Hello, everyone! This is my very first FAQ, so I am terribly sorry if it’s not that good. However, as of today, it seems like I am the only person I know of to have played and beaten Vixen 357! This is a truly excellent, underappreciated strategy game for the Genesis, so I am of the opinion it should get more love. My dear friend Armordragon suggested I write a FAQ, so in an effort to give the game some more attention, I have decided to take him up on that offer it as I play through it again! Please send all suggestions to my email address, bio_armor2026@yahoo.com This is just a rough draft, so I apologize for any errors, but I do hope you find it at least a little useful!
First off, the legal stuff:
This FAQ is the property of Gunlord, copyright 2007. Only these sites have permission to host it:
www.Gamefaqs.com
www.freewebs.com
Ask for permission to use this guide anywhere else, and I will probably give it, so please, do ask before using it!
Vixen 357 is copyright 1991 to NCS Masaya (the same people who made the Langrisser series!)
Secondly, I am afraid I must offer a warning and an apology before you begin reading. You see, I don’t understand Japanese and haven’t read the instruction manual for this game (at least, not in a language I can understand). Thus, many of the details I attempt to illuminate are based entirely on my own experiences playing the game—I just translated many of the names from my knowledge of katakana, made up names for those given in hiragana, and made up titles for stats and options in Hiragana which I wasn’t sure of, but had a good idea of what their purpose was from playing the game. Thus, I apologize in advance for any inaccuracies to be found within this guide, and if you do find any, please email me so I may correct them!
Anyways, now that that’s out of the way, on to the guide! Due to the way this guide is written, I will introduce each element of the game as it appears, although in future revisions I may split it up into separate sections.
[000A]: Introduction
What is Vixen 357? This is a turn-based, panel-based Strategy RPG made by the same people who made the famous strategy game, Langrisser. It is entirely in Japanese, and no translation exists that I know of. In terms of gameplay, it is fairly similar to Langrisser, or SRPGs like Fire Emblem, except in a science fiction setting rather than fantasy and with giant robots (called Vectors) and beam weapons rather than swords and sorcery. There are also a few differences in gameplay I will describe later. If you liked games such as Front Mission or Super Robot Wars, you will enjoy this game! It seems to have a fairly good plot, but lamentably, I do not speak Japanese aside from a limited understanding of katakana and thus am of little use. All I can give you is a basic outline of the plot (provided kindly by Mobygames) and the names of the characters, as they are given in English during the intro sequence.
[000B]: Plot (as taken from http://www.mobygames.com/game/genesis/vixen-357):
In 2384 AD, a great interstellar war took place. The Earth emerged victorious, thanks to a secretly developed robot weapon called "Serd". After the war, the usage of Serds was not a secret any more, and various nations started using them for military purposes. Several years, a more powerful weapon named Vector was developed. The usage of such highly destructive weapons led to wars between the nations of the world. You control Takuya Murasawa and his comrades, member of a special military force called Slash. Everything begins with an attack of unidentified Vectors on their base...
[000C]: Characters
Once you start the game, you will be treated to a very nicely-done animation sequence introducing you to all of the characters you will have the opportunity to play as, with two exceptions. Here they are, in order of appearance in said cinematic:
1: Takuya Murasawa—He is the main character—if he dies in any mission, it’s game over!
2: Nina Laurel – She is the second person you see, along with the third, Chay Won.
3: Chay Won – She is the girl in the car with Nina.
4: Mack Ryan – This character is introduced as an expert sharpshooter, and as you can expect, Mack Ryan proves to be better with ranged weapons than almost everyone else under your command.
5: Reiko Machida – She is introduced pointing at a holographic mission briefing display of a sphere grid with a glowing ball at the center.
6: Harry Gibson – A hard-featured, older man with a chiseled, lined face, he has long, shoulder-length light brown hair and is shown lighting and smoking a cigarette with great satisfaction.
7: Eddie Ray – A large, muscular blonde-haired man with a wide, broad face who is shown catching a football helmet with a star on it. He looks very strong. He turns out to be the best melee fighter of all of your pilots.
Characters Not Shown:
Ben Bask (Be—N BaSuKu) – An elderly, white-haired man with the white suit and cap of a Naval commander. He cannot pilot any of your Vectors, he can only command his great airship. If the airship is destroyed and he goes down with it, it’s game over.
The Turncoat – There’s one more character who can and will join you, but the circumstances of his recruitment are quite a surprise! I’ll tell you about him later on in the walkthrough.
Anyways, that’s it for the intro. Now that you’re at the title screen, press start and let the game begin!
[000D]: Beginning the Game
Now that you’ve pressed start, you have 2 options: ‘Beginning’ and ‘Continue.’ Press down and then A to select Continue. You’ll be brought to a new prompt which says “Continue: No Data” and below that, 4 numbered files which also have no data in them. Please see this picture: if you’re still confused. This, obviously, is the load game screen, where you can load a previously saved game from the chapter you left off on, or continue a battle already in progress (that is what the ‘Continue: No Data’ thing was referring to). Since we haven’t started a game yet, all of these are currently empty…but hopefully, will open up soon! Now, press the B button to go back to the first prompt, then select ‘Beginning’ with the A button. As you can tell by now, the directional buttons help you select options, the A button confirms, and the B button cancels. Now, you’ve started a new game! Sit back and watch the intro as well as the game’s backstory—if you can’t read Japanese, my good friend Silverspoon was kind enough to translate it for me, which you can see here: http://gunlord.livejournal.com/629990.html
After this, stage 1 begins! We see a shot of all the members of the hero’s elite mech team behind a brief description of the stage. Press start to get started!
[001]: Scene One
First off, a note of caution: Much like in Fire Emblem, if one of your characters dies, they (and their mech) are gone forever! So, you should always reset if you lose one of your allies, even if it’s not a game over, because things will get very, very difficult later on if you don’t have a full complement of soldiers.
After a brief conversation with a young woman at a base (which you can skip over quickly by pressing the B button repeatedly), you’ll be ready to start playing! First off, let’s quickly look over the stage. The first thing you’ll see is 3 brownish mechs with the number 10 and the letters A (in green) and M (in maroon) over them. Let me take a moment to explain what this means. All units that are either brown or blue are your allies. The ones with A and M over them are the ones you can directly control. The number 10 indicates that the unit has 100% of its HP remaining—if it goes down to 9, it’s at 90%, at 6, 60%, at one, 10% and it’s almost dead, etc. Now, move your cursor over one of your friendly mechs and look at the bottom of the screen. You’ll see three things. At the very left is a picture of the mech’s head—it’s ‘portrait’ so to speak. At the center are its most important stats and the name of its pilot. You’ll see its HP (when this goes to 0, the mech is destroyed along with its pilot, obviously) and the level of the pilot at the top, with a blue bar representing the pilot’s experience next to that (it should be empty at this point). Below, you’ll see the Vector’s name followed by the name of its pilot (all in Japanese, unfortunately, but I can provide you with passable translations, fortunately). At the very left you’ll see a little box with a picture of the sort of land the mech is currently on as well as a percentage below it, but I’ll explain that in the next paragraph.
Now, all of your units can both attack and move once each turn (though not necessarily in that order!) Move the cursor (the square-sherped crosshair thing) over to one of your 3 units and press the C Button. Yes, the C button…I have no idea why they chose to use that rather than the A button, but what can you do, huh? The A button instead cycles through all of your units, of which there are only 3 at the moment. Once you’ve selected one, you’ll see 3 options, all in Japanese. The topmost option is MOVE. Press the C or A button to select it. The screen will darken except for a small area which remains lighted, and a pair of metal boots will appear. Your mech can move anywhere on the lighted field.
Now, a few notes concerning terrain. As you’ll notice, the lighted part of the screen (your movement range) extends well into the grass and on the road, but cuts off abruptly in the mountains. This is because your mechs cannot move as well through certain types of terrain as they can through others. They move best on roads, and grasslands, are somewhat impaired in forests and cities/buildings/urban areas, move poorly in mountains and shallow water, and can barely move at all in deep water.
This does not hold true for all your Vectors, however. Later on in the game, you will get an aquatic Vector that moves (and performs!) extremely well in water, and you will also get flying airships can simply cruise over any difficult terrain and thus are able to move up to their maximum range each turn. But, we shall get to that later.
Anyways, while you’re still on the move screen, take a look at the very bottom of the screen. You’ll see a blank window at the left corner, a long window in the center (telling you that you’re on turn 1 of Scene 1) and finally, a little picture of the land in the right corner. Whatever panel the movement cursor (the metal boots) is on, its terrain type will show up in that little picture in the bottom right corner. A mountain will show up if you’re thinking of moving to a mountain, a tree if you’re moving to a forest, etc. etc. etc. Now, below that, you’ll see a number with a little percent sign next to it. I’m not quite sure what this means, but I believe it affects combat capability—the chance to evade attacks, specifically. Positive numbers increase your evasive ability, and negative numbers decrease it. Move your boots over a green square, and you’ll see 10%, indicating a boost of 10 percent to your evade. Move them over a road, and you’ll see 0%, meaning no boost. Move them over a mountain, and you’ll see 30%, which means that keeping your guys in mountains helps them dodge attacks better. Now, not all terrain has these positive effects—move your boots waaaay to the left, well into the dark area outside your move range, and you should come to a river with flowing blue water. Keep your boots over it, and you’ll see that -20% appears below the terrain window, indicating that combat capability is REDUCED for that unit if it is placed in water. Like I said, though, you’ll get machines later on that are different—aerial units are unaffected by terrain (positively or negatively) and the aquatic Vector gets +20% in water.
Now, you can press A or C to move to the selected panel your little metal boots are on (so long as it’s within the lighted field) but for now, let’s forget about that and explore the other options. Press B to go back to the previous menu. Now, go one down and select the second option with either C or A (as usual). This means “Attack.” Two new options will pop up. Select the first one, and the screen will darken while still leaving lighted panels, similar to the move option. However, rather than a pair of boots, a beam rifle serves as the cursor here. This is for your ranged attacks—you can attack any enemy unit that shows up in the lighted areas, just move the little gun over them and press A or C. Notice that friendly units are darkened (you can’t attack your allies in this game) as well as a small area directly surrounding your mech, due to the fact that the ranged weapons you currently have equipped cannot be used in close combat—they have a ‘minimum range.’ Some ranged weapons don’t have this, however, and can be used close up, but we’ll get to them later. Anyways, press B and go back to the previous menu, now select the second option. You’ll see the exact same screen pop up, with a beam rifle cursor and everything, but this time, the range of lighted squares you can attack in should look somewhat different. This is because you’ve selected your machine’s close combat attack. Obviously, it has much less range than your long-range attack (in the case of two of your units, it’s just one square, but in the case of your leading mech, it’s exactly the same) but it’s made for melee battles, making it useful for when your enemy’s managed to get up close and personal with you.
