~ minna de puyo puyo ~
~ puyo pop ~
~ gameboy advance ~
~ walkthrough/faq ~
~copywright marcus hanshew 2004~
version 2.0
last update: 8 January 2006
Hello everyone, and welcome to my faq for PUYO POP. This guide covers the title
"Puyo Pop" that was released in America for the Game Boy Advance. The Japanese
title is "Minna de Puyo Puyo," and the Japanese version is (basically)
identical to the English version, so you can use this guide for both versions.
In fact, the Japanese version is included on the American release.
So, with that out of the way, let's get to the table of contents! You can copy
any line from the outline and use your browser's FIND function (usually CTRL-F)
to locate that section later in the guide. (Only the main items and subitems on
the list will be findable, so only copy lines with roman numberals or capital
letters as the heading).
~TABLE OF CONTENTS~
I. What is Puyo Puyo?
II. How to play
A. Basic Terminology, Rules, and Moves
1. Puyo and popping them
2. Puyo blocks and their movement (game basis)
3. The main game screen
a. The play area
b. NEXT and NEXT2: the preview window
c. your character and carbuncle
d. score display
B. Advanced Terminology, Rules, and Moves
1. Garbage Puyo
a. Normal Garbage Puyo
b. Hard Puyo
c. Point Puyo
2. The Puyo Preview
a. Small Puyo
b. Mid Puyo
c. Rock Puyo
d. Star Puyo
e. Moon Puyo
f. Crown Puyo
3. Attacking Techniques
a. Combo
b. Simultaneous Clear
c. Chain
d. All Clear
4. Cancelling out
III. The Characters
A. Main Characters
1. Arle Nadja
2. Carbuncle
3. Draco Centari
4. Rulue
5. Lagnus Bishashi
6. Schezo Wegey
7. Dark Prince / Satan
B. Supporting Characters
1. Skeleton-T
2. Incubus
3. Seriri
4. Kikimora
5. Suketoudara
6. Harpy
7. Nohoho
8. Witch
9. Minotaur
10. Zoh-Daimaoh
IV. The Game Modes
A. Single Puyo Pop
B. Double Puyo Pop
C. Everybody Puyo Pop
D. Endless Puyo Pop
1. Normal Mode - Tokoton Puyo Pop
2. Task Mode - Kesubesi Puyo Pop
E. Options
V. Rules
VI. Single Puyo Pop Walkthrough
A. Hajimari Forest
1. vs Skeleton-T
2. vs Incubus
3. vs Seriri
B. Gold Town
1. vs Kikimora
2. vs Suketoudara
3. vs Harpy
4. vs Minotaur
5. vs Nohoho
c. Gachinko Dungeon
1. vs Kikimora
2. vs Harpy
3. vs Zoh-Daimaoh
4. vs Rulue
5. vs Draco
D. Magical Tower
1. vs Kikimora
2. vs Suketoudara
3. vs Incubus
4. vs Schezo
5. vs Witch
E. Dark P Castle
1. vs Lagnus
2. vs Zoh Daimaoh
3. vs Minotaur
4. vs Skeleton-T
5. vs Schezo
6. vs Rulue
7. vs Dark Prince
F. Item Delivery Quest
1. Dark P Castle
2. Magical Tower
3. Gachinko Dungeon
4. Gold Town
5. Hajimari Forest
G. Trial Labyrinth
VII. Single Puyo Pop Item Collection
A. Hajimari Forest Items
B. Gold Town Items
C. Gachinko Dungeon Items
D. Magical Tower Items
E. Dark P Castle Items
F. Trial Labyrith Items
VIII. Card List
IX. Tips and Strategies
A. How to Win
B. Combo Skills
C. Chain Skills
D. Useful Tips
X. Frequently Asked Questions
XI. Puyo Master Ring
XII. High Scores
XIII. Updates
XIV. Legal Disclaimer, etc.
*****************************
*** I. What is Puyo Puyo? ***
*****************************
Puyo Puyo is a VERY popular game series by COMPILE. The Puyo craze never really
caught on in America, but in Japan, the fun characters are seen in their own
anime, manga, cookies, dolls, and just about anything you can imagine. Even in
the popular anime "Shin Seiki Evangelion", Asuka and Hikari are seen playing
video games, and there is a Puyo Puyo game sitting out next to Asuka.
Puyo Puyo is a PUZZLE game series, but the game actually branched off from an
RPG entitled Madou Monogatari. The Puyo, Arle, and the other characters were
all characters from the original game. The Puyo Puyo puzzle series continued
with such great popularity and has had well over 100 games released across
many systems, including the new systems like GameCube and PS2. There was even
a Puyo Puyo dancing game!
Puyo Puyo is probably the leader of puzzle games of it's type, and has kept the
puzzle game genre (along with Puzzle de Pon) alive for a long time! Something
Tetris could never do. Let's face it, every time one of those new Tetris games
come out, they sell about as well as chairs without legs.
***********************
*** II. How to play ***
***********************
Puyo Pop is a very simple game to learn, but as all simple games, it is very
difficult to master. It is easy to become pretty good at the game though, and
hopefully this guide will help you on your way to Puyo mastery!
The instruction manual that comes with the game is very vague and sometimes
difficult to understand for some people (especially people who don't have any
idea what the game is), so I'm going to try to explain things in better detail
and make some sense of things.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ A. Basic Terminology, Rules, and Moves ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Puyo Puyo is a puzzle game, and like many other puzzle games, the key to
victory is to stack up your opponent's screen until it fills to the top. Your
goal is to keep your stack low, which is done by clearing the things filling
your screen.
The things that fill your screen are called PUYO. They come in five colors,
each with its own emotion! These colors are:
RED - ANGRY
BLUE - SAD
YELLOW- HAPPY
PURPLE- TIRED
GREEN - EXCITED
There are also three types of "garbage" puyo that I will explain later.
Puyo obey gravity. They will always fall as far down as they can go in the play
area.
The colored puyo like to stick together. When a puyo is placed adjacent to a
puyo of the same color, it will stick to it, causing it them to stretch. When
four or more of the same color puyo stick together and stretch out, they will
pop! Popping puyo is the basis of Puyo Pop.
Puyo will not stick together until after they have fallen. Since gravity takes
control, a puyo will not stick to another if gravity pulls it down.
Puyo will never stick to puyo diagnally, they must be in the same row and the
adjacent column or the same column and the adjacent row. Garbage puyo will not
stick to each other and can only pop by use of other puyo (explained later).
Puyo drop in groups of two at a time, which is one PUYO BLOCK. A Puyo Block
will drop from the top of the screen and will always drop from the third column
from the left. When a Puyo Block cannot drop into the play area because the
third column is filled with Puyo, your game is over, and your opponent will
achieve victory.
When a Puyo Block is dropped into the play area, you can move it around! Use
the left and right arrow buttons to move it left to right. The up arrow button
will have no effect, but the down arrow button will cause the block to drop
faster. You can also use the A button to rotate the block clockwise (the puyo
that was on the top of the block will now be on the right) or the B button to
rotate it counter-clockwise.
Let's take a look at the main game screen. The screen is divided into two
sections; the left side is yours and the right side is your opponent's. Your
own section will have quite a few things on it. The main part is your playing
area. It is divided into six columns and is twelve rows high. This is where
you will place your Puyo.
In your top-right-hand corner of your play area, you will see a box that has
a puyo block in it (there will be another puyo block "hiding" behind the wall
next to it). This block is called the NEXT PUYO. When the puyo block that you
are moving is placed in the play area securely, the NEXT puyo block will fall.
The block that is hiding behind the wall next to the NEXT puyo block is called
the NEXT2 block. When the NEXT puyo block goes into play, the NEXT2 block takes
its place.
The box that contains the NEXT and NEXT2 puyo blocks is called the PREVIEW
WINDOW.
Below the PREVIEW WINDOW, you will see your character's picture. Normally, this
is Arle, but in multiplayer mode, you can choose your own character.
Below your character's picture is a little dancing character. This is just
Carbuncle, and he really doesn't have any point but to look cute and to
announce the start of the round with the pop of his balloon.
Below Carbuncle's box is the SCORE DISPLAY. The first player score (your score)
is on the top and the second player score is on the bottom.
I would practice moving puyo around and connecting them to get the hang of
the game before seriously trying to play... it will take more than being able
to pop puyo to win!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ B. Advanced Terminology, Rules, and Moves ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Obviously, if both players just sat and popped puyo, no one would ever lose.
