Robotrek from Enix on SNES FAQ v2.00 (29 December 2000) author: Peter Karsanow - karsanow@twrol.com location: the latest revision of this FAQ will be posted to my site at http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/7810/ as the file: robo_faq.txt (transcribed manual is robo_man.txt) This file may be freely distributed, as long as no charge is made for obtaining this file, and it is kept whole with all attributions intact. Comments and corrections requested. Table of Contents ================= Introduction Revision History Playing Combinations Inventing Walkthrough Advice on Equipment Scraps Attack & Defense Tables Special Attacks Things found in Item Capsules on Battle Screen Monsters Game Genie Codes (mostly unverified) SPOILERS Introduction ------------ This is an FAQ file for the SNES game "Robotrek" (c)1994 Quintet/ANCIENT/ENIX and licensed by Nintendo. If you don't legally own or aren't renting a copy of the game, you are obligated to return or destroy any ROM files after 24 hours of use. There is a transcribed manual available for the game, transcription done by me. I wrote some of this file before I had the manual, and I will include "aha!"-type stuff based on what's in the manual here, rather than in the manual file (robo_man.txt). Robotrek was in volume 68 (January 1995) of Nintendo Power magazine, cheat codes given in volumes 70 and 71. This game was known as "Slap Stick" or "Slapstick" in Japan, and Enix's web site called it "comedic role-playing." I don't see what's funny, especially when your mother was replaced by an Android, and Carl's father was kidnapped by Rose. The translation could certainly have been better too, but I'm amazed by what they managed to cram into 1.5 megabytes. At an Enix web site (http://www.marinet.or.jp/com/enix/whats/sfc_e2.html) it says: SLAP STICK (English title "ROBOTREK"), on sale in North America July 8, 1994 Comical Role Playing Game Here is a unique comical role playing game that turns common sense upside down. Players develop their own robots, using the game's programming functions, and battle their robots against the enemy. Players even create their own weapons and fighting techniques. Technical data: 12 Mbits ROM, 64 Kbits battery-backup SRAM "Akihabara" is the name of the "Electric Town" shopping district in Tokyo, the biggest area for electronics stores in the world. Kind of appropriate for an inventor's name, although the root of it is Japanese words for "god of fire protection", "shrine", and an alternate way of reading two kanji that was more popular than the original. Although the game actually has a space separating them, I'm going to refer to the various Scrap items as "ScrapX" instead of "Scrap X". This makes it easier to search this document for where you find a particular Scrap or what you can make with it. I haven't provided a real review for this game, but I happen to agree with what's at: http://www.thegia.com/snes/robo/robo.html (which has manual scans, screenshots, etc. too - "infernal carnival" is usually a good way to describe the music) Revision History ---------------- new in v2.00 (29 December 2000): Yes, it's been a really long time! But since nobody else seems to have an FAQ about this game still, finally played it through a second time to bulk up the walkthrough. While it was fun enough once, twice was too much, so I hope going overboard on the walkthrough now means I don't have to play this ever again! Also did the promised rearrangement of text, Table of Contents and consistent headings. Redid the Attack/Defense tables. Added in a bunch of stuff based on old emails going back to 1997! Hope that this answered nearly all of the questions that were coming up. "Secrets" added: Cyber-Jack at Father's House, K mentions Legendary Blade, Little Robot to Prinky, $8200 to fundraisers. Too many people to thank up here, but if you were among the first, you're in here! This >should< be the last major revision of this FAQ, although a few details can still be added. See the end of the Spoilers section, plus here are a few more issues: 1. Verify Suppon Hammer gains heal ability only at L9. 2. Determine minimum amount to donate in the past to get your picture on the wall of the Mayor's House. new in v1.08 (19 April 1998): thanks to tdyer for reminding me about the Power Pack new in v1.07 (15 April 1998): rather than throwing previous change listings away, let's keep them! info from Mpeg3 re emulators & transparency more from Mpeg3 re the Warehouse on 3F in the space Fortress new in v1.06 (01 April 1998): finally went through my Robotrek emails and filed them all! a few hints on the Forest of Illusion and Prinky's Castle Tran said something about using Weather on South Island and sorry, Tran, there is no Laser 4 thanks to Michael (jdoyle) for noticing two ways to make money! game copyright and 24-hour use text added some Game Genie codes text from the Enix web site hints from "Bearcouncl" - fix rusty drill, bio lab treasure, escape jail, expose false mayor, save a crab (basically the sections that start with all capital letters LIKE THIS) Nintendo Power magazine listing no data for the intermediate versions... new in v1.01 (04 September 1997): added website address new in v1.00 (22 August 1997): initial release Playing ------- No serious problems reported (except implementing transparent overlays) with the ZSNES or SNEX9x emulators. Mpeg3 tells me: "using Zsnes and transparencies have worked for awhile, you just need to have the right video mode selected: Transparency effects are only available in 65536 color mode". I haven't checked Robotrek on ZSNES, but Snes9x v1.33a works fine (sound glitches are probably due to my virus checker and other software running). Default button assignments are accessed and can be changed while playing by: Select - left - left - A Note that holding down "B" speeds up movement (Dash), and pressing Select in combat will switch to your next robot. The R, L and X buttons will do the corresponding attack (quicker than A, move down to Attack, move down to the particular attack you want). Press Select when showing your inventory to auto-arrange the items. You probably won't like what it does. Either I messed while transcribing the manual, or it doesn't tell you what the A button is used for on the 2 pages with all the other buttons and controls. The most important use that you can't figure out from the manual is for searching - just face a location you wish to search and press A. The game will usually not do anything, but this is the way that you get the books and other hidden items in the game. Another use is to talk to people. Thanks to Nathan for asking a question about getting the Seed that made me realize that this important part of the game was missing. "FLASH ITEM" is a count of how many items you can make (Invent). The "effective range" of your Robot on a battle screen should be lit up before and during movement - if it isn't, your emulator isn't doing transparency effects properly. While time still ticks away, but you don't lose anything for trying to move somewhere and failing, this wasn't a major problem when I first played the game. Pressing the B BUTTON during a battle is supposed to make the Robot recharge faster. When I tried this, it seemed like enemies did a lot more damage, so you may have a lower defense in exchange. When a Robot gets Rust (skull above it, little black skull next to Energy value), it will lose Energy every so often during a battle. If you fight very quickly (bombs away!) you may avoid the effect. Or you could quickly use a Clean... When a Robot is confused (skull above it, little blue skull next to Energy value), you have to just wait it out. I've never seen the Robot make any attacks while confused, it just wanders around. When a Robot gets the Stop condition, I hope you have attacks you can use that don't require moving around. Just have to wait this one out too. The Hero's facing is very significant to starting combats. Walk into the monsters or at least let them walk into you on the front or forward sides, otherwise they get first attack. Some, e.g. Masker or Beret, should NEVER be allowed to get first attack on you! In battles, attacking from behind is legal, and tends to do more damage. No attacks from the side, you must be either directly in front of or directly behind to use "hand-to-hand" weapons, and facing the enemy and on the same line to use some "shooting" or "distance" weapons. For Bombs, it doesn't matter where you are (may need to be on same line). The most damage I ever saw done by a Robot's attack was 315 - back shot on a Mushroom with a Hammer 3 Lv9. The most damage I ever saw done by a monster's attack was 146 - by a Boss, don't remember which, but it was more than enough to turn the Robot into junk at the time. Update: 427 using Punch 3 L6 on a Luckstar, but Robot was cheated using the 280 power code below. "The Paladin" says he got 999 with an Axe 3 Lv 9 on the final Boss, using only a single attack, no combinations! Works great against regular monsters too, such as Shells, Berets & Maskers. Steelkiel points out that a special attack that does 3 of one weapon in a row, like LLL or RRR, can easily do 900+ damage to the final Boss. It will display the damage value in flashing colors that change - that means it was a critical hit (random?). Even if it doesn't, you should do 1.5x-2.5x a normal attack. Unfortunately, while you're running around "trapped" in various places, and are unable to get to an R&D, the Portable Invention Machine won't let you combine things with what the Robot has equipped. Well, actually it won't let you change the Robot's equipment and then combine things with the items the Robot used to have equipped. Even in an R&D it takes a lot of switching back and forth. And of course you can't build Robots with the Portable (then why is that stupid button there the whole game?). I programmed all 3 of my Robots (went from 1 to 3 pretty early) with the same allocations of program points: equal amounts to all categories. This worked until level 47, when you can put points only in Energy after all the others are at 99. Second time through the game, I used the 280 power cheat below on one robot, and used it for all but Boss fights. Items and money can be hidden in boxes, bookcases, beds, etc. all over the game. I usually point out where though. The obvious ones are in Item Capsules, round things that look like Poké Balls. You'll see them sometimes during battle, but rarely you'll see one appear after a combat where the monster was. Just press A to open it. Some Item Capsules have square bases, these are like treasure chests, and can only be opened once. You don't have to open a round Item Capsule immediately after battle, e.g. if there are other monsters around. But if you leave the screen and return, it will be gone. These capsules can contain money or items, but it depends on the monster type(s). See the Monster section below. Combinations: (order doesn't matter) ------------- (these are sorted on the product, "Lv#" means level doesn't matter) Cure + Smoke = Big Bomb Smoke + Bomb1 Lv1 = Big Bomb Scrap7 + Scrap7 = Big Bomb Cure + Cure = Clean Cure + Repair = Clean Clean + Clean = Cure Clean + Repair = Cure Smoke + Big Bomb = Cure Repair + Smoke = Cure Clean + Rusty Drill = Drill Scrap7 + ScrapB = Little Robot Repair + Empty Pack = Quick Pack Clean + Cure = Repair Clean + Smoke = Repair Clean + Big Bomb = Repair Cure + Big Bomb = Repair Cure + Scrap7 = Repair Weather + Empty Pack = Solar Pack Repair + Repair = Smoke Repair + Big Bomb = Smoke Big Bomb + Big Bomb = Smoke Smoke + Smoke = Smoke Smoke + Scrap7 = Weather Scrap1 + Scrap1 = Sword1 Lv1 Sword1 Lv1 + Sword1 Lv1 = Sword1 Lv2 Sword1 Lv1 + Sword1 Lv2 = Sword1 Lv3 Sword1 Lv1 + Sword1 Lv3 = Sword1 Lv4 Sword1 Lv# + Scrap1 = Sword2 Lv1 Sword1 Lv# + Scrap9 = Sword3 Lv1 Sword2 Lv# + Scrap9 = Sword3 Lv1 (doesn't work for Sword4) Sword3 Lv# + Scrap7 = Sword4 Lv1 (doesn't work for Sword 1 or 2) Sword4 Lv1 + Sword2 Lv2 = Sword4 Lv2 (ouch!) Sword4 Lv2 + Sword1 Lv1 = Sword4 Lv3 (and so on up to Sword4 Lv9) Scrap2 + Scrap2 = Shot1 Lv1 Shot1 Lv1 + Shot1 Lv1 = Shot1 Lv2 Shot1 Lv# + Scrap2 = Shot2 Lv1 Shot1 Lv1 + Shot2 Lv1 = Shot2 Lv2 Shot1 Lv1 + Shot2 Lv2 = Shot2 Lv3 Shot2 Lv2 + Laser1 Lv1 = Shot2 Lv3 (ow!) Shot2 Lv3 + Shot2 Lv1 = Shot2 Lv4 (ouch!) Shot1 Lv1 + Shot2 Lv4 = Shot2 Lv5 Shot2 Lv# + Scrap2 = Shot3 Lv1 (doesn't work for Shot3) Shot3 Lv1 + Laser2 Lv1 = Shot3 Lv2 (ouch!) Shot3 Lv1 + Shot1 Lv1 = Shot3 Lv2 (and so on up to Shot3 Lv9) Shot3 Lv9 + Shot1 Lv1 = Shot3 Lv9 Clean + Scrap6 = Hammer1 Lv1 Scrap6 + Solar Pack = Hammer2 Lv1 (ouch!) Hammer1 Lv9+ Hammer2 Lv1 = Hammer2 Lv5 Scrap6 + Scrap6 = Hammer3 Lv1 Scrap1 + Scrap6 = Axe1 Lv1 Sword1 Lv1 + Hammer1 Lv1 = Axe1 Lv2 Sword1 Lv2 + Hammer1 Lv1 = Axe1 Lv3 Sword2 Lv2 + Hammer1 Lv1 = Axe1 Lv3 (ouch!) Sword1 Lv3 + Hammer1 Lv1 = Axe1 Lv4 Axe1 Lv# + Scrap1 = Axe2 Lv1 Axe2 Lv1 + Axe1 Lv4 = Axe2 Lv3 Hammer2 Lv1+ Sword2 Lv9 = Axe2 Lv9 Axe1 Lv1 + Axe2 Lv5 = Axe2 Lv6 Axe1 Lv# + Scrap9 = Axe3 Lv1 (doesn't work for Axe3) Axe2 Lv# + Scrap1 = Axe3 Lv1 Axe1 Lv1 + Axe3 Lv1 = Axe3 Lv2 Axe3 Lv1 + Axe2 Lv5 = Axe3 Lv3 (!?) Axe3 Lv1 + Axe2 Lv6 = Axe3 Lv4 (!?) Axe3 Lv4 + Axe1 Lv1 = Axe3 Lv5 Axe3 Lv4 + Axe1 Lv2 = Axe3 Lv5 (ow!) Scrap2 + Scrap6 = Celtis1 Lv1 Shot1 Lv1 + Hammer1 Lv1 = Celtis1 Lv2 Shot2 Lv1 + Hammer1 Lv1 = Celtis1 Lv2 (ouch!) Shot1 Lv2 + Hammer1 Lv1 = Celtis1 Lv3 Celtis1 Lv2+ Celtis1 Lv2 = Celtis1 Lv4 Shot2 Lv3 + Hammer1 Lv1 = Celtis1 Lv4 (ouch!) Shot1 Lv9 + Hammer2 Lv1 = Celtis1 Lv5 Celtis1 Lv2+ Celtis1 Lv4 = Celtis1 Lv6 Celtis1 Lv1+ Celtis1 Lv6 = Celtis1 Lv7 Shot2 Lv1 + Hammer2 Lv1 = Celtis2 Lv2 Shot2 Lv4 + Hammer2 Lv1 = Celtis2 Lv5 Celtis2 Lv1+ Celtis1 Lv9 = Celtis2 Lv5 Scrap6 + Scrap9 = Celtis3 Lv1 Celtis3 Lv1+ Celtis2 Lv9 = Celtis3 Lv5 Scrap4 + Scrap4 = Punch1 Lv1 Punch1 Lv1 + Punch1 Lv1 = Punch1 Lv2 Punch1 Lv# + Scrap4 = Punch2 Lv1 Punch1 Lv1 + Punch2 Lv1 = Punch2 Lv2 Punch2 Lv# + Scrap4 = Punch3 Lv1 Punch1 Lv# + Scrap9 = Punch3 Lv1 (doesn't work for Punch2 or 3) Punch1 Lv1 + Punch3 Lv1 = Punch3 Lv2 Punch2 Lv1 + Punch3 Lv2 = Punch3 Lv3 (ouch!) Punch1 Lv1 + Punch3 Lv3 = Punch3 Lv4 (and so on up to Lv9) Punch1 Lv1 + Punch3 Lv9 = Punch3 Lv9 Scrap2 + Scrap7 = Laser1 Lv1 Laser1 Lv# + Scrap7 = Laser2 Lv1 Laser2 Lv1 + Shot1 Lv1 = Laser2 Lv2 Laser2 Lv1 + Laser1 Lv9 = Laser2 Lv5 Scrap1 + Scrap10 = Blade1 Lv1 Sword1 Lv2 + Laser1 Lv1 = Blade1 Lv3 Sword1 Lv1 + Laser2 Lv1 = Blade1 Lv2 (ouch!) Sword4 Lv# + Scrap1 = Blade2 Lv1 Sword2 Lv1 + Laser2 Lv1 = Blade2 Lv2 Sword3 LvX + Laser3 LvY = Blade3 LvZ (reported by Nightwind) Scrap8 + Smoke = Blade4 Lv1 Seed + Blade3 Lv# = Blade4 Lv1 (reported by Nightwind) Punch1 Lv1 + Laser1 Lv1 = Blow1 Lv2 Scrap4 + Scrap9 = Blow2 Lv1 Punch2 Lv1 + Laser2 Lv1 = Blow2 Lv2 Punch3 Lv9 + Laser2 Lv1 = Blow2 Lv9 Scrap4 + Scrap10 = Blow3 Lv1 Bomb 1 + Scrap10 = Bomb 2 (doesn't work for Bomb 2 or 3) Weather + Scrap10 = Bomb 3 Bomb 1 + Boots 6 = Bomb 4 Boots 1 + Scrap3 = Boots 2 Boots 2 + Scrap3 = Boots 3 (doesn't work with Boots 3 or 5) Boots 1 + Scrap7 = Boots 3 (doesn't work with Boots 2, 3 or 5) Scrap3 + Scrap5 = Boots 4 Scrap3 + Scrap9 = Boots 5 Boots 5 + Scrap10 = Boots 6 Scrap3 + Scrap10 = Boots 6 Scrap5 + Scrap5 = Shield 1 Clean + Scrap5 = Shield 2 Clean + Shield 1 = Shield 2 Scrap5 + Scrap9 = Shield 3 Weather + Scrap9 = Shield 4 Scrap7 + Scrap9 = Shield 4 Scrap9 + Scrap9 = Shield 5 Scrap9 + Shield 4 = Shield 5 Rules of Combining - see page 24 of manual, and the poster. The manual uses the term "Rank" for the major number of a weapon or armor item, e.g. Sword 1. "Level" is the minor number that only weapons have, i.e. Sword 1 Lv 2. The manual gets rather confusing about rank and level in the rules, and my corrections in []s probably don't help much. The poster is much better. My explanation of the Level (Lv or L) produced by a weapon combination: 1. For two input items at the same rank, just add the Level values together, maximum of 9. 