So, before we begin, there are some things I like doing in every playthrough I do. These aren't mandatory, but they're just things I like doing. First, DO NOT GET THE MACHINE GUN. It sucks horribly, and you have much better options later. I personally prefer the Snake, although the Spur is much better, It's just my personal preference. Next, don't get the Missile Launcher. This is very important for something I'll explain later. The last thing is that once you get access to the Big Jelly, and by extention the Jellyfish Juice, you'll wanna take some to the assembly hall in Mimiga Village. Put out the fire. You'll get a really coolio weapon called the Bubbline. (Or, the Bubbler in the freeware download of Cave Story.) It starts off really weak, with a measly 3 rande and 1 damage, but by level 2, that range increases significantly and it becomes automatic. the damage also increases a lot. And by level 3, you've got a powerhouse on your hands. It's the only shield weapon in the game, and boy does it deliver.

Now, first thing's first, depending on what gun you have by this point is what you'll get when you visit Chaba in the Labrinth Shop. (the Gaudi behind the counter is Chaba) If you chose the Machine Gun, (DID YOU EVEN READ THE LAST CHAPTER?!) you'll get the Turbocharge. All it does is make the Machine Gun reload faster. It sucks. If you still have the Polar Star, (And I hope you have the Fireball) he'll take both the Fireball and the Polar Star and make the Snake. The Snake can shoot through walls, and its super rad in my opinion. But it's an unpopular opinion. I don't reccommend going with the Snake if it's your first runthrough of the game. I reccomend the Spur for firsttimers. Which leads me to my next point. If you don't go with the Snake, and keep the Polar Star until you arrive back in Mimiga Village, Fly up to the First Cave using your shiny, new Booster 2.0. Go pay a visit to the Hermit Gunsmith. He may be pretty angry that you stole his gun, but he'll be so moved that you used it so well even though it was unfinished. So he finishes it for you, and you get the Spur. If you visit Chaba with THAT, you'll get the Whimsical Star. When you fully charge the Spur, three stars will orbit around you. While they DO deal damage, it's not very much. I still enjoy getting it, though.

Okay, now that I'm finished explaining that, let's move onto 3rd ending stuff. Once you finish off Monster X and head off to the next room, you'll see Professor Booster fall into the chasm in the middle of the room. DO NOT FALL DOWN AND TALK TO HIM. You will get the Booster 0.8, and can no longer get the 3rd ending. Even if you were to somehow get into the Blood-Stained Sanctuary with the Booster 0.8, there is a segment where you need the Booster 2.0, making it impossible to progress with the Booster 0.8.

Now, you may be wondering, "If I can't go down into the chasm, I must have to jump across, but it's really difficult!" Well, Pixel thought that too. so he made a little red mark on the ledge you have to jump from. If you run and jump from there, that should make it easier. There is a save point in the same room, in case you mess up. This is it for the stuff you need to do in the Labrinth.

Once you exit the Labrinth Fight into the Dark Place, (No, I'm not being lazy. That's the actual name of the room.) it's reccomended that you save. Go into the next room, and once you enter the boss arena, head down to the bottom right corner of the arena. If you didn't talk to Booster, (Like I told you not to in the last chapter...) there should be a little sparkly area. Check it, and you'll get an item called the Tow Rope. This item is INCREDIBLY important for the 3rd ending. Alrighty, now fight the Core normally. Once you beat it, you'll proceed to drown like normal. After you wake up with Curly's Air Tank, check her. It'll ask if you want to use the Tow Rope. Say yes.

Once you enter the Waterway, play normally up until you find a small shack. Hop out of the water and go inside. This part can be a bit tricky, because the currents push you along pretty fast, but you'll do it eventually.

Once inside the shack, walk to the bed and take a rest. When you wake up, Curly will be resting in the bed. Walk over to the computer, and check it. It'll say something about a journal. Well... There are some bookshelves. Maybe that has something of interest in them? Check the bookshelf on the right, and you'll learn yourself how to service flooded robots. How convenient. Check the bed with Curly in it, and you'll drain the water from her. Then check her one more time and choose to not leave her behind. I don't know why the hell they worded it like that, but ay whatever. From here, play the game normally.

