Kick Master – Guide and Walkthrough (PART 1)

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 Kick Master - NES
 Version 1.1b
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Greetings, and welcome to yet another of my writings! This time I'm writing
up... that's right, a full-fledged Walkthrough! GASP! That's right, I've
decided to do a full walkthrough on the 1991 Tatio game, Kick Master for the
Nintendo Entertainment System. Who knew?

It's a fun, challenging game with fairly decent graphics, good sound, and
excellent music for its day. It's essentially a platform action game, but it
mixes adventure/RPG elements. Try it! You'll like it!

I started this project early March of 2001, and stopped work on it in April,
having done a detailed walkthrough for the entire game up to Area 7. I had
noticed no one did a walkthrough for the game, so I figured I would do one.
I had fun with this game when I had rented it so many years ago. Alas, other
things came up, and this walkthrough was put on hold for well over a year.

It's now late October 2002, and it took quite a bit of effort to finish this
thing for two reasons. One...after that long a pause, I was a little rusty!
And two...my gamepad broke! >_<;

Anyway, this is finally done, so if anyone is getting frustrated over this
game, then I hope this helps! :)

============================================================================
What's New:

v1.1 - Removed e-mail contact information. To contact me about this FAQ,
 please visit my website and click on "Feedback" to see what my current
 e-mail address is. Hopefully, using this method, I no longer have to
 update this FAQ every time a mail server stops offering services or I
 switch ISPs.

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How to Use This Guide:

This guide is formatted for 76-character lines. A maximised Notepad in
640 x 480 resolution should display it properly. 
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Availability on the Web:

This guide may be used freely on the following web site(s):

www.gamefaqs.com

This guide may not be used on ANY other web site, and I will probably not
grant permission to allow it to be done. Why? Because if I update it, I
don't want to have to search out every single old copy of it to fix it. That
wastes my time. Any other site that does have it is probably using an old
and outdated copy.
============================================================================
Legal Crap:

Simply put, you may not use, publish, edit, alter, or publish any edits or
alterations in any format, for profit or non-profit purposes, without my
written permission. This guide is freeware, and no part of it may be used in
any formats (written or electronic) in any media that requires a purchase,
even if you gain no profit from that purchase. In laymen's terms...don't try
and copy my work, then try and sell it, claiming it as your own.

Also, I take no responsibility for any damage done to you, your machine,
your goldfish, your dog, your sanity, your home life, your social life,
your sex life...you get the point. Use At Your Own Risk. ©2002 Wyrenth.
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And now, on with the show!

The Story of Kick Master:
-------------------------
The once peaceful kingdom of Lowrel has been attacked and burned by the evil
wizard Belzed's monstrous forces. The king and queen are killed, and their
only child, the princess Silphee is kidnapped. All of the king's guards are
defeated in battle except for the powerful knight Macren.

Macren and his younger brother Thonolan, an aspiring martial artist, take
off on a long journey to rescue Princess Silphee, and defeat the wicked
Belzed.

They start their long struggle in the Witches' Forest outside the Kingdom of
Lowrel.

Controls:
---------
+ Pad: This moves Thonolan left and right. In conjunction with A
 and B, and when you are skilled enough, it is also used to execute special
 kicks. Press down to crouch.
 A: This makes Thonolan jump.
 B: This makes Thonolan kick. See the Kicks section for details.
Start: This pauses the game, bringing up the spell selection screen. You
 can also see your score. You get an extra life at 10000 points, and
 another at 50000 points. To select a spell, press A.
Select:This uses a spell that you've selected.

Game screen:
------------
At the bottom of the main game screen, you will notice a bunch of vital
information. It looks roughly like so:
 ___ _ _ _ _
EX: 0/1000 | |Lev0 HP:|_|_|_|_|
MP: 0/ 100 | | @2 EN:¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
 ¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
EX is your Experience. You gain a level every 1000 experience points, so
be sure and collect those vital Experience Awards!

MP is your Magic Power. To use spells, you'll need MP. You start with none,
and gain some as you find and collect MP Bottles. You gain 100 Max MP every
level, but must find MP Bottles to restore it. It cannot be stressed enough
how valuable MP is in this game. Do not use magic wastefully, or you may
find yourself at the end of the game, desperately needing healing magic,
and have none.

