Part Twenty-Seven: Bottomless Pit - B1, B2, B3

Main Walkthrough

One note: Before going any further, grab the Shadow Core from B3. You'll need it at the end of this long, painful trek. You'll be wasting a lot of time otherwise.

Bottomless Pit - Lower Stratum

- This area is a dense maze. You’ll have to put up with a combination of teleporting circles and spikes; tread carefully. You may meet the following new enemies down here:
  • Lunar Envoys. They’re stronger Death’s Reapers. Not much else to say.
  • Claw of the Shadows. These aren’t new enemies, per se, and they only appear right at the end of the map, but boy are they rough. These dudes usually only appear if you hit a foggy patch on other maps, and are the ‘shadow giants’ described so often by NPCs. You’ll have to fight three of them right at the end of this map, though you should be more than strong enough to face them now. They tend towards physical attacks, though you may see some weaker charms now and then. Draw all of the elements to you and pick them off one-at-a-time.

- Pick your way to the east by doing the following: go north, go east, go as far south as you can, go east until you hit some pillars, go north, take your second right, then, at the next intersection, go north. You’ll find an ancient device of fire that will eliminate most of the battles here.

- Once the fire is lit getting through is easy. You can find Sparkles in the east, and a potential Chest near a fire in the centre, but your destination is in the north. Return to the southern-most passage and head north to find your way there. You’ll find the Claw of the Shadows pack waiting up here; move carefully and you can avoid a fight against the things. (Which I recommend. This is an annoying enough dungeon without facing three of these jerks.)

Bottomless Pit - ?????? (Lair of Shadows)

- Gah! This whole area is filled with that stupid, soupy fog that makes wandering around other maps such an occasional pain. Fortunately, you won’t run into the same powerful shadow giant-type enemies you normally would, but you still have to endure greatly-reduced visibility, as well as a lack of a map.

- Proceed clockwise around the room until you’re in the south. You’ll find a ramp leading down one level. Go this way, then take a left and go west. You’ll find a singing stone that will give you the Whispering Shard for the Inferno charm. You’ll also find an ancient device of fire that will activate a torch… somewhere.

- Return to the outer ring of pathways and continue to the west. You’ll have to wander far to the north before finding another ramp, this leading to the south. The pathway splits to the east and west here; east is a long path to a dead end, so go west instead. (Though if you do go east and hop into the green portal that appears at the end, you can reach a singing stone. The Whispering Stone it passes on contains the Bluster charm. Pretty sure it’s Bluster, anyway.) You’ll get forced down a ramp and hit a north-south split. North is another dead end, so south it is.

- You’ll wind up finding a grassy area, and this place, unfortunately, is patrolled by the larger enemies that herald battles with shadow giants. You need to explore, though, ‘cause there’s another ancient device of fire to the east, and activating it will reveal the map properly. (Though you’ll have to backtrack through the thing to complete your map. Sigh.) Head north of this device and you’ll find another that brings water elementals into the area, which will be handy for the final battle of the area.

- Straight ahead from the ramp to this lowest level is a huge door. If you have the Shadow Core from B3 in your items it will open, revealing a singing stone… and a boss battle.

Blade of the Shadow

This battle isn’t that bad. The Blade of the Shadow is very much like the Claw of the Shadow that accompanies it, though it hits a bit harder each turn and has an AOE attack that gets carted out occasionally. Both can use Venom and Sandstorm, and the Claw will occasionally use Insanity. Steal all three elements first thing, then use ‘em to batter the pair down like you normally would, recasting Shield charms whenever they run out. Keep the elements strong throughout the fight and neither Shadow should have the strength to wipe out any of your characters.

You’ll get a Shadow Stone for winning this fight. You can probably guess what this is, but no, you don’t get to equip it. Shrug. After you've returned to Initium, pop in and see the King of Adventurers - he'll give you 500 St for your hard work.

Part Twenty-Nine: Shifting Sands, Desert Hollow

Main Walkthrough