Xenogears

~B
Xenogears
Walkthrough and FAQ

by

David Johnson
(johnsonr@compuserve.com)

Welcome one and all to my Xenogears walkthrough and FAQ!
Hopefully this guide will answer whatever questions you have about
the game, but if it doesn't, don't worry, because I'll probably be
updated this guide at least once. Or you could just email me. In fact,
if you have any questions, comments, or criticism, all emails will be
welcome.
Anyway, I've divided the guide into two parts: basic gameplay
functions, and then the walkthrough itself.


Part One: Basic Gameplay Functions

Xenogears can be pretty confusing to those that don't know it's
gameplay systems, so in this section I'll explain them to you in as
much detail as possible(and as much as I know). I'll also list the
characters.

Characters:

Wong Feifong(or just "Fei"):
Gear: Weltall
The main character of the game. Like most of your characters, he just
uses his fist to attack.

Elehayym Van Houten(or just "Elie"):
Gear: Vierge
The main heroine of the game. She uses rods to attack.

Shitan Uzuki:
Gear: Heimdal
He uses his hands to attack, but later in the game he'll switch to a
katana.

Barthlomei Fatima(or just "Bart"):
Gear: Brigander
Uses a whip to attack.

Billy Lee Black:
Gear: Renmazuo
He uses guns. However, they have a limited amount of bullets.

Rico Banderas:
Gear: Stier
Attacks with his hands.

Maria Balthasar:
Gear: Siebzehn
Attacks with her hands. She's extremely weak, yet her gear is one of
the strongest.

Chu Chu:
The only character not to have a gear, but acts like an equivalent to a
gear because he/she(it?) can grow to immense size. Uses hands.

Emerda:
Gear: Crescens
Uses all of her body to attack, for example she might turn her hair into
a knife, or her foot into an anvil.


Gears:
"Gears" are the name of the mech-suits your characters get to
control in this game. They have much greater HPs than your normal
guys, and of course have much stronger attack and defense
capabilities. There are also a few more complex aspects to your gears,
that's what is listed here.
Fuel:
Beside HPs, your gears also have a certain amount of fuel. Every time
you attack or use a spell, it takes up a certain amount of fuel. During
battle, you can choose to charge up your fuel for a round, but you'll
only recharge 30(if you're on attack level 0. The higher the attack
level, the more fuel that's recharged).
Booster:
In battle, your gear has a command called "Booster". What this does
is, it makes your gear go twice as fast for the rest of the battle, but it
sucks away mass amounts of fuel each turn. This is best used in short,
but hard boss battles.
Gear Ability:
These are "gear only" spells. While you can use your normal spells
while in gear form, these can only be used while as a gear. And
instead of taking up EP like normal spells, these take up fuel. They are
either special attacks that your characters get after a certain event, or
spells that cure your gears' HPs, which can be gotten by equipping
certain parts.
Attack Level:
Determine how powerful a gears' attack can be. You start a battle at
attack level 0, after making an attack, if you have the ability, you will
move up to 1. Now, you can either attack with a combo, putting your
attack level back at 0, or you can do only a singular attack, and if you
have the ability, you will go up to attack level 2. You cannot get any
higher than attack level 3, if you have the ability to do so, you'll reach
attack level "infinity", and once you reach that, you'll be at "infinity"
attack level for three rounds. You can either charge your by 300
instead of the usual 30, or if you decide to attack, you can't do
combos, but even a singular attack will automatically unleash a super-
combo, doing mass damage.
Getting on/off your gears:
If you are in a gear dungeon, or are on the world map, you can choose
to get in your gears by selecting "gear", on the status screen, then
choosing "gear on/off"(simple enough?). During battle, there is also a
command to get in your gears, if you are allowed to at that time.
Gear Parts:
These are thing which you can equip to your gear to boost their stats or
give them special abilities. The most important gear parts in the game
are the ones that can heal your gears at a cost of mass amounts of fuel.
These are called "Frame HP(then the percent of how much HP is
refilled)".
Gear Shops:
In the gear shops, you can upgrade your gears in various ways.
Tune Up: Selecting Tune Up lets you either refill your gear's fuel and
HP; buy a new engine(which changes fuel capacity and offense); a
new frame(which changes HP); and armor(which changes your gears
defense level). If, from the main menu, you select buy or sell, that's
just buying or selling weapons or parts for your gears.

Skills:
Skills in Xenogears are a lot different from those in any other
game. In Xenogears' fighting system, when you execute a normal
attack, it's done by pressing either the Square, Triangle, or Circle
buttons, or a combination of those. It works like this: you have a
certain amount of APs(attack points). A Square attack takes up 1
point, Triangle 2, and Circle 3. The more APs, the stronger the attack,
and a greater chance of that attack missing, as well. You start the
game with 3 APs, the max is 7. Now, let's say that you have 6. You
can choose to use 6 Square attacks, 3 Triangle, or 2 Circle. Or, you
can do a combination, like Square, Triangle, Circle.
That's where the skills come in. If you learn a skill, you can do
that skill's specific button combination. But not all of the button
combinations is also a skill. There are(as far as I know) two ways to
learn a skill. One is to repeatedly do the button combination(as just a
normal attack) over and over again until that button combination's
skill is learned. The first skill(generally) in the game is Square, Circle.
So, as soon as you have 4 AP points, continually attack by using
Square, Circle, and you will quickly learn the skill.
The other way to learn a skill is this: let's say that someone
else in your party has that Square, Circle skill. Now, if they use that
repeatedly in battle, eventually, your other characters will learn that
skill as well(but it takes longer).
To see how well you are learning skills, go to that character's
status, and check "skills". There should be at least one green bar with
a number after it, probably more. That number represents your
percentage in learning the skill, once it's at 100, you've got it.
Whenever you learn a new skill, you can also use it as a
"special move". What special moves are is this: whenever you attack
an enemy, if you don't use all of your APs in the attack, the remaining
AP gets stored up in your "AP Bar". You can store a maximum of 28
APs. If you choose the "special move" command during battle, you
can unleash those attacks, or a combination of those attacks. And each
attack takes up a different amount of stored-up APs. For instance, the
first two special moves you'll probably get is the 4 AP attack(labeled
"1"), and the 5 AP attack(labeled "2"). Now, if you have all 28 APs
stored up, you can do 7 number "1" attacks, that take up the whole bar,
5 number "2" attacks, which will leave 3 APs in the bar, or for
maximum effect, you can do 2 number "1" attacks, and 4 number "2"
attacks, for maximum efficiency.
One thing to watch out for, is that I'm pretty sure there are
other small requirements, like some skills you need to be on a high
enough level to use, and stuff like that. If anyone knows the exact
requirements for skill learning, email me!
One last thing. The more skills your characters get, the more
their gears get, and eventually, the higher attack levels your gears get.

Battle Menus:
These are the following "translations" of the battle commands,
for both human and gear. When there's two commands in one space,
such as "Run/Block", that means if you push the control pad in the
direction of the command twice, the command will change to the other
one. Easy enough?

Humans:

Spell/Get in Gear
Run/Block Attack/Special Attack(with charged up AP).
Item

Gears:

Spell/Gear Option
Run/Charge Attack/Booster
Item


Part Two: The Walkthrough

Disc One:

Lahan Village:
After the long opening, you'll be in control of Fei, the main
character, in Lahan village. Walk up the stairs and talk to Fei's friend
Dimoshi(he's standing in a big group of people). After you talk to
him, try to leave the house, and a little short guy named Dan will walk
in. Once that scene is done, you can leave the house.
You now have to find the house with the woman standing in
front of the door. Talk to her, then enter the house. Go upstairs and
talk to Aruru. After that, exit Lahan to the north to get to a mountain
pass.
In the mountain, you will quickly come to a save spot with a
fork in the road. Going to the right leads to treasures, and left leads
farther up the mountain. If you go farther up, you'll soon get to a kid
standing by a ledge. Here's where you'll have to make your first
jump, get used to it. Just dash up to the ledge(by holding X, of
course), then hit Square to make the jump. You'll soon get to Shitan's
house.

Shitan's House:
You can talk to Shitan's family in the main house, but where
you have to go is the shed out back, where you'll meet Shitan. After
he's done talking to you, go inside the shed and search the machine.
After all the following scenes are over, it'll be nighttime.
Leave Shitan's hut and go back down the mountain. You'll
soon see gears fly overhead. Run back down the mountain to Lahan.

Lahan in Flames:
There will quickly be a short anime scene, then Fei will jump
inside a gear. You'll then fight your first gear battle. This is an easy
battle no matter how you look at it, but one thing to watch out for is
that your Circle Button attacks will sometimes miss, so it might be
better just to use Triangle.
There will eventually be another anime, then the scene will cut
to Fei, Shitan, and the rest of the survivors the next morning. Then,
you'll be on the overworld map. Head into the nearby forest.

