Minato the Thief standing in the mess hall at Laharl’s Castle, provides you with access to the Item World. That’s where you can find a hidden pocket dimension inside any item in the game, which contains a randomly generated multi-floor dungeon ready for you to explore. Whenever you want to take a break from story missions or you need a new place to get a few levels before moving on, you can take whatever you have lying around to Minato and use it to create a unique adventure.
The Item World is a big part of Disgaea D2’s endgame, but it also plays a key role in gearing up your characters as you work your way through each Episode. This section’s all about the basics. For advanced strategies and secrets, we’ve given the Item World its own chapter.
Dungeons
Any item in D2 can be used to create an Item World dungeon. A common-quality item’s dungeon has 30 floors, a rare-quality item’s has 60, and a legendary-quality item has 100.
Each floor counts as a separate stage, complete with enemies, Geo Effects, Geo Symbols, and a Bonus meter. You can progress to the next floor by either defeating every enemy unit or by capturing a glowing panel known as a Mystery Anchor, which is often but not necessarily defended by a slightly-better-than-average enemy called a Guardian, who cannot be forced off the panel with the Mystery Anchor through Lifting or with Skills like Triple Strike. If you use the Anchor, you won’t receive HL from any enemies you’ve defeated or any rewards you’ve earned by filling the Bonus meter; you’ll just warp to the next floor without further comment.
The enemy units you encounter in the Item World are randomly generated, to the point where they’ll often show up wielding weapons they’re unsuited for or with Evilities that don’t actually apply to the situation at hand. You can run into any kind of unit in the game at any point in the Item World, including jobs you haven’t unlocked yet and monsters you cannot yet create. Item World enemies’ average levels are set by the item you used to generate the dungeon, and you’ll be able to get a general idea of what level they’ll be from the Item World menu. The lower you go in the Item World, the higher-level the enemies get.
Once you’ve entered the Item World, the only way to leave is by using a Mr. Gency Exit, which automatically returns you to Laharl’s Castle; by reaching Innocent Island, a safe zone found after every tenth floor, and telling one of the locals that you want to go back to the Castle; or by clearing the final stage of the current dungeon. You can always return to the specific floor you left in the Item World by saving the item and giving it back to Minato.
The Item World represents an endurance test for your characters, since you can’t go back to heal up at the Netherworld Hospital after each map. It’s a new kind of challenge that focuses on longevity and efficiency rather than pure firepower, and provides a chance for certain characters to shine. The Onmyo Monk in particular has a number of Special Skills that are specifically designed for the Item World and don’t work anywhere else.
Every 10th floor in an Item World dungeon contains a boss fight. These Item Generals and Item Kings are randomly generated enemies like everything else you run into in the Item World, but they’re higher-level and higher-rank than the enemies you’ve fought up to that point. They also start the stage standing directly on top of the Mystery Anchor, so even if you intend to avoid fighting entirely, you’ll have to deal with the Item Generals somehow.
Leveling Up Items
The primary reason to use the Item World as you progress through each Episode is to improve your equipment. As you make progress through the Item World, every floor you successfully clear, however you end up clearing it, also adds one level to the item you used to create the Item World. The normal level cap on an item is 300, but this goes up to 999 with a certain cheat that’s available very late in the game.
In turn, every level added to an item adds a bonus to the stats it provides to its user. This bonus varies widely and is based on multiple factors, including the item’s quality, base stats, and Innocent population (see below), but you can generally count on one level adding 10% to 20% to every stat that an item provides. Leveling an item never adds qualities to it; for example, if a given Belt only boosts its wielder’s ATK, it will continue to only boost ATK whether it’s level 0 or level 300.
As you’re playing through each Episode, it’s worth taking time out to explore the Item World inside your best weapons and armor to maximize their potential. It doesn’t take a lot of time to go through an Item World’s first ten floors, and the result is a piece of equipment that’s anywhere from 100% to 200% better than it was when you found it. That, plus the extra EXP, HL, and Mana you earn along the way, makes the Item World a useful and arguably necessary stop at regular intervals while you’re playing through D2’s main stages.
