Life's a Zoo and Then You Die
By Koala (Plantman) and Raijin (Drillman)

 

When we last left off (however many years ago that was), Megaman and company had thwarted the evil Flashman and it was revealed that a certain evil organization was hatching a new evil scheme. They broke into the school to steal something called a Tetracode, and now another operative has been dispatched on a critical mission to destroy the emotion the humans call "love". That may prove to be difficult considering love is an abstract concept that cannot be conceptually destroyed, but that just goes to show how ambitiously evil these guys are!

The new day begins and a little boy enters ACDC Town. It seems he's looking for his brother, the #1 netbattler in ACDC. We know who that is, but Lan isn't supposed to have any other brothers. Looks like mom had a few affairs? The inconspicuous blonde gentleman that may have been hanging around town the previous night is no help, claiming to have only just arrived himself. Defeated, the ragamuffin returns to calling out aimlessly for his brother around ACDC.

Meanwhile, Lan asks Megaman what to do today but the navi's speech seems to be a bit... choppy. They decide that their dad is the one to ask about technical problems. Go outside and make your way around the neighbourhood. Yai has now turned on the old-timey phone in her house, so you can jack into that to get a Repair A chip. There's a girl near the teacher's lounge at school that wants to trade your SonicWave W (that you probably won't have until at least the end of the chapter) for ElecSword P.

When you're ready, head to the Metroline. Wait, that urchin from the first cutscene is blocking the way. Talk to Mayl and Yai and then meet Chisao. He says Lan is not his brother as originally assumed. Who else could be #1 battler in town? Maybe someone who would like that to be true? Maybe somebody who kept Lan up last night throwing eggs at his house so he could fight him at 2 in the morning?

Okay, time to find Dex. Head for the school and go upstairs to Lan's classroom. Looks like Dex had gotten into trouble for breaking in last night while Lan, Mayl, and Yai got off scot free. Talk to him and he'll recognise his brother's reflected exaggeration. The two immediately go outside for a touching reunion. Chisao firmly believes Dex is the best battler in town. Well somebody has been lying and/or cheating. Now Dex has to prove his worth by fighting someone. Hey, you could use a new GutsmanV2 chip, so naturally it falls to Lan.

 

Pity Battle: Gutsman.exe α
HP= 700
Speed= medium
Defense= normal
Movement= random teleport
Attacks= Hammer Wave(40), Guts Punch(60), Area Crack(cracks panels)

He's upgraded already!? If you skipped fighting him in the park last night then you've bipassed his V1 altogether. It really gives you the impression he's giving it his all to impress his brother. He can now crack all your panels with one quick move, but you can still turn it to your advantage by hiding behind the holes to avoid wave damage. Same basic strategy to win for a GutsmanV2 chip and the animosity of all Lan's friends who see the victory as something insensitive. Alternatively you can lose and make an adorable little kid happy. Hmm...tough choice. New chip...or not being a heartless bastard?

One way or another the metroline is now clear. Now go into the station, grab a ticket, and head to SciLab. Once there you can buy Unlockers from the SubChip Dealer at the entrance, you can sign up for one of the missions on the Request Board, can jack into the soda machine to play a gambling game for up to 6400Z and a Prism H if you're lucky enough to guess right six times in a row. You can also get a RegUp2 in the blue mystery data there. You can also jack in to the well-hidden Door Sensor in the door to the currently-locked-out Virus Lab and pick up 700Z and an AirShoes * chip.

Take the elevator up. Dad's not here but talk to his assistant, who'll give Lan a SubPET. At that point Dex will send an e-mail encouraging the use of the shortcut on his homepage to ACDC Square. Before you leave, jack into the big console at the end of the room for BMD with 1000Z, and a Locked Mystery Data with a BambooSword N (that's why we suggested buying an Unlocker or two from the guy downstairs). With that done, head back down the elevator.

Hello, it's that cowboy producer. Round 2 of the N1 Preliminaries has started and he wants the Hikari pair on the air in SciLab Square, and that would be where? He gives Lan a CyberSciLabPass that will let Megaman get there from the Cyberworld if he takes the Metroline all the way back home and jacks in at ACDC, then takes the CyberMetroline back to the SciLab area of the net. You would think since you're already in SciLab, you could just jack in somewhere to go directly to the Square, and you would be right, but that somewhere is in the Virus Lab where scientists are currently working and cannot be disturbed for your convenience, so it's time for a pointless runaround.

