II
strategy guide
Kingdom
Hearts
Revisit old friends and discover whole new Disney worlds
while unravelling a mysterious conspiracy
PS2
u
words: Alicia Ashby
Kingdom Hearts II
strategy guide
02
contents
GETTING STARTED
WALKTHROUGH
ITEM SYNTHESIS GUIDE
03
basic controls
07
using the walkthrough
16
using this guide
03
the main menu
07
roxas
16
moogle levels
04
combat
08
hollow bastion
17
save the queen +
06
gummi ships
09
the land of dragons
17
save the king +
10
beast’s castle
17
ultima weapon
10
olympus coliseum
11
disney castle
11
atlantica
12
port royal
12
atlantica agrabah
12
halloween town
13
pride lands
13
twilight town
14
the world that never was
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Kingdom Hearts II
strategy guide
getting started
GETTING STARTED
BASIC CONTROLS
L1
Opens and closes the shortcut menu.
R1
Activates and deactivates target
lock. Hold down R2 and use the right
analog stick to change targets when
using target lock. Press R3 to center
the camera on the target.
R3
Press to center the camera behind
your current main character.
D-PAD
Use to moves the cursor in menu
screens.
LEFT ANALOG STICK
Move your active character, and
moves the cursor in the main menu
screen
RIGHT ANALOG STICK
Use to rotate the camera.
START BUTTON
Press to enter the main menu during
normal gameplay. Press during battles
or cutscenes to pause. During battle,
pausing calls up a screen that explains
your mission objectives. During
cutscenes, pausing calls up a submenu that lets you choose to skip the
cutscene if you wish.
SELECT BUTTON
Enters and exits from first-person
perspective mode.
CROSS BUTTON
Press to confirm a menu selection.
TRIANGLE BUTTON
Press to execute a reaction command.
SQUARE BUTTON
Pressing it allows you to use certain
special abilities after you’ve equipped
them, like Guard.
CIRCLE BUTTON
Press to jump. Also cancels menu
selections, uses certain abilities and
lets Sora drop when hanging from a
ledge.
THE MAIN MENU
Press start when not in combat to
access this powerful menu. A “new”
icon flashes near recently added menu
items.
ITEMS
A sub-menu that lets you examine
the items equipped to your party
members, and the items you have in
stock. Remember that you need to
equip consumable items like Potions
and Ethers to your characters if you
want to be able to use them in battle.
You also want to make sure that the
party is using equipment that suits
the battles they’re about to face.
Don’t worry about equipping Guest
characters that only join your party
during specific worlds. They don’t get
much benefit from equipment, and can
take these items with them when they
leave the party.
ABILITIES
Lets you manage the selection of
Abilities equipped to the characters in
your party. Abilities alter a character’s
properties in combat. Abilities have a
cost you must pay to equip them, and
each character has a limited pool of
Ability Points to spend. You gain new
Abilities by leveling up or completing
in-game events. Some Abilities cost
Magic Points (MPs) to use, and
how much is always indicated in the
Ability’s description. In the case of
non-player character (NPC) allies like
Donald, Goofy and Guest characters,
you can also configure how frequently
the AI uses Abilities that consume MP.
CUSTOMIZE
For allies like Donald, Goofy and
Guest characters, going into the
Customize menu will let you customize
their AI’s behavior. You can also
customize how frequently your allies
use consumable Items and Abilities
that consume MP. Toggle through the
different available frequencies with the
triangle button.
For Sora, the Customize screen lets
you configure the shortcut menu that
maps magic spells or consumable item
types to one of the four face buttons.
Then you can use the magic or item
instantly by tapping L1 to bring up the
shortcut menu, and then pressing the
appropriate face button.
In very difficult battles, that time
saved can mean the difference
between life and death, so make sure
you always keep your shortcut menu
properly configured. In most cases,
you’ll want Potions or Hi-Potions,
and then three spells mapped to the
shortcuts. When particular spells
would be very useful in a given world
or battle, the walkthrough will make
note of it. Otherwise, you can just
use whatever you feel best fits your
personal fighting style.
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basic controls • the main menu
L2
Press to shift the right analog stick
from camera control to cursor
control. You can press R3 to confirm
selections in this control mode.
R2
If pressed while Field Camera is in
Auto Mode, the camera will freeze.
If Field Camera is in Manual Mode,
pressing R2 changes it to Auto Mode.
03
Kingdom Hearts II
strategy guide
PARTY
Lets you select which three of your
current party members will be active.
For the most part, it doesn’t matter
which of the characters available
to you that you opt to use. In the
rare case where it does, it’s usually
because of a particular ability that
character has, and the walkthrough
will make note of it. Remember that
characters not active in the party still
get XP and will level up as quickly
as the active members. Also, some
characters have abilities that activate
specifically when they’re not in the
active party. These abilities let them
do things like automatically regain
HP or replace a fallen party character
instantly. Keep these abilities in mind
when you decide who will join the
active party, and who will be waiting in
the wings.
STATUS
Lets you examine the stats for
the characters in your party. It’s
particularly useful for examining the
level-up requirements for your Drive
Forms and Summons.
JOURNAL
The Journal command brings up
Jiminy’s Journal, which keeps track of
what your party’s current objective is
in the Kingdom Hearts II storyline. It
also keeps track of where you’ve been,
what you’ve done and your scores
in certain mini-games. Because of
the presence of Jiminy’s Journal, the
walkthrough section for this guide is
going to be somewhat brief. Instead,
the focus will be on describing difficult
battles and boss fights.
Jiminy’s Journal also keeps track
of what you’ve done in each world
- how many treasure chests you’ve
found, mini-games you’ve played,
characters you’ve met. When you do
everything that there is to be done in
a given world, a little mouse-ears icon
appears alongside that part of Jiminy’s
Journal. This indicates that you’ve
completely filled in that part of the
Journal. Completely finishing Jiminy’s
Journal is a requirement for unlocking
the special game-ending bonus video
when you play on Standard difficulty.
Just before entering the final boss’s
room, the complete journal is unlocked
for you, so you can fill in whatever
you’ve missed then.
CONFIG
Lets you customize your game
experience by selecting from a range
of camera control, video, audio and
interface options. Each option is
explained in the Config menu. Feel
free to use whatever you like best.
COMBAT
You enter combat in Kingdom
Hearts II when enemies appear in
an area. This disables your ability
to access the Main Menu. While the
top option of the Combat Menu is
always “Attack,” you can use the DPad to toggle between the other six
options available to you. You can no
longer customize Sora or the other
character’s abilities once in Combat,
but can use the Combat Menu and
Reaction Commands to select special
commands like Drives, Summons and
MAGIC
Magic’s undergone a lot of changes
since Kingdom Hearts. Sora has
six spells: Fire, Blizzard, Thunder,
Magnet, Cure and Reflect. These
spells upgrade in power as you
complete events.
Fire is a pair of fireballs that blaze in
a tight circle around Sora’s body. This
makes Fire a magic most useful when
used while you’re fighting enemies up
close. Hits from Fire lengthen combos.
Blizzard is a shotgun-like blast
of ice that curves slightly after the
targeted opponent. It’s excellent for
picking off ground-bound enemies at
a distance.
Thunder is used for sniping distant
enemies in the air; it is a thunderbolt
that descends from above.
Magnet is a spell new to Kingdom
Hearts II. It does little damage,
but also gathers enemies together
into tight, easily-killed clumps. It’s
especially useful in gimmick battles
with groups of enemies and the
Underdrome games.
Cure automatically consumes all
of Sora’s MP, in return for completely
refilling his HP. Any allies standing
near Sora when he casts it also get
refills.
Reflect is like a powered-up
version of the Guard Ability. You must
configure it to the shortcut menu if
you want to use it effectively. When
triggered, Reflect causes an energy
shield to flare up around Sora for a
fraction of a second. Any incoming
magic or energy projectiles that
would’ve hit Sora during that moment
bounce off the shield. It requires
practice to master the Reflect timing,
but doing so gives you an edge in
many boss fights.
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combat
ATTACK
This is the most basic Combat
command. Tap the cross button,
and Sora swings his keyblade. Tap it
repeatedly, and he begins chaining
moves together into a combo. Sora’s
blows in a combo follow his targeted
opponent, indicated by a yellow or
blue (when locked-on) crosshairs. If
Sora knocks an enemy into the air,
for instance, he’ll automatically leap
into the air after them to continue the
combo.
getting started
Limits. There are also special events
that can happen randomly in battle,
and we’ll make a note of when.
04
Kingdom Hearts II
strategy guide
getting started
Each spell Sora casts consumes MP
and depletes Sora’s blue MP meter in
the lower-right portion of the screen.
When you aren’t casting spells, the
meter slowly refills. If you consume
Sora’s MP completely, then the bar
turns pink and you won’t be able to
cast anything until it fully recharges.
During this time, your Drive bar fills
more quickly.
combat
ITEMS
This command lets you use any
consumable Items you’ve equipped
your character with.
DRIVE
The Drive command lets Sora
magically fuse with his friends to
increase his own power. Once you
highlight the Drive command on the
Combat Menu, you’ll be allowed to
select which Form Sora will Drive into.
