In order to qualify for the mission you have to ‘pay’ (5, 10, or 15) megispheres before you can enter it. Yes it’s a ‘requirement’ but they were actually VERY clever in explaining why you need to meet it. It is far from just ‘videogame because we say so’.

Megispheres can only be found in highly SEED infested areas. The mission is not one for usual Guardians, so in order to ensure that everyone is purifying enough SEED (clearly, if you have gathered that many spheres, you have been doing your job properly) the requirement has been placed on there by the government.

The trouble starts on Moatoob, in an abandoned AMF base. You talk to a Lou in a HQ on the colony first, to get the scoop. The MDF (Mobile Defense Force) has found that there are/may be Illuminus remnants occupying an old AMF Base. She explains that without Howzer the Illuminus aren’t really considered a threat any more, but that a Magashi is afoot. (How can anyone BE afoot?) She says that someone’s got to get rid of him, because technically he’s a Howzer clone and could reform the Illuminus. Normally, the MDF or the GIA (Guardians Intelligence Agency) would take care of something like this, but they’re all on SEED eradication due to Shred the Darkness being on.

The Lou warns you that it will be hard so be sure to not over exert yourself. She hasn’t got the half of it!

AMF Former Facility Block A-1

You warp in successfully and are able to get a call from the Lou. She has unexpectedly found many SEED forms so you have to be extra careful now. She’ll also keep communication on the down low. ‘Many Seed forms’ is a bit of an understatement. The mission is MEANT to be extremely hard especially if taken on the highest difficulty. It has no reward so the ‘prizes’ come as increased EXP and drop rate as well as very rich boxes which tend to appear after all monsters are killed.

The mission is mainly about fighting and getting past some somewhat clever traps such as strategically placed de-equipper bars and curious enemy combinations/spawns. Odd monster action is also pretty common, such as the usually stupid Navals becoming little Einsteins as soon as a Drua Gora appears in the room with them, and the ever-menacing Carriguine occasionally being able to escape its spawn boundary OR choosing to use odd ranged attacks.

Due to level caps, your best way past the mission is to use the mastermind’s strategic spawn-planning against them. Killing certain tiny enemies enough times produces the spawn of a large one. In this way you can avoid killing smalls to keep only 1 big on the floor at a time. Beasts and CASTS can also strategically plan when to use the Nano or SUV to take care of anything particularly nasty. Anyone else can tech and trap. This is mentioned BECAUSE there IS actually a mastermind this time.

If you can fight your way through to block 2, you stumble upon a scene where the Magashi in question is being attacked by a blue haired goth girl in a silly tiny hat. She can wave her arm and cause explosions to come out of the ground near him. He’s on his feet, but clearly not doing very well. She calls him a ‘tough nut’ , but then she sees you. When you come upon the scene you’re a deck below it, so neither of the two above could come down to where you are, and you can’t easily get up there, but you can see everyone just fine.

She complains about the Guardians always showing up, and introduces herself as Helga Neumann and trusts you’ll remember her name. For whatever reason the normal Neumann name was apparently not phased out due to the presence of an entire race called newmans. Helga herself is a human with blue eyes lips and hair. The surprising thing is you seem surprised that she knows your name. In reaction, Helga explains that your reputation precedes you, or maybe you’re just being modest, at which she laughs. No, chances are since she’s chillin with the villains she actually looked up anyone who could be trouble for her nasty plots. She also knows you’ve defeated all the monsters to get to that point by yourself, so with such strength are you really the monster? Clearly, trying to make people doubt themselves, but rarely works She claims to have sent the creatures into the base to toy with the Magashi who is standing right….where’d he go?

Helga made the mistake of turning her back on a not yet dead android. Naturally he has run off. A theme tends to be for people to forget just how hardy the not quite living really are. During her speech he has taken the chance to run off up a ramp and further into the base. She blames you right away, but says you had better hurry on after him or she won’t leave much left to find. (She knows you ‘have business with’ that Magashi, but apparently she was on her way to off him as well and you’ve just helped her mess that up) She promptly runs off after him, so you must do the same.

