R00t Guide

Starting Out

Unlocking r00t access

Requirements:
1 Errant Bit. They are found in Syntax Error(Nin 25d25s) on at least Crank 1.
Your village must have the upgrade Chaos Gate.

The Quest Kaiju's Bargain will open up allowing you to get the R00t Password. You can then access the Phase menu and the Field menu from the Village menu.

Navigating through the Fields involves using combinations of any three Field Keys (indicated by the three drop-down menus near the bottom). More Keys can be obtained, and making new combinations with them unlock more areas to interact with. Much of this guide is indicated with certain combinations to certain areas; the main point is finding new Field Keys and using those Keys with others to proceed.

Most of the fields have field actions where your stats are used to defeat enemies and earn two r00t specific currencies: Core and Bits. Core is more common and Bits are rare. There are other fields that act as shops to spend them.

Note that while most inherent bonuses (from items) do apply, team bonuses do not — there are no field teams, only Phase teams. Bonuses from potions and ramen also do not apply in the Fields (it is likely that Field Actions are simply not considered "regular missions".) Jutsu cannot be used in the Fields either, so your ability to increase your stats on demand is severely limited.

First Field (Simple - Training - Aqua Field)

Do field actions until you find the Keys Dimly Lit, Crumbling and Dealer's Room.

Unlocking Shops

Recompiling (Simple - Training - Dealer's Room)

You can spend Core here for permanent boosts to your stats, but they only work in r00t. Having visited this field, you will be able to do the quest Online Junkie which levels up Sporty to Sporty Lvl.2.

You'll note that after recompiling, your statblocks will look something like this:

Gen: 29
Lvl: 26 (+6)
Str: 10 (+2)
Rng: 41 (+4)
Suc: 2(+1)

The first number (next to the name of the stat) is your base level. The row actually marked "level" is in fact your level bonus, from all sources other than r00t recompilation. The number in parentheses is the boost from recompilation — this number is what determines the cost of each additional upgrade. Specifically, the cost of each upgrade goes up by twice the base price with every purchase. So, upgrading from +n to +(n+1) will always cost $(2n + 1) \textrm{base}$, and it will cost a total of $n^2\ \textrm{base}$ to upgrade from +0 to +n, where $\textrm{base}$ is 500 for level, 5000 for strength, 1000 for range, and 7000 for successes.

Since the total cost goes up quadratically, and you are only charged for in-r00t upgrades, it can save you a lot of time to track down every inherent bonus you can find (especially from themes and sponsored items.)

Purchase R00t Powers (Dimly Lit - Crumbling - Dealer's Room)

This field allows you to purchase Field Keys, which are permanent, and r00t powers, which are not. You will need a total of 22,500 Core to purchase the three field keys here Pulsating (10,000), Worst (7,500) and Core (5000). It is advised to purchase the keys as soon as you can afford them to unlock higher difficulty fields because those give more core.

Pulsating - Worst - Core

Do field actions until you find the field keys Blaring, Hidden, Forbidden and Holy Ground.

Bit Shop (Blaring - Hairy - Parking Lot)

Hairy can be found at Blaring-Training-Dealer's Room and Parking Lot can be found at Blaring-Hairy-Dealer's Room by doing field actions.

The Bit Shop sells things in exchange for Bits. At this point, you won't have found enough to buy anything, so just move on.

The Last Bastion of Purity (Hidden - Forbidden - Holy Ground)

You'll unlock a trophy and a quest, which requires 5,000 core to complete and levels Tsukasa Lvl 2.

Even if you already know what you need to say here, you still have to find the parts before it will be accepted.
The secret phrase is Let Us Walk Together.

The three portions of the phrase are found at:
Pulsating-Forbidden-Holy Ground to get ..'Let Us'..
Hidden-Worst-Holy Ground to get ..'Walk'..
Hidden-Forbidden-Core to get ..'Together'..

Once you have found all three, return here, speak the words "Let Us Walk Together" and you will receive the Twilight Guardian Summon - + 2 Strength, +2 Range in Fields and +1 Life in Phase Battles. If you loop, you can immediately head back here and say the secret phrase to reacquire the Summon.

The Epitaph of the Twilight

Broadly, your next goal is to obtain the Epitaph of the Twilight, which opens the way to the endgame of r00t. If you didn't have this guide, it'd also be what tells you what that endgame is and what you have to do to reach it — r00t is significantly more open-world than the other parts of the game in that way. On the way, you'd unlock Overture — a shop that allows the purchase of Overtures, powerful, expensive 'til day roll' effects, for ryo, at Raging-Passionate-Melody.

However, accessing Overture requires you to pass three exceptionally tough checks, significantly harder than any virus you've seen so far and a fairly large chunk of the viruses you'll see after:

Raging can be found at Blaring-Worst-Dealer's Room after completing a 35D/40S check in Genjutsu.
Passionate can be found at Blaring-Crumbling-Dealer's Room after completing a 35D/40S check in Ninjutsu.
Melody can be found at Blaring-Forbidden-Dealer's Room after completing a 35D/40S check in Taijutsu.

