recommendable, though not strictly
necessary, to replace Chu-Chu with Maria for this battle. If you already did
the Battling side quest you can equip some of those rare items on Bart’s team.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Marinebasher and Bladegash

By conventional means of combat, this would be a hard battle. But for our
purposes, this is the easiest boss in the game. Just have Elly use Aerods once
and the battle is over without the enemy making a single attack. Have Elly
equipped with an Ether Doubler and Vierge with the usual 3 x E Circuit and
Elly’s turn comes before they even have a chance to move and ends with
victory.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Skyghene and Grandgrowl

Their attacks are all elemental and ether based, so they can do little damage
to Seibzehn, and even less to Chu-Chu. I recommend throwing on boosters and
just smashing away, preferably taking out one target first and then focusing
on the other. Skyghene is more dangerous, so she is probably the better
choice. If you brought Chu-Chu instead of Maria, have Bart use his Wild Smile
so she can actually hit them, and have Chu-Chu heal Bart if he needs it. Maria
is strong enough to beat these guys on her own, and Chu-Chu can heal herself
for more than the enemies can hurt her for.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Marinebasher and Bladegash

Elly has more than enough Fuel to use Aerods twice, so this battle is no
harder than the first.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Skyghene and Grandgrowl

The only real risk here is if Bart gets killed because of his low Ether
Defense, and Chu-Chu cannot hit the enemies for more than they can heal
because their evasion is too high, resulting in a stalemate until you run out
of Rosesol. If you are really worried about Bart dying, you could have
equipped him with some FrameHP or armor to protect him from fire and wind
elemental attacks, but this is still a pretty easy battle.
******************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.33 Sargasso:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another fairly easy dungeon is coming up. I recommend this strategy to kill
off the enemy before Fei gets killed in every battle. Make your party consist
of Fei, Elly, and Billy. Equip everybody with Ether Doubler and 2x Ether
Stone. Equip all gears with the best Ether amplification you can without
slowing anybody down, meaning 3x E Circuit for Vierge and 2x E Circuit and a
Power Magic each for Weltall and Renmazuo. Once inside you can beat any enemy
in before they have a chance to move, except for the Death Scythe.
Alternative, Elly can wipe out the entire force with a single shot, but that’s
just overkill (although it certainly is fun to take down all 3 mermen at
once). If you take any damage in random battles, don’t bother using restoring
it. Also, be sure to keep an eye on your EP, that’s what Omegasol is for after
all.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Crescens

The last time you will ever have to worry about Weltall, thankfully. Here is
the mighty Crescens, one of the best Gears you’ll ever get, but as always
terribly low on HP. Use Aerods then JessieCannon and the battle is over
without her making a single attack (although in reality Crescens is supposed
to be faster than Vierge or Renmazuo, but I guess that makes up for Rico’s
sudden power loss after you fight him).
******************************************************************************

Now you’re at the gates of the biggest point of no return in the game, the
entrance to Solaris!   There are a couple of thing I recommend doing before
that. First, you should probably make a backup save incase you forget
anything. Second, if you haven’t already done so, hit the Battling Arena. If
you skipped over this part, see above about 2 pages for the guide. Also, go to
Bledavik and purchase 90 x or so Hob-Steak. Also, you may want to raise your
exp, deathblows (wizardry ring can now help) and cash a bit. Shevat is a good
place to do this.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.34 Solaris:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No changes from regular strategy. What, that’s it?  The longest and hardest
dungeon in the game finished in one sentence?  Well, if you insist, here’s a
words of wisdom:
Be sure to get the Psycho Rod at Elly’s place. If you want to tear through
this place like nobody’s business, equip Citan with Speed Shoes, Power Crisis,
and Speed Ring S; even Grahf and the Bloody Bros will be powerless.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  2x Bloody Bros

You don’t really have to fight these guys, but I consider them a boss fight,
so I’m listing them here. Anyways, no changes from regular strategy. The
combination to the door is up, down, up, left, right.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Grahf and Executioner

No changes from regular strategy.
******************************************************************************

**End Disc 1**
==============================================================================
============Section 2====================Walkthrough: Disc 2==================
==============================================================================

NOTE:  A large piece of the game from here on out is only cut scenes, but I
will only list the areas which you can actually do something in

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.1 Taura’s House:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No changes from regular strategy. Also, you are now free from of your oldest
Gears, Weltall and Heimdal are replaced by the mighty Weltall-2 and the none
too shabby Fenrir, respectively. Not only is Fei usable in Gear battles again,
he is now downright awesome.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Vandetta

No changes from regular strategy. With Weltall-2 this is an incredibly easy
battle
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Ft. Hurricane

No changes from regular strategy, since you can't change Weltall-IV's
equipment
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Sufal Mass and 4x Sufal

No changes from regular strategy.
******************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.2 Anima Dungeon 1:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No changes from regular strategy, this is a character dungeon after all.