Forest:
The first thing you're going to want to do in the forest is to get
off ground level, and up onto one of the ledges. There are two ways to
do that. One is, near the beginning of the place is a big rock you can
jump on. From the rock, you can then jump up onto a nearby ledge.
The other way to get up is to find the little creature standing near the
base of a tree. If you approach him, he'll start jumping up the ledge
near the roots of the tree. Follow him up there to get off ground level.
At the end of the first screen, there's a creature in front of a big
rock. Kill the creature, then get out of the rock's way, because you'll
lose HP if it rams into you. Now you can go beyond where the rock
was, and there you'll see a short anime scene introducing Elie. You'll
have to fight an easy enemy, then there'll be another anime scene.
Then, Elie will join.
You'll enter a new section of the forest where some jumps will
have to be made, nothing too hard, though. Eventually, at the end of
this section, you'll see another scene with Fei and Elie followed by yet
another anime. Elie will then get attacked by a giant dinosaur, and
you'll have to fight it.
Boss: Rankar
For the first part of the battle, you really won't be able to hurt this guy.
But soon, Shitan will come flying in and drop down Weltall, Fei's
gear. So you'll get in your gear for the second half of the battle.
Now the battle's pretty easy, Rankar's not that good at dodging
attacks, so you can use your Circle Button attack and it'll usually hit.
You'll trade hits for a while, but he'll eventually go down.
Afterwards, there'll be more scenes, and Elie leaves, while
Shitan joins. Head west to exit the forest. As you leave, you'll see a
huge ship fly overhead.
Once on the overhead map, head to Dajir, the town right in
front of you.

Dajir:
When you first enter this town, look for a way to walk up the
slopes of sand so you can get above the rooftops. Up there, you can
see a cool scene that shows the overview of the town(at least I think
that's what it is).
Next, go to the big tent-like building near the end of town,
where you will see some people working on a big green gear. Talk to
the people in here. Then, go find a big blue sand buggy outside a
house. Once you've searched it, go inside the house and talk to the
guy behind the desk. Shitan will leave here.
Also, if you go to the bar here, you can meet BigJoe, a
recurring character, for the first time.

The Desert:
Once you've left Dajir, walk northwest until you get into the
desert. If you did all the above steps in town, so that Shitan isn't in
your party, you should see two gears jumping their way across the
desert(if you don't do all the scenes in town, this place will just be a
location that repeats whenever you get to a new screen). Anyway,
after you see the gears, walk through this screen to the next part of the
desert.
In the next part, you will see a huge ship fly overhead. After
that, you'll see more gears jumping through the desert. You'll then
have to run through two more screens of desert until you see another
scene.
Pretty soon, you'll have to fight an easy gear battle. You will
notice that your gear does more damage, and that you have an attack
level of one now(with a square, square combo).
After the battle you'll have your first meeting with Graaf, one
of the game's major villains. He'll call some big sandworm to take
you turn.
Boss: Mimii
This is a tricky battle. You can't hurt Mimii with any singular attack,
only in a combo. And at this point, you're only going to have a
Square, Triangle and Square, Square combo. When you have 0 attack
level, just do a Square attack so as not to waste fuel(because this guy
constantly sucks away your fuel). Then, just do a Square, Triangle(or
Square, Square, if that's all you have)combo the next turn.
Once he's dead, you and Shitan will be captured and taken
aboard an enemy sandcrawler.

Sandcrawler:
Once you get control of Fei, you can either save or talk to
Shitan for some more scenes. Eventually, the sandcrawler you're in
will get attacked, and you'll have to escape.
In the first section, you'll have to walk against the slope of the
sinking sandcrawler, plus there's an ever-rising amount of sand.
There's two treasures you can collect if you dare on this
screen(actually, it's pretty easy).
The next few sections are very basic, they just involve you
running from screen to screen, fighting enemies as you go.
Eventually, you'll climb out and be on top of the sandcrawler. You'll
have to hurry up and run up the crane in order to get to the end so you
can climb down to Weltall before it sinks into the sand.
There'll be a short fight with Brigander, Bart's gear, then both
Fei and Bart will get sucked down into a cave.

Cave:
This is your first "gear" dungeon. The first thing you have to
do is push a rock out of the way in the southwestern corner. That will
let you proceed with the dungeon. You will eventually reach a large
open chamber with a save spot in it. Right near the save is a little
door, when you get near it, you'll get out of your gears and go in.
You'll meet an old man here, this is the first place in the game where
you can buy gear equipment.
Once you're done talking with the old guy, you must now find
the 2 "sensor switches" in the dungeon. One of them is found by
finding a different exit from the main chamber that this guy's cave is
in. You'll have to follow a long, long, path, then eventually you'll get
to the sensor.
The other sensor can be found by going one screen back from
the main chamber, to the screen where that robot is standing. In that
area, you'll have to jump between some ledges to get to the sensor.
Nothing too hard, though.
Once both sensors are deactivated, go back to the old man, and
he'll open up a giant gate for you. Go through this gate to get to the
final section of the cave.
In the final section of the cave, there will be a part where you
must take the a little tram to a big switch, and hit it to start up an
elevator nearby. Go down the elevator, and you will shortly find a
save point. Right next to the save is an even bigger elevator you can
take down, go down it and you'll see a huge gear flying around inside
a big cavern. Walk a few feet into the cavern and the gear will attack
you.
Boss: Calamity
Not too hard, he will threaten you, though. He has one attack that does
400, besides that, all his other attacks are nothing. Persevere, use
combos whenever your attack level is 1, and you'll win.
After you beat him, find the exit to this cave(a big glowing
source of light). You'll soon find yourself in the Yugdrasil, Bart's
ship. To get out of the section where your characters are as tiny as an
ant, go find a guard standing next to a door in one of the
corners(there's also another door down here with a guard standing next
to it, this is the Yugdrasil's gear shop. Remember this place, it will
often upgrade it's equipment).
Anyway, once in the hallways of the ship, if you go in the door
with a red-bandana-wearing pirate outside, you can talk to Meison,
who'll chat with you and sell you stuff.
Take the elevator up and go to the bridge of the ship. Talk to
Siglude, the white-haired person with the eye-patch. You'll take the
Yugdrasil to Bart's base.

Bart's Base:
Follow Meison into the room he goes to. After the scene, at
the entrance of the room you can talk to a little girl, and her dad will
run into the run. Then you can talk to the dad, and they'll both
leave(don't know if you have to do this or not). You can also bear
gear stuff from the woman behind the counter in this room.
Walk into another one of the doors in this area, you'll know if
you picked the right one if you see Bart and Shitan. Once they're done
talking to you, you'll see two kids take the center elevator down. Go
into Bart's room(the room with the sign on the door), and when you
try to leave the room, Bart will come in. Then take the center elevator
down and walk onto the deck of the Yugdrasil, there'll be a scene with
Bart.
Then, walk on the long platform that curves around the
Yugdrasil, and take a second elevator down to the section where all the
gears are. Talk to the guy in brown standing by Weltall. Siglude and
Shitan will come in, then you'll see Bart standing at the edge of the
Yugdrasil.
Take the elevator back up to the main area of Bart's base. Go
into the room with all the bunkbeds, and talk to the guy standing by
the entrance. Talk to him, he'll ask you a question, choose the second
answer, then the second answer again. You're characters will rest, and
during the night, a bunch of bad guys will attack the base.
Once you wake up, take the elevator down to where the
Yugdrasil is. After some talking, a series of battles will then
commence.
Boss: Sword Knight
Easy, just keep attacking. He won't last long.
Boss: Shield Knight
Another easy battle, even easier than the first.
Boss: Wand Knights
Again, pretty easy.
Boss: Kapp Knight
Very easy.
Boss: Shyupararle
Finally! A difficult boss! Actually, this guy's not that difficult, but
he's not that easy, plus this battle is a long one. He has a few powerful
attacks, but if you just keep attacking and using your combos, you'll
(eventually) beat him.
After the battle, you'll have Bart and Shitan in your party, as
well as Fei. Go down inside the Yugdrasil and talk to Siglude on the
bridge. You'll gain control of the Yugdrasil. Head to Ave, the big
bluish town nearby.

Ave:
As soon as you enter, there'll be a fairly long scene introducing
two more of the game's main villains, Ramsas and Myan. Once that's
over, you'll be in Ave.
The first thing to do is go to the hotel. You'll talk to a nun as
soon as you enter. Then, follow her upstairs to her room and talk to
her again.
Afterwards, talk to the woman in green at the far end of the
marketplace. Choose the first choice. You should see the little boy
run away. Follow him through the little passage he runs in. You
should see two boys next to each other. Talk to the blue one and
choose the first choice for both questions. Also, talk to the lone boy
nearby and choose the first choice.
In the marketplace, near the entrance of town, there's a woman
in blue and white clothes walking around. Talk to her, and choose the
second choice(I'm not sure if you have to do this or not).
Next, go find the man and woman that are standing underneath
a clothes line, and by a red sewer entrance. Talk to both of them, and
search the back of the sewer entrance(this should provoke a response
from the man). Then go back to the hotel and talk to the nun upstairs.
Exit the town from the back side to get to a festival-like area.
When you try to exit that from the backside, Shitan will ask you a
question. Choose the top choice, and Bart will stay behind. Go up to
the next location, the big palace at the "peak" of Ave.
In there, talk to a guard behind a counter. It doesn't matter
which choice you choose. Then, go back to the hotel, and talk to the
nun.
Now, go back to where the man and woman were standing
underneath the clothesline, and talk to the man. When he asks you a
question, choose the middle choice. Go back to the hotel and talk to
the nun, Shitan and Bart will split up from your party. Talk to either
one, and choose the second choice to sleep, in the morning, Shitan will
come with you while Bart stays behind.
Go up to the palace at the peak of Ave, if you talk to the guard
that's blocking your way, now he'll move. There's another guard past
this one, talk to him, he'll let Fei get past him to get into the tent. In
there, talk to Dan(the guy from Lahan village), then the scene will
switch over to Bart.

