SPECIAL BONUS FAQ - DEVIL MAY CRY

Table of Contents

-= Prologue =-

This is one of the easiest missions in the game to SB, provided you draw Sin Scythes and not Blades in the fountain room. Of course, you can always reset until you get Sin Scythes.

In the hallway, you will usually have to pass a Shadow. Use audio cues to evade it, as it will normally attack from off-screen. It has a soft whirring sound for its horizontal spike attack, and a sort of gulping sound for its aerial throw attack. Just jump forwards at the end of the soft, whirring sound and hang back if you hear the other, subtler, sound. (Otherwise you could risk jumping straight into a lunging cat - not good.) Once you get really familiar with the hallway Shadow, you can do pointless things like jump onto it as you run down the corridor... >_>

Make your way to the end of the corridor and pick up Alastor, skipping the cutscene of Dante getting speared - yes, yes, we know he comes back to life, just give me the sword already. In the library, collect the rusty key and the shotgun under the table, and go back down to the fountain room. Upon entering, you will enter a 40 second "do or die" countdown with either Sin Scythes or Blades.

The Sins are almost stupidly easy to deal with - one shotgun shot to stun them, another shot to kill them. Keep on going until they stop spawning to more than meet the red orb requirement for Mission 2. The Blades are a different kettle of fish (or should that be lizards? :p). In a maxed game, you can use the grenade gun, Vortex, etc., and it will be a lot easier. But in a fresh game, you won't have very much at your disposal: it's still doable, though - provided you go for critical hits. (Check the Blades section in the Beastiary for details.)

The ground floor is a horrible place to fight Blades. The camera angles are jarring to a degree, and the Blades just simply love to sneak in lunging hits from offscreen. So don't fight them there. Instead, there is a fantastic spot on the balcony which you can camp out on. It's on the same side of the room as the spellbound door, but on the other side of the hole in the floor - the side furthest away from the door. If, when first entering the room, you head for this spot straight away (you can do a wall-jump onto the balcony - no need to take the stairs and go the long way round), Blades will leap up through the hole, usually one at a time (occasionally you can get unlucky and two will come up together) - leading to a very easy critical hit kill, provided you know how to do them.

The main advantage of fighting Blades over Sin Scythes is, simply, more red orbs. Once the Blades DT, you will get 80 red orbs per CH kill. (It's 50 orbs per non-DTed CH kill.) For Sin Scythes, you always get 40 red orbs per kill, regardless of whether they are DTed or not.

Once the fountain room is cleared, you can collect 40 hidden red orbs by jumping on top of the fountain. Exit the room from the 1st floor balcony and make your way via the secret passage to the library. Upon trying to leave the library, three Sin Scissors will appear. Try to take out the nearest one immediately with a critical hit as soon as it opens its scissors. Kill the remaining two with either critical hits, DTed wall-jumped downward slashes, or just by going to town with the shotgun. (Though Sin Scissors are not as susceptible to the shotgun as Sin Scythes are, they will still go down to several shotgun shots.)

Before using the Staff of Judgement and ending this mission, do not fail to:

You can't say I didn't warn you :p

In a fresh game, equip the shotgun (E&I will be too slow for the Sargassoes). In a maxed game, you can also equip the grenade gun if you prefer. You have to do this now, because there simply won't be time for a gun change in Mission 3...

Normal mode

You can SB this mission in two ways in Normal mode.

The first way is comboing groups of Marionettes until you earn 450 red orbs. There are fewer red orb sources in Mission 2 than in Mission 1, but you still shouldn't pass up on what there is:

As for Maris, they can be found over the place - in the corridor, in the fountain room, in the corridor with the Melancholy Soul recharger. Finding enough Maris to combo isn't a problem. Although 7:00 is a generous time limit, it isn't infinite, so keep an eye on the time. As in Mission 1, you will be wanting to get stylish combo ratings in order to get more than peanuts for red orbs. I wouldn't use your newly-acquired DT with Alastor, as that will kill the Maris way too quickly.

The second (and easier) way has you ignoring the Maris entirely. Instead, make your way through the mission as fast as possible. Collect Alastor, skip the cutscene, collect the rusty key and shotgun from the library, go down to the fountain room and exit via the balcony door. In the Melancholy Souls recharger area, get rid of the Maris. (Walking forwards, blasting non-stop with the shotgun, makes short work of them - or, if you head directly for the statue, you should be able to slash back the tablet without interference.) Go through the secret passage into the library and defeat the three Sin Scissors. As in DMD mode, try to defeat the first and nearest Sin with a critical hit, then take out the remaining two. If safety is your primary concern, keep blasting and stunning them with the shotgun.

Do not end the mission at this point if you haven't orb-farmed the Maris. Instead, use your 3 runes of DT to race back down to the small study at the end of the corridor. Enter and exit. If a Sin Scissors doesn't emerge from the painting, enter and exit again until it does. Kill it with a critical hit. Run up the corridor, just past the fountain room door. Another Sin Scissors will emerge from a painting on the right. Kill that one, too.

From now on, you will get Sin Scissors spawning for a long time. Try to kill every single Sin with a critical hit, using either E&I or the shotgun. You get a little over 40 red orbs for a critical hit, as opposed to 20 red orbs for any other type of kill, so it's definitely worth it. If you don't know how to critical hit a Sin Scissors, refer to the Sin Scissors section in the Beastiary. I don't want to repeat myself by explaining it here, too >_>

Before using the Staff of Judgement to end the mission, you should equip the shotgun and taunt the cute Phantom Babies for DT :p

Dante has fallen on tough times. Even in a maxed game, the 3:00 time limit is narrower than an amoeba's arse. If this is a fresh game, buy Stinger 1 and 2, Air Hike, and 1-2 purple orbs (as many as you can afford): as long as you've SBed the first two missions and haven't bought anything else so far, you will definitely be able to afford this much.

At the beginning, cancel the cutscene and don't waste time with running up to the altar to trigger the Pride of Lion's beam. Instead, run/Stinger to the exit and cancel the second cutscene which comes up. Exit. Out on the walkway, the fastest way to travel along it is by non-stop Vortex 2. If this is a fresh game, use Stinger 2 to travel along it instead. If you've never used Stinger 2 as a means of travel before, it may take a bit of practice, but this mission is the perfect place to start. There is a tiny lag after each Stinger; the moment Dante recovers, Stinger again - when you get the hang of it, you will be able to seamlessly string multiple Stingers together. The hardest part here is keeping in a straight line - it's not really the end of the world if you veer off to the side, however, as the walls will stop you from going too off-course. It also becomes easier to maintain a straight line with practice.

