User:Sorceror Nobody/DaysGuide/Section II

Welcome back, loyal minions. I am your leader, Sorceror Nobody, and you will obey my every instruction. Within reason, anyway. I mean, why else would you be reading my guide if not for the, you know, guidance? Surely you're not just reading it for kicks...?



Welcome to Section II! Forget the preamble, let's just dive straight into the action...

Day 15: ~Missions~
The second week of the game, which is the third week of Roxas's time in the Organization, is the first week where you are offered multiple missions. Is all of this multiple numbering of the week making you feel a bit weak? Haha, okay, enough messing about.

So, this week, which is simultaneously the first, second and third week depending on what you measure it by, is the first really proper week of the game. Heh, sorry, couldn't resist. The Grey Area's residents today are quite generous: Marluxia gives you an Ether, Zexion gives you a Panacea, Luxord gives you sage advice, Larxene gives you cryptic remarks, Xion gives you the silent treatment and Saïx gives you a bunch of new missions. Oh, no... a tutorial looms...

Now that's out of the way, let me start by telling you how I'll do this. I'll cover each of the missions in numerical order, but you don't have to do them in that order. Indeed, I myself invariably do the mandatory missions last. Don't forget, although the current missions aren't available through the Holo-Missions even after completion – you have to wait until the next week for that – you can still do previous missions. Mission 07 in particular is ripe for a bit of levelling up if you find that you struggle with this week's missions.

Mission 08: Eliminate the Watchers Kingdom Key KH.png
Once again, Roxas is paired up with Larxene. Fortunately, her bitchiness is much less overt this time around, because she doesn't actually talk at all. You should be aware that Watchers aren't much more threatening than Scarlet Tangos, and you fight a few of them individually as well, so this isn't too much of a dangerous mission. As you head towards Station Heights, you'll get the chance to beat up some Shadows and the first Watcher. A bunch of Dire Plants impede your progress downhill, followed by the next two Watchers just before you reach the Sandlot. When you enter the Sandlot itself... AAAAARRGGH! Four Watchers at once! No, but it's not that bad. A well-aimed Fire spell will severely weaken a Watcher, if not kill it outright. Once you've topped them all, there's naught else to do (you still can't get Ordeal Badges), so just RTC. Okay, I lied slightly; a few more Shadows and Dire Plants crop up on the return trip, but it's nothing significant. You're treated to a shot of Axel and Roxas having ice cream, then the day ends.

If you've completed all of the mandatory missions, you can "Advance" the story from Saïx's mission roster, but it's much better practise (and more rewarding) to complete the other missions that are available too, after which the game will advance anyway.

Mission 09: Collect hearts
Today sees you teamed up once again with the flower-child. Nah, I've gotta give the guy some credit... he's a pretty powerful guy really. Just a shame he's got pink hair... anyway, this is the first mission where I'll advise against striving for mission complete, for reasons I'll disclose later. You should take all of your Fire panels, and definitely the Block panel too.

Starting from the junkyard, you may want to focus on gathering the treasure chests first, before you get distracted. In fact, if you want to get them all now, you may have to gather about half of them, withdraw, and start again – your backpack isn't big enough for seven treasures plus a load of enemy drops yet. Either way, your goal lies at the gates of the Old Mansion, so head into the woods and make your way there. After hordes of Shadows, you finally find your targets are... a horde of Dire Plants! You can use Fire to wipe them out, block their seed shots to reflect them back and destroy them, or just put your faith in the stalwart strikes of your trusty Keyblade. Either way, once you clear the lot, it's mission cleared – feel free to RTC. If you want to know how to go about completing this mission despite my warnings, read on at your peril...

