JADE EMPIRE SPECIAL EDITION FAQ/WALKTHROUGH v1.00 2007-06-08 Copyright 2007 Barry Scott "PapaGamer" Will VERSION NOTE -------------- The Special Edition of Jade Empire for the PC differs only slightly from the original Xbox version of JE. By-and-large, all information in this FAQ is applicable to both the Xbox and PC versions of Jade Empire. Where something applies specifically to one or the other version, it will be pointed out. Common Abbreviations ---------------------- Here are some common abbreviations used in this FAQ: JE: Jade Empire SE: Special Edition (the PC version of Jade Empire) OP: Open Palm, the "good" alignment CF: Closed Fist, the "evil" alignment IMPORTANT NOTE ---------------- This guide contains a walkthrough only for the Open Palm (i.e. "good") path. See: http://www.papagamer.com/content/view/68/1/ for a further explanation. *SPOILER WARNING* This guide contains plot spoilers. You have been warned. ==JADE EMPIRE================================================================ CONTACT INFORMATION ============================================================Special Edition== To contact me about the guide, send email to: barry@papagamer.com Please include "Jade Empire FAQ" in your subject line so I don't auto-discard the message. Also, please read the FAQ carefully prior to asking for help on any part of the game. If you send me additional suggestions or hints for the game and I find them useful, you will be acknowledged in the Credits. If you found this guide useful and would like to contribute a small token for my efforts, you may send money through PayPal by using the Donate link found on my Web site: http://www.papagamer.com/ Thank you, and enjoy the guide! ==JADE EMPIRE================================================================ TABLE OF CONTENTS ============================================================Special Edition== Gameplay...................................1.00 Controls................................1.01 Game Menus..............................1.02 Difficulty..............................1.03 Combat.....................................2.00 The Basics..............................2.01 Martial.................................2.02 Support.................................2.03 Weapon..................................2.04 Magic...................................2.05 Transformation..........................2.06 Special Styles..........................2.07 Harmonic Combos.........................2.08 Characters.................................3.00 Stats...................................3.01 Player Characters.......................3.02 Followers...............................3.03 Open Palm vs. Closed Fist...............3.04 Enemies.................................3.05 Tips & Tricks..............................4.00 Walkthrough................................5.00 Chapter 1...............................5.10 Wherein you get schooled A Master's Teachings....................5.11 The Search for Dawn Star................5.12 The Burning Town........................5.13 Chapter 2...............................5.20 Wherein you have a lot of dam trouble Picking Up the Pieces...................5.21 The Great Dam...........................5.22 Find a New Flyer........................5.23 The Sickened Forest.....................5.24 Cleaning Up the Town....................5.25 Chapter 3...............................5.30 Wherein you discover grave injustice Silk Fox................................5.31 The Executioners........................5.32 The Inquisitors.........................5.33 Necropolis..............................5.34 Lotus Assassin Fortress.................5.35 Chapter 4...............................5.40 Wherein you crash a royal party The Height of Power.....................5.41 Chapter 5...............................5.50 Wherein you get your fill of spirits The Land of Spirits.....................5.51 Chapter 6...............................5.60 Wherein you kiss and tell Chapter 7...............................5.70 Wherein you perform the schooling As the Fates Allow......................5.80 Marvelous Dragonfly Missions............5.90 Lord Lao's Furnace...................5.91 Missions.............................5.92 Upgrades.............................5.93 Items......................................6.00 Techniques..............................6.01 Essence Gems............................6.02 Plot Items..............................6.03 The Way of the Modder......................6.00 Version History & Credits..................7.00 Legal......................................8.00 To quickly jump to a section, copy the section code, press CTRL-F and paste the section code in the search box. ==JADE EMPIRE========================================================[1.00]== GAMEPLAY ============================================================Special Edition== The game has a detailed manual, and it is installed, as a PDF file, in your main installation folder. You can access the manual by clicking the Advanced... button on the game launch menu and then clicking Documentation. A copy of the Xbox game manual is available online at replacementdocs.com. The information in this section of the guide is designed to supplement the information in the manual. CONTROLS [1.01] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jade Empire SE supports both keyboard/mouse and gamepads as controllers. The default controls are listed here, along with the Xbox controls for the original version. Gamepad defaults are based on a generic, 10-button, dual- analog controller like this: ____________ ____________ / LS______ \ / ______RS \ __|__/__LT__\__|_____________|__/__RT__\__|__ / _ \ / _| |_ (4) \ / [_ D _] (3) (2) \ / |_| (9) (10) (1) \ / _ _ \ ( ,~' '~, ,~' '~, ) \ ( LA )_________( RA ) / \ |'~,_,~' '~,_.~'| / \ | | / \ | | / \ | | / \ | | / \ | | / \ | | / \ | | / \____| |____/ D = D-pad LA/RA = Left and Right analog sticks LT/RT = Left and Right triggers (small shoulder buttons) LS/RS = Left and Right (large) shoulder buttons +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | ACTION | KB/MOUSE | PC GAMEPAD | XBOX | +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Move | W, A, S, D | Left analog stick | +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Move Camera | Mouse | Right analog stick | +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Evade | Double-tap Move or Block + Move* | Block + Move| +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Quick Attack | Left Mouse button | Button 1 | A button | +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Block | SPACE or Mouse 3 | Button 2 | B button | +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Power Attack | Right Mouse button | Button 3 | X button | +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Area Attack | Quick Attack + Power Attack | +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Focus Mode | F key | Button 4 | Y button | +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Change Target | TAB/Q/Mouse wheel | Left/Right triggers | +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Free Target Mode | T | Both LT&RT at the same time | +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Chi Strike | E | Left Shoulder | Black | +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Chi Heal+ | Left SHIFT | Right Shoulder | White | +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Combat Pause | P | Button 9 | Select | +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Game Menu | ESC | Button 10 | Start | +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Switch Styles^ | 0 - 9 | D-pad | +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Toggle Walk/Run | Left CONTROL | Control speed with analog stick | +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Quick Save | F5 | N/A | +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Quick Load | F9 | N/A | +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Screenshot | Print Screen | N/A | +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Henchman Menu | H | N/A | +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Inventory Menu | I | N/A | +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ | Journal Menu | J | N/A | +-------------------+--------------------+--------------------+-------------+ *Players of the PC version can select whether to use Double-Tap or Block+Move or both to Evade. See the Options Menu section above. +Chi Heal is a press-and-hold control--as long as you hold the key/button, you'll continue to heal yourself (until you reach full health or run out of Chi). ^To change the mappings of styles to keys, press and hold a style key (0-9 or D-pad) until the style selection screen opens, then select a style and press Quick Attack. You can also remap styles through the Styles tab on the game menu. When not in combat (exploration mode), the following buttons change their use: * Quick Attack: Use/Talk/Open * Block: Forward roll * Power Attack: Toggle mini-map (closed, small, large) When using the game menu, the following buttons change their use: * Move: Change highlighted item * Quick Attack: Select highlighted item * Block: Cancel/Back * Targeting: Change tabs on the menu (Of course, you can use the mouse to point-and-click your way through the menus as well.) During the flying mini-game, the following buttons change their use: * Move: Move flyer * Quick Attack: Fire weapon * Power Attack: Activate upgrade (requires Chi) * Targeting: Cycle through available upgrades GAME MENUS [1.02] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Many of the various options in the Options Menus are self-explanatory; or, are covered in the game manual. However, there are some that require further explanation. To open the game menu while playing, press ESC (keyboard) or START (Xbox) or the equivalent button on your PC gamepad. Along the top of the game menu are nine tabs. Use the target controls (see Controls above) or the mouse to switch tabs. The tabs, from left to right, are: Character ----------- The character screen shows your current alignment on a vertical graph next to your character portrait. To the right are your primary and secondary abilities. Above the ability scores is your current level progression showing how many experience points you have now and how many are needed to reach the next level. When it is time to level up, open this tab and select or click your character portrait. You'll be able to add 3 points to your primary abilities and must use them all to complete the level-up process. When you click DONE, you'll automatically go to the Styles tab and be able to spend points to upgrade your Styles. You do not have to spend any Style Points to complete the level- up process. Along the bottom of the Character screen you can click buttons allowing you to see your Conversation Skills, Techniques (and, on the Techniques screen, you can switch to your Flyer to see available upgrades for the Marvelous Dragonfly) and some game Statistics (enemies killed, favorite style...that sort of thing). Styles -------- This screen lists all your Styles. At the top center of the screen are the number of Style points you currently have to spend. Select a Style and click Level Up to buy upgrades for the style. More information about each style and its upgrades is covered in the Combat section of this guide. You can also REMAP the quick-select keys for the styles on this screen. For players using a gamepad, it's probably easier to use the press-and-hold the D-pad method of changing style mappings. Followers ----------- This screen shows all the followers who have joined you thus far. Portraits that show just a silhouette or question mark are slots for followers you have not yet met. Portraits that are grayed-out are followers who have joined you; but, are currently unavailable. To change your current traveling companion, simply select the portrait of the follower you want to join you and press Quick Attack or click with the mouse. You cannot change companions during combat; however, you can freely change companions at any other time. To switch a follower between Attack and Support modes, select the follower's portrait and then click the Attack or Support button along the bottom of the screen. Some followers only have one mode (Attack or Support). Dragon Amulet --------------- This screen becomes active after you obtain the Dragon Amulet in Chapter 1. On the left side of the screen are all Essence Gems that you are carrying. Click (or select-and-press-Quick-Attack...you get the picture) a gem to place it in the Dragon Amulet and receive the benefit of the gem. You must have a free slot in the Amulet to place a gem. If the Amulet is full, click a gem currently in the Amulet (identified with an Amulet icon to the left of the gem's name) to remove that gem from the amulet. At the beginning of the game, you may only have three gems in the Amulet at one time. At the conclusion of Chapter 2, you receive an additional piece of the Amulet and can place up to five gems in the Amulet. In Chapter 3, as you finish up the Lotus Assassin quest, you get a third piece of the Amulet and can place up to seven gems in it at one time. Click the STATS button at the bottom of the screen for full details of all your primary and secondary abilities and conversation skills. Click the REORDER button to order all your Essence Gems in descending order based on their power. Journal --------- This screen shows all your quests and the various stages of each quest. Along the bottom you can change the lists of quests by clicking the Filter button. By default, you are viewing all active quests. You can switch to active main quests, active sub-quests and completed quests. You can also review the last 100-or-so lines of dialog, including quest rewards, by clicking the DIALOG button. Click the PLOT ITEMS button to review the plot items in your inventory. Map, Load Game & Save Game ---------------------------- The next three screens are pretty self-explanatory. The Map screen shows the map of the current area, including important points of interest. Click the LEGEND button to see what the symbols mean. Load Game and Save Game allow you to do just that. Save games are numbered. Click the REORDER button on either screen to re-order the list in ascending or descending order. The default ordering is descending order, which places your most recent save at the top of the list. Options --------- The Options screen allows you to set game options in five areas: Audio, Video, Difficulty, Feedback and Control. This is also where you'll find the QUIT GAME command, which takes you back to the main menu. AUDIO OPTIONS Set the volume in four areas: sound effects, music, movie (pre-rendered cut scenes) and voice. You can also turn Reverb on and off. The defaults should be fine for most people. If you click the CONFIGURE button on the game launch menu, you can use the Jade Empire Configuration Utility to disable sound altogether. You probably don't want to do that unless you're having a lot of trouble with your sound card. VIDEO OPTIONS Here's where you tweak your display to get the game running smoothly. Set the Aspect Ratio to Widescreen if you are using one, or leave it at Normal if you have a typical 4:3 display. If you use an LCD monitor, be sure you set the resolution and refresh rate to match your monitor's native resolution. For example, a 19" LCD might have a native resolution of 1440x900 at 60Hz. Soft Shadows cause shadows cast on the ground to have blurred edges so they look more natural. There's a problem with ATI cards where turning Soft Shadows ON causes shadows to virtually disappear. In any case, Soft Shadows is a resource hog, so it's probably best to leave it OFF if you're having framerate problems. Anti-Aliasing smoothes the edges of diagonal lines. It greatly improves the look of the game, but does use a lot of resources. By default, players with ATI cards cannot turn on Anti-Aliasing. There are two ways around this: 1) Use the ATI Catalyst Control Center to force Anti-Aliasing on for all games. If you play a lot of games concurrently on your system, this may not be the best solution. 