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Devil May Cry 1
A Special Bonus guide to DMD! mode.
Current version: 1.5
Last update: 17-01-2007
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[01TOC] - 01. Table of Contents
Chapter name Search key
01 Table of Contents ................................................ [01TOC]
02 General Information ............................................... [02GI]
03 Preperations .................................................... [03PREP]
04 Useful Techniques ................................................. [04UT]
04.1 Slash Cancelling ............................................. [041SC]
04.2 Grenade Rolling .............................................. [042GR]
04.3 Shotgun Twitching ............................................ [043ST]
04.4 Nightmare Beta ............................................... [044NB]
05 Time and Red Orb requirements ................................... [05TARR]
06 Critical Hits ..................................................... [06CH]
06.1 Sin Scythe ................................................... [061SS]
06.2 Sin Scissors ................................................. [062SS]
06.3 Blade ......................................................... [063B]
06.4 Shadow ........................................................ [064S]
06.5 Phantom ....................................................... [065P]
06.6 Griffon ....................................................... [066G]
06.7 Mundus ........................................................ [067M]
07 The guide ......................................................... [07TG]
07.1A Mission 01, DMD Mode ....................................... [07M01A]
07.1B Mission 01, Normal Mode .................................... [07M01B]
07.2 Mission 02 ................................................... [07M02]
07.3 Mission 03 ................................................... [07M03]
07.4 Mission 04 ................................................... [07M04]
07.5 Mission 05 ................................................... [07M05]
07.6 Mission 06 ................................................... [07M06]
07.7 Mission 07 ................................................... [07M07]
07.8 Mission 08 ................................................... [07M08]
07.9 Mission 09 ................................................... [07M09]
07.10 Mission 10 .................................................. [07M10]
07.11 Mission 11 .................................................. [07M11]
07.12 Mission 12 .................................................. [07M12]
07.13 Mission 13 .................................................. [07M13]
07.14 Mission 14 .................................................. [07M14]
07.15 Mission 15 .................................................. [07M15]
07.16 Mission 16 .................................................. [07M16]
07.17 Mission 17 .................................................. [07M17]
07.18 Mission 18, skipping Griffon ............................... [07M18A]
07.18 Mission 18, fighting Griffon ............................... [07M18B]
07.19 Mission 19 .................................................. [07M19]
07.20 Mission 20 .................................................. [07M20]
07.21 Mission 21 .................................................. [07M21]
07.22 Mission 22 .................................................. [07M22]
07.23 Mission 23 .................................................. [07M23]
08 Boss strategies ................................................. [08BOSS]
08.1 Phantom ....................................................... [081P]
08.2 Nelo Angelo .................................................. [082NA]
08.3 Griffon ....................................................... [083G]
08.4 Nightmare ..................................................... [084N]
08.5 Mundus, introduction .......................................... [085M]
08.6 Mundus, first battle .......................................... [086M]
08.7 Mundus, second battle ......................................... [087M]
08.8 Mundus, third battle .......................................... [088M]
09 Enemy strategies .................................................. [09EN]
09.1 Marionette .................................................... [091M]
09.2 Bloody Mari .................................................. [092BM]
09.3 Sin Scissor .................................................. [093SS]
09.4 Sin Scythe ................................................... [094SS]
09.5 Death Scissor ................................................ [095DS]
09.6 Death Scythe ................................................. [096DS]
09.7 Shadow ........................................................ [097S]
09.8 Beelzebub ..................................................... [098B]
09.9 Kyklops ....................................................... [099K]
09.10 Blade ....................................................... [0910B]
09.11 Sargasso .................................................... [0911S]
09.12 Nobody ...................................................... [0912N]
09.13 Fetish ...................................................... [0913F]
09.14 Frost ....................................................... [0914F]
09.15 Plasma ...................................................... [0915P]
09.16 Phantombabies .............................................. [0916PB]
10 Videos ........................................................... [10VID]
11 A note on how time is calculated .................................. [11TN]
12 Challenges ........................................................ [12CH]
13 Contact details ................................................... [13CD]
14 Guide status ...................................................... [14GS]
15 Credits .......................................................... [15CRE]
16 Changelog .......................................................... [16C]
17 Disclaimer ...................................................... [17DISC]
18 Closing ............................................................ [18C]
--------------
[02GI] 02. General Information
Willkommen, welkom, bien venue, ohayo and welcome to my first FAQ! This
section will provide you with general information that should give you an
indication about whether or not this is the FAQ you need. It'll outline the
reasons for making this FAQ and it explains the term Special Bonus along with
contents of this FAQ.
You might be asking what this FAQ is about, and how it is different from any
other FAQs about DMC. You might also be asking why I decided to write a FAQ
for DMC1 after all these years. You may also want my phone number, address
and other things so you can stalk me. Don't count on me giving that info out,
really.
Anyway! This FAQ is focused on achieving a Special Bonus on each and every
mission on Dante Must Die! mode using a fresh character. I have to admit that
I upgraded my character along the way, which means that I had 10 DT runes in
the end. But even with 10 DT runes, getting a special bonus is a hell of a
job.
But why write a FAQ about it? Simply because the current selection of FAQs
is outdated and because new tactics have been discovered which deal with the
enemies in a much faster and effective way. Plus, we, at the DMC boards,
found it necessary that a new guide came along with good information. So,
I decided to try and write a Special Bonus FAQ.
"What *is* a special bonus?", I hear you ask. Well, a special bonus is a
bonus that you receive at the end of the mission. It's achieved by fulling
four requirements: Getting the preset of Red Orbs, beating the mission within
the timelimit, not receiving any damage and by not using any items. The bonus
is a reward of 2,000 Red Orbs.
Strategies found in this guide can, of course, be used on other difficulty
settings and other runs. Note, that if you do use these strategies, that you
will make short work of the bosses on Normal and Hard mode. Notes on missions
that are very different from their DMD! counterparts will be present, as
well.
Please be aware that this guide will assume that you've played the game at
least once! It will also not go into Blue Orb locations, or secret missions
(aside from secret mission number 1, which you have to do in order to get a
special bonus), possible sword combos, explanation of moves or other
similar things. Despite that, the guide can also be used for people trying to
S-rank the game or for people who are stuck on a certain battle.
So, in short, this is what the FAQ *will* have:
- Detailed boss and lesser demon strategies (seperate from the guide)
- Ranking details
- A guide that globally outlines the best course of action per mission on a
per room basis (for DMD!, mostly)
- Tricks to make SB'ing easier.
This is what the FAQ *won't* have:
- A step by step guide telling you where to go and where to use items
- Explanations of game basics (weapon combos, jumping, etc.)
- Blue orb fragment locations
- Red Orb caches and hidden Red Orbs (unless required for the SB)
- Any other such things
The reason I'm leaving those things out is because there are enough FAQs that
cover those details already.
The detailed enemy and boss sections will describe everything you need to
know about the monster so that defeating that monster or avoiding that one,
annoying attack becomes easier.
I've also added this section because, as I said before, most FAQs are either
outdated or simply incomplete when it comes to the monsters. And the enemies
is where the game's challenge lies and knowledge is power.
Now that you know that, I'll head onward to the preparations!
--------------
[03PREP] - 03. Preperations
Preperations. You might ask: "Do I need those for this kind of game?" The
answer is: "Oh, yes you do!". A Special Bonus game is far more difficult than
let's say, an S rank run on DMD!. Far, far more difficult.
It's obvious that your main preperation is -- of course -- practice. Plain,
ol' practice. You should know all the sword combos, how to pull them off
perfectly, you should know how to roll, how to perform wall hikes, etc.. In
short: You should know everything there is to know about Dante. Because a
special bonus run leaves no room for errors. Maybe small ones, but even so,
it's better not to make any errors at all, now isn't it?
You should also learn how to utilise both Alastor and Ifrit. You'll really
need to be capable of using both weapons to their maximum efficiency in order
to make it through the Special Bonus run.
In case you want to Special Bonus DMD! with a full character, you should make
sure that you have all the possible upgrades to make this as easy as
possible. For training purposes, it is wise to have collected all the blue
orbs in the game. This way, Nelo or whatever boss won't kill you in a single
hit. You can also use this to go through the game on Normal to collect Yellow
Orbs which you can use to practice.
The best way to practice is by doing special bonus runs on easier modes.
The downside to this is that you get used to the normal type bosses and not
their DMD! difficulty. The upside is that you'll get used to the idea of
evading every incoming attack. The low damage allows you to last longer,
giving you more chance to evade the attacks and to make battles last longer.
Personally, I didn't try that myself. I went from Normal straight to
Hard to a DMD! No Item S-rank run. Quite the learning curve, but not as big
as from a DMD! No Item S-rank Run to a DMD! Special Bonus run.
Regardless, I do recommend that you have completed at least an S-rank run on
DMD! before attempting to special bonus DMD!.
Also: Have a few free blocks. If you make a mistake later on during your
run, you can always backtrack and do things differently. Mistakes include not
enough Orbs to buy a specific item, or Nightmare having a red core, etc..
And last but not least: Learn how to critically hit the monsters. It'll be of
use during some missions. More on critical hits later.
---------------
[04UT] - 04. Useful Techniques
[041SC] - Slash Cancelling
All of Dante's slashes that can end a combo, have a certain recovery time
that has to pass before you can attack again. In a one slash combo, it's
the first slash which has this recovery time. In a two slash combo, it's
the second slash that has the recovery time. In the three slash combo, it's
the third slash. In the four slash combo, the fourth slash and in the five
slash combo, it's the fifth slash. You don't notice any of the lags when
you're in the middle of the combo but it can be dangerous if you're
recovering from the attack and you're being attacked.
You can reduce the recovery time for the first, second and fourth slash.
You can not reduce the recovery time for the third and fifth slash (which
is the same downward slash, as you may know). Not that you'd want to anyway
since the five slash combo (not the one with the High Time finisher!) or
the three slash combo shouldn't be used in the first place.
The recovery time is basically the animation where Dante puts the sword on
his back again. Reducing the recovery time is nothing more than speeding
up this animation. To do this, all you need to do is wiggle, rotate or
otherwise move the left analog stick while Dante is putting the sword on
his back.
You'll know when you've done it right when he puts the sword on his back
really fast. The difference is definitely not subtle and can be clearly
seen when you perform a Slash Cancel right after a normal cancel.
You can also check whether or not you have this technique under control
while fighting Nelo 1. Do a regular four slash combo on him without
cancelling the lag. Now, you'll be too slow to attack him again; He'll
block you.
If you perform a four slash combo and cancel the lag of the fourth slash,
you will be able to get in another four slash combo. You'll be attacking to
fast for Nelo to block your attacks (you can only pull this trick a few
times before he WILL block you).
Make sure that you know this technique! It may be a bit cheap, but it will
most certainly help you out a bit when you need to slash quickly.
The Slash Cancel technique was discovered by a board member named Patient
Vlakoradas (sorry dude, I wish I knew how to spell your name. Drop me a
line with the actual spelling!).
-----------------
[042GR] - Grenade Rolling/Hopping
Grenade rolling is of the same deal as Slash Cancelling: It's all about
cancelling the recovery time.
As you may know, the grenade gun has a pretty long recovery time. To reduce
this you can roll to the side right after firing. A definite advantage of
this is the repositioning you'll be doing and the invincibility the roll
grands you.
If you can't roll properly, a hop jump in any direction will suffice just
as well.
Abusing the Grenade Gun in this way will make short work of a lot of the
most common enemies and it's also a very good and quick DT restore method.
-----------------
[043ST] - Shotgun Twitching
Another recovery time reducing move. But unlike how you have to roll with
the grenade gun, you can suffice with a small sidestep for this gun. The
basic idea is to reduce the recoil of the gun by walking slightly while
Dante is doing the reload animation. It should cancel it, allowing you to
fire the shotgun at a faster rate. Since ol' Shotty is the primary weapon
to use on the second Mundus battle, learning this will come in handy for
rapid fire shots.
It's also extremely useful when you're surrounded by Sargassoes on DMD! and
when used in a Blade's face, it will knock them over. Twitching will allow
you to quickly reload so you can blast any other Blade that gets too close.
-----------------
[044NB] - Nightmare Beta
This gun is a fun way to rack up Stylishes, to expose the core of a Shadow,
or simply a nice way to totally obliterate large crowds of enemies. The
downside, sadly, is that it consumes DT. When you're not DT'ed, it'll cost
you 1 glyph to fire a single, weak shot. It'll use 3 glyphs to fire a fully
charged shot. This deters a lot of people from actually using it.
DT'ing, however, changes all of this up to the point that 1 glyph is needed
for a fully charged shot.
You can't make DT'ed combat a more integral part of your strategy this way
but it's still a good method to try out if you're feeling hopelessly
outnumbered. Of course, this works even nicer in tight areas since a fully
charged shot will rebound a lot of times.
While you'll still need DT, you'll need less to dish out more damage.
---------------
[05TARR] - 05. Time and Red Orb Requirements
Every mission has a unique Red Orb preset and a time limit that you must
beat for the Special Bonus. If you get the required Red Orbs and beat the
time limit, then you will get 1,000 points. The more time you need and/or the
less Orbs you get, the less points you'll receive. The remaining 500 points
that you'll need for a Special Bonus (you'll need 1,500 in total) is the fact
that you receive 0 damage.
While it is true that there are lenient games (games that don't strictly
follow this list. E.G.: You can take damage or use an item and still get an
SB) from time to time, I recommend that you stick to the times that are
given in this chart, since they're accurate.
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| Mission | Time limit | Red Orb requirement |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 01 | 6:00 | 400 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 02 | 7:00 | 450 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 03 | 3:00* | 550 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 04 | 4:00** | 550 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 05 | 2:00 | 100 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 06 | 3:30 | 250 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 07 | 3:00*** | 650 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 08 | 3:00 | 585 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 09 | 8:00 | 1500 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 10 | 4:30 | 600 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 11 | 5:30 | 1000 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 12 | 4:00 | 700 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 13 | 2:30 | 200 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 14 | 5:00 | 500 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 15 | 10:00 | 1400 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 16 | 6:00 | 1000 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 17 | 7:00 | 600 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 18 | 6:00 | 900 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 19 | 3:30 | 500 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 20 | 4:30 | 700 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 21 | 5:00 | 700 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 22 | 8:00****| 0 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
| 23 | 7:00 | 600 |
+---------+------------+---------------------+
* This is 3:30 on Normal and Hard mode, as long as you do Secret Mission 1.
It is 3:00 on DMD! with Secret Mission 1 and 3:00 on Normal Mode and Hard
mode without Secret Mission 1.
** For now, it seems that the time is extended to at least 10 minutes if you
decide to do all secret missions. This includes DMD!.
*** This includes the Secret Mission. It's around 2 minutes if you decide to
skip the Secret Mission.
****This is 5:00 on Normal and Hard.
The damage for all these missions is set to 0. That's it. And yes, it is very
well possible to achieve all of these values. Remember that you get bonus
points for solving secret missions and that you lose points for item usage.
In short, you can compensate taking damage or using an item with doing a
secret mission (like you have to do in Mission 3 and like you can do in any
other mission).
Unlike the rumours floating around, entering a room that you don't have to
enter to complete the mission and then leaving it or leaving a room with
enemies in it, will NOT hurt your ranking. You can enter and exit a room as
much as you please without it affecting the ranking.
---------------
[06CH] - 06. Critical Hits
Some enemies in this game can be critically injured. A critical hit means
a one-hit kill (The bosses are an exception) which yields more Orbs. The
following enemies can be critically hit and here's how to do it. Note that
there might be more enemies that can be critically hit, but these are known
as of now.
[061SS]
Sin Scythes - Not the easiest opponent to critically hit, and it's not worth
learning anyway. Why? Simply because you'll rarely encounter these monsters
(there's a chance that you'll get them in mission 2). Their scythe is hard to
deflect using melée attacks, but it's possible. Don't fret if you can't do
it: I can't do it consequently either.
The best way, though, is to Shotgun them. Once closeby to take them
off-balance, then again (right in front of their face!) to permanently kill
them.
[062SS]
Sin Scissors - While Sin Scythes aren't worth it, Sin Scissors are worth it.
You'll get three Sin Scissors in mission 2 and there's a whole secret mission
dedicated to critically hitting a Sin Scissors! Mission 14 also has a
handful of these buggers. Here's how to critically injure one:
When the Sin decends, it tends to circle around you. If you stay stationary,
it will attack you sooner or later. It has two attacks: a vertical/diagonal
snip and a horizontal one. If it does the former one, avoid it. It's
extremely hard, if not impossible, to critically hit it when it does this.
When it does its other attack, however, you can hurt it. Attack when the Sin
snips and if you time it right, your weapons will collide, stunning the Sin.
From here on, the Sin will either make a quick recovery or a slow one. If it
does a quick recovery, wait for another horizontal snip (you can easily
distinct the long recovery from the quick one).
Sooner or later, it will take some time for it to recover. When it takes some
time for it to recover, run around it 90 degrees clockwise. You'll be in
front its face. Now shoot it. If done correctly, its mask will shatter and
you'll get twice as much Orbs for killing it.
I prefer the Shotgun for this, but any firearm will do.
[063B]
Blades - I hate these, mostly because of their agile attacks which are hard
to avoid once they've begun. Critically hitting them is easy if they're
alone, but it becomes a living Hell when there are more.
A critically hit Blade will die regardless of how much health it has or how
much armour it's wearing. To critically hurt it, you'll have to make it fall
on its stomach. You can do this with any of the following methods:
Stinger its face, jump behind it and stinger the back. Then, perform a
downward slash while its on the ground to kill it.
The above way also works if you replace "Stinger" with "Shotgun". The
downside is that you need to be close to your opponent. Closer than with
Stinger which creates a risk of getting hit.
And tactic number 3: Shoot a grenade in its back and finish it with a
downward slash.
It is possible to critically hit it with Ifrit's diagonal kick, but it's
riskier because of its homing ability: There's always a chance that you'll
hit one of the Blades that is jumping around you.
[064S]
Shadow - Probably the easiest enemy to critically hit. Keep your distance
from the Shadow (but don't go too far!) and wait for it to do its spike
attack. If it does the other move where it throws itself at you, avoid it.
Once it launches its spike, jump on it and fire Ebony and Ivory as if there's
no tomorrow. If done right, the Shadow will become red and will explode soon
after. Use DT'ed shots if need be. If the first attempt fails, try again. The
damage will stack so you won't have to worry about the Shadow recovering.
When fighting multiple Shadows, you'll have to watch out for Dante's aim not
going off while you're trying to Critical Hit a Shadow. More often than not,
Dante's aim will be at some other Shadow than the one you're trying to
Critical Hit.
Be aware that it is NOT possible to critically hurt a Shadow on DMD! mode.
But the technique to critically hurt them is very efficient in exposing the
core, so use it to your advantage. If you do it right, you can reveal the
core and make the Shadow become red before it launches another attack.
[065P]
Phantom - Yes, he can be critically hurt. But unlike the above monsters it
will not result in a one-hit kill. The critical hit is achieved by performing
an air hiked downward slash on its bulb/abdomen. This is easier said than
done and performing this consistently takes a lot of practice. To maximize
the damage, perform the downward slash in Devil Trigger.
You'll notice that the hit connects when he receives a lot of damage.
I personally prefer a hop-jump method when it comes to this. The hop will
align you properly with the bulb, the jump is for extra altitude that makes
the critical hit a success. Full jumps are not recommended because Phantom
moves around. After all, you don't stay in one place when someone's about to
hit you, now do you?
If you're not doing a special bonus run, then it's highly unlikely that you
have Air Hike by the time you reach mission 3. If you still want to
critically injure Phantom, you can use his bulb to perform a pseudo Air Hike
and then do a downward slash.
Alternatively, you can use the walls of the cathedral to achieve the same
effect. The timing's a bit harder, but not horrible.
[066G]
Griffon - Yeah, this boss can be critically hurt, too. During every battle,
as well. But it's hard and not really worth learning it, unless you're going
to rely on this tactic for the third Griffon battle. And by then, it's not
really useful in my opinion because of his defence boost.
The key to critically hurting him, is to fire a Meteor 2 at the correct time.
When that is, depends on your distance between you and Griffon. The trick is
to let the Meteor connect when Griffon's head is before his chest. This way,
Meteor will hit his head first and, because of Meteor's pierce ability, it
will also hit his core. Bam. Double damage. This is pretty hard to do in the
first fight. I've only pulled it off once. It's easier in the second and
third fight and in the third fight it will be used to skip the entire first
section of the battle.
Doing this on extremely long ranges is hard and requires luck and it's
easier when you're closer to Griffon. I'd not rely on it too much if I were
you, but it certainly deals nice damage if you can get the timing down.
