The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd

The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd

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100% Achievements: A Comprehensive Guide
By ErickaUnlimited
An accurate, detailed and complete guide on how to unlock every achievement in The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd.
   
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Walkthrough - Introduction
For the third installment of the trilogy, The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd introduces an achievement which requires you to finish the game on the hardest difficulty: nightmare. If you're coming from my guide on The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC, this will follow the same walkthrough-style my other two did in the trilogy.

When making a new game, make sure you select the proper difficulty, otherwise the walkthrough is all for naught!

With that being said, I'll provide in-depth strategies on how I completed each difficult boss fight to help mitigate some of the guesswork and trial-by-error attempts you might have to go through. It'll be a challenge!

At the end of each chapter, we'll have a tally of what you should have towards certain achievements. The third chapter plays a bit differently than the first two; we'll be tracking:
  • Sun Doors - 0/5
  • Moon Doors - 0/6
  • Star Door - 0/15
  • Minigame - 0/5
  • Books Read - 0/52
  • Treasure Chests - 0/246
    • For the treasure chests, we have a small margin of error allowed, as there are more than 246 treasure chests available, but we'll cover them all just in case.

This checklist is specific to this guide. There are some doors I did later on, as well some mini-games, so your totals might differ slightly at the end of each chapter. That's perfectly okay! Until you pass the point-of-no-return in the middle of Chapter 8 (the game warns you), you can backtrack to all points of the game and pick up what you're missing.

The other extremely important thing to take into account is fleeing from fights. There are two achievements (both hidden) requiring you to play through the game without running from a single fight and another one for running from 300 fights. Both are obtainable in one playthrough, so start the game under the notion that you CANNOT run from any fights. This means you need to save often.

If you lose a fight, you'll have to reload your most recent save file.

With that out of the way, let's get started!
Walkthrough - Prologue
Welcome to the Lusitania! The game starts about the newest edition to airship technology; a banquet is underway, the party is in full swing and we take control of our mysterious man with the slicked back green hair. When the introductions finally conclude, head out the only exit into the hallway.

There are three doors on your right, the first two contain one treasure chest each and the third contains two.

Remember, just like the previous installments, you need not only loot the treasure chest, but check it a second time to receive a message, making the treasure chest "count" towards your total.

If you do not check each one twice, you will miss out on the treasure chest achievement. Collect all four down the hallway, then proceed to the next room with the staircases.


Proceed up the staircase and out onto the open deck of the airship, then proceed towards the back of the ship, then through the final door once it dead ends. You'll see two men in black suits blocking a staircase to the side. Go say hello!

Ops, they inadvertently fell asleep! Oh, well. Continue up the stairs to Sir Conrad's office. Trigger the four switches as shown to open a secret vault. The switch on the couch is a false switch (it'll reset every other switch you pressed).

Pick the second password "Orpheus" when prompted.

Now you'll have to contend with several groups of enemies before making it off the ship. I highly advise saving your healing items until you absolutely need them and try ending the battle(s) with as much health as you can.

These battles are tough and might require some RNG help and a little bit of luck to get past them. For the first two fights, I utilized movement immobilization to give myself space to attack without draining all my mana too quickly between fights; you'll need mana for every fight, and there are five in total you'll need to win.

Magic is limited and items are beyond sparse, so use them wisely.

Area of effect spells are your friend, as well as various EP abilities. You will most likely die several times before making it off the ship unless you get real lucky with enemy attack patterns. Once you make it off the ship, you'll be introduced a very, very lengthy cutscene.

Once you reach Grancel and meet up with your squire, you'll eventually come toe-to-toe with the Ouroboros' favorite punching bag, Gilbert. He won't be alone, though! He'll have a Archism to accompany him.

I recommend focusing GIlbert first; he has less health, less hitpoints and he can lower your attack and defensive capabilities. His little toy doesn't attack every turn either, so you can usually get by dodging its charge attack and letting it roam around.

Once the battle is won, you'll be greeted by more cutscenes before finally concluding the prologue.

"The Gralsritter"
Complete the Prologue.


Walkthrough - Chapter 1
At the beginning of the chapter, you'll end up in an unknown area. Explore all corners of the space, making sure to collect the two equipment pieces on the western side of the area. Once you've explored every location, return to the center of the map, where the stone monument is located.


Next, examine the stone monument once more to unlock, well, a shop of all things. Use this opportunity to craft new quartz (specifically healing quartz at the minimum) and some new weapons, armor and supplies with what you can afford.

You'll also want to craft two mirage quartz (one for each) to learn "Ascension", as the enemies in the Jade Corridor (next area) are weak to them, making the initial fights on nightmare difficulty much more manageable.

Next, examine the fountain and large tree to experience their respective benefits; the water will refill your CP points and the tree will provide ingredients (an increased variety of them over time).

Return to the monument and the door blocking the teleporter pad will vanish. When you're ready, step onto the pad.

Welcome to the Jade Corridor! Inside you're going to find a dozen (12) treasure chests that you'll need to catalog and collect. Remember, gather the loot inside, then click it again to read the message inside so the treasure chests count towards the achievement!

Upon entering, you'll immediately be ambushed by three skeleton monsters.

Remember, cast "Ascension" on them to lower there health down to next-to-nothing. Critical hits will kill them outright.

Don't be afraid to kill some enemies to level up, pick up more loot for additional quartz and to buy more supplies. When you're ready, enter the yellow portal on the map below (and collect all 12 treasure chests as you go).


You'll come across another barrier and a mysterious yellow cube. Collect the cube to gain the ability to teleport! Head back to the monument for now to pick up a very unsuspecting surprise! Outfit yourself once more and enter the teleporter from the Hermit's Garden and continue through the Jade Corridor.

Eventually you'll come across your first "Moon Chamber", which is mandatory to progress the main story. Tita will have to endure the fight alone against three Moon Guardians.

They specialize in physical attacks, so make sure to blind them all with her smoke cannon to start. As you lower their health, they go from casting "Moonlight Healing", which can heal you, to "Moonlight Madness" when they reach low health. You'll need to work them down one at a time to survive.

Progress forward to the second portion of the Jade Corridor. Follow the map to see where each teleporter brings you and collect all the chests shown. You won't be able to enter the marked Sun Door right now, so we'll come back to it later on.


Enter the Arseille to find it abandoned and without power; there are five treasure chests inside the ship to collect, so make sure to do so before leaving the area! You'll need to access the Capel by the engine room to unlock some of the doors so you can access the other treasure chests.


When you have all five treasure chests, head to the bridge to find a very familiar, glowing item! It appears to be another sealing stone!

Approach and pick up the stone. Head back to the Hermit's Garden and unleash the sealing stone at the stone monument. When you are ready, teleport back to the 1st Plane - Jade Corridor; the second barrier gate has been brought down and we can continue forward now.

There is one chest in this third area of the Jade Corridor, which is found all the way around and below your starting point as shown.

Make sure to grab the treasure chest before moving on.

The fourth area of the Jade Corridor as shown to the side, contains the final two treasure chests that you'll need in this area.

From this point, you should be at 21 treasure chests, the final amount for chapter 1. If you're still missing some, I'd recommend doing some backtracking at this point to locate what you missed. Luckily, you have your teleport ability and should be strong enough to handle anything in the area, so it shouldn't be too hard to find what you might have overlooked.

Once you're ready, descend until you reach an elevator, then walk onboard and you'll reach the very bottom of your destination. Your party will comment on the smell and the essence of monsters abound.

Use the monument to heal up, restock anything you might need (healing and revive items are best in plentiful amounts) and save before continuing any further. Before attacking head-on, return to the Hermit's Garden and make your way to the water. Take a drink to recover all your [CP] points. You'll need them!

It's time to face off against Bennu, the Casket of Sorrow!


With full [CP] points for everyone, we can hit the Casket of Sorrow hard, right away. It spawns with four flamethrower Sudorudos and its main attack siphons your health to heal its own. Damage-wise, it doesn't hit particularly hard, but the constant flame attacks you must dodge combined with the life drain can make the battle tricky.

The other issue is that it has three forms, so you're in for a long fight. In the first form, ignore it and deal with the four Sudorudos first, then unleash your S-Craft for Kevin, Tita and Julia. You should have the boss down to almost nothing, so finish it off with basic attacks to break its shield.

The next form is pretty easy. Stay above 6,000HP so you don't get one-hit by its earth lance attack. Tita' and Julia's "Dark Matter" spells do wonders in draining its health. The third form now casts a broad, sweeping art attack that hits everyone for 5,000 or so hitpoints. Stay healed and slowly kill it with S-Craft; magic and basic attacks don't do much for damage and is best spent healing.

Upon coming out victorious, you'll complete chapter one and unlock your second achievement.

"Phantasma"
Complete Chapter 1.


Your collectible and achievement progress should be as follows and have had fled from zero battles:
Treasure Chests
Moon Doors
Sun Doors
Star Doors
Books Read
Abyss Fiends Defeated
Mini Games
Battles Fled
21/246
1/6
0/5
0/15
0/52
0/4
0/5
0
Walkthrough - Chapter 2
When you enter Chapter 2, you'll want to return to the library in the Hermit's Garden and you'll find a white sparkle near some of the books. examine the sparkle and learn that all the chapters of Carnelia are now on the shelf. Read all ten chapters and the finale.

Once you've read all the chapters, head back to the end of the Jade Corridor via teleportation and continue past the boss you just fought. Take the teleporter to find yourself in Grancel. We'll break up the areas you need to search to find everything while here. there are five treasure chests in the South Block.

Grancel - South Block Treasure Chests
  • Orbal Factory (3rd floor).
  • Weis Arms & Guards weapon shop.
  • Sunnybell Inn (2nd floor).
  • Home across from the Sunnybell Inn (2nd floor).
  • Home next to the Weis Arms & Guards weapons shop (2nd floor).

Next, make your way to the North Block. There are five treasure chests in this area as well.

Grancel - North Block Treasure Chests
  • Hotel Roenbaum - Four treasure chests are located inside the hotel.
  • House near the south exit, cross the road from the hotel (2nd floor).

