follows: fire for offensive abilities, water for health-related abilities, wind for status-related abilities, earth for abilities that affect damage stats (given or taken). There are 3 abilities in each element category, and each ability has three tiers (level 1, 2 and 3), with level 3 being the most powerful and costing the least MP. Equipment can be obtained through various methods, including finding, purchasing and 'creating' items such as body armor, weapons, ammunition and tools. Unlike most other survival horror games, ammunition is almost never in short supply. While Aya can only carry limited amounts of equipment with her, inexhaustible ammunition boxes exist in most areas and can be revisited as often as required for a top-up. This encourages the player to fight rather than run, which is essential to the gameplay as it is the only way to gain experience and thus for Aya to become powerful enough to succeed. While equipment follows the original game's concept of being customizable, in general the weapons and armor are quite limited in the alterations available. Armor, which not only reduces damage but also affects the amount Aya can carry, has the option of adding extra item slots up to a limit of ten. Once the game has been completed, bonus items become available for the player should they choose to redo the game in Replay mode. Other modes also become available, such as Bounty Hunter and Scavenger which are more difficult for the player to complete. The most difficult mode "Nightmare" only becomes available after completing the game in Scavenger Mode. Plot Three years after the events of the first game, Aya Brea, now an FBI operative working in their clandestine Mitochondrial Investigation and Suppression Team (MIST), is dispatched to the Akropolis Tower shopping mall in Los Angeles to back up the LAPD SWAT team in response to reports of Neo-Mitochondrial Creatures (NMC) sightings. As Aya and her partner Rupert Broderick investigate the tower they discover a new form of NMC with the power to pass as human who were able to slaughter the first responders. As Aya works to exterminate the NMCs she discovers the building is wired to explode and encounters the psychopathic No. 9 who injures Rupert. Aya defeats No. 9 but barely escapes with Rupert when he triggers the detonators on the building. Following the raid Aya is sent by MIST director Eric "Hal" Baldwin to investigate