Each of the Drive Forms is unlocked
by certain story events (with one
exception).
Sora’s Drive forms are as follows:
Valor Form fuses Sora with Goofy
to give him amazing combo power at
the cost of all of his spells. This form
wields two keyblades, one of which
you can equip from the Items menu.
Valor is easy to level up, since it gains
experience simply from damaging
enemies.
Wisdom Form fuses Sora with
Donald to make him into an incredibly
agile, sniping spellcaster. While
in Wisdom Form, Sora’s Attack
command is replaced with the Shoot
command, which lets him fire homing
bursts of magic from his keyblade. His
spells get power boosts, and moves
in a super-smooth glide across the
ground instead of running. Wisdom
Form is ideal for tackling Heartless
swarms, since it gains experience
for every Heartless it kills. Killing
or damaging other enemies grants
Wisdom Form no experience.
Master Form calls for Sora to fuse
with Donald and Goofy both, resulting
in a warrior with Valor Form’s sword
05
skills and Wisdom’s magical powers.
While Master Form can be really
effective when used against bosses,
it only levels up by picking up Drive
Orbs.
Anti-Form is the price you pay
for having Drive ability. Sometimes
the fusion goes awry, forcing Sora to
turn into Heartless-like creature until
his Drive meter runs out. This Form
has incredible speed and strength,
but doesn’t level up and can’t use
magic or Reaction Commands. A
handy rule of thumb to remember is
that your chances of going Anti-Form
double when fighting Nobodies, and
quadruple when fighting members of
Organization XIII. Anti-Form is never
freely selectable.
Final Form becomes available
to you after completing a particular
event in the World That Never Was.
It doesn’t become freely selectable
until after the first time it emerges, and
it emerges randomly when Driving.
Your chances of seeing Final Form
are based on your chances of going
Anti-Form, and increase with every
Anti-Form Drive you perform after the
story event that unlocks Final Form.
It can be a bit of a headache to make
LEVEL UP DRIVE FORMS
TO GIVE THEM BETTER
BASE STATS AND TO
UNLOCK NEW ABILITIES
sure you unlock it, but it’s completely
worth the effort. Final Form has all
of Master Form’s strengths, Wisdom
Form’s speedy gliding walk and even
more aerial combat ability thanks to its
ability to glide through the air. It levels
up by slaying Nobodies, unfortunately,
which makes powering it up tedious.
Sora’s ability to use his Drive forms
depends on how much Drive Meter
he’s built up, as displayed in the lower
right-hand corner of the screen. The
Drive Meter increases whenever Sora
deals or takes damage. It increases
even more quickly when Sora’s MP
gauge is charging, and defeated
enemies drop Drive Orbs that boost
meter. Sora can use Wisdom or Valor
Form with three bars of Drive Meter,
Master requires four, and Final requires
five. Once Sora has transformed, he’ll
stay in his Drive Form until the meter
runs down to zero.
Leveling up Drive Forms gives them
better base stats and unlocks valuable
new Abilities for Sora. Each freely
selectable Drive Form maxes out at
seven experience levels. Using Drives
is an essential part of gameplay,
but make sure to pick Drive Forms
carefully. Wisdom Form isn’t wellsuited to the same sorts of battles
Master or Valor might be good at.
When appropriate, the walkthrough
will advise you which Drive Form is
best for handling a particular situation
or level.
Make a point of going to the Status
screen from the Main Menu and
studying each Drive Form’s Abilities
once you obtain it. Each of the Forms
has unique moves you can’t exploit
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Kingdom Hearts II
strategy guide
PARTY
This command lets you quickly
switch an active member of the party
with an inactive party member.
LIMIT
Limit commands are special moves
you select from the Limit sub-menu.
Each Summon has a unique Limit
command of their own too. What Limit
commands are available to you when
you go to select one depends on which
characters are in the party and which
Abilities you have equipped. Donald and
Goofy each have two Limit commands
they can execute with Sora, as well as
the Trinity attack that Sora can execute
with them or by himself (in weaker form).
Each of the Guest characters who join
your party at different points in Kingdom
Hearts II has a Limit maneuver they can
execute with Sora. Limits tend to be very
powerful moves that hit everywhere
onscreen at once.
While each Limit maneuver has its
own sense of timing, there are some
constants to be observed with all of
them. The Limit Gauge appears in
the upper-right-hand corner of the
screen and begins slowly depleting.
You progress from more basic strikes
to more powerful ones, and eventually
reach a final Reaction Command
that ends the Limit regardless of the
gauge’s level.
Using Limits well involves carefully
maximizing the move’s damage and
combo hits.
REACTION COMMANDS
Reactions are context-sensitive moves
executed with the triangle button. Every
enemy in the game has attack patterns
that you can interrupt with Reactions.
Some of these moves often do immense
damage to bosses, while others only let
you dodge or avoid damage.
Always keep your eyes peeled for
Reaction prompts during a combat.
Hitting a Reaction when it’s available
is almost always the best possible
thing for you to do during a fight. Some
of the game’s battles cannot be won
except through proper use of Reaction
Commands.
You can equip Abilities that turn a
particular skill of Sora’s, like Driving or
using a Limit, into a Reaction. (Note:
do not ever do this; these Ability-driven
Reactions override context-sensitive
Reactions that are more valuable, and
nothing hurts more than Driving or
starting a Limit during the wrong time in a
boss fight.)
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combat • gummi ships
SUMMONS
Using a Summon consumes three
bars of Drive Meter. Summoned
characters fight as AI allies until the
Summon meter runs out. Their ability
to do significant damage relies on
carefully using their unique Reaction
and Limit commands.
Using Summons levels them up. At
higher levels, Summons deal more
damage per attack and deplete the
Summon Meter more slowly. Using a
Summon requires Sora to have two
other characters in the party with him,
and consumes your entire MP gauge.
The Summons available in Kingdom
Hearts II are:
Chicken Little is a defensive
Summon who uses baseballs and
firecrackers to stun enemies. He can
also blow a whistle that lures enemies
together into easily-defeated clumps.
His Limit maneuver is called “FPS
Mode,” which lets you begin playing
as Chicken Little as if the game was
a first-person shooter. This mode
uses traditional FPS controls, the
right analog stick to aim and the left
to control movement. Tapping the
cross button lets him attack with
his baseballs, while triangle tosses
firecrackers.
Genie is very different from his
Kingdom Hearts form. In Kingdom
Hearts II, he’ll only heal Sora from time
to time. To do damage, you need to
use his Limit abilities, which are tricky.
Genie likes to show up in a costume
patterned after one of Sora’s Drive
forms, and each of the four costumes
has a different Limit ability. Genie only
has access to whatever Drive Forms
Sora does when Summoned. His
initial Drive Form will be random, but
you can select the “Drive?” command
from the Combat Menu to change
to a different one. Valor Genie and
Master Genie specialize in melee-style
attacks, while Wisdom Genie shoots
magical projectiles similar to Sora.
Final Genie has a whirling attack that
gathers up enemies in one area to
damage them all at once.
Stitch crawls all over the game
interface while zapping enemies,
forcing them to drop Hit Point (HP)
restoring orbs, and occasionally
restoring all of Sora’s MP. Much like
Chicken Little, he’s primarily defensive
and can be extremely useful to a Sora
build that focuses on magic. Stitch’s
Limit, Ohana, lets Sora join Stitch for
an impromptu ukulele jam session.
You can either blast at enemies or
force them to drop HP orbs, and then
finish the Limit with a team-up move
that uses both techniques at once.
Stitch’s defensive properties make him
one of the best Summons to use in the
Underdrome missions.
Peter Pan is probably the easiest
Summon to master. Left on his own,
Peter will fly at enemies and swipe at
them with his knife, while Tinkerbell
occasionally restores a little bit of
Sora’s HP. For Peter’s Limit, he and
Sora fly together to batter enemies with
hits, then can finish them all off with a
massive area-of-effect attack.
getting started
properly unless you’re aware of them
ahead of time.
06
Kingdom Hearts II
strategy guide
GUMMI SHIPS
Gummi ship sequences are full 3D
rail shooters that require a lot of frantic
dodging and blasting. You still only
have to pass each Gummi Ship stage
once before you can travel freely to
the worlds locked behind it. Make sure
you’re always using the strongest ship
getting started
KING MICKEY
When you manage to get Sora and his
friends killed in Kingdom Hearts II, you’ll
find one of two things happens. Most of
the time, you get a screen that depicts
a very annoyed-looking Sora tapping
his foot and the menu option to Quit or
Retry. If you get killed during certain boss
battles, though, you’ll instead get a white
screen that lists the “I won’t give up!” and
“It’s all over...” options. If you select the
latter option, you’ll have to resume from
your last save. If you choose the former,
then King Mickey himself appears to bail
Sora and his friends out. Using King
Mickey in Kingdom Hearts II is great fun,
but don’t get into the habit of relying
on him.
King Mickey fights with a keyblade
and you’ll find his moves do tremendous
damage, especially his Pearl projectile
that you can use by pressing the square
button. He’s functionally invincible, but
there’s one catch: you can’t use him to
defeat a boss. When using King Mickey,
your goal is simply to drive the boss off
while charging up Mickey’s Drive Gauge
by rapidly pressing the triangle button.
