Blade & Sword ------------- THE Unofficial Walkthrough - Version 1.0 Copyright 2004 by Nicolas Green This may not be reproduced under any circumstances except for personal or private use. It may not be placed on any web site or otherwise distributed publicly without advance written permission. Use of this guide on any other web site or as a part of any public display is strictly prohibited, and a violation of copyright. Table of Contents ----------------- I. Prelude a. Guide Info b. Version History c. Contact Info II. Chapter 1: The Human Realm a. Find the Wooden Eagle b. Look for Doctor Chin c. Rescue Graver Shen d. Strengthen my Weapon e. Tome of Heaven's Troops f. Mission of Mercy g. Fix the Broken Bridge h. Into the Warlord's Gateway i. Pass the Warlord's Gateway III. Chapter 2: The Beast Realm a. Look for Gan Jane b. Help Make a Powerful Sword c. Look for Mok Ye, Gan Jane's Wife d. Look for the Fish Intestine Sword e. Help Chong Zon Jion f. Help Mok Ye look for Chin Bin > Killing the King Hawk g. Rescue Chin Bin's Soul h. Look for the Gan Jane Sword i. Look for Water in Country Shoo j. Kill the Devils in Aurora Valley k. Help Wongbo Guo make sacrifices to the Gods l. Solve the Evil Obstacle m. Open the Gate to Hell IV. Chapter 3: The Demon Realm a. Pass through Ghostdom Belvedere b. Look for the Exquisite Heart c. Deal With Hellking's Affairs d. Help Hellking e. Help Hellking Find the 3 Gems f. Open the Gate to Palace Demogorgon g. The Final Battles V. City Duels a. Chapter I > Wa-dang Village in Elsewhere b. Chapter II > Challenge the Power of Darkness VI. Mini-Quests a. Help Doctor Chin get rid of her rats. b. Trial by Fire c. Collecting the Skin of Hell Frogs VII. Special Thanks I. Prelude ------------ Blade and Sword has been out for a little while at the writing of this guide, and being an import was poorly advertised in the US. I found it for scratch in a store late May and decided to give it a try since I was a fan of Diablo 2. Though this game is visually similar in many ways, it's challenge differentiates it from everything that has come before it. #Guide Info This guide was written while playing through the game on Hard difficulty with the Twin-Blade Heroine. My first time through was with the Great Swordsman on Normal and found the game to be aggravatingly hard. All the challenges and city-duels were done without cheating no matter how impossibly hard they might seem at first. If for any reason you just can't beat a duel or do a challenge, don't fret as they are there for fun, just so you can increase your playtime. The guide is organized by quest title as they are found in your journal. Just do a ctrl + F of any title and it will search to that section of the guide. The Chapters are headed with an area tree and the levels with the asterisk are those with waypoints in them. #Version History 6-25-2004 Version: 0.3 Chapter 1 walkthrough, challenges and duels complete. 6-30-2004 Version: 0.7 Chapter 2 walkthrough and duels complete. 7-01-2004 Version: 1.0 All Walkthroughs complete! #Contact Info In addition to my own personal web space, this guide is only allowed to be displayed on www.gamefaqs.com and its affiliates. If you have come across this on any other source, contact me immediately. starvingpoet@comcast.net II. Chapter 1: The Human World ------------------------------ *Wa-dang Village > Sunset Trail > *Brotherhood Grange > Burial-mound > Twelfth Tomb > *Cheng Lu Villa > *Ge's Manor > Abandoned Mines > *Stone-Gate Temple > Ancient Battlefield > Challenge Arena > *Phoenix Creek > *Plumper Slope > Warlord's Altar > *Warlord's Gateway After choosing your hero(ine) and reading the story intro, you find yourself, alone, in Wa-dang Village. Immediately to your right, you'll notice a glowing orb above Kong Shu Ban's head. This blue orb will be the marker for characters you need to talk to in order to advance the story. If you pay attention to anyone, pay attention to these people because they will be setting up the quests you need to accomplish to continue further in the game. Kong Shu Ban alerts you that many monsters have been seen in the area. It's even possible that corpses are walking the streets! It's so dangerous that he wants you to find his Wooden Eagle, a magical flying wagon that he hopes to use to evacuate the remaining villagers, somewhere along Sunset Trail. At least he warned you of the eminent danger. If you talk to Lu Ban about his self-introduction, the Training option will open up in his talk menu. This allows you to do a series of duels. See the City Duels section for more info. Before you head out looking for the Eagle, talk to Shopkeeper Guo, who is just north of Lu Ban. Shopkeeper Guo tells you that the town's doctor has gone missing after hunting for medicinal herbs. It seems that said doctor failed to pay heed to Lu Ban's warnings. Though you can buy healing potions from Guo, you won't be able to get free health refills until you rescue the doctor. #Find the Wooden Eagle This is quite the simple quest. Lucky you, Sunset Trail is the first combat area you come to outside of Wa-dang Village. If you follow the path in Sunset Trail all the way to the far north of the screen, you'll notice a red dot on your mini-map. This red dot is your first quest boss, a Poisoned Corpse. Before you tackle him though, I recommend you do a full clear of the area. Unless you are very familiar with this game, the combat system might seem tough and the Poisoned Corpse can actually hit pretty hard so soon. You should easily be able to rack up to level 7 before you get to him and by then you should have no problem. The only thing to watch for, of course, is his poison. It's similar to the poison attacks from the normal corpses just a lot more damaging. If you're playing as the twin blade heroine it can easily strip 75%+ of your HP in one run. The Boss, however, doesn't have the Wooden Eagle; he's just guarding its keeper. If you remember Lu Ban's story he said it was stolen by a Ghost Thief and you'll find one lurking around the Poisoned Corpse. Just listen for the annoying little chatter and you'll know he's nearby. Catching the Ghost Thief can be tricky as you won't be able to catch him by running. There are three options open to you. First, you can go kill enemies hoping for them to drop something. Once loot hits the ground the Ghost Thief will rush in to snap it up. Once he's in range, just slash at him and he'll back off. Just wait by the loot and you'll get him eventually. Second, you can just drop some loot and get him that way. Third, just use one of your throwing weapons to hit him from a distance. Hitting him will cause him to drop some loot and the third method is preferable since throwing weapons do good damage and start the loot cycle with the least amount of effort. The Ghost Thief will drop the Wooden Eagle on the first hit, and other random items on each consecutive hit. Once you have the eagle, run back to town and give it to Lu Ban. Besides offering his thanks, he gives you a couple Ghost Face Forks as a token of appreciation. #Look for Doctor Chin Now that Lu Ban has his Wooden Eagle back in possession, one would think you could climb aboard and fly to your next destination. Unfortunately, it's your fate to trudge through the monster masses as slowly as possible. With that said, sell off whatever you don't need. I'd recommend keeping the potions and any gems you find since you can use those to craft later and sometimes items are very hard to come by when you really need them. Brotherhood Grange is your next destination. If you haven't been there yet, it's the area immediately after Sunset Trail. The Grange offers your first experience to the games primary source of challenge - monster mobbing. Be careful as you clear the level as you might find yourself suddenly surrounded by enemies. Remember, there are two ways to save yourself from such a situation, first, you can jump out of the area by using jump (default q) or I prefer dodging by hitting the spacebar. To each his own. This level recommends a full clear mainly because you'll want space to maneuver once you hit the boss pack at the end. The only possible problem area is towards the top end of the level. Up there, you'll find a graveyard and once inside you'll notice your screen filling up with corpses. Once you start attacking them, a column of Evil Wolves will file in behind you exacerbating the problem. If you just move towards the back on the graveyard as soon as you enter, the wolves won't be able to come in and you can deal with them after you've killed the corpses. As you follow the trail, you'll find your first waypoint in the game. Just to the right of it, you might notice a red dot on your map. This is your first real quest boss in the game. It's a Boar Demon, and a basic melee type boss. He's isn't relatively difficult alone, but he is surrounded by quite a large group that can easily take you down even without the two Evil Wolf Leaders amongst them. The key to defeating this boss and any melee boss is to slowly draw out his pack by slowly walking towards the group and waiting for one enemy to target you. Once it comes after you, run back and kill it. Rinse and repeat until the boss stands alone. In terms of taking down the Boar demon, blocking his attacks and dodging his charge attacks is relatively simple. If you're having problems though, you can easily lead him back through the town and get him behind a wooden fence. He can still hit you with normal attacks, but you should be pretty immune to his specials. Once the Boar Demon is dead, you'll notice Doctor Chin in a stockade towards the level transition. Talking to her, she'll tell you how she was out gathering herbs with Graver Shen until they were ambushed by the monsters. Graver Shen is somewhere out there and she hopes you can get him back. In thanks of rescuing her, she says she'll give you a jadeite amulet, but in her euphoric haze she hands you a couple of rejuvenation potions. Now that she's been rescued, you can return back to town and have her heal you whenever you want. You'll also be able to buy some larger capacity healing potions from her as well. If you ask her about Graver Shen, she'll tell you that she thinks he went to the Twelfth Tomb in the Burial Grounds. It looks like we have our next destination! Before you leave, ask Doctor Chin about her healing potion. She'll tell you her potion cellar is overrun with rats and she's too afraid to go in. Help her get rid of the rats and she might have a reward for you. See mini-quests for more info. #Rescue Graver Shen This is a pretty simplistic mission as there is no boss fighting or sidetracking needed. Take your waypoint back to the Brotherhood Grange and continue to the next area. The Burial-mound showcases some new monsters to fight. The Evil Wolves are gone and have been replaced by Hell Hounds, Grave Diggers and Exploding Corpses. The Hell Hounds really aren't much of a problem, but if their leap attack hits you square in the back, it can do some damage. The Exploding Corpses can hit hard as well if you're not paying attention as they explode damaging and knocking everything around them to the ground. They'll flash and/or grunt to signify before they explode so either run away or face them and block to avoid the damage. Grave Diggers aren't anything special besides the fact that they take less damage than the other enemies around them. Work your way up to the very top of the Burial-mound map, clearing as you go until you find the entrance to the Twelfth Tomb. Inside the Tomb, you'll notice the exact same enemy spread as you found outside and the only spot worth notice is the sarcophagus in the center of the map with a large group of undead to easily swarm you if you're not paying attention. You might notice an exit as you explore towards to top right part of the area, but it's currently blocked by invisible rocks. Keep heading to the right and you'll soon notice a blue dot on your map. Head towards it and you'll find Graver Shen. Every once in a while, he'll be guarded by a Leader Grave Digger so just a heads up. Once you rouse him from his picnic, he'll thank you for rescuing