Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Bose Missable Achievements Guide - RetroAchievements/guides GitHub Wiki
Set developed by FBernkastelKues, guide written by benit149
Hello, and welcome to my missable achievements guide for Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse (“Beyond Good and Evil”). It is the second game in a trilogy that encompasses a single storyline, with this immediately following the events of Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht. This installment has an unlockable after transferring save data from Episode I. Likewise, transferring your data from here into Episode III unlocks some content there. I have written a missables guide for the previous game if you would like to check it out.
This guide will be the same as usual – going through each boss challenge and missable event or item in chronological order, using the same format as for Episode I or any of my guides, really. If you think the difficulty will be like Episode I’s, you are very wrong. This is a massive difficulty spike in comparison, as you’re forced to learn how the combat system works for both characters and mechs, and you need to get to grips with it fast while not being allowed to level up too much for the level-restricted boss challenges. I’ll help as much as I can, but a lot of it is going to come down to execution on your part as well as RNG working in your favor.
If you're struggling to understand the combat system, I recommend watching fastatcc's speedrun from RPG Limit Break 2024. The runner and commentators do a good job of explaining the details during the very beginning portion of the game, some of which I was learning for the first time even after having written this guide. It really can be that difficult to come to grips to, so any resources like this will be valuable.
Due to heavy reliance on story triggers, there will be major spoilers involved. If you wish to enjoy the game for the first time, please stop reading here!
MISSABLE ACHIEVEMENTS
Obtain a bonus for beating Xenosaga Episode I
You can only obtain this if you import your cleared game save data from Episode I. If you want to master this game, you have to clear the previous installment’s story bosses first. If done correctly, you will receive swimsuits for KOS-MOS and Ziggy. These are actually equippable skills that grant +1 AGL and 10% Skill Points earned in battle, but raise damage received by 15%.
Defeat Scutum and Pilum without stocking (Level limit: 15)
Stocking is a new combat mechanic introduced in Episode II, which is done by going into a character’s battle menu and selecting Stock up to a maximum of three times. This allows you to perform up to five basic attacks if all three Stocks are built up. In order to execute another new mechanic called Double Attacks, you need to build up the appropriate number of Stocks as well as have the proper characters in the active battle party. You’ll see this in the tutorial with Jin and chaos, where they need two Stocks built between them to be able to use Ice Brand.
Once you gain control of the primary party on Second Miltia, it would be also a good idea to brush up on how to unlock Skills since it works differently than it did in Episode I, as you will need to do so to at least unlock Medica and get some other basic benefits. It takes a little bit to reach Scutum and Pilum, having to go through all of the tutorial, then Executus Sagitta and O-88 Libra first before reaching them. Once you do, it’s just a matter of never using the Stock command during the fight. If you’re used to how Episode I’s battle menu is designed, be careful. Whereas Ether was the first option there, it’s the second option here while Stock is the first. Try not to let muscle memory screw you over and you should be fine.
For the fight itself, have MOMO in the party as she will be the primary damage dealer. You should also have Ziggy to tank some of the bosses’ attacks. You can have either Jr. or chaos acting as support with healing and additional attacks. Unlock Medica in the Skills menu for everyone, although healing with Ziggy is rather pointless due to his lower EATK stat. It takes a little while since you can’t use Stocks, but just chip away at them and they’ll go down eventually.
Become the best Global Samaritan around
When you gain control of Shion in Second Miltia, proceed until you encounter the Bunnie mascot, who will explain the Global Samaritan Campaign (referred to as GS quests here) and give you a GS Path. There are 36 mini-quests tied to this throughout the game that you want to partake in for some rewards. Although some of the quests are a gigantic slog to go through, the rewards will be worth the trouble. There are some quests that can potentially be done wrong, so you want to avoid doing that at all costs, especially considering how long it takes to do all of the quests as a whole. You obviously won’t be getting this achievement right away, but you’ll be building up towards this in the long run.
Another achievement tied to this is Strapped For Cash, where you need to pay off Captain Matthews’ staggering 10 million G debt. There is a method for dealing with this easily by exploiting the fact that you can redo the final boss as many times as you want. There are also some nice mech accessories you can steal from the superbosses that can cover some of it as well. I’ll cover those details once you get to that point in the story.
Freeze all 10 mice in less than a minute
This is tied to one of the GS quests, which is found in the Kukai Foundation’s dry cleaning shop. Make a save outside the Ironman bar after accepting the quest from Sheila before attempting this. It may take you a couple of tries since you’d want to learn the layout of the attic. Two of the most troublesome mice can be dealt with by going up the two sets of stairs near the bottom of the attic and targeting the two paintings to block the mice. You do need to go up both of them since you can only target one painting per set of stairs. Much later in the game, I decided to return here and see if the minigame could be done again, and it's still available, so it makes me question if this is actually missable or not. Regardless, that's how you handle the minigame in under 60 seconds.
While you’re busy doing GS quests, I’d recommend completing all four levels of the sliding bookshelf minigame at the Uzuki residence to receive 10 Skill Upgrade C and 10 Class Upgrade C, as well as getting the At the Library achievement out of the way. These items will come in handy for upcoming boss challenges where you can give them to the characters you want, complete the challenge, then reset to get them back and do the fight normally.
Obtain an Awakening I
Be sure you’ve done the GS quest for delivering Jacqueline’s love letter to Sydney, and likewise his return letter to her to obtain Secret Key 1, which lets any character learn the skill Psycho Pocket in the Level 1 Class G category. Just like in Episode I, Psycho Pocket lets you steal items from enemies, and Awakening I is such an item. The same is true for the other Awakening items found throughout this set. It is obtained by stealing from Albedo during his boss battle in Sakura’s Winter Dive. If you intend to do this plus his boss challenge, Jr. needs to have Psycho Pocket unlocked ASAP. I’d avoid doing that and reset after getting the next achievement…
Defeat Albedo with Jr. being the only one to make a move (Level limit: 25)
Class is in session, folks. We’re about to dive deep into the nitty gritty of Episode II’s combat mechanics here, so get your pencils and notepads ready.
As I mentioned in this achievement’s comments section, this is just as difficult as fighting Ein Rugel and Doppelwogel in Episode I for Human Strengths and Weaknesses in that set. I still believe that challenge is harder than this one because if you understand how to take advantage of the Event Slots here, you’ll have a much easier time. Unfortunately, half of the battle is preparation. The other half is just pure luck for how Albedo will behave. Margulis II is another huge challenge, but I’ll get to that later.
