ITEMS TO GET: Ether Ar (x2), EarthVeilAr, Lite Ar+1, Gold Nugget (x3), Old Circuit, Ground, O2 Cylinder, E Circuit, Veil Doubler, Wind Veil Ar, Ice RodG, Fire Veil Ar, Stone RodG, G-M10S Ammo, Gold Bullion, GG060 Ammo, Flare Rod, Water Veil Ar

   First of all, the Yggdrasil has new Gear parts available, so be sure to upgrade -- you'll definitely want better armor and frames, and there's better ammo for Billy's Renmazuo. Note that you already have the G-M686 in your possession; it just needs to be equipped ^_^. And speaking of the M686, you can also finally buy some ammo for the hand M686 at Maison's shop. You may not be able to afford it all, but at least upgrade the Gears you're going to be using: Weltall, Stier, and either Vierge or Renmazuo. Ether attacks are good against enemies in the next dungeon, so you'll want Vierge (spells and Aerods) or Renmazuo (Ether guns). Stier is also a good Gear, but, more importantly, Rico is essential in the dungeon after this one.

   Unfortunately, there's no place that's any good for learning Deathblows, so you're pretty much stuck with moving on. If you haven't gotten the DeathBlower 1 from the Thames, though, go back and try again -- it really comes in handy if you can get. If you do have the DeathBlower, equip it on Vierge/Renmazuo (whichever you're using).

   After you've finished with your preparations, take the Yggdrasil to Babel Tower, in the center of Aquvy. Sail up next to the tower and hit X to go to a separate screen in your Gears. Be warned: As soon as you go through the door, you'll fall down and be stuck inside the tower, so make sure you've taken care of anything before proceeding.

   Inside Babel Tower, hop onto the top of the pipe and carefully follow it to the end. Drop down onto the small ledge at the end, then walk back west inside the tube. Exit through the opening to the south to reach a chest with Ether Armor. It's Gear equipment that boosts your Ether defense (big surprise, huh?); since there's a lot of Ether-using enemies here, you might want to equip it. After getting it, jump down into the water and you'll end up on a ledge in the bottom corner (this is also where you'd end up if you fell off earlier). Every time you fall in the water in this area, you'll be taken back here... I hope you like platforming ^_^.

   Fortunately, there's no random battles here, just set encounters with enemies called Traffic Jams. They always come in pairs of three; have each of your three characters attack a different one with an X button attack. Then, on your next turns, use Deathblows to finish them all off -- except have Stier and Vierge/Renmazuo switch the ones they're attacking, since Stier does a lot of damage and Vierge (in particular) does little. They're really easy to beat, but they get extremely tedious.

   Jump up two ledges to the southwest and grab the Earth Veil Armor from under the overhang. Don't bother using it here; it's only good where there's lots of enemies using Earth attacks (which is, like, never). Jump up onto the big ledge overhead and head west. Go north along the narrow strip and collect the agility-boosting Lite Ar+1 from the chest. Then go back to the center of the big ledge and jump onto the smaller ledge to the east. If you hop, skip, and jump along the ledges to the north, you'll get back to the chest with the Ether Armor, in case you fell in the water before you got it earlier. Otherwise, hop south one ledge and descend the ramps to a rope hanging from the ceiling.

   Jump and grab hold of the rope; you'll start swinging. Rotate the camera to get a side view of your characters, then start pushing left and right in time with your swinging to pick up speed. When you're going as fast as you can, spin to a diagonal view that shows your Gears' backs. Wait until you reach the front of your swing, then leap off the rope onto the machinery on the other side. Climb up to the beam at the top. If you advance forward on this beam, it will start wildly swinging up and down. If it swings too steeply, you'll slide off into the water, and then yo' gotta do it again. Basically, what you want to do is to run forward and jump off to the north (onto the small ledge adjacent to the hole in the pipe) when you're as far along the beam as you can without falling off. If you can get really high on the beam, you can jump ONTO the pipe and get the chest there. I couldn't manage it, though, and after being dunked in the water a couple times, I got kind of sick of it and gave up ^_^... if anybody knows what's in the chest, let me know and I'll add it.

   Assuming you do land on the ledge, enter the pipe and head east to another rope. Approach this and jump at it. You'll automatically climb up it to a different scene. This area has random enemies again; you'll face Gun Drones, who have a variety of elemental attacks, but an extremely low HP level, and Conjurers, who will hit you with a Conjure attack for about 450 HP of ether damage to a single character.

   Use the save point if you'd like; otherwise, go left to the end of the ledge. Get out of your Gears (R2+L2) and push north. You should find a door you can get through, and you'll end up in a small computer room with a Gold Nugget in a chest. Search both panels to summon the shuttle, then go back outside and get on board. Hop up the crates to the top level. Open the chests here for another set of Ether Ar, and... well, I didn't write down what's in the other chest, so I don't know. Anyone?

   Get out of your Gears and, on foot, approach one of the two ladders in the east corners from behind. Fei should grab hold of it; once he does, climb up to the top and walk across the beam to the door. The next room contains another Gold Nugget and an Old Circuit, as well as the shuttle controls. Activate them and the shuttle will take off. There will be some nifty scenes as your shuttle comes under fire from Solaris.

   Yup, it's Ramsus again, and once again he's accompanied by Miang. Miang, as usual, just heals Ramsus (for 1200 HP each time) and can't be attacked. Ramsus, though, does attack you -- his main attack is a combo that does around 1300 HP damage. If you're using Vierge, have Elly cast her spells on Ramsus (the Jessie Cannon might be effective if you're using Renmazuo, but I haven't tried it), as they do quite a bit of damage. Meanwhile Weltall and Stier should just pummel him with Deathblows. When you do around 7,000 damage to Ramsus, the battle will end, and there will be a few more brief scenes.

