_ _ _____ _____ _____ _ _ _____ _ _ ______ | \ / || ___|| ___|| _ || \ / || _ || | | | / \ | \/ || |__ | | __ | |_| || \/ || |_| || \ | | | __ \ | |\/| || __| | ||_ || _ || |\/| || _ || |\\| | \_/ \ | | | | || |___ | |__||| | | || | | || | | || | \ | | | |_| |_||_____||_____||_| |_||_| |_||_| |_||_| |_| ____| | S T A R F O R C E |____ | __ ___ __ ___ ___ __ | | | \ | | \ | | | | / | | \ _ | | | | | | | | | | | / | | | / \__/ | |__/ |___ | | | | | |/ |___ |__/ | / |\ | | | | | | |\ | |\ \______/ | \ | | | | | | | \ | | \ | \ |___ |__/ |__| |___| | \ |___ | \ Mega Man Star Force 3: Red Joker Walkthrough Copyright 2009 Jim Avery Due to the abuse of my e-mails to send me mind-blowing amounts of spam (as well as questions that are answered in my walkthrough), I have been forced to stop all my e-mails. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Table Of Contents 1 - Version History 2 - Mission Statement 3 - Walkthrough 3.1 - We Have Liftoff (Spade Magnes) 3.2 - The Belle Of The Ball (Diamond Ice) 3.3 - Only The Strong Survive (Club Strong) 3.4 - WAZA And Wave Changes (Queen Virgo) 3.5 - The Campaign Trail (Jack Corvus) 3.6 - Playing Against The Dealer (Dread Joker) 3.7 - Homecoming (Crimson Dragon) 4 - Legal Info ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 1 - Version History Version 0.1 (7/10/09 3:02 AM CDT) - Set up the template of the walkthrough and completed it through the battle with Spade Magnes. Just wanted to get it up, since there weren't any yet. I'll update this frequently, I hope. Version 0.2 (7/11/09 2:15 AM CDT) - Completed through the battle with Diamond Ice. Version 0.4 (7/16/09 4:25 PM CDT) - Club Strong has been defeated. Version 0.5 (7/18/09 3:46 AM CDT) - Completed through the battle with Queen Virgo. Version 0.7 (7/20/09 1:10 AM CDT) - Jack Corvus's battle is complete. Version 0.8 (8/5/09 12:27 AM CDT) - Only one section left, with Dread Joker defeated. Version 1.0 (8/7/09 4:38 PM CDT) - The main storyline is completed. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 2 - Mission Statement This walkthrough is designed with the knowledge that most who use FAQs only go to them when they are completely stuck, and head right to the portion of the game they need assistance with. The FAQ is designed to be easily searched, with indicators as to what portion of the game a certain paragraph pertains to. It also contains minimal spoilers, with absolutely nothing game-ruining, and minimal filler as well. The instructions are hopefully as clear as I can make them, with tips thrown in here and there for people who wish to continue on without additional help from the walkthrough. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 - Walkthrough ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.1 - We Have Liftoff (Spade Magnes) - Introduction - GAMEPLAY NOTE: During the introductory cutscenes, make sure to tap any words that appear with yellow bars on the bottom if you're not entirely sure what's going on; these keywords will act as a refresher, and appear in the Keyword dictionary at the bottom of the touch screen. As a general rule, in fact, most optional information will appear as an icon of some sort on the touch screen, including Brother and Wizard information. GAMEPLAY NOTE: As a reference for later in the game, hold onto at least one of your Cannon cards. You'll need it. - After Class - Once the intro cutscene is over, head to the front of the classroom and talk to Mr. Shepar if you like; he'll give you more information about general gameplay. Once you're done there, leave the classroom, then head left to the elevator and take it up to the roof. After another cutscene, approach the elevator to trigger yet another, this time involving sprinklers. - Shut Off The Sprinkler - GAMEPLAY NOTE: Check every Wave Station you come across, to see what White Cards they can add to your Battle Card folder. Head to the Wave Station to the left of the elevator and press R while standing on the circle to head up to the Wave Road (alternatively, press R to turn into Mega Man, and then just walk onto the circle). Once on the Wave Road, head around to the sprinkler's Access area and enter the Cyber Core. Head up to the viruses to begin the battle tutorial. Pulse out once you're done and talk to the head of the science club. GAMEPLAY NOTE: If you see any viruses in the real world with your Visualizer on, you can go up to them as Mega Man and press A to battle them. - Luna's Purpose - Head back down to the first floor and run down the hall to see a cutscene involving Wizards (the cutscenes die down a bit after this). Continue down the hall to the snack shop and talk to Luna to enter a team and get your first purpose. When you regain control, talk to Bud and Zack to reform Brother Bands with them. - Bloom The Tree - Once you're back in control, head to the roof of the building and talk to one of the kids standing near the tree to hear their troubles. Head down to the second floor after that and talk to the adult at the end of the hall; he'll ask for your help. Head back down to Prez on the first floor and use the Wave Station to get to the Wave Road; head up the first slope you see to warp to the Science Club Room, and from there you can quickly find the display board's Cyber Core access. Talk to the program inside to wake him up. Pulse out, then head back and talk to the teacher to get the Blossom Code; go back to the roof and talk to the kids again, then touch the Blossom icon when it pops up to complete this mission. - The Lost Message - As per Bud's e-mail, return to the snack shop to talk to another distressed child. Afterward, leave the school and head to the left part of Echo Ridge to get to the park. Talk to the person opposite the Big Wave shop, then head to the leftmost corner of Echo Ridge (next to your house) and pulse into the Wave Road. Head straight along the road without taking any branching paths, and you'll quickly come across the Hertz that's being attacked by a virus. Defeat the virus to save the Hertz, then pulse out and talk to the girl at the snack shop again. - Science Club Rocket - After reading Zack's e-mail, head to the