Once you've cleared out the north block, head to Grancel Castle, but save it! There is a boss guarding it and you don't want to backtrack too much. For this, make sure to drink from the fountain in the Hermit's Garden to maximize your [CP] points; you'll need them!

Enter the fight and let the enemies group up, then use Ries' & Julia's S-Craft attacks to make short work of them. For whatever is left, use Rita's smoke cannon attack to blind them, then dispose of them at your leisure.

Mop up any stragglers that might still be lingering and when you come out victorious, the barriers around the city will dissipate.

Head over to the east block for now. Before going into the Erebonian Embassy, save it! You'll be ambushed right when you enter. Make sure to have Tita and Julia's S-Crafts ready and draw the monsters into a tight group so you can hit them all; using both S-Craft arts will kill them all outright. There are five treasure chests in the East Block.

Grancel - East Block Treasure Chests
  • Erebonian Embassy in the main upper room through the center door and the door to its immediate right (two total)
  • Department Store - there are three inside the large department store in the center of the block.

Once you have all the treasure chests, return to the Erebonian Embassy and take the left-most door on the upper floors to collect the floating sealing stone inside, then return to the Hermit's Garden to unleash it at the stone monument.


You'll be greeted by a familiar, though unexpected face. Much like the other sealing stones you've unleashed, you'll be granted a new party member.

More importantly, however, the barrier to Grancel's North Block has now evaporated and you now have access to it. With five party members, you'll need to leave someone in reserve for the time being; make sure to equip Major Mueller Vander if you bring him along for the ride. Once you decide on your party, make your way to the West Block of Grancel.

There are nine treasure chests in the East Block to collect.

Grancel - East Block Treasure Chests
  • House east of the Baral Coffee Shop (2nd floor).
  • Baral Coffee Shop - two inside by the counter.
  • Liberl News Service building (3rd floor).
  • House north of the Baral Coffee Shop.
  • General Morgan's residence (2nd floor).
  • Grancel Cathedral - one on the first floor, one on the second floor on the east side of the building and one on the west side of the building on the first floor.

With the East Block cleared of any treasure chests, return to the Grancel Cathedral and enter the west staircase on the first floor to locate a Star Door that won't open unless you've endured 100 battles.


You can check your stats for how many battles you've completed in your notebook. Once you reach a minimum of 100 levels, you can access the Star Door.


Keep in mind, when entering, that there is no combat at all before or after the cutscene, so don't worry about gearing up your party.

When you enter the door, you'll be given the history of The Salt Pale and the history of it. Upon completing the cutscene, you'll return to your group; now make sure you have both Julia and Vander and Mueller in your party and return to the front of Grancel Castle where you fought the boss blocking the entrance to the castle doors.

You'll spot the second Star Door here, which requires your party to have both Julia and Mueller in it to open. You'll enter another lengthy cutscene that has one unwinnable battle in it as part of the story.

Next, head over to the Grancel Port through the West Block, where a total of eight treasure chests will be waiting for you to discover. Once you arrive, you'll locate the airship, Bobcat, which is, sadly, locked. Time to find a key and some treasure chests!

Grancel - Port
  • See the map below. Do note to save prior to entering the warehouse with the Bobcat's Key, as you'll be ambushed once you enter. This chapter really does love its ambushes...


Inside the locked Bobcat, you'll find another sealing stone. Kevin will collect it; if you've already collected all the treasure chests, return to the Hermit's Garden to rescue whomever is locked away in the stone. This will also continue the tradition of lowering additional barriers in Grancel.

Before venturing further into Grancel, return to the second screen of the Jade Corridor. Remember the Sun Door we couldn't enter that was in the area of the deserted Arseille? Return to that area. If you forget where that was, refer to the map below inside the Jade Corridor:


You'll need to bring Josette with you to access the door. Behind it, you'll play your first mini game; there are five in total during the game that you'll need to complete for an achievement. There are no rules to the difficulty in which you finish it, so feel free to select "Easy". You might need to increase the sensitivity as well; it is pretty sluggish on controller using the default level.


Now, return to the Bobcat with Josette. The enemies you encounter around Grancel will now be different and stronger, so focus on their weaknesses as you travel.

Once you conclude your business at the Bobcat, we want enter the castle, though, we need to go to the East Block Grand Arena first. Enter the building.

Go right and make your way upstairs to the audience seating, then all the way to the other side and back down again. There is a Sun Door in the area, but we don't have the ability to open it just yet, so we'll ignore it for now.

Head down the stairs on the opposite side of the audience seating and into the room with the monument; restore your MP/HP from it, buy any items you need and save it here!

Walkthrough - Chapter 2
Once you enter the arena, you'll be confronted with waves of enemies; there are three to be exact. For the first wave, don't expel all your best S-Craft arts right away. You'll need to stagger them to make the other fights easier. Drink from the fountain in Hermit's Garden, then teleport to the monument just before the arena. Save here.

For this fight, I brought Kevin and Ries, then my two optional party members were Josette and Mueller. I was around level 104-105 when I fought the trio of enemies. Equip everyone with a "Pearl Earrings" to prevent "seal", as the final boss loves to seal your characters and the "Black Bangel+" to Mueller to help regenerate some [CP]. He'll be your main damage dealer while everyone else heals.

I brought about 50 "Teara Balms", which can only be bought at the monument before the arena. You'll need to spam these on the final boss.

Round 1
For the first round, just focus on coming out of the fight with as much health for everyone as you can. DO NOT use any S-Craft attacks during this round, or any [CP] arts at all; keep them at 200 points for everyone. Fire Bolt, Flame Arrow and Soul Blur will make short work of everything.

Round 2
This group hits hard and quick, so I used both Mueller's and Josette's S-Craft attacks to finish it before I took any damage. You need to go into the final fight as near to full health as possible to tank a hit or two while you set up.

Round 3
The boss. What a pain in the butt this thing is...

So, I followed this method (your mileage may vary); if the boss moves forward and does not attack, then his four minions will as well. Use Ries' S-Craft to hit him and kill all the minions (be careful, he summons them intermittently). If the boss does anything else, I threw the fight and restarted it. My goal was to get him alone in the beginning so I could set up.

Mueller attacks, Kevin and Josette moved back and to the right side, while Ries stood near Mueller. Josette attacks until she can use "Stampede" to lower the boss' defense by 30%, then either heals with balms or casts Earth Guard. Kevin only heals with balms, or S-Craft when you can as needed.

Ries heals or casts "Earth Guard" as needed. Use Mueller's S-Craft attack whenever it is available and you should make short work (relatively speaking) of the boss. It can take several attempts to get it right, so keep trying.

Once you've defeated him, save it! Return to home base and unleash the Sealing Stone to see who it might be.

This is going to be the final area in Chapter 2, so if you still need to locate other treasure chests, or complete some doors, I'd recommend doing so beforehand so you don't forget. Time to make your way to Grancel Castle!

When you enter, you'll be ambushed (starting to get old, isn't it?), but the group is a pushover at this point. Heal at the monument and save it. Buy the new weapon for Joshua at the small monument and then, from there, you'll find twelve treasure chests inside the castle.

  • (1 Chest) - Study (1st Floor) - Left of the monument on the first floor, this room contains one treasure chest.
  • (2 Chests) - Food Storage (1st Floor) - Right of the monument on the first floor. Enter the room, then take the next door to enter a lower storage area. There are two treasure chests here.
  • (2 Chests) - Kitchen (1st Floor) - Enter the door next to the left staircase in the main hall with the monument.
  • (1 Chest) - Dinning Room (1st Floor) - Connected to the kitchen. There is one red chest in this room.
  • (1 Chest) - 2nd Floor Hallway - Enter the first door on the right side.
  • (1 Chest) - 2nd Floor Hallway - Enter the last door on the left side of the hallway. There will be one red chest in this room.
  • (1 Chest) Throne Room (2nd Floor).
  • (1 Chest) - 3rd Floor by Gilbert (Left side of the terrace).
  • (1 Chest) - 3rd Floor by (Opposite side of the terrace from the Queen's Quarters).
  • (1 Chest) - Queen's Chambers by her bed.

Make your way to the balcony of the Queen's Chambers at the top of Grancel Castle to obtain the treasury key. Return to the monument. The treasury door is connected to the food storage on the first floor.

Follow the two elevators down to the Sealed Area, then stop at the monument to heal, buy any necessary gear and, most importantly, save!

When you're ready, proceed forward and you'll come face-to-face with that mysterious masked man we saw at the very beginning of the game on the airship and one angry demon.

Meet Rostrum, Gatekepper of Gehenna. Another devil; a big, angry devil to be exact. While it took me several tries to topple this beast, I didn't think he was as hard as some of the previous bosses we've fought. For this fight, I took: Kevin, Ries, Joshua and Julia.
Walkthrough - Chapter 2
Like the previous boss in the arena, Rostrum has a band of minions to start with and can summon them as well. It also two attack types.

It either will target individual party members, or do a sweeping attack that strikes anyone in range. It also likes to blind party members, so gear up to prevent that as well with "white bracelets". Its also fast, so I made sure everyone had access to casting "Earth Guard" from "Defense 2" quartz and "Cast 2" to greatly increase the speed at which you can cast it. "Action 2" can be helpful to give an additional increase to speed.

I also recommend bringing "Crest" to further increase defense by 25% for each party member and having access to "Clock Up" for speed.

Joshua was my main tank, the rest rotated casting Earth Guard,

To start I set up my party as far back as I could as shown. As always, make sure to come into the fight with full [CP] points (200) before initiating the fight. Right away, I had Joshua use his S-Craft to clear all the minions and damage Rostrum a bit in the process.

Here is where it branches. If Rostrum opens up with an attack, I threw the match. I wanted it to use arts first, lowering its defense and increasing its offense. If it does, I have Kevin use his S-Craft skill, then shuffle Kevin to the right side of the field, Joshua up front, Ries stays center and Julia goes left. Joshua either uses S-Craft, or space arts, like "Shadow Spear" on the boss. Julia casted either "Dark Matter" for damage, or "Earth Guard" as needed. Kevin casts "Earth Guard" constantly. If you have a breather, throw in a "Shadow Spear" in if you can, but don't take unnecessary risks.

