The Final Fantasy III Walkthrough and Battle Tactics Guide Version 2.5 Djibriel, November 2005 "It doesn't seem fair, does it?" "Who says life is fair?" - Final Fantasy IIIus ad ..."The OC guide to beating the game while rabid and one-armed making clever use of a wall" - Imzogelmo Contents No number: Contents Foreword (11/14/2005, by Imzogelmo) 1.0 Version History 2.0 Introduction 3.0 Set-up of the document, and slang you're going to start recognizing 4.0 The Walkthrough 5.0 Menus and Game Options: As boring as a concrete floor in math class 6.0 Characters. Poor saps. 7.0 Game mechanics; real quick, I promise 8.0 Not Infrequently Asked Questions 9.0 Espers and their Magicite 10.0 A Flippin' Contest! 11.0 Final Fantasy VI Junkie links and contact information 12.0 Credits; People I love because they've done things I wanted them to do No number: Disclaimer ********************************** Foreword (11/14/2005, by Imzogelmo) ********************************** The year was 1994. Until that time, humanity seemed a bleak existence -- why, the 20th century alone saw the world ravaged by two world wars, a tense period known as the Cold War, and various regional conflicts. Finally, in the latter decades of the century, a new ray of hope emerged -- the video game. Instead of fighting and killing one another, now mankind could do so vicariously or, if it was preferred, two could team up and do battle against a fictional foe. Like all forms of expression, the video game underwent many reformations (or generations) before the recipe became "just right." Several genres of game sprang into being: platform games, shoot-em-ups, action/adventures, sports, puzzlers, fighting games, and RPGs. Each type of game appealed to a different type of player or interest, and all the while advances were being made both in capacity of games' data and complexity of the hardware used to run it. By the early 1990's, the types of presentation that would work with a given genre were well-established, and players could afford to specialize in a particular genre without narrowing the field of games too greatly. That brings us back to 1994, or, as Nintendo called it, "The year of the cartridge." In that year, _Final_Fantasy_VI_ was released, and there was much rejoicing. The genre was RPG; the fictional foe was the evil Emperor Gestahl, and later, the pompous nihilist Kefka. Sure, there were other RPGs before it, but none that struck the perfect balance of character similarity vs. diversity, importance of storyline vs. gameplay, and plot linearity vs. non-linearity. The depth of characters and robustness of the game engine (plus the time investment required to fully explore the nuances of the game) made this one of the highest- rated games in terms of replayability. Furthermore, the vivid graphics and moving musical score made it a complete experience, not just a game. "But it is just a game!" I hear someone in the back say. No, it is not just a game. In the fast-paced world where information is old as soon as it can be emailed, a video game generally has a very small window of time that it is considered new or exciting. For the early history of video games that may not have been so true, but for the entire history of this game, the internet has been a very influential medium for discussion among players. For many fans of the series, this is still the greatest game, in spite of the hype surrounding some of its successors. So no, it is not "just a game" -- it is a culture. And like many great cultures, it needs great works to explain, enhance, and record its story. To document every piece of useful (and no-so-useful) data on a culture -- that's a difficult task. Many approximations have come forward, but always they have had inaccurate, inconsistent, or insufficient information. That is not meant as an insult on previous guides -- like I said, it's difficult. Much information has been uncovered through deliberate playing and replaying of the game, through hacking its internal code and data, and through combined effort of its many fans. This guide seeks to improve upon and surpass all previous attempts. This guide seeks to be the great work of which I speak. This guide covers _everything_. ********************************** 1.0 Version History ********************************** Version History: - Version 2.5 (02/07/2014) Still at it? Don't I have a job or a family or something? Upgraded some things, mainly due to some experimentation with games where no characters get KOd. Rewrote the Rizopas section. In the Phantom Train, there is a compartment with two hidden items, a Tent and a Fairy Ring. This compartment can be accessed from two consecutive cars in what is a strange but apparantly intentional event. Described it in this new version. I missed a treasure! There was an Ether to be found in WoR Mobliz. Where I previously advised to obtain Sabin ASAP in the WoR without much further discussion, I've discovered the merits of not doing so. I now explain the advantages and disadvantages of your choices. I fixed a monster formation pack in the Phantom Forest. It was not correct. Added a note on how enemy NPCs respawn once during Kefka's Raid on the snowy hills of Narshe. I improved the FlameEater section with the Rasp strategy and some notes on Grenade. Added a note on the possibility of training Celes, Edgar, Setzer and Gau at the start of the WoR to inflate the level of the other characters to be recruited. Improved and streamlined the Colosseum sections. Made a lot of changes to the chapters detailing Kefka's Tower. Mostly I've made the party transition moments more obvious, broke up the endless list of monster formation chances and monster descriptions into room-by-room bits and give a simple and functional example of possible teams that allow Locke and Strago to face Doom and steal that Safety Bit and learn that ForceField Lore. I noticed that I used 'Confuse/Confused' and 'Muddle/Muddled' to indicate the same thing. The game calls the affliction Muddled, so I went with that. - Version 2.4 (02/28/2012) It never ends! A quick update, this. Implemented a note about the way the Floating Continent handles available monster formations for you to fight. Added a note on Shadow lacking Interceptor protection when walking to Thamasa when you didn't recruit him in Sabin's scenario or Kohlingen. - Version 2.3 (02/28/2013) As promised, I closed down the contest. The acrostic is still there... I wrote down all the moments where your character's levels are recalculated based on the party average, as well as all moments where characters are automatically de-equipped when they leave your team. I scattered notes about these phenomena where appropriate. I further improved on the Ice Dragon and Red Dragon strategies by adding that the Muddled monsters that are also Clear will never heal themselves, a trick sadly inapplicable in the GBA version of the game. I fixed a wrong monster formation from the Floating Continent. I fixed a northeast/northwest mix-up in the WoB Kohlingen chapter. I knew for a while that you couldn't get rare items from Ragnarok's Metamorph through Magicite items, but neglected to change this in the document. Here you go! Included obtaining Gogo as a possible part of the game-breaking "Moogle Raid" Discovered and added that the jailer in Figaro Castle also takes note of the latest in Figaro Esper research after you read the queen's diary in the Ancient Castle. Fixed a comment where I mention SoulDancers are vulnerable to Dischord, which they are not. Added some notes on your "options" when controlling Edgar for the first time. We can only assume Edgar doesn't want to enter Narshe because he's afraid they'll hound him for his royal autographs. Fixed a whole slew of typos and bits where I confuse left and right. - Version 2.2 (04/06/2012) Lots of small updates lately... think of it as a new way of keeping information up-to-date, web 2.0, stuff like that! Because the update features a lot of small updates, here's a list: Due to some self-imposed challenges I re-evaluated some write-ups and improved, I think, the sections on Deathgaze and Mandrakes. I added info on how the global timer on the Floating Continent will abort battles when the place is about to blow. I made three (!) interesting changes to the Phoenix Cave section: I had overlooked a Teleport Stone chest which has been added, clever maneuvering can get you past some spikes with only 400 HP damage (not 800 as I claimed) and I added some info on how random encounters are twice as rare in the Phoenix Cave. I corrected a mistake in 1.14.1 where I advise a Heavy Shield - the least ninja-like of equipment - on Shadow while he cannot make use of it. I added a strategy for the Red Dragon when you lack Fire-resistant equipment. I corrected a mistake where I say you should Sketch Harpy for Aero, but you should Sketch Harpiai instead (or no bird at all). I had shamefully neglected to include random encounters for three places: the long stairway and empty tube room in the IMRF, the Eastern Mountains of Crescent Island and the lands around WoR Kohlingen. - Version 2.1 (06/14/2011) A very small update to complement an update of the GBA document, version 2.1 features snazzy desert encounter information in section 4.30.2. - Version 2.0 (02/27/2011) After much thought, I decided to merge the documents. In addition, I changed some lay-out for the better. All tabs were removed in favor of multiple spaces to ensure txt/html synergy. Probably the most notable change (except for the merger, obviously) is the fact all chapters now contain a treasure list! Version History (old World of Ruin document): - Version 1.2 (07/08/2006) I mentioned that Tri-Dazer is a good idea versus Umaro, which it isn't as Umaro absorbs Ice-elemental attacks. Fixed. Expanded and most notable corrected the Charm description. I said that a Charmer can switch Charmees, which is not the case; the second target of a Charm attack just won't be hit until the first one has died. Expanded on how to obtain more Genji Helmets and why I list five characters with Genji Helmets and two with Red Caps in section 4.70.1. In fact, now that I mention it, I gave a Genji Helmet to Cyan where there was a Circlet earlier; when I looked over it I noticed it's entirely possible, and how I love to spite people :P Added section 8.16, Siegfried/Ziegfried. Fine, you pansies. Added the controversy about Owzer in section 4.61.2 I rewrote 4.71.1, "Kefka's Tower: Preparation and explanation". Boy, was that crappy. The current writing gives you exactly what all three parties face in both scenarios (Party #1 going left or right) to clear up any confusion. Updated Thanks and Credits section. Unbelievable; I missedn an ENTIRE SECTION. You're all almost as braindead as me for not noticing before I did. Section 10.0 "Final Fantasy VI Junkie links" has been added, and what previously was section 10.0 is now section 11.0. Sure, section 10.0 may be a Copy/Paste from the other half, it's still important if you ask me. Removed some rubbish I had placed at the very end which concerned itself with to wide a margin (81 on several occasions!). - Version 1.1 (07/05/2006) First revision. They're always the most rough ones. I made a lot of spelling and grammar corrections, obviously. Fixed the ones that were pointed out to me. Some spacing problems, too. Fixed, again. Corrected the amount of Coral needed in Ebot's Rock. It's 22, not 21. Updated Thanks and Credits section. Added the attacks of both KatanaSoul and Master Pug in their respective sections. Whoops... Noted the Nut Eater/Rhodox & Poppers connection which may explain their resistance to the Suplex Blitz technique. Added the existence of an X-Potion in Cyan's Dream. I forgot a treasure, shame on me. Added a religious note on Goddess and her background/symbolic role. Added section 8.15, Timeline Added RNG evaluation on all bosses. Added a note about the spikes in the Phoenix Cave. Added the existence of a few bugs, including - MagiTek Armor in Cyan's Dream may linger after its apprioriate appearance - Magic Urn responds to the wrong statuses - Spikes damage Petrified characters Added some Anthology Bestiary information on Woolly, NecroMancrs, Kiwok, Guardian and Allo Ver. - Version 1.0 (06/30/2006) Initial Release Version History (old World of Balance document): - Version 1.7 (3/9/2006) Mainly just an update to incooperate the fact the WoR walkthrough has been released. Added links towards the document and its Table of Contents in sections 4.0, 5.0, 6.0, 7.0, 8.0 and 9.0 Gave a slight addition to the Love Sonata learning grounds in 6.3 - Version 1.6 (3/9/2006) Reversed version history in order to make the new updates appear on top. Why I didn't do that earlier defies all logic. Fixed some minor errors in section 4.28.4 (the second fight with Ultros) Fixed a few errors, mainly data errors, that were pointed out to me Worded some things on the FC walkthrough better so it would be less confusing. Changed the version at the top of document to 1.6, for which you might think 'duh' or something horrible like that. Fact is, I forgot to do so with the 1.5 update :/ Updated Thanks section - Version 1.5 (1/11/2006) I need to stop needing to ninja-update. I left an unfinished new section in 1.4, section 8.8, so I fixed that. Fixed section numbers in the Version History Added how Seize/Poison/Regen-Seizure never acts on the same interval Fixed a line that implied that Break stops HadesGigas from counter- attacking (which it does not). Mentioned how Imped monsters can use the Imp spell where I previously said they couldn't. - Version 1.4 (1/8/2006) Fairly obvious lay-out and formatting overhaul after the kind of folks of the GameFAQs General FAQ Contributors Board - unblinded by the actual content of the document - discovered it could really use some improvement. Inserted primary physical and magical attacks in the 4.3.1 and 4.3.4 sections Fixed all colon problems Fixed an error in the explanation about Golem's Earth Wall Added information about dying, running and letting the timer run out when fighting Imperial soldiers before the Banquet. Added a note about Condemned its behavior on the Cursed Shld and Cursed Ring. Added the location of the hidden Tent in the Impresario Car of the Phantom Train Noted how you can forever be devoid of the Coin Toss Relic in section 8.3 Added the existence of the wizard/ghost character in Zozo and Narshe's Classroom after obtaining Magicite Expanded section 7.6, Magitek to include all other effects the Armor has on your characters. Expanded in the Status Ailment section to include prevention of Black Belt counter-attacks and True Knight protection where necessary. Discussed the uses of Dried Meat when reaching Mobliz Added attack descriptions from the Dance command Added the alternate way to do Blitz techniques, which doesn't involve diagonals Added how you can go back for the Commander and Vector Pup Rages and the treasure in that secret tunnel by taking Locke through the hidden back door of the house of Duncan's Wife. Mentioned how the Memento Ring is now called the Safety Ring/Safty Ring in the PSX releases. - Version 1.3 (12/9/2005) Eheheh....I left a small note to myself at the start of the guide, so this version is mainly there to remove the 'Mandrake' at the start. Added information about the Thief Glove in the 4.26.2 section. - Version 1.2 (12/8/2005) Changed every 'Kotesu' into 'Kotetsu' Corrected GhostTrain's stats Added a note about Espers removing Clear status in section 9.0 Re-inserted correct solution to the Contest Corrected typo on TunnelArmr's AI script Corrected the Matthew/Matthias mix-up in section 6.5 Corrected Mandrake's behavior under Stop in section 4.41.2 Updates Thanks section once again - Version 1.1 (11/21/2005) Fixed several typos. Distinguished the two Joker Dooms in Setzer's Slot ability section. Changed the link to Master ZED's Slot ability guide. Added contact information in section 11.0 Added Ctrl + F to the Slang section in 3.0 Added a Rare Items section Changed the information on the Telstar song; how dares the internet give me misinformation! Added the Japanese Moogle names in section 4.3.1 Added Relm's and Strago's Step Mine to the honest Intangir strategies. Added Kamog's equipment being given to you Added some information about Shadow's and Cyan's oriental weapons Added information about the secret bridge in South Figaro Added extensive information about the Kutan bug where you miss out on Celes and obtain Kutan the Moogle instead Added a lot of names in the Thanks section - Version 1.0 (11/14/2005) Initial Release ********************************** 2.0 Introduction ********************************** I was tired. And I was sick and tired of always being sick and tired. I can't really tell you when it started, because I wasn't around when it did. It probably started innocently...a friend invited a friend over to come play his new SNES game. "That armored guy with the sword is awesome!", a pimple-cheeked girl with glasses but with a radiant smile would say. "Dispatch kills everything he touches!", she would add. The guy would sigh. "This guy is much better. He kicks all kinds of ass with Fire Dance. It looks so cool, too!" This boy, who'd later grow up to be one of the most successful failures of his lifetime, loved Sabin with all his teenage heart. Neither knew that they started a great tradition. And by 'great', I mean 'unwanted, horrible'. Illiterates would somehow manage to drool over the keyboard in such a way it created a post that stated that Gau sucks. Good men wasted good time countering said horror. Locke was awesome because of his Speed, only he wasn't. Cyan has great equips, only he doesn't. Or did he? Gogo was awesome because he could equip any skill by going to the status screen. But that was just practical on paper, some said. Others weeped over this statement, which they considered a lie fueled by hate and lack of a social life. Others had a social life and claimed that it wasn't all that important as long as you had fun. Heh. In short: there were debates. And here's something funny to consider; you'd think that numbers, data output, logical solutions and expectations would be beyond personal interpretation. A common Dutch saying states that "one cannot argue about opinions". That's the biggest load of feces ever to hit the scene of sayings, I think. You can argue about opinions, you can't argue about facts. So, you'd think that in a game where the same Dispatch in the same situation always results into the same damage output, there'd be little place for debate. Ugh. Besides, it was time somebody took this task upon himself. There's so much known about this game, yet even the best walkthroughs were almost entirely, but not quite, unlike the walkthrough they were supposed to be. So here it is! I've prophesized on numerous occasions that I would never write a document like this on the basis of the fact I would go bat-shit crazy and wouldn't be able to stop typing, making the document a behemoth of unreadable gibberish (most likely consisting out of Relm fetishism and little bits of info nobody in their right mind find amusing). But what is this document you're seeing? Does it really contain everything? Is it some kind of Hitchhiker's Guide to FF VI? The Encyclopedea CCLV VIea? The Kamog Sutra, where you'll learn all about Tantric Gameplay (lasts for hours; winning the battle is NOT the main goal)? I think the best mental image of the document can be extracted from all the following possible titles that have passed the revue while creation was still a process of the present: (by PrattDaBard, of which the last part of his name is more apt than the middle part will reveal) "The Spoiler-Filled Walkthrough" "The Ecumencial FF3 Encyclopedia" "The Compendious FF3 Companion" "The Un-Restricted FF3 Reader" "FF3: an Exhaustive Exhortation" "The All-Inclusive FF3 Compendium" "The Far-Reaching FF3 FAQ" "FF3 for Fools" "A Discursive Dissertation on FF3" "A Panoptic FF3 Primer" "FF3: The Liberal Lexicon" "The Hefty FF3 Handbook" "The Full FF3 Folio" "Djibriel's Dictionary" (by Imzogelmo) "Everything You Always Wanted to Know about FF3 (But Would've Got Flamed for Asking)" "640 KB Ought to be Enough for Anybody" (ed: 640. Heh) "The FF3 Bible" "Detailed Journal of Information By Resolute, Industrious Exploratory Learning" (ed: I especially loved this one, people with thinking brains can figure out why) (by assassin) "Mages are from Thamasa, Warriors are from Doma" "An Idiot's A-Z guide to FF3: from Albrook to Tzen" "Gestahl: The Man, the Dog, the Legend" "101 Easy Pet Care Tips for your Emperor" "Just Hold it 'til Vector: A Globetrotter's Guide to Bladder Control" "I Feel Safe in Suits: Gary Newman's Easy Tutorial to Dancing in MagiTek" "Djibriel's Humility Fest" --Warning This is my fourth document meant for public release, and as I was with the other three, I'm pretty excited about it. My other projects will both be very helpful for this guide; while the Level # Lore Guide will be only moderately useful and the Sketch Guide just managed to confirm what everybody already knew, a lot of walkthroughs contain a string of question marks concerning Gau and his Rage ability and my Rage Guide taught me exactly what to fill in those question marks. Now, I've basically gotten two kinds of responses about the Rage Guide. Most of it was very positive, and I'm thankful for that. It's great to see the document being linked to all the time (get this: almost as often as the How to Blitz Guide!). But there are a few who've said that my guide contains a major flaw; I'm too talkative. I elaborate and fill it with too much information. You see, there's a reason for that. Everybody has his own personal little fetish; mine is Final Fantasy VI. I've played the game to death and know far more about it than could ever be considered healthy. I want all that information to shine through in my documents, as I personally think it's awesome to know all those things. Also, I tend to waste lines on introductions, puns and other stuff that could have been left out. That's mostly for personal pleasure. As the bored, soulless eyes of your high school math teacher can tell you, explaining stuff that's incredibly basic to you tends to be less fun than, say, sharing a beer with friends or having incredibly awesomely crazy sex. With a woman. You're looking at the most complete walkthrough that exists out there, I can make that statement without false modesty. But if you're repelled by overly verbose descriptions, if you like your walkthroughs clean and quick and to the point with tables and abbreviations and all that, there are other documents for you. One that's generally been called the best one before this one was written is Atom Edge's Walkthrough. It can be found at GameFAQs, but is at the time of writing three years old. Slightly outdated, but it features all of the commonly asked questions and lists a lot of more obscure items. ********************************** 3.0 Set-up of the document, and slang you're going to start recognizing ********************************** First off: if you have a question, I've answered it. That's the premise we're working with here. If the question you have seems oddly GENERAL to you, as in: is of influence through the entire game, you won't find it in the Walkthrough; you will find it in the FAQ at the bottom. So, if you want to know about stats, or what-does-this-do or something, go there. Question: I noticed you used the terminology from the older SNES versions. I hope you're aware of the fact there are PAL-versions available in Europe and US and the US have even seen an Anthology release where it's offered together with FFV. Why not adapt the names to that game? They're slightly different, and as they were changed from the original, obviously what was meant to happen. Yes, I am aware. Sadly so, in fact. I think Master ZED said it best when he mentioned how he took the PSX port as a personal insult. They did close to nothing to fix old bugs, inserted a couple of new ones, raped Ted Woolsey's legacy by using the entire translation with a couple of minor changes while removing his name from the credits, and gave us a game with sound and graphics INFERIOR to the SNES game that was released five years prior to the PSX release: SNES: Release Data Final Fantasy VI Square Enix 04/02/94 JP Final Fantasy III Square Enix 10/20/94 US PAL version: Release Data Final Fantasy VI (w/FFX Demo) Sony Interactive Studios America 03/01/02 EU Final Fantasy VI Square Enix 03/11/99 JP Anthology: Release Data Final Fantasy Anthology Electronic Arts 05/17/02 EU Final Fantasy Anthology Square Enix 09/30/99 US Also, Anthology has three different names for each monster; In-battle the names were shortened to 9 characters, in the Rage List there were with the normal ten, and in the Bestiary they were a shocking 8. All SNES names can be easily recognized when you've only been playing/are playing Anthology, as it doesn't take a genius to know that Mithril and Mythril are the same material and that a Fenix Down is the same as a Phoenix Down. To conclude, the PSX blows. The SNES has died, long live the SNES! Slang: Ctrl + F: That most holy of combos, the road to salvation. Had enough of the ridicule of those more adapted to today's lifestyle than you? Have you been bossed around by the 'elite' for far too long? Don't take it out on the naturally superior, but Physician, heal thyself: Ctrl + F is the search function. Learn to love it like your long-lost little brother. ST: Single-target. It targets a single target. MT: Multi-target. It targets multiple targets, in most cases all. LLG: Low Level Game. A playthrough in which the level of the characters is kept as low as possible. The current lowest score has been an average of around 7.2, ranging from 6 to 13. NMG: Natural Magic Game. Called a challenge while it's really not, it just prevents you from equipping Espers and items which teach spells. Naturally learned Magic and Lores are allowed. !Special: It's great to have an obvious distinction between spells and Special attacks, the modified physical attacks which either set a status effect, do x times as much damage as the normal physical attack or drain HP/MP. Every Special I've listed in this document (that's quite a lot) is preceded by an exclamation point to identify it as such. My Sketch Guide already featured this. The exclamation point doesn't find any feedback in the game whatsoever, and isn't canon in the current other documents out there, but I felt it was a good idea. ID (Instant Death) attack: Instant Death attacks are attacks that check for the Instant Death protection bit. Most of the time, these attacks set Wound (Doom, Snare, ectera), but other attacks also use this feature, most noticeably percentage-based attacks like Demi and Cyclonic. Several Petrifying spells will check for ID next to Petrify protection and the oddball Overcast and the level-halving attack Dischord also check for it. The X-type ID of the Assassin, Trump, Striker, Wing Edge and the dicing effect of the Scimitar also check for ID protection. The following attacks are ID attacks: Roulette, Break, Demi, Doom, Quartr, W Wind, X-Zone, Atom Edge, True Edge, Demon Eye, Cleave, Slash, Antlion, Cave in, Cokatrice, Snare, Snowball, Sonic Boom, Air Anchor, Chain Saw's ID attack, X-Fer, Condemned, Dischord, L.5 Doom, Roulette, Blaster, Cyclonic, Grav Bomb, Overcast, Shimsham, SabreSoul, Star Prism Note that this makes Joker Doom the only Wound-setting attack that doesn't check for the bit, and Dread the only 'normal' Petrify-setting attack that doesn't check for ID protection. ********************************** 4.0 The Walkthrough ********************************** Table of Contents: 4.1.1 Prelude: The attack on Narshe 4.1.2 Prelude: The newly dug mineshaft 4.1.3 Prelude: The battle with Whelk 4.2.1 Old Man's House 4.2.2 Escape through the mines 4.3.1 Defending Terra from Marshal 4.4.1 Classroom for the Beginner 4.4.2 Traveling to Figaro Castle 4.5.1 Figaro Castle 4.5.2 Fighting off MagiTek power 4.6.1 Traveling through Figaro Cave 4.7.1 South Figaro 4.7.2 The Overworld Map around South Figaro 4.8.1 Sabin's Hut 4.8.2 Mt. Koltz 4.8.3 The battle with Vargas 4.9.1 Traveling to the Returners' Hideout 4.9.2 The Returners' Hideout 4.10.1 Escaping over the Lete River 4.10.2 The first fight with Ultros 4.11.1 Choosing a scenario 4.12.1 Scenario Terra/Edgar/Banon: Lete River continued 4.12.2 Scenario Terra/Edgar/Banon: Traveling to Narshe 4.12.3 Scenario Terra/Edgar/Banon: Narshe 4.13.1 Scenario Sabin: Meeting Shadow and finding the Imperial Camp 4.13.2 Scenario Sabin: Imperial Camp and Doma 4.13.3 Scenario Sabin: Telstar and Imperial Camp continued 4.14.1 Scenario Sabin: Traveling to the Phantom Forest 4.14.2 Scenario Sabin: The Phantom Forest 4.15.1 Scenario Sabin: The Phantom Train 4.15.2 Scenario Sabin: Specter and the Phantom Train continued 4.15.3 Scenario Sabin: The battle with GhostTrain 4.16.1 Scenario Sabin: Traveling to Baren Falls 4.16.2 Scenario Sabin: Baren Falls 4.16.3 Scenario Sabin: Traveling over the Veldt to Mobliz 4.17.1 Scenario Sabin: Mobliz 4.17.2 Scenario Sabin: Recruiting Gau 4.17.3 Scenario Sabin: Veldt Hunting 4.17.4 Scenario Sabin: Crescent Mountain 4.18.1 Scenario Sabin: The Serpent Trench 4.18.2 Scenario Sabin: Nikeah 4.19.1 Scenario Locke: South Figaro 4.19.2 Scenario Locke: Secret Underground Passge of South Figaro 4.20.1 Scenario Locke: Traveling to Figaro Cave 4.20.2 Scenario Locke: Figaro Cave 4.20.3 Scenario Locke: The battle with TunnelArmr 4.21.1 Defending the Esper from Kefka 4.21.2 Rider 4.21.3 The battle with Kefka 4.22.1 Narshe 4.23.1 Traveling to Kohlingen and optional trip to the Veldt 4.23.2 Figaro Castle 4.24.1 Kohlingen 4.25.1 Traveling to Jidoor 4.25.2 Jidoor 4.26.1 Zozo 4.26.2 Chainsaw Riddle and Zozo continued 4.26.3 The battle with Dadaluma and meeting with Ramuh 4.27.1 Magicite and Owzer's Mansion in Jidoor 4.28.1 The Opera House 4.28.2 The Dream Oath (Celes' Opera Performance) 4.28.3 Stopping Ultros 4.28.4 The second fight with Ultros 4.29.1 The Blackjack 4.30.1 Albrook 4.30.2 Traveling on the Southern Continent 4.30.3 The Imperial Base near the Mountains 4.30.4 Tzen 4.30.5 Maranda 4.31.1 Vector 4.31.2 Imperial MagiTek Research Facility; MagiTek Factory 4.31.3 Imperial MagiTek Research Facility; The Pit 4.31.4 The battle with Ifrit and Shiva 4.31.5 Imperial MagiTek Research Facility 4.31.6 The battle with Number 024 4.31.7 Imperial MagiTek Research Facility; Mine Cart Ride 4.31.8 The battle with Number 128 4.32.1 Escaping Vector 4.32.2 The battle with the Cranes 4.33.1 Zozo; Terra's Flashback 4.34.1 Airship Exploitation: Sraphim 4.34.2 Airship Exploitation: Auction House: Golem and ZoneSeek 4.34.3 Airship Exploitation: Locating Grenade 4.34.4 Airship Exploitation: Obtaining Gaia Gear 4.34.5 Airship Exploitation: Intangir 4.34.6 Airship Exploitation: Veldt hunting 4.34.7 Intermezzo; Espers 101 4.35.1 Narshe 4.35.2 Lone Wolf persecution and recruiting Mog 4.35.3 Dance lessons, including Water Rondo 4.36.1 Cave to the Sealed Gate 4.36.2 Coin Toss and Cave to the Sealed Gate continued 4.37.1 Esper rampage; Snake eyes 4.38.1 Vector; Imperial Palace 4.38.2 The Banquet 4.38.3 Items of the Imperial Base near the Cave to the Sealed Gate and Setzer's cutscene 4.39.1 Albrook 4.40.1 Traveling to Thamasa; Crescent Island 4.40.2 Thamasa 4.40.3 The Burning Mansion 4.40.4 The battle with FlameEater 4.41.1 Leaving Thamasa 4.41.2 Crescent Island's Eastern mountains 4.41.3 The third fight with Ultros 4.41.4 Relm and the Espers' gathering place 4.42.1 Epilogue 4.42.2 Leo versus Kefka 4.43.1 Airship Exploitation: Rage and Lore hunting 4.43.2 Airship Exploitation: Doma Castle 4.44.1 Preparation for the Floating Continent 4.44.2 Imperial Air Force 4.44.3 The fourth fight with Ultros 4.44.4 The battle with Air Force 4.45.1 The Floating Continent 4.45.2 Gigantos and the Floating Continent continued 4.45.3 The decisive battle with AtmaWeapon 4.45.4 Kefka's Betrayal 4.45.5 Escape from the Floating Continent 4.45.6 The battle with Nerapa and Exit 4.46.1 Intermezzo; The Solitary Island 4.46.2 Intermezzo; Saving Cid 4.47.1 The World of Ruin 4.47.2 Albrook 4.48.1 En route to Tzen 4.48.2 Tzen; the Light of Judgment 4.48.3 Tzen; the Collapsing House 4.49.1 The Serpent Trench 4.49.2 The tail of the Serpent Trench; Mobliz 4.49.3 The fight with Phunbaba 4.50.1 The head of the Serpent trench; Nikeah 4.51.1 South Figaro; Gerad and the Crimson Robbers 4.51.2 Pursuing Gerad and the Crimson Robbers 4.51.3 Pursuing Gerad and the Crimson Robbers; Cave of Figaro 4.51.4 Pursuing Gerad and the Crimson Robbers; Figaro Castle 4.51.5 The fight with the Tentacles 4.52.1 Figaro Castle 4.52.2 En route to Kohlingen 4.53.1 Kohlingen 4.53.2 Dragon's Neck Colosseum 4.53.3 Daryl's Tomb 4.53.4 The fight with Presenter 4.53.5 The fight with Dullahan 4.54.1 Airship Exploitation: Visiting Maranda 4.54.2 Airship Exploitation: The Overworld Map 4.54.3 Airship Exploitation: Master Duncan; completing Sabin's training 4.54.4 Airship Exploitation: Obtaining Palidor 4.54.5 Airship Exploitation: Visiting Jidoor 4.54.6 Airship Exploitation: The Auction House 4.54.7 Airship Exploitation: Fanatics Tower 4.54.8 Airship Exploitation: Thamasa 4.54.9 Airship Exploitation: Doom Gaze 4.55.1 Narshe 4.55.2 Narshe's Snowfields; the battle with Ice Dragon 4.55.3 Narshe's Snowfields; the battle with Tritoch 4.55.4 Umaro's Cave; the battle with three Pugs 4.55.5 The battle with Umaro 4.55.6 The Moogle Raid 4.55.7 Round two: Dragon's Neck Colosseum 4.56.1 The battle with Phunbaba 4.57.1 Following the pigeon 4.57.2 Mount Zozo 4.57.3 The battle with Storm Drgn 4.57.4 Cyan Garamonde 4.58.1 The Veldt 4.58.2 The Cave of the Veldt and Allo Ver 4.58.3 The battle with SrBehemoth 4.59.1 Thamasa and the Colosseum once again 4.61.1 Jidoor; Owzer's Mansion 4.61.2 Owzer's Mansion, the Magic House 4.61.3 Owzer's Mansion, the battle with Chadarnook 4.62.1 Obtaining Strago 4.62.2 Bulking up the Thamasian Two 4.62.3 The battle with Dirt Drgn 4.62.4 Gungho's assignment; Ebot's Rock 4.62.5 The battle with Hidon 4.63.1 Another Colosseum trip 4.64.1 Doma Castle 4.64.2 Cyan's Soul 4.64.3 Cyan's Soul; the battle with the Dream Stooges 4.64.4 Cyan's Dream; the Phantom Train? 4.64.5 Cyan's Dream; Mechanical mines 4.64.6 Cyan's Dream; Doma Castle 4.64.7 Cyan's Dream; the battle with WrexSoul 4.65.1 The road to the Ancient Castle and the fight with Master Pug 4.65.2 The Ancient Castle and the battle with KatanaSoul 4.65.3 The battle with the Blue Drgn 4.66.1 Triangle Island 4.66.2 The world inside of the Zone Eater 4.66.3 Wake me up before you Gogo 4.66.4 The Steal command regained 4.67.1 Phoenix Cave 4.67.2 The battle with the Red Dragon 4.68.1 Locke Cole 4.68.2 Narshe revisited with Locke; Ragnarok and Cursed Shld 4.68.3 Gau and his father 4.69.1 The Fanatics Tower and the battle with White Drgn 4.69.2 The battle with MagiMaster 4.70.1 End-game character evaluation 4.71.1 Kefka's Tower: Preparation and explanation 4.71.2 Kefka's Tower: Reconnaissance 4.71.3 Kefka's Tower: The source of all Magic 4.71.4 Kefka's Tower: The Final Battle 4.72.1 The Ending -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.1.1 Prelude: The attack on Narshe ********************************** Opponents: Guard, Lobo, Vommamoth Narshe, a coalmine city that manages its own business and cares not for the war that is waged far away, has stumbled upon a mysterious find in their mines. The Empire, the all-consuming power-hungry nation to the far south of the world, has learned of this. -Command to the Empire Force in particular. -Commence to launch the attack on Narshe, the coal mines city. Three of their most dangerous units are dispatched to claim this discovered treasure for the glory of the Empire and by all means necessary. Three soldiers of the Empire, piloting MagiTek Armors, are sent out. One of them is a very special soldier of the Empire, and a future unlike any other is waiting for her. Preparation: Put all your characters in the Back Row. MagiTek attacks, being MAGICAL BEAMS and all, won't suffer from the 50 % damage reduction, but you'll be reaping the benefits soon enough. From the reduced damage you'll be taking, that is. To learn about MagiTek attacks: [MAGITEK-LINK] This is also a good time to pop open the menu and go to Config to select your Bat(tle) Speed and Bat(tle) Mode. A low Battle Speed will make monsters wait shorter periods of their time between turns, making the game more difficult. Setting it to '6' is most advantageous for you. The Battle Mode sets whether or not the game's opponents stop attacking when you are choosing attacks from a menu. Setting it to 'Wait' gives you breathing room to select your attacks. Monster formations: Lobo Lobo, Lobo Guard, Guard Lobo, Guard, Guard (forced Pincer attack) Vomammoth, Vomammoth, Guard, Guard This is the prologue of the game, and it concerns you, being overpowered, blasting your way through poor defenseless Narshe. Enjoy the MagiTek powers while they last. You can't really touch equipment right now. Ogle your mystery girl and her Imperial Starsky and Hutch buddies, as the situation is about to change. For trivia knowledge, this is the equipment of your generic soldiers: MithrilBlade Buckler Leather Hat LeatherArmor Any offensive attack you perform at this point results into Death on the other side. With this in mind, the choice is simple. If Terra comes up, have her use the MT Bio Blast attack. The Imperial soldiers can make themselves useful by using any of the three beams; they are identical in power and are always fatal, so it doesn't matter what you do. After you've leveled, you can use Terra's Cure out-battle to restore HP. Use it once with an MT effect and you're set. Do the same after the forced pincer attack you had to endure from the Lobo, Guard, Guard monster formation. The next one will feature Vommamoth. These monsters will start using Blizzard, an MT Ice-elemental on you as soon as Terra (or, if not available, a randomly decided party member) has a level equal to or higher than 7. This is not the case when you encounter them now, so they will only attack you physically with Battle and !Bear Claw. Although they have the second-highest Battle Power in the game, the fact they're level 1 effectively screws them out of any significant damage output. If you're in the Back Row, you'll see them doing 0 damage. Savor the sight; it'll be a while before you see it happening again on a physical attack. For extra fun, try using Confuser against them; it'll give you a little taste of what Blizzardy violence will be sent your way later in the game. For imminent death on their side of the battlefield, Bio Blast works well enough as it kills all four targets instantly. There is a maximum of 5 battles and a minimum of 2 battles to be fought in this part of Narshe. When you enter, you can try to go right of the Inn. A single Lobo will be sent after you. You have no choice but to press on. You will encounter two Guards when you try to pass the Inn, there's no avoiding them. There are lines of what appear to be vents on the ground. You've been following the vertical line, you now come across a horizontal line of vents. If you stand on the tile where the two cross, two Lobos will be sent after you, and then two Narshe Guards. You can avoid this by going around the tile in question. If you pass the Item Shop, you'll be caught in a Pincer attack of two Guards and a Lobo; this is unavoidable. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.1.2 Prelude: The newly dug mineshaft ********************************** Opponents: Were-Rat, Vaporite, Repo Man, Whelk You've entered a newly dug Mine Shaft in search of the Esper you're supposed to retrieve. You're up for some vermin in the mines. Not Vermin, but vermin. Note the difference. Preparation: Still in the Back Row, are we? There's nothing interesting here to do, so let's move on. Monster formations: First cave: Were-Rat, Were-Rat, Were-Rat (10/16) Were-Rat, Repo Man (6/16) Second cave: Repo Man, Vaporite (6/16) Vaporite, Vaporite (5/16) Were-Rat, Were-Rat (5/16) You're past the town of Narshe. You can be proud of yourself; you just killed a number of brave men, undoubtedly with a happy life and a family. Faintly, you can hear an orphan crying. You can pretty much blast your way through these monsters too. In the first cavern, there are Were-Rat and Repo Man, in the second, Vaporite. Were-Rat absorbs Poison, so while it may be tempting to use an MT spell against the largest group of enemies you're facing, don't. Vaporite absorbs Lightning, so in any battle you find one, avoid Bolt Beam like the demonic plague it is. Electricity fails at success, anyway. Repo Man...This little goblinoid (is that a word?) is one messed-up little dude with self-destructive tendencies of the worst kind: the kind that can hurt you as well. Every time you'll hurt it without killing it, there's a 33 % chance he'll use !Wrench on himself. If, however, you dealt a fatal blow to him and he decides to execute that !Wrench, he'll find that he can't actually attack himself. Nay, one cannot attack the dead. Only on the GameFAQs Board, and that's limited to kicking and horses. He'll fling the tool in your direction instead. Avoid this by using X-Fer, or try to not care. At this point, it may be a good idea to train your question-mark beauty up to level 5. The battles are not threatening, you can heal yourself for free and the levels of future characters depend on the level of the green-haired girl. Eventually, you'll come across a barrier. Vicks will knock it down for you, but as soon as you want to continue a Narshe guard rushes out with quite a nasty surprise... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.1.3 Prelude: The battle with Whelk ********************************** Whelk (shell) Level: 4, HP: 50000, MP: 120 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Tincture (always) Absorbs: Lightning Special: !Hit : Battle x 4 Vulnerable to: Nothing Attacks: Mega Volt Head (Whelk's head) Level: 6, HP: 1600, MP: 1000 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Potion (always) Special: !Slime: sets Slow Vulnerable to: Nothing Attacks: Battle, !Slime This battle is quite simple. Vicks and Wedge will alert each other about the grave importance of avoiding attacking the shell at all costs. When they're done, you can move in your very first boss battle. The shell and the head are two separate entities. The shell will do nothing as long as you won't attack it, but every time you do damage, it will counter with Mega Volt. Mega Volt won't be strong enough to actually kill a character at full HP, but it will be strong enough to do so in two hits. The head will just attack physically and on occasion slow you down with !Slime. After every 10 seconds, it'll 'retreat in its shell', i.o.w. disappear from the battlefield. He'll keep this up for 10 seconds, and he'll pop out again. Both actions are accompanied with an oh-so-sinister "Gruuu". Your strategy? The main thing to avoid is selecting an attack on the head just when it retreats. It's because of this it's best to just go with one attack for each character in one period of 10 seconds. When you can move, make your generic Imperial soldiers attack with a Beam-class attack and the mysterious girl use TekMissile. Wait until the head has retreated and appeared again. Repeat. Whelk should be dead by now if you fought all the battles against the Narshe guards; if not, just go for another round. Whelk is, to be honest, nothing more than a big sign saying: "You see, this game isn't about mindless violence...it's about strategy, about good thinking". Yeah... Note: If you are beyond the shame of any man, you can go for the Tincture the shell provides. Since the shell only has 120 MP, he can only use six Mega Volt attacks. After this, it is helpless. If you whittle down its 50000 HP and make sure you kill both the shell and the head with one attack (use a calculator!), you'll get both a Tincture AND a Potion, and it'll only have cost you over an hour and your dignity. In the second cave, you finally come across the object of your mission: the dug-up Esper. But as soon as you get near it, the mind-slave of your party acts very weird indeed, and it's not long after the two soldiers grow suspicious they are removed. Note that we can't say for sure the Esper killed them or simply warped to some place, but we never ever see them again. Alone, the Esper does *something* to Terra. Her MagiTek Armor explodes underneath her, and all turns to an inky black. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.2.1 Old Man's House ********************************** Container contents: Elixir Miscellaneous items: Sleeping Bag x2 You wake up alone, scared, and confused. An old man has found you in the mines and has nursed you back to health. To make matters worse, you have to flee as soon as there's somebody to explain the situation to you. Such plot device! You get the fact that Narshe guards outside are trying to get to you. Scones will not be involved in the meeting, so you'd better make a run for it. Preparation: Remember when you were in the Back Row? Let's stick to that. When you awoke, you received two Sleeping Bags (from Arvis, we could assume). Sleeping Bags are like Tents, but for one person only. They completely restore HP/MP and remove any status ailment except for Zombie, but are only usable on a Save Point or the Overworld Map. Before you go, grab the Elixir in the clock. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.2.2 Escape through the mines ********************************** Opponents: Were-Rat, Vaporite, Repo Man Container contents: Fenix Down, Sleeping Bag Remember those kick-ass attacks you just did? Yeah, about those? They're gone. Your party members have been magically consumed, and your magical tank of happiness exploded under your seat. Everything you love is finite. But don't fear too much, for a Final Fantasy tradition of old is about to set in: you can now hurt stuff with pointy things that you push into them using your muscles. Use it to your advantage. Preparation: If you're in for some leveling, I suggest moving to the Front Row. You'll take more damage, sure, but you can also kill Were-Rat and Vaporite with a single Fight command now, which is much more MP-friendly in the long run. If you seek to breeze through, stick to the Back Row and use Fire. Out-of-battle Cure is your friend. You can use the Sleeping Bag to restore HP and MP on the Save Point. Monster formations: Repo Man, Vaporite (6/16) Vaporite, Vaporite (5/16) Were-Rat, Were-Rat (5/16) These monsters and monster formations seem awfully familiar, don't you think? The difference is, though, that now you're by your lonesome, without magical machines of malice and maniacal maiming under your command. I guess we can do it the old-fashioned way, then. Double Vaporites should be taken care of with an MT Fire spell, as should a double Were-Rat. Start the Repo Man/Vaporite battle off with an MT Fire spell and finish Repo Man off with a physical. You can't do anything about !Wrench now, so suffer in silence. You may want to raise Terra's level to 6 or 7 here; since Terra is alone she will grow quickly, and you can use the Sleeping Bags to restore HP and MP on the Save Point. There are two chests here. Feel free to grab the left one; it contains a Sleeping Bag. Later it turns into an Elixir, which is much better, but you can steal them in large quantities by then so there's no need to wait. It'd be best to leave the right chest alone; while the Fenix Down it now contains is nice, the Pod Bracelet Relic it transforms into later will be much nicer. When you're past the two chests and the Save Point (did you save? Saving is good, word on the street says even Jesus saves!), remove Terra's MithrilKnife and Buckler, and press on. The Narshe Guards will corner Terra, but she has a plan: quickly, she collapses down a conveniently thin layer of rock that caves in underneath her. One could argue this isn't so much a plan as it is sheer luck, but I'm willing to give our heroine some credit here. Three flashbacks will be seen now: Terra getting her Slave Crown from Kefka, Terra being tested as the Imperial weapon she was meant to be, Terra at an Imperial parade. Behind the Emperor here, from left to right: Kefka Palazzo, general Leo Christope, general Celes Chere. A cozy bunch. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.3.1 Defending Terra from Marshal ********************************** Opponents: Lobo, Vommamoth, Marshal Miscellaneous items: Mithril Pike (Mog), Mithril Shld (Mog), MithrilKnife (common Marshal steal) Locke arrives to the game! Locke and the old man chat about bygones and memories past, while the old man (still anonymous) takes care of some exposition. Basic points: The Empire is evil, the Returners are fighting the Empire, and Narshe should join the Returners but, right now, has not done such a thing. Locke manages to reach Terra before the Narshe guards do, which is a good thing all in all. Terra is still unconscious, so She Needs To Be Rescued. Locke is your new permanent character. That naming screen sure is a dead give- away, is it not? You can now control him using your controller. It won't be for long though, as the half dozen enemies, which come storming into the place, will ensure Terra is captured and Locke smacked around. But lo and behold, there are eleven Moogle friends for you to exploit as well! Sadly, you cannot enter their equipment. Except for one, Mog. How bizarre. Here's the rundown of the Moogles: Mog - (Terra's level + 6) Mithril Pike; Mithril Shld Kupek - (Terra's level + 3) Mithril Pike; Buckler Kupop - (Terra's level + 1) Morning Star; Buckler Kumama - (Terra's level + 1) Mithril Claw; Buckler Kuku - (Terra's level - 2) Flail; Buckler Kutan - (Terra's level + 1) MithrilBlade; Buckler Kupan - (Terra's level + 3) Full Moon; Buckler Kushu - (Terra's level + 3) Chocobo Brsh; Buckler Kurin - (Terra's level + 1) Mithril Pike; Buckler Kuru - (Terra's level + 1) MithrilBlade; Buckler Kamog - (Terra's level + 3) Boomerang; Buckler They're all collected in three teams. These are the teams; behind the names of the Japanese Moogles for RPGone players. Locke's group: Locke Lock Kupek Moglin Kupop Mogpu Kumama Mogchi Mog's group: Mog Mog Kuku Morul Kutan Mogtan Kupan Mogul Kushu's group: Kushu Mogshi Kurin Mogpon Kuru Mugmug Kamog Zummog Preparation: Equip Locke with the equipment you snatched from Terra; the Buckler will be especially nice. You can put Kupop, Kuku, Kupan and Kamog in the Back Row, as their weapons will still do full damage. Now, head into battle. Already know which team you want to use for the boss battle; read below. Try to avoid fighting with this group, and catch the other monsters with your inferior groups. If you fail, the monsters will reach Terra, prompting Locke to say: "Couldn't hold out...?! Uh oh..." Monster formations: Lobo, Lobo, Marshal Vomammoth, Lobo Marshal Level: 8, HP: 420, MP: 150 Steal: MithrilKnife (common), Win: Potion (always) Weakness: Poison Special: !Charge: Battle x 2 Sketch : !Charge, Battle Control: Battle, !Charge, Bolt 2 Vulnerable to: Imp, Petrify, Death, Condemned, Mute, Berserk, Muddled, Sleep, Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, !Charge, Net There are two battles here. First, I'll talk about the battle you engage in when you meet the walking monsters. This is the Vomammoth and the Lobo formation. Aim all attacks on the Vomammoth at first, then the Lobo. Don't bother using Steal with Locke; they carry nothing of importance. If you use Mog's party, you will notice that Mog learns the Dusk Requiem after one battle. Have him use this Dance for the other battles, as it kills stuff dead very seriously. For information about Steal and how it works: [STEAL-LINK] Mog's Dance skill is limited to the Dusk Requiem, a Dance he will learn as soon as he has fought one battle here. The Dusk Requiem will have the following random effects every turn: 7/16 43.75 % Cave In - Removes 75 % of target's current HP 6/16 37.50 % Snare - Kills one enemy, prevents final counters 2/16 12.50 % Elf Fire - ST magical, Fire-elemental attack 1/16 6.25 % Pois. Frog - ST magical, Poison-elemental attack, also sets Poison Unless both Mog's team and Locke's team have been beaten down severely, there's no good reason to use the four-generic-Moogle party against the Marshal. Between the other two, the choice is up to you. As you cannot get a Game Over in this part of the game - a defeated party is sent back to a certain point with all characters at 1 HP - you can always fight Marshal with Locke until you have a MithrilKnife. If you have trouble with the actual 'killing' part of the Marshal battle (Power-wise, not moral-wise), Mog has extremely dangerous attacks to offer, so you can use him for that. If you picked Mog's team, the Dusk Requiem will make short work of the fight regardless. If you picked Locke's team or the third and inferior party, you will want to kill one Lobo and then focus your attack on Marshal. As long as he's not alone, he won't use !Charge, an extremely strong physical attack that can kill weaker units in the Front Row. He will, on the other hand, use the Net spell to stop some of your party members. You can try to stall if Locke is hit if you want to. Before you engage in the Marshal battle, remove Mog's MithrilPike and Mithril Shld. Equip the Shield on Locke if you're fighting Marshal with him. For some trivia knowledge some would appreciate, Kuku is Mog's girlfriend. Kuku is the weakest Moogle you'll find here and stands next to Mog on the battlefield on the second position of his group. Male chauvinist pig explanation of Kuku's weakness: she's a woman. Family-friendly support group-evading explanation: although lacking in combat experience, Kuku shows some proverbial nuts by going with her lover anyway. At any rate, the Moogle Charm you'll find later in the game, a Mog-exclusive Relic, is supposed to be given to him by Kuku. The only proof of this off-game knowledge lies in its Japanese roots: Kuku was called Moruru there, and the Moogle Charm the Moruru's Charm. Also, the Japanese Creation Data Collection Book supposedly clearly says the Moogle Charm is a "crystal ball charm given by his lover, Moruru". I've never seen it myself and wouldn't recognize Japanese if it exploded from my stomach like the aliens in the aptly-named movies with Sigourney Weaver, but I have no reason to doubt it either. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.4.1 Classroom for the Beginner ********************************** Opponents: Lobo Container contents: Sleeping Bag, Tonic, Tincture, Monster-in-a-box (Lobo) It was going to happen regardless of your wishes. This is the place where the game is explained to you. They should've just listed the GameFAQs URL in my opinion, but hey. It's Square. You shouldn't expect anything from them when it comes to logic. If you really want to learn about general Battle Mechanics: [BATTLE-LINK] Preparation: There will be one battle against the weakest opponent in the game. Try finding your chi or something. I hear it's located within you. When you enter, the first thing you'll see is a man standing over a bucket. While normally I wouldn't advise you to go near people bending over buckets, let alone drink anything those buckets may contain, this specific bucket contains water from a Recovery Spring, magical springs that heal HP, MP, and remove all status effects. There are three rooms in this building. Environmental Science is the one to the far right, and it's where the only monster here is located. Open the chest to fight a single Lobo. Have Terra Defend (press right when in the command menu) and Locke Steal until you've gotten that Tonic. You know you want it. Kill him with violence. Find the Tincture in the yellow pot in Environmental Science and open the chest in Battle Tactics (middle door) for a Sleeping Bag. Then, be bold and walk straight into Advanced Battle Tactics. There's a chest containing a Tonic in there. Now, exit. The guy in front of the door advises you to skip Advanced Battle Tactics. What a Tonic-hogger, eh? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.4.2 Traveling to Figaro Castle ********************************** Opponents: Leafer, Dark Wind, Sand Ray, Areneid Having been dissed by a Narshe guard, you have no choice but to pursue a career in fighting for the greater good. Locke was told to bring Terra to the king of Figaro, and so he does. Castle Figaro lies in the middle of the desert, denying the rules of logic and reason. You need to cross the Overworld Map in order to reach it. Hold me. Should you try to enter Narshe, a Narshe guard will rush to the scene and inquire to your name. You quickly run off. Preparation: Equip the newly acquired MithrilKnife on Terra. She won't use it, gods no, But it's still a 4 point increase in Battle Power, and I don't see why the hell not. Keep the Mithril Shld on Locke; he has more Hit Points, granted, but he will be taking more damage as well. For the battles against the grassland and forest monsters, it would be best for both Terra and Locke to sit safely in the Back Row, as neither of them will be using the Fight command. In the desert, put Locke in the Front Row, and keep Terra in the Back Row. Monster formations: Grasslands: Leafer (10/16) Leafer, Leafer, Dark Wind (6/16) Forest: Leafer, Leafer, Dark Wind (10/16) Leafer, Leafer, Dark Wind, Dark Wind (6/16) Desert: Sand Ray, Sand Ray (5/16) Areneid, Areneid, Areneid (5/16) Sand Ray, Areneid, Areneid (5/16) Sand Ray, Areneid, Areneid, Areneid (1/16) There are two kinds of battles here. There are the desert battles and the non-desert battles. The non-desert battles are no threat to you. If Locke comes up first, have him Steal. It'll get you moderately useless junk, solely limited to Tonics. If Terra comes up, an MT Fire spell kills everything. Desert battles are different. In here, you'll face danger. And sand in your boots. If you come across a double Sand Ray formation, have Locke Steal (Antidotes!) and Terra use an ST Fire spell, which should take one down in a single hit. Repeat for the other. If, however, you come across more than two, an MT Fire spell followed by a physical from Locke kills. Do just that. Don't waste more than one Fire spell in one battle unless you're close to the castle. Hey, did you know that the Sand Ray was based off an actual creature, the Trilobite? They're related to crabs, scorpions and spiders, but are extinct due to the fact they failed at life in general. There's a Chocobo Stable hidden in the forest south of the desert. There's no reason to go there whatsoever. The owner will charge you 100 Gold Pieces to rent-a-bird. If this seems insane to you, remember that this is the same guy who hides his own shop in the woods. And here I was thinking you'd want to promote your shop if it depended on your amount of customers. I'll never understand capitalism. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.5.1 Figaro Castle ********************************** Container contents: Antidote, Fenix Down, Soft, Tonic Miscellaneous items: AutoCrossbow You've reached Figaro Castle. Everybody's mighty polite. There's not a whole lot to do here. Walk on. In the farthest room, Edgar Roni Figaro is casually lounging in his throne. Before you talk to Edgar, put Locke in the Front Row (if you hadn't already) and take his Mithril Shld from him. He'll leave. Edgar hits on you! Oh my, I can't see that working out. After the failing of his charmings, he leaves, leaving Terra to question her sexuality. When controlling Terra, equip the Mithril Shld on her and put her in the Front Row as well. There are two shops here, an Item shop and a Weapon shop: Item Shop: Tonic 50 Tincture 1500 Antidote 50 Soft 200 Echo Screen 120 Fenix Down 500 Sleeping Bag 500 Tent 1200 There's really not anything that you need to buy here. You could buy a Tent or two if you have the money, but you'll need 1250 GP for the Weapon Shop. Weapon Shop: AutoCrossbow 250 NoiseBlaster 500 Bio Blaster 750 Buy a NoiseBlaster and a Bio Blaster; you have obtained an AutoCrossbow by talking to Edgar. One should wonder where Edgar keeps his hands if he has the power to sneak stuff in your inventory without you noticing, especially since he's the token pervert of this game. Haha, now that was a mental image that delivered big funny! Make sure to find the Tonic, Antidote, Soft, and Fenix Down in the castle. All of them are easy to find so I won't bother pointing them out to you. Try to find the Matron of the castle; she is located in the left wing of the castle. She'll tell you all about the rather tragic past of the Figaro throne; twin brothers. Twins. Poor Figaro. Luckily, Sabin Rene Figaro ran away leaving his brother as the sole monarch, as things should be. In the Japanese game, she also states here that Sabin was smaller and weaker than Edgar when they were children. When Matron is done telling her story, you can find Edgar again, who has returned to his throne. In the hallway, you meet the second man of the Figaro army, the Chancellor. Have a chat, by all means. As soon as Edgar starts to make small talk again, he is disturbed by the gravest of messages; Kefka Palazzo, a big man of the Empire, is coming for a visit, and something tells you he won't be wanting any of your scones. When controlling Edgar, keep him in the Front Row and equip Mog's MithrilPike on him. As this is the first time you're actually handling Edgar, this might be the perfect time to learn about his fighting powers: If you'd like to learn about Tools: [TOOLS-LINK] Edgar defies the Empire! He blatantly lies to Kefka when he asks if he knows anything about Terra, the girl who 'stole something of minor importance'. The only thing she stole was the Empire's dignity! Zing! In the Japanese game, Edgar calls Kefka a Mage Warrior of the Empire. Does that mean that Kefka knows Magic as well? Now that you're controlling Edgar, you can explore some of the castle and even exit, traveling back to Narshe. Edgar can't enter Narshe though, because... uhm...y'know. Stuff. Logical reasons. If I still have to explain it to you, you'll never understand. Edgar will just exit Narshe and blink a few times if you try. So just talk to Locke once you're done with Kefka, and we'll pretend this option doesn't exist. Now, when you're controlling Terra again, take hold of that MithrilBlade. What a switch-happy game it is. You can follow Locke now if you want to. You'll notice that Terra is one level, if not two, behind Locke. Edgar will be even stronger. If you want to equal the situation out a little, you can choose to leave the castle and fight some solo-Terra battles outside. I advise you do the training in the forest, though, as the desert enemies might Numb you and grant you a Game Over of Death. You might opt to rent a Chocobo to return to Figaro Castle, too. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.5.2 Fighting off MagiTek power ********************************** Opponents: M-TekArmor That night: misfortune! Kefka has royally screwed Figaro's alliance with the Empire up its currently non-existent ass. For a moment, all seems hopeless, but Locke had a plan! Turns out Edgar and the Chancellor had taken this possibility in account. But see, I know it's Locke's plan, because his music is playing. Anyway, you escape your castle while said castle is digging its way through the desert. No, I don't know either why they didn't do that right away, before the bad guys set it on fire. You're now being chased by the MagiTek Armors. We saw how powerful they are, remember? You are going to die a painful but mercifully quick death. Preparation: You did the preparation thing in the castle, right? All one can do at this moment is pray to whatever god you worship. Monster formations: M-TekArmor, M-TekArmor M-TekArmor Level: 8, HP: 210, MP: 250 Steal: Potion (rare), Tonic (common), Win: Potion (common) Weakness: Lightning Status: Safe Special: !Metal Kick, Battle x 1.5 Sketch : Tek Laser, Battle Control: Battle, Tek Laser Vulnerable to: Mute, Berserk, Muddled, Sleep, Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, !Metal Kick, Tek Laser It turns out that, like Uruk-Hai, MagiTek Armors are about as laughably incompetent in combat as they were awesome out of it. For this battle, the main objective is to avoid being hit. The enemies are susceptible to Muddle, so use that knowledge to your advantage. By which I mean the NoiseBlaster. Have Edgar use it as soon as possible and keep them confused during the rest of the battle. Simply let him bide his time if both are still confused and it's his turn to move again. Locke should Steal; Tonics and Potions are nothing to get excited about, but Fight removes the Muddled status. Terra should pump out ST Fire spells. It'll get you a 'hilarious' scene. I guess it looked good on paper. For those of you emulator players, Edgar and Locke are supposed to hide behind the menu when Terra goes 'Stop swooning!'. Terra's Magic and their own self-destructive tendencies (Tek Laser hit themselves for super-effective damage) will grant you victory. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.6.1 Traveling through Figaro Cave ********************************** Opponents: Hornet, Crawly, Bleary Container contents: Fenix Down, Tincture x2 Miscellaneous items: Remedy (rare Crawly steal) Figaro Castle is gone, and you still can't go to Narshe...I guess it's time to quest further into Edgar's Lands, Figaro, to reach the Returners' Hideout. Terra should be useful in their battle against the evil Empire, which is evil. Preparation: Everybody in the Back Row again. I know it gets boring now, but I promise I'll eventually let you keep characters in the Front Row. If you're wondering why Back Row characters still take reduced damage even when there's nobody in the Front Row to protect them - which is the initial point of being in the Back Row - then I have no satisfying answer. Monster formations: First cave: Hornet, Bleary, Bleary, Bleary, Hornet (10/16) Hornet, Crawly, Crawly (6/16) Second cave and third cave: Crawly, Crawly, Crawly (6/16) Bleary, Bleary, Crawly (5/16) Hornet, Hornet (5/16) Note: if you didn't use Terra's Magic spells in the battle against the M-TekArmors, you still can trigger the 'flipping-out' scene in normal battles. Throughout the cave you retain this possibility, but once you step on the tile just in front of the exit, the ability to see the scene is lost if you haven't already. Hornets are Floating creatures, but that doesn't make any difference at this point of the game. They attack physically with Battle and !IronNeedle. Crawly are horribly defenseless creatures, but something about Crawly monsters I find particularly repulsive, so I don't feel bad about killing them. When you confuse them with NoiseBlaster, they might try to use the Magnitude8 attack, but they have insufficient MP. Bleary are the only creatures here that *might* stand through a single AutoCrossbow attack. They can force you to sleep when you look in their eyes with !Slumber, but you'll have killed them before they get a chance to use an attack like that. Edgar is a very nice addition to your team. In fact, I'd say he's horribly overpowered at this stage of the game. Time to take advantage of it! Edgar can one-hit KO Hornet and Crawly with his AutoCrossbow. If you don't meet Bleary monsters, have Terra simply Defend and Locke Steal while you're waiting for Edgar's turn to come up. When Bleary does in fact make an appearance, have Locke still Steal, Terra use a single MT Fire on the group, and Edgar finish it off with his AutoCrossbow. If you're scared you wasted GP on the Bio Blaster, you'll gain use for it soon enough. If there's a choice, always try to Steal from Crawly. A Tonic is a Tonic, but a Remedy is a Remedy, if you know what I mean! As far as chests go, there are three in this cave. I know you're just dying to grab them, but desist and cease! Know that the amount of chests you shouldn't get is about to rapidly decrease, and these items, while 'meh' at this point (Fenix Down upstairs, two Tinctures downstairs) will transform into rad items in the near future. I advise you to let them be. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.7.1 South Figaro ********************************** Container contents: 500 GP, 1000 GP, 1500 GP, Antidote, Elixir, Eyedrops, Fenix Down, Green Cherry, Hyper Wrist, RunningShoes, Soft, Tonic x3, Warp Stone You've reached South Figaro! Great. This is the first town you arrive in where you don't try to slaughter innocent inhabitants, so you should be able to shop, sleep at Inns, steal stuff from houses, talk to NPCs, the usual RPG to-do list. How awesome. Item Shop: Tonic 50 Antidote 50 Soft 200 Eyedrop 50 Echo Screen 120 Fenix Down 500 Sleeping Bag 500 Tent 1200 You might want to buy one or two Soft potions, as it *is* possible to accidentally get a Petrified character in a bit, and you'll want something to counter its effects. Weapon Shop: Dirk 150 MithrilKnife 300 MithrilBlade 450 RegalCutlass 800 NoiseBlaster 500 Bio Blaster 750 Buy a RegalCutlass and give it to Terra. Give the MithrilBlade to Locke. You'll be switching to a better weapon in no time, but for the time being, it's a free upgrade from the MithrilKnife. You can buy the two non-AutoCrossbow Tools for Edgar if your ignorant brother saved after the Figaro Castle experience without buying them there. Armor Shop: Buckler 200 Heavy Shld 400 Hair Band 150 Plumed Hat 250 Cotton Robe 200 Kung Fu Suit 250 Buy two Heavy Shlds, three Plumed Hats, a Cotton Robe, and a Kung Fu Suit. Equip them with Optimum. Relic Shop: Sprint Shoes 1500 Goggles 500 Star Pendant 500 Jewel Ring 1000 True Knight 1000 Buy three Star Pendants and a Jewel Ring. True Knight and Sprint Shoes I'll leave up to you. Goggles are entirely useless so unless you want to obtain as many Items as possible, ignore them. Equip a Star Pendant on every character. The Jewel Ring, despite what its descriptions says, only protects against Petrify. Because you won't be able to get yourself Petrified unless you level Terra up to level 68 (she learns the Break spell at that point) or take tremendously stupid actions when facing Cirpius, you can just let the Relic rest in your Inventory. You'll need it later on. The True Knight is a Relic that allows characters to take physical hits for characters that are Near Fatal; it is characterized as a book containing the Knight's code. Hidden Items: Like in the first cavern you explored with a lone Terra, there are items hidden here that are best left untouched for a while. Here's a list of the items in South Figaro: (items now) (items they become) Fenix Down - Fenix Down Tonic - X-Potion Antidote - Tent Eyedrop - Remedy Tonic - Revivify Green Cherry - Tent Soft - Elixir Warp Stone - Fenix Down There's a Tonic in the barrel between the Weapon and Armor Shop. I suggest skipping this one; you've got plenty of Tonics, but X-Potions will always be nice to have. There's an Eyedrop in a box north of the entrance to the port, and an Antidote in the barrel just above it. They become a Tent and Remedy respectively, so it doesn't really matter what you do. The barrel next to the Chocobo Stable contains a Tonic that becomes a Revivify (leave it), the Green Cherry behind the Chocobo Stable becomes a Tent (grab the Cherry) and the Soft in the box to the far southwest corner of the town becomes an Elixir (definitely leave this one to change). Enter the large house in the northwest corner of South Figaro. You'll enter through the left door; exit through the right door. In one of the barrels you see here, there's a Fenix Down. Continue behind this corner of the house and you'll find yourself in a hidden room! Search the clock for an Elixir. Now, go back in the house and go up the stairs. In one of the rooms, there will be a man writing a letter (who is he writing to? I'm sure it's not important. Couldn't be the enemy, anyway). Behind the bookcase, you'll find a secret entrance to a staircase, which leads to another staircase. Follow it in the next screen. Now, go all the way to the right until you're facing a wall. Now, go all the way down to the bottom. You should be out of sight now. Now, go right to enter a secret area with a Hyper Wrist and a pair of RunningShoes. The Hyper Wrist boosts Vigor, increasing your physical attack power; the RunningShoes gives you inherent and unremovable Haste status. I suggest giving the RunningShoes to Locke and the Hyper Wrist to Edgar. If you had some Sprint Shoes equipped on either, you can just pass it to Terra. Exit. Going up will take you two a room with three doors. The first is empty, the second one contains a Save Point, and the third one contains four chests, respectively containing 500 GP, 1000 GP, 1500 GP, and nothing. I, for one, believe the last one is symbolic for the meaning of life. Exit. On the town wall, there's a group of three barrels you can see when standing near the Chocobo Stable. Find your way there (stairs are near the Armor Shop) and grab a Warp Stone. It'll become a Fenix Down later, but Warp Stones are infinitely cooler at this stage of the game than Fenix Downs will ever be. Finally, there's a Tonic in the house of the old servant of the richest man in town. I figured I'd save the best for last. Other stuff to do: In the Pub, there will be a dark man with a dog near the counter. Talking to him will make you be able to name him. Shadow sure is mysterious. If you thought he was going to join your party now, think again. This guy is a ninja; they don't bother in RPGs unless you're at least past the first serious town. In the Japanese game, an old man in the Pub will also say that 'you' (Edgar) look like one of Duncan's students, which is the first hint there that Sabin went off to train under Master Duncan. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.7.2 The Overworld Map around South Figaro ********************************** Opponents: Rhodox, Rhinotaur, GreaseMonk Miscellaneous items: Mithril Claw (rare Rhinotaur steal) You've had your fun in South Figaro, bought some new armor, equipped some Relics, and met a mysterious stranger with the name of Shadow. I'd say it was worth it. But, time to move on. Go straight north, as there's something of interest there. But woe to those who seek to cross the Overworld Map! Preparation: You prepared in South Figaro. Still keep everybody in the Back Row. Monster formations: Grass: Rhinotaur (6/16) GreaseMonk, GreaseMonk (5/16) Rhodox, Rhodox, GreaseMonk (5/16) Forest: Rhodox, Rhodox, Rhodox, Rhodox (6/16) Rhinotaur, Rhodox, Rhodox (5/16) Rhinotaur, GreaseMonk, Rhodox, Rhodox (5/16) Fairly standard stuff, now. GreaseMonks take more damage from Bio Blaster than from AutoCrossbow, so use that on double GreaseMonks. They'll just attack physically and won't start using !LodeWrench until they're alone, which they probably will never be. The Anthology Bestiary claims they're Imperial maintenance troops. It's official media, but one wonders why Imperial maintenance troops would wander off into the lands to smack people with wrenches as opposed to, say, carry out maintenance to Imperial stuff. Rhodox are obscenely boring creatures as they do nothing but Battle under any circumstance. The only interesting thing to note about them is the fact that they cannot be Suplex'd. A character you'll meet in the future can lift trains, hold up houses and whatnot, but he cannot lift this squirrel up in the air. Rhinotaur are the first genuinely dangerous-looking creatures you meet. They attack with Battle and !Redline, and counter Magic spells with a 1/3 shot at using Mega Volt, so don't do that. You'll want to try to Steal a Mithril Claw from him; it's a weapon none of your characters can equip...yet. Any monster fight should include Edgar using AutoCrossbow (double GreaseMonk can be taken down easier with Bio Blaster, though), Locke Stealing and Terra using Defend and Cure outside of battle when needed. When your level is decently high (9), Edgar should be taking out GreaseMonks in one hit as well with the AutoCrossbow. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.8.1 Sabin's Hut ********************************** Container contents: Tonic The three of you come across an odd hut in the middle of nowhere. Obviously, you choose to explore it and take a nap if nobody is around. Let's just hope the beds and spoons are decently sized, or some *bear* might come for you. It's a Goldilocks/FF VI cross-reference! The flowers, stove, and dishes all draw a comment from Edgar. What is he talking about? We can rest assured it's a woman, however, since no man would profile himself through tea and domestic ornament like this. There's a Tonic in the bucket. Egads! He was talking about his long-lost twin brother, Sabin. Outside, Edgar will show his double-headed coin to an old man and ask if he's seen 'this guy' (Sabin) before. Sabin has headed into Mt. Koltz; his mentor has been killed, and the mentor's son, Vargas, is missing too. Nice. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.8.2 Mt. Koltz ********************************** Opponents: Vaporite, Brawler, Trilium, Tusker, Cirpius, Ipooh, Vargas Container contents: Atlas Armlet, Guardian, Tent x2 Miscellaneous items: Bandana (rare Brawler steal), Mithril Claw (rare Vargas steal) Mountains are always nasty to cross, and Mount Koltz is no exception. You will be attacked, spied upon, and tested severely. Also, a boss fight at the end I might add. If that sounds fun, you're doing well. Preparation: I think this section will grow in usefulness once the game progresses. In the meantime, I feel like I should say something about the Back Row and in what fashion everybody should be in it. Monster formations: Caves: Brawler, Brawler (10/16) Tusker, Tusker (6/16) Slopes: Cirpius, Cirpius, Cirpius (11/16) Tusker, Cirpius, Cirpius, Cirpius (5/16) Great slopes: Trilium, Trilium (10/16) Trilium, Tusker, Cirpius, Cirpius (5/16) Foot of Mount. Koltz: Brawler, Trilium, Vaporite, Vaporite (10/16) Tusker, Tusker (6/16) This is highly frustrating for console players, but Brawler enemies carry Bandanas, which are incredibly hard to obtain right now. They're rare steals, and the common steal is empty. This means that you automatically have a 7 in 8 chance to fail at your Steal attempt. It's a slightly stronger helmet for Locke, Terra, and a character you're about to obtain, so if you're really adamant/near the entrance anyway/playing on an emulator, try to get three of them. For killing them, the AutoCrossbow works great. If it doesn't outright kill them, you can finish them off with Back Row physicals or an MT Fire spell (although you should really be saving your MP in this 'dungeon'). Brawlers, by the way, are martial artists who have turned to a life of evil, using their combat skills for personal gain. It's like the Dark Side, only different. Their Special, which you never get to see unless you bring a late-game character around to use Sketch on them, is called !Punch; the Japanese version was Holy Moon Sword. Way to boringify an attack, Woolsey. Note that since you're stealing Bandanas, which are basically handkerchiefs you put on your head, you're sending your brave heroes to steal and subsequently wear on top of their heads: other people's snotrags. Cirpius are potentially the most dangerous, but never live up to that promise. If you allow them to take three turns, they have a rare chance of using !Beak, which sets Petrify on a character. A triple Cirpius formation can be killed in one go with the AutoCrossbow; when they come with a Tusker you'll want to confuse them until one of them has petrified the Tusker with either !Beak or the Break spell. Tuskers are the only real threats here. They have stronger physicals comparable to Marshal's pounding, and they have a 1/3 chance at countering every Fight command. Don't use it. An MT Fire spell and an AutoCrossbow round kills them. Trilium, lastly, are annoying because they Poison you with !Bane Touch. They only use it the first round though, after which they'll take two turns by just attacking you physically. This means you can easily use (an) Antidote first and kill them second. The first slopes feature no enemies, so you can safely walk into the cave. The cave is straightforward. The other side takes you to another slope, with monsters this time. You see a chest there, but you can't reach it. This cave has two 'hidden' passages to treasure. The first is to the south of the entrance. Around the square-ish bulge, you can reach an exit where you can open the chest you saw earlier. It's a Guardian! It's the first weapon with a stat boost you see, and it's a better weapon for Locke. Go back in. To the right of the path/stairway, there's a hidden passage into another room, which holds a chest containing the Atlas Armlet. The Atlas Armlet is much better that the Hyper Wrist; while the Hyper Wrist boosts a stat used for physical damage calculation by 50 %, the Atlas Armlet simply boosts your physical damage by 25 % period. Equip it on Edgar to boost his AutoCrossbow. With the Atlas Armlet equipped, Edgar should be taking everything out in one hit except for Tuskers, which can be finished with an ST Fire. Locke should Steal. Continue up the wooden pathway. Outside, you walk around two slopes and reach two entrances into the mountain. Now, for the first time, you'll see a shadow figure leaping away from you. Who could it be? Mystery. The first entrance takes you to a chest with a Tent, the second one continues your way through Mt. Koltz. Misty slopes with a bridge this time. The bridge looks like it might collapse, but it doesn't. Ever. Unlike that one bridge from King's Quest; you'd get a point every time you'd cross it, but while you were having a blast collecting points, a big goofy grin on your young face, it would suddenly go down. Bad pun, the end. The next room contains a Save Point, and when you leave it, you'll be on what I've dubbed as the Great Slopes at the Monster formations section. Follow them all the way down, and... ...eventually you'll meet the shadowy figure that has been stalking your every move. It's Vargas. He believes you have something to do with Sabin, so he commences his violence. You get to hurt him now. Obviously you made sure that your HP is high enough for boss battles, as is Terra's MP. Take the Atlas Armlet from Edgar and give it to Locke; give his RunningShoes to Terra. Equip Edgar with the Hyper Wrist or, if you have it, the True Knight. The first one will give you a slight increase in offensive power, and the latter will make sure that Edgar takes physical damage for characters in Near Fatal. It's a matter of personal preference as neither should really be of any significant use. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.8.3 The battle with Vargas ********************************** Ipooh Level: 11, HP: 360, MP: 60 Steal: Potion (rare), Potion (common) Weakness: Fire Special: !Claw: Battle x 1.5 Sketch : !Claw, Battle Control: Battle, !Claw Vulnerable to: Imp, Mute, Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, !Claw Vargas Level: 12, HP: 11600, MP: 220 Steal: Mithril Claw (rare), Tonic (common) Weakness: Poison Special: !Doom Fist: sets Condemned, Battle x 1.5 Sketch : !Doom Fist, Battle Control: Battle, !Doom Fist Vulnerable to: Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, !Doom Fist, Gale Cut Two Ipooh bears initially protect Vargas; you can't harm him until you have killed the Ipooh. Ipooh attack physically only, with Battle and !Claw. Vargas will casually switch between Battle and Gale Cut in a Battle-Gale Cut- Battle rhythm. Dance to it. After every 50 seconds, he will taunt you cruelly by saying: "Come on. What's the matter?" and use Battle twice, as if to insult you. What a bastard. Once he hits 10880 HP - that's after 720 damage - he will start getting bored with you and exclaim: "Enough!! Off with ya now!". Just then, a new character will appear. It's Sabin Rene Figaro, long lost heir to the throne of Figaro and twin brother to Edgar. It seems that Vargas misunderstood the outcome of a successor issue of Duncan, their master and father to Vargas. Vargas turned to patricide, and here Sabin is complimenting Vargas on his FINE SPIRIT. Morals these days, let me tell ya... Anyway, Vargas executes "Mortal attack: Blizzard Fist!" Blasting all inferior warriors of the field, the battle is up to Sabin alone. In the Japanese version, this attack was called 'Super Wind Tsunami Fist', which makes a whole lot more sense. When Sabin has appeared and Vargas hits 10368 HP - that's 512 more damage - Sabin will lament about his master's teachings. You'll have to use a Blitz to win this battle. Once the primary Blitz technique has been used, Vargas will ...die or run, it's kind of vague. At any rate, Vargas is never to be heard from again. Your strategy? When you engage Vargas, try to pick some Ipooh possessions with Locke, have Edgar use AutoCrossbow, and Terra use ST Fire spells on the Ipooh you looted. After you've taken care of the Ipoohs, switch to the Bio Blaster with Edgar, have Terra on stand-by for an MT Cure spell for every Gale Cut that is sent your way. After a successful Steal attempt with Locke, have him attack. The Bio Blaster will do the bulk of your damage anyway, so it's probably not justified to take a turn moving to the Front Row and take more damage there. Eventually, Sabin will crash the party. PAY ATTENTION, AS YOU ARE ABOUT TO DO THE MOST COMPLICATED THING INVENTED IN VIDEO GAME HISTORY. That's right, you're about to execute a Blitz technique. Follow on-screen commands closely. Write them down. Remember. After you've completed a Pummel technique, you've won your battle. If you'd like to learn more about Blitz: [BLITZ-LINK] If your life is a complete, miserable failure, try this: http://members.shaw.ca/yoshi6400/HowToBlitz6400.txt So there you have it! It's a sad and symbolic story, the rivalry of Sabin and Vargas. As a son to Duncan, he was forced to pursue a career in martial arts, even though Vargas resented it. When Master Duncan, after training (among others? It's not clear) Sabin and Vargas for 10 years, decides he's too old to uphold the title of Master any longer, he decides that Vargas should be his successor. However, somehow Vargas understood that Sabin would be his father's follow-up. The cause of this misunderstanding is never explained, and much like how Judas betrayed Jesus to his death, so did Vargas betray his father and took care of him. After that he went searching for Sabin, who knew that it was Vargas who was supposed to be the next Master. Believing that Edgar had something to do with Sabin, he attacked them, which led to the stand-off between Sabin and Vargas, from which Sabin emerges victorious. Little can be said about your Mount Koltz experience with Sabin. You can meet Vaporites here, which seem horrible misplaced in space. AuraBolt is the strongest ST attack you have at this point; take advantage of it. Only after you annihilated everything non-Tusker on screen though. If you have a Bandana and/or Mithril Claw in your inventory, give it to Sabin. Oh yeah, and there's a Tent in the chest, but you can't miss it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.9.1 Traveling to the Returners' Hideout ********************************** Opponents: Rhodox, Rhinotaur, GreaseMonk Miscellaneous items: Mithril Claw (rare Rhinotaur steal) Monster formations: Rhodox, Rhodox, GreaseMonk (6/16) GreaseMonk, GreaseMonk (5/16) Rhinotaur, Rhodox, Rhodox (5/16) After descending from Mount Koltz, you'll find yourself on the Overworld Map again. The Returners' Hideout is to the north. I won't bother explaining the battles and how Sabin fits in here; you were fully capable of handling them without a 400 damage producing righteous killing machine, so I suspect you'll do just fine. If you still don't have a Mithril Claw, try going for one here. You can, if you want to, hike back to South Figaro with Sabin in your party, which will get you a small cutscene with Duncan's Wife. It's not very impressive and it's needlessly time-consuming, but if you're like me, you'll wind up doing it anyway: Duncan's Wife: SABIN, where's Vargas? Where's my husband? SABIN (looking down): Master was... Vargas... DUNCAN'S WIFE: I'll never understand Vargas... Fortunately, my husband taught his most secret techniques to you. SABIN: For 10 years you've treated me like a son. I am eternally grateful! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.9.2 The Returners' Hideout ********************************** Container contents: Antidote, Air Lancet, Fenix Down x2, Green Cherry, Potion, Tincture, True Knight, White Cape Miscellaneous items: Gauntlet OR Genji Glove (Banon) Once you enter the Hideout, you'll have to follow a Returner and enter the door he points you to. Enter and watch the cutscene. There's a Greek mythology reference here (a rather obvious one) and a symbolic position for Terra. How neat. When the scene's over, you're by yourself again. Hidden Items: You can find a Fenix Down in the chest in the room you woke up in. Go out and head up. You'll find three chests here: a True Knight, another Fenix Down, and an Air Lancet, a stronger weapon for Locke that's also Wind-elemental. A hidden passage to the right of the three chests (walk around them) leads to a White Cape. Be sure to grab it. In the bucket and pot, which are standing next to each other, you can find an Antidote and a Tincture. Furthermore, there's a Green Cherry in the pot in the conference room (the one with the large table) and a Potion in the save point room. If you examine the top-right part of the large conference table, near Sabin, Terra'll crouch down and say: "Someone dropped a scrap of paper..." and you'll get two options: Toss it in the trash. Leave it there. If you toss it in the trash, nothing will happen. If you leave it there, and Banon calls the Returners around the table for a meeting, he'll freak out, say: "BANON: Who did this? Who left this piece of paper here?" and throw it away himself. This makes Terra laugh (which, incidentally, probably is the only time Terra laughs in a long, long time as far as I can recall). This whole thing is supposed to be a Japanese joke that didn't port so well in the transition. Nobody has ever been able to explain to me why exactly this is supposed to be funny, so let's move on. There's an Item Shop here: Eyedrop 50 Tonic 50 Potion 300 Tincture 1500 Echo Screen 120 Sleeping Bag 500 Tent 1200 Sprint Shoes 1500 This is the first shop you can actually buy Potions at, so if you're low on them, it might a good idea to stock up on some. A few Eyedrops are also nice if you think those black sunglasses are just SO 1983. Other stuff to do: You need to talk to your three companions before you can talk to Banon. You find Locke immediately upon crawling out of bed, Sabin is in the conference room and Edgar in the Save Point room where you met Banon earlier. You can now exit the Returner Hideout and talk to Banon. Now, you'll have to make a choice. If you immediately want to go for the offer, you'll get a Gauntlet. If you decline, you can get a Genji Glove from the Returner walking around in the storage room. If you decline three times, you'll get a Genji Glove from from another Returner in the middle of some important conversation. You'll want to pick the Genji Glove, trust me. Granted, the Gauntlet is more of a rarity, but that doesn't mean it's also better (it isn't). You could, with Terra alone, hike back to Mt. Koltz. However, there will be an Imperial soldier guarding the entrance who'll chase you out on the World Map if you talk to him: "Scum! You're Returners!" If you declined Banon's offer three times, Terra will walk back into the Hideout and mutter: "Hope... How can anyone put their hope in me?". Just then, a wounded Returner stumbles in with Banon. Locke, Edgar and Sabin come rushing in, Locke leaves for South Figaro and Terra, Edgar, Sabin and Banon will be going to Narshe through the back door, the Lete River. A Returner quickly sneaks into the conversation to give you a Genji Glove (truly one of the few acceptable reasons to interrupt important dialogue) and off you go. If you did anything else, there'll be a meeting. Banon gets angsty about MagiTek power, failing to realize that on the two occasions MagiTek power has been employed so far, it accomplished NOTHING. Banon kinda steers towards the 'we need Magic too' topic when a wounded Returner stumbles in. Returners, assemble! Locke goes off to stop Imperial Forces in South Figaro by his lonesome and Terra, Banon, Edgar and Sabin will escape via the Lete River, raging river of the wilderness. After the sequence has played out, you've had Locke split (don't worry, his equipment is in your inventory) and Banon added. The fact that you couldn't name him should tip you off to his inferior status in your party. Although he's a PC in battle, you cannot access his Equipment and Relic screen. His equipment: Punisher - Magus Hat Silk Robe Don't immediately go to the raft; go up and remember where you came out. You'll need to find the hidden access to the Lete River later in the game, so now you know where you'll want to go. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.10.1 Escaping over the Lete River ********************************** Opponents: Pterodon, Nautiloid, Exocite, Ultros The Empire invaded South Figaro (notice how Edgar didn't respond *whatsoever* to that notion?) and is coming to the Hideout. We must run like the wind. We'll escape using a raft and the flowing water that carries it. Fun! Preparation: Everybody in the Back Row. You can strip the Star Pendants from your characters and apply Atlas Armlet/RunningShoes to Edgar, Hyper Wrist and True Knight to Sabin, and a White Cape to Terra. There's nothing remotely useful you can put in Terra's second Relic Slot (you'll want to have those Sprint Shoes in your inventory, and you won't be walking anyway). Monster formations: Okay, this is rather complicated to do right here, so I'll explain it a few paragraphs down the line. First, I want you to exit the hallway you find yourself in through the northern entrance. Not only will you now know where you can find it from the Returners' Hideout, you can also walk over to the room where Terra woke up in and find the wounded Returner in bed. If you stand beneath the chest here, you'll catch the poor sap having a nightmare: Uwaaaa! The Empire's invading! (cue 'Troops march on') (Troops march on fades out) "What the...? Sleep talking?" Welcome to Lete River. The first rule of Lete River is: you don't talk about Lete River. The second rule of Lete River is: you do not talk about Lete River. The third rule of Lete River is when Banon goes down, the game is over. If Banon receives Wound status, you'll get a Game Over. Protecting Banon should be your first priority. If you fail, you'll get a neat message saying, "Banon fell..." Fun fact: if you level Terra up to level 68 before meeting Banon, you can set Petrify with the Break spell she learned and make him invincible. Then again, if you're leveled like that, you really needn't worry in the first place. Exocite is your average physical attacker. He seems to have a specifically strong, instinct-based hatred for the elderly, as after every six turns, he will always target Banon for a single Battle attack. You should have turned Exocite in little bits of Exocite nuggets by then, though. Nautiloid is more annoying. Rather than doing damage with his Special, !Ink sets Dark, which is a useless thing to do but still looks rather stupid on your characters. To top that, his Defense is very strong (partly thanks to an inherent Safe status), so the AutoCrossbow and Fight commands will do little here. Also, after three turns he'll turn on Banon for a Battle attack, so BEWARE. Pterodon are the strongest enemies here. They can use Battle, execute !Wing to set Seizure on the party the second turn and can actually use Fire Ball the third one, which is an MT Fire-elemental attack and particularly dangerous. Pterodon should be subdued by NoiseBlaster at all times and taken out first if possible. The strategy is simple. Keep the monsters at bay with NoiseBlaster, use Fire and AuraBolt to deliver damage, and have Banon use Health to recover from any damage you might have taken. As soon as you decide to hop on board the raft, you'll be taken down the Lete River. However, there are many ways to Rome, and many ways to travel the Lete River. At two points in the trip, you'll be asked to pick a direction. Each direction has an influence on the monsters you face. Here's the run-down of your possibilities: Monster Formation Pack # 1: Nautiloid, Exocite (3/4) Pterodon, Exocite, Exocite (1/4) Monster Formation Pack # 2 Pterodon, Pterodon (3/4) Nautiloid, Exocite, Pterodon (1/4) Start: (Invoke Battle with # 1) You'll reach the Straight/Left/Right decision. You'll want to pick Left for the shortest time of passing through and the potentially least amount of battles. If you're going for the most battles, or want to make sure you encounter a Pterodon, obviously pick 'Straight'. Straight: (Invoke Battle with # 1 50 % of the time) (Invoke Battle with # 2) (Invoke Battle with # 1 50 % of the time) (Invoke Battle with # 1 50 % of the time) (Invoke Battle with # 1) Left: Invoke Battle with # 1 50 % of the time) (Invoke Battle with # 1 50 % of the time) (Invoke Battle with # 2 50 % of the time) Right: (Invoke Battle with # 1) (Invoke Battle with # 1 50 % of the time) (Invoke Battle with # 1 50 % of the time) Regardless of your choice, you will end up at a small cave with a Save Point in it. (Invoke Battle with # 1) You'll reach the Up/Left decision. Up: (Invoke Battle with # 2 50 % of the time) (Invoke Battle with # 1 50 % of the time) (Invoke Battle with # 1 50 % of the time) You're back at the Up/Left decision. Left: (Invoke Battle with # 2 50 % of the time) A cave with a mandatory Save Point. Last Save Point you can get the 'eerie glow' speech at! From second Save Point to exit: (Invoke Battle with # 2 50 % of the time) (Invoke Battle with # 1 50 % of the time) Ultros Battle if you haven't fought him before. At the end of the Lete River ordeal, you'll encounter what looks like the ultimate Nautiloid, a huge purple octopus who goes by the name of Ultros... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.10.2 The first fight with Ultros ********************************** Ultros Level: 13, HP: 3000, MP: 640 Weakness: Fire, Lightning Special: !Ink: sets Dark, Battle x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, !Ink, Tentacle "Uwee hee hee Game over! Don't tease the octopus, kids!" Ultros is a tough bastard whose Tentacle attack can be a huge pain if you're playing the game without over leveling. Everybody *must* be in the Back Row. If you are a moron and played with any of your characters in the Front Row, fix that. He'll start by saying: "Uwee hee hee Game over! Don't tease the octopus, kids!" and using a Battle attack. Then, if 10 seconds have passed (and they will have), he'll say "Delicious morsel! Let me get my bib!" and target Terra with an ST Tentacle attack. If at his next turn another 10 seconds have passed, he'll say "Muscle-heads? Hate 'em!" target Sabin with an ST Tentacle attack and use an MT Tentacle attack on his next turn, followed by either Battle, !Ink or an ST Tentacle in that very same turn; if not, he'll spread the happiness with an MT Tentacle/ follow up with Battle/!Ink/ST Tentacle, wait a turn, and THEN hate Sabin for his body. His next turn is devoted to a Battle attack and either a Battle, !Ink or ST or MT Tentacle attack in the same turn. Then, he'll say "Y you frighten me!" and use an ST Tentacle attack on Banon, from where he'll start at his first MT Tentacle-Battle/!Ink/ST Tentacle turn again. Also, every time he is targeted by a Fire-elemental attack, which at this stage is either a Fire spell from Terra or Sabin's Fire Dance Blitz, he will say "Yaaooouch! Seafood soup!" and counter with an !Ink attack. ...yeah, it's a talkative guy. Beating Ultros down is relatively simple if you pay close attention to his AI script. Have at the very least Terra and Banon in the Back Row using their Def. skill to reduce the power of Tentacle when you know they'll be targeted by it. Have Banon use Health at all times, as his Fight is nothing to consider seriously (even though he possesses a snazzy weapon that you won't get on other characters for a long, long time from now). For damage output, have Terra use her Fire spells, Edgar fire off arrows with the AutoCrossbow, and Sabin use AuraBolt. IF he knows Fire Dance at this point, it's stronger than AuraBolt, but if you're highly leveled like that, you probably don't need to worry about anything. If you defeat him, he'll go "Th that's all, friends!" and escape underwater. Sabin won't like this and he'll go after him; sadly, Sabin does not consider he's more of a 'land-based' guy and Ultros appears to sane people as a generally aqua-themed creature. In other words: Sabin is dead in the water. Pun! P.S.: On Ultros being 'obviously' aqua-themed, I suppose several people now think that Lovecraft's Cthulhu is entirely capable of surviving on land. But as it is generally held into account that whoever sees Cthulhu will turn mad within an instant, it still can be said that no SANE man will assume a squid-like creature to be land-based, and my statement still stands. He'll rise and feed upon your brain and soul and is more powerful than anything you could begin to comprehend. Cthulhu will rise. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.11.1 Choosing a scenario ********************************** There were initial plans for a normal menu screen where you could select your scenario from, but I guess they figured this would be more fun. They were right. Unlike the previous Mog, you can't access this guy's equipment or relics, so don't bother. It's here that you'll need to decide what scenario to do first. Here's a quick list what you can gain from each scenario: Terra/Edgar/Banon: a Rune Edge, and the ability to de-equip, most likely freeing an Atlas Armlet and RunningShoes. Locke: Iron Helmets, a Ribbon, one pair of Earrings, a Thunder Rod (if you left the Fenix Down alone when you passed through the Cave of Figaro with Edgar, Locke, and Terra). Ends with a boss fight, so it's dangerous to de-equip at the end. Sabin: a MithrilGlove, a Barrier Ring, Green Berets, a set of Earrings, a Sniper Sight, a Tintinabar and the ability to buy new equipment, including Magus Hats, Iron Armor, Silk Robes, and Bandanas. Ability to de-equip at the end. Now, I would advise you take the scenarios in the following order: Terra --> Sabin --> Locke Terra's scenario is a cinch where no extra items are needed by a long shot. However, it does contain some strong Relics you can't free until you've played through it. Therefore, Terra's scenario first. Now, Locke's scenario could use Sabin's items and vice versa...but the fact that Locke's scenario is probably the more difficult of the two, and you can't properly de-equip at the end of Locke's scenario, made me advise Locke's scenario last. On to the three scenarios: I'll handle them in the same order I advise you to take them in. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.12.1 Scenario Terra/Edgar/Banon: Lete River continued ********************************** Opponents: Pterodon, Nautiloid, Exocite Preparation: Ain't nothing you can do, lil' missy. Monster Formation Pack # 1: Nautiloid, Exocite (3/4) Pterodon, Exocite, Exocite (1/4) Monster Formation Pack # 2 Pterodon, Pterodon (3/4) Nautiloid, Exocite, Pterodon (1/4) (Invoke Battle with # 2 50 % of the time) (Invoke Battle with # 1 50 % of the time) (Invoke Battle with # 1 50 % of the time) With Sabin gone, battles will take a little longer. Not to worry, though. Keep the Pterodon Muddled, take Nautiloid with an ST Fire spell, and Exocite with the AutoCrossbow. Have Banon on stand-by. You should be used to these guys by now. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.12.2 Scenario Terra/Edgar/Banon: Traveling to Narshe ********************************** Opponents: Leafer, Dark Wind You rode that Lete River (more commonly known as 1337 River by flourishing people around the world...by which I mean flowers of ACNE) like a professional. You're right in front of Narshe; this should be a cinch. Preparation: Keepin' it in the Back Row there? I promise this is going to change. If you did any of the other scenarios before this one, upgrade your equipment, give Terra one or two sets of Earrings, and have Edgar stick to Atlas Armlet/RunningShoes. Monster formations: Grasslands: Leafer (10/16) Leafer, Leafer, Dark Wind (6/16) Forest: Leafer, Leafer, Dark Wind (10/16) Leafer, Leafer, Dark Wind, Dark Wind (6/16) Desert: Sand Ray, Sand Ray (5/16) Areneid, Areneid, Areneid (5/16) Sand Ray, Areneid, Areneid (5/16) Sand Ray, Areneid, Areneid, Areneid (1/16) You can just slaughter these guys left and right however you please; MT Fire spell or AutoCrossbow, your pick. For some extra fun, you can take Banon to the hidden Chocobo Stable south of Figaro Desert. He's not a permanent character and was never given a 'rider' sprite, but it is called when you put him as the lead character and order a ride. Garbage with maximum entertainment (I'll admit there's a possibility that Garbage - the Band does make for an even better evening, but I've never actually heard anything by them to my knowledge). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.12.3 Scenario Terra/Edgar/Banon: Narshe ********************************** Opponents: Were-Rat, Vaporite, Repo Man, Dark Side, Spectre, Rinn, 1st Class, Wild Rat Container contents: Rune Edge Now, that was ridiculously easy; I told you this scenario was nothing to get your underwear in a twist about. After some Narshe Guards show you disrespect (remember to murderalize them later for that), it's up to you to find an alternative entrance. Luckily, you remember that secret entrance from the start of the game. No, yes you do. The one to the left? Preparation: You should've done that on the Overworld Map. Life does *not* start and stop at your convenience. Games do, though, so you can do it anyway. Enter the cave and walk through it. You'll recognize it as being the one Locke carried the unconscious Terra through. Monster formations: Were-Rat, Were-Rat, Were-Rat (10/16) Were-Rat, Repo Man (6/16) You'll walk over a snowy slope. You can see Narshe already to the right of you, but you still can't reach it. The next cave contains new enemies: Monster formations: Wild Rat, 1st Class, 1st Class, Wild Rat, Wild Rat (6/16) 1st Class, 1st Class, 1st Class (5/16) 1st Class, Wild Rat (5/16) Both 1st Class and Wild Rat monsters attack physically only, so there's little point in explaining what it is that they do. 1st Classes are the highest-ranking maintenance troops in the Empire. What the hell are all the Imperial guys doing in places where there's nothing for them to maintain? Pass through it. On the other side, you'll encounter the Dreaded Security Check Point. From the Japanese game, you could have learned this is a testing place for Narshe Guards. Who made it? Who creates something like this *period*, let alone in a desolate cave like this, punishing the weakest fighters in the game to follow its path with legions of undead monstrosities? Drunken wizards? Frat boys who find little pieces of Magicite and, being too poor to buy the pretty girls a drink, try to impress by feats of magic? So here's the deal. Follow the path of the sparkle thingy. Abandon knowledge of the will o' the wisp and DO follow this one. If not, nine revolving lights will quickly surround you. If you manage to tag the yellow one, you'll be given a chance to get back on track. If not, you will have to fight a battle: Dark Side, Dark Side (3/4) Dark Side, Spectre, Rinn, Rinn, Rinn (1/4) Suffice to say, if you mess up here, you'll have to fight a battle. Now, I was assuming that you acted on mistake and you were incapable of avoiding this bold act. However, it should be noted that you'll probably want to fight this illuminating magical sphere, as this is the only place where you'll find the nefarious Dark Side enemy. Lo and behold, as there is a small chance (25 %) you will actually encounter the interesting Spectre and Rinn. There's no reason you want to meet them and killing them is very easy, but you'll make them appear on the Veldt so you don't end up with a needlessly incomplete Rage list. Spectre has a rare Ice Rod for stealing, but you sadly lack Locke at the moment. Intruding further into the dark, cold mines will allow you to come across the location where the Moogles live. Resuming your quest will get you past the chest in this room; reach it and open it to obtain the Rune Edge*. It's is stronger then your current blade. Unfortunately, it consumes 12 to 18 MP to inflict a critical hit every time, so grab onto your few MP and stick with the RegalCutlass, as the Rune Edge is horribly cost-inefficient at this stage of the game. * Actually, it would make more sense to just leave it here. Despite the fact that the Rune Edge allows Terra or Celes to do more damage than she could do without it, you probably will never use it. Much later, the treasure here will change into a Ribbon, which is much better at that time than the Rune Edge is now. Monster formations: Repo Man, Vaporite (6/16) Vaporite, Vaporite (5/16) Were-Rat, Were-Rat (5/16) When you walk out of the Moogle Den, you're pretty much done. Keep ignoring any closed chests you might encounter; their contents haven't changed yet. When you're out of the cave, you can safely de-equip everything. That just was Scenario # 1... hope you liked it. The Old Man has been given a name! His name is Arvis. Nothing much has changed in Narshe; they're still neutral even though the Empire attacked them, they haven't really done anything with the Esper, and are a generally indecisive bunch. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.13.1 Scenario Sabin: Meeting Shadow and finding the Imperial Camp ********************************** Opponents: Stray Cat, Beakor, CrassHoppr, Rhobite So, Sabin was thrown off the raft and separated from his 5-minute friends. Getting back to Narshe is going to be tedious, as you have no idea which way to go. Your only hope is to find somebody who can point out the way... Preparation: Keep Sabin in the Back Row. White Cape and a Star Pendant. Even if you do have Earrings, AuraBolt kills everything in one shot anyway, so a power boost isn't needed. Beakor's !Duster can Poison you, so that's why I advise a Star Pendant. Clever, no? Monster formations: Grass: Beakor (6/16) Rhobite, Rhobite, Rhobite (5/16) Beakor, Rhobite, Rhobite (5/16) Forest: CrassHoppr, CrassHoppr, Stray Cat, Stray Cat (5/16) Rhobite, Rhobite, Rhobite, Rhobite, Rhobite (5/16) Beakor, Beakor, Stray Cat (5/16) Beakor, Stray Cat, CrassHoppr, CrassHoppr (1/16) You start near a little house. Walk over to it. If you couldn't figure that out by yourself, I advise you to equip a Gun Relic in your mouth and use Pull The Trigger for offense. Here, there are three main points of interest. The guy you met in South Figaro is here, there's a green soldier-type merchant on a chocobo who comes in and leaves pretty quickly, and there's a house to go in. First, go over to the merchant. He has a nice set of items for you: Tonic 50 Fenix Down 500 Tent 1200 Plumed Hat 250 Shuriken 30 Inviz Edge 200 Shadow Edge 400 Sprint Shoes 1500 I suggest you buy 99 Shurikens from him. 2970 GP is not that much, and it'll stop any worrying about the limit of Shadow's attacks for a good while. Also, buy 5 Inviz Edges and 5 Shadow Edges. You probably won't ever need any more. Now, go over to Shadow (you can talk to his dog from various angles and watch Sabin hide behind several objects, that always gets a kick out of me: "Whoa... The dog just can't stand strangers."), chat with him, and accept him in your party. I guess I should note it's not required as such; you can perfectly well finish the scenario without him. It's just that there's no reason whatsoever to ignore him, as not only is he a great asset to your team at this stage, he also comes with some Ninja Gear on him, which is great armor for now. Your additions to his equipment should be a Buckler and a Plumed Hat (you can buy the latter from the merchant if you have none to spare). Like I mentioned in the preparations, you'll want an Atlas Armlet and a filler Relic on him, such as the Hyper Wrist. Stick him in the Back Row, as the very purpose of throwing something is ignoring the distance between you and the target. A little note on his Imperial weapon: some have seen this as a hint that Shadow is originally from the Southern continent, possible from Vector. 