him and teleport back to the town. Now that he's gone, head back to the previously blocked exit and head over to Cheng Lu Villa and take the Waypoint back to town. This would be an excellent time to save and exit since you won't have to re-clear any areas from this waypoint. Once back in town, talk to Graver Shen and he'll give you his Spagyric Cube so you can refine gems. Well, he won't so much as give it to you as he will let you use his. Shen also serves as your personal stash if ask him about your savebox. Right now, you might as well stash all your gold as you have no reason to ever carry it unless you enjoy looking at the large gold piles that you make when you die. After you've stashed anything that needs stashing, head over to Lu Ban and he'll compliment you on your superb martial arts. Unfortunately, it seems your weapon is on the weak side. If you can find Smith Ou though, it seems he might be able to strengthen your weapon. #Strengthen my Weapon Getting to Smith Ou is as simple as getting to Graver Shen. He's right at the end of Cheng Lu Villa waiting patiently for you to arrive. In terms of the opposition in Cheng Lu you'll notice that the Poisoned Corpses have returned, their venom can still knock off a good amount of life if they get a hit in. The newest enemy type, however, are the Tiger Cats. In small groups of 1-3 they really aren't a problem. Once they get in groups of four or more, they surround you and follow you around, attacking en masse whenever they have a chance. The easiest way to break the circle is to move them towards a wall or map edge and try to corner on of them. Once you attack one, the other will jump in on defense so keep your thumb on the dodge key to keep from getting surrounded. The Tiger Cats aren't particularly lethal, but can be highly annoying if you don't take care of them ASAP. Once you get to Smith Ou, he'll tell you that he'd be able to sharpen your weapon if you would be so nice as to grab the meteorite metal from the cabin ahead. Sure you might be feeling like an errand boy by now, but at least you know he will be using quality materials. Before you head forward, you might want to head to town and socket some of the jewels you've found into your weapon and armor now that you have Ou's services available to you. Back the Villa, the next area you can go to is Ge's Manor. Upon entering the Villa, you'll notice a ghost-like figure waiting for you. Once you talk to it, it will introduce itself as the shade, or spirit, of Ge. He warns you that the Tome of Heaven's Troops has been stolen by the Bear Demon and if you don't recover it for him, untold wrath will be wreaked throughout the world. (alliterative emphasis added) If you go into your journal you get to see the next new demon you get to fight. Cake walk, right? Regardless, you need to get your sword sharpened before you go for the Demon so we need to recover that meteorite metal. As you work your way through Ge's Manor, you will come to a courtyard with a nice tangle of enemies, Off to your left you'll notice an exit that looks like an entrance to a tool shed. Head inside and you'll realize you're in the Abandoned Mines. Now I know a couple questions have popped into your head. I have no idea why Ge would have a mine in his front yard, nor do I know why one would find meteorite metal underground. Inside the mines, the only enemies you'll encounter are Grave Diggers. The Boss is Stone Grave Digger. This might be considered your first true boss experience solely because he has an attack that can nearly kill you in one hit and his life is in the blue. A Blue life bar is a quintuple life bar and has to be cleared 5 times before he dies. (Blue, Cyan, Bile, Orange, Red) This will be your standard boss fair for the remainder of the game. His attacks are the same as the standard Grave Digger except that they do far more damage. If his charge attack hits you in the back, it will kill you in one shot. So just make sure to block and dodge. This would be a good time to start working on large combos for your characters. You might notice that normal attacks seem to be less effective against bosses now and you would be right. For bosses, I recommend combos around 30 hits. These will allow you to do decent amounts of damage before the enemies fall down. The best way to build combos is to set them up piece by piece. Keep adding different attacks and see if you can keep hitting them without them falling over. For bosses, it's always nice to have a combo starting out with a stun so you can always have it on right click for anti-swarm maneuvering. Once you kill the Stone Grave Digger, be sure to pick up the meteorite metal that it dropped. Though you may be tempted to head back to town, return back to the Manor, and clear your way up the map. After you cross the bridge, head to your left and tag the waypoint and head back to town from here. Your teddy bear is waiting for you on the right side of the river so it's nice to have a way to quickly hop back into the fray. Back in town, talk to Smith Ou and he will stand up to his end of the bargain by strengthening your weapon. Unfortunately for all the work this took, it didn't actually sharpen your weapon, it just added a slot to it. Now would be a good time to refine some gems from potions (see nyiaor2's FAQ for tons of recipes) and fill up all your available slots. #Tome of Heaven's Troops Seeing as how you've already cleared your way to the Ge Manor waypoint, this quest should really be a piece of cake. Continue right along the river and you'll see another red dot on the map. This is the Bear Demon that Ge's spirit warned you about. The Demon is surrounded by Pikeman Evil Wolves which should not pose any threat whatsoever. The Bear Demon is another melee boss and if you've been doing full clears he shouldn't prove any challenge whatsoever. He might get in a hit or two if you're not paying attention, but the block dodge ritual should be second nature to you by now. After you tame the monster, he'll drop the Tome of Heaven's Troops along with some other goodies. Right behind him, you'll also find the earthly body of Taoist Ge who not only thanks you, but gives you the sorcerer's bag to help you in your quest. The bag is useless right now, but it will allow you to place in amulets should you come across some agates and decide to craft them. If you return back to town and talk to Taoist Ge, you find that he sells unrefined jades and various scrolls. If you talk to him, he'll give you some info on the Sorcery Bag and Spagyric Cube. However, he can open up another mini-quest for you if you ask him about Training by Fire. Apparently it's a way to refine your martial arts by avoiding pain. Seems like a pretty solid train of logic to me. See the mini-quest section for more info. Returning to Ge's Manor continue to your right to enter the next area. Arriving in Stone-gate Temple, you'll notice a green do on your map. This is Red Shadow a twin-blade knight on a similar quest as yourself. Once you talk to her, you'll enter your first duel. In duels, you don't have access to any throwing weapons or scrolls, so you need to fight fair. If you die, you'll be sent back to town and will have to restart the duel from the beginning. Fighting Red Shadow is pretty easy. Unless you're also playing as a twin- blade warrior, she really won't do too much damage. She's hard to hit because she blocks so often, but once you do get a hit in, it will do a significant amount of damage. Once you defeat her she'll tell you that she's seen some Boar faced demons in the temple. Sound familiar? Lucky for you, she'll team up to help you fight. If you're playing a twin-blade warrior yourself, prepare for the easiest part in the entire game. Using Red's help, do a full clear of the level below the raised platform. Make sure to tag the waypoint in the center of the map. If Red dies, just leave and reenter the level and she'll be good as new. Once the temple proper is cleared, head north a bit and you might notice a new red dot on your map. What's this? A boss without a quest? Well it seems that sometimes we have Bosses just for bosses sake. As you near the boss, try to lure out as many of his minions as you can. He's got quite the army around him which could prove to be a problem. If he does start coming after you, lead him around the manor and try to outpace him enough so he doesn't follow you any more. I'd kill all his minions before you start to tackle him since he seems to be about 3 times as hard as a normal Bear Demon. Once his minions are dead, let Red heal up (exit, reenter) before you tackle him. If she dies while you're fighting the Bear King, let her lie. If you leave the level in the middle of a boss fight, they will regenerate a ton of their HP. His attacks are exactly the same as a normal Bear Demon, so do you best to avoid them, and if you need time to regenerate chi or HP, just run circles around the temple. Once he's dead, head north to the next area and Red Shadow will meet you there dead or alive. She thanks you for helping get through the temple and gives you a Won Zon in thanks. If you talk to her, she'll tell you what the Won Zon does and give you some info about the Shadowless warriors. It seems we have nowhere to go now, but through the Ancient Battlefield. The Battlefield is actually quite simple, the only enemies you'll be facing are Pikeman and Bowman corpses. Each need to be killed twice, but really pose no threat. This is a nice little place to grab some experience and loot since exploring will reveal a lot of caches ready for plundering. Once you've gotten your fill, head up towards the top of the level and talk to Drai Wu. #Mission of Mercy Drai Wu asks you to retrieve a belt that he constructed to end the war with country Chu. The only problem is that in retrieving the belt you are not allowed to kill or hurt any of the enemies guarding it. Well, put on your running shoes and head over to the Challenge Arena. Hrm, seems kind of windy. No one said they were going to make it easy. Only the broadsword warrior has any chance of getting hit by the Undying Hell Dogs, but the biggest problem comes when you get towards the belt. The high enemy density might make you accidentally attack one of the dogs in your efforts to avoid them. Once you retrieve the belt and successfully return to Drai Wu he will reward you for your efforts by giving you the first of the seven virtues, the virtue of mercy in addition to the belt he had you fetch. Your virtue is intangible, but keep the belt on hand as we'll need it soon. You seem to be on your way to becoming the true hero who will rid the world of the demon incursion. Head north towards Phoenix Creek and make your way towards the red dot visible from the entrance. Once you reach the waypoint, make sure to tag it. Now would also be an excellent time to save since this is a relatively unguarded waypoint, making a nice place to restart your journey when you return. As you keep clearing your way through the level, there's a nice little stash island just above and to the left of the boss island. In the middle you'll notice a green dot on your map again. Say hello to an old friend as Red Shadow needs your help yet again. #Fix the Broken Bridge Red says that it would take some kind of carpenter to fix that bridge. If I recall correctly, I think we have someone back in Wa-dang who fits the bill perfectly. You're going to need to run back to town real quick and talk to Lu Ban about the bridge. He says he could easily do it if only he had some wood, wood that is on the center island with that ominous red dot. Lucky you! Run back to Red shadow and leap to the middle island. As you approach, you'll notice two red dots. Don't fret, you don't have to fight two bosses at once... yet. You're going to be facing a King Boar Demon. King always = blue life bar and stronger version of the regular demon. If you've been stashing your throwing weapons, now would be a good time to use them. Grab the pack's attention then just jump to the nearest island and play target practice. Once you've dropped all the enemies you'll notice that the second red dot is some sort