This guide is protected by the International Copyright Law. You probably already know the drill, but I'll say it anyway, just in case. This guide is copyrighted to me, Kewne 3000, and you may not put it on a website without permission. You ABSOLUTELY may not sell this guide, change a single, sole, solitary word on it, or change it from a .txt file. If permission to post this guide on your website is granted, you must still abide by the rules stated above (No sale, no changes). As of now, the only webpages allowed to carry links to this guide are:
GameFAQs.com
Cheathappens.com
CheatCC.com
skygunner.tripod.com (Eugene's webpage, see October 7th update)
Neoseeker.com
PCXcodez.com
faqs.ign.com
http://www.members.iinet.net.au/~jaguar23/public_html/index.html
That authoritative stuff said, onto the guide!
V0.5 - July Eighth, 2002
-------------------------
I haven't even beaten the game fully, but I'm a little over halfway through, unlocked Rival and Copain, the Photo Album, Survival Mode, the "Variable/Uniform" thingy, and some other stuff... Not released to general public yet.
Not making as fast progress as I'd like, I finished the Skygunner Overview, and the Novice controls... I must be trying to put off the walkthrough, that'll be the hard part... but no worries, when I get there, I'll do it as well as I can.
V0.6 - July Ninth, 2002
------------------------
Messed with more controls, most characters. I gotta unlock Hardi!
V0.7 - July Twenty-second, 2002
--------------------------------
All the controls are finished, I've put in the ships of Ventre's that appear in the first level, and started the walkthrough, just the preparation of Ciel's first mission.
V0.8 - July Twenty-third, 2002
--------------------------------
Finished Scenes 1 and 2 in Ciel's walkthrough, added more of Ventre's ships... but there's this one I don't know... is it Progrés?
V0.85 - July Twenty-fourth, 2002
----------------------------------
No, it's not Progrés, but now I have to add that one. I can't seem to find that thing anywhere... If anyone has any idea what it is, let me know (It's under "Unknown" in the Ventre's ships category), but in the meantime, I'm e-mailing Atlus.
I beat Femme's campaign, this time in first place, with the superb engine, and I found out that stupid "defeat Ventre's Battleship" thing at the end of scene five! now if I could just figure out what triggered it...
Finished Scene 3 and Scene 4. When Scene 5 is done, I'll release it to the general public... and start working on other campaigns.
I just found a webpage that helped me make a secrets part of the FAQ...
And I unlocked Hardi! Good day, today.
V0.9 - July Twenty-fifth, 2002
--------------------------------
Just working on the fifth scene, trying to get Ventre's battleship to show up again...
V1.0 - July Twenty-sixth, 2002
--------------------------------
It is complete! Well, not the whole guide, but Ciel's walkthrough! Now I just have to send it in...
V1.2 - July Twenty-ninth, 2002
--------------------------------
Just got done with my weekend... back to work, I guess. EVERYTHING is unlocked, I've ALMOST beaten the developers records on time attack... man, those developers are good. I'll have to fix some from Ciel's walkthrough, cause I had some stuff wrong, and I'll get to work on Femmes. Also, this website is now posted on other places... CheatCC and Cheathappens.
Hmm, now PKzip won't work... so I uninstalled it and went to the website (for a new download). And suddenly I have to pay for this crap? AND WinZip? I think I can't use a Zipper until I find a free one... well, to the trusty dogpile.com I go!
V1.3 - August First, 2002
---------------------------
As the first day of the dreaded education system draws ever closer, I am pressured to do two things. First, finish this walkthrough. Second, replace my fiero's body plates. Since the latter is taking up a big chunk of my time, I've been neglecting the former.
I think I'll get Femme's second mission going, then go after the back bumper... and if that fickle fiend comes off, I'll do Femmes third... sounds good. I also created a mini-strategy thing for getting prize money. Take a gander.
Also, my favorite comic artist happened to... critique Skygunner. He also said that at gamefaqs.com, "one of the more prevalent strategies is "you have to be really lucky"". I HOPE he wasn't talking about this guide... but if any of you see those words on this FAQ, give me an e-mail, woncha (And make it worthwhile... like in Femmes second mission I say "lucky you" because Femme gets it easy... don't bring stuff like that up, ok)?
On a lighter, more unrelated note, I downloaded a couple new mouse cursors from his website (hee hee, that black mage). I would have put a new desktop on, but my FreeSpace 2 desktop is too cool to replace... maybe I'll buy a t-shirt.
V1.35 - August First, Late afternoon, 2002
--------------------------------------------
Well, I didn't get the bumper off... foiled by a single rounded bolt... but considering I'm stuck with what to do next... I'll just type more on the FAQ. By the way, I installed windows 2000 lately, so if I punctuate Femme's third mission with frustrated cries of agony, bear with me.
V1.4 - August Third, 2002
----------------------------
HAHAHAHAHA!!!! Yesterday I found out about the competitions going on with Time Attack and Survival (www.atlus.com/sg)... and since I'm bad at survival, I decided to do time attack. and guess what! I BEAT THE DEVELOPERS RECORD BY ROUGHLY 4 SECONDS!!! muahahahahaha! we'll see who goes for THAT record. (yesterday I had a bad day for it, I got 1.13.66, and thats one hundredth of a second behind the now-second-place guy).
Well, I've sent in my code and done the dance of joy, (four seconds in front of the developers record!) and now it's time to work on the FAQ. But what to do? Simple! Time attack strategies!
Ok, it's later in the day now... a few hours after my record... but they still haven't posted it. Ah, well, what can ya do? I'll finish more of Femme's guide... and fix some other stuff in the walkthrough. I had the weakpoints a tad off...
V1.5 - August Fourth, 2002
----------------------------
It's 7:22 PM and Atlus has not posted my score... I hope I didn't get the code wrong.
I've gotten some feedback from two different people now, one of which asking for help on prize money and how to get a shot at Ventre's battleship (plus some brainstrom ideas...) and the other alerting me that I'm not quite done with Time Attack. I'll first finish my Time Attack column, then try every conceivable means of getting Ventre's battleship to find the criteria. I have noticed that the yellow battleship has NOTHING to do with destroying Ventre's battleship, that's entirely up to you to destroy.
After all this, I may (depending on the time) work on a few more Femme missions, I hope to finish it either today or tomorrow, as I've been slowing down a bit.
Notice the recent dates on Atlus's Time Attack postings... They happen to be in the afternoon... I didn't manage my record until later evening... I eagerly await an update.
Wonderful. I have found out that the ONLY criteria for taking a shot at Ventre's battleship is to destroy the machine soldier in UNDER 3 minutes. Fuel, money, crashes, continues, and how well you did in the rest of the mission do not matter. Rest assured that I performed a large number of experiments on the machine soldier, and the closest I came to three minutes on each side was 2:59.34, and 3:04.49. I took a shot at the 2:59 one, and didn't get one at 3:04. I have tested for the performance on the rest of the level, even flying till I was at 15 minutes (I ran out of fuel... fighting the machine soldier). I tried continues, full time, and everything else I could think of. The ONLY criteria is a 3:00 or under battle (actually to be risky, my theoretical criteria would be 3:04.49 and under, and to be safe, theoretical criteria would be 2:59.34 and under). Thanks to you who gave me help on this subject.
I also received a tip for HUGE money making on the fifth level. I shall print that... And I shall print the tipsters name and e-mail, or just name, or pseudonym... if the tipster gives me permission. (Hey, that gives me an idea... would you all mind sending in whether or not you want your name on the thank you list if you send something in? Muchas Gracias.)
Ok, I've been on too long... I'm updating my own information before I even send it in. The tipster of the fifth level money maker has been revealed as Jesse Jace Thomas (jessejace@tcinternet.net)
Whew, putting in direct e-mail quotes bulks up my FAQ quite a bit... either I'll edit them down (ohhhh, but I don't want to...) or I'll make a separate area to put all of them... scene five is now HUGE (almost as big as this version-update-diary-thingy... what can I say, I'm long winded).
V1.6 - August Fifth, 2002
---------------------------
They posted it! I hope nobody is waiting to submit their entries... I'll never get THAT good of a score again!
Anyway... I'm going to do Femme's fifth mission today... which means I'll have to cut/copy that WHOLE e-mail... again. I think I'm just going to create an extra section with that fancy info in it, yeah? And I'll put "big money making tip from So and So here, see 'Contribution' area." Yes, that sounds good.
V1.7 - August Seventh, 2002
-----------------------------
Just a minor update today... Thanks a LOAD to Eugene Clewlow for the Ventre's Photo Album thing... I hadn't even STARTED on that. I'm gonna put how to defeat the Dorado in level five, cause even though I have it in the Ventre's Ships section, most people don't look at that... can you blame them? If it were me, I'd wanna know how to finish level five WITHOUT buzzing all around the guide.
Also, breaking news on the tow cannons... their shield is worthless. Which means a new strategy for blasting them. Lets see, there was some other stuff... oh yes, under Secrets, I have stuff screwed up... hmm, what else? Ah yes, I gotta test that Ventre's battleship thing some more, as I left out one IMPORTANT criteria... I'll check it out.
Nope, my test results stand. It's 3 minutes for having to beat all three stages of the machine soldier to take a shot at Venty's battleship.
V1.8 - August Twenty-fifth, 2002
---------------------------------
Well then. It's been a while. With unlucky events such as my motherboard's power supply going out, getting grounded, and a healthy dose of procrastination, I've been not updating this thing. So, lets see where I stand...
I recieved e-mails regarding the little mini thingies underneath the ships' names, so I think I'll put those in there... Lost my score by many many seconds on the atlus webpage, and since I've been working on it since forever and still haven't come close, it looks like I'm stuck with number three... somebody submit their score and kick me out of it, I already subscribe to both those magazines!
I also recieved a lot of e-mails about putting a "this is how much money you should make on this stage" in my FAQ... now don't get mad cause I haven't done it yet, its on my to-do list, really. Copain's first level done now, by the way, and lots of little minor craps that actually take a LOT of time.
Looks like I won FAQ of the month award, but that ain't cool cause it can only be given to people whose FAQs are complete. Needless to say, mine isn't complete. So as soon as mom is done scouring the webpage for strings attached, I'll send an e-mail to CJayC letting him know that... and if he insists on still sending me the prize, I'll donate it to red cross cause I don't think I deserve it.
And finally, I owe all of you an apology. Seems to me most people have been having to find help other places than me, and that means I've been letting you down, I think. Now that I have my resolve and ability to write back, I should make a really big update... but that would just mean you'd all have to wait longer.
Oh, one more thing. Another webpage added me to their list of FAQs... and a buddy of mine has a webpage... well, actually I don't know him, but he's a buddy of mine anyway cause he sent me stuff for the FAQ, but the point is his webpage is also authorized to link to/type out this FAQ. Same guy who contributed the photo album, Eugene Clewlow.
Ok, ANOTHER thing. Windows XP made me change this thing to "rich text format" and I have no idea what that is. So if you're not reading this, you know that GameFAQs didn't post it, or whoever you go through.
V1.9 - August Thirtieth, 2002
-------------------------------
Afternoon. Time for some work. I think one or two of Copain's missions should do... and lately I've been trying to figure out survival mode... I have a block. Contest ends tomorrow, good luck, whoever is entering!
V2.0 - Aug... er, September Fourteenth, 2002
---------------------------------------------
Version two point oh, does it seem like twice as much as it was when I first started it?
It doesn't take an Einstein to figure out that time is relative, cause I swear I updated yesterday... but I guess not. Sorry, once again.
Well, lets see what's on the old list today... Ahhh, level three. My favorite level. The ever-changing level. And THIS time it has Exocets. Yay! Maybe I'll do level four, just for kicks... But you all know me, I'm exceptionally lazy, it might not happen.
V2.1 - October Seventh, 2002
-----------------------------
'Fternoon. Yes, I'm showing my face around these parts again. That means another update. Sorry for the HUGE delay. I don't know whether to make excuses about being busy or tell you that I'm exceptionally lazy. I guess it doesn't matter, cause both are true.
Firstly, I must tell you that my FAQ may no longer be on Eugene's page (skygunner.tripod.com). This is because Eugene had, as he said, an epiphany (very well put). Like me, he grew from RPGs. Lately, he has decided to stick with RPGs, and only RPGs. I salute his devotion to the wonderful games such as Final Fantasy, Zelda, Golden Sun, and so forth. I also wish him better gaming times. And now, I've worked up a thirst to play through an RPG myself...
Secondly, I managed to finish Copain's scene four. You know, scenes 4 and 5 are really a mouthful. I can't wait to get to Rival's missions. Hopefully I get back to updating OFTEN.
V2.2 - November Sixth, 2002
----------------------------
Yep. It's that time again. And I'm late. You know the drill. I apologize, you roll your eyes in disgust, I get to writing. Lets skip that this time, huh?
New webpage has the FAQ. Going for Copain's fifth mission today. I'll see what happens to Rival. But you know me, if it gets done, we're lucky.
V2.3 – June Fifth, 2003
-------------------------
Good morning. It’s been a while. Due to (relatively) popular demand, I’ve decided to get off my butt and start working on this again. I’ve got a few new strategies for !!CASH!! in store for you, all courtesy of Thomas Stacey.
Table of Contents
-------------------
I. Skygunner Overview
II. How to Control a Skygunner
i. Controls
ii. Expert Controls
iii. On the Subject of Bonus Money
III. Characters and Junk
i. Good
ii. Bad and Ugly
iii. Objects
iv. Ventre's Ships
IV. Walkthrough
i. Ciel
a. Scene 1
b. Scene 2
c. Scene 3
d. Scene 4
e. Scene 5
ii. Femme
a. Scene 1
b. Scene 2
c. Scene 3
d. Scene 4
e. Scene 5
iii. Copain
a. Scene 1
b. Scene 2
c. Scene 3
d. Scene 4
e. Scene 5
iv. Rival - coming soon
v. Time attack
vii. Survival mode - Send me some tiparoonies, I'm getting whupped
V. Extra stuff
i. Secrets
ii. Photo Album
a. Photo Album - coming... maybe
b. Ventre's Commemorative Photos
VI. E-mailed contributions
VII. Other E-mail related stuff
VIII. Thanks
Skygunner Overview
--------------------
Skygunner is a strange sort of flight simulator game. It makes good use of the gamepad, which is surprising. The idea of custom aircraft and a world that combines somewhat modern day machinery with older, post WWI type is simply stunning, and all in anime, also. The story follows three Gunners, owners of cool looking aircraft, and missions that they have between now--when a criminal genius shows up and tries to steal all kinds of things... and succeeds, depending on your skill as a gunner--and two weeks from now--when an invention-type expo is scheduled, with the main attraction being the Eternal Engine, an engine that can run forever, but is a little tough to work (or so says the story).
