Imos House

Go to the basement, talk to Tori, head outside.

Ignore the talk about hiring mercenaries - it's just flavor text. Head to the sign then go north to enter the Mountain Forest (it's a little off-path so you got to move left a bit to see the path to it)

Coco Forest


Head to this location in the north of the area, while avoiding as many battles as you can. You'll need to circle around all the way from the left side to reach it.

You can harvest items if you like from the points but it doesn't matter in the long run.

Approach the bee and lose (you'll hear this a lot)


Once Lotia has joined the party, you can do some grinding for Imos, which doesn't help right now but will in the future, which means you could put it off until a later date. If you're playing the unpatched version (why?), the spot near the Church that is your destination has a bee that will constantly respawn itself, making things easy. Once you're done, head to the top right of the map to finish the Chapter

Imos House

Go to the basement, talk to Tori, get teleported to the dungeon.

Amari's Cave Starting Floor

Buy and save some Mosa Roots from the merchant right ahead of you. You can sell the rocks around here if you wish since status cure items aren't particularly useful.

Combat here is still simple - use Lotia's Spark and refresh with Bee Jellies if needed. Try to farm some Yugom and Mag cores to stack attack stats, they'll serve you well in the future.

From said merchant, head north, circle around to the left to the down stairs.

Amari's Cave Floor 2
The down stairs are in the top left of the map. If you used the staircase I described on the previous floor (there are two), you should end up very close, head down a bit and then circle to the left and up to reach it.

Amari's Cave Floor 3



Follow the path until you reach the boss. Lotia uses Spark to clear out the small fry while dealing heavy damage to the boss, Aina uses Icicle Beam if she has TP and Freeze if not, Imos and Tori can do whatever.

Head into the hole behind the boss once you're done.

Imos's House

Go to the basement, talk to the slime sprite, head outside.

Coco Forest

Head to Krimina's church avoiding any monsters in your path. This is the exact same area as the one you've been through in Chapter 1 so there's no need to repeat the directions, I hope.

Get sad.

Chapter over.

Discene Path

This area is just three screens that are wide open fields where the next area is just the top of the screen so I don't think I need to really say much here. If you want, you can try to level up Imos some more on the first screen here since this is one of the last opportunities to have the process be easy although Amari's Cave from last chapter is likely more efficient.

Ash is probably the most annoying random encounter in this area so maybe you want to just run if you see them. Everything else can be handled with Lotia using Spark as usual.

There's a merchant on the first screen but he doesn't sell anything particularly outstanding IMO.

Once you hit the third screen, Imos will be replaced with Chad Thrash. This could be a good time to farm some Monster Cores even if you aren't earning EXP for Imos since they'll have much more of a long term value, but the ones aren't here aren't that great IMO.



There's a boss at the end of the 3rd screen but with Thrash on your team it shouldn't be a problem. Use Tori's Power Bull on him, not much else to say.

Camp

Talk to the thug standing in front of the most bottom tent (who points you north), then the one at the most northern tent. Get sad.

Dunga



Welcome to hell!

After the long story scenes, you should head right to the 2nd screen, then head into the equipment shop. Buy the Blue Glow (strongest available Sword) and Chainmail (Armor) here - you don't have to do it immediately before they become relevant but just don't forget to do it at some point. If you don't have it yet, don't feel the need to start grinding - by chapter 7 you'll definitely have enough money to purchase them and it's also your last chance.

To the right of the equipment shop is a Monster Core Shop. If you didn't farm Yugom and Mag cores back in Chapter 2, this is a good time to stock up on them.



Once the shopping is done, head to Thrash's house and interact with the circle for the next story scene.

Once that's down, head right to the 3rd screen, enter the inn, talk to the innkeeper and head downstairs. Walk to the right, talk to the thug, lose the battle.

Get sad.

When the white haired girl appears, choose to Follow Her.

Mokene Lakeshore -1-

This time, Ace will be carrying you. His spells are god awful for some reason, so only use his physicals. Head left.

Mokene Lakeshore -2-

Head left again.

Mokene Lakeshore -3-

Just keep heading downwards until you're at 5.

