TREASURE STRIKE!! Version 2.0 FAQ/Hints/Walkthrough by: YatenKou14@aol.com Without any distractions, lets get straight to the good stuff! MENU TRANSLATIONS The game begins with your character arriving at a city where the game takes place. You first enter your name (in English or Japanese). Then you move on to customize your character, choosing their gender, hair color and style, eye shape, etc. You then start the game! Buffalo greets you and you have your first battle with him. Remember that you can lock onto a person using R1 to vastly increase your accuracy. After that, the true game begins. Here are menu translations: At the main menu, the top option selects things to do in town. Again on the main menu, the second option is for equipping new weapons. The third option is save game, and the last is quit. Again, to get to the Town Menu, click the first option on the main menu. The first command at the town menu is where you would click to begin a battle. The rest should be easy to figure out from there. The second option on the town menu is The Shop. You go here to buy and sell new items. After clicking on the shop, it will bring up a new menu. From here, select the top option to buy new weapons. The second option is for selling items you own ( the top option on the sell menu is to sell treasure, the second is to sell weapons). The third option is equip new items, and the last is exit. Back at the main menu, the third option is Nutz and Boltz's Shop. You can go here to upgrade your weapons and combine treasure for new weapons. Note that you can only upgrade and combine items after a certain point in the game; it is not immediately selectable. Once you select Nutz and Boltz's Shop, another menu pops up. From here, the top menu is to upgrade your weapons, and the second is for combining. You should be able to figure those out on your own. The third option is equip, and the last is exit. The fourth option on the main menu is The Coco Brother's Shop. You can go here to change your characters clothing. The top Brother deals with hair color and style, and the second deals with clothing and accessories. The final option on the main menu allows you to go to the bar, and you MUST go here occasionally to open up new areas and meet new rivals. After you have all the areas and have beaten Mon Butch though, there is no point in going here. CHARACTERS ( With the weapon ratings, I am assuming you know how to lock on.... If not, you hold R1 and target the person; this vastly increases your effectiveness in battle.) Buffalo: Appears to be a miner of some sort, with a viking's helmet. There isn't much to be said about this guy, he's pretty dull, to be frank. He greets you and fights you the first time you land at the city where the game takes place, and appears in the Ruin Lotusia and The Cubid, on setting 1 and 2. His weapons are a big hammer (yay!) and a cruddy little machine gun. The hammer does a decent amount of damage, but since it is a close range weapon it is really difficult to hit most people with half a brain. The machine gun is crap incarnate. At least it's real fast..... but the damage it does is practically nothing. I can't recommend this character at all. Harao: He seems to be a guardian of The Cubid, or just a wandering treasure hunter. He looks pretty spiffy. His weapons are a poisonous chakram and a gun that shoots tornadoes at the opposition. The chakram is nice since it poisons the enemy ( when you are poisoned, you just sit there shaking your head, leaving you wide open to attacks ), but once again, it is a close range weapon, so you have to be pretty quick to hit the enemy with it. The tornado shot is good because they spread out and are very easy to hit the enemy with. They don't do too much damage though. Overall a very good character. Recommended. Wolsm: Ok, this guy is definitely the guardian of the Cubid. You can actually read what this guy is saying too, although he doesn't say much... ( "Oh no!! Please take me home!!" ) His weapons are his fist and what appears to be a type of magic spell; it shoots out a red skull at you that poisons you. Poison is without a doubt the most annoying status effect. On top of that, his close range attack (his fists) really hurts, and he runs up and hits you after he poisons you. Additionally, (although I THINK this only happens in the Cubid) his life constantly regenerates. This makes it pretty difficult to kill him. A pretty powerful character, but there is better. Honey Pie: WOO HOO!! Easily the coolest pre-made character, and also the most powerful (aside from Mon Butch, that is). She only appears at Jumbo Max Island and the Garric Tower(but only once there). Her two weapons are her "Love Gun" and her cannon. The Love Gun is extremely spiffy, and good too. It is basically a poison gun, only hearts fly around the person as they walk around real funny. The cannon just flat out hurts. It is fast, and does a lot of damage, and she has infinite shots with it. Also, it appears that Honey Pie and Cutie Pie are related (not necessarily by blood), since in her character description in the instrucion book mentions Cutie Pie in it. Perhaps they are