of tree. Attack it once and it will drop some wood for you. Attack it again and you'll have your very own pinata. These trees can be a nice source of loot so make sure to hit it until it stops moving. With your wood in hand (hrm) go back to Lu Ban and he'll start working on the bridge. Teleport back to Red and the bridge will be completed. That Lu Ban is some carpenter alright. Talk to Red and she'll thank you with a Resurrection Pill. Finally, some good loot. The description says it will restore some attributes, but what it really does is refill your power meter, Korean flag, AND grants you a free level-up. Pretty sweet, no reason not to use it now. Head over to Plumper Slope and you'll be greeted by Madam Huang. She'll tell you that if you want to proceed down the horseless pass, you'll need to prepare a proper sacrifice to open the way. She notices that you still have Drai Wu's golden belt (I hope) and gives you a free armor slot. Not bad at all. If you have any spare gems around, throw one in. There's no reason to ever have an empty slot. #Into the Warlord's Gateway Though Madam Huang knows you need a sacrifice she has no idea what kind of sacrifice it is you would need. She saw Taoist Tao go through so she hints that maybe a Taoist would be your best bet. Fortunately your well connected. Head back to Wa-dang and talk to Taoist Ge. Ge tells you that the Gateway was used by the Bear tribe to test their warriors. He directs you back to the Challenge Arena to retrieve the heart of the strongest of canines. Unfortunately he warps in the middle of a large mob of Hell Dogs. Usually harmless, such a large mob can do a lot of damage since it's nearly impossible to dodge all their leap attacks. Just keep running in circles and take pot shots at the minions before you take a crack at the King Hell Dog. If you go straight for the King, all the other dogs will lunge in and swarm you before you can get away. After killing the King, take his heart and give it to Ge. He'll turn it into a sacrifice by apparently putting it into an envelope and tell you to pass through the altar. Now you just need to find it. Head through Plumper Slope, taking down all the arsonists you see. This is another good place to get some good exp. If you have around 200 defense (doing the mini-quest helps here), the torches they throw at you will rarely hit you, making you nearly invulnerable to their attacks. Once at the top of the map, pop down into the Altar and clear everything before heading into the middle room where the boss is at. There are some pretty painful groups here, so be careful. One is right to the left of the entrance with something like 5 arsonist leaders and 10+ arsonists. The other is surrounding the boss, an Orangutan Leader. Again, just an improved version of the Orangutan with Blue health and improved damaged. He's melee so you shouldn't even be batting an eye with him. Just make sure to separate him from his pack because there are a ton of them and it's the numbers of enemies that kill you in this game, not the strength of a single one. Once that mess is all cleaned up, head towards to blue dot and "talk" to the altar. If the sacrifice is in your inventory, as it should be, the portal to the Warlord's Gateway will open up for you. Step through and behold! It's Taoist Tao, he tells you the history of the Gateway and tells you to return to the village and equip up for the challenge ahead. He uses his spirit to open up the waypoint and tells you if you fail the task ahead, his life is forfeit. Take the waypoint home and you'll notice everyone wants to talk to you. Make sure you have some room in your inventory and start talking. Each villager will offer you a gift and wish you luck before your sendoff. Taoist Ge will give you a Pavonine Agate - for making amulets. Graver Shen will give you a Common Uncut Jade. Smith Ou will give you a Martial Pill - this pill raises your max power by 1000, might as well take it right away. Shopkeeper Guo gives you 4 stamina potions. Lu Ban will hand you 6 Hooked Rings and Doctor Chin gives you 2 rejuvs even though she offers 4 healing potions. Something is wrong with that girl, I think she drinks too many of said "Healing Potions." Now you can return to the Gateway OR finish your optimal quests and start the city duels. I highly recommend the latter, especially the duels. Even though the duels are hard, you'll get a ton of cash as well as unlocking a secret level, a great place for items to refine. The duels will also be good practice and if you can do these you won't hit a wall of difficulty come the end. See the mini-quest and city duel sections for more info. #Pass the Warlord's Gateway If you've done all the city duels I congratulate you and this level will be cake. The Gateway is nothing more than some island hopping tied together with ice blast dodging. You'll only be facing three enemies in this level, all of which are quite simple. Evil Frogs, Bowman Corpses, and Orangutans will fill your repertoire. There really is no reason to clear the level if you're not getting much experience. These guys won't drop anything useful besides a little cash. However, it would be nice to completely fill up your power meter before talking to the mysterious old man stroking his beard in the center island. When you talk to the old man, he will admit to being surprised to finding someone like you in this world. He is so surprised, in fact, that he will leave you a friend to play with before he leaves. This friend has to be my favorite boss in the entire game just because he looks so cool. The Elephant Demon is a massive melee boss who does all your melee boss activities. In truth, he practically has the same skrit as the Bear King with just a tad more hit points and damage ability. If you've done the duels, you'll be laughing at any implied challenge a single monster can bring. Just play keep away if you you're having problems killing him since he likes to stun you and grab you if you stay too close to him. Any fast attack character can easily hit him before he has a chance to even make any attacks. Once he's been sent to the piano factory, Taoist Tao will make a return on the topmost island and have you break the ghost stele barring your advancement. Just like the tree, attack it until it keeps dropping items and talk to Tao again. For clearing the human realm of the demon invaders he gives you a Guardian Pei. If this item is in your sorcery bag, it will cast a portal anytime you die, keeping you from having to do any long treks to recover your gold. Nice little item, but it can really eat up your transmission orbs if you find yourself dieing often. Talk to everyone wishing you a farewell before you go. Doctor Chin will give you 2 rejuvenation potions and Lu Ban will give you 6 more hooked rings. You'll also find that both Graver Shen and Madame Huang will be accompanying you to the Beast Realm. If there is anything else you want to do in Chapter 1, make sure you do it now - once you take the portal to the next realm, there is no turning back. Once everything is taken care of, head back to the Gateway and head on over. III. Chapter 2: The Beast Realm ------------------------------- *Equinox Village > Sword Fortress > *Tiger Mound > King Liao's Mausoleum > Windy Woodland > Victory Tribe > *Crimson Mansion > Stella Forest > *Hillock of Truce > Tri-Emperor Mausoleum > Aurora Valley > *Icy Fire Marsh > *Empyrean Pool > Dragon Mountain Welcome to the Beast Realm, a land of varying shades of white! It seems that the local populace is being terrorized by some monster hordes that have been increasing ever since the emergence of some strange towers far to the north. This chapter really fills you in on what's happened to the world and how it is you can save it. You'll immediately notice that Tao wants to talk to you. He confirms your fears that the demon threat seems to be growing as you move further north. Though he is unable to fight with you, he will provide you with spells and uncut jades should you ask. Madam Huang would like to talk with you as well. She thanks you for giving her the opportunity to come to the northlands. She is however concerned with how barren everything is since there are so few people around... She can now imbed jewels in your armor as well as act as your healer. Notice that everything you can buy has moved up a level of refinement. The ability to buy large potions, will make gem creation go a lot faster now. Though Graver Shen wants to talk to you too, he has nothing useful to say, besides trying to cheer you up with the impossibility of your task to come! Finally, talk to Wongbo Guo before you head out. He welcomes you to this village, he is the only original inhabitant here. He well give you your first quest to find a famous sword-making couple so that you can sharpen your weapon before you get too far into the wilderness. If you ask Guo to introduce himself, he will open up the city duel section for chapter 2. You're probably sick of duels for the time being, so leave the challenge area be for the time being. #Look for Gan Jane Head down into the Sword Fortress. The enemies here are surprisingly simple Just make your way down to the bottom of the map. Since the enemies aren't much of a challenge, feel free to do a full clear for some nice experience. Once you reach the bottom you'll find Gan Jane without any sort of boss resistance. He notices Smith Ou's mark on your weapon and says that if you can find both his wife and one of the 5 legendary swords, he would be glad to recast it to further your fight against the demons. Not like you have really have a choice anyways, so on we go! #Help Make a Powerful Sword #Look for Mok Ye, Gan Jane's Wife #Look for the Fish Intestine Sword (yummeh!) Why are these three quests paired up? Well, as you'll soon see, they are all done at once. The next area you'll run in to is Tiger Mound. There's a waypoint in the north part of the village if you need it, but you should tag it just for good measure. In the middle of the abandoned city, you'll notice a blue dot on your map. On closer inspection, it looks like some kind of spirit. It appears to be the spirit of Chuan Zue. He says that the Fish Intestine Sword is in a cave to the west, and he is unable to fully die unless it gets returned to its rightful owner - Gan Jane. Good thing that is the exact sword that we need. Head towards the western edge of the map and you should promptly come to the tomb entrance. As soon as you enter the tomb, you'll notice a blue dot on your map. That's one of your goals in the tomb as it happens to be Mok Ye. When you meet up with Mok Ye, she'll ask you to find her son Chin Bin. Yet, our work in the tomb is far from over. Head towards the right edge of the map once Mok Ye teleports back to Equinox. The red dot you'll be facing is a Corpse General along with two Snow Ettin Leaders. The General acts a lot like a Grave Digger with a boomerang attack that con do some damage if it hits you both times. This might be the first challenging area in chapter 2 if you're a low level. Just try to keep yourself facing the whole group at all times since it seems that you take more damage if hit in the back, and if needed, you can string these guys out if you run far enough. Once the boss pack is destroyed, head towards the end of the chamber and you'll encounter King Liao's sarcophagus. Open it up and the Fish Intestine sword will pop right out. If you want, you can talk to Chuan Ze and he'll give you a little more back story, but just run back to town and talk to Gan Jane. Gan Jane then takes the sword and melts it down so that you can have an extra slot on your weapon. Talk to him again and in payment of rescuing his wife, he'll give you a refined amethyst for your troubles. All you have to do to finish up this trilogy of terror is to head back to Tiger Mound and talk to Chuan Zue. He fervently thanks you on his way to eternal rest. When he takes his leave, he bestows upon you the Faith Holy Spirit. Well, who would have thought you'd recover the 6 remaining spirits from actual spirits? #Help Chong Zon Jion The Windy Woodland continues your foray into headache