I hope you have plenty of Potions both equipped and in your backpack. Attempting to do this at this point in the game is debatable, as it's either suicidal, slow or both. You're now seeking the Zip Slasher, which will now be lurking in the tram yard. Its HP is tremendous for an enemy at this stage, and it has a fairly lethal attack. To begin with, you should stand back while Marluxia hacks away at it, and observe its behaviour. When you see it preparing its spin attack, move far away OR face it directly and BLOCK. Not only does this attack hurt if it hits, but it drains HP, thus healing your enemy in the process! Be sure to hold the Y button, otherwise you'll stop blocking just in time for the secondary hit. Now's the time to run in and land a combo or two... ideally, keep hitting it until it blocks your hit, them retreat again because it pretty much always follows the block up with a spin attack. Rushing in is suicidal, but without rushing it's painfully slow. A general rule of thumb is if you aren't absolutely certain it won't attack for a couple of seconds – which is usually right after it just has attacked, naturally – don't risk it! If your HP gets into Limit territory, you may want to snap one off at the Heartless – still considering the timing: don't be reckless! – before retreating and immediately healing. If you win this at this early stage, you've truly earned the large exp bonus it coughs up! The point I'm making is, this is an easy fight because you get set into the block-combo-block-spin-block-etc. pattern, but you only have to slip up briefly to fail. Good luck!

Mission 10: Prove your endurance
This is simple enough. Survive for one minute against an infinite army of Dusks. You can use jumping, Block and Dodge Roll to protect yourself, or put "the best defence is a good offence" strategy into practise. Either way, you need only survive by any means necessary. Killing the Dusks is appealing because (a) it momentarily reduces the number you're facing, until the fallen are replaced and (b) you get items, Munny and exp. This means that even if you fail, you'll benefit, whereas if you just play the defensive game, you'll have nothing to show for it if you lose. Your Limit is invaluable, and you'll probably get a chance to use it, but don't get cocky. Like the Zip Slasher, this can sometimes be relatively hard at this early stage. Nonetheless, persevere! Don't give into this snotty little game card! FIGHT THE SYSTEM! MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAA! ...sorry, I got a bit carried away there. Seriously, though, you will want to get that additional Fire panel as early as possible, so it's worth the effort to do this now.

When you advance, either manually or by completing all three missions, Axel and Roxas have a chat on the clock tower. What do they talk about? Girls? No. Axel's outrageous drunken behaviour at last night's party? Er...no. How the hell did you find out about that anyway? That party was invitation only... I bet Zexion posted photos on FaceLexicon, didn't he? Anyway, the topic is dull but admittedly appropriate: "How goes your first proper week of work?" Don't worry, these scenes will get more interesting later on...

Day 22: ~Left Behind~
Teamed up with Axel again? Cool. There are no freebies from the Grey Area's residents today, so unless you want to go back and clear out the past missions to the fullest possible at this point, your only real option is to talk to Saïx.

Mission 11: Eliminate the Guardian Kingdom Key KH.png
Today's starting point is Station Plaza. Head towards the underground tunnels, dispatching the Yellow Operas and Minute Bombs. Be careful with the latter, as if you parry their headbutt they light up and, shortly afterwards, explode. You can also detonate them immediately with Fire, but stand well back first! Enter the underground tunnels to find yourself right where the chest was in the very first training mission. Follow the linear path, disposing of more Minute Bombs, until you reach the room with the square pillar. Here you'll have to deal with a Watcher, but that shouldn't be a problem. You can now proceed straight across the room, then downhill in the corridor beyond, where you'll meet more Heartless and a chest, but you ultimately have to return to the pillar room and flip the glowing switch to open the adjacent gate. In the tiered room – you need to get used to these room "names", because I'm using them from now on – are a bunch of crates, a bunch more Heartless, and the last chest in the mission. Now go to the northwest corner of this room and flip the switch there, then go through the opened gate and uphill. You can now reach the switch in the northwest corner of the Underground Passage, so take out the Heartless lurking by it and then flip it to proceed. I'm not sure what the point of the ensuing cutscene is... of course it's "up here"; there's nowhere else we can go! Head out into the Side Street and down to the Sandlot, destroying yet more crates and Heartless en route. How tiresome. Bear in mind that once you enter the Sandlot, there's no going back, so if you've missed any chests, now's the time to get them. To be fair, it hardly matters, as we'll have to return later for the Ordeal Badge and Blazon, but... well, it's up to you. In fact, come to think of it, if you've missed any chests, you're not making good use of my guide, are you? I really don't know why I bother... heh, I'm not serious, don't worry.

