CAVE STORY / DOUKUTSU MONOGATARI 3 LIFE GAME GUIDE BY: HAPPYPUPPET --- VERSION INFO Current: Version 0.99 Released on June 27, 2005 Completed, but not proofread There will probably be typos, and maybe a mistake or two No past versions have been released. --- INTRODUCTION / PREPARATION This is a challenge in which you play through the game Cave Story without grabbing any Life Expansion items. This means that you will have 3 life throughout the game. Because almost every attack later does 3 damage or more, you'll have to play perfectly for the latter half of the game. Cool, huh? I will be using the proper enemy names in the walkthrough. If you don't know them, http://www.gameflaws.com/cavestory/monsters.php has the names with images. Cave Story offers a lot of options as to what equipment you will end up with at the end of the game. However, if you follow this guide, I'm going to assume that you will be getting and keeping the following. -- Spur This is too useful in taking out bosses quickly, which is what you need. The faster you take out a boss, the less opportunity you have to make a mistake and die. -- Missiles The Missiles are only really useful in one or two fights: the Core, and Ballos' last form. However, if you can beat either of those two fights with 3 life and no missiles, you are a gaming god. Even though it's possible to skip the missiles, do not do it. -- Whimsical Star This seemingly useless item has a crucial role in B3 of the Sacred Grounds in taking out Archers from behind walls. No mention has been made of the Nemesis / Blade. The Blade loses its major usefulness when the Spur comes along, but I always found that the need to concentrate on not getting Weapon Energy with the Nemesis was distracting in a way that made it easy to accidentally get hit by an attack. That's not so bad in a normal game, but in a 3 life game, it's instant death. Do whatever you want about them. Finally, this guide assumes that you have already played through Cave Story and know what to do to complete the game. I'm only going to discuss enemy strategies and preparation, as that's the element that's affected by a 3 life game. One last thing: Save, save, and save some more. --- FIRST CAVE Skip the Life Capsule, get Polar Star, level it up with the enemies here, and watch out for The Door at the end. Nothing noteworthy here. --- MIMIGA VILLAGE Don't get hit by Toroko. When Balrog asks if you wanna fight him, say yes to get the Weapon Energy. He's really easy, so I'm not even gonna write any sort of strategy. I reentered the graveyard and killed the Gravekeeper with a sword several times until I leveled the Polar Star to 3. You can do the same if you want. It's a pain to have to go through some length of the Egg Corridor with the Polar Star at 2. --- EGG CORRIDOR Almost none of the enemies here will one shot kill you, and most die in one shot to a Level 3 Polar Star. The one to watch out for is Basu. Enjoy this kind of convenience while you can. Make sure you get the Missile Launcher here. You don't have to bother leveling it up at all if you don't want. We'll never use it until we get the powered up one, and then the levels reset. You might think that you could just skip this one and pickup the better one later, but you can't power up a Missile Launcher you don't have, of course! = BOSS: IGOR = Use this battle to get familiar with playing it safe rather than going for more damage, because you'll be playing like that for most boss battles. Shoot at him with your Polar Star. When he jumps, move back a little and keep shooting. When you're almost cornered in a wall, jump over him and keep shooting. At low life, he starts exhaling Fireballs. These can be destroyed simply by shooting them. Even if one hits you, it's not enough damage to take you down in one hit. = DEFEATED IGOR = Remember to save after this, and remember to save always. It only takes one very minor screw up to kill you, especially later on, and if you haven't saved in awhile, you're going to be frustrated. Fast forward to... --- GRASSTOWN Get the Fireball and Bubbler and level them to 3 here. If you weren't aware, you can get the Bubbler by using Jellyfish Juice on the Assembly Hall's Fireplace; the Assembly Hall is in the Mimiga Village. Its range is extremely useful for sniping off enemies without danger to yourself. There's two missile expansions in here which you really must pick up for a future boss fight. One is found by jumping up the platforms to the left of the shelter where Kazuma is trapped. The other is found by riding the fan to the right of the shelter up. This leads you to a hut with the missile expansion inside. When Rabil attacks, switch to the Fireball and tap the Attack button. He'll go down in no time. You're not quite far enough into the game where it's either don't get hit by enemies or die. But there are plenty of things that will kill you at this point: - Critter or Power Critter landing on you (if touched, it's only -2) - Kulala (big jelly) hitting you - Frog touching you - The shockwaves Mannans shoot out - The spikes, of course You'll have to fight Balrog twice here. = BALROG (2nd) = At first, he just flies from side to side, lands, and spits out projectiles. While he's flying to one side, go to the other while shooting up at him with the Polar Star, then shoot at him repeatedly when he's on the ground. This will also take care of the things he spits out (what do you call those?). When you get him down to about 1/3 of his life, he won't fly anymore. Instead, he makes short hops and causes little balls of ground to go everywhere when he lands. The little balls that fly out won't kill you, but they'll take you down to 1 life. Watch out for him changing attack patterns and doing this, because if you try to dodge him as if he were about to fly, you'll end up walking right under him and getting crushed for 10 damage. Ouch. Instead, shoot at him as much as you can when he lands, and predict where he'll land in his next jump. Avoid him accordingly, and you should take him out without too much trouble. = FOUGHT OFF BALROG = = BALROG (3rd) = Some people like to call this guy Balfrog. Definitely an interesting name. Keep your Fireball on for the duration of the fight. The general method is to wait for him to hop near the side you're standing on. If any tiny frogs drop down on that side, kill them. If they drop down on the other side such that Balrog is between you and it, just ignore it and get it later. When he's almost trapped against the wall, ride the fan over him. Touching Balrog here deals 5 damage, so it's instant death. Once he starts firing the red things out of his mouth, stand near the middle of the room and fire Fireballs at him constantly. They should