This one usually takes the longest, regardless of if you're solo or not. It's very important to note: DO NOT KILL THE DRAGONKIN. ONLY KILL DARKERS. If you kill any, whether its you, a party member, or a support character, you will add time later in Area 3. However, if a DARKER kills them, it will not count against you.

 

Starting out, kill the Darkers right in front of you, a total of 6 enemies.

 

Note, if you go east and kill the enemies, a jump pad will open which will lead to a switch. This switch will spawn a turret later at B4, which doesn't really do anything for you. It is optional to activate, and has no other purpose, thus is best to skip.

 

Go west, kill the Micdas and big shield dude (who are clearly trying to make up for something), and kill all the darkers until the barrier opens. Next you'll see 2 turrents and various darkers attacking 3 dragonkin. Do your best to kill all darkers without killing the dragonkin.

 

Once done, keep going. You'll see numerous pillars, and behind them, darkers. Kill them first, and then jump climb the pillars to hit both switches on top. It may take a few tries, and Mike personally recommends using multi-class jet boots to allow for double-jumping. If you do have jet boots, you can jump up on the hill right next to the switches and double jump towards them effortlessly, then double jump/dash your way to the next switch.

 

After both barriers are down, proceed forward and hit the switch directly north. This hold the barriers down for a greater amount of time. Now go back, and find the jump pad right near the little hut. Jump over, kill the darkers, jump on the new jump pad, and hit the switch that it brings you to. Go all the way back to the first switch, and go east. The second switch you pressed opens a jump pass above the red barrier.

 

This next part can be done 1 of 2 ways. Either proceed forward, spawn the enemies, but then immediately turn around and activate the trap by stepping on the platform, and kill only those enemies that the emergency code requires. OR, simply going forward and killing the enemies like normal.

 

Either way, once you're done, proceed south, kill the darkers, and then use the jump pad just before the next platform trap. If you WANT, you can activate this trap, to prevent another one from starting later. It is entirely possible to start the code and escape before you fall, thus allowing you to simply not do it.

 

From the jump pad, you'll see a single dragonkin trying to solo an El Ahda. He's clearly a scrub, so help him out. Kill the single darker, and proceed north. If the trap in the previous paragraph of this tutorial was activated, then this next trap will not spawn. Sometimes, it won't spawn for whatever reason. But if it does, simply fly over it, or finish it quickly before continuing.
 

The easiest way to skip this trap if your class doesn't naturally possess the power of flight is with jet boots once again. Get a running start off the broken pillar on the floor on the right side, the closest and highest vantage point, continue pushing forward and double jump at the peaks of your height. Then you must immediately spam dash all the way to the other side. You need to be running at max speed for this to work.

Continue North then down you go to Area 2,

 

Welcome to the Volcano area. North, West, East and South all have 1 dragonkin trying to solo off against 2 darkers. Help these peasants out and kill the darkers. After each area is cleared of darkers, the wall will open. All 4 switches must be pressed to continue, so if you're solo, you'll have to do each direction yourself.

 

After all areas are open, 4 telepipes will be accessible. North and East will go North in the next area, while South and West will go South. Regardless of which side you ended up on, continue east, pressing all the switches. North and South eventually converge, and just past that, you'll need to press 4 switches, all right next to each other. Why this is, I don't know. My sphere of infinite knowledge doesn't include this.

 

Make the run around the corner, and activate the hit switch to open the wall. Continue East, and hit the next one to the left. Keep going east and enter the telepipe. You'll see a Caterdran and Gwanahda begin to square off for the battle of a lifetime (almost literally), but you wont be able to do anything yet. Go through the next telepipe, and once again kill the darkers without killing the dragonkin. Now you can engage the 2 bosses. Kill the Gwanahda and proceed to Area 3 by going east.

 

Now, if you, your party members, or your support characters killed ANY dragonkin up to this point, you will have to clear Codes. Proceed North, do any Codes that those weaklings forced onto you, and finish the TA by killing the infected Vol Dragon.

 

In case you hadn't caught on, I really don't like the dragonkin here. They are incredibly weak and very frail. Its VERY easy to kill them, so be VERY cautious.