Online Missions
2006 era missions by rank:
– Drone (page 2)
– Scout (p.3)
– Trooper (p.4)
– Commander (p.5)
– General (p.6)
– Tsviet (p.7)
Clicking the link below will let you download screenshots organized by mission:
– 2006 Era – Online Missions: Picture Gallery [70MB zip file]
*Gallery last updated 2017-07-15*
You can jump straight to the MS (mission) lists following the links above to read about each individual mission or you can read further below to learn more general facts about the online missions.
– Battle Tables
– Mission Categories
– Information Tables
– September 7 Version Update
– TSV Pullum’s Pay to Win
– From Online to Offline
– Turk Vincent Battle
*Note: Thus far, this article only covers the missions of the 2006 era. The beta testing phase, or the “2005 era”, may be added to the presentation at a later date. In beta, only Drone, Scout and Trooper missions were available.*
Battle Tables
Missions were not entered by simply selecting the mission: You had to create a battle table from the mission list, then enter the mission via that battle table. Others could join the same battle table if the mission allowed for more than one participant.
By piggybacking on tables created by other members, you could even play missions that were beyond your rank, like being able to play a Trooper mission even though you were still just a Drone. With some missions also requiring certain items in order for the player to create a battle table at all, others could save themselves from acquiring and expending said item by tagging onto somebody else’s battle table.
Mission menus were accessed via terminals like the ones seen in the screenshots below.
Mission Categories
By the last month of the online multiplayer, players could engage in 125 different missions. 26 of these were map exercises for learning the topography and layout of each map, while the other 99 included challenges like destroying an enemy base, defeating a boss, collecting Mako Capsules or defeating a certain number of an enemy type.
A portion of these missions were adapted into the offline Extra Missions, which is what most players of Dirge of Cerberus are familiar with.
The missions were divided into lists based on player rank: Drone, Scout, Trooper, Commander, General and Tsviet. As you advanced in rank and progressed through the story, new sets of missions became available to you.
Mission Name 《★》
Stars implied the difficulty level of the mission. The number of stars ranged from 1 to 8, from easiest to most difficult. Typically these missions required you to clear a challenge before the timer reaches zero.
Mission Name 《Trial》
The point of “Trial” missions was to last until the timer runs out and then get a rating and a reward based on your performance. Standard challenges were to defeat as many as possible of given enemy types or to collect Mako Capsules.
The ranking letters S, A & B have been confirmed for these trial missions via blog posts and guides, but we do not possess screenshots of these lettered ratings nor do we know how many letters were used. Rank S represented the best possible rating, followed by A and B.
The system of receiving a lettered ranking sounds similar (and was perhaps even identical to) the Single Player rankings one received when clearing a chapter in that mode.
For some odd reason, online guides write that the written defeat condition for trial missions was listed as “Exceed Time Limit”, despite the very point of the mission being to last until the timer runs out. If this is truly what was written in-game, it should be considered a mistake.
Mission Name 《SPECIAL》
In no practical way different from the star-rated missions, only the battles against Galian Beast & Chaos are confirmed to have belonged to this “SPECIAL” category. These special battle missions were both available from September 7 in the 2006 era, listed at the top of the Drone rank missions, and was an exciting treat for the last few weeks of the online mode.
It has not been confirmed if the battle against Turk Vincent, which was available from June 5 – June 26, received the title of 《SPECIAL》.
Information Tables
| Narrator: DGSC Jingi |
| Shit! My treasured book has been stolen! This has to be the work of that thief Banban-G that people have been talking about. Of course, I wish I could take it back myself, but…… Bleeeaaaaarrrgghhhh!! |
Each mission had a paragraph describing the general story behind the mission. Bits of Deepground lore can be glimpsed in these descriptions and the narrator behind the mission depended on the context in which it was unlocked.
What complicates matters is that for most cases we don’t know who the intended narrator was. Analyzing the pattern of speech in the mission description and matching that with what we know of the NPCs of Deepground is, currently, the best we can do to figure out who the narrators were.