country, not far into the level you'll encounter another spirit by the name of Chong Zon Jion. Chong tells a tale of love and heartache as the love of his life, Hong Fu was happily married to another. In his despair, he asks you to help him understand his love for Fu. This level has two exits, right now take the exit to the south towards Victory Tribe. Victory Tribe adds some new enemies to the mix - Dart Devils and Frost Devils. Both are relatively easy, but bring in nice experience. Clear your way down towards the bottom of this level until you meet yet another spirit, Hong Fu's husband, Li Jing. Full of regret Li tells you of his lovely wife Hong Fu and how her early death caused him to lose focus in life. His request of you is to help him work through his confusion and regret for not being around his wife enough before she died. Finally work your way towards the east exit and enter the Crimson Mansion. Same enemies as the Victory Tribe, so rack up the easy experience. Even at level 34 you can gain a 2 levels just by doing full clears of the last two areas. Inside the mansion, meet the lady of the hour, Hong Fu. She asks you to burn a letter at her husband's grave - should you find it. If you haven't talked to both Chong and Li, you need to do so before she gives you the letter. Talk to her as many times as you need to before she actually hands over the letter. Tag the waypoint before you head back out to Victory Tribe. Now you're just going to run a few errands so that these spirits can be put to rest. If you want to do some leveling while you're at it, save & exit and teleport back to the mansion before you get started. Now, you're going to want to run through the love triangle in this order: * With the letter from Hong Fu go to her husband Li Jing * Li Jung will give you a key that he received when Chong gave over all his property. Take the key to Chong to figure out its use. * Chong says the key opens up his most secret box, a prized possession of Hong Fu's, the woody comb. (They make combs for those?) * Head to Hong Fu and she'll say she can bind her spirit to the comb. * Take Hong Fu in comb form to her husband. * Once reunited, Hong asks you to do one last thing. Take the couple to see their sworn brother Chong * The family back together, they thank you and bestow upon you a Gilded Breastplate and the Love Holy Spirit. If you return to Equinox Village with the Breastplate and talk to Madam Cheung, she will be able to add an addition slot to your armor. #Help Mok Ye look for Chin Bin Now that we've finished that little ditty, prepare for what could possible be the hardest quest, barring the final battles, for a first time player. The reason it is difficult surrounds the introduction of a new boss type - the flyer. But before we discuss this new enemy, first thing you want to do is head to Stella Forest from the unused path in the Crimson Mansion. You really want to do a full clear of the level while keeping away from the red- dot on the far right corner of the map. It really helps to be able to lead the King Hawk to a clear area where you can maneuver around him. Once the level is cleared, talk to the blue-dot in the center of the 'forest'. It seems that Chin Bin has been trapped in the Red Stele (I know... it's spelled wrong in the game), but you won't be able free him until you face the King Hawk. The King Hawk is surrounded by a large pack of minions, so work you way towards him and lure out as many as possible. If the music changes, you've agro-ed the Boss so just run as far back as possible. > Killing the King Hawk The King Hawk, as mentioned previously, is the first flying type monster that you will encounter in your game. As such most players really have a hard time beating them and get disinterested with the game. There are 2 basic strategies to beating the boss - each will be displayed below. a) The combo way - This centers on your ability to create a combo that starts with a move that vaults the enemy into the air. Such as Dragon Soar for the Long Swordsman, Sky Mend for the Twin Blade Heroin, and Dragon Lift for the Broad Swordsman. (Manual names used). This will allow you to hit from any altitude, but getting combos starting with a lift can be very tricky. You'll also be running around a lot and the Hawk has some nasty long range attacks that can really hurt. See Mitzrah Keoni's FAQ on gamefaqs.com for some good combos. b) The dodge way - This is my favorite way to kill the King Hawk because it is the safest. All you need to do is get the King Hawk to a relatively open area and get close and dodge. Just keep circling around him by pressing your space key. Then just wait for him to lower altitude and attack or use any of your combos. You'll be ability to avoid all his special attacks and might get hit with a jab or two if you don't attack quick enough. This way allows you to use your favorite combos and is a lot easier on the Chi if you're running low. Both ways have their advantages depending on the character you chose to play. I recommend picking one and practicing a bit, since you'll be facing some harder hitting flying bosses before the game is through. #Rescue Chin Bin's Soul Now that the King Hawk is dead, go back to the Stella and talk to Chin Bin. He'll ask you to destroy it. Once freed, he'll tell you his story. Apparently he gave his life to a wizard in order to kill the king who slew his father. Unfortunately his soul is tied to the Stele and he won't be able to return home unless you can bind it to something. Before we find out what, you'll need to return to town. Head over to the next area and ignore the blue dot near the entrance. Just run east and hit the waypoint. #Look for the Gan Jane Sword Back in town you'll need to talk to Taoist Tao. He'll tell you that because of how the king was assassinated, the skulls of the wizard, Chin Bin and the king were all buried in the same tomb since no one could tell them apart. If you head down to the Tri-emperor Mausoleum, you find a sword suitable to bind Chin's soul to. You'll notice that the last two quests are still uncompleted. Finishing this one will fulfill all the other requirements. Before you leave town, speak to Wongbo Guo and he will chide you for not showing him the fish intestine sword. Yet, it seems that during his grave- looting youth he found a puzzle in the Tri-Emperor Mausoleum. He doesn't know what the trap involves besides having to be solved in the East, South, North, West Order. With that knowledge scribed into your journal, head back to the Hillock and continue east until you run into the cave entrance. The Mausoleum is one of the better designed levels in the game. It's full of loops, dead ends, and loot. The mob density is very nice, but unfortunately the experience gains are probable really low by now. Clear your way through the Mausoleum heading towards the north. You'll reach a small hallway separating the tomb from a large room with 4 stele with a central sarcophagus. It seems this was the puzzle to Wongbo warned us about. You'll want to hit the Stele in the order that he described. The only catch is that the east stele is in the north, or top, edge of your screen. Each stele you tag will release a bile-level Corpse General. They're drops are actually decent for the area so if you want to do some farming, just keep hitting the stele in the wrong order to keep spawning the generals. Once the puzzle has been completed, head to the sarcophagus and you'll notice a sword hovering in the air. Once you try to grab it, however, it seems the puzzle has one last trick. A King Corpse spawns to try to stop you. He's really no different than the other guardians you fought, so just take him down and head back to Stele Forest. Back in the Forest, talk to Chin Bin so that he can bind himself to his father's sword. If you saved after the King Hawk fight, you'll either want to kill him again, or come in from the Mansion side to avoid him altogether. With Chin Bin in your backpack, head back to town and talk to either of his parents. They will thank you for bringing their son back, and Chin Bin will give you the Devotion Spirit as a way of saying thanks. Finally, talk to Gan Jane and he will add a slot to your sword for saving his son. Your sword is now fully slotted, and if you've been conserving cash now would be a good time to start crafting some pearls and stars. #Look for Water in Country Shoo You'll want to head back to the Hillock of Truce and talk to Poo Yuan. Break through the ice blocking his path and he will ask a favor of you. It seems he is crafting three thousand swords for the Country Shoo in order to help with the Demon armies. Unfortunately, he can't find water pure enough for his delicate work. If you can find the water for him, he will be able to temper his swords. Finding the water is pretty simple. Head up towards the top of the Hillock. Once you reach the top, you'll notice a red dot. This new boss monster is the Bull Demon and he's your basic melee type. Only thing you need to watch out for is his boomerang attack. It fires out in a wide arc reminiscent of Arsonist Leaders and is very damaging. Just keep within melee range, however, and he should never use it. The Bull Demon might take a while to put down since he has tons of hit points, but when he is dead, head on over to Aurora Valley. Aurora Valley introduces the bane of Chapter 3. Devil Leopards are the hard hitting melee equivalents of Arsonists. They are usually found in group of 7+ with a few Devil Leopard leaders in the mix. You'll notice a green dot immediately upon entering the level. This is Chiyun Nan, and he will tell you he is a fighter like yourself. However, he won't join you until you can break the hard pack ice. Unfortunately you can't do that yet, so just take the small ramp north and break the normal ice blocking your path. This is where you'll meet your first Devil Leopard pack, and it's pretty sizeable. If you're having problems, lead them back towards Chiyun and he will start attacking some of them. As for the water, you can't miss it once the area appears on your mini-map. It's the big blue ink spot. Grab some Shoo ice and head back to Poo Yan. Poo Yan will thank you for the water and give you a sword to help you get past the pack ice. He would fix your weapon yourself, but he doesn't know how to work with this particular sword. Hrm, the sword is called the Mok Ye Sword... I wonder where we could go to find a qualified smith? Well, head back to Gan Jane and to his surprise, he current reincarnation hadn't even created the sword yet, but he will melt it down for you so that your weapon will be strong enough to break the ice. Head back to Poo Yan and he will have miraculously finished tempering all three thousand swords! In gratitude, he will bestow upon you the Loyalty Holy Spirit. #Kill the Devils in Aurora Valley Now it's time to head back to Aurora Valley and kill some Devils. Chiyun Nan will join you now, although I would prefer if he didn't. He will tell you that he has seen one of the fabled monster towers in this area and that you need to destroy it. This level is quite small, and finding the tower shouldn't be difficult at all. The tower is guarded by a large slew of monsters led by another King Hawk (yay!). Again, make sure to pull off as many as you can because the Leopards can really distract you from the boss. This time, killing the Hawk is much harder thanks to the 'help' of Chiyun Nan. Because of Nan, you won't be able to pull off any great combos because, odds are, he will knock the Hawk down as soon as possible. Your strategy should be the same as the last Hawk, just devote more time to this one since its going to be slow progress as you whittle his health down. Once he's dead, take down the tower and Chiyun Nan will disappear. He will reappear further down the path towards the next area and in gratitude for your help, bestow upon you the Bravery Spirit for your hard work. He 
also warns you that there is some evil obstacle in the Icy Fire Marsh and 
that brute force will not be able to solve this problem.  With that advice in 
mind, head on over to the Marsh and take the waypoint there home.

