KINGDOM HEARTS -HD 1.5+2.5 ReMIX-: KH2FM: Keyblades And You!

Ah, the Keyblade! The magical McGuffin of McGuffins! And the ones in KH2 are a lot more interesting than the first game. Instead of just being stat sticks, they now provide abilities, meaning that some Keyblades have some good use in the late-game.

And this guide is here for you! Let’s start with:

Good old reliable.

OBTAINED: You start with this
ATTACK: 3
MAGIC: 1
ABILITY: Damage Control (Halves damage at 25% HP, 50% with two abilities)

If you somehow don’t have this, you might be playing a hacked version of this game. You always have this.

It used to have Defender in the vanilla version, boosting Defense by 3 points when you are low on HP, but having Damage Control makes Critical more manageable. If you’re not keen on playing defensively, the Kingdom Key will keep you somewhat safe. You’ll get a second Damage Control for Sora at Lvl. 41…if you picked the shield as Roxas.

If you picked the sword, you won’t get Damage Control until Lvl. 99. Whoops.

Since the start of the series, there’s always been the Kingdom Key only challenges. While KH2FM doesn’t have an achievement for doing this, plenty of people do this for the sheer challenge.

If only you could firmly grasp it.

OBTAINED: When you talk to the Three Fairies in Twilight Town
ATTACK: 3
MAGIC: 1
ABILITY: Air Combo Plus (Adds one more attack to Aerial Combo chain)

Technically the second keyblade you pick up, but you won’t really be able to use it until you get another keyblade. So really, it doesn’t count as the second keyblade. Real shame too.

Having an extra hit on your Air Combos is great. A longer combo means you’ll do more damage, even more so when combined with Air Combo Boost. Plus, as most of the game’s combat is about being in the air, this is already way more useful for a weapon you practically start with. Its low stats does hinder it in the late game.

That being said, it does work well with Valor Form, seeing how that form only get EXP when you hit enemies. Longer combos = more EXP!

Has only one use.

OBTAINED: Complete your first visit to the Land of Dragons
ATTACK: 2
MAGIC: 2
ABILITY: MP Rage (Gain back MP depending on damage taken)

I have a small thing about the Kingdom Hearts series. The second Keyblade is actually the worst one in the game. Jungle King in the first game is a good example: while it might do more damage than the Kingdom Key, not being able to do as much Critical Hits (Which is something in KH1, but not in KH2) means that the Kingdom Key can do more damage, and reach?

Reach has never been anything in KH. You have feet, get closer.

Hidden Dragon starts/continues the tradition by giving you a Keyblade physically weaker than the Kingdom Key and an ability that’s…not that great. MP Rage was pretty useful in the first game, but well…

Let’s talk about MP in this game!

MP comes in two modes: Active and Recharge. Active is when the MP bar is blue; it allows you to use spells. When your MP hits 0, it goes into the pink-purple Recharge mode, where the bar now wants to empty itself out to give you back 100% of your MP. Being able to maintain your MP is important, even more so on higher difficulties.

MP Rage does help in both modes, but it requires you to take damage. Having Hidden Dragon combined with MP Rage you get from normal leveling and leveling Wisdom Form does mean you get back a LOT of MP…but at that point in time, you will have stronger Keyblades that better benefit a magical playstyle.

Heck, you get Hidden Dragon before you have all of the spells!

The real use of the Hidden Dragon? You can use it to swap out Star Seeker on Valor Form so you can use it in Base form! Just don’t keep Hidden Dragon on Valor, Valor literally has no use of MP.

Way too useful.

OBTAINED: Complete your first visit to Olympus Coliseum
ATTACK: 4
MAGIC: 0
ABILITY: Air Combo Boost (Aerial Combo Finisher will deal more damage based around how long the combo goes)

And this keyblade is so good that you can literally keep it on you until you get the best Keyblade. No joke. And the reason as to why? Because that ability it has is so busted. This is the 3rd Keyblade you get!

Now, you unlock Air Combo Plus from leveling up Master Form, which you get at the halfway point of the game. Because Limit Form was introduced, you can get the two Air Combo Pluses the moment Master Form is available. Combo it with a Drive Form that uses two keyblades and Star Seeker, and you’ll get some real stupid-high damage.

