Mission 07: The She-Viper

Note that you can buy Purple Orbs at the Power Up screen here. These will extend the length of time that you can remain in Devil Trigger mode. Start buying them up; they're almost as useful as Blue Orbs are, and Blue Orbs are probably very expensive at this point.

Forest Entrance

There's a Secret Mission right near the beginning of this map which will be impossible to complete for the moment. There's also a red orb crystal nearby, under the tree.

Windswept Valley

You can find some Holy Water by jumping along the northern edge of this map. You'll encounter some new enemies here, the Chimera Seeds, who by themselves are absolute pushovers. You can kill them with a single Buster move, in fact. They'll become more dangerous in a moment.

Move off to the east and head through the door near the fountain.

Ruined Church

The Chimera Seeds will latch onto the Scarecrows here and transform into Chimerae, making them a bit more dangerous than they were. Mechanically killing them is not much more difficult, but the upgraded Scarecrows will periodically lash out with their blades, hitting you and knocking your style meter down a notch. It's impossible to predict when these blades will come out; they can hit you while you juggle them in the air, or latch on with Buster, or pretty much any other time when you're close to them, even if they're on the ground. The blades will only come out for a second, then retract for a while, so wait until just after their blades retract to hit them with combos.

You can break through the windows here to find a bunch of red orbs near the unusable statue, but apart from that all you can do is head upstairs and activate the switch. (The tree roots that block your passage on the bottom floor, assuming you find them, will be dealt with in a while.) Quickly run across the platform before it falls apart to move on.

Jumping over these platforms will be difficult with the Mephistos coming around to annoy you.

Ruined Valley

Use the Grim Grips to make it to the next blue switch, then activate it. You'll need to move across the platforms again, but two Mephistos will appear here and knock you off. Having Air Hike is very handy here, since you'll be able to jump straight up for a better chance at dodging their attacks if you can get a bit of an extension on your jumps. It may also be the only way to reach the Blue Orb Fragment that's suspended above the platform towards the end of the gauntlet here.

It's almost impossible to actually kill the Mephistos here, although you can try if you like. If you knock their cloaks off, then drop them off the platform, they'll immediately regenerate. You may be able to kill them with normal attacks, but that will take a while and you should probably concentrate on just avoiding their attacks and watching the platforms to avoid having anything from disappearing from under your feet. Feel free to hit them with a Buster while you jump, or Snatching their cloaks while you wait for the next platform to appear, but apart from that you should be ok to just ignore them. Be sure to jump over their slicing attack, though, as that will knock you back and probably force you to start over.

Lapis River

Plenty of seed pods here for you to bust open for orbs. You can also find Secret Mission 05: Sky Scraper on a tree in the southwest corner of the map. After trying it, head northwest.

Ancient Plaza

There's a fight here, but not much else.

Windswept Valley

More fun with Gyro Blades here. Smash through the barriers to move on.

This should be fun.

Ruined Valley

You'll get your first glimpse of the She-Viper here. She'll attempt to smash through the platforms that you're on as you move; you can jump over the pods that block your way or hit them with your sword to free your movement.

Forgotten Ruins

Get up to an A-rank with the Combat Adjudicator here to nab a Blue Orb Fragment. Proceed past the enemies here to find another demon statue. The seeds nearby will contain green health, so heal yourself up in preparation for the boss fight.