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ARKADIAN WARRIORS
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Author: Mento
System: XBox 360 (Live Arcade)
Version: 1.0
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Contents
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I - Intro
II - How to Play/Controls/Map/Inventory
III - The Town
IV - The Three Classes
V - Quests
VI - Bestiary/Bosses
VII - General Gameplay Tips
VIII - Outro
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I - Intro
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First, there was Rogue.
Then there was Diablo.
Then.. some other stuff.
Now, comes Arkadian Warriors. The apex of the action RPG dungeon-delver?
Pfft, not even close. It's a decent enough XBLA game for folk into this kind of
of thing for the (now unfortunately standard) price of 800 MS Points.
Plus 200 relatively easy achievement points. So let's get on with it.
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II - How to Play/Controls/Map/Inventory
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If you've ever played a Roguelike (or Diablo), you should figure out what's
going on pretty quickly as soon as you accept your first quest. For the rest
of you, it's an Action RPG (that is, a hybrid of RPG-like levelling up and
inventory management elements with the Action-like "hitting things until they
fall over" element) in which you traverse a series of dungeon floors until you
achieve the quest objective. After which, you heal, sell your goods, buy new
stuff if you can afford it and move onto the next quest. The game continues
in such a manner.
Controls are simple enough:
Left Analog Stick - Move
Right Analog Stick - Shift Camera Left/Right
A - Attack
B - Use Selected Special Attack
X - Pick Up (for items on the ground)
Y - Use Alter Ego attack (when gauge is full)
Start - Main Game Menu
LB - Scroll Weapons in Inventory
RB - Scroll Selected Special Attacks
RT - Inventory/Status/Quest Menu
LT - Guard
D-Pad Left - Use Blue (Mana) Potion
D-Pad Up - Use Red (Health) Potion
D-Pad Right - Use Yellow (Alter Ego) Potion
Holding RT will allow you to access your inventory, as well as browse your
special attacks, status and quest screens. Keep in mind this is all happening
in real-time, so enemies on the screen will continue to attack you.
The Map, usually situated in the top right corner in mini-form, is your main
means of getting around. It shifts direction along with the camera, so that up
is always up, down is always down and so forth. The white arrow is you (or a
friend on co-op), the yellow arrows/dots are quest-critical enemies or items,
red arrows are enemies and green dots are treasure or keys. A green bar
indicates an open door and a red bar is a locked one (or one that requires a
pressure plate to open).
The RT menus consist of Weapons/Armors/Special Attacks/Status and Quest, in that
order. Weapons and Armors are where you can select which equipment to equip, as
well as look at the stuff you picked up. Special Attacks lets you choose which
Special Attack to select for use, as well as check the other ones you can use.
Status lets you see how your character is progressing, the XP/Next Level stats
at the bottom tell you how close you are to levelling up. The Quest screen tells
you the main quest's details plus if there's anything that still needs doing on
the current dungeon floor.
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III - The Town
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You initially start in the town and come back here every time you complete a
dungeon (or quit one partway through). The town has five main ports of call, as
well as the current quest sponsor (the guy you need to go to for the next
quest) who changes around frequently but can be found by following the map:
The Shop: You'll be here a lot. Use the shop to sell all the useless weapons
and armor you found (stuff that isn't as good as the stuff you're wearing in
other words). You can also buy new, more powerful weapons and armor, as well as
Health, Mana or (very occasionally) Ego potions.
The HP Fountain: Situated behind the shop against the back wall, this handy
fountain will heal you 50 HP per drink. Use it to fill up if you come back to
town wounded.
The MP Fountain: Less useful, since MPs regenerate quickly, the MP Fountain
is south of the Goddess and Shop and is for some reason much easier to find.
The Wish Fountain: The big circular fountain will allow you to throw money in
for wishes. I haven't managed to earn anything from throwing cash in and there's
no way to throw in any amount between a single gold coin and all of the money
you have on you. I don't recommend using it.
Artemis: The Goddess who appeared at the start of the game as a hawk, she's
sort of a big deal in these parts. She'll let you replay any of the quests
you've successfully completed, which is a good source of XP and gold. After
completing a dungeon you start right next to her.
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IV - The Three Classes
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[Fighter]
The tank and front-line attacker. In multiplayer, he'll be burdening all
the dangers to protect the weaker ranged characters. As such, he has high
defense, attack and hit points and is pretty much the easiest character to play
as. His magic and mana is terrible, making the amount of times he can use his
powerful special attacks fairly sparse.
