DARK CLOUD 2

What is a Geostone?

A Geostone is a stone tablet buried in a dungeon floor, marked with a purple dot on the minimap. It is the most important thing you carry out of a floor, and the game barely explains it.

Georama System

The Georama system is Dark Cloud 2's town-building mechanic. In each chapter, you collect Geostones from dungeons and use them to place buildings, trees, rivers, and decorations to restore ruined settlements. Each region has a set of 100% completion requirements — fulfilling them all earns a rare weapon reward. Finish every region's Georama before the Chapter 7 boss: earlier regions stay open until then, but the Moon Flower Palace and the future seal shut after that fight.

Sindain (Chapter 2)

Restoration Requirements

• Forest Lake restored (15 River parts placed).
• Glowing Mushrooms restored.
• Elder Jurak revived (10 Trees placed, Withered Tree restored, Nose Tree placed between the Eye Trees).
• Tailor Shop restored (Elder Jurak revived, Gordon resides, Adel resides, 30 Culture Points).
• Eatery restored (Elder Jurak revived, Polly resides, 40 Culture Points).
• Weapon Shop restored (Elder Jurak revived, Milane resides).
• Elder Jurak's Branch restored (50 Culture Points).
• Fence placed around the Firbits' house.
• Golden Eggs restored (Elder Jurak's Branch + someone in straw house).
• At least one resident in a Straw house.

Unique Georama Items

Eye Tree 1, Eye Tree 2, Grass, Hill, Log, Nose Tree, River, Rock, Waterwheel, Wooden Bridge, Firbit's House.

Balance Valley (Chapter 3)

Restoration Requirements

• Lower Prayer Site restored (all 4 Plateaus at the same height, 20 Culture Points).
• Suspension Bridge restored.
• Starlight Temple restored (Prayer Site and Bridge restored, 15 Trees placed).
• Crystal Prayer Site restored (Starlight Temple restored, 4 Pot Torches placed).
• Sacred Torch restored.
• Priest Bruno resides in the Village.
• Sacred gate restored (Starlight Temple restored, Stewart resides, 40 Culture Points).
• Lao Chao's Bistro restored (Ferdinand at the Chinese Stand, 30 Culture Points).
• Tool Shop restored (Lin helped, Star Lamp on Brick House, Parn resides, 30 Culture Points).
• Weapon Shop restored (Blinkhorn resides, 30 Culture Points).
• Moon Crystal and Crest revived (Starlight Temple restored, Lighthouse Moon Crystal restored).

Unique Georama Items

Chinese Stand, Star Lamp.

Veniccio (Chapter 4)

Restoration Requirements

• Luna Lab foundation restored (8 blocks Pier Parts, someone resides, 30 Culture Points).
• Lab 1: Red Iron House, Claire lives there, Boat near Red Iron House.
• Lab 2: Blue Iron House, Donny lives there, Boat near Blue Iron House.
• Lab 3: Purple Iron House, Boat near Purple Iron House.
• Lab 4: Green Iron House, Boat near Green Iron House.
• Luna Lab restored (all 4 Labs complete, Shigura Village saved, 50 Culture Points).
• Search Lights restored (Luna Lab restored, 8 Luna Stone Lights, 60 Culture Points).
• Weather Vanes restored (Luna Lab restored, Windmill placed, Symbol of Luna Lab, 80 Culture Points).

Unique Georama Items

Luna Stone Light, Pier, Shop Boat.

Heim Rada (Chapter 5)

Restoration Requirements

• 2nd Floor Workshop restored (3 sturdy houses, 30 Culture Points).
• 3rd Floor Workshop restored (House 3 blocks high, 2nd Floor restored).
• Workshop Elevator restored (Resident in house with Chimney, 3rd Floor restored, 60 Culture Points).
• Gundorada Workshop restored (Workshop Elevator restored, Borneo resides).
• Work Crane and Arm restored (Generator placed, Work Crane restored, Resident in house with Crane, 3rd Floor restored, Windmill placed, Work Arm restored, Resident in house with Arm, 2nd Floor restored, 10 Pots placed).
• Operations Room restored (Fire Squall destroyed, Gerald resides, Gundorada Workshop restored, 100 Culture Points).
• Parts Shop restored (Cedric resides, Gundorada Workshop restored, 70 Culture Points).
• Item Shop restored (Resident in house with Chimney, 70 Culture Points).
• Weapon Shop restored (Erik in house near Windmill, 70 Culture Points).
• Paznos completed and Gaspard defeated.

