---- Skygunner Walkthrough
---- Version 2.3
---- Author: Kewne 3000 ([email protected])


Legal Hooey
--------------

    This guide is protected by the International Copyright Law.  You
probably already know the drill, but I'll say it anyway, just in case.  This
guide is copyrighted to me, Kewne 3000, and you may not put it on a website
without permission.  You ABSOLUTELY may not sell this guide, change a single,
sole, solitary word on it, or change it from a .txt file.  If permission to
post this guide on your website is granted, you must still abide by the rules
stated above (No sale, no changes).  As of now, the only webpages allowed
to carry links to this guide are:

GameFAQs.com
Cheathappens.com
CheatCC.com
skygunner.tripod.com  (Eugene's webpage, see October 7th update)
Neoseeker.com
PCXcodez.com
faqs.ign.com
http://www.members.iinet.net.au/~jaguar23/public_html/index.html



That authoritative stuff said, onto the guide!



V0.5 - July Eighth, 2002
-------------------------
    I haven't even beaten the game fully, but I'm a little over halfway
through, unlocked Rival and Copain, the Photo Album, Survival Mode, the
"Variable/Uniform" thingy, and some other stuff... Not released to general
public yet.
    Not making as fast progress as I'd like, I finished the Skygunner
Overview, and the Novice controls... I must be trying to put off the
walkthrough, that'll be the hard part... but no worries, when I get there,
I'll do it as well as I can.



V0.6 - July Ninth, 2002
------------------------
    Messed with more controls, most characters.  I gotta unlock Hardi!



V0.7 - July Twenty-second, 2002
--------------------------------
    All the controls are finished, I've put in the ships of Ventre's that
appear in the first level, and started the walkthrough, just the preparation
of Ciel's first mission.



V0.8 - July Twenty-third, 2002
--------------------------------
    Finished Scenes 1 and 2 in Ciel's walkthrough, added more of Ventre's
ships... but there's this one I don't know... is it Progres?



V0.85 - July Twenty-fourth, 2002
----------------------------------
    No, it's not Progres, but now I have to add that one.  I can't seem to
find that thing anywhere... If anyone has any idea what it is, let me know
(It's under "Unknown" in the Ventre's ships category), but in the meantime,
I'm e-mailing Atlus.
    I beat Femme's campaign, this time in first place, with the superb engine,
and I found out that stupid "defeat Ventre's Battleship" thing at the end
of scene five! now if I could just figure out what triggered it...
    Finished Scene 3 and Scene 4.  When Scene 5 is done, I'll release it
to the general public... and start working on other campaigns.
    I just found a webpage that helped me make a secrets part of the FAQ...
    And I unlocked Hardi! Good day, today.



V0.9 - July Twenty-fifth, 2002
--------------------------------
    Just working on the fifth scene, trying to get Ventre's battleship to
show up again...



V1.0 - July Twenty-sixth, 2002
--------------------------------
    It is complete!  Well, not the whole guide, but Ciel's walkthrough!  Now
I just have to send it in...



V1.2 - July Twenty-ninth, 2002
--------------------------------
    Just got done with my weekend... back to work, I guess.  EVERYTHING is
unlocked, I've ALMOST beaten the developers records on time attack... man,
those developers are good.  I'll have to fix some from Ciel's walkthrough,
cause I had some stuff wrong, and I'll get to work on Femmes.  Also, this
website is now posted on other places... CheatCC and Cheathappens.
    Hmm, now PKzip won't work... so I uninstalled it and went to the website
(for a new download).  And suddenly I have to pay for this crap?  AND WinZip?
I think I can't use a Zipper until I find a free one... well, to the trusty
dogpile.com I go!



V1.3 - August First, 2002
---------------------------
    As the first day of the dreaded education system draws ever closer, I
am pressured to do two things.  First,  finish this walkthrough.  Second,
replace my fiero's body plates.  Since the latter is taking up a big chunk
of my time, I've been neglecting the former.
    I think I'll get Femme's second mission going, then go after the back
bumper... and if that fickle fiend comes off, I'll do Femmes third... sounds
good.  I also created a mini-strategy thing for getting prize money.  Take
a gander.
    Also, my favorite comic artist happened to... critique Skygunner.  He
also said that at gamefaqs.com, "one of the more prevalent strategies is "you
have to be really lucky"".  I HOPE he wasn't talking about this guide...  but
if any of you see those words on this FAQ, give me an e-mail, woncha (And
make it worthwhile... like in Femmes second mission I say "lucky you" because
Femme gets it easy... don't bring stuff like that up, ok)?
    On a lighter, more unrelated note, I downloaded a couple new mouse
cursors from his website (hee hee, that black mage).  I would have put a new
desktop on, but my FreeSpace 2 desktop is too cool to replace... maybe I'll
buy a t-shirt.



V1.35 - August First, Late afternoon, 2002
--------------------------------------------
    Well, I didn't get the bumper off... foiled by a single rounded bolt...
but considering I'm stuck with what to do next... I'll just type more on the
FAQ.  By the way, I installed windows 2000 lately, so if I punctuate Femme's
third mission with frustrated cries of agony, bear with me.



V1.4 - August Third, 2002
----------------------------
    HAHAHAHAHA!!!! Yesterday I found out about the competitions going on
with Time Attack and Survival (www.atlus.com/sg)... and since I'm bad at
survival, I decided to do time attack.  and guess what! I BEAT THE DEVELOPERS
RECORD BY ROUGHLY 4 SECONDS!!! muahahahahaha!  we'll see who goes for THAT
record.  (yesterday I had a bad day for it, I got 1.13.66, and thats one
hundredth of a second behind the now-second-place guy).
    Well, I've sent in my code and done the dance of joy, (four seconds in
front of the developers record!) and now it's time to work on the FAQ.  But
what to do?  Simple!  Time attack strategies!
    Ok, it's later in the day now... a few hours after my record... but they
still haven't posted it.  Ah, well, what can ya do?  I'll finish more of Femme's
guide... and fix some other stuff in the walkthrough.  I had the weakpoints
a tad off...



V1.5 - August Fourth, 2002
----------------------------
    It's 7:22 PM and Atlus has not posted my score... I hope I didn't get
the code wrong.
    I've gotten some feedback from two different people now, one of which
asking for help on prize money and how to get a shot at Ventre's battleship
(plus some brainstrom ideas...) and the other alerting me that I'm not quite
done with Time Attack.  I'll first finish my Time Attack column, then try
every conceivable means of getting Ventre's battleship to find the criteria.
I have noticed that the yellow battleship has NOTHING to do with destroying
Ventre's battleship, that's entirely up to you to destroy.
    After all this, I may (depending on the time) work on a few more Femme
missions, I hope to finish it either today or tomorrow, as I've been slowing
down a bit.
    Notice the recent dates on Atlus's Time Attack postings... They happen
to be in the afternoon... I didn't manage my record until later evening...
I eagerly await an update.
Wonderful.  I have found out that the ONLY criteria for taking a shot at
Ventre's battleship is to destroy the machine soldier in UNDER 3 minutes.
Fuel, money, crashes, continues, and how well you did in the rest of the
mission do not matter.  Rest assured that I performed a large number of
experiments on the machine soldier, and the closest I came to three minutes
on each side was 2:59.34, and 3:04.49.  I took a shot at the 2:59 one, and
didn't get one at 3:04.  I have tested for the performance on the rest of
the level, even flying till I was at 15 minutes (I ran out of fuel... fighting
the machine soldier).  I tried continues, full time, and everything else I
could think of.  The ONLY criteria is a 3:00 or under battle (actually to
be risky, my theoretical criteria would be 3:04.49 and under, and to be safe,
theoretical criteria would be 2:59.34 and under).  Thanks to you who gave
me help on this subject.
I also received a tip for HUGE money making on the fifth level.  I shall
print that... And I shall print the tipsters name and e-mail, or just name,
or pseudonym... if the tipster gives me permission.  (Hey, that gives me an
idea... would you all mind sending in whether or not you want your name on
the thank you list if you send something in? Muchas Gracias.)
Ok, I've been on too long... I'm updating my own information before I even
send it in.  The tipster of the fifth level money maker has been revealed
as Jesse Jace Thomas ([email protected])
Whew, putting in direct e-mail quotes bulks up my FAQ quite a bit... either
I'll edit them down (ohhhh, but I don't want to...) or I'll make a separate
area to put all of them... scene five is now HUGE (almost as big as this
version-update-diary-thingy... what can I say, I'm long winded).



V1.6 - August Fifth, 2002
---------------------------
    They posted it!  I hope nobody is waiting to submit their entries...
I'll never get THAT good of a score again!
    Anyway... I'm going to do Femme's fifth mission today... which means
I'll have to cut/copy that WHOLE e-mail... again.  I think I'm just going
to create an extra section with that fancy info in it, yeah?  And I'll put
"big money making tip from So and So here, see 'Contribution' area."  Yes,
that sounds good.



V1.7 - August Seventh, 2002
-----------------------------
    Just a minor update today... Thanks a LOAD to Eugene Clewlow for the
Ventre's Photo Album thing... I hadn't even STARTED on that.  I'm gonna put
how to defeat the Dorado in level five, cause even though I have it in the
Ventre's Ships section, most people don't look at that... can you blame them?
If it were me, I'd wanna know how to finish level five WITHOUT buzzing all
around the guide.
    Also, breaking news on the tow cannons... their shield is worthless.
Which means a new strategy for blasting them.  Lets see, there was some other
stuff... oh yes, under Secrets, I have stuff screwed up... hmm, what else?
Ah yes, I gotta test that Ventre's battleship thing some more, as I left out
one IMPORTANT criteria... I'll check it out.
    Nope, my test results stand.  It's 3 minutes for having to beat all three
stages of the machine soldier to take a shot at Venty's battleship.



V1.8 - August Twenty-fifth, 2002
---------------------------------
   Well then.  It's been a while.  With unlucky events such as my
motherboard's power supply going out, getting grounded, and a healthy dose
of procrastination, I've been not updating this thing.  So, lets see where
I stand...
   I recieved e-mails regarding the little mini thingies underneath the
ships' names, so I think I'll put those in there...  Lost my score by many
many seconds on the atlus webpage, and since I've been working on it since
forever and still haven't come close, it looks like I'm stuck with number
three... somebody submit their score and kick me out of it, I already
subscribe to both those magazines!
   I also recieved a lot of e-mails about putting a "this is how much money
you should make on this stage" in my FAQ... now don't get mad cause I haven't
done it yet, its on my to-do list, really.  Copain's first level done now,
by the way, and lots of little minor craps that actually take a LOT of time.
   Looks like I won FAQ of the month award, but that ain't cool cause it
can only be given to people whose FAQs are complete.  Needless to say, mine
isn't complete.  So as soon as mom is done scouring the webpage for strings
attached, I'll send an e-mail to CJayC letting him know that... and if he
insists on still sending me the prize, I'll donate it to red cross cause I
don't think I deserve it.
   And finally, I owe all of you an apology.  Seems to me most people have
been having to find help other places than me, and that means I've been letting
you down, I think.  Now that I have my resolve and ability to write back,
I should make a really big update... but that would just mean you'd all have
to wait longer.
   Oh, one more thing.  Another webpage added me to their list of FAQs...
and a buddy of mine has a webpage... well, actually I don't know him, but
he's a buddy of mine anyway cause he sent me stuff for the FAQ, but the point
is his webpage is also authorized to link to/type out this FAQ.  Same guy
who contributed the photo album, Eugene Clewlow.
   Ok, ANOTHER thing.  Windows XP made me change this thing to "rich text
format" and I have no idea what that is.  So if you're not reading this, you
know that GameFAQs didn't post it, or whoever you go through.



V1.9 - August Thirtieth, 2002
-------------------------------
   Afternoon.  Time for some work.  I think one or two of Copain's missions
should do... and lately I've been trying to figure out survival mode... I
have a block.  Contest ends tomorrow, good luck, whoever is entering!



V2.0 - Aug... er, September Fourteenth, 2002
---------------------------------------------
   Version two point oh, does it seem like twice as much as it was when I
first started it?
   It doesn't take an Einstein to figure out that time is relative, cause
I swear I updated yesterday... but I guess not.  Sorry, once again.
   Well, lets see what's on the old list today... Ahhh, level three.  My
favorite level.  The ever-changing level.  And THIS time it has Exocets.  Yay!
Maybe I'll do level four, just for kicks... But you all know me, I'm
exceptionally lazy, it might not happen.



V2.1 - October Seventh, 2002
-----------------------------
   'Fternoon.  Yes, I'm showing my face around these parts again.  That means
another update.  Sorry for the HUGE delay.  I don't know whether to make
excuses about being busy or tell you that I'm exceptionally lazy.  I guess
it doesn't matter, cause both are true.
   Firstly, I must tell you that my FAQ may no longer be on Eugene's page
(skygunner.tripod.com).  This is because Eugene had, as he said, an epiphany
(very well put).  Like me, he grew from RPGs.  Lately, he has decided to stick
with RPGs, and only RPGs.  I salute his devotion to the wonderful games such
as Final Fantasy, Zelda, Golden Sun, and so forth.  I also wish him better
gaming times.  And now, I've worked up a thirst to play through an RPG
myself...
   Secondly, I managed to finish Copain's scene four.  You know, scenes 4
and 5 are really a mouthful.  I can't wait to get to Rival's missions.
Hopefully I get back to updating OFTEN.



V2.2 - November Sixth, 2002
----------------------------
   Yep.  It's that time again.  And I'm late.  You know the drill.  I apologize,
you roll your eyes in disgust, I get to writing.  Lets skip that this time,
huh?
   New webpage has the FAQ.  Going for Copain's fifth mission today.  I'll
see what happens to Rival.  But you know me, if it gets done, we're lucky.



V2.3 - June Fifth, 2003
-------------------------
       Good morning.  It's been a while.  Due to (relatively) popular demand,
I've decided to get off my butt and start working on this again.  I've got
a few new strategies for !!CASH!! in store for you, all courtesy of Thomas
Stacey.