An alternative for at least part of the way is to wall-jump up to the top of the arch and Stinger off it - you will do a flying leap onto the centre of the walkway: from there, you are in the ideal position to Stinger along in a dead straight line to the tablet. This method doesn't actually save any time, though. Time-wise, I have tested it: it's about two seconds faster to reach the tablet if you Stinger continuously from the door than it is if you do the flying leap from the arch. Unless you are really bad at Stingering, I advise not jumping to the top of the arch. There's a hidden red orb cache there worth 50 red obs, but you don't need it.

At the tablet, use Triangle to skip the text as fast as possible, then Stinger or Vortex back down the pathway - don't stop to collect any of the red orbs at the end of the walkway. Partly because it wastes time and partly because - if you don't pick them up - they will turn into large red orbs, worth 100 red orbs each, later on in the game. When Dante gets struck by lightning and enters the watery netherworld, DT to minimize damage from the water - being in DT mode reduces the rate of damage from the water to half its normal speed. Stinger or run to the psychedelic disc, then de-DT, because you will need to earn back enough DT from the Sargassoes for the Phantom fight ahead.

There is a 25 second "Do or Die" countdown for the Sargassoes - aim to kill them with 18-20 seconds on the timer remaining. On DMD mode, one shotgun shot will kill a Sargasso - and if you get two converging on you simultaneously, a single shot will them both. An easy and quick method is to simply walk around the circumference of the psychedelic disc, taking out each Sargasso with a single shot as you walk around. Another way is to get 3 pairs of Sargassoes to converge upon you and take them out with a total of 3 shotgun shots. This method looks as cool as a cat, but is harder to do, given that you must go to exactly the right spots for getting two Sargassoes to converge upon you simultaneously. If this is a maxed game and you have the grenade gun equipped, then just roll and backflip around the circle to take out 2-3 Sargassoes at a time. It's actually possible to take out all 6 Sargassoes with a single grenade >_>. You need to get them all bunched up together, and then fire. As hugely satisfying as this is to do, it's very difficult to pull off consistently (1-2 Sargassoes usually survive) and their icy breath makes it more risky, too.

Before exiting the watery underworld, make sure to pick up any red orbs you may have missed - you will need these to guarantee meeting the red orb requirement, unless you picked up the hidden red orb cache on the arch. Use the portal, Stinger to the cathedral door, enter, endure the unskippable cutscene of the Pride of Lion falling, Stinger up the altar and pick it up...

Say hello to your new Arachnid friend :p

For completion's sake, I will list Phantom's attacks although you won't actually need to know them: not for this battle and this strategy.

Phantom's moves

Fireballs - These are charged and fired from the mouth. Easy to hear and see coming. Roll/jump to the side at the peak of the charging up sound to evade. Better still, interrupt it with a nice Stinger or High Time to Phantom's face if you are close enough. You can also deflect the fireballs back to Phantom with a sword slash, but it does require very good timing. Be warned: on DMD mode, Phantom will occasionally fire two fireballs in a row, one after the other. If you are Stingering his face, the second fireball will probably catch you out. There's not much you can do about this, except that hope Phantom doesn't do it :-/. If it really worries you, then doing a rising High Time for the first fireball should lift you above the second one.

Lava Pillars - Three pairs of lava pillars track Dante's last position. Phantom dips his head into the ground to summon them, rear end bobbing upwards. Walk or run in any direction except back on yourself to evade them - moving around in a circle works well. You can interrupt this attack with a Stinger to the head as soon as you spot Phantom dipping his head into the ground.

Jumping Attack - Phantom crouches, puts his claws in front of his face, and then does a huge leap through the air. Easy to see coming. As long as you are airbourne, Phantom usually can't hit you with this attack - run and then jump to evade him as he descends.

Double/Single Claw Swipe - If you get too close to Phantom's face, he will respond with either a fast single-claw swipe or a much slower swipe with both claws. The single swipe is triggered by approaching Phantom's face from the side; the double swipe is triggered by approaching Phantom's face head-on. For the single swipe, just jump backwards to evade. For the double swipe, you can jump in any direction to evade - you can even jump forwards onto Phantom's back.

Tail Sweep - Phantom's tail sweeps the ground in front or to the side of him. Inaccurate targeting. Most of the time it will miss you, especially if you are on the move.

Burnt-out Phantom - Every so often, Phantom will "burn out", after firing too many fireballs or after taking heavy damage in a short space of time. His fires disappear and he looks grey and ash-like. All of his body is vulnerable to attack during this period. (It lasts for about 3 seconds in total, so you don't get very long to hack away at his legs.) Burnt-out Phantom will always resuscitate back to life by charging up a fireball.

Red Phantom - In the last 25% of his life, Phantom will gradually turn redder and redder until he looks seriously fit to burst. He gains a speed boost during this period. Just be careful of Phantom's faster claw swipes! But otherwise, nothing else particularly changes.

Battle

Full credit for the following strategy goes to Patient Vlakorados. What do you think I am? Good at this game? :p

Theory:

The theory is actually pretty straightforward. Phantom is susceptible to a critical hit at either the base of his tail (in scorpion form) or at the thickest part of his bulb (in spider form). When you get a critical hit, Phantom will 'flinch', that is, do a roar and rear up in pain - after he has recovered from the flinch, he will then scuttle away. The following strategy revolves around trapping Phantom in a corner by making him flinch and scuttle away from you towards the left corner of the cathedral. This is done by getting an Air-Hiked slash on Phantom's rear end at the very start: this will make him scuttle towards the altar. Subsequent slashes will make him scuttle sideways (as he can no longer go forwards) into the corner - from there, he is trapped for the remainder of the battle.

Step-by-step strategy:

- Skip the cutscene. Dante will always begin the battle by flipping over in mid-air. As he flips, DT, quickly do a hop-jumped Air Hike in a north-easterly direction (i.e., slightly forwards and to the right) and then slash downwards, holding the analogue stick backwards as you do so. (This will help to kill the momentum of Dante's jump even further - and if you have Vortex, it will also prevent you from accidently doing a Vortex.) I cannot stress how much you have to HOP-jump this first jump - otherwise you will go too far forwards or to the right and miss Phantom altogether. It's vital you get this first slash in, so practice, practice, practice - for however long it takes - until you can get it regularly.

