Mission 09: For You

As a note, mission eight is a fine one to repeat a few times for extra orbs. It's fairly quick, and the boss fight at the end isn't too bad if you can learn it and repeat your success.

Gran Album Bridge

Head towards the HQ building, only to witness a new character descend from the skies, the Alto Angelo. This guy is an upgraded version of the White Knight, with some extra powerful attacks. Defeat his cronies first, then move on to the new fellow, as the Altos can raise the attack capabilities of nearby minions. Attempt to defeat him as you normally would, by Bustering him when you're behind him or when you can knock off his shield. When these guys are shieldless, they basically perform no actions, allowing you to wail on them as much as you like, but their shields eventually will respawn.

Watch out for this energy attack. It's relatively easy to dodge if you can see it coming.

Note that the head angel here will periodically grab one of the White Knights and attempt to shoot a powerful ball at you. We haven't worked out the precise mechanics yet, but it's apparently possible to reflect it back towards your enemies in such a way that it automatically kills all of them and shoots you right up to an SSS style ranking. Apparently doing so will require you to either hit the ball as it comes your way with a Buster attack, or shoot at it with a charged-up shot from your gun. Good luck trying this technique out!

Grand Hall

There's a Devil Star S in the northwestern corner here and some red orbs in the southwest. There's another Combat Adjudicator in this first room; get up to an S marker with her and you'll nab a Blue Orb Fragment.

Proceed to the south and activate the pedestal you come to. It won't work, but it will cause a change in the room behind you. The lasers are nothing to worry about: simply drop down when they move past you and doublejump up the railing.

Key Chamber

Defeat another group of Alto + White Knights to obtain the Key of Cronus. Use it on the central pillar here to start—you guessed it—a time-slow maneuver. You're probably familiar with the concept from, oh, every action-adventure game ever made. You'll need to slow down time here to pass through the lasers that block you from the western passage.

The Gauntlet

What an ominous-sounding name for a room. Activate the blue switch and head into the room that drops down. Defeat the enemies to raise yourself up to the next level. Don't worry about the Fragment here; you can't get it yet.

Use the Gauntlet as an opportunity to gather up some Style points.

Use the pedestal to timewarp yourself through the laser beam to another gauntlet room, this time with multiple Freezes. Defeat them and the room will rise again. Instead of heading out the path to the next timewarp, look around for another open exit that appears to drop you down to nothing. It'll let you fall down to a platform where the Blue Orb Fragment is located.

Return to the Gauntlet here and pass through a bevy of Assaults to reach the top of the room.

Agnus' Room

Boss Fight: Angelo Agnus

Like Angelo Credo, there aren't really specific phases to the fight. Instead, you'll have to deal with Agnus' life-gaining abilities as well as his summoned creatures.

Abilities

Sword Attacks: Agnus has a few easily-dodged sword attacks. He'll use them when you're close, but will shift away from them as the fight progresses.

Gladius Summon: Agnus will summon three Gladiuses into the room, which fly about and attempt to zap you, just like they did in the Containment Room fight way back when. As you did then, you should attempt to Snatch these guys and Buster them to shoot them back into Agnus. It can be a bit more difficult to Snatch them than before, though, as your lockon will prefer to latch you onto Agnus instead of one of the swords. If need be, you can wait for them to attempt to spear you, then Buster them out of the ground.

Be sure to use Devil Trigger to disrupt Agnus' charged attacks.

Note that Gladiuses drop white orbs when they perish; these recharge your Devil Trigger gauge. You'll probably be capable of having an almost-constant Devil Trigger state on during portions of this fight if you kill the Gladiuses with regularity.

"Your Strength Will Be Mine!": As Agnus shouts this phrase, he'll start charging up an attack, then latch onto you and drain some of your health, feeding his own life bar. You can avoid this by hitting him while he charges up or jumping over him as he comes your way. You can also flip on Devil Trigger after he latches on to you to break free of his grip and restart fighting.

Video Walk-through

Angelo Agnus is confusing at first, but becomes easier with practice.

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Fireball Attack: Agnus will summon a disc of energy that floats over his head and start shooting fireballs from it. He can't be interrupted during this attack, so just double-jump around and avoid the flames.

"Time To Die!": Another charging ability here, where Agnus will move to the center of the room, charge up his attack, then unleash a powerful ability that will drain your health. The move appears to be unavoidable, so quickly hit Agnus while he charges, either with your sword or with a Gladius. If you're across the room, use Snatch to pull yourself next to Agnus and go to town.

Cutlass Summoning: Later in the fight, Agnus will drop two Cutlasses into the ground, which will then pop up underneath you. Difficult to avoid, but if you keep moving they should miss you.

"I Will Crush You Until You Die!": Agnus will summon two Cutlasses and attach them to his arms. He'll swirl around for a bit, dealing damage to you if you're anywhere nearby, then throw the Cutlasses. The thrown blades are difficult to dodge since they move so quickly, but you can double-jump over them.

If you chuck enough swords at Agnus, he'll eventually die.

Strategy

In general, you need to keep up the pressure on Agnus during this fight by constantly whacking him with your sword and doing your best to grab any Gladiuses you see and throwing them at Agnus. Most of Agnus' moves are not difficult to dodge, luckily, especially after you attempt the fight for the first time and have something of an idea of what's going on. The main danger here are his life-stealing moves. If you let Agnus pull these off consistently, you will be at a marked disadvantage during the fight.

But apart from that, you simply need to stay on Agnus, avoid his sword attacks, grab and throw a Gladius as often as you can, and you should be well on the way to defeating him. Air Hike and Snatch 3 will be critical to success here. Also keep in mind that you should be rolling in Devil Trigger orbs here, so whenever it maxes out, be sure to trigger over to it and unleash a combo or three. Dealing enough damage to Agnus will cause him to slump. It can be difficult to tell when he's stunned because he never hits the ground, but if you hear him making those whimpering sounds he makes every time you hit him, he's stunned. Hit him with your Buster to initiate a supercombo.