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Stage 1: Sea of Flames
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Stage 1: Sea of Flames
Location: Kalm
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Stage Missions:
Protect the Civilians!
Save the abducted girl!
Locate the card key!
Assist the WRO!
Memory Capsules: 8
Accessories/Weapons/Key Items:
Fire Materia
Cerberus Relief
Sniper Scope
Long Barrel
Short Barrel
Griffon
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Following the opening cutscenes, you will find yourself on a raised walkway in Kalm. There will be three Deepground soldiers above you on the roof. If you shoot quickly, you should be able to take them all out with taking any damage yourself.
When they're dead, turn to the right and start following the path. Pick up the potion and climb up the ladder. Draw your gun and take out the two soldier ahead of you. If you shoot immediately upon reaching the platform instead of running forward, you can get the first one before they even know you're there. Run forward and grab the handgun bullets the second soldier drops.
When you reach the concrete ledge, turn to the righthand path first, and go to the dead end where you're find a white crate. Shot the crate and pick up the 500 gil inside, and backtrack and take the lefthand path. When you get the the point where the path begins to curve (there is a wall of flames in front of you at this point), stop and loof to your left. You will see three soldiers on a platform. Shoot the white barrel on the platform to make it explode, and it should take them all out. Proceed down, and grab any items they drop.
That platform leads to another, smaller platform. When you get here, stop, and shoot the distant two soldiers directly ahead by the wall. Keep following the path, and you will come to a doorway leading to a stairwell. Ignore this for now, and run past it to the dead end where you can snag a second Potion.
Before you head back to the doorway, look over the edge of the railing (you may have to move back the way you came from to get a clear shot). MEMORY CAPSULE #1 can be seen on one of the rooftops. Collect it by shooting it, and then go back to the doorway.
Head down the stairs, but be careful, because there are three soldiers waiting for you. If you're good with the gun, they can be taken out with a few shots. If you're still getting used to the controls, however, you will probably take less damage if you use Vincent's melee attack to finish them off.
When you reach the end of the stairs, there will be a short cutscene displaying your map, and showing you where you're supposed to go. As you proceed down the allyway, the "Protect the Civilians!" STAGE MISSION will automatically activate. Several civilians will run towards you with Deepground not far behind. Kill the soldiers, and move on. When you get to the end of the ally, it would be wise to pause and shoot a few of the soldiers waiting in the street before they see you. Collect the dropped items, and pick up the Potion near one of the stalls on the left side of the street.
As you near the next allyway, two soldiers will emerge, chasing a civilian. Shoot them, and run past the ally they came from. There is a second ally farther down with three soldier walking away from you. Gun them down and head down the alley. At the very end, you will find a child hiding behind some crates, and a side area where to other civilians are hiding. Both groups will trigger a short scene. There is also a case containing 500 gil back there.
Backtrack to the street and head down the other alley. Here, you will find the first Mako Point, and a Fire Materia. It would be wise to equip the Fire Materia now before you forget about it, as it comes in handy when you face the first boss.
Head to the end of the alley to tigger another short cutscene showing a helicopter carrying away soem sort of cargo container. Kill the two soldiers in the square ahead (you can probably get them both by shooting the barrel to the right of the alley entrance, if you time it right). A third will run out of one of the houses on the left. When he's out of the way, approach the Laser Gate ahead of you. Turn around, and a guard will run out of the house on your left. Another will come at you from the alley. Shoot them and collect the Card Key and open the Laser Gate.
Follow the path. A helicopter shooting at civilians will pass in front of you. You can't destroy it, so don't waste your ammunition trying. Keep going, being careful of the soldiers that occasionally come out of the doors on either side of the alleyway. One of them will drop a Limit Breaker, so make sure you pick that up. When you reach the Make Point, three more soliders will try to ambush you, so shoot them.
Before you go on, go to the second door on the left after the Mako Point (the second to last door in the alley) and shoot out the window directly above it. MEMORY CAPSULE #2 is inside, so shoot it to collect it. Keep going until you trigger the next cutscene.