go right through the projectiles and hit him. In a normal game I like to stand much closer and deal massive damage, but you'll occasionally take damage from a projectile that goes over your fireballs and hits you if you do that. In a 3 life game, it's instant death. So don't stand too close. At some point, he'll jump real high. When he lands, a bunch of little frogs and 2 big ones fall down. Watch the big ones! If you get hit by one it's game over. If you must, get hit by a little one instead; there's a lot of health and weapon energy to be gotten this fight, so you can take a hit from them easily. Just don't die to a big one. Repeat the pattern until he's dead. If you're bad at riding the fan like me, this battle might be a little challenging. It shouldn't pose a serious problem though. = DEFEATED BALROG = You should know what else to do here. In my opinion the events and item collection and such in Grasstown is a little tedious, but oh well. --- SAND ZONE The enemies here pose a real challenge, especially towards the end when you're getting the dogs. The trek to the fight with Curly is no object though. = CURLY BRACE AND KIDS = The Fireball is still a big damage dealer to bosses, so use it. This fight is fairly simple. Fire constantly at her. The fireballs will stun the Kids if they get anywhere near. They'll only deal 2 damage if they do hit. As long as you aren't in the air when the Machine Gun fire starts, you'll get through easily. = DEFEATED CURLY = Reject the Machine Gun, of course. We're getting the Spur. Pick up the dog before you leave. As you go on the way to the next fight (Omega), you'll fight Polishes. Stay in a safe spot while you snipe off the Babies. Don't try to get on the sand and dodge the Sandcrocs; it will never be worth the risk. = OMEGA = Ready the Fireball before the fight begins. When he pokes out of the sand, get ready to mash the fire button as soon as he opens his eyes. If you're good, you'll get over 200 damage this way. When he goes back in, switch to the Polar Star and take out the balls of sand. After that, he'll start hopping around. Use the Polar Star here; shoot him when he's open, but watch your head. Don't be too aggressive, because you only have 3 life. = DEFEATED OMEGA = Now head back and go to Jenka's place. I assume you already know where the dogs are; I'll give strategies for getting through places with tough enemies, because this part of the Sand Zone is tough. When you've got the first two puppies, you'll have to go down to the bottom part of the Sand Zone to get the rest. The big sand pit with the Crows carrying Skullheads can be a bit irritating, especially in a 3 life game, and especially since you have to go through most of it 4 times total! My preferred method of getting through safely is to walk on the sand at first. Fireball anything that gets in your way, and use the Polar Star to take out the Crows and Skullheads above. Watch out for the Skullstep on the bottom. It's quick, and if you don't Fireball it quickly enough, it'll run right into you. Fireballs should also decimate the Skeleton at the end. Once everyone's dead, use the platforms to proceed. In going for the last puppy and going to the boss, you'll face several Skullsteps, a Skeleton, and a ton of Crows. Use Fireballs to kill the Skullsteps, but don't underestimate their speed! There's a creative and safe way to deal with the Skeleton. Jump on the highest point you can on the left side of where he is. Then jump right, point your gun up, and use Fireballs. They should go over the wall and hit him! Repeat this until he dies. Without this method it's risky to kill him. As for the Crows, this is one of those areas you'll like having the Level 3 Bubbler. Charge up a horde of Bubbles, then release them from a long distance at a few Crows. Then charge up small groups and unleash them. Every time you hit a Crow, it stops charging at you, so use this to your advantage. This part can be a little tricky, especially if you aren't used to the Bubbler. If you find that there's a humongous number of Crows coming your way that the Bubbler can't kill fast enough, either run or switch to your Missiles and fire like your ammo isn't limited. I'd use up every single Missile if it meant I'd live. An alternate strategy I've found for the Crows "pulling" one by shooting a single bubble until you hit one, then switching to the Polar Star and taking it out when it gets close to you. This strategy is really slow and still has some risk factor in it. Do what you will. You'll also get a Life Pot in this area, but it will rarely be useful, because on the hard bosses it's not getting hit or dying. On anything else, you won't need it. Darn, huh? Did you know of the save point near where the 5th puppy is? You'll be glad it's there for the Storehouse Boss fight. = FRENZIED TOROKO = One thing that's always given me a chill in games is when a usually sensible character (usually an ally) is reduced to complete madness by the antagonists or is possessed. It's common too. Despite her simple attack pattern, Toroko can be quite challenging. While on the ground, she'll do one of three things. 1. Jump while throwing a block at you. 2. Stay on the ground and throw a block at you. 3. Laugh for a bit and do nothing. Use the Polar Star for the whole fight. 1 is by far the most common action. Remember that little flower things spawn when the block hits the ground, so shoot them. They only do 2 damage, so they aren't fatal, but that doesn't mean you can recklessly get hit by them. What I like to do is stand a little bit away from her towards the middle of the map. It's the best place to deal with all 3 actions. When she jumps, just walk under her and shoot up. The block will hit and the flower will appear between where she jumped and where she landed, so shoot it. If she throws a block without jumping, try to jump AFTER the block leaves her hand, so that you can shoot the flower on the way down. If you jump too soon, the block will hit the left or right wall out of range, and having to shoot it later may cause you to lose focus, which could lead to death. If she laughs, just shoot her as much as you can. This is the main time to damage her. The main thing you need here is reaction time. Figure out which of the three things Toroko will do, and act quickly. What I've noticed is that she'll laugh before or after throwing a block without jumping, which gives you time to deal with it. That is, until her life is lower, in which case she'll mix up the three actions erratically. = DEFEATED FRENZIED TOROKO = Pick up the Blade. "To the Labyrinth with you." --- LABYRINTH This area as a whole is extremely difficult. Here's where you're REALLY going to feel the difficulty of having