The Sewers, Palace, and the Tournament:
Once you're controlling just Bart, go to where the man and
woman were underneath the clothesline, and use your key to open up
the entrance to the sewer. The scene will then switch back to fight as
he enters the first battle in the tournament.
Battle1: Gonzales
Not too hard, he has about 400 HPs, you may need to cure once or
twice.
Now the scene will switch over to Bart swimming through the
sewers. For the rest of this dungeon, every so often the scene will
switch back over to Fei as he fights the next battle in the tournament.
So, instead of giving a guide to the dungeon, interrupted every
paragraph or so by the next fight, I've list the battles first, then the
walkthrough to the dungeon.
Battle2: BigJoe
BigJoe is disgustingly weak, the main opponent in the fight is the
audience, who will either cure Joe or throw cans at you. What you
should do is, power up your AP Bar to 28, then just unleash a combo
of special moves. If he isn't dead after that, he's very close to death,
so just keep attacking him until he goes down.
Battle3: Skadd
One powered up 28 AP attack is all it takes.
Battle4: Dan
He's not that difficult, but he has one super-powerful beam attack that
does around 80-90 damage, but it's possible to kill him before that.
Battle5: Wiseman
This doesn't really count as a battle, because you can't hurt him, and
after a few rounds, he'll flee.
Now, here's the walkthrough to Bart in the dungeon:
Sometimes, while in the sewers, the current will overpower
you, and you'll just have to wait for it to die down. Don't forget to
ALWAYS hold down the X Button to go faster, it's a necessity here
Your object is to find a big red door, once you do, search it,
then wait a while, but it will eventually open. Then, go through into
the next screen, and climb up a hard-to-see ladder to get out of the
water, then talk to the woman. Climb the next ladder near the save,
and you'll be in the palace.
In here, there are guards wandering around, you can either
sneak past them, or fight them(you have to fight the ones guarding
doors). If you ever try to open a door and you get two choices, choose
the second one to open the door a crack to see if a guard's coming
before you run out.
There's a room at the top of this place with a hidden monitor
where you can view different parts of the palace. For me, whenever I
viewed the tournament area, the last battle always occurred.(maybe
you have to do that to fight the last battle?)
Anyway, the room you're looking for can be found by going
one floor down from the monitor room, and going down a small
hallway that's off to the side. Go in the door there, and go down
another passage, and find Maru in one of the rooms(the object of this
place was to rescue Maru. As soon as you leave the room, you'll fight
Ramsas.
Boss: Ramsas
This is the first tricky fight in the game. First of all, both Bart and
Ramsas will have "helpers"(Maru and Myan), and these helpers will
cure whoever they're helping. Since Ramsas frequently gets cured, I'd
recommend storing up your APs so you can unleash a 28 AP
attack(that should kill him). One thing to watch out for here, is if
Ramsas ever gets into a defensive position, don't attack him, otherwise
he'll counter-attack with a super-powerful attack that will probably kill
you. So you just cure yourself or block until he decides to attack.
You'll have to immediately fight a second battle with Ramsas,
but this time you'll have Fei in your party. This battle is much harder,
as Myan now cures for 100, plus Ramsas has more HP. A full 28 AP
attack from both Bart and Fei will kill him.
Once the battle's won, you'll hop in an elevator. Run down the
hallway, and you'll be in a new area. You'll meet Elie again here.
After all of the scenes you'll be back on the Yugdrasil.

Yugdrasil:
Go down into the hole, and talk to the cat in front of the door.
Then take the elevator down and find the room that Maru's in. You'll
get to name the cat, the default name is "Chu Chu"(later on in the
game, Chu Chu will join). Now you can get into the bridge. Do so,
and go talk to Siglude.
Take the Yugdrasil north of Ave to a lone tree. If you're in the
Yugdrasil, you can click on it to submerge into the ground.
Eventually, you'll be on the Nisan "mini-map". Head into the town
section.

Nisan:
You can peer through a hole in the door in one of those
buildings to see a bunch of people having a meeting. Also, there will
be a short scene if you go into one of the shops.
Walk down the steps to the bottom "level" of town, and talk to
the guy blocking your exit. Leave through that exit, and go in the
church.
After talking to the nuns, you'll find Maru standing in a
doorway. Talk to her, then follow her up the stairs. You'll have to
follow Maru on his "grand tour" of the church, talking to him
whenever he stops at a new location.
Once all that's done, leave the church and head back through
town. Near the entrance of town, Meison will call to you to enter a
building.
You'll be given a choice of 4 questions. Choose each one of
them once, then when you get 2 questions, choose the second.
Now, you'll have to find Bart in the town. He's standing on a
bridge overlooking part of the town.
Next, go to the house that you peered in the door of earlier.
There will be a long scene.
Afterwards, it'll be nighttime, and you'll be in a house with
Bart and some others. Talk to Bart and choose the first choice.
After an FMV, the scene will switch over to Shitan back on the
Yugdrasil. Go up and talk to Meison behind the counter. Then, take
the elevator up to the top level, then climb up the ladder to get out on
deck. The scene will eventually switch over to Fei(in Weltall) and a
few other gears at some cliffs.

Cliffs:
Jump up the cliffs to get to the cave entrance. If you're not
sure where you're going, follow the red gears.
Inside the cave, you'll have to jump up more cliffs. If you're
not careful, you can fall all the way back down to the beginning of the
cave.
Once you get to the top, there's a robot and a save point. The
robot will give you four choices: buy gear stuff, buy human stuff, fight
him, or do nothing. Make sure not to fight him, because if you do,
he'll be dead, and you won't be able to buy anymore new stuff from
him(or more importantly, you won't be able to have him refill your
fuel). Once you exit the cave near the robot, there'll be a series of
battles.
Boss: Wand Knights
Very, very, easy.
Boss: Kapp Knight, Shield Knight, and Sword Knight
Very easy. The only slightly tricky part is that it's hard to damage
shield knight unless it's in a combo, because he blocks a lot.
Boss: Vierge(Elie)
This can be a somewhat difficult battle, but as long as you come into
the battle with high HPs and fuel, you'll do all right. The Circle
Button attack is somewhat risky, because it occasionally
misses(especially in the latter half of the battle).
After the battle, and all of the following scenes, you'll be back
inside the cave, with the robot to buy stuff from(as long as you didn't
kill him earlier). Jump up the cliffs until you reach a spot where light
is shining down, this is the exit.
Then the scene will switch over to Bart down in the basement
of Ave's palace. Climb up the ladder to get to the courtyard, there a
long scene will begin.
After all that, you'll be back in the Yugdrasil with Bart and
Shitan. Leave the room, and the scene will switch over to Fei.

Desert Battle:
Once Fei leaps off the cliff to the desert below, you'll be a sort
of action mini-game of Xenogears(but not really). Your goal here is to
head as far west as possible, while avoiding gunfire(which will
subtract 1 HP), land mines(which will subtract 15 HPs), and enemy
gears(which will result in a battle).
Once you've headed as far west as possible, there'll be a scene,
then you'll be on another desert screen, where your goal is again to
head as far west as possible. Only, this time, it'll be a little harder,
because you'll have to maneuver between two sand ships. Once the
second screen is cleared, you'll have to fight a boss.
Boss: Cannon
Besides the main cannon, there are two small side cannons. But don't
worry about these guys, they do hardly any damage at all. Just attack
the main cannon with the Circle Button if your attack level is 0(you
can't miss), and if it's 1 do your best combo. If you've bought the best
gear stuff to date, you should kill him just before he does his big
cannonball attack, which does 400 damage. Not that powerful, but
you'll want to be in good standing for the next boss.
Boss: Dorla
For this battle, you'll not only have Fei, but two other "generic" gears
which will help you. In the beginning of the battle, though, only Fei
will be able to hurt this guy. But after some damage, his front will
blow off and your other two gears will be able to hurt him as well.
This is a difficult battle. In fact, if you don't put on Booster, it's
extremely hard to win, especially if you took any damage from the
earlier battles in this event.

Kisrev:
After that, there'll be a whole bunch of scenes, as well as a
fight you can't win. After all this, Fei will wake up in the town of
Kisrev. Pretty soon, Rico, the current battling king of Kisrev(I think)
will challenge you to a fight. You'll have to battle his four henchmen,
then him
Battle1: Leonardo
Not too hard, just keep attacking, using learned skills. You might have
to cure.
Battle2: Hainriba
The same as Leonardo, except he has a slighty more powerful attack.
Battle3: Balgas
Everytime you attack him, he uses an equal counterattack. For
example, if you do a 1-hit combo on him, he'll counterattack with a 1-
hit combo. If you do a 3-hit combo, he'll counterattack with the same.
His normal attack is very weak, so you won't have to worry about that.
What I did was just do weak 1-hit combos to quickly build my AP
Bar(and so the counterattacks would be weak, as well), then once it
was full I unleashed all 28 APs on him and he died.
Battle4: Susanne
This battle can be a pain. She has 2 main attacks, one that drains all
your EP, and one that cuts your HP in half. She also has a normal
attack that does about 2 damage, you won't have to worry about that
one unless she's gotten your HP down to 1 or 2.
Battle5: Rico
As far as I know, there's no way to win this battle. After 3 turns, he'll
unleash a super-power atttack on you, that WILL kill you, even if you
block.
After you lose to Rico, you'll be back in bed in the basement of
a Kisrev house. The first thing to do is leave the house, and climb up
the ladder right outside the doorway to get to the roof. On the roof,
climb up another ladder to get to a platform with some guy on it. Talk
to him, he'll show you a train go by.
Next, go to the bar(it's got neon lights on the outside), and talk
to Hamar, the camel guy. Next, go north of the bar, and try to leave
this area, but a guard won't let you. Then, return to the bar for a scene.
Then, go enter the original building(the one you came out of),
but enter it from the back door(the back door is opposite of the gear
building). You'll talk to Hamar again, and meet Shitan again. When
there's 3 choices, choose the middle one.
Now you can get past that guard and go to the Battling Arena.
Talk to Hamar, then talk to Rua(the woman standing near Hamar), and
choose the second choice.
When Shitan asks you four questions, choose the fourth, then
of the next two, choose the second. Your first battle begins!

