I thought I'd make a topic while I'm playing the game. Although I'm pretty far into the game already, but I know I'll miss it once it ends so I'm taking my time with it.

There are some convenient updates in this one as well. Quick Alchemy for example, and being able to upgrade the Lost Weapons.



But I don't think a lot more improvement was needed over the second game. Perhaps more side questing would be nice. One thing that I do find a bit disappointing with Vol 3 though is the lack of pointless chain mails with your friends. I don't remember if there were any of that in Vol 1 or Vol 2 to be honest, but I think there was. And there was a lot of it in the old .hack games. Now it's mostly emails that you can't respond to. But at least you can send people gift cards, which is basically the same thing I guess, but you don't get enough of them in the game to cover most of the characters.

The Crimson vs got updated with a new feature called Trinity Combos which were an interesting addition that made the battles less predictable.




But I do have some complaints about this game. For one, it's fun, but well... it ends too quickly. I guess the way you play and increase your rank is the problem. You just let the game play by itself and then later check the results of your matches. I only checked in on the game 3 or 4 times, and I had already risen to rank #1 and had almost all the cards.
I would have prefered that you play the games yourself and rise in the ranks that way. Faster than otherwise of course, or it would take forever. But to it's defense, they did fix that in this game in the form of aquiering playable opponents, so I guess that takes care of the problem. But I would have liked that system to replace the other one, and made those opponents ranked matches.

The arena part of the story was interesting in this game as well.




And the plot twist that happens it, both halfway through, and in the end, were interesting. I would have liked to see some more serious concequences for Haseo though. *spoilers* Like actually getting his character banned */spoilers*
But the tournaments in the first two games were still more interesting story wise. Mainly because Alkaid and Endrance join you in the second one, and in the first it was all new things.

I got Haseo's X-th form I have all his Final Arts except for the one with twin blades. (It's on Level 18)
The story in this game is really interesting, as usual, and has great characters as usual. Some new members join your team, and I know there are plenty more to get. I'm hoping Alkaid returns soon though.

I'm trying to kill all the Chaotic PK's to get a new playable character. I killed Silent Bomber Jahad, but the last one owned me badly so I think I'll wait until I'm a few levels stronger.
Right now I'm not far after Haseo got his X-th form.

I've got to say i enjoyed vol3 over the last two i think because of knowing its the final step before waking up the lost ones. always the best part for me when they wake.

Oh if at all possible try and get Haseo's lost weapon at lvl 5 as soon as you can. Its got a very nice Regen on hit ability to it that will save a bundle on Sp drinks and heal you at the same time. (which is very handy for a certain event in the end game content.)

I also have to agree with you on the CV card game.....my first deck (from vol 2) basically went through everyone except Gaspard my deck was Shino-Twilight Brigade, Impenetrable Barrier-mirror of revenge,Ace of Hearts-Verboten Libation, and PK Network-All at once. These don't even make a delta btw and still went through everyone lol.

Also a tip for those Chaotic PKs....

If you can get your hands on the DG-Y gun for Haseo it has a nice ability called godspeed bullet which reduces skill trigger recharge time and also get the bell of time accessory upgrade on it will reduce skill trigger recharge time as well. This making the recharge after skill triggers around 1 second lol, and then its just spam spam spam. Also makes it look like your just out classing your enemy too and a good show....was very hard for me to get rid of the DG-Y for the DG-Z but a nice ability on that one too makes up for it.

I'm still working on getting my guild lvl up to rank 9 which i only have to raise my items one notch on the book of 1000 and its mine....buuut to do that I'm going to have to chase that lil mec grunty around for a while and do the rest of those repeating quest again....yay.

Oh yes and if you haven't already done this (which I waited till I went through the games story line first lol.) make sure to go to the event in the community forum under "a strange place". Its a chain but the end game event wont open unless you do this.