[067M]
Mundus - This only applies to first fight. The only time when you can
critically hurt him, is during the flight battle and even then the use is
limited. Despite the limited times you can critical hit him, it's far more
useful than learning how to critical hit Griffon.
This critical hit is the same as Griffon's: It's technically a double hit and
not a hit that does more damage. The easiest is during odd runs. Mundus is
closer to you on odd runs than he is on even runs. To me, this makes the
timing easier. On odd runs, you have to release your Devil Trigger the second
he removes his right hand from his left shoulder in order to summon the six
spheres around his body that shoot at you.
On even runs, you have to release it a bit earlier for the same results.
If you did it right, you'll hear it (you'll hear two noises instead of one)
and you'll see it (you'll see two seperate hits on his health bar).
It can be done from further away, but it's mostly a matter of luck then.
---------------
[07TG] - 07. The Guide
The meat of the FAQ. The breakdown will be mission by mission and boss
battles will be described shortly. I will not go in specific details
regarding the acquirement of items! I will also skip the "walk in this room,
then go to that room" stuff. Nor will I give directions unless it's needed
for the special bonus. As said earlier: I'm assuming that you've
played and finished the game at least once, which means that you know where
to find what and that you know where to go to next instinctively.
Also, do not forget that this focuses on DMD!, and not on Normal or Hard
mode. But I'm sure that you can apply most things to lower modes, as well.
The only things that won't match up are some enemy layouts and possibly
enemy numbers. But that shouldn't daunt you from thinking up a solution that
is applicable to Hard and Normal mode.
Prior to the description for each mission, there'll be a short paragraph
outlining what to buy before starting the mission. Although you don't have
to follow it, it is recommended.
I also rate the mission depending on how how much difficulty I had when I
got the Special Bonus.
Indepth boss and enemy strategies are further down. Search for [08BOSS] and
[09EN] to get there instantly. It'll also contain information on how to dodge
their attacks and it will outline how to defeat the bosses in great detail.
The reason for splitting this, is so that I have one location with all the
necessary details (meaning that I only have to globally explain the boss
battles, the indepth part comes later for those who have trouble with it).
Now, without further ado: The guide!
Remember, this guide is only a guideline. It's not a definite how-to, and
other methods can be used to achieve the same results.
----------
[07M01A] - Mission 01 - Curse of the Bloody Puppets, DMD! Mode
Time: 6:00
Red Orbs: 400
Difficulty: 9/10 (or 3/10)
Your first mission, and it isn't an easy one, unless you play as the
Legendary Dark Knight. But I'll get to that later.
As soon as you enter the Castle, walk over to the stairs and jump on the
lance. Jump down and open the door while using 45 Red Orbs (Orbs used to
open doors will not work against you when it comes to the total number of
Red Orbs you've collected).
Ignore the Orbs in the hall, since you won't need them.
Smash the set of armour to get another five orbs and go through the door.
Destroy the table and chairs and get another 15 Orbs. Run up the stairs and
grab the key from the Bloody Mari. Walk back and skip the scene. Now, jump
down through the hole and perform a downward slash on the Fetish to make
sure it won't block your next slash(es).
You'll need to rack up Orbs from this bugger. The easiest way is to high
time him and to finish him off with Ebony and Ivory. This will only yield
an Absolute ranking.
To get a Stylish, do the following: Get behind the Fetish and high time it
again. While it's up in the air, perform a two-slash combo and finish it
with a Million Stab. Instead of doing the standard Stinger finisher, you
should do a High Time and do another two-slash combo and Million Stab.
Finish that Million Stab with another High Time and finish the Fetish off
with a four slash combo.
Go through the door on your left (do not go down the stairs!) and once
you're in there, go back out. Kill the Fetish again through either of the
above means. Now, run to the back of the room and do the same with the
other Fetish that appears.
Go down the stairs, all the way back to the hall and open the door with the
rusty key. Jump on the biplane for another 40 Orbs. Ideally, you should
have around 270 Red Orbs, which means that you'll only need 85 more.
To the basement! This is where it gets hard. Unless you have the Legendary
Dark Knight as your character (I did, at the time). If you're using LDK,
then you can finish off both attack waves in less than 40 seconds. If
you're using regular Dante, then it will be a lot harder and you'll most
likely end up fighting Devil Triggered Marionettes with just your Force
Edge.
I won't go into LDK, considering that it's not hard to beat up Devil
Triggered enemies with your own Devil Trigger. When playing as Dante it
will be a lot harder. You have to try and beat the first wave with about
17 seconds left on the clock.
Approaching the wave from the left and then using the first two slashes of
the Slash Cancel technique is a good way to keep them close together and to
quickly finish them. If you can't get this down, then you can try to shoot
them all. It's important to shoot one puppet at a time this way, or else
you'll end up wasting time trying to evade their projectiles.
When the second wave comes around, run to any alcove (preferably the one
that's the closest) and whack the puppets. While Marionettes won't block
your attacks, Bloody Maris will. To get rid of them in an efficient matter,
you should High Time then and juggle 'em with Ebony and Ivory.
It's not uncommon to have 2-4 enemies remaining when the timer is up. If
you have Devil Triggered Bloody Maris, then it will be a lot harder to get
the Special Bonus because of their increased defense. If you got
Marionettes, then it will be a lot easier.
Use the shotguns against them, if they're wielding them. Use wallhikes and
rolls to avoid their throw attacks while shooting them with all you've got.
You can try to get in a few melee attacks if you see an opening, but don't
rely on those too much! It's too dangerous. The shotgun method is much
safer than that and much more devastating.
If you're left with two or more Devil Triggered Bloody Mari's, then you
should reset. It takes too long to kill them.
Don't forget to pick up the Orbs they drop!
Eventually, you'll pass the basement unscathed. Congratulations if you made
it this far! That's quite an accomplishment already. But don't get cocky:
You have to beat the third wave in the biplane room now.
Fortunately, this room is a lot easier compared to the previous one. Slash
away at the Bloody Maris when they fall, and try to take out at least one.
Do NOT remain in their vicinity too long, or they will Devil Trigger.
Ideally, you should keep your distance and blast away with Ebony and Ivory.
A safe position would be on the biplane or a platform close to the
biplane. It's right behind the Blue Orb fragment that rests on the wing.
Although it is a safe place, their crescent blades can still hit you, so
you have to watch out a little bit. Blast away at them until all of them
died. Grab their orbs.
Head over to the Fetish, High time it and finish him with Ebony and Ivory
and head through the door.
That was fun, nay? Mission one is definitely one of the hardest missions
you'll ever face. Save your game here, and don't overwrite it so that you
don't have to go through that ordeal again.
----------
[07M01B] - Mission 01 - Curse of the Bloody Puppets, Normal Mode
Time: 6:00
Red Orbs: 400
Difficulty: 4/10
While mission 1 on Normal mode certainly isn't a challenge, it can prove
quite tricky due to the Orb limit you have to get and the enemies that are
provided. So I'll mostly focus on getting the Orbs.
Unlike in higher difficulties, you can not decide to farm Fetishes but you
can't stick around to farm too long, either. That makes this mission a bit
hard to SB on the get-go.
The secret to getting the Special Bonus here lies in the Stylish!es you
will need to rack up the Orbs in such a short time,
Start the mission by grabbing the Orbs on the lance. Open the seal like
normal, grabs all of the Orbs that are scattered around on tables or other
decorative things that you can smash.
Once you grab the Rusty Key, start High Timing the Bloody Mari in front of
you to render it harmless. High time it occasionally and try to steer the
Bloody Mari to your left (towards the book case). Let the Marionette come
closer. When it's close enough, try to get it IN the High Times together
with the Bloody Mari to double the stylishness of your attacks (and thus to
get more Orbs). Should that fail, stick to rendering the Bloody Mari
helpless while pummeling the Marionette. You should kill the Bloody Mari at
Stylish this way, yielding an easy 50 Orbs, or so.
Drop down and kill the Marionette if you want. Exit on the left and reenter
the room you were just in. Go up the hole again and High Time the Bloody
Mari to death with a Stylish for another 26 Orbs.
Try to push the oncoming Marionettes to the far end of the room where the
new ones will spawn and try to keep that Stylish! on the screen. Taunt if
needed to make sure the ranking will stay visible. Each Marionette you kill
will spawn a new one, so if you plan it right, you should be killing all of
the time. If a Bloody Mari spawns, get rid of it at Stylish!. Combo it if
you're at Stylish or High Time.
After a few enemies, there won't spawn any more Marionettes so go
downstairs for the next batch and take those out with a Stylish! rating as
well. Thanks to the small room, getting a hit to connect on more than 1
enemy should be easy. It's possible to have around 300 Orbs at this point.
Go to the Biplane room, grab the 40 on the propellor and proceed to the
basement. You can try to 2 slash Slash Cancel the first wave of puppets.
This will keep them closely together, allowing for an easy Stylish.
Take out the next wave any way you see fit. Go back up and kill the
remaining puppets. It should be easy to get the last few Orbs since you'll
only need 355 Orbs on the counter to pass the Red Orb requirement.
----------
[07M02] - Mission 02 - Judge of Death
Time: 7:00
Red Orbs: 450
Difficulty: 6/10
Finally, an easy mission. Well, sort of. You'll need 450 Red Orbs, which
means that you'll have to play around in the Courtyard a bit and you might
have to kill a Shadow (I had to kill two to make sure I had enough Orbs for
the next mission). And that increases the difficulty of the mission. Not to
mention the Sin Scissors in the Library.
Start out by going to Alastor. If you get Marionettes, then skip them. They
aren't worth the trouble, really. If you see a Shadow, kill one for an easy
50 or so Orbs. Grab Alastor, the Shotgun, the rusty key and the Orbs hidden
in the table. Go to the Divinity Statue in the Library, kill the Beelzebub,
grab the Orbs by smashing the table and buy Stinger 1 and Stinger 2. Go to
the Courtyard. Equip the Shotgun, as you'll be using it on the next two
missions.
You'll get Sin Scythes or Blades. Sin Scythes are easier to beat if you
have the Shotgun. Jump up to their face, shoot, jump again and shoot. You
can usually kill them this way before they do anything. Make sure that you
kill them all for most Orbs. You have seven minutes for this mission,
meaning that you can easily kill them all and still have plenty of time.
Blades, however, are a bit more annoying and far more agile. The quickest
way to kill them is by critically hitting them. Watch out for the other
Blades! They have a tendency of hitting you when you least expect it, and
you'll always notice by the time it's too late. I don't recommend clearing
out the room, since it can be pretty hard with those critters jumping
around. Unless, of course, you are skilled at taking down Blades. But you
should kill a few for their Orbs (or leave them be and take down the
hallway Shadow).
If you don't clear out the room, then you'll have to take out another
Shadow in the hallway and you'll probably have to return to the courtyard
as well to reach the orb limit.
Grab the orbs on the fountain if you want and make your way through the
door. Push the altar away and grab the Staff of Judgment. Critical hit the
Sin Scissors. Beware, though. It's harder to critically hurt these Sins
since they are with three. Stay on your toes. After finishing them, make
your way to the cathedral. Equip the Shotgun if you haven't yet.
----------
[07M03] - Mission 03 - Destroyer of Ardor
Time: 3:00
Red Orbs: 550
Difficulty: 8/10
Buy Stinger 1 and 2 if you haven't yet, then buy Air Hike and two Purple
Orbs if you have enough Orbs for it. If you only have enough for one Purple
Orb, then stick with that. It will make the mission somewhat harder, but
not impossible.
The real difficulty lies in wasting Phantom in about 20-25 seconds.
As soon as you start, move to the door opposite of the Pride of Lion and
open it.
Jump on the arch above the door, grab the 50 Orbs and Stinger on the
bridge. Continue Stingering until you reach the opposite side and check the
tablet. Do not grab any of the Orbs you see!
Instead, stinger back until you go down.
As soon as you land, DT and run towards the small chamber. Kill the first
Sargassos with the Shotgun, DeDT and kill the rest with Shotgun blasts from
up close. Alternatively, you can Stinger them. It takes one Stinger to
waste a Sargassos in DT. Otherwise, it takes two. If you decide to Stinger
them, you can kill two Sargassos while in DT. Stingering the rest should
restore all your DT.
Ideally, you should have about 15-16 seconds left on the clock when you're
done.
Head back up and Stinger all the way to the Pride of Lion.
Initiate the Phantom battle. You have to get the first critical hit while
you're in the jump animation. To do this, perform an Air Hike when Dante
passed the highest point in the jump. Move yourself slightly to the right
when you perform the Air Hike, DT and do a downward slash. If you do it
right, you'll take off about 1/6th, 1/7th of his health. Now repeat the
critical hit process I described for Phantom (search for [065P]) until he
dies.
I may make this sound very simple, but it's of course much harder than
that. The main problem is Phantom moving about, which makes aiming for the
bulb extremely hard. Not every hit connects and it'll be hard to get in a
critical hit before it turns around when you're deflected. Personally, I've
had the best luck when attacking from the right side of the bulb. This
prevents the camera from getting in an awkward position. Sooner or later,
it will change its position, but with a little luck that will happen while
you're attacking, which should give you time to adjust properly.
You should finish Phantom in about 25 seconds max. Any more and it'll be
too much. Grab his orbs and stinger towards the bridge (the door opposite
to the Pride of Lion). Stinger to the left side of the bridge (your right)
and Stinger off the bridge on to the platform. Air Hike to the one in front
of you. Now, Air Hike to the other side of the bridge. As soon as you touch
the other side, drop in the water to initiate the secret mission.
DT as soon as you land to reduce the damage and run towards the Sin.
Critical hit it (see [062SS] for details), grab the Orbs if you must and
go back out. It doesn't matter whether or not the Sin is DT'ed, a critical
hit will kill it.
If you hit the opposite end of the bridge correctly, then you should emerge
at the side of the door that leads to the cathedral.
Stinger back to the cathedral, then Stinger to the exit and you're done!
If you're doing this mission on Normal mode, you can skip the Secret
Mission. You'll need to end the mission in 3:30, then.
----------
[07M04] - Mission 04 - Black Knight
Time: 4:00
Red Orbs: 550
Difficulty: 3.5/10
Buy a Purple Orb if you must, but you won't need one that badly for this
mission. Four or five glyphs should be enough to deal with this one, even
if it is your first special bonus run.
You'll need 550 Orbs for this one, so guess what? You're gonna beat up
Phantom again!
Walk to the door that leads to the courtyard and engage Phantom in battle.
Avoid his fireballs until he stops running. When he stands still, his
charge time increases significantly. The key to this battle is to deflect
his fireballs. I prefer high timing them, but any form of slash works.
Shoot between the fireballs to whittle away his health. He should go down
after the fifth fireball. Grab his Orbs and use the Pride of Lion.
If you skip this battle, you'll have to compensate with Secret Mission II
and III (cathedral and library respectively). Finish those in one go so you
won't lose time. If you're good with Shadows, do Secret Mission IV for Orbs
otherwise you'll have to take out some enemies in the tower and the biplane
room in order to reach the Orb Count.
The Death Scissor is more annoying. Three Devil Triggered Downward slashes
will kill it, but you'll have to go through its corkscrew attack at least
once. Just finish it as fast as you can and wait for DT to recover after it
dies. And grab its Orbs! Grab the ones on the fountain if you haven't yet.
You should have 550+ Orbs now.
In the next room, Air Hike/wall kick your way up to the decorative sword,
drop down and use it. Ignore the Maris. You won't need any of their
Orbs. Grab the orbs above the bed if you don't have the 550 Orbs yet and
head down to Nelo. Switch your guns to Ebony and Ivory if you haven't done
so yet. Don't pick up the orbs on the roof, you might need them for the
next mission.
Nelo is easy if you Slash Cancel him (see [04SC] for details). It'll take
some more time if you decide not to. Remember, only attack him when he's
vulnerable/fatigued/right after an attack! For attacking and evasion
details you should check the boss section.
After 1/3rd of the battle he'll teleport up the wall. Wait for his fireball
to end before you jump up to him. The safest way to avoid any attacks is
to Air Hike up with Nelo out of the screen.
After losing 2/3rd he'll teleport up. Follow him. When jumping after him,
jump to the right and not to the left to avoid incoming attacks. If
you're not certain that you can avoid the attack, then don't make a full
second jump, but a smaller one to lure him into attacking. You can then
jump up during his recovery.
----------
[07M05] - Mission 05 - Guiding of the Soul
Time: 2:00
Red Orbs: 100
Difficulty: 4/10
Again, you don't need to buy anything specific. You can get a purple orb
if need be, but there's no need to.
You'll face two Shadows in this mission. One of them will Devil Trigger
after about 40-50 seconds into the mission, but that doesn't have to be a
problem. The trick is to maintain your distance if he does DT. If he does,
expose the core by using the his spike attack. Use Air Hike to dodge its
proximity attack that he has when DT'ed.
Avoid the first Shadow's attack, and try to group the two Shadows. Then
move towards the other side and fire a single(!) shot from your
guns to aggravate one of the Shadows. DT, expose the core as fast as you
can and Stinger it twice so that the Shadow will become red. Now, avoid the
attacks of that Shadow while attacking the other one. Reveal the core,
Stinger it and avoid it. You can grab the Orbs if you want. If you decide
not to, then grab the ones that are above the doorway, on the small roof
opposite of the blue orb fragment. You'll only need 100 Orbs, so yeah.
Go back in the tower, downward slash to reach the bottom faster, use the
Melancholy Soul and you're finished. Don't bother with any of the enemies
you meet.
----------
[07M06] - Mission 06 - Evil of the Waterways
Time: 3:30
Red Orbs: 250
Difficulty: 6/10
I would recommend buying one Purple Orb for this one. Fighting Plasmas
with Alastor isn't exactly a walk in the park and you could use the extra
power that comes from DTing.
Grab the key and as soon as the battle starts, move to the left and pound
the Plasma. You might want to Stinger it so that you can hit the one behind
it as well. You have to take those two out prior to taking out the bat,
since the bat can't split itself. DT to speed up the process but keep an
open ear for the actions of the bat! See the enemy section for specifics.
It is possible to beat them before they DT in case they do split, but try
to prevent them from splitting since you'll need the time.
If the third Plasma is still in batform, DT and shoot at it if the coast is
clear, then downward slashes will help as well. I just prefer rapid DT'ed
shots. Roundtrip works well against those in batform, too.
Run through the sewers, ignoring the Plasmas and take out the Death
Scissors using the same way as you did in mission 4. Grab its Orbs, wait
for DT to restore and grab the Key of Ardor.
----------
[07M07] - Mission 07 - Holding the key of Ardor
Time: 3:00
Orbs: 650
Difficulty: 10/10
By far THE hardest mission to special bonus, if you ask me. Why? Your
health depletes and you have to kill two Frosts with just Alastor. Not to
mention the Shotgun Marionettes in the second to last room. And of course
Phantom whom you have to kill. And the worst part: You might not get the
Special Bonus at all, because this Mission's ranking is... well... badly
screwed up. Fun times are ahead.
Buy Purple Orbs. The more DT you have, the easier this'll become.
DT as soon as the mission starts and engage the Phantom battle. Waste him,
and try to finish with full DT so that you don't have to wait for the DT
refill that occurs after his death. Or end with 1 or 2 glyphs missing, so
that you can taunt for it. Grab his Orbs and engage the Frosts. Doing this
is the fastest way for an easy 500 Orbs. The Frosts will cover the rest you
need.
This is, in my opinion, the hardest part of the mission. High time is your
friend, so use it as much as you can. Frosts are not stunned when you hit
them with Alastor! They are only stunned when you hit them with DT'ed
Alastor, so watch out! The easiest method is to high time them and to
perform a four hit combo right before they hit they ground. Rinse and
repeat and DT as soon as you can! These Frosts will take a lot of practice
to defeat with Alastor and you'll lose this battle quite a bit. But don't
give up! It is possible to beat the mission unscathed.
I've heard that the Shotgun is an excellent choice for this battle but I
do not know if it's true. I've only tried this Ebony and Ivory because of
the increased air time that that gun gives. DT'ed attacks will take them
out faster and will reduce the damage you take from the Key.
After beating the Frosts, go to the tower and waste the two Marionettes.
The safest way is to Air Hike to one of them and to perform a downward
slash (one hit kill). Then Stinger to the other one and finish it. Jump if
you hear a twirl, because that means they'll fire their shotguns. Again,
DT if you can. Lit the dial, go all the way up, jump on the platform, then
jump down, go through the door and use the Key of Ardor.
This mission is really weird to special bonus. You could have a time of
2:00 at one time and no Special Bonus and a time of 2:10 and a Special
Bonus. The decisive factor is how much health you have lost and I'm afraid
that I can't say how the game measures the maximum allowed health loss.