When you’ve successfully filled it, then
you gain access to the Healing Light
Reaction Command. Using this resurrects
Sora and his party, and gives them the
chance to finish the boss off for good.
07
blueprints available to you. You want
to use anything that gives you more
attacking power. Surviving a level is
a simple matter of being able to blow
up enemies before their attacks can
endanger you.
When you pass a Gummi Ship level,
you’ll be given a ranking based on how
many enemies you shot down, and
how many times you got hit. The higher
your ranking is, the more treasures
you’ll receive as rewards for beating it.
The treasures you get for doing well in
Gummi Ship levels are always just new
blueprints or customization parts for
gummi ships. If all you’re interested in is
experiencing the main game storyline
and unlocking bonus video, you never
have to do any Gummi Ship level more
than once. This walkthrough is primarily
concerned with getting you through the
main game, so we aren’t going to cover
the Gummi Ship levels in detail. We can,
however, offer some pointers for players
who want to try getting themselves to Srank on every level just for its own sake.
The big thing you need to get used
to doing is using the Gummi Ship editor
that lets you customize ships with the
parts you’ve won. It is very difficult to
have a ship capable of doing enough
damage quickly enough to get S-rank,
because few of the default blueprints
take good advantage of optional
weapons like the various Weapon
Gummies. Learning how to use the
editor can seem like a bit of a pain, but
read the in-game Tutorial carefully and
you should be fine. As your reflexes
sharpen and you unlock increasingly
more powerful gummi ship options,
you’ll find you can demolish levels more
and more quickly. When you start Sranking early levels, then you can use
the parts you win as rewards to help
demolish other levels. By S-ranking
each of the game’s gummi stages, you
can unlock all of the available blueprints
and parts, and then begin designing
gummi ships just for fun. Remember
that the game gives the highest bonuses
for doing Gummi stages without getting
hit, so it’s best to focus on offensive
power and speed in your Gummi ships.
Practice stages until you know where
all of the enemies are located, and use
the best weapons at your disposal to
try and wipe out enemies before they
can put up much of a fight. If you have
strong shooter skills, you should be able
to clear all of the Gummi levels at S-rank
or better with no trouble.
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Kingdom Hearts II
strategy guide
USING THIS
WALKTHROUGH
Abilities that trigger with the square
and circle buttons. Repeated use of
the Reflect spell makes your life a lot
easier toward the end of the game.
Driving is less useful in this mode than
in Standard or Beginner, because of
the sheer frequency that Anti-Form
appears, but on the other hand,
you’ll get Final Form quickly. The
requirements for unlocking the final
bonus movie are very mild: you just
have to gather all of Ansem’s Secret
Report, which happens automatically
as part of following the game’s plot,
and finish every World in the game.
STYLE
You select from one of three
leveling-up styles in Kingdom Hearts
II: Sword (Offense), Shield (Defense),
or Staff (Magic). What you pick
determines when your Sora learns
certain key Abilities. Otherwise, Sora’s
stats always grow in the same way.
The most effective Sora build overall is
the Shield style, which gives you all of
his key Abilities at level 73.
The Sword and Staff styles are
equally effective after that. The
Sword gives you a lot of key combat
abilities early in the game, then
weaker abilities in the mid-game.
Its major disadvantage is not giving
the important MP Rage Ability until
level 99. This cripples you in the
Underdrome and against Sephiroth.
The big disadvantage to the Staff
is that it gives you relatively weak
abilities early in the game and doesn’t
give you Lucky Lucky until level 99,
which cripples Item Synthesis. The
counter-balance is that the Staff gives
you Experience Boost at level 7. If you
get adept at using this Ability, you can
get your Sora to level 99 quicker than
any other Style.
ROXAS
You begin the game playing as a
blonde boy named Roxas that you’ll
recognize if you played Kingdom
Hearts: Chain of Memories. If you
didn’t, then who Roxas is and why
you’re using him in the beginning
of the game should become clear
to you as you proceed through the
storyline. Roxas’ moves are exactly
like Sora’s, and all of the Abilities,
experience and “munny” you acquire
as Roxas will eventually transfer to
Sora. Your time as Roxas is basically
an extended tutorial sequence that
slowly introduces the game mechanics
to you. It is split into six “days,” but not
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using this walkthrough • roxas
STAGE ORDER
Jiminy’s Journal gives you
detailed instructions for what to do
in each world and where to go. This
walkthrough compliments that by
offering breakdowns of the boss
battles waiting in each world, and
notes about when you obtain certain
easy-to-miss key items. Between this
guide and Jiminy’s Journal, you should
never be at a loss or confused about
where to go.
Once you’ve finished the
introductory segment of the game,
you can visit the various World stages
in any order. Usually in games with
selectable stages there is a “best”
order to play them in, but since
Kingdom Hearts II is more about
efficient Ability use than level boosting,
that’s not really the case here. You can
honestly play the game in whatever
order you please.
To reflect this, the walkthrough lists
game events by location rather than
order. When you visit a world, simply
go to the walkthrough section for that
location and check the Event that
corresponds to where you are in the
plot. That segment of the walkthrough
will tell you what you need to know
about boss fights and key items. You
know there’s storyline waiting for
you in a particular location when a
cutscene announces it, or when you
see a bright star circling above
the world.
DIFFICULTY
When you begin a game of Kingdom
Hearts II, you select one of three
difficulty levels: Beginner, Standard or
Proud. You should be careful to pick
the difficulty that best fits your style
(and reflexes) as a gamer.
Beginner mode is best for players
who are very young, have poor
reflexes or are only playing the game
to see the cutscenes and story. By
playing the game on Beginner, the
difficulty level for the fights becomes
so low as to be negligible. You’ll be
able to breeze through most of the
game without ever healing. There
are some distinct downsides, though.
Chances are you’ll never see Final
Form, and you can’t unlock the bonus
ending movie.
Standard is a bit easier than the
original Kingdom Hearts, but offers
far more actual challenge than the
Beginner version. This is the mode to
play through if you enjoy completing
mini-games and optional challenges,
but aren’t so interested in going
through the game on its highest
combat difficulty. To unlock the
bonus ending video in this mode, you
have to complete Jiminy’s Journal.
This is incredibly difficult and timeconsuming. You have to master all
of the mini-games, fully complete
the Underdrome events and defeat
Sephiroth. Unlocking the video in
Proud mode is actually easier.
Proud mode is for players with fast,
action-gamer reflexes and an appetite
for grueling boss battles. Surviving
Proud Mode calls for a player to rely
on Reaction commands, along with
walkthrough
WALKTHROUGH
08
Kingdom Hearts II
strategy guide
Faced on Day 6, this is the grand
finale of Roxas’ storyline. Remember
that all of the flames that appear
during this battle do damage, including
the battlefield’s flaming walls and the
lava that Axel occasionally coats the
floor with. Usually, after filling the area
with lava, Axel dives outside of the
flaming walls. Lock-on to him and track
his position to make sure you hit the
Reaction that pops up when he dives
back into the ring of fire. If you hit it
successfully, you can follow up with
two more spectacular Reactions. This
stuns Axel, giving you an opening for
more combos.
HOLLOW BASTION
FIRST EVENT
At the Bailey, you fight invading
Nobodies with a solo Sora alongside
Leon. This battle is a type we’ll refer
to as a “gauge battle.” Gauge battles
are defensive events where you have
to keep a certain gauge as high as
possible during the battle’s time limit.
During the battle, enemies spawn
infinitely, so the challenge is to hold
your ground. In this particular battle,
the spawning Nobodies will deplete
the gates gauge if they are able to
attack it.
As gauge battles go, this one is
pretty easy. Position yourself with
your back to the gate area and pick
hollow bastion
BOSS: AXEL
walkthrough
all of those days feature combat or a
boss fight.
Boss: Twilight Thorn
You face this battle on Day 3 in
a location that will be very familiar
to you if you played the original
Kingdom Hearts. It’s a crash course
in how you’ll be expected to use
Reaction commands against bosses
for the rest of the game. After fully
countering Twilight Thorn’s main
attack sequence with Reactions, you
can wail away at his vulnerable head
with combos to pile on extra damage.
Twilight Thorn also has attacks
that don’t trigger Reaction
commands, mostly involving fl ailing
with his arms. One of his attacks
will summon small Nobodies called
Creepers that you need to kill off
quickly. Twilight Thorn lowers his
head enough that you can hit it on
occasion, and you can even use a
Reaction command against him then.
Take advantage of this opening to
attack, but don’t press your luck.
09
Nobodies off one at a time through
the first wave. When the second
wave arrives, focus on taking out the
Creepers and leave the more powerful
Samurai for Leon to handle. If Samurai
do close in on the gates, then don’t
engage them at melee range until
you have to. Blast away with Blizzard
instead. Your reward is the Fire spell
for Sora.
SECOND EVENT: THE 100 ACRE
WOOD
After you clear the First Event
for Beast’s Castle, the Gummi Ship
automatically returns to Hollow Bastion
to open this world up to you. When
you return to Merlin’s House, you’ll find
Heartless have stolen pages from the
book that contains the 100 Acre Wood,
and this has affected Pooh’s memory.
