Cave Story/First Cave

The Start Caves
After the introduction cutscene, walk over to the spinning diskette (You can also heal yourself at the first aid station, but you don't need to right now) and save your game. Then go to the door and exit.

Once outside the room, proceed left along the path. Avoid the spikes along the floor, as you are too weak to survive a hit from them. Avoid the bats and critters and proceed along the path until you reach the end. Enter the massive stone lion's head.

Inside the lion's head, talk to the hermit gunsmith if you want, then take the Polar Star from his chest. Follow the path back to where you came. Shoot the enemies if you want for some quick exp or health. Once you reach the save point, you can go back in and save or continue along the path to your right. Shoot out the breakable bricks then defeat the critters. Finally, shoot the cursed door until it dies, then exit the area.

Yamashita Farm
After viewing a short dialog between Toroko and King, go to the Yamashita Farm. To get to the farm, walk right from where you fell and whenever you have the chance, go upwards. You will eventually find the door to it.

Once in the farm, talk to Sandaime if you want, then walk to the end of the farm to find another heart container. After you get it, walk out of the farm and continue onwards to the resevoir.

To get to the resevoir, walk head back from the farm entrance to the location where you fell. The door to the resevoir is directly to the left of it and a little below. Go into the resevoir

The Resevoir
From the door, walk along the path to your left. While walking, you have two options you can take. First, you can take the dry route and jump along the platforms (and talk to Kanpachi). Otherwise you can run along the bottom of the resevoir, it honestly doesn't matter.

At the bottom left of the resevoir you will notice a sparkling section of water. Press while in front of it to pick up the Silver Locket. Proceed back the way you came, and you will see Toroko run out the door after talking to you. Follow her back into the village.

Shack
After viewing another dialog between Toroko and King, go to the building in the lower right hand corner of the village. Go inside and walk forward a bit. Toroko will jump out and attack you, but a shot or two will defeat her. Talk to her afterwards to trigger the next event.

Balrog and Misery will come barging through the door and Misery will kidnap Toroko. Then you will have the option to fight Balrog if you want (See boss strategy here). The reward for beating him is 5 exp for your polar star. After you are done, walk out of the shack.

The Map & Finding Arthur's Key

 * From the shack entrance walk left until roughly the middle of the level where you encounter a long vertical shaft. Climb it to reach the save point.
 * From the save point, walk right a little bit until you reach a gap in the platform, fall down the gap and land on the suspended platform below it and to the right
 * From the platform, carefully jump to your right to reach a treasure chest, inside the treasure chest is a map system and the note: So long as you retain your spirit of exploration, surely you shall find your way out. This I believe.
 * Fall down and proceed to climb the vertical shaft again
 * Again walk to your right, but this time jump over the gap and proceed to the right and talk to the mimiga guarding the door.
 * After talking to the mimiga, he will walk away and go into a nearby house, follow after him into the house.
 * Talk to King for some insight about Tokoro’s past and talk to Jack for a hint as to where the key is.
 * Exit the house, go right and enter the door that Jack was guarding

Graveyard

 * Follow the path in the graveyard, but be careful of all the enemies
 * To defeat the knife brandishing enemy, jump over him and shoot him from behind
 * Continue along the path and up onto the platforms, don’t worry about the unreachable door, you won’t be able to go into there until much later
 * Jump up onto the platform that contains Arthur’s grave, press down on the sparkling tile to get Arthur’s Key
 * Exit the Graveyard

Where is Arthur's House?

 * Go to the bottom left corner and use Arthur’s key to enter the house

Arthur's House

 * You can choose to save in Arthur’s house
 * Walk over to the lit computer and press down to read what is on the screen
 * Choose yes to open teleportation to the Egg Corridor
 * You can also walk down and examine the bottom right corner of his house. You will get the message: …Flowers?
 * Walk up to the teleported and press down in front of it. Choose the Egg Corridor and you will be teleported there.