2) Find JadeEmpire.ini in your main program folder and open it in a text editor. Find AllowAtiFSAA and set it equal to 1. The option will then appear on your Video Options screen. IMPORTANT: If you have an ATI card, do not try to use Soft Shadows and AA at the same time. You'll get trash on your screen. Bloom Lighting creates more realistic lighting effects. Frame Buffer Effects are full-screen particle effects. Note that Bloom Lighting doesn't work unless you also have Frame Buffer Effects on. Focus Trails cause blurred movement whenever you are in Focus Mode; e.g. your weapon/fists will leave trails as you swing. Finally, you can adjust the Brightness of the screen. By default, JE on the PC is locked to a maximum of 30 frames per second (fps). Since the graphics are not that advanced, this is a lot slower than many PCs can actually run the game. Find the JadeEmpire.ini file in your main program folder and open it in a text editor. Find ClampFPS and set it equal to 0. Your game will probably run at much higher framerates. Additional video options are available using the CONFIGURE button on the game launch menu. This opens the Jade Empire Configuration Utility. On the Video options tab of this program, you can set all the options you can set in the game (except for Brightness). Under Aspect Ratio, you can switch between Normal (4:3) and two Widescreen modes (16:9 and 16:10). Select the one that properly matches your monitor. For example, 1280x720 (or 720p) is 16:9, while 1440x900 is 16:10. At the bottom of the list of options are the ability to disable the Intro Movies (i.e. the company logos that play each time the game starts) and All Movies (i.e. all the pre-rendered cutscenes in the game). If you've already played the game once or twice, you may want to disable the movies so you don't have to ESC out of them. DIFFICULTY Set the difficulty for Combat (Student, Master, Grand Master or Jade Master) and the flying mini-game (Student, Master or Grand Master). More information about game Difficulty is given below. FEEDBACK Turn Controller Vibration (rumble) on or off. This will only have an effect if your controller has the rumble feature. Jade Empire has three different types of dialog scenes: 1) Interactive dialog where your character speaks to an NPC, 2) Cut scenes, which are non-interactive scenes rendered in real-time with the game engine; and, 3) Movies, which are pre-rendered, non-interactive scenes. You can turn subtitles on for all three types of scenes, just dialog and cut scenes (No Movies), interactive Dialog Only or None. Regardless of your choice, Tho Fan (or Old Tongue) dialog and instructional/descriptive dialog will always be shown. The Show Gore setting only affects normal gameplay and cut scenes. Pre- rendered movies will show whatever gore was put into the movie. CONTROL Click the KEYBOARD or CONTROLLER buttons to configure the keys or buttons for various actions. Of the other options, the most important is Evade Method. This controls how you perform evade or roll maneuvers during combat. Keyboard users want to set this to Double Tap or Both. Controller users should set this to Block Button. Experiment with both settings to see what works best for you. DIFFICULTY [1.03] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Jade Empire has four difficulty modes: Student --------- This difficulty level is for those players that want to enjoy the story and character interaction and not be bothered by combat. You do more and take less damage at this level; everything but boss-level enemies should go down in two or three hits. Enemies rarely use good tactics against you and fights consist of short sessions of button-mashing. If you find yourself dying a lot at Student difficulty, you should consider playing a different game. Seriously. Damage done by PC: 200% Damage done to PC: 60% Master -------- The "normal" difficulty should prove challenging for most players--especially when you are surrounded by five or more enemies. (Which happens regularly.) Still, even at this difficulty level, most fights come down to button- mashing. Enemies will be slightly smarter; however, you can keep them at bay with area attacks and then deal with most enemies easily by holding a block and then quick-attacking when they charge up a power attack. Long, drawn-out battles may give you problems as you start to run out of Chi or Focus. Using a follower that replenishes these stats is helpful. Damage done by PC: 100% Damage done to PC: 100% Grand Master -------------- Grand Master is for those players that are more interested in the combat than in the story or conversations. If you're looking for a beat-'em-up more than an RPG, this is the difficulty level for you. You'll need to use smart tactics in battle, have dexterous fingers on the controls and quick reaction times. Battles against multiple opponents will be gut-wrenching affairs that frequently cause you to break out in a cold sweat. You'll probably die. A lot. Save often, advance carefully and fight nastily. Using long-reach weapons (such as the staff) or ranged combat (such as magic styles) will aid you greatly. You'll want to rely more on Transformation styles at this difficulty level, to avoid the often nasty effects your enemies can hit you with. Damage done by PC: 60% Damage done to PC: 150% Jade Master ------------- Special Edition only Jade Master is an extra difficulty level added to the Special Edition version for the PC. It is a New Game+ mode that is only unlocked once you have completed the game once (on any difficulty setting). Everything is reset except for your character's stats, styles and learned Techniques. (When you learn those same Techniques again, the effects will stack.) Enemies are considerably stronger and more difficult to defeat. Orbs appear with less frequency--even when using Harmonic Combos. Jade Master is a new way to experience the game; however, it's still the same game with the same plot and characters. You select Jade Master at the character selection screen when starting a new game. If you have already completed the game at least once, a Master button appears on the character select screen. Click the button to access a list of characters with which you have finished the game. Select one of these characters to begin a Jade Master game. Damage done by PC: 25% Damage done to PC: 350% ==JADE EMPIRE========================================================[2.00]== COMBAT ============================================================Special Edition== THE BASICS [2.01] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You'll get a pretty complete introduction to fighting during the brief tutorial session at the beginning of the game. Combat in Jade Empire is a simple rock-paper-scissors approach: * Blocks beat Quick Attacks * Quick Attacks beat Power Attacks * Power Attacks beat Blocks You can use Area Attacks to clear out any surrounding foes that are not holding blocks. Area Attacks do no damage; but they do knock back nearby targets and give you some breathing room. Quick Attacks can be strung together in "combos" of three attacks. Each attack in the string has a different animation, different range and different damage (usually increasing). You can switch styles within a combo (if you're fast enough with your fingers) and string together even longer combos. For example, you can use Thousand Cuts to quickly interrupt your target's Power Attack, then switch to White Demon for a powerful finishing blow. All combat in JE takes place in pre-determined "arenas" marked by invisible & visible walls. For example, early in the game you have to fight several waves of bandits on a beach. You are constrained by the water, cliffs and invisible walls blocking the exits from the beach. You cannot leave a combat arena until you have defeated all enemies. Most fights come down to simple button mashing. If you get surrounded, use an Area Attack or Evade out of the group of enemies. Once you manage to separate one foe from the rest, target that enemy and then jump in and Quick Attack. As soon as the target holds up a Block, either use a Power attack or jump over the target (Evade Forward) and hit the target from behind. If you're being attacked from range by magic, use Evade to avoid the "bullets" or hold up a Block. Either reply with Magic of your own, or jump in and start pummeling the caster. If you get hit with a negative effect, such as poisoned or slowed, switch to a Transformation style, which is immune to the effect. Combat in JE can be as simple or complex as you want it to be. While you can- -especially at Student and Master difficulty--just mash the Quick Attack button while jumping around (Evade) the arena, you can give yourself more options. You will have a lot of styles to play with, so play with them. Try changing styles mid-stream for some variety. Experiment with harmonic combos (covered a little later in this guide). Or, take the easy way out (Jade Golem) and just have fun with the story and don't worry about the combat. It's all up to you. Style Upgrades ---------------- When you level up, you gain a certain number of Style Points you can spend to upgrade your styles. Each style has three upgrades and each upgrade has five ranks. The number of Style Points required to increase ranks are 1 for the first rank, 2 for the second rank, 4 for the third rank, 6 for the fourth rank and 10 for the fifth rank. Thus, to increase one upgrade to the fifth rank requires 23 Style Points. |---------------------------------------------------------------------------| | Upgrade | Rank 1 | Rank 2 | Rank 3 | Rank 4 | Rank 5 | Styles* | |------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+-----------------| | Damage | +25% | +50% | +75% | +100% | +125% | Martial, Magic, | | Increase | | | | | | Weapon, Trans | |............|........|........|........|........|........|.................| | Increases the damage of all attacks | |------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+-----------------| | Chi Strike | +50% | +100% | +150% | +200% | +250% | Martial, Weapon,| | Damage Inc | | | | | | Support, Trans | |............|........|........|........|........|........|.................| | Increases the amount of Chi Damage added when in Chi Strike mode | |------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+-----------------| | Quick Atk | +5% | +10% | +15% | +20% | +25% | Martial, Weapon,| | Speed Inc | | | | | | Support | |............|........|........|........|........|........|.................| | Increases the speed of all Quick Attacks | |------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+-----------------| | Lower Chi | -5% | -10% | -15% | -20% | -25% | Magic | | Cost | | | | | | | |............|........|........|........|........|........|.................| | Reduces the amount of Chi required to use Magic attacks | |------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+-----------------| | Duration | +100% | +200% | +300% | +400% | +500% | Support, Magic | | Increase | | | | | | | |............|........|........|........|........|........|.................| | Increases the duration of timed effects (such as Petrified, Slowed, etc.) | |------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+-----------------| | Chi Cost | -10% | -20% | -30% | -40% | -50% | Transformation | | Reduction | | | | | | | |............|........|........|........|........|........|.................| | Reduces the amount of Chi required to stay in the Transformation form | |------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+-----------------| | Focus Cost | -20% | -40% | -60% | -80% | -100% | Weapon | | Reduction**| | | | | | | |............|........|........|........|........|........|.................