Innocent Island
When you first enter the Item World, you end up on Innocent Island. This is a safe zone where no enemies appear, and you’ll automatically find your way back here after every tenth floor. Minato follows you onto Innocent Island when an Item World is first created, and you can speak to her to receive a free Mr. Gency Exit if you don’t already have one in your inventory.
Other denizens of Innocent Island include Popo, a Slumber Cat, who will take you farther into the Item World or back to the Castle if you ask; Rena, who runs the Ship Shop (see below); and Soukichi, the proprietor of the Item World branch of the Netherworld Hospital.
When you return to Innocent Island, which happens automatically after you’ve reached and cleared every 10th floor, Minato and Rena have left. In their place, you’ll find an Archer who runs the Rosen Queen Trading Company’s outlet store for the Item World. Any Innocents that you’ve found and subdued on your way through the Item World also take up residence on Innocent Island. You can talk to them if you like, but they don’t have much to say.
Boats
The Item World is, in many ways, an infinite ocean, and every stage on it is an island. To explore an ocean, you need something that floats.
When you first enter the Item World, you can talk to Rena the Sorcerer at the Ship Shop to get a Boat. This is a no-frills rowboat that can go as deep as 30 floors into the Item World. You also get a Sail Boat after your first trip through the Item World in Episode 3, and that will take you down as far as the 60th floor. To get any farther, you’ll need to find a replacement.
Your current boat appears on every stage in the Item World and is generally where your base panel is located. The only way to get a new boat is to meet and encounter one of the roving gangs of Pirates that can randomly appear in the Item World.
A typical group of Pirates is a small, set group of enemy units that usually have the edge on both levels and equipment over local enemies, and which will immediately rush your position on the first enemy turn. They start on the other side of the map, as far from your base panel as it’s possible to get, so it’s generally trivial to avoid them entirely by getting the Mystery Anchor. That said, if you take them on, you can steal their Boat and, if it’s better than yours, use it to get farther into the Item World than your Sail Boat can take you. Some of the Pirates’ Boats are huge improvements, such as the Space Ship or Catamaran; others are actually downgrades, like the Plastic Bottle. Don’t assume that your newest Boat is always going to be better.
Innocents
You’ve probably noticed before now that the items that you acquire in a battle often have small stat differences from the items you buy at Rosen Queen, even if they’re technically the same item. This is due to the presence of Innocents, which are helpful demons that live in the Item World. An Innocent’s presence in an item confers bonuses to the item’s user, such as extra stats, bonus EXP, or resistance to status ailments.
When you first acquire an item, the Innocents within it are running wild. If you use the item to make an Item World, you can find its Innocents on random floors, where they appear as neutral units. They won’t attack you, but any enemies that appear on the same floor will be just as hostile to the Innocent as they are to you. It’s then a race to see if you can reach and take down the Innocent before your enemies can.
If an enemy manages to kill the Innocent before you can, the Innocent isn’t destroyed. Instead, it’s reshuffled back into the Item World and may appear again on one of the subsequent floors. The same applies to any Innocents that are still alive when you clear a stage.
After you’ve defeated an Innocent, it’s considered subdued, and the benefit it provides to items that it inhabits doubles. Once you’re back at Laharl’s Castle, you can use the Innocent Management option on the Item World menu to transfer subdued Innocents between items, or store them in the Innocent Warehouse so you can get rid of the item they came in.
Bonus Islands
When you’re moving between floors in the Item World, you may encounter a Bonus Island. This is a random event, as is which Island you find. You may encounter merchants that sell rare items, another branch office of the Netherworld Hospital, stockpiles of treasure, or hostile monsters.
Bonus Islands are usually positive things, or at least potentially positive, but there are hidden dangers. Some of the monsters or merchants you run into may attack you without warning, and are often much more powerful than the regular inhabitants of that Item World. Be on your guard.
When you’re done on a Bonus Island, talk to Popo to leave and move on to the next stage of the Item World.