If you were a fan of .Hack//Roots anime then im sure you will notice the event right away

Actually as a matter of fact, I just tried to beat that boss, but it went very badly. I'm sure I have almost no chance of winning at this point because I prapared for the battle with all kinds of status boosting spells and items. I'm Level 123 right now so maybe that's not so strange. I remember how much Item Boost helped in these boss battles in the second game, so I brought that with me, but it felt kind of pointless as he easily kills Endrance or Atoli in one spell. I think Haseo dies in one as well, but I tend to block the spell. I'm still using the Level 100 armor you got at the end of the second game that reduces all damage by 25%, but I think it's time to change it soon.

I'll try the boss again when I'm closer to his level.


Yeah same here. My old deck from Vol 2 went through everyone pretty easy with very few losses, so I shot through the ranks very quickly. I had two cards that cost 6 and 7, so they usually won. And one of them would give my general + AP and HP for every other junction of the same type I had junctioned to my general. I believe the other one did something similar as well.

Then when I got to do Trinity Combos, I found a very good one that gives all my units +3 in cost. And so far it literally only literally seems to be able to loose against one deck, and that's the one that has XXXX Combo.


Oh so you can get new guns for the X-th Form? That's good. I don't seem to be far enough in the game for that yet, unless you can get them from random chests somewhere. I still have the DG-X (and pretty much just got it story wise.)

But an update on the Chaotic PK situation. I tried again now and I beat him. I'm sure he could have beaten us, if only we gave him a second to breathe. lol I kept using Reapers Dance and then Double Trigger, and then doing an attack spell with Atoli and Devil Sword with Endrance until my skill trigger had recharged, then I just repeated, so he never gott a chance to attack me, luckily. I'll try to check the boards for Natsume now. I read that I can only get her after I beat the game though.

But I'll keep your tips in mind for any upcoming blacklisted PK's, because the bounty hunter NPC told me that he is composing a ew list soon.


Lol, I hate that guy, only because you can't press and skip that little scene that happens. It's probably robbed me of several minutes of my life.


I'll keep that in mind, thanks. I know which dungeon you are refering to, but I haven't actually seen it in roots. But if it was in .hack//sign as well, then I know which one you mean.

Right now I decided to give Zen Mastery (Reduce all spells SP cost by 25%) to Atoli because she's pretty much the only spell caster on my team that I use frequently. Although three Heal Knowledge would equal 30% SP reduction, I also use her for some status spells as well. So I'm sticking with three Arts Knowledge for Haseo, because I'm only using Arts with him anyway.

Try this....I was around 125 when I did this

What i did although it took me a few tries is i noticed right away that when he hits someone he gains life so i left one person out of this fight and took Atoli with me since she tends to stay a ways back from the fighting. (although every now and then she likes to run up and hit something with her staff and he kills her >.< made my eye twitch a few times lol.)

After that I set my awakening to Beast as it works best for him and gave Atoli allot of sp drinks so she can keep my sp up. I set fast skill recharge and arts on my accessory and the armor from vol 2 that increases health and sp by 25% and went into the battle.

After it starts a good way from keeping him from attacking you is run around him and wait for him to shoot his disk arms at you and attack him a few times he should keep repeating it. Also if he starts to cast magic wait for him to cast it and the red circle starts following you and use a skill trigger works well.

Keeps doing this and the rengeki's and morale should build up nicely as long as Atoli is alive then for the awakening, I used my twin blades as they are pretty fast and can deal some dmg shortly.

It took me about five or so awakenings to bring him down (such a nice site to see him fall like a rock to the ground)

Its still a pain though as you cant get hit so it might take a while but it works lol.

Thanks for the tip on the bosses. Though I'm afraid like last time with the tip on the chaotic PK's, I already beat him by the time I read your post. lol Sorry about that. But I didn't use any particular strategy to beat him, so I'm sure it helps any others who may have this problem.