The bosses here are an interesting story. You have a character boss battle
immediately followed by a Gear boss battle, and you can’t change your party or
equipment in between. So you will have to create a party that can win in both
battles. Really, this isn’t terribly hard given your current options. I
recommend the following:  your party should consist of Fei, Billy and Citan.
Fei and Billy both have decent armor, but Billy has an Ether Doubler and Fei
has a Holy Pendant, and Citan is equipped with 2x Speed Ring S and the Power
Crisis and is low on HP.  Renmazuo’s equipment is the same as ever, and both
Weltall-2 and Fenrir are equipped with Magnetic Coats, and Weltall-2 with the
GNRS50.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Dominia and Kelvena and Tolone and Seraphita

No point in handling these girls with kid gloves, Have Citan take them all
down one by one, with the 7 AP deathblow corresponding to their opposing
elements. Even if he dies, he should have taken down at least 3 of them before
Dominia takes her first turn. Fei and Billy can finish the battle from there.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  G Elements

Well, they have a lot of HP and defense, and pretty powerful attacks. I
recommend throwing on Boosters for everyone, have Citan attack and use his
deathblows, Fei use System Id and his infinities and Billy use his squares.
Despite their strength, this battle will be over shortly.
******************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.3 Anima Dungeon 2:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It has been a long time since the last Gear dungeon. I recommend your party
consist of Fei, Billy and Emeralda, so you can make a fast end to any random
battle here. Billy is equipped with an Ether Doubler and 2 x Ether StoneLg,
Emeralda is equipped with the dolls, and Crescens is equipped with 2x Resp
Circuit and a Magnetic Coat. Note; if you don’t bring along either Emeralda or
Elly the Croaker Tribe can get to be a nuisance. Go about solving this tricky
dungeon the same as you normally would, since there are no fights in the
puzzle rooms. Also you should definitely make a backup save before taking on
Hammer, this is your last chance to level up on random battles for a very long
time, from here on in its all cut scenes and boss fights, and big ones at
that. If you're doing the no refuel challenge this is Chu-Chu’s first real
chance to shine, as she can heal your other Gears in battle. Fei’s level
should be at least 70 before you continue.

Also, unequip Elly beforehand as well.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Hammer

Technically, you can just run from him, but then you don’t get the infamous
Trader Card. There’s no real reason you should have to do this, however, since
even in this challenge this battle isn’t too hard if you know what you're
doing. Have Crescens turn on Booster and use weak attacks and deathblows until
she has some decent Hyper Mode. Then have Weltall-2 and Renmazuo turn on their
Boosters as well. Use System Id when Fei’s turn comes up. Then he will use his
Kishin and Billy will Square while Emeralda uses her X attack. Once Hammer
stops fighting change strategies a bit. Have Billy instead use JessieCannon
and if Emeralda doesn’t reach infinity by her second turn now have her use her
most powerful deathblow. If you win, you get the Trader Card, which should
become a permanent fixture on Fei’s body.
******************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.4 Mahanon:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You get the chance to change your party and equipment, then two back to back
bosses of incredible power. The second of which it doesn’t matter if you win
or lose, and is far stronger than any other enemy in the game, including the
final boss and the unbeatable bosses. Many people claim that this fight is in
fact unbeatable, but it is entirely possible to win, but it is actually
entirely beatable. In this challenge he is even harder than usual, but it is
still possible to win. The first of the two bosses is pretty godlike in his
own right, and you can’t save or reequip between fights, and although you do
get a free fuel and HP restore, you’ll really want a different strategy for
the two bosses. You should decide ahead of time if you really want to try for
both. I will supply two different strategies depending on your decision.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Deus

If you aren’t trying to win both fights;
Whoever you bring, equip their gears with a FrameHP unit. Bringing Chu-Chu
helps a bit. When actually fighting, do not attack Deus, ever. He counters by
healing himself for 16000 HP, which is more than you could ever hope to deal
out. He has his one attack that halves the HP of all your Gears, and his own
as well. Wait for him to use this attack 3 times, while keeping your HP up by
healing when necessary (he does have other attacks as well), then have Fei
use Kishin (requires level infinity). Using this strategy, you can’t lose.