All I can say is that if you don't get it the first time, that you should
try again until you do. It can be done, so hang in there!
----------
[07M08] - Mission 08 - The Legendary Dark Knight returns
Time: 3:00
Red Orbs: 585
Difficulty: 3/10
Phantom's back for more, it would seem. Don't buy anything, since you won't
need it.
Grab the two Red Orbs in the room with the Divinity Statue (you'll need
them). Exit and start the Phantom battle. The quickest way is to make him
fall through the glass. He'll start out with a jump, so stand on the glass.
If you hear a shattering noise, then it connected properly. Repeat the
process four times to make him fall through and to kill him.
Getting Phantom to jump is tricky, but it seems to happen faster if you
stand behind him. I always try Air Hiked downward slashes. This way, I deal
damage in case he decides not to jump. Just stay near his back and lure him
towards the glass when he jumps.
Alternately, you could try to critical hit him. But after the ordeal of
mission 3, I'd prefer the glass ceiling trick.
Grab his orbs, then grab the orbs hidden on the left horse. Then go all the
way to the small pedestal on the right and grab those orbs. Head down,
lower the bridge, grab the Grenade Gun and finish the mission, ignoring
whatever enemies you see. You should finish with 585 Orbs, exactly.
----------
[07M09] - Mission 09 - New Strength
Time: 8:00
Red Orbs: 1,500
Difficulty: 7.5/10
New mission, new weapon, new tactics! Let's get cracking! Buy a purple
orb if you can afford it. But be sure to have a few Orbs remaining for
Meteor 2, Kick 13 and Inferno. You'll buy those soon enough. If you have
any leftover Orbs you should try to buy Vortex 2 (and Vortex if you haven't
yet).
Stinger across the bridge and grab the Orbs hidden on the pillars. Move
down and engage the Blades. Either use the Grenade Gun to kill them from
a distance or critical hit them. Go to the Ifrit room and light the dial.
You can Air Hike to the last platform from the first platform to save some
time. Just jump when the platform is about to decend, and then Air Hike
on it. It takes some timing, but once you get the hang of it, it'll save
you quite some time. Then grab Ifrit.
You can skip the Death Scissor battle if it proves to take too long. Try
to jump on the first platform again, then jump towards the entrance and do
a diagonal kick in the entrance once your altitude is the same as the arch
above the entrance. As long as you don't touch the ground, you
can avoid the Death Scissor battle.
You don't have to fight Griffon. If you decide not to, then you'll need to
go back to Ifrit room and kill Blades for Orbs. If you do this, then
Vortex is your best friend. Otherwise, go for the critical hit strategy. I
fought Griffon since that's easier to do for me. Plus, it's more fun!
Equip the Grenade Gun for this battle and for the next mission. The best
way is to pummel him with, preferably, DT'ed grenades. A DT'ed grenade that
connects refills about 2 DT glyphs so if you De-DT after firing the last
grenade, you'll get more DT back. If he divebombs, then Air Hike over him.
If Griffon is within melée range, attack him with Alastor. But watch out
for his beak attacks.
You can occasionally sneak in a Roundtrip, but be careful with this, as you
will be vulnerable while Dante throws the blade.
After receiving enough pummeling, he'll topple over. If he does and you're
closeby, switch to Ifrit and unleash as much charged attacks on him as you
can. Those deal the most damage. Try to hit the head with Air Hiked
downward slashes as soon as he gets up. Increase the distance once he has
fully recovered.
If you find it hard to fight him while he's in the air, you can also force
him to start the battle while he's on the ground. To do this, you walk into
the open space where you fight him and as soon as the battle starts you
walk back into the chamber where you found Ifrit. When you exit that room
again, Griffon will be on the ground. I find it easier to attack him that
way since he won't do much of his lightning attacks now.
For a detailed strategy on how to avoid his attacks, search for [083G]
or scroll down to the boss section.
Once Griffon is defeated, go through the door. Grab the Orbs hidden on the
tree stump and get the ones which are on the ledge next to the rightmost
wall.
Kill the Marionettes and Fetishes with DT'ed grenades, Stingers and
Vortex and go through the door. Grab their Orbs if you can.
You might have to use the Red Orb statue to get the needed Orbs, along with
Orb farming some of the Fetishes. Try not to take too long! 8 minutes is
not a lot of time when you have a 4-5 minute boss battle inbetween! The
best way to deal with them here is either DT'ed Alastor attacks or hightime
and then juggling with Ebony and Ivory.
----------
[07M10] - Mission 10 - Canyon of Mist
Time: 4:30
Red Orbs: 600
Difficulty: 6/10
Buy Air Raid. You should try to have 9 glyphs by now for maximum
efficiency. If not, then don't worry. It'll just take a little bit longer
if you have less glyphs. You should still have the Grenade Gun equipped.
Head up to the Fetish and kill it with the following 'combo': High time,
then a grenade, high time, then a grenade. Check the huge tablet to make
the light come out and waste a few more Fetishes. This has two reasons:
Firstly, for Orbs. Secondly, to make the next room easier.
Follow the light and engage the Blades. If you wasted a few more Fetishes
in the previous area, then you'll only have to fight three Blades in here.
Start jumping as soon as Dante stops walking. There's a slight chance that
the Blade rushing to meet you hits you if you remain still.
You can easily kill them if you jump over them. Since they'll be in a small
group of three, grenades will hit all three of them, ending the fight
rather quickly. Use DT to increase the damage. Once done, get their orbs
and run after the light. Don't forget to switch to Ebony and Ivory before
you enter the next room!
If you're having trouble with this fight, you can also switch to Vortexing
them. It's safer than grenading them, but might not yield as many Orbs.
Two Shadows will await you here. You won't have a lot of room to fight, so
take out the first one as fast as you can. Start shooting as soon as you
enter and avoid its attack where it throws itself at you (there's a very
big chance that it'll do that). If it does, DT and expose its core with
DT'ed shots. You can shoot midair in DT if you don't press R1. If you
prefer keeping R1 pressed, then you'll have to press it prior to jumping or
DT'ing.
Whatever you do, just expose that core before the second one wants a piece
of you. Once the first one's red, the other one will be a cinch using
regular Shadow hunting tactics. If the Shadow DT's, keep your distance and
use its spike attack to weaken it prior to Air Hiking and using DT'ed shots
to open the core. After you beat both of them you should grab their Red
Orbs and check out the statue for another handful of Orbs.
Follow the light again.
Last room. You might want to switch to the Grenade Gun again since it'll
make restoring DT easier versus these Kyklops.
As soon as you enter the room, Air Hike and DT and punish the nearby
Kyklop with Air Raid. Keep on going, but don't bother if it flinches 'cause
the damage won't register then. Once it recovers from its flinch, continue.
If your DT runs dry, use the grenade gun to get it back quickly. Killing a
Kyklops will restore your DT completely. You'll need about 9 glyphs to
kill a Kyklops with Air Raid. These beasts aren't too difficult if you Air
Raid them and use the Grenade Gun to restore DT all while keeping your
distance.
----------
[07M11] - Mission 11 - Fate
Time: 5:30
Red Orbs: 1,000
Difficulty: 6/10
Your li'l bro's back again and ready for more! For this mission, you'll
want to get Inferno and if you can afford it: Meteor 2. If you can't, don't
worry. You'll get it on the next mission.
You won't be low on DT, so head straight into the well. Grenade the
oncoming Blade and then Inferno the entire bunch. Inferno the survivors
again and De-DT. Grab the Orbs and head out. Grab the Sign of Chastity,
avoid the Death Scythe and grab the hidden 200 Orbs above the Sign of
Chastity. Go back through the Blades, ignoring them all and head back out.
If you keep getting hurt by the Blades, then you can also do the Secret
Mission outside. Upon completion you can afford getting hit once or twice
by the Blades. The Secret Mission bonus points will still allow you to get
your Special Bonus.
Lay waste to the Death Scythe with 3 downward DT slashes and proceed
towards Nelo Angelo 2. I prefer Ifrit for this battle, but Alastor can
still do the trick in this battle.
You can use the slash cancel strategy but be aware that he'll block sooner.
Switch to Ifrit for maximum efficiency. DT when he lands and charge a punch
and finish the combo with either a simple kick. Then hit him again to force
a block. You can either fully charge the next punch to knock Nelo off
balance and to do another combo (or a Meteor 2 if you have it). That's
basically all there is to the fight.
However, the time limit isn't as tight as with mission 4, so feel free to
experiment a bit.
If you insist on Alastor, use Slash Canceling mostly. Air Hike will do
wonders when it comes to evading his attacks. Parrying his moves works
alright as well.
After finishing him, grab the Orbs and finish the mission. Switch to the
Grenade Gun if you're not using it already.
----------
[07M12] - Mission 12 - Ghost Ship
Time: 4:00
Red Orbs: 700
Difficulty: 5/10
Buy Meteor 2, Rolling Blaze and Kick 13 level 2 if you haven't yet. In that
order.
Start the mission.
You can easily kill the puppets with grenade shots. Run into the ship and
ignore the Blade in the water. Jump out and go in the room with the Frosts.
Charge a Meteor 2 as soon as you enter and kill the Frost. Get the orbs and
proceed to kill the other one with an Inferno and then an Auto Kick 13.
De-DT while the auto Kick 13 happens to restore some DT.
If you don't have Kick 13, finish the Frost UN-DT'ed. Grab the Orbs and the
Needle Gun and kill the Death Scythe with three Air Hiked downward slashes
(DT preferred). Wait 'til DT restores, switch to Ebony and Ivory and pick
Ifrit as your Devil Arm and initiate the second Griffon battle.
Not as hard as his previous battle, provided that you can actually get him
in a loop. When the battle starts, jump to the edge from which Griffon will
approach and aim your guns. Wait for a second once Dante gets a lock on
Griffon and then charge a Meteor 2. Hopefully, it'll connect. If not, then
it doesn't matter too much. If you have Rolling Blaze, then you can easily
destroy his bands of electricity by jumping through them. Use DT'ed Ebony
and Ivory fire to further its demise. Stay on the lowest part of the ship
and attack Griffon as much as you can. Use Meteors if the chance arises.
During the battle, Griffon will hopefully touch down. Jump if he does,
watch out because the shock will hurt you! Just jump and fire your guns for
maximized Air Time. Once you can land, do so and charge two fully charged
Meteor 2's. Both will connect and some might do double damage, making the
battle go by even faster.
The downside is that you have to time your roll precisely now so that you
dodge his lightning bolts. It's not very easy but not impossible either.
After you dodge his 2x3 bolts, he'll go airborne again. Shoot him and jump
when he shrieks (that shriek is the cue to landing) and repeat the Meteor 2
process again.
Watch out, though. Sometimes, he'll use a lightning bolt attack instead of
jumping down. If he does that, then there's a very big chance that you'll
get hit when you jump. Be careful and don't assume that he'll land every
single time he shrieks!
An alternate tactic is to loop him and to do good damage with DT'ed Ebony
and Ivory fire. It starts out the same as the loop, but instead of letting
Griffon land on the centre part of the ship, you have to make him land on
the bow (the part above the captain's cabin). Once he shrieks to land
there, use Air Hike (yeah, I'm talking about Alastor) to jump to the top of
the mast. Once there, move to the left if Griffon is facing left, or move
to the right if Griffon is facing to the right, DT and blast away with
Ebony and Ivory. This way can cause 1/4th or 1/3rd of damage to Griffon.
Imagine the power on modes lower than DMD!.
Griffon's exit is shocking as per usual, so finish him from a distance. If
you used the mast trick, then you won't have to worry too much about his
departure.
Grab the orbs and finish the mission.
----------
[07M13] - Mission 13 - Abyss
Time: 2:30
Red Orbs: 200
Difficulty: 2/10
The easiest mission ever. Don't buy anything since it'll be useless. Just
be sure to have the Needle Gun.
Grab the staff, kill the two Blades in the first room with a high combo
ranking, do the same in the next room and grab some random Orbs. 3x5
needles should be enough for one Blade. Watch out for their shooting claws.
You can deflect those with fire from the Needle Gun (though this could
hurt your combo ranking).
If you can't get the Orbs, then decending the stairs below the stairs that
lead to the deck will yield another 100 Orbs or so.
----------
[07M14] - Mission 14 - Deep Darkness and Towering Mountains
Time: 5:00
Red Orbs: 500
Difficulty: 5.5/10
500 Orbs is a lot to gather. Well, somewhat. At any rate, buy Vortex 2 and
switch to the Shotgun in the intermezzo prior to mission 14.
In order to cough up most of those Orbs, you'll have to kill all the Sin
Scissors in this chamber prior to taking the shield. Just critical hit them
and they'll give you 40 Orbs each if done right. You can get about
300 Orbs this way.
After getting the shield, Vortex through the spikes. Go up the lift, grab
the orb above the lift, Stinger to the ledge on the other side and grab the
Orb that's over there. Exit the room, move through the canyon, hug the
canyon wall while ignoring the enemies. Open the red door, kill the Death
Scythe, smash the logs for some Orbs and get the small stash of Red Orbs
which is hidden in the right alcove, open the door, collect the Red Orbs
lying on the floor and finish the mission. I got 508 Orbs this way, just
enough for the Special Bonus.
Alternately, you can Orb Farm the Blades a little bit, but you should only
do that if you're confident with dodging their attacks while the boulders
are falling down. I don't like this tactic too much since it puts me at
risk, but it might help you out.
----------
[07M15] - Mission 15 - Wheel of Destiny
Time: 10:00
Red Orbs: 1,500
Difficulty: 8/10
Get any of the Ifrit abilities you don't have and buy whatever Purple Orbs
you haven't bought yet.
You'll have 10 minutes for this mission, so don't worry about the time
limit. Switch to the Grenade Gun and run to the nearest door where you have
to use the Shield. Grab the Luminite and walk down. Whack the Fetishes with
the Alastor + Grenade Gun combo. Switch to Ifrit once you've killed both
of them and go through the wall. Shoot a few times with the Grenade Gun to
keep the Fetishes at bay. Jump back to reduce your recoil and reload time
and to make your way into the hidden passage. Right of the Blue Orb
fragment is a basket with spears. Destroy it and then destroy the thing
that's on the floor. You'll find 1,000 Red Orbs inside.
Fight through the Fetishes and go through the blue doors. Switch to Alastor
and kill the Death Scythe with precisely aimed DT'ed Air Hiked downward
slashes. Grab the lance (I prefer to walk through the spikes and to use Air
Hike to get across the pit in two parts. Once you get the timing down it's
easy and it won't even waste DT). You can Vortex through it as well. I
just prefer the regular way since I want to save DT for Griffon 3.
You can also use the other door. The Shadows are probably easier to avoid
in that small space than the Death Scythe is. If you decide with this
method, you should avoid the Shadows. Once you've retrieved the Lances, go
through the other door and get the 1,000 Red Orb bonus hidden in this room
(see the above paragraph for details).
Do not bother grabbing the Nightmare-beta. We'll do that later.
Go back outside once you have the lances and enter the coliseum. Switch to
Ifrit. As for what firearm to choose: That's up to you. I prefer some
mobility when it comes to avoiding Griffon's lightning attacks so I have
Ebony and Ivory equipped. Others prefer the Grenade Gun. Whatever you do is
up to you. Both work so see what's easiest for you.
DT as soon as the battle starts and charge a Meteor 2. If your timing's
right, then you'll do a critical hit which will make Griffon fly up. If
your timing's off, then it will hit only once. In case that happens,
immediately start charging another Meteor.
Griffon is now airborne and you should De-DT. You can't hit him while he's
gaining altitude so use that time to taunt him for DT. Shoot him after
taunting once or twice. If you hear him cry, then he'll go up again. Repeat
until you see the cutscene.
Getting hit by his gust won't hurt you. It'll just slow you down.
After the cutscene, the tricky part of the battle ensues. Griffon's defence
will skyrocket, making it harder to kill him.
There are three main ways to fight this battle: long range, close range,
and a mix of those two.
Long range consists of doing a barrage of shots (mostly Grenade Gun shots)
and fully charged Meteor 2's when the chance arises (mostly aiming for
critical hits) all while keeping the distance between the player and
Griffon as big as possible to make it easier to avoid the attacks. Using
this strategy you'll never get close to Griffon and if he gets close, you
increase the distance prior to attacking.
Short range is the exact opposite, and I'd suggest to use Ebony and Ivory
if you pick this strategy. All of Griffon's techniques will end prematurely
if you approach him. This tactic is to end the attacks prematurely and to
knock him over using Infernos. Diagonal kicks are the safest approach when
it comes to avoiding Griffon's auto-defence for when you get too close.
I used to use this tactic but found it unreliable because you sometimes get
hit by his lightning grid attack this way.
I prefer the mixture of long range and short range, along with Ebony and
Ivory as my firearm. This battle is similar to long range with the only
exception that you stay close to Griffon once he decides to charge at you
with his beak. You also sneak in the occasional Inferno to topple him even
quicker and the battle goes back to long range once Griffon decides to
increase the difference between you and him.
Griffon will fall down one way or the other. What you do now is dependent
on the distance. If he's close, wail at him with Ifrit. Otherwise, use
Meteors and your gun. Once again, check the boss section for indepth
strategies.
After killing him, grab the Orbs and finish the mission.
----------
[07M16] - Mission 16 - Nightmare of Darkness
Time: 6:00
Red Orbs: 1,000
Difficulty: 7/10
One boss down and a new one appears on the scene. If you don't have it yet,
get Vortex 2. Also buy Round Trip. You won't need it right now, but that
way you won't forget it by the time mission 22 comes around. Besides, what
else do you want to buy? Blue Orbs or Yellow Orbs that you're not gonna
use? Exactly.
As soon as you enter the area with the Death Scythe, DT and run towards the
door. DT and run up the spiral stairs. De-DT once you reach the top, then
Stinger to where you have to use the Wheel of Destiny. Use it. Enter the
castle, fight the Plasma (for some reason, this Plasma is weaker than a
Normal Plasma), grab the Orbs and enter the biplane room.
Ignore the Plasma and head into the hallway.
You'll either face a Shadow or Fetishes. Fetishes will initially appear
at two places: near the entrance or near the courtyard entrance. To
determine which monster you'll be facing when the entrance is empty is to
listen closely. If you hear footsteps, then you'll face a Shadow. Switch to
Ebony and Ivory if you're not wielding them yet. Otherwise, you'll have
Fetishes. Switch to the Grenade Gun in that case.
Take out the Shadow with the usual tactics: Stand on the spike, DT, shoot
it and keep shooting until the core is exposed. Attack.
For Fetishes: Equip the Grenade Gun and make short work of them. Get their
Orbs if you can! As soon as the timer stops, kill a few to refill your DT
and enter the cathedral. Infernoes are also a very good tactic to kill them
with. A well placed Inferno can kill them all in one hit. If they manage to
DT and the door isn't open yet, DT yourself and kill them with a fully
charged Meteor2.
Equip Ifrit, light the dial and start the battle. Dodge the machine gun
fire by pressing R1 and slowly walking around Nightmare. Stay in FRONT of
Nightmare so that you'll trigger the ice beam. Avoid the beams that the
core sends forth once it's exposed, then jump on it and use Inferno until
the core shatters. Once it does, solely use fully charged punches and kicks
until the core retracts. The aim of the Infernoes is to shatter the top
core as quickly as you can. If you're very fast and good, then you can
shatter the core before the ice beam ends, resulting in a longer ice beam
attack (meaning more damage).
Light the dial again. Taunt while Nightmare appears and avoid the gunfire
(shoot to regain some DT. Shoot grenades and roll to get more DT and to
avoid getting hit). Nightmare will perform its triple stab move. You can
easily deflect it using a welltimed Rolling Blaze. Once you do, fire as
many fully charged Meteors as you can (you can't fire any more than three,
though!).
After this, get sucked in. Quickly kill the Sargassos' and kill the Phantom
clone with the same way you did in mission 3 (DT Air Hiked downward
slashes), switch back to Ifrit and go back up. Repeat the above until
Nightmare dies (just don't get sucked in this time, because it will damage
you). The trip to the Spectral Realm will reset the counter for both cores.
For a full explanation on what I mean, check the boss section.
Once Nightmare dies, equip Alastor, grab the Orbs, go towards the broken
bridge, DT and Vortex across it. The orbs you didn't pick up in mission
3 are now worth 100 Orbs each. Grab the one in front of where you have to
use the Staff of Hermes and enter the left mirror. Try to leave the Orb
that's there behind. It's not biggee if you accidentally grab it,
though. It's just 100 Orbs less for mission 19.
----------
[07M17] - Mission 17 - Memento
Time: 7:00
Red Orbs: 600
Difficulty: 8.5/10
"Brother will kill brother, spilling blood across the land."