To make Pooh remember Sora, you
need to gather Torn Pages up from the
various worlds you visit. You always
find Torn Pages in the large, ornate
treasure chests that you find key items
and Maps in. There are five in all, and
their locations are as follows.
The Library in Disney Castle
The Oasis in The Pride Lands
The Crystal Fissure in Hollow
Bastion
The Throne Room in The Land of
Dragons
The Tower in Agrabah
Each Torn Page opens up a new
section of the 100 Acre Wood for
you to explore, and a new minigame
to play, by entering Pooh’s book at
Merlin’s House. 100 Acre Wood is also
loaded with valuable treasures, and
you get some important power-ups for
finishing the entire world. You don’t
have to do this, but it is a requirement
for getting the bonus ending video and
setting Sora up to handle the tough
challenges at the end of the game.
THIRD EVENT: MERLIN’S DOOR
Go to Merlin’s House after opening
up the Hall of the Cornerstone at
Disney Castle. Merlin automatically
takes you back to Disney Castle during
the ensuing cutscene, and opens up
the “Disney Castle Second Event:
Timeless River” sequence.
FOURTH EVENT: SPACE PARANOIDS
Make sure you’ve cleared the first
visit to all of the other worlds before
you do this event. You can go back
and do them later, but their storylines
won’t make much sense then. Don’t
enter the Postern until you’ve gotten
the Castle Perimeter Map! It’s by
Aerith’s location.
BOSS: HOSTILE PROGRAM
This battle incorporates the cluster
gauge gimmick. Beat enough data
orbs out of the Hostile Program to fill
up the cluster gauge, and you can use
the Freeze Reaction to stun him. Then
use Sora and Tron’s Limit or a Drive
Form to do massive damage. Stick
to Valor for this battle, since Master’s
higher Drive Gauge requirement slows
it down too much to be useful.
If you’ve leveled Wisdom Form up
enough to have its Quick Run ability,
you can use it to wonderful effect in
this battle. Hostile Program relies on
spamming weak projectiles to attack,
which can drive you annoyingly far
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Kingdom Hearts II
strategy guide
walkthrough
BOSS FIGHT: DEMYX
At first this fight seems like a repeat
of your first run-in with Demyx, where
you have to defeat 50 of his water
forms in 40 seconds. Focus on using
Reactions and you’ll be fine, especially
if you go into the fight with Reaction
Boost equipped.
Then Demyx wades into the fray
himself, and you’ll find he can be a
very tough opponent. He glides along
the ground like Wisdom Form, kicking
up huge shafts of water in his wake.
He can also blast you with water and
occasionally challenges you to defeat
10 of his water forms in 10 seconds.
Hit and run tactics work best here - run
him, hit him with a ground combo, then
fall back to see what he does next.
Wisdom Form can help out a lot here,
but be cautious about Driving. Getting
caught with the 10-second challenge
in mid-transformation is enough to
lose the battle.
SIXTH EVENT: RETURN TO SPACE
PARANOIDS / BOSS: SARK AND
THE MCP
This is essentially a two-part
boss. First, focus on Sark and throw
everything you’ve got into damaging
him. Sark can teleport around and
throw projectiles, but you can Reflect
them. MCP resurrects Sark after you
beat him and turns him into a giant.
You can’t beat giant Sark, but you
can stun him by battering his shins
and head. You can also retreat until
Sark summons a wall, and then use
a Reaction process to stun him.
When giant Sark is stunned, turn your
attention toward the MCP at the center
of the room. Attack the wall spinning
around it to create an opening, and
then use the Delete Reaction to
damage the MCP. Eventually MCP
recovers and starts attacking you with
lasers, but they’re easily avoided if
you’ve leveled up High Jump. Once
giant Sark revives, repeat the process
until you finally delete the MCP.
Finishing Space Paranoids restores
Hollow Bastion to Radiant Garden,
and opens up an optional but very
satisfying event.
SEPHIROTH IS THE
HARDEST BATTLE IN THE
GAME, MUCH HARDER
THAN THE FINAL BOSS
SEVENTH EVENT: SEPHIROTH /
BOSS: SEPHIROTH
This is the single hardest battle in
the game. It is much, much harder
than simply beating the final boss.
Don’t try it until you’ve leveled all
of Sora’s Drive Forms to seven and
maximized all of his Growth abilities.
It helps to be, at the very least, level
73. It is worth completing before
attempting the Paradox Cups in the
Underdrome, as the rewards for
completion come in handy there.
Sephiroth is waiting for you in the Dark
Depths area of town.
The first part of this battle is about
defense. Hit the Block Reaction
whenever it’s available to you, and
send Sora into battle with all of his
square button defensive abilities
equipped. You also want Retaliating
Slash, Negative Combo, Aerial Spiral
and any guard-crushing abilities you
have.
Since you fight solo, you can’t Drive
and the only Limit you can use is a
weak version of Trinity.
Trinity still does some impressive
damage to Sephiroth, and can work as
part of a wicked combo with Berserk
Charge. Avoid anything that lengthens
your combo chains, since this gives
Sephiroth more opportunities to punish
you. The only spells worth taking into
the battle are Cure and Reflect, but
you want to use Cure very sparingly.
Spare your MP for hammering
Sephiroth with Trinity when there’s an
opening, or using Reflect to counter
Sephiroth the meteors he summons.
Sephiroth leaves very few safe
openings for you to attack. If you
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hollow bastion • the land of dragons
away from it unless you’re an expert
with Guard or Reflect. Quick Run
lets you close on Hostile Program
quickly and interrupt its attacks with air
combos.
Hostile Program’s first form is
defeated once you’ve smashed off
its individual body parts. This causes
it to manifest its second form, where
it attacks by firing lasers in a variety
of patterns. When Hostile Program
approaches the center of the room, it
detaches its arms and begins using
them to spam lasers in an annoyingly
hard-to-damage pattern. If you’ve
leveled up Quick Run and High Jump,
they can save you a lot of grief here.
You can also Drive or Reflect through
the lasers. Beating Hostile Program in
this form puts him down for good.
FIFTH EVENT: BATTLE FOR
HOLLOW BASTION
This event marks the halfway point
of Kingdom Hearts II.
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BEAST’S CASTLE
THE LAND OF DRAGONS
FIRST EVENT / BOSS: SHAN-YU
This is a gauge battle, with
Heartless and Shan-Yu trying to
storm the gates of the palace. Your
first priority should be defending the
gates, and then damaging Shan-Yu.
His Reaction does immense damage
against him if you can hammer the
triangle button quickly enough. The
quickest way to end this battle is to
have Sora focus on Shan-Yu, while
you configure your party members to
eliminate the Heartless. If anything
breaks through to damage the gate,
quickly drop what you’re doing and
eliminate it. Don’t hesitate to use
Mulan and Sora’s Limit to clear the
area after a successful Reaction.
SECOND EVENT / BOSS: MYSTERY
MAN
Sora fights this boss solo, but he
shouldn’t pose much of a threat to you.
While he hits hard, he never chains
attacks together. Stay just out of his
range, wait for him to attack, then
Quick Run in and hammer him with
a ground combo. Dash back out of
range, keep moving and wait for your
next opportunity.
BOSS: STORM RIDER
Make sure Sora has his air combo
abilities equipped before this fight.
Overall this is a surprisingly simple
pattern boss. Use the Reaction the
tornados make available to you to
send Sora soaring into the air, and
try to land on the Storm Rider’s back.
If you’re successful, lock-on to one
of its horns and start pummeling it
mercilessly. Storm Rider will try to
shake you off, but there’s a Reaction
you can use to keep ahold of his back.
If you’re caught on the ground, your
options are more limited. You can
trigger a Reaction that does damage
and stuns Storm Rider by standing in
its path as it buzzes the center of the
area, but this is pretty risky. You can
Reflect its projectile attacks. When
Storm Rider lands in front of the
palace, get in its face and use Sora
and Mulan’s Limit if it’s available. If not,
BOSS: THE BEAST
The objective here is to awaken
the Beast using Cogsworth’s Wake
Up Reaction. This is a simple matter
of getting near the Beast, using the
Reaction and going mad with combos
while he’s stunned. If Cogsworth runs
out of energy, you’ll need to use the
Charge Reaction to restore him before
you can access the Wake Up Reaction
again. Don’t worry too much about
defense in this battle, but don’t let
Beast corner you.
BOSS: SHADOW STALKER AND
DARK THORN
Shadow Stalker is an annoying
boss whose movements are hard to
track. He’s most easily damaged with
Sora and Beast’s Limit command. Use
Lock-on to track Shadow Stalker’s
movements, and if it disappears, you
know a special attack is coming.
If the Stalker moves upward, it’s
going to drop the chandelier on you,
so get to the edge of the room. If it
disappears through the window, it’s
going to fire a wave of energy into the
center of the room, so get behind the
pillars. If it disappears into the pillars,
it’s going to attack you with them, so
clear out toward the rear window. If it
disappears into the ground, then watch
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the land of dragons • beast’s castle
attack at any other time, you’ll be
punished severely. Your main opening
is after using a successful Block
Reaction to stave off Sephiroth’s
run-past maneuver. The second main
opening is when he rises into the air.