such low life. In the first room, get as much Weapon Energy as you can for your Blade. The Level 3 Blade is incredibly useful throughout the Labyrinth. Gaudis, the first of which you'll meet the in the second room, give way more Weapon Energy than they should. One Level 1 Blade takes it out. Grab the Energy it drops. The third room has the door to the Labyrinth Shop. Save in there, then exit, kill the three Gaudis, grab the Weapon Energy, enter, save, and exit again. You'll level your Blade to 3 very quickly this way. This helps for the Flying Gaudis ahead too. Don't get the Snake. We're still waiting for the Spur. Now, about the Level 3 Blade. If the King phantasm hits something (an enemy or even a projectile), it stops and causes a number of slashes in a huge area around it. Use this to your advantage. Against a large number of Gaudis including a flying one, fire the Blade at a Flying Gaudi's projectile just after it's fired. Everything around should die or take serious damage. Abuse the Level 3 Blade as you make your way to Dr. Gero and Curly. Get the Clinic Key, then head up there to get the Cure-All. = POOH BLACK = What is this, some ghost of a previous Balrog? This guy is really easy as long as you know what to do. Otherwise it's annoyingly difficult. While Pooh Black is on the ground, hit him with Level 3 Blades. Don't get too close. The filled circles that float around are fatal (5 damage). Open circles don't hurt. When he jumps into the ceiling, run to the left side of the room, then run towards the right. While you do this, switch to the Polar Star and fire upwards at the ceiling. This is important!! At least once before you can finish the fight (from what I saw), a filled circle will randomly come down from the ceiling and smack you on the head (before Pooh Black comes down). This spells game over unless you're firing upwards with a weapon, which will destroy the circle. Other than that one sneaky thing, enjoy this easy boss. You've got a couple of tough ones ahead. = DEFEATED POOH BLACK = Talk to people in the clinic, enter and leave. If Curly isn't gone yet, repeat. When she's left, you're ready to move on. Make sure you save. Make your way towards the right. You'll see Monster X there. The fight starts farther right in between the two small ramps of destroyed blocks. It's hard to describe... maybe some ASCII art will help? __ _____,-` `-,_S___,-,_____ The S represents when Monster X will start charging at you (the same time the Boss Music begins). Use the Bubbler's range to kill as many Gaudis as you can before you start the fight. = MONSTER X = The real pain about this battle is how long it takes to get to him from the last save point if you die. Finish off the Gaudis on the far right quickly. When Monster X reaches you, ideally there will be none left. If there are, things might get tricky, with dodging the treads and the Gaudis that are left both. Eliminate them quickly. For both phases of this battle, try to time it so that Monster X is as close to the edge as possible when he opens his center up. Having a lot of room to move around to dodge his attacks is key. You should already know Monster X's movement pattern. An important thing to remember is not to be on the treads when he changes direction. Don't let the chance of the game's physics decide whether it just barely knocks you off of the treads and leaves you no room to escape being crushed. For the first phase, he has 4 little pods that shoot the same things as Flying Gaudis. When he opens up, throw ONE Level 3 Blade at his center, then run out into the open, pull out the Polar Star, and dodge/shoot the projectiles. It's too risky to try to damage him any more, because there's going to be so many of the projectiles, and it's a one hit kill from them. Once he has only one or two pods left, you can afford to be a LITTLE bit more aggressive. Don't get careless. When all four pods are gone, he enters the second phase. Again, when he opens up, throw ONE Level 3 Blade at his center and run out into the open. Blade the homing missiles he fires. There should be 2-4 left when he starts rolling at you. Get rid of the missiles as fast as you can. This part takes awhile and there's a lot of opportunity to get hit. Expect to have to try Monster X many times before you finally defeat him. If you're feeling lucky, hit Monster X with as many blades as you can while dodging the missiles he's firing. If you hit him enough, he'll stop firing and start rolling again, and you'll only have to deal with about half the missiles you usually would. This is risky though, especially since you can't afford to get hit. I tried using Level 3 Missiles on both phases, but they didn't work too well on either one of them. Stick to the Blade. When you win, some little rodent pops out of the destroyed machine. Man this game is weird... = DEFEATED MONSTER X = Congratulations! Don't rejoice yet though. You have a harder battle coming shortly. In the next room is where you pick between the Booster 0.8 or Booster 2.0. If you want to do the secret level, you have to get 2.0 of course. If you do not, you have a choice. Picking 0.8 now might make the difficult boss fight coming shortly easier at the cost of harder final bosses, where 2.0's horizontal boosting is very nice to have. You pick. In any case, there's a boss in the boulder room. It's silly Balrog! = BALROG (4th) = In a normal game the missiles can be tricky to dodge but don't do that much damage, and he can be killed quickly. But in our 3 life game, we CAN'T get hit by the missiles, and suddenly this fight isn't quite so simple. Dodging the missiles has a little luck playing into it, since their aim is random. I had the most success with standing near him just before he jumped and fired the missiles, then running under him, firing a Blade upwards to deal with missiles about to come down on my head, and safely making it behind him. There's no real risk-free method to doing it. Unlike Monster X, there's a save point right before him, so dying isn't such a big deal. = DEFEATED BALROG = You get powered up missiles for beating him. You need these at Level 3 by the time you get to the next boss. Because next area can be a bit difficult, I recommend using the beginning of it (which is easy) to level up the Launcher. When you've killed all the Gaudi Eggs there, exit, save, and repeat. This part of the Labyrinth is divided into three tiers. The first tier features Armor Gaudis and Fire Whirrs. Fire Whirrs are easy. Blade them or let Curly's Machine Gun blow them away... just don't get hit by their shots. Armor Gaudis can be tricky. Believe it or not though, the Fireballs range is just SLIGHTLY longer than the range at which they'll start attackign you. If