So with Jr. only being allowed to take moves, what are the other characters supposed to do? For these solo challenges, they are only allowed to use the Stock and Change commands. I’ve already explained Stocking, while Change simply lets you swap between characters in mid-battle. If you still haven’t come to grips with the combat system, you better do so ASAP because both this game and the achievement set practically throw you into the deep end without much warning.
Pay attention to the Event Slot on the bottom right of the screen, where the characters’ turn order is also located. It will cycle between four different types of slots in this order:
Boost (BST) -> Skill (SKL) -> Random -> Critical (CTC) -> Boost -> and so on…
The Boost Slot dramatically increases the amount that the Boost Meter increases, allowing your allies to squeeze in more turns before the enemy can act. The Skill Slot is only relevant when defeating an enemy, as it will award more Skill Points at the end of battle depending on a randomly applied multiplier. The Critical Up Slot simply increases the amount of damage that attacks do. The Random Slot has four events of its own:
- Ether Boost (ETR): boosts Ether attacks and spells by 50%
- Turn Cancel (T-C): if an opponent is attacked while this is active and their turn is about to come up, they will instead miss that turn
- Reverse Boost (RV): if an ally is attacked by an enemy, the ally party will earn boost meter instead of the enemy, and vice versa
- None (NON): no effect is applied
Of the four Random Slots, Ether Boost is obviously the most useful since Jr. will be able to cast more effective Medica Alls for better survival. For this fight, the Skill, Turn Cancel and Reverse Boost Slots weren’t very helpful for me, so try to have Jr. take his turns on any other type of slot. This will involve a lot of trial and error due to a vicious combination of learning the mechanics, getting good slots, hoping Albedo doesn’t punish you too hard, praying for some lucky evades, and paying attention to your other allies’ turns and ensuring they only Stock. Don’t be surprised if this takes you multiple attempts due to how disorienting all of this can be for a new player. Each attempt can easily take up to 20+ minutes, so if it's frustrating you too much, take a much-needed break.
As for pre-battle preparation, you should have a bunch of Class and Skill Upgrade items in your inventory to mess around with. Make a separate save in case you feel your current setup didn’t work and would like to invest in different skills. Once you finally get the achievement, I recommend resetting so you can get those items back for future challenges. Obviously a lot of TLC will be put in for Jr. right now, with MOMO and chaos both getting Thunder Coat if you’re able to invest for it. Jr. will absolutely need Focus I (Level 1 Class H), Thunder Coat (Level 2 Class G), Medica 2 and Medica All (Level 2 Class C). I also invested in Attacker (Level 1 Class B) and Flame Sword (Level 2 Class B).
Focus I will allow Jr. to restore 10% of his EP every time he builds up Stocks, which at this point was 3 EP each time for me. It isn’t much, but it helps supplement his EP in case of emergencies. Thunder Coat improves his resistance to thunder-elemental damage by 25%, since Albedo tends to use that element pretty often. Ice Coat is another defensive option, but I didn’t bother with this since I wanted some Skill Points for MOMO and chaos as well. Medica 2 and Medica All are for healing, with Medica All being used on the Ether Boost Slot whenever possible/needed. Attacker decreases physical defense and boosts physical attack, and Flame Sword adds the fire element to physical attacks since Albedo is susceptible to that element. Both Flame Sword and Attacker are optional to use, but they helped me push through the tail end of the battle, so I’d recommend them.
Once ready, initiate the battle. Albedo has a pattern where you need to destroy his arms to lower his defense. Build up Jr.’s Stocks first, then let loose a full combo. If the arms don’t break right away, rebuild the Stocks and use only Square or Triangle attacks until they do. When you get your chance, unload a full combo on him. After several turns, Albedo’s arms will regenerate, and you will have to do that process again. Luckily, this only occurs three times before he finally drops the routine and can be damaged like a normal enemy from now on. All this while, Jr. also has to act as medic, keeping everyone’s health topped up so MOMO and chaos can divert Albedo’s attention away from Jr. The opportunities to deal heavy damage will not come around often, even more so on the Critical Up Slot. Don’t fret if you can’t get Jr.’s turns on that slot. Just go for it. The longer this fight drags on, the harder it becomes due to your limited pool of restorative items.
As if all of that wasn’t enough, Albedo will start using a devastating AoE move called Soul Blast once his health drops to around 1500 HP. Don’t be afraid to use those rare Regenerators and/or Ether Pack DX on Jr. as needed since you’ll be resetting anyway. To make the most of this phase, get Albedo’s health down to around the 1800-2000 range, then set up his Stocks and apply Attacker and/or Flame Sword when you feel you’re ready to do a full combo. It won’t be enough to kill him right away, so you will have to sit through a Soul Blast or two. Swap out MOMO and/or chaos for either Ziggy or KOS-MOS if needed since they have high HP to help tank the hits. If Albedo’s health is down to just triple digits, go ahead and do as many single attacks as you can with Jr. just to finish him off.
Yeah… a lot to take in, isn’t it? Do some practice runs to get into the rhythm and learn the nuances of this fight. If you manage to get this, you’ll gain a lot of valuable knowledge to help you with the rest of the set’s challenges. You might notice that I haven’t said a word about stealing off of Albedo for the Awakening I item he has. Don’t bother with it just yet. You’ll be resetting to get your items back, plus each cast of Psycho Pocket is 4 EP, which is put to better use for Jr. during this challenge.
Time to switch to disc 2 of the game already? Kind of caught me off guard, TBH.
Beat Pilum before he blasts a hole in the wall (Mech Level limit: 25)
You’d think that after Red String Fate, this will be a lot easier, right? Well, it depends. First of all, the maximum level limit is still 25 here, and your characters are approaching the cusp of that limit no thanks to the experience earned from Albedo’s battle, right? However, don’t worry. The level cap is not referring to your characters, but rather to your ES mechs that you’re going to be running around in within the Ormus Stronghold. They will be slightly lower leveled than your characters. I wish it was specified in the description, but that’s what it’s referring to. Because of this, I’ll alert you as to whether or not the level limits for future challenges will refer to characters or mechs by either writing (Character Level limit: ##) or (Mech Level limit: ##) in the bracketed descriptions.
Anyway, a lot of this challenge comes down to pure luck. The only thing you can really control is who’s piloting the mechs. Have KOS-MOS and Shion pilot the Dinah, while Jr. and Jin are in the Asher. Perform Square attacks against Pilum until both your Boost meter is at 3 and the mechs’ Energy meters are full. Regular attacks will fill it by 25 each time, so you want them both at 200 at the right time. This will allow them to get off their respective Special Attacks for some big damage. The Dinah will perform Tornado Fist, while the Asher will do Wings of Light, which can particularly sting on the Critical Up slot. Do the Special Attacks, then use up all of the boosts to sneak in more damage, hopefully enough to get Pilum close to defeated.