Run up the stairs, use the Grenade Gun against the Fetishes in the room
you come across to get some DT back and move on. Go through the painting to
the courtyard with the Frosts.
When you check the door, two Frosts will attack you and you'll almost
always get hit by the one that jumps near the door. It's tricky, but you
can avoid it. As soon as you press select to cancel the cutscene, hold back
on the left analog stick and jam the triangle button like crazy. This way,
you'll end up jumping away before the Frost can get its hit which means
that you'll be safe from the hit.
If you jump correctly, you can place yourself on one line with the two
Frosts. If you can do that, one Meteor 2 will be enough to finish the
two of them.
The first one of the new set can be wasted with a Meteor as well, since you
will have enough DT. De-DT and kill the last one through normal combat
(this is so you can regain some more DT prior to going in the corridor).
In the corridor you'll face either Nobodies or Fetishes. I personally
prefer Nobodies since there are only two of them at a time and two Infernos
will wipe them out completely because they'll always be close to each
other. Although you'll be out of DT, I wouldn't worry too much about that.
In the case of Fetishes, I'd go for the High Time + Grenade Gun for the
first three (the third Fetish is on the path to Nelo 3). The rest that
emerges then can easily be hit with the Grenade Gun and with DT'ed Grenade
Gun shots. Just waste them as fast as you can with the Grenade Gun. All of
the new Fetishes will all emerge near the room with the Skeleton Dragon so
finding them shouldn't be a problem. If they do DT, then you can finish
them of with fully charged Meteor 2 shots.
Slash away at the dragon and grab the Quicksilver. Head back out. You won't
get a timer this time, but it might be a good idea to get some DT back
prior to fighting Nelo. I personally don't bother with that if I get
Nobodies since they'll probably drain it anyway, but Fetishes are perfect
to regenerate some DT. Taunt if you want. When you feel like you're done,
use the Quicksilver and go through the door. Equip Ifrit and whatever gun
you like best and start the last brotherly battle.
Nelo's back with a new set of moves: the Spiral Swords. Go to the boss
strategy section for detailed guides on how to dodge those. For now, I'd
recommend to Rolling Blaze through them and to use Inferno if they get too
close. Other strategies work as well, but those will be outlined down the
line.
When the battle starts, open with a Meteor 2. You can probably squeeze in a
second one and probably even a third one. After that, it's mostly melee
combat which is fairly similar to the Nelo Angelo 2 combat. I, personally,
don't like this fight too much and therefore use the stun method I briefly
described during the Nelo Angelo 2 battle.
Alastor kan work in this fight, as well. But Ifrit is the better and safer
choice when it comes to getting the SB. For Alastor specific tactics, check
the previous battles and the boss section.
You can also stop his Spiral Swords move by firing a Meteor before he
conjures up any swords. Rolling Blaze if he's close by or do a downward
slash or a level 2 Vortex if you use Alastor.
----------
This mission can go in two different ways, depending on how eager you are
when it comes to fighting Shadow Griffon. You can either skip him, or fight
him. Make your choice and head over to the section that describes the path
you took. Just make SURE that Nightmare had a green top core in the
previous mission.
[07M18A] - Mission 18 - Spirit Stone, "Elixir"
Time: 6:00
Red Orbs: 900
Method: Skipping Griffon
Difficulty: 6.5/10
Go through the entire Sparda sequence and walk through the portal.
Equip Alastor. Do not jump through the painting, but head down the spiral
stairs until you reach the room with the two Fetishes. High time the one
closest to you, then High time it again. Then Stinger it once to push it
towards the other one.
Then Stinger again to subdue both of them. Move to the left
of them, High time again and perform a four slash combo, followed by a
Million Stab. DT as soon as you can since Fetishes have a tendency to block
the Million Stab and finish with a high time. De-DT and repeat the same
process until they die. If done properly, this should rack up about 100
Orbs due to the Stylish! ranking.
Go through the water painting and collect ALL the Red Orbs by shooting the
barrels. If you get them all, it's another 100 Orbs to add to your
collection. Kill the Sin Scissors and get their Orbs as well, which should
be about 60 of them.
To kill them, it depends on what the leftmost Sin decides to do. If it
hides behind you, proceed to take out the right-most Sin, followed by the
Sin in the distance and then the one which was hiding behind you.
If the Sin doesn't hide, kill it first, then the rightmost Sin and finish
it with the Sin that's the furthest away.
Get the Philosopher's Egg and go to Nightmare's room.
Now, before going to battle, enter the lefthand door (the one that's on
Dante's right when he enters). You'll need to Air Hike to it to get there
quickly enough. Get the 103 Orbs in there.
Engage Nightmare and dodge the machine gun fire. If you did the previous
battle right, he'll have a green core. Jump on him, DT, and unleash one
fully charged punch, punch, kick, kick combo and follow it up by two fully
charged attacks. Jump off him and try to light the dial before he becomes
a goo-like mass again. This results in Nightmare continueing his gunfire
without becoming a big chunk of slime. Dodge the fire, rolling blaze the
stab, Meteor 2 the core once you stunned him, light the dial, etc..
However! Three things about this battle.
1. He has a new attack, namely his boomerang. You can parry it with a
Rolling Blaze. If you do so, you can attack the core freely for a while.
2. You'll want to use a Meteor on the top core whenever you can. It deals
fairly good damage for a single hit and it won't shatter the core and force
it to turn red.
3. Do not go to the underworld! This will only make the battle longer and
if that happens, you'll never get the Special Bonus.
Nightmare will drop 550 Orbs when you beat him, giving you just over the
900 Orbs needed for this mission.
[07M18B] - Mission 18 - Spirit Stone, "Elixir"
Time: 6:00
Red Orbs: 900
Method: Fighting Griffon
Difficulty: 7.5/10
Switch to Ifrit after the cutscene ends and go straight in the underwater
area. Swim to the Sin Scissors and kill them (see above for details) . Take
the Orbs if you want and then head for the exit. Grab the Philosopher's
Egg, go to the Nightmare room, lit the dial, place the Philosopher's Egg in
the fire and start the Nightmare battle.
Nothing new here. Dodge the machine gun fire, jump on him once the
protective rays from the core have worn off, DT and unleash a fully charged
punch, punch, kick, kick combo, followed by two charged punches.
Light the dial again, dodge the fire and rolling blaze the triple stab.
Fire those meteors! Now, taunt a bit to get DT back or fire with the
Grenade Gun and switch to Alastor and get sucked in.
Kill the Sargassos with either the Grenade Gun or a four slash combo and
then fight Griffon. If you fight the Sargassos in a specific order, then
you'll be in an ideal position to Meteor 2 Griffon as soon as he appears.
Kill the one you see on Dante's right first. Then walk around the pillar
and kill the rest of them and kill the big one. If you walked right, then
you can immediately launch a Meteor 2 at Griffon.
Griffon is easily taken down with DT'ed gun fire. This battle is very
much like Griffon three, but easier since he won't do his divebomb attack,
nor will he use the lightning grid. His main attacks consist of his beak
attack, a horizontal bolt followed by a barrage of V-shaped bolts and a
V-shaped bolt followed by a barrage of horizontal bolts.
A simple dodge and attack battle. Don't forget to shoot, though!
Once you emerge victorious, repeat the above process to finish off
Nightmare. Don't worry about shattering the top core anymore. The counter
for shattering has been reset, meaning that you can't possibly shatter it
if you deal maximum damage. If you repeat the above process, then you can
defeat Nightmare in three, possibly two, runs. Griffon and Nightmare will
yield enough Orbs to meet the requirement.
----------
[07M19] - Mission 19 - Enter the Corrupted World
Time: 3:30
Red Orbs: 500
Difficulty: 3/10
"To the mouth of Hell they march, glory their only gain!"
Make your way to the far end of the bridge where you used the Staff of
Hermes. You'll automatically grab the huge Red Orb near the left most
mirror if you didn't pick it up at first. Now, go to the right and pick up
the other two big ones and go in the right painting. Check the mirror Nelo
Angelo came out of and enter it. If you haven't grabbed the Nightmare-beta
yet and you would like to do so, you can do it now. You can find it on the
bed in the reverted world.
Now grab the Philosopher's Stone. Kill the Nobodies with Grenades and
Infernoes and take their Orbs to make this battle as easy as possible. Go
back to the bridge, pick up the last huge orb for the heck of it, make your
way to the RIGHT side of the bridge (camera wise) and Stinger twice. Now
you can Air Hike to the other side. If you have enough DT from the previous
fight, you can also Vortex over the bridge.
Anyway, enter the cathedral and enter the corrupted world.
----------
[07M20] - Mission 20 - Showdown with Nightmare
Time: 4:30
Red Orbs: 700
Difficulty: 9/10
One Nightmare, coming up! In more than one way, as well. This mission is a
pain, damage-wise. This is mostly due to what we call "The Final Core" at
the boards.
The time limit is very tight, too. 4:30 to entirely kill Nightmare isn't
much. And you'll have to deal with the Frosts, too. Let's go.
Immediately head towards to the room with the Frosts. Kill the closest one
with Meteor 2, and use normal attacks to finish the other one. Try to end
this battle with full (or near full) DT gauge. Engage Nightmare.
The first thing you'll want to do, is to lit the dial. Then use a full
punch, punch, kick, kick, punch combo to deal some good damage. Then lit
the dial again. Shoot and taunt for DT. Parry the stab, and perform a fully
charged punch, punch, kick, kick combo on the hind core (or 2-3 Meteors, if
your DT allows it).
Do this once more, and then allow yourself to get sucked in.
You will have to do this in order to meet the Red Orb requirement. Take out
the Sargassos as quickly as you can. Then use all you've got with Ifrit
(the stun method I described in mission 11) or slash cancel Nelo with
Alastor to quickly take him out. Grab his Orbs, wait for the DT refill and
go back up.
Once you resurface, it should immediately trigger the Trish cutscene. Now,
you simply have to do the usual, but you'll have to watch out for the bolts
Trish sends at you. Once you've depleted his health, be prepared for the
worst fight you'll ever face.
To make this bit a little easier, switch to Alastor before you deplete all
his health. Try to whittle away the last part with gunfire. Once the Final
Core is triggered, DT and start Vortexing until you have no more DT. On
DMD!, you should be capable of taking out almost all of Nightmare's health.
Once you're out of DT, move to the edges, hug the wall and shoot your guns
like crazy. I prefer Ebony and Ivory for this, since I can also deflect
some projectiles this way. DT when you can and keep firing while staying on
the move. Evetually, you'll kill him unscathed this way.
The Grenade Gun can work for this, but I find it a lot less safer than
Ebony and Ivory. Other guns simply won't cut it here. Good luck with this
fight. You'll have earned quite a few beers once you're through this!
----------
[07M21] - Mission 21 - Living Cave
Time: 5:00
Red Orbs: 700
Difficulty: 7/10
A walk in the park compared to the previous one, though getting the Orbs
can prove to be a problem. You've got some time in this mission, but it's
tight.
Your main enemies will be Plasmas and Nobodies. You'll have to kill the
Plasmas while they're on or above land, or else you will not make the Orb
count. If you find this to be hard, then there is some time to backtrack to
the room with the Frosts. If you take these two out, you should be safe
when it comes to Orbs.
Regardless of what you choose, you should make your way to the heart, and
smash the thing before the door. Move back and enter the small maze with
the tentacles. Rolling Blaze through that part. You can get hit this way
but you're not likely to get hit.
Dispose of the Nobodies in whatever way you see fit. I prefer to either use
Inferno to weaken them, to Stinger them with Alastor or to high time them
once and to use the four hit combo. If you do the last two right, they'll
never be able to recover.
With the Inferno tactic, you'll have to throw in another Inferno to kill
them. Not the DT friendly way, though. I usually save it for the last
Nobody, and I Stinger the other two.
Kill the Plasmas in the next room. They'll be in bat form when you enter so
a grenade may have a hard time connecting. A DT'ed grenade kills them
fairly quickly and a fully charged Meteor 2 is a one hit kill. You'll have
to charge your Meteor immediately if you chose to do this. DT'ed gunfire
from Ebony and Ivory should quickly kill the other one.
If you chose to backtrack to the Frosts, then you won't have to worry about
the Orbs. Pick them up if you didn't backtrack. Just hope they didn't fall
into the magma.
Smash the Orb cache, make your way to the top as usual, lit the dial and
Stinger towards Mundus' door. You can enter is as soon as you see that the
seal on it is shattering. Equip the Shotgun before you enter.
----------
[07M22] - Mission 22 - Legendary Battle
Time: 8:00
Red Orbs: 0
Difficulty: 9/10
Not as hard as Mission 7 or 20, but still tough. Make sure you've got
Meteor 2, Air Hike, Roundtrip and the Shotgun equipped. All of this will be
a lifesaver during the next battle. I'll globally explain this and I'll go
in full detail in the boss section.
During the first fight, move around in highspeed (keep Triangle pressed)
circles to avoid most of his attacks. When he performs his white laser
move, you'll have to watch out to see where he fires. It's slightly homing,
so watch out.
You'll just have to avoid the rockslabs and lightning bolts he sends at
you. There's not much you can do other than firing a lot, using your DT at
the right time and Vortexing when he's about to fly to the other side. You
could use auto-fire to deal more damage. It'll surely cut back on the time
needed to kill him that way.
The second part is harder. The best way to take him out is with DT'ed
Roundtrips and fully charged Meteors. Do NOT stand on the rock slabs. His
attacks are too random to predict and if you fall in the magma, you will
lose health and hence your SB. So don't do it unless you're very confident
in your dodging abilities.
The flying spheres will always come in groups of five. Two regular Shotgun
blasts will destroy those (or a DT'ed Shotgun blast will).
The four large spheres will turn into 3 DT glyphs if you destroy them. If
you don't, then Mundus will absorb them and fire them at you as fireballs
which can be deflected with sword slashes (DT'ed Sparda slashes make this
very easy).
The more fireballs he fires, the slower they will go. Ideally, you'll want
him to fire 2-3 fireballs.
He can also fire a single fireball at will. Watch out for this.
His hand lasers and punch can be dodging by Air Hiking over them. His back
laser is tricky. If you have the DT, run ahead of it. Otherwise, time your
rolls well to dodge it.
The six spheres he summons at the edge of the arena can be destroyed with
Shotgun fire. They can't hit you if you stand at the very edge of the arena
so don't worry if you can't destroy all of them.
At about 25% of his health, he'll go berserk and you can have up to six
meteor rains in a row (10 per attack). Just run from one side to the other
(not DT'ed) and hope he won't do another attack like his lasers. If he
does, then your best bet is to roll out of the way or to time your jumps
correctly.
This battle is about preserving your DT, knowing when to use it and picking
the correct moments to attack and taunt. When you taunt, you'll get the
best result if you do it when there are no rocks between you and Mundus.
Double taunt + Roundtrip = 5 restored DT glyphs.
Good luck on this one. Detailed tips are in the boss section.
----------
[07M23] - Mother's Guide
Time: 7:00
Red Orbs: 600
Difficulty: 6.5/10
Run to the huge double doors, exit Mundus' chamber, then Stinger off the
platform. You'll end up near the exit.
Waste the Frost in the next room with an Inferno, followed by a DT'ed
Kick13 (but De-DT during the attack to regain DT). Make sure you have DT
for 2 Infernoes.
In the next room, gather the Nobodies, DT and use two Infernoes to kill
them quickly. If you only have enough DT for one, use one and kill them
with melée attacks or gunfire. Grab their Orbs.
Take out the Frost in the next room with melée combat. If properly killed,
you should have at least 500 Orbs by now.
Exit the Underworld and go back to the Castle. Ignore the Mari's. In the
hallway, jump up somewhere in the centre for 100 hidden Orbs (they're near
the small thing in the ceiling. Just keep Air Hiking, you'll get them
eventually). Kill the Shadow and grab the Orbs. Enter the biplane room.
Mundus 3 is easily dealt with with Vortex. Damage and taunt him a bit until
you have (near) full DT and until he's done with his eye laser. Once he's
finishes, DT and Vortex him. Just tap the button for the best effect.
You'll either fully deplete his health or get very close to it. After the
cutscene, taunt and/or fire and finish him.
The flight is, in my opinion, the hardest part of the mission. As soon as
it starts, press the fire button and do not let go. Also, don't steer. You
won't need to until you reach the large cavern with the rock in the middle.
In there, steer to the right to avoid it. You can fly in the centre a bit
longer now, as long as you keep firing. Near the end, you'll have to take
evasive actions (only minor ones, nothing too drastic) to avoid the
stalactites and stalacmites, but once you get a feel for it, you'll be just
fine.
---------------
[08BOSS] - Boss Strategies
Another hefty part, which should be filled with some very useful information.
...I hope. I'll outline the boss' every attack, along with how to avoid the
attack, along with when and where to (counter-)attack. The stuff here applies
to every difficulty mode since the bosses don't learn any new attacks, even
if the difficulty increases.
Since this game focuses on evasion before offensive, I'll first focus on the
opponent's moves, then how to avoid them and THEN when to attack them.
----------
[081P] - Phantom
The first boss is no pushover and certainly not when it comes to evading
his attacks. While they may seem daunting, a cool and collected mind can
easily avoid everything... and use it against him. Since the first and last
battle are very similar, I'll handle every attack he has.
DEFENSE
His basic attack is his claw swipe. It's only initiated when you're too
close to him. This attack consists of two claws coming at you (one after
the other) and is easy to dodge if you jump. Use airtime if needed.
He can also do this to eat you if you're low on health. The animation will
be quite different and easy to make out from his normal swipe.
So, in order to avoid this, just jump. In order to make him not do this,
stay away from his face.
This attack will be done pretty often if you decide to melée him in the
face or when you're too close to him in the hallway or the sewers.
If you stay too far away from him, he'll do a variety of attacks. Firstly,
he can fire a fireball at you. Only one at a time. There's a dead giveaway
to this attack and you'll know it's coming even when he's off-screen.
You'll clearly see light and even if you can't see it, you can hear him
charging the fireball.
Roll to dodge it, stand behind a pillar to make the pillar take the hit (if
you're in the cathedral), slash (whatever slash you like) it back or
Stinger him in the mouth to make it explode right in his face, dealing nice
damage. On DMD!, he can fire two fireballs in a row (first and last battle
only). So watch out if you decide to deflect or avoid the fireball.
You'll use the deflect method in the hallway and in the sewers since it'll
take off roughly 20% of his health (this is not true for the compulsory
battles, though!).
Overall, avoid the move and don't go through the trouble of deflecting it
unless you're confident that you can do it or unless you're in the
hallways or in the sewers where you have to do it to meet the time
requirement.
His charge time differs. There's a normal charge time during the compulsory
battles, but his charge time is significantly faster when he's running
after you in the hallway or sewers. It'll return to normal after he stops
running.
Another long-range attack of his, is his jump. Not hard to avoid, at all.
Just jump and make sure you haven't reached the apex of your jump when he
touches you to escape unscathed. It's damaging if it connects, though.
Another long-range and mid-range attack, is his attack where he plunges his
head into the floor to summon magma plumes beneath your feet. This can be
avoided even by walking, as long as you don't backtrack. Running in a
single direction works too. Just don't backtrack.
You can Stinger him and make him stop his attack this way, but it's not
really worth the trouble since this attack is so short.
His tail is a weapon, too. He can uncurl it and when he does, you'll have
to watch out with standing near him. He can grab and/or sting you and
damage you with it. He doesn't do it often, but be on the lookout anyway.
Try to resort to mid-range tactics when this happens. Just to be on the
safe side. You won't have anything to fear if his tail is curled on his
back.
During the third fight, he can also summon a small meteor rain on you.
This, too, is dodged by running, just like the lava plumes. Just run away
from it to avoid damage. He can do this at any time he pleases, but there's
a downside to it for him: It'll burn him out.
This burnout isn't exactly a move, but more like a negative status effect
that occurs when he:
- fires a certain amount of fireballs
- uses the meteor rain (third battle only)
- receives a certain amount of damage
All points on his body can be damaged during his burnout, so take
advantage of this moment to deal damage. Watch out when he lits up again,
since he'll start out with a (possible double) fireball as soon as he can.
At around 20%-25% of his total health, he'll turn red hot and he'll become
a lot faster. His attacks won't change, but his attack speed does. Watch
out when this happens and attack with care. The tactics below will remain
unchanged, especially the critical hit tactic.
OFFENSE
Once you can see every attack coming and know how to dodge it, it is time
to go to the offensive. There are many ways to hurt him, some more
effective than others. Here are the most common and effective ones:
- The Air Raid tactic. This works very well on Normal and Hard, but is
nigh-useless on DMD!. The tactic is simple: Get Air Raid and a few purple
Orbs, then fly behind him and fire the bolts through his abdomen. If aimed
properly, you'll do double damage. This is good damage for a Normal, and
maybe even a Hard, SB, but it won't do much damage on DMD!.