Battling Controls:
D-Pad: move it to go where you want
L1: Block
R1: Shoot
Square: Jump
Triangle: Weak Attack
Circle: Strong Attack
X: Dash(hold while running)
*Note: Both the Shoot and Dash commands if overused, can cause
your gear to overheat, and you'll have to stop using it for a while.

The first battle is pretty easy, once you take off 2/3 of the guy's
life, Fei's gear will start to overheat or something, and you'll
automatically lose the battle.
You will awake from bed. Go to the Battling Arena, and talk
to the guy behind the counter that gives you two choices. Choose the
second one to enter. Once you kill the enemy, choose to enter again,
and after you kill the next enemy, it'll be nighttime.
At night, go back to your room and get some rest. Then return
to the Battling Arena, and enter two more fights. It'll be nighttime
again, so go back to your room again to rest.
In the morning, Rico will join. You must now go to the Kisrev
sewers. The entrance is on one of the rooftops.

Sewers:
There's a treasure chest in here that has a map of the place(I
think it's on the first floor). Anyway, what you want to do is climb
down the big ladder to get the second basement floor. This is a huge
area, so you better hope you found that map(press select to use it).
Find your way to a locked door. Your characters should say
something after you searched it.
Next, go a find a little green dragon down on this floor. Talk to
him, he'll tell you about the key. Now, have you seen those little
droids moving throughout the sewers? Well, you have to find a
stationary droid, and search it to get the key.
In the room behind the locked door, you can jump up the pipes
to get to a treasure.
Then go back to the green dragon, talk to him, then walk north
of him to get to a sewage pipe. Search it to fight a boss.
Boss: RedRam
This is the toughest battle in the game so far. All I can say is just hang
in there, you'll probably end up using almost all of your HP healers.
You can either do individual attacks or charge up your AP Bar for a
big attack, it doesn't matter. There's no particular strategy here, other
than just be strong enough.

Back in Kisrev:
Now, go to the Battling Arena, and fight three more
battles(some of them aren't that easy).
Then, leave the place to watch a scene and then fight Wiseman,
the guy from the tournament back in Ave that you couldn't kill!
Boss: Wiseman
Not that hard, but because of his high evade rate, it's best to just power
up your AP Bar to full, then unleash special moves on him.
Once he's beaten, go back to the Battling Arena, for a final
action battle against Stier, Rico's gear(a pretty tough battle).
After you beat Rico, you'll be able to explore the rest of the
town. Go to the section in the lower-right hand corner, and go up
some stairs to get on the rooftop of one of the buildings. From there,
you can jump down a pipe to get inside. Then talk to the woman.
Next, go to Kisrev's central area and talk to the guards to get
in. Take the elevator up in the beginning, then go left(to the right are
guards). You'll reach Jirkmunt's room.
After all the scenes are over, once Fei rejoins with Rico, you
can search the mirror to get an item. Once you leave the room,
though, Rico will unfortunately get taken away.
Leave the place. You will meet up with Hamar and the woman
again. Now, go back into the D quadrant(the original one) for a scene.
After the scene's over you can go through the previously locked door
to a small room with a save spot. If you search what seems to be the
chair, you will get two choices. Chose the bottom one to sleep. Then
the scene will switch to nighttime.

At Night:
You'll have to climb up onto that platform where a man earlier
showed you a train going by. If you talk to the girl, she'll call a train
to come, and you'll have to jump onto it as it goes by(try to stand on
the top of the stack of boxes for the best chances).
On the train, move to the front as quickly as possible, and
eventually your guys will automatically jump off. You'll then find
yourself in a dungeon.
If you go up to one of the doors in the first room, some guards
will come out and there'll be a brief scene. After that, jump up the
boxes and ledges to get to the door at the top of the room. You'll then
be in what appears to be air ducts.
You can look down through the grates in this place to see little
scenes. I don't think that you have to view these, but I could be
wrong.
Early on, you will come out into a room with a lot of boxes and
a locked door. In here, just jump up the other stack of boxes to
proceed.
You should come to a room where, as soon as you enter, you'll
see a scene with some guards. Once you enter the room, search the
open shelf to get the Master Key. Shitan will also give you a Frame
HP 30 for your gears.
In another room, if you search a shelf you'll get a minigear, but
the punishment is fighting some guards. Eventually, if you work your
way through the whole place, you'll wind up back at the original save
room, only now you have the key to open the main door. But to open
it, you must search the switch to the right of the door.
You'll come to a big room with lots of gears. There's these
gear "containers" in this room, with a gear in each one and a flashing
button to the right. If you press the left-most container's button twice,
Weltall will appear and you can get in.
Once in Weltall, if you go to the opposite side of the
"containers", you can take an elevator up. But before you do that,
don't forget to talk to one of the robots here, it's actually a gear shop.
After you take the elevator up, a gear battle follows.
Boss: Rankar-R
Very, very, easy.
After you kill him, there will be a long sequence, then a series
of gear battles.
Boss: Shield Knight R
Not that difficult, but because of the coming battles, try to conserve
your energy.
Boss: Sword Knight R
Again, not that difficult, but since he can put a hurting on you,
disregard your fuel level.
Boss: Kapp Knight R
Same as the previous.
Boss: Wand Knights
Pretty easy, considering the fact that Rico joins for the battle.
After the scene with Elie, you'll get the option to save your
game, then you'll fight a boss.
Boss: Dominia(?)
Pretty difficult. At times during the battle, she'll call down a big gun,
and you have a few rounds to destroy it before it does it's super-attack.
I've never managed to destroy it, so just ignore it and attack the main
enemy.
After all of the following scenes, Elie will finally join. To
leave the place you're in, go to the exit where the 3 guards are at, talk
to them and choose the second command to get past them.
Leave town and head north(you need to be a human to cross
the forest), and go into the dungeon on the other side of the mountain.

Goriate:
You can talk to Hamar in a gear in the beginning here, he'll let
you change your characters. In the next room, you'll have to fight
three easy normal enemy battles. Go through the long hallway,
eventually you'll take a platform up and get on a conveyor belt.
Once you get off, jump down and hit the switch to change the
flow of the belts, then get back on and take it to the end.
In this section, there are two switches. The one near the belt
changes the direction, the one on the opposite wall calls out enemies.
Once you change the direction, take the belt to a room with a save in
it, hit the switch right next to the save, then get into the big entrance-
way via the conveyor belt. You'll then fight a boss.
Boss: Number 6
The trick to this boss is not to use the Triangle Button attack, because
he usually blocks it(unless it's the second part in a combo). After the
boss, you'll board a plane.
On the plane, there'll be a long sequence(including a boss fight
you can't win). Eventually, the plane will be shot down by Bart.

Ocean Wreckage:
You'll be in control of Elie on a little piece of debris floating
through the ocean. Search the hatch on the ground and Fei will pop
out. The scene will then switch over to the rest of the party in the
Yugdrasil.
Talk to Bart on the bridge, you will eventually control just
Bart. Go down to the bottom floor and talk to Shitan in the gear
shop(don't forget to buy new gear stuff now, it's kicks ass). In the
same area, find Rico's gear to see a sequence.
Back with Fei and Elie, you'll be rescued by a big floating
ocean town called Damuz.

Damuz:
In the "town" section(also floor B1), you can play a card game
with some kid. If you see a floating from here to there with a treasure
chest on it, jump up and hit it with your head to knock down the
treasure. There's also a stationary platform with a treasure on it, but to
get that you need to jump to it from another platform.
On floor 4, talk to the dog captain. Follow him to floor 3, and
talk to him again. Then head back to floor 4, and after the scene, head
to floor 1, and get in your gears.
There will be a short and easy gear battle underwater.
Afterwards, Elie will get kidnapped, and Bart and Shitan will be back
in your party, plus you'll be back in Damuz. Go in the elevator, see
the many long scenes, then you'll be back in the bridge of the
Yugdrasil.
Go to floor 3 of Damuz(it's now connected with the
Yugdrasil), and talk to the captain and Bart. Elie will reappear.
Then go back down to the Yugdrasil, and talk to Siglude on the
bridge. Then go down to the engine room(accessed by first going to
Meison's room), and witness a scene with Elie. Then, go talk to Elie
in the doctor's room. Afterwards, get ready for a gear battle against
Dominia.
Boss: Dominia
Pretty easy. After a bit of damage, she'll run away.
Then, your characters will dive underwater and you'll have to
fight Ramsas and Myan.
Boss: Ramsas and Myan
Pretty difficult. Myan will just sit there and cure Ramsas as usual,
plus she can't be hurt, so you have no choice but to just beat up on
Ramsas. Since he's pretty powerful, every hit counts, and since he
can't evade, it's worth doing Circle Button attacks(that is, unless you
could do a combo). You'll also probably want to put on Booster for
this battle. At a certain point in this battle, whenever you attack him,
he'll counterattack with a spread electricity attack. At this point, you
should just charge your fuel until he does the attack unprovoked,
signaling that it's safe to attack him again.
Afterwards, Fei will leave the party(because he's injured), and
you'll have Elie and Bart in your party. Go to Damuz, and into the
little "deck" area(the only area to not also be a floor), and talk to Maru.
Shitan will also rejoin here.
Then, go back to the Yugdrasil and talk to Siglude, to get
control of the ship. Now it can move in the ocean.
Head north of Damuz to an island(the yellow dot will already
be lit). This is a big church town.