Fighters can use the following Weapons:
Spears - Spears have incredible range and are fairly quick, making them the
ideal weapon for cautious Fighter types. Some of them are even able to freeze
or stun enemies. The downside is that spear-wielders can't use shields.
Swords - Swords are decent attack weapons that offer a moderate amount of
damage. They're good all-rounders and sort of the iconic weapon for fighter
types.
Axes - Axes offer the most damage, but they're slow and limited in range. The
most powerful weapons in the game are axes though, so it's up to you if you
want to focus on them.
Hammers - As slow as axes and often not quite as powerful, hammers still have
their uses. For one, many enemies in the game are resistant to the slashing
weapons above and require blunt force to destroy them.
Fighters can use the following Armors:
Heavy Armor - Heavy Armor is just armor with a high defence value. Only
Soldiers are proficient in them though.
Helmets - Helmets are strong armor for your head, which again only Soldiers
can use effectively.
Shields - Shields can often block an incoming attack and offer a bonus to
defence, which should already be considerable with the other armor scores. You
can't wield one if you're using a spear though.
Fighter Special Attacks:
Lv 2 - Charge - A running attack. Fairly poor but then it's the first one.
Lv 5 - Berserk - A handy temporary boost to power and speed.
Lv 8 - Warcry - A power that damages all enemies close to the Fighter.
Lv 11 - God's Blessing - Temporary invulnerability. Priceless. Use it often.
Lv 14 - Zeus' Fury - A massive meteor attack that hits every enemy.
[Archer]
Archers are backline fighters, able to pepper enemies with dozens of arrows
before they get close. They're great for crowds and intermediate players can
focus on dodging while firing to maximize their effectiveness. In multiplayer,
Archers are ideally teamed with Fighters as back-up. Archers have fairly
decent magic too, which tends to go into various different ways of firing lots
of arrows at once.
Archers can use the following Weapons:
Daggers - Close-range weapons that will do in a pinch, but really not the kind
of thing you want to be dependant on.
Bows - The Archer's main weapon, a ranged dealer of death.
Archers can use the following Armors:
Light Armor - Not as strong as Heavy Armor, but offers decent enough protection.
Cloaks - Additional armor that only Archers can use, for some reason.
Caps - Not as protective as helmets, though way fancier.
Archer Special Attacks:
Lv 2 - Set Trap - Sets a trap on the floor. The enemy needs to walk over it.
Lv 5 - Sneak - Turns invisible temporarily. Good for a quick getaway.
Lv 8 - Multiple Shot- The Archer's best Special Attack. Fires in all directions.
Lv 11 - Penetrating Arrow - An unstoppable arrow that plows through enemies.
Lv 14 - Rain of Arrows - Sends arrows falling all over, hitting many enemies.
[Sorceress]
Sorceresses are flying magic-users who deal a significant amount of damage
through wands and staves. They can also fly, which protects them from floor
traps and gives them unparalleled movement through the dungeons. They are
very weak though, so they're recommended only for the advanced player or those
playing with a second person.
Sorceresses can use the following Weapons:
Staves - A staff is basically a big stick. Do more damage than wands but aren't
ranged.
Wands - Fires magical energy at enemies at no MP cost.
Sorceresses can use the following Armors:
Shawl - A cloth wrapped around the body. Minimal protection.
Cowl - A hood for the head. Minimal protection.
Sorceress Special Attacks:
Lv 2 - Healing Circle - Heals both you and nearby friends. Invaluable for multi.
Lv 5 - Fire Ring - Creates a ring of fire that hits nearby enemies.
Lv 8 - Frozen Nova - Like Fire Ring, only with ice damage. Can often freeze.
Lv 11 - Summon Monster - Creates a helper minion. Helper's strength is based on
Sorceress's level.
Lv 14 - Hypnotic Gaze - Charms the attacking enemy, turning them into a helper.
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V - Quests
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The following are the list of Quests you'll receive. I didn't include the
sponsor because it changes a lot. They can be found by the golden arrow on the
in-town map anyway. Keep in mind that after achieveing the quest objective, a
warp appears to take you back to town. Press X to use it to get back.
#1 - Frenzied Boar - Kill 15 Boars and then defeat the Boar King
Simple enough introduction. Kill all the boars until the game allows you to take
the stairs down and then repeat for the second level. Dropping down another
floor puts you into a boss fight with the Boar King. See his "Enemies" entry.
