Dark Cloud 2 / Dark Chronicle

• You have two player characters, each with a close range and long range weapon, as well as a ridepod (robot thing) and monster transformation. You can switch between any of these at any time.

• Monster transformation is awful, don't touch it beyond the one time you need to use it.

• The ridepod is fantastic if you can research and build good parts for it. Just don't buy the voicebox for it, trust me.

• The amulet long-range weapon isn't as pathetic as you might think, you just have to charge each shot to get the full attack power. I went a full playthrough without knowing this.

• Take photographs of everything you can, and keep trying combinations to make new inventions. Ridepod parts, especially, can be invented long before you might otherwise find them, if you can find them at all.

• The best monsters (for the purposes of medal collection) are the elementals because they have a long range attack (they look like flying dragons).

• The best way to grind weapons is by combining them with other weapons. Find out what you need to level a weapon up, unequip it, and equip something you're going to build up. Build it up to +5 (the higher you go the more points are required to level it up), break it down, and add it to your choice weapon. You can build up your favorite weapons using this method with very little grinding.

• Your character's weapons will wax and wane based on enemy resistances. If you're trying to build up a weapon that's just sucking then have Character A (someone you don't want to build up) kill an enemy then switch to Character B (the person you want to gain the experience). The points will be allocated evenly across their melee and ranged weapon. This works for the ride-pod as well.

• The only way to build HP is by finding items in the future after completing objectives. They're in little boxes scattered about.

• You won't be able to get the ultimate weapons until you defeat monsters found in the final handful of levels so don't stress it.

• The only missable things to watch out for are photography related. Most, if not all, bosses have a scoop (Usually a picture of them performing a specific attack) that you can only get in the one battle with the boss. Talk to Donny in the entrance of the Underground Channel and he'll give you a list of all the scoops you can get at that point in the game.

• The game gives you hints for some inventions, but for the most part you'll need a guide to figure out how to make the best stuff.

• You can use the Ridepod to effortlessly beat bosses for most of the game.

• At first Max's gun and Monica's armband will be useless, but late in the game they get much stronger, so it's worth it to level them up.

• Don't waste synth points on increasing a weapon's durability. You should be able to max it out on all your weapons just by leveling them up.

• The boxes and rocks and stuff on the floors of the dungeons sometimes drop items when you break them. They're a good source of repair powders, and the only way to find free Ridepod fuel.

• Some of the chests with HP increasing items in the chapter 3 future area are glitched and can disappear. I suggest using the Starlight Temple map on GameFAQs to see which ones are glitched before you go there for the first time.

• A few dungeon floors have second exits leading to alternate paths blocked off by a glowing yellow thing, you can't get through them until late in the game when the story requires it.

• Don't worry if you completely suck at Spheda once you learn how to play. The dungeon you learn it in is the hardest one for Spheda, in my opinion. The next chapter's dungeon is easier, and chapter 7's dungeon is by far the easiest for Spheda.

• All of the extra stuff like fishing, Spheda, monster transformation is completely optional after you learn it.

• All medals do is allow you to trade them for items from Mayor Need (Once you recruit him), so collecting them doesn't matter much unless you want to do everything in the game.

• In the extra chapter, after beating the main story, you can't go back to the chapter 7 dungeon or any of the future locations. So before fighting the final boss, make sure you get all of the HP/defense items in the future and if you want to get all of the medals, all of the medals in the chapter 7 dungeon.