Please see these pictures if you’re still confused—they ought to explain everything:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Gunlord/Explanationofbasiccommandsscreen.jpg – explanation of the basic screen
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Gunlord/MovementScreen.jpg – Movement Screen
Now, cancel this and go back to the very first menu, and select the third, bottommost option. This is the status screen, and requires a healthy bit of explaining! A picture’s worth a thousand words (in this case quite literally!) so please see this image for some clarification: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Gunlord/Statusscreenexplanation.png
Let me explain all of this.
‘Close-ranged combat skill’ is how good the pilot is in close combat. As you can see, Takuya here has 4 points in HR and 3 points in ER. HR is hit rate (his chance of hitting an enemy in close combat) and ER is evade rate (his chance of evading an enemy’s attacks). The HR and ER below that are for ranged weapons, and work exactly the same. The number below that is the mech’s movement range, which in this case is 8.
The big window to the right is for the Vector’s special abilities, if it has any, which this one doesn’t.
The big window to the left is the weapons loadout for the mech. The right column is for ranged weaponry and the left column is for melee weaponry. The names of both weapons are given, as is their attack power, the maximum number of shots they will launch in each attack (the Laser Saber will slash a maximum of 3 times whereas the Vulcan shoots 8 bullets), their range, and their ammo—when this runs out, the weapon can no longer attack! In this case, the Nelson can attack with its laser saber a maximum of 30 times while it can shoot its Vulcan a maximum of 20 times. This sounds kind of small, but don’t worry, by the 3rd stage you’ll be able to replenish your ammunition. Finally, the numbers at the bottom indicate the total combat capabilities of the mech. AP is its total attack power, which is the weapon’s attack power modified by the strength of the Vector itself. DP is the Vector’s defense against attacks, and can be different against ranged and melee attacks—some vectors are almost invulnerable to close-combat strikes while others perform well against projectile attacks. HR and ER are the total Hit Rate and Evade Rate, modified by the pilot’s skill and the mech’s targeting and evasive abilities.
Now that I’ve explained the status screen, there’s one more thing to explain—the options menu! Exit from the unit menu and just press start. A list of options will be brought up. Look at these picture for English explanations:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Gunlord/Options.png – the options screen.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Gunlord/Conditions.png – The Conditions screen.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Gunlord/Configuration.png – the Configuration screen.
I don’t know much about the configuration screen, only that you can turn the battle animations on and off. I don’t know what the other two options do D:
Now that you know what to look at, I’ll introduce you to your units! Of the 3 mechs you see, 2 look exactly alike while the 3rd looks a little different. That third mech, whose portrait looks kind of like a Patlabor mech with a sharp chest, is named the “Nelson” and is piloted by our hero, Takuya Murasawa. He is a relatively skilled pilot, only lv.1 but with 4 levels of Hit Rate and 3 levels of Evade in both Melee and Ranged combat. The Nelson is the best Vector available to you at the moment, with 1300 HP, 45 defense points at both long and short range, and armed with a Laser Saber with 30 ammo that can attack a maximum of 3 times, and a Vulcan with 20 ammo that fires 8 bullets with every attack, giving it a total of 126 AP at close range and 59 AP at short range, both of which consist of 1 to 3 panels. It can also move 8 panels per turn, and has no special abilities. For now, you’re best off using it in close combat, since the laser saber is so much more powerful than the Vulcan.
The other two men in your army both pilot Swifts). These machines, which look like brown GMs from Gundam with shoulder cannons, are significantly outclassed by the Nelson, but are still much better than anything your allies and your enemies have in this stage. They have only 1150 HP each and are both absolutely terrible at close-range combat, equipped with nothing but a Punch with a range of 1 and total attack of 36 (virtually negligible), and a close-range Defense of 30. However, they make up for it with their superior ranged capabilities—they are equipped with a nice Beam Rifle) that has a range of 3 to 6 panels, a total attack power of 109, fires three shots with each attack, and has 20 attacks worth of ammo in its cartridge. They can both move 6 panels per turn, and have no special abilities.
They are piloted by Harry Gibson, the older-looking, brown-haired fellow, who starts off just as good as Takuya, but at lv.3 with 4 levels of CHR (Close-ranged Hit Rate), 3 CER (Close-ranged Evade Rate), 4 LHR (Long-ranged Hit Rate), and 3 LER (Long-Ranged Evade Rate), and Mack Ryan, the younger guy with blond slicked-back hair, who is lv.2 and has a pathetic 1 in both close-ranged combat abilities, but a very impressive 5 LHR and 4 LER, the best in your forces at the moment. Obviously, he’s made for long-range combat! However, due to the mechs they’re in and what they’re equipped with, both Harry and Mack should be your ranged attackers.
Now, let’s look over the rest of the map! Move your cursor around to get a good look at things. All the other mechs colored blue are your allies, the Vectors in red and green are the invading enemy. The big building colored blue is your base—don’t let it be destroyed, or it’s game over! Here are its statistics:
Weaponry: Nothing at close range, Scan Rockets at long range (REALLY unsure of this, the kana is SuKiaN RoKeuTo)—28 attack power, 3 shots, 5-10 range, 20 ammo, 88 total AP. No special abilities.
Defenses: 20 DP at short range, 20 DP at long range.
On your side are exactly 9 other blue mechs. These are Ilzards, they look kind of like blue Swifts, and they are the absolute worst mechs in the game. They have only 400 HP, 15 defense at close range, and 15 defense at long range. They are armed with a Punch that has 3 attacks and a total of 41 AP, and a Beam Rifle with a range of 3-6 and 3 attacks for a total of 79 AP—so yeah, they’re essentially much weaker versions of your Swifts. No special abilities. They are piloted by Pilots (I can’t read the hiragana, so that’s just the name I’ve guessed at) at lv.1 with 2 CHR(110), 1 CER(35), 2LHR(90) and 2 LER(35). They’re the friendly-looking guys in white helmets. They are led by a single Commander (again, just guessing his name) who pilots the exact same mech but has 3CHR(123), 2CER(42), 3LHR(103) and 3LER(42). He’s the guy with a cool white helmet with golden wings on it covering his eyes.
Now, let’s look at the forces your enemy has arrayed against you! They have deployed a total of 9 mechs—6 blue ones, 2 green ones, and one more green mech that is the boss of the scene. Let’s look them over:
Degler: Red, boxy-looking mechs with 800 HP (twice that of the Ilzards!)
Pilot: ‘Enemy Pilots (again, can’t read the hiragana, just made it up), they have nappy brown hair and headsets. Level 1, 1CHR, 1CER, 1LHR, 1LER.
Close-range capabilities: Hard Claw: 68 AP, 22DP, 135HR, 40ER, range 1-2, 3 hits max.
Long-range: Machinegun: range 1-4, 8 shots, 20 ammo, 56AP, 22DP, 95HR, 45ER.
Move: 6
Special: None
Name: Valser-V10: Green mech with head and yellow ‘eye,’ 850 HP. Boss of scene.
Pilot: Karry Gott, fat guy with poofy hair: Lv.3, 3/3 3/3 (almost as good as Harry and Takuya!)
Close-range: Punch: 34 AP, 20 DP, 134 HR, 54 ER, range 1-1.
Long-range: Machinegun: 8 shots, 1-4 range, 20 ammo, 66 AP, 25 DP, 134 HR, 67 ER
Move: 6
Special: None
Whew! Now that’s a mouthful. Let’s FINALLY begin this walkthrough! Now, Scene 1 is so pathetically easy that you probably won’t need a walkthrough, but here it is for the sake of completion. Okay, on Turn 1, your units start right above the base you’re supposed to defend, behind a small mountain range on the left side of the battlefield. Your 9 allies are in a staggered formation facing off against the enemy forces deployed on the right side of the battlefield, with a Y-sherped river between them. I would recommend moving your 3 mechs down the road to the base on the first turn, since the mountain range is thinnest in front of it and your guys can traverse it easily. There’s not much else you can do. End your turn.
Now, your allies will begin to attack. They will all move forward and shoot at the Deglers with their beam rifles. Each individual attack won’t inflict much damage, but there are nine of them and they can wear down your enemies a bit. When they choose a target, you’ll be treated to a brief, cool attack animation of the allied mech taking its shots. You’ll notice that the Deglers don’t do anything in retaliation. This is because ranged weapons cannot be countered. Even if one mech attacks another with a machinegun from melee range, the target will not retaliate. Only close combat attacks can be countered in this game.
Anyways, after your allies have moved (only 2 of them will manage to get in range to attack) it’s the enemy’s turn. Karry will have a conversation with his underlings and they will then attack. The Deglers will move forward and strike at the Ilzards with their Hard Claws, and unfortunately, they will do MUCH more damage—the Ilzards will usually manage to take about 12 percent of a Degler’s HP off, but the Deglers can easily take a 3rd of an Ilzard’s HP with a successful melee if they attack three times. Take careful note of the attack animations. The one Ilzard pilot that manages to get himself caught on an open plain in the first round will almost certainly be severely damaged (and probably destroyed) by the attacks of the first three Deglers—watch as they land 3 successful blows each round, taking off more than a third of the Ilzard’s HP. On the other hand, the Ilzard that finds itself in a forest will probably do a bit better—the Degler that attacks it will usually only land 2 blows in close combat. This is why I believe the percentage that appears below the terrain window indicates improvement in evasion.
Also note that the Degler’s Hard Claw has a range of 1-2 spaces, while the Ilzards can only weakly punch 1 space ahead of them. Thus, even in close combat, the Deglers can evade the Ilzard’s counterattack if they attack from 2 spaces away. Fortunately, they usually don’t choose to do so and attack as close as possible—the AI isn’t too bright. Not that it makes much difference, of course, since their punches do almost no damage. Also, note the disparity between the Degler’s close-ranged Hard Claw and its long-range Vulcan, which they will use if they’re 3 spaces away from an Ilzard and unable to attack with their claws. Most of the Vulcan’s shots will miss (it has a lower HR) and the bullets that do get it will do negligible damage.