Church:
Once you get in, you will shortly begin talking to Billy. Keep
following Billy through this place. Eventually, you'll get to where Fei
is, and Elie will leave to stay by his side.
Then, go upstairs to the top floor and talk to everybody up
there(there's not that many people), and when you come down Elie
will rejoin. Then go back down to where Fei was for another scene.

Kid's Town:
Afterwards, pilot the Yugdrasil to get to the kid's town(east of
Damuz). Go inside the house, and talk to Billy. Afterwards, find the
room with the blue bookshelf, search it and a pathway will open up,
and Billy will come out.
After that, go to the room with Primera(Billy's sister) in it, and
talk to the kid on the bed. He'll give an item(you may need Rico in
your party to do this). Leave town and you'll automatically be back in
the Yugdrasil.
Take the elevator down, and go in Meison's room, and talk to
Siglude and Jesse. After you rest, go back to the room where Jesse
and Siglude were, and talk to your other characters and Billy(who's in
the corner by the table).
Afterwards, Billy will join. Leave the Yugdrasil(via the
ladder) to get to a dungeon.

Sea Base:
You can knock over crates in here if you jump into them.
Also, early on, you can turn on the lights(which will open up the A
doors). You can also climb onto the roof, then find another hatch
down. Search the glowing thing on the wall to open the B doors.
Eventually, you'll get to a hallway with a bunch of side doors.
In the side doors, you can get many treasures, and in one of them, see
blood come out of a shower.
There's a locked door at the end of this hallway. You have to
keep ramming into it until it falls. Then go onto the roof, and near the
roof's save spot, a little pipe will open up. Jump down to fight a boss.
Boss: Bloody
A harder incarnation of RedRam from the Kisrev sewers. If your
characters have full HP, Bloody will do an attack that drains them of
all their HP, killing them. So, believe it or not, keep your HP levels
far from full. But make sure your HP is higher than 100, otherwise
you'll be killed by his rain attack.
After he's dead, search the door next to the ladder to get Billy's
gear, then fight a sea monster.
Boss: Huge Werus
The only way to hurt this guy is to use Billy's Triangle Button attack.
You'll probably also want to put him on Booster to speed things up.
Once the boss is dead, you'll be back in Yugdrasil. You can go
to Maru's room for a little scene.

Back at the Church:
Take the Yugdrasil to Billy's church, when you walk in,
everyone will be dead. Go downstairs and take the elevator down and
go into one of the rooms for a scene will all your party members.
After everything is done in here, head back to Damuz and talk
to the captain. Then, pilot the Yugdrasil north of Damuz to a little
mechanical place on an island.

Mechanical Dungeon:
In the beginning, just keep proceeding through the place,
killing all of the guards. Later on, in the hallway with two guards, one
of the side rooms has a door with a lot of text when searched. After
you see that, go back to the first side room and search. You'll unlock
the other door in the hall.
After unlocking the door, you'll reach a room with a brown
door and a gray door. Go in the brown one first, then the gray one and
search the panels. Then go back to the room inside the brown door
and talk to the girl. There will be some scenes afterwards, and you'll
have to fight 2 female ninjas.
Boss: Selafighter and Tronu
A very hard battle. At the beginning, the girls will each do a very
powerful spread attack that will seriously damage your party. Kill off
Selafighter(the pink-haired one) first, since she has the least HP and
you want to single out the other one as quickly as possible. Don't
bother charging up your APs, as you'll kill them quicker with normal
attacks.
After them, make your way out of the dungeon, and at the long
bridge section, there'll be another boss.
Boss: Id
An extremely difficult battle, you'll have to heal very often, and in fact
there will be some rounds in which there will be nothing but healing.
But try to get in an attack when you can, and if someone dies, don't
give up. Just bring the person back to life, and pray you can cure them
before he kills them again.

Back in the Yugdrasil:
If you're lucky enough to win the battle, after a quick run out
of the place, you'll be back in the Yugdrasil. You will quickly notice
that Fei is missing from the doctor's room. Go down to the gear
storage area, and go search Weltall to find him. A gear battle will then
quickly ensue.
Boss: Algansel
During the first part of the battle, he's invincible, so try to conserve
fuel. After Billy shoots him with Jesse's gun, however, you can hurt
him(although some attacks still won't do damage). The best people
for the battle would probably be Billy, Elie, and Rico, because their
gears can cure(and you might not have gear parts that let other people
cure). Once he dies, watch out for the wussy final attack.
Afterwards, you can buy new equipment in the gear shop.
Now you have to head to the Tower of Babel, east of the last dungeon
you were in.

Tower of Babel:
If you miss a jump in here, you'll fall in the water and float
back to the beginning of the place. When you get to the rope, hit left
and right on the control pad to swing back and forth, until you have
enough leverage to jump off to the ledge on the other side.
After the rope, there's a platform that will tilt downward when
you jump on it, stay at the joint where it tilts to avoiding falling off,
then when it swings back up again, jump on it, then jump on the
nearby platform. You'll come to a second rope, but you just have to
jump up onto the rope, then your guys will automatically climb up it.
When you get out of your gears, and go into the little room,
search the big diagram on the wall, then search the little gray metal
thing right above the control panel to make the tram rise out of the
water.
Go in the tram, when you get to the top, get out of your gear
and climb up the ladder from the back. Once inside the little
compartment, search the little panel in the top right to get the tram
moving. You'll soon have to fight a boss.
Boss: Ramsas
Very easy, just hammer away at him for a few rounds and he flees.
In the next part of the dungeon, there's a little pit that has a
small door in it. You'll have to get out of your gears to enter.
In the room, search all 4 computer panels(they're on the second
"ledge" of panels). Make sure that the far left one says "DONE!", that
will unlock the big door near the pit.
Continue proceeding through the halls until you get to a room
with a circular platform, walk around the blue ledge to get to another
doorway. Go through to reach a huge room with a refill robot.(yes!)
There's a green pod in this room, jump onto it from the
platform above. You'll have to fight an easy enemy, then you can ride
the pod up. In fact, the whole rest of this chamber is like this, and
including this pod, there's five in all. At the top you'll reach a save
point, and have to fight a huge gear boss.
Boss: Siebzehn
Not too hard, just keep attacking, and she'll go down.

Flying City Shebat:
After the scenes, follow Maria through the door to talk to her
and see her gear. You can get to a town section, continue through
it(you'll have to take some pods down), until you get to the room with
the wooden horse. Search it, and Maria will appear.
After that, on the town's map section, go to the goddess statue
and click on it to take an elevator up to a new section. Follow Maria
through the double doors. You can talk to Wiseman here. Then go
through the doors and talk to Zefar. Then, go off to one of the side
doors and talk to Maria, then back to Zefar again and choose the first
choice.
You'll have to leave one of your characters behind, in order for
Maria to join. Leave this part, and on the Shebat map, head for the
location where you take the elevator down to Maria's gear. Maria will
stop the elevator and open up a little hatch for you to go in.

Shafts:
Go left in the beginning to get a map. When you get to the
crystal, you can search it to change the direction of the spinning
blades. Then jump on the blades to get across. Once you take the
elevator down, you can finally use the map you just got(hit select).
The map works like this: the colors represent the height(gray is
the lowest elevation, blue is the middle, and green is the highest). The
big circles represent stairwells, the little ones are elevators. Your goal
is to make it to the elevator in the upper-left.
Once the elevator is taken, you need to proceed to the left,
jumping over pits. Once you get to some rotating platforms, make
sure to stand at the edge so you won't get knocked off by the ledges.
You'll take another elevator down, then go through more stairs and
hallways. When there's a fork in the road, you can go straight to save
your game, or if you go the other way, you'll drop down a manhole
and be at the entrance of Shebat.
Go in the door to get to Siebzehn, Maria's gear. There'll be a
long scene, then you'll be talking to Zefar, and have to choose 4 of
your characters for the battle ahead.

The Battles:
What you must do here is, when Zefar asks you to choose 4 of
your characters, you're choosing 4 guys to take on a bunch of enemies
all alone, and obviously, there are 4 sets of enemies. Here's the list of
what you'll face in each battle, to help you decide who fights what
battle:
Battle1: 4 Solaris Soldiers, 2 Machines(name?)
This is a hard battle, because although the soldiers are killed in 1 hit,
they are QUICK. It's best to have someone like Bart or Billy who can
do a gear spell in the beginning to get rid of all the soldiers at once.
Battle2: 3 White Knights
This is probably the easiest one. The White Knights are fast, but
shouldn't take more than two hits to kill.
Battle3: 2 White Knights and a Citadel
Kill off the Knights early, then concentrate on the Citadel. You're
going to need someone who can cure, and someone who's pretty
fast(Rico, because he's slow, will not be a very good choice here).
Battle4: 2 White Knights and an Avalanche
Very similar to the last battle, just make sure whoever you pick is
pretty strong, as well as fast(I picked Fei for this one).
After all the battles, Chu Chu(the pink cat), will have to fight a
gear.
Boss: Ahatsen
After a few Circle Button attacks, you should beat him. But then
Maria will get in her gear, and will have to fight him again. But all in
all, it's a pretty easy battle.
After all that's done, you can go down to the bottom of this
place(where Maria's gear is), because the Yugdrasil is attached to it,
and now it can fly! So fly over to Nisan.