If you are trying to win both fights;
This is suddenly a bit more difficult. Bring along Fei, Bart, and Chu-Chu.
Have Fei equip the Trader Card and Speed Shoes. Have Bart equip the Ether
Doubler and 2x EtherStoneLg. Equip Andvari with 2 x Power Magic and an E
Circuit. Equip Chu-Chu with 2x Speed Ring S and a Yamato Belt. As before, have
your Gears sit back and charge until Deus halves his HP 3 times, leaving him
with only 5000, then have Fei use Kishin or Bart use Ygg D.Charge. Chu-Chu,
however, should user her Forest Dance to heal your Gears every single turn.
Just choose whoever has the lowest remaining HP. Don’t get too upset if you
take heavy damage here, you get a free heal between fights.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Alpha Weltall

If you aren’t trying to win, you don’t have to try to lose, it will come
naturally. If you brought along Citan for the previous battle you will be left
with only 2 Gears. This is the ultimate Gear, faster than even Crescens, so
strong he easily does 9999 damage with his physical hits and able to kill
anybody in a single turn with his triple attack. He has a lot of HP, around
100,000 I believe, which is over twice what the final (or any other) boss has.
On top of that, he has incredibly high defenses; most of your normal attacks
won’t even scratch him. However, if you followed my strategy above you can win
this one. Have Fei immediately use System Id and then use Kishin every turn
until his infinity runs out, then repeat. He should do around 8000 damage each
time thanks to the GNRS50. Have Bart use his Wild Smile on his opening turn,
this should completely prevent him from hurting you with his physical attacks,
which used to do up to 29997 damage, and leave him with only his 4000 damage
guided shot. After that, switch on his Booster, then use Ygg D.Charge every
turn thereafter, inflicting 8-9000 damage a pop. Chu-Chu should just heal
every turn, but concentrate on healing the other Gears, as Chu-Chu is unable
to do any real damage. He has over 100,000 hit points, but you should be able
to knock that off in 13 hits, 8 from Fei and 5 From Bart, letting you finish
this battle with fuel to spare. You’re reward is the elusive Slayer Robe, not
a particularly great item, but the symbol of having beaten the toughest enemy
there is, and in the No Upgrade Challenge no less!  Actually, he wasn’t even
that tough, by the standards of this challenge and compared to some of the
rough spots on Disc 1.
******************************************************************************
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.5 Merkava:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not a real dungeon, but you can save, change your characters and equip, and
even shop or upgrade (note:  don’t upgrade now; you’ve made it this far now
you're almost home free!). There are two very tough bosses ahead, and you
don’t even get healed between fights this time.  You can beat this with the
same party you used for Deus. You will definitely need the ability to heal,
whether through Chu-Chu or FrameHP.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Amphysvena

Ramsus’ revenge and he’s pretty tough this time. His initial attack will take
all of your HP to 1, and he can use it again if he wants. You should heal
immediately with whoever can, and then hit him hard. Use your most powerful
Gear options. Booster is also highly recommended for anybody without Speed
Shoes. Fortunately, other than that one attack this guy isn’t that strong.
******************************************************************************


******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Opiomorph

She only has one attack, an ether attack which hits everybody. However, she
counters every attack by making herself stronger. Considering how weak you
probably are after the last battle, you may want to use the beginning of this
battle as an opportunity to heal and charge, because her attack power is
pretty low at first. Chu-Chu can help a lot here. When you finally are ready
to fight, go all out and get it over with quickly. That means Booster all
around and your strongest attacks, including one last hurrah for System Id.
If you're quick about it, and you start your counteroffensive immediately
after she attacks, you can finish her off before she attacks again.
******************************************************************************

That takes care of most of the hard bosses, now here comes a lot of plot.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Id

The mighty Id is in actuality the easiest boss since Ft. Hurricane. This is
the only time in the game when you get your choice for all three characters
excluding the Pillars of Deus, and also your only chance to see Heimdal with a
sword. Pretty much any choice of three characters can win this battle if you
use them properly.
******************************************************************************

From now on, you’ll be stuck with Fei again. But from now on, that will be a
good thing.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  True Weltall

No changes from regular strategy, since Xenogears has his optimal equipment.
******************************************************************************

Some more great cut scenes and then you're free. You can shop, find treasures,
practice in random battles, and even go to the world map. There are tons of
places to go and things to do, below is a brief list of some objectives.

