,JJJJYYYYAAAy AAJJY A ,JYYA AJJ JAY JAY A S T L E V A N I A JJAY AAJYa Dawn of Sorrow YYJJA ,y YYYYYYYAAJJJY :+: Julius Mode :+: Contents 1. Intro #1 2. General Info #2 3. Controls #3 4. Characters #4 Character Summary #sum 5. Getting Around #5 6. Boss Guide #6 7. Tips and Tricks #7 8. FAQs #8 9. Sources #9 10. Contact & Copyright #10 ~ Intro [#1] Julius Mode lets you play the game as Julius Belmont (and friends <3). I really like this mode, but when I first tried it, I was a bit confused, because I didn't know how it works. I got stuck in the middle of the game, got frustrated and quit. Recently, I was bored and tried it again, this time finally managing to beat it. So since there wasn't a guide for Julius Mode, I decided to make one! ~ General Info [#2] How to unlock: Finish the game with the Good or the Bad Ending. How to start a game: First you need a free save slot. Unfortunately, J-Mode shares the 3 save slots with the main game (called Soma Mode or S-Mode from here on), so make sure you leave one of them empty if you want to play this mode. Then choose Julius Mode from the start menu and create your Julius Mode game! Differences between Julius Mode and Soma Mode: - Perhaps the biggest difference is that you can't pick up souls, items or money. - Lamps and statues drop hearts. - There's no menu, hitting Start just pauses the game. - You don't need seals to fight bosses. - In fact you can keep the stylus tucked away, as it does nothing in this mode. - There's very little story or dialogue and most bosses are optional. - There are no status effects. - There are 3 playable characters that share the same HP, MP and Exp. - X switches between the characters in this order: Julius -> Yoko -> Alucard. ~ Controls [#3] The controls are basically the same as in S-Mode, but Soma's movement options are split up between the characters, giving each of them a different feel and utility. Julius Yoko Alucard Y Attack x x x Up+Y Use Subweapon x x x A Attack/Warp Attack* x x x(*) B Jump x x x Bx2 Double Jump x x x L+Up High Jump x - x L Backdash x x x Down+B Slide x x - Bx2->B+Down Drop Kick x - x X Change Character x x x R Change Subweapon x x x Start Pause x x x Up Sit in Chairs - - x Notes: Even though I've listed Julius as being able to do the high jump, it is in fact only a miniature version of the "real" high jump. It's only about half of a regular jump, but you can chain it at the end of a double jump to get that little bit higher, for example to pull off that jump over the drawbridge you saw Julius do at the beginning of Soma Mode. I know, it's disappointing, but cut the old man some slack. :P ~ Characters [#4] You start out with just Julius. Yoko is an optional pick-up, but recommended, unless you want the playthrough to be hard. Her spells work wonders on most bosses and her basic attacks are the only other way to regenerate health apart from save points. Alucard is required and joins automatically. No worries about missing him. If you just want a summary about characters' strengths and weaknesses, you can go down to #sum. + Julius Belmont + Weapon: Vampire Killer (Whip) Julius' basic attacks have good range and damage. If you keep Y pressed, the whip will dangle to the ground, repeatedly hitting whatever it touches for very small damage. You can make the whip flail around by hitting the directional buttons. Though I haven't found a practical use for this, at least it looks funny. Because of the whip drop mechanic, pressing A to attack can be more practical, as keeping your finger on Y a little too long can lose you valuable time in which you could be dodging or doing the next attack. The Vampire Killer is the only weapon that can destroy ice blocks in J-Mode. Julius Subweapons: Axe (25 MP) Very useful for hitting enemies above you as Julius. It does less damage than the whip, but can hit tall enemies several times. You can throw two axes in quick succession, but after that there's a short delay. Holy Water (20 MP) Very good against enemies that stand on the ground and don't move too much. You throw a flask of holy water and when it hits the ground, it starts rolling for about 1/3 of the screen. It does less damage than the axe, but can hit enemies several times. While each damage tick is fairly small, it can add up to surprisingly high damage in the right situation. While you can't recast it until it has vanished, you can move immediately after throwing it, so it's good for kiting ground-dwelling enemies. Boomerang (25 MP) Sends out a shiny boomerang that travels in a straight line from where you throw it. Once it gets close to the edge of the screen, it turns around and flies back to you if you are still on the same height. If you aren't, it will keep moving and eventually fly off the opposite side of the screen. The