Part Five: Termina (Another World)
Three ways into Viper Manor, all dangerous, all fruitful in their own way. Which path did you choose?
Guile - Viper Manor Bluffs
If you decide to go with Guile you'll need to find a boat that will take you to Viper Manor by sea. The answer is Korcha. He's hanging out by the shrine in the far east of Termina. Put Guile in your party and he'll serve as a guide to a landing point for the manor. You'll need to pay Korcha 100 g for his services.
Korcha will whisk you over to the cliffs behind Viper Manor. You'll need to climb the rest of the way up to the manor. Scurry up the first set of handholds to the next screen and you'll immediately be found out by an Acacian Dragoon, who will begin hurling boulders down at you from the manor. Subtle. You'll need to dodge the boulders as you climb. Getting hit by one will inflict 10 HP of damage.
You'll run into the following enemies as you climb the Viper Manor Bluffs:
- Gobledygook - Red Innate. Annoying little bats. Not a big deal.
- Loch Nest - Green Innate. Strange, orbular creatures that appear to be perched on sticks. Also not a major concern.
Rather than taking the main, obvious path up the cliff to start, return to the boat and look on your right. There's a path in the water, just barely visible beside Korcha, that will take you to a different climbing point. This will lead you to the next screen. Head west to another climbing spot. You can climb all the way up, and at the end of the climb you'll find a chest containing a Heal Element. Watch out for the jet of water on the way up. Once you have the Heal Element, climb back down and let the blast of water knock you off the handholds. You'll fall down to a chest containing a Photon Ray Element. This will return you to the boat.
Take the main path up this time. Keep climbing up and to the right until you see another spout of water occasionally blasting out of the handholds. Position yourself over it and it will knock you down to a ledge with a chest containing a Tablet Element. Climb back to the main path and resume clambering up the cliff, timing your ascent to avoid the jet of water.
You'll find an intersection past the water jet, with three possible points of ascent. The first one on the right leads nowhere, the last one on the left leads to a Meteorite Element, and the middle one takes you further up the cliff. Watch out for the Loch Nest partway up the middle climbing point.
There's another intersection waiting for you at the bottom of the next screen. Go up the left set of handholds to the next ledge, then go to the far left. You can climb up to a Freefall Trap Element. Backtrack to the bottom of the screen and climb up on the right. You'll see several small caves through ledges above. Go through the second one and keep climbing to reach the top of the cliff.
Once you're almost at the top a pair of Acacia PVTs, Yellow Innate, will jump down and attack you. They aren't even remotely a problem, and will earn you a Star Level for beating them, to boot. The ruckus will, however, bring an actual boss over to have a look.
King Moaman, Blue Moaman, Red Moaman
This is a bit of a nasty fight. The Blue and Red Moamen will start off by casting Nimble and Strengthen on the King Moaman, who uses its brute strength to smack you around with normal physical attacks. The Blue and Red Moamen will then resort to Fire Sword and Ice Sword, respectively, to deal just over 20 points of damage per strike. It's a fight of single-hitting attacks, and can overwhelm you if you don't whittle down the enemy in a hurry.
Take out either of the side Moamen first. They have less health, and they won't be able to buff the King again once they're gone. The Blue Moaman is weak to Red Innate Elements, making it a good target for Kid, while the Red Moaman is weak to Blue Innate Elements. You should have a decent number of both types of attacks by now. Concentrate on either of the lesser Moaman, healing as necessary, then swap to the other once the first is gone. Save Serge's White Innate attacks for the King Moaman, if you can, as they'll do extra damage. The Black Moaman can use Gravitonne to hit everyone in the party, though you typically won't see this move until it's almost dead.
You'll receive a Star Level, 560 g, the Gravity Blow Element, and two Feathers for defeating the three Moamen. You'll also gain access to Viper Manor's rear courtyard.
Nikki - Shadow Forest
If you decide to go after Nikki you'll be headed to the Shadow Forest. Located to the east of Viper Manor, the Shadow Forest is normally blocked off by Acacia Dragoons at this part of the game. If you agreed to help Miki, however, she'll find a way to drive the Dragoons away from their post, granting you access.
Unsurprisingly, the Shadow Forest is crawling with baddies you won't recognize. You'll run into the following enemies while traversing the trees:
- Bulb - Green Innate. Basic enemies who mostly attack. Not a big deal, even in groups.
- Cassowary - Yellow Innate. Prefers fast physical attacks, and... not much else. Beat them down with Green Innate Elements.
- Quadfidd - Green Innate. There's only one, but it's not strong enough to qualify as a boss. Heals itself and uses a few other Green Elements. Not a big deal overall.
There's a strange, wiggly creature on the first screen that is of no use to you yet. Ignore it for now and head west to the next screen. Climb onto the mossy rocks just north of you to find a chest containing an Aero Saucer Element, then cut south and continue west. You'll see Nikki standing beside a small pond, trying to sing to another of the weird wiggly creatures. He'll take off to the west. Follow him to the edge of the screen, cutting south briefly to grab an Uplift Element from the chest in the bottom-left corner of the screen.