I used Ries' "Holy Blessing" skill to give 50 [CP] points towards either Kevin for his S-Craft if I needed a break from casting guard, or to Joshua if minions come back (as his S-Craft hits the whole battlefield). The rest of her turns were just healing or casting "Earth Guard".

Just make sure your team isn't grouped up together, otherwise you will most likely not survive, as keeping up with guards isn't feasible at that rate when it can do group damage quicker than you can keep guards up.

Once you come out victorious, you'll enter a cutscene, get another Seal Stone and eventually end the chapter, earning another achievement. Well done!

"The Otherworldly Capital"
Complete Chapter 2.


Your collectible and achievement progress should be as follows and have had fled from zero battles:
Treasure Chests
Moon Doors
Sun Doors
Star Doors
Books Read
Abyss Fiends Defeated
Mini Games
Battles Fled
65/246
1/6
1/5
2/15
11/52
0/4
1/5
0
Walkthrough - Chapter 3
When returning to the Hermit's Garden, you have the option to read some issues of the Liberl News. They are located by the tree, but they do not count towards the total of all the books you need to read for the achievement.

Still, it might refresh your brain on some of the past events so I found it worthwhile to peruse the issues for a bit.

When you're ready, return to the Sealed Area where you defeated Rostrum and take the teleporter to the third plane. After a brief discussion, you'll be able to enter. Welcome to the Golden and Silver Roads!


Here we'll need to split into two groups of four and traverse the roads simultaneously. That being said, the monument that was just activated by our ghostly companion has new weapons, armor and quartz to slot, giving us much better arts.

However, we need a lot more sepith in order to make them. While you should have a decent amount, you may need to farm some, like space, time and mirage sepith. At least, I did for some of the level three quartz.

There is a great place in the castle to do this. If you go to the second floor, go left and take the first room on the bottom. There is a singular banshee roaming inside. Sometimes it comes in packs with three other enemies and sometimes it comes with three "Slime Lumps".

They act like pom poms from the two previous games, in the sense that they like to run away, so if you spot them, open up with an S-craft attack before any of them run from you.

They give a great deal of sepith if you kill even one of them, but all three nets you enough to make quartz from just a singular battle. So much so that it covers the screen until it cuts off!

So take your time to grind out what you need to fully equip all eight members with the best of the best quartz before trying to tackle the Golden and SIlver Roads.

As the spirit mentioned, once you enter them, you can't go back.

When you're ready to go, head over to the monument and you'll be asked to form your two parties. For mine, I went with:
  • Kevin, Tita, Julia and Mueller
  • Ries, Josette, Joshua and Kloe.


    Things to make note of while doing this area; you'll do one road (Silver or Golden, your choice) first to completion.

    Items in your inventory are shared, so bear that in mind when consuming them. There is a stone monument at the very end of each road that allows you to save the game, so if you need to avoid fights and level up before the boss, this is the time to do so.

    I found the monsters in the Silver Road to be much harder than the ones in the Golden Road. I recommend starting each road with 200 [CP] for every party member to easily survive the ambushes so you don't start the roads at a disadvantage.

    There are 14 treasure chests on the Silver Road and 14 treasure chests on the Golden Road The maps for both are quite linear, so you shouldn't have much trouble navigating them, but just to make sure we collect everything, I'll show you the chest locations as always.

    For the Silver Road, you can find them here:

    When I entered the boss battle, I was around 108-109 in terms of levels. You'll need a plethora of sepith to make new quartz; luckily the area is rich in sepith loot, so make sure to upgrade everyone's quartz appropriately (level three for everything you can).

    Before entering the battle, you practically must have 200 [CP] on each party member. Change your battle tactics to put everyone in the very back of the grid. You'll be facing a doppelganger and five very strong support enemies. They all hit hard and go quick.

    Doppelganger Kevin will open with his S-Craft arts, so you need to remove their guard before doing damage. For this, I used area-of-effect spells, then, once they grouped up, opened with all four party memeber's S-Craft skills (make sure you swap Kloe's to her attack S-Craft over the healing one).

    You should be able to severly weaken everyone and kill 3-4 minions outright. If you don't, I'd throw the match. Doppelganger Kevin has three phases, so focus on the minions first, as he doesn't bring more during phase two or three.

    With the harder of the two roads defeated, we'll switch over to Kevin and company inside the Golden Road. This area follows the same pattern, so expect to get ambushed at the start once more, albeit by less deadly enemies.

    There is a save stone monument at the end of the road, just like the Silver Road, as well as another boss much like you just defeated. The boss, however, is leagues easier than what you just faced.

    You'll need to collect another 14 treasure chests as shown below as well:


    For the boss, you'll face a doppelganger of Ries, along with her four mirrors. The two to your left are weak against melee, so focus your S-Craft skills on them (they reflect magic arts), while the two mirrors on the right reflect melee damage back at you, but are weak to magic arts.

    Doppel-Ries has the same three phase process as the previous boss, but the minions she has are much, much easier to deal with, as is she. Remember to come into the battle with full 200 [CP] points to mop up everything with ease.


    Upon defeating the Golden Road, you'll rendezvous who your other party members, go through a small cutscene and then that will conclude Chapter 3 and unlock your next achievement:

    "Golden Road, Silver Road"
    Complete Chapter 3.



    Your collectible and achievement progress should be as follows and have had fled from zero battles:
    Treasure Chests
    Moon Doors
    Sun Doors
    Star Doors
    Books Read
    Abyss Fiends Defeated
    Mini Games
    Battles Fled
    96/246
    1/6
    1/5
    2/15
    11/52
    0/4
    1/5
    0
Walkthrough - Chapter 4
At the start of Chapter 4, you'll go through a brief cutscene at the beginning, then set up your party once more. When you've done so, head down to the library and examine the right-most shelf for more books to read. The new books are:
  • Kitty-Talk for Dummies
  • The Erbe Woodpecker
  • Hertz's Adventure 1
  • Hertz's Adventure 2
  • 31 Cypress Trees

Next, put Zin in your party, then return to the Star Door on the Golden Road as shown in the map above in Chapter 3. As with other Star Doors, enjoy the cutscene and when you're done, return to the 3rd Plane, "Regroup Area".


Don't go in the teleporter just yet, but grab the treasure chest while you're there. If you accidently enter the teleporter, you're immediately ambushed (again); we wouldn't want that, now would we?

Now, if you're wondering about the Sun Door in the "Grand Arena" in Grancel's Arena area, we'll come back to that. We're not strong enough to defeat the enemies within just yet.

For now, with the treasure chest looted, return to the door in the Silver Road with Kloe and head over to the Moon Door as shown on the map in Chapter 3. Enter the door and after the cutscene, we have some papers to hand out. The students you need to talk to and give the handouts to are:
  • Social Studies Classroom (Roy & Thelma in the back of the room)
  • Old Schoolhouse: Anton
  • Clubhouse (2nd Floor, Student Council Room): Lucy
  • Auditorium (Backstage): Clara
  • Boy's Dormitory: Logic
  • (Has to be the last one given) Clubhouse Girl's Locker Room (2nd Floor): Monika
After meeting the slovenly Clubhouse President, you'll be tasked with locating him within the academy. Head to the 2nd floor of the Auditorium to locate Lechter reading.

After the cutscenes play out, Lechter will hand you an envelope, claiming it needs to go to the mayor of Ruan. Before you leave, speak to Dean Collins in his office, then speak to Leo in the student council room to received some mira and directions to the mayor's manor in Ruan.

Head to the gates and leave the school. After your return, you'll head back to your room with Jill and a fight will ensue.

Exit the dormitory and make your way to the stairs in the central courtyard to trigger a cutscene as Jill. Head upstairs to the 2nd floor of the dormitory and take the second door; talk to Hans.

Choose "Go Back" and continue the cutscene.

As Kloe, search the boy's dormitory, then the backstage of the auditorium (right side). Lastly, head to the student council room (2nd floor) and examine the window; climb up the rope.

You'll locate that sneaky little Lechter on the room and drag his butt down to do copious amounts of paperwork. The scene will end on a cliffhanger, but that's for another door. End scene.

When you're ready, take the teleporter that was at the convergence of the Silver and Golden Roads to enter the next plane. Be mindful, you'll be ambushed immediately on the other side, so be prepared.

Welcome to Le Locle Lodge. Here you'll find another stone monument to save; it also has some near weapons and armor, so make sure to upgrade while you're here. Next, head upstairs to find six additional rooms, four of which contain a treasure chest inside. Collect all four before moving on.

Head south and you'll head to Balstar Channel. There are 15 treasure chests in this area and some are hidden, only being revealed when you pull various switches to manipulate them. Once revealed, they will stay that way.

Since there is no map for the dungeon in-game, I went ahead and made one since the area is kind of convoluted; writing down directions just seemed to cumbersome to follow.

The switches are marked as the blue stars. Make note of the treasure chests and the one Star Door located in here. You won't be able to access it just yet though.


An Anelace doppelganger, along with two familiar beasts will be your opponents at the end of the Balstar Channel. Anelace and company are fast, very fast. They also love to cause faint and poison, so gear up to counter that.

Additionally, you'll want to offset their speed with some of your own through "Action" quartz.

I brought Kevin (mandatory), Mueller, Zin and Joshua, as they are the best at tanking hits. Equip one of them with the Auto-CP (Solar Seal); I attached mine to Mueller. Enter the battle with full 200 [CP] points; I recommend casting them all right away, then focus on dishing out damage via the trio, letting Kevin be a primary healer.

You'll have to balance damage and healing, as Anelace can go multiple times in a row, easily killing a party member from full health to dead instantly. Earth Guard, as always, will be your friend here. Anelace has the same three phases the other bosses did.

Once defeated, collect the treasure chest on the other side of the platform, then return to the Hermit's Garden to use the Sealing Stone. Welcome Anelace to the party!


You'll now have access to the next area: Saint-Croix Forest. Inside, you'll find another dozen treasure chests, as well as another Moon Door that requires Joshua and Estelle. You can find everything as shown below:

Once again, you'll come face-to-face with another doppelganger; this time it is Scherazard. She's not too difficult to deal with. I ran with Kevin and Joshua as my mandatory two, then brought Mueller for damage dealing and Tita.