damage is between axe and holy water. Just like the axe, you can throw two boomerangs back-to-back, followed by a delay. The boomerang's range and handling make it very fun to use, but the damage is fairly low, so you want to watch your MP and resist the temptation to spam it. Holy Cross (80 MP) You channel for a few seconds to conjure a big cross which burns enemies that touch it. It does more damage per tick than Julius' basic attack, so if you can hit it, it does insane damage. Unfortunately, the MP it costs are equally insane and it comes with another drawback. It makes you stand in the same spot for a LONG time, which enemies will use to walk up and attack you. While you are invincible during the actual attack, it can leave you in a bad spot, if e.g. the enemy was charging up an attack of their own and you have no time to dodge after coming out of invincibility. What's worse, you can be knocked out of the channeling animation, which stops the cast but still drains your MP. Ouch! Because the range is fairly short, you ideally WANT to stand right next to the enemy you want to hit when you start channeling, unless you want to risk doing no damage... It just doesn't feel very well-thought-out. Altogether, this is a high cost, high risk, medium reward ability, which is the reason I almost never used it (and when I did, I regretted it afterwards XD). + Yoko Belnades + Weapon: Club Yoko's attacks do less damage than Julius' and have a smaller range, but she can easily hit enemies above her, which is extremely useful on some bosses. The real kicker about her basic attack is that it restores HP/100+1 HP for each hit you land onto an enemy. So when you run low on health and there's no save point in sight, just walk up to some easy to hit enemy and fill your HP back up! HP/100+1 really isn't much (7 HP on lvl 40), but if you try to play the game without Yoko, you will quickly wish you had taken her with you. Yoko's Subweapons: Flame (20 MP) A small blast of flame. It's melee range, but has a small AoE, so it can hit more than one enemy. Sometimes it also hits the same enemy twice! The damage is pretty good and it's cheap. The only downside is the short range. Ice (30 MP) Sends out 5 ice spikes in a semi-circle above you. The damage it does is amazing, the range is pretty much the whole screen and while you can't move for ~2 seconds while the icicles appear, you can start it in mid-air, so if you time it well, you can hit most bosses without getting hit during the attack. Even if you do, your ice spikes will not get cancelled!! Even though most bosses will only get hit by one icicle, it's still very much worth using in boss fights, due to the high damage and low MP cost. As if all of this wasn't enough, it does even more damage against fire elemental enemies... almost makes certain boss fights TOO easy. Well, no complaints here! Lightning (80 MP) Sends out 3 lightning balls which will fly all across the screen on the lookout for enemies. If enemies are found, the lightning balls will fly into them and deal damage. Each hit doesn't do that much damage by itself, but as they can attack several times before vanishing, you are getting your MPs' worth of damage out of them, if you use it well. The damage this attack does depends heavily on your positioning, the enemy's size and their position and movement. You can pretty much waste your Lightning by facing the wrong direction or using it on a single small or quick enemy. It works best when attacking hard to reach enemies (e.g. enemies below you or in the corner of the screen), groups of enemies or a single big enemy (like some bosses). It has a very short cast time (maybe a second) during which you can't dodge, but is absolutely worth using, in spite of the high MP cost. + Alucard + Weapon: Sword Alucard's attacks are a bit weird, in that they are calculated differently from Yoko's and Julius' damage. On some enemies, his attacks are a lot weaker, on others, they are stronger. Like with other weapons from the Sword category, some enemies can get very frustrating to fight, because you can only attack in a straight line and the hitbox is fairly small, too. Special Attack (65 MP) When you press A, you can do a cool teleport attack, which hits twice with each hit doing more damage than a regular attack. You are invincible during the whole attack, which can be exploited in at least one boss fight. Unfortunately, it costs a lot of MP and you can't do it in mid-air, which makes it a lot less useful, as it's just one more attack that can only hit in a straight line from where you are standing. Alucard's Subweapons: Bat Transformation (5/time MP) Not really a subweapon, but since the R button is already occupied, the bat transformation is actived by pressing Up+Y, but is otherwise the same