Anyways, now for turn 2:
Continue moving your mechs to the thinnest part of the mountain. Keep Takuya in front—he has greater movement anyways, and you want him to get his laser saber in range as quickly as possible while keeping the long-range beam rifles of the Swifts safely behind him, where they won’t have to worry about close combat. There’s not much else you can do otherwise, so just end your turn.
The Ilzards will once again attack the Deglers, will little effect. On the enemy’s second turn, the Deglers will probably destroy yet another Ilzard, and if they don’t, one of the Valser-V8s will finish it off—their machineguns are even more powerful than the Hard Claws, and will decimate an Ilzard’s HP, taking off more than 80% of its HP if it’s unlucky.
By this point, watching the crappy Ilzards get thoroughly pwned by the enemy forces, you’re probably feeling a bit discouraged. Well, don’t take it too hard—for the rest of the game, any stalwart allies that you yourself don’t control will almost invariably end up as cannon fodder—all they’re good for, essentially, is stalling the enemy and keeping them occupied. Your unfortunate friends will probably be almost entirely annihilated by the time your team crosses the mountain and enters battle, but it’s no big deal.
Anyways, on turn 3, start crossing the mountain. At least one of your mechs should be able to get past it. End your turn. Now, if you’re lucky, the Ilzards might manage to destroy one of the Deglers and deal some damage to another. Lamentably, the enemy will likely pay them back and destroy another Ilzard or two. Once 4 Ilzards are lost, one of your friendly troops will say something to his commander, who contacts Takuya and the Slash team, and sad music will play. The Deglers will continue to attack, and once they’re done, the V8s will devastate another Ilzard or two.
On turn 4, move your mechs as far forward as possible, if you want to be a hero and at least try to save some of your allies (though I don’t think it makes any difference). The only units capable of attacking a Degler at this point will probably be a Swift, so after moving, have Mack or Harry (whoever’s closer) select Attack and see if a Degler’s in range. Now, note that whoever moved and attacked no longer has an A or M above their mech. You can only move once per turn and attack once per turn, and once you carry out the action, the corresponding letter will disappear, indicating you’ve used it up for that turn. You can move and attack again only on the next turn. This is probably all you can do for the turn, so end it. Depending on how they moved, an enemy may not be in range this turn, but if they’re not, don’t sweat it.The Ilzards will attack again, doing little damage, and the Deglers and Valsers will probably destroy most of them, with one or two remaining alive at this point. If the allied commander dies, you’ll see his bloody portrait as his mech explodes, and he’ll say something about Slash. At this point, the Ilzards will have managed to destroy a Degler and severely damage another if they’re lucky.
However, on turn 5, your units can finally enter the fray in earnest and avenge the deaths of your comrades! Move Takuya’s mech forward on dry land as much as you can, but be sure to keep him out of water. Attack with the Laser Saber if an enemy is in range—concentrate on a Valser if you can. If a heavily damaged Degler is in range, attack it with any unit of your choosing—you’ll see that Mack and Harry deal much more damage with their beam rifles than the Ilzards did, and Takuya’s laser saber can also devastate them, while evading their counterattacks if he attacks from 3 spaces away. This stage really isn’t as hard as the destruction of your allies would make it seem :) If you manage to destroy a Degler, Karry will talk with his underlings about something and mention Vectors. He’ll also open up communications with his commanding officer, Frannel Maus, whom you’ll meet in the next chapter. End your turn if there’s nothing else you can do, and your allies will continue to attack (if any of them are alive). It’s possible to do all this by Turn 4 if you’re lucky.
Now, the enemies will attack…and you’ll see why your mechs are many times better than the crappy Ilzards. The Deglers will attack Takuya with their Hard Claws multiple times, but will do very little damage, while he will retaliate with his Laser Saber and shave offanywhere from 40 to 70% of their HP if he’s lucky! The V8s will attack him with their machineguns and probably do a bit more damage, with the boss’ V10 doing the most. The Nelson should have a big 7 over it, though—70% of its HP remaining. For the next turn, I’d have Mack and Harry clean up the Deglers that Takuya probably nearly destroyed, and if you manage to kill all but one, Commander Karry will make an exclamation of dismay. Have Takuya attack a damaged V8. If any of your allies are still alive, they’ll help in the mopup, and when the last Degler is destroyed, you’ll see its bleeding pilot getting blown up.
As an aside, it’s possible to attack before moving, unlike in Fire Emblem or Langrisser. At the beginning of a turn, if you attack a mech closeby, only the A will disappear from the attacker—the M will still be there, meaning you can move to wherever you wish. This comes in very, very handy in later chapters.
Anyways, by this point, you should be doing well—most of the Deglers ought to be destroyed, leaving only the 2 V8s and the V10. Concentrate on destroying the Deglers, then the V8s. The chapter will actually end when you destroy the V10, but it’s advantageous to exterminate the enemy entirely—look at the blue bar next to your pilot’s level. See how it’s filling up? When it fills up entirely, they will “Level Up” and their stats will improve accordingly.
If any enemies are left alive at this point, they’ll probably attack the Nelson, which should have a good 60% of its HP remaining. Continue to attack your foes at your leisure, although you should concentrate on destroying the V8s, since they’re the most dangerous. After all the enemies have been destroyed, attack Karry’s Valser-V10. It shouldn’t be difficult at all to destroy, and once it does, you’ll see Karry’s surprised portrait as his mech explodes around him, and the stage will end in victory!
As an aside, the only way to lose this stage (which is nearly impossible) is if the Nelson is destroyed (taking Takuya along with it) or if the base with the operator girl is destroyed. If you followed this walkthrough, the enemies shouldn’t have gotten anywhere near the base, though. After destroying Karry and his Valser-V10, a herppy Takuya will chat with the operator and then receive a message from his commanding officer, an older man with slicked-back white hair, whose name is given in indecipherable hiragana I can’t read. You will then have an opportunity to save—move your cursor over the file you wish to save to, or choose the topmost option to not save at all. On to Scene 2!
[002]
Scene 2
In this map, Takuya and Harry start off at the far left, behind a mountain range, with Mack in front of them, well clear of it. There are no enemies on the map, but for some reason, Mack isn’t under your control, and he’s just doing his own thing. The most prominent feature of this map is the large castle in the center the lake in its middle, connected by a long road-bridge. For Turn 1, just move Harry and Takuya as far to the right as you can, with an eye to getting them to that castle (and following Mack) ASAP. End your turn. Mack will move forward, and since there are no enemies, it’s turn 2 again. Again move Takuya and Harry as far forward as they can go, don’t let Mack get too far ahead of his friends! He again moves for the castle, and no enemies appear.
Unfortunately, once turn 3 rolls around, the enemy forces appear. A squadron of 8 Deglers, 4 Valser-V8s, and one Arc-craft appears! The stats for the Deglers and Valsers are EXACTLY the same as they were in the previous stage. The only difference is the Arc-Craft, a large flying airship, piloted by Frannel Maus. Here are its stats:
Mech Name: Arc-Craft: Bulky-looking flying thing, 2000 HP
Pilot: Frannel Maus, old guy with grey moustache, lv. 4, 2/2/3/3.
Close-range: No weapons, 0 DP (Flying craft cannot attack or be attacked with close-ranged weapons), 26 ER.
Long-range: ShiyuHoU (No idea how to romanise this): 2 shots, 4-10 range, 50 ammo, 112 AP, 20 DP, 179HR, 49 ER.
Move: 4
Special: None
Notes: Aerial, cannot be attacked with close-combat weaponry, no terrain benefits or penalties.
The enemy forces will move forward, but they’ll still be far away from you. By turn 4, you’ll hopefully close the gap to Mack a little bit. End the turn. By turn 5, Mack should be almost to the castle and Takuya should be right behind him, with Harry’s slower Swift trailing. Mack will attack one Degler after you end the turn, and they’ll probably move into range afterwards, with one of them taking on Mack in close combat. Fortunately, the castle provides a 50% terrain bonus, so they probably won’t get more than one hit in. Deglers that attack him with their vulcans won’t hit at all, due to the fact that they’ll probably still be in the lake (-20% terrain penalty) and he has a very high ER of 4 for ranged attacks.
Still, Mack won’t be able to hold out forever, so put Harry on the bridge and have him shoot at the Degler Mack shot at, then have Takuya move behind Mack (unfortunately, castles and urban areas hamper movement as well as provide terrain benefits) and laser saber the now severely-weakened Degler, probably killing it. End the turn. Mack will stay right where he is, like a retard, and shoot at another Degler. Fortunately, they’re not much smarter than he is, and will only attack Mack if they can’t attack Takuya, which means that many of them will eat hot laser saber death.
From this point onwards, just try to protect Mack and consolidate your position on the castle. Keep Harry on the bridge, where he can snipe at the Deglers, and have him finish off the ones with low HP. Move Takuya as far on the castle as possible, preferably right next to the lake and in front of Mack. The Deglers should kill themselves on Takuya’s laser blade, while inflicting comparatively little damage, but once the V8s enter the fray, he may begin to suffer. After another turn or two, you should have managed to destroy most of the Deglers, with only the V8s and the Arc-craft remaining, but once that enters the fray…ouch. It’ll do a good deal of damage to Takuya’s Nelson with its heavy laser cannon (whatever its name is supposed to be). However, when things look bleak (usually around turn 10), help arrives! A mighty allied warship enters the battlefield with a complement of 9 Ilzards (whose stats are the same as they were in the previous scene). This airship is commanded by the elderly Ben Bask (whom I described earlier in the FAQ), and it is very important—if it goes down, it’s game over, as this is essentially Slash’s mobile base. Here are its starting stats:
Mech Name: Dread (DoRe??Do)—big blue airship that looks like a cargo plane, 4500HP
Pilot: Ben Bask, old guy with cap and moustache, lv.3, 1/1/4/4.
