Ookami - Enemy and Floral Finishers FAQ Written by Wong Si Yuan (a.k.a ranmafan) for GameFAQs. V 1.1 --- ============ Introduction ============ Foreword: This FAQ is intended primarily to help players acquire the Demon Fang item from monsters. If you don't already know, Demon Fangs are required to trade for the extremely useful Holy Artifact items from certain traders. Also included are short notes on monster tactics on how to best deal with some of them. --- Legal and Disclaimers: Ookami is the property of Clover studios and Capcom. This FAQ is protected by Copyright laws and may not be copied, or distributed without due credit to its author. It absolutely can NOT be sold for any form of commodity. This guide is not meant to be a definitive guide on the game and its content. This FAQ is written specifically for GameFAQs and is not to be used on any other gaming website. Please don't email me asking for permission to use it on another site. Please link to GameFAQs instead. And now, without further ado! --- *** What are Floral Finishers? *** Floral Finishers are Ookami's particular method of finishing off a monster in a fairly spectacular fashion and create lots of pretty flowers at the same time. Please don't be discouraged if you encounter an enemy that you don't have a Floral Finisher for yet. This is a common occurrence. *** How do I use a Floral Finisher? *** Floral Finishers basically mean using a brush technique Amaterasu has learned to 'finish' off the enemy. There are 13 brush strokes in total, and each monster is affected by only one particular style of brush technique. An example would be: Green Imp - Power Slash This means that the monster 'Green Imp' has to be finished off with the Power Slash brush technique when its life bar is emptied. *** When to use a Floral Finisher? *** When a monster's lifebar is depleted, it will let out a death rattle and it will enter its 'death sequence'. Most of the time this entails either floating into the air with its back arched, or a last feeble struggle to get up while clawing at the air. This is when you use the finisher on them. If successful, the monster will let out a second death cry and drop Demon Fangs before exploding into a shower of flowers. (hence Floral Finisher) Please take note that when you have killed a monster, you CAN NOT hit it again with a regular attack or you will NOT be able to perform the Floral Finisher on it. Hence some restraint is called for when mashing that square button. *** Elemental Properties *** When a particular Finisher is given, it has an elemental property attached to it. (Especially Fire, Ice & Lightning) It is not necessary to use a particular brush stroke so long as that elemental is used. For example, if a monster requires Fire to finish off, you can either use the Fireburst brush stroke, or connect a convenient source of fire nearby (via Inferno) to burn it instead. Useful when you want to save on Ink Pots for those difficult fights. Later on in the game, you will be able to acquire a permanent source of the three main elementals (Fire/Ice/Lightning) which makes performing these Floral Finishers easier. *** Trading for Artifacts *** Also, using Floral Finishers also nets you the important Demon Fangs, which you can then trade for some of the following Artifacts at certain NPCs: All Traders: Usable items - Traveller's Charm - Increases Godhood (your shield) by 1. (Max levels: 3) Cost: 3 fangs Godly Charm - Maxes your Godhood Cost: 8 Fangs Golden Peach - Fills your Astral Pouch completely Cost: 15 fangs Agata Trader - Golden Lucky Cat - Draws items to you like a magnet. Invaluable addition. Cost: 50 Fangs Wooden Mat - Stand still and let Amaterasu fall asleep. Yen will be deducted and Ammy will regenerate Solar Energy. Good for regenning without using items. Cost: 30 Fangs Peace Bell - Prevents monster scrolls from chasing you when you get near to them. Useful for picking your fights. Cost: 20 Fangs Emperor of Sei-An - Thief's Glove - Allows you to draw a line from Issun (on your head) to the enemy to steal items. Items can be anything from Treasure to usable items. Cost: 70 Fangs Fog Pot - Allows you to upgrade Amaterasu's Veil of Mist brush technique to include the ability (Mist Warp) to travel between Ultimate Origin Mirrors. Cost: 80 Fangs Golden Ink Pot - Singularly the most important artifact in-game. Increases regeneration of ink pots dramatically. Cost: 100 Fangs Water Tablet - Allows Ammy to run across the surface of water like it was solid ground. (Available only after a certain boss fight) Cost: 100 Fangs You can only equip 3 artifacts at any time. --- =============== General Tactics =============== Learning Fleet Foot is an important part of fighting. It allows you to dodge enemy