The Brightwood forest of Wendel
A storm rages so violent you find it hard to keep your footing as you gaze over the darkness that has engulfed Brightwood. Now speaking of footing, very regularly in Brightwood you’ll see circular pegs on the ground. These can be hammered down using a focused Hammer attack, so keep that equipped most of the time. Hitting them will make bridges appear over the water, so you can advance in the level.
Small obstacles are now in the form of mushrooms. Watch out for the green ones, they will inflict poison on you (we’re talking 20HP drainage every 2 or 3 seconds, it is NOT nice). Large obstacles are in the form of tree stumps, and you can use a small purple deeleewopper the same way we used barrels before. Again, your hammer will be very useful, because the Gleampool has a habit of hiding itself under one of these stumps.
-1st Zone
Gleamdrop: Defeat a certain group
Gleamwell: Hidden by a stump
We start off straight away dealing with our friends the Mushbooms, and already we see an example of the bridge-revealing peg. Get your hammer ready, there’s more where this one came from. Again, this is another starter-level to get you used to all the mechanics I’ve described above.
You’ll find the Gleampool in the bottom-right corner of the zone, under a stump next to a golden chest. The Gleamdrop is in the custody of the purple walking flowers, so take them out (there’s not too many of them.
-2nd Zone
Gleamdrop: Defeat a certain group
Gleamwell: Hidden by a stump
You start off amidst dozens of stumps. Start playing some rather precarious pool with the enemies, including the return of Sonic, I mean, molebears. The Gleampool should be hidden under a stump at the top left hand corner of the level, so reveal that first off, then hack your way through the purple flowers again.
-3rd Zone
Gleamdrop: Defeat a certain group
Gleamwell: Hidden by a stump
You can either head to the right or up at the start of this level. My suggestion is upward-bound. Make your way round toward the right, ad you’ll find 4 stumps near a bridge off to the right. The left-middle stump has the Gleampool. Head over the bridge and you’ll find a dark-whorl generating enemies like no tomorrow. You can use this to gain some EXP, up to you, but I wouldn’t hang around right now. The whorl CAN be defeated by brute force, but it has a rather high HP and you only inflict 1HP damage with each hit, so you could be there a while. Head on round the top of the rock formation, defeating the exploding pumpkins on the way. These guys have the Gleamdrop this time. Once you have it, race back round to the pool. You can only go via the top, as the vortex will stop you from going the bottom route (unless you shut it down through sheer barbarian frustration that is).
-4th Zone
Gleamdrop: Defeat a certain group
Gleamwell: ——–
Our friends the walking armour are back, hiding out on the island in the centre of the screen. You have three pegs at the bottom, and each will activate a bridge on either side of the island. I’d suggest activating just one and heading in. The pegs, from left to right, activate the following bridges: top and bottom, left, and right.
It is recommended that you weaken them a bit first with some non-aimed arrows from the bottom, and when going in make your first hit one with the hammer to weaken them more. In such close proximity they are not easy to charge head-on, and you could find yourself in for a nasty surprise if you’re not careful.
Save your game and move on to the next zone.
-5th Zone
Gleamdrop: Defeat a certain group
Gleamwell: Hidden by a stump
Something new for us to deal with from here onward are big Xs on the ground. If you step on them, vines will rush out and knock the wind out of you quicker than you can say “Rabites eat my baby”. If you walk in between them, and I mean dead-centre, you’re fine. Enemies are also affected by these, so for example when you head down from your starting point here, you can get yourself into a heap of trouble because one enemy walks on them, gets knocked toward you, knocks you in to the next lot behind you… Nasty stuff.
After you’ve had your first experience with them, head over to the right. The Gleampool should be under the stump heading straight right from the bridge. The Gleamdrop is held hostage by the pumpkins again.
-6th Zone
Gleamdrop: Defeat a certain group
Gleamwell: Hidden by a stump
More of the same now. Defeat all the purple flowers for the drop, and the pool should be under the stump that is to the left of a small pond on the left hand side of the zone. The chests here aren’t too interesting, but they do help your score at the end of the level.
-7th Zone
Gleamdrop: Defeat a certain group
Gleamwell: Hidden by a stump
Now, for a complex one. You’ll find yourself switching back and forth between bow and hammer, or combining the two, as the bees tend to keep their distance over water. Head over the first two bridges, then move up between the Xs to reach the peg you see at the top of the screen from the back (don’t approach it from the bottom). Hit that down to activate a bridge over on the right hand side of the screen. Now, head up again, and careful with the golden chest, it’s a trap. The silver one is OK. Go down and right and you’ll find another vortex generating enemies. Go down via the bridge you just activated, defeat the enemies here, and hit the peg to activate the bridge above the whorl. Move up here and defeat the blue shell creatures to get the Gleamdrop. The Gleampool is under a stump just to the left of the vortex. You can go for extra exploring by defeating the vortex and heading over the bridge on the right if you feel like it. All you’ll find there though is a silver chest and three trapped golden ones. You can also reach the chests on the far right island from the top island using the flail.