Science Club Room again to hear about their rocket troubles. Touch the message from Mr. Shepar when prompted, then head to the school lobby and you'll talk to the guy in silver from before. Head back to your house afterward, then head to bed. - Security Error - Upon waking up, check out the Support Card tutorial in your e-mail, then leave your house and go to the red Wave Rider station near the river to head to Spica Mall. Head forward a little bit and a security system will activate; pulse into the Wave Road and access the first Cyber Core you see. Head forward to the large purple square and head down-right, then talk to the fat Hertz to deactivate the gates. Pulse out and head forward in the mall to get to the tournament area. After a cutscene, head back to where the gates fell earlier, and you'll enter battle with a rogue Wizard. [Wizard Battle: NoiseWzrdB1] HP: 250 This fellow isn't much trouble at all. He has two attacks; one of them brings him right in front of you for a sword slash, and one relegates him to the back row for a Vulcan-style gun attack. Both are well telegraphed and pretty easy to avoid. He moves around the field a lot, so the best time to unleash a chip attack is immediately following an attack of his; this rule holds true for most bosses, really. Once the next cutscene concludes, return to the event area and talk to Luna, then return to the Science Club Room at the school. Talk to Woody and touch the Giga Energy Card to hand it over; you'll form a new Brother Band with Woody, and obtain a new Team and Purpose. Once that's done, return home and go to sleep. - The Launch Is A Disaster How Could This Happen - The next day, head back to school and take the elevator to the roof. After stuff goes haywire, pulse in via the Wave Station and take the first branching right toward the rocket to enter the Cyber Core. - Rocket CC1 - GAMEPLAY NOTE: In this part of the game, as will be demonstrated, standing on a colored pad and touching Coil on the touch screen will change the direction of the magnetic bridges (hereafter referred to as "switching the magnets"). After being shown how to use Coil, head past two magnetic bridges to a large platform. Take the rightmost path and head up-left, then switch the magnets and take the bridge to the upper left (or head up-right and you can grab 800 Zennys). After heading forward for a bit, you'll come to a more strange part, with several parallel magnetic bridges. If you run up-left while running against the flow of the magnetic force, you should make it to the parallel bridges. Run straight forward across to the third bridge, and if your force field is still red, you'll be pushed toward a BMD. From there, take the second bridge all the way up, then you can easily get across and back to the main path. Head forward to Rocket CC2. - Rocket CC2 - In this next area, take the rotating bridge, then switch the magnets and have it push you in the down-right direction. Cross another magnet bridge and then head forward along the path to another Coil pad. Switch the magnets here and cross the bridge, then switch the magnets again and head up-left. For this section, make sure your field is blue, then head forward along the path, progressing in short bursts when the magnets turn off; the last magnet will push you the right way only if you're blue. Continue forward to the next magnetic bridge, crossing to the red magnet and then continuing forward all the way down. You'll have to cross this section the same way as before, running past the bridges quickly, before you're pushed too far back. You'll eventually end up against Spade Magnes. [Wizard Battle: Spade Magnes] HP: 400 This guy is pretty basic. He fires missiles at you fairly frequently, but they're very slow and easy to avoid. He'll also barrel down at you himself, another well-telegraphed move, but be careful that he doesn't trap you by using both of those attacks at once. When his HP gets lower, he'll appear right in front of you and swipe at your entire row; you'll need to use your Y barrier to avoid this attack. Lucky for you, Spade Magnes moves quite slowly, and pretty much every attack you throw at him is likely to hit, except for Grenades. GAMEPLAY NOTE: if a Wizard gets super close to you to deliver a powerful attack, using a strong attack of your own that makes the enemy flinch will stop them in their tracks, and the attack usually stops itself. Once you defeat Spade Magnes, the rocket will finally launch, and your first purpose will be fulfilled. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.2 - The Belle Of The Ball (Diamond Ice) Cue a cutscene about Noise, meteors, and... more Noise, it looks like. - Locked Gate - Once you're done watching TV, try to exit your house and you'll run into a brief tutorial about Abilities. Head to the school entrance to find it's locked, then head back to the glass building to the right of Geo's house. Enter 202 on the touch screen when the number pad appears to get the Gate Key; walk up to the school gate and touch the Gate Key to unlock it. - New Student - Head to your classroom on the second floor of the school, then talk to Luna, Bud and Zack at the back of the classroom to start the school day. After your five-minute school day ends and Jack runs off, leave the school and head to the Echo Ridge park, outside the Big Wave. You'll end up in a fight. [Wizard Battle: NoiseWzrdR1] HP: 300 This guy is exactly like the NoiseWzrdB1, with a bit more HP. He should be no problem at all for you. After the battle, Sonia will show up and her mere presence will wreak havoc. After escaping to the Wave Road, head along the path and into the school area. From here, head up the slopes to warp to the Science Club Room, then head up more slopes to warp to the roof. Find the Wave Station and get down, then head to the center of the roof. One cutscene later, head home and head to bed. GAMEPLAY NOTE: At this point you can start taking HELP requests. In order to take a request on, touch someone's HELP popup while talking to them, then talk to them a second time to receive the mission. You can only handle one mission at a time. GAMEPLAY NOTE: The Big