Well I did kind of use a strategy, but it wasn't very elaborated though. First of all I went for Endrance boss because his Lost Weapon would be more of a help in the other battles than Haseo's I think. At least for me because I don't use the schyte in those situations. Only for its Rengeki though. Anyway, before the batle started I cast those +30 stat upgrade items on everyone for everything, and on the boss I did the same for the -30 stat deduction items. I also decided to skip the Item Boost strategy and instead equipped Endrance and Haseo Skill Boost. (which wastes twice as much SP but does twice the damage.) I think the stat boosting may help to bring him down to a somewhat low HP faster than normal. But I'm not sure how much of a difference it really made.
I always did like this:
Arts with Haseo - Dual Guns finisher - instantly bring up the menu and have endrance to Hell's Sword, or whatever his strongest skill was called. Before Endrance is finished, my skill trigger will be full again, so I just repeat doing the same thing while Atoli heal us if needed. Once the boss HP gets down to 1200 or so, I use Awakening. The one where you have to press X rapidly. I used that one instead of the other one because Atoli isn't much of a fighter I guess. But it worked with just one of those Awakenings.

Though at this point all my characters were arround Level 129 - 130.

Right now I'm before heading off to the final boss fight. Trying to find some more Cheat Codes to upgrade my items. The dual guns were pretty good after you upgrade them and get 18 bullets instead of just 8.

But I have a question about that "a strange place" quest. I don't remember doing more than maybe one or two of those events in this game. But I think I did everything that was posted on the forums and always asked for the area words and got them. Though I think only one (or maybe two at the most) of these Abyss quests showed up. Did I miss something?

I'm not sure how far along you are in the strange place so ill just post what is there.

After you visit the area word for a strange place and get the event you should see another forum pop up called "Found the Abyss!...I think" ask for the area words there and he will give them.

After that you go there and talk to the judge (or he speaks to you) in the back of the area you should see those lil pig mi's again that cackle at you and send undead that die too easy .

After that its done you just have to wait for the event I was talking about to start you will get a email from CCC about it, but I think it doesn't start until after you have beaten the end boss.

I did the event at the ending of the game after I was done with the story line so I'm not sure if you have to wait or not but I'm sure you do.

Oh ok, well in that case I guess I haven't missed it then. I did those two quests already. Thanks.

Hmm does anyone know what happens after you beat the forest of pain? I beat the game a week after it was released but never had the time to finish the forest of pain.

Well I think I read that you get the true ending after you beat it, but I may be wrong. Other that that you get some new weapons and things like that. And also Tabby's member address.

Ok, I just beat the game earlier today. Now I'm about to do the Forest of Pain campaign.

Yeah you get the true ending after Forest of Pain.

Not going to say much, don't want to spoiler anything.

Seriously? That sucks... 100 levels of that... For the first 20 levels I thought I had to kill everything but I looked it up online and found out I can just run through to the boss (none of the bonuses seem to be worth it). I suppose I'll train until 150 until I finally do it though (Shino + Zelkova rock!).

Well there are some good items you can get from the bonus list to complete in Forest of Pain like infinite items to increase hp and sp things around those lines.

Think you get one of the new guns for Haseo as well doing those can't remember very well.

Yeah I think you get the best dual guns for beating the floor 100 boss.
I completed the Forest of Pain and saw the real ending and all. I like how there were several endings to this game. And I got the "Promise" card so I could send it to Alkaid. Funny to have character weddings in this game. Interesting idea.
And the only thing left really is to finish my Book of 1000. Only one category left to raise to max, and that's the Weapons/Armor/Items category. And I have it close to max already.

I tried beating Doppelganger a second time, but all I got was a Sub Dress. It seems it's because I don't have the key items from beating him in the previous games. So I'll have to add those key items by using a code, and then try to beat him again.

One thing I'm missing a bit in this game is having more Quests. I only had one more left after beating the game. "Farewell Mecha Grunty" and I wanted to do it with Silabus and Gaspard (for nostalgic reasons) but I also wanted to go on more quests with Tabby and Shino, and Atoli and Alkaid, but there doesn't seem to be any more left.

