Adventures of Darwin Walkthrough

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THE ADVENTURES OF DARWIN
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Author: Mento
System: PS2
Version: 1.2
New Changes to 1.1 - Added "Alternate Ending Items?" and extra message about
Graveyard.
New Changes to 1.2 - Added Items #31, #47 and #48. Added a couple more messages
and another hint in the General Advice I forgot to mention the first time.
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Contents
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- Introduction
- How To Play/Controls
- The Village
- General Advice
- Walkthrough
- Materials
- Creatures
- Food
- Items
- Alternate Ending Items?
- Obstacles
- Still To Do
- Credits/Thanks
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Introduction
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The Adventures of Darwin follows an ape named Darwin as he attempts to evolve
himself and his tribe and bring prosperity to his people before they are wiped
out by an apocalyptic event Darwin sees in a foreboding dream before the game's
beginning.
Early screenshots and game demos revealed a game not too dissimilar from the
Nintendo GameCube series Pikmin. For the most part, this is generally
true. You control a team of followers and tell them to explore their
surroundings, defeat enemies en-masse and collect objects which will ultimately
benefit you and your people.
However, this game has a more RPG feel to it. You receive "building points"
for valuable resources which will level-up (or evolve) your primitive society
into something more intelligent and resourceful. As this growth is happening,
you'll find you can access new areas and new items, as well as new dangers,
with your acquired abilities and tools.
There's also that sort of dark humor where the consequences of your actions
directly kill or maim your loyal followers; something that has existed in
group-management games since those easily destructible Lemmings. Hopefully we
won't lose too many friends with this guide, but try not to get attached, eh?
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How To Play/Controls
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Village:
D-Pad/L-Analog Stick - Choose a destination
X Button - Enter currently selected destination
Triangle Button - Check Menu (Item Bag, Pict Book, Map and Settings)
Wilderness:
L-Analog Stick - Walk around
R-Analog Stick - Move camera
Triangle Button - Check Menu (Item Bag, Pict Book, Map and Settings)
X Button - Check object*
Circle Button - Your companions will stop what they're doing and drop any
carried items so you can fight/reorganise.
Square Button - Use set Item
L1 - Switch active object**
R1 - Fix active object (meaning it'll stay red if you walk away)
L2 + R2 - Switch between Formations
D-Pad Left + Right - Switch between Weapons
Start - Pause/Retreat to Village
Select - Mini-Map (red dots are creatures, blue dots are shortcuts back to the
village, yellow dots are evolution items and the green arrow is you). Pressing
Select again will zoom in on the map and a third press will close the map.
*Objects can be anything, from collectible resources/food to obstacles to
informational background dressing. You'll get a prompt to tell you what to do
in any case. These objects tend to turn red and have red circles around them
when you're near them. This also includes creatures.
**If you are close to two or more objects, one will be red (active) and the
rest will be blue (non-active). If you press the X button, you'll only activate
whichever one is red. Use L1 to switch between the nearby blue objects to make
them the red/active one.
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The Village
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The village is the hub of the game. Use it to designate the number of warriors
or save your game. The following are a list of areas, houses and improvements
that'll be made to the village throughout the game. I'll mention new stuff in
the guide too, so don't worry about missing anything. The village stops growing
at level 25.
**NEW FOR v1.2: You'll also receive a message on the Information Board about a
whole year passing once you reach 365 days (Thanks to Captainodo for telling
me about that.)
Darwin's House - Most important is Darwin's - your - domicile. Here is where
you save/load the game.
Bar - The bar is where you select how many people you want with you. You want
to start with a small management number initially, but eventually you'll need
large groups of warriors to take down dangerous creatures and push over heavy
stone walls.
Information Board - Occasionally, whenever something new happens to the
village, something will be posted on the information board. If you get a
message saying something new has been written on the Information Board, go
check it out first.
Graveyard - Once you start losing warriors, this area opens up. I figure it's
there to make you feel bad for letting your pals be killed, but it may also
have a separate function I'm unaware of.
