Kid Icarus
  ~ Angel Land Story


~ A complete FAQ/guide by Daniel Remar ~
Last updated: Feb 21 2010


This guide now has the Wii Virtual Console equivalents of all my passwords that
only worked on the NES before.

Jean-Luc Romano, who I helped with the password system, is publishing his own
password generator/decryption/completer program. ThisFAQ/guide is mainly
dedicated to the game itself, not the password system.


===============================
][ ~ Table of contents ~ ][
===============================

1. Introduction
2. Stages
3. Leveling, HP and Strength
4. Weapons
5. Special items
6. Hearts and shopping
7. The Holy chambers
8. The endings and how to get them
9. Enemy list
10. In-depth enemy descriptions
11. Fortress maps
12. Strategies
13. Miscellaneous fun (RAM editing, passwords etc)
14. Important game notes (loss of play data in passwords)
15. Wii Virtual Console differencies
16. Japanese version (Famicom) differencies
17. Copyright, contact, other FAQs
18. Epilogue and contributors



===============================================================================
][ 1. Introduction ][
===============================================================================

~ Yes, I like the tilde key ~

Hello, and welcome to my Kid Icarus FAQ/Guide.
Kid Icarus (First released 1986 in Japan) has always been one of my favourite
games throughout the years. My goal with this FAQ is to cover everything there
is to know about the game, even including the enemy stats, the requirements for
getting Strength upgrades, haggling successfully and the requirements for
getting the five endings. Either if you're new to the game or an experienced
player, I hope this document will help you out, whether you want to complete it
for the first time or gain further knowledge about this old-school classic.
Since the game was re-released on the Nintendo Wii Virtual Console system,
people have been wondering why none of their old codes or the famous "cheat
codes" work. See section 15 of the FAQ for help and insight on this subject.
Let's begin with the story (freely after the instruction booklet):

Long ago, in an age where gods and humans lived in harmony, there was a kingdom
callad Angel Land. It was ruled by Palutena, who administered the light, and
Medusa, ruler of darkness. Palutena lived in the Palace in the Sky, and with
her light, the humans could grow food and live in happiness. Medusa, however,
hated mankind. She dried up the crops, and turned people into stone statues.
Enraged, Palutena turned Medusa into a horrible monster, and banished her to
the Underworld.
Medusa vowed to come back and take over the Palace in the Sky. In her struggle
to do so, she joined the monsters and evil spirits of the Underworld. In time,
Medusa's army became greater than Palutena's. A war began, and in the end,
Medusa was victorious. But she wasn't satisfied. She took the three Sacred
Treasures - the Mirror Shield, the Arrow of Light, and the Wings of Pegasus
- and gave them to her most powerful underlings. She turned almost every one of
Palutena's warriors into stone, and locked up the goddess herself in the depths
of the Palace in the Sky.
Angel Land became a dark realm of monsters, ruled by the wicked Medusa.
Palutena's last stand was to seek the help of the young angel Pit, who'd been
imprisoned in the Underworld. With her last bit of magical strength, she sent
Pit a bow and arrow.
Pit set out on a quest break out of the Underworld and get the three sacred
treasures, defeat Medusa, rescue Palutena and bring peace to Angel Land.



===============================================================================
][ 2. Stages ][
===============================================================================

Kid Icarus is divided into 4 Stages. The first three are divided into 4
Sections: three normal ones, and a fortress. The fourth Stage only consists of
one Section.

Between each Section there's a checkpoint. When you pass it, your XP (called
Score in the game) will be added to the total XP, which in turn determines your
Level, see "3. Leveling, HP and Strength". Also, if you die, you will restart
from the last checkpoint you passed, with all the items you had when you first
passed it, but with your HP at 15 (or 7 if you are only Level 1). If this is
your first time through the game, don't worry about all the referrings to other
parts in the FAQ unless you want to find out more, or are stuck somewhere.

~ Stage 1 - The Underworld ~
The game makes it clear right from the start that you'll need some good
platforming skills to survive - if you fall off the bottom of the screen even
once, you lose. Of course, you can buy some feathers to help you out; each one
will save you from a fall. Either way, you should reach a high Level as soon as
possible by killing a lot of enemies. See "12. Strategies" for some tips
that'll surely help you.
When you beat the fortress of this Stage, you should have gotten a Strength
upgrade and reached Level 5.

~ Stage 2 - The Overworld ~
Notably more difficult than Stage 1, it contains encounters with Pluton, and
some tricky jumping because of the ice. You should have at least two feathers
in store here. Note that if you duck while on the ice, you'll pass through it,
so be careful. This does not apply to the moving platforms.
When you exit this Stage, you should have gotten 2 more Strength upgrades.
Make sure you have less than 920 hearts when entering Section 2-2, or getting
that upgrade will be incredibly hard. See "3. Leveling, HP and Strength" below
for more information. But if you're not a perfectionist, don't worry, you could
always get it later when you replay the game.

~ Stage 3 - The Skyworld ~
A beautiful cloudy Stage, with the only real threat being falling off the
clouds. If you duck while on the clouds, you'll fall through them. You'll also
meet the Pluton fly, but it's pretty easy to avoid. Gather lots of hearts to
fill your barrel with 8 bottles if you haven't already. There's a store just
outside the boss room in the fortress here, so buy some bottles with the water
of life if you need it - but don't spend too much money if you're hoping to get
the best ending (more info on this can be found in "8. The endings and how to
get them").
At the end of 3-1, you'll get your final Strength upgrade. Also, see "The room
of death" under "12. Strategies" for some help on that tricky Eggplant Wizard
room in the fortress.

~ Stage 4 - the Palace in the Sky ~
This final Stage is just one long side-scrolling shooter, with Medusa waiting
at the end. Keep an eye out for enemies, and you should do fine. Note that you
can't fall of the bottom of the screen; you'll bounce back up again.
Something that makes this Stage more difficult is that you have to defeat at
least 50 enemies before reaching the end, or the whole Stage will loop back to
the start (but with the kill count intact). The higher your Strength, the
easier it will be to defeat that many enemies. Just keep shooting.
Don't worry about confronting Medusa, she's possibly the easiest boss in the
game. For a trick on how to beat her quickly, see "10. In-depth enemy
descriptions".



===============================================================================
][ 3. Leveling, HP and Strength ][
===============================================================================

~ Leveling ~

In Kid Icarus, there are five "Levels", reached by earning Experience points
(called "Score" in the game). Each time you defeat an enemy, you'll get an
amount of XP. At the end of each Stage Section, the XP you earned will be added
to the total. From here on I will refer to Score as "XP".

Total XP required for reaching Levels:
LV 2: 20'000
LV 3: 50'000
LV 4: 100'000
LV 5: 200'000


~ HP ~

But what do Levels do? Well, for every new Level, a red block of health, or Hit
Points (HP) will be added to your Endurance. Each block contains 8 HP with the
exception of the left-most block, which contains only 7.

When you get hit by an enemy, your HP decreases. Collect glasses with the water
of life, or bathe in yellow hot springs to restore your health. With barrels
and bottles, your maximum HP also increases (see "5. Special items").

So, you'd better gain Levels as fast as possible to survive, as you've already
figured. If you think you'll need a lot of health, check out "12. Strategies"
for some useful advice on fast Leveling, though it may take some skill.



~ Strength ~

The arrows on the pause screen show your Strength. The amount of arrows
determine the amount of damage dealt to enemies per shot. If you have, say, a
Strength of 3, and shoot at a Keron, which has 3 HP, it'll be destroyed in one
shot.
The names of the arrow upgrades are: Bronze arrows, silver arrows, gold arrows
and sacred arrows. The maximum Strength is thus 5. Strength upgrades are given
to you by a friendly god in the Sacred chambers if you fulfill certain
requirements, which are detailed below.



~ How to get the Strength upgrades ~

NOTE: the following section is not neccesary to read, unless you're interested
in the technical details of the exact requirements for getting the Strength
upgrades. There is a "Quick guide" below this section, which casual players can
read instead.

A huge thanks to Disch Wersher for studying the ROM and finding that what
actually determines if you get a Strength upgrade or not, is a hidden stat
which keeps track of your "Skill", as Disch calls it. In short, how many
enemies you destroy, how many hearts you collect, how much damage you take and
how many arrows you fire, all in the same Section as the Strength upgrade
chamber - whenever you finish a Section (where you can see your XP being
tallied) your Skill is reset to zero.