as in S-Mode. It's really a little annoying to use with this button combo. Also, watch out if you want to use it for dodging, since your hitbox only becomes bat size after the transformation is completed. Fireballs (30 MP) You fire 3 fireballs from your cape which travel across the screen in a straight line. The damage isn't bad, but if you stand on the ground, the third fireball will be below the ground, not hitting the enemy. It also has a short (1-2 second?) cast time and requires you to stand on the ground, so it can open you up to attacks. I never used this one much, mostly because it feels so clunky. When do you have an enemy on the same height as you, have nothing to dodge, but still find it worth spending 30 MP to attack an enemy halfway across the screen from you? Yeah, not very often. - Character Differences Defense: The characters take different amounts of damage when hit, with Yoko taking the most damage and Alucard taking the least. Backdashes: The length of the backdash is different for each character. Julius has the shortest backdash, Alucard's is a bit longer and Yoko's is the longest, being twice the length of Alucard's backdash! It also looks really cool. MP Regeneration: It's 2 MP/second for Julius and Alucard and 4 MP/second for Yoko. You can sit down on chairs as Alucard, which also gives you 4 MP/second until you get back up. That's cool, but why would you bother if you can just switch to Yoko? ~ Character Summary [#sum] Julius Julius is the most versatile character with good movement options, good damage and good subweapons. Fitting for the main character, he is a solid choice in almost every situation, as he doesn't have any real weaknesses. Yoko Yoko is the mage of this mode. She is a very useful character when it comes to getting rid of enemies without taking a lot of damage and if you do take damage, you can heal it back up by attacking with her club. She's the easiest character to use for most of J-Mode, the only drawbacks she has are that she has no high jump and drop kick and that she takes more damage than Julius and Alucard IF she gets hit. Alucard Poor Alucard, seems like the game designers didn't like him. He is necessary to get all around the castle, because there are many places where only his bat form can fit or you need to be able to fly/high jump. Unfortunately, Alucard isn't very versatile in combat compared to the other two. He's the only character that has no way of attacking enemies above or below him and also the only one who can't slide. You'd think that not being able to slide wouldn't be such a big deal, right? But you will really only notice how useful this move is when you can't use it. Especially when you want to duck out of attacks in a boss fight, the lack of the slide move becomes really annoying. Yes, his high jump and warp attack are fun to use, but I feel like he suffers a little too much from his combat deficit to be a really fun to play character overall. ~ Getting Around [#5] Did you find the route you were forced to take through the castle in the original game tedious? If so, you will love the freedom to go anywhere you want almost from the get-go. Yes, you can go down to the village and get Yoko first (she's waiting for you in her shop), but you can also take the way Julius took in the main game and jump over the bridge right into the castle! Sucks being Soma, doesn't it? If you decide to explore the castle first, note that you can warp to the Lost Village from any warp point, even if you haven't been there yet. When you fight enemies, you will notice that you deal pretty good damage already, even on very low levels. If you want to beat all bosses, I recommend doing them from weakest to strongest, so they aren't a big pushover. You can of course do them in any order you want or skip them altogether. A good example order: Flying Armor -> Dario -> Dmitrii -> Malphas -> Balore -> Rahab -> Bat Company -> Puppet Master -> Gergoth -> Zephyr -> Aguni -> Paranoia -> Death -> Abbadon -> Final Boss If you want to go straight for Alucard, go to the upper part of the Garden of Madness and do the fight against Dario. When you are done, turn left at the next intersection and keep walking until you bump right into him. ^^ Congratulations, you can now access every room in the castle! Grinding: The regular enemies can be surprisingly challenging if you just fight the bosses and don't grind. I recommend at least killing a few enemies as you traverse the castle and a little grinding before fighting Aguni (unless you use Yoko) and Death. Every extra level will help you in those fights. ~ Boss Guide [#6] Info: I'm not giving detailed info on the bosses, like their HP or explaining every attack that they have. The guide is meant to be a help if you get stuck fighting a certain