attacks or follow them quickly. It also allows you to cancel your attacks half-way. Note that most monsters will attempt to evade your attacks after a number of hits. Mostly, it's about 3-4 hits. As soon as they start evading, simply use the R2 button to quickly give chase and push them up against the wall. Then kill them because they can't escape any more. --- ==================== Acquiring more Fangs ==================== *********************** Are there any other ways of acquiring Fangs? *********************** Yes, there are several ways of doing so. Two of these are skills Amaterasu can learn, called Golden Fury and Brown Rage. Read on for more details. ****************** Golden Fury? Brown Rage? What are these? ****************** Glad you asked. These two learnable skills costing 100,000 and 2,000,000 yen respectively are one of the many ways of acquiring additional Demon Fangs in addition to the regular Floral Finishers. They are, in a nutshell, Amaterasu's rather repugnant ways of rebuking the enemy. Golden Fury can be acquired at the Shinshu Field dojo. Hits twice. Nets one Fang per enemy. Brown Rage can be acquired at the Ryoshima Coast dojo. Hits once, but is explosive. Nets two fangs per enemy. Note that these skills can be used independently of each other to acquire a grand total of 3 additional Fangs PER ENEMY. *** Any other ways of acquiring Fangs? *** Using a Reflector as a Subweapon, Ammy can use it like a shield to stop enemy attacks from the front. However, here's its secret: If used for Melee attacks (close ranged attacks), it causes the enemy to drop one Fang and results in a spinning piledriver-style attack for non-boss enemies which does incredible damage. *** I need more Fangs! *** Well, if you've read the manual you'll know then that during loading screens, there are two variations. The one with a trail of pawprints and the blank scroll. Pawprint Trail: Time your X button presses during the pawprint screen and if you get a full series of Big pawprints, the picture of Issun will be replaced by a Demon Fang which will be added to your inventory. Blank Scroll: Mash the X button. Every 50 pawmarks nets you one Demon Fang (which will appear in place of the pawprint) --- ======== Monsters ======== Monster info will be presented in the following manner: Monster Name - Floral Finisher Fangs Dropped Description Notes (if any) *** Green Imp - Power Slash Fangs: 1 Description: Basic imp. Looks like a Monkey with a paper mask. Notes: Nothing special. They shoot blowdarts at you but nothing killing them first won't fix. *** Red Imp - Power Slash Fangs: 1 Description: Slightly beefier than the Greens. They carry a Japanese Lute (the Shamisu) which they use to defend themselves with. They can throw their Lute like a boomerang to attack you. Notes: After attacking them 3 times, use Power Slash when they block to break the Lute. They're defenseless after that. Killing them before 3 hits also works. *** Yellow Imp - Power Slash Fangs: 1 Description: The biggest of the lot. They have a giant drum which they use to cause earth-based attacks and launch explosives at you. They burrow under- ground to get around. Notes: Use the ink smear to blind them (just daub them like you would use the Restoration brush technique). They attack wantonly when blinded, and you can either attack them from behind, or use a Reflector Subweapon to perform a Perfect Shield Counter. *** Blue Imp - Galestorm Fangs: 1 Description: These guys are purplish version of the green imps, except they fly on kites and are tougher. They spit blue balls at you. Notes: When you first meet them, you can use Power Slash to knock them down. When you later acquire Galestorm, you can knock down multiple Imps at once. Note that this applies to all flying enemies: They MUST be visible on-screen at the moment when you activate Galestorm, or they will not be affected. *** Black Imp - Power Slash Fangs: 3 Description: Attacks using the 5 floating skulls around it. Also has a drum. Medium sized and dressed like a shogun. Notes: His floating skulls can injure Ammy on contact. Power Slash them to destroy them. They explode when destroyed, and the explosions can also hurt Ammy. They can attack by using things like laser beams, headbutts, etc. etc. Hence destroy them first. *** Headless Guardian - Cherry Bomb Fangs: 2 Description: Looks like a headless stone Buddha/Earth Deity statue. Attacks the same way as Red Imps. Use the same tactics. Note: In order to use Cherry Bomb effectively, remember that the size of the drawings affects proximity to the CAMERA. Best to either press them against a wall and draw a bomb on the wall, or draw a bomb from the overhead view. The bombs will go off if they touch the monster. *** Bell Guardian - Power Slash Fangs: 2 Description: A bigger version of the Headless Guardian. Fights the same as the Yellow Imp. Use the same tactics. Note: Nothing special. *** Halo Guardian - Cherry Bomb Fangs: 2 Description: Similar to the Blue Imps, except they use a halo to fly instead. Notes: Use Galestorm to bring them down, then kill them. *** Executioner Guardian - Cherry Bomb Fangs: 2 Description: The headless guardian version of the Black Imp. Notes: Again, destroy their floating glowing stone heads first. Same tactics as Black Imps. *** Bud Ogre - Bloom Fangs: 1 Description: Looks like a treasure bud, but with a demon's face, four legs and a tail. Notes: Simply keep hitting it, or Power Slashing its purple globs back at it. Glaives can use their charged ability to immediately cause them to go down. When down, use Bloom on their buds to expose their vulnerable core. When they die, use Bloom on them to get the Finisher. *** Chimera - Power Slash Fangs: 2 Description: A monkey-faced, incense burner version of the Bud Ogre. Notes: Keep hitting it again. It'll run and fly when hit, so just use your Fleet Foot technique to keep up. Note that when it's down, every hit causes damaging water to spurt out. Reflectors can hit it twice before you have to R2 (fleetfoot) back, Beads can use their range to avoid damage, Glaives can kill them in one or two charged hits. *** Dead Fish - Power Slash Fangs: 1 Description: A flying goldfish in a white death robe (kimono-looking) Notes: Power slash to bring them down, or hit them in the air for maximum damage. When their life gets to a certain level, their defense goes up and they latch onto Ammy. They then blow themselves up. To counter this, either stay in the air while hitting them, use power slash and regular attacks to bring their health down quickly, or just power slash them if they manage to latch onto you. *** Crow Tengu - Galestorm Fangs: 1 Description: A long necked storklike monster with a sword and dressed like a samurai (not the armoured version). Has two fans which it uses to stay afloat. Notes: Power Slash or Galestorm to bring them down. Attack once to cause it to defend itself. Power Slash to break its defence. Note that you can use Golden Fury as an attack to net a Fang and force it to defend itself at the same time. Brown Rage takes too long and allows the Tengu to escape. *** Ubume - Veil of mist Fangs: 2 Description: Similar to the Crow Tengu in appearance, but with a straw hat and long hair instead. It carries a giant umbrella instead of a pair of fans. Notes: Power Slash to bring it to ground level, attack it once to get its fan up. Use Galestorm to open up its defence, then kill it quickly. *** Fire Eye - Galestorm Fangs: 2 Description: A wooden wheel with a giant eye in the middle, wreathed in flames. Notes: Often comes in pairs with another Wheel type enemy. Use Galestorm or Deluge to extinguish the flames, then attack it. Their fires can be used as a source for the Inferno brush technique. Don't touch it, it hurts. For all wheels, an easy way to score a fang is to wait for it to start rolling in circles around the arena, then use your Reflector subweapon to stop it in its tracks. Special notes: Veil of Mist works with almost ALL wheel type monsters to bring down their defences. As written by Drakulakun: "The wheels have another finish as well (although you will get one demon fang) When their death animation kicks in, wait until they do the first bump on the floor. Then, after they lift in the air for a second time, slash them." *** Ice Mouth - Inferno Fangs: 2 Description: A wooden wheel with a giant pair of lips in the middle. Covered in icy crystals. Notes: Often comes in the company of a Fire Eye. You can use the fire from Fire Eye to melt Ice Mouth's crystals. Conversely, when you acquire the appropriate brush technique, you can use Ice Mouth's crystals to freeze any enemy on-screen. Special Note: This applies to any situation when Ammy is frozen. Use Power Slash or Inferno to free yourself when frozen. *** Thunder Ear - Galestorm/Power Slash (this is the only confirmed one that drops 1 fang when Slashed) Fangs: 2/1 Description: A wooden wheel with a giant ear in the middle. Covered in bolts of lightning. Notes: A source of Lightning, for one. Simply use Veil of Mist to slow it down and smack it around. *** Earth Nose - Veil of Mist Fangs: 3 Fangs Description: A wooden wheel with a giant Hanadaka nose in the middle. Covered in puffs of wind (green colour. I assume this is the same green smoke as in your Brush Technique screen) Notes: It can only be attacked when Veil of Mist is used. It's ridiculously fast otherwise, so finish this off first if you can. *** Thunder Doom Mirror - Power Slash Fangs: 2 Description: A mirror