Hit him to break his stance, and then
punish him with Trinity or combo hits.
If you don’t break Sephiroth’s stance
in time, he’ll use a technique that
leaves your HP at 1 and your MP at 0.
Learn Sephiroth’s movement
patterns as fast as possible if you
want to beat him. Sephiroth has a
whopping 15 life gauges, so a lot of
your strategy here is going to boil
down to patience. Wait for or create
openings, stay on the defensive and
don’t let yourself spam healing items
any more than you have to.
There are no automatic rewards for
beating Sephiroth, but speak to Cloud
after you do. Return to Sephiroth’s
location in Dark Depths and speak to
him. After the events unfold, speak
to Tifa to get the amazing Fenrir
keyblade.
FIRST EVENT / BOSS:
THRESHOLDER AND POSSESSOR
To beat the Thresholder, you have
to reduce its HP and then use a
Reaction command to force out the
Possessor that is controlling it. Valor
Form is perfect for tearing through
Thresholder’s HP, but make sure you
get rid of the groups of Heartless that
spawn to escort it before Driving. If
you fight enemies alongside the rear
wall opposite the Thresholder, its
attacks can’t reach you. You can even
snipe the boss with Blizzard from
there.
Once you’ve forced the Possessor
out once, the Thresholder begins a
second attack pattern that uses lots
of projectiles. Now you want to get as
close to the Thresholder as possible.
Hammer it with combos and Drive into
Valor Form immediately if you get the
chance. When Thresholder’s HP is
exhausted, the Possessor emerges
again. Destroy it to end the battle.
walkthrough
then just lock-on to its horns and start
an air combo.
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BOSS: DEMYX
For this battle, you have to defeat
100 of Demyx’s water creations in 80
seconds. The most efficient way to do
this is with the “Wild Dance” Reaction
and powerful ground combos. Use Fire
to boost your combos, since Demyx is
vulnerable to it. Don’t use Limits. Just
hammer the Reaction command and
beat on the nearest water creature
between Reactions.
BOSS: PETE
On top of a boss fight, this is a
gauge battle where you have to protect
Megara from Pete and the Heartless
that are escorting him. Megara’s
damage gauge begins empty and
slowly fills as enemies attack her.
Your first goal in the battle should be
wiping out the Heartless as quickly
as you can with Limits. Don’t Drive.
Once the Heartless are gone, wail
on Pete until Hercules shows up to
begin the second phase of the battle.
Sometimes Pete shields himself, so
retreat when he does.
Once Hercules arrives, the fight
becomes a race against a two-minute
time limit. You can use the Pinball
Reaction command to break through
Pete’s shield. Ignore the Heartless and
just focus on heaping combo damage
onto Pete. When he begins to dance in
place, fall back and get ready to leap
over a ground shockwave. When Pete
drops rocks on you, make your way to
Hercules and activate the Aura Guard
Reaction.
BOSS: HYDRA
Use hit-and-run tactics to hit Hydra’s
head whenever it’s low enough.
Be ready to jump over its tail. Use
the Vanquish Reaction at your first
opportunity. This cuts off its first
head, but three more grow up from
the ground in its place. Listen to Phil’s
advice when he begins shouting,
and use the Reaction commands he
sets up to knock the three heads out.
Then rush them with air combos and
Reactions. You have to defeat all three
at once within a certain time limit to
move to the next phase of the battle.
After the three heads go down,
Hydra revives with a whopping seven
heads. Avoid its attacks and wait
for a chance to initiate the Pegasus
Run Reaction sequence. Hammer
triangle during the attack to make it
infl ict maximum damage. Between
Pegasus Runs, just hit heads with air
combos as they come into range. When
the seven-headed body goes down, you
can use a final Vanquish command to
finish Hydra off for good.
SECOND EVENT / BOSS FIGHT:
HADES
Initially, Hades is invulnerable, but
flail at him with ground combos for
a bit to activate the battle prompt
that lets you start damaging him.
Basically, when Hades is fiery red,
you can’t damage him until the
OLYMPUS COLISEUM
FIRST EVENT / BOSS: CERBERUS
Keep a careful eye on your HP
during this fight. Cerberus moves by
leaping around the room, which results
in a damaging shockwave you need
to jump over. Besides that he shoots
a lot of projectiles you need to block
or evade, so stay close to Cerberus
unless you’re trying to heal. If you
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disney casstle • atlantica
SECOND EVENT
BOSS: XALDIN
This is the first brutally difficult boss
fight you encounter in Kingdom Hearts
II. Surviving hinges on how quickly you
can master Xaldin’s Reactions. Each
time you use the Learn Reaction, you
gain a Jump Reaction that Sora can
use in place of a standard attack. You
don’t have to use Jumps immediately,
so don’t hesitate to hoard them. If
you hit Xaldin with a Jump Reaction,
you create an opening for Sora to
land an air combo. Go into the battle
with Sora’s air combo abilities fully
equipped and Reaction Boost to do
even more damage this way. You also
want to have Quick Run equipped, so
you can rapidly retreat when Xaldin
glows and begins berserking, or when
he uses his long-range wind attack.
When you have sufficient meter, it’s
worth trying to Drive into Master Form
so you can use its massive air combo
power to hammer Xaldin down faster.
take the risk of rushing Cerberus
head-on, you can trigger his threephase Reaction command and score
some big damage. After the Reaction,
Cerberus will be stunned and wide
open for taking damage from Sora and
Auron’s Limit command.
walkthrough
out for a glowing circle to form around
Sora’s feet, and leap aside when the
floor tries to swallow him up.
You can only damage the Shadow
Stalker when it possesses a physical
object like the pillars or chandelier, so
be ready to rush back and pile on the
combo damage after Shadow Stalker
has finished its attacks in these forms.
When its HP is down to zero, you’ll
be able to use a Release Reaction
command to force the Shadow Stalker
into the open. Then it transforms into
its more powerful Dark Thorn form.
This is a more straightforward
fight, but a tough one. Focus on using
Valor Form to dish out damage in this
battle, as Reactions are of limited use.
There’s a defensive Reaction you can
use to grab a pillar when Dark Thorn is
throwing Sora around, and a threestage offensive Reaction you can use
when fighting Dark Thorn in the center
of the room. The center of the room,
unfortunately, is the most dangerous
area to confront Dark Thorn in.
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FIRST EVENT
Seek out Queen Minnie to get the
Disney Castle Map, and then escort
her to the Audience Chamber. This
battle continues until you’ve gotten her
to the throne of Disney Castle.
This is a damage gauge battle
where you have to protect Minnie
from the Heartless. Clear the way,
and then let her know when it’s safe
to head to Sora’s position by using the
Call Over Reaction. When standing
near Minnie, you can use the Faith
Reaction to do heavy damage to all
nearby Heartless. Winning this battle
is best accomplished by slowly using
Sora to trigger the spawn points in the
hallway, then calling Minnie over when
the coast is clear.
When you’re inside the Audience
Chamber, stay close to Minnie and lure
the enemies toward you so you can
blast them with Faith. Finish off any
stragglers with combos or magic, and
SECOND EVENT: TIMELESS RIVWER /
BOSS: PETE
Captain Pete joins you for this
battle, which is helpful (if existentially
problematical). First you fight Evil
Pete at the Wharf, where his moves
are pretty similar to his moves in the
Olympus Coliseum battle. Avoid them
the same way, and keep an eye on
Captain Pete. Sometimes he gets
overexcited and interrupts your moves,
but you can calm him down with the
About Face Reaction.
Once Evil Pete takes so much
damage, he’ll start changing the
location of the battle to other parts of
Timeless River. Fight him as normal
through Scene of the Fire. In Mickey’s
House, you’ll have to compensate for
the pull of the giant vacuum. Lilliput
is more standard battling, and then
Building Site gives you a useful
Reaction to use against Evil Pete. In
these last two rooms, Evil Pete starts
summoning his shield again, so fall
back while it’s up.
PORT ROYAL
FIRST EVENT / BOSS: BARBOSSA
During this battle, Pete summons
an Illuminator Heartless that darkens
the area, which makes damaging
Barbossa impossible. Try to find
Illuminators and kill them as quickly as
you can. They attach to the walls, so
search the outer perimeter of the cave
for them.
With the Illuminator gone, you can
fight Barbossa using the tactics that
worked against the other cursed
pirates. Lure him into the moonlight,
and then pelt him with magic spells
ATLANTICA
Somewhat similar to the 100 Acre
Wood, Atlantica is another level that’s
all about playing minigames. In this
case, though, it’s a very specific kind
of minigame: a rhythm game where
you have to tap or repeatedly press
buttons when prompted. Each prompt
features a gauge that slowly counts
down, and if you hit the button when
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port royal • atlantica agrabah • halloween town
DISNEY CASTLE
then repeat the process until they’re
all dead. The battle ends once you’ve
gotten Minnie to the throne and used
the Finish Reaction command.
walkthrough
flames are doused. Hercules wades
into the fray as an ally, and you can
do an Aura Sphere Reaction with
him that changes Hades from red to
blue. This is the best time to attack
him, so wade in and hit him with a
Limit. Eventually Hades summons
flames around himself and turns red
again, so fall back when you see this
happening. Hades can also summon
a giant fireball that spreads wildfires
all over the battlefield, which can be a
headache for getting back to Hercules.