boss, nothing else. If you want more details, check out the other guides. If you want to know how to dodge certain boss attacks (that I didn't list or you didn't quite get what I meant), go watch some videos on youtube. I really mean it, that's what I did as well. xD Bosses you have to fight: While J-Mode is mostly non-linear, there are some bosses you have to fight to advance. The first one is Dario, because you need to go through his room to get Alucard. The second is Gergoth, even though there's a trick to skip him. The third one is Zephyr. You need to pass him to get to the Pinnacle. The fourth is Aguni, because defeating him opens the door to the Abyss. After that, it's pretty straight-forward: You have to go through Death's and Abbadon's rooms, so you have to fight them. So altogether, roughly half (7/15) of the boss fights are mandatory, with one that can be skipped using a little trick. Skipping Gergoth: There is a passage leading from the Cursed Clock Tower to the Garden of Madness. Normally, it can only be opened from the Clock Tower side, but using Alucard's special attack (A), you can activate the switch from beyond the wall, granting you access to the Cursed Clock Tower through the backdoor. Boss Strategies: - Flying Armor Difficulty: easy The Flying Armor can be beaten at lvl 1 without much trouble. Make sure to keep it on your screen, so you can see which attack it uses. If its swords cross and fly off the screen, get ready to jump. Apart from that, there really isn't much to this fight. - Dmitrii Difficulty: your own choice Just like in S-Mode, he will copy and use whatever you throw at him. The easiest way to beat him is by giving him a short ranged attack and beating him up with the whip. By default, he uses the Malachi soul, which is kinda annoying, so you probably want to change it to something else. > Best: Holy Cross Hitting him with it isn't that easy, but when you do, he starts spamming it and since unlike Julius, he isn't invincible while he uses it, you can just keep beating the crap outta him until he is dead. Easy!! > Good: Axe, Holy Water, Flame These are all easy to dodge, so he shouldn't give you any trouble. > Not that good: Boomerang, Ice, Fireballs Dodging skills required. > BAD: Lightning Just don't do it. - Malphas Difficulty: medium Out of his 3 attacks, the one that killed me the most is the one where he fires creepy black stuff in a 45 degree angle towards the ground. Better don't stand there. Being out of range of this attack usually means standing below him, so the best subweapons to use are the Axe, Holy Water (when he's on the ground), Ice and believe it or not, the Holy Cross!! Yes, this is the only boss where I actually found that attack useful. When he's flying above you, you have plenty of time for channeling and he won't run away from you while you are doing so! - Dario Difficulty: easy For a quick and easy fight, use Yoko's Ice, which can hit him from far away for a LOT of damage. Fighting up close is pretty annoying, since he will use his fire pillars to zone you away. Either way, Dario is a pushover unless you get cornered by his fire pillars and toasted. XD - Balore Difficulty: medium-hard Make sure to avoid his attacks, as they deal tons of damage. How do you avoid them with so little space? You have to anticipate where he will punch and jump out of the way. It probably won't work the first time around, don't be bothered by that! Good subweapons to use are Ice, Lightning, Axe and Boomerang. - Rahab Difficulty: easy This fight is easier than in S-Mode, as you can already walk underwater. Just stay out of Rahab's way and it can't do anything to you. Don't crouch at the bottom of the pool, hoping that Rahab will swim past you, because he will notice you and swim right into you. Julius' Axe and Yoko's Lightning are the most useful attacks, since they can hit from afar and you don't need to aim well either. - Bat Company Difficulty: medium In this fight, you can have fun with all of your subweapons, as there is none that isn't effective against the bats. If they shoot bubbles, you can just spam attack (Yoko) or let your whip whirl (Julius) to destroy them. Apart from that, just try to avoid touching the bat/hand. - Puppet Master Difficulty: easy-medium This boss boils down to one question: Can you destroy the puppets quickly enough or not? That's why this fight is easiest with Yoko, because she can attack above her with her regular attack and has high burst damage with Ice and Lightning. As Julius, you can easily kill puppets above you by using your Axe. It's much more reliable than his slighty slow basic attacks. - Gergoth Difficulty: hard My least favourite boss in the game. In S-Mode, I defeated it by spamming Slime and potions... no such luck this time around. The