Mokene Lakeshore -5-



Head to the brown patch of land in the lower right, for a scene where you get sad (TM).

Once the scene is over, circle around to the left and up to return to a different area of Lakeshore 4, then head up again to reach...

Mokene Lakeshore -6-


Boss time!

Use a Mosa Root on Tori before battle so she has 25 TP to use Poison Mist at the start. If you picked up some Slydena Grass, Imos can use them on Ace (it stacks up to twice).

Kill the two small fry before the boss or they'll likely take out Imos/Tori and leave Ace without support.

Dunga

Get Sad.

Visit Ace's House, it's the rightmost building of the screen you start in when you regain control.

Now go to Thrash house (one screen right, same area as the previous time.)

Head to the inn (one screen right), go to sleep in your room in the basement

Lotia's POV



Talk to the maid at the top of the screen, then return to your original position and interact with the circle.

A lot of cutscenes happen.

Dunga
Head to Ace's House (first building on the screen just left of where you start off.) Choose to Snap at Ace, which will get you 10000 gold, which will definitely be enough to buy everything you need.

Head to the inn

Inn
Krimina's located in the room right of the innkeeper, talk to her, then leave and head all the way left to the restrooms.

Go back to the inn to your bedroom in the basement to sleep and Aina should join the team.



With Aina, you have to visit several areas to progress. First is to defeat the slime near the gates of the town



This is the harder to miss one - near the restrooms on the left side of the town, go between the alleyway pictured and talk to the thugs to enter a battle.



After that, head right to the "center" screen of Dunga for a bunch of cutscenes.

Schum's Base

Optimally, just keep losing to the front guard and save all your items. Remove your armor and Cores so things go faster.

For the sake of completionism you might want attempt saving Aina just to see how it feels like, but it's an impossible task and the items will come in helpful later

Boss: Schum
Schum regenerates, but it shouldn't be too hard as long as Lotia uses Spark and Assym uses Flame Barrage to build up Combo, then Assym ends it with a Bramati's Nova

After some cutscenes, you're given a choice of whether to accept the power from the girl. Choose to accept and pick Aura Blade - it doesn't matter in the long run and if you're really worried about completionism you can get the other on a New Game + (lol)

Dunga
Hope you bought the most expensive gear like I told you to... though if you still have the Thrash force, you can use them all now to win battles easily.



You want to kill all the black slimes around the place - they have an exclamation mark over their head as you get close to help you spot them.



Lotia (standing next to Thrash house) will heal you for free if you need it, but you generally won't if you're just using Thrash Force to kill everything, save 2 though.

Clear out all the black slimes from all three screens of Dunga, then return to the center screen of Dunga (the one with Lotia).

Boss: Nuptou - Party
Use two Thrash Force on the boss, the other enemies are the same mobs you've been fighting all this time.

Get sad.

This is just chapter of cutscenes

We start off this chapter Getting Sad (TM)

Dunga Inn Basement

While it's completely optional, you can head to the right side of the screen to witness a scene with Schum/Aina. You can go back for a different 2nd scene but it loops from then on.

Leave the inn where you're done, head west to the "middle" screen and head out through the south exit of Dunga.

Assuming you listened and accepted the girl's power twice, you'll be given a choice. For now, choose "Ignore it"

After that, you have two more choices -

View - Ending #1
Don't View - Ending #2

You can pick either. It's very easy to get back to this point to watch the other ending through a feature later.

Recollection Room
Congratulations, you've beaten Dark Hero Party!

Or have you?

As an important note, do not load your old save files back to the old save points in order to pick new choices. Instead save the game after every ending in the Recollection room and use the same save file as the Ending Flags are saved in the specific save file rather than a "global" save.



Now that you've completed one of Endings 1/2, you can watch Aina's epilogue by talking to this Schum sprite at the left side of the screen, which reveals her fate at the end of this timeline.



Once you're ready to progress, head to this sheep and pick From The Revenge Route, which will bring you to the original choice. Choose Ignore it again and pick the other choice you didn't choose the first time to get to the other ending.