I found Tita to be great in the start of the battle, as she can blind all of the minions (Scherazard is immune, sadly).

I opened with blinding the minions, then dealing some initial physical damage to Scherazard until she was about 50% health or lower, then unleashed everyone's S-Craft arts.

This should wipe out all the minions and put her in her second form with a large chunk of HP taken as well.

Stay a bit spread out, as her wind arts deal significant damage to grouped up party members.I kept Joshua and Mueller on her and Kevin/Tita as support/healing; you shouldn't have too much trouble with her.

Once defeated, take the Sealing Stone back to the Hermit's Garden, then put Anelace in your party; we're going to return to one of the doors we couldn't access before. To Balstar Channel!

Walkthrough - Chapter 4
Now, head to the Star Door inside the channel. If you forget where it is located, refer to the map in the early portion of Chapter 4 for the map. Make sure to equip your "Heat-Resistant Boots"; you'll need to trek through the lava to reach the door. You MUST beat Richard to complete the door.

If you have Zin, teleport to the Grand Arena in Grancel once more. Remember that door we skipped a while ago? We're going to tackle it now.

Remember that the door is on the first floor, east side of the building.

There are three teams in total, all very susceptible to Tita's "Smoke Cannon 2" ability, so bring her along as your fourth party member. It will make the fights much, much more manageable, as does "Shadow Spear" to get that 20% K.O. chance on each use. The part that makes this difficult (aside from the difficult fights), is you cannot "Retry" a fight that you lose. You HAVE to beat all three on the first try.

If you fail at any singular battle, you will have to start all the way over.

The final one is against our good friend Gilbert and two robot minions. You can still blind the robots so their guns miss, but they also pack missiles, which are not affected by the blind; focus them first, then turn your attention to Gilbert. There are three difficulties to the arena, but you need only beat the first level for it to count towards the achievement. The other fights are totally optional.

Afterwards, put Scherazard into your party and return to Grancel's Bracer Guild. On the third floor will be another Moon Door for Scherazard.

There are seven treasure chests in total while you're in the sewers. As with most dungeons, there is no map for this area, so I took the time to draw one up since the sewers are a bit maze-like. Make sure to collect ALL the treasure chests before making your way to the exit.

This door can be rather troublesome. You'll have to accompany Aina around Grancel and inside the sewers below, battling enemies with just Scherazard as a Junior Bracer. In one of the treasure chests, you'll acquire one Zeram Powder healing item; save it for the final battle.

When you reach the part where you and Aina hide overnight in the empty residence, go to your equipment and equip the two accessories you have. One will resurrect you to full health once before breaking.

When you enter the battle with three jaegers, you need to survive without being KO'ed and having that accessory break (Proxy Puppet). You'll need it for the final battle. After Kurt and company step in, you'll make your way to Grancel Castle; this is the final battle.

It might take a bit of luck and some good RNG to survive, but once you come out on top, that will be it for fighting. Enjoy the rest of the cutscene.

Next, bring Joshua and Kloe and head to the roof garden of Grancel Castle. on the side of the roof, you'll find this Star Door!

Once completed, you'll need to set your sights on Grimsel Fortress; the third and final area to uncover during this chapter. Funny enough, they even mention that the fortress is a maze, so, back to making our own map. Here you go!


The thing about facing off with Agate is it felt very, very RNG heavy. He's got a special attack he rarely uses, but if he does it most certainly will wipe out most of your party outside of someone like Zin, who has such high defense and a large HP pool.

Agate is fast, but, honestly, he wasn't the most dangerous opponent; the deadly ones are his two henchmen. I recommend focusing them first. They are immune to status effects like blind, confuse and poison and boost their own speed and strength, making them extremely dangerous to leave on the battlefield.

I brought Zin and Mueller as my primary damage dealers and to soak up hits, Kevin was all healing and Earth Guard/Wall. Joshua was a mixture. I recommend equiping the Auto-CP (Solar Seal) to Zin and boosting his attack/defense with arts so you can spam his S-Craft ability as often as possible.

It might take some luck with getting some missed attacks by Agate and crew, as well as a battle without him hitting you with his special attacks; I found this fight to be exceptionally tough.

After defeating Agate, return and continue just past the boss fight area to find another star door. You need to have learned 20 recipes to have the door open. If you don't have enough, just consume some of the food items you found along the way until you reach 20. Then enter the door.

You should have plenty of food items to reach 20, so once you're done with the Agate fight, you can move right to this Star Door. You'll take control of some up-and-coming bracers in their final test to earn their Junior Bracer Badge.

Additionally, Inside this door lies 11 more treasure chests to collect. There is, once again, no map for this area. You need to have all 11 treasure chests found before facing your final challenge, Agate.

During the trek, you'll find eight treasure chests before Rocco abandons the party. Once everyone is reunited and Rocco is saved, take the second cave entrance to your left to collect the final three treasure chests. Save it, then enter the first cave entrance you walked past to face your final test.

I recommend taking it slow, resting between each major fight and saving often to ease any unnecessary backtracking/re-doing if you die and lose progress. Make at least one or two save files just for this area.

You have limited resources and abilities, so use them wisely and don't feel bad about leveling up a few levels going in and out of the cavern to help level the playing field. Your food items are not replenished when you rest outside the gave, so I recommend saving them for the final battle if you can; it helps.
Walkthrough - Chapter 4
Return to the Hermit's Garden to activate the Sealing Stone. By now, I'm sure you know who is inside it. Switch out your two swappable party members for Agate and Tita for now. Go to the first portion of the Jade Corridor and visit the Moon Door you completed earlier; there is a part two now that you have Agate rescued.

It is a straightforward event, but if you want to skip the exploration portion instead of talking to folks and catching up to some of the side characters, you'll head to the roof of the orbal building to find Dan.

With the identification card in hand, you'll then go into the elevator and do the testing.

You'll find Tita down there performing final checks on the robot, as well as Erika giving idle threats about your demise, along with those evil eyes of hers.

The first test is a foot race against the robot, followed by moving some colored barrels, but both are just tests you observe. The final one is a fight, one that you very much aren't required to win. There is a different outcome depending on if you win or lose, though.

The second fight against the robot must be won. Once you complete the door, return to the Le Locle Lodge; some things seemed to have changed since we last visited. Head outside and examine the markings just north of the cabin.

Once you do, you'll come face-to-face with the second Gatekeeper of Gehenna. Time to fight!


There is a way to "cheese" the fight. Change everyone's battle location before the fight and lump them all together in a 2x2 grid. Have at minimum two, but preferably three characters have "Earth Wall"

Equip a Solar Seal to Kevin, then bring those who you wish to have fight; I used Kevin, Joshua, Zin and Agate for the large HP pools (just in case I took a hit). When the fight starts, if the Gatekeeper used anything except a single-person attack, I threw the fight. Ideally, we want him to cast his "arts" attack, which takes two turns.

Throw up "Earth Wall" to cover every party member. Use each of their respective S-Crafts (assuming you brought them to 200 points first) except one. Have that one member also cast "Earth Wall". The idea is to constantly have one in the works, allowing you to guard against almost every attack. Bring supplies to replenish EP points to keep the casting up.

As Kevin's S-Craft increases, just use it when you can to end the match without doing much else. A win is a win, right?! Afterwards, you'll enter a cutscene and complete the chapter.

"The Dark Stigma"
Complete Chapter 4.


Your collectible and achievement progress should be as follows and have had fled from zero battles:
Treasure Chests
Moon Doors
Sun Doors
Star Doors
Books Read
Abyss Fiends Defeated
Mini Games
Battles Fled
154/246
4/6
2/5
6/15
16/52
0/4
1/5
0
Walkthrough - Chapter 5
FIrst, stop by the library in Hermit's Garden and read all the issues of Gambler Jack that are now available. There are 13 chapters, plus a finale.

Return to Le Locle Lodge and take the newly located teleporter where the last boss fight just took place. After a brief discussion, jump inside. Welcome to the Luminous Labyrinth!

Once you collect the Sealing Stone, return to unleash it in the Hermit's Garden. This will cause the purple door blocking your path at the midpoint to disappear. There are multiple doors and multiple Sealing Stones as shown below, so unleash them after you get each one to advance through the labyrinth. There are a total of 22 treasure chests to collect, mostly in the larger areas and dead ends on the map, as well as two doors to enter (eventually). I would recommend collecting all the treasure chests first and activating all the save monuments first.

It really is a labyrinth! Use the map to help guide you:

At the end of the labyrinth, you'll be cornered by yet another boss. Three demonic spiders will descend from above. This fight is a little bit different than the others. For starters, they all have different abilities:

For this fight, I brought along Richard and Joshua. I highly recommend spending some time farming sepith so you can outfit everyone with level 5 orbments. Agility is the name of the game for this fight, as well as having copious amounts of [EP] and equipping everyone with Earth Wall/Earth Guard.

I had Ries mostly just heal, attack when she could to build up her [CP] to replenish the health and [CP] of either Richard or Estelle, who were my primary damage dealers. Both of them have extremely potent S-Crafts and, getting to level 120 will unlock even greater ones (I recommend unlocking them for both characters).

Estelle or Richard should equip the "Solar Seal" to constantly build up their [CP] points, while the other carries the "Super Gladiator Headband", which allows the wearer to gain +20 [CP] per regular attack.

When the battle starts, everyone should cast their S-Crafts right away and target the center or right side spider. Whatever you do, do NOT kill the left one first; save them for last as they call in the mother for help upon death. You want to try and kill one in the first move, as well as at least one or both of the small, minion spiders (depending on what their opening move is and if you go first).

S-Crafts should be your primary source of damage, as well as "Dark Matter" & "Dark Matter EX". I wouldn't bother with "Earth Guard/Earth Wall" until the mother arrives, but if you find it helpful, go ahead. Just don't drain too much [EP] in the process; everyone should have EP Cut orbments equipped.

Once you have Arachne Evros left, cast your "Earth Wall/Guard" just before you kill it; once you do mother arrives and she is angry. Her primary attacks are honestly not that potent, but she has a healing ability that can one shot a party member and heal her for 20,000 HP. You MUST keep your "Earth Wall/Guard up as much as possible.