So only do this on lower modes, where you don't have to do the secret
mission to compensate for damage.
- The Meteor 2 tactic. A nice one, even damaging on DMD!. It's surprising how
much damage Ifrit does, even though they're fire gauntles. Engage in
combat, build DT and make him burn out. When he's burned out, fire one
(two if you're brave) Meteors in his face for some good damage. Inferno
works nice, too. Ifrit really shines when you combine him with
Nightmare-beta. If you DT, then fire fully charged Nightmare-beta shots,
you can deal impressive damage, get a good rating AND stop most of his
attacks before they can even do anything.
Fully charged regular attacks do nice damage, too. But, Ifrit isn't too
good to stop his attacks due to short range, so don't use it for that.
- The tried and true "Hit him twice, jump back and Stinger" tactic. It's not
hard to pull off and works nicely. It works by hitting him twice, then
avoiding his claw swipe with a backflip (firing mid-air could work nicely
to deal additional damage) and to Stinger the second when he's done with
his swipe. I don't know if he'll stagger with Alastor, but he surely will
if you have Sparda equipped. This is one of the few ways I found it easy
to use with Sparda since it lacks Air Hike for the ultimate Phantom killer:
The critical hit technique.
- The critical hit tactic: Already described in [065P], but I'll go over it
again.
The best critical hit is made by DT'ing and hitting him with an Air Hiked
or wall hiked jump in the abdomen. Aiming for the bulb yields the best
results and will take off a lot of Phantom's health, even on DMD!. Two full
Air Hikes aren't wise because you can lose track of Phantom while you're up
in the air. A hop for alignment, then a full Air Hike and the downward
slash at the apex of your jump will yield good results. While you won't get
maximum damage from this (the higher, the more damage), it's more reliable
than two full jumps.
If you don't have Air Hike, then a wall hike (jump against the wall) or an
enemy hike (use Phantom's bulb as the 'wall' or 'platform') will suffice as
well. The latter two need more practice but will work just as well. It will
completely kill Phantom in one hit on Easy Auto.
----------
[082N] - Nelo Angelo
This dark knight knows the same moves as you do. The only difference is
that he and his sword are bigger, stronger and uglier than you and your
sword are. The battles are very much alike, but he'll learn some new moves
during the latter battles (Ifrit like moves during the second bout and the
Spiral Swords during the third one).
DEFENSE
Just like you, he knows a basic four hit combo. It's the exact same as
yours. It just has more reach and is stronger than yours will ever be. It's
not hard to avoid, either. Nor hard to predict. He'll only do it when you
are close to him. The giveaway is that he'll put his sword in one hand and
that it starts to glow. When that happens, he'll do the four hit combo.
To avoid it, you should just roll or run out of the way. Don't jump because
of the wide arc it has.
If you're feeling brave, you can clash your sword against his. He'll either
slump over, fatigued, or he'll launch another attack, such as his version
of Stinger.
His version of Stinger is easy to see coming. He'll hold his sword sideways
a charge towards you. Depending on whether or not the sword is glowing, he
will either finish it with a very wide slash (avoid it by jumping) or, if
it's not glowing, he will do his basic four hit combo.
The other Stinger-like attack is done during the third battle when it just
starts. If you wait too long or if the distance is too large, he'll come
after you with his sword in front of him. The results are the same, though.
This attack, too, can be 'hit' with either a Rolling Blaze, a slash or a
punch. The results are the same as when you parry a normal slash of his.
After receiving a few hits, he can block. You can't hit him during this
period, so lay off him and check what he does. He'll either do a new attack
or he'll teleport away.
His teleport is a move you can't prevent. He has a habit of creating some
distance between you and himself. Distance that he'll use to use his
fireball or Stinger attack.
Unlike Phantom's fireball, you can not deflect this one, so don't even try
it. You'll slash right through it and then you'll destroy it. It's a lot
faster than Phantom's attack as well, so dodging it is the best thing you
can do. A roll works very well in this case. If you attack him while he's
charging, then you can stop him from charging this attack.
He also has a hightime, just like you do. In the first battle, he'll use it
rarely, but it'll come out more frequently in the later battles. This move,
too, can be parried with a sword slash. During the later battles he can
also perform a rising high time.
During the second fight, he has all these moves, together with a few Ifrit
ones. Namely two punches, his version of Kick13 and the diagonal homing
kick. You can't parry these attacks, so focus on avoiding these. He
also has a habit of mixing his sword moves with these martial art moves, so
watch out. His hightime -> diagonal kick combo is devastating and can take
you by surprise.
There's no real way to see his punches coming, other than to wait out his
next move. If you jump once you see it coming you'll be very likely to
avoid getting hit. If he decides to use a punch, then he'll always follow
it up with a second punch. The rest is different: Either a rising hightime
followed by a diagonal kick or a Kick 13.
If one of the above combos connect fully on DMD!, it will kill you even if
you have all the health you can get.
The last move he'll learn is during the third fight. During this fight, he
will have access to his Spiral Swords. He'll move to either side of the
arena and summon the swords. He has a few possible combinations that he can
send your way:
- A horizontal line. Nelo will line the swords up in a horizontal line and
fire them all in rapid succession. To dodge this one, you should run in
the direction that's opposite of the first blade fired (if the left one
is fired first, run right and vice versa).
- A vertical line. He'll line them up in a vertical line and shoot them in
rapid succession. A tad harder to avoid, but not impossible if you keep
running.
- Diamond formation. The swords will form a diamond of sorts and all eight
will come at you... and quickly, too. This one's harder to avoid since
they don't follow a real pattern. Rolling and well timed jumps are your
friend with this formation.
- Circle formation. Nelo will place a sword formation around you in the
shape of a circle. This one has two outcomes. Either they'll disappear
and hit you from above or they'll stop circling and come at you at the
same time.
In the case of the former you should stand still. In the case of the
latter, you should jump out of the way.
- Shield formation. Not exactly an attack, but annoying anyway. He'll have
the Spiral Swords form a shield around him which will have to be broken
before you can hit him attack. You can either destroy the swords or wait
for them to disappear automatically. Try not to engage in combat with him
now, since you'll probably get whacked during the process.
- Tutu of death. Lack of a good name has made me make this one up. He
will have the swords around him, with the tip pointing outwards. Getting
too close will results in Shikedante, so stay out of the way as long as
he is wearing this nice little skirt.
All Spiral Swords can be destroyed. For close Spiral Swords, you can either
use Rolling Blaze or Inferno. For the ones that he shoots from afar, your
best bet is to Vortex through them (remember that Vortex renders you
invincible during the attack).
You can also prevent the Spiral Sword summon, as I briefly told you in the
Mission 17 part. Either Vortex to him, hit him with a downward slash or
diagonal kick or a Meteor attack to immediately throw him on the floor.
He can also fire his fireballs when he's up there summoning. The same
tactic to stopping him applies here.
OFFENSE
In order to attack Nelo, you'll have to attack him while he's either
fatigued or taunting. Any other time could easily be classified as suicide.
The most effective way for Alastor, Force Edge or Sparda, is Slash
Cancelling him. It's the most effective in the first battle since he'll
take 10 hits before blocking (those 10 hits will net you an 'Absolute'
ranking). Once you reach 10, stop attacking and jump back. If you jump back
correctly, he'll want to launch a fireball. Quickly get to him and Slash
Cancel him again. Repeat until he's defeated. You can easily repeat this,
since it's a loop. It'll work in pretty much every battle.
If you find this too cheap, then I can recommend the parry intensive way.
The best way to do this, is to have Alastor or Sparda equipped. Sparda is
the better sword for this tactic since it has more reach.
The parry tactic is done by firstly evading his moves, then attacking until
he blocks and to attack when he's blocking. He'll lower his offense while
you're off-guard. If you recover quickly enough (which you almost always
do), then you can launch your own attack. This attack will clash with his,
making him either slump over or making him do another attack. If he's
slumped over, attack him and repeat the process. If he attacks, clash your
swords again. And again.
Be careful, though! You can NOT parry his punches. Just evade those. And if
he decides to do his Stinger, let him. It'll reset his hit count, allowing
you to do somewhere around 8 hits using Slash Cancelling. After this, go
back to parrying.
You can also use Force Edge but that's even more risky than Alastor because
of its extremely short range. Attack with care and don't parry if you don't
think you'll make it.
If you prefer Ifrit, then the most safe way is to stun him manually. Wait
until you can hit him, and when you do, perform a (fully charged) punch,
punch, kick, kick combo. Then, hit him with a punch to make him block.
Fully charge the next punch to make him slump over. Finish the combo. Then
repeat the process. You can only do this a few times until he decides to
teleport away, so it's not foolproof.
Another Ifrit combo I tend to use, is to wait for his taunt. When he does
that, I fully charge the first punch and I DT at the last moment. Then I
continue the combo with slightly charged punches (not too much or else you
can't attack him) and instead of the last kick, I do an Auto Kick13. When
he blocks, I jump over him for an Inferno. You can De-DT during the Inferno
to receive some DT (but you'll do less damage, obviously).
Magma Drive can also be used to stun him. First, get him in the slumped
over/fatigued stance. Then, fully charge the first punch and then
immediately follow it with a Magma Drive (don't worry about doing a Meteor
when you're DT'ed. That won't happen). The Magma Drive will stun him again.
A Grenade shot for damage, then a fully charged punch and another Magma
Drive. Tadaa, one looped Nelo!
You might wanna leave out the shot if you're not DT'ed since Magma Drive
will stun you too a bit.
Still, this, too, can be a very useful tactic in beating Nelo to the
ground.
----------
[083G] - Griffon
This bird packs a wallop and the third battle will always stay with me as
one of the hardest Devil May Cry 1 battles I've ever fought. Especially on
DMD! mode.
DEFENSE
In the first, second and first half of the third round, pretty much all of
his attacks will be accompanied by electricity on the floor (Hard and DMD!
only). This only happens when he's in flight so you're safe for this when
he's on the ground.
There's no way to prevent this attack. You can only dodge it. You'll
faintly see red lightning bolts on the place where the electricity will
materialize. So move away from this spot. The electricity will fade away
after two or three seconds.
In short, you have to stay on the move so you won't get hit. In the first
fight, it'll home in on your altitude and stay on that height. In the
second fight, it can pretty much move all over the ship and in the third
fight this move has the ability to move upwards and diagonal as well, so
standing on the edges after execution of this move isn't always the safest
thing to do.
During flight, he has a variety of moves in his arsenal. The most common
one you'll see is a V-shaped bolt that (sort of) homes in on your altitude.
Before it'll be a V-shaped bolt, it'll be a red sphere that drops to your
altitude. Once it has found you, two bolts in the shape of a V will come
out and will close in on you.
Not being on the same height as this attack will do miracles in avoiding
it making it an easy to dodge move even when its accompanied by the floor
electricity move.
Another favourite in-flight move of his, is his divebomb attack. He'll fly
back a bit and then fly towards you while dropping numerable red spheres
that will hurt you on contact. This move can easily be spotted from afar
and is easy to dodge with both Alastor and Ifrit. While rolling works, it's
not as safe because Griffon can change direction. Still, rolling might be
the best option you've got if he's close to you when starting this move. If
he's further away, an Air Hike will completely negate the move. With Ifrit,
you can jump up once and then use his head to use a pseudo-air hike to fly
over Griffon so you can dodge this move.
The last, common in-flight move is his dive attack. The cue is so obvious
that you can't miss it. He'll shriek a bit and fly way up in the sky. After
standing still he will charge at you with all the speed he's got. You can
avoid this by running or rolling away from him, or by jumping out of the
way. It will hurt if it connects, so dodge it at all costs.
He'll only do this move in the first battle if he was already knocked over,
he'll rarely do it in the second fight and it's one of his favourites
during the second half of the third bout. So, learn to dodge this move.
His last in-flight move only happens during the second battle and is simply
a red wing attached to you. It will always home in on you wherever you are
and it can fly through anything. Deal with this thing as fast as you can as
it's very annoying. DT'ed gunfire will get rid of it fairly quickly and
Rolling Blaze works well, too.
The first wing is the weakest and the next are all stronger so try to avoid
these by having Griffon on the ship and not in the air (see Mission 12
details on how to do this).
He also has a few tricks up his sleeve for when he's on the ground. If the
distance is great enough he'll charge at you and he will do a double peck
attack with his beak ("Griffon, peck attack! ...It's super effective!").
It's not hard to avoid if you jump or roll last minute. If you roll, the
second one will miss completely.
During the third fight, he'll jump around. The impact from these jumps will
hurt you so stay out of the way to avoid getting hit.
If you're too close to him, he has the ability of doing a gust attack. This
will not hurt you, but it will stun you if you're too close. When this
happens, it will always be followed up by one of his lightning attacks:
- Several horizontal bolts, fired in succession. These fellas home in on
your current altitude. The easiest way to dodge these is to jump over the
first one (assuming you're on the ground) with a full, normal jump, then
to stand still for the second one (it will fly over you) and to jump
for the third one, etc..
This one is only used during the first battle.
- Several V-shaped bolts, fired in succession. These can be avoided in the
same way as the horizontal bolts.
This one is also used during the first battle, only.
- A combination of the above. Griffon will fire a V-Shaped bolt and right
afterwards a horizontal one that will most likely hit you. This move is
not that hard to avoid when you're really far away, but it's a pain up
close. The best thing I've managed to come up with was to roll through
every bolt.
It's tricky timing, but very much possible. This attack is only used
during the second half of the third battle.
- A horizontal bolt, followed by a red sphere, then a horizontal bolt,
etc.. Again, another hard move to dodge if you're close by. Not too hard
if there's a load of distance between you and him. If there's a lot of
distance then you can run to avoid the spheres and jump to dodge the
horizontal bolts. Closeby, I'd suggest rolling again.
This move, too, is only used during the second half of the third battle.
- Lightning curtain. Another tough one. Try not to stand too close or else
you'll get hurt before you can act. This move can be easy to dodge,
provided you can roll correctly. Roll grants you invincibility right
after startup, so if you roll right before the electricty hits you, then
you'll completely negate all damage.
Keep rolling to avoid all of the lightning bolts. He can send up to eight
at you if he feels like it.
This move is only used during the third battle.
- Lightning storm. Not too hard to dodge, regardless of where you are. This
move will be used if the sky becomes dark. Griffon will lift his head and
shriek. Lightning will surround him and he'll send 3x2 bolts at you. Just
roll right before it connects to completely avoid damage. There's a few
seconds between the next two bolts, so use this to unload some gunfire on
him.
The closer you are, the more perfect your timing has to be for this move.
But it can always be dodged.
This move will be used during all battles. In the first battle, he'll use
it when you're very far away or when he's been driven in a corner. During
the second battle, it'll be the only move he uses when he touches down on
the ship.
And during the third one, he'll occasionally use it when he feels like
it.
The lightning that surrounds Griffon can hurt you, so stay away from
this at all times.
- Double V-shaped lightning bolts. This isn't an attack that he launches
whenever he wants to but it's an automated defence mechanism that
activates when you get too close during one of the above lightning
attacks. The best way to avoid this is launching a diagonal kick which
will allow you to move right through the bolts, allowing you to escape
unharmed.
The last of Griffon's defence mechanisms is his core. The core hurts by
draining your health slowly when you're in contact with it. This only
happens when you've knocked Griffon over and when you're standing *on* him.
So, in short: Do NOT stand on Griffon when he's knocked over to damage the
core. It'll hurt you and rob you of your Special Bonus.
OFFENSE
Unlike Nelo and Phantom, Griffon doesn't have a good moment during which
you can attack him. Instead, defeating Griffon mostly consist of chipping
in small amounts of damage between his attacks in order to make him fall
over. The only real time during which you can deal good amounts of damage
is when you knock him over because you will not be dependent on gunfire
then.
You should try to fight Griffon long range, preferably with DT'ed gunfire.
Ebony & Ivory and the Grenade Gun are ideal weapons to damage him. The best
moment is between his successive lightning bolts (E.G.: shoot DT'ed shots
while you're avoiding the volley of V-shaped bolts).
To get some good DT back, you should fire a DT'ed grenade and De-DT before
it hits Griffon. This will return 2 DT glyphs.
If you have some time, you can throw in a Roundtrip for some damage, if you
are using Sparda or Alastor. Be careful not to get hit during the charge up
and release time. DT for extra damage.
Only switch to short range when Griffon does so, as well. The best moment
is his peck attack. Roll out of the way and slash a few times. Don't try to
get in more damage unless you're sure that you can dodge him.
While these methods only take off small amounts of damage, the real damage
is done by making Griffon fall over.
when he's on the floor you should attack with as much fully charged
DT'ed Ifrit attacks as you can (Meteor counts, if the distance is too much
to cover before he recovers).
This falling over can happen during any battle but is mostly used during
the third battle with him. Infact, there's a whole tactic devoted to making
him fall over during this battle.
This tactic involves staying close to him and dealing as many melée hits as
you can, accompanied with Infernoes. If you squeeze in enough melée hits,
then you can reduce the required number of Infernoes from three to two.
The close range tactic also means that you won't have to avoid as much
lightning bolt attacks as with the longrange tactic.
Meteor is also a very good move to use since it has double hit potential
(see the critical hit section for details). But use it sparingly since it
eats DT and because of the long charge up time.
Inferno is an excellent move to make him fall to the floor. You'll only
need three Infernoes to make him fall over during the third fight, so you
should make use of this if you like the short range strategy.
Alastors Air Hiked downward slashes will also deal nice damage when you aim
these attacks on his head. It won't be as destructive as with Phantom, but
it certainly deals more damage than a DT'ed Grenade Gun or a Roundtrip. You
should only use those attacks during the first battle because it's too
dangerous during the third one and not worth the effort during the second
one.
Unfortunately for you, there's no real loop that you can abuse when it
comes to beating Griffon other than the one on the ship. The other two
battles will come down to fighting him as good as you can and learning to
dodge all of his moves.
----------
[084N] - Nightmare
A powerful but systematic opponent that can do exactly what you want it to,
provided *you* know what to do.
DEFENSE
Joch at the DMC1 board described it most accurately: "I prefer to see
Nightmare as a number of barriers that you have to overcome in order to
damage him."
And he's right. That's what Nightmare truly is: A lot of defensive
mechanisms thrown at you at the same time in order to damage you.
Nightmare's arsenal and tactics remain unchanged throughout the three
battles, but each battle yields a new surprise for you. I'll first describe
his defenses when he's in liquid form starting at bout one, ending at bout
three.
After that, I'll handle the solid form in the same order.
Nightmare's liquid form is the form during which he is invincible at all
times. Attacking this will result in all your attacks doing no damage at
all. While you can't attack him, he can attack you. Although this is very
limited, you should be wary.
His first defense are his ice slugs. These crawling little fellows will get
stuck on you and after sitting on you for a while, they'll explode dealing
damage. Wriggle the analog stick to get rid of these and stay on the move
to avoid getting them on you.
Remember that there's not a single drycleaner out there that will get those
stains out of your clothes.
If you walk near the slime, then Nightmare will try to grab you. If he
hasn't grabbed you during the current battle, then you can enter another
defensive mechanism: The Spectral Realm that harbours Dante's nightmares.
This Spectral Realm will contain a boss that you have previously defeated
accompanied by a few Sargassos.
During the first round, it'll contain Phantom. The second encounter will
have Griffon on display and the third encounter is Nelo Angelo.
I'll explain this in more detail in the offensive section, since you can
use this defensive mechanism against him.
If you already entered the Spectral Realm, then the grab will damage you.
So avoid it at all costs, then.
(There's a small glitch present that can screw up your SB attempt. This
only applies to when you're in flight. Somehow, this grab attack can also
hurt you in the air. It doesn't happen often, but it CAN happen, so watch
out when you decide to attack him from the air).
This mechanism only applies to the third battle. If you're too close to the
pile of goo, then he can occasionally decide to move upwards to the
ceiling. Two things can happen, depending on whether or not you get caught:
- If you got caught, then you'll be surrounded by a slimy net. The only way
to break out is to attack it as fast as you can. DT to ensure your escape.
If you wait too long, then Nightmare will drop on you, dealing heavy
damage.
- If you didn't get caught, then Nightmare will still have his slimy net,
but without you in it. However, Nightmare just won't let you get away with
this. While you're out there, he'll launch small missiles your way, one at
a time. To avoid this, you'll either have to use Rolling Blaze to deflect
them or you'll have to run and jump right before impact to prevent getting
hit by his attacks.
He'll drop down after a while.
His last defensive mechanism in the liquid state, are the small pieces of
slime that are flying around near the edges of Nightmare. They won't do
much damage (you can hardly see it), but it's enough damage to rob you of
your Special Bonus. So watch out when you attack or when you're near the
edges.