A few halls over and you literally run into Leo and Tonnio. They explain that Lou sent them along but they entered through another door in the base. When you start looking around, Tonnio asks what’s going on, so apparently you explain about the Magashi scene. Since they were coming from the other way and didn’t see him…there’s only 2 directions left to go. After a bit of boasting from Tonnio everyone shares their door keys which allows you to choose one of two paths. Whichever path you don’t take, Leo and Tonnio will.

END 1

If you go straight ahead through a door, you fight many more monsters until Lou calls again. She explains that the signal for the Magashi has been lost (Likely Helga got to him and now he’s dead) so she calls off the mission and pulls you out of there. So that’s the door you have to get Leo & Tonnio to take because that’s where the plot ISNT.

End 1-Ended.

If you go left through the fence you have to fight through Bil de Vears and Carriguine, before getting to a room where the Magashi is laying on the floor near a wall. When you go to him, Helga appears on the deck above to say ‘aww she lost’. This gets Renvolt up off the floor and he staggers over. Helga agrees that you won so you’re the ace here, but it doesn’t matter so long as he dies. Surprisingly, she teleports herself (Much like a monster spawning and de-spawning) over to a pair of switches. By pressing them, she springs a trap which causes poles to rise from the floor and cast a laser fence around both you and the Magashi. Now that you’re trapped in there with him, she wants to watch while you fight each other. You argue of course, it’s a lame idea and she reminds you that it was your goal to eliminate him anyway. (Really, it was, but now that some bigger baddie apparently also wants him done in, it casts a bit of doubt on the original initiative—he must be good for SOMEthing to go to all that trouble of filling an entire base with traps and powered up monsters…) She then mocks that ‘Will Guardians not fight the wounded?’ and tells you he looks quite ready to fight you, even if you don’t want to fight him. To get the best viewing angle, she teleports to a pillar-top. Magashi is mad about having to play into her hands but that’s not enough at all to stop him from attacking, so he does.

Who wins the Magashi fight basically comes down to who can control the camera better. The objective is to always be looking at him, while he is behind you so it’s a bit of a trick. Magashi makes for an almost-boss-fight just by himself due to his really good range of attacks. He’s wounded so he takes up a drunken-type sword style with his two blades. He also has the ability to spray flames foreword if he spins them, shoot fireballs if he crosses them, and create a targeted explosion (it comes from the floor and always hits you, though it is not that damaging) if he stabs the ground. He can also rush, charge AND roll to evade. He is easily one of the most diverse people you’ll ever see…as he has more moves than any Guardian.

END 2

You can kill him to produce an ending. If you manage to defeat him in the fight Helga is happy. She says how puppets shouldn’t disobey their masters. She explains that this particular Magashi is defective. All of them were given the command to self destruct but this one did not. He disobeyed to die a warrior in battle. Helga then warps off with the dead Magashi and the mission ends.

End 2 - Ended

If playing into the villains hands does not suit you…

You can simply run around the cage imagining Benny Hill music as Magashi chases you trying to attack. He’ll try to blot out your screen by shouting big texts and hide his efforts by showing you his various irritable expressions. Helga is noisy from the sidelines as well, egging everyone on (she wants to see some chop-fest down there!) If you can run away and dodge him long enough Helga will get really impatient and Magashi will become furious….and a Lou will appear.

The fight grinds to a halt as the Lou from the beginning has re-established communications. Magashi doesn’t know what’s going on (because you won't attack) and wonders if it’s sympathy. He’s charging in for another attack when the Lou tells him to wait…and he does! She has managed to infiltrate the base and gets in the locked door. Whatever she did also lowers the laser fences. Helga is pretty surprised at this turn of events, but Magashi’s ready to take you both on. Again, Lou says to wait and he does.

She explains that the facility will self destruct soon, so Helga encouraged the cage fight in order to stall everyone so that the explosion could kill. Helga calls Lou a talkative puppet for explaining all of the plan. She then teleports around some more on her upper deck and reveals that she feels she can’t take you on as she is now, in a fair fight. She says she was to be sacrificed here in the facility to get rid of you.