| | Reduces the amount of Focus required to use Weapon attacks | |---------------------------------------------------------------------------| * For purposes of upgrades, Spirit Thief is treated as a Support style (upgrade Chi Strike Damage, Quick Attack Speed and Duration). However, the Duration increases for Spirit Thief are smaller than for other styles. See the description of the style for the actual Duration increases. ** Mirabelle, the gun you can receive as a reward in Chapter 3, receives less of a Reduction in Focus cost as you upgrade it. See the description of the style for the actual reduction in Focus Cost. The 100% reduction should not be construed as meaning fully upgraded weapon attacks cost no Focus. The 100% reduction is from the base of 5 points per strike; however, only the two most basic weapon styles (Fortune's Favorite and Golden Star) consume only 5 points of Focus. See the Weapon Style descriptions for more information. MARTIAL [2.02] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Damage, range and speed figures are on a scale of 1 to 5 and are in relation to other Martial styles. Leaping Tiger --------------- * Damage: 2 * Speed: 4 * Range: 5 * Obtained: Starting style; or, buy from Zin Bu Leaping Tiger turns your character into Wolverine. Long claws spring out of your hands whenever you enter combat mode. Quick attacks are two short jabs with the claws followed by a flip-kick that is the longest-reaching Martial Quick Attack in the game. The Power Attack is a huge leap and covers a bit of distance. It is the default style for "Magic" characters (Scholar Ling and Monk Zeng). Legendary Strike ------------------ * Damage: 3 * Speed: 3 * Range: 3 * Obtained: Starting style; or, buy from Zin Bu or Spear Catches Leaf in Southern Forest Despite its name, Legendary "Strike" mostly uses kicks. It has a good balance of power and speed and is the default style for "Balanced" characters (Wu the Lotus Blossom and Lu the Prodigy). Thousand Cuts --------------- * Damage: 1 * Speed: 5 * Range: 3 * Obtained: Starting style; or, buy from Sweet Poison Lyn in Imperial Arena Thousand Cuts relies on speed--getting multiple, low-damage attacks in on the target. The Power Attack is actually several punches, rather than a single blow as with other styles. This is a true button-masher's style as your entire strategy is centered around pounding the Quick Attack button as fast as possible. It is the default style for "Fast" characters (Furious Ming and Radiant Jen Zi). White Demon ------------- * Damage: 5 * Speed: 1 * Range: 2 * Obtained: Starting style; or, buy from Zin Bu White Demon is the most powerful of the starting styles. It's slow, but does a lot of damage per blow. It's intended for characters with higher health, as you'll have to stand in and trade blows with your opponents. It's the default style for "Strong" characters (Tiger Shen). Iron Palm ----------- * SE, exclusive of Viper * Damage: 4 * Speed: 2 * Range: 5 * Obtained: Complete the quest for three Iron Palm scrolls Iron Palm is a style for Open Palm players added to the PC version of JE. It is gained after you find three Iron Palm scrolls. The scrolls are found or received: 1) In a chest in the Spirit Cave in Chapter 1; 2) From Fuyao after freeing her from the slaver in Chapter 2 (even if you goad her into killing the slave buyer, which is a CF action, you still get the Iron Palm scroll--go figure); 3) Defeat Kai Lan the Serpent in the Arena Iron Palm is a strong style similar to White Demon; but a bit faster. It's main claim to fame is a rushing Power Attack that covers a fair bit of distance; but, doesn't do a lot of damage. Gao the Lesser will sometimes use this on you in your bout in Chapter 1. It's not really enough to recommend the style--especially as, by the time you gain it, you're not using Martial styles much at all. Viper ------- * SE, exclusive of Iron Palm * Damage: 2 * Speed: 4 * Range: 4 * Obtained: Complete the quest for three Viper scrolls Viper is a style for Closed Fist players added to the PC version of JE. It is gained after you find three Viper scrolls. The scrolls are found or received: 1) In a chest in Gao's cavern in the Swamp Cave in Chapter 1; 2) From the slaver after selling Fuyao and Yifong to him in Chapter 2 (even though you can earn CF points by goading Fuyao into killing the slave buyer, you don't get the Viper scroll unless you sell her--which, when you think about it, isn't even the most CF action--go figure); 3) Defeat Grand Inquisitor Jia in the Lotus Assassin fortress Viper is a fast, low-damage style similar to Thousand Cuts. It's main benefit is a poison effect, similar to the Toad Demon Transformation style, as well as the fastest Power Attack in the game (making it useful for finishing Harmonic Combos). It's an especially effective style; but, you get it kind of late in the game and it does require a very distasteful action: selling the women into slavery. That alone may prevent many players from gaining the style. (You can, of course, always "cheat" it in with mods. See Way of the Modder at the end of this guide.) SUPPORT [2.03] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Support styles are used primarily to start Harmonic Combos or get out of a tight spot. Quick Attacks in a Support style do no damage on their own-- though you can use Chi Strikes to give a little punch to your...punches. The Power Attack and/or Area Attack of all Support styles will slow or immobilize your enemies in some fashion. Ghosts, demons and golems are immune to Support styles. Heavenly Wave --------------- * Obtained: Starting style The Power Attack of Heavenly Wave slows your target. Not hugely useful; but, you may need it a few times during the early game. Don't spend a lot of points upgrading it--there are better styles available. Storm Dragon -------------- * Obtained: Buy from Merchant Cheung in Tien's Landing (only if you close the dam) or from Spear Catches Leaf in Southern Forest Storm Dragon is almost a cheat. The Area Attack shocks and immobilizes multiple targets at once, allowing you to easily complete a Harmonic Combo on the nearest foe. You can acquire this style fairly early in the game (if you have the silver). It is extremely useful for crowd control. Paralyzing Palm ----------------- * Obtained: Complete the Black Leopard School quest in the Open Palm manner (i.e. kill Master Smiling Hawk) Probably the most useful Support style in the game and a strong argument to at least take the Open Palm path through the Black Leopard school. The style does just what it suggests: a Power Attack paralyzes your target. Boo yah! Hidden Fist ------------- * Obtained: Complete the Black Leopard School quest in the Closed Fist manner (i.e. kill Master Radiant) The style obtained instead of Paralyzing Palm is good, but not as good. It's primary benefit is the ability to affect multiple enemies at once through the Area Attack. The Power Attack and Area Attack both disorient your enemies, which is good, but not as good as paralyzing them--you'll still have to chase them down as they stumble about. In one way, it may actually make your foes more difficult to hit. WEAPON [2.04] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Damage, range and speed figures are on a scale of 1 to 5 and are in relation to other Weapon styles. The base Focus cost of Weapon styles is five (5) points of Focus per strike. This can be reduced down to zero (0) by purchasing ranks in Focus Cost Reduction. However, only two Weapon styles (Fortune's Favorite and Golden Star) actually cost only 5 Focus per strike. The other Weapon styles cost more Focus and the *additional* Focus cost is *not* reduced by Focus Cost Reduction. EXAMPLE Dragon Sword costs +5 Focus points per strike for a total of 10 points (5 base +5 for the upgrade). If you purchase all five ranks of Focus Cost Reduction, the 5 base points will be eliminated and you will only "pay" the 5 additional points per strike for having the upgrade. Fortune's Favorite -------------------- * Damage: 2 * Speed: 3 * Range: 3 * Additional Focus Cost: 0 * Obtained: From Master Gujin in Two Rivers at the beginning of the game The long sword, as a beginning weapon style, is stronger than the staff; but, has much less reach. If you're starting with a lot of Focus (i.e. a "Fast" character); then, this would be your preferred fighting method over the starting Martial style (Thousand Cuts). All other characters may prefer the long reach of the staff for crowd control rather than the little bit of extra damage from the sword--especially since it's useless against ghosts. Later in the game, you can acquire a more powerful sword; but, by that time, you will probably have other, better options. Dragon Sword -------------- * Damage: 3 * Additional Focus Cost: +5 * Obtained: From the blacksmith in Imperial City's Merchant's Square This is an upgrade of your long sword that adds 25% more damage to your attacks. It replaces your current sword (all your purchased skill ranks transfer over) *or* adds the single sword style. Demon Sword ------------- * Damage: 4 * Additional Focus Cost: +7 * Obtained: From a pile of bones in the Spirit Realm (Chapter 5) * Special Edition only This is an upgrade of your long sword that adds 50% more damage to your attacks (compared to Fortune's Favorite). It replaces your current sword (all your purchased skill ranks transfer over) *or* adds the single sword style. When you first enter the Spirit Realm at the beginning of Chapter 5, immediately turn around and head towards a cannon in the open field. Near the cannon is a pile of bones; you'll find the sword in there. Golden Star/Tien's Justice ---------------------------- * Damage: 1 * Speed: 2 * Range: 5 * Additional Focus Cost: 0 * Obtained: From Master Gujin in Two Rivers at the beginning of the game * Owners of the Limited Edition version of the game on Xbox receive Tien's Justice, all other players receive Golden Star Staffs are slow and don't do a lot of damage, but they have a long reach. Unfortunately, the best overall strategy in JE is to kill the bad guys as quickly as possible. You just can't do that with a staff. The only time a staff might be useful is when your enemies are using staffs, and then all you really need to do is switch to a Magic style and pelt them from range. Flawless ---------- * Damage: 2 * Additional Focus Cost: +5 * Obtained: From the blacksmith in Imperial City's Merchant's Square This is an upgrade of your staff that adds 25% more damage to your attacks. It replaces your current staff style (all purchased skill ranks transfer over) *or* adds the staff style. Demon Staff ------------- * Damage: 3 * Additional Focus Cost: +7 * Obtained: From a pile of bones near the Unfinished Tomb in the Necropolis * Special Edition only This is an upgrade of your staff that adds 50% more damage to your attacks (compared to Golden Star). It replaces your current staff style (all purchased skill ranks transfer over) *or* adds the staff style. Tang's Vengeance ------------------ * Damage: 5 * Speed: 2 * Range: 2 * Additional Focus Cost: +5 * Obtained: From Black Whirlwind after you defeat the Ravager in the Imperial Arena After finishing the Arena side quest, you are gifted with Black Whirlwind's double axes. They're powerful, though a little on the slow side and without a lot of reach. Eyes of the Dragon -------------------- * Damage: 4 * Speed: 4 * Range: 3 * Additional Focus Cost: +5 * Obtained: Defeat Crimson Khana in the Arena without using poison; but, do not warn her in advance Crimson Tears --------------- * Damage: 4 * Speed: 4 * Range: 3 * Additional Focus Cost: +5 * Obtained: Defeat Crimson Khana in the Arena without using poison and warn her in advance You'll learn one of these two styles from Crimson Khana after defeating her in the Arena (assuming you don't poison her). The lure of warning her ahead of time and getting Crimson Tears is that it does 25% more damage than Eyes of the Dragon. Both offer quite a bit more damage than a single sword and a faster rate of attack than Black Whirlwind's double axes. Overall, outside of Mirabelle, these are the best Weapon styles in the game (though the Demon Sword or Demon Staff probably come close for players of the PC version of the game). Mirabelle ----------- * Damage: 20 * Speed: -10 * Range: 20 * Obtained: From Sir Roderick in Chapter 3 as a reward for beating him Mirabelle can seriously unbalance the game. In addition to range equal to Magic styles, it does huge amounts of damage--at Student difficulty, a single Power Attack will take out most common enemies. As compensation for its power, it is horrendously slow and pigs out on Focus. (20x as much Focus for a "Quick" Attack, 30x as much Focus for a Power Attack. No, those are not typos.) While you can buy Focus Cost Reduction upgrades for Mirabelle, they are less than other Weapon styles. The cumulative Focus Cost Reductions for Mirabelle are: * Rank 1: -3% * Rank 2: -9% * Rank 3: -18% * Rank 4: -30% * Rank 5: -45% If you've got the Focus to support it (and carry Sky along to recharge your Focus during combat), you can blast your way through most of the game. Try using it on the golems in the Lotus Assassin Fortress...Fun stuff. MAGIC [2.05] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Magic styles are the only ranged combat option in Jade Empire (with the exception of Mirabelle, as noted above). If you're the type who likes to sit back and snipe your enemies, you'll want to boost your Chi and use Magic. You can have up to three Magic styles if you're willing to pay for one. However, only one or two are really needed. Magic cannot be used on demons or golems. Magic styles are very useful against ghosts--especially since they're immune to Weapon and Support styles. All Magic styles consume ten (10) points of Chi for each Quick Attack and 30 points of Chi for Power Attacks and Area Attacks. The effective range for all Magic styles is roughly 20 meters. Damage and figures are on a scale of 1 to 5 and are in relation to other Magic styles. Dire Flame ------------ * Damage: 3 * Obtained: One of the choices from the blue spirit in the Spirit Cave during Chapter 1; or, buy from Kia Jong in the Lotus Assassin fortress Dire Flame's Area Attack is probably the slowest in the game. It takes forever to get going; thus, it isn't reasonable to use it for crowd control or harmonic combos. Otherwise, this is a good style with fast Quick Attacks and at least one creature (ogres) that are vulnerable to fire. Ice Shard ----------- * Damage: 2 * Obtained: One of the choices from the blue spirit in the Spirit Cave during Chapter 1; or, buy from Acolyte Trainer Guang in the Lotus Assassin fortress Overall, Ice Shard is the weakest magic style in the game. Its Quick Attacks do the same amount of damage as Dire Flame; but, the Power Attack does *no* damage. It's primary benefit for early game is the Area Attack is considerably faster than Dire Flame. Of course, once you get either Tempest or Stone Immortal, you'll probably never use your starting Magic style again. Stone Immortal ---------------- * Damage: 5 * Obtained: Learn from Mistress Vo in Tien's Landing if you are following the path of the Open Palm ("An Ancient Game" side quest) * Special: Open Palm players receive a +30% bonus to damage; Closed Fist players receive a -30% penalty to damage. If you're a Magic-using fiend, Stone Immortal is a good argument to follow the Way of the Open Palm. It does more damage per Quick Attack than any other Magic style and it's Power Attack is hugely damaging--and it Petrifies your target, which starts a harmonic combo. On top of that, it is just about the only style in the entire game that does serious damage with its Area Attack. You'll see Stone Immortal from the wrong side whenever you face an elephant demon, and you gain great respect for its power when it is used against you. Tempest --------- * Damage: 4 * Obtained: Learn from Jian the Iron Fist in Tien's Landing if you are following the path of the Closed Fist ("An Ancient Game" side quest) * Special: Closed Fist players receive a +30% bonus to damage; Open Palm players receive a -30% penalty to damage. Tempest is a good Magic style with a faster Power Attack than any of the other styles. That alone recommends it to players that like to use Harmonic Combos. Still, Storm Dragon is a better style to use for Harmonic Combos and Stone Immortal does more damage. However, if you're playing strictly Closed Fist, this is the Magic style for you. TRANSFORMATION [2.06] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Transformation