Pilum’s pilot will start doing some crazy talk, indicating that the timer to him using the beam attack that destroys the wall is now active. If he positions himself close to the screen and he still has too much health, you’re better off resetting. Scutum complicates things by absorbing half of Pilum’s damage and casting Medica, but as long as you took down enough of Pilum’s health during your big barrage, it shouldn’t be anything to worry about. Pilum does have an annoying tendency to evade your attacks quite frequently though, which is why luck is such a major part of this challenge. With enough tries though, the luck will be in your favor. Once Pilum is down, Scutum is a total cakewalk. Use Triangle attacks against him.
If you’re interested in stealing their items, do a reset after completing this. You really don’t have the time to do steals during the challenge, and MOMO is the only one who can use Ether spells while in her mech. Pilum has Anti-Fire Armor and a Tuned Circuit, while Scutum has Anti-Thunder Armor and a Charge Booster.
Obtain an Awakening II
Same deal as with Albedo, the next boss Orgulla has the Awakening II for stealing. If you’re having trouble doing the steal during the next challenge, reset after completing it so you can fight the boss normally. I don’t think you would since it’s a simple encounter. Since each Awakening II sells for 500,000 G a pop towards Matthews' debt, plunder as many as you can from Orgulla. I didn't do this in my run, so I'm not sure what the strategy is for this beyond switching the boss' phases back and forth to refresh her items.
Beat Orgulla without healing more than one character at a time (Character Level limit: 40)
Compared to the other boss challenges so far, this one is much more tolerable. The only restriction is that you can’t use Medica All. Otherwise, everything else is fair game. This isn’t as bad as it sounds since Orgulla only uses single target attacks. I’d say level 40 is an extremely generous level limit for your characters at this point. Unlock Medica 2 (Level 2 Class C) ASAP since Medica can’t keep up with the damage the regular enemies dish out, never mind Orgulla. Absolutely have Ziggy in the battle party because Orgulla is susceptible to combos while she is downed, and his full combo with three Stocks is capable of knocking her down. Getting as many boosted attacks as you can while she’s in that state will really punish her.
The other two characters you choose don’t matter, but since Orgulla’s attacks can be devastating in the later portion of the fight, it’s ideal to bring characters in with higher HP pools while still having good EATK for healing. The best party for this situation would be Ziggy, KOS-MOS and Jin. I used Ziggy, KOS-MOS and MOMO, having to use a couple of Revive S to bring MOMO back, but it’s manageable no matter what party you use as long as you have Ziggy in the party and can cast Medica 2.
Orgulla’s initial break combo is BCBB (Square-Triangle-Square-Square), but when she transitions into her Mane phase, the combo becomes CBB (Triangle-Square-Square). You can tell the two phases apart because she starts with a green sword, then it changes into a blue sword. Her attacks will also be more dangerous in the Mane phase, but she does eventually lose the major stat boost. Regardless, she’ll feel like a total pushover compared to the other challenges you’ve done thus far. Since I had MOMO in my party, I had her cast Defender to give her some extra protection, not minding the loss of ATK since she was on support duty anyway.
Don’t forget to steal from Orgulla! Aside from Awakening II, she also has a Skill Upgrade E.
Beat ES Issachar using nothing but ether attacks (Mech Level limit: 30)
You will have to bring Zebulun along into this fight because MOMO is the only pilot who can use Ether spells while in a mech. Since your characters’ level limit was 40 for Orgulla and you should be well below that by this point, do some grinding or use Upgrade items so MOMO can learn Aura Blast (Level 1 Class E), with Annihilation (Level 4 Class B) as a bonus if you want. The next Character Level limit is 45 and is Jin’s uber difficult solo boss challenge against Margulis, so take that into consideration if you want to farm battles.
You will have to escape the stronghold with a 30 minute timer, but as long as you flee from any battles you can (only Shion or MOMO can escape), you should make it with plenty of time to spare. There’s no save point once the timer starts, so you’re committed to this challenge once you initiate it. The timer will go away once you enter this fight, which is a good thing because you’re going to be here for way more than the timer would allow you. You will only be casting Aura Blast, Medica 2 when needed, and Stocking to restore Zebulun’s EP. The other mech should have Charge Recover equipped so their HP is slightly restored when they do their Stocks. Issachar will eventually perform an attack called Genesis for about 6000 damage to both allied mechs, so be sure that Zebulun’s HP is topped up in preparation for this.
The best damage output I’ve seen for Aura Blast was about 720 on either the Critical Up or Ether Boost slots. Since Issachar has 30,400 HP, this is going to take a while. My own attempt at this took me 32 minutes, so consider that a benchmark for planning your time. As long as you’re set up like this and never use Square or Triangle attacks though, nothing that Issachar does will be a threat to you. The worst it can do is Falling Rose on the Ether Boost slot for about 3000 damage. If you want to steal, it has a EMAX300, which allows a mech to do Stocks up to a maximum of 300 instead of 200.
Once you’re out of the Ormus Stronghold, you’ll have the opportunity to do a bunch of GS quests to stock up on good items and skills. One of the quests will involve a mini boss battle against a Gnosis called Rod Blondel, who has a Skill Upgrade D and a Skill Upgrade E to steal. You’re actually able to steal and run away, initiate the fight, rinse and repeat to build up a healthy supply of Skill Upgrades, meaning you could potentially get everyone’s skill-related achievements if you put in the time and effort without worrying about surpassing the level limits for the boss challenges too much. Note that you won’t be able to unlock every skill yet since you haven’t unlocked all of them at this time. The only caveat to this grind is that you MUST have either Shion or MOMO in the party at all times to allow you to flee the battle.
To replenish your allies’ EP, swap them out for someone else and their HP and EP will gradually recover while in the reserve. Consider investing in Rapid Refresh (Level 3 Class C) to make this regeneration go quicker. Having EP Half (Level 3 Class H) makes this even easier. Another set of skills I recommend are in Level 4 Class B which contains Annihilation, Lost AGL and Knight Soul. Annihilation is a powerful non-elemental Ether spell, Lost AGL allows a caster to retain their full agility after casting a spell, and Knight Soul increases defense each time a party member is KO’ed. Of these, the first two will be useful for both the farming and upcoming challenges.
Make as much progress as you can, then hold on to the GS quest for later once you have all of the skills available and continue farming until you’re satisfied. For reference’s sake, I got just under 70% of all possible skills among everyone, so it’s not a bad deal as long as you’re willing to spend a day or so doing the grind.