In the Sandlot, we find that our target is just an overgrown Watcher. It's quite pathetic really... it's attack options are more limited and slightly easier to dodge than a Watcher's! Take out the surrounding Watcher minions then focus on the Guardian. Since you don't have Thunder magic yet, you can't prevent its super laser, but it's not that hard to dodge, and once the Watchers are gone it's even easier. Even in the worst case scenario, you can just stand well back and let Axel finish it off, but that takes quite a while if you haven't already heavily damaged it. Either way, once it falls you've completed the mission.

The after-mission ice cream session has Axel reveal that he's going away. Where to? Why, Castle Oblivion of course! This sets the scene for Chain of Memories. Incidentally, this means that the period between Kairi's rescue in the first game and Sora's arrival at C.O. is more than 22 days? Huh, it didn't seem that long when I played them... Anyway, no sooner does Axel depart to make his preparations than Roxas finds that his ice cream stick says "WINNER" with an inexplicable occurrence of the Crown Emblem. Seriously, why would the ice cream sticks in Twilight Town have a symbol associated with the Keybearer? I suppose it's probably just that whole "all worlds are connected" thing... or a poorly-considered decision! :P

Day 23: ~Silent Companion~
The day begins with Axel leaving for C.O. and Saïx giving him a message from Lord Mansex. Because he's an avid fan of the series, Mansex has played all of the games umpteen times, and thus knows full well what Marluxia sorry, spoilers someone is planning. Incidentally, he also knows the ending to KHII, but refuses to believe that his defeat at the hands of Sora and Riku can be true. He merely assumes that he must have been high on pot when he played that bit, or something... AHEM! Moving on... Ever the shrewd kind of guy, Axel suspects that Saïx may have a personal agenda alongside Mansex's instructions...

Meanwhile, Roxas rushes into the Grey Area, ready to declare his undying love for Axel... No! Bad yaoi færies! Stay away! Sorry, I'll start again. Roxas rushes into the Grey Area to bid Axel a perfectly ordinary and heterosexual farewell, only to find he's already gone. Roxas is disappointed, because he wanted to ask Axel what he's won with the "WINNER" stick. This is followed by – gah! – a tutorial, this time on Link Panels. Still, this is important, so you should pay attention. Once you're free to move, talk to Demyx for a freebie Blazing Shard, check the Holo-Missions if you want, organise your panels, and prepare to venture out on today's mission.

Take the advice of the mission intel: bring Block and a lot of Fires. Make good use of your new Doublecast panel to rack up the available casts of that hot little number Lol, innuendo. If you did mission 10, you should now have 5 Fire panels, meaning that you can get up to 8 casts using Doublecast. If you picked up the Loaded Gear from a chest in the last mission, it's great because although its strength is nothing to write home about, it boosts your magic nicely, which is perfect for this mission. I recommend filling all remaining slots with Potions. If you need more slots, I'd suggest that you remove either Scan OR a Level Up OR a Fire.

Mission 12: Eliminate the Poison Plant Kingdom Key KH.png
Roxas, as the senior member over Xion, is in charge. You begin today's mission in the Sandlot, and you have – ohmigosh – a dilemma! You can go to Station Heights (northwest exit) or the Side Street (southwest). There are some Minute Bombs lurking at the Station Heights map exit, and some more of the same (but with added Dire Plant) at the Side Street mape exit. You have no excuse not to eliminate the lot. Now, for the most efficient path in this mission, go to Station Heights first. No sooner do you enter Station Heights than you're attacked by more Minute Bombs and a Dire Plant. Don't waste any Fires, just eliminate the Minute Bombs with attacks (or block their headbutt and let them blow themselves up) and deflect the Dire Plant's seed shots back at it to kill it. As you ascend towards Station Plaza, there are two more Minute Bombs and a trio of Dire Plants. Same rules apply.