If you're like me, you'll probably go to the training part of the game, say "this is easy after a little adaptation," go to story mode, say "this isn't so hard," finish the first level, and say "How in God's name is Copain that far ahead of me?!" And it is frustrating beyond belief. but keep on driving, after about a game and a half (all five missions) or even just one game, you WILL get the hang of it. This game isn't like many others, I can't give you too many flying tips, practice really does make perfect.
How to Control a Skygunner
----------------------------
I'm pretty bad at ASCII art, and I'm pretty sure you already know the controller a bit, so I'll just name the controls instead of drawing a controller. If you're new to the PS2 or any of Sony's products, don't worry, the buttons are all labeled, except L3 and R3, those are pushing in the right and left control sticks.
I prefer to have the targeting set to expert, the controls set to novice, and the climb/dive control set to reversed.
=========Controls=========
X button ---- Afterburner. Hold it to keep moving quickly, but you can't turn as fast. You can use it when your engine is overheated, but it's much slower and makes a cloud of steam and little steam trails from your wings.
O button ---- Optional weapon, like missiles and bombs. Tap it to fire one, or press and hold it to acquire a lock, and let go to fire. Note that you have to make your crosshairs pass over or stay over the target, and if you wait too long or the target leaves the screen, the lock will be lost.
_
|_| button ---- Machine Guns. Your primary weapon, easy to use, takes a while to learn how to aim. You don't have to hit RIGHT ON your target, but near it, though sometimes you have to lead them. You won't be in range of your target until a green circle is inside your targeting reticle. Using Machine Guns costs a small amount of money.
Triangle button ---- Used for targeting. On the novice targeting mode, I THINK you press it once to target the highest priority target, and again to get the next priority target. I went straight to expert targeting, cause I like to be in control of this stuff, heh. On expert, you use it to switch between squadron members or different parts on a capital ship (cannons, engines, etc.). If you press the button while your crosshairs are over an enemy, you will target them. If you press and hold the button, you will switch to Tail View, where your camera will follow your tail. VERY USEFUL for certain parts of the game. Instead of cycling through the targets for the enemy you're looking for, just switch to tail and look for them.
R1 button ---- Special move. This is different for everyone. It is explained in the Characters section.
R2 button ---- Cycles through squad leaders and capital ships in expert targeting mode.
L1 button ---- Cycles through special weapons. Each character carries different special weapons. Special Weapons are described under Characters and Junk.
Control Pad ---- Moves fighter around. If using normal controls, your up key will be up and down will be down. If using reversed, up will dive, and down will climb. Tapping any way twice does a barrel roll.
Left Control Stick ---- Same as the control pad, but not the barrel roll part. Instead, the barrel roll is done with...
L3 button ---- ...this button. By pressing down (toward the controller) on the left control stick, you hit the L3 button. By sharply pressing a direction on the control stick and pressing L3, you barrel roll, or by holding L3 and sharply pressing a direction. I prefer the latter.
Select button ---- Skips instructions or cutscenes.
Start button ---- Pauses game.
The right control stick, R3, and L2 buttons are not used, at least in Novice mode.
=========Expert Controls=========
All the expert controls are the same as the novice ones, except for the following buttons.
R1 button ---- Adjusts your yaw further right. Basically this means that the nose of your Skygunner moves to the right.
L1 button ---- Adjusts your yaw further left. Just like R1, this means that the nose of your Skygunner moves to the left.
L2 button ---- Cycles optional weapon.
Control pad, left analog stick ---- the climb and dive is the same as before, as is the barrel roll. Left and Right, however, makes you roll. By pushing left, your left wing points more down, and your right wing points more up, vice versa with right.
L1 + R1 ---- When both pressed together, this activates your special maneuver.
This should help you with most of the maneuvers in Skygunner, but I suggest the training mode, it's the best way to learn, IMO.
=========On the Subject of Bonus Money=========
I like it, you like it, it's just good stuff. Bonus money makes the world go round, and here's the tricks.
First: The bonus multiplier. That thing in the upper left hand corner that says x2 or x3 (or x13 if you're good). Every time you kill more than one enemy with the same shot (I. E., fireworks, chain reaction), the bonus multiplier takes whatever you would have earned and multiplies it (by x2, x3, or x13 if you're good :D). Tasty.
Second: You may ask how to increase your bonus multiplier. This is how its done. See that little counter below the multiplier (it might be at 0 if you're at x1...)? The higher IT is, the higher your multiplier. If it's above 0, your multiplier is two. If it's above ten, your multiplier is three. If its above twenty, the multiplier is four. Get the picture? You add time to your bonus counter by simply destroying enemies. The faster you destroy them, the faster the time accumulates. Once the multiplier is big, launch fireworks missiles at some big ship and remove many cannons at once. BIG MONEY.
Third: Evasive maneuvers. I cannot stress this enough. If you lose your balance, you lose lots of money. So either get good at button pushing, or take this advice: Learn to barrel roll, stay out of major fire zones, and learn to watch and anticipate enemy fire. Barrel rolling makes you invincible every time you do it, and keeps you on relatively the same course. Staying out of major fire zones is just common sense. For instance, if you spend a lot of time in between the engines of the Grandir (above the lightning generator), you're gonna get fried. Anticipation, however, binds these three. By watching enemy fire, you know WHEN to barrel roll. You know WHEN to avert your attention to flying a different direction. The easiest way to anticipate is to watch for funny messages like "attack gunners!" and stuff. Next, look for a pattern of where your enemy is aiming. And the hardest, but most effective, is to simply dodge out of the way when you see an enemy bullet aiming at you.
Fourth: Ammo. Less machine guns/optional weapons fired equals more money.
Finally: Follow your objectives, and do it fast. The faster you do it, the higher your bonus counter (unless its something like the Grandir and you want to get enough money before destroying it...). Also, the better chance you have of mooching off someone else's objectives. You get bonuses for completing objectives... and the more bonuses you get, the higher your "performance evaluation" at the end of the game.
Characters and Junk
---------------------
=========Good=========
Femme ---- A Gunner new to Rive, good friends with police chief Hardi. She pilots a ship named Branché, manufactured by Horloger. Good turning and banking ability and doesn't lose her balance as easily. A very good beginning craft, plus, she stands on Branché instead of sitting, how cool is that?
Special maneuver ---- Active turn. Immediately turns to face the enemy. Very very very very useful, you can take a second pass at a ground- or warship-based enemy almost immediately, or when you're attacking pistons on the Squellette, you defeat one, you can use this and nail the other one so fast... and it doesn't overheat the engine as much as other special maneuvers.
Ciel ---- An ace Gunner, basically the main character to this game. He pilots the Avenir, manufactured by Artisan. He takes out capital ships better than Femme, but can't turn as well. Play Ciel's mission once through and you get the hang of Skygunner about halfway.
Special maneuver ---- Air brakes. The game makes this trick out to be good for dodging stuff, but its only good for one thing. HEAVY FIRE! Which, even though I capitalzed it, isn't too helpful. By using your machine guns while air braking, two things happen. Your machine guns blast.. well... heavy fire on the enemy, and you lose money like there's no tomorrow. It's very good for taking out capital ships, but since it's so hard to aim in the beginning, and doesn't last too long, it's not nearly as useful as Active turn. Still, sometimes there are enemies where nothing but a good dose of Heavy fire will suffice.
Copain ---- Another ace Gunner whose abilities rival (and in my opinion, surpass) those of Ciel. My favorite fighter, cause the blue color is pretty smooth, and two propellers placed where they are is just plain awesome. Very fast, very very very good for taking out squadrons of fighters and capital ships alike. His ship (the Chevalier, by Associé) carries the standard Fireworks and Dog missiles, but also the Pumpkin bomb, making the Chevalier a very formidable foe. If that's not enough to make you jump out of whatever you're flying and into this ship, check this out:
Special maneuver ---- Vortex. It's like a barrel roll, basically, but takes longer. Whats that you say? Doesn't sound as good as I said? Well, thats cause I forgot to mention that any enemy that gets sucked into the vortex is either instantly destroyed or severely damaged. Think about it this way. Some CAPITAL SHIPS can be destroyed by a single vortex, if you crash into them at top speed. Enemy squadrons don't stand a chance. It has a range comparable to four Fireworks missiles launched at once, I may be exaggerating, but only slightly. This is your main money maker. As a BEGINNER, I managed to be 3 million... uh... whatevers... ahead of Ciel, and I can't even remember how far ahead of Femme.
Hardi ---- The chief of police. Good friends with Femme, has a little girl, but devotes lots of time to work trying to catch Ventre. He flies the Courage... I think it's by some company called Dur. Anyway, the cool thing aboug Hardi is that he flies with his whole police force. Instead of having a special move, or even an optional weapon, he can order his force around. His fighter is durable enough that you basically don't need evasive maneuvers (well... maybe one or two), but it moves like a sleepy slug. He can't be used in training or story mode.
Special maneuver ---- Hardi doesn't have a special maneuver, or optional weapons. Instead, he can order his police force to three different formations using the optional weapons system. The formation you see in story mode (if you see him at all) is Rank. His wingmen line up and fire their machine guns perpetually. The next formation is Free. The wingmen fan out and blast whatever they feel like. Good for taking on Rival in the Survival mode. The final formation is Form. Probably the most versatile one, Form makes all the wingmen come together in a square formation around Hardi, and they fire their guns at Hardi's cursor. This is my favorite, and can be used for about anything. It makes short work of any and all enemies, as long as your aim is good. Townships, Battleships, fighters, Rival, nothing stands a chance. DISCLAIMER!: These formations are pretty smooth, but every time you use one, the temperature gauge goes up ALL THE WAY! This means you cannot boost, or change formation. Your wingmen only stay in formation as long as your temperature gauge is up, sometimes they go out of formation early, too.
=========Bad and Ugly=========
Rival ---- I'm not really sure if Rival is BAD... but he duels Ciel twice. He is on his own mission for someone else. He also looks a little girlish... But his fighter is loads of fun to fly. The Fantôme, by Artisan, is like the Avenir (Ciel's Skygunner), but with less disadvantages. First of all, it seems to turn better, it's much faster (faster than Copains?), but the best thing about the Fantôme is its incredible machine gun. First of all, it's purple, which is cool, and it's FAST! And with speed comes strength in this case. The crosshair is really really accurate, which makes it somewhat harder to aim, but it more than makes up for that with its power! The Fantôme also carries Bat missiles, which are like normal air-air or air-ground missiles, and are exceptionally powerful. The best dogfighting missile (for real dogfights, not these wussy normal enemies).
Special maneuver ---- Air Brakes. The same as Ciels, Heavy fire and everything. Practically worthless with him, as there are no capital ships in his game.
Ventre ---- A big fat antagonist. Ventre is a criminal genius who enjoys music, though he hasn't been heard of for some time.
Poulets ---- Ventre's assistants. Small, in large numbers, and very very persistent.
=========Objects=========
Eternal Engine ---- The object of Ventre's eye (aside from all the other artsy stuff that he goes after) in this story, an engine that can run forever with no outward force.
Machine Soldier ---- A... well... a machine soldier. Very big, compared to a human, but small compared to the airships in this game. Very annoying at the end. Ventre steals it in the beginning and it makes a few appearances in the game, most of them incredibly annoying for beginners.
Astronomical telescope ---- A telescope that can see into outer space. Ventre tries to steal it with the machine soldier.
Fireworks missiles ---- The most oft-used of all missiles. This (alongside Copain's vortex) is an excellent moneymaker. It creates a very large explosion, larger with every missile locked onto the enemy, that will destroy nearby enemies. Fireworks missiles are purple on the optional weapon selection thingummy.
My strategy ---- Pick an enemy in the middle, lock, and shoot. When fighting capital ships, cripple them and make loads of money by sweeping your crosshairs over the ship and firing in different areas. The cumulative explosions will take out most guns (usually weaker ones that shoot rapidly) and sometimes even nearby enemies... coupled with the damage it does to the hull of the ship.
Dog missiles ---- Basically the most pointless of missiles, immobilizes the enemy SLIGHTLY. However, a pointless missile wouldn't have a place in this game, would it? No, there are certain enemies (cannons that always face you so you can't hit their vulnerable backside) that literally HAVE to have a dog missile or three blasted at them. Dog missiles are red on the optional weapon selection thingummy.
My strategy ---- These make some money, actually... wanna know how? At the end of every mission, you get money for how many missiles you DIDN'T use. And, for killing certain enemies, you get certain missiles. Basically, since I don't use dog missiles except for on the occasions where they're needed to win (like the cannon), I always have a lot of them at the end, and since I get more by killing enemies... well, the more I have over 20, the more money I get!
Cross missiles ---- You shoot them, and little crosses attach to the enemy. You lock on three on the same enemy, and a big cross attaches to the enemy. By shooting these crosses, they detonate... along with a lot of the enemies health. These are very powerful, but anti-capital ship. It would be kind of pointless to put three crosses on a weak flying enemy and machine gun them... when you could have just machine gunned the enemy down?
My strategy ---- Well, like I said, anti capital ship. Blast one at the capital ship, follow it in, and machine gun it to detonate.
Pumpkin Bombs ---- Copain Only. Not missiles... bombs. They look like little pumpkins, and do incredible amounts of damage... sometimes, however, the computer doesn't register the hit, or the bombs don't explode.
My strategy ---- If you've thought about using these on enemy fighters, slap yourself. These are anti-capital ship weapons. Basically, when Copain's Vortex won't do the trick, pop some pumpkin bombs at the enemy. Be very CLOSE to your target, and try to lock on four, that's usually enough to blow up about anything. Top speed helps, mainly to evade enemy fire while flying in close.
Bat missiles ---- Rival Only. These missiles look like little bats, and fly at the enemy, wait for a bit behind the enemy, then ram the enemy, exploding in the process. You'll use these against Ciel, and thats about all they're good against, they're worthless against the machine soldier.
My strategy ---- Firstly, getting a lock of 4 helps... and though you don't need to, I usually get in very close to the enemy before or AFTER firing them. Why? The only enemy I'll use them against is Ciel... and he slows down if you're too close, allowing the bat missiles to do their job. Otherwise, he simply flies at top speed until the missiles detonate on their own. To dodge these missiles (when playing as Ciel), take a page out of Ciel's book and fly at top speed. Barrel rolling at the last second seems to work, too.
=========Ventre's ships=========
These are in order of their appearance. They are described first by name, then class, the description, then the OFFICIAL description, the weak point, and finally the threat class (going from F to A, F being weakest, A being strongest). The Threat of a ship will be classed not on a beginner's skill, but on an intermediate gunners, because you won't be a beginner for long...
An "A" threat class doesn't mean "really really hard" it just means one of the tougher enemies in the game... after a while, the enemies are actually ALL very easy.
Name: Premier
Class: Petit Fighter
Description: Small, one man (one Poulet?) fighter. Very, very numerous, very very weak. They look like little butterflies... They come in squads, so locking onto the squad leader with a few fireworks missiles equals a chunk of change. The squad leader is often a tad stronger than the rest, and looks different.
Official description: Basic fighter for Ventre's forces. These fighters have four different variations.
Weak point: The whole thing is weak. Fire and forget (not like the missile, like shoot it and go away, rest assured it's dead).
Threat Class: F
Name: Stable
Class: Veteran Warship
Description: These warships were built half a century ago... They're about as strong as you'd expect for a fifty year old warship. They have the shape of an old DW Albatross... roughly. Numerous guns, but no real threat.
Official description: A veteran aircraft constructed half a century ago. It would make a marvellous museum piece.
Weak point: The weak points on a Stable are the sails (just beneath the black wings), the top bridge (between the black wings, a chain gun is mounted on it), and the bottom bridge (about everything below the tail). My favorite strategy for removing Stables is to attack from the top (a blind spot except for the chain gun) and blast at the bridge. You will eventually remove the chain gun, and then it will be truly blind. If you want to destroy it with Copain's Vortex, aim for the joints of the sails and the main body, and crash right into it at top speed (using the vortex, of course).
Threat Class: F-E
Name: Tow Cannon
Class: Cannon
Description: A cannon with a shield-looking thing on the back and a cannon on the front, mounted upon a tow chain. Six of these attach to the Merveilleux. They're very predictable, simply roll when they blast at you, or shoot the bullets.
Official description: NA
Weak Point: It's all weak, including the shield. Attack from the side, cause then only three can point at you (two if you attack from the narrow side) but beware when disengaging that the others don't blast you.
Threat Class: F as one, but since they're six, E.
Name: Gauche, Droite
Class: Townships
Description: One is red, the other is blue... I don't know which is which, so I put them under the same name. They have numerous cannons, Machine guns, wingbomb launchers, and are relatively large... But they can still turn very quickly!
Official description: These red and blue airships have appeared, designated the Merveilleux as their target.
Weak Point: Engine room... unfortunately, the engine room is covered by a shield bearing four cannons. Destroy one of these cannons, and it will take out the other three. Then, detonate cross missiles (or use pumpkin bombs) against the shield, and without the shield, that big coil-lookin thing in the engine room is helpless. Blow it to bits.
Threat Class: C
Name: Wingbomb
Class: Flying bomb
Description: Looks like a bullet facing downward that sprouts wings after it is shot out of the launcher. It will try to ram you and detonate.
Official description: This bomb can remain in free fall for an extended period of time. Its performance increases when it is charged with lightning.
Weak Point: It's weak, just shoot it.
Threat Class: D
Name: Baleine
Class: Aerial Battle Ark with Long Range Cannon
Description: A big ship... actually it kind of resembles a whale. It has a huge cannon on the front which will blast down cargo planes in an instant. It takes a little while to load, however. It also has the standard machine guns on either side and a few normal cannons.
Official description: This gigantic aircraft, named after a baleen whale, is equipped with long range artillery.
Weak Point: The very bottom, where the hull is white. The yellow part also registers damage, but is basically a very strong shield, don't waste time or bullets. You're better off attacking from the side, so you're not in the way of all six machine guns.
Threat Class: To gunners: D. To Cargo planes: A (:P)
Name: Missile pods
Class: Poulet Transport Device
Description: They LOOK like missiles... but they actually contain Poulets that will spring from the pod and attack whatever their target is. Supposedly very cushy inside.
Official description: Operated by a Poulet commander, a missile pod can carry a maximum of 6 Poulets and is quite comfortable on the inside, despite its outside appearance.
Weak Point: The whole pod is weak, just blast it. If the Poulets reach their target, pop off a couple dog missiles to stop them.
Threat Class: To gunners: F. To the mission: B
Name: Unknown
Class: Aerial Battle Ark
Description: Looks like a Baleine without the Long Range Cannon, and besides, it's blue (yellow on the last scene). It has a little more firepower in exchange for the LR cannon.
Official description: NA
Weak Point: The underside, where it is white, and the blue-purple stuff, but not the propellors, that will just blow THEM up.
Threat Class: E
Name: Grandir
Class: Battle Zeppelin
Description: A large ship held up by two gunnels: both consisting of four engines altogether. Loads of firepower, Machine guns coming out the wazoo and cannons up the yin-yang. Wingbomb launchers, too.
Official description: Ventre has already informed the Poulets of the weak points, the four engines, of this slow moving aerial battleship.
Weak Point: The four engines on the gunnels. Don't hit the crossbeams in front of the engines, hit the fiery part. Watch out for the cannon mounted just above each engine.
Threat Class: B
Name: Lightning Generator
Class: Lightning Generator
Description: A generator that makes ominous clouds and powers wingbombs, encased in bulletproof glass.
Official description: NA
Weak Point: See the row of machine guns on either side? Pick a side, and blast the far gun on that side. You'll get a chain reaction toward the generator, hurting it. Keep it up.
Threat Class: Directly: F(it doesn't shoot). Indirectly: A(Wingbombs, reduced vision).
Name: Lightning Powered Wingbombs
Class: Flying Bombs with Lightning Boost
Description: These look like normal wingbombs with purple halos. They are much faster and much more annoying.
Official description: This bomb can remain in free fall for an extended period of time. Its performance increases when it is charged with lightning.
Weak Point: Same as before... it takes more hits this time, though.
Threat Class: A (Not that annoying... but probably the most annoying in the game).
Name: Progrés
Class: Fighter
Description: A small fighter, an upgrade of the Premier. It can take more hits, and has both a machine gun and this gun that shoots annoying balls of yellow energy... watch that one, it's worst.
Official description: A remodeled version of the Premier, which, despite its appearance, does not have drastically improved performance.
Weak Point: Same as the Premier, so just shoot it and it's gone.
Threat Class: C in large numbers, E in a squad or less.
Name: Dernier
Class: Fish Formation
Description: A Dernier is actually a formation, but only one ship type does it, so I'll call that ship a Dernier. It can take about three hits, but if it's in FORMATION, the only Dernier that will accept hits is the squadron leader.
Official description: Aim for the commander. By doing so, this special fish force can be dispersed.
Weak Point: It's all weak, unless it's in formation. When in formation, aim for the squadron leader. Once he is defeated, the others will scatter, and they will take hits. When in formation, a Dernier will simply barrel roll and avoid hits.
Threat Class: B
Name: Dorado
Class: Heavily Armed Floating Battleship
Description: A big fat red battleship with four huge gun barrels on the top, and platforms of machine guns on either side, and the bottom. Behind it is a HUGE cannon that seems to fire colored rags...
Official description: This battleship is still under construction. It's been sleeping in a factory in Plage.
Weak Point: It's blind spot is right in front of it, but you're better off shooting three fireworks missiles in different places. These will destroy (or at least weaken) the three platforms on the Dorado, which will create another blind spot. Do not attack from the side or the bottom unless you've destroyed the concerned platforms.
Threat Class: A
Name: Ground Cannon
Class: Cannon
Description: The weakest cannon you can find, but it usually comes with a few more.
Official description: NA
Weak Point: It's all weak, simply destroy it with your machine guns.
Threat Class: D
Name: Shielded Cannon
Class: Cannon
Description: A cannon that is shielded in the front, and can only be hurt in the back. It will try to track you, making a back attack very difficult.
Official description: NA
Weak Point: The back. To get at the back, Fire some Dog missiles at it. Once the missiles take effect, the cannon will stop swiveling, so make sure you're not above the cannon (or else it's back will be to the ground, and hard to hit).
Threat Class: B
Name: Titanium Cannon
Class: Cannon
Description: As Copain suggests, this cannon is probably made out of Titanium. It CANNOT be hurt by conventional weaponry.
Official description: NA
Weak Point: None. This cannon can only be destroyed by a chain reaction. When a group of Ground Tanks come up to it... chain reaction!
Threat Class: A
Name: Ground Tank
Class: Tank
Description: A one-Poulet tank that fires shells (not machine gun bullets). Usually in large numbers. Very good for chain reactions.
Official description: NA
Weak Point: It's all weak, destroy it.
Threat Class: D
Name: Skimship
Class: Watergoing ship
Description: A boat with a machine gun. Usually appears in numbers.
Official description: NA
Weak Point: All of it. Machine guns do the trick.
Threat Class: C
Name: Squellette
Class: Walking Tank
Description: It looks like a four-legged spider. It has guns coming out the yin-yang, so watch it.
Official description: A walking tank produced by the Associé company, it was specially designed with the characteristics of a spider and is the prototype for the machine soldier.
Weak Point: The control tower, the pistons, and the three engine caps. To destroy the control tower, either use cross missiles or your machine gun, or use a chain reaction with the guns on the four sides of it. To destroy the pistons, machine gun them. To destroy the three engine caps, either machine gun them or pump a Cross missile into them.
Threat Class: A
Name: Grand Magasin
Class: Floating Fortress
Description: This is one HUGE warship. It is bristling with cannons and explosives that couldn't hit the broad side of a gunner's wings, has full complements of Premiers, Progréses, Ground Tanks, and some capital ships like Dorados and Unknowns.
Official description: This enormous battleship spans 2 km in length. Is it true that the entire town of Rive could be purchased with the budget for its construction?
Weak Point: Hah! There are so blooming many... Steel tethers, I'd say. Use chain reactions, that will do the trick.
Threat Class: B
Name: Tether Repair Cannon
Class: Tether Repair Cannon
Description: Hoo boy... a wheel with an arm that fixes tethers, and has a huge four barrel machine gun on it.
Official description: Although the museum is being held by 8 steel tethers, its best to destroy the cannon guarding them first.
Weak Point: It's all weak, but only from Cross missiles.
Threat Class: F
Name: Machine Soldier
Class: Vanqueur "Fidele"
Description: This is a... machine... soldier. How else can I say it?
Official description: This machine soldier is manufactured by the Associé company. The company's scheduled exhibition was canceled because the machine soldier was stolen three months ago.
Weak point: It doesn't have one... instead, just vortex it and it will fall off the Merveilleux.
Threat Class: F
Name: Machine Soldier
Class: Vanqueur "Sage"
Description: A machine soldier with shields over the weak points. It will throw things at you, and if you're not careful it will grab YOU and throw YOU.
Official description: The company that produces this machine claims that it was not intended for military purposes, however, it's being used to steal an astronomical telescope.
Weak point: Its shoulders. However, the shoulder joints have shields on them. You must remove the shields, either by tactical weapons (temporary) or by Cross missiles (permanent), then destroy the shoulder joints with Cross missiles or machine guns.
Threat Class: C
Name: Machine Soldier
Class: Vanqueur "Garde"
Description: A machine soldier utilizing the Eternal Engine, and gold plated. It gets angry easily. As in six cross missiles make it angry. It starts with a lance that fires machine guns, then eventually drops the lance and fires from a mounted gun, throws tanks, throws propellors, fires cone missiles, deploys automated machine guns, and... I think that's about it?
Official description: This machine soldier has been remodeled to eliminate any weaknesses. Even its armor seems to shine brighter. Who will emerge victorious in the next confrontation?
Weak Point: At first, it's all weak, but only from six cross missiles detonated at once, when it isn't moving. Copain stops the soldier with four pumpkin bombs, while Ciel and Femme throw six cross missiles at it and detonate them all at once. It takes work. After that, its helmet opens, and you can see the eternal engine. Hit that with either machine guns, pumpkin bombs, or cross missiles. When you destroy it... you didn't really destroy it, it just regenerates and you have to do it one more time, but this time with the annoying attacks.
Threat Class: A
Name: Ventre's Battleship
Class: Modified Baleine
Description: It's an unknown, just red and swarming with Poulets. For a little cash, blast some fighters down with it.
Official description: Specially constructed to meet Ventre's specifications, no expense was spared on this ship's remodeling. Well, it is for the final battle!
Weak Point: The underside where it is white, and the red stuff, but thats not too weak.
Threat Class: E
Name: Exocet
Class: Watercraft
Description: Comes in three flavors, Gold, Red, and Blue. It's like a big, mechanical snake, and with each one you destroy, another stronger one takes its place. If the front of it gets too damaged, it will submerge and repair.
Official description: Designed by the Plage company, this craft shares many characteristics with the local acquatic life. Ventre has added his own touches.
Weak Point: All the little poulet-carrier dealies are very weak and die quickly, but to destroy the Exocet you need to destroy the fronternmost one. The one that isn't so weak.
Threat Class: A
Thanks to Spark Pristine for the official descriptions. There were MORE descriptions, but I don't have those ships listed.
~~~Disclaimer~~~
The Cannons, Skimship, and Ground tanks are all names that I made up, They aren't the real names. However, I don't HAVE the real names, so thats the best I could do.
Walkthrough
--------------
The Walkthrough is set up in three parts. Preparation, Action, and Aftermath. Preparation has the enemies you will meet, and the Threat Class of the level. Action gives you a blow-by-blow (for the most part, as accurate as I can come) of the level. Aftermath has the prize money bonuses you can earn from the level.
=========Ciel=========
~~~Scene 1~~~
Preparation:
Enemies: Loads of Premiers: Petit Fighters
Two Stables: Veteran Warships
Six Tow Cannons
Gauche: Township
Droite: Township
Wingbombs
Threat Class: C for beginners, E otherwise
Action:
Scene one is... well, the first scene of the game. Ventre makes his appearance. He is trying to capture the Merveilleux, and already has Petit fighters and two Stables deployed.
The first task is to remove the fighters. They will stay in formation until the squad leader is deployed, so aim for outer wingmen in the formation. You will need little to no evasive maneuvering here, it's easy enough. If you want to make a good chunk of prize money, be speedy in destroying enemies, and lock 3 fireworks missiles onto a few squad leaders. Be sure your fireworks do not go below 20, unless you don't care about losing the prize money.
Ciel and Copain then recieve a call from the Merveilleux. The female gunner, Femme, wants to get out there and help fight. Well, the more the merrier (though not in this case, she'll just take down enemies and get prize money for herself! oh well, you gotta do what you gotta do), but she can't launch with the fighters outside the hangar. Of course, she doesn't mean FIGHTERS, she means WARSHIPS. There is one Stable outside the hangar, and one behind the Merveilleux. Remove both. Attack from the top, it's the weakest point (see Ventre's Ships). Afterwards, go on destroying fighters until Femme gets out of the hangar. (Note: if you take too long in destroying the Stables, Femme will begin to break through anyway, and I need to see if she ever gets through with the Stables still in place.)
After blasting the Stables into oblivion (and more fighters, if you were fast enough), Femme will make her debut... and so will Hardi and the police force. So, if you see yellow biplanes flying in formation, shooting inaccurately at enemies, don't be alarmed. Ventre will call in two huge warships, Townships, Gauche and Droite. They will then fire six tow cannons at the Merveilleux. These tow cannons have shields in the back, but are still very vulnerable anywhere. That includes the shield. Attack from the side, so that only two or three can fire at you. Watch it when you disengage that another cannon isn't ready to bust you up.
With the tow cannons destroyed, the Merveilleux is finally out of danger, but we must still wreak havoc upon the town of Rive by way of falling airships and Poulets (which means we have to destroy these townships). Ciel and Femme are to take out the red one. The weak point is the engine room shield (shown in the cutscene) at the back of the ship. Actually, it's not very weak... in fact, you need two full sized cross missiles to remove it for good. But, before you do that, take out the cannons on top of the shield. It wouldn't do to waste cross missiles on them, would it? Plus, they're kind of annoying.
With the engine shield gone, the engine room is open. Before those colored propellors go down, attack them FROM THE SIDE. If done correctly, they will do a chain reaction and BIG DAMAGE to the engine room. After that (or if you're too late), aim for the big coil looking thing (There is also a cannon on the bridge which might test your patience... if Femme doesn't hit it, and it bothers you, destroy it). With the destruction of the coil thing comes the end of the red township's reign of terror.
If Copain hasn't already taken it out, you can go after the blue township now, the same way you've gone for the red (but I'll bet dollars to donuts he already destroyed the cannons atop the engine shield, don't worry about those).
With the destruction of the Townships comes your first victory (or large loss, if you're in debt with the prize money :P).
Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing stage: 50,000
Prize money for event bonuses:
Save Femme: 200,000: to get this bonus, destroy the Stables in time.
Normal Prize money for Optional weapon, enemies shot down, and battle money.
~~~Scene 2~~~
Preparation:
Enemies: Loads of Premiers: Petit Fighters
25 Missile Pods
One Baleine: Aerial Battle Ark with Long Range Cannon
13 Stables: Veteran Warships (You'll deal with 10 of them)
Unlimited Unkowns
One Grandir: Battle Zeppelin
Wingbombs & Lightning Powered Wingbombs
Threat Class: B for beginners, E for intermediate, A if you want that freaking engine!
Action:
Scene two focuses on an escort mission, with the three gunners escorting fifteen cargo planes from Associé. Later, they set a trap for Ventre.
Your first task is to destroy the fighters. It is ESSENTIAL that you do not use any fireworks missiles, as they will prove EXCEPTIONALLY valuable later in the mission. Just try to blast enemies as fast as possible. When the guy from Associé says "Gulp! We're done for! My precious cargo is doomed!" thats your cue to finish the enemy you're working on, and cycle through targets until you find a HUGE swarm. Splurge and use about three fireworks missiles on the middle, and mop the rest up. Don't use more than three, unless you're seriously in jeopardy of losing the last cargo ship or something like that.
After torching all the initial fighters, the Baleine will make its debut by firing its monster cannon at a cargo ship, and missile pods will fly toward the convoy. As you fly toward the Baleine, give Femme a hand by taking potshots at the nearby fighters (if you do well, you get 5 cross missiles per squad leader!). Stables will eventually appear, but you won't know about it, it will be Femme's job to clean them up. Destroy the Baleine as fast as possible, and attack from the side. If you attack from the bottom, you don't have to be as accurate, but all six machine guns (and then some) can see you... and shoot at you. The best way to get rid of the Baleine, and I hate to say it cause it SAPS money really fast (but with a little luck you should have a little over 300,000 in cash by now), is to use Heavy Fire when you get a clear shot. Cross missiles work as well... but if you use Heavy Fire efficiently, it's faster and costs less than if you go under 20 Cross Missiles. Besides, the money you would lose from losing cargo ships is a lot worse than the cash you'd lose from Heavy Fire. If you can find a better way, E-MAIL ME!
NOTE: Good ol’ Thomas Stacey has some stage 2 hints just for you at the bottom of the walkthrough. Check them out!
The next task concerns you, three minutes, and ten Stables. It is EXCEPTIONALLY difficult to destroy all these without using Heavy Fire and without going under 20 cross missiles, so you'll have to choose one, cause the bonus for blowing these up is... substantial. Machine guns make some speedy work of these, but not as fast as an ACCURATE fully charged cross missile, or as fast as Heavy Fire. As usual, attack from the top, and if your targeting finger is fast enough and can stop on a dime... attack the fleet from the top Stable down.
With the decimation of the fleeing Stables (or if they got away), ends the first part of Scene 2. The second part is the trap the gunners lay for Ventre. As they reach the lighthouse, however, they begin to realize that they may be in for a bit more than expected...
The Grandir flies out of the clouds, along with dozens of squads of Petit fighters and Unknowns. Now, as you already know, the gunner with the most prize money from THIS PART OF THE BATTLE gets a new engine. The best way to make cash is to destroy enemies VERY VERY QUICKLY! This will multiply the prize money you get per enemy destroyed. Also, if you lose your balance, you're practically screwed. In addition to these two, the fastest money maker is the Unknowns. Keep your eye on the targeter, cause the other two gunners know this. When you see one appear, SWITCH TO IT! Once you have it in your sights, speed up, the other gunners are close behind. Use fireworks missiles (either all in one place or in three different places) to remove as many cannons as possible, this will get you tons of cash. The best place for fireworks missiles is on the bow or stern (front or back). After this, destroy it so another one can take its place.
After a time, the Grandir will deploy its Lightning Generator. It is bulletproof, and charges wingbombs... watch your back. The best way to destroy this thing (though you'll have to sacrifice the prize money hunt) is as follows: See the rows of guns on either side of the generator? Pick one row and pick the gun in that row FARTHEST from the generator. Blow it up, but not the other one. The chain reaction is worth a little money, and hurts the generator. You can also let your wingmen pop the generator, but keep an eye on your fuel gauge... sometimes they forget.
If you've given up on the engine, are low on fuel, or are in first place with prize money, lets begin on destroying the Grandir. First of all, pick one of the four engines. The engines each have a cannon mounted above it, and crossbeams in front of it. You have to shoot around the crossbeams into the engine, while dodging enemy fire and wingbombs. Machine guns will do it, Cross missiles if you're having trouble. Blow up all four and the Grandir is done for.
Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing the stage: 100,000
A new engine for whoever was in first place Prize money wise.
Prize money for event bonuses:
Cargo Planes shot down: negative 50,000 per plane
Defeat all Stables: 400,000
Destroy Lightning Generator: 400,000
Normal prize money for Optional weapon, enemies shot down, and battle money.
~~~Scene 3~~~
Preparation:
Enemies: Six Progrés', for cutscene purposes.
Rival
Threat Class: F
Action:
After a short cutscene showing Ciel blasting some Progrés' into oblivion, the first duel of the game begins. Your task? To defeat Rival within five minutes. He may look intimidating (actually he doesn't...) but he's very easy to defeat. I've found two ways to defeat him: firstly, dog missiles. Pop three dog missiles into him and machine gun him down. But the FASTER way of doing it, I found by accident. Just equip Cross missiles instead of Dog missiles. Of course, this takes up more MONEY in the end... but it helps (either use a fully charged one or not... I used 2 normal ones and finished him with my machine guns). Note that if you crash three times, you lose, or if you fail to defeat him within the time limit.
Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing the stage: 150,000
Prize money for event bonuses:
Drastically damage Rival: 1,500,000
Normal prize money for Optional weapon, enemies shot down, and battle money.
~~~Scene 4~~~
Preparation:
Enemies: Enemies in Dernier (loads)
Progrés: Fighter (loads)
Two Dorados
Missile Pods (loads)
Cannons (all three kinds)
Skimships (unlimited)
Ground Tanks (unlimited)
1 Squellette: Walking Tank
Threat Class: A
Action:
Welcome to Ventre's hideout! As you fly in, please hear the message from our leader, notice the Police Planes taking formation behind you, the armored car getting ready to storm the castle, and the Dernier, the finest fish formation ever put together.
Your first task? To take apart that formation. All the fighters will barrel roll and avoid fire except for the commander. Put three fireworks missiles into him. That takes out him and usually a WHOLE LOT of enemies when they're done barrel rolling. Mop these fighters up. If a group of fighters is alone for a while, they will regain formation (they'll all be in line) and you'll have to shoot the leader of THAT formation. Happy hunting!
Your next task? Two Dorados pop out and fire at your team. Luckily, you all dodge. Ciel offers to take out BOTH of them while the other two go their separate ways. To destroy a Dorado, hit the white part beneath it, but don't mistake the gun platform under it for the white part. This thing is LOADED with firepower, and that firepower is getting in the WAY of the white part. So, lets cripple it a little. Put three fireworks missiles into different places on the Dorado, and then finish the three platforms of guns (or just two, depending on how well your evasive maneuvers are). If you're too lazy to do this (like me my first time...) there's a blind spot on the front of the Dorado. Well, it's blind for the most part, you might get a few stray bullets. Practice the barrel rolls! If you finish off both Dorados within the time limit, start blasting other enemies for money.
A squad of Progrés' has flown a little ways away from the castle and spotted Hardi in the armored car. He has to make a run for it toward the castle, so protect him. The bridge starts falling apart beneath him, however, and he'll have to go full speed to keep away from it. What does Ventre use to slow down or destroy somethings engine? Why, a missle pod full of Poulets, of course. As if on cue, missile pods will start rocketing in for a chance at slowing down that armored car. They're in the water, and they come in groups. Since Ciel doesn't bank as easily as other players, you're going to want to meet them waaaaaaay before they reach the bridge. Fireworks missiles are friendly, but if you have the time, just put them away with machine guns.
If the armored car manages to make it to the castle, the final obstacle will appear. A Dorado will fly in and airdrop a Squellette right into the courtyard. The Squellette is mighty annoying, especially when it turns its attention to you instead of the car. Ground tanks will buzz around, as well, so don't get too careless. The Squellette has three weak points, and you need to destroy them all. Rather, three SETS of weak points. First of all, the easiest is the control tower. You COULD use conventional methods... but they're very slow in this case. Instead, shoot at the machine guns to make a chain reaction to hurt the control tower. Now that THATS done for... The Squellette may already be on the wall. In that case, blast at the four pistons which will be shown on your targeter (as urgent thingies). They're on the knees of the Squellette. Machine guns will do it well. Once the Squellette's pistons are destroyed, it will fall off the wall (unless it's on a corner, in which it will reach flat wall first, then fall). Use this opportunity to destroy the last set of weak points. Three Engine Room caps are on the underside of the Squellette. On the targeter, they're the row just below the control tower. Otherwise they just look like oil filters. Use machine guns or cross missiles to destroy them. Sometimes the game glitches up and after you destroy these you have to pop the pistons again before the Squellette explodes (granted, if you take too long to do any one of these, the Squellette will climb back onto the wall and you'll have to hit the pistons again anyway).
Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing the stage: 200,000
Prize money for event bonuses:
Police Planes defeated: Negative 150,000 per 1
Sink 2 Dorados: 1,000,000
Normal prize money for enemies shot down, Optional weapon, and battle money.
~~~Scene 5~~~
Preparation:
Enemies: Loads of Premiers
Loads of Progrés'
Loads of Derniers
Loads of Ground Tanks
One Dorado
Machine Soldier: Vanqueur "Garde"
Tether Repair Cannon (for Femme)
Rival
One Unknown
Grand Magasin
Grand Magasin (steel tethers)
Grand Magasin (control tower)
Grand Magasin (engine room, for Copain)
Machine Soldier with Eternal Engine: Vanqueur "Garde" utilizing Eternal Engine
Ventre's Battleship
Threat Class: A
Action:
Well, you've found Ventre's REAL hideout, and it's pretty smooth... A floating battleship, the Grand Magasin. He's managed to steal a whole museum, not to mention the Eternal Engine. You'd better do something about that.
Your first task is to clear out fighters so that Femme and the police can free the museum. Go ahead and blast out the enemies, try to keep your missiles above twenty, we don't wanna lose money... now try to hit them as they come out of the hangar, if your targeting reticle shoots to the other side of the ship... hit the target button again, and skip that target.
Eventually, a Dorado bearing the gold plated machine soldier will emerge, and your task will to be to destroy THAT. Forget the machine soldier (well, not COMPLETELY, as he's shooting that ungodly accurate machine gun at you...) and concentrate on the Dorado. You should remember how to destroy one, but if not, there are no blind spots thanks to the machine soldier. Pop a fireworks missile or three at the Dorado to take out the wings (it WILL take more than that to get them all), and finish it with machine guns in its sensitive underbelly. Don't mistake the lower gun platform for the underbelly. The red shield is invulnerable, so you GOTTA hit that underbelly. When Femme's risk meter is at 50%, the machine soldier will focus its attention elsewhere, take out the Dorado NOW!
When the Dorado is gone, shoot some more fighters till Femme frees the museum.
Once the police force takes the museum to a safe place, your next job is to... wait, is that a phantom? No, it's just the Fantôme (courtesy laughs accepted). Well, you know what that means. Take him out the same as last time, use dog missiles or cross missiles, see Scene 3 for a little more info. You have 3 minutes with which to do so.
Ok, now if you took too long with Rival, this step will be gone (or maybe its just cause the game glitches and skips this step). But you don't want to skip it, it gets you big money. If your bonus multiplier is high enough, you can get 200,000-300,000 in prize money PER TETHER. We're going to destroy steel tethers, by the way. They look like portholes with blue fire coming out of them. They also have a row of guns on each side... you know what that means! Blast the furthest gun on one side to do a chain reaction, then do the same on the other side to destroy the tether. If you were fast enough in destroying enemies, your bonus multiplier should get you a LOT of money. It's a little tough to target these things... all of them are on the same R2 target except for two, you have to scroll for them. There are 7 in all. Two are on the front section, one is just above the hangar, there is one on each side platform (toward the bottom of the Grand Magasin, they look like big rectangle-type gray boxes), and one on each side of the cabin (easier to get to after you finish off the side platforms, the very bottom of the now-diminished Grand Magasin). Try memorizing where these are, it will keep your bonus counter high and get you a LOAD of money (plus, then you can use tail view).
NOTE: A cool few pieces of information on making HUGE amounts of money and defeating Rival in the E-mail contribution area, courtesy of Jesse Jace Thomas and Thomas Stacey.
After breaking the Grand Magasin to pieces, Ciel's task will be to destroy the control tower. You'll have lots of fighters on your butt, but thats not your main worry. The fact that the control tower, and the surrounding guns (yes, all three columns) are bulletproof, now THATS something to worry about. You could try cross missiles on the control tower... but it isn't enough. You need a chain reaction. Which means you need to Cross missile the bottom gun in each row (two or three times) to make a chain reaction ALL the way up. It takes a few hits to destroy this tower.
If you destroy the control tower fast enough, you'll be able to give Copain a hand with the engine room. Don't even try, is my strategy for that, but if you must, use Cross missiles (but you should probably save THOSE for later).
After both the tower and the engine room have been destroyed, the machine soldier will attack YET AGAIN. How annoying it is. You must do an allied attack on it, and for beginners that is annoying like no other (once you get used to it {say, five or six times destroying it}, it's very easy). Copain gets the easy stuff, he simply bombs the machine soldier once. The next part takes some cooperation from Femme, and sometimes she doesn't. You have to put 6 Cross missiles into the soldier. DO NOT OVERHEAT! Put some time between each missile you fire at him. Once all six are in, you have to detonate them ALL at once. Make a note of where they all are and summon all your accuracy, cause if you didn't put each Cross missile in the same place, it's gonna be tough.
Good, those cross missiles opened its helmet.
Now you can SEE the Eternal Engine. Blow it up. It is susceptible to machine guns, but Cross missiles are easier. It still has that blooming machine gun... So watch it!
Ok, you've pumped Cross missile after Cross missile, plus some machine gun bullets into the machine soldier.
That only made it mad.
Now it's ready for action. It's dropped its lance, and is just firing wantonly. It will pick up Ground Tanks and throw them at you if you get too close. It will fire these weird cone missiles at you that WILL NOT GIVE UP! It will fire a ton of little machines to hover above it and shoot you, machines that cannot be destroyed. Toward the beginning, it will hurl two propellers at you (one at a time, but it is its most annoying attack), and the propellers will home in. They LITERALLY will not give up. You cannot keep outrunning them, you'll get hit or run out of fuel. The best tactic for taking out the propellers (and it's simple!) is to run straight into one, and barrel roll when you hit it. There, done and done. Now, with all these attacks, you ALSO have to hit the thing, and it keeps turning... a moving target, plus you have to worry about the fighters on your back and the ground tanks on the ship. Fun. Use Cross missiles or machine guns, whatever, just kill it. If you run out of Cross missiles, kill some ground tanks, they give you a lot. If you destroy the Machine Soldier WITHIN 3 MINUTES, you get to take a shot at Ventre's escaping battleship.
Ventre's escaping battleship is a red Unknown SWARMING with Poulets. You also have squads of fighters around you, but they seem to be ignoring you... Just destroy the battleship. Finally, it's over!
Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing the stage: 250,000
Prize money for event bonuses:
Destroy Ventre's battleship: 2,000,000
Drastically damage Rival: 1,500,000
Normal prize money for enemies shot down, Optional weapon, and battle money.
=========Femme=========
~~~Scene 1~~~
Preparation:
Enemies: Loads of Premiers: Petit Fighters
Two Stables: Veteran Warships (Ciel's problem)
Six Tow Cannons
Gauche: Township
Droite: Township
Wingbombs
Threat Class: F (Femme has it easy)
Action:
Femme and Chief Hardi begin on the Merveilleux, but find out very quickly that something is wrong. Ventre is trying to kidnap/steal the Merveilleux, and the Eternal Engine along with it. Luckily, the gunners Ciel and Copain have come to the rescue! Unluckily, since Femme is inside, she's not gonna get any money! We have to do something about THAT.
Femme calls the gunners outside the ship and asks to assist. After some nervous chatter, another voice comes on the phone and tells her it will be safe to get out of the hangar.
Now the game starts. At first, you're in the hangar and you are STUCK. You'll have to blast your way through the door with your machine guns. If this is the first character you've used, note that your machine guns cause your prize money to go down.
Once the hangar door has been blasted off, use the afterburner to fly out of the hangar. Then, use Active Turn (R1) to get into the heat of battle.
Ok, you're out. Start shooting down fighters, try to make more money than Ciel and Copain (granted that if this is your first time, you probably won't, but good luck!), and generally just clear the skies.
According to the little Poulet on the phone, the boss has no more planes.
Actually he does. Ventre calls out Gauche and Droite, twin townships, to capture the Merveilleux. They attach six tow chain cannons to the Merveilleux. Ciel and Copain are taking out the tow chain cannons, and it would be nice of you to destroy the enemy fighters. There's a nice bonus in it for you...
No more fighters? Well, if you destroyed them fast enough, help with the tow chain cannons. They have a shield on the back (but the shield does nothing, it's just there, and vulnerable), and fire slow cannonballs that you can actually shoot out of the air. I suggest flying in from the side, so only two or three can hit you at once. Watch it when you fly overhead to disengage, or just dive instead. Machine guns do the trick.
Ok, thats all done for, now Ventre wants Gauche and Droite to go after YOU. Well, actually just gunners in general. You don't have to worry about fighters this time, it seems like Hardi and the police force are going after them. Instead, you are charged with destroying the cannons on the red battleship. Well, select the battleship and (if you're using advanced targeting) use the triangle button to switch between cannon targets. Machine guns, fireworks missiles, use whatever you want to, just do some blowing up, you can get heavy cash from these. If you get real bored, go for some wingbombs. If Ciel is taking too long... give him a hand and stick a Cross missile in the engine shield (or pop the engine room a few shots).
With the red battleship gone, either the mission is over... or Copain isn't done with the blue one. Nobody will whine at you if you decide to go for cannons on the blue one instead of the engine room, certainly not me, cause it gives you good money. But if you're low on fuel, or just want the mission over, go ahead and destroy the engine room (two full Cross missiles to the engine room, destroy the propellors from the side for big damage/money, and finish the coil thing). Good, that a wrap!
Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing the stage: 50,000
Prize money for event bonuses:
Defeat the Townships' defense forces: 100,000
Normal prize money for enemies shot down, Optional weapon, and battle money.
~~~Scene 2~~~
Preparation:
Enemies: Premiers comin' out the wazoo
13 Stables (3 concern Femme)
25 Missile pods
Baleine
Grandir
Unknowns (unlimited)
More Premiers comin' out the wazoo
Threat Class: E (B if you want the engine)
Action:
You know how it goes... escorting Associé, get attacked by Ventre, defeat Ventre, soundly deliver a counterattack to Ventre... simple enough... OR IS IT?!
Yes, it is.
Start off by blasting those Premiers... you have a lot to go, get cracking. If ever they are to gather, throw some fireworks at them... SPARINGLY! You want to use as FEW fireworks as possible, capisce? It'll make sense later...
When the guy from Associé says "We're done for, my precious cargo planes are doomed" or something to that effect, that means a SWARM of Premiers have just made an entrance. Scroll through the targeter and find them. Then kill them. Premier exit stage left.
With the destruction of all Premiers, the Baleine makes her debut. But lucky you, Ciel takes on that. And then the missile pods. But lucky you, Copain is all over those. You're left with... fighters?! Even though there are basically none... but you won't be too bored.
NOTE: Before you hit the next step, check out Thomas Stacey’s ‘stage 2’ contributions. There are bits and pieces of cash tips for the next few parts!
A Stable comes cruising out with an escort of Premiers. Destroy it, or it will make cheese of those cargo planes. Then two more appear. They're next. Take out the escort for some quick cross missiles.
No more Stables? Good. That means you're ready for the counterattack. The Grandir pops out of the clouds, guns blazing. Of course, unless you're within close range of the Grandir, those guns are no more than noisemakers. First of all, the trick to blowing up the Grandir is to aim for the engines, but keep an eye on the cannons. The engines have crossbeams on them, so make sure you are NOT hitting them, and that you ARE hitting the engine. Four dead engines makes a Grandir fall.
Now then. If you're going after the engine, it is much tougher.
First of all, master Femme's Active Turn. Know when and when not to use it. For instance, if you're facing the enemy or the enemy is less than 90 degrees away, don't use it. If you're going the opposite direction as the enemy and the enemy just passed you, use it to get on their tail. If you're charging away from a cannon and ready to make another pass, use it. Of course, since it doesn't use much heat, it's pretty forgiving if you don't master it.
Get your Bonus Multiplier up by KILLING THINGS VERY QUICKLY! Also, WHENEVER you see an Unknown on the targeter, throw three fireworks missiles at it (this is what you were saving them for). It's the fastest money maker, and if your Bonus Multiplier is high enough, it secures your victory. Note that if you lose your balance, you're basically screwed, unless you have a good lead (also note that killing an Unknown gets you ten more seconds on the Bonus Counter...).
After a while, the lightning generator will pop out of the Grandir, making it very cloudy. Not only does this infernal contraption block your view, it energizes wingbombs. My strategy is to drop what I'm doing and destroy it. To destroy the lightning generator-- no, not Cross missiles. Take a look at the row of guns on either side of it. Think chain reaction. Hit the gun FURTHEST from the lightning generator on that row. If you hit any other one, the explosion won't be big enough.
No more lightning generator? Good. Either get yourself the engine and destroy the Grandir, almost run out of fuel and decide to destroy the Grandir, or give up on the engine and destroy the Grandir. Blow those four engines to bits, keep an eye on the cannons. Thats all, folks!
Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing stage: 100,000
Prize money for event bonuses:
Cargo planes shot down: negative 50,000 per 1
Destroy lightning generator: 400,000
Normal prize money for enemies shot down, Optional weapon, and battle money.
~~~Scene 3~~~
Preparation:
Enemies: One Stable
Premiers up the yin yang
Flares
Skimships
Machine Soldier: Vanqueur "Sage"
Threat Class: A for beginners, E for ye who know how to control a Skygunner better.
Action:
Well, here goes... Femme's third mission. If you've played Ciel's, you may be surprised (even glad) that you don't have to blast Rival out of the air. Instead, you get (In my opinion) a harder job. Good luck.
The machine soldier that Ventre stole AGES ago is now waltzing through the waterways in the town of Rive. It's going after the Astronomical Telescope. You have the strategic advantage of fighting a defensive battle, and you happen to have tactical weapons. Ventre, however, is just trying the usual swarm technique.
Keep in mind when attacking that soldier that it has weapons. So far all I've seen is the soldier throw skimships at you, and grab you out of midair and throw you.
As the soldier walks through the waterway, I give you this advice: Destroy him as quickly as possible. The faster you do so, the more money you recieve for bonuses. To destroy him, you must hit the shoulder joints. Unfortunately for you, those joints are protected by a shield. You have to put cross missiles into the shield until it gives way, then blast the shoulder joint. Here's the catch: The shield and shoulder joint happen to be small targets compared to the huge arms and body of the machine soldier. This means you must hit the shoulder shield DIRECTLY. You must not have an arm in your line of sight, you must not have his body in your line of sight. Since Femme has active turn, it is easy enough to come in from the top, launch & detonate a cross missile, accellerate to top speed and skim the water, active turn to face him, use another cross missile, fly over top, go the opposite directoin at top speed, use active turn, and cross missile him again. Got all that? Didn't think so. Time to try my hand at ASCII art again.
Think of this as a side view of the whole thing, with the machine soldier walking left to right, ok?
Diagram 1 Femme's starting point.
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Fire Cross missile now
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Detonate
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\
Machine Soldier --> X --Top speed--------Active Turn!
Diagram 2
-
Active Turn!---------Speed!--------/ X \-----<-O-----<------ Femme
^
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Fire/Detonate Cross missile
Diagram 3 Active Turn! (and go back to diagram one)
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Top speed
|
/
Femme -------O------------ X
^
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Fire/ Detonate Cross missile
Ok, whew. Ater you're done with Diagram three, go back to Diagram one. Until one of those shields is destroyed, then machine gun the shoulder joint to death.
What do you mean the diagrams don't make any sense?! Do it yourself, then.
Anyway... Granted that unless you're good, events will take place before destroying the machine soldier. The mission ends with the soldier's escape or the loss of the soldier's arms.
The soldier will keep walking, you'll keep pegging it... Till the chief says he's going to drop electric bombs. However, in response (actually sheer dumb luck), Ventre will order the Flares to be sent up. If these flares are up when the bombs are dropped, they will not hit the machine soldier. Destroy these flares, machine gun and a good dose of active turn will do it, but Fireworks missiles are so much faster.
When the electric bombs are dropped, forget the cross missiles. Just shoot shoot shoot shoot those shoulder joints, the shields are gone for now. When the soldier starts moving, then the shields are back up. Try to destroy one of the shoulder joints (actually, cross missiles ARE useful here...).
If you haven't destroyed the machine soldier yet, it will get up and continue its trek. The next point-of-tactical-weapon-deployment will be the canal bridge. There are tanks lined up on the bridge, but once in a while they will come under attack from enemies, which you have to... remove. When the soldier is in range, they will fire and disable it just like the electric bombs. This means destroy the shoulder joints, cause the shields are gone.
If it isn't destroyed YET, it will knock down the bridge and walk through. Poor tanks... anyway, as it continues, it will eventually walk through a minefield. Shoot one mine, and they will explode... and yes, the soldier will be disabled. Go ahead and shoot for the shoulder joints.
If it STILL isn't destroyed, it will head for the telescope. Basically, you're out of tricks now (just hammer away at it!). It will make for the telescope (keep hammering) and pick up the telescope (I hope you're still hammering). Unfortunately for it, the soldier will slow to a crawl (hammer hammer hammer!), but the ocean is just a short walk away (you win faster if you hammer at it!). Now there is a new task: You may not damage the telescope (but that doesn't mean you can't hammer away at the soldier!). Either finish off the soldier now, or it will escape. The diagrams, while orderly, don't move fast enough for you to do this. Instead, just launch missile after missile and hope they hit, cause random violence is about all I can offer in this case.
Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing the stage: 150,000
Prize money for event bonuses:
Defend Canal Bridge: 300,000
Defend Water Gate: 200,000
Defend Telescope: 1,000,000
Normal prize money for enemies shot down, Optional weapon, and battle money.
~~~Scene 4~~~
Preparation:
Enemies: Derniers comin out the wazoo
Infinite Progréses
Skimships
Ground Tanks
All types of Cannons (Copains problem)
Two Dorados (Ciels problem)
Missile pods: Loads
One Squellette
Threat Class: C
Action:
Oh... fun. We're assaulting a HUGE castle, and all we have is an armored car, two wingmen, and the police force? Well those aren't very good odds... but considering the fact that all the Poulets are WUSSY, we shouldn't have a problem.
Your first task is to destroy the Derniers. These guys won't accept hits except for the lead guy... the wing commander. Throw some fireworks missiles into his engines, and all the rest will scatter. Mop them up using the machine gun or fireworks. If a few of them line up, they will be "in formation" again, so you have to destroy the lead Dernier before the other ones will accept hits. After a while, some Progréses will join the fray.
Done so soon? Well, looks like you got some Dorados on you. Two, as a matter of fact. But thats Ciels problem, right? YOUR problem is the fighters. You have a few more wings of Derniers, but after them, you're done. The game has an annoying habit of putting the Derniers on opposite sides of the targeter... so once you're done with one wing, you gotta keep poking the target button to find the next wing.
When all THOSE are done, it's time to get some cash. Copain has a hard task, he's gotta destroy ALL those cannons. So, lets give him a hand.. and help ourselves to that prize money. Look for big rows of Ground tanks standing beside cannons, they make some HUGE MONEY. The higher your bonus multiplier, the better.
Well, the chief has been spotted, so we gotta go cover him. Of course, he doesn't need cover YET... so go ahead and blast a Progrés or two. When the missile pods show up, take them out quick, they add 4 apiece to your bonus counter. One fireworks missile will remove one missile pod, so use those if you're in a hurry, otherwise, machine guns do fine. If a pod manages to release its Poulets, fire some dog missiles at the armored car to remove them.
When the chief makes it through the first overpass, he'll be attacked by skimships. Destroy them.
Ok, he's in the courtyard... The Squellette appears. Fuuuuun... spider squishin time! You have to destroy the three engine caps and the control tower (and sometimes the pistons) to destroy the Squellette. At first, his control tower side is exposed, so destroy one of the far cannons to create a chain reaction toward the tower. When he clambers onto the wall, destroy the four pistons on his knees. Its. I should be saying its. When the pistons are gone, it wall fall over and the engine side will be exposed. Either Cross missiles or machine guns will do it, whichever you prefer, but Cross missiles are faster. Eventually, it will clamber onto the wall AGAIN and you have to pop the pistons AGAIN. Do so, and it falls over with the control tower side exposed. It will keep doing this until you destroy it. Destroy the control tower and the three engine caps, like I said. Thats all, folks!
Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing stage: 200,000
Prize money for event bonuses:
Police Planes shot down: negative 150,000 per 1
Destroy Citadel defense forces: 1,000,000
Normal prize money for enemies shot down, Optional weapon, and battle money.
~~~Scene 5~~~
Preparation:
Enemies: Loads of Premiers
Loads of Progrés'
Loads of Derniers
Loads of Ground Tanks
One Dorado (Ciel or Copain)
The Machine Soldier on a Dorado: Vanqueur "Garde" (for ciel, you won't see it)
Tether Repair Cannon
Rival (for Ciel)
One Unknown
Grand Magasin
Grand Magasin (steel tethers)
Grand Magasin (control tower, for Ciel)
Grand Magasin (engine room, for Copain)
Machine Soldier with Eternal Engine: Vanqueur "Garde" utilizing eternal engine
Ventre's Battleship
Threat Class: A
Action:
Here we are, who knows how many feet up in the air at 2:00 in the morning... ready to rumble?
Firstly, unlike Ciel and Copain's games, you don't have to worry about the fighters (unless they try to knock you out of the air). Instead, you get the job of destroying the many steel tethers around the museum. Hope you're up to it? Good, cause it's easy. Just machine gun them until they pop up
After about the third or fourth tether, a repairing robot with a cannon mounted on it will awaken and start repairing the tethers. Destroy it. Stay out of its sights, or it will see you with an infrared laser and blast you with machine guns. MANY many machine guns. Use two full cross missiles on it and two normal ones (or three full ones, whatever floats your boat).
When the robot has been scrapped, go ahead and finish the tethers. They should be easier to destroy, you can get them all in one pass if you're accurate and like Active Turn. Watch for dog missiles, too.
Done with that? Your next task is to destroy steel tethers. They look like portholes with blue fire coming out of them.
NOTE: Before you destroy THESE tethers, take a look at the e-mail contributions from Jesse Jace Thomas and Thomas Stacey, they specialize in MAKING YOU HUGE AMOUNTS OF MONEY at this part.
Anyhoo, to destroy steel tethers, forget those cross missiles. See the guns on either side of them? Yep, a row of guns... you thinking what I'm thinking? Cause I'm thinking about refilling my glass with Mountain Dew... But seriously now. You can shoot either gun on the far side of the porthole, and it will make a chain reaction which severely damages the porthole. Do it again on the other side, and not only is Ventre one steel tether short, you're rolling in the green, these things get you MOH-NAY!
Once all the tethers are destroyed, Ventre gets miiiiiiiighty ticked off. He'll bring more cannons and a LOT more fighters to bear. Ciel will have to destroy the control tower, while Copain takes care of the engine room. That leaves Femme (you), of course, with those stupid fighters... yech. These fighters seem to be gathering to attack Ciel. Keep your bonus multiplier up, and when two wings or more are attacking him, fireworks them. You can hit one million or more in cash if your multiplier is high enough! But if Ciel's risk meter gets too high, just do things normally. If you're bored, destroy that yellow Unknown and take a potshot at the control tower (cross missile to the lowest gun on the tower you can find, big money & big damage).
Done with this? Time for Ventre to play his trump card. Actually not his trump card, his diversion for escape. Destroy this Machine Soldier fast, and you get a shot at Ventre's battleship.
Anyway, to destroy the Machine Soldier... first of all, make sure you have cross missiles comin out the yin yang. If not, then the ground tanks on the deck carry loads of them, blow up a few. Copain will hurl pumpkin bombs and stop the soldier, then you and Ciel must put 6 full sized cross missiles into him. Now, when playing as Ciel, Femme actually puts cross missiles into him. If you're lucky, Ciel will put 2. Usually just one. Which means get good at NOT OVERHEATING, cause you gotta put in five. I say fire one (no active turn, sorry folks), do a loop or two, fire another, do another loop or two, fire another, and if you're feeling lucky, fire another one in succession (this means Ciel has to put two in) and if you're not feeling lucky, do ANOTHER loop or two, then fire twice. Got all that? Sorry, I'm not sure how else to say it.
Six cross missiles? Ok, now he's ready for action. You can see the eternal engine, now. This is probably the easiest part of the battle. You can either use machine guns to destroy the engine, or the ever-helpful cross missiles. Just blow it up.
Ok, NOW it's mad. You've destroyed it ONCE, now to do it again. But this time it's meaner than ever. It drops its lance and begins firing from a worthless mounted gun. It throws ground tanks at you. It picks up propellers and hurls them at you. It fires cone missiles that won't give up. It deploys air turrets. It yanks pipes off the Magasin and twirls them around (what good is that?). You have to put cross missiles or bullets into that engine and blow it to bits for good. But this time, its harder, cause he moves around so much, you have to make sure he's facing you. Active turn is very useful for this.
To dodge the propellers he throws at you, basically, don't. They keep going till they hit you. Instead, fly straight at them and barrel roll. As for the cone missiles? The same thing, but its harder cause you need to know WHICH direction to roll, as there will be missiles right behind it that will hit you, you need to get out of their way.
All done? Or are you? Well, if you destroyed the Machine Soldier in less than three minutes, say congratulations because you're not done, you get a shot at 2,000,000 in cash! Ventre's battleship will be running away if you did it in under 3 minutes, and you must destroy it. Simple as that! It's a red modified Baleine SWARMING with Poulets. Blow it up the same way as you do a Baleine or Unknown. Fireworks missiles for the guns if you want more money, or just shoot the white underbelly. Cross missiles speed things up. It's finally over!
Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing stage: 250,000
Prize money for event bonuses:
Defeat Ventre's battleship: 2,000,000
Normal prize money for enemies shot down, Optional weapon, and battle money.
=========Copain=========
~~~Scene 1~~~
Preparation:
Enemies: Premiers
2 Stables (for Ciel)
Machine soldier: Vanqueur "Fidel"
Gauche, Droite
Wingbombs
Threat Class: F
Action:
You're playing as Copain? Good, but you might want to take some time in the characters section to see how best to fly him...
Done that? No? Good, lets go.
First of all, blast down the Premiers. Either use your machine gun, or use your Vortex if you want to get your bonus counter up... or use fireworks if you can't get the hang of Vortex. It's all good. Keep in mind, the faster you go, the more cash you'll get.
Next, Ciel and Copain recieve a call from the Merveilleux. Femme, a gunner, wants out to help. Well, there's a Stable outside the hangar and the machine soldier on the Merveilleux, and with Copain and Ciel choosing each others targets, you get stuck with the soldier. The easy part. Fly by the soldier as fast as you can, avoid that funky hand, and use a Vortex to knock him to the side. Depending on how you hit it, the soldier will either fall off the Merveilleux or jump over a bit. And if you don't avoid that hand, he picks you up and swings you around to throw you.
Hope you got rid of that machine soldier in time, there's a bonus for you. When you take it out, you're free to torch other stuff till your next objective. Go after the Stables with Vortex for MOOLAH, then take out Premiers till our little buddies Gauche and Droite show up.
Its Gauche and Droite! They showed up. They've launched six tow chain cannons at the Merveilleux, and its easy enough to remove them, just shoot them with the machine gun. Aim from the side, so they can't all shoot at you. And no, thats not a shield on their backs, if you read my earlier posts. It's vulnerable, just go ahead. Come on, you know you want to...
Ok, next! Gauche and Droite are both running. Femme and Ciel have the red one, and you have the blue one. Aim for the engine room. Hold it! Don't use bombs or vortex YET. See those four cannons on the top of the engine shield? Yeah. I thought so. You want a bomb to impact on one of those instead of the shield? Cause that wouldn't be cool. No, first machine gun those things until they are little bits of metal, plastic, and duct tape. THEN go ahead and lock on to the engine room with four pumpkin bombs, or run into it and vortex it (takes a bit of skill :D ). 6 or 7 pumpkin bombs will blow it up.
Ok, now there's a little coil lookin thing in the middle of about a bajillion (six or seven) propellors. The coil looking thing is what you want... but if you blow up the propellors JUUUUUUUUUUUUST right, it'll do it all in one easy shot. Or two. Or three. But thats beside the point. The point is, you have to do it just right: You have to fly in from the side, slightly lower than the propellors and hit the colored part. If you can't see the colored part but you can see the propellor, it means the propellor has retreated partway into the engine and don't bother with it, just kill the coil anyway you can. If it is colored, say "machine gun," shoot "machine gun," and hear the blue ship reply with "boom."
If Ciel and Femme aren't done with the red ship yet, blow it up the same way.
Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing the stage: 50,000
Prize money for event bonuses:
Fend off the machine soldier: 200,000
Normal prize money for enemies shot down, Optional weapon, and battle money.
~~~Scene 2~~~
Preparation:
Enemies: Premiers
13 Stables (Femme and Ciel)
Baliene (Ciel)
25 Missile pods
Unlimited Unknowns
Grandir
Wingbombs - Lightning charged
Lightning Generator
Threat Class: C, engine or not.
