Elemental Trapping Guide

TRAPPING HIGH LEVEL ELEMENTALS USING THE CUSCUS

by donutbandit0

First, make sure you have the traps. They are available at Kid Bro G's shop in Marbule (Another) and later at both Marbules. I like to have 6 of each one. Having 6 makes it possible to have 2 members of your party with the same Innate, and have them both well equipped. Buy 6 traps of each Element that can be trapped, allowing for those you may already own. Don't worry about misses - this is infallible. Also, buy the Element Diminish, if you don't already own it. This Element is vital. Don't buy traps for level 7 or 8 summons - these are too powerful, and you'll kill the CusCus in the process.

Once you have the traps, go back to the entrance to Shadow Forest in Home World, and select your party. You need people who have weak physical attacks. You can't get rid of Serge, obviously. We are going to operate so that he is not a factor.

I use Razzly in my first slot. With her original weapon, she is probably the weakest attacker of all. Serge goes in second. The third member is a weak physical attacker of whatever Innate color of Element you are trying to mimic, unless you are going to trap Level 5 Elements, in which case it doesn't matter.

For an example, let's trap Tornado. My team is Razzly, Serge, and Turnip. I chose Turnip because he is Green (duh!), and fairly weak at both physical attacks and magic. It's important not to kill the CusCus before it can mimic your Element.

Equip Razzly with the Tornado traps and Diminish. Diminish is an Element you can buy at Bro G's shop in Marbule. It's halves magic damage, which allow you to use strong Elements without killing the CusCus. I also give Razzly both Sight Scopes and a Silver Loupe, since she seems to miss a lot without them.

Equip Turnip with Tornado, and 3 Dreamer's Scarf in his Accessories slot. This will allow him to start with 3 hit points and minimize the physical damage to the CusCus. Replace his Steel Sword with the weakest sword you still have.

The CusCus is found on the second screen of Shadow Forest, sitting on a little hill on the northeast corner of your screen. Sometimes there will be 2 of them, but usually not.

The battle:

  • Razzly - Do 6 Level 1 hits on CusCus A (do not let the hits compound!) then cast the Tornado trap.
  • Serge - Defend.
  • Turnip - 3 Level 1 hits on CusCus A to give him 6 hit points, then defend.
  • Razzly - 6 Level 1 hits on CusCus A, then cast Diminish.
  • Serge - Finish off CusCus A, and all other enemies except a CusCus that hasn't been hit by anything yet. You don't want 2 or 3 Tornados coming back at you, which is what will happen since Tornado hits all enemies.
  • Turnip - Cast Tornado.

Defend until the CusCus casts Tornado back at you, which will be gobbled up by the trap. Now finish off the last CusCus. You could just run away, but you will usually get 2 EagleEye elements as spoils if you finish the battle. These things will pile up in a hurry as you trap all kinds of good Elements, and you can sell them for a nice wad of cash.

After finishing the battle, simply go back a screen, then return. The CusCus will be back again. Now, you can have as many of those scarce Level 6 elements that you want, like UltraNova, BlackHole, etc. I always get 6 of all of them. Not only does that insure that my characters will have lots of all the best elements, but if I decide to have 2 characters of the same Innate on the team at the same time, there will be plenty to go around.

If, for some reason you missed an Element (I missed Iceberg in the game I'm currently playing) you can use Sprigg and her Doppelgang ability to get the first one. It's a little harder this way, since Sprigg has to do a lot of CusCus whacking to finish her attacks. If you keep running away until you finally end up with an enemy team that includes a Dodo or Cassowary, so much the better. The Dodo can take a licking and keep on ticking, and we don't need him since he doesn't mimic Elemental attacks.

Here's how it worked:

  • Razzly - 6 Level 1 hits on Dodo then cast the Iceberg trap.
  • Sprigg - 5 Level 1 hits on Dodo, then Doppelgang into Scorpiod.
  • Serge - Defend.
  • Razzly - 6 Level 1 hits on Dodo, then cast Diminish.
  • Sprigg - Defend, as she probably doesn't have enough stamina at this point.
  • Serge - Defend.
  • Razzly - Defend.
  • Sprigg - 6 Level 1 hits on Dodo (or CusCus A if Dodo is dead), then cast Iceberg.
  • Serge - Finish off all enemies except an untouched CusCus.

The remaining CusCus mimics your Iceberg, and now you have one. Now, you can switch to using a weak Blue Innate, since it's harder to use Sprigg.

From: Guides