Once the game has been beaten the first time around, sit and watch the
entire ending. You will be prompted to play again and to save. The second
time through is nearly identical to the first. The general explanation is
listed below, with detailed information from start to finish of ex mode.
One main reason why there is a replay 'value' is to see the "real ending"..
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THE CHRYSLER BUILDING
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GENERAL STUFF:
This is how the Chrysler Building works. On every tenth level (floors 10,
20, 30, etc.) is a boss. That boss has the key which allows you to access
all the elevators below it. Every floor leading up to that boss has a
randomly generated layout, which includes a lot of hallways (in which you
can encounter monsters), a Treasure Room, an Elevator, and stairs going up
and down. Each set of ten floors also has its own theme music, just so
it doesn't get too monotonous.
For every set of ten floors, you'll encounter different types of monsters.
It is IMPORTANT to note that whenever you clear a boss, the monsters stop
appearing on all the levels below it. So when you take out the boss on
floor 10, no monsters will appear anymore on floors 1-10. This is crucial
to remember, because there are some monsters which you'll want to fight for
certain items and experience. You need to be sure you've done as much
fighting as you want of these monsters before you take out the boss.
Every key allows you to access the Elevator to all the floors below the
level on which you found it, so you do not need to carry around more than
one Chrysler Key at a time.
FLOORS 2-10: THE JUNK ZONE
Before you start to seriously penetrate the Chrysler Building, you're
going to want to spend some time on floors 2-10 (floor one is the
entrance lobby, and there are no monsters). This is the best Junk-hunting
zone. You can rack up the Junk pretty quickly if you use Daisaku's Expert
Junk-Collecting Technique. Here's how it works:
-- The blue birds (species: avius aquus detritus) have Junk.
-- The blue birds appear in certain kinds of hallways. They
will often appear in the company of the large rats (Rodents Of
Unusual Size).
-- There is a random chance of a monster appearing in a
hallway every time you enter the screen. Each screen has
a "trigger point," which will cause the battle to begin if
there is a monster. You can tell if there's going to be
a monster once you pass the trigger point without having
to cross the entire screen.
-- The blue birds appear in greatest numbers in the straight
hallways which run north to south. Note that if the
hallway is a dead end, no monsters will appear. On a good
encounter, you can get five birds at a time (and you can
annihilate them easily if you have a shotgun effect on your
gun - they tend to bunch up).
-- The trigger points on the north-south hallways are the second
line on the floor (no matter which way you enter).
-- So, the technique is to go along until you find two adjoining
north-south hallways. Then, you go back and forth between
the two of them and search for monsters. Every time you reach
the second line on the floor, you'll know if you have an
encounter or not. If you don't, turn back and check the other
hallway again. Repeat until your inventory is full of Junk.
Reject all other items you might pick up along the way (unless
they're something TRULY useful, like Revive... I think the
rats may carry that on rare occasions).
Sounds tedious? Well, it is... but it's the LEAST tedious way to collect
Junk. I refined this technique through painful trial and error, and
believe me, the speed with which you'll accumulate Junk is staggering
compared to any other method.
So why do you want all this Junk? Well, when you give Wayne 300 pieces
of Junk (using the Discard Junk option when you talk to him), he'll
build you a super-weapon of your choice. These weapons are superior
to any other weapons you'll find in the game.
Which weapon should you choose? My advice is either to take the handgun
(if you like the quick firing rate) or the rifle (for more attack power
and range). The other guns are too slow. The LAW Rocket is powerful,
but is simply too slow and limited to be of much use in conflict with the
greater bosses (especially since you can't add special properties to it).
Whatever you do, don't "Leave it to Wayne." Wayne can be quite a spaz
when it comes to gun design, and sometimes he'll even give you a big
lump of utterly useless "Super Junk" for your efforts.
ASCENDING THE FLOORS:
Once you get your gun made from Junk, it's time to head on up the
floors. No reason to tarry on any of the levels until you get past
floor 60 - the monsters there are not worth a whole lot of experience,
and they don't have the best items.
Amongst the new things you'll find in the treasure boxes in the Chrysler
Buildings are the Rare Trading Cards. These are very cool. If you use
them to tune up a weapon with Wayne, he'll give you two tune-ups for
the price of one. But, even better, you can get some really great
stuff if you collect a lot of Rare Trading Cards. If you collect 11
of them, Wayne will give you a Tool Box, which provides infinite
Tools (some guides say you need 12 cards - I did it with 11, and it's
possible that you only need 10). If you collect all 14, he'll give
you a Super Tool Box as well, which will allow you to upgrade weapons
to your heart's content.