styles offer some benefits. For one, while in demon, golem or ghost form, you are immune to the same types of attacks that form is immune to. For example, while in demon form, you are immune to Magic and Support styles. Transformation forms are also immune to many negative effects, such as Slow and Poison. If you get hit with a negative effect, you can shift form and get rid of the effects. Also, Jade Golem is (especially at lower Difficulty levels) the best combat style in the game. As a trade off, the Transformation forms are generally slow and they can't dodge attacks. If you're used to jumping around in combat a lot, you may have difficulty adjusting to a form. They can also suck your Chi fairly quickly-- the more powerful the form, the faster it drains your Chi. You can offset this somewhat by purchasing ranks in Chi Cost Reduction; but, if you intend to use Transformation styles a lot, you'll need to focus on increasing your Spirit and Chi abilities. Toad Demon ------------ * Obtained: when you defeat your first toad demon in the Swamp Cave in Chapter 1 The primary benefit of the Toad Demon is its Power Attack, which is a leaping charge that covers quite a bit of ground and hits multiple enemies--poisoning them as a bonus. Primarily, you'll use this form to get rid of negative effects, not to actually fight. Horse Demon ------------- * Obtained: when you defeat your first horse demon in the Fox Heaven in Chapter 2 Horse demons are somewhat unique among combat styles--their Quick Attack and Power Attack are the same as Dire Flame; however, because it is their "natural" attack, it works on any foe--including other demons and golems. Combine that with the demon form's immunity to certain effects and you have a pretty potent package. At the cost of a lot of Chi of course. Also, the horse demon is not that great in crowds; it works better against three or fewer opponents. Rhino Demon ------------- * Special Edition pre-orders only * Obtained: at the end of the tutorial fight against Jing Woo The Rhino Demon transformation form is a bonus offered only to persons who pre-ordered the Special Edition through GameStop/EBGames (as well as certain other selected retail outlets). However, you can easily add this to your own game, as the "bonus" consists of a single file. Instructions are in Way of the Modder near the end of this guide. Rhino demons are strong and slow and not all that useful unless you're fighting a group of Magic-using foes. Jade Golem ------------ * Obtained: when you defeat your first jade golem in the Lotus Assassin Fortress in Chapter 3 Way overpowered. That's the only way to describe Jade Golem. If you're not into the whole combat thing, you'll love this style as every fight is reduced to a few Power Attacks and done. If you are trying to make fighting more interesting, avoid this style like the plague. Not only are you dishing out immense amounts of damage, you are also immune to magic, martial and support styles. The only things that can hurt you are demons, other golems or enemies with weapons. In other words: not much. As a balance to the damage, Jade Golems are very slow. This is not a problem as you are immune to the only ranged attacks in the game, so enemies generally have to come to you. Red Minister -------------- * Obtained: when you defeat your first red minister in the Spirit Realm in Chapter 5 Red Ministers are ghosts with a great benefit: attacks drain both Health and Chi from the target and transfer it to you. As a downside, the attacks are not that powerful. SPECIAL STYLES [2.07] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Drunken Master ---------------- Drunken Master is an extremely powerful martial style--roughly twice as damaging as White Demon, but it does have limitations. In order to use Drunken Master, you must have Henpecked Hou as your companion. He only has Support mode; while you're in combat, he drops wine bottles. Pick up a bottle and you go into Drunken Master style for a limited time. The time remaining appears in the lower left of the screen above your style selection keys. To gain more time, pick up another bottle. Drunken Master is somewhat difficult to control and the Power Attack takes a while to execute. On the other hand, the unpredictable nature of the style makes it difficult for enemies to hit you. Drunken Master is very good for large crowds during Chapter 2 (use it on the cannibals right after learning it); however, it can't be upgraded, so it loses its appeal as the game advances. Spirit Thief -------------- Hui the Brave teaches you Spirit Thief near the beginning of Chapter 2. This style is sort of like a Support Style; its primary purpose is stealing Chi from your enemies in order to replenish your supply. If you're a heavy magic user or like to stay in demon/golem form, this can be a useful style. However, even with Chi strikes enabled, it doesn't do much damage, so you're reduced to leaping around the arena, avoiding attacks while desperately trying to re-fill your Chi meter so you can launch more magic attacks or transform once again. In the long run, if you're heavily dependent on Chi, take Dawn Star with you and keep her in Support mode. Spirit Thief is upgraded like a Support style (Chi Damage Increase, Quick Attack Speed Increase and Duration Increase); however, the increase in duration for Spirit Thief effects are much shorter than for other styles. The cumulative Duration Increases for Spirit Thief are: * Rank 1: +10% * Rank 2: +20% * Rank 3: +30% * Rank 4: +40% * Rank 5: +50% Improvised Weapons -------------------- In various places--especially taverns and the like--you'll destroy tables and scatter food as you fight. You can grab table legs or large hams to use as weapons. These weapons are quite powerful; but, they last only a short time. You can reset your time limit by grabbing another improvised weapon. They are, in short, very similar to Drunken Master, but only useable in select areas. HARMONIC COMBOS [2.08] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Harmonic combos are special finishing or killing attacks that not only completely destroy your target; but also assure you of getting a specific type of power-up. To begin a harmonic combo, you must use a Magic or Support style attack that partially or fully immobilizes your target. This will either be the Power Attack or Area Attack. If you successfully begin a harmonic combo, a green, segmented circle surrounds your target's feet and begins counting down. Before the circle disappears completely, you must switch to a Martial style and execute a Power Attack on the target. Depending on what style you used to begin the combo, you are assured of receiving a specific type of power-up. (In Jade Master mode the chance of receiving a harmonic combo power-up is only 50%.) The different styles that can begin harmonic combos are: * Heavenly Wave (Support): Power attack slows target, produces Health Orb * Paralyzing Palm (Support): Power attack paralyzes target * Hidden Fist (Support): Area attack disorients targets, produces Chi Orb * Storm Dragon (Support): Area attack shocks targets, produces Focus Orb * Ice Shard (Magic): Power attack freezes target, produces Focus Orb * Dire Flame (Magic): Area attack immolates targets, produces Health Orb * Stone Immortal (Magic): Power attack petrifies target * Tempest (Magic): Power attack immobilizes target, produces Focus Orb ==JADE EMPIRE========================================================[3.00]== CHARACTERS ============================================================Special Edition== STATS [3.01] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ All characters are defined by a set of nine stats. These stats are broken down into three primary abilities, three secondary abilities based directly on the primary stats and three conversation skills, which are derived from an average of two of the primary stats. Primary Secondary Conversation Ability Ability Skill +---BODY------->HEALTH (BODY*10)+100 | | | +------------------------------INTIMIDATION (BODY+SPIRIT)/2 | | | SPIRIT----->CHI (SPIRIT*10)+100 | | | +------------------------------INTUITION (SPIRIT+MIND)/2 | | +---MIND------->FOCUS (MIND*10)+100 | +-----------------------------------CHARM (BODY+MIND)/2 For most of your gameplay experience, the only three stats of concern are the three secondary abilities: Health, Chi and Focus. These are the stats you will use on a consistent basis, especially for combat. The conversation skills show up once-in-a-while in conversations and are generally not necessary to complete the game. When you level up, you can only add points to the three primary abilities: Body, Spirit and Mind. Think of these as Health, Chi and Focus and add points where you need them most. Health -------- A simple concept: when you lose all your health, you reload from your last save point. Health is equal to 100 points plus your Body stat multiplied by 10 plus any bonuses or penalties from Techniques or Essence Gems. There are two ways to look at Health: 1) You need more of it so you can survive longer against the bad guys; or, 2) If your Chi and/or Focus are high enough you can deal with the bad guys before they deal with you, so Health isn't all that important. In the long run, view 2 is more useful. Pump up Chi and Focus and you'll be able to quickly handle any problems that arise. However, don't completely neglect your Health--there are still tough fights where you'll need to withstand some punishment in order to emerge the victor. Chi ----- Chi is a representation of the strength of your inner spirit. It is, quite possibly, the most important stat in the game. Here's what Chi can do for you: * Power Transformation and Magic styles * Add damage to Martial, Weapon and Support style attacks * Heal you in the midst of combat Chi is equal to your Spirit multiplied by 10 and added to 100 plus any bonuses or penalties from Techniques and Essence Gems. Considering the overall usefulness of Chi, it should probably be your main focus--unless you just like a pure beat-'em-up and stick with a Martial or Weapon style. Focus ------- Focus has two important functions: * Powers Weapon styles * Allows you to slow down time (Focus Mode) in combat, so you can more easily defeat your enemies Unless you really, really want to use Mirabelle (the Outlander's gun from Chapter 3) a lot, or like to use Focus Mode a lot (and it's kind of overrated), then you don't really need much Focus. For weapons other than Mirabelle, buy all the ranks of Focus Cost Reduction and you don't need a lot of Focus to use the weapons. Of course, if you prefer to use Focus mode *and* a Weapon, you'll need a lot of Focus. PLAYER CHARACTERS [3.02] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ To begin the game, you get your choice of one of seven playable characters. While each character is set up differently, you can customize the character's stats, combat styles and name; you cannot customize the character's appearance. So, choose your character based on your gender preference and who you think looks the best. Customizing Your Character ---------------------------- Characters are described by their stats and their combat styles. There are no classes, per se, in Jade Empire. As you level up, you earn points that you can put into the three primary stats for your character, as well as points you can use to increase the power and effectiveness of your combat styles. At the beginning of the game, each character's primary stats are set at 2 and you can customize these by adding to them from a pool of 4 points. Each character also begins with one martial style from the following: Legendary Strike, Thousand Cuts, White Demon or Leaping Tiger. All characters also begin with the Heavenly Wave support style. You may choose to accept the character's default stats and martial style. Whether you customize stats and styles or accept the default, you have the choice of giving your character a unique name (including one randomly chosen by the game). The seven characters and their default stats and martial style: Females * Wu the Lotus Blossom: Body 3, Spirit 4, Mind 3, Legendary Strike * Radiant Jen Zi: Body 2, Spirit 3, Mind 5, Thousand Cuts * Scholar Ling: Body 2, Spirit 5, Mind 3, Leaping Tiger Males * Furious Ming: Body 3, Spirit 2, Mind 5, Thousand Cuts * Tiger Shen: Body 5, Spirit 2, Mind 3, White Demon * Lu the Prodigy: Body 4, Spirit 3, Mind 3, Legendary Strike * Monk Zeng: Body 3, Spirit 5, Mind 2, Leaping Tiger (NOTE: Monk Zeng is only available on the Xbox in the Limited Edition of Jade Empire. He is available in the SE version on PC.) Since all characters can be customized, the only choice you need to make is which character you want to look at for the next 20+ hours. Leveling Up ------------- As you play, your character accumulates experience. You get experience for completing quests, killing enemies and reading books and scrollstands. Gain enough experience and you level up. Leveling up is a simple process. You get three points to add to your primary abilities (Body, Spirit & Mind) and a variable number of points to spend on advancing your styles. To level up, you must spend all three points on your primary abilities. You do not need to spend any points on your styles; you can save Style Points for later use to buy more advanced upgrades for the styles. The Combat section of this guide lists the available upgrades for each style. +--------------------------------------+ | | Cumulative | Style Points | | Level | XP Needed | Earned | |-------+---------------+--------------| | 1 | 0 | 0 | | 2 | 700 | 10 | | 3 | 2000 | 5 | | 4 | 4000 | 5 | | 5 | 7000 | 5 | | 6 | 11000 | 6 | | 7 | 16000 | 7 | | 8 | 22000 | 8 | | 9 | 29000 | 9 | | 10 | 37000 | 10 | | 11 | 46000 | 11 | | 12 | 56000 | 12 | | 13 | 67000 | 13 | | 14 | 79000 | 14 | | 15 | 92000 | 15 | | 16 | 106000 | 16 | | 17 | 121000 | 17 | | 18 | 137000 | 18 | | 19 | 154000 | 19 | | 20 | 172000 | 20 | | 21 | 191000 | 21 | | 22 | 211000 | 22 | | 23 | 232000 | 23 | | 24 | 254000 | 24 | | 25 | 277000 | 25 | | 26 | 301000 | 26 | | 27 | 326000 | 27 | | 28 | 380000 | 28 | | 29 | 450000 | 29 | | 30 | 550000 | 30 | | 31 | 700000 | 31 | | 32 | 1000000 | 32 | +--------------------------------------+ The XP needed is the cumulative experience needed to advance to each level. Thus, when you gain 700 XP, you advance to level 2 and you have to gain 1300 more XP (2000 - 700 = 1300) to get to level 3. By default, there are no XP totals for levels above 32; however, playing the game normally will result in gaining only 22 to 25 levels. You can change the amount of XP needed, as well as the number of allowable levels and the number of style points earned. See Way of the Modder near the end of this guide. FOLLOWERS [3.03] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ During the course of the game, you pick up a number of followers or companions. At any time you can only have one follower with you; however, you can switch followers out very quickly and easily. Simply go to the Followers tab on your game menu screen and select the follower you want. Except for certain limited areas and while in combat, the new follower instantly replaces your current follower. You have no direct control over your followers' actions, nor can you choose your companions' level-up options. The only thing you can do is change your companions from Attack to Support tactics and back again (where applicable). Go to the Followers tab of your game menu screen, select the follower and then click Attack or Support at the bottom of the screen. In Attack mode, your follower attacks any enemies on screen. All followers with Attack ability can damage spirits with their attacks. In Support mode, your follower does not attack any enemies. Instead, your follower stays on the fringes of the battle and lends some type of aid, which is listed below in their descriptions. You will find there are two things about followers in Attack mode: 1) They are all essentially equivalent. 