Walkthrough

***Walkthrough***

While this game is all about the adventure an exploring the unknown, knowing how to best move on can be a dauting task. Luckily for you, we've got you covered if you want to know what lies ahead without wanting any of Avalon's unwanted surprises coming to bite you in the face. This is, as always, a work in progress!

## ***Introduction - The Call of the Singing Shard of Water...***

### ***Forest Ruins***

***Suggested HP:*** Starting levels

***Monsters:***

* In the start of the game, no matter who you start off as, you'll start off in the Forest Ruins -    Clearing, in the SW. You'll run into your first battle in which you'll be taught the basic mechanics of combat... in which you'll have a set tank, a set healer through a Healing Item, and a main DPS character. After the battle ends, you'll find that your HP heals back to its maximum value!
* After the battle, you're free to wander to some degree, though if you leave through the easternmost exit, into the Forest Tomb, you'll run into a guard about half way through the map going east, stating that it's too dangerous to continue on. More on this later!
* Instead of going to the Forest Tomb, take the northernmost exit and head into the Singing Grove. Upon doing this, you'll have a cutscene in which your party comments on hearing some mysterious singing coming from the area. From the SW entrance, head east and once you find the first clearing north, begin to turn that way and move for the west towards the NW corner of the map. You'll find a flight of ruined stairs with a Singing Stone sitting beside them. After a short cutscene plays, a large Avian-kin boss attacks the party before you can inspect the Singing Stone...
	+ ***BOSS FIGHT: Dreadwing*** ***- Approximately 500 HP -*** This boss shouldn't be TOO terrible, provided that you made yourself fight some, if not all, of the mobs along the way to get yourself some stat boosts, or perhaps even an Awakening. The best real strategy here is to keep your tank using their his/her shield while your Healing Item user keeps everyone's HP levels topped off and your main DPS just attacks it. With any luck, you should nab an easy Awakening or two from this battle. To note, if you have someone as fragile as Bianca, it's suggested you fight a bit with a few laps between the Clearing and Singing Grove and see if you can't get some stat boosts for her.
* Upon defeating the Dreadwing, your party will inspect the Singing Stone and get a cutscene which sets off the adventure for them.
	+ ***ITEM GET: Singing Shard - Water***
* With this done, you return to Initium and meet the King of Adventurers for the first time. After a bit of a cutscene with him, he'll give you the Encyclopedia, which will allow you to finally open up the in-game menu, as well as the Elemental Scale, which plays into combat a great deal. Also, when leaving, be sure to speak to the Guard Captain by the entrance to the King of Adventurer's Manor. He'll give you a map for free!
	+ ***ITEM GET: Encyclopedia***
	+ ***ITEM GET: Elemental Scale***
	+ ***MAP GET: Hidden Forest***

## ***The Waters Flow Again - Exploring the Hidden Forest & Forest Ruins***

### ***The Town of Initium***

* Now that you're able to use the town of Initium, it's good to know that you'll be visiting this place a lot, as it's your one and only base for adventuring on Avalon. There are a few things to keep in mind here.
	+ ***Visit the shop often.*** Every time you come back into town or sleep at the inn, the items should cycle to new offerings. Also, the items offered will upgrade as you progress through the game's story. You can also sell your Map-making progress here, for some nice cash, as well as having NPCs show up in zones to provide benefits like Stance Teaching or camps to heal your HP/SP.
	+ ***Visit the guy on the docks.*** Using your cash, you can rent one of his ships for a shipment of items that comes back some time later (utilizing real time, even during Sleep Mode). Some of the Best-in-Slot gear for certain weapon types can be achieved from here, even as early as the very start of the game... as long as luck is on your side!
	+ Every time you visit, you'll ***find the other party members*** that weren't part of your default crew wandering around in groups of two here and there. If you're not happy with your party? Go ahead and recruit someone else and take their place. Just remember that you can't tag out your main hero.
	+ ***Check out the inn.*** This is more than likely going to be your favorite place to visit early on, as you'll have to replenish your lost Maximum HP in the case of any KOs that get inflicted on your characters. That, and Coco will perform your main saves here as well. Save often!
	+ Finally, go ***talk to the King of Adventurers often***, particularly after major events. He'll give you a little bit of spending cash for every major milestone you achieve.
* Having touched base on all you can do with Initium, you now have two places to go to:
	+ ***A)*** Return to the Forest Ruins and take on the main bosses there
	+ ***B)*** Take a detour to the Hidden Forest, which you should have gotten a map for free from the Guard Captain in Initium.
* For the sake of completion, we'll take route B and head for the Hidden Forest, as there's plenty to do here.