You have the ability to attack your opponent's play area by dropping garbage
puyo on them.
Garbage puyo cannot pop on their own. The only way to pop a garbage puyo is to
pop regular puyo that are adjacent to them. The garbage puyo also will not pop
if the popped puyo are diagonal instead of directly adjacent.
There are three types of garbage puyo: regular, hard, and point. Depending on
what RULE SET is being used (normal, hard, or point), you will drop that type
of puyo on your opponent. The type of garbage puyo dropped will always be the
same throughout an entire round of the game.
Regular garbage puyo aren't much of anything but garbage. They fill up your
screen and sit there. They can be cleared normally, by popping puyo next to
them.
Hard puyo are a little harder to pop. They have a hard coating on the outside
of them that you could consider like a shield. When you pop adjacent puyo, the
shield or coating will break, and they will turn into normal garbage puyo. So
you have to clear Hard Puyo TWICE!
The instruction manual says "Point puyo give you lots of points." This is true,
but the real function of point puyo is to supersize the amount of garbage you
send back on your opponent. Be careful when using them, because the opponent
could easily pop them again and send hoardes of point puyo right back at you!
So, how do you attack your opponent with garbage puyo? Easy! Popping a normal
set of four puyo will send one garbage puyo to the opponent's playing area!
When a garbage puyo is sent to the opposing side, it is stocked in the area
directly above the play area. This area is called the PUYO PREVIEW (which is
different from the preview window). A small grey dot represents one stocked
garbage puyo. It is called a SMALL PUYO. Six SMALL PUYO will make a MID PUYO,
which lookes like a small, grey puyo. When you have 30 garbage puyo stocked up,
you will see a ROCK PUYO, which looks like a very round red puyo. A star with
eyes is called a STAR PUYO and is worth 180 garbage puyo. 360 puyo will get you
a Moon Puyo and 720 puyo will get you a CROWN PUYO. Getting past ROCK PUYO is
very difficult to do, and it is very rare that you will even see a STAR puyo,
even less a moon puyo or crown puyo. Even I have never seen a crown puyo.
Sending garbage puyo one by one won't get you anywhere, though; you need to
learn some techniques for adding extra garbage to your opponent.
When you pop more than four puyo at a time, it is called a COMBO. Combo is very
easy to accomplish. If you have three puyo connected and the puyo block you
use to clear them is two of the same color puyo, all five will pop (considering
one of the two in the block isn't placed so that it falls away from the group
due to gravity.)
Combo will add to the amount of garbaged dropped by +1 for each additional puyo
to the group. A group of five puyo will send 2 garbage puyo (1 original + 1
extra). A group of six puyo will send 3 garbage puyo (1 original + 2 extra) and
so on.
When you pop two different colors of puyo at the same time, it is called
SIMULTANEOUS CLEAR. Simultaneous clear is accomplished by have two sets of puyo
ready to clear, such as three purple and three yellow, and then getting a puyo
block with a purple and yellow puyo. If you can drop the block so that it
clears both the yellow and the purple at the same time, you will accomplish a
simultaneous clear. You can also use a chain to accomplish simultaneous clear.
A simultaneous clear will multiply the number of puyo being sent by 2. So if
you were to clear the purple and yellow, 4 garbage would be sent (1 original
for the purple + 1 original for the yellow x 2 simultaneous clear).
The next attack is the CHAIN. The chain is accomplished by clearing puyo that
causes other puyo to fall and clear more afterward. If you stack three red puyo
on top of each other then stack three yellow on top of those red then stack
one more red on top of that, you can set up a chain. Popping the yellow puyo
in the center will cause the red puyo from the top to drop and then pop the red
puyo under it after the first pop. This is the way to accomplish a chain. A
chain will add one Mid Puyo to the garbage pile-up. So one chain will do an 8-
garbage attack. (1 original + 1 for the second pop + 6 chain)
The best attack to use is the ALL CLEAR (which requires mostly luck, but with
practice, you can increase your chances of obtaining all clear). All clear is
accomplished simply by clearing your entire area of all puyo (including garbage
puyo). If you do this, you will recieve an ALL CLEAR! flashing logo, and the
word "ALL" will rest next to the picture of your character. If you pop puyo
with the "all" status on your character, it will use the All attack by adding
a rock puyo to the opponent's puyo preview! So, popping a set of puyo will
add 31 puyo to your opponent's screen (1 for the pop + 30 ALL). Once the ALL
attack has been used, it is gone. You'll have to get another all clear to get
the ALL attack back.
The puyo in your puyo preview will drop as soon as you lay down your current
puyo block; although, if you clear puyo or create attacks, you can cancel out
some of the garbage! Instead of attacking your opponent, every garbage puyo
that you WOULD be sending over will "cancel" away from your puyo preview. So,
if you had one mid puyo in your puyo preview and you popped five puyo when you
laid down your current piece, you would only get four garbage puyo dropped on
you (since you would cancel out two from the combo). The garbage puyo will drop
and then your next piece will come into play. This method is called CANCELLING
OUT and is very useful.
If you cancel out more garbage than there is in your puyo preview, the extra
points that you score will be sent to your opponent as an attack as normal.
You can also do the opposite of canceling out -- if your opponent already has
puyo in their puyo preview and you quickly play another block (and they are
moving slowly and don't play their next block so the garbage can fall) and pop
some puyo, you can add to the garbage that is already there (although this
is pretty obvious if you play the game).
Keep practicing your attacks so that you can easily beat your opponent.
It takes two rock puyo (60 garbage) to fill the entire screen. Also, only 30
puyo will drop at a time, so you have a chance to cancel out the remaining puyo
after they drop.
***************************
*** III. The Characters ***
***************************
There are many characters in the world of Puyo Puyo. The main characters of
Puyo Pop are Arle and Carbuncle, but I will list the main characters of all of
the puyo games under main characters
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ A. Main Characters ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Some of these characters won't seem like main characters during the game, but
they are the main characters of the puyo world, so I will list them here.
The main character of Puyo Puyo is Arle Nadja. She is a normal girl who was
trained in the way of fighting with a sword (and some magic) at a magic school.
She has a small pet dragon (yes, he's a dragon!) named Carbuncle. In Puyo Pop,
you take the part of Arle, following Carbuncle around.
CARBUNCLE LOVES CURRY.
Arle has two rivals - Draco Centaur and Rulue. Draco is more of a friendly
rival (although Arle finds her quite annoying) that likes to fight Arle in
beauty contests. Rulue is Arle's battle rival. They fight a lot, and Rulue has
a crush on Satan, and she thinks that Arle is after Satan's love.
Lagnus Bishasi is a little kid that grows as he becomes stronger (like a
character's level in an RPG, but he actually gets bigger!) Shezo Wegey is a
perverted boy that likes Arle, and he used to fight with her (like Rulue) in
the Madou Monogatari games.
The "main enemy" of Puyo Puyo is Satan (in the American release, they named him
Dark Prince). He lives in hell, although he actually has places to live all
over the world of Puyo Puyo, and he often wears many different disguises. He
is in love with Arle, but Arle hates him! Too bad he just doesn't like Rulue
back, huh?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ B. Supporting Characters ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SKELETON-T is a skeleton who likes tea. He is always seen with his tea cup with
a kanji on it. He is generally pretty friendly and cute, but Arle thinks he is
annoying, so they have a lot of fights. The kanji is the the symbol for "cha"
or "tea" in Japanese. Thank you to the three people who emailed me with this
kanji's meaning!
INCUBUS is a sex demon that wants Arle (or any girl). He tries to hit on her
every chance he gets, but she can't stand him. He carries roses with him.
SERIRI is a cute, friendly (but paranoid) mermaid. She lives alone and is
afraid of most people. Arle thinks she is stupid.
KIKIMORA is a cute girl with obsessive-compulsive disorder. She loves to clean
EVERYTHING!!! Arle thinks she is annoying, but in Puyo Pop, Kikimora is needed
because she teaches Arle the different rules of Puyo Puyo used in different
places.
SUKETOUDARA is a fish that loves to dance. Arle doesn't like him and thinks his
dances are stupid, so she usually taunts him by pretending that she wants to
eat him.
HARPY is a cute, singing angel. Although she is named Harpy, she can't sing
worth crap! Arle hates talking to her because she sings whenever she talks, and
she thinks it is annoying.
NOHOHO is a swindling salesman who loves to rip you off and do dirty deals. He
smuggles curry and cheats you out of your money. Of course, Arle hates him.
