Strategies and Cheats in Kingdom Hearts II
Leveling Up Forms and Summons
One of these tedious chores is to reach level 7 with all of Sora’s forms (Valor, Wisdom, Master, and Final) and summons (Stitch, Peter Pan, Chicken Little, and Genie). Along with reaching level 99, this is required to open the Hades Paradox Cup. While there is no way to level up the forms and summons automatically, there are several places where you can gain experience quickly.
Leveling up the forms takes a lot of time because the form gauge has to be refilled after each form is used. There are several ways around this. One is the tournaments. By entering a tournament, Sora’s drive gauge is instantly refilled. All you have to do is then pause the game and quit the tournament to get a full drive gauge.
Another trick is to change into a form, use up nearly all the drive gauge, and then enter an area where Donald and Goofy are wondering around on their own and you can talk to them. While this happens in just about every world, generally they stop wondering around after certain story events. One place where they do not is on the Black Pearl. Any time you’re on the ship, you should see Donald, Goofy, and Captain Jack walking around on their own. If you return to the ship from any location while in a form or with a summon, Sora will revert to normal and his drive gauge will be refilled. You must still be in a form or have a summon with you when you enter the Black Pearl, however, in order for this to work.
To build up your form experience quickly, board the Black Pearl and head to the Isle de Muerta. Here, you can battle all the way to the treasure heap and back (once you have enough drive gauges to stay in form all the way there and back). Both Heartless and Nobodies appear here, so you can power up all four forms without too much difficulty. You can level up the summons, as well. To help gain more summon experience, be sure to let the summons do something. You can use their limit break to bring in some good experience, but do so sparingly, since it uses up drive gauges. Typically, you can gain 20 or more experience points before returning to the Black Pearl and recharging the drive gauge.
If you’re working on leveling up Final Form and don’t want to waste time with the Heartless that appear on the Isle de Muerta, you can go to the Altar of Naught in The World That Never Was (the final save area of the game). Here, just like the Black Pearl, Donald and Goofy wonder around and can be spoken to, and each time you enter this area in a form, Sora will revert to normal and his drive gauges will be refilled. This is a great place to defeat Nobodies and level up final form.
Collecting Materials for Synthesis
Another tedious chore is collecting materials for synthesis. Some of the rarest materials are held by Nobodies. Fortunately, every Nobody in the game appears at one point or another in The World That Never Was. You can find three very rare items here: Twilight Stones, Twilight Gems, and Twilight Crystals. Twilight Stones are dropped by Dancers, which appear fairly often towards the latter parts of the level. Twilight Gems are dropped by Assassins, and only four of them appear in the game. Finally, Twilight Crystals are dropped by Sorcerers, who likewise only appear in The World That Never Was. You can increase your chances of getting synthesis items by equipping the “Lucky Lucky” ability and by equipping weapons with Lucky Lucky. Sora, Donald, and Goofy can all learn this ability and each has a weapon with the Lucky Lucky effect (the Sweet Memories Keyblade, the Meteor Staff, and the Genji Shield). By equipping each of them with the ability and weapon, you can increase your chances of getting items by six. You can also equip the Lucky Ring (received for clearing the Pain and Panic Cup) to increase your chances even more.
Quick Experience
You can triple the experience Sora and crew receive by equipping the Gullwing Keyblade and allowing Sora to get heavily wounded. Any time he is in critical condition (when the life bar flashes and you hear that annoying “danger” beep), the experience you receive will be tripled. Just be careful that Sora doesn’t die while gaining experience!
Increasing Sora’s Attack and Defense
If you’re having trouble defeating enemies or bosses (especially Sephiroth), you can synthesize Defense and Power Boosts to permanently increase Sora’s defense and attack. This can help him survive many more hits and deal a ton of more damage. To create Defense Boosts, you need 1 Mythril Crystal, 2 Blazing Crystals, 2 Lightning Crystals, and 2 Lucid Crystals. Power Boosts require the same items plus a Serenity Crystal. Don’t forget that you can use Energy Crystals to cut the amount of required items in half (so you will only need one Blazing, Lightning, and Lucid Crystal each). You can continue to create items until Sora has 99 attack and defense, which will make him nearly invincible.
These strategies will help you get through Kingdom Hearts II that much quicker and can save hours when leveling up or searching for rare synthesis materials. Put them to work and you’ll find yourself watching the end credits in no time.