To get a Strength upgrade in a given Section, you must have at least 10000
Skill. Fortunately you cannot have a negative value. These things affect your
Skill:

-300 for taking damage, except for damage tiles like lava
-10 for firing an arrow
-500 for breaking a jar in the Treasure chamber
+300 for entering a Holy chamber
+100 for defeating an enemy that drops a small heart
+300 for defeating an enemy that drops a half heart
+500 for defeating an enemy that drops a big heart
+100 for collecting a small heart (if you have less than 998)
+300 for collecting a half heart (if you have less than 994)
+500 for collecting a big heart (if you have less than 989)
+100 for collecting a mallet
+1000 for collecting or buying back a Weapon
+100 for buying anything in a shop except a Glass or Weapon
+300 for entering the Score tally screen (redundant)
+8000 for killing a boss (redundant)

Note that some enemies are special - if they don't give you any XP, they don't
give you any Skill either. Damaging Medusa also doesn't affect your Skill,
eventhough it gives you XP.

If you successfully raid a Treasure chamber, you'll lose 1480 Skill. However,
at the start of Section 2-2 you start out with 0 Skill, so you actually gain
2300 there. Also note that you only need 9700 Skill prior to entering the
upgrade chamber, as entering it gives you 300.

Cyn sent me an interesting e-mail, describing the fact that you can walk past
the fourth chamber on Section 2-2 (the upgrade chamber) to find a group of 16
Rokmen falling from the sky. If you fight these without scrolling the screen
too far to the right, you can actaully gain a whole ton of Skill before
entering the upgrade chamber. I previously wrote that the margin for error is
very tight for getting the Strength upgrade in Section 2-2, because you get a
maximum of 8440 in the two two enemy nests, which together with the 2300 Skill
from the treasure chamber makes for a maximum total of 10740 Skill. Essentially
this also meant that you had to enter the Section with between 20 and 858
hearts. However, like Cyn says, you can fight the 16 Rokmen just to the right
of the fourth chamber, which in theory could give you up to 15840 Skill (16
Rokmen x 500) + (16 big hearts x 500) - (16 arrows x 10). This means that the
margin for error has widened a lot.

If you enter Section 2-2 with 999 hearts, you have to kill 15 Rokmen out of 16
to get the total of 10000 Skill, but this is pretty much impossible to do.
Logically, the less hearts you have when you enter the Section, the less Rokmen
you have to shoot because then you get more Skill from collecting hearts. If
you have 10 less hearts, you have to kill one less Rokman. Since it's
relatively easy to kill half of them, which equals 80 hearts, you are pretty
safe if you enter Section 2-2 with 920 hearts, and have the skills to fight the
Specknoses and Rokmen well. Any more than that, however, and things start
getting terribly hard, while 999 borders impossibility.


~ Quick Strength upgrade guide ~

Section 1-2
A pretty long Section, so just kill the enemies you encounter and you'll get
the upgrade in the chamber.

Section 2-1
Often stop and kill the Rokmen and Kerons until they run out to gather the most
amount of XP and hearts. There are two places to get the upgrade - if you
missed the first, you can visit the other.

Section 2-2
Make sure you have less than 920 hearts when entering this Section. The more
hearts above about 850 you have, the harder it will be to get the upgrade,
while if you have 999 hearts it will be pretty much impossible. First get as
much treasure as possible from the treasure chamber, using the trick mentioned
in "7. The Holy chambers". Then collect as many hearts as possible in the enemy
nests. The upgrade is in the fourth chamber, but don't enter it yet. Instead,
walk past it a little, and Rokmen will start falling from the sky. 16 of them
will appear in total, so shoot them and gather their hearts. Now go back into
the upgrade chamber, and unless you entered the Section with 920 hearts or
more, the upgrade should easily be yours (otherwise you should have defeated
more Rokmen). The reason it gets exponentially harder when you have about 850
hearts or more, and why it's nigh-impossible with 999 hearts, is explained in
the section "How to get the Strength upgrades" above. If you fail, jump into
the water and try again. Don't worry, any spent feathers will return when the
Section restarts.

Section 3-1
Pretty simple. Just slay some Holers until you've got at least 10'000-20'000 XP
and the final upgrade is definitely yours.

You should now have gotten all Strength upgrades on the first trip through the
game. If you missed one, don't worry - you can get it from any Sacred chamber
when you replay the game, as most of your status will remain intact.

Note: The very first room in the game is always empty. This is because it's a
Strength upgrade room! No matter how hard you try though, you can't gain 10000
Skill before entering it. The enemies only spawn a set number of times until
you scroll the screen further up.
Jean-Luc Romano informed me that sometimes, you do get the upgrade after
finishing the game and coming back to Section 1-1. My guess is that this is
because of a glitch, since the Skill is reset both at the exact point where
your XP has been added to your total when you finish a Stage, and when you
enter Palutena's chamber after defeating Medusa.



===============================================================================
][ 4. Weapons ][
===============================================================================

These are the three objects that appear on the pause screen, under "weapons".
They're gained by completing the training chamber (see "7. The Holy chambers"),
and are invaluable if you want to complete the game. The weapons are: Shield,
Sacred bow, and Fire arrows. Each time you complete a training chamber, you can
pick one of your choice and add it to your arsenal. However, the first weapon
picked requires a HP of 15 to be activated. The other two require 8 more
respectively. After they've been activated, they will remain so for the rest of
the game.
However! The weapons can't be used in fortresses, because of the strength of
the enemy magic (or something like that), making you much weaker. They'll be
re-activated once you beat the fortress.

Here's a rundown:

~ Protective crystal (Shield) ~
I like to call it "shield" for simplicity. Two protective crystals will revolve
around Pit, doing damage to enemies equal to your Strength. Just don't think of
it as your primary weapon; weak enemies can still slip past it. The first
weapon you should get, in my opinion.

~ Sacred bow ~
Makes your arrows travel further and faster, attacking enemies from a whole
screen away. The second weapon to pick. Take care not to shoot enemies so their
hearts will be hard to reach.

~ Fire arrows ~
A fireball will rotate around every arrow fired, dealing damage equal to your
Strength. If the fireball hits an enemy, the arrow will continue in its path.
If the arrow hits the enemy first, though, the fireball will disappear. A
really devastating weapon against groups of enemies, if your Strength is high
enough.



===============================================================================
][ 5. Special items ][
===============================================================================

These are items you can collect or buy in stores.

~ Small heart ~
Left behind by defeated enemies. It's worth 1 heart. This is the currency used
in Kid Icarus, and it doesn't affect your health.

~ Half big heart ~
A big heart broken in half. It's worth 5 hearts.

~ Big heart ~
Worth 10 hearts.

~ Harp ~
Found only in the normal Sections, it will turn all the enemies into mallets
for a limited period of time. In Stage 2, you'll find a harp next to a
Shemums' jar. Take the harp, then jump at the jar to grab a lot of mallets.

~ Mallet ~
Used in the fortresses. Select it with the select button, then press the B
button to smash statues or enemies (deals 5 HP damage). When you destroy a
statue, a Centurian will come out. These are Palutenas' soldiers who were
turned into stone by Medusa. When you fight the boss of the fortress, the
Centurians you've rescued will join the fight in groups of three. Their arrows
have a Strength of 5, but they're easily swatted like flies by the bosses. If
you have a lot of them (and I mean a lot, not just five or six), you'll slay
the bosses. Note that the Centurains you've freed in one fortress won't follow
you to the next.

~ Credit card ~
Credit cards? Anyway, this rare item can only be obtained by completing the
treasure chamber (see "7. The Holy chambers"). It lets you shop on credit at
the black marketeers, and it works like this:
If you cannot afford an item, its cost will be saved on the credit card.
You'll notice that you have 0 Hearts. When you collect hearts, you'll pay back
the cost of the item you bought. Not until you've payed it all back will you be
able to collect hearts like normal again. You can only buy one item at a time
with this.
Note: when you use passwords such as DANGER !!!!!! TERROR HORROR, it'll appear
as if you cannot gather hearts at all. This is because the debt on the credit
card is anything up to 4096, and you'll have to pay it all back first.

~ Angel's feather ~
If you have this in your inventory when you fall down the bottom of the screen
in the normal Sections, you'll start flying. Press the A button to fly higher.
Each time you fall down, a feather will be spent. A real life-saver, you'd
better buy them as soon as you can.
Note: If you press up and A as the feather runs out, you will get a speed
boost upwards.

~ Water of life (glass) ~
A glass containing the water of life. It'll recover 7 HP.
Note: If you see one of these on screen, and you enter a door and come out
again, the glass will be gone, so always collect it as soon as you see it.

~ Water of life (bottle) ~
When your HP reaches zero, this item will take effect and recover 7 HP.

~ Barrel ~
With this, you can store 8 bottles, pushing your maximum HP to an incredible
95. You can only own 1 barrel, though.

~ Map ~
Found in the fortresses. It'll appear on the pause screen.

~ Torch ~
Bought in the fortress stores. With it, you can see your position on the map.
Pretty useless. Its magical glow runs out when you leave the fortress.

