Fretless – The Wrath of Riffson Walkthrough Part 6

• Walkthrough Table of Contents
  • Beginner Tips & Tricks (In progress)
  • Part 1 (Songwood Forest, Dissonant Thicket, SMR Larry)
  • Part 2 (Dropdee Beach, Timbre Faults, Zolio’s Camp, Xylomander)
  • Part 3 (Timbre Faults Contd., SMR Profitmancer, Lava Riffson)
  • Part 4 (Tunedra, The Triadic Tree)
  • Part 5 (Bass Camp, Carillon Caverns, SMR Assassin)
  • Part 6 (Battle of the Bands, Endings)
• Fretless – The Wrath of Riffson Review

Welcome to Part 6 of our walkthrough for Fretless – The Wrath of Riffson. After overcoming everything thrown at him, Rob has finally made it to Vivace Venue, Festival Grounds to take part in Battle of the Bands.

As you’d expect, not everything is fair in the contest. But our hero isn’t about to go down without a fight.

For more information about Fretless – The Wrath of Riffson beyond this guide, check out the official website here.

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Vivace Venue Parking Lot

After arriving at the Vivace Venue Parking Lot, head east. You’ll find a Supply Chest beside a parked bus with 200 Gold Picks.

Head north till you get to the Battle of the Bands banner. Doctor Strum will call you at this point, asking you to decline signing the contract if you win the contest.

Once the conversation ends, head forward and you’ll notice a fountain with five trumpets. There’s something gold stuck in the middle trumpet. To get this item, you’ll have to find and interact with four birds hidden in the area.

The first bird can be found east of the Nurse’s Station in the top right corner of the zone. You’ll also find a Supply Chest containing a Coil Wound Pickup Mod and 100 Gold Picks nearby.

For the second bird, head straight south. You’ll see a musician performing on stage in front of a big crowd. The bird is sitting to the south of the crowd. There’s a Potion Shop nearby.

The third bird is located south of the area with the Mod Bench, Mod Shop, and Dewey’s Shop. From the fountain, head west and go down.

The final bird can be found by heading up from the Mod Bench and left. It’s beside the day care for kids. You’ll also find a Supply Chest here containing a Health Potion.

Once you’ve interacted with all the birds, head back to the fountain and interact with it. You’ll get the Warbler Trophy as your reward.

By now you’ve got a basic layout of the area. Head back to the area with the guitarist performing and go east. You’ll find a merchant selling upgrade materials. Loot the Supply Chest beside her to get a Crescendo Potion.

When you’re ready, talk to the SMR Scheduler standing beside the Nurse’s Station to go on stage and get the show on the road.

Battle of the Bands Round 1

Watch the cutscene of Rick Riffson hyping up the crowd for the Battle of the Bands. It took a while, but you’ve finally made it. But it’s clear that Rick Riffson will do everything in his power to prevent you from winning.

The first act will have you going up against the duo enemies: Cyberphunk and Mr. Midi. The main gimmick of this fight is that Cyberphunk can’t take damage from FX when Mr. Midi is alive. Mr. Midi on the other hand only takes damage from FX while Cyberphunk is alive. All things considered, this isn’t really a tough battle, and if you’ve got direct damage Riffs active, you should be able to defeat the duo without any trouble.

After defeating the two enemies, Rick Riffson brings in the second act. This time it’s another devastating duo: Trombonie and Tubad. Tubad applies the Delay effect on your FX Chain on attack, which deals damage to you whenever it expires. This becomes deadly when paired with Trombonie’s passive that expires the next effect on your chain.

Once you defeat this duo, Rick Riffson brings out his trump card. He calls to stage the band, Karma Dioxide. It’s the same band that you talked to in Dropdee Beach.

The band has three members and each of them has a different passive effect.

• Blazer: Generates shields for all enemies at the start of his turn.
• Lazer: Adds total shield to damage when attacking.
• Romona: Applies Filter effect to revived band members.

On top of that, the band as a whole has a passive where the members can revive after one turn with 50% max HP as long as there’s at least one band member active on the field.

To defeat the band, you’ll have to make sure all of them get defeated within one turn of one another. If you manage to take down one member while the others are still healthy, they’ll just keep reviving.

After taking down the band, watch the cutscene and you’ll eventually find yourself back out in the Vivace Venue Parking Lot.

Finding the Sewer Entrance

After your exceptional performance in Round 1, Rick Riffson is not taking any chances. He has instructed the bouncer not to let you in for Round 2 of the Battle of the Bands. Heal up and restock if you have to. Then head to the area with the bouncer.

You’ll see a man wearing a costume with a giant head of Rick Riffson entertaining some people near the bouncer. Take the path on the west from this location, in front of the suited man wearing sunglasses.

Loot the Supply Chest on the north for the Gold Strings Mod and 100 Gold Picks.

Continue heading north and interact with the Sewer Entrance to go in.

Once you’re in the sewers, continue moving forward. You’ll see a cutscene where Rick Riffson orders his goons to throw you out if they catch you.

After he’s gone, go west to find a Mod Bench. Use it if you have to and then take the yellow lift to go to the next part of the map.

Sneaking On To the Stage

After getting off the lift, pick up the Yellow Keycard on your right. Use it on the yellow table to activate the door.