**NEW FOR 1.1: Apparently you get a message about how your Graveyard is filling
up at around the 500 casualties mark. Thanks go to FAQ user Righard for that
addition.**
**NEW FOR 1.2: At the 1000 mark you'll receive another message about the
Graveyard, this time mentioning a new item. You'll receive a powerful weapon
(Item #31) next to the huge 1000-man grave, presumably because you're
suffering so bad with all these casualties.**
Mess Hall - You can sacrifice three of each fruit (or later on, an amount of
rock currency) for a full Vitality restore. Useful when you have a huge army
that is hard to keep healthy, though sort of pointless at the start of the game
where minor food items are plentiful. It'll appear once the Village has reached
Level 3.
Elder's House - Appears once you reach Level 4. The Elder will give you
statistics about your village. He'll tell you your village's level, % towards
next level and current Wood/Rock/Iron Levels including the current material
bias (as in, the material type most likely to go up a level).
Trading Post - You can buy consumable Items here for use in the field. The
inventory of the store increases as you find more materials. The Information
Board will inform you of any new Items for purchase. The Trading Post opens
for business once your village reaches Level 5.
Training Grounds - You can learn new formations here, one per new Darwin
evolution. Appears at level 6.
Weapon Shop - Here we are, useful for the harder creatures we may face out
there. The weapon shop shows up at level 7, and it too needs certain materials
in the field in order to stock new stuff. You won't be able to use weapons
until you've evolved at least once, however. Also, if you get an upgraded
version of a weapon (say, a Steel Axe) it'll replace the original (in this case
the Iron Axe). The Bow weapons won't appear until you've found the Ladder.
Laboratory - The last building for acquiring new items, the Laboratory is where
you can merge two Items together to form an even stronger Item. To my knowledge
there are only five unique items one can make with the Laboratory: Any other
combination will result in a Dried Meat (or, rarely, a Big Dried Meat). Keep in
mind it may take several days for the merged Item to be completed. The
Laboratory shows up when your village reaches level 14.
The five items that can be made are: Beef Jerky, Cure-All, Energy Surge EX,
Miracle Powder and Banned Secret Medicine.
Fortune Teller's - The final building. It'll tell you if there are any Yellow
Stars hidden on any of the levels you've been to. Since this place only appears
at level 19, the chances are slim that there are any left, but it doesn't hurt
to make sure.
Houses - Throughout the game, there'll be houses with monkeys/humans who can
give you hints about the game. Might be worth paying them a visit.
* West House - The first of the houses will offer you tips to get around the
world. Come here if something's troubling you, though it really shouldn't if
you're using the walkthrough.
* House on the Hill - Two monkeys in here will offer miscellaneous advice. It
should appear after the village reaches level 2.
* North House - Appears once the village hits level 3. Female monkeys live here
and have advice like with the other houses.
* Central House - Appears at level 6. More general advice.
* South House - Appears at level 11 (or at least it did for me). Advice about
creatures can be heard here.
Material Buildings - If you collect enough of the three major material groups -
that is to say Wood, Rock and Iron - eventually buildings will start to appear
that are made out of the materials you've collected. These have different
colored signs/placards than other buildings in the village (they match the
materials, instead of having little bone borders like the other buildings).
They'll appear at level-up like the other buildings, but only if you have a
certain amount of a specific material collected.
* Wood House - +1 Wood Level, which is to say going up one level with an
abundance of wood. Gives you some advice about the application of Wood.
* Lumberyard - +3 Wood Level. This place will allow you to invest a lot of
minerals to produce more Wood to use for housing. Doing this will double all
Wood brought into the village, but halve Iron and Rock intake as a result.
* Treeleaf Gym - +5 Wood Level. Gyms start showing up with high amounts of
materials. Each one will give you a (nearly) week-long boost based on that
material's advantage. In the Wood material's case, that'll be Speed. Very
useful if you're about to go fight a boss and need a lot of maneuverability.
* Wood Ruins - +8 Wood Level. Houses the legendary Spear: Arthur's Spear. Needs
the Wooden Key.
* Rock House - +1 Rock Level, which is to say going up a level with an
abundance of Rock. Gives you some advice about the application of Rock.
* Quarry - +3 Rock Level. This is the Rock investing place. If you invest here,
the other two materials will halve their production but Rock will be doubled.