The box in the center shows which spell you currently have equipped. To use
it, press Select. If a cloaked figure with a ? mark is in the box, then you
have no spell equipped.

"Lev" shows you what your Experience Level is. At level 7, you've learned
all there is to learn.

@ (a picture of Thonolan's head) shows you how many lives you have left.
You start with two. When you die, you're not only sent back to the beginning
of an area, your Exp and MP rewind back to the point they were before you
died! Avoid losing lives at all costs unless you've made some sort of vital
mistake and need to go back, or you feel that you got very poor experience
in an area and can afford the loss. Sacrificing a life for experience is not
reccomended, however. I would say it's safe to lose a life at the beginning
of a sector, though, if you're critically low on life and don't want to use
valuable MP to restore it.

HP is your Hit Points, or your health. As you get hit, this bar decreases.
Find Hearts to restore yourself, or cast a Life Up spell. You gain one bar
of maximum life per level, but it is not healed when you level up.

EN is your enemies health. When you reach a boss enemy, their life will be
displayed here.

Kick Master scrolls in one direction, so you cannot go back to any area
you've already been to. Be very careful not to rush ahead! You may miss
something important! There are many hidden items in the game, so keep alert.

Passwords and Advancement:
--------------------------
Passwords keep track of your current area, experience level, spells, MP, and
lives. They do not keep track of your Experience, Score, or current HP. For
this reason, it's VITAL to try and level up before you reach the end of
an area. If, for any reason, you need to use a password to return, you'll
have lost any Experience you earned between your current level and the next
level. If you can level up once per area, you're doing great. If you can
level up more than once in any area (maybe not in every area, but at least
one), you're doing super.

Once you reach level 7, you've maxed out on Experience. Even better, you
max out on MP! From this point onward, concern yourself ONLY with MP Bottles
instead of Experience Awards. If you're doing well, you should be level 7
by the time you reach the middle of Sector 5.

- JJZ2GK (spade)3HK6S
Area 2, Level 1, 135 MP, 3 Lives. Bulb, Life 1.

- (diamond)ND4TC J5BBK2
Area 3, Level 3, 245 MP, 5 Lives. Boots, Twin.

- T9RCHB Z(heart)K5N(club)
Area 4, Level 4, 425 MP, 5 Lives. ?? Magic, Lit.Spirit.

- (club)9RFMB S(club)M0MC
Area 5, Level 6, 610 MP, 5 Lives. Life 2, Wave.

- G(spade)KR9(heart) VQY7KP
Area 6, Level 7, 935 MP, 6 Lives. Whip Lit.

- (heart)P?(spade)(club)X JFDK7W
Area 7, Level 7, 974 MP, 8 Lives. Shield, Wings.

- WDFGQN 77TGJQ
Area 8, Level 7, 999 MP, 9 Lives. Earthquake.

Items:
------
When you defeat an enemy, three items will fly into the air. Try to collect
all three, but if you can only collect one, try to collect one that gives
Experience or MP. Here is a list of all the items they can drop.

 Small Heart: This restores your HP by 1 bar.
Small Magic Bottle: This bottle gives you 5 MP.
Large Magic Bottle: This bottle gives you 10 MP.
 Small Exp Award: A small, round orange item, gives you 10 Exp.
 Medium Exp Award: A large, almost round item, gives you 30 Exp.
 Large Exp Award: Resembles a kite shield, gives you 50 Exp.
 Crystal: Adds 100 points to your Score.
 1-Up: This rare item gives you an extra life! GRAB IT!! It
 seems to only appear by itself.
 Skull: This is poison. You take damage and get knocked back
 from your leap, often causing you to miss the rest of
 the awards.

Kicks:
------
You start with three basic kicks. As you gain experience, you will learn new
techniques.

Level 0: High Kick - This is a basic standing kick. To execute it, simply
 press B while moving or standing still. This move is a bit slow, however,
 and you may wish to use the Sweep Kick so you can make a leap at the
 awards.

Level 0: Sweep Kick - This is a basic sweeping kick. To execute it, press
 Down (crouch) and B. This move is fast and useful for avoiding some
 attacks.