Unique Georama Items

Generator, Great Crane, Power Arm.

Moon Flower Palace (Chapter 7)

Restoration Requirements

The Moon Flower Palace Georama is unique — conditions are hidden and there is very little freedom in placement. You must spend exactly 8,860 Gilda to buy all necessary materials. Follow Alexandra's story cues and place items in the correct positions.

Georama Items Available

Placement Guide

Recruitment Guide (26 Characters)

Recruiting all characters is required for the Supporting Cast trophy. Many have specific item or action requirements. Below is the complete list with exact requirements.

Automatic Recruits (4)

Sindain Recruits

Balance Valley Recruits

Veniccio Recruits

Heim Rada Recruits

All 26 Recruits — Complete List

Recruitment Traps

• Lin is the only genuine permanent loss. She walks out of the party once the Chapter 3 boss is beaten, so sign her up while the Balance Valley arc is still running.
• Nearly half the roster is gated behind one invisible switch — moving Gordon into a Sindain house. Mayor Need, Milane, Priest Bruno, Rufio, Sheriff Blinkhorn and Stewart all stay unrecruitable until that happens, which is why players who delay Sindain assume those characters are bugged.
• Gordon himself is easy to stall on, because his trigger is a Geostone deep in Rainbow Butterfly Wood, not a conversation.
• Parn depends on a chain: Sindain has to be finished so Jurak produces golden eggs, which become the Gold Paint he wants. Julia is invisible collateral.
• Several recruits hide behind minigames rather than exploration — Olivie (Finny Frenzy), Sheriff Blinkhorn (timed run), Mena (ten Spheda rounds) and Fabio (a large Nonky). None are strictly missable, but all are easy to never encounter.
• Mena and Milane are Monica-side tasks. Players who main Max can reach the endgame without ever triggering either.
• The Firbit Conda joins automatically once you pick up your first Geostone and runs the Carpenterion; most lists do not count him among the 26.

How Georama Actually Works

• Nothing can be built until you own its blueprint, and blueprints come from Geostones buried in the dungeons — roughly one per floor, each usually carrying several designs at once.
• A raw Geostone does nothing. Hand it to the Carpenterion on the Blackstone One, which decodes the tablet into usable building plans.
• Every part costs Gilda plus crafting materials on top of the blueprint. Those come from monster drops, stealing, chests and shops, and are mostly cheap.
• Placing parts earns Culture Points, the score representing how developed a settlement is. Small decorations give far better CP per Gilda than buildings do — that is the efficient way to grind toward a threshold.
• Each region also has a Polyn budget capping how much can physically exist there. Demolishing an object refunds its Polyn, and ordinary completionist play never hits the cap.
• The heart of the system is the goal checklist you open in Georama mode. Each entry has sub-conditions: a minimum CP total, specific parts placed, and a named resident living in a suitable house.
• A resident refuses to move in unless their own conditions are met — the right house type, sometimes a specific position, sometimes nearby scenery. Gordon insists on a tree beside his home; Claire wants the red Iron House and Donny the blue one.
• A region reads 100% complete only when every entry is ticked simultaneously. It is a live check, not a permanent flag — tearing down a required building afterwards drops the percentage again.
• Story progress and full completion are different things. You usually only need part of the checklist to unlock the next boss; the last few goals are optional and pay out the region's bonus reward.
• Missing a Geostone is not fatal — dungeon floors stay revisitable until the Chapter 7 boss, so an uncollected stone simply waits until then. But a single missed stone can block several unrelated requirements at once.