As you are making your way up the Outer Wall, you'll find an area with a little bit if fence around it. Press down to enter it, as if it were a door. This will take you to the Clock Room. There should be a chest on a platform in the center of the room. If you've been following the instructions up to now, the chest will open, and you'll get the 290 Counter. So, as of now, you have gotten to the Plantation. Head forward from the entrance, until you find a hole with little lips sticking out of the right side. When you go down, you'll find Cthulhu next to Curly, who's in bed. Talk to Cthulhu, and he'll tell you of a mushroom that can restore memories. Luckily for you, there is one of those, and its in Mimiga Village's Graveyard. Now, this part is kinda dumb. Y'see, if you go to the Storage Room in the Cemetary before talking to Cthulhu, Ma Pignon will say that you dont have any business with it. (Him? Her? I dunno.) So to get to Mimiga Village easily after arriving at the Plantation, you have to take the teleporter. so play the game normally, until you gain access to the Plantation teleporter. Go to the Mimiga Village Cemetary, and use your Booster to fly up into the Storage Room. If you talk to Ma Pignon, it'll (He'll? She'll? I dunno.) give you the mushroom badge. Go into your inventory, and check the Mushroom Badge. Now talk to Ma Pignon again. It'll (He'll? She'll? I dunno.) say that it's (He's? She's? I dunno.) been found out. You'll then proceed to fight it. (Him? Her? I dunno.) Once you win, it'll (He'll? She'll? I dunno.) give up, and let you take it (Him? Her? I dunno.) with you. Take Ma Pignon back to Curly in the Plantation and shove it (HIM HER YOU KNOW THE DRILL BY NOW) into her mouth. Curly will begin to remember things again. It's really only for story, if you want to read it. Once she's finished remincing, talk to her again. She'll give you the Iron Bond. Proceed with the game normally from here out.

Alrighty, this chapter will be pretty short. So, there is an extra challenge that comes with doing the 3rd ending. That is the Hidden Final Cave. As soon as you walk in, a message saying, "A black wind blows through your body. All weapons have been dropped to level 1!", and that proceeds to happen. It is a signifigantly harder version of the Final Cave that you must traverse in the normal ending. All I have to say about this place is... It's tough. REALLY tough. But as much as you may want to, DO NOT USE YOUR LIFE POT. This will screw you over later. You want to save it for before/during the Ballos fight. There are recovery items before you go to fight Misery and the Doctor if you boost your way up the wall before the entrance. Anyways, there is a Miniboss near the end of the Hidden Final Cave. It is called the Red Ogre. It's basically a tougher version of the Droll enemies that you find on the Plantation. It has 300 health, so it's pretty bulky. But nothing you can't handle. Once you beat him, a chest will appear. If you open it, you'll get the Medal of the Red Ogre. It doesn't really have a purpose. it just looks coolio. Up next, there will be a long walkway with Press' lining the ceiling. An easy way to get past these is if you have the Spur and the Whimsical Star, to use the Whimsical Star to destroy the first one, and then use a fully charged Spur shot to take out the rest in a row. if you don't have the Spur or the Whimsical Star, use a level 3 Bubbline to take them out. Continue normally from here.

Here it is, what you came here to learn about. The Blood-Stained Sanctuary itself. To get there, you must enter the Prefab Building as the island is falling apart, after defeating the Undead Core. Once you enter, I highly reccomend that you save. Although, keep in mind that this is a point of no return. ...sorta. If you check one of the bookcases, one will say that it can take you back in time a couple of minutes. This is in case you want to get the normal ending. But you can't go back any further than that. Anyways, you'll notice that there is a hole in the ground inside the Prefab Building. This is the entrance to the Blood-Stained Sanctuary. Once you enter, a message saying, "The 290 Counter was activated." The 290 Counter is a record timer. It times how fast you can complete the Blood-Stained Sanctuary. If you beat it within 6 minutes, Curly will be your cursor on the title screen, and the Running Hell music will play on the title screen. If you beat it within 5 minutes, Toroko will be your cursor, and Toroko's Theme plays on the title screen. If you beat it in under 4 minutes, King will be your cursor, and the track White will play on the title screen. And, if you're a magician, or a psychopath who's perfected every aspect of Cave Story, and beat it in under 3 minutes, Sue Sakamoto will be your cursor, and the Safety track will play on the title screen. Whew... Still with me? Good. Now, onto the Blood-Stained Sanctuary itself. This place is like one of Ross O'Donovan's Mario Maker levels. It's absolutely brutal. In the first floor, B1, there are many Energy Capsules, as entering the Blood-Stained Sanctuary will lower all of your weapons to level 1, like the Hidden Final Cave. I reccomend leveling up the Bubbline, the Blade, (If you didn't trade it in for the Nemesis) and the Fireball/Snake. At the end of B1, Curly will be knocked out in front of the entrance to B2. Use the Tow Cable to pick her up. Now, onto B2. Blocks are going to fall from the ceiling. They pack a punch if they fall on you, so try dodging them by using the Booster 2.0, as that is the fastest way to move. You may have noticed that there are some new Enemies. These are called Butes. Get used to seeing them, because they're everywhere in this place. Don't make the mistake I did on my first playthrough, and don't try to knock them all out. Every time you kill one, a new one replaces it. I reccomend that you just speed through that hallway as quickly as you possibly can. At the end, there will be a hole in the ground. Jump in, and welcome to the biggest floor of this place; B3. Make sure that you don't use your Life Pot yet. By the time you get here, Curly will be awake now. She shoots in the opposite direction of you, unless you're standing on the ground and shooting up. Now, if you were like me and skipped the Missile Launcher throught the ENTIRE game, this is the payoff. Near the end of B3, you can spot a lone Polar Block (one of the purple block with white stars on it) attached to the ceiling. Usually, if you had been collecting the Missile Upgrades throughout the game, there would be a chest inside the Polar Block with +24 Max Missiles. But because we're big boys now and didn't get any of those pesky Missile Upgrades, the chest contains (get this) +100 MAX MISSILES. How rad is that?! Anyways, once you calm down after freaking out over your acheivement, head to the room to your left, and get ready for a boss fight. This is the Heavy Press, the final miniboss of Cave Story. This thing has a whopping 700 HP! I know what you're thnking, but I promise, you don't want to use your new Missiles yet. You're going to want to save those for Ballos. You can only damage the Heavy Press in the center of it's body. This also just so happens to be where it shoots lightning at you. Once you knock it out, it'll have a brief moment before it comes crashing down. Youre going to want to move out of it's way before it smashes you into the ground, and you have to restart. I learned this the hard way... A-anyways, horrible memories aside, the Heavy Press comes crashing into the ground, and makes a hole for you. Take all the courage you have, and leap in!

