Castlevania: Circle of the Moon for GameBoy Advance Battle Arena Guide By jekoln Version 1.8 (created 6-18-2001, last updated 3-08-2010 ) ____________________ ____/ Introduction \_____________________________________________________ I decided to write this FAQ because my first time at the Battle Arena I couldn't make it past the third room, I thought I would honestly never be able to make it without some sort of plan or strategy. Everything that I did in order to beat it, I decided to write up into a guide. ____________________ ____/ Version History \_____________________________________________________ Version 1.0 - Wrote out first draft of FAQ Version 1.2 - Included info about Needle Armor, corrected some errors, refor- matted the text so it looks right (I figured out that it's better to use wordpad than notepad), and added thanks section. Version 1.4 - Put in the info about the Dark Armor and also made some minor changes, added exp. amounts for the skeleton and abiondarg room and changed the error about the were-jaguar's exp. Version 1.6 - Changed some more errors, and added a little here and there. Version 1.8 - After years, finally came back and decided to make some changes, mostly to reflect my other guides. Reformating, editing, all that jazz. ____________________ ____/ Preparation \_____________________________________________________ You can't expect to make it through this thing by just taking it head on, when you're in the Battle Arena you're going to need to stockpile these things; potions, heart restorers, cure curse, mind restorers, dark armor, and two double grips. Also, I recommend being at least level 50 (leveling up even more than that doesn't hurt either). NOTE - to help get the items you need faster don't forget to use the card combination Venus + Mandragora to raise your luck ) *** Potion Highs and EXs *** You're only going want to use Potion Highs and EXs while you're in the Battle Arena; potions, meats, and even spiced meats won't give you adequate healing for the beating you're going to be taking. The following enemies will drop these. - Devil - The Devil (located at the very top of the castle near where you fight Hugh as a boss) will give out potion highs. Don't forget the Devil will give you 10,000 exp. every time you kill him so he's also a good way to level up quickly. - Alraune - Alraune, the nude girl in the rose, is the only enemy that has Potion EXs (the potion that restores all your HP). But, it will take a lot of luck to get it though, (it took me 20 minutes at 1086 luck just to get one) but it is worth it since you'll have over 1,000 hp when you go to the Battle Arena (so just one is worth four or more Potion Highs). - Wind Armors - Wind armors are very good sources for Potions Highs too, some say they are easier to get from Wind Armors than the Devil, too. *** Heart Restorers *** You'll be finding yourself using hearts up like a madman while you're in the Battle Arena so it's good to stock up on heart restorers. Here's a small list of enemies that are good to fight when stocking up for Heart Restorers. - Mummies - These are nice to fight because they keep on regenerating and are easy to kill, they give you Heart. - Bone Towers - These are abundant and not hard to find, they give you Heart and Heart High. - Bats - These regenerate too and the best place to find them is in the bottom of the castle in the room with the earth demon and the place where you got dash boots, they give you Heart. - Spearfish - Found in the water area, they give you Heart and Heart EX. *** Cure Curse *** You'll need to have a couple of these on hand for room ten in the battle arena, marionettes and legions are the two enemies that you can get these from. Legions are in the upper part of the castle while the Marionettes are in the upper-right part of the castle. *** Mind Restorers *** If you want to use the magic cheat in the battle arena you're going to need a lot of Mind Restores. - Brain Floats - These regenerate and are easy to kill, (I recommencd using Jupiter + Serpent, or if you have it, Jupiter + Unicorn, and use the moon jump to kill them off) They give you Mind Restores. - Spectors - These regenerate and are easy to kill too. They can be found in the Underground Gallery (Twin Dragon's area) in the verticle rooms nestled between the two save rooms. - Dark Armor - The Dark Armor gives you +550 defense but will bring down your other stats by 10 points. I consider defense to be the number one importance when you're in the battle arena though, so I would advise equiping this armor. You get this armor from the Lilim, Lilim is in the upper left part of the castle (Machine Tower, Golem boss' area) where all the Fox Archers and Heat Shades are. o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o Machine Tower ___________ | | | | |____|_______________ | | Golem | | ___|___________|_______|_______|__________ | S | | | |___|___________________| | ______ | | | | |_______________________| |___| S = Save Room | | |< | | | X = Secret room where | ___| | |_______|___| Lilim is. | | x | | | | < = Place where you | |_______| _______| |___| bust through the wall | | | S | | | | | to get to secret room. | |___|___| |___|___| | | | | | |___________|___________|_______| o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o *** Double Grips x2 *** I believe that the double grips are the best accessories to wear while in the Battle Arena since they give you a 75 point boost for all your stats. You can get them from dark armors, which are at the top of the castle near the Hugh boss. *** Strength Armbands *** Some people have emailed talking about the virtues of using Strength Armbands in the Arena. Equiping one will boost your stength +100 but will bring down your other three stats by 25, if you equip two of them you can get a 200 boost in your strength and have your other stats down by 50. I have a hard time advocating this though, while you get a huge boost in strength you lose luck and defense, and luck plays a very important role when trying to get cards and potions. It's up to you though, it's not a big deal which you choose to do. You can get Strength Armbands from Demon Lords. *** Leveling Up *** The best enemy to get leveled up from isn't actually Devil, but Lilith. Lilith will give you 20,000 exp and mind ex's. Lilith can be found in the lower-left part of the castle (Underground Warehouse, Death boss area). In a tall skinny room with a lot of Succubus' and an Arch Demon at the very top there is a secret room. To get to it go halfway up the tall skinny room, you should be able to bust through the wall (on the right side) which will reveal a secret room, inside is Lilith. I still recommend fighting the Devil too, since he drops Potion Highs. ____________________ ____/ Magic Cheat \_____________________________________________________ Even though they say that you can't use magic while you're in the Battle Arena you actually can. Normally, whenever you use mind restores or mind highs in the Battle Arena it will fill up your magic bar at the menu screen but when you return back to the game your magic depletes almost instantly. There is a handy little cheat that I've found out that will let use magic while you're in the battle arena, but it can be a bit taxing to use and it is only useful with summoning magic. *** Long Explanation *** While you're in the battle arena use two or three mind restores so that you're up to almost full magic. Next select the summon spell you want to use, (I recommend Cockatrice or Thunderbird since they do the most damage) now here comes the tricky part, and you have to pull this off in a very limited amount of time (it might take you a couple tries to master it). The second that you come back to the game (after unpausing from the menu screen) hit the L trigger button to activate your spell (your magic will not drain while you are activating your magic) and (as fast as you can) perform the down-to-up motion (just like you would normally do) and hit the action button. If you do it fast enough you will actually perform the summon! Beware though, if you get hit by an enemy or you mess up you'll have to use up some more mind restores and try again. *** Short Explanation *** Do the spell as fast as you can. I don't recommend using this cheat to get through the whole Arena, as it takes away a lot of the challenge. But this can make the Battle Arena extremely easier in some parts, namely, the last room and the room with all of the minotaurs. You can also use this trick to restore some health if you have the Unicorn summon. ____________________ ____/ The Battle Arena \_____________________________________________________ When you get to the Battle Arena you first come to a room with torches that all hold different sub-weapons, the only one you'll need is the cross, which will be the last torch (the one right before the door ). Don't waste your time picking anything else, trust me. On a sidenote, all of the enemies in the Battle Arena are more difficult than there non-Battle Arena counterparts, but they also yield higher experience. -- Room One -- Difficulty - * (out of five) Enemies - Were-wolf x 1 ( 1,100 exp. ) Were-jaguar x 1 ( 1,200 exp. ) o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o This room is fairly easy and shouldn't be too difficult. The first thing you need to focus on when you get into this room is not to toward the Were-Wolf, you want to only jump up and down so that you can focus your attention on the Were-Jaguar. You can start by throwing a couple of crosses to get some hits on the were-jaguar but when he charges at you double jump to avoid his attack and use your whip to hit him as you come down. Try not to come down to fast as the were-jaguar likes to stall for a second after he attacks, you might touch him and send yourself flying back if you do. After you kill him go after the were-wolf, you can avoid the were-wolfs jump attack by ducking as he comes at you, after he flies over you can throw some crosses at him and hit him with your whip. -- Room Two -- Difficulty - ** Enemies - Hipogriff x 2 ( 1,900 exp. each ) Catoblepas x 2 ( 2,000 exp. each ) o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o When you enter this room the first thing you need to do is jump straight up and throw one or two crosses as the hipogriffs will run right into them (it might even hit them a second time after they turn around) but after that you want to focus your attention to the two Catoblepas. The Catoblepas' steam attack can end up doing major damage since any damage you take while stoned is triple or quadruple what you would normally take. So double jump straight over the two of them and throw as many crosses as you can while their backs are turned, keep doing this until you kill them. To finish off the two Hipogriffs just jump and throw crosses at them, they're not that hard. -- Room Three -- Difficulty - *** Enemies - Wind Demon x 2 ( 4,000 exp. each ) Witch x 3 ( 1,000 exp. each ) o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o To take out the first wind demon in this room just keep jumping up and throwing crosses at him. Actually you can just use that strategy for the whole room too, just remember to try and take one enemy at a time. The only thing that makes this room difficult is the shear amount of projectiles that will be thrown at you. -- Room Four -- Difficulty - ** Enemies - Stone Armor x 3 ( 3,000 exp. each ) Devil Tower x 12 ( 600 exp. each ) This room isn't