-8th Zone
Gleamdrop: Defeat a certain group
Gleamwell: ——–
There are two ways to do this level. FIrst you can head up, through the mushrooms, get the two chests and hit the peg to open a small bridge to the lower part of the level, or you can tiptoe through the Xs and go for them head- on. There will be 4 Sabretooth Tiger Heads (yes, just the heads) bouncing around and getting themselves hurt by vines. Go down and finish off the job for them, then take the drop to the pool for another save point.
You reach the eye of the storm, a quiet place. Almost too quiet. A glowing orb of darkness (oxymoron?) swirls just above you. You call on Treant and Gaia, but just as you do so, the Mana Lord appears before you. He expected you to get this far. He taunts you with the Mana Sword, asking if it is what you were looking for to save the world. He may have underestimated you, but he fears you hindering him not.
You protest. If this keeps up, the world will… indeed, as he interrupts you, cease to exist. Which is exactly what he wants, the destruction of the world from a maelstrom of Mana. Did you think he was trying to take over the world or settle a personal grudge? He then disappears to leave you to try and calm the storm yourself.
The vortex speeds up, gaining strength, and prepares for your attacks.
– Boss Battle : Mana Storm –
This is an interesting battle with not an awful lot of science to it. The storm will not allow you to get near its core when the vortex is thick. Even arrows can’t get in. You can use the glowing orbs by knocking them toward the storm with the Hammer, that’ll do some damage. Magic is too slow to do anything whatsoever (the storm will move by the time you’ve cast it, let alone have the spell take effect). So when you see the storm weaken it’s vortex, run toward it, and hammer away at it with your sword. With your current level it should go down with about three bursts of this sort of attack.
As you strike your last blow, the core explodes in a brilliant light. You’ll be taken to the ranking screen now. The gold ranking for this level will give you the option to a weapon of each type and a purple gem. The weapons can only be equipped one by each character (i.e. Tumble can only equip the bow).
Returning to the scene of events, the Mana Lord reappears after the storm has
disolved, and is rather impressed. But how do you attempt to vanquish the Mana
Tempest without the sword? He is interrupted by the appearance of Treant and
Gaia.
The concede that, as the Mana Lord says, they are no match against Mana by themselves. But they aren’t alone. The spirits are with them. The Mana Lord is enraged by their defiance, as he watches the spirits rise through the wood toward the tempest above and dispel it with ease (in full motion video too!). As you celebrate this victory, the Mana Lord summons his powers and strikes down the spirits, Treant and Gaia, in a torment of lightning bolts. He then casts you backward to the ground and approaches you with the Mana Sword to finish you off.
Just as he raises his sword, a gem pops out of the ground and hovers in the air near the Mana Lord. A dozen more join it and cling to the Mana Lord, who is stunned and can’t move. Using up a lot of his power he casts them away. He can’t understand everyone defying him, he is doing what the Mana Goddess wishes and filling the world with Mana. As he regrets not finishing you off at Lorimar, he has an epiphany regarding the Mana Tree’s maiden and her powers. He is of course referring to Tess! He then says something about the Seed of Mana, and determined that this is the solution to his dilemma, retreats once more.
You return to the Mana Village, with the words of the Mana Lord heavy on your mind. Right now the game will tell you to go talk to Tess, but she is nowhere to be found. At this point, before going any further, my advice is to get doing some subquests from Dud Services and get up to level 45 before even thinking of advancing anymore. Also it is important that you go talk to Balbo and the Bomb Brothers, as they have just found a really pure ore and can make your gem frame even bigger! The grid will now have the form of a cross, with 2, 4, 4, 2 slots. This will make for even more power boosting possibilities you weren’t open to before. Take the time to plan out some new gem fusions if you have the money to (you should have stacks of it at the moment… think of all the possibilities about 50000L has to offer), work up a good gem configuration, and prepare for some questing.
You will now be able to access the elemental subquest for Dryad. However, seeing as Tess is nowhere to be found, you’d think we’re stuck with whatever elemental we already have equipped, right? Wrong! Go talk to Nana in the Mermaid, and she will be able to change spirits for you.
Also, IMPORTANT, before checking out the glowing Mana Stone, talk to Granny, Hannah or Nana (Chat) to receive a subquest for the Mana Tower to try and find Tess. If you touch the Mana Stone, you may not be able to do this subquest.
So my advice is to start out doing some subquests, get your level up to 45, or if you’re feeling up for it, 50, while keeping your weapons up to date and gems in line, and then when you’ve done this move on to the next chapter. You should have no problem doing subquests in a very short time by this point.
Personally, my current gem combination contains Sword Expertise, Sword Training, Soul of the Gemma, Glittering Crystal and Chivalry. Gets through them like butter.
Subquests Available: Tess’ Whereabouts (Nana, MUST BE DONE BEFORE TOUCHING MANA STONE!!!), Benevodon of Wood (Dryad)