The great airship and its Ilzards will advance upon the enemy, likely doing severe damage if your forces have already weakened them. The V8s will probably still be operational and continue to attack the damaged Nelson, but fortunately, the Arc Craft will concentrate upon the Dread, which means that as long as the Nelson has more than 20% of its HP remaining, it should remain in the fray. At this point, the battle is essentially won. Clean up the V8s as quickly as possible (the Ilzards will help you a lot in this endeavor) and once they’re dead, attack Frannel’s Arc-Craft with all of your ranged weaponry (remember, the Nelson’s laser saber can’t be used, it has to attack with its Vulcan). Even better, Mack Ryan will enter the Dread and return to your control! Now, this leads into one of the more important and interesting aspects of Vixen 357, unit deployment, which I will describe in the next chapter, when all of your units are full under your control. One turn after he’s entered the Dread, select it, select the top option, select Mack’s portrait, select the Swift’s portrait, select Punch, choose between Machinegun and Beam Rifle (I’d go with Machine Gun) and move him out! Continue to attack the enemy. After reducing the Arc-Craft’s HP to below half, Frannel will receive a transmission from Schtohl Weimar, the main antagonist of the game and the imposing looking guy with the tattoo on his forehead we saw in the beginning intro movie. He is apparently displeased with Frannel, since the Arc-craft promptly blows up after this transmission, regardless of its HP. Congratulations, you’ve beaten Scene 2!
[003]
Scene 3
This scene starts off with a pretty young Operator calling for an SOS. Apparently, the HerpPlants are under attack!
First off, take a look around this stage. There are 3 Herp Plants you have to defend—one at the north coast, one at the middle coast (the one with the unique operator girl) and one at the south coast. Threatening them are exactly 10 Miranda (MiRaNDa) mechs—4 at the north sea attack the north base, 4 threatening the south base, and only 2 threatening the middle base. Here are their stats:
Allies:
Mech Name: Herp Plant x3, look like big blue spheres, 1500HP.
Pilot: Operator lv. 2, 2/2/2/2
Close-range: No weapon, 15 DP, 32 ER.
Long-range: No weapon, 15 DP, 32 ER.
Move: 0, can’t move
Special: None
Enemies:
Mech Name: Miranda x9—maroon with a sloped head, antenna in the back, and yellowish cameras, 900 HP.
Pilot: Goon, Lv.2, 2/1/2/1.
Close-range: Hard Claw: 3 hits, 1-2 range, 25 ammo, 52 AP, 21 DP, 146HR, 41 ER
Notes: Effective in water--+20% in shallow water, +40% in deep water, no movement penalties.
They’re led by 5 commanders who are exactly the same except their stats are 2/2/2/2 and they have 152/46/132/46 for total HR and ER in close range/long range.
Unfortunately, the Dread starts out waaaaay over at the left of the map, in a straight line from the middle base, while the other 2 bases have to worry about 4 attacks rather than just three. This is the stage where people start getting discouraged about Vixen 357, because it seems very difficult! In truth, though, it’s not so much so, because you only need to save TWO herp-plants—if one gets destroyed, the stage isn’t over. Pay particular attention to the middle plant, the one with the unique girl—it’s most important to keep her alive, if she dies, you fail the mission.
Anyways, with that in mind, here’s what I’d do. Do not deploy your mechs yet—even though the Dread has a slow movement rate of 4, the forests hamper your Vectors’ movement enough that the Dread is actually faster than all of them would be. Thus, keep them in the airship’s hanger until it clears the forest, THEN deploy them. Now, here’s a more in-depth tutorial on the Dread and unit deployment, and remember to look at the pictures for clarification:
Now, select a close-range weapon for the mech. You don’t have many options now (Laser Saber for the Nelson and Punch for the Swifts) but you’ll get more choices later on. Do the same for long-ranged weaponry—a bit more variety here, as the Nelson can equip either a Vulcan or a beam rifle and the Swifts can equip either beam rifles or machineguns—and then…
Select ‘yes’ to move out or ‘no’ to go back and do things over. Also press the B button to go back at any time. Once you select Yes, the movement screen will appear and you can move your mech anywhere in its movement range, starting from the Dread. Remember, terrain penalties apply, so if the Dread is over thick forests, your mechs won’t be able to get too far away from it.
Now, undeploying is even easier—just move one of your mechs on top of the Dread and they’ll re-embark. There are several reasons for doing this—either to hitch a ride over difficult terrain the Dread can pass over with ease, and also, most importantly, to get their mechs repaired and refueled! Remember how you had to worry about limited ammo in the past couple of chapters? Well, once your Vectors enter the Dread, their ammo stocks will be refilled after they spend a turn in the hangar. They will also be repaired, but the mechs will have to spend several turns in the hanger if they’ve been severely damaged. It’s important to note that once a pilot has returned to the Dread, he or she will NOT be able to move out again until the next turn. If there are other pilots in the ship, however, they can launch immediately in the very same mech, ready to attack or use a special move! This isn’t important at the moment, but it becomes crucial in the later chapters.
Speaking of special moves, while I’m at it, I might as well explain those as well. See this picture again:
I don’t really know what it means—I think it’s “repair ability” or something, as the text is different for the other units with special abilities you get later on in the game. Select it. You’ll get taken to this screen:
Select the bottom option to cancel, but the top option to carry it out. A whirring noise will play and a little circle will surround the ship, and it will regain some of its HP! Obviously, don’t use this ability if the ship is at full HP, it’s a waste. You can only use it 5 times per battle—the Dread has 10 MP, and Personal Repair costs 2 MP. Other mechs will have their MP replenished immediately when they enter the Dread, but the Dread has nothing to harbor in, so you can only repair it 5 times per stage. Personal Repair heals a little over 20% of the Dread’s total HP, so don’t use it unless the Dread’s HP is at 70% or below.
Now that you know how to deploy, move the Dread straight forward 4 spaces. Try launching Takuya in the Nelson either to the north or the south—equip him with a newfound beam rifle instead of the Vulcan. He should be able to move a far greater distance than he was able to at the beginning of the first turn, because the Dread ought to be right over a nice path through the forest for his Nelson to walk through with less resistance. Keep the Swifts inside—you’ll see why later. The Miranda will move, but they won’t get in range for at least a little while longer—until turn 3, specifically. Now, on Turn 2, continue to move Takuya as close as possible to one of the bases, and continue to move the Dread straight forward towards the middle base. By Turn 3, Takuya should be able to get up right next to the Herp-Base he’s going for, while the Dread should be a couple of panels away from the middle Herp-base.
Now, on turn 3, the enemies will move in and begin their attack. Their Scan Rockets will do an unpleasantly large amount of damage to the bases, and the poor girls can’t do anything to defend themselves! However, thanks to moving Takuya and the Dread forward, the Mirandas will concentrate *some* of their fire towards your forces, taking a bit of pressure off of the bases. On Turn 4, Have Takuya move in front of the base and fire with his Beam Rifle at one of the Mirandas, and move the Dread forward again—it should be very close to one of the Mirandas attacking the middle base. It may be too close for the Dread to attack (but its friend isn’t, the Dread should attack him), so deploy Harry and Mack in their Swifts with machine guns.
On their turn 4, the Mirandas will attack again, with one of them hopefully attacking Takuya at close range (and receiving a devastating counter) and do a bit of damage to the other bases. Now, on turn 5, have Takuya stay on the nice machinery in front of the base (he gets a 50% terrain bonus) and attack with his laser saber. A somewhat different strategy is called for the Dread and the Swifts at the middle base. Move the Dread either down or up towards whatever base is completely undefended. Attack the one Miranda which should be heavily damaged and have the Swifts finish it off if it’s not dead. Then have the Swifts move forward to attack the one Miranda which should be sitting in deep water launching rockets at the base. With their machine guns’ maximum range of 4, they should be able to stay in shallow water, where they’ll receive a less serious penalty than in deep water, although unfortunately, the Miranda keeps its 40% terrain bonus in water.
On turn 6, have the Swifts kill the last Miranda attacking the middle base, and continue to move the Dread towards the undefended base. If that last Miranda is still alive, have the Dread spend an attack to finish it off. Move the Swifts over to assist the Dread—if you’re lucky, a Miranda may waste some rockets attacking Mack or Harry. Takuya should still be in front of the other base, slashing at the Mirandas who are attacking it in close combat with his Laser Saber.
At this point, Takuya and the Dread should still have most of their HP remaining—the Mirandas shouldn’t do much damage to them. One of the bases will probably be almost destroyed at this point, though—don’t worry about that, it’s pretty unavoidable, so long as the middle base has more than half its HP remaining. Keep things going on turns 7 and 8—continue to kill the close-ranged attackers with Takuya, and continue to attack the other forces at the north or south base with the Dread and the Swifts. Remember to attack from 3 spaces away with Takuya, since his laser saber has greater range than the Mirandas’ hard claw and can thus escape their counterattack. Unfortunately, it’s very hard to damage those in deep water; you’ll just have to pray for luck.
By turn 9, it’s probable that one of the bases will be destroyed. However, the enemy forces ought to have suffered as well! Continue to have Takuya attack the remaining Mirandas at his base, and while the base the Dread and the Swifts are defending will probably be the one that is destroyed; have them continue to attack the Mirandas. I’d recommend destroying the Mirandas in deep water, because they do more damage with their Scan Rocket attacks. Fortunately, after they destroy the base, the Mirandas will probably concentrate on the Swifts rather than moving to destroy the middle base. The top or bottom base that Takuya is defending will likely be very heavily damaged, so begin moving the Swifts and the Dread towards him once they’ve killed off 3 of the 4 Mirandas at their base—have them attack it before they move. Takuya should be doing heavy damage to the Mirandas at this point. By Turn 13, you should have been able to kill almost all of them which remain on the map, with only maybe one or 2 remaining. Both of the other bases might have been destroyed, but the middle base you have to protect should still be alright. Proceed to mop up the last few Mirandas. Congratulations, you’ve beaten Scene 3!
[004]
Scene 4
This is yet another aquatic stage against even more Mirandas. However, fortunately, you get a new mech to help even the odds! It is the Namune, which is stocky and blue and has grey tanks on its back. Here are its stats and possible weapons loadouts:
Mech Name: Namune
Pilot: You choose!
Close-range: Hard Claw: 3 hits, 25 ammo, 1-2 range
Notes: Receives large benefits in water--+20% in shallow, +40% in deep, but gets reduced benefits from trees, mountains, and cities/bases on land. Can move in water unhindered.