Table of Contents
-------------------

I. Skygunner Overview
II. How to Control a Skygunner
   i. Controls
   ii. Expert Controls
   iii. On the Subject of Bonus Money
III. Characters and Junk
   i. Good
   ii. Bad and Ugly
   iii. Objects
   iv. Ventre's Ships
IV. Walkthrough
   i. Ciel
      a. Scene 1
      b. Scene 2
      c. Scene 3
      d. Scene 4
      e. Scene 5
   ii. Femme
      a. Scene 1
      b. Scene 2
      c. Scene 3
      d. Scene 4
      e. Scene 5
   iii. Copain
      a. Scene 1
      b. Scene 2
      c. Scene 3
      d. Scene 4
      e. Scene 5
   iv. Rival - coming soon
   v. Time attack
   vii. Survival mode - Send me some tiparoonies, I'm getting whupped
V. Extra stuff
   i. Secrets
   ii. Photo Album
      a. Photo Album - coming... maybe
      b. Ventre's Commemorative Photos
VI. E-mailed contributions
VII. Other E-mail related stuff
VIII. Thanks




Skygunner Overview
--------------------
    Skygunner is a strange sort of flight simulator game.  It makes good
use of the gamepad, which is surprising.  The idea of custom aircraft and
a world that combines somewhat modern day machinery with older, post WWI type
is simply stunning, and all in anime, also.  The story follows three Gunners,
owners of cool looking aircraft, and missions that they have between
now--when a criminal genius shows up and tries to steal all kinds of things...
and succeeds, depending on your skill as a gunner--and two weeks from
now--when an invention-type expo is scheduled, with the main attraction being
the Eternal Engine, an engine that can run forever, but is a little tough
to work (or so says the story).
    If you're like me, you'll probably go to the training part of the game,
say "this is easy after a little adaptation," go to story mode, say "this
isn't so hard," finish the first level, and say "How in God's name is Copain
that far ahead of me?!"  And it is frustrating beyond belief.  but keep on
driving, after about a game and a half (all five missions) or even just one
game, you WILL get the hang of it. This game isn't like many others, I can't
give you too many flying tips, practice really does make perfect.



How to Control a Skygunner
----------------------------

    I'm pretty bad at ASCII art, and I'm pretty sure you already know the
controller a bit, so I'll just name the controls instead of drawing a
controller.  If you're new to the PS2 or any of Sony's products, don't worry,
the buttons are all labeled, except L3 and R3, those are pushing in the right
and left control sticks.
    I prefer to have the targeting set to expert, the controls set to novice,
and the climb/dive control set to reversed.

=========Controls=========

    X button ---- Afterburner. Hold it to keep moving quickly, but you can't
turn as fast.  You can use it when your engine is overheated, but it's much
slower and makes a cloud of steam and little steam trails from your wings.

    O button ---- Optional weapon, like missiles and bombs.  Tap it to fire
one, or press and hold it to acquire a lock, and let go to fire.  Note that
you have to make your crosshairs pass over or stay over the target, and if
you wait too long or the target leaves the screen, the lock will be lost.
   _
  |_| button ---- Machine Guns.  Your primary weapon, easy to use, takes
a while to learn how to aim.  You don't have to hit RIGHT ON your target,
but near it, though sometimes you have to lead them.  You won't be in range
of your target until a green circle is inside your targeting reticle.  Using
Machine Guns costs a small amount of money.

 Triangle button ---- Used for targeting.  On the novice targeting mode,
I THINK you press it once to target the highest priority target, and again
to get the next priority target.  I went straight to expert targeting, cause
I like to be in control of this stuff, heh.  On expert, you use it to switch
between squadron members or different parts on a capital ship (cannons,
engines, etc.).  If you press the button while your crosshairs are over an
enemy, you will target them.  If you press and hold the button, you will switch
to Tail View, where your camera will follow your tail.  VERY USEFUL for certain
parts of the game.  Instead of cycling through the targets for the enemy you're
looking for, just switch to tail and look for them.

   R1 button ---- Special move.  This is different for everyone.  It is
explained in the Characters section.

   R2 button ---- Cycles through squad leaders and capital ships in expert
targeting mode.

   L1 button ---- Cycles through special weapons.  Each character carries
different special weapons.  Special Weapons are described under Characters
and Junk.

   Control Pad ---- Moves fighter around.  If using normal controls, your
up key will be up and down will be down.  If using reversed, up will dive,
and down will climb.  Tapping any way twice does a barrel roll.

   Left Control Stick ---- Same as the control pad, but not the barrel roll
part.  Instead, the barrel roll is done with...

    L3 button ---- ...this button.  By pressing down (toward the controller)
on the left control stick, you hit the L3 button.  By sharply pressing a
direction on the control stick and pressing L3, you barrel roll, or by holding
L3 and sharply pressing a direction.  I prefer the latter.

    Select button ---- Skips instructions or cutscenes.

    Start button ---- Pauses game.

   The right control stick, R3, and L2 buttons are not used, at least in
Novice mode.

=========Expert Controls=========

    All the expert controls are the same as the novice ones, except for the
following buttons.

    R1 button ---- Adjusts your yaw further right.  Basically this means
that the nose of your Skygunner moves to the right.

    L1 button ---- Adjusts your yaw further left.  Just like R1, this means
that the nose of your Skygunner moves to the left.

    L2 button ---- Cycles optional weapon.

    Control pad, left analog stick ---- the climb and dive is the same as
before, as is the barrel roll.  Left and Right, however, makes you roll.  By
pushing left, your left wing points more down, and your right wing points
more up, vice versa with right.

    L1 + R1 ---- When both pressed together, this activates your special
maneuver.

This should help you with most of the maneuvers in Skygunner, but I suggest
the training mode, it's the best way to learn, IMO.

=========On the Subject of Bonus Money=========

    I like it, you like it, it's just good stuff.  Bonus money makes the
world go round, and here's the tricks.
    First: The bonus multiplier.  That thing in the upper left hand corner
that says x2 or x3 (or x13 if you're good).  Every time you kill more than
one enemy with the same shot (I. E., fireworks, chain reaction), the bonus
multiplier takes whatever you would have earned and multiplies it (by x2,
x3, or x13 if you're good :D).  Tasty.
    Second: You may ask how to increase your bonus multiplier.  This is how
its done.  See that little counter below the multiplier (it might be at 0
if you're at x1...)?  The higher IT is, the higher your multiplier.  If it's
above 0, your multiplier is two.  If it's above ten, your multiplier is three.
If its above twenty, the multiplier is four.  Get the picture?  You add time
to your bonus counter by simply destroying enemies.  The faster you destroy
them, the faster the time accumulates.  Once the multiplier is big, launch
fireworks missiles at some big ship and remove many cannons at once.  BIG
MONEY.
    Third: Evasive maneuvers.  I cannot stress this enough.  If you lose
your balance, you lose lots of money.  So either get good at button pushing,
or take this advice:  Learn to barrel roll, stay out of major fire zones,
and learn to watch and anticipate enemy fire.  Barrel rolling makes you
invincible every time you do it, and keeps you on relatively the same course.
Staying out of major fire zones is just common sense.  For instance, if you
spend a lot of time in between the engines of the Grandir (above the lightning
generator), you're gonna get fried.  Anticipation, however, binds these three.
By watching enemy fire, you know WHEN to barrel roll.  You know WHEN to avert
your attention to flying a different direction.  The easiest way to anticipate
is to watch for funny messages like "attack gunners!" and stuff.  Next, look
for a pattern of where your enemy is aiming.  And the hardest, but most
effective, is to simply dodge out of the way when you see an enemy bullet
aiming at you.
    Fourth: Ammo.  Less machine guns/optional weapons fired equals more
money.
    Finally: Follow your objectives, and do it fast.  The faster you do it,
the higher your bonus counter (unless its something like the Grandir and you
want to get enough money before destroying it...). Also, the better chance
you have of mooching off someone else's objectives.  You get bonuses for
completing objectives... and the more bonuses you get, the higher your
"performance evaluation" at the end of the game.



Characters and Junk
---------------------

=========Good=========

    Femme ---- A Gunner new to Rive, good friends with police chief Hardi.
She pilots a ship named Branche, manufactured by Horloger.  Good turning and
banking ability and doesn't lose her balance as easily.  A very good beginning
craft, plus, she stands on Branche instead of sitting, how cool is that?

    Special maneuver ---- Active turn.  Immediately turns to face the enemy.
Very very very very useful, you can take a second pass at a ground- or
warship-based enemy almost immediately, or when you're attacking pistons on
the Squellette, you defeat one, you can use this and nail the other one so
fast... and it doesn't overheat the engine as much as other special maneuvers.

    Ciel ---- An ace Gunner, basically the main character to this game.  He
pilots the Avenir, manufactured by Artisan.  He takes out capital ships better
than Femme, but can't turn as well.  Play Ciel's mission once through and
you get the hang of Skygunner about halfway.

    Special maneuver ---- Air brakes.  The game makes this trick out to be
good for dodging stuff, but its only good for one thing.  HEAVY FIRE!  Which,
even though I capitalzed it, isn't too helpful.  By using your machine guns
while air braking, two things happen.  Your machine guns blast.. well... heavy
fire on the enemy, and you lose money like there's no tomorrow.  It's very
good for taking out capital ships, but since it's so hard to aim in the
beginning, and doesn't last too long, it's not nearly as useful as Active
turn.  Still, sometimes there are enemies where nothing but a good dose of
Heavy fire will suffice.

    Copain ---- Another ace Gunner whose abilities rival (and in my opinion,
surpass) those of Ciel.  My favorite fighter, cause the blue color is pretty
smooth, and two propellers placed where they are is just plain awesome.  Very
fast, very very very good for taking out squadrons of fighters and capital
ships alike.  His ship (the Chevalier, by Associe) carries the standard
Fireworks and Dog missiles, but also the Pumpkin bomb, making the Chevalier
a very formidable foe.  If that's not enough to make you jump out of whatever
you're flying and into this ship, check this out:

    Special maneuver ---- Vortex.  It's like a barrel roll, basically, but
takes longer.  Whats that you say?  Doesn't sound as good as I said?  Well,
thats cause I forgot to mention that any enemy that gets sucked into the vortex
is either instantly destroyed or severely damaged.  Think about it this way.
Some CAPITAL SHIPS can be destroyed by a single vortex, if you crash into
them at top speed.  Enemy squadrons don't stand a chance.  It has a range
comparable to four Fireworks missiles launched at once, I may be exaggerating,
but only slightly.  This is your main money maker.  As a BEGINNER, I managed
to be 3 million... uh... whatevers... ahead of Ciel, and I can't even remember
how far ahead of Femme.

    Hardi ---- The chief of police.  Good friends with Femme, has a little
girl, but devotes lots of time to work trying to catch Ventre.  He flies the
Courage... I think it's by some company called Dur.  Anyway, the cool thing
aboug Hardi is that he flies with his whole police force.  Instead of having
a special move, or even an optional weapon, he can order his force around.
His fighter is durable enough that you basically don't need evasive maneuvers
(well... maybe one or two), but it moves like a sleepy slug.  He can't be
used in training or story mode.

    Special maneuver ---- Hardi doesn't have a special maneuver, or optional
weapons.  Instead, he can order his police force to three different formations
using the optional weapons system.  The formation you see in story mode (if
you see him at all) is Rank.  His wingmen line up and fire their machine guns
perpetually.  The next formation is Free.  The wingmen fan out and blast
whatever they feel like.  Good for taking on Rival in the Survival mode.  The
final formation is Form.  Probably the most versatile one, Form makes all
the wingmen come together in a square formation around Hardi, and they fire
their guns at Hardi's cursor.  This is my favorite, and can be used for about
anything.  It makes short work of any and all enemies, as long as your aim
is good.  Townships, Battleships, fighters, Rival, nothing stands a chance.
DISCLAIMER!: These formations are pretty smooth, but every time you use one,
the temperature gauge goes up ALL THE WAY!  This means you cannot boost, or
change formation.  Your wingmen only stay in formation as long as your
temperature gauge is up, sometimes they go out of formation early, too.

=========Bad and Ugly=========

    Rival ---- I'm not really sure if Rival is BAD... but he duels Ciel twice.
He is on his own mission for someone else.  He also looks a little girlish...
But his fighter is loads of fun to fly.  The Fantome, by Artisan, is like
the Avenir (Ciel's Skygunner), but with less disadvantages.  First of all,
it seems to turn better, it's much faster (faster than Copains?), but the
best thing about the Fantome is its incredible machine gun.  First of all,
it's purple, which is cool, and it's FAST!  And with speed comes strength
in this case.  The crosshair is really really accurate, which makes it
somewhat harder to aim, but it more than makes up for that with its power!
The Fantome also carries Bat missiles, which are like normal air-air or
air-ground missiles, and are exceptionally powerful.  The best dogfighting
missile (for real dogfights, not these wussy normal enemies).

    Special maneuver ---- Air Brakes.  The same as Ciels, Heavy fire and
everything.  Practically worthless with him, as there are no capital ships
in his game.

    Ventre ---- A big fat antagonist.  Ventre is a criminal genius who enjoys
music, though he hasn't been heard of for some time.

    Poulets ---- Ventre's assistants.  Small, in large numbers, and very
very persistent.

=========Objects=========

    Eternal Engine ---- The object of Ventre's eye (aside from all the other
artsy stuff that he goes after) in this story, an engine that can run forever
with no outward force.

    Machine Soldier ---- A... well... a machine soldier.  Very big, compared
to a human, but small compared to the airships in this game.  Very annoying
at the end.  Ventre steals it in the beginning and it makes a few appearances
in the game, most of them incredibly annoying for beginners.

    Astronomical telescope ---- A telescope that can see into outer space.
Ventre tries to steal it with the machine soldier.

    Fireworks missiles ---- The most oft-used of all missiles.  This
(alongside Copain's vortex) is an excellent moneymaker.  It creates a very
large explosion, larger with every missile locked onto the enemy, that will
destroy nearby enemies.  Fireworks missiles are purple on the optional weapon
selection thingummy.
    My strategy ---- Pick an enemy in the middle, lock, and shoot.  When
fighting capital ships, cripple them and make loads of money by sweeping your
crosshairs over the ship and firing in different areas.  The cumulative
explosions will take out most guns (usually weaker ones that shoot rapidly)
and sometimes even nearby enemies... coupled with the damage it does to the
hull of the ship.

    Dog missiles ---- Basically the most pointless of missiles, immobilizes
the enemy SLIGHTLY.  However, a pointless missile wouldn't have a place in
this game, would it?  No, there are certain enemies (cannons that always face
you so you can't hit their vulnerable backside) that literally HAVE to have
a dog missile or three blasted at them.  Dog missiles are red on the optional
weapon selection thingummy.
    My strategy ---- These make some money, actually... wanna know how?  At
the end of every mission, you get money for how many missiles you DIDN'T use.
And, for killing certain enemies, you get certain missiles.  Basically, since
I don't use dog missiles except for on the occasions where they're needed
to win (like the cannon), I always have a lot of them at the end, and since
I get more by killing enemies... well, the more I have over 20, the more money
I get!

    Cross missiles ---- You shoot them, and little crosses attach to the
enemy.  You lock on three on the same enemy, and a big cross attaches to the
enemy.  By shooting these crosses, they detonate... along with a lot of the
enemies health.  These are very powerful, but anti-capital ship.  It would
be kind of pointless to put three crosses on a weak flying enemy and machine
gun them... when you could have just machine gunned the enemy down?
    My strategy ---- Well, like I said, anti capital ship.  Blast one at
the capital ship, follow it in, and machine gun it to detonate.

