Cosmo Police Galivan (Famicom)/Area 3

Gathering information
Without any knowledge of what to do in this area, it will be necessary to find and speak with a few Cosmo Police before you have a good idea of where to search. If you don't wish to take time to speak with anyone, skip down to the next section to immediately make progress within the level.

From the starting point, run to the right. Fight past the seemingly out of place ancient warrior, and enter the elevator shaft beyond. Watch out for the sentry attached to the ceiling on the right. If you explore the passage to the right, you will end up in a very dark location with a limited ability to see anything. Ignore it for now, and head down the elevator. After encountering a few more soldiers, you'll see a red gate to the left. Hit it with three Hyper Ray shots, and step inside M1. You'll meet a fellow Cosmo Police who recognizes you and identifies himself as Shadia. He will tell you that you need the Cosmo Eye to see through darkness.

Return to the elevator shaft and drop to the bottom. Run along the bottom corridor to the right, and you'll reach the bottom of another elevator shaft. To the right is room B1. Inside this room is an incredibly large armored soldier. When you step inside, it will ask you if you want to fight. Regardless of how you answer, it will attack you. Beating this soldier is incredibly easy; it cannot advance all the way to either end of the room. Tuck yourself in either corner, squat down, and slash its legs. It will be unable to hurt you, and you will defeat this mini-boss with minimal effort. You won't earn anything for your victory here, but you will be prepared for the next time you encounter one of these giants.

Head back to the left and start riding the elevator up. Midway, you'll see an open passage to the left and a red gate to the right. The open passage leads to an empty room. You won't get too far beyond the red gate on the right before you reach another dark corridor. Continue instead up the elevator. When you reach the top, destroy the red gate on the left with Hyper Rays, and talk to the Cosmo Police inside M2. He will tell you that there are nine warp gates nearby, but that only one of them actually sends you to another dimension.

Head back to the right and cross the elevator shaft to the room beyond. The next hallway will start off with a boomerang throwing centaur. Beyond him are more soldiers and a ceiling sentry. In the bottom of the next pit, an armored guard wearing a jetpack will float down to you. Attack it when it's level with you, and then start jumping on the platforms. Be prepared to fight more jetpack guards as you make your way to the top, and exit to the left. The next corridor contains three sets of split pathways. In the first two splits, there will be a ceiling sentry on the top, and a fast moving rhinoceros like creature along the bottom. The last split will contain two centaurs. If you have plenty of health, fight them all for the experience.

Exit into the next shaft to the left, take out the jetpack guard that rises up from the floor, and blast open the red gate with Hyper Rays. Step inside M3, and you'll meet a Cosmo Police with valuable information. He will tell you that you can destroy the wall below Shadia's room (M1) with the Cosmo Boomerang. If you exit out and climb to the top of the current shaft, you will be blocked by an unremovable gate, so that leaves you with only one option: return to the wall below Shadia.

Discovering a new passage
Whether you took the time to reach M3 and find out the secret to advancing in this area, or just wanted to find out what the real first step is, you should make your way to the bottom of the first elevator shaft, just below room M1, where the Cosmo Police known as Shadia sits. While standing on the floor, switch to your Cosmo Boomerang, and strike the left wall three times. On the third time, the wall should explode, revealing a new pathway behind it.

Step inside. After battling a centaur and a ceiling sentry, you'll run into a wall blocking access to the left side (marked C1 on the map.) Thinking back to ../Area 1/, it would be a good idea to try using the Star Crystal. Sure enough, a hidden elevator will be exposed from behind the wall. Head down, fight the soldiers if you wish, and head to the right. Cross the corridor, and shoot the red gat at the end with Hyper Rays. You'll enter the room marked W1 on the map, but all you will find is a small rhino running back and forth on the floor and a ceiling sentry. Destroy them both to reveal the warp gate. Jump up and press to activate the warp.

Looking for the Eye
Back in the other dimension, you are about to encounter a new enemy that will likely give you some trouble. Green ghost-like creatures sweep in from any side of the screen and home in on your position. Try to destroy them before they reach you, and move out of the their way if they get too close. From the start, head to the left until you reach an elevator. If you keep running to the left, you will find the return gate home. There's little reason to head down to the bottom level other than for experience points. So that leaves going up.

Ride the elevator up, and head to the right. You'll meet a Cosmo Police who informs you that you can blast the floors in the room with yellow pillars, with the Capsule Bomber. From here, head back to the left, past the elevator, and watch out for the green ghost-like creature. Fortunately, they tend to drop HP capsules when defeated. Enter the next room, and you see a Bubble monster who asks you if you want to be his next victim. If you say yes, he thinks you worthless to beat and lets you out. To fight him, you must say no. This Bubble monster is no more difficult than the ones you've face before. Corner him in the back and defeat him in order to obtain the Cosmo Eye. Once you get it, return to the elevator, ride it down one level, and head to the left to find the gate that returns you home.

Into the darkness
Now that you have the Cosmo Eye, dark passages will appear as bright as normal passages. The first dark passage you should visit is at the top of the first elevator shaft, close to where you began in this area. Enter inside and clear away the enemies until you reach the wall that barricades your progress to the left. Once again, use the Star Crystal to reveal a hidden elevator behind the wall. Ride it to the bottom and shoot the red gate on the left with the Hyper Ray.

When you step inside the next room, marked B2, you will encounter another gigantic armored knight like the one you saw in B1 (assuming you didn't skip that part.) The strategy to defeat it is the same; crouch down in the corner of the room where you entered, and strike the legs while you avoid taking any damage. For your success, you will be rewarded with the Auto Protect item which, for the cost of 100 CP, will immediately fill up your GP meter.

