Part 1: Training Mission

We begin the adventure in Digital City at the Blue Falcon Guard Team building. Basically, the City is a safe spot on this continent, and Tamers from the various Guard Teams protect it with their tamed Digimon.



: Hello Mr. Zudokorn. It's nice to see you. And let me see...You're a Cadet Tamer...Your name is...


Our main character needs a name! 5 characters maximum.

: Yes! You're Akira, aren't you? Please go right ahead. The Blue Falcon Leader is waiting for you.

: Akira, your training is almost over. You'll be a real Tamer when you finish your last training mission. Then you can join a Guard Team.







: This is your last training mission, Akira. I'm glad that you made it this far. When you are done with this training mission, you can join a Guard Team as a Tamer. Then you can work as a defender of Digital City, just as you've always dreamed.

: Yes, Blue Falcon Leader! I'll do my best!! I will defend Digital City with my fellow Digimon!

: Hey Akira, don't get too worked up!




Why is Leomon always the first to die?

: Zudokorn, as this is a training mission, don't help Akira too much

: Roger! Blue Falcon Leader!!

: We will go to Boot Domain and destroy Wild Digimon.



: Is my Digi-Beetle ready to go? I want to take it for a spin!
A Digi-Beetle is a vehicle that's used to go through the dungeons. You'll see it soon.


We'll be talking to Carol a LOT. She's our exit to the world map.

: Hey Akira! Aren't you finished with your Tamer training yet?

: Not yet, Chief. This is my last training mission. After this mission, I'll get my own Digi-Beetle. So I'm gonna do my best.

: Hey, don't push my Digi-Beetle too hard and break it. OK? But don't worry. Running over a Land Mine or two won't do much damage to my Digi-Beetle. Anyway, a Digi-Beetle is not like an ordinary car. It's more like a tank. It's a multi-use tank with all the Items and equipment a Tamer needs.

: Akira, good luck!

: Akira, let's get on the Elevator Lift!



: Be careful. The world is full of dangerous and Wild Digimon outside the City.


This is the world map. We're on the Directory Continent right now with only two locations open right now, the City (where we just came from), and Boot Domain (our first dungeon). There's nothing else to do in the City now, so let's go to the dungeon and become a Tamer.


Welcome to the dungeon! The character in the middle of the screen is your (well, Zudokorn's) Digi-Beetle. To its right is the map. Top left is the name of the dungeon and what floor you're on, and top right is the HP and EP of the Digi-Beetle.

Dungeon layouts are mostly randomly generated, except for this tutorial dungeon and certain floors in others.


The map gets drawn as you explore areas, filling in more green rooms. Also, our EP has gone down. One EP is spent for every square you move, and if you run out of EP, you get sent back to the City with a burnt out engine. HP is used when encountering traps like rigged chests, land mines, and electro spores. You get sent back to the City if you run out of HP as well.

There's also a Gazimon in this room. Every action you take is like a turn, and after you move, any enemies in the area will move as well. Moving next to an enemy Digimon will send you into battle.


Enemy Digimon parties are typically larger than what shows up on the map. This Gazimon brought along a Gizamon for us to fight. Zudokorn's party is pretty nice, consisting of MegaSeadramon, Lillymon, and Triceramon.

When you enter battle, you first get three choices. Give Orders lets you order your Digimon what attacks to use or to guard. It's not like Digimon World 1 where you have little control over your partner. Cannon lets you shoot items out of your Digi-Beetle to heal your team or harm the enemy. Run Away does what it says.


This is the move selection screen. Digimon can have four types of attacks – Attack (attacks an enemy), Interrupt (attacks an enemy when they try to attack you), Counter Attack (attacks normally, or attacks an enemy that hits you first), and Assist (healing moves). Each move takes an amount of MP to use. You select moves for each of your Digimon to use, picking a target if necessary.




Turn order is based on speed, for normal attacks. Interrupt and Counter Attacks go off as explained before.


There is NO AUTO RETARGETING in battle! It's tough to judge your Digimon's power against the enemy, so it's easy to end up with missed turns. Typically I set mine to each attack a different enemy and spread out the damage and avoid missing a turn.