- The first hit will make Phantom flinch - and then scuttle towards the altar. As he's scuttling, go for a second hit on his rear end. Jump up, Air Hike, then slash down. You can jump straight up and Air Hike forwards, or you can do a jump forwards and Air Hike straight up - it's up to you how you propel yourself upwards and forwards, just so long as you succeed in hitting Phantom's arse on the way down. The second hit won't make Phantom flinch.

- After the second hit, Phantom will carry on towards the altar as though nothing had happened. Once again, jump and Air Hike upwards/forwards and land a downwards slash - this, the 3rd hit of battle, will make Phantom flinch. By this time Phantom will be at the altar and won't be able to go any further forwards - as he's flinching, Air Hike straight up to get the 4th hit, which won't make Phantom flinch (are you getting the pattern yet?). As Phantom is invulnerable while he's flinching, careful not to hit him too soon, as otherwise your hit will clang uselessly.

- After the 4th hit, Phantom will scuttle leftwards into the corner and there is typically a horrible camera angle change, which you will have to shrug off as best you can. It's not always after the 4th hit - depending on how you fight Phantom, it could be after the 6th or 2nd hit (if it's after the 2nd hit, though, you're doing something wrong and you should try to adjust your tactics) - but it usually is. At any rate, you know what to do >_>. That's right :p - do another DTed Air Hiked slash on Phantom's rear end, landing the 5th hit of battle.

- By now about half of Phantom's life should be gone. Normally he will be in the corner by this time, unable to move forwards or sideways. (Although occasionally he does remain at the altar for the entire battle - it's usually easier when he does so, too.) Continue to plug away at him with DTed Air Hiked slashes until he is defeated. The camera is frequently your worst enemy here, but contend with it as best you can, ignoring invisible pillars and the like. In an ideal scenario, DMD Phantom will go down in exactly 10 hits - but if you didn't get the maximum damage from every slash, it will be more like 11-13 hits. Besides the camera, another thing to watch out for is Phantom's "burnt out" phase, which he will always enter before the battle is over - on its own, it wouldn't matter, but Phantom always swivels around slightly as he charges up a fireball. This can make those last 1-2 hits very tricky to get indeed. Watch which direction Phantom swivels in, and jump in that direction accordingly.

Things Which Can (And Do) Go Wrong:

- Sometimes a hit will clang uselessly against armour; this is a frustrating and annoying occurrence which is hard to avoid completely. With practice, though, you will get better at successfully connecting your hits.

- Phantom can spin round at a moment's notice if you dither too long in getting the next slash or miss a slash entirely. If this happens, he will spin around to face you and start charging up a fireball - pretty much game over, as far as your SB is concerned. Again, only practice will stop this from happening.

- Every so often, Phantom will spin round at the beginning of battle. Even if you did the perfect hop-jumped Air Hiked slash, there is nothing you can do. It's absolutely infuriating when this happens. Fortunately, it doesn't happen very often...

- This snippet of info is more of a curiosity than anything else, but it is actually possible to get a double critical hit against Phantom - if you get a critical hit at just the right moment when he is releasing a fireball (i.e., when his defense is lowered), you will get double damage. To arrange this by design is probably impossible, but I did see it once in a video by sternn, which no longer exists as far as I know.

Miscellaneous:

The CH strategy is rather to visualise, so I recommend going to the Links section and downloading a video of it in operation. It should help you a lot in learning it. For other ways of damaging Phantom, go to the Phantom 2 section.

Why develop such a precise strategy to begin with?

Time. No other strategy kills Phantom fast enough to get the SB on DMD Mission 3. Even with this ultra-fast one, you're pushing it.

Okay, I've finally killed Phantom with this bloody strategy, I'm off, see you...

Not yet, you're not. There's still a secret mission to complete ^ :p

Oh crap.

Yeah :p

Finishing the mission:

After the fight is over, collect the 500 red orbs and make your way like hell for leather down the walkway. DON'T jump into the water just yet. If you do, you'll emerge from the portal on the side of the bridge furthest away from the castle and you don't want that. Instead, go across the broken bridge using Stingers and/or Air Hikes - the easiest pathway is to Stinger off from the left hand side of the bridge (left from Dante's viewpoint, too). It'll only take three Stingers to get to the other side. (I would practice it first before attempting it for real, however!) Once on the other side, jump down ASAP to trigger the Secret Mission.

If you need DT for hallway Phantom, either trigger Phantom Babies I Secret Mission in the cathedral and taunt the baby spiders (no need to actually complete the mission), or enter the library and attack the Sin Scissors until your gauge is full.

Run down the corridor and trigger the appearance of your arachnid chum again - he clearly really wants to say "hello" to you. In a maxed game, just go to town with Vortex 2, mashing frantically on the attack button - 6 DT runes are just enough to finish DMD Hallway Phantom off. If you have 10 DT runes, then you can hold down the attack button (remember that Vortex's power decreases if the attack button is kept held down) and be 100% immune to Phantom's claw swipes.

In a fresh game, it's not so easy: you won't be able to afford Vortex 1 and 2, another purple orb, and Air Raid. (Air Raid is necessary to stop Dante from continually dropping down to the ground.) I s'pose you could buy what you can afford and partially defeat Phantom with Vortex, being careful not to get hit by a claw swipe as you run out of DT. I, however, use an entirely different strategy. Yes, folks: it's critical hit time again! :p

Hallway Phantom Critical Hit strategy:

Run down the corridor, jumping to evade Phantom's fireballs. It's possible to damage Phantom during the chase down the corridor, but I'll go into that a bit later. For now, just run down to the end of the corridor, but don't go right to the end - if you do, a supremely horrible camera angle change occurs and Phantom disappears out of sight behind you. Instead, run as far to just before the red door, but no further - Phantom will come to a halt a couple of meters before the red door. When Phantom first halts, he will always do at least one fast-charged fireball, which you should wall-jump or Air Hike above.

After the fast-charged fireball, Phantom will then settle down into a steady pattern of firing slowly-charged fireballs - these can be deflected for 20% damage each time. (The damage is even more on Normal/Hard mode.) These aren't as hard to deflect as you might think. Stand a few steps away from Phantom (if you are right in his face, you may prompt his claw swipe instead), then time a sword slash just as he releases the fireball. There are a couple of ways to judge when to slash - you can watch the fireball itself and slash just as it stops growing/at the peak of the charging up sound. Or you can watch the walls: they will blink dark for a second just as Phantom releases the fireball - slash when the walls blink dark and you can't miss. You can use either a regular slash or a High Time for the deflections: experiment with both and see which you get on best with. Five deflections will empty out DMD Phantom's lifebar - if he is still standing after the 5th deflection, topple him with a Stinger.