Now, take a look at the map. Fortunately, you have many allies this time—8 Rayzards against 9 Mirandas, an Arc Base and one Judeis piloted by the guy you saw firing at Takuya in space in the beginning of the game, an expert pilot named Kiel Royard.
Enemies:
Mech Name: Miranda x10, 900 HP each.
Pilot: Goon, Lv.2, 2/1/2/1.
Close-range: Hard Claw: 3 hits, 1-2 range, 25 ammo, 52 AP, 21 DP, 146 HR, 41 ER
Long-range: Scan Rockets: 3 shots, 5-10 range, 20 ammo, 76 AP, 21 DP, 126 HR, 41 ER
Move: 7
Special: None
Notes: Effective in water--+20% in shallow water, +40% in deep water, no movement penalties.
Mech Name: Judeis, looks like a Miranda with a pointier head, 1500 HP.
Pilot: Kiel Royard, lv. 7, 6/4/6/4. An expert pilot!
Close-range: Hard Claw: 3 hits, 1-2 range, 25 ammo, 56 AP, 55 DP, 228 HR, 101 ER
Long-range: Scan Rockets: 3 shots, 5-10 range, 20 ammo, 80AP, 55DP, 208 HR, 101 ER
Move: 7
Special: none
Notes:
Mech Name: Arc Base, big maroonish building, 3000HP
Pilot: Enemy Commander, Lv.4, 2/2/2/2
Close-range: No weapon, 18 DP, 49 ER.
Long-range: Scan Rockets: 3 shots, 5-10 range, 20 ammo, 76AP, 18DP, 166 HR, 49 ER
Move: 0, immobile
Special: none
Notes: Destroy this to end the stage.
Allied units:
Mech Name: Rayzard x8, they look like Ilzards with scuba gear, 800 HP each.
Pilot: Pilot lv.2, 2/2/2/2.
Close-range: Hard Claw: 3 hits, 1-2 range, 25 ammo, 60 AP, 20 DP, 117 HR, 41 ER
Long-range: Scan Rockets: 3 hits, 5-10 range, 20 ammo, 68 AP, 20 DP, 97 HR, 41 ER
Move: 7
Special: None
Notes: Perform well in water.
This stage is much easier. You don’t have to worry about protecting anything (the Rayzards are expendable cannon fodder) and the enemies aren’t too difficult. Comparatively, the Rayzards are MUCH better than the Ilzards from the first stage, with better capabilities in the scene’s primary element of water, double the HP, and decent close-combat weapons, but they will still be sadly outclassed by the Mirandas; their comparatively worse HR will make it very difficult for them to hit their targets and their Scan Rockets do less damage than those of the Mirandas. They perform fairly well against their foes in close combat, however. Unfortunately, rather than moving into a melee confrontation, they will mainly concentrate their rocket attacks on the Arc Base (which they will rarely be able to hit) and will get torn apart by the Scan Missiles of the Miranda, Arc Base, and especially the Judeis.
Still, though, they can wear down the enemy a little bit for you. On turn 1, move the Dread forward as far as it can go. The Rayzards and Mirandas will attack each other with Scan Missles, with the Mirandas doing more damage. On turn 2, move the Dread forward and see if it can attack anything. If you’ve been moving straight forward you should be almost over deep water, so launch either Harry or Takuya in your new Namune. I’d recommend Takuya equipped with the Hard Claw and a beam rifle—unfortunately, though, the enemy will continue to pick on the Rayzards, who are almost completely ineffective due to their lower HP, DP, and terrible hit rate. On Turn 3, move the Dread forward again, fire at the weakest Miranda, and continue to have Takuya blast away with his beam rifle (BEFORE moving) at the weakest Miranda. If both Takuya and Ben have attacked it and it’s not dead yet, you’ll want to kill it ASAP, because it will return to its base to heal itself. If it’s almost dead, have Takuya attack BEFORE moving and then spend his move to return to the Dread. Immediately launch Harry in the Namune with the beam rifle. He’ll be able to shoot at the Miranda and kill it off. He might miss, though, so if you want to be REALLY sure, send out Mack with his higher ballistic skill. Anyways, after you end your turn, the Rayzards will unfortunately waste their attacks on the Arc Base, which they will barely be able to hit. Once the enemy’s turn rolls around, Kiel will get a transmission from an old guy with white eyes—I think his name is Geil. Unfortunately, most of the Rayzards will have moved into shallow water, where they only get a 20% bonus instead of a 40% bonus, and the Mirandas will tear them apart, and also begin to attack the Namune. Continue to attack with the Namune and the Dread, and move it forward. It might be close enough to make launching your other two pilots in the Swift and the Nelson feasible—even though they can only move 2 spaces in deep water, equip them with beam rifles and they should be able to take shots at a Miranda.
By turn 5, most of the Rayzards will be dead and the Mirandas will have begun attacking your troops. If the Swifts and/or the Nelson are out, have them attack any mirandas in range before moving back to the Dread. Have the Namune and Dread attack the weakest Miranda. Move the Dread forward. By this time, it should be nearing the Arc Base.
Once the enemy’s turn 5 rolls around, they will receive reinforcements! Well, more specifically, one reinforcement—a blue-haired guy named Neil in a Valser-V10, the same mech the very first boss piloted. At this point, the Mirandas may start attacking the Rayzards in close combat, which is good—the Rayzards actually perform fairly well in that area, and may do a decent bit of damage to the Mirandas. Unfortunately, by this point they’ll probably be almost dead—only three were alive for me by this point. Anyways, here’s Neil’s stats:
Mech Name: Valser-V10
Pilot: Neil something (can’t read the hiragana), blue-haired kid, lv.5, 3/3/3/3
Close-range: Punch: 3 hits, 1 range, 30 ammo, 34 AP, 20 DP, 130 HR, 57 ER
Long-range: Machinegun: 8 shots, 1-4 range, 20 ammo, 66 AP, 25 DP, 130 HR, 70 ER
Move: 6
Special: None
Notes:
Anyways, continue to attack—if you’re continuing to move towards the base and dry land (which you should be), have the 2 Swifts attack first, then move back into the Dread if they’re out, then move the Dread itself. Also, by this point, Neil will begin moving forward and Kiel will begin to retreat. By turn 8, you should be on dry land. Launch Harry and Mack in the Swifts with Machineguns and Takuya in the Nelson with a laser saber and beam rifle. Neil’s machinegun and the Arc Base’s missles will be able to do a bit of damage to the Dread, but not too much. Concentrate your fire on Neil first—he should go down pretty quickly, the Valser-V10 isn’t as impressive as it was in the first stage. The Swift’s machineguns and the Dread’s Shyuhou may have a tough time hitting him, though, Neil in the V10 has a high ER against ranged attacks. Takuya will likely be able to do some good damage up close with the beam saber, though. Put Harry in the Namune with its Hard Claws if he’s not hitting Neil enough. Once Neil dies, the stage is over. However…I would REALLY recommend killing all the other enemy mechs on the stage except Neil, move the Dread and all your other units right up close to the Arc Base (so it can’t attack any of them), and chip away at it with…the Swift’s punches/the weakest weapons you have. Why? XP Harvesting! You can get a good deal of extra XP this way. Put Takuya in a Swift and Mack in the Nelson, their attacks will do minimum damage to the base. Have all your units just punch at it ineffectively. They’ll get XP. Ironically enough, if you do this enough the base may level up. Anyways, you can kill the base and the stage won’t end. Finish offNeil to end it in victory.
Note: This is apparently a really bizarre bug, but if Neil’s machinegun runs out of ammo, he’ll attack the Dread with his Valser’s bare hands! Save the game and move on to the next stage.
[005]
Scene 5
Again, this stage looks very difficult, but it really isn’t. At first glance, it seems like you’re up against insurmountable odds. Your 4 units—the Dread and the 3 pilots it carries—are all alone in a big city, facing off against exactly 21 foes—20 new Douwarl mechs and Hoffkins in his powerful Deibis. Hereare there stats:
Mech Name: Douwarlx20, look like dark maroon cyclopses with claws, 1000 HP.
Pilot: Goon, lv.2, 2/1/2/1
Close-range: Hard Claw: 3 attacks, 1-2 range, 25 ammo, 80 AP, 25 DP, 141 HR, 41 ER
Long-range: Vulcan: 8 shots, 1-3 range, 20 ammo, 22 AP, 20 DP, 81 HR, 36 ER
Move: 8
Special: None
Notes:
Mech Name: Deibis, looks like an orange Douwarl, 1000 HP.
Pilot: Hoffkins, has a monocle and crazy moustache, lv.6, 5/4/4/4
Close-range: Linear Biyuto? (can’t make it out, kana is RiNiA Biyu—to, I’ll just call it a whip since that’s what it is): 3 attacks, 1-4 range, 30 ammo, 98 AP, 34 DP, 193 HR, 95 ER
Long-range: Vulcan: 8 shots, 1-3 range, 20 ammo, 26 AP, 25 DP, 130 HR, 82 ER
Move: 8
Special: None
Notes:
As you can see, these are the toughest opponents you’ve had to face yet, with Hoffkins being the best pilot you’ve yet seen. Things aren’t as bad as they look, though. Take a look at how the enemies are formed up. There’s a group of 5 Douwarls in the north, a group of 5 Douwarls in the south, and group of 5 Douwarls in the middle of the other 2 groups, a group of 5 behind the middle group, and the boss behind that. Now, what you want to do first off, is move north, towards the northern group of Douwarls—those are the ones you’ll want to hit first. The Douwarls will move towards you, but by turn 5, if you keep moving towards them, you’ll have gotten pretty close and they’ll begin to reform into their original defensive line rather than continuing to pursue. Move in and attack with the Dread. Launch Takuya in the Nelson and Harry and Mack in the Swifts. Takuya should have a Beam Rifle and the other two should have Machineguns. Try to keep all of them on buildings—they get a 50% terrain bonus—but don’t be afraid of putting them on the road if that’s where they have to be to attack. Star blasting away at the Douwarls. As you can tell from their stats, they do NOT perform well against projectile weapons, so your beam rifles and machineguns will come in quite handy. End your turn. The Douwarls will probably come up to Takuya and attack him in hand-to-hand combat, taking a good bit of damage from his counterattacks. Others will waste their time shooting at him or your other mechs with their puny Vulcans, which will do almost no damage. The Douwarls from the other groups along with the Deibis will move towards your men. Continue the battle during turn six, shooting at the weakest Douwarl with the Swift’s machine guns, the Nelson’s beam rifle, and the Dread’s big cannon. The Douwarls will continue to attack. At this point, the Nelson might be hurting pretty bad, and your other troops may have been damaged as well. Move them into the Dread to be repaired. Continue with this pattern until turn 10…
OH YEAH! Reinforcements, baby! On this turn, friendly forces teleport in to assist you. They consist of a Herpcraft piloted by Boyd, a handsome older man with spiffy-looking white hair and a goatee, along with a complement of 8 Ilzards, one Zekzardpiloted by Zelb, a hard-faced fellow with brown hair, and best of all, a new mech and pilot who’ll serve under you—the Kairass piloted by Eddie Ray from the intro movie! He’s not controllable at the moment, but he will be in the next scene. Here’s everybody’s stats:
Ilzard x8: Same as in the other chapters except the pilots are all level 3, 2/2/2/2, with correspondingly higher HR/ER.