It is outpaced by THAT keyblade, but the Hero’s Crest does have an end-game use. Xigbar! It’s the best Keyblade when dealing with One-Eyed Wally here, as he never comes down to the ground.

This Keyblade does things the old-fashioned way.

OBTAINED: Complete Timeless River
ATTACK: 3
MAGIC: 2
ABILITY: Item Boost (Boosts Items by 50%)

Really cool looking Keyblade! Real shame that items aren’t that important.

In the last game, Ethers were pretty bad. They only restore 3 MP, in a game where you can easily have 8 MP…or more! The max MP in KH1 is 19, and Ethers really become less useful the further in the game you go. Plus, spells like Aero and Stop cost 2 MP, so you effectively use one Ether to use one spell.

MP being re-worked in this game also lead to Ethers being buffed…somewhat. Ethers restore all MP when you’re in active mode, and follow a formula when you’re in re-charge. If you watch any high-skill player, they will always pop Ethers before they run out of MP to get back to casting more spells.

So, effectively, this leaves Item Boost being useful for Potions. Potions and Mega-Potions will now restore 60%, and Hi-Potions will restore 90% HP. Great! What’s the problem?

…Sora learns Item Boost early. Really early. If you pick the Shield, you’ll get at Level 7. Heck, the latest is Level 17 (If you picked the Sword) and that’s about the level you’ll be at in Timeless River! So having this second Item Boost doesn’t really help matters, unless you plan on using Potions.

Like a fart.

OBTAINED: Complete your first visit to Port Royale
ATTACK: 3
MAGIC: 1
ABILITY: Draw (Collect pickups from further away)

…this keyblade is weaker than Monochrome, and you get that first. What weird balancing.

Anyway, the ability once again brings the keyblade down. Not like you really need the ability to draw in materials. Again, you have legs, use them.

It does have a use though; one of the Mushroom XIII. Those are a bunch of challenges that are meant to be dealt in the end-game, once you have gotten all of Sora’s Drive Forms and upgraded all of the magic to their max level. In particular, the one fought on Beast’s Castle, on the bridge that opens up when you complete your last visit there.

That challenge involves collecting a bunch of orbs the Mushroom is dropping down, so naturally equipping Follow the Wind will be a big boon for that. But that’s about it. It does make it more useful than most Keyblades, but chances are you’ll only be using it to complete that Mushroom XIII challenge or because you like Pirates of the Caribbean.

We we nugu, mi mi apana!

OBTAINED: Convince Simba in the Pridelands
ATTACK: 4
MAGIC: 1
ABILITY: MP Haste (Recovers MP in MP Recharge faster)

This Keyblade isn’t half-bad. Outclassed by latter Keyblades in stats or abilities. Heck, this is actually a weaker version of the Ultima Weapon!

Technically, it’s only a bit more stronger than Hero’s Crest, and only because it has one point of Magic. But, once again, Air Combo Boost makes Hero’s Crest do more damage. Circle of Life being able to regenerate MP after entering MP Recharge does make it a better choice for more casual and/or first-time players, or just those wanting to use spells more often.

Hey. Better than Hidden Dragon.

Keep your promises.

OBTAINED: Complete your second visit to Twilight Town as Sora
ATTACK: 3
MAGIC: 3
ABILITY: Form Boost (Extends the duration of Drive Forms)

Wow, you get this early. And it’s great! Top Five of the best Keyblades in the game, and perfect for leveling all of the Drive Forms, within some exceptions.

Limit Form is unique to Final Mix, and seeing how you get this and that right before you get Master Form, you can use Oathkeeper to grind Drive Forms much earlier. When you get Valor Form, you can take your Drive Forms up to Lvl.3, and Wisdom takes it to Lvl.4. In vanilla, the lack of Limit Form means that Master would only take you as high as Lvl.5, with Final granting the last two levels.

But Limit Form in Final Mix means you can get all forms up to Lvl.6! That means if you are willing to grind forms, you can get the Growth Abilities up to Lvl.2 on Base Sora while unlocking all of the other abilities! Combo Plus, Air Combo Plus, and Lucky Lucky? Nice!

YOU HAVE NO HOPE…oh, Debugger!

OBTAINED: Complete your first real visit to Space Paranoids
ATTACK: 3
MAGIC: 2
ABILITY: Thunder Boost (Boost damage done by Thunder)

The first real magic-focused Keyblade…and it has a magic stat of 2. Tch.