Make the perfect curry in less than 50 seconds
This is related to the GS quest in Moby Dick’s Café on Second Miltia. Speak to Chop and he’ll explain how to play the minigame. If you’re familiar with the swordfight sequence at the beginning of Final Fantasy IX, it’s the same idea. Chop will say a seasoning with the button prompt, and you just need to push the right button. Failing even just one time will end the minigame, but you can retry as many times as you want. You just need your successful attempt to be under 50 seconds.
Defeat the Naglfar Cannons without attacking the other enemies (Mech Level limit: 35)
If you played Episode I and recall the Designated Slot I discussed for the Domo Carrier boss battle, that mechanic makes a return here, but it’s a little different. The Naglfar Cannons will select an Event Slot, but you actually want to attack it on that slot in order to disable its shield. Stick to single-target attacks only on that slot, and either build up your mechs’ Energy Charge or heal if you have Zebulun on the field on the other slots. It was the Boost Up slot in my case, so I build up Asher’s EC so it could execute Wings of Light (Jr. + Jin as co-pilot), and had Zebulun act mostly as support. Once the shield is down, the cannons are very susceptible to elemental damage, so Special Attacks like Tornado Fist or Wings of Light will work wonders. Just be sure never to attack the lesser enemies, and this should be easy enough.
There is the potential for one of your mechs to intercept the lesser enemies’ attacks though, which will invalidate the achievement. It happened for me once in my first attempt, but never occurred on the second try. I don’t know what the odds are, but it seems to be pretty low. If you’re interested in stealing, the Naglfar Cannons have a Charge Clean which allows a mech to cleanse status ailments while using the Stock command, and an EMAX300. I suggest doing a reset after this for the steals so you aren’t screwed by the random intercepts.
Obtain an Awakening III
Same as usual. You’ll be stealing from Margulis in Labyrinthos. He also has a Skill Up E for plundering. It’s not just Margulis himself you can steal from, but his shadows as well. Since each Awakening III sells for 500,000 G a pop, plunder as many as you can to sell for paying off Matthews’ debt, though you might only get one or two extra.
Defeat Margulis with Jin being the only one to make a move (Character Level limit: 45)
Before going into this fight, you’re going to have to do a LOT of prep work. You might think that the level 45 limit level is generous considering the previous limit was 40 and you didn’t really need to go anywhere near that high for Orgulla, but you would be dead wrong. I leveled my party up to around level 40 before I could stand a reasonable chance against Margulis. You also need a specific selection of skills and spells to make this challenge doable. These are the skills you’ll need for your party, which should be Jin, Ziggy and KOS-MOS:
Jin
- Limiter Up (boosts HP and EP by 10%)
- Revenge Power (if attacked with a single-target critical hit, have a 25% chance to trigger an auto-boost. Use Combo Boost instead!)
- Flame Coat (resist fire damage by 25%)
- Hammer Coat (resist strike damage by 25%)
KOS-MOS
- Limiter Up
- Flame Coat
- Thunder Coat (resist thunder damage by 25%)
- Hammer Coat
Ziggy
- Flame Coat
- Thunder Coat
- Hammer Coat
- Spear Coat (resist pierce damage by 25%)
If you can’t tell by the skill selection, Margulis primarily uses fire, thunder, pierce and strike attacks, so you want your party to have as much resistance to these as possible. Of these, Hammer Coat is the most important due to Margulis’ dangerous AoE move being strike-based. I didn’t have the Class Points for Ziggy to learn Limiter Up, but his default HP was enough. In hindsight, I probably should’ve given Jin the Spear Coat skill instead of Revenge Power because I felt its effect didn’t go off enough to be worth the slot when resistance to pierce damage would’ve been more helpful.
Fellow player coyoacan informed me that Combo Boost should be used. I wasn’t aware of this skill at the time nor did I have it unlocked yet, so my strategy revolved around Revenge Power instead, which was a big mistake on my part. Use Combo Boost (Level 3 Class H). It’ll save you the enormous amount of trouble that I went through. To find it, get Decoder 2 in the Ormus Stronghold and use it on Segment Address No. 2 in the Elsa’s crew quarters. Otherwise, the overall strategy is the same.
For spells, Jin needs to know Boost I, Attacker and Aura Sword. You also want to expend two Boost MAX items at the beginning of the fight to increase the boost gauge to 5. You’re going to want all of the boost meter you can possibly get. Jin should also have Focus I unlocked so he can restore his EP while building up his Stocks. I also had a huge supply of Med Kit S and similar healing items since they will restore more HP than Jin’s Medica can, allowing you to keep up with Margulis’ damage output. Use a Regenerator E when you think everyone’s HP is getting low and you’re nearly ready to execute the final phase of the fight, which I’ll explain in a second.
There’s another major annoyance to worry about which can affect your planning. Once the party goes inside the large structure in the Zohar Isolation Area and Canaan leaves as a temporary guest, Jin will also briefly leave the party, meaning you can’t adjust his equipped skills if you save after this scene. Make a save just after solving the two puzzles to open the gate to the spiraling elevator, but don’t save afterward so Jin is still in the party if you need to adjust his skills. Make a backup save if you want to save after doing the three forced battles prior to Margulis.
Whoever is currently in the third slot of the party will be automatically swapped out for Jin once the fight starts, and normally the final attack on Margulis must be done with him. While that won’t be a problem for the challenge, there’s another headache to worry about (as if there aren’t enough already). Once Margulis’ HP reaches around 7000, he will start a countdown to performing H-Stop, which is an instant game over if it goes off. Not only that, he tries to complicate things by summoning shadow clones of himself, who can just be as deadly as him. As I mentioned before, Awakening III can be stolen from both Margulis and the clones, but don’t worry about that for now. You’ll have enough on your plate with this challenge as it is.
I made a video guide of my own successful attempt at this to demonstrate what you need to do. This section was written with Revenge Power as my strategy rather than Combo Boost, which is significantly better since Jin can execute the full combo by himself without needing an ally to help him maintain the combo. Otherwise, the rest of the strategy is applicable.