She is immune to everything except "AT Delay", so use Joshua to spam it as often as he can. Two S-Craft attacks from Estelle and two from Richard should be enough to take her down.

Updon defeating her, you'll retrieve a silver Sealing Stone for your troubles and complete the chapter. Do note that there are two doors I chose to ignore for now within the maze. If you completed them ahead of time, make note of the additions to the running total I have below. I'll cover them in chapter 6.

Once the chapter is completed, you'll unlock your next achievement:

"Labyrinth of Shadows and Light"
Complete Chapter 5.



Your collectible and achievement progress should be as follows and have had fled from zero battles:
Treasure Chests
Moon Doors
Sun Doors
Star Doors
Books Read
Abyss Fiends Defeated
Mini Games
Battles Fled
176/246
4/6
2/5
6/15
30/52
0/4
1/5
0

Walkthrough - Chapter 6
Now that we've completed the Labyrinth and moved onto the next chapter, we need to tackle the doors inside the labyrinth that we skipped. Marked on the maps in chapter 5, each door lists its respective requirements next to them.

Only one requires certain characters (Oliver & Mueller). The one that lets anyone inside is a fight against some tricky opponents. I recommend at least bringing Tita for her blind ability; it'll make the fight much easier to handle. Also, bring accessories to protect against petrify, otherwise you won't stand a chance.

Once you've completed the three doors, return to the Hermit's Garden. If you have Scherazard in your party, replace her with anyone else, then talk to her in the Garden.

She'll comment on the books and find a rather "weird" one among them. Read the new book by a very familiar, often obnoxious and very unlikely character to unlock the achievement "Please Erase My Memories".

We'll just put that book back and pretend we never saw it...

Now examine the books to Scherazard's left and read all 21 chapters of the "Doll Knight" and the finale. Doing so will unlock another achievement in the process.

You've now unlocked all the achievements related to reading books in the game. Well done!

"Please Erase My Memories"
Read a book you wish you hadn't...


"Bookworm"
Read all of the books in the Garden.


Once completed, return to where you engaged the spiders and jump in the teleporter to your next objective. You'll wind up outside a well nown villa on the Erbe Scenic Route. Save, activate the stone and gather the three treasure chests in the area:
The glowing stone monuments you'll need to examine are scattered around the area. The first one you'll need to exmine requires Kloe in your party (blue stone icon on the map). Bring her to be transported to the Jenis Royal Academy. Activate the stone when you first arrive.

There are a total of 15 treasure chests in this area. There is one Star Door in the Girl's Dormitory on the 1st floor. You'll need to accumulate 50,000 mira to open it, though. Luckily, you'll find a lot of mira in the treasure chests around the school grounds, so you won't need to save too much more.

You can find the treasure chests in the following locations:
  • Academy Grounds - Just outside the Girls' Dormitory under some trees.
  • Girls' Dormitory - 1st floor room.
  • Auditorium - Backstage on the left side.
  • Schoolhouse - 1st floor in the Faculty Lounge.
  • Schoolhouse - 2nd floor in the Natural Sciences Classroom.
  • Clubhouse - 1st floor.
  • Clubhouse - 2nd floor (Student Council Room).
  • Academy Grounds - Face the Boys' Dormitory and look on the left-hand side of the building. There are two treasure chests under some trees.
  • Boys' Dormitory - 1st floor room.
  • Academy Grounds - Behind the Auditorium.

While you're hunting treasure chests, defeat every enemy group of dark knights. Doing so for each area will re-colorize that part of the academy; doing this in every area will grant you access to the Old Schoolhouse.

You'll only be able to obtain the above treasure chests for now. Once you gain access to the Old Schoolhouse, save before exiting the gated area, as you'll have to face off against the three Raven members as they try to become Senior Bracers.

Once defeated, save it again, because once you enter the Old Schoolhouse, you have an even tougher, but manageable fight on your hands.

The fight with Phillip Runall isn't as hard as some make it out to be. I found him to one of the easier fights thus far. Enter the fight and if he uses his S-Craft skill and downs any one party member, restart the fight. If he doesn't (kill someone), or he doesn't go before you use Kevin's "Grailsphere" S-Craft, then continue the fight.

Phillip is immune to status effects, however, his cohorts are not. You can hit them with all manner of negative abilities, even something like the Bloody Meatballs or Sepith Drops to inflict status effects (as well as arts). If you can neutralize his minions, Phillip is a pushover. I used the aforementioned weaponized foods to confuse several of his minions; they do a surprising amount of damage to one another, including Phillip.

Once you finish the fight, explore the Old Schoolhouse to find:

  • Old Schoolhouse Grounds - Left side on the outside of the main entrance to the Old Schoolhouse.
  • Old Schoolhouse - Right side hallway, 2nd door (through the small passage to the outside).
  • Old Schoolhouse - Right side, 2nd floor door to the outside. Chest is opposite the Moon Door.
  • Old Schoolhouse - Left side, 2nd floor, first door.

The Moon Door in the Old Schoolhouse requires the "Luck" quartz to open, which can be found in a treasure chest inside Le Locle Lodge; you should have it already. Upon completing this, you'll unlock the achievement for doing all Moon Doors.

"Honeymoon"
Complete all Moon Doors.


Now that Kloe's part is over, its time to explore the newly activate stone monument on the scenic route. This time it'll be the yellow one; this one requires Anelace to enter.
Walkthrough - Chapter 6
Return to the Hermit's Garden and switch one of your party members for Joshua, then head back to the Erbe Scenic Route and visit the final stone monument that just activated. Joshua is your key to getting to the Black Ark within.

Welcome back to the Lakeside Laboratory. In total, there are 19 treasure chests inside, Star Door #10 and Sun Door #4. There are various sections of the different floors that are locked behind keycards of varying colors. There is no map, so check the one made for it below and note the colored hallways, meaning those are locked until you get the key of that color.

There are a total of three area (floors) within the Lakeside Laboratory:

The first floor boss will be Grant; he'll come with two Jaeger Corp members as backup. They specialize in blinding you with smoke bombs and all three inflict faint if you don't have accessories to deal with them. With protection against both, I recommend focusing Grant over the two Jaeger members.

He has an annoying spin attack that knocks back and injures everyone he hits. If you stay spread out, his main attack won't one-shot anyone, so he's easy to handle. You shouldn't have any issues with him unless you're grossly under-leveled or not upgrading your gear.

For this fight I took Kevin for healing, Zin for defense and helpful offense, Julia and, of course, Anelace. You can dump all your art protections for pure defense since nobody you're facing casts any arts.

Once defeated, you'll gain access to the red keycard. Use it to grab the red treasure chest behind the red door as shown above, then proceed to floor two. Floor two is as follows:

Honestly, just rinse and repeat the same tactics for Carna, except for dispatching the two jaeger units first. Carna has some nasty area of effect attacks from her rifle, so disposing of her is typically paramount.

The fight shouldn't be much more difficult than facing off against Grant. Once you come out on top, collect the green key card and head to the third floor. The layout is as such:

The third floor as you squaring off against Kurt this time. His jaegers are much stronger than the previous two opponents'. However, I found him the easiest of the three. You're able to cast arts much easier and without interruption. The difference is their attacks send you flying back, so either have characters with huge movement buffs, or characters that have strong arts/reaching physical attacks to compensate.

Once you defeat Kurt, gather the blue keycard and collect all the treasure chests locked behind the doors in the last three floors, then save it before heading to the roof for your final fight. I recommend tackling the two doors (Star Door #10 & #11) before going on.

The Star Door on the first floor is a trial, but that also means you can being anyone you want to face off in the fight. I recommend just bringing the same party you have had through the laboratory fights; just make sure you equip them with anti-seal/anti-mute and you shouldn't have any issues with it.

The Star Door on floor two will require the use of Renne to open. For this, you need to have strong arts in order to win. Renne already possesses a strong ability to perform high-level arts. For this, my setup was:

You could swap around some to gain even higher "Time" quartz arts, but "Death Scream" is enough to wipe the floor with everything in conjunction with her [CP] attacks. You'll certainly need "Cast 2" in order to cast quick enough to handle the fodder, then mop up the main enemy at the end.

The robots have a 50% chance of inflicting various stats when they hit you with their different laser attacks, but if you get bad RNG I'd recommend just restarting; it isn't worth equipping accessories to block them. You're better off boosting Renne's base stats instead.

Once you win, save it and return to ther Hermit's Garden for more plot progression; Renne will then learn a new S-Craft ability since you finished that Star Door. When you're ready, return to the Lakeside Laboratory and head to the fourth floor for the final fight.

Your final fight will be against the one and only, Kilika Rouran (and two minions). This fight isn't too bad; it is recommended to not bunch up, as she has very fast area of effect physical attacks. I used Kevin, Anelace, Renne and Zin for my party.

If you stay mobile, her minions won't be able to catch up to you and you can slowly chip away at their health with S-craft arts or Renne's top tier arts. Earth Wall/Guard are your friends once again, as is Renne's ability to real the whole party. I kept her off in the corner to spam arts while the others danced around and provided defensive buffs and damage as need be.

I found you need a little luck for her to cast her own S-Craft skill on someone guarded so avoid damage and high evasion quartz keep her minions from connecting some of their hits (they have a lower accuracy than most enemies it seems).

If you're using Renne, make sure to equip her new Pater-Mater S-Craft as well! Once you win, return to the Hermit's Garden. Swap a party member for Richard this time before entering the red stone monument.

When you're at the teleporter/save stone outside of it, run away from it towards Soldat Road. It'll be blocked off, but there is a treasure chest there.

The second one (for now) you can earn is in the middle of the fortress grounds:

When you reach the boss area, you'll face off against Lt. Colonel Cid and six soldiers. This battle is extremely difficult in my opinion. He constantly spams a devastating area of effect attack that can wipe out entire parties in one go.

Couple that with his soldiers being able to inflict freeze, faint and blind from their basic attacks makes this fight, most likely, the most difficult one yet.

For my party, I took Kevin, Richard, Josette and Tita. Put accessories to to block freeze and faint (blind is less worrisome); Richard has one purpose and that is to use "True Luminous Wheel" to block Lt. Colonel Cid's attacks. You can try to squeeze in a faint attack using "True Luminous Ogre Slash", but I would ber very careful about using his [CP] on it. Make sure Richard is equipped with the "Super Gladiator Headband" to help boost his [CP] gains.

Josette has two roles: use "Anchor Flail" to instantly faint soldiers and to use "Orbal Bomb" to provide backup to impeding Lt. Colonel Cid's attacks. Relying on Richard alone will probably get you killed.

Tita's job is to blind the soldiers in the beginning and Kevin throw up Grailsphere to provide protection. Give Kevin the Solar Seal so he can consistently pick up [CP] to keep it on.

Lt. Colonel Cid will undoubtedly, block arts being cast, so heal using food over anything else. I brought plenty of:
  • Napalm Meat (20% DEF boost, 16,000HP recovery)
  • Fish Skewers (20% SPD boost, 14,000HP recovery)
  • Tomato Fondue (Cure blind, 13,000HP recovery)
  • Tasty Medicine (Revive plus 12,000HP recovery)
  • Triple Ice Cream (20 [CP] boost, 8,200HP recovery)

Another trick is to use Kevin's "Gorgon Arrow" (when possible) to petrify the soldiers. Hitting them with any attack while petrified will kill them instantly; it helps with crowd control. Additionally, have Josette use "Stampede" on Lt. Colonel Cid to lower his defense, as he is weak to that status down.
Walkthrough - Chapter 6
Once you defeat him, you'll acquire the "barracks key". Head over there to unlock the door and head inside.

Inside, there are three treasure chests as shown to the side; one of them is guarded, so be prepared for that. Collect them all, then head to the boss area. Here you'll be facing Kanone. She is much easier than your previous encounter with Cid.

She'll lay mines down, which, unless you're deliberately walking over them, won't do much of anything. The axe wielding enemy is immune to faint, but none of the other ones are. I used the exact same tactics on her as I did Cid, minus having to break up her special attacks since she doesn't typically cast anything (just uses her gun).

Abuse Kevin's "Gorgon Arrow" to petrify her jaeger allies so you can one-shot them and keep earth guard/wall or Kevin's S-Craft up to reduce the amount of damage you take. The same food stuffs as before work wonders here. Overall, she is much eaiser than Cid is by a large margin.

Once you finish, you'll gain access to the Command Center of the Leiston Fortress. Go there next. The Command Center is a sprawling, three floor maze. On the first floor, there are 11 treasure chests to collect.


On the second floor, there are another eight treasure chests to collect, as well as a place to save your progress via a save stone monument:

Your fight against General Morgan is going to be an easy one for a change. He, for all intents and purposes, is a massive pushover. He only attacks with two soldiers, which you should finish off first. Have Kevin use his "Gorgon Arrow" to petrify them and then finish them off.

I used the same party as I did with Cid and Kanone, but with much more breathing room to work with. Tita blinded the two soldiers until Kevin petrified them. After that, have Kevin and company spam earth wall/guard, or his S-Craft for it. General Morgan is also susceptible to DEF down, which will allow you to do some serious damage to him.

Stay somewhat spread out, as General Morgan's halberd has some distance in the swing and can hit multiple party members, but otherwise you should finish him off without much trouble at all.

Remember to keep your rations of food plentiful:
  • Napalm Meat (20% DEF boost, 16,000HP recovery)
  • Fish Skewers (20% SPD boost, 14,000HP recovery)
  • Tomato Fondue (Cure blind, 13,000HP recovery)
  • Tasty Medicine (Revive plus 12,000HP recovery)
  • Triple Ice Cream (20 [CP] boost, 8,200HP recovery)

Now on to the third floor:
At the end of the third floor, you'll now face off against the hardest boss fight to date, Cassius Bright. There are a few tactics to beating him, but I'll spell out exactly how I came out on top. My thought process is if you're taking damage, you're doing it wrong.

NOTE: IF YOU FAIL THE FIGHT, DO NOT CHOOSE THE OPTION TO MAKE THE BATTLE EASIER, OR YOU WON'T GET THE ACHIEVEMENT!

Cassius can easily one-hit KO your team with his special move and his regular attacks could as well. He has several attacks that hit multiple targets at once. You have to maintain earth guard/wall or you're dead.

First, I went with Kevin, Estelle, Richard and Renne. Richard was my primary damage dealer, Kevin was all earth guard/wall and his S-Craft Grail Sphere. Renne was all earth guard/wall with a sprinkle of strong (singular target) arts when possible, Estelle was there to overlap earth guard/wall; she is always casting after Cassius attacks. Renne and Kevin would cast before Cassius goes, so you get protection before and after his attacks.

Use S-crafts when you have some breathing room. So, let's talk gear, tactics and supplies.

Tactics
I went with bunching people up. Splitting them up won't stop him from smacking multiple party members around and it inhibits your ability to max guard everyone at once.

Yes, this formation means he'll be depleting your max guards across multiple people, but that isn't a deal breaker. His attacks can easily send party member(s) flying across the map.

If that happens, you need to get guards up ASAP and get them bunched together if you can.

Remember, the goal is to not have that happen, as that typically ruins entire runs. It isn't an instant loss, so try to come back from it if you can.

Food
  • Napalm Meat (20% DEF boost, 16,000HP recovery)
  • Fish Skewers (20% SPD boost, 14,000HP recovery)
  • Tomato Fondue (Cure blind, 13,000HP recovery)
  • Tasty Medicine (Revive plus 12,000HP recovery)
  • Triple Ice Cream (20 [CP] boost, 8,200HP recovery)

I didn't use much when it came to food, but it is good to keep some handy just in case. I did use a few Triple Ice Creams for the [CP] boost, but it wasn't entirely necessary unless you need that small boost to throw down an emergency grail sphere.

Orbments
Here is what I went into the fight with. Obviously, there is some room for changes as you see fit. Your goal is speed, strong healing (if needed) and strong arts. Feel free to adjust as needed, as I didn't focus as much in the arts department for damage. I just wanted everyone to have at least Earth Wall.

Armor & Accessories
For armor, you can grind out specialty gear (I'll post it below in case you want to) using the "Luck" quartz you got from a treasure chest a while ago, but I didn't find it necessary. Your goal is to have as much attack power as possible with Richard and then speed on everyone else. You want to shoot for over 100SPD for each person.

The only item you I'd say you need to farm is three "Fool's Emblems". That should get your speed over 100, along with some accessories and the "Heat-Resistant Boots". You can earn "Fool's Emblems" from the arena mini-game from Sun Door 3. You only need to beat it on "normal", so getting three should be a breeze; you're rewarded one every time you beat it.

If you want additional speed items, Go to the 5th Plane and you should farm Poltergeists. They drop, among regular loot, the following items:

ARMOR
  • Knight Armor - 1500 DEF, ADF-600, AGL-50, SPD-5, MOV-1
  • Reflective Robe - 650 DEF, ADF+1000, MOV-1
  • Ninja Garb - 750 DEF, SPD+5, AGL+100
  • Kitty Suit - 750 DEF, DEX+10, AGL+10, SPD+30, MOV+1

BOOTS
  • Knight's Sabatons - 180 DEF, ADF+30, AGL-50, SPD-5, MOV+3
  • Shaman's Boots - 95 DEF, ATS+25, ADF+100, MOV+3
  • Ninja Tabi - 105 DEF, AGL+100, SPD+10, MOV+5
  • Kitty Slippers - 100 DEF, AGL+10, SPD+10, MOV+8

Come out on top and you'll unlock another achievement. Well done! Before leaving the area, return to the courtyard of the Leiston Fortress and enter the Landing Zone sector. The airship that was shooting at you has left; grab the two treasure chests in the area (see the second part of Chapter 6 for the map showing the location).

"The Dadliest"
Beat the ultimate opponent on the highest difficulty.
Walkthrough - Chapter 6
Once you're on The "Glorious" Black Ark, activate the save stone before heading down into the mammoth ship. The first floor has a plethora of treasure chests, so make sure to collect them all!

While scouring the first floor of the Black Ark, you should unlock the achievement for looting treasure chests. I will still point out the rest, but for now, well done on achieving another milestone!

"Sidetracked Chest-Tracker"
Carefully examine nearly every chest that you come across before the final chapter.


The second floor is a bit more straight forward. Make sure to save before going up the elevator, as you'll encounter a boss fight once you do. Remember to collect the following treasure chests as you move through the floor, as well as the Star Door in the beginning:

The main fight in the hangar will be against Don and Kyle, plus six minions. They aren't particularly difficult, as they are all weak to status effects. I still recommend using Kevin's "Gorgon Arrow" to petrify the lesser enemies, then just hitting them all with an area of effect S-Craft art, or a simple attack when you have an opening to one hit KO them.

MOV down works great against Don, as well as the minions if you need some breathing room if you have someone with "Petrosphere" in your party. Tita is a good party member to bring for blind, but she isn't necessary for a win.

Overall, you have a lot of flexibility here, so feel free to use the tactics that best fight your party and you shouldn't have much difficulty dispatching them. Once you do, head to the top of the ship and enter the area that was once previously gated off; welcome to the Forecastle section of the Black Ark.

When you enter, the route forward will be blocked, so go right and up the stairs, then take the second door on your left and collect the three treasure chests inside.

Return to the entrance and take the stairs to the left this time; take the first door on the right and pick up the singular chest inside. If you didn't notice, there is a Sun Door on the other side of the laser barrier.

All you need to do is go upstairs (either side) and follow the path all the way to the end, then take the stairs down and follow the path backwards. The area is basically one big oval. Just make sure to enter the two doors by the Sun Door. Each one contains three treasure chests.

To access the door, you'll need to equip at least one of each quartz between all your party members to open the door.

The mini-game here is called "Who Wants to Be a Mirannaire?" and has three difficulties: Normal, Hard, Brutal & Maniac. You'll need to complete it on the hardest difficulty to win and unlock the achievement for it.

Some questions you shouldn't have any trouble with, while some are so out there I'd be surprised if you DID know them.

Don't worry, though, you can replay each difficulty as many times as you want and some of the questions will eventually repeat if you keep losing, so eventually you'll come out on top.

