Mission 11: The Ninth Circle

Advent Chamber

There's a Combat Adjudicator here that apparently requires you to get up to SSS ranking with her. It's very difficult to do this while only working on one enemy. Our recommendation is to move into the level a bit, work up a full Devil Trigger gauge, and come back. You should be able to get up to S or SS just through the use of your combos and regular attacks; when you get up to SS, try using one of the expensive Yamato moves like Showtime to bust up to the SSS ranking and get your Blue Orb Fragment.

You may need to use a purchaseable Devil Trigger move to get up to SSS here.

When you're ready to move up, find the blue switch here and activate it to spawn some Grim Grips. Ride them up top, defeat the Faust, and activate the elevator nearby.

Upper Level

The upper level here has a locked doorway that will only open if both pressure plates are depressed. Snatch one of the Scarecrows nearby and pull it to the door to move on.

There's a Grim Grip semi-puzzle beyond the demon statue here. Two Grim Grips are accessible to you here, but the far path is blocked off because it's too high. We've only managed to move on thanks to Air Hike, so we're not sure how you'd get past this area without it. Regardless, to do so, stand below the rightmost Grip, jump up once, use Snatch on the grip, then Air Hike over to the next walkway.

There are a few more Grip sections to get through until you reach a large platform where Angelos will attack you. When you reach it, you can defeat the Angelos and flip the red switch to drop a platform back near the demon statue. When you head back that way, you'll be inundated by enemies, with alternating phases of Scarecrows and Angelos of various sorts. Kill them if you like; this is apparently just a way to build style points, as there's no reward for beating everything. If you want to skip them, just head into the lift nearby and move on up to the boss fight.

Boss Fight: Sanctus/The Savior

Let's get ready to rumble! Sanctus will be a two-part fight. He will probably either seem pretty easy or simply drawn-out, depending on your experiences.

Phase One

In phase one of this fight, Sanctus will float above the ground, encased in a spherical shell. He has numerous attacks, most of which target the ground instead of you, so that's just fine.

Your goal here is to get up next to Sanctus and hit his shell with your sword attacks. Do so by Snatching the small orbs that Sanctus spits out from his shell; they don't have any purpose initially, but are simply there to be Snatched and allow you to get up close and personal with Sanctus. When you're in the air near his shell, whack him with your sword a few times. Eventually the shell will break in half, allowing you to repeat the process until it falls away entirely, forcing Sanctus to the ground. At this point you can drop down next to him and use a Buster to initiate a pretty rad supercombo.

Sanctus' shell will need to be pierced before you can finish him off.

Of course, things won't always be this simple. The different attacks that Sanctus will send your way will usually be aimed at the ground, but the ones that aren't will be annoying to deal with. He has a few here, including: "The Savior is coming!", which will restore his shell when it's broken and cause damage to you if you're nearby; "I sentence you to death!", where a number of purple shards of energy pop up from the ground, which will likewise be tough to dodge if you're near him; and "Repent!/You will pay!", which sends a couple of fireballs along the ground and is easily dodgeable.

Video Walk-through

Sanctus kind of kicked us around at the end of this fight; usually it goes a bit smoother.

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There are also a couple of attacks that feature grunts and yells, but no words, before they come down. The first one features a laser beam that hits the ground and spreads out, causing damage to you if you land. Stay in the air and keep swinging to avoid this. By far the most annoying attack of his, however, is the fireballs that he sometimes sends your way, which will come out after he yells "Burn!". The fireballs originate from inside of his shell and will pretty much always hit you if you're trying to attack him while they come out, knocking you to the ground. If he pulls this move off a few times in a row, it'll spell frustration for you.

Sanctus will attempt to move away from you as best he can, but he does have to stop in order to attack. Use that opening to claw your way close to him and attack. If you find that you're not having enough time to break his shell, use Devil Trigger while you're attacking from the air to get more hits in.

Phase Two

Eventually Sanctus will wake the Savior and cause him to attack you from afar. This fist attack is difficult to dodge because it comes down so quickly; try moving from the edge of the platform towards the wall. Eventually Sanctus will reemerge from the ground, however, allowing you to finish him off in the same fashion you were originally attacking him with.

Ouch.

This section can either be really short or frustratingly lengthy, due to the fact that Sanctus will often disappear into the Savior after you halfway destroy his shell, preventing you from finishing him off. Given enough time, though, you'll eventually take him out.