As you enter the square, a dog-guard will run off with a little girl named Rio and carry her into a transport crate. This will trigger the "Save the abducted girl!" Stage Mission. Moving around the area a bit will cause some soldiers to come out. Be especially mindful of the two who start shooting at you from the second story windows. Take them all out to make the Stage Mission a little easier. When they're dead, walk up to the transport crate, and press the button on the front. The door will open and a countdown timer will start. When it reaches 0, the dog-guard will come out. Kill it, and Rio will will be reunited with her mother.
Before you leave the area, go over to the fountain. MEMORY CAPSULE #3 is inside, under the water. You may have to jump and shoot to collect this one. Grab the items in the area, and shoot the white crate back in the corner for 500 gil. One of the items you find will be a Phoenix Down, which you should use immediately (it will prevent you from having to start over if you mess up and get KOed).
Follow the path until you come to a side area on the right containing a doorway blocked by a Laser Gate. Approach the gate to trigger the "Locate the card key!" Stage Mission. Before you even move, turn around 180 degrees, and look up at the rooftops. There are some boards sticking out from one of the roofs, and on one of them is MEMORY CAPSULE #4. Shoot it, and proceed down the path. After the short scene showing a child being attacked by three soldiers, kill the soldiers and approach the girl for a nice Thank You for Vincent (and to add to your number of civilians saved).
Take the path on the right, and pick up the Sniper Scope and equip it. There will be a path on your right... skip this one for now and keep going straight to save more civilians. You will come to a group of three civilians separated from you by fire. Deepground soldiers will start attacking them. In theory, you are supposed to use the Sniper Scope to kill them before they can kill the innocent people, but if you've got Sight Support set to automatic or Semi-Automatic, you'll kill them faster if you just fire in normal mode.
When you're done, backtrack to the path you skipped and go down it. Run through the Mako Point, and then take out the soldiers ahead of you (again, there is an exploding barrel that will take out most, if not all, of them if let them get close enough). Head down to where they were attacking from, and pick up the Card Key, and another 500 gil, Then head back to the Laser Gate.
Run through the underground area. Several groups of soldiers will try to kill you on the stairs, so be ready for them. When you reach the room with the door, walk around to the Mako Point and look behind the boxes underneath the stairs. MEMORY CAPSULE #5 is here.
One of the soldiers will have dropped the Long Barrel, so make sure you grab that. Equip it (it's a big help against what's coming up). Collect the handgun bullets and Hi-potion in the corner alcove, and then head out the door. The game will Auto-Save here, and a cutscene will occur. Boss battle time! Yay!
------ Boss Battle ------
Boss: Dragonfly
This guy is a pushover. It's a big helicopter than flys around and tries to shoot you. Just aim and fire... if you want, you can use your Fire Materia on it, but really it's better to save your Mako energy for this stage's final boss a little later.
Dragonfly's machine gun won't do much damage, but you do need to watch out for his rockets, which home in on Vincent, and knock him down (and wipe out a good portion of your HP, to boot). Just point, shoot, and dodge with this guy. About mid-way through the battle, Dragonfly will drop a group of Deepground soldiers into the area. By themselves they're not to dangerous, but if they manage to gang up on you, they can be annoying. Take them out as fast as possible (the exploding barrels scattered around the square are useful here) and then go back to shooting Dragonfly... or if your HP is still high and you're a good shot, just ignore them and finish off Dragonfly.
If you take too long after killing the ground forces, Dragonfly will drop more... but usually, you can finish the helicopter off before than happens.
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After a cutscene showcasing Vincent's uber-coolness, and Azul and Shelke talking, you will find yourself inside one of Kalm's houses. There is a Phoenix down behind the desk, and you can open the doors in the hallway. The first room on the right contains a case with 500 gil and a Shop Kiosk (buy some healing items and/or ammunition if you're running low). The door on the left has another 500 gil hidden behind the large crate. The second room on the right has handgun bullets and 500 gil.
At the end of the hallway, you will find a case containing the Short Barrel next the the stairs. Collect it and go up. You can equip it if you want to, but I usually switch back to the Normal Barrel for the next part (the Long Barrel sometimes has issues with targets that are at close range).