Have Quick Run equipped, or Drive
into Wisdom Form.
the gauge is in the right area, you’ll
receive a particularly good score. You
don’t have to complete this world, but
it’s a bonus video requirement and
yields up some important items.
Atlantica is broken up into a series
of five musicals, each with its own
completion requirements.
Some musicals can’t be completed
until you’ve acquired certain abilities
elsewhere in the game.
The musicals are:
Swim This Way - You need to
get one Excellent ranking during the
performance.
Part of Your World: You can’t
attempt this song until Sora can cast
Magnet. Clearing requires you to
get five Excellent rankings in a row.
Getting a Good or Bad breaks the
combo!
Under the Sea - You can’t attempt
this song until Sora has five meters of
Drive Gauge. Succeed in improving
Ariel’s mood to clear it.
Ursula’s Revenge - You can’t
attempt this song until Sora’s Magnet
has received one power-up and
become Magnera. Defeat Ursula by
getting Excellent and hammering the
cross button when prompted.
A New Day is Dawning - You can’t
attempt this song until Sora’s Thunder
has received two power-ups and
become Thundaga. Acquire 30,000
points or more to pass the song.
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walkthrough
up to his head and beat him until the
effect wears off. You can Reflect his
projectile attacks if you want. When he
uses his spell that throws buildings at
you, focus completely on dodging as
you fly toward Jafar in the distance.
014
HALLOWEEN TOWN
SECOND EVENT / BOSS: GRIM REAPER
You want as many people with as
many levels of Draw in the active party
as possible, and Sora needs to have
Quick Run. Jack and his multiple Draw
levels are a must-use. This boss battle
functions as sort of an orb battle: the
Grim Reaper can grab the cursed gold
coins out of the chest to make itself
impervious to damage. The only way
to knock coins away from the Reaper
is to cast magic at it, which makes
Donald your other must-use character.
Thunder should be your spell of choice
here, as it can always hit the Grim
Reaper. Gather up all the coins and
then quickly deposit them in the chest
with the Replace Reaction.
Once you’ve gotten all the coins
away from the Grim Reaper, you can
start damaging it. Master Form’s blend
of air combo and magic power is ideal
for this fight, so Drive whenever you
can. Otherwise, hammer Grim Reaper
with air combos for as long as you
can. Avoid using Limits in this battle,
since you need to conserve your MP
for knocking coins out of the Reaper.
Sometimes when the Reaper tries
to draw coins out of the chest, Sora
can execute a Reaction that interrupts
the Grim Reaper and then knocks an
impressive chunk of coinage out of him.
ATLANTICA AGRABAH
FIRST EVENT / BOSS: VOLCANIC
LORD AND BLIZZARD LORD
The most efficient way to beat them
is to pick one or the other, focus on it
until it’s beaten, then mop up the other
one. Set both Fire and Blizzard to your
magic shortcuts beforehand, since
both are extremely useful in this battle.
Likewise, both of your Drive forms
are extremely useful, but avoid using
Limits.
Volcanic Lord has a Firegun
Reaction, and a second that damages
both bosses you can trigger by running
underneath Volcanic Lord when he’s
bouncing around the stage. If you do
enough damage to Volcanic Lord, he’ll
burst into Fiery Globe enemies you
can defeat for HP Balls. Sometimes
he tries to attack Sora with a wave of
ground fireballs, which you can cancel
by casting Blizzard.
Blizzard Lord is a slower boss
with more annoying abilities. When
he starts inhaling, rush toward him
to initiate the Blizzagun Reaction.
Sometimes Blizzard Lord freezes your
party members, which makes Driving
impossible. Thaw them out by standing
nearby and casting Fire. Blizzard Lord
also tries to freeze Sora, so quickly
cast Fire when you see the ice crystals
forming.
SECOND EVENT / BOSS: JAFAR
Sora fights Jafar solo on the Magic
Carpet, so hope you’ve gotten used
to the controls by now. The easiest
way to beat Jafar is to attack his
stomach until he’s stunned, then soar
BOSS: OOGIE BOOGIE
Oogie’s taken over the conveyor
belts in Santa’s wrapping room. The
result is a gimmick boss battle that
can be rather tough depending on
how your luck goes. You need to
move from belt to belt using Donald’s
advice until you’re on the one that’s
spawning the boxes that will damage
Oogie. Use Reaction commands to lob
the boxes up at the control tower, and
otherwise constantly move forward.
The conveyor can and will drag you
back onto a wall of spikes.
Once you’ve hit Oogie roughly a
dozen boxes, he topples out of the
control tower. Hammer him with all of
your most powerful moves, but don’t
Drive. Instead, use your most powerful
ground combos and Limits. If you don’t
kill him while he’s out of the tower, he’ll
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pride lands • twilight town
and Sora’s combos. Drive into the
Wisdom Form as frequently as you
can. Close on Barbossa when you
can, as there are some Reactions you
can use to damage him severely if
your timing is right.
FIRST EVENT / BOSS: PRISON
KEEPER
Prison Keeper has a ton of HP.
Even with all of your air combo boost
skills equipped you’ll have a hard time
damaging him. You want to be able to
rely on Guard, Reflect magic and other
defensive abilities to block Prison
Keeper’s spells and projectiles. Your
Drive of choice should be Wisdom
Form, whose boosted Thunder spell
and Shoot attack make it a bit easier
to keep heaping on the damage.
Don’t bother with your Limits, as they
don’t have the aerial reach to damage
Prison Keeper.
Watch Prison Keeper carefully and
don’t let up on it for a minute longer
than you have to. When it tilts its head
back, pause your combos and try to hit
the Inside Combo Reaction command.
When it blasts the area with white
energy, get underneath it and start an
air combo. If it’s too high in the air to
be reached and you can’t Drive, then
run to the top of Curly Hill and you
should be able to air combo. Scaling
Curly Hill’s increasingly narrow summit
can be a giant pain, so try not to get
frustrated. When you’re healing, try to
keep Curly Hill between yourself and
the Prison Keeper so its attacks don’t
interrupt you.
Kingdom Hearts II
strategy guide
SECOND EVENT / BOSS: BANZAI,
SHENZI AND ED
Magnet makes it easy to demolish
this trio. Gather them up and pummel
them with Limits.
SECOND EVENT / BOSS: LACK,
SHOCK AND BARREL
This fight is surprisingly tricky.
You need to beat each of the kids
senseless, and trap them in boxes with
Reactions. If you leave a kid in a box
for too long without winning the fight,
they’ll break out and you have to trap
them all over again. Using Magnet
to herd them all together for mass
beatings helps.
BOSS FIGHT: EXPERIMENT
Body parts fall off the Experiment
as you damage it. Sometimes they’ll
regenerate, and sometimes they’ll
start attacking you on their own. The
left arm jerks around the battlefield,
and its head flies through the sky and
fires beams at you from above. When
attached, the arm attacks with a wind
blast and the head summons death
lasers from above. Evading should be
easy by now. When the torso flies off,
you can approach it to trigger a useful
Reaction that connects the torso
back to the other parts. You can only
damage the Experiment when it has
a torso. When the body is together,
Limits and any Drive form can inflict
massive damage.
TWILIGHT TOWN
FIRST EVENT / BOSS: BANZAI,
SHENZI AND ED
This is a damage gauge battle
where you must protect Timon and
Pumbaa from the three hyenas as you
fight them. Try to keep your back to a
wall and Timon and Pumbaa behind
you. Use the Call Over Reaction to get
Pumbaa to follow you. Map Magnet
to your shortcut command and use it
to gather the hyenas into an easilymanaged group.
FIRST EVENT
After Sora wakes up, head toward
the train station. There you’ll fight a
battle against 10 Dusks and an infinite
amount of Creeper Nobodies. It’ll
end either when Sora takes so much
damage, or after 90 seconds. When
the story events wrap up, you’ll have
the Munny Pouch, Crystal Orb and
Secret Ansem’s Report 2 items. Don’t
worry about getting Report 2 first;
you don’t receive the Secret Ansem
Reports in numerical order. Other
Secret Ansem’s Report items come to
you as you beat bosses and complete
story events. It isn’t possible to beat
the game without getting them all.
BOSS: SCAR
Use Sora and Simba’s Limit
whenever Scar’s within attack range
and you have the MP. When Scar’s
body is surrounded by dark energy
or fire, get ready to hammer Dash to
SECOND EVENT
Head to the Sandlot and defend
Seifer and his gang from Nobodies.
This nets you Seifer’s Trophy. Go to
the Station to acquire the Oathkeeper
keyblade.
PRIDE LANDS
YOU MUST PROTECT
TIMON AND PUMBAA
FROM THREE VICIOUS
HYENAS IN PRIDE LANDS
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the world that never was
eventually hop back in and you’ll have
to start the whole process over again.