Nisan:
When you first enter, you'll fight a guard, after that, run
through town, and kill all the guards(about 5). Then there'll be a scene
where you'll have to choose a character to come with Fei and Bart(but
you can't take Shitan). After that's done, leave the town from the left
or right side, and walk around the Nisan map until you get to the back,
and talk to Maru to enter a dungeon.
When you get to the cave part, choose choice number 2 to open
up the door, if you accidentally choose the first choice, you'll have to
search the corner of the wall to open it.
Fight the guards inside, then watch the scene. Then take the
elevator up. Go until you get to the red room with the save. Search
the computer in there for a scene.
Then take the elevator up, and continue through the pathways
to get to a save. Search the thing in that room, then go in the door near
the door that leads to the save. You'll be in a HUGE room(there's
similar rooms like this, but smaller). Follow the "runway" like thing
off the screen to get to a gear. After that scene search the gear for
another scene.
Then go down to floor one and the computer room for a scene.
Then search the computer to activate something. After all those
scenes, guards will invade the place. Take the elevator up to the
second floor, and go left to reach the hall with all the doors.
Go into the fifth door(I think), to fight some guards and see a
scene. If you go in the main room, Bart will get in a new gear and
you'll have to fight an easy battle.
After all the scenes are over, once you gain control of your
characters again, head west of Nisan to get to a little cave.

Gate Cave:
You'll have to fight 2 easy wizard gears, then get to the gate
room, where you'll have to fight a boss.
Boss: Sharkan
If he attaches himself to the gate, he'll cure for 1000 almost every
round. To make things worse, after a certain amount of damage, if
he's attached to the gate, he'll cure for 1000 every time you attack
him. You'll definitely want Booster on for this battle, and have Maria
or else you probably won't make it. This is a very tough battle.
After the long scene after killing Sharkan, your next step is to
fly the Yugdrasil back into Babel Tower.

Babel Tower(revisited):
Once you go , the remaining people in the Yugdrasil have to
form a part(Billy must be included). Anyway, once the game switches
back to your original part in Babel, head for the computer room(the
one down in the pit that you have to get out of your gear to go in).
Shitan will leave here, so exit the computer room, then proceed on into
the dungeon. After a few steps, Fei and Elie will have to fight a boss.
Boss: Bleedgache(Dominia) and Marinbache(Kelbana)
Although this battle alone is tricky, you'll soon have to fight it again,
but with them at full strength. So make sure you do well here. One
tricky thing is that most of the rods that Elie equips will cure
Marinbache. What I did was equip the Flare Rod, and that seemed to
hurt her.
After the battle is won, the scene will switch over to Billy and
the rest of your party. You'll have to fight Selafighter and Tronu in
their gears.
Boss: Groundgaon(Selafighter) and SkyKing(Tronu)
This is pretty easy, just keep attacking. They will go down
surprisingly quickly.
Then the scene will switch back to Fei and Elie, fighting
Dominia and Kelbana again.
Boss: Bleedgache and Marinbache
This is hard as hell, especially since you won't be at full strength after
the last battle, but the bosses will be. Again, it's best to have that Flare
Rod equipped to hurt Marinbache. A very tough battle.
Then, the scene will switch back again to Billy and company,
then you'll have to fight Selafighter and Tronu in their gears again.
Boss: Groundgaon and SkyKing
Again, very, very easy. Man, if only the Babel Tower battles were this
easy.
After all this is over, go to Damuz, and talk to the captain on
floor 4. Then, go down into the Yugdrasil, and talk to Siglude. The
Yugdrasil will dive underwater to an undersea tunnel.

Undersea Tunnel:
Before you go in this place, you might want to head back to the
Yugdrasil, because the gear shop has updated it's stuff. Anyway, once
you're ready, head on into the place.
This place is a big maze of tunnels. If you go right, then left,
you'll get to a part where a current is shooting you back. Just
constantly jump forward to get past it. At the end, there'll be two
treasures, and when you open one, the screen will shake. This is
signaling that the current that was earlier pushing you back is now
gone.
So, go back to where the current was, and now you can go
behind it, down a plant-filled tunnel. Eventually, you'll get sucked
down into the tunnel, and there'll be another gate room, and a boss in
there.
Boss: Crescens
Pretty easy, especially if you bought the new gear stuff from the
Yugdrasil. She does have a high evade rate, though.
After that, you'll be back in Shebat, the floating city, and
talking to Zefar. This is the last time in the game you can go visit all
the towns, and the world map as it is, so if there's any town you want
to visit or anything like that, so do it now. Once you're ready, talk to
Zefar to go the Solaris' Empire HQ.

Solaris Base:
In the beginning of this place, your characters will be upside-
down. There's a tube you have to go into, and when you enter it, Fei
will get separated from the rest of the party.
Once in the town section, if you go to the far left-hand pod, and
take it to it's room, you'll meet Elie. In another on of the rooms in this
section(accessed by a pod, of course), you'll meet Samson, who Fei
mistakes for his dead friend Dimoshi. He'll give you a pass to get past
one of the guards in this section.
In the next section, there will be little pods patrolling the area,
and if you get in their line-of-sight, they'll put you back in the
beginning of the area.
You'll soon get to another town part, and you must get a ticket
from a woman who's downstairs in one of the buildings. With that
pass, you can get past a guard in dark armor who's blocking the way to
the next area.
After the guard, there'll be a long scene(including a flashback),
and then Fei and Elie will have to run through a sewer system, evading
security pods. You'll have to climb ladders, dodge obstacles, and
make some very tough jumps to get past. All the while these pods are
chasing you. For the very last jump, you can instead walk very slowly
across a skinny pipe to get by.
If you end up fighting the pods(which you will), you'll have to
alternate between normal attacks and magic attacks in order to hurt
them(usually for the first few rounds, NOTHING will hurt them).
Once you leave the sewer part, head into the palace in front of
you. After the long scenes, go into one of the rooms and talk to
Medina(the girl you talked to when you entered this place). Then go
to another room, and search behind a desk to start another scene. After
that, Fei will be back in the big town section.
Go back through the passage to the original section. Shitan
will rejoin along the way. Once back in the original section, you can
rest in one of the compartments. Then go to the middle of the area,
and search the little blue spot in the ground to get into the trash area.

Solaris Trash Area:
You'll be in a little cave room, search the green thing on the
wall, and Elie will eventually rejoin. Then, search it again to get
sucked up into the trash area.
When you get to the fan, push the debris on the ground into it
to break up the blades. Fall into the pit, but make sure you huge the
wall so that you can land on the tiny ledge near the hidden door.
Go through this place, you will reach a room with conveyor
belts. Go to the other side of this place to get to a room with a control
panel. Search it, and blocks will appear. Take away the 2 and 4
blocks, then choose the "enter" command(I had messed around with
this for a while before I got it, so you may need another condition as
well, like having the bottom 2 and 4 blocks showing first. But I'm not
sure). You can also get treasures here from entering different
combinations.
Now, since you entered the code, you can go through the
glowing parts on the conveyor belt. Continue through this place, you
will soon learn that it's actually humans being mashed up on the
conveyor belts.
Eventually, you will leave the trash area and enter a place that
looks almost like an office building(even though it's still the same
dungeon). In this area, you'll eventually reach a jail, one of the guys
in the cage will ask you to free him, don't do it, or else he'll attack
you, and he's pretty powerful.
In the meeting-room area, search the panel to turn the door lock
off. Now follow the hallway to the next door, you should be back in
the original screen of the "office building" part, except now you can
get through the door at the top of the stairs.
You'll come to an intersection. The left and right lead to
elevators that go back to the jail areas, so just go straight.
After a while, you'll get to a door that needs an audio password
to be unlocked. You can make different sounds depending on which
direction you press on the D-pad, and then press the Circle Button
once you're done to input it. The correct password is Up, Down, Up,
Left, Right.
Eventually, after more winding hallways, you'll come to a
room that has holographs, and pretty soon after that is a door that is
locked, but when you search it, Shitan will unlock it. Then, the lights
will turn off, and Fei will be all by himself. Just blindly stumble
through the hall and go in the first door you come to, and there'll be a
long scene. Real long. Eventually, though, you'll rescue Elie and
reunite with the rest of your party.
Here you can save and change your characters. Now you'll
have to make your way through a bunch of maze-like hallways with
lots and lots of doors, some of which are just there to confuse you, and
you can't even open. You know you're going the right way if the
background changes into a gray metal tunnel.
Go through that, and you'll be in another similar maze section.
Again, you'll have to find an identical gray metal tunnel, and that will
take you to the third(and small) maze section, and you know you're in
the right place because in here the walls will be greenish.
Once you get through there, you'll reach another area where
you can save and change your characters. There'll be a scene, then
you'll finally fight Graaf.
Boss: Graaf
Actually not that hard, if you kill the knight side-kick first, it will
make the battle a little easier. Also, make sure to keep everyone's HP
pretty high, because Graaf will occasionally do a 200+ damage attack.
He takes a lot of punishment, but all in all, the battle is not that hard.
After that, there will be A LOT of scenes(about a half-hour
worth), and then finally, you'll have beaten Disc One.