Wave Battle Card shop opens up around this time. If you inspect the air conditioner to its right, you'll receive the code "Beta86425"; give this to the flaming Wizard in the Big Wave to receive an Invisible card. - WBG Security - The next day, check your e-mail to get a PanlFormat card, then head to the Wave Rider station and you'll go to WBG Studios. Head forward and talk to the security dog next to the door to find that you're locked out; head back toward the tennis court and get on the Wave Road via the Wave Station. Follow the fairly straightforward path into the studio, then drop into Sonia's dressing room via a Wave Station. Talk to her to get a Studio Pass, then go back outside the way you came. Head to the front door and touch the pass to get inside. - Inside WBG Studios - Once in the studio, head up-right to the stage and you'll trigger a cutscene where you meet Lee Stern. Once it's done, head back out to the tree-lined walkway outside and talk to the directing Wizard to be sent on a fetch quest. Head into Sonia's dressing room and talk to the Wizard there, then head up to the Wave Road. Take the dash road up-right, then head left to get to the Regulator's Cyber Core. In here, head all the way up-left to find the lighting Wizard and talk to him. Once done, pulse out and head to the room directly north to talk with your friends, then go outside. Once Bud loses it, wave change and walk up to him. [Wizard Battle: Taurus Fire] HP: 600 Most of Taurus Fire's attacks occur in a straight line, so most of the time if you just get out from in front of him you'll be fine; he can charge at you, or breathe fire at you, or appear right in front and punch you. When his HP gets lower, he'll use a fire-breathing attack that targets all your panels, so you'll have to use your barrier to defend. He's a little slow, so you should be able to lock-on and attack with most cards, including Swords. Unlike other Wizards, you'll have trouble attacking Taurus Fire immediately after he attacks you; most other times, though, he's an easy target. This battle won't give you any trouble, and it will give you a rather nice Battle Card. Cue a cringe-inducingly bad cutscene. Head back into the studio to trigger a better one. - Fixing the Cabinet - Once you regain control, head out to the event stage and you'll join a new team with a new purpose. Go back into the studio and head to the room to the right of Sonia's dressing room, then talk to the staff member. Once he tells you his problem, get up to the Wave Road and access the cabinet's Cyber Core. Head into the warp, then inspect the frozen Wizard to get access to the abilities of Taurus Fire. If you continue on through the Cyber Core, you'll get a StarHoop for Omega to equip. - Triple Threat - Head to the event stage and talk to Lee, then run up to the projector and tap Taurus Fire on the touch screen to melt the ice. After that, head outside and read your mail, then talk to the security guard near the door. Head into the Wave Road after that and access the stunt car's Cyber Core. Take a right down the ramp first you see, then head down-right until you find another frozen Wizard; melt the ice with Taurus. Pulse out and read some more mail from Lee, then go to Sonia's room and use Taurus to melt the door. - The Concert - Head to the event stage yet again, and Lee will form a Brother Band with you. After the cutscene, walk forward about two feet to trigger another one, wherein bad things happen. Once you regain control, walk to the darkened Access area and tap the Stage Pass to get into the Cyber Core. - Event Stage CC1 - GAMEPLAY NOTE: Approaching the ice will give you an explanation of how it works: as you stand on it, your temperature drops, and if you get too cold, Taurus Fire will need to thaw you out. Bear in mind that if you enter battle while standing on ice, you'll start losing temperature immediately after battle, so be vigilant. Head forward to the Hertz, then all the way up-right to a warm patch. Head up-left from there, past all the branching paths, to the very top corner of this area, then head down-left to the very left corner (the last branch on the way to that corner leads to an ice block that Taurus needs to break; it covers up a V-Shot Ability). From the corner of the map, head down-right along one dash road, then head up-right along an icy path to find an ice block covering up the warp to CC2. - Event Stage CC2 - GAMEPLAY NOTE: The darker patches of ice will reduce your temperature faster than normal. Head up-left, then up-right to the corner. Go up-left to a large iced square, then head down an iced path that leads you to an ice cube you need to melt. Go past that along the two dash roads, then head up-left past the ice cube and into Event Stage CC3. - Event Stage CC3 - Head forward and take the lighter-blue ice down, then head up-left again to a checkerboard ice square. Go up-right over it and all the way up to the next safe area, a four-way junction. (If you head down from here, you'll get to a frozen BMD with a HP+50 ability.) Go across the dash road, then up to a large square corner. Head across the ice to the dark blue square that splits, and take the upper-left path and go past the dash road to the end (alternatively, take the dash road and you can come across a HPMem20). This path will take you to an ice cube blocking the boss. [Wizard Battle: Diamond Ice] HP: 700 She can throw the two ice blocks at you either along the columns, or else she can have them attack your entire area; once the first block passes by you, put up your barrier quickly. She can also appear two squares in front of you and swing a giant hammer onto your square; this is an excellent opportunity to attack. This Wizard can be difficult to attack, with two giant ice blocks that can block attacks, so wide-ranging attacks, or possibly GrandWave cards, are going to be useful. If you've picked up an IceSpin, those chips can be extremely powerful if they connect with their target. As stated, the best time to attack is when she swings her hammer, but this doesn't happen as often as the other attacks. Once everything's taken care of, get back up to the stage so Sonia can play her last song. You'll reform your Brother Band with Sonia also, and your purpose will be fulfilled. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.3 - Only The Strong Survive (Club Strong) - Astro Wave - GAMEPLAY NOTE: From this point on, you will be able to see your Noise level in battle, via a meter in the top right corner. If you use a chip to delete enemies, and the amount of damage the chip does exceeds the amount of HP the enemy has, the Noise percentage will increase by that extra amount (unless the chip stops time). Certain attacks on you will also increase your Noise. For now, you'll want to keep your Noise level down, as there aren't as many benefits to it, and if your Noise level exceeds 100%, some wacky stuff can happen; think NaviCust bugs from the Battle Network games. Also, if you conclude a battle with over 100% Noise, your post-battle reward could be an entirely random Battle Card. Once the cutscene ends, you need to join your classmates. Head to the Wave Road and take the ramps up to a locked gate; touch the SP Key 1 to take it down and get access to the Astro Wave. After reading an e-mail from Ace, head up-left to the next area, then down-left until you reach the Alohaha warp. On the Alohaha Wave Road, then head down ramps until you're as low as you can go, then take a dash road down- right to exit the Wave Road and rejoin your class. Your purpose will change again once you do so. - Food Stall Error - GAMEPLAY NOTE: You can access your first Noise Wave in Alohaha Castle. Become Mega Man and inspect the fish display to open the Noise Wave, then press A to enter it. You can't jack out of it; the exit is in the top corner of the area. You can find a Plus Cannon in here, and the enemies are a bit tougher than normal; you can run into more Noise Wizard enemies. Head to the Alohaha Castle and talk to the Wizard near the computer system, then head back outside and talk to Bud to hear the tragedy of the food stand. Take to the Wave Road and access the Cyber Core of the food stand; immediately head down, then down-left on the straight path. Continue on until you find a Mr. Hertz; talk to it to fix the stand. Return to the stand and talk to Bud. - On The Beach - An e-mail will alert you to the open beach, so head to the southeast exit to get to the beach area. One painfully bad cutscene later, head northeast and talk to Sonia to trigger another one. Once that's done, head to the left corner of the map to find another Wave Station; head into the Wave Road and travel around to the Stone Wall CC (it's easy to find), then head forward to encounter Strong for the first time, as well as a virus battle. [Virus Battle: KomaG, Koma] Komas are not a difficult virus to take care of, but they provide for some rather long battles. They're very easy to hit with chips, but as soon as they are hit, they start moving about fast and firing wildly. It's wise to avoid using your Buster in this battle and other Koma battles. [Virus Battle: WibbledeeG, BlueSharkG] The shark is a very easy enemy to avoid, so the WibbledeeG is your main concern, as its attack is more wide-ranging. [Virus Battle: KomaG, BlueSharkG, BaseGunner] You're pretty much cut off from one of the columns due to the BaseGunner, but in my battle, one of the columns had a hole in it, to ward off the shark. Try to take out the Koma quickly, in any case, and from there the battle will be easy. - Stolen Goods - Talk to everyone on the beach and you'll trigger another cutscene, which ends in some stuff missing. Head to the environmental computer and talk to Strong, then head back to the dock and get on the Wave Road. Cross the dash road and head down to encounter the first bandit. [Virus Battle: Wibbledee, BaseGunner, MalWizard] The MalWizard will soon use a hack panel, which prevents you from standing on the enemy area, which means swords and such are going to qiuckly become useless. You're going to want some projectile weapons for this battle. Also, get rid of the Wibbledee first, as it can get annoying, forcing you to constantly move to the BaseGunner column. After that battle, head toward the beach area on the Wave Road. Go forward and head up-right at the split in the path, then dash road around to the bottom of the screen. You'll quickly find the other bandit, but save before you battle him. [Virus Battle: Mettenna2, BlueShark, MalWizard] The Mettenna is frustrating simply for the fact that he loves to get in your way, so just get rid of him quickly. Then take out the shark. After that, you'll have to use projectile weapons on the wizard again. Once that battle is over, you'll only have time to grab one of the three stolen items; which one you pick will change what scene takes place after, but won't have any other effects. If you saved before the battle, you can check out all three scenes. The next day, you need to head to the Alohaha Castle and check out the environmental system, then everything will go nuts. Head back outside and get on the Wave Road, then head to the Alohaha Castle Wave Road and trans in to the Cyber Core. - Enviro Sys CC1 - GAMEPLAY NOTE: In this area, there are a number of brown wooden paths that will fall as you run across them, and it's possible to get dumped down into the Abyss, which is a pain. In this FAQ, when we get to said paths, I'll simply tell you which direction to go in at every split in the path; if you keep going forward, I'll just write "straight". Also, you'll need to press A every time the prompt appears, or you'll lose speed. Upon entering the Cyber Core, head forward along the larger platform, not taking any branching paths, until you get to a brown wooden path. This one is easy enough to navigate, just make sure to go left at the loop to save some time. From here, follow the large platform again and you'll quickly reach CC2. - Enviro Sys CC2 - Here, you can once again follow the large platform to the wooden path; if you take a right at the split in the path, you'll be fine. Continue to the next one, and go down-right and then down. You'll eventually reach the next area. - Enviro Sys CC3 - You know the deal by now; taking the large platform