Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow FAQ Created by Forte. 1.) Copyright – Okay, let’s get this straight from the get-go. This is MY FAQ. I wrote it, I spent my time making it to help those with questions on the game. Do NOT take the material here without permission. I mean it. Even if you rewrite every word in here, taking the information from here for your own personal gain is plagiarism. You MAY however use the information to help yourself and others overcome trouble in the game. 2.) Contents. A.) Questions relating to items B.) Questions relating to monsters C.) Questions relating to souls D.) Questions relating to bosses E.) Questions about the castle map, hidden areas, etc. F.) How to contact me with questions, or questions relating to the FAQ. 3.) Why you’re here. A.) Questions relating to items. #1.) What are the Ancient Books for? Answer: They tell you which souls you’ll need to have equipped to truly be able to win the game. To read them, go to them in the Item Use menu. They’re description is the contents of the book. #2.) How the heck do I figure out what the Ancient Books mean? Answer: Well, you could decipher the clue, but that alone might be tricky. I’ve noticed the covers of the books have a simple image of the monster souls you need, as well as match the color of the soul they mean. Try comparing the book’s hint with an enemy in your Enemy menu. Also, check to see what color the monster’s soul is if you have it. If the monster doesn’t come close to the book’s hint, or the soul is the wrong color, you have the wrong monster. #3.) What is the Chaos Ring? I’ve heard of it, but can’t find it. Answer: Whoa. That’s a heavy-duty question. The Chaos Ring pretty much works like other equipment items in the equip screen. It adds to some stats, and subtracts from others. The beauty of it though, is that souls, curses, or any other means to lose MP won’t affect you anymore. This means Infinite MP. However, you still have to have the MP to use a Soul before you can use it, so you can’t use a soul that exceeds your MP limit. To find it, you need to have all the souls in the game, which means you need to get at least one soul from each monster. Once that’s done, you can find the Chaos Ring in one of the dead ends of the Chaotic Realm. #4.) Is there a purpose for Rotten Meat and Spoiled Milk other than to lose HP without enemies or traps around? Answer: You need the Flesh Golem soul for this. Equip that soul, and you’ll see it says “Enjoys eating the oddest things.” Before, the Rotten Meat subtracted what Tasty Meat heals you by, and Spoiled Milk always brought you done to 1 HP. With Flesh Golem equipped, Rotten Meat heals like Tasty Meat, and Spoiled Milk refills your HP to the max. #5.) WHY THE HECK IS HAMMER ASKING 300,000 BUCKS FOR THE SOUL EATER RING!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! Answer: Ah, so you got to the point where Hammer is selling that ring. It makes enemies give up their souls MUCH, MUCH, MUCH faster, that’s why. Knowing you guys though, you probably want me to tell you how to buy it. Well, there’s a few ways……… A.) Use the Mimic soul to gain the money. B.) Find and sell items from monsters, or sell old equipment. C.) Find and equip the Tsuchinoko soul and equip it before talking to Hammer. I recommend C no matter which method you use. #6.) I heard of the Positron Rifle, Valmanway, and Excalibur being in here. Where are they? Answer: You need to get the best ending and unlock Boss Rush mode. Then you need to speed through it quickly, and get to the end. Your speed dictates which of the three you get, but since you can only get each one once, you can just speed through three times instead of trying to purposely go slower. However, you DO need to get through fast. #7.) What about the items in Hard Mode I heard about? Answer: I’m working on that, but if you 100% completed the map on Normal, you should find them all on Hard by yourself. #8.) What is the Valmanway for? Answer: Think Crimsaegrim from SotN. It swings several times fast, and can be swung while walking. It’s stats leave a lot to be desired though. #9.) The Positron Rifle? Answer: One of the few projectile weapons outside of souls. It typically hits twice with one shot, and is still a bit lacking stat-wise compared to the Claimh Solasis or Excalibur, but good for those that love over-sized lasers. The beam itself is small though, so don’t think this is like Cable’s Viper Beam on Marvel VS. Capcom 2. #10.) So what’s the Excalibur like? Answer: Someone in the design team for the game obviously thought it was the stone. Though the name in Latin means “to liberate from stone”, the REAL sword in the stone wasn’t Excalibur. Anyway, in the game, since Soma’s not King Author, he swings the sword with it still in the stone, making it a really slow sword, though it’s the strongest sword in