Mech Name: Zekzard, looks like a bulky Ilzard with a backpack, 1000 HP
Pilot: Zelb lv. 4, 4/3/4/3
Close-range: Laser Saber, 3 hits, 1-3 range, 30 ammo, 116 AP, 35 DP, 144 HR, 69 ER
Long-range: Blaster: 3 shots, 3-6 range, 20 ammo, 130 AP, 35 DP, 162 HR, 69 ER
Move: 8
Special: none
Notes:
Mech Name: Kairass, looks like a Swift with a big metal claw, 1400 HP
Pilot: Eddie Ray, lv. 4, 6/5/1/1.
Close-range: Hard Claw: 3 hits, 1-2 range, 25 ammo, 140 AP, 60 DP, 231 HR, 105 ER
Long-range: Vulcan: 8 shots, 1-3 range, 20 ammo, 24 AP, 35 DP, 53 HR, 33 ER
Move: 10
Special: None
Notes:
Mech Name: Herp Craft, a long airship with 3 spires sticking out of it, 1800HP.
Pilot: Boyd, lv.6, 1/1/3/3
Close-range: No weapon, 0 hits, 0 range, 0 ammo, 0 AP, 0 DP, 0 HR, 15 ER
Long-range: Shyuhou: 2 shots, 4-10 range, 50 ammo, 118 AP, 16 DP, 165 HR, 75 ER
Move: 4
Special: none
Notes:
Pretty nice, huh? The crappy Ilzards won’t be able to do much, of course, but the Zekzard and Kairass will devastate the enemy. Blasters are, overall, the best class of ranged weapon in the game, and Zelb is reasonably good with them. Eddie is a close-combat monster, as you can tell from his stats. He’s horrible at ranged combat, though, so thankfully the Kairass can equip no ranged weapons other than the Vulcan for the duration of the game. The Herp-craft is sadly very weak—it’s essentially a MUCH weaker version of the Dread, without the ability to heal itself. If this ship goes down, it’s game over, so you have to defend it! Fortunately though, the enemy can only attack it with their crappy Vulcans. Anyways, continue to attack the Douwarls with your ranged weapons. At this point, you should have a very strong and obvious advantage. Remember to keep the Dread within movement range of all your mechs, and move them inside whenever they’re damaged. With your reinforcements fighting along with you, the battle should end in victory soon enough.
[006]
Scene 6
You start off in a mountainous region with the Herp-Craft, the Zekzard, and 8 Ilzards formed in a defensive line ahead of you. Their stats are exactly the same as they were in the last stage. Your (initial) opposition consists of 4 Douwarls, 6 Valser-v10s, and one Arc-Base led by Kalshia (something in hiragana). Here are their stats:
Mech Name: Douwarl x4
Pilot: Goon, lv.3, 2/1/2/1
Close-range: Hard Claw: 3 hits, 1-2 range, 25 ammo, 80 AP, 25 DP, 143 HR, 42 ER
Long-range: Vulcan: 8 shots, 1-3 range, 20 ammo, 22 AP, 20 DP, 83 HR, 37 ER
Move: 8
Special: none
Notes:
Mech Name: Valser-V10
Pilot: Goon lv.3, 2/1/2/1
Close-range: Punch: 3 hits, 1 range, 30 ammo, 34 AP, 20 DP, 113 HR, 34 ER
Long-range: Machinegun: 8 shots, 1-4 range, 20 ammo, 66 AP, 25 DP, 113 HR, 47 ER
Move: 6
Special: none
Notes:
Mech Name: Arc Base
Pilot: Kalshia, lv.6: 3/3/3/3
Close-range: None: 0 hits, 0 range, 0 ammo, 0 AP, 18 DP, 0 HR, 75 ER
Long-range: Scan Rockets: 3 shots, 5-10 range, 20 ammo, 76 AP, 18 DP, 185 HR, 75 ER
Move: 0
Special: none
Notes:
For the first 4 turns, move the Dread straight forward. Your allies and enemies will advance towards each other, and the Douwarls and Valsers will devastate the severely outclassed Ilzards. By turns 5 and 6, try to move the Dread as close as possible to the bridge.
On turn 6, Zelb will betray you! He and the Ilzards under his command turn red, and he destroys the Herp-Craft, killing Boyd! Several Ilzards loyal to Boyd will remain alive, however. Now you have to deal with about 3 or 4 enemy Ilzards (depending on how many the Douwarls and Valsers destroyed) along with the considerably more dangerous Zekzard. The Douwarls will probably destroy the last of the friendly Ilzards, leaving you with no assistance. If the Dread is near the bridge, Zelb should still be near the back of his forces. Try to kill off the Ilzards surrounding him as quickly as possible during this turn (which should not be at all difficult) by moving your mechs as close as possible to Zelb (preferably surrounding him, if possible). Ignore his Ilzard friends, they won’t be able to touch your machines. The Kairass will get a new weapon in this stage—the Linear Whip—with a range of 1-4 (equal to a machinegun!) so it only makes sense to put a master of close-range combat in a machine with an excellent close-range weapon. Move out Harry and Mack in the Swifts with Machineguns, and launch Takuya in the Nelson with a Vulcan if you can surround Zelb, with a Beam Rifle if you can’t. You probably won’t be able to surround him due to the placement of his Ilzards, though. In that case, try your best to attack him with ranged weapons, or in the case of Eddie, with the Linear Whip from 4 spaces away from him—his counterattacks are very damaging. Spend Turn 7 attacking him, and if possible, try to put a unit in front of him and the bridge, to ‘blockade’ it, so to speak. The traitor and his allies will likely do a good deal of damage to one or two of your mechs. You should be able to kill him in one turn, but if not, you should be able to destroy him the next turn. After you destroy him, enemy reinforcements arrive! They consist of 6 new machines called Zeiks. Here are their stats:
Mech Name: Zeik, reddish-maroon with a pointed head, 1400 HP
Pilot: Commander Goon lv. 4, 2/2/2/2
Close-range: Laser Saber: 3 hits, 1-3 range, 30 ammo, 111 AP, 25 DP, 128 HR, 59 ER
Long-range: Machinegun: 8 shots, 1-4 range, 20 ammo, 63 AP, 25 DP, 96 HR, 59 ER
Move: 8
Special: none
Notes:
As you can tell, these are the most advanced mechs you’ve yet fought, with armaments, defensive capabilities, and HP comparable to your own Vectors. It’ll take them a few turns to reach you, though, since they’ll have a tough time crossing the mountains. Thus, concentrate your efforts on your other foes, which shouldn’t be too difficult—set a pilot with high evade against ranged attacks, preferably Mack, in front of the bridge so that the enemies can’t get through and have to line up. The Douwarls will be able to lash out at him in close combat, but only two of them will manage to get in hits, due to their Hard Claws having a max range of two, and he should be able to dodge most of the Valsers’ shots.
Continue to maintain your blockade (sending a unit in for repairs when necessary and replacing it with Takuya, Harry, or preferably Mack depending on who’s available), and concentrate on destroying the Douwarls and Valsers. By the time the Zeiks arrive (which should be around turn 13) you will hopefully have destroyed all of the Valsers and Douwarls (although one or two might have escaped back to their base for repairs—for the enemy, the Arc Base is like your Dread). When fighting the Zeiks, have Eddie in his Kairass with the Linear Whip blockade the bridge. The Zeiks will typically choose to attack him with their close-ranged laser sabers, which means 3 of them will receive heavy counterattacks, while only one can shoot at him with its machinegun, since its range is only 4 spaces. After a few turns, with this strategy, they should all be dead by turn 16. Now, you can advance on the enemy base with impunity. You can move all your units there on their own power, but given the mountainous terrain, it’s probably easier to just pack them into the Dread and fly them over. The Arc Base has Scan Rockets, though, so expect the Dread to take a bit of damage when it comes into range. Thus, I’d advise moving it within 4 spaces of the Arc Base and attacking it with impunity, since its minimum range is 5. Also launch your other mechs and have them chip away at it. MAKE SURE TO HAVE ALL FOUR OF THEM SURROUND IT COMPLETELY! I.e they should all be RIGHT NEXT TO IT—one above, one below, one to the left, one to the right. This is very important for when you destroy it! You see, once the base is destroyed, you will receive a very unpleasant surprise—Kalshia will not go down with it, but will return in an entirely new and extremely annoying mech, the Vuitray! Here are its stats:
Mech Name: Vuitray, a squat mech with maroon body and green head, 1800HP.
Pilot: Kalshia lv.6, 3/3/3/3
Close-range: Punch: 3 hits, 1-1 range, 30 ammo, 54 AP, 22 DP, 160 HR, 75 ER
Long-range: Beam Rifle: 3 shots, 3-6 range, 20 ammo, 92 AP, 22 DP, 140 HR, 75 ER
Move: 7
Special: Vaccum Whorl: 20 MP total, costs 2 MP to activate. What this does is create a shield around every friendly mech (including the caster) in a certain radius (5 panels). A little icon of a shield will surround those mechs affected, and while this little icon is on top of them, all of your attacks will do NO DAMAGE! The only way to defeat this is to keep attacking and attacking. Eventually, after it has been attacked enough, the shield will fail, and your units will once again be able to damage the enemy normally. I think it’s based on damage received, as it takes longer to wear the shield down with the Swift’s punches than it does with stronger attacks. Obviously, this is extremely annoying, but fortunately you will gain the same skill later on, one special attack can bypass this shield, and the Blaster weapon can destroy it with one shot.