#2 - Kobalos Wizards - Kill 25 of the blue goblin shaman types. There's more to
defeat, but there's no boss this time. They often run away from you so make sure
you don't chase them into a room full of enemies you can't handle.
#3 - Stolen Anvil - Just find the anvil on the bottom floor. Use X to pick it
up and the quest is over. It can be found by finding the golden arrow on the
final floor's map.
#4 - Scorpion Tails - Kill 20 scorpions and take their tails. Don't forget the
second part and just leave a bunch of tails lying around. Collect them with X
(they don't use up inventory space, don't worry).
#5 - Lost Doll - Another fetch quest, this time for a doll. Like the anvil, just
find it and get out.
#6 - Honoring the Dead - Yet another fetch quest, but this time in ten parts.
Find all ten bones on several floors to end the quest. The game won't let you
go downstairs until you've found all the bones on that floor, like with the
enemies.
#7 - Cyclopes - Defeat the cyclopes on the bottom floor. See their entry in the
"Enemies" section.
#8 - Gorgon's Statues - Bust up every statue of the Gorgon. There are four in
total. They break as easily as any breakable you find.
#9 - Gorgon's Children - Another "kill X enemies", this time it's serpents.
Get rid of all 20 to end the quest.
#10 - Venomous Scorpions - Scorpions again, only you don't need to bother with
the tails this time.
#11 - The Wild Boar - "The Wild Boar" is just a particularly strong minotaur
enemy on the bottom floor, which is tough but not exactly a boss fight.
#12 - Anvil's Restoration - Another anvil-related quest. You need to collect 5
scrolls/spells to complete this one.
#13 - Underworld Portals - Find the big glowy gates and take them out. They
break like any normal breakable. There are a total of four of them.
#14 - Campe - Defeat the Gorgon's general Campe on the bottom floor. See her
entry in the "Enemies" section for tips on how to beat her.
#15 - Lost Lieutenants - They aren't even trapped or anything, just standing in
place waiting patiently for you to tag them. Then they warp home. Couldn't they
have done that themselves? There are five of the 'fraidycats in total.
#16 - Rescue the Mayor's Son - Identical to the previous quest, only there's
just the one guy to find. He's on the very last floor, obviously.
#17 - Underworld Keys - Last fetch quest. Find all eight keys and bring them
back to the surface.
#18 - Typhon - A difficult approach to a difficult boss. Check his entry in the
"Enemies" section, as per usual.
#19 - Gorgon - The final quest and another boss fight. Defeat the Gorgon in the
tips provided in her "Enemies" entry and end this!
Congrats! You've finished the game. Continue replaying old quests until you get
those "level 20" and "500000G" achievements.
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VI - Bestiary/Bosses
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* Boars
Boars are common in the early levels. Although slightly tougher than the other
introductory enemies, they don't have any special attacks and are fairly easy
to defeat. The first quest requires that you hunt several of them.
* Bone Centaurs
I call them this, though really they look sort of like skeletal beaked monsters
with four legs. They mostly show up towards the end of the game and are some of
the toughest normal enemies. The ones that show up halfway through the final
level are the strongest non-boss enemies in the game. They're fast, but lack
any kind of ranged attack. Use Hammers on them if you can.
* Centaurs
Centaurs are made of green or grayish stone and gallop towards you. They have
very strong defence but are fairly slow and easy to avoid. They like to use
ranged attacks too.
* Chimeras
Chimeras are the three-headed monsters that either use ranged attacks or close
swipes. Although they cameo in the early levels, they tend to show up towards
the end and are very tough. Sometimes their ranged attacks are stronger than
close-range attacks and sometimes it's the other way around. They pack a wallop
but are hard to miss with weapons.
* Hawkmen
Don't really know what else to call these. Like Skeletons, they show up in both
close-combat and magical ranged versions. The second type is the one you should
be careful around. Like other flying enemies, they move fast and are hard to
hit.
* Kobalos
Little bipedal goblin creatures that come in three colors: Green, Purple and
Blue. The colors don't mean much, though the blue ones can use magic and are
related to the second quest.
* Lunans
These little blue menaces tend to spawn from blue lodestones on the ground, so
make sure you take it out before more of them appear. They're fairly easy to
kill. They tend to use ranged magical attacks.