2. At different rank, take the Level of the lower-ranked item and divide by 2, drop fractions, and add to the Level of the higher-ranked item, maximum of 9. This means that the best way to use lower-ranked weapons to upgrade higher ones is by throwing cheap Level 1 ones at the higher-ranked one, e.g. Axe 1 L1 + Axe 2 L1 = Axe 2 L2, but Axe 1 L2 + Axe 2 L1 = Axe 2 L2 and Axe 1 L3 + Axe 2 L1 = Axe 2 L2 too! Also, the most you can get from a lower-ranked weapon at L9 is 4 levels, e.g. Sword 4 L1 + Sword 1 L9 = Sword 4 L5, but Sword 4 L1 + Sword 2 L9 = Sword 4 L5 too! The following ignore combinations with or of Scraps: Swords combine with other Swords, maximum rank 4. A Sword 4 won't combine with other types of weapons, only Swords. Shots combine with Shots or Lasers (higher rank determines which is produced, ties go to Laser), maximum rank 3. Hammers combine with Hammers, maximum rank 3. The Hammer 2 is a lot more expensive than Hammer 3, and it doesn't appear to be that good a weapon at first glance. But at Lv9, Hammer 2 will heal the Robot! (I suspect this is the "Suppon Hammer".) Punches combine with other Punches, maximum rank 3. Lasers combine with Shots or Lasers (higher rank determines which is produced, ties go to Laser), maximum rank 3. Axes are created by combining Sword & Hammer (lowest rank is Axe rank, can't use Sword 4), combine with other Axes, maximum rank 3. Blades are created by combining Swords & Lasers (except Sword 4), combine with other Blades, maximum rank 4. A Blade 4 won't combine with anything; you have to upgrade it with "Equip level up" capsules. Blows are created by combining Punch & Laser, combine with other Blows, maximum rank 3. A Celtis is created by combining Shot & Hammer (lowest rank is Celtis rank), combine with other Celtis, maximum rank 3. Bombs don't combine with Bombs or other weapons. Shields don't combine with other Shields. Weapons produced by combinations with Scraps or anything other than a weapon are at level 1. Raise an item's level by either combining it with others, or having it equipped when you get a "Equip level up" Item Capsule. The easiest place to get those is (except when in "past" Rococo) the Forest, unless you are still at low level. That's a great place to test out Special Attacks too. Inventing --------- Inventor's Friend volumes: (you must be at least that level to read a volume) (all of these books are in a Bookcase) (volumes 1-50 are also in the Library on Kirara - see spoiler at end of file) Level 1 = Boots 1 = 2nd room N in Father's House Level 2 = Sword 1 = 2nd room N in your house in Rococo Level 3 = Shot 1 = 2nd room N in your house in Rococo Level 4 = Bomb 1 = 3rd room N in your house in Rococo Level 5 = Shield 1 = 3rd room N in your house in Rococo Level 6 = Hammer 1 = 3rd room N in your house in Rococo Level 7 = Punch 1 = 3rd room N in your house in Rococo Level 8 = Boots 2 = 2nd room N in Prinky's House (N of F. Illusion) Level 9 = Axe 1 = room W wing of Prinky's House Level 10 = Shield 3 = room W wing of Prinky's House & room must enter as mouse in Fortress (War Room) Level 11 = Power Pack = room W wing of Prinky's House & room must enter as mouse in Fortress (War Room) Level 12 = Sword 2 = R&D in Volcano Level 13 = Punch 2 = R&D in Volcano Level 14 = Celtis 1 = Einst Office in Volcano Level 15 = Shield Pack= 2nd room N in Father's House Level 16 = Quick Pack = Chief's Room in Volcano & room must enter as mouse in Fortress (War Room) Level 17 = Bomb 2 = Einst Office in Volcano & Mainframe room in Fortress Level 18 = Turbo Pack = 3rd room N in your house in Rococo & Mainframe room in Fortress Level 19 = Weather = 3rd room N in your house in Rococo Level 20 = Vanish = 3rd room N in your house in Rococo Level 21 = Smoke = front room Crispy Shop in Rococo Level 22 = Cure = front room Crispy Shop in Rococo Level 23 = Clean = far N room Crispy Shop in Rococo Level 24 = Repair = 3rd room N in your house in Rococo Level 25 = Laser 1 = Mainframe room in Fortress Level 26 = Blade 1 = Prison Cell in Fortress Level 27 = Blade 2 = Prison Cell in Fortress Level 28 = Bomb 3 = Polon's House in "past" Rococo Level 29 = Shot 3 = Polon's House in "past" Rococo Level 30 = Shield 5 = Lab on Choco Level 40 = Boots 6 = Lab on Choco Level 50 = Bomb 4 = Lab on Choco Level 60 = Laser 3 = Library on Kirara Level 70 = Solar Pack = Library on Kirara Level 80 = Blade 4 = Library on Kirara The following are learned by other means: Relay = from Flavon in Prinky's House west wing Glasses = book in R&D in Volcano Bio Lab Little Robot = from Grandma in Rococo Cyber Jack = Dr. G's in Fortress Some stuff appears to have been skipped: Shot 2, Shield 2, etc. I found only one Empty Pack in the game. Because it's essential for making the Hammer 2 (Suppon Hammer), do NOT discard or recycle the Empty Pack, and don't waste it on making a Quick Pack! If you did, there's only one other way to make the Suppon Hammer: get to level 70, then read the Solar Pack book on Kirara. Cost to Make Item(s) 10 Glasses, Cyber Jack 20 Relay, Smoke 60 Cure 100 Clean 200 Sword 1, Hammer 1, Punch 1, Shot 1, Boots 1, Weather, Big Bomb 300 Repair 400 Bomb 1, Shield 1, Axe 1, Sword 2 500 Vanish, Punch 2, Celtis 1 1000 Shield 3, Boots 2, Bomb 2, Laser 1, Shot 3, Blade 1 1400 Bomb 3 2000 Little Robot, Blade 2, Bomb 4 3000 Power Pack, Turbo Pack, Shield 5 4000 Boots 6, Solar Pack 5000 Shield Pack, Quick Pack 6000 Blade 4 Prices are also the same at Crispy Shop in Rococo and shop on South Isle after drought, *1.5 at shops on South Isle and in the Rococo Tunnel and Choco, 1/2 at "past" Rococo and at the Crispy Shop (if you gave the $5000) after you return from the past. You get 1/2 price for Recycle when in R&D. Michael (jdoyle) noticed that if you combine a Clean ($100 to make or buy) and a Smoke ($20 to make or buy), you get a Repair for $120, and you can recycle it for $150 to gain $30. You can get infinite money this way, but it takes a while. You can also combine a Smoke and a Cure for a Big Bomb and recycle it to make $20. Thus, as long as you have at least $80 and two "human" item slots empty, and access to an Invention Machine, you can always build your cash back up to any amount necessary - even less if you're willing to sacrifice some existing items to get started. Best of all, you can do this starting at Level 1! A good place to get GP through combat is the first screen of the Forest of Illusion (except when in the past). Those moles tend to leave money behind. Walkthrough ----------- [Let's do a "real" walkthrough for all the people who can't seem to figure out what I thought was pretty obvious in most places.] First off, READ THE MANUAL! And when you get stuck, READ THE MANUAL! If you don't, you'll have trouble figuring out what I'm telling you to do. Press the Start button, then press A button at Start New Game. Enter a name for yourself, then press A at "End" to begin. Starting dialogue (press a button to advance the text), then move around your house. Press A while facing the white thing (vase?) above your bed to get 500 GP (I use $ instead of GP most of the time though). There are lots of hidden items in the game, just press the A button to look for one in front of you. There are a Clean and 2 Cure items in the room above you, as well as a bunch of books you can't use yet. Go talk to Nagisa (press A to talk to somebody), she'll tell to you to leave the house and go to the big building to the north to talk to the Mayor. Go around the house and head that way, talk to everybody in there. When you leave, a kid at the door will say you should bring a dog to the Mayor. Go a little east and talk to the dog to get it to follow you. Now go talk to the Mayor again to freak him out, and you can peek at the Mayor's schedule. Turns out the kid was pulling your leg. Rotten kid. Did you find the Album with the Memorial Photo in the Mayor's Office? Look at it again after you come back from "past" Rococo. Now go back in your house (press A to open the door), and your dad will leave you the Robot Book. You get 2000 GP the first time you read it. Read it again to learn more about Robots, including that your #2 Robot has a strong close-in attack and #3 a strong special attack. Personally, I didn't notice much difference. Talk to Nagisa, then follow her to start working with the Invention Machine and make your first robot. Pick the middle command to build one. Nagisa also gives you the Transceiver, which you will be using to save your game and ask for hints. Go out, and head right to find the Crispy Shop. Even if you don't want them, the guy will let you go in the back after you talk to him once. Go there to pick up several items. If you want to make a ton of money by buying Smoke and Clean, combining them into Repair and then recycling them, now's a good time to do it. Leave Rococo by going south (bottom edge of screen) in front of your house. This will bring you to the large world map. Press the Select button while on the large map to enter View Mode, and you can scroll the map with the arrows. Otherwise just move around on the marked paths to get to other areas. There is no combat here, and you can't save or do anything but move. You can't save the game immediately upon entering an area. You first have to move at least once or press B to clear the location sign shown on the screen, then you can save. However some areas (like the River) have monsters set up to attack immediately when you enter. So, you should save before you enter somewhere, not when you get there. Now you can start fighting monsters (Hacker androids) in the Forest. At first, just go in until the mushroom on the left starts moving, and run away from it (hold down B), then go off to the side and run into it from the side or behind. Just as long as it doesn't run into your back. Use the Shot attack on monsters that are to the left of your robot but several spaces away, and Sword on those adjacent. Move next to and use Sword on any little things that look like Poke balls (see "Things found in Item Capsules on Battle Screen" section below), but watch your robot's HPs! Anytime your robot takes damage, run back to an Invention Machine (R&D) and fix it. You should have 500 left after building your first robot; use it to pay for healing. If a "Poké ball" appears on the ground after a combat, press A to open it. It will usually be a Clean (see "Booty" in Monster section below). When you gain a level, use the Portable Invention Machine to reprogram your robot(s) with the extra points (10 per level), then maintain them to get the HPs. Then, using the list of "Inventor's Friend" books above, go find and read the book for the new level. When the first mushroom combat is no challenge anymore, go further into the Forest. There are at least 3 more combats possible each time you go in, and you can just leave to reset them. You will also find a squared-off Poke ball (consider this a chest) on the ground, on the right side of the screen, after a mushroom combat. These treasures aren't reset when you leave a screen and re-enter, so get them when you can. "Above" that chest, there is a small plant that is brighter than usual. Press the A button while facing it to get the Seed. There's no rush on this, but you should get it before going to "past Rococo". When you finish the combat at the top of the screen, and leave that way, the path to the River area will be opened. You get an extra 0.1 Megs if you win combat with 1 to 10 on the timer, 0.2 if there is 11-19, 0.3 for 20 or more. Winning includes the monsters running away. CronosZ5 says you also get an extra 0.1 for each Capsule you open during a battle. At the start of the game, these bonuses are significant, but less so as you go on. Did you read the Diary you find on the bed in your Father's House? It explains Nagisa, but the game never goes anywhere with that until the very end of the game. Either by picking up money in capsules after battles, or by doing Clean + Smoke = Repair, you should soon have enough to afford building your second and then third robot. The Robot book says #2 has a strong close-in attack and #3 a strong special attack. Remember to set their program the way you want it, and do maintenance to fix their Energy, before you go anywhere. In the River area, you'll see your first monsters that attack as soon as you appear ("Mine" at entrance), and monsters that appear out of nowhere ("Gel" in dark brown areas and a few other surprise locations. You can walk on the dark blue water areas. Make it through this area to reveal the path to Cave Mouth. In Cave Mouth area, more immediate attack and surprise monsters. Don't worry about falling in the holes in the screen to the north (go up stairs on west side). You can try to enter the waterfall, but it won't let you. But remember it for later... Enter the cave to move on. Now you'll get a sequence with Dr. Einst and people from the town. You'll have to play around with moving to different places on the screen and pressing buttons to get things to happen in sequences like this. When it's done, you have to leave the room because the north exit is still blocked. But because of the explosion, you can now enter the big hole (was a bunch of little ones) in the screen to the north. I suggest you save before doing that, as you will be momentarily trapped in a part of the cave once you fall in. Make sure you get the Rusty Drill treasure before you let yourself be swept out of the cave by the fast water current (wbhshen was the first to tell me that this is the way out, instead of fighting until you go up a level and can combine Rusty Drill and Clean). You'll end up at the waterfall. You can either use an Invention Machine when you go up a level while still in the cave, or leave via the waterfall, to fix the Rusty Drill. FIX THE RUSTY DRILL by Bearcouncl: The drill isn't usable in its present condition, but if you take it back to an Invention Machine and combine it with Clean, you'll get a refurbished drill that can bore through walls. Return to the Cave with the Drill (once not Rusty) and either use it to get rid of rocks blocking your way, or fall in the hole again. Work your way through the cave rooms fighting monsters until you get to either a room with several kids in it, or one where you can hear them crying. Use the Surprise Horn in the "crying" room to hear them tell you to go to another room with a blocked entrance. Use the Drill at the north end of the room with the kids to let them out (except Carl, although he's gone if you return). Leave through the north exit, and then the eastern south exit of the next screen (outside) to reveal the path to the western Cave Mouth area. Now go back to Rococo. Talk to people, including Nagisa and the Mayor (without the dog). After you get $1000 from the Mayor, leave the room and return to catch Rose and the Mayor together on the couch! (sorry, no H though!) Talk to the Receptionist on your way out to be asked to bring Carl back to there. When you leave the building, Nagisa asks you to come home ASAP; you won't be able to leave Rococo until you do. Talk to your father when you get there; he mentions Flavon and leaves. Nagisa will now suggest that you search the cave again for Carl. If you go back to the cave entrance where the boxes of bombs where, the bombs are gone and a policeman thinks you did it! Go to the room where you heard the kids crying before (one with a lake in the middle). Now there's a hole with a rope in place of the water. Either fall through the hole, or climb the rope, to get down. Move to the rope and then up or down to climb it. Down here is your first Boss: Meta Crab. There may be a translation error here: Crab says "her" but Carl is a boy! Move through a few rooms until you get to a Hacker blocking the way. Use the Surprise Horn where he can't see you to make him move out of the way long enough for you to move to the exit. If you don't get it right, he won't move at all, or he'll spot you, and you'll have to try again. Now you'll be captured by the Hackers, and find another prisoner. Go along with him when you talk, and you can go on the Trolley. Find a Scrap4 on the other end. Another room with monsters, then talk to the guard at the door to fight. Finally you get to Meta Crab's boiler and shower, press A at the boiler until the door opens. Go in and get the Key from the holes on the North wall. The screen you passed earlier will turn on when you leave, and somebody will think you're Meta Crab and tell you to keep looking for Tetron in the cave. Return to the guy with the ball and chain, then equip the Key, and he'll escape. He's Kotetsu, and you'll see him again later. Now go back to the door just west of the rope and lake. This time, there's a Hacker guard in front of it. Talk twice to fight him, then enter. There's another closed door, and an ominous opening with a skull on the floor. That's your hint to save the game, then enter for your first Boss fight; it's Meta Crab! (And how did he get past you to THIS room?) I was able to beat Meta Crab using only one robot at level 9, just by shooting him a lot with a Shot 1 L 9. When fighting Meta Crab, ignore the small crabs, they're just there to be in the way. Had to use 1 Cure and 1 Clean (he can inflict Rust) during the combat, but I did it without changing robots or losing any. If this wimp is giving you trouble, go beat up lesser monsters for a while until you go up a level, then come back. After getting 20.0 Megs (probably going up a level) and $1000, follow Carl out to that closed door you passed just before fighting MC. Either way, you get Scrap1 and Carl gets the Litho. Leave the cave and return to Rococo. One of the kids in the town will mention the Haunted House and Forest of Illusion. Talk to the Receptionist (Carl's mom), then go see Nagisa in person. Carl is in the 3rd room, and he'll give you Stone 1. On leaving, Nagisa will ask you to check Father's House for the cat. When you get there, the cat will lead you away and 2 Hackers will flee the area. Now enter the house and look at the cabinet near the cat to find Father's Letter. It tells you to check the tombstone. You can now enter the tomb! There's a bird house to the left of your father's house here. At this stage of the game it says "a young bird is hatching." It will change as you move forward in the story, but you can ignore it. You can check the mailboxes too, but only one (Polon's in past Rococo) will ever contain anything. There are monsters in the tomb, but follow all the corridors to get an Axe 1, $1000, Shield 2, and a message from Rask telling you to visit Prinky's House past the Forest of Illusion (yes, also called the Haunted House) to get another third of the Tetron. When you leave the Father's House area, the path to "F. of Illusion" (Forest of Illusion) is revealed. You'll also see a spot that you can't really enter just south of another house. That's the Chicken Farm, which isn't really important, but you can get there later in the game. The Forest of Illusion uses a lot of transparency effects. If you're using an emulator that doesn't do them properly, it may be very difficult to see which way to go. Try turning layers or effects off then. Moles can only be hit if they're above ground. You should find Mint if you're on the right track to exit the Forest. Just keep following one route and exploring until you find her, then just keep going for several more screens until you exit and the path to "Old House" is revealed. Hint: "right" is not the best way to go at the first 4-way intersection. I got through the Forest of Illusion using two different things: First, I was using an emulator that let me turn off those annoying clouds. Second, I used the old "keep one hand on the wall" trick, which works for all simple mazes. If the right hand doesn't work, try the left. And if neither works, it's time to draw a map. (Although in this place, it won't help much, especially since you can't uniquely mark the screens.) As you can see by the list of Inventor's Friend books above, you have to move on to Prinky's House to get the Level 8 and 9 books. That's the "Old House" area on the map, which is revealed when you get through the Forest of Illusion. When you first get there, you'll see more transparency effects, but there's no monsters. Walk around the house and notice the locked Clock Tower door. Then go in and meet Igor. Follow him into the house. You'll see more effects and strange things inside the house, including several ghosts and doors that "bounce" you away from them. Go in the room that Igor indicates. Inside, you can find a Cure, a Repair, and read a book with sort of a hint in it. When you enter the bed, you'll see