Level 0: Vertical Press Kick - This move allows you to attack above you.
 To execute it, press Up, then B. It is also a fast move, most useful in
 conjunction with leaps to attack flying enemies.

Level 1: Knee Drop - This move allows you to land on an enemy. To execute
 it, jump, then press Down and B. You will immediately drop down. This
 move is handy for avoiding damage in open areas from monsters on the
 ground, and to quickly avoid taking damage in the air. It is probably
 the most useful attack in the game, properly mastered.

Level 2: Sliding Kick - This move allows you to slide along the ground.
 To execute it, press either left or right, plus down and B. You'll slide
 in the direction you're walking. This is a useful move to avoid getting
 hurt at times or to move along the ground quickly, but not very powerful,
 and you risk not being able to get Awards when you defeat monsters with
 it. You can also slide underneath low areas and attacks aimed at your
 head.

Level 3: Double Front Kick - This move allows you to kick twice in the air.
 To execute it, press Up and either Left or Right, plus B. You'll do a
 high kick, then leap up slightly for another kick. This is a fairly
 strong attack, but it can be difficult to set up and execute flawlessly.

Level 4: Roundhouse Kick - This move replaces your High Kick, and allows you
 to kick, spin, and kick again. It's slightly slower than your High Kick,
 but gives more kicks in the span of time that High Kick would. Be careful
 not to set yourself out in the line of fire when using it, since you
 can't jump out of the way while kicking. To execute it, just press B.

Level 5: Flying Kick - This move allows you to perform a flying kick in the
 air. To execute it, press Left or Right, Jump, then B. You'll fly forward
 (you'll also fly downward a bit--gravity and all that) feet first. This
 is very useful for getting across jumps in tight spaces, especially in
 areas that you don't have enough head room for a full jump. Careful when
 coming out of a landing that you don't land on top of an enemy. If you
 can, knee drop as you land to help prevent damage (you'll need to be very
 quick, though). You can also execute these in a chain, one after the
 other, if you're quick enough.

Level 6: Double Butterfly Kick - This move replaces your High/Roundhouse
 Kick, just press B to execute it. It's a rather fancy move. You kick,
 then do a split in the air, spinning around. It's somewhat quick (but
 slower than most of your other moves), and can keep enemies off of you
 from all sides. It would also appear that you're invulnerable to certain
 forms of attack while in your spin. All in all, a very useful move.

Level 7: Blazing Flip Kick - This move allows you to do a spinning backflip
 kick that acts much like a buzzsaw. A powerful move that keeps you well
 protected in it's use. It replaces your Vertical Press Kick. To execute
 it, press Up and B.

Spells:
-------

Bouncing Bulb Spirit: Costs 3 MP. Allows you to throw a ball of energy at
 your enemies. You can aim the direction the ball flies with the arrow pad,
 and the bulb will bounce off of walls. It is, however, weaker than your
 standard kick. You can fire up to three of these at once.

Life Up 1: Costs 60 MP. This heals your HP by 2 bars. Expensive for its
 rather small effect, it's nevertheless quite vital to your survival. Save
 your MP for Life Up 2 if you can, it's more efficient with MP.

Magic Boots: Costs 20 MP. This will protect you from hazards such as spiked
 floors for a while. Strangely, the only place you can immediately use this
 spell is skipped when you grab the spell.

Twin Power: Costs 20 MP. This creates an illusion that enemies will fight
 instead of you. Only lasts for a short time.

?? Magic: Costs 1 MP. This spell is, naturally, wrapped in a bit of mystery.
 I think it allows you to see hidden items. It's also useful for sticking
 in your spell box so you don't accidentally blow 60-90 MP on a healing
 spell if you accidentally press select when you didn't mean to.

Lightning Spirit: Costs 20 MP. This spell summons a spirit of lightning,
 which flies above you and sprays three bolts down: One directly on you,
 one in front of you, and one behind you. The stream of electricity lasts
 for a few seconds, but is not very powerful unless you concentrate the
 shot on an enemy. A glancing blow won't do much harm. Still, this is a
 useful spell to keep yourself protected from enemies.