Disc Two:

You will awake in some guy's cabin(named Tora). After the
talking, once you can control yourself, walk up(or down, I can't
remember) the stairs for more talking. Eventually, Fei will get in a
powered-up Weltall(called, originally, Weltall 2), and you'll have to
fight Ramsas.
Boss: Ramsas
Pretty easy. For the first three rounds, you have an "infinity" attack
level, so take advantage of it.
Then, there'll be some more scenes, then the Yugdrasil will
combine with the red "ship" in the middle of Kisrev to form a huge
gear, which will have to fight a giant enemy.
Boss: Hariken
Easy. You have 100,000 HP, so just do a bunch of Circle Button
attacks, and it'll go down in no time.
Then, there'll be some more, long scenes, then another boss
fight.
Boss: Sofal
The trick to this boss is not to kill all his flunkies, or else he'll start
doing attacks which drain ALL of your HPs, killing you. So, kill three
out of the four flunkies, then just hammer away at the big guy.
There will then be a cool anime scene(it's about time), then
you'll be in a dungeon.

Anima Dungeon 1:
Although you can get in your gears here, you need to be in
human form to get in the big building at the end of the bridge, plus you
need to be in human form to get some of the treasures hidden behind
walls.
In this place, you have to find a room with red sparks shooting
out of the wall. If you search that, there will be some text. Next, go to
a room close by that has two boxes in it. One of the boxes has an item
you need. Take that item back to the red sparks, and the lights will
come on. Then search the computer in that room to open up all the
"A" doors.
If you proceed on through the place, you'll be in a room where,
if you search a panel in the corner, you'll have to enter a password.
The correct password is 0, 3, 2, 0. After entering the password, search
a computer panel in this room to open up all the "B" doors.
If you go to the large circular room where the save spot is, you
can now open the two "B" doors on the left and right sides. One of
them leads back to the beginning of the dungeon, the other leads to a
control room. In there, if you search the middle panel, you will
activate the elevator(in the middle of the large circular room).
Take that elevator down, and you will reach four panels
marked A-D. What you have to do is, go to each panel, choose the
correct number, than search the little black box next to the "A" panel,
and choose the third command to input it. The correct password is
A=2, B=4, C=8, and D=5.
Now you can take the elevator down another level. Go in the
door down there and there will be a scene where Billy gets his new
gear. Then your characters will walk out of the place, but you'll be
confronted by Dominia, Tronu, Selafighter, and Kelbana, the 4
"Elements".
Boss: Elements
Since Kelbana will cure whoever is injured(including herself), it's best
to take her out first, with a charged-up 28 AP attack, to kill her in one
shot. Next you'll probably want to get rid of Selafighter, because she
will suck out your characters' EP(if she hasn't done so already). You
can also kill her in one powered-up 28 AP attack. Then I went for
Tronu, who you probably won't be able to kill with a powered-up 28
AP attack, so you might just want to normally attack her. The game
will force you to save Dominia for last, because if you attack her while
there's still someone else left, she'll automatically heal herself. And
once she is by herself, she'll get a lot harder. She'll go quicker, plus
she'll have a powerful new attack that can do to some of your weaker
guys around 250 damage. But you should win if you hang in there.
But it's not over yet. After you beat them, you'll go outside
and get in your gears to fight their gears. But this time, their gears will
combine into a huge gear.
Boss: G Elements
A somewhat difficult battle, you'll probably want to use Booster. You
have so much fuel now it won't even matter. Don't even bother using
Triangle or Circle Button attacks, as they'll be blocked for almost no
damage(it's okay to use them in a combo, though). You might want to
try using Fei's "System Id" technique, it will put Fei at infinity attack
level for 3 rounds at a cost of 1000 fuel(and if you're Id, it's okay to
do Triangle Button attacks, they won't be blocked).
After you defeat them, there'll be more long, long, scenes, then
you'll be put in a cave.

Anima Dungeon 2:
At the beginning of the cave, there'll be the usual save and
switch character spots, plus the friendly robot who you can buy new
stuff from, or get your fuel refilled. There'll also be a long jump you
can't make, and two treasures down in a pit.
Near the save spot is a rock. Push it out of the way(towards the
direction of the pit), and it will reveal a tiny doorway that you need to
get out of your gears to enter.
This is a puzzle room, if you search one of the pillars, Fei will
say something. In fact, make sure you search ALL of the pillars in
here, otherwise some of the puzzles won't work.
There's four wall scribbles in this room. They are all clues on
the puzzles here. One of them says "South 4 steps, West 10 steps".
Once you read that, just walk south 4 steps, then west 10 steps, and
you hit a wall(actually, you'll probably hit the wall before your 10
steps are up, so just walk into the wall for the last few steps). That will
cause a stone block to fall down. Push it into one of the three holes in
the ground(and remember, this puzzle won't have worked unless you
search the pillars first).
The next one is easy. Just constantly search the back of the
western pillar until another stone block falls. But don't push it into
one of the holes, at least not yet. You'll need to use that stone block,
where it is, as a stepping stone to jump atop the middle pillar. Once on
top of the middle pillar, jump straight up into the air. That will cause
the final stone block to fall. Push them into the remaining holes.
Now, outside, you can make the impossible jump, because now
there will be a middle ledge to jump onto. Jump across, and go to the
next area.
In the next area, there will be an impassable lake the middle of
the room, plus a tiny ledge on the side, that your gears can't go across.
So, get out of your gears to go across the ledge into another little room.
In here, you will shortly find a room with three pits in it(if you
look closely, you can make out where the pits are). If you fall into the
third pit(the one at the far side of the room), and hug against the
eastern wall, you fall through into a hidden passageway.
In the next room, spikes will begin to fall from the ceiling. Just
stay in the center of the room, you'll be fine. Once the platform hits
the ground, jump on the outer ledge of it, and let it carry you back up
to the top of the room, where there's a door you can go into.
In this room, there's a pit in the middle of the room, and there's
two switches right in front of the pit. The two switches either raise or
drain the water level. Now, when you enter the room, the pit is full,
and it has a volume of 10. Whenever you raise or lower the water
level, you do that in increments of 3. However there are switches on
the left and right side of the room that let you toggle the amount raised
an lowered between 3 or 7. Your goal is to make the water have a
volume of 5.
To do that, with a full tank, lower the water by 7 to get 3. Then
add by 3 to get 6, then add by 3 again to get 9. Then, lower the water
by 7 to get 2, and then add by 3 to get 5. That will cause the lake
outside to drain, and you can go on with the dungeon.
There will be another chamber with a save spot, and another
door you need to get out of your gears to enter. If you go in that door,
you'll run down a hallway, then you'll watch a scene where Rico gets
a new gear. Then your characters will start to leave the place, but
you'll get attacked by Hamar.
Boss: Hamar
Pretty easy. The one thing to remember is, once he turns red, you'll
have to run away from battle. If you don't, he'll blow up, and you'll
die.
There will be a few more scenes, then you'll be in the
Yugdrasil.

Yugdrasil:
Follow Elie downstairs, and go in the first room to talk to her.
There will be a lot more scenes, and then eventually you'll go to some
mechanical place and have to fight another boss.
Boss: Deus
You have to let this boss hurt himself, because if you attack him, he'll
cure for 16,000 HP. Every so often, he'll do a powerful attack on
everyone, including himself. So constantly charge your fuel, and cure
when needed. After he takes a bit of damage, he'll sort of kneel over.
At this time, I attacked him, and he died(but maybe I just got lucky, so
don't get mad at me if you do the same, and he doesn't die but instead
cures himself).
There will be many long scenes, eventually you'll be in another
mechanical-looking place.

Mechanical Place:
This isn't really a dungeon, but in the entrance you can still
save and change your characters, plus if you go out to the little side
door, you can find a robot who will sell you stuff, and refill your fuel
if needed.
But where you have to go is through a big door. Do so, and
you'll have to fight Ramsas one final time.
Boss: Ramsas
At the beginning of the battle, Ramsas will reduce everybody's HP to
1. You have to cure yourself, then make sure you can kill him quickly
before he does it again(because there's another battle after this one).
You definitely want to use Booster here, and use Fei's System Id. If
you just can't kill him before he does it again, then make sure you
have a weak cure equipped(such as Frame HP 30), so that you won't
waste that much fuel having to cure for a second time.
After he's dead, you'll soon fight another boss.
Boss: Opiomolpus(Myan)
Undoubtedly the hardest boss in the game so far. She only has about
25,000 HPs, but she's very, very tough(especially since you probably
took a beating in the last battle). Every time you attack her, her
defense and magic power go up(even if you miss). And every few
rounds, she'll unleash a devastating magic attack. Depending on how
much you attacked her in the previous few rounds, the spell will do
different damage. At least after she does her attack, her defense and
magic power go back to their normal levels. If you can get in 4 or 5
System Id attacks, you can win(plus maybe a combo or two from your
supporting characters). That means having at least 2000 fuel in
reserve. What it's best to do is, just use 1 System Id attack, then
charge your fuel for the next 2 turns. Remember, when you have
infinity attack level, you'll regain 300 fuel every time you charge, so
you'll have regained 600 fuel. Hopefully that will give you enough to
use Id again, and that plus a few other attacks will do her in. One
thing you'll want to watch out for, is if even one of your guys is killed
off, she'll turn vicious, attacking every round until everyone's dead.
One thing that will help win this battle is if you have equipped the Z
80/25 Armor for your gears, as that's the best one available that
defends against magic.
If you do manage to beat her, there will be some more scenes.
You will get a chance to save your game, do so, because there will be
more scenes for a while. Then, after all those scenes are over, you will
be given the chance to save your game again, plus change your
characters, signaling that it's time for another boss fight.
Boss: Id
Not that difficult, compared to the last fight. Just keep attacking him.
I used the Circle Button attacks, and he never dodged once. You may
need to cure once or twice, though.
After he's killed, there'll be more long, long, scenes(what a
surprise). After a while, Fei will get a new gear(called "Xenogears",
yes even with the "s" on the end, making it seem someone plural), and
have to fight Graaf in his gear in a one-on-one battle.
Boss: Graaf
You'll want to put on Booster, you have more than enough fuel to
make it even matter anymore. For some reason, he usually blocks
your Triangle and Circle Button attacks, making them do little or no
damage. So just use Square, it should do 2000. And, don't even
bother charging up to attack level 2, as level 1 does almost as much
damage. With this in mind, he should go down pretty quickly.
Then there will be an insane amount of scenes, with some cool
FMV.
Eventually, you'll be in a town, which is actually a crashed-
down Shebat. If you go into this place, you can find Zefar, and talk to
her for a scene. If you leave, you'll see that you'll finally be on the
world map again! But is has been changed. You can also now freely
fly around in the Yugdrasil, and if you go down to the Yugdrasil's gear
shop, you'll see that they're selling new stuff.