This doesn’t sit well with Magashi who argues with her next, saying that she’s really the puppet because SEED is her only will. (Magashi is extremely right here. She’s essentially a suicide bomber who is absolutely ok with it. She has 0 business calling anyone a puppet because she is the ultimate puppet to her cause—more-so than anyone just following orders-- she is actively creating elaborate plans where her goal is to die at the end! The Renvolt is even above her, in that he’s actively disobeying people left and right) Lou confirms that saying even a COPYCAST can have a heart. Magashi finds the concept of that rather trite but he’s willing to admit something is going on.

Helga doesn’t like the notion of a heart...in fact she doesn’t like it so much that she claims it makes her physically ill. And so it does—she gets queasy and begins staggering all over after thinking about it. Then, she goes wrong. Helga nearly has a standing seizure while yelling “Stop!” multiple times. There isn’t anything anyone can do but stare as she staggers and shakes all with her expressionless doll face looking only slightly peeved despite the pain/illness/whatever. (Helga is perfectly capable of subtle and extreme expressions, she’s had plenty up to this point so it is clearly meant to be seen as weird that she isn’t now) She then teleports to nowhere, but when she returns she looks completely different.

Her hair is now long, and in red tentacles. She has on new stranger clothes (less gothic though) and high boots. Everyone is totally shocked, even Magashi.

**Helga reveals the place is still going to explode, so fight among yourselves until everyone just blows up. She re-locks the doors and for good measure summons some more seriously nasty monsters to help everyone along with the whole ‘death’ thing. She then makes a hasty staggering exit, claiming she’ll go crazy if she listens to anyone in the room talking about heart. A locked door is no problem for her because she simply teleports herself through it, leaving everyone to the Gaozorans and bombs.

To get to any further ending, you have to fight your way past her nastiest monsters which include Gaozorans and some SEED Argine. Magashi complains but he has no choice but to help you fight them off if he wants to get out of there. Lou tells him not to get in the way, and he’s puzzled about actually fighting along side Guardians. (The Lou is pretty surprised too) If you can get past the last waves of monsters…

Magashi falls down again, but is soon back up. He word-dances around a truce by saying he might like to continue the fight but he’s now lost all interest. Lou yells at him, telling him that now the threat is over he’s still got to die. He sacrificed many lives and he has to face retribution for it. She wants to kill him right now, even though he’s just taken several overpowered Gaozoran fireballs to the face for the team. Surprisingly, you get in the way.

Magashi interoperates that as ‘something troubling you’ and demands you tell him what it is.

What is a COPYCAST
What are you Magashi

Depending which one you select will provide a batch of different information. However, several things are amiss for the Lou to be killing him quite yet. There’s a bunch of him, so did THIS one actually murder anyone? It’s likely but unproven. Why is THIS guy so important? Why does Helga need him dead so badly she’d go to all that trouble? (You are likely the 2nd bird with 1 stone in her view of the situation) IS he really planning to reform the Endrum or Illuminus around him or is he a free agent now? None of those can really get answered because your only two choices are above…but they DO make for a good excuse to get between the Lou and her target!

END 3 – What Are You Magashi

He first accuses you of asking rude and probing questions, but while laughing, decides he’ll answer. He’s fairly villainous, so he probably has to insult everything everyone says even though likely no one would consider the question rude to someone so odd as everyone knows he is! Even HE knows he’s odd! Fortunately he is quite talkative and seems nearly eager to explain what’s up despite his initial banter.

He explains that all the Renvolt Magashi units were copies of Howzer used to infiltrate the Alliance Military on behalf of Endrum Collective. They were copies of him so they followed his will. Over time, among themselves, they quit following the orders exactly. They didn’t accept them fully but they’d still carry out most of it.

The first time they had the self-clarity was during the fight where one of them was defeated by Ethan Waber. He goes on to say that Howzer wanted all eyes of the Gurhal system on Endrum, so during the premature celebration of the partial success of the unification point (that Ethan was there for) Endrum was working on the creation of HIVES, the more easily transmutable SEED virus and Sochee bombs. During that time, it was important for Magashi to appear dead so all of them just went into hiding.