2) They are all essentially useless. Followers are much more useful in Support mode, which means you should choose your traveling companion based on your Support needs. You do not need to regularly travel around with a follower in order to advance the follower's plot (including romance). Talk to each follower on a regular basis (you can do this at your home camp in each chapter). A good rule of thumb is to talk to each follower each time you level up or each time you complete a main story quest. Dawn Star ----------- * Female, romance option for male PCs * Attack: Long sword * Support: regenerate Chi Dawn Star's magical sensitivity gives her added insight into the world around her. In battle she cuts swiftly with her long sword. Dawn Star is your first follower, gained almost at the very beginning of the game. She is also, perhaps, the single most useful follower in the game. She is the only regular follower that can regenerate Chi in Support tactics; and a ready supply of Chi is very useful. Chi fuels Transformation and Magic styles, Chi strikes in Martial and Support styles and allows you to heal yourself during battle. If you run out of Chi in the middle of battle, you're in big trouble unless you concentrate on Martial and Weapon styles (or waste time using Spirit Thief). Male players that flirt with and are otherwise nice to Dawn Star will get a romantic cutscene near the end of the game. It is possible for male players to woo both Dawn Star and Silk Fox. Sagacious Zu -------------- * Male, no romance * Attack: Staff * Support: increases damage of weapon styles Sagacious Zu's mysterious past belies great experience and skill. His staff is a valuable asset in battle. You meet Sagacious Zu in the swamp while pursuing Gao the Lesser at the end of Chapter 1. He's a plot-important NPC and a good Support character if you're focusing on weapon attacks. Since weapon attacks are useless against spirits (i.e. roughly 40% of the enemies you face in the game), his value as a regular follower is somewhat in doubt. You'll want to chat regularly with Zu and Dawn Star, as they fill in some important facts and give you different conversation options during the final battle. (It doesn't change the ending of the game in any way; but, it does flesh out the primary villain a bit.) The Black Whirlwind --------------------- * Male, no romance * Attack: Dual axes * Support: None The Black Whirlwind is a warrior of exceptional girth and immeasurable brutality. In combat, his axes gleefully plow through enemies, not stopping until the red mists fade. As a follower with no Support mode, BW is slightly less desirable than other followers. He does have a part to play in the Arena side quest in Chapter 3; however, he shows up whether you have him as you companion or not. Open Palm players will find themselves somewhat distressed by his lack of any "good" conversations. (That's "good" as in the opposite of evil. The conversations themselves are quite humorous--nearly the equal of HK-47 from KotOR.) Sky ----- * Male, romance option for female and male PCs * Attack: Dual Sabers * Support: regenerate Focus Sky is a dashing rogue and a skilled thief with a tongue as sharp as the twin sabers he uses in combat. Sky's Support mode is great for any player--especially weapon users. A steady stream of Focus allows extended use of Focus Mode, which works well in any combat situation. If you're sympathetic to his tale, you can get a romantic cutscene with him in Chapter 6. Henpecked Hou --------------- * Male, no romance * Attack: None * Support: Drunken Master Martial Style Henpecked Hou is a master bun maker and a former fighting champion. He refuses to fight these days out of respect for his beloved wife. Pick up Hou's wine jugs to activate Drunken Master style. This style does much more damage than other Martial styles, but it is only available for a short time once activated. Picking up more jugs extends the duration of Drunken Master style. You rescue Hou from Pilgrim's Rest Inn in Chapter 2. After you free him, he teaches you Drunken Master and is available as a companion. For more details on Drunken Master, see its description under Special styles in the Combat section of this guide. Silk Fox ---------- * Female, romance option for male and female PCs * Attack: Long sword * Support: increases damage of martial styles Silk Fox is as enigmatic as she is beautiful. When her long sword is not flashing from foe to foe, she lends her skill to you. You meet Silk Fox at the beginning of Chapter 2; however, she does not join your party until the beginning of Chapter 3. She is the last "regular" follower to join up. (Abbot Song and Death's Hand are the only followers still to come.) Her Support tactic is pretty good if you use Martial styles a lot; this is useful for fights against ghosts when Martial and Magic attacks are about all you have going for you. Both male and female PCs can flirt with Silk Fox and get a romantic cutscene in Chapter 6. Male PCs can have a relationship with both Dawn Star and Silk Fox. Chai Ka/Ya Zhen ----------------- * Demon, no romance * Attack: Demon form * Support: regenerate Health A guardian demon bound in the body of a child, Chai Ka will fight alongside you with his great strength or channel his power through you. A hideous demon using Wild Flower's body as an anchor, Ya Zhen tears through enemies with his claws and tongue. You fight Chai Ka on the way to the dam in Chapter 2. After the fight, he joins you, though he normally travels in the body of the girl, Wild Flower. Later, as you talk to Wild Flower, Ya Zhen begins to manifest himself. At the beginning of Chapter 4, the conflict between these two comes to a head and you have to choose which demon you will support. You then take control of that demon for a fight against the other demon. Once you emerge victorious, only the demon you chose is available to you. Obviously, siding with Chai Ka earns Open Palm points and letting Ya Zhen loose earns Closed Fist points. The demons are functionally identical, with strong attacks and a good support mode. If you never talk to Wild Flower, Ya Zhen will never manifest and you'll be left with a question mark (?) in the last row of your Followers screen (second ? from the left). Death's Hand -------------- * Bound spirit, no romance * Attack: Dual swords * Support: none The body and spirit of the tortured Prince Kin are yours to command. Just as he did for both Sun Hai and Sun Li, Death's Hand serves you with ruthless efficiency and brutal strength. At the end of Chapter 6 you fight Death's Hand; when you defeat him, Sun Li appears and revives his brother. You use your Spirit Monk powers to take control of Sun Kin and separate him from the armor. You, the player, then take control of Sun Kin for a fight against Death's Hand. When you emerge victorious, you, the player character, have the option of freeing Sun Kin's spirit (Open Palm) or binding Death's Hand to your service (Closed Fist). If you bind Death's Hand to you, four of your companions object (Silk Fox, Dawn Star, Sky and Hou) and you have to bind them to you as well. (Unless you have been consistently following the Closed Fist path and pursued a romance. In that case, your romantic interest goes along with your actions. *NOTE* If you're a closed fist male and have pursued both Silk Fox and Dawn Star, Dawn Star reverts to Open Palm at this point and you have to bind her. Silk Fox remains loyal to you.) Death's Hand is a good fighter; however, he appears so late in the game that he's of little practical use. There's no reason to keep him around if you're Open Palm; and, even Closed Fist players would only bind him for the "evil" points. Death's Hand fills the third (from the left) question mark (?) on the bottom row of your Followers screen. If you release Sun Kin's spirit after the fight in Chapter 6, you will leave that ? unfilled for the remainder of the game. Kang the Mad -------------- * Male, no romance * Attack: None * Support: operates Marvelous Dragonfly The aptly named Kang the Mad is the brilliant inventor of the Marvelous Dragonfly. While he won't join in on a fight, he offers perilous adventures of his own. Kang is one of two special followers. He does not actually join you on your adventures; rather, he is the inventor and pilot of the Marvelous Dragonfly-- the airship you obtain in Chapter 2. Talk to him--either by visiting him at your home base or selecting him on the follower menu screen--to travel around the Empire and to open up a set of flying mini-games. Kang's mini-games also open up Lord Lao's Furnace, one of the side-quests in Chapter 3. Zin Bu -------- * Male, no romance * Attack: None * Support: merchant Zin Bu the Magic Abacus is a celestial bureaucrat who seeks to shift over to sales. Check back often; his magical store occasionally restocks itself to help you on your journey. Zin Bu is one of two special followers. He does not actually join you on your adventures; rather, he is a celestial accountant who operates a store for your convenience. While there are many merchants scattered throughout the Empire, Bu is always with you and always ready to purchase your excess inventory. He also offers various Essence Gems, combat styles, Techniques and plot items for sale. Of course, he charges more and pays less for this convenience. His inventory changes as you increase in level, so visit him on a regular basis. You can access his store by opening the Followers menu screen and selecting Zin Bu. He joins you during the Sickened Forest quest in Chapter 2; you meet him near the beginning of the Fox Spirit heaven. Abbot Song ------------ * Male, spirit, no romance * Attack: Monk spade * Support: Recovers your Chi, Focus and Health The abbot of the doomed Spirit Monks, Abbot Song serves the Water Dragon, even in death. His hope for redemption lies with you. Abbot Song is your lone choice for a companion in Chapter 5, the Spirit Lands. This is not a bad thing since he has the best Support tactic of any follower. There's no reason to rely on his weapon when he can be constantly replenishing all your secondary abilities. OPEN PALM vs. CLOSED FIST [3.04] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Bioware has included an alignment system in Jade Empire. Your character can follow the way of the Open Palm or the Closed Fist. A lot of the official literature and even in-game discussions talk about how Open Palm isn't really "good" and Closed Fist isn't really "evil". Well, to be Open Palm, you have to be selfless, compassionate and humble. To rack up Closed Fist points, you have to be selfish, rude and arrogant. You can decide whether or not that's two sides of the same coin or parallel paths or whatever. Most people describe that as "good" and "evil". In terms of gameplay, there's really not much difference between the two. And, they are essentially negated by your final decision, which, by itself, determines which of the two outcomes you receive. Thus, you can play the entire game as Closed Fist and still get the Open Palm ending. Yeah, just like KotOR. Your alignment is largely determined by conversation choices. The choices between the two paths are pretty obvious. The biggest surprises will be not that you thought you were getting points toward one path and got points to the other; but, that you got no points at all. In many situations, a response that seems to be one side will, instead, be neutral. In fact, if your preference is for staying neutral, you can do that for most of the game. There are a few side-quests that are available only to dedicated practitioners of one particular path. There are also some side-quests that, while available to all, can only be resolved in a way that awards points toward a particular path. For the most part, this can bite Closed Fist followers in the rear, as they go looking to shake someone down and are only able to do something nice and get Open Palm points. Points are awarded on a sliding scale, so if you're CF and do something CF, you'll only get a small number of points; but, if you do something OP, you'll get a lot of points. The reverse is true for OP devotees. This guide for Jade Empire *only* describes the Open Palm actions. You may read my philosophy for this at: http://www.papagamer.com/content/view/68/1/ If you're interested in playing the bad guy, you can still use this guide as a general reference and play quests in the obvious "evil" manner. ENEMIES [3.05] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is a basic rundown of the foes you will face in Jade Empire and any special properties of each. Bosses are covered individually in the walkthrough, these are just the generic foes you encounter throughout the game. Humans -------- You will encounter many, many human opponents in various groups: bandits, mercenaries, pirates, Lotus Assassins, Imperial Guards and more. Humans have no special resistances and the styles they use are as varied as your own. You'll need a good repertoire of various styles so you can adapt to whatever situation presents itself. Human opponents are the ones most likely to gang up on you (and there are some huge gangs you will face). Support styles are most useful for these large groups, especially Storm Dragon, which has the ability to immobilize all enemies in range with its Area Attack. One special type of human opponent is the zombie. You'll face zombies several times in Necropolis in Chapter 3. Zombies don't have any special resistances; but, they do have a Power Attack that causes Disease. Disease acts like poison in that is slowly drains your Health while in effect. Spirits --------- One