It is quite likely that you need to recompile a lot to beat this. You may use Twilight Guardian for as long as it lasts each day to get an extra little bit of Strength and Range, slightly reducing the amount of recompilation needed. A +5 Range in Fields power can be bought at the Purchase R00t Powers field for 5,000 Core, lasting for one day; buy this on the day that you make your attempt. (Unfortunately, most other temporary boosts, such as from potions or ramen, don't apply in the Fields.)

However, at this stage, the best Core farming fields you have are in difficulty 35-50, where viruses which drop a fixed 250 Core (except for the Typical Badguy who only drops 25). Together with the frequent 'dud' encounters ('Nothing Happens' or +100 ryo), you'll probably average around 10 Core per Stamina spent. Even with optimization — which can still save you hundreds of thousands of Core — this can burn through a lot of stamina.

Fortunately, there's a loophole that lets you bypass a significant chunk of this grinding — depending on how your stats are distributed, anywhere from a quarter to almost half of it. If your stats are high enough that you don't need to recompile much, or you really prefer to do everything in order, just skip the rest of this section and go on to Overture.

However, if you've got a lot of grinding ahead of you, if you have an somewhat stronger stat or a somewhat weaker stat (even by just a few points), and especially if you happen to be relatively weak in Genjutsu, you may be interested in a bit of sequence breaking.

However you proceed, though, make sure you do go back to visit Overture, or you won't be able to progress any further in r00t.

Overture

Overture can be found at Raging-Passionate-Melody. After visiting this field for the first time, the next day roll you will receive the field key Cursed.

At this point, you can also complete Attached at the Hip to level K.Y. to K.Y. level 2 who has a 10% Core Bonus.
Requirements for Attached at the Hip:

  1. K.Y. (Found on the C-rank Gen mission Clear Out the Forest of Death)
  2. Smokey the Bear level 2 (Smokey the Bear is found on the B-rank Nin mission Cut Through a Platoon and is levelled on the C-rank Nin mission Flatter an Ambassador.
  3. Having visited Raging-Passionate-Melody.

The Epitaph

Effectively, go to the hardest Field you can that isn't the Overture field. Specifically, a field with difficulty 70-75. Note that each field key is associated with a specific difficulty; the difficulty of a field is the sum of the difficulties of its keys, plus or minus a small random correction. Raging, Passionate, and Melody each have difficulty 25; Hidden, Forbidden, and Holy Ground have difficulty 20. Thus, any field with two keys from the first set and one key from the last set will generally get you the right difficulty range.

Collect seven Epitaph Fragments from the Evil Anomalies here, and you can complete the quest that gives you the item Epitaph of the Twilight.

"Fallen is the Chosen - Hopeless - Nothingness"

S-Rank Missions

Do S-Rank missions until you get the field keys Filthy and Noodle Shop (they're in the 25d25s Tai/Nin and Gen/Tai missions). A crank of at least 2 is recommended, but is not required. If the RNG hates you, try to appease it as much as possible now, or you may find yourself stuck on this step for weeks. SuperSerum may help.

Note: You can farm AA-Rank missions for Delicious and Dance Floor at the same time, but the Monochrome missions that give Chosen and Hopeless are only unlocked after visiting Hunt and Hack Someone, and so cannot be done at this point.

AA-Rank Missions

Run Genjutsu AA-Rank missions until you get the field keys Delicious and Dance Floor, each in a different Gen 25d/25s mission. A crank of at least 2 is recommended, but is not required.

Note: Cursed Delicious Dealer's Room is a good early source for Bits, before higher fields are unlocked. Remember to purchase R00t Powers for a 25% boost before you start.

Hunt and Hack Someone (Cursed - Filthy - Noodle Shop)

This field lets you "Hack" other players to gain +1 Drain Strength for the day for Phase Battles. These players receive -1 Drain Strength as long as your Hack lasts. Hack 5 people in this way to get the field key Nothingness.

There is a brilliant greasemonkey script which makes hacking much cheaper and easier.

The quest Wild Child, which levels Trapchan, is unlocked after visiting this field. To complete it, you have to have completed 10 hacks 'ever'. You could do 5 for the above field key and The One Sin, and 5 for the next Phase you drain. Although the ally Trapchan level 2 herself is rubbish, she's required to do the 'currently corrupted' quest Shining Finger for Doughman level 2. The quest also requires you to currently be corrupted.

Having Doughman Lvl 2 in team unlocks the secret area in the Bit Shop, which is invaluable for the later phases (after Lost Weapon 6, see bit farming techniques). Since a successful drain leaves you corrupted, if you do 5 hacks for your first drain after The One Sin, and then when you win and get corrupted, go claim both these allies before paying it off.

Monochrome Missions

Do General Monochrome missions until you get the field keys Chosen(Nin 25d25s) and Hopeless(Gen 25d25s). These missions are rare, do not try to do specific mission types. A crank of at least 6 is a requirement.
Note: You must have visited Cursed-Filthy-Noodle Shop before you can get these field keys.