### ***Hidden Forest***

* Upon entering the Hidden Forest, you'll find yourself within the Outskirts of Town at the SW corner.     This map, overall, is pretty barebones, aside from the massive Spirit-Perch of Water in the NE corner of the map. For those who don't know, Spirit-Perches come in all shapes and sizes and are commonly activated once you have a Singing Shard of the appropriate element in your inventory. Within the entire Hidden Forest, you'll find nothing but Spirit-Perches of Water, and since you have the Singing Shard from the tutorial quest, you'll be able to activate all of these.
	+ So, what are the benefits of activating these Spirit-Perches? Quite a few, actually:
		- ***A)*** It changes the dominance of elements within its vicinity, along with forming a higher baseline linked to the element the Spirit-Perch is.
		- ***B)*** It lets you start the battle with an automatic Contract to the element of the Spirit-Perch.
	+ These will prove useful, especially if you happen to have a Shadow Giant to deal with in a Shadow Zone, as it makes it easier to break the Shadow-dominance and keep it from returning.
* If you're looking for a bit of a challenge, head east from the Outskirts of Town into the Cat Territory map.     In this area, you'll find a few things of note, one of which is potentially very dangerous if you're not prepared for it. As you wander in this zone, you may notice that a few lone trees are shaking. If you get to close to these trees, you'll have the unpleasant surprise of a pack of Shadowcats leaping out in your face. This can prove very bad, as the packs can be as large as five at a time, and worse yet, you may have the unpleasant extra bonus of seeing a Maneater as part of the group... a rare variant of Shadowcats that has loads more HP, and a very nasty physical-counterattack. Still, it's worth your time to raid this area, as you'll find your first Whispering Shard here, down in the SE corner, providing the Water Shield charm, one of the more handy charms in the game.
	+ ***ITEM GET: Whispering Shard: Water Shield***
* Heading north from Cat Territory, you'll find yourself in the East of the Ruins map. Here, you won't find anymore     surprises in the form of Shadowcat tree ambushes, but instead, you'll find a few other things of note. For starters, if you head to the easternmost exit of this zone, you'll find an exit that will take you out to the World Map and unlock a new Map for free: The Roaring Valley, along with its subzone, the Archwing Burrows. Leave this as the last thing to do in the Hidden Forest, unless you don't mind restarting your travelling through the areas. The other thing of note is there's another Whispering Shard here, in the NE corner, which gives you your basic Water attack Charm, Bubble Launcher.
	+ ***ITEM GET: Whispering Shard: Bubble Launcher***
	+ ***MAP GET: Roaring Valley***
* From here, head to either of the western (not NW) exits and enter the Path to the Ruins I map. Overall, this     map is pretty mundane with a few features that stand out. In the central section of the map, you'll find a small, Water Spirit-Perch to activate. The more important thing to get here, though, is in the NW corner of the map. You'll find a Singing Stone up here with another Water Whispering Shard to nab for your inventory. This time, it's the Shard that will give you the ability to cast one of Water's bread-and-butter Charms: Healing Hands. Aside from that, there's not much to do here, so unless you want to stick around and kill off all the monsters for more chances at stat boosts, continue your way to the north.
	+ ***ITEM GET: Whispering Shard: Healing Hands***
* Now if you thought the Path to the Ruins I map was boring, the next one is definitely even more so. The Path of     the Ruins II map has almost no particular landmarks whatsoever to it aside from a single, small, Water Spirit-Perch around the central part of the area. The only real thing you have to do here is fight, fight some more, and oh... did I mention fighting? At least it just means more potential stat boosts! Another thing to note is that the northenmost exit here actually has you leave to the World Map, presumably acting as an exit to the Forest Ruins, which, by all means now, is entirely pointless, since you already have that zone since the very beginning of the game... But I digress. From here, head to any of the exits to the west to the final map of the Hidden Forest, preferably the one in the NW.
* Finally, we're in the last area of the Hidden Forest, the Tower of Elementals. This place serves as a bit of a     taste of things to come in later areas of the game. This area is interlaced with patches of pink flowers with a haze puffing out over them. While not dangerous to your health directly, stepping into these flower patches will poison you with a slow-down effect on the map for a few seconds, which can prove quite annoying when on the run from monsters you don't feel like fighting. Head to the clearing in the NE part of the map and take a long, counter-clockwise walk around the entire map, eventually curling around to a central part of the area with a large, Water Spirit-Perch, but don't be too hasty, as this clearing has quite a few monsters... along with a particularly large Beast with them. By all means possible, if you can, have the Spirit-Perch active to make the encroaching boss fight a bit easier to deal with.
	+ ***BOSS FIGHT (Optional): Shadowcat Khan*** - Remember all the Shadowcats you've been fighting throughout the Hidden Forest, or if you were unlucky, the rarer Maneaters? You're in luck. You've just met the big daddy of all Shadowcats, and unfortunately for you, he's dangerous in the same manner that Maneaters are: physical counterhits, and like any proper alpha beast, he's got droves more HP than his smaller counterparts. The best set-up is similar to how you dealt with the Dreadwing from the intro of the game: your tank using their his/her shield while your Healing Item user keeps everyone's HP levels topped off and your main DPS just attacks it... yet there's a few added kinks here to that previous strategy...
		- First thing's first, get that Water Contract rolling, and to high levels. Having that extra HP regen will be nice to have, especially since it should lighten the load on your healer.
		- Your main DPS will die horribly if you even dare to attack it with a melee attack, so there's two ways around this. The first is having your DPS use a bow. While physical damage, the Shadowcat Khan will only counter hit melee attacks, not ranged attacks. The other method is to use that shiny new Bubble Launcher Charm that you found earlier here, and being somewhat of a boss monster, why not take the chance to awaken the Charm for good?
		- Remember that Water Shield Whispering Shard that you got? Now's a good time to use it. Considering you'll be trying to keep the Water-dominant field going, this will last quite a bit and dampen the Shadowcat Khan's damage output nicely when coupled with the diligent blocking of your tank.
	+ Aside from that, the strategy isn't too different from the Dreadwing boss in the intro. . In a way, it's a little wake-up call about some monsters being able to counterhit you. Just use this as an opportunity to have a Bow user or a mage-to-be shine in learning some magical offense and you should pull through just fine.
* With the Shadowcat Khan being down for the count, that should be everything you can do in the Hidden Forest. As suggested above, head back to the East of the Ruins map and leave for the Roaring Valley, simply to just unlock the map if you haven't done so already.