If you don't get on with the critical hit strategy, then you can always do DTed Air Hiked downward slashes to Phantom's face. For extra damage, you can do a couple of slashes in between fireballs, then Air Hike up above the fireball and slash down.

I said at the beginning you could damage Phantom during the chase. It's not very easy, though. Immediately after the brief cutscene is over, you can deflect Phantom's very first, slowly-charged, fireball for a critical hit. (Don't slash too early.) After that, though, subsequent fireballs are fast-charged and seemingly impossible to deflect except occasionally and by luck (if you find a consistent way, then let me know!). You can get in DTed Air-Hiked slashes between fireballs, but even in DT mode I find it laggy - and Dante is extremely prone to getting caught out by a fireball near the end of the chase. At any rate, you can only take off about half of Phantom's life this way, so it's not worth the effort, in my opinion.

Dante: This stinking hole is the last place I thought I would find anybody with any guts in.

Nelo: Rurrrraaarrrggghhhh!

Dante: Snappy, dude.

Nelo's Moves

4-Hit Combo - This resembles Dante's own 4-Hit combo. Nelo does a diagonal slash from right to left, a sweeping slash from left to right, and then two uppercut slashes. Before launching it, Nelo will hold up his glowing blue sword for about a second - if you are standing in front of him as he does so, it is easy to parry his sword with a sword slash, High Time, or uncharged Ifrit punch/Magma Drive. From further away, this combo can be parried with Stinger 2. Otherwise, evade by running or jumping away. You only need to run/jump to evade the first two slashes (the second of which has the widest range) - after that you can stop and wait or even begin to move back in while Nelo is still doing the two uppercut slashes. Nelo will always taunt after completion of his 4-Hit combo, so don't hesitate to move in and land an attack on his front.

Horizontal Slash - Nelo will crouch forwards for a second, then launch a huge horizontal slash from left to right, usually sliding forward as he does so. This attack is hard to parry, although it can be done with a Stinger or High Time. If you're in front of Nelo as he crouches, a quick hop-jump followed by a downwards slash will stop the attack in its tracks. Alternatively, do a backwards jump so that you land in front of Nelo after he has finished slashing - if you're close enough, you can attack his front before he recovers. You can even just jump straight up to evade this attack, although you'll probably end up behind Nelo. This is Nelo's single most devastating slash, but also one of the easiest to evade.

High Time - This resembles Dante's own High Time. Also, like Dante, Nelo can do either a grounded or rising version. Nelo will follow a rising High Time with either a simple drop back down to the ground, a downward slash, or - in later battles - a diagonal downward kick, similar to Dante's own diagonal flame-kick. Nelo tends to do a High Time as a counter to a clash of weapons, but occasionally does it as a stand alone attack - be careful when he does so, as he sometimes takes a step back first to lure you into moving closer to him. If you have Ifrit equipped and a clash with Nelo's sword makes him begin a High Time, then a quick, Rolling-Blazed, jump up/backflip away can parry his sword for a stun. If you flame-kick Nelo from the air and make contact with his sword, he will always respond with a rising High Time - if this happens, clear out from Nelo's general vicinity as fast as you can! If you have Alastor equipped, then dodge Nelo's High Time, unless you are using the intensive parrying strategy (see the Nelo 3 battle section for details).

High Time Combo - Nelo will point his sword horizontally behind him for a split second and do a sweeping slash from left to right, followed by a grounded or rising High Time. Nelo only ever does this combo as a counter to a clash of weapons which doesn't stun him. Jump away or roll to the side to evade. If you're very quick to recognise the attack, you can interrupt it with a hop-jumped downward slash, but it's safer to evade, obviously.

Vertical Slash - Nelo will hold his sword over his head with both hands, so that it's pointing towards the ground, then bring it over his head with a heavy downward slash. Again, Nelo will only ever do this move as a counter to a clash of weapons which doesn't stun him. It can be parried with a Rolling-Blazed jump straight up/forwards into Nelo's sword, but it's easier to interrupt it by quickly moving a few steps forwards and attacking Nelo's front.

Sliding Dash - Nelo will dash silently towards you, sword held out horizontally in front of him, and commonly finish off with a Stinger-type thrust, although he can end the dash by doing any attack in his range (except for the counter attacks). Nelo tends to only do this attack if you try to run away from him like a little girl :p ... Having said that, if Nelo is offscreen and you can't hear him charging up a meteor, get ready to jump away immediately! He will quite often come sliding in from offscreen with one of his silent dashes. If you can see Nelo sliding towards you, you can parry him with a Stinger of your own or a very well-timed, Rolling-Blazed, hop-jump to the side.

Blue Meteors - Nelo will crouch down and keep charging up blue meteors, one after the other. Unlike Phantom's fireballs, these cannot be deflected, but are easy enough to evade with a jump/roll to the side. You can also make use of Dante's invincibility frames by jumping straight up just after Nelo releases the meteor and letting it pass harmlessly through Dante. However, you don't want to be wasting time pussyfooting around Nelo, so I recommend bringing the blue meteor attack to an end ASAP - a Stinger or flame-kick to Nelo's front will do this nicely. For a flame-kick, it's safer to jump sideways, at a right angle to the incoming meteor. You can always jump over Nelo's meteors of course, but don't jump too early! Oh, and make sure to always connect with Nelo's front after he's just fired a meteor - otherwise, if you're very close to his front, he can do a rather nasty counter stab, which hurts.

Taunting - Not an attack, but worth noting. Nelo will chuckle/taunt at various times, leaving his front wide open for attack. He always does a taunt at the beginning of battle and he also does a taunt after successful completion of certain combos, e.g., the 4-Hit Combo or a rising High Time followed by downward slash/kick. It's really rather dense of him, and he doesn't learn from experience either. Oh wellz >_>.

Defensive

Block - Nelo will block by holding his sword diagonally across his front. He is invulnerable to almost all attacks (including Inferno) from the front while he is in this stance, but can still be damaged from behind. The mechanics for what makes Nelo block are fairly complex. A 'finishing' move, such as a flame-kick, Kick-13, final kick of the PPKK combo, Stinger, or downward slash will always force Nelo to block with the next hit that's done. However, if you use normal Alastor slashes or the first 3 hits of the PPKK combo, then it will take 17-19 hits (or half this number for Nelo 2 & 3) to force Nelo to block. If Nelo teleports or charges up a blue meteor, then the "remembered" hit counter will be reset to zero, and you can get in the full complement of hits again before Nelo blocks. This may sound like pointless knowledge, but it's important to know for the Sword-Cancelling strategy! Both Alastor and Ifrit can be used for creating a near infinite combo loop which will avoid ever making Nelo block, but more on such combo loops later. It's possible to break his block with a fully-charged Ifrit punch or Magma Drive - it won't damage him, but it will stun him and make him slump over. The only attack which both breaks Nelo's block and damages him is a fully-charged Meteor 2 - normally Nelo will recover before you finish charging the Meteor, but there is a way to set it up so that he doesn't (more on this later).