really difficult since the stone armors follow such a simple strategy, to beat the Stone Armors in this room keep throwing crosses at them and when they throw rocks at you just use you whip spin (hold the B button down) to shield yourself. The devil towers are really easy too (you'll probably be able to take them out with one hit), just hit them right after they shoot. o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o -- Room Five -- Difficulty - * Enemies - Skeleton x 6 ( 700 exp. each ) Skeleton Bomber x 5 ( 550 exp. each ) Skeleton Spear x 4 ( 580 exp. each ) Electric Skeleton x 2 ( 700 exp. each ) o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o This room is so easy I don't even know if I should bother to tell you how to get past them. Just throw your crosses and hit them with your whip or you can use your slide kick, not much else to it. -- Room Six -- Difficulty - *** Enemies - Fire Demon x 2 ( 4,500 exp. each ) Bone Tower x 7 ( 800 exp. each ) o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o The Fire Demons can be a bit hard since they have so many hit points and their attacks are hard to avoid, when you enter the room just keep jumping up and throwing your crosses at them, you'll probably take a few hits before they go down but it shouldn't be too much. The Bone Towers' attacks are easy to avoid and it shouldn't be too hard to kill them. -- Room Seven -- Difficulty - * Enemies - Fox Hunter x 5 ( 600 exp. each ) o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o This room is pretty easy too, the Fox Hunters can only shoot straight ahead so all of the arrows can be avoided by simple ducking. If you're strong enough, you can kill the Fox Hunters by sliding on the ground. If you're not you can kill them by just slowly advancing towards them between shots. A fun way to kill them is by facing away from them and throwing two crosses, when the crosses boomerang back to you just duck and let them take out the Fox Hunters. I've been able to take out four Fox Hunters in one swoop with this technique. -- Room Eight -- Difficulty - **** Enemies - Poison Armor x 3 ( 3,600 exp. each ) Bloody Sword x 3 ( 2,000 exp. each ) o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o This is the first of the really difficult rooms, the second you get into this room you'll want move forward a little and lob as many crosses as you can and hope that you kill the first Poison Armor and maybe some of the Bloody Swords. After the first poison armor is killed try and kill the rest of the Bloody Swords before you go after the second Poison Armor. When fighting the Poison Armors the best technique is to run near them, quickly throw some crosses and then run away so you don't touch the poison cloud. You can also keep your distance and use the face-away-from-the-enemy cross throwing technique I told you about in room seven against the Fox Hunters. Don't forget to use antidotes the second you get poisoned, you'll need all the HP you can keep. -- Room Nine -- Difficulty - * Enemies - Abiondarg x 24 ( 588 exp. each ) o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o This room is the easiest in the whole Battle Arena, you could just stand in place and keep hitting the Abiondargs as they go by. I suggest that you try to kill the ones on the top so that if they drop a Potion or Meat you can get to it, 'cause you've probably taken some damage by now. -- Room Ten -- Difficulty - **** Enemies - Legion x 3 ( 2,900 exp. each ) Marionette x 12 ( 1,200 exp. each ) o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o First off, this room will be a royal pain in the ass if you aren't strong enough to kill the marionettes in one hit (with the cross). Since the Marionettes curse you when they touch you you better have a lot of Cure Curses on hand. The only weapon that you'll want to use in this room is the cross since it does more damage to dark-aligned enemies. Try to keep your distance while fighting in this room to keep from being cursed but I can tell you that this room won't be easy, if you have too much trouble with this room I would advise you to use the magic cheat. -- Room Eleven -- Difficulty - ***** Enemies - Minotaur x 7 ( 4,100 exp. each ) o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o This room, in my opinion, is the hardest room of the whole Battle Arena. I highly recommend using the magic cheat (Thunderbird summon) for this room. (Actually it's kinda hard to do it in this room, you have to perform it the exact second you walk into the room) If you want to take it the hard way and fight it out be forewarned, you are going to lose a lot of life in this room, the Minotaurs' shockwaves will constantly be knocking your ass around like a ragdoll. The only advice I can give is to keep throwing crosses and keep jumping around. After losing almost all of your HP they'll be dead. -- Room Twelve -- Difficulty - **** Enemies - Succubus x 3 ( 3,100 exp. each ) Arachne x 3 ( 2,400 exp. each ) o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o The first person you're gonna need to take out is the first Arachne, if she hits you with her web goo you're not gonna be that effective against the Succubus's since you won't be able to jump. So run forward and keep throwing crosses as fast as you can until she's dead. After her you now should deal with the two Succubus's flying around, keep throwing your crosses and try to watch for when they stop, because when they stop they shoot three shots at you. After you've taken care of them kill the second Arachne, then the third Succubus, and then the final Arachne. -- Room Thirteen -- Difficulty - **** Enemies - Demon Lord x 5 ( 4,200 exp. each) Alraune x 2 ( 5,000 exp. each) o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o