ITEMS TO GET: Merkava Map, G-Godson Ammo, Pilot Shield

   The final dungeon lies on the round island west of Nisan, and, amazingly enough, it CONTAINS NO ELEVATORS -- how did that happen? Er, anyway, put your best Gears (which should be Xenogears, Stier, and either Fenrir or Siebzehn) in your party, fly to Deus in the Yggdrasil, and enter. You'll be on a blue platform. Just walk northwest and jump down the hole.

Merkava Map

   As soon as you land in here, you'll receive a map that you can activate by hitting Select (BTW, if you want to leave, just step in the orange beam and hit X). There's only two chests anywhere in the dungeon, and they're not even worth getting, so this is a pretty straightforward dungeon. The only thing that distuingishes it are the fairly tough enemies. On this floor, you'll fight Eagle Blades (easy due to their low HP, though they can heal themselves), Eagle Armor (a bit tougher, they do 800 damage per attack and can attack twice a turn), Wind Seraphs (they can cast the nasty Halo spell that does 2500 - 3000 damage to the party; use Stier since it's the only one that can really hurt them), Edins (rare, and easy to kill), and Water Seraphs (even more rare; they use a different Halo attac that does 9999 damage to one character). Both kinds of Seraphs drop Angel Armor, which you might want to equip to reduce the amount of damage Halo does to you.

   From the starting point, go north and take a right at the first fork. At the next fork, go due north and jump over the laser beam. Turn northeast at the third fork, then go southeast at the fork after that. Next, go northeast and jump over the laser. There's a save point to the southeast, and the exit is to the north. It leads to a room with a ledge and a pipe below you; jump on in! You'll have to dodge a series of lasers as you fly through the tunnel, but it shouldn't be too hard.

   You land on the next floor, which is basically a huge (and cool) puzzle. You have to use buttons to rotate the two-tiered platforms in such a way that you can reach the exit. To start with, take the elevator down, then go south one platform. Ride the elevator there up and go south all the way to the door. Go through in the ducts.

   There's fights in here, and they're tougher down here. You'll fight Fire, Earth, and Power Seraphs (in ascending order of difficulty). All are basically the same; just keep attacking them to bring them down and equip all the better anti-Angel items you get. Occasionally Heal Seraphs show up; they're easily identified by their big smiley face. They'll heal whomever attacks them until the Heal Seraphs run out of HP and die. Use them to fill up whenever you see them.

   Inside the ducts, go south and take the turn to the east (don't forget about your map!). At the next junction, go north and exit back out of the ducts. Walk around to the north side of the platform and grab the G-Godson Ammo from the chest. Return to the ducts and take the southeast-most passage to a door. Exit through there and head west to the platform. Ride the elevator up. To the west, you'll find a handy Repair Bot that will restore your Fuel and HP for free. Use his services, then go back into the ducts and head north until you reach the three-way fork. Go southwest and continue until the path splits in two again. Go due south (the other way is a dead-end) and exit out into the puzzle area.

   Head south to the first platform and go east from it to another platform with a beam of light up on top. Hop up the ladder-like thing on the front of the pillar to get to the beam, then press X on it. This will create part of the bridge you need to get to the exit. Go west one platform, then southwest one. Ride the elevator up, and go south one platform. Head west and through the door into a new section of ducts.

   Go south at the first turn and you'll reach another turn right away. The south route will lead you to a chest with a Pilot Shield, but do you really need that at this point? Just go north and then west, and exit the ducts.

   At the first platform, ride the elevator up and go west a platform. Hop up the pillar and activate the switch at the top. This will cause the pillar to rotate, altering the pattern of bridges (check your map to see the difference). To the north, you'll find the Repair Bot; you might as well have him heal you again. Then go south one platform (from the spinning one) and ride the elevator down. Go south two platforms and ride the elevator up. There's another spinner switch on top of the pyramid; jump up and flick it to spin this platform. Ride the elevator back down, and go right one platform, then up one. Ride the elevator up, go northeast one platform, and hop up to the beam of light atop the pillar. Hit X to complete the bridge to the exit.

   Now, return to the last spinning platform and use the spinning switch again to spin it back the way it was. Retrace your steps to the first spinning platform, then go east, back into the ducts. In the ducts, go east, south, and then east at the intersection. At the next fork, go northwest and follow the path to yet another insection. Go north and continue along that route until you emerge from the ducts. Cross the bridge to the southeast to a platform. Ride its elevator down and go east to the exit, which is another tube. Jump through and do some more laser-dodging.

   You're in what should be pretty familiar territory. Johnny is still in his usual post to the right, if you need to buy stuff from him. Also, you can use the escape chute to leave Deus, but after you've come this far, why would you want to? (It's there if you need it, though) Just save your game at the save spot and go north past the room where you fought Ramsus to the room where Deus was. Walk up to the hole and jump in.

   The hole leads to the extremely impressive core of Deus. Yes, it's time for the big showdown with the head honcho. Now, what you are "supposed" to do is destroy the four orbs surrounding Deus (each is a separate boss) with your less important characters in order to weaken Deus. This is a big fat waste of time, because Deus is really easy if you know the right strategy.

   Here's the big, earthshaking, strategy: Equip Fei with the Speed Shoes (yes, they work while you're on your Gears, too... I think it's a goof). That's basically it, though a GNRS50 or 20 is highly recommended for the Xenogears. As for the other two characters, put Stier and Siebzehn in because of their high HP, and equip them DeathBlower1s. Also equip everyone with Ether Ar+3 and a Frame HP50. Then rotate the camera so Deus is due north, then carefully dodge between the orbs to attack Deus's core.

   Deus has a huge range of attacks. They are: Earthly Anointment, does 3000-5000 earth damage to party; Healing/Restore, restores 4000 HP to Dues; Heavenly Anointment, causes power loss in all Gears and thereby reducing attack power; Fuel Drain, sucks 400 Fuel from each Gear (this and three previous attacks can be eliminated by killing the minibosses, but it's hardly necessary); Deus' Thunderbolt, 3000 HP in Angel damage to party (rare); and an unnamed laser attack that does about 8000 damage (the worst of the bunch).

   Here's your strategy: Siebzehn and Stier alternate between X button attacks and their Triangle, X Deathblows. Xenogears attacks with X button attacks until it reaches Infinity Level (which is very quick if you've got the Speed Shoes), then hits Deus with three Kishins, each of which will do 9999 damage if you've got a GNRS50. After Infinity Level wears off, simply build back up and do it again. Oh, and heal as necessary, of course -- as long as all three characters are alive, Deus will be forced to spread out its attacks and will have a hard time killing you.

   After you do 38,000 damage to Deus, the Anima and Animus figures in his hands will fly off and start attacking you at the start of each round for about 2000 damage each, plus Deus will get a few new attacks. This will make things tougher; you have to be sure to stay above 14,000 HP at all times because Deus's annoyingly-long Ultimate Break does that much damage (fortunately, he can only do it once... well, I've never seen him cast it more than once, at least). He also has a weaker attack called Cosmic Crusher that does 6000 damage to a single characters. Just keep up the same pattern of hitting and healing; it may take a few tries, but if you have a GNRS50, you shouldn't have too much difficulty and inflicting the remaining 30,000 points of damage needed to kill Deus. And then it's over... or IS it?