A cutscene will occur, and Vincent will meet Azul and Shelke in person. They will demand something called the Protomateria. Don't worry... you won't be battling them just yet. Azul will mutter "Hail Weiss", and a group of Deepgrounds will come out and attack you. It shouldn't be too hard to finish them off... just watch out for the ones that come out of the big hole in the wall after you finish off the first wave.
Another cutscene, and Azul will challenge you... fortunately, Shelke will faint, and Reeve will arrive with WRO reinforcements, causing him to save his battle with you for later. Reeve will chat with you for a moment, and be very concerned that Azul the Cerulean of the Tsviets is apparantly behind the attack. Vincent will tell Reeve he's not interested in getting involved in this mess, and as Reeve tries to persuade him, he is shot in the back by a Deepground. Vincent shoots the assailant, and hurries to help Reeve... only to find that it's only Cait Sith impersonating him. Vincent agrees to help after all, and next you will find yourself back outside.
The "Assist the WRO!" Stage Mission will trigger automatically. Be prepared to be swarmed. There are Deepground all over the place here. Shoot your way to the opposite side of the area, and angle a bit to the right. You will see some Mako Points shining, and as you approach them, some members of the WRO will come out from behind the gate to back you up. Help them clear out the Deepground soldiers in the area you just came from (the more you prevent from being killed, the better you score in the Stage Mission).
When the area is clear, go to the tall structure in the center of the area and climb to the top for another Limit Breaker. The crates in the area will yeild Potions and gil, so shoot them and pick them up, then head on through the gate the WRO came from and run up to the guy in the red hat.
He'll give you some story info, and some free supplies. Afterwards, there are two cases on your right. One contains the Griffon, your machine-gun frame, and the other contains some machine-gun bullets. Follow the WRO down the alley, but before you go too far look up at the roofs and find the catwalk on top of the building on the left. MEMORY CAPSULE #6 is up there... you'll probably need to use the Sniper Scope.
Proceed down the alley to the fork. The left fork will take you to a group of civialians being protected from Deepground by some WRO officers. Go here first.
The right fork will take you to a group of WRO in a firefight with Deepground. Help them out, and then nose around the area a bit. The alleyway on the left that is blocked by flames is home to MEMORY CAPSULE #7 (you'll have to shoot through the flames... if you can't get a clean shot, use the Sniper Scope). The alcove on the right side of the area will yield a Card Key inside one of the crates, and one of the Deepgrounds will have dropped the Cerberus Relief accessory (don't equip it right now... you'll have to remove the Fire Materia from your weapon, and for the next boss, it's more useful than the slight defense boost you get from the Cerberus Relief).
Use the Card Key on the left Laser Gate instead of the right one. This will net you an additional 500 gil and a second Card Key for the right gate. Open the right gate and move on. As you reach the end of the alley, you will here someone from the WRO yelling about snipers!
Turn left and keep moving until you start getting shot at. There is one high on the roof directly in front of you, two more on the ground ahead, and another on one of the roofs on the right. Once you've taken them out, hop up on the ledge on the right for a Mako Point and some handgun bullets. When you grab the bullets stay right where you are and turn 90 degrees to your right so you are facing the opposite side of the alley, and then look up at the roofs. You should have a clear shot at MEMORY CAPSULE #8 from here. Once you have it, keep following the path to the church. The game will Auto-Save, and you'll be in a boss battle.
------ Boss Battle ------
Boss: Dragonfly GL
Petty much just like your first battle with Dragonfly... only easier. This guy's pretty heavily damaged from the start. Watch out for the rockets, and you should be fine. The Fire Materia is useful here, because it deals out some pretty heavy damage. If you're going for stage points, the remaining Mako Points can be found in this area underneath the shootable crates. There are also some healing items, Phoenix Downs, Limit Breakers, Gil, and ammo scattered around in the crates.
Shoot the helicopter... after several hits, it will sort of flop over and give you a clean shot at it's top. Blast this with your Fire Materia for some heavy critical hits. It shouldn't take long to smoke this guy and sit back and watch Vincent's bad-ass Galian Beast limit, and some WRO members mysteriously vanishing during the ending cutscene for the stage. Oh... and you also see Rosso the Crimson in action.
