Shipwreck & Queens Walkthrough - Dark Cloud
The Shipwreck dungeon is our third dungeon in the game and is paired with the town of Queens. When you first arrive you'll meet a man named Rando who runs a small shop by the coast with basic items for sale. Much like with all towns there isn't much to do here at first so you'll want to head inside of the Shipwreck dungeon and start clearing floors and collecting Atla.
You've probably got the hang of how dungeons in this game work by now, on every floor you'll have to find an item (Hook) that allows you to proceed to the next floor. While exploring this dungeon you'll also occasionally find doors that only Goro can open by pounding the button and areas that only Xiao can jump across. Get used to these sorts of features being added in dungeons as you unlock new allies.
Below are the 3 main items unique to the Shipwreck dungeon that you will need to collect in order to proceed from floor to floor and to enter the Back Floor.
As with almost every dungeon in this game you can progress freely up to level 9 at which point you will hit a roadblock. If you haven't already realized this will be a pattern in every dungeon, in order to proceed you'll need to unlock the new ally for this area, they're always the one with the skill to open the door.
In the Queens town our new ally will be Ruby and she'll have the attack/power to activate the crystal next to the door and open it. To unlock Ruby you'll need to place King's House in Queens and then speak with King and his subordinates about how to finish their house. Complete their house 100% and then watch the Event that triggers here; during this event you'll be given a Genie Lamp which contains our new ally - Ruby!
Before you rush back into the Shipwreck dungeon and start proceeding down to deeper floors I recommend you outfit the other buildings in town as well. Aside from King's Hideout you should also finish the Sheriff's Office, this will get you the Search Warrant which will allow you access to Joker's House. Without the Search Warrant Joker won't let you in the front door.
While you're at it you should also finish Joker's House, this is one of the best shops in the game that we currently have access to since he sells various +3 elemental weapon augmentations. He also sells Mage Slayer +3 and Sea Killer +3, both of which are valuable augmentations that we've been unable to buy up until now.
After you have finished putting together the few buildings that we can right now make sure you run around and collect all of the treasure chests that have spawned too. I recommend giving any Fruits of Eden to Ruby for the time being since her health is low and we'll need to use her a few times on the upcoming floors.
Ruby also should be leveled up some before we return to Shipwreck - this is optional but strongly recommended. Take her to the Divine Beast Cave or back to Wise Owl Forest and clear some floors until you get her weapon twice as strong. Alternatively, do more grinding and try to get her a better weapon overall.
The starter weapons for all of your new allies aren't very good and they can't be evolved into anything better. When you are ready to proceed with the rest of the Shipwreck dungeon return to Layer 9 and switch to Ruby, your goal here is to hit the crystal with one of her attacks. You'll need to use a different element depending on what the color of the crystal is - for example if it's a red crystal you need to hit it with Fire. If it's a blue crystal you need to hit it with Ice.
If you'd like to see a video of me opening this door with Ruby and explaining how this works I recommend you check out my How to get past Layer 9 in Shipwreck Dungeon and recruit Ruby Youtube Video. That video will give you a detailed explanation of how to recruit Ruby and how to open various doors using her throughout this dungeon and future dungeons.
The rest of the Shipwreck dungeon is pretty much the same as the first half, the main difference is the enemies will get more difficult (the Pirate's Chariot enemies are super annoying) and there are more Limited Zones. You will have one Limited Zone where you can only use Ruby, one Thirsty Limited Zone and a few Limited Zones where you'll lose Abs instead of earn them when defeating enemies.
As with my advice in the previous dungeon, the best ways to deal with Limited Zones that reduce your Abs is to use items instead. Bombs are a great item to use and also quite cheap. You can purchase them from Gaffer's Buggy in Norune Village (assuming that Pike helped Gaffer with his sign in the start of the game). If you can't buy Bombs from Gaffer's Buggy then use a different Throwing Item that is available to you.
Of course another alternative too is for you to use a character that doesn't have many Abs built up on a weapon - or a character that you don't mind losing the small amount of Abs you have. All in all, Limited Zones that reduce your Abs are annoying but not unmanageable. Much like with the previous areas our goal is to collect all of the Atla in the dungeon and get to the final floor.
Shipwreck's final floor will have a single Atla along with a Music Box (pictured below) that requires an item to activate it. For right now there isn't anything we can do with this Music Box so you will want to leave the dungeon and finish rebuilding the town of Queens.
Music Box on Shipwreck final floor
I recommend you spend a bit of time rebuilding the entirety of Queens and then running around from building to building collecting the various rewards available to you. There are a few new items that you will want to keep an eye out for that will give you permanent boosts to your characters and also to your carrying capacity.
Not only do you want to search the insides and surrounding area of the buildings that you place in Queens but you'll also want to search the town itself. You'll find some chests in the corners of the 3 building areas in Queens as well as along the walk way in the middle of Queens with the river running through it. Additionally, there are some chests you'll find along the Docks nearby the entrance to the Shipwreck dungeon and Rando's shop in the area just outside of Queens.
One of the chests along the Docks will have Toan's Fluffy Doughnut and a Gourd so you definitely don't want to miss them. Last but not least you'll also want to search inside of Rando's shop as a few chests will spawn in here too. My advice to you is to do a thorough search after you 100% each building and witness the Event that takes place there and after you've completed 100% of the villager's requests.