Head back to ACDC and jack into Dex's comp for the quickest way to the CyberMetro (or if you jack in somewhere else, at least remember where, for reasons that will become evident). Unlock the security cube if you haven't already (Dex sent you the code by e-mail after the school break-in, check your messages if you don't have it!) and just head west from there to reach the station. While you're still in ACDC area though, you may want to head down towards the Square and find your first Navi Ghost, Flashman at the end of the path east of the platform with the teleporter. The Flashman Navi Chip can come in very handy. You could then encounter Eleballs, Boomers, Bunnies, and Flashman Beta in ACDC2, but you'll probably want to wait a while before trying to get the better Flashman chips. When you're ready, it's off to SciLab Area.

First head southwest into SciLab1, then follow the path over the moving walkway to grab the Invis chip next to Glyde, then head back. You'll have a chance to look around the rest of the area during the prelim mission, so just head for the Square next, picking up the RegUp2 behind the counter along the way. Check out the new message board and you may want to buy an AntiDamage M from the store.

Prelims time. Talk to the violet Navi on the east platform to begin a trio of virus battles as the first part of the test.

White Version	Blue Version
Met2, Met2, and Met2 Bunny, Bunny, and CannoDumb Met2, Met2, Boomer	Ratty, Met, and Bunny Cannodumb, Cannodumb, and Met2 Met2, Eleball, Cannodumb

You shouldn't need any special strategy for these. Just win.

Part the Second is finding someone disguised as a "Bad Navi" somewhere. Most of Megaman's friends finished that while he was in the virus battle, so we're still trailing behind. Your target is in the upper section of SciLab1 in front of the big monitor. Pick up the GrabBack chip on your way from SciLab2 to SciLab1, then follow the path until you encounter the "Virus King". Megaman's performance is so disappointing in this first encounter that he demands another in SciLab2. Fine, the actor is now on a side road southeast from the square before entering the conveyer belts. Fight his trio of Fishies (White Version) or Ratties(Blue Version) and get rid of him. Bad acting like that will get you nowhere.

Now return to the Square. For some reason the next mission is given back in ACDC area, so the original guy hands over the CACDC pass for the cybermetro back home. Once there Megaman will be met by Roll, Glyde, and Guts who have all passed already. Isn't it annoying being one step behind the rest of the crowd?

Cut some time by returning to Dex's HP and taking the shortcut he bragged about in his E-mail a while ago. Exit ACDC Square and head up the stairs and into ACDC2. Talk to the first Navi there to begin the final phase of the prelim: Another virus battle series:

White Version	Blue Version
Quaker, Quaker, and CannoDumb Fishy, CannoDumb, and CannoDumb Met2, Met2, HardHead	Quaker and Fishy Met2, Boomer, HardHead Fishy, Spikey, and Spikey

You should still be fine as long as you're putting some new chips in your folder. Shockwaves and Bubblers will help.

Afterwards however, the PET goes bonkers and Megaman's contact with Lan is broken. You cannot jack-out using R, cannot use chips in battle, cannot pass GO, and cannot collect 2000 Zenny (well you could, but there's no time). You have to jack out through the place you jacked in, which in our case was Dex's PC. If you jacked in somewhere else, hope you remember where or you may have a bit of running around to do.

Lan's now forced to use his SubPET which prevents him from doing anything worthwhile. To cheer him up, Mom reminds him the class is going to the zoo tomorrow. No problem, it's not like there's anything you need a PET for at the zoo anyway, right? What are you going to jack into, the animals? Fortunately, Lan's dad pays an unexpected visit to his own house in time to take the busted PET in for repairs. At this point there's nothing to do but go to bed and save your game.

Since the SubPET has no alarm, Lan oversleeps and nearly misses the bus. Head to the school and you'll be just in time regardless of how much real time passes, as usual. Now the class heads into Yoka town. The zoo's closed, probably because their replaceable rhino exploded.

 

I'm in what?

No biggie, just walk and talk to everyone and look around. You've got the closed off zoo entrance, the power station next to it, the quaint little kiosks (and SubChip dealer) along the way, and the inn to the south. Most of the class is already in the inn. Dex is hanging out at the door to the baths, Mayl is in the rooms, and the north exit from there leads to a path out back where Yai is exploring. Inspect the suspicious fence in the back to progress the plot. Once you do so, Mari calls everyone in for bath time.