The Egg Corridor

 * When you first enter the egg corridor, you will notice a heart container below you. To reach it, head to the left and go down the vertical shaft but DO NOT touch the bottom, because the creature moving left and right is invincible and will kill you in one hit. To reach it, jump down right after the creature hits the left wall and starts heading away, follow it then jump onto the platform. To get back, jump down after the creature passes you and heads towards the right, then run back to the vertical shaft.
 * Follow the path to the right, there is only one way to go, so it is near impossible to get lost.
 * Killing all the enemies without getting hit should give you a maxed out level 3 polar star, which will be very useful later in the level.
 * Jump over the pillar to view a dialog between Sue and a monster, after she is abducted, continue to follow the path until you reach a save room.
 * Enter the save room, then proceed upwards in the room by shooting the breakable boxes, the higher door will lead you to a series of platforms containing a heart container. You should also talk to the man inside the save room and he will remark A soldier…you’ve lost your memory? Ohohoho…
 * Exit the save room and continue along the path. At no point should you ever go into the lower corridor with the instant death creature.
 * When you reach area around the 6th egg, wait for the instant-death creature to pass, then drop down one of the holes and run and jump into the chamber containing the egg marked 6. Jump up towards the center of the egg and you will be brought to a special room with a treasure chest. Grab the chest to get the I.D. Card
 * Exit the egg, wait for the instant-death creature to pass then make a run for the hole you used to jump down into the lower corridor
 * Follow along the path until you reach another save room, enter it
 * Save, then take the elevator to the highest floor in the save room, walk all the way to the end and open the treasure chest to get the Missile Launcher. Additionally, you can examine the bed on the 2nd floor to get the message: Red petals scattered about. You can now exit the save room.
 * Follow the path all the way to the end, where you will reach a barrier blocking you from going any further.
 * Once again, drop down into the lower corridor (right in front of the barrier) when the instant-death creature passes you and make a run to the 1st egg. Enter the egg the same way you did before
 * Go to the computer and press down to insert the I.D. Card and lower the barrier. After it is lowered, exit and proceed back up to the barrier
 * Hop over the barrier and walk down until you encounter the monster that kidnapped Sue again.
 * Boss Battle - Igor: Use the same tactics that you used for the first fight against Balrog. The only real difference is that he may occasionally open his mouth, in which you should either jump over him immediately or run away. He will shoot balls of energy out of his mouth which will cause 2 points of damage each. Also, he will cause 2 points of damage whenever he comes into contact with you. If you have a level 3 polar star this battle will not be hard.
 * Enter the left-most door.

Egg No. 00

 * Walk over and talk to Sue
 * After she leaves, exit Egg No. 00
 * Secret: Walk over to the right most part of the screen and press down, you will feel a cold wind blowing into the room.

Exiting the Egg Corridor

 * You can now enter the save room, if you want to save and refill your health and missiles (Side Room)
 * Head back to the warp, but be careful, as there are lots more flying enemies around, although it is an excellent chance to level up your missile launcher
 * Warp back to Arthur’s house

Arthur’s House

 * Before you enter, you will view a conversation between Sue and her brother Kazuma
 * You can exit the house and go talk to Sue in her cave right about the Village save point, she will ask you to go rescue her brother for her
 * Go back to the teleporter and warp to Grasstown

Grasstown

 * Talk to the Mimiga near the warp point and he will ask you to go retrieve his key
 * You can also jump up onto the pillars near Santa’s house and talk to another Cthuthlu, he will note that he thought the “war was over oho.”
 * Follow the path to the right until you see a small ditch surrounded by enemies, Santa’s key will be in the middle of all of them. Run and grab Santa’s key
 * After killing all the enemies, go back to Santa and return his key
 * He will unlock his door for your and invite you inside
 * Go inside and talk to him, he will give you the Fireball. You can also save here.
 * Go out and proceed right, when you get to a pair of platforms with four breakable blocks, shoot out the upper ones and then jump on the blocks leftwards until you reach another heart container. You can only reach it from the right side, not the left.
 * Proceed on the path until you reach Chaco’s house, but be careful of the hidden pit at the end that contain instant kill spikes.
 * Enter Chaco’s house and examine the fireplace, Chaco will immediately talk to you and tell you that you need Jellyfish Juice to proceed through her fireplace.
 * To get a secret item, immediately go to sleep in Chaco’s bed after she talks to you, you will get Chaco’s lipstick, which does nothing but is cool to have. However, if you leave Chaco’s house and then return, before or after talking to her, it will NOT work. You can only get the lipstick the first time you enter her house
 * Exit her house and you will notice jellyfish everywhere. Go left until you reach the area where you found Santa’s key, jump on the platform right above it and you will notice a giant jellyfish perched on the ceiling. I would recommend killing all nearby enemies before you shoot it so that your fight will be easier.
 * The fight with the giant jellyfish is really quite easy, just shoot upwards until he is dead. He might fly downwards and hit you, causing 5 points of damage, but nothing that should kill you. After he is dead, he will leave behind the Jellyfish juice.
 * However, instead of going back to Chaco’s house, go back to the warp and warp back to Arthur’s house

Mimiga Village

 * Exit Arthur’s house and go to the Assembly Hall, which is located right next to the graveyard entrance. Go to the fireplace and use the jellyfish juice to get the Bubbler, which is an excellent weapon at level 3. Proceed back to Arthur’s house and jump back into the warp to Grasstown.

