Vandal Hearts Trials of Toroah Heaven Key Trial

 

Each chapter of Vandal Hearts has a Key to the Trial of Toroah.  You have to do various things to get them but generally it involves finding an item on the battlefield - not an easy thing to do.  Anyway, here is the list of the keys.

 

Chapter 1 - Nova Key

Chapter 2 - Earth Key

Chapter 3 - Mana Key

Chapter 4 - Chaos Key

Chapter 5 - Logos Key

Chapter 6 - Heaven Key

 

 

Getting the keys is no easy task.  They are spread throughout the chapters but sometimes you need items from previous chapters (example - Key of Chaos) to get Key's in later chapters.

 

Nova Key - After defeating the desert monster for Grog, go to the tavern and speak to the woman at the bottom.  She just gives it to you since she can sun-tan in the desert now.

 

Earth Key - Talk to the guy at the Yuzu tavern in chapter 2.  He says he dropped a weird fruit in a poisonous swamp.  So when you get to Loris Beach, search for a + shaped poisonous swamp and use a Hawknight to fly over there and search for a Banana.  The Banana is worthless but bring it to the guy at the tavern and he gives you the Earth Key.

 

Mana Key - This is often overlooked.  When leaving the Prison, in the battle against Dumas, press the switch on the second level.  This opens a gate for Clint's party.  Take someone to the other side (stay on the ground) and look for a suspicious crack and search for the Mana Key.

 

Chaos Key - You need the three collector's item for this.  You get the Macroman at Ygdra Canyon (search the ground by the four Madsoldiers that don't move), the Tarot in chapter 3 Basil Gate - search the southeast corner for it, and the Ramen at the end of the train station (look for a grating to search near Dallas).  Once all three of these items are procurred, go to the collector at the Kerachi Tavern and he gives you the Chaos Key.

 

Logos Key - In the Cave battle against the Salamander, search the center of the smallest lava pit (near the Salamander) to find the Logos Key.

 

Heaven Key - Go to the Weird Man at the Glasgow City Tavern.  If you have the 5 prisms from the 5 keys above (complete the trials) then he'll give you the sixth and final key, the Heaven Key.

 

 

 

This battle can be fun early in the game - difficult even.  As your characters get promoted and have higher movements, you can get on top of the enemy and maul them.  Either way, get to the top and grab the Nova Prism, and use your best hogs at the top to fight it out.  Archers and Hawknights are key with the long range attacks and movement respectively.  Grab the Nova Prism at the top and then make your way down to kill the enemies.     

 

For some reason the treasure in the center is an Ice Prism instead of Earth Prism.  Oh well, you'll notice the enemies are all archers.  Most of them are low level archers and they can't shoot that far - but the ones in the back are more dangerous.  

 

If you come back at a high level this is just a mop up, but if you're low level you'll want to stick together and slowly take the enemies out.   

 

Items - Mana Prism

Acquired in the battle against Dumas.  Open the gate with the upper team and have one of Clint's teammates go search the area on the lower ground on the other side of the gate.  

 

This is a strange battle.  Basically, you need to Spellbind the Brigand right away with Eleni or Zohar.  Then, as you can see, there are 20 chests.  The one you want is in the very southeast corner.  This is the Mana Prism.  Get it and slaughter that damn brigand.

 

I hate this battle.  You have to get to the chest but you need all three yellow crates to do so, and it's tough to get them all over there without killing all of the golems.

 

Start off by clearing the first floor.  This just makes things easier.  A few Salamanders can get this done basically, at least to the south corner with about 10 golems combined.  

 

Once you get the yellow crate on the narrow path in the north, make sure you kill all the golems on the second level except for 1.  Try to leave a Gold Golem (preferably the one on the west that isn't in the way of the treasure) since they're the hardest to kill, and Spellbind it.  By the time you move the second floor crate over and get the third floor crate to the second floor, the golem will recover from it's Spellbind status.  

 

Now as the Gold Golem has Spellbind on it, push the second floor crate north once and then you can get on it and to the third floor.  Only bring a few characters up here, like your hawknights and ash.  After they are up there, move that second crate on top of the first one (so keep pushing it north).  Meanwhile, get the third crate and push it west to where the second crate was, and then push that down and get the chest for the Chaos Prism.  The worst case scenario during this is that Spellbind misses both times and then you have to maneuver yourself so that your weaker characters counterattack the golem to buy you some time (and don't let him get in the crate-pushing route).  

 

This battle is a treat.  The Logos Prism is right next to where you start, but you have to spend about 45 minutes climbing the pyramid to kill all the enemies.  

 

There is no real trick about this battle - stay healed, it's a true test of attrition.  Also, stay on the inside route so the Basilisks can't pick you off.  Eventually you'll see a Dark Mage above you, and this is where things get tricky.  They can cast Evil Stream spells on you from wherever, so one of them starts to do so, expend all the magic you need to kill them, and see if an archer of yours can hit them too.  Then continue on.  

 

 

Have fun with this battle.  All your favorite bosses are back (my favorites are Dumas and Lando Hitman).  Dallas and Kurtz seem to pose the most problems for me, and of course we know what the Dark Mages are capable of.

 

The first skirmish with the Zoot Gach's and Dumas' is a joke.  Dumas is pretty tough still but Lando and Zoot should be one-hit fodder.  

 

The next group is a bit tougher.  Dallas is a hog that no one can take a lot of damage off of.  Kurts continually uses Dagger Storm so don't let him surround 2 or more allies.  The Dark Mages can be shot with arrows and killed in one hit - do so with both down here.  Sabina is easy.  

 

The last group is harder because you have to go uphill and thus can't arrow your enemies as easily.  Just remember to save an Evilstatue so that you can go get the Heaven Prism first at the end.  

 

You have all the prisms now.  Go to the Dojo and try to promote Ash.  You see that he can be a Vandalier now.  Do this and look at that golden outfit.  He now had the Vandal Helmet and Vandal Armor to go along with the Vandal Sword.  

 

In battle, it gets even better.  He blocks everything - including attacks from behind.  Oh, he also has access to every ability and item in the game.  Unfortunately, his MP is low.  But he has a spell called Plasma Wave (which you'll see in the Fort Gareth battle anyway) ability that takes off a lot of damage on basically the entire screen.  Needless to say, having Ash be a Vandalier will make this game an absolute breeze - it's fun though and makes all the prism-collecting worth it.