And then, repeat the process, but choose to Listen to the Voice.

The Wild Ride Begins

In the womb of the Demon Dragon

UNLIMITED POWER

Reequip your gear - you should have a shiny new Nicht Force Weapon and Armor which is the best you can get now..

To wipe random battles, spam Abyssal Thorns and Dark Burst



Head left from your starting position and grab the secret Super Core H in this location.



There's a Dragon Tear here (full HP/MP/TP recovery item) and another on the path to the bottom right to head to the next screen.



You can pick up three Cores here just a bit north of your starting position though they're not very important.



From this room, the North and South exits are Detours for some items like more Dragon Tears. To progress, head to the right exit



Boss time!

Boss: Bungunthou

Cast Enrage, Dark Burst to wipe out the mobs, then spam Abyssal Thorns to build TP and hit the boss with Vengeance.

After the boss fight, head forward a bit and talk to Behernicht to end this segment.

Choose Yes, then choose to Go

Demon Castle - Basement



Interact with the Black Orb behind you. Get Mad.

You can now interact with the Lotia sprite behind you to add or remove her from the party.

To the left, right and bottom exits of the room are the Orbs for Aina, Krimina and Tori respectively. Recruiting them is optional for now but it will definitely make things easier to at least fill up your party with two more members. Tori is a must-have, and the last slot is up to you - Remember, you only need to recruit two characters (not countung the easy Lotia recruit.)

Behernicht will heal you if you talk to her.



In a brief reminder of how annoying she is, Tori's Orb is the only one that constantly moves around the room, meaning you'll have to run around to figure out where it is



In comparison Aina's room is really simple, just cross the bridge to the north and there it is. You might want to explore the rest of the place for the scattered Dragon Tears though.



Krimina's pretty easy as well, being in a building just west of your room start position

Once you formed your desired party, take the time to grind them a bit. If you're ready to move on, talk to Behernicht and choose to face Phenice's forces, which will start a boss battle



Boss: Giha

Imos uses the same strategy he did in the previous boss fight. As for the rest of the party members...

Tori should use Poison Mist ASAP, which can be accomplished with a Mosa Root. After that she can Power Bull anyone with an Atk Down debuff.

Lotia should use Spark, which she has been doing since forever, or use a TP move if it's built.

Aina should try to Snow Pulse to build up TP, Freeze the main Giha if the minor mobs are dead, use Crystal Sword when she built up TP and then regular Attack the main body.

Krimina should use her magic that allows her to boost the TP of another character, either Tori if she hasn't gotten her Poison Mist off or Lotia.

Before the Decisive Battle
Another choice - for now, choose "Face Thrash One on One"

Boss: Thrash

Soak in the music.

As Demon Lord Imos, you gain a ridiculous stat boost and can take two actions per turn. Note that if you run out of MP for the 2nd action Imos will just skip his turn, so make sure you calculate properly.

Enrage, Abyssal Thorns to build up Combo meter, then burst with two Vengeances (not Torment!)

Defend if you see Thrash charge up.

Use your healing items if you're running low on HP/MP. You can use some Dragon Tears too to speed things up but don't use ALL of them.



The fateful choice... for now, choose Kill for Ending #3 (you cannot win the boss fight that ensues)

Recollection Room



Welcome back! Now that you have watched Ending #3, it's a good time to read One Blank Year in the Recollection Room, which are a series of scenes which details Lotia and Thrash's relationship during the Year where Imos goes missing.

When you're ready, head back to the Sheep on the top and choose the Revenge Route, but this time choose "Before The Decisive Battle" on the 2nd choice.

Head back to the top of this chapter, repeat everything until you get to the choice again. This time, choose "................" instead for Ending #4

Recollection Room

And you're here again! This is very important - after watching Ending #4 and returning to this screen naturally, make sure you use this save file from here on - the flag to achieve the True Endings is saved into the file you are currently using.

Now do everything all over again (don't worry, this is the last time) except instead of choosing to face Thrash solo, choose to "Take the monsters" - thus, if you haven't, you should probably grind your chosen party members a bit more because they'll be getting a bit more use now. Whatever final party you choose MUST include Lotia, and Tori is definitely the most useful party member.