of the key plot points of the game is the inability for the dead to go to their final resting place. This means you will fight a lot of restless spirits throughout the game. Spirits are immune to Weapon and Support styles, so you'll have to use a Martial or Magic style against them. Magic generally works better, unless you have a particularly strong Martial style (i.e. White Demon or Iron Palm). Some of the spirits are Lost Spirits, which have a rather nasty Quick Attack that is a homing missile (of sorts). Lost Spirits have black robes and white masks and their homing missile is distinguished by its yellowish-green color. When you see those things coming at you, hold up a block. The Lost Spirits' Power Attack can be dodged and if you tie them up with quick Martial attacks (such as Thousand Cuts), you can keep them from hitting you with their Quick Attack. A spirit that, fortunately, does not show up frequently is the red minister. Red ministers can be identified by their flowing red robes and imperial-style headgear. Their attacks drain both Health and Chi and transfer it to themselves; so, they can damage you while restoring themselves. You have to get up in a red minister's face and tie it up with fast Martial attacks to have any hope of defeating one. Players of the Special Edition of Jade Empire will also encounter ghost lords. These strong spirits don't have any special attack; however, they can take off a lot of Health with their attacks and Martial styles are less effective against them. Ghost lords float high above the ground and any low- level attacks will miss them completely. That means you'll want to use Magic against these spirits since you are more likely to hit. On the plus side, ghost lords do not themselves use any ranged attack, so you can simply stay out of their reach and snipe them. Demons -------- Demons come in a variety of forms, each with its own unique attacks. As a general rule, demons are immune to Magic and Support styles, so you'll have to use a Weapon or Martial style against them. * Rat Demon Rat demons--other than their natural immunities--offer very little challenge. You'll only meet them a few times during the game. * Toad Demon The toad demon is the fastest demon and has a large leap that covers quite a bit of ground. In addition it can poison you (slowly sucks your Health while in effect) with just its Quick Attack. Since you can't use Magic against a demon, you'll have to close with it and take your lumps. Use your strongest style with Chi Strikes to defeat these demons handily. * Horse Demon The horse demon is a fiery creature of hell that uses the equivalent of Dire Flame. It shoots our fiery balls and large explosions and the only way to take one on is to close up and tie it up with fast Martial or Weapon attacks. * Elephant Demon The elephant demon is the strongest--and slowest--of the demons. The proper way to fight an elephant demon is from behind. Jump over it and hit it. When it turns, repeat the jump-and-hit tactic. If you see it raise it's leg, jump backward to avoid the earthquake effect. You might consider using Chi Strikes to whittle down its massive Health more quickly. * Rhino Demon (SE only) In the Special Edition of Jade Empire you will occasionally encounter rhino demons. The rhino is strong and has a charging attack. Your best bet is to simply tie it up with fast Martial or Weapon attacks and evade at the end of your combo of Quick Attacks. Golems -------- There are two types of golems in Jade Empire: clay and jade. The jade golems are the biggest and strongest; but, both are affected by the same tactics. Golems are immune to Martial, Magic and Support styles, thus, you have to rely on Weapons or a Transformation style. The best way to fight golems is with a Weapon with Chi Strikes. Stay behind the golem and hit it a few times, then jump over it when it turns. If there are a small group of golems, you may have to evade around the arena a bit until they separate. Alternately, with clay golems, you can use a staff (if you have a strong staff style), since you can outreach them. You can't outreach a jade golem, so stay behind those. ==JADE EMPIRE========================================================[4.00]== TIPS & TRICKS ============================================================Special Edition== * Save early. Save often. The number of save games you may have is only limited by your free disc space. Each save takes up roughly 4-5MB. Don't rely on the Auto Saves, nor should you keep overwriting your Quick Save. You should, at the least, Quick Save after every battle and make a new save game when you clear any area or complete any quest. * Explore thoroughly Veterans of PC RPGs--especially those produced by Bioware--know there are many treasures scattered about the game world. JE is no different; you'll find casks and urns and piles of bones with silver, Essence Gems and even the occasional Technique or plot item. Make sure you explore out to the edges of all the maps to get all the loot you can. * Use Jade Golem for easy fights At Student difficulty, a single power attack from the Jade Golem Transformation style is enough to take out most enemies. Even bosses (including the final boss) become simple fights. At Master difficulty, Jade Golem still rules the day. At Grand Master and Jade Master difficulties, Jade Golem is effective, but the Chi cost becomes unbearable since your enemies can withstand more blows from the construct's enormous axes. For simple fights, pump your Chi and get Jade Golem as soon as possible after entering Chapter 3 (i.e. invade the Lotus Assassin fortress before doing all the side quests). * Chat up your followers All your followers have interesting stories. Some of their stories will change future dialog choices within the main quests. Three are available for a little romantic cut scene near the end of the game. (Not all at once, though.) Each time you finish a main quest, return to base camp and talk to everyone. * Save style points when you level up Don't think you have to use every point upgrading your styles when you level up. In fact, you don't have to use any points. The styles you get in the early game are probably not the styles you will use most in the later game; so, why waste points on styles you won't use? Go through the list of styles in this guide and decide what you will use most and save points to use on those styles when you get them. Don't save all your points! You will need to upgrade some of your starting styles at least a little bit in order to keep those styles useful while you're waiting to obtain better styles. * Choose style upgrades carefully The most effective style upgrades are: - Martial: damage and speed - Support: duration - Weapon: damage and Focus cost reduction - Magic: damage and lower Chi cost - Transformation: damage and Chi cost reduction Spend your style points on the more useful upgrades before buying ranks in less useful upgrades. ==JADE EMPIRE========================================================[5.00]== WALKTHROUGH ============================================================Special Edition== This guide contains a walkthrough only for the Open Palm (i.e. "good") path. See: http://www.papagamer.com/content/view/68/1/ for a further explanation. CHAPTER 1 [5.10] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _Wherein a Masters foretells of doom,_ _A rival challenges for station,_ _And the past haunts the present._ Your training nears its completion in the idyllic setting of Two Rivers. Master Li promises that soon you will know more about how you came here and where your future will lead. All the while, strange tales begin to spread of ghosts that will not rest and shadowy assassins who heed no law. A Master's Teachings [5.11] ----------------------------- QUESTS [] A Master's Teachings [] The Lions of Two Rivers [] An Unfortunate Debt [] Kia Min [] Iron Palm [] Legacy of Master Li (undocumented) [] Villager's Silver (undocumented) Your adventure begins with--what else?--a tutorial! You have a sparring match with Jing Woo. Follow the on-screen instructions carefully; you cannot progress in the match unless you perform specific actions. First, hit Jing Woo a few times with quick attacks. Second, hold Block and let Jing hit you a few times. Third, after Jing Woo hits you with a power attack, hold down the Chi Heal key until you are healed. Fourth, hit Jing with a power attack. Fifth, use Evade (double-tap Move or Block + Move) a couple of times to avoid Jing's attacks. Finally, you are allowed to simply battle Jing Woo straight up. Once he is defeated (or he defeats you...makes no difference), he sends you on your way with a message to meet with your sensei, Master Li. If you pre-ordered Jade Empire SE and got the bonus disc (or used the hack listed under The Way of the Modder), you get the Rhino Demon Transformation style at the end of the Jing Woo fight. It's pretty useless right now, since you don't have enough Chi to use it; but, at least it looks cool. Right? Go on to Li's house on the east side of the school and chat with your teacher. You'll be interrupted by a student who informs Master Li that Kia Min has been injured and bandits are raiding the town of Two Rivers. Time to spring into action! Or not. Before traipsing off to fight bad guys, take a few minutes to explore the school. Start with the large lion statue in the north wing of Master Li's house. Next to the statue is a chest; inside are four lion figurines: red, blue and yellow. (Veterans of Bioware games know *exactly* what's coming next.) Go to the lion statue and Use it to open a conversation. Choose to approach the altar. The sphere in the lion's paw glows blue. Place the blue figurine on the altar; then the red; then the yellow. The statue gives you a word of advice and dispenses a silver coin. What can you do with a single silver coin? Well, complete this little side quest, that's what. Leave Master Li's house and go around the back. You'll find two students sparring. For a little multi-opponent combat practice, agree to spar with them. When you're through with them, find the tomb along the outside wall of the school and deposit your coin into the bowl. You'll get a lion head token. Return to the statue in Master Li's house. Use the statue again and place the token into the lion's mouth. The sphere glows green. Place both the blue and yellow lion figurines on the altar. The sphere glows orange. Remove the blue lion and place the red one. The sphere glows purple; replace the yellow lion with the blue. You get 75XP and the Gaze of the Lion Technique, which provides Health +2 and Focus +2. Nice. (NOTE: You can do this quest later, after you have earned some money. That way, you can get the lion head token in advance and skip the initial blue- red-yellow sequence.) Wander around the school, talking to the students. The big man near the gate is Smiling Mountain. He can arrange some sparring matches for you if you need more combat practice. He also sells things; but, you have no money...yet. Make sure you read all the books and scrollstands in the main schoolyard-- there are four: two on the porch of Master Li's house and two on the porch of the house opposite Li's. The most important one is the bookstand at the house opposite Master Li's ("Auspicious Portents"). This is part of a book set that gives you an additional reward. Head southeast, away from the school and over a bridge. You'll meet Dawn Star on the other side, and you gain your first follower. There are both a Spirit Font and a Focus Shrine nearby if you need to restore any of your abilities. Spirit Fonts restore your Health and Chi; Focus Shrines restore your Focus. There's a scrollstand on the same wood porch as the Spirit Font. Be sure to read it, as it is part of the book set you're trying to complete. Leave by the gate to enter Two Rivers. After a few steps, you have your first fight with two bandits. After they are defeated, go north, up a flight of stairs to Gugin's place. After chatting with you a bit, he offers one of two weapons: a long sword (Fortune's Favor) or a staff (Gold Star). (If you are playing the Limited Edition on Xbox, the staff is called Tien's Justice and has a different appearance.) You do not have to stick with your first choice; for a little while, Gujin will happily allow you to switch weapons until you find one you like. After you are interrupted with news of more bandits, find the scrollstand in Gujin's house and read it. You should receive the Legacy of Master Li Technique (Focus +7). If you don't learn the Technique, you missed one or both of the other two books in the set. Make sure you find them all before embarking on the next main quest. Go back toward the stairs, where you get a chance to try out your weapon. More bandits wait at the bottom of the stairs, intent on attacking a villager. Attack the bandits around the villager to save the villager's life. This will earn you more OP points later. Before heading east to the beach, go south, through an opening in the wall to find a courtyard with some more bandits. Defeat them; then, open the Villager's Chest and collect 200 silver pieces. Don't run off and spend them, you can use them later to get Open Palm points. Return to the main drag through town and go through the east gate to the beach. You'll have to fight through two waves of bandits. There's plenty of room to maneuver, so keep moving and don't let the bandits gang up on you. Use area attacks if you need to break them apart. When the second set of bandits is defeated, the captain of the bandit ship raises three ghosts. Ghosts are a bit tougher than the common bandits you've faced thus far. For starters, they are immune to weapon and support forms, so stash your sword or staff and use your fists. They also have the Ice Shard style and will use it to try and freeze you--not to mention pelting you with ice pellets. When you see a ghost readying a Power Attack, start dodging. Afterward, the master of the ship comes down. You're probably thinking you can't take this guy, what with having fought off a dozen minions and being low on Health, Chi and Focus. And, you would be right. You can't take this guy; but, Master Li can and he shows up just in time to lay some smack down on your behalf and then lecture you some more. After everything's said and done, scan the beach. There's an old man fussing around a statue; ignore him for now. You should see Nih Joh, a young man whose father you (should have) earlier. Reassure him that his father is safe to earn OP points. There's also a lady who wants to talk to Dawn Star. You have nothing to do with this conversation; but, it leads to more information about Dawn Star. You may also find a nameless villager; though, it is possible he won't show up until later. You'll be back here on another side