Part Six: Infiltrating Viper Manor - Guile, Nikki, Pierre
Regardless of how you got in you'll now be on the grounds of Viper Manor, and the gang will wait until nighttime to look around. You'll encounter the following enemies while prowling the manor:
- Acacia Private - Yellow Innate. Your standard Dragoon soldier. They like physical attacks. Meh. Green Innate Elements will wipe them out.
- Acacia Sergeant - Yellow Innate. Slightly stronger Dragoon soldiers. A little more prone to using Elements than the Privates, though still not a big deal.
- Gobledygook - Red Innate. You've seen these bats before. A minor nuisance.
- WillO'Wisp - Red Innate. Annoying enemies that will drop onto your head without warning, WillO'Wisps are pretty weak. They can inflict Burn on your party members, so be ready with Ointment.
- Roborg - Yellow Innate. A hefty, beefy robot that is slow but can inflict a fair amount of damage. You'll only encounter one of these during your trip to Viper Manor, though they show up again in later dungeons. Green Innate will help you chew away their health.
- Portalgheist - Yellow Innate. Monstrous doors that are built into the very architecture of Viper Manor, Portalgheists summon in other enemies to do their work for them. Take out the door before you defeat its minions.
You'll have access to the front door of Viper Manor, but, alas, it's locked. You'll need a key. If you took Guile's route in you'll be by the back yard already; if not, head south along the front of the manor and take a right to find the back yard. There are several Dragoons patrolling back here, and spotlights will catch you if you're not fast on your feet, so tread carefully.
Dragon Feeding
Make your way into the stable in the north of the yard. The stable keeper inside has the Manor Key, though he wants help feeding the dragons kept in the stable. Agree to help him and you'll enter a dragon-feeding minigame. The rules are simple: Grab some feed from the far-left side of the stable, then move to each of the five stables and feed the dragons whenever they start to get antsy and open their mouths. If you take too long the dragon will settle down but start to turn red. If one of the dragons isn't fed four times the game ends in failure. You can hold three pieces of feed at a time, appearing in the top-right corner of the screen.
There are three ways you can approach this game:
⦁ Systematically. Always feed the first two dragons on the left side, nearest the feed pick-up point. Once they're happy, stock up again and rush over to feed the other three. Return to the feed point and repeat.
⦁ As a mad dash. Fully stock up on feed and blitz your way down the pens, mashing the feed button at every dragon. Those that don't want food won't be fed; those that do will be fed. Repeat this until the game ends. It's a tiring method, but it works.
⦁ By cheating. If you have Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition you can both speed up and slow down time. If you slow down time you'll have ample opportunity to zip over, grab feed, and feed the dragons that need it. The game takes a lot longer to play, but slowing time down is very safe.
When you start the game you can choose how many times you want to feed the dragons. The number of times you've successfully done so is tracked in the top-left corner of the screen. Once you reach your target you'll receive a prize. The more times you feed the dragons, the better the prize will be if you succeed. You can receive the following prizes for feeding dragons:
⦁ 10 feedings - Knee Pad
⦁ 20 Feedings - Bronze Helmet
⦁ 30 Feedings - Bronze Mail
⦁ 40 Feedings - Recover All Element
⦁ 100 Feedings - Iron Vest
You can choose any difficulty level to earn the Manor Key, kept in a cupboard to the right of the dragon pens. Keep in mind that the dragons will become hungrier and hungrier the more you've fed them, so if you're trying to feed them 100 times you'll probably need to blitz through the game to succeed. You can keep trying to earn all the prizes if you have enough gusto for the job.
With the Manor Key you can now enter the front door. Before you do, though, look around a bit. If you check the small room on the left side of the rear courtyard (this is where Guile's story ends) you'll find a chest containing a Turn Blue Element. Head to the front gate and you'll find a Turn Yellow Element, tucked into an unseen spot beside the left side of the gate. Just north of the entrance is an Ointment Element.
Pop into the front door. You're now in a sort of entry hall. There's a snake-shaped mechanism ahead that you can turn a specific number of times to the left and to the right. This is the combination lock for the inner halls of Viper Manor, and if you get the combination wrong (which you will on your first try) you'll be dumped into a cage one floor down. Enter whatever combination you like. You'll be freed from the cage in short order - how this happens depends on whether or not you recruited Kid - and you'll obtain some Dragoon uniforms after beating up a few of them.