Thunder has fallen some ways of the last game. It used to hit a lot of enemies and was the strat to quickly clear out the Solo and Time-Attack Coliseum Cups. Now it’s primarily single-target and none of the enemies are weak to it…save for the Pirates. Who are weak to all magic. And no, Demyx isn’t weak to Thunder. There’s no water-elemental in KH2.

Demyx is Blizzard-elemental in KH2. This means he’s weak to Fire. Use Fire. (It also kills his clones!)

It has some use, being a homing projectile and all. I often see it as a way of quickly finishing off Luxord if you succeed at his Desperation Move. But the lack of damage puts the spell, and this Keyblade low on the list.

Use it with No Experience! Ultimate combo!

OBTAINED: Talk to Yuna in Hollow Bastion, Postern after completing the 1000 Heartless Fight
ATTACK: 2
MAGIC: 3
ABILITY: Experience Boost (Doubles EXP earned when Sora’s HP is lower than 50%)

This is one of the few Keyblades that got rebalanced in Final Mix. Originally, it had an Attack of 3 and no Magic. But in Final Mix, it lost one point of Attack to grant Magic of three. And yet, it doesn’t really do much.

The big draw is the Experience Boost ability, which you get another one at low levels: so you can get triple EXP with both on. But the problem is that you need to be at low HP to use which puts you between a rock and a hard place: the rock being that if the enemy you kill drops HP prizes that will put you above 50% or you die.

The best place to grind is the final world. Nobodies don’t drop any HP prizes and those are the toughest enemies in the game, therefore they have the highest EXP possible. Whenever if you want all of the abilities or have greater stats to deal with the postgame content, go with the Gullwing!

No, not that game. The sequel was released the same day as KH2 though!

OBTAINED: Talk with Beast during your second visit to Beast’s Castle
ATTACK: 5
MAGIC: 0
ABILITY: Finishing Plus (Triggers Combo Finishers an additional time)

Let me tell you something. I do watch a lot of speedruns, and I did recognize a certain strat of vanilla KH2.

1. Go to Beast’s Castle
2. Get Rumbling Rose
3. Leave, AND LITERALLY DO EVERYTHING ELSE

Xaldin is an infamous boss fight. Really damn difiicult. So people would go through the effort of doing other worlds to buff out Sora’s stats, get new abilities, and then pick up the best Keyblade before confronting him. He was that feared. (And still is!)

Being able to use your Combo Finishers an additional time (And this one counts towards both Ground and Aerial) does lead to huge damage. Combined with the one that Sora learns naturally, and the one that you get at the start of Critical Mode means you can use your finisher four times! But that’s not exactly a good thing…

Ever heard of Revenge Value? Basically, bosses have a built-in system that if you hit them too many times, they’ll break free of a combo to counter you. It’s a bit of a complicated system, but the basic thing to understand that Combo Finishers build the most towards the Revenge Value and therefore put you more at risk…even more so on higher difficulties.

This Keyblade does have limited use against a lot of bosses because of this ability, so in the end? This Keyblade ends up being more useful for dealing with Mushroom XIII, and when combined with…Wisdom Form! Yup, the physical-focused Keyblade has more synergy with that of the magical-focused form.

Wisdom Form’s normal attack shoots out a bunch of projectiles, and the combo finisher sends out a lot more. Combined with Rumbling Rose, you can send out a whole lot more! Examples of places where this is useful is the one in Timeless River and the one where you fought Demyx. Combine with Negative Combo to get straight into the Finisher!

Hmm. This would have been useful fifteen minutes ago.

OBTAINED: Complete your second visit to Olympus Coliseum
ATTACK: 5
MAGIC: 1
ABILITY: Reaction Boost (Boost damage dealt by Reaction Boosts)

Xaldin is one infamous boss. Teleports around a lot, has some insane reach, high damage, and absolutely loves to spam his desperation move. You’re going to be wearing the face of despair whenever you have to fight this guy, and oh, you have to deal with him a second time if you want everything done. Hope you have got over mashing ‘X’!

Oh, if only you got this Keyblade. You have to complete both the Land of Dragons and Beast’s Castle to back to Olympus Coliseum, so the only way you can take this Keyblade to Xaldin is for the Data version of the Xaldin. Reaction Boost does boost the damage that Learn/Jump does. Otherwise, Guardian Soul is only helpful if you’re having problems with certain Nobodies.