Rask, Igor and Prinky in sort of a dream sequence. That's your second hint that the teleporting doll is where the stone is hidden. Now leave and start exploring. Yes, Igor is apparently some kind of ghost. The "bounce" door is still there, so go where Igor did. You'll see him walking ahead of you. Follow him, but be warned that he'll stop at each segment of hallway and turn around to look for you. You better just keep him on the edge of the screen and follow at a distance. After he leaves the screen, you can then go and look at the interesting books and things he skipped. This is the first book by Count Prinky, a Shot 2, and the Level 8 Inventor's Friend (Boots 2). When you get to the door, you overhear Igor and Prinky. But the next room is only a library. Except that Mint walks in! She won't let you get to the books! Leave the room, then come back when you hear a scream. Mint's gone, and you'll have to guess how. The book on the left is the second Prinky book, but the marked book on the right will give you a small guided tour, and reveal a hole in the floor. That's where you need to go! But before you enter the hole, make sure you're ready: all Robots in peak condition, not too many useless things in inventory, etc. You can still leave the house and go to Rococo at this point, but not after you go in the hole! Just read the book on the right again to open the hole if you leave the library and return. This is a good time to make Boots 2 for all your Robots and switch to them; the extra movement in combat is worth it! As soon as you hit bottom, the doll comes by and says it wants your stone, and when you move you'll be jumped by 4 groups of Monks (fireballs). Beat them all, and go to the locked door (don't worry about the treasure at the moment, you'll get to it in a little while). The door is opened for you. In this next room are Flavon and Mint. Now you have to explore while keeping an eye out for a white dog that has his medicine. Walk on the switch at the left end of the room, then go back to that treasure. You now can get the Clean inside (big deal!). But this teaches you how the switches and barriers work down here. Go into the next room, and exit at the north (top) end of the screen; there's a treasure and some other stuff you'll skip for now. Climb the rope in the last room, and you're in the courtyard of the Old House. Enter the house and see Prinky. Say "Sure" (if you say "No way" he keeps reappearing each time you re-enter the room). Go north, equip Stone 1, and talk to the dog to have it follow you out. Just go back down the hole to Flavon; if you go west to the West Wing, you'll lose the dog. Back at Flavon and Mint, talk to Flavon and he gives you the Light (increases the area where the graphics are brighter when equipped). Now go back up to the Old House and go west from the room where you said "Sure" to Prinky. Prinky gives you another hint when you pass through here on your way west. The north exit of the room where you found the dog is now open, and it leads to an R&D! Since you can't leave the Old House at the moment, this is a good place to have one. Make some Boots 2 if you didn't before, then go west! You'll fight Hackers (Cmdr monsters) and ghosts (like you saw in the well) in the West Wing. In the first room, read Prinky's third book. Go south to a big room where you're on the upper floor, northwest side. If you head south, then cross over and go through the only door on the east side, you'll find yourself on the west side of the entrance hall; you can now leave the Old House! The "bounce" effect is gone from the west door now. OK, now that we're confident we can leave and come back, go back to where you entered that big upstairs/downstairs room, and take the first door to the west. Head north, and you'll find the Inventor's Friend Level 9 (Axe 1). Keep going and you can find Level 10 (Shield 3), Level 11 (Power Pack), and Prinky's fourth book. The door west that you skipped just leads to a bedroom with $500 and a Repair hidden, for now. Back in the big upstairs/downstairs room, head south but don't cross over to the east (to exit the House), head south some more (ignore the stairs down for the moment) and go through the west door to another bedroom. This one has nothing in it though - just wanted to make sure! OK, another time into the big room, now head down the stairs, make your way to a door heading north. You'll find a room with a coffin guarded by a little robot. It says that you look like who made it (hint!). Look at the coffin to get a Sword 2! Now what? We still haven't found Flavon again, or Mint at all. Here's the sneaky bit: go back down into the well and equip the Light (bright circle is bigger). From the bottom of the rope, go straight south until you hit the wall, then move twice to the west. You should be right above where you might expect there to be a door, but there isn't, is there? Try looking at the wall and this time (with the Light) a secret passage is revealed! Go in there, trip the floor switch, then go back out to take the Scrap3 treasure, and head over to the door even further south that was blocked until now. The sign says Breaker Room, as in electrical circuit breaker. Enter, and you'll overhear Hackers talking. They're blocking the door and won't budge, but they mention noise. They'll leave if you use the Horn. Go up through a room you couldn't get to before, and eventually see where Mint is being held prisoner. Go to the strange mark on the north wall of the small room, and press A there several times; the lights will turn off and on, and eventually the Hacker guard will leave. In fact, he'll run right through you if you stand in front of him! Now go talk to Mint. She'll leave, and you have to find the dog again. While you can turn off the lights again, and use the Light to see, it only affects this floor. OK, back out to that big upstairs/downstairs room. Flavon is now in the first bedroom, so take the first door, and keep heading west. You'll find a Hacker trying to interrogate him. He'll fight you (and hopefully lose), and can tell you he's Blackmore looking for Tetron. However, I think this is another translation error, and this is really just one of Blackmore's soldiers telling you that Blackmore ordered them to look for Tetron. Now talk to Flavon, and he'll tell you how to make Relay! This will let you talk with animals, once you make one and equip it. Your choice now: 1. head out of the Old House, and make a Relay somewhere else 2. go back to the R&D near the well Either way, make a Relay as soon as you can. Try it out on all the dogs, cats, mice and chickens you see in the game! Anyway, go back out to the courtyard near the well, and you'll find the dog wandering about. Equip the Relay and you can talk to Parsley. Look at the middle of the south side of the well to get the Key; this will open the door to the Clock Tower. So, make your way through the West Wing one last time, leave through the front door of the Old House, and walk around to the Clock Tower in the back. If you visit Flavon again, he says Mint saw a doll go into the Clock Tower. Equip the Key at the door and press A to open it. The Key will disappear, so change your equipped item to something else (like the Transceiver so you can save the game). In the Clock Tower, you want to press those lighted switches so they are at the bottom position. Go to the north (to a room I'll call the entry hall from now on, even though strictly speaking it isn't) and up the stairs. On this second floor, go north first and get the Cure treasure. Now go south, take the east exit, south, south, west to get to a central room with another lighted switch. Again, press it so it's lighted on the bottom, and retrace your steps east then north, and now take the new eastern north exit. Notice the gap in the railing on the west side? Save before you go through there! You fall down to the first floor near a floor switch. If you walk over it, you can go south, then west to the entry room of the Clock Tower. OK, go back to the switch, and head north. In that room to the north are Mint, a mouse, and another lighted switch. Talk to Mint, equip the Relay, talk to the mouse. After the mice and then Mint leave, flip the lighted switch to the bottom position. Head south, south, west through the entry room, then north through the door that was closed before. Take the Scrap1 you find in there. Go back to where Mint and the mice were. Talk to the mouse, and then look at all of the west wall of this room until you find the Secret Passage. You'll find a Scrap6 in there. If you've followed all the directions so far, you should now have two Scrap1, and one each of Scrap 2 through Scrap 6! Go back and talk to the mouse again, sounds like we need to get downstairs. But the only places we haven't been yet are on the second floor. So, head through the entry room to the second floor. From the start of the second floor head east then south. Something we did earlier has lowered the barriers, so now go west. Pass the locked door and head west some more. Flip the lighted switch in this room, then go back east and north through the door that's now open. Take the stairs. Flip the lighted switch to down (just in case) before entering the Clock Tick Doll's Room. You're bounced out of the room, but go back in. This time a mouse appears and the door is open to the north. Equip the Relay and talk to the mouse, then head north. Now you get to climb chains up and down, mostly down. While you're climbing, if you see any unopened capsules, you missed something earlier! Save the game before going north. The Old House and Clock Tower will be gone after you win, so make sure you got everything already. Now go to the east side and switch the lighted switch to the "down" side, then head through the opened door to meet a Hacker and the doll. Again, there's a skull design at the door to let you know a Boss fight is coming up. This one is Mamaruna. It changes from a doll to a large butterfly kind of monster for combat. The worst part about it is that it creates duplicates of itself, so you should have a Special Attack prepared like LLL (with a Shot weapon in that hand). LLL will move to each of the 3 lines and shoot once; one point of damage is enough to kill a duplicate. Another tactic to use is to just keep shooting at one of them, preferably from behind; if it disappears it was a duplicate. You can't go by the lettering ("MamarunaA"/B/C) because they switch invisibly. I managed to get through with 2 robots at level 18 using Shot 1 L9 each, but I had to use a Repair and several Cures. For some reason, my third Robot, the one that's supposed to have a strong Special Attack, did a lot better on defense than my first Robot even though their equipment and programs were the same, so I stuck with that one. The Megs that you get for this fight includes some amount for the duplicates, because I got 52.6 and 51.5 when I tried it again. Look at the doll to get Stone 2. Mint momentarily gets in your way when you leave the room, and Igor and Prinky think you did good. Flavon and his dog intercept you too, and next thing you know, you're at his house in Rococo. He puts you through a flashback sequence involving your father, and mentions South Isle. When you go see Nagisa in person, she'll tell you that you got a free South Isle vacation letter like some other people in Rococo. If you've gone up several levels since you last wandered around the large map, go read the books that you can; some are going to be only in areas that you will soon be visiting. When you leave Rococo, the path to the Harbor area is revealed. If you go back to the Old House, it's in ruins and the Clock Tower is gone. But remember this place to come back later when you have some items that you don't have at the moment... At Father's House, the baby bird is spreading its wings. Unfortunately, it doesn't say anything with a Relay. One of the books you may be able to read now is here too: Level 15 (Shield Pack). Don't worry if you're not up this high yet; if you keep fighting monsters you'll either get there, or you'll spend so much on curing damage that you'll eventually figure out you need to kill easier monsters for a while to get levels so you can add points to the Robots. It helps too if you raise the levels of the Robots' weapons, or build and give them better Boots or Shields. If you did manage to get to Level 19 already, read the book for Weather and follow the instructions in the Scraps section to get ScrapB. You can do this later though, with no ill effects. OK, let's go on a trip to South Isle! Go to the Harbor area, which is monster-free. Talk to the man in the grass skirt, then walk onto the boat. Wait while it toils across the seas of Quintenix. You'll arrive at the Pier area on South Isle. When you leave the area, the path to the Village area is revealed. Mint and more natives are in there, and the screen shakes along with a sound effect like a helicopter (on my emulator, at least); that's the Volcano. There's a Tool Shop in the Village, but it has the same stock as the one in Rococo and the prices are 50% higher. Find the Shaman's house in the northwest, and then enter the Elder's house in the northeast. Now visit the Shaman's house, and note that blocked door in the first room for later. Or you can skip all the background information, including talking to the Mayor, and just talk to the native in the Inn and then moving into the left bed. There will be a dream sequence with a gold robot at the Volcano. Talk to the native standing near the exit, and the path to the Volcano area will be revealed when you leave. The Volcano area is monster-free (for now). Explore it and get the Celtis 1 and $300 treasures before you talk to the native blocking the stairs to the hole. Now climb the rope, or fall in, and you're in the Volcano Cave. This has monsters in it, but you can always climb out and get back to Rococo, at least until you walk a bit west of the rope and you get a strange message from the guide and the rope disappears. I think it's trying to say that you're now a sacrifice to the Deity/Volcano. Anyway, clear out the monsters here and get the $500 treasure, then go north to the next room. The treasure in the northeast corner here is a Repair. Leave through the northwest corner, and you're now in what's obviously a man-made (or at least Hacker-made) area! Welcome to the Factory Experience! Stella and Pops from Rococo are here, but you can leave either through the south door, or by pressing the button on the north wall and then riding a conveyor belt (red is north, white is south in this room). I suggest exploring south first, as the conveyor belt area is tricky to navigate (return from it by letting a patrolling guard see you). I can understand why Stella and Pops don't leave, but the Hackers are beyond dumb for not taking everything from you including the 3 Robots. But if they did, it wouldn't be much of a game. OK, from Stella and Pops go south, west (get Cure treasure), east, south to the Bio Lab Ent. There's a strange thing on the north wall, and the Hacker guard won't let you go further. So let's go back and do the conveyor belts instead. As said above, you get sent back if a guard spots you. But they don't "see" very far or off to the sides. So do a lot of hiding in corners and just out of their range, and follow them around. There's several things to do here: 1. Get to the northeast corner with the locked door and mouse, talk to the mouse via the Relay. You'll be doing quite a bit of mouse hole movement later. Remember this locked door for later. 2. Dodge the guard again, go southwest and notice the other mouse hole near the doorway to the Hacker executive washroom. Go in, and the talkative Hacker will let slip some useful info, and put a Stamp on your hand (which doesn't actually show up anywhere, and it doesn't stop the patrolling guards from sending you back to Stella). He won't move out of the way either, so go on to... 3. It's not easy to tell from the graphics, but you can go west from the washroom door area "under" to get the Cure treasure. 