When you first enter this room you want to throw three crosses to kill the demon lord right in front of you, but be prepared for what happens next all of the demon lords on screen will be spitting fireballs in every direction so there is a 100% chance that you'll be hit. After the first demon lord dies jump up and throw crosses at the demon lord right above the alraune. When he dies jump on the platform he was on and throw crosses at the demon lord on the platform to the left of you. After he dies go back to the beginning of the room and fight the Alraune, when fighting the Alraunes remember that you'll do a lot more damage to them if you hit them when they're exposed but you'll have to jump to hit them in the right spot, another thing to remember is that they'll always leave a space between their vines for you to hit them. You can fall into it by jumping on the platform right above her and wait for her to raise her vines, you'll be able to see it. After killing her go to the platform in the middle of the room and throw crosses at the Demon Lord on the platform to the left of you. Then drop down and kill the last Demon Lord who's behind the Alraune, you might take a few hits but it's important to kill him before you kill her. Kill the last Alraune following the same strategy that you did to kill the first Alraune and you'll be done with that room. -- Room Fourteen -- Difficulty - * Enemies - Hyena x 8 ( 1,000 exp. each) o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o This room shouldn't be hard, you can kill the first hyena with your whip and then run to the middle of the room and drop down the hole. Facing the left throw a cross, once you throw the cross jump back up out of the whole and go to the right. If you did it right the cross will kill the other seven Hyenas if it didn't just try again. -- Room Fifteen -- Difficulty - **** Enemies - Dark Armor x 3 ( 6,600 exp. each) **Holds Black Dog card!!** Devil Tower x 12 (1,500 exp. each) o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o This room is just a variant of room four but is much more difficult with the addition of the Dark Armors. Your first goal should be taking out the first three Devil Towers since they can stone you and make you lose tons of HP. They shouldn't take more than one hit from your whip or cross so it shouldn't be too hard. When those are gone focus all your firepower on the first Dark Armor, throw as many crosses at him as you can while watching where he points his sword, dodging his dark blasts are priority number one. Keep this pattern up until you get through the room. This is a room that you might also want to use the magic cheat (Thunderbird summon) and don't forget that the Dark Armors hold the Black Dog Card, watch for it! -- Room Sixteen -- Difficulty - ** Enemies - White Armor x 3 ( 6,000 exp. each) **Holds Unicorn card!!** o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o The White Armors are so ridiculously easy that it's funny. Your strategy for this room is; throw crosses, duck, throw crosses, duck, throw crosses, .... that's it since the White Armors only shoot straight. You better hope you're lucky enough to get the Unicorn card, 'cause if you don't you'll have to go through it again if you want it. -- Room Seventeen -- ** Final Room! ** Difficulty - ***** Enemy- Devil ( 30,000! exp. ) o-----------------------------------------------------------------------------o This is it, the final room, but by now you're probably really hurting; running low on hearts and life. (If you picked up the Unicorn card from the Holy Armor in the room before I suggest using the Unicorn summon to restore some life if you've run out of potions, just remember to do it before you enter the room) The Devil is the hardest regular enemy in the whole game and his Battle Arena version is the ultimate badass! His purple clouds o' death do damage well over a hundred hit points, making it easy for him to kill your weakened characterin just one or two hits! He's also got enough HP to survive a summon spell, that means if you want to use the magic cheat you'll have to do it two or even three times before he goes down. ( I recommend using the Cock- atrice summon as it does more damage to him than the Thunderbird summon ) If you plan on fighting him the regular way remember to stay away from him. His attacks include: - a tornado that surrounds him - a shockwave (much like the minotaurs shockwave, but the devil's shockwave goes in both directions, goes much farther, and stays around a lot longer) - a shield - a "flamethrower" attack. The battle with this guy is going to be long and brutal, if you charge him head on you'll most likely get killed very quickly, so remember to be patient. Once you've finally beaten him you'll have made it through, this is the most difficult task in the game and you'll be rewarded with "shinning" (game typo, supposed to be shining) armor, which is the best in the game. Also, going through the whole Battle Arena will net you a whopping 291,582 exp! ____________________ ____/ Thanks \_____________________________________________________ I would like to thank the following people who have helped me; SheikofHyrule@aol.com for giving me some pointers locklear@yifan.net for telling me about the slide kick The following people who helped me find the needle armor: CycloneX65@aol.com, Micheal Rude, ultimo, Mark Sherry The following people who helped me find the dark armor: Scott Huisman, SheikofHyrule@aol.com, and Jon Lam ( who also told me about Lilith ) Jim Ogul for telling me about the potion ex's Rize for providing information about the abiondarg and skeleton exp. amounts. Brendan Parlor for sending info about wind armors, potion highs, and strength armbands.