WITCH is a cute witch that is really strong as far as magic goes, and she can
pop some pretty mean puyo, too! She loves magic and everything about it.
MINOTAUR is Rulue's follower. Not exactly in love with her, but he is very
loyal to her and will do anything she says. Not really a minion, he does think
on his own, but he just REALLY looks up to and respects Rulue (nutcase, huh!?)
Sometimes they call him Mino for short!
ZOH-DAIMAOH is a fat elephant that loves to guard things. He really doesn't do
anything else. He will challenge anyone who tries to pass with a game of Puyo
Pop, even if he just happens to accidentally stand in their way. He just really
loves challenging people who are passing him...
**************************
*** IV. The Game Modes ***
**************************
The game doesn't have very confusing modes... there are two single player games
and two multiplayer games, plus the options menu.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ A. Single Puyo Pop ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Single Puyo Pop is the story mode of Puyo Pop! You take the role as Arle
chasing Carbunkle through five fun worlds (and a sixth bonus dungeon!) playing
Puyo Pop against everyone you meet. Your journey starts in HAJIMARI FOREST, and
as you collect RUNES, you'll slowly open up the gates to new words to battle
in.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ B. Double Puyo Pop ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Double Puyo Pop is a game for two players joined by Link Cable. You'll need a
link cable, but you don't need two game paks to play! The great feature about
the multiplayer in this game is that you can play by linking up your GBAs, but
you don't need for everyone to have their own copy of the game. You can select
"MULTI GAME PAK MODE" if both players have their own game or "SINGLE GAME PAK
MODE" if you both want to play off the same pak.
What's the difference? Well, you'll have to wait for the player without the
game pak to download the game onto their GBA first. This really doesn't take
that long. Also, there is no character selection or rules set up in the 1-pak
mode.
If both players have the game in their GBAs and you select MULTI pak mode, you
can set up rules for play (you'll need some special items from Single Puyo Pop
to play with some rules!). You can also choose your own character to play (so
now you can play as your favorite!! Yay! Harpy and Skelly-T!!!)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ C. Everybody Puyo Pop ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Everybody Puyo Pop is another multiplayer mode. In this mode, three or four
players can play! The set up is the same as Double Puyo Pop. Watch out, because
in this mode, the screens are really tiny, and the puyo just look like little
round-edged squares! I wouldn't reccomend playing this on a GBA, only a GBASP
since the screen is difficult to see and the backlight will help with the
clarity.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ D. Endless Puyo Pop ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Endless Puyo Pop is a classic puzzle game one player mode. The game doesn't end
until you die! There are actually two different types of endless gaming to pop
at! The first is TOKOTON (Normal Mode) and the second is KESUBESI (Task Mode).
TOKOTON Puyo Pop is easy to understand -- the puyo fall, you pop them! There
are no garbage puyo here to screw you up, so it's all about going for high
scores. Don't mess up! Strategy for this mode will be covered later in the FAQ
(so go back to the table of contents!)
KESUBESI is an interesting type of endless mode. The way to scoring big here is
completing tasks that the game gives you. You'll have to do what tasks the game
gives for you to do in order to advance your score to the top... not only that,
but you have 99 seconds to complete as many as you can! Each time you complete
one, you'll get bonus time added onto your remaining time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ E. Options ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~
This is the options menu. It sets up the game. Here is what each command does:
DIFFICULTY - Sets the difficulty between EASY , NORMAL, and HARD. This changes
the speed that the computer plays at and ups there AI by maybe 1%...
MESSAGE SPEED - This is how fast the text plays when you're talking to people
throughout the Single Puyo Pop world. I keep mine on NORMAL because I like to
read what they're saying and act it out in my head, hehehe.
ROUNDS - You can choose how many rounds it takes to win a game in Double Puyo
Pop or Everybody Puyo Pop mode. You still only get one chance in Single Puyo
Pop, so this setting won't apply there.
RANKING - This shows the high score tables for each world that you've opened
and for both of the Endless modes. The high scores will be default until you
get some on your own. The names displayed are really funky versions of the
characters from the game. The ENDLESS mode high score charts have names of
characters from other puyo games (so unless you play the Japanese games, you
won't recognize these names).
GALLERY - This shows you each card you've collected. There are 18 cards in all,
each with its own picture and sounds. These are very cool and fun, especially
if you love listening to the funny Japanese voice actors.
LANGUAGE - You can change the Language between ENGLISH mode and NIHONGO mode
(Japanese). The Japanese version is a little different in that some of the
conversations are a little funnier and some of the names are different.
RETURN TO DEFAULT - This one's a little obvious. It changes your settings back
to default. (I guess they're all pretty obvious though.) The default settings
are:
Difficulty - Normal
Message Speed - Normal
Rounds - 2
Language - English
I keep all of my settings on the defaults besides that I play with the
difficulty on HARD and sometimes I play in Japanese just for fun.
RETURN - This takes you back to the main menu. You could just press B though.
****************
*** V. Rules ***
****************
There are different "rules" used in each game of Puyo Pop. In the Single Puyo
Pop mode, the rules are set for you depending on where you are and who you're
popping against. In the multiplayer modes, however, you can set up the rules
to your liking. There are also some rules unique to only Double and Everyone
Puyo Pop. This section is an explanation of each ruleset.
NORMAL - During this, the game plays as normal. It takes four Puyo connected in
order to pop and the garbage type is just standard garbage.
DOUBLE POP - In this mode, it only takes two puyo connected to pop. This can
lead to some confusing strategy building since the game becomes more difficult
as far as getting chains are concerned. You can only use the standard garbage
puyo here and can also only use this rule in Double/Everyone Puyo Pop.
SIX POP - In this mode, you can now connect six puyo before they will pop. This
mode uses less colors and standard garbage. You can also only use it in Double
or Everyone Puyo Pop. It won't appear in the Single game.
POINT - Using the Point Rule (you will need the point puyo ring from GoldTown
in order to use this ruleset in multiplayer) the garbage changes from normal to
point puyo. The other rules stay the same (4 puyo to pop).
HARD - Using this rule (you will need the hard puyo ring from Gachinko Dungeon
to use this ruleset in multiplayer) the garbage changes from normal to hard
puyo. The other rules stay the same.
RULE EDIT - This lets you edit the specific rules to your game more than just
what type of puyo is used for the garbage. Here are the different things you
can edit with this mode:
--CHAIN BONDS
--PUYO ERASE (how many puyo it takes to pop)
--NUISANCE TYPES
--NUISANCE OUTBREAK RATE
--NUISANCE REMIT LEVEL
--PUYO START UP POSITION
(Thank you much to Anwonu for the screenshots of the RULE EDIT screen!)
***************************************
*** VI. Single Puyo Pop Walkthrough ***
***************************************
BEFORE READING THIS WALKTHROUGH make sure you already have a working knowledge
of Puyo Pop and basic strategies. Read the strategy section later in the faq
and the terminology section earlier in the faq so you can know what I'm talking
about...
Also please note that these strategies are for players who are stuck in the
game. Advanced players should make up their own strategies and play in a way
that's good for them... Okay, let's get started...
The story mode to this game is pretty fun. You get to go to different worlds,
unlocking more worlds. The story starts with Arle and Carbuncle. Carbuncle eats
something wierd and all of a sudden, a forest appears around the two when Arle
chases after him. Arle now has to find her way out!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ A. Hajimari Forest ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The first person... er... thing that Arle approaches is Skeleton-T. SkellyT
decides to give you tea... and knowing him, it's probably poisoned. Actually
it's just made from used tea bags. Either way, he's not helping you get out
of here, and he just made you drink gross tea, so you challenge him to a game
of Puyo Pop!
VS SKELETON-T: Skelly isn't very hard to beat, obviously; he's the first
character in the game. His strategy is really lame. He doesn't rotate his puyo
blocks! He does, however, try to line up the colors. So, if you let him go for
a while, he'll end up getting a large chain on accident if he's lucky. He's
slow enough that you can set up for a larger chain (don't worry about getting
a HUGE chain unless you're going for score, just use a 3-4 step chain) and
fill up most of his play area. After you've done that, just keep getting combos
and 2-step chains to pound out the rest of the area you left open. It shouldn't
take a lot of effort. This isn't the only way to beat SkellyT; you can just
set up two chains one right after another and he's basically done (if both
chains are at least 3 steps each). Or get an ALL CLEAR. With only three colors,
ALL CLEAR is pretty easy to obtain.