the game. It’s too slow for my tastes, but you may like it. #11.) Is there a soul that lets you gain Experience from walking? Answer: No, but there’s a ring that does. It’s in one of the hidden areas of the game. However, the designers thought ahead, so walking into a wall isn’t going to rack up exp. You actually have to be getting somewhere for it to work, but I heard a trick involving the Chronomage might work. #12.) When I try to pick up an item, I hear a click, and don’t pick it up. Answer: You can only carry nine of any item or soul at one time, though you CAN pick up more than nine of a soul. #13.) ONLY NINE OF AN ITEM!?!?!?!?!?!?!?! WHAT GIVES!?!?!?!?!?!?! Answer: Odds are it’s because the designers ran out of room in the game. Be thankful they didn’t employ that **** leveling up handicap from HoD, SotN, and CotM where you only get 1 EXP. Point from an enemy you’re too many levels stronger than. #14.) Why was a weak item hidden in a hidden area if it’s so useless? Answer: Chances are it has a Hard Game only item in there with it on Hard Mode. B.) Questions relating to monsters #1.)What is monster number 36? Answer: Tsuchinoko. #2.) Where do I find it? Answer: In the room where you get the slide ability soul after beating the Big Golem. It’s that burrowing thing. The trick is that you have to enter and leave until it’s NOT burrowing. Then you have to kill it. It won’t burrow unless hurt and allowed to escape, so hit it hard and fast. #3.) What’s number 82? Answer: Frankly I’m not surprised you don’t know. It’s Sky Fish, and it blazes across the screen pretty ******* fast. You need Chronomage’s soul to catch it, and THEN you have to get lucky to catch it onscreen. It drops no items, but it drops its soul very easily to make up for the difficulty of catching it. It’s also worth 3000 EXP., but so are other, less annoying monsters. #4.) A boss I beat didn’t drop a soul. Will I ever get another chance? Answer: This goes here because the number one answer to this is that the boss you’re referring to is probably one that appears as a normal enemy later. Unless you mean Legion, you can get the soul later. If it IS Legion you mean, you’re screwed. You have to destroy all four parts covering Legion before you kill Legion himself or you’ll lose out on his soul. #5.) This stupid rabbit monster keeps sending me out of the room! Answer: That’s Chronomage. You need the Galamoth soul to keep that from happening, so you need to beat Legion first. Just remember to kill it quickly, because once it realizes it didn’t freeze you in time, it’ll run like crazy. #6.) This monster is indestructible! HELP! Answer: It’s got a shield right? If you, you need to attack so you go past the shield with your weapon, wait until it’s about to attack, or change where you’re aiming depending on what it’s doing. If none of this helps, you’ve got a defective game, and I pity you. Either that, or you’re attacking something like a wrecking ball, or part of the scenery, which then I wonder why you even play this game. #7.) (So-and-so.) Monster doesn’t look/act/behave like it should. Answer: Give the game designers a break. They’re programmers, not librarians that study mythology. #8.) Am I the only one that sees unusual references in the monster descriptions? Answer: No. That was intentional. I’ll name a few. Ripper – “This fiend enjoys slaughtering people with a knife.” This refers to Jack the Ripper. Killer Doll – “A figurine possessed by the spirit of a mass murderer.” Refers to the killer doll ‘Chucky’ from the horror movies. This one however, doesn’t play with guns, knives, nails, etc……. Quezlcoatl – “A reincarnation of the ancient snake god.” Refers to the Aztec snake god. Lubicant – “An always angry minion of hell. Not enough calcium in his diet.” If anyone can tell me what this is referring to, you’ll get an honorable mention in the FAQ. There are also odd references in items and places. One of the oddest is a rubber duck in the Arena where the Succubus and Lillith are in a bathtub of some sort. #9.) I can’t find some monsters no matter where I look in the castle! Answer: They’re in the Chaotic Zone then, unless you haven’t entered the Forbidden Zone. #10.) Why can’t I get Mandragora’s soul? Answer: This one’s tricky. You have to attack it once it’s completely out of the ground. However, if you aren’t strong enough, you can’t kill it before it screams and vanishes. The skeleton isn’t the target, the plant is. C.) Questions relating to souls #1.) Why won’t a monster drop its soul? Answer: Odds are the soul is extremely useful, or you’re not lucky. Try equipping the Soul Eater Ring before soul hunting. If the monster still won’t give up it’s soul, check your Enemy list. Aside from two bosses, and the last boss, all monsters drop souls. If your monster does drop souls, the soul it has is probably worth the effort. Certain enemies