Teleporting - Pfft, coward - Nelo, that is. Come back here and fight like a man! :p ... Whenever Nelo feels overwhelmed (which is frequently), he will teleport away, either close to you or further away. If he teleports close enough to you and begins charging up a meteor, you can begin attacking him straight away. Always be ready to evade Nelo immediately, however, as sometimes he will launch into a combo instead.

Battle

General stuff about fighting Nelo (newbies, this might help you too):

A rule of thumb when fighting Nelo is to never attack him until there is a opening, unless you want to be diced and sliced and served up in a human kebab for afters. There is actually no need to be impatient, since Nelo offers up openings galore. One of the easiest ways of creating an opening is to run up close to Nelo (but not right next to him, as you might not be able to get away in time), bait him into doing his 4-Hit combo, run away to evade, and then nip back in for your free combo when he taunts - as he always does after completing his 4-Hit combo.

If you feel like being more aggressive, then you can forcibly parry Nelo. An easy-to-abuse tool for doing this is Stinger Lvl 2. Simply throw out Stingers whenever Nelo is walking around the battlefield, and you'll achieve a fair number of parries that way. However, if you Stinger Nelo and he responds with an attack instead of slumping over, evade! Another thing you can do is to Stinger/flame-kick Nelo's front while he's charging up a blue meteor - this will always have the effect of making him stagger backwards. Instead of hitting him straight away (and thus making him block), stand in front of him and wait to see what he does. Sometimes he'll just teleport away, but there's a decent change he'll assume the opening stance of the 4-Hit combo, in which case you can easily stun Nelo with a parry.

Rolling Blaze is another incredibly good tool for forcing parries. Simply do a hop-jump away from Nelo as he swings his sword (it's safer than jumping into him...); if you can get the flames of Rolling Blaze to connect with his sword as you jump away, it will frequently parry Nelo for a stun. If you are using Ifrit, then Rolling Blaze is pretty much a must-have ability.

If Nelo blocks (and he will, unless you make use of specialized loops), then slashing away at his front becomes useless. Running behind Nelo is almost equally useless, as he usually teleports away before you can land a hit - although if you jump over him, you can at least land a downward slash or Inferno on his rear. Failing that, you can always do a taunt for DT, but be careful: Nelo will recover before you can finish the taunt. If he teleports away and charges up a blue meteor, you can finish your taunt in safety: if, however, he begins a 4-Hit combo, you may only just be able to get away in time. In general, if Nelo blocks, then wait nearby until he recovers - he'll either teleport or begin a new attack. If he teleports and starts charging up a blue meteor close to you, then you should have enough time to reach his front before he can get the blue meteor off.

So far, I've described how to create or take advantage of openings on Nelo's front, but haven't said anything about his back. The advantage of attacking Nelo's back is that he can't block any of your hits; the disadvantage is that he'll teleport away at the drop of a pin. If you make Nelo block from the front, then jog around behind him to attack his back, he'll usually teleport away before you can even hit him. Instead, jump over him while he is charging a blue meteor or get behind him while he is taunting or slumped over - that way you can attack him from behind without him teleporting away as fast.

To earn DT back as fast as possible, you can do one of two things: continue with whatever combo loop you were using until the gauge has restored itself or taunt - simply double taunt. Stun Nelo with a parry and you should have just enough time to squeeze in two double taunts, although, depending on what Nelo does, you may need to cancel out of the second one to evade.

The Nelo 1 battleground:

As you should know very well by now, the Nelo 1 battle takes place on three tiers, with Nelo teleporting up to a new tier after a third of his lifebar has been removed. The first third of the fight takes place on the ground, the second third on the lower ledge, and the final third on the highest ledge. The camera angles on the ground can be bad, but I find that if you hold R1 and circle around Nelo, it gives enough time for the camera to rotate and keep up with the action - you should always stay quite close to Nelo anyway; running away from him is usually a highly bad idea. When Nelo teleports up to the lower ledge, a good place to wall-jump at is by the torch with the light blue flames - you will land at a decent distance away from Nelo. (If safety is paramount - not that I can remember the last time I got hit in jumping up to the lower ledge - then wall-jump and Vortex; the Vortex will force Nelo to block and you can drop down safely in front of him.)

On both the lower and upper ledges, there is only one camera angle change, but it's a jarring one - learn where it is and try to avoid triggering it if possible. When Nelo teleports up to the upper ledge, wall-jump up through the hole in the floor; Nelo will do an pre-emptive attack, but there is always enough time to evade it. There is actually an alternative route to the upper ledge: from the crater in the lower ledge, do a hop-jumped Air Hike, DT, then activate flight mode and glide over to the balcony with the door leading into the Castellan's bedroom - wall-jump through the hole onto the ledge above, then go right. Nelo won't be expecting you to arrive this way, so he should be standing around doing nothing when he comes into view - you can't really take him by surprise, though, as he sees you too soon.

Alastor

You will never be able to get in more than a single combo on Nelo's front before he blocks, unless you learn how to sword-cancel (see the Advanced Techniques section). As explained there, you can cancel the lag of a sword slash by rotating the analogue stick in a full circle during the slash that you want to be cancelled - it enables you to repeat slashes much more quickly than you otherwise could. The lag can be cancelled after every 1st, 2nd, or 4th slash. Cancelling every single slash is tiring and not that effective, so normally the lag is cancelled every other slash instead. Cancelling after every 4th slash also works well against Nelo.

As touched upon earlier in the Block section, you can get in up to 17-19 hits on Nelo's front before he blocks, as long as you don't use a finishing move (Stinger, Kick-13, flame-kick, downward slash, etc.) before then. However, if you can't cancel your slashes, then Nelo will recover before you can begin a new combo on him - the only way you can get in the full number of slashes is through sword-cancelling. Most commonly, 2-Hit combos are used: that is, 2 pairs of slashes, with the 2nd slash of each pair being cancelled, are done over and over again. If you go over 16 hits, then Nelo can block you anywhere between the 17th and 19th slash: to prevent that, only 16 slashes are done - either in the form of 8 2-Hit combos or, more rarely, 4 4-Hit combos.