   After you regain control, you'll be standing on a ledge on the outside of the tower, with a handy save point nearby. You might want to take a break now; there's a long and frustrating section of dungeon ahead with no more save points -- like it or not, you're only halfway done.

   The northern door is non-functional, so go in the southern one. In addition to the normal enemies, you'll also sometimes encounter an enemy called Fuel Tank around here. If you just sit still, it will refuel you (good), but if you attack it, it will explode and do about 1000 damage to each character (bad). Just Charge and let it heal you, then run away.

   Inside the tower, head east and then south. You'll come to a small pit, drop down in and grab the Ground from the chest. Believe it or not, there's actually a door down here too, but it's impossible to see. Just get out of your Gears and push against the northeasr corner until you go inside another computer room. Head straight across the room and get the O2 Cylinder from the chest, then jump down onto the huge display panel. Grab the E Circuit in the southwest corner, then examine the northernmost of the four panels to turn off the door locks. Now, to get out of the room, hop on top of the panel you were just using, and then jump onto the ledges overhead. Jump to the second ledge from the wall, and from there jump to the stairs -- you should be able to just catch the bottom of them.

   Leave the computer room, get back in your Gears, and hop out of the pit by jumping on the pipes. Continue south to the next door, which you'll be able to open if you turned off the door locks. Keep going past that door until you reach a pit. Jump on in and you'll land in another featureless hallway. Go north and get the Veil Doubler and Wind Veil Armor at the end of the hallway, then turn south and start walking. Eventually, the path will start to slope. Use the ledges to hop up to the higher level. Now, if you were to use the higher-up ledges to jump to the upper level to the north, you could get back to the pit you jumped in, but on the other side. There is NO point in doing this, so don't. Go south. The hall terminates with a door leading into a squarish room with more jumping. It's actually pretty easy, though. First, get the Ice RodG from the chest and equip it on Vierge if Elly is in your party. Then hop up onto the "rim" of the center platform, and then down onto the part in the middle. Jump to the south side of the rim, and from there to the southernmost ledge. Collect the Fire Veil Armor from the chest and exit south.

   You're outside now, which means it's jumping time again. Fortunately, there's only set battles here; you just fight more Traffic Jams. There's a new kind of Traffic Jam (it's still called a Traffic Jam, though) that has a propeller on it; it's slightly stronger, but is still easy to kill. And if you need an HP or Fuel refill, there's a friendly repair bot right next to the entrance to this area.

   First, go south on the lower level and search under the bridge for the Stone RodG. After you get it, head back north a little ways and climb up the stairs onto the bridge. Head to the south wall. See the green thing that looks like a giant Traffic Jam? Jump onto it from above and you'll fight a standard Traffic Jam battle. After you win the fight, the giant Traffic Jam (I'll call it a green platform from now on) will start moving and allow you to ride up to the next tier.

   On the second tier, hop north along the platforms until you get to the end. Before you jump onto the green platform, do a diagonal jump over to the chest, which contains some ammo for Renmazuo. Then jump back to the previous ledge, and from there jump onto the green platform (don't try to jump from the ledge with the chest to the platform, you can't do it). Kill the Traffic Jams and ride up to Tier 3.

   Hop down to the slightly-lower ledge to the south. you'll start having random battles again down here; either that or the set battles aren't Traffic James anymore. Anyway, go south, grab the Gold Bullion from the chest halfway through, and jump up onto the ledge at the end. Jump onto the green platform and do the standard routine. This green platform will take you up to a separate screen for the fourth tier.

   Watch out, you can still fall back down to the first screen here, and if you do, you'll have to refight all the random battles, which is NOT fun. Fortunately, you're nearing the end. Go north under the arches, and look behind the piece of rubble jutting up for some cleverly-concealed GG060 Ammo. Go north a little more and jump up on the higher level to the east. There's a black area in the far corner; drop down in here. It's actually not a pit, just a ledge that's colored black. Pick up the Flare RodG, equip it if you're using Vierge (it's 4 points stronger than the Ice or Stone rods), then jump back out of the black area. Loop around and hop down to the stairs on the west side of the tier to the green platform. Jump on board and you'll be taken up to the fifth and final tier. Climb up the ramp and leap across to the ramp on the next ledge. Jump down to the chest and get the Water Veil Armor, then jump onto the green platform midway between the two ledges (at least that's what I think you do here, my notes aren't too clear, I'm afraid ^_^). From there, you can jump to the south end of the tier, where some pipes are awaited. Go up to them and climb up to the roof of the tower.

   Finally, you've reached the top! There's only small thing to care of now... save the game, and head southwest to fight Maria's Siebzehn (NOTE: The game refers to it as "Seibzehn", which is simply wrong ["Siebzehn" is 17 in German]... I'm going to be referring to it by its correct spelling because "Seibzehn" sounds stupid). This is a rather non-descript battle; just use your Deathblows (particularly the DeathBlower1 attack) and Vierge's magic. The Siebzehn does 500-1000 damage per physical attack, and around 500-600 with Missile Pod. It will also occasionally heal itself for about 400 HP. I think Sieb has about 6500 HP; it's not a very tough fight.

   After you beat Maria, Queen Zephyr calls to Maria and tells her to allow your party passage. You then end up in...