I first start the battle by building up the boost meter to 5 and filling it up with Boost I casts. Next is building up Jin’s Stocks, and casting Attacker when I’m ready to attack. I need Margulis’ back to be facing Jin before starting the combo. Margulis’ break combo is CBCB (Triangle-Square-Triangle-Square), but he can’t execute it by himself. This is where all of those boost meters come into play because once you initiate the combo with Jin, you need to boost an ally’s turn, then boost Jin’s turn while they Stock, then have Jin finish the combo on his second turn. In short, the turn order looks like this:
- Jin: CB + boost an ally’s turn
- Ally: boost Jin’s turn + Stock
- Jin: CB + Circle x3
Thus, you always need at least two boost meters before even thinking about attempting the combo on Jin’s turn. Keep doing that until Margulis summons his clone. This is where things get a little interesting. You’ll need to keep up with healing while slowly building up Jin’s Stocks and the boost meter, then cast both Attacker and Aura Sword and wait for the clone’s back to be facing him. The clone has lower defense than Margulis, so that’s why I attack it instead of him. When ready, do the full combo string. The clone will be healed for the amount of damage Jin deals to it, but it’ll also siphon that amount off of Margulis each time. In the video, you’ll see that Margulis has 16,281 HP before I start the combo on the clone. Afterward, it’s 10,785, meaning I had the clone devour 5496 HP off of him.
Switch between attacking Margulis or the clone until he reaches about 7100 HP, then stop. You don’t want to accidentally trigger his H-Stop phase when you’re not ready yet. Get everyone back to full health, build up the Stocks and boost meter again, apply Aura Sword and Attacker, and have the clone’s back facing Jin. Once all of these conditions are met (and you take a deep breath to focus), go on your biggest offense yet. Use up ALL of the boost meter to maintain the combo for as long as you possibly can. In the video, you’ll see that I got Margulis down from 7085 to 2443 HP with this method. Obviously, you want to get his HP down as low as you can go before he dismisses the clone and initiates the H-Stop countdown.
You don’t have a lot of time left, so don’t bother healing anyone but Jin if it’s an emergency. Build up the boost meter a few times (not to max) and build up his Stocks to max. I ideally wanted Margulis’ back to be facing Jin, but I had no choice but to go in and hope I did enough damage with three boost gauges plus Attacker. Take your time with this part. It’s incredibly easy to choke and accidentally attack with the wrong character, failing the challenge after all of that effort. Keep the combo going as long as you can while Margulis is downed, and you should defeat him like how I did.
If you succeed in defeating Margulis, exhale that breath you’ve been holding in and give yourself a well-deserved pat on the back. This is very difficult to execute, and I personally find this to be a little too extreme for a main set challenge. Alas, it is what it is, and that is the strategy you need to use to get this.
Beat Patriarch Sergius without Proto Ω attacking (Character Level limit: 50)
Compared to Margulis, this will feel like a walk in the park. Thanks to the skills you gained from that fight, you should have a better understanding of how to handle any further challenges. Since there are no more solo character challenges, you’re free to use your entire party to execute a massive combo from now on. Sergius has two phases, so you can take down the first phase however you want. The tricky part comes in the second phase where you need to bring him down to just over 11,000 HP to avoid him activating Proto Omega. You would want to avoid Proto Omega’s attacks even in a casual playthrough anyway because they are nasty.
You do want your characters to be able to heal H-type status effects, which you haven’t been seeing too often until now. Unlike L-type statuses which have a blue circle over the character’s head, H-type will have a reddish circle. The worst H-type status effect is Boost Block, which prevents the afflicted character from participating in a boost combo. As long as that’s cleansed, your characters’ Stocks are maxed out, the boost meter is raised to 5, and everyone has Attacker applied, you should be all good. Bring a party of MOMO, Jr. and KOS-MOS for the best results. Don’t forget to steal Awakening IV from Sergius, although this one is not missable unlike the other Awakening items.
This battle can be farmed repeatedly to stock up on Awakening IVs to sell to K-2 in Second Miltia’s spaceport had you chosen not to farm from Orgulla. Each one sells for 500,000 G, so getting 20 of them will clear out the 10 million debt easily. Sergius only has one to steal, so you’d have to trek through all of Omega System at least 20 times to do this since you always respawn in the Elsa after saving your clear game data. Thankfully you don’t have to solve the puzzles again and can just rush down to the boss room. No, you won't actually be running through the dungeon 20 times since there are a number of other valuable items that can be sold, but do note that you will want to make some trips.
Beat Albedo in less than 2 minutes (Character Level limit: 55)
The true final boss battle is one you cannot lose since Albedo applies Safety Level to Jr. that grants him an auto-resurrect, so you don’t need to worry about healing. Albedo doesn’t really do much except talk a lot and maybe get in a weak spell or two. You lose 18 seconds from Safety Level’s animation, so you actually only have 1 minute 42 seconds to defeat him.
The gimmick here is that you need to perform a variety of break combos before getting Albedo’s HP to 0, at which point he performs Eternal Chain to end the battle. Each time you successfully perform a break combo, Albedo will say something and change the pattern. For instance, you break him with CBB (Triangle-Square-Circle), he speaks, and the pattern changes to BB. Keep doing this over and over as quickly as you can. If you have a three-button combo, you need to have Jr. build up a Stock and apply Attacker before executing the full combo. Once you’ve as much damage as you can, stick to regular combos until Albedo is down.
Combo Boost is mandatory for this fight since Jr. will not have enough turns to do damage before time runs out due to Albedo’s prattling. You actually don’t want to deplete Albedo’s HP too quickly, or else he’ll perform Regenerate Consciousness and replenish his HP instead, which is another huge time waster. He is susceptible to Aura Sword, but just using Attacker will be fine as long at Jr. is around level 49 or 50 and you get the boosts in during his turns. I had tried this fight numerous times without success until I finally figured out that Combo Boost was the key. Albedo needs to perform Eternal Chain anytime before the two-minute mark, but the timer will continue during the animation. Don’t worry, you’ll get the achievement the moment he does Eternal Chain.
If your levels aren’t up to snuff for this, save it until later when you’ve done the three post-game dungeons and got a bunch of skills and levels. Do note that this challenge’s level limit is 55, while all of the optional superbosses are level 60. If you’re farming for Awakening IVs from Sergius, you’ll have loads of opportunities to attempt this, so don’t fret if it doesn’t work out for you at first. I got Jr. to level 51, while others have reported doing it in the late 40s.
Beat Dark Erde Kaiser without healing more than one character at a time (Character Level limit: 60)
Just like with Orgulla, you can’t use Medica All during this fight. The spell isn’t really all that effective compared to items healing for far more by this point in the game, so this doesn’t feel like a major restriction. I didn’t test if using Regenerator E also invalidates the achievement, so err on the side of caution and don’t use it.
I used Ziggy, MOMO and Jr., and DEK’s break combo is AAAA. Build up everyone’s Stocks and the boost meter, apply Attacker and Flame Sword to MOMO and Jr. (Ziggy already has fire element), then have Jr. do a Circle-Circle-Circle-Circle combo, followed by Ziggy doing a combo to knock DEK down, and then MOMO using hers for the rest of the combo, expending all of the boosts only for her. Ziggy’s role is important here since DEK cannot be knocked into the air, but only down onto the ground, which he is capable of.