Did I tell you this was the most efficient route? Well... I lied. Outrageously so. There's nothing else up here, so this detour was an exercise in nothing more than Heartless-slaying. But it doesn't hurt to get the exp, Munny, items and Heart Points, right? Right? Oh, whatever, just go from Station Heights to the Side Street and comb the length of the latter for more stray Heartless, then descend into the Underground Passage, whereupon you'll notice a rock with "Y2" written on it, and you'll hear a hollow voice say "plugh". Whoops, sorry, wrong game. Underground, follow the corner to the right and eliminate some more Minute Bombs. In fact, from now on, the instruction "kill some Heartless" should be assumed almost constantly. Proceed through the pillar room towards where the chest was in mission 01, where there's another one now, then backtrack and enter the tiered room, where the mission's other chest lurks. After this, make your way to the south of the area, where you can for the first time access the Tunnel, where your target lies in wait. There's nothing in the descending path which would lead to Sunset Terrace if you could go there in this game, so you should focus on the Poison Plant. Like Dire Plants, its seed shot can cause Blind. Unlike Dire Plants, its seed shot is unblockable! Instead, dodge it, and strike back with Fire. When it rears its head back, it's about to start a headbanging attack on the floor, so keep back. You can't target it until it stops this attack, so don't waste Fires during this time. Ultimately, the biggest hazard is the seed shot, and magic is unaffected by Blindness, so this isn't too bad. Even if you have to take shelter in the tunnel to heal or, if it gets that severe, to survive – DON'T return to the Underground Passage, or the Poison Plant will regain all of its HP! – Xion can probably finish it off. It shouldn't take more than four or five Fires to kill it, though, so I doubt you'll have to rely on her pathetically intermittent excuse for a spellcasting assault. Once you're done, simply make your way back to the Sandlot and RTC. You'll be waylaid by a series of seven Dire Plants (twelve if you scour Station Heights again as well) but that's not a problem, right? There are three more clustered around the dark corridor, but you can completely ignore them and just RTC if you're in a hurry to finish the mission, because dark corridors are just about the only thing that you can "Examine" even when there are Heartless nearby. After the mission, Roxas tells Xion to go ahead and RTC while he fruitlessly waits for Axel on the clock tower.

Day 24: ~Silence Broken~
Roxas arrives in the Grey Area to find Xigbar and Demyx discussing their absent coworkers. A bit of not-so-witty banter ensues, after which Saïx arrives, tells Roxas off for slacking, and (insult to injury) brings a tutorial in his wake. Xigbar, Luxord and Demyx merely remark upon the C.O. team members, and Xion remains silent. As with yesterday, you have only one mission.

Mission 13: Eliminate the Deserters Kingdom Key KH.png
Ah, yes. I always find the "Eliminate the Deserters" missions kinda fun. You begin in the Side Street, and your targets are in the Sandlot. First, however, you should head uphill in the direction of Station Heights. Although it's a dead end, you'll find the game's second Bulky Vendor lurking there. When you're ready to actually tackle the mission objective, head to the Sandlot.

The thing with Deserters is that although it can be an absolute pain in the arse to hit one – try aiming in the right general direction and use Fire, as it homes in on the target – once you kill one, they all generously gang together to try and retaliate. After having a go at you, they all resume their merry prancings. The useful thing is that when you kill one, if you jump just as the others attack, you'll avoid most of them. I say "most" because you want to take enough hits to enable Roxas's Limit. Immediately trigger it, and you'll take out several Deserters very quickly if you act soon enough that they're all still clustered around you. Brilliant, eh? Once all of them are gone, the mission ends automatically. Roxas once again plans to go futilely to the clock tower, but he's stopped short as Xion speaks her first word... and no, it's not "mummy" or "dada"! Having ascertained that Roxas's name is indeed Roxas, she RTCs, leaving Roxas to reminisce on his naming before his trip on acid to the clock tower.