The Endless Blizzard (Chosen - Hopeless - Nothingness)

Here you can pay 500 Stamina to summon The One Sin, a 5,000 HP, Difficulty 10 Phase battle, and gain 100 attacks against it. Beating it gives you the Spear of Wotan. In addition, the first time you beat it, you receive the field key Brilliant. Also, if you beat it as a Sannin, you are upgraded to the rank of R00t.

Phases

Now you are ready to fight Phases! Remember that Phase Menu in your Village Menu that you unlocked right at the start? Go there, and pick a weak one to start with.

When fighting Phases, you want to be able to do as much damage as possible. This means increasing your extra Lives, Drain, Drain Edge, Drain Strength and Bonus Phase Damage, and decreasing your Chance Of Death so you don't lose. Look at the Phases page for more information about that. You only need to get your Drain Strength up to 1 below the Phase Difficulty.

You get Lost Weapons by draining Phases. To drain a Phase, get its HP down to the drainable level (like when catching a Pokemon) and Drain it. This corrupts you as if you lost to the non-drained Phase and converts one of its normal drops to a powerful Lost Weapon. Noob Slayer helps with getting a Phase down to Drain-able HP without killing it.

Do this while drawing Essences from the field below and trading them for the other ones. 21 of each Essence is required to progress.

If you loop in the middle of this step, you will have to obtain R00t rank, Detective Duo, Trapchan lvl 2 and Doughman lvl 2 again, and possibly Noob Slayer and Offline Romance as well.

Endgame

Essences (Brilliant - Delicious - Dance Floor)

Here, once a day, you can draw an Essence, either Earth, Fire, Lightning, Water, or Wind. Which one you can draw is unique to your character. The Essences act like Potions, and consuming one causes 2 of them to appear in your inventory. While you can convert 50 of one essence into 1 of a different essence, it's better to trade for the ones you need.

Drinking essences at the field Essences gets you the field keys Beautiful, Passed Over and Touchstone. In addition, the clues you receive when you receive the keys will are important to passing an upcoming field - or they would be if you didn't have this guide.

Note: Do not try and drink 5 or 15 one-at-a-time. You need to click three different buttons.

Gathering the scattered power of the Flash: Lost Weapons (Beautiful - Passed Over - Touchstone)

When you first get here, the area is empty. You will need to figure out the clues from Essences in order to see what lies here.

Depending on how many Lost Weapons you have, you get:

Lost Weapons Reward
1 FK: Corrupted
2 FK: Despaired
4 Lycoris
6 FK: Paradise
6 Stalkergirl Lvl. 3
6 Iron Bond
8 Crusader's Sword
8 Book of the Twilight

Corrupted - Despaired - Paradise

At first glance, this is pretty much a regular field. However, doing Field Actions here will eventually give you the hint
Ancient Wards
This Field reminds you of your own Village - maybe ones similar to it would take you to a different part of your Village…

Note: Visiting this field is not necessary to progress.

Cursed - Despaired - Paradise

Cursed is the correct field key.
You will need to complete a 40D45S check in Genjutsu, a 45D/50S check in Ninjutsu, and a 50D/50S check in Taijutsu to receive the keys Sickened, Imprisoned, and Fallen Angel.

The Black Altar (Sickened - Imprisoned - Fallen Angel)

This is the final field. At BillyTime 11:11 you can summon the The Eleven Tailed Fox, provided you are uncorrupted and not currently fighting a phase. You are allowed 1 minute before or after the initial 11:11 hour/minute i.e. 11:10 and 11:12.

This is an exceptionally hard phase, because you lose two lives every time you die. It also starts at 10 days alive, so 10 favours must be used over 10 days, including the day you summon it, to lower its DC to minimum. Including the extra life favour, 11 favours total are required. Limitless Focus level 3 is very useful for getting the required favours. Make sure you have as many bonuses as possible before attempting this. Defeating it gets you Eleven Tails and Eleven Tails.

The Revenge

The next time you go to the ElevenSnax booth at the Festival, you will fight The 11 Tailed Revenge. It's very easy compared to The Eleven Tailed Fox, and you get another trophy for defeating it.

List of Field Keys

All Field Keys by Tier and Key Field
Tier Key 1 Key 2 Key 3
1 Simple Training Aqua Field
2 Dimly Lit Crumbling Dealer's Room
3 Blaring Hairy Parking Lot
4 Pulsating Worst Core
5 Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground
6 Raging Passionate Melody
7 Cursed Filthy Noodle-shop
8 Chosen Hopeless Nothingness
9 Brilliant Delicious Dance Floor
10 Beautiful Passed Over Touchstone
11 Corrupted Despaired Paradise
12 Sickened Imprisoned Fallen Angel

Trivia

  • The name "r00t" is a pun and a double reference: on the one hand, to "root access" (administrator privileges) on a system (an allusion to .hack//, which provides inspiration for much of r00t's allies, items, and plot structure); on the other hand, to Root, Danzou's personal secret police in Naruto (reflected by the r00t special rank higher than Sannin, and tying the sub-setting back into the rest of the game).
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