you stand in the right spot, you can Fireball them to death without any sort of counter attack. In the area with three Fire Whirrs, stand behind the crate but as close to them as you can. Curly should run over there and with her uber invincibility hack destroy them after some time. When you drop down into the second tier, you have to start dealing with BuyoBuyo Bases. The BuyoBuyos they shoot out are easy enough to deal with, but the thing about the bases is that they have 100 life! Careful approaching them; don't let a BuyoBuyo hit you. Blade them repeatedly when you're close. Alternatively, stand close enough for Curly to work on them. If they're on the ground, Fireballs are useful. The end of the second tier is full of Armor Gaudis, and their blades seem to be able to hit you even when you're behind the opening. Stay far back enough so that the top Armor Gaudi isn't firing, then switch to the Bubbler. You'll be able to kill the top Armor Gaudi and the Fire Whirr with it. After that, Fireball the Armor Gaudis on the ground. Watch out for the spikes in this room as you go through it. You've come pretty far already, so don't blow it. Use the console and drop down. If you got the Booster 0.8, use the teleporter and save. If you don't, DON'T use the teleporter and save, or you'll have a lot of backtracking to do! The third tier is the shortest and features Fuzz and Fuzz Cores. If you kill the Fuzz Cores before the Fuzzes, the surviving Fuzzes rush at you, and it's tough to dodge/kill them. Instead, you're going to have eliminate the Fuzzes but not the Fuzz Core (which has about 10 life, much less than it looks like it would have). The Blade's splash damage makes it a poor choice. Your best weapon for controlled fire is the Polar Star. Use it to pick off the Fuzzes but avoid hitting the Fuzz Core. If you hit it 3 times, be ready for the Fuzzes to charge at you. They only do 1 damage, but that doesn't mean you can recklessly get hit by them. At the end of this tier is a door. Enter it. --- CORE Open all the shutters, then go save. For those getting the secret level, get the Tow Rope. After that, the door to the save room suddenly becomes sealed. :( Guess you better get this over with. = CORE = The blades that the mini-cores shoot out deal 3 damage; they're fatal. They aren't killed just by 1 shot of a Polar Star, and the Blade's area of effect attacks take some time to eliminate them; in that time they could hit you. The only reliable way to avoid death is to avoid them. But that's barely feasible when the water level has risen all the way up, because you can hardly move then. So how do you do this? Kill him before you get in an unsalvageable situation, that's how! While the big Core is open, if the little ones are in the way, fire 7-8 missiles at it. These missiles will push the little Cores back and hit the big one. If no little core are in the way, you can fire 4-5 instead. After those missiles, the big Core closes (since it's taken so much damage), so firing any more is a waste. And wasting your missiles this fight is a big no-no. When it's not open, use the Level 3 Blade to kill the blade projectiles; avoid them if needed. Kill as many as you can though, because you need to refill your missiles. Watch where the little Cores are. If there's one directly below you and you're on a platform, note that the blades will go through the platform and deal a swift death to you, so dodge them accordingly. It's that kind of required alertness that makes this battle difficult. Every 4th time the Core opens, he'll blow you back and shoot the huge projectiles that do 20 damage (like we care, all we know is that we die to everything!) When he opens the 4th time, you should be able to kill him right then with whatever missiles you were able to pick up. If you didn't, you either didn't get enough missile ammo (bad luck) or you need to aim at the big Core more when it's open. Either way, it's not a catastrophe if you don't kill him right then, but it leaves more time for you to mess up. Just gather more ammo and kill him the next time he opens. = DEFEATED CORE = Those getting to the secret level, check your inventory now to make sure that you got the Tow Rope. If you forgot, run and get it before your air runs out! --- WATERWAY This place has nothing eventful, and it's easy. Use the Bubbler and Fireball when you get to the big mass of Jellies to eliminate most of them. Finish the rest off while you ride the currents with the Blade. If you're getting the secret level, do not miss the cabin! Even if you aren't, the save point there is handy. = IRONHEAD = Chances are you'll get the Alien Medal when you beat this thing; you get it by beating him without getting hurt, and getting hurt on bosses is an instant game over for us. The Porcupine Fish swim faster than the Blade goes forward, so fire the Blade as they approach you, and it will kill plenty of them. Ironhead will then rush by. This isn't a good time to hit him, so just don't worry about it. The next time though, he'll go from right to left and dawdle around a bit. Blading him will deal huge damage. He'll fire the same shockwaves Mannans did in Grasstown, which means they are fatal for 3 damage. Watch out for them. Repeat this just a few times to beat this guy. Even in a 3 life game he's not too difficult. = DEFEATED IRONHEAD = --- EMPTY MIMIGA VILLAGE Some of us are about to get the Booster 2.0. All of us are about to get the Spur and Whimsical Star! Yay! First, if you're getting the Booster 2.0, go down to Arthur's house and pick it up. Everyone has to go up to the First Cave and go to the Hermit Gunsmith with your Polar Star. Let him gripe a bit, then apologize, then give you the Spur. Go back to Arthur's house and teleport to the Labyrinth. Backtrack to the Labyrinth and get the Whimsical Star at the Labyrinth Shop. You can also get the Arms Barrier if you want, but it's almost useless in a 3 life run. Here's why. - Anything that hits you will probably kill you - Anything that hits you but doesn't kill you won't lower your weapon energy by any significant amount - You'll be using the Spur 80% of the time now, which doesn't use Weapon Energy and doesn't need an Arms Barrier - In the rare, rare event that something gets leveled down from 3 to 2, it's not even that big of a deal By the way, here's how the Whimsical Star works. When you MAX charge the Spur, 3 stars appear and fly around you, dealing 1 damage to whatever they hit. Whenever you're hit by something, one star disappears. When you MAX charge the Spur again, the number of stars goes back to 3. You've been through enough of our 3 life run to know that what I just said means "MAX charge the Spur once and you're set with the Whimsical Star." :) Head to the Egg Corridor now, which you should already know has been rocked with an explosion. --- WRECKED EGG CORRIDOR Almost all the same enemies, except they deal more damage (in other words, getting hit is death). Watch out for falling stalactites. A MAX charged Spur shot will take out any of the Dragon Zombies here. Against the Counter Bomb, fire a MAX charged Spur shot, then follow up with a couple Level 3 charged shots. He'll die before he gets to 2. There's 2 missile expansions, and you want to get both. One of them is at Egg 12. The other is in plain sight but comes with a boss fight. With the Spur, this fight is so easy it's not funny, so I won't bother writing a strategy. When you exit the room you fight the boss in, watch out for the Stalactite. If it hits, it kills. --- OUTER WALL Now I'm assuming of course that you did not pick the Bad Ending. If you did, you're only cheating yourself, because you only got to own one boss with the Spur and just 3 life. Want the Nemesis? Go down below where Kazuma and his dragon is to speak to the little people, the wife in particular. Then proceed to climb the Outer Wall. I skip the Nikumaru Counter usually, for a couple reasons: - If you can do Hell speed runs with just 3 life, you're incredible - The text that says "The counter moved!" and such just chops more seconds off every time you attempt to get through the Sacred Grounds. There will be many, many of those attempts. Once you've reached the top, you've entered the Plantation. --- PLANTATION Despite the size of this area, there's no actual boss fights anywhere. Strange if you ask me. First, go speak to the fisherman in the Rest Area. Then proceed to the bottom part of the Plantation. If you're going for the secret level, speak with Curly and then Cthulhu in that order. Make sure you hear something about a mushroom. Then go to the fisherman, get the key, and use it on the door. The Gunfish here can be a bit tough to avoid. Either kill them quickly or go through here underwater and attack from below. The latter method is slow but has no risk. Get out of jail. If you're either going for the secret level or the Nemesis, go back to the Teleporter Room (where you got thrown in jail). Go back to Arthur's house. Head to the graveyard. If you're going for the Nemesis, get the little man; he's on the bottom wearing a green shirt, which means he can be a bit hard to see. Kill everyone down there, then look for movement. If you're going for the secret level, get Ma Pignon, who is so easy that I won't write any strategy for him. Back at the Plantation, bring the mushroom to Curly if you're doing that, and get her to give you the Iron Bond. Then read Sue's letter and go to Momorin. Get her a sprinkler, then get her a controller from Itoh. Before you flip the switch on the rocket, secret levelers should double check to make sure they have the Booster 2.0 and the Iron Bond. Ride the rocket up to the Last Cave. If you got the Booster 2.0, you'll have to do the Hidden version and have your weapons dropped to 1. If you didn't, you'll do the much easier version. Skip directly to the Balcony section if you got the Booster 0.8. I'm not going to bother writing a guide to the easy version of the Last Cave. --- LAST CAVE (HIDDEN) The Critters here take two hits with an uncharged Spur. The Hidden Last Cave, if you look on your map, is made of four tiers. The first tier of the Last Cave is fairly straight forward. Boost between/past lava and spikes, and shoot like mad when you get to an area with Critters. Watch out for Critters hidden in the lava. We won't be hitting any of the Weapon Energy capsules in here. When the Critters are all sitting in a line, a charged Spur shot nicely takes all of them out. The second tier is about as easy. Watch out for the bats that fly around. Later in the second tier, you'll have to do some Booster action to dodge spikes. Enjoy the easiness of it while you can. The third tier is the really tough part. Hopefully you're good with the Booster. You'll have to dodge the spikes in this area, and it's much harder. You'll need to be able to do it without hitting the spikes once. Towards the end of the third tier is a very difficult configuration of spikes to navigate through. You'll have to fall, boost left between a thin hole, then boost up onto a platform. Make sure you don't run out of Boost in this one. The fourth tier is probably the hardest. One, because there's a boss! = THE RED DEMON = First he'll just stand there and chuck... something at you. Are those limbs of his kinsmen or something? Anyways, these are fatal as you'd expect. Then he'll jump while throwing more of the limbs at you. That's it, yet he's still quite challenging, simply because you have so little room for error. Try to get into a pattern like you did with Toroko. Keep near the middle so you have space on both sides. When he's on the ground, try to make him throw the limbs at the air. Then land on the ground and walk under him. Charge Spur as you do this and shoot every time it's MAXed. He'll go down pretty quickly. = GOT THE CLAY FIGURE MEDAL = The second reason the fourth tier is the hardest is because of the huge number of Presses at the end. Instead of boosting through all of them with a big "YEEEEHAW!", which will get you killed by a Critter, you'll have to go through more carefully. First, kill all the Critters you can see. Then Boost under the Presses until you reach a gap between them that's 2 blocks wide. Now kill the Critters in the next room with the lava. Boost through these Presses too. Watch out for the Critters at the end in the lava. --- BALCONY Take out the Rabil's here with a MAX charged Spur shot before they start attacking. Don't risk dying after going through the Last Cave. Get to the Prefab building, save, and take a breather. We're so close! Spur the next Rabil into destruction with a MAX shot, and run under Igor when he jumps. He'll fire projectiles from his mouth, so shoot a Level 2+ Spur shot towards his direction to take out the ones that might hit you. Then enter the Throne Room. = MISERY = Have the Spur charged to MAX before the fight begins so you can take a quick shot at her. Misery has 4 major attacks. - Fires 5 black projectiles at you. She does this when she flashes. - Teleports a block over your head. She does this every 3rd time she flashes, instead of the black projectiles. Because of this, count her attacks and be ready for when she does this. - Sends 3 black spheres out which follow you horizontally. Move under them and they'll transform into lightning bolts that crash down on you. She does this randomly after teleporting. - At lower life, 2 or 4 black circles spin out from her, protecting her. When she teleports, they