To your right and left are rounded gates that lead to side halls. There's also a nearby set of stairs, though they lead to essentially a dead end. There's a chest down the stairs, and opening it will trigger a battle with two chest-shaped enemies named Big Boxer and Li'l Boxer, collectively known as the Boxer Boys. You need to choose one of the two chests to attack. If you choose correctly you'll receive a prize and the battle will end; if you fail you'll have to defeat the pair. Which one is the 'correct' chest is random each time, and if you get it wrong you can run away and try to guess again.
Go back up the stairs and go through the rounded gate to the left of the cage. There are three doors in the next hallway. The first two lead to a dining hall and kitchen. Check the top-right corner of the dining hall for a Dragoon's Honor, and a cupboard in the kitchen for a Turn Green Element. (As a side note, you get to recruit the cook and his assistant later in the game.)
Idling in the dining hall is Glenn, the young man you first saw in Termina. Speak to him and he'll leave. Return to the hallway and walk to the final door on the left. This is a barracks, and Glenn is standing near a bed in the north. Check the wall beside the bed and you'll see that he's written down the combination for the door into the main hall. This is randomized each time, so write the code down or memorize it. Look in the left side of the barracks for a box containing a Revive Element. You absolutely do not want to miss the Revive Element. They don't come up often.
Use the save point in the barracks, then head out into the hall again and go up the stairs on the left. You'll come to a hallway connecting to the main hall on the ground floor, where you encountered the security door. The second door here has an eye on it, and if you try to open the door while the eye is open you'll trigger a battle with a Portalgheist. These are lengthy fights, but Portalgheists have the Magnify Element which you can Pilfer with Kid. It's handy to get at least one of these.
Inside the room beside the Portalgheist you'll find a girl, sleeping on a bed. She's a very important NPC, though for now she's just sleepy. To the north of her are two chests, the one on the right containing a Turn Black Element, the one on the left triggering a fight with the Boxer Boys. The haunted door is locked, so don't worry about it right now. The remainder of the hallway leads back to the room with the security door, but it's blocked by a polite Roborg, so leave this hallway for now and go back downstairs.
Check out the eastern rounded gate from the cage where you started. You'll find a Roborg guarding the hallway, and only one door accessible to you. If you recruited Kid there will be two guards in front of the door, and they'll demand a password before they let you in. Don't choose anything, as silence is the right answer. If you didn't recruit Kid they'll already be knocked out.
Behind the door is a treasure room. Ignore the obvious, flashing medallion on the wall for the moment and check out everything else. There are three displays in the northwest of the room that hold a Bronze Sword, a Bronze Mail, and the Hero's Shield. All three of these items - particularly the Hero's Shield - are meant for Pierre, and will make him a bit more useful as a party member. Check the vase near the displays for a battle against a Potty and a Turn Red Element. There's a Boxer Boys chest near the door.
Finally, check out the Silver Pendant on the wall, despite the reservations of your party. Grabbing it will immediately activate a trap, and you'll be dumped into another cage inside an adjacent laboratory. Its owner, Luccia, will let you go... but you'll need to defeat some of her creations first.
Neo-N-Bulbs
If you went through the Shadow Forest to enter Viper Manor these guys will look familiar. Pudgy, dour-looking dudes, the Neo-N-Bulbs are Green Innate creatures that tend towards low-power physical attacks and a variety of Green Innate Elements. The only move that might cause you any trouble is Poison Gas, which inflicts Poison on the whole party. Otherwise, they do around 25 points of damage to a single character at their strongest. Use physical attacks and your best Yellow Innate Elements to beat them down one-at-a-time.
You'll receive a Star Level, 500 g, and two Aero Saucer Elements for defeating the Neo-N-Bulbs.
Pip
Luccia will call your attention to a little creature in the left corner of the room, then (politely) tell you to leave. Wander over to the creature before you go. His name is Pip, and he yearns to get out and explore the world. He'll ask you to unlock his cage. Do it and he will escape from Viper Manor after you complete the dungeon. Pip is a recruitable character in the near future, though you'll need to secure a boat before you can get him.
Leave the lab and you'll be back in the hallway. Now that you're facing it head-on you can defeat the Roborg that's blocking the hall. Continue right and you'll find one more door before you reach the stairs; inside is a strange little armory that also serves as a puzzle room. Check the chest for a Copper Helmet, then push the one loose snake statue into the obvious floor niche. This will allow you to remove a Decor Shield from the wall, as well as drop a bunch of Gloops into the room. Set the Decor Shield on the one armor display to the left that doesn't have a shield...