sisters, or just rivals. Honey Pie just plain kicks ass, HIGHLY recommended. Cutie Pie: Cutie Pie only appears in Ruin Lotusia and the Garric Tower (once). Her two weapons are her Seed Gun and her really spiffy land mines that drop anvils on the opponents' heads. The Seed Gun is basically Honey Pie's gun with a reduced range and less "Oomph". Her land mines, however, do a good amount of damage and cause the dizzy effect. When you are dizzied, she usually runs up and lobs a seed bomb at you. Not a very good character, but she IS better than Buffalo. (Am I the only one who notices that the flower on her head looks like it tried to eat her but got stuck and died?) Captain Smileman: I call him "Snickelmoose" for some reason. Probably because he is EXTREMELY annoying. He only appears in Jumbo Max Island and Garric Tower (once >.< god I'm getting tired of saying that!!). His weapons are his "Homing Tri-shot Anchors" and his close range weapon is his fist or MAYBE that anchor he carries around on his back. The homing anchors are very painful. They home and do a good amount of damage. His close range attack is also to be reckoned with. A powerful character, recommended. Almost compares to Honey Pie. Kotz: ARGGH!!! THIS GUY IS SO FRIKKIN ANNOYING IT ISN'T EVEN FUNNY!!! HE MAKES SMILEMAN SEEM TAME!! I HAAAAAAAATE KOTZ!!! Ok, just had to get that out. Yes, Kotz is very annoying. His close range attack, his Bone Club, does good damage and also has that "wind slash-y thing". His other attack, his Bone Missile, is a single homing missile that does very little damage. I hate this guy, therefore, don't use him. Also, this guy is your rival for all of the game, unless you pick the second choice near the beginning of the game, whereupon you might get someone else( I have yet to do this though). Squad Kotz: These guys are pretty weak. You basically have nothing to worry about from these guys, unless they are with Kotz. They have a weak cannon and also a land mine that explodes. They work for Kotz. Karaft-Maru: There isn't much to be said about this guy; he looks spiffy, but he really sucks. His weapons are his shotgun which poisons, and another crappy machine gun. As you read above, poison is extremely annoying. The machine gun does almost no damage. Not recommended. Just a theory; This guy always seems to be in some sort of situation with HeinHein. Could they be rivals? Or perhaps Karaft-Maru is HeinHein's creation.....? Dr. Highhat HeinHein: This guy is funny looking ^-^ His looks just scream "PLEASE KILL ME!" He ALSO has one of those cruddy machine guns, but his close attack is pretty strong. Not too bad, but not too good either. Mon Butch: This guy is pretty disturbing looking.. But he somehow reminds of my friend Hoosier Joe's ( yes, that is her nick-name) dad. Ok, this is without a question the most powerful character in the game. His weapons are his tri-shot homing missiles, which are basically the homing anchors that Smileman uses, but the do much less damage. His other weapon is the real killer. It is a HUGE sword that takes off more than half of your life, and also has that windy slashy things. Recommended, but very scary character. And those are all the characters found in the game. Noting that HeinHein and Mon Butch are secret characters. SPIFFY HINTS Ok, there really isnt much to put up here, but I am TRYING to make a good FAQ here, and the Item Combination List will appear later, as soon my friend and I get off our lazy butts and make it ^-^;;; First off, when you are playing one player mode and you want to collect as many items as possible and of course you stumble across the chest with the target treasure right off the bat, merely close the chest WITHOUT grabbing the item. The treasure will stay right where it is, but you have to watch that the computer opponents don't get it, but THAT problem can be easily avoided by placing lots of mines around the chest.... ( I actually didn't think of this one. My friend pointed it out to me.) The best weapons are the ones that are fast, and do a good amount of damage. Also, homing is very useful to have. Status effects are rare and definitely worth the while; but, the only status effect weapons I have found are the Foot Mine and a purple gun with a slow effect. Close range weapons are not often worth the while, with a few exceptions. I have found that for amount of ammo, 30 seems to be about the best number. Above 30 is nice, but those points could have gone to speed of the shot or damage potential. About upgrading weapons. Like I said above, 30 ammo is plenty. Rarely will you need more than that, if you aim well. I would put as much points into damage and speed as possible. LEVEL STRATEGIES Ruin Lotusia: My personal favorite stage. There is plenty of open space for those spiffy explosive weapons, and also lots of stairs for knocking people into the air. This stage is also probably the most well designed. There isn't much to worry about in this stage until you beat the game and Mon Butch begins to show up there. This is also the "last" stage in the game; meaning that you fight Mon Butch here(Mon Butch being the final boss). Garric Tower: Also a