4. This part is a little tricky: while dodging the guards, make your way to the southwest portion of the big conveyor room and press the button near that corner. That will reverse the conveyors, and allow you to go north. Now you're in another bathroom. The conveyor reverse button is on the north wall. You can talk to the guard blocking the west doorway here, and because you have that Stamp, he'll let you through! You're now in still another bathroom, but this one has monsters in it! Also has mouse holes on the north end, and $600 treasure too. Go through the exit in the southwest, and walk up to the "Boss" door. You'll overhear some talking between Dr. Einst and a Hacker, then they notice an eavesdropper! Luckily, it's another Hacker, not you. Also, notice the mouse holes here too. Now make your way back through this bathroom to the Executive one where a Hacker was blocking your way. After doing all that other stuff, the Hacker blocking the way now turns into Kotetsu. Talk to him and he wants you to follow him to the north. In there, he'll show you a garbage chute. But to be ornery, check out the toilet with yet another mouse hole next to it, and the door to the Chief Exec. toilet. Open the door behind Kotetsu, then go in to fall back into somewhere under the Volcano. That annoying "earthquake" effect is back... The treasure in a southwest corner of your entry room is a Cure. Take the west-most of the 2 exits on the south side; the eastern one just leads to one monster in a dead end. Keep going, and leave through the stairs in the southeast, but if you're willing to get through a few more fights you can notice an altar-like structure on the northeast side of this room before you leave. Now there are two small rooms with invisible monsters. These things are rather nasty, and can easily cause you to lose the game (bet you didn't know that you lose when all of your robots are junk!). A Masker is worth 2.6, and a Beret is 2.5! Most of the time they run away if you inflict damage, and you get 0.0 out of it. Best strategy is to Escape, then run away from them while they are visible and shaking their heads. There are two in each room. If you're lucky, you'll make it through both rooms without meeting any of them. To be fair to those of you playing without cheating, I didn't hang out here and get even more levels. But after these 2 rooms, you return to the outside world in the Shaman's House! This is now your opportunity to take a break and go back to Rococo or your Father's House to read more books, do other R&D stuff, or just build up your supplies (Clean, Cure, Repair). You won't get another chance, until you get to the R&D in the Volcano, to do this stuff. So ignore all the villagers thinking you're a ghost, and just go back to Rococo to rest up from your "vacation". The Volcano area now has Powermole monsters, and the rope is back so you can climb into and out of the Volcano Cave. The guard that wouldn't let you out of the "Bio Lab Ent." room is also gone, so you can freely walk into and out of this Hacker base under the Volcano. So if you want to go scouting and build up levels, go ahead! I strongly suggest you be at least level 16 before starting up with following the story again. It makes combat easier, and you can avoid retracing your steps to find books. When you talk to the Elder of the village, you begin a long sequence back in the Bio Lab. Basically, you're forced to walk into a wooden box decorated with a green scarab, and be carried to the Shrine, then the Director's Office. And Mint is in there with you! Dr. Einst shows up and tries to mack on Mint before mutual recognition occurs. Search the room: read the level 16 book (Quick Pack), notice yet another mouse hole, take the Key treasure, try talking to the skull device on the wall (it's DeityCom!). One strange thing but pointless thing about that scarab box is that while it appears wider than one "square", you can walk through the "half squares" on the sides. Hopefully you were level 16 already, and can now leave this room behind. If not, you'll either have to come back to read the book, or go to Kirara later, if you really must get them all. Walk out of the "Chief's Room" and find yourself on the far side of the Hacker bathrooms. The Hacker guard that looked at your Stamp earlier now can tell you that the Chief was chased to the Toilet. So, dodge patrolling guards, ride conveyors and press buttons as necessary to get to the big toilet where you got your hand stamped and met Kotetsu. Mint will be in there, and asks you to follow Einst further into the mens' room (some reporter!). The Hacker inside will tell you Kotetsu is the cleaning person, mention the Lunchroom, and tell you to check the Exec. facilities; you won't be allowed to go in the garbage chute again. Go in, and walk a step towards the toilet, and this small room (which has a mouse hole of its very own) does something strange, like move in an elevator fashion. Don't worry, you can walk out, into another bathroom and one other exit, and back in to get back where you started. By the way, the last place you could save the game was just outside the toilet where Mint is now. Those flashing lights on the side of the walkway are alarms; trip one and 4 groups of Cmdrs will show up! Go to the northeast exit to find the Earthquake Device door (which won't open with your Key), a hole, and a $400 treasure. Brave the alarms and go through the southeast exit to find a Secret Lab room with a hole and "Boss" design, but no door! (at least that you can see at the moment...) So return back to Mint and tell her it was a dead end. She'll run off, and you can go try out your Key on the only other locked door you can now get to: northeast of the big bathroom, where there's a mouse out in plain sight (told you to remember that!). You'll have to travel through this room with 2 Turbo monsters several more times, but for now head north. This is the Lunchroom. Kotetsu is all the way on the right, and will tell you to go get Chameleon Glasses from R&D. Go in the opening to the left of Kotetsu, and you'll find the Hacker Cook. If you like, go to the southeast opening and listen to Hackers order food. But talk to the Cook, and he'll tell you what to say to get into R&D by delivering food. So now head south (2 Turbo room), east (several monsters), north (the "Gunrobot" monster first shows up here, a hole and a $800 treasure), north (alarm on walkway for 4 groups of Cmdrs), north again (the "Biolion" and "CannonX" monsters first show up here, alarm on walkway for 3 groups of Cmdrs, another treasure), west (ignore the stairs down and the southwest exit, just head all the way to the left and press A at the door). If you followed my instructions back at the Cook, you'll be let in here. Inside the R&D, you can read the level 12 (Sword 2), level 13 (Punch 2) and Chameleon Glasses books! There's also an R&D/Invention Machine in the room to the north so you can immediately go make some of these new toys! Glasses should be your first priority; the game will only let you make one, and you can't discard them either! Leave the R&D room, go E to the stairs, go S through the underpass, then go left and get $600 treasure! Retrace your steps and keep heading right, and through the door to the E. In here, ignore the door to the S for now. Go to the N first to find Scrap4 treasure. Now go to the right underpass and through the door for $596 and Scrap7. Go back and do the door to the S that you passed up before. You'll come to 3 guys guarding the R&D money, and a Clean treasure. Now go back to R&D or skip it and go back to the Toilet (wear those Glasses at the blinking alarms, and walk through only when there's no line across to avoid aggravation). Go on the bathroom elevator and go to the room called Secret Lab, wear the Glasses, press A at the "door" then walk in. Read the level 14 (Celtis 1) and 17 (Bomb 2) books in the bookcase, and finally, the red book on the table. Oh no! You're a mouse! Well, while you can just walk around like normal, why don't we start exploring all those mouse holes? Unfortunately, the holes in here and in the hall outside (next to the Boss/skull design) just let you talk to one mouse and don't lead anywhere else. Note that you can't change equipment or do most other things besides pressing A (to talk) or Y (to use Equipped item) and the usual moving around, while you are in the mouse tunnels. So let's go back through that alarm and over to the mouse hole next to the Earthquake Device Room door. At first, it looks like you're in the same set of tunnels again, but they just look the same; the mouse tells you something different, and the other room is the long-sought Earthquake Device Room! Inside is Mint, getting nowhere with the controls. She's so scared of you, she babbles "Wait!! Shea! Don't come over here!". Or maybe that's just another bad translation... Luckily, a little while after you try to puzzle out what to do (you may have to try touching the buttons or talking to Mint several times), Kotetsu shows up again, and eventually decides to talk to you instead of freaked-out Mint. Try talking to Mint several times, until she has enough and leaves. Now Kotetsu will ask you to steal the R&D funds that are guarded by 3 Hackers, and give the money to him. Well, you know where that is, so let's start heading back that way. You can walk out the door now (actually, you could as soon as you got in through the mouse hole) and go back to the bathroom where the elevator is. The mouse holes here connect the "real" bathroom, and the elevator one, on both levels, so nothing interesting there. One good thing about being a mouse is that the patrolling guards will literally walk right over you without sending you back to the "Factory Experience" Room. However, monsters will still come after you, with the slight disadvantage that now the "you" command doesn't work in combat! Anyway, the place to go to now is the mouse hole in the first "Gunrobot" room on the way to the R&D. You can also go through the tunnels between the hole formerly blocked off by a mouse, just south of the Turbo room, and the Lunchroom, but this doesn't get you anything. The tunnels from the Gunrobot room don't go far before 2 mice block your way, and ask you to do something about the Soldier in the Lunchroom. OK, now go back to the Lunchroom, which is overrun with mice! The only Soldier will fight you when you talk to him (may need to equip Horn and use it once first). One of the mice (on the far right of the room at first) is a former Soldier; talk to it to learn the self-destruct sequence (press right 3 times, left twice) for the Earthquake Machine. Although Nagisa's hint will now talk about destroying the Machine, there's a little something you need to take care of first - becoming human again! So go back to that first Gunrobot room (you can go on to the R&D or even those 3 guards while a mouse, but there's nothing different of importance) and enter the mouse hole. Now the mice will let you pass, and you can go to the Money Room! Collect the Sword 4, $5000 and Scrap9 here, then go back to the Earthquake Machine Room. But if for some strange reason you haven't successfully read the 3 Inventor's Friend books here in the Bio Lab yet (levels 14, 16 and 17), go gain enough levels in combat, and go read those books, before you go back to Kotetsu. GorfiousBafoon asked me if the treasures from the volcano treasure room were random, because besides the 5000 GP there was a Sword 4; that seemed to be too strong for that early in the game. But since I got one when I played, and I haven't found anything noticeably different from the first time I played the game, I'd say the treasures are not random, and the Sword 4 is there to help you spank this game into submission. Kotetsu will take the $5000 from you. "The Paladin" says that if you somehow spend the $5000 before you get back to Kotetsu, he'll say something like 'that's all there was, eh?' and take all you have. He will NOT be happy if you have nothing, which you could only do by making or buying things, so just Recycle something and try again. Now you go to the Secret Lab room (where you were turned into a mouse and found the level 14 and level 17 books). Either equip the Glasses and open the secret door, or walk through the mouse tunnels to get in. Talk to Kotetsu and you'll be a human again! He'll also give you the hint to talk to mice, if you don't already know how to get rid of the earthquakes. Since you already do, just go back to the Earthquake Machine and press A at the right front side of the machine 3 times, then press A at the left front side of the machine twice. If you've done it right, the machine starts blowing up. Leave the room. Mint shows up, and you're suddenly out in the Volcano Cave. She says something about a forest and leaves you to get out by yourself. So go out the south exit of this room, then get to the northeast corner and up the rope. Leave the Volcano area. Again, you have an opportunity to flee South Isle for the safety of Rococo. Back in the Village, you'll see the two tourists and some mice. All the natives (which doesn't include the shopkeeper) except the Elder (and his 2 guards) and the Shaman are now mice. Well, scratch the 2 guards... and for some unexplained reason the mouse effect rebounds and turns the Shaman into a mouse, and undoes it for everyone else in the village! Now talk to the Elder, and then one of the 2 guards. You'll next be in the Shrine you last visited while inside a box. This Shrine is that altar you saw while escaping the Bio Lab and Volcano Cave a while ago, but now the door is open. Anyway, explore inside the Shrine. When you go to the exit revealed by the dance, Einst shows up, pushes you aside, and rushes in. In the next room, the block on the floor switches the walkway between left and right. While on the right side, there's just a message and a dead end. Toggle the floor switch, then go through the left side exit to get to a Clean treasure, then go to the west to see your first Poison monster. If you keep going, you'll find you're at a dead end though. Head back to that treasure, and press A while next to the alcove nearby. This one will open a door. The others will summon groups of annoying Gelgel monsters or send you back to the door of the Shrine. Keep going, and trip the floor switch in the middle of another room, which moves another walkway so you can proceed. Uh oh! Boss fight coming up! You must walk all the way out of the Shrine before you can save, then flip the switches again on the way back in, but there are no monsters on the way unless you go looking for them. Anyway, go in, and you'll find Einst running around that gold robot you saw in your dream at the Village's Inn. Tap him on the shoulder, and he whips out his "Big Eye" robot to fight you. I found that a Punch3 Lv1 did a lot better than a Celtis1 Lv7 or an Axe2 Lv5. Axe1 L9 worked much better than a Shot2 L9 or Bomb1 L9, but you had to get up close. Remember to Guard if you can't hit with your weapon, it will save you a lot of damage. Attacking from behind does a lot more damage. Even using 2 Level 26 robots, I used up 3 Repairs and 5 Cures on this, even after a few back shots with the Axe that did about 120 damage each. Einst is in denial after his robot loses, and runs away. Actually, I think you can escape now, but you'll wonder about that gold robot... Talk to the front of the gold robot, and Napoleon gives you Stone 3. But now you're stuck without the walkway. Talk to Napoleon, then follow it. The Drill won't help so talk to Napoleon again and walk away until it busts a hole in the wall. And again. (At no time will using the Drill work, or offering a Repair to Napoleon.) Until finally Napoleon collapses and leaves a ScrapA behind. After you get it, exit north. You're now in the second Volcano Cave, the part that you went through after escaping through the garbage chute. Go to the left, and exit through the far western exit on the south wall (remember these 2 exits, where the "middle" one is a dead end?). Then go south. You can take a detour to the northeast part of the next room to see the Shrine in ruins, or just go up the stairs in the southeast part of the room. Now 2 rooms with invisible Maskers and Berets (wear the Glasses to see them), and finally you're in the Shaman's House again. The native at the door will ask you to go see the Elder again. Talk to the Elder (and the Shaman is still a mouse), but then you have to talk to the native in front of the Inn. When he says something about a strange boat, you can now leave the Village and the path to the Inlet area is revealed. Now you can go to the Inlet, optionally talk to Mint, and get Change. The story makes more sense if you talk to her first. Either way, back to Rococo (darn! I was going to try out Change right away to scare Mint again!). Note that Change is another of those items you can't build yourself. Don't lose it! It's needed many times in the game from now on to switch between human and mouse form. Back in Rococo, Grandma Coker is in bed wanting a household helper. Talk to her, and you learn how to make Little Robot! (If you're a really nice person, you can build a Little Robot for $2000, or combining Scrap7 and ScrapB, and give it to her. I didn't see any immediate reward. If you equip a Little Robot, it will appear and follow you around in "nice" areas like Rococo.) Stella is also back home. If you go into your own house, or go to the Mayor's Office, or talk to the Policeman at the Police Station, you get put in jail. But don't worry, this is how we advance the story! If you're stumped about how to get out of jail, there's a hint on the middle of the north wall. For those who need it spelled out, equip the Horn and use it to attract the Policeman to the cell, and before the Policeman opens the cell door, equip the Change. He'll let you walk out and you're now free. Just don't talk to any Police while in human form, or back to jail you go! Flavon finally gives you a useful hint if you visit him. Either as a human or mouse, talk to that stray dog, and it will follow you in to see the Mayor. Except that Carl's mom, the Receptionist, won't let you in to see the Mayor, even as a mouse - with or without the dog. However, Carl is also gone from his house, and is waiting in yours. He'll tell you that he's waiting at a secret way to the Mayor's, south of the Police Station. That turns out to be that closed-off tunnel entrance SW of the Police Station. Go in there, talk to Carl, then get behind him and move north or press A several times. You can now enter the Tunnel dungeon. There are two interesting things about the first room that has monsters (those "house crabs" or Shells). First, the door to the north is to a shop run by a mouse; equip Relay or Change to talk. The mouse gives you one useful piece of information, and sells Scraps 1, 4, 5, and 7, plus Cure. Prices are 1.5 times normal (Rococo Crispy Shop is considered normal). The second thing is sort of a spoiler: the Shells are difficult to damage unless you are using certain weapons - Axe 3 and Punch 3 worked for me. A Shell takes over 100 damage to kill, but it's worth 30.0 Megs! They have a very annoying tendency to run away though. I didn't find this out when first playing, Paladius sent me an email about it. Gollum3147 says a Sword 2 L9 is also enough to kill crabs quickly. The advice from Nagisa is useful when in the tunnel - try out all your available weapons. My default of a Celtis1 got replaced by a Punch3 even though it took longer to walk around - doing a guaranteed kill each time is worth it. You don't need to be a mouse to walk across the narrow bridges, but there is one place where you have to go through mouse tunnels to proceed. A Scrap5, a Cure, $1500 and a Key can be found as treasure in here. There's one place where the old Drill comes in handy, to get to a Scrap2 treasure. Right after that, use Drill to get to a Key, then Drill and Change to get to an Empty Pack treasure. Find an Axe 3 treasure near where you use the second Key on another locked door. Finally you'll come to a ladder, which leads up to the hole in the atrium of the Mayor's House. Inside, you'll find a Hacker guard preventing you from getting to the Rococo employees. But notice that there's a mouse hole in a room nearby. You can go talk to the (fake) Mayor with no ill effect. You can also walk out to the Receptionist and see Mint. If you need any supplies