Day 25: ~Two Keys~
Hmmm... I wonder what today's title is an omen of... Do you suppose it could it be the dark and closely-guarded secrets that are Xion's gender and Keybearer-ness? Er... nope, because they're both revealed blatantly in the instruction booklet. Way to pull off "The Reveal", Squendis! If you can't fathom that weird word, look it up in the Glossary.

Anyway, as Roxas arrives in the Grey Area at the beginning of this fine day, Xion seems to struggle for a moment before she says "Good morning" to him. This cosy little scene is almost immediately interrupted by old X-face, who wants to send you off to deal with a Bigass Heartless™. A tutorial on Unit Panels ensues, after which you should talk to Xaldin for a free Moonstone. When you talk to Saïx, he informs you that you are finally to be rewarded with extra Panel Slots... but not until after the mission! Fat lot of good that is, eh? We're going to take on a Bigass Heartless™, and we get something we can use to better prepare ourselves afterwards!? Pfft, he has no logistical sense at all. After the predictable tutorial on Panel Slots, the mission menu opens, and you can set off. Just check your panels first, though. You really want to obey the intel and equip Block if you removed it previously.

Basically, from now on, every single mission rewards you with a Slot Releaser when completed. They are listed under your "Obtained Items" instead of the "Clear Rewards" after a mission, which I suspect is to prevent complications with the bonus gauge multiplying your Clear Rewards. You have 15 slots to begin with, you unlock an additional 80 by clearing all of the missions, a couple are found in treasure chests, and the remaining few are obtained from the Moogle Shop, as you'll see later.

Mission 14: Eliminate the Darkside Kingdom Key KH.png
Once again, we begin in the Side Street. The target is lurking in Station Plaza, but before you can set out, Xion lowers her hood. Yes, she's female, and looks just like Kairi but with black hair. Hah! That should keep you guessing, foolish players! I don't know why Roxas and Axel seem so surprised when they discover that Xion's a girl. After all, unlike us (we haven't heard her VA yet) they'll have heard her voice, which is quite clearly female. Anyway, it's about time we discussed the mission, yes? As you proceed uphill, you'll run into the usual common-or-garden Heartless. No worries. In Station Heights, there's a chest downhill, but your goal lies at the summit. Enter Station Plaza and proceed towards the far end, whereupon the Darkside appears behind you.

Your immediate priority is to open the chest lurking in the northeast corner of Station Plaza, as this is another auto-RTC mission. That done, start attacking your mark. The Darkside has a lot of easily countered attack patterns, so there's no real danger as long as you react accordingly to the cues it gives you. The following table has all the information you could possibly need to take down the Bigass Heartless™: After the dark orb rain, the Darkside repeats the cycle from the beginning. You can generally ignore the Shadows summoned in the first attack, as you'll spend so much time either running around or in the air next to the Darkside's hands and head that they have little chance to attack you, and they're not much of a threat even if they do manage to hit you. Hits landed on the Darkside's head do more damage than those landed on the hands, and aiming Fire magic at the head is a useful strategy.

After you defeat the Bigass Heartless™, it lashes out at Roxas and his Keyblade is sent spinning away. Xion picks it up and finishes off the Darkside, apparently as surprised as Roxas that she can use it. Roxas congratulates her, saying she deserves something extra. No, not like that, you perverts! He takes her up to the top of the clock tower and gives her an ice cream, obviously. Xion asks him how he found such an awesome hangout, and he eventually replies that "Axel took [him] here" on Day 1. This phrasing is extremely poor grammar (it should, of course, be "brought" instead of "took"). Either that, or it's extremely suggestive of sexual activity... Dammit, yaoi færies! Go away! Seriously bad choice of wording there, Squendis! Xion remarks upon Roxas and Axel's friendship, and asks if she can be their friend too. Roxas says he'll ask Axel when the latter returns from C.O.

That, dear readers, concludes Section II. Tune in next time for Section III!