On the next screen you'll see Nikki getting cornered by some Cassowaries. You'll need to save him in the ensuing fight, which is pretty easy since Nikki softens his foes up a bit for you. You'll earn a Star Level for defeating the Cassowaries. Once they're gone Nikki will wordlessly leap into a nearby waterfall and disappear. Go west, south past the monster that's blocking the eastern route, east into the water, and through the waterfall to find him. You can recruit Nikki in here, and he'll give you some hints on how to get past the monster you saw earlier. Double back into the waterfall cave to find a note with more detailed instructions, as well as an Angry Scapula - part of Skelly - and a chest containing an Aroma Pouch. You'll need the Aroma Pouch to proceed.
Go back outside. There are three spherical bushes on this screen, each of which will release a colored spore that corresponds to one of the weird, wiggly monsters. Walking near the monster with the correctly-colored spore will prompt the monster to follow you. If you drag either the blue or green monster over to the monster blocking your way they'll be eaten, and you'll need to fight the Quadfidd to advance through the Shadow Forest. If, however, you get the red spore from the top-most bush, you can drag the monster from the beginning of the Shadow Forest to the Quadfidd, which when eaten causes the Quadfidd to shrink and run off. You'll receive the Skullduggery Custom Frame for the extra effort.
Regardless of how you got past the Quadfidd, you'll reach the end of the Shadow Forest on the next screen to the west. Before you can get into Viper Manor, however...
Zoah, Solt, Peppor
Hey, it's those guys again. And someone new. Solt and Peppor do a bit of tutorializing before they get serious, though for the most part this battle is played straight for all three combatants. Zoah focuses on attacking you, while Solt and Peppor take a few turns to buff themselves with Elements before using Upheaval and Sommersolt (Solt), Pepporbox (Peppor), and their own normal attacks against your party.
The three of them can be fairly dangerous if left to attack you for too long, so you'll want to concentrate on one of the combatants and bring them down with Green Innate Elements before Solt and Peppor get themselves buffed and ready to fight. Zoah tends to hit the hardest, followed closely by Peppor, so taking out Zoah should take precedence. Pepporbox is surprisingly dangerous, so Peppor comes second. Solt is offensively pretty weak so you can leave him until last. Heal as necessary. So long as your characters stay above 40 HP or so you should be able to weather any attack.
You'll receive a Star Level, 460 g, and a variety of common items when you defeat Zoah, Solt, and Peppor. You'll also find a chest containing a Heal Element to the immediate right of the battlefield, once Zoah takes off.
Enter the big, ominous cave beneath the tree once the Dragoons are out of the way. This leads to a waterway beneath Viper Manor. There are a few new enemies down here:
- Gerridae - Blue Innate. You'll mostly see these things. They're weak, but swift and evasive. Squirt Gun is their worst attack, which is... not a big deal at all.
- Gloop - Blue Innate. Balls of goo. Their Goo attack will lower a character's evasion, and... that... is... about it. Beat them to death.
- Wraith - Black Innate. Tougher than most of the enemies in the Shadow Forest, the Wraith can use Anti-White to lock away White Elements, its weakness. Stronger against Serge, but there's only one, so you should be fine.
Check behind a root on the right side of the first screen for a chest containing a Magma Bomb Element, then head deeper inside. On the next screen you'll see a never-ending stream of Gerridae swimming south towards you. If you follow the left side of the waterway you can get up on a ledge to find a hole that's spewing the monsters out. Kill the Wraith up here and you can move a boulder the Wraith was guarding to block the hole, stopping the monsters from spawning.
Go north through the water. At the end of the waterway you'll see a chest on a ledge - you'll get this much later, so don't worry about it now - and a doorway. The doorway leads to a well that you can climb to reach the grounds of Viper Manor.
Pierre - Viper Manor Front Gate
If you decide to take Pierre's path you'll need to take a stroll over to Viper Manor, just east of Termina. The guards in front of the manor won't let you in, and regardless of the choice you make you'll need to fight them. The Yellow Innate Acacia PVTs and Acacia SGTs you fight on the way in are no big deal...
... but the same can't be said for the three bosses waiting just past them.
Solt, Peppor, Ketchop
As with most Solt and Peppor battles, this fight is scripted - to a point. It'll begin with Ketchop knocking out Serge, though Solt will promptly revive him to keep things fair. Ignore the Shaker Brothers and focus all your firepower on Ketchop, as he's your only real opponent. After a few turns of shenanigans Ketchop will knock Solt and Peppor out of the fight, opting to battle you solo. Take advantage of his Yellow Innate status and pummel Kethop with Green Innate Elements until he goes down. Heal as necessary. Not that bad a fight, though it can get a bit hairy if you wait too long to attack Ketchop.
You'll earn a Star Level, 500 g, two of several common items, and a Silver Earring for defeating Solt, Peppor, and Ketchop. You'll also gain access to Viper Manor.