path will get you to the wooden paths, every time. Go to the first one and take a right at the first branch; at the next two branches, both paths take you where you need to go, but either way you'll have to do a lot of jumping, so be careful. Continue along the larger path and you'll get to Club Strong. [Wizard Battle: Club Strong] HP: 1000 Pretty much whenever this guy moves, he'll send a trail of spiked logs in your direction, so get out of the way when he does. He can also send three tornadoes at you; one of them will move faster/slower than the others, so you'll have to use the gap it creates to avoid the tornadoes. After he's taken a lot of damage, he'll use an attack that slams your panels from left to right and back again, but it will follow that set pattern, so you should be able to avoid it by paying attention. He can also generate nuts that will roll down at you, and you'll have to maneuver through them. You should have a couple of Fire cards on hand, and they'll do double damage to this guy, so that will bring his HP down quickly; the Taurus Fire card is especially useful, as it will get rid of several of the grass panels he uses to heal. Unfortunately, you'll have less chances to attack, since every time he moves, he attacks. When he does a special attack, though, he usually leaves himself wide open. You shouldn't have too much trouble with this guy. At the conclusion of the battle, a cutscene will occur; once it's done, head down to the beach again to see another, then you'll enter battle. [Wizard Battle: Jack Corvus] HP: 1400 This battle doesn't matter; if he destroys you, or if you get him down to 1000 HP, the battle will end. One last, more distressing cutscene before you save. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.4 - WAZA And Wave Changes (Queen Virgo) - Getting To WAZA - After a depressing cutscene, head to your house and talk to Hope, then take the Astro Wave to Alohaha. Head into the castle and walk to the end of the hallway to run into Mr. Boreal. You'll get WAZAPasscode after another cutscene, and you'll instantly be transported to WAZA. Head up to the security gate and enter the four-digit code found on your WAZAPasscode to get inside, then after a cutscene, put your finger on the fingerprint scanner on the lower screen (or just touch and hold your stylus to it, it doesn't matter). - Inside WAZA HQ - GAMEPLAY NOTE: If you want to, you can talk to Tom Dubius on the upper floor near the elevator (he's the depressed-looking fellow), and you can battle Cygnus Wing for practice or profit. [Wizard Battle: Cygnus Wing] HP: 700 He can have his feathers home in on your square and attack you, which he does often as a standard attack. He'll also spin dance around two columns, which can be avoided by moving to the safe column. When his HP gets lower, he'll send out penguins at you; shoot the white penguin to avoid getting damaged. He moves around rather quickly, but when he does his feather attack, he becomes a very easy target for your somewhat slower attacks. You really will have no problem battling this guy, and you'll get his Battle Card. Head up the stairs and take the elevator up to the Command Center. Talk to everyone in here (one of them gives you a WAZAFldr), and then check the e-mail from Ace. Head back downstairs and go toward the Satella Police area, then head down the stairs near the back to get a long explanatory cutscene. - Information Board - Head to the Command Center and talk to the man in the top corner of the computer room to hear about some troubles. Get to the Wave Road in this room and take the path straight until you see a BMD; this has the WAZA Key in it. Go back downstairs and hop onto the Wave Road there; head up to the top corner, then take the dash road down-right and go to the Cyber Core of the info board. In this area, take a left at the split in the path, then head up and take a right at the next split. At the next two splits, go right, and you'll eventually find a virus. This battle I forgot to write down, but I had zero trouble. - Luna Frags - Head back to the Satella Police area to figure out what you need to do next via a rather painful cutscene, and you'll get a new Brother in Dr. Goodall, as well as a new Purpose. Head to the WAZA entrance and talk to the officer to be transported to Alohaha, where you'll be spending a fair bit of time collecting Luna Frags. Tap Acid to have him do a search for fragments; if one is in the immediate area, it will show up as a small sphere on your screen, so go to it and press A. Luna FragA: Inspect the orange device at the old man's food stand. Luna FragB: On the Wave Road in the Alohaha entrance area; it's on a platform close to where you can enter the beach's Wave Road. Luna FragC: On the beach, at the bottom-most edge between the shallow and deep water. Luna FragD: A Wizard on the docks on the beach is holding it; do a search next to him before talking to him. Luna FragE: Trans into the Enviro Sys CC1; the second Hertz you see on the main path is holding it, but won't give it up easily. [Virus Battle: KomaG, Ku'i, GrassPollenG] The Ku'i won't bother you if you don't head to its column, which is good because dealing with broken panels is immensely frustrating. Take out at least one of the other two viruses before focusing on the Ku'i. I recommend going for the GrassPollenG first. Luna FragF: Head to the Alohaha Castle Wave Road and trans into the Island Display CC. A wizard near the top of the area is holding the fragment. [Virus Battle: BlueSharkG, MalWizard2] As is standard practice, take out the shark before focusing on the wizard. He'll use hack panel rather quickly, but he also appears close to the front of said panels, which will allow you a chance to use swords and such. - On The Way To WAZA - Once you've collected all the fragments, you'll see a long cutscene and receive SP Key2. Get back to the Astro Wave and you'll encounter a cutscene. Backtrack toward Echo Ridge, and you'll stop at the gated area; this leads to WAZA, but you've got battling to do first. [Virus Battle: CrowketG, Mettenna2G, StealthG] The CrowketG is the most annoying virus, and should