Dark Cloud 2
31 Achievements
80-100h
Medalhead
Earn all medals in every chapter.
0.9%
How to unlock the Medalhead achievement in Dark Cloud 2 - Definitive Guide
BlueSeptember17
TrueTrophies
TrueTrophies
Time limit medal
Spheda and/or Fishing medal
Special requirements for the floor
The first medal is always the same - you must beat the floor within the time limit. This one is quite easy once you're stronger. The only place that gave me trouble is in the very first dungeon. The last couple of floors must be done in a very brief amount of time. One of the floors has three mimics on it, so some luck comes into play here since the chests slow one down.
Spheda is the golfing mini-game that becomes available about halfway through the second area. This just takes practice, practice, practice (and a little luck). You will play Spheda on every floor in the game except for maybe half-a-dozen floors in Ocean's Roar Cave. My favorite club is the Swan because it's the most forgiving. I learned that trying to drop the ball short distances worked better than trying to bounce it off of walls for more distance. That helped me anyway.
Fishing medals require you to catch fish of a certain size. This becomes much easier once you have a lure rod. Lures will become available from Olivie after you've recruited her; she will join you after you've won Fishy Frenzy (Beginner's Class works fine). I've read a couple of different methods for using lures, but I always used the same way, and it worked fine. Once you've cast the lure in the water, hit the directional button left-right four times then reel in for two seconds. Rinse and repeat.
The final set of medals is special requirements for the floor. These take several different forms:
Kill all enemies with a certain weapon (Max's right-handed weapon, for example)
Kill all enemies with the Ridepod
Kill all enemies with Monster Transformation
Finish the floor without healing
Kill all enemies with items
The first three are self-explanatory. The one thing you need to remember is that if you touch an enemy with the wrong weapon (even if it doesn't do any damage), you won't get the medal.
Healing floors do not require you to kill every enemy. As soon as you have the item that lets you move on, you may. Just don't heal until after you leave. The medal is acquired after you exit the floor. You can repair weapons, but you cannot heal Max, Monica, the monster transformation, nor can you re-fuel the Ridepod. You cannot heal health or status ailments. If you use an antidote, the medal is toast.
The final class is by far the most difficult - killing all enemies on the floor with items. For much of the game, you can handle this with bombs and fruit. For Moon Flower Palace and the Zelmite Mine, you'll need to depend on elemental stones, aka Flame, Chill, Wind, Thunder, and Holy stones. These are available only from monster drops and treasure chests. Save these stones until later dungeons; you'll need them. Once you get to the Zelmite Mine, these will start showing up a lot in chests. Before then, they're rather rare.
I can't walk you through the dungeons, but I can give you tips about things that helped me.
~ Go into the items only floors with a full supply of bombs (regular bombs, improved bombs, and final bombs), as well as different fruits and holy water.
~ Stone Berries and Throbbing Cherries can both stop enemies temporarily, so freeze your enemy then kill it. This can save your bombs when enemies dodge. I also carry Gooey Peaches to finish enemies off when they're almost dead and I don't want to use another bomb.
~ Poison Apples are great, as well. Hit an enemy then run. The poison will work the enemy's HP down to one. Then you can hit it with any piece of fruit to finish it off. If an enemy isn't poisoned the first time you hit it with a Poison Apple, it's immune. Try something else.
~ All fruit can be purchased from Adel in Sindain.
~ Holy Water will destroy anything in the skeleton family, so keep those with you, too.
~ Holy Water can be purchased from Father Bruno in Balance Valley.
~ For flyers, lock on and guard until they come down to attack then hit them with a stone berry to keep them low then kill them with your bombs. If the enemy won't come down, try a Final Bomb. It's the only thing with the range to drop a flyer out of the sky, but you can only carry ten of these at a time, so use them wisely. Bats can be troublesome. Try leading them until you have several in one place then take out several with one bomb if you're worried about running out.
~ Cannon enemies require a special note. Cannon enemies are first seen in the Ocean's Roar Cave with the pirates. If one shoots a cannon ball, you must blow it up with an item. If it explodes on its own, the medal is lost. The best strategy is to run up on them quickly and freeze them before they can shoot a cannon ball. If a cannon ball is fired, you can toss some bombs and hope to blow it up (I used several Final Bombs when I finally got it). If there are two cannons together, this can be hard to do. I failed a dungeon floor three times before I figured out what the problem was, so I wanted to pass it along. The cannon floors are a real pain. The same does not hold true for tree enemies when they send out the little trees. These don't count that I've noticed, which is weird to me. Only the cannon balls screw this up.