early on have VERY useful souls. Zombie – Grow stronger when poisoned instead of weakened. Peeping Eye – All breakable walls are marked with pulsating rings. Alura Une (This one is actually late in the game.) – Heals you while you hold down R. #2.) I don’t get how a soul works. Answer: Leave it to crummy translators to screw up some soul descriptions. That’s the big problem. Dead Warrior’s soul SHOULD read, “You recover from being hit in the air.” This means you don’t go a couple yards back from a hit and land on your butt, but go not as far back and land on your feet. What Dead Warrior DOES read is “Getting hit in the air restores health.” Apparently, someone screwed up the meaning. There are few souls with bad translation, but they’re there. #3.) I still don’t get how to use a soul. Answer: You have to equip the soul. If it’s equipped, check the color. Red souls are used by pressing B+Up. Blue souls require the use of the R button, and can either be switched on or off with a press, or need the button to be held down. Yellow souls are always active and don’t drain MP. If you knew that, try changing how you’re using it. Some red souls for instance require you to be on the ground to use them. If all else fails, you might not have enough MP to use the soul. Equipping the Chaos Ring won’t help if the MP is too low to start with. #4.) How does Headhunter work? Answer: Good question. For every soul you collect, it will boost your stats slightly more. It doesn’t matter if you had the soul before or not, or if you have the maximum of the soul you collect. It’ll keep raising………..Or so I heard. #5.) How does Flying Armor work? Answer: Augh! I can’t stand this one. How can anyone NOT know how it works? Oh well, I’ll answer it. You just hold down R, and jump. While it’s in effect, you fall much slower. However, you need to be holding R BEFORE you jump, or it can’t slow your falling well enough to get far. This soul will get a LOT of use before you get the Giant Bat and Hippogryph souls. #6.) How does Undine/Skula work? Answer: ………………….Okay, who’s the idiot putting dumb questions in my list? Anyway, since I’m obligated to answer, the only requirement for them is YOU HAVE TO BE IN WATER! Skula will let you walk on the bottom of a bottom of water, and Undine can let you stand on the water if you jump onto the water’s surface. #7.) How does the Gargoyle/Poison Worm/Ectoplasm soul work? Answer: ………………………………..Who keeps sending dumb questions? They say “Immunity to (Insert status problem here.)” Unless you don’t know what immunity means, it’s obvious. However, there’s a trick with curses and poison. Equip the immunity soul that matches the status you have (As in you were poisoned or cursed.) And leave the menus. Wha-la! The problem’s removed without wasting anti-venom or uncurse potion. I don’t know if this works for stone though…. #8.) I move too slow! Answer: Boy you’re impatient. Beat the boss in the Throne Room, using the Ancient books to know which souls to have equipped before and during the fight. In the next room is the Black Panther soul, which let’s you dash. #9.) What good is the Killer Mantle soul? Answer: It switches an enemy’s HP and MP. This isn’t too glamorous until you realize there are a few normal enemies with NEGATIVE MP. This means one hit kill no matter how strong or weak you are. Iron Golem is the best example. #10.) Why don’t my souls work!?! I have MP, I know how they work, I have them equipped, so what’s wrong? Answer: This can only happen if your game is glitched, or more likely, you’re fighting the final boss. In it’s first phase, it’ll lock the use of your souls, and each of the three targets has an orb representing the use of the matching colored souls. You might have also entered the unconfirmed name code “NO SOUL”. Don’t ask for the actual code, I don’t know it. D.) Questions relating to bosses #1.) I CAN’T DEFEAT A BOSS! Answer: This answer is for all bosses in general. Try watching the boss’ attack patterns, and see if you can exploit a flaw in it. Also, try switching your weapon if yours has an element. If you do more damage with another weapon, stick with the new one, if you do less, go back to the first one. However, you should try to switch to weapons close in strength to what you have equipped, or you’ll never find out if you’re using the wrong weapon. If you have it, try equipping Headhunter. Also, most bosses don’t resist the Claimh Solasis, however, it’ll be late in the game by the time you first get it. In a New Game+ though, call it open season on bosses. NEVER enter an unfamiliar boss room without finding and saving in a save point near the boss room. Try equipping souls to counteract or avoid certain attacks as well. #2.) Man, (Censored to prevent spoilers.) is hard! Answer: Ah, there’s a reason. First off, switch to a sword other than the Claimh Solasis. That boss