Sindain — 100% Checklist (Ch.2)

Becomes in the future: Jurak Mall

• Lay 15 River parts to reform the Forest Lake
• Plant 10 trees including Eye Tree 1, Eye Tree 2 and the Nose Tree — arranged so the Nose Tree sits between the two Eye Trees to form Jurak's face
• Raise a Straw House plus roughly three more dwellings
• Ring the Firbit's home with about 15 fence sections
• Reach roughly 50 Culture Points
• Give Gordon's house a tree standing next to it or he will not move in
• Budget around 4,850 Gilda in parts

Residents required: Gordon · Adel (Tailor's Shop) · Aunt Polly (Eatery) · Milane (Weapon Shop)

Balance Valley — 100% Checklist (Ch.3)

Becomes in the future: Starlight Temple ruins

• The signature constraint: four floating plateaus rise and sink with the weight built on them, and all four must sit at equal height at once
• Use trees as ballast — cheapest way to nudge a plateau without disturbing a finished building
• Plant roughly 15 trees
• Build a Church for Priest Bruno and a Chinese Stand for Ferdinand
• Fit a Star Lamp to a Brick House and set out 4 Pot Torches
• Reach roughly 40 Culture Points
• Budget around 4,700 Gilda

Residents required: Priest Bruno (Church) · Stewart · Ferdinand (Chinese Stand) · Parn · Sheriff Blinkhorn · Lin

Veniccio — 100% Checklist (Ch.4)

Becomes in the future: Luna Lab coast

• You are building over open sea — lay all 8 Pier Part blocks first and hang everything else off them
• Construct 4 Iron Houses painted red, blue, purple and green (budget about 10 units of each paint)
• Moor a Shop Boat near the coloured houses
• Place 8 Luna Stone Lights and erect a Windmill
• Add the Iron Shed, Iron Stairs and Pot Torch unlocked here
• Reach roughly 80 Culture Points (a lower 30 CP sub-goal covers the Luna Lab foundation)
• Budget around 6,100 Gilda — the most expensive ordinary region

Residents required: Claire (red Iron House) · Donny (blue Iron House) · Pau is already local

Heim Rada — 100% Checklist (Ch.5)

Becomes in the future: Gundorada Workshop

• Region-wide constraint: this is volcanic ground, so flammable parts are off the table — build in brick and iron only
• Put up 3–4 solid houses, one of them stacked 3 blocks high using Stair Blocks
• Mount a Work Crane and a Power Arm on rooftops
• Install a Generator and erect a Windmill
• Scatter 10 Pots and place 3 Iron Stands
• Add the Brick Chimney ×2, Iron Chimney 2 and a Hardened Mud Pile
• Reach roughly 100 Culture Points — the highest of any region
• Budget around 3,700 Gilda

Residents required: Borneo · Cedric · Gerald · Erik

Moon Flower Palace — 100% Checklist (Ch.7)

• Structurally different from every other region: there is no written checklist. The game shows reference pictures of the finished palace and you place each piece where the image indicates
• Uses only unique parts — no generic houses, and nothing imported from other regions
• No residents are involved at all
• Full manifest: 2 Camellia Trees, 6 Flower Beds, 1 Fountain, 1 Hall of Sorrow, 16 Moon Columns, 1 Palace Stairs, 16 Petal Streams, 6 Roads, 8 Roads to Golbad, 2 Silver Benches, 1 Stardust Pond, 2 Starlight Stairs
• Cost is fixed and exact at 8,860 Gilda — the priciest Georama in the game
• Blueprints come from Geostones in the late-game star-path dungeons