Next up are his solid defenses. In order to activate these, you'll have to
lit up the dials that are present in the arena.
The very first mechanism you'll encounter, are small machine guns that will
fire at you. Jumping back and forth between two places or aiming and
walking sideways will allow you to dodge this fire. If you fire at the orbs
you can take them out. This will restore one DT glyph and reduce the amount
of fire you'll receive.
After this attack, Nightmare will do one of two attacks, depending on your
position. If you're in front of him and not TOO far to his sides, he will
launch an ice beam attack. If you run away from the beam on the floor, you
won't get hit. Dodging to Nightmare's sides is the best course of action
you can take to avoid this. Watch out since that the light that the core
emits can hurt you as well.
This attack is the easiest to avoid of the two he can use. You can dodge
it completely if you stand on his back.
The length and movement of the attack is dependent on the state of the top
core. If it's blue, he'll fire the beam in a single direction for a few
seconds. If it's green, he'll fire it in one direction and then he'll move
around for a bit. This attack lasts longer than when the top core is blue.
When the core is red, he'll fire it in one direction for a little while,
then he'll move around like crazy to cover as much area as he possibly can.
The other attack that Nightmare can launch, are his homing missiles. This
will only happen if you're too close to his sides and his rear. These
projectiles are best deflected with Inferno, Rolling Blaze, DT'ed Ebony &
Ivory fire or Vortex.
Deflected project will return to damage the core, but the damage isn't
really worth it. All in all, you should stick to Nightmare's front to avoid
seeing this move at all.
The second attack Nightmare will do, is his triple stab. While this attack
may be tough to avoid, it's rather easy to parry this and to stun Nightmare
in the process. The triple stab comes out the fastest if you're directly
next to his side. This is because he won't have to turn to aim for you. If
you try to stand near his front, he'll have to turn, giving you time to
react appropriately.
Don't dodge this move, but parry it. A well timed Rolling Blaze will parry
the stab and stun Nightmare, leaving the top core exposed for quite some
time allowing you to deal some very good damage on him.
If you insist on using Alastor or Sparda, make use of Stinger's long travel
distance to make the timing of your parry a little lenient (as long as the
Stinger connects when you travel, you will always parry this attack). When
you use this method for parrying, give yourself a chance to respond by
forcing Nightmare to turn around a bit.
When you encounter Nightmare for the second time, it'll have learned a new
move that it can use against you. It will always be used as its fifth
attack instead of an ice beam or its projectile attack.
The easiest way to dodge this is to stay in the air, though it can hit you
up there. The chance is just a lot smaller.
It's better to parry this attack. The easiest way to do this is right
before it reaches its apex and before it starts spinning. A well timed
Rolling Blaze, downward slash or rising high time will parry the attack,
leaving Nightmare's core vulnerable for several attacks.
This attack can be prevented if you time your trips to the Spectral Realm
properly.
It's last defense, is the core itself. The state of the core reflects how
much damage he will take from your attacks. The state of the core also
determines the power and behaviour of the ice beam move (see above).
The blue core is the weakest core and it will take full damage from all
your attacks. This is, of course, the best state for the core to be in when
you attack it.
The green core is slightly stronger than the green core, in the sense that
it will take slightly less damage from your moves. You won't really notice
the difference on moves such as Meteor, though. And this is the state
that Nightmare's top core should be in at all times, ideally.
The red core is the strongest core. Its defense will increase 2-3 times,
meaning that even Meteor isn't all that effective anymore. You'll
definitely want to avoid this. If Nightmare's top core is red before you
start mission 21, then it's almost certain that you will not get that SB.
You'll always see the red core after you finish Nightmare for the third
time. This is the only time that you should see the red core. During this
phase, which board-goers tend to call "The Final Core", you'll be attacked
by white laser beams, ice slugs and projectiles.
To dodge the white beams, hugging the blue energy field is more than enough
as long as you stay on the move. The slugs HAVE to be avoided or else you
will waste precious time you could be using to attack the core. The
projectiles can be deflected by shooting at them to deal additional damage
to the core.
The Final Core is very chaotic and will most likely rob you of your Special
Bonus quite a few times if you're not careful. See below for the best
possible attack methods during this last phase.
You don't really have to worry about the hind core since you'll rarely
attack it, meaning that it won't even get the chance to shatter and change
colour. It won't change the exposure time anyway.
OFFENSE
In order to override Nightmare's liquid state, you'll have to lit one of
the dials in the room, first. The first arena will have four dials. The
other two will only have two dials each. It doesn't matter which dial you
lit, the result is the same: You'll override his defense system, forcing
him to become solid. You can extend this period by hitting the dial before
the time has run out.
Avoid the attack he throws at you using the above paragraphs and get ready
for the offense. The best possible results are achieved with Ifrit and a
green top core. The following opportunities are the best to use:
- During and after the ice beam attack. As soon as the light stops emitting
from the core, jump on Nightmare's back, DT and use fully charged Ifrit
attacks. If the core is blue, fully charge the first punch, the first kick
and the last kick (this kick is the most powerful, regular, melée attack in
the game).
If the core is green, you can charge all four of your attacks, including
one extra punch.
- Right after parrying the triple stab. If you parry this move correctly,
Nightmare's core will remain exposed. You can either launch three fully
charged Meteor2's on this hind core OR 5 fully charged, DT'ed Ifrit
attacks. The resulting damage is about the same, only the Meteors are safer
since there can be slime flying around that will hurt you when they
connect, making you lose your Special Bonus.
- Right after parrying the boomerang. It's the same deal as with parrying
the triple stab, only this time you can damage the top core instead of the
hind core. The same rules apply here: Either five fully charged Ifrit
attacks or three fully charged Meteors.
To get an optimal battle, you should only attack during the above moments.
Any others could be unsafe or pretty much useless.
Another way to damage Nightmare is to deflect its projectiles. As you
already know, he'll launch these when you get too close to his rear. The
damage these things to do is pitiful and you really shouldn't bother with
this tactic since it'll only take precious time you could be using to
attack Nightmare with more potent attacks.
A very good way to harm Nightmare, is to enter the Spectral Realm and to
defeat the boss there. Once you come out, it'll take off 1/3rd of his
current health (this means that this way of attacking him will never kill
him). For the most damage, you should do this at the start of the fight.
But that's not necessarily the best course of action.
This move has two other advantages for you after you leave the Spectral
Realm. The first is that during the remaining battle Nightmare's exposure
time will be doubled. Meaning that you'll have to lit the dials only half
of the time now.
The other, more important advantage, is that this will reset all of
Nightmare's counters, the two most important ones being the attack counter
and the core counter. The former one is set to 1 and the latter to 0.
The attack counter counts which attack Nightmare should do. If it's 1, then
he'll either do Ice Beam or the projectile attack, depending on your
position. If it's 2, he'll do triple stab, etc..
Resetting this means that his first attack after returning to a solid form
will ALWAYS be Ice Beam or the projectile attack.
The core counter counts how many attacks the core has received. The top
core and hind core are programmed to shatter after a certain number of
hits. Let's say that you're one grenade shot away from shattering the green
core. If you go to the Spectral Realm and defeat the boss there and go back
up, this counter will have reset to 0, meaning that you can fire all the
grenades you have fired prior to going in the Spectral Realm and not
shatter the core. This is very useful if you want to extend the time you
have with a certain core.
Meteor is a very good way to harm either core and to prevent it from
shattering too soon. The damage it deals is impressive and it won't count
as two hits on the core or anything similar, meaning that you can do more
damage with the same amount of attacks.
The blue, top core will shatter after about 8 hits in the first fight. If
you follow the guide, you should not have a red core by the time you finish
the first fight. The hind core can take a few more blows before it
shatters.
The green core will be your main core during the course of the battle, so
use the trick to reset the counter if it shatters too early.
For the fastest time, you should definitely avoid using Alastor or Sparda.
Neither weapon has a hit that's as potent as Ifrit's charged attacks and
using these weapons will only make the battle drag on and on.
Speaking of avoiding weapons, the Nightmare-beta won't work, either.
Still, Alastor does have its uses versus this monster. It's the best weapon
to use against the Final Core.
The Final Core is very chaotic with a lot of attacks coming your way. When
you start this, you'll want to be near the edge of the arena so that you
have enough time to evade the projectiles coming your way. After
Nightmare's health becomes red, DT and Vortex. Just keep on Vortexing. Just
don't keep the button pressed, but tap it! This way you'll maximize the
damage done by the attack while you remain invincible most of the time.
This way you should be capable of finishing the core before it DTs and
without being at too much risk.
To reach the time requirement it is important that you keep on firing. The
choices are Ebony & Ivory and the Grenade Gun. The former has weaker fire
power but more mobility, allowing you to dodge quicker. The latter, while
stronger, is also slower and requires you to roll so you won't be troubled
by the recoil this gun has.
Both have their pros and cons and it's up to you to see what best fits your
style of play for this part.
----------
[085M] - Mundus, introduction
The final boss of the game will prove to live up to his name as the Prince
of Darkness. His attacks are powerful and there's almost always at least
two of them coming your way. The second fight is the most difficult boss
battle you'll face during your Special Bonus run. Getting through it alive
is hard, let alone getting through it damagefree.
The three battles are very different, hence all three will be handled
seperately, since each requires a different approach.
----------
[086M] - Mundus, first battle
This battle pays homage to Space Invaders, sort of. It's the battle that
precedes the real final battle. But you shouldn't underestimate Mundus in
this form: He can beat you down quite quickly if you aren't careful. His
attacks aren't as much as the other bosses, so the defense and offense part
won't be as large as the previous bosses.
DEFENSE
This isn't a very hard battle, but it can be tricky to avoid all the
attacks the throws at you. I personally dread the lightning curtain + red
lasers + rock slab combination that he tends to throw at you.
The best way to avoid *most* of his attacks is to circle highspeed around
the edges of the screen. This will be good enough to avoid the rockslabs,
any laser attack he decides to fire at you and the comet rain he sometimes
uses. Because of that, I won't handle those seperate attacks here.
The circle tactic will not always evade the white laser beam he sends at
you. This move can come in either horizontally or vertically and will go
either from left to right or from top to bottom. The easiest way to dodge
this is to float in the centre once you see him charge it and to move to
the bottom right the second he fires to avoid getting hit. Alternately,
you can also decide to Vortex through it. It'll last long enough to
completely negate the attack.
This shouldn't be too hard to dodge, even when he's firing lasers at the
same time.
His lightning grid shouldn't be too hard to dodge. There are massive gaps
between the bolts through which you can fly. Use the vertical parts to
avoid other attacks coming your way.
He'll also summon 6 small spheres to fire lasers at you. These lasers are
dodged the same way as any other of his lasers. You can shoot the spheres
to destroy them, but it's not really worth the trouble since evading the
lasers is rather easy.
The last attack he has, is his Vortex move. Dodge it by going in the corner
that's the furthest away from him. This move will never be combined with
another move.
In order to dodge a combination of his moves, you need to be calm and
collected. Randomly flying around will only let you get hit and evading
everything is usually a case of combining different evasive tactics.
OFFENSE
You can only hurt Mundus three ways:
- Shooting him
- Using your DT
- Vortex
Shooting him will be your main source of damage. Having a turbo controller
can help you out at this fight but it's not required to get the Special
Bonus.
The first step is to destroy the shield. The best way to do this is to make
small circles in opposite direction of the way the spheres are circling,
firing rapidly. Do this only when there aren't a lot of attacks.
If you can't disable the shield from afar, wait until you're closer so that
you have better aim.
After shattering the shield, you'll have a lot of time to shoot at him.
Depending on your distance he will reactivate the shield or leave it like
this. He'll only regenerate the shield if you're far away from him or if
you decide to use your special DT attack.
You should shoot him whenever the chance arises. But don't try to push your
luck by shooting when you shoot be dodging. Combining the two methods works,
too. If he fires his lasers you can make a circle that's half as wide as
the normal one and shoot him while you're moving in front of him. Be
creative. There's no cooldown time on this attack, so fire when you can.
Be aware that you can NOT hit Mundus right at the start of the battle
simply because Dante doesn't fire that far.
The special DT attack will deal very nice damage, but it drains all your DT
and you'll have to regain at least three glyphs before you can use it
again.
There's no cooldown time on this attack either, it'll pierce through
anything and will force Mundus to end his attack prematurely. So use this
if you're in a pinch.
This is also THE attack to use when it comes to double hitting Mundus. See
the critical hit section for details (In short, you'll have to fire the
dragon when he removes his left hand from his right shoulder, provided
that you're as close as you can get. On even runs, you'll have to be a
little bit sooner for it to connect twice).
----------
[087M] - Mundus, second battle
The real, final battle. Prepare for one Hell of a fight.
DEFENSE
Mundus has a variety of attacks and he's very eager to stack two or three
at a time to give you a hard time.
His most common 'attack' is a prelude to another attack. He'll create four
large spheres which will circle the arena for a period of time. They don't
do anything except circling the arena. So you don't NEED to take them out
if you don't see the need. Any leftover spheres will be absorbed by Mundus
for his REAL attack:
The best fireball attack in the game. As you may have guessed, he can fire
four fireballs at maximum. It is possible to negate this fireball move by
destroying all big spheres but I'm advising against this (more on this in
the attack section).
The more fireballs Mundus has, the slower they will fire, making it easier
for you to dodge them if you have to. To dodge them, move to the opposite
side from which they're coming. Which means that if the fireballs are
coming from your left, you should move to your right and vice versa.
Rolling works too, of course.
Watch out because these fireballs will go straight through the rocks that
can float between you and Mundus. The remains of the rocks can hurt you as
well so you'll want to try to make sure that no rocks will be destroyed
when you attempt to dodge these.
Occasionally, he'll rear back, put his hands before his face and then he'll
fire a single fireball. This is very rare and will most likely not even
happen during most battles. Still, the windup takes long enough for you to
find out what he'll do.
To increase his defense he'll rise chunks of rock from the lava. These
rocks will be located right in front of Mundus' face and halfway between
the ground and the rocks before his face. You can stand on them to get
closer to Mundus if you like.
These rocks will block all of your moves so wait for a gap to appear so you
can hit Mundus. The only way to get rid of the rocks is to let Mundus
destroy them with his attacks.
Dodging the fragments is tricky, but Air Hiking over them works most of
the time. Rolling to a side they're not falling to works, as well.
These rock slabs also diminish the DT you get from taunting.
Another very common attack is when he summons five small spheres. They'll
appear one at a time and two will be on screen at the most. These spheres
will fire at you until they're empty. The attack ends after five spheres
have been emptied or destroyed.
You can dodge these lasers but it's far easier to use two non-DT'ed Shotgun
blasts to take them out before they can do anything. A DT'ed Shotgun blast
(to do this, DT and fire mid-air) will destroy them immediately.
Mundus likes to combine the fireballs with these spheres. The spheres will
be your main priority until Mundus decides to fire the fireballs. When he's
close to firing, move to a place where the shots can't hurt you and focus
on avoiding or deflecting the fireballs.
Another move he tends to do, is to conjure up 6 small spheres on the edge
of the arena. You can easily dodge all shots by standing at the VERY edge
of the arena. The spheres will only shoot inwards, hence you'll be safe. In
order to destroy these things, stand in the centre and fire two shotgun
blasts to each side. With a little luck you'll destroy all six spheres
before they can begin to move.
If some of the spheres survive your attack, then make sure you're at the
edge when they pass by.
The spheres will automatically disappear after one and a half lap around
the arena.
Those six little sphere can also be placed around his head. This is mostly
done when you're close to his head. If he does this and one of the spheres
is directly in front of you, get the Hell out of there. You will get hurt
otherwise.
If you're on the outer circle of the arena, then you'll only have to make
sure that you're not in front of one of these spheres when they start
firing. Their area of effect isn't that wide, leaving a pretty wide gap
for you to stand safely once they start firing.
Remember Phantom's annoying lava plume attack? Well, Mundus has one too. It
is preceded by him slamming his fist into the magma around him. It's
exactly the same as Phantom's version, but it only lasts longer (10 plumes
whereas Phantom has 6).
Evasion happens the same way as with Phantom: Walking or running in a
direction without backtracking.
Another attack that starts the exact same way is his magma dragon. It'll
start with Mundus slamming his fist to the floor, and seconds after that
a magma dragon will come out. Mundus will sit back while the dragon's doing
the fighting for him.
This creature's only attack is a fireball. If you manage to deflect this
(easily done with a DT'ed slash) then you can defeat the dragon in one go.
You'll get a green orb for killing the dragon.
Sometimes, if you're lucky, you can direct the fireball to Mundus for some
damage, but if you do that you'll have to take out the dragon with other
attacks. My advice is to get rid of the dragon as soon as possible so you
can continue to fight Mundus.
Another one of Mundus' magma based attacks is his magma slice. He'll put
one hand in the magma and move it up quickly, creating a thin slice of
magma heading your way. You can easily dodge this by walking to the sides.
He'll sometimes do it twice in a row. The second one can be evaded the same
way as the first one.
The last magma based attack is is the magma dragon's floor attack. This,
too, is achieved by slamming his fist on the floor. You can recognize this
attack by one thing: Flames appearing on the floor beneath you. If you
don't escape quickly then you'll be hurled in the sky for some pretty good
damage. Run away as soon as you see the flames. If you spot them a little
late, then try to roll as soon as possible to evade this.
The attack is rare, so you won't see it very often.
Mundus also has the ability to fire lasers, just like in the previous
battle. Again, they'll either come out of his hand or his back.
The hand variety is easy to avoid. It'll always go from right to left and
can be avoided with Air Hike. Jump to the left when it's approaching (do
NOT jump too soon since this attack will adjust height), then Air Hike at
the top and then move to the right to jump over the lasers.
The back variety is more annoying. He'll bend over and fire lasers from his
back. This one can't be evaded by jumping out of the way. Instead, the best
way to evade it is to stand on the far left or right side of the platform,
to DT and to run ahead of the lasers. If you can jump on the other platform
then do so. If you can't, then roll back and hope that you won't get hit by
a stray laser. I know that this is luck based, but it's safer than jumping
in the magma.
You can also try to jump on a chunk of rock to extend your distance.
To me, avoiding this move has almost always been a matter of luck.
Sometimes, Mundus has had enough of the long range fighting and as a result
he'll try to punch you. It's easily seen because prior to it he'll move his
arm back. The punch is easy to avoid. Just jump or roll out of the way.
It becomes more tricky if there are rocks in the way because his punch will
destroy those rocks. Focus on evading the rocks since those are harder to
avoid. You'll usually dodge both the rocks and the punch at the same time,
this way.
His last move is a desperation move, only used when his health reaches the
last 25%. This move is similar to Phantom's meteor rain, but it will last
longer. There'll be a total of 10 meteors falling on you. It may seem like
a daunting attack but it's very easy to dodge if it's the only move: Just
stand on the far left or the far right of the arena and start running when
the last meteor leaves the magma. Normal run to the other side. The last
meteor will fall right before you've reached the end, leaving you unharmed.
I've seen up to six of these attacks in a row, but the evasion remains the
same: Run to the other side without hesitation and without backtracking.
The real pain with this move is lies in the fact that he tends to combine
it with any of his other attacks. Evading it becomes much harder then so
hope that he won't decide to do anything. In most cases, combining
the above dodging methods will work as long as you don't have to jump. If
you do have to do jump, then you better replace the jump wit a roll since
that will increase your chances. If you do jump, then you'll most likely
jump straight in a meteor.
I could go through the pain of describing every possible combination but
there are countless ones thanks to Mundus' attack stacking nature; I'd be
bound to forget one or two.
OFFENSE
You can either fight him long range or short range. The short range way is
definitely faster than the long range way but it's also very unsafe thanks
to this: Staying close to Mundus will make it harder to avoid his attacks
thus endangering your Special Bonus.
Fighting him long range is safer but slower than the short range way.
Long range can still net you your Special Bonus if you got through the
previous battle fast enough. If you were really fast then you could suffice
with killing Mundus long range solely.
You'll usually be using a combination of both methods: Long range when he's
far away and short range when HE comes closeby. It's simply too risky to go
up to him yourself and to fight him short range, especially because you can
not know when he'll perform his attack. Mundus does not have a preset A.I.,
meaning that he might be docile one time and extremely agressive the next.
You should know this when you decide to fight him.
Next to the continious meteor firing (both charged and uncharged),
roundtrips and shotgun blasts, your other source of damage are his
fireballs. Just like Phantom's, you can fire these things back at him.
But, unlike with Phantom, now you have a really large sword at your
disposal making deflection far easier than with Phantom. The slash you make
when you're DT'ed is quite lengthy meaning that you don't have to be as
precise with deflecting as you would normally have to be.