* Minotaurs
Minotaurs are huge hulking brutes that chase you down with massive axes. They
hit extremely hard, but are otherwise slow and easy to hit. Keep your distance
from their shockwave attacks and you should do fine.
* Mosquitos
Mosquitos are those annoying buzzy flying insects in the early levels.
Exceptionally weak, though they do fly around a lot making them hard to it and
also tend to show up in numbers.
* Scorpions
Scorpions show up throughout the game, getting progressively harder to kill and
in the later stages are invisible until they're up close. They also occasionally
pack a nasty poisonous sting, which drains health.
* Skeletons
Skeletons show up about halfway through the game and are very powerful units,
especially the ranged attackers. You need to look out for the magic-wielding
ones especially because there's a good chance you don't have much resistance
against magic. They're very resistant to slashing weapons so consider switching
to a Hammer if you're using a Fighter. Keep one with you in the inventory in
case you need to switch to it.
* Serpents
The favored units of the Gorgon, serpents slither around and bite you, often
causing the poison status. Though they can be hard to hit, they tend to have
very few hit points. Not a single one of them wasss once a man, so hack away.
* Spiders
Spiders, like Scorpions, are quick insectoid enemies that tend to use poison
in their attacks. They're less menacing than they look though.
* Termites
Probably not termites, but they're the smallish insects that come out of
nests until the nests are destroyed. Very weak, but show up in great numbers.
* Wolves
Wolves are fairly tough, fast beasts that have a really annoying howl attack
that can stun you. Fortunately, most of the earlier ones you meet won't use it.
Bosses:
* The Boar King
The Boar King is a minotaur enemy that you face as the first boss of the game.
He has a fairly simple pattern of running out and attacking you until you take
off a unit of his health, at which point he retreats and lets three of his
regular Boar underlings attack you. Once they're gone, the process repeats. Just
remove all the units in his health bar to defeat him.
* The Two Cyclopes
Two rather tough enemies that gang up on you. Standard rule of multiple enemies
apply: Concentrate on one and then the other. Make sure you can follow the one
you're concentrating all your firepower on. You should also consider using the
Ego ASAP to make sure the time spent with both of them hulking around is kept
to a minimum. Once one goes down, the other is easy enough to kill on its own.
Don't get trapped in a corner or anything, because it can happen with both of
them around.
* Campe
Campe is a lizard-like centaur creature that uses a huge weapon that will
alternate as you fight her. While the weapon is changing, she is invincible, so
use this time to heal if you need to. While she can damage you considerably,
she has no special tricks up her sleeve and will eventually go down.
* Typhon
Typhon is, in my view, the hardest boss of the game - at the halfway point
it'll jump into the water and use all manner of powerful ranged attacks. You
have to wait it out, since he's invulnerable while this is happening, but he'll
eventually come back up and resume the fight. Just learn the pattern as far as
his ranged attacks go and you should do okay. He may jump back into the water
again when you get him close to death, but just keep at it.
* The Gorgon
The snake lady herself. She isn't quite as hard as Typhon, in my opinion,
though you will still need a lot of potions to survive the battle. She'll move
around a lot firing arrows at you, so follow her and keep whittling her health
down. Soon, she'll unleash dozens of small snake enemies that will die in one
hit but can still do some damage in their large numbers. If you've been saving
the Alter Ego until now, use it. She won't use any other tactics, other than
zipping around the arena, so keep on her and retreat if you need to heal
suddenly. She'll eventually take the hint and die.
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VII - General Gameplay Tips
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Since every level is randomly generated with a repeating stock of enemies
available, a solid "walkthrough" approach is sort of impossible. So along with
the sections above, I've come up with several tips to help you progress:
* The Alter Ego, it's been mentioned a few times, is a special attack that
becomes available once the Ego bar (the yellow thing on the side of the screen)
is full and glowing. After pressing the () button, you can transform into a
powerful animal form that will defeat most enemies with one hit. Vital for
clearing out rooms packed with enemies and handy for boss battles too. You are
also mostly immune in this new form, but it will only last for about 30 seconds.
Use it wisely. Keep in mind you can automatically jump to a full Ego bar by
using an Ego potion (the yellow ones) if you're in trouble. Incidentally,
although the three characters turn into different creatures, they all fight the
same identical way: big, area-of-effect stomping attacks.
