FAQ written by burqawitz
Formatting, Chapters, Typofixes and Lecturing by selmiak
Chapter 7
Fighting Armors with Trico
Trico will enter the ruins to the right, and jump up to a higher level of the tunnel, jumping down on the other side, where he'll find
another shallow pool of water. Trico will once again start rolling around in the shallow water, until he spots another trico watching
him from atop the arches around the area. After a moment, the beast bounds away into one of the structures.
The rickety wooden staircase on the left only lead back to the area you just came from, and won't lead you all the way back up anyways.
When I tried to go that way I experienced a very Homer Simpsonesque fall down the mountain back to Trico.
There's a hallway on the far side of the plaza from where you came in, big enough for Trico to follow you.
Inside, you can see another of those large stained glass objects that Trico hates up on a ledge on the other side of the room, but
luckily it's already broken. Climb up the rubble of the two structures in the middle of the room. Eventually, Trico will leap up on
top of the taller of the two structures. Sitting atop this structure like a cat, you can jump out and grab his tail dangling down
over the structure, and climb it up to reach him at the top.
Climb onto Trico's head and jump out onto the walkways leading around the room. You'll find
barrel 16 and
barrel 17 in the areas around these walkways that you can feed to Trico.
You need to be very careful, though. It's easy to drop these barrels into the pit below, losing them forever. The safest thing to
do is to toss the barrels down to the floor below, where you came from, and jump back down to feed Trico there. You can also bring
them with you to the next area and feed him there. Don't try to toss them to him while he's sitting on the stone pillar, though.
They'll just hit him in the face and fall down, likely into the chasm below. If you do lose a barrel, you can reload from checkpoint
if you're trying to get the
Lock, Stock, and Barrel Trophy for feeding Trico every barrel.
One way or another, when you're ready to move on, run around the walkways on the outside of the room until you reach the small
staircase leading down to the gate with the broken stain glass window in front of it. Go past the gate to reach the switch on the wall,
and activate it to open the gate.
Once inside, go down the staircase, and then look for a long hall at the bottom of the stairs. Head down the hall. The hall dead ends
after a while, but there's a hole on the left and a path on the right. I could not get Trico to stick his head in the hole on the left.
Either he's on to my shenanigans, or the area is just shaped in such a way that his body wouldn't bend to let him reach the hole.
Head down the path on the right instead, which opens into a large room.
You start out on a broken balcony. There's nothing interesting that you can reach up high. You'll have to drop down to the room below.
It's a long drop, but you're pretty capable of dropping down long distances without getting hurt. You don't need Trico's help to get
down. You'll notice a
blue door on the left side of the room, indicating that a fight is coming.
I saw three enemies here - though there could be more. It's hard to tell, with them coming from all over the rubble. I actually found
four helmets after the battle on my last playthrough, so I'm fairly sure there are four of them.
Helping out Trico in Battle
Trico is more than capable of handling these enchanted suits of armor without on his own, and you're quite weak and generally
incapable of handling even a single foe, but it's not like there's nothing you can do to aid your companion. Additionally,
participating in the combat is the key to earning several trophies in the game.
The first thing you need to remember is that if an enemy grabs you, mash quickly on the shoulder buttons, face buttons, and D-Pad
buttons to break free. You need to keep mashing until all the
Runes are gone from the screen. Even if Trico comes along and saves
you, as long as there are runes on the screen you'll be disoriented and unable to move or perform tasks normally.
There are spears in this area. The enemies will pick up the spears and throw them at Trico. While Trico can't be brought down by
spears, they hurt him, and who wants to see their friend get hurt? Any time an enemy picks up a spear, run up to him and press
to
shove him and make him drop the spear so they can't throw it at your friend. There's a trophy,
Intensive Care, for always pulling
all spears out of Trico before you move on to a new area - all the way through the game. The first step in earning this trophy is to
prevent Trico from getting hit by spears in the first place whenever possible.