Oh, if you’re wondering about the time I have in the screenshots, I don’t go in world order. And I might spend some time playing the Gummi missions. I also leave the game running sometimes.

all of that trouble and i didn’t even get a stupid t-shirt

OBTAINED: Complete the fourth chapter of Atlantica
ATTACK: 3
MAGIC: 3
ABILITY: Blizzard Boost (Boost damage of Blizzard)

Little Mermaid fans suffer when it comes to Kingdom Hearts. Being the worst world in two games is already bad as it is. Thankfully, Atlantica is optional in both games. (To unlock Neverland, you can just do Monstro and Halloween Town)

…but man, this minigame world is infamous. Unable to pause without starting over and having some terrible songs to it as well? What did Ariel do to deserve this?

Another issue with this Keyblade is that of Blizzard Boost. Blizzard, in my opinion, is the worst spell in the series. It seems to be in an empty middle of damage, range, and AOE compared to other spells in pretty much every other game. Blizzard in KH2 is competing against Reflect, Magnet, and Fire and it will always come up short. Thunder is the only other spell that realistically comes close, but at least it’s faster and homing.

It’s good for the rematch with Axel. That’s about it.

This honey tastes weird.

OBTAINED: Complete the 4th Chapter of the Hundred-Acres Woods
ATTACK: 0
MAGIC: 4
ABILITY: Driver Converter (Munny becomes Drive Orbs)

Fun fact, this Keyblade in vanilla KH2 used to have zero in both stats. Literally meant to be the worst Keyblade in the game, and yet you would be forced to use it. Why? Because it used to have Lucky Lucky as its ability, so if you wanted to make everything in the Synthesis Store, you would need to equip it and fight all regular enemies with it.

Final Mix buffed it in an interesting way. It now has a high magic stat to it (Equal to the Ultima Weapon!) and it now makes Drive Orbs appear more often than Munny. This does make it useful if you need to rebuild the Drive Gauge if you already got plenty of Munny…but Final Mix makes it easy to farm Drive Recoveries from Mushroom XIII, and not all of them are hard to do so.

But this Keyblade does have a good use to it. A very good use.

When combined with a certain Keyblade, it trivializes the leveling of a certain form…

Technically a wish for unlimited money.

OBTAINED: Complete your second visit to Agrabah
ATTACK: 4
MAGIC: 3
ABILITY: Jackpot (Boosts drop-rate of prizes left by defeated enemies)

Has some real good balanced stats about it, but chances are you aren’t going to use it for much. If you need Munny, then sure, go nuts with it! But there is a better use for it and I just mentioned it in the last Keyblade.

All Drive Forms have their own unique leveling mechanic, and Master Form requires you to grab Drive Orbs. Sweet Memories replace Munny with Drive Orbs and Wishing Lamp generates more Munny. See the combo here?

And then there’s the Gambler Nobodies. If you play their minigame and win, they’ll drop Munny. Munny becomes Drive Orbs, and therefore, you can jump up several levels in Master Form! If you haven’t already grinded it for Aerial Dodge to begin with. But yeah, Wishing Lamp’s biggest thing is generating Munny or leveling Master Form.

Pls ban or nerf

OBTAINED: Complete your second visit to Hallowen Town
ATTACK: 6
MAGIC: 1
ABILITY: Combo Boost (Ground Combo Finisher will deal more damage based around how long the combo goes)

Ladies and gentlemen, the ultimate weapon. If you see any video done by an expert, they’ll be using this weapon. There’s a good reason for it.

For starters, it has the second highest attack stat in the game, but it will deal more damage than the one that is higher due to the ability. That’s the second big thing: Combo Boost. Oh, this thing will murder bosses. If you picked up on all of the Combo Plus from Valor Form, Sora can literally take off an entire bar of HP with a combo finisher.

And to go even further beyond is Limit Form. The Zantusken combo finisher will take the Decisive Pumpkin even further. If you build Sora with high attack, the Decisive Pumpkin will literally shred bosses.

I’ve been playing KH for years, and everytime I get to KH2, I always make a beeline for the Decisive Pumpkin. This does mean going through Port Royal and Halloween Town, but those aren’t that hard. This thing is just that overpowered man.

It exists!