#Help Wongbo Guo make sacrifices to the Gods

Once back home, make sure to talk to both Taoist Tao, who will inform you 
that the only way to pass the Evil Obstacle is if you have accumulated all of 
the Seven Holy Spirits; and to Wongbo Guo, who will ask you to find the 
Empyrean Marsh so that he can rekindle the practice of making sacrifices to 
the Gods.  Head on back to the Icy Fire Marsh and proceed to clear it out.  
There aren't any surprises in here that call for special attention.

While your working your way through the level, you'll realize a green, gassy 
area to the northwest, that gas is the Evil Obstacle, and you won't be able 
to go through there just yet.  You'll also come across what looks like 
another transmission pad, but unfortunately it seems to be locked.  What 
you'll need to do is explore the level until you come across what looks to be 
a burning glacier.  Go ahead and grab it, stick you hands right in there!  
Take the Marshy Icy Fire back to town and ask Taoist Tao about it.  He says 
he can make a pill that will allow you to travel to the Empyrean Pool, but it 
will only work for one person.  Ask Wongbo Guo what you should do.  He'll 
recommend you go in first and handle any monsters that might pop up.  Then 
hopefully you might be able to find a way to open it up to him.  Nice guy, 
eh?

Tell Tao of your agreement with Wongbo and he'll give you the pill.  Now head 
back to the Marsh and enter that other transmission point.  This will warp 
you up to the Lake and you now need to do a full clear of the level.  You'll 
be facing nothing but those Blue Devil Leopards and Devil Leopard Leaders.  
It should be pretty easy to take them on one by one as long as you work your 
way around the outside of the map first.  Once the outside is all cleared, 
there will be a pack of Blue Devil Leopards and a Blue-level Blue Devil 
Leopard.  The pack can by a problem if you don't break it up, but doing so is 
quite tricky.  The easiest way to do so is to get to the far eastern edge of 
the map and run to the far west, while trying to get as many obstacles 
between you and them.

Once all the monsters are killed, you need to use the new transmission point 
from the Pool and take it back to town.  Tell Wongbo it's all clear and he'll 
head to the Pool.  You need to head back over there yourself and talk to him 
again.  For your troubles, he'll give you a Prey (Pray?) Jade and you'll 
finally receive the Loyalty Holy Spirit, the last of the Seven.  Now all you 
have to do is take that Prey Jade to Madam Huang and she'll add the final 
slot to your armor.

#Solve the Evil Obstacle

Now that you have all the Holy Spirits, all you need to do is talk to Taoist 
Tao and he will secure your Chi from Demon influence and allow you to pass 
the Evil Obstacle in the Icy Fire Marsh.  Now all you have to do is do a full 
clear of Dragon Mountain and you will be ready to enter Hell.  Before you 
start working on the mountain, now would be the best time to complete the 
city duels if you choose to.  Though tough, I highly recommend you complete 
the Chapter 2 duels above all else.  See the City Duels section for more info

#Open the Gate to Hell

Back on Dragon Mountain, your quest is to simply work your way towards the 
top, where you will be able to enter the crack and descend into Hell.  It's 
quite simple if you've done the duels as there is nothing you'll come across 
that you haven't seen before.  You'll be facing two bosses, separately, on 
this map before you reach the top.  The first is a Bull Fiend, and as you've 
already come across and defeated one, this guy is cake.  The second boss is 
towards the top, and he's surrounded by a decent amount minions.  As always, 
you'll want to clear out all the little guys before you agro the boss.

Wizard is a quasi-flier type.  Unlike the King Hawk, you can almost always 
hit him since he's only on the middle tier.  Wizard has some powerful magic 
that can quickly drain your Korean flag in one to two hits.  He also has the 
ability to summon Blue Devil Leopards and Snow Giants.  The key to avoiding 
most of his attacks is to stay really close.  You can block just about all 
his attacks, so don't bother running around like a maniac when fighting him.  
If he does summon some minions, ignore them.  If you go after them, he'll 
summon more.  Keep on him and he should go down quite fast.  Once all the 
devils have been disposed of, you'll notice an odd colored hole in the 
mountain.

Head back to town and ask Tao what it might mean.  Apparently, the hole 
should lead to Wizard Wen's lair.  He asks you to say goodbye to everyone 
before you join back up with him on the mountain.  Though it's not necessary 
to talk to everyone, you need to hit Poo Yang, Madame Huang, and Graver Shen 
before you run back to the top of the mountain.  Once on top, speak the 
Taoist Tao one final time and he will use his chi mastery to unlock the 
portal.  Head inside and make your way down to the Hells.