After picking bones with Skelly, it's time to head on to find your way out of
this forest. Guess who you happen to run into? Incubus. Being the sex demon
that he is, Incubus's first instict when he sees you is to hit on you... in a
crappy way because he's a loser like that. So, Arle get's mad, and you get to
face him in Puyo Pop!
VS INCUBUS: Incubus actually has a pretty interesting strategy for so early
in the game. He likes to match colors... but keep them in groups of three. He
actually can get a 2 or 3 step chain quite often if you let him. Keep throwing
out 2-step chains, and try to get the second step to end in a combo, or even
better, a 2-color simultaneous clear. Don't strive for the 2-color clear if it
takes a lot of time, only let it happen if it's by chance. If you're playing
on HARD mode, Incu will be a little smarter and faster and probably hit you
with a chain more often then you hit him if you keep trying to set up bigger
or better ones. Just simple 2-steps will do to keep him under wraps. If you
get lucky, throw in a 3-step every now and then, because (especially in HARD
mode) he will try to use the garbage puyo to his advantage (even if it's mostly
by accident). So either do a 3-step every few chains or end your second step
with a large combo or 2-color clear.
So after that's settled, you still need to ask for directions. How many stupid
characters will it take? Well hopefully only one more. You come to a pond with
a cute mermaid named Seriri. When you try to tell her that you need directions,
she'll freak out and think you're trying to eat her... so in self-defense, she
fights you in a match of Puyo Pop!
VS SERIRI: Seriri is actually dumber than Incubus. Her strategy is to pop and
pop and pop. She doesn't really try to set up combos or chains... she just...
pops... it's actually worse than SkellyT. So, just do whatever you want...
she'll keep dropping one of two garbage puyo now and then because she won't
stop clearing things, but it shouldn't be that big of a deal. It will make
getting an all clear kind of annoying if you keep ending up with a garbage puyo
left in the field. I just use her as a time to rack up points for the high
score table for this world. Go ahead and set up a really large chain. See if
you can get a 6 or 7 step chain. Also, use the few garbage puyo she drops on
you to your advantage. You should have her wiped out in no time (or in a while
if you decide to use this stage for gaining score)
After beating Seriri, you'll explain to her that you were just asking for
directions, and she'll apologize. Everything's okay now, and you've made a new
friend. With that aside, she gives you a wierd rune. This strange object she
gives you creates a gate in front of you that leads to a sparkling new world...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ B. Gold Town ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Passing through the gate, you'll find a world full of nothing but gold... and
an obsessive-compulsive greeter. Gold town is home to quite the mix of wierdos,
and it's your job to find your way out.
The first event in Gold Town is that you are confronted by a cute maid girl who
introduces herself as Kikimora. She's a big neat freak who always has to be
cleaning. Besides that, she's going to teach you a new rule, point puyo. All
the battles in Gold Town are going to use point puyo, and Kikimora will show
you just how that's going to happen.
VS KIKIMORA: Kikimora is your teacher, and she'll go easy on you. She just
matches things here and there. The problem is, now with the new Point Puyo
rule, this can lead to your destruction. What she's trying to teach you is
that if you pile on some point puyo to her side, it won't take long to
demolish you with a counterattack. Your strategy shouldn't be that hard to
figure out though. All you have to do is give her a few point puyo to work
with. Send a 2-step chain's worth her way (please not one ending with a
simultaneous clear) and let her send a load of garbage to your side. Now that
you have a ton of point puyo to work with, form a 2 or 3 step chain and make
sure that you clear a lot of point puyo in the process. A 2-step chain ending
with a 5-puyo combo that clears 6 or 7 point puyo is enough to fill over half
of Kikimora's screen... and by the time you get it that's enough to give you
the win.
After your lesson from Kikimora, it's time to head on through the streets of
Gold Town. You'll run into a dancing fish, which reminds you of sushi... yum.
Suketoudara (this fish) doesn't really think you're very cool for wanting
sushi, and decides to fight you for his life in a game of Puyo Pop.
VS SUKETOUDARA: Suke is really dumb. All he does is pile puyo up. I don't even
think he tries to pop any. So, I would take this battle as a chance to rack
up points with another huge chain. Go ahead and set up a chain of 6, 7, 8,
steps if you can, and watch the garbage pile over Suke's lame strategy. The
problem is, he could accidentally unleash a chain here or there, and if you
have any point puyo on his side, that could be a problem. Be prepared. If you
do get bombarded by some point puyo, you should be ready to just pop. Don't
worry about trying to set up chains or anything to make his side fill up or
stop him from attacking more, just keep popping your regular old four puyo
combos. The point puyo will be enough to send lots of puyo his way and stop
him from doing anything. When you're in the safety zone (below half of your
playing field empty) you can start forming a couple of 2-step chains and combos
to use the point puyo to finish Suketoudara off.
Okay, did he think you were just gonna walk over and bite off a chunk of him
in the middle of his dance? I hope not. The next person you're going to wander
into is the cute singer, Harpy. As a Harpy, her job is to sing, right? Too bad
she CAN'T. Arle hates her music and just wants to get rid of her right away.
VS HARPY: Harpy has a strange strategy. She's one of those characters who will
stack up both sides of the playing field. Once both sides are stacked up to
the top of the playing field, she'll start filling in the center, matching
colors. This can lead to some annoyingly large chains if you're not careful.
The first thing you should do is set up a quick 3-4 step chain, and unleash it
before she can stack up both sides to the top. This should confuse her, and
she'll start trying to pop things to get rid of the garbage you just dumped on
her (because she can't stack up any more!) Now you have to keep forming 2-step
chains and combos of 6 or more puyo to keep her under wraps until the end of
the match. Once she starts clearing away your puyo, though, you're really in
for it because she'll be sending a lot of point puyo your way. Hurry up and
grab a 3-step chain (if you can) using a lot of point puyo to smash her down,
or (if all the puyo you were working with got covered) start popping the point
puyo quickly to get back down to what you were working on and pop it all to
make a ton of point puyo attack Harpy for the win.
Now that you got that out of the way, you run into Rulue's little minion Mino.
You ask him how he cand stand to hang out with Arle and he flips. What did you
expect?
VS MINOTAUR: Mino likes to line up lots of colors and pop them. Pretty basic
strategy, but hey, he's an underling. Just go ahead and start setting up a
3 or 4 step chain, but make sure while you're setting it up, you're still
popping some puyo off to the side. Just a couple of pops before you pop your
chain on him should render him pretty helpless. Mino is a pretty easy
opponent, and if he does happen to give you some trouble, you should be able
to take care of him.
Now that you're finally done with all these annoying passers-by, you decide to
stop in a Gold Town store to find Nohoho. Well, he's going to try to force
you to buy something, and if you don't, you'll have to play Puyo Pop. (In other
words, another match!)
VS NOHOHO: Nohoho is smart and strong. There are even some human players that
play with the Nohoho strategy. He first will fill up the right three columns
of his play area, lining up colors but not popping anything. If he finishes
that, you're done for, because there's a pretty big chance of him getting a
killer chain and wiping you out... but there is a way to fight against it.
First of all, just start popping right off the bat. Don't try for any chains;
you don't want to give him too much to work with. Remember that he's smart.
Your job is to drop a few point puyo in those three columns that he's working
on. He'll be forced to clear the point puyo out, and give you some point puyo
to work with. Be careful not to send too many garbage to his side. If you
have 3 or more point puyo in his three right columns, he could really mess you
up. Just two will do. He'll probably set off a chain when he clears the point
puyo, and you'll have a couple of rows of point puyo to work with. Be careful
not to let him get too far into making his columns... he might set off too big
of a chain. Once you have your point puyo to work with, set up a huge chain
quickly. three or four steps is plenty, especially sine you'll clear point
puyo at the same time. This should pile down on top of him while he's still
trying to build up his columns. Now your job is to keep popping, getting 5-puyo
combos and 2-step chains and the such, until he's done. If you don't quickly
fill up the rest of his playfield, he could do you in by setting off some
horrific chain... but if you've made it this far you should be pretty good at
filling it the remaining space after a big chain.
After pounding out Nohoho, he'll give you a rune. You won't even have to pay
for it! Now it's off to Gachinko Dungeon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ c. Gachinko Dungeon ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In the entrance to this crystal cavern, you're going to run across that quirky
maid Kikimora again. She's going to teach you about the new rule of the
dungeon, hard puyo! Hard puyo are annoying, but if you can use them right,
you should have this dungeon down easy.