Residents required: None — this region is purely architectural

Georama Tips

• Sweep every dungeon floor completely before taking the exit. One Geostone per floor is the rule, and a skipped floor is the single most common reason a Georama refuses to hit 100%.
• Open the goal checklist before you start building, not after. Building blind almost always means demolishing and rebuilding later.
• Read each resident's move-in conditions individually — people refuse houses that are the wrong type, and some have environmental demands.
• When you need raw Culture Points, buy cheap decorations rather than more buildings. They deliver far better CP per Gilda and cost less Polyn.
• In Balance Valley, build the mandatory structures first and level the plateaus last. Trees make excellent adjustable ballast.
• In Veniccio, lay all 8 pier blocks before anything else, and stock four colours of paint first — running dry mid-build stalls the region.
• In Heim Rada, treat wood as forbidden and commit to brick and iron from the first placement.
• Save your money across chapters. Veniccio (~6,100) and Moon Flower Palace (a fixed 8,860) are far more expensive than the early regions.
• Do not demolish finished regions to salvage parts — completion is evaluated continuously, so removing a required structure retroactively drops that region out of 100%.
• Finish Sindain promptly even though the story only demands part of it. Completing it revives Jurak, which produces the golden eggs that become Gold Paint, which is the only way to recruit Parn and Julia.
• Photograph everything. Several recruitments and a great many invention ideas for Georama parts run through the camera.

Inventions & Photography

The invention system is central to Dark Cloud 2. Max takes photos of objects in the world to unlock Ideas. Each Idea is a recipe combining three photographed subjects; combining the right three photos creates a new invention. There are over 100 inventions to discover across weapons, Ridepod parts, consumables, and amulets. The A True Visionary trophy requires inventing everything.

Dark Cloud 2 - The invention combination process

Weapons — Max (Wrenches / Hammers)

Wrenches & Hammers

Weapons — Max (Guns)

Guns

Weapons — Monica (Swords)

Swords

Weapons — Monica (Brassards / Boots)

Brassards & Boots

Ridepod Parts — Bodies

Bodies

Ridepod Parts — Packs

Packs

Ridepod Parts — Legs

Legs

Ridepod Parts — Arms (40 total)

Each arm type has 4 versions (I–IV), each invented with a unique 3-photo combination. See the Ridepod tab for capacity and availability details.

Melee Arms (Cannonball, Clown Hand, Hammer, Drill, Samurai)

Ranged Arms (Barrel Cannon, Machine Gun, Laser, Missile Pod, Nova Cannon)

Consumables

Consumable Items

Amulets

Amulets

Weapon Upgrade System

Dark Cloud 2 features a deep weapon upgrade system. Each character wields a right-hand and a left-hand weapon. Weapons gain ABS (experience) from kills, level up to earn Synthesis Points, and can be Built Up into stronger forms once their stats meet thresholds. The pages below detail EVERY weapon for both Max and Monica, organized by hand, with complete build-up trees and evolution paths.

• Weapons gain ABS (experience) from kills. The weapon that deals the final blow gets the ABS.
• Leveling up grants Synthesis Points.
• Spectrumize items to create Synth Spheres.
• Attach Synth Spheres to weapons to raise their stats.
• Stats: Attack, Durable, Flame, Chill, Cyclone, Lightning, Exorcism, Smash, Beast, Scale.
• Build Up: when a weapon's stats meet the requirements, it transforms into a stronger version.
• WHP (Weapon Hit Points) decrease with use — repair with Repair Powder.

Weapon Categories Overview

The table below summarizes all weapon categories by character and hand. Color coding in the trees below: green = starting weapon, blue = mid-tier, gold = ultimate weapon.

Weapon Abilities Reference

Many weapons carry special abilities. These affect combat in various ways:

Max’s Right-Hand Weapons (Wrenches & Hammers)

Max's right-hand weapons are wrenches and hammers, used for melee. The main build-up path leads from the starting Battle Wrench all the way to the ultimate LEGEND. Several invented wrenches/hammers provide alternative options with special abilities.

Main Path: Battle Wrench → LEGEND

Invented Wrenches & Hammers (Alternatives)

These standalone weapons are obtained via invention (combining three photos). Some carry useful special abilities:

Max’s Left-Hand Weapons (Guns)

Max's left-hand weapons are guns. There are several gun types: pistols (standard), beam guns (shoot lasers, effective vs. enemies strong against bullets), machine guns (fire faster, less damage per shot), and grenade guns (fire slower, more powerful). The main path leads to the ultimate beam gun Supernova.