We assume that for every promotion exam, a non-distinct officer is the narrator, since it was the officers who handed out the promotion exams to the player.
| Implemented | Month X Date Y No date means the MS was there from the start of the service in January 26, 2006. |
| How to Unlock | – Ranking Points – Advance in the story – Clear sidequest – Acquire an item |
| Map | Example: Church |
| Maximum Participants | 1 or more |
| Initial Supplies | – HB = Handgun Bullets – RB = Rifle Bullets – MB = Machine Gun Bullets – Potions |
| Mission Objective | – Defeat Boss (sometimes a Tsviet of color) – Defeat X of Enemy Type – Destroy & Invade the Enemy Base – Collect X Mako Capsules – Collext X Medals |
| Conditions for Defeat | – Suffer X KOs – Allies Annihilated – Exceed Time Limit |
| Reward | – X Gil – X Ranking Points – DG Class/Rank Promotion – Item – Medal |
| Time Limit | X Minutes Y Seconds |
| Prohibited | Examples – Melee – Magic – Shooting – Custom Weapons |
| Pay to have cleared | X Gil |
Promotion Exams, apart from the first exam mission, required that you had enough Ranking Points in order to apply. Once a Promotion Exam MS had been cleared, it could not be revisited unless you created a new player character or completely reset the progress of your current character, the latter which could be done via the Beginner’s Machine.
Because the unlocking of many missions were directly linked to your progression through the online mode’s story, these long chain of events won’t be divulged for each relevant MS. Instead, that info will be reserved for a separate article about plot progression and the memory capsules of the Dirge of Cerberus Multiplayer.
Most of the translated text in this article comes from the Japanese site “Final Fantasy Strategy Guides“, hereby abbreviated as FFSG. Scrutinous cross-referencing have been made with multiple sources, such as DCFFVII Pukiwiki (hereby shortened to “DCFFVII Wiki”), official PlayOnline reports, player blogs, videos and screenshots. When sources disagree, these observations may be included in the mission commentary.
Many thanks to Joel for his epic work in translating the immense amounts of Japanese text related to the online Dirge of Cerberus missions!
September 7 Version Update
When the online mode had only 22 days left, the final version update greatly decreased the amount of required RP (ranking points) necessary to perform promotion exams. This allowed players to experience the game’s story and content at a much faster pace, which made sense given how close the end was. Here is the data we possess of the ranking point requirements before and after the September 7 version update.
| Promotion Exam | RP Before Sep 7 | RP Sep 7 – 29 |
| Drone 1st | 4000 | 1000-1100 |
| Scout 3rd | 7000 | 1000-1100 |
| Scout 2nd | 11000 | 1000-1100 |
| Scout 1st | 15000 | 1500 |
| Trooper 3rd | 19000 | 1900 |
| Trooper 2nd | 23000 | 2300 |
| Trooper 1st | 28000 | 2800 |
| Commander 3rd | 35000 | 3400 |
| Commander 2nd | 40000 | 3400-4405 |
| Commander 1st | 46000 | 4405-5385 |
| General 3rd | 52000 | 4405-5385 |
| General 2nd | 58000 | 5385-6319 |
| General 1st | 64000 | -No Data- |
| Tsviet | 70000 | -No Data- |
The reports for the required ranking points from September 7 and onwards are approximate and incomplete. Based on the pattern of required ranking points, we can speculate that the player would have needed approximately 6500-7000 RP to do the Tsviet Promotion Exam.
TSV Pullum’s Pay to Win
From April 20 and onward, with the introduction of the character TSV Pullum in the Area 1 basement, it was possible to have missions cleared by paying for it.
While we possess no screenshots of the menus showing the prices in gil, DGYaco’s blog thankfully reported the cost for 41 of the online missions. A report by blogger Michui confirms the price for having Pullum clear the battle against Nero the Sable in the MS “Black · Wing · Mock · Battle”. Thus we have gil cost reports for 42 missions.