turn into imps which can be killed for powerups. Neither the imps nor the circles are fatal. Count her attacks so you know when she's going to drop the block on you, and when you know she's about to, stay on the ground and just keep moving. The 3rd attack is the hardest to deal with, since it's random. If you get too reckless and aggressive, this attack might take you out, so be careful. Keep charging the Spur and firing it at her. She won't last that long. = DOCTOR = Again, fire a precharged MAX Spur shot at the beginning. One thing I've always had trouble with was the Doctor teleporting right into me, which is an instant kill in this game. There's no sure fire way to avoid this, so just try to keep moving. The fireballs he sends out are no problem to avoid. When he sends out the mass amount of fireballs, that's when the battle is tough. Ignore attacking him for a little while and concentrate on survival. They don't last too long, thankfully. Keep charging the Spur and firing it. = MUSCLE DOCTOR = Not too much harder. The thing about the Muscle Doctor: He jumps around like a lot of bosses. But unlike other bosses, walking under him is death, because he'll stop any upward momentum he has and immediately come down on you. When he jumps at you, either run away from him, or boost above him. When he teleports, keep moving, because he'll try to teleport on you. Try to avoid being trapped against a wall. Charge the Spur and constantly fire Level 3 shots at him (not MAX, takes too long). He can be killed before he summons the mass amount of imps if you're good. The imps will pose a problem, so try not to let him do that. Before you fight the Undead Core, if you've taken any damage whatsoever, talk to Chaco twice. = UNDEAD CORE = This is it for some of you. Usually you kill Sue before Misery or don't kill Misery at all because her summons can give you life. Well, we haven't needed life powerups the entire game. Kill Misery first; her attacks are much more difficult to avoid. Also, killing Sue first makes her attack with homing missiles which are REALLY annoying. If you kill Misery, you've pretty much won. Sue is no problem to take out, and then the Undead Core is almost defenseless. Now, about dodging attacks: Misery is the big pain in the butt here. Her Critters can be taken out with a couple charged Spur shots, and her Imps can be boosted under/over, or even just killed. The problem is that her attacks require a lot of attention, and she's not the only one on the battlefield. When she's gone, you can rest much easier. To dodge Sue, all you have to do is keep moving and not run into her. Now for the Undead Core. When it opens, it usually reveals a demonic head and fires bombs. To avoid this, either boost over the shockwaves or ride one of the little Cores that float around the room. I recommend the latter: doing the former may distract you enough to allow Misery's attacks to take you out. Every third time the Undead Core opens, it reveals a mouth and shoots rings of fireballs to the left. Always to the left. Stand behind the Core when it does this. If there's no or little space, you'll have to be ready to dodge the fireballs; again, another opportunity for Misery's attacks to get you while you're distracted. When you've taken Misery out, work on Sue. Remember that she'll fall down several times, but she'll get back up again. Watch to make sure she stays down. After that, it's time to beat the Undead Core. When the demon head pokes out, fire a MAX charged Spur shot at it, and it closes immediately. When it's the grinning mouth, it takes a little bit more firepower to make it close. Fire a MAX charged Spur shot, and follow up with Level 2-3 charged shots until it closes. Watch out for the fireballs. At a lower life, it reveals an open mouth, and this time it stays open for good. As soon as it opens, fireballs go across the middle of the screen; just once though. Watch out for these. They take up a big area and can be a bit difficult to dodge. It also sends out the bombs that the demon head did. Finally, it uses the same charged shots the original Core used when it blew you against the wall. Fire Spur shots at it constantly. When it's charging up, get out of the line of fire. Watch out for the bombs that go across the ceiling and floor. Victory will be yours. For some of you... it's not quite over. = DEFEATED UNDEAD CORE = Don't get hit by any of the falling blocks on your way out. In a normal game, it was a minor annoyance; for those going to Hell it usually meant a restart. For us, it's game over! Those not doing the secret level: You're done! Congratulations on completing a game with just a maximum of 3 life! --- SACRED GROUNDS B1 If you're playing through Hell now with 3 life, and you haven't already, what's wrong with you? Because you've already done it, this room should be a cakewalk for you. If you want, get the energy capsules to level up your Missiles. However, you're going to be trying to get through B2 a LOT, so you might prefer to get this floor over with as fast as you can. --- SACRED GROUNDS B2 This room is incredibly difficult. That, or it's just my unskill. But getting through this room without taking any hits takes a lot of luck for me. Just proceed through normally. Not too fast though. Every time you see a Bute coming from the right, STOP, and move back a few steps. If you keep moving, you might trigger even more to come, to the point where there's just too many for you to handle. Take care of all the ones that appear, and watch your back (because Curly isn't yet). Always watch out for the falling blocks. When you're ready, keep moving. At the parts where it's not just flat floor, try to avoid staying on the ground and rely more on the Booster to dodge the blocks. I don't think any Butes will spawn at these parts (except the end), so you can rest easy here. Have fun with this floor. --- SACRED GROUNDS B3 In this room are 7 different types of enemies. Bute - Mostly come out of holes in the floor and ceiling in large numbers. These are the angel like things that fly around. Buteknight - Sword wielding Butes. Get near them to make them attack you so that you can hurt them. Otherwise their sword blocks almost all attacks. Press - You've seen these before. They crush you when you walk under them and instantly kill you (127 damage). They're only in the beginning (excluding the boss). Archer - Bow wielding Butes. These guys can shoot their arrows at many different angles, so don't get careless. Attack after they shoot their bow. Don't attack while they're flashing. Mesa - Giant things that throw blocks. A MAX Spur shot to the head takes them out, and the attack is easy to dodge. Roller - Things that roll around on walls. Invinicible