Still, there's a lot to do in the game, and my timer is close to 90 hours now, and I actually don't have that feeling of "wanting much more" any more, which is good. I think this was a great end to the series.

I'm Desperate...

Were did you get the "promise " card/ marriage event item??

really want it BADDD.....

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abt the forest of pain my friend said that in floors 75-100 the bosses there you'll deal 0 damage to them (like the doppelganger when u hit him even if ur 150 its still 0) i this true?

You need to beat the game and then complete the optional dungeon with 100 floors that opens up after.


That's an ability called SP armor, or something. It means they'll take SP damage until their SP is 0 before they start taking HP damage. But if you use awakening it makes things easier.

I thought that you need to get all the characters in the game and then you receive the ''promise'' card, of course there is some character that you need to find in Forest of Pain, the 100 floor dungeon....

Yeah you need to have all 22 characters as well. One of them is in that dungeon. (Sakubo counts as two if you have them both. You can lose Saku if you want to, but you'll never get that Promise card if you do.)

i love this game series ^^, vol 3 is especially fun. i just beat the main story of the game finished the forest of pain and got all the promise card endings, i spent a little while in the arena and got more points than the #1 team. is there an extra event that comes with the arena or is it just for kicks?

Im playing vol 3 right now but.. Ovan is kinda hard >.<
Tried to fight him with Haseo lvl 120, Atoli 119 and Endrance 117... But it seems that isnt enough.. When I got 1/2 of his life he attacked me with that red sign thing and instand killed Haseo, Atoli revived and then he started spawing some really annoying aida balls that kept healing him.. so yeah.. soon enough I got killed, Atoli ran out of sp and game over ^^

Any tips? Like.. the best lvl to fight him xD

I don't know about best level to fight him, but I think I was Level 128 at the time. If he is giving you trouble you have to use Awakening as much as you can, and make sure to always take out the spheres he creates that can heal him as fast as you can.

I've only gotten about 4 or 5 hours into the game, and I keep freaking out about missable #####. So does anyone know of like, a list or something of items/characters I have to get before I finish the game? Because that's going to happen tomorrow (all nighter, I love this game lol).

Hmm I think gamefaqs covers all of the "missable" stuff.. But I think before you finish the game all you could miss is fighting doppelganger once... and for characters on vol3 I think the only one you can miss is Saku..

Score, thanks. While I'm thinking about it, where the hell do I use these Cheat Codes? The items, not actual codes.

Ovan takes too long at level 121, so I'm going for 130-140ish now, and I have like 20 of the damn things.

I think that's probably overkill. I believe I was arround Lv 125 or something close to it (hard to remember).
And I think I was 135 or so right at the end of the main game, before fighting the last boss.

Cheat Codes can be used when your @Home gets moved to a new location. It's after the Ovan battle. You use them to perform Cheat Alchemy. With it you can upgrade even 5 Star items.

I like overkill, grinding is fun on this game for some reason. And I found something neat to share with you all, though it's basically useless if your level is over 130ish. Go to Σ Thinking Barren Seven Sins, for some reason there is both a boss and a beast statue.

Really? Can't try it right now.. still lvl 128 and that area is lvl 137.. Tough I entered just to check and it sounds like a normal dungeon. I wonder why they would add a boss there...

Not that kind of boss. When you go to an area, there is always a mission (however small it may be). It's usually either "Take the treasure from the beast temple" or "Defeat boss". That area has both, although it doesn't say.

Oh I know you meant that kind of boss... But anyway, I've never seen a dungeon with one of these bosses... Do you get two mission rewards?

You get the usual armor from the boss, and the usual weapon from the chest.

If your level is low, just do the second race against the Goblins thing, you'll get the Demon Safe Shoes which allow you to run through a dungeon without fighting anything. Good way to get items from level 150 areas when you're low.