In order to get these special tool boxes, you have to pick the "Rare
T-Card Collection" option when you talk to Wayne. He'll show you all
his cards and brag a bit, then give you the tool boxes if you've
collected enough.
Once you get the Super Tool Box, it's time to go back to your gun
and armor collection and pull all the bonus points off all the stuff
you've got in storage. This is truly a wonderful experience. One
tip: to save some time, go to the "Store Equipment" option when you
talk to Wayne, then look at the toolbar on the left. There's a
"Tune Up Weapons/Armor" option available, which will allow you to
tinker with the things you've got in storage without having to put
them all in your inventory.
Interesting note: When I created my ultimate armor, Wayne was so
impressed that he engraved it for me.
Okay, that's all great and something to look forward to, but I didn't
find my 14th Rare T-Card until the 68th Floor of the Chrysler Building.
So you're going to have to be patient. Meanwhile, you'll have to fight
your way through the bosses on all the lower levels. Here are some
quick guidelines:
FLOOR 10 - BRAIN-SPIDER: This is the same beastie you fought
on the roof of the Hospital. It is a big pansy and you
can blow it away without breaking a sweat.
FLOOR 20 - THE CROC TWINS: These are the same guys you encountered
in the reservoir. They are also very silly and weak. You
should have no problem wasting them.
FLOOR 30 - CENTIPEDE: You ran into this ugly bastard in the train
tunnels. You have less space to fight him this time. He's
really not so bad, except when he splits into four bits, the
tail segment will Blind you and the head segment will Poison
you. The Blind is most annoying, so take out that segment
first. This shouldn't be too challenging.
FLOOR 40 - QUADRA-CERATOPS: It's not a triceratops - it has four
horns. I'm not sure WHAT it really is. Anyway, you
encountered it in the museum before. Same strategy applies.
Shouldn't be much of a problem.
FLOOR 50 - SUPER-FLY: This thing is a pest (okay, bad pun.
I'm sorry). It does some nasty damage with its
flailing antennae, but its most dangerous property
is that it will lay eggs which become new versions of
itself. If you're not careful, this fight could drag
out a LONG time. Your best strategy is to unload on
this thing as heavy as possible as early as you can,
using Liberate to deal it big damage while there's
only one.
FLOOR 60 - MEGA-CRAB: This is a hyped-up version of the crab you
encountered in the Warehouse, and it can really take you
apart if you aren't careful. It skitters around faster
than its cousin in the Warehouse, making it very hard to
stay in the "safe zones" on its sides. The eye beams are
not as devastating (because you're more durable now, and
their power hasn't increased), but the bubble spread attack
is far, far more powerful. The only way to take this
bad-ass arthropod on is to keep yourself Hasted and stay
along side of it, so it can't hit you with the bubbles.
Haste is your number one priority for Parasite Energy.
Have some Revives on hand, in case you get caught by the
bubbles. Your weapon (which SHOULD have the shotgun burst
effect on it, in case you hadn't realized that by now)
should take out the claws in fairly short order. Then
you keep working on the head. When it's done, mail the
body to Baltimore and tell them to serve it up Old Bay
sauce (just kidding).
HELPFUL TIP: As you travel along, you will pick up some Full Restore
items, which will bring your Health back up to maximum when used.
These are terrific, but you want to use them wisely. When you're in
a fight and your armor uses its Auto-Medicine power, it will pick
the strongest medicine first. So, if you bring a Full Restore into
a fight with a boss, it will probably get used up. You do not
want this to happen.
You can take all the bosses up to this point (and the 70th floor
one, for that matter) using conventional Medicines. Be sure to
unload your Full Restores before you go into any boss fights.
Either give them to Wayne or (if you don't want to make the trek
all the way back down just for this) dump them into open boxes
in a Treasure Room so you can go back and pick them up later.
The same rule applies for the Full Cures, though they aren't
quite as crucial.
Still alive? Great! Now, you're on to floors 61-70...
THE UPPER FLOORS:
Floors 61-70 are where you might want to hang out for a while and
hunt down monsters. The creatures up here are worth a good chunk
of experience, and you can level up on these floors pretty quickly.
Furthermore, you can accumulate the hoard of Revives and Medicine 4s
that you'll require before tackling the final bosses from these
monsters.
The monsters you'll find on these floors are pretty tough, but
only up to a point. The point at which they stop being dangerous
is when you find the grenade launcher with the Cyanide feature.
Use a Super Tool to bring that over to your main weapon, and
watch the results. You may feel inclined to laugh maniacally
when use this power on normal monsters - go ahead, you've earned
it. Aya officially becomes a Buttkicker Supreme when she gets
the Cyanide feature.