or more books can be read, go do it now because there's a Boss fight coming up after 2 easy ones. Go through the mouse hole, then switch back to human to talk to the town employees. Talk twice to the Hacker guard "after" the employees to fight him, and now you can explore more. Through another mouse tunnel you'll find the "real" Mayor locked in a room. There's a Scrap6 hidden in the room with him; search the furniture. If you've avoided using the Scraps that you've found for anything (which can hurt your progress if you're too careful), you should now have 2 each of Scrap1, Scrap2, Scrap4, Scrap5 and Scrap6, plus one each of Scrap3, Scrap7, Scrap9, ScrapA and ScrapB! Anyway, after beating that one Hacker guard, when you talk to the one blocking the way to the employees, he'll fight you too and (in my case) leave behind $1000. But the employees must have used their amazing Civil Service power of "Avoid Work", because they've gone! Oh well, even if you're ahead of the plot and try getting the dog to follow you in to see the Mayor now, nothing happens. You have to talk to Mint (in the Receptionist room), then wait until she comes back, and talk to her again so she can tell you to get the dog. Now have the stray dog follow you to the Mayor's office, but save outside of it. When you talk to the Mayor, you'll get into a Boss fight with Papamecha. It wasn't too tough for me, but my robots were already at level 34 using Axe 2 or Punch 3; only used 2 Cures and 1 Repair. After Mint runs out, take the $3500 treasure and look at the desk to get the Key. Now go to the locked door that should lead to the real Mayor. Equip the Key and open the door, then go in and talk to him. He'll tell you about the Fireplace in the next room down the hall. Even if you tried looking before, now you can remove the grating and go inside. When you get the Stone 1 treasure, it is invisibly taken from you (Glasses don't help). Mint says she wants a picture, but you should go up to the Roof to find Rose. When you get there, she disappears (again Glasses don't help). The government workers are back from their break, and the one with the mustache tells you (only the first time you talk to him) to look in the NE corner of the room with the fireplace for 2000 GP (NOW you can find it). This whole part is bogus! (As in "why couldn't I do that earlier?" and "why don't my Glasses work?") Well, you've saved Rococo again. Now what? Go near your house, and you'll see 3 boys talk about a talking Crab at the Harbor and then run off. So go to the Harbor, and talk to any kid and the crab, then any kid again. They won't be satisfied until you equip the Horn and talk again, and they take it and leave the crab alone with you. Talk to the former Meta Crab, and learn where your father is. You must talk to the fisherman in the house before the second Ship appears on the right (east) side of the pier, which takes you to Snow Mountain when you board it. The other ship still goes to South Isle. In fact, now's a good time to go to South Isle again, because you'll find there is a heat wave and drought going on. (It wasn't there until you finished the "fake Mayor" sequence.) This is optional, but it's free stuff for you and there's no point in waiting. Tran says that if you talk to the natives, they ask for rain. "Ceryle" points out you can tell there's a drought by wavy graphics. As you're the messenger from the gods, it's your job to make it rain. Use Weather, then talk to the Chief in the Elder's House, and he tells you to take stuff from the two boxes. These are a Celtis 3 L1 and Laser 1 L1. Thanks also to Pfritz, Odie and Gollum3147. While the shop is shut down during the drought (with a text glitch on my copy too), when it reopens it sells Scrap5 and Scrap6! And the prices have gone down to "normal" too! Let's tie up one more loose end before we go off to the Snow Mountain and Hacker HQ: get the Horn back from those kids. (The first time I played, I thought the Horn was gone for good. Bearcouncl said you could get it back, but didn't tell me how.) ASoftDS explains how to get the Surprise Horn back: "after giving it to the three blue haired brats, put on a Vanish, and talk to the one walking in front of the gate of Rococo a few times, then he'll give it back, crying. :-D Too bad you don't really need it ever again. :-|" You may have to use a second Vanish, or start off where he can't see you, if he doesn't give it back before you reappear. Take the ship to Snow Harbor, and when you leave that area by land, the path to the "Snow Mt." area is revealed. The footprints in the snow is a cool effect! Before going to the Hacker Base, go to the left on the first Snow Mt. screen, and keep going until you get to a cave. No monsters in here, but you need the Drill and Glasses: at the eastern "There's no one here!" sign, use the Drill and talk to the escaped Hacker, then you can open the treasures and get Boots 3, Bomb 3 and (with more Drill work) a Cure. Now put on the Glasses, and you can see and talk to the little robot named "K" hiding in the little room that's otherwise empty. It says "Scrap9 and Scrap10 are the strong parts. They make up the core. When you find them don't be in a hurry to combine them find the best combination." Now go back to the entrance to Snow Mt., and head north until you find ropes. Climb around, and eventually you'll exit the area and reveal the path to the "Base Ent." area. You can talk to the Hacker at the snowman, but it's optional. When you get inside the Air Base, the robot moving around is an alarm that summons 8 groups of Cmdrs. Only works once each time you visit the screen though. In the second room there are 3 people you can talk to, but other than mentioning the Tower, Blimps and a memory loss punishment they're not much help. Keep going and get the Key. Go back to the first room, and open the locked door in the northeast corner with the Key. I can't tell what to make of the Hacker in the bathroom, maybe he's shy or jealous. Go through to the group of Hackers outside, but you can't get past the guard unless you Change into a mouse (using a Vanish doesn't work - guess he can see the footprints). You can wander around the Crab dinner, but without being a Hacker Leader you can't go further than one room inside. At the crab boiling, go stand next to the plate at the bottom right corner of the left table, and turn to face the table. After a speech, the Hackers fight you (rather funny because in my case there was only one on the battlefield!). And after defeating them you can talk to the former Meta Crab yet again, which gets you the Leader's Badge. Now, with it equipped, you can get past that guard in the next room, and go on to see Carl's father in the Design Room (too bad that Leader's Badge means nothing to the monsters along the way). Agree to give Carl a message, and you get the Letter. Now travel all the way back to Carl in Rococo, and give Carl the Letter. On the way out of the Air Base, notice that the Hacker that was working on one snowman is now up to 3. When you leave Carl's house, he gives you the Litho (remember that from beating Meta Crab a long time ago?). The Hacker outside the Air Base is now up to 4 snowmen... Return to Carl's father, and equip the Litho when you talk to him, and you'll eventually get the Blimp. But it wipes out the snowman-making Hacker and most of his work! The Blimp is so useful for getting around the entire planet though, that it's worth it. With the Blimp, here are some new places you can go: Fortress Ent. (west and a little north of "Base Ent."), Island (south and a little east), Island (south to the first Island, then west all the way), and Chicken Farm (west a little past Old House). Investigate all the others before you go into the Fortress. At the Chicken Farm, equip the Relay to talk to the chickens. The man misses Katrina, so go outside and talk to the different chickens until one tells you that Katrina's hiding behind the house. Go there, talk to Katrina although you can't see her, and she'll follow you into the house. Talk to the man, and he'll give you a Blade 2! When you leave the Chicken Farm area, even if by walking instead of the Blimp, the path from it to the rest of the island with Rococo is revealed. Of the two Island areas, go to the southwest one first. The couple that eloped is here, they want a Fever Flower. Go to the southeast island, and Dr. Einst will want Scrap7. Equip it and talk to him, and he'll take it, then leave you with the advice that the flower grows "behind a tree". To avoid searching all over, that means look at any part of the left tree directly behind the house. Return to the southwest island with the Red Flower, and equip it when you talk to the man. He'll give you $3000 (a $1500 profit on the replacement Scrap7 you can get from the mouse shop in the Tunnel). (G_erhard says it's really a rose, but machts nichts...) Now that the other areas are out of the way, it's on to the Fortress, the last visible area on the planet Quintenix! (Believe me, I checked with the Blimp, and there's nothing else.) Inside the Fortress, talk to the Hacker guard on the south side of the second room to get him to move over to the entry door instead. Now you can go get the Scrap3 in there. There's also a Celtis 2 treasure in that second room of the Fortress (remember the blinking screen nearby for when you have the Cyber Jack). The guard on the north side will move out of the way if you wear the Leader's Badge, and you can enter a Hacker meeting. Your father is there, but claims not to know you. And you see two people at the front of the room that you'll see even more of later: Blackmore and Rose. I had to wander around the room for a while, talking to everyone, and then suddenly about the 5th time I stopped in the "empty" position in the middle of the back row, the game finally had Blackmore (pumpkin head) make a speech about having 3 Tetron. Then everybody leaves and carries you along with them, and when you go back the room is empty, but the other guards are gone. So explore a bit; you'll see one locked door, then come to another one with a mouse hole nearby. It's time to use Change again! You'll come out of the ductwork and see your father being harassed because the Tetron don't work. They decide to literally throw him away, something about a Laser being ready. Rose is suspicious of you as a mouse, but everybody leaves, and you can grab the goodies in this room. They include the level 10 (Shield 3), 11 (Power Pack), and 16 (Quick Pack) books, and a Key. You can walk out of this room (stop being a mouse unless you like the challenge in combat) and head back to that first locked door. Open it, and you'll immediately find a $1200 treasure. Go upstairs, around, through another room with "alarm" robots, and to a room with your first "Pumpy" monsters ($2500 treasure too). It gets complicated here because there are 3 other exits from this room. 1. The one in the northeast corner on the upper level is Dr. G's Lab (notice blinking screen), with an R&D in the next room! You can use the R&D, but unless you talk to Dr. G as a mouse, not much else of use here (the red book is off limits for now). Hold off on talking to Dr. G as a mouse until you've explored the other exits all the way. 2. The one in the northwest corner on the upper level is a room with level 17 (Bomb 2), 18 (Turbo Pack), and 25 (Laser 1) books, plus another blinking screen. You'll be doing your computer exploring through here (or screens connected to here). 3. The exit in the northwest corner on the lower level leads to your first Faceman monsters (the first ones that wouldn't die from one hit by my "super" robot). Keep going and you'll get to a big room with some blue glowing parts that you can't enter; that's water. Remember the locked door on the north side for later. The east exit (just past the locked door) quickly dead-ends. The south exit will eventually lead you to a Hacker guard; talk to have him let you in to see your father. He's got level 26 (Blade 1) and 27 (Blade 2) books in there, but he's still on the Hacker side. Keep going even further past Knights and other nasties, to find another closed door (this one will NOT open with the Key you get later) and $7000 in treasure nearby. OK, go back to Dr. G's Lab, which is the northeast corner upper level exit of a big two-level room. After talking to all the people as a human, use Change and then talk to Dr. G once while you're a mouse. You'll be sent into the computer. You can't do much in there; notice that except for the A button, nothing else works! Just walk back into the "bullseye" to leave. After Dr. G leaves, become a human again and read the book to learn how to make a Cyber Jack. Go make one in the R&D. When equipped, all you have to do is walk up to one of the blinking screens to enter the computer, but each screen goes to a different place. The screen in Dr. G's Lab still goes nowhere really. But the one in the room off the northwest exit of the upper level (the one with 3 bookcases) has several different places to go. At bullseye locations with large crystals, you have to press A to enter. Here are directions to quickly get out of the Fortress using the Cyber Jack: enter the computer from the screen in the 3 bookcase room, then go through the next bullseye with crystal you come to. That one has only one other place to go, but it's the west part of a large room - go through the bullseye with crystal in the southwest corner to get to the screen near the Fortress entrance. That's a handy exit and reference point for exploring. You can also use the Cyber Jack at one other computer. Unfortunately, it doesn't do anything for the computer at the house in Rococo, or the one with Carl's father in the Air Base. But at your father's house near Rococo, it puts you in a special programmer's area. Talk to the first girl in there to hear about the Suppon Hammer, after she mentions "K". (I believe they mean the Hammer 2 when it reaches Lv9 (possibly earlier), because at that point it gains the ability to heal a Robot for the amount of damage it just did to a monster! Tomo Fujita explained that "Suppon" means "turtle", a Japanese symbol of energy.) Thanks to Geomedus and Steelkiel! Speaking of "K", it now will tell you about the Empty Pack + Repair = Quick Pack combination, but that's no help. Explore the Fortress computer, and you'll eventually find Dr. G and his assistant (you can't get past them unless you talk to them). I put off doing anything about those losers until I'd found a Blade 2 treasure in an otherwise inaccessible room. Then I talked to Dr. G and let them follow me to his Lab (keep going the way you were going when you met them, and the next bullseye crystal will take you one-way to the bullseye leading to the Lab). It doesn't matter what you want, you end up getting the Key and no money (if you ask for money, talk to the Assistant to give back $500 for the Key). But the story makes more sense if you ask for information instead; your father is mentioned and a protection routine in the computer. Now that you have one Key and one locked door (the closed one far away in the room where you found $7000 won't open with this Key, I tried it), head through the northwest lower exit of the big room off Dr. G's Lab. The locked door is in the northeast corner of the first water room. It leads to the Computer Room (what Dr. G and Assistant call the Mainframe). Save the game, then Cyber Jack in there (only through the middle of the big panel), and you'll find you can only go to meet Bugbug. I found that a Laser 1 L9 was more effective than a Punch 3 L9 or Bomb 3 L9, and got through this Boss fight using only 1 Cure on one level 41 Robot. Now the yellow barriers are gone inside the big computer room, so on your way out you can go to the SW corner of it (only a short walk from the orange crystal) to exit the Fortress quickly. If you've already got that Blade 2, there's nothing more to see here. To save time, leave the computer through the Computer Room exit (SE of the orange crystal), and go through the south exit of the water room to get to your father. With Bugbug gone, he now will be closer to his usual self. Follow him (he'll wait at a doorway if there's a choice of where to go) and he'll open that closed door so you can enter some new rooms. One of them has invisible Beret monsters. How he gets past all those monsters is a mystery. In the next room, a big one with water, your father is at the NW corner. But go to the exit on the south to get a Scrap9 first (or remember to get it later when you're leaving). If you go through the exit on the east side, you'll get to the Waterworks. Flip the switch there to lower the water, but turn on popup monsters on your way out; while there's a screen on the north wall, nothing happens with a Cyber Jack. Same thing for the screen in the Laser Room. Why monsters appear out of nowhere (even with the Glasses on) after you shut off the water is another mystery. And the directions your father gives you are wrong. After he goes in the Laser Room, you want to leave the big room by the SE exit going ->. Go explore the places formerly covered in water. This first room has a $1500 treasure in the NE corner. Head back the way your father brought you, and explore from the stairs near the Computer Room (go south and west first, because there's a Scrap5 treasure to the west). Going east from the bottom of the stairs will lead you to lots of new rooms, including one with invisible Maskers, and finally to a big "I"-shaped room with Blackmore and Rose puzzling over the Tetron. Until you walk close enough to see them on the screen, you can always back out of the room (and save the game). But once Blackmore says "Who's there?!" you're committed to a Boss fight with the Blacktank. This Boss was rather nasty to my "regular" Robots until I fiddled with their equipment. After some trial and error, my first Robot did incredibly well (mostly through not being hit) and practically took down the Blacktank single-handed, at level 43 using a Shield 3, Axe 3 L9, Shield Pack and Boots 2. I only had to use 2 Cures on it, and 1 Repair on the third Robot that got knocked into a heap with only 2 hits early on. Previous tries with different arrangements of weapons and equipment resulted in