***\*\*DETOUR!!\*\* The Roaring Valley's danger level, not to mention the Archwing Burrows and Valley Ruins, is quite a bit higher than the Forest Ruins. If you DO decide to take the detour though, you can get yourself the Singing Shard of Air early, which will open up your options in combat so much more due to its SP regen offered. If you're feeling brave, go for it! The game's all about risk and exploration after all!***

### ***Return to the*** ***Forest Ruins***

* Having done everything you needed in Initium (and the Hidden Forest, if you decided to head there first), return to the Forest Ruins. Now that you're out of the intro, you'll find there's a lot more to explore in these parts. There are two things worth doing here, one of which being optional, the other being a needed component to push the story along. Considering we want to go for everything, we'll go with the optional stuff first.
* Remember in the intro if you wandered in the Forest Tomb, you had that guard from Initium blocking your     progress in there about a third of the way in, saying it was too dangerous to proceed? It's time to go back there and find out what's so dangerous. The normal monsters here are no different from the ones that you've been dealing with before, and around the center of the map, you'll find a large, Water Spirit-Perch that you can activate. Something that I highly suggest for the danger that is about to come. If you continue on to the easternmost part of the
zone, you'll notice a Singing Stone by some ruins with a rather ominous sight nearby: a swarm of five Spirit type enemies floating there, but not moving. They're not hostile in the sense that they'll give chase if you get too close, but once you do get too close, you'll be treated to a cutscene in which the swarm merges together and forms a much more dangerous threat, perhaps the hardest one in this early part of the game...
	+ ***BOSS FIGHT (Optional): Soul Legion*** - Remember those flimsy Familiars you've been fighting throughout the Hidden Forest and Forest Ruins since the intro? This guy is not so flimsy at all. This guy has three major dangers to put up with: the ability to act twice in a turn, a basic Tackle move that can inflict Stun on whoever it strikes, and an AoE attack called Sandstorm... an attack that you'll become quite familiar with throughout the game. Add in the fact that it can cast Charms and steal your contracts, and you're looking at a "fun" fight, especially if it decides to yoink your Water Contract away.
		- Same basic strategy like the Shadowcat Khan: your tank using their his/her shield while your Healing Item user keeps everyone's HP levels topped off and your main DPS just attacks it.
		- Get that Water-dominant field up as quickly as possible and maintain that Contract, as the HP regen will prove beneficial and the lessened effect of magical damage will help you handle the Soul Legion's Sandstorm damage. A high Water-dominant field will also make a nice, long-lasting Water Shield, which will mitigate the Sandstorm's damage as well.
		- You'll more than likely awaken a few arts and charms in this fight, but the best one you can really hope for (especially if your tank is a Shield user) is Ricochet, as that allows you to brush off a physical attack for no damage at the cost of 1SP.
		- Just keep the damage output going, hold that Water Contract, and heal as needed and you should be fine. If you find that the damage from Sandstorm is too much, go and continue in the Forest Ruins and come back after you got some HP boosts from easier fights.
* Upon killing the Soul Legion, you'll have access to the Singing Stone behind it, which harbors the the other attack Charm for the Water element, an AoE ability called Hailstorm!
	+ ***ITEM GET: Whispering Shard: Hailstorm***
* With the Soul Legion gone (or if you decided to leave it for later), it's time to leave the Forest Tomb and head for     the Singing Grove, particularly the place where you fought the Dreadwing in the intro mission of the game. If you want to, there's a small, Water Spirit-Perch in the SE that you can activate. Upon getting to where you fought the Dreadwing, you'll notice that if you inspect the ruined stairs, you have the ability to climb up them. This leads to the Fallen Cathedral map. This map in particular is a pretty wide open place with plenty of space to move around in. There's two major things to take notice of in this place: For starters, you have not one, but two large, Water Spirit-Perches near the entrance to the Cathedral in the north. The other thing to note is a rather ominous-looking dome of Shadow energy. First thing's first, turn on the Spirit-Perches so you get some heavy Water-dominance in the area. Once that's set, go and inspect the dome to initiate a chain-fight.
	+ ***BOSS FIGHT: Shadow Field Chain Fight*** - This isn't a true boss fight, per say, but being mandatory, I'll consider it one anyway due to some of the mechanics. All the enemies you'll have in this fight are basic monsters you've found in the region, but the elemental field is going to have a very high Shadow-dominance. This will result in magic damage getting tripled, which can prove a little dangerous if the monster groups have a lot of Wild Familiars. If you decided to turn on the two Spirit-Perches though, the Shadow-dominance will be easy to break, plus you'll start with a free Water Contract. As soon as you beat the first fight and get the results, the dome will pulse and throw you into another fight immediately.
* Once you beat the second fight, the Shadow Field will vanish and provide access to the final area of the zone,     the Altar Room. This map in particular is small... VERY small, without much to do here, but there's something to do before you do the main reason of why you're here. Go walk around to the NW corner of the Altar Room and you'll find a Singing Stone. You know the drill. Go on up and inspect it to get the Whispering Shard that provdes you the handy Water Charm of Purify, which will remove poison from your characters in combat. Yeah, there's no enemies in the Forest Ruins or Hidden Forest that have any kind of poison-afflicting moves (unless you count a Shadow Giant encounter), but it's handy to have in your repetoire.
	+ ***ITEM GET: Whispering Shard: Purify***
* Once done there, head up to the Altar in the north and inspect it for a cutscene. A new adversary shows up near the exit of the Altar Room, an adversary in the form of the Water Golem
	+ ***BOSS FIGHT: Water Golem*** - This is the first true boss of the game after the Dreadwing. She's got a bit of a trick to her, but overall, she isn't too terrible. The Golem loves to make Contracts with Water, which gives her about 100-150 HP healed a turn if the turn ends with Water under her control, so you MUST keep her from holding the Water Contract by all means.
	+ Use the same typical strategy of a tank, healer/contractor, and DPS setup.
	+ The Water Golem sometimes loves to waste turns by casting Water Shield, which will last quite a while due to you and the Golem constantly doing a tug-of-war for the Water Contract. Best way to deal with this? Just deal with it by attacking her... and put up a Water Shield of your own!
	+ Sometimes, the Golem will cast Bubble Launcher at you, which doesn't do too much terrible damage, but the main danger comes from its physical attacks. One is Elimination (a single target ability) and the other is Detection (an AoE ability), both of which can hurt quite a bit if your tank doesn't block it for a non-tank. Your Water Shield will help out with the damage caused though.
* Upon killing the Water Golem, it'll drop an important item: The Water Core. Take this back up to the altar's top and and activate it with your hard-earned prize. The Altar suddenly flares up with energy and finds itself with water swirling around its spherical head. Moments later, you find the barren reservoirs in the cathedral filling with water. The lakes that were barren in the Clearing and Singing Grove are now filled with water as well, causing a large Water-dominance near the new bodies of water! Your work here is done. Go back to Initium and speak to the King of Adventurers and make a report of your achievements.