IV.  Chapter 3: The Undead Realm
--------------------------------
Ghostdom Belvedere

> *Stockade Village
 >  River Nai
  > *Gate of Hell
   >  Gloom Hall
   >  Acheron Gate
    > *Netherworld City
     >  Branch Brute
     >  Branch Ghoul
     >  Branch Demonic
      > *Reincarnation Purgatory
       >  Palace Demogorgon

It seems that wherever Taoist Tao thought you were going, it definitely 
wasn't to the Hells.  Now that you're here, it's time to finally figure out 
how to stop the evil that has become Emperor Jo.  Talk to the Military Ghost 
Judge and he'll 'welcome' you to Hell.  He says he's on his way to see the 
head of the underworld and ask if he can help.  He recommends that you and 
your friends head over to Stockade Village, where there remains a relative 
bastion of safety.

#Pass through Ghostdom Belvedere

All you need to do to get through this quest is to work your way through the 
Ghostdom and talk to Madam Meng in Stockade Village.  In terms of resistance, 
I would have to say it's really not Hell worthy.  These guys do little damage 
and besides taking some time, it should be simple enough to accomplish.  
Madam Huang will fill you in on some of the town's back story as well as 
opening up access to the Chapter 3 city-duels if you enquire into the new 
area.  Talking to Madam Huang about the Hell Frogs will open up a min-quest 
reminiscent of Doctor Chin's rat hunt.  Unfortunately, these guys are twice 
as fast and even pumping up my speed to 23 as the twin-blade heroine, I am 
still unable to finish this one.

#Look for the Exquisite Heart

As you make your way out of Stockade Village, you'll come across the Military 
Judge again.  He says that the key to solving the evil incursion in this 
realm is to find the exquisite heart, a relic from one of the great sages, 
Bee Gan.  Supposedly it's off in the River Nai somewhere.  It seems the 
Military Judge REALLY needs it, so let's not dilly-dally.  

River Nai is a lot like the last level of the first chapter.  Lots of pad 
jumping, while dodge fireballs is what you can expect.  Unfortunately, there 
aren't any small islands of note, no stashes or anything.  If you find the 
exit to the next area, you've gone to far east.  Back track a little until 
your jump-path allows you to go north.  You'll find Bee Gan on an island that 
is actually deceptively close to the starting point.  His only comment is a 
terse 'Return to the Village'.  With the Exquisite Heart now in tow, ignore 
his demand and carry on to the next area.  If you follow the path to the S-
SW, you'll come across a waypoint at the intersection, right in front of the 
Military Judge.  My, this guy sure gets around, doesn't he?

The Inferno / Military Judge now wants you to use the heart to unlock the 
gate to Gloom Hall, but he warns you that there are enemies in there that 
even the Hellking is not match for!  On a side note, if you are ever REALLY 
hurting for cash, you can attack the trees by holding ctrl while you click on 
one.

Head down the western path to get to Gloom Hall.  Again, no enemies worth 
noting.  The gate, however, opens up easily enough.  How odd that one of the 
Head Hell Honchos isn't able to perform such a simple task... In order to 
finish this quest, you need to take on that boss in the center courtyard.  
Sadly this guy doesn't even deserve a red dot.  I was able to take him down 
in a single combo, sure it was an 82 hit combo (I love the heroine) but it 
was a single combo nonetheless.  

#Deal With Hellking's Affairs

Now you'll need to head back to the Gate of Hell and talk to the Military 
Judge again.  Now that Gloom Hall is open, you'll need to head over to the 
Acheron Gate and tell the Hellking that Gloom Hall is now open.  Finding the 
King is quite easy.  You've already seen all the enemies in this area before.  
The last "boss" has now become a standard trooper and is still to pose a 
threat.  Even accompanied by a large group.  If you're feeling super lazy, 
the walls in this level are low enough to jump over!

The Hellking is guarded by a Dark Ghost King.  He's just a blue-level version 
of the Dark Ghost leader, and doesn't seem to do any additional damage should 
you allow him to get a hit in.  Upon being rescued, he asks yet another 
errand of you.  He needs the other Hell Generals so that he can formulate a 
plan.  Though he wants you to run back to Gloom Hall to retrieve them, I want 
you to do the exact opposite and continue on to Netherworld City.  Tag the 
waypoint right away and take note of the Evil Ghosts.  These neat little 
enemies have the ability to go transparent.  You can bring them out of 
invisibility by attacking the moving light source.

Right away, you'll find one of the Hell Generals.  He told you the Hellking 
has him guarding the city.  Guarding did he say?  I thought they were 
stranded and overrun by demons.  Hrm, something smells fishy.  Well, head 
into the heart of the city, but make sure to kill as many bad guys as you can 
before you talk to the other general; because once you do, he will transform 
into two King Tigers!

King Tigers might actually be the most challenging melee bosses in the entire 
game.  They have a really high defense, so you'll have a hard time landing a 
hit, and when you do get one in, they'll very often block it.  Don't worry 
that there are two blue-level enemies around since these follow the rule of 
blue-level dueling.  That is, as long as the blue-level monster you're 
attacking doesn't go in to flee mode (almost dead) all other blue-level 
monsters will not attack you.  The King Tiger has some pretty painful 
attacks, some of which can deal out over 600 hit points worth of damage.  If 
you're a twin blade heroine and haven't focused on increasing your hit 
points, you're going to want to not get hit... ever.  

Once these King Tigers are out of the way, head over to the far east side of 
the village.  You'll notice two people in a cage.  Talk to both the Hellking 
and the Civic Judge before you head back to Gloom Hall and see what the 
Military Judge is trying to do to you.

#Help Hellking 

Back in Gloom Hall, approach the faux Hellking to see why he tried to kill 
you in Netherworld City.  It seems that they have been planning to kill you 
ever since Wizard Wen escaped here from Dragon Mountain.  He will now spawn 
into an invincible King Ghost and a number of Straw Hat Bowmen and Fighter 
Ghost Headmen.  Military Ghost Judge will also jump in to attack you.  For 
this fight you're going to want to ignore everything but the Military Judge 
as he is able to spawn more monsters should you give him time to.  He has two 
breath attacks that he can hit you with.  One will stun you, while the other 
damages you.  If you keep hitting him though, he won't have much time to 
attack you and will go down pretty quickly.  The King Ghost will leave you 
alone as long as you're fighting the Military Judge and the minions shouldn't 
be a concern.

Once the Military Judge is dead, do a ground search (z) and run back to the 
real Hellking.  Unlock his cage and talk to the Civil Judge.  For your 
vanquish of the traitorous Military Judge, the Devotion aperture of the heart 
will open.  Now talk to the Hellking and he will come with you to cleanse 
Gloom Hall for good.  This time he will actually teleport you there, so talk 
to him as soon as the screen fades in.  In his anger of the Military Judge, 
he will revoke the immunity of the King Ghost for you.  The King Ghost is 
nothing more than a blue-level Fighter Ghost, you'll just need to kill him 
twice before he will go down.

With Gloom Hall all spic and span now, head back to the Hellking and he will 
describe some of the back story of the boss you just slew.  For your deeds, 
the justice aperture of the heart will now be open.  Three down and four more 
to go.  Head back to town and talk to Taoist Tao, who will finally tell you 
who is behind this mess and how you need to start going about fixing it.

#Help Hellking Find the 3 Gems

Hellking has now opened up the three gates guarding the three gems of the 
seal of the three religions.  It is your duty to gather these gems and return 
them to Hellking before Jo's minions can.  You'll want to head back to 
Netherworld City and take the top left exit first.  Branch Brute is a tiny 
level, and it's only purpose is to house the Emperor Pig and his three Evil 
Housecarls.  Talking to the Emperor will reveal his retched past.  It seems 
that in times long past he was the Emperor of a great kingdom, but in his 
prime he was betrayed by his most loyal general.  He asks you to avenge him 
by slaying his treacherous advisor.

You can find the Great General in the top right exit of Netherworld City with 
his General Advisor.  Branch Ghoul is just as small as Branch Brute and it 
makes me wonder if these two were thrown in with the sole purpose of 
increasing level counts.  Regardless, talking to the General reveals that it 
wasn't he that betrayed the king.  Rather, it was the king that betrayed his 
people.  Had he not overthrown the king, someone else sure would.  You are 
now left with a choice.  You can go back to the Emperor and agree to kill the 
General, or you can agree with the General to kill the King.  The choice you 
make only affects the order you will retrieve the gems, they have no effect 
on story.

Picking the general first, you will now want to head back to the emperor.  
With the General Advisor at your side, the Evil Housecarls will not stand a 
chance.  Defeat them and the other minions that spawn to protect the emperor 
and he will realize that he did betray his own people in his gluttonous 
pleasure.  Sparing the emperor's life will net you the Mercy Aperture and 
give you the Hellking's Seal, the first of the three gems.

Return now to the General and he will be angered to not see the Emperor's 
head in your possession.  In his fury, he will order his minions to attack.  
For this battle, you want to focus on the General Advisor / lesser minions 
first.  The Great General has such a phenomenal amount of hit points that he 
will take a while to bring down.  You should already know the capabilities of 
the Advisor by watching him in the first battle, so he shouldn't be too much 
of a problem.  The General has the same attack capabilities of a normal 
general, they just do much more damage.  Again, if you haven't focused on 
getting your HP around 1,000 by now, you'll have to be careful with avoiding 
some one-hit kills.