    Pumpkin Bombs ---- Copain Only.  Not missiles... bombs.  They look like
little pumpkins, and do incredible amounts of damage... sometimes, however,
the computer doesn't register the hit, or the bombs don't explode.
    My strategy ---- If you've thought about using these on enemy fighters,
slap yourself.  These are anti-capital ship weapons.  Basically, when
Copain's Vortex won't do the trick, pop some pumpkin bombs at the enemy.  Be
very CLOSE to your target, and try to lock on four, that's usually enough
to blow up about anything.  Top speed helps, mainly to evade enemy fire while
flying in close.

    Bat missiles ---- Rival Only.  These missiles look like little bats,
and fly at the enemy, wait for a bit behind the enemy, then ram the enemy,
exploding in the process.  You'll use these against Ciel, and thats about
all they're good against, they're worthless against the machine soldier.
    My strategy ---- Firstly, getting a lock of 4 helps... and though you
don't need to, I usually get in very close to the enemy before or AFTER firing
them.  Why?  The only enemy I'll use them against is Ciel... and he slows
down if you're too close, allowing the bat missiles to do their job.  Otherwise,
he simply flies at top speed until the missiles detonate on their own.  To
dodge these missiles (when playing as Ciel), take a page out of Ciel's book
and fly at top speed.  Barrel rolling at the last second seems to work, too.

=========Ventre's ships=========

    These are in order of their appearance.  They are described first by
name, then class, the description, then the OFFICIAL description, the weak
point, and finally the threat class (going from F to A, F being weakest, A
being strongest).  The Threat of a ship will be classed not on a beginner's
skill, but on an intermediate gunners, because you won't be a beginner for
long...

    An "A" threat class doesn't mean "really really hard" it just means one
of the tougher enemies in the game... after a while, the enemies are actually
ALL very easy.

Name: Premier
Class: Petit Fighter
Description: Small, one man (one Poulet?) fighter.  Very, very numerous,
very very weak.  They look like little butterflies...  They come in squads,
so locking onto the squad leader with a few fireworks missiles equals a chunk
of change.  The squad leader is often a tad stronger than the rest, and looks
different.
Official description: Basic fighter for Ventre's forces.  These fighters
have four different variations.
Weak point: The whole thing is weak.  Fire and forget (not like the missile,
like shoot it and go away, rest assured it's dead).
Threat Class: F

Name: Stable
Class: Veteran Warship
Description: These warships were built half a century ago... They're about
as strong as you'd expect for a fifty year old warship.  They have the shape
of an old DW Albatross... roughly.  Numerous guns, but no real threat.
Official description: A veteran aircraft constructed half a century ago.
It would make a marvellous museum piece.
Weak point:  The weak points on a Stable are the sails (just beneath the
black wings), the top bridge (between the black wings, a chain gun is mounted
on it), and the bottom bridge (about everything below the tail).  My favorite
strategy for removing Stables is to attack from the top (a blind spot except
for the chain gun) and blast at the bridge.  You will eventually remove the
chain gun, and then it will be truly blind.  If you want to destroy it with
Copain's Vortex, aim for the joints of the sails and the main body, and crash
right into it at top speed (using the vortex, of course).
Threat Class: F-E

Name: Tow Cannon
Class: Cannon
Description:  A cannon with a shield-looking thing on the back and a cannon
on the front, mounted upon a tow chain.  Six of these attach to the Merveilleux.
They're very predictable, simply roll when they blast at you, or shoot the
bullets.
Official description: NA
Weak Point:  It's all weak, including the shield.  Attack from the side,
cause then only three can point at you (two if you attack from the narrow
side) but beware when disengaging that the others don't blast you.
Threat Class: F as one, but since they're six, E.

Name: Gauche, Droite
Class: Townships
Description: One is red, the other is blue... I don't know which is which,
so I put them under the same name.  They have numerous cannons, Machine guns,
wingbomb launchers, and are relatively large... But they can still turn very
quickly!
Official description: These red and blue airships have appeared, designated
the Merveilleux as their target.
Weak Point: Engine room... unfortunately, the engine room is covered by a
shield bearing four cannons.  Destroy one of these cannons, and it will take
out the other three.  Then, detonate cross missiles (or use pumpkin bombs)
against the shield, and without the shield, that big coil-lookin thing in
the engine room is helpless.  Blow it to bits.
Threat Class: C

Name: Wingbomb
Class: Flying bomb
Description: Looks like a bullet facing downward that sprouts wings after
it is shot out of the launcher.  It will try to ram you and detonate.
Official description: This bomb can remain in free fall for an extended
period of time.  Its performance increases when it is charged with lightning.
Weak Point: It's weak, just shoot it.
Threat Class: D

Name: Baleine
Class: Aerial Battle Ark with Long Range Cannon
Description: A big ship... actually it kind of resembles a whale.  It has
a huge cannon on the front which will blast down cargo planes in an instant.
It takes a little while to load, however.  It also has the standard machine
guns on either side and a few normal cannons.
Official description: This gigantic aircraft, named after a baleen whale,
is equipped with long range artillery.
Weak Point: The very bottom, where the hull is white.  The yellow part also
registers damage, but is basically a very strong shield, don't waste time
or bullets.  You're better off attacking from the side, so you're not in the
way of all six machine guns.
Threat Class: To gunners: D.  To Cargo planes: A (:P)

Name: Missile pods
Class: Poulet Transport Device
Description: They LOOK like missiles... but they actually contain Poulets
that will spring from the pod and attack whatever their target is.  Supposedly
very cushy inside.
Official description: Operated by a Poulet commander, a missile pod can
carry a maximum of 6 Poulets and is quite comfortable on the inside, despite
its outside appearance.
Weak Point: The whole pod is weak, just blast it.  If the Poulets reach their
target, pop off a couple dog missiles to stop them.
Threat Class: To gunners: F.  To the mission: B

Name: Unknown
Class: Aerial Battle Ark
Description: Looks like a Baleine without the Long Range Cannon, and besides,
it's blue (yellow on the last scene).  It has a little more firepower in
exchange for the LR cannon.
Official description: NA
Weak Point: The underside, where it is white, and the blue-purple stuff,
but not the propellors, that will just blow THEM up.
Threat Class: E

Name: Grandir
Class: Battle Zeppelin
Description: A large ship held up by two gunnels:  both consisting of four
engines altogether.  Loads of firepower, Machine guns coming out the wazoo
and cannons up the yin-yang.  Wingbomb launchers, too.
Official description: Ventre has already informed the Poulets of the weak
points, the four engines, of this slow moving aerial battleship.
Weak Point: The four engines on the gunnels.  Don't hit the crossbeams in
front of the engines, hit the fiery part.  Watch out for the cannon mounted
just above each engine.
Threat Class: B

Name: Lightning Generator
Class: Lightning Generator
Description: A generator that makes ominous clouds and powers wingbombs,
encased in bulletproof glass.
Official description: NA
Weak Point: See the row of machine guns on either side?  Pick a side, and
blast the far gun on that side.  You'll get a chain reaction toward the
generator, hurting it.  Keep it up.
Threat Class: Directly: F(it doesn't shoot).  Indirectly: A(Wingbombs,
reduced vision).

Name: Lightning Powered Wingbombs
Class: Flying Bombs with Lightning Boost
Description: These look like normal wingbombs with purple halos.  They are
much faster and much more annoying.
Official description: This bomb can remain in free fall for an extended
period of time.  Its performance increases when it is charged with lightning.
Weak Point: Same as before... it takes more hits this time, though.
Threat Class: A (Not that annoying... but probably the most annoying in the
game).

Name: Progres
Class: Fighter
Description: A small fighter, an upgrade of the Premier.  It can take more
hits, and has both a machine gun and this gun that shoots annoying balls of
yellow energy... watch that one, it's worst.
Official description: A remodeled version of the Premier, which, despite
its appearance, does not have drastically improved performance.
Weak Point: Same as the Premier, so just shoot it and it's gone.
Threat Class: C in large numbers, E in a squad or less.

Name: Dernier
Class: Fish Formation
Description: A Dernier is actually a formation, but only one ship type does
it, so I'll call that ship a Dernier.  It can take about three hits, but if
it's in FORMATION, the only Dernier that will accept hits is the squadron
leader.
Official description: Aim for the commander.  By doing so, this special fish
force can be dispersed.
Weak Point: It's all weak, unless it's in formation.  When in formation,
aim for the squadron leader.  Once he is defeated, the others will scatter,
and they will take hits.  When in formation, a Dernier will simply barrel
roll and avoid hits.
Threat Class: B

Name: Dorado
Class: Heavily Armed Floating Battleship
Description: A big fat red battleship with four huge gun barrels on the top,
and platforms of machine guns on either side, and the bottom.  Behind it is
a HUGE cannon that seems to fire colored rags...
Official description:  This battleship is still under construction.  It's
been sleeping in a factory in Plage.
Weak Point:  It's blind spot is right in front of it, but you're better off
shooting three fireworks missiles in different places.  These will destroy
(or at least weaken) the three platforms on the Dorado, which will create
another blind spot.  Do not attack from the side or the bottom unless you've
destroyed the concerned platforms.
Threat Class: A

Name: Ground Cannon
Class: Cannon
Description: The weakest cannon you can find, but it usually comes with a
few more.
Official description: NA
Weak Point: It's all weak, simply destroy it with your machine guns.
Threat Class: D

Name: Shielded Cannon
Class: Cannon
Description: A cannon that is shielded in the front, and can only be hurt
in the back.  It will try to track you, making a back attack very difficult.
Official description: NA
Weak Point: The back.  To get at the back, Fire some Dog missiles at it.
Once the missiles take effect, the cannon will stop swiveling, so make sure
you're not above the cannon (or else it's back will be to the ground, and
hard to hit).
Threat Class: B

Name: Titanium Cannon
Class: Cannon
Description: As Copain suggests, this cannon is probably made out of
Titanium.  It CANNOT be hurt by conventional weaponry.
Official description: NA
Weak Point: None.  This cannon can only be destroyed by a chain reaction.
When a group of Ground Tanks come up to it... chain reaction!
Threat Class: A

Name: Ground Tank
Class: Tank
Description: A one-Poulet tank that fires shells (not machine gun bullets).
Usually in large numbers.  Very good for chain reactions.
Official description: NA
Weak Point: It's all weak, destroy it.
Threat Class: D

Name: Skimship
Class: Watergoing ship
Description: A boat with a machine gun.  Usually appears in numbers.
Official description: NA
Weak Point: All of it.  Machine guns do the trick.
Threat Class: C

Name: Squellette
Class: Walking Tank
Description:  It looks like a four-legged spider.  It has guns coming out
the yin-yang, so watch it.
Official description: A walking tank produced by the Associe company, it
was specially designed with the characteristics of a spider and is the
prototype for the machine soldier.
Weak Point: The control tower, the pistons, and the three engine caps.  To
destroy the control tower, either use cross missiles or your machine gun,
or use a chain reaction with the guns on the four sides of it.  To destroy
the pistons, machine gun them.  To destroy the three engine caps, either
machine gun them or pump a Cross missile into them.
Threat Class: A

Name: Grand Magasin
Class: Floating Fortress
Description: This is one HUGE warship.  It is bristling with cannons and
explosives that couldn't hit the broad side of a gunner's wings, has full
complements of Premiers, Progreses, Ground Tanks, and some capital ships like
Dorados and Unknowns.
Official description: This enormous battleship spans 2 km in length.  Is
it true that the entire town of Rive could be purchased with the budget for
its construction?
Weak Point: Hah! There are so blooming many...  Steel tethers, I'd say.   Use
chain reactions, that will do the trick.
Threat Class: B

Name: Tether Repair Cannon
Class: Tether Repair Cannon
Description: Hoo boy... a wheel with an arm that fixes tethers, and has a
huge four barrel machine gun on it.
Official description: Although the museum is being held by 8 steel tethers,
its best to destroy the cannon guarding them first.
Weak Point: It's all weak, but only from Cross missiles.
Threat Class: F

Name: Machine Soldier
Class: Vanqueur "Fidele"
Description: This is a... machine... soldier.  How else can I say it?
Official description: This machine soldier is manufactured by the Associe
company.  The company's scheduled exhibition was canceled because the machine
soldier was stolen three months ago.
Weak point: It doesn't have one... instead, just vortex it and it will fall
off the Merveilleux.
Threat Class: F

Name: Machine Soldier
Class: Vanqueur "Sage"
Description: A machine soldier with shields over the weak points.  It will
throw things at you, and if you're not careful it will grab YOU and throw
YOU.
Official description: The company that produces this machine claims that
it was not intended for military purposes, however, it's being used to steal
an astronomical telescope.
Weak point: Its shoulders.  However, the shoulder joints have shields on
them.  You must remove the shields, either by tactical weapons (temporary)
or by Cross missiles (permanent), then destroy the shoulder joints with Cross
missiles or machine guns.
Threat Class: C

Name: Machine Soldier
Class: Vanqueur "Garde"
Description: A machine soldier utilizing the Eternal Engine, and gold plated.
It gets angry easily.  As in six cross missiles make it angry.  It starts
with a lance that fires machine guns, then eventually drops the lance and
fires from a mounted gun, throws tanks, throws propellors, fires cone
missiles, deploys automated machine guns, and... I think that's about it?
Official description: This machine soldier has been remodeled to eliminate
any weaknesses.  Even its armor seems to shine brighter.  Who will emerge
victorious in the next confrontation?
Weak Point: At first, it's all weak, but only from six cross missiles
detonated at once, when it isn't moving.  Copain stops the soldier with four
pumpkin bombs, while Ciel and Femme throw six cross missiles at it and
detonate them all at once.  It takes work.  After that, its helmet opens,
and you can see the eternal engine.  Hit that with  either machine guns,
pumpkin bombs, or cross missiles.  When you destroy it... you didn't really
destroy it, it just regenerates and you have to do it one more time, but this
time with the annoying attacks.
Threat Class: A

Name: Ventre's Battleship
Class: Modified Baleine
Description: It's an unknown, just red and swarming with Poulets.  For a
little cash, blast some fighters down with it.
Official description: Specially constructed to meet Ventre's </pre><pre id="faqspan-2">
specifications, no expense was spared on this ship's remodeling.  Well, it
is for the final battle!
Weak Point: The underside where it is white, and the red stuff, but thats
not too weak.
Threat Class: E

Name: Exocet
Class: Watercraft
Description: Comes in three flavors, Gold, Red, and Blue.  It's like a big,
mechanical snake, and with each one you destroy, another stronger one takes
its place.  If the front of it gets too damaged, it will submerge and repair.
Official description: Designed by the Plage company, this craft shares many
characteristics with the local acquatic life.  Ventre has added his own
touches.
Weak Point: All the little poulet-carrier dealies are very weak and die
quickly, but to destroy the Exocet you need to destroy the fronternmost one.
The one that isn't so weak.
Threat Class: A