* Rockhead Gym - +5 Rock Level. This gym teaches the art of self-defence. It'll
boost your followers' defence, making them less likely to die. The boost lasts
almost a whole week, too, so consider taking it in case a boss is coming up.
* Rock Ruins - +8 Rock Level. Houses the legendary Axe: Taro's Axe. Needs the
Rock Key.
* Iron House - +1 Iron Level, which is to say going up a level with an
abundance of Iron. Gives you some advice about the application of Iron.
* Iron Foundry - +3 Iron Level. This place will allow you to invest a lot of
minerals to produce more Iron to use for housing. Doing this will double all
Iron brought into the village, but halve Wood and Rock intake as a result.
* Iron Fist Gym - +5 Iron Level. This gym will train your warriors for an
Attack boost that lasts several days. Costly, but useful since you can usually
recoup your losses in the long time period of boosted strength it affords you.
Highly recommended if you're getting your ass kicked regularly.
* Iron Ruins - +8 Iron Level. Houses the legendary Bow: Hero's Bow. Needs the
Iron Key.
Leave Village - Go off into the wilderness. In other words, leave the hub and
go into the game proper.
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General Advice
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* My continuing advice with this game is if there's a new material or food item
you should take one of them back home to the village. The reasons are twofold:
A) frequent trips back to your village with a full stash will level it up
quicker, giving you access to new information and new stuff, and B) your
Picture Book will fill in only when you have taken objects back to camp or have
defeated creatures in the field. So do a little of both to fill that sucker up.
Eating a piece of food you find in the wild will NOT add it to the Picture Book
for some reason, so make sure to take at least one back home at some point in
your travels. Of course, you may want to wait until you have a huge army and
can do all that 100% completion stuff quicker, though I never risk it
personally what with potential missables (not that I'm aware of any in this
game.)
* Why fill the Picture Book? It's a handy way to tell you if something is
poisonous or helpful or can boost your strength at an opportune moment. This
FAQ does that too, of course, but it's nice to have an in-game guide.
* Don't worry about leaving meat behind from killing animals. It'll stay there
until you need it (like from a particularly painful sabretiger altercation)
or can just be ignored, since they're common drops. All animals restock each
time you go back to town, so it's not worth collecting the same piece of common
food over and over when there are places to explore and new objects to find
and carry home. Of course, the Creature Meat M does provide a lot of
contribution to your early monkey village so there are worse things to take
back with you. Rarer drops like Fangs or Claws should be seized upon, since
they tend to give you a lot of contribution.
* If you lose a warrior or two, look for the closest Red Stars. They restock,
so don't be afraid to use as many as you need. If your team gets almost wiped
out due to some unfortunate accident, you could lose Darwin too and just
restart from the point before you entered the area. If you've done a lot of
exploration or found Yellow Stars, however, you might as well just find the
nearest short cut and regroup back at the village rather than lose all that
progress.
* You can also lose warriors if you lose sight of them for too long. Followers
will generally do just that (follow) and are hard to lost, but there are
instances where you can be separated from some of your followers for an
extended period. The River level is one good example. If your followers are
gone too long they are automatically killed off (makes you wonder how your
tribe survived for this long...). Thanks go to Captainodo for reminding me
about this.
* To effectively fight, you need to charge right in with Darwin and pummel
creatures with the X button (or the Square button if you're equipped with a
weapon). After this initial X button click, your warriors will target the
creature whenever they're close to it. You all have individual health bars, but
there's also a group health bar which is the long green bar at the side of the
screen. Use it for judging when to use items that restore a certain % of the
entire group's vitality. Occasionally you'll see a small health bar within
the action: that's Darwin's. Don't let it drop to zero or it's game over.
* In boss battles, don't worry about losing too many guys at any point in the
fight, unless the low number of followers makes the boss impossible to defeat.
After every boss fight, all your followers will be resurrected so you end up
with the full amount, so you don't need to worry about casualties too much.
