After reaching Termina and speaking with Korcha, you will have to head back to the entrance of the city and head north. Here, you will meet an old man polishing the Viper Statue. He will go on about receiving an invite to the Viper Manor, and let you know that you’re not getting in. After wrapping up his dialogue (and recruiting Kid if you hadn’t already,) you will now need to find a guide to the Viper Manor. Here’s how to recruit Nikki in Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition.
First off, there are technically three guides to choose from — but choosing one will lock the other two out entirely on this playthrough. The three guides are Guile the magician, Nikki the rocker, and Pierre the vain swordsman. You will be able to obtain items related to them on any file, but you cannot obtain them all without loading a completed game file into a Continue+ file after clearing the game. If you wish to recruit all three, it’s recommended that before choosing, you instead create three save files and recruit each of them on a new file before continuing. You can play through any of these files first, but Guile is the strongest of the three and will help you immensely if you’re new to Chrono Cross.
Head to the left part of Termina, past the bar, and board the ship via the stairs. Head into the door located at the bottom and speak with the man on the right. A woman named Miki will burst in, exclaiming that she couldn’t find Nikki — he disappeared into the Shadow Forest. She will ask for your help, and should you accept, will tell you to head to the forest. Exit out onto the world map and head to the east — the Shadow Forest is nearby. Enter and travel along the path until you see a man trying to sing to monster.
As you approach him, he will run away before getting trapped by some Cassowaries. These enemies aren’t terribly strong, but they can focus in on one of your party members and deal some heavy damage. They are weak to the Green Element, so load up on Bushwhacker prior to heading in. Once you save him, he’ll disappear into a hole in the water. Follow him to discover a cave, and then talk to him to have him join your group. You will automatically leave the cave after recruiting him, but you should go back in to get the Aroma Pouch and the Angry Scapula, which is used to recruit Skelly later on.