### ***Side Quest! - Shadow Fields***

***Suggested HP:*150 - 175, 200 is recommended**

***Monsters:*** Same as whatever zone you're in, plus Shadow Giants

* At this point, if you were playing the demo, congrats! You've played everything it has to offer... or did you? Yep, that's right. There's one last thing you can do, if you're feeling prepared and/or brave enough at this point. At times, when you enter a map in this game, you'll find yourself in a zone of "poor visibility." If you've been talking to some of the soldiers in Initium, you might have heard about this before... Congratulations, you've found yourself in a Shadow Field! This random occurence provides many benefits, but also many dangers:
	+ On the upper screen, you'll have a haze of blackish-purple darkness covering most of the screen's perimeter, hindering your visibility.
	+ On the bottom screen, your map is entirely non-existant. Hope you memorized the subzone's layout!
	+ The elemental dominance is EXTREMELY bending towards Shadow. Monsters, especially magic-casting ones, are going to thrive... though the 3x Magic Power does benefit you as well...
	+ The shiny search points now offer much better drops than most of the garbage found normally.
	+ Most importantly though? You'll notice huge pools of black shadow on the ground with a violent haze steaming up from them. This is the true danger of a Shadow Field: a special boss encounter against a Shadow Giant, a high-risk monster to deal with this early on, but one that provides wonderful opportunity for Awakenings, Skill-ups, and even some nice, rare drops as victory loot!
* So yes... If you know your current map's layout when a Shadow Field overtakes it, and know there's an active Spirit-Perch nearby (large ones are best, though small help too!), go find it. On the way, you'll more than likely get a Shadow Giant encounter chasing you.
	+ ***BOSS FIGHT (Optional): Claw of the Shadow*** - ***Approximately 6,000 HP*** - Time for a VERY nasty fight. With any luck, you've had an active Spirit-Perch available to you nearby if you've triggered this fight. The Claw of the Shadow is the lowest-tiered Shadow Giant you can deal with in the game, but by no means does that make it easy, because this guy is actually a normal monster you'll run into in the later part of the game's 2nd half. So here's what you're dealing with...
		- First thing's first: Remove that Shadow-dominant field at once. This is truly the make-or-break part of the fight, as he can easily wipe you with the proper move chain in the first few turns. Depending on having a Spirit-Perch nearby or not, changing the dominance can be somewhat simple, or quite a battle in of itself. In this case, you'll be fighting the dominance with Water Contract, which provides three important things:
			* HP Regen for the party
			* The ability to cast your important Water Charms
			* Most of all... HALVE MAGIC DAMAGE.
		- While you're removing the Shadow-dominance, have your tank guard at ALL TIMES... Hell... Make him/her guard for the entire fight! Block with a shield, or better yet, mitigate the damage completely with an evade tanking move like Ricochet (Shield Art) or Fancy Footwork (Fists Art). Both of the Claw and Double Claw attacks of the Shadow Giant can be defended against like this! Want to lessen the damage more? Have a character cast Water Shield from the Whispering Shard you found, or better yet, after they've awakened it. The more damage you can subtract, the more managable this will be.
		- The Claw has quite a few moves that can cause detrimental debuffs to one or more of your party members, and while they're never good to get hit by, you can almost consider the Claw using them a blessing... especially if it's in the earliest part of the fight while you're trying to break that initial Shadow-dominance. Plus, it doesn't hurt to have your main DPS and healer to have Purify available, as the Claw's Venom Charm inflicts poison-status.
		- The most dangerous move of all, the one that will decide whether it's worth sticking around to try the fight, is the Claw's Sandstorm Charm-attack... the same one you've seen from the Soul Legion in the Forest Ruins. The biggest problem about the Claw's is the huge damage boost it gets from the Shadow-dominance. If the Claw casts it two... or worse, three times in a row at the start of the fight, it's going to be a wash. Hope you quicksaved before trying the fight!
		- The main thing is that once you got your Water-dominance going and keep it going, it's just a long, drawn-out fight that's more than likely going to net you a lot of Stat-boosts for your Arts/Charms and Awakenings. Even if you feel you're going to lose, but got said benefits, RUN AWAY. You'll keep everything you've earned instead of losing it all due to a wipe.
	+ Fighting a Shadow Giant at this point in time is a taxing affair, but if you manage to win, congratulations. It means you definitely have a great grasp on the game's mechanics and you should feel confident on using said mechanics to win fights that seem normally insurmountable. Even if you last a good while in a fight this early with a Shadow Giant, you'll get something out of it. Plus, it's all practice for the later parts of the game! Just think... You killed or tussled with a monster normally found 2/3s of the way into the game after the first major dungeon being completed and lived to tell the tale about it.
* Finally, there's three ways for a Shadow Field to vanish...
	+ Leave the subzone that you're currently in that's affected by the Shadow Field.
	+ Killing any Shadow Giant you encounter.
	+ Fleeing from Shadow Giant you encounter.

***\*DEMO CUT-OFF POINT!!\****

## ***The Song of the Gales - Exploring the Roaring Valley and Valley Ruins***

***\*\*NOTE!!\*\* While it is suggested to go complete the Roaring Valley and Valley Ruins next, due to order of increasing Monster difficulty, you're more than welcome to take a small detour here and head for the Boiling Sea and Seaside Ruins to get the Singing Shard of Fire early, which shouldn't be TOO bad if you're vigilant on dodging monster encounters. Just be ready to possibly get beat up if you try and do so. The choice is yours!***