* Make sure you use the LT button to lock onto enemies if you're playing as
either of the ranged classes (Archer and Sorceress). It's very hard to hit
enemies without it. A targeted enemy has a big white circle/glyph under it (the
color changes to match the character doing the targeting in multiplayer).
* If you lose all your hit points, you'll die but that won't be the end.
However, you only have three lives and will be sent packing to the surface if
you lose all of them. This means losing all progress in that dungeon, though
you still get to keep the items you found. On multiplayer, both characters have
a stock of five lives to borrow from if they snuff it, which are represented as
little yellow dots.
* Oldest trick in the book for Action RPG aficionados, but here it is again
just in case: If you have full potions and find a potion, just use one of the
ones you're holding. You're missing out on a potion either way, might as well
cure what little damage you have in the process.
* Watch out for traps! The two main kinds of trap are the fireball trap and the
spike trap. The fireball traps come out of the wall and fire across the room at
a set time, so all you have to do is wait until a fireball passes and quickly
cross. A spike trap is on the ground and can be identified by a different-
colored patch with holes. In addition to these two are exploding vases, which
can go off if you accidentally hit them. The exploding kind tend to be a little
slimmer than the breakable kind and you should be familiar with them after
playing the game a while. There's an achievement linked to killing enemies with
the splash damage from exploding vases.
* The dungeons are also filled with breakables and chests. Breakables are
simply dungeon-dressing of no real worth other than the fun of smashing them
up. Chests contain all sorts of treasure, usually potions and gold. You need to
hit a chest with your weapon to open it. Make full use of the camera views to
check there aren't any chests hiding behind furniture.
* A locked door should always have a key available for it that you can reach.
If you don't have the right one, make sure you haven't missed any areas. In
Co-op, whoever picked up the key has to open the door; it'll stay locked for
the other player. Also keep in mind some locked doors only open if you stand on
a pressure plate (should be a few feet in front of the door).
* Secret areas in dungeons are places where you can break through a suspicious
wall and recover a large amount of gold (and sometimes items). These walls
change according to setting, but they're pretty obvious. The Map even shows you
where they are. You need to find 15 during the game for the achievement, which
you should manage easily as you proceed with the quests.
* Using the LB alternates between the weapons in your inventory, in case you
need to switch weapons for an advantage over the current enemy you're fighting.
Keep in mind though that as you collect weapons during the dungeon, they too
will be cycled through. Don't forget and end up using a crummy weapon you just
found.
* Talking to the Goddess in town will allow you to replay quests. If you're
having trouble with the current dungeon, try going back to a previous one to
level up a bit or earn money for better equipment.
* When repeating an old quest (by talking to Artemis), the quest automatically
ends when you finish the objective. If you want to keep exploring, don't pick
up the last item/kill the last enemy until you're ready.
* What appears in the shop is dependant on level. Also, the inventory changes
each time you enter a dungeon and come back to town. If an item you want isn't
there, go and replay a short dungeon (or just enter + quit) and see if it's
there next time. My advice is to always change up to the next best thing, rather
than save up for something even more impressive. It's never a good idea to be
underequipped for a dungeon, even if it's for the greater good.
* The magic effects on weapons (the weapon will have MAGIC written next to its
damage value) can vary, but it tends to fall into five categories: Fire magic
can cause extra burning damage which can often persist like poison, Ice magic
will do extra damage as well as significantly slow down an enemy, Lightning
magic will do extra damage and occasionally stun an enemy, making them stand in
place, Poison magic will cause additional damage to enemies over a period of
time and Stun magic will sometimes cause enemies to stand in place and not
attack, similar to the Lightning effect.
* As far as the other achievements go, there's already an excellent guide to
procuring them written by neeker on GameFAQS. You'll get most just by playing
through the game, but there are a few sneaky ones.
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VIII - Outro
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So, that's about it. Hopefully if you got somehow stuck in this game, I've
helped you out. As 800pt Arcade games go, it's certainly no SOTN but it's not a
complete waste of money like so many others either. Use the e-mail below for
advice, though keep in mind that there's a separate guide for Achievements if
that's what you wanted to ask about. Also make sure to include "Arkadian" or
some such so it doesn't get spam folder'd.
spento [AT] gmail [DOT] com
Thanks go to Wanako Games and Microsoft for their respective roles in bringing
this game to XBLA and also to the GameFAQs people for hosting this FAQ.
-GOBLORN-
