Disgaea 2: Cursed Memories/Episode 6: Coliseum

In the opening scenes of this chapter (or rather, the closing scenes of the last), Taro (lvl 16) will join your team. After clearing the first stage, you won't be able to return to Holt Village for a few episodes, so pick up any Treasure Chests lying around town before setting out.

Stage 6-1: First Battle
The weapons the "Invincible Hero" Samurai hold are one-of-a-kind, but they're all rank 1 and are pretty worthless stat-wise. Their names just sound cool, that's all. The Psycho Orbs and Kung-Fu Muscles would be much more valuable if you're looking for something to steal.

Most of the enemies here are equipped with weapons unsuited to their class, and all of the magicians' spells are Lv1, so they should be easy to defeat. The basic geography of theis stage doesn't leave much option for strategy, but anything should work if you keep defense in mind.

Base Map: Coliseum Barracks
Welcome to the Barracks. This place has all the basic services, much like Holt Village: Hospital, Shops, Item Worlder, etc. And like Holt Village, there will be a handful of treasure chests to open. As an added bonus, trying to leave nets yet another cheap insult to Taro's fragile man-hood.

There are two "secret" rooms that you can get to by jumping through windows in a couple of walls. One is via a window directly behind the Item Worlder, and you get to the other through a window at the back of the first room on your left (based on the direction you face when you enter the map for the first time).

There is an Orc that may not be immediately obvious either. He's perched high on the top of the fancy serpent fountain in the middle of the barracks and the only way to get to him is by taking a dip in the water and then spiraling your way up the serpent statue's backside. It's easier than it looks, since you can use the Dimensional Portal in the middle of the statue as a guide rail. But since there isn't a felony counter for finding NPCs that say "This is fun!", there's not much point in talking to him anyway.

Stage 6-2: Second Battle
Woah. Prepare to be dazzled by a disco nightmare. It's the same old flatbed coliseum, but this time it's laid over with six geo symbols and a seemingly random mess of six geo colors. But lucky for us Adell will give you the initial solution to this puzzle during the story dialog.

So we know that the Red Geo Symbol is the key. Pop it and the whole map goes up in smoke, and you win yourself a nice bonus gauge! But... umm.. the real trick is actually getting to it. The Purple No Entry tiles are carefully laid out so that you have to take the longest path possible to reach the coveted Red Geo Symbol. If you haven't picked up any footwear items for Adell and/or Tink by this point then I strongly recommend equipping some before this fight.

OK, so you have some decent footwear handy. Now you've got to make your way all the way up around the arena going left (clockwise). That's the only direction the No Entry tiles will let you go. Remember to stay far away from the Old Man in the center of the arena. Wander too close and he'll Mega Star you crispy. Also, the geo symbols here are pretty weak. Chances are all the NPCs will survive the geo effect, so be ready to deal with them.

Alternatively, you can exploit the fact that No Entry tiles don't prevent you from displacing yourself with special moves. Therefore you can just have Tink use Sonic Roll on the puppet in front of your base panel to move to the right, then again to move forward and end up just in front of the red Geo Symbol. Make sure he has enough HP and defenses to tank a couple hits from the Old Man and/or puppets. You can do the same with Adell's Crimson Flame or a swordsman's Blade Rush, but since they cover less ground you will have to throw the puppets around to get over the No Entry tiles.

Invincibility Strategy!
This is a fun strategy to try: If you destroy the Blue Geo Symbol instead of the Red one (the Blue one is much easier to get to), the entire map turns Yellow (invincible), creating a seemingly impossible-to-end battle. But there is a trick: If you throw one of the enemies into your BasePanel, the panel will be destroyed and in it's wake will be a single gloriously unprotected tile. Yup, you guessed it! Lure or throw the remaining enemies onto that tile and beat them senseless, one at a time. Or combine all the enemies into one uber Old Man for some rather impressive exp gain. Any attempt by them to fight back will be fruitless indeed. Victory!

Stage 6-3: Third Battle
Send out your strongest character that can tank some hard hits on the Warp Panel and lure other monsters to the Warp Panels while trying to destroy the Ally Damage 20% Geo Symbol (Because the Warp Panel randomly sends you to another Warp Panel, its mostly luck here). If any monsters warp next to your Base Panel, bring out your characters and gang up on them. Afterwards, clean up any stranglers.

Stage 6-4: Fourth Battle
This is a very simple battle. Simply pick up the Prinny closest to your Base Panel and throw it next to the leading Prinny to start a chain reaction that will wipe out all of the Prinnies in one turn.