If you want to change your party members you can do so on the Yggdrasil, or in
either Anima Dungeon.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.6 SnowfieldHideout:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Clockwise from the entrance)
Give the miner a Gold Nugget and a Gold Bullion if you want a Jukebox (not
necessary, this isn’t a master file)
Pay the waiter 20000 and get the Chu-Chu treasure, which is not strictly
necessary but definitely worth it.
Upgrade the Kishin Sword to the Kijin in the hanger area, which is a big help.
Trade Midori her ring for the HerculesRing, definitely worthwhile.
<Skip>
Come back to this door after visiting Zeboim.
Play cards with Kanna for the Emer Jr. Doll and Elly Jr. Doll, although you
don’t really need to.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.7 Yggdrasil:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Visit Chu-Chu in the hangar so you can use her in battle again.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.8 Taura’s House:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Talk to Taura for the Manly Mantle and Goddess Robe.
Go train in the woods outside and you can find a monster named Slugger that
drops Speed Shoes. Get a couple of these.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.9 Nortune:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Here you can trade in all those items you’ve been hoarding, such as Fang and
Hob-Steak, for cash. Together with everything you’ve saved, you should now
have upwards of one million G.
There’s also the Battling arena, where you can get insane amounts of points by
using Xenogears’ Square X attack, but you should already have gotten these
items on the first Disc, so there’s really no need to visit unless you want to
get everything else.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.10 Lighthouse:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This is probably the most important area to visit, but be sure to bring
Emeralda. There are many things to do in the Zeboim ruins here. There are
plenty of treasures just waiting to be found and several nice tidbits of plot
as well. But the there are two main selling points to this area.

The first of which turning Emeralda into an adult, thus making her about 20%
stronger in Gear fights. Also, now you can go back to the SnowfieldHideout for
the Mermaid Ring.

The second is Big Joe’s shop. The upgrades may be off limits, but the
accessories and items are a must. Also, this is the only place left to spend
all of that great cash you’ve been saving up. Buy a bunch of GNRS50 and about
50x Ether Drive, and any other Drive you might want. Use all of your Drive on
Chu-Chu.

Be careful for the strong enemies in random battles out on the streets,
however.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.11 Duneman Isle:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No changes from regular strategy, you don’t really need to come here since
none of the treasures will help you beat the game.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.12 Anima Dungeon 1:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No need to visit here.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.13 Anima Dungeon 2:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

No need to visit here either, but it is a good place to train if you want to.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.14 Deus:
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The final dungeon; and it’s a pretty big one too. There are some really strong
enemies here as well. I recommend this strategy:

Bring along Fei, Billy and Emeralda. Equip everybody with speed shoes. Equip
Fei with the Trader Card and Holy Pendant. Equip Billy with an Ether Doubler
and EtherStoneLg. Equip Emeralda with Mermaid Ring and Goddess Robe (Ether
Doubler not needed, she can still one hit just about anything). Equip
Xenogears with 3x GNRS50 (in case of Power Seraph). Equip Renmazuo with Power
Magic and 2x E Circuit. Equip Crescens with 3x E Circuit. You can now finish
any enemy battle without taking any damage or wasting any of Xenogears’ Fuel.
You can take down any enemy except for Eagle Armor or Power Seraph in 1 hit
with this setup. Use Emeralda’s appropriate elemental spell for the elemental
Seraphs. In case you haven’t figured out which one is which, the bipedal ones
are Wind Seraph, the floating torso with thick arms are Earth Seraph, the
short ones with long pointed heads are Fire Seraph, and the doughnut shaped
ones are Water Seraph.