Expect to have to attack him two or
three times like this to win the fight.
After he’s taken some damage,
Oogie gets a bit more aggressive.
He starts summoning smashing fists,
purple lasers and bags full of Heartless.
You can dodge the fists pretty easily,
and dodging the lasers is feasible if you
stop paying attention to the boxes while
they’re out. The Heartless are a total
pain, because the time it takes to fight
them drives you back onto the spikes.
Soup up your air combos as much as
you can, so you can defeat them more
quickly. Be patient and keep your HP
high, and eventually you’ll wear Oogie
Boogie out.
BOSS: GROUNDSHAKER
Sora and Simba take on this fight
alone, which makes things harder
by restricting your ability to heal.
Basically, you want to dash toward
its legs and use the Reaction to get
up on its back. Then lock on to it and
use your Limit with Simba to damage
it. Keep attacking until you get thrown
off, then dodge the waves of projectile
and beam attacks that follow. Circle
around to the Groundshaker’s head
and damage it to summon the Fend
Reaction. Once you Fend, then you
can get back up on Groundshaker’s
back again. Hang in there and repeat
this until the giant goes down.
walkthrough
dodge his attacks. If Scar pins you,
use the Counter Reaction.
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Kingdom Hearts II
strategy guide
This is the game’s final world.
Before entering it, make sure you’ve
completed Atlantica and the 100 Acre
Wood. The rewards for doing so come
in handy here.
BOSS: XIGBAR
All of the battles in this world are
pretty tough, but this is one of the
worst. Be sure to equip Reaction
Boost. Initially, Xigbar snipes at you,
and the only way to force him down
is to hit the Break and Warp Snipe
Reactions. He’ll begin teleporting
around and taking potshots at you.
Reflect is the best way to handle this.
Getting hit by his own shots dazes him
and leaves him open for attacks and
Limits. Sometimes he attacks with blue
lasers that give you a chance to use
a Reaction to counter them. As the
battle progresses, Xigbar will change
the shape of the area you’re fighting in.
Once it shrinks to a tiny square, Xigbar
begins attacking more rapidly. Spam
Reflect to send the shots back at him,
and then dodge the giant beams that
rain from the ceiling.
BOSS: SAI’X
Another gimmick boss fight, but
this is way more brutal than Luxord.
Sai’x has a berserk gauge in the upper
left-hand corner of the screen. When it
fills, Sai’x enters a terrifying berserker
fury until the gauge fully depletes. You
can force Sai’x out of his berserker
fury by running to one of the weapons
buried in the ground and using the
Berserk Reaction to counter-attack
him. Reaction Boost can help the
Berserk Reaction deal more damage
and save you a lot of grief.
Most of Sai’x’s attacks are groundwaves. As he takes more damage and
his berserker fury gets more intense,
the ground-waves get harder to leap
over and start multihitting. Glide or
Final Form is best for evading them,
but you can make do with leveled-up
High Jump if you have to. When he’s
not in berserker fury is the best time
to attack, pummeling him with ground
combos and Limits, but the damage
you do fills up his berserk gauge more
quickly.
BOSS: XEMNAS
Once again, Sora enters this battle
solo. This fight has a tricky beginning,
where Xemnas cloaks himself in
darkness to make himself invincible.
Then he surrounds Sora with an aura
that slowly leeches his MP. Run up the
front steps of the building to break this
effect with the Face Down Reaction
sequence.
Once the battle-proper picks up,
you’ll find Xemnas doesn’t have much
in his bag of tricks. He can cloak
himself in darkness for short periods
of time and teleport; just avoid him
until the darkness clears. He rushes
Sora with a pair of swords, which you
should also retreat from. Wait until he
summons a shield of light in front of
himself to prepare your offense. Circle
around and rush him from the side
with ground combos until he recovers.
This hit-and-run game is slow but
effective.
At this point, you have the option to
enter the door to Kingdom Hearts, and
the full contents of Jiminy’s Journal will
be unlocked for you. If there’s anything
you need to complete to see the bonus
ending video, now is the time to go
leave and finish up before moving on
to complete the game. Be sure to enter
with enough resources to see the
immense five-stage final boss battle
through.
BOSS: FINAL XEMNAS
This time Xemnas is serious. Be
sure to have Reaction Boost equipped.
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the world that never was
THE WORLD THAT
NEVER WAS
BOSS: LUXORD
This is a rather strange gimmick
battle that Sora goes through solo.
You can’t damage Luxord in terms of
HP. Instead, both Sora and Luxord
have a time gauge. The goal of the
battle is to deplete Luxord’s time
gauge with successful attacks before
he can do the same to you. Luxord can
still damage you, of course, so don’t
forget to keep an eye on Sora’s HP in
this battle. Leaf Bracer and Cure do
the trick nicely.
Luxord primarily likes to transform
Sora into either a card or a die, which
cuts off magic and items. Sora can
attack Luxord in these forms, though,
and don’t hesitate to do so. Luxord can
also turn himself into a card, which
sets up the Flip Reaction. There’s also
a Begin Game reaction that lets you
gamble against Luxord with Reactions.
Your Attack command turns into a
series of Xs and Os; tap it when an
O appears to do damage. Tapping
an X turns Sora into a die or card.
Obviously, Reaction Boost is an ability
you really want to equip before this
battle.
When Luxord gets more serious
about fighting, he begins to teleport
and spam the area with cards. Use
Sora’s Growth abilities to evade the
attacks. When you have an opening,
rush Luxord and hammer him with
ground combos. As long as you don’t
let Luxord damage Sora too much, he
should run out of time before you do.
walkthrough
THIRD EVENT
Before you let the plot take you into
Roxas’ Twilight Town, make absolutely
sure that you get the Ultima Recipe
from the chest in the area just outside
the computer room. When you move
from the other Twilight Town to the
intermediary world, there is a plot
event with Axel. You receive the Bond
of Flame keyblade for completing it.
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Kingdom Hearts II
strategy guide
walkthrough
In the battle’s first phase, use the
Reaction commands to get Sora
through the flurry of buildings Xemnas
throws at him.
In the battle’s second phase, you’re
trying to navigate your way around a
pair of giant cannons. Use Reactions
to throw enemies into the cylinders
until the first engine explodes, then
do it again. Magnet helps speed the
process up a lot, since you can throw
in whole clumps of enemies. Be sure
to use the spectacular Stunt Dodge
Reaction to avoid taking damage from
the reactor explosions.
The third phase pits you against
the energy core of the monstrosity
Xemnas has summoned. This
sequence is straightforward: hammer
the core until it puts up a defensive
barrier, then go defeat the Nobodies
that spawn. This drops the barrier, and
you can go back to hammering the
core. The Proceed Reaction lets you
know when you can finish off the core
and move on.
The fourth phase brings you into
a battle with a huge, armored figure
sitting on a throne. Feel free to charge
him and start unloading your offensive
arsenal at him. Since he’s stationary,
Limits are particularly effective.
Occasionally, the boss shields himself,
and then you need to fall back.
Otherwise, just administer a hefty
beating to him.
The fifth phase features Riku and
Sora on a flying bike, and plays
essentially like a Gummi sequence.
The trick here is figuring out the hitbox
for your attacks, and properly using
the Drain ability. You can use Drain to
absorb the energy of the beams the
dragon enemy shoots at Sora, which
charges up the Megalaser Reaction.
For dealing with lesser enemies,
there’s the Laser option for range and
Attack for taking care of whatever gets
close. Once the Megalaser is charged,
score a dead-on hit with it to move
on to the next part of the dragon. You
must take out five different areas of
the dragon to beat it for good.
The sixth phase returns you to
another battle with the armored figure
on the throne. Even if you don’t have
the Glide ability yet, you’ll have the
power to use it here, so rely on it. You
can also jump infinitely by repeatedly
hitting the circle button. Basically, your
challenge here is to get close enough
to the armored figure that you can
unload on him with Limits and combos.
After you’ve done some damage, the
017
WHEN XEMNAS DRAINS
SORA’S MP, RUN UP THE
STEPS OF THE BUILDING
TO BREAK THE EFFECT
figure throws Sora and Riku into deep
space. He follows up flinging beams
and buildings at them. Glide toward
one of the stationary buildings and
send it back at your attacker with a
Reaction. Then just dodge around the
laser-shooting crystal formations to get
back to the armored figure and resume
the fight.
The seventh and final phase of the
battle finally pits you directly against
Xemnas. Survive the opening chain
of Reactions, then the fight begins
in earnest. Xemnas’ favorite attack
is bombarding you with waves of
darkness you can evade by using the
same Reversal Reaction you’ve been
using through the whole game to deal
with Dusks.
When he launches projectiles, use
Riku’s Dark Shield Reaction or Reflect
to block them. Use Reactions with
Riku frequently for both defense and
offense. Xemnas has the annoying
habit of splitting himself in two, and if
you attack the clone, your attacks are
wasted. Generally the real Xemnas
looks a little more solid than his clone,
so fall back and try to get a good
look at both of them before attacking.
Xemnas can teleport, though, so this
is far from easy.