Time to face Thrash. Again.

Demon Castle - Basement



If you're looking for more grinding opportunities, the north exit of the map will lead to an area which contains, amongst other mobs, all of the old bosses throughout the game. These have some really good EXP value while being much easier to kill at your current strength, so they can be useful getting your Replicas up to speed.

Pre-Battle Preparation:

Buy a bunch of Super Revivants (Revive at 50% HP item) - this is your last chance to get them and while Dragon Tears are supposed to revive at 100%, it's bugged and only does a full HP/MP restore instead.

Lotia gets 4 Mag Cores, Tori can take either 4 Jomey's Core for Luk so that her Poison Mist is a bit more reliable or 4 Ergle's Cores for the 40% Evasion. Stacking Super Core Gs for the TP Regen may be an option if you're willing to repeatedly replay Ending #3/4 since the boss Giha drops it. Aina gets 4 Mag Cores so you can squeeze a bit more damage out of her Stun move.

In the pre-battle screen, you can use Mosa Roots to make sure Tori starts with a higher TP so she can start using Poison Mist immediately, but for some arcane RPGMaker reason, the TP at the start of battle seems to get cut from what the number should be.

Boss: Thrash



Here we are again, except this time you don't get the Demon Lord boost, so unfortunately despite having a full party this battle is a lot harder than the previous versions. You might actually need to put in some effort here.

The absolute easiest way to win this battle is to land the Poison status with Tori's Poison Mist. Thrash isn't immune to status conditions, but it can be extremely luck-based and Tori isn't very good at building TP, so you need a character feeding her TP through Mosa Roots or Krimina using Energia

Lotia and Aina can go for stunning strategies. If you rather go for damage and combo building with Lotia then Spark is the standard move as usual.

Boss: Lotia

The strategy's basically the exact same as Thrash. Make sure you have Lotia R on your team AND to be on a Save File with Ending #4 flagged as mentioned earlier or Boss Lotia will have unlimited HP here. Otherwise I don't have much to say.

Get Empty.

Dragon Nest -1-



Welcome to the final dungeon! Enjoy the cool music. The magic circle you start on will fully heal you if you step on it. Remember to equip all your characters - including Imos, who has been stripped of all his gear.

Your ultimate goal is to defeat the 6 Boss Dragons scattered around the area and then finally the Head Honcho herself. This walkthrough will present them in an order that lessens the backtracking needed but you might actually want to beeline for a certain fight first. Let's get cracking.

By the end of this dungeon you will want to be at level 70 for the easiest time to defeat the boss - unfortunately that means a lot of grinding. Still, you don't have to do it on screen 1 immediately, so take your time.

Head Northeast to reach Dragon Nest -2-

Dragon Nest -2-

The Dragons mobs here have some fantastic cores while you're grinding them, especially Dragon Core A which is basically an upgrade of all the 10% stat boosters you've been using so far. Spam Kaiser Hell with Behernicht in order to win random battles.

You can head North here to Dragon Nest -3- to fight Gachura or progress onwards to -4- using the East Exit. Do the latter first but in the interest of following area order...

Dragon Nest -3-
Gachura is just North of your starting location



Gachura regenerates HP and you might actually find it impossible to outdamage his regeneration if you try to tackle this fight immediately. If that's the case you can retreat from the battle instead of having to restart the game or anything but like I said - you should come back later.

Dragon Nest -4-
There's two exits in this area, one in the northwest and the other in the northeast. Technically they both lead to Dragon Nest -5-, but they're separated from each other through a gap in the middle.

Head to the Northeast first to get rid of the Boss Dragon there unless you want to do things out of order

Dragon Nest -5- (Eastern split)
You'll find Spinis here. You're given a choice to either defeat him or ignore him, but ignoring him is an ambush and you'll fight anyway, so choose to kill the little dastard instead.