### ***Roaring Valley***

* If you haven't discovered the Roaring Valley for free in the Hidden Forest, you can always go and buy the map in Initium for 1000(?) St. You shouldn't have to do that though, as you've been following this walkthrough hopefully!
* As you enter the Roaring Valley, you'll have one major goal: finding the exit that leads to the Valley Ruins, and luckily for you, there's a few ways to make it there. Unfortunately, your quest starts to bring about new hazards to deal with:
	+ ***BOSS FIGHT (Optional): Archwing - Approximately 5000 HP -*** You'll get a little cutscene as you enter the Roaring Valley for the very first time, showing a rather large griffon-like beast soaring through the air. This is an Archwing, a rather nasty optional boss at this point in the game, though non-hostile compared to other monsters. If you wish, you can engage one in battle by touching the patrolling shadow. If you do decide to take one on, here's what to look out for:
		- Archwings get two attacks a turn, but don't particularly have a large moveset. Regardless, they can hit hard. They have a basic Claw attack, a Double Claw attack, and two AoE attacks called Wingslash and Dive-Bomb, the latter of which seems to hit harder than the former. Fortunately, I've never seen it do a Wingslash and Dive-Bomb on the same turn, though it's very possible that it will do an AoE each turn.
		- Like any major boss you've fought so far, get that Water-dominance going to get strong HP Regen going and your Water Shield duration high, with a main tank and healer as one DPS is doing the majority of the damage. At this point in the game, it's going to feel like a horribly long fight, but even if you can get some Awakenings and Skill-ups for Arts and Charms, it's not a bad thing.
		- As long as you do keep up your high Water-dominance and shield up, you can possible kill one at this point, though it can take upwards for 15-20 minutes due to the lack of good SP flow (This will be changing soon! It's part of the reason why you've come here!). If you do win, there is a chance of earning an Archwing Plume helmet, which has a Guard rating of 6, high resistance against Bash attacks, and low resistance against Thrust attacks and Status Effects. Definitely not a shabby drop at this point in the game!
		- As a note, if you have Air Contract available to you, Archwings are capable of being poisoned by the Air Charm called Bee Stinger. It can cause a good 550-560 (give or take) HP away a turn, making life much easier!
	+ Danger #2 are these somewhat telltale cacti. They're noticeably round, and at intervals, suddenly inflate to double their size, then let out an explosion of spines in a small area around them. Get caught in this, and you'll lose some of your maximum HP as if you were KO'd in a fight. Nothing too hard to avoid as long as you stay vigilant.
	+ The final environmental danger are surprise Spirit-type monster ambushes that come from the large skulls you see scattered through the area. If you see one rattling, a battle will start if you get too close. The monsters that commonly show up in these are Pale Spiritwings, which can hit rather hard with their Combustion attack. If you get a lot of them in one of these encounters and the majority use that ability, expect lots of KOs or possibly even a wipe.
* Since you're more than likely interested in map completion to get its rewards, we'll start with the long way first!     You'll start off in the SW corner of the Valley Entrance map, the main path of the valley taking you towards the NE corner with two exits. Along the way, you'll see a large Air Spirit-Perch that you cannot activate now. More on this later, as it's linked with your goal in the Valley Ruins found at the end of this map. You'll find a few detour routes here and there, with a jump point directly NW from the Spirit-Perch that leads up on the plateau, and a few hills, one to the south of the Spirit-Perch and one directly south from the northeasternmost exit. This particular hill will lead towards a cave opening that goes into one of the three maps of the Roaring Valley's subzone, the Archwing Burrows. Yes, that's right... Those big griffons have nests all throughout the valley! We'll come back to the Archwing Burrows though. To the north!
* You now find yourself in the next area, the Corridor of Wisdom. Be mindful as you continue northward through     the Valley as there's two sets of two Archwings rotating around some terrain here. To make matters worse, you need to keep a keen eye on some of those bursting cacti, unless you don't mind losing some of your maximum HP! Eventually, you'll hit an intersection around the north-center of the area, which is denoted by a small Water Spirit-Perch. Like any one you find, turn it on. From here, you have a few ways you can go. If you head east and curve back on a northern hairpin turn up a hill, you can enter another one of the Archwing Burrow maps. If you head east and turn south, you have a path leading into another of the Archwing Burrows, as well as the main path continuing to the east in the SE corner. Before you go that way, turn your attention to the NW from the Spirit-Perch. You'll find a jumping point to ascend the cliffside and from there, continue west to find a Singing Stone. This particular one scores you your first Wind-themed Whispering Shard, the basic Elven Shot Charm. Not great for high damage, but it still has the chance of lowering physical attack power, which is always useful... well, once you're able to make Air Contracts anyway! Once you get that Shard, head back east and follow the path onto the next map.