VS KIKIMORA: In order to teach you the new rule, Kikimora will go easy on you
by just matching up colors whenever she can, and if it happens to pop, then it
will pop. Again, another set up for accidental chains. Now that you have hard
puyo on your side, keep her strapped down by a constant barrage of 2-step
chains. You can actually start off with a 3 or 4-step chain if you wish. I like
to use Kikimora stages as a way to practice new chain or combo patters. I set
up a cool 3-color simultaneous clear at the beginning of this stage. Once you
do your first cool chain or combo, just keep on letting off 2-step chains, and
if you can make the second step a combo. This should keep Kikimora from killing
you, but if you can't keep them coming fast enough, she'll start dropping a few
hard puyo on your side. If you're advanced enough to form chains that clear
hard puyo to your advantage, go ahead and do it... but if you're that good,
I don't know why you're reading this guide.
After Kikimora is done with today's lesson, you'll run into Harpy again, who
wants you to listen to her song. Guess what? It still stinks as bad as the
last time you heard it, and it's time to shut her up with a game of Puyo Pop.
VS HARPY: Harpy has the same strategy as last time. Now with hard puyo, the
strategy you use is a little different. Take it easy and just pop a bunch of
2-step chains and keep her confused. You could also spend the beginning of the
stage building up a big chain, but now that she's a little smarter and faster,
you might not be able to get it out in time. After a while of 2-step chains,
Harpy will shut her mouth and give up.
Now you run into Zoh, who doesn't want you to pass. Why? Because he's a freak
who loves blocking people's paths. So, go ahead and beat him up. You know you
want to...
VS ZOH-DAIMAOH: Zoh will match colors and get ready for massive chains... but
he NEVER clears anything. He'll pop a 5-combo or something maybe once before
he decides to stack himself halfway up with pointless matched colors. Set up
a really quick 4-step chain to smash him out with one pop. If there's still
space left (I make my 4-steps with lots of combos) then just take the route
of 2-step chains to finish him off.
And you get to journey further into the dungeon and meet your rival, Rulue.
VS RULUE: Rulue is smart. She uses a strategy similar to Zoh's, but she'll pop
things while she's at it, sending hard puyo your way to screw up something
that you have going. The problem is, she's slow, and probably won't be sending
anything your way of that much damage for a while. Take the chance to set up
another 4-step chain and wipe her out.
After this, you'll end up fighting your self-proclaimed beauty rival, Draco.
VS DRACO: Draco is annoyingly smart for this early in the game (even though
you're about halfway through). She's like Rulue, but faster and smarter. The
best strategy to bumping out Draco is to smash her down with a 3-step chain
laced with combos in it, and then keep popping combos and 2-step chains as
you keep your stack low. You never know when Draco could somehow rip out a
3 or 4-step chain on you.
After beating Draco, you'll recieve the rune from Gachinko dungeon and you'll
get to head out to Magical Tower.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ D. Magical Tower ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Magical Tower is where magic students go to practics magic. It's also where a
lot of annoying enemies seem to like hanging out. I know what you're thinking,
too, Kikimora is going to be there to teach you some annoying new rule to deal
with in this new world. Guess what, you're right!
VS KIKIMORA: Now you're going to have to start with garbage in the playfield.
This makes setting up chains a little more annoying because you might expect
something to fall into place, but everything will fall an extra space because
the garbage cleared, too. Just remember that the garbage is going to clear and
you should be fine. You can set up a sort of base on top of the garbage if you
want that looks like this:
R R R Y Y Y
X X X X X X
X X X X X X
Where X is the garbage and R is Red and Y is Yellow puyo. Of course, you won't
get these exact colors to land like that, so you can make a different base.
Then set up chains that will clear the base for you.
Fight Kikimora the same way you've been fighter her this whole time, and you'll
be fine. Use this stage as a score-booster and set up some wicked chain right
off the bat. With the "base" idea, you can get some simultaneous clears mixed
in with your chain, and all will be good.
Now that she's out of the way, it's time to travel up the tower. You're going
to have to fight Suke again, who now thinks you're going to fry him. Maybe
you'll use some kind of fire spell, since it is the Magical Tower after all.
VS SUKETOUDARA: Suke is still the same easy loser that he was when you fought
him the first time. He's faster now, and not much smarter, and the only problem
is that you still have those two rows of garbage under you. Go about this the
same way you did last time you fought him, but remember that the garbage are
lying at the bottom. You should be fine. He's pretty easy.
Now that you've had yourself a fishy snack (okay, so you really didn't eat him,
but you got to see him dance around) it's time to journey on. Annoyingly, you
get stopped by Incubus, who still thinks that you're destined to fall in love
with him. Well it's time to give him a reality check and pop his bubble (puyo).
VS INCUBUS: This battle begins with a layer of point puyo covered by a layer
of hard puyo. The key to winning this battle is to get to the point puyo on
the bottom and clear them out. Quickly get rid of the hard puyo blocking your
way and start clearing out the point puyo. try to clear out the point puyo in
the second step of 2-step chains or with combos. The garbage that falls in this
match is just regular garbage, so don't worry about retaliation with point puyo
from Incubus. Keep him barraged with a lot of puyo by using the point puyo and
you should have him gone in no time.
Finally you see a new character in the tower... but it's just Schezo. He wants
to do something stupid like take your power, and it's your job to make him
stop talking, because, well, he's annoying.
VS SCHEZO: You'll begin this battle with a valley shape made of hard puyo. The
fact they they are hard puyo and not point or normal garbage is really helpful.
You can still form chains and such from the get-go without worrying about them
falling out from underneath you. Try setting up something more like this:
R
Y B B
R R B
X Y Y R P X
X X Y P X X
X X X X X X
Where X is garbage, Y is Yellow, R is Red, P is Purple, and B is Blue puyo.
This "stairstep" chain works well in this situation. This also takes time and
luck to set up, but this is only an example. Basically, you'll have to make
some oddly-shaped chains here. I would just go for getting 2-step chains that
have large combos for the second step. It's pretty easy to do with the odd
shapes, and should keep Schezo from beating you.
Now that Schezo is done for, you'll go to the top of the tower to find Witch.
Witch is a witch, and she's really good at magic. Unfortunately, she's also
pretty good at Puyo Pop. Yo!
VS WITCH: Witch's stage has the same setup as Schezo's stage, but Witch is
faster and smarter. You should still be able to get her with the same strategy,
though. Just pound her down with 2-step chains that end in combos. She won't
be able to retaliate fast enough with the puyo already stacked up from the
beginning.
And you've completed Magical Tower! Witch gives you another rune, and it's time
to go on to the next world: Dark P Castle.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ E. Dark P Castle ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dark P Castle is evil and scary! Yay! It's also longer than the other worlds,
so be prepared to pop a lot of puyo and meet up with many annoying wierdos as
you try to discover the meaning behind the runes and find your way home.
Guess what? It's not Kikimora, but a really annoying kid named Lagnus. Lagnus
is small and wimpy, but thinks he is something awesome. Well, it's time to put
him in his place and teach him not to play hero.
VS LAGNUS: Lagnus's stage is set up with a really annoying pattern:
O X O X O X
X O X O X O
O X O X O X
Where X is a hard puyo and O is a point puyo. With three lines already filled
with garbage, you need to do some serious popping right off the bat, and you
need to make sure Lagnus can't get to the point puyo. Start popping with combos
and don't even bother setting up chains. Make sure you keep popping the point
puyo, though. Once you've done enough, start adding in 2-step chains that end
with a combo that also pops a point puyo or two. The strategy is to keep Lagnus
from being able to reach the point puyo by dropping small spurts of puyo on him
and blocking his pops. You should be able to finish him off before clearing
all of the garbage that you started with, but make sure you keep popping the
point puyo.
After beating up Lagnus, you move on and are stopped by a really annoying
elephant for no reason at all. Maybe he has a crush on Dark P, too.
VS ZOH DAIMAOH: Zoh's stage is set up like Incubus's last stage, with a row of
point puyo on the bottom covered by a row of hard puyo on the top. The name of
the game is again point puyo (and this whole time you thought it was Puyo Pop!)
so just keep digging until you can get to the point puyo and form a chain,
popping the point puyo during the second step, preferably in a combo. There's
a twist though... now the falling garbage is point puyo! So, I would try to
clear out the top row of hard puyo with a long chain, and then don't stop
popping when you open up the point puyo in the bottom. You have to keep piling
on tons of puyo onto Zoh or else he'll use the point puyo against you and
give you a ton of trouble.