Action:
Hello, welcome to level two. You may remember this level from such stories as Ciel: Gunner, or gunned down? And Femme: Braided tail or unusually long hair? (I'm sorry, these are terrible!)
Ok, down to business. You start out docked. After a second or two you will shoot off, and no, contrary to popular belief holding the X button does NOT make you go off faster. Now for you who have read the Ciel and Femme documentaries (level 2 walkthroughs), you may remember that I stressed VERY HEAVILY the saving of fireworks missiles. With Copain, you do not NEED to do that, but its a tad helpful. Anyway, start by blasting fighters. Fast. If you're too slow, you may lose a cargo ship or two, and that ain't cool. The faster you blast, the more money you make, too...
When the guy from Associé cries that he's doomed and his cargo is done for, destroy all the cargo ships to spite him... no, don't! I'm just kidding! Actually, that means that a large squad of Premiers has arrived. Scroll through your targeter until you see them, then fly toward them... and either put FOUR (you heard me) fireworks missiles up their engines, or give them a windstorm they won't forget... that means vortex. Ok, finish the rest of the fighters, and claim your money.
Soon, like a bad neighbor, the Baleine will appear and start blowing your stuff up... what? Your bad neighbors don't do that? Lucky... anyway, it's Ciel's job to destroy the Baleine, and though it seems easy, he also has 10 Stables to contend with. You, on the other hand, have missile pods. Weakest, yet most annoying enemy in this stage. Well, maybe wingbombs are more annoying... but I'm getting off track. Missile pods die with either machine gun fire or one fireworks missile. Watch out for the enemies that get on your back. If a missile pod hits a cargo ship, Poulets will jump out and start beating the evil noodles out of the engine. A dog missile or three will silence that infernal pounding for good.
With the destruction of all the missile pods, its time for step two of level two...
The Grandir! Actually, its pretty weak. The only problem is that whoever gets the most prize money on this stage gets a new engine... With Copain it's easy, doncha worry, ya? Just Vortex whatever comes near you, don't overheat, and Four fireworks/Vortex every Unknown you see. What? Not enough info? Alright... First, Vortex the nearest group of flyers. Then machine gun nearby flyers/stuff till your engine isn't heated. When you see an Unknown appear on the targeter, beat feet...er, propellor... and either use four fireworks missiles in the same spot or vortex it. Depending how fast you've destroyed other enemies, you can easily make 4-5 million or more on this area. Well, not easily, it takes practice...
NOTE: For doze of yous who wants more moo-lah, dere is hintsies from Thomas Stacey at de bottom of de walkdru.
Soon, a lightning generator will appear on the Grandir. Since you get prize money for destroying it, I suggest taking time out of your busy schedule... unless you're a bit behind. Sometimes your teammates will do it for you. Anyway, see those guns on the rows on either side of the lightning generator? Shoot the guns on the farthest side and think "chain reaction." If you think about it hard enough, you just might get a chain reaction. Of course, you don't have to think about it at all, but I prefer to. Not really. Keep the chain reactions up and the lightning generator is history.
When you're done with the lightning generator, ahead of everyone on the engine competition, or just plain given up on it, its time to destroy the Grandir. Destroy each engine on the two gunnels. If you hit the crossbeam in FRONT of the engine, nothing will happen. Instead, you have to hit the engine itself. Machine guns work, but pumpkin bombs make short work of these thingies. Get used to evasive maneuvering, cause the Grandir bristles with guns.
Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing stage: 100,000
A new engine for whoever was in first place Prize money wise.
Prize money for event bonuses:
Destroy all missile pods: 400,000
Destroy lightning generator: 400,000
Normal prize money for enemies shot down, Optional weapon, and battle money.
~~~Scene 3~~~
Preparation:
Enemies: Three types of Exocets
Premiers
Skimships
Tons of Other Weird Things Whose Names I Don't Know, but are Probably Some Type of Bullet
Threat class: A
Action:
NOTE: Guess what? Before reading on, our pal Thomas Stacey has hints for stage 3 you should look at... it concerns money, and the ease of making it, so its all good. Bottom of the walkthrough!
Ahhhh, a romp through the delightful city of Rive. Unfortunately, you're going waaaaay too fast to notice anything. Fame, you want? Fortune, you desire? By destroying the Exocet... Much impatience in you I sense. Clear your mind, you must.
There are two ways to do this that I can think of. But before I launch into this, I'm going to tell you: This requires NO LUCK. Absolutely none. Skill alone can win the day. It just must be honed, and since this level is a little weird, you'll have to hone it on a completely different level.
Also, before I launch into this, I must explain how an Exocet works. It'll run along the very bottom of the map unless it has to jump over something, so to remove the tail you must aim downward. Same with the head. When the head is destroyed, the Exocet will be destroyed and another will take its place. If the head is severely damaged, it will begin to submerge, and if submerged, all parts of the tail and the head will be repaired. There are also two areas that I call "freebies," where the Exocet's head will jump up and stand in the very center of the screen without moving, and the tail will encircle it, more or less. You can kill it right now, with machine guns or pumpkin bombs. Okay?
Ready?
First method: The easy, but painfully methodical way. Firstly, to destroy an Exocet, you must remove the front.... thing. But as you do this, the little guys following him will shoot at you, and so will the little creepy other enemies. So, naturally, machine gun your way up to the head. To get there, you have to speed boost, ya know. Destroy things on your way up there, and use your machine guns to remove the thing's front poulet.
Second method: The speedy, but dangerous way. To begin, get yourself pumpkin bombs. Thats from the little other non-Exocet enemies. Machine gun them good. Secondly, make sure you have evasive maneuvers down to an art. A blooming good art. Speed up to the head of the Exocet... if you stop to shoot an enemy or anything, you'll be in one place too long, and it'll decrease your altitude (aiming down). The closer you get to the front of the Exocet, the better, but if you're TOO close, the bombs won't impact. You must be going down a straightaway with NO CURVES. Otherwise the bombs will impact the side, so look ahead. You guessed it: You're going to gain altitude and bomb the thing with 4 pumpkin bombs. If you're too low, they will impact part of the tail. If you don't evade, you'll be shot down and lose money. If you're on a curved part, the bombs will hit the wall. If you do it just right, you'll be done before you know it. Keep in mind that using the two freebies is not dishonorable, in fact, I encourage it.
Best trick for destroying all three Exocets? A little from column A, and a little from column B. On the last Exocet, if you get too far ahead, they'll become more annoying than usual, so you might want to look into the first method on this, but on the yellow one, the second is a cinch.
If the Exocet gets out to open ocean, it will escape.
Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing the stage: 150,000
Prize money for Event bonuses:
Defeat Exocet Gold: 300,000
Defeat Exocet Red: 500,000
Defeat Exocet Blue: 700,000
Normal money for enemies shot down and battle money. Money for pumpkin bombs above 0.
~~~Scene 4~~~
Preparation:
Enemies: Derniers, as usual, up the Yin yang.
2 Dorados (for Ciel)
Skimships
Ground Tanks
Missile Pods
Progrés... a few wings
Cannons: Ground, Titanium, and Shielded
Squellette: Walking Tank
Threat Class: B
Action:
I love this level. Really, I do. Its the only level where you can get tons of money WITHOUT having to stray from your mission objectives and shoot OTHER things.
You begin at, well, the beginning of the level, the chief is waiting for you to clear the airspace above the castle so he can ramble into it in his nice, helpless, little armored car. But enough target scoping. The enemies who plague you from the beginning are the Derniers. They happen to be in a fishy formation. THIS formation has a purpose, besides being easy to destroy. First of all, you can't kill any of them except for one. The leader. Once the leader is destroyed, the Derniers will scatter, and you can blast them all to a watery oblivion... ya know, cause there's water underneath you. The only thing is, eventually some other Derniers will get in formation again, and once again the leader will be the only vulnerable one. You can tell if they're in formation if they roll and deflect fire. Aim for the leader. There are a wing or three of Progrés', so take out them too.
Next: The Dorado. Only, you don't have to mess with it... er, either of them. Ciel will. Instead, you gotta remove cannons. LOTS of cannons. Shielded, Ground, and Titanium. The ground tanks are the easy ones, they can be removed by simple gunfire. Shielded cannons bite da big one. Titanium cannons are a pitiful attempt at being incredibly powerful. Sure, they can knock you out of the sky, but you can dodge, right? Anyway, I already explained ground cannons... shielded cannons have impervious shields in the front, but the back is vulnerable. We need to immobilize these. Throw doggy missiles at them, fly to the other side, and punch them in the back. That easy. As for titanium cannons? There are only two in this level... one on either side of the bridge. To destroy the one on the right side, blast the other cannons beside it to make a chain reaction. You HAVE to use a chain reaction to destroy these. If you screw up... well, see that tower a little ways away, with a bridge in it and cannons on top? Shoot the cannons, then shoot the ground tanks that are on (or at the end of) that path. More ground tanks will appear, and since they won't be able to go through collapsed cannon, they'll take the alternate path... and they will make a line in front of the titanium cannon, allowing you to destroy it. For the left side, same thing, destroy the ground cannons on the tower, and pop the ground tanks that are already on the path. More cannons are found on either side of the bridge, above the pass the bridge goes under, on top of large pillars toward the back of the castle, on the towers, and in the courtyard. You can make SERIOUS money from these cannons, by using chain reactions.
After the cannons, you should end up taking out missile pods. These are VERY EASY, but rather difficult to hit. Gunfire will destroy them, but so will fireworks missiles, if you have a tough time hitting them. Every time a new set of missile pods appear, they will be brought to your attention.
In the even that a missile pod does manage to get in the air and break up, poulets will rain down upon the armored car. To get rid of the poulets? Doggy missiles. Thats right, you get to target the armored car, with dog missiles. Fire them, and if they don't "surgically remove" the poulets, then fire more.
The armored car is in the courtyard, and now its the Squellette's turn. Yes, it's a big spider. A big spider that's too big for Copain's boot heel, thank you very much, Mr. Dialogue.
First of all, if you take too long, a police plane may crash, costing you cash. Second of all, if ever the Squellette climbs on the wall, shoot its pistons. The pistons are on the "knees," but they will be brought to your attention anyway. Gunfire will do it, and fast.
To destroy the Squellette, you must use the Force... or not. You gotta destroy the control tower, and the three engine rooms on the underside. The engine rooms look like little oil filters, if you've seen one. They also flash red a bit. Cross missiles are fast, guns are slow. Both are effective, destroy all three. For the control tower? Gunfire, cross missiles, or chain reactions. Yeah. See those little guns beside the control tower? Ba-BOOM. Chain reaction.
Sometimes the game glitches, at least for me, and I have to destroy the pistons AGAIN after destroying the control tower and engine rooms. No biggy, right?
Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing the stage: 200,000
Prize money for Event bonuses:
Police Planes shot down: negative 150,000 per 1
Destroy all cannons: 1,000,000
Normal prize money for enemies shot down, Optional weapon, and battle money.
~~~Scene 5~~~
Preparation:
Enemies: Loads of Premiers
Loads of Progrés'
Loads of Derniers
Loads of Ground Tanks
One Dorado
The Machine Soldier on a Dorado: Vanqueur "Garde" (for ciel, you won't see it)
Tether Repair Cannon (Femme)
Rival (for Ciel)
One Unknown
Grand Magasin
Grand Magasin (steel tethers, Femme)
Grand Magasin (control tower, for Ciel)
Grand Magasin (engine room)
Machine Soldier with Eternal Engine: Vanqueur "Garde" utilizing eternal engine
Ventre's Battleship
Threat Class: A
Action:
NOTE: Take a look at the bottom of the FAQ. You may have noticed ‘stage five’ tips from Thomas Stacey and JesseJace, and if you’re thinking cash, we’re thinking ‘yep’!
Yep, its that time again. Time for scene 5. You probably already know the drill, but if not, here I go:
First thing you want to do is blast fighters out of the sky. The higher bonus multiplier you have, the better. Its just a straight out dogfight, no conserving of ammo or anything, just keep your money high.
Soon, a Dorado will fly out of the hangar of the Grand Magasin. Yes, you have to destroy it, but this one's really easy. See those four fuel tank/face boxes/spinning lights above the Dorado? Blow em up and they fall on the Dorado. Two of them takes the Dorado out. Machine guns destroy the boxes and finish the Dorado, if you're too slow.
Back to the fighters. Blast em. Blast em good.
And now everybody's favorite part, blowing the crap out of steel tethers! The tethers are located as follow: two of them on the front, one on the back, holding on the Magasin's cargo area (what held up the museum... thats not where the tether is, thats what the tether chains down), one on either side of the Magasin, holding on two decks.. (points galore here, see JesseJace's e-mail!), and two on either side of the bottom cabin. Got all that?
Now, to destroy the tethers: yes, machine guns will do it (for the record, steel tethers look like those portholes with blue fire coming out). No, not at the porthole part, at the guns on either side! Think "chain reaction". Two good chains will do it, aim for the gun furthest away from the porthole. Blasty blasty! The faster you do this, the richer you become. Also, on the two white cabins, an easy way to make money (gleaned from an e-mail from JesseJace) is to look for more chain reactions. First, shoot the pumpkin. It will roll down the line, making more money. Next, hit the cannon near where the poulet at the start of the level cutscene stood. Now on to the tethers! For more money making tips for this level, hit JesseJace's e-mail at the end of the FAQ.
Now that the Grand Magasin is a lot smaller (and you're a lot richer), its time to deliver the final blow. You are charged with destroying the engine room. I HATE this part. You waste SO many pumpkin bombs! See those eight pistons? Four on either side. Two pumpkin bombs will destroy each one. It takes practice getting them on target. If you want to lock them, drop them when you fly overhead. If you wanna do it my way, fly near them and just TAP the O button, without acquiring a lock. This will fire a pumpkin bomb. Do it twice to destroy the piston. Did I mention you had to use pumpkin bombs? Guess not. I've seen the computer (Ciel, when he finishes the tower) use machine gun fire, but that never worked for me.