Head north past the corridor and Scientist Wendy will call out to you while hiding behind a stack of boxes.

She’ll explain how the SMR is actively looking for her. This kicks off a stealth segment where you need to avoid the line of sight of the SMR Workers patrolling the area. You’ll see their line of sight in red. If you get caught, you’ll get thrown to the start of the zone in the sewers.

Once the cutscene ends, head west. Hide on the other side of the wall below to avoid the enemy’s line of sight. When he passes, run to the left side and go up.

You’ll find another enemy patrolling up ahead. For this one, you’ll want to stick behind him and start moving with him as he’s walking back. Collect the Blue Keycard in the small room and wait for him to pass by.

Go down the north corridor when the coast is clear. Turn left and head down to loot the Supply Chest containing 2 Health Potions and 200 Gold Picks.

Use the Blue Keycard on the blue table on the right and go through the open door.

You’ll find yourself in an office. Head left first to loot a Supply Chest. It contains the Vigorous Strings Mod and 100 Gold Picks.

Head to the right side of the room. You’ll see a closed door up ahead.

Go south and talk to Scientist Griffin. Note the movement of the enemies on your right.

Carefully avoid the line of sight of the enemies and collect the Supply Chest in the far right side containing a Cure Potion. This area is safe.

Once the enemy looks up, go down to find a Yellow Keycard Table. Interact with it to open the door below you.

Loot the Supply Chest on the left for some Gold Picks and head back to the office using the door below.

You’ll notice that the door with the window that was locked earlier is now open. Go inside and loot the Supply Chest for a Crescendo Potion and head right on to the next section.

This part of the zone contains a lot of SMR thugs patrolling.

You’ll have to make your way to the eastern part of the room, where you’ll find a Blue Keycard table. Interact with it to open the blue door. Then head through it without getting caught.

Go south and you’ll find another Supply Chest containing a Shield Potion.

Wait for the SMR thug to walk by and run to the left part of the room and go down.

Cross the office and head south to the next section.

Head south first for a Supply Chest containing the Decay Expander Mod and some Gold Picks.

Pick up the purple Stage Entrance Keycard and use the table to unlock the door. Head through the door and get back to the lower level of the sewers using the yellow lift.

Use the Stage Entrance Keycard on the table on the right to unlock the door. Continue moving to get to Round 2 of the event.

Battle of the Bands Round 2

Spoiling Rick Riffson’s plan to have you forfeit, you emerge from the bottom of the stage in Battle of the Bands. With no other choice left, Rick lets you move on to Round 2 of the event.

The first battle is against P-2000 and RCA-TT-ACK. Both of these enemies have pretty low health, and you should try to defeat them as quickly as possible. P-2000’s passive deals 10 damage to you when defeated, increasing by 10 at the end of each enemy turn. RCA-TT-ACK’s passive gives it 10 shield whenever it loses HP.

The second act is against two Electromanders that apply different status effects on attack depending on their color. Purple applies Delay, Red applies Echo, and Yellow applies Compression. Not a tough fight at all considering all the enemies you’ve faced thus far.

After defeating the two Electromanders, you’ll be going up against two Sub-Snails. The Sub-Snail doesn’t reset its shield at the end of its turn. However, if you can remove all of its shield, it will be stunned for one turn.

Once you defeat the monsters, Rick Riffson will bring back SMR Larry. Only this time, he’s called Encore Larry. It’s a beefed-up version of the same boss we faced back in Part 2 of our walkthrough.

This time Larry has a lot more tricks up his sleeve. He still has his Crescendo, which he’ll use if given the chance. He also has multiple attacks and can generate shields or heal himself when his health drops.

After defeating him, Rick Riffson will announce you as the winner, and you’ll find yourself back outside.

The Final Decision

As the winner of Battle of the Bands, all that’s left to do is sign the contract. Go left and head up the stairs on your right.

You’ll find a couple of NPCs in the area, including Doctor Strum celebrating your victory. Go right and you’ll find a Supply Chest in the lower part of the area containing a couple of Health and Shield Potions.

When you’re ready, take the stairs in the middle to go up to Riffson’s Office.

After a brief conversation, Rick Riffson will offer you a contract. You can either sign it or choose not to.

Choosing to sign the contract gives you the bad ending for the game.

If you choose not to sign the contract, you’ll go up against the true final boss of the game, Rick Riffson.

Rick Riffson is a three-phase fight that puts everything you’ve learned so far to the test.

He uses multi-hit combos to whittle down your health and can apply Compression, Echo, and Delay with a single move. He also has a healing ability.

Once you get through the first phase, he’ll run to the back of the room and summon a couple of cabinets. Take down these cabinets to move on to the final phase of the battle.

For the third phase, Rick Riffson jumps into a robot and attacks with three Aux units. You can’t damage Rick directly during this phase and must defeat all the Aux units first. Once they’re down, Rick Riffson will be stunned for one turn. Use this window to deal enough damage to take him down for good. But be warned, when his Aux units are down, he can also strike with his own Crescendo to deal massive damage.

Defeat the boss to unlock the true ending for Fretless – The Wrath of Riffson.

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This concludes the final part of our walkthrough for Fretless – The Wrath of Riffson. You can find the walkthrough for the other parts in our walkthrough hub for the game.

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