* About Investing: Several areas of the game have an abundance of one material
type and minimal amounts of the two others. For instance, you'll find far more
Wood in the Primeval Forest and plenty of Rock in the Depths of the Earth. If
you raise your material levels in the village high enough, you'll have the
option to invest in a specific material after paying a certain amount of
resources. This means that any collected materials of the invested type will
double in their contribution/context, though it halves the contribution/context
of the other two types. If you're planning on staying in one area for a while,
best to invest in that area's common material so your village expands faster.
* About Formations: Learn these as soon as they're available, because they
give you all sorts of bonuses and stop your little guys from getting hurt in a
large unorganized group (which is what the default formation is). The best
formation is preference-based, I guess, but anything's better than random. I
tend to use Line a lot to get past traps and over logs.
* About Weapons: After the first evolutionary upgrade, you and your warriors
are now able to equip Weapons. You'll find the first one out in the wild, which
is a standard Rock Axe. However, based on the materials collected and if you
have a Weapon Shop, you can switch between weapons. There are three types of
Weapon: Axe (close-range, high damage), Spear (mid-range, medium damage) and
Bow (long-range, small damage). These can be made out of the three material
groups (Wood/Rock/Iron) which in turn have three grades of quality (for
instance, with Iron it goes: Silver Steel -> Steel -> Iron). Make sure to bring
back lots of materials so that new and better weapons become available to you:
A decent selection is no bad thing.
* About Materials: Material Level can be checked at the Elder's House and a
chosen material will go up one level per village level; this chosen material
being based on the material you've brought back to the village the most. Here's
a list of improvements made to your village and armory based on your Material
Level:
1 - House is made. This just tells you about the material.
2 - Basic Weapons. The first weapon type is made for Axe, Spear and Bow. Keep
in mind you need to find the first evolution item to get the Axe and Spear, and
the third evolution item to get the Bow.
3 - Investment Building. This building will allow you to invest in a material.
That material will double in production, but halve the intake of the other two.
4 - Intermediate Weapons. These weapons are made out of a better material
quality than the previous ones and will replace them.
5 - Gym. The Gym will give you long-lasting boosts in that material's focus. So
Wood = Speed, Rock = Defence and Iron = Strength.
6 - Advanced Weapons. The best weapons of that material are available.
8 - Ruins. Discovered Ruins yield incredibly potent weapons, but you need to
have found the specific Key in the wild first.
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Walkthrough
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OK, the first thing you should do is check the Information Board and get to
know the village, as little as it is currently. You may also want to save the
game. Don't worry about the bar, you have a full team with you at the moment
and you don't want to be walking around with less than the maximum at the
moment.
Head out once you're bored here. You'll be in Bunki Fields, which is another
hub of sorts as it links to the various dangerous (but profitable) areas of the
game. The only accessible one at the moment (check the big rock if you want
but nothing can be done with it yet) is the Primeval Forest, so head on in.
It should be directly in front of the village entrance.
Primeval Forest
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Creature List:
#01 Sabrewolf
#02 Sabretiger
#04 Normal Rabbit
#05 Speedy Rabbit
#07 Founding Bird
#10 Wanigator
#13 Bambi
#22 Child Mammoth
#24 King Mammoth (boss)
#32 T-Rex (behind 25-man Wall)
The Primal Forest is Wood-heavy. If you want to start building Wood structures,
this is the best place to gather materials.
First things first. Get that Yellow Star. You now instantly have a fifth
monkey dude. Now just pick up any number of freebies in this central area. This
should start you off nicely, and coming back and forth to fill up with your
five-man (well, monkeyman) group should put your town a level up. There are
three types of material - rock, iron and wood - and three types of food item
which are sweet fruit (green), sour fruit (blue) and spicy fruit (orange). Get
at least one of each fruit to add it to your Picture Book and take the
materials back as they'll be useful later. Last thing to note is the Red Star,
which you don't need yet since you have yet to lose someone.
When you're doing collecting these minor minerals, you can enter the Primeval
Forest proper by finding the stone door on the right. Check the circular
pattern on the front: four filled holes and five empty holes. This means you
need five monkeys to push it over, which you have.