Life Up 2: Costs 90 MP. Extremely expensive in terms of MP costs (this is
 why you should be hoarding your MP!!), but more efficient with MP than
 Life Up 1 is. It restores all of 4 life bars! Only use it when you can
 restore the full 4 bars with it, or you'll have wasted MP.

Pulse Wave Spirit: Costs 5 MP. More or less an upgrade to Bouncing Bulb
 Spirit, this spell allows you to send an expanding wave of energy either
 to the left or the right (despite having an aiming orb above you). You
 can fire up to three of these at once.

Whip Lightning: Costs 30 MP. An upgrade to the Lightning Spirit, this spell
 causes three bolts of lightning to whip back and forth across the screen,
 zapping everything in the area. Useful for a full-screen barrage, but a
 concentrated and properly timed Lightning Spirit can probably do more
 damage to a single foe.

Force Shield: Costs 30 MP. This spell creates a shield around you that
 protects you from fired objects. It does NOT protect you from direct
 damage. It will absorb a certain amount of damage before it vanishes.
 It's strong enough to absorb quite a few normal shots, but it won't last
 long vs lightning spells. If you select a different spell, the shield will
 vanish.

Harpy Wings: Costs 10 MP per Second. This spell gives you the ability to
 fly! You will lose your wings if you get hurt, try to attack, or press
 Select again. To use it, press A and you will fly a wee bit into the air.
 For best results, first jump into the air, enable it, then press the A
 button rapidly until you've done what you needed in the air. When you've
 done what you needed to do in the air, press Select, and for saftey, Knee
 Drop. Unfortuantely, one "second" in this game is more like half a second,
 kinda like one "second" on Super Mario Bros.

Earthquake: Costs 20 MP. This handy little spell shakes the ground, causing
 all enemies in the area to freeze! They'll remain stunned for somewhere
 around 8 seconds (real ones, not Super Mario seconds). The enemies will
 flash pretty colors when the spell is about to wear off. This spell is
 incredibly useful, especially for bosses, and it's a shame that the only
 place you get to use this spell is the last sector of the game.

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Walkthrough:
------------
When fighting bosses, and I list how many of a kick will defeat it, note
that certain kicks strike multiple times. If one of the strikes miss, then
the number I give won't be accurate.


Sector 1 - The Witches' Forest

With the death of your brother, you're all alone in this quest. In this
stage, get used to the controls and learn how to grab all three rewards
from an enemy. This will take practice, but it is possible if you have
enough space to manuver. The easiest way to do this is with Sweep Kick.

Also try to practice defeating one enemy at a time, and getting the rewards
for it. Always defeat every single enemy you can to get as much experience
and MP as possible. Near the end of the game, you may find yourself
EXTREMELY short on MP if you need healing spells often. This stage is a fine
opportunity for some easy experience. Try to level up before the end.

You'll find Skeletons, Harpies, blue hopping crows, and what looks like
hopping headless chickens in the first half. Skeletons are easy to defeat,
just get in close and quickly Sweep Kick them. Harpies are also fairly easy.
Crouch and wait for them. When they come close they will fly up or down
(depending on where you are compared to them). Kick them and get the reward
before the next one comes in. The blue hoppy crows and undead chickens are
simple to defeat, just kick them with your standard kick or Sweep Kick.

Eventually, you will find a chest. Kick it open for your first spell, the
Bouncing Bulb Spirit. It's not very powerful, but can be handy to attack
enemies from afar at odd angles. Save your MP for healing spells, though.

If you skip the spell, you can gain the experience from more monsters.
Specifically... a crow and two of a new enemy, axe lizards. I don't
reccomend skipping over any spells.

In the second half, you'll find more of the same, plus a new enemy, yellow
Axe Lizards. They will stand still for the most part, but once you get too
close, they'll swing their axe wildly (often at nothing). If you're trying
to attack them, and they suddenly decide to do this, you can get smacked a
good one. If you're patient, wait until just after they've finished
swinging. They have a pretty long range, so don't underestimate them.
(i.e. don't stand in front of them looking silly)

The game will mix Harpies with Lizards. My reccomendation is to attack the
Harpies first. In the area where you first see Lizards, do a "Scroll-Leap".
By this, I mean to leap over the head of a monster, and as you reach the
peak of the jump, steer hard to the left back to where you started your
jump. This scrolls the screen, triggering the incoming Harpy, and leaving
the Lizards to be defeated at your leisure.