~ Pencil ~
Also bought in the fortress stores. With this, all the rooms you have visited
will turn green on your map. Like the torch, it's useless since you can draw
your own maps (or watch the ones in this FAQ). The magic of the pencil runs out
when you leave the fortress... I mean... you run out of pencil sharpeners?



===============================================================================
][ 6. Hearts and shopping ][
===============================================================================

The currency in Angel land is Hearts. You can have up too 999 of 'em, and the
goods in the stores are very expensive, so gather a lot. Hearts are earned by
defeating enemies. There are three kinds of places to spend the cash: Stores,
fortress stores and the black market. Here's a list of what they sell:


~ STORE ~
Either:
Bottle Mallet Feather
350 20 390
Or:
Glass Bottle Feather
210 350 390
Or:
Glass Mallet Feather
210 20 390

If you buy an item, new goods will soon appear, so you can buy as much as you
want.


~ FORTRESS STORE ~
Either:
Pencil Glass Torch
180 210 120
Or:
Glass Mallet Bottle
210 20 350

If you press A+B on controller two at the stores, the owner will either raise
or lower the prices, depending on your Strength. To haggle succesfully, your
Strength must be one Level above the number of the Stage, which means that in
Stage 2, you must have a Strength of 3 to haggle. In other words, you're
appearantly not so much haggling as you are threatening to beat him up...
If he lowers them, he says "I guess I can't win!". The new prices will be:

Glass Bottle Mallet Feather Pencil Torch
100 270 10 150 180 120

However, if he raises them, saying "Go on! Who do you think I am?" The prices
will be:

Glass Bottle Mallet Feather Pencil Torch
400 760 50 630 250 200

While he's talking, the prices are still the same. If you notice that he is
going to raise them, quickly buy something; you'll get it for the usual price.
This way, you've got nothing to lose when haggling.


~ THE BLACK MARKET ~

Bottle Barrel Feather
480 500 450

The black market is the only store that sells the barrel. Also, if one of your
weapons has been stolen by a Pluton or Pluton fly, it'll be sold at the black
market. The prices on the weapons when bought back are:

Fire Bow Shield
600 500 700

Alternatively, complete a Training chamber to earn the weapons again for free
(see "7. The Holy chambers").
Note: You cannot haggle at the black market. Also, you can only buy one item
per visit. Strange, I thought a black market is where you usually haggle....



===============================================================================
][ 7. The Holy chambers ][
===============================================================================

These are accessed via the doors found in the normal Sections. Once you enter
one of them and leave, you can never go back. Make the most out of each visit.
Also note that when you enter a chamber, all objects including enemies, and
glasses with the water of life, will be gone when you exit. Here's a
description of the different chambers:

~ Store ~
See "6. Hearts and shopping".

~ Black market ~
See "6. Hearts and shopping".

~ Enemies' nest ~
A room with 8 Specknoses. Each one will give you 10 hearts when defeated, but
no XP. You can leave this room whenever you want. Be careful in here near the
beginning of the game, or just avoid these chambers completely until you're
confident enough.

~ Sacred chamber / Strength upgrade chamber ~
A friendly god will give you a Strength upgrade. See "3. Leveling, HP and
Strength" for info on the requirements to get the upgrades, and a quick guide
to all the upgrades.

~ Training chamber ~
A god will let you pass a test to see if you're worthy of a Weapon. Pass the
test, and you can pick a Weapon (see "4. Weapons"). You can exit this chamber
whenever you like, but the god will call you a weakling.

~ Hot spring chamber ~
These contain a pool of yellow recovery water. Sit back and relax as your
health is replenished. Ahhh! For some reason, Pit doesn't realize that he could
just fill the barrel with this water instead of having to buy it.



~ Treasure chamber ~

A room with 8 jars, containing either big hearts or mallets. You need 5 hearts
to break a pitcher and reveal the treasure.
But - there's a catch. If you shoot the pitcher containing the god of poverty,
all the treasures you've uncovered will be lost. Since you don't know where he
is, it's a game of chance. However, if you manage to break 7 pitchers without
uncovering the god of poverty, he will be replaced by either a feather, a
bottle, a barrel or the credit card! This bonus treasure is yours if you shoot
the final jar, something that beginners may never do because they think the
last jar will hold the god. Since mallets and hearts are so easy to come by,
it's always worth the try to break them all.

If you feel like some cheating, there is a way to always get all the treasures.
This is because there only are four places where the god of poverty can hide,
depending on what Stage you're in (thanks to Disch Wersher for this
information), and depending on where he hides the hearts and mallets will
appear in set places. First, let's give the pitchers some numbers:

...............
.1                     2.
.. ..
.3                     4.
... ...
.5                     6 .
.... ... ....
.7                     8.
...............

In the rooms in Stages 2 and 3 (overworld and skyworld), shoot the pitchers
numbered 2, 3 and 4. In Stage 1 (underworld), shoot the pitchers 1, 3 and 8.
Count how many mallets you've uncovered, then look up the god's position in the
chart below.

Stage 2 and 3
Mallets: 0 1 2 3
Position: 8 5 6 1

Stage 1
Mallets: 0 1 2 3
Position: 7 2 4 6

Here's a printable version of the above trick, so you don't have to check back
here every now and then. Just mark everything between the brackets, copy it and
paste it into Notepad, Emacs or a similar monospace text-editing program, then
print it.

{

............... Kid Icarus
.1 2. Treasure chamber
.. ..
.3 4. Stage 2 and 3: 2, 3, 4.
... ... Stage 1: 1, 3, 8.
.5 6 .
.... ... .... Mallets: 0 1 2 3
.7 8. Pos(2 and 3): 8 5 6 1
............... Pos(1): 7 2 4 6

}



===============================================================================
][ 8. The endings and how to get them ][
===============================================================================

There are five endings to watch when you complete the game. The ending
requirements are based on "stat max-outs". You can have any combination, as
long as you have a certain number of them. The four max-outs are:
a. Hearts: 999
b. Strength: 5
c. Level: 5
d. All weapons acquired

A giant thanks to Jean-Luc Romano for his password cracking skills. If you type
these passwords in, you'll watch the ending, though without the music. When the
endings are done the game will reset/crash.

+------------------------------------------------------------+
| ORIGINAL NES VERSION |
| |
| The first letter on the second row in all passwords except |
| the "Worst" one is a capital "o". |
+========+======+============================+===============+
| | Max- | | Password to |
| Ending | outs | Description | watch ending |
+========+======+============================+===============+
| Worst | 0 | Pit gets a hat and a | 000000 000000 |
| | | sickle (mop?). | M30000 G50CfV |
+--------+------+----------------------------+---------------+
| Poor | 1 | Pit gets a helmet and a | 000000 000000 |
| | | short stick (spear?). | O10000 K50C9G |
+--------+------+----------------------------+---------------+
| Medium | 2 | Pit gets a helmet with a | 000000 000000 |
| | | red tuft, and a spear. | O1000G K50C9H |
+--------+------+----------------------------+---------------+
| Good | 3 | Pit becomes a big warrior | 000000 00dF00 |
| | | and smiles. | O3000G K50Cfh |
+--------+------+----------------------------+---------------+
| | | Pit becomes a big warrior, | |
| | | gets a kiss from Palutena, | 6eW300 00dF00 |
| Best | 4 | and angels fly around the | O3000G K50i9r |
| | | screen as the background | |
| | | changes. Very nice. | |
+--------+------+----------------------------+---------------+

+------------------------------------------------------------+
| WII VIRTUAL CONSOLE VERSION |
| |
| The first letter on the second row in the "Good" password |
| is a capital "o". |
+========+======+============================+===============+
| | Max- | | Password to |
| Ending | outs | Description | watch ending |
+========+======+============================+===============+
| Worst | 0 | Pit gets a hat and a | 000000 000000 |
| | | sickle (mop?). | 600000 G50Cfh |
+--------+------+----------------------------+---------------+
| Poor | 1 | Pit gets a helmet and a | 000000 000000 |
| | | short stick (spear?). | 800000 K50C9y |
+--------+------+----------------------------+---------------+
| Medium | 2 | Pit gets a helmet with a | 000000 000000 |
| | | red tuft, and a spear. | 80000G K50C9z |
+--------+------+----------------------------+---------------+
| Good | 3 | Pit becomes a big warrior | 000000 00dF00 |
| | | and smiles. | O0000G K50Cft |
+--------+------+----------------------------+---------------+
| | | Pit becomes a big warrior, | |
| | | gets a kiss from Palutena, | IeW600 00dF00 |
| Best | 4 | and angels fly around the | e0000G K50i97 |
| | | screen as the background | |
| | | changes. Very nice. | |
+--------+------+----------------------------+---------------+

So, even if you have all weapons but one, a ton of items, 998 hearts, and a
Strength and Level of 4 respectively, you still get the worst ending. Kind of
good to keep in mind, huh?