The more there are, the slower the fireballs will go. But the spheres give
you DT if you destroy them. In my opinion, you should have two or three
fireballs. Those won't go too fast and usually all of them will connect
this way. Four is harder to deflect, one will not do very much damage,
hence two or three. It's easy to deflect and you will have gotten some DT
from it.
When Mundus uses his punch, you can avoid it and DT to deal additional
damage. You can do around six DT'ed slashes this way. Once he's out of
reach you should resort to long range attacks again.
The best long range attacks to use are Meteor and Roundtrip. You should
always try to fire a fully charged Meteor. The damage you'll do this way is
more than when you fire uncharged meteors constantly while your DT lasts.
Roundtrips work nice for additional damage, as well. Aside from dealing
damage it can also work very well to restore your DT. Combined with a
two-handed taunt it will restore 5 DT glyphs if there aren't any rocks in
the way.
A DT'ed Roundtrip + a fully charged Meteor will deal good damage to Mundus
but it eats DT.
Should you want to fight short range then you can either use the rocks that
are floating before his face or you can use the rocks that float near his
arms. Sparda's reach when DT'ed is long enough to hit Mundus' arms if the
rocks are floating near his arms. It isn't as risky as hitting Mundus in
the face but still puts you at minor risk because some of his attacks are
performed in that range or because some attacks will affect the rocks
you're standing on.
----------
[088M] - Mundus, third battle
This battle is one of the easiest boss battles the game has to offer. But,
it can be a bit hard if you don't watch out. But once you've done this, you
will know that this boss' a cinch.
DEFENSE
You don't have to defend against a lot of attacks. There's his eye laser
that sweeps across the room which is easily dodged with jumping at the
right time.
If you get too close to him, some of his tentacle like things will hurt you
so stay away from that and defeat him from afar.
If you take too long, you'll be crushed against the sewer wall. ...No, you
can't dodge that. :p
Vortex will dodge all of his moves while damaging him at the same time (see
below).
OFFENSE
One word: Vortex. A 10 DT glyph Vortex will nail him badly. Just keep
tapping the button to maximize the damage output. Shoot a few grenades to
make sure that this will deplete his health completely.
After the cutscene with Trish, shoot and/or taunt for DT and fire when you
can DT.
---------------
[09EN] - Enemy Strategies
The enemies in this game are rich, varied and, sometimes, pretty challenging.
Here I'll describe, in as much detail as needed, how to deal with incoming
enemy attacks, how to avoid them and how to kill them most efficiently. I
won't be too detailed since dealing with lesser demons isn't as hard as the
bosses.
Still, some knowledge on them won't hurt, now won't it?
----------
[091M] - Marionette
These are some of the easiest enemies you'll meet. They exist in three
flavours:
- The kunai wielding type
- The crescent blade wielding type
- The shotgun type.
The kunai and crescent wielding type are mostly close combat types. Their
primary attack is to swing their weapons in your direction. Run away from
them, jump or roll to dodge this.
If you increase the distance they can dash towards you. If they get within
melée range they will immediately follow it up with the above attack. If
they can't, then they'll stop dashing after a while.
They can also start rotating, spinning around their axis with their weapons
extended. The speed they have is faster than your running speed, so jumping
is the safest option.
If the distance is still too great for them to cover, then they'll throw
their weapons. This can be identified with a twirling sound. The kunai will
be thrown in a straight line and are easy to dodge with a well-timed roll
or jump. Or you can shoot these out of the sky if you're lined up with them
properly.
The crescent blades are thrown with an arc and are harder to dodge due to
this. Both blades will meet where you are at the time of throwing. Again,
rolling or just jumping will evade these things. Or shoot them out of the
sky.
If you stand closeby, they can jump on you. Once you're jumped on, you'll
have to wriggle the analog stick as fast as you can get them off you. To
avoid, you'll have to make sure that his jump doesn't reach you. If it does
then you will be hurt.
Their last attack is to stun you. They usually do this when you're either
close by or when they come within range after their dash attack. Devil
Trigger to get out of this. If you don't have Devil Trigger, then wriggle
like mad and hope that you'll escape before they hit you.
The Shotgun variety has the same properties. He can swing his shotgun, but
he can't throw it. Instead, he'll shoot it. The blast from this gun has a
wide dispersion and gets more damaging the closer you are to the blast.
A double jump or a very well timed single jump will dodge this move.
A DT'ed Marionette's defense will skyrocket to the point that you'll be
spending ages trying to kill one. They won't get stunned by un-DT'ed
attacks, only by DT'ed attacks. So DT to balance things out.
The Marionette will fall victim to pretty much any attack you throw at it.
Gunfire, melée attacks, it doesn't matter: They'll die easily. Inferno or
an Air Hiked downward slash are one-hit kills on these guys. They also
don't block your melée attacks, only your gunfire. Repeated gunfire will
make them stagger, cancelling their block allowing you to resume fire.
You can also hurt them with their own Shotgun blasts. Just have a
Marionette in front of you and dodge the attack yourself. This is a one-hit
kill on DMD! for regular Marionettes.
When they DT, then you'll have to revert to shooting or DT combat yourself.
These guys are the biggest threat in Mission 1, when you don't have DT.
When they DT, shoot to kill. In all other situations, DT yourself and
murder them relentlessly.
----------
[092BM] - Bloody Mari
The Bloody Mari is basically an upgraded version of the Marionette. They
can be identified with two properties:
- They're blood red
- They can block your melée attacks.
They, too, exist in three flavours, namely the kunai wielding ones, the
crescent blade wielding ones and the shotgun ones.
Their attacks and skills are the same as the regular Marionettes, so the
evasion tactics remain the same.
Their most annoying habit is to block your melée attacks. This could result
in a long stun that will render you immobile, allowing the Bloody Mari to
counter attack.
The stun you get from this is either long or short and there's no real way
to force a long or short stun when this happens. If you get stunned,
immediately try to roll away from their counterattack.
You can take them out the same way as you take out regular Marionettes, but
it's more dangerous to use sword combos because of blocking.
The easiest way to take them out is to hightime them and to juggle them,
but that should only be done when you're out of danger. If you're being
surrounded then you should first either isolate the Bloody Mari and kill it
or render it helpless and taking out the surrounding monsters.
----------
[093SS] - Sin Scissor
The Sin Scissor have an annoying habit: They can fly through things. This
makes spotting their attacks hard when you're in a narrow corridor. They're
easier to deal with in an open field.
They have three attacks:
- A normal horizontal snip
- A diagonal snip
- a long range charge attack
You'll rarely see the last one unless the battle drags on and on and when
it's in a wide open area. You'll see it coming from a mile away due to
their charge up. An Air Hike over it will dodge this.
Rolling or just running away will do to evade the other snaps.
Sin Scissors are relatively weak. So weak, that a single shotgun blast will
kill them on DMD! mode. Two will nail them on lower modes. You can also use
Air Raid to safely defeat these.
Attacking them head on won't do much good, since they'll just block your
physical attacks. Either take care of them with gunfire, Air Hiked downward
slashes or use the critical hit method described in section 6 to quickly
deal with them.
If you use guns, then the Shotgun is THE gun to use. Others just don't
quite cut it for speed kills.
When fighting these under water, you should stun them with a few shots and
then continue firing until they die. Don't bother to get a critical hit. If
they DT under water, the tactic won't change: Just keep firing to kill them
as quickly as possible.
Multiple Sin Scissors aren't hard if you can line them up vertically and
do a (DT'ed) air hiked downward slash. If you want to do the critical hit
method try to take them out at a time, since it's too risky to critically
hit one while others are around.
Watch out for their falling scissors: They can hit you on the way down and
damage you, screwing up your damage requirement.
----------
[094SS] - Sin Scythe
Similar to Sin Scissor, only these guys are wielding a Scythe. Their
deflection abilities are weaker than those of the Scissors, but that
doesn't make them less dangerous.
Their scythe attacks are harder to avoid and deflect, making it more
dangerous to fight them. Especially because you'll rarely face a single Sin
Scythe.
Of course, their most standard attack is to swipe the scythe at you. While
this move is easily dodged, their scythe throw isn't. They lock in their
scythe on you and throw it vertically. This attack has a tracking ability
making it hard to avoid. Rolling to the side is the safest evasion. That,
or shoot the scythe with DT'ed Ebony and Ivory fire to deflect it. You'll
have to be fast if you decide to shoot it.
After a while, they'll circle around you. This is a preperation to a new
attack which can be hard to dodge. Just stay calm, focus and try to kill
them before they do anything.
The weird umbrella like things can be stood on. This can make it easier in
reaching the Sins if they're very high up. Sometimes, new Sins emerge here
so watch out for surprise attacks.
The Shotgun works well on any mode. Get up close (jump if you have to),
shoot once, then get up close while they hold back their scythe and shoot
again: Dead Sin Scythe. You can occasionally critical hit them this way, if
you aim the blast at the right spot.
Just like the Scissor, Air Hiked Downward slashes work as well. It's not a
critical hit, but it can certainly kill them in one hit. DT'ed E&I fire can
kill them quickly too.
Just like with the Sin Scissor, their weapon that's being dropped after
killing them can hurt you, so stay away.
----------
[095DS] - Death Scissor
The Sin Scissor's bigger brother. Stronger, more annoying, with more
devestating moves. Simply put: You don't wanna meet these guys often. Lucky
for you, you don't. There are only two battles that you can't skip and one
that you can skip (on DMD!, that is). Even though there's only two battles
you should know how to handle these foes since they'll be in missions where
the time requirement is pretty tight.
The arena is special for this battle: You'll always have a small amount of
space to move around, which is bordered by a special powerfield that you
can't escape from. This field will act as a wall and as such you can do
anything with it that a normal wall would allow you to do.
This field is indestructable and only the death of the Death Scissor will
destroy the field. The field is easily distuingishable through it's blue
horizontal and vertical lines.
The Death Scissor can swipe you with its scissors and he'll only do this
when you're close to him. His swipe will cover any direction, so standing
behind him isn't necessarily the safest place. If he decides to attack,
any evasive move that moves you away from the scissors is the best move.
The Death Scythe's special move is his Corkscrew attack. It's very accurate
and he'll come after you several times before stopping. It's pretty much
impossible to avoid him doing this move so you'll just have to learn to
evade it.
The best way is to lock on to him at all times so that you know from which
side you will be attacked. Air Hiking over this attack is possible as long
as your first jump is AWAY from him an the second one over him. It's also
possible to roll to the sides right before he hits you. I find this more
risky than jumping but it just might work if you're comfortable with
rolling.
Don't try to hit him during this attack because he's invincible during the
duration of the attack. Any attempts to hurt him will most likely end up
hurting you instead.
Wait for the red flames around his head to disappear before you try to hit
him again. He'll only be invincible right before, during and right after
the attack.
The best way to attack him are airhiked downward slashes, preferably DT'ed.
Three attacks will kill him. It makes no difference whether they're
airhiked or wallhiked: The result is the same.
Wallhiked attacks are easier for the Death Scythe to deflect than air hiked
attacks.
An enemy hike on the Death Scythe's head followed by an Airhiked downward
slash (in short: Three jumps in a row) will damage the Death Scythe even
more and can reduce the number of hits to two. If you can connect these
properly you might even be able to kill him before he can perform his
Corkscrew move.
You'll know that the Death Scythe is close to death when both his horns
have shattered.
Unlike the Sin Scissors, the Death Scythe can not be critically hurt for a
one hit kill, so don't bother to use the critical hit strategy for this
monster.
When you kill a Death Scissors, wait for the death animation to fully
finish.
Your patience will be rewarded with a full Devil Trigger refill.
You can also use a glitch with Inferno. Hit the Death Scissors with Inferno
and De-DT. Sometimes, you'll get a full refill of Devil Trigger without the
Death Scissor dying.
This may not always work, though.
A defeated Death Scissor will drop its scissors, just like the Sin Scissor.
Staying away from a dying Death Scissor will make sure you won't get hurt
by this.
----------
[096DS] - Death Scythe
As you might have guessed, this is the Sin Scythe's bigger brother. I find
these guys easier than the (weaker) Death Scissors because you can be more
mobile during the fight.
The Scythe's favourite attack is to come down on you and to slash you with
an attack of its scythe. It's powerful but not hard to avoid when you jump
over it.
Another attack of his, which is his critical attack, is an attack that
starts the same way as the above, but it ends differently: The Death Scythe
will drag you to the nearest wall and smash you against it, hitting you a
few times in the process. It's easily one of the most powerful moves he has
in his arsenal.
It is avoided in the same manner as his normal swipe.
The area you'll be fighting the Death Scythe in will have black spots on
the ground. Standing on one of these when it's fully formed will result in
you being launched skyhigh and the Death Scythe following you. If you don't
avoid his oncoming attack either with an air hike, a diagonal kick, Air
Raid or a downward slash, you'll end up getting hit.
You can use these things to inflict some good damage on the Death Scythe if
you're properly aligned with him. You can also use them to get to higher
ground more easily.
If neither of these works for you then you should simply avoid these things
since it will likely make the battle harder instead of easier.
If the battle takes too long, then the Death Scythe will grab his other
scythes. I'm not exactly sure if he gets any new moves with this, or if his
attack power increases or anything. This is usually combined with Devil
Trigger as well. You'll usually not make it this far because you'll have
killed the Death Scythe by then.
The easiest way to take out a Death Scythe is with three DT'ed downward
slashes. Using his normal swipe attack, you can get him in a loop that will
easily allow you to hit him three times. Once he descends for his attack,
evade, DT and do the downward slash. 9 out of 10 times, he'll ascend and
then quickly descend for another of these attacks. Rinse and repeat this
until he's dead.
Don't bother shooting the Death Scythe. Any normal shots will be deflected
by his rotating scythe and he'll simply dodge any grenade you fire his way.
For easy DT, there seems to be a glitch you can use on him. I'm not exactly
sure how it works, but when you DT and use an Inferno while he's closeby
and if you de-DT while the Inferno lasts, you sometimes get a complete DT
refill even though the Death Scythe is still alive.
Just like with the Death Scissors, this trick may not always work and I do
not know of a way to always make it work.
And if you wait for the Death Scythe to die, you will always get a complete
Devil Trigger refill.
These guys, too, drop their weapon when dying. Just stay out of the way
when they die to prevent getting hurt.
----------
[097S] - Shadow
I want one of these guys as a pet. That'd be so awesome!
The Shadow is a powerful opponent the first time you meet him, but gets
easier after every encounter. It has shortrange, midrange and longrange
moves in its arsenal, making it a well-rounded opponent.
If you're too close, the Shadow will try and grab you. This can be avoided
by jumping OVER the Shadow, rolling or shooting it in the face while it
does this move.
Midrange Shadows will either use their Ground Spike, their Lunging Spike or
their Throwing Scythe attack.
The Ground Spike can be detected by the Shadow moving in the ground and
large spikes emerging out of the ground where you are. Running from this is
enough to dodge it.
The Lunging Spike is their weakness on Normal and Hard mode, if exploited
correctly. He'll stand still and shoot its head in the form of a spike at
you. Jump or roll to avoid with ease.
The Throwing Scythe is mostly executed longrange and midrange. The Shadow
will jump up, then rotate around its axis a few times and then fly towards
you in the shape of a big scythe. A last minute jump should allow you to
dodge this attack.
A DT'ed Shadow will gain a proximity attack that's similar to when you try
to attack the Shadow with weaponry before the core is exposed. This attack
is very hard to avoid and can only be prevented by staying away from the
Shadow.
Note that DT'ed Shadows are limited to one at a time so you'll never face
more than 1 DT'ed Shadow.
A red Shadow will try to grab you all of the time and will detonate after
a while. As far as I know there is no certified way to make them explode as
soon as possible.
Avoid their grabs or else you'll be in their explosion. After evading their
grabs, they'll detonate. Stay away from this because the blast radius to
avoid getting hurt.
Air Hiking and jumping (or Air Raid) is the best way to stay out of their
grab range.
Shadows are docile and will mostly walk and observe your movements. They'll
only become aggressive if you shoot at them. You can use this to take out
two Shadows with ease, because a single E&I shot will only lure the Shadow
you were aiming at and will leave the other one docile.
Lure one Shadow, kill it quickly and then take out the other Shadow. Never,
ever fight 2 or more aggravated Shadows at the same time, 'cause you'll
most likely end up hurt.
On Normal and Hard made, you can suffice with critically injuring the
Shadow (see critical hit section).
For DMD!, you'll have to be a tad more specific. Jumping on the Lunging
Spike will stun him, but you won't be able to turn the Shadow red. Still,
fast E&I fire can hurt the Shadow a bit and will make exposing the core
easier compared to normal firing. Don't bother with grenades, they'll dodge
them. The Shotgun is high inadvisable because you can hit both Shadows by
accident resulting in a battle you'd much rather avoid.
----------
[098B] - Beelzebub
These bugs don't pose much of a threat since they die easily. E&I or
Shotgun blasts will quickly kill most of them before they get the chance to
trigger.
Just watch out for the attack where they spit stuff on you. It tends to be
fired when you don't expect it and can hit you even when you think you're
dodging it. Jumping helps, though.
The grounded ones can jump on you too when your back is turned to them. In
other words: Don't turn your back towards them.
They can also do stuff when they're combined, but I've always taken them
out so fast that I don't remember their abilities.
Jumping (whether it's Air Hiked or not) and firing DT'ed E&I shots usually
kills most, if not all, Beelzebub near you by the time you touch down. They
only get a defense increase when they DT, meaning that you'll have to shoot
more.
Air Raid works wonders, too.
Taking them out with melée attacks will only make it more risky so stick to
gunfire. This way you can avoid their spitting attack as well since it can
take off some health without you noticing.
----------
[099K] - Kyklops
These Phantom like creatures are powerful and they can certainly pack a
punch. Their moveset is similar to Phantom, too. However, harming them is
another problem.
They can fire rocks towards you. Unlike Phantom's fireballs, you can't
deflect these at all, so you'll either have to avoid them or use it to harm
the other Kyklops. They can fire upwards as well, so staying in the air
isn't always safe. Staying on the move while you're airborne, on the other
hand, is.
They have a claw swipe that's similar to Phantom's so refer to that in
order to avoid it.
Unlike Phantom, they can't use a lava plume attack, so you don't have to
look out for that. Their tail can't uncurl either, so you won't have to
worry about that, either.
They have a jump ability as well. It's the same as Phantom's and hence
avoided the same way.
The downside of these Kyklops is that you can't see whether or not you've
hurt them, that they can't get stunned and that they always appear in
pairs. Because of this, you'll have to watch out to see what the other one
is doing at all times.
Sometimes, when you have two Kyklops, they'll be quite a distance apart. In
fact, they'll be so far apart that the other one is just standing still and
not doing anything at all. If you maintain your distance, you can easily
prevent the second Kyklops from interfering with your battle until you're
ready for it.
The easiest way to take out Kyklops on any mode is Air Raid. When you have
at least 9 DT glyphs, you can completely kill one Kyklops with Air Raid.
During this Air Raid, he can flinch and that is signified by the Kyklops
roaring and standing on its hind legs. Do NOT fire at this time, since none
of the hits will connect. Wait for it to regain its composure before you
continue to fire or else you'll be wasting your DT.
If you want to use Ifrit, then abusing Inferno is the fastest and the
safest way against these monsters. If you run out of DT, I recommend that
you restore your DT by firing grenades and taunting. Melée combat with
Ifrit puts you at too much risk.
When they die, they'll completely fill up your DT, so wait until your DT
refills after killing one.
----------
[0910B] - Blade
Giant lizards that are out to kill you. Next to the Sin Scissors, these are
the only monsters that can fight you in the water. However, these are a bit
harder than the Sin Scissors when fighting them submerged.
These guys have two forms, a small one and a large one. Their attacks are
the same and so is the way they should be killed. The larger ones simply
have more stamina than the smaller ones.
On land, they tend to jump around you in order to avoid getting hit.
Occasionally, they attack you with their claw swipe attack. You can easily
evade it by simply rolling or jumping. But that's easier said than done
since their swipe comes out fast. You'll probably not notice it if they're
too close, so try to keep a little bit of distance so you have some
reaction time.
If the distance is too great to instantly cover, they will either fire
their claws at you or go underground.
Their clawfire can be deflected by shooting at it or can be evaded by
running in one direction without backtracking. Except for the direction
where they're coming from, of course...
The attack that results after their underground journey usually results in
their version of hightime that launches you in the sky. Just stay away from
them in order to avoid getting hit (it's not hard to avoid this, anyway).
Under water, they can only fire their claws at you. Those are easily dodged
or otherwise deflected by firing at them.