At the end of every battle, your active team members get experience points, and you get some money, called BITs in this game. This is the only "random" encounter in the dungeon, there's just the boss left to fight.


Floor Portals bring you to the next floor in the dungeon. You can't return to the floor you came from, so get all the treasures you find before you leave.


When the walls change into this pattern, you know you're on the boss floor.


Yes, it's blue. Floors of different colors means it's a Specialty Floor. The color determines what Specialty, or element, the floor is. Attacks and Defense of Digimon of that Specialty will be stronger if you engage in battle on a colored floor. There's Water, Fire, Nature, Machine, and Darkness Specialties.


A hallway with a smidge of Specialty Floor like this is warning you that the Boss Digimon's room is ahead, just as Zudokorn says. This is the best time to heal up your team in preparation.



: Do you think you can defeat the Boss of this Boot Domain, the great Leomon?

: Akira, that's the Leomon we've been looking for. When you defeat this Wild Digimon, your training mission will be complete! Good luck!

: Yes, Sir! Leomon, here I come!!


Leomon comes along with a Veedramon and ToyAgumon as backup. Since this is still a tutorial mission, it's not hard at all and you're in no danger of dying unless you let yourself. ToyAgumon and Veedramon get targeted first so I can concentrate my attacks on the real boss.


Leomon's signature attack is a Counter Attack type, so if he's targeted, it will hit that Digimon. It did a good amount of damage to Lillymon, but nothing too bad. The battle took an extra round because of a missed attack...


But of course we won.


Exit Portals mean you completed the dungeon and are one of two ways you leave the dungeon without dying. The other is items.


Every time you come back from a dungeon, you have to go through the Gate area. It gets annoying since there's the same text every time after this one.

: Now, all you need to do is join a Guard Team and become a real Tamer. You did very well!

: Thank you, Mr. Zudokorn!

Zudokorn reminds us again that we need to join one of the three Guard Teams to be a legal Tamer, and then goes to get us our Digi-Beetle.


We'll get to (and have to) upgrade our Beetle as we advance in Tamer ranks and get farther in the game. The first Beetle isn't good at all.


The Digi-Beetle needs a name! 7 characters maximum.




Here's our first view of the Digital City map. The three buildings in the center row are the Digimon Center, Coliseum, and Tamer's Club. They'll all be important later. We want to check out the three Guard Team buildings - Gold Hawk, Blue Falcon, and Black Sword.


The Gold Hawk team is all about Vaccine Type Digimon. Your starting Digimon here is Agumon. Other early Vaccine types include Biyomon, Tapirmon, and Gomamon


Blue Falcons specialize in Data Type Digimon. Your starting Digimon here is Patamon. Other early Data types include Gabumon, Crabmon, and Floramon


Virus Type Digimon are what the Black Sword team deals with. Your starting Digimon here is DemiDevimon. Other early Virus types include Betamon, Goburimon, and the previously seen Gazimon and Gizamon.

So, we'll need to pick what Guard Team to join. There's really no difference between the teams, other than what building you report to for missions and what Digimon types you're initially allowed to DNA Digivolve together. Because of the item types you can buy at the Item Vendor, you're also restricted to only capturing the same type of Digimon you start with, but this opens up later as well.


Whatever team you join, you get a Mark proving you're a Tamer of that team. You also get a thing called a DB-Browser that lets you run your Digi-Beetle.


And you get a Digimon!


A Digimon that needs a name! You get a whopping 13 character limit here.


You also get your first mission as a Tamer. You go to the same dungeon no matter what team you join. Walking out of the room, we meet some new faces.



: That's right. Who are you guys?



: My name is Joy Joy and he is Bertran. Let's try working as a team.

: We are your seniors here, don't you forget it! Mr. Zudokorn things highly of your record. But those were just training missions! I'm the best Tamer in the City so don't even think you can do better than me!!

Instant rivalry!

To recap: we need names for our character (5 max), Digi-Beetle (7 max), and Digimon (13 max) and we need to choose our Guard Team. Next time, we'll embark on our first real mission.