Main Path: Classic Gun → Supernova (Pistol/Beam)

Grenade Path (Alternative)

Grenade guns fire slower projectiles but can be more powerful depending on the enemy. This path branches off from the Trumpet Gun:

Machine Gun Path (Star Breaker → Last Resort)

Machine guns fire faster but deal less damage per shot. They branch from Bell Trigger and have their own complete build-up path to the ultimate machine gun Last Resort:

Special & Invented Guns

These standalone guns are obtained via invention or Georama completion:

Monica’s Right-Hand Weapons (Swords)

Monica's right-hand weapons are swords. There are multiple build-up paths leading to the ultimate Island King (500 attack, the highest-attack sword in the game). The main path runs from the starting Royal Sword/Long Sword, while the Holy Daedalus and Serpent Slicer paths offer alternative routes.

Main Path: Royal/Long Sword → Island King

Holy Daedalus Path (Alternative → Island King)

This prestigious path starts from the Holy Daedalus Blade, obtained by completing the Heim Rada Georama 100% (King Raybrandt's sword). It leads to the Sword of Zeus and ultimately the Island King:

Serpent Slicer Path (Alternative)

The Serpent Slicer is obtained from 100% Balance Valley Georama. It is the only sword that can kill the Killer Snake enemy, and branches into several options:

Complete Sword List by Tier

Every sword in the game, organized by attack tier. Abilities are noted where applicable:

Invented Swords

These swords are obtained via invention (combining three photos):

Monica’s Left-Hand Weapons (Brassards / Armlets)

Monica's left-hand weapons are brassards and armlets. There are two ultimate weapons: the 5 Star Armlet (main path) and Love (alternative path). Multiple build-up routes converge on these ultimates.

Main Path: Magic Brassard → 5 Star Armlet

Alternative Path: Crystal Brassard → Love

This path branches through the Crystal Brassard and ultimately leads to the second ultimate armlet, Love:

Satan Brassard Path (Alternative to 5 Star Armlet / Mobius Bangle)

The Satan Brassard is a tier-5 armlet that can build into either ultimate:

Complete Brassard List by Tier

Every brassard/armlet in the game, organized by attack tier:

Invented Brassard

The Bandit Brassard can also be obtained via invention (it carries the Steal ability):

Weapon Upgrade Tips

• Keep weapons balanced across all stats — Build Up requires multiple thresholds.
• Check the Build Up screen regularly — stats shown in red still need work.
• Use elemental weapons against enemies weak to that element (Flame vs. ice, Chill vs. fire, etc.).
• Save before Build Up — the transformation cannot be undone.
• Spectrumize unwanted items to stockpile Synth Spheres.
• Repair Powder is essential — carry plenty, especially in long dungeons.
• Support characters give +1 synth point per level: Cedric (wrenches), Gerald (guns), Milane (swords), Lin (armlets).
• Synthesize crystals onto feeder weapons at +5, then spectrumize for 60% stat transfer.
• Buy Battle Wrenches from Milane, level to +5, upgrade to True Battle Wrench, level to +5, synth crystals, spectrumize for +11 all stats at cost of 5 synth points.
• Ridepod upgrades are also critical — Nova Cannon is the best weapon for late game bosses.
• Use Level Up Powder (invent it!) on fully built weapons to push them to maximum power.
• Beam guns (Question Shooter, Steal Gun, Supernova, Jurak Gun) shoot lasers instead of bullets — more effective against enemies strong against normal guns.
• Machine guns (Star Breaker, etc.) fire faster but deal less damage per shot.
• Grenade guns fire slower but can be more powerful depending on the enemy.

Photos & Scoops

Photography is central to Dark Cloud 2's invention system. Max takes photos of objects and enemies to unlock Ideas (recipes for inventions). Scoops are special photos of enemies performing unique actions — they're worth more points and are often missable. The Take a Picture, It Will Last Longer trophy requires camera rank 8; you can still miss some photos and reach it.

Photography Level Rewards from Donny

Each photography level requires 100 points to advance. Ideas give 2 points each, scoops give 5 points. Talk to Donny after reaching each level to claim your reward.

Photo Checklist Summary

Total photos: 294 | Scoops: 53 | Missable/Special: 19

Chapter 1 — Palm Brinks

86 photos in this chapter.

Chapter 2 — Sindain and New Areas in Palm Brinks

65 photos in this chapter.