OBTAINED: Reach Ansem’s Study during the third trip to Hollow Bastion
ATTACK: 5
MAGIC: 4
ABILITY: Combo Plus (Adds one more attack to Ground Combo chain)

This can be a good Keyblade, even more so when used as Valor Form’s and combined with Decisive Pumpkin. Valor has the highest Attack out of the forms, and those two keyblades work well together.

But honestly, it comes in so late that it won’t do much. You’ll unlock the last visit to Hollow Bastion once you do all of the second visits to the Disney Worlds, and you’ll have Decisive Pumpkin by then. Yes, Sleeping Lion does have better overall stats, but the magic stat doesn’t do all that much because, at this point?

You can get your hands on the best magical Keyblade in the game. It’s the next one on this list!

Set the world on fire.

OBTAINED: Reach the World that Never Was
ATTACK: 4
MAGIC: 4
ABILITY: Fire Boost (Boost damage of Fire)

So the last of the elemental keyblades come into play, and this is the best one. Fire has always been the most powerful spell in the series and getting this keyblade late in the game makes it even better. Getting Final Form not too soon afterwards turns this into the best Keyblades in the game.

Fire has a very interesting gimmick to it when it comes down to revenge value. Firaga (Which you will have by the time you’ll get Bond of Flame) doesn’t build RV until the final hit/the combo finisher. If you pay attention to experts playing, they’ll avoid using the Combo Finisher of Firaga to stunlock enemies. Practically Final Form’s only Keyblade.

If you haven’t been using Fire, you’ll be using it when you get this Keyblade. A good combo you can do with some bosses is to start out using Fire, and then before/after running out of MP, go into a Drive Form…and do it all again!

Become the bad other.

OBTAINED: Defeat Roxas in the World that Never Was
ATTACK: 5
MAGIC: 4
ABILITY: Light and Darkness (Forces Anti-Form, helps obtain Final Form)

Let’s talk more about mechanics.

Anti-Form is a ‘hidden’ form in which Sora becomes a Heartless. It’s triggered randomly when you use the Drive Forms a bit too often; you get ‘Anti-Points’ when you use any Drive Form save for Final Form, and the more points mean you have a higher chance of triggering Anti-Form. Entering Anti-Form, gaining a new Drive Form, and using Final Form will deplete the Anti-Points.

And Anti-Form has much a higher chance of activating when taking on a member of Organization XIII. Another reason as to why Demyx and Xaldin are hard? Drive Forms are basically off-limits for those fights. Anti-Form can still kill Demyx’s clones, but do you really want that?

It can be powerful in the right hands, but it’s usually a death-sentence. No teammates (Making their disappearance if you use Valor, Wisdom, or Limit a good telling sign that you just got Anti-Form) , no items, no magic, no summons, you cannot disengage the form unless they’re no enemies in sight (So if you’re in a boss fight you’re boned), and you cannot pick up HP orbs.

So, hey, if you want to use it more often, this is the Keyblade for you!

Truth is, the primary purpose that most people use this Keyblade for unlocking Final Form. You’ll get that when you beat Roxas, but it’s not available until you randomly trigger it. Two Become One will make that go a lot quicker, but once you do get Final Form, the Keyblade will only trigger Anti-Form.

Still, better than vanilla. In vanilla, you’ll have to pick a random form and hope for the best!

Make sure to take advantage of the Drive Form Insurance Scam; after you beat Roxas, head forward to the next area. Then backtrack and activate Drive Form. Then retreat again, and bam, you’ll be disengaged and get all of your Drive Form back. Grind this out to get Final Form!

After that, the only reason to use Two Become One is to enter Anti-Form. Some people can take that form a lot further; but there are certain fights where it’s really BAD. Vexen is one example: Anti-Form lacks a combo finisher, so Anti-Form cannot break Vexen’s shield.

Maybe one day it will be useful.

OBTAINED: Reunite with Riku and Kairi
ATTACK: 6
MAGIC: 2
ABILITY: Drive Boost (Increases Drive Gauge recovered during MP Recharge)

No, really. It keeps on disappointing, and to make matter worse, it used to be decent.

Back in vanilla KH1, it used to be an option. You get it ten minutes after obtaining another Keyblade, the Divine Rose. The Divine Rose was shorter and had a lower attack rating, but it would crit more often. Oblivion had a higher attack rating, a long reach, and dealt more critical damage in exchange for taking away one bar of MP.