~ Use your Monster Notes in the harder dungeons that require you to use your elemental stones. After you have killed an enemy, it will show up in the notes. You can then check to find its elemental weakness, which can save you wasting your limited ammunition.
~ One other thing you need to remember is about Moon Flower Palace. Once you go to the final boss floor, you can never return to this dungeon, so make sure you have finished ALL the medals here before you leave. In Chapter 8, you can return to every dungeon except this one.
~ One final note that's not related directly to the medals but which is enormously helpful in general is the money trick. Final Bombs cost 3600 each, which runs a person out of money in a hurry. All you need for endless money is a lure rod and two fishing lures of the same type. Here's how it goes:
1. Equip the lure rod.
2. Equip a lure.
3. On the item screen, hit RB so that Max is not on the screen.
4. Go to the identical lure in your item list that you have equipped to the lure rod and equip it. Simply hit the button and equip it over and over again. When you return to Max, you will notice that the lure rod now has numerous lures on it. Remove them and sell for 150 each. You can do this up to 999 at a time. If you exceed that number, the lures will reset to one. Always keep two lures in reserve for when you need money.
Good luck!
Exbando
Missable
This will most likely be the longest trophy in the game. This is only missable because of the Moon Flower Palace becoming locked when defeating the boss there. There are 396 medals in total, divided between 4 different types:
Time Trial
There is a time trial medal for every dungeon floor in the game. You are timed from the moment you enter the floor to the defeat of the final enemy. Any time in menus is counted, but pausing the game pauses the timer. Each dungeon has the same general amount of time for each floor, and as such, have the same basic strategies:
Underground Channel
This dungeon is the hardest for time trials, as you're only given around 2 and a half to 3 minutes. As such, it is not feasible to get these on your first go. In fact, even coming back with weapons that can kill enemies in one hit might not be good enough. I recommend coming in with Pau as your ally, as he will automatically show you the map. With this, you can tell if there is a door that needs to be opened. If there is, you can open treasure chests until you get the Channel Key. Just go from room to room killing all of the enemies you see without picking up the ABS. You may also want to use the Ridepod with either the Propeller Legs or Jet Hover, as these legs allow for faster movement than normal. The final 2 floors have mimics, so you will need to open chests until you find all of them (3 in Steve's Battle and 1 in Sweet, Scary Treasure Chest).
Rainbow Butterfly Wood
This is where things get easier, but can still be challenging. You're given 4 to 5 minutes, including the floors for Chapter 6. You still probably won't get these medals on your first go. Instead, come back when your weapons can kill the enemies in one hit. I recommend using Max's gun, as you will be able to shoot once and keep moving. I also recommend keeping Pau in your party as having the map from the beginning will make things that much easier. You should have time to get treasure chests as well, making finding the Slash Branch and mimics. However, you still don't have time to pick up the ABS.
Starlight Canyon
At this point, time trials become much easier. You are given between 6 and a half to 8 minutes. This is mostly due to the sheer size of the dungeons. If you know what you're doing, you can get a lot of these medals on your first go if you have equipped the Ridepod with either Propeller Legs or Jet Hover. If you are having trouble, just come back with some stronger weapons. You should have time to both open treasure chests and pick up ABS. On top of that, there are no doors to unlock, meaning that, for the early floors, you can wait until you've defeated all of the monsters before opening the treasure if you need to. One enemy to be on the lookout for is the Masked Tribesman, as their masks make it so you can only hit them from behind, making the time trials slightly more difficult.
Ocean's Roar Cave
You have around 5 and a half to 7 minutes here. This should be plenty of time to take out enemies, find the Luna Stone Piece, the mimics, and pick up the ABS. If you aren't getting them on your first try, simply come back with stronger weapons, as per usual.
Mount Gundor
You are given around 7 to 8 minutes here. At this point, the time trials become ridiculously easy provided you have the right equipment. Keep Pau so you know where all of the dead ends are, that way knowing you won't need to needlessly backtrack as much as without him. You have plenty of time to go through all of the chests and pick up all the ABS.