Grasstown Part 2

 * Go back and fight the giant jellyfish a second time using the same tactics as before, you will once again get the Jellyfish juice.
 * Return to Santa’s house to use the Jellyfish juice.
 * Use the Jellyfish juice at Santa’s house, then you will get the charcoal. You will then have to go defeat the giant jellyfish a third time and get more jellyfish juice.
 * Go to Chaco’s house and pour the Jellyfish juice into the fireplace. You will then be sent over the wall
 * Keep on going right, be careful around the secret pitfalls and the giant gaps. You will fall down a ledge you can’t get back up, this is the 2nd Grasstown area. Continue going right.
 * When you get to a house with a bike in front of it, try to open the door
 * You will see a hey sign appear next to the door, go over and examine it
 * Agree to help the person inside the house and he will give you a rusted key and tell you to try to open the door
 * Go and try to open the door, it won’t work
 * Go back to the person and tell them that, then proceed left until you reach the ledge that you dropped down from to get into this area, there will be a small enclave and a door under it
 * Open the door with the key and enter it

Power Room

 * Go over to the computer on the left side of the room and turn on the power
 * The robot will wake up but he will be crushed by Balrog
 * Boss Fight Balrog (2): This fight is also pretty easy. Balrog will just jump and fly over you for roughly 3 seconds before falling down. Just shoot him when he passes over you and when he lands on the ground. He will also spit out white orbs of energy which can cause 2 points of damage to you, but one shot from any weapon will destroy them
 * After the fight, go and examine the crushed robot. Pull him out of the ground and then talk to him. He will promise to make a bomb for you so long as you get the three ingredients: Charcoal, Jellyfish Juice and Gum Base.
 * Leave the Power Room

Grasstown Part 3

 * When you leave the power room, you will notice that the fans are now on. When you are floating, press jump to float even higher
 * Using the fans, go over the ledge and back to where the giant jellyfish is. *Fight him for the last time to get Jellyfish Juice
 * Head back to the 2nd Grasstown area. This time instead of using Chaco’s fireplace, use the fan right outside her house to get over the wall.
 * Right after the first save point in the 2nd Grasstown area is a double set of fans with some frogs, bats and ghosts around it, use the fans to get on top of the platform opposite the platform with the save point on it
 * Jump on some platforms to the right and at the end will be your first Missile expansion
 * Drop down to the locked house with the person inside, examine the crack in the wall to talk to him. He will give you the Gum Key.
 * Use the fan to the right of the house to get to the abandoned house (Grasstown Hut) directly above it, go inside.
 * Examine the bed to get the message “Red petals lie scattered on the ground…”
 * Open the treasure chest to get another missile expansion and you will also be attacked by a monster.
 * Mini-boss battle: Just shoot the monster with your polar star as fast as you can, don’t worry about damage much, as it can be taken down within 5 seconds.
 * After you beat the monster, exit the house
 * Continue until you see a door with a skull and crossbones over it, this is the Execution Chamber, enter it.
 * Once you are inside the execution chamber, shoot the breakable block to the left, then immediately run to the far left. A monster will fall down, and if you are under it, you will be killed instantly
 * Jump onto the fallen monster then jump up to the next level
 * Kill the monster that didn’t fall down and jump onto the breakable block that it was on.
 * Shoot the block above you and jump up to get the Heart Container
 * Drop back down and kill the only monster left to exit the chamber
 * Continue to your right until you reach the far right side, where there will be a save point and a series of fans
 * Strongly recommend you save
 * To make it over the gaps, jump at the very end of the platforms and hold forward, the fans will push you the rest of the way, try to have as much missile ammo and health as you can before you open the door with your Gum Key, because it is your first serious boss battle.

Gum

 * Walk forward and open the treasure chest. Inside it will be the Gum Base
 * Misery and Balrog will come down and after a short chat Balrog will be turned into a frog.
 * Boss Battle Frog Balrog (3rd): Okay, the first serious battle. Use the fans to jump over Balrog when he gets near you (roughly the treasure chest and the door for their respective sides is when you can make it over him) and use the polar star to kill the frogs that fall down for some health/missiles/experience points. When he opens his mouth, launch as many missiles as you can into it to cause damage. When his health bar is halfway depleted, he will make a large jump, causing lots and lots of big/little frogs to fall down, shoot them to get more experience points. Repeat until he is dead.
 * After you beat Balrog, exit Gum

Leaving Grasstown

 * Go back to the robot and he will make you an explosive
 * Go to the locked door with the person inside it and blow it up. The person inside is revealed to be Kazuma, Sue’s brother.
 * After talking to Professor Booster and Kazuma, save and then if you want, you can examine the teleporter, but it doesn’t work, go outside after you are done
 * Booster and Kazuma will fly away, go back to the teleporter at the very beginning of the level and warp back to Arthur’s house.

Arthur’s House

 * Talk to Sue to trigger a conversation
 * Save if you want to then go to the teleporter
 * Warp to the Sand Zone