 

Yellow, hot, and steaming. Enjoy your bath in Ura Inn!

Bath time...that's a weird activity for an elementary school field trip. Oh, that crazy Japan. Actually, "bath time" turns out to be an unfortunate translation of a relaxing soak in the hot springs, which makes more sense. Enjoy bathing, eating, and a pillow fight.

The next day begins and Lan gets an email from his dad. Read it and the good old blue PET is fixed and as compensation for your suffering with the SubPET in the interim, also included are a brand new Navi-Customizer, three free programs for it, and a whole other Folder! What a deal! Exit the menu after reading the email and follow Hikari's handy dandy NaviCust tutorial.

Now it's time to meet up with the rest of the class at the zoo, except now that you have the good PET back, you can do a few things on the side you had to put off earlier. Jack into the TV in the room to get a free Unlocker chip (it's an old TV that only shows static, which is apparently why there's sand all over the place in battles) Also try to get a few RockArm chips from the Quaker viruses here. In the inn lobby you can surprisingly jack into the samurai armor for a rare, valuable SubMemory!

Outside, talk to the the lady now standing at the souvenir stand. Meet Tamako, one of your casual netbattle opponents in this game. Might as well have your first fight with Metalman.

Hard Navi Battle: Metalman.exe
HP= 500
Speed= slow
Defense= armor
Movement= random teleport
Special Field= Metal Gears slowly move back and forth across middle row on both sides of the field
Objects= Metal Gear(50 HP, shielded)
Attacks= Metal Missiles(20x3), Metal Blade(20), Metal Gears(20)

This is an opponent that keeps you moving. The whole battle could be a mad dance to run from every trio of missiles and get away from the edges to avoid the blades while also not getting run over by the gears, and because of his SuperArmor effect, you can't even slow him down. On the plus side, he does not yet have the ability to regenerate his gears, so if you have some breaking chips (the RockArm chips from the Old TV are convenient enough, drop the Quaker on the gear) you can get rid of these permanently, making dodging much easier. Just keep hammering away at him and win your MetalMan chip.

You can also jack into Tamako's stand and grab her 900Z, and a locked Snake D. You can't escape to the larger net though. Even with the passcode, the walkway is too thin to walk on.

Now head east with the rest of the class into the zoo but first you should jack into the ticket machine at the entrance for a RegUp1. Once inside the zoo, check everything in both areas, the animals, the info display, the cages, and the people. Examine the trash can at the north end of the first area for a Repair *. Go between the panda and lion cages and feel around the back wall for a jack in port to a broken Alarm Comp where you can access a RegUp1 and a locked Geyser B.

 

So a panda with a gun walks into a diner and...wait, that's not how it goes...

Once you're finished exploring, meet up with the gang at the lion cage, as Dex suggested. If a cutscene doesn't start when you approach the left side of the cage, then you must have missed something. Make sure you inspect all the disgruntled animals. You'll know the task is complete when you press L and Megaman suggests Lan meets his friends instead of looking at animals. A conversation ensues and just when you think the animals are just pissed off because the zoo is terrible...uh-oh, disaster strikes. The condor has abducted Chisao and the other animals are on the loose all of a sudden.

 

He had to write this walkthrough.

The conventional escape routes are all blocked by vicious animals, but you can sneak between the lion and panda cages to get back to the first area, where you can move around a little more freely, except the main entrance has been mysteriously locked! Thankfully, the mysterious fence at the western end of the area has been knocked down, so you can escape from there to the inn. Dodge the animal poo and the python to return to the inn entrance. Make your way back to the zoo entrance and find out the Condor has Chisao hostage on top of the Electrical tower. A zoo employee reveals that the evil zookeeper is using chips inside the animals to cause this havoc (has putting chips in animal brains ever done any good?). Enter the zoo (conveniently, the gates are now unlocked) and return to the panda exhibit where we started. Now the panda's info panel is unlocked, so jack into the comp and enter the network.