If you've been defeating every enemy and getting as many experience awards
as you can from them, you should be at Level 1 by the time you've reached
the boss of this area.

The end boss of this area is a giant witch (must be those forest shrooms).
She will summon a new enemy, Armadillo Grunts, and float around above you.
Once you defeat the Armadillos, she will hasten to the right side of the
screen and drop energy arcs, which bounce once and burst, as she travels to
the left. Then she'll re-summon the Armadillos. Both her spells and contact
damage from her and the Armadillos will do a lot of damage to you. AVOID
THEM!

TACTICS: Simply defeat one of the Armadillos, then leap at her and use your
Vertical Press Kick on her. Nine of this attack will defeat her. You can
also try using the Knee Drop if you have it. This will only take four or
five hits to defeat her, but is much harder to do since this technique is
designed to attack ground-bound monsters. Armadillos take two kicks to
defeat (or one knee drop), and if you attack them while they're rolling,
chances are likely you'll be getting hurt, even if you hurt them.

When you've beaten her, chances are you'll be in the air, and will only be
able to get one line of experience awards (bosses give a bunch of awards at
once). Grab whatever you can. Then the Life Up 1 spell will appear. Grab it
to advance to the next area.


Sector 2 - The Caverns of No Return

The enemies here are a bit tougher, and worse, in most of the area you don't
have the leisure of having enough overhead room to grab all the awards.
This is the first area with hidden areas (a spell is hidden in one of them).

You'll find Reapers, Blobs, Bats, and Frogs in the first half of this area.
Reapers hang from the ceiling, then drop down to attack you with a scythe
when you step close. Attack them as soon as they land with a Sweep Kick, or
hit them with a Knee Drop. If they start swiping at you, it'll be harder to
take them toe-to-toe. They will only walk to the left, until they find you.
Meaning if you leap past them, they'll just keep on going. Blobs crawl
foward a bit, and some of them will spit at you. Knee Drop the ones that
spit. Try to lure them away from areas where Reapers will drop so you can
get the awards. Bats circle around endlessly and are easy to defeat. Hit
them with a standard or Sweep Kick. Frogs leap in one direction and keep
going. They may come back, even if you've scrolled past them, but try to
defeat them before they do that, just in case. This can be difficult if
there's one right after the other. They will also spit at you. It might be
easiest just to Knee Drop them.

You will encounter an area with yellow boulders. You can kick these boulders
to destroy them. The first time you see them, you can find hidden awards
waiting for you: a Small Bottle, a Large Bottle, a Small Award, and a
Medium Award, giving you 30 MP and 40 Exp.

Soon after, you'll find floating platforms and what looks like dangerous
liquid. Don't worry, it won't harm you, but it WILL slow you down. Try not
to fight in it, as it can screw up your attempts to grab awards. In this
area, try to defeat the bats and get those awards before going after the
frogs. Slowly scroll ahead and wait for them to come to you.

After the first swamp, you'll find more boulders and more hidden items:
three Medium Awards for 120 Exp. Get them, but it'll trigger a Reaper, so
beware. Continue on. You'll find some golden platforms sticking out from
the ground, over a pit. Careful! If you stand on them for too long, they'll
crumble! You can get the Magic Boots spell here by walking on the lower
platform. Head left, it's hidden inside of the wall.

If you skip the spell, you'll find an area with a bridge made of these
crumbling platforms and many Large Awards. Unfortunately, the floor below
the bridge has spikes and some blobs. The resulting 200 Exp you could get,
at risk to life and limb, is not worth the loss of the valuable Magic Boots
spell, which would protect you from said spikes in the first place.