Now that you’ve made it through that dungeon (it wasn’t so bad, now was it?)
you can proceed to the final fight.

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Deus (and Pillars)

There are two ways of going about defeating Deus. The first is to attack him
directly with your best characters, the second to defeat his Pillars first to
weaken him. Even in this challenge either is possible. I will offer strategies
for both. Note that for either of these options I know for a fact there are
many great ways to configure your party, but I’m not going to list them all.
I’m not necessarily saying that these are the best ways, only that I have
tried them and they work, you can feel free to change the strategy to include
your own favorite characters.

Deus has four Pillars, and the more you defeat the weaker Deus becomes. If you
choose to take them down first I recommend setting up a B team so you can save
Xenogears’ fuel and HP for dues itself. Chu-Chu is central to this strategy,
in that she is immune against most of their special attacks and has high
defenses, in addition to HP second only to Xenogears. Use all of your drive on
her and she can heal for a fair bit of damage, allowing you to not have to
keep switching out your weaker characters. Bring along Citan with Speed Shoes
and Fenrir equipped with a Magnetic Coat and 2x GNRS50. Bring along Bart
equipped with the Ether Doubler, Speed Shoes and EtherStoneLg and Andvari
equipped with 2 x Power Magic and an E Circuit. Chu-Chu is your healer and
should be equipped with 2x Speed Ring S and a Speed Shoes.

You can now use the same strategy for all four Pillars:  Chu-Chu heals whoever
needs it, her attacks aren’t really that great, and you can let her die then
just heal her up between battles. Bart is there for ether support, he can use
the Ygg D.Charge for a solid 9999 damage whenever needed, or do 3000 with his
Heaven Cent if he is out of fuel. Citan will simply attack and use his level
one deathblows; these battles are not that hard individually. Additionally,
you can also do the following for any of them except for Marlute;  have Citan
use Fuuseii on the enemy, then have Bart use Wind Mode on Citan, from the
second turn on proceed as normal, except Citan will do a bit more damage with
his Physical attacks.

Deus itself will now be quite easy. You could probably beat it with just
Xenogears, but since you’re stuck with a party of 3, you might as well make
the most of it. One strategy here is to bring along Billy and Chu-Chu, since
Chu-Chu can keep the others alive and Billy, by using Jessie Cannon, could do
9999 damage a turn which, combined with some regular attacks from Fei, will
take down Deus in about 4 turns.

If, however, you want to cut to the chase, you can do the following. Keep the
setup I suggested for the dungeon above, except change one or two of Fei’s
GNRS50 units for a Magnetic Coat, change Emeralda’s Mermaid Ring for an Ether
Doubler, and use that 50 or so Ether Drive on her. Once the battle begins,
have Emeralda use one of her ethers on Deus, which should do 9999 a pop. Have
Billy use Jessie Cannon also doing 9999, and Fei just use X, and the battle
will probably be over before you get to see his infinities, unless Deus
confuses or kills one of your characters.
******************************************************************************

******************************************************************************
BOSS:  Urobolus

Fei does still have his Holy Pendant and Speed Shoes doesn’t he?  How about
Xenogears’ equipment?  Well then, you can’t lose, just keep on pressing X and
you’ve pretty much won (okay, you need to press O after your fourth attack).
******************************************************************************

That’s it you’ve just beaten the final boss and now watch the ending and
listen to the nice music. Now, brag that you’ve completed the Xenogears No
Upgrade Challenge.

==============================================================================
============Section 3====================Appendices===========================
==============================================================================

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix A:  Battling Guide
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You’ll want to play Special Mode 2, because it gives you money (G) and points
(P) to buy special prizes with, unless you feel you need some practice, in
which case check out Special Mode 1 first.
Choose your difficulty level. You’re reward depends on the difficulty level
and how well you did, shown below.

GEAR-LEVEL-0 (easy)

Near Loss:  75 BP + 100 G
Victory:  145 BP + 200 G
Perfect Victory: 215 BP + 500 G

GEAR-LEVEL-1 (normal)

Near Loss: 120 BP + 200G
Victory:  175 BP + 300 G
Perfect Victory:  300 BP + 700 G

GEAR-LEVEL-2 (hard*)

N/A*

*this can only be unlocked later.
**you lose some BP and G if you lose, as well, but that should rarely if ever
happen with a decent strategy.