What comes next? The machine soldier! The first part of the machine soldier bites for the other two... but you have the easy stuff! All you do is throw four pumpkin bombs at the soldier, then (fly around restocking pumpkin bombs until you get the message stating that you have to: ) detonate the cross missiles sticking out of him (Femme and Ciel were busy... No! Not like that!) with your machine guns. That oughtta open his helmet.
Now that his helmet is open, the eternal engine is up for a beating. Machine guns work, but I prefer pumpkin bombs. Its that easy!
And the final stage? Its more difficult in that you have to dodge things... like whirling propellor blades that instigate insta-kills, and a flock of little machines that shoot at you, and tanks flying through midair, and multicolored homing missiles... Argh! But again, pumpkin bombs win the day... though machine guns work too.
Finally, the part everybody asks about. Through thorough and rigorous testing I have decided that in order to fight Ventre's battleship, you have to:
**Defeat the machine soldier in three minutes or less!**
And don't cry to me about how "it didn't work!", cause it does. I recorded every variable I could when fighting the machine soldier. It works. Basically you can e-mail me saying it didn't and I can tell you to time it and you can time it and I can say that you didn't hit the button in time, and you can call me a prick. Either that, or you can just not e-mail me about it (hint hint... nudge nudge... slap slap) and accept that yelling at me isn't going to do anything. You have to defeat all three stages of the machine soldier in three minutes or less. After that, you've got a ton of fighters and Ventre's battleship to deal with. At last, you will have your revenge... I guess.
Aftermath:
Prize money for clearing the stage: 250,000
Prize money for event bonuses:
Shoot down Ventre's battleship: 2,000,000
Normal prize money for - you guessed it - enemies shot down, optional weapons, and battle money.
=========Time Attack=========
Possibly the BEST FEATURE of this game, Time attack puts you in the middle of one hundred enemies and you try to defeat them as fast as possible.
The developers record is 1.04 something... take a shot at that
My best is 1.00.85. Feelin lucky?
Feelin really lucky? The winner of the contest blasted me out of the water at 45.04. Yes, thats forty-five SECONDS. Congratulations... and my envy... to PiNoyMerX!
The trick to this is to destroy things FAST (duh..). You can't do this if you're flying back and forth across Rive. You must use tail view a LOT. Go for the closest guys, of course, and never EVER hit the squad leader first, otherwise the rest will all scatter.
If you overheat, you're basically done for, you won't get a record that way.
I started with using Rival, and he works pretty well cause he's so fast... but you know what? Femme turns better and has Active turn. I suggest use her.
It's pretty tough to get a really good record, I kept getting 1.13s and 1.15s, but if your timing is JUST RIGHT and your firing is JUST RIGHT, you might just manage a really good score (to be honest, that surprised me, cause all the times before I'd been hitting higher numbers... and suddenly WHAM! I shaved 13 seconds off my time. This proves anyone can do it with sufficient willpower).
Wondering about those 'JUST RIGHT' comments? It's like this. If your timing is just right, and you don't kill an enemy too fast or too slow, your next target will be right next to you, and the NEXT target will be right next to you too, and so on and so forth. If not the next target, at least a squad of fighters will be. You WILL have to rocket across Rive once or twice, it's just a given.
As for the firing thing, if you're after a really big squad, you can save ungodly amounts of time by hitting them ALL in just a few seconds. Practice this. If it doesn't work, you might end up with some scattering enemies... Thats not good.
Another note: Fireworks missiles are your best friends. Lock 3, fire, and forget. Thats one less squad. However, be aware that some squads fly side by side, and three fireworks will only take out one squad. You'll have to finish the rest. If there's a pesky enemy (say, a lone Dernier) that you can't hit with machine guns, use a fireworks missile. That will show it who's boss.
Finally, the Derniers. After a few seconds, they all start pursuing you. I'm pretty sure there's about ten. They fire their machine guns, fire dog missiles, and do some pretty smooth evasive maneuvers. When you go to destroy them... these guys can easily eat up about ten seconds of your time. Therefore, any time you see them, take a pot shot at them, but don't switch to tail view and pursue. Just thin the ranks until it's time to target them. If you're lucky, you'll kill them all early, and that saves you LOADS of time.
When it IS time to target the Derniers, they will take up lots of time to kill. For you all who are used to dogfighting, forget most of the melee type tactics. Don't stay up close and try to get on his tail. Even Active turn won't help there. Instead, shoot at them, and when they start evading you, run a little ways away, THEN turn. You should have a clear shot with M guns, or even better, fireworks missiles.
Also, at the end of the Time Attack session (when you've set your awesome new record), press triangle and R1 at the same time to get a code for the online contest at www.atlus.com/sg/sg_ranking.html. NEWS: The contest has ended. Lets petition them for another contest next year, shall we? Come oooooon, annual contest!
Good luck!
Extra Stuff
------------
=========Secrets=========
1. To unlock Copain, finish the game as Femme.
2. To unlock Rival, finish the game as Ciel, without losing to Rival in any duel.
3. To unlock Hardi, finish the game as Femme, Ciel, and Copain, all in first place.
4. To unlock the photo album, finish the game as Femme. The photo album will show you pictured from each mission, as well as photos taken of Ventre commemorating each of his victories.
5. To unlock Time attack, finish the game as Ciel in first place.
6. To unlock Scene Select, finish the game as Femme, Ciel, Copain, and Rival.
7. To unlock Survival Mode, finish the game as Copain in first place.
8. To unlock Uniform Processing Mode, finish the game as Copain.
9. To unlock the Detached Camera, get an SS rank with anyone but Hardi or Rival.
Special Thanks to the Skygunner webpage at Atlus.com (www.atlus.com/sg/index) for this information.
=========Photo album=========
Hahahaha.... I have the photo album, but when I looked at it, it was mostly complete except for Ventre's photographs. Since I can't go back and figure out how I got them... I'll have to guess, but I'll do that later. Instead, since someone e-mailed me Ventre's photos, I'll stick them in...
~~~Ventre's Commemorative Photos~~~
1. In commemoration of shooting Ciel down.
Gotten by: Crashing or running out of fuel while playing as Ciel.
2. In commemoration of shooting Copain down.
Gotten by: Crashing or running out of fuel while playing as Copain.
3. In commemoration of shooting Femme down.
Gotten by: Crashing or running out of fuel while playing as Femme.
4. Commemorative photo with Rival.
Gotten by: Losing to the machine soldier as Rival.
5. In commemoration of stealing the Merveilleux.
Gotten by: Letting Ventre steal the Merveilleux instead of shooting the tow cannons in Scene 1.
6. In commemoration of acquiring fine art.
Gotten by: Letting Ventre shoot down all fifteen cargo planes in Scene 2.
7. In commemoration of destroying the armored car.
Gotten by: Allowing the missile pods to go unharmed to the armored car so it plunges into the water in Scene 4.
8. In commemoration of shooting Ciel down.
Gotten by: Playing as Femme and allowing the fighters to defeat Ciel in Scene 5
9. In commemoration of shooting Femme down.
Gotten by: Playing as Ciel or Copain and letting the Dorado shoot down Femme in Scene 5.
10. In commemoration of the Machine Soldier's rampage.
Gotten by: Crashing while battling the machine soldier in Scene 5.
Very special thanks to Eugene Clewlow (eclewlow@hotmail.com) for this information.
E-mailed contributions
------------------------
From Jesse Jace Thomas (jessejace@tcinternet.net):
"During the last battle, when you're causing chain reactions to break apart the Grand Magasin, there is a ton of money to be made off the little guns lining the sides of the fortress. The guns are arranged in two parallel rows like this:
o o o o o o o
o o o o o o o
If you take out the upper-left or upper-right gun, there is a big lateral chain reacion, and then the top row falls down and crushes the bottom row, giving you even more cash. I think there are four places to do this on the battleship, and then there are 4 (?) rows of five black balloons which are also good for racking up points (but there is a trick to chain-reacting those balloons...).
THEN, there is even more money to be made by causing chain reactions on the left and right lower platforms, where there are rows of 10 guns each (shoot the biggest gun first, I think that's the only way to start a chain). AND, each side has a row of little poulets, with a jack-o-lantern on one end. If you destroy the jack-o-lantern, it bounces down the row, taking out each poulet and you get the chain bonus once again.
Anyways, I always take out all those guns, balloons and poulets before destroying the connectors, and by the time I face the machine soldier, I have over 15,000,000 dollars. BUT you have to be quick or you'll run out of fuel before you finish the game. "
There are actually six sets of balloons, but destroying one of the steel tethers removes two of them. The trick for getting a chain reaction for these ballons is to shoot all of the baloons once or twice to make them grow, then destroy one of them to make a chain. Also, after trying this (and the following tricks), I had no problem finishing the game with enough fuel. I think it's because I've played this level so many blooming times....
Another e-mail was sent to me later than this one. According to this one:
"- On the upper half of that same battleship, there are 4 radar dish-looking structures that are easy to kill, and each one is worth 30,000 pts, plus adds 10x to your multiplier."
"- I was wrong about the double rows of guns toward the back, there are six sets of those."
Along with this, Jesse (the contributor) also spoke of his trick for defeating Rival, which is a variation of the cross missile trick I use. It works better than my cross missile trick, I've decided, after testing it. Jesse flies far away from Rival, then turns to face him. Since Rival plays chicken with you by charging and shooting, it is easy to put a cross missile into him and detonate it. The only problem is that his AI sometimes won't let you get away from him (note that THIS isn't an actual quote, rather, I felt like typing this).
Alright, we have a lot of strategies for cash from this next fella. Read on!
From Thomas Stacey
Stage 2:
As Femme or Ciel:
"For those of you who can get your bonus counter to be like 4x or 5x (20-35 seconds) you can make a ton of money on the Stables. I know you're wanting to keep your fireworks as much as possible for getting the new engine later on but since the Stables give you fireworks I usually use 3 on one Stable. You can shoot them just about anywhere and if you have a high bonus counter as i said before you can make anywhere from 50,000-200,000 on one Stable if you get enough hits. I made nearly 600,000 and I only killed about 5 or 6 Stables as Ciel but I had a 6x-11x counter most of the time. This strategy should work for Femme too but not as well since you only have 3 Stables to kill."
Keep in mind, to get your bonus counter that high, you have to kill enemies really really fast. See my ‘bonus money’ column for more info.
As Anyone:
"While Fighting the Grandir you should take out the unknowns as stated in [this guide]. If you have or can get a high bonus counter, at least 4x or 5x (20-35 seconds), you can go through and make a ton of chains with any of the guns. I prefer the ones on top that repair and the others on the under belly that also repair themselves. You can also do this very well at the begging with the normal cannons especially with the 4 sets of 3 on the front of the ship or the chain of 5 or 6 on the bottom. I made around a million with this strategy."
While I already stated the stuff about the Unknowns, he’s got a good idea for the ship’s cannons. Personally, I tend to stay away from them, but upon further testing (and skill building), I find that they are a rather nice cash maker.
Stage 3: Copain
"You get some pumpkin bombs and as you're waiting for the enemies with them to come along start machine gunning you're way up to the front of the thing. As soon as you get pumpkin bombs begin locking them onto the head whether you're close to the front or not (as I've found you can only lock onto the head). As soon as you get 2-4 locked on let them go as long as you're crosshair is on Exocet and you are not in a curved pathway. When you let them go it can destroy 4-6 sections at least while making your bonus counter go up like mad. Also in the freebie areas described in the guide I lock some pumpkin bombs on and let them go usually even if the head is not hit you should destroy large chunks (4-10 pieces) of Exocet at a time. Even hitting the head you can do this plus destroy Exocet."
I read this, ran through MY Stage 3: Copain thing, and kicked myself. How could I NOT put this down? This is very useful for cash, and I’m glad someone remembered to get it in this guide... if not me ^_^. Of course, as I’ve found out the hard way, going for too much cash like this can let the Exocet get away. The trick is to balance between cash and objective... Keep your eyes on the prize, but don’t forget the appetizers.
Stage 5:
All (at the right times):
"You had several strategies on your faq that make a ton of money (such as the satellites and balloons). This strategy combines most of them. First you go destroy the satellites, which gives you 30,000 and 10 seconds on your bonus counter. I think the best way of taking out these is from above them because you'll be able to get at least two of them no sweat and not spend a lot of time getting to the others. After that you take out the balloons. My strategy for doing this is approaching them from an angle where you can see all of them and destroying one. After the first explodes you continue shooting the others down the line until they all die. This gives you a five chain and at very least 60,00 even without destroying the satellite dishes (radar dishes). After that you can destroy the small look out towers with the moving machine guns on them. There are 4 altogether, 2 on each side of the ship and each gives you 10,000. Even as a beginner I got about 500,000-600,000 with this easily."
Femme:
"When destroying each steel tether you can get a ton of money. On the end of the ship where the machine soldier appears there are 2 sets of machine gun turrets on each side of the last three segments on that part of the ship. They are the first three segments you take out. There are six of these altogether and by taking out all of the your bonus counter should end up around 96 seconds. After that destroy each steel tether by making the chains. I have gotten almost 7 million from this. As Ciel you'll get even more because you have to take out the control tower too. The biggest problem with this is having enough fuel left to take out the machine soldier."
Ciel:
"While fighting this pair the best thing to do is dismantle the Dorado with fireworks. The best way to avoid the machine soldier's fire is to fly fast (using X) and don't get too close. As soon as Femme's risk meter gets to 60% machine soldier will leave you alone (at least for me it did). Get as close and use heavy fire to take it out."
What can I say? Very well done, my friend, very well done.
Thanks
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Thanks to Atlus for such an innovative idea and interesting game.
Thanks to the Skygunner webpage at Atlus.com (www.atlus.com/sg/index) for the secrets.
Thanks to Jesse Jace Thomas(jessejace@tcinternet.net) for incredible tips on making money on scene 5.
Thanks to Eugene Clewlow(eclewlow@hotmail.com) for Ventre's Commemorative Photos.
Thanks to Spark Pristine for the goodies on official descriptions on Ventre's ships.
Thanks to Thomas Stacey for a boatload of cash strategies... in detail.
Thanks to you for reading this, cause it means my contribution to the world wasn't in vain.
all you e-mailers... let me know if I can use your names!