Once you get the spell, you'll be in a vertically scrolling area. These
areas are a major pain, because if you fall down, the game figures it's a
pit and kills you, even if the platform had only just barely been scrolled
off. You'll find Armadillos here, and stationary orbs that fire off balls
of energy at you. The Armadillos are much harder to defeat than the ones
the Witch summoned at the end of Sector 1, and will take a few hits to
defeat. Slide past them, then use your standard kick from behind. If they
roll off the edge of the screen, they're gone for good. As you climb this
area, try to manuver them so they drop on top of you, and use a standing
Vertical Press Kick as fast as you can. That'll defeat them. The stationary
orbs will aim at you, but they can only fire at you if you are at an angle
opposite to the corner they are in. In other words, if they're in the air,
they can only fire down. If they're on the ground, they can only fire up.
They cannot fire to the side, so you can safely smack them with a Sweep
Kick if they're on the ground, but be careful not to leap toward them when
they fire, or you'll get hit. Time ones on the ceiling with a Vertical
Press Kick after their shot is out of the way. You will have problems
getting their awards, so don't fret too much, just try to get one Experience
Award if you can.

When you reach the top, you'll be back to horizontal scrolling again, and
at a swamp with frogs and blobs and Armadillos that drop from the sky. Take
this area SLOWLY. You can quickly get overwhelmed if you rush ahead. Wait
for frogs to come to you and knee-drop them. Then slowly proceed. If you see
an Armadillo dropping, get below it and Vertical Press Kick it to death.

Once past this area, you'll have reached the boss, a woman and her pack of
Hell Hounds. She'll launch a spray of spinning energy at you, then summon
her hounds, which stick to the edges of the screen. As each hound jumps for
another area of the screen, it'll fire a single spinning shot at you.

TACTICS: Stand just under the 4th hound or around the center to avoid the
spray. To defeat her, first defeat ALL her hounds. This will not be easy.
Then she is vulnerable to your attacks. While you're going after one hound,
others will be hopping around, firing shots, and the woman will continue to
fire sprays of shots downward. Each hound takes a few hits to be defeated.
5 Vertical Press Kicks, 2 Knee Drops, 4 High Kicks, 4 Sliding Kicks,
7 Sweep Kicks, or 1 Double Front Kick (if both hits connect) will defeat a
hound. I would suggest Knee Drops, as they're easier to do than Double Front
Kicks, and can help you evade shots if you watch what's going on. DO NOT
Knee Drop them if they're in the ground. Yes, IN the ground. Unless you're
practiced, you WILL get hurt. For some very stupid reason, the game has the
hounds on the edges of the screen, and the floor doesn't count as that. You
CAN hurt them with a Knee Drop on the ground, but it's a lot more tricky.
Once you've defeated the hounds (and if you can do so without getting hurt
at all, consider yourself either a pro, or very very lucky), you can go
after the woman behind the mess. She'll fire a spray as soon as you defeat
the last hound (which, if she's already firing a spray, means two sprays to
dodge...what fun!). Then you can attack her. 4 Vertical Press Kicks
(if it hits twice per kick, 7 if not), 2 Knee Drops, 6 Kigh Kicks, or
1 Double Front Kick (if both hits connect) will drive her to the ground.

Again, you'll be in the air when you beat her, so try to get one full award
stream, preferably an Experience one, but go for magic if you've leveled
twice in this area and feel the need to boost your MP.

Once defeated, you'll recieve the Twin Power spell.


Sector 3 - Belzed's First Stronghold

The first enemy you'll find here is a shielded rat. Not too difficult, but
cannot be harmed while his shield is up. He uses his sword and a tail whip
attack. One Knee Drop should take care of it.

You'll find chests in this area, much like what contained the spell Bouncing
Bulb Spirit in the first sector. These contain mundane items like Hearts,
MP Bottles, and so forth, but some of them are Mimics! There are also
patches of muck that will slow you down. You can tell where they are because
the entire floor tile has pink slime on it instead of the beige stone.
The other patches of pink slime are just background effects.

If you need it, grab the Heart in the first chest, then continue onward.
Shortly, you'll run into a sub-boss, an annoying wizard-type that shoots all
sorts of nasties at you, including summoning a chain from the sky (perhaps
the Japanese were a little confused on the concept of "Chain Lightning"...)
He can be very difficult to fight without getting hurt. Worse, there's two
patches of muck that'll slow you down when you're trying to get somewhere.
When he first appears, jump and do two Vertical Press Kicks as quickly as
you can, then be ready to dodge his first shot. If you can hit him with
both kicks in a Double Front Kick, that'll take a good chunk off of him.
Knee Drop is a safe bet. I suggest combining all the kicks you know and
staying off the ground as much as possible (since that muck will throw you
off kilter). If you can position him so he's directly above you, and in
range of a standing Vertical Press Kick, you can have an easy victory just
by flailing at him like that. When he dies, he tosses up a double award
(you may not see it, but it should be there), so be sure and grab what you
can. If you can manage not to get hurt in this fight, then that's superb.
Try not to lose more than 1 or 2 life bars total, though. Magic is becoming
more and more precious as you gain levels.