using up all my Repairs very quickly, forcing my "super" second Robot to do the honors. As before, hitting from the back should get you more damage, looks like +50% at least. I tried moving up to the side of the Blacktank and doing a Guard so a back shot would be easier the next turn, but that didn't always work. With a high enough defense, your Robot can just walk up to the front of the Blacktank and hit it, and often suffer no damage (and no knockback) from the counterattack. If you find things aren't going well, and you aren't the kind of player that reloads a saved game, you could Escape or use a Smoke, and come back and try again later. Anyway, after defeating the Blacktank you get nothing but having to walk through more rooms full of monsters. Eventually you will get to a Boss door (last chance to save!) with Rose standing in front of what must be a Tetron. Rose betrays Blackmore, Blackmore pushes the button on the Laser that your father has been tinkering with, game over. But somehow you wake up in what looks much like Rococo, just more rustic. You're in the past! I can't explain why your Transceiver still works, but the Blimp doesn't. There's a girl named Polon living in "your" house, she even has a letter from a Secret Admirer in the mailbox. There's a Carl too, but the inside of the house is different, and the shopkeeper next door wants $5000 to buy stock before he can open. If you give it to him, then leave and return, he sells some items plus Scrap2 at half normal prices! Pops has a Jewel out on the table, and his daughter upstairs wishes it was gone so she could get more attention. Stella is a gossip as usual, and mistakes you for somebody else staying at Polon's house. The Mayor's House is being built, and you can come by and donate funds any time until you come back from defeating De Rose. The place got finished when I gave $2000 the first time through, but there's dialogue for not finishing because not enough donations were given. So be charitable and give! Although you'll give away at least $5000 here in past Rococo, you'll get at least $8000 if you resolve the "missing Jewel" and "Little Robot to Prinky" subplots described below. Leave Rococo and the path to the Forest will be revealed. While it's laid out the same, the monsters are different, and the treasure is a Scrap10. There's also a second Seed here. Leave the Forest through the north exit to reveal the path to the River area. The River is laid out a little different, but leave through the northwest exit to reveal the path to the Cave Mouth area. This Cave Mouth area doesn't have the upper level, but you can still go in the Cave or try to go in the waterfall. Go in the Cave, and a guy who looks a lot like a Hacker is trying to put moves on a woman (Polon). You'll have to defeat a Big Fan. He runs off mentioning Rose. You're next in Polon's house, and should go in the north room after she screams. In addition to the level 28 (Bomb 3) and 29 (Shot 3) books, there's an injured look-alike for you in the bed. Outside, the kid in front of Polon's house will now tell you a woman asking for you is in the Tool Shop. And the little girl with the dog will now ask for flower seeds, so you can give her one Seed. You can now do the "missing Jewel" subplot. Pops had the Jewel, and Coker (the Grandma later) will now be missing from her house and over at his. Go talk to Pops and watch Coker get ejected, then go back to her house and use Relay to talk to the cat. You'll learn about the mouse hole between the drawers in Pop's house. Go back there, look at the wall between the two pieces of furniture on the north wall, and a hole will appear. (Talking to the little girl upstairs in Pop's house may also give you a hint.) Now you can use Change and go in there as a mouse. Inside the room at the other end, you can get $3000, Scrap9, Scrap7, Scrap3 and the Jewel! Go back, equip the Jewel and talk to Pops. He'll admit he was wrong, and now the boy and girl won't have feuding parents when they grow up. Quite a big reward for a little bit of work! Talk to the woman in the Tool Shop, who turns out to be Cookie; she thinks you're Rask and tells you to come to the spaceship in the Forest of Illusion. She also mentions Gateau. When you leave Rococo, the path to the Forest of Illusion is revealed. Don't bother exploring the Cave yet. You can't get all the way in until later in the story. This time through, the Forest of Illusion doesn't have that annoying fog. When you get through it once, the path to a southern "F. of Illusion" area is revealed. In there, Prinky and Igor are talking about the place being unlucky, and not a good building site. If they only had Glasses like you do, they'd see the spaceship taking up most of the clearing! Strangely, this first time only you can walk up the ramp in the middle, but can't enter unless you have the Glasses on. Enter the ship, talk to everybody, then try to leave. From now on, you can use the door on the right side of the ship entry hall to get to an R&D, and you can also just walk up the ramp and enter the ship even without the Glasses. "The Paladin" said: In the past, after Prinky leaves the area with the invisible spaceship, go back to the Forest of Illusion and go through it again. (You may have to try several times with different directions, for me it only happened when I went to the left at the intersection and found some Beret monsters.) This time, a new path will open to Count's House. There, give a Little Robot to Prinky and you will get 5000 GP in return. Return several times and the house will be a bit bigger each time. However, it doesn't seem like it finishes. And it still doesn't show in the Present. It's just a way to make some easy money. (And close a causality loop, so there's a Little Robot that can talk guarding Prinky's coffin.) Go back to Rococo and enter the bedroom where Rask is. Napoleon will reappear, scare off Polon and the guy who looks like the Mayor, then rush off to tell Gateau and Cookie about Tetron. Rask says his ship fell in the Cave, and he lost an engine blueprint (which you've already found). Hurry back to talk to Cookie in the spaceship, then go to the Cave. If you want to explore the Cave, you can get through a bunch of Big Fan monsters and fallen rocks that need the Drill to a different pile of fallen rocks blocking your way and a loitering Hacker. Didn't find any treasures worth keeping for long. When you get to the Hacker who tells you to go away, Change and wait. Then look where the Hacker went before the door opened, and the door will open for you too. Unfortunately, in the next room you hear from Rose and fall somewhere. You are jumped by 2 groups of Big Fan monsters, and then can start exploring. You'll find that you lost the Light and Drill when you fell. Roam around until you find Napoleon at the north end of the second level down; I found a Scrap8 as a treasure before I jumped in the hole to go down even further. Fight one more Big Fan, then talk to Napoleon. Equip a Repair and keep talking to heal Napoleon. Napoleon now acts as your light, and can break down rocks like a drill. I found a Scrap5 down here too, using Napoleon. Go back to the closest "fallen rocks", and you will get back the Light. Keep going and you find the Drill when Napoleon leaves (at Rask's former spaceship). Strangely, Napoleon says something more about lights when he leaves, although you have the Light at the time. There's an R&D behind a door at the north end of a screen soon after. You'll then come through the northwest corner of a screen that might look familiar; the north central exit doesn't really go anywhere, but use the Drill in the northeast to get to a Boss door. Don't save the game yet, because there's a room with Maskers next, THEN the room where Rose and Gateau agree to turn on you. So save the game after taking care of the invisible monsters, and prepare to beat on Rose! You see some flashbacks that fill out some of what happened because of Rose, and then you have to fight her robot. You can beat De Rose (estimated 2000 Energy), just make sure you have lots of Cures and Repairs before going in, and figure out what hurts it the most for when you try again. My first Robot again did rather well by itself, the third one got toasted quickly, same equipment as for the Blacktank but now at level 47; used 3 Repairs and 3 Cures, and the "super" robot only got in the fray while I was repairing #1 and #2 but didn't do any attacking. After Rose leaves, take the 2 treasures: Blow 2 and $3000. Then head south, watch the large trap door close, and then you can fight your way out of the Cave and Cave Mouth, maybe with a waterfall ride. Go to Rococo and get your picture taken (if you donated enough money to finish the Town Hall). Gollum3147 says that if you gave the fundraisers in Rococo the most money (he said $9000), your picture will be put in the front room of the Town Hall (back in the present)! I got it with $8200 myself, although they said something about a statue. If somebody can verify a lower number that still gets your picture up on the wall, let me know. Bust in on Cookie and Rask in Polon's bedroom, and then go to the spaceship. Eventually you wake up back in "present" Rococo. Look around and see that you've made a positive difference by being nice in the past, ala Chrono Trigger! There are flowers in several places around the town, I assume only if you gave the Seed to the little girl. The prices at the Crispy Shop are now 1/2 normal (I guess only if you gave the $5000). If you solved the "missing Jewel" subplot, go visit Pops and Coker's houses to see happy people and cat. Check out the pictures in the front room of the Mayor's House, and in the Old Album in the Mayor's office. (I did the first photo while a mouse, and that's what came out!) One thing you can't do now, if you solved the "missing Jewel" subplot, is go give Einst (on the SE island) a Scrap7, if you didn't earlier. And no matter what you did in the past, now you can't get into the Fortress area, presumably because it got blowed up after your father "fixed" the Laser. Remember "K" the invisible Robot in the cave at Snow Mt.? You can go back now, and it says something different. Thanks to Nathan Boddy, Steelkiel and Nightwind for help with this: "K" says "Blade 3 can be combined with **** make a Legendary Blade." "a *****?" Next line = either "You don't have one" if you don't, or a message telling you that you have one if you do. Well, "****" is the Seed! So you could make two Blade 4 weapons by refusing to give one Seed to the girl in past Rococo, and 2 more using Scrap8 + Smoke! Go over to the first Cave Mouth, equip Change and go in the Cave as a mouse to get past the Police. Then use the Drill to get into the next room, and see Tira. The Princess and her Valet/Consul tell you about the Hackers' Fortress (another one) attacking Choco. Eventually you get the Spaceship! Then talk to your father and he gives you the 3 Stones - make room in your inventory for all 3 of them if necessary. Use the Spaceship (S/ship) while outside and you'll lift off into outer space. There are only 4 places of interest out there: Quintenix (your home planet), Choco, the Hacker space Fortress (it won't be there at first), and Kirara. Kirara isn't part of the story, just a spoiler. Read the SPOILER section at the bottom of this file if you want to go there and read all the Inventor's Friend books you might have missed or haven't seen yet. To move the story along, go to Choco. Press A while the spaceship is on a location to land there. There's no combat on Choco, just walking around talking to people and reading books. The store in the living area has Scrap9 and Scrap10 for sale, but prices are 1.5*normal. You can find the level 30, 40 and 50 books in the Choco Lab, along with Gateau (claiming amnesia) and a Scrap7 treasure. The door to the north on the east side (near the books) is to an R&D. You'll find out what's behind the closed one soon. Go see Tira at the HQ (throne room) (the guard blocking the way will move when you get close), and talk to the guy on the left to hand over all 3 Stones (and I suggest ScrapA too). Then go back to the Lab and talk to Tira and the Chief Engineer to her left. Now back to the throne (catch the Valet sitting on it) and talk to the Valet, then the Chief rushes in. Go out to the very first guard you saw on Choco, and talk to him. You'll end up in a meeting to select a rescue team. It doesn't matter which straw you pick. Talk to the Valet, and he will open the closed door near the Lab plus give you $5000. Get a Bomb 4, Scrap10, and 5000 more GP from the treasures behind the formerly closed door in the Lab. When you're ready to go beat on more monsters, go back towards where you landed, and say you're ready. That will put you aboard a spaceship. It doesn't matter much what you do, but to move the story along, talk to everybody once. You wake up to Kotetsu's smiling face. It's his ship, the "Metal Iron", and when you talk to him on the bridge he explains why he's been around so often. Then Mint shows up. Talk to Kotetsu again, and then stand to the north of the other chair on the bridge. Now leave through the south, and follow Kotetsu. He'll keep the Hacker guard busy with Mufufu (Tomo Fujita explained that this is Japanese for something perverted or nasty) while you go looking for Tira. The little gold-colored panels control the conveyor belts, press A to reverse direction. You can run across them and not get carried along. You can get a Scrap4 and Repair in this conveyor room. The second guard won't move, so ride the conveyors into the unknown. This Rental Room has a Scrap3 and Blade 3 in it, if you look at the boxes. Leave through the mouse hole in the north wall. The tunnels lead you to a Hacker break room, and after some dialogue there's an intruder alert and the Hackers run off. Both the south and north exits lead to your first monsters here, but go north (trust me). I found that a Bomb 4 Lv9 worked on every monster in the space Fortress except Gagarians (use Bomb 3 Lv9 + a Laser on them) and Ninja (Laser shots in the back), but your mileage may vary. The north exit will lead to a Red door that needs a password. Keep going to the west, and Kotetsu will show up in a Hacker uniform again and tell you Mint is the intruder they're looking for, and the Red Pasword. There's a Shield 3 in the treasure here, and a Blue door is at the north end of this screen. You can keep going, but will soon have to stop at what seems to be an elevator that won't go anywhere. Just go through the Red door with the password, and through several more rooms of monsters. You'll get to a jail where there's one Hacker guard and Tira in a cell; there's a small room through the west exit with nothing in it - strange. Talk to the guard, defeat him, take his Shot 2, and then step on the floor switch he was covering. When you talk to Tira, she leads you to that small room, and then becomes Gateau! You've been faked out! Next stop: the Trash Chute! The small room now exits to the Trash Chute room. Where you came from now requires a Yellow password (which you don't have yet), and there's another useless (so far) elevator to the west. Put on your Glasses and take the south exit, there's invisible Ninja about! In this large room full of walkways, the treasures are a Cure and a Shield 4. Ignore the west exit for the moment, unless you desperately need to get to an R&D (read ahead then). Go through the east exit (have to go all the way south first), and talk to both the mice and Mint, then follow the mice. Step on the floor switch, even as a mouse, and you'll turn the elevator on; Mint is gone when you come out. On the way back to the elevator, go through the west exit, and take the Scrap6 treasure. There's another Yellow door in here, and the doorway on the east is to an R&D! OK, you could have gone in here earlier... When you get to the elevator from the Trash Chute, Mint is waiting there. Talk to her, and she leaves in the elevator without you. In the elevator, go to the control on the north wall and press A to get your choice of floor. B1F is the Trash Chute. 2F should look familiar as you would have gotten to here if you kept going north from the "intruder alert" room and west after meeting Kotetsu in disguise. 3F and 4F are new to you, especially 4F with invisible monsters like Beret and Masker about; there's also nowhere to go up there yet until you turn off some security force fields, so don't bother until later. While you could go back into 2F and investigate the south exit from the "intruder alert" room, it will only lead to a room with a Scrap5 treasure that has a Red door where you just came from. Then it gets you to the other side of the conveyor room, with a Yellow door and the second guard is now gone so you should be able to leave? Wrong! While somebody, either Kotetsu or Mint, it's hard to tell from the dialogue, got onto the ship, the guard won't let you pass. You'll have to go back and do something to shake up the situation or find another way out. So unless you're really desperate for a Scrap5, skip these "extra" monsters and go to 3F. About now (at level 47 if you program like I do) you will find that all of the Robot's skill values except Energy have a maximum of 99. The only reasons to keep going up levels are: 1. You get more Energy (HP), and that doesn't hurt. 2. There are more Inventor's Friend volumes until level 80, although only every 10 levels. 