Old Waste Shaft 2F

This guy can be a major pain in the ass if you don't handle him the right way. He charges up with a spirit charge the first round and every three rounds after that, so you have a free attack round. Also when he drops to half of his life, he gets rather angry and starts to hit you twice. When battling the Cyclops you will want to stay away from him for a few rounds at a time to let your AP increase. You can move farther than he can and you can use your "Kick" skill to drive him farther back after you do decide to take some swipes at him.



Remember to keep your health full after each round he attacks you. He can wipe you out rather quickly when he starts laying the double shots on you. After you defeat him, Nina will be in your party. She is very low HP wise and you need to keep her far from danger, but with her magic, she becomes a great aid to you for the rest of the game.



After you hand the Cyclops his ass, you now not only have Nina in your party, but you also have control of the D-Dash skill. This is used by pressing the R2 button and running. It turns you into a cannonball of sorts that can't be harmed as you run much faster than normal. Also, if you stand still and press the R2 button enemies will just bounce off you. Later on in the game this skill isn't free and is rather costly to your life, but for now you are free to use it as much as you want.



Head through the room where you fought the Cyclops and go up the ramp and through the door on the far side. Down this hallway will be 2 spiders and 2 ants. The spiders like to hang out on the ceiling so be wary of them jumping down right in front of you. With Nina so low in HP for now, you may want to use some party XP to bring her up a few levels. Have her cast G Flare around her to protect her self is a good strategy for a while. It will set any creature that comes near her on fire protecting her pretty well from physical attacks, not to mention the spiders really seem to hate fire attacks. When they are disposed of, a treasure key will appear and you will need to return to the room before the Cyclops's area for the chest and some ???? armor.



When you come back to this hallway, there is a door to the left and a door straight ahead. If you go straight ahead, you will enter a room with 4 ants and a few boxes. Clear out the room if you choose to and then return to the doorway that was on the left. In here will be a few Bind Spiders in here but in the box to the left by the door should get you a Save Token. Either D-Dash through this room to the door at the far end or clear it out with your trusty sword and Nina's G Flare. Make your way down the hallway here, killing the lone Bind Spider and climbing up the ladder at the end.

Old Waste Shaft 3F

Start running down this curved hallway until you come to a large room with a few boxes in it. There are two doors in this room. One is to the left of you and one is directly ahead of where you entered. Head for the door on the far left and make your way down the hallway to the room at the end. In here are a few boxes to crack open and get you some nice zennies as a treat. Return to the large room and enter the door that was directly ahead of where you entered. When you enter here you will get treated to a few more cut scenes and Lin (or Rin as it is in the Manual) joins your party. Continue on through the door to the next room where there will be a bouncing Goo Element to contend with.



Again like the last one of these you ran into, it is up to you if you want to fight it. This time around you have some magic on your side which is a big help with these. If you decide not to fight it, run through the door way on the left. In here will be three hermits. They are in the centre of the room lined up beside each other and try to pretend they are boxes. They don't really tend to look like normal boxes and jump up to attack you when you try to hit them. If you happen to get fooled by them, they are rather difficult to defeat. Ryu and Lin don't do anything to them while Nina's magic is all that hurts them. Make your way up the ladder in the next room and get ready for a whole lot of spider lovin'.

Old Waste Shaft 4F

As you enter this room the music changes to let you know you have entered a Danger Room. There are a lot of Spiders in here, but half of them stay in the other room so you only have a few to deal with at a time. During the battle you will want Nina doing her best to cast G Flare as often as possible. Also be sure to keep a close eye on her health. When you have the first room cleared out, try to lure the spiders from the other room one at a time into this room. This makes the fight go a whole lot easier. It can get tricky though since a few of them are still on the ceiling and won't drop until they see you.



When you clear them out continue down the hall dealing with the Baby Rustphages and one or two spiders along the way. In the middle of the hallway on the right side will be a D-Ratio door.



Keep going along until you finally reach a large room with a fenced area to the right and a red box in the centre of the room. There is a door at the far side of the room that you need to head through. Inside here is a ladder to the Old Waste Shaft 5F and the Puppet girl again giving you advice on how to use traps.

Old Waste Shaft 5F

When you finish climbing the ladder you will be in an area with a few hallways and a few doors that are locked. This is another D-Ratio door and cannot be opened on your first pass through the game. You will be able to enter it later on when you play the game again and have a higher D-Ratio rating, so for now, just ignore them.



From the door you entered through head left and head down the hallway on your right. If you decide to keep going straight up the passage in front of you, you will run into a not so fun fellow called a Devolve. He does some serious damage to you, so unless you have a lot of health items; I would stay far away from him. If you do decide to take him on, have Nina use the trusty G Flare and Lin attack from a far distance. Ryu would need to wail on him with the most powerful combo you have come up with. Also if you have "steal" equipped and the Devolve attacks you, you will steal his Stuffed Toy which makes him angry and not really a nice fellow to fight against.



After you defeat him or if you chose not to take him on, head down the hallway on the right. Keep going, through the door at the end of the passage and watch for the Hychee and Odd Hychee on the ceiling. Past them and through another door you will come to another fenced area. Keep going across the clearing to the door at the far end and up the ladder there.

Old Waste Shaft 6F

When you arrive at the top of the ladder, run down the hallway ahead of you and don't stop. There will be a hermit that drops from the ceiling and tries to land on you if you take your time walking through here. If you want to fight them, then by all means take your time going through this hallway until you come to a 4 way intersection at the end. If you head to the right, there is a Devolve hanging out down there. Behind him in a room is a few Zennies, so if you feel like trying to take him on or if you want to D-Dash past him to get the coins feel free.



If you head left from the 4 way intersection and left again, you will come to a Devolve laying face down. If you touch him, a rush of Baby Rustphages will scatter from his body. Now you need to kill off all of the rustphages and get the key for the treasure chest that is in the room north of the dead Devolve. Inside the chest will be Lins "There!" skill. Return to the 4 way intersection and head straight from the door you entered.



From here you can see another fenced in area ahead of you but this time the fence is open. Enter it and inside will be 6 ants that scatter when you approach them. If you feel up to it, you can attack and kill all 6 ants then the larger Boss Ant will appear as the Danger Room music starts. If you have the healing kits and aids I would suggest doing this. The battle isn't all that hard and the experience of killing 6 ants and a boss is well worth it. If you have troubles with him, stay close to him while you attack. Apparently he "doesn't like getting his hands dirty and likes to attack from a distance". Also Nina's fire seems to work pretty good with him. I guess he isn't a Fire Ant…har har har. *cough* anywhoo…



After you defeat him, head up the ramp and through the door into a room with a lot of Devolves lining the wall. At one end of the room will be a box that has a Save Token in it. Don't worry about the Devolves though, the most they do is creep you out by watching you run past. They won't attack unless you do first. Head out the door in the north wall that was directly across from where you entered.

End Sector Borough

Hey look! A town! You have been running around the Old Waste Shaft for too long. While you are here you are going to want to have all of your ???? items identified. Check their stats with what you already have and against other equipment you found. Sell what you don't want or won't use and you'll get some good money.

You will also want to stock up on aid kits and multimeds.



Hit the weapon shop as well to see if there are any weapons and armor that you want to buy/can afford and didn't happen to find in the shaft. When you leave this town you will be in for a medium difficulty of a battle so make sure you bring along a few heath items. Also for future use, you may want to stock up and save a lot of health kits in the item locker that the ID girl has. I never did this, but I always meant too. So learn from my mistakes! It is always a good idea to have a lot of them stored. Also before you leave here, be sure to save on the telecorder. When you are ready to roll, head for the door way on the left where the ID girl is.

Lift: Low Sector 1

When you enter the lift port you will run into Bosch again. He isn't too happy with you and Nina and a cut scene starts. From here on and for the rest of the game you now have the dragon power. Along with your dragon power, comes a counter in the top right corner of the screen. The more you use your dragon powers, the higher the counter goes. When the counter hits 100%, *poof* you're dead. Game Over.



This battle you want to try and leave it with 7-9% on your counter. I did it with 12% but I also did a bad thing with the dragon breath. I used it. Don't. Again, learn from my mistakes! Bosch will attack you and only you and he won't hit you once. You can take him out very easily with a coupe swipes from the Vortex power. Have Lin use her usual combos and gang up on the Gunner Grunt with Nina. After he is dead turn your attention to the Battler Grunt and work on him until Bosch is taken care of by



Ryu. Then you can have Ryu come over and clean up what is left of him, which by this time shouldn't be much.

During the battle you can try and steal the Fang skill from Bosch which is pretty handy to have later on. I don't know if it is supposed to be as difficult to steal as it was, but I never actually managed to snag it from him. When they are defeated another cut scene plays and you are off on your mission again.

Lift: Low Sector 1

From here there are two sets of stairs on either side of you. Start by going right and down the stairs.

Lift End Sector 1

When you exit through the doors you will be on a train platform. Head down the little stairs and break open the white box. Grab your goodies and head towards the far end of the tunnel and around the bend. Open the large door and you will be in a blocked passage and in a fight with Rustphage. After he is destroyed head back up the stairs to lift: Low Sector 1 and take the stairs that were on the left side. When you exit the door here you will again be on a train platform.



Go down the little stairs and deal with the Rustphage's like you did previously. There are about 4 of them here and a yellow box back behind the train cars. Break the box and keep on making your way down the tunnel and across the track bridge where there are quite a few bats floating around. Like the last encounter with them, try to take them on 2-3 at a time and no more than that. You won't be able to reach them all. When no more decide to come and get you, keep going along the tracks along the same path you were going. After you go through the large door and turn right, you will be able to go left or right here. If you go right, you can kill the rest of the bats and get the treasure key for the box that is to the left. Oh, and of course that treasure box is guarded by a Deathcow and his little friend Beak.



If you haven't had to deal with the Deathcow yet you may not want to. Inside the treasure chest is Nina's "joltball" skill which is much like G Flare except sometime it will hold enemies in place while it hurts them as well. These two baddies together can be more than a handful at best. Make sure you have plenty of healing items before you even think of taking them on. If you do decide to attack, Beak will hit you with a bind spell 9 out of 10 times so try to keep Nina as far away as possible while she can still use magic.



Have Lin and Ryu deal out everything they can to Beak and then work on the Deathcow. When they are both a puff of smoke make your way back along the track bridge and out to the End Sector Borough, past the enormous ant and into the End Sector Lift Port where you fought Bosch. Head up the stairs and you will be back in the End Sector Borough Town for some more shopping if you choose. If not, turn around and make your way all the way back to the Lift: low Sector 1 area where you started.

Lift: Low Sector 2

At the end of this hallway you will see a telecorder. Turn right into this fenced room to grab a save token. In here you will also meet the puppet girl who tells you to try to find some combo's using skills in attacks. Across from her is an item shop to stock up on some soon to be needed health supplies. Exit here and head up the staircase to the left of the telecorder.



Make your way down the hallway through the doors until you exit onto a train platform. Head down the stairs and across to the far platform where a few Dukes are hanging out. They stay up on the platform so they can't chase after you. You really need to depend on Nina and Lin here with their ranged attacks if you don' t want to worry about being hit. When the platform is cleared, a treasure key will appear. You can't grab it just yet but you will be able to soon.



Head through the large door and prepare to fight some more Dukes. Again, try to take these out one by one. If you get too many at once you can easily be overwhelmed. After they are done, break the yellow box at the end for a ???? item and head back up to the platform for some white boxes. Enter the door here and you will encounter a Trickster.



In this room there will be a lot of white boxes and a very large Duke Battler. Good thing he is sleeping! If you want to try your luck in defeating him, attack him and wake him up. But don't say I didn't warn you. He is one tough cookie and has a counter attack when you hit him that does some mighty hefty damage.



After your battle or if you choose to avoid him, head down to the doorway on the left. This will take you out to the platform where the treasure key was. Pick it up and the goodies left over from the dead Dukes. Inside the treasure chest is Lin's skill "Blow up!" This is a level 3 skill and pretty powerful stuff. It is very useful to have equipped. Make your way back to where the sleeping Duke Battler was and head out the doorway on the far side of him. This will take you to Sector 3.