Beyond the wall are more fruit variations, including Stinky (blue with a red
tint) and Salty (red). Also, you'll run into the first of many creatures, a
harmless rabbit. Try targeting it (get close so it turns red and use X) and
beat the crap out of the poor thing. Take its item if you can, though you may
need four monkeys to transport it (dropping all that fruit..). A little further
on are a couple more creatures. Keep in mind the saberwolf (jumping blue dog)
WILL attack you back, so try to care care of it quickly. If you do end up
losing a guy at this early stage, well, you know where the first Red Star of
the game is. But then you have a few more spare warriors back home too, the
population of which is always being restocked.
Back on track, continue through this area killing things and taking anything
they drop or using it to heal your group between battles. This is why adding
all those interesting fruits to the picture book was a good idea: you know
which ones heal and which ones hurt now. You can just about manage a blue
mushroom or Creature Meat M (a rarer drop) with your five monkeys, but anything
bigger is pushing it. If you fall off the ledge to the left, you can head back
to the first area of the forest where you'll drop back into that small basin
area. Watch out for the yellow sabretigers, who are considerably more vicious
than their blue lupine counterparts. Also, don't worry about all the wasted
food about the place once you kill these things: If you're hurt, eat the meat,
but otherwise don't bother unless there's nothing else to carry back to town.
This isn't Oregon Trail, so don't feel guilty about leaving 10x more meat than
you can carry behind each time. Especially since all the creatures restock per
trip.
You'll come across a slightly higher platform with a Yellow Star and some
goodies, and a round indentation that says "seems a firm foundation" when you
check it. We'll be coming back to this later on in the game, so remember it.
There's one just like it in Bunki Fields too.
Explore the area, it's fairly large. There are mushrooms, grass, minerals and
all sorts of things that creatures drop. I'd recommend staying well away from
the sabertigers at the moment, as they do a hell of a lot of damage. Collecting
stuff may not seem like a larf and a half but it'll help build your village up
and give you the means to clobber these nitwits, as well as reach more Yellow
Stars (which we strongly need to do). Best bet is to first get the Yellow Star
on the top of the hill slightly to the left of where you pushed the block over
to get into the level. There's a bird enemy at the top but you should be okay
if you avoid its dive and grab the Yellow Star quickly. There's a small egg up
here, but it's way too heavy at the moment. Take the stick though, since it's
bigger than normal Wood materials and is therefore worth more too.
With six monkey people, you can carry lots of your chosen material back home.
Wood can be found near the sabertiger close to where you knocked over the wall
(careful), Iron can be found on the hill where you just got the Yellow Star
and rock is lying around close to the shortcut back to the Village (which looks
like a little mound of rocks with a cave). Keep in mind there are also one of
each mineral in the basin area at the start of this level. Build up your
village a bit while also collecting all the other new objects in sight, making
sure not to venture too close to where sabertigers are prowling.
Our next goal is the next stone block to the north (if you use the map).
There's a sabertiger guarding it, and sabertigers are still a little bit tough
if you don't have anything other than your fists. Best bet is to try and
distract him with Darwin while the six monkey warriors knock down the block.
Once it's down, run in and hopefully lose the tiger.
This place is a little like a maze, but you want to generally head east and
north. At the very northeastern point is a Yellow Star guarded by the game's
first mammoth. I wouldn't recommend fighting him just yet either, but getting
past him for that third Yellow Star is your highest priority. Head west from
this point and continue through the little doorways, possibly avoiding the
birds if you can help it (they're hard to hit without ranged weapons). There's
also a new breed of rabbit around here, which can roughly turf off any monkeys
fighting it for damage.
So, taking the route around the stage, you'll eventually find a reddish lower
ground. Exploring this area will yield yet another Yellow Star, making your
army a little more potent. Plus, this area abounds with rare mushrooms. Of
course, it'll be a little exhausting to carry them all out now since the
nearest shortcut is miles away with all the walls and stones still there. If
you continue on you'll eventually meet the boss of this stage, which is the
King Mammoth. Best not to fight him yet, and the wall out of his arena needs
9 monkeys (never guess who has the final star...). Eventually you'll have to
defeat him, but it's a good idea to practice on the smaller mammoths and to
keep on building up your village for all the advantages you can get. If so,
you may want to take some of those special mushrooms back with you, since a
few of them will give you new Items in the Trading Post. Ditto for the small
egg on the top of the hill near the start of the area.