Once you do, you'll unlock another achievement towards your goal.

"You Know Too Much"
Complete "Who Wants to Be a Mirannaire?" Maniac mode.


With that door out of the way, continue onward to your next boss fight, which will be against some familiar Oroborous members: Bleublanc the Phantom Thief, Walter the Dire Wolf and Luciola the Enchanting Bell.

For this, I used Kevin, Joshua, Kloe and Richard. I mostly stuck to equipment that protected against faint and sleep for my healers. You can't protect against it all, because Bleublanc's attacks cause all sorts of status effects.

Much like the previous battle, speed is king. You want to go first so you can cast Kevin's Grail Sphere ability, as they open up with status effects and Walter's S-Craft ability. Use Kevin to dispel those effects with "Sacred Breath" and use Grail Sphere when possible.

I had Richard spam his S-Crafts when possible as my primary damage dealer. Joshua was in the utility role healing and buffing characters. Kloe's healing S-Craft is invaluable, as well as her ability to lower enemies DEF/ATK; the nice thing about this battle is everyone is weak to status effects, so you can lower their DEF, ATK, SPD, MOV and really cripple them.

I recommend targeting Bleublanc first, or Luciola. The status effects from Bleublanc are probably the most obnoxious and debilitating, but Luciola will both heal and resurrect if given the chance. Use Kloe and Richard's [Impede] attacks when possible to prevent this; they are all immune to attack delays.

As always, keep a large amount of food to heal, raise your stats (DEF/ATK/SPD). I recommend having plenty of "Fruity Temptation" food handy to cure any and all abnormal status effects plus some generous healing.

Once you defeat them, return to the Hermit's Garden to heal and save, then return to the teleporter that activated in the room you were just in to be transported to the final area. Time for yet another fight! Climb the long, foreboding staircase to the arena.


I kept the same party, minus Richard. I swapped him for Renne, though in hindsight, Richard might have been better for the strong S-Craft attacks. My loadout was (Kevin, Joshua, Kloe, Renne). Schwarzritter cannot be affected with status effect attacks, so don't bother. His black dragon is what you need to focus on first. It is susceptible to status down attacks, so stack them all on it and wipe it out quickly.

Once you do, the fight is incredibly simple. Speed makes all the difference here (noticing a pattern, eh?). You need to be able to maintain "Earth Guard/Wall", so stack your speed gear so everyone is 100+ in SPD and equip your Auto-CP gaining gear and jump into the fight.

Just keep the guards up, use your S-Craft attacks and spam high-end arts and you should take him down without any trouble. Once you do, leave the way you came. You'll also unlock an achievement for your troubles:

"Farewell, My Nightmares"
Complete the Farewall Arena on Nightmare.
Walkthrough - Chapter 6
Head back to the Hermit's Garden and swap a party member for Ries, then warp back to the Erbe Scenic Route and make your way to the villa; the shield is finally gone.

Enter the mist to parts unknown and you'll end up at Aster House where Kevin, Ries and Rufina grew up. So concludes another chapter and the earning of another achievement.

"The Guardians' Trials"
Complete Chapter 6.


Your collectible and achievement progress should be as follows and have had fled from zero battles:
Treasure Chests
Moon Doors
Sun Doors
Star Doors
Books Read
Abyss Fiends Defeated
Mini Games
Battles Fled
246/246
6/6
4/5
12/15
52/52
0/4
4/5
0
Walkthrough - Chapter 7
Explore Aster House and the surrounding areas. You'll need to visit all areas to trigger a cutscene, which include:

  • Aster House Grounds - The well.
  • House - The kitchen, dinning room and four bedrooms on the second floor.
  • Chapel - Dinning Room, Kitchen

Save it (there's no going back once you enter the chapel) and use the key that Ries had to unlock the chapel, then step inside.

You'll enter a long cutscene (quite long) and learn a great deal about the place Kevin grew up, about Ries, Rufina and eventually where sealed artifacts are kept. Down the long staircase you go...


A few revelations will be revealed and you'll end up within the Seventh Plane: Gehenna. Welcome to hell (sort of)!

There's a small orbment station in the beginning of the first area, as well as four treasure chests to collect for the loot and in case you still haven't unlocked the achievement for finding enough of them.

The area is very straight forward, with only a few small branching paths that lead to dead ends, but for the sake of consistency, here we go with the maps:

Once you reach the purple minotaur, save it; there is a small boss fight up ahead. Make sure you have built up your [CP] points prior to engaging the boss. He likes to drain your [CP] points on attack and splits himself into multiple copies. Just spam S-Craft attacks and you should be fine.
You'll use the same strategy for the next mini-boss, as well as the third one in part three of this plane. None of the battles are particularly difficult as long as you have accessories to boost your [CP] generation during battle.

If you're having a hard time, the enemies in the area give some decent experience for leveling up; it also might be worthwhile to equip something to block poison for the first two mini-boss fights.

The final area only has one treasure chest off to the left branch of the main passage, then you'll need to stop at the orbment healing station, save it and continue to another boss fight.

The final fight is between you two and Weissman, along with the two Gatekeepers of Gehenna, Rostrum and Astarte. While it might seem daunting, it is an easy fight. Assuming you entered it with 200 [CP], have Kevin cast his new S-Craft and you should deplete about 1/3 or even 1/2 of the gatekeeper's health.

Use Ries to cast her "Holy Blessing" to build Kevin's S-Craft meter and unleash it until everyone is dead. Heal or cast "Earth Guard/Wall" as needed. When done, you'll be rescued and offered some much needed help.

Upon leaving Gehenna, you'll complete chapter seven (rather short compared to six, right?) and unlock another achievement. Onto the finale!

"The Distant Flames"
Complete Chapter 7.


Your collectible and achievement progress should be as follows and have had fled from zero battles:
Treasure Chests
Moon Doors
Sun Doors
Star Doors
Books Read
Abyss Fiends Defeated
Mini Games
Battles Fled
246/246
6/6
4/5
12/15
52/52
0/4
4/5
0
Walkthrough - Chapter 8
You've done it. You've reached the eighth and final chapter. Take heed from what Celeste said at about moving to the final dungeon. There is no turning back, so we need to wrap up a few loose ends before we do that.

First, there is one more Sun Door we need to complete. This one will require Estelle; you might have done this already, but I completely forgot and I don't want to shoehorn it in an area of the guide that might not be accurate, so let's take a break and tie off some loose ends, shall we?

Before we go, though, we also have two other achievements that need tending to. Specifically, the achievement for never running from a fight. Head over to the fountain in Hermit's Garden. Just above the part where you restore your [CP] will be another ripple you can examine. Go ahead and do so.

You'll be rewarded with "Mirror", a lovely and unique quartz, as well as the well-earned achievement:

"Fierce Fighter"
Obtain a special quartz from brave deeds.


Here is the important part. Save it. It needs to be on a SEPARATE save file than your previous one, so I recommend skipping a slot to have a break in this save file to keep from confusing them and accidentally saving over one in error, which we'll use to the end of the game and your most previous one you had prior to examine the fountain just now.

The reason being is we now need to run from 300 fights on the old save file to earn the achievement associated with it. That being said, load your old save file. Head to any group of enemies and simply...run away.

I chose to go to the Golden Road, as there are three groups right next to each other and I could escape from one, then hit the next and so fourth so I didn't have to wait for the cooldown. You could probably just macro it and walk away, but it doesn't take very long to do it manually, so that's what I did.

Once you run from 300 fights, return to the fountain in the Hermit's Garden and examine the same spot as before. The fountain will acknowledge your cowardly nature to flee and reward you appropriately.

You'll also unlock this achievement for your troubles:

"Flighty Fighter"
Obtain a special quartz from cowardly deeds.


With those achievements out of the way, we'll tackle the remaining doors that are leftover. Put Richard in your team and warp to Star Door 12 (Leiston Fortress). There is no fighting inside the door, just a cutscene and some extended lore.

We now have just Star Door #14 and #15 to do, but we can't access #14 until we do Star Door #15; do note that the 15th Star Door is before the point of no return in the Abyss. For now, though, we'll tackle the final mini-game. Fishing!

Return to Sun Door #2, which is located in the Fisherman's Guild in Grancel (2nd floor). You'll need Estelle for this one, so put her in your party and get ready for a fishing duel!


There are several chapters for this fishing mini-game, however, you need only do the first one if you just want to obtain the achievement. However, you'll need to win all three duels to unlock another achievement, so you're in for the long haul!

Chapter #1 is fairly straight forward; read the rules and get started. You each take turns trying to fish and catch the biggest fish you can.

Start with the progress Rod and some earthworms as bait. You'll need to fish up a salmon. When you do, switch to the Metal Rod Trident and use the salmon as bait to fish up a snakehead, which is worth about three times the points and a surefire way to win.

Lloyd fails to catch anything twice in the first round, so you have some wiggle room.

The second chapter is, obviously, more difficult. The same rules apply and so does the method. Use the Progress Rod and catch a carp, then use the Metal Rod Trident and said carp to catch even larger fish, such as a Garvelze, which is worth significantly more points.

Norche does occasionally fail to fish up something on some rounds, so you have some wiggle room again.

The final chapter will be against the Fisherman's Guild's very own leader in Azelia Bay, affectionately known as Mr. Fisher. Start out with the Progress Rod as you have been, then switch to the better rods that correspond to the type of fish you caught.

You always want to use the smaller fish to catch larger ones, as that will garner far more points in the end. The main prize you can catch in the third round is a blue marlin; set your sights for one or more of those and you'll most certainly win.

Once you complete the first round against Lloyd, you'll unlock the following achievement:

"Minigame Madness"
Complete all minigames on any difficulty.


Now, to unlock the achievement for completing the Sun Doors, you MUST win against Mr. Fisher for the game to count it as "complete". Once you prove yourself to be the supreme angler, you'll be rewarded with a unique accessory for Estelle and another achievement for completing all five Sun Doors:

"Sunny Days"
Complete all Sun Doors.
Walkthrough - Chapter 8
We now have all the achievements we can earn at this point in the story. You should also have 13/15 Star Doors completed up to this point. With that being said, Speak to Celeste and she'll open up The Abyss for you, which has a save stone, as well as one of the final two Star Doors we need.