| Mission | Cost in Gil |
| Drone Rank MS | |
| DG Drone 2nd Promotion Exam | 7500 |
| DG Drone 1st Promotion Exam | 7500 |
| DG Scout 3rd Promotion Exam | 12000 |
| Beginner Course Part 1 | 2000 |
| Beginner Course Part 2 | 2000 |
| Beginner Course Part 3 | 2000 |
| Church map exercise | 2000 |
| Jungle map exercise | 2000 |
| Wastelands map exercise | 2000 |
| Sewer map exercise | 2000 |
| Kalm Streets map exercise | 2000 |
| Train Graveyard map exercise | 2000 |
| Shinra Building Map Exercise | 2000 |
| Roof map exercise | 2000 |
| Processing Plant map exercise | 2000 |
| Collector’s Mind | 2000 |
| Dual Horn Battlefiel | 5000 |
| Sniper Threat | 2000 |
| Steel Wall | 8000 |
| Double Attack | 2000 |
| Silent Killing | 12000 |
| Scout Rank MS | |
| DG Scout 2nd Promotion Exam | 12000 |
| DG Scout 1st Promotion Exam | 12000 |
| DG Trooper 3rd Promotion Exam | 18000 |
| Assault Mission | 8000 |
| The Jungle Elite Unit | 2000 |
| Dual Horn Family | 8000 |
| Panic Matador | 12000 |
| Rains of Gehenna | 12000 |
| The Giant Birds who Cry Death | 8000 |
| Monster Box | 5000 |
| The Stolen Secret | 8000 |
| The Gravekeepers’ Mako | 8000 |
| Miraculous Servant | 12000 |
| Light Bullet Oratorio | 8000 |
| Treasure Retrieval Order! | 5000 |
| Trooper Rank MS | |
| DG Trooper 2nd Promotion Exam | 18000 |
| Green Encounter | 2000 |
| Forest of Grudge | 12000 |
| Sahagin Dance? | 8000 |
| The Blue Roar | 32000 |
| Commander Rank MS | |
| Black · Wing · Mock · Battle | 42000 |
After paying to have “Black · Wing · Mock · Battle” cleared, the player would receive the medal “Emblem of the Black Wings” even though they had not defeated Nero the Sable. In the game’s story, the Nero in this mission was not the real thing but in fact just a simulation.
From Online to Offline
To compensate for the lack of an online mode in the releases after the original Japanese version, some of the online missions were repurposed into the offline “Extra Missions”. Here is a brief summary of the online missions that were either ported over to the Extra Missions or inspired their design. Deeper comparisons are made in the sections of this article dealing with each individual MS in detail.
Let’s start with the four missions that had their names preserved in the transition to offline form.
Collector’s Mind
Online: Collect 7 Mako Capsules in the Church area within 10 minutes.
Offline: Collect 10 Mini EX Medals in the Church area within 5 minutes.
The collecting of Mako Capsules was completely removed for the Extra Missions. Instead missions have you either collecting Mini EX Medals or Gigas EX Medals. The positions of the collectibles in Collector’s Mind remained mostly the same in the transition.
Rains of Gehenna
Online: Collect 7 Mako Capsules in the Major Fault area within 5 minutes.
Offline: Collect 8 Mini EX Medals, followed by a section with 12 more medals, in the Major Fault area. No time limit.
What constituted the entirety of the online mission was turned into essentially the first half of the Extra Mission counterpart. Both iterations rely heavily on the player conserving ammo and being a good sniper.
Ghost Room / Chamber of Ghosts
The literal translation of the Japanese MS name is “Ghost Room” though it was localized to “Chamber of Ghosts”.
Online: Defeat the teleporting ghost(?) in Shinra Manor within 3 minutes.
Offline: Defeat the teleporting ghost(?) in Shinra Manor. No time limit.
In the Extra Mission, the ghost is glowing and never fires upon the player. Going by the one screenshot we have from the online mission, the soldier is not glowing and they appear to be actively shooting the player character.
Monster Box / Boxemon
The literal translation is “Monster Box” but the localization took the liberty of making an allusion to Pokémon.
Online: Defeat 3 Cactuars in the Major Fault area within 3 minutes. Magic is not allowed.
Offline: Defeat 3 Cactuars in the Major Fault area. No time limit or other restrictions.
Placed around the field are 14 boxes. When boxes are destroyed, they reveal enemies. Your task is to find the three hiding Cactuars and defeat them. The other boxes contain the wrong, sometimes very ferocious, enemies. Having no way of telling beforehand which box is correct makes this mission mostly based on luck.
After this point we get to missions that remained largely the same but had their names changed.
Dual Horn Battlefield → Wastelings
Online: Defeat the Dual Horn in the Wastelands area within 7 minutes.
Offline: Defeat the Dual Horn in the Wastelands area. No time limit.
The main boss is accompanied by Guard Hounds and Crimson Hounds. Defeating these provide necessary ammo to strike down the Dual Horn. Playing as Vincent Valentine however, defeating these enemies also has the benefit of granting you a higher killchain which will briefly boost the power of your bullets.