You could probably take on the sabertigers and Speedy Rabbits now, but don't
bother killing more than one (for the Picture Book) since they still do a lot
of damage to you and could make your army less than 100% for the boss battle.
You might've figured out a tactic for the Mammoths: Avoid their charge, and
stand behind them when they stop moving since a trunk-spray is coming.
The King Mammoth unfortunately charges around pretty much non-stop, making him
hard to survive against him for more than a few seconds let alone bring him
down, but keep at it. Bring lots of meats and leave them nearby so you can get
a quick health boost before dashing back in. They don't recover health as
quickly or as easily as you do, so use that to whittle the boss mammoth down
some. Also keep in mind that the nearby rainbow-colored mushroom will
completely heal all your monkeys, which is nice. Finally, note that you can
get strength/speed boosts from Spicy/Sour fruit for a small bit of damage which
can be easily cured with some handy meat. The boosts last half a day, which
should be enough to get you through the fight. If you take a lot of casualties
but also do a lot of damage, don't worry: you can retreat, backtrack through
the level and collect all the Red Stars lying about the place and launch a
second assault.
When the big guy is finally down, a few interesting things occur: First, you
get your ninth compadre monkey. Second, you are now able to break down the
9-man wall and get the first evolutionary tool of the game: the Rock Axe.
Third, you can now use this Rock Axe to access the rest of the level and make
shortcuts by breaking all the large round boulders blocking your path. Fifth,
and finally, you can now access the next area of the game, which is currently
blocked by a boulder in Bunki Fields.
However, we should explore more of the Primeval Forest now that we have a way
to get further in there. Plus, we're sort of already deep inside the Primeval
Forest after killing King Mammoth. Push over the 9-man block for the Stone Ax
and possibly consider taking the Soul Wood item, as it contributes the most
Wood material out of any material in the game. Break down the boulder to
reveal a new area with a new creature: Wanigator. They're fairly powerful up
close, but very slow, so sic one for the Picture Book. A little further south
is another shortcut cave, so use it if you need to regroup or carry new stuff
back. And save!
Back in town, there's a new formation for you to learn if you have the Training
Grounds, and lots of new weapons available in the Weapons Shop (if you have
it). The weapons are just alternate versions of the Rock Axe and serve the same
purpose: Choose which one to use based on preference of attack over speed. Keep
in mind that the Spears have a longer range, making them slightly safer to use
(and able to hit flying things like the birds).
Back in Primeval Forest, head directly west of the big hill to find a small
area blocked in with a boulder. Blast it, and inside is a Stonehenge structure
with another Yellow Star! Head to where the King Mammoth was (there's a handy
shortcut between where you enter the maze-like north area and the circular boss
area) and head west and south. You'll reach a clearing with three doors: One
of these requires 25 warriors, so we'll ignore that one. The one to the west
leads back to the start, so might be an idea to knock down the walls between
here and there for a major time-saver. The south passage leads to an area full
of birds and speedy rabbits, but at the southwest is another Yellow Star for
you, guarded by a couple of Child Mammoths.
To the north of the new area is a log across a stream: highly recommended you
learn the Line formation before crossing it. There's a series of firebreathing
traps to your north: they guard various useful materials, including the last
Yellow Star you're able to get here for the time being (giving you 12 warriors
to use for the new area). There's a few flower materials and a valuable Rock
Salt material on this side of the river too, so maybe add those to the Picture
Book for some stealthy Items in the Trading Post. Otherwise, we're done with
this area for now.
Depths of the Earth
-------------------
Creature List:
#01 Saberwolf
#02 Sabertiger
#05 Speedy Rabbit
#13 Bambi
#14 Giant Buck
#16 Small Plant
#17 Medium Plant (only one)
#18 Large Plant (only one)
#19 Flying Moth
#25 Giant Mouse
#27 Space Worm
#31 Rex Jr. (only one)
The Depths are Rock-heavy. If you're currently investing in Wood or Iron, I'd
strongly recommend switching to Rock because there is a lot of it down here,
including Diamond - the most valuable Rock material.
After sma