Mission 18: The Destroyer

You now have the ability to wield Yamato, the cursed sword that has the ability to seal the barrier between worlds. It is a Style, actually, not a weapon; attempting to re-select your current Style will flip you over to Yamato. Although it's a Style, it can't be powered up, and the abilities it offers you aren't incredibly powerful, so you won't need to use it very often.

Boss Fight: Savior 2

This mission is essentially one long boss fight. If you played God of War II, then you should be familiar with the basic small-dude-versus-huge-dude mechanic. The Savior is studded with soul diamonds, however, that will serve as his weak spot here.

Go for the forehead crystal whenever you have the opportunity to do so!

It's impossible to really map this area, so you can expect to do a lot of hopping around at the outset. The entire area seems to loop around if you follow a jumping path, but it can be a bit confusing to find where you're going. Keep in mind that if you take a bouncing path, then land next to another bouncer, it might not return you to where you're going; it may instead lead you to another part of the area.

Savior has a number of attacks that he'll use on you, but he'll usually stick with either energy attacks from a distance or physical attacks that see him slamming a limb into the platform that you're on. The energy attacks can be shot, in case of the four small homing balls, or simply Trickstered away from, in the case of the set of three massive energy balls that he'll fire. The physical attacks can be dodged by quickly moving, but again, Trickster is your best bet for supreme mobility, since the Sky Star ability will

Lasers and Arms

Video Walk-through

The Savior's first form will go down if you manage to strike at all of the weak spots.

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In order to take the Savior down, you're going to need to find three mechanisms that are scattered around the area, each of which has a blue switch attached to it. Two of these fire lasers, which will strike and stun the Savior when he attempts to smash the platform you're on. If you can fire these at him, quickly climb onto his arm via the hand! While you're on the arm, you can use Coyote-A to fire away at the weak spots. Keep in mind that Coyote-A fires much more rapidly while you're airborne, so jump before firing.

While you're on the arms, Savior will attempt to swipe you away. Keep Trickster equipped here and dash through the arm as it comes your way to avoid the hit. He'll also send those four energy balls at you as well, so be ready to either shoot them or take the hit; they won't knock you off the arm.

Your goal here, again, is to shoot the blue crystals on the elbows and shoulders of the arm. The Coyote-A is probably your best bet for burning them down quickly. Keep in mind that you will also be able to briefly target the crystal on Savior's forehead, as well. If you get the opportunity to shoot it, do so! We had a problem one time where we didn't manage to shoot the forehead crystal before we finished off both of the arm crystals on both arms, and after that it was almost impossible to shoot the forehead crystal except from long range with the Pandora.

The Cannon

There are two laser beams scattered around, but the cannon is located elsewhere; you'll know you're there when you find something that looks, well, like a cannon, and is pointed out towards the Savior. Charge it up, fire it, and the Savior will fall down temporarily.

Shooting the Savior with the cannon will let you get at some difficult-to-reach crystals.

This gives you the opportunity to jump all over the place and start wailing away at the remaining crystals. Just take whatever jumper you find, and there'll usually be another crystal waiting for you when you get there. Don't be surprised if some of them are already smashed, as you will have already taken out a few of the arm crystals, but this will let you get to a few you can't reach by hitting the arms. (And, conversely, the arms will let you fire on the forehead crystal, whereas the cannon will not put it into easy position.)

Second Phase

Video Walk-through

the second phase of the Savior fight can be lengthy, but if you keep at it, he'll fall eventually.

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Eventually, after you destroy all or enough of the crystals, you will enter a little cutscene that will show Dante flipping around on the platforms. This signals the beginning of the second phase of the fight, which will probably take a bit longer to complete. You'll also know that you've moved on due to the fact that Savior will begin firing huge, huge energy beams at you. These are easy to avoid by hitting the jumpers nearby. We're not sure what happens if it hits you, since we always managed to avoid it, but we're guessing it's not pleasant.

At any rate, your goal here is to destroy the crystal on Savior's chest. It's tough to get to, but with a little luck you'll be able to bring it to you.

While you stand on any of the platforms here, you can lock onto and shoot the crystal with either the Pandora's mid-air fire or the Ebony & Ivory. That will slowly but surely whittle the crystal down, but it'll take a long time to finish it off if that's all you really do. You can hasten the process by trying to find the highest platform in the area. It's a small, relatively flat platform that's a bit higher than the platforms around it. If you wait there, there's a chance that Savior will brush up against the platform, starting with his head. You can hurt his entire body, if minorly, so strike at his face as it goes past you to raise your style meter. When you get down to the crystal, take the moment that it's there to unload a couple of combos on it.

This looks like it would hurt. Don't let it hit you!

The Savior will quickly dash backwards away from the platform, forcing you to return to gunfire to fire on the crystal. He'll also probably smash the platform eventually, forcing you to reset yourself. It'll take a bit of time for the platform to reappear, so you won't be able to do much except fire away with your guns until it reappears. There's a chance that Savior will perform the brush-up manevuer on other platforms, but it seems to be a rare occurance.

At any rate, if you deal enough damage to the crystal, Savior will fall down again, letting you use a jumper to get right up next to the chest crystal. Take the opportunity to lock onto it and use a bunch of Devil Triggered combos on it. Just keep in mind that your attacks seem to slide off to the right of the crystal after a bit; you may need to readjust yourself to ensure that you actually stay on target in terms of hitting it.

Repeating these steps will eventually end the mission.

Mission 19: The Successor

Machina Ex Deus

This is apparently just a small holding facility for you. Move on!

Stairway to Heaven

Here's where things get kind of annoying. You remember the game room back in the Underground Lab? Where you had to hit the dice to move your character around the room? Well, hope you liked it, because that's pretty much all this mission consists of.

At any rate, start hitting dice! You should remember a bit of the drill: landing on blue squares will net you orbs, red squares will cause you to fight, and white squares will do nothing for you. The yellow squares will warp you to the exit from a level, as will landing on the purple square directly in front of it. The red squares are time-consuming, but the enemies within them will often have enough green orbs to refill your health, which is handy, since each of the tiers will have a boss fight in between them.

The first boss fight actually consists of an Alto Angelo and four Bianco Angelos, which can be an uphill battle if you don't start taking them down quickly. The second fight is Belial, who can whip you good if you don't go into the fight with plenty of health on you. The third and fourth fights are Dagon and Echidna. All of the bosses will be slightly easier than they were before, thanks to your upgraded abilities and extra health, but they're all still capable of delivering a beatdown. This is one of the best levels to bring a Golden Orb to two into. Lastly, you'll have to fight Angelo Agnus for the third time in order to reach the final platform.

When you do defeat Agnus, destroy the barrier in front of Savior's heart and head through to finish the level.