be your priority. As for the StealthG, I recommend using the Buster to uncloak it, then using a powerful chip. GAMEPLAY NOTE: After this, you'll experience a transformation, a Noise Change. This is basically like a Style or a Soul from the Battle Network titles, but they'll only really activate if your Noise is above 50%. If your Noise level gets above 200%, though, you can access the Meteor Server and access your Red Joker form, which is immensely powerful and comes with some seriously amped attacks. This comes at a cost, though, as you'll inherit whatever bugs may come with having 200% Noise. Use carefully. Once the cutscene ends, continue on to WAZA. - Battle At WAZA HQ - GAMEPLAY NOTE: For this portion of the game, you're often going to end up in a sort of mini-game, wherein you use Omega-Xis to claw at your enemies; press B to swipe at them and dispel them. You're best off mashing the button and constantly moving forward, to avoid having any enemies touching you, because if they do, you'll end up in a battle. You can protect the ally Wizards if you like, but I can't see how they make a whole lot of difference, to be honest. Your priority is to make sure whatever their target is isn't destroyed, so sticking close to that thing should work well, though initially you can head to where the enemies spawn. Set up your folder as you like it, because you won't be changing it once you enter the mini-game section of this game. After the first claw section, head inside and take a left at the top of the stairs to start another. In this one, they have two targets, but they'll only attack one at a time, so this shouldn't be difficult. Your next place is the elevator outside the Command Center, which luckily is a small target for them. Your last area is the Command Center, which is easy; if you mostly stand at the doorwayand swipe away, you'll get almost every single copy. This ends the claw swipe mini-games. - Attack On The Main Computer - After the next cutscene, head to the Command Center and go to the back of the room; after another cutscene, get to the Wave Road and trans into the Cyber Core after him. Head back and sort of to the right in this area, and you'll eventually run into Dark Phantom. [Wizard Battle: Dark Phantom] HP: 900 He can summon claws to appear in front of you and swipe at you, or he can appear in front and slash with his sword. He also has a larger claw attack that stretches down an entire column; it's pretty well telegraphed, though, so it's easy to avoid. Occasionally, he'll appear near you and whirl around, attacking all panels touching him; you may need to use your barrier for that. Let's be frank here; every one of his attacks is easy to avoid, and he is also quite slow. You can easily lock onto him and hit him with essentially any attack, to take care of him quickly. This is a very easy battle, all things considered. - Ace And Tia - Once you've defeated Dark Phantom, trans out of the Cyber Core and head back downstairs. Save before you exit the building, as the boss battle is next. [Wizard Battle: Queen Virgo] HP: 1200 Her main attack is to make it rain on your panels, usually two or three times in quick succession. She also tends to send out a water snake at you; shoot at the head with your Buster and it will disappear quickly. When her HP gets lower, she'll appear right in front of you and attack all your panels with spinning lasers; you need to either use your barrier or a powerful attack that makes her flinch. This battle, unfortunately, is significantly harder than Dark Phantom. Most of the time, if you try to attack her head-on, she'll create a water barrier around her which will take your damage and send it back at you in a water wave. If you managed to get an electric Noise Change like I did my second playthrough, this is easier as your charged attack does a lot of damage and paralyzes her; if you get a fire one, like I did my first playthrough, this is quite a pain. Your best bet for attacking her is during her rain attack, basically. Once the cutscene has concluded, head back to the Command Center and go to the back of the room. Your purpose will finally be fulfilled. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.5 - The Campaign Trail (Jack Corvus) - Securing Voters - Once you regain control, you'll have to talk to the teachers around school. Head to the Science Club Room and talk to the teacher there, then head downstairs and talk to the teacher at the food stand. Return to the second floor and talk to Mr. Shepar, then talk to the gardener, Damien Wolfe, on the roof. Head to the Wave Road and trans into the sprinkler, then inspect the Noise. [Virus Battle: BangG, StremCancroG] The crab isn't as much trouble as the other fellow, who should be your priority. - WAZA Audit - Pulse out and talk to Wolfe, then head downstairs and talk to Prez. Tap the message from Ace when it pops up, then head to WAZA and go to the Command Center. Trans into the main computer and head to where you fought Dark Phantom for an unpleasant surprise. [Wizard Battle: Acid Ace] HP: 800 This guy moves fast and does several attacks that get in close, and those attacks are very fast too. You're going to have to be on your toes. The other attacks, involving column attacks, are easier to avoid. Time-stopping attacks are good, as always; otherwise, your best bet is to attack after he has, because he doesn't stand still very long. My battle with him lasted almost no time at all; he doesn't have a lot of HP. - Echo Ridge Virus Bust - You can check out a Multi Noise tutorial if you like, then head to Echo Ridge. In your way on the Astro Wave, though, are walls of Noise. [Virus Battle: MegaStealth, StealthG, BoneArcher] This battle is fairly easy; the two Stealth enemies attack rather slowly, so you should go all-out on the BoneArcher first. [Virus Battle: MegaStealth, StealthG, the bomb guy whose name I forgot] This bomb enemy makes life a real pain; it's not easy to use your Buster to take out the bombs, because the stealth enemies have a tendency to shoot at you when you try. Eliminate that guy as soon as you can. [Virus Battle: NoiseWzrdB2] This guy moves very