very nice stage. There are LOTS of stairs, and a lot of open space in the arena area. In the other areas though, persons using explosive weapons should use a little caution... One little mis-aim could lead to you blowing yourself up. This is probably the easiest stage. The only people that show up here are HeinHein and Karaft-Maru( and Kotz, of course). Just watch out for Karaft-maru's poison gun. The Cubid: This stage just isn't good for multi-player games. It gets kind of difficult to see on a split-screen. On one player though, this stage is very fun. There are some open spaces, and also a good amount of stairs. There isn't much to say about this stage really. This stage can get hyper annoying; both Wolsm and Harao have poisonous weapons. Kotz being there doesn't help much. Jumbo Max Island: The coolest stage. There is a lot of open space for you bomb-happy freaks and also a few stairs. It is easy to screw up on those stairs though. This stage is deadly. I try not to go here too much, because it tends to really piss you off when Honey Pie just starts blowing the crap out of you. And Smileman hurts too. Thank god Honey Pie and Smileman keep Kotz busy. WEAPON RECIPES This excellent little chart was sent in by JTS - Thelemur@Jorsm.com!! Arigato! S = Short Range, L = Long Range, T = Trap, N = New, O = Old, J = Junk E = Explosive, H = Homing, P = Paralyze, D = Dizzy, Z = Slow Motion F = Short range with far damage, R = Recharging (energy) weapon, A = Ammo * = Need to test weapon to verify notations ! = Need to verify weapon name S J 1 29 JUNK S O FR 4 14 Daisword (Like the Trident, only suckier) L O A 4 22 Bereto Gun (?) (need to try this) *! L O A 5 82 Gagaga Gun (Biryu's official gun. Machinegun) L O HA 6 47 Goju x Nini (50 x 2 2 Double missile launcher with weird name) * L N DR 10 29 Love Machine (makes dizzy with hearts) L O HA 11 47 Shaboned (?) (bubble gun) S J 14 (1 8 12 13 16 17 21 24 25 28 31 32 34 39 43 44 47 62 66 67 86) - JUNK blade L J 14 35 JUNK gun S N FR 14 19 Lighty Light (lightsaber) S O 14 26 Quick Hammer (Giant mallet) S N 14 38 GyaGacho (Giant... claw... thing. It's silly) S O FR 14 41 Trident (The official Biryu sponsored sword) S N 14 45 Big Katana (It's a big katana. That's not the real name) ! S N R 14 68 Dorakta (cat claws) S N 14 82 Ginsu (ginsu chainsaw. Enough said) S O FR 14 91 Big Honking Cloud Sword (tm) ! S N 14 97 HR1-1000 (The ultimate in paper fan killing technology) L O HR 16 20 Nocturne I (homing laser 1) L N HR 17 20 Concerto II (homing laser 2) T O Z 17 24 Blizzadon (ice trap, slows you down) L N HR 18 20 Homing laser 3 ! L O R 19 22 EnerGun (This is a gun that fires energy, appropriately enough) * T N E 19 24 KANJI-Enerbomb (Energy trap mine) L N ER 19 27 EnerDyna Gun (energy bomb launcher) L J 19 38 JUNK gun S J 19 63 JUNK blade L O R 19 85 Repealer (Energy ring gun) L N PA 20 85 Fanfarei (Dancing gun, stuns you) S J 20 (23 28 33) - JUNK blade L J 20 (31 38) - JUNK gun S N 21 23 Megaton Knuckle (Punch. Hurts. Urgh. Grunt) * L O A 21 42 Number Shot (It's a Shotgun.) L J 21 (70 80) - JUNK gun L J 22 (1 7 10 15 18 28 30 36 38 54 69 74 96) - JUNK gun S J 22 29 JUNK blade L N PA 22 23 Toke toke tiger (stunning gun) L N EA 22 31 Dyna gun (bomb launcher) L N A 22 40 Ninja star launcher (Yeah, it's obvious ain't it?) *! L N A 22 46 The Big Bow (I believe that's actually the name. Crossbow) ! T N D 24 26 King's 16 Ton (Drops 16 tons of dizzying damage on your head) T O E 24 31 Jirai Bomb (The normal explosive mine) T N Z 24 34 Dodododorian (It's a plant mine. Go figure) T N D 24 39 The Love Mine (Makes you dizzy with the power of love!) ! T N D 24 41 Tub dropper (... that's a silly name, makes you dizzy with chickens) !* L J 24 (62 82) - JUNK gun S J 24 (69 73) JUNK blade T N P 24 94 DamuDamuAshu (Drops a boot on your head, makes you depressed and stuns you) ! T N DE 24 104 Smoker Heaven (Wow. Even item 104 makes weapons? Hurts AND dizzies. Sugoi) L O EA 27 31 Bombned (tosses bombs in a short arc) L N HEA 27 47 Missileman 3 (3 way rocket launcher) * L N HA 27 62 The MiKANJIMiKANJI (Slow motion homing missile of doom) *! S N P 28 32 Kuram Chakram (Stunning blade weapon, stuns with skulls) S J 29 (32 59) - JUNK blade L J 29 35 JUNK gun L N H 37 47 Condor Gun *! (??? Can't make one) S O FR 40 82 Spinner Stars (The rotating blade weapon thing) L N R 63 82 Energagaga Gun (Energy machine gun. Word.) L N A 82 96 Finger Fang (Seems to be a shotgun type weapon. Neesd further testing) *! L N A 82 107 KANJI Gatling (It's a gatling gun. Tres cool) * I've been trying to construct these items, without the following list of treasures, so you may want to attempt combinations using any of the items below: 9 18 34 37 40 45 48-53 55-58 60 61 65 72 73 75 83 88 89 92 93 97-101 103 105 106 109 (I am missing 36 out of 120 items) Barring those items, I've comprehensively tested all combinations using: 1 14 19 20 21 22 24 27 29 47 82 Extra Facts: Out of the 18 store sold weapons, I have made 16 (Where are those last 2 hiding?) 30 of the weapons are original. I am missing 36 out of 120 items. Only 109 items can be combined, the last 11 are unsellable and uncombinable treasures.