Lou chips in though, that one Magashi (referred to as a unit) was driven too much by revenge. As you recall, Ethan stabbed him in the desert and that particular Magashi self destructed. This clearly left another one behind, the one that was driven only by revenge (likely for what happened to the desert-stab one. Because that one of him was so vengeful it turned into a SEED form (a SEEDMAGASHI) and confronted Ethan again at Agata Egam Holy Grounds…and was defeated. Magashi confirms the story, and that it was the first time one of them disobeyed Howzer. He used the SEED’s instinct toward stopping the unification point to further his goal of killing Ethan.

After that didn’t work, Howzer took control of his thoughts and actions and moved him to a hive to do Seed virus research. While he pretended to obey, he became aware of a transmitter that Prof. Taragi had on him. (He was a kidnapped researcher, remember) Magashi admits to ignoring it on purpose in the hopes of Ethan following it there to help the professor. (and of course let him have another chance at him!) It worked, but not even Fakis power could stop Ethan. The Lou says he’s so persistent!

Magashi then acknowledges the Wabers (in general) as quite a force. He explains that when Howzer was still a person (even he recognized his slide into seed madness while still looking and acting mostly sane) in the Illuminus there was always someone a step ahead of him, which was the Arkguard (Olson Waber) that caused Howzer to be really jealous. He then speculates that the feeling of ‘haaate Ethan!’ is from Howzer in the first place…and that was why he felt so vengeful toward him. Once he recognized that the source of the feeling was foreign, he lost all vengeance feelings toward any of the Wabers.

This is actually immensely clever of him.

Being semi-clones of Howzer somehow instilled with his memories/feelings etc. the Magashis would all have a special hate on for any Waber family member because the original guy did too. The fact that Ethan proved to be such a pain only furthered the “proof” that the Wabers are ‘no good’. However realizing that a grudge is just a grudge and is often a waste of time ESPECIALLY when it isn’t your own grudge is brilliant!
This allows Magashi to stop wasting his time trying to knock off someone who isn’t relevant to everything. This is especially special because it makes him one of a very few PROVABLY SMART people you can encounter. Yes, the scientists are all smart, and so is Maya but they are smart because the plot SAYS they are smart. Renvolt has actually shown it here, remarkably.

However….now that the Magashis had disobeyed twice they wouldn’t be forgiven. Howzer came to the conclusion that all this disobeying must be from a bug in their programming and eliminated all the Magashis, removing from their brains only some Dulk Fakis data before mass producing new units. (This is the whole ‘self destruct’ thing Helga was on about earlier)

The mass produced new ones didn’t have any of the experiences the old ones did, and low combat ability too. So they were inferior but…they were also only a stop-gap until the Seed Cell Base Clone Tech could be perfected. Lou comments that it must be why the Magashis everyone has fought recently have been relatively easy to defeat. Relativly is the operative word here. Any time a Magashi appears it's always troublesome with tons and tons of HP.

He elaborates that a single unit of the condemned older Magashis escaped the destruction and implanted it’s memories into a new model and masqueraded as one. It’s him, the one before you now. Lou asks him if it’s a sense of self, or maybe heart? He doesn’t know if it’s heart or just some glitch..but says YOU know, don’t you? To the Lou. (It’s never explained why SHE SPECIFICALLY would know the answer to that. He knows they’re both COPYCASTS but it’s unlikely she’d know just how he works. You also don’t find out why he thinks that she specifically would know) He lays claim to the only things which he knows for sure are his, which are his desire for pride and the need to fight.

Before he can go on the floor begins to shake as the first of the bombs go off. Flames erupt, separating you & Lou from Magashi. Another explosion springs the door locks to the room, and Magashi points to let you know you can escape. He actually also tells you to do so in a rare moment of…not so bad-ness. The Lou asks him what he’ll do, so he says he has to go after Helga (She left from his side of the room) for revenge for what she’s done to him. He says he has no further use for either of you anyway and leaves...saying ‘until next time’ because he had to get in something menacing. You escape also and all is well.

It is explained that you & the Lou escaped successfully but the GIS declared no further progress could be made and the case was closed. It even tells you that questions remain such as What is Helga and returning peace may be long off.

END 3- End

END 4 -- What is a COPYCAST?