So far, so good. But won't Nelo's 'remembered' hit counter have to be reset to zero now? Say hello to the meteor glitch :p

Nelo's Meteor Glitch:

Nelo has a glitch which enables the player to force him to charge up a blue meteor over and over again by jumping backwards in a certain way after slashing at Nelo's front. A normal jump backwards will usually trigger a 4-Hit combo. But a fairly steep backflip backwards and a sudden drop down will trigger the charging of a meteor. The trajectory of your jump should look something as follows:

.............---.
........../......|
........./.......|
......../........|
......./.........|
....../..........|
...../...........|
Nelo/............Dante

Perhaps a tad less steep, though. Keep practicing until you get it. Do a couple of slashes to Nelo's front, then jump backwards and try to trigger a meteor. Once you get the knack of it, it becomes fairly easy to repeat every time. Once the meteor is triggered, run directly back to Nelo, slash at his front, then jump back and try to trigger another meteor.

The purpose of the meteor glitch is to enable you to keep Nelo pinned down in an infinite combo loop, which Nelo 1 cannot break out of, except by teleporting to a higher tier. Nelo 2 & 3 can never break out of the combo loop. (This is assuming, of course, you don't mess it up.)

Applying the Sword-Cancelling loop to the Nelo 1 battle:

At the beginning of battle, Nelo 1 always opens with a taunt, which gives you plenty of time to initiate the sword-cancelling loop. DT, and begin by doing 8 2-Hit combos. (Or 4 4-Hit combos, if you'd rather.) After the 16th slash, jump backwards in such a way as to trigger the charging of a blue meteor, then quickly run back to Nelo and begin another round of 2-Hit combos - except this time, Nelo will teleport up to the next tier after about 8 slashes or so. (This is on DMD mode; on Normal/Hard mode, Nelo won't even get a chance to charge up a single blue meteor before being forcibly made to teleport.)

On the lower ledge, try to keep at mid-range distance from Nelo to encourage him to start charging up a meteor. If that doesn't work, you'll just have to force Nelo's hand by slashing at his front a couple of times when he's taunting or slumped over, then jump backwards to trigger the charging of a meteor. As before, do 16 slashes, jump back to trigger the charging of a meteor, then begin another round of 16 slashes - Nelo will soon teleport up to the upper ledge. By now, DT will have probably run dry. (If you have less than 10 runes, it will have run dry earlier, obviously.) When DT does run out, carry on exactly as before. Nothing changes, except that you will be slower and your slashes less powerful in non-DT mode - when the gauge has re-activated, don't try to DT during a round of slashes (as it will probably make you screw up), but wait until you jump back to trigger a meteor before hitting L1. On the upper ledge, rinse and repeat until Nelo is defeated.

A useful tip for gauging when to jump backwards to trigger a meteor (Cheers, Ryan >_>)

Counting up to 16 slashes can be distracting and difficult in the heat of battle. So don't count. Just keep an eye on the combo meter instead. On the 16th slash, it will change to the blue "Absolute" (Why, why, why does my brain want to see it as "Awesome" instead? <_<) Once you see that blue Absolute, you know it's time to jump away and trigger another meteor.

So, that's everything?

Almost :p

To do the sword-cancelling loop at its most efficient takes a fair bit of practice. You will know if you are cancelling the slashes properly if Nelo remains stunned. If he responds with an attack, you are not cancelling properly. In DT mode, your slashes will overwhelm Nelo regardless; in non-DT mode, you will probably just end up stunning Nelo with a parry. If you mess it up too badly, just move away and try again. Remember that Nelo needs to either teleport or charge a meteor to reset the "remembered" hit counter, so don't try to resume cancelling if he hasn't done either of those two things! Otherwise, Nelo can block you at any time.

Now that's everything, isn't it?!

Patience :p

Ifrit

In a fresh game, of course, you won't have access to Ifrit by this stage. Here, anyway, are some Ifrit combos which can be used against Nelo. All of these can also be used for Nelo 2 and 3.

An (almost) infinite Ifrit loop:

[DT] -> Grenade (optional) -> fully-charged Ifrit punch -> uncharged Magma Drive (to stun Nelo)

At the beginning of battle, while Nelo's taunting, dispense with the grenade or only partially charge up the punch - otherwise Nelo will recover before you have time to stun him with the Magma Drive. Once you have succeeded in stunning Nelo, then you can charge up the punch until it automatically releases every single time. The success of this loop depends on the Magma Drive parrying the beginning of Nelo's 4-Hit combo - if Nelo should come out with any other attack, you should evade, or, if your wits are about you, try to interrupt it. However, Nelo 1 is extremely unlikely to do anything else; Nelo 2 is a little bit more likely to do something different, and Nelo 3 is much more likely to do something different (although sometimes you can get a long run with this loop even against Nelo 3). If you run out of DT, carry on with the combo as before. If Nelo should break away, resume it whenever he is taunting or slumped over - if he's nearly recovered by the time you reach him, you should dispense with the grenade and only slightly charge up the punch.

If you're wondering how Nelo can do a Magma Drive in DT mode, then you need to check the Basic Techniques section of this guide :p ... Put simply, Nelo will always do a Magma Drive after the 1st or 2nd Ifrit punch, regardless of whether he is in DT mode or not.

A slight variation upon this loop is to substitute an uncharged punch for the Magma Drive, as follows:

[DT] -> Grenade (optional) -> fully-charged Ifrit punch -> uncharged Ifrit punch (to stun Nelo)

The uncharged Ifrit punch performs the same function as the uncharged Magma Drive, only not quite as successfully (i.e., Nelo is somewhat more likely to respond with a different attack). Still, it works well enough.

Another Ifrit loop:

[When Nelo is taunting or slumped over] -> DT -> fully-charged Ifrit punch -> uncharged punch -> uncharged kick -> uncharged kick [then run a couple of steps closer to Nelo] -> uncharged punch [to make Nelo block] -> fully-charged punch [to stun Nelo]

This loop isn't as effective as the Magma Drive loop, in that Nelo is incredibly more likely to break out of it in all three encounters. On the positive side, it deals decent damage and is somewhat more interesting to do than the monotonous MD loop. You should do the uncharged pkk part quickly - button-mash to make sure the hits come out as fast as possible. If you still don't have much success with this combo loop, try dispensing with the final uncharged punch: instead, do the uncharged pkk, run closer to Nelo, then begin charging a punch straight away - this may work better for you. To some extent, this is a combo string which you have to play by ear anyway. I recommend trying it out, if only to teach you how to break Nelo's block (assuming you are not already familiar with how to do it).