Notes: An extremely annoying mech that, unfortunately, you’ll be seeing a lot more of in later stages. Kill these as soon as possible wherever you find them, as their Vacuum Whorl ability can prevent your mechs from damaging many enemies, making battles very annoying.
This mech is good for powering up, however. Equip all pilots with their worst weapons (Takuya and Harry in Swifts with punches, Eddie in the Kairass with a Vulcan, and Mack in the Namune with a Hard Claw), keep the Dread outside the Vuitray’s attack range, and have everybody attack it with their worst weapons. It will take barely any damage at all, and your pilots will get powered up quite a bit. Try to end the stage before turn 100, however—it’s an automatic Game Over if you get to 100 turns. After you kill her, it’s victory for this scene.
[007]
Scene 7
This stage consists of a dense forest with a river running through it. Your opposition consists of 10 Douwarls, 6 Valser-V10s, 4 Zeiks, and one Vuitray piloted by a blond-haired guy named Yan. All of the Douwarls, Valsers, and Zeiks are essentially the same as they were in the last stage, with minor differences in pilots—they’re all level 4, 2/1/2/1, but still with HR and ERs about one point better than they were last stage. Yan himself pilots the exact same mech as Kalshia did, but he’s a good deal better—level 6 with 5/4/5/4. Even though Yan has the super-annoying Vacuum Whorl ability, this stage isn’t as hard as it would seem, thanks to the lovely reinforcements you get on the beginning of turn 6. I’ll get to them later, though. Here’s what you should do. On turn 1, move the Dread straight forward 4 spaces. The enemy will advance, with the 2 groups of Douwarls moving the farthest forward and the Valsers, Zeiks, and Yan’s Vuitray making slower progress and being buffed by his Vacuum Whorl. Do the same on the second turn. By turn 4, you should have reached the very edge of the forest. Now, here’s what you do. Deploy Eddie in the Kairass with a Hard Claw and have him move towards the north group, keeping him as close as he can get to the enemy without moving into water, where he’ll suffer a disadvantage. He should be able to cross the river. Deploy Takuya in the Nelson with the Laser Saber and Beam Rifle and move him as close to the southern group as possible, while keeping him in the trees, where he’ll have an advantage. He shouldn’t cross the river. Keep your other mechs in the Dread. If a Douwarl is in the Dread’s range, have it attack one. Have Takuya and Eddie attack if they’re able. Now, on turn 5, have Takuya and Eddie move even closer to the enemy and attack if possible, but then move the Dread across the river, have it shoot at a foe of your choosing (preferably NOT the boss—you’ll see why) and have it deploy Mack and Harry in the Swifts (or for fun, you could have one of them in the Namune and place it in the river, where it has an advantage), and have them attack whoever you want. End the turn. The Douwarls will attack Nelson and Eddie, who will deal HEAVY damage to them by counterattacking with their Laser Saber and Hard Claw, respectively. You can leave them there and they’ll take care of the Douwarls on their own, although Takuya might suffer more damage than Eddie. Anyways, once your turn 6 begins, you will get a VERY nice surprise! Two friendly mechs appear, piloted by two friendly pilots, Nina Laurel and Chay Won! Here are their stats:
Mech Name: Fairy, looks like an Ilzard with wings, 1100 HP.
Pilot: Nina Laurel, lv.6, 4/3/4/3.
Close-range: Punch: 3 hits, 1-1 range, 30 ammo, 36 AP, 40 DP, 162 HR, 67 ER
Long-range: Beam Rifle: 3 shots, 3-6 range, 20 ammo, 74 AP, 40 DP, 150 HR, 67 ER
Move: 6
Special: 10 MP, Marb Cramp (No idea how to Romanize this), 2 MP.
Notes: VERY useful! The Marb Cramp does 375 damages to EVERY ENEMY within a 5 panel radius. Remember to put it back in the Dread when its HP starts getting low or it runs out of MP!
Mech Name: Panacea, looks kind of like Zelb’s Zekzard, 1000 HP.
Pilot: Chay Won, lv.6, 4/3/4/3.
Close-range: Laser Saber: 3 hits, 1-3 range, 30 ammo, 86 AP, 35 DP, 144 HR, 67 ER
Long-range: Vulcan: 8 shots, 1-3 range, 20 ammo, 34 AP, 40 DP, 120 HR, 75 ER
Move: 6
Special: 10 MP, Vacuum Whorl: 2 MP
Notes: Both her and Nina are pretty bad pilots, along with Harry, whose stats always stayed at 4/3/4/3 throughout the length of the game, regardless of their levels. Their mechs vary in usefulness, however. The Fairy remains extremely useful up to the end of the game, whereas the Panacea, while always helpful, becomes much less fun during later stages, where the enemies can take out its Vacuum Whorl shields with one shot.
Now, things are looking a bit more even! With the Panacea’s shielding ability and, more importantly, the Fairy’s Marb Cramp ability, which can absolutely decimate the enemy forces in a matter of turns, things are looking up! Keep the Dread where it is, as Nina and Chay are computer controlled and will make their way to you. Have all your mechs attack—the Douwarls should almost be dead, and will probably be when they attack Eddie and Takuya again. If Harry and/or Mack’s mechs are damaged, send them in—the Dread can withstand a lot of abuse from the enemy. End the turn, and keep things going on turn 7. By turn 8, all the Douwarls should have been destroyed, so move Eddie and Takuya back to the Dread (while having them attack any enemies that may be in their range). If either of your other two mechs are damaged, move them in as well, and if you have to put in all of them, have the Dread attack a mech of its choice and move forward as far as it can. The enemy will likely inflict a good deal of damage on it if there’s nothing else to attack, but it should still have some HP left. On turn 9, heal it up—it recovers 960 HP! Launch all your mechs, particularly Takuya (the AI concentrates on him and the Dread before any other allies, so that’ll take some heat off of the Dread) and have them attack. Nina will devastate your enemies with her Marb Cramp, which ignores Yan’s Vacuum Whorl (although it doesn’t destroy it). Chay will also use the Vacuum Whorl to aid you! The scene should end in victory soon enough (If the Dread is running out of MP, concentrate your attacks on Yan) and you’ll be able to move on to turn 8!
[008]
Scene 8
Oh boy, another aquatic stage. You’ll notice a base on a small island surrounded by 9 allies, it is your job to defend this base. Arrayed against you (at the moment) are a squad of 10 Zeiks led by an Arc Craft piloted by your interminable foe, Kiel Royard, right in front of the base, and a squad of 8 Mirandas, led by a fellow named Jimmy Randolf piloting Kiel’s Judeis from scene 4, who are nearer to the top of the map. The base’s defenders will get their asses kicked within a handful of turns, so get over there quickly! Here’s everyone’s stats:
Allies:
Mech Name: Herp Base, 1300 HP.
Pilot: Operator, lv.5, 3/2/3/2
Close-range: No weapon, 20 DP, 28 ER
Long-range: Scan Rockets: 3 shots, 5-10 range, 20 ammo, 88 AP, 20 DP, 175 HR, 28 ER
Move: 0
Special: None
Notes:
Mech Name: Rogzard, looks like a beefed-up Ilzard, 1000 HP.
Pilot: Pilot, lv.3, 2/2/2/2
Close-range: Punch: 3 hits, 1-1 range, 30 ammo, 56AP, 30 DP, 144 HR, 63 ER
Long-range: Beam Rifle: 3 shots, 3-6 range, 20 ammo, 94 AP, 30 DP, 124 HR, 63 ER
Move: 8
Special: none
Notes:
Enemies:
Mech Name: Zeik, 1400 HP.
Pilot: Goon, lv.4, 2/1/2/1
Close-range: Laser Saber: 3 hits, 1-3 range, 30 ammo, 111 AP, 25 DP, 121 HR, 53 ER
Long-range: Machinegun: 8 shots, 1-4 range, 20 ammo, 63 AP, 25 DP, 89 HR, 53 ER
Move: 8
Special:
Notes:
Mech Name: Miranda
Pilot: Goon, lv. 2/1/2/1
Close-range: Hard Claw: 3 hits, 1-2 range, 25 ammo, 52 AP, 21 DP, 149 HR, 43 ER
Long-range: Scan Rockets: 3 shots, 5-10 range, 20 ammo, 28 AP, 21 DP, 129 HR, 43 ER
Move: 7
Special: none
Notes:
Mech Name: Judeis, 1500HP.
Pilot: Jerry Randolf, lv. 6, 5/4/5/4
Close-range: Hard Claw: 3 hits, 1-2 range, 25 ammo, 56 AP, 55 DP, 215 HR, 105 ER
Long-range: Scan Rockets: 3 shots, 5-10 range, 20 ammo, 80 AP, 55 DP, 195 HR, 105 ER
Move: 7
Special: None
Notes:
Mech Name: Arc Craft, 2000 HP.
Pilot: Kiel Royard, lv.7, 6/4/6/4
Close-range: No weapon, 0 DP, 56 ER.
Long-range: Shyuhou: 2 shots, 4-10 range, 50 ammo, 112 AP, 20 DP, 228 HR, 66 ER
Move: 4, flying
Special: None.