with a Kabuki actor's face in the middle. Almost the same as Thunder Ear. Notes: Fight it the same as a Thunder Ear. *** Wind Doom Mirror - Veil of Mist Fangs: 3 Description: A mirrow that resembles the Earth Nose, but with a picture of an Old Man. (The God of Longevity in Chinese lore) Notes: Same tactics as Earth Nose *** Ice Doom Mirror - Fireburst Fangs: 2 Description: A mirror with a leering woman's face in the middle. Almost the same as Ice Mouth. Notes: Same tactics as Ice Mouth. *** Poltergeist - Galestorm Fangs: 2-4 Description: Three Weasels carrying scythes linked together into one giant razor sharp wheel of death. Notes: Its default element is Wind/Earth (can never tell with those green fluffs). It takes on the attack patterns of the element it uses. If you hit it enough, Power Slash it, or at random, they will change their elements. Counts as a wheel type enemy. *** Tube Fox - Power Slash Fangs: 2 Description: Looks like a regular fox gone psycho. You'll always fight 2-3 of them at a go. Notes: They have the ability to throw out foxfire, and drain your ink pots. Don't step in the fire. If you notice your ink pots going down inexplicably, look for a black cloud of ink streaming out from you, and follow it to the Tube Fox draining you of your ink. Hit it once to stop it. *** Red/Blue Oni - Thunderstorm (as usual, any electrical source will do) Fangs: 3 (I think) Description: They always come together in a pair. They're like giant centaurs coloured blue or red. They wear a giant metal mask with a demon's face etched into it. They wield giant spiked clubs. Notes: Their iron masks protect them from frontal attacks. Attack from behind or the flanks. Countering the Red Oni's fire breath with wind will stun him. Blue Onis aren't much different with their attacks. They will occasionally jump and try to stomp on you, if they miss their mask will get stuck in the ground and render them vulnerable from all sides. When you eventually get Thunderstorm, zapping them with it will also stun them and deal substantial damage. *** Jiro/Saburo - Thunderstorm Fangs: 2-4 (variable) Description: A pair of hermit crabs with shells that resemble the front and rear end of a shark. Jiro is the bluish green one, Saburo is red. Notes: Jiro will launch explosive sea urchins at you. Saburo will focus on digging water holes to flood the arena. Both are protected by a hard shell that must be destroyed by attacks/cherry bombs before the monster inside can be killed. A charged glaive attack or a strong Lightning bolt attack will break the shell in one go. Before you get the Water Tablet, focus on killing Saburo first. If Saburo manages to dig successfully, the arena will be flooded and Ammy will have trouble killing it. If you can't kill either one in time and the arena is flooded, they'll combine and you'll face off with Ichiro. Jiro's urchins can be destroyed with Power Slashes. *** Ichiro Fangs: 3 (Not confirmed) Description: The Shark. Result of Jiro/Saburo joining powers. Swims in the water and deals damaging attacks to Ammy. Notes: Explosives stun Ichiro (the first fight, Slash the explosive barrels), Cherry Bombs also work. But once you get the ability to create lightning, just zap him dead. Remember, you can create lily pads to stand on if you don't have a Water Tablet. *** Blue Cyclops - Deluge Fangs: 2-3 Description: A one-eyed giant flying tengu that resembles the One Eyed Flying Purple People Eater. He smokes a pipe. Notes: While his attacks may tempt you into countering with Wind or Water, try to avoid doing so if you can. They will blow out the fire in his pipe, and that makes him VERY mad. Attacking him from the front repeatedly will also put out the fire (but does more damage.) If he gets mad, he'll transform into his invincible warrior form and THEN the pain will begin. He has two screen-wide attacks that take off tons of life, and then you can only run around until he reverts to his regular form. To prevent this, as SOON as you see him get angry (he'll curl up and start to shudder), either cast Fireburst to light his pipe, or find a source of fire and light his pipe quickly. This calms him down and lets you kill him easily. *** Namahage (Green) - Galestorm Fangs: 1 Description: The high-levelled version of the Green imp, it's a monster that wears a wooden painted mask and straw clothes. Notes: Not very dangerous. Just beat it up. *** Blade Namahage (Red) - Galestorm Fangs: 2 Description: The high-levelled version of the Red Imp. Almost the same as the regular Namahage but red in colour. Notes: Same tactic as Red Imps. *** Bucket Namahage - Cherry Bomb Fangs: 3 Description: A big Namahage with a bucket. It's the high levelled Yellow-imp. Notes: Fairly dangerous, it can attack you while