Should you decide to juggle them, then don't. Their increased agility is
the same as those of the Frosts so you can never juggle them for long. If
you want to use gunfire, then your best bet is grenade rolling them. DT'ed
grenades are even better. Rolling will allow you to dodge incoming attacks
while damaging them in the process.
Alastor is the easiest weapon to use against them. Vortex will literally
rip through them, making quick work of them. Vortex in a small space will
not only rip through them but also raise your style rating very quickly,
making it a good source of Orbs.
Using Alastor, you can also critical hit them. In short, you do it by
Stingering their face, jumping over them, Stingering their back and then
performing a downward slash on their back. Both the small and large Blade
will die this way, regardless of how much health it has or whether or not
it is DT'ed. See the critical hit section for details.
This works for Sparda as well, of course.
Using Ifrit, you have to use whatever you see fit. Infernoes are a good way
to hit Blades closeby, whereas normal Ifrit attacks work good on single
Blades.
If you want to use the critical hit tactic, you can, but it's harder this
way. The diagonal kick isn't as accurate as the downward slash and may it
may home in on another Blade. The reach of Kick13 isn't as long as
Stinger's reach, either.
----------
[0911S] - Sargasso
These enemies suck. All they can do is float around you and attack you by
surprise (sometimes). Their bite attack is their main attack and you'll
usually have killed them by the time they use this.
They can also do a breath attack every once in a while. But this is so rare
that you won't usually see it.
There are two 'species', a small one and a large one. The small one
transforms in the large one when it DT's, but it remains the same. The only
time you'll find a large one in the wild is in Nightmare's Spectral Realm.
The large ones require more damage than the small ones, but the idea
remains the same: Evade their bite or breath attack and finish them.
On DMD!, a single shotgun blast, a DT'ed Stinger, an air hiked downward
slash or a grenade will kill them immediately.
For lower modes, you'll need a bit more firepower, but nothing too drastic.
----------
[0912N] - Nobody
These guys are the hunters of the Demon World. Strong, unpredictable, fast
and pretty dense, hence the name "Nobody". They exist in the big and small
variety. The bigger ones can do more and, in general, are more dangerous
than the smaller ones. The attacks I describe almost always belong to the
larger variety, since the smaller ones can't do as much.
You can easily recognize them by their sound: They sound like monkeys. If
they only were as nice as monkeys, then fighting them would not be so much
of a problem.
They like to grab you when you're too close to them. You can't escape from
its grip until they let you go, so avoid this attack. It is also their
critical hit move for Dante, which will result in breaking his neck if his
health is too low.
If you're attacking one or about to attack one, then you must always watch
out for what it does. It tends to attack you by surprise by jumping up and
hitting you with a kick that will send you flying backwards. This attack is
pretty hard to avoid once they have initiated it, so try to prevent them
from doing it in the first place.
Another attack that results from their dodge, is an attack where they drop
a sphere on the ground. If you're closeby then there's a fairly large
chance that you'll get hit by it. You can shoot these but you should focus
on the Nobody. Should one lie in the way, then move away to another part of
the arena to avoid getting hurt.
Large Nobodies have the annoying habit of draining you of your DT.
Attacking them will not stop this, unless you were capable of knocking them
over. Considering that you'll most likely need your DT when fighting these
guys, you should do your best to prevent the drainage by either making them
small, killing them or knocking them over during the procedure.
A small Nobody that has taken a lot of damage or that stays alive too long,
will put on a mask that will make it bigger. To make big Nobodies smaller,
you'll have to destroy the mask. Stinger or Inferno works best for this.
Try to keep the Nobody small or try to destroy the (mask of the) larger
Nobody as quickly as you can. Smaller Nobodies aren't as much of a threat
as the larger ones.
When facing a group of Nobodies, you should try to Inferno all of them
twice. Two Infernoes will take care of a Nobody, regardless of the mode you
are playing the game on. This is the safest way to take care of them. It
should also shatter their mask completely.
If you're facing a single Nobody, then try to get behind it and to rely on
Stingering the living daylights out of it. If you keep on Stingering, the
Nobody won't be capable of standing up, rendering it a helpless target.
----------
[0913F] - Fetish
The ultimate puppet to encounter. They'll set you ablaze if you don't watch
out. They have similar attacks to that of the Marionette and the Bloody
Mari, but they have far more stamina than the others.
They have a swipe attack which is evaded the same way as that of the
Marionette's.
Their rotating attack works the same, too.
Just like the Bloody Mari, they have a block ability. They usually counter
with a flamethrower attack, which is evaded by rolling if you have a short
stun.
Their flamethrower attack can also be used without blocking and can be
evaded any way you see fit.
Another unique attack of these guys is their throw attack. They'll launch
their weapons as a yoyo, which will try to hit you. You can jump to dodge
the first attack, but you'll also have to dodge the second attack which is
their weapons returning to them.
Their defense will skyrocket when DT'ed so take them out before that. If
they do DT, then DT as well to even the battlefield a little bit. On the
upside, a DT'ed Fetish can be comboed for such a long time that, when
planned right, they can cough up more than 100 Orbs a piece when killed.
Infero is a one-hit kill on these guys. A DT'ed Fetish will die immediately
from a fully charged Meteor 2.
With Alastor, you should try to hightime them and shoot them to death with
E&I for the most safe way. Hightime followed by a multistab attack can also
work nicely in racking up Style. It'll give you Stylish when used with
Force Edge. You can also use Stingers to keep them pinned to the floor.
----------
[0914F] - Frost
By far the coolest enemy in the game, if you ask me. They're fast, they're
strong and they usually come in pairs. Unless you're wearing Ifrit, this
could be a hard battle.
They have several attacks and some of those can't be cancelled, so stay on
your toes.
Their most basic attack is their claw swipe, and you can't
cancel it by Stingering them in their face, or something similar. Just
avoid it once you see it making its lunge, there's nothing else you can do
to stop this attack.
Their claw swipe is either long range or short range and once they've
started their jump, then you can't stop their attack. The long range only
occurs when you're some distance away from them.
They also have their version of Inferno. Not touching the crystals is the
only way to not get hurt (no touching the crystals even when they're going
in the ground, it'll still hurt you). It's easy to notice them doing this
because it happens similarly to your Inferno.
If you're using Ifrit, then it's possible to jump on the Frost doing the
attack while the crystals are going in the ground in order to get an extra
jump and some extra air time, in case your jump won't make it.
Their teleport move is annoying. It doesn't have a real audio que so
hearing it is impossible. You'll have to evade it by jumping or rolling out
of the way, as the ice particles flying around can hurt you if this move
passes through you.
The only way to see it coming is to have both Frosts on the screen at all
times. The Frost will use this move more often if he's offscreen.
He can fire his claws in all directions. It fires very fast and can be
heard, so you can dodge it offscreen as well. Running to one side, jumping
or rolling will allow you to evade them. If he fires them from both claws,
then you'll have to extend your evasion a bit in order to prevent getting
hurt. These things are homing so moving aside once isn't going to help you,
only staying on the move will.
Standing next or behind the Frost isn't safe either, since they fire
everywhere.
They can also channel cold towards you through the ground in form of ice
crystals. They use this if there's quite some distance between you and
them. You can hear it coming from afar. This move is pretty accurate since
the direction isn't determined until right before it hits you. Which means
that you'll have to dodge this move last minute in order to escape unharmed
from this.
Staying somewhat close to them will prevent this from happening.
After receiving enough damage, their arm will fall off. If you leave them
unattended for too long they will regenerate their lost arm and some health
along with it. You can't prevent this regeneration other than by killing
them before they do this. Should they succeed in encasing themselves in ice
then you must destroy it to prevent them from recovering.
You can't juggle these guys for long, either. Their high agility allows
them to redirect their movements in the air, allowing them to escape the
juggle after some time.
Ifrit is the weapon to deal with Frosts. A fully charged Meteor2 kills them
immediately on DMD! and severely weakens them on lower modes, leaving very
little health.
An Inferno + an Auto Kick13 (either DT'ed or un-DT'ed) will kill them on
DMD! as well. Standard Ifrit attacks (especially charged ones) will help
you take them out as well.
If, for whatever reason, you're using Sparda or Alastor. then high time is
your friend. Regular Alastor attacks won't stun them, only DT'ed attacks
will. DT whenever you can to increase the damage and to stun them and try
to keep them in the air (preferably both at the same time) to minimize the
chances of them attacking.
If you're using Sparda, then you'll have to skip the DT part and keep them
in the air. Consecutive high times tend to work as well, even though
they aren't too strong. Be aware that you can not stun them like this.
----------
[0915P] - Plasma
These electric copybats (Ha. Ha. Ha.) exist in two forms: A human form that
resembles Dante and a batform. These can be some of the most annoying
enemies if you don't take them out quickly.
As a bat, they cannot do much. They just fly around and try to hit you with
their long range attacks. These attacks are a vertical eyelaser and a
horizontal soundwave.
The eyelaser is easily avoided by running to either side. The vertical
soundwave can be jumped over.
You can hear what attack he's performing, so take the appropriate action.
Remember that if you decide wrong, that you'll get hurt. In the worst case,
it's a 50% chance that you'll guess right. :p
As a human, they possess every normal melée move that Dante has. They can
do a four-hit sword combo that's similar to yours, they can perform a
high time and some Ifrit punches. They can also perform an electric version
of Inferno.
I won't go into detail regarding their melée moves. They're almost similar
to Nelo's and should be avoided the same way.
Their Inferno is easy to see coming. The Plasma puts its fist to the ground
and electricity will form around him in a certain radius. Stay out of that
area until it disappears, or else you will get hit.
In addition to stealing your moves, they have an eyelaser move, too. It's
usually a horizontal sweep that can change its altitude during the attack
itself, so watch out when you try to avoid it. Rolling through it making
use of the invincibility that Dante has is the safest way.
If you do not defeat these guys fast enough, they'll split up. While the
original Plasma will keep the health it was at, the newer Plasmas will have
full health. There is no guaranteed way to prevent them from doing this
other than killing them.
To me, this is also completely random. I've been able to slaughter multiple
Plasmas without any splitting and during other times I've had Plasmas split
on me with only the slightest touch. If they have split, your best bet is
to kill them all at the same time so that they can't split again. Bats
can't split.
A DT'ed Plasma is red instead of blue and a Hell of a lot faster. They are
also stronger than a normal Plasma, meaning that you'll have to deal more
damage to them. Do not try to combo them since they're so fast that they
can break free during times.
Needless to say, using Alastor won't work very well. Yes, you can hurt them
with it, but the damage isn't all that good. So don't use it. Unless you
have to. If you have to, DT when you have the chance so you can increase
the damage on them. Also use more gunfire to compensate for the lack of
damage.
If you insist on using swords, you should try to use Sparda. It deals
better damage than Alastor.
Due to the Plasma's nature, the Nightmare-beta won't work, either. So that
weapon is out of the question, as well. Any other gun will suffice, though.
Ifrit is the better weapon to use against them. They get stunned by Ifrit's
attacks and you don't have the type disadvantage that Alastor gives you.
Ifrit's Inferno instantly kills any Plasma that's near you without making
them split from the attack. Auto Kick13 deals good damage as well.
----------
[0916PB] - Phantombabies
The ultimate monster. When you encounter these little guys, run away. Fast.
You'll die a gruesome and horrible death if you decide to stick around and
fight these monsters. You'll encounter them in mission 2 and the secret
missions I and II.
...Yeah. These guys prove that it's not the size of the monster that
determines the fight, but the size of the fight in the monster that
determines the outcome.
---------------
[10VID] - Videos
Several videos have been made. Ranging from speedruns to SB games to a handy
Blue Orb Location video FAQ. This guide focuses on SB games, so I'll only
link to those. Beware, though. There aren't many SB runs at all (even though
several people have completed several DMD! SB runs). One day, I'd love to
expand this section with more DMC1 SB videos (I'm especially looking forward
to videos of Joch, Ryan and DMA. Get cracking, guys!).
-
http://hosted.filefront.com/Issindir
My own videos. The DMC1 section will contain a full DMD! SB run (with a from
scratch LDK) and an (as of now unfinished) Sparda and E&I only DMD! SB/Srank
run.
The LDK run is compressed with DivX for video and mp3 for audio.
The Sparda run is XviD for video and LameACM for audio.
I realize that my LDK run videos are of poor quality but I didn't know any
better then. I'll probably end up redoing everything in the future when I'm
utterly bored.
Other videos can be found on those sites, as well. All made by yours truly,
unless noted otherwise.
-
http://www.silverboxmedia.net
This site is by boardgoer FakeMcCoy. He has done several DMD! SB games and
hosted some of those videos. Some of his stuff can also be found on
www.speeddemosarchive.com., so check there as well.
---------------
[11TN] - A note on how time is calculated
This section mostly focuses on PAL users of the game who want to keep track
of how much time they have remaining for their mission.
PAL users may have noticed that the actual mission time (the time it really
took to complete the mission) is different from the mission time given in the
ranking screen.
Here I'll explain, with help of an example, how this happens. I'll be using
some minor jargon, but that shouldn't impair you from understanding the
explanations.
As you may or may not know, the screen you look at consists of frames. A
frame is nothing more than a still standing image that displays something.
Multiple frames with slight differences in them can suggest movement (E.G:
Dante's right foot is in front, then with each passing frame, his left foot
slowly moves to the front. This isn't a movement, but a rapid succession of
still images).
You can't see the seperate frames, unless you record your own footage.
The number of frames displayed per second (the framerate) is 25 for PAL
users, 29,97 for NTSC users and 30 for NTSC-J users (Japan). This is
expressed as frequency of your TV which 50 Herz for PAL and 60 for NTSC. As
you can see, you have to divide the frequency by two to calculate the number
of frames per second shown on your TV.
How does this relate to mission time? Well, Devil May Cry doesn't use the
PS2's built-in timer but calculates the time by counting how many frames have
been shown. This is fine for NTSC users but PAL users get a small anomaly:
The actual time is ALWAYS longer than the shown mission time.
This also means that PAL users get the short end of the speed stick: The NTSC
version runs 20% faster than the PAL version.
Let's grab mission 3 as an example:
The total time that's allowed to pass, is 3:00. This is 180 seconds.
For the sake of argument, we'll say that NTSC has a framerate of 30fps. PAL's
framerate remains unchanged at 25fps.
As we know by now, the game doesn't keep track of the time but counts the
frames. Because the original game was programmed for usage on 60Hz NTSC-J
TVs, the maximum number of frames allowed to pass in mission 3 is
180 * 30 = 5,400.
If more frames are counted during the mission, then you were too slow.
Otherwise you were on time.
If you solve the mission (when playing the NTSC version) in 2:50 (real time),
then 170 * 30 = 5,100 frames will have passed. The game will have counted
5,100 frames and calculates that the time taken is 2:50.
No problems here, everything works fine.
Let's look at the PAL user. This PAL user sees that the shown mission time is
2:50.
But when he looks at his footage, he sees something different. He sees a time
of 3:24 (204 seconds).
Because he's at 50Hz, he'll only have a framerate 25fps. The game counted
204 * 25 = 5,100 frames. When the game calculates the time from this, it
finds that the player needed 2:50 ((5,100 / 30) / 60 = 2,833333333333333333
minutes, which is 2:50).
What all this math is meant to show, is that, while PAL users have to
adhere to the time and red orbs chart like NTSC players, PAL players have 20%
more real time than the NTSC players because of the way the game calculates
time. With this information, PAL players can find out whether or not they
have passed the time limit or whether they've still got some time left.
---------------
[12CH] - Challenges
Aside from a fresh DMD! SB challenge, you can do any sort of other challenge
regarding an SB challenge. Examples that I've seen are:
- A fresh character, 3 rune SB run (done by Ryan86)
- A Sparda and E&I only SB run (done by me, proved to be impossible since
mission 18 and 20 can NOT be SB'ed)
- An Ifrit and Grenade Gun only SB run (done by Ryan86 as well)
These are only a few things you can do if you can't get enough of SB'ing. If
you send me some ideas, I can add them for other users who might be
interested in trying new challenges.
If you have recording equipment, you can also send the videos and I'll host
them for you, if you can't host them yourself.
---------------
[13CD] - Contact Details
There are various ways to contact me. This can range from email to getting in
touch with me over IM or through posting on forums. I'm fine with any way, as
long as you adhere to a few rules.
When you email me, clearly specify in the subject that it's regarding Devil
May Cry 1. Don't leave it blank or enter some random stuff. It'll be filtered
out and chances are I'll never get to see it.
Also, spell properly. i dun wan ne email dat l00k liek dis. Those won't even
be read. I won't care for typos or small grammar errors, etc. (after all, no
one is perfect), but you'll want to make your email legible for the
recipient.
The address to reach me on is robbert.ouwehand[at]gmail[dot]com.
If you decide to hit me on IM, then here are my details.
MSN:
[email protected]
AIM: Aquarius Brave
IRC: #phantombabies on laeta.zoite.net
I don't mind you adding me, but clearly state who you are and why you need
me. I'm also up for random chat, really. Just don't be annoying.
As for forum contact:
I can be found on GameFAQs as Frieza012 and on
http://www.phantombabies.net/phpBB2/index.php as Rob. PM or a post in the
forums will suffice.
Remember, if you're nice to me, I'll be nice to you. And for the love of God,
check if the subject hasn't been covered yet and if it's within the scope of
this FAQ (E.G.: Don't email me asking about the fatalities or where all the
blue orb fragments are). Anything that should not be in this guide should not
be asked and will most likely not be answered.
Suggestions are always welcome and encouraged. I'll give every suggestion
a thought and you'll be credited accordingly if I decide to implement it.
---------------
[14GS] - Guide Status
I currently consider the guide complete, but any addition or suggestion will
be implemented if it's useful. Hence, the guide will never be 100% finished
and I'll always provide support for this FAQ but I won't do any revisions
myself unless I receive good, constructive feedback.
---------------
[15CRE] - Credits
Most information in this guide was compiled by players on the DMC1 boards at
GameFAQs. Tactics that have been found out were developed with the sole
intent to defeat the enemy as quickly and efficiently as possible.
These users still frequent the boards and will always help you out. If it
weren't for them, this FAQ would never have existed in the first place. In no
particular order, these credits are for the following players for either
chipping in comments, for analyzing situations and coming up with solutions
and for trying out new things.
The users that this FAQ (and me. ;P) owe a lot to, are as follows:
- Joch / Jochness Monster
- Ryan86
- FakeMcCoy
- Devil May Asian
- just a Newbie
- Adrenaline SL (for the Time and Red Orb Requirements table)
- Patient Vlakorados
If I forgot you, then get in touch with me so I can credit you (don't forget
to mention what you want to be credited for, if applicable).
---------------
[16C] - Changelog
15-08-2006.
- First version finished and accepted at GameFAQs.
16-01-2007.
- Added some more useful techniques (Grenade Rolling, Shotgun Twitching, to
name a few)
- Rewrote the piece on Slash Cancelling
- Slash Cancelling is now a subsection of a new section called "Useful
Techniques"
- Added Changelog
- Fixed some spelling and grammatical errors
- Added notes for Normal mode Mission 1
---------------
[17DISC] - Disclaimer
Everything written in this document is copyrighted by me. The only places
where this document may be hosted, without having to ask me, first are:
-
http://www.gamefaqs.com
-
http://www.phantombabies.net and
-
http://www.devilswillcry.be
Should you find this FAQ, either in its entirety or some of its parts, on any
other than the aforementioned websites, then contact me about this.
Reproduction, either in full or in parts, is prohibited by copyright laws.
This FAQ can be saved and printed for private use but it is prohibited to
submit this FAQ to gaming magazines or other websites, either for personal or
commercial use.
If you want to host this FAQ on your website, then contact me, too. I'll
probably say yes, anyway, but I still want to know who's using it and for
what so you'll have to provide me with some details. The only thing I ask of
you then is to credit me by leaving the document unaltered and to add the URL
to my website or to add the following URL:
http://www.phantombabies.net.
If you do this then you'll have to make sure that the FAQ remains updated and
unaltered at all times.
All characters and things Devil May Cry are copyrighted and owned by Capcom.
---------------
[18C] - Closing
And I would hereby like to end my first FAQ. I've enjoyed writing this and I
also hope that you've found this useful. As I said, you can leave comments
critique and suggestions in my inbox. I'll most certainly consider every
suggestion that will be made and I'll inform you whether or not I'll
implement along with my reasoning for it.
If you find any grammatical or spelling errors, then you can tell me this as
well. I'll correct any mistake you point out to me.
If you would like to print this guide from a wordprocessing program, then
copy-pasting it in a file, setting the font to Lucida Console and font size
to 10 will allow you to print everything the way it is meant to be.
But now, I'll end this guide and I hope to see you later in case I ever
decide to write another guide for some other game.
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