It also allows us to access all the Abyss Fiends we need to face off against.

The next achievement up for grabs is "Tempting Fate"; this achievement requires you to defeat all four fiends without leaving the area. If you do leave, to, say, the Hermit's Garden, you will have to start over and all fiends will respawn.

There are a few treasure chests here and there as you descend the ramp deeper into The Abyss, so collect those as you come across them.

Abyss Fiend - Lucifuge
The first fiend you come across is Lucifuge. Partnered with two Bloody Archers, you'll actually want to focus the boss over the archers first. The party I used was Kevin, Estelle, Richard and Mueller. Richard's S-Craft deals tremendous damage, so equip accessories catered to boosting how often he can use them.

Once the boss is destroyed, focus one archer at a time, as once they die, they resurrect as a Geyron (Bone Dragon) and hit much harder than before. None of them are particularly difficult if you focus one enemy at a time.

The Geyrons inflict faint on occasion, so be prepared for that. Once you win, you'll be awarded some Zemurian Ore; the ore can be used to craft some amazing end-game weapons from Celeste.

Abyss Fiend - Beelzebub
The second fiend is Beelzebub, who has six additional monsters with them. Beelzebub likes to divide itself, as well as seal or mute your party members. The grunts are more dangerous than the boss is I thought.

Area of effect arts and S-Crafts are important here to wipe out the groups as quickly as you can so you don't get overwhelmed. Grunts can cause instant death upon hit, making their death critical to winning, so equipping some Skull Pendants would be advised unless you prefer to keep "Earth Guard/Wall" up instead.

I would also recommend setting everyone to the back of the battleground under "tactics" to give yourself as much time to spam S-Crafts. If you put everyone in the corner, you can bottleneck them to where only one or two can even attack, which helps stem the flow of damage taken.

Once defeated, you'll pick up another Zemurian Ore for your troubles.

Abyss Fiend - Aka Manah
Aka Manah is the third fiend and so far the easiest of the bunch. Open up with S-Crafts to remove his minions. Using Estelle, Mueller or Richard, use whatever "impede" abilities they have when Aka Manah casts an art spell.

He only has two attacks, which are a very strong physical attack and his arts, which cover the whole battlefield. Additionally, he can heal for 666HP and cause faint on hit and freeze if he casts his arts, so watch out for those. If you constantly interrupt his casting time, though, the battle is a breeze to finish.

It'll take some time to finish him off, as he has incredibility high defense, so just focus on blocking his arts and the grunts that he summons and you shouldn't have any issues.

Abyss Fiend - Tempest Pom
The final fiend is the Tempest Pom. Cute, unassuming and packing a massive amount of defense and immunity to all arts.

You'll need your strength to be somewhere north of 2,500 to deal any real damage; you'll probably only be able to harm them with Richard's S-Craft attack, but that can two-shot the Tempest Pom.

Sometimes you'll luck out and the smaller poms will run away as they always do. Just keep everyone healthy and shielded and use Richard's S-Craft when you can and you should take be able to defeat them all.

Defeating all four fiends without leaving the Abyss will net you the achievement:

"Tempting Fate"
Defeat all Abyss fiends.


Return to just before the Tempest Pom battle and enter the Star Door here in the Abyss. You'll need Renne to open the door, though. Return with her and go inside. Once the scene is over, return to Star Door #14 in the sanctuary of the Black Ark where you fought the Oroborous members.

Now that you've examined all the other doors, you've gained access to this final Star Door. If, for some reason, you cannot open it, check your notebook to see which doors you might have not completed.

Certain mini-games, or story arcs require you to either beat them on a certain difficulty, some just the first round and some require certain battles to be won. Only once you've completed every requirement for every door will this final one open. The accessory is worth it and the achievement you unlock will be:

"Starry-Eyed"
Complete all Star Doors.
Walkthrough - Chapter 8
At this point, you should only have five achievements left: four difficulty-based ones and a hidden one for completing the final chapter. Speak to Celeste at the Hermit's Garden and use the Zemurian Ore to craft some truly strong weapons.

The final fight is broken up into four parts, requiring you to make parties, the last being the party that you take into battle against the final boss. You must bring Kevin and Ries for the final fight, so that leaves two spots open.

I recommend Joshua as a third and it'll be up to you on who to bring last.

Equip all your new Zemurian weapons and then speak to Celeste to take off in the Arseille. Remember, once you board the ship there is no turning back!

For Zemurian Ore, I selected new weapons for Richard, Kloe, Mueller and Agate based on my party compilation. I would highly advise getting the Zemurian weapon for Richard, then one for each damage dealer in each respective party.

You see, the final boss fight(s) are four fights in a row. You'll need to split your party into four groups of four and weapon, armor and accessory allocation is just as important as your party's formation. I equipped my teams with the following to start in terms of accessories and into the following groups:
Walkthrough - Chapter 8
To make these fights easier, I'll break down a small checklist and my load out for everyone, as well as the tactics I used to win. These last few fights were tough. It is nightmare mode after all, but still...

Pre-Battle Checklist
  • Level - Don't worry about leveling your characters up before going to the final area. There are save stones and places to rest; the enemies there give generous amounts of EXP, so leveling up low level party members is quick. I finished the game with everyone around level 140-142.

  • Weapons - Everyone will find their respective "end game" weapon within the final zone. However, you have four Zemurian Ore to craft better weapons for select members. I went with one Zemurian weapon for each main damage-dealer in reach group as mentioned above. Highly recommend you give one to Richard.

  • Quartz - There are save stones to heal, buy gear and craft quartz. You'll want to have the maximum level quartz for what you're taking. By the time you get here, you should have four different quartz that have the ability "Haze". Being able to not aggro enemies and always get the drop on them is immensely helpful when grinding.

    Additionally, you'll want quartz that gives, at minimum, three (if not everyone) people "Earth Wall". It will be your saving grace for all these fights. You'll also want to have, at minimum, one person that can cast area of effect healing.
  • Accessories - I listed what accessories I had for each character above in their respective load outs. You absolutely want [CP] building accessories on Kevin & Richard for the final battle.

    FAINT PROTECTION! Remember that and give everyone in your main party (Kevin, Ries, XXX, XXX) must have faint protection. The final boss will inflict it constantly. He does freeze as well, but I went without protection from it and didn't have an issue.
  • Items - By the end of the game, you'll be able to farm sepith in bulk in the last area, so stock up! You won't be able to stock up between fights, so everything has to last four battles. Make sure you have plenty of food to boost stats, cure abnormal status ailments and balms for healing. I went in with around 50+ of the essentials to make sure I didn't run out.

  • Be at 200 [CP] for everyone. That's it. Do it.

  • Bosses - The first three fights before the final boss all happen back-to-back-to-back with no pause to save it (you'll save just before the final boss) I recommend saving just before the final boss of each respective door. You'll know you're about to run into the boss when you enter a long, narrow hallway with a deep, red mat running down it. Save it here (separately for each).

    All three kind of play out the same. None of them do much in terms of status effects, so focus on damage and raising stats with your accessories. All of these fights boil down to out-healing their damage and spamming both S-Crafts and "Earth Wall" while controlling the minions they spawn in.

  • Final Boss - The final boss has multiple phases, but only one health bar. It starts by dropping a multitude of pillars around the battlefield; you need to destroy these before you can harm the boss. Use Joshua's S-Craft to hit them all. At maximum [CP], you should be able to take them out in four turns or less.

    When they go down, the hard part begins. Each phase he spawns two minions that will "vanish" party members on hit for several turns. They can only move one space at a time, so use cast arts at a distance; do not engage head on, as they also explode on death for substantial damage if you're in close proximity.

    He spawns the minions five specific times on different areas of the battlefield as shown to the left diagram. The area in blue is the final phase, in which he will destroy most of the moveable terrain, making you have to dispatch the final pair of minions quickly.

    At around 25% health, the boss will cast its ultimate attack, killing anyone not protected by either your "Earth Wall/Guard" or Grail Sphere.

Just keep the pressure up, keep everyone healed and your protections locked in and you'll eventually come out on top. When you do, sit back, relax, and enjoy the final cutscenes. You'll have to wait until after the credits end before the final achievements unlock. When they do, you'll get credit for completing the final chapter and all difficulty levels. Well done!

"The Future We Dream Of"
Complete Chapter 8.


"Easy Peasy", "Straight and Narrow", "Proud Powerhouse" & "Only In Your Dreams"
Finish the game on Easy or above, Finish the game on Normal or above, Finish the game on Hard or above & Finish the game on Nightmare.
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For more of my guides, check out the link below:

https://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1304735272
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4 Comments
ErickaUnlimited  [author] 29 Sep @ 12:57pm 
@ Ooze - Heh, yeah. I had the first two done for a little bit and I backlogged the third for far too long. Happy to almost have it finished.
Ooze 29 Sep @ 12:18pm 
Hey nice! I didn't notice how new these guides are. I've just finished Sky 1 & 2 with your great guides and I'm happy to be here for the third instalment. Keep up the great work!
ErickaUnlimited  [author] 28 Sep @ 6:23pm 
@ Subscriber0101 - I'll make sure to add a note in the beginning about it; thanks for pointing it out.
Subscriber0101 28 Sep @ 5:00pm 
Hi Ericka, I know this guide is WIP, but wanted to comment on the Fierce Fighter and Flighty Fighter achievements.

Both can be obtained in Ch. 8, and only 1 per playthrough. Former requires you to have fought at least 300 battles and have 0 flees. Latter requires you to have 300 flees. The way to do it in one playthrough:
1) Play the game up to Ch. 8 never fleeing once (reload saves if necessary).
2) Save at Chapter 8 with 0 flees.
3) Using turbo mode, flee from 300 battles, and get Flighty Fighter.
4) Reload the save with 0 flees, and get Fierce Fighter.

So this is something that should be mentioned at the start of the guide (and I'd put a reminder in every checklist): that you can never flee before claiming the Fierce Fighter achievement in Chapter 8.

Just wanted to mention this in case you weren't aware. Once again, TYSM for the guides, I love how they are written and appreciate the massive time and effort it takes!