Miraculous Servant → Messenger from Hell
Online: Destroy and invade the enemy base in the Huge Facility while running away from the “servants”. Time limit is 4 minutes.
Offline: Reach the goal point in the Huge Facility while running away from the living dead. Time limit is 3 minutes.
Destroy the boxes that block your path through the corridor until you finally reach the outside at the top. In the Extra Missions, you never destroy enemy stations/bases like you did in the online missions. The Extra Mission replaces the enemy base at the end with eight boxes that must be destroyed before you can go through the exit and reach the goal point.
Lightning Illusion → An Invitation to Illusion
Online: Collect 7 Mako Capsules in Shinra Manor within 5 minutes.
Offline: Collect 10 Mini EX Medals in Shinra Manor within 2 minutes.
The player must memorize which electromagnetic barriers are true obstacles and which ones can be simply walked through, as they also memorize the positions of the collectibles. The placements of the Mako Capsules were re-used for the Mini EX Medals.
In the online mode, all electromagnetic barricades had blue lasers. The Extra Missions however make the distinction that barricades which can be undone are blue while permanent barricades are red.
Top Secret Training Ground → Go with the Flow
Online: Next to the waterfall in the Huge Facility, defeat all the enemies you can within 3 minutes.
Offline: Next to the waterfall in the Huge Facility, defeat 30 enemies within 5 minutes.
Enemies are dropping down the waterfall and quickly moving away beyond your sight. This setup remained the same in the transition from online to offline but the mission objective was tweaked.
Cerulean Awakening → Cait Versus the Bull
Online: Battle Arch Azul in Kalm Streets square within 4 minutes. A maximum of 10 players at a time could participate.
Offline: Using Cait Sith, defeat Arch Azul in the Kalm Streets square. No time limit.
The boss and the place remained the same but the Extra Mission version became quite the joke in comparison. As with all Cait Sith missions, your enemy’s power has been greatly reduced to give your feline companion a fighting chance.
From here on, mission similarities become more superficial.
The Extra Mission “Drumline” employs a mechanic that you may only defeat a Dual Horn by shooting the explosive drum cans in its path. This is derived from the online missions “The Stolen Secret” and “Stolen Rare Gun” where you had to use drum cans and S-Mines to defeat the mission boss Banban-G.
The online mission “A Bridge too Far” and the Extra Mission “Cyclopean Causeway” share the similarity that you must navigate through the confusing Bridge area basement corridors to get to the goal point. However, your goal in the former is on the northern part of the map while in the latter the goal point is on the southern side.
Battling Cactuars in the Desert area was a thing that happened in the online mission “Cactus Dance?” and in the Extra Mission “100,000 Needles”, but that’s where the similarities end.
In conclusion, the Extra Missions of the offline-only releases did take a lot from the online missions but not everything. Controlling Cait Sith, surviving missile barrages (see “Missilebreaker Melee” and “Missilebreaker Deathmatch”) or using a gun turret (see “Gatling in the Wastes” for one) are examples of features and challenges that never appeared in the online mode.
Turk Vincent Battle
By collecting Turk Vincent’s battle data and handing it over the Black-J in the Area 4 basement, players could acquire a one-time password to set up a battle table for the fight against Turk Vincent. Once the battle was over, they would either re-collect the data to get another password or they would piggyback on somebody else’s battle table.
The battle against Vincent Valentine’s Turk form was never grouped along the “missions” but it feels appropriate to give this special battle an honorable mention.
The exact name for this battle is unknown and the game’s description for the battle has not been preserved either.
| Available | June 5 – June 26, 2006 |
| Map | Train Graveyard |
| Maximum Participants | [Unknown: 5 or more] |
| Mission Objective | Defeat Turk Vincent! |
| Conditions for Defeat | Exceed Time Limit [Conditions for KOs, Allies and respawns unknown] |
| Time Limit | [Unknown: More than 3min 27s] |
The reward for defeating Vincent was to acquire the Chocobo Cap. The Cyber Turks (or “Turks Training Robots”) occupying the stage would occasionally drop “Garbage Data” and once you had enough of these you could trade them in for a Tonberry Cap.
Bloggers report that Turk Vincent was an exceptionally fast-moving opponent. In the single player content, you never get the chance to battle Turk Vincent. You may only play as him in the offline Tutorial Mode.