Moon Flower Palace
You are given around 6 and a half to 8 minutes here, just like Starlight Canyon. Unlike Starlight Canyon, however, the maps aren't as big. You should be able to get most of these on your first try. If not, make sure you get them before taking on the boss.
Zelmite Mines
Here, you are given anywhere form 8 and a half to 13 minutes. This sounds fairly easy, but it can be difficult, as the enemies are insanely powerful, and even ultimate weapons have trouble putting them down. Make sure you've been spectrumizing items onto your weapons to take the enemies out as fast as possible. In terms of map size, the dungeons aren't too big. As long as you know where you're going, navigation shouldn't be too much of an issue.
Fishing
The only floors with fishing medals are found in Rainbow Butterfly Wood, Starlight Canyon, and Ocean's Roar Cave. There are only 23 medals for fishing. Each floor has a size requirement to meet for the medal. See Birds and the Bees for more details on fishing.
Spheda
Most floors have a Spheda medal. Only some of the floors in Ocean's Roar Cave don't have Spheda. They are the ones where you can go out to the beach and fish. See Playing With Time for more information on Spheda.
Condition
All floors have some condition to clear to get a medal. Some are simple, while others are tedious. For all except clear without healing, you must defeat all of the monsters in the floor. Below are all of the conditions you will find:
Clear Without Healing
This one is pretty simple, but can be tricky depending on your stats and skill. You are not allowed to use any healing or recovery items. There are a couple exceptions, however. If you have a weapon with either the Heal or Absorb abilities, you can use them. You can refuel the Ridepod with Ridepod Fuel if you need to. You can even heal from the coin if they come up Angel. You cannot, however, use the Healing Fountains (the question mark on the map). For these floors, I recommend using the Ridepod, since you are allowed to refuel it. This way taking damage won't be as harmful. Unlike the other condition medals, these do not unlock once you defeat all of the enemies. You must advance to the next floor without healing to get the medal.
Max's Gun
For these medals, you must defeat all enemies using only Max's gun. These medals are very easy. Just keep your distance and keep shooting.
Max's Right-Hand Weapon
These medals are slightly trickier. You can only use either wrenches or hammers. Unfortunately, hammers can knock magic attacks back at enemies, voiding your chance at a medal for that run. This is very easy to do if you aren't paying attention. Therefore, single enemies out. That way, monsters that use ranged attacks can't mess you up.
Monica's Magic
These medals are mostly just annoying, as Monica's magic is arguably one of the weaker forms of combat. On top of the armband, you can also use Monica's Magic Absorb Blade (block with 
, release elemental charges with 
while still blocking), but you will swing your sword when you do so. If your sword hits an enemy, you will void your chances of a medal on that run. Therefore, I recommend not bothering with Magic Absorb Blade if you are going for these medals.
Monica's Sword
These are very straightforward. Just use your sword throughout the floor and you will get the medal.
Ridepod Only
Again, very straightforward. Simply use the Ridepod for all the enemies and you will get the medal.
Monster Transform Only
This is difficult simply because Monster Transform is incredibly weak. See What? Your Monster is Evolving! to see how to level up Monster Transform. I recommend using Gemrons, as they can stop enemies from getting too close to you very easily. Remember that Monster Transform is on a timer. If that runs out, you won't be able to use that Monster Transform until you exit the dungeon completely. If you are using Gemrons, simply get within lock-on distance of the enemy, lock-on with 
, and then start mashing 
. This will stun-lock most monsters. I also recommend that you wait until you are in Chapter 7 before going for these ones, as you'll need to be level 51 before you'll be able to get these medals in Chapter 7.
Items Only
These are the most tedious of all of the medals. You can't use any of your weapons. There is an excellent guide made by Darth Mom on Gamefaqs right here that goes into depth on each floor that has an item only medal. I highly recommend using that guide for these medals.
Also know that some monsters can mess with you by using attacks that can damage other monsters (cannon type monsters come to mind). Try to take those monsters out quickly so they don't get a chance to ruin your run.
Don't forget to get all of the medals in Chapter 7 before taking on the boss! Once you get the final medal, the trophy will pop.
ShadowGandalf
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