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Stage 1: Sea of Flames
Location: Kalm
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Stage Missions:
Protect the Civilians!
Save the abducted girl!
Locate the card key!
Assist the WRO!
Memory Capsules: 8
Accessories/Weapons/Key Items:
Fire Materia
Cerberus Relief
Sniper Scope
Long Barrel
Short Barrel
Griffon
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Following the opening cutscenes, you will find yourself on a raised walkway in Kalm. There will be three Deepground soldiers above you on the roof. If you shoot quickly, you should be able to take them all out with taking any damage yourself.
When they're dead, turn to the right and start following the path. Pick up the potion and climb up the ladder. Draw your gun and take out the two soldier ahead of you. If you shoot immediately upon reaching the platform instead of running forward, you can get the first one before they even know you're there. Run forward and grab the handgun bullets the second soldier drops.
When you reach the concrete ledge, turn to the righthand path first, and go to the dead end where you're find a white crate. Shot the crate and pick up the 500 gil inside, and backtrack and take the lefthand path. When you get the the point where the path begins to curve (there is a wall of flames in front of you at this point), stop and loof to your left. You will see three soldiers on a platform. Shoot the white barrel on the platform to make it explode, and it should take them all out. Proceed down, and grab any items they drop.
That platform leads to another, smaller platform. When you get here, stop, and shoot the distant two soldiers directly ahead by the wall. Keep following the path, and you will come to a doorway leading to a stairwell. Ignore this for now, and run past it to the dead end where you can snag a second Potion.
Before you head back to the doorway, look over the edge of the railing (you may have to move back the way you came from to get a clear shot). MEMORY CAPSULE #1 can be seen on one of the rooftops. Collect it by shooting it, and then go back to the doorway.
Head down the stairs, but be careful, because there are three soldiers waiting for you. If you're good with the gun, they can be taken out with a few shots. If you're still getting used to the controls, however, you will probably take less damage if you use Vincent's melee attack to finish them off.
When you reach the end of the stairs, there will be a short cutscene displaying your map, and showing you where you're supposed to go. As you proceed down the allyway, the "Protect the Civilians!" STAGE MISSION will automatically activate. Several civilians will run towards you with Deepground not far behind. Kill the soldiers, and move on. When you get to the end of the ally, it would be wise to pause and shoot a few of the soldiers waiting in the street before they see you. Collect the dropped items, and pick up the Potion near one of the stalls on the left side of the street.
As you near the next allyway, two soldiers will emerge, chasing a civilian. Shoot them, and run past the ally they came from. There is a second ally farther down with three soldier walking away from you. Gun them down and head down the alley. At the very end, you will find a child hiding behind some crates, and a side area where to other civilians are hiding. Both groups will trigger a short scene. There is also a case containing 500 gil back there.
Backtrack to the street and head down the other alley. Here, you will find the first Mako Point, and a Fire Materia. It would be wise to equip the Fire Materia now before you forget about it, as it comes in handy when you face the first boss.
Head to the end of the alley to tigger another short cutscene showing a helicopter carrying away soem sort of cargo container. Kill the two soldiers in the square ahead (you can probably get them both by shooting the barrel to the right of the alley entrance, if you time it right). A third will run out of one of the houses on the left. When he's out of the way, approach the Laser Gate ahead of you. Turn around, and a guard will run out of the house on your left. Another will come at you from the alley. Shoot them and collect the Card Key and open the Laser Gate.
Follow the path. A helicopter shooting at civilians will pass in front of you. You can't destroy it, so don't waste your ammunition trying. Keep going, being careful of the soldiers that occasionally come out of the doors on either side of the alleyway. One of them will drop a Limit Breaker, so make sure you pick that up. When you reach the Make Point, three more soliders will try to ambush you, so shoot them.
Before you go on, go to the second door on the left after the Mako Point (the second to last door in the alley) and shoot out the window directly above it. MEMORY CAPSULE #2 is inside, so shoot it to collect it. Keep going until you trigger the next cutscene.