But then they buffed the Divine Rose and nerfed Oblivion in Final Mix. Divine Rose now had a higher attack rating that completely outpaces Oblivion, and Oblivion’s Critical Attack Bonus was lowered. Literally no reason to ever use Oblivion in that game outside of the coolness factor.

And the same can be said, again, of KH2FM.

Drive Gauge in vanilla could be hard to refill. The best strat is to go to the coliseum, pick a cup, and then leave. That will give you all of the gauges back. Drive Recoveries were much harder to come by in that game.

But in Final Mix? You can farm Drive Gauge Recoveries from the Mushroom XIII, and there’s some easy ones. Plus, if you know how to use the Drive Gauge Insurance Scam, it makes Oblivion even less useful. Ach, what does Square have against this Keyblade?

This nerd might out of MP, but he’s got one more option: RAGE!

OBTAINED: Win the Goddess of Fate Cup (Complete the Olympus Colesium story and previous three Cups, after beating Xemnas for the first time)
ATTACK: 3
MAGIC: 5
ABILITY: Berserk Charge (Adds +2 to Attack when in MP Recharge, disables automatic finishers)

Behold! The strongest Magic Keyblade in vanilla KH2, and the ability is about running out of MP so you can whale on enemies!

…yes, that is how Berserk Charge works. When you’re in MP Recharge, you lose access to all automatic finishers…save for the ones that you use with the Guard button. (Upper Slash, Horizontal Slash) In vanilla, it used to be only a +1. With both Fatal Crest and the one that you get from natural leveling, that’s a +4 to Attack.

Odd fit for a Keyblade, but Berserk mode does have some advantages…in the terms of some of the Mushroom XIII. Bosses can still break free thanks something called a ‘Flinch Counter’. Besides, most of the real damage comes from combo finishers, and both Decisive Pumpkin and Hero’s Crest has higher Attack ratings than Fatal Crest.

Yeah, about that.

OBTAINED: See below
ATTACK: 6
MAGIC: 4
ABILITY: MP Hastega (Recovers MP in MP Recharge insanely fast)

When you have something that’s literally meant to be the best weapon in the game, you kinda want to make sure that it is the best weapon. And in the last game, it was the best overall Keyblade. But in this game?

…you get the Decisive Pumpkin HOURS before you even get started on making the Ultima Weapon.

To make it, you need several things

1. The recipe
2. All Seven Orichalcum +
3. Mythril Crystal
4. Dense Crystal
5. Twilight Crystal
6. Serenity Crystals
7. Energy Crystal
8. Lvl.2 Moogle Store

Okay, the last one is really easy to pull off, but the other two require you to reach the endgame to get your hands on all of the materials. The recipe is located in the basement hallway of the manor of Twilight Town, which you won’t get to until you complete the second visit to the world of Mulan, Beast & Beauty, Pirates of the Caribbean, Aladdin and Nightmare before Christmas.

The seven Orichalcum + have to be obtained from certain sources:

1. Complete Altanica
2. Complete Hundred-Acre Woods
3. Open in chest in Space Paranoids (In the area after the Solar Sailer segment)
4. Open in chest in Twilight Town Sunset Terrace (Jump onto the tram)
5. Open in chest in the World that Never Was, Brink of Despair (On the leftside of the bridge)
6. Obtain all Synthesis Materials in the game and go into the Synthesis Shop (Make sure to leave the shop and go back in to despot the new Orichalcum +)
7. Complete the Goddess of Fate Cup (Complete all three cups and defeat Xemnas for the first time)

That’s a lot to do, and that’s not even going into the OTHER materials you’ll need. The Dense and Twilight items are dropped from Nobodies, which only spawn in Twilight Town on the third visit and the World that Never Was. You won’t be able to get this Keyblade until hours after you get to the end of the game.

It’s ability, again, does regen MP faster when you’re in MP Recharge. I looked into it; the slowest MP Recharge takes is 50 seconds without using any abilities. With 4 Full Blooms +, Ultima, and MP Haste , you can get it down to something like 18 seconds in all things besides Critical. Credit to VonFrank in this Reddit Post)

That is FAST. But you just pop a Ether, or enter a Drive Form and you’ll get it all back. MP Recharge does have elements of controversy about it, but it is manageable. To get better in KH2, you have to learn how to keep yourself out of MP Recharge mode or take more advantage of your Drive Forms.