You should also round out your Rare Trading Card collection on
these levels. I strongly advise that you take the Rare T-Cards
back to Wayne before tackling the boss on the 70th floor, so you
can have the Super Tool Kit and create your ultimate weapon and
armor.
Once you've leveled up to your heart's content (I was at Level 38,
in case you were curious), you're ready to take on the final two
bosses. The first of these adversaries is...
FLOOR 70 - THE WORLD'S MEANEST TERMITE: Have plenty
of Revives and Medicine 4s on hand for this fight.
The Termite has one major attack which it employs
that comes in two parts. First, it launches a
sickle-shaped energy wave that is almost a third
the width of the screen. It follows up this attack
with two deadly energy boomerangs which zigzag back
and forth as they fly. This is not the worst
part, though. In addition, the Termite can summon
several lesser bugs, who flutter about and either
Heal it or attack you, mostly with status attacks
of some kind. This is also not the worst part.
The worst part is that, seemingly out of
nowhere, Aya will occasionally be hit by an absurdly
large explosion which she has no chance of avoiding.
Where this comes from and what it's meant to be, I do
not know. I only know that it was really annoying.
To fight the Termite, keep using Haste as often
as you can. It will help you avoid its energy attacks.
If you're above its head on the screen, it will miss you
with the first energy wave, and then all you have to do
is duck away from the boomerangs which follow it up.
Do not waste your time targeting the lesser bugs, but
do try to get them within the spread of your shotgun-burst
attack. They can be killed fairly easily this way,
and you don't have to take your attention away from
the termite.
And when you get hit with the mystery explosions...
you explode. Tough luck. That's what the Medicines
and Revives are for. You can outlast this ugly termite
if you have a good supply of these items... but make
sure you have enough for the final battle, too.
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THE FINAL BATTLE FOR THE FATE OF THE WORLD
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After you waste the termite, there are no more monsters in the
Chrysler Building to fight besides Eve. From the termite's room,
you will access a stairway which will lead you through a series
of increasingly gross rooms, where there are no treasures or
monsters (just stairways stacked on top of each other). But
first...
Go back to Wayne. It's time to pick up all that stuff you were
saving for a rainy day. If you're carrying around any superfluous
items (like the lucky charms, extra weapons, and even the Super
Tool Kit), drop them off now. You can't rid yourself of Maeda's gun,
one of his charms, or the Rocket Crate, but you can dump everything
else on Wayne. You should be able to carry 50 items total, since
you maxed out your inventory and put a 4-pocket bonus on your
armor (didn't you?). Your inventory should contain the following
items, in order of priority:
- Your Gun
- Your Primary Armor
- Your Secondary Armor (for use in jump-starting your PE meter)
- Full Recover items
- Revives
- Full Cures
- Medicine 4s
You all set? Save your game. Take a deep breath, and then go back
to the Chrysler Building for one final time.
FINAL BOSS - EVE:
Eve has a nasty surprise waiting for you in her lair. After she
reveals the sinister truth about herself, she transforms into a
version of the angel-like being that Aya becomes when she uses
Liberate. And the fight is on.
This fight takes place in three basic stages. Note that the
stages are not distinct like the various forms of the Ultimate Being,
but the fight definitely shifts in character as it wears on.
STAGE ONE: Eve will float around the screen and
occasionally teleport. She does three different attacks
in this first stage. The First type, which is the
Touch attack, does incidental damage of about 15 or 16
points if you happen to brush into her. This seems very
minor, but it's important to keep it in mind for later
in the fight. The second type, which I'll call the Attack
Rush, lets her hit you with a physical blow. These can
be dodged, but it is VERY hard. At this stage, the blows
hurt but are not lethal (about 250-300 damage). The third
attack she has is the Summon Helper (I won't reveal what
the Helper is, in order to try to maintain some degree of
suspense). She makes a hand-raising gesture to do this,
then her Helper floats down and hits you with a status
ailment of some sort. The Helper cannot be attacked.
The most important thing to remember is to NEVER
attack Eve when her Helper is on screen. Otherwise,
the Helper will Heal her, in increasingly high increments
(1000 points the first time, then 2000, then 3000,
and so on). It can be murderously hard to overcome
that kind of healing.
This is the easiest part of the fight, and your
strategy is to inflict as much damage as possible while
you have the chance. But be careful in your attacks -
if Eve's Helper starts Healing her, you undermine all
your efforts. So, there are a few safe times to attack.