As you enter the square, a dog-guard will run off with a little girl named Rio and carry her into a transport crate. This will trigger the "Save the abducted girl!" Stage Mission. Moving around the area a bit will cause some soldiers to come out. Be especially mindful of the two who start shooting at you from the second story windows. Take them all out to make the Stage Mission a little easier. When they're dead, walk up to the transport crate, and press the button on the front. The door will open and a countdown timer will start. When it reaches 0, the dog-guard will come out. Kill it, and Rio will will be reunited with her mother.
Before you leave the area, go over to the fountain. MEMORY CAPSULE #3 is inside, under the water. You may have to jump and shoot to collect this one. Grab the items in the area, and shoot the white crate back in the corner for 500 gil. One of the items you find will be a Phoenix Down, which you should use immediately (it will prevent you from having to start over if you mess up and get KOed).
Follow the path until you come to a side area on the right containing a doorway blocked by a Laser Gate. Approach the gate to trigger the "Locate the card key!" Stage Mission. Before you even move, turn around 180 degrees, and look up at the rooftops. There are some boards sticking out from one of the roofs, and on one of them is MEMORY CAPSULE #4. Shoot it, and proceed down the path. After the short scene showing a child being attacked by three soldiers, kill the soldiers and approach the girl for a nice Thank You for Vincent (and to add to your number of civilians saved).
Take the path on the right, and pick up the Sniper Scope and equip it. There will be a path on your right... skip this one for now and keep going straight to save more civilians. You will come to a group of three civilians separated from you by fire. Deepground soldiers will start attacking them. In theory, you are supposed to use the Sniper Scope to kill them before they can kill the innocent people, but if you've got Sight Support set to automatic or Semi-Automatic, you'll kill them faster if you just fire in normal mode.
When you're done, backtrack to the path you skipped and go down it. Run through the Mako Point, and then take out the soldiers ahead of you (again, there is an exploding barrel that will take out most, if not all, of them if let them get close enough). Head down to where they were attacking from, and pick up the Card Key, and another 500 gil, Then head back to the Laser Gate.
Run through the underground area. Several groups of soldiers will try to kill you on the stairs, so be ready for them. When you reach the room with the door, walk around to the Mako Point and look behind the boxes underneath the stairs. MEMORY CAPSULE #5 is here.
One of the soldiers will have dropped the Long Barrel, so make sure you grab that. Equip it (it's a big help against what's coming up). Collect the handgun bullets and Hi-potion in the corner alcove, and then head out the door. The game will Auto-Save here, and a cutscene will occur. Boss battle time! Yay!
------ Boss Battle ------
Boss: Dragonfly
This guy is a pushover. It's a big helicopter than flys around and tries to shoot you. Just aim and fire... if you want, you can use your Fire Materia on it, but really it's better to save your Mako energy for this stage's final boss a little later.
Dragonfly's machine gun won't do much damage, but you do need to watch out for his rockets, which home in on Vincent, and knock him down (and wipe out a good portion of your HP, to boot). Just point, shoot, and dodge with this guy. About mid-way through the battle, Dragonfly will drop a group of Deepground soldiers into the area. By themselves they're not to dangerous, but if they manage to gang up on you, they can be annoying. Take them out as fast as possible (the exploding barrels scattered around the square are useful here) and then go back to shooting Dragonfly... or if your HP is still high and you're a good shot, just ignore them and finish off Dragonfly.
If you take too long after killing the ground forces, Dragonfly will drop more... but usually, you can finish the helicopter off before than happens.
-------------------------
After a cutscene showcasing Vincent's uber-coolness, and Azul and Shelke talking, you will find yourself inside one of Kalm's houses. There is a Phoenix down behind the desk, and you can open the doors in the hallway. The first room on the right contains a case with 500 gil and a Shop Kiosk (buy some healing items and/or ammunition if you're running low). The door on the left has another 500 gil hidden behind the large crate. The second room on the right has handgun bullets and 500 gil.
At the end of the hallway, you will find a case containing the Short Barrel next the the stairs. Collect it and go up. You can equip it if you want to, but I usually switch back to the Normal Barrel for the next part (the Long Barrel sometimes has issues with targets that are at close range).