The shop just before the boss of the third fortress is pretty cunningly placed.
If you buy alot of stuff there and kill the boss, you'll have trouble gathering
enough hearts in the last Stage to get the best ending!



===============================================================================
][ 9. Enemy list ][
===============================================================================

This list contains all the information about all the enemies and bosses in the
game. The names of the enemies were found in the official instruction booklet.

STG = Stage
HP = hit points
DMG = Amount of damage the enemy can deal to pit
H = Amount of Hearts dropped when defeated
XP = Amount of Experience points (score) earned when defeated
X = All Stages
F = Fortress
FX = All fortresses

Enemy STG HP DMG H XP

Shemum X 1 1 1 100
Specknose X 1 2 10 0
Reaper X 10 2 10 500
Reapette X 1 2 1 100
Monolith X 1or2 1 1 0
Eggplant Wizard FX 10 2 10 500

Monoeye 1 1 1 5 300
McGoo 1 1 1or2 5 300
Nettler 1 2 1 5 300
Commyloose 1 2 1 5 300
Ganawmede F1 1 1 5 300
Ganawmede2 F1 2 2 10 500
Kobil F1 2 1 1 100
Kobil2 F1 6 2 5 300
Twinbellows F1 100 2 0 8000

Rokman 2 2 3 10 500
Girin 2 1 1 5 300
Minos 2 2 1 5 300
Mick 2 2 1 5 300
Keron 2 3 1 5 300
Pluton 2 - 0 - -
Snowman 2 10 1or3 10 500
Tamambo F2 2 1 5 300
Tamambo2 F2 3 2 10 500
Shulm F2 3 1 1 100
Shulm2 F2 8 2 5 300
Hewdraw F2 200 3 0 8000

Collin 3 1 3 10 500
Eeleye 3 1 2 1 0
Holer 3 1 1or2 5 300
Octos 3 4 3 10 500
Pluton fly 3 - 0 - -
Keepah 3 1 3 10 0
Komayto 3 3 2 5 300
Tros F3 3 2 5 300
Tros2 F3 4 3 10 500
Uranos F3 4 2 1 100
Uranos2 F3 10 3 5 300
Pandora F3 200 5 0 8000

Totem 4 4 3 5 300
Moila 4 2 3 5 300
Syren 4 2 3 5 300
Erinus 4 4*1 1or4 3*1 4*500
Daphne 4 2 2 5 300
Zuree 4 1 2 1 100
Tanatos 4 1 3 0 100
Medusa 4 150 5 0 Hits*100



===============================================================================
][ 10. In-depth enemy descriptions ][
===============================================================================

Since you may not know which enemies I'm talking about in the above section,
here are the descriptions of 'em, complete with hints and strategies.

STG = Stage
HP = hit points
DMG = Amount of damage the enemy can deal to pit
H = Amount of Heart dropped when defeated
XP = Amount of Experience points (score) earned when defeated
X = All Stages
F = Fortress
FX = All fortresses



~ ALL STAGES ~

Shemum
STG: X HP: 1 DMG: 1 H: 1 XP: 100
Looks like: A small, blue snake.
The most common enemy in the game, it's easily defeated. See "12. Strategies"
for some advice about the Shemum's jar. The instruction booklet refers to them
as "extremely dangerous". Pfft.

Specknose
STG: X HP: 1 DMG: 2 H: 10 XP: 0
Looks like: A nose with two big eyes on top.
These inhabit the Enemies' lair chambers. Note that they leave no XP, and that
the Shield weapon is ineffective against them. They are pretty dangerous at the
start of the game, so don't try to fight them unless you know what you're
doing.

Reaper
STG: X HP: 10 DMG: 2 H: 10 XP: 500
Looks like: An old witch with a scythe.
If it sees you, it'll summon four Reapettes telephatically. Avoid its look and
shoot it in the back. Every now and then, it'll turn around, to see if anyone's
there.

Reapette
STG: X HP: 1 DMG: 2 H: 1 XP: 100
Looks like: Small, blue flying reapers.
Pretty easy to defeat, but they can deal some damage if you're not careful.
2 HP is quite a lot in the early Sections of the game.

Monolith
STG: X HP: 1or2 DMG: 1 H: 1 XP: 0
Looks like: A spinning steel plate.
Used to train Pit in the training chambers. They appear out of thin air and
fall down. Note that they cannot be harmed by the Shield weapon. Check "12.
Strategies" for some more advice.

Eggplant Wizard
STG: FX HP: 10 DMG: 2 H: 10 XP: 500
Looks like: A tall monster with a white robe and one eye.
The single most irritating, annoying, and downright difficult enemy in the
game. If you get hit by his spell, you'll be turned into an eggplant, a fate
worse than death. If that happens, you'll have to find the hospital in the
fortress to remove the spell, which makes you unable to shoot. Keep your
distance, and never stand above an Eggplant Wizard. Be aware that they can
either throw a low eggplant or a high one. Time your movements carefully, and
avoid at all cost. Remember, it's better to suffer damage than being turned
into an eggplant; if you're flashing, the eggplants can't hit you. For more
help, see "The room of death" under "12. Strategies".



~ STAGE 1 ~

Monoeye
STG: 1 HP: 1 DMG: 1 H: 5 XP: 300
Looks like: A red, flying enemy with one big eye.
Simple enough. They fly in a pattern, and after a while they'll get bored and
head for you instead. Sometimes, a few of them head for you immediately. Don't
move too much.

McGoo
STG: 1 HP: 1 DMG: 1or2 H: 5 XP: 300
Looks like: A small red plant that comes out of the ground.
Read the "12. Strategies" section to find some useful advice on this enemy.
Strangely, their fireballs travel faster to the left than they do to the right.
If you get hit by the fireball you'll recieve 2 HP damage, but the McGoo itself
deals only 1.

Nettler
STG: 1 HP: 2 DMG: 1 H: 5 XP: 300
Looks like: A red snail which ducks under your arrows.
If you try to shoot it at close range, your arrows will fly over it, so shoot
it from a distance.

Commyloose
STG: 1 HP: 2 DMG: 1 H: 5 XP: 300
Looks like: A high-jumping octopus.
Their jumping pattern can be predicted. Watch out below, that's all there is to
it. Don't fight them before you've got the first Strength upgrade.

Ganawmede
STG: F1 HP: 1 DMG: 1 H: 5 XP: 300
Looks like: A floating skull with tentacles.
Flying around inside the fortress in groups of eight, it's better to fight them
than to try to avoid them.

Ganawmede2
STG: F1 HP: 2 DMG: 2 H: 10 XP: 500
Looks like: A red Ganawmede.
Same goes with these, the stronger version of the Ganawmede. Note that they
leave a lot of hearts and XP behind, so exit and enter the room again to earn
some more. Be careful not to get too hurt.

Kobil
STG: F1 HP: 2 DMG: 1 H: 1 XP: 100
Looks like: A small, slow devil.
Very slow and easy to defeat, since you should have the first Strength upgrade
by the time you face them.

Kobil2
STG: F1 HP: 6 DMG: 2 H: 5 XP: 300
Looks like: A red Kobil.
Like the Kobil, but stronger.

Twinbellows
STG: F1 HP: 100 DMG: 2 H: 0 XP: 8000
Looks like: A red dog with two heads.
The boss of the first fortress. Jump over the fireballs, and shoot him rapidly
when he recharges. He's pretty slow, and shouldn't be tricky if you're high on
HP, in which case you just have to fire away; most of the time his fireballs
will pass over you, since he's pushed into the air when you hit him. If you
bring alot of Centurians and hammer the fire button, he goes down in no time.
Twinbellows seems to be based on Cerberus, the multi-headed beast of the
underworld in the Greek myths.



~ STAGE 2 ~

Rokman
STG: 2 HP: 2 DMG: 3 H: 10 XP: 500
Looks like: A falling rock.
It's heart harvesting time! Shoot as many as you can to reel in the cash, but
beware; it's the first enemy that deals 3 HP damage if you touch it. A new wave
will drop down when the hearts of the previous group of Rokmen are gone.

Girin
STG: 2 HP: 1 DMG: 1 H: 5 XP: 300
Looks like: A giant ant, emerging from the ground.
Much like McGoo, but slower to appear, and with faster fireballs.

Minos
STG: 2 HP: 2 DMG: 1 H: 5 XP: 300
Looks like: A round, spiked enemy that jumps up from below.
Jumps out when you least expect it. Watch them carefully; they appear in
patterns. If you walk forward to make the screen scroll, their jumping pattern
will be adjusted to the right.