This will take some time since DEK has 192,000 HP which shows up as questions marks since it can’t display six digits. DEK will eventually erect an impenetrable shield that looks like a greenish star once you deal 50,000 HP to it. Swap in Shion and have her cast Erde Kaiser Fury to break the shield, greatly reducing DEK’s defense and allowing you to melt through the rest of its 140,000 or so HP. Once Shion’s job is done, swap back to whoever you replaced and repeat the usual cycle. It will do an AoE attack called Dark Cyclone which uses its sword, so I stuck Sword Coat on everyone to mitigate the damage, and only healed with Medica 2 or items as needed. It also does powerful AoE fire-elemental attack, so consider Fire Coat if you want some extra defense. I didn’t use it, and my party got along fine at around level 50-54. The attack is heavily telegraphed, so you have some time to prepare.
I also recommend unlocking Inner Peace (Level 2 Class H) for your characters, which raises evasion after using the Stock command. Their evasion will skyrocket while building up Stocks, allowing them to dodge DEK’s attack with alarming ease, which makes healing and setting up combos much easier. Once you defeat DEK, three new superbosses will be unlocked, each with their own challenges.
Defeat Baal Zebul without a character moving (Character Level limit: 60)
To find Baal Zebul, go into the simulation of Old Miltia and backtrack to the Segment Address door, then keep going right along the highway past the Toys Universe store. There’s another save point near where the boss is standing.
The description is a huge misnomer. What it's referring to doesn’t mean a character taking their action, but rather using the Move command in the battle menu. Not only are Baal Zebul’s attacks hard-hitting in their own right, he also has a move called Aqua Regia where a rain of bile will decimate a chosen character after one turn. No one can survive it, not even a high-leveled Ziggy. Normally you’re supposed to use the Move command to get out of its way, but you can’t do that here. My party was MOMO, Jin and Jr., though you could use KOS-MOS instead of Jin if you want. I didn’t try it with chaos due to his Aura elemental attacks, and Shion has Thunder and Ziggy has Fire by default so they aren’t good choices.
You’ll want to settle in because if all of the number of paragraphs in this section aren’t enough of an indication, this is going to be a LONG fight. Before getting too deep into the battle, steal an EMAX300 and an Auto Recover from the boss. Auto Recover is a mech accessory that auto-revives with 50% HP, which you’ll want for Mikumari later.
Absolutely, positively, without question get Best Ally, EP Half, Focus 2, Combo Boost, Ice Sword and Attacker unlocked! Best Ally will auto-resurrect a character with full HP, EP Half will cut the cost of EP for spells in half so that Best Ally won’t be as expensive, Focus 2 will add an additional 15% EP regeneration to the 10% rate from Focus 1 for 25% total each time your character Stocks, Combo Boost will aid with getting as many attacks off as you can, Ice Sword is Baal Zebul’s weakness, and Attacker is the usual for offense. I did have Damage-10 on my party, but I felt like it didn’t do much when I should’ve used Fire Coat and/or Thunder Coat. Overload (Level 4 Class C) is another option if you want to build up your Stocks a bit faster. Another annoying aspect about Baal Zebul is that his defense is really high, and he has 99,999 HP. In my first attempt, it took me about 15 minutes just to get 10,000 HP off of him, so that’s a good indication of how absurdly long this is going to take.
Baal Zebul does have a break combo which is BCBC (Square-Triangle-Square-Triangle), but you need to follow a specific pattern before you can take advantage of it. He will raise his guard, which allows him to guard break, meaning any break combos you attempt on him will be canceled. To get rid of this, attack him with single combos until he gets angry and a message says he’s relaxed his guard.
All in all, it’s about chipping away at him while staying alive with Best Ally for the first portion of the fight. You don’t need to do too much healing, but feel free to top someone up if they take a hard hit, especially since you don’t want to waste Best Ally casts on deaths not caused by Aqua Regia. If they’re targeted by Aqua Regia though, don’t bother. It’s basically an instant kill for them, and Best Ally will take care of reviving them. Just remember to keep re-applying Best Ally each time it’s expended and top up your characters’ EP with Stocks and items, and you should be all right for the first phase.
For Baal Zebul’s second phase, he does a move called Cycle of Destruction At Great Cost, which permanently removes his ability to break guard and makes him vulnerable to combos, but he becomes much more dangerous in exchange. He will use boosts rapid fire, and occasionally does Triple Aqua Regia which targets three random spots on the field, either in front or behind him. He will act so quickly that you don’t have much leeway to keep your characters alive while also trying to get any damage in. There are the occasional times where his eyes will change color, which just changes the break combo you need to perform. For instance, his default eye color has his break combo as BCBC, but then his eyes change color and it becomes CCCC (all Triangle). Pay attention to this so you don’t mess up the combo.
One thing you can do is swap in Shion, apply Ice Sword to her, do a break combo, then have her cast Erde Kaiser Fury for about 10,000 damage. For my party, I swap out MOMO so Jin and Jr. can perform the break combo. Don’t hesitate to use your best items, because this is the fight you’ve been saving them for! In my first attempt, I lost an hour and a half due to a game over where he overwhelmed my characters to the point that I could no longer keep up. My second attempt was 1 hour 10 minutes, which went better because I used the high-level items like Med Kit DX, Ether Pack DX and Rejuvenators while playing more defensively. Another idea is to take advantage of the moves that consume Baal Zebul’s HP little by little until he’s within killing range, though don’t solely rely on that or else the battle will take forever. It was what got me my own win though, so don’t discount it.
If you feel you’re losing focus, take a break. Once you’re done, you can either reset to get your items back or save in a different slot, especially if you haven’t done the next challenge yet.
Defeat Phobos Rigas without his fear going down (Character Level limit: 60)
To find Phobos Rigas, go into the Dammerung’s simulation and run all the way back to the hangar where Shion and Allen escaped from during the story.
Compared to Baal Zebul where it was a test of patience and survivability, Phobos Rigas is a more engaging rush-down battle where you want to take him out as soon as you can. He has 55,555 HP and is susceptible to the CBBC combo (Triangle-Square-Square-Triangle), plus he is a Gnosis-type enemy so he is weak to Aura Sword. My party was MOMO, chaos and Jr., with Shion replacing MOMO once I did enough damage. You can vary between anyone except Ziggy since his attack is fire-element which is useless here, and Shion has a specific purpose so she will be swapped in during the fight. I chose chaos as one of my party members due to his attacks already being Aura elemental, so that’s one less person you need to cast Aura Sword on, thus saving a little time.