	+ ***ITEM GET: Whispering Shard: Elven Shot***
* Here, you're now in the Corridor of Hunger, which, overall, is a rather tricky zone to traverse moving through the     main pathway. No sooner than you start to follow along the path, you'll more than likely find a pair of Archwings rotating around a bursting cactus. As if timing avoidance of our favorite birdkitties wasn't bad enough, you also have to time it with the bursting of the cactus's spines... possibly with other basic enemies nearby! Fun, isn't it? The path curves like a U and eventually comes to a ruined Spirit-Perch that occassionally has a pedestal for Coco to appear at with a rather ominous message about the appearance of "The King of the Archwings", where a crescent moon causing many lives to be forfeit. If you get this message, be forewarned for the near future... which we'll explain more soon enough! Continue northward toward the curve, where you'll find another Archwing or two flying circle around a bursting cactus and bones, eventually heading into the next area.
* As you enter the Howling Crater map, do NOT rush forward to the north. You'll have a bursting cactus that'll     more than likely have an Archwing flying straight down at you, and you know what happens when contact is made... Straight ahead, you'll find a large Air Spirit-Perch that, once again, you can't activate yet. No matter... There still is something of use to snatch up here though. From the Spirit-Perch, head NW up towards the cave entrance on the hill, then take a detour down south. Eventually, you'll hit a Singing Stone at the dead end of the ledge. This particular one harbors the Whispering Shard for the Air Shield Charm, a particular good spell when dealing with enemies that love using projectile type attacks on you, which, while rare, becomes a bit more notable in the second half of the game. Once you got the Whispering Shard, head back to the Spirit-Perch and head NE, then east to the next map.
	+ ***ITEM GET: Whispering Shard: Air Shield***
* You're getting there... You're now on the Scenic Ridge of the Roaring Valley, starting in the SW corner of the     map. Immediately, you'll see a small Spirit-Perch in front of you which cannot be activated at this time. This one is actually a Fire-based one. More on this later... If you want to just continue on your way towards the Valley Ruins, simply just head east and take the SE exit from the zone, but we want map completion and nice loot, don't we? Begin your ascent up the hill at the fork, then loop back to the west. Here, you can continue west to enter one of the Archwing Burrow maps, or use the jump point to head onto the summit of the ridge. Be VERY careful though, as you'll have two bursting cacti with a lot of Archwings flying around them with a few basic enemies around them as well. Squeeze up north and you'll find two things of note. First of which is a Singing Stone that has the Headwind Charm in it, a spell that is a non-damaging AoE that lowers physical attack on anything successfully affected. The other thing to note here is the edge at the northernmost point of the map between the pillars. Move between them and you'll get a small cutscene saying that you'll spot a small fishing village in the distance. This will unlock the Deserted Village map for later. Also keep this ledge in mind for later on in the game. It'll be of use again, with some possible danger to go with it if Coco's warning was any indication. From here, you may notice a big egg to the west of the ledge, but it's risky to inspect it. There's a chance that it'll trigger an Archwing battle, or worse, but the end result, no matter what the encounter (or lack there of) will get you an Archwing Egg for 500 St. Time to head back down the mountain and to the SE exit!
	+ ***ITEM GET: Whispering Shard: Headwind***
	+ ***MAP GET: Deserted Village***
* Now we're in the last map of the Roaring Valley, the Bagpipe Ravine, and due to the long route you've taken     through it, you've squeezed through most of the map out of the way to finish the road to the Valley Ruins! To the west of the NE entrance you came from, you can find a large Air Spirit-Perch that, surprise, you can't activate yet to the SW around the center of the map. If you head further west, you'll find an entrance to one of the Archwing Burrow maps. But other than that, it's not needed to go that way to progress on in your quest. Besides, do you want to weave through a large squadron of grumpy Archwings? Nope... Didn't think so. From the NE entrance, just head south. Along the way, you'll have to deal with a few patrolling Archwings, but they shouldn't be too hard to avoid. The big problem is when you descend the last small hill, you'll find a single Archwing flying around with no landmark. This one in particular is going to be flying around in a bit of a figure-eight path. Something to note though is that it's close to a small Spirit-Perch... one that you can actually turn on for once, because it's Water! Want to give a shot at fighting an Archwing? This isn't a bad spot, due to the free Water Contract and higher Water baseline that the Spirit-Perch will provide you. Picking a fight or not, head south and take the exit to the world map. Doing so will get you out of the Roaring Valley and to your next area, the Valley Ruins.
	+ ***MAP GET: Valley Ruins***