but easy to dodge. Deleet - Door things that explode on a timer. Stay away when the timer reaches 0. The important thing to remember when you play through this room is to NOT RUSH. You can proceed through this entire floor slowly but perfectly. Throughout this entire floor, gather Weapon Energy for your Missile Launcher. By the time you get to Ballos' last form, it must be Level 3. Once you're ready, walk to the edge of this platform, but don't fall off. You'll trigger the Butes to come out of the place you just came from. A single uncharged shot from the Spur should be enough to take one out, so just stand under the exit and fire upwards. NOTE: If you stand on the ground and fire up, you and Curly fire in the same direction for massive damage. This will be extremely useful later. There's a bunch of Buteknights on the bottom. Charge the spur (just to Level 2 or 3 works), then go near them and fire. They'll charge at your laser and die. Do this to all of the Buteknights on the bottom. Make sure the Archer doesn't pull a nice shot on you. And don't let the Press kill you either! Once you've taken care of them, kill the Pressers and then the Archer. MAX charge your Spur and shoot the Mesa in the head. Do this after he throws a block, since the blocks will stop your shot. This will kill him. Then stand on the right edge of the platform and MAX charge the Spur again. Shoot the other Mesa in the head, then use the same tactic as before to beat the Buteknights. Shoot the Deleet until it starts counting, then wait for it to explode; just don't be nearby! The Archers' arrows in the next section can be fired up to where you are, so be careful. Stand behind the wall just under where the Deleet used to be. You're safe from the Archers here. Equip the FIREBALL; it may level 1, but it'll do. When the arrows go past your head, jump and fire. Eventually you'll take out both Archers. Reequip the SPUR. Jump down to where they were, and fire a charged Spur shot at the blocks to the right. Before proceeding right, stand as far left as you can. See the 3 Archers to your left that are nearby? The Whimsical Star will eventually kill them. It could be a bit if it's not going the way you want it, but Archers only have about 8 life, which isn't that many hits. Jump into the tunnel that you've made. This triggers Butes to start coming out of the ceiling. You're pretty safe in here though, so fire at all of them until they're all gone. Curly will have hit the Deleet already, so just stand back until it's gone. This next part is pretty easy. Just fire Spur shots (charged/uncharged, doesn't matter) at the Deleet while avoiding the Rollers. Jump through. This part is where there's a lot of Archers. You're about to see why I wanted you to have the Whimsical Star. It can take out the low HP Archers from behind walls. First, use the Spur to kill the Archer on the wall just to the left. Remember that you killed 3 Archers that were above you earlier on? Now stand below the one remaining archer on the right side of the room. The Whimsical Star should kill it eventually. Here you'll have to watch for arrows, as you'll be out in the open some. Shoot the Archer in the middle of the room that isn't behind a wall, and get into the hole below him (where there's a heart). Stand where this heart is and let the Whimsical Star kill the Archer above you. He's usually really troublesome, but not anymore! Now charge the Spur to MAX and let loose a shot on the Mesa who is standing on the higher ground. Be sure to shoot after he throws a wall. Once he's dead, kill the Archers on the left wall, working from bottom to top. Then boost over to the bottom step where these four Archers were. Kill the one on top if you didn't already (he's out of view from where you were), then let loose a MAX charge shot on the Mesa below. From these steps, drop down. Time a MAX charge shot with the Spur to kill these two Mesas in one blast. Now shoot the Deleet above, but don't get too close to it, or you might trigger the Butes to spawn from the top. Now stand on the top step; not level with where the Deleet used to be, but the one just below it. When you do Butes spawn from the ceiling. Fire uncharged shots with the Spur (or fire against the wall and let Curly kill them) at each one. The Whimsical Star may have already killed the Archer down and to the left from where you are. If not, wait until it does. Stand where the Deleet used to be on the top of these steps. Fire a MAX Spur shot at the Mesa's head. Now stand at the left edge of this platform. Switch to the Fireball and send some shots down. That takes care of the Deleet down there. If you want to dodge arrows, go down and ignore these Archers (skip the next paragraph). If you want to play it safe, we'll take the archers out; don't skip the next paragraph. From where you hit the Deleet with fireballs, jump and fire two fireballs right when you hit the ceiling. That takes care of one Archer. 4 to go. Drop down 2 steps. Wait until the Whimsical Star kills the Archer down and to your left. This might take awhile. What might help is to stand on the top step, then drop down. As the Whimsical Star follows you, it will probably hit him. However you kill him, you have 3 Archers left to kill. Now go down to the Life Recovery on the bottom, below these steps. The Whimsical Star here will take out the Archer above; if it takes while, jump repeatedly. 2 to go. At this point, just wait until they fire their arrows, then fire the Spur (doesn't matter what level) at them. Use the Booster to help you here. You should be able to kill both of them quite easily. Go through the bottom. As soon as you land on the platform in the room, Butes spawn from the bottom. Shoot uncharged Spur shots at them. Meanwhile, Curly will be taking out the Deleet on the left. The Deleet will probably open just as you finish killing the Butes, which means more Butes will be coming in from the left. Wait until they've all come near and died before proceeding. Now detonate the two Deleets above; make sure you aren't too close when they give away. Stand in a safe place as you prepare for the next part, because the Archers are quite skilled at aiming their arrows, more so than you might think. Now stand where the middle Deleet was with a MAX charged Spur. Watch out for the arrows these Archers fire. Now jump, and quickly boost left a bit, boost up, and fire at the Archers. This should kill both of them, but in case you missed, start boosting back to where you were standing as soon as you fire. Once both of them are dead, boost over to their platform. Get the missile expansion in the block above. Now stand on the right edge of the platform, and shoot Fireballs down at the Deleets. You can