... and you'll wind up in a battle against five Men-of-War. These animated suits of armor can be a bit tough in a pack, but Serge should be able to pick off at least one of them almost immediately with Dash & Slash. Use whatever White Innate Elements you have to pick off the rest of them one-at-a-time. Kid can Pilfer Gravity Blow Elements from them, as well as the occasional Iron.
Head back into the hallway and go upstairs. There are two doors, each belonging to one of the Four Devas. The first one belongs to Zoah, and contains a chest that he says only he can open. You'll get to open it much later in the game. The second room belongs to Karsh, and he also has a chest. He'll tell you to leave it alone... though if you're persistent his dialogue will keep changing, and if you press the issue twenty times he'll let you open the chest and claim the Dragoon Gauntlet inside. Both men have a few things to say about the Acacia Dragoons.
That's all for the lower levels of Viper Manor. Return to the entry hall and use the password you got from Glenn's bedside. This will open the door into the main hall of the manor. Take a left from the southern door and go through the gate. You'll find yourself on a bridge to the manor's library...
... and inside the library is an old man who should look very familiar if you've played Chrono Trigger. Also here is a young girl named Marcy, who, it turns out, is rather bloodthirsty. (And you'll get to see a little more of what makes her tick if Nikki is in the party, though his presence won't save you from a beating.)
Marcy
The third of the Four Devas, Marcy is tougher than she looks, though still not too bad. She uses a combination of normal moves, personalized Techs, and Blue Innate Elements to assault your party. The Techs can sting, but her Ice Blasts tend to do the most damage. It's a pretty straightforward battle.
Marcy is Blue Innate, surprise surprise, so Kid works well against her. Blitz Marcy with Red Innate Elements, and heal as necessary. You may want to use the occasional Medicine to clear up characters Frozen by Marcy's Ice Blasts. Kid can Pilfer both a Silver Loupe (common) or the handier Dancing Shoes (rare) from Marcy.
You'll receive a Star Level, 780 g, and an Ice Blast Element (common) or an Iron (rare) for defeating Marcy.
With Marcy out of the way you can look around the library and speak to the old man more, though the only point of tangible interest is the ladder on the upper balcony. Hit a switch near the bottom of the ladder - Marcy activated it earlier - to bring it down. At the top you'll find a Turn White Element.
Return to the main hall. You'll engage in a brief conversation with Harle, the girl you saw sleeping earlier. She's a bit antagonistic towards Kid, and will leave after a bit of back-and-forth bickering. The Prophet suggested you check behind the second pillar on the left in this room, and, lo and behold, doing that will activate a lift in the north. It will also alert the Dragoons in front of the lift, so take them out. Hop onto the lift.
There are three way to go at the top, though only the middle door is useful at the moment. Use the save point down the left hallway, then step into the middle door. You'll find a small office. Inspect the glowing stone on the desk to trigger a cut scene with General Viper, the head of the Acacia Dragoons... and the man Kid wants very badly to kill.
Lynx
A nasty piece of work you'll be seeing a lot in Chrono Cross, Lynx is the most difficult boss you've fought to date. A Black Innate, Lynx uses a powerful combination of normal attacks and Black Innate Elements to whittle down your party. He'll usually use Anti-White on Serge to lock away his White Elements, then Hell Soul to prevent revivification of a character and Hell-Bound to instantly kill a character. If he happens to use both of these on the same party member you're in trouble. Lynx will use a Nostrum to restore a chunk of health once he's taken enough damage.
Equip your non-Serge characters with several White Innate Elements like Revive (don't equip Revive on Kid - more on why below) and Meteorite so they can pummel Lynx's health, then start off the battle with Serge's Dash & Slash before it can be locked away. After that you'll want to keep using your strongest Elements on Lynx, healing whenever his physical attacks do too much damage. Don't underestimate how much damage Lynx can do in a single turn, especially to Serge, his elemental polar opposite. Fortunately, Serge can return a ton of damage back to Lynx with his normal attacks.
You'll receive a Star Level, 500 g, and a Pendragon Sigil C (common) or a Gravitonne Element (rare) for defeating Lynx.
After the fight there will be a standoff involving Riddel, Viper's daughter, and the party will wind up on a rooftop balcony overlooking the estate. Things will happen, and Kid will get hit by a dagger hurled by Lynx. It's a climactic end to Viper Manor, and will herald Kid's temporary departure from the party. (Hence why you shouldn't put Revive on her.)