quest, so if the villager's not around now, don't sweat it. When you do find the villager, talk to him about his debt to Gao the Greater. You'll have to use one of your Conversation skills (whichever is highest) to convince him to let you pay off his debt (OP points). This one conversation both begins and ends An Unfortunate Debt side quest. From the beach, find the tunnel to the left of the main path back to town. This shortcut contains two casks full of silver. Return to the school and find Master Li. You'll have a three-way conversation with Li and Gao the Lesser. This ends with Gao challenging you to a fight in the ring. You do not have to accept the fight immediately; take the opportunity to heal yourself at the Spirit Font and Focus Shrine near the gate to town, if you need it. Then tell Li you're ready to fight Gao. Gao can be a fairly tough fight. Your best bet is to hold Block and wait for him to begin charging a power attack; then quickly hit him with standard attacks or jump over him (Block + Forward or double-tap Forward). Use your sword or staff for a longer reach. When he's defeated, he attempts to hit you with a fireball; but, Li stops it, expels Gao and tells you to come talk to him in his house. Before going to Li again, find Kia Min among the students outside the ring. Talk to her about her injury and she'll recommend you ask Old Ming about homeopathic medicine. Old Ming is the guy hanging around the statue down at the beach, so return there and talk to him. Ming recommends two herbs: red silk grass and bearded tongue grass. Red silk grass will cost you 50 silver pieces and will accelerate the healing of Kia Min's injury. Bearded tongue grass costs only 25 silver and will deaden the pain of Kia Min's injury, but not heal it. Guess which is the OP path and which is the CF path? Leave the beach and find merchant Fen Do right inside the gate as you re- enter the town. Buy some red silk grass off him and go back to the school. Give the poultice to Kia Min. For additional OP points, lie about the cost of the grass, saying it was only 25 silver (not 50). For even more OP points, refuse repayment altogether. Talk to Smiling Mountain to arrange a five-on- one sparring match. After winning the match, Smiling Mountain awards you the Alloyed Body Technique, which is worth Health +5 and Focus +5. Check your journal to make sure you've cleaned out all the side quests, then go chat with Master Li. You get some more plot exposition, and find yourself inside a Spirit Cave under the school. This is a small, two-room area. In the first room you'll pick up your Dragon Amulet and immediately fight three ghosts. Loot the room and check your Dragon Amulet page in the game menu. You should already have one gem to place in the amulet. (Just select it and click it or press Quick Attack.) Go through the north gate (use the Amulet to interpret the writing) and you'll have to fight three more ghosts--one of which is a mini-boss and uses Ice Shard. Use the rock column in the center of the room to avoid the mini- boss while you take out the minions; then, deal with the old guy. After the fight, you'll have a vision of a beautiful blue lady. She offers you a magic style: Dire Flame or Ice Shard. Ice Shard is a little more useful for pulling off Harmonic Combos. Dire Flame gives you some small bonuses against a few types of enemies. Neither is particularly superior to the other, so take whichever suits your fancy. After the vision, make sure you loot the room. One of the chests contains your first Iron Palm scroll ("The Anvil"). Enter the glowing portal and return to Master Li's house. He's surprised to see you; but, soon, he is distracted by news Dawn Star appears to have been kidnapped... The Search for Dawn Star [5.12] --------------------------------- QUESTS [] The Search for Dawn Star [] The Flower of the Fields [] Viper You, of course, offer to run straight out and rescue Ms. Star. Enter Two Rivers and start fighting Gao's hired help. There are some down in the cul- de-sac where you earlier found a Villager's Chest. Merchant Fen Do has a few Essence Gems in his inventory, if you're interested; but, there's no compelling reason to buy anything right now. When you go up the stairs toward Gujin's place, you'll meet a villager who tells you he owns the 200 silver you collected from that chest earlier. Return the money to him. He'll offer to split it with you as a reward. Accept his generosity for OP point; or, refuse to keep any of his money for maximum OP points. Continue toward the town gate to the north. You'll be accosted by two of Gao's mercenaries. If you want to avoid a 6-on-1 fight, use a Conversation Skill (Intimidate) to scare them off. If they won't scare, you'll have to take out six mercs in a very small space. Good luck. If it comes to a fight, stay near the gate. Don't allow yourself to be trapped in the narrow "alley" in front of Gujin's place. Use area attacks to keep them separated and jump back-and-forth among them to keep them off guard. Dodging is preferable to blocking as you can get hit from behind even while blocking. After the fight (or the mercs run away) talk to the gate guard. Once you're sure you've cleaned out Two Rivers and finished all the quests, leave by the north gate and enter the swamps. You will shortly come upon three bandits beating on a merchant. Kill the bandits and talk to the merchant. He wants you to find his "flower", who has been kidnapped by bandits. Continue on your way to the next large clearing where you meet Sagacious Zu. After initially telling you he has no interest in your problems, he changes his mind when you mention Dawn Star has been kidnapped. At this point, he offers to join up. Take him along as you continue clearing out the swamp. There are two north-bound exits from this clearing. The one to the right (northeast) will take you to the merchant's wife--and his "flower". Enjoy the humor and collect your reward; then, continue on to the main merc camp. After beating all the bad guys into submission, one of them lets on that Gao took Dawn Star and ran into the nearby cave. Let the guy go for OP points and follow Gao into the cave. After watching a little cut scene, you're in a fight against a couple of ogres. If you chose Dire Flame earlier (in the Spirit Cave), whip it out here as ogres are vulnerable to fire. Follow the only path that's open to you and you'll encounter an ogre and a toad demon locked in battle. Destroy them both and gain the Toad Demon Transformation style. Transformation is not much use to you right now as you really don't have the Chi to keep it going for any length of time; but, you can always play around with it a bit. Next up is your fight against Gao. You can choose to fight him solo, or with Dawn Star or Zu. Pick your favorite companion or engage Gao mano-a-mano. You should have the hang of combat now and Gao is nothing special. If you're having trouble beating him, dial down the difficulty or switch to your ranged attack (Dire Flame or Ice Shard) and put Dawn Star into Support mode or switch to your weapon and put Zu into Support mode. After the fight with Gao, make sure you tell your companions that you want to clean out the cave. There are no monsters left to fight, but there is plenty of treasure. One of the chests in Gao's little hideaway contains the first scroll of the Viper style ("Eye of the Viper"). You'll need two more such scrolls to gain the Viper Martial style. Another chest contains the Viper's Wit Technique (Focus +2, Charm +1). Leave the cave and discuss the possibility of using the nearby flyer to return to Two Rivers. Eventually you'll go back to town, initiating your first (and only required) Marvelous Dragonfly mission. (Though, at this point, you're in a generic flyer, not the Dragonfly.) This mission is pretty easy, which is a good thing since you can't avoid it. Move your flyer around on the screen with the movement controls. Press Quick Attack to fire your weapon. You have no Upgrades at this time, so that's all there is to it. Try to collect the red health orbs that are dropped. The yellow orbs that drop give you a temporary upgrade, such as multiple bullets and other nice things. The Burning Town [5.13] ------------------------- QUESTS [] The Burning Town When the mission is complete, you land on the beach and find Two Rivers and the school in flames. Fight your way through the burning town to the school. As you enter the school grounds, you'll see Kia Min. Depending on how you completed the earlier Kia Min quest, you'll either see her defeat a couple of mercs or be defeated and you'll get additional OP or CF points. In the main school area, you have to fight two waves of Lotus Assassins; the second wave features a mini-boss level fighter with the Storm Dragon style. Beware of his Power Attack, since it can shock you. Use liberal Area Attacks to keep the other fighters honest and jump around a lot (double-tap Move or Block + Move). After all the Assassins are dead, you will depart for Tien's Landing. You can choose to Attack and play another flyer mini-game; or Evade and just get on with the story without going through the waves of enemy flyers. Either way, you end up crash-landing on the outskirts of Tien's Landing... CHAPTER 2 [5.20] ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _Wherein the fall of Dirge is detailed,_ _The woman in black speaks of Death's Hand,_ _And Gao the Greater learns the fate of his son._ Two Rivers is in ruins, and Master Li has been taken captive. It is clear that this attack was carefully orchestrated and that shadowy forces have taken an interest in you and those around you. Leaving your home of twenty years, you set out after Death's Hand and his Lotus Assassins, intent on discovering the reasons behind this assault. Picking Up the Pieces [5.21] ------------------------------ QUESTS [] Picking Up the Pieces [] A Woman in Black [] Hui the Brave [] Old Mother Kwan [] The Beaten Baker [] Matchmaker [] The Stolen Memento [] Zhong the Ox Carrier [] An Ancient Game [] Trapped [] The Zither of Discord [] Iron Chef (undocumented) So what's in Tien's Landing? - A lot of problems. It's a big, tough town. Good place to start buildin' a rep. People here are nuts. That's because they live in a city of turmoil. Trust me, kid. You're gonna be just what the doctor ordered. (Philoctetes, _Hercules_ [paraphrased]) After the crash, you'll have a conversation with Zu and Dawn Star. You can select either to be your companion; however, this decision is not binding. You can start switching out your companions at will; except when you're in combat. Before you can start cleaning up Tien's Landing, you'll have to get there. Not far from the crash site you'll be ambushed by a group of spirits. Remember Weapon and Support styles are useless, so stick with Magic or Martial (or try out your fancy new Toad Demon). Following the fight, you'll have another vision of the blue lady. Continue on to a covered bridge and a fight against some living people. Along the way, if you kick over any of the headstones, you'll get more ghosts to fight. If you're feeling weak, avoid desecrating the gravestones. Once past the bridge, you'll meet a woman dressed in black. She thinks you're working with the Lotus Assassins and won't listen to reason until you beat some into her head. Enjoy kicking her around for a while, after which she decides to run away. (Or, more accurately, jump away.) Don't worry. She'll be back. (And you get the Journal entry to prove it.) Not long after this fight you'll arrive at a fork in the road marked by a large rock. The road to Tien's Landing is to your right (south). To the left (west) is a camp with some Imperial soldiers that you can beat up for fun. But, nothing more you can do here (and you'll be coming back this way again anyway, so why bother now?) As you enter Tien's Landing, you'll find whatever follower you left behind (or both if you're running alone) has moved into an abandoned building on the western edge of town. This is your new base camp and you can come back here and chat with your fellows--something that will be important as you will quickly enlarge the group in this chapter. Go east over the bridge toward town. You'll meet an older woman, Yifong, and her young daughter, Fuyao, leaving town. They're running scared and nothing you say will persuade them to stay in Tien's Landing. Let them go and continue across the bridge. You'll enter the teahouse yard and have the opportunity to help a woman deal with some common thugs. Afterward, she introduces herself as Hui. She and Sagacious Zu go back quite a ways. In fact, if Zu isn't your traveling companion, he shows up so the three of you can have a plot-important discourse. Hui fills in some of your back story and you learn some history of Zu as well. Finally, she teaches you the Spirit Thief style; then, tells you to come meet her in the teahouse and enters the building. Before going in, wander around and loot the various casks outside the teahouse. In the western part of the teahouse yard you'll meet Seamstress Lan, who is having boyfriend trouble. Or, more accurately, her boyfriend is having trouble--he gets his butt whipped by a gang of thugs on a daily basis. Won't you please help? Somehow? Well, of course you will. Later. Now, if you check your journal, you'll see "Picking Up the Pieces" has actually moved to completed and there are two new main quests: The Great Dam and Find a New Flyer. You'll get to those later, as well as a third main quest. For now, there's lots to do in Tien's Landing, and the teahouse is as good a place to start as any other. Follow Hui into the teahouse and help her fight off a bunch of thugs. This is one of those places where you can grab table legs or hams and use them as weapons. Not terribly useful, but fun. After the fracas, Hui tells you more of your heritage and reveals there are more pieces to your Dragon Amulet. One of those pieces is under the care of a guardian in the ruins of old Tien's Landing. To get into those ruins, you'll need to get a key from Minister Sheng, leader of the town. Walk around the ground floor until you find Old Mother Kwan. Talk to her to start up a quest to investigate the transfer of ownership to Three Sheets Dutong. Go to the bartender, Steeper Yanru. Yanru will fill you in on exactly why they call the new owner "Three Sheets". Ask him about how much Dutong drinks and you'll find that seven bowls of wine are just the right amount to make him talkative. Follow up about the types of wine the teahouse has available. There are two types: peasant wine and Imperial Seasoned Spirits. The Imperial stuff is equal to three bowls of the peasant swill. Well, that's simple enough: twice tell Yanru to send Imperial wine to Dutong (two orders = six bowls of peasant wine) and then send one