Thanks to Spark Pristine for the official descriptions.  There were MORE
descriptions, but I don't have those ships listed.



~~~Disclaimer~~~
The Cannons, Skimship, and Ground tanks are all names that I made up, They
aren't the real names.  However, I don't HAVE the real names, so thats the
best I could do.



Walkthrough
--------------

    The Walkthrough is set up in three parts.  Preparation, Action, and
Aftermath.  Preparation has the enemies you will meet, and the Threat Class
of the level.  Action gives you a blow-by-blow (for the most part, as accurate
as I can come) of the level.  Aftermath has the prize money bonuses you can
earn from the level.

=========Ciel=========

~~~Scene 1~~~

Preparation:
Enemies: Loads of Premiers: Petit Fighters
         Two Stables: Veteran Warships
         Six Tow Cannons
         Gauche: Township
         Droite: Township
         Wingbombs
Threat Class: C for beginners, E otherwise

Action:
Scene one is... well, the first scene of the game.  Ventre makes his
appearance.  He is trying to capture the Merveilleux, and already has Petit
fighters and two Stables deployed.
The first task is to remove the fighters.  They will stay in formation until
the squad leader is deployed, so aim for outer wingmen in the formation.  You
will need little to no evasive maneuvering here, it's easy enough.  If you
want to make a good chunk of prize money, be speedy in destroying enemies,
and lock 3 fireworks missiles onto a few squad leaders.  Be sure your fireworks
do not go below 20, unless you don't care about losing the prize money.
Ciel and Copain then recieve a call from the Merveilleux.  The female gunner,
Femme, wants to get out there and help fight.   Well, the more the merrier
(though not in this case, she'll just take down enemies and get prize money
for herself! oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do), but she can't launch
with the fighters outside the hangar.  Of course, she doesn't mean FIGHTERS,
she means WARSHIPS.  There is one Stable outside the hangar, and one behind
the Merveilleux.  Remove both.  Attack from the top, it's the weakest point
(see Ventre's Ships).  Afterwards, go on destroying fighters until Femme gets
out of the hangar.  (Note: if you take too long in destroying the Stables,
Femme will begin to break through anyway, and I need to see if she ever gets
through with the Stables still in place.)
After blasting the Stables into oblivion (and more fighters, if you were
fast enough), Femme will make her debut... and so will Hardi and the police
force.  So, if you see yellow biplanes flying in formation, shooting
inaccurately at enemies, don't be alarmed.  Ventre will call in two huge
warships, Townships, Gauche and Droite.  They will then fire six tow cannons
at the Merveilleux.  These tow cannons have shields in the back, but are still
very vulnerable anywhere.  That includes the shield.  Attack from the side,
so that only two or three can fire at you.  Watch it when you disengage that
another cannon isn't ready to bust you up.
With the tow cannons destroyed, the Merveilleux is finally out of danger,
but we must still wreak havoc upon the town of Rive by way of falling airships
and Poulets (which means we have to destroy these townships).  Ciel and Femme
are to take out the red one.  The weak point is the engine room shield (shown
in the cutscene) at the back of the ship.  Actually, it's not very weak...
in fact, you need two full sized cross missiles to remove it for good.  But,
before you do that, take out the cannons on top of the shield.  It wouldn't
do to waste cross missiles on them, would it?  Plus, they're kind of annoying.
With the engine shield gone, the engine room is open.  Before those colored
propellors go down, attack them FROM THE SIDE.  If done correctly, they will
do a chain reaction and BIG DAMAGE to the engine room.  After that (or if
you're too late), aim for the big coil looking thing (There is also a cannon
on the bridge which might test your patience... if Femme doesn't hit it, and
it bothers you, destroy it).  With the destruction of the coil thing comes
the end of the red township's reign of terror.
If Copain hasn't already taken it out, you can go after the blue township
now, the same way you've gone for the red (but I'll bet dollars to donuts
he already destroyed the cannons atop the engine shield, don't worry about
those).
With the destruction of the Townships comes your first victory (or large
loss, if you're in debt with the prize money :P).

Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing stage: 50,000
Prize money for event bonuses:
     Save Femme: 200,000: to get this bonus, destroy the Stables in time.
Normal Prize money for Optional weapon, enemies shot down, and battle money.

~~~Scene 2~~~

Preparation:
Enemies: Loads of Premiers: Petit Fighters
         25 Missile Pods
         One Baleine: Aerial Battle Ark with Long Range Cannon
         13 Stables: Veteran Warships (You'll deal with 10 of them)
         Unlimited Unkowns
         One Grandir: Battle Zeppelin
         Wingbombs & Lightning Powered Wingbombs
Threat Class: B for beginners, E for intermediate, A if you want that
freaking engine!

Action:
Scene two focuses on an escort mission, with the three gunners escorting
fifteen cargo planes from Associe.  Later, they set a trap for Ventre.
Your first task is to destroy the fighters.  It is ESSENTIAL that you do
not use any fireworks missiles, as they will prove EXCEPTIONALLY valuable
later in the mission.  Just try to blast enemies as fast as possible.  When
the guy from Associe says "Gulp! We're done for! My precious cargo is doomed!"
thats your cue to finish the enemy you're working on, and cycle through
targets until you find a HUGE swarm.  Splurge and use about three fireworks
missiles on the middle, and mop the rest up.  Don't use more than three, unless
you're seriously in jeopardy of losing the last cargo ship or something like
that.
After torching all the initial fighters, the Baleine will make its debut
by firing its monster cannon at a cargo ship, and missile pods will fly toward
the convoy.  As you fly toward the Baleine, give Femme a hand by taking
potshots at the nearby fighters (if you do well, you get 5 cross missiles
per squad leader!).  Stables will eventually appear, but you won't know about
it, it will be Femme's job to clean them up.  Destroy the Baleine as fast
as possible, and attack from the side.  If you attack from the bottom, you
don't have to be as accurate, but all six machine guns (and then some) can
see you... and shoot at you.  The best way to get rid of the Baleine, and
I hate to say it cause it SAPS money really fast (but with a little luck you
should have a little over 300,000 in cash by now), is to use Heavy Fire when
you get a clear shot.  Cross missiles work as well... but if you use Heavy
Fire efficiently, it's faster and costs less than if you go under 20 Cross
Missiles.  Besides, the money you would lose from losing cargo ships is a
lot worse than the cash you'd lose from Heavy Fire.  If you can find a better
way, E-MAIL ME!

NOTE: Good ol' Thomas Stacey has some stage 2 hints just for you at the bottom
of the walkthrough.  Check them out!

The next task concerns you, three minutes, and ten Stables.  It is
EXCEPTIONALLY difficult to destroy all these without using Heavy Fire and
without going under 20 cross missiles, so you'll have to choose one, cause
the bonus for blowing these up is... substantial.  Machine guns make some
speedy work of these, but not as fast as an ACCURATE fully charged cross
missile, or as fast as Heavy Fire.  As usual, attack from the top, and if
your targeting finger is fast enough and can stop on a dime... attack the
fleet from the top Stable down.
With the decimation of the fleeing Stables (or if they got away), ends the
first part of Scene 2.  The second part is the trap the gunners lay for Ventre.
As they reach the lighthouse, however, they begin to realize that they may
be in for a bit more than expected...
The Grandir flies out of the clouds, along with dozens of squads of Petit
fighters and Unknowns.  Now, as you already know, the gunner with the most
prize money from THIS PART OF THE BATTLE gets a new engine.  The best way
to make cash is to destroy enemies VERY VERY QUICKLY!  This will multiply
the prize money you get per enemy destroyed.  Also, if you lose your balance,
you're practically screwed.  In addition to these two, the fastest money maker
is the Unknowns.  Keep your eye on the targeter, cause the other two gunners
know this.  When you see one appear, SWITCH TO IT! Once you have it in your
sights, speed up, the other gunners are close behind.  Use fireworks missiles
(either all in one place or in three different places) to remove as many
cannons as possible, this will get you tons of cash.  The best place for
fireworks missiles is on the bow or stern (front or back).  After this, destroy
it so another one can take its place.
After a time, the Grandir will deploy its Lightning Generator.  It is
bulletproof, and charges wingbombs... watch your back.  The best way to
destroy this thing (though you'll have to sacrifice the prize money hunt)
is as follows:  See the rows of guns on either side of the generator?  Pick
one row and pick the gun in that row FARTHEST from the generator.  Blow it
up, but not the other one.  The chain reaction is worth a little money, and
hurts the generator.  You can also let your wingmen pop the generator, but
keep an eye on your fuel gauge... sometimes they forget.
If you've given up on the engine, are low on fuel, or are in first place
with prize money, lets begin on destroying the Grandir.  First of all, pick
one of the four engines.  The engines each have a cannon mounted above it,
and crossbeams in front of it.  You have to shoot around the crossbeams into
the engine, while dodging enemy fire and wingbombs.  Machine guns will do
it, Cross missiles if you're having trouble.  Blow up all four and the Grandir
is done for.

Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing the stage: 100,000
A new engine for whoever was in first place Prize money wise.
Prize money for event bonuses:
    Cargo Planes shot down: negative 50,000 per plane
    Defeat all Stables: 400,000
    Destroy Lightning Generator: 400,000
Normal prize money for Optional weapon, enemies shot down, and battle money.

~~~Scene 3~~~

Preparation:
Enemies: Six Progres', for cutscene purposes.
         Rival
Threat Class: F

Action:
After a short cutscene showing Ciel blasting some Progres' into oblivion,
the first duel of the game begins.  Your task?  To defeat Rival within five
minutes.  He may look intimidating (actually he doesn't...) but he's very
easy to defeat.  I've found two ways to defeat him: firstly, dog missiles.
Pop three dog missiles into him and machine gun him down.  But the FASTER
way of doing it, I found by accident.  Just equip Cross missiles instead of
Dog missiles.  Of course, this takes up more MONEY in the end... but it helps
(either use a fully charged one or not... I used 2 normal ones and finished
him with my machine guns).  Note that if you crash three times, you lose,
or if you fail to defeat him within the time limit.

Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing the stage: 150,000
Prize money for event bonuses:
    Drastically damage Rival: 1,500,000
Normal prize money for Optional weapon, enemies shot down, and battle money.

~~~Scene 4~~~

Preparation:
Enemies: Enemies in Dernier (loads)
         Progres: Fighter (loads)
         Two Dorados
         Missile Pods (loads)
         Cannons (all three kinds)
         Skimships (unlimited)
         Ground Tanks (unlimited)
         1 Squellette: Walking Tank
Threat Class: A

Action:
Welcome to Ventre's hideout!  As you fly in, please hear the message from
our leader, notice the Police Planes taking formation behind you, the armored
car getting ready to storm the castle, and the Dernier, the finest fish
formation ever put together.
Your first task?  To take apart that formation.  All the fighters will barrel
roll and avoid fire except for the commander.  Put three fireworks missiles
into him.  That takes out him and usually a WHOLE LOT of enemies when they're
done barrel rolling.  Mop these fighters up.  If a group of fighters is alone
for a while, they will regain formation (they'll all be in line) and you'll
have to shoot the leader of THAT formation. Happy hunting!
Your next task?  Two Dorados pop out and fire at your team.  Luckily, you
all dodge.  Ciel offers to take out BOTH of them while the other two go their
separate ways.  To destroy a Dorado, hit the white part beneath it, but don't
mistake the gun platform under it for the white part.  This thing is LOADED
with firepower, and that firepower is getting in the WAY of the white part.
So, lets cripple it a little.  Put three fireworks missiles into different
places on the Dorado, and then finish the three platforms of guns (or just
two, depending on how well your evasive maneuvers are).  If you're too lazy
to do this (like me my first time...) there's a blind spot on the front of
the Dorado.  Well, it's blind for the most part, you might get a few stray
bullets.  Practice the barrel rolls!  If you finish off both Dorados within
the time limit, start blasting other enemies for money.
A squad of Progres' has flown a little ways away from the castle and spotted
Hardi in the armored car.  He has to make a run for it toward the castle,
so protect him.  The bridge starts falling apart beneath him, however, and
he'll have to go full speed to keep away from it.  What does Ventre use to
slow down or destroy somethings engine?  Why, a missle pod full of Poulets,
of course.  As if on cue, missile pods will start rocketing in for a chance
at slowing down that armored car.  They're in the water, and they come in
groups.  Since Ciel doesn't bank as easily as other players, you're going
to want to meet them waaaaaaay before they reach the bridge.  Fireworks
missiles are friendly, but if you have the time, just put them away with
machine guns.
If the armored car manages to make it to the castle, the final obstacle will
appear.  A Dorado will fly in and airdrop a Squellette right into the courtyard.
The Squellette is mighty annoying, especially when it turns its attention
to you instead of the car.  Ground tanks will buzz around, as well, so don't
get too careless.  The Squellette has three weak points, and you need to
destroy them all.  Rather, three SETS of weak points.  First of all, the
easiest is the control tower.  You COULD use conventional methods... but
they're very slow in this case.  Instead, shoot at the machine guns to make
a chain reaction to hurt the control tower.  Now that THATS done for... The
Squellette may already be on the wall.  In that case, blast at the four pistons
which will be shown on your targeter (as urgent thingies).  They're on the
knees of the Squellette.  Machine guns will do it well.  Once the Squellette's
pistons are destroyed, it will fall off the wall (unless it's on a corner,
in which it will reach flat wall first, then fall).  Use this opportunity
to destroy the last set of weak points.  Three Engine Room caps are on the
underside of the Squellette.  On the targeter, they're the row just below
the control tower.  Otherwise they just look like oil filters.  Use machine
guns or cross missiles to destroy them.  Sometimes the game glitches up and
after you destroy these you have to pop the pistons again before the
Squellette explodes (granted, if you take too long to do any one of these,
the Squellette will climb back onto the wall and you'll have to hit the pistons
again anyway).

Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing the stage: 200,000
Prize money for event bonuses:
    Police Planes defeated: Negative 150,000 per 1
    Sink 2 Dorados: 1,000,000
Normal prize money for enemies shot down, Optional weapon, and battle money.