burrowing around. The game's Bestiary mentions creating a loud sound and running to get it to appear, but I don't know how that works. Just Cherry Bomb I guess. Anyway, same tactics as the Yellow Imp. Use the same bombing tactics as with Headless Guardians, but it's easier because he's bigger. *** Cannon Namahage - Galestorm/Whirlwind Fangs: 3 (Not confirmed) Description: A high levelled Black Imp, with floating Namahage masks instead of skulls or stone heads. Notes: Same tactics as Black Imps/Executioner Guardians. *** Umbrella Namahage - Galestorm Fangs: 2 Description: Blue version of the Namahage family, with an umbrella to fly around. Yes, it's the high-level version of the Blue Imp. Notes: Use Galestorm to take it down and kill it as usual. *** Igloo Turtle - Inferno Fangs: 2 Description: An igloo on four icy legs with a lantern for a tail. There's a straw-raincoat figure inside the igloo. Notes: Attack it like a Chimera. When it's taken enough hits/damage (no life lost), it will go down. Use the fire from its tail to melt the Igloo, then attack the figurine inside. Again, Power Slash whatever it throws at you. It is not affected by fire until it's stunned/goes down. *** Bull Charger - Inferno Fangs: 4 Description: The big brother to the Red/Blue Onis. Has a giant wok-shaped mask with a pair of horns, and has a protruding rear end that resembles a bee. Attacks with Ice. Notes: Its ice breath cannot be countered with fire, so just run in circles and attack from behind/side. It is vulnerable to fire at any time, so burn it at will. *** Clay Soldier - Veil of Mist Fangs: 1 Description: A Niwa-style Japanese clay statue. It's just a high-level Green Imp. Notes: Kill it as usual. *** Clay Samurai - Veil of Mist Fangs: 2 Description: Same as the Clay Soldier, but with a sword. Notes: Same tactics as the Red Imp. *** Clay Flyer - Power Slash Fangs: 2 Description: A bluish version of the Clay family, uses a triangle straw-glider to fly around. Notes: Same tactics as Halo Guardian (Galestorm only). *** Clay Shogun - Veil of Mist Fangs: 3 Description: A big brute version of the Clay family. Has floating clay heads as its guardians. Notes: Its floating heads take two slashes to bring down, but otherwise the same tactics as the Black Imp. (Remember to stay clear when they blow up!) *** Clay Drummer - Veil of Mist Fangs: 2 Description: The big brother of the Bell Guardian, Yellow imp, etc. Also able to attack you while burrowing around so be careful! Notes: Attack it as you would a Bucket Namahage. *** Dogu - Power Slash Fangs: 4 Description: A Dogu-style clay figurine. Yes, the in/famous Alien figure pottery figures. This one is huge and carries a Sword though. Notes: It has the ability to teleport (similar to Blight) and perform those invisible slashes. However, Veil of Mist counters these two moves by making them visible during these actions and allowing you to hit them. They are also extra weak to Blizzard/Ice, and when frozen, take extra damage. Abuse this as necessary. (You'll know if you take on the Kamui Stray Bead challenge) *** Great Tengu - Blizzard Fangs: 3 Description: The big brother to the Blue Cyclops and the nastiest of the lot next to the Bull Charger. Wears a red Hanadaka mask. (often wrongly named as the Tengu mask, although in myth they are sometimes portrayed as doing so) Doesn't smoke a pipe though. Notes: He spits fire and poison, the former of which can be prevented using Galestorm. Just stay behind him when he spits poison because it hurts. Note that if you don't kill him fast enough, he gets angry on his own and if he transforms, he deals even MORE pain than the Blue Cyclops. To prevent that, use Deluge when he's getting mad to calm him down. Note that in your early encounters with him, you won't 'have' the powered up Blizzard snowstorm attack, but you WILL have other sources of ice... --- ========= Afterword ========= Well, that's it for the Monster/Fang FAQ. With this FAQ you should be able to acquire enough fangs for both a full collection of Artifacts as well as an S ranking in Fangs Collected. ======= Credits ======= Special thanks for the confirmation of Floral Finishers and Fang information provided primarily by Trepper of GameFAQs. Thanks also goes out to the following fine folk from GameFAQs: nikalbo (for encouraging me to start this FAQ) Sakurazaki vnamee Weltall Zero Drakulakun and all the other great people at the Ookami board! ============= Contacting Me ============= You can probably contact me via the GameFAQs Okami board, but if you have to email me you can use ranmafan@hotmail.com. Do note that as I screen all my mail for junk, use something like 'Okami FAQ' in the subject line. Also, I don't check my mail too often so send again if I don't reply.