In fact, if you're not wearing armor at this time, it would be a good idea to use Auto Protect before you enter the next room to the left. In this room, B3, you will find a giant computer which controls some of the locked gates in the area. Like the one in ../Area 1/, it shoots fireballs at you. Unlike the earlier computer, it is protected by an additional gun attached to the ceiling. You are not required to destroy the gun, and you should focus on the computer until it is destroyed, as the shots from the ceiling gun are easier to avoid. But do be prepared to interrupt your assault on the computer to dodge the shots, as they can remove quite a lot of hit points if you're not wearing armor.

Searching for the real warp
Now that you've destroyed the computer in B3, head back to the original elevator shaft, cross the corridor on the bottom, and ride the second elevator up to the middle. To the left is the empty room, and to the right was a passage that lead to darkness. Now that you have the Cosmo Eye, you can see inside the dark corridor. This corridor has yellow columns. Remembering the hint from the Cosmo Police that you met in the other dimension, you should recall that he told you to blast the floors in here with the Capsule Bomber.

In fact, you can make many holes, most of which lead to the same thing: a warp gate above a pool of deadly liquid which you should avoid at all costs by pushing right as you fall so that you land on the ledge instead. Jumping into the warp gate will return you to the empty room marked with the O on the map. The holes can only be blast between every other pair of columns and only one hole created in the floor of the dark corridor leads somewhere different. You will drop into a room with two ceiling sentries, a platform, and a floor below. The floor contains a false illusion that you will fall through.

It leads to yet another corridor with yellow columns, which you must yet again blast holes in the floor of with your Capsule Bomber. Once again, each hole leads to a warp gate, but only one of these warp gates will lead you to the other dimension. If you exit out to the left of this corridor, you will pass through a one-way door that deposits you back in the room marked B1 on the map. To find the correct holes that lead to the other dimension, you must blast a hole between the sixth and seventh column from the left of the first level, and between the third and fourth columns from the left of the second level.

A new blade
Back in the alien dimension, head to the left. Watch out for the flower and the falling mushrooms until you reach the elevator. The room to the left is a dead-end. Ride the elevator down. If you start by heading to the left, you will only find the return warp-gate. Head to the right instead.

In these corridors, you will encounter more ghost-like creatures, and you will also meet green scorpions that shoot small fireballs at you. Do your best to contend with these as you make your way to the right. Don't forget about using Auto Protect if you lose your armor.

You'll find an elevator in the next room. Ride it up, and take out the fairy that hangs out in the upper level. Enter the room to the left. The floating medusa head will offer to give you what you need in exchange for 500 CP. If you say no, the door will simply open. If you say yes and you have at least 500 CP, she will take it from you and give you nothing in exchange. It is only when you say yes, and do not have enough CP that she will actually fight you, but beware that you will have no CP to fight her. She floats below your feet until she decides to fly upward, spitting a fireball at you, and then diving back down below the ground. She is only vulnerable to attack while she is above ground. Try to position yourself in the middle and run to her location when she rises. When you defeat her, you will earn the Laser Blade.

After using the Fire Blade at Rank A for a while, switching to the Rank C Laser Blade is going to be a bit of an adjustment. Fortunately, killing creatures often earns you more than one or two blade experience points, so reaching the 160 that you need to meet Rank B shouldn't take too long. For example, the Fairy right outside the room gives you 5 blade experience points per kill.

After obtaining the Laser Blade, there is little else that you have to do here other than return home. You can cross to the right and visit the room on the other side, but it's a dead-end. When you head back down, if you wish to explore to the right, you'll have to jump from platform to platform over lava, while dragons jump out of the lava to spit fireballs at you. Jump when it's safe, and enter the next room. The door will lock behind you, and you'll have to fight two ghost-like creatures until you defeat them and unlock the door. Ultimately, you must return to the far left and use the warp gate to return to your home dimension. If you wish, you can fight mushrooms near the starting area to improve the Laser Blade to Rank B before you leave.

One direction left to go
With the new blade, it's time to finally explore the upper region of the area and face the boss. Make your way back up to the corridor that leads to M3 by exiting from the return room, riding the elevator to the top, running through the corridor to the right, jumping up to the top of the next shaft, and running through the upper corridor to the left. The jetpack guards that appear in the shaft before M3 drop HP capsules in case you need more health.

Climb to the top of the shaft and enter the now-open path to the right. You'll face another giant armored guard. When you defeat this one (using the same strategy of crouching down in the corner) you will earn the Barrier Shield item. Enter the next room to find yet another giant guard, and when you defeat this one, you'll earn the Blade Power item. These two items can be used to increase your defensive and offensive powers respectively.

When you're ready, run to the right through the next corridor, where you will have to deal with two centaurs and a ceiling sentry. When you pass through the next door, you will arrive in the room of the area boss.

Defeating the boss
Before you enter this fight, it's important to be at a strong enough level. Level 11 is ok, but being Level 12 is preferable. Having your Laser Sword should not be less than Rank B. If you're patient enough to get it to Rank A, the fight will go faster, but it's not required. When you enter the room, activate your Auto Protect power. This will prevent you from losing your armor even when you get hit (your GP meter should be flashing.) Head to the right, and the boss will fly across the room in the form of a giant capsule. Each time the capsule appears on screen, it will rush to your position. Run away from it until it loops up to the ceiling, and transforms into a dragon as it lands on the floor. When it lands, it will breath fire at the ground in front of it. This is your opportunity to attack. The only vulnerable spot on the boss is the dragon's head. Run towards it, holding up, and tap so that you strike it in the head whenever you leap off the ground. It will transform back into a capsule at any random moment, so be prepared to leap over it when it fly away. Then stand still and wait for the capsule to reappear from either direction, repeating the same pattern until it is defeated. Once it explodes, you can continue on to ../Area 4/.