~~~Scene 5~~~

Preparation:
Enemies: Loads of Premiers
         Loads of Progres'
         Loads of Derniers
         Loads of Ground Tanks
         One Dorado
         Machine Soldier: Vanqueur "Garde"
         Tether Repair Cannon (for Femme)
         Rival
         One Unknown
         Grand Magasin
         Grand Magasin (steel tethers)
         Grand Magasin (control tower)
         Grand Magasin (engine room, for Copain)
         Machine Soldier with Eternal Engine: Vanqueur "Garde" utilizing
Eternal Engine
         Ventre's Battleship
Threat Class: A

Action:
Well, you've found Ventre's REAL hideout, and it's pretty smooth... A
floating battleship, the Grand Magasin.  He's managed to steal a whole museum,
not to mention the Eternal Engine.  You'd better do something about that.
Your first task is to clear out fighters so that Femme and the police can
free the museum.  Go ahead and blast out the enemies, try to keep your missiles
above twenty, we don't wanna lose money...  now try to hit them as they come
out of the hangar, if your targeting reticle shoots to the other side of the
ship... hit the target button again, and skip that target.
Eventually, a Dorado bearing the gold plated machine soldier will emerge,
and your task will to be to destroy THAT.  Forget the machine soldier (well,
not COMPLETELY, as he's shooting that ungodly accurate machine gun at you...)
and concentrate on the Dorado.  You should remember how to destroy one, but
if not, there are no blind spots thanks to the machine soldier.  Pop a
fireworks missile or three at the Dorado to take out the wings (it WILL take
more than that to get them all), and finish it with machine guns in its
sensitive underbelly.  Don't mistake the lower gun platform for the
underbelly.  The red shield is invulnerable, so you GOTTA hit that underbelly.
When Femme's risk meter is at 50%, the machine soldier will focus its
attention elsewhere, take out the Dorado NOW!
When the Dorado is gone, shoot some more fighters till Femme frees the
museum.
Once the police force takes the museum to a safe place, your next job is
to... wait, is that a phantom?  No, it's just the Fantome (courtesy laughs
accepted).  Well, you know what that means.  Take him out the same as last
time, use dog missiles or cross missiles, see Scene 3 for a little more info.
You have 3 minutes with which to do so.
Ok, now if you took too long with Rival, this step will be gone (or maybe
its just cause the game glitches and skips this step).  But you don't want
to skip it, it gets you big money.  If your bonus multiplier is high enough,
you can get 200,000-300,000 in prize money PER TETHER.  We're going to destroy
steel tethers, by the way.  They look like portholes with blue fire coming
out of them.  They also have a row of guns on each side... you know what that
means!  Blast the furthest gun on one side to do a chain reaction, then do
the same on the other side to destroy the tether.  If you were fast enough
in destroying enemies, your bonus multiplier should get you a LOT of money.
It's a little tough to target these things... all of them are on the same
R2 target except for two, you have to scroll for them.  There are 7 in all.
Two are on the front section, one is just above the hangar, there is one on
each side platform (toward the bottom of the Grand Magasin, they look like
big rectangle-type gray boxes), and one on each side of the cabin (easier
to get to after you finish off the side platforms, the very bottom of the
now-diminished Grand Magasin).  Try memorizing where these are, it will keep
your bonus counter high and get you a LOAD of money (plus, then you can use
tail view).

NOTE:  A cool few pieces of information on making HUGE amounts of money and
defeating Rival in the E-mail contribution area, courtesy of Jesse Jace
Thomas and Thomas Stacey.


After breaking the Grand Magasin to pieces, Ciel's task will be to destroy
the control tower.  You'll have lots of fighters on your butt, but thats not
your main worry.  The fact that the control tower, and the surrounding guns
(yes, all three columns) are bulletproof, now THATS something to worry about.
You could try cross missiles on the control tower... but it isn't enough.
You need a chain reaction.  Which means you need to Cross missile the bottom
gun in each row (two or three times) to make a chain reaction ALL the way
up.  It takes a few hits to destroy this tower.
If you destroy the control tower fast enough, you'll be able to give Copain
a hand with the engine room.  Don't even try, is my strategy for that, but
if you must, use Cross missiles (but you should probably save THOSE for
later).
After both the tower and the engine room have been destroyed, the machine
soldier will attack YET AGAIN.  How annoying it is.  You must do an allied
attack on it, and for beginners that is annoying like no other (once you get
used to it {say, five or six times destroying it}, it's very easy).  Copain
gets the easy stuff, he simply bombs the machine soldier once.  The next part
takes some cooperation from Femme, and sometimes she doesn't.  You have to
put 6 Cross missiles into the soldier.  DO NOT OVERHEAT!  Put some time between
each missile you fire at him.  Once all six are in, you have to detonate them
ALL at once.  Make a note of where they all are and summon all your accuracy,
cause if you didn't put each Cross missile in the same place, it's gonna be
tough.
Good, those cross missiles opened its helmet.
Now you can SEE the Eternal Engine.  Blow it up.  It is susceptible to machine
guns, but Cross missiles are easier.  It still has that blooming machine gun...
So watch it!
Ok, you've pumped Cross missile after Cross missile, plus some machine gun
bullets into the machine soldier.
That only made it mad.
Now it's ready for action.  It's dropped its lance, and is just firing
wantonly.  It will pick up Ground Tanks and throw them at you if you get too
close.  It will fire these weird cone missiles at you that WILL NOT GIVE UP!
It will fire a ton of little machines to hover above it and shoot you, machines
that cannot be destroyed.  Toward the beginning, it will hurl two propellers
at you (one at a time, but it  is its most annoying attack), and the propellers
will home in.  They LITERALLY will not give up.  You cannot keep outrunning
them, you'll get hit or run out of fuel.  The best tactic for taking out the
propellers (and it's simple!) is to run straight into one, and barrel roll
when you hit it.  There, done and done.  Now, with all these attacks, you
ALSO have to hit the thing, and it keeps turning... a moving target, plus
you have to worry about the fighters on your back and the ground tanks on
the ship.  Fun.  Use Cross missiles or machine guns, whatever, just kill it.
If you run out of Cross missiles, kill some ground tanks, they give you a
lot.  If you destroy the Machine Soldier WITHIN 3 MINUTES, you get to take
a shot at Ventre's escaping battleship.
Ventre's escaping battleship is a red Unknown SWARMING with Poulets.  You
also have squads of fighters around you, but they seem to be ignoring you...
Just destroy the battleship. Finally, it's over!

Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing the stage: 250,000
Prize money for event bonuses:
    Destroy Ventre's battleship: 2,000,000
    Drastically damage Rival: 1,500,000
Normal prize money for enemies shot down, Optional weapon, and battle money.



=========Femme=========

~~~Scene 1~~~

Preparation:
Enemies: Loads of Premiers: Petit Fighters
         Two Stables: Veteran Warships (Ciel's problem)
         Six Tow Cannons
         Gauche: Township
         Droite: Township
         Wingbombs
Threat Class: F (Femme has it easy)

Action:
Femme and Chief Hardi begin on the Merveilleux, but find out very quickly
that something is wrong.  Ventre is trying to kidnap/steal the Merveilleux,
and the Eternal Engine along with it.  Luckily, the gunners Ciel and Copain
have come to the rescue!  Unluckily, since Femme is inside, she's not gonna
get any money! We have to do something about THAT.
Femme calls the gunners outside the ship and asks to assist.  After some
nervous chatter, another voice comes on the phone and tells her it will be
safe to get out of the hangar.
Now the game starts.  At first, you're in the hangar and you are STUCK.  You'll
have to blast your way through the door with your machine guns.  If this is
the first character you've used, note that your machine guns cause your prize
money to go down.
Once the hangar door has been blasted off, use the afterburner to fly out
of the hangar.  Then, use Active Turn (R1) to get into the heat of battle.
Ok, you're out.  Start shooting down fighters, try to make more money than
Ciel and Copain (granted that if this is your first time, you probably won't,
but good luck!), and generally just clear the skies.
According to the little Poulet on the phone, the boss has no more planes.
Actually he does.  Ventre calls out Gauche and Droite, twin townships, to
capture the Merveilleux.  They attach six tow chain cannons to the Merveilleux.
Ciel and Copain are taking out the tow chain cannons, and it would be nice
of you to destroy the enemy fighters.  There's a nice bonus in it for you...
No more fighters?  Well, if you destroyed them fast enough, help with the
tow chain cannons.  They have a shield on the back (but the shield does nothing,
it's just there, and vulnerable), and fire slow cannonballs that you can
actually shoot out of the air.  I suggest flying in from the side, so only
two or three can hit you at once.  Watch it when you fly overhead to disengage,
or just dive instead.  Machine guns do the trick.
Ok, thats all done for, now Ventre wants Gauche and Droite to go after YOU.
Well, actually just gunners in general.  You don't have to worry about
fighters this time, it seems like Hardi and the police force are going after
them.  Instead, you are charged with destroying the cannons on the red
battleship.  Well, select the battleship and (if you're using advanced
targeting) use the triangle button to switch between cannon targets.  Machine
guns, fireworks missiles, use whatever you want to, just do some blowing up,
you can get heavy cash from these.  If you get real bored, go for some wingbombs.
If Ciel is taking too long... give him a hand and stick a Cross missile in
the engine shield (or pop the engine room a few shots).
With the red battleship gone, either the mission is over... or Copain isn't
done with the blue one.  Nobody will whine at you if you decide to go for
cannons on the blue one instead of the engine room, certainly not me, cause
it gives you good money.  But if you're low on fuel, or just want the mission
over, go ahead and destroy the engine room (two full Cross missiles to the
engine room, destroy the propellors from the side for big damage/money, and
finish the coil thing).  Good, that a wrap!

Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing the stage: 50,000
Prize money for event bonuses:
    Defeat the Townships' defense forces: 100,000
Normal prize money for enemies shot down, Optional weapon, and battle money.

~~~Scene 2~~~

Preparation:
Enemies: Premiers comin' out the wazoo
         13 Stables (3 concern Femme)
         25 Missile pods
         Baleine
         Grandir
         Unknowns (unlimited)
         More Premiers comin' out the wazoo
Threat Class: E (B if you want the engine)

Action:
You know how it goes... escorting Associe, get attacked by Ventre, defeat
Ventre, soundly deliver a counterattack to Ventre... simple enough... OR IS
IT?!
Yes, it is.
Start off by blasting those Premiers... you have a lot to go, get cracking.
If ever they are to gather, throw some fireworks at them... SPARINGLY!  You
want to use as FEW fireworks as possible, capisce?  It'll make sense later...
When the guy from Associe says "We're done for, my precious cargo planes
are doomed" or something to that effect, that means a SWARM of Premiers have
just made an entrance.  Scroll through the targeter and find them.  Then kill
them.  Premier exit stage left.
With the destruction of all Premiers, the Baleine makes her debut.  But lucky
you, Ciel takes on that.  And then the missile pods.  But lucky you, Copain
is all over those.  You're left with... fighters?!  Even though there are
basically none... but you won't be too bored.

NOTE: Before you hit the next step, check out Thomas Stacey's 'stage 2'
contributions.  There are bits and pieces of cash tips for the next few parts!

A Stable comes cruising out with an escort of Premiers.  Destroy it, or it
will make cheese of those cargo planes.  Then two more appear.  They're next.
Take out the escort for some quick cross missiles.
No more Stables?  Good.  That means you're ready for the counterattack.  The
Grandir pops out of the clouds, guns blazing.  Of course, unless you're within
close range of the Grandir, those guns are no more than noisemakers.  First
of all, the trick to blowing up the Grandir is to aim for the engines, but
keep an eye on the cannons.  The engines have crossbeams on them, so make
sure you are NOT hitting them, and that you ARE hitting the engine.  Four
dead engines makes a Grandir fall.
Now then. If you're going after the engine, it is much tougher.
First of all, master Femme's Active Turn.  Know when and when not to use
it.  For instance, if you're facing the enemy or the enemy is less than 90
degrees away, don't use it.  If you're going the opposite direction as the
enemy and the enemy just passed you, use it to get on their tail.  If you're
charging away from a cannon and ready to make another pass, use it.  Of course,
since it doesn't use much heat, it's pretty forgiving if you don't master
it.
Get your Bonus Multiplier up by KILLING THINGS VERY QUICKLY!  Also, WHENEVER
you see an Unknown on the targeter, throw three fireworks missiles at it (this
is what you were saving them for).  It's the fastest money maker, and if your
Bonus Multiplier is high enough, it secures your victory.  Note that if you
lose your balance, you're basically screwed, unless you have a good lead (also
note that killing an Unknown gets you ten more seconds on the Bonus
Counter...).
After a while, the lightning generator will pop out of the Grandir, making
it very cloudy.  Not only does this infernal contraption block your view,
it energizes wingbombs.  My strategy is to drop what I'm doing and destroy
it.  To destroy the lightning generator-- no, not Cross missiles.  Take a
look at the row of guns on either side of it.  Think chain reaction.  Hit
the gun FURTHEST from the lightning generator on that row.  If you hit any
other one, the explosion won't be big enough.
No more lightning generator?  Good.  Either get yourself the engine and
destroy the Grandir, almost run out of fuel and decide to destroy the Grandir,
or give up on the engine and destroy the Grandir.  Blow those four engines
to bits, keep an eye on the cannons.  Thats all, folks!

Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing stage: 100,000
Prize money for event bonuses:
    Cargo planes shot down: negative 50,000 per 1
    Destroy lightning generator: 400,000
Normal prize money for enemies shot down, Optional weapon, and battle money.

~~~Scene 3~~~

Preparation:
Enemies: One Stable
         Premiers up the yin yang
         Flares
         Skimships
         Machine Soldier: Vanqueur "Sage"
Threat Class: A for beginners, E for ye who know how to control a Skygunner
better.

Action:
Well, here goes... Femme's third mission.  If you've played Ciel's, you may
be surprised (even glad) that you don't have to blast Rival out of the air.
Instead, you get (In my opinion) a harder job.  Good luck.
The machine soldier that Ventre stole AGES ago is now waltzing through the
waterways in the town of Rive.  It's going after the Astronomical Telescope.
You have the strategic advantage of fighting a defensive battle, and you
happen to have tactical weapons.  Ventre, however, is just trying the usual
swarm technique.
Keep in mind when attacking that soldier that it has weapons.  So far all
I've seen is the soldier throw skimships at you, and grab you out of midair
and throw you.
As the soldier walks through the waterway, I give you this advice:  Destroy
him as quickly as possible.  The faster you do so, the more money you recieve
for bonuses.  To destroy him, you must hit the shoulder joints.  Unfortunately
for you, those joints are protected by a shield.  You have to put cross
missiles into the shield until it gives way, then blast the shoulder joint.
Here's the catch:  The shield and shoulder joint happen to be small targets
compared to the huge arms and body of the machine soldier.  This means you
must hit the shoulder shield DIRECTLY.  You must not have an arm in your line
of sight, you must not have his body in your line of sight.  Since Femme has
active turn, it is easy enough to come in from the top, launch & detonate
a cross missile, accellerate to top speed and skim the water, active turn
to face him, use another cross missile, fly over top, go the opposite
directoin at top speed, use active turn, and cross missile him again.  Got
all that?  Didn't think so.  Time to try my hand at ASCII art again.

   Think of this as a side view of the whole thing, with the machine soldier
walking left to right, ok?

  Diagram 1            Femme's starting point.
                                 |
                                 |
                                 |
                       Fire Cross missile now
                                 |
                                 |
                             Detonate
                                 |
                                  \
           Machine Soldier -->   X  --Top speed--------Active Turn!

  Diagram 2
                                        -
   Active Turn!---------Speed!--------/ X \-----<-O-----<------ Femme
                                                  ^
                                                  |
                                         Fire/Detonate Cross missile

  Diagram 3                 Active Turn! (and go back to diagram one)
                                  |
                                  |
                                  |
                               Top speed
                                  |
                                 /
      Femme -------O------------  X
                   ^
                   |
                 Fire/ Detonate Cross missile

Ok, whew.  Ater you're done with Diagram three, go back to Diagram one.  Until
one of those shields is destroyed, then machine gun the shoulder joint to
death.
What do you mean the diagrams don't make any sense?!  Do it yourself, then.
Anyway... Granted that unless you're good, events will take place before
destroying the machine soldier.  The mission ends with the soldier's escape
or the loss of the soldier's arms.
The soldier will keep walking, you'll keep pegging it... Till the chief says
he's going to drop electric bombs.  However, in response (actually sheer dumb
luck), Ventre will order the Flares to be sent up.  If these flares are up
when the bombs are dropped, they will not hit the machine soldier.  Destroy
these flares, machine gun and a good dose of active turn will do it, but
Fireworks missiles are so much faster.
When the electric bombs are dropped, forget the cross missiles.  Just shoot
shoot shoot shoot those shoulder joints, the shields are gone for now.  When
the soldier starts moving, then the shields are back up.  Try to destroy one
of the shoulder joints (actually, cross missiles ARE useful here...).
If you haven't destroyed the machine soldier yet, it will get up and continue
its trek.  The next point-of-tactical-weapon-deployment will be the canal
bridge.  There are tanks lined up on the bridge, but once in a while they
will come under attack from enemies, which you have to... remove.  When the
soldier is in range, they will fire and disable it just like the electric
bombs.  This means destroy the shoulder joints, cause the shields are gone.
If it isn't destroyed YET, it will knock down the bridge and walk through.
Poor tanks... anyway, as it continues, it will eventually walk through a
minefield.  Shoot one mine, and they will explode... and yes, the soldier
will be disabled.  Go ahead and shoot for the shoulder joints.
If it STILL isn't destroyed, it will head for the telescope.  Basically,
you're out of tricks now (just hammer away at it!).  It will make for the
telescope (keep hammering) and pick up the telescope (I hope you're still
hammering).  Unfortunately for it, the soldier will slow to a crawl (hammer
hammer hammer!), but the ocean is just a short walk away (you win faster if
you hammer at it!).  Now there is a new task:  You may not damage the telescope
(but that doesn't mean you can't hammer away at the soldier!).  Either finish
off the soldier now, or it will escape.  The diagrams, while orderly, don't
move fast enough for you to do this.  Instead, just launch missile after
missile and hope they hit, cause random violence is about all I can offer
in this case.

Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing the stage: 150,000
Prize money for event bonuses:
    Defend Canal Bridge: 300,000
    Defend Water Gate: 200,000
    Defend Telescope: 1,000,000
Normal prize money for enemies shot down, Optional weapon, and battle money.

~~~Scene 4~~~

Preparation:
Enemies: Derniers comin out the wazoo
         Infinite Progreses
         Skimships
         Ground Tanks
         All types of Cannons (Copains problem)
         Two Dorados (Ciels problem)
         Missile pods: Loads
         One Squellette
Threat Class: C

Action:
Oh... fun.  We're assaulting a HUGE castle, and all we have is an armored
car, two wingmen, and the police force?  Well those aren't very good odds...
but considering the fact that all the Poulets are WUSSY, we shouldn't have
a problem.
Your first task is to destroy the Derniers.  These guys won't accept hits
except for the lead guy... the wing commander.  Throw some fireworks missiles
into his engines, and all the rest will scatter.  Mop them up using the machine
gun or fireworks.  If a few of them line up, they will be "in formation" again,
so you have to destroy the lead Dernier before the other ones will accept
hits.  After a while, some Progreses will join the fray.
Done so soon?  Well, looks like you got some Dorados on you.  Two, as a matter
of fact.  But thats Ciels problem, right?  YOUR problem is the fighters.  You
have a few more wings of Derniers, but after them, you're done.  The game
has an annoying habit of putting the Derniers on opposite sides of the
targeter... so once you're done with one wing, you gotta keep poking the
target button to find the next wing.
When all THOSE are done, it's time to get some cash.  Copain has a hard task,
he's gotta destroy ALL those cannons.  So, lets give him a hand.. and help
ourselves to that prize money.  Look for big rows of Ground tanks standing
beside cannons, they make some HUGE MONEY.  The higher your bonus multiplier,
the better.
Well, the chief has been spotted, so we gotta go cover him.  Of course, he
doesn't need cover YET... so go ahead and blast a Progres or two.  When the
missile pods show up, take them out quick, they add 4 apiece to your bonus
counter.  One fireworks missile will remove one missile pod, so use those
if you're in a hurry, otherwise, machine guns do fine.  If a pod manages to
release its Poulets, fire some dog missiles at the armored car to remove them.
When the chief makes it through the first overpass, he'll be attacked by
skimships.  Destroy them.
Ok, he's in the courtyard... The Squellette appears.  Fuuuuun... spider
squishin time!  You have to destroy the three engine caps and the control
tower (and sometimes the pistons) to destroy the Squellette.  At first, his
control tower side is exposed, so destroy one of the far cannons to create
a chain reaction toward the tower.  When he clambers onto the wall, destroy
the four pistons on his knees.  Its.  I should be saying its.  When the pistons
are gone, it wall fall over and the engine side will be exposed.  Either Cross
missiles or machine guns will do it, whichever you prefer, but Cross missiles
are faster.  Eventually, it will clamber onto the wall AGAIN and you have
to pop the pistons AGAIN.  Do so, and it falls over with the control tower
side exposed.  It will keep doing this until you destroy it.  Destroy the
control tower and the three engine caps, like I said.  Thats all, folks!

Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing stage: 200,000
Prize money for event bonuses:
    Police Planes shot down: negative 150,000 per 1
    Destroy Citadel defense forces: 1,000,000
Normal prize money for enemies shot down, Optional weapon, and battle money.

~~~Scene 5~~~

Preparation:
Enemies: Loads of Premiers
         Loads of Progres'
         Loads of Derniers
         Loads of Ground Tanks
         One Dorado (Ciel or Copain)
         The Machine Soldier on a Dorado: Vanqueur "Garde" (for ciel, you
won't see it)
         Tether Repair Cannon
         Rival (for Ciel)
         One Unknown
         Grand Magasin
         Grand Magasin (steel tethers)
         Grand Magasin (control tower, for Ciel)
         Grand Magasin (engine room, for Copain)
         Machine Soldier with Eternal Engine: Vanqueur "Garde" utilizing
eternal engine
         Ventre's Battleship
Threat Class: A

Action:
Here we are, who knows how many feet up in the air at 2:00 in the morning...
ready to rumble?
Firstly, unlike Ciel and Copain's games, you don't have to worry about the
fighters (unless they try to knock you out of the air).  Instead, you get
the job of destroying the many steel tethers around the museum.  Hope you're
up to it?  Good, cause it's easy.  Just machine gun them until they pop up
After about the third or fourth tether, a repairing robot with a cannon
mounted on it will awaken and start repairing the tethers.  Destroy it.  Stay
out of its sights, or it will see you with an infrared laser and blast you
with machine guns.  MANY many machine guns.  Use two full cross missiles on
it and two normal ones (or three full ones, whatever floats your boat).
When the robot has been scrapped, go ahead and finish the tethers.  They
should be easier to destroy, you can get them all in one pass if you're
accurate and like Active Turn.  Watch for dog missiles, too.
Done with that?  Your next task is to destroy steel tethers.  They look like
portholes with blue fire coming out of them.

NOTE: Before you destroy THESE tethers, take a look at the e-mail
contributions from Jesse Jace Thomas and Thomas Stacey, they specialize in
MAKING YOU HUGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY at this part.

Anyhoo, to destroy steel tethers, forget those cross missiles.  See the guns
on either side of them?  Yep, a row of guns... you thinking what I'm thinking?
Cause I'm thinking about refilling my glass with Mountain Dew... But
seriously now.  You can shoot either gun on the far side of the porthole,
and it will make a chain reaction which severely damages the porthole.  Do
it again on the other side, and not only is Ventre one steel tether short,
you're rolling in the green, these things get you MOH-NAY!
Once all the tethers are destroyed, Ventre gets miiiiiiiighty ticked off.
He'll bring more cannons and a LOT more fighters to bear.  Ciel will have
to destroy the control tower, while Copain takes care of the engine room.
That leaves Femme (you), of course, with those stupid fighters... yech.  These
fighters seem to be gathering to attack Ciel.  Keep your bonus multiplier
up, and when two wings or more are attacking him, fireworks them.  You can
hit one million or more in cash if your multiplier is high enough!  But if
Ciel's risk meter gets too high, just do things normally.  If you're bored,
destroy that yellow Unknown and take a potshot at the control tower (cross
missile to the lowest gun on the tower you can find, big money & big damage).
Done with this?  Time for Ventre to play his trump card.  Actually not his
trump card, his diversion for escape.  Destroy this Machine Soldier fast,
and you get a shot at Ventre's battleship.
Anyway, to destroy the Machine Soldier... first of all, make sure you have
cross missiles comin out the yin yang.  If not, then the ground tanks on the
deck carry loads of them, blow up a few.  Copain will hurl pumpkin bombs and
stop the soldier, then you and Ciel must put 6 full sized cross missiles into
him.  Now, when playing as Ciel, Femme actually puts cross missiles into him.
If you're lucky, Ciel will put 2.  Usually just one.  Which means get good
at NOT OVERHEATING, cause you gotta put in five.  I say fire one (no active
turn, sorry folks), do a loop or two, fire another, do another loop or two,
fire another, and if you're feeling lucky, fire another one in succession
(this means Ciel has to put two in) and if you're not feeling lucky, do ANOTHER
loop or two, then fire twice.  Got all that?  Sorry, I'm not sure how else
to say it.
Six cross missiles?  Ok, now he's ready for action.  You can see the eternal
engine, now.  This is probably the easiest part of the battle.  You can either
use machine guns to destroy the engine, or the ever-helpful cross missiles.
Just blow it up.
Ok, NOW it's mad.  You've destroyed it ONCE, now to do it again.  But this
time it's meaner than ever.  It drops its lance and begins firing from a
worthless mounted gun.  It throws ground tanks at you.  It picks up propellers
and hurls them at you.  It fires cone missiles that won't give up.  It deploys
air turrets.  It yanks pipes off the Magasin and twirls them around (what
good is that?).  You have to put cross missiles or bullets into that engine
and blow it to bits for good.  But this time, its harder, cause he moves around
so much, you have to make sure he's facing you.  Active turn is very useful
for this.
To dodge the propellers he throws at you, basically, don't.  They keep going
till they hit you.  Instead, fly straight at them and barrel roll.  As for
the cone missiles?  The same thing, but its harder cause you need to know
WHICH direction to roll, as there will be missiles right behind it that will
hit you, you need to get out of their way.
All done?  Or are you?  Well, if you destroyed the Machine Soldier in less
than three minutes, say congratulations because you're not done, you get a
shot at 2,000,000 in cash!  Ventre's battleship will be running away if you
did it in under 3 minutes, and you must destroy it.  Simple as that!  It's
a red modified Baleine SWARMING with Poulets.  Blow it up the same way as
you do a Baleine or Unknown.  Fireworks missiles for the guns if you want
more money, or just shoot the white underbelly.  Cross missiles speed things
up.  It's finally over!

Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing stage: 250,000
Prize money for event bonuses:
    Defeat Ventre's battleship: 2,000,000
Normal prize money for enemies shot down, Optional weapon, and battle money.



=========Copain=========

~~~Scene 1~~~

Preparation:
Enemies: Premiers
         2 Stables (for Ciel)
         Machine soldier: Vanqueur "Fidel"
         Gauche, Droite
         Wingbombs
Threat Class: F

Action:
You're playing as Copain?  Good, but you might want to take some time in
the characters section to see how best to fly him...
Done that?  No?  Good, lets go.
First of all, blast down the Premiers.  Either use your machine gun, or use
your Vortex if you want to get your bonus counter up... or use fireworks if
you can't get the hang of Vortex.  It's all good.  Keep in mind, the faster
you go, the more cash you'll get.
Next, Ciel and Copain recieve a call from the Merveilleux.  Femme, a gunner,
wants out to help.  Well, there's a Stable outside the hangar and the machine
soldier on the Merveilleux, and with Copain and Ciel choosing each others
targets, you get stuck with the soldier.  The easy part.  Fly by the soldier
as fast as you can, avoid that funky hand, and use a Vortex to knock him to
the side.  Depending on how you hit it, the soldier will either fall off the
Merveilleux or jump over a bit.  And if you don't avoid that hand, he picks
you up and swings you around to throw you.
Hope you got rid of that machine soldier in time, there's a bonus for you.
When you take it out, you're free to torch other stuff till your next objective.
Go after the Stables with Vortex for MOOLAH, then take out Premiers till our
little buddies Gauche and Droite show up.
Its Gauche and Droite!  They showed up.  They've launched six tow chain
cannons at the Merveilleux, and its easy enough to remove them, just shoot </pre><pre id="faqspan-3">
them with the machine gun.  Aim from the side, so they can't all shoot at
you.  And no, thats not a shield on their backs, if you read my earlier posts.
It's vulnerable, just go ahead.  Come on, you know you want to...
Ok, next!  Gauche and Droite are both running.  Femme and Ciel have the red
one, and you have the blue one.  Aim for the engine room.  Hold it!  Don't
use bombs or vortex YET.  See those four cannons on the top of the engine
shield?  Yeah.  I thought so.  You want a bomb to impact on one of those instead
of the shield?  Cause that wouldn't be cool.  No, first machine gun those
things until they are little bits of metal, plastic, and duct tape.  THEN
go ahead and lock on to the engine room with four pumpkin bombs, or run into
it and vortex it (takes a bit of skill :D ).  6 or 7 pumpkin bombs will blow
it up.
Ok, now there's a little coil lookin thing in the middle of about a bajillion
(six or seven) propellors.  The coil looking thing is what you want... but
if you blow up the propellors JUUUUUUUUUUUUST right, it'll do it all in one
easy shot.  Or two.  Or three.  But thats beside the point.  The point is,
you have to do it just right:  You have to fly in from the side, slightly
lower than the propellors and hit the colored part.  If you can't see the
colored part but you can see the propellor, it means the propellor has
retreated partway into the engine and don't bother with it, just kill the
coil anyway you can.  If it is colored, say "machine gun," shoot "machine
gun," and hear the blue ship reply with "boom."
If Ciel and Femme aren't done with the red ship yet, blow it up the same
way.

Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing the stage: 50,000
Prize money for event bonuses:
    Fend off the machine soldier: 200,000
Normal prize money for enemies shot down, Optional weapon, and battle money.



~~~Scene 2~~~

Preparation:
Enemies: Premiers
         13 Stables (Femme and Ciel)
         Baliene (Ciel)
         25 Missile pods
         Unlimited Unknowns
         Grandir
         Wingbombs - Lightning charged
         Lightning Generator
Threat Class: C, engine or not.

Action:
Hello, welcome to level two.  You may remember this level from such stories
as Ciel: Gunner, or gunned down?  And Femme: Braided tail or unusually long
hair?  (I'm sorry, these are terrible!)
Ok, down to business.  You start out docked.  After a second or two you will
shoot off, and no, contrary to popular belief holding the X button does NOT
make you go off faster.  Now for you who have read the Ciel and Femme
documentaries (level 2 walkthroughs), you may remember that I stressed VERY
HEAVILY the saving of fireworks missiles.  With Copain, you do not NEED to
do that, but its a tad helpful.  Anyway, start by blasting fighters.  Fast.
If you're too slow, you may lose a cargo ship or two, and that ain't cool.
The faster you blast, the more money you make, too...
When the guy from Associe cries that he's doomed and his cargo is done for,
destroy all the cargo ships to spite him... no, don't!  I'm just kidding!
Actually, that means that a large squad of Premiers has arrived.  Scroll
through your targeter until you see them, then fly toward them... and either
put FOUR (you heard me) fireworks missiles up their engines, or give them
a windstorm they won't forget... that means vortex.  Ok, finish the rest of
the fighters, and claim your money.
Soon, like a bad neighbor, the Baleine will appear and start blowing your
stuff up... what?  Your bad neighbors don't do that?  Lucky... anyway, it's
Ciel's job to destroy the Baleine, and though it seems easy, he also has 10
Stables to contend with.  You, on the other hand, have missile pods.  Weakest,
yet most annoying enemy in this stage.  Well, maybe wingbombs are more
annoying... but I'm getting off track.  Missile pods die with either machine
gun fire or one fireworks missile.  Watch out for the enemies that get on
your back.  If a missile pod hits a cargo ship, Poulets will jump out and
start beating the evil noodles out of the engine.  A dog missile or three
will silence that infernal pounding for good.
With the destruction of all the missile pods, its time for step two of level
two...
The Grandir!  Actually, its pretty weak.  The only problem is that whoever
gets the most prize money on this stage gets a new engine...  With Copain
it's easy, doncha worry, ya?  Just Vortex whatever comes near you, don't
overheat, and Four fireworks/Vortex every Unknown you see.  What?  Not enough
info?  Alright... First, Vortex the nearest group of flyers.  Then machine
gun nearby flyers/stuff till your engine isn't heated.  When you see an
Unknown appear on the targeter, beat feet...er, propellor... and either use
four fireworks missiles in the same spot or vortex it.  Depending how fast
you've destroyed other enemies, you can easily make 4-5 million or more on
this area.  Well, not easily, it takes practice...

NOTE: For doze of yous who wants more moo-lah, dere is hintsies from Thomas
Stacey at de bottom of de walkdru.

Soon, a lightning generator will appear on the Grandir.  Since you get prize
money for destroying it, I suggest taking time out of your busy schedule...
unless you're a bit behind.  Sometimes your teammates will do it for you.
Anyway, see those guns on the rows on either side of the lightning generator?
Shoot the guns on the farthest side and think "chain reaction."  If you think
about it hard enough, you just might get a chain reaction.  Of course, you
don't have to think about it at all, but I prefer to.  Not really.  Keep the
chain reactions up and the lightning generator is history.
When you're done with the lightning generator, ahead of everyone on the
engine competition, or just plain given up on it, its time to destroy the
Grandir.  Destroy each engine on the two gunnels.  If you hit the crossbeam
in FRONT of the engine, nothing will happen.  Instead, you have to hit the
engine itself.  Machine guns work, but pumpkin bombs make short work of these
thingies.  Get used to evasive maneuvering, cause the Grandir bristles with
guns.

Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing stage: 100,000
A new engine for whoever was in first place Prize money wise.
Prize money for event bonuses:
    Destroy all missile pods: 400,000
    Destroy lightning generator: 400,000
Normal prize money for enemies shot down, Optional weapon, and battle money.



~~~Scene 3~~~

Preparation:
Enemies: Three types of Exocets
         Premiers
         Skimships
         Tons of Other Weird Things Whose Names I Don't Know, but are
Probably Some Type of Bullet
Threat class: A

Action:

NOTE: Guess what?  Before reading on, our pal Thomas Stacey has hints for
stage 3 you should look at... it concerns money, and the ease of making it,
so its all good.  Bottom of the walkthrough!

Ahhhh, a romp through the delightful city of Rive.  Unfortunately, you're
going waaaaay too fast to notice anything.  Fame, you want?  Fortune, you
desire?  By destroying the Exocet... Much impatience in you I sense.  Clear
your mind, you must.
There are two ways to do this that I can think of.  But before I launch into
this, I'm going to tell you: This requires NO LUCK.  Absolutely none.  Skill
alone can win the day.  It just must be honed, and since this level is a little
weird, you'll have to hone it on a completely different level.
Also, before I launch into this, I must explain how an Exocet works.  It'll
run along the very bottom of the map unless it has to jump over something,
so to remove the tail you must aim downward.  Same with the head.  When the
head is destroyed, the Exocet will be destroyed and another will take its
place.  If the head is severely damaged, it will begin to submerge, and if
submerged, all parts of the tail and the head will be repaired.  There are
also two areas that I call "freebies," where the Exocet's head will jump up
and stand in the very center of the screen without moving, and the tail will
encircle it, more or less.  You can kill it right now, with machine guns or
pumpkin bombs.  Okay?
Ready?
First method:  The easy, but painfully methodical way.  Firstly, to destroy
an Exocet, you must remove the front.... thing.  But as you do this, the little
guys following him will shoot at you, and so will the little creepy other
enemies.  So, naturally, machine gun your way up to the head.  To get there,
you have to speed boost, ya know.  Destroy things on your way up there, and
use your machine guns to remove the thing's front poulet.
Second method: The speedy, but dangerous way.  To begin, get yourself pumpkin
bombs.  Thats from the little other non-Exocet enemies.  Machine gun them
good.  Secondly, make sure you have evasive maneuvers down to an art.  A
blooming good art.  Speed up to the head of the Exocet... if you stop to shoot
an enemy or anything, you'll be in one place too long, and it'll decrease
your altitude (aiming down).  The closer you get to the front of the Exocet,
the better, but if you're TOO close, the bombs won't impact.  You must be
going down a straightaway with NO CURVES.  Otherwise the bombs will impact
the side, so look ahead.  You guessed it:  You're going to gain altitude and
bomb the thing with 4 pumpkin bombs.  If you're too low, they will impact
part of the tail.  If you don't evade, you'll be shot down and lose money.
If you're on a curved part, the bombs will hit the wall.  If you do it just
right, you'll be done before you know it.  Keep in mind that using the two
freebies is not dishonorable, in fact, I encourage it.
Best trick for destroying all three Exocets?  A little from column A, and
a little from column B.  On the last Exocet, if you get too far ahead, they'll
become more annoying than usual, so you might want to look into the first
method on this, but on the yellow one, the second is a cinch.
If the Exocet gets out to open ocean, it will escape.

Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing the stage: 150,000
Prize money for Event bonuses:
    Defeat Exocet Gold: 300,000
    Defeat Exocet Red: 500,000
    Defeat Exocet Blue: 700,000
Normal money for enemies shot down and battle money.  Money for pumpkin bombs
above 0.



~~~Scene 4~~~

Preparation:
Enemies: Derniers, as usual, up the Yin yang.
         2 Dorados (for Ciel)
         Skimships
         Ground Tanks
         Missile Pods
         Progres... a few wings
         Cannons: Ground, Titanium, and Shielded
         Squellette: Walking Tank
Threat Class: B

Action:
I love this level.  Really, I do.  Its the only level where you can get tons
of money WITHOUT having to stray from your mission objectives and shoot OTHER
things.
You begin at, well, the beginning of the level, the chief is waiting for
you to clear the airspace above the castle so he can ramble into it in his
nice, helpless, little armored car.  But enough target scoping.  The enemies
who plague you from the beginning are the Derniers.  They happen to be in
a fishy formation.  THIS formation has a purpose, besides being easy to
destroy.  First of all, you can't kill any of them except for one.  The leader.
Once the leader is destroyed, the Derniers will scatter, and you can blast
them all to a watery oblivion... ya know, cause there's water underneath you.
The only thing is, eventually some other Derniers will get in formation again,
and once again the leader will be the only vulnerable one.  You can tell if
they're in formation if they roll and deflect fire.  Aim for the leader.  There
are a wing or three of Progres', so take out them too.
Next: The Dorado.  Only, you don't have to mess with it... er, either of
them.  Ciel will.  Instead, you gotta remove cannons.  LOTS of cannons.
Shielded, Ground, and Titanium.  The ground tanks are the easy ones, they
can be removed by simple gunfire.  Shielded cannons bite da big one.  Titanium
cannons are a pitiful attempt at being incredibly powerful.  Sure, they can
knock you out of the sky, but you can dodge, right?  Anyway, I already
explained ground cannons... shielded cannons have impervious shields in the
front, but the back is vulnerable.  We need to immobilize these.  Throw doggy
missiles at them, fly to the other side, and punch them in the back.  That
easy.  As for titanium cannons?  There are only two in this level... one on
either side of the bridge.  To destroy the one on the right side, blast the
other cannons beside it to make a chain reaction.  You HAVE to use a chain
reaction to destroy these.  If you screw up... well, see that tower a little
ways away, with a bridge in it and cannons on top?  Shoot the cannons, then
shoot the ground tanks that are on (or at the end of) that path.  More ground
tanks will appear, and since they won't be able to go through collapsed cannon,
they'll take the alternate path... and they will make a line in front of the
titanium cannon, allowing you to destroy it.  For the left side, same thing,
destroy the ground cannons on the tower, and pop the ground tanks that are
already on the path.  More cannons are found on either side of the bridge,
above the pass the bridge goes under, on top of large pillars toward the back
of the castle, on the towers, and in the courtyard.  You can make SERIOUS
money from these cannons, by using chain reactions.
After the cannons, you should end up taking out missile pods.  These are
VERY EASY, but rather difficult to hit.  Gunfire will destroy them, but so
will fireworks missiles, if you have a tough time hitting them.  Every time
a new set of missile pods appear, they will be brought to your attention.
In the even that a missile pod does manage to get in the air and break up,
poulets will rain down upon the armored car.  To get rid of the poulets?  Doggy
missiles.  Thats right, you get to target the armored car, with dog missiles.
Fire them, and if they don't "surgically remove" the poulets, then fire more.
The armored car is in the courtyard, and now its the Squellette's turn.  Yes,
it's a big spider.  A big spider that's too big for Copain's boot heel, thank
you very much, Mr. Dialogue.
First of all, if you take too long, a police plane may crash, costing you
cash.  Second of all, if ever the Squellette climbs on the wall, shoot its
pistons.  The pistons are on the "knees," but they will be brought to your
attention anyway.  Gunfire will do it, and fast.
To destroy the Squellette, you must use the Force... or not.  You gotta
destroy the control tower, and the three engine rooms on the underside.  The
engine rooms look like little oil filters, if you've seen one.  They also
flash red a bit.  Cross missiles are fast, guns are slow.  Both are effective,
destroy all three.  For the control tower?  Gunfire, cross missiles, or chain
reactions.  Yeah.  See those little guns beside the control tower?  Ba-BOOM.
Chain reaction.
Sometimes the game glitches, at least for me, and I have to destroy the
pistons AGAIN after destroying the control tower and engine rooms.  No biggy,
right?

Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing the stage: 200,000
Prize money for Event bonuses:
    Police Planes shot down: negative 150,000 per 1
    Destroy all cannons: 1,000,000
Normal prize money for enemies shot down, Optional weapon, and battle money.



~~~Scene 5~~~

Preparation:
Enemies: Loads of Premiers
         Loads of Progres'
         Loads of Derniers
         Loads of Ground Tanks
         One Dorado
         The Machine Soldier on a Dorado: Vanqueur "Garde" (for ciel, you
won't see it)
         Tether Repair Cannon (Femme)
         Rival (for Ciel)
         One Unknown
         Grand Magasin
         Grand Magasin (steel tethers, Femme)
         Grand Magasin (control tower, for Ciel)
         Grand Magasin (engine room)
         Machine Soldier with Eternal Engine: Vanqueur "Garde" utilizing
eternal engine
         Ventre's Battleship
Threat Class: A

Action:

NOTE: Take a look at the bottom of the FAQ.  You may have noticed 'stage five'
tips from Thomas Stacey and JesseJace, and if you're thinking cash, we're
thinking 'yep'!

Yep, its that time again.  Time for scene 5.  You probably already know the
drill, but if not, here I go:
First thing you want to do is blast fighters out of the sky.  The higher
bonus multiplier you have, the better.  Its just a straight out dogfight,
no conserving of ammo or anything, just keep your money high.
Soon, a Dorado will fly out of the hangar of the Grand Magasin.  Yes, you
have to destroy it, but this one's really easy.  See those four fuel tank/face
boxes/spinning lights above the Dorado?  Blow em up and they fall on the Dorado.
Two of them takes the Dorado out.  Machine guns destroy the boxes and finish
the Dorado, if you're too slow.
Back to the fighters.  Blast em.  Blast em good.
And now everybody's favorite part, blowing the crap out of steel tethers!
The tethers are located as follow: two of them on the front, one on the back,
holding on the Magasin's cargo area (what held up the museum... thats not
where the tether is, thats what the tether chains down), one on either side
of the Magasin, holding on two decks.. (points galore here, see JesseJace's
e-mail!), and two on either side of the bottom cabin.  Got all that?
Now, to destroy the tethers: yes, machine guns will do it (for the record,
steel tethers look like those portholes with blue fire coming out).  No, not
at the porthole part, at the guns on either side!  Think "chain reaction".
Two good chains will do it, aim for the gun furthest away from the porthole.
Blasty blasty!  The faster you do this, the richer you become.  Also, on the
two white cabins, an easy way to make money (gleaned from an e-mail from
JesseJace) is to look for more chain reactions.  First, shoot the pumpkin.
It will roll down the line, making more money.  Next, hit the cannon near
where the poulet at the start of the level cutscene stood.  Now on to the
tethers!  For more money making tips for this level, hit JesseJace's e-mail
at the end of the FAQ.
Now that the Grand Magasin is a lot smaller (and you're a lot richer), its
time to deliver the final blow.  You are charged with destroying the engine
room.  I HATE this part.  You waste SO many pumpkin bombs!  See those eight
pistons?  Four on either side.  Two pumpkin bombs will destroy each one.  It
takes practice getting them on target.  If you want to lock them, drop them
when you fly overhead.  If you wanna do it my way, fly near them and just
TAP the O button, without acquiring a lock.  This will fire a pumpkin bomb.
Do it twice to destroy the piston.  Did I mention you had to use pumpkin bombs?
Guess not.  I've seen the computer (Ciel, when he finishes the tower) use
machine gun fire, but that never worked for me.
What comes next?  The machine soldier!  The first part of the machine soldier
bites for the other two... but you have the easy stuff!  All you do is throw
four pumpkin bombs at the soldier, then (fly around restocking pumpkin bombs
until you get the message stating that you have to: ) detonate the cross
missiles sticking out of him (Femme and Ciel were busy... No!  Not like that!)
with your machine guns.  That oughtta open his helmet.
Now that his helmet is open, the eternal engine is up for a beating.  Machine
guns work, but I prefer pumpkin bombs.  Its that easy!
And the final stage?  Its more difficult in that you have to dodge things...
like whirling propellor blades that instigate insta-kills, and a flock of
little machines that shoot at you, and tanks flying through midair, and
multicolored homing missiles... Argh!  But again, pumpkin bombs win the day...
though machine guns work too.
Finally, the part everybody asks about.  Through thorough and rigorous
testing I have decided that in order to fight Ventre's battleship, you have
to:
**Defeat the machine soldier in three minutes or less!**
And don't cry to me about how "it didn't work!", cause it does.  I recorded
every variable I could when fighting the machine soldier.  It works.
Basically you can e-mail me saying it didn't and I can tell you to time it
and you can time it and I can say that you didn't hit the button in time,
and you can call me a prick.  Either that, or you can just not e-mail me about
it (hint hint... nudge nudge... slap slap) and accept that yelling at me isn't
going to do anything.  You have to defeat all three stages of the machine
soldier in three minutes or less.  After that, you've got a ton of fighters
and Ventre's battleship to deal with.  At last, you will have your revenge...
I guess.

Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing the stage: 250,000
Prize money for event bonuses:
   Shoot down Ventre's battleship: 2,000,000
Normal prize money for - you guessed it - enemies shot down, optional weapons,
and battle money.




=========Time Attack=========

Possibly the BEST FEATURE of this game, Time attack puts you in the middle
of one hundred enemies and you try to defeat them as fast as possible.
The developers record is 1.04 something... take a shot at that
My best is 1.00.85.  Feelin lucky?
Feelin really lucky?  The winner of the contest blasted me out of the water
at 45.04.  Yes, thats forty-five SECONDS.  Congratulations... and my envy...
to PiNoyMerX!
The trick to this is to destroy things FAST (duh..). You can't do this if
you're flying back and forth across Rive.  You must use tail view a LOT.  Go
for the closest guys, of course, and never EVER hit the squad leader first,
otherwise the rest will all scatter.
If you overheat, you're basically done for, you won't get a record that way.
I started with using Rival, and he works pretty well cause he's so fast...
but you know what?  Femme turns better and has Active turn.  I suggest use
her.
It's pretty tough to get a really good record, I kept getting 1.13s and 1.15s,
but if your timing is JUST RIGHT and your firing is JUST RIGHT, you might
just manage a really good score (to be honest, that surprised me, cause all
the times before I'd been hitting higher numbers... and suddenly WHAM! I
shaved 13 seconds off my time.  This proves anyone can do it with sufficient
willpower).
Wondering about those 'JUST RIGHT' comments?  It's like this.  If your timing
is just right, and you don't kill an enemy too fast or too slow, your next
target will be right next to you, and the NEXT target will be right next to
you too, and so on and so forth.  If not the next target, at least a squad
of fighters will be.  You WILL have to rocket across Rive once or twice, it's
just a given.
As for the firing thing, if you're after a really big squad, you can save
ungodly amounts of time by hitting them ALL in just a few seconds.  Practice
this.  If it doesn't work, you might end up with some scattering enemies...
Thats not good.
Another note: Fireworks missiles are your best friends.  Lock 3, fire, and
forget.  Thats one less squad.  However, be aware that some squads fly side
by side, and three fireworks will only take out one squad.  You'll have to
finish the rest.  If there's a pesky enemy (say, a lone Dernier) that you
can't hit with machine guns, use a fireworks missile.  That will show it who's
boss.
Finally, the Derniers.  After a few seconds, they all start pursuing you.
I'm pretty sure there's about ten.  They fire their machine guns, fire dog
missiles, and do some pretty smooth evasive maneuvers.  When you go to destroy
them... these guys can easily eat up about ten seconds of your time.  Therefore,
any time you see them, take a pot shot at them, but don't switch to tail view
and pursue.  Just thin the ranks until it's time to target them.  If you're
lucky, you'll kill them all early, and that saves you LOADS of time.
When it IS time to target the Derniers, they will take up lots of time to
kill.  For you all who are used to dogfighting, forget most of the melee type
tactics.  Don't stay up close and try to get on his tail.  Even Active turn
won't help there.  Instead, shoot at them, and when they start evading you,
run a little ways away, THEN turn.  You should have a clear shot with M guns,
or even better, fireworks missiles.
Also, at the end of the Time Attack session (when you've set your awesome
new record), press triangle and R1 at the same time to get a code for the
online contest at www.atlus.com/sg/sg_ranking.html.  NEWS: The contest has
ended.  Lets petition them for another contest next year, shall we?  Come
oooooon, annual contest!
Good luck!



Extra Stuff
------------

=========Secrets=========
1. To unlock Copain, finish the game as Femme.
2. To unlock Rival, finish the game as Ciel, without losing to Rival in any
duel.
3. To unlock Hardi, finish the game as Femme, Ciel, and Copain, all in first
place.
4. To unlock the photo album, finish the game as Femme.  The photo album will
show you pictured from each mission, as well as photos taken of Ventre
commemorating each of his victories.
5. To unlock Time attack, finish the game as Ciel in first place.
6. To unlock Scene Select, finish the game as Femme, Ciel, Copain, and Rival.
7. To unlock Survival Mode, finish the game as Copain in first place.
8. To unlock Uniform Processing Mode, finish the game as Copain.
9. To unlock the Detached Camera, get an SS rank with anyone but Hardi or
Rival.

Special Thanks to the Skygunner webpage at Atlus.com (www.atlus.com/sg/index)
for this information.

=========Photo album=========
Hahahaha.... I have the photo album, but when I looked at it, it was mostly
complete except for Ventre's photographs.  Since I can't go back and figure
out how I got them... I'll have to guess, but I'll do that later.  Instead,
since someone e-mailed me Ventre's photos, I'll stick them in...

~~~Ventre's Commemorative Photos~~~
1. In commemoration of shooting Ciel down.
  Gotten by: Crashing or running out of fuel while playing as Ciel.
2. In commemoration of shooting Copain down.
  Gotten by: Crashing or running out of fuel while playing as Copain.
3. In commemoration of shooting Femme down.
  Gotten by: Crashing or running out of fuel while playing as Femme.
4. Commemorative photo with Rival.
  Gotten by: Losing to the machine soldier as Rival.
5. In commemoration of stealing the Merveilleux.
  Gotten by: Letting Ventre steal the Merveilleux instead of shooting the
tow cannons in Scene 1.
6. In commemoration of acquiring fine art.
  Gotten by: Letting Ventre shoot down all fifteen cargo planes in Scene
2.
7. In commemoration of destroying the armored car.
  Gotten by: Allowing the missile pods to go unharmed to the armored car
so it plunges into the water in Scene 4.
8. In commemoration of shooting Ciel down.
  Gotten by: Playing as Femme and allowing the fighters to defeat Ciel in
Scene 5
9. In commemoration of shooting Femme down.
  Gotten by: Playing as Ciel or Copain and letting the Dorado shoot down
Femme in Scene 5.
10. In commemoration of the Machine Soldier's rampage.
   Gotten by:  Crashing while battling the machine soldier in Scene 5.

   Very special thanks to Eugene Clewlow ([email protected]) for this
information.



E-mailed contributions
------------------------

From Jesse Jace Thomas ([email protected]):

"During the last battle, when you're causing chain reactions to break apart
the Grand Magasin, there is a ton of money to be made off the little guns
lining the sides of the fortress. The guns are arranged in two parallel rows
like this:
o o o o o o o
o o o o o o o
If you take out the upper-left or upper-right gun, there is a big lateral
chain reacion, and then the top row falls down and crushes the bottom row,
giving you even more cash. I think there are four places to do this on the
battleship, and then there are 4 (?) rows of five black balloons which are
also good for racking up points (but there is a trick to chain-reacting those
balloons...).
THEN, there is even more money to be made by causing chain reactions on the
left and right lower platforms, where there are rows of 10 guns each (shoot
the biggest gun first, I think that's the only way to start a chain). AND,
each side has a row of little poulets, with a jack-o-lantern on one end. If
you destroy the jack-o-lantern, it bounces down the row, taking out each
poulet and you get the chain bonus once again.
Anyways, I always take out all those guns, balloons and poulets before
destroying the connectors, and by the time I face the machine soldier, I have
over 15,000,000 dollars. BUT you have to be quick or you'll run out of fuel
before you finish the game. "

There are actually six sets of balloons, but destroying one of the steel
tethers removes two of them.  The trick for getting a chain reaction for these
ballons is to shoot all of the baloons once or twice to make them grow, then
destroy one of them to make a chain.  Also, after trying this (and the
following tricks), I had no problem finishing the game with enough fuel.  I
think it's because I've played this level so many blooming times....

Another e-mail was sent to me later than this one.  According to this one:
"- On the upper half of that same battleship, there are 4 radar dish-looking
structures that are easy to kill, and each one is worth 30,000 pts, plus adds
10x to your multiplier."
"- I was wrong about the double rows of guns toward the back, there are six
sets of those."
Along with this, Jesse (the contributor) also spoke of his trick for
defeating Rival, which is a variation of the cross missile trick I use.  It
works better than my cross missile trick, I've decided, after testing it.
Jesse flies far away from Rival, then turns to face him.  Since Rival plays
chicken with you by charging and shooting, it is easy to put a cross missile
into him and detonate it.  The only problem is that his AI sometimes won't
let you get away from him (note that THIS isn't an actual quote, rather, I
felt like typing this).


Alright, we have a lot of strategies for cash from this next fella.  Read
on!

From Thomas Stacey

Stage 2:

  As Femme or Ciel:
"For those of you who can get your bonus counter to be like 4x or 5x (20-35
seconds) you can make a ton of money on the Stables. I know you're wanting
to keep your fireworks as much as possible for getting the new engine later
on but since the Stables give you fireworks I usually use 3 on one Stable.
You can shoot them just about anywhere and if you have a high bonus counter
as i said before you can make anywhere from 50,000-200,000 on one Stable if
you get enough hits. I made nearly 600,000 and I only killed about 5 or 6
Stables as Ciel but I had a 6x-11x counter most of the time. This strategy
should work for Femme too but not as well since you only have 3 Stables to
kill."

Keep in mind, to get your bonus counter that high, you have to kill enemies
really really fast.  See my 'bonus money' column for more info.

As Anyone:
"While Fighting the Grandir you should take out the unknowns as stated in
[this guide]. If you have or can get a high bonus counter, at least 4x or
5x (20-35 seconds), you can go through and make a ton of chains with any of
the guns. I prefer the ones on top that repair and the others on the under
belly that also repair themselves. You can also do this very well at the
begging with the normal cannons especially with the 4 sets of 3 on the front
of the ship or the chain of 5 or 6 on the bottom. I made around a million
with this strategy."

While I already stated the stuff about the Unknowns, he's got a good idea
for the ship's cannons.  Personally, I tend to stay away from them, but upon
further testing (and skill building), I find that they are a rather nice cash
maker.

Stage 3: Copain

"You get some pumpkin bombs and as you're waiting for the enemies with them
to come along start machine gunning you're way up to the front of the thing.
As soon as you get pumpkin bombs begin locking them onto the head whether
you're close to the front or not (as I've found you can only lock onto the
head). As soon as you get 2-4 locked on let them go as long as you're crosshair
is on Exocet and you are not in a curved pathway. When you let them go it
can destroy 4-6 sections at least while making your bonus counter go up like
mad. Also in the freebie areas described in the guide I lock some pumpkin
bombs on and let them go usually even if the head is not hit you should destroy
large chunks (4-10 pieces) of Exocet at a time. Even hitting the head you
can do this plus destroy Exocet."

I read this, ran through MY Stage 3: Copain thing, and kicked myself.  How
could I NOT put this down?  This is very useful for cash, and I'm glad someone
remembered to get it in this guide... if not me ^_^.  Of course, as I've found
out the hard way, going for too much cash like this can let the Exocet get
away.  The trick is to balance between cash and objective...   Keep your eyes
on the prize, but don't forget the appetizers.

Stage 5:

All (at the right times):
"You had several strategies on your faq that make a ton of money (such as
the satellites and balloons). This strategy combines most of them. First you
go destroy the satellites, which gives you 30,000 and 10 seconds on your bonus
counter. I think the best way of taking out these is from above them because
you'll be able to get at least two of them no sweat and not spend a lot of
time getting to the others. After that you take out the balloons. My strategy
for doing this is approaching them from an angle where you can see all of
them and destroying one. After the first explodes you continue shooting the
others down the line until they all die. This gives you a five chain and at
very least 60,00 even without destroying the satellite dishes (radar dishes).
After that you can destroy the small look out towers with the moving machine
guns on them. There are 4 altogether, 2 on each side of the ship and each
gives you 10,000. Even as a beginner I got about 500,000-600,000 with this
easily."

Femme:
"When destroying each steel tether you can get a ton of money. On the end
of the ship where the machine soldier appears there are 2 sets of machine
gun turrets on each side of the last three segments on that part of the ship.
They are the first three segments you take out. There are six of these
altogether and by taking out all of the your bonus counter should end up around
96 seconds. After that destroy each steel tether by making the chains. I have
gotten almost 7 million from this. As Ciel you'll get even more because you
have to take out the control tower too. The biggest problem with this is having
enough fuel left to take out the machine soldier."

Ciel:
"While fighting this pair the best thing to do is dismantle the Dorado with
fireworks. The best way to avoid the machine soldier's fire is to fly fast
(using X) and don't get too close. As soon as Femme's risk meter gets to 60%
machine soldier will leave you alone (at least for me it did). Get as close
and use heavy fire to take it out."

What can I say?  Very well done, my friend, very well done.



Thanks
-------
Thanks to Atlus for such an innovative idea and interesting game.
Thanks to the Skygunner webpage at Atlus.com (www.atlus.com/sg/index) for
the secrets.
Thanks to Jesse Jace Thomas([email protected]) for incredible tips
on making money on scene 5.
Thanks to Eugene Clewlow([email protected]) for Ventre's Commemorative
Photos.
Thanks to Spark Pristine for the goodies on official descriptions on
Ventre's ships.
Thanks to Thomas Stacey for a boatload of cash strategies... in detail.
Thanks to you for reading this, cause it means my contribution to the world
wasn't in vain.

all you e-mailers... let me know if I can use your names!

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