Mick
STG: 2 HP: 2 DMG: 1 H: 5 XP: 300
Looks like: A flying enemy with a big mouth.
These aren't too dangerous. They come flying at you in packs of four.

Keron
STG: 2 HP: 3 DMG: 1 H: 5 XP: 300
Looks like: A jumping frog.
These roam the plains of the overworld, attacking Pit when he closes in.
They're not very dangerous, but have high HP.

Pluton
STG: 2 HP: - DMG: 0 H: - XP: -
Looks like: A small ogre with a sack.
Watch out, he's invincible. If he touches you, he'll steal one of your weapons!
They can be bought back at the black market, or aquired again in the training
chambers. It can jump either fast or slow, and high or low. The best way to get
past them is to scroll the screen very slowly, so that only one of them emerges
at a time. This way, you'll usually face a smaller number of them as well.

Snowman
STG: 2 HP: 10 DMG: 1or3 H: 10 XP: 500
Looks like: A snowman.
Throws snowballs "Hadouken"-style, and causes general annoyance. The snowballs
deal 1 HP damage, while touching the Snowman himself deals 3.

Tamambo
STG: F2 HP: 2 DMG: 1 H: 5 XP: 300
Looks like: A round, flying enemy with one eye.
The second fortress' equavilent of the Ganawmede. Piece of cake.

Tamambo2
STG: F2 HP: 3 DMG: 2 H: 10 XP: 500
Looks like: A red Tamambo.
A tougher version.

Shulm
STG: F2 HP: 3 DMG: 1 H: 1 XP: 100
Looks like: A mushroom.
Goomba, anyone? They are pretty slow and go down easily.

Shulm2
STG: F2 HP: 8 DMG: 2 H: 5 XP: 300
Looks like: A red Shulm.
Much stronger than an ordinary Shulm, but no big deal.

Hewdraw
STG: F2 HP: 200 DMG: 3 H: 0 XP: 8000
Looks like: A long snake.
Boss of the second fortress. Possibly the easiest of them all, just avoid him
and fire. Centurians can be somewhat useful, but generally fall like flies to
Hewdraw. When you defeat him, the lava turns yellow, but it does not work as a
hot spring just because it's yellow...



~ STAGE 3 ~

Collin
STG: 3 HP: 1 DMG: 3 H: 10 XP: 500
Looks like: A flying warrior.
Not much of a threat, since it won't attack you. It'll just hover in place,
looking dumb (and it probably is).

Eeleye
STG: 3 HP: 1 DMG: 2 H: 1 XP: 0
Looks like: A small worm with an eye and a pair of wings.
These spin around Collin's body, protecting him. If you defeat the Collin and
collect his heart, or the heart disappears, the Eeleyes, too, will disappear.
Note that they give you no XP.

Holer
STG: 3 HP: 1 DMG: 1or2 H: 5 XP: 300
Looks like: A yellow plant that pops out of the ground.
A god of plants, and the McGoo of the third Stage, appearing just about
anywhere to cause you trouble. Try not to duck the fireballs it spits, since
most of the time you'll be standing on clouds. It's got the slowest fireball
attack of this kind of enemy, dealing 1 HP damage. If you tough the holer,
it'll deal 2 HP damage.

Octos
STG: 3 HP: 4 DMG: 3 H: 10 XP: 500
Looks like: A yellow, jumping octopus.
Just like the Commyloose in Stage 1, these jump from the bottom of the screen
and continue upwards, aiming for you.

Pluton fly
STG: 3 HP: - DMG: 0 H: - XP: -
Looks like: A small ogre with wings.
Very easy to avoid. Just jump up to the same level as the Pluton fly, fall down
again, and it'll fly away.

Keepah
STG: 3 HP: 1 DMG: 3 H: 10 XP: 0
Looks like: A blue, flying Kobil.
Strangely enough, it doesn't make a sound when you defeat it, and it gives you
no XP. Also, they may sometimes self-destruct. On rare occasions they'll also
shoot fireballs.

Komayto
STG: 3 HP: 3 DMG: 2 H: 5 XP: 300
Looks like: A floating jellyfish.
Well, if it isn't a Metroid! The instruction booklet says that they may come
from a planet other than Earth. If you're a Metroid fan, you'll know the planet
as SR-388. Lucky the Komayto aren't as dangerous as the real ones...
If you don't know what a Metroid is, it's the main enemy of the Metroid
series, made by Nintendo. That's another great NES game, but back to Kid
Icarus.

Tros
STG: F3 HP: 3 DMG: 2 H: 5 XP: 300
Looks like: A spiked, armoured ball.
Another floating enemy, appearing in groups of eight.

Tros2
STG: F3 HP: 4 DMG: 3 H: 10 XP: 500
Looks like: A red Tros.
These can be quite dangerous because of the damage dealt. Shoot them quickly,
gather the hearts and always watch their movement.

Uranos
STG: F3 HP: 4 DMG: 2 H: 1 XP: 100
Looks like: A small, slow dwarf.
Where is the "terrible fighting power" that the instruction booklet speaks of?
This enemy is easy to defeat, and shouldn't cause you any trouble.

Uranos2
STG: F3 HP: 10 DMG: 3 H: 5 XP: 300
Looks like: A red Uranos.
Much stronger, but just as slow.

Pandora
STG: F3 HP: 200 DMG: 5 H: 0 XP: 8000
Looks like: A bubble-like monster.
Boss of the third fortress, and "the source of all evil" according to the
instruction booklet. It moves very slowly, but sometimes it turns black, making
it difficult to see. Watch out for the bubbles, they will deal 5 HP damage upon
contact, just like Pandora itself. Ouch! Don't worry though, your HP will be
replenished when you defeat this boss. On a side note, the Centurians are next
to worthless here - they rarely hit Pandora, and are usually swatted down by
the bouncing bubbles.



~ STAGE 4 ~

Totem
STG: 4 HP: 4 DMG: 3 H: 5 XP: 300
Looks like: A green slab of stone.
They fall down from the sky and form little pillars. Don't get too close to the
ceiling.

Moila
STG: 4 HP: 2 DMG: 3 H: 5 XP: 300
Looks like: A flying starfish.
They attack from behind, and try to eat you. Keep to the right side of the
screen at the start of the Stage.

Syren
STG: 4 HP: 2 DMG: 3 H: 5 XP: 300
Looks like: A flying witch.
Basically, it's a siren with wings, attacking Pit with claws of steel. They
generally come at you four at a time.

Erinus
STG: 4 HP: 4*1 DMG: 1or4 H: 3*1 XP: 4*500
Looks like: A man with one eye.
The first shot will shatter him, but as the god of revenge, he doesn't go down
that easily. He'll split into three pieces, each one awarding you with 500 XP
when destroyed!
His fireballs, shot either straight forward or diagonally, only deal 1 HP
damage, but touching him deals 4. If you don't shoot him, he'll reappear on the
right side of the screen until you do so.

Daphne
STG: 4 HP: 2 DMG: 2 H: 5 XP: 300
Looks like: A green flower.
They jump up from below and slowly float down again. Like Minos, they appear in
patterns, so watch them closely.

Zuree
STG: 4 HP: 1 DMG: 2 H: 1 XP: 100
Looks like: A ghost.
Simple to avoid and defeat. They just fly up and down, looking silly. See how
many you can destroy in a row with one shot.

Tanatos
STG: 4 HP: 1 DMG: 3 H: 0 XP: 100
Looks like: A green snake.
Tanatos is greek for "death", but this serpent, emerging from Medusa's hair,
doesn't put up much of a fight. They'll usually get caught in your line of fire
when you're pummeling Medusa.

Medusa
STG: 4 HP: 150 DMG: 5 H: 0 XP: Hits*100
Looks like: A giant face with one eye.
Very easy, really. If you position yourself slightly under the center of the
left-most part of the screen, her attacks will miss you. Just fire away! For
every hit scored, you'll earn 100 XP. When she is no more, you've completed the
game, and will earn yourself an ending. See "8. The endings and how to get
them" for info on the endings.



===============================================================================
][ 11. Fortress maps ][
===============================================================================

~ Fortress 1 ~
Boss: Twinbellows Statues: 28
Rooms: 30

~ Fortress 2 ~
Boss: Hewdraw Statues: 32

~ Fortress 3 ~
Boss: Pandora Statues: 19



===============================================================================
][ 12. Strategies ][
===============================================================================

~ Quick Leveling ~

Reaching Levels quickly is the key to survival. You don't want to find yourself
fighting bosses at Level 2 or 3.

Near the end of Section 1-1, you'll find some McGoos. Kill them, ducking under
the fireballs they spit, until you've gathered 20'000 or XP 50'000 XP,
depending on how confident you are. You'll reach Level 2-3 early this way.