Notes:
As you can see, your allied pilots are *slightly* better than the enemy’s, although Kiel Royard is far better than all of them (and his Arc Craft will devastate your allies). However, unfortunately, your foes outnumber the allied forces, your friends picked horrible mechs—although the Rogzards are fairly decent, with 1000HP and 30 DP apiece, they are very poorly equipped (with nothing but a punch, the Zeiks will tear them apart with their Laser Sabers) and they are NOT built for aquatic combat, suffering penalties in the water. Fortunately, the Zeiks are subject to the same penalties, but they’ll still ravage the Rogzards, all in all, and the Mirandas perform best in water. And, once again, your ship starts off in the far left side of the map L On the first turn, move it 4 spaces forward, and end your turn. Instead of consolidating on the island and near the base, like they should, your retarded allies will move straight into the water, where they’re even more vulnerable. On turn 2 and 3, continue moving the Dread forward, and the enemy will continue to devastate your allies, likely dealing severe damage to the base as well. Fortunately, the Arc Craft will stick in the back and the Mirandas won’t concentrate on the base. On turn 3, you probably will have moved the Dread forward enough that the Mirandas and Judeis will have started launching Scan Missiles at you. On turn 4, you should have moved the Dread over open water. Deploy someone in the Panacea and protect the Dread with the Vacuum Whorl. Just a note—unfortunately, the Panacea will only have access to a Vulcan and Beam Saber for the rest of the game. The Mirandas will attack the Dread, and the Zeiks will continue to attack the Rogzards. With any luck, the dying Rogzard forces will be able to take one or two Zeiks down with them by this point. On turn 5, return the Panacea to ship and move the Dread over to the island. Launch as many pilots as you can onto the island, with the exception of the Panacea’s pilot who just embarked (he or she can’t disembark immediately after embarking) and one other, preferably Nina, Harry, or Chay. Equip Takuya with his usual beam rifle and laser saber, Mack in a Swift with a beam rifle, and Eddie in the Kairass with the Linear Whip. The Mirandas will continue to blast the Dread (probably doing heavy damage), and the Zeiks will continue to devastate the Rogzards. Now, here’s what to do on turn 6. Keep the Dread EXACTLY where it is—don’t move it a space. Launch one of the 2 pilots you should have in the hangar in the Fairy as far up as it can go (fortunately, shallow water is easier for it to move in). Select its special attack. See the lighted area? You’ll do 400 damage to EVERY mech in that lighted area, and most of the Mirandas should be within its range! Activate it and watch the sparks fly. Attack any Zeiks within range of the Dread and your other mechs. Making things even better, Jerry will retreat back to Kiel’s Arc Craft—you can’t kill him (or Kiel) in this stage, so that’s a bit of pressure off of you. End the turn, and the Mirandas will continue to attack the Dread, and the Zeiks will continue to attack the Rogzards.
Now, on turn 7, here is what you do. Heal the Dread, first off, but do NOT move it.You see how the Fairy is still out and has A,S,and M over it? Use its special move to damage the Mirandas. Now move it back into the Dread. NOW, HAVE THE REMAINING PILOT IN THE BAY LAUNCH TO THE EXACT SAME SPOT WITH THE FAIRY! You see why this move is so advantageous? Now you can do double damage with the Fairy’s Marb Cramp! That’s 800 damage total! Thus, you should always keep 2 of these 3 pilots on standby for use in the Fairy: Nina, Harry, and Chay. Their piloting skills are too weak to be of much else use. After this, one Miranda should still be left alive, which can essentially be ignored. Have your other mechs attack the Zeiks, which should be under some very heavy damage by now—the battle is almost won! Kiel will start leaving for the edge of the map, and by turn 8, the Arc Craft will have soared off into the distance. Kill the remaining Miranda with whoever you want. After Kiel leaves, you only have to kill 1 or 2 more Zeiks at this point—the rest will surrender. Congratulations! On to scene 9.
[009]
Scene 9
You’ll meet some VERY nasty enemies on this stage. However, when it starts, there don’t seem to be any around. Instead, you get a cute looking transport ship, the Illuminant, piloted by the lovely Reiko Machida! She is a very defensive pilot—she’s level 6 and her stats are 3/4/4/5, meaning she can’t hit well in close combat but can dodge, can hit foes at long range better, and can dodge foes at long range very well. The Illuminant is a unique ship—it’s a fast carrier. It’s very poorly armed and armored, as it’s only equipped with a crappy Vulcan and can only take 1400 points of damage (and its DP is 25). However, it flies and it has 10 movement. It can also carry a single mech and fits into the Dread’s hangar. Thus, you see what its purpose is—whenever you need to deploy a mech a lot farther than the Dread’s crappy movement rate of 4 would be able to, use the Illuminant.
Now, the objective at the moment is to get Reiko (who is not under your control) into the Dread. Unfortunately, you are VERY far away from each other, you at the bottom left and she at the top right. Move it up 2 spaces and right 2 spaces. She will move straight down. Unfortunately, once your turn ends, you will see why this level is so difficult. 3 Wilders will teleport in, piloted by enemy aces! They will be contacted by an ugly looking guy named Bowman, who you’ll see later on in the game. There are only 3 of them, but that’s all they need to take down all of your troops! Look at their statistics, as these are the most powerful enemy mechs, all in all, you will face in the game, with the exception of the last boss.
Mech Name: Wilder, 2000HP.
Pilot: Zem (green haired guy) and Ward (Blue haired guy), lv. 5, 4/4/4/4
Close-range: Laser Saber: 3 hits, 1-3 range, 30 ammo, 106 AP, 30 DP, 168 HR, 101 ER
Long-range: Bazooka: 2 shots, 5-8 range, 20 ammo, 110 AP, 30 DP, 156 HR, 101 ER
Move: 8
Special: 20 MP, Vacuum Whorl, Marb Cramp, AND Personal Repair for 2 MP each!!!
Notes: With 20 MP and all 3 Special Abilities the game has to offer, you can see why I call these the most powerful mechs in the enemy’s arsenal.
They are led by Lagu, who is level 6, has stats of 5/5/5/5, but is otherwise exactly the same.
Your foes will quickly move towards the Illuminant. One of them will use Vacuum Whorl and shield the others, while the other two will use Marb Cramp to reduce the Illuminant’s HP from 1400 to about 675. Things are looking grim for Reiko, but fortunately, her airship’s movement range of 10 combined with the fact that the enemies’ movement is hampered by the mountains means she will be able to escape them. Continue moving the Dread towards her. Reiko will move her Illuminant down as fast as she can. Fortunately, when the enemy’s turn comes around, they will be hampered by the mountains, but they can still hit her with their Bazooka’s range of 8. Continue moving the dread towards her by turn 3, and she’ll move 10 spaces to the right, which should bring her out of the attack range of the Wilders. By turn 5, move the Dread forward and she should be able to get in. Once she does, you’ll find she’s brought an EXCELLENT present! The Illuminant was carrying the Pastoral, one of the 2 best Vectors you’ll have available to you in the game. It has 1550 HP, 10 movement, 55 DP against melee and projectile weaponry, and best of all, 20 MP with Personal Repair! She’ll also bring new weaponry in for some of your mechs. The Swifts and the Pastoral can equip a new ranged weapon, the Cannon, which fires 2 shots from a range of 5-8 spaces away. The Nelson gets a Bazooka, which is essentially the same thing, but with slightly worse hit rates and damage. Finally, the Kairass will get a nice Hand Axe, which is its strongest close-range weapon but only has a range of 1-2.
Anyways, now you should take a look at your enemies. They will probably have broken formation due to the terrain for a few turns, but now they should be reforming. There are big mountain ranges on the east and west sides of the map, separated by a great forest in the middle. Move the Dread close to the edge of the mountain range, and try to deploy all your units onto the mountains, so they get terrain bonuses. Put Takuya in the new Pastoral (he’s your most well-balanced pilot overall at this point) and Reiko in the Nelson, both with their Cannon and Bazooka, respectively. Launch Eddie in the Kairass with the Linear Whip (he’ll be able to avoid the Laser Saber counterattacks of the Wilders by staying out of their range) and Mack in a Swift with a Cannon. Launch Chay in the Swift and Vacuum Whorl your units, then launch Nina in the Fairy and have her wait. End the turn, and your foes will move forward.
On Turn 4, Ward will likely be closest to you. Move the Fairy forward, the Panacea should Vacuum Whorl any units that didn’t receive it, and the Dread should move back just a little bit, maybe a panel or two. Wade will want to attack it, so make sure he’s lured within range of the Fairy’s Marb Cramp. It will attack the Dread and Marb Cramp the Fairy. On Turn 5, start attacking. Use the Fairy’s Marb Cramp and move it back to the Dread. Launch Harry in the Fairy and Marb Cramp it again. Make sure to move the Fairy where the Marb Cramp can reach both of the other Wilders instead of just one! Now, attack it with your WEAKEST UNITS FIRST! Have the Dread attack it, then the Fairy’s Beam Rifle, then have the Panacea use its Vacuum Whorl to re-shield the Dread and move forward to attack the Wilder with its Laser Saber. There’s no point wasting your strongest attacks, like the Kairass’ Linear Whip or the Cannons, on the enemy’s Vacuum shield. After it’s been destroyed, attack with your remaining units. Move the Dread and Takuya back to encourage Wilder to move forward. End the turn.
The other two Wilders will move forward and attack, one of them perhaps Marb Cramping one of your units, but the other one piloted by Wade will move forward and attack the Dread or Takuya with his laser saber (receiving a nasty counterattack), but will not Marb Cramp, instead choosing to Personal Repair itself. On turn 9, kill it. Marb Cramp with Harry, move the Dread forward, have Harry shoot at any Wilders in range, move Harry into the Dread, then launch Nina and have her do the same. By this point, Wade’s Wilder should be virtually destroyed. Have one unit finish off its HP, preferably Takuya. Then, attack the shields of Zem’s Wilder (which should be nearby) with the Panacea and Dread. It should go down, so proceed to attack it with your other units. End the turn.
On turn 10, the Wilders will attack again. Zem will choose to personal repair himself but Lagu will choose to Marb Cramp, which will do a good deal of damage to all your mechs, but none of them should be dead. Heal up the Pastoral and Dread with Personal Repair, and if any mech is heavily damaged (less than 380 HP), move it back into the Dread for repairs (after attacking, of course)! Continue to attack the weakest Wilder—Zem or Lagu. Move damaged mechs back into the Dread as necessary. Within a few turns, Zem’s mech should go down, and after that, Lagu ought to be destroyed soon after. Congrats, victory is yours!
[010]
Scene 10
This scene starts off with you at the very northwest of what seems to be a mountainous battlefield. There’s one big landmass on the east side of the battlefield, separated by a river, and two smaller landmasses on the other side of that river, themselves separated by another river. There are two bridges connecting the northwest landmass and the southwest landmass to the great eastern landmass, but the bridge connecting the two western lands has been destroyed. The Dread starts out just north of the big top bridge. Far to the south, at the other bridge, a Herp Craft with 15 Rogzards will be facing off against 6 Deibises, which you’ll remember from scene 5, a Vuitray piloted by Jimmy Randolph (from Scene 8), a very powerful Vel