If you ask the 2nd question the Lou gets to start off the explanation. She explains that a copycast is different than a regular cast. They were originally military machines with programming to simulate human combat abilities. They were created during the 500 year race wars by humans to try and suppress the other races. (presumably they were used to suppress other androids too, its very general) They look like clones of the humans they’re based on but they are casts. (A real clone would be another real human) Copycasts were illegalized 100 years ago at the alliance and have been forbidden to manufacture ever since then. The Lou somewhat regretfully (looking at least) explains that their lives were short and they were erased from history. Most people don’t know they even ever existed. In the meantime during the 100 years after the alliance most of them have just died.

Making many copycasts at one go was apparently easy, and they were able to share info among themselves. (this would be like a hive mind type situation or telepathy) Regular casts don’t have this ability for some reason. (they would be brilliant if they DID but its never explained why they don’t, other than it would wreck the plot to have near omniscient demigods running the joint)

Magashi walks around and argues with the Lou, saying it’s an interesting statement coming from her. Lou acknowledges that and says she’s different, just like Magashi knows she is. She can share info with the other Lous, and the Lous are the only successful case of copycasts since they were banned. (This has been rather widely known since Ethan kept having run-ins with various Lous in the earliest days of PSU.) The technology of copycast-making/using is forbidden to anyone except Lous. She explains that unlike Copycasts the Lous are living casts, not 100% machines. (*As you know, in the PSO/U universe a 100% machine person cannot use techs. Casts here regularly tech because some parts of them are organic in nature. A copycast has 0 organic bits so it’s equivalent would be a PSO cast, which were completely inorganic)

When the Magashis were first discovered, it was thought that they were a similar system to the Lous. (in that someone finally managed to make a knockoff of her) but this notion was dismissed quickly because before the outlawing of the copycast technique, it seems people kept trying to make more copycasts. However, the Lou system was the only success, despite multiple tries. (Why the Lous succeeded back in the day, and nothing else did is never explained)

Magashi chimes in with “he” had too aggressive a demeanor to be a cast. You make a questioning gesture so Lou explains that because copycasts are more like their original base-person, they’re much more emotionally expressive than a regular cast. This gets Magashi to admit that he is a copycast of Howzer and explains that Illuminus conspired with GRM to revive old forbidden technologies. Copycasts would be a perfect tool for the Illuminus.

Lou says that Copycasts don’t have a sense of self. They’re thinking machines, obedient to humans. And then she drops a plot-bomb: If the original human is “sharp enough” they can draw info from their copycasts at a distance and under the right circumstances control them. This was the basis for outlawing the technology. Lou then asks how is Magashi opposing the will (of Howzer)? But, she never finds out because the bombs go off at this point in this ending. The final part of the ending/escape is identical no matter which question you ask.

END 4- End.

The plotbomb of ‘control of copycasts’ is pretty significant here because really it’s a tad ridiculous. Did copycast tech come with a free magic electric VR helmet? Could you remote control the mini-me’s with a playstation controller? Sharp Enough is a general term that explains nothing. Humans ARE NOT psychic (that’s the Newmans job) so it’s not like you got a free brain wave connection to 100% pure machines who have 0 psychic energy like they just stated! The control/mind interface thing must be a sweet computer set-up of some kind for it to have ANY plausibility.

The Magashis opposing the will:

Lou asks this Magashi how he is opposing the will of Howzer at this point. That question is moot because Howzer is DEAD and she knows it too. Why did she need to ask? He has no more will, and has likely not had will for weeks because Ethan/You/Lumia offed him in the last story mode mission, taking place weeks before this. His death would have FREED any copycast!
Also, Howzer was always an emotional, conniving, morality-free rule-breaker to begin with. Cloning his mind/memories/skills and dumping it in another dude will only result in more of the same. What did he expect…of himself?

In all, the dual question ending is quite useful. If you listen to both, they both pose questions that the other one answers leaving almost no loose ends where there shouldn’t be any. Helga of course moves on to PSU for PSP to become the foe of your other char and Vivienne (bunny-cast) girl there.

Of course there are a few unanswered questions like:

What is Seed Cell Base Cloning?
How does one control a copycast in a plausable manner?

But in all, the mission is a great explanation that really lets you in on some things. It's also a true challenge to get through Helga's house of horrors and quite creative in premise, and also to show you a villain from a separate game.