bowl of the cheap stuff. Dutong gets up and starts staggering around. Equip Essence Gems to boost your highest Conversation Skill and talk to Dutong. Ask about the writ he showed Old Mother Kwan. He'll admit it was a fake; then, his bodyguard arrives with the sobering solution. Talk to him again and use your highest Conversation skill to get him to admit--while sober--he's a thief. He'll offer you money to keep quiet. You refuse and he runs away (OP points). After you get rid of the lush, go tell Old Mother Kwan she's in charge once again. Go upstairs. At the top of the stairs is a drunkard named Ru. He's important later, but has nothing to say to you now. There are two little side quests you can do now on the upper level of the teahouse. In one corner is a man talking to an ogre. As you approach, the man, Ping, asks if you'll help. The ogre is named Zhong and he's actually a farmhand for Ping. He refuses to return to Ping's farm. Make sure you've still got those Conversation Skill-boosting gems equipped, then talk to Zhong. For OP points, convince Zhong everything's OK and he'll return to work for Ping. Continue on until you see a fat guy with a little cooking set up near the inner rail. This is an undocumented (i.e. does not appear in your Journal) side quest. Before beginning, make sure all your vital statistics are full. Talk to Chai Jin about his food offerings. He'll bet you can't eat three of his dishes in a row without fainting. You give him 300 silver and, if you pass the test, he'll return it. For each dish, you have your choice of three courses--each of which damages a different ability score (Body, Spirit or Mind). If you've bulked up one attribute, you can safely take two hits to that score. Otherwise, spread the pain around. You shouldn't have any problem passing the test. Chai then offers a bonus round: survive a truly disgusting concoction that he's just invented. He needs another 300 silver, so fork it over. This final dish damages all three of your ability scores--if this is a problem, reload and try this again after you've gained a few levels. (You really shouldn't have a problem even at the level you're at when you first enter town.) Once you survive the last assault, tell the truth about the dish ("It depleted every aspect of my being"). Chai Jin gives your silver back plus the Bronze Tongue Essence Gem. That's all you can do at the Teahouse, so leave and head east to the town's main square (which isn't exactly square...but you get the idea). As you approach the center of the area, you'll witness an altercation at a merchant's stall. Afterward, talk to the merchant, Cheung to pick up The Stolen Memento quest. (Note: There's no way to complete this quest without gaining OP points.) Just to the right of Cheung's stall is a guard trying to cow people into helping a Lord Yun. Talk to the guard to get The Sickened Forest main quest added to your journal. At the east end of the town square is Minister Sheng. Talk to him to get a key to the old town ruins and a lead that flyers are used extensively by the pirates downriver and Ru the Boatswain may be able to take you down to the pirate lair. Go down the path from the southeast corner of the town square. You'll come down the hill near the boathouse. You'll see two people, Jian the Iron Fist and Mistress Vo, engaged in a verbal sparring match. Talk to them to pick up An Ancient Game. You can learn a new Magic style from one of these two masters; however, they will only consent to train you once you have proven yourself a true follower of one path or the other. In short, you must advance at least halfway from neutral toward either Closed Fist or Open Palm before you can get training. If you're OP, Mistress Vo will teach you Stone Immortal. If you're CF, Jian will teach you Tempest. If you've been dedicated to one path, you should be able to get the training before you leave Tien's Landing. If not, you can come back here during Chapter 3 and pick up the style. Continue east toward the entrance to the Beggar's Pier area. You'll behold Baker Bei being brutalized by buffoons. You have no choice but to step in and take care of the ruffians. Bei then tells you the sad tale: a female gangster is setting her lackeys on Bei for some unknown reason. You promise to go talk to Ai Ling in the boathouse. Continue into the Beggar's Pier area. Just to your left is a wine merchant, Jiang. He may accost you now, or later, but his business is dependent upon the sailors remaining beached. He wants you to destroy the dam controls so the dam can never be closed. (Everyone else wants you to close the dam to restore commerce to Tien's Landing.) A little further on is Darting Lynx, an acrobat. She's the one merchant in town who will actually sell you something right now. She has a few Essence Gems and Techniques for your perusal. To the south, by a stranded ship, is Captain Ing. Talk to him to get Trapped added to your journal. Trapped is the counterpoint to Merchant Jiang's quest: Ing needs the dam closed so he can set sail once again and make a living. Go into the northern branch of Beggar's Pier. You'll see two plot characters in the area (identified by a gold arrow above the head). One is Scholar Six Heavens. If you're a dedicated OP player, ignore him. He will only give his quest to a student of the Closed Fist; however, merely talking to him opens up the quest in your journal and there's no way to get rid of it if you're an OP player. If you are playing CF, you don't have to be far along the path to get the quest, so he'll probably open up for you now. Talk to him to start The Zither of Discord. A little further on is Tong, a sailor. This is the guy who stole Merchant Cheung's clay figure. Talk to him and the drunk will hand it back without a fight, unless you goad him into it; however, he surrenders before you kill him. Return the clay figure to Cheung, who will give you a discount on anything in his store--when he receives some stock that is; and, he won't get any supplies unless the dam is closed. You also get OP points. Time to finish up with Baker Bei. Before heading off, you'll want to make a decision. Resolving The Beaten Baker in a CF manner closes off the Matchmaker quest. Matchmaker provides a minimum of 1000 experience points, so you may want to take the OP points and finish Beaten Baker in the nicest way possible. Equip Conversation Skill-boosting Essence Gems and go down the hill to the boathouse. Tell the guard you're here to talk to Ai Ling and he'll let you in. Listen to Ai Ling's version of the tale. Convince Ai Ling to talk to Bei and then agree to bring Bei to meet with her. The game loads up a new scene and you find Seamstress Lan has tagged along and you're all going to have a heart-to-heart talk. For OP points and to open Matchmaker, use your Charm (or Intuition or Intimidation) to convince Ai to leave Bei and Lan alone. She agrees, and then asks you to help her find a husband. She mentions three candidates: * Ru the Boatswain--he's out; the option never even comes up in his conversations. * Chumin the Craftsman--he's the easiest. You'll find him near his house in the southwest part of town (below the teahouse). Convince him to go see Ai Ling and then convince the two of them that they would make great business partners. You'll get 1000 XP. * Yaoru hangs out on the upper level of the teahouse. He's a complete ass and a mismatch for Ai; however, if you can talk the two of them into it, you get a little more XP--1020 total. There's a fourth possibility for Ai's husband: * Big Tian, who is standing around on the east side of the boathouse. This will be a very difficult skill check and Intimidation seems to work best. You get 1060 XP if you can convince the big lummox and Ai to get together. All-in-all, simply going to Chumin is easier, and nets you plenty of experience. Either before or after getting a husband for Ai, loot the boathouse (the gang does not object). You'll find a Boathouse Key that opens the gate to the upper level with even more loot. That pretty well takes care of Tien's Landing. You have three main quests to complete and three main areas to explore: the dam to the west of town, the forest to the north of town and the pirates' lair downriver. You can visit these areas in any order and there's no significant difference based on the order. You pick up one new follower at the dam and two new followers in the forest and at the pirates' lair. If you hold off on The Sickened Forest until last, you'll have the easiest Chapter 2 Final Boss fight. CF Players who hold off on the forest until last will be able to complete The Zither of Discord without retracing their steps. Thus, a recommended order is The Great Dam and Find a New Flyer first and second (in either order) and The Sickened Forest third. The Great Dam [5.22] ---------------------- QUESTS [] The Great Dam [] A Woman in Black [] The Drowned Orphans [] Gems in the Quarry [] Stranded Orphan Girl [] Trapped [] The Zither of Discord [] Silk Fox [] Hui the Brave [] Memories (undocumented) Go out of town the way you came in, past your base camp. If you've finished either or both of the other two main quests already, the Woman in Black appears and asks you to meet her in Imperial City. This closes "A Woman in Black" and opens "Silk Fox" in your Journal. At the fork in the road, head right (west) to find a small group of Imperial guards. Defeat the guards, and another guard runs out of hiding and pleads for you to spare his life. Let him go for OP points. Make sure you loot the small guard house next to the gate; that's where you'll find the "Silk Strings" for the Zither of Discord. Go through the gates into the ruins. Your first encounter is with another group of Imperial guards. After they have been defeated, search the area carefully. Specifically, you need to find Dragon Powder, a plot item needed for a side quest in this area. It should be in an Assassin's Cabinet next to the south gate. Go through the south gate and you'll be attacked by a rat demon. This particular rat demon is more rat than demon and quickly surrenders. It offers information in exchange for its life. The information isn't necessary to progress; however, you can earn OP points for letting it live. Search the nearby area thoroughly. Behind a house in the northwest corner of the area is a Cameo Portrait. Continue south to the main area of the ruins; there are some more guards and a few cannon. Skirt far away from the guards toward the west-most cannon. You'll find the cannon launcher control lever nearby. Click it once to arm it with the Dragon Powder you picked up earlier. Click it again to fire the cannon, taking out the wall and the guards in one easy step. Enter the building to the west of the area. This is an abandoned orphanage; and, after killing a rat demon, you'll meet the ghosts of two children: Bin and Miao. They died in the flood that buried the ruins because the orphan- master, Kindly Yushan, was not there to let them out of the orphanage. Bin wants you to find Yushan and get him to help the children's spirits find peace. Miao wants revenge. Go back to Tien's Landing to the town square. Along the north side of the square is Old Wei. Talk to him about the Cameo Portrait. Give him the Cameo for OP points. Go to the teahouse and find Kindly Yushan on the upper floor. Convince him to return with you to the orphanage. You'll automatically be transported back to the orphanage. Yushan, Bin and Miao will exchange words. For OP points, agree with Bin and get Yushan to bury the children's bones. Leave the orphanage and go east, into the area revealed when you fired the cannons earlier. Kill off the ghosts in the area and find the path to the Quarry in the northeast corner of the area. Make your way through the quarry to the final area, killing a few convict ghosts along the way. In the final room you meet Strangler Jizu. Regardless of the conversation options, this has to end in violence. Jizu has the ability to restore himself from one of his followers if you "kill" him. So, simply stay away from him and concentrate on taking out his followers. They attack in pairs, and a new one comes out as you kill each one. There are only about a half-dozen of these followers and they are easy to kill. Just remember not to waste attacks on Jizu and try to stay away from him--if your target cursor moves to Jizu after killing a follower, be sure to switch to another follower. Once all the followers are down, Jizu is actually pretty easy. When he dies, Shiji the Turnkey appears. Offer to help him for OP points. He disappears and you don't have to fight him or do anything else. Loot the room for your rewards. On your way out you'll encounter the ghost of an orphan girl. She is afraid to cross the water and wants you to knock down some supports that will cover the pool with rocks. Agree to do this for OP points--just target and attack a few of the wood supports. Return to the ruins and go south, past the orphanage. You'll overhear a conversation between a Lotus Assassin and a guard. After, you have to fight the guard. Run down to a bridge, just in time to see the Assassin raise it. Go to your right and find the crane control. Click it to move the crane over the bridge control switch and lower the bridge. Continue after the Assassin. You eventually arrive back in the Dam area on the opposite side of the map from your crash site. Your first encounter is with a little girl who morphs into a demon and challenges you. You cannot use Magic or Support styles on demons, so pull out your weapon or your fists. After you've taken off some of its health, it speaks, but you can't get out of the fight just yet. Continue whittling away it's health. This demon is Chai Ka and he will become your follower. For now, he's just another obstacle in your way. An obstacle with a very powerful Area Attack that he likes to use. The best way to beat him is to jump in, hit him a few times, then jump away. Wait for the Area Attack and repeat. Once you've "killed" him, he "recognizes" you and fills you in on the story. He also gives you an Inscrutable Power Source. If you've already completed "Find a New Flyer" you know what this is for. Chai Ka is the guardian of a piece of your Dragon Amulet. Unfortunately, it's been stolen. Chai Ka and his host, Wild Flower, join your group of followers. You may use them now or send them to base camp in Tien's Landing. Just past Chai Ka are two golems guarding the entrance to the dam controls. Next to them is a Spirit Font. Use it and save your game. Approach the golems and give the password you overheard earlier, "Shao Hua". Go down and click the Jade Heart that is holding the dam open. Remove the Jade Heart to close the dam and restore Tien's Landing to its former glory (and flood Old Tien's Landing again; so, hopefully you finished al