first time I played Julius Mode, this guy kept me from completing the game! I grinded all the way up to lvl 36 and still got my ass handed to me until I gave up. If the same thing happens to you, don't torment yourself. Just skip him with the trick mentioned above and enjoy the rest of the game. ^^ If you want to beat it properly, as so often, Yoko is the easiest character to use. Lightning does fantastic damage against Gergoth, turning its strength of covering the whole screen into a weakness. And if you cower close enough during the laser attack, you can get a lot of health back. What's also nice is the fact that you can hit Gergoth while you are falling in the middle of the fight (best done with Julius), but you have to pull back before hitting the ground, or you will get crushed. Don't be greedy!! (So I say, though it happens to me every time!) Apart from that, good luck with the fight!!! xD - Zephyr Difficulty: easy-medium Zephyr's attacks are fairly easy to dodge. All you need is some patience: Only attack when it's safe to do so and you will be fine. Yoko's Ice is very useful in this fight, as it allows you to attack from a distance. Holy Water is also good. You can throw it, then run away while laughing evilly! Just kidding. :P - Aguni Difficulty: medium-hard This boss varies vastly in difficulty depending on which character you use. The easy way -> Yoko Use Ice. Dodge. Use Ice again. Honestly, it deals 200 damage per hit on lvl 25 and with Aguni being so big, you can get two or even three hits on him! The hard way -> Julius and Alucard As Julius, the Axe works well, but I found myself getting hit while using it quite often, so my recommended subweapon is the boomerang. As Alucard, you don't have any subweapons that you can use here, but at least your basic attacks are quick, so you can hit him more often. After a few tries, I managed to dodge Aguni's attacks fairly well, but the problem is not dodging 5 or 10 attacks... it's dodging 30-50 attacks. Aguni has lots of HP and the fact that Julius and Alucard do a lot less damage than Yoko with her Ice spam means that the fight drags on, but you have to stay concentrated, lest you get crushed by the demon's claws (the mean thing is that if you get hit once, you get knocked back and often get hit by another attack afterwards - the pain!). - Paranoia Difficulty: medium-hard This one has my vote for the most annoying boss in the game! What makes him especially annoying is the fact that there is no save room next to the boss room, so each time you lose, you have to go on a trip again. I beat him after Aguni, so I used the first save point of the Pinnacle as my starting point. This is the first boss for which I highly recommend using Alucard. Paranoia's mirror attacks are dodgeable without using the bat form, but it's really difficult. I tried it many many times, but never succeeded. Of course, I'm not telling you not to try, but I feel like it's more about talent than practice, so if you have trouble reading the mirrors, you may as well just use Alucard and be done with it. So how do you dodge the attacks as Alucard? When Paranoia jumps into the mirror, go into bat form and fly to the top of the room. That alone should be enough to dodge the first laser. For the second one, just move a little to the side and you should be fine. If you really want to make sure, fly in between two mirrors on the same wall, then fly back up again. The only downside of using Alucard is the fact that Paranoia's second form sometimes flies close to the ground, which can cause you to get hit because you can't slide. I haven't found that to be too much of a problem, but if you want you can switch to one of the other characters to attack, then quickly switch back to Alucard the moment Paranoia retreats. Just remember that all characters share the same MP pool, so if you spend them all, you will be screwed. - Death Difficulty: hard This is the hardest boss in the game imho. There's no tricks to win easily here. The only viable strategy is learning how to dodge his attacks well enough to survive through his two forms. This is why I'm going into more detail on what his attacks are and how to dodge them. I like using Yoko for the first form, because even if you get hit once or twice, you can still heal most of the damage with regular attacks, so you don't have to start his second form on low HP. Since this is a long fight, I found Ice more helpful than Lightning, because it costs less MP, so you can use it more often and deal more damage. First Form Swipe Attack: The instant Death raises his scythe, you can slide under him without taking damage. Of course, you can also run away, unless you're stuck in a corner. As Alucard, you can do a high jump and stick to the ceiling to dodge it. The other