Once the minions are destroyed, you'll receive the Life Notepad and open up 
the Love aperture.  I guess tough love is as good as it gets.  Now, you'll 
want to run down to the southern Netherworld City exit and head into Branch 
Demonic.  On your way, head back to town and quickly speak to the Civil Judge 
to clear his talk queue.  In Branch Demonic, you'll be facing Doppelgangers 
and Evil Spirits.  Before you head towards the boss and the final of the 
three gems, you'll want to do a full clear of the main island.  When you're 
fighting the boss, running into a pack of Doppelgangers can easily spell your 
demise.

The boss is Succubae Sue, and it seems she was the catalyst for the world's 
problems.  Like a typical super-villain, she'll reveal all her plans before 
she attacks you in her blind arrogance.  Fighting her isn't too tough.  
You'll have to kill her twice and her first form is relatively, nay 
completely, harmless.  Save all your chi and fury points for her 
transformation.  Though her transformation is only a yellow color shift of 
her normal self, she has some really powerful attacks.  Defense in this fight 
favors dodging over blocking.  If she starts to power up her blades, you'll 
need to dodge since she will unleash an un-blockable attack that can do 
upwards of 800 damage in a single hit.  

Once she's been taken down, pick up the last of the three gems and the Faith 
aperture will open on the heart.  If you try to head to the next area, you'll 
find the path blocked.  The only thing left to do is to head back to town and 
see if anyone can help you out.

#Open the Gate to Palace Demogorgon

Luckily for you, the Hellking has arrived.  Talk to him and he'll tell you 
that with the three gems, He, Civil Judge, and Taoist Tao will be able to 
open the gate to the Demon Realm.  Talking to Taoist Tao will cause the three 
to teleport to the exit of Branch Demonic and you'll need to follow them back 
there.

Yet, when you arrive at the gateway, only Hellking will be around.  It seems 
that when they opened the gate, they were overrun by demons!  The Civil Judge 
was hurt so the Hellking stayed to tend his wounds while Tao ran inside to 
hold them back.  You need to rescue Tao before he gets hurt.

#Open the Gate to Palace Demogorgon

The Reincarnation Purgatory is a fair sized level with tons of opposition.  
Expect to face mobs of Dark Ghost Kings and Doppelgangers.  You really want 
to do a full clear of this area before you hit the boss in the palace.  He 
tends to like to retreat into any mobs you might have left behind, and he is 
hard enough as is.  Just moving slowly through this level will lower the 
difficulty as always, and the mobs have good enough drops / experience to 
make it worth your time.

Once your ready head into the palace and talk to your arch nemesis Emperor 
Jo.  He's holding Taoist Tao in some sort of energy shell, and you need to 
defeat him in order to save Tao.  Emperor Jo will spawn with a couple more 
Doppelgangers but if you quickly run out of the palace, you should be able to 
leave them behind so you can focus on Jo.  Jo is like a Super King Tiger, 
this battle will be an adequate judge of your fighting skills.  Use the same 
strategy you used to defeat the Tigers and if you can't get a hit in, you 
will need to level a bit more and focus on spiking your Hit Rate since he has 
so much defense.  

Once he's down... nothing happens?!  Well it seems that there is yet more to 
come.  Run back to Tao and see how he's doing.  Things don't look so good for 
the Tao Master and it seems for you as well.  That enemy you just fought 
wasn't even Jo, it was just a teeny bit of his demon energy materialized.  In 
his last dying breath he says he will help gain entrance to the Palace.  With 
that, the bravery aperture opens on your heart and the way into Palace 
Demogorgon is revealed.

#The Final Battles

If you had a really hard time with the Human Jo, then you really want to do 
some leveling before attempting these last battles.  These take quite a bit 
of time, and the way the game's save system is set up you can't stop and save 
mid-way.  It also helps to have yourself upgraded to the best possible gems 
for your difficulty level.  The break-up works like this:  Easy - Max level 
7; Normal - Max level 8; Hard - Max Level 10; Super Hard - Max Level 11.  
You'll want to be able to devote at least two hours to get these done, so 
don't try to start these if you've only got a few minutes.

The final battles consist of a series of duel ala the City Duels for you to 
accomplish.  This is the main reason I recommended completion of the Chapter 
1 and 2 duels.  The practice of fighting monster hordes without dying is 
invaluable.  The duels as listed occur in a clockwise order starting from the 
one to the right of the entrance to Palace Demogorgon.  These final battles 
are tough, and I wish you the best of luck warrior.

Fight 1: 2 King Tigers & Straw Hat Bowmen
Fight 2: King Hawk & Evil / Super Evil bats
Fight 3: War Elephant (yay!) & Orangutans / Arsonist Leaders (boo!)
Fight 4: King Ghost & Fighter Ghosts
Fight 5: Succubus Sue & Evil Ghosts
Fight 6: Bull Fiend & Snow Giant Leaders
Fight 7: Wizard Wen & Devil Leopard Leaders

Once all the duels are completed, Emperor Jo will spawn with a large number 
of doppelgangers in the center throne. 

Kill Boss: Emperor Jo plus doppelgangers

Kill Boss: ????

After the super marathon of boss fights, you will have put the evil to rest.  
Congratulate yourself on defeating one of the hardest ARPGs on the market.  
Now that the world is saved, shall we try again on super hard?  ^_^  Maybe 
some other day!


V.  City Duels
---------------

City Duels are the training missions that open up in each of the acts.  Each 
consist of approximately 30 rounds that do NOT need to be done in one 
sitting.  They also have a variance in the number of enemies so my numbers 
might not meet up exactly with the enemies you've found.  If I've ever had to 
do a round more than once, I tried to list any variances I found.  As long as 
you complete one battle, you never have to do it again.  These duels are very 
tough as they pit you against large numbers of enemies.  They also consists 
of fights that eclipse the difficulty of act bosses.  Needless to say if you 
can do these, you are prepared to face anything the act can throw at you.

They are completely optional, and besides doing no more than 1-3 on my first 
playthrough, I suffered greatly when it came to the final boss scheme since 
there you have to do 12 duels in one sitting and I was ill prepared, both 
skill-wise and equipment-wise.

Completing all the duels in an act opens up a secret area with special 
monsters that have great drops.  The level in chapter 2 is of special note 
because it is, by far, the best place to search for items in the entire game.  
That one asks for a couple playthroughs before doing a full clear just 
because the items are so good there.

As with the fire mini-quest, make sure you've just leveled before attempting 
these because a failed duel gives you an experience hit, and you WILL die 
doing these.


#Chapter I

ACTIVATION: Ask Lu Ban about militia training and the option will open up in 
his talk menu.
REWARD:  500 + 10*(fight#-1) gold
         i.e. the fifth fight will yield [500 + 10*(5-1)] or 540 gold

Fight  1: 5 Poisoned Corpses
Fight  2: 5 Poisoned Corpses & 7 Corpses
Fight  3: 7 Evil Wolf Leaders
Fight  4: 7 Evil Wolf Leaders & 6 Evil Wolves
Fight  5: 4 Boar Demon Soldiers
Fight  6: 2 Boar Demon Soldiers & 5 Evil Wolf Leaders
Fight  7: 4 Grave Diggers
Fight  8: 8 Grave Diggers
Fight  9: 13 Hell Dogs
Fight 10: Stone Grave Digger
Fight 11: Stone Grave Digger & 5 Grave Diggers
Fight 12: Duel vs. Big Bear
Fight 13: Duel vs. Big Bear King
Fight 14: Big Bear & 5 Tiger Cat Guards
Fight 15: Bear King & 4 Boar Demons
Fight 16: 6 Bowman Corpses & 8 Pikeman Corpses
Fight 17: 5 Bowman Corpses & 6 Pikeman Corpses & 4 Pikeman Leaders
Fight 18: 11 Bowman Corpses & 7 Pikeman Leaders
Fight 19: 19 Arsonists
Fight 20: 9 Arsonists & 9 Arsonist Leaders
Fight 21: 9 Arsonists & 4 Arsonist Leaders & 5 Orangutans
  Reward (Common Kyanite, Common Chalcedony, Common Danburite)
Fight 22: 7 Arsonist Leaders & 5 Orangutans
Fight 23: Duel vs. King Hell Dog -or- 2 King Hell Dogs
Fight 24: 2 King Hell Dogs & 9 Hell Dogs
Fight 25: Duel vs. Orangutan Leader
Fight 26: 2 Orangutan Leaders & 13 Arsonists
Fight 27: Orangutan Leader & 14 Arsonist Leaders
Fight 28: 1-2 King Hell Dogs & 1-2 Stone Grave Digger
Fight 29: King Hell Dog & Big Bear King 
Fight 30: Orangutan Leader & 10 Boar Demons
  Reward (10,000 exp)
Fight 31: 2 Orangutan Leaders & 1-2 King Hell Dogs & 7 Board Demons
  Reward (Refined Jadeite, Refined Amethyst, Refined Amber)

Well, what can I say?  These are tough, you'll never want to see another 
arsonist leader for the rest of your life once you get through these.  Even 
on normal, I wasn't able to get to far in these with the broadsword warrior.  
Although, I didn't put the effort into maximizing his gem potential.  My 
first time to complete these was with the twin blade heroine.  Her power move 
that doubles her attack speed allows you to pull of 60+ hit combos that 
really decimate the enemies.  And her ability to regenerate her health 
quickly really pays off.  I made it a point to never use any potions in these 
since I wanted my winnings to go directly towards crafting and creating gems.  
I started these on level 28 and was 31 by the time I was done.  Around Fight 
19, you'll start getting nice experience gains per fight and whenever I was 
75% towards a level I would go and experience normally in case I hit a high 
losing streak.  When I started she was at refined gem status on everything.  
Again, as I leveled during the fights I took some time to spend all my cash 
~60,000 (I sell everything but won-tons and transmission orbs and potions) 
and was able to upgrade all her amber, amethysts, and jadeites to perfect.  
This took me about 3 days, twice as long as the rest of the entire act, but 
it really is useful to perfect your duel skills and your gear for the next 
act.  

#Wa-dang Village in Elsewhere

Once you've truly dominated the challenges, talk to Lu Ban about the 
Training.  He says there apparently there exists another Wa-dang where the 
people haven't gotten used to your help yet.  Well, we will help them by 
putting the fear of mercy into their worthless hearts!  He says he knows a 
way to get there and you'll notice a new option in his talk menu.

What a lovely place eh?  Wa-dang village, where the villagers want to eat 
your brains and the sky rains blood.  The villagers are actually blue-level 
Grave Diggers and the guards are cyan-level Pikeman Corpses.  The drops are 
alright, nothing special.  If you haven't found this out yet, killing an 
boss-type enemy while doing a combo worthy of a combo score (usually 30+ 
hits) will cause a double drop from the enemies.  They will drop once when 
they die and once when they finally fall over.  This place is good for the 
exp, but really not worthy of going through multiple times.  Once you kill 
all the enemies, the place will close up and you'll find yourself back in Wa-
dang with 7 lovely common uncut jades.  These lovely items can really turn 
into anything when you refine them by themselves.  I always refine them up to 
perfect uncut jades (those can even spawn diamonds), and hope for the best.  
They are a gamble though because worst case scenario, they turn into a rock.  
You can't quit the game without saving so you really can't re-roll them if 
you get a bad hand.  Once you finish The alternate Wa-dang pat yourself on 
the back because Chapter 1 is on it's way to being totally cleansed.


#Chapter II
ACTIVATION:  Talk to Wongbo Guo about himself and he'll open up the option to 
enter the Challenge Arena
REWARD:  1500 + 30*(fight#-1) gold
         i.e. the fifth fight will yield [1500 + 30*(5-1)] or 1620 gold

Fight  1: 3 Fox Fighters & 2 Frost Corpses
Fight  2: 2 Fox Fighters & 4 Pikeman Foxes & 2 Bowman Evil Foxes
Fight  3: 4 Snow Ettins
Fight  4: 2 Corpse Generals
Fight  5: 3 Corpse Generals & 7 Snow Ettins
Fight  6: 3 Pikeman Fox Ldrs & 2 Fox Fighters & Pikeman Fox & 2 Bowman Foxes
Fight  7: 9 Pikeman Fox Leaders
Fight  8: 5 Snow Devils & 3 Dart Devils
Fight  9: 4 Snow Ettin Leaders & Frost Corpse Leader
Fight 10: 7 Snow Devils & 3 Dart Devils and Frost Corpse Leader
Fight 11: 1-2 King Hawks
Fight 12: 4 Dart Devil Leaders & Snow Devil Leader
Fight 13: 3 King Hawks (!) & 4 Dart Devil Leaders & 2 Snow Devil Leaders
Fight 14: 2 King Corpses
Fight 15: 2 King Corpses & 3 Corpse Generals
Fight 16: 10 Snow Giants
Fight 17: 3 Bull Fiends
Fight 18: 2-3 Bull Fiends & 10 Snow Giants
Fight 19: 8 Snow Giant Leaders
Fight 20: 12 Devil Leopards
Fight 21: 10 Devil Leopard Leaders
  Reward (Martial Pill, Resurrection Pill)
Fight 22: 3 Devil Leopard Leaders & 4 Devil Leopards & 4 Snow Giant Leaders
Fight 23: Duel vs. Blue Devil Leopard
Fight 24: 6 Snow Giant Leaders & 4 Devil Leopard Leaders & Blue Devil Leopard
Fight 25: 5 Blue Devil Leopards
Fight 26: 1-2 Blue Devil Leopard Leaders
Fight 27: Blue Devil Leopard Leader & 4 Blue Devil Leopards
Fight 28: 2 Blue Leo Leaders & 4 Blue Leos & 4 Leo Leaders & 2 Giant Leaders
Fight 29: King Hawk & Bull Fiend
Fight 30: King Hawk & Bull Fiend & Blue Devil Leopard Leader
  Reward (50,000 exp)
Fight 31: Wizard Wen & King Hawk & Bull Fiend & 2 Blue Devil Leopard Leaders
  Reward (3 Pavonine Agates)

To tell you the truth, I think these are easier than the chapter 1 duels just 
because: a) there are no stamina / chi drain enemies in chapter 2;  b) It's a 
much better designed challenge room; and c) Blue-level enemies will not 
attack you if you're attacking another blue level enemy.  That's right!  The 
last 3 fights, as long as you be careful not to target any other enemy, you 
can just work them down one by one.  Look at fight 13, if that AI wasn't 
there, I would never have gotten past the 3 King Hawks.  Also, between the 
Resurrection Pill and the 50,000 exp reward, that's just two more levels, not 
even counting the good exp you get in the last 8 rounds.  Now it's time to 
have some fun farming your way up to uberness.

#Challenge the Power of Darkness

In order to unlock this area, you'll need to talk to Wongbo Guo once you've 
finished the duels.  He'll talk about further challenges in the north.  With 
that info, head on over to Gan Jane and he'll show you the way to the land of 
darkness.

This is not easy, and if you don't give it some time, it can be very 
aggravating.  Many people simply think it's impossible - this challenge is 
immense.  Is it possible to do a full clear without dying?  It's certainly 
possible, but I've never done it.  Usually I just dick around in here till I 
hit level 55.  With all the stuff that drops, I'm usually able to have 
crafted some of my first 8th level jewels.  On super-hard, this is where I 
would park for a long time.  Just because the biggest advantage of playing on 
super hard is the ability to use 11th level gems.  You're going to die a lot 
while you farm, but you'll notice that the experience gains are well above 
any lost to death.  Just think of this as Blade & Swords secret cow level.  
If you are able to do a full clear WITHOUT cheating, drop me an email with 
your character type/level and equipment, I would love to know your set-up.




VI.  Mini-Quests
---------------

Chapter 1


#Help Doctor Chin get rid of her rats.

ACTIVATION: Ask Doctor Chin about her Healing Potions and the option will 
open up in her talk menu.
REWARD: Chi Recovery Pill - automatically increases your max Chi.

This quest is really pretty simple, all you have to do is kill all the rats 
in her cellar by running over them or by jumping on them.  If you're playing 
the twin blade heroine, your only concern will be running out of stamina.  
Just make sure not to continually sprint between rats.  If you're playing the 
Broadsword warrior, then this will actually be pretty tough.  Unfortunately 
for him, he's the one that could make the best use of more Chi.  He won't be 
able to catch the rats by chasing them, his only hope is to do it with well 
timed jumps.  If you're careful it should only be moderately impossible to do 
it within 60 seconds, but no one ever picked the slow guy because they wanted 
an easy run eh?


#Trial by Fire

ACTIVATION: Ask Taoist Ge about trial by fire in order to unlock the option 
in his talk menu.
REWARD: Depending on which level you can complete it increases your defense.

Level 1: 15 Seconds = +2 Defense
Level 2: 30 Seconds = +4 Defense
Level 3: 45 Seconds = +6 Defense
Level 4: 60 Seconds = +8 Defense
Level 5: 90 Seconds = +10 Defense (gasp)

There really isn't anything I could say that would help you through this.  
It's just a homage to old school arcade games and quick reflexes are 
basically the only skill this type of game requires.  Just make sure you 
don't start attempting this unless you've recently leveled as getting hit 
gives you the same exp penalty as dieing.  Since you can't level down, 
waiting until level up will cause minimal damages.  However, more defense is 
always better and completing them all will add a nice +30 hunk that will 
assist you down the road.

Tips:
Keep the mouse close to your character so you have maximum movement control.
I had my best luck by walking around the center platform.  Large circles 
reduce the chance that you'll backtrack into a large cluster of fireballs.
Odds are you'll die in either the first eight or last eight seconds so you'll 
just have to refrain from attacking your monitor. ^_^


#Collecting the Skin of Hell Frogs

ACTIVATION: Ask Madame Huang about the Hell Frogs in Chapter 3 to unlock this 
quest.
REWARD: Unknown


VII.  Special Thanks
--------------------

Special thanks go out to CJayC for creating and running gamefaqs.com and for 
the other amateur FAQ writers for their FAQ writing inspiration.



Copyright 2004 Nicolas Green - All Rights Reserved