'Imperial' was never the weapon's name in the Japanese game; there it was called the Kunai, which should make anime otaku smile with recognition. It's *the* generic ninja weapon. Since this is the moment Shadow is officially a party member, it'd be nice to know what it is that he does in battle. Learn it: [THROW-LINK] Entering the house will be difficult. You'll need to locate the door. It's hidden somewhere on the front side of the house itself, so look carefully. Inside the house, you can touch the stove for a neat little scene about how crazy this guy in fact is, but there's nothing remotely useful for you to do here otherwise. Make sure you talk to the Crazy Old Man in question several times, as his lines change. There are moments in the game Shadow has the annoying tendency to have a chance of running off after every battle. I'll explain that when that chance actually presents itself. For now, Shadow is your loyal sidekick. In other words, Shadow will NOT run out on you right now. On the Overworld Map, all violence directed at you is physical. In the first battle you fight with Shadow, have him Throw an Inviz Edge. This makes him invulnerable for the remaining journey on the Overworld Map. Throw Shurikens and AuraBolts at your heart's delight; you'll find there's little strategy in this scenario as most of your fights consist of taking hits and returning ST one-hit KO's. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.13.2 Scenario Sabin: Imperial Camp and Doma ********************************** Opponents: Soldier, Templar, Doberman, M-TekArmor, Leader, Grunt, Cadet Container contents: Barrier Ring, MithrilGlove, Remedy, Star Pendant, Monster-in-a-box (Telstar) Miscellaneous items: Black Belt (common Leader drop), Green Beret (guaranteed Telstar drop) It seems there is an Imperial obstruction in the way. This is the Imperial Camp Shadow talked about, the one that will have to overcome the defenses of Doma at some point in the near future. We'll have to try to sneak past it. Preparation: Keep Sabin in the Back Row, as well as Shadow if you brought him. As soon as you enter the Imperial Camp, a cutscene will ensue. It becomes apparent that general Leo is leading the attack on Doma, and that he's pretty popular with the soldiers. Kefka, on the other hand, is expected to drive Leo out of the mission, becoming a general himself, a thought that inspires fear in the soldiers. Also, Doma is being attacked. Right now. The scene switches to Doma, where chances of overcoming the attack are slim. The retainer however, Cyan Garamonde, has a daring plan: rush out of the castle to kill the leading officer; this might send the soldiers scurrying off for the time being. After the scene, you are in control of Cyan. Equip Cyan with fancy new equipment you can offer him (Heavy Shld, Plumed Hat or even an Iron Helmet if you went through some pains in Locke's scenario already). I suggest you take a moment to check up on the character that is Cyan: [SWDTECH-LINK] Outside, eight Imperial soldiers are banging their heads against the walls of Doma in a sophisticated attempt to infiltrate it. The leading officer does nothing. You can pick a fight with any of the wandering Imperial soldiers (which will trigger a battle with two Soldiers), but it's of little use, as you'll be forced to fight Soldiers in the near future anyway. I suggest you simply go for the leader. Leader Level: 12, HP: 456, MP: 20 Win: Fenix Down (rare), Black Belt (common) Status: Safe Special: !Axe: Attack * 1.5 Attacks: Battle, !Axe The leader, surprisingly called 'Leader', will sometimes use !Axe in between his normal physicals. He has a 33 % of countering any damage with !Axe, and that wraps it up for Leader. Cyan should be in the Back Row, so Leader's attacks shouldn't really hurt him. Cyan's # 1 SwdTech skill, Dispatch, will deal sufficient damage to easily kill Leader before Leader can come anywhere near killing Cyan. SwdTech skill # 2, Retort, will make sure that the Leader is killed in one hit. SwdTech skill # 3 works as well, although it takes needlessly long. Make sure you end up with a Black Belt rather than a Fenix Down; the Black Belt is a nice Relic at this point of the game, and you can't get another one for quite some time. When you're done playing around with petty officers, and the Imperial Soldiers, despite their overwhelming number, have decided it would be best to flee, the scene switches back to Sabin and Shadow. Proceed to explore the Imperial Camp. To the left is an Imperial soldier marching around; engaging him will get you a Soldier, Soldier, M-TekArmor battle. This walking soldier will re-spawn every time you leave and enter the Imperial Camp, by the way. To the left are a seemingly passive guard dog and a chest in the large military tent. You'll be given three options when examining the chest: Urrgh! The top won't open. Right... (Kick it) (Hit it) (Leave it) - If you Kick it, the guard dog outside will be alarmed and will attack you, triggering an attack: Monster formations: Doberman, Doberman, Doberman (3/4) Doberman, Doberman (1/4) They're the only Dobermans you'll ever see in the game, so if you're still cruising for the perfect Rage list, this is the option you'll want. After Kicking it, the chest is open. It contains a Star Pendant. - If you Hit it, you'll fool an Imperial soldier by pretending to be a NEKO NEKO KAWAII. I meant a cat. After the soldier has disappeared, you'll be able to open the chest, which contains a Star Pendant. - If you Leave it, nothing will happen, unlike, say, Leaving your wife. If you're done in this part of the Imperial Camp and are ready to continue, you'll come across a cutscene in which general Leo is called home to Vector by Emperor Gestahl, leaving Kefka in charge. You can get up and stretch you muscles for two steps before Leo and Kefka meet before your eyes. Kefka and Leo do NOT get along. Leo hasn't disappeared from your sight for a second when Kefka orders the poisoning of Doma's water supply, which not only goes against the laws of honor and war, but will take out several Imperial prisoners within the walls of Doma castle. Even given your current position, you cannot allow this to happen. You'll be fighting a character Kefka, who runs after taking one hit. He'll simply smack you over the head with his Morning Star if you let him, so getting your ass kicked isn't even terribly interesting in this case. Don't immediately follow him all the way; there are important things to be done: - In a tent, there are two chests. Ignore them for now, walk behind this tent. Automatically, you'll jump off a ledge in walk into another Tent. Here, you'll find a Barrier Ring; swap it with Sabin's Star Pendant. He can enjoy the slight AuraBolt damage increase. Now, walk back into the tent with two chests. - The right one contains a MithrilGlove, which you can ignore for the rest of your life. - The left one contains one of NASA's old-time prides: the first active communications satellite, the first satellite designed to transmit telephone and high-speed data communications, as well as the first privately owned satellite. Joe Meek wrote a song about it. In short: the Telstar. If you already completed Locke's scenario, give the Ribbon to Sabin at this point. If not, give him the Genji Glove and move him to the *gasp* Front Row. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.13.3 Scenario Sabin: Telstar and Imperial Camp continued ********************************** Telstar Level: 14, HP: 1800, MP: 250 Steal: X-Potion (rare), Win: Green Beret (rare), Green Beret (common) Weakness: Lightning, Water Status: Float Special: !SonicBlast: sets Muddled Vulnerable to: Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, !SonicBlast, Dischord, Schiller, Megazerk, Tek Laser, Missile Telstar will normally use Battle, !SonicBlast, Schiller, Tek Laser, and Missile to make your life harder than it already is. Every ninth turn it takes, Telstar will use Dischord to halve a character's level. After 25 seconds of fighting, Telstar will call two Soldiers to aid him. 55 seconds later, he'll call in three Soldiers to help him (if there are Soldiers from the previous calling still standing, he'll fill the number to 3), and 120 seconds later, he'll call four Soldiers (once again, he fills the screen up to four Soldiers anyway). Finally, Telstar will counter any Blitz attack with Megazerk, making sure that Sabin will be Blitz-less in this battle, like an animal. Shadow should be Throwing Shurikens while Sabin can keep on pumping out AuraBolts. If you didn't have a Ribbon, he will be Berserked by Telstar's Blitz-counter, Megazerk. It should be noted that Shadow will, for the first time, be vulnerable to attacks here as there's a large chance at least one of Telstar's magical attacks will be striking Shadow, removing the Clear status. After the fight, you win a Green Beret. Equip it on Sabin and swap his White Cape with the MithrilGlove (don't worry, it'll soon fade into the non-existence it was created for). Return Sabin to his Back Row AuraBolt self and move on. Following Kefka further will get you into another battle with character Kefka. Have Shadow re-apply his Clear status if you lost it versus Telstar. After talking to Kefka for the third time, he'll run off and sends Soldier, Soldier, Templar, Templar at you. If Shadow is still visible, take care of that problem. Have Sabin Defend and keep his own HP up, while Shadow takes out the enemies one by one (Templars first). There's a large chance they will use strong physical counters on you, and Shadow can avoid all of them. After Kefka breaks the universal honor code and Cyan learns that everything he loves is subject to Poison, you gain control of the good knight. Equip the RunningShoes on him and another nice filler Relic. You don't really have a choice but to go downstairs and watch Cyan rush into the royal chamber. The King of Doma (whose name is King Doma; I like to think his first names are 'King of') is dying. Then, he dies. Do not go into the door to the right when you leave the royal chamber. It contains graphic adultery, you hear? Instead, go on do the bottom of the screen and see two doors there. Pick the right one and enter. There's a Remedy in a pot here. Talk to the Doma Sentry you see in this room, and try to explore the available door next to him. It seems the statement about 'survivors' was too hopeful. When you're done, put Cyan in the Front Row and enter the room I previously forbid you to enter. You regain control of Sabin and Shadow once the scene is done. You can't exit left, as there's poison there (although you'll learn in a little while there's good distance between the Imperial Camp and Doma Castle, plot device laughs in the face of logic). No choice but to help Cyan! For some extra fun, try talking to Cyan when between the two attacking Imperial soldiers: CYAN: Eeoooa! Be you friend or enemy?! SABIN: Ouuuch! ...didn't MEAN to step in there... Too bad you don't lose HP there; that would amuse my bitter, bitter self. Cyan will fight automatically in this battle, having a 66 % of using Fight and 33 % shot at Dispatch. Sabin and Shadow can stick to their trusted ST power- blows, and you'll win the day without breaking a sweat in the battle formations you have to go through: Grunt, Grunt, Grunt (3/4) / Grunt, Grunt, Grunt, Grunt (1/4) Grunt, Grunt, Grunt (3/4) / Grunt, Grunt, Grunt, Grunt (1/4) Cadet, Grunt, Grunt After all is said and done, you get to run around in MagiTek Armor again! How sweet it is! Heal any damage done to Sabin and Cyan with Heal Force (obviously Shadow wasn't touched at all; he's a non-generic ninja). Use Heal Force anyway, as his invisibility can, believe it or not, become a negative factor in the near future. Put Cyan back in the Back Row and blast your way through any opposition with whatever beam you can use. Everything kills everything, to be blunt. The helpless opposition: M-TekArmor Soldier, Soldier, M-TekArmor M-TekArmor, M-TekArmor When you're done, leave. This is, by the way, a good strategy for a large portion of your life, although it doesn't seem to work as effectively after you've taken what you want from girls. Finally! You've managed to sneak through an Imperial Camp without the loss of your life. Of course, you didn't so much 'sneak through' as simply murdered everybody you saw, which was half of the Camp's population. Still, you live. That's good. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.14.1 Scenario Sabin: Traveling to the Phantom Forest ********************************** Opponents: Sand Ray, Areneid, Stray Cat, Beakor, CrassHoppr, Rhobite Having broken out like a bad case of acne, your only hope to reach Narshe is to travel through a dark forest to the east of Doma Castle. Preparation: Save, darn you! Now that Sabin is no longer alone and scared, there is little direct reason for Shadow to linger. That means that starting from your escape from the Imperial Camp, he may randomly decide to leave you after every battle, taking all your equipment he's got equipped with him: SHADOW: My job here’s over. I’ve earned my fee! SHADOW: Ta-ta...! It's just a 1/16 chance though (which, by the way, is in NO way influenced by the order you performed the scenarios in, there are many myths and misconceptions about that). I can say that in a short while, there will be a situation in which Shadow will no longer be able to escape, but you'll need to make it there with Shadow at your side, preferably. This can be reached by: a) Saving beforehand and relying on your luck b) Killing Shadow until the party reaches said destination. c) Running from every battle If you're playing the game on an emulator, I suggest the first (you can always Quick Save after every battle and Quick Load when Shadow decides it's time to hit the road). If you're playing on a console (especially PSX), I advise you to simply run away for the time being. The monsters give crap Experience, they drop nothing interesting and there is absolutely no penalty to fleeing in this game. As far as Relics go, I advise a Genji Glove/Black Belt and Front Row Sabin and a Back Row Cyan with Barrier Ring and MithrilGlove. Shadow can have those RunningShoes and Atlas Armlet. Monster formations: Grass north of Imperial Camp: Beakor (6/16) Rhobite, Rhobite, Rhobite (5/16) Beakor, Rhobite, Rhobite (5/16) Grass south and west of Imperial Camp: CrassHoppr, CrassHoppr, CrassHoppr (6/16) Stray Cat, Stray Cat, Stray Cat (5/16) Beakor, Stray Cat, CrassHoppr, CrassHoppr (5/16) Forest: CrassHoppr, CrassHoppr, Stray Cat, Stray Cat (5/16) Rhobite, Rhobite, Rhobite, Rhobite, Rhobite (5/16) Beakor, Beakor, Stray Cat (5/16) Beakor, Stray Cat, CrassHoppr, CrassHoppr (1/16) Desert: Sand Ray, Sand Ray (5/16) Areneid, Areneid, Areneid (5/16) Sand Ray, Areneid, Areneid (5/16) Sand Ray, Areneid, Areneid, Areneid (1/16) You know how to handle the wildlife here. You can travel to Doma Castle, but you'll find it occupied by Imperial troops so you cannot enter. Just travel to the forest to the southeast. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.14.2 Scenario Sabin: The Phantom Forest ********************************** Opponents: Ghost, Poplium Welcome to Phantom Forest, called the Forest of Illusion in the Japanese game. After entering the forest, something quickly seems...off. Eyes from the darkness leering at you. Sounds from places you can't keep your eye on. You being on fire. Preparation: Shadow's still a possible run-away, so keep him down if that's your strategy. Monster formations: First and second screen: Ghost (10/16) Ghost, Poplium, Poplium (6/16) Third screen and fourth screen: Ghost, Ghost, Ghost (10/16) Ghost, Ghost, Poplium, Poplium, Poplium (6/16) Ghosts are unfriendly, generally unpleasant, Undead, and they hate you. Every first turn will be a Fire spell or nothing, but the second turn can contain Battle, !Pause (which sets Stop) and Fire Wall, a very strong ST Fire-elemental attack that will probably shave off 150 HP. Poplium are waiting to be relieved from this unlife they're doomed to suffer through. They attack physically and if they're feeling particularly grumpy they might even use !Cling to slow you down. This is, strategy-wise, a very boring and straightforward part of the game. Sabin, Cyan, and Shadow all have ST attacks that can take out all enemies in one hit. Keep up with Dispatch, Shuriken, and AuraBolt. Use Potions when you are hit with an unlucky Fire Wall or when your HP is running low due to other causes. You will find a Recovery Spring you will automatically heal yourself in. Make sure to kill Shadow again if you're a console player. Think: "Take this, nemesis! A Shuriken to the face! Oh, wait. Fitting as it is for my dark, brooding character, I myself am my nemesis. My physical agony is without boundaries." Always stick to the next exit on the top of the screen; other exits will lead you in circles. Laugh at their attempts to trick you. Eventually, you'll reach a train. The train was destroyed in the recent war between Doma and the Empire, and Sabin will talk about survivors and taking looks. Cyan will freak, but we're used to that by now and pay little attention to him as we climb aboard. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.15.1 The Phantom Train ********************************** Opponents: Hazer, Whisper, Over-Mind, Bomb, Ghost, StillGoing, GhostTrain, Ziegfried*, Specter Container contents: Earrings, Fenix Down x2, Sniper Sight, Monster-in-a-box (Specter) Miscellaneous items: Hyper Wrist (guaranteed Specter drop), Tent x3 (2 hidden, one guaranteed GhostTrain drop) * Is called Siegfried in the SNES release, but is more commonly known as Ziegfried on the forums for various reasons, and the Anthology release calls him Ziegfried as well. Jay for reality imitating art imitating reality, I guess. Preparation: You can revive Shadow now as, trapped on the Phantom Train as he is, he won't run away anymore. You'll want to keep hold of your high-tech reviving utilities, as a Save Point is nearby. Monster formations: (Outside portions of the entire Phantom Train): Whisper, Whisper, Hazer (5/16) Bomb (5/16) Whisper, Whisper, Whisper, Whisper (5/16) Bomb, Bomb, Bomb (1/16) Behold, the Phantom Train! This is the first area where we'll fight multiple monsters that regularly use spells; learn to love it. The Phantom Train is a luxury, a transportation device unlike any other. Pulled by a locomotive, the Train features a Save Point, two train wagons for the rich, a restaurant wagon, and five normal wagons with the Impresario's working area in the far back. This is it: ( LOCOMOTIVE ) ( SAVE POINT CAR ) ( SPECTER CAR, POSH ) (ZIEGFRIED CAR, POSH) ( RESTAURANT CAR ) ( MAGIC SWITCH CAR ) ( LEAP OVER CAR ) ( NO ESCAPE CAR ) (HUMEROUS TUMBLE CAR) ( STARTING CAR ) ( IMPRESARIO CAR ) Whispers are emissaries from a magical world. They use Battle, as is the wont of monsters, and Demi, a spell that halves your amount of current HP. It's pretty annoying. This is also the first monster you'll see with inherent Seizure status. The undead were supposed to be healed by this status, so this was supposed to be a recovering opponent. Instead, due to a bug, Whispers just waste away in their own misery. StillGoing are warrior zombies possessed by an evil spirit. Nice. They attack physically and with !Slip Touch, which sets Seizure. They're inherently boring and mediocre. Hazer monsters are NOT undead. This is a surprising feat for a creature on the Phantom Train, and I don't really know why this is. They cast Drain to little avail, as you'll be doing one-hit KO's against them, but it's a nice try. Also, !Invizap damages. Over-Minds are undead skeletons born from a coalescence of hatred. Also, they're most rude. Every second turn they take can make them use Dread, an attack that sets Petrify on a single target. If they're alone they won't ever use Dread, but they can use !Wild Touch, which sets Muddled and is potentially even more dangerous than Dread. Bombs are mostly found when you're walking outside, and they have nothing to do with the Phantom Train and its destination. If they attack at all, they use Blaze, a strong Fire-elemental attack they can either aim at a single character or at the entire party. Always go for Bombs first, but never allow yourself to hit them with a non-fatal attack as they could use Exploder, which harms you as much as the Bomb in question has for current HP. Luckily, as Exploder is all about self-destruction, the Bomb will be dead. Even though a great variety of attacks will be sent your way, there's very little you can do about them. Continue to use your powerful ST attacks, and have Shadow target Bombs and then Whispers before anything else, as their Blaze and/or Demi attacks are the biggest threats you face. It's feasible that your Sabin has learned Fire Dance by now. While you must've leveled him to level 15 for Fire Dance to be an option, and while level 15 is over leveled at this point, it's not entirely dramatically high. Bombs absorb Fire/Fire Dance, so refrain from using it when facing them. AuraBolt is more powerful on a single target, but both feed off the weaknesses that seems inherent to all undead enemies: Fire and Pearl. You'll learn to use Fire Dance, I'm sure. Give Shadow the RunningShoes, as his ST attacks will be the most important ones. MithrilGlove/Atlas Armlet Cyan in the Front Row, AuraBolt Sabin in the Back Row with a White Cape and Barrier Ring. Once you decide to board the train, there's no going back. The door will close behind you and the train will start moving. Examine the door, and Cyan will explain about the Phantom Train, which brings the deceased to the afterlife. Business must be small, with all them Fenix Downs. Monster formations: Bomb (10/16) Bomb, Bomb, Bomb (6/16) When you're done gasping and shaking in fear, head to the right. You'll walk out of the train car and, if you keep that button down, into a new one. You'll see a ghost here. Talk to him and have him join your party! It's only temporary, but I'll discuss the White Robed a bit: The ghost joins on a level quite similar to yours, and can use Fight, Possess, and Item. Since he has no weapons, his Fight is horribly weak. Possess is a quirky command that is only seen here; Possess will remove both the caster and the target from the battle. The caster is gone from the party after the battle ends. This command has a 3 out of 8 chance of succeeding against every target, regardless of Death Protection, Evade, or Magic Block. The ghost comes equipped with NO equipment, and only one Relic: the Relic Ring. This turns the wearer into an Undead creature, which is exactly the story behind the temporary character. This means you will *hurt* the poor bastard with Tonics and Potions and kill it instantly with Fenix Downs. If it has fallen in battle, you cannot revive him (the Fenix Down will miss). Outside of battle, however, you can heal with restorative items. If a temporary ghost character dies, he will be removed from the party. If you haven't brought Shadow, you can recruit two Ghost characters. You'll always obtain the stronger one first, and should you have left Shadow behind or allowed him to run off, a weaker one will come second. Enter the cabin. If you look at the switch, you'll see a cutscene in which Cyan's fear or machinery is once again displayed in a humorous manner. If you examine the book, you'll see some dialogue. If you talk to the Impresario (also: why the hell is this guy called 'Impresario'?), you can ask some questions. In the top-left corner of the car, there's a hidden Tent just waiting for you to be discovered. If you leave again, you'll see another ghost. If Shadow left you/if you haven't bothered with him at all, you can have this guy join you too, although this second ghost is always significantly more useless. Monster formations: Whisper, Hazer, Hazer, Hazer (6/16) Whisper (5/16) StillGoing, StillGoing, StillGoing (5/16) Okay, to the left we go! This is where the Locomotive is located, which we need to shut down. In the next train car, you see all sorts of ghosts. Some will attack you, some will want to join you, and some will want to sell you items. You shouldn't really benefit from the items, but if you feel you could use extra from the following, be my guest to search them out: Tonic 50 Potion 300 Antidote 50 Green Cherry 150 Fenix Down 500 Sleeping Bag 500 Shuriken 30 Ghosts that attack you are either: Ghost (3/4) Ghost, Ghost, Ghost (1/4) So don't worry about that. When you exit the train car to the left, you can use a ladder to climb up the car you just abandoned and come across an air vent you fall through should you stand on it. How rad! How entirely useless! Going into the next train car will be a suicidal plan, as it turns out. Just seconds after you entered, a ghost will appear from behind and block your path back. There are no other exits. It's time to fight the bugger! Like all other ghosts that have attacked you when you talked to them, this is either a single Ghost or a triple Ghost formation. When outside, you will be cornered by a mob of angry undeads. And they're not doing the moonwalk either! Time to escape. The roof, however, fits the role of upper surface completely and provides no means of exit. Then, Sabin gets an idea, which apparently requires Cyan to 'come'. Who knows what those years of training have been good for? You escape, Shadow and the ghost carefully secured in your back pocket. Or something. Monster formations: Whisper, Hazer, Hazer, Hazer (6/16) Over-Mind, Over-Mind (5/16) Over-Mind, StillGoing, StillGoing (5/16) The ghosts pursue! Instead of making this a kick-ass pursuit scene, you can simply flick a switch to detach the rear train cars. Do so. Remember, this has no consequences for the otherwise innocent, as the only thing you do is trap dozens of souls in the mortal realms, denying them passage to the afterlife, including, but not limited to, those nice guys who wanted to sell you items and help you on your quest. But hey, you're the good guys, right? Once back inside, you can swap the same switch to clear your path. What, is this some kind of MAGICAL switch that can do whatever you want it to do? Is this some kind of MAGICAL world you play this game in? Balderdash! Humbug, I say! This is the train car you want to be in to find Over-Mind, as they don't appear on earlier or subsequent train cars. The next train houses the Dish of the Damned! The Food of the Forgotten! The Cuisine of the Con...demned! Sitting at the middle table will make a ghost waiter serve you some food. Cyan will spaz out (he does that a lot) but you'll be fully healed, just like a meal in real life. You can repeat this for a less dramatic but more personal scene by switching lead characters the next time(s) you sit down: SABIN: Food! Chop! Let's go slop the hogs! CYAN: A...are you going to be okay if you eat THIS? SHADOW: ......Interceptor...are you hungry? The Ghost will just go bananas on the food. It's a hoot to see, seriously :D You can't exit to the left, so go out and walk around the train car. Don't forget to go back in the other side and open the chest behind the waiters for a set of Earrings. Swap one of Sabin's Relics with it, as you'll need the boost in Aurabolt power in a bit. Monster formations: Whisper (6/16) Bomb, Bomb, Hazer, Hazer (5/16) Whisper, StillGoing, Hazer, Hazer (5/16) You can't go around the next train car, so just get in! There are two compartments in this train car. The first one houses a chest, but as soon as you face it from the front (you can't open it from the side), you will hear an ominous voice! Of course, there's really no indication the voice is ominous, so I'm just making that up. Ziegfried Level: 7, HP: 100, MP: 5 Steal: Win: Green Cherry (rare), Green Cherry (common) Special: !Hit: Battle x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Petrify, Death, Condemned, Mute Attacks: Battle After the introduction between you and Ziegfried is done, it's fighty time. Ziegfried has 100 HP and opens with a flurry of eight weak physical attacks. Chances are your Black Belt character or Interceptor kills him before he finishes all eight, but if that's not the case, you can just do whatever (Slash doesn't work!). You'll get a Green Cherry for your troubles. Ziegfried is impersonating the legendary swordsman Siegfried and had hoped to scare you off rather than actually having to fight you in any kind of serious battle. In the Japanese version, Ziegfried continuously refers to himself as Mr. Me. It gets really annoying really quick. Anyway, the pansy has been beaten. Ziegfried runs off with the treasure - tata! Don't worry if you just missed the biggest kick-ass Gamma Sword just there; the chest isn't really a chest with contents anyway. The next room in the compartment appears empty, but this is not the case. See those two empty tiles to the left of the bench? The left one contains a Tent; just face it and press action. The right one contains a Fairy Ring, but you can't obtain it since you can't face it. Stupid programmers are the scourge of gaming. :( On to the next car! Once again, it's a posh car with two compartments. The first compartment is a copy of the compartment with the Tent and Fairy Ring in the previous car. If you left the Tent in the previous car, you can pick it up in this car; if you picked it up there, it's obviously gone in this one as well. It's a bit weird you basically walk into the same compartment from two different train cars, but it seems to be intentional. It's a magic train, whatever. The second compartment is lined up with four chests; rejoice. From right to left, they contain a Fenix Down, Sniper Sight (you can ignore this Relic for now, nothing evades your physicals at this stage of the game, and you're not using them anyway), Fenix Down, and a Monster-in-a-Box. How frightening. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.15.2 Scenario Sabin: Specter and the Phantom Train continued ********************************** Specter Level: 19, HP: 1500, MP: 10000 Steal: Win: Hyper Wrist (rare), Hyper Wrist (common) Absorbs: Poison, Weakness: Fire, Pearl Status: Undead Special: !Lightning: Battle x 2 Sketch : !Lightning, Battle Control: Battle, !Lightning Vulnerable to: Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, !Lightning, Ice, Raid This is Specter. According to the latest Anthology release (I imagine somebody reading this in 2050 and laughing...laughing!), this is the ghost of a murdered person. Oh my. Specter has normal access to three attacks: Battle, the Ice spell, and Raid, which drains HP. If you damage Specter, he will hate you for it and get a 33 % shot at attacking his attacker with !Lightning, which is nothing even remotely like Lightning-elemental. There are a number of ways to kill this thing humiliatingly easy, but the Top 2 of cheap tactics go right against my game ethics. Of course, there's taking advantage of Square's assumption that even though it's supposed to be a rather difficult enemy, it still should be vulnerable to a Fenix Down scoring a one-hit KO. Also, you're traveling with a ghost that is capable of delivering a one-hit KO on everything. But I'll take that not only are you too good for the Fenix Down move, you also don't want to lose your cool ghost guy just yet. So, when the battle begins, wait for Cyan's third SwdTech, Slash. Don't move with Sabin and Shadow or even the ghost; just skip to Cyan and use Slash. It'll halve his current HP and should do 750 damage. Follow up with an AuraBolt and a Shuriken and you should be done. You'll get a Hyper Wrist for your troubles, which is hardly satisfactory. Then again, it wasn't much trouble. Before you can reach the next car, your ghost companion(s) will leave you. ...How troublesome. The next car contains a Save Point. Save. That is its point. Finally, you made it to the locomotive. Rather than making puns with 'loco' (or worse, with 'motive'), I'll just say that the engineer's compartment will make Sabin and Cyan excited before they even set as much as a single step within it. Sounds promising! In the top-left and the bottom-left corners of the room, you can read that you need to shut the first and third pressure valves. All three are now open, so just flip the first and third one, and go outside near the smoke stack. Before you operate, you should expect a major fight coming up. As preparation, move everybody to the Front Row and equip any Ribbon you might have. Equip the White Cape on Cyan (switch with Hyper Wrist). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.15.3 Scenario Sabin: The battle with GhostTrain ********************************** GhostTrain Level: 14, HP: 1900, MP: 350 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Tent (always) Absorbs: Poison, Weakness: Fire, Lightning, Pearl Status: Undead Special: !Wheel: Battle x 2 Vulnerable to: Death Attacks: Battle, !Wheel, Acid Rain, Evil Toot, Scar Beam GhostTrain will start with the battle with either a physical attack, !Wheel, or Evil Toot. The next four turns will be spent at using normal physical attacks and his Special !Wheel; the fifth turn will be Evil Toot, but only if there are at least two characters still alive. After every 15 seconds of battle, GhostTrain will use either Acid Rain (2/3) or Scar Beam, a GhostTrain-specific attack that deals MT Pearl-elemental damage to your party. Finally, if GhostTrain has been damaged, he has a one in three chance of using !Wheel. The fight against GhostTrain can be real easy and real bad, and it all depends on his Evil Toot attack. This sets one random status ailment on your party out of the following: Dark, Poison, Imp, Condemned, Berserk, Muddled, Seizure, and Slow. The ones you need to be concerned about are Imp, Berserk, and Muddled. If one of your characters is Imped, you'll want to use Potions to damage GhostTrain. Potions inflict 250 worth of HP damage, which is superior to your crummy Imped Fight command. Smack your Muddled characters, as there's nothing more fatal than Muddled characters, especially when they have access to Fire Dance or barrier-piercing attacks. The GhostTrain battle is very much like the Specter battle in the sense that using a Fenix Down is the coward's way out, and that the strategy revolves around allowing Cyan to start the battle with his third SwdTech skill, Slash. After this, have Sabin come in with an AuraBolt and Shadow with Shuriken. A lot of people have dubbed it 'hilarious' to have Sabin use Suplex on the GhostTrain. If you want to see a tiny sprite lift a huge train, be my guest. After the fight is over, you're in for the most dramatic moment of your life. If you don't actually have a life, that is. Cyan Garamonde, who has lost everything he ever lived for, has to come face to face with his departed wife and son, only moments before the GhostTrain forcefully takes them away. I suppose it's only justifiable Cyan is slightly in shock after this. You'll be able to leave after a set period of time. "SHADOW: Leave 'em alone." After all has been said and done, you find yourself on the Overworld Map. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.16.1 Scenario Sabin: Traveling to Baren Falls ********************************** Opponents: Stray Cat, Beakor, CrassHoppr Monster formations: CrassHoppr, CrassHoppr, CrassHoppr (6/16) Stray Cat, Stray Cat, Stray Cat (5/16) Beakor, Stray Cat, CrassHoppr, CrassHoppr (5/16) You've escaped the Phantom Train and find yourself at the southern edge of the Phantom Forest. To your right is Baren Falls, a great waterfall you must get past to reach the Veldt, which is full of dangerous monsters. It seems Sabin's scenario is packed with landmark-esque obstacles. Preparation: Shadow, once again, may run away. Also, he will depart anyway in a very small bit; de-equip him of his equipment and relics. Give the Ninja Gear and RunningShoes to Sabin and pass the Atlas Armlet to Cyan. If you're still suffering from bad status afflictions from GhostTrain's Evil Toot, a Tent might be appropriate. Don't forget to move all but your Black Belt character to the Back Row. Wait for Sabin's Fire Dance to kill everything or, should you lack it, slave away with those ST slayers you've grown so familiar with. Make sure to fight Stray Cats here if you haven't before, as they will prove most useful. Simply walk into the cave to the east and head all the way to the falls. Sabin and Cyan will discuss your bad situation and Shadow will leave you here. If he still had any of your equipment on him, he'll take it with him. He'll be missed, but you'll get an even better character in a bit, so don't feel too bad about it. You could return to the Phantom Forest, but there's really no point; you'll just find yourself walking through some familiar screens of the Phantom Forest and you'll eventually reach the other side. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.16.2 Scenario Sabin: Baren Falls ********************************** Opponents: Piranha, Rizopas Miscellaneous items: Remedy (guaranteed Rizopas drop) Lacking your favorite ninja, your first course of action is hurling yourself down a waterfall packed with rabid piranhas with crazy spell casting abilities. I'd say it's clear who the brains in that operation was. Preparation: You're still set. If you have a Black Belt, it's really useful in this fight. Monster formations: Piranha, Piranha, Piranha, Piranha, Piranha, Rizopas Yeah, you read that right, but it's more of a data thing. What you'll see on-screen is monster formations of Piranha x2, Piranha x3 and Rizopas. What'll happen here is that you'll be fighting Piranhas for 60 seconds before Rizopas appears. Which pack of Piranha monsters pops up entirely depends on which Piranha you killed last, but it shouldn't really concern you, as the normal Piranhas are extremely weak. What you do in the first 60 seconds is entirely up to you. If you want little fuss, you can just wait the 60 seconds out in the first battle, kill all but one, heal up with Tonics for the Rizopas confrontation, and kill the last bugger. On the other hand, Piranhas know a rare Tonic drop, so if you want a shot at as much of those possible, kill as much Piranha as you can handle. Since Piranha only have 10 HP even a Back Row Fight command kills them, so do that. It's the fastest way. If you don't care about inferior healing liquids, it's good form to try and kill the last Piranha with a Black Belt counter, leaving both Sabin and Cyan with a full ATB bar versus Rizopas. Rizopas Level: 13, HP: 775, MP: 39 Steal: Win: Remedy (rare), Remedy (common) Absorbs: Water, Weakness: Lightning Status: Float Special: !Bite: Battle x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Berserk, Muddled, Sleep, Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, !Bite, Ice, El Nino, Mega Volt As soon as Rizopas it's time to bring the noise hardcore-like. The first turn, he'll use Battle, !Bite or Mega Volt, followed by either another physical or a 66% shot at casting the Ice spell. On the second turn, this little guy has access to the El Nino attack, which will deal up to 250 damage to both Sabin and Cyan. Your best bet is to go all-out offensive to make sure Rizopas never lives to see its second turn. While Rizopas has very decent magical defense, AuraBolt still out damages Pummel (and Fire Dance, but that should be obvious). Slash doesn't work, so just go with Dispatch. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.16.3 Scenario Sabin: Traveling over the Veldt to Mobliz ********************************** Opponents: Most everything you've seen so far; it's the Veldt, man! You've managed to survive the Seafood of Doom, and now you're on the Veldt. You came across a strange boy, dressed in animal hides. Life is strange. Preparation: Re-equip that Black Belt if you took it off. Welcome to the Veldt! Here, random encounter monster formations are reproduced for you to fight. You will not gain Experience Points, and its main purpose is obtaining Rages for Gau, the character you will have to name. I'll explain that in a bit. For now, you'll be able to name Gau. I'll call him Gau. For now, you'll have to go find Mobliz, to the east. You'll fight battles in the meantime, and there's a chance you'll see Gau appear when you're done. You probably don't want to hurt the guy, but you can't run from him (the buttons will do nothing), so your only option is to smack him over the head to cause him to flee. The alternative is fleeing from the random encounters themselves, if possible. You've reached Mobliz? Good! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.17.1 Scenario Sabin: Mobliz ********************************** Container contents: Elixir Miscellaneous items: Tintinabar (Wounded lad quest) Mobliz is a great backwater village supporting itself through hunting. Or something. There are some great shops here, so take a look around. Weapon Shop: MithrilKnife 300 MithrilBlade 450 Mithril Claw 800 Kotetsu 800 You'll want to buy a Kotetsu for Cyan, or two if you want to make him a Genji Glove/Black Belt character (which is a wise decision). Armor Shop: Buckler 200 Heavy Shld 400 Plumed Hat 250 Magus Hat 600 Bandana 800 Iron Helmet 1000 Kung Fu Suit 250 Iron Armor 700 Buy two Heavy Shlds, two Magus Hats, another Plumed hat, and two Iron Armors. The Iron Helmets are ridiculously expensive and you find better alternatives in a short while. Item Shop: Dried Meat 150 Tonic 50 Potion 300 Eyedrop 50 Green Cherry 150 Fenix Down 500 Tent 1200 You'll want to buy at least one Dried Meat, as you'll need it to trigger a necessary cutscene. Dried Meat is basically a healing potion that heals a character for 150 HP (so it's inferior to normal Potions), but has the added property of also healing Undead monsters/characters (instead of hurting them like Tonics and Potions do). Relic shop: Sprint Shoes 1500 White Cape 5000 It's never a bad idea to have White Capes ready, as they make grand filler relics. Make sure you leave 2500 GP in your wallet, at least. Hidden Items: There is an Elixir hidden in the clock of the carrier pigeon house. Don't bother paying the Inn fee; you can sleep at the bed in the back of the Relic shop. Take a look at the two kiddos in love; Duane and Katarin will make a more significant appearance in the future. There's a wounded lad from Maranda residing in Mobliz. He left the army when he heard they were heading for Doma, but was busted up for his insolence. They broke every bone in his body for leaving, to be more precise. Poor lad indeed. Him being here makes sense because Mobliz is in no way on route when traveling from Vector to Doma. Anyway, he has a honey in Maranda, and you can help him with it! He receives letters from her, but can't write back. Do it for him, I say! You'll have to send a total of five letters over there: A letter A record Some Tonic (which will not be taken from your inventory) Another letter A book You can't send new stuff if the wounded soldier hasn't gotten any reply; he gets a reply whenever you've: - slept at the Inn - have talked to the salesman of the Item Shop - have talked to the salesman of the Weapon Shop - have talked to the salesman of the Armor Shop - have talked to the salesman of the Relic Shop - have let the scholar show you the Serpent Trench That makes NO sense whatsoever, I am completely aware of that. After you've sent the five letters, the poor guy gives you a Tintinabar, a nice filler Relic and extremely rare, which gives the illusion it's actually more useful than it in fact is. If you're wondering what the hell exactly a Tintinabar is, it's probably derived from 'tintinabulation' which means 'ringing'. I can add that the Japanese game calls it a Cat's Bell; I guess we're supposed to assume that with every step the Tintinabar lets out a chime and heals the wearer a little. Once you're done dancing and prancing in Mobliz, head to the Veldt again. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.17.2 Scenario Sabin: Recruiting Gau ********************************** Opponents: Veldt encounters The weird kid called Gau repeatedly said he was hungry, but you had nothing to help him with. Fortunately, Mobliz offers you the possibility of buying food, unlike other towns. Because that makes sense. Preparation: Equip the Genji Glove and Kotetsu Knives on Cyan and keep him in the Front Row, or stick with Back Row Cyan if you don't have a Genji Glove. The other Relic should be the Black Belt if you have the Genji Glove; while Dispatch still out damages Cyan's Fight attack (it's pretty close), the counterattack will kill most critters here. You're bound to run into a few battles here, and you're bound to come across Gau while doing so. You'll need both Sabin and Cyan alive for him to appear. Feeding him a Dried Meat (just use it on him) will trigger a long, long, yet surprisingly un-boring cutscene in which Gau joins you. Learn the basics of Gau: [RAGE-LINK] Gau arrives, like a baby, completely naked (and screaming nonsense). Equip him with what you have, which probably is a Buckler, Bandana, and Kung Fu Suit. You will want to swap Sabin's MithrilShld with Gau's Buckler as Gau will have to be in the Front Row and can use the extra defense. Not only does Gau return to his spot in the team in the Front Row at all times, his physicals are important enough on the Veldt to warrant Front Row. As far as Relics go, you should have an Atlas Armlet free. Set the other Relic slot up with a filler Relic (White Cape is nice). Gau joins with a few Rages already: Brawler, Exocite, Hornet, Lobo, M-TekArmor, Rhinotaur, Trilobiter, Were-Rat, and Whisper. Brawler is nice, and Rhinotaur has its distant uses, but for the real good stuff (and there really is a lot of good stuff for Gau to Rage, make no mistake), you'll want to obtain these: Dark Wind (inherent Float, Break) Trilium (Bio which is a strong ST/MT Poison-elemental spell) Areneid (!Numb sets Stop) Vaporite (absorbs Lightning, inherent Float, Blaze) Over-Mind (absorbs Poison, Elf Fire which is a strong ST Fire-elemental attack) Stray Cat (!Catscratch = Battle * 4) Marshal (Wind Slash which is a strong MT Wind-elemental attack) Pterodon (inherent Float, Fire Ball, which is a strong MT Fire-elemental attack) Rhodox (Snare, which is the most accurate ST Wound-setting attack you have now) Templar (inherent Safe, Fire 2) Hazer (Bolt 2) Telstar (inherent Float, ID protection, Sonic Boom) Bomb (absorbs Fire, inherent Float, Blaze) The most important ones right now are Dark Wind, Trilium, Areneid, Templar and Marshal/Pterodon. If you completed Locke's scenario already, Primordite is just as good as Areneid for the purpose it's designed for. Really, unless you want to obtain as much Rages as possible, you can ignore other monsters. Keep in mind that Leaping at monsters such as Lobo and Tusker is just losing control of Gau's Leaping for the time being, which could make him miss out on the others. Marshal has the strongest MT attack you can possess up to now: Wind Slash. He is, sadly, especially elusive due to the way the Veldt works, so don't feel too bad if you leave the Veldt without having met this one. Obviously, no Rage is mandatory, but keep in mind that Gau's usefulness exceeds all other characters if you find the right Rages, and sucks beyond belief if you don't invest the time in him. Telstars still drop Green Berets, which are superior Helmets for everybody. Terra and a mystery character soon to be introduced (I'm talking about Celes) have an acceptable alternate option in the Magus Hat, but ideally, you'll want to stick around until you've won another three Green Berets (you'll find one extra before long). When you're done chasing Gau around, stick him in the Back Row as the next dungeon will have him rely on magical attacks and go visit Crescent Mountain, located to the southeast. Gau has a gift for you there, and a bloke in Mobliz mentioned you could reach Nikeah by jumping into the raging current of the Serpent Trench. Who knows, those might be connected somehow! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.17.3 Scenario Sabin: Crescent Mountain ********************************** Miscellaneous items: Tonic (Gau) Upon entering the cave, Gau will fail to do the one thing he was enlisted for. Let's take a look around. To the right side of the plateau you're standing on, you can see a little cutscene (7 steps up, 1 step to the side from the entrance) that is entirely useless. To the left, you'll see a little square sticking out where Gau will find you a Tonic (which, believe it or not, is actually added to your inventory!). Proceed and you'll come across a ridge you can walk up on. All the way left, another cutscene will ensue where Gau will scare Sabin out of 500 GP (which is removed from your amount of money). If you had less than that, Cyan will magically possess the remaining GP instead of Sabin and nothing will be removed. Proceeding further will allow Gau to find the diving helmet! Many a philosopher has pondered over the impossibility of three men sharing the same helmet, but none have found a satisfactory answer. Regardless, the cutscene will take you outside and plunge you into the cold, cold waters of the Serpent Trench. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.18.1 Scenario Sabin: The Serpent Trench ********************************** Opponents: Anguiform, Aspik, Actaneon Container contents: Green Beret, X-Potion Narshe is a long way if you take the wrong turn at the Lete River! Having passed through an Imperial Camp, the lands of Doma, the Phantom Forest, Baren Falls, and the Veldt, you now need to reach Nikeah where a ferry should be available to take you to South Figaro and finally deliver you close to Narshe. But the Serpent Trench is a raging current with violent monsters hunting for you... Preparation: Make absolutely sure you have a fully equipped Gau, as there are two rather nasty monsters waiting for you here. There are three monsters here. You can really forget about Actaneon; his physicals shouldn't really bother you that much, and whenever you meet a triple Actaneon monster formation, Dispatch, AuraBolt/Fire Dance and the Templar, Bomb, or Pterodon Rages go well with that. Anguiform are dangerous not only because they have a murdering physical attack in !Garrotte, which is actually as painful as it sounds, but especially because they like to use Aqua Rake when they are alone. Aqua Rake is an extremely strong MT Water/Wind-elemental attack that will hurt for about 170-200 HP damage. Not nice. You should kill with Fire Dance if possible, but if you lack it, you should be careful. Gau's MT attacks don't guarantee a KO on multiple Anguiforms. Take them out as fast as possible with AuraBolt, Dispatch, and either Trilium (absorbs Aqua Rake and has very decent offense) or Hazer/Ghost (Bolt 2 slaughters any Anguiform period). Aspik are the trickiest. Whenever you meet them, keep hold of your precious secondary commands as Aspik will counter any damage not inflicted by the Fight command with a 33 % shot at Giga Volt for about 330-350 of damage to whatever hit him. Unless you gained more levels then you normally should, that kills you. Counter this with your Genji Gloved character to (Cyan was the wisest option) kill it or use Rhinotaur/Vaporite Rages, as they will allow Gau to absorb Giga Volt. This is the 'map' of the Serpent Trench and the effects it will have for you: Monster Formation Pack # 1: Actaneon, Actaneon, Actaneon (3/4) Anguiform (1/4) Monster Formation Pack # 2 Anguiform, Actaneon, Aspik (always) Monster Formation Pack # 3 Anguiform, Anguiform (3/4) Actaneon, Actaneon, Actaneon, Aspik, Aspik (1/4) Start: (Invoke Battle with # 1) You'll get the choice of going either to the Left or to the Right. The Left features more monsters and a certain encounter with all the creatures of the Serpent Trench, the Right features a small cave with an X-Potion chest in it. Left: (Invoke Battle with # 2) (Invoke Battle with # 3) Right: (Invoke Battle with # 2) (Cave with X-Potion) Here, the two paths will reunite. However, no battle is fought before you are presented with yet another choice. Left again means monsters, Right again means treasure. Left: (Invoke Battle with # 2) (Invoke Battle with # 3) Right: (Invoke Battle with # 3) (Cave with Green Beret. You'll have to stand on a certain tile to let the water out in this cave so you can proceed) After this, you'll safely reach Nikeah. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.18.2 Scenario Sabin: Nikeah ********************************** Container contents: Elixir Nikeah is small town that thrives on their ports and ferries. There used to be remote access to the lands of Doma, but due to a recent rockslide, the path there is blocked (imagine, if that hadn't been the case you could've just walked to the west for a while when it was just Sabin and you had found a way home). Weapon Shop: Mithril Claw 800 Kotetsu 800 Mithril Pike 800 You can buy another MithrilPike here if you wish, but you won't really use the Fight command with Edgar and the character That Might In The Future Join You And Wield Lances To Boot will have a better weapon by then, so you can save your money. Armor Shop: Heavy Shld 400 Plumed Hat 250 Magus Hat 600 Bandana 800 Iron Helmet 1000 Kung Fu Suit 250 Silk Robe 600 Iron Armor 700 You should've bought everything available here a while ago, with the exception of the Silk Robes. Buy two of them. Item Shop: Tonic 50 Potion 300 Echo Screen 120 Smoke Bomb 300 Green Cherry 150 Fenix Down 500 Sleeping Bag 500 Tent 1200 How's your supply of Potions and Fenix Downs looking? If you're low on them, it's never a bad idea to stock some of them up. Also, you might want to buy a few Smoke Bombs, as you don't have any of them right now and they could prove useful in the future. Relic shop: Goggles 500 Star Pendant 500 White Cape 5000 Fairy Ring 1500 The only thing this guy has going for him is his collection of White Capes. You could buy one if you pulled enough GP from your Veldt hunting (which means over 10000 GP), but you might as well leave him. There's an Elixir hidden in the clock of the Inn, as always. Take it. Finally, there's an awesome scene between Cyan and the hooker of the local Pub; you haven't lived a satisfying life without having seen it. In the Japanese game her position as Girl of Entertainment is stated much more blatantly, while Sabin will state how he knows plenty about girls. When you're done in Nikeah, strip the boys of their gear and Relics, then put them on the ferry to South Figaro. Your scenario is over. Time for pie. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.19.1 Scenario Locke: South Figaro ********************************** Opponents: HeavyArmor, Merchant, Officer Miscellaneous items: Iron Helmet (rare HeavyArmor steal), Guardian (rare Merchant steal) Locke has somehow managed to stall the actions of an entire army, safeguarding the Returner Hideout...for now. His mission now is to get to Narshe, but South Figaro is under strict martial law and nobody is allowed to leave, not even Imperial Troopers themselves. But somehow, Locke has to find a way... Preparation: Equip the Genji Glove and Atlas Armlet on Locke, and stick him with Ninja Gear and a Green Beret. Front Row for now. Obviously, if you haven't done the Sabin scenario yet, it'll be a Genji Glove/Atlas Armlet with Bandana and Kung Fu Suit. You see why it was a good idea to do Locke's scenario last? Note: You can skip this entire section of the game by using a bug. This results into you missing the Rare Item Cider, never obtaining Celes as a character for the entire game and getting the Moogle Kutan and lacking Runic on Gogo when you recruit him. I wouldn't advise it in the slightest, especially because it forces power-leveling (Locke needs to defeat the boss by himself where he really isn't supposed to be able to do that, and as you might know Celes needs to solo a small bit of the game by herself). But it's a humorous alternative really. If you want to learn exactly how to do all this: [KUTAN-LINK] A MagiTek Armored soldier has blocked the normal entrance to the rest of town. There are two ways to continue: - In the Item Shop, there's a Merchant. He insults you be stating your actual profession, so obviously you'll need to kill him. By successfully Stealing his item, you also steal his clothes. After the battle is over, you'll be in Merchant outfit. If you just beat him up instead of Stealing his clothes, you'll be plain Locke after the battle and you'll have gained nothing from the brawl. Once dressed up as a Merchant, you can go to the house of the servant (he was the waiter, to be precise) of the richest man in town and peacefully walk through to the other side of town. - OR, you could just bust up the HeavyArmor guarding the area. This is extremely risky and is prone to failure if you're not slightly high-leveled. The other way is definitely the way it was meant to be done. Once in the rest of South Figaro, your plan is simple. Mug a soldier and walk out of town in soldier's clothes. Remember where you found the Warp Stone here? Walk up the perimeter wall and go over to the three barrels. There's an Officer walking around. Engage in a fight with him and Steal one of his items; once again, you'll walk off with his garment. Another option is using a secret passage even the game designers forgot while creating this scenario for you: there's a big building that's built over the water here; it's the to left of the Armored trooper, and on the other side you can see it's the Inn/Cafe. Behind the part that's built over the water is a secret bridge you can use to walk over the water. You circumvent having to steal from the Officer here, and if you're a match for the HeaveyArmor you can circumvent stealing clothes entirely. The only soldier you can convince is the one near the Chocobo stable, and the exit is still prohibited. Oh well, might as well gather some more information in the Pub; you learned from the soldier near the MagiTek Armor that Narshe is the next target of the Imperial Army, who knows what else you might learn? The Pub is bustling with activity! Chatting here will tell you there's an Imperial general held captive somewhere in South Figaro for treason, and there's talk of a secret passage out of South Figaro from the rich man's house. Too bad you can't enter it. But there also seems to be a secret passage from the rich man's house to another house in town, and what house could be more logical than the one of the servant? Better charm that old coot with some Cider to see if he talks. Go downstairs and you'll find the merchant who continuously brought Cider to the old man when you first visited South Figaro with Edgar and Terra. Obviously, he says something that will make you want to beat him up. Since you're still in the outfit of an Imperial Soldier, you'll want to steal his clothes again (else that kid won't let you pass). If you accidentally beat him up, there's always a merchant waiting for homicide in one of the rooms of the Inn. Bring the Cider (which, by the way, is a Key Item) to the old servant and he will reveal the existence of a secret passage. He cannot remember his own password, nor is he willing to walk five steps to go over to his grandson and tell him it's okay. You'll have to go downstairs and guess. Or, I could just tell you the correct password is 'Courage'. You're in the secret passage to the rich man's house! Once you arrive, you'll see the clock you robbed earlier from his Elixir. If you didn't do that with Edgar and Terra, do so now. Exit, walk around to the door, and enter. Go up to the second floor. The right room has a girl saying something about 'Winding the Clock'. Guess that's what the kids call it these days, eh? The left room contains a grieving rich man, showing how capitalism ruins a man. Find the secret passage behind the bookcase and descend. Halfway to the basement, you will be asked to change your clothes. Doing so will turn you back into plain Locke. It doesn't really matter what you do. Walk on. A cutscene wherein Celes makes her unflattering introduction is shown. I imagine it has inspired lemon writers all around the world. Fun trivia: The Japanese game had the 'leave her' options phrased something like 'Looking at her is good enough'. If you were plain ol' Locke or in Merchant mode, you'll hide in the rafters; if you're disguised as a soldier you'll simply give a salute. (Locke still disguised as a trooper) CELES: You're awfully short for a soldier. LOCKE: Oh, I forgot I was wearing a uniform! (Locke still disguised as a merchant) CELES: What do you hope to peddle down here? LOCKE: Oops! Forgot I was wearing these clothes. (Locke in normal-mode) CELES: And you are... Since Celes is now introduced to your party, it might be a good idea to read about her special skill, Runic: [RUNIC-LINK] When you're done being the chivalrous young male protagonist (Final Fantasy players should be used to that), it's time to bust out. Celes points out that the soldier has something you want. Take it. I love how morals stop you from progressing at this point. :P Don't forget to equip Celes; she was wearing nothing but a Hair Band. If this is your last scenario, her equipment is best off looking like this: RegalCutlass/ Rune Edge, Heavy Shld, Green Beret, Silk Robe. If you haven't, it'll be RegalCutlass, Heavy Shld, Plumed Hat (or Bandana if you went through the trouble of stealing it), LeatherArmr. Keep Celes in the Back Row; she'll like it there. Walking out of the room there are two more doors for you. The second one contains a Save Point (for Saving) and the third room is a room you should've looted earlier. A lot of junk, a ticking clock, and a clock that isn't ticking. Wind it with the Clock Key, and a cabinet will move, revealing a door. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.19.2 Scenario Locke: Secret Underground Passge of South Figaro ********************************** Opponents: Commander, Vector Pup Container contents: Earrings, Ether, Heavy Shld, Iron Armor, RegalCutlass, Ribbon, X-Potion Way to go, Locke! Not only did you find a passageway out of South Figaro, you also won a powerful new ally. As a former general, Celes is bound to have a huge amount of information you can use. Also, she appears to be able to cast Magic, like Terra. Preparation: If you haven't equipped Celes, you're in trouble. Monster formations: Commander, Commander, Commander (6/16) Vector Pup, Vector Pup (5/16) Vector Pup, Vector Pup, Commander (5/16) The strategy here is simple: both Celes and Locke need to equipped in such a fashion that they can both take out one enemy in one hit. Typically, that means Celes with some Earrings and the Ice spell and Locke with the Atlas Armlet. The Genji Glove isn't necessary unless you're level 10 or lower and would just be harmful to your defense. Vector Pups are the more durable enemies, but even they should fall to a single attack. When a Vector Pup is alone, it will Escape, so take out Commanders first so you have to kill one less living thing. If everything looks good, simply try to nab some extra items with Locke (nothing to get excited about, sadly) while having Celes kill all with two MT Ice castings. It's the most effective way, but don't do it all the time, as her MP isn't high enough to take such a constant toll. Walking through this underground passageway can be frustrating; there are a few rooms seemingly blocked from your path. There is always a hidden path there, though. I tried describing the locations, but since there's no real stable point here, I failed miserably. The only pointer I can give you, though, is the stairs leading to an even lower location; there are two chests here, one containing an Ether and one containing an X-Potion. Below the one with the X-Potion is a hidden chest containing a Ribbon. Be sure to grab it. All other, more visible treasures in the passageway itself include Iron Armor, RegalCutlass, Earrings, and a Heavy Shld. Make sure to find all items. The battles can be a tad boring due to their repetitiveness, but Locke and Celes tend to come to Narshe with the lowest levels so the extra experience doesn't really hurt. When you're done, you can leave. You'll see another set of stairs to the south of the stairs you're using to escape; that's the only room you can't gain entrance to. It's the basement of the house where Duncan's wife lives, and should you enter the basement from her house you'll find a Save Point there which you can't seen now. Now you're in South Figaro again, but you have no options besides escaping. You can talk to the Imperial Trooper who was pursuing Locke in the beginning of the scenario, but he will be *completely incapable of recognizing either the person he was chasing a while ago and/or a famous general of his own army*. And than he calls YOU blockheads. Craziness. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.20.1 Scenario Locke: Traveling to Figaro Cave ********************************** Opponents: Rhodox, Rhinotaur, GreaseMonk You've finally escaped South Figaro. Now it's all about reaching Narshe, tracking back to where you came from through the Cave of Figaro, Figaro Desert, and into Narshe. Unlike Terra, neither Locke nor Celes are infamous in the town, so walking into Narshe should be a piece of cake. Preparation: Nothing new here. Keep at it. I trust you took the liberty of equipping better equipment where you saw it fit. Monster formations: Grass: Rhinotaur (6/16) GreaseMonk, GreaseMonk (5/16) Rhodox, Rhodox, GreaseMonk (5/16) Forest: Rhodox, Rhodox, Rhodox, Rhodox (6/16) Rhinotaur, Rhodox, Rhodox (5/16) Rhinotaur, GreaseMonk, Rhodox, Rhodox (5/16) You know the drill by now. Kill with Ice spells and pointy knives. Rhinotaur will still counter spells with Mega Volt, so lay off it when you meet one. Your goal is to reach the cave entrance to the East (Mount Koltz is still blocked by Imperial Troopers, and you have no business going to the Returner Hideout anyway). You can rest in Sabin's hut if you're hurt (or if the prospect of Locke and Celes sleeping together gives you a funny feeling in your stomach). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.20.2 Scenario Locke: Figaro Cave ********************************** Opponents: Trilobiter, Primordite, Gold Bear, TunnelArmr Container contents: Thunder Rod, Tincture, X-Potion Miscellaneous items: Air Lancet (common TunnelArmr steal), Elixir (guaranteed TunnelArmr drop) Monster formations: Trilobiter, Primordite, Primordite (5/16) Gold Bear, Primordite (5/16) Primordite, Primordite (5/16) Trilobiter, Trilobiter, Trilobiter (1/16) This is one of those nasty Changing Caves (caves that change). Not only do chest contents turn into other chest contents before you can say "Glachenspiell Gazette", monsters also change. No more inferior caterpillars who sport a fetish for attacking you; instead, land crabs will hound your steps. No more cycloptic furries, or even oversized bees to make your life miserable. Nay, purple trilobites inject poison and bears straight from El Dorado wrap their expansive paws around your neck. Danger! Only, not really. The only thing that makes this dungeon somewhat annoying is the fact you only have two characters. !PoisonBarb is more a nuisance than anything else (use an Antidote or the spell, whichever you seem to have more resources for; out of battle, a Star Pendant can cure the Poison status by equipping it and removing it), while !Numblade can prolong the battle. The only strong attack you need to fear is !Gouge coming from Gold Bear, but as long as you keep your HP up, there's no need to worry. Both Primordite and Trilobiter fall to a single ST Ice spell. Primordite also falls to Locke's physical. Trilobiters have a nasty Safe status that makes them pull through single physicals, so let Celes concentrate on them. Gold Bear monsters will have to be taken down with two hits unless you're high-leveled or equipped with the Genji Glove. Cure when needed, as logic applies once again. You know the way. You could pick up an X-Potion from the chest to the west. The other chests will still become better later on so I'd leave them for now. The only real choice you should make is the chest on the upper level; it's a Thunder Rod now and will become a Hero Ring later. The Thunder Rod can be broken during the next boss fight, pretty much insta-killing the thing, after which it's gone. The Hero Ring will serve you very well in the future though. I'd go for the Hero Ring just because the Thunder Rod is in no way necessary to make it through TunnelArmr, but it's up to you. You heard strange noises all the time. You might have mistaken this for the rumbling of your stomach or the pleasant murmur of Russian tanks rolling through the streets, but nothing could be less true; it was a boss following you! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.19.2 Scenario Locke: The battle with TunnelArmr ********************************** TunnelArmr Level: 16, HP: 1300, MP: 900 Steal: Bio Blaster (rare), Air Lancet (common) Win: Elixir (always) Weakness: Lightning, Water Special: !Drill: Battle x 2 Vulnerable to: Nothing Attacks: Battle, !Drill, Fire, Bolt, Poison, Tek Laser TunnelArmr is a scripted battle, more or less; it forces you to use Celes as a Runic user while Locke should Fight, Fight, Fight! Runic is a brilliant command that allows Celes to absorb most spells and a number of enemy moves. Obviously, you've already read all about it; if you haven't, here you go: [RUNIC-LINK] TunnelArmr is boring. He uses Battle, !Drill, Fire, Bolt, and Poison to hurt you. If he hits 384 HP, he'll swap the possibility of casting Poison for the ability to fire off Tek Lasers. If he's been damaged, he'll sometimes counter with Battle. Have Celes under continual Runic during this fight. If your enemy casts a spell, have her use it as soon as possible. If the enemy uses a physical attack, just have Celes wait; there'll be a magical attack around the corner. Locke should try to steal something as long as TunnelArmr still has anything (if you steal a second Air Lancet, and Locke still has a Genji Glove with a Guardian equipped, you can use the second Air Lancet by equipping it mid-battle). Have Locke use a Potion if either Locke or Celes' HP is a tad low (the strongest attack he'll be able to successfully use is !Drill, which hits for slightly over 100 HP worth of damage on a Genji Glove wearing, Front Row Locke). Otherwise, he should simply attack. Eventually, you'll beat the burrowing fiend, and you'll be good to go! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.21.1 Defending the Esper from Kefka ********************************** Opponents: Fidor, Rider, Trooper, Bounty Man, HeavyArmor, Kefka Miscellaneous items: MithrilVest (common Rider steal), Ether (common Kefka steal), Elixir (rare Rider & Kefka steal), Peace Ring (guaranteed Kefka drop), Remedy (guaranteed Rider drop) Reality split the Returners into factions, but due to the power of Friendship and Plot Device, they all found their way to Narshe to re-unite. And lo and behold, it was just in time to thwart the execution of evil plans! As Locke learned in South Figaro, a detachment from the Empire led by Kefka is planning to do what Terra and her two companions were unable to: obtain the mysterious Esper located in Narshe. For no particular reason at all, it was moved to the snowy hills behind Narshe, so it is here that the seven of you will have to make a stand. Obviously, Narshe guards will not be helping you whatsoever. Preparation: You have an abundance of equipment and seven characters to equip it on. I'll give a brief overview on how to treat the seven characters now that the good relics seem surprisingly small in number: Terra - Back Row RegalCutlass Heavy Shld Magus Hat (if you have more than five Green Berets, equip one of them on Terra) Silk Robe Earrings Edgar - Back Row MithrilPike Heavy Shld Green Beret Iron Armor Locke - Front Row Air Lancet Air Lancet/Guardian (depends on what you were able to steal from TunnelArmr) Green Beret Ninja Gear Genji Glove Celes - Back Row RegalCutlass Heavy Shld Magus Hat (if you have more than six Green Berets, you psycho, equip one here) Silk Robe Sabin - Back Row MithrilClaw Buckler Green Beret Kung Fu Suit Cyan - Back Row Kotetsu Heavy Shld Green Beret Iron Armor Gau - Front Row Empty MithrilShld Green Beret Kung Fu Suit Earrings The Relics...I'll leave this one up to you. I'd really advise Earrings on Gau, as he'll be doing monster MT magical damage. If you have Fire Dance, equip Earrings on Sabin as well. RunningShoes are great for those you want to attack first: either Locke (for Stealing before killing) or Gau (for killing ASAP). Atlas Armlet is nice for those you'll be doing physical with (Locke, Cyan; NOT Edgar), and the Black Belt is only worth it on Locke. The teams! The monster hitters at this point of the game are Edgar and Gau. Edgar's Bio Blaster, that one Tool you kept ignoring, will now hit the weak spot of a lot of enemies here and will take them down in one hit. You can complement him with a weaker character, so I would suggest Terra; her Fire spells are starting to become really poor when talking damage output, and Edgar will like the Cure spells. Gau rules this part of the game even more than he rules most parts. He will be doing superior MT damage when using Pterodon's Fire Ball or Marshal's Wind Slash, and is by far the best choice for both 'boss battles' you'll be battling. Gau should be the core of your superior team, and should be complemented by the other two characters that have things to offer besides damage: Locke (for Steal) and Celes (for Runic). This leaves us with Sabin and Cyan. If Sabin knows Fire Dance, this team will more than make up for its lack of Cure spells; if not, this is easily the weakest team out of the three. Both Cyan and Sabin will have sufficient ST damage without the ability to heal beyond Potions, so they'll require your maintenance. As soon as you are done with equipping everybody, talk to Banon to make your teams. My personal choice, as I've explained, is the following: 1. Edgar, Terra 2. Locke, Celes, Gau 3. Cyan, Sabin When you're done, Kefka will appear with a frighteningly large amount of enemy soldiers at his disposal. They will line up and start walking to you. This is very much like defending Terra from the Marshal's minions; if the soldiers reach Banon, it's Game Over. An important distinction here is that every moving NPC here will respawn once, meaning you'll actually fight twice as many battles as there are NPCs you see at first. There are 12 Your job is to protect. Block all three pathways to him with your three teams and have out-battle control over the one with Sabin and Cyan (as you'll be needing to feed them Potions outside of battle). An alternate strategy is forming a four-headed party who rushes to Kefka ASAP. You'll miss out on some Experience Points, and you won't be able to farm Mithril Vests and Ethers, but it's quicker. For this mission, I would go with Locke, Celes, Gau and either Sabin or Cyan. Monster formations: Green Soldiers: Trooper, Trooper, Trooper, Trooper (3/4) Bounty Man, Trooper, Trooper (1/4) Brown Soldiers: Fidor, Trooper (3/4) HeavyArmor, Trooper, Trooper (1/4) Racing Brown Soldier: Rider (always) Kefka: Kefka (always) The battle strategy here is simple. If you have a strong MT character (Gau, possibly Sabin, Edgar against Troopers), let them do their killing. Strong ST characters (Locke with Genji Glove, Sabin, Cyan) should pick apart. Weak offensive characters (Locke without Genji Glove, Terra, Celes) can support the general party by Stealing and Curing. Troopers fall to Bio Blaster and are generally weak units. Avoid the Fight command against them as their strong point is !Swing, which they'll only use to counter Fight with. Bounty Man dogs, like their palette swaps, flee when alone. In Trooper x2, Bounty Man monster formations you can take out the Troopers and ignore the dogs if you like. Fidor dogs are heavily armored brutes that will probably survive single attacks if they're not really strong ones. They only get stronger when alone (they will start using !Pounce every time as opposed to only 33 % of the possible times), so weaken them/kill them first before you finish of the rest. If Locke is facing these things, he can steal a common Fenix Down from them. HeavyArmor are opponents you still recognize from Locke's scenario, where they were used as more-or-less unbeatable monster you had to run around. Here, you'll have to defeat them, which is considerably easier given the fact you have more than one character to work with. When Celes is in your party, the Imperial tank will recognize her and fear her magic, prompting him to use TekBarrier, which sets Safe and Reflect. You weren't using Ice anyway (unless you've been a naughty boy), so that shouldn't be that much of a concern. Don't start using Hazer or Templar, though. After the two waves of 'normal' enemies are over, there are but two opponents left after the massacre: Rider and Kefka. Rider is surfing around Kefka so you'll need to take him out first. This might be a fun time to learn about your character's feelings at the moment; you can talk to the lead characters of the teams (you can obviously switch around). Here's what they have to say: TERRA: Kefka...He stuck that crown on me? LOCKE: Bloody Empire!! We are your worst enemy! CELES: I'm free... The Empire can't control me! EDGAR: Kefka...grr...What's he up to...? SABIN: Master Duncan's techniques mustn't fail me. CYAN: I will avenge the people of Doma!! GAU: GAU hit hard!!! BANON: We're history if they reach me! Good luck! There's no Game Over here unless you let the soldiers reach Banon, in which case he'll go: BANON: Couldn't hold out!? I have a bad feeling about this... If a team is entirely killed, the characters will find themselves with 1 HP on the spot where the Save Point used to reside. This means that you can engage a battle, get yourself killed, and engage again. This also means you can Steal from what is supposed to be a single encounter time after time. Rider has a common MithrilVest, a piece of armor everybody can equip that is superior to everything so far but the Ninja Gear. There's also a rare Elixir. Kefka features the same rare Elixir and common Ethers, a superior version to the insanely expensive Tincture. I'd advise you to steal three MithrilVests (you'll take one Ninja Gear along) and as many Ethers as you want. Ethers are very rare, very useful, and you're not going to get unlimited amounts of them until the late WoR, and even then it's a huge stretch to try to obtain them. I've dubbed it the OnionRider trick, so make me proud and mention it wherever you go! Remember now, OnionRider. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.21.2 Rider ********************************** Rider Level: 14, HP: 1300, MP: 170 Steal: Elixir (rare), Mithril Vest (common), Win: Remedy (rare), Remedy (common) Weakness: Fire, Poison Special: !SilverPike: Battle x 3 Vulnerable to: Petrify, Death, Condemned, Mute, Berserk, Sleep, Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, !SilverPike, Virite, R. Polarity Rider is a durable bastard who has an extremely strong physical attack in !SilverPike, which he also uses to counter a successful Steal attempt with. Every fourth attack he has a 1/3 chance of using Virite, an inaccurate MT Poison-elemental attack that also sets the Poison status. Gau can take him out in a single hit with Rhodox's Snare and the Break spell from Dark Wind and/or Commander. If you have nothing along those lines, his Areneid's !Numb and Primordite's !Numblade will stop him in his actions. If you lack Gau (shame on you), Cyan's Slash works great if used first, and any combination of your strongest attacks should suffice. He can also counter any Fight attack with R. Polarity on that character, so that's kinda silly to do. Now, this is, finally, the confrontation with Kefka. He enslaved Terra's mind, set fire to castle Figaro, and destroyed Cyan's life. It's time to give him some payback for all that he's done. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.21.3 The battle with Kefka ********************************** Kefka Level: 18, HP: 3000, MP: 3000 Steal: Elixir (rare), Ether (common), Win: Peace Ring (always) Special: !Hit: Battle x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, Ice, Ice 2, Bolt, Poison, Drain, Muddle, Escape Kefka is vulnerable to Stop, so have Gau Rage Areneid and/or Primordite for best results. Always have Runic in place, as he knows some very powerful spells that can one-hit KO your characters when focused in an ST blast, regardless of row. Have your other character(s) give it their best shot. Terra's Fire cannot be used with Runic in place so she should focus on her other powers; she can cast Magic when Celes isn't on Runic stand-by or simply wield the Rune Edge to some very nice result. Locke should Fight, Edgar should unload his AutoCrossbow, Sabin relies on good old AuraBolt, Cyan can use Dispatch or his fourth SwdTech, Quadra Slam, if he has access to it, and that's about it. The battle is slightly anti-climactic when you consider the implications of it, but you'll pull through. When Kefka is defeated, he'll manage to escape (leaving behind a swanky new Peace Ring). And that was that. Terra leaves behind the equipment she had on her, thoughtfully. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.22.1 Narshe ********************************** Container contents: 5000 GP, Earrings, Elixir, Hyper Wrist, Sneak Ring, Thiefknife, Wall Ring Miscellaneous items: Ice Rod (rare Spectre steal) After killing the main part of their defensive force in the beginning of the game and being denied entrance two times in subsequent parts, it is finally time to embrace all that Narshe has to offer. It is quite a city indeed. To the west, there are the caves where the Moogles live. To the north are the coalmines and the passageway leading into the snowy mountains where you protected the Esper. The city itself, independent as it is, has many great items to offer you. This is the first time you have to make a choice between your seven characters. Whom to take, whom to leave behind? Since it mostly depends on personal preference, I will write from now on knowing that you could have every character combination possible (although I will expect you to have four party members). As far as best characters at this point go, I'll do my best: Edgar buys two great new Tools in a short while, which definitely beat all other options. Edgar is a must-have at this point in the game. Sabin should reach level 15 if he hadn't already and learn Fire Dance, a great MT attack that puts the significant hurt on pretty much everything. Gau is an offensive maniac at this point, only hindered by the fact he only uses the Awesome Attack 50 % of the time. However, he does have access to stuff like auto-Safe, Catscratch, Bio, and Numblade. If you found even one third of the Rages I recommended earlier, Gau is a much better choice then whatever is left. I'd definitely recommend these three characters for this scenario, as they'll have the easiest time coming through. If you didn't pick any of Gau's Rages, though, his only saving grace is Brawler, which frankly, still puts him above Cyan but doesn't make him superior to Locke and Celes. Celes is a nice addition to your team as a Cure user. You have all the offensive power you could ever need with Flash (Edgar's new MT damage Tool) and Fire Dance, so the fact she can't really damage stuff efficiently doesn't hurt her case. She'll also make a fine asset to the boss battle of the scenario, although nowhere near the usefulness of a good Raged-up Gau with Areneid or Primordite. Locke doesn't have any offensive power to bring to your team either, but his purpose is the Steal command (obviously). There are quite a few rare Steals that are worth your time, and where Celes heals with Cure, Locke simply adds an extra restorative item to your team in every battle. Cyan is the worst character right now. The only thing he can do is offense, and not only do you not need it, SwdTechs are horrible at this part of the game. Dispatch is so-so and while Cyan learns Quadra Slam, you either have to charge it up while the Figaro Brothers attack (in which case there's nothing to Slam left in most cases) or while all other characters are on hold, which disrupts the flow of the battle. Also, Quadra Slam is far inferior to Flash and Fire Dance (although it makes an above-average ST attack, for all that's worth). Finally, you *could* choose to leave Narshe with only three characters and pick up an old 'friend' in Kohlingen: Shadow. Shadow will randomly leave you throughout the entire scenario, and is therefore a risky investment. I would only consider him when playing on an emulator (in which case I'd still pick Locke over him). Battle-wise, Shadow is a straight offense man. Very acceptable ST damage still comes from Thrown Shuriken, and he has extremely strong MT damage at the cost of 500 GP a toss (you can obtain elemental scrolls in Kohlingen as well, but they are very expensive at 500 GP a piece). In the end, my personal recommendation is a team consisting of Edgar, Sabin, Gau, and Locke. If you're playing on an emulator, Locke is an even better addition as you have control over what he steals (just abuse those Save States). On a console, it's really a personal toss-up between Locke and Celes. Weapon Shop: RegalCutlass 800 Mithril Clase 800 Kotestu 800 Mithril Pike 800 Air Lancet 950 Flail 2000 Full Moon 2500 New weapons here include the Flail and the Full Moon. The Flail is a weapon for Terra and Celes; Terra is gone and Celes will still do more damage with and Ice spell than with the Flail. It's an entirely useless weapon, but you might want to buy it for completeness' sake. It deals the same amount of damage from the back row, so it has that going for it, but since the possible wielder at this point (Celes) loses the ability to Runic and shouldn't be attacking anyway, it's still a moot point. Ice spells do cost MP where a Flail attack does not, so in theory (when you're stupid), it could have its use. The Full Moon is a weapon for Locke that allows him to do full damage from the Back Row; a superior weapon without this feature can be found somewhere else. I'd buy one, as you may want to use it. Armor Shop: Mithril Shld 1200 Magus Hat 600 Bandana 800 Iron Helmet 1000 Silk Robe 600 Iron Armor 700 Finally, Mithril Shields for everybody! Buy one for the entire team (as in: your current team of four characters and you probably already have one). All other items were previously obtainable. Relic Shop: Sprint Shoes 1500 Jewel Ring 1000 Fairy Ring 1500 Barrier Ring 500 MithrilGlove 700 True Knight 1000 The first Relic shop that sells those crappy near-death Safe/Shell relics! If you must do anything in this shop, I suggest you mock the owner of the relic shop. Do not leave this place with at least three Relics that protect against the Stone status (a Ribbon is one, Jewel Rings for the rest). Item Shop: Tonic 50 Potion 300 Tincture 1500 Soft 200 Fenix Down 500 Smoke Bomb 300 Sleeping Bag 500 Tent 1200 Especially if you don't bring Celes, Potions might come in handy, so keep an eye out for your stock. Fenix Downs are ever useful, so make sure you have a few of those to throw around if necessary. Hidden Items: In the clock in the Elder's House, you'll find an Elixir. A helpful peasant allows you to take his stuff. While normally that'd include such useless trinkets as paled paintings and broken silverware, what will be offered here is very nice indeed: in the small shack, you'll find the following: 5000 GP, a ThiefKnife, a pair of Earrings, a Wall Ring, a Sneak Ring and a Hyper Wrist. The ThiefKnife is Locke's superior weapon I was talking about. The Sneak Ring doubles his Steal success rate; the treasure hunter is quite hyped at this point! If you walk to the north, where you entered the coalmines to find the Esper with Terra and co., you'll catch a glimpse of a being, dressed in white fur. Maybe at some point in the future you'll learn who, or what, it is. Remember that elusive battle formation you hunted for in the caves of Narshe, the one with Spectre and Rinn from the security checkpoint? Well, guess what: Spectre has a rare Ice Rod for you to steal, and with Locke, you finally have access to it. Granted, without an emulator the odds are far too small, but while the Ice Rod is a weapon you cannot currently equip on anybody, you can break it for massive damage in battle, and it's nice to have at this point. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.23.1 Traveling to Kohlingen and optional trip to the Veldt ********************************** Opponents: Leafer, Dark Wind, Sand Ray, Areneid Terra flew off. Not only do you personally care for her well being, she is still a key player in your struggle against the Empire; she must be retrieved or it will be a major setback for the Returners. Witnesses say they a soaring light, heading west... The western continent is accessible with Figaro Castle, the subterranean taxi. It's time to split your team between those who will seek Terra, and those who stay behind should the Empire attempt another attack to obtain the Esper. And now, you travel... Preparation: I'm not going to bother listing the enemies to Figaro Castle this time, as they only things they'll be able to do by now are rolling over and dying. You have three Earrings now; split them between those of your party who can use it (Sabin, Gau, and Edgar). Celes' damage will be subpar anyway, so trying to make something out of it will be a waste of Earrings. If you have the Genji Glove, Locke and Cyan (in that order) will benefit from it, possibly paired with a Black Belt (although you'll want to equip that Sneak Ring on Locke). -There is one small 'side-quest' you can perform before going further to Kohlingen and beyond, and that's taking Gau back to the Veldt to have him learn some new Rages. The two new Rages of interest are Anguiform and Aspik. Anguiform performs Aqua Rake, which although weaker than Wind Slash on multiple targets, will nail the weakness of much more monsters later on. Aspik, whose Giga Volt is an obscenely strong magical attack that sometimes goes MT (far surpassing Aqua Rake and Wind Slash in that aspect) or ST (far surpassing...anything. For comparison, it's almost as strong as a Fire 2 spell...when the latter is HITTING A WEAKNESS). It's not entirely necessary as Gau's attacks are already stronger than whatever your other characters are capable of, and there will be a more rewarding time for Gau to visit the Veldt in the near future, but it never hurts to boost offense. To visit the Veldt, take the Cave to South Figaro and pass through Mt. Koltz. You'll find the Returner Hideout again, and in Banon's Room, you can find the hidden passage to the raft. Jump on it, and after the same battles you had to fight earlier, you'll now take the path Sabin took when he drifted off. You find yourself near the hut of the crazy man again. Walk to and through the Phantom Forest (no Imperial Camp or Phantom Train this time) and jump down Baren Falls (no battles here either). You're on the Veldt now. Leap around until you're satisfied. Jump down the Serpent Trench and wind up in Nikeah. Take the ferry to South Figaro and you're on known territory. Oh yeah, and you're smuggled out of South Figaro in a chest; that never ceases to amuse the kids. Weapon Shop: AutoCrossbow 250 NoiseBlaster 500 Bio Blaster 750 Flash 1000 Drill 3000 In Figaro Castle, there are new Tools for sale! Flash is a non-elemental MT magical attack, so your Earrings on Edgar will shine even more. Drill is an attack like Dispatch, Pummel, and Shuriken; physical, barrier-piercing, and non-elemental. Drill beats Dispatch and Pummel in power, though. Since Edgar is king, you can put him as the lead character to obtain a discount; the merchant will whine regardless but will ONLY give a discount of Edgar is your leader. If you lack Edgar in your party but have Sabin, the merchant will notice even that...but regardless of Sabin's position, no discount for you. At this stage, the Suplex Blitz will start becoming more dangerous than AuraBolt when Sabin is without Earrings. With Earrings, the damage difference is marginal, but you'll want to get used to using Suplex when only one monster is on the battlefield (it will do double damage when only one target remains). On Suplex: Code-wise, it would be better to say that it deals half damage when more than one opponent is on the battlefield. However, since Suplex can never target more than one opponent at a time, it would seem like it deals double damage when only target is around, and that's also how at least one Square- approved piece of media. Cyan will learn Quadra Slam on level 15. The charge time becomes noticeable now, and the result, four hits on random targets whose total add up to be the same as Drill's damage, is hardly worth it. I would advise Cyan to stick to Dispatch and Fight (Dispatch is slightly stronger, but Genji Glove Fight is targetable). If you take either Edgar or Sabin to Figaro Castle, this will draw a reaction from them: SABIN: This's like old times! I have to wander around for a while! EDGAR: If only SABIN were here...(if Sabin is still in Narshe) If you go sleep at the Inn of Figaro Castle with both Edgar and Sabin, the tragic past of the Figaro Throne will be revealed in a touching scene. There's a more logical moment to see this scene in the future though, so I'll list it then. When you're done, have the man in the room left from the entrance ship you to Kohlingen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.24.1 Kohlingen ********************************** Opponents: Sand Ray, Areneid, FossilFang, Vulture, Iron Fist, Red Fang, Mind Candy, Over Grunk Container contents: Elixir, Green Beret You've safely arrived on the other side of the mountains, on an exciting new continent. Oh, the monsters! Monster formations: Grasslands: Red Fang, Vulture, Red Fang (6/16) Red Fang, Red Fang (5/16) Vulture, Vulture (5/16) Forest: Over Grunk, Over Grunk, Mind Candy, Mind Candy, Mind Candy (6/16) Over Grunk, Vulture, Iron Fist (5/16) Iron Fist, Iron Fist, Mind Candy, Mind Candy (5/16) Desert: Sand Ray, Areneid, Areneid (6/16) FossilFang (5/16) Sand Ray, Sand Ray (5/16) I'll explain about the monsters when you need to cross the Overworld Map in earnest. Kohlingen is a nice town without anything significantly wrong with it. It doesn't house any gargantuan frozen serpents, it's not being overrun by the Empire, it doesn't consist of hunters, dogs, and Mickey Mouse Club rejects; Kohlingen is your average village where the sun shines and the grass grows (the non-narcotic kind). But since that doesn't attract any tourists, you'll quickly notice that Kohlingen houses crazy people, preserves dead people, and has assassins in every Inn, not unlike whatever the hell the Russians did to Moscow after Lenin died. Weapon Shop: Air Lancet 950 Flail 2000 Full Moon 2500 Shuriken 30 Fire Skean 500 Water Edge 500 Bolt Edge 500 Inviz Edge 200 On actual weapons, they have nothing new for you. What is interesting is the fact you can buy scrolls here (yes, they are scrolls. Ninja scrolls. I know that sounds like 'Dental Plan of Doom' or 'Waffle of Power', but they are actual Ninja scrolls. I can't help it). At 500 GP a piece, they are really too expensive for you to buy in mass amounts. If you chose to hire Shadow, buy a few Fire Skeans. All three are equal in power and only differ in their element, and the Fire-elemental ones are just the most useful. A note on the scolls for those interested: ninja magic/ninjutsu is a factor in earlier and later FF games, but since this game only offers a single secondary ability to every character, the game designers decided to relate Shadow's ninjutsu abilities to items and have him use them with his Throw command, even though you don't really throw scrolls. Since Shadow is one of the two characters (next to Cyan) who is almost exclusively based on Japanese warfare culture, I'll give some translations of his techniques. Japanese name Direct translation Fire Skean Katon Fire release Water Edge Suiton Water release Bolt Edge Raijin Swift Lightning Shadow Edge Kage Bunshin Shadow Clone Inviz Edge Konoha Gakure Hiding in leaves ...believe it! Armor Shop: Mithril Shld 1200 Magus Hat 600 Bandana 800 Head Band 1600 Iron Helmet 1000 Silk Robe 600 Iron Armor 700 The only new item of interest here is the Head Band. The Head Band is a ridiculously expensive helmet that is inferior to the Green Beret. If you have any characters that can equip it without having a Green Beret for them, you might consider buying one (Note that you'll get another Green Beret somewhere in this city). Item Shop: Potion 300 Tincture 1500 Revivify 300 Antidote 50 Green Cherry 150 Fenix Down 500 Sleeping Bag 500 Tent 1200 If you brought Locke instead of Celes, this might be a good time to make sure your amount of Potions doesn't drop to one-digit levels. Never travel without less than 5 Fenix Downs and less than 20 Potions, as they're always useful. The most important are the Revivifies; carry a few at ALL times, as the Zombie status they cure can only be healed by Tents and Revivies and Tents are just a waste to use just for that. Hidden Items: In Rachel's House, there is an Elixir in the clock. If you want the Elixir with Locke in your party without having to see the scene, know that the scene is triggered when you cross the tile directly in front of you after you've entered the house. You can walk around it if you want to. To the northwest is Rachel's House, who has a history with Locke. If Locke is in your party, you'll learn more about his tragic past. If he isn't, you will learn NOTHING, like you always do when you make mistakes. LOCKE: ...wasn't able to...save her when she needed me... (switch to a cave. Locke and a girl are walking through it) RACHEL: LOCKE! What are we off to find today? LOCKE: Soon, you'll... LOCKE: You're not going to believe what awaits us up here! Come on, it's worth a fortune! (Locke crosses a wooden bridge, but it starts to collapse underneath him. RACHEL: LOCKE! Look out! (Rachel rushes towards Locke and pushes him off of the bridge, just as it collapses. Rachel tumbles downwards instead. LOCKE: RACHEL!! (Locke jumps down) (switch to Rachel's house. Rachel is lying in bed, Locke is standing next to her) LOCKE: Rachel! Are you awake? (Rachel gets up out of bed) RACHEL: ... ... ...? I...I can't remember anything... (switch to the outside of Rachel's house. Locke is thrown out. A man appears in the doorway) RACHEL'S DAD: Get outta here! It's your fault she's lost her memory! LOCKE: Wait a minute! She said "Yes!" We were gonna... (Rachel appears as well) RACHEL: Go! I don't know who you are, but ever since you came here my parents have been upset! (Locke is standing outside of Rachel's house, alone. A man with the appearance of an outlaw walks up to him) You'd best leave Rachel alone. She's going to have to make a new start of it. LOCKE... Your being here doesn't help. (Locke slowly walks off, out of town) Back to the present: "A year passed... When I returned here, I learned that Rachel had perished in an Imperial attack. Her memory returned just before she passed away. The last thing she uttered was... my name... I should never have left her side. I... I failed her..." To the northeast, there is a large mansion that houses two points of interest. If you sneak through the back entrance (you'll see the door when you're in the house, and you can walk around the house to find the hidden door there), you'll find a Green Beret hidden there (the chest is visible, but barely; it's hidden behind the armor). If you descend to the cellar, you'll meet a crazy man who apparently keeps a body lying around, preserving it. Since the necrophilia jokes are all too obvious, I won't make them (much as I ignored any Aspik puns). It IS an interesting fact that there are FOUR scenes where an old man watches over a lifeless body of a girl. But I digress; if you have Locke, you can add some more story to him, and Celes will make a short but important star performance when she's also in your party. (Upon entry) "Oh! Is that you, LOCKE? It's been a while! Uh? Oh, that?! Worry not! Your treasure's quite safe! Uwa, ha, ha!" (When examining Rachel's body) "I used some herbs to put her into suspended animation. She won't age a day! Uwaa, ha! That's what you wanted, right? Had to use my herbs, I did!" (Cut to a flashback in the very room you're standing in) LOCKE: Rachel... LOCKE: You mean those herbs have actually saved her? Of course! The love of your life will sleep here like this forever. Kwa, ha, ha! LOCKE: What if there were some way to...call her back? If you could call her back... ...she'd come back! Wah, ha, ha! I'm sure you'll find something that'll bring her around! Kuha, ha, ha!!" (End flashback) I... failed her... (Exit Locke. All team members follow him out) If Celes is present: (Celes comes back, takes a look at Rachel, and bows her head) CELES: LOCKE... He will refuse to divulge the secret when you lack Locke, though: "That? Oh, that's LOCKE's... Dear, me! Almost spilled the beans! Kwa, ha!" In the Inn, there's Shadow waiting for you! For 3000 GP, he will offer to join your team as long as there's room for him (otherwise, he'll simply tell you to piss off). His merit in this scenario has been discussed earlier; I just want to stress again that Shadow might leave you at all times after every battle, taking your equipment with him. His level, however, has been adjusted to the average level of all recruited characters (but not Terra). Also, you now have finally access to the infamous Shadow's Dreams! If you want to learn about them, go to the end of the document where I talk about them. A burned house here is inaccessible. A 'creature of light' destroyed it; it seems Terra made a visit to Kohlingen and flew off again. But where? No sense doubting, as there's really only one place to go. A random NPC saying that the creature of light left to the south removes any hesitation you might have. We're off to Jidoor, to the South. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.25.1 Traveling to Jidoor ********************************** Opponents: Sand Ray, Areneid, FossilFang, Vulture, Iron Fist, Red Fang, Mind Candy, Over Grunk Container contents: Hero Ring While searching for Terra, you were told Terra went to Jidoor. But reaching Jidoor is not an easy task, as the road to Jidoor is a long and dangerous one. Preparation: Since you didn't really improve equipment-wise, stick to what you know. Monster formations: Grasslands to the north: Red Fang, Vulture, Red Fang (6/16) Red Fang, Red Fang (5/16) Vulture, Vulture (5/16) Grasslands to the south: Iron Fist, Iron Fist, Mind Candy, Mind Candy (6/16) Vulture, Iron Fist (5/16) Mind Candy, Mind Candy, Mind Candy, Mind Candy (5/16) Forest: Over Grunk, Over Grunk, Mind Candy, Mind Candy, Mind Candy (6/16) Over Grunk, Vulture, Iron Fist (5/16) Iron Fist, Iron Fist, Mind Candy, Mind Candy (5/16) Desert: Sand Ray, Areneid, Areneid (6/16) FossilFang (5/16) Sand Ray, Sand Ray (5/16) Before you go all the way to Jidoor, let's take a look at some features this part of the game provides! A man in Kohlingen told you about his brother to the north, at Dragon's Neck, who dreams of building a colosseum. You'll want to pay this so-called lunatic a visit, as one of his buckets houses an ever-so- precious Hero Ring, a ring featuring the image of a roaring lion. It is an Atlas Armlet and Earrings combined. They work on every character, but are especially nice on those who use both magical and physical attacks, such as Edgar and Gau. The desert is dangerous! While most battles will just feature the same critters you faced on the other side of the mountains, you're more than likely to meet a FossilFang before long. These undead dragons have witnessed their own bones bleaching in the sun, being polished by the never-ending sand storms of the desert. They have a fatal attack in !Bone (for which you'll need a Revivify to cure), and Sand Storm is a nasty attack that deals about 200 HP worth of damage to your entire party. It's easily evaded, but at this point, your team isn't going to avoid an old man in a wheelchair, so watch out. Beating one will get you 1870 GP though, so it's worth the challenge if you're low on cash. The easiest way to take care of them is using a Fenix Down or Revivify (you can buy three Fenix Downs or six Revivifies from one battle, so it's a feasible strategy that goes easy on the wallet), but if you lack those, it's up to your most powerful attacks. Steal a Fenix Down/Revivify with Locke, Drill a hole with Edgar, Sabin can deliver massive pain with AuraBolt (it's super-effective), Celes can make little difference regardless besides an MT Cure when a Sand Storm attack kicks in, Cyan can use Slash early on or deliver a Dispatch later, and Gau's Dark Side, Anguiform, Templar, and Rhodox are extremely effective. In the forest near the would-be Colosseum is a Chocobo Stable. If you don't feel like traveling and doing battle, you can always rent one here and reach Jidoor on a whim. To be honest, the monsters here, as well as their corresponding Rages (excluding Mind Candy, which only appear near Jidoor anyway), are worth crap so you're not really missing out. The grasslands and forests are littered by useless enemies who are just waiting for you to kick their Battle/!Special asses. The most dangerous ones are Iron Fists, crazy monks gone wild. Wild for BEADS! When they're alone they will use Stone, a horrid spell that not only will do 8 times as much damage to you when you're the same level as the caster (in Iron Fist's case, 15) but will also Muddle anything that survives it. If you're level 15 and are hit with Stone, you die (it's over 1300 HP worth of damage, folks). If you're not and you're still hit, you go medieval with AutoCrossbow, Fire Dance, Wind Slash, and whatnot on your own party members. You'll want to avoid this scenario at all costs; kill Iron Fists first. Two legs bad. All other enemies are generally unassuming. Red Fang and Over Grunk can poison you, so watch out, and give them priority over Mind Candy bugs. These simple pests prolong the battle by putting you to sleep. They're easy enemies and you should destroy them. Fire Dance and Flash rule supreme as heavy-hitting MT spells that can either seriously weaken or kill anything they touch with consistent effort. Wind Slash, Giga Volt, and Aqua Rake performed by Gau are going to kill everything when they occur. Let these characters do the hitting and have other characters run utility work. Celes can absorb Shimsham with Runic, so you might want to have her ready with it, should those two meet. Locke can Steal some rather uninteresting healing potions and Cyan can waste time in your party. That may seem harsh, but I told you this would be the case, so you obviously brought him along to do just that :) There's a peninsula to the south of Jidoor, leading to a sole building. This is the Opera House, and it's closed. Closed. No, it's closed. Honest. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.25.2 Jidoor ********************************** Container contents: Tincture Remember that day? Remember that day you went to visit your aunt's eccentric and rich sister, who had those beautiful crystal-like glasses you wanted to have so very, very bad? And remember when you told your mom and she told you that you would never ever earn enough money to buy one, no matter how hard you tried? This is like a city full of those rich sisters, but this time you *can't* punch them in the face and take what you like from them. Weapon Shop: Forged 1200 Kaiser 1000 Kodachi 1200 Full Moon 2500 Fire Skean 500 Water Edge 500 Bolt Edge 500 Shadow Edge 400 New weapons! The Kaiser Knuckles are new weapons for Sabin, and they're Pearl-elemental. Aside from being fairly legendary throughout a lot of Final Fantasy games, they're also somewhat, but not entirely, useless. I do suggest you pick up two of them, as there will be one scenario where they will come in handy. Forged are new Knives for Cyan. 'Forged' is one of the few translation choices I really feel missed the point. The Japanese called them Kikuichimonji, and that is the name I shall honor them by, dammit! Regardless, if you have Cyan in your party, you probably made a Genji Glover/Black Belt out of him; two Forged Knives improve his usefulness. Kodachi blades for Shadow; disregarding the fact you're unlikely to actually have him on the team, the fact any Thrown Shuriken will surpass any held blade in damage will make sure the Thiefknife is superior to equip. May be less of a non-factor if you brought Locke AND Shadow and have felt the necessity to equip the Thiefknife on the treasure hunter. Armor Shop: Mithril Shld 1200 Head Band 1600 Mithril Vest 1200 Ninja Gear 1100 White Dress 2200 Jidoor sells expensive new stuff. First and foremost, you'll notice Mithril Vests for sale. You should already have enough of them, but if you don't have enough to keep the Cyans and Edgars in your party pleased, you could get some. The Ninja Gear was thus far an exclusive item you kinda forgot to return to Shadow when he left, but it's likely the majority of your party can enjoy this thing. Finally, the White Dress: if you have money, buy two. The White Dress kicks ass, giving a hefty Magic Boost and solid Magic Defense. Relic Shop: Peace Ring 3000 Barrier Ring 500 MithrilGlove 700 Earrings 5000 True Knight 1000 Sniper Sight 3000 This if the first time you can buy noteworthy nice Relics! Earrings are for sale in Jidoor. After the many new weapons, potions, scrolls, whatever, it's unlikely you have a lot of money to spare. If your party can really use a third set of Earrings (say, if you brought Gau, Edgar, Sabin, and Celes), consider buying one. Item Shop: Potion 300 Tincture 1500 Antidote 50 Soft 200 Revivify 300 Fenix Down 500 Echo Screen 120 Tent 1200 Stock up on stuff you feel like you need. It's very simple! Hidden Items: All the way to the north is a massive mansion that wouldn't really stand out as an attraction in a cheesy amusement park (where, surprisingly, nobody really amuses him/herself). There's a Tincture in a bucket. Time to explore the town! There's precious little to explore, actually; like actual rich people, it's all appearance and little content. Remember the huge mansion to the north; the owner of it is Owzer, a famous art lover. The Auction House is closed for the time being; a convenient plot device employed to tell you that whatever you can buy here shouldn't be available yet. The NPCs are generally useless here, but there are three points of interesting to derive from them: *1 Terra apparently headed north, into the mountains. That's where Zozo is. *2 People in Zozo lie. They lie! *3 The inhabitants of Zozo also steal. Why would Terra use her newfound ability to travel by air to go to what sounds like the slums of Jidoor, detached, full of American Presidents? It will forever be a mystery. Or not, because you're about to find out. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.26.1 Zozo ********************************** Opponents: Harvester, SlamDancer, HadesGigas, Iron Fist, Gabbldegak, Dadaluma Container contents: Chainsaw, Fire Knuckle, Potion, RunningShoes, Thief Glove, Tincture x2, Tonic, X-Potion Miscellaneous items: DragoonBoots (rare Harvester steal), Thiefknife (rare Dadaluma drop and rare SlamDancer steal), Atlas Armlet (rare HadesGigas steal), Sneak Ring (rare Dadaluma steal) Magicite: Kirin, Ramuh, Siren, Stray Upon entry of Zozo, the image you had of it quickly abandons you. You expected poor people; you encounter pure madness. Staggering through the buildings are madmen mumbling about minutes, hours, and seconds. The exotic dancers wield arcane spells no human is to possess. Bulking giants attack you, shaking the ground with every 20-ton step. Corpses rot on the street. Towering constructions reach into the sky. And somewhere in this chaos, Terra is waiting for you. Preparation: You should've equipped all new pieces of armor before entry. If you have Gau in your party, make sure his first Rage is something Float inducing such as Ghost, Pterodon, Aspik, or Hornet. It will protect at least him from the dreaded Magnitude8 you may encounter here. Save. Zozo is the most dangerous place you'll set foot into for a while, so make sure you're not caught with yer shorts down. Monster formations: Outside the buildings: Gabbldegak, Gabbldegak, Gabbldegak, Gabbldegak (5/16) HadesGigas (5/16) Harvester, Gabbldegak, Gabbldegak (5/16) HadesGigas, Harvester (1/16) Inside the buildings: SlamDancer (5/16) SlamDancer, Harvester, Harvester (5/16) Harvester (5/16) SlamDancer, Gabbldegak, Gabbldegak, Gabbldegak (1/16) First off, how to treat the enemies here. It's incomprehensible why these cretins wield destructive power of Magic; there's certainly not a plot-related explanation given. But regardless, these inhabitants aren't going to give you random advice, allow you to raid their homes and take 300 GP they contained in that bucket for over three generations, or sell you new stuff. They are here to kill you. It's up to you, but I'd say we kill them right back. SlamDancers should be your first concern, period. If they are alone, they start casting Fire 2, Ice 2, or Bolt 2. Always. A focused ST level 2 spell will probably kill a character. An MT spell will hurt your entire party more than anything you've encountered so far. Take them out ASAP when they're alone. If they come with other opponents, try to see if you can steal more ThiefKnives from them and then end their lives. HadesGigas is your second large concern. They just hit stuff, hard. If you keep your HP up, they're not going to kill you, but keep in mind that a weakened character can quickly fall victim to a devastating physical blow like the ones HadesGigas delivers. If you kill one, there's a 33 % chance they will end things with a Magnitude8 attack. This hurts about as much as an MT level 2 spell, and since I just spent quite some words detailing the fact you want to avoid that at all costs, know that once again this is the case. You can avoid this fate by changing the giant into an Imp with Celes, or let him sink in a Snare attack, only employable by a well-trained Gau. Dark Wind is also an efficient way of dealing with the wall of muscle, but Break won't stop the Magnitude8 attack. Cross your fingers and make sure you have four Potions or Celes' Cure spell ready. Harvesters are next. They're weak fighters, but when allowed to take a third turn, they will use Shadow's Throw technique to hurl either a Dirk or a MithrilKnife at you. This is crazy high ST damage that's likely to take a character down in one shot. It ignores defense and Row, so if you see it, you're in trouble. The only way to dodge around these flying blades of death is the Clear status. And that's where our fourth and final random encounter comes in! Gabbldegak are Zozo's cannon fodder; useless pieces of Hit Points that run into your sharp objects and die from them. Compared to their fellow monsters here, they are doubly pathetic. They serve a grand purpose, though. If you have any means of setting Muddled, use it! Edgar's NoiseBlaster is far and entirely superior to Gau's Brawler Rage (Stone), but if you lack Edgar, you have precious little choice should you want to employ this. A confused Gabbldegak has a 33 % chance of casting Vanish at a random character of yours. The Clear status remains after battle and makes you immune to all physical attacks sent your way, including items Thrown by Harvester. Two characters under Clear is good, three is grand, but four is generally unconceivable as you can't control which character gets to be the target, and a Vanish spell on a Vanished target is just going to remove the status. So, welcome to Zozo! If you walk a bit into the town, you'll notice there are three buildings here. The one you passed is the smaller building, which has some treasure on top. The door says 'Cafe'. All the way to the north is a small building with only a clock to set. The final and remaining tower is what could be defined as the main dungeon, a construction even Gaudi didn't dare dream of. Twisted, man. I'll call the three buildings the Small Tower, the Chainsaw Tower, and the High Tower, for readability. Not that hard. Enter the Small Tower first. A Zozo crook shouts gibberish over his counter. Ignore him and continue to ascend. You'll meet a split here: a door to the left and one to the right. The left one takes you nowhere, like studying philosophy. The right one takes you outside, where you climb a frightening stairway to the next level. Here, the left door is rusted shut and the left one opens to reveal a Tincture. Now, you can track back! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.26.2 Chainsaw Riddle and Zozo continued ********************************** The Chainsaw Tower is the one you were meant to explore last. The trick is that there is a mysterious clock; its time you can set. By collecting clues from the Zozo inhabitants, you could discover the time you needed to unlock a secret treasure. Here are all the clues you can find: That clock has no minute hand. It's never pointing to the right time anyway! (This 'that clock' means the one nearby. Talking to it will get you the message, 'Hand's pointin' at the two.') Clock's second hand's pointin' at 30. The seconds? They're divisible by 20! The second hand of my watch is pointing at four. Time? It's 4:00. You can trust me! It's 8:00. 10:00! Time to go home! It's already 12:00. It's now 2:00. With the options presented to you when trying to set the clock to the right time, it's clear that the hour must be 6:00, as all other options are stated by lying Zozo pigs. The seconds are NOT divisible by 20, and it's not 0:00:30. The minutes can be narrowed to only one option; the man who tells you there is no minute hand on THAT clock proceeds to say it isn't on the right time. Talking to the clock will reveal that the (minute) hand is standing on the two, i.o.w. 0:10. At any rate, after some trying here and there, it's clear that the real time is either 6:10:10 or 6:10:50. Regardless, after you've tried one of them you know what the real answer is: 6:10:50. When you reset the time to match this, a wall will slide away to reveal another pathway to a chest containing the Chainsaw. It's a powerful new Tool for Edgar that is basically Drill on crack with the annoying 25 % tendency to try to go for an instant-kill, which has a small chance of missing, and always misses against targets immune to Instant Death. For a comparison between Chainsaw and Drill, go to the end of this document and search for the 8.2 section. Now, for the High Tower! It's the one to the southwest, with the Relic shop logo above the entrance. When you enter, another politician in the making is waiting for you to listen to his crap. Leave him. You take a stairway outside to enter the second level, where cycloptic thieves run rampant. There are a total of seven of them, repeating themselves in an endless polonaise of decay and horror. Walk amongst them to leave. Now you're outside again! At the end of the first set of stairs, you can face south and be asked if you want to use the Crane. Using the Crane will simply let you descend to the previous level. The Crane was probably installed so you could easily return to the ground without having to wade through the thieves. Maybe the designers figured it would in fact be impossible to return by those means; by clever navigational skills it's very much possible though. Pressing on, stair after stair, will get you to a dead end! Granted, there was a room with a Thief Glove on the way, but you cannot proceed. Time to pick up an ancient Zozo trick: jumping between buildings. There is a small black entrance above the door you passed through to get outside. Enter it and face the west. Now, walk over there and jump! Twice! The Thief Glove, by the way, is a Relic for Locke that allows him to change his Steal command into Capture, which is basically Fight + Steal. The Sneak Ring also boosts the chances of stealing through Capture, and the chances of stealing are just as high for Capture as it is for Steal. The only downside (and very rarely upside) of Capture is that it makes the weapon lose some special powers. None of the weapons you have at this point will lose any effect, but the following weapons do: - The Atma Weapon; Becomes a normal 255 Battle Power blade - Striker, Assassin, Wing Edge and Trump/Doom Darts (dependent on game version) will not execute X-type ID any more. - The Scimitar won't slice enemies, ever. - The Man Eater won't double damage on 'Human' targets. - Drainer and Soul Sabre won't absorb respectively HP and MP and do normal damage instead. The Soul Sabre's damage will be reduced by Defense. - Rune Edge, Ragnarok, Illumina, Punisher and the Ogre Nix can't execute the MP-powered critical hit; in addition, the Ogre Nix can't break on you. - No random extra damage from Hawk Eye and the Sniper; the throw graphic won't be used either. - Dice and Fixed Dice become worthless due to the 2 and 3 Hit Rate for them, while graphic glitches ensue. - The ValiantKnife loses defense-ignoring properties and doesn't add the (max HP - current HP) damage. - Tempest won't cast Wind Slash You get back inside on the other side of the building and continue to travel. Ignore the first partly hidden set of stairs to your left; it will only take you behind some counter. The second one gets you to your needed destination: further. There is a Potion and a Tincture hidden in two pots here. Leave. Time to leave this detour building and jump back to the normal one, which has a girl on top. According to the Zozoian below. Or, NOT, so it is. Still with me here? Jump again and you'll find yourself in a huge set of swirling stairs. Climb them. When you find yourself outside again, climb those stairs too. Don't forget to find the Fire Knuckle hidden in the small chamber here; the door is obvious. Eventually, you will reach Dadaluma. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.26.3 The battle with Dadaluma and the meeting with Ramuh ********************************** Dadaluma Level: 22, HP: 3270, MP: 1005 Steal: Sneak Ring (rare), Jewel Ring (common) Weakness: Poison Special: !Sweep: sets Seizure Vulnerable to: Imp, Petrify, Condemned, Mute, Sleep, Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, !Sweep, Jump, Safe, Shock Wave, Item (Tonic), Item (Potion), Throw (Dirk), Throw (MithrilKnife), Steal Dadaluma is...yeah, what the hell is he anyway? He's a crazy lying dog like the entire population of Zozo, as he charges at you as soon as he's finished saying he's going to let you by unharmed. He's some hybrid between a martial artist and a thief: the love child of a Harvester and an Iron Fist on steroids. Most of his attacks are physical, and his most powerful ones are him Throwing Dirks and MithrilKnives. Your Vanished characters are relatively safe if he doesn't expose them with Shock Wave, which is a weakish attack with the power to hit your Clear targets. When he's taking enough damage to dive below 1920 HP, he'll use either a Potion or Tonic three times and cast Safe on himself. That's only slightly annoying for Locke, as all other characters are going to attack either with barrier-piercing attacks or those that are magical of nature. There are some more twists and turns to Dadaluma's battle script! When you've hurt him with the Magic command two times, he will Throw one weapon and Jump in the air, being temporarily untouchable. He'll come down to damage a character for some minor physical hurting. He won't do all this if he has the Slow status, but since the only way to set it is by using Gau's Poplium Rage, there are much better things to set on Dadaluma. If you've hit him with the Fight command four times, he will Throw TWO weapons. Such violence. Obviously, you're never going to use Fight that much, but if you brought Locke AND Cyan and went Fight-happy for some reason, watch out. Finally, after 30 seconds, he will call some aid. God knows he needs it by then, if he's not dead already. He'll whistle for two Iron Fists that you'll never face alone and are thus deprived of their one and only strength: Stone. Dadaluma won't be able to whistle when he's Muted, but you can't silence him at this point of the game, so there's no avoiding it. So yeah, you can imagine what to do. Try to nick that rare Sneak Ring with Locke. Edgar can play with his new equipment (like you did when you grew hair in weird places...don't deny it). AuraBolt with Sabin. Cyan's Quadra Slam will be better before Dadaluma has cast the Safe spell on himself, but Dispatch comes out victorious after he's successfully done so. Even when Safe isn't in effect, the wait time might make Dispatch more appealing to you. Celes' Imp spell can seriously cripple Dadaluma, as it actually works on him. His physicals will now always do twice as much damage, but his Shock Wave/Throw days are over, so if you have any characters under Clear, you're destined to win. Have her pose as a back-up Cure caster if necessary, and if you choose not to turn Dadaluma into an Imp, you'll want her ready with Runic to disable Safe for the Lockes and Cyans of this world. Gau's Areneid and Primordite Rages will set Stop on Dadaluma, turning him completely useless. Trilium offers Bio, on the other hand, which will hit for CRAZY damage. Shadow can simply toss his stuff; his Skeans (especially when Earrings-boosted) will come out stronger than his Shuriken, but you might not want to waste them on an easy fight like this. Yeah, when all is said and done, after a dungeon like Zozo a final boss like Dadaluma fails to impress anybody. Stepping over the battered corpse of the Bandit King, you find yourself in a large room. There are two chests here, containing rather nice items: an X-Potion and a set of RunningShoes. But most importantly, it houses Terra. I advise you to simply watch the scene yourself, and don't forget to take all your new sources of happiness and power with you. Before I go to the next part of the walkthrough, though, I want to leave you with what Gau would say had you brought an actual solo-Gau party to Ramuh, as it's one of the bits of dialogue that never ceases to amuse me in its brilliance: TERRA...she ok? Espers...from other world? Why hide fact you Esper? GAU hear fairy tale. People...Esper once live together peacefully... MagiTek Research Facility...? There...your people? R.a.m.u.h...You leave...? Awoooo...! Note that this guy, later in the game, has trouble saying 'yes'. From now on, there will be a wizard/ghost character roaming the streets of Zozo as well as the Classroom for the Beginner in Narshe to explain how Magicite works. What great news! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.27.1 Magicite and Owzer's Mansion in Jidoor ********************************** Opponents: Vulture, Iron Fist, Red Fang, Mind Candy, Over Grunk As it turns out, Terra is apparently safe in Zozo. All she needs is more time to understand her newfound powers. Ramuh, the ancient Esper of Lightning, in the meantime, begged you for a favor. The Empire's forbidden might, Magic, is extracted from Espers held within the city of Vector, in the MagiTek Research Facility. Releasing them or otherwise disabling the flow of Magic to the Empire would deal a serious blow to its offensive forces. To top that, Ramuh's plea is understandable; no conscious being should be held into submission and tested on like this. But the Empire knows better than to allow offensive forces into their lands, and after conquering the entire continent, they disabled any means of traveling to the Southern Continent. So how will these Returners reach Vector? Jidoor might hold some answers. Preparation: Your choice of team is more limited now, as both Locke and Celes are forced into your party. It's too bad, as both are relatively weak characters at the moment. But hey, forced is forced. Know that physical attacks, unless barrier-piercing, are almost entirely useless in the next scenario, so Cyan is out from the get-go (Dispatch fails to measure up to your other offensive options, and Quadra Slam is going to be laughable most of the time). Shadow is still in the Kohlingen Inn if you haven't recruited him earlier, but he will leave at a crucial point where, even while you technically CAN go back to Narshe, will be most annoying. Shadow is out. It boils down to Sabin, Edgar, and Gau. If you haven't trained Gau, it's no contest and you'll want to bring the Figaro brothers. If you have, it's no contest and you'll want to add Gau. Seriously, he is *obscenely* strong at this point of the game (provided you go Rage Hunting in a bit, anyway). Between Edgar and Sabin, I'd definitely pick Edgar over Sabin. They're about equals in offense at this point, but Edgar has the option of using the NoiseBlaster, and being able to target will be a damn useful function before long. If you picked Gau, you'll want to pick some new Rages from the new monsters you encountered. Useful Rages include: Anguiform, Aspik, Mind Candy, SlamDancer, Gabbldegak and HadesGigas. HadesGigas' Magnitude8 will be stronger than Wind Slash in MT damage, but it cannot hit Floating targets. Anguiform and Aspik both hit the weakness of pretty much everything in the next real dungeon, so don't feel complete until you've found them. Route to the Veldt, Copy/Paste from the previous section: To visit the Veldt, take the Cave to South Figaro and pass through Mt. Koltz. You'll find the Returner Hideout again, and in Banon's Room, you can find the hidden passage to the raft. Jump on it, and after the same battles you had to fight earlier, you'll now take the path Sabin took when he drifted off. You find yourself near the hut of the crazy man again. Walk to and through the Phantom Forest (no Imperial Camp or Phantom Train this time) and jump down Baren Falls (no battles here either). You're on the Veldt now. Leap around until you're satisfied. Jump down the Serpent Trench and wind up in Nikeah. Take the ferry to South Figaro and you're on known territory. Oh yeah, and you're smuggled out of South Figaro in a chest; that never ceases to amuse the kids. Also, you've received Magicite! Magicite are awesome little gems that allow you to summon the corresponding Esper once a battle, learn the spells the Magicite teaches, and even give you a stat boost when you level up! For a more detailed descriptions of Espers and how do and do not work, there's a section towards the bottom of the document. I will not fail to mention THIS, though: To unequip an Esper, select a black slot from the Esper list. There are too many creatures out there that, after having consumed a meal consisting entirely out of Doritos and feces, nose-type a "how to unequip Espers" topic. Because, typing the message and waiting for the often verbally violent and inaccurate response somehow takes less time in their dimension of madness than simply trying the option, which has always seemed to me as a product of logic. Monster formations: Grasslands: Iron Fist, Iron Fist, Mind Candy, Mind Candy (6/16) Vulture, Iron Fist (5/16) Mind Candy, Mind Candy, Mind Candy, Mind Candy (5/16) Forest: Over Grunk, Over Grunk, Mind Candy, Mind Candy, Mind Candy (6/16) Over Grunk, Vulture, Iron Fist (5/16) Iron Fist, Iron Fist, Mind Candy, Mind Candy (5/16) Desert: Sand Ray, Areneid, Areneid (6/16) FossilFang (5/16) Sand Ray, Sand Ray (5/16) I speak too much! Your job is to find a proper means of transportation towards the Empire. By now, you'll probably stare at the lead character of your party, going, and here I quote one of the best films recently created, Napoleon Dynamite: "Before we get started on our new project, I have a few concerns. First off, I'm concerned about your transportation situation." See, you need to go to Vector, capital of the Empire. This city is on a continent, and while you are also on a continent, it's sadly an entirely different one. While Celes is wearing a bathing suit, swimming is not an option. Maybe you can get yourself a ship in Jidoor? Money buys anything, right? Except for happiness. Happiness and actual quality coffee, when you're living in America. Starbucks my ass. While walking to Jidoor, you'll be surprised to note that every battle ends with an added message of you obtaining Magic Points! That's good. When you've reached Jidoor, you may want to rest at the Inn. The guy standing in front of the counter has some new info about this guy called 'the gambler', who likes operas. Kind of the dumbest thing ever, talking to strangers ABOUT strangers, no? At Owzer's place (you know, that huge mansion? The mansion to rule them all?), you'll find somebody called the Impresario. He's having a bad time. Talk to him and grab the letter on the way out. Resume: The Impresario (trivia: his name is Dancho) is the Big Chief of the Opera. Everybody loves that place, especially because of Maria, the very sexual, the very tight. Setzer Gabbiani, world-cruising playboy of a gambler that he is, has announced in a private letter to the Impresario that he will kidnap Maria right from the stage. The Impresario doesn't want Maria to be kidnapped; bad for business, nor does he want to call off the next show; bad for business. Dancho's in a tight spot. Oh, the troubles of capitalism. Also, Celes is the 'spitting image' of Maria, it seems. I never quite understood this expression. Two women and saliva doesn't sound too bad, but it just seems kinda out of place in a game like this. So yeah, world's most popular fetish aside, you need to go to the Opera House, where you'll try to set up a meeting with Setzer, pilot of the world's only airship, the Blackjack (off-game knowledge!). Once you reach the Opera House (don't tell me you needed any more info on the monsters occupying the way there), all will be self-explanatory. So, allow me to skip to the next thrilling action sequence, which involves the favorite FF VI scene for many. Not me, though. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.28.1 The Opera House ********************************** Opponents: Sewer Rat, Vermin, Ultros So here's the plan. Instead of Maria, who hid her pretty self somewhere, Celes will perform the Dream Oath, the massively popular opera about Draco and Maria (seems like the opera star and her part share the name), a story of love, war, honor, and as bad luck gives us, a squid. Ultros followed you here. The reason is not clear; it's not so much revenge for beating him, as it's entirely possible to use a team that features none of the characters you used to fight him the first time. But let evil be evil as long as you stop it. Celes needs to be successfully abducted here, and we can't have any octopi ruining the plan. Preparation: Celes de-equipped herself when she changed into Maria's opera get-up, so if she was carrying anything other party members might be able to use, that's great. Make sure that one of your remaining party members has Sprint Shoes equipped if you're playing one of the SNES versions. The Impresario predicted Setzer would arrive in the first scene, and as Setzer is an undependable scoundrel who has no ties in life and has much to gain by surprising the Impresario in his abduction in as many ways possible, the prediction can be nothing but 100 % accurate. So, Celes needs to survive only through the first scene before she gets her proverbial homerun! Here's what she has to do: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.28.2 The Dream Oath (Celes' Opera Performance) ********************************** Scene 1 Oh my hero, so far away now. Will I ever see your smile? Love goes away, like night into day. It's just a fading dream... I'm the darkness, you're the stars. Our love is brighter than the sun. For eternity, for me there can be, only you, my chosen one... Must I forget you? Our solemn promise? Will autumn take the place of spring? What shall I do? I'm lost without you. Speak to me once more! ...here you pick up the flowers. Climb the stairs to the balcony high atop the castle. Raise the flowers to the stars. (Hurry! You have just moments before Scene 2 starts! The Impresario) Scene 2 At least, that's what the score says. Listen to it; it makes sense. Celes will be given three options during her play concerning the proper lines, and then has to successfully climb some stairs and lift flowers. Quite a workout! Here's what the options will do: (Oh my hero...) --> success! GOOD. (Alas, Draco...) --> Alas, Draco! You're outta here! The orchestra stops. BAD. (I wish I...) --> I wish I...uh? The orchestra stops. BAD. (I'm the darkness)--> success! GOOD. (Must I...) --> success! GOOD. (Prince Ralse...) --> Prince Ralse...yeah, so? I hate him! Everyone does. BAD. Now, you walk the stairs, talk to the phantom Draco three times, pick up the flowers, and stand on the far end of the balcony. If you fail to do this in time, Celes says: "Uhnn...not in time...We messed up.", the orchestra stops and that's BAD. Every time you mess up the Opera (you mess up the lines, you don't move around fast enough, Ultros does his thang), the Opera is halted and you find yourself outside of the building, where you can go back in to plead for another chance. After you mess up the first time, you get three chances. That's a total of four tries to get it right. If you fail four times, evolution hasn't been kind to you and you receive the message "You don't have enough acting ability to convince your own mama!" and get an actual Game Over. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.28.3 Stopping Ultros ********************************** So, that's Celes' part. You can do it. Meanwhile, Ultros has decided to kill the woman on stage with the combined terror of weight and gravity, which he told Locke with a letter. Because that's useful for your chances of actually pulling it off, you see. Before you alert the Impresario, make sure to talk to your fellow characters. Amusing! EDGAR: Go right ahead. SABIN: Uh? Why's everyone singing? CYAN: Going somewhere? I'm going to relax! GAU: Pretty song! And if you brought Shadow, against all possible odds and rules of logic: IMPRESARIO: Your friend left. Said he'd have fallen asleep in another 5 minutes... I'm sure a lot of you folks thinks that's awesome. You have five minutes to reach the lever on the right side of the Opera House, flip it, go to the rafters, which are accessible on the left side of the Opera House, fight your way through some annoying rats, and stop Ultros. So do it! Flip the far right switch in the room to the right. For you left/right analphabetics out there, I'll lay it out for you: Switch 1 Switch 2 Switch 3 Super Switch! Switch 1 makes a sound like a dog barking. Switch 2 turns out the lights in the opera hall, causing the crowds to make little eyes in the darkness. Switch 3 opens a hole directly under you, causing you to slide on stage! You immediately get off by hopping on the heads of the crowd, bursting in the entrance hall of the Opera House, where the lead character will strike a pose and say 'Surprise!'. I suppose all three switches are pretty amusing, but there's imminent squashing and you can't shrug that off, so what you'll want to flip is the Super Switch. Now, sprint all the way to the far left room (you'll pass the Impresario again) and pass the door (which would be locked if you hadn't flipped the switch in the far right room). Now, you're on the rafters. Don't fall down now. Haha, you can't fall down! You can, however, fight rats and get kicked out of the Opera House for another try if you lose. So, you don't want that. Each rat will trigger a battle, which contains either: Vermin, Sewer Rat, Sewer Rat (3/4) Sewer Rat, Vermin, Sewer Rat, Sewer Rat, Vermin (1/4) The Vermin monsters (yellow) are the main problem, the Sewer Rats (black/green) the lackeys. If you take out all the Sewer Rat while one or two Vermin still live, they'll call more, prolonging the battle. So have Edgar, Locke and Genji Glove'd Cyan and/or Sabin go for the ST kill on those before you try to engage in MT slaughter. Vermin are weak against Ice, so if Gau can Rage SlamDancer, that might be a good idea too. They have nothing worth stealing, so don't waste time there. It's said it's actually possible to get by without having to fight a single group of rats, but you'll skip both their Rages (not that good, I'll admit, but you can *miss* them for the sake of the Savior), and it's damn hard to boot. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.28.4 The second fight with Ultros ********************************** Ultros Level: 19, HP: 2550, MP: 500 Steal: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Water, Weakness: Fire, Lightning Special: !Ink: sets Dark, attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, !Ink, Fire, Drain, L.3 Muddle, Imp Song, Acid Rain, Mega Volt, Tentacle Before you try to hurt Ultros, make sure your Ramuh-wearing character is equipped with an Earring (or two). If you have a Fire Knuckle-wearing Sabin, he should be in the third or fourth position, as that'll make sure he'll face Ultros' back at the start of the match. Make sure that your party is covered in Peace Rings/Ribbons, as Ultros has the ability to set Muddled, which is serious business. Ultros is back and he's better and badder then ever. Only not really, because he actually has less HP than he did when you first met him. To compensate, he has quite a few spells to throw at you, and has a nasty Command Script that gives him the power to, at the worst situation possible, actually take 10197 HP of damage before going down. Here's how that works: Ultros has four positions. He starts at Position 1. Every time he takes two rounds, he'll make a comment, switch to another position and start using different spells. Now the story and our eyes will have us believe that it's one Ultros, hopping about; the game treats this battle as one with four Ultros', each with his own set of 2550 HP. If you hurt Ultros but let him escape to a different position, you can Scan him and see he will again have 2550 out of 2550 HP. At least, that's what you would see if this Ultros didn't yield a "Can't probe target" message. So, the trick is to kill him as quick as possible, before he can move around at all. For the record, he will go like this: 1 - 3 - 2* - 4 - 2 - 1 - 4 - 2 - 3** ** = Here, he makes four attacks before he moves on to 2* again. So what does Ultros do? He counters Blitz techniques and SwdTech skills with Acid Rain, a nasty Water/Poison-elemental attack that sets Seizure. I'd advise against using those skills, especially because Sabin will inflict more damage with the Fire Knuckle then he will with his Blitz attacks (unless it's Fire Dance, unless he's hitting with the Fire Knuckle in the back of Ultros). After every minute of battling, Ultros will use Imp Song, which changes the living characters on one side of him into Imps. This is very annoying and yet another reason to deal with Ultros as quickly as possible. Finally, his attack pattern is this, depending on his position: 1 = Battle Ink (Special) or Tentacle 2 = Battle (33%) or Fire (66%) 3 = Battle (33%) or L.3 Muddle (66%) 4 = Battle or Mega Volt or Drain But none of this should really matter, honestly. Because if you even get to see Acid Rain or L.3 Muddle, let alone Imp Song, you've already missed the goal and are in actual danger of losing the battle if you're either inexperienced or unlucky. So here's what to do to prevent that. Locke is fairly useless; Ultros has nothing to steal whatsoever. If Locke knows Slow or Bolt 2, have him cast it. Otherwise, just attack. Edgar's Chainsaw inflicts very decent damage, and I've said enough about Sabin's Fire Knuckle to make the impression I actually want you to use it. Cyan should ignore his SwdTech command and act like Locke. Gau, finally, can pick a Rage like Aspik or Hazer for direct violence (Aspik is godly), or Primordite/Areneid for causing Stop if you want to prevent him from changing position rather than killing him outright. Unless it's Sabin, summoning Ramuh takes priority over anything else. It's basically a Bolt 2 spell coming from someone who probably hasn't learned Bolt 2 yet. The only scenario I can see where the above strategy wouldn't automatically mean you toasted the guy before he could move a muscle is a rather low-leveled Locke, Cyan, and Gau team where Gau just didn't feel like doing his non-Battle attack. If this is the case, have Cyan and Locke support Gau and cure their own Imp status should this become a problem. Ultros really isn't that much of a deal if you take him down with as much brute force in as little time you could do; if you allow him to wander, he could become quite a nuisance. You'll get a Green Cherry for your troubles at the end. His lines, because there are people who love him as much as I dislike the guy: "Long time no see! You've changed! Did ya miss me?" (Battle Commence) "Here! Over here!" "I ain't no garden-variety octopus!" "Havin' fun?" "Have ya read it?" "How sweet it is!" (Marvin Gaye quote?) "Here! Over here!" "I ain't no garden-variety octopus!" "I ain't ready ta go yet." "Imp! Pal! Buddy!" (Imp Song) "What an unlucky day! Adios!" (Defeat) Having stopped the threat that threatened the plan, the plan comes together! Setzer, quite possibly the most awesome character out of video game history as far as looks and style go, swoops down, grabs Celes, and in one awesome spin gets her out of her opera gown, into her normal clothes, and entirely tied up. Wow. And to know that there are some, who shall remain nameless, who at one time had problems with bra clasps! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.29.1 The Blackjack ********************************** My God, Setzer is awesome. He's a world-traveling albino pirate who kidnaps this game's equivalent of Kylie Mynogue to marry her on his own casino-zeppelin. His airship-crash-induced facial scars only make him more of a special case and nicely compliment the rather gothic black trench coat he got way before the Wachowski brothers had even dreamed about bending spoons that aren't there and bullet-time and whatnot. Sadly, he gets punked by a band of unlikely heroes the world has never seen before. First, he is persuaded by you to listen to your tale of woe rather than kick you off his property: CELES: Wait! We were told your ship is the finest vessel in the world. LOCKE: And that you were the world's most notorious gambler... CYAN: I'm one of Doma's Knights. Please, help us. SABIN: My brother's the King of Figaro. Cooperate, and you'll be well rewarded! (But only if the brother in question isn't there) EDGAR: I'm the King of Figaro. If you cooperate, you'll be well rewarded... (See? Sabin sounds kind of redundant next to Edgar) Then, he is converted from a rather pro-Empire guy to a full-fledged Narshesque (or Swiss) I-don't-knower: CELES: Stop thinking of yourself. Many towns and villages have been smashed by the Empire. LOCKE: The Empire's also totally rotten! It's using magic to enslave the world. EDGAR: The Empire and my realm were allies... SABIN: The Empire'll end up owning you! CYAN: ...I lost my friends...and my family. (He gets all sad after this) Finally, he is joining your cause! It was inevitable after all; you gave him a name and whatnot. Celes will fool him with a double-headed coin. If Edgar's present, he'll give the coin to her. If Sabin is also present, he'll shout at his brother for a bit for obvious reasons (and if they're not obvious, you didn't take them to sleep at Figaro Castle, am I right?). The coin in question is a coin from Figaro, displaying Edgar's face on one side and Sabin's face on the other. You'll see it in action in the credits... but enough about this. You hitched a ride to the Empire. Go Returners. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.30.1 Albrook ********************************** Container contents: Elixir, Potion, Tincture You're finding yourself next to an entirely new town. This is called 'hinting'. Square wants you to go in. Do it. Note: Don't forget to re-equip Celes. We don't want her running around naked. Well, I've seen enough GameFAQs posts that say that some of you would, but that's talking 'naked', not "naked". Albrook is one of the three major towns the Empire invaded and currently occupies. The Imperial troopers here won't directly recognize you, and won't attack you outright. If you try to enter the port, the MagiTek Armored soldier will prevent your entry by means of hitting you. No Hit Points will be lost, don't worry. Most soldiers will show themselves as patriotic pigs, and most inhabitants of Albrook will sigh and moan about their lot. The only useful information you receive here is that coming from a portrait painter and two scholars. The painter tells of a portrait he must do of the Emperor himself (you'll come across this painting in your travels later, where it serves a special purpose). The first scholar will talk about the fact that the monsters on the continent have only weak magical power (which is a flat-out lie as some of them have the power to outright create several new interesting ways to urinate for you if you don't watch out). The other one is talking about two Atma Weapons; one a sword, one a monster. I'M SURE WE'LL NEVER MEET EITHER OF THEM. Weapon Shop: Forged 1200 Poison Claw 2500 Epee 3000 Blossom 3200 Shuriken 30 Fire Skean 500 Water Edge 500 Bolt Edge 500 The Weapon shop has Epee swords (which you can ignore if you want to as neither Celes nor Edgar will ever use it), Forged Knives for Cyan that you previously bought in Jidoor (right?), and Poison Knuckles for Sabin, of which I recommend you buy two. You can leave Shadow's Blossom Dirks for now, as he's not around and you'll be able to buy more of them later. Armor Shop: Head Band 1600 Bard's Hat 3000 Mithril Vest 1200 Ninja Gear 1100 White Dress 2200 The Olde Armore Shoppe sells nothing of value other than Bard's Hats. They're the magical equivalent of the Green Berets; where Green Berets raise HP by 12.5 percent and give you a 10 % bonus on your Evade rating, the Bard's Hat raises MP by that very amount and gives a 10 % bonus on your M.Block rating. It's a popular choice for obtaining a god-like assembly of equipment later in the game, but right now, you're probably better off with the Green Berets, unless you think evasion is better than endurance. And yes, the chests in the Armor Shop are now, and will under any circumstance be, empty. Relic Shop: Goggles 500 Peace Ring 3000 Earrings 5000 Sniper Sight 3000 Wall Ring 6000 Amulet 5000 The Relic Shop has Amulets and Wall Rings. The Amulet will be kind of a necessity in later dungeons, but you can wait for now. Make sure to grab four Wall Rings here, though. These Wall Rings will make a few boss battles in the future much easier. The main attractions at the moment though are Earrings; Earrings are almost universally useful. You should have four Earrings and a Hero Ring; you might want to buy another one or even two. Earrings are great damage boosters. Item Shop: Potion 300 Tincture 1500 Eyedrop 50 Remedy 1000 Revivify 300 Fenix Down 500 Tent 1200 Warp Stone 700 Items of +2/+2 using. First Remedies for sale ever. The Cafe is plain awesome. I wish there was a place over here that played Johnny C. Bad continuously; I wouldn't go there because I'd go stark raving mad, but it be nice to have around, just because. Items are hidden throughout the town. There's the mandatory Elixir in the clock in the hallway connecting the Armor Shop and the Cafe. There's a Potion in a barrel next to the Inn. A hidden Tincture in the pot of the Weapon Shop closes the deal. On the whole, Albrook is a rather disappointing hole of a town, not at all worth the hassle of the whole having-Celes-abducted-by-a-flying-albino thing. So I suggest we explore the rest of the continent. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.30.2 Traveling on the Southern Continent ********************************** Opponents: FossilFang, ChickenLip, Joker, Ralph, Wyvern, WeedFeeder, Bug Miscellaneous items: DragoonBoots (rare Wyvern steal), Mithril Rod (rare Joker drop), Tiger Mask (rare Ralph steal) Welcome to what we like to call the Southern Continent. Vector in the middle, Albrook to the south, Tzen to the north, Maranda to the West, and an Imperial camp seemingly built to protect a mountain range to the East. As is the tendency of games like the one we're talking about here, a new continent features new enemies that are stronger than the ones seen before. Preparation: Re-equipped Celes? Swapped a possible Kaiser with that Poison Claw? All done? Make sure you have Sneak Ring on Locke, as the upcoming monsters might actually have something worth stealing. If any of the characters knows Float, cast it on the party. If not, have Gau (if present) Rage Hornet or a similar Rage that is Float-inducing. Monster formations: (Middle and West grasslands) WeedFeeder, WeedFeeder, WeedFeeder (6/16) Ralph, Ralph (5/16) Ralph, Wyvern, Wyvern (5/16) (Southwest and East grasslands) Ralph, Joker (5/16) Ralph, Wyvern, Wyvern (5/16) Joker, Joker, Joker (5/16) ChickenLip, ChickenLip, ChickenLip, ChickenLip, ChickenLip (1/16) (Forest) Ralph, Wyvern, ChickenLip, ChickenLip (10/16) ChickenLip, ChickenLip, ChickenLip, ChickenLip, ChickenLip (6/16) (Desert) Bug, Bug, Bug (5/16) FossilFang, Bug, Bug, Bug (5/16) FossilFang, FossilFang (5/16) Bug, Bug, Bug, Bug, Bug, Bug (1/16) There's a plethora (expensive word: + 500 Exp.) of dangerous monsters around. WeedEaters are entirely like CrassHopprs, only they're red. They're just as weak to Fire as their green brethren are, they're just as silly in their physical attacks and berserking attempts with their Special, and they're just as likely to find themselves in several flaming pieces on the cold earth before an even remotely long time. Ralph are simple Battle/Special cannon fodder, only they're kinda sturdy and tend to take more than one attack to kill. Also, they have a rare Tiger Mask steal, a nice Helmet for Sabin and/or Gau that you probably want to swap for the Green Beret (but only for the sake of being able to; I'd still say the Green Beret is the better choice of the two). For a bit of trivia, their Anthology Bestiary mentions these dogs were created as a test of using MagiTek power. But then again, the Bestiary is so full of shit I tend to ignore it despite the fact it's official Square statements. Jokers are bastards. They're floating, so they're immune to your strongest MT attack (Gau's Magnitude8). If you allow them to take more than one turn, they start casting Acid Rain on the entire party, which you'll want to prevent. If they're alone, they start casting Bolt 2, which you will really want to prevent. Summoning Siren is a very good idea if you run into them, as doing so removes the threat of both spells. NoiseBlaster also works well. Rarely, they will drop Mithril Rods. You didn't have those yet. If you were greedy, you'll have three different kinds of Rod already, and nobody can equip them. Beautiful. Wyvern are... NOT FLOATING. They have wings, and they are called 'wyvern', a word commonly reserved for flying serpents of death. They are in a flying position in their sprite, which was specifically designed to capture the very nature of the beast in one pose. Yet, not floating. It's a mockery of the concept of wing itself. Wyvern are monsters who will use Cyclonic when they're alone, a percentage-based attack that will remove 93.75 % of the targets current HP. And Cyclonic hits all characters. Don't let this happen. They have rare DragoonBoots for any Lockes you might have in your party, which sell for a whole bunch of moola. ChickenLip are the silliest and potentially the most deadly of the monsters found on the continent. When they're alone, they cast Quake. Surely, they must've abandoned all hope of getting out of the battle alive, as it hurts them as well. Quake is a seriously powerful spell: an Earth-elemental, barrier-piercing spell that hits every target on screen as long as it isn't Floating. If you kept Stray around long enough for any of your characters to learn Float, be sure to cast it if you are still touching the ground. Otherwise, they're weak to Ice and look silly. The desert houses FossilFang, and you should be used to their presence by now. If not, Ctrl + F the thing. Bugs are also found circling their bodies. Bugs are annoying because they tend to go out with a BANG: a BANG of petrifying their killer. Only if they were killed by Battle, and only if they were alone, and only 33 % of the time, but still... Avoid it, as that's good. To sum it up: Have Locke try and steal from Ralph and Wyvern monsters, don't let ChickenLip or Wyvern alone, both are weak to Ice attacks, summon Siren when you meet Jokers (and Wyvern and ChickenLip if you're not feeling confident about your ability to take them out first. Siren stops Quake and Cyclonic as well) and don't do drugs. It's by no means mandatory or even very beneficial to visit the other three locations before going into Vector, but it doesn't hurt to do it in any way and it gives more back story to the game. It's up to you to decide if you'll want to do it. Here are the benefits of investing the time: The Imperial Base near the Mountains. Eh...you get to fight monsters that have glands on their back that secrete Tents. A lot of them. You'll be fighting them anyway in the next serious dungeon. Tzen: Boomerangs for sale, a slight improvement over the Full Moon. Mithril Helmets for sale, featureless helmet for everybody but Sabin. Black Belt Relics for sale. Maranda: Boomerangs for sale, a slight improvement over the Full Moon. Tridents for sale, a Water-elemental Pike. Mithril Helmets for sale, featureless helmet for everybody but Sabin. Mithril Mail for sale, better armor for Cyan and Edgar. Free Remedy and Revivify to find! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.30.3 The Imperial Base near the Mountains ********************************** Opponents: Commando, Mega Armor, ProtoArmor Monster formations: (Walking soldiers) Commando, Commando, Commando, Commando (always) (Armored soldiers) Mega Armor, ProtoArmor (always) Yeah, it's called differently, but the name kinda reveals its purpose so we wouldn't want that yet. All you'll find here is a truly impenetrable Imperial Base, blocking access to whatever lies on the other side. You can fight the walking people here. The normal soldiers, regardless of color, will turn out to be four Commando soldiers, and the Armored soldier is a ProtoArmor/Mega Armor combo. Note on the four Commando: this is an easily controllable battle where you don't really have to fear sudden KO's creeping up on you. The thing is, though, Commando have a Tent for common steal. So, you have the option of complete restoration after every battle if you steal one. I tend to linger a while. It builds my amount of Tents to about 20 and gains some sweet spells in the meantime. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.30.4 Tzen ********************************** Tzen is a small town. Used to be an independent town, a monarchy no less. The Empire has slaughtered the royal family, and Tzen is currently under even more Imperial watch than Albrook is. There...really isn't much to say about Tzen. The soldiers will be useless and passive as they were in Albrook, the citizens friendly and helpful. One will tell about an Imperial weapon called the Guardian, which can't move by itself but is extremely powerful. Oh well, we can always make a run for it should we come across it. Another man tells of a gate in the mountains to the East. The mountains were heavily guarded and impenetrable for you; could it be that the Empire is looking for something there? Weapon Shop: Air Lancet 950 Full Moon 2500 Epee 3000 Boomerang 4500 The Weapon Shop offers nothing you can use other than the Boomerang. The Boomerang is a slightly better version of the Full Moon, so if you were using it I suggest you replace it. Armor Shop: Bard's Hat 3000 Mithril Helm 2000 Mithril Vest 1200 Ninja Gear 1100 White Dress 2200 The Armor Shop has Mithril equipment! However, you have plenty of Mithril Shields from Narshe, and you could've obtained enough Mithril Vests from Rider earlier. So, if you played smart so far, the only feature of meaning is the Mithril Helmets. It has a slight defensive boost over the Green Beret and the Bard's Hat, but it isn't worth the loss of those two its special properties in my opinion. And it's flat-out worse than the Tiger Mask. Relic Shop: Earrings 5000 RunningShoes 7000 Black Belt 5000 Amulet 5000 Nice Relics for sale in Tzen. The Amulet is the first store-bought item that protects you from the Zombie status. You'll need it later, but not now. All other Relics are filler relics. Item Shop: Potion 300 Tincture 1500 Eyedrop 50 Green Cherry 150 Echo Screen 120 Revivify 300 Fenix Down 500 Tent 1200 You might want to grab a Chocobo in the hidden Chocobo Stable in the forest to the east of Tzen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.30.5 Maranda ********************************** Container contents: Remedy, Revivify Maranda, Maranda... what do we know about Maranda? The last to fall against the Empire, it was general Celes Chere herself who led the attack to conquer the continent. It's still slightly trashed from the attack. Like Tzen, many of the city's young men were led to fight in the army of the Empire. The wounded man you found in Mobliz was one of them, and his darling Lola still lives here. Lola lives in a little house in Maranda, and if you'll speak to her, her response depends on your actions in Mobliz: Didn't help shit: My love hasn't sent me back any letters since he's been gone. I'm sick with worry... Sent a letter: A letter came from him! He's all right! Sent the record: He sent me a record! I'm so happy! Sent the Tonic: He sent some Tonic for Mom! He's so kind! Sent 2nd letter: A letter came from him! He's all right! Sent the book: He sent that book! I'll read it every evening, before bed! If you sent an item, received her next request and DIDN'T respond to that letter, Lola will also say 'My love hasn't sent me back any letters... etc.' Weapon Shop: Mithril Pike 800 Trident 1700 Poison Claw 2500 Epee 3000 Boomerang 4500 The Weapon Shop has three new weapons. The Trident, a Water-elemental Pike you might want to use later in the game, the mandatory Epee, and the Boomerang you could've found in Tzen. On the whole, buy a Trident and leave. Armor Shop: Bard's Hat 3000 Green Beret 3000 Mithril Helm 2000 Mithril Vest 1200 Mithril Mail 3500 The Armor Shop has Mithril Equipment as well, but they're a little better at it. There's only one feature of interest if you visited Tzen earlier: the Mithril Mail, heavy defensive equipment for Celes, Cyan, and Edgar. I wouldn't recommend it on Celes though, as the White Dress is only slightly less protective and gives a very nice Magic bonus. Finally, let's not forget about the fact this is the first time you see Green Berets in shops. It's not like you shouldn't be swamped in those buggers by now, but hey. Item Shop: Say what? This town doesn't have one! I believe that makes it the only town ever, ever, ever in this game. Crazy world. Let's not start on Zozo, as that's a dungeon rather than a town. If you want two free items, find the Revivify in the bottom crate west of the south exit and find the Remedy in one of the two crates near the arguing couple. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.31.1 Vector ********************************** Opponents: Commando, Garm, ProtoArmor, Guardian Well, here you are, deep in the heart of the Empire. Vector is the capital of the Empire and houses its two most important structures: the Imperial Palace, home to Emperor Gestahl, general Leo Christophe, and general Kefka Palazzo, and the Imperial MagiTek Research Facility, where the very source of Magic is somehow obtained under the eyes of master scientist Cid del Norte Marguez. There's a lot to do here. I'll discuss it feature by feature: In the part of town closer to the Imperial Palace (to the north), soldiers roam the streets. The normal troopers will be: Garm, Garm, Commando, Commando (3/4) Garm, Garm, Commando (1/4) The Armored troopers will be: ProtoArmor, Pipsqueak, Pipsqueak (3/4) ProtoArmor, ProtoArmor (1/4) The Inn is not very trustworthy. The guy behind the counter looks like a Zozo bum, and sure enough, after he's offered you the room free, there's a 50 % chance he'll come and steal 1000 GP during the night. If you don't have 1000 GP you'll see the man sneak around in the night, but the 'Stole 1000 GP!' message won't pop up and no money will be lost. No, you're better off going to the slim house to the left of the Inn, where an old woman will ask you to pledge your allegiance to the Empire. If you do so, all will be fine. If you refuse, she will send two... Narshe Guards after you? After you have beaten them, she will offer you a free healing service every time you talk to her, much like a Recovery Spring. A less successful way of healing yourself is going over to the running kid, who was subject to one of Cid's experiments and now has the power to heal with the Cure spell. Sadly, he's not very good at it, and will be able to only heal 1 HP at the time. He can also 'heal' the dead without actually reviving them; the only chance in the game you'll be able to see a dead character with above-0 HP. The Weapon Shop and Armor Shop sell nothing you couldn't buy in Albrook. The inhabitants of Vector are, understandably, pro-Empire, but will provide you with information nonetheless. You learn that general Leo refused a MagiTek infusion, where Kefka was Cid's first experiment, which supposedly turned him into the ranting fool he now is. Imperial soldiers on the higher regions of town will recognize you and engage in a fight. Every time you either win or run away, you'll find yourself on the southern edge of town again. If you managed to elude all the troops and you try to enter the Imperial Palace to the far north of the city, you'll be heard by an Imperial Soldier within the Palace, and you hide. If you walk away again, a member of the Imperial Special Force will send Guardian after you. Guardian is invulnerable in the true sense of the word. You can't damage him in any way, he's immune to any status effect including Clear, you can't spin Joker Doom against him; you name it. He's the very model of a plot device that looks like an enemy: Can't go here, sonny. The only way out of this battle that doesn't include running yourself is using Muddle on somebody who is about to use a Smoke Bomb; the Smoke Bomb will target Guardian, and you cause Guardian to run away itself. This has the same effect as running away yourself, though. Weapon Shop: Forged 1200 Poison Claw 2500 Epee 3000 Blossom 3200 You shouldn't need anything here. If you haven't bought a Blossom Dirk yet, now's your chance. The Blossom Dirk was called the Sakurafubuki in the Japanese game; 'sakura' is cherry blossom' and 'fubuki' is blizzard. Elegant and graceful like the sakura, destructive and ruthless like a blizzard; the perfect ninja warrior. Note that the Blossom is Wind-elemental. Armor Shop: Head Band 1600 Bard's Hat 3000 Mithril Vest 1200 Ninja Gear 1100 White Dress 2200 This Armor Shop is exactly the same as the one in Albrook, so you shouldn't see anything new. Item Shop: Heh, yeah. No Item Shop here either, I guess Maranda wasn't all that unique. Now, make sure you're fully healed before you engage in the rescue mission of a lifetime. Monster formations: (Facility Guards) Garm, Garm, Commando, Commando (3/4) Garm, Garm, Commando (1/4) Three soldiers guard the road to the Imperial MagiTek Research Facility, and you can't just smack them around in broad daylight in the middle of Vector. Luckily, and old man standing behind some crates is a sympathizer of the Returners and offers you his assistance. While he pretends to throw up (great plan, sport), you sneak behind the soldiers' back on the metal rafters. Just walk into the crates and you'll jump onto them, automatically walking over to the other side of the human barrier. If you come too close near the soldiers now, a battle will be triggered (Commando and two Garm, or two Commando and two Garm) so try not to do that. If you want out, though, it's the only way. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.31.2 Imperial MagiTek Research Facility; MagiTek Factory ********************************** Opponents: Pipsqueak, Commando, Garm, ProtoArmor Container contents: Blizzard, DragoonBoots, Flame Sabre, Gold Armor, Gold Helmet, Gold Shld, Tent, ThunderBlade, Tincture, Remedy, X-Potion, Zephyr Cape Unbelievable. You managed to reach Vector and actually made it into the IMRF (Imperial MagiTek Research Facility) itself. But you didn't think it would go unguarded, did you? The IMRF not only is the laboratory where Cid del Norte Marguez strolls ever onwards in the mysteries of magic, making the Empire both more dangerous and more despicable by the second; it's also the building where the MagiTek Armors are created. Each machine is a nature-perverting hybrid of metal and magic, designed and infused for the sole reason to kill. You're walking into THE power source of the Empire. No, I don't think it will be unguarded at all. Preparation: Everybody in the Back Row. This is a theme-based dungeon, and the theme is "If ye can't top 200 Defense, you ain't no kinda man." If a physical attack isn't specifically barrier-piercing, it will be like butting your head against a wall to try to break it. So, Front Row is useless. Genji Glove is useless. A weapon's Battle Power is useless; if your Locke runs around with a Boomerang, you might as well switch it to a Thiefknife as neither will do even a remotely impressive amount of damage but the Thiefknife has added benefits for it. The same goes for Epee swords, although you can't really get anything with an added bonus on Celes/Edgar yet. So yes, if it can't penetrate defenses and has a physical nature, you'll be hard-pressed to find a use for it. I think it might be wise to give a quick recap on what's useful here and what's not: Useful: Magic, especially Bolt and Bolt 2 Summon attacks, which especially means Ramuh right now. Flash, Drill, Chainsaw Pummel, Suplex, AuraBolt, Fire Dance Dispatch, Retort, Slash Rage-inflicted magical attacks, which besides Magic, includes Aspik's Giga Volt, Anguiform's Aqua Rake, Marshal's Wind Slash and HadesGigas' Magnitude8. Not useful: Fight AutoCrossbow Quadra Slam Rage-inflicted physical attacks, which include Specials such as Catscratch. So yes, try to boost your magical attacks. Cyan will be especially boring and useless here, as Dispatch starts to definitely lack in power and is only ST. Locke, unless he can get in an acceptable shot, like casting Siren or a Bolt spell, should do nothing but Steal (wear a Sneak Ring; Thief Glove nigh useless) and use some Potions, if necessary. If you have a Gau around who can Rage Anguiform, you should just wait for him to use Aqua Rake and stall with NoiseBlaster, Runic, Cure, and Steal, as he will end the battle when he attacks with it. If you're low-leveled, some Earrings might help. If you lack Gau and/or his Anguiform Rage but have the Figaro brothers, a Flash/Fire Dance combo with some Earrings behind it should end all. If you lack both, use some more sneaky tactics and attack to your best insight concerning the enemies. The ultimate way of dealing with enemies here is having a character with (1 or 2) Earrings, especially Celes, summon Ramuh for Bolt Fist. Bolt Fist will kill everything it touches, and it's not random like Gau's Aqua Rake. However, it will cost you 25 MP per summon, so unless you switch Ramuh around (which is a lot of trouble as it slows spell learning down) you'll have to use Tinctures to keep it up. Monster formations: (First room) Garm, Garm, Commando, Commando (6/16) Garm, Garm, Commando (5/16) ProtoArmor, Pipsqueak, Pipsqueak (5/16) (Second room) Pipsqueak, Pipsqueak, Pipsqueak, Pipsqueak, Pipsqueak (6/16) ProtoArmor, ProtoArmor (5/16) Garm, Garm, Commando (5/16) The most common foe is the one you found earlier in the Imperial Camp and strolling the streets of Vector: Commando. Their most attractive feature is their common Tent Steal, and otherwise they're very straightforward. Cid programmed them with Program 65, which, when executed, will silence the target for the duration of the battle. Their set of elemental weaknesses is rather strange; humans tend to succumb to Poison where machines are more likely to have a problem with Lightning and Water. Maybe this and the fact that they're apparently programmed is a hint they are some kind of cyborgs? At any rate, normal cannon fodder you have to plow through. Commandos are often accompanied by Garm dogs. They're canine versions of the Commando, really. Cid's program for them was Program 95, which ignites madness in the target, confusing them for the rest of the battle. Same weaknesses, same treatment. Don't worry too much about them confusing your Sabin when he is about to execute a Fire Dance Blitz; they will never use it unless they're alone, and you're bound to take them on with MT attacks anyway, right? The metallic vermin of the IMRF are the Pipsqueak robots. They're small, have little HP, are kinda weak, and only attack in large numbers. To compensate for their lack in offensive power, Cid set them up to use Program 55, one that turns the target into the illustrious Imp creature that is incapable of doing anything that is more than a little unlike rolling over and dying. The Flash Tool alone will finish them off without a lot of trouble, let alone Fire Dance and Aqua Rake. The Empire is about to bring a new kind of MagiTek Armor, but they have created nothing but prototypes for them yet; the ProtoArmor is the pure chassis of the new model, but fully operational. Its powers over the standard MagiTek Armor include, besides the standard electricity-based Tek Laser, a missile support unit to fire off either a single Missile or go for the massive Launcher attack to attack multiple targets simultaneously, a blinding flash of light called Schiller - also used by the Telstar - to blind the offensive party, and Cid's personal touch, Program 35, which by magical means fuels the body to deliver physical damage. To properly dispose of these tanks, Siren is massively useful to halt all magical attacks, should you not wish to wait for their demise before disabling them. NoiseBlaster works too. Besides, Schiller and Launcher, both more dangerous than Missile, will only be carried if the ProtoArmor is either alone or has just been targeted by a Fight command, which was foolishness to begin with. You are now entering what the Bestiary gives as the MagiTek Factory: the part of the building where the MagiTek Armors are being created. What you'll want to do first is go all the way to the left, through a pipe, on a conveyer belt, to a chest that contains, oh sweetness, a Flame Sabre. It's a nice Fire-elemental sword that mildly boosts your Magic Power; give it to either Celes or Edgar (where Edgar probably has the slight preference as you'll be using him more). You'll notice a crane going back and forth. Face the crane, and when it's on your side, quickly jump onto it with the Action button to let it carry you across the gap. Over here, you'll see two pipes where the ends that are facing the gamer kinda look like eyes. You'll want to enter the right one first to obtain access to the chest - a Tincture - before climbing back and allowing your party to climb down the left one. The stairs will drop you on another conveyer belt, which drops you off near a chest and another pipe. The pipe will take you back should you want it to (with an elevator! Oh, my!), but you probably won't. Grab the chest - X-Potion. The path downwards will get you exactly nowhere (you can't make that elevator go down to where you are), so get on the conveyer belt that takes you further into the factory. It delivers you to another chest! The ThunderBlade is waiting for you. If you had an Edgar or Celes left to equip it on, do so (there's really no point in switching it with the Flame Sabre, but if it pleases ye...). Move down a little and there'll be another chest. Such treasury! It's a Remedy. Get on the newly visible conveyer belt and don't forget about the chest you see on the way down; we'll be coming for it later. There's a slight break from the conveyer belt here. Continuing right on will simply get you to advance the dungeon, but you'll miss treasures! Rather nice ones, actually, although nothing can compare to blades of which the first one is on fire and the second one has electric currents running through it. To the bottom-left is the first accessible chest, which contains DragoonBoots. Going up the ladder near it will get you (through a door) to the chest you passed earlier, which will contain a Gold Shld. It's also the way out if you still want to pussy out of the mission. Descending the stairs near the DragoonBoots chest again, you'll want to go all the way to the right (just past a crane that has no use here) and all the way to the bottom, where you'll see a door leading to a chest containing a Gold Helmet. Exit the door and go all the way to the right, where you'll see a small chamber of which only the inner wall is visible. Here, a chest is hidden with Gold Armor. Exit the room and walk up the stairs for the Tent in the chest. Hike back to the place where the conveyer belt dropped you off in this room, but don't continue just yet; go up the stairs above the conveyer belt. You'll meet plenty of crates here (with, as your sharp eye has probably noticed, the Imperial Logo on 'em). There's a hidden entrance to the right just below the fifth crate. If you're having trouble finding it, face the first crate you come across, take five steps down, all the way to the right, one step back. Go down a while and you'll see the hidden chamber with two chests; one the Blizzard sword, a blade made entirely out of never-melting ice and the Ice-elemental equivalent of the Flame Sabre and ThunderBlade, and the Zephyr Cape, which is basically an inferior version of the White Cape Relic. If you're done, it doesn't matter if you hike back or continue down; if you go down, you'll fall out of the end, and a while later, appear at the end of a pipe close to the conveyer belt you were just thinking of continuing. Get on the conveyer belt and simply walk on until you meet a friendly face, by which I mean a certain kind of friend who would like to hit you in the abdomen with a rather large and heavy object and who would enjoy extra ice in his drinks. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.31.3 Imperial MagiTek Research Facility; The Pit ********************************** Opponents: Trapper, Flan, General, Rhinox, Gobbler, Shiva, Ifrit, Number 024 Container contents: Break Blade Miscellaneous items: Blizzard (common Number 024 drop), Drainer (rare Number 024 steal), Flame Sabre (rare Number 024 drop), Magicite (rare Flan steal), Rune Edge (common Number 024 steal) Magicite: Bismark, Carbunkl, Ifrit, Maduin, Phantom, Shiva, Shoat, Unicorn Kefka. You don't get to fight him or even confront him this time, and all he basically does is prove with his power-horny monologue what you already knew; the facility houses Espers, and magic is being drained from them. There's one thing that clings to you, or at least *should* cling to you, like one of those little corn skins between your teeth or barely noticeable migraine during your important exam; Kefka mentions reviving the Statues, as if this would be of great value to him. What are these Statues? Preparation: Nothing special, as the monsters, while changing, will also be annoyingly much like the ones you met earlier in their high regard of physical defense. Except for a tiny few, but hey, they're zeroes. Monster formations: Flan, Flan, Flan, Flan (10/16) Flan, Flan, Flan, Flan, Flan, Flan (6/16) Great Scott(y, 1920-2005), would the famous Cid del Norte Marguez wade through tiny metallic leprechauns, stumble over conveyer belts, and fly up on ascending cranes to his lab every single day? Remove the semi-futuristic crazy scientists' lab setting and he'd have to be Mary bloody Poppins, wouldn't he? But I digress. You made it past the factory...at least, it seems you did. Take a look around. You're standing in some kind of...death room. Skeletons everywhere, two lifeless Espers who you saw thrown down here. One could pick a nicer spot for a picnic. First, the layout. The blue Esper, Shiva, is blocking a door. She (the Anthology Bestiary at least confirmed she's female) won't respond to your calls. There's another door, leading to a small room with no purpose one could easily pinpoint (although there's a Save Point glowing on the ground). A hook provides you escape from the room...but all is not silent in the halls of the dead. The red Esper, Ifrit, stirs. And blue goop, all around you, appears to move by itself, splitting and sinking into the tiles. Flan are this game's incarnation of the Pudding, the Jello, the Blobra...they're in every game; semi-liquid monsters who are not particularly dangerous but are rather a pest to take on due to their extreme physical protection and oft- changing elemental weakness. FF VI Flan are entirely unlike their counterparts. FF VI Flan are immune to all the non-basic elements, and their defense is, well, pathetic. A Defense rating of 13. That's...just great. Take them out any ol' way you want, but take note; these monsters have had time to feast upon the 'useless' corpses of many Espers thrown here; they might have some Magicite shards on them. In cooking, flan is a custard-like dessert originating from Spain, and is popular in former Spanish colonies such as Latin America, the Philippines, and Puerto Rico. So there you go. Flan, by the way, appear in two kinds of group. The first is your average four-headed party. The second appears to be only a single Flan enemy, but when you kill it, two more will appear. If you kill those, three more will appear, until you've killed them. If you kill the first Flan or the last of the two Flan with Gau's Rhodox' Snare, you won't get any more Flan down your throat. Now, it's time to turn our attention to the two Espers here. Equip as many Wall Rings as you have (obviously, one on every character is plenty) and face them. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.31.4 The battle with Ifrit and Shiva ********************************** Shiva Level: 21, HP: 3000, MP: 500 Steal: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Ice, Nullify: Bolt, Poison, Wind, Pearl, Earth and Water, Weakness: Fire Special: !Hit: attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Ice, Ice 2, Rflect, Blizzard Ifrit Level: 21, HP: 3300, MP: 600 Steal: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Fire, Nullify: Bolt, Poison, Wind, Pearl, Earth and Water, Weakness: Ice Special: !Hit: attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Battle, Fire, Fire 2, Fire 3, Blaze The battle against Ifrit and, if you allow it, Shiva, is not your classic battle of good vs. evil. Nay, two scared, dying members of an abused race turn like a dog in a corner on whoever comes near them. Ifrit, the fire Esper, and Shiva, the ice Esper...eternal counterparts. Ifrit, the fire Djinni. Next to a physical attack, he performs Fire and Fire 2 spells and a deadly Blaze attack that ignores Wall Rings and Runic blade alike. If provoked by three Magic spells from you, he will charge up for a massive Fire 3 attack, which you'll want to avoid at all costs if you're not fully protected from the spell by Wall Ring, Celes' Runic, or Gau's possible inherent Fire-elemental absorption. Shiva, the Ice Queen, will come at you with the more basic Ice and Ice 2 spells, on occasion switching on performing a nasty Blizzard attack, which isn't as strong, but penetrates Wall Rings and Runic. If damaged she can be quick to retort with an Ice spell, and when hit three times with a Magic spell herself she will cast a Reflect spell on one of your characters, which will send any Ice and Ice 2 spell she will cast on you back at her, healing her. The trick here is to defeat one of them. If this happens, the Espers will realize they're not fighting someone coming for their death and they will sense Ramuh's soul near you. However, you can't just focus on one just like that, as you will only fight one at a time. Every time bit 3 reaches an amount of 5, they'll switch in for the other. The quickest approach may lie in taking Ifrit down before he can call on Shiva, but that may not always be possible. Bit 3 is incremented when: a) the Esper is damaged by any means b) the Magic skill is used on them Their Defenses are through the roof, much like most opponents you've faced so far. You know how to deal with that, although these magical beasts also take no damage from elemental magic unless it's their own element (which they'll absorb) or their weakness. So, you can forget about your Magic skill. If you're sure you won't be able to pull off a Blitzkrieg against Ifrit anyway, you might want to start the battle off with a Slow spell if you have it, else it's a wasted turn as it increments bit 3. Drill/Chainsaw does great damage, especially when backed up with an Atlas Armlet. Celes can cast an Ice spell (Runic, with frequent counter-spells, doesn't work as well as you'd think and is entirely redundant if you are fully protected by Wall Rings). Sabin can Pummel Ifrit and perform Fire Dance when Shiva's around. Locke has no business being a thief in this battle, and might as well grab the Blizzard against Ifrit (he might pull off the random Ice spell) and the Flame Sabre against Shiva (or plain cast the Fire spell if he knows it). Cyan's Dispatch is the only thing he CAN do with some success, useless cretin that he is. Gau's irresponsible nature makes him kind of a Janos in this battle. With other characters backing him up, the wisest course of action will probably be Brawler, as it's non-elemental, magical damage against both targets. Along with the violence, summoning Kirin to aid you throughout the battle and casting a lot of Cure spells is a probably a great idea as you may not have Wall Rings here. The Runic blade, more often than not, catches a counter-Ice while letting the Ice 2 spell slip by. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.31.5 Imperial MagiTek Research Facility ********************************** When all is done, Ifrit and Shiva will realize their position and will offer themselves to you as Magicite. It's possible to leave the Magicite of Ifrit here and miss it forever; note that there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to do so. I say you grab Shiva and Ifrit and equip them if you think their x 5 Ice 2 and Fire 2 spell learn rates look yummy to your tummy. Shiva's Rasp and Osmose spells do not hurt your cause at the slightest; Rasp is a great tactical spell, and Osmose simply means you won't need any MP-restoring potions anymore. Ever. Monster formations: (Stairs) Trapper, Trapper, Trapper (6/16) General, General (5/16) General, Pipsqueak, Pipsqueak (5/16) (Tube Room) Gobbler, Rhinox, Gobbler (6/16) Gobbler (5/16) Rhinox, Rhinox (5/16) Rather then using the crane to escape, I suggest you press on and open the door. On the other side are stairs. A whole mother lode of them. You'll find new enemies here, of which the most dangerous ones are the Trapper robots. Trapper robots care not for personal safety or any kind of intelligence or battle skill. They care for nothing; as robots, they are nihilists. They perform only three tasks: casting L.3 Muddle, casting L.4 Flare, and casting L.5 Doom. They are bitches if you let them be. The spells will do what you would have kind of guessed they did: L.3 Muddle confuses any character whose level is divisible by 3, L.4 Flare casts a Flare-like attack on every character whose level is divisible by 4, which means pure sonic death at this stage of the game, and L.5 Doom...well, it kills any character whose level is divisible by 5. If you find that all your characters are level 18, you might want to go back and steal some Magicite from the Flan until you've collectively reached 19, and if your level is 15 or (especially) 20 you'll want to do this, as you'll never make it. To take care of Trappers with utmost efficiency, summon Ramuh or cast Bolt 2 if you have it. If you brought Edgar, NoiseBlaster works very well, and like you could expect, Gau's Anguiform-induced Aqua Rake kills them with death. Generals, finally, are mere humans. Their Defense is high but not sky-high, and they're normal and weak to Poison attacks. Unleash the new-found fury of Ifrit and Shiva if you want; they are unassuming compared to the enemies you've found so far. They have restorative powers in an actual spell they learned, Cure 2, but they won't make a lot of use out of it, as they're often being too dead to use it. Gobbler. What a name. I didn't know a gobbler was hunter's slang until Barry Bales, bass player and harmony vocalist for Alison Krauss and Union Station showed his love for the ol' lead-in-the-head of the turkey. So yes, we're dealing with turkeys here. Is it any surprise the Gobbler appears to be so weak, especially next to horned demons from the underworld? They're unassuming opponents you can take down any way you want, but know that when left alone, they start attacking with Shimsham attacks non-stop. It makes for a great MP-refiller for Celes, as it's basically a 20 MP gain every turn the Gobbler takes. The horned demons from the underworld I was talking about are called Rhinox. I hope I didn't get you all worried; stress is bad. And they're not that dangerous once you get to know them. They make silly physical swipes with their claws, and on occasion try to poison you with BaneStrike, but it's not until their solitude arises they start showing their true colors, which are very, very, incompetent. When alone, the Rhinox tries to cast the overly cheap Life 3 spell, the spell that grants an automatic revive of a fallen character right after he dies. Sadly, the spell takes 50 MP, and Rhinox only has 35. So sorry. Their incredible defense, Death protection, and Lightning-absorbing can make them tedious to take down; a combination of Flash and Fire Dance, not mentioning the trusted Aqua Rake, will get the job done. The room you enter after the Stairs of Seeming Infinity contain five vacant tubes; three to the top of the screen, two to the bottom. Hidden to the left of the bottom-left tube is a Break Blade. The Break Blade sadly lacks in special stat bonus properties, but makes up for it with having impressive Battle Power and a rather interesting randomly cast spell in Break, a petrifying move. At this point, if any of your characters stuck with Stray long enough to learn Float, have him or her cast it on the party (this can be done outside of battle), as when you continue, you meet the... yes, what the hell is this guy? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.31.6 The battle with Number 024 ********************************** Number 024 Level: 24, HP: 4777, MP: 777 Steal: Drainer (rare), Rune Edge (common); Win: Flame Sabre (rare), Blizzard (common) Special: !Overflow: sets Muddled Vulnerable to: Imp, Sleep Attacks: Battle, !Overflow, Fire, Fire 2, Ice, Ice 2, Bolt, Bolt 2, Scan, Cure, Cure 2, Aqua Rake, Sun Bath, Cave In, Ice Rabbit, Acid Rain, Fire Ball, Magnitude8, WallChange, R. Polarity, Gale Cut On one hand, machines tend to have that crippling weakness to Lightning, or at the very least a Program ## move somewhere to dish out. This guy has neither. He uses spells and wields swords, so you'd almost assume he was a human if it hadn't been for a 'System error!' message he is able to produce in the middle of battle. A cyborg, then, like the Commando? We can only guess. Fact remains Number 024 is a darned interesting opponent that is no real challenge even if you forget about his status ailment weaknesses, but is so darn versatile we still love him anyway. The guy's main move is Wallchange. Wallchange shuffles all the elemental properties of the caster and picks one element to set as its weakness. Then, it sets one element as the element it absorbs. First effects: you'll never know what exactly your elemental attacks will do; 75 % chance they'll do nothing, 12.5 % chance they'll heal him, 12.5 % chance they'll do double damage. Conclusion: waste of time, think of alternative means of violence. But # 024 adapts his fighting style according to his weakness. Here are his moves: Weakness Fire = Ice, Ice 2 Weakness Ice = Fire, Fire 2, Fire Ball Weakness Lightning = Aqua Rake, Acid Rain Weakness Poison = Cure, Cure 2 Weakness Wind = Magnitude8, Cave In (Here's where Float comes in handy) Weakness Pearl = Battle, R. Polarity Weakness Earth = Sonic Boom, Gale Cut Weakness Water = Bolt, Bolt 2 Here's what he'll do. He'll simply strike you physically for 30 seconds. Then, he'll do his first Wallchange. If you manage to strike his weakness then (discover it with a Scan spell), he'll perform it again. Even if you just let him perform another 30 seconds of action, he'll perform another WallChange. After he has performed a Wallchange for three times, he'll go haywire, even though you haven't destroyed him, reading 'System error', calling up Ice Rabbits (the more successful branch of the Lagomorph family), enjoying Sun Baths, and finding his true self with the Scan spell. After 30 seconds of this, he'll snap out of it again, starting over as if he had cast his first Wallchange of the battle. But you won't have to see all this madness. The Sleep spell, taught to you by Siren, works on the fiend, as does Stray's Imp spell. Alone, they severely cripple him; together, they are an unstoppable force. Keep him 'Psyched' AKA sleeping and make sure you only cast Magic. If that blasted neutral Tapir shows up and awakens him, cast Sleep again as soon as possible. If Gau is among your forces, just have him relax. Try to steal with Locke; Rune Edge or Drainer, both are nice additions if nothing else. I'd especially go for the Drainer if you have any choice in the matter, as it's quite unique. In the end, # 024's Hit Points will run out, and he will die. Victory dance, coffee et thou. Note: If you want to go for a perfect game, it's nice if you fight one more battle before entering the next room WITH CELES AS YOUR LEADER. This is important. It seems this Number 024 was guarding the room where the remaining Espers are being subdued in their test tubes. We know that Ramuh, Kirin, Siren, and Stray escaped, which might explain the empty test tubes we saw earlier. In this room, six Espers fuel the Empire's power. Meet Bismark and Maduin, Unicorn and Shoat, and Phantom and Carbunkl. There's a lever over there. It's a fictional universe; I'll be damned if the most prominent button or lever in the room isn't at least slightly self-destructive. Use it. Watch the scene now. That moment was...disturbing in quite a few ways. First, before the eyes of Cid himself, we revealed the secret of Magicite, one that he apparently did not know yet. The Magicite handed itself to you, safe for the moment from the Empire, but only as long as you manage to stay out of their hands. And you're still in the heart of Vector. Then, Celes' true loyalty is questioned. We can assume she has sworn an oath or two, oaths not cheaply dismissed. Cyan, who has waged war with the Empire already and has shown more knowledge about Celes than anyone else, has never trusted her and almost carelessly dismisses the scene as an inevitable one: "CYAN: See! I knew she couldn't be trusted!" Locke, whose bond with Celes has been the strongest so far, is not happy with the situation. Amidst it all, Kefka has made another appearance and shows the upper hand until Celes warps her, Kefka, and the Armored soldiers out of the room. This still proves nothing on the subject of her allegiance, by the way; it's reasonable to assume she just couldn't bear being the witness of their direct death. The Espers have ruptured their tubes, something they apparently could only do as Magicite, and spilled dangerous fluids. The IMRF shakes on its foundations. Time to save your own lives first and ponder important questions later. Join Cid on the elevator, and abandon the place. Note: In the Japanese game, Cid casually states that there are hundreds of Espers rather than the 26 you eventually obtain. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.31.7 Imperial MagiTek Research Facility; Mine Cart Ride ********************************** Opponents: Mag Roader (purple), Mag Roader (red), Number 128, RightBlade, Left Blade Miscellaneous items: Tempest (rare Number 128 steal) CID: Kefka has used me...used the Empire. What have I done...? CID: The life-energy of those Espers... CID: You've helped me come to a decision. I'm going to talk to the Emperor and have this stupid war stopped! I've always thought that Cid comes off very clean very quick in this game. Cid del Norte Marquez is a ruthless scientist who experimented on scientist beings in an attempt to remove their very life energy to the benefit of the Empire. Just because as a scientist he feels the war should be stopped doesn't he mean he feels even the slightest remorse at his actions per se; he regrets them being used for military purposes, apparently, but shows no regret on his glorious victories in the field of science. Preparation: Celes, the poor lass, was de-equipped upon her exit from your party. You'll want to keep everybody in the Back Row here and equip everyone to their best possible ability, as the next opponents will not have as much Defense as those you've seen just now. You've obtained six new Espers, and you can check them out if you want. There's NO WAY you'll learn new spells before the next boss, but their effects can be nice. I really, really suggest equipping Phantom, as his Fader attack can turn the entire party invisible, which is a good thing against both the monsters and the boss you're about to face. When you arrive, you're bound to notice the Save Point waiting for you there. Cid plays another emo-card by declaring himself as the almost-daddy of Celes, and how sorry he feels her life was dedicated to warfare. Before he can go on, though, Kefka is heard close by, and Cid pushes you into a mine cart. Now, a warning about the upcoming scene: if you're on acid, don't do it. Mindfuck. I guarantee it. I'm not sure what the graphic designers were thinking here, but it can only be interpreted as one of those paintings of which close inspection only reveals rubbish, while standing away a long distance you'll suddenly notice it's a fish! Or a tree! Or even Jesus! At any rate, abstract gaming is not pleasant. I think it's supposed to be some kind of underground railroad from the perspective of a viewer in a speeding mine cart, but I'm not sure. Right now, you'll face five monster formations before the eventual boss, without time to heal or change equipment in between. These monster formations can either be: One purple Mag Roader, one red Mag Roader One purple Mag Roader Two purple Mag Roaders. Four red Mag Roaders. Novalia Spirit has, during the writing of this guide, found out what influences the appearance of the critters. I'll be explaining what you'll want to do in certain situation for several reasons: a) It's important knowledge to Low Level Gamers, who obviously want as little forced Exp. points down their throat as possible. b) It's important knowledge to perfectionists, as it *is* possible to completely miss out on the red Mag Roaders, locking their Rage away from you forever, useless as it may be. c) Because I want to, dammit. If you don't Save your game and reset: - If you followed my advice and fought a battle earlier with Celes as the leader and then entered the Magicite room, you can just talk to Cid here and the first opponents you'll meet are one purple Mag Roader and one red Mag Roader. - If you didn't and your last battle didn't feature Sabin or Cyan as leader, put Sabin or Cyan as your leader now for red Mag Roaders. - If your last battle before the Mine cart ride featured Edgar, Gau, Sabin, Cyan or Celes as leader, you can free your first character slot and you'll meet Red Mag Roaders. - If none of the above can be applied to you (you brought Locke, Edgar, Gau and kept Locke as team leader the entire time), you can Save your game and reset and free your first characters lot. - An alternate method lies in casting Imp on your leader during the Mine Cart ride. If the name has you confused, 'Mag Roaders' is short for 'Magnum Roaders'. If your Latin is slightly rusty, that's basically saying 'Great Roaders'. What we have here is the monsterized version of Hell's Angels. Purple Mag Roaders are big and weak. Red Mag Roaders are small and weaker. Purple Mag Roaders wield Fire and Fire 2 spells, both horribly weak. Red Mag Roaders attack with Ice and Ice 2 spells. Both monsters are cannon fodder with especially low amounts of Defense. Their spells are more annoying than dangerous (as they prevent you from summoning Phantom at the start of the five monster formations and gain invulnerability for the time being). Make sure you're fully prepared - or AS fully prepared as possible - when you leave the fifth monster formation behind you. The next battle will be unpleasantly like being difficult. Here's how to pull that off nice and professional-like. Step one: Mute the remaining opponent(s). Step two: summon Phantom. Heal up with Potions and Tonics until you're at full health. Smack the last Roader down. You're good to go. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.31.8 The battle with Number 128 ********************************** Number 128 Level: 23, HP: 3276, MP: 810 Steal: Tempest (rare); Win: Tent (always) Absorbs: Ice Special: !Red Feast: Drains HP, attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Berserk, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Red Feast, Ice, Haste, Net, Blaster, Atomic Ray, Shock Wave, Gale Cut Left Blade Level: 22, HP: 700, MP: 470 Steal: Tincture (rare); Win: Fenix Down (common) Absorbs: Ice Special: !Slash: attack x 2 Vulnerable to: Petrify, Death, Condemned, Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, !Slash, Shimsham RightBlade Level: 21, HP: 400, MP: 150 Steal: Tincture (rare); Win: Fenix Down (common) Absorbs: Ice Special: !Rapier: attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Petrify, Death, Condemned, Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, !Rapier Number 128 is not so much a human with the cybernetic parts in him but a robot with flesh on it. I've only ever seen one thing that vaguely reminded me of it, and that was during a Hellraiser movie. You know, horror. To top it, he's stronger than anything you've ever encountered so far. There are three attacking parts here, and only three party members. The absolute worst part is the fact he carries a very rare sword on him, a sword that will remain useful throughout the entire game, of which only two exist; one in a chest you'll find two dungeons from now, one as a rare steal on this very opponent. It's by no means horrible if you don't obtain it, but it's really nice if you do. There are two blades. Left Blade and RightBlade. They're to the left and right of Number 128. Hence their name. They attack physically every round, and throw in a mean Special if you're in bad luck. If you kill them, they'll be back within 15 seconds. Left Blade knows Shimsham, which is especially dangerous as it reveals invisible characters. The main body is the worst, as you could imagine. Physical strikes more powerful than those of the blades, a Special that drains HP, the ability to cast the Ice spell, and cast a Net over a character. The latter two reveal invisible characters. But when both blades are killed, he gets really mean. He will cast Haste on himself to increase his amount of turns and starts using almost exclusively magical attacks. Gale Cut and Atomic Ray are both MT attacks, and Atomic Ray hurts quite a bundle. Shock Wave is an attack you saw earlier on Dadaluma, and Blaster is its most dangerous move; while inaccurate, it will simply kill any character it does hit. If you are under the influence of Clear, you get a Game Over. So here's the strategy if have Phantom at your disposal and/or have summoned him earlier: ignore the blades and try to focus on the main body. Locke should use Potions or Fenix Downs when necessary, and spend all other turns trying to get that Tempest Knife. He's a good character to cast Slow spells if he can use them; focus them on the blades to slow them down. Edgar is reliable and powerful with Drill or Chainsaw, but his brother not so much. If Sabin doesn't know the Bolt 2 spell, I suggest Fire Dance. Eventually it will take out the blades, but Phantom gave us a head start at the very least, and you can always summon him again if you entered the battle under Clear. With Cyan, it's the same, only with Dispatch rather than AuraBolt. If you obtain the Tempest for him, equip it and simply Fight the body. Gau can Rage Anguiform to be sure to hit the body every Aqua Rake, or Rage Aspik if you're feeling lucky. Giga Volt is stronger, yet not always MT. A few tips remaining: - If (most of) your party is revealed and you can still summon Phantom, do so. Invisibility is definitely a positive status as long as you can keep at least one blade around at all times. - Counter his Haste spell with a Slow spell from your side when possible. - If you find yourself in the rare position of having Shoat equipped but not Phantom, summon the piglet Esper right away. There's a rather large chance he'll take out both blades in one go. Number 128 is one of the most dangerous opponents of the game given its relative setting, and if your luck is just really, really bad it's possible to die even if you're a rather experienced player, especially if you're trying to get that Tempest. A note about the common Fenix Downs you get from the blades; you'll only get them if you kill the main body TOGETHER with (one of) the blades. So, if you kill the main body and the blades have HP, they'll die but drop nothing; if the blades are dead and you kill the main body, you get nothing. Think Whelk. Focusing on getting those two Fenix Downs is folly, though. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.32.1 Escaping Vector ********************************** Opponents: Pipsqueak, Chaser, Commando, Crane, Crane Miscellaneous items: Debilitator (rare right Crane steal) Well, officially, the mission was a success. You penetrated the Imperial MagiTek Research Facility. You didn't so much rescue the eight Espers you managed to find, but took their Magicite remains as per their request. Nobody on your side died. Cid is just a scientist, but his promise to try to persuade the Emperor is a glimmer of hope. Yet, the loss of Celes weighs heavily, and you're not out of Vector yet. Monster formations: Chaser, Trapper, Trapper, Trapper (5/16) Commando, Commando, Commando, Commando (5/16) Chaser, Pipsqueak, Pipsqueak, Pipsqueak (5/16) Pipsqueak, Pipsqueak, Pipsqueak, Pipsqueak (1/16) Preparation: Equip the Tempest on Cyan if you haven't already. You can once again go for a simply what's-best set-up, as neither impossibly high Defense nor insane flurries of physical attacks are present now. Summoning Bismark will be very useful in the next boss battle (don't worry; it'll take a while before there's another boss fight after it), so you might want to equip it. The Flame Sabre and ThunderBlade should not stay equipped (go with Blizzard instead), and any Fire Knuckle should be swapped with a Poison Claw. Your infiltration didn't go unnoticed, and you have Imperial forces chasing you down. The aptly named Chaser robot is one of them. Chaser robots rain death from above, so it's your task to, you know, kinda geyser death from below. Even from below, I think it's more of a raining motion, but I couldn't think of anything that rains upside-down. Unless you're in Australia. Heh. Back to Chaser robots. They're the last of Cid's protective metal golems you'll meet. Chaser robots can shoot Tek Lasers and weaken opponents by use of Dischord (which halves their level, as I explained with Telstar, the palette swap). It can also attack with a Plasma attack, which is actually very powerful. Plasma is ST, luckily, so if one of your characters dies you can simply revive him. If you encounter them alone, their death will cause three Trappers to appear (unless you kill him with Gau's Rhodox Snare), and if you meet him with three Pipsqueaks already present, take him out first, as he will just continue to call more if you take them all down. Now that you have access to both Vanish, the spell that can make any target invisible at your command and Doom, the instant-death attack, through respectively Phantom and Shoat, it's time to tell you a little about the horror, the absolute horror that is commonly known as Vanish/Doom, but has many incarnations. It's kinda lengthy, but definitely worth reading, so here you go: [VANISHDOOM-LINK] Save at the Save Point if you want to. You can stroll into the MagiTek Factory again here, but one of the pipes collapsed, so you can't go very far. The fact that even this part is shaking hints at the fact the entire building is going down; this was more than you could've hoped for. Simply run down the rails and you'll meet up with Setzer. The Empire was becoming paranoid, and the hustle and bustle in Vector alarmed him. He notices the lack of Celes, but understands the need to escape. The four of you rush out of Vector, freedom nigh. Not nigh enough. Kefka plays a last card in a final attempt to stop you from escaping. CYAN: Whoa! What IS that?! EDGAR: Something horrible's coming!! SABIN: Uwaaoo! What in the...? GAU: Gau! GAU go!! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.32.2 The battle with the Cranes ********************************** Cranes. I don't know about the 'countries' you guys live in, but here in the Netherlands, cranes are not an uncommon sight if there's building going on. They tend not to attack us, though. These two attack in pairs, can use Magic, and can significantly screw you up if you're not careful. You have one character you couldn't equip beforehand: Setzer. I'll talk a bit about the Cranes. Setzer comes with the following equipment: Cards Mithril Shld Bandana Mithril Vest That's pretty shitty. Fun fact: Setzer can't equip the Bandana, so as soon as you take it off of him, you'll never get it back on. I hears once that this was some inside joke for the developers to indicate that Setzer wouldn't be found dead wearing the same thing as Locke, but who knows how true that is. There are two Cranes, and they're not completely the same. Crane (right one) Level: 24, HP: 2300, MP: 447 Steal: Debilitator (rare), Potion (common) Absorbs: Fire, Weakness: Lightning, Water Special: !Iron Ball: Battle x 2 Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Battle, !Iron Ball, Fire, Fire 2, Fire 3, Bolt 2, Magnitude8, TekBarrier Crane (left one) Level: 23, HP: 1800, MP: 447 Steal: NoiseBlaster (rare) Absorbs: Lightning, Weakness: Water Special: !Iron Ball: Battle x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Battle, !Iron Ball, Bolt, Bolt 2, Fire 2, Giga Volt, Magnitude8, TekBarrier Vanish/Doom: No Immunity to Clear status. Joker Doom: Yes TekBarrier screws with the RNG, but you shouldn't see it if you're going for Echo Screen/Joker Doom anyway. (I'll explain all this in a bit, or if you want to know right now, you can go to [SLOT-LINK2]) The right one is fire-based. It will attack physically and use the Fire and Fire 2 spell. When hit by a Fire-elemental attack of any kind, it will charge, going through "Heat source LV 1," to "Heat source LV 2," and finally to "Heat source LV 3 - Unleashed thermal energy!" at which point it will target the entire party with a Fire 3 spell. When alone, it will boost its defenses with TekBarrier, which as you know, grants both Safe and Reflect, protecting it from Magic spells. After one minute of fighting, the message "The crane shook the deck!" will appear and the Crane will perform a Magnitude8 attack. Finally, every third time it has been damaged, it will perform a Bolt 2 spell on the other Crane, charging it. It has a rare Debilitator steal that you might want; it's another Tool for Edgar. The left one is pretty much the same, only lightning-based. From "Electrified LV 1" it will pass through "Electrified LV 2" and "Electrified LV 3 - Unleashed electric energy!" performing an MT Giga Volt attack. All other features are the same, only it will cast a Fire 2 spell on the other crane every third time it has been damaged. If you brought Gau and he knows how to perform the Anguiform Rage, you're in luck, as the Aqua Rake attack is incredibly powerful in this battle, up to the point where an Earrings-boosted Aqua Rake will probably kill one Crane in one hit. Do NOT let him enter a Rage that performs either Fire or Lightning based attacks, and don't let him enter a Rage with a special attack that is Reflectable. Locke can do little here but try to Steal the Debilitator from the right Crane. Focus on one Crane at the time where possible. Drill/Chainsaw and AuraBolt are songs often sung right now, and Cyan can enjoy his Tempest Knife. Setzer is easily the weakest link at this point, lacking in proper equipment. Just try to nail a diamond or Chocobo on your first spin; that will make for the most consistent damage output. The Cranes are not as hard as Number 128 was, and you're bound to gain the upper hand if you don't make any mistakes. Now, it's time to fly to Zozo. Let's see what Terra has been doing in the meantime; with Celes gone, we need Terra to fill the role of ex-Imperial magic woman. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.33.1 Zozo; Terra's flashback ********************************** When you arrive in the sanctuary Ramuh prepared for Terra, one of the pieces of Magicite you took from the Imperial Factory starts to glow, much like Tritoch did when it and Terra crossed paths. It's Maduin, and he inspires a memory in Terra... As Maduin, you relive the history of Terra's birth. Maduin is the Gate Keeper of the Esper world, whose job is to make sure whatever needs to stay out stays out. A youthful Esper, alarms you there's something going on (the alpha version of this document stated this was Yura. While I still believe this is accurate, it's never stated so I won't do so here). The gate is near Maduin's cave, to the north. The strong winds of the day have already alarmed the Elder of the Esper World, who has explained them as an ill omen. Walking around the Esper World gives you the following responses from the ancient Espers: You okay, Maduin? You're the Gate Keeper, Maduin? Strong winds... Be careful, Maduin. This evening is an ill omen... (the Elder) When you reach the gate, you see a collapsed girl - a human girl. Choosing to let her lay there simply won't continue the plot, so take her with you. After she has been installed in her bed to rest, the Elder has come to see her. The Espers are not happy about her arrival; humans and Espers don't mix. While the day has cleared, the moods of the Espers have not. Walking around the Esper World gives you the following responses from the ancient Espers: Everyone here's feeling uneasy. The link between worlds has surely weakened over the past 1000 years. They say a human girl's here... Do you even know what you've done? Why has this happened now after all these years? (The Youth, standing guard near the gate) Elder's orders...no one passes through the gate. Talking to the girl will wake her up. Her name is Madonna. Maduin gives her a pendant for no apparent reason, perhaps as a gift of good will. Maduin says it somehow helps protect the Esper World, but that's a bit of info that Ted Woolsey put there for us and was never featured in the original game. Terra carried a Pendant when she invaded Narshe, and kept it with her ever since... When Maduin wakes up, he quickly notices Madonna is gone. The Elder is waiting outside, concerned about the situation, and while outside one Esper laments on the worst possible scenario ("If this generation of humans knew about our abilities... And decided they wanted to utilize our powers... It would be a total disaster!"), another one saw Madonna go to the gate. Try to catch up with her. Apparently, she slipped by the guard, as he has no idea what's going on. In a declaration of love that is more sudden than the infamous Neo/Trinity thing from the Matrix, Madonna decides to stay behind with Maduin. They have a baby, and it is Terra. Two years later, the same winds of ill fate howl through the Esper World, and the Empire marches in. They beat up and take several Espers. Amidst the chaos, Madonna takes her chance and tries to escape with Terra. It seems she could not live in the Esper World as much as she wanted. When Maduin tries to catch up with her, tragedy ensues...Terra is taken by the Empire, Madonna is killed by the Emperor, and Maduin's fate is sealed to suffer in the heart of the Empire at the hands of Cid. When Terra wakes up, it's time to go. Regrouping is done. Time for action. From this point on, Terra finally gains access to a second skill: Morph. Learn all about it here: [MORPH-LINK] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.34.1 Airship Exploitation: Sraphim ********************************** Magicite: Sraphim We're free to do what we want now. This is the glorious moment I cherish in all the Final Fantasy games I've ever played; first time on the airship. The Blackjack is waiting for your instructions. Nothing is off-limits. Well, except for Vector. Guardian is waiting for your arrival, and there's no way to gain entry to Vector now. Joker Doom cannot be produced against Guardian, if you were wondering. But there are plenty of things to be done before actually going to Narshe. In Tzen, a crook is hiding in the trees next to the Relic shop. During your mission in the Imperial MagiTek Research Facility, this guy managed to sneak out a piece of Magicite, and he's offering to sell it to you now. 3000 GP is not a lot of money, and even though the Esper Sraphim doesn't teach you any spells you couldn't have obtained from other Espers, her learning rates are much more user-friendly. Sraphim is far and above the best White Magic Esper you'll get for quite a while. You can wait until after a certain point of the story at which point he'll offer you the 'stone' for only 10 GP (The world's going to heck in a hand basket...just look at this weird stone!). I advise just buying it right now. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.34.2 Airship Exploitation: Auction House: Golem and ZoneSeek ********************************** Magicite: Golem, ZoneSeek In Jidoor, the Auction House is finally open. It's not so much the bidding here that's annoying. You'll be asked two times if you want to over the current prize; if you say no, you don't get the item, if you say yes two times, you get the item. It's just that there are two items right now you want: two pieces of Magicite. Golem and ZoneSeek are waiting for your capable hands. Here's how the Auction House works. There's a 50 % chance the item up for bidding is a Cherub Down, a Relic that gives you the automatic ability to Float. If it's not, we continue. Then, there's a 50 % chance it's a walking, talking Chocobo. You can never buy this 'item' no matter how much you pay, as the father will always buy it. But if this item isn't the Chocobo, we continue. Then, there's a 50 % chance it's the Golem Magicite! Nice. Try to buy it. If you already bought it earlier, or the item isn't Golem, we continue. Then, there's a 50 % chance it's the ZoneSeek Magicite. Good. If you already bought this item, or if it still isn't this item, we continue. If it's none of the above, it's a Cure Ring. Period. So in the end, if you haven't bought any of the pieces of Magicite yet, the odds will be as following: Cherub Down 50 % Chocobo 25 % The Magicite Golem 12.5 % The Magicite ZoneSeek 6.25 % Cure Ring 6.25 % If you bought Golem: Cherub Down 50 % Chocobo 25 % The Magicite ZoneSeek 12.5 % Cure Ring 12.5 % If you bought ZoneSeek: Cherub Down 50 % Chocobo 25 % The Magicite Golem 12.5 % Cure Ring 12.5 % If you bought both: Cherub Down 50 % Chocobo 25 % Cure Ring 25 % Don't worry; if another person buys a piece of Magicite, it will have a chance of appearing next time you pay the Auction House a visit. Prices are as follows: Cherub Down 10000 GP The Magicite Golem 20000 GP The Magicite ZoneSeek 10000 GP Cure Ring 20000 GP If you don't have enough money, fly the Blackjack to an area where FossilFang monsters appear; they give great amounts of money and you should be able to handle them pretty easily by now. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.34.3 Airship Exploitation: Locating Grenade ********************************** Opponents: Bomb, Grenade Monster formations: Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb (10/16) Bomb (5/16) Grenade (1/16) In the large forest west of the Veldt, only Bombs seem to appear. There is a rare chance you'll encounter a Grenade, though. Fighting one gets you nothing, but if you want a complete Rage list, you'd better have met one, as you will never come across one by following the story only. I suggest you bring Edgar, as he has brilliant means of taking them all out in one shot, and at least one character with Cure and/or Cure 2, as no matter how repetitive Blaze will seem in a while, it still hurts. Grenade enemies have 3000 HP, but very poor Defense and Magic Defense. Target them with Ice-elemental attacks and just whatever you have. Instant-Death attacks work well, though he is immune to Petrify. If you use Fight on him, he can use Exploder on you, which is likely to kill the initial attacker, so try to avoid it. If he uses !Mesmerize, you have little choice in the matter unless you manage to use Dispel before the situation gets too serious. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.34.4 Airship Exploitation: Obtaining Gaia Gear ********************************** Opponents: Baskervor, Chimera, Cephaler Miscellaneous items: Gaia Gear (rare Baskervor steal), Gold Armor (rare Chimera drop) Monster formations: (grasslands) Cephaler, Baserkvor (6/16) Baskervor (5/16) Baskervor, Baskervor (5/16) (forest) Cephaler, Cephaler, Cephaler (6/16) Chimera (5/16) Chimera, Cephaler, Cephaler (5/16) On the continent to the east of the Veldt, there are three new monsters: Baskervor and Cephaler on the grasslands and Cephaler and Chimera in the forest. I'll tell you how to deal with them when you actually need to go there. Ctrl + F their name if you're feeling uneasy. The Baskervor have a rare Gaia Gear you can steal from them, and there's nothing in the Common slot, so you can just keep trying. Chimera drop the alternate nice armor, the Gold Armor, for your Edgars and Cyans. Gaia Gear especially will be VERY nice to have at the next dungeon, and this is the only way of obtaining it. To the north of this continent is the town of Thamasa. The Inn charges outrageous fees, the Weapon and Armor Shop will refuse to help you (we reserve the right to deny service blah blah), and you aren't getting anything out of anybody; info, items, nothing. We'll come back here someday. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.34.5 Airship Exploitation: Intangir ********************************** Opponents: Leafer, Dark Wind, Intangir Miscellaneous items: Magicite (rare Intangir steal) Monster formations: (grasslands) Leafer, Leafer, Dark Wind (6/16) Leafer (5/16) Intangir (5/16) (forest) Intangir (6/16) Leafer, Leafer, Dark Wind, Dark Wind (5/16) Leafer, Leafer, Dark Wind (5/16) On the small triangle-shaped island to the northeast of the World Map, you'll find lots of Leafers and Dark Wind enemies. However, you'll also find Intangir monsters. Intangir are massively powerful, absorb all elements, and are invisible. They confuse a lot of first-time players. When you damage them, they retaliate with a Meteo attack, which is likely to actually kill anybody it hits, as it will damage for over 900 HP. Due to the questionable existence of that shadiest tactic of all, Vanish/Doom, you can kill him without having to run away by casting Doom (which will send Meteo after the killer), or having Gau Rage Rhodox for Snare, which does the trick cleanly. If you want to defeat Intangir without succumbing to the Dark Side, here's another strategy. Intangir is vulnerable to the Stop ailment. Cast Stop and wail on him for half a minute. Since his Defences are very good and he absorbs all elements, good choices against Intangir are Edgar (Drill), Sabin (Suplex) and Cyan (Dispatch). Relm's Sketch results into a 75 % shot at Step Mine, which is also a powerful attack to use against Intangir, but keep in mind that Sketch always misses monsters under the effects of Clear. Strago can just use it from the Lore menu, obviously. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.34.6 Airship Exploitation: Veldt hunting ********************************** It's a great time for the hunting down of some new Rages. You have a whole set of new spells to learn, Espers to use, monsters to see...have fun. Great new Rages include Anguiform, Aspik, Mind Candy, SlamDancer, Gabbldegak, and HadesGigas, all that you could've obtained earlier, and Cephaler, ChickenLip, Chimera, General, Intangir, Mag Roader (purple), Rhinox, and Baskervor. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.34.7 Intermezzo; Espers 101 ********************************** This is, by the way, a perfect time to learn about two of the most obscure tricks in the game: The WoB Ragnarok trick and Echo Screen/Joker Doom. Learn all about it here: [SLOT-LINK2] Finally, now that you have all the Espers you'll have for quite some time, I'll give some pointers on how to wisely handle Espers: At first, it's important to note that there are basically two kinds of people when it comes to Magicite. There are the characters that need Espers to teach them the valuable spells to damage opponents with, and the characters that can damage just fine on their own and would rather benefit from supportive spells. Terra, Locke, Celes, and Relm are all characters that, in the World of Balance, will have a hard time comparing themselves to the other characters in terms of damage as long as you haven't made sure that they know a level 2 spell or Bio. They need it to survive. For this purpose, it's useful to teach them at least one level 2 spell as soon as possible (Ifrit and Shiva excel at this), and then bring in a supportive Esper for this newly found magic nature (ZoneSeek or Shiva, both teach the Osmose spell, while Rasp too is nice to have on them). You can expand the pool of options to another level 2 spell or perhaps even more of them, but as soon as you have two, it would be wise to start thinking of tacking on Sraphim, Golem, or Unicorn, as Cure 2 is a nice asset to any character, and these characters are definitely making use of Earrings anyway (unless you have made gross errors). The characters who don't depend on damage from the spells can, if they want to, take one or more level 2 spells from Espers, but will generally find that their special skill surpasses the Magic spell in almost every way (no MP cost, stronger, that kind of thing). The major exceptions to this rule are Gau, Mog, and Setzer, who could use at least one strong magical attack that always hits and isn't bothered by a factor of randomness. So, these guys will want to focus on supportive Espers. Siren teaches three spells that are all very useful to have around at all times, as does Phantom (granted, Demi sucks, but both Vanish and Bserk can be tactically brilliant...especially when combined). At some points in the game, the possession of Break and/or Doom spells can really save you a lot of trouble, so Shoat is definitely a consideration if you're done with Siren and Phantom. Golem is good on everybody as Cure 2, like I said, is always an asset, while Stop especially can be a great spell for everybody. Stray is not as good as its fellow starters, but while Imp and especially Float can take a while to learn and the very nature of Muddle makes you want to ridicule it, Float can be damned handy to have around as preparation for a dungeon with Earth-elemental creatures, and Imp can disable quite a few dangerous enemies. All other Espers - Bismark, Kirin, Carbunkl - their summons can be useful in some situations, but their spells don't specifically merit any interest, so I'd say you should mainly use them if you have a character who's already filled with good spells and you are in need of a rogue Float caster. I've yet to find a specific use for the Rflect spell as long as Carbunkl's MT Ruby Power and Wall Rings exist, Bismark teaches subpar spells at insane learning rates, and Kirin just kinda fails at anything other than being summoned. One last piece of advice: a lot of people are looking to learn Magic without gaining levels. The two best places to gain Magic Points without Experience are the Veldt and Triangle Island, where the Intangir roam. Triangle Island is more efficient, but if you're using Gau there's a large advantage involved when walking on the Veldt. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.35.1 Narshe ********************************** Miscellaneous items: Gold Hairpin (Lone Wolf) Well, it's Narshe again. The first time Terra came here, she was violently pulled out of the clutches of the Empire. The second time, she was again touched by Tritoch and lost control of her self. Narshe has not been a good city to Terra at all; let's hope it has some good news this time. And so it appears! Narshe, ever-doubting about their role in the war, has finally decided to stand with the Returners against the Empire. A plan is revealed wherein Narshe and Figaro team up to make for war. But the Empire, even without the ever-increasing number of MagiTek Armors, is a force far greater then Narshe and Figaro combined. The gate needs to be opened; the Espers need to be contacted. Surely, they would be willing to aid against those who have wronged their species so much. Terra is the necessary link; a new mission is given. Narshe is once again bustling with activity! New weapons and equipment are being sold in the stores for the upcoming war. Weapon Shop: Poison Rod 1500 Trident 1700 Boomerang 4500 Morning Star 5000 Hawk Eye 6000 Blossom 3200 In the Weapon Shop, there's a new kind of Rod: the Poison Rod. You can let it rest for now. The Morning Star is a Back Row weapon for Celes and Terra, simply an upgraded version of the Flail. Make sure to get one. The most interesting sell here is the Hawk Eye for Locke. The Hawk Eye has a 50 % chance of doing 1.5 damage (no visual effect) to non-Floating enemies and 3 times as much damage against Floating enemies (it will appear to be thrown). Very nice. Buy one, or two if you feel you want to use Locke and the Genji Glove together. Armor Shop: Gold Shld 2500 Bard's Hat 3000 Green Beret 3000 Mithril Helm 2000 Tiara 3000 Gold Helmet 4000 Mithril Mail 3500 Power Sash 5000 The Armor Shop sells new equipment as well. Gold Shlds and Gold Helmets for the heavy-equippers (you still have to get Gold Armors from the Chimera if you want them), a Tiara for Terra (the first actual helmet I'll simply recommend over the Green Beret), and Power Sash for those guys whose name isn't Edgar or Setzer. Relic Shop: Earrings 5000 Sniper Sight 3000 RunningShoes 7000 Wall Ring 6000 Black Belt 5000 Nothing new here, but if you feel like you could use some of the above, don't hesitate. Item Shop: Potion 300 Tincture 1500 Fenix Down 500 Green Cherry 150 Tent 1200 Fire Skean 500 Water Edge 500 Bolt Edge 500 There's nothing remarkable here other than the fact this is the first town that sells Shadow's scrolls when he isn't a possible party member. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.35.2 Lone Wolf persecution and recruiting Mog ********************************** But this isn't all. One odd character has chosen to take advantage of the situation of Narshe: Lone Wolf, the infamous thief, has paid a visit. Lone Wolf is a character from FF V, and if not, at least so similar to him there's bound to be a conscious running theme here. FF V's Lone Wolf was a thief locked up in a dungeon in some castle. He looked like a humanoid wolf. A werewolf, as they appeared more in the game, though Lone Wolf has no obvious connection to them and it's even possible it's just a guy with a mask. You had the option of releasing him, but he would just take three treasures you would then be unable to obtain later in the game. The old man who gave you his treasures earlier (remember, the house with the Thiefknife and Sneak Ring in it?) worries about the treasure he didn't give you; the locked chest. If you are kind enough to take a look for him, you'll just see Lone Wolf running off with its contents. Follow Lone Wolf to retrieve the treasure! He escapes to the mines. The path is straightforward. On occasion, you'll see Lone Wolf running from you. And eventually, you'll have him cornered, but the situation is looking grim, as Lone Wolf has taken a Moogle hostage. If you try to approach, Lone Wolf will threaten to kill the Moogle. Sweaty mongoloids whose basic garment consist entirely out of underpants will tell you that you can recruit Mog by trying to walk over to Lone Wolf over and over and over until you loose patience and spam message boards, but this is humbug. The trick here is to simply stand still at the spot you automatically back away to. After a while, the Moogle will be able to free itself, and in the struggle that ensues, both are thrown over a side of the cliff. Will you help the Moogle, or will you try to obtain the treasure you initially came for? The treasure is a Gold Hairpin, a Relic that cuts your MP usage in half. It's a Relic I only find useful when playing a Low Level Game, as you will be able to cast spells you otherwise don't have the MP for. One additional consideration is that when Mog joins now, he will join with 5 levels higher than your party average. This advantage will likely get smoothed over thoughout the game. If you ignore him here and recruit him at a later date, he will have that five- level lead at that later stage. On the other hand, there is one Mog's Dances that can only be acquired when you recruit him now. In a normal game, the better (and morally superior) choice is helping the Moogle. The Moogle is an old acquaintance of yours, the leader of the gang of Moogles who helped Locke save Terra. To top that, he appears to be able to talk, something no other Moogle can do. Apparently was contacted by Ramuh at a time and was told to join your cause. He joins your cause, and runs off to your airship. Mog is the unofficial mascot of this game, and everybody thinks he's bloody adorable. Myself, I just appreciate him as one of the strongest characters the game has to offer. Right now, his main power lies in his special ability, Dance, with which he summons awesome power from the very terrain around him and the animals that live there to put the hurt on your enemies. Let's go collect Dances for him, and on the way, I'll explain how Mog works. [DANCE-LINK] Wasn't that easy? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.35.3 Dance lessons, including Water Rondo ********************************** Go to the Blackjack and change your party so it includes Mog. You'll notice his level is very high - 5 levels higher, in fact. Equip him (you'll see he uses Lances, mostly) and head out to the open sky. - Land in front of Narshe and fight some Leafers on the grasslands to make him learn the Wind Song (casually named Ind Song in the Anthology release; way to go, chumps!). Stride into the forest for the Forest Suite and enter the desert for the Desert Aria. - Now, get back on the Blackjack and fly to South Figaro where you can climb Mt. Koltz. On the slopes, Mog will learn the Earth Blues (possibly the most universally useful Dance). If you didn't pick up the Dusk Requiem while protecting Terra earlier, you can head in one of the caves to learn it. - Fly the Blackjack to Zozo and fight a battle there; the Love Sonata will be Mog's. - The Dance that is the hardest to obtain, and the only actually missable Dance in the game, is the Water Rondo. There are two places where Mog can learn it: on the Lete River and in the Serpent Trench. Both take you along a one-way route to a radically different place. Here's the quickest way: Land in front of Baren Falls, and leap down the raging waters. Don't worry, there won't be any Piranhas to worry about this time. Walk across the Veldt and enter Crescent Moutain. Jump in the Serpent Trench to re-appear in Nikeah. Grab a Chocobo in the local Stable (to the north) and ride the big bird all the way to Baren Falls again. Now, you've gained 6 or 7 out of 8 Dances in very little time; that's a 75 or 87.5% increase right there! That's more than Cyan can say; he probably has gained about one SwdTech since you recruited him, lazy hobo that he is. We've concluded Mog's training. Let's see if we can advance the plot now. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.36.1 Cave to the Sealed Gate ********************************** Opponents: Ing, Apparite, Coelecite, Lich, Zombone, Ninja, Kefka Container contents: Assassin Dagger, Atma Weapon, Tempest, Coin Toss, Elixir, Ether, Genji Glove, Magicite x3, Tent, X-Potion Miscellaneous items: 239 GP (hidden), Amulet (rare Ing steal), Cherub Down (rare Ninja steal), Ninja Star (rare Ninja drop), Inviz Edge (hidden), Remedy (hidden), Water Scroll (hidden) The Empire has abducted several Espers about 20 years ago, and kept an Imperial Base around to guard the Sealed Gate. The Espers sealed it from the inside, so there's no way for the Empire to actually get in. But you have to try for the Returners. So now it's your mission to sneak through this Imperial Base and pass through the cave to reach the Sealed Gate and...Yeah, do what exactly? Terra seems like the most likely way of getting contact. Let's see what we can do when we get there. Preparation: First: Once again, I want to stress how nice it is if you collect four sets of Gaia Gear, which you can rarely Steal from Baskervor on the grassland of the continent East of the Veldt. Thank you for your patience! Now, Relics are important in the first few parts of this dungeon. One of the enemies can cast Fire, Fire 2 and Fire 3 (!) so Wall Rings are very handy, especially since Fire 3 is really powerful and could kill you. Peace Rings/ Ribbons are great to equip against this very same enemy's Muddled-setting Special. You can buy additional Peace Rings and Wall Rings in Albrook if you so desire. Time to choose a new four-headed party out of your eight-headed available party! Mog is the most powerful party member at this point; those five extra levels don't hurt his cause, and his Water Rondo Dance cleans house like nothing before in the next dungeon. El Nino equals death to the most common and most dangerous enemy. A much surer way of making fatal hits is giving DragoonBoots to Mog and equipping a Trident. Sabin is another great choice; go for either a Genji Glove and two Kaiser Claws or an Earrings and AuraBolt spamming. Edgar's Chainsaw with an Atlas Armlet is another great asset to your team. Terra is a mandatory character, so there's little to choose there (although she is very weak at this point). Cyan, Tempest or not, is simply strategically unfit for the next dungeon. Gau is great if he knows Anguiform or Chimera Rages, but not quite as good as the other characters. Setzer's Slot is too unreliable at this moment, and he needs to pull something like H-Bomb or Sun Flare out of his *cough* nose to finish off Ings, so he's a bad choice. Locke, finally, is simply too weak without heavy Relic-boosting. He can, however, steal many Fenix Downs from Zombones, and rare Amulets from Ings. In Terra's case, I'd especially advise you to allow her to have some private moments with Shiva, as that's the fastest route to a powerful spell that isn't Bio or Fire 2 (both are useless in the upcoming dungeon). If you have Gaia Gear, equip it. If you have four sets of it, I suggest you swap Edgar out of the party - he can't equip it - and replace him with Gau (or one of the others; it really doesn't matter that much as long as it isn't Cyan, as he can't equip it either). Monster formations: (First cave) Lich, Lich, Lich (6/16) Apparite, Apparite (5/16) Lich, Apparite, Coelecite (5/16) (Basement 1) Ing, Ing, Ing (6/16) Apparite, Apparite (5/16) Apparite, Apparite, Lich, Lich (5/16) (Basement 2) Coelecite, Coelecite, Coelecite (6/16) Zombone (5/16) Zombone, Ing, Ing (5/16) (Basement 3) Ing, Ing, Ing (6/16) Zombone, Zombone (5/16) Zombone, Ing, Ing (5/16) You need Terra for this mission. As your party leader will point out if you try to enter without her: "The Espers wouldn't give us the time of day without...TERRA..." Terra, in the meantime, isn't a happy camper. She needs some support, as when she enters the Imperial Camp by herself she'll go: "I can do it...But why do I feel so wretched?" and will refuse to continue. First three rooms are partly filled with monsters you won't find in the rest of the dungeon: Apparite, Coelecite, and Lich. Apparites are nasty upgrades of your average Whisper. They absorb Fire- elemental attacks, and have a one-third chance of countering any attack that damages them with Imp Song. Sadly, Siren stands helpless against them, so you'll just have to try to kill them in one hit. AuraBolt, Chainsaw, Ice 2, double Kaiser, all works great. Coelecites are small scorpion-like creatures with no real special power. They can put you to sleep with !HypnoSting, and have a slight chance of countering attacks with a Magnitude8 spell, for which it has insufficient MP. Way to go there, champ. Strong MT attacks are particularly helpful here, like Flash, Chocobop, Magnitude8, Sand Storm, you name it. Liches are the worst, man. They can start the battle with !Mad Touch. Muddled characters are never a good idea; with a little luck you can snap them out of it before bad things happen, but chances always exist you'll have to swallow a Fire Dance or something before you do. To top this madness, they can cast Fire 2 with considerable power and can even cast Fire 3. Their Fire 3 attacks taste like burning. :( You'll want to avoid that. You can't shut them up with Siren or Mute. If you have Edgar, NoiseBlaster can confuse them to buy you enough time to kill them. Charge for Lich immediately. You won't meet a lot of them, so there's no shame in using a Fenix Down or Life spell if you run into one, although an ST Ice 2 spell or something might be more cost-efficient. If your level is really low, make sure you have four Wall Rings, and keep them on your characters at all times. This should prevent Lich's spells from hurting you. Like I said before, Peace Rings and Ribbons protect nicely against !Mad Touch. Every step you take after those three rooms consist out of only two enemies: Zombone and Ing. Zombones are bigger, so you'd assume they're more dangerous. Such folly. Wall Rings are useless once you get into Zombone territory, and status-prevention Relics can be removed as well as Ing's !Glare just sets Dark and Zombone's !Bone attack, while setting the dangerous Zombie status, is so rare and used so late you shouldn't even see it. Zombones just attack physically, unless you wait a really, really long time until they have a slight chance of turning a character into a Zombie with !Bone. Zombones are the only enemies in this blasted cave that don't absorb Fire, so if somebody knows or learns Fire 2 here (Terra learns it naturally at level 22), use it to great effect. Otherwise, you know how to handle monsters now. Gau can flush Zombones nicely with Rhodox' Snare. Locke can steal Fenix Downs from them most of the time. Ings are entirely different. They have a move called Liveshaver, an obscenely strong attack. It's an Earth-elemental attack that functions entirely like Drain; drains HP, can't drain more then the caster is damaged anyway. Since it's such a strong attack at this point, the Ing will most likely drain all their lost HP. If both his lack of HP and the targets possession of it allows it, Liveshaver can do up to 750 damage; unless you are equipped with Gaia Gear, in which case you don't need to worry as you'll absorb the attack and the Ing will damage itself. If you're equipped with Gaia Gear, there's no need to worry about specific tactics as you can just pound away. But without, the highest priority when facing Ing is this: YOU WANT TO TAKE THEM OUT IN ONE SHOT. This way, they have no chance of casting Liveshaver (You cannot Mute the bastards). If you brought Locke with you, definitely try to Steal four Amulets here; they are a common steal, so it requires little work. You can one-hit KO them in a multitude of ways, but you'll have to make an effort to have at least one of the following on the team. Earrings/AuraBolt is a good one, while Genji Glove/Double Kaiser is a nice alternative. Jump/Trident works well on Edgar or Mog, although the latter might enjoy Dancing the Water Rondo better; El Nino not only kills Ing, it sends them flying in the bloody Clouds of Magellan. Aqua Rake, sadly, probably isn't strong enough at this point, even with a Hero Ring or Earrings behind it. If you did bring Gaia Gear for all your boys and girls, Gau can make Baskervor's Cyclonic work to great effect as every opponent is vulnerable to Instant Death attacks. Sure, Wyvern works just as well, but since we got the Gaia Gear from Baskervor enemies in the first place, let this be a tribute. ;) When you arrive at the Imperial Base, there are no soldiers around. That's mighty suspicious, as reasonably argued that can only mean two things: the soldiers are somewhere else, preparing for an attack, or the Empire has decided they will let you go the Sealed Gate, of which can come no good. Still, you press on. Boy, is it HOT in this cave. The Cave to the Sealed Gate is a volcanic area, and the monsters have adapted to it. The first room has a chest already! It contains the Assassin dirk, a brilliant semi-ThiefKnife that randomly kills in one hit. The comparison with the ThiefKnife comes from the fact it's both Locke/Shadow only and gives stat boosts, making it a nice option if you don't plan on using Fight anyway. The Assassin revives the Undead though, all the time, so I wouldn't suggest equipping it here (even if you weren't going to use it, ThiefKnife's special abilities are better). The next room has another chest, this one containing a Tempest blade. If you hadn't stolen one from Number 128, this is the only one you'll find in the game. It has a 50 % chance of nulling the special effects of the physical strike and casting Wind Slash instead. It's pretty much the most interesting weapon Cyan will ever get his hands on, so cherish it (for all the lack of Cyan I tried to talk into you). Next room is a 'puzzle': Every 1.5 second or so, the pathway changes from one state to the other. Explaining how to get across would be folly, as not only would my hints just confuse, it's not that hard. The chest to the right contains an X-Potion, and the chest to the bottom contains the Coin Toss Relic, a Relic that changes Setzer's ability from Slot into GP Rain. A little talk on GP Rain: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.36.2 Coin Toss and Cave to the Sealed Gate continued ********************************** If you think throwing coins is a rather silly way of doing damage, it has been featured in FF V as a grossly overpowered attack and finds its roots in Japanese folklore. The Coin Toss Relic is Heiji's Jitte, you see. Zenigata Heiji was a kind of 'Sherlock Holmes' during the samurai era who stopped/killed his foes by throwing a coin at them. A Jitte is a specialized weapon specifically designed to catch an opponent's blade, used in the day by the law inforcement to disarm criminals. What Heiji's Jitte has to do with Heiji's coin throwing antics remains a mystery. GP Rain, while more consistent, is inferior to Slot, especially when Setzer is equipped with Earrings, as he should be. Imagine the Flash Tool for an indication of the amount of damage to one or two targets, but Coin Toss actually splits the damage between the amount of targets, so the more targets, the weaker it turns out. Besides that, there's no way of boosting it other than level, AND it costs you money every time you use it by a Amount of gold used = Level * 30 ratio. There are times -- in the future -- where it'll be worth it to equip the Relic, but not now. The exit of the room is to the bottom-right of the screen. Here, you come across a choice: right or dead ahead. Going to the right will get you to a chest with an Ether in it. Grab it, hike back, and continue. You'll want to go up the diagonal nature-crafted stairway and you'll reach a bridge with a switch next to it. If you press the switch, the bridge will collapse under you and you'll fall down, but no HP damage will be done, and you 'hear a distant sound'. Going to the left and up will get you to a chest with...a Genji Glove! A very kick-ass Relic indeed. If you have the equipment and the characters, you can add a double Trident Fighter to the party this way, eliminating the Jumping time. Go back and continue this time. You'll see a plateau with two switches, and a bridge with a switch next to it. Go over to the two switches on the plateau. The left switch opens the door to a Save Point and a chest with a Tent in it; the right switch triggers a battle with a Ninja and accomplishes otherwise nothing (you won't ever make this Ninja appear on the Veldt). If you decide to fight the Ninja, make sure you heal yourself, as he's bound to get in at least one Thrown Skean. The best way of dealing with the Ninja is by utilizing Death-based attacks; the Doom spell should do the trick, otherwise the Rhodox Rage or Dusk Requiem will offer a large chance. If you don't want to rely on luck, he's weak to Lightning, so Bolt 2 and Gau's Aspik's Giga Volt work well. He doesn't have that many HP, and when he dies, he will talk about hidden treasures in the 'plaza beneath the grand stairway'. Few people seem to know actually what he's talking about there, but yours truly naturally does so don't worry. The switch on the bridge (doesn't that sound like a Dr. Seuss novel to you?) is mandatory this time, as it will create a large stairway. Egads, a GRAND stairway I might add. Behold, the plaza! This already is the plaza the Ninja risked his life for, littered with treasure. This is where they are: Inviz Edge: One step down and one step to the left from the lowest stairway tile. Remedy: Six steps down from the Inviz Edge. 2000 GP: Three steps up from the treasure chest visible here. Water Skean: Three steps down and three steps to the right from the lowest stairway tile. It should be noted here that the 2000 GP isn't actually 2000 GP, but 293 GP, the Remedy is a Soft Item, and if you buy them, they're called Water Edges and not Skeans. Nice, trustworthy game designers. The chest here contains an Ether. Let's move on. When you enter the little cave, you'll have to find your way up through a hidden tunnel, but a monkey with brain cancer could do that, so I won't be helping you. When you emerge, you can open the chest for an Elixir. This part is kind of frustrating to 'pin down'. There are two stepping tiles in front of you. The first one accomplishes about as much as I know about car mechanics: absolutely nothing. It creates a stairway to a featureless little six-tile area. The second stepping tile breaks a bridge apart to the chest; you can walk around it or step on it anyway and go another route I'll point out in a bit. The chest in question contains not an item or a monster, but a switch. Switch-in-a-box. Heh. Flick it, or don't, it doesn't do anything remotely interesting. Going down will get you to another stepping tile. This one is more of a friend to you; it opens a door to a small cave with four chests: two Magicite shards, an Ether, and the ATMA WEAPON. The Atma Weapon is a nifty sword that's more special than useful. A scholar in Albrook mentioned it, remember? It was created during the War of the Magi, along with a monster with the same name. Meeting the sword was the better choice, I think. The Atma Weapon will do rather weak, barrier-piercing damage at this point of the game when the wielder is at his maximum HP; its damage is partially based on the max HP/current HP ratio where the Atma Weapon will do more damage when the wielder at full health and almost no damage when the wielder only has a few HP left. The Atma Weapon gains strength with the wielder's level, and can achieve three lengths, depending on the damage output (it changes from short to medium beyond 500 HP damage, and from medium to long at 1000). I wouldn't equip it at this point. Points of interest: - The Atma Weapon is rather famous for starring in the horrid legend where you Throw this weapon for an instant kill against the final boss. You can't throw the Atma Weapon. - When you combine the Atma Weapon with Capture, it will lose its special damage formula and it'll become a normal sword with the Battle Power of 255, which is rather nice. Most people will argue this is a bug, though. - INCREASE YOUR ATMA LENGTH WITH NATURAL ENHANCERS. It's folly. Much like the male reproductive organ, there are legions who claim there are fast and easy ways to increase its performance. The urban myth includes wearing Green Berets or Red Caps and equipping Muscle Belts, all to increase maximum HP and boost that blue thing. It doesn't work, as it's the ratio that's important, not max HP. - Isn't it wicked? It's like a lightsaber. Let's walk over to the new pathway. You'll encounter a switch you have to press to raise land to the right of you so you can cross it. Here's a switch as well; if you stepped on the bad stepping tile earlier, you can press it so you can walk over to the chest. The switch, by the way, would block your path IF you had stood on the two useless/bad stepping tiles earlier, and only as long as you didn't fight a random encounter. I really don't know why programmers even bother with things like this. Moving on will get you a chest with a Magicite shard. From here on, it's a straight path to the Sealed Gate. Finally, there you are. Nobody's too comfortable with the place: LOCKE: Beyond is the Esper World... CYAN: What an eerie place... EDGAR: From here on, it's all up to TERRA... SABIN: We're counting on you, TERRA... SETZER: Why'd you bring me to such an awful place!? As usual, Gau and Mog are entirely forgotten by their creators. As soon as Terra wants to call out to the Espers: a burden! Kefka has followed you here, hoping you'd be able to open the Sealed Gate and deliver more Espers to the Empire. Folly! How could you have been so foolish!? Time to put the hurt on Kefka! Like in the Imperial Camp, you fight a human Kefka. I won't bother really listing what he does and how you should handle it, as the fight ends as soon as you do anything to Kefka, be it helpful to him or damaging. For trivia purposes, I'll list his moves, though: Poison, Fire 2, Dischord, Battle, Rasp, Slow, and Special. He doesn't actually HAVE a Special attack though, as he's a character, so instead, the attack name pop-up will display nothing, Kefka will take one step forward and raise his arms (like Gau performing a Special), and without any attack animation, the attack will miss. Oh yes, and don't use Magicite, as those cancel on characters, including opponent characters. During the battle with Kefka, Terra manages somehow to explore contact with the Espers behind the Gate. The door opens, but something is wrong; rather than asking what you want, several Espers bolt out the door, flying off, sending shockwaves of power through your body. When they are gone, the door closes behind you and is blocked with an eerily skull-like barricade of rocks. Terra urges you to get out when she awakens, and maybe it's wise to follow her advice. The cave has a new exit; take it for a shortcut. Make sure that you've collected all the treasures you wanted, as once you get out of the cave and board the Blackjack, there's no going back in unless you go out of your way to do so (ominous foreshadowing). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.37.1 Esper rampage; Snake Eyes ********************************** Once you pass through the Imperial Base and find your ally at the other end, he'll tell you that the Espers have flown to Vector. You were planning to have them attack it anyway, but it's doubtful if this is the best outcome... The ill-news bringer depends on whoever is in your party, but starting from the most likely one, the game works down the list from Locke to Cyan, Edgar, Sabin, and finally Setzer. Actually, it's quite impossible for you to encounter Setzer here, as you'll at the very worst have a Terra/Locke/Cyan/Edgar party, in which case it's still Sabin who delivers the news. Ah, goddess of unnecessary coding! Immediately afterwards, you find yourself flying to Vector. But you start feeling some vibration, and it isn't the good vibration Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch and the Beach Boys used to sing about. No sih, not at all: It's such a good vibration It's such a sweet sensation No sih, not at all. TERRA: ...the Espers...Something happened... LOCKE: I'm sure the Espers were headed for Vector... CYAN: I could feel the warrior spirits of those Espers! EDGAR: Somehow we need to tap in to the power of those Espers... SABIN: Let's see what's become of the Empire! Hurry! SETZER: Urghh! For the time being, I don't own the skies... MOG: ...puuh... GAU: ...ooh...GAU...high place...Not good...don't like... You'll find yourself near Maranda. Absolutely nothing has changed in this town, so you might as well go find the hidden Chocobo Stable and hike to Vector. The Stable is hidden in the narrow part in the forest to the East of Maranda. As you can see when you arrive, Vector is in ruins. Seems the Espers smacked it around with a club called 'Destruction'. The Returners are, without any apparent reason, exposing themselves to the Empire now that it seems weakened. I'm sure they won't call the soldiers on you, sillies. Even Banon and Arvis are here. Banon will declare you mad for even bringing up the option of talking with Espers; clearly, they are barbarians whose bones are filled with violence and manslaughter. Entering the Imperial MagiTek Research Facility will accomplish exactly nothing, as you can't. Entering the Imperial Palace, however, will get you an Imperial escort who will take you to the Emperor himself. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.38.1 Vector; Imperial palace ********************************** Opponents: Commando, Sp Forces, Mega Armor Container contents: Back Guard, Gale Hairpin, Revivify, Tincture, X-Potion Miscellaneous items: Tintinabar (banquet performance), Charm Bangle (banquet performance) It appears that the Emperor has changed from the power-hungry antagonist to the sorrowful ally! The Espers destroyed his town, his pride. He's been severely punished already for his arrogant lust for control and domination; but can a man change so quickly, so completely? For now, you can do what Cid has asked you to do, and try to warm the hearts of Imperial Soldiers. At the very least, it'll give you something positive to do until you can start negotiations with the Emperor. There are 24 soldiers to talk to. You have four minutes: 4:00. Later on in this part of the game, you are rewarded for your behavior in the Palace; it starts here. You get a point for every soldier you talk to, and another five for every soldier you manage to convert by shoving his testicles upwards through his throat. For maximum enjoyment and treasure, you'll want to talk to all of them (you can skip 3 of the passive ones without any penalty). Skip any treasure chests for now; you can get them a little while later when the seconds aren't of any importance. Every normal trooper who wishes to fight you turns out to be a single Commando unit, and every Armored trooper that confronts you is a single Mega Armor. Bio spells and barrier-piercing attacks work great against the Commando units; Instant Death attacks work nicely (including Break). As far as the Mega Armor goes, Instant Death attacks go well against him too (although he has Petrify protection for Break). He may counter Fight attacks with Tek Laser and non-fatal Magic spells with Missile, so be wary. If you die, you don't get a Game Over but you'll find yourself out-battle after a red flash. You'll get the 1 point for talking to the soldier but not the 5 points for defeating the soldier. If you escape the battle by running, using Smoke Bombs or the Warp Stone/Warp spell, you'll find yourself out-battle after a green flash, and you'll get 1 point but not the other 5. You can't run from Mega Armor regardless. If you let the timer run out during a battle, there's a blue flash and you'll get 1 point but, again, not 5. Walk right ahead and talk to the first four soldiers. Take a turn to the right (from your view). Ignore the first door for now; it houses Kefka, who talks too much for your precious time to be wasted on him. Go up the stairs and enter the door on this floor. In this room, you can talk to a soldier, a Special Forces unit, and a soldier in the bathroom. Get out of the room and go up the stairs. Here, you enter the balcony of the palace. You can talk to five soldiers here, and one soldier in the cabin on top (which you might recognize as the one where Kefka released the Cranes from) wants to fight you. Fight him (it's a single Commando) and press on. Enter the door to the other side of the little cabin on top. In here, there's a wandering soldier. You should be at 14 by now. Go further down. Enter the first new door. There are four wandering soldiers below the soldier in the bed and one above. One of the four wants to fight you; do so. When you have talked to all in the room, enter the bathroom, where another soldiers wants to fight you. You're on 21 now. Get out, ignore the next door (treasure only), and go out of the palace. There are two soldiers here and an Armored soldier who wants to fight; it's a Mega Armor now. Kill it and you have the final, 24th soldier. 44 points maximum. Dinner time! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.38.2 The Banquet ********************************** At the great Banquet, where you'll settle manners with the Empire, removing the very core of the conflict, you'll be repeatedly allowed to fill in gaps in the conversation. Your choice influences how much the Emperor likes you, and how much he'll reward you for showing up. It's like trying to hit on that hot girl at the bar, only with me showing you what works well and what will get you slapped in the face. Here we go: GESTAHL: Imagine! All of us here together, sharing a meal! First we must have a toast! 2 ^ To the Empire... 1 ^ To the Returners... 5 ^ To our hometowns... GESTAHL: As you know, Kefka's in jail for war crimes. What shall we do with him? 5 ^ Leave him in jail... 1 ^ Pardon him... 3 ^ Execute him... GESTAHL: I truly apologize about the poisoning of Doma. No one dreamed Kefka would use poison. 1 ^ What's done is done... 5 ^ That was inexcusable. 3 ^ Apologize again!! GESTAHL: By the way...With regard to General CELES... 1 ^ Was she an Imperial spy? 5 ^ CELES is one of us! 3 ^ We trust CELES! Any other questions for me? 2 ^ Why'd you start the war? 2 ^ Why do you want peace now? 2 ^ Why'd we have to talk to your men? GESTAHL: With your permission, I'd like to talk about the Espers... 0 ^ One more question please! (Every question you ask will get you 2 points, but the same question asked twice will cost you 10 points) 0 ^ Okay. 0 ^ One more question please! 0 ^ Let's talk about Espers... GESTAHL: My Empire's been decimated by the Espers that emerged from the sealed gate. They're acting spiteful. Unless they're stopped, they'll rip the world asunder! 5 ^ Yes, the Espers have gone too far. 2 ^ But you unleashed their power!! GESTAHL: After the Espers went on their rampage, I knew I couldn't go on with my war. I asked myself why I had started it in the first place. By the way... About those questions you asked me...which did you ask first? ^ Why'd you start the war? ^ Why do you want peace now? ^ Why'd we have to talk to your men? (if you answer correctly, you get 5 points. If not, 0 points for you) CID: You seem a bit tired. Care for a rest break? 0 ^ Yes, let's take a break. 0 ^ Let's keep talking. (Here, you'll get the option of walking about a bit and talking to the Sp. Forces, who will challenge you. You get 5 points for kicking Sp. Forces in their bathing suit area within 2 minutes. If you fail, you get 0 points). Shall we begin again? 0 ^ Yes 0 ^ No GESTAHL: Is there anything you wish to hear me say? 3 ^ That all you really want is peace. 5 ^ That your war's truly over. 1 ^ That you're sorry... GESTAHL: We must make for Crescent Island aboard the freighter from Albrook. Will you accompany me? 3 ^ Yes 0 ^ No (If you first answer no, and then answer yes, you won't get the 3 point increase). And this is it. 49 points to earn at the Banquet. Plus 44, that's 93. Nice. The negotiations were a success! You are to be dispatched, now employed of all things by the Empire of all empires, to seek out the Espers who destroyed Vector. General Leo Christophe will accompany you. Depending on your party, you'll see old acquaintances meet again: SABIN: Didn't I see you at Doma? ...I'm SURE I did... So that was General Leo... LEO: You! You're CYAN, liege to the king of Doma! Please forgive me for not being there to stop Kefka... CYAN: ... ... That wasn't your fault. If you're done, Terra gets on a solo mission... until Locke mixes himself in it again. That guy has a serious problem with being left behind, it seems. Locke and Terra will go to Crescent Island to search for the Espers. Congrats. When you leave, a Special Forces unit will come up to you, and reward you for your troubles in the Palace: Always: South Figaro is liberated. You gain nothing but your pride for it. 50-66: South Figaro is liberated. You gain nothing but your pride for it. Doma Castle is liberated. Some minor items AND your pride. Things are looking up! 67-76: South Figaro is liberated. You gain nothing but your pride for it. Doma Castle is liberated. Some minor items AND your pride. Things are looking up! The locked house in the Imperial Base near the Cave to the Sealed Gate is opened. This is very nice. 77-90: South Figaro is liberated. You gain nothing but your pride for it. Doma Castle is liberated. Some minor items AND your pride. Things are looking up! The locked house in the Imperial Base near the Cave to the Sealed Gate is opened. This is very nice. You get a Tintinabar from the Emperor! He likes you! 90-93: South Figaro is liberated. You gain nothing but your pride for it. Doma Castle is liberated. Some minor items AND your pride. Things are looking up! The locked house in the Imperial Base near the Cave to the Sealed Gate is opened. This is very nice. You get a Tintinabar from the Emperor! He likes you! You get a Charm Bangle from the Special Forces unit you are talking to! He wants to have your man-babies! Run like the wind! Well... As soon as you have your new Locke/Terra combo (something probably not seen since you tried to locate Figaro Castle in the desert south of Narshe), you'll notice that you have received the items all other characters were equipped with. That's nice. For equipment, I'd advise something like this: Terra: Blizzard/ThunderBlade Gold Shld Tiara White Dress Earrings, Earrings Locke Atma Weapon Hawk Eye Green Beret Power Sash Genji Glove/Thief Glove Roaming the Imperial Palace, you can now find the things you skipped earlier in your rush to be helpful for the Empire. They're hard to miss, and include a Back Guard Relic (tiny earrings with built-in speakers), an X-Potion, a Gale Hairpin, a Revivify, and a Tincture. Also, you can find Kefka in jail, who's so annoyed he's about to go soil himself. You can find your former party members all over Vector: EDGAR: Albrook's a port to the south of the Empire. A MagiTek Armor hauling ship plies the waters between...there and Crescent Island...We'll penetrate the Imperial base. You deal with the Espers! SABIN: Can we really trust the Empire?! I have an awful feeling about this... CYAN: Never will I be able to forgive Kefka... GAU: Smells like parents' house here...why so familiar? MOG: Kupo! BANON: Could Gestahl have meant such a thing? Team up with the Empire to track down an Esper... Hmm... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.38.3 Items of the Imperial Base near the Cave to the Sealed Gate and Setzer's cutscene ********************************** Container contents: 8000 GP, 13000 GP, 20000 GP, Back Guard, Cherub Down, Cure Ring, Elixir x2, Ether, Flame Sabre, RunningShoes, Wall Ring, X-Potion Other than the fact Gau seems to remember things about the house he was supposedly thrown out of immediately after his birth, you notice here that Setzer is missing. I can divulge here that Setzer is not in Vector at all; he's on the Blackjack, over at Maranda. Together with Cid, he's repairing his beloved airship. You can go over there if you want to and watch the often missed and delightful scene between the two. This is it, if you're lazy: (Setzer is fixing things in the engine, Cid is standing around, likely in awe or admiration) CID: Wow, what a ship! SETZER: That landing really messed up the engine. It'll take a while to fix... CID: I'll help. No machine can stump me! SETZER: Don't touch anything! CID: Go kill time in the casino! I can speed this crate up! SETZER: ...... You little...!! Get outta my sight! CID: But I could really make this thing hum...! (Exit CID) TERRA: You love this ship, more than anything, huh? SETZER: Actually, when I was young there was something I was mad about... TERRA: ...huh? SETZER: In my youth I dreamed of having the world's fastest airship. TERRA: You mean...... SETZER: At that time there was a young girl who piloted the Falcon, the fastest vessel ever made. Sometimes we were the worst of rivals...but other times we were the best of friends. We always egged each other on to go faster and higher. When she disappeared along with her ship...I felt like I lost my spirit. SETZER: ...Poor Daryl... After the scene: SETZER: Repairs aren't finished yet. You'd better take the boat from Albrook. Note: In the Japanese version, Cid mentions how the Blackjack could be faster by removing the casino in its belly. This is what Setzer can't take. Anyway, the real new treasure lies in the Imperial Base at the Cave to the Sealed Gate. Enter the house, and prepare to be stumped; the Empire has made a great gesture of good will with this gift. The chests here include: and X-Potion, a Cherub Down, an Ether, a Wall Ring, RunningShoes, an Elixir, a Cure Ring, and a Back Guard, together with 8000 GP + 13000 GP + 20000 GP = 41000 GP. There's a hidden chest with an Elixir hidden by the south wall, and there's a Flame Sabre in the stove. If you want to, you can go and visit Tzen and Maranda; there's really nothing for you there, but you can see how both towns have been abandoned by the oppressive Imperial forces, and how glad everybody is that the war is finally over. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.39.1 Albrook ********************************** Container contents: Warp Stone At any rate, as soon as you can get to Albrook, you'll find the entry to the port open. You immediately appear next to two crates, of which one contains a Warp Stone. General Leo is discussing with subordinates here; he tells you to go and take a rest at the Inn, but not before 'introducing' you to two 'strangers': The first is Shadow, the second another general of the Empire, General Celes Chere. Locke spazzes out and Celes runs off. You can bask in Shadow's idea of humor for a while before acknowledging Leo has made arrangements, and you can rest at the Inn free. Doing so will trigger a sad cutscene in which Locke and Celes exchange their names and offer charged silences to each other. When morning comes, the freighter takes off. A lot is afoot during the night. When the morning comes, everybody is already awake. You can learn from the soldiers that rumors say magic still exists on Crescent Island -- clearly folly -- and you can talk to Leo for your mission briefing. General Celes and General Leo will try to gain information, while Terra, Locke, and Shadow are dispatched by themselves. There's a town to the north called Thamasa, so it might be a good idea to try to learn something there. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.40.1 Traveling to Thamasa; Crescent Island ********************************** Opponents: Chimera, Baskervor, Cephaler Miscellaneous items: Gold Armor (rare Chimera drop) You've been dropped off at the southern end of Crescent Island. Shadow, now under employment by the Empire, aids you in your search, and you can at least be certain he won't run out on you this time. Also note that if you never recruited Shadow in Sabin's scenario or Kohlingen, Interceptor will not protect Shadow in battle on Crescent Island, due to an oversight of the game. Preparation: Be sure to equip Shadow in the latest fashion fads, and it might be useful to have him equip a nice Esper like Siren to unlock his Magic ability. If you decide to stay around and fight some monsters for whatever reason, summon Phantom; it will be very nice. Monster formations: (grasslands) Cephaler, Baserkvor (6/16) Baskervor (5/16) Baskervor, Baskervor (5/16) (forest) Cephaler, Cephaler, Cephaler (6/16) Chimera (5/16) Chimera, Cephaler, Cephaler (5/16) The monsters here are pretty interesting. The only one you need to worry about right now is Baskervor, as you don't need to go through the forest, but you might want to, so I'll take a look at them too. Baskervors are turtle-like monsters that only attack physically. I've mentioned them earlier for their rare Gaia Gear Steal, a nice addition to your equipment options. If a single Baskervor is damaged, there's a 33 % chance it will counter with Sneeze, an odd attack that basically forces the target to run. There's nothing you can do about it, sadly. Cephaler, to me, stand out because of their overwhelming usefulness with Rage- centered SCC games. Cephaler is one of the two monsters that combine a Special with Death Protection on Gau, which is very nice. As opponents, they stand out for their great physical defense (auto-Safe) and the fact they rarely employ Ultros' Tentacle attack, which makes them the only random encounter monsters to use it. Tentacle is a very strong attack, so take out Cephaler as soon as possible. Crescent Island's Magnum Monster is Chimera. They have a lot of HP, are invulnerable to all prominent status effects, and torment the party with magical MT attacks, which include Aqua Rake on a regular basis and Blizzard, Fire Ball, and Cyclonic when they're alone. Don't take Chimera for granted; keep your HP up and don't go easy on him. The only way out of a head-on fight is casting Bserk on him; his physical attacks also hurt, but if you're quick, you can simply shrug it off with Phantom. In short, if you act quickly with Chimera around (he'll always take at least one turn before he employs a magical attack), Phantom gives you invulnerability. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.40.2 Thamasa ********************************** Container contents: Echo Screen, Eyedrops, Fenix Down, Green Cherry, Soft As soon as you enter Thamasa, you'll notice strange things going on. There's an unfriendly atmosphere, and the Innkeeper charges insane amounts of money (well, 1500 GP a night is very expensive!). But hey, at least the shops are open now! Also, three free items are lying around town: There's an Echo Screen in the top barrel next to mayor's house, a Green Cherry in the barrel next to Strago's house, a Soft item in the bottom barrel near the Relic shop, an Eyedrop in the middle barrel near the Item shop, and a Fenix Down in the upper barrel next to the Inn. Armor Shop: Gold Shld 2500 Tiger Mask 2500 Tiara 3000 Gold Helmet 4000 Mystery Veil 5500 Power Sash 5000 Gaia Gear 6000 Gold Armor 10000 The Armor Shop is open! You can finally buy your Gaia Gear if you were too lazy to Steal it earlier. Also, the Mystery Veil, a great helmet for Celes and Terra that you'll want to equip for a long time from now. Also, Gold Armor, but you really don't want to buy more, as the next dungeon, which you'll be able to choose party members for, will need Gaia Gear wearers anyway. Weapon Shop: Mithril Rod 500 Fire Rod 3000 Ice Rod 3000 Thunder Rod 3000 Morning Star 5000 Hawk Eye 6000 Stout Steap 10000 Darts 10000 The Weapon Shop is also open. Rods for SALE now? Such folly. I suggest you buy an Ice Rod; leave it at that as far as Rods are concerned (you'll understand why later on). New weapons also include a Stout Spear for Edgar and Mog, and Darts for Setzer. While I can guarantee you none of these characters will really use those weapons, it doesn't hurt to boost their Battle Power. :) Relic Shop: Earrings 5000 Sniper Sight 3000 RunningShoes 7000 Wall Ring 6000 Black Belt 5000 DragoonBoots 9000 Sprint Shoes 1500 Nothing new here, really, although the general layout is nice. All Relics here are nice to have as supplementary stuff. Item Shop: Tonic 50 Potion 300 Tincture 1500 Remedy 1000 Warp Stone 700 Revivify 300 Fenix Down 500 Tent 1200 Item Shop. You can shop for Items in the Item Shop. It's what the name tries to indicate, silly. Someone advises you to talk to the old man who lives on the edge of town. It's to the northeast of the plaza. In here, you'll meet a strange man indeed... Meet Strago Magus, and his lovely adopted granddaughter Relm Arrowny. While Strago is explaining to you that he has no idea whatsoever what Espers are (even though he's supposed to be the expert in town), Relm barges in and asks if they can 'use magic too'. How odd! How terribly, terribly odd! Relm proceeds to not be mauled up by Interceptor, instead seemingly befriending him. Disappointed yet suspicious, you leave the house. Around town, odd things happen. Behind Strago's house, you can interrupt what appears as a Cure casting, and behind the large mansion a kid is practicing what looks like fire magic. How can this be? Regardless, it's been a tough day, I'd say we'd better take a nap at the Inn, which has suddenly taken on a much more customer-friendly pricing... Important note: Before you take your nap, de-equip Shadow of his equipment, Relics and most importantly, of his Esper. All set? Good. If you don't do this, he'll take it all with him when he goes, not to be seen for a while. In the middle of the night: panic! Strago wakes you up as he needs your help; Relm is trapped inside the mansion, and it's on fire! It's getting progressively worse. You go with the old man, while Shadow stays behind. This isn't what he is paid to do, so he doesn't do it. You can't access his equipment and Magicite in the next mission, so that's great. Outside, Strago shows you exactly what you've been 'suspecting' so far. He tries to use magic to calm the flames. The entire population of Thamasa tries to use magic to calm the flames. They fail. Strago goes in, and you rush after him. This all makes sense, as if all else fails, try to stab the flames with your weapons. It'll do some good. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.40.3 The Burning Mansion ********************************** Opponents: Balloon, Grenade, FlameEater Container contents: Fire Rod, Ice Rod Miscellaneous items: Flame Sabre (common FlameEater steal) Lores: Exploder The mansion is on fire, and somewhere is a scared little 10-year-old waiting to be rescued by you. Her adoptive grandfather, despite the fact IT'S NOT POSSIBLE, has magical powers. This turns out to be an odd night indeed. Preparation: You have a new party member: Strago. I'll explain in a bit what he's all about, I'll first explain how to properly handle him. He's a mage, but in this dungeon, he'd do well to preserve MP, as his magical skills are grossly overkill. I suggest you equip him with an Ice Rod, Mithril Shld, Bard's Hat or Magus Hat, and some Gaia Gear. As far as Espers go, Shiva is a brilliant pick, as she teaches five spells that are all very useful in this dungeon and for Strago is general. Also, equip Locke and Terra with Blizzard blades (Hawk Eye is sufficient with an Atlas Armlet). Monster formations: (wandering flame) Balloon, Balloon, Balloon (3/4) Balloon, Balloon, Balloon , Balloon, Balloon, Balloon (1/4) (trap door) Balloon, Balloon, Balloon, Balloon (always) Strago is the FF VI Blue Mage. His special skill is called Lore, with which he can use several monster attacks. Learn all about them here: [LORE-LINK] Right now, he knows Aqua Rake, a powerful MT Water/Wind-elemental attack, Stone, an inaccurate attack that deals non-elemental damage and does 8 times as much damage if the attacker and target have the same level (remember Gau during the Narshe Raid?), and Revenge, of which the damage output is simply caster's maximum HP - caster's current HP, dealing the damage the caster currently has on him. All the roaming flames here indicate flame monsters: Balloon. Letting them touch you means either a battle with three Balloons, or a battle with six Balloons. Balloons rarely use Exploder and attack physically otherwise, so I suggest summoning Phantom or casting Vanish during the first battle. Use an MT attack to finish off the six Balloons (MT Ice 2 spell, Aqua Rake, Shiva's Gem Dust) and use physical attacks for the three. You can either use the Muddle spell, Stray's Cat Rain attack, or the Stone Lore (MT) to confuse Balloon monsters, in which case they're likely to use Exploder on each other. This will make Strago learn Exploder, an attack he will hopefully never, ever have to use, as it's horrid; it kills the caster, and all it does is damage equal to the caster's current HP to a single target. If Strago is level 22, Stone will do fatal damage to the Balloons because of Stone's same-level destruction properties. The first two rooms are straightforward. The third room has two doors standing next to each other. The left one opens to expose four flames leaping out, catching you in a four- headed Balloon monster formation that is a fixed Pincer attack. This happens every time you try to enter the door. The right one allows you to continue. In this room, two more doors: The right door takes you to a room with a chest in it containing a Fire Rod. The left one allows you to continue. In this room, two more doors: The right one takes you to a room with a chest in it containing an Ice Rod. The left one allows you to continue. The next room is simply a hallway. It opens into the largest room of the house, where the source of the blaze is located. If you take one step into the room, it will attack you. Equipping ZoneSeek helps for the battle, as does Kirin (as usual). Try to equip as many Wall Rings as possible; you're bound to have two from treasures. You can circumvent the Wall Rings by equipping Carbunkl, but while that doesn't take any Relic slots, it's not what a sane man would call permanent. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.40.4 The battle with FlameEater ********************************** FlameEater Level: 26, HP: 8400, MP: 480 Steal: Flame Sabre (common) Absorbs: Fire; Nullify: Lightning, Poison, Pearl, Earth; Weakness: Ice Special: !Hit: Battle x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Fire, Fire 2, Fire 3, Safe, Rflect, Fire Ball, Bomblet Vanish/Doom: No Immunity to Clear status. FlameEater starts the battle by using Bomblet. The move Bomblet itself doesn't really do anything (although it removes your Clear status if you had it on you), but it's always followed by FlameEater summoning allies. FlameEater can summon from two to four Balloon monsters and even a Grenade. He will always start with four Balloons. FlameEater is basically a massive floating flame, so you could expect him to have a fire-based AI script. He normally uses Fire spells and Fire Ball attacks, while countering one third of your damaging attacks with a Fire 2 spell. After you've damaged him six times, he'll cast Safe and Rflect on himself (unless he already had Reflect on him), at which point he will bounce Fire 2 and Fire 3 spells off of his own barrier until it's faded (he'll go back to regular programming at that point. Also, if you would hit him with Demi or Quartr (a spell you're unlikely to have), he would have retorted with a Quartr or Flare spell of his own; sadly for FlameEater, you can never actually hit him with Demi/Quartr, as he has Death protection. Silly programmers. The strategy is simple and Ice-based. Cast Slow as soon as you can. If you have Kirin or ZoneSeek equipped, start it at the start of the battle. If you're not covered in Wall Rings, Carbunkl may come in handy; the Rflect status make you immune to FlameEater's Fire 2 counters. Try to steal his Flame Sabre with Locke; you don't really need it, but there's no harm in it and Shadow can always chuck it in some poor creature's face or face-like appendage. Whenever FlameEater summons allies, use a powerful MT attack like Shiva's Gem Dust, Aqua Rake, or an MT Ice 2 spell to take care of them all. If a Grenade is summoned, note that it has 3000 HP but poor defenses. It's vulnerable to Doom, but immune to Break. Don't use Fight on it, as it may counter with Exploder. Try to take it out ASAP, as its !Mesmerize attack may set Berserk on one of your guys. First priority would be not dying, second priority is attacking with Ice 2 spells and Ice-elemental weapons (especially dual Ice Rods!), and making sure he doesn't get all Reflective on you if you are spamming spells. If Strago is level 26, you can't pass up the opportunity to deal illegal amounts of damage with Stone. A short-cut to victory is to let Terra Morph, then break the Ice Rod you found. It will automatically target the entire enemy team, but even with Balloons or a Grenade present you can focus the icy blast on FlameEater alone by switchting the targeting to your allies, then back at FlameEater again. An alternate strategy that you may find useful if you have enough Rasp casters is casting Rasp. FlameEater has only 480 MP and dies once they're gone. At normal levels, you will have killed FlameEater before he starts with the Safe + Rflect business. If you have one or two characters capable of casting Rasp, this is the better strategy. FlameEater is a simple boss who's likely to go down easy on you. To sum it all up: "Attacks are the best attack." (RedDemon). When you've put it out, you find Relm in the back of the house. Just in time to be buried beneath flaming rubble with her. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.41.1 Leaving Thamasa ********************************** Miscellaneous items: Memento Ring (hidden) Remember when you died in a fire? That didn't happen. Shadow came in and saved the day, just to rescue his dog. He decided he might be able to spare your sorry lives free. Wotta guy, eh? Thamasa is the village of Mage Warrior's descendents. During the War of the Magi, Magicite-powered humans called Mage Warriors fought alongside of normal humans and Espers. When the war ended, the Espers retreated and the humans hated the remaining influence of the magical: the Mage Warriors. They were forced to flee, and much like the Espers founded the Esper World, so did the Mage Warriors create Thamasa. Their descendents have lost a slight tough of their magic after the 1000 years, but they're still powerful enough to actually use the magic the world has forgotten for so long. As soon as Strago mentions that the mountains to the east might be worth a look, Shadow splits. Outside, it seems that he will 'search for the Espers in his own way'. You shouldn't forget that despite the fact Shadow has fought alongside of you, he is a morally lacking person directly employed by the Empire, whose interests are still rather questionable. He's breaking a direct order for no apparent reason. Highly suspicious. Highly, highly suspicious. In a strange turn of events, Shadow kindly leaves behind the equipment and Magicite he had equipped. With Strago in your party, you get the new mission of finding Espers in the mountains. Nice. Relm offered to join, but despite her prominent naming screen, was refused entry into the party, which even has a free spot for her. I'M SURE WE'LL NEVER SEE HER AGAIN. There's a Relic hidden in Strago's house, on the second floor: hidden in the bulge in the left wall, it's near the small table with the two chairs surrounding it. This Relic, the Memento Ring, is at this moment entirely useless to you. You should know that in the PSX release, they changed the name of this Relic to 'Safety Ring'. At least, that's what it says when you grab it here; if you check your inventory or try to equip it, it'll speak of a 'Safty Ring'. When you're done, take a nice and uneventful nap at the Inn and head out to the mountains. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.41.2 Crescent Island's Eastern Mountains ********************************** Opponents: Slurm, Insecare, Adamanchyt, Mandrake, Abolisher, Ultros Container contents: Chocobo Suit, Heal Rod, Tabby Suit, X-Potion Lores: Pearl Wind Thus, a typical Byronian hero accompanies the half-Esper magical prodigy and the elderly walking-encyclopedia-on-monsters-and-their-behavior-with-magical- powers to what they hope will be a place filled with Beasts of Doom. If this is achieved, we can get the peace the Returners have fought so hard for. Preparation: Make sure your equipment and Espers are comfortable. It's wisdom to summon Phantom at the very start, as most attacks are physical here. Jewel Rings and Ribbons are nice to protect against the Petrifying Special of one of the monsters on the slopes, though, as these are the same monsters that have the power of removing your Clear status. Monster formations: (Caves) Adamanchyt, Slurm, Slurm (6/16) Adamanchyt, Adamanchyt (5/16) Slurm, Slurm, Slurm, Slurm, Slurm (5/16) (Slopes) Abolisher, Abolisher (6/16) Mandrake, Insecare, Insecare (5/16) Mandrake, Mandrake, Mandrake (5/16) There are five entirely new monsters roaming these mountains, two in the caves and three on the slopes. They are: Slurm. Anything resembling a Crawly palette-swap can be nothing but very, very weak. An Earring-boosted MT Fire spell tends to take them all out (although at lower levels, you might need a follow-up MT spell). They share the caves with Adamanchyt monsters. Rather soon for a palette-swap in this case, don't you think? You met Baskervor at the foot of these mountains. That's just not right. Adamanchyt are named like that because their hide is hard. Hard like ADAMANTINE. There's no penetrating it (unless it's with barrier- piercing physical attacks, obviously). You'll want to stick to magical attacks with them. Don't ever use Fight, ever, as they have a one/third chance of using Sneeze, breaking your ever-so-fragile invisibility. On the slopes, a brilliant new enemy is called Abolisher. They abolish nothing but your lack of Pearl Wind Lores, I dare say! They attack physically only, having a small chance of trying to poison you with !Down Dust. After they've taken three turns, they'll use Pearl Wind, but only if there's some two of them on-screen; when alone, they'll never use Pearl Wind. The first time Pearl Wind appears, have Strago stand there and observe; he'll learn the magnificent move. Also, Insecare. Remember CrassHoppr? Remember WeedFeeder? I'm sure you don't, as both are dull as hell. Insecare have a more diverse color pattern on them, but fail to impress on all related issues. Mandrakes are without a doubt the most dangerous creatures this moutain has to offer. The Anthology Bestiary says their vines are made out of metal, but that's important right now. Every second turn, they may use !Petritouch, which sets Stone to the poor fool that suffers it. The Clear status, a Ribbon and/or a Jewel Ring will help you stay soft and limber. The second great annoyance with them is the fact they'll retaliate any damage you do with a 33% chance of using a Raid attack, draining about 300 HP worth of damage from you and dispelling your Clear status. Stop spells stop their Raid counterattacks, or you could even opt to simply run from them. Fire 2 spells are especially effective versus them. The entrance of the mountains lies north of the forest here. The entrance wasn't here before, if you were wondering. The first room houses a chest with a Heal Rod (keep hold of this one!). The Heal Rod is a spiffy Rod that heals all targets, be it living or undead. At this point of the game, a Front Row character using it is likely to fully heal the target character (it'll do about 1000 HP worth of curing). Personally, I think the supposed equippers of a Heal Rod, Strago and Relm, will usually be too busy doing the exact same thing with an ST Cure 2 spell and still having room for an offensive weapon, but there are people out there who are in love with the Heal Rod because it's MP-free. Regardless, much later in the game you can trade your Heal Rod for a weapon that is so kick-ass they might have called it +7/+7 Weapon of kick-ass for all I care, so definitely don't EVER sell it. Heh, or Throw it. There's a bug in the game that makes the Heal Rod with the Fight command auto-target the enemy, and selecting the Heal Rod with Throw will make it auto-target the Thrower. Obviously, this was supposed to be the other way around, but if you haven't heard of this game being fuller with bugs than MTV is with non-music videos, you've been living in Ignorantville, capital of Lack-Of-Information. The cave opening to the north and left will just link to each other, so take the right one (to the right). You'll see a quick 'unrecognizable' red flash dash from the corner of your eye, but that's just the shadows being a bitch to you. In the slopes here, you can find Abolisher monsters. You'll want to meet them at least once to learn Pearl Wind. Pearl Wind is a full-party healing move that cures for the same amount of Hit Points the caster currently has. This sounds like a silly move, as you'd guess the more you're damaged, the more you need healing, and that's exactly when this move tends to fail (if Strago is near-fatal, Pearl Wind will do little). Pearl Wind is *very* useful though, as it is a move that can heal characters with Wall Rings and surpasses Runic. If you cross these slopes and enter a new cave, you see the red movement again. What's with your eyes these days? The new cave can be easily passed through; you see a lot of broken pathways here, but you can't reach them anyway. The next room houses three golden statues. Strago will freak out when he sees them, and explain about the Statues. Remember when Kefka talked about reviving the Statues, and how fun he thought that was going to be? Better learn about them, then. These golden icons are mere representations of the real Statues, and even these shimmer with power. Strago muses that perhaps the Espers came here to bask in this power so familiar to them (and obviously, this is where it's said the Espers were created all this time ago). The following is inscribed in the statues: The birth of magic... Three goddesses were banished here. In time, they began quarreling, which led to all-out war. Those unlucky humans who got in the way were transformed into Espers, and used as living war machines... The goddesses finally realized that they were being laughed at by those who had banished them here. In a rare moment of mutual clarity, they agreed to seal themselves away from the world. With their last ounce of energy, they gave the Espers back their own free will, and then transformed themselves... ...into stone. Their only request was that the Espers keep them sealed away for all eternity. The Espers created these statues as a symbol of their vow to let the goddesses sleep in peace. The Espers have sworn to keep the goddesses' power from being abused. As soon as you intend to leave, a familiar octopod crashes the party. It's Ultros. Laugh or die. He mentions something about Ziegfried (calls him 'big brother' in the Japanese version), throws a semi-smart retort to Locke's comment (at whose body he jumped a little, Locke's his personal nemesis since he met him on stage), and attacks you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.41.3 The third fight with Ultros ********************************** Ultros Level: 25, HP: 22000, MP: 750 Steal: White Cape (common) Absorbs: Water, Weakness: Fire, Lightning Status: Float Special: !Ink: sets Dark, Battle x 1.5 Sketch : Tentacle (rare), Tentacle (common) Vulnerable to: Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, !Ink, Fire 3, Ice 3, Bolt 3, Safe, Haste, Aqua Rake, Stone, Magnitude8, Tentacle, Lode Stone Ultros isn't very hard this time around. He starts the battle off with the message "I was just thinking about you! I've more lives than I do arms!" He'll normally use Battle, !Ink, Stone, and Tentacle. After every minute of battle, he'll use Lode Stone, a percentage-based attack that removes 75 % of your current HP. Every other turn, he'll start by taking a little slither in your direction. Once he has slithered eight times, he uses a particularly nasty spell: either Aqua Rake or Magnitude8. You can easily take both (especially the latter if you're equipped with Gaia Gear as you should be), but you can make him back off one slither if you hit him three times with a Magic spell (not Lore). Not that that's really advisable, but I'll explain that in a minute. When Ultros reaches the low grounds of mere 15360 HP, he'll cast Haste and Safe on himself. "Hope I'm not making a nuisance of myself! So sorry!" Yes. Once you've cast five spells on him, he'll go red and the screen will say: "Ultros's form has changed! Beware his tri-elemental attack!" There's not so much a tri-elemental attack to be feared, though. It means that any Fire-elemental spells will be countered by Fire 3, Ice-elemental spells by Ice 3, and Lightning-elemental spells by Bolt 3. As soon as you bring down Ultros to 10240 HP, a cutscene will trigger to bring in Relm. She'll chat with Ultros, and some moments later - after the obviously hi-la-rious cutscene has passed - will join you on your side against Ultros. If you use her Sketch ability on him, Ultros will say: "How can this be? I...I'm nothing more than a stupid octopus!" and leave. The strategy is pretty straightforward. I wouldn't bother with offensive spells whatsoever if I were you (other then two Slow spells, one to start off with and one to counter his Haste/Safe combo with). If you have Golem's Stop spell, use it to great effect and cast it every time you see Ultros taking another turn. Strago's Rods, should they have the Fire or Lightning element, will do decent damage overall (especially when that random spell steps in). Ultros Floats, so Locke can horribly abuse that with his Hawk Eye(s) (you can cast Bserk on Locke if you feel like you can miss the controllable nature of him). Terra can wield Flame Sabres and/or ThunderBlades to hurt Ultros a bundle. If Strago's level is 25, he can rock out with his rock out; Stone will do major damage. Try to Steal his White Cape, as it's basically free and generally useful. End the battle with Sketch if you want to. You could end this battle with Vanish/Doom and Relm will still be there, taking all the credit. :) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.41.4 Relm and the Espers' gathering place ********************************** Relm's ability is Sketch, and I dare say it's the worst ability in the game. If you're interested in the reason, go to [SKETCH-LINK] Right now, I suggest you give Relm an Esper to teach her a good spell pronto. Shiva is perfect, but Strago is probably still struggling with it, so either Ifrit or Shoat is a generally quick road to success. She starts with the left list of equipment, and I'd advise the right one: Chocobo Brsh Fire/Lightning/Ice Rod (in that order) Mithril Shld Mithril Shld Plumed Hat Mystery Veil/Tiara Silk Robe White Dress/Gaia Gear She comes equipped with a Memento Ring; you found one earlier in Strago's house. It can be equipped by two people, of which Relm is one. Another character you already know can also equip it, but it's not Strago, and who could possibly be protected by Relm's dead mother besides Relm herself? The next room contains a Save Point and three tiles that look like they might cave in underneath you. These cave in underneath you. The top one takes you to a place in the broken walking bridge maze where you can go to the slopes at two places and find two nice pieces of equipment: The Chocobo Suit and the Tabby Suit. Equip Strago and Relm accordingly. You can jump off to a familiar path. The loose tile to the far right will take you to an X-Potion, and the loose tile to the bottom-left will advance your path to the Espers. After you pass this last slope, you enter a room brimming with magical energy... The Espers have indeed gathered in this mountain, and they don't look too friendly. They've stopped Strago and Relm from leaving and are slowly surrounding you. Even though they have the plot power to wipe three members of your party from this world like excrement from a boot, you still prepare for battle; until an Esper who once discovered Terra's mother face-down near the entrance of the Esper World, and who even longer ago was human, recognizes the power within Terra and saves the day. It's Yura. The Espers are talking peace and non-carnage now. The Espers were gathering near the Sealed Gate, plotting how to rescue their captured comrades. It took them 18 bloody years; way to go, champs. Just at that time, in a great coincidence, Terra called out to the Espers and, according to Yura, it was her who opened the gate. As we knew from Terra herself, Espers in our world tend to go bat-shit bat-fucking crazy, and that's what happened to Yura and his merry friends. And now they're here, feeling sorry about it all. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.42.1 Epilogue ********************************** Epilogue time! Every conflict has been resolved, the war is over, the Espers have been calmed down, everybody is happy. Leo and Yura apologize much like two lovers who just came out of an argument (I didn't mean what I said about your mother and the way she smells!), and Locke makes a light-hearted innuendo about Celes. Everybody smiley face. The End. Kefka appears. Or is it? How is this possible? Isn't he stuck in jail? Did he escape? Did the Empire set you up and was Kefka released? Is everybody safe? Within seconds, he has sent MagiTek Armors on you that have taken all your party members down, killed three Espers, knocked Leo out cold, and has caused general unhappiness. Damn his eyes! During the conversation of Kefka and Leo, it becomes clear that the Empire did set you up. When Shadow heard you mentioning the Espers being at the Eastern Mountains, he most likely reported to the Emperor, who sent Kefka and a MagiTek Armor division to Thamasa as soon as possible. Who knows what he has done to your friends in the meantime. As Leo Christophe, you wake up. Leo can't leave town, as where ever he ventures, a Guardian will attack him, leaving him no choice but to turn back. Houses are all empty (though you can just shop away; it's like a Wal-mart policy). You *can* pick up the Memento Ring with him if you haven't already, but there's little point. There's one sensible thing to do. Leo Christophe never got himself a naming screen, which bodes ill for the upcoming battle, but he'll be damned if he won't act honorably. Talk to Kefka and fight him. He is a disgrace to the Empire. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.42.2 Leo versus Kefka ********************************** Crystal Aegis Shld Gold Helmet Gold Armor Atlas Armlet Offering Leo has awesome equipment and has quite a high level. The Emperor called him his greatest warrior; it shows. Due to the Offering Relic, he attacks four times rather than one time with the Fight command, and an Atlas Armlet really boosts his damage with it. His special skill, Shock, is an MT non-elemental magical attack. This Kefka uses several attacks, including Battle, Poison, Drain, Bio, and Fire 3. Strategy isn't really important, as you can't really lose this battle. If Leo is in the Front Row, his Fight command will do more damage than Shock. You can use Magicite items for miscellaneous effects, but it bears no purpose whatsoever and is just wasting resources. Once you 'kill' Kefka, he'll put on a nice show that stars Gestahl, and then he proceeds to actually murder general Leo Christophe. The next few scenes are not positive to your chances of making a positive action. All the remaining Espers bolt through the gate to attack Kefka, and he kills them all. He leaves you alive, but it's hinted at that he backstabbed Shadow as well. Thanks to Edgar, your party members were able to save themselves from imminent death, but Banon, Arvis, a lot of Narshe guards, and the majority of the Returners have apparently been killed in Vector, though. All in all, a rotten day. You leave Interceptor behind in Thamasa. Note that the levels of Cyan, Edgar, Sabin, Setzer, Gau and Celes are re-averaged, but not in the usual style of simply taking the average of all recruited characters. The new lowest level is the average of the levels of Terra, Locke, Strago, Relm and due to a bug, Mog, so they should be even more up to speed than they otherwise would be. In addition, if Gau was Leapt away on the Veldt prior to the whole shtick in the Cave to the Sealed Gate, he will now be back on the Blackjack. Less-then-serious intermezzo: When Edgar and Relm meet, Edgar will say, "you've grown up entirely too fast...lighten up, okay?", which can be explained as some contemplation of his youth. The Japanese game does this differently, and it's probably the best-known of Woolsey's censorship: In the Japanese game, Relm calls Edgar a randy man. Edgar, after asking Relm how old she is (10), says to himself: That's just criminal. Don't even think about it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.43.1 Airship Exploitation: Rage and Lore hunting ********************************** Lores: Condemned, Dischord, L.3 Muddle, L.4 Flare, L.5 Doom, Pep Up, Roulette, Step Mine As soon as you find yourself outside of Thamasa, you'll want to board the Blackjack. A cutscene in which bad things happen is triggered. Gestahl and Kefka have reached the Statues, and have apparently used them to set afloat the continent of the Cave to the Sealed Gate, creating a massive airborne weapon from which Gestahl can probably wreck havoc without fearing any kind of retribution. This is bad shit. Change to a party without Strago in it, and head back into Thamasa. You can find Gungho, an old acquaintance of Strago, near the Inn. Your leading party member will call Strago a 'monumental bag of hot air'. That's nice. I am Gungho. Warrior extraordinaire from the town of Thamasa. First time I've been back in a while, and the village looks trashed. What on earth happened? (Probably your team leader, although there's no indication) I've got STRAGO on my side now, but what a monumental bag of hot air! When you were younger you hunted Hidon, the legendary monster. But you quit before you found it... With Strago (you can head back, change, enter again): I am Gungho. Warrior extraordinaire from the town of Thamasa. First time I've been back in a while, and the village looks trashed. What on earth happened? STRAGO: G...Gungho?! GUNGHO: Is that you, STRAGO? Have you come back to hunt Hidon? GUNGHO: He'll never change. That's who he is! When you were younger you hunted Hidon, the legendary monster. But you quit before you found it... STRAGO: I didn't really quit! It's just that, well, the monster lives only on Ebot's Rock, which has been submerged for some time. GUNGHO: You never could give me an honest answer. GUNGHO: What a buffoon!! Now you're airborne and you're simply dying to stop the Emperor from doing nasty things with the Statues, but there's no rush, and there are quite a few things to do right now. First, enjoy your massive pool of character options: TERRA: I'm all right. I'm sure peace is within our grasp! LOCKE: I can't believe we played a major role in it all! CYAN: The Empire deserves the worst! EDGAR: We can't be smug. We must be thinking of our strategy. SABIN: Let me at the Empire! CELES: I was one of the Empire's generals, but I still know evil when I see it. STRAGO: In all my travels, and in all my years... RELM: I know. Let me draw their portraits! SETZER: What's the most important thing in life? Being free of obligations! Otherwise, you lose the ability to gamble... MOG: Kupoppo!! GAU: GAU become stronger on the Veldt. The world is barren of Imperial activity. Vector and the Imperial Palace are completely deserted, and there are no soldiers in Albrook anymore. Albrook is rather overshadowed at the moment, as the Floating Continent is right above them. I don't see why they would want to linger there; if I had a floating landmass the size of Belgium floating over my head, I think I'd high-tail it to Germany before long. - More Lores. I'll explain how to get as many Lores as you can at this point of the game: - Condemned Rummage around on the Veldt until Gau encounters and Leaps a Zombone. When you get Gau back, have him Rage Zombone. His special attack is Condemned, and Strago will learn it if he's paying attention. Condemned sets a timer over the target's head and uses an automatic unblockable Doom spell if the timer runs out. Monsters can be immune to both Condemned and (Instant) Death, mind. Rather useless. - Dischord Meet either a Chaser or a Telstar on the Veldt. Telstar will *always* use Dischord after he's taken nine turns, Chaser will use it randomly. Dischord is an attack that halves the target's level. If the target is immune to Instant Death, Dischord will fail. This makes for a very interesting Vanish/Dischord combo on bosses. The best use of Dischord lies in stealing; lowering an opponent's level increases your chances of stealing. - L.3 Muddle Try to meet up with a Trapper (the hanging robots from the IMRF, remember). They will randomly and happily use L.3 Muddle. - L.4 Flare It's like with L.3 Muddle, only you need to make sure that L.4 Flare doesn't kill your entire party. - L.5 Doom Trappers, Trappers, Trappers, Trappers. And waiting. - Pep Up Make sure you have encountered at least one Intangir, and go Rage-hunting on the Veldt. When Gau learns the Intangir Rage, he can execute it to use Pep Up. Strago will learn it, although I can't see a use for it whatsoever. - Roulette Make sure you have Relm in your party for this one. Try to find Pipsqueak enemies on the Veldt. If you Sketch one, there's a 75 % chance it will cast Roulette. Strago can watch and learn. Roulette basically lets the cursor spin around. If you hit the action button, it'll slow down and deliver an unblockable Doom spell (targets that are immune to Instant Death survive the attack). I'm sure you can get Roulette targeting down to a science, but it's not really worth it. - Step Mine Fly over to South Figaro. You can take a walk there and enjoy the freedom of the town for a moment, but the real treat lies just outside of its borders. GreaseMonks, when confused, will somehow -- while drooling and flailing their arms around and being generally amusing to look at -- use the Step Mine attack. Step Mine is a brilliant attack with fixed damage. It's non-elemental, barrier- piercing, and the direct output of a simple mathematical formula: The damage you deal = Number of steps taken / 32 The amount of MP it costs you = Amount of minutes played / 30 In case you were wondering, whenever monsters use this attack they use YOUR amount of steps for it. That's hardly fair. It's like tax money, only they use it to spy on you rather than help your poor family members through the winter. Update: Hollywood Narrator gave me some information about US politics So, for US readers: It's like tax money! Also: new Rages! New monsters you'll want to Leap include Coelecite and Ing. There are not a lot of new monsters here, but you'll probably be here anyway, as you're hunting for Lores. Aren't you? You disturbed excuse of a human being. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.43.2 Airship Exploitation: Doma Castle ********************************** Container contents: Beads, Elixir, Ether, Fenix Down, X-Potion Doma Castle! Doma Castle was occupied all this time, but back when Emperor Gestahl was punking you, you were very nice to him and he opened up Doma Castle for you. Doma Castle has generally little and valueless treasure for you. You can find an Ether, an Elixir in the alarm clock in a bedroom, an X-Potion in the room Cyan found his dead wife and son in, and when you go outside on one of the walls, you can find a little room with a Fenix Down and some Beads. Beads are more useless than Goggles. Forget them. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.44.1 Preparation for the Floating Continent ********************************** Now, I'm going to have to give you a spoiler, as otherwise I'd be constantly busy with trying to get you to do things while I can't explain why they're particularly useful. Here we go: After the next dungeon, you will NOT be able to visit this world again. So, if there are things you have yet to do -- obtaining the Water Rondo, meeting some snazzy elusive monsters, buying more weaponry -- this is the time. Stock up on Fenix Downs, as they're always useful. I specifically want you to have four sets of Gaia Gear, and four Bard's Hats are nice as well. I'd like to direct you to Kohlingen now, as I want you to buy a good amount of Skeans. Maybe 40 Bolt Edges and 20 Fire Skeans. You can laugh in the face of Water Edges, as they are useless. The entire deal of 60 new scrolls will just cost you 30000 GP, which isn't that much. Also, tip for the future: if you have excess money at this point, you might consider buying a few Blossom Dirks, 10 or so. They make for excellent ST Wind-elemental Throw objects, the best there are. When you're done with whatever you want to do, go to the Floating Continent. Let's see here. As replacement for the Espers you stole from their Facility in Vector, the Empire, by the name of Kefka, has obtained a lot of new Magicite. Before long, this might be a real problem. The problem that is existent right now, though, is the fact that Gestahl is up there on his cozy Floating Island, with the power of three ancient Goddesses at his disposal. He doesn't need Magicite, MagiTek Armor, or honorable generals. All he needs is the wish to flail the flesh off your face with a thousand flaming arrows and urinate on the bloody ribbons of what once was your body, and so it shall be done. Eh, we can always try to stop him. We've got an albino who throws coins. Preparation: Whom to bring to the FC? It's hard to give proper advice concerning your party for the next round. First off, you can only take three. Second off, going easily through the majority of the dungeon is largely dependent on your Magic skills; the more prepared (especially with Grey magic) the better. A few pointers (not at all meant to discuss every character): - Terra is a person who relies on Magic. When properly equipped, she can always make herself known on the battlefield. Plus, she has the uncanny ability to go all Rambo on monster's asses when she's Morphed. Definitely a solid contender, especially in boss battles. - Celes is, like Terra, a character who is decent in the dungeon and very good against the boss fights. Her Runic ability really helps at some point in the next dungeon, but as she is forced into your party at some point later in the dungeon anyway, bringing Celes means that you'll have to do an (admittedly easy) part of the dungeon with three characters rather than four. - Cyan, as always, should stay behind. He tended to be subpar, now he's just plain bad. He would have a moment against the IAF, as his Tempest blades make for great Wind Slash spammers, but after that, it's a never-ending quest of pain and misery. He can't even equip Gaia Gear. - Edgar can't equip Gaia Gear either, but he makes up for it with his Noise Blaster. A lot of opponents on the Floating Continent can be easily subdued with this Tool, including the source of Lifeshaver. Though chances are you still might get hit by the attack, it's not quite disastrous enough to warrant that much caution. Though full party Gaia Gear is nice and allows you to have Gau Rage ChickenLip for full-party healing, Edgar's MT Muddle move definitely isn't a bad idea. - Mog reigns supreme over all character, especially if you waited until now to pick him up and he's five levels above you. Make sure to allow him to learn at least Siren's spells to start with, though. - Should you take Mog, I would advise against Gau, as you don't want to lose control over two characters in the same party. His Rage ability makes for an unnecessary random factor anyway. - Locke is rather weak, a guy who needs dual Hawk Eyes and an Atlas Armlet if he's going to leave a mark. Fact of the matter is though, the next dungeon contains a monsters with a rare Genji Glove steal, something some people go absolutely wild for. And no, you won't find them anywhere else. It's really just a matter of preference. If pressed, I'd go for a Mog/Terra/Locke party, but that's assuming they know some spells. It's up to you. Equipment example: - Note that Blizzard, Flame Sabre, and ThunderBlade are interchangeable, as are Green Berets and Bard's Hats. Green Berets give slightly more HP, Bard's Hats a tad more evasion and MP. It's your choice. Terra Blizzard, Gold Shld, Mystery Veil, Gaia Gear, Earrings, Back Guard/Earrings Locke Hawk Eye, Hawk Eye, Green Beret, Gaia Gear, Genji Glove, Sneak Ring Edgar Blizzard, Gold Shld, Green Beret, Gold Armor, Hero Ring, Earrings Sabin Fire Knuckle, Mithril Shld, Green Beret, Gaia Gear, Earrings, Earrings Cyan Tempest, Tempest, Green Beret, Power Sash, Hero Ring, Genji Glove Gau Empty, Mithril Shld, Green Beret, Gaia Gear, Hero Ring, Earrings Celes ThunderBlade, Gold Shld, Mystery Veil, Gaia Gear, Earrings, Back Guard/Earrings Setzer Darts, Gold Shld, Green Beret, Gaia Gear, Earrings, Earrings Mog Stout Spear, Gold Shld, Green Beret, Gaia Gear, Earrings, Earrings Strago Thunder Rod, Mithril Shld, Green Beret, Gaia Gear, Earrings, Earrings Relm Thunder Rod, Mithril Shld, Mystery Veil, Gaia Gear, Earrings, Earrings If you're all properly equipped, let's roll. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.44.2 Imperial Air Force ********************************** Opponents: Sky Armor, Spit Fire, Chupon, Ultros, Air Force, Laser Gun, MissileBay, Speck Miscellaneous items: Debilitator (rare MissilyBay steal), Elixir (rare Spit Fire steal), Czarina Ring (guaranteed Air Force drop), X-Ether (rare Laser Gun steal) Monster formations: Sky Armor, Sky Armor, Spit Fire (3/4) Sky Armor, Spit Fire (1/4) "Uh, oh!!!" "The Imperial Airforce (IAF)!" "We're surrounded!" "Let's give 'em a bloody lip!" So it seems you still haven't gone through every last one of the Imperial soldiers just yet. You'll have to fight four battles in succession now. Each battle can either consist of a single Spit Fire and a single Sky Armor, or a Spit Fire and two Sky Armors. It's always a forced pincer, but that's okay, as they have little damaging physical attacks to take advantage of it with. In between, you have some moments to use Items and whatnot. Then, you note how "Something...curious ...approaches!!" You have to fight another two battles against the IAF. Then, Ultros hops off whatever it is that approached you, and his mere presence inspires you to pull out his brains through his nostrils. And if he doesn't have the latter, we can always make holes for that very purpose. Sky Armors are the weaker of the two. Normally, they simply use Tek Laser or !Backlash, but if one is alone, he might even consider firing a Missile or two. Spit Fires are the scourge of the LLG player. Every turn, he has a 33 % chance of using Absolute 0, an MT Ice-elemental attack. If he's alone, he has a 33 % of using Diffuser, an MT Lightning-elemental attack that is about half as effective as Absolute 0 is, so I don't know what's up with that. The strategy is very simple. Siren just stops these guys from doing any damage whatsoever (not counting Spit Fire its Special), so make sure one of your characters has it. Summon Siren, listen to her Hope Song, loot the buggers if you have Locke with you (rare Elixirs on Spit Fire, and the common Tincture isn't half bad either), and kill them all. Wind Song (home Dance!), Cyan's Tempest blades and Gau's Marshal Rage all offer a chance at Wind Slash, which kills all enemies (on both sides of you, that is). Strago, if he has access to L.5 Doom, should use it to take out any Spit Fire monsters right away. L.4 Flare affects Sky Armor, but that's probably far too expensive. It's worthy of note that the Spit Fire, the proud top model of the Imperial Air Force, is not Floating. And we figured those Wyvern were bad. Ugh. "No, really, this is our LAST battle! Trust me!" -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.44.3 The fourth fight with Ultros ********************************** Chupon Level: 26, HP: 10000, MP: 40000 Steal: Dirk (common) Absorbs: Fire, Weakness: Ice, Water Special: !Hit: sets Poison Sketch : !Hit, Battle Vulnerable to: Mute, Berserk, Sleep, Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, Fire Ball, Sneeze Ultros Level: 26, HP: 17000, MP: 8000 Steal: Dried Meat (common) Absorbs: Water, Weakness: Fire, Poison Special: !OctopusInk: sets Dark, Battle x 1.5 Sketch : !OctopusInk (rare), Battle (common) Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Battle, !OctopusInk, Tentacle Vanish/Doom: Yes Only on Ultros, though. Chupon has immunity to Clear status. Joker Doom: No. Ultros is an absolute joke this time, with a very simple script and weak stats. He has three attacks: Battle, !OctopusInk, and Tentacle, so we're back to basics. If he reaches 12800 HP -- that's about 5000 damage, something a Bio spell coming from a normally leveled Earrings-boosted Terra can do in ONE hit -- he will complain and call his buddy, Chupon. "Ultros: I lose AGAIN! Well, today I've brought a pal! Mr. Chupon! Come on down!" From here, he'll keep attacking like he used to, only he'll talk about the monstrosity now. "Ultros: Mr. Chupon's taciturn, but terribly powerful!" "Ultros: Better not irritate him! He gets hungry when he's irritated " "Ultros: I was drowsing the other day when Mr. Chupon gnawed on my head! He needed something to polish his teeth on! " Chupon is nothing to worry about either. His attacks are unassuming, his stats fairly weak: Battle and Fire Ball are past their prime. When he dies, he'll use a final Sneeze attack on everybody. Gezondheid! Strategy? Psh. Summoning Phantom at the very start takes care of Battle and !OctopusInk, and you can Bserk or Mute Chupon as soon as he comes down. You're invulnerable. Not that a normal Cure or Cure 2 casting couldn't prevent any kind of danger, but...on the offensive side, Fire 2 and Bio work very well on Ultros (yes, he suddenly traded his Lightning-weakness for a Poison one), and Chupon can suck down some Ice 2 spells. It's just acceleration material though, as this is a very easy battle. Chupon sneezed you off the ship! And if he didn't, you probably tripped after completing that obscene victory dance of Vanish/Doom. You fall of the Blackjack, tumbling down towards the Floating Continent. It's like the Satanic Verses, only with less 'Death to its creator' from Muslim-extremists. Remember the five Mag Roader fights in a row, with their ultra-violent and dangerous gang leader at the end with two fully self-conscious and sentient arms? It's going to be like that again. The head of the IAF is a big machine thingy called Air Force. I wouldn't know if it's piloted or just a sentient machine or what; all I know is it's attacking me with very powerful spells I'm not too fond of. Let's take a look at him. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.44.4 The battle with Air Force ********************************** Air Force Level: 25, HP: 8000, MP: 750 Steal: Elixir (common), Win: Czarina Ring (always) Weakness: Lightning, Water Special: !Hit: Battle x 1.5 Sketch : !Hit (rare), Battle (common) Vulnerable to: Nothing Attacks: Tek Laser, Diffuser, WaveCannon Laser Gun Level: 24, HP: 3300, MP: 335 Steal: X-Ether (common) Weakness: Lightning, Water Special: !Hit: Battle x 1.5 Sketch : !Hit (rare), Battle (common) Vulnerable to: Slow, Stop Attacks: Tek Laser, Diffuser, Atomic Ray MissileBay Level: 25, HP: 3000, MP: 7000 Steal: Debilitator (rare) Weakness: Lightning, Water Special: !Hit: Battle x 1.5 Sketch : !Hit (rare), Battle (common) Vulnerable to: Slow, Stop Attacks: Missile, Launcher Speck Level: 25, HP: 420, MP: 285 Steal: Amulet (rare) Weakness: Lightning, Water Status: Freeze, Runic Special: !Hit: Battle x 1.5 Sketch : !Hit (rare), Battle (common) Vulnerable to: Slow, Stop Attacks: None Vanish/Doom: No Immunity to Clear status (all four opponents). Joker Doom: Yes Atomic Ray and WaveCannon screw with the RNG. Laser Gun can start the battle with Atomic Ray, so when that happens you can forget all about Joker Doom. WaveCannon shouldn't make an appearance if you're going for Echo Screen/ Joker Doom anyway. The parts to this battle: Air Force, Laser Gun (the part to the right of Air Force), and MissileBay (the part below Air Force). MissileBay fires off Missile attacks. If it gets weak and reaches 1536 HP - that's after taking 1464 HP damage - it might get a shot at using Launcher. Laser Gun uses Tek Laser and Atomic Ray. If it hits 1536 HP - after taking 1764 HP damage - it loses the Atomic Ray option, but gains Diffuser, which is slightly weaker than Atomic Ray. Air Force itself will just use Tek Laser and Diffuser. When Laser Gun dies, a Speck will be released. Speck is an opponent that takes no turns; the only thing it does is floating on constant Runic stand-by, absorbing all your Magic spells. At this point, Air Force will try to self-apply Haste status (and fail, as he's immune to Slow) and start counting down: Display message: "Count 6!" Display message: "Count 5!" Display message: "Count 4!" Display message: "Count 3!" Display message: "Count 2!" Display message: "Count 1!" At this point, it will use WaveCannon, a very strong MT Lightning-elemental attack. By this point, you should be fully healed though, so you won't die from it if all is well. After WaveCannon, it'll start couting again, but it'll start at Count 3 now. The first thing on your mind is taking out MissileBay. If you have Locke in the party, try to Steal for as long as he's around; MissileBay has a rare Debilitator you probably don't have yet. ZoneSeek is a brilliant summon here, as the Shell status can really help you out in this battle, and once MissileBay is gone, you can safely summon Kirin to override all Seizure effects with the positive Regen blessings. - If you have Terra on the time, I definitely believe Morph is justified in this battle, as it's one of the hardest in the game, in my opinion. Have her focus on her strongest spells, Bolt 2 if possible. - The same goes for Celes; Runic isn't justified in the battle, as she'll take one Tek Laser while she lets other attacks past her. - Gau should enter either Chimera or Rhinox Rage. Chimera's Aqua Rake hits quite hard on all targets, and it's superior to Anguiform because that would self- apply a weakness to Fire-elemental attacks in a battle where Atomic Ray might appear. Aspik's Giga Volt will be absorbed by Speck once it arrives, so Chimera is definitely the way to go. Rhinox, on the other hand, will absorb Tek Laser, Diffuser, and WaveCannon while being immune to Missile and Launcher. If you have the time and manage to take out Laser Gun, Rhinox wins you the battle. - Locke's usefulness in this battle is limited. If he knows Bolt 2, he can do some decent damage, but if not you should let him run utility as otherwise his turns will be pretty much wasted (none of the opponents here are Floating; go figure). He can try to Steal if he has nothing better to do; Laser Gun's X-Ether is one of the few finite items in the game, and MissileBay's Debilitator might prove useful if you didn't nick it from Crane earlier. - Sabin isn't especially helpful in this fight; Fire Dance is all he can do. If Sabin knows Bolt 2, it takes preference over his Blitz abilities. - The same goes for Edgar, although his Drill/Chainsaw attacks can take out a Speck very quickly. Bolt 2 will do more damage to Air Force than his Tools will. - Setzer should fire off Slot attacks if he doesn't know Bolt 2. H-Bomb and Sun Flare are more powerful than Bolt 2, but you're likely to mess around with Lagomorph and 7-Flush more than you'll see diving squadrons of death or the King of Dragons coming to your aid, so Bolt 2 will be better to stick to. - Strago can simply fire off Aqua Rake attacks rather than Rage like a madman for it, so do just that. Aqua Rake is more powerful than Bolt 2, mind. If Strago is level 25 at this point, he can hit for a LOT of damage on Air Force, Speck and MissileBay if Stone connects. - Cyan should use his Tempest blade(s), as his SwdTech are horrible, absolutely horrible. A disgrace to the very essence of a special skill. - Relm's Sketch is even worse. If you can't use powerful Magic with her like Terra and Celes, she should equip a Thunder Rod and simply attack with it. She's a 10-year-old girl slapping a machine with a rod, but it's still superior to Sketch. - Mog's home dance here is the Wind Song. Wind Slash is decent and Sun Bath always nice. If you feel like taking a gamble you can go for Water Rondo. El Nino and Plasma will both hurt VERY badly, and Wild Bear has the added advantage of removing Seizure (slim though that chance may be). Heal regularly, keep your defenses up, and you'll defeat Air Force in no time at all. If you're really having trouble, you can break Thunder Rods. Something to remember if you're playing the game blindfolded. Or simply blind. Poor lad. An alternate strategy if you picked three characters that all heavily rely on Magic (Locke, Relm, Celes, for example) is this. Since you want to avoid the presence of Speck here, don't kill Laser Gun. However, you can stop his attacks for long periods of time if you combine the Slow and Stop status ailments on it. Kill off MissileBay, use your speed-reducing grey magic on Laser Gun and focus all spells on Air Force. No Speck, no WaveCannon, no fuss. You'll get a Czarina Ring for your trouble, which is about as useless as something you'd consider quite extraordinarily useless. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.45.1 The Floating Continent ********************************** Opponents: Ninja, Apokryphos, Behemoth, Brainpan, Dragon, Misfit, Gigantos, Wirey Drgn, AtmaWeapon Container contents: Beret, Murasame, Monster-in-a-box (Gigantos) Miscellaneous items: Cherub Down (rare Ninja steal), Cure Ring (rare Apokryphos steal), Elixir (common AtmaWeapon steal, rare Gigantos steal and guaranteed AtmaWeapon drop), Genji Glove (rare Dragon steal), Hardened (guaranteed Gigantos drop), Ninja Star (rare Ninja drop), Ribbon (rare AtmaWeapon steal), RunningShoes (rare Behemoth steal) Lores: L.3 Muddle, L.4 Flare, L.5 Doom, Blow Fish Welcome to the Floating Continent! The Floating Continent is one of the most fun and dangerous dungeons in the game, so if you're not enjoying it, I suggest you quit the game. ;) Kefka and Gestahl are standing with the Statues, sadly on the other end of the Floating Continent. You'd better high-tail it there as fast as possible, as who knows what they're about to do. On the other end, you're likely to die once you get there. But hey, you caused this mess, better try to clean it up as well. Shadow is waiting for you. Although to the untrained eye, it seems like Shadow is more or less 'severely wounded and unable to go anywhere else' rather then 'tricking you with awesome ninjutsu skills of yore'. At any rate, Shadow bears a personal grudge to the Empire, and goes with you to get his revenge. You also notice that Shadow can equip the Memento Ring, which would appear to have been a Relm-only Relic. Hmm. Important detail: Since Interceptor is in Thamasa, he obviously will NOT be defending Shadow in-battle at this moment. You can't go back to Thamasa and pick up Interceptor now that you know where his owner is at, either. Preparation: Equip Gaia Gear where possible, and stick everybody in the Back Row unless it's vital for their strategy (and quite frankly, I can't think of anybody fitting that profile but Gau, and even he should be in the Back Row and ignore his Catscratch urges in favor of other ones). Make sure you have nice Espers on everybody, and set Shadow on his path of supportive Espers (I'd suggest you move from Siren to Shoat). Shadow's main power lies in his Skeans now, so Earrings rather than Atlas Armlets. Monster formations: Ninja, Ninja (10/64) Brainpan, Misfit, Apokryphos, Brainpan (10/64) Dragon (6/64) Behemoth, Misfit, Misfit (6/64) Behemoth (5/64) Apokryhpos, Misfit, Misfit (5/64) Apokryphos (5/64) Wirey Drgn, Wirey Drgn, Wirey Drgn (5/64) Apokryphos, Apokryphos, Apokryphos (5/64) Brainpan, Brainpan, Brainpan (5/64) Behemoth, Behemoth (1/64) Ninja, Ninja, Wirey Drgn (1/64) Note that this is the only dungeon that handels monster formation encounters somewhat differently. When the game determines you'll fight a monster formation based on the usual roster (four possible monster formations with one rare 1/16 encounter), it actually makes another check to make you fight any one out of four possible formations. This raises the least common denominator for formation odds from 16 to 64 as it were, since within the normally rare 1/16 encounter, the odds are again 1 in 4 you'll find one of the four formations within that 1/16 chance, resulting in a 1/64 chance. You've met a Ninja earlier, in the Cave to the Sealed Gate. What went down then still goes down here. They throw one of the three Skeans and very rarely use a normal Battle attack. Lightning-elemental attacks get them very quickly, as do Instant Death attacks. You can Imp them, but that won't stop them from using Skeans (Imps can still use Items). Rarely they will drop a Ninja Star, which are upgraded Shuriken. Save them for later. Apokryphos are odd little demon-buggers who attack physically only, until there's only one left. A lone Apokryphos will counter any damage you do with L.5 Doom, L.4 Flare, or L.3 Muddle. Ideal for Strago if he hasn't learned all of those attacks yet, but annoying on your party. Try to circumvent the possibility by taking Apokryphos out first (or all at the same time). If you find yourself stuck against a lone Apokryphos, Break and other Instant Death attacks can kill it without provoking any kind of counter in any way, and an even better way of doing that is the Rasp spell, as reducing Apokryphos' MP to 0 kills him. Mute/Hope Song also works. You can rarely Steal Cure Rings from them. Behemoths are legendary Final Fantasy monsters, and in this dungeon they may just be the most dangerous monsters you can encounter, especially so because they can appear in tandem. This means two Behemoths in one fight. They tend to use physical attacks, but their Special !Take Down is very strong. If they are alone (which they often are), they'll counter any damage you do by having a 66 % chance at countering with !Take Down. Luckily, you can use Petrification and other Instant Death attacks to go around this. They're weak to Ice, and Ice2 will deal a nice amount of damage, but ID attacks like Doom, Shoat's Demon Eye, and Gau's Rhodox Rage-induced Snare are by far the easiest way out of an encounter with Behemoth monsters. If you are forced to fight them head-on, you're in slightly more trouble, but it still can be done with relative ease. If you have Vanish around or Phantom equipped, make everybody invisible before attacking. Heal regularly. Ice2 is a powerful spell on them, and Strago's L.4 Flare is especially fruitful here. Brainpan monsters are bloody annoying. They randomly Stop one of your characters with !Smirk, and when they are alone, they will use Blow Fish, an attack that will always deal 1000 HP of damage. Strago can learn it if he's around. The proper way of treating them is mass attack: They are weak to Fire and Lightning, so Shadow's Skeans should severely cripple them in a small amount of time. Try to Steal some Earrings if Locke is around; any amount lower than 24 is a bad amount. Brainpan are also nice for Sketching, by the way, as both !Smirk and Blow Fish will be unhappily received at the other end of the battlefield. Dragon! Dragons are even more dangerous than Behemoths, when left unattended. They're also very famous for being the only source of Genji Gloves besides those that chests and events give you (which is often not enough to satisfy some players). If you run into one, your first action should be disabling him, as his attacks include !Tail (which is his Special and will likely kill you), Revenge (with a maximum HP of 7000, that can become very painful), Blizzard and Cold Dust, an attack that will Freeze one character solid and disable it. Every time a Dragon has been damaged, it'll have a 33 % chance of using Sneeze. There's danger all around here, and they're immune to Instant Death attacks. To handle them, cast either Sleep or Stop on them, possibly both, and try to shave off as much HP while he's incapacitated. He's weak to Lightning, so Bolt2, Giga Volt (although you'll probably want to lay off Rages against Dragon as the random physical attack will wake him up), and Bolt Edges work very well. If Locke or Shadow with one or two Thiefknives is in the party, Steal from every Dragon you encounter. Even one extra Genji Glove is nice. Misfits are Ing palette swaps, and once again, they are imMuteable bastards that use Lifeshaver. Luckily, at this point, you should be entirely clothed in Gaia Gear no matter what you did, and Edgar and Setzer should just keep themselves healed. They're weak to Fire, which is a great plus over the original Ing, so take advantage of that. Break and Rasp both kill Misfit in one hit when they connect (Break sometimes misses). Wirey Dragon is the last random encounter monster we'll see in this dungeon. Imagine Wyvern, Floating, with a very high amount of Defense. That's basically it. The trick to defeating them easily is turning them on each other. NoiseBlaster and Stray's Cat Rain will make them randomly use Cyclonic on each other, after which you can simply pick them apart with any ol' MT attack you have. If you lack MT confusion devices, you can try to Sketch them if Relm is around for Cyclonic, or simply use Instant Death attacks on one at a time. They CAN use Cyclonic themselves when they're alone, so keep that in mind. Shoat's Demon Eye can take care of them all if you have him equipped, although he might miss sometimes. Pick up Shadow, and after some "I am not worthy" dialogue he will join your party for the time being. Note that bringing Shadow along is entirely optional, although not bringing him is just not very smart. Walk to the right, and a passageway will automatically open for you. This is a theme in the dungeon; a lot of passageways will open or have to be opened. Walk on and you'll open another passage. Now, you'll come across a blue orb to the north of you; these are the Floating Continent's version of chests. Open it for the Murasame, which does NOT live up to its name in this game and should not be equipped, as Dispatch is better than any Fight attack you'll pull off with it. Now, you'll encounter again what seems like a dead end. To the north, a stairway will open into a bulge in the landscape, and to the south, one will open towards a blue orb if you near it. You'll want to grab the blue orb first, but not until after you've finished at least one battle and have summoned Phantom to open this orb with an invisible team. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.45.2 Gigantos and the Floating Continent continued ********************************** Gigantos Level: 25, HP: 6000, MP: 1120 Steal: Elixir (rare), X-Potion (common), Win: Hardened (always) Status: Safe Special: !Throat Jