Vixen 357 Walkthrough, v.0.01 April 17, 2007 By Gunlord bio_armor2026@yahoo.com Copyright: Gunlord-2007:2008 :Table of Contents- [000]: Author intro and legal details [000A]: Introduction [000B]: Plot [000C]: Characters [000D]: Beginning the Game [001]: Scene 1 [002]: Scene 2 [003]: Scene 3 [004]: Scene 4 [005]: Scene 5 [006]: Scene 6 [007]: Scene 7 [008]: Scene 8 [009]: Scene 9 [010]: Scene 10 [011]: Scene 11 [012]: Scene 12 [013]: Scene 13 [014]: Scene 14 [015]: Scene 15 [016]: Scene 16 [017]: Final Pilot Stats [018]: Acknowledgements [000]: Author intro and legal details Hello, everyone! This is my very first FAQ, so I am terribly sorry if its not that good. However, as of today, it seems like I am the only person I know of to have played and beaten Vixen 357! This is a truly excellent, underappreciated strategy game for the Genesis, so I am of the opinion it should get more love. My dear friend Armordragon suggested I write a FAQ, so in an effort to give the game some more attention, I have decided to take him up on that offer it as I play through it again! Please send all suggestions to my email address, bio_armor2026@yahoo.com This is just a rough draft, so I apologize for any errors, but I do hope you find it at least a little useful! First off, the legal stuff: This FAQ is the property of Gunlord, copyright 2007. Only these sites have permission to host it: www.Gamefaqs.com www.freewebs.com Ask for permission to use this guide anywhere else, and I will probably give it, so please, do ask before using it! Vixen 357 is copyright 1991 to NCS Masaya (the same people who made the Langrisser series!) Secondly, I am afraid I must offer a warning and an apology before you begin reading. You see, I dont understand Japanese and havent read the instruction manual for this game (at least, not in a language I can understand). Thus, many of the details I attempt to illuminate are based entirely on my own experiences playing the game-I just translated many of the names from my knowledge of katakana, made up names for those given in hiragana, and made up titles for stats and options in Hiragana which I wasnt sure of, but had a good idea of what their purpose was from playing the game. Thus, I apologize in advance for any inaccuracies to be found within this guide, and if you do find any, please email me so I may correct them! Anyways, now that thats out of the way, on to the guide! Due to the way this guide is written, I will introduce each element of the game as it appears, although in future revisions I may split it up into separate sections. [000A]: Introduction What is Vixen 357? This is a turn:based, panel:based Strategy RPG made by the same people who made the famous strategy game, Langrisser. It is entirely in Japanese, and no translation exists that I know of. In terms of gameplay, it is fairly similar to Langrisser, or SRPGs like Fire Emblem, except in a science fiction setting rather than fantasy and with giant robots (called Vectors) and beam weapons rather than swords and sorcery. There are also a few differences in gameplay I will describe later. If you liked games such as Front Mission or Super Robot Wars, you will enjoy this game! It seems to have a fairly good plot, but lamentably, I do not speak Japanese aside from a limited understanding of katakana and thus am of little use. All I can give you is a basic outline of the plot (provided kindly by Mobygames) and the names of the characters, as they are given in English during the intro sequence. [000B]: Plot (as taken from http://www.mobygames.com/game/genesis/vixen:357): In 2384 AD, a great interstellar war took place. The Earth emerged victorious, thanks to a secretly developed robot weapon called "Serd". After the war, the usage of Serds was not a secret any more, and various nations started using them for military purposes. Several years, a more powerful weapon named Vector was developed. The usage of such highly destructive weapons led to wars between the nations of the world. You control Takuya Murasawa and his comrades, member of a special military force called Slash. Everything begins with an attack of unidentified Vectors on their base... [000C]: Characters Once you start the game, you will be treated to a very nicely:done animation sequence introducing you to all of the characters you will have the opportunity to play as, with two exceptions. Here they are, in order of appearance in said cinematic: 1: Takuya Murasawa-He is the main character-if he dies in any mission, its game over! 2: Nina Laurel - She is the second person you see, along with the third, Chay Won. 3: Chay Won - She is the girl in the car with Nina. 4: Mack Ryan - This character is introduced as an expert sharpshooter, and as you can expect, Mack Ryan proves to be better with ranged weapons than almost everyone else under your command. 5: Reiko Machida - She is introduced pointing at a holographic mission briefing display of a sphere grid with a glowing ball at the center. 6: Harry Gibson - A hard:featured, older man with a chiseled, lined face, he has long, shoulder:length light brown hair and is shown lighting and smoking a cigarette with great satisfaction. 7: Eddie Ray - A large, muscular blonde:haired man with a wide, broad face who is shown catching a football helmet with a star on it. He looks very strong. He turns out to be the best melee fighter of all of your pilots. Characters Not Shown: Ben Bask (Be-N BaSuKu) - An elderly, white:haired man with the white suit and cap of a Naval commander. He cannot pilot any of your Vectors, he can only command his great airship. If the airship is destroyed and he goes down with it, its game over. The Turncoat - Theres one more character who can and will join you, but the circumstances of his recruitment are quite a surprise! Ill tell you about him later on in the walkthrough. Anyways, thats it for the intro. Now that youre at the title screen, press start and let the game begin! [000D]: Beginning the Game Now that youve pressed start, you have 2 options: Beginning and Continue. Press down and then A to select Continue. Youll be brought to a new prompt which says "Continue: No Data" and below that, 4 numbered files which also have no data in them. Please see this picture: if youre still confused. This, obviously, is the load game screen, where you can load a previously saved game from the chapter you left off on, or continue a battle already in progress (that is what the Continue: No Data thing was referring to). Since we havent started a game yet, all of these are currently empty...but hopefully, will open up soon! Now, press the B button to go back to the first prompt, then select Beginning with the A button. As you can tell by now, the directional buttons help you select options, the A button confirms, and the B button cancels. Now, youve started a new game! Sit back and watch the intro as well as the games backstory-if you cant read Japanese, my good friend Silverspoon was kind enough to translate it for me, which you can see here: http://gunlord.livejournal.com/629990.html After this, stage 1 begins! We see a shot of all the members of the heros elite mech team behind a brief description of the stage. Press start to get started! [001]: Scene One First off, a note of caution: Much like in Fire Emblem, if one of your characters dies, they (and their mech) are gone forever! So, you should always reset if you lose one of your allies, even if its not a game over, because things will get very, very difficult later on if you dont have a full complement of soldiers. After a brief conversation with a young woman at a base (which you can skip over quickly by pressing the B button repeatedly), youll be ready to start playing! First off, lets quickly look over the stage. The first thing youll see is 3 brownish mechs with the number 10 and the letters A (in green) and M (in maroon) over them. Let me take a moment to explain what this means. All units that are either brown or blue are your allies. The ones with A and M over them are the ones you can directly control. The number 10 indicates that the unit has 100% of its HP remaining-if it goes down to 9, its at 90%, at 6, 60%, at one, 10% and its almost dead, etc. Now, move your cursor over one of your friendly mechs and look at the bottom of the screen. Youll see three things. At the very left is a picture of the mechs head-its portrait so to speak. At the center are its most important stats and the name of its pilot. Youll see its HP (when this goes to 0, the mech is destroyed along with its pilot, obviously) and the level of the pilot at the top, with a blue bar representing the pilots experience next to that (it should be empty at this point). Below, youll see the Vectors name followed by the name of its pilot (all in Japanese, unfortunately, but I can provide you with passable translations, fortunately). At the very left youll see a little box with a picture of the sort of land the mech is currently on as well as a percentage below it, but Ill explain that in the next paragraph. Now, all of your units can both attack and move once each turn (though not necessarily in that order!) Move the cursor (the square:sherped crosshair thing) over to one of your 3 units and press the C Button. Yes, the C button...I have no idea why they chose to use that rather than the A button, but what can you do, huh? The A button instead cycles through all of your units, of which there are only 3 at the moment. Once youve selected one, youll see 3 options, all in Japanese. The topmost option is MOVE. Press the C or A button to select it. The screen will darken except for a small area which remains lighted, and a pair of metal boots will appear. Your mech can move anywhere on the lighted field. Now, a few notes concerning terrain. As youll notice, the lighted part of the screen (your movement range) extends well into the grass and on the road, but cuts off abruptly in the mountains. This is because your mechs cannot move as well through certain types of terrain as they can through others. They move best on roads, and grasslands, are somewhat impaired in forests and cities/buildings/urban areas, move poorly in mountains and shallow water, and can barely move at all in deep water. This does not hold true for all your Vectors, however. Later on in the game, you will get an aquatic Vector that moves (and performs!) extremely well in water, and you will also get flying airships can simply cruise over any difficult terrain and thus are able to move up to their maximum range each turn. But, we shall get to that later. Anyways, while youre still on the move screen, take a look at the very bottom of the screen. Youll see a blank window at the left corner, a long window in the center (telling you that youre on turn 1 of Scene 1) and finally, a little picture of the land in the right corner. Whatever panel the movement cursor (the metal boots) is on, its terrain type will show up in that little picture in the bottom right corner. A mountain will show up if youre thinking of moving to a mountain, a tree if youre moving to a forest, etc. etc. etc. Now, below that, youll see a number with a little percent sign next to it. Im not quite sure what this means, but I believe it affects combat capability-the chance to evade attacks, specifically. Positive numbers increase your evasive ability, and negative numbers decrease it. Move your boots over a green square, and youll see 10%, indicating a boost of 10 percent to your evade. Move them over a road, and youll see 0%, meaning no boost. Move them over a mountain, and youll see 30%, which means that keeping your guys in mountains helps them dodge attacks better. Now, not all terrain has these positive effects-move your boots waaaay to the left, well into the dark area outside your move range, and you should come to a river with flowing blue water. Keep your boots over it, and youll see that :20% appears below the terrain window, indicating that combat capability is REDUCED for that unit if it is placed in water. Like I said, though, youll get machines later on that are different-aerial units are unaffected by terrain (positively or negatively) and the aquatic Vector gets +20% in water. Now, you can press A or C to move to the selected panel your little metal boots are on (so long as its within the lighted field) but for now, lets forget about that and explore the other options. Press B to go back to the previous menu. Now, go one down and select the second option with either C or A (as usual). This means "Attack." Two new options will pop up. Select the first one, and the screen will darken while still leaving lighted panels, similar to the move option. However, rather than a pair of boots, a beam rifle serves as the cursor here. This is for your ranged attacks-you can attack any enemy unit that shows up in the lighted areas, just move the little gun over them and press A or C. Notice that friendly units are darkened (you cant attack your allies in this game) as well as a small area directly surrounding your mech, due to the fact that the ranged weapons you currently have equipped cannot be used in close combat-they have a minimum range. Some ranged weapons dont have this, however, and can be used close up, but well get to them later. Anyways, press B and go back to the previous menu, now select the second option. Youll see the exact same screen pop up, with a beam rifle cursor and everything, but this time, the range of lighted squares you can attack in should look somewhat different. This is because youve selected your machines close combat attack. Obviously, it has much less range than your long:range attack (in the case of two of your units, its just one square, but in the case of your leading mech, its exactly the same) but its made for melee battles, making it useful for when your enemys managed to get up close and personal with you. Please see these pictures if youre still confused-they ought to explain everything: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Gunlord/Explanationofbasiccomman dsscreen.jpg - explanation of the basic screen http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Gunlord/MovementScreen.jpg - Movement Screen Now, cancel this and go back to the very first menu, and select the third, bottommost option. This is the status screen, and requires a healthy bit of explaining! A pictures worth a thousand words (in this case quite literally!) so please see this image for some clarification: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Gunlord/Statusscreenexplanation. png Let me explain all of this. Close:ranged combat skill is how good the pilot is in close combat. As you can see, Takuya here has 4 points in HR and 3 points in ER. HR is hit rate (his chance of hitting an enemy in close combat) and ER is evade rate (his chance of evading an enemys attacks). The HR and ER below that are for ranged weapons, and work exactly the same. The number below that is the mechs movement range, which in this case is 8. The big window to the right is for the Vectors special abilities, if it has any, which this one doesnt. The big window to the left is the weapons loadout for the mech. The right column is for ranged weaponry and the left column is for melee weaponry. The names of both weapons are given, as is their attack power, the maximum number of shots they will launch in each attack (the Laser Saber will slash a maximum of 3 times whereas the Vulcan shoots 8 bullets), their range, and their ammo-when this runs out, the weapon can no longer attack! In this case, the Nelson can attack with its laser saber a maximum of 30 times while it can shoot its Vulcan a maximum of 20 times. This sounds kind of small, but dont worry, by the 3rd stage youll be able to replenish your ammunition. Finally, the numbers at the bottom indicate the total combat capabilities of the mech. AP is its total attack power, which is the weapons attack power modified by the strength of the Vector itself. DP is the Vectors defense against attacks, and can be different against ranged and melee attacks-some vectors are almost invulnerable to close:combat strikes while others perform well against projectile attacks. HR and ER are the total Hit Rate and Evade Rate, modified by the pilots skill and the mechs targeting and evasive abilities. Now that Ive explained the status screen, theres one more thing to explain-the options menu! Exit from the unit menu and just press start. A list of options will be brought up. Look at these picture for English explanations: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Gunlord/Options.png - the options screen. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Gunlord/Conditions.png - The Conditions screen. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Gunlord/Configuration.png - the Configuration screen. I dont know much about the configuration screen, only that you can turn the battle animations on and off. I dont know what the other two options do D: Now that you know what to look at, Ill introduce you to your units! Of the 3 mechs you see, 2 look exactly alike while the 3rd looks a little different. That third mech, whose portrait looks kind of like a Patlabor mech with a sharp chest, is named the "Nelson" and is piloted by our hero, Takuya Murasawa. He is a relatively skilled pilot, only lv.1 but with 4 levels of Hit Rate and 3 levels of Evade in both Melee and Ranged combat. The Nelson is the best Vector available to you at the moment, with 1300 HP, 45 defense points at both long and short range, and armed with a Laser Saber with 30 ammo that can attack a maximum of 3 times, and a Vulcan with 20 ammo that fires 8 bullets with every attack, giving it a total of 126 AP at close range and 59 AP at short range, both of which consist of 1 to 3 panels. It can also move 8 panels per turn, and has no special abilities. For now, youre best off using it in close combat, since the laser saber is so much more powerful than the Vulcan. The other two men in your army both pilot Swifts). These machines, which look like brown GMs from Gundam with shoulder cannons, are significantly outclassed by the Nelson, but are still much better than anything your allies and your enemies have in this stage. They have only 1150 HP each and are both absolutely terrible at close:range combat, equipped with nothing but a Punch with a range of 1 and total attack of 36 (virtually negligible), and a close:range Defense of 30. However, they make up for it with their superior ranged capabilities- they are equipped with a nice Beam Rifle) that has a range of 3 to 6 panels, a total attack power of 109, fires three shots with each attack, and has 20 attacks worth of ammo in its cartridge. They can both move 6 panels per turn, and have no special abilities. They are piloted by Harry Gibson, the older:looking, brown:haired fellow, who starts off just as good as Takuya, but at lv.3 with 4 levels of CHR (Close:ranged Hit Rate), 3 CER (Close:ranged Evade Rate), 4 LHR (Long:ranged Hit Rate), and 3 LER (Long:Ranged Evade Rate), and Mack Ryan, the younger guy with blond slicked:back hair, who is lv.2 and has a pathetic 1 in both close:ranged combat abilities, but a very impressive 5 LHR and 4 LER, the best in your forces at the moment. Obviously, hes made for long:range combat! However, due to the mechs theyre in and what theyre equipped with, both Harry and Mack should be your ranged attackers. Now, lets look over the rest of the map! Move your cursor around to get a good look at things. All the other mechs colored blue are your allies, the Vectors in red and green are the invading enemy. The big building colored blue is your base-dont let it be destroyed, or its game over! Here are its statistics: Name: HerpBase Pilot: Operator lv.3: 2CHR (0max), 2CER(24max), 2LHR(170max), 2LER(24max) Weaponry: Nothing at close range, Scan Rockets at long range (REALLY unsure of this, the kana is SuKiaN RoKeuTo)-28 attack power, 3 shots, 5:10 range, 20 ammo, 88 total AP. No special abilities. Defenses: 20 DP at short range, 20 DP at long range. On your side are exactly 9 other blue mechs. These are Ilzards, they look kind of like blue Swifts, and they are the absolute worst mechs in the game. They have only 400 HP, 15 defense at close range, and 15 defense at long range. They are armed with a Punch that has 3 attacks and a total of 41 AP, and a Beam Rifle with a range of 3:6 and 3 attacks for a total of 79 AP-so yeah, theyre essentially much weaker versions of your Swifts. No special abilities. They are piloted by Pilots (I cant read the hiragana, so thats just the name Ive guessed at) at lv.1 with 2 CHR(110), 1 CER(35), 2LHR(90) and 2 LER(35). Theyre the friendly:looking guys in white helmets. They are led by a single Commander (again, just guessing his name) who pilots the exact same mech but has 3CHR(123), 2CER(42), 3LHR(103) and 3LER(42). Hes the guy with a cool white helmet with golden wings on it covering his eyes. Now, lets look at the forces your enemy has arrayed against you! They have deployed a total of 9 mechs-6 blue ones, 2 green ones, and one more green mech that is the boss of the scene. Lets look them over: Degler: Red, boxy:looking mechs with 800 HP (twice that of the Ilzards!) Pilot: Enemy Pilots (again, cant read the hiragana, just made it up), they have nappy brown hair and headsets. Level 1, 1CHR, 1CER, 1LHR, 1LER. Close:range capabilities: Hard Claw: 68 AP, 22DP, 135HR, 40ER, range 1:2, 3 hits max. Long:range: Vulcan: 20 AP, 18 DP, 65HR, 30 ER, range: 1:3, 8 shots max, 25 ammo. Move: 8 Special: None Valser:V8: Green, boxy mechs with shoulder cannons, 600HP. Pilot: Enemy Commander (cant read), they have grey headsets. Lv.2, 2/1 2/1. (CHR/CER LHR/LER) Close:range: Punch: 22 AP, 18 DP, 110 HR, 35ER, range 1:1. Long:range: Machinegun: range 1:4, 8 shots, 20 ammo, 56AP, 22DP, 95HR, 45ER. Move: 6 Special: None Name: Valser:V10: Green mech with head and yellow eye, 850 HP. Boss of scene. Pilot: Karry Gott, fat guy with poofy hair: Lv.3, 3/3 3/3 (almost as good as Harry and Takuya!) Close:range: Punch: 34 AP, 20 DP, 134 HR, 54 ER, range 1:1. Long:range: Machinegun: 8 shots, 1:4 range, 20 ammo, 66 AP, 25 DP, 134 HR, 67 ER Move: 6 Special: None Whew! Now thats a mouthful. Lets FINALLY begin this walkthrough! Now, Scene 1 is so pathetically easy that you probably wont need a walkthrough, but here it is for the sake of completion. Okay, on Turn 1, your units start right above the base youre supposed to defend, behind a small mountain range on the left side of the battlefield. Your 9 allies are in a staggered formation facing off against the enemy forces deployed on the right side of the battlefield, with a Y:sherped river between them. I would recommend moving your 3 mechs down the road to the base on the first turn, since the mountain range is thinnest in front of it and your guys can traverse it easily. Theres not much else you can do. End your turn. Now, your allies will begin to attack. They will all move forward and shoot at the Deglers with their beam rifles. Each individual attack wont inflict much damage, but there are nine of them and they can wear down your enemies a bit. When they choose a target, youll be treated to a brief, cool attack animation of the allied mech taking its shots. Youll notice that the Deglers dont do anything in retaliation. This is because ranged weapons cannot be countered. Even if one mech attacks another with a machinegun from melee range, the target will not retaliate. Only close combat attacks can be countered in this game. Anyways, after your allies have moved (only 2 of them will manage to get in range to attack) its the enemys turn. Karry will have a conversation with his underlings and they will then attack. The Deglers will move forward and strike at the Ilzards with their Hard Claws, and unfortunately, they will do MUCH more damage-the Ilzards will usually manage to take about 12 percent of a Deglers HP off, but the Deglers can easily take a 3rd of an Ilzards HP with a successful melee if they attack three times. Take careful note of the attack animations. The one Ilzard pilot that manages to get himself caught on an open plain in the first round will almost certainly be severely damaged (and probably destroyed) by the attacks of the first three Deglers-watch as they land 3 successful blows each round, taking off more than a third of the Ilzards HP. On the other hand, the Ilzard that finds itself in a forest will probably do a bit better-the Degler that attacks it will usually only land 2 blows in close combat. This is why I believe the percentage that appears below the terrain window indicates improvement in evasion. Also note that the Deglers Hard Claw has a range of 1:2 spaces, while the Ilzards can only weakly punch 1 space ahead of them. Thus, even in close combat, the Deglers can evade the Ilzards counterattack if they attack from 2 spaces away. Fortunately, they usually dont choose to do so and attack as close as possible-the AI isnt too bright. Not that it makes much difference, of course, since their punches do almost no damage. Also, note the disparity between the Deglers close:ranged Hard Claw and its long:range Vulcan, which they will use if theyre 3 spaces away from an Ilzard and unable to attack with their claws. Most of the Vulcans shots will miss (it has a lower HR) and the bullets that do get it will do negligible damage. Anyways, now for turn 2: Continue moving your mechs to the thinnest part of the mountain. Keep Takuya in front-he has greater movement anyways, and you want him to get his laser saber in range as quickly as possible while keeping the long:range beam rifles of the Swifts safely behind him, where they wont have to worry about close combat. Theres not much else you can do otherwise, so just end your turn. The Ilzards will once again attack the Deglers, will little effect. On the enemys second turn, the Deglers will probably destroy yet another Ilzard, and if they dont, one of the Valser:V8s will finish it off- their machineguns are even more powerful than the Hard Claws, and will decimate an Ilzards HP, taking off more than 80% of its HP if its unlucky. By this point, watching the crappy Ilzards get thoroughly pwned by the enemy forces, youre probably feeling a bit discouraged. Well, dont take it too hard-for the rest of the game, any stalwart allies that you yourself dont control will almost invariably end up as cannon fodder- all theyre good for, essentially, is stalling the enemy and keeping them occupied. Your unfortunate friends will probably be almost entirely annihilated by the time your team crosses the mountain and enters battle, but its no big deal. Anyways, on turn 3, start crossing the mountain. At least one of your mechs should be able to get past it. End your turn. Now, if youre lucky, the Ilzards might manage to destroy one of the Deglers and deal some damage to another. Lamentably, the enemy will likely pay them back and destroy another Ilzard or two. Once 4 Ilzards are lost, one of your friendly troops will say something to his commander, who contacts Takuya and the Slash team, and sad music will play. The Deglers will continue to attack, and once theyre done, the V8s will devastate another Ilzard or two. On turn 4, move your mechs as far forward as possible, if you want to be a hero and at least try to save some of your allies (though I dont think it makes any difference). The only units capable of attacking a Degler at this point will probably be a Swift, so after moving, have Mack or Harry (whoevers closer) select Attack and see if a Deglers in range. Now, note that whoever moved and attacked no longer has an A or M above their mech. You can only move once per turn and attack once per turn, and once you carry out the action, the corresponding letter will disappear, indicating youve used it up for that turn. You can move and attack again only on the next turn. This is probably all you can do for the turn, so end it. Depending on how they moved, an enemy may not be in range this turn, but if theyre not, dont sweat it.The Ilzards will attack again, doing little damage, and the Deglers and Valsers will probably destroy most of them, with one or two remaining alive at this point. If the allied commander dies, youll see his bloody portrait as his mech explodes, and hell say something about Slash. At this point, the Ilzards will have managed to destroy a Degler and severely damage another if theyre lucky. However, on turn 5, your units can finally enter the fray in earnest and avenge the deaths of your comrades! Move Takuyas mech forward on dry land as much as you can, but be sure to keep him out of water. Attack with the Laser Saber if an enemy is in range-concentrate on a Valser if you can. If a heavily damaged Degler is in range, attack it with any unit of your choosing-youll see that Mack and Harry deal much more damage with their beam rifles than the Ilzards did, and Takuyas laser saber can also devastate them, while evading their counterattacks if he attacks from 3 spaces away. This stage really isnt as hard as the destruction of your allies would make it seem :) If you manage to destroy a Degler, Karry will talk with his underlings about something and mention Vectors. Hell also open up communications with his commanding officer, Frannel Maus, whom youll meet in the next chapter. End your turn if theres nothing else you can do, and your allies will continue to attack (if any of them are alive). Its possible to do all this by Turn 4 if youre lucky. Now, the enemies will attack...and youll see why your mechs are many times better than the crappy Ilzards. The Deglers will attack Takuya with their Hard Claws multiple times, but will do very little damage, while he will retaliate with his Laser Saber and shave off anywhere from 40 to 70% of their HP if hes lucky! The V8s will attack him with their machineguns and probably do a bit more damage, with the boss V10 doing the most. The Nelson should have a big 7 over it, though-70% of its HP remaining. For the next turn, Id have Mack and Harry clean up the Deglers that Takuya probably nearly destroyed, and if you manage to kill all but one, Commander Karry will make an exclamation of dismay. Have Takuya attack a damaged V8. If any of your allies are still alive, theyll help in the mopup, and when the last Degler is destroyed, youll see its bleeding pilot getting blown up. As an aside, its possible to attack before moving, unlike in Fire Emblem or Langrisser. At the beginning of a turn, if you attack a mech closeby, only the A will disappear from the attacker-the M will still be there, meaning you can move to wherever you wish. This comes in very, very handy in later chapters. Anyways, by this point, you should be doing well-most of the Deglers ought to be destroyed, leaving only the 2 V8s and the V10. Concentrate on destroying the Deglers, then the V8s. The chapter will actually end when you destroy the V10, but its advantageous to exterminate the enemy entirely-look at the blue bar next to your pilots level. See how its filling up? When it fills up entirely, they will "Level Up" and their stats will improve accordingly. If any enemies are left alive at this point, theyll probably attack the Nelson, which should have a good 60% of its HP remaining. Continue to attack your foes at your leisure, although you should concentrate on destroying the V8s, since theyre the most dangerous. After all the enemies have been destroyed, attack Karrys Valser:V10. It shouldnt be difficult at all to destroy, and once it does, youll see Karrys surprised portrait as his mech explodes around him, and the stage will end in victory! As an aside, the only way to lose this stage (which is nearly impossible) is if the Nelson is destroyed (taking Takuya along with it) or if the base with the operator girl is destroyed. If you followed this walkthrough, the enemies shouldnt have gotten anywhere near the base, though. After destroying Karry and his Valser:V10, a herppy Takuya will chat with the operator and then receive a message from his commanding officer, an older man with slicked:back white hair, whose name is given in indecipherable hiragana I cant read. You will then have an opportunity to save-move your cursor over the file you wish to save to, or choose the topmost option to not save at all. On to Scene 2! [002] Scene 2 In this map, Takuya and Harry start off at the far left, behind a mountain range, with Mack in front of them, well clear of it. There are no enemies on the map, but for some reason, Mack isnt under your control, and hes just doing his own thing. The most prominent feature of this map is the large castle in the center the lake in its middle, connected by a long road:bridge. For Turn 1, just move Harry and Takuya as far to the right as you can, with an eye to getting them to that castle (and following Mack) ASAP. End your turn. Mack will move forward, and since there are no enemies, its turn 2 again. Again move Takuya and Harry as far forward as they can go, dont let Mack get too far ahead of his friends! He again moves for the castle, and no enemies appear. Unfortunately, once turn 3 rolls around, the enemy forces appear. A squadron of 8 Deglers, 4 Valser:V8s, and one Arc:craft appears! The stats for the Deglers and Valsers are EXACTLY the same as they were in the previous stage. The only difference is the Arc:Craft, a large flying airship, piloted by Frannel Maus. Here are its stats: Mech Name: Arc:Craft: Bulky:looking flying thing, 2000 HP Pilot: Frannel Maus, old guy with grey moustache, lv. 4, 2/2/3/3. Close:range: No weapons, 0 DP (Flying craft cannot attack or be attacked with close:ranged weapons), 26 ER. Long:range: ShiyuHoU (No idea how to romanise this): 2 shots, 4:10 range, 50 ammo, 112 AP, 20 DP, 179HR, 49 ER. Move: 4 Special: None Notes: Aerial, cannot be attacked with close:combat weaponry, no terrain benefits or penalties. The enemy forces will move forward, but theyll still be far away from you. By turn 4, youll hopefully close the gap to Mack a little bit. End the turn. By turn 5, Mack should be almost to the castle and Takuya should be right behind him, with Harrys slower Swift trailing. Mack will attack one Degler after you end the turn, and theyll probably move into range afterwards, with one of them taking on Mack in close combat. Fortunately, the castle provides a 50% terrain bonus, so they probably wont get more than one hit in. Deglers that attack him with their vulcans wont hit at all, due to the fact that theyll probably still be in the lake (:20% terrain penalty) and he has a very high ER of 4 for ranged attacks. Still, Mack wont be able to hold out forever, so put Harry on the bridge and have him shoot at the Degler Mack shot at, then have Takuya move behind Mack (unfortunately, castles and urban areas hamper movement as well as provide terrain benefits) and laser saber the now severely:weakened Degler, probably killing it. End the turn. Mack will stay right where he is, like a retard, and shoot at another Degler. Fortunately, theyre not much smarter than he is, and will only attack Mack if they cant attack Takuya, which means that many of them will eat hot laser saber death. From this point onwards, just try to protect Mack and consolidate your position on the castle. Keep Harry on the bridge, where he can snipe at the Deglers, and have him finish off the ones with low HP. Move Takuya as far on the castle as possible, preferably right next to the lake and in front of Mack. The Deglers should kill themselves on Takuyas laser blade, while inflicting comparatively little damage, but once the V8s enter the fray, he may begin to suffer. After another turn or two, you should have managed to destroy most of the Deglers, with only the V8s and the Arc:craft remaining, but once that enters the fray...ouch. Itll do a good deal of damage to Takuyas Nelson with its heavy laser cannon (whatever its name is supposed to be). However, when things look bleak (usually around turn 10), help arrives! A mighty allied warship enters the battlefield with a complement of 9 Ilzards (whose stats are the same as they were in the previous scene). This airship is commanded by the elderly Ben Bask (whom I described earlier in the FAQ), and it is very important-if it goes down, its game over, as this is essentially Slashs mobile base. Here are its starting stats: Mech Name: Dread (DoRe??Do)-big blue airship that looks like a cargo plane, 4500HP Pilot: Ben Bask, old guy with cap and moustache, lv.3, 1/1/4/4. Close:range: Nothing, DP 0, 12ER Long:range: Shyuhou: 2 shots, 4:10 range, 50 ammo, 128 AP, 50DP, 150HR, 58ER Move: 4 Special: 10 MP max, Personal Repair, costs 2 MP The great airship and its Ilzards will advance upon the enemy, likely doing severe damage if your forces have already weakened them. The V8s will probably still be operational and continue to attack the damaged Nelson, but fortunately, the Arc Craft will concentrate upon the Dread, which means that as long as the Nelson has more than 20% of its HP remaining, it should remain in the fray. At this point, the battle is essentially won. Clean up the V8s as quickly as possible (the Ilzards will help you a lot in this endeavor) and once theyre dead, attack Frannels Arc:Craft with all of your ranged weaponry (remember, the Nelsons laser saber cant be used, it has to attack with its Vulcan). Even better, Mack Ryan will enter the Dread and return to your control! Now, this leads into one of the more important and interesting aspects of Vixen 357, unit deployment, which I will describe in the next chapter, when all of your units are full under your control. One turn after hes entered the Dread, select it, select the top option, select Macks portrait, select the Swifts portrait, select Punch, choose between Machinegun and Beam Rifle (Id go with Machine Gun) and move him out! Continue to attack the enemy. After reducing the Arc:Crafts HP to below half, Frannel will receive a transmission from Schtohl Weimar, the main antagonist of the game and the imposing looking guy with the tattoo on his forehead we saw in the beginning intro movie. He is apparently displeased with Frannel, since the Arc:craft promptly blows up after this transmission, regardless of its HP. Congratulations, youve beaten Scene 2! [003] Scene 3 This scene starts off with a pretty young Operator calling for an SOS. Apparently, the HerpPlants are under attack! First off, take a look around this stage. There are 3 Herp Plants you have to defend-one at the north coast, one at the middle coast (the one with the unique operator girl) and one at the south coast. Threatening them are exactly 10 Miranda (MiRaNDa) mechs-4 at the north sea attack the north base, 4 threatening the south base, and only 2 threatening the middle base. Here are their stats: Allies: Mech Name: Herp Plant x3, look like big blue spheres, 1500HP. Pilot: Operator lv. 2, 2/2/2/2 Close:range: No weapon, 15 DP, 32 ER. Long:range: No weapon, 15 DP, 32 ER. Move: 0, cant move Special: None Enemies: Mech Name: Miranda x9-maroon with a sloped head, antenna in the back, and yellowish cameras, 900 HP. Pilot: Goon, Lv.2, 2/1/2/1. Close:range: Hard Claw: 3 hits, 1:2 range, 25 ammo, 52 AP, 21 DP, 146HR, 41 ER Long:range: Scan Rockets: 3 shots, 5:10 range, 20 ammo, 76 AP, 21 DP, 126 HR, 41ER. Move: 7 Special: None Notes: Effective in water:+20% in shallow water, +40% in deep water, no movement penalties. Theyre led by 5 commanders who are exactly the same except their stats are 2/2/2/2 and they have 152/46/132/46 for total HR and ER in close range/long range. Unfortunately, the Dread starts out waaaaay over at the left of the map, in a straight line from the middle base, while the other 2 bases have to worry about 4 attacks rather than just three. This is the stage where people start getting discouraged about Vixen 357, because it seems very difficult! In truth, though, its not so much so, because you only need to save TWO herp:plants-if one gets destroyed, the stage isnt over. Pay particular attention to the middle plant, the one with the unique girl-its most important to keep her alive, if she dies, you fail the mission. Anyways, with that in mind, heres what Id do. Do not deploy your mechs yet-even though the Dread has a slow movement rate of 4, the forests hamper your Vectors movement enough that the Dread is actually faster than all of them would be. Thus, keep them in the airships hanger until it clears the forest, THEN deploy them. Now, heres a more in:depth tutorial on the Dread and unit deployment, and remember to look at the pictures for clarification: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Gunlord/LaunchExplanation1.png Select the Dread, and the third option down is Launch. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Gunlord/LaunchExplanation2.png Select the pilot you want to move out by moving the cursor over his (or her, later on in the game) portrait and pressing A or C. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Gunlord/LaunchExplanation3.png Select the portrait of the mech you want the pilot to launch in. http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Gunlord/LaunchExplanation4.png Now, select a close:range weapon for the mech. You dont have many options now (Laser Saber for the Nelson and Punch for the Swifts) but youll get more choices later on. Do the same for long:ranged weaponry-a bit more variety here, as the Nelson can equip either a Vulcan or a beam rifle and the Swifts can equip either beam rifles or machineguns- and then... http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Gunlord/LaunchExplanation5.png Select yes to move out or no to go back and do things over. Also press the B button to go back at any time. Once you select Yes, the movement screen will appear and you can move your mech anywhere in its movement range, starting from the Dread. Remember, terrain penalties apply, so if the Dread is over thick forests, your mechs wont be able to get too far away from it. Now, undeploying is even easier-just move one of your mechs on top of the Dread and theyll re:embark. There are several reasons for doing this-either to hitch a ride over difficult terrain the Dread can pass over with ease, and also, most importantly, to get their mechs repaired and refueled! Remember how you had to worry about limited ammo in the past couple of chapters? Well, once your Vectors enter the Dread, their ammo stocks will be refilled after they spend a turn in the hangar. They will also be repaired, but the mechs will have to spend several turns in the hanger if theyve been severely damaged. Its important to note that once a pilot has returned to the Dread, he or she will NOT be able to move out again until the next turn. If there are other pilots in the ship, however, they can launch immediately in the very same mech, ready to attack or use a special move! This isnt important at the moment, but it becomes crucial in the later chapters. Speaking of special moves, while Im at it, I might as well explain those as well. See this picture again: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Gunlord/LaunchExplanation1.png The second option down, right above Launch is Special Ability. Select it. Youll get sent to this screen: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Gunlord/SpecialExplanation1.png I dont really know what it means-I think its "repair ability" or something, as the text is different for the other units with special abilities you get later on in the game. Select it. Youll get taken to this screen: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Gunlord/SpecialExplanation2.png Select the bottom option to cancel, but the top option to carry it out. A whirring noise will play and a little circle will surround the ship, and it will regain some of its HP! Obviously, dont use this ability if the ship is at full HP, its a waste. You can only use it 5 times per battle-the Dread has 10 MP, and Personal Repair costs 2 MP. Other mechs will have their MP replenished immediately when they enter the Dread, but the Dread has nothing to harbor in, so you can only repair it 5 times per stage. Personal Repair heals a little over 20% of the Dreads total HP, so dont use it unless the Dreads HP is at 70% or below. Now that you know how to deploy, move the Dread straight forward 4 spaces. Try launching Takuya in the Nelson either to the north or the south-equip him with a newfound beam rifle instead of the Vulcan. He should be able to move a far greater distance than he was able to at the beginning of the first turn, because the Dread ought to be right over a nice path through the forest for his Nelson to walk through with less resistance. Keep the Swifts inside-youll see why later. The Miranda will move, but they wont get in range for at least a little while longer-until turn 3, specifically. Now, on Turn 2, continue to move Takuya as close as possible to one of the bases, and continue to move the Dread straight forward towards the middle base. By Turn 3, Takuya should be able to get up right next to the Herp:Base hes going for, while the Dread should be a couple of panels away from the middle Herp:base. Now, on turn 3, the enemies will move in and begin their attack. Their Scan Rockets will do an unpleasantly large amount of damage to the bases, and the poor girls cant do anything to defend themselves! However, thanks to moving Takuya and the Dread forward, the Mirandas will concentrate *some* of their fire towards your forces, taking a bit of pressure off of the bases. On Turn 4, Have Takuya move in front of the base and fire with his Beam Rifle at one of the Mirandas, and move the Dread forward again-it should be very close to one of the Mirandas attacking the middle base. It may be too close for the Dread to attack (but its friend isnt, the Dread should attack him), so deploy Harry and Mack in their Swifts with machine guns. On their turn 4, the Mirandas will attack again, with one of them hopefully attacking Takuya at close range (and receiving a devastating counter) and do a bit of damage to the other bases. Now, on turn 5, have Takuya stay on the nice machinery in front of the base (he gets a 50% terrain bonus) and attack with his laser saber. A somewhat different strategy is called for the Dread and the Swifts at the middle base. Move the Dread either down or up towards whatever base is completely undefended. Attack the one Miranda which should be heavily damaged and have the Swifts finish it off if its not dead. Then have the Swifts move forward to attack the one Miranda which should be sitting in deep water launching rockets at the base. With their machine guns maximum range of 4, they should be able to stay in shallow water, where theyll receive a less serious penalty than in deep water, although unfortunately, the Miranda keeps its 40% terrain bonus in water. On turn 6, have the Swifts kill the last Miranda attacking the middle base, and continue to move the Dread towards the undefended base. If that last Miranda is still alive, have the Dread spend an attack to finish it off. Move the Swifts over to assist the Dread-if youre lucky, a Miranda may waste some rockets attacking Mack or Harry. Takuya should still be in front of the other base, slashing at the Mirandas who are attacking it in close combat with his Laser Saber. At this point, Takuya and the Dread should still have most of their HP remaining-the Mirandas shouldnt do much damage to them. One of the bases will probably be almost destroyed at this point, though-dont worry about that, its pretty unavoidable, so long as the middle base has more than half its HP remaining. Keep things going on turns 7 and 8-continue to kill the close:ranged attackers with Takuya, and continue to attack the other forces at the north or south base with the Dread and the Swifts. Remember to attack from 3 spaces away with Takuya, since his laser saber has greater range than the Mirandas hard claw and can thus escape their counterattack. Unfortunately, its very hard to damage those in deep water; youll just have to pray for luck. By turn 9, its probable that one of the bases will be destroyed. However, the enemy forces ought to have suffered as well! Continue to have Takuya attack the remaining Mirandas at his base, and while the base the Dread and the Swifts are defending will probably be the one that is destroyed; have them continue to attack the Mirandas. Id recommend destroying the Mirandas in deep water, because they do more damage with their Scan Rocket attacks. Fortunately, after they destroy the base, the Mirandas will probably concentrate on the Swifts rather than moving to destroy the middle base. The top or bottom base that Takuya is defending will likely be very heavily damaged, so begin moving the Swifts and the Dread towards him once theyve killed off 3 of the 4 Mirandas at their base-have them attack it before they move. Takuya should be doing heavy damage to the Mirandas at this point. By Turn 13, you should have been able to kill almost all of them which remain on the map, with only maybe one or 2 remaining. Both of the other bases might have been destroyed, but the middle base you have to protect should still be alright. Proceed to mop up the last few Mirandas. Congratulations, youve beaten Scene 3! [004] Scene 4 This is yet another aquatic stage against even more Mirandas. However, fortunately, you get a new mech to help even the odds! It is the Namune, which is stocky and blue and has grey tanks on its back. Here are its stats and possible weapons loadouts: Mech Name: Namune Pilot: You choose! Close:range: Hard Claw: 3 hits, 25 ammo, 1:2 range Long:range: Beam Rifle: 3 shots, 20 ammo, 3:6 range; Scan Rockets: 3 shots, 5:10 range, 20 ammo. Move: 8 Special: None Notes: Receives large benefits in water:+20% in shallow, +40% in deep, but gets reduced benefits from trees, mountains, and cities/bases on land. Can move in water unhindered. Now, take a look at the map. Fortunately, you have many allies this time-8 Rayzards against 9 Mirandas, an Arc Base and one Judeis piloted by the guy you saw firing at Takuya in space in the beginning of the game, an expert pilot named Kiel Royard. Enemies: Mech Name: Miranda x10, 900 HP each. Pilot: Goon, Lv.2, 2/1/2/1. Close:range: Hard Claw: 3 hits, 1:2 range, 25 ammo, 52 AP, 21 DP, 146 HR, 41 ER Long:range: Scan Rockets: 3 shots, 5:10 range, 20 ammo, 76 AP, 21 DP, 126 HR, 41 ER Move: 7 Special: None Notes: Effective in water:+20% in shallow water, +40% in deep water, no movement penalties. Mech Name: Judeis, looks like a Miranda with a pointier head, 1500 HP. Pilot: Kiel Royard, lv. 7, 6/4/6/4. An expert pilot! Close:range: Hard Claw: 3 hits, 1:2 range, 25 ammo, 56 AP, 55 DP, 228 HR, 101 ER Long:range: Scan Rockets: 3 shots, 5:10 range, 20 ammo, 80AP, 55DP, 208 HR, 101 ER Move: 7 Special: none Notes: Mech Name: Arc Base, big maroonish building, 3000HP Pilot: Enemy Commander, Lv.4, 2/2/2/2 Close:range: No weapon, 18 DP, 49 ER. Long:range: Scan Rockets: 3 shots, 5:10 range, 20 ammo, 76AP, 18DP, 166 HR, 49 ER Move: 0, immobile Special: none Notes: Destroy this to end the stage. Allied units: Mech Name: Rayzard x8, they look like Ilzards with scuba gear, 800 HP each. Pilot: Pilot lv.2, 2/2/2/2. Close:range: Hard Claw: 3 hits, 1:2 range, 25 ammo, 60 AP, 20 DP, 117 HR, 41 ER Long:range: Scan Rockets: 3 hits, 5:10 range, 20 ammo, 68 AP, 20 DP, 97 HR, 41 ER Move: 7 Special: None Notes: Perform well in water. This stage is much easier. You dont have to worry about protecting anything (the Rayzards are expendable cannon fodder) and the enemies arent too difficult. Comparatively, the Rayzards are MUCH better than the Ilzards from the first stage, with better capabilities in the scenes primary element of water, double the HP, and decent close:combat weapons, but they will still be sadly outclassed by the Mirandas; their comparatively worse HR will make it very difficult for them to hit their targets and their Scan Rockets do less damage than those of the Mirandas. They perform fairly well against their foes in close combat, however. Unfortunately, rather than moving into a melee confrontation, they will mainly concentrate their rocket attacks on the Arc Base (which they will rarely be able to hit) and will get torn apart by the Scan Missiles of the Miranda, Arc Base, and especially the Judeis. Still, though, they can wear down the enemy a little bit for you. On turn 1, move the Dread forward as far as it can go. The Rayzards and Mirandas will attack each other with Scan Missles, with the Mirandas doing more damage. On turn 2, move the Dread forward and see if it can attack anything. If youve been moving straight forward you should be almost over deep water, so launch either Harry or Takuya in your new Namune. Id recommend Takuya equipped with the Hard Claw and a beam rifle-unfortunately, though, the enemy will continue to pick on the Rayzards, who are almost completely ineffective due to their lower HP, DP, and terrible hit rate. On Turn 3, move the Dread forward again, fire at the weakest Miranda, and continue to have Takuya blast away with his beam rifle (BEFORE moving) at the weakest Miranda. If both Takuya and Ben have attacked it and its not dead yet, youll want to kill it ASAP, because it will return to its base to heal itself. If its almost dead, have Takuya attack BEFORE moving and then spend his move to return to the Dread. Immediately launch Harry in the Namune with the beam rifle. Hell be able to shoot at the Miranda and kill it off. He might miss, though, so if you want to be REALLY sure, send out Mack with his higher ballistic skill. Anyways, after you end your turn, the Rayzards will unfortunately waste their attacks on the Arc Base, which they will barely be able to hit. Once the enemys turn rolls around, Kiel will get a transmission from an old guy with white eyes-I think his name is Geil. Unfortunately, most of the Rayzards will have moved into shallow water, where they only get a 20% bonus instead of a 40% bonus, and the Mirandas will tear them apart, and also begin to attack the Namune. Continue to attack with the Namune and the Dread, and move it forward. It might be close enough to make launching your other two pilots in the Swift and the Nelson feasible-even though they can only move 2 spaces in deep water, equip them with beam rifles and they should be able to take shots at a Miranda. By turn 5, most of the Rayzards will be dead and the Mirandas will have begun attacking your troops. If the Swifts and/or the Nelson are out, have them attack any mirandas in range before moving back to the Dread. Have the Namune and Dread attack the weakest Miranda. Move the Dread forward. By this time, it should be nearing the Arc Base. Once the enemys turn 5 rolls around, they will receive reinforcements! Well, more specifically, one reinforcement-a blue:haired guy named Neil in a Valser:V10, the same mech the very first boss piloted. At this point, the Mirandas may start attacking the Rayzards in close combat, which is good-the Rayzards actually perform fairly well in that area, and may do a decent bit of damage to the Mirandas. Unfortunately, by this point theyll probably be almost dead-only three were alive for me by this point. Anyways, heres Neils stats: Mech Name: Valser:V10 Pilot: Neil something (cant read the hiragana), blue:haired kid, lv.5, 3/3/3/3 Close:range: Punch: 3 hits, 1 range, 30 ammo, 34 AP, 20 DP, 130 HR, 57 ER Long:range: Machinegun: 8 shots, 1:4 range, 20 ammo, 66 AP, 25 DP, 130 HR, 70 ER Move: 6 Special: None Notes: Anyways, continue to attack-if youre continuing to move towards the base and dry land (which you should be), have the 2 Swifts attack first, then move back into the Dread if theyre out, then move the Dread itself. Also, by this point, Neil will begin moving forward and Kiel will begin to retreat. By turn 8, you should be on dry land. Launch Harry and Mack in the Swifts with Machineguns and Takuya in the Nelson with a laser saber and beam rifle. Neils machinegun and the Arc Bases missles will be able to do a bit of damage to the Dread, but not too much. Concentrate your fire on Neil first-he should go down pretty quickly, the Valser:V10 isnt as impressive as it was in the first stage. The Swifts machineguns and the Dreads Shyuhou may have a tough time hitting him, though, Neil in the V10 has a high ER against ranged attacks. Takuya will likely be able to do some good damage up close with the beam saber, though. Put Harry in the Namune with its Hard Claws if hes not hitting Neil enough. Once Neil dies, the stage is over. However...I would REALLY recommend killing all the other enemy mechs on the stage except Neil, move the Dread and all your other units right up close to the Arc Base (so it cant attack any of them), and chip away at it with...the Swifts punches/the weakest weapons you have. Why? XP Harvesting! You can get a good deal of extra XP this way. Put Takuya in a Swift and Mack in the Nelson, their attacks will do minimum damage to the base. Have all your units just punch at it ineffectively. Theyll get XP. Ironically enough, if you do this enough the base may level up. Anyways, you can kill the base and the stage wont end. Finish off Neil to end it in victory. Note: This is apparently a really bizarre bug, but if Neils machinegun runs out of ammo, hell attack the Dread with his Valsers bare hands! Save the game and move on to the next stage. [005] Scene 5 Again, this stage looks very difficult, but it really isnt. At first glance, it seems like youre up against insurmountable odds. Your 4 units-the Dread and the 3 pilots it carries-are all alone in a big city, facing off against exactly 21 foes-20 new Douwarl mechs and Hoffkins in his powerful Deibis. Here are there stats: Mech Name: Douwarlx20, look like dark maroon cyclopses with claws, 1000 HP. Pilot: Goon, lv.2, 2/1/2/1 Close:range: Hard Claw: 3 attacks, 1:2 range, 25 ammo, 80 AP, 25 DP, 141 HR, 41 ER Long:range: Vulcan: 8 shots, 1:3 range, 20 ammo, 22 AP, 20 DP, 81 HR, 36 ER Move: 8 Special: None Notes: Mech Name: Deibis, looks like an orange Douwarl, 1000 HP. Pilot: Hoffkins, has a monocle and crazy moustache, lv.6, 5/4/4/4 Close:range: Linear Biyuto? (cant make it out, kana is RiNiA Biyu-to, Ill just call it a whip since thats what it is): 3 attacks, 1:4 range, 30 ammo, 98 AP, 34 DP, 193 HR, 95 ER Long:range: Vulcan: 8 shots, 1:3 range, 20 ammo, 26 AP, 25 DP, 130 HR, 82 ER Move: 8 Special: None Notes: As you can see, these are the toughest opponents youve had to face yet, with Hoffkins being the best pilot youve yet seen. Things arent as bad as they look, though. Take a look at how the enemies are formed up. Theres a group of 5 Douwarls in the north, a group of 5 Douwarls in the south, and group of 5 Douwarls in the middle of the other 2 groups, a group of 5 behind the middle group, and the boss behind that. Now, what you want to do first off, is move north, towards the northern group of Douwarls-those are the ones youll want to hit first. The Douwarls will move towards you, but by turn 5, if you keep moving towards them, youll have gotten pretty close and theyll begin to reform into their original defensive line rather than continuing to pursue. Move in and attack with the Dread. Launch Takuya in the Nelson and Harry and Mack in the Swifts. Takuya should have a Beam Rifle and the other two should have Machineguns. Try to keep all of them on buildings-they get a 50% terrain bonus-but dont be afraid of putting them on the road if thats where they have to be to attack. Star blasting away at the Douwarls. As you can tell from their stats, they do NOT perform well against projectile weapons, so your beam rifles and machineguns will come in quite handy. End your turn. The Douwarls will probably come up to Takuya and attack him in hand:to:hand combat, taking a good bit of damage from his counterattacks. Others will waste their time shooting at him or your other mechs with their puny Vulcans, which will do almost no damage. The Douwarls from the other groups along with the Deibis will move towards your men. Continue the battle during turn six, shooting at the weakest Douwarl with the Swifts machine guns, the Nelsons beam rifle, and the Dreads big cannon. The Douwarls will continue to attack. At this point, the Nelson might be hurting pretty bad, and your other troops may have been damaged as well. Move them into the Dread to be repaired. Continue with this pattern until turn 10... OH YEAH! Reinforcements, baby! On this turn, friendly forces teleport in to assist you. They consist of a Herpcraft piloted by Boyd, a handsome older man with spiffy:looking white hair and a goatee, along with a complement of 8 Ilzards, one Zekzard piloted by Zelb, a hard:faced fellow with brown hair, and best of all, a new mech and pilot wholl serve under you-the Kairass piloted by Eddie Ray from the intro movie! Hes not controllable at the moment, but he will be in the next scene. Heres everybodys stats: Ilzard x8: Same as in the other chapters except the pilots are all level 3, 2/2/2/2, with correspondingly higher HR/ER. Mech Name: Zekzard, looks like a bulky Ilzard with a backpack, 1000 HP Pilot: Zelb lv. 4, 4/3/4/3 Close:range: Laser Saber, 3 hits, 1:3 range, 30 ammo, 116 AP, 35 DP, 144 HR, 69 ER Long:range: Blaster: 3 shots, 3:6 range, 20 ammo, 130 AP, 35 DP, 162 HR, 69 ER Move: 8 Special: none Notes: Mech Name: Kairass, looks like a Swift with a big metal claw, 1400 HP Pilot: Eddie Ray, lv. 4, 6/5/1/1. Close:range: Hard Claw: 3 hits, 1:2 range, 25 ammo, 140 AP, 60 DP, 231 HR, 105 ER Long:range: Vulcan: 8 shots, 1:3 range, 20 ammo, 24 AP, 35 DP, 53 HR, 33 ER Move: 10 Special: None Notes: Mech Name: Herp Craft, a long airship with 3 spires sticking out of it, 1800HP. Pilot: Boyd, lv.6, 1/1/3/3 Close:range: No weapon, 0 hits, 0 range, 0 ammo, 0 AP, 0 DP, 0 HR, 15 ER Long:range: Shyuhou: 2 shots, 4:10 range, 50 ammo, 118 AP, 16 DP, 165 HR, 75 ER Move: 4 Special: none Notes: Pretty nice, huh? The crappy Ilzards wont be able to do much, of course, but the Zekzard and Kairass will devastate the enemy. Blasters are, overall, the best class of ranged weapon in the game, and Zelb is reasonably good with them. Eddie is a close:combat monster, as you can tell from his stats. Hes horrible at ranged combat, though, so thankfully the Kairass can equip no ranged weapons other than the Vulcan for the duration of the game. The Herp:craft is sadly very weak- its essentially a MUCH weaker version of the Dread, without the ability to heal itself. If this ship goes down, its game over, so you have to defend it! Fortunately though, the enemy can only attack it with their crappy Vulcans. Anyways, continue to attack the Douwarls with your ranged weapons. At this point, you should have a very strong and obvious advantage. Remember to keep the Dread within movement range of all your mechs, and move them inside whenever theyre damaged. With your reinforcements fighting along with you, the battle should end in victory soon enough. [006] Scene 6 You start off in a mountainous region with the Herp:Craft, the Zekzard, and 8 Ilzards formed in a defensive line ahead of you. Their stats are exactly the same as they were in the last stage. Your (initial) opposition consists of 4 Douwarls, 6 Valser:v10s, and one Arc:Base led by Kalshia (something in hiragana). Here are their stats: Mech Name: Douwarl x4 Pilot: Goon, lv.3, 2/1/2/1 Close:range: Hard Claw: 3 hits, 1:2 range, 25 ammo, 80 AP, 25 DP, 143 HR, 42 ER Long:range: Vulcan: 8 shots, 1:3 range, 20 ammo, 22 AP, 20 DP, 83 HR, 37 ER Move: 8 Special: none Notes: Mech Name: Valser:V10 Pilot: Goon lv.3, 2/1/2/1 Close:range: Punch: 3 hits, 1 range, 30 ammo, 34 AP, 20 DP, 113 HR, 34 ER Long:range: Machinegun: 8 shots, 1:4 range, 20 ammo, 66 AP, 25 DP, 113 HR, 47 ER Move: 6 Special: none Notes: Mech Name: Arc Base Pilot: Kalshia, lv.6: 3/3/3/3 Close:range: None: 0 hits, 0 range, 0 ammo, 0 AP, 18 DP, 0 HR, 75 ER Long:range: Scan Rockets: 3 shots, 5:10 range, 20 ammo, 76 AP, 18 DP, 185 HR, 75 ER Move: 0 Special: none Notes: For the first 4 turns, move the Dread straight forward. Your allies and enemies will advance towards each other, and the Douwarls and Valsers will devastate the severely outclassed Ilzards. By turns 5 and 6, try to move the Dread as close as possible to the bridge. On turn 6, Zelb will betray you! He and the Ilzards under his command turn red, and he destroys the Herp:Craft, killing Boyd! Several Ilzards loyal to Boyd will remain alive, however. Now you have to deal with about 3 or 4 enemy Ilzards (depending on how many the Douwarls and Valsers destroyed) along with the considerably more dangerous Zekzard. The Douwarls will probably destroy the last of the friendly Ilzards, leaving you with no assistance. If the Dread is near the bridge, Zelb should still be near the back of his forces. Try to kill off the Ilzards surrounding him as quickly as possible during this turn (which should not be at all difficult) by moving your mechs as close as possible to Zelb (preferably surrounding him, if possible). Ignore his Ilzard friends, they wont be able to touch your machines. The Kairass will get a new weapon in this stage-the Linear Whip-with a range of 1:4 (equal to a machinegun!) so it only makes sense to put a master of close:range combat in a machine with an excellent close:range weapon. Move out Harry and Mack in the Swifts with Machineguns, and launch Takuya in the Nelson with a Vulcan if you can surround Zelb, with a Beam Rifle if you cant. You probably wont be able to surround him due to the placement of his Ilzards, though. In that case, try your best to attack him with ranged weapons, or in the case of Eddie, with the Linear Whip from 4 spaces away from him-his counterattacks are very damaging. Spend Turn 7 attacking him, and if possible, try to put a unit in front of him and the bridge, to blockade it, so to speak. The traitor and his allies will likely do a good deal of damage to one or two of your mechs. You should be able to kill him in one turn, but if not, you should be able to destroy him the next turn. After you destroy him, enemy reinforcements arrive! They consist of 6 new machines called Zeiks. Here are their stats: Mech Name: Zeik, reddish:maroon with a pointed head, 1400 HP Pilot: Commander Goon lv. 4, 2/2/2/2 Close:range: Laser Saber: 3 hits, 1:3 range, 30 ammo, 111 AP, 25 DP, 128 HR, 59 ER Long:range: Machinegun: 8 shots, 1:4 range, 20 ammo, 63 AP, 25 DP, 96 HR, 59 ER Move: 8 Special: none Notes: As you can tell, these are the most advanced mechs youve yet fought, with armaments, defensive capabilities, and HP comparable to your own Vectors. Itll take them a few turns to reach you, though, since theyll have a tough time crossing the mountains. Thus, concentrate your efforts on your other foes, which shouldnt be too difficult-set a pilot with high evade against ranged attacks, preferably Mack, in front of the bridge so that the enemies cant get through and have to line up. The Douwarls will be able to lash out at him in close combat, but only two of them will manage to get in hits, due to their Hard Claws having a max range of two, and he should be able to dodge most of the Valsers shots. Continue to maintain your blockade (sending a unit in for repairs when necessary and replacing it with Takuya, Harry, or preferably Mack depending on whos available), and concentrate on destroying the Douwarls and Valsers. By the time the Zeiks arrive (which should be around turn 13) you will hopefully have destroyed all of the Valsers and Douwarls (although one or two might have escaped back to their base for repairs-for the enemy, the Arc Base is like your Dread). When fighting the Zeiks, have Eddie in his Kairass with the Linear Whip blockade the bridge. The Zeiks will typically choose to attack him with their close:ranged laser sabers, which means 3 of them will receive heavy counterattacks, while only one can shoot at him with its machinegun, since its range is only 4 spaces. After a few turns, with this strategy, they should all be dead by turn 16. Now, you can advance on the enemy base with impunity. You can move all your units there on their own power, but given the mountainous terrain, its probably easier to just pack them into the Dread and fly them over. The Arc Base has Scan Rockets, though, so expect the Dread to take a bit of damage when it comes into range. Thus, Id advise moving it within 4 spaces of the Arc Base and attacking it with impunity, since its minimum range is 5. Also launch your other mechs and have them chip away at it. MAKE SURE TO HAVE ALL FOUR OF THEM SURROUND IT COMPLETELY! I.e they should all be RIGHT NEXT TO IT-one above, one below, one to the left, one to the right. This is very important for when you destroy it! You see, once the base is destroyed, you will receive a very unpleasant surprise- Kalshia will not go down with it, but will return in an entirely new and extremely annoying mech, the Vuitray! Here are its stats: Mech Name: Vuitray, a squat mech with maroon body and green head, 1800HP. Pilot: Kalshia lv.6, 3/3/3/3 Close:range: Punch: 3 hits, 1:1 range, 30 ammo, 54 AP, 22 DP, 160 HR, 75 ER Long:range: Beam Rifle: 3 shots, 3:6 range, 20 ammo, 92 AP, 22 DP, 140 HR, 75 ER Move: 7 Special: Vaccum Whorl: 20 MP total, costs 2 MP to activate. What this does is create a shield around every friendly mech (including the caster) in a certain radius (5 panels). A little icon of a shield will surround those mechs affected, and while this little icon is on top of them, all of your attacks will do NO DAMAGE! The only way to defeat this is to keep attacking and attacking. Eventually, after it has been attacked enough, the shield will fail, and your units will once again be able to damage the enemy normally. I think its based on damage received, as it takes longer to wear the shield down with the Swifts punches than it does with stronger attacks. Obviously, this is extremely annoying, but fortunately you will gain the same skill later on, one special attack can bypass this shield, and the Blaster weapon can destroy it with one shot. Notes: An extremely annoying mech that, unfortunately, youll be seeing a lot more of in later stages. Kill these as soon as possible wherever you find them, as their Vacuum Whorl ability can prevent your mechs from damaging many enemies, making battles very annoying. This mech is good for powering up, however. Equip all pilots with their worst weapons (Takuya and Harry in Swifts with punches, Eddie in the Kairass with a Vulcan, and Mack in the Namune with a Hard Claw), keep the Dread outside the Vuitrays attack range, and have everybody attack it with their worst weapons. It will take barely any damage at all, and your pilots will get powered up quite a bit. Try to end the stage before turn 100, however-its an automatic Game Over if you get to 100 turns. After you kill her, its victory for this scene. [007] Scene 7 This stage consists of a dense forest with a river running through it. Your opposition consists of 10 Douwarls, 6 Valser:V10s, 4 Zeiks, and one Vuitray piloted by a blond:haired guy named Yan. All of the Douwarls, Valsers, and Zeiks are essentially the same as they were in the last stage, with minor differences in pilots-theyre all level 4, 2/1/2/1, but still with HR and ERs about one point better than they were last stage. Yan himself pilots the exact same mech as Kalshia did, but hes a good deal better-level 6 with 5/4/5/4. Even though Yan has the super:annoying Vacuum Whorl ability, this stage isnt as hard as it would seem, thanks to the lovely reinforcements you get on the beginning of turn 6. Ill get to them later, though. Heres what you should do. On turn 1, move the Dread straight forward 4 spaces. The enemy will advance, with the 2 groups of Douwarls moving the farthest forward and the Valsers, Zeiks, and Yans Vuitray making slower progress and being buffed by his Vacuum Whorl. Do the same on the second turn. By turn 4, you should have reached the very edge of the forest. Now, heres what you do. Deploy Eddie in the Kairass with a Hard Claw and have him move towards the north group, keeping him as close as he can get to the enemy without moving into water, where hell suffer a disadvantage. He should be able to cross the river. Deploy Takuya in the Nelson with the Laser Saber and Beam Rifle and move him as close to the southern group as possible, while keeping him in the trees, where hell have an advantage. He shouldnt cross the river. Keep your other mechs in the Dread. If a Douwarl is in the Dreads range, have it attack one. Have Takuya and Eddie attack if theyre able. Now, on turn 5, have Takuya and Eddie move even closer to the enemy and attack if possible, but then move the Dread across the river, have it shoot at a foe of your choosing (preferably NOT the boss-youll see why) and have it deploy Mack and Harry in the Swifts (or for fun, you could have one of them in the Namune and place it in the river, where it has an advantage), and have them attack whoever you want. End the turn. The Douwarls will attack Nelson and Eddie, who will deal HEAVY damage to them by counterattacking with their Laser Saber and Hard Claw, respectively. You can leave them there and theyll take care of the Douwarls on their own, although Takuya might suffer more damage than Eddie. Anyways, once your turn 6 begins, you will get a VERY nice surprise! Two friendly mechs appear, piloted by two friendly pilots, Nina Laurel and Chay Won! Here are their stats: Mech Name: Fairy, looks like an Ilzard with wings, 1100 HP. Pilot: Nina Laurel, lv.6, 4/3/4/3. Close:range: Punch: 3 hits, 1:1 range, 30 ammo, 36 AP, 40 DP, 162 HR, 67 ER Long:range: Beam Rifle: 3 shots, 3:6 range, 20 ammo, 74 AP, 40 DP, 150 HR, 67 ER Move: 6 Special: 10 MP, Marb Cramp (No idea how to Romanize this), 2 MP. Notes: VERY useful! The Marb Cramp does 375 damages to EVERY ENEMY within a 5 panel radius. Remember to put it back in the Dread when its HP starts getting low or it runs out of MP! Mech Name: Panacea, looks kind of like Zelbs Zekzard, 1000 HP. Pilot: Chay Won, lv.6, 4/3/4/3. Close:range: Laser Saber: 3 hits, 1:3 range, 30 ammo, 86 AP, 35 DP, 144 HR, 67 ER Long:range: Vulcan: 8 shots, 1:3 range, 20 ammo, 34 AP, 40 DP, 120 HR, 75 ER Move: 6 Special: 10 MP, Vacuum Whorl: 2 MP Notes: Both her and Nina are pretty bad pilots, along with Harry, whose stats always stayed at 4/3/4/3 throughout the length of the game, regardless of their levels. Their mechs vary in usefulness, however. The Fairy remains extremely useful up to the end of the game, whereas the Panacea, while always helpful, becomes much less fun during later stages, where the enemies can take out its Vacuum Whorl shields with one shot. Now, things are looking a bit more even! With the Panaceas shielding ability and, more importantly, the Fairys Marb Cramp ability, which can absolutely decimate the enemy forces in a matter of turns, things are looking up! Keep the Dread where it is, as Nina and Chay are computer controlled and will make their way to you. Have all your mechs attack- the Douwarls should almost be dead, and will probably be when they attack Eddie and Takuya again. If Harry and/or Macks mechs are damaged, send them in-the Dread can withstand a lot of abuse from the enemy. End the turn, and keep things going on turn 7. By turn 8, all the Douwarls should have been destroyed, so move Eddie and Takuya back to the Dread (while having them attack any enemies that may be in their range). If either of your other two mechs are damaged, move them in as well, and if you have to put in all of them, have the Dread attack a mech of its choice and move forward as far as it can. The enemy will likely inflict a good deal of damage on it if theres nothing else to attack, but it should still have some HP left. On turn 9, heal it up-it recovers 960 HP! Launch all your mechs, particularly Takuya (the AI concentrates on him and the Dread before any other allies, so thatll take some heat off of the Dread) and have them attack. Nina will devastate your enemies with her Marb Cramp, which ignores Yans Vacuum Whorl (although it doesnt destroy it). Chay will also use the Vacuum Whorl to aid you! The scene should end in victory soon enough (If the Dread is running out of MP, concentrate your attacks on Yan) and youll be able to move on to turn 8! [008] Scene 8 Oh boy, another aquatic stage. Youll notice a base on a small island surrounded by 9 allies, it is your job to defend this base. Arrayed against you (at the moment) are a squad of 10 Zeiks led by an Arc Craft piloted by your interminable foe, Kiel Royard, right in front of the base, and a squad of 8 Mirandas, led by a fellow named Jimmy Randolf piloting Kiels Judeis from scene 4, who are nearer to the top of the map. The bases defenders will get their asses kicked within a handful of turns, so get over there quickly! Heres everyones stats: Allies: Mech Name: Herp Base, 1300 HP. Pilot: Operator, lv.5, 3/2/3/2 Close:range: No weapon, 20 DP, 28 ER Long:range: Scan Rockets: 3 shots, 5:10 range, 20 ammo, 88 AP, 20 DP, 175 HR, 28 ER Move: 0 Special: None Notes: Mech Name: Rogzard, looks like a beefed:up Ilzard, 1000 HP. Pilot: Pilot, lv.3, 2/2/2/2 Close:range: Punch: 3 hits, 1:1 range, 30 ammo, 56AP, 30 DP, 144 HR, 63 ER Long:range: Beam Rifle: 3 shots, 3:6 range, 20 ammo, 94 AP, 30 DP, 124 HR, 63 ER Move: 8 Special: none Notes: Enemies: Mech Name: Zeik, 1400 HP. Pilot: Goon, lv.4, 2/1/2/1 Close:range: Laser Saber: 3 hits, 1:3 range, 30 ammo, 111 AP, 25 DP, 121 HR, 53 ER Long:range: Machinegun: 8 shots, 1:4 range, 20 ammo, 63 AP, 25 DP, 89 HR, 53 ER Move: 8 Special: Notes: Mech Name: Miranda Pilot: Goon, lv. 2/1/2/1 Close:range: Hard Claw: 3 hits, 1:2 range, 25 ammo, 52 AP, 21 DP, 149 HR, 43 ER Long:range: Scan Rockets: 3 shots, 5:10 range, 20 ammo, 28 AP, 21 DP, 129 HR, 43 ER Move: 7 Special: none Notes: Mech Name: Judeis, 1500HP. Pilot: Jerry Randolf, lv. 6, 5/4/5/4 Close:range: Hard Claw: 3 hits, 1:2 range, 25 ammo, 56 AP, 55 DP, 215 HR, 105 ER Long:range: Scan Rockets: 3 shots, 5:10 range, 20 ammo, 80 AP, 55 DP, 195 HR, 105 ER Move: 7 Special: None Notes: Mech Name: Arc Craft, 2000 HP. Pilot: Kiel Royard, lv.7, 6/4/6/4 Close:range: No weapon, 0 DP, 56 ER. Long:range: Shyuhou: 2 shots, 4:10 range, 50 ammo, 112 AP, 20 DP, 228 HR, 66 ER Move: 4, flying Special: None. Notes: As you can see, your allied pilots are *slightly* better than the enemys, although Kiel Royard is far better than all of them (and his Arc Craft will devastate your allies). However, unfortunately, your foes outnumber the allied forces, your friends picked horrible mechs- although the Rogzards are fairly decent, with 1000HP and 30 DP apiece, they are very poorly equipped (with nothing but a punch, the Zeiks will tear them apart with their Laser Sabers) and they are NOT built for aquatic combat, suffering penalties in the water. Fortunately, the Zeiks are subject to the same penalties, but theyll still ravage the Rogzards, all in all, and the Mirandas perform best in water. And, once again, your ship starts off in the far left side of the map :( On the first turn, move it 4 spaces forward, and end your turn. Instead of consolidating on the island and near the base, like they should, your retarded allies will move straight into the water, where theyre even more vulnerable. On turn 2 and 3, continue moving the Dread forward, and the enemy will continue to devastate your allies, likely dealing severe damage to the base as well. Fortunately, the Arc Craft will stick in the back and the Mirandas wont concentrate on the base. On turn 3, you probably will have moved the Dread forward enough that the Mirandas and Judeis will have started launching Scan Missiles at you. On turn 4, you should have moved the Dread over open water. Deploy someone in the Panacea and protect the Dread with the Vacuum Whorl. Just a note-unfortunately, the Panacea will only have access to a Vulcan and Beam Saber for the rest of the game. The Mirandas will attack the Dread, and the Zeiks will continue to attack the Rogzards. With any luck, the dying Rogzard forces will be able to take one or two Zeiks down with them by this point. On turn 5, return the Panacea to ship and move the Dread over to the island. Launch as many pilots as you can onto the island, with the exception of the Panaceas pilot who just embarked (he or she cant disembark immediately after embarking) and one other, preferably Nina, Harry, or Chay. Equip Takuya with his usual beam rifle and laser saber, Mack in a Swift with a beam rifle, and Eddie in the Kairass with the Linear Whip. The Mirandas will continue to blast the Dread (probably doing heavy damage), and the Zeiks will continue to devastate the Rogzards. Now, heres what to do on turn 6. Keep the Dread EXACTLY where it is-dont move it a space. Launch one of the 2 pilots you should have in the hangar in the Fairy as far up as it can go (fortunately, shallow water is easier for it to move in). Select its special attack. See the lighted area? Youll do 400 damage to EVERY mech in that lighted area, and most of the Mirandas should be within its range! Activate it and watch the sparks fly. Attack any Zeiks within range of the Dread and your other mechs. Making things even better, Jerry will retreat back to Kiels Arc Craft-you cant kill him (or Kiel) in this stage, so thats a bit of pressure off of you. End the turn, and the Mirandas will continue to attack the Dread, and the Zeiks will continue to attack the Rogzards. Now, on turn 7, here is what you do. Heal the Dread, first off, but do NOT move it. You see how the Fairy is still out and has A,S,and M over it? Use its special move to damage the Mirandas. Now move it back into the Dread. NOW, HAVE THE REMAINING PILOT IN THE BAY LAUNCH TO THE EXACT SAME SPOT WITH THE FAIRY! You see why this move is so advantageous? Now you can do double damage with the Fairys Marb Cramp! Thats 800 damage total! Thus, you should always keep 2 of these 3 pilots on standby for use in the Fairy: Nina, Harry, and Chay. Their piloting skills are too weak to be of much else use. After this, one Miranda should still be left alive, which can essentially be ignored. Have your other mechs attack the Zeiks, which should be under some very heavy damage by now- the battle is almost won! Kiel will start leaving for the edge of the map, and by turn 8, the Arc Craft will have soared off into the distance. Kill the remaining Miranda with whoever you want. After Kiel leaves, you only have to kill 1 or 2 more Zeiks at this point-the rest will surrender. Congratulations! On to scene 9. [009] Scene 9 Youll meet some VERY nasty enemies on this stage. However, when it starts, there dont seem to be any around. Instead, you get a cute looking transport ship, the Illuminant, piloted by the lovely Reiko Machida! She is a very defensive pilot-shes level 6 and her stats are 3/4/4/5, meaning she cant hit well in close combat but can dodge, can hit foes at long range better, and can dodge foes at long range very well. The Illuminant is a unique ship-its a fast carrier. Its very poorly armed and armored, as its only equipped with a crappy Vulcan and can only take 1400 points of damage (and its DP is 25). However, it flies and it has 10 movement. It can also carry a single mech and fits into the Dreads hangar. Thus, you see what its purpose is-whenever you need to deploy a mech a lot farther than the Dreads crappy movement rate of 4 would be able to, use the Illuminant. Now, the objective at the moment is to get Reiko (who is not under your control) into the Dread. Unfortunately, you are VERY far away from each other, you at the bottom left and she at the top right. Move it up 2 spaces and right 2 spaces. She will move straight down. Unfortunately, once your turn ends, you will see why this level is so difficult. 3 Wilders will teleport in, piloted by enemy aces! They will be contacted by an ugly looking guy named Bowman, who youll see later on in the game. There are only 3 of them, but thats all they need to take down all of your troops! Look at their statistics, as these are the most powerful enemy mechs, all in all, you will face in the game, with the exception of the last boss. Mech Name: Wilder, 2000HP. Pilot: Zem (green haired guy) and Ward (Blue haired guy), lv. 5, 4/4/4/4 Close:range: Laser Saber: 3 hits, 1:3 range, 30 ammo, 106 AP, 30 DP, 168 HR, 101 ER Long:range: Bazooka: 2 shots, 5:8 range, 20 ammo, 110 AP, 30 DP, 156 HR, 101 ER Move: 8 Special: 20 MP, Vacuum Whorl, Marb Cramp, AND Personal Repair for 2 MP each!!! Notes: With 20 MP and all 3 Special Abilities the game has to offer, you can see why I call these the most powerful mechs in the enemys arsenal. They are led by Lagu, who is level 6, has stats of 5/5/5/5, but is otherwise exactly the same. Your foes will quickly move towards the Illuminant. One of them will use Vacuum Whorl and shield the others, while the other two will use Marb Cramp to reduce the Illuminants HP from 1400 to about 675. Things are looking grim for Reiko, but fortunately, her airships movement range of 10 combined with the fact that the enemies movement is hampered by the mountains means she will be able to escape them. Continue moving the Dread towards her. Reiko will move her Illuminant down as fast as she can. Fortunately, when the enemys turn comes around, they will be hampered by the mountains, but they can still hit her with their Bazookas range of 8. Continue moving the dread towards her by turn 3, and shell move 10 spaces to the right, which should bring her out of the attack range of the Wilders. By turn 5, move the Dread forward and she should be able to get in. Once she does, youll find shes brought an EXCELLENT present! The Illuminant was carrying the Pastoral, one of the 2 best Vectors youll have available to you in the game. It has 1550 HP, 10 movement, 55 DP against melee and projectile weaponry, and best of all, 20 MP with Personal Repair! Shell also bring new weaponry in for some of your mechs. The Swifts and the Pastoral can equip a new ranged weapon, the Cannon, which fires 2 shots from a range of 5:8 spaces away. The Nelson gets a Bazooka, which is essentially the same thing, but with slightly worse hit rates and damage. Finally, the Kairass will get a nice Hand Axe, which is its strongest close:range weapon but only has a range of 1:2. Anyways, now you should take a look at your enemies. They will probably have broken formation due to the terrain for a few turns, but now they should be reforming. There are big mountain ranges on the east and west sides of the map, separated by a great forest in the middle. Move the Dread close to the edge of the mountain range, and try to deploy all your units onto the mountains, so they get terrain bonuses. Put Takuya in the new Pastoral (hes your most well:balanced pilot overall at this point) and Reiko in the Nelson, both with their Cannon and Bazooka, respectively. Launch Eddie in the Kairass with the Linear Whip (hell be able to avoid the Laser Saber counterattacks of the Wilders by staying out of their range) and Mack in a Swift with a Cannon. Launch Chay in the Swift and Vacuum Whorl your units, then launch Nina in the Fairy and have her wait. End the turn, and your foes will move forward. On Turn 4, Ward will likely be closest to you. Move the Fairy forward, the Panacea should Vacuum Whorl any units that didnt receive it, and the Dread should move back just a little bit, maybe a panel or two. Wade will want to attack it, so make sure hes lured within range of the Fairys Marb Cramp. It will attack the Dread and Marb Cramp the Fairy. On Turn 5, start attacking. Use the Fairys Marb Cramp and move it back to the Dread. Launch Harry in the Fairy and Marb Cramp it again. Make sure to move the Fairy where the Marb Cramp can reach both of the other Wilders instead of just one! Now, attack it with your WEAKEST UNITS FIRST! Have the Dread attack it, then the Fairys Beam Rifle, then have the Panacea use its Vacuum Whorl to re:shield the Dread and move forward to attack the Wilder with its Laser Saber. Theres no point wasting your strongest attacks, like the Kairass Linear Whip or the Cannons, on the enemys Vacuum shield. After its been destroyed, attack with your remaining units. Move the Dread and Takuya back to encourage Wilder to move forward. End the turn. The other two Wilders will move forward and attack, one of them perhaps Marb Cramping one of your units, but the other one piloted by Wade will move forward and attack the Dread or Takuya with his laser saber (receiving a nasty counterattack), but will not Marb Cramp, instead choosing to Personal Repair itself. On turn 9, kill it. Marb Cramp with Harry, move the Dread forward, have Harry shoot at any Wilders in range, move Harry into the Dread, then launch Nina and have her do the same. By this point, Wades Wilder should be virtually destroyed. Have one unit finish off its HP, preferably Takuya. Then, attack the shields of Zems Wilder (which should be nearby) with the Panacea and Dread. It should go down, so proceed to attack it with your other units. End the turn. On turn 10, the Wilders will attack again. Zem will choose to personal repair himself but Lagu will choose to Marb Cramp, which will do a good deal of damage to all your mechs, but none of them should be dead. Heal up the Pastoral and Dread with Personal Repair, and if any mech is heavily damaged (less than 380 HP), move it back into the Dread for repairs (after attacking, of course)! Continue to attack the weakest Wilder-Zem or Lagu. Move damaged mechs back into the Dread as necessary. Within a few turns, Zems mech should go down, and after that, Lagu ought to be destroyed soon after. Congrats, victory is yours! [010] Scene 10 This scene starts off with you at the very northwest of what seems to be a mountainous battlefield. Theres one big landmass on the east side of the battlefield, separated by a river, and two smaller landmasses on the other side of that river, themselves separated by another river. There are two bridges connecting the northwest landmass and the southwest landmass to the great eastern landmass, but the bridge connecting the two western lands has been destroyed. The Dread starts out just north of the big top bridge. Far to the south, at the other bridge, a Herp Craft with 15 Rogzards will be facing off against 6 Deibises, which youll remember from scene 5, a Vuitray piloted by Jimmy Randolph (from Scene 8), a very powerful Velwezer piloted by Kiel Royard (the same mech you saw in the introduction), and a Nerk Craft (no idea how to Romanize this) piloted by Geil, who is the old guy with white eyes from scene 5. Most of these stats are irrelevant except for Kiels and Geils-youll see why in a few turns. Here they are: Mech Name: Velwezer, green mech with pointy head you saw in the intro, 1550 HP. Pilot: Kiel Royard, lv. 7, 6/4/6/4. Close:range: Laser Saber: 3 hits, 1:3 range, 30 ammo, 116 AP, 55 DP, 200 HR, 106 ER Long:range: Machinegun: 8 shots, 1:4 range, 20 ammo, 68 AP, 55 DP, 168 HR, 106 ER Move: 10 Special: 20 MP, Personal Repair Notes: Mech Name: Nerk Craft, big green winged aircraft, 3000 HP. Pilot: Geil something (cant read hiragana), lv. 6, 5/5/5/5 Close:range: No weapon, 28 DP, 75 ER Long:range: Shyuhou: 2 shots, 4:10 range, 50 ammo, 112 AP, 28 DP, 245 HR, 85 ER Move: 5 Special: 99 MP, Nerk Wave: costs 99 MP Notes: Do NOT send any unit in front of it until it uses Nerk Wave. Anyways, now to start the battle! Move the Dread down 4 spaces. However, do NOT deploy any mechs, I repeat, do NOT deploy anything! End the turn. The Rogzards and Deibises will go at it. On turn 2, move the Dread onto the bridge. Deploy all your units-Takuya in the Pastoral with a Laser Saber and Machinegun, Mack in a Swift with a Machinegun, Reiko in the Nelson with a Laser Saber and Beam Rifle, Eddie in the Kairass with a Hand Axe, Nina in the Fairy, and Chay in the Panacea-Vacuum Whorl your mechs. Send them out as far across the bridge as they can go-dont worry about it if the Dread is out of range of the Panaceas Vacuum Whorl. Once your turn ends, enemy reinforcements will arrive-a platoon of 10 Winkers, powerful ranged units. Theyre green machines with shoulder cannons. Here are their stats: Mech Name: Winker, 1500 HP Pilot: Goon, lv. 4, 2/1/2/1 Close:range: Punch: 3 hits, 1:1 range, 30 ammo, 36 AP, 20 DP, 129 HR, 43 ER Long:range: Bazooka: 2 shots, 5:8 range, 20 ammo, 115 AP, 25 DP, 139 HR, 53 ER Move: 8 Special: none Notes: Since Takuya is probably in front with the Pastoral, theyll all attack him. He shouldnt take too much damage (not more than 1 or 2 hundred) but if he did, Personal Repair him on turn 3. The opposing forces on the bottom of the map will continue to go at it. On turn 3, move the Fairy forward and have it Marb Cramp as many Winkers as it can (probably no more than 3). Move forward the rest of your units (including the Dread) and have them attack. You should be able to kill one. End the turn. The bottom forces will attack each other again, and the Winkers will do the same, probably not doing much damage due to the fact that theyll attack pilots whose ERs are high enough to allow them to dodge most projectile shots. However, after everyone else has attacked, Geil will unleash the Nerk Wave! This uber:powerful attack is why I told you not to deploy any of your units to the southern bridge. Twin beams of energy will shoot out from the Nerk Craft, destroying everything in a straight line in front of it. This includes your unfortunate allied Herp Craft and Rogzards, but ALSO destroys the remaining Deibises as well as Jimmys Vuitray! The game may freeze up when this happens, press the B button to make it go forward. This is also why I didnt bother giving you stats for any of those units, since they were all going to die anyways. Kiel apparently had something to do with Jimmy, because hell start crying and scream, "JIMMY!" That will end the enemys turn. On turn 4, move the Fairy to wherever it can hit the most Winkers and activate its Marb Cramp. Continue to attack the Winkers. End the turn, and Kiel will say something to Geil, and the Winklers will continue to attack your men while moving south. On turn 5, move south along with them and continue to attack them. End the turn. Once the enemys turn begins... KIEL WILL DEFECT! Yes, thats right, hell join your side! His mech will turn from the enemys green to your nice brown. You cant control him in this stage, but you will get him next stage! Apparently, he didnt take too kindly to Geils betrayal of Jimmy. He is the turncoat I referred to at the very beginning of this guide. Unfortunately, the Winkers who were moving south will also begin to attack him, and concentrate on him exclusively. Fortunately, though, you should have killed off a few of them, and Kiel is an excellent pilot who can dodge most of their attacks, and the Velwezer can heal itself, so theres not much to worry about. Once your turn begins, move your forces southwards. Most of your units will have a tough time moving on the sand and mountains, so if your slower:moving Vectors like the Swift, Fairy, and Panacea are closer to the Dread, have them board it-the Fairy could probably use an MP refill anyways. End your turn. Kiel will begin attacking the Nerk Craft, and the Winkers will continue attacking Kiel. On the next turn, continue to attack the Winkers, move the Dread forward and attack with it, and deploy any and all pilots available-no need to keep one in reserve for the Fairy, the Winkers should probably be nearly dead, so you can go all out. After you kill all the Winkers, start attacking Geils Nerk Craft. It should go down in a few turns. On to Scene 11! One note, though-from this point on, Kiel is an integral character. If he dies, its game over. Still, though, you should always reset if ANY of your characters dies, right? [011] Scene 11 This stage involves assaulting a heavily defended base. The Dread starts out at the far west of the map, in a big forest, and the enemies are entrenched in the mountains to the east. They consist of 8 Winkers (whose stats are exactly the same as they were in the last stage, except level 5 and HR and ER improved by 2), 12 of a new brand of mech called Lairds, 6 massive turrets called Aproxes, and the main enemy base piloted by a guy named Mihail called Velhir. Heres everythings stats: Mech Name: Laird, orange mechs with wings, 1450 HP Pilot: Goon, lv. 5, 2/1/2/1 Close:range: Laser Saber: 3 hits, 1:3 range, 30 ammo, 120 AP, 27 DP, 143 HR, 54 ER Long:range: Beam Rifle: 3 shots, 3:6 range, 20 ammo, 108 AP, 27 DP, 141 HR, 54 ER Move: 9 Special: None Notes: Mech Name: Aprox, big double:barreled turret, 2000 HP Pilot: Goon, lv. 5, 2/1/2/1 Close:range: No weapon, 37 DP, 34 ER Long:range: Shyuhou: 2 shots, 4:10 range, 50 ammo, 178 AP, 37 DP, 171 HR, 34 ER Move: 0 (immobile) Special: None Notes: Very damaging. Mech Name: Velhir, thing that looks like a radar tower, 3500 HP Pilot: Mihail, lv. 6, 2/2/2/2 Close:range: No weapon, 20 DP, 45 ER Long:range: No weapon, 20 DP, 45 ER Move: 0 Special: None Notes: Completely helpless. You should milk it for XP after killing everything else on the stage. Now, on turn 1, note how powerful the Aproxes are-178 AP and 2 shots! Fortunately, though, they have absolutely no close:combat capability whatsoever, so get some units close up and you will be in the clear. Move the Dread forward. End your turn. The Aproxes will do nothing (they cant), the Winkers will just sit there, but the Lairds will begin to move forward. On Turn 2, continue moving the Dread forward as far as possible. The enemy will do the same thing, except that 4 of the 12 Lairds will stay behind to defend the Velhir while the other 8 will move forward. Do the same on Turn 3. By turn 4, the other groups of Lairds will have formed a defensive formation around 2 of the Aproxes. Start moving south or north, towards one of the last Aproxes at the end of the defensive line (Ill use the south one for this walkthrough). It should NOT be defended by any Lairds. Do the same on turn 5 and 6, and on turn 7, you should be getting close. Check to see if the Dread can fire upon the Aprox-do NOT move to fire upon the Aprox, as that means it can fire back upon the Dread! You should try to move just one panel out of its firing range, i.e 11 panels away from it. Once youve achieved that, launch an assault! To evade its attack, launch a crappy pilot in the Illuminant, such as Harry, and have him carry Eddie Ray in the Kairass with a Battle Axe 10 spaces forward, right near the Aprox. End your turn. The Aprox close to the Illuminant and Kairass cannot attack, but Lairds defending the Aprox directly above and the Aprox itself can. They will concentrate on the Illuminant, likely severely damaging it, but not destroying it. On turn 8, move the blasted Illuminant back to the Dread, and have the Kairass continue to attack the Aprox. Now, pick at the Lairds who moved to attack. You can freely attack them in the Dread without moving an inch, and launch the Swifts and Nelsons with whomever you choose with cannons, the Nelson with a Bazooka, someone in the Namune with scan rockets, and the Pastoral and Velzer with cannons, put them all behind the Dread, and have them attack the Lairds. End the turn. The Aprox immediately north of the one were attacking will shoot at the Kairass (damaging it a bit), the other Aprox will probably attack at any unit you let into its range while attacking, the Lairds near the Kairass will attack it with their beam rifles (likely severely damaging it), and the rest of your enemies will do nothing. On Turn 10, have the Kairass attack the Aprox and begin moving it back to the Dread. Have all your other units attempt to kill another Laird (launch Harry to help). End the turn. The Lairds will continue to attack your troops. On turn 11, use Personal Repair if the Velwezer or Pastoral have been damaged, continue moving Eddie back to the Dread (attacking any Lairds in the way if he can), and have your other troops continue to shoot at the Lairds, moving them back into the Dread if theyre too damaged. If theres only one Laird left, spare some time to attack the Aprox with your long:ranged weaponry. End the turn, and the enemy will continue to harass you. Next turn, kill the last Laird (hopefully this is turn 12), return any damaged units to the Dread, keep it out of the Aproxs range, and concentrate your firepower on the Aprox. It should go down. Move any damaged units back into the Dread for repairs. End the turn, and the enemy will do nothing. On turn 13, relaunch all your longest ranged fighters with cannons, Scan Rockets, and the like and have them attack the next Aprox up. Even though theyre in its range, it wont attract the attention of the other 4 Lairds. You can also launch Eddie in the repaired Kairass with the Linear Whip if the Dread is close enough. Once youre done with that Aprox, move your units up and have them start picking at the next Aprox up and the Lairds defending it. They shouldnt be too difficult-continue picking away at them at a range, moving any damaged Vectors attacked by the Lairds or Aprox back to the Dread for repairs. You should destroy it by turn 18. Move all your units up to destroy the last Aprox on the front line, and by turn 20, you should destroy that too. Now, in the process, some of your mechs may be attacked by the Winkers defending the last two Aproxes. Move them all back into the Dread for repairs. The Dread should be outside the range of the other two Aproxes, so youll have a bit of time to rest and repair your Vectors. After theyve all been repaired, at this point, you may want just want to blitz the enemy instead of wearing them down through attrition. Move the Dread straight towards the main enemy base, inbetween the Aproxes. Just keep it there. EVERY ENEMY, BOTH APROXES, 8 WINKERS, AND 4 LAIRDS, will attack the Dread!! Depending on how lucky you are and if it hasnt taken any hits so far, itll likely go down to 10 or 20% hp. Devastating, right? Well, notice where all the enemies are located. Every last one of them can be hit with a Marb Cramp! Launch the Fairy and take advantage of that, dealing out massive damage to all foes present. Launch all other units (except one, preferably Harry) and begin to attack-you should take out one or two of the opposing forces. Keep the Dread where it is-the enemy will hopefully be distracted by your other mechs and slightly weakened enough to allow the Dread some leeway. The next turn, have the Fairy Marb Cramp again (most enemies should still be in range), move it back to the Dread, launch Harry, and have it Marb Cramp again. Kill even more enemies than before, and move the dread back, out of the range of the Aproxes, to allow it to Personal Repair. Keep attacking the enemies. By turn 26, you should have exterminated them. Now move all your units forward to destroy the remaining Aproxes (remember to keep the Dread out of their range). Move any damaged unit back to the Dread for repairs if its getting hit by the Aproxes. By turn 29, you should hopefully have destroyed all of them. Now, just relax, and attack the Velhir. Id recommend spending a couple of turns to reorganize your mechs. Heres the loadout Id recommend to do MINIMUM damage: Eddie: Illuminant Kiel: Kairass Mack and Takuya: Swifts Nina: Nelson Reiko: Fairy Chay: Namune Harry: Panacea Attack with your very weakest weapons-Vulcans or Punches. In the Namunes case, attack with Hard Claws. Eventually, you should manage to kill him at around turn 44. Congratulations! On to Scene 12. [012] Scene 12 At the beginning of this map you start off near a forest, separated from the east side of the map by a lake with mountain ranges at the north and south of the map. Your foes consist of 4 Winkers at the top and bottom of the map and 8 Deibises moving forward from the middle, Behind them are the real troublemakers of this map-two Ramildas and one Parkard piloted by the boss of this map, Shara, who is the best pilot youve yet fought. The Deibises and the Winkers are essentially the same as they were in the previous map, so here are the stats for the Ramildas and the Parkard. Mech Name: Ramilda, looks like a Vuitray with shoulder spikes, 1500 HP. Pilot: Commander Goon, lv. 5, 2/2/2/2 Close:range: Punch: 3 hits, 1:1 range, 30 ammo, 54 AP, 18 DP, 178 HR, 61 ER Long:range: Beam Rifile: 3 shots, 3:6 range, 20 ammo, 92 AP, 18 DP, 158 HR, 61 ER Move: 10 Special: 20 MP, Marb Cramp Notes: These are some of the most annoying enemies youll face in the game. Mech Name: Parkard, has a green spike in its head, 2500 HP Pilot: Shara, lv. 7, 6/6/7/6 Close:range: Punch: 3 hits, 1:1 range, 30 ammo, 54 AP, 50 DP, 200 HR, 125 ER Long:range: Blaster: 3 shots, 3:6 range, 20 ammo, 190 AP, 50 DP, 266 HR, 140 ER Move: 9 Special: None Notes: Now, as you can see, its the Ramildas who are this stages real annoyance. Their Marb Cramp is damaging enough on its own, and two of them means theyll be able to do nearly 800 damage to many of your troops in one turn! Fortunately, youll have a chance to take out the Deibises and Winkers before the Ramildas get into range, because theyll start off far ahead of their commanding officers. On the first 2 turns, move the Dread straight forward. The enemy will do the same. On turn 3, move the Dread forward and down, towards the lower group of enemies that should be close to you. Launch the Fairy as far forward as it can go and try to catch as many enemies as possible in range of the Marb Cramp. Launch all units-youll find youve gotten some new equipment, as the Pastoral and Velwezer can now equip Hand Axes and BLASTERS, the best long:ranged weapon you can get overall! Send out Takuya in the Pastoral with a hand axe and blaster, Kiel in the Velwezer with the same, Mack in Swift with a machine gun, Reiko in a Nelson with a beam rifle, Eddie in the Kairass with a battle axe, and Chay in the Panacea. Keep Harry inside, and Shield all of your units with Vacuum Whorl. End the turn. Your foes will attack you, but they shouldnt be able to do much damage. On turn 4, do the same. By turn 5, the Ramildas and the Parkard will have entered the fray, but the Ramildas shouldnt be in range to use their Marb Cramp. Concentrate on them first! Ignore the Winkers and Deibises and move all units forward to shoot at a Ramilda. You MAY be able to kill both of them in one turn! If not, you should destroy one and severely damage another. Breath a sigh of relief, although you still have Shara to deal with-her blaster is absolutely devastating! It can also blow through your shields in one shot. You may want to keep her alive, though, for XP harvesting purposes. After killing the Ramildas, the rest of the stage isnt so hard. Dont concentrate on Shara, kill the rest of the enemies onstage first. Remember to move any units that are heavily damaged back into the Dread for repairs. You ought to be able to kill them all by turn 8. After that, I would actually recommend moving all your units back into the Dread when Shara is the only enemy left onscreen. After the Velwezer is fully repaired, I would actually recommend putting Kiel outside in it, as Shara will attack him to the exclusion of all else. After that, send out the units you want to power up and have them surround her. Keep all of your units except Kiel within 3 spaces of her, so she cant attack them with her blaster. Shell keep attacking Kiel, wasting her ammo if you heal him each turn (after 10 turns, put him back into the Dread to regain his MP). After that, just surround her and have all your units wail on her consistently. Theyll get tons of XP, shell take barely any damage, and you will profit greatly from this stage. By turn 23 or 24, she should be completely out of ammo, rendering her an utterly harmless XP font. Now, just wail on her with all your units. They should barely be able to hit her, doing no more than 1 or 2 damage per turn. Remember to move all your units back to the Dread when their ammo runs out! You can also use the Reload command. Once a pilot gets up to level 9, put him or her back into the Dread-9 is the maximum level you can reach in this game. ONE MAJOR CAVEAT! BE SURE TO KILL SHARA BEFORE TURN 100! THE MISSION WILL AUTOMATICALLY END IN FAILURE ONCE TURN 99 ENDS! YOU WILL GET A GAME OVER IF YOU SPEND MORE THAN 99 TURNS POWERING UP ON HER! Thus, once you kill Shara on turn 99, your units will be MUCH stronger and you can move on to the next stage! On to stage 13! [013] Scene 13 NOW things start to get difficult. Your mission here is to assault one of your enemys bases, which is situated behind a big thick wall whose only entrance is guarded by 12 Lairds and two Vuitrays. Inside the base are two Ramildas and the boss, the vicious Muua piloting the powerful Dorab. Worst of all, though, are the two Arc Plants. These annoying things can pop out one Laird per turn for 25 turns, meaning you could conceivably have to fight 50 extra Lairds! Well, first off, here are the enemy stats-the Vuitrays, Lairds, and Ramildas are essentially the same as every other time youve fought them, with slightly better/higher:leveled pilots. Mech Name: Arc Plant x2, looks like a maroon sphere, 3500 HP. Pilot: Goon Commander, lv.6, 2/2/2/2 Close:range: No Weapon, 40 DP, 32 ER Long:range: No Weapon, 40 DP, 32 ER Move: 0 (immobile) Special: 25 MP, Increase: 1 MP Notes: Increase produces 1 extra Laird for 1 MP. Obviously, with 2 plants, this leads to 50 extra Lairds. Mech Name: Dorab, looks like a much tougher Douwarl, 2800 HP. Pilot: Muua, lv. 7, 7/6/6/6 Close:range: Linear Whip: 3 hits, 1:4 range, 30 ammo, 128 AP, 65 DP, 272 HR, 130 ER Long:range: Vulcan: 8 shots, 1:3 range, 30 ammo, 52 AP, 50 DP, 150 HR, 120 ER Move: 12 Special: None Notes: Pretty tough, huh? Well, lets get started. On Turn 1, move the Dread down 3 spaces and right 1 space, towards the double bridges that lead into the base. All the Lairds guarding the entrance will stay put, but the Vuitrays will move forward and shield all of them while the Ramildas will also move forward. On turn 2, move the Dread 2 down and 2 right. Launch Reiko in the Pastoral with a Hand Axe and Blaster, and have her shoot at the Vuitray that should be in range. She wont do any damage, but she should destroy its shield. After that, launch all units with their typical weapons loadout-Takuya in the Nelson with a Beam Rifle and Laser Saber, Kiel in the Velwezer with an axe and blaster, Eddie in the Kairass with an axe, Nina in the Fairy, Chay in the Panacea, and Mack and Harry in the Swifts with machine guns. Have all of them attack the Vuitray. They should be able to destroy it in one turn. If any units can still attack after its destroyed, have them target a Ramilda. End the turn. The Lairds will not move, but those who can will attack Takuya and do little damage, but the Ramildas will move up and likely damage your troops severely. On turn 3, have all units who can attack a Ramilda do so (youll hopefully be able to destroy one) then have them all retreat back into the Dread. Kepp the Panacea out to Shield the Dread, though, and have it move forward. All the enemies will attack it with beam rifles, but it should be shielded and out of the Ramildas Marb Cramp range, so it should suffer little damage if any at all. The Arc Plants will begin sending out their Lairds. On turn 4, move the Dread forward again and re:launch your repaired mechs. Launch Nina as far away as possible from the Ramilda so she can still hit it with her Marb Cramp (if she gets too close the Lairds will attack and destroy the Fairy) Try to kill the Ramilda first, then fire upon the Vuitray. The Lairds will fire upon your mechs, and the Vuitray might try to retreat if its been too heavily damaged. On turn 5, begin attacking the Lairds (remember to shoot at them with Blasters first to destroy their shields) and then return any damaged mechs to the Dread, especially the Fairy and Nelson. After attacking, have Harry return as well. Move your remaining mechs up as close as possible to the enemy as they can get. On Turn 6, the two Lairds blocking entry into the base might have been destroyed or moved away from their posts. Return any damaged mech to the Dread, move it into the base (moving the Panacea along with it to keep it shielded) and launch your repaired mechs, particularly the repaired Fairy. Its Marb Cramp will absolutely devastate the packed Lairds. Keep Harry inside the Dread, and move up the Panacea to shield all exposed mechs. Deploy Takuya to draw the enemy to him. After you end your turn, the Lairds will all attack the Dread, Muua will probably move forward to attack Takuyas Nelson, and thats about it. On Turn 7, repair the Dread, use the Marb Cramp, have the Fairy return to the Dread, launch Harry in the Fairy, and have him Marb Cramp again. The Lairds should almost all be dead. Attack the weakest ones with Blasters to destroy their shields, then launch some of your units to mop them up. The enemy will attack you again, but this time to little effect. Now, on turn 8, have Harry Marb Cramp again-he should kill a bunch of Lairds, annihiliating most of your opposition. Muuas Dorab should be heavily damaged as well. Now, all that remains is to mop up the lairds and destroy the factories! Although the stage will end when you kill Muua, you can still harvest a good deal more XP from this scene. Move Harry back into the Dread, move the Dread 4 spaces forward, and launch Nina right where she can Marb Cramp both Arc Plants. Move all your units close to the Arc Plants and attack them. Keep your guys close together so the Panacea can Vacuum Whorl all of them. End the turn, and your enemies will attack again, probably not doing much damage. On the next turn, have Nina Marb Cramp, move her back to the Dread, deploy Harry, and have him do the same. Move any units who need repairs or are out of ammo or MP (such as the Panacea) back into the Dread. You may want to equip Eddie with a Linear Whip, to evade the counterattacks of the Lairds, but it doesnt really matter. By turn 12, if you keep doing this, you ought to destroy one or two of the bases. After that, the battle is almost won! After youve killed all the Lairds, move all your units back into the Dread except Reiko in the Pastoral. Keep her on the mechanical area surrounding the base. At this point, just sit for 30 turns. Muua will keep attacking Reiko and waste his Linear Whips ammunition. Heal her as necessary with Personal Repair. After shes reached level 9, you might want to place another character in the Pastoral and send him or her out for XP. After 30 turns hell run out of ammo for his Linear Whip. At this point, move whoevers in the Pastoral back. Its XP harvesting time! Move the Dread as close as possible to Muua, then launch your mechs and surround him. Attack him with everyones weakest weaponry-punches, Vulcans, whatever. Hell keep attacking you with his Vulcan, but that wont do much damage and hell run out of ammo soon enough. After youve powered up all your pilots to level 9, or Turn 99 rolls around, whichever comes first, kill him and end the stage. [014] Scene 14 This is undoubtedly the hardest stage in Vixen 357, and one of the hardest challenges of any SRPG I have beaten (and this includes Fire Emblem 5!). At first blush, it seems very easy-there are 2 mountain ranges at the east and west ends of the map, separated by a lake with an island with an Arc Base on it, defended by 4 Deibises. It is extremely important that you destroy this base by turn 5! The Arc base and its defenders are essentially the same as every other time youve faced them, again with slightly better pilots and correspondingly higher HR and ER by a couple of points or so. On the first turn, move the Dread 4 spaces forward. Shoot at the base. Launch Mack in the Illuminant, and have it carry Reiko in the Fairy. Move the Illuminant as far forward as it can go, then have it drop Reikos Fairy right next to the Arc Base. Launch the Panacea and have it shield the Dread. Attack the Arc Base with the units you have out, then end the turn (dont bother deploying any other forces). The Deibises will attack the Fairy and likely do little damage, thanks to Reikos excellent ER and the terrain bonus from the machinery shes standing on. The Arc Base will attack the Dread, but hopefully do no damage thanks to its shielding. On Turn 2, have Reiko Marb Cramp again and have Mack shoot at the Arc Base with his Illuminant. Move him back to the Dread. Have the Panacea re:shield the Dread, move it back, then move the Dread 4 spaces forward and have it attack the Arc Base. End the turn. On Turn 3, Marb Cramp with Reiko again to destroy the Deibises. Have the Dread attack the Arc Base and move it forward. Reiko should be able to enter it. Have her embark, then immediately launch Nina in the Fairy and Marb Cramp the Arc Base again. The Arc Base should be almost dead, so launch all your units and kill it. The unfortunate commander will call for someone named "Todorof" and die. End your turn. Now, on turn 4, nothing will happen-its just you alone on this map. Move all your men back into the Dread and move it 4 spaces forward. End your turn. On Turn 5, first off, deploy Mack and Reiko in the Pastoral and Velwezer with Cannons and Battle Axes and set them both atop the wrecked base so they get a performance boost from terrain. Move the Dread 4 spaces forward so its on a mountain. DEPLOY ALL YOUR UNITS (except Harry)! Have the Panacea shield your units. End the turn OH SHIT! Massive amounts of enemy forces will teleport in! 8 of a new model of Vector called a Lanzen, the most powerful ranged mass:produced mech youll fight in the game, will teleport in on each side of the map, along with 2 Ramildas, making a total of 16 Lanzens and 4 Ramildas altogether! Todorof, the boss of this stage, will also make an appearance, in his powerful mech, the Remiyu. Here are their stats (the Ramildas are just as they were in the previous stage with minor pilot improvements): Mech Name: Lanzen, green mech with shoulder cannon, 1850 HP. Pilot: Goon, lv.5, 2/1/2/1 Close:range: Punch: 3 hits, 1:1 range, 30 ammo, 44 AP, 28 DP, 141 HR, 49 ER Long:range: Cannon: 2 shots, 5:8 range, 20 ammo, 150 AP, 28 DP, 166 HR, 54 ER Move: 8 Special: None Notes: Best enemy mech of its class in the game. Mech Name: Remiyu, a squat green mech with a shoulder cannon, 2800 HP. Pilot: Todorof, lv.8, 6/6/6/6 Close:range: Laser Saber: 3 hits, 1:3 range, 30 ammo, 156 AP, 40 DP, 227 HR, 130 ER Long:range: Cannon: 2 shots, 5:8 range, 20 ammo, 180 AP, 40 DP, 235 HR, 130 ER Move: 10 Special: 20 MP, Personal Repair:2 MP. Notes: Damn, things are looking grim. On their turn, the enemy will viciously attack your forces-fortunately, if you Shielded all your mechs, the enemys Cannon attacks should be blunted somewhat. However, both of the Ramildas will still assault your troops, and two Marb Cramps will severely damage them! On the other side of the map, Mack and Reiko should take a bit of damage, but not too much-they both have the best evade against ranged attacks of all your pilots. On Turn 6, you should find your forces to be severely damaged. Still, all isnt lost yet. Marb Cramp with the Fairy, and have all your mechs who can attack a Ramilda. Hopefully they should destroy one. Have all your mechs return to the Dread, have it repair itself, and have it move forward. Launch Harry in the Fairy and have it Marb Cramp the remaining Ramilda. Do not do this if the Fairy is too heavily damaged, however. If Mack or Reiko can shoot at it with their cannon while remaining on the island, and if he can hit it with the beam rifle, you could kill it! If not, keep the Fairy in the hanger and wait till next turn to kill it. End the turn, and the enemy will attack you again. Youll notice that the enemies on the other side of the map will concentrate on Mack and Reiko while refusing to move forward. This is why I told you to put them on the base, so that the enemy forces on the west side of the map get tied down and cant advance to attack the Dread, which would mean its doom. However, they will likely be severely damaged by the attacks of the Ramildas. The mechs on the east side will still heavily damage it, though. On Turn 7, heal the Dread, move any damaged units back into it for repairs (The Fairy might almost be destroyed at this point if you kept it out), and end the turn. The enemies will attack again, likely damaging all your troops. The Dread, Pastoral, and Velwzer might be nearly destroyed at this point. Begin moving them back to the Dread if theyre too heavily damaged. Now, its time for the Dread to strike back! Remember, the stage ends when Todorof is destroyed, so concentrate on him! Launch the Fairy and have it Marb Cramp him. Launch Eddie in the Kairass, Takuya in the Nelson, and Kiel in a Swift and attack Todorof. Launch Chay in the Panacea to shield your units, keep Harry inside, and end the turn. Your enemies will attack again, almost destroying the Dread and the Pastoral and Velwezer, but worst of all, Todorof will heal himself! Things arent as grim as they look, though. Have Nina Marb Cramp Todorof. The move the Dread up, move Nina into it, and relaunch Harry in the Fairy! Marb Cramp him again. Now, launch all your remaining units, especially Eddy, and have them attack the aching Ramiyu. Hope they destroy it in this turn, because if not, youre dead. This isnt among the hardest, most intense stages Ive played for nothing! But if you do manage to kill him with a lucky shot, congratulations! Youre almost done with the game! Move on to Scene 15. [015] Scene 15 Youre almost done with the game! This stage involves you assaulting the entrance to a base. Your allies consist of 12 Terazards, the best allied troops that will assist you in the entire game. These guys would have been useful in pretty much every other stage your friends helped you out on, but unfortunately, they are now severely outclassed by the 8 Lanzens and 6 Aproxes youll find arrayed against you initially-and thats not even mentioning the reinforcements that will arrive later on! The Lanzens and the Aproxes are essentially just like they were on every other stage you fought them on, so here are the stats for the Terazards: Mech Name: Terazard, looks like an Ilzard with shoulder cannon and shield, 1200HP Pilot: Friendly Pilot, lv. 5, 2/2/2/2 Close:range: Laser Saber: 3 hits, 1:3 range, 30 ammo, 126 AP, 45 DP, 140 HR, 71 ER Long:range: Blaster: 3 shots, 3:6 range, 20 ammo, 140 AP, 45 DP, 158 HR, 71 ER Move: 10 Special: None Notes: You dont actually have to worry that much about the Aproxes, since theyre immobile and you can just retreat into the forest. However, the Lanzens will become very annoying later in the stage. Thus, move the Dread 4 spaces forward and end the turn. The Terazards will move forward but wont be able to attack anything, and then the Aproxes will shoot at them (doing very heavy damage) and the Lanzens will also attack, severely damaging many of your allies and outrightly destroying one if theyre unlucky. On the second turn, move the Dread 4 spaces forward again, and keep it there-thats about as far as it can go without being attacked by the Aproxes. Have it attack a Lanzen if one is in range. Then launch all your mechs with whatever weaponry you deem fit. Try to kill one of the Lanzens. A very good idea is to send out Chay with her Vacuum Whorl, since that will benefit the Terazards as well as your own troops. End the turn. The Terazards will attack one of the Aproxes, while the Lanzens and Aproxes will counterattack, likely destroying several Terazards. On the next turn, re:shield your units and attempt to destroy another Lanzen. End the turn. Unfortunately, enemy reinforcements teleport in! They consist of 8 of a new model of Vector called Jensens and they are led by the boss of this stage, Douglas, in the very powerful Clese. The Jensen is the best all:around mech the enemy can throw at you, fitting for the end of the game. Heres everybodys stats: Mech Name: Jensen, maroon mech with an oddly:shaped head, 2200HP Pilot: Enemy Pilot, lv. 7, 2/2/2/2 Close:range: Hand Axe: 3 hits, 1:2 range, 30 ammo, 137 AP, 30 DP, 160 HR, 66 ER Long:range: Cannon: 2 shots, 5:8 range, 20 ammo, 145 AP, 30 DP, 174 HR, 66 ER Move: 10 Special: none Notes: Mech Name: Clese, looks like a very powerful Douwarl, Pilot: Douglas, lv. 8, 7/6/7/6 Close:range: Hand Axe: 3 hits, 1:2 range, 30 ammo, 177 AP, 50 DP, 248 HR, 140 ER Long:range: Blaster: 3 shots, 3:6 range, 20 ammo, 175 AP, 50 DP, 248 HR, 140 ER Move: 10 Special: None Notes: The Jensens and the Lanzens will attack your forces, destroying a couple more of the unfortunate Terazards and probably severely damaging your troops as well. Now, on turn 4, Id recommend fully retreating all your Vectors (attacking another Lanzen if you can) to the Dread for repairs. Move it forward to allow them to embark into it immediately, especially if one of their mechs is heavily damaged. End the turn. The Jensens and Lanzens will continue to attack your friendly troops, probably killing some more. By this point they should be almost dead, although theyll likely have done some good damage to your foes as they go down. On turn 5, move the Dread back 4 spaces-the Terazards are as good as dead, theres nothing you can do for them. The enemies will attack them again. Move the Dread 4 spaces to the west on turn 6 as well. By turn 7, only one or two Terazards will be left alive. Keep the Dread where it is. Your enemy will finish them off, then begin moving towards your craft. Several of your foes should have gotten closer to the Dread. On turn 8, its time to make them pay! Move the Dread 4 spaces forward towards them. Launch the Fairy and have it Marb Cramp, then launch all your mechs (keep Harry inside, though) and have them attack! Remember to shield your mechs with the Panacea. End the turn. The enemy mechs will concentrate almost exclusively on the Dread. Next turn, have Nina Marb Cramp, attack an enemy in her range, then move back to the Dread. Launch Harry in the Fairy and have him do the same. The enemy forces should be looking pretty broken up! End the turn. They will attack the Dread again, but do less damage than last time. Now, on this turn, have Harry Marb Cramp again, and if any enemies close by are almost dead, kill them. Move her back into the Dread, and then re:launch Nina closer to another group of enemies if she can, and Marb Cramp them. If any units can attack, have them attack the remaining goons. Dont even bother with Douglas-youll barely be able to hit him, his ER is so high. Keep the Dread where it is, and end the turn. On Turn 10, even MORE reinforcements will teleport in-2 Vuitrays and 2 Ramildas. Now, this is really bizarre, because the Ramildas have map sprites that look like Vuitrays, and the Vuitrays have map sprites that look like Ramildas! Be VERY wary of this. Concentrate on destroying the remaining Lanzens and Jensens and that shouldnt seem too intimidating. You should be able to destroy them. Move the Dread back so that the Ramildas will have a harder time reaching it. End the turn-the enemy reinforcements will move forward and the Clese and remaining Jensens/Lanzens will attack the Dread. On the next turn, you should have almost beaten the stage! Even though the reinforcements are fast approaching, you only need to destroy the Clese to end the scene. Destroy any remaining Lanzens or Jensens, then concentrate on the Clese. Attack it with projectile weapons or laser sabers/linear whips to avoid its devastating counterattacks. End the turn. The Clese will attack, and the Ramildas (which look like Vuitrays from a distance) will probably be able to get up close and severely damage a couple of your mechs. By this point though, the Clese should almost be destroyed! Marb Cramp it (twice if necessary) and finish it off to kill Douglas and end the stage. Congrats! On to the endgame [016] Final Scene This is it, the very last stage! As you can tell by the destroyed Aprox towers behind you, this is the base whose entrance you broke into in the last stage. Your foe here is Schtol Weimar, piloting the absolute most powerful Vector in the game, the Gorgas! Defending him are 10 Lanzens, 10 Jensens, 2 Arc Bases, and 2 Aproxes. Also, 3 Wilders (!) will teleport in after you destroy all the other enemies. You cannot traverse the walls of this base or shoot over them-theyre total barriers. Your allies here are 12 of the same Terazards who helped you out in the last stage. Heres the Gorgas stats: Mech Name: Gorgas, massive mech with wings, 5000 HP!! Pilot: Schtol Weimar, lv. 9, 8/6/8/6 Close:range: Laser Saber: 3 hits, 1:3 range, 30 ammo, 156 AP, 30 DP, 268 HR, 140 ER Long:range: Blaster: 3 shots, 3:6 range, 20 ammo, 170 AP, 30 DP, 286 HR, 140 ER Move: 15 Special: 99 MP, Personal Repair, Vaccum Whorl, Marb Cramp, 2 MP each. Notes: Those 3 skills are NOT the only ones the Gorgas has at its disposal! It also has one super:powerful attack. I dont know what the name of it is, but it drains HP from all your units and adds it to the Gorgas own! This deals a MASSIVE amount of damage to all friendly units in a set radius, about 720 HP. Ill tell you how to deal with it when you actually get to your foe. First off, lets take care of Schtols army first! Move the Dread 2 spaces to the right and 2 spaces down-thats the farthest you can go. End the turn. Your friends will divide up into 2 groups of 6, with one group moving to attack the southern Arc Base and another moving to attack the northern one. The enemy will do the same, dividing up into 2 groups of 5 Lanzens and 5 Jensens, attacking each of your allies groups. They will likely kill one or two Terazards. On Turn 2, move the Dread down 3 spaces and right 1 space. Launch Mack Ryan in the Illuminant, and have it carry Reiko Machida in the Fairy. Have Mack attack one of the Jensens or Lanzens, but launch Reiko and have her Marb Cramp the tightly:packed group of enemies-she should do some severe damage to all of them. On Turn 3, have Reiko Marb Cramp again, move her back into the Illuminant, move the Dread 3 spaces down and 1 to the right, move the Illuminant back into the Dread, then launch Takuya in the Illuminant and Kiel in the Fairy. Move the Illuminant forward as far as possible, launch the Fairy, and have it Marb Cramp again. End the turn. The enemies will attack, dealing out severe damage to your friends, but by this point, the foes in the southern group should be so heavily damaged that theyll begin retreating back to their Arc Base for repairs, giving your southern friends a reprieve. On Turn 4, move the Fairy forward as far as it can go and have it Marb Cramp again, which should kill a few enemies. Move the Dread forward 4 spaces and move the Illuminant back into the Dread. You may want to begin launching your other mechs, preferably the ones with movement rates 10 or above like the Kairass, Pastoral, and Nelson, to finish off some of the fleeing enemies before they get a chance to return to base to repair. End the turn. The foes up north will probably destroy the northern group, but your friends in the south ought to be doing better. On Turn 5, move up the fairy to Marb Cramp the south Arc Base, and also have your deployed units move up to attack it. Move the Dread forward, of course. End the turn. The Lanzens and Jensens will probably attack your troops instead of the Terazards, but they shouldnt be able to do much damage, and by this point, the southern Arc Base should be almost totaled. On Turn 6, Marb Cramp it and destroy it, and continue to move the Dread up. The enemies will continue to attack your guys. On Turn 7, Marb Cramp and destroy any weakened enemies that are near you, then move the Dread up and move back any damaged unit for repairs. There should still be a few Terazards to cover you. End the turn. The Terazards and the other enemies will attack each other. On Turn 8, move the Dread up 4 spaces, and launch the Fairy and all other mechs and begin attacking in earnest. Try to destroy that last base if its heavily damaged with fast:moving mechs like the Kairass and the Pastoral. If not, thats okay, just concentrate on destroying the remaining Lanzens and Jensens and get it next turn. Launch the Panacea and shield your units and allies. The enemys attack should be fairly ineffective at this point. Mop up the remaining foes on turns 9 and 10. Once theyre all destroyed (and you should still have a few Terazards left to assist you) move all your units back into the Dread. By Turn 11, you should be done, and the Terazards will move forward to attack the Aproxes in front of Schtols Gorgas. If youd like, launch a couple of fighters to assist up close. Keep them one space in front of the Aproxes, just out of range of the Gorgas blaster (if you can attack it with a Beam Rifle or Blaster, itll be able to attack you!). Unfortunately, once turn 11 ends, 3 Wilders will teleport in. They will Marb Cramp and attack your troops, likely destroying the Terazards and severely damaging any mechs you had attacking the Aproxes. Retreat and repair them in the Dread (which hopefully has taken little or no damage so far). From this point on, its a battle of attrition. Launch all mechs with Cannons or other long:range weaponry and have them take out the Aproxes. Even though theyll be in range of the big guns, its better than being annihilated by the Marb Cramps of the Wilders. You should be able to destroy them by turn 13 or 14. At that point, have all your mechs concentrate on the foremost Wilder. Launch the Fairy and put it exactly 4 spaces away from the Wilder youre concentrating on. If you Marb Cramp it, youll probably be able to kill it in one turn. Do the same with the other two Wilders, putting the Fairy 4 spaces away from them and having it Marb Cramp. If you put it any closer or try to Marb Cramp all the Wilders, the Gorgas will attack it and destroy it. Put any heavily damaged mech into the Dread for repairs. You should be able to kill all 3 Wilders by turn 18. If any of your units gets in range of the Gorgas blaster during this period, just look at how much damage it will do! Now, the only thing left to do is take out the Gorgas itself. Theres one way of doing this, and its attrition. Do NOT attack it with laser sabers or hand axes-you will not be able to hit it, you will do very little damage, and it will devastate you with its counterattacks. Instead, put the Fairy 4 spaces in front of and have it Marb Cramp. The Gorgas will probably Marb Cramp and shoot at the Fairy, almost destroying it. The blaster does about 400 damage. On the next turn, have the Fairy retreat back to the Dread. The Fairys Marb Cramp does 450 damage, and is just the only effective way of damaging the Gorgas I know of-it will simply dodge most of your attacks. I would put Kiel in the Velwezer and Mack in the Pastoral on the ruins of the Aproxes to attack the Gorgas with their Blasters to do a bit of extra damage. Keep doing this, but PUT THE FAIRY BACK IN THE DREAD when the Gorgas goes to around 50% (when a big 5 shows up over it) or below 3000 HP. It will use this bizarre Vampire Attack" (I dont know what to call it) and drain 720HP from each of your units, healing the Gorgas for a few thousand HP! This can easily destroy any one of your units if you let its HP get too low. EVERY UNIT ON THE MAP will get hit, so if you see the Gorgas HP getting low, move every unit back into the Dread so that only the Dread gets it. On the plus side, however...you know how the Gorgas has 99 MP? Well, this Vampire Attack costs 20 MP, meaning that after Schtol uses it 3 or 4 times, hell be almost out of MP! Heal the Dread after this happens. Keep doing this over and over again-be sure to have the Fairy retreat when Schtols HP looks to be below 3000, as hell attack the Fairy with his Blaster, doing about 390 damage, then use the Vampire Attack, doing 720 damage and bringing it down to (literally) :10 HP, destroying it. Chip away at his HP with the Pastoral and Velwezer blasting away at him with their Blasters (they can repair themselves, so even if he attacks them its no big deal) and all other units attacking him with Cannons if possible. Remember to put back any unit that has below 1000 HP, as Schtol will attack it (probably doing around 300 damage) and then finish it off with the Vampire Attack. Anyways, youll have to do this for very many turns, as hell probably take up to turn 50 to use up all his MP on the Vampire Attack. Once hes done that, though, the battle is essentially won. Once he goes below 20 MP, now that he no longer has the Vampire Attack to throw against you, you can use the Fairys Marb Cramp with impunity. Move it near the Gorgas, Marb Cramp, watch him attack it and Marb Cramp it himself, Marb Cramp him on the next turn, and move it back to the Dread for repairs. Launch it again, and repeat. Keep doing this and hell eventually run out of MP entirely, which leaves him entirely at your mercy. Remember, Marb Cramp and his blaster attack combined will do about 1000 damage to the Fairy, so make sure its at maximum HP every round its out. By turn 50:60, he should have run out of MP entirely, and by the same time, his blaster should be running out of ammo as well. Now, you have nothing to worry about. Keep the Fairy 4 spaces away from him to avoid his Laser Saber and Marb Cramp him to oblivion. At 450 damage per Cramp, it should take about 11 turns more or less to beat him. If you keep the Dread 10 spaces in front of him, its more like 6 turns, as you can Marb Cramp once, move the Fairy back into the Dread, re:launch it with another pilot, and Marb Cramp again, thus doing a total of 900 damage per turn! So long as hes out of MP and ammo before turn 88 (which he certainly will be) congratulations! Hes as good as dead. Just bring the Fairy back into the Dread for a couple of turns to restore its MP as necessary. Once you deliver the final Marb Cramp... Whats this? The Gorgas will reappear, at FULL HP, this time piloted by a funny looking guy in an alien headdress named Bowman, who youll remember from Scene 9. After some conversation with him, your mechs will glow multiple colors, the screen will flash, and the Gorgas will glow red...and blow up, taking Bowman with it! Now, the battle is truly over... CONGRATULATIONS! YOUVE BEATEN VIXEN 357! Watch the cool ending sequence (the Dread is blasting off from the exploding enemy base, but Kiel and the Velwezer will stay behind to watch the destruction) and then the credits! You may want to stick around after the credits if you understand Japanese, since theres a little sequence after that. But yeah...youve beaten the game! [017] Final Pilot stats: These are the stats for all pilots at level 9, the maximum level. Takuya Murasawa (22 years old) CHR: 6 CER: 4 LHR: 6 LER: 4 Harry Gibson (31 years old) CHR: 5 CER: 4 LHR: 5 LER: 4 Mack Ryan (23 years old) CHR: 2 CER: 2 LHR: 8 LER: 6 Ben Bask (62 years old) CHR: 2 CER: 2 LHR: 6 LER: 5 Eddie Ray (27 years old) CHR: 8 CER: 6 LHR: 2 LER: 2 Reiko Machida (24 years old) CHR: 4 CER: 5 LHR: 5 LER: 6 Nina Laurel (20 years old) CHR: 4 CER: 3 LHR: 5 LER: 3 Chay Won (20 years old) CHR: 4 CER: 3 LHR: 5 LER: 4 Kiel Royard (28 years old) CHR: 7 CER: 4 LHR: 7 LER: 4 I hope this guide was useful for you. Please contact me at bio_armor2026@yahoo.com if you have any suggestions! Thank you very much for your time. [018] Acknowledgements Thank You to: ArmorDragon, for suggesting I start this FAQ in the first place. The residents of 4chans /m/, for encouraging me. Trimurti, for a *little* bit of advice on writing a FAQ. Silverspoon, for translating some plot for me. God, since its largely thanks to Him Im still alive to write this thing. Finally, you for reading this!