I use this strategy to win repeatedly:  First, back off (away) so you don’t
get hit. If the enemy fires at you run or use the mountain as a shield, when
he gets within range fire an ether bullet (R1) to stun him then move in close
for a combo, my personal favorite being X Square X, to knock him down, then
back off, and fire another ether bullet just as he is about to stand up, then
repeat until he breaks your combo or you start to overheat. If your heat gauge
is full, back off and play keep away. You don’t need to run unless he fires an
ether bullet or some other homing shot at you, but you can use mountains as
shields or go into the water if this happens, (no projectile attack except for
Seibzehn’s Graviton Cannon can be used under water). If you pull this off you
can have a perfect victory nearly every time. Once to start taking anything
more than a little damage, you might as well go for a quick end however. If
you find you keep on taking damage at level 1, try 0. If that doesn’t work
settle for a normal victory, but go for level 1. One word of warning, when
using this strategy, or any other I can devise using Weltall, I find it
difficult to hit some of the shorter or more irregularly shaped enemies. Of
course you may find a different strategy, I’m not claiming to be a Battling
master, and this is not a complete guide to Battling, just a blurb in a
challenge walkthrough.

Rare item shopping list:
Fei Jr. Doll: 500 BP +3000 Total BP
Bart Jr. Doll: 500 BP + 3000 Total BP
Billy Jr. Doll: 500 BP + 3000 Total BP
Speed Ring S:  4500 Total BP
GNRS50: 5000 BP + 15000 Total BP
Speed Shoes:  4500 BP + 30000 Total BP

11000 BP and 58500 Total BP needed, and that’s a lot, and will require a
couple of hours of work. Of course this leaves you 47500 BP to spend on normal
items, which I recommend spending on 6 x EtherStoneLg, since none of the
others are really very useful. Also, your BP is capped at 30000, so when you
can afford, buy but don’t hoard.

Of course, you’re welcome to buy more; these are just what I suggest for this
guide. Also, you're welcome to buy less, or even skip Battling entirely, but
it will make it that much harder to beat some of the Bosses on Disc 2, and you
can just forget about Hammer and Alpha Weltall.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix B:  Experience Chart
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Level            Experience points needed

1            0
2            16
3            47
4            105
5            204
6            363
7            602
8            945
9            1418
10           2049
11           2870
12           3714
13           5228
14           6890
15           8759
16           11080
17           13827
18           17049
19           20794
20           25515
21           30065
22           35701
23           45081
24           49265
25           57316
26           66298
27           76278
28           87324
29           99507
30           112899
31           127575
32           143611
33           161086
34           180080
35           200675
36           222956
37           247009
38           272921
39           300783
40           330686
41           362724
42           396992
43           433588
44           472611
45           514162
46           558343
47           605258
48           655018
49           707726
50           763494
51           822433
52           884658
53           950283
54           1019426
55           1092204
56           1168739
57           1249153
58           1333570
59           1422116
60           1514918
61           1612106
62           1713810
63           1820165
64           1931299
65           2047354
66           2168465
67           2294882
68           2426416
69           2563540
70           2706288
71           2854805
72           3009240
73           3169741
74           3336460
75           6507547
76           3689163
77           3875457
78           4068588
79           4268716
80           4476003
81           4690606
82           4912694
83           5142431
84           5379984
85           5625522
86           5879215
87           6141235
88           6411755
89           6690951
90           6978999
91           7275077
92           7582364
93           7899044
94           8223297
95           8558309
96           8903265
97           9258353
98           9623763
99           9999685

NOTE:  This is almost identical to the experience charts used by Square for
Secret of Mana and Final Fantasy III, give or take a few points every here and
there. This might have been made by some sort of equation, if anybody has any
further information on this, feel free to email me.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix C:  Contact Info
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Do not send me advertisements, solicitation, death threats, etc. I have a
personal policy of boycotting, refusing payment on, or stealing any product or
service that uses unsavory means of advertisement, including but not limited
to unsolicited e-mails, telemarketers, and pop-up windows. Furthermore, if I
can trace your IP address, I am entirely capable of launching a retaliatory
attack at your computer.

Do not contact me asking for help with beating Xenogears or any other game.
There is a tremendous amount of information on such thing available from
www.gamefaqs.com, and if you can't find it there odds are it doesn't exist
and I can't help you.