Ifrit combos (Nelo's front):

Inferno combo:

This combo will send Nelo 1 up to the next tier in one go, even on DMD mode!

[DT] -> Grenade -> Inferno -> Auto-Combo -> Grenade -> [jump over the blocking Nelo] -> Inferno on Nelo's back

Do this at the beginning of the Nelo 1 battle. The only drawback is that it will consume about 8.5 DT runes. A slightly more DT-friendly method is to DT-cancel the second Inferno - the entire combo will now only consume about 6.5 DT runes, but because the second Inferno is less powerful, you will usually need to follow up with a couple of grenades to send Nelo up to the next tier.

A shorter Inferno combo:

[DT] -> Inferno -> Auto-Combo -> [double taunt]

Whenever Nelo is taunting/slumped over, do an Inferno followed by an Auto-Combo on his front, de-DT, and do a double taunt. The Auto-Combo will unfailingly make Nelo stagger backwards first of all and then block, giving you plenty of time to do at least one double taunt in complete safety. In fact, move a few steps backwards after the first taunt and go for a second double taunt. You won't always get time to complete it (depending on what Nelo does), but it's worth a try :p

Infinite PPK combo:

[DT] -> PPK -> PPK -> PPK -> PPK -> etc.

You can use the infinite PPK technique (see Advanced Techniques) against Nelo until he eventually blocks. It's analogous to sword-cancelling, only harder: you must cancel the K as soon as humanly possible in order to ensure that Nelo is kept stunned by your hits and doesn't counterattack. You can also try jumping away to trigger Nelo's meteor in the same manner as in the sword-cancelling loop, but again it's harder: firstly, Rolling Blaze tends to get in the way and hits Nelo as you're jumping away from him and, secondly, you have even less time to connect with Nelo's front before you eat a fireball! If you want an Ifrit loop which works, I would stick with the Magma Drive one to be honest. This is fun to play around with, though.

Meteor 2 combo:

[DT] -> Auto-Combo -> fully-charged Meteor 2

Once again the Auto-Combo will make Nelo stagger backwards and then block: if you start charging up the Meteor 2 immediately after the AC, Nelo won't have enough time to recover before the Meteor is automatically released. Apart from a couple of special circumstances in the Nelo 2 and 3 fights, this is the only way you can guarantee fully-charging up a Meteor 2 without Nelo interrupting you. It's not a bad combo, although the damage dealt isn't that impressive for the amount of DT consumed: and, of course, there's no way of DT-cancelling a Meteor.

Ifrit combos (Nelo's back):

[flame-kick Nelo's back] -> uncharged ppk -> Auto-Combo -> flurry of uncharged Meteors/partially-charged Meteor/Inferno

It's important you flame-kick Nelo's back first, as otherwise he could teleport away early. Flame-kick his back to make him stagger forwards, then run forwards a couple of steps and land an uncharged p on his back as he stands upright - if the p connects quickly follow with the 2nd p and 1st k of the ppkk combo, and then an Auto-Combo. Nelo will typically teleport away after an Auto-Combo, but if you're very quick you may squeeze in an Inferno afterwards. Otherwise, use your remaining DT to pummel his back with uncharged meteors or charge up a single Meteor for as long as you can safely get away with. The variety of combo options for Nelo's back are generally much more limited, but on the plus side it's probably safer than comboing him on his front, since he can't counter your hits from behind.

And that's it for Ifrit. Feel free to experiment with your own Ifrit combos. Or, heck, you can just use Infernos + grenade-rolling to take out Nelo in any encounter - but that's no fun :p

Normal mode

Hallway Phantom can be dealt with in the same ways as DMD Phantom, only more quickly. It only takes 5 DT runes and Vortex 1 to finish off Normal Phantom with frantic button-mashing. If you use the Critical Hit method, then it takes 3 hits (and a bit) to finish Phantom off - you don't save a lot over DMD Phantom, actually.

This is definitely one of the easier missions in the game to SB. If you like, you can make a detour to the orb fountain at the beginning. There's 3 green orbs worth 10 red orbs each, plus you can slash the orb fountain with the 4-Hit combo with HT finisher to get a further ~170 red orbs. To really milk the orb fountain, use Vortex 2. You can get anything up to 400-500 orbs that way. Having said that, you don't actually need the orb fountain's orbs at all for Hard or DMD mode.

You will, however, need to pick up a suspiciously gleaming "rusty" key and defeat three Plasmas. With Ifrit, the Plasmas are, quite literally, toast. A single Inferno can take out all three in one go (just be careful of instant counter hits - try not to jump right next to a Plasma). Alternatively, use uncharged meteors from a distance.

Before I begin the walkthrough, it should be noted that Mission 7 ranges from being one of the easiest missions to SB (in a maxed game, at least) through to being literally impossible to SB. Most of the rest of the game is bad enough when it comes to glitchy or buggy ranks, but Mission 7 exists in a whole new proud twilight zone of screwy ranking - the requirements seem to alter with every game. Sometimes M7 can't give you the SB fast enough; at other times, it yields it up only very reluctantly but it does at least exist; and at other times, it just plain doesn't appear to exist at all. Luckily, the completely non-existent SB is rather rare, but it does still happen and has, indeed, happened to me. If it happens to you, I recommend moving on with the S-Rank and orb-farming fountain room Phantom in the Mission 7-8 interval to make up the 2000 red orb shortfall. As a guide, the requirements to shoot for are under 1:50 for time (though I have known the SB be given for this mission with a time of around 2:30), 650+ for orbs, and damage kept as low as possible.

Two other things to note: You not only don't need to do the secret mission, doing it actually hinders you getting the SB - the only way it's possible to do SM5 in DMD Mission 7 and still get an SB is if the ranking is extremely lenient for that mission. The second thing is to reduce damage to a minimum by remaining in DT mode as much as devilishly possible (do you c wut i did thar? >_>). DTing reduces damage from the Guiding Light by half in DMD mode, so it's imperative to remain in DT mode whenever possible.

Finally, the mission proper:

Begin by Vortexing or running down the corridor in DT mode. (Vortexing is fastest, though, provided you can Vortex in a reasonably straight line). Turn right at the end to trigger the appearance of Phantom for about the 15th time. He's angry, he's pissed off, he's out for revenge, and he's failed to learn from Mission 4 that crouching in corridors belching fireball after fireball simply doesn't work.