3. Bragging rights (although I saw no point in going above 80). On 3F of the Hacker Space Fortress, you should find the room with the Scrap7 and $3000 treasures. The Warehouse is hiding a Repair, Cure, $5000, Laser 3 and a mouse hole. Follow the tunnels from here to end up behind some crates and overhear Hackers talking about the Princess and a Key to the Ruler's Room. Keep exploring to find a $2000 treasure and another Yellow door to the north. Then you should find what I call Blackmore's Bathroom; pumpkin-head is now a janitor! Listen to his story, and he'll ask you to get rid of a No-Run program in exchange for the Yellow Password now and a Key later. Well, for now I suggest you keep exploring to the east through a large room with 2 alarm robots (that call groups of Cmdrs.) and some large tanks, then you're suddenly on the outside of the Space Fortress! Call your spaceship from here, and take trips back to Choco, Kirara or Quintenix to read books or stock up before coming back to the Space Fortress to rescue Tira. The Space Fortress is now on the space map, and when you land the Spaceship on it you show up near where you left 3F, next to a locked (for now) door. Go back in past the tanks and alarm robots, head west until you get to a Yellow door near the west end of a hall. Save in front of the door as if you're heading for a Boss fight, because inside there is a computer screen and when you Cyber Jack in, you'll be in another Hacker computer. There's really no choice on where to go, eventually you'll get to BugBug and have to fight this upgraded Boss (which looks like a puce anteater with a collar driving a disco hovercraft, not a super-computer!). I got really tired of my Robots getting confused all the time, but there's not much you can do. Again, a high defense helped. The first time through this game, I won with just one Level 49 Robot using a Laser 3 Lv9 (but I didn't write down the other equipment). The second time, it was Level 52 Robots using Axe 3 L9, Shield 5, Shield Pack, Boots 3 (higher defense, only a close-in attack) or Punch 3 L9, Laser 1 L9, Turbo Pack, Boots 6 (high movement and attack). Only had to use 3 Cures during this one, all on the second robot because of lower defense. You get nothing from beating this Boss, except that Blackmore will now say the NoRun program is gone when you get back to him. The inside of the computer doesn't change, so make your way back out. Blackmore will give you a Key when you talk to him twice (make room in inventory if necessary). The Key is for that locked door on the outside of the Space Fortress, but I went and used the Yellow Password on some other doors first, just for completeness. You don't have to do these: from the bathroom exit, head west, north at the first opening, north, and use the Password to enter that room you first were in while a mouse behind some crates. You'll find a Cure, a Clean and a Repair in the crates. Two more Yellow doors are on the B1F level, but one is just the small room where you got dumped by Gateau. The other one, in the same hall that has an R&D, has another computer screen. Cyber Jack in here, and you'll think you've seen this screen before - actually, you have! Apparently, Enix reused the map. However, exit through the other bullseye and you're in somewhere new! But sorry, this is just the Yellow door on 2F next to the conveyor room - and that guard still won't let you out. That's all the Yellow doors we know of for now, so let's use that Key on the locked door on the outside of the space Fortress. Behind that locked door is Gateau's Room (the Ruler's Room those Hackers talked about needing a Key for), with Tira standing near a computer screen. The next few bits of dialogue with Tira and Gateau suffer from some bad translation, but suffice that you can't use the Cyber Jack to escape this room with Tira, and you can't go into that tank/alarm robot room with her, so you have to call your spaceship to take Tira back to Choco. She won't show up as following you if you go anywhere else. Once on Choco, happiness ensues, including you because that ScrapA finally was of use to somebody. Tira then gets surreal again, saying "you're strange. Why do you have such a thing?" for no apparent reason. Go to the Lab and get the 3 Jars from the Chief Engineer (make room in your inventory using the R&D to the north if you have to). Now it's back to the Space Fortress to shut it down! When you go to leave Choco, Tira tells you a special password needed for the computer screen where you found her. Back on the Space Fortress, enter the computer where you found the real Tira. You come out of a Yellow door that happens to be on 2F. This becomes obvious if you take the south exit instead of the north one; you'll be on the wrong side of a Blue Door, and you'll have to go all the way through 2F and then 3F and around through the computer again! So, at the first Bigface after getting out of the computer, take the north exit - or you'll be sorry... Once out the north exit, equip the Glasses if you want to see the invisible Ninja monsters that wander these walkways. If you take the east exit here, you enter a Prison room that has Mint and Kotetsu locked away. Should we let them out? Walk over the floor switch to open the doors. Even if you talk to Kotetsu first, busybody Mint rushes over. Then Blackmore (I thought he said he was leaving!) shows up and has the others escorted away, then surprises you again, including giving you the Blue Password. Leave the Prison (Glasses on again) and head to the north. There's a Blue door, but detour to the west side and get the Scrap8 treasure first. Behind the Blue door, there are strange walkways that you float across, but to the north only if the buttons on the panels nearby are dark. If the buttons are lit up (press A to toggle), you can only go south on them; sort of like the conveyor belts you've seen twice already. This area you're now in is called the Reactor Rooms; this is where you'll use those 3 Jars. After those walkways, you see a door. Ignore it for now and head west. Wear the Glasses to see the otherwise invisible beams that control barriers that block your way for about 15 seconds. (Of course, the monsters walk right through these beams...) Use the Red Jar at a red/pink looking console at the northwest corner of the room, then head south (avoiding trap beams, working the floating walkway) to find the place to use the Yellow Jar. OK, now go through that door at the northeast corner of the first Reactor Room. This next room has another floating walkway and buttons, but no monsters or traps. Use the Blue Jar here, and if you've done the other 2 correctly, you start to see explosions and the lights changing color (this annoying effect will persist for the rest of the game!). Make your way back out (you'll have to go fight or avoid the monsters and get to near the SW corner again to toggle the walkway direction so you can leave the room) of the first Reactor Room, the room off the Prison, to that BigFace where I told you not to go south before. Well, you can try escaping through the computer screen that got you here from Gateau's Room, but the exit bullseye is gone. Nagisa's hint is now to look for a path into the "back" of the space Fortress. So head south, west, west, and enter the elevator. The barriers are now gone on 4F, so you could explore there. But if you're desperate for a break, go to 3F instead and fight your way out to the place where the Spaceship can be used. I'll assume you eventually come back to exploring 4F of the space Fortress. Either way, wear the Glasses in the first room of 4F, so you can see the Masker and Beret monsters. Of the 3 exits (besides the elevator), the one on the left quickly dead-ends. The one on the right just goes to an empty room. The one in the middle, you shouldn't bother with going to the east when you have an east/west choice, because the treasure is just one Cure guarded by lots of monsters; west will bring you to Gateau! Get close enough, and Gateau complains about your persistence, and Napoleon shows up to mess with everybody's head. Talk to Napoleon to get thrown across the gap that Gateau left. After another room with invisible Ninja, you're on the outside of the space Fortress again. You can call your Spaceship and take a break, pump up, whatever. But when you return, you'll be back on 3F near the door to the computer screen again. Getting back to this point on 4F/5F is easier if you go in through the computer again (it works even though the bullseye to return is gone), head through the south exit at the Bigface, west, elevator to 4F, middle exit, west, Napoleon sends you across when you stand at the edge, and take the exit to be back outside! At the end of 2 rooms with monsters, you'll see another skull design on the floor that should scream "Boss fight in the next room!" to you. Enter, and Gateau will get 2 Soldiers to help him fight you. Gateau won't move around until you kill both Soldiers. Once again, my high defense first robot did it all, at level 57 with Axe 3 L9, Shield 5, Boots 5, and Shield Pack. Had a RRR Special Attack programmed (that just does 3 whacks with the axe), and used it on everybody after a while. They kept missing a lot, though I did use one Cure after Gateau did 87 points one time. Gateau stood up to at least 2205 damage done mostly in 177 point chunks, but it was an 805 point critical that did him in (for those of you counting at home, that means I estimate this Gateau had 2205 to 3010 Energy, probably 3000). Is it over? After 100.0 Megs, which is probably another level, it turns out it isn't over yet. Nagisa will give you a pep talk and encourage you to save the game before following Gateau into the machine. If you got really trashed in that last fight, I suggest you turn around and flee the Fortress so you can build up levels somewhere safer, like against the Shells in the Rococo Tunnel. Then come back when you're ready for more. Otherwise, press on! Strange effects here, but just keep walking north and enjoy the little interludes that the other characters do for you. Eventually, Gateau surrounds you, gives a little speech, then fights you again as some strange time vehicle. Although it's huge, you can only hit it directly on the middle row. As before, my first robot with the high defense did it all (no changes since the last fight except 10 extra Energy). Just kept on walking up the middle and doing a RRR Special Attack (average damage 172), and hardly ever got hit (used only one Cure the whole battle). This final Boss took at least 4364 damage before an 850 critical finished him off, so I'm estimating it had 5000 Energy. It can be really tedious to do either of these Boss fights, the second one in particular. The best single weapon that I had the first time through the game was Bomb 4 Lv9, but it only did about 60 each time. So this is a good place for those special attacks! RRR with a Sword 4 L9 did about 196! (Thanks to Cory H. for pointing out how much better special attacks are in this Boss fight and for several annoying monsters earlier.) Once you beat Gateau the second time, the animated endgame and credits are rather nice, although I wonder why they didn't use some of those Halloween and Christmas (and Japanese fall festival) graphics in the game! It's all finally over when there's just a light blue "END" in the bottom right corner of the screen, and those twinkly things moving diagonally across the screen. Hope you enjoyed playing Robotrek, and this file didn't spoil it too much, or leave you stuck anywhere! END OF WALKTHROUGH Advice on Equipment ------------------- I was able to get through the game the first time without buying anything at the stores except Scraps, and even had to throw away many Cure, Clean, and Repair items when the inventory got full. Big Bomb and Vanish may be useful, but I never needed them. Weather was never really needed in the game, although it's cute to watch the animation - you can leave storms all over the map, and it's also used in a few combinations. Note that you need a Weather to get ScrapB, but I haven't found any use for that except Little Robot so far. Except for trying to "Equip level up" weapons, my robots usually used a Shield and a Bomb the first time through the game. Never used any of the Packs. Didn't figure out Special Attacks the first time through, either. Ended the game at level 60, probably could have finished a few levels earlier. Second time through, I cheated with the 280 power code for my second robot, and used it in all but the Boss battles. For those, I used the other 2 "normal" robots, and tried to tell y'all what worked for me. But this time, I was often at higher levels and recycled a lot more items because my super robot hardly ever took damage. tdyer pointed out that the Power Pack will "almost double the damage" done in combat. I never used any packs the first time through, in favor of a Bomb 3 instead. But a pack of some type is sometimes useful, especially in Boss combats, where a Bomb wouldn't help much. So, if you're getting stuck in a boss combat, and can replace a Bomb with a Pack (Shield, Power, etc.), try it! It might give you the extra edge you need. P.Foster (Ace) tells me that Weather can be used in battle! Press A, select your character's name, press A again, select Weather, press A. "It does one of two things, 1) It randomly fires lightning bolts around the screen (they don't hurt your Robot), or 2) It rains (my personal favorite, it almost always hits, plus it hits everyone on the screen except you)!" Scraps ------ Scrap1 - Combine with a Scrap1, Scrap6, Scrap10, Sword 1 or 4, Axe 1 or 2. Carl gives you one in your house in Rococo after beating Meta Crab. Another one is to the left of the entry to the Clock Tower, if you press the button where Mint is with a mouse, then go back out and return. random battle booty in space Fortress from Master. Sold by Rococo Tunnel Mouse for $1500. Scrap2 - Combine with Shot1, Shot2, Scrap6, or Scrap7. one in back room in Crispy Shop in Rococo. one in tunnel under Rococo after first locked door and Drill. random battle booty in space Fortress from Master. Sold by past Rococo shop for $500. Scrap3 - Combine with Boots 1 or 2, Scrap5, Scrap9, or Scrap10. treasure from dungeon in well in Prinky's House. first guarded room at Quintenix Fortress. random battle booty in Quintenix Fortress. with Jewel in Pop's House in past Rococo. left side of Rental Room in space Fortress. Scrap4 - Combine with Punch, Scrap4, Scrap9, or Scrap10. treasure from cave after beating Meta Crab. treasure near R&D in Volcano Bio Lab. one from an alcove "before" first Scrap7 location below. random battle booty in Bio Lab from Gunrobot or CannonX. one in space Fortress room with conveyor belts. Sold by Rococo Tunnel Mouse for $1500. Scrap5 - Combine with Clean, Scrap3, Scrap5, or Scrap9. one from back room of Crispy Shop in Rococo. one from tunnel to Rococo Mayor's House. a previously submerged room in Quintenix Fortress. "past" Cave with Napoleon. South of "intruder alert" room in space Fortress. Sold by Rococo Tunnel Mouse for $1500. Sold in South Isle Village for $1000 after drought. Scrap6 - Combine with Clean, Solar Pack, Scrap1, Scrap2, Scrap6 or Scrap9. After you deal with Mint and mouse in Clock Tower, leave the room and return, talk to the small mouse (may need to meet Doll first), then search left wall. one in room where real Mayor of Rococo is, NE corner. random battle booty from Knight in Quintenix Fortress. room on Trash Chute level in space Fortress. Sold in South Isle Village for $1000 after drought. Scrap7 - Combine with Cure, Smoke, Scrap2, Scrap9, Laser 1, or Boots 1 (not 2). from a treasure room near R&D in Volcano Bio Lab. with Jewel in Pop's House in past Rococo. from Lab on Choco. room on space Fortress 3F with 3000 GP and 4 strange robot devices. Sold by Rococo Tunnel Mouse for $1500. Scrap8 - Combine with Smoke to make Blade 4. "past" Cave after falling. near Prison room on 3F in space Fortress. Scrap9 - Combine with Weather, Sword 1 or 2 (not 3 or 4), Axe 1 (not 2 or 3), Punch 1, Scrap3, Scrap4, Scrap5, Scrap6, Scrap7, or Scrap9. Money Room in Volcano. near Laser System room in Quintenix Fortress. with Jewel in Pop's House in past Rococo. Sold by Choco Shop for $1500. Scrap10- Combine with Weather, Bomb 1, Boots 5, Scrap1, Scrap3, or Scrap4. "past" Forest near Rococo. Sold by Choco Shop for $1500. ScrapA - no known combinations, give to Choco Chief Engineer. Napoleon in Volcano. ScrapB - Combine with Scrap7 to make Little Robot (thanks to Skulloz167! or you could just learn how to build it and pay $2000), any others? Use a Weather at Old House (after done with Prinky), then leave the screen and come back, talk to the man; thanks to jtate and zain68! Attack & Defense Tables ----------------------- The "Lv9" shown by "About" is the Attack bonus when the weapon is at Level 9. I only provide data for ranks and levels that I actually saw while playing, or are from trustworthy sources (like pfritz). When items are found or built, they start off at Level 1. You raise the level through combining or getting "Equip level up" Item Capsules in combat. A new robot starts with Sword 1 L1, Shot 1 L1, Bomb 1 L1 and Boots 1. Prices shown in parentheses, e.g. (360) are double the Recycle value, for items that you can't normally make. Sword: (close-in weapon, can attack adjacent Item Capsules to collect them, EXCEPT Sword 4!) Sword 1 Cost:200 Attacks adjacent only, no change with level L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 5 6 7 8 9 11 13 15 17 Sword 2 Cost:400 Attacks adjacent only?, no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 10 13 16 19 22 26 30 34 38 Sword 3 Cost:(1000) Attacks adjacent only?, no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 Sword 4 Cost:(2000) Damages up to 3 enemies at a distance with lightning bolts. no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 Shot: (distance weapon, does more damage when target closer) Shot 1 Cost:200 no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 4 6 8 10 12 15 18 21 24 Shot 2 Cost:(500) no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 10 12 14 16 18 21 24 27 30 Shot 3 Cost:1000 no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 32 34 36 38 40 43 46 49 52 Bomb: (up-over-down distance weapon, target range irrelevant) Bomb 1 Cost:400 attacks only 1 target on same row L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 Bomb 2 Cost:1000 attacks up to 3 targets L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 23 28 34 41 49 59 71 85 101 (L 1-6 graphics of flame floor, L 7-9 graphics of flame column) Bomb 3 Cost:1400 attacks up to 3 targets L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 28 33 39 46 54 64 76 90 106 (L 1-6 graphics of ice diamonds, L 7-9 graphics of snowmen) Bomb 4 Cost:2000 attacks up to 3 targets L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 36 41 47 54 62 72 84 98 114 (L 1-3 graphics of small explosion, L 4-6 graphics of bigger explosion, L 7-9 graphics of mushroom cloud) Punch: (close-in weapon, can attack