If you are offended by this guide, Xenogears or video games in general and are
trying to save my soul, get me to recant, prove a point, etc. Get a reality
check, get a life, and/or get your head examined, but don't contact me.

If you are unclear about anything in this guide even after checking the FAQ,
or you have spotted a mistake/typo/grammatical error, or you have a better
strategy or suggestion for part of this guide, by all means e-mail me. Send
your message to [email protected], with 'Xenogears No Upgrade
Challenge' in the message title.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix D:  FAQ
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Q:  What does 'No changes from regular strategy' mean?

A:  As I said earlier, this challenge is only intended for people who have
already beaten the game and are looking for new challenges. If you managed to
beat the game already, you will already know how to handle all of the bosses,
dungeons, and puzzles. If I wrote this for any section, it means that it is no
harder than it was last time, either because you can not upgrade your gears
post their initial settings at this time, or you are not using your gears at
all. Also, this means that you won't need to do anything special to prepare
for those tough Gear fights in this area.

Q:  So, why are those sections still in the guide?

A:  So you know what point in the game I am talking about, since many areas
are revisited. Also, even if you know how to beat the game, I doubt you
memorized the entire game, even if you are a fanatic like me.

Q:  How long will it take to beat this game?

A:  It will normally take over 70 hours of playtime, but if you go for all of
the secrets it is entirely possible to spend over 100 hours playing. On the No
Upgrade Challenge it took me just under 66 hours to beat the game, but it is
probably possible to do it a good bit quicker, seeing as how I wrote the guide
at the same I was playing, and I wasn't really trying for the best time.

Q:  How do I beat Ramsus/Id/Bloody etc?

A:  These are bosses that you fight in character (hand to hand) mode, so they
are have nothing to do with Gear battles or the No Upgrade Challenge. Also,
all of this information is available in other guides, which can be found at
www.gamefaqs.com (search Xenogears), and I don't feel like repeating it.

Q:  How do I beat '?' (Id)?

A:  You can't, I have tried extensively and it is completely impossible, even
for me. There is no way to stop him from attacking, there is no way to avoid
his attack, there is no way to survive his attack with the Brigandier, and no
matter how fast you are or how fast you are you cannot do enough damage to
defeat him before he attacks (unless you use Game Shark or something). Of
course, if anybody can find a way, I'll gladly post it and give you credit.

Q:  How do I beat Alpha Weltall?

A:  Many people claim this is impossible. It is easily the strongest enemy in
the game, but it is entirely beatable, even in the No Upgrade Challenge. See
section 2.4, Mahanon, for more details.

Q:  WHY can't I upgrade?

A:  Because then you wouldn't have completed the No Upgrade Challenge. Also,
it is very expensive and will take a large chunk out of your income.

Q:  Why should I complete the No Upgrade Challenge?

A:  You don't have to, it is a special challenge I made just for fun and
bragging rights. You don't get anything for completing it. Attempting
challenges in games are like climbing Mt. Everest, you do it because its there
just so you can say that you did it.

Q:  Do I have to do things exactly the way you did?

A:  No, you probably don't. This is the way I did things, it is the way I
suggest doing things, and as far as I know it is the best way to go about
doing things. In many cases, especially when it comes to fighting Deus, I know
for a fact that there are other ways of getting things done. I list only my
own strategies because I have tried them and I can certify that they work.

Q:  Why do I have to beat Hammer and Alpha Weltall?

A:  You don't have to beat them, but you can so you might as well, and you get
some great items for your troubles.

Q:  Do I really need all of those items from Battling?

A:  Not really, but they can all help a bit, and you'll need all the help you
can get at times.

Q:  Isn't there an easier way to beat Calamity, Clawknight R, Avalanche, etc.?

A:  You could always give up the No Upgrade Challenge and upgrade your Gears.
Other than that, this guide contains every trick and shortcut I could think
of. If you do find an easier way to do something feel free to tell me.

Q:  How can I contact you?

A:  See Appendix C

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Appendix E:  Credits
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Myself            For thinking of the No Upgrade Challenge, attempting it and
                 proving that it was possible, and writing this guide.

Square            For making this great game, and many others.

Sony                    For the Playstation

You               For reading this guide.

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