A cutscene will occur, and Vincent will meet Azul and Shelke in person. They will demand something called the Protomateria. Don't worry... you won't be battling them just yet. Azul will mutter "Hail Weiss", and a group of Deepgrounds will come out and attack you. It shouldn't be too hard to finish them off... just watch out for the ones that come out of the big hole in the wall after you finish off the first wave.
Another cutscene, and Azul will challenge you... fortunately, Shelke will faint, and Reeve will arrive with WRO reinforcements, causing him to save his battle with you for later. Reeve will chat with you for a moment, and be very concerned that Azul the Cerulean of the Tsviets is apparantly behind the attack. Vincent will tell Reeve he's not interested in getting involved in this mess, and as Reeve tries to persuade him, he is shot in the back by a Deepground. Vincent shoots the assailant, and hurries to help Reeve... only to find that it's only Cait Sith impersonating him. Vincent agrees to help after all, and next you will find yourself back outside.
The "Assist the WRO!" Stage Mission will trigger automatically. Be prepared to be swarmed. There are Deepground all over the place here. Shoot your way to the opposite side of the area, and angle a bit to the right. You will see some Mako Points shining, and as you approach them, some members of the WRO will come out from behind the gate to back you up. Help them clear out the Deepground soldiers in the area you just came from (the more you prevent from being killed, the better you score in the Stage Mission).
When the area is clear, go to the tall structure in the center of the area and climb to the top for another Limit Breaker. The crates in the area will yeild Potions and gil, so shoot them and pick them up, then head on through the gate the WRO came from and run up to the guy in the red hat.
He'll give you some story info, and some free supplies. Afterwards, there are two cases on your right. One contains the Griffon, your machine-gun frame, and the other contains some machine-gun bullets. Follow the WRO down the alley, but before you go too far look up at the roofs and find the catwalk on top of the building on the left. MEMORY CAPSULE #6 is up there... you'll probably need to use the Sniper Scope.
Proceed down the alley to the fork. The left fork will take you to a group of civialians being protected from Deepground by some WRO officers. Go here first.
The right fork will take you to a group of WRO in a firefight with Deepground. Help them out, and then nose around the area a bit. The alleyway on the left that is blocked by flames is home to MEMORY CAPSULE #7 (you'll have to shoot through the flames... if you can't get a clean shot, use the Sniper Scope). The alcove on the right side of the area will yield a Card Key inside one of the crates, and one of the Deepgrounds will have dropped the Cerberus Relief accessory (don't equip it right now... you'll have to remove the Fire Materia from your weapon, and for the next boss, it's more useful than the slight defense boost you get from the Cerberus Relief).
Use the Card Key on the left Laser Gate instead of the right one. This will net you an additional 500 gil and a second Card Key for the right gate. Open the right gate and move on. As you reach the end of the alley, you will here someone from the WRO yelling about snipers!
Turn left and keep moving until you start getting shot at. There is one high on the roof directly in front of you, two more on the ground ahead, and another on one of the roofs on the right. Once you've taken them out, hop up on the ledge on the right for a Mako Point and some handgun bullets. When you grab the bullets stay right where you are and turn 90 degrees to your right so you are facing the opposite side of the alley, and then look up at the roofs. You should have a clear shot at MEMORY CAPSULE #8 from here. Once you have it, keep following the path to the church. The game will Auto-Save, and you'll be in a boss battle.
------ Boss Battle ------
Boss: Dragonfly GL
Petty much just like your first battle with Dragonfly... only easier. This guy's pretty heavily damaged from the start. Watch out for the rockets, and you should be fine. The Fire Materia is useful here, because it deals out some pretty heavy damage. If you're going for stage points, the remaining Mako Points can be found in this area underneath the shootable crates. There are also some healing items, Phoenix Downs, Limit Breakers, Gil, and ammo scattered around in the crates.
Shoot the helicopter... after several hits, it will sort of flop over and give you a clean shot at it's top. Blast this with your Fire Materia for some heavy critical hits. It shouldn't take long to smoke this guy and sit back and watch Vincent's bad-ass Galian Beast limit, and some WRO members mysteriously vanishing during the ending cutscene for the stage. Oh... and you also see Rosso the Crimson in action.
-------------------------
