Ghost Rush FAQ by bakudandan 5/23/2011 - submitted to GameFAQs bakudandan@gmail.com Here is a reference and hint guide for Ghost Rush, a decent (not great by any means) dungeon crawler game for the Laseractive. This is based on the Japanese version, which does have English and Japanese language settings (and defaults to English, annoyingly) ****************************** A. Controls ****************************** Start - brings up your inventory B - when you encounter a ghost, push B to shoot it C - shoot out your ghost hand A - brings up the map while you're walking around or shoot out the ghost hand when fighting a ghost ****************************** B. Catching Ghosts ****************************** When you encounter a ghost, shoot its weak point with B. The weak point varies with each ghost. Once you drained all their health, they will try to escape, catch their weak point with C, and tap A and C alternately to reel them in quickly. You don't NEED to mash the buttons, but it's tricky to get a hold of them, because the hand can get unresponsive when you're shooting it out. If you're having trouble, try shooting towards the middle. This doesn't work with all ghosts though. Also WAIT until the hand is fully extended before you start mashing buttons. You should get the hang of it after a few tries. The ghosts will shoot projectiles at you, which you can destroy with the gun, but it is tricky to do so. With the Hyper G Gun though, you should be able to finish most ghosts without them ever shooting anything. ****************************** C. Shop Items ****************************** Let's see what they're selling at the shop. Remember that you can equip an item by setting it in one of the two item slots next to your gun. I will point out what you can and can't equip. Ghost Bottle - holds 5 ghosts Silver Bottle - holds 15 ghosts Gold Bottle - holds 30 ghosts Magical Bottle - holds 60 ghosts You can hold 3 bottles at a time, but realistically one magical bottle is more than enough. Leather Bag - hold 5 items Knapsack - hold 10 items Magical Bag - hold 25 items You can have up to 8 bags. I like having 8 magical bags, but technically you can get by with like 3 or 4 of them. Super G Gun - 1.5x damage Hyper G Gun - 2x damage Save up for the Hyper G, don't bother with the Super G. Candy - heals 1 heart Heal Potion - heals 3 hearts Life Potion - full health. If you run out of health with this equipped it will restore a partial amount of health. Key - some doors are randomly locked, you can open any locked door with these keys. You should have a bag full of keys until you find the Master Key. Rope - There are random spots on each floor where you'll either fall down a floor or get sprung up to the next floor. With a rope equipped you can avoid switching floors, ideally you should have a rope equipped at all times, so you should have a bag full of ropes until you find the Ninja Rope. Black Hole - this will warp you back to the entrance of the mansion. You should always have one before going in again. ****************************** D. Starting Out ****************************** Before you go in, buy a few keys and ropes from the shop. Now catch 3 or 4 ghosts, go back to the shop, and buy a black hole. Now you can start walking around. ****************************** E. Afterwards ****************************** The mansion is divided into 3 sections. One is the area from +9 to -9, the upper level is from +10 to +22, and the basement goes from -10 to -22. There is a ranking screen which you can access at the shop, but ultimately this has nothing to do with beating the game. What you need to do is catch the boss ghosts on the top and bottom floors (in that order?) Before you can do that though, you'll need to do a few things. It's up to you where you want to go from here. I would recommend looking for the ghosts that the shopkeeper has a bounty for, so you can earn money to buy item bags, a magical bottle and the Hyper G Gun, as well as some life potions. An easy way to earn money is to fight the Sir Born ghost. It drops bonsai fairly frequently, which is worth 11000G each. Ghost details are in section J - Ghosts. I would start with the ghosts on the lower levels so you can get the Master Key and Ninja Rope from the ghosts there. They are also, imo, less dangerous than the upper level ghosts. The shopkeeper also offers bounties for certain items. Item details are in section K - Items. ****************************** F. Ascending and Descending ****************************** You can check the map by pressing A to see what floor you're on, but you don't need the map to ascend and descend. The rule for stair placement is that on odd-numbered floors, you can always reach the next stairs quickly by following the LEFT wall, and on even numbered floors, you can reach them by following the RIGHT wall. This holds true on all floors, but sometimes the randomized maps give you some funky layouts so that you'll have to walk some more steps than you normally would. If you follow the wall and don't see it turning back right away to go to the next stairs, you can always try going back up and down the stairs to make a new map, which will hopefully have the stairs a few steps away this time. ****************************** G. Rooms ****************************** There are rooms in the mansion, some of them are locked and you need to use a key to open them. Once you're in the room, it'll either have nothing, an item, or a ghost. Usually it will be something stupid like a candy or a key or a gem, but sometimes you'll find a rare item in the room. To trigger the item to fall or ghost to appear, just grope around the room until you get it. (This is pretty annoying, actually.) ****************************** H. Gems ****************************** In order to beat the game, you need to collect 12 different gems and bring them to the grave which is behind one of the doors on floor -10 (the first basement floor) Once you've got one of each in your inventory, go to the grave and you will find the ghost key there which opens the big boss doors on the top and bottom floors. The 12 gems are: Ruby, Peridot, Emerald, Opal, Sapphire, Pearl, Turquoize, Topaz, Amethyst, Aquamarine, Garnet, and Diamond. Gems are usually dropped by ghosts, but you can often find them in rooms as well. To see what items the ghosts drop, go to section J - Ghosts. ****************************** I. Ghost Machines ****************************** Even if you have the ghost key, there will be nothing (literally just a black screen) behind the boss doors until you free the two bosses. To do this, you have to complete the most tedious part of the game by destroying 13 ghost machines. There is one on each of the upper level floors but there is no way to find them other than to check each door on each upper level floor until you find it. When you do find it, just shoot it a few times and it will explode. When you find the last one, it will say "Summoning ultimate ghost" and they will escape the machine when you destroy it. WARNING: if you go into the boss door and try to move up into the black screen, sometimes it will try to move forward and the game will hang. ****************************** J. Ghosts ****************************** The ghosts generally give more money based on how rare they are to find. One exception I've noticed is Mokkun, which gives less money than other ghosts but appears fairly infrequently. The ghosts are all exclusive to their area of the mansion. Some ghosts will only start appearing when you reach higher or lower floors. For example, Sir Born will appear only from floor +5 or -5 onwards, but you will still see Daizi or Pampy appear until you reach +10 or -10. I've listed the item drops here, but I only started composing this guide in the middle of the game, so I'm probably missing several items. I believe each ghost drops three different items including one rare drop. If you find an item drop that I'm missing, please email me with the details so I can update the guide. ------------------------------ Floors +9 to -9 ------------------------------ Daizy The most common ghost, looks like a wad of toilet paper. Weak Point: eye Drops: Candy, Heal Potion Worth: 500 Pampy A bat-like creature. Weak point: chest Drops: Candy, Heal Potion, Coin Worth: 750 Kibaeru A frog with fangs. Weak Point: open mouth Drops: Key, Money Bag Worth: 1000 Mummy Mummy A mummy with old lady hair. Weak Point: chest (neck?) Drops: Candy, Peridot, Mummy's Mirror Worth: 2500 Gorogoron A rock with an eyeball. I think this ghost only appears on negative floors. Weak Point: eye Drops: Ruby Worth: 3000 Sir Born An armor-clad knight. Weak Point: helmet mouthpiece Drops: Bonsai, Pearl Worth: 3200 ------------------------------ Floors +10 to +22 ------------------------------ Pukapuka A fat green genie. Weak Point: forehead Drops: Heal Potion, Amethyst, Incense Pot Worth: 2000 Abdaba An Indian looking guy with a turban. Weak point: turban Drops: Money Bag, Garnet, Samurai Wig Worth: 3500 Mokkun A wooden doll. Appears infrequently. Weak Point: backside Drops: Coin, Pretty Doll Worth: 1500 Dual Dullahan A headless knight carrying two heads. Weak Point: groin Drops: Coin, Aquamarine, Kamikaze Sword Worth: 6500 Piere A priest looking fellow with clown makeup. Weak Point: nose Drops: Heal Potion, Diamond, Piere's Potion Worth: 8000 Shabanba A cloaked triangular thing with a mask. Weak Point: teeth Drops: Heal Potion, Emerald, Talisman Worth: 10000 ------------------------------ Floors -10 to -22 ------------------------------ M.C. Hammer A tribal looking guy holding a spike thing. Weak Point: spike thing Drops: Coin, Madman's Mask, Ninja Rope Worth: 2000 Dameba A green blob thing with a face. Weak Point: eyes Drops: Heal Potion, Sapphire Worth: 7500 Sarudamon A giant monkey monster with an axe. Weak Point: open mouth (?) Drops: Topaz, Ninja Rope Worth: 9500 Norem A white monster with an axe for a head. Weak Point: slit where his head should be Drops: Opal, Master Key Worth: 10000 Damdong A red cyclops with an eyepatch. Weak Point: eyepatch Drops: Turquoize, Master Key Worth: 12000 Namur A weird creature with multiple spoon like bodies and heads. This ghost is very rare to find. Weak Point: ??? Drops: Heal Potion, Piere's Potion, Buddha (Note: when it dropped a Piere's Potion I picked it up and it turned into a Heal Potion when I looked at it in the inventory. It may have just been some sort of bug.) Worth: ??? I have only caught it when it had a bounty on it, for over 50000G ------------------------------ Special Ghosts ------------------------------ Arch Demon XIII A devil like creature. This is the boss of the top floor. Bring a few life potions because it will take 2 or more hearts at a time. Weak Point: ??? It seems to only be vulnerable at a certain point during its video sequence. Drops: Ghost Key Worth: 45000 Yar Daikokku A scary cloak wearing figure with many arms and a face mask. This is the boss of the bottom floor and is a pushover compared to the other boss Weak Point: eyes Drops: Coin, Money Bag Worth: 50000 Gob & Lin These are the two critters that sporadically annoy you throughout the game. I only list them here because when I played Ghost Rush in a regular LD player and looked at the ghost profile videos, it showed them there and the shopkeeper saying something like "wow you really caught a rare one this time" but I don't know if or how you can catch them. I've tried pressing buttons whenever they appear but it doesn't seem to do anything. Perhaps you need some sort of item.... ****************************** K. Items ****************************** Here is a list of the items I found and what they do, as well as their value at the shop. I forgot to note some of the values, so if you can update me on the ones I'm missing, drop me an email. ------------------------------ Gems ------------------------------ Ruby (2500) Peridot (900) Emerald (2000) Opal (1200) Sapphire (1000) Pearl (1100) Topaz (1500) Amethyst (500) Aquamarine (1500) Garnet (1000) Turquoize Diamond (700) ------------------------------ Sellable Items ------------------------------ You can't use these items, only sell them at the shop. Ribbon (1000) Picture Book (3000) Pretty Doll (3000) Orgel (5000) Pocket Watch (8000) Bonsai (11000) Incense Pot Samurai Wig Pecasso (I saw a bounty of it but never found...) Ghost Suit (same as above) ------------------------------ Usable Items ------------------------------ Master Key - like a regular key, but never runs out. (9000) Coin - gives you a random amount of money in the hundreds. Money Bag - gives you a random amount of money in the thousands. Mummy's Mirror - if you use it in a room you can get the item without having to grab for it... you can only use it once though... (8000) Buddha - you can use it 3 times as a life potion before its used up. you can also equip it, see below. (13107) Ghost Key - opens the boss doors on the top and bottom floors. (cant sell) Memos/Notes - These can be very rarely dropped by ghosts, or found in rooms. Note 1 in particular is found in the grave room on floor -10 when you first go in. The memos contain notes from other ghost hunters while the notes are written by the mansion's owner. In all, there are 8 memos and 9 notes to find. (cant sell) ------------------------------ Equip Items ------------------------------ Kamikaze Sword - this will make you encounter a ghost every single step! (3600) Ninja Rope - like a regular rope, but never runs out. (8500) Madman Mask - I don't know what this does. (9000) God's Shield - will restore one heart every several steps. (10000) Fairys Sword - the opposite of the kamikaze sword, this removes all ghost encounters. This is the most useful item in the game to me, especially when you're looking for ghost machines, but I only found it once (in a room on floor +16 if that helps.) (10000) Feather Hat - this presumably does something helpful, but I've never figured it out. (12000) Talisman - will restore a small bit of health every few steps. (13000) Buddha - if you run out of health with this equipped, it will bring you back to full health. This only works once though. (13107) Ghost Suit - According to user "superdeadite", the ghost suit "is the strongest armor you can get, the bosses can barely scratch you when equipped." Thanks to superdeadite for the new info. ****************************** Final Thoughts ****************************** This game is decent enough for what it is, but it suffers from the same problem as every other Laseractive game, which is to say it forcibly attempts to revolve the entire game around the console's gimmick (streaming video overlay) and suffers as a result, since the developers are now either forced to make the game as short as the video sequences, or do as in this case and spread thin a small amount of content over a large and empty gameplay environment. I'm guessing that Pioneer forced them to design the games this way, much like publishers even today are forcing their developers to include touch controls on DS games that don't need them. It does make more sense with the Laseractive though, since the console was so stupidly expensive customers would have likely felt ripped off if the game didn't have fancy CG video playing constantly. It's hard to take these games seriously nowadays, at any rate. If you play this in a regular laserdisc player, after you watch the game video there are several photos that flash by of a Laseractive conference in Japan, where high school students are taking a tour of the laserdisc factory, and playing Ghost Rush and Hyperion on large screens. The ones who got the farthest in Hyperion won a free copy of it, and someone won a Laseractive for a quiz contest or something. Theres even individual photos of everyone who attended. bakudandan@gmail.com EOF