If you find the above strategy too difficult, there's a safe way to kill
Reapettes in Section 1-2, courtesy of GameFAQs user "sp unit 262". There's a
Reaper with a glass above near the second enemy nest. First, stand on the ice
platform on the left side of the screen, and jump until the screen won't scroll
any higher. Then walk left so you'll appear in front of the Reaper, and stand
on the second block to the right. The Reapettes will fly straight down at you,
making them easy to pick off by shooting upwards. Jump to collect their hearts
and repeat. When you're done, you can collect the glass to refill your health,
but don't enter the door as the glass will disappear if you do (and if you've
gathered 999 hearts the enemy nest is useless anyway).

In the first fortress, there's a room three screens to the right of the hot
spring, where eight Red Ganawmedes will attack you. Destroy them, gaining 500
XP/enemy, and you will soon find yourself with enough XP to reach Level 5
(200'000 total needed). If you get too damaged, head left and take a dip in the
hot spring.

The earlier you gain Levels, the better, as you'll be able to have more HP and
handle weapons earlier. Of course, if you have the patience and skills, you can
reach Level 5 on the very first Section of the game, but it gets tedious after
awhile.


~ Shemums' jar ~
Shemums are the little snakes which pop out of the upside-down jars. As soon as
you pass under it, four of them will emerge. When they're all killed and their
hearts are gone, a new wave is ready to jump out. These can be annoying in the
fortresses, but if you keep one of them alive, more can't emerge. Also, be
careful when walking on top of the jars; the Shemums may appear slightly above
the jar, damaging you.

~ What to buy ~
This is what I think is a good list of the order to buy stuff. First of all,
buy a feather, then a bottle, and then another feather. After that, buy a
barrel and stock up on bottles until you've got 8 of them, then buy feathers.
If you use a feather while stocking bottles, buy another one. You should always
have at least two feathers. If you're not confident in your platform jumping
abilities, have three or four.

~ Ice ~
The worst walkable surface in most platform games, and Kid Icarus is no
exception. If you slide on the ice, then jump, you can sometimes not control
Pit when he's in the air. Also, don't make a habit of ducking under the
Snowmens' snowballs. If you duck while on the ice, you'll fall to your doom
(unless you have a feather, of course). If you press up while sliding, you'll
stop, but note that this doesn't always work, so use it sparingly. Sometimes
Pit's momentum will only be 'paused', making him slide away when you let go of
the up arrow. Take care, and don't go too fast.

~ Moving platforms ~
The best advice I can give you is: take it easy, and don't jump like a loon
from one platform to the next unless you know what you're doing. If you're not
patient, you may find yourself wasting a lot of feathers. Pretty obvious, but
still. Remember that you've got infinite time (well, technically).

~ Training chamber ~
Stay in one spot and attack the falling Monoliths. There is no safe spot in
most rooms (try standing on top of the entrance door when possible), but don't
move around too much. The later training chambers will host Monoliths with more
HP, but since you've got Strength upgrades by then, it's no real problem. The
shield weapon is ineffective against the Monoliths, but fire arrows aren't.

~ Combat ~
You'll notice that when you shoot an enemy with a non-lethal arrow, it'll flash
for a short period of time. If you shoot a flashing enemy, it'll appear as if
it recieves damage, but it doesn't. Practice shooting slow enemies just as they
stop flashing for maximum damage, like Reapers and Eggplant Wizards.
Try not to use the Shield against enemies with high HP. As the crystals seem
to rip through the enemy, it recieves very little damage. If the screen is
scrolling while the crystals "rip" through enemies, they'll follow the screen
as it scrolls along, often damaging you. This shouldn't be a problem, however,
since most enemies have 2 HP, and by the time you reach them, you'll have the
equivalent Strength.

~ Hazards ~
In Kid Icarus, there are "damage tiles", pieces of scenery that deal roughly a
little less than 2 HP damage/second. The most common is the red fluid found
both in the normal Stages and the fortresses. Other damage tiles are: the
plants that grow out of the walls in Stage 1, the spiked, green bushes in Stage
2, and the red blobs with tentacles in Stage 3. An interesting thing with
damage tiles is that if you jump into one, and then out again very quickly,
there's a chance you won't get hurt. This way, you can skip through pools of
lava, and if you're lucky you'll emerge unharmed. While this is useful, never
try to do it unless you have to.
The metal spikes that emerge from the red blocks in the fortresses deal 1 HP
damage.

~ The room of death ~
In the third fortress, there is a room with two Eggplant Wizards. What makes
this room extra difficult is that one of them walks around in a small section
at the bottom, throwing eggplants at about your heigth. The trick is to make
use of the Shemum jar to the left. Let a Shemum (little blue snake) hit you,
and while you're flashing, walk through the eggplants and kill the first
Wizard. Then get hit by another Shemum (you should be wading in them by now),
and drop down to kill the other. Sure, it's not a very skillful tactic, but it
works, and costs only 2 or 3 HP. If you're daring, you could even run right
through them to the other side while flashing, but it's riskier.



===============================================================================
][ 13. Miscellaneous fun ][
===============================================================================

~ RAM editing ~

Thanks to Jean-Luc Romano for inspiring me to add this section.

There're lots of changable player stats in Kid Icarus, so I thought I'd share
the addresses I've found. You'll need either an add-on or an emulator that can
find RAM addresses and change values. If a stat has more than one address, it
means that when the value of the first address reaches 256, the value of the
next address will gain 1, and the first address resets to zero. This means that
each "unit" in the second address actually represents 256 units in the first
one. For example, if you want 999 hearts, change the first address, 014A, to
231, and the second address, 014B, to 3 (3*256=768). This makes: 231+768=999.
If a stat has three addresses, each unit in the third address represents
256*256=65536, that is 256 of the second address. Also, note that in some
cases, such as your Strength and Level, 0 means 1, 1 means 2, and so on.

Here are the addresses:
Hearts: 014A, 014B
Credit card debt*: 014C, 014D
Score (experience): 0131, 0132, 0133
Total score: 0144, 0145, 0146
Level: 00AA (0=1, 1=2 etc)
Hit points: 00A6 Constant value > 5 means invincibility
Strength *: 0152 (0=1, 1=2 etc)
Skill: 0134, 0135
Mallets *: 014F
Feathers *: 0150
Bottles *: 0151
Credit card: 014E 0=no, 1=yes
Weapon1: 0141 (0, 1, 2 or 3)
Weapon2: 0142 (0, 1, 2 or 3)
Weapon3: 0143 (0, 1, 2 or 3)
Kill count on 4-1: 00C9 You need 50 kills to get to Medusa
Eggplanted: 006F 0=no, 1=yes (only in fortresses)
Invulnerability*: 0728 Set to >2 to move through enemies
Activated weapons*: 00A5
Pit's X position: 0723
Pit's Y position: 0720
Ending* 004B (0, 1, 2, 3 or 4)


*Debt: the debt decreases as you collect hearts. When debt reaches zero, you
can collect hearts as normal again.
*Strength: this "wraps around" at every step of 8. It can't go any higher than
5 against regular enemies, but against bosses (except Medusa), it will deal
as much as you type in (up to 254), plus 1. Entering 255 is not advised!
*All values greater than 128 actually are 0 for feathers and 1 for mallets.
*Bottles: add 64 to get a barrel. If you want a barrel with 8 bottles,
enter 72.
*Invulnerability: you're not invulnerable against "damage tiles", such as lava
pools.
*Activated weapons: try different combinations up to 7, which activates all
weapons at once. Add 8 to whatever number you type in to make Pit fly (same
as using a Feather). When flying, you can't enter doors or pass through the
left side of the screen in vertically scrolling Sections.
*Ending: This determines what ending you recieve upon entering Palutena's
chamber. It overrides the regular ending requirements. If you set it to 5 or
higher, very strange things may happen. Most high values will glitch out the
graphics and sound for a few seconds, then play the fortress song during the
credits. A value of 255 will explode the entire screen into glitched graphics
and crash the game.


~ The myth of Perseus ~
Kid Icarus is loosely based on an ancient myth about Perseus, son of Zeus, and
the one who killed Medusa. Here are some similarities with the game:
Perseus recieved (among several things) a pair of winged sandals from Hermes,
Zeus' messenger. He also got a shield of mirrors, which would reflect the image
of Medusa, since her look turned you to stone. Also mentioned in the story is
Pallas Athena. In the game, the kidnapped goddess' name is Palutena.
On the island where Medusa lived, there were statues of stone, in the shape of
humans. It turned out that they once had been warriors, who had been turned to
stone when they saw Medusa. Since she had once been a human, she was the only
Greae who was mortal; the two others weren't. Towards the end of the story,
Perseus cut of Medusa's head with a scythe, and put her head in a bag.
Perseus appeared in many other myths. In one of them, he felt sorry for Atlas
when he saw him holding up the world, so Perseus showed him the head of Medusa
and turned him to stone, so he wouldn't feel the weight of the burden.
In the game, Pit destroys Twinbellows who is probably based upon Cerburus, the
beast of the underworld. I cannot recall that Perseus ever did the same though,
so Kid Icarus is a mix of several myths (like Pandora, "the source of evil",
who also is the third boss).
Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters for the Gameboy was more based on the myth
of a boy who made wings with wax that melted when he flew too close to the sun.

