The familiars are fun little spirits/creatures that like to follow Alucard around, and help him out along the way. Each familiar has its own talents, and each has its own little cool things that it says/does. To get a familiar, of course, you must have the familiar card (a relic), and have that card turned on in order to have that particular familiar tag along. However, sometimes they can be a hinderance, so be sure to use the correct ones in the correct places.
BAT:
You find the card for this familiar in the Alchemy Laboratory, in the small room at the top that branches off from where you fought Slogra and Gaibon. The bat doesn't do too much when Alucard is a man, but things get a bit more interesting when he turns into a bat. When Al the bat fires a fireball, so does the bat. Once the bat is on level 40, instead of having one bat trailing after him, he has two. Every 20 levels, Alucard gains another bat friend when he turns into a bat. By the bat's level 99, Al can fire a total of 5 fireballs because of his little flying helpers. Remember: This only works when Al is a bat. The bat is also cool because it's one of the agressive familiars, and it tends to attack a lot. You can always tell when it's going to attack, because a little exclamation point will appear over its head.
GHOST:
The card for this familiar is located in the "dungeon-type" area that at the very top of the Castle Keep area, to the very right. The ghost is really weird. All it does it suck HP out of an enemy. Half the time to get it to attack, Al has to attack an enemy first, or actually run into an enemy. The only cool thing that the ghost does is after level 70, the HP it sucks out of enemies goes to Alucard in doses of 8. A good familiar to keep if you're low on HP. I did find something funny, though: just for fun, change into a bat when you have the ghost. It'll get all confused, and leave the screen until Alucard changes into something else.
DEMON:
This familiar card is found in the Abandoned Mine, down to the left of the room with the Gremlins (the one that has the Teleport room to the right). The demon is pretty cool, and is my favorite familiar. He can push switches that Alucard can't reach (like in the Abandoned Mine). In the beginning, when he attacks he misses half the time. But once he gets up to level 35, he can do Fire spear. On level 50, he can do Ice spear. Around level 75 he can pull a Thunder spear, and when he's on level 99, he can do Lightning spear, which causes 353 points of damage! It's definitely worth getting his levels up. Not only that, but he has a cute little voice, and I think he's better than the Faerie on the "Cuteness" scale.
FAERIE:
The card for the Faerie is found in the Long Library, to the very top left side-room that branches off of the main room....the one with all the Magic Tomes. From the start, the Faerie can give Alucard potions, anti-venoms, uncurses, and resist-whatever. She's the only familiar that can do this, and she's the only one who can give Alucard the Life Apple if he dies, or can use the hammer when he turns to stone. Because of this, she's useful to have around when you're either fighting a boss (such as Medusa), are low on HP, or are roaming around a place where there are a lot of yellow Medusa heads around. She's also good for finding walls, cielings and floors you can bust open to get into rooms. When she gets up to level 99, I've been told that she can cast resist ice, fire and thunder on Alucard without using the (use) items. But I never saw her do this, it's only what I've been told. It doesn't matter, because in short, this familiar pretty much sucks. She's more of an annoyance than anything else. One of the few things that is nice about her is that she's cute.....for example, she'll sit on Al's shoulder after he stands still for a while. But really, this familiar isn't worth it.
SWORD:
The card to this familiar isn't in an easily visable room. It's locate in Olrox's Quarters, in the section of the last room before you enter the Royal Chapel. The part of the room is all in white marble (unlike the prision setting of the rest if it), and the room is directly above this, so break a hole in the ceiling above the left candlebra and jump up into it to get the card. One of the best familiars, and the one people use the most. It shouts things like "Slice!" and "Slash" as it attacks. Its attack power goes up with its levels, as is expected, and once it is past level 50, it can be used as a weapon. I suggest you get it up to level 99 and pull the "flying outside the cathedral" trick before you use it at a weapon. It's a pretty good weapon to use, and the warm, fuzzy feeling you get when you see "Critical: 314!" after killing an enemy with it is so nice.