Later in the game, enemies will also appear with small shields bearing the stained glass symbol that Trico is afraid of. You'll
need to push these enemies to make them drop their shields. Trico will not fight back while enemies are pointing these shields at him.
You can pick up and throw a shield to break the glass - but it's pretty hard. Usually the enemies will just grab you, and they'll
have the shield again before you can escape. Make the enemies drop the shields, then rely on Trico to smash them once the enemies drop them.
You can also keep a single enemy distracted by jumping on its back. Run up behind an enemy and jump on him
to keep him occupied
while Trico deals with other enemies. There's a silver trophy
Get Off My Back! for staying on the back of an enemy for 30 seconds or longer.
Any time an enemy is knocked to the ground (to a lying position, not kneeling), you can grab his helmet with
, and pull with
, to pop
his head right off, finishing him. There's a gold trophy
Losing Their Minds for pulling the heads off of 10 suits of armor.
If an enemy
is kneeling, you may be able to push him all the way over with
.
Combining the previous two tactics, when you're on an enemies back, hold
and press
and you'll eventually knock them down. Keep
holding
when they fall down, and you can usually grab their head and pull it off, defeating them.
You can also pick up objects
such as barrels, and even defeated enemies' heads, and throw them at other enemies with
to knock them
off balance and make them drop what they're carrying. There's a bronze trophy
That Hits the Spot for knocking down 20 enemies with
barrels or pots.
There's also a bronze trophy
Last-Minute Reprieve for having Trico destroy an enemy while it's carrying you 20 times. While this is not
so much fighting the enemies as losing to the enemies, even this can aid Trico. When an enemy is holding on to you, or chasing you, they
aren't throwing spears at Trico. Also, Trico can kill most armors in a single quick swipe while it's occupied with holding onto you.
Later in the game, when you get the mirror shield back, there's a bronze trophy
Thundering Wonder for defeating 20 enemies with Trico's
lightning, by aiming the light from the mirror at an enemy to call lightning from Trico's tail.
But your most important role in combat is to calm Trico after a battle, and care for his wounds.
Climb up to Trico's neck and pet his neck with
after a fight to calm him down, then check him over for spear wounds and pull any spears
out by moving to them, then grabbing them
and pulling
.
After you learn the different commands, it may be easier to calm Trico down if you command him to heel first
+
to stop him from jumping
around. Credit to Drax100 for this tip.
There's a gold trophy Intensive Care for removing all the spears from Trico as soon as the battles end. This isn't for one fight. It's
for every fight, all through the game. After every battle, check Trico carefully for spears, and remove the spears from him before you do
anything else. If you pull out every single spear that hits him before you move on to do anything else, you'll earn this trophy at the end
of the game, after the credits roll.
Hint 47
Desperate to calm the beast, I stroked and petted him feverishly.
Thinking back, it seems almost that stroking in different places elicited different responses...
For the record - I've never noticed that petting Trico in different places makes any meaningful difference.
Petting his neck seems to be the most effective for calming him down after a fight. Petting his wounds will
clean the blood away - keeping him looking nice. Petting his head for an extended period of time in an area
where there's room, will cause Trico to fall asleep for a short period of time.
Pet Trico to calm him down, and then check him over for spear wounds and remove any spears that managed to hit him, if any.
Barrel 18 in on the ground in one of the corners. Trico will find it on his own if you don't find it for him fairly quickly.
Call Trico over to the area below the broken bridge on the opposite side of the room from where you came in,
then climb up to his head and jump over onto the bridge. Trico will follow you. Head forward into the large hall.
Make sure Trico is staying close. There are more enemies up ahead and you'll need his help.
The hall turns right after a bit. Follow the hall until it turns right again. The floor here is broken out and
the hall goes down to a lower level. With the lighting, it's difficult to see, but it's safe to jump down.
There's shallow water at the bottom. However, two more suits of armor will show up and attack you. Call Trico
to help you immediately. These enemies have no spears, so they are not a threat to Trico in any way. They're
kind of a hassle for you, though, in the tight hallway with poor lighting and water on the ground.