### ***Side Quest / Detour! - The Archwing Burrows***

* Remember those caves noted before? These are the Archwing Burrows, a set of three maps that can be used as alternative routes to make your way through the Roaring Valley to the Valley Ruins. They aren't that much more dangerous monster-wise, plus they don't have any bursting cacti to deal with at all, but there's another thing of note here. You may recall that huge Archwing Egg you found in the Scenic Ridge, yeah? Well, considering these are the Archwing Burrows, you'll find plenty more Archwing Eggs tempting your fates in here.
* First, we have the Stinking Tunnel, the earliest available map of the Burrows.     There isn't overly much to do in here aside from testing your luck with some Archwing Egg poaching, four of which can be found here:
	+ In the west
	+ In the very center
	+ In the northeast corner
	+ In the south after taking a western detour away from the SE exit
* The exits of the Stinking Tunnel are:
	+ SW: to the Valley Entrance, SE corner cave
	+ NW: to the Corridor of Wisdom, cavern near the exit to the Corridor of Hunger
	+ SE: to the Corridor of Hunger, SW corner cave
* The second map of the Archwing Burrows is the Rancid Tunnel, which offers four Archwing Eggs to pilfer at the     possible risk of your life:
	+ In the SW, near the SW exit
	+ In the Center
	+ In the south, in a little nook to the west of the SE corner
	+ in the NE corner
* The exits of the Rancid Tunnel are:
	+ SW: to the Corridor of Hunger, SE corner cave
	+ NW: to the Howling Crater, SEcorner cave
	+ W: to the Bagpipe Ravine, NW corner cave
* The main thing of note here though is that there's an easily missed Singing Stone here, near the southwestern Archwing Egg. If you hug the western wall nearby, you'll notice that you can squeeze through with a prompt. Do so and you'll get to it, earning yourself the Whispering Shard for a second copy of the Bubble Launcher Charm. Never hurts to have, right?
	+ ***ITEM GET: Whispering Shard: Bubble Launcher***
* Using the Stinking Tunnel and Rancid Tunnel, you can reach the Valley Ruins with generally less worry about Archwing fights happening. The route follows: ***Valley Entrance --SE corner cave--> Stinking Tunnel --SE corner exit--> Corridor of Hunger --SE corner cave--> Rancid Tunnel --Western exit--> Bagpipe Ravine.*** You'll find yourself in the NW corner of the Bagpipe Ravine, having bypassed all the Archwings patrolling the Roaring Valley. Unfortunately, now you have to go through a gauntlet of Archwings patrolling your path to the NE part of the map, from which you can head south and reach the Valley Ruins. The choice is yours whether you want to take the long way through the Valley or try going through this path!
* Finally, there's the third map of the Archwing Burrows, called the Putrid Tunnel, which can has three Archwing     Eggs to go for:
	+ In the west
	+ In the east
	+ In the NE, near the NE exit
* The exits of the Putrid Tunnel are:
	+ SW: to the Corridor of Wisdom, northern cave
	+ S: to the Howling Crater, NW corner cave
	+ SE: to the Howling Crater, NE corner cave
	+ NE: to the Scenic Ridge, western cave
* Finally, there's two last things to note about the Putrid Tunnel. Firstly, the southern half is mostly the same as the other Burrows maps, but as you head into the northern half, you'll find yourself entering a lava zone with noticable fissures in the ground. Watch these keenly, because if you start seeing light steam belching up from them, they're going to erupt in a violent jet of gas. Collision with these jets will cause damage to your Maximum HP, similar to the effects of the bursting cacti found throughout the Roaring Valley. The other thing of note is the peninsula in the lava heading to the far NW corner of the map. Be careful as you approach, as you'll take notice of three Archwing Eggs bundled together with a Singing Stone resting behind it. Once you get close enough, you'll get a prompt asking if you wish to continue on. If you say yes, you're going to find out that there's worse cousins of the Archwing...
	+ ***BOSS FIGHT (Optional): Nest Warden - Approximately 7500 HP -*** The Nest Warden is an Archwing with crimson, blood-like plumage, more than likely stained with the blood of unprepared adventurers who decided to get way too close to this triple-clutch of eggs. In general, the Nest Warden is not much different than its vanilla-grade cousins, aside from the fact that it hits much harder. It may be best off to leave the Nest Warden alone until you manage to finish the Valley Ruins, due to parts of the strategy below.
		- Like Archwings, the Nest Warden gets two attacks a turn, with the same Claw, Double Claw, Wingslash, and Dive-Bomb attacks of its weaker kin. Unfortunately for you, it has yet another AoE in its repetoire: Dustblow. Whereas Dive-Bomb was stronger than Wingslash, Dustblow is stronger than Dive-Bomb. What's worse is that this magnificent, feathered bastard WILL occassionally do a double AoE turn, such as a Dustblow going into a Dive-Bomb. This will hurt you bad, or possibly even wipe you out entirely if you don't get the proper defenses up (AKA: the first two turns or so) to deal with it. If your stats aren't up to snuff, the opening is definitely the worst part.
		- Like the Archwings, Nest Wardens have no ability to take elemental contracts from you, so get them up as soon as possible, using the usual tank/support/DPS set-up to get things rolling. It's not a bad idea to get a good Water-dominance going for HP Regen, but the best way to go in this fight is forming an Air-dominant field, hence why it's wise to wait until you finish most (if not all) of the Valley Ruins. The Air-dominant field will halve all physical damage from you and the Nest Warden, which can help prolong your survival, and fortunately for you, the area is pretty heavy in Air-dominance already... (Pretty amazing, considering all the liquid hot magma around you! You would've expected a Fire-dominant field by default here!) Sure, the decreased rate of physical damage will slow things down, but would you rather survive or die?
		- The other main reason to wait for getting the ability to use Air charms for this fight is simple: A little spell called Bee Stinger. Yes. Nest Wardens are capable of being poisoned! Afflicted with the ailment, they're going to lose around 950-960 HP at the end of ever turn, which can expedite the fight to an insane degree!
* With the Nest Warden out of the way, you now have access to that Singing Stone, which happens to have a copy of the Water Shield Charm. Not bad at all if you have any need for another caster of it. Also, for killing the Nest Warden, you get not one... not two... but three Archwing Eggs at once for the victory. A little extra dosh is nice to have, no?
	+ ***ITEM GET: Whispering Shard: Water Shield***
	+ ***ITEM GET: Archwing Egg x3 (sells for 1500 St in Initium!)***
* That clears up all three of the maps for the Archwing Burrows. Even with the Nest Warden in the Putrid Tunnel, you're still able to get the full 100% map completion without starting the fight.

### ***Valley Ruins***

* Go to Valley Ruins. Go to the left entrance of the Courtyard, then the north east broken stairs in Tower 1F, and then the west deadend in Tower 2F for the Singing Shard (Wind).
* Go back to Tower 1F, and activate the easternmost ruin to activate the Air teleporters. Use the Tower 2F teleporter (west side) to access Tower 3F and fight the Air Golem.
* Go back to Courtyard, access through the center entrance, enter the air teleporter in Tower 2F to go to Wind Flute Terrace and place the Air Core.

## ***Igniting the Fires - Exploring the Boiling Sea and Seaside Ruins***

* You can get the Air Core and Fire Core in any order. Jump to Air Core if you want to get the Air Core first.
* Buy the Boiling Sea map from the merchant in Initium. Go east to Shoreline Trail, and go north to unlock Seaside Ruins (or you can buy Seaside Ruins map and skip Boiling Sea map)
* Go to Seaside Ruins, and go through the middle of Tectonic Forum and enter the Ruins. Access the west stairs, go down to Seaside Ruins B1 and then B2. Examine the statue west of the entrance to get Singing Shard (Fire).
* Activate the ruin in B2 with Singing Shard (Water) to be able to access the southern part of the map. Exit southeast to access Final Depths to fight the Fire Golem.
* Go back to Seaside Ruins 1F. Activate the ruin on the left with Singing Shard (Fire), and go east and around to access the stairs leading to 2F. Go north through the shadow dome and place the Fire Core in the sphere.

## ***The Ascension of Avalon's Past - Exploring the Deserted Village***

* Access Deserted Village by going to the northernmost point of Scenic Ridge.
* Go down the hard-to-see stone path and go east to access another map. There are two Whispering Shard and a pile of rocks which will allow you to progress.
* NOTE: After this scene, going back to the same spot in the Scenic Ridge will allow you to access Great Crag, then the Tabletop Mountains, which are optional for progression.