So what does it mean to not allow Phobos Rigas’ fear to go down? While you’re damaging him, he’ll apply a buff to himself named after synonyms of “fear” like Horror and Panic, which increases his offense each time. This will culminate at level 5 with Frenzy where he goes all-out with his attacks, but it will wear off eventually. You don’t want this to happen. If you’re doing this fight after Baal Zebul, you should have an easier time since you don’t have to mess around with dispelling break guards and can go on the offense right away. When I say ‘offense’, I mean such a powerful blow that it’ll literally destroy him.
This might take you a few tries to get the pattern down, plus there is a degree of luck with Phobos Rigas’ attacks, but at least retrying this fight is way more forgiving compared to Baal Zebul. I’ll use my party setup as an example. Start off with steals (another set of EMAX300 and Auto Recover for the taking) and casting Best Ally, then the usual combo setup for MOMO, chaos and Jr. Use two Boost Max and cast spells to increase the boost meter. You don’t need to go too high since you’re aiming to reduce the boss’ HP to just over 45,000. Apply Aura Sword to MOMO and Jr. (chaos doesn’t need it) plus Attacker for everyone and do enough damage to reach the threshold. Phobos Rigas will be within range of a full combo + Erde Kaiser Fury with Aura Sword, but not low enough to trigger his fear phases.
Now swap out MOMO for Shion. I kept Jr. so he and chaos can perform the break combo, which MOMO can’t do. Whoever you’re using, be sure they can initiate the break combo so chaos can continue it. If you have Combo Boost on chaos, he can do the whole combo himself if you want. The good thing about Shion is you don’t have to build up her Stocks, so she can perform miscellaneous spells like Best Ally, Boost, Quick or Aura Sword. If you have a full level 5 boost meter and the proper setup for your attackers, go for the combo. Maintain the combo with chaos until 2 bars remain. Now have him cast Aura Sword on Shion, since it would likely have worn off had you applied it to her earlier. The final boost meter goes to Shion, who casts Erde Kaiser Fury with Aura Sword.
The idea is to maintain an Aura-elemental combo as long as you can to dramatically increase Erde Kaiser’s damage. Get it to 10 or more, and you’ll easily see up to 30,000 damage. I can’t recall what my highest combo was, but Erde Kaiser did a whopping 45,000 damage, easily overkilling Phobos Rigas. As long as you can execute this with your character setup, you’ll be laughing to the bank.
Congratulations! If this is your last achievement for character battles, you’re now free to level them up as much as you want from the Omega System grind for paying off Matthews’ debt. It doesn’t mean we’re completely done with challenges yet. In fact, I’d say that the story boss challenges threw you into the deep end of the pool, the two superboss challenges thus far had you holding your breath for longer than humanly possible, and this final challenge will have you sinking like a stone to the bottom of the Mariana Trench and expecting to survive intact.
Defeat Mikumari without using special attacks (Mech Level limit: 60)
Of the three superbosses unlocked after defeating Dark Erde Kaiser, this is the only one fought in mechs. If their levels aren’t up to par with this, do some grinding in areas like Old Miltia, Omega System or the Desert. Once you clear this challenge, you’re done with mechs, so you can sell some of the rarer accessories to pay off Matthews’ debt if you want to shave off some runs through Omega System.
I’m going to make this statement plain and simple: This is the hardest, and possibly one of the worst achievements I’ve ever done on RetroAchievements.
That should be an indication of the hell you’ll be subjecting yourself to if you decide to take this on. The level 60 limit is no joke either. This fight is designed to be the hardest in the entire game, and that’s with being allowed to use Special Attacks. Think of this as like WarMech from Final Fantasy I. Level up your mechs as high as they can be (I got mine to level 58), and equip them with the specified gear:
- Dinah: whatever you want, it’ll be switching out of the battle at the beginning
- Asher: Auto Recover, Charge Clean, Charge Recover
- Zebulun: Auto Recover, Tuned Circuit, Power Shield
Asher has Auto Recover to resurrect from any nasty attack that it fails to guard from, Charge Clean to get rid of bad status effects when Stocking, and Charge Recover to regain a little HP while Stocking. Zebulun has Auto Recover, Tuned Circuit for +1 Agility, and Power Shield to reduce damage by 20% when guarding. While Auto Recover is the most important accessory, Charge Clean for Asher will be extremely useful for when I explain the boss’ healing phase.
Mikumari’s pattern is incredibly difficult to understand if you don’t do your research, and its hard-hitting attacks can punish you so severely that the fight will be over before you knew what the hell even happened. What it boils down to is a reactionary game, where you’ll always be saying to yourself, “If Mikumari does this, I have to respond with this.”
As if that wasn’t difficult enough, you always have the threat of a game crash occurring. I mostly saw them around the 23 to 28 minute mark. Thus, this fight becomes a race for time not just against the boss, but against the game itself. Talk about pressure! Players have reported that it tends to happen when spells like Down Ether or Down Force are cast. The theory is that all of these animations between your party and the boss overload the game’s memory, leading to a crash. My own theory, which is in line with that reasoning, is that it’s a memory leak that’s specific to Mikumari.
I’ve seen this in other PS2 titles like Final Fantasy X, and was the reason I had to look up the concept in the first place. If the game’s memory isn’t clearing with so many animations playing, it certainly can lead to a memory leak due to garbage data overloading the memory space, causing the game to crash. Again that’s only my theory, and I’m not a programmer by any means, so the real answer may be wildly different. When the crash happens doesn’t appear to be consistent either, so don’t be surprised if it freezes on you from just closing a text box.
With that caveat out of the way, let’s dive into Mikumari itself. The boss has two distinct phases – Creeping Mode, and Pure Mode. The mask that Mikumari wears while in Creeping Mode is an oni mask, while the same in Pure Mode is a noh mask of a smiling woman. Creeping Mode is Mikumari’s offensive mode and is far more dangerous than Pure Mode, while Pure Mode is responsible for healing and letting your mechs get some attacks in, as well as knowing which one it will antagonise the most in Creeping Mode. If you case any spell like Down Ether, Down Force, Down Dex and such on Pure Mode, it will respond with three actions; an AoE heal for about 9000 HP, a single target heal for about 8000 HP, and a Refresh if a mech has a status ailment. The Refresh always takes precedence over the heals. This is why Charge Clean is so important on Asher – it can cleanse itself of any ailments, while Zebulun uses magic to heal itself. This way, you’re not wasting precious time on status cleansing when you want Mikumari to perform such good heals on your mechs.
