Moon Sea & Yellow Drops Walkthrough - Dark Cloud
When you arrive on the moon you'll regain control of Toan in the town of Yellow Drops. The first thing you may notice about this town is that it still exists and there is nothing for us to rebuild here; that's only half true. Enter the giant building in the center of town and you'll get a quick tour of the Moon Factory, you'll also get an update about what to do next to progress the story.
Essentially, you need to build something inside of the Moon Factory this time around. We're actually done building towns in Dark Cloud which is a bit of a bummer considering that's one of the best parts about this game. During this chapter of the game we're going to be building a Sun Giant in the Moon Factory. The Sun Giant is built the same way as all the previous towns in the game, you'll have to run around the dungeon (Moon Sea) and collect Atla then combine them in the Georama Menu just like before.
There are no Treasure Chests for us to find hidden throughout this town but I recommend you explore a bit anyway. You can find one shop in this town along with a place to store your items. Of course there's also the Moon Factory in the middle of town too, but you've probably already been there.
Aside from the Moon Factory there is one other notable thing I would like to point out in this town and that's the final NPC for the Item Trading Side Quest. Standing under one of the arches in town you'll find a Moon Person who asks you if you have any rare artifacts that you can give to him. If you've been updating this quest as you go then you've already got the Clay Doll item from Muska Lacka which is the item you need to give to this guy.
Your reward for completing this quest is the Sun Attachment which is the best Attachment in the entire game. Keep in mind that you can only use this Attachment a single time so make sure you don't waste it by applying it to a weapon you don't plan to use! Once you've gotten this Attachment and visited the Moon Factory you're ready to continue with the main story.
Exit town via the only route we can go and then take the cannon into the Moon Sea! This is one of the corniest methods of traveling around a dungeon in this game considering that being fired out of a cannon like this would mean certain death... but I guess it's no worse than the fortune teller that rode our head in Queens.
In the Moon Sea the important items that you will want to keep your eye out for are listed below.
Moon Sea is pretty straight forward, it works just like all of the previous dungeons. As for the Atla, you'll find out the purpose of it by the time you reach Crater 8 which is where you'll meet the final Ally in Dark Cloud, Osmond. The screenshot below is one I chose because it captures the heart of this game I think, in particular the poor localization on the original Ps2 English copies. Maybe on future releases they'll fix these quirks.
Osmond asks you to help him win the Coliseum tournament which is coincidentally also the dungeon boss of the Moon Sea. Also, you're told about the Sun Giant which is a giant golem of sorts that you'll use to battle the Dark Genie. To reconstruct this Sun Giant you'll have to use the Atla you've been collecting from throughout the Moon Sea.
You can build the Sun Giant in the middle of the Moon Factory area, which is pictured below. Right now there isn't much you can do in terms of reconstructing it since we don't have a lot of Atla currently. However you can place some of the pieces and collect the Treasure Chests that spawn when you complete them/place them.
Speaking of Treasure Chests, you now have a bunch around town that you can collect. Some of these will have valuable items in them like
While exploring you'll find a vendor who sells a Beast Attachment along with 2 guns for Osmond that you may want to consider purchasing. I recommend the Jackal for 3000G, this will give him an excellent starter weapon so you don't have to explore for hours hoping to find one in a chest.
After you're done exploring town and grabbing what you can find it's time to return to the Moon Sea and start knocking out each floor. You'll have to use Osmond to get past the gap on Crater 8 where you first found him. This is Osmond's "puzzle" which you'll now encounter throughout the rest of these dungeons. Something to note too is you can use Osmond to fly over Xiao's gaps as well.
In total there are 15 Craters and there will be a couple along the way where you're stuck using a certain Ally that you may not be fond of using. Like the floor that requires Osmond who is definitely underpowered for the time being. Your option is to always buy some Bombs which you can use throughout the floor to easily clear it or to return to a previous dungeon and level a weapon up on that new Ally.
Once you reach Crater 15 you'll have to exit the dungeon and head over to the Moon Factory where you're tasked with completing every part of the Sun Giant that we currently can. You won't be able to finish the whole thing since we still have to win the Coliseum battle but you can do the majority of it.
Most importantly you'll need to complete the Sun Giant head to proceed with the main story of this town. During the Event that takes place after you finish the head Osmond will be given the Admission Ticket for the Coliseum (pictured below). Once you've obtained this item you'll be able to challenge the final boss of the Moon Sea.
You probably already noticed this but there are a lot of chests for you to collect in the Moon Factory and also around the Yellow Drops town. I recommend you do another run around the Moon Factory and around town to gather up everything that's now available. Search the outsides of the buildings as well as the insides to find everything.
Below is a list of everything I found while searching Yellow Drops the second time. Some of the items I may have missed from earlier, keep that in mind when comparing our lists.
When you are done in Yellow Drops and ready to proceed with the main story you'll want to head over to the Coliseum and give the Admission Ticket to the monster at the front door. Unlike the previous bosses I won't go into detail about what you need to do in order to prepare for the upcoming fight because the upcoming fight isn't even remotely difficult.
Moon Sea - Minotaur Joe Boss Fight
This is the easiest boss fight that you're going to have in the entire game if you ask me. Ultimately all the strategy is for this fight is to stand around and wait for Minotaur Joe to pick up a Keg of Wine then attack him. He's invulnerable to damage until he grabs the Keg of Wine so you'll have to wait until he does to deal damage to him.
I've only seen this boss use 2 attacks, one is a charge where he runs around the arena, it doesn't seem directed at you and this may not even be an attack... However if he runs into you, you'll take damage. His main attack though is where he jumps around and if you're close enough to him, he'll hit you with his big axe.
Other than that, this boss doesn't do anything you have to worry about. If you accidentally let him drink one of the Keg of Wines that are thrown into the arena then the boss will get a Stamina buff and he'll hit you a lot harder. Thankfully this boss doesn't attack too much to begin with so it's not the end of the world even if he does drink one Keg.
Anyone who would like to see a video of this boss fight and what I did to beat him, I recommend you check out my Minotaur Joe Boss Fight on Youtube. That video will give you a visual guide instead of this written one, if that's more your thing.
Now that we have the last part needed for the Sun Giant you should return to the Moon Factory and finish it. Unlike all of the previous towns in this game that we've completed, in order to advance the story this time you will have to achieve 100% completion in the Requests department.
For more information (and a video) of how to complete the Sun Giant I recommend you check out my Moon Factory 100% Walkthrough. That page covers construction of the Sun Giant and everything you need to know.
Once the Sun Giant has been finished you'll want to visit Osmond inside the same house as the vendor and tell him you're ready. This will trigger a long cutscene involving the Sun Giant and the Dark Genie; you won't do any combat yourself during this time so stocking up on items isn't needed.
After telling Osmond you're good to go, the next time you'll gain control of Toan will be in a new area called Dark Heaven Castle. Continue to the Gallery of Time Walkthrough page for more information about this dungeon.
Continue to Gallery of Time Walkthrough
Continue to Moon Factory 100% Layout Walkthrough
Return to Dark Cloud Walkthrough Index