adjacent Item Capsules to collect them) Punch 1 Cost:200 no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 12 15 18 21 24 28 32 36 40 Punch 2 Cost:500 no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 24 27 30 33 36 40 44 48 52 Punch 3 Cost:(360) no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 48 51 54 57 60 64 68 72 76 Hammer: (close-in weapon, can attack adjacent Item Capsules to collect them) Hammer 1 Cost:200 no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 8 11 14 17 20 24 28 32 36 Hammer 2 Cost:(6000) does knockback, changes with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 10 12 14 16 18 21 24 27 30 (combine Scrap6 + Solar Pack) (need to research earlier levels in combat) @L9, no knockback & heals Robot for damage inflicted! This is probably the Suppon Hammer. Hammer 3 Cost:(1500) does knockback, no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 24 27 30 33 36 40 44 48 52 (combine Scrap6 + Scrap6) Axe: (powerful close-in weapon, can attack adjacent Item Capsules to collect them) Axe 1 Cost:400 no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 Axe 2 Cost:(500) no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Axe 3 Cost:(1000) no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 Celtis: (distance weapon, can do knockback) Celtis 1 Cost:500 no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 12 14 16 18 20 23 26 29 32 (400 to make this out of Shot 1 + Hammer 1) Celtis 2 Cost:(1000) no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 24 26 28 30 32 35 38 41 44 Celtis 3 Cost:(2000) no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 36 38 40 42 44 47 50 53 56 Blow: (shooting weapon) Blow 1 Cost:(480) no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 16 18 20 22 24 27 30 33 36 Blow 2 Cost:(640) no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 32 34 36 38 40 43 46 49 52 Blow 3 Cost:(800) no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 64 66 68 70 72 75 78 81 84 Blade: (distance weapon) Blade 1 Cost:1000 no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 10 12 14 16 18 21 24 27 30 Blade 2 Cost:2000 no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 15 17 19 21 23 26 29 32 35 Blade 3 Cost:(4000) no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 20 22 24 26 28 31 34 37 40 Blade 4 Cost:6000 no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 55 65 75 85 95 105 115 125 135 (L 1-6? small firebird hits this row only) (L 7-9 large firebird hits this row & +/-1 row) Laser: (shooting weapon, goes through Item Capsules to hit enemy) Laser 1 Cost:1000 no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 25 27 29 31 33 36 39 42 45 Laser 2 Cost:(2000) no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 35 37 39 41 43 46 49 52 55 Laser 3 Cost:(5000) no change with level? L: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Attack+: 45 47 49 51 53 56 59 62 65 Shield: (+Guard) # Attack Defense Cost Shield 1 0 8 400 (+8 Evasion) 2 0 12 (500) (+8 Evasion) 3 0 16 1000 (+16 Evasion) 4 0 20 (2000) (+16 Evasion) 5 0 34 3000 (+32 Evasion) Boots: (+Guard) # Attack Defense Movement Cost Boots 1 0 0 4 200 2 0 0 6 1000 3 0 2 6 (1200) 4 0 4 8 (1600) 5 0 16 6 (2000) (+32 Evasion) 6 0 6 8 4000 (rlkessler thinks Boots 5 are better than 6 because of higher Defense) Packs: (+Guard) Attack Defense Cost Empty +0 +1 (20) Power +10 +0 3000 (LH & RH attacks +10) Shield +0 +10 5000 (Evasion +16) Turbo +0 +2 3000 (Movement +2) Quick +0 +5 5000 Solar +0 +5 4000 text inside the game implies there are these items: Sword 1, 2, 3, 4 Axe 1, 2, 3 Blade 1, 2, 3, 4 Hammer 1, 2, 3 Celtis 1, 2, 3 Punch 1, 2, 3 Blow 1, 2, 3 Shot 1, 2, 3 Laser 1, 2, 3 Bomb 1, 2, 3, 4 Shield 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 Empty Pack, Power Pack, Shield Pack, Turbo Pack, Solar Pack, Quick Pack Boots 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Trans., Horn, Drill, Vanish, Change, Glasses, Key, Little Robot Light, Seed, Blimp, S/ship, Warp System, Relay, Cyber Jack Red Jar, Blue Jar, Yel Jar, Jewel, Letter, Litho, Leader's Badge Badge 2, Stone 1, Stone 2, Stone 3, Red Flower, Sphere, Rusty Drill Scrap A, B, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 Smoke, Cure, Clean, Repair, Big Bomb, Weather Special Attacks --------------- The game manual says that you can "register" up to 8 special attacks for each of your 3 robots, but there are a lot more possible combinations than that to choose from. Subject to what your robot's current equipment allows (a Shield can't do special attacks using that side) and an energy counter, you could have up to 31 special attacks to choose from. Energy Use by Weapons Types for Special Attacks R or L Sword, Axe, 1/6 Hammer, Punch 1/6 Shot, Celtis 1/3 Blade, Blow 1/3 Laser 1/2 any Shield off X Bomb 2/3 any Pack off Possible Special Attack combinations (energy limitations prevent anything with more than one "X") R L X RR LL RL LR RX XR LX XL RRR LLL RRL RLR LRR RRX RXR XRR LLR LRL RLL LLX LXL XLL RLX RXL XLR XRL LRX LXR total 31 (excluding other energy limitations) Some people had trouble understanding how to activate special attacks. During combat, you press A to get a menu with Attack, Guard, Escape and finally your name. Press A again to select Attack, and you'll see the option Run along with the individual weapons this robot has. Press A again to select Run. No, you won't run away! (That's the Escape option! This is Run as in "run program".) Now you should see the special attacks that you programmed earlier. If you didn't do any, ?nothing shows up?/?bounces you out?. If an attack is illegal because of equipment or energy limitations it shows up in red and can't be executed. Things found in Item Capsules on Battle Screen ---------------------------------------------- attacks for up to 2 (when at Guard=64) damage Rust (little black skull) 0.5 Meg bonus 1.0 Meg bonus Equip Level Up (+1 Lv to all equipped weapons!) Big Bomb restore Energy The manual says that you can see what's in Item Capsules with the Glasses. You have to select the Hero (whatever name you're using) in battle, then the Glasses. You get an OK or nothing until you press a button. You can only get Capsules by hitting them with a Sword (except Sword 4), Axe, Hammer or Punch. Celtis, Blow, Shot, Laser and Blade don't work. A Laser will go through a Capsule to hit an enemy behind it. Some of the other distance weapons will also hurt an enemy that's directly behind a Capsule. Special attacks that shoot on all lines, or affect everything on the screen, will also destroy all Capsules. The "bonus" applies only if you finish combat before time runs out. Of course, if you're spending time getting the Capsules, you'll probably run out! ARG! Monsters -------- Under "Where": area listed is where first encountered. Additional areas are either indicated as "+" (for next area in sequence), "++" (second area after in sequence), or by name if further away. Sequence of areas in the game (with monsters) is: Forest (F1), River, Cave Mouth, Cave, lower Cave, Akihabara Tomb (Tomb), F. of Illusion (F2), Old House, Clock Tower, Volcano Cave (V1), Factory, Bio Lab, Volcano Cave 2 (V2), Bio Lab II, Shrine, V2 again, Tunnel, Snow Mt., Air Base, Fortress Ent., Fortress, past Forest (pF), past River (pR), past Cave Mouth, past Forest of Illusion (pFI), past Cave (pC), space Fortress. under Notes: N=must be adjacent (next to) Robot to hit it, D=can shoot Robot from a distance on same line, A=has attack that can hit Robot anywhere on screen "Scare" just prevents a Robot from doing Special Attacks some monsters can't be harmed while they are underground, invisible, etc. :name: :Exp: :Where: :Booty: :Notes: Mushroom 0.1 F1, F2 Clean, $150 D Mine 0.1 F1, +, ++, F2 Clean, $1000 N (range 2) Gel 0.1 River, +, ++ $200 D (may Stop) Rushbird 0.2 River, +, F2 Cure D Spider 0.3 Cave, + Repair, Punch 1 D (may Stop) Cmdr. 0.2 lower Cave ? N Monk 0.6 Tomb, Old House, + Cure, Repair, $200 D Mole 0.6 F2 $300, $250, Axe 1 D, safe underground Cmdr. 0.3 F2, Old House $240, Repair, Cure N or D Ho Ho 0.6 Old House, + Cure D (may Scare) Plasmoke 0.7 Old House, + Clean D Mummy 0.8 Clock Tower $200, Punch 1 D, safe invisible Elesmoke 0.7 Clock Tower $200 A Franken 0.9 Clock Tower $500, Hammer 1 D Powermole 1.0 V1, Volcano Axe 1, Axe 2 DA, safe underground Spider 0.8 V1 Clean, Blow 1 D (may Rust) Turbo 0.7 Factory, V2 Cure N (range 2) Cmdr. 0.2-5 Bio Lab, + Clean, Cure, $500 (3 types) Minicom 0.5 Bio Lab $220 N Gator 1.1 Volcano Cave 2 Cure D Bosstoad 1.4 Volcano Cave 2 ? N (may Stop) Spider 0.9 Volcano Cave 2 Clean? D (may Rust) Gelgel 0.8 V2, Shrine Clean D (may Rust) Masker 2.6 V2 (invisible) ? D Beret 2.5 V2 (invisible) $800 A Gunrobot 1.5? Bio Lab II ? D Biolion 1.1 Bio Lab II ? N CannonX 1.3 Bio Lab II ? A (got a Scrap4 from Gunrobot + CannonX once) Poison 0.8 Shrine, pF Clean D Shell 30.0 Tunnel $1 ? (run away) Cmdr. 1.0 Tunnel Cure, $150 D (fish, 2 types) Angler 0.9 Tunnel Cure ? Luckstar 1.2 Tunnel $1000, $500 A (may create Capsules!) Urchin 0.9 Tunnel Clean, Bomb 2 A (D may Rust) Octopus 1.5 Tunnel $1000 D,A Tackler 1.6 Snow Mt. $320, $250 N Quickbird 1.0 Snow Mt., pF Shield 2 D (may Stop) Cmdr. 0.3 Snow Mt. $250 N Gelgel 0.8 Snow Mt., pF Cure D (may Rust) Cmdr. 0.7,0.9 Air Base, + Cure, $140, $200 N,D (2 types) Cmdr. 0.1? Air Base ? A (may Stop, light on head) Minicom 0.6 Air Base, +, ++ $360 D (explodes on death) Cmdr. 1.0 Fortress Ent., + Shot 2, $500, Repair A (has bazooka) Pumpy 1.5 Fortress ? D Faceman 2.0 Fortress ? D (may confuse) Knight 1.8 Fortress Repair, Scrap6 D Redpixy 2.0 Fortress ? A Beret 2.6 Fortress ? A (invisible) Masker 2.8 Fortress Smoke A (invisible) Quickbird 1.0 pF, +, pFI Shield 2 D (may Stop) Gelgel 0.8 pF, + Clean D (may Rust) Gator 1.1 pR, + ?Cure D Big Fan 1.6 pCave Repair, Cure, $800 A (3 types) Powermole 1.0 pFI Axe 1, ?Axe 2 DA, safe underground Spider 0.9 pFI ?Clean D (may Rust) Beret 2.0,2.5 pFI ? A (invisible, 2 types) Cmdr. 0.1 pCave ?Clean A (may Stop, light on head) Minicom 0.4 pCave ?$360 D (explodes on death) Masker 2.0 pCave Smoke A (invisible) Bumpy 1.8 space Fortress Cure, Clean ND Cmdr. 0.7,0.9,1.0 space Fortress Cure N? (3 types) Cmdr. 0.1? space Fortress ?Clean A (heal others, light on head) Bigface 2.4 space Fortress Blade 1, Sword 3 D Gagarian 2.8 space Fortress Boots 6, Bomb 4, DA (may Stop) Blade 3, Cure (Bomb 3 ineffective?) Ninja 3.0 space Fortress ? N Goldpixy 2.2 space Fortress ? A Redpixy 2.0 space Fortress $200 DA (may confuse) Whitepixy 2.2 space Fortress $300, $500 A Master 2.2 space Fortress Repair, Scrap2, DA (may confuse) Scrap1 Masker 2.0 space Fortress Smoke, $2000 D (invisible) Beret 2.0-2.6 space Fortress $2000 A (invisible, 3 types) Beeper n/a (probably the "alarm robot" seen in several areas) For Bosses, the Level of Robots that I found were able to beat them is the first item in Notes. You should have even less trouble at higher levels, but could also beat them at lower ones; these are just where I was when I played the game the second time through. Altering your equipment to emphasize attack, speed or defense is useful too. :Boss name: :Exp: :Where: :Booty: :Notes: Meta Crab 20.0 lower Cave $1000 9 Smallcrab ? w/Meta Crab ? ignore Mamurana 50.0+ Clock Tower Stone 2 18 Big Eye 70.0 Shrine Stone 3 26 Papamecha 30.0 Mayor's Office $3500 & Key 34 Bugbug 40.0 Fortress Computer - 41 Blacktank 90.0 Fortress - 43 De Rose 50.0 past Cave $3000 & Blow 2 47 Bugbug 40.0 space Fortress - 52 (may confuse) Gateau 100.0 space Fortress - 57 Soldier ? space Fortress two with first Gateau Gateau 0.0 Time end of game 58 Game Genie Codes (mostly unverified): ------------------------------------- A great one from Brian Kent (kentpw@norwich.net): EEE6-1D32 Can create robots that are amazingly strong (Power, Guard, Speed, and Charge are all at 280, with 1064 left to configure your robot! Raise Energy from 40 to 999, leaving 105 points you can't use.) This is the ULTIMATE ROBOT code. [verified, but weapon power values are shown starting from 0 rather than whatever high number they really are. Guard and Evasion are 1280 though! Awesome! I used one of these the second time that I played the game for everything but Boss fights. One annoyance: Rust does 64 damage!] More codes from ASoftDS@aol.com: EEE6-1DC2 New robot starts with stats at 255 and 40 Energy CB34-3D47 + 8E34-3D17 Winning battle makes your level 91, and gives you R&D Portable every time you win a battle. (I apologize for the next bit, but I think they're justified in doing it) GAME GENIE CODES FOR SUPER NES(tm) (c) 1995 Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Excerpts from Game Genie(tm) Code Updates made available for the private use of Game Genie owners. NO COMMERCIAL USE WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION. This file may be freely distributed FOR PRIVATE, NON-COMMERCIAL USE as long as it is not altered and all text remains intact. Game Genie is a product of Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc., and is not manufactured, distributed or endorsed by Nintendo of America Inc. Super NES is a trademark of Nintendo of America Inc. Game titles are trademarks of their respective owners. Game Genie is a trademark of Lewis Galoob Toys, Inc. U.S. Patent No. 5,112,051. Robotrek(tm) Game 1. BBB9-4D7D Get 9900 gold when you look into the robot book 2. C23C-CDC7 Everything is free [unverified, but MauveCloud says this only applies to stores; R&D prices to make items are doubled!] 3. CB34-3D47 + D734-3D17 Start at level 3 4. CB34-3D47 + DC34-3D17 Start at level 10 5. CB34-3D47 + F034-3D17 Start at level 20 6. CB34-3D47 + 7434-3D17 Start at level 50 7. BDE6-1DC2 More energy for robot energy [tried it. new robot has 40 Energy, and 144 each in the other stats, but you can only remove points, and the screen shows the name with 'ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOP' after it! This code not recommended for third robot! However, it may have been intended only for the first one.] 8. CBEB-1FB9 + BBEB-1F29 + DDEB-14F9 + 3CEB-1499 Mean robot [tried it, but no effect seen in third robot creation or combat] Robotrek is a trademark of Quintet / ANCIENT / ENIX "Bearcouncl" provided all 8 of these codes to me before I looked at the official GG site, so I'm not sure who to credit. Gollum3147 sent me: EEB9-4D7D Get 16,500 from the robot book. It'll say 2000, but you'll get this amount. I got this code from the Game Genie Code Creators Club. MauveCloud sent me: 823C-CDC7 Everything truly free. SPOILERS -------- Rococo Tunnel "house crabs" - SPOILER See the walkthrough about the Tunnel under the river in Rococo. Although the silly things run away too often, I was able to go from level 60 to 80 in several hours, a lot faster than otherwise possible. Since getting to such high levels only adds to the Robots' Energy, there's little reason to do what I did. Thanks to Paladius for telling me about this though! You may have to use special attacks to kill them in one shot (3 in a row of R or L seems to work). The Library on Kirara - SPOILER Once you have the Spaceship, do some exploring. Move around carefully in the area NE of Quintenix. When the ship is directly over a yellow star in that area, it will show Kirara. Press "A" Button to land, and you will find ALL the "Inventor's Friend" volumes in there! It took me 9 east and 14 north to get there, but your control pad may respond differently. It was also 7 north and 13 west from Choco (or Choco is in the bottom left corner of the display, then head west a little bit). Another way to find it is to go east from Quintenix until you reach a yellow star, then go north until Quintenix just leaves the map, and Kirara is the yellow star to the northeast. Actually, it isn't much of a spoiler, since you can usually go back for any books that you missed, it's just a pain. The girl behind the counter is apparently Cookie, the one from the "past" Spaceship. But nothing comes of this. After doing some data diving and QBasic programming, I managed to nearly completely decode the text messages in the Robotrek ROM. Because of how certain byte values are processed, I had to manually choose between several choices for a few coded values, but it shouldn't affect what I'm going to provide below. Based on the text embedded in the Robotrek ROM, the players and I seem to have found nearly all the "secrets". However, if somebody can figure out the following, let me know! 1. How do you get the "Warp System" item? The game says "Button lets you warp to world map. Can`t always be used." as "About Item" text for it. (I never saw "Warp System" or "Badge 2" while playing. rlkessler mentioned getting "Warp System" by editing a saved game, and using it to go to Choco.) (Tman heard a rumor that you combine the S/ship with a Scrap to make "Warp System". But I tried them all (1-10, A & B), and nothing worked.) 2. How do you get the "Badge 2" item? The game says "Badge. Sign of a Hacker member." as "About Item" text for it. 3. How do you get the "Sphere" item? The game says "Ball?" as "About Item" text for it. It's possible all 3 of these items are inaccessible during normal play of the game. (I have no clue about the "Sphere" right now, but either I found it the first time I played, or I forgot to mention it as "never seen" afterward.) 4. How do you get some or all of this dialogue: " I... I have a question. Bucky what`s that? A buck-toothed guy? No, not really [Bucky] means a Crank Caller. Long ago a bucktoothed guy Mr.Bucky,would crank call people. So, Debugme is the name. Oh, really? I learned a lot. Bucky is lucky to leave his name. Good, everyone. Do you understand Debug? We`ve finished studying. Back to the story." ? 5. How do you close the causality loop for Napoleon? Last time you see him in the past, he's heading off after finding Rask's former spaceship in the depths of the Cave near Rococo. You also see him preparing Gateau's ship for departure from Quintenix, in the ScrapA "movie". How does he get to the Volcano on South Isle? And when Napoleon says "Choco's scientists rebuilt me", does he mean from ScrapA? (And how does Napoleon get to the space Fortress without a spaceship, which nobody else on Choco has? On Kotetsu's "Metal Iron"?) Peter Karsanow - karsanow@twrol.com http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Arcade/7810/