Obviously, Phantom is dealt with in pretty much the same ways as back in Mission 4. I will add a few notes here, though.

Firstly, Vortexing is much more of a pain up the arse - Phantom will sneak in swipes, and it's very hard to time your Vortexes so that you are invulnerable during them. If you have 10 DT runes, the cheap way to win is to simply keep the attack button held down without letting go and hold the analogue stick in the direction of Phantom's face - if you want to use this method, then you had better Stinger down to Phantom, because you will need every single rune of DT.

Secondly, the Critical Hit strategy is exactly the same as before, but you should remain in DT mode throughout this time to minimize damage from the Guiding Light. After the brief cutscene finishes, jump to evade the first fast-charged fireball, then resume the same deflection strategy that you hopefully learnt in Mission 4. As an aside, it's possible to taunt in between deflecting fireballs - if you cancel the sword slash, you can even fit in a double taunt. However, it's fairly hard to get down, and it isn't really necessary. It's most useful for a 3 DT rune game, where a single taunt + one deflection will restore DT at a stroke.

Thirdly, you can use DTed Air-Hiked slashes to defeat Phantom, but it isn't as easy as it sounds - you need to be careful not to get caught out by one of Phantom's many fireballs. I think the critical hit strategy is the best way to go, myself.

Yes. Your holiday is already over. Get over it. Before starting this mission, you can taunt the two Maris outside the Castellan's bedroom door for DT, if so desired. In the rather spiffing room with lots of candles, you must collect the two red orbs to meet the red orb requirement for this mission. Exit the room, jump up into the courtyard, and run to the gate to trigger the re-appearance with, no, I can't even say it, you know it better than your best friend's name by now.

Phantom's moves

NOTE: This is the last mission in the game where the difference between a fresh and a maxed game will really tell. From Mission 10 onwards, the differences become more and more neglible, until, finally, you have a fully maxed out character in your fresh game and there are no more differences.

As usual, the fresh game is the harder challenge. Begin by Stingering or Vortexing over the drawbridge. Say goodbye to the castle - you won't be able to go back for a while. In this area, there are three pillars which have 50 hidden red orbs each on top of them. In a maxed game, you won't need these orbs, but in a fresh one you should go for them. Unfortunately, getting on top of the pillars is something of a pain up the arse - my method is to get as close to the pillar as possible, then jump straight up and do a wall-jump off the thicker middle bit to grab hold of the edge. For a slight shortcut, you can do an Air Hike (hop-jump the second jump) from the top of the first pillar to the top of the third pillar on the right hand side of the area - from there, Air Hike towards the middle pillar on the left hand side - it's possible to grab hold of its edge in mid-air, but good luck doing it more than once in every 100 tries.

Once you've collected the 150 red orbs, there is a pathetically short shortcut you can take by hop-jumping over the railing to land a little way down the staircase. Run down the spiral stairs and enter the courtyard - you will trigger a "Do or Die" countdown with three Blades. Take them out any way you please: grenade-rolling, Vortex, critical hits, whatever... Just defeat them quickly, wait for their orbs, and move on.

In the floating platforms area, the enemy will vary in Hard/DMD mode according to whether it's a fresh or a maxed game. In a fresh game, you'll get a Death Scissors, whose appearance won't be triggered just yet. Instead, run to the dial, light it up, and then take the groovy floating platforms to the top - make sure you centre the camera behind you before doing a jump to the next platform by holding R1. There are a couple of shortcuts which are well worth learning. For the first shortcut, you can jump from the first to the last platform by waiting until the last platform reaches the height of its ascent; at this point, do a jump straight up and Air Hike forwards - you should land on the last platform every time. For the second shortcut, you can jump from the first to the third-from-last platform by doing a full Air Hike over to it. I recommend practicing both before trying to do them for real.

Anyway: once you're at the top, pick up Ifrit (assuming it's still a fresh game), then exit - but be careful. If you land within the circle of blue markers, you'll trigger an unavoidable Death Scissors fight. Flame-kick so that you land outside of the blue circle, and then exit, hugging the wall of the castle as you go - you can just avoid stepping inside the circle this way. A quicker, but slightly more risky, way to exit is to hop-jump from the Ifrit platform, then do a flame-kick as soon as the camera angle changes: if done at the right time, the flame-kick will propel you straight through the exit.

If it's a maxed game, then you'll get three Blades on your case as soon as you enter the floating platforms area. DT to outrun them and light up the dial with a couple of DTed Stingers. It's not a bad idea to wait for the Blades to enter the corridor, so that you can defeat them, but you don't have to. You can use the same shortcuts across the floating platforms, as outlined in a previous paragraph. If there are Blades yearning for your blood in the entranceway, sometimes the camera will zoom in to show you this, which is really helpful. *rolls eyes*. If this is the case, walk around on the floating platform until the camera zooms out and you can see what you're doing again. Is all this actually worth it, since you already have Ifrit? The answer is a categoric "yes", as the prize awaiting you at the top is a gigantic red orb, worth 1000 red orbs - yay! :p

Think you're tough enough to take on Griffon 1? You can stick around to find out the hard way or flock off, featherface! :p

Bypassing Griffon

In a maxed game, you don't even need to see Griffon - ever. After defeating the Blades in the courtyard, simply light up the unlit torch and go through - however, you'll have to forego your gigantic red orb this way, which is probably not something you want to do. If you collect the gigantic orb, then that means triggering the battle with Griffon. It's miles safer running to the unlit torch if, after triggering the battle, you re-enter and exit the floating platforms area again, because this means that Griffon will now be on the ground instead of in the air - you don't really want to be trying to light up the torch and evade Griffon's aerial attacks simultaneously, trust me <_<. If Griffon is on the ground, he'll usually do a lame attempt at charging you down, which is much easier to evade.

In a fresh game, you can also bypass Griffon after collecting Ifrit, but you will miss his 500 red orbs a lot more than you would in a maxed game. It's still possible to meet the mission's 1500 red orb requirement even without defeating Griffon, but you'll need to do a lot of orb-farming (more on this later). And besides: would you really want to wimp out on fighting Griffon 1? Featherface :p

Griffon 1's moves

I'll divide Griffon 1's moves into his ground and aerial moves, beginning with the ground ones.

Ground:

V-Bolt Attack - Griffon will flap his wings, blowing Dante backwards if he is caught in the gust of wind, then send out a single horizontal bolt, followed by several