detonate both of them this way. Jump down to the platform below. When you do this, an enormous number of Butes suddenly come at all sides. Well, we're ignoring them. Quickly boost left into the next room, and trigger the boss fight so we don't have to deal with them. = BOSS: HEAVY PRESS = Remember what I said earlier? If you fire uncharged Spur shots upward while on the ground, you and Curly will both fire in the same direction. With this little trick, we're going to beat this guy pretty quickly. If your Missiles aren't Level 3 yet, consider killing Butes and getting Weapon Energy until it is. I don't recommend this, because it just leaves more room for error, and it only takes one VERY MINOR mistake to cause you to have to repeat a LOT of work. Wait until Heavy Press fires his laser. Provided there is no Roller close to the ground under his cannon, stand under it and fire upwards. You and Curly will deal huge amounts of damage together to it. Do this for half a second to a second, then stand to either side and take care of any Butes that spawned. Keep an eye on the Rollers and don't let them hit you. Repeat this process. When Heavy Press dies, get out of the way, or it's game over! = DEFEATED HEAVY PRESS = We're done this floor! --- STATUE ROOM If the Missile Launcher STILL isn't Level 3 yet, hope for Weapon Energy in this room. --- SEALED ROOM = FINAL BOSS: BALLOS = Ready to take on the really-final boss with just 3 life? BALLOS - HUMAN Charge the Spur, then let loose a MAX shot when he charges at you, and jump over him at the same time. He'll jump into the air when you do, so don't be above him. He'll go to where you are and smash the ground now. Dodge this and the shockwave of bones that results. Charge the Spur as you do all this, and shoot him whenever it MAXes. When he starts glowing red, forget attacking and concentrate on dodging. Watch for the crosshairs that appear to avoid the lightning bolts. When he dies, stand in place. You should see crosshairs appear where you are for a bit after a second or so. Boost left or right now! BALLOS - ORB He'll jump and cause shockwaves when he lands. When he first jumps, stand far away from him so he doesn't land on you. Jump over the shockwave as it reaches you. He'll jump right about now, so while you're still in the air, boost under him. Charge the Spur while you do all this. After two jumps, he'll pause; afterwards, he'll pause every three jumps. This is when you want to attack. As for damaging him, aim at his eyes. Hit him on the side of his body where his eyes are. It's not hard to hit him for roughly 50 points of damage with a MAX Spur shot, but if you hit him in the exact right spot, the laser will go through both eyes and should deal about 150-200 points of damage! Once you've fired your Spur shot, go back into the dodging pattern. It's easy to avoid his attacks. Count the jumps until you reach three, then prepare to fire, because he'll pause. Repeat until you've beaten this form. BALLOS - ORB WITH EYES Your targets are the eyes that just appeared. This form should not prove to be too difficult, but you'll have to react fast, as there's dodging to do right when the fight starts. What he does is roll around the walls in a counter clockwise fashion. As he rolls along on the ground, there's always many places you can stand on the ground such that the eyes around him will miss you. The best way to find one is this: as he gets close to where you're standing, walk just to the left of where one of the eyes touched the ground, and stay put. He'll go right over you. As he rolls along the ceiling, he'll drop skull-shaped grenades which are easy to dodge. Get ready to dodge him on the ground again then. Fire Spur shots, charged or uncharged, whenever you think you have the chance. I think it's easiest to fire at his eyes while he's on the ceiling. When an eye closes, that means it's gone; go for the others. Once all 8 are closed, the next form begins. Once you see the platforms appear, get on them immediately. BALLOS - FINAL When it comes to this form, there's so many things to dodge that it's near impossible to get through with out damage. Pretty much, you'd want to kill this thing as fast as humanly possible to minimize the opportunity to take damage. So what do you do? Consult a Hell Speed Run FAQ! Well, that was my thought process in trying to beat him. I found such a FAQ by Derakon at the following URL: http://www.gameflaws.com/cavestory/hellspeedrun.txt. That guide's strategy for beating this form is to jump on a safe spot near his left eye and use Level 3 Missiles to beat him almost instantaneously. This is absolutely the kind of strategy we need. I must give credit to Derakon for this brilliant method; I consulted a lot of FAQs to collect strategies and attack pattern information for a 3 life run, but this one stands out and deserves individual recognition. So all we have to do is find a painless way to get to that safe spot, as there's Eyes in between us and it, and they aren't a cakewalk to dodge. You could try to kill one as fast as possible and use the opening to get to the safe spot. If that took a little while and the Butes are starting to become a threat, unload all your missiles (you have 54 after all) as soon as you make the opening and hope for the best. Another strategy for those who have good timing and Booster skills is to simply navigate between the eyes onto the safe spot when the battle begins. This is dangerous but nets a near instant victory if done properly. If you decide not to use the safe spot at all, your only chance really is to unload every missile you have at Ballos, and never stop firing. It's either kill Ballos extremely quickly or die. Unlike most of the 3 life run, recklessness is somewhat of a virtue now. Best of luck as you attempt to defeat this last form of Ballos with your armed scout robot Quote, who for the entire game has seemed to be made out of a glob of wet paper. = CONGRATULATIONS ON BEATING CAVE STORY WITH JUST 3 LIFE! = I know I was ecstatic when I finally beat Ballos. --- CONCLUSION I'd like to give a big thank you to all of the FAQs out there that helped me out with this game when I first played it, and for giving me the idea to do this run. An extra special thanks goes to Derakon's Hell Speed Run FAQ at http://www.gameflaws.com/cavestory/hellspeedrun.txt, which gave me the strategy for Ballos, seen just above. I hope you enjoyed reading it. I'm sure there's a few of you who like to read FAQs about playing through games with a self-imposed challenge, just to read how much harder it is (you'll find this one isn't that bad), and I'm sure a few of you had it help you to a successful playthrough of the game and bragging rights. ~ Happypuppet