two attacks are pretty self-explanatory. Second Form Scythe Attack: This attack looks very hard to dodge at first. Even if you run away, Death will come after you and try to hit you again until he succeeds. However, in reality, all you have to do is stay where you are and do a double jump! So simple!! You can also turn around quickly and backdash to get to safety (not sure if it works with every character, but it does work with Yoko XD). It's kinda tricky and more of a "for fun" method than a serious strategy, though. Second Form Flying Scythe: I haven't found any sure-fire way to dodge this. It's helpful to know where the attack comes from though; it starts at the top of the screen and then moves towards you in a circle. The small sickles look harmless in comparison, but they too deal a lot of damage and knock you back, so watch out! Just do your best to dodge everything. Even if you get hit once or twice, it should be okay. Second Form Skull Attack: This attack killed me sooo many times. If you don't manage to dodge it, it's usually an instant death. If you are using Alucard, you can just stick to the top of the screen (or even fly there in bat form) until the attack is over. However, it's also possible to dodge this by running away from each skull when it arrives, going left-right-left-right... but you have to know the right timing and the attack's hitbox, so you may die a few times until you got it down. Once you do, however, this attack becomes super easy to dodge. Really a weird attack, isn't it? - Abbadon Difficulty: medium-hard Like Paranoia, you can abuse one of Alucard's mechanics to make this fight a LOT easier. This mechanic is his A special attack. It makes you invincible just long enough to completely avoid two of Abbadon's four attacks and if you're well-positioned, you can kick its ass at the same time! >:D In theory, you could also use Julius' invincibility, but since the channeling takes so long, you have to start doing so before you even know which attack is coming and needless to say, your MP will be empty before Abbadon is down. This boss is hard to defeat with Yoko, so I didn't bother. That's why the following strategy only has Julius and Alucard in it. Strategy: To dodge his attacks, you have to know where they're coming from. And you'll have to dodge, since if you don't, you will probably die within 2 or 3 attacks. For some reason, I always got it wrong at first and got pwned. xD The locusts will always come from behind Abbadon. So always take note of the direction this guy is facing and prepare to dodge accordingly. You only have a very short time frame between him waving his stick and the locusts appearing, so don't waste the little time that you have. U Attack Jump over it, using double and/or high jump. You can also crouch in the corner, but if you do, you will have to attack in the direction of the locusts, because if you don't, you'll get hit occasionally... not the best strategy, imo. = Attack J: Attack in the direction the locusts are coming from and keep Y pressed. A: Press A. I've seen people on youtube who used different ways of dodging this, but they didn't work for me for some reason (not skilled enough?). In particular, I've seen them slide below the locusts, but when I tried, they still hit me for some reason. Oh well. L Attack The obvious method: Stand in the corner of the side where the attack starts to avoid it. A: Press A shortly before the locusts reach you to fully dodge the attack without moving an inch. XD *lazy mode* J: This method doesn't have 100% success rate, but it's fun! If you throw your axe into the approaching locusts, you can make a hole into the L shape and then quickly run or jump into that hole. It's safer to just run to the side, but this method is more badass!! C Attack This attack is just like Death's skulls. When you first see it, you think: "This is ridiculous! How am I supposed to dodge this?!" and you die to it over and over, but once you figure it out, you will be able to dodge it without any trouble. Make sure you know where it is coming from, then when the locusts enter the screen, jump over them with a double jump. You need to time it so that you get back to the ground after the last locusts have passed, but you are also low enough to not get hit by the upper part of the C. Don't be afraid to jump towards this attack. Even you don't dodge it completely, just getting hit once is still better than losing 1/2 of your HP through several consecutive hits. Learning to dodge this attack is the key to victory in this battle, so keep trying! - Soma Difficulty: medium Behold! It's the mighty Lord of Darkness, aka former main character Soma! I hope you're not as disappointed of this boss and the game's ending as I was, because he is a lot easier than he