fast, and is quite hard to hit with any lock-on attacks. His attacks are easy to avoid, but you may take a while with this because he's hard to hit. Get to the patk outside the Big Wave to proceed to the next cutscene, as well as three battles in a row. [Virus Battle: StremCancroG, BoneArcher] Crab enemies are rarely a problem, as a single Buster shot stops their attacks. Again, attack the BoneArcher first, even though this can be hard to do, since he spends all his time hiding behind a rock. You need attacks that can get behind it. [Virus Battle: Ku'iG, BangG] Stay away from the Ku'iG as long as you can, because dealing with broken panels makes any battle much, much worse. [Virus Battle: Crowbus, SmilesG, SmilesG] The Crowbus is the most annoying enemy here, so it takes priority. The two SmilesG's won't attack you if you keep shooting them with your buster, so you can stall for a while, but for some reason they're not so easy to damage. - Echo Ridge Pt. 2 - You'll get another distress call, so hop onto the Astro Wave to find your path blocked off. Do a 180 and you'll encounter a Noise Wave, after a cutscene. Walk up to it and press A to enter it, then loop down and around (keep in mind you can walk across two panels whose corners are touching) until you reach a Noise Wave and a sales guy. Go past these two and continue around to another Noise Wave to get to WBG Studios. - WBG Studios - In this area, you need to find the Noise Waves that are creating the viruses. Go to the tennis court where Bud is and inspect it at the half-court line to open a Noise Wave; enter it and immediately head left, then inspect the Noise there to stop it. The exit to this Noise Wave is to the left, across the halfway mark (five square panels atop each other) and then immediately up. GAMEPLAY NOTE: At this time, you can start battling Taurus Fire when you talk to him; you'll experience V2, then V3. The other Noise Wave is near Harp Note; go to the dock sticking out into the pond and inspect the end of it to find the next Noise Wave. In here, the Noise is very close to you, to your right; the exit is across the halfway mark of the Noise (you'll notice all these Noise Waves have similar layouts), head down after crossing it. An e-mail from Sonia will notify you of a larger Noise Wave at the Event Stage, so go to it and find your friends, then inspect the tree they are looking at. Enter this Noise Wave and make a note of the exit since it's close by. Cross the halfway mark to the right and head up to find a large amount of Noise and a cutscene. Leave the Noise Wave, then head back to WAZA and go to the Satella Police HQ for a briefing. Afterward, go outside for another cutscene. - WAZA Liner ID - From here, you can either go to bed or get a WAZA Liner ID, which will make your life much easier, but remember that you must not have any missions taken on at the time. Head in to the WAZA Command Center and talk to the girl at the console; while talking to her, tap her HELP icon, then talk to her again. Head to the candy shop at Spica Mall, and grab an ice cream from the cooler; you have three minutes to get it back to the officer. If you take the Astro Wave from Echo Ridge straight to WAZA, it's easy to not run into a single virus. You can easily get the ice cream to her in half the time, and you'll get a Liner ID for your trouble, as well as money. Head home and talk to your mom, then go to sleep. - Student Body Election - Head to school and talk to Luna, then go to the classroom for a cutscene. Once you regain control, get onto the Wave Road and head to the Noise Wave nearby. Inside this Noise Wave is another mini-game; you must use the D-pad to aim at the Noise that appears, then fire at it quickly to destroy it. Do this with all the Noise, before it explodes, to get out of the Noise Wave. Continue along the Wave Road to the Science Club Room, and through that to the roof. Before you get there, though, you'll have a fight on your hands. [Wizard Battle: Rogue] HP: 1000 He can disappear and reappear in front of you, giving a four-hit punch and kick combo; when he moves and stands still, keep on your toes and get ready to move out of the way. On occasion, he'll swing Laplace at you and this can occupy all your panels; you'll need to put up a barrier as late as you can, as this attack does damage for longer than you'd think. Later on, he'll throw a small barrage of fists at you for you to dodge. As his HP gets lower, he'll drop down and attack your panel powerfully; you can move to either side to avoid this. This guy moves quite fast; he'll move across two spaces, hang around for a moment, then disappear. You can hit him with some faster attacks while he's waiting around like that. Overall, though, I didn't have much trouble with Rogue. Proceed to the roof for your boss battle. [Wizard Battle: Jack Corvus] HP: 1400 His standard attack is to send a number of slow-moving flame hands at you, which is pretty easy to avoid if you focus and find the gap to maneuver through. He tends to do this in conjunction with his other attack, which is to fly at you and take out two of your panels; you need to move quickly to avoid this. He can also swing his scythe-like wings at you to attack a single panel. He moves kinda quickly, but he tends to stick around the same panels, and he's not terribly hard to hit with attacks. His hand attack, though, will have you moving all over the place a lot, which can make your life more frustrating. Keep moving and shoot whenever you can; if you have any options to paralyze him, I would use as many as you can. Enjoy an agonizingly long cutscene as your reward. Your very first purpose is finally fulfilled. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 3.6 - Playing Against The Dealer (Dread Joker) - Wizards At School - Head downstairs, talk to your mom and then go outside. Talk to Luna, then head to your classroom; talk to Luna again, then talk to everyone else in the room. Once you regain control, head downstairs to the lobby and you'll end up in a fight. [Virus Battle: NoiseWzrdB2, NoiseWzrdR2] These two have a tendency to gang up on you, especially if one of your panels gets cracked. Unleash your most powerful attacks as fast as you can manage to end this quickly, which is easier said than done since these guys can be pretty fast. - Wizards At The Mall - Head to Spica Mall to discover that there are three Wizards to take care of. The first one is pretty easy to find, located in the real world on that T-shaped road; turn to Megaman and talk to it. [Virus Battle: NoiseWzrdB2] As with all Noise Wizards, you're going to want distance attacks, since he loves using the hack panel thing. After that, pulse into the Wave Road and head to the nearby disabled ACCESS; your WAZA Key will let you in. In the Cyber Core, take the dash road to the left and you'll warp to another part of the mall. Head down along the arrow to enter the Candy Shop area, then pulse into the CC of the gumball machine. In the up-left corner of this area is a HPMem20; in the bottom-right corner is your opponent. [Virus Battle: NoiseWzrdR2] Second verse, same as the first. Well, not exactly the same, this fellow attacks more than his blue counterpart. Pulse out, then back in again, and head to the lower mall part of the Wave Road. Head down and around to the Spimo the Cat CC, then pulse in. In the top-right corner is a DivideLine; in the top-left corner is the final wizard. [Virus Battle: NoiseWzrdB2] I'm not going over this again. - Wizards At WBG Studios - With the mall cleared out, head to WAZA and take a left to the Satella Police HQ, then talk to Ace. After a revelatory (I guess?) cutscene, leave and head to WBG Studios, specifically the Event Stage. After a large battle which you don't actually get to fight for some reason, you'll witness a cutscene (and an amusing Earthbound reference) before entering into actual battle. [Wizard Battle: Acid Ace B] HP: 1200 He still moves fast, and now his attacks come in quick sequence. He can shoot out a flamethower at you, shoot bullets from a distance, come in quickly to swipe at you, or fire a ball of electricity that can home in on you. He can also charge at you, taking out several panels. You can't damage him, so just do your best to stay alive. One cutscene later, head home and talk to your mom, then go upstairs to do some hardcore sleeping. - Noise Waves At School - The next day, head over to your school to try and find some Noise Waves. Check out the gold statue in the lobby to access the first Wave and enter it. In the right half of the Noise Wave, you'll find a malevolent Wizard. [Virus Battle: NoiseWzrdR2] This guy starts out with hack panels, so distance attacks are the way to go. One thing that makes this battle a real pain is his glowing sphere attack that cracks your panels. Talk to him again and you'll get Noise Code1. Exit the Noise Wave. - Noise Waves At The Mall - Your next three Noise Waves are at the mall. Close to the entrance is an advertisement on the wall for Hunter-VGs; inspect it to unveil a Noise Wave. Head to the upper-right portion of this wave and you'll find another Wizard; give him a Cannon card and you'll get Noise Code2. The next Noise Wave is in the candy shop, at the game machine next to the ice cream bin. Head to the left side of the Noise Wave and you should find a Noise being there; it's time for a quiz. Answers are "yes", "yellow", "an empty bag", and 7; you'll get Noise Code4 as your prize. Head to the event area and inspect the light fixture at the top of this area to find your last Noise Wave. Inside, head to the upper-left part of the Noise Wave, and a Noise being will give you Noise Code3. - Noise Waves At WBG Studios - Head to WBG Studios for one last Wave hunt. In the Event Stage, there should be a guard dog staring at the wall; inspect that wall to find the Noise Wave which is hard to navigate. Head down and right until you come to a large four-way split in the path, with a hole in the center. From here, head left past a Noise being, then head down and right; keep going down, and you'll eventually find an exit. This is the Dealer base. - Dealer Base - Head along the path to the entrance of the base to trigger a cutscene. Afterward, pulse into the Wave Road and grab the first blue mystery data you see, which is the Dealer Key. Head down and to the right and access the King Wall CC. In here, head down and around the right, then up to find a malicious Wizard. [Virus Battle: DoomCountG, MalWizard3] This battle can be annoying since you'll spend a lot of time standing in front of bombs like a sitting duck, and the MalWizard3 has an attack that homes in on you. If you feel inclined, you can take out some bombs with chips to free up time to pound on the viruses more. The MalWizard3 will eventually use a hack panel, remember that. I'd save before entering this battle. Pulse out to find the door open. Head toward it and you'll all venture inside. After a cutscene, pulse into the Wave Road in here and head down and around, outside, then back inside to get to a rather broken part of the Wave Road. Trans into the nearby Cyber Core. - Crimson Mchn CC1 - GAMEPLAY NOTE: This part of the game requires you to move over specific tiles in a specific order. I'll draw out diagrams with a number assigned to each tile, and then given an order in which to walk over these tiles. Each non-card space is marked with an X; one-way dash roads are marked with an arrow indicating their direction. Head forward and talk to the Noise being to find out how to get past the card puzzles (flip them all over so they're face down), then run across the first batch in front of you. Head forward to another one. X Path: 421 12 34X X XXX Continue forward to another group of cards. XX1XX Path: 1 3 X 2 X XX3 X 4 X XXX The BMD along the path contains a SyncHook3 Battle card. 1 Path: 4 23 XX45 X 6 XXX 
One cutscene later, the path ahead is fixed. Continue forward to the
next part of the Cyber Core.

- Crimson Mchn CC2 -

Head forward and right to get to your first batch of cards.

  1   Path: 3 54321
  2
XX3XX
X 4 X
X 5 X
XXXXX

The BMD on your path contains a SprdShot ability.

  1 Path: 3658745231
 23
456
78

Onward to the next one; a GMD nearby gave me a X-Shot ability.

   XXv Path: 4523 6521
   1 v
   23X
XX45 v
X  6 v
X<