Attack when Eve is beginning a teleport (if you have a
Handgun, you should be able to get some shots off before
she vanishes entirely). Attack after Eve has completed
her own action. Attack when the Helper has just left
the screen. If there's any uncertainty, hold back and
use the time to heal yourself with Medicines, shift
your armors to jump-start your PE, and recharge your
PE meter for the Liberates. Use Liberate as often as
you can (remember that time stops when you use a Parasite
Power, so you don't have to worry about the Helper
floating onto the screen during a Liberate attack).
Unload as much damage on Eve as you can during this part
of the fight, when she is least aggressive.
STAGE TWO: You'll know you've entered Stage Two when
Eve's Helper starts to do something new. Instead of
hitting you with a Status Ailment, sometimes she will
come down and super-charge Eve. This is a new kind of
attack for Eve - she will rear back and begin to glow
with energy, until she finally does a Power Charge at you
and knocks you down to 1 Health. There is no way to avoid
this attack. However, you can use it to your advantage.
When the Helper super-charges Eve, don't bother
trying to shoot her until she does the Power Charge.
You'll only do 1 or 2 points of damage to her. While it's
no fun to be knocked down to 1 Health, this attack will
never kill you. You are guaranteed to survive the Power
Charge. Furthermore, Eve takes a few moments to recover
from the Power Charge, and she is vulnerable. You can
really open fire on her with impunity at this point, until
she regains her composure and starts to float around again.
An important tip: If you are on the opposite side of
the screen when Eve does the Power Charge, you are in
danger of getting hit with the incidental Touch attack
after it's done. This attack, which is normally negligible,
will kill you after the Power Charge, since you have a
mere 1 Health remaining. When Eve starts to juice up for
the Power Charge, get to the middle of the screen and take
it on the chin. Then open fire when she's vulnerable.
Your auto-medicine feature will heal you as long as
you have Medicines, but you are going to run out. This is
fine - you have plenty of Revives, and now you're going to
use them.
Furthermore, Eve's Attack Rush becomes much more
dangerous now, because she strikes at you twice. The second
attack does 500-700 damage or so, which means you probably
can't even survive if you're at full Health, unless you still
have Medicines.
Eve will settle into a pretty consistent attack
pattern, from which she rarely varies. First, she'll have
her Helper super-charge her, and perform the Power Charge
attack. Then, she'll have her Helper come down and hit
you with a status attack. After that, she teleports away,
then returns and performs the Attack Rush. And she repeats
the pattern.
You need to settle into a counterattack pattern
to match Eve's attack. First, you let the Power Charge
hit you (if you run around and dodge, sometimes it seems
to take her longer to orient on you, so it is a good idea
to keep on the move and give your PE meter time to recharge).
Then, you open fire after you've been reduced to 1 Health
and inflict as much damage as you can before Eve recovers.
You endure the status attack from the Helper (your Armor
will frequently negate these attacks, and you should have
some Full Cures - even if you're affected, it usually
doesn't matter). When Eve teleports away and comes back
for her Attack Rush, you have a couple of options. If
your PE meter is full, unload on her with Liberate. If
your PE meter is not full, you can use either Energy Shot
to inflict strong damage (you won't have much time to fire
conventionally, but since the Parasite Powers stop time,
you can get the Energy Shot off before Eve hits you with
the Attack Rush), or use PreRaise on yourself to conserve
a Revive. I would only recommend the latter if you're
running low on Revives. Once you use your Parasite Energy
attack (whatever it is), Eve will hit with the Attack Rush
and kill you. Your Revive will kick in, and you'll come
back ready for more.
STAGE THREE: Eve picks up the pace of her attacks here.
She gains three attacks in her Attack Rush, and there really
is no way to survive. She also begins to do the Power
Charge without having to summon her Helper to power her
up. However, she still gives you ample warning by charging up.
Your strategy does not change. You get knocked down,
but you get up again ("Never gonna keep me down!"). You make
use of all those Revives that you stored up, and you hit
her with the Liberate (when you can) and the Energy Shot
(when you aren't at full PE). Note that if you're not at
full PE but the meter is high, if you're worried about
running out of Revives, you can use the multiple action
feature on your gun to cast PreRaise and then Energy Shot
before Eve hits you with the Attack Rush. The Energy Shot
won't do as much damage, but this strategy will prolong
your ability to fight.
And eventually, you'll wear her down. She's tough
as a dump-truck full of nails, but you will eventually
prevail.
Congratulations! Check out the true ending to the game, and bask
in the knowledge that you have saved the human race! And then,
wait for Squaresoft to put out its next game to devour all your
free time!