These are the myriad of Mikumari’s reactions I’ve compiled from my own attempts, as well as how to respond appropriately. Hopefully they’ll provide a better understanding of how to approach this fight without getting decimated. I’ll list each action based on what Mikumari’s dialogue is, since it’s constantly speaking on its turns and it’s difficult to memorize so many actions at once. I didn’t record every single possible line it will say, but this should give you an idea of what to expect.
CREEPING MODE
- “Who goes there? Our name is Mikumari. Worship us and sing our praises!” – says this when starting the fight
- “Here in the shadow of heaven, you will know our darkness!” – performs a devastating AoE attack, regardless of where your mechs are placed on the battlefield. When beginning any attempt, start the battle with Dinah and Asher. Mikumari always starts in Creeping Mode and will perform this move no matter what. Once that’s done, swap out Dinah for Zebulun and move one of the mechs to the other side of Mikumari. This way, at least one of them can get a back attack in for the whole fight, plus any AoE attacks will only hit one rather than both
- “Our darling children!” – does an AoE Aura-elemental attack to both mechs regardless of their positions on the field
- “Feel the resentment of our children!” – attacks a single mech
- “Are you finished yet?” – no action
- “We crawl down the path of darkness!” – switches to Creeping Mode. As long as Jr. and MOMO have learned Inner Peace, Asher and Zebulun should have a decent chance at dodging some of Mikumari’s attacks, but not all of them
- “Are you finished yet?” + “Yes, now there’s our good child…” – no action. Probably just indications of how much HP the boss has left
- “You are annoying us!” – casts an AoE Thunder-elemental spell that doesn’t do much damage. It only does this if it’s on the Ether Boost event slot, so this is very rare to see
- “Which one should feel our wrath?” – does a very dangerous single-target attack. Be sure your mechs’ HP is as high as you can manage to survive this, or hope they dodge it
- “You shall feel our rage!” – another dangerous single-target attack
- “God of Heaven! God of Earth! Come together as one!” – same as previous quote
PURE MODE
- “We have been reborn pure!” – switches to Pure Mode. Have Zebulun cast a spell like Down Ether, Down Force, Down Dex or similar to get…
- “Our precious children…” – heals both mechs for a huge amount of HP. While Mikumari is in Pure Mode, don’t attack until it switches to Creeping Mode. Have Asher attack and Zebulun either attack or trigger Pure Mode’s healing, depending on the situation. You want this to be your primary source of healing, but feel free to get some Medica 2 heals in if you feel your mechs are in trouble during Creeping Mode
- “Ah, sweet waters of life…” – performs Medica 2 on a random mech, triggered the same way as “Our precious children…” does
- “Your happiness pleases us…” – cleanses a mech of any status ailments, triggered just like “Our precious children…” and “Ah, sweet waters of life…” You don’t want to waste time with this action, which is why I equipped Asher with Charge Cleanse and had Zebulun heal itself
- “Our children, we shall grant you some of our life.” + “It seems like it wants to heal you.” – no action, but serves as a hint that you’re supposed to do something to trigger this. The game gives hints about it wanting you to cast Down-type spells like Down Dex, Down Ether and such, and hates it if you cast Break-type spells
- “We loathe you blue/white/pink things…” – will punish whichever mech it chooses based on its color. Asher is blue, Dinah is white, and Zebulun is pink. When it switches to Creeping Mode, it will choose a mech based on which one has dealt the most damage to it. I got a bunch of game overs because I kept attacking too much with Zebulun, which exposed it to some deadly attacks and defeated it. You want Asher to be the one dealing the most damage, making it the target of Mikumari’s attacks. A strategy I devised to squeeze in some extra damage was for Zebulun to use the Boost spell, then on its next turn do an attack, boost, and then Stock to activate Inner Peace just in case the boss attacked it instead of Asher
- “We are not some toy…” – no action
- “Don’t bother us!” + “You have offended Mikumari!” – occurs when you attack during Pure Mode. This speeds up the rate it will change into Creeping Mode
- “It’s changing into creeping mode.” – warns when the transformation will occur
- “We are alive.” – no action
EITHER
- “With our very breath, we will purge you of your sins!” – Mikumari’s parameters improve, so it’ll take less damage from your attacks. This occurs around 120,000 HP remaining. Frontal attacks only deal around 1100 damage, but you need to keep attacking as much as you can due to the imminent game freeze. Use Square attacks with Asher and Triangle attacks with Zebulun
- “Your presence is beginning to bore us!” – I’m not sure, but I think this indicates that its defense has either been lowered or is about to decrease. This is when you want to build up your boost meter to full with the Boost I spell, and use boosts only in an emergency if a targeted mech needs to Stock when Mikumari changes to Creeping Mode
- “Just who do you think you are!?” + “It seems like Mikumari’s parameters have changed to a special attack mode.” – lowers the boss’ defense to its original value, but the battle now becomes a fight for survival during Creeping Mode
- “What’s taking you so long?” – no action
- “This world is darkness! Everything is darkness!” + “It seems like Mikumari’s parameters have reached their final levels.” – not sure if this affects the boss’ stats
- “Our children… We have cleansed you…” – you’ve won the fight. Congratulations!
Even after getting Mikumari down to the last phase, you’re still going to be in a lot of trouble because it will permanently remain in Creeping Mode until you kill it. You need to build up your boost meter to max before this happens, then when Asher’s turn comes up, have it use all of the meters to get as much damage in as possible. If you time it right, it should be enough to kill the boss before it can devastate you.
Since this is the hardest challenge in Episode II, and is the most difficult and unfair achievement I’ve done on RA to this date, do not be disappointed if you either fail or get a game freeze several times. There is a path to victory, but it requires learning every single little thing about it through trial and error. My victorious attempt ended at 19 minutes, so hopefully you should be aiming around that ballpark. I actually reset afterwards and defeated Mikumari as intended to steal its Auto Recover and EMAX300 for Matthews’ debt. Don’t give up, pray that luck goes your way, and step away from the game for a bit if you’re getting too frustrated.
CONCLUSION
Well, I certainly didn’t know what I was getting myself into with this set. Compared to Episode I, this is significantly harder, to the point that it felt excessive for my liking. I suppose if you’re into that kind of difficulty spike, this is the set for you. I personally couldn’t enjoy the game as intended when I had my hands tied so much while struggling to learn how the combat system worked at the same time. Mikumari was another headache altogether, and I hated every minute of it. But there you go. These are the strategies I used to get through this, finally allowing me to move on to Episode III. Until that guide comes out, may the RNGods be in your favor (especially for Mikumari!), and happy cheevo hunting!
- Benit149, December 2025