So, you just fell down the hole the Heavy Press made. Sure, there's a door that's right next to you, but we dont wanna go in there quite yet. Use your Booster 2.0 to fly up one level, and head to the right. Go in the door, and you'll see 4 statues. We could admire the artwork, but we need HP, Energy, and Missiles if you used any. If you shoot the statues, they'll eventually shatter, and reveal statues of King, Quote, Curly, And Toroko, along with either Hearts, Missiles, or Energy. In Cave Stoey 3D, checking the statues after they've shattered gives you +1 max HP each.

Now, with no more distractions, let's go meet up with the man himself, Ballos. Exit the Statue Chamber and head through that door we talked about earlier. This will take you to the Corridor. As you head through the Corridor, you'll come across a ghost dog. It will tell you of Ballos being it's (His? Her? I dunno.) master, and that you must kill him to free it from it's curse. It'll the fade away, and you're free to go. Head up the stairs, and go in the door. This door leads to the Seal Chamber. Head to the right, and that's whre you'll find him. Ballos. Once you get close enough, he will begin his story of despair... And once he finishes, he challenges you to a battle. Once the dialogue box closes, Ballos will stand still for a couple of seconds. This is when you want to spam the heck outta your Missiles. But once he starts moving, stop shooting them to make sure you don't waste a single one. Missiles are incredibly precious in this fight. Anyways, once he starts moving, I reccomend switching to either the Snake or the Spur. Ballos' first form has 1000 HP. He's incredibly quick, but if you're good with the Booster, he should be pretty easy to dodge. This battle is where you want to use your Life Pot.

Once you beat the everliving daylights out of Ballos, he retreats. What a whimp. Or is he? a giant stone head crashes down onto the floor, and it looks like Ballos... It's a bit disturbing... But to damage this form, you have to hit him in the eyes. this is the Snake's time to shine. All you really have to do in this form is avoid the giant bouncing stone head, and shoot him in the eyes. this form has a little bit less health; 800 HP.

Once you knock out that form, 8 stone eyes surround Ballos, and he begins circling the outer perimiter of the room. You have to shoot the stone eyes until they close. Each eye has 101 HP.

Alrighty, this is it. you've closed all the eyes. In Ballos' fourth and final form, the stone eyes begin bouncing around the room, and the floor becomes spikes. You basically have to do what you did in Ballos' 2nd form. But this is when you want to unleash the Missiles. Go crazy, and blast his eyes out. Literally. This form has a whopping 1200 HP!

Heya, everyone! It's me, Mathilda! The author of this guide! I'd like to thank those of you who used this, because I actually stayed up all night working on this... But it's finally finished! I'd like to thank my friend Rhombidandy for helping me out with some of the information for this guide. I also used the Cave Story Wikia page for the information of the Red Ogre and Ballos. I put lots of work into this, and I'm glad that it turned out so well. Now... If you'll excuse me, I need to go get some sleep... See ya, everyone.