I would have preferred getting a pear.

OBTAINED: Defeat Sephiroth, talk to Cloud, then return to Sephiroth
ATTACK: 7
MAGIC: 1
ABILITY: Negative Combo (Subtracts an attack off both Ground and Aerial Combo Chains)

In vanilla KH2, Sephiroth was the only superboss. Now in FM, he’s generally one of the easier ones as Limit Form can trivialize the fight. And you still have to backtrack to Cloud, then backtrack to Sephiroth…thank god KH3 introduced the ability to move between Save Points.

Fenrir is the strongest physical Keyblade in KH2 period, but it’s not the most damaging. Decisive Pumpkin still does more damage with longer combos and the combo finisher, making that plus one to Fenrir kinda pointless in both vanilla and Final Mix.

But in FM, there are some Mushroom XII that can be abused with this. Sora naturally learns Negative Combo, and combined with Fenrir, Sora will go straight into his combo finisher. Has some use, but remember, Combo Finishers adds the most to the bosses’ revenge value. Trust me, that plus one ain’t worth it.

…speaking of not worth it…

The equivalent of the ‘You Tried’ gold star sticker.

OBTAINED: Complete all Mushroom XIII missions, and visit the last one in Hollow Bastion, Great Maw
ATTACK: 5
MAGIC: 7
ABILITY: No Experience (Disables gaining EXP from enemies)

The Mushroom XIII can be annoying to complete, and yet out of the three ‘Crown’ challenges, it’s the easiest. That’s why I don’t have my own screenshot, I really don’t want to go through doing all of them again. Some of them are easy, the rest are…

…ugh…here’s the locations of each one, and how to trigger them:

I: World that Never Was, Memory Skyscraper (Beat game first)
II: Halloween Town, Christmas Tree Plaza (Beat the Experiment)
III: Beast’s Castle, Bridge (Beat Xaldin)
IV: Land of Dragons, Palace Gate (Beat Shan-Yu)
V: Agrabah, Cave of Wonders Treasure Room (Beat the Volcanic and Blizzard Lord)
VI: Olympus Colesium, Underworld Caverns Atrium (I believe it spawns in after you beat the Hydra)
VII: Twilight Town, Tunnelway (Reach the World that Never Was)
VIII: Twilight Town, Mysterious Tower Entrance (Reach the World That Never Was)
IX: Hollow Bastion, Castle Gate (Beat the MCP in Space Paranoids)
X: Port Royal, Isla de Muerta Moonlight Nook (Beat the Grim Reaper for the second time)
XI: Timeless River, Waterway (Beat Pete in Timeless River)
XII: Twilight Town, Old Mansion Entrance (Reach the World That Never Was)

As for clearing them…maybe I’ll do a guide on them. Or someone who’s far better than me at this will do it. Because those can be draining.

Anyway, the last Keyblade. Not really worth writing home about. It is the strongest magical keyblade in FM, but again like it was with Fatal Crest, it’s not really magically focused. No Experience doesn’t do much at this point in any difficulty. On lower difficulties, it might cap you off at early-mid 30s if you speedran through the game. But if you’re insane and did it on Critical…

…it’s even less useful as you start with No Experience on Critical. And no, combining both doesn’t mean you get negative experience. That might be interesting, but that’s not how it works.

Honestly, the only real use of Winner’s Proof is for its higher Magic stat…and farming the Mushroom XIII for their secret weapons. The majority of them (Save for 4 for some reason) have a secret weapon for Donald and Goofy. In truth, their BEST weapon. The Even numbers drop the Ultimate Mushroom for Goofy, and the Odds drop the Premium Mushroom for Donald.

The only real way of getting them is getting a ‘S’ rank, as they will guarantee a drop of those ultimate weapons. ‘A’ ranks (Which you need for completion of the mission itself) have a 10% chance to drop them. Good luck if you want those!

No, really, thanks! I do like writing these guides, and I do love talking about Kingdom Hearts. I’ve been playing the series since I bought the game from a second-hand electronic store after watching the Spongebob Movie in theaters. Me and my brothers made milkshakes and watched me play (And suck) through the game all night long.

If I got anything wrong (I might be playing the games since the PS2 era, but I’m no expert.) please let me know so I can correct it and credit you.