The second chest and third chest here contain a Small and Large MP bottle,
respectively. Grab them.

Immediately after this battle, you'll run into two Ninjas wearing green.
They are pretty quick, can dodge your incoming Knee Drop if they see it,
and throw ninja stars. They also can do a lot of hurtin'. You can position
yourself so you only have to fight one at a time, you'll find it easier.
Despite the fact that they can dodge your Knee Drop, it seems to be the
safest way of tackling them.

The 4th chest you run into is a mimic. One knee drop will take care of it.
The next ninja you run into is, strangely, rather weak and stupid. One
Knee Drop and he's toast. Continue on, and you will find an area with
floating platforms, Experience Awards, and a new enemy. I'm not really sure
what they are. Maybe mutant Big Macs? Anyway, their movement is a bit
erratic, but one Knee Drop will take care of them. They also hang from the
ceiling, waiting to drop on you. When getting the Exp Awards, take care not
to get dripped upon by the acid. There's four Large ones for 200 Exp total.

Once you've disposed of the Rabid Burgers, you'll find two more Large Awards
for another 100 Exp, more Rat men, and an area of kickable boulders.
Defeat what monsters you can without scrolling too far (I suggest luring
them and being patient), then kick the boulders and continue down the
resulting hole.

Note, you have the option of going the other way. You'll end up skipping the
sub-boss, but you won't gain the "??" Spell. I consider spells more
important than shortcuts or experience, so I'm walking you through that
way. If you really want to, you can go without the ?? spell.

You'll find chests galore here, but you want the first one with boulders.
First, however, drop down to the right side and get the chest there for
30 Exp. The two chests on the other side, which are now inaccessable due to
scrolling too far down, contain two Crystals. The Exp is more valuable right
now. Grab that, then jump back up and get the chest with the boulders for
the ?? Spell. Don't skip it, it's why you're down here.

You'll end up not far from where you started. Two Large Awards, a Large MP
Bottle, and a Heart wait for you here. Get them, then continue onward.
You'll run into another sub-boss.

This guy doesn't have much for variety in attacks, he just floats around,
pauses, then zooms forward in one direction. If you're in the middle of a
Knee Drop while he's zooming at you in the air, you should be safe. Just use
any attacks you wish, you can take it pretty leisurely here. The only thing
to be careful of is not to Knee Drop him while he's on the ground. You'll
get hurt when you come out of the drop. He also gives a double award. Grab
what you can. The flashing things that follow in this boss's wake don't seem
to hurt you any.

You'll come to a rather large knight blocking the passage onward. As you
harm him, he'll change into other shapes. He can do a LOT of damage in his
knight form, so be careful. I suggest luring him out into the open and Knee
Dropping him until he changes form, then change your strategy depending on
what form he assumes.

Continue on to reach the boss of this sector a Gargoyle with lightning
attacks. He'll toss up a ball of energy, which will shoot out bolts of
lightning in a downward spread. Then he'll fly about and fire small shots
at you while you're trying to kick him.

TACTICS: Whenever you walk under him, he'll land and fire more balls of
lightning. If you want to Knee Drop him, do so, but take care not to get
landed on. It'll take 7 shots of Knee Drop to kill him. 7 Roundhouse Kicks
(if both connect), or 3 Double Front Kicks (if both connect) will defeat
it. This boss is a pain in the ass, and you WILL get hurt. This is one of
the reasons you've been hoarding MP the first couple of levels...you will
need some of it for Healing now. My suggestion is to master the Double Front
Kick before you get in here and use that. You'll need to get him on the
ground, so walk under him as soon as he takes wing, but try not to get
smacked by his lightning.

When you defeat him, you'll get the Lightning Spirit spell.