should be as the final boss. The biggest challenge is figuring out how to beat his second form, so you should try by yourself before consulting a guide, because once you know what to do, there is almost no way you will lose. Phase 1 He starts out by summoning an invincible demon that tries to tackle you about every 8 seconds. If you're playing with sound, its cry will tell you when it's about to attack, making it easier to dodge in time. Other than that, the only attack Soma uses is the Great Axe Armor soul. When he appears, you can usually get an attack in before backdashing (especially easy as Yoko). When he is done, you can beat him up some more, before he teleports somewhere else. If you're lazy, you can also attack him from a safe distance using your subweapons. Really, this first part is so easy, I don't feel a strategy is even necessary. Don't let the demon bite you, then you will be fine! ^^ Phase 2 Soma transforms into something vaguely resembling a Behemoth and unleashes a bunch of souls unto you. Talk about skill spam! Big fat Soma looks pretty intimidating and indeed, I tried about 5 times and always got killed very quickly when he threw Larvae and Aguni at me at once. In reality however, dodging this attack is super easy. Just run backwards through the rain of larvae and jump over the flames. If you're getting close to one corner of the room, it's best to go under him while he is jumping. Sliding works, but I find backdashing even easier. Prepare for when he's about to jump and stand next to him facing away from him. When he jumps, quickly do one (Yoko) or two backdashes and you will land behind him, unharmed. You won't be hit by the Harpy either, unless you backdash or slide too far. You can also fly over him as Alucard... nope, he won't bother attacking you, nor will the Harpy. Maybe they just ran out of time when making the game, which would also explain why there is so little dialogue in Julius Mode. xD Soma uses another attack, which is... the Abbadon soul! Unfortunately, he isn't as good at controlling them as Abbadon himself, so all you need to do is stay far away from him as the locusts attack. Even if you get stuck in a corner and Soma prepares to call locusts, you can still switch to Alucard and fly off. Pitiful, isn't it? My personal interpretation of this fight and the dialogueless ending is that deep down, Soma doesn't want to kill his old friends, thus choosing to let them beat him and his friends, who realized that, are shocked speechless after killing him. But then it would be kind of a downer ending. Either way, J-Mode was more fun for me than the main game. Hope you enjoyed it too. ~ Tips and Tricks [#7] Invincibility There are three ways to become invincible: Finishing the channeling for the Holy Cross, using Alucard's Special Attack and switching characters. Even though the moment of invincibility when changing chars is really short, it can be used to dodge some attacks, like a Valkyrie flying through you. Remote Switch Activation The Skipping Gergoth trick can be used on many switches throughout the castle. It could be considered cheating, but then again, I'm sure the game designers were aware of this "exploit", so if they had really wanted to fix it, they would probably have done that before shipping the game. Imp Trick In the Cursed Clock Tower, there is a room with Imps and Medusa Heads. If you let an Imp catch you as Yoko, you will start healing rapidly while hitting the air. Looks like a debugging oversight, but it's quite useful to heal up without the risk of losing even more health while you're trying to whack Medusa Heads. If you're lazy and have time and electricity to spare, you can even leave the DS on and afk farm Medusa Heads to gain exp/levels. ~ FAQs [#8] These FAQs are based on questions I've seen on the web. "How do I get into the Abyss?" Defeat Aguni and the door will open automatically. "How is it possible to get back out of that iceblock room in the Wizardry Lab after visiting the side room at the bottom of the pit?" Patience. And Alucard. It's probably possible without him, but being able to fly/high jump is really helpful and makes it a little less of a pain. "Is 100% completion possible?" Yup, the places where you needed certain souls to pass in S-Mode have been opened, so you can go anywhere Soma could go too. ~ Sources [#9] Subweapons' MP costs found on http://www.angelfire.com/stars5/tkcpics2/dawnofsorrow/ Skipping Gergoth trick found in FairEmma's Secrets FAQ (http://www.gamefaqs.com/ds/922145-castlevania-dawn-of-sorrow/faqs/39560) Boss dodging info found on youtube (especially Shadowserg's No Damage No Subweapons runs) ~ Contact & Copyright [#10] If you've got anything to say, just send me a PM. Copyright Notice: You can do whatever you want with this guide.