Optional Stuff:
The end dungeon is the dot on that island in the western middle
of the map. But before you go there, there's some optional stuff you
can do first.

Kisrev's Battling Arena:
Besides the crashed-down Shebat, Kisrev is the only city you
can go into. But there's only one part you can go into, and that's the
Battling Arena. You can go back her to fight those action battles from
earlier in the game(actually, you could do that back on Disc One as
soon as you could fly).
You can choose 2 modes. Mode 1 is where you can just mess
around, where you can practice, and or just play battles, where you can
choose any gear to fight with. You'll also have the options to make it
Player One vs. Computer, Player One vs. Player Two, or Computer vs.
Computer. You can set the difficulty and the match count.
Mode 2 is more like a tournament, and here you can win
BPs(Battle Points), and trade them in for rare items and such(like in
Final Fantasy 7).
Also, in the center of Kisrev's map, you can buy stuff from the
blue crystal.

Tora's Hut:
On the long skinny continent on the eastern side of the world
map, you can find Tora's hut in the middle of a forest(you have to get
out of your gears to enter). Inside, you can talk to Tora, and he'll give
you some items.

The Underground City:
Around the middle of the map, there's a large, empty continent.
Actually, it's not totally empty. There's a lighthouse on a peninsula
sticking out of the northwestern side. If you go in, you'll take an
elevator down to an underground city.
As you're wandering through the streets, if Fei ever says
something, that means you can get out of your gear and go inside a
nearby building. In one of the buildings you can search a computer for
a cool scene, in another you can buy some new gear stuff from BigJoe.
In one part of the city, there's a hole you can drop into in the middle of
the street, but you'll have to get out of your gears(Fei will say
something when you approach it).
If you go through there, you'll eventually be in a big area, and
you can see a scene there(you may need Emerda in your party, because
the scene involves her). After the scene, Emerda will change from a
child to a full-grown woman. As far as I know, that's all you can do in
this place.

Sandman's Desert:
East of the end dungeon, there's a small desert isle with a
desert and some ruins on it. The only place you can land is in the
grass.
Once you enter, you'll encounter some Sandmen, and they'll
tell you to leave. Answer no to fight them. Then you'll be able to
move around freely in here.
What you have to do in here, is walk away from the camera all
the way until you hit the wall. Then, move to the right, almost all the
way, but don't exit off to the right(if you do that, the screen will just
repeat itself). What you have to do is, instead of exiting to the right,
head towards the camera until you go off the screen, and then you'll be
in a desert clearing.
Once in here, if you head north, you'll get back to where you
were. If you go any other direction, though, the screen will repeat.
Honestly, I have no idea what to do at this part. If anyone knows what
to do, email me! You'll get credit in my guide. Hopefully, by the time
I update this, I'll know the solution(whether someone tells me or if I
manage to figure it out by myself).

Other Optional Stuff:
As far as I know, that's all you can do. Since Elie's
permanently gone from the party, you have an open spot for another
character, so maybe you can get someone to join? Who knows. You
can also go back into the two dungeons earlier in Disc Two, but I don't
think you can do anything there. Is there anything else??

The Final Dungeon:
When you first get in here and jump down into the maze
section, you can hit select to look at a map of the place. The lighter
blue parts mean high elevation, and the dark blue parts are low
elevation.
Your goal is to get to the upper-right hand corner of the map,
that's where the door to the next area is. You'll have to find a place
where you can either walk up a ramp up jump up ledges to get to the
higher elevation(don't worry, there's quite a few of them).
Once you go through that door, you'll have to jump down into
a pit. While falling down the pit, you'll have to dodge beams of light.
Nothing too hard, though.
You'll then be in a new section, where you can again hit select
to look at a map of the place. Again, the light blue is a higher
elevation than the dark blue. You will also notice on the map the
existence of eight doors around the perimeter of this place. They lead
to the tunnel system of this place, that also has it's own map.
Basically, you need to get to the red pod in the center of the
map. To do that, first take the tunnel system so that you'll come out at
the top middle of the map, so you can get to the pod right north of the
red dot. Unlike most of the pods here, this one isn't an elevator,
instead, jump on top of the pod, and walk into the beam of light to
rotate the direction of the red pod.
In fact, whenever you see an "outline" of a platform on a map,
with a faint circle around it, that means that you can rotate the platform
by physically pushing the bar on top to the side.
Anyway, your next step is to make your way to the pod the far
right middle of the map, there will be another switch, this one will
rotate the pod that's adjacent to the red pod, now you have created a
bridge to reach the red pod. The bridge is connected to an exit from
the tunnel system(I got there by entering the tunnel system from the
right middle, then, looking at the map of the tunnels, I exited in the
upper-right.
Once you get to the red dot on the map, you'll jump down
another one of those tunnels where you have to dodge beams of light.
Once you're through the tunnel, you'll be back at the place where you
had to fight Ramsas and Myan in their gears not long ago. Again, if
you take the passage way off to the side from this place, you can talk
to a robot, who'll let you buy new stuff, and you can also choose to
leave this dungeon.
You have to again go through the big door just like before,
except this time you'll come to a big green pit in the ground that your
characters will jump in, leading to the last boss.

The Final Confrontation:
All of your characters will be here, and there will be a huge
organic thing in the center of the room. There are also four big globes
of light circling the center. Each of these four is a boss. You don't
have to kill all of the four globes, before you go fight the main boss in
the center, but whenever you kill one of the four minibosses, the main
boss will lose an attack(some of those attacks can be very annoying).
There's also a blue change character spot in here, so you can fight the
minibosses with your weaker guys, and save your best characters for
the guy in the middle.
Boss 1: Metatron(looks like a robot)
This is without a doubt the hardest of the four, he has powerful spread
attacks as well as a special move where he gets in 5-10 attacks in one
round, which can seriously mess your party up. I generally fought this
guy last, and even brought in some of my best characters, as well.
Boss 2: Halroot(looks like a vortex)
Pretty easy. He has a few high-powered attacks, but rarely uses them.
He also has a pretty crappy evade rate(although he WILL dodge
Maria's Circle Button attack).
Boss 3: ThunderRufon(looks like a bunch of spinning red
diamonds)
Not too hard, except for the fact that after every one of your attacks, he
will counterattack(but he usually misses).
Boss 4: Marloot(looks like a flat golden phoenix on the
ground)
This guy can be hard, especially if you fight him as the third or fourth
guy. But, you'll probably want to fight him as the third guy, especially
if you're using all of your second-best characters, because after the
first they'll be pretty drained, and you won't want to use them
anymore. The reason that makes them a good choice for this boss is
because he can drain your fuel, so if you go into this battle having a lot
of fuel, you'll come out with virtually none, however if you go into
this battle with not much fuel, you won't come out much worse, either.
What I did was, I quickly got down to zero fuel. Whenever that
happened, I just charged my fuel a few times, then attacked. Oh yeah,
you can't do combos on this guy, either, and since he tends to block
Circle Button attacks(especially later on in the battle), it's best to use
Triangle Button attacks. One good thing is since you can't use
combos, your attack level will quickly rise, and unless you have
someone who has an infinity attack level, it will stay high, so you can
recharge fuel quicker.
Anyhow, once all four are dead, pray that you have your best 3
characters at either full strength(which is almost impossible, since it's
hard not to use at least one of them for at least one of the four battles),
or hopefully at least your best guy at full strength. Then, head for the
center, for the final battle(almost).
Boss: Deus
Very difficult, there's a few attacks that do a lot of damage. Plus, once
the hands fly off(which happens at the beginning of the battle if you
killed the four minibosses), every time you attack, the bosses hands
will counterattack. But hang in there, and you'll win.
But you're not done yet. After a few short scenes, Fei(in his
gear) will have to fight a one-on-one battle.
Final Boss: Erovoros
Not that hard, but don't get cocky or anything because she CAN kill
you. You're definitely going to want to put on Booster, so you can get
in attacks quicker. In fact, with Booster, you shouldn't have to cure
more than once(if at all). Her most powerful attack does 7000
damage, so make sure that your HP doesn't fall below that number.
All in all, not that hard a battle, considering that you get all your stats
refilled before the battle.
When she goes down, it's time to sit back and watch the cool
anime ending. You deserve praise if you can make it through this
game.


Well, I hope you enjoyed my faq. If there's anything you'd like to
add, or if there's some corrections you'd like to make, email me at
johnsonr@compuserve.com. If I use what you say in the guide, you'll
get credited for it. Thanks for reading!