Use Riku’s Limit as frequently as
you can, as its hit area ensures you’ll
be able to hammer Xemnas with it no
matter what. Keep Sora’s HP high and
you’ll be fine for most of the battle,
but the critical point is when Xemnas
uses a move where he captures Sora
and tries to draw his Heart out. When
this happens, the game automatically
has you play as Riku, and you have
to execute a particular Reaction very
quickly to free Sora and begin dealing
damage again.
You know Xemnas is almost dead
when he summons a ludicrous barrage
of beam projectiles, and Sora and Riku
go back to back to defend themselves.
You automatically get access to a
Reflect Reaction, and your standard
attack becomes a Reaction. Hammer
the two buttons simultaneously as fast
as you can to finish the battle, and the
game, in style.
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Kingdom Hearts II
strategy guide
OUR LIST OF ITEMS WILL
HELP YOU IMPROVE YOUR
SYNTHESIS SKILLS AND
LOCATE MATERIALS
ITEM SYNTHESIS
GUIDE
The first time you visit Hollow
Bastion, speak to one of the Moogles
to open up the Item Synthesis system.
Moogles can use certain items you
find in chests or acquire by beating
enemies to create newer, better items
for you. Some of these items can’t be
acquired any other way in the game.
Many are items you can’t purchase
in stores. There’s a Moogle in every
world you visit, so visit him whenever
you see one. The Moogle holds on to
any Synthesis materials you’ve picked
up for you, and sometimes gives you
valuable rewards like AP Boosts and
Elixirs in return for them.
USING THIS GUIDE
This section of the guide is written
on the assumption that you want to
fashion the game’s three ultimate
weapons through item synthesis:
Donald’s Save the Queen, Goofy’s
Save the King and Sora’s Ultima
Weapon. The guide provides
specific advice for how to meet the
requirements for Synthesizing these
three weapons. Synthesizing lesser
items doesn’t really require specific
advice, but you may want to check
the Synthesis Materials list in the next
section if you’re short something and
don’t know how to find it.
Remember that Item Synthesis
in Kingdom Hearts II is a timeconsuming process that requires
lots of patience. If you ever feel the
need to level Sora up, such as before
getting ready to fight Sephiroth, then
taking a break from the main quest
to synthesize items is a good excuse.
Farming Synthesis Materials efficiently
requires patience and the right
combination of skills and equipment.
For optimal drop rates, first equip
each member of your party with the
Lucky Lucky skill that increases the
drop rate of rare items. Its effect
intensifies for every level of it that’s
affecting a party member. Sora learns
it either level 41 (Sword), level 53
(Shield) or level 99 (Staff). Donald
learns it after beating the Old Mansion
Heartless in Twilight Town, and Goofy
learns after you beat Banzai, Shenzi
and Ed at the King’s Den in the
Pridelands.
Next, equip Sora with the Sweet
Memories keyblade you obtain
Even after you’ve found the recipes
for the three ultimate weapons, your
Moogle won’t be able to manufacture
them if you haven’t been synthesizing
items regularly throughout the game.
Your Moogle gains experience with
each item he synthesizes for you. As
he levels up, he’ll automatically unlock
some new Item Synthesis recipes and
let you use a wider range of materials
to affect synthesis. When leveling your
Moogle, be sure to always use a Bright
material when making items. This
doubles the EXP your Moogle gains
from the item, and can get him ready
to manufacture the ultimate recipes
more quickly.
To speed up the leveling process
for your Moogle, what follows is a list
of all the common synthesis items in
the game, what enemy drops them
most frequently, and where that enemy
spawns. Remember that after finding
35 Shards, 25 Stones or 20 Gems
of a given type, you can start simply
buying that ingredient from the Moogle
instead of having to farm it or find it in
treasure chests. Materials not found
on this list can only be acquired from
treasure chests or item synthesis.
Blazing Shard: Hammer
Frame: Timeless River
Blazing Stone: Tornado Step,
Port Royal
Blazing Gem: Fat Bandit, Agrabah
Blazing Crystal: Crimson Jazz,
Hollow Bastion
Frost Shard: Lance Soldier, Beast's
Castle
Frost Stone: Hot Rod, Timeless
River
Frost Gem: Fortuneteller, Agrabah
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using this guide • moogle levels
MOOGLE LEVELS
item synthesis
guide
for completing the Spooky Cave
minigame in the 100 Acre Wood.
Equip Donald with the Meteor Staff
you find in the Seadrift Keep area
of Port Royal. Equip Goofy with the
Genji Shield you obtain for completing
the Titan Cup at the Underdrome in
Olympus Coliseum. Finally, equip
someone in the party with the Lucky
Ring you’re awarded for completing
the Pain & Panic Cup at the
Underdrome in Olympus Coliseum.
This gives your party a whopping
seven levels of Lucky Lucky. You
should rack up rare Synthesis
Materials in no time, although winning
battles with this equipment may be
a little rough at first. It’s good for
sharpening your battle skills, though.
018
019
Kingdom Hearts II
strategy guide
Obtain this item by following the
King Recipe and adding a Serenity
Crystal to the synthesis. The boosted
version grants Goofy MP Rage, while
the standard recipe only grants Item
Boost. The recipe requires:
You find the recipe in a treasure
chest in the Ship's Graveyard in Port
Royal.
ULTIMA WEAPON
Frost Crystal: Living Bone, The
Pridelands
Lightning Shard: Bolt Tower, The Land
of Dragons
Lightning Stone: Emerald Blues,
Halloween Town
Lightning Gem: Armored Knight,
Hollow Bastion
Lightning Crystal: Strafer, Space
Paranoids
Lucid Shard: Trick Ghost, Olympus
Coliseum
Lucid Stone: Toy Soldier,
Halloween Town
Lucid Gem: Bookmaster, Hollow
Bastion
Lucid Crystal: Neoshadow, Hollow
Bastion
Power Shard: Large Body, Beast's
Castle
Power Stone: Luna Bandit, Agrabah
Power Gem: Shaman, The Pridelands
Power Crystal: Morning Star,
Hollow Bastion
Dark Shard: Soldier, Twilight Town
Dark Stone: Assault Rider, The
Land of Dragons
Dark Gem: Gargoyle Knight and
Warrior, Beast's Castle
Dark Crystal: Air Pirate, Port Royal
Dense Shard: Dragoon, Beast's
Castle
Dense Stone: Sniper, The Land of
Dragons
Dense Gem: Samurai, Hollow
Bastion
Dense Crystal: Berserker,
Twilight Town
Twilight Shard: Gambler,
Port Royal
Twilight Stone: Dancer, Hollow Bastion
Twilight Gem: Assassin, Twilight Town
Twilight Crystal: Sorceror, World That
Never Was
Bright Shard: Soldier, Twilight
Bright Stone: Tornado Step, Port Royal
Bright Gem: Aerial Knocker, Magnum
Loader
Bright Crystal: Strafer, Space
Paranoids
Energy Shard: Bolt Tower, The Land of
Dragons
Energy Stone: Trick Ghost, Olympus
Coliseum
Energy Gem: Fortuneteller, Agrabah
Energy Crystal: Bookmaster, . . . . . . . .
Hollow Bastion
Serenity Shard: Fat Bandit, Agrabah
Serenity Stone: Crimson Jazz, Hollow
Bastion
Serenity Gem: Dragoon, Beast's Castle
Serenity Crystal: Samurai, Hollow
Bastion
Orichalcum: Bulky Vendor, The Land
of Dragons
There’s an amusing trick to making
this weapon. Take a look at the
recipe’s ingredients listed below.
Orichalcum+ x13
Orichalcum x1
Mythril Crystal x1
Dense Crystal x1
Twilight Crystal x1
Serenity Crystal x1
It calls for more Orichalcum+ than
is in the game. If you add an Energy
Crystal to the recipe, though, it halves
the requirement to Orichalcum+ x7.
That just happens to be the exact
number of Orichalcum+ you can get in
Kingdom Hearts II!
You obtain all of the Orichalcum+
you need by:
• Completing 100 Acre Wood
• Completing Atlantica
• Beating Goddess of Fate Cup at
the Underdrome in Olympus
Coliseum
• Finding the treasure chest at
Central Computer Mesa in Space
Paranoids
• Finding the treasure chest at
Sunset Terrace in Twilight Town
• Finding the treasure chest
at The Brink of Despair in
TheWorld
That Never Was
• Obtaining one specimen of
every Item Synthesis material in
the game
SAVE THE QUEEN+
Obtain this item by following the
Queen Recipe and adding a Serenity
Crystal to the synthesis. The boosted
version grants Donald MP Hastega,
while the standard recipe only grants
Hyper Healing. The recipe requires:
Dense Shard x9
Dense Stone x7
Dense Gem x5
Dense Crystal x3
Orichalcum x1
Serenity Crystal x1
You find the recipe in a treasure
chest in the Imperial Throne Room in
The Land of Dragons.
You also need a Mythril Crystal,
which you can obtain via treasure
chests or item synthesis.
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save the queen + • save the king + • ultima weapon
Twilight Shard x9
Twilight Stone x7
Twilight Gem x5
Twilight Crystal x3
Orichalcum x1
Serenity Crystal x1
item synthesis
guide
SAVE THE KING+