## ***Delving the Darkness -*** ***Exploring Bogsaur Marsh and the Bottomless Pit***

* You can buy the Bottomless Pit map or access it through Bogsaur Marsh - Land's Navel, which map you have to buy from the merchant in Initium.
* Progress through the Bottomless Pit map down to Lair of Shadows, which will always be poor visibility until you activate the two Fire ruins (bottom ruin and east ruin).
* Access the gate. You will have to fight 2-3 shadow enemies as a compulsory battle, and you will obtain Shadow Stone. You may obtain the stone without the battle on a previous floor, but be aware that this will disable Coco (the save game kitty) permanently for the playthrough, and will leave you with an empty cushion to save at for the remainder of the game.
	+ ***BOSS FIGHT (optional): Green Dragon - >10,000 HP -*** A full grown dragon dwells in the northeastern corner of the easternmost map in Bogsaur Marsh. Before interacting, train up with Bogsaurs. Once able to battle them with relative ease, the fight becomes semi-bearable.
	+ Upon talking with the Green Dragon, he'll ask what you want to know. No matter which answer you give, he'll initiate a battle. His attacks vary in three distinct patterns: three separate Dragon Claw attacks, a stronger Dragon's Maw bite, or the devastating Poison Breath attack. The latter is unblockable by shields, does between 150-200 damage to each party member and (predictably) has a strong chance of poisoning each party member. Despite his strongest standard attack being unblockable by shields, do *not* under any circumstance allow your shield to falter. It softens the blows of his melee attacks and saves precious HP needed to endure his unblockable one.
	+ Lay as much damage as you can to the dragon, but be wary that he can take any one of your contracts at any given time. If the Water Contract, he'll set up a shield of his own and recover 999 HP at the end of the turn. The same will be done with the Air and Flame Contracts, but are less dangerous. Either way, do not let the dragon keep the contract you use to fuel your shields, and keep the Water Contract away from him to prevent him from undoing the damage done.
	+ When his health starts dipping low, he may do Poison Breath in two consecutive turns. If a party member drops, don't panic. Heal them up as fast as you can. It's recommended that all three party members know at least one healing move, two focused on healing at all times (if you have a Health Pack, equip it to one of them) and the last focused on damage with healing as a second option so you're not shorthanded when needing two characters healed. Either way, be prepared to patch up your party at a moment's notice. Once his health starts approaching critical levels, the Green Dragon brings out his ultimate move: Hellfire. A fire-cloaked divebomb that strikes the entire party, it *can* be softened with a shield, but each hit has a chance of instant death. There is a small mercy in that instant death doesn't reduce max HP, but heal any KO'd party members ASAP. If possible, have a party member guarding the unconscious while another handles healing.

## ***The Forest of Ships - Exploring the Ship Graveyard***

* You can buy the Ship Graveyard map or access it through Great Crag's northern exit, which can be accessed by buying the map or viewing the scene on the Scenic Ridge where you viewed Deserted Village.
* Make your way east to Sea of Spires, and make your way to the exit, which you will fight a boss battle.
* With the Shadow Stone, you can progress through the vortex to progress.

## ***The Beginning of the End - Exploring the Summit of the Gods***

* You will enter Spiritfall, and access Summit of the Gods.
* Obtain cores from the three elemental Golem, in Third Stage (center), Fifth Stage (west, activate the northwest water ruin), and Ninth Stage (northwest).
* Place all three cores in the three spheres in First Stage.

## ***The Star Graal's End - Exploring the City of the Unseen***

* No negative effect known from 'destroying' the statues. From 2nd playthrough onwards, one of the paths will be unblocked, and destroying all statues will allow you to skip the first boss.
* Make your way up to the next map, around, and down to the previous map, and go through the center to fight the first boss, and then meet the final boss.

## ***Sidequest! - The Shifting Sands***

* Access Shifting Sands by visiting the Seaside Ruins and walking to the left side of the Tectonic Forum.
* There are 4 unchartable maps (Desert Entrance and three In The Desert...), which are randomly linked together by walking off the edge or falling in a sinkhole.
* The mirages can take you to previously visited maps, as well as 4 new Desert Hollow maps.
* The area with the oasis has island with a Whispering Statue.
	+ ***ITEM GET: Whispering Shard: Phoenix's Grace***
* Another area has a Whispering Statue under the sand in the bottom-left corner.
	+ ***ITEM GET: Whispering Shard: Berserker Rage***
* You can sometimes examine the Nests for a Sand Queen's Egg, but they are always guarded by tough enemies.

Some of the nests are guardedBut will yield a Sand Queen's Egg on your victory
## ***Sidequest! - Desert Hollow***

* You can't obtain the Desert Hollow maps. Only visit them from the mirages in Sinking Sands.

### Kitty Clan's Grove

* You can obtain Winged Slippers from Coco on your first visit.

### Secret Oasis

* A boss battle guards the left of the oasis, with Whispering Statue behind it.
	+ ***ITEM GET: Whispering Shard: Renew***

### Sandstone Chamber

* A boss battle guards the bottom-left corner with a Whispering Statue.
	+ ***ITEM GET: Whispering Shard: Windsweep***

### Lonely Grotto

* A winding passage leads to a boss battle guarding a cavern with a Whispering Statue.
	+ ***ITEM GET: Whispering Shard: Sunlight Veil***

### Cave Mouth

* Dragonkin clan cave. A Red, Green, or Black Dragon may appear in the top right area.
* There is a Whispering Statue in the bottom-right corner.
	+ ***ITEM GET: Whispering Shard: Elven Shot***

## ***NG+***

* Only Encyclopedia, Money, and Stances will be transferred to NG+. Some items you obtained may be accessible through Special tab in the shop in Initium. Items, Arts, Charms, and Stats do not carry over.
* Use your cleared save (marked with one or more stars) to start an NG+.
* Items include:
	+ S-Sword: Illuminatus, Aurora's Ray, Regulus
	+ L-Sword: Cherubim's Grasp
	+ Axe: Iskander's Woe
	+ Spear: Onyxscale Lance
	+ Staff: Griffith's Ash
	+ Bow: Windsong Bow
	+ Shield: Meteoric Shield, Prism Crest
	+ Arm: Pearl Wargrips
	+ Accessory: Stone of Babel
* On the 7th run, an ending event is added
* On the 8th run, a sound test will be added at the bar in Initium.
* On the 2nd and 3rd run, alternative character portraits are available.