If you need help with fulfilling all of the villager requests in Queens I recommend you check out my Queens 100% Town Layout Guide. With all of that said, below are the new items that you can find here which will give you a permanent increase to your characters.
New Permanent Increase Items:
When you're done messing with Queens and ready to advance the story it's time to visit Yaya the Fortune Teller. Assuming that you've 100% completed her building you'll be able to ask her to tell your fortune, you can ask her about the Dark Genie or the location of the Moon Orb. When you ask about the location of the Moon Orb she'll jump on your head and yell something about Pumpkin panty fortune telling and then show you the Moon Orb being carried away by the fruit vendor.
If you'd like you can ask Yaya about the Dark Genie too, it's completely optional but you'll get a scene with the Dark Genie on his throne talking to a man. After getting your fortune told you'll want to visit Lana the Fruit Vendor and talk with her for another scene. Once this is over head to Phil at the Cathedral and listen to his story about lovers from 100 years in the past.
Keep in mind that you will need to 100% complete all of these buildings to advance the story at each of them. If you're not getting the scenes you need at any of these locations it's probably because the building is not yet finished. After talking with Phil and hearing the old love story return to Yaya the Fortune Teller again and talk with her for another Pumpkin panty head ride (sigh).
This time you have to ask Yaya about "Where is the man whom the queen loved?" She will show you Rando, the first guy that we talked to when we first arrived in Queens. During the scene you'll be shown a glittering object on the counter of Rando's store - head over there and pick it up and you'll now have the Music Box Key!
How to Open Music Box:
1. Talk with Yaya the Fortune Teller and ask her where the Moon Orb is
2. Speak with Lana the Fruit Vendor
3. Go to Phil, the owner of the Cathedral
4. Return to the Fortune Teller and get another head-ride
5. Visit Rando's Shop and obtain the Music Box Key
Now that we have the Music Box Key all that's left is to return to Shipwreck Layer 17 and open the Music Box. Before heading back to this dungeon make sure that you're completely prepared for the upcoming boss fight. Bring some Food, Stand-In Powder, Revive Powder, Throbbing Cherries and also Fire Gems (if you'd like).
Throbbing Cherry can be purchased from Lana in Queens and they will allow you to cure the Freeze status ailment that this boss likes to afflict you with. Anti-Freeze Amulet (for whatever reason) will not work against this boss's freeze attack. Fire Gems are optional but they will deal a very solid amount of damage to the boss and it's not a bad idea to use them.
This boss fight is one of the harder ones in this game so you'll definitely want to make sure you're prepared before challenging her. As always, you should save your game too before challenging this boss.
Tip: Stamina Drink will increase how much damage you deal to the boss and make you immune to the Freeze status ailment that she uses. The way Dark Cloud works is you can only have one buff or debuff on you at a time and your buff/debuff can't be overwritten by a new one. This means if you're under the effects of Stamina you can't be afflicted with Freeze. It's a pretty nifty tip that will make this fight a lot easier.
Shipwreck - La Saia Boss Strategy
Ice Queen La Saia is the final boss of the Shipwreck dungeon and she's also one of the harder bosses in Dark Cloud for those who aren't prepared. You should read over the few paragraphs above this boss entry for all of the information you need to prepare for this boss fight. The abridged version of my advice is... Throbbing Cherries to cure the Freeze ailment and switch all of your weapons to Fire Attribute to deal extra damage to her.
Our strategy for Ice Queen La Saia is going to be a bit similar to the first boss of this game, you'll be constantly switching back and forth between a melee and ranged character to deal damage to her. Start with using a melee character (Toan is recommended), you'll have to get close to her and attack her while she has her shield up to destroy it. Only a melee character can destroy her shield, ranged damage will not work.
With her shield removed you'll have to switch to a ranged character (Ruby is recommended) to deal damage to her. Ruby will typically deal the most damage to her - especially if you've switched her weapon to the Fire element. Keep attacking her with Ruby from a moderate distance until she recharges her shield. Then you'll switch to Toan and rinse/repeat.
Stay close to La Saia with Ruby to deal the most damage to her but stay far enough away so that you can avoid her melee knockback skill. Also, remaining close to her will allow you to move in quickly with Toan when the shield regenerates and eliminate it again. That's really all there is to this boss fight! It's rather straight forward but the main issue is she hits hard and the Freeze that she does is really annoying and leaves you vulnerable to a lot of damage.
If you'd like to see a video of me beating La Saia check out my Best Way To beat La Saia Youtube Video.
Once the boss has been defeated and you've watched the cutscene it's time to return to Brownboo Village and give the Moon Orb to the Moon People. When you arrive at Brownboo Village you'll automatically get a cutscene updating your story and giving you the next dungeon and town to explore.
The next place our journey is taking us is to the Sun & Moon Temple in the town of Muska Lacka! As always, it's up to you if you'd like to complete Queens 100% before moving on - I would recommend it as you'll get various Events and rewards from the towns people for doing so. Also, as always you'll get a reward for fulfilling all of the villagers requests as well.
Continue to Sun and Moon Temple Walkthrough
Continue to 100% Queens Layout Walkthrough
Return to Dark Cloud Walkthrough Index