resist holy. I know it’s a bit unfair since the smoke around the door hid the boss door, but you should have saved nearby anyway. If you’ve played other Castlevania games, you might know how he’ll attack, so dodge like heck. At one point, weather caused by damage or time is unknown, he’ll use a powerful attack with a vacuum to try and suck you into it. Use Black Panther, or start running away the moment he telegraphs it to avoid it. For me, he only uses it once per battle, so if you avoid it, you’re safe. Don’t think ducking or jumping will save you, he can duck and jump too. He also has an arcing projectile, a boomerang action projectile, and a ground rolling flame. Keep at it, heal when needed, and you can beat him. However, if there’s one thing to beware of, it’s getting too caught up with the cool music that plays when fighting him. He’s definitely the hardest boss in the game, but he’s not the last. To be honest, I lost to Headhunter on my first fight with it, and never lost to this guy. Then again, I was fighting Headhunter before Big Golem………… #3.) Is Dracula a boss in this game? Answer: Unlike HoD, where Dracula was a boss, but well hidden, Dracula is NOT a boss in this game. If you want to know where Dracula is, play the game, and pay attention to the storyline. #4.) DEATH IS TOO HARD! Answer: I agree. 4444HP is a lot for him considering the point in the game you fight him. Frankly, I feel you fight him too early. You can beat him though. Use Headhunter, and maybe Curly/Devil/Manticore. The trick at first is that you can only hit his scythe at first. Not the small ones, the big one. Don’t bother with Death while he’s transparent. Once the scythe is gone, he’ll do something unexpected. He’ll ditch the scythe for a swallow. (Think Chrono Cross here. The weapon Serge uses.) NOW you can hit Death. Good luck there though. He’ll move fast, and throw the swallow like a boomerang. This is where the dashing attack I said you might equip comes in. On your first run through the game, that’ll do more damage than your normal weapon. Still, you should hit him a few times with the weapon you have, since MP won’t last forever. It’s a nightmare dodging him though, since you can’t really duck his charges every time, plus you can’t dodge the boomerang throws. Your best bet is to beat him fast. I have to say he knows how to make both an entrance and an exit though. #5.) Why are Death’s HP and EXP. 4444? Answer: This isn’t really important, but in Japan, 4 is associated with death. So four four’s make up the HP and EXP. As an inside joke. #6.) I didn’t get Legion’s soul! Answer: I answered that already in section B, question 4. Destroy his four shell parts before killing him, or you won’t get the soul. To fill in, Legion has a nice build-up for his entrance with all those corpses walking toward his room. #7.) I WAS EXPECTING TO FIGHT THE GIANT BAT! WHAT THE HECK!?! Answer: Ah, you got to Balore. That was more of an exclamation. Anyway, that’s just so Balore can show off. He falls easily if you dodge his fists, since his flames are easy to jump. Just keep hitting Balore in the eye that’s open. E.) Questions relating to the castle, hidden areas, etc. #1.) How do I get to the Forbidden Zone? Answer: You need Undine, Curly/Devil/Manticore, and access to the waterfall in the Underground Reservoir. Standing on the water surface or further back, use the soul, and if you were far enough back, the speed will carry you through the waterfall, with the cave leading to the Forbidden Zone. #2.) Where are the hidden areas? Answer: Find them yourself, I’m not spoiling that. Use Peeping Eye everywhere, and look for walls that pulsate with white rings. Take note, some are blocking normal rooms, and need a wrecking ball to smash them. #3.) How do I use a wrecking ball? Answer: Well, you could stand on it until the cows come home, or you could hit it. Hit it in the direction it’s going to build up momentum. It doesn’t matter at what part of the swing really, so you don’t need to run around. Also, it can’t hit you, just the wall. Keep hitting it back and forth like a ping-pong ball to smash the wall, but you should use a fast weapon. #4.) How do I pass the grates? Answer: You don’t. #5.) I’m in a place where the map’s gone! Answer: That’s the Chaotic Realm. Don’t worry, it’s simple enough to get through, it’s the monsters that are the problem. To get out, press up while on the platform under the sun/moon. #6.) I’m stuck! Answer: Try exploring another area then. F.) How to contact me. My e-mail addresses are forteandgospel@bellsouth.net and bassandtreble@hotmail.com DO NOT SEND ME FILES CONTAINING ANYTHING EXPLICIT, AND DO NOT BOMBARD ME WITH E-MAILS ASKING THE SAME THING OVER AND OVER, OR I’LL BLOCK YOUR E-MAIL ADDRESS!!!!!! SEND NUDE SHOTS, HOMICIDAL RANTS, OR ANYTHING ELSE LIKE THAT, AND I’LL GIVE YOUR E-MAIL TO THE POLICE!!!!