Head back to Dragon Nest 4 and take the Northwest exit this time

Dragon Nest -5- (Western split)
Keep heading North to reach -6- (save the game before entering because you'll immediately enter a boss fight

Dragon Nest -6-
Boss: Amari and Diattha


As soon as the fight start, Imos will learn Overdrive, which basically puts him in his Demon Lord state for 4 turns granting him ridiculous stat bonuses, two turns and the inability to die. He will then unleash Behernicht's Vengeance chunking off half of the bosses's HP.

This pretty much sets the new paradigm for Boss Battles from here on - two casting of Abyssal thorns with Imos will max out the combo counter and grant him enough to use Behernicht Vengeance, which you should do so. Behernicht can use Hateful Screech and both she and Al can play support while Imos is in Overdrive.

Once these two are dead, you'll get another Magic Circle and thus another area where you can heal up. When you're done, go back and kill Gachura now that you have Overdrive, then come back here and head North.

Dragon Nest -7-



Ques is located at the Southeast of this screen

Boss:Ques
The only thing notable about this guy is that sometimes he reflects attacks which breaks your combo when using Abyssal thorns, which is really annoying but not particularly threatening.

After defeating him, head to the northeast to the next map.

Dragon Nest -8-


Bramati is located at the Bottom Middle of this screen

Boss:Bramati
I don't have much to say about him either. Cool +25% Mag core though.

After defeating him, the path to the next area is just a bit to the East - it's a huge stairway heading upwards.

Dragon Nest -9-


At the top of the stairs, there's a circle shop where you can buy Dragon Tears (the other equipment it sells are pretty pointless.) - you probably want to just drain your gold at this point.

Be sure to defeat all six Boss Dragons or the final boss will be invincible. Once you're ready, save and head North.

Make sure to choose "Step Forward" when the choice shows up.

Boss: Holy Dragon Phenice


Welcome to the final boss fight! This one's going to be long and annoying. There's a lot going on in this battle so I'll try to run down everything you'll need to keep into account.

Do NOT kill the God and Goddess Holes - if either one of them dies, Phenice will revive them and full heal everyone on her side, making your entire battle effort wasted. This means that your usual tools for increasing the Combo Counter or usual damage strategies can't be used.

Once in a while, Phenice will cast Thesis, then Antithesis on the next turn, and Aufheben on the turn after. This will absolutely wipe your entire party unless you take specific actions against it - specifically, Behernicht has to use Power of the Void to grant herself a 99% Light Damage Reduction and Imos has to be in Overdrive state (which stops him from dying while he's under its effect).

Given that you have 3 turns of warning it should be fairly trivial to toss Dragon Tears if you're lacking TP and still have time to put up your defenses. Al unfortunately has no recourse and will be bodied by the attack, but that's why you have Super Revivants on hand.

(I can't confirm this, but it might be possible to use Nicht Force X (which removes all buffs from the enemy) right after Phenice uses Thesis in order to break the chain, but it's probably a less safe route to take.

Your strongest moves used to be all-target moves but now they're a liability, so you got to change tactics. Behernicht should be spamming Behemoth's Rage, which should be one of your most consistent source of damage in this fight. She learns it at level 70, which is why I suggest that as your minimum level for this fight.

Imos will be using Venge Barrage, which deals 5 hits and is thus your best way of building up combo count while dealing solid damage itself with the main drawback being its TP cost. Both of these moves are physical attacks, so you want Enrage as a buff instead of Hateful Screech.

Al will generally play defense, as his Great Reprieve will get rid of all the annoying debuffs that Phenice will inflict on you throughout the fight, and he can toss items like no one's business. Give him good defensive cores, such as HP Regeneration or Dragon Core M, which halves Fire and Electricity Damage.

This battle will take a long long time but eventually you'll take her and her 260000 HP down.

Congratulations, you've beaten Dark Hero Party!

Ending Sequence


The bottom choice gives you Ending 5 while the top choice gives you Ending 6. I recommend watching them in that order.

Now get depressed that you'll never read anything as good as Dark Hero Party again.

BONUS
After getting Ending 6 and saving the game, if you go back and get Ending 4, you'll get a Special CG thanking you for playing the game. Then again, you could probably just save yourself some time by looking it up online.