~ Where no-one has gone before ~
So, you've finished the game and explored every nook and cranny? Probably not;
there are some places you may not have visited. What I'm talking about is the
roof at the end of most normal Stages. Sure, there's no point in heading up
there, but somehow I find it rewarding, as if I've been some-where I've never
been before. To reach the very top of a Level, simply use a feather.
Be careful at the end of Section 3-3, though. If you enter the next-to-last
door (the shop) and then fly to the top of the screen, a glitch will cause the
screen to continue scrolling, which means that you'll get trapped up there
until your feathers run out, at which point you'll die. If the screen starts
scrolling, quickly get back down again.

~ Extra difficult ~
Still not satisfied? Well, then try to get the worst ending. This means that
you must finish the game at Level 4 or lower, without all three of the weapons,
a Strength of 4 or lower, and less than 999 hearts.

~ Very extra crispy difficult ~
So you like a challenge, such as completing Zelda 2 with one or more of your
stats kept at 1? Then try beating Kid Icarus the pacifist way - don't shoot
anything except the bosses, and don't pick up any hammers. You'll essentially
run through almost the entire game with a Level and Strength of one, completely
unarmed. I've done it once, so it's not impossible - although it's more tedious
than fun...


~ Instruction booklet and game box errors ~

Thanks to Shaughn Maguire for helping me with the following information.

In the instruction booklets other than the Japanese, some mistakes were made.
You can find this sentence in the booklet: "If you get a high score, your name
might be registered in the best 5 in the select display." While the American
and European games lack such a feature, it existed on the Japanese Famicom
version, along with three save slots, just like the NES Zelda games.
Appereantly, the translators weren't informed that these features were removed.

The box claims that this is a "two player alternating game". Either this was a
removed feature from an early version of the game, or it refers to the fact
that you can haggle at the shops with the second controller. Since you can use
the second controller for various stuff in other single-player games too, like
getting your password in Metroid or controlling the ducks in Duck Hunt, it's
possibly referring to that. Alternatively, it simply suggests that players can
take turns playing the game, such as switching player when one of them gets
Game Over.

The screenshots on the European game box are also from an earlier version,
given that the energy bar is blue. The "Stage" and "boss" text is also written
in Japanese. One screenshot shows four Nettlers on screen at once - at first I
thought that it was a removed feature, but it's actually happened to me a few
times. I still don't know what triggers it, though.



~ Bugs and minor glitches ~

Falling Reapers
Sometimes when Reapers appear, they'll do so slightly under the ground the are
supposed to appear on. This makes them fall through the platform, often landing
right on your head.

Reincarnate Medusa
Just when you've beaten Medusa and she disappears from the screen, pause the
game, then unpause. A part of her will reappear on the screen.

Disappearing stuff
Pause and unpause the game at a shop, holy chamber or training chamber.
Sometimes the shopkeeper/god will disappear.
Also, when haggling at the shops, buy something while the shopkeeper is
talking. What he'd said so far will disappear, but the remaining text will
continue to be printed.
When defeating a boss and the treasure chest appears, pause and unpause. The
chest will disappear.
Pause the game the moment you enter a door in a fortress, and all objects will
disappear.

Chest glitch
Just when you've defeated Pandora (the third boss), hold down to make Pit duck.
Sometimes the treasure chest will turn into a ducking Pit when it appears.

Break through
If you jump at the top corner of a block, you'll fall slightly into it. If used
with skill at the top right corner of a block, you can pass through it
entirely. When you do, you'll start sliding to the left, passing through
eventual walls. If you leave the left side on the screen, you'll pop out on the
right (this seems to be the default behavior for all objects in NES games).
Note that this only works in certain Levels.
There is only one appearant use of this bug, and it's very hard to pull off.
In the first fortress, go two screens right, one down and one left. In this
room, "break through" the upper left edge of the right-most mass of blocks.
With perfect timing, you can jump while halfway inside the block - if you
crouch-jump to the left at just the right angle, you will end up in the one-way
route leading to the room below. Go down and head right, and you've just taken
a massive shortcut to the boss - if the Eggplant Wizards don't nail you on the
way. This is useful for (and has been used in) tool-assisted speedruns, but
with practice it should be possible to pull off consistenly in a non-assisted
run as well.

Catch me if you can
In Stage 4, you can go through the roof if you hold up and left/right. When
you're about to enter Medusa's chamber, hold up and right. When Medusa's fully
scrolled into the screen, you'll be sitting in the top right corner. If you let
go of the controller, you'll slide back out again.

Kill the mallets
When you pick up a harp and turn the enemies to mallets, shoot a mallet. It
will be destroyed and leave a heart behind, as if it still were the enemy.

Ghost Tamambo
In the third fortress (Section 3-4), there is a room with Red Tamambos and two
statues. first, kill all the enemies. Then smash one of the statues. Another
Red Tamambo will appear, but if you shoot it, it'll only leave one heart and
100 XP. If you destroy the second statue, it'll happen again. You'll note that
you can't reach the top ladder when the statues are gone, but if you exit the
room and re-enter it, a platform will be there instead, since the statues
"overwrite" the platforms - the statues belong to the background, and can't
share the tile with the platform tile.

No lava damage
Sometimes, when you duck and hold left or right against the wall when in the
lava, you won't take any damage. This also applies to other "damage tiles" and
the hot spring, but don't rely on it so keep you from taking damage.

Strange pause sound
Simply hit the Start button rapidly. The pause sound will be interrupted and
distorted.

*Bling*
If you don't collect a harp or a glass with water of life, it'll make a sound
as if you collected it when it leaves the screen.

My hair's on fire!
Simply use a feather to start flying, have the fire arrows activated, and press
up. There is no animation for Pit flying and aiming upwards, so the fireball
appears on top of his head.

Disappearing enemies
Sometimes you'll see enemies disappearing in Sections with moving platforms in
them. I suspect this is because the platforms use the same pointers as the
enemies, and if the enemies would not be destroyed, the lifts would never
appear. So it's not a glitch, but more of an intentional bugfix.



~ Ultimate password ~

Need a little help beating the game? Here's a password I got together by
"hacking" a bit. It has the maximum number of all equipment in the game
possible to fit into a password.

Stage: 1-2 (starting on Section 1-1 overrides all other stats)
Weapons: All
Activated weapons: All
Stolen weapons: None
Score: 16777215 (displayed as 9999999)
Level: 5
Strength: 13 (can only do 5 against regular enemies, but
you'll slay the bosses - no higher Strength is possible
to achieve with a password, only with RAM editing)
Hearts: 4095 (displayed as 095 in-game and 999 when paused
(as with Strength, no higher is possible with a password))
Mallets: 128 (displayed as 99)
Feathers: 128 (displayed as 99)
Bottles: 63 (displayed as 8)
Credit card: Yes
Barrel: Yes

ORIGINAL NES VERSION
All "0" are zeros:
6eW3!! !!!!00
F38W!H C0042N

WII VIRTUAL CONSOLE VERSION
On the second row, the first character is a small "L" and the second character
is the number "1":
IeW6!! !!!!00
l18W!H C0042j




~ Technical notes on passwords ~

There is no such thing as an unlimited ammount of any item, nor is there any
password-activated invincibility. If a password makes you unable to gather
hearts, it's because your credit card debt is anything up to 4095. Technically,
with RAM editing, your debt could be 65535, but the actual password can only
save numbers up to 4095.

When the number of mallets or feathers go beyond 99 (actually unallowed), the
game will only display 99. Be warned that while you think you could technically
have 255 feathers or mallets, more than 128 feathers means 0 feathers, and more
than 128 mallets means 1 mallet.

The only thing the game looks for when you enter a password, is if the
checksum letters are correct. Think of it as a small ID tag that is calculated
depending on the rest of the password. This means that you can make the game
set several values to anything up to either 255 or 4095, if you know what you
are doing, and it will still accept them. This is the case with passwords such
as the famous "8uuuuu uuuuuu uuuuuu uuuuuu". It simply sets the values to
things that are usually not allowed in the game, but accepted anyway since the
checksum is correct. Thus you do not have infinite bottles, and you do not have
an infite debt on your credit card - the numbers are just really, really high.
Additionally, if you give the game an erroneous Section number (which is very
common if you just type something random), it will crash. What the "ending
passwords" I and Jean-Luc created really do is to skip to the ending seqence,
which works like a regular Section.