Y R B
Y R B P
Y R B P
Y R B P
X X X X X X
O O O O O O
I would use this type of strategy for clearing out the hard puyo. If you don't
clear it all at once, the point puyo that you send to Zoh will give him some
heavy ammo for seding point puyo your way.
You can also try to clear this stage by setting up a really big chain and
waiting for Zoh to send some point puyo to your side to clear them, but the
problem is, the point puyo will probably get in your way and make the set up
useless, and you'll have to clear them out to get to your chain again anyway,
so it's really risky.
After getting past Zoh, you'll meet up with Mino, who will fight you in Rulue's
name... stupid Rulue...
VS MINOTAUR: Mino's stage is that same type of valley setup that you've fought
against before. Mino is pretty good at popping, so make sure you keep getting
2-step chains here to keep him down. The garbage that falls in this stage is
hard puyo, so trying to set up large chains might result in disaster if they
happen to get crowded out by the hard puyo. I'd go for a simple strategy of the
slow win by 2-step chains mixed with combos.
Guess what? It's "T" time! Probably one of the funniest dorky lines in the game
and one of the funniest characters. Now you get to fight against Skeleton-T,
complete with boss battle music!
VS SKELETON-T: SkellyT is back, and he is A LOT smarter and faster!! The fall
garbage for this stage is point puyo, so watch out. Skelly will use his wierd
strategy to pop a lot of puyo on you. Set up a really large chain and leave
a tall open space to drop the set-off puyo in. Wait for Skelly to drop some
point puyo on you (hopefully that mixes in with your chain) and go. If you can
get a 4-step chain that clears a lot of point puyo, there's no way he can fight
back against 3 Rock puyo worth of garbage. As soon as you set off your chain,
if you didn't happen to score a lot of garbage on him, start popping all the
point puyo left over. You'll need to do a lot of serious 2-step chains from
here on out to make sure Skelly doesn't rebound and pop a lot of point puyo on
you. You should be able to beat him down in a fast match. The longer it takes,
the harder it will get.
After breaking some bones, it's time to head on into the castle. You'll run
into Schezo, make fun of him, and fight him in a match of Puyo Pop.
VS SCHEZO: Schezo is now faster and smarter, and it's your job to keep him down
with a bunch of 2-step chains. You'll be fighting in a valley-shape again, and
the fall garbage is now hard puyo. It'll be smart to keep him down and not try
for any large chains, because with the shape and garbage-type, you can't afford
to mess up a large chain and get stopped.
Schezo should be done pretty quickly, and it's time to move on to Rulue, your
annoying rival, who wants the runes you've been collecting. Why? Well, we don't
really know yet, but we'll fight her anyway. Why give her something that's not
hers? You earned the runes, after all, and they may be your key home.
VS RULUE: Rulue is a psycho, and she'll stop at nothing to stop you from
winning in this match. You're playing on the checkerboard setup again, so get
ready to pop as many point puyo as you can. I would go for something like this:
G P
G G G B !
P P P P P B
! P G G G G G G B B
O X O X O X O X O X O X
X O X O X O or X O X O X O
O X O X O X O X O X O X
The "!" is where you want to set off the chain from. These types of chains will
get you a ton of garbage sent to Rulue (notice how they clear all of the point
puyo in the fist row of garbage) and probably win you the match.
After fighting Rulue, you'll make it to the final chamber in the castle. This
is where you will meet up with Dark Prince, and you know there's something
evil going on. It's time to face Dark Prince in a final showdown!
VS DARK PRINCE: Dark Prince is easy if you know what to do with him. You'll
start of this match with a setup that looks like this:
X X
X O O X
X O X X O X
The X is hard and the O is point. The falling garbage here is hard puyo, so you
should have no trouble stopping Dark P if you can dig into the point puyo and
keep using 2-step chains. The problem is the puyo are falling pretty quickly
now, so you'll have to plan ahead by looking at the NEXT puyo and deciding what
to do with it while the current puyo block is setting in and/or clearing. Then
go ahead and move it right to where you already planned for it to go and look
at the NEXT2 block, which is now the NEXT block.
You should be able to snuff out Dark P quickly. Again, a longer match just
means that Dark P has a better chance of chaining on you. After beating him,
you'll be rewarded by unlocking Dark P as a playable character in multiplayer
mode!
But there's still another stage there, right? Well, guess what, you're still
far from the end. You'll have to go fight Dark P a second time.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ F. Item Delivery Quest ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Now that you've beaten every world once and gotten all the runes and unlocked
Dark P as a playable character, you'll have to go visit Dark P again. Go to
Dark P Castle and go through as normal. This time, when you get to the end,
Dark P will give you a book of magic that you need to deliver to Witch.
Take the magic book to witch. She'll thank you for it and give you some wierd
flamerthrower or something to take to Draco in Gachinko Dungeon. Draco in turn
will give you a rucksack to take to Nohoho (it's for carrying his wares).
Nohoho will take the rucksack for you and give you a wierd scale that he
found. This scale is an accessory that Seriri wears (it's a pendant).
Take the fish scale pendant to Seriri in Hajimari forest so that she will give
you the final rune. This rune opens up the final stage: TRIAL LABYRINTH.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ G. Trial Labyrinth ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Trial Labyrith is the biggest world, and you play against each character. Each
character will use their strategies that they used before. Beat them the same
way, and pay attention to what kind of garbage is falling and how the stage
is set up. Here is a key to how I will describe this section:
"Garbage" means that the stage starts like this:
X X X X X X
X X X X X X
in which X is a regular garbage puyo.
"Buried" means that there is a layer of point buried under a layer of hard like
X X X X X X
O O O O O O
in which X is hard puyo and O is point puyo.
"Checkered" means that the puyo are set up in a checkerboard pattern like this:
O X O X O X
X O X O X O
O X O X O X
"Valley" means that the puyo are set up in this way:
X X
X X X X
X X X X X X
"Hill" means that the puyo are set up in this way:
X X
X O O X
X O X X O X
as they were when you fought Satan.
In "Checker," "Valley," and "Hill," the X means hard and the O means point.
"None" means that the stage is clear from the beginning.
I will also list how many colors the stage uses. This is a key to that:
3 Colors - Red, Yellow, Purple
4 Colors - Red, Yellow, Purple, Blue
5 Colors - Red, Yellow, Purple, Blue, Green
Here is the list:
STAGE XX - VS CHARACTER - Setup, Garbage Type, Colors
STAGE 01 - VS LAGNUS - None, Hard, 4
STAGE 02 - VS SKELETON-T - Buried, Normal, 3
STAGE 03 - VS SERIRI - Checkered, Point, 4
STAGE 04 - VS INCUBUS - Buried, Hard, 4
STAGE 05 - VS NOHOHO - None, Point, 3
STAGE 06 - VS KIKIMORA - Garbage, Hard, 4
STAGE 07 - VS SUKETOUDARA - None, Normal, 4
STAGE 08 - VS HARPY - Valley, Point, 4
STAGE 09 - VS ZOH-DAIMAOH - Hill, Hard, 5
STAGE 10 - VS DRACO - None, Hard, 4
STAGE 11 - VS MINOTAUR - Buried, Point, 5
STAGE 12 - VS WITCH - Hill, Point, 4
STAGE 13 - VS SCHEZO - Valley, Normal, 4
STAGE 14 - VS RULUE - Checkered, Block, 5
STAGE 15 - VS DARK PRINCE - Garbage, Normal, 5
STAGE 16 - VS CARBUNCLE - None, Point, 3
After beating this, you will get an item that allows you to play as Carbuncle
in multi-player mode. Congrats! You've completed the walkthrough and Single
Puyo Pop! Now you can collect the items and work on your high scores.
********************************************
*** VII. Single Puyo Pop Item Collection ***
********************************************
Once you've played through every stage, you can go back to the worlds and
collect different cards and items from the final characters. When you finish
playing a world, the character at the end will give you an item (or you will
find it in a treasure chest or just lying around as you do in Trial Labyrinth
and Dark P Castle.)
So, this is a list of each world and what items you get from them. It doesn't
matter what difficulty you are on, just keep beating the worlds to keep getting
new items. Some items are conditional (get them in trades, first time thru).