Take a right at the first fork for 1000Z and then head left. Pass the Progs then take another right for a Geddon1 chip. Then keep going upward to encounter a virus. You can't fight it, rather you have to use one of those schizophrenic Progs to take it out. This one is a mouse virus, so use the Prog that thinks it's a cat and let Tom and Jerry kill each other. For each one of these puzzles, you have to inspect the virus blocking the way before you're allowed to take any of the Progs with you. Also, each new blockade usually uses its own set of nearby Progs for possible solutions, so you don't have to go all the way back to a previous set for the answer. Proceed onward to the second half of the area. Go down from the platform with the eel Prog to receive an HPMemory, then go see the frog virus that blocks the path to the right. Go back and find the snake program. Return to the frog and after the carnage proceed to Area 2.

Match rabbit with rabbit and the virus dies from...happiness. Weird, but let's keep going. You'll a see data to your left with 600Z, so grab that, and to the right is a Charge+1 program which you should go ahead and install. Return left, poison the gorilla virus with the banana then proceed forward. Get the CopyDmg at the far west end of the area then head north to find the next puzzle. Now there are 2 viruses blocking the way. The first is a sea lion so get a sabotaged ball Prog to destroy it and then inspect the second virus which turns out to be a clam. This time you're using the same group of Progs since you couldn't go far enough to reveal a new group. Bring the otter to pry the clam open and proceed forward to the next area.

There's a tree virus is in your way here. To the left are the programs available and a Recov30 * chip. Chomp the tree down with a beaver program then grab the 800Z and a Cannon C chip along the continuing path. Soon you'll run into a pair of panda viruses. This time you will need to bring two programs at once; the bamboo and tire programs, any order, don't ask why. Left of the programs is a SneakRun Cust block. After dealing with the pandas, find your way to the mongoose virus. Get the cobra Prog to kill it then go inspect the next virus, a jar. Get the octopus to stuff into it. These Prog/Virus interactions seem to make less and less sense as we go. At least we're almost done. Move forward to reach the final area.

Take two lefts for a RegUp2 and go back to the main path until you find a monkey and peanut virus together and a parrot virus below. We need to get rid of the parrot virus first. Grab the tongue twister program and the HP+100 Customizer block next to it. Getting rid of the parrot allows access to three more programs which are needed to get rid of the Monkey Peanut duo. Take the walnut and chestnut programs to make the monkey throw up and take the peanut with him. Head onward and keep west to get a Hammer T chip and then back north for the final puzzle. To pass it you need to complete the 3 sequences: "Cat, Lion, ???" "Wool, Lamb, ???" and "Wolf, Fox, ???" Out of the six available programs, take these three: Tiger, Sheep and Dog.

Now to the next boss battle: Beastman. His operator spills the beans that the WWW is back and Wily is still alive. More on that as time goes on, but now it's time to have Beastman's head.

WWW Navi Battle: Beastman.exe
HP= 500
Speed= quick
Defense= normal
Movement= random teleport, avoids MM's row
Attacks= Beast Ray(20), Jumping Claw(20), Wild Rush(20x3)

Since he moves around a lot, the best times to attack are when he's about to attack. Whenever he disappears from his area to attack in yours, he always returns to the panel in his area where he was last seen, so when you get his timing down you can line up some big attacks on the panel you know he's going to appear in when he's through attacking. Another way to get an easy shot on him is to summon Gutsman or use Geddon so that he eventually corners himself on one panel with all his quick moving around. You can dodge most of his attacks quite easily by moving left or right once. Move up or down for Wild Rush and move away for Jumping Claw (touching Beast does the same damage as the slash). You get 1500Z for winning.

 

Condors don't qu - aw forget it. This makes sense compared to the rest of the chapter.

Takeo takes off bragging about acquiring the second Tetra Code (It was in the zoo and he was working there as a zookeeper for how long? He couldn't have gotten it sooner?) and the animals are back to normal now that Beastman is gone. Lan checks up on Chisao. The tyke falls to certain death, except Dex catches him with his extra-cushioned pudgy body. Now he doesn't need to pretend to be #1 at pushing buttons and slotting chips into a PET to be a hero to his little brother.

Later on, Chisao goes back home and nearly takes Dex with him, but the big guy sticks around (nuts). Meanwhile, in the dimly-lit WWW headquarters, Wily raves on to no one in particular and gives a name to his new macguffin-collecting evil scheme to ruin network society: CYBERGEDDON! He also believes victory is assured as he has a particular ally who at the moment is too mysterious to mention by name. HE can only be referred to in all-caps pronouns and Megaman has no hope of defeating...HIM.

Join us Friday a month from now (game time) for Chapter 3!

~Koala and Raijin