No passwords that spell something out are intentional to my knowledge, as the
only thing required for a password to be accepted is the checksum. Kid Icarus
accepts 64^22 out of 64^24 posssible passwords - that's a LOT. Just punch in
whatever text you want, and as long as the last two characters (the checksum)
are correct, the password is accepted. There are no hardcoded passwords that I
know of either, unlike the only hardcoded one in Metroid (NARPASSWORD).


~ Into the unknown ~
Have you ever wondered what's inside all the "rooms" you cannot reach in the
fortresses (outside the game world), or what would happen if you could keep
scrolling the screen at the end of the Sections? I wondered, so I found out
with an emulator.
Unfortunately, the results were pretty boring. Every single potential fortress
room you cannot normally reach is defined as an empty default room - it's the
same one you see when you beat the fortress, where Pit runs through it while
your XP is tallied.
As for scrolling the screen past the game world borders, I've only managed to
do it in Section 3-3. First you see the "end Section" corridor, but when
passing it and scrolling it off the screen, the game immediately crashes. So
unlike Metroid, there doesn't seem to be any glitched rooms, leftover rooms or
"hidden worlds" to speak of.



===============================================================================
][ 14. Important game notes ][
===============================================================================

I decided to make this a little section of its own.

After the ending, the game will start over, but with these things intact: Total
score, weapons, hearts, Level, Strength and credit card debt.
After completing the game, when you go back to Section 1-1, don't die and
write down the password! You'll find that when you type it in, you'll begin at
1-1, but with none of the things you had when you got the password. This is
because any password that starts you in 1-1 overrides absolutely everything
else and starts you with nothing. Counter this by completing 1-1, then writing
down the password you get when dying in 1-2. Many "game files" have been lost
this way, so keep it in mind. This is the reason my "ultimate password" starts
you in 1-2 instead of 1-1.
All of this is possibly an artifact from the Japanese game, where save slots
were used rather than passwords.

Additionally, since the "Room of death" is a problem for many players, it has
its own little section in "12. Strategies". I'm referring to a room in the
third fortress, near the top-left corner, with two Eggplant Wizards guarding
the way.



===============================================================================
][ 15. Wii Virtual Console differencies ][
===============================================================================

The Wii version of the game is subtly different from the original, but in a way
that has major consequences. For some reason, the weapon bits and the checksum
calculation have changed, making most old passwords unusable. This includes the
well-known "cheat codes", although if you've read the "technical notes on
passwords" above, you'll know they were not intentionally constructed in the
first place. However, it's still a fair argument that the staff responsible
should've taken care to keep the password system perfectly intact for the sake
of the slightly older gamer generation, who may still have their old fond
passwords written down, or those who want to try the famous codes.

At the time of writing, Jean-Luc Romano is working on a program to translate
passwords between the NES and Wii versions. In the meantime we've generated Wii
versions of the instant ending and ultimate passwords in this FAQ, detailed in
"8. The endings and how to get them" and "13. Miscellaneous fun".

The only in-game difference in the Wii version, however, seems to be that the
screen pulses red at the end, instead of flashing rapidly. I also do not know
if the Famicom version of Kid Icarus was released on Japan's Virtual Console
service or not (considering they got the Japanese GBA port), in which case the
password system doesn't even exist, so it wouldn't be a problem.



===============================================================================
][ 16. Japanese version (Famicom) differencies ][
===============================================================================

Kid Icarus was released in Japan on the Famicom Disk System as "Hikari Shinwa:
Palutena no Kagami", roughly "Myth of Light: The Mirror of Palutena". It has
some major differencies from the game we know as Kid Icarus on the NES.

As the game was stored on a rewritable disk, it had three save slots to record
your progress instead of passwords. It also had a highscore list. When you beat
the game and restarted on the same file, nothing carried over.

Other notable differencies include better sound effects. You also had to eject
the disk and swap sides a few times - the save menu, the final Stage and the
ending were on side A, while the rest of the game was on side B.

In the final Stage, you had to scroll the screen forward manually, just like in
Stage 2. You also had to hold the jump button to fly, making Medusa more
difficult, and you collided with the blocks and obstacles on the screen rather
than passing through them. Some enemy patterns were different in this Stage as
well.

The Famicom version was later re-released on the Gameboy Advance on a yellow
cartridge, as part of the Nintendo Classic Series. As far as I can tell, it
even includes the complete original manual. However, this release was Japanese
only. (I was fortunate enough to recieve my copy from someone visiting Japan).


~ Japanese version endings ~

It's worth noting that the endings were determined in a completely different
way in the Japanese FDS version. Here's a quick guide.

Simply add your Level together with your Strength, and you'll get a number from
3-10 (it's impossible finishing the game with a Level of 1 because of how much
experience the bosses give you). Then check the list below to see what ending
you get:

+--------+----------+----------------------------+
| | Level+ | |
| Ending | Strength | Description |
+========+==========+============================+
| Worst | 3 to 5 | Pit's upper body is turned |
| | | into a Specknose. |
+--------+----------+----------------------------+
| Poor | 6 to 7 | Pit gets a hat and a |
| | | sickle (mop?). |
+--------+----------+----------------------------+
| Medium | 8 | Pit gets a helmet and a |
| | | short stick (spear?). |
+--------+----------+----------------------------+
| Good | 9 | Pit gets a helmet with a |
| | | red tuft, and a spear. |
+--------+----------+----------------------------+
| Best | 10 | Pit becomes a big warrior. |
+--------+----------+----------------------------+

So the best NES ending does not exist, instead there's a different "worst"
ending. The irony remains that getting the worst ending requires more playing
skill than a better one.



===============================================================================
][ 17. Copyright, contact, other FAQs ][
===============================================================================

~ Copyright ~
You may copy this file to your computer and spread it as much as you want, as
long as you credit me. You may not sell this file for money, and you may not
upload it on any site or similarly publish it without my permission. Only
Gamefaqs.com, Neoseeker.com and my personal homepage have the right to host it.

~ Contact ~
E-mail: [email protected]
Homepage: http://www.remar.se/daniel/
GameFAQs forum nick: Ultimortal
Please contact me if you have found any errors in this FAQ, or suggestions for
improvements, and I'll include your name in the next update. Please write in
English or Swedish.


~ Other FAQs by me ~

Enemy list and more
(The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, N64)
As of writing this, the "Final Version" of this FAQ has been removed from my
homepage due to how poorly written it was.

Enemy list and more
(The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, N64)
Same as above, this FAQ has been pulled from my homepage and was never uploaded
anywhere else. Something tells me that not a single person has read it, but at
least it kept me occupied with something. :p



===============================================================================
][ 18. Epilogue and contributors ][
===============================================================================

Phew... I think I got everything covered now. If you still think there's
something missing, or if something is wrong, drop me a line and I'll update
with credits to you.
This FAQ was originally constructed entirely by me, and a whole lot of intense
Kid Icarus playing. Then Disch popped in and told me about the Skill stat,
making me eager to take the game apart myself, so I started RAM editing until I
found all the last pieces of information I could squeeze out. Since then,
several more people have contributed, as listed below.
I hope you enjoyed the guide!

Thanks to GameFAQs user sp unit 262 for the quick leveling strategy on the
Reapettes in Section 1-2.

Thanks to Cyn ([email protected]) for a better strategy to get the Strength
upgrade in Section 2-2.

Thanks to Disch Wersher for the Skill stat, and the truth about the treasure
chamber rooms. I can't thank you enough!

Thanks to Jean-Luc Romano for info on the first upgrade chamber, the section
Ram editing under "Miscellaneous fun", and his password cracking that enabled
me to create the passwords to view the different endings.

Thanks to Björn De Meyer for reading this document and commenting on the
spelling. I always miss those little things...

Thanks to Michael Sarich on the GameFAQs board for helping me improve the
layout and some small things of this FAQ.

Thanks to loyalNESgamer on the GameFAQs board for pointing various things out.

Thanks to Shaughn Maguire for the initial information on the Japanese Kid
Icarus. Seems like the instruction booklet was right after all... well, sort
of. :) There's always something new to learn about this game.

Thanks to Nintendo for this wonderful but short game series that deserves
another sequel.

And some big thanks to Gamefaqs.com and Neoseeker.com, who happily update my
FAQ and host it for me.

_______________________________________________________________________________
End of document - Copyright Daniel Remar 2002-2010

The preceding document is the work of Daniel Remar. The Palace in the Sky has obtained the right to host the walkthrough. Please do not upload this walkthrough onto any other host website without the explicit consent of Daniel Remar.

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