You won't necessarily get them in this order, either.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ A. Hajimari Forest Items ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rune to unlock Gold Town (first time through)
Rune to unlock Trial Labyrinth (trade scale to Seriri)
Card 02
Card 03
Card 04
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ B. Gold Town Items ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rune to unlock Gachinko Dungeon (first time through)
Scale for Seriri (trade sack to Nohoho)
Ring to unlock Point Puyo rules for multiplayer
Card 05
Card 06
Card 07
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ C. Gachinko Dungeon Items ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rune to unlock Magical Tower (first time through)
Sack for Nohoho (trade flamethrower to Draco)
Ring to unlock Hard Puyo rules for multiplayer
Card 08
Card 09
Card 10
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ D. Magical Tower Items ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Rune to unlock Dark P Castle (first time through)
Flamethrower for Draco (trade book to Witch)
Card 11
Card 12
Card 13
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ E. Dark P Castle Items ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Mask to unlock Dark Prince in multiplayer (first time through)
Book for Witch (second time through)
Card 14
Card 15
Card 16
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ F. Trial Labyrinth Items ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bell to unlock Carbuncle in multiplayer (first time through)
Card 17
Card 18
Card 19
Puyo Master Ring (complete with no continues)
***********************
*** VIII. Card List ***
***********************
There are 19 known cards to collect throughout the game. Each card has a
picture of the character with their name in the background. To view the cards,
go to the OPTIONS menu and go to GALLERY. Select a card and press the A button
to view it. While viewing a card, you can press A to hear each sound effect for
that character. Pressing L or R will take you to the previous or next card in
your collection, respectively. This is just a list of what characters are on
each card.
Card # - Character
01 - Arle Nadja
02 - Skeleton-T
03 - Incubus
04 - Seriri
05 - Nohoho
06 - Suketoudara
07 - Kikimora
08 - Draco Centauri
09 - Minotaur
10 - Harpy
11 - Witch
12 - Schezo Wegey
13 - Zoh-Daimaoh
14 - Rulue
15 - Lagnus Bishasi
16 - Dark Prince/Satan
17 - Carbuncle
18 - Puyo (all universal sound effects!)
19 - Puyo Pop (plays a song, press A to start over)
The song that plays on card 19 is the theme to SUPER PUYO PUYO TSUU, the second
game in the Super Puyo Puyo series (released for SUPER FAMICOM in Japan).
The sound effects on card 18 are universal sound effects for this and previous
Puyo games. That's why you don't hear some of them during the actual gameplay.
*******************************
*** IX. Tips and Strategies ***
*******************************
Playing against friends or the computer is the most fun part about Puyo Pop.
Not only is it a well-made puzzle game, but you face others as well... but you
will need a good strategy to beat your opponents.
The most important part about strategy is that you have to MAKE IT UP YOURSELF.
You can use this section as a guide to developing basic skills and get some
tips on winning and what moves do certain things, but in order to have an
effective strategy to ANY game, it has to be YOUR OWN.
So lets start with how to win.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ A. How to Win ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Winning in Puyo Pop is simple - the opponent has to lose. You can influence
this by dropping garbage onto their screen, and exactly how much you drop and
how often is the key to winning.
With the computer opponents, this is easy because they always play with the
same strategy every time. Playing against humans is what is difficult, and is
exactly what this section is all about.
When playing against a human (if you know they are also good at the game) the
first thing you should do is "feel them out". Pop a few puyo here and there,
just to annoy them with the little bit of garbage that is falling. You need to
watch their screen and see what they are doing. If you notice them starting to
build an obvious chain or large combo, smash them down by dropping a quick
batch of puyo on them with a 2-step chain, and if you can add a combo to the
second step, go ahead and try.
Once this happens, you can continue to drop sets of puyo on them with a 2-step
chain every time you pop. Try to insert combos into the chains, too. You should
be able to smash them out pretty easily.
If they do the same thing as you, by just letting you play a bit and popping a
bit here and there, be prepared for a good fight.
Now, it may be that this person doesn't really know what they're doing and
can't really form combos or chains with ease. You'll figure this out soon
enough, and should be able to win.
If they are good, they're probably waiting for you to make a move. Keep
watching their screen and build up a set of 3 puyo on one side and another set
on the other side. Take the game slowly right now. Don't throw all your pieces
down; wait and think before you make your moves, and keep watching their screen
to see how they react. The most important part about winning is to react to
what your opponent tries to do.
They'll probably start setting up a few clusters of two or three themselves, so
you'll both have chains and combos ready to go. Make sure that you don't let
them set up a 4-set chain while the best you can do is a 2-step. Always keep up
with them.
Make sure they don't get faster than you. Don't let them set up more because
they have more pieces out on the field. They could set off a chain before
you've had time to set up. If they start to get ahead, crush their plans with
a quick combo and 2-step chain and go on.
Once someone makes the first move, you'll both start to get garbage puyo on the
board. This is when gameplay is going to speed up. Both of you will need to
scramble to get rid of the garbage. USE IT TO YOUR ADVANTAGE. Form chains by
clearing garbage. Never just clear garbage just to clear it. Clear it because
it's in your way of a chain that you were going to set off or because popping
it will activate a chain itself.
Basic strategy to winning is to always watch what the opponent is going to do,
always have chains and combos ready to pop, and use the garbage to your
advantage. Also note if you are using any special rules like Point Puyo in
which you might want to change your strategy. In a point puyo match, you will
want to wait to get some garbage dumped on you so that you can use it to
counterattack, and you also want to make sure your opponent doesn't have a lot
of chains ready to set off that will drown you out when you dumb a bit of
garbage on them. When playing with hard puyo, it's a good idea to barrage your
opponent with many doses of small amounts of garbage, so that they can keep
working on clearing it while you keep sending it. Make sure that they don't
start to form chains with the garbage though, so you'll need to keep sending
the garbage in steady pulses.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ B. Combo Skills ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A combo is clearing more than four puyo at once. The least, obviously, for a
combo is 5, and the maximum number of puyo that you can clear with a combo is
16. An example of this would be:
P P
P P P P
Y Y 2 Y Y
P Y 1 Y P
X P P Y P P X
X X X P X X X
X X X P X X X
X X X P X X X
2 and 1 are part of the puyo block that you would place. 1 would be Y and 2
would be P. X are puyo of colors other than Y and P. This setup is only
theoretical, and would never actually happen.
Although, these following setups are very likely:
P P !
X X P P
X X X P
or
P
X P ! P P
X P P X X
or
P P ! P P P
or
P P
P P ! P P
or
! P P
P X P
P P X
or also just getting a puyo block with two of the same color and connecting
it to a cluster of three. Practice forming combos in Tokoton Endless mode.
An easy way to set up a combo is to set up a cluster of three puyo. Now when
a puyo that would pop it is about to hit it, move it aside by one space so that
it doesn't pop. Like this:
P
P
P - P X
X is the Puyo that was connected to it. - is the empty space between. Now just
fill in the space with a P and you've formed a combo. Try to never settle for
just a regular 4-puyo pop, and always go for a chain or combo with every pop.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ C. Chain Skills ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
People new to Puyo Pop have trouble forming chains. In reality, forming chains
is extremely easy and fun to watch. The easiest chain is shown to you in the
"how-to" demo that the game shows when you wait at the title screen too long.
X R
R Y
R Y
R Y !
In this example, ! is where you would place a Y. The R would then fall into the
other Rs and pop them. This is a crude setup and is actually very difficult to
obtain when playing with all 5 colors, but there's an easier way to set up a
chain.
Start out by making a group of three. You can do it along the bottom. Just
stack up everything else along the right side and make the group look like
this example:
Y
X R R R X
Of course, they don't have to be Y and R. X are the two colors that were
attached to the blocks containing the R on the left and right. The Y is what
color was connected to the block that we dropped in the middle.
Now form a group of three out of the Y.
X Y
X Y Y X
X R R R X
Now you can set up a chain. Place an R on top of one of the Y. Don't clear the
Y or R.
X R
X Y
X Y Y
X R R R X
Now your chain is set up. Clear the Y to make the R fall. You can make a
bigger chain by putting a group of three in way of the Y.
R Y
Y P P
Y Y P
R R R
So here is the simple way to make a chain:
Make a group of three. Block this group of three with another group of three.
Place a puyo of the first color on the second group so that it can fall. Clear
the second group so that the first group will clear as a chain.
This is also only a basic setup. They don't have to be groups of three.
Y R
G R
G Y
G Y
Y R
Y R
In this "tower", only the G are in a group of three. The first two colors set
up (Y and R) are in groups of two. You can also have the first puyo alone.
Y
Y
Y
P P
P Y
All you have to do is make the others fall. The best way to get the hang of
this is by playing Kesubesi (Task) Mode in Endless Puyo Pop. The best typ of
chain to use is one in which many steps (past the first) include COMBOS and
SIMULTANEOUS CLEAR as well. Just keep practicing until you can do them easily
and without thinking.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ D. Useful Tips ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Puyo can move pretty strangely. Remember that even if a puyo is down in a
narrow passage like this:
X X X X X
X X 1 X X X
X X 2 X X X
X X X X X
Where 1 and 2 represent a block that is falling, you can rapidly press the a
or b button twice and the puyo block will still rotate 180 degrees, so it
can land like this:
X X X X X
X X X X X
X X 2 X X X
X X 1 X X X
This is also useful when the top of your screen looks like this:
-----------
X X ! X X X
X X X X X X
In which - is the top of the play area and ! is a puyo that is just entering
the play field. X are already placed puyo (that don't match the colors on the
one falling.) Pressing a or b rapidly here will cause the puyo block to keep
spinning 180 degrees and it will delay its drop. If both players are in the
same situation, yours will stay in the air longer if the other player just lets
theirs fall as normal. The rapid spinning in place will make it take longer to
settle and declare your loss. The occasion in which you will be able to use
this is very rare, but it might happen to you, so you should know it. I rapidly
press a out of habit when I have a full screen like that.
So remember that you can still turn puyo blocks 180 degrees even when they are
in a hole where they can't turn at 90 degrees.
When a puyo block touches another as it is falling onto it, there is a short
period of time before the block actually settles and the next one is sent into
play. Remember that you can still slide the puyo block along top of the stack
and rotate it before it settles.
*************************************
*** X. Frequently Asked Questions ***
*************************************
I'll add more to this as I update in the future and as people ask me more
questions. Feel free to send any questions to me. My email address is
[email protected], and I get enough spam all ready, so I don't really care
about spam-proofing it, lol ^_^ But it all gets filtered, so oh well. I'll
write back to any questions you have about anything. Just go ahead and e-mail.
Of course, I won't answer questions that I've already answered, but I will tell
you where to find the answer in the FAQ, or if it's simple enough, I'll just
go ahead and tell you in the e-mail anyway. I'm not all bitter about having to
repeat myself or anything.
Q: Why didn't I get an item when I beat a stage?
A: If this happens, you've already gotten every item from this world. Try going
to a different world.
Q: What are these people saying??
A: The game's audio is all in Japanese. If I get extremely bored, I'll
translate what each card says when you press A and why they say it... but
most likely I won't do that.
Q: What other Puyo games can I get?
A: Well, there are ones for the NeoGeo Pocket and Nokia NGage, both are really
bad versions of other Puyo games (still called "Puyo Pop"). Please don't buy
the NGage version. Besides that this isn't a very good system to begin with,
and that it's expensive, the game is really buggy and the colors are very
distorted. It's not even worth buying it to a collector. Also, the games
"Kirby's Avalanche" for the SNES and "Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine" for
the Sega Genesis are both strange versions of Super Puyo Puyo with skins
of the popular characters from both HAL and Sega. As far as Japanese games,
if you include Madou Monogatari and Nazo Puyo (a game in which you solve
puzzles of already set up chains and such) and other games in the series,
there are over 100 puyo games. Granted, a lot of them are the same games on
different systems. As a collector, I would reccomend getting a Japanese
Playstation and the Puyo Puyo BOX game. It is a collection of some of the
older Puyo games. Also try to find a copy of Puyo Puyo~n and Puyo Puyo Sun,
the third and fourth games in the main Puyo series. The fifth game, Puyo
Puyo Fever, is coming to the XBOX and GameCube this year as Puyo Pop Fever.
In fact, the XBox version is being released today (June 7). The GCN version
will be released later in the summer, closer to the fall.
Q: What is your high score?/What is the maximum score?
A: Actually, no one asks me this, but I want to brag. The maximum speed to
Tokoton Endless mode is 99, and the maximum score is 99999999 (eight digits)
and I know because I've gotten this score. It took me three days of playing
off and on (I had to plug in my GBASP to keep in on) but I did it.
Q: How do I get Card number...?
A: The list of cards is earlier in the FAQ. Just go to the Item Collection
section.
Q: How do I unlock the ??? ruleset in multiplayer?
A: There are rings to unlock the Hard and Point rulesets. There is also a final
ruleset that I don't know how to unlock.
Q: How do I erase my game data?
A: I have not found a way to officially erase game data, but I did recieve an
from someone saying that if you turn off the game while the screen says
"Do not turn off the power" (while saving) then the game data could erase.
Q: What is the PUYO MASTER RING?
A: Because I have gotten this question so many times, I've created a section
for it (the next section! Just scroll down a bit!)
****************************
*** XI. Puyo Master Ring ***
****************************
The mystery of the Puyo Master Ring is pretty much solved, I think. Anwonu has
tried and found that you can get Puyo Master Ring by completing Trial Labyrinth
on any difficulty without using continues. So just finish it without using any
continues and you should get it!
************************
*** XII. High Scores ***
************************
If anyone who reads this would like to share their high scores, please do! Of
course, you should be honest about your scores as a true gamer, and respect
the Puyo everywhere ^_^ Currently, I only have my scores and my friends', but
I will put anyone who sends their scores in here. Plus, you can send me an
update and I'll list your newest high score and rank it with the others. My
scores are listed as "Sakaki" and you can email your scores to
[email protected]
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ A. Hajimari Forest Scores ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Name Score Max Chain
Anwonu 70709 9
Sakaki 34107 6
Kasumi 19920 2
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ B. Gold Town Scores ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Name Score Max Chain
Anwonu 74870 7
Sakaki 51167 6
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ C. Gachinko Dungeon Scores ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Name Score Max Chain
Anwonu 86566 ?
Sakaki 43661 5
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ D. Magical Tower Scores ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Name Score Max Chain
Sakaki 47291 5
Anwonu 41466 5
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ E. Dark P Castle Scores ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Name Score Max Chain
Anwonu 48258 5
Sakaki 48180 6
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ F. Trial Labyrinth Scores ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Name Score Max Chain
Anwonu 155260 5
Sakaki 82256 5
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ G. Tokoton Endless Scores ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Name Score Max Chain
Sakaki 99999999 7
Anwonu 23374661 5
JoeD 3931749 4
Kasumi 763339 2
Wataru 209046 3
Keebler 183320 3
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~ H. Kesubesi Endless Scores ~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Name Score Tasks
Anwonu 1034321 31
Sakaki 297909 24
Kasumi 24499 6
*********************
*** XIII. Updates ***
*********************
Here's what each of the updates have done:
v2.0 - (5/13/07) Added more info about PUYO MASTER RING, more thanks to Anwonu
Updated some high scores
v1.5 - (1/08/06) Added the PUYO MASTER RING description thanks to Anwonu
Added Anwonu's high scores
Reformatted the section headers to make them more visible.
v1.2 - (2/08/05) Added the meaning of SkellyT's kanji thanks to
Added information about Puyo Master Ring "rumors."
Added a question about erasing game data to the FAQ section
v1.1 - (7/21/04) First update. Added the options for multiplayer rules setup.
v1.0 - The first version.
***********************************
*** XIV. Legal Disclaimer, etc. ***
***********************************
These characters, titles, etc. are not mine, obviously, as I never claimed they
were. This guide, however, is mine and cannot be used without my permission,
punishable by law. Do not use any part of this faq for your own use without
BOTH permission AND credit. I spent a lot of time (and going through three
copies of the game since you can't erase game data) to figure some of this out.
So in other words, you can have a personal copy, but it cannot be used for ANY
other reason except for personal use. If you would like to distibute, post, or
do ANYTHING else publicly with this document, you MUST HAVE my permission.
Currently, the only permission to use this guide is given to gamefaqs.com and
ign.com (gamespot is also part of gamefaqs as far as permission).
/ \
<CONTACT INFORMATION>
\ /
You can contact me through my email at
[email protected]. Please put
SOMETHING in the subject. Something with no subject, I will probably skip over
and it may take me a while to get around to reading it. Don't worry, I won't
delete your emails just because it doesn't have some exact title that I want it
to have.
<> <> <*> <> <>
<><>SPECIAL THANKS!<><>
<> <> <-> <> <>
Thanks for reading! I'd also like to thank my friends JoeD, Kasumi, and my bro
Wataru for playing lots of videogames with me, including Puyo Pop, so that I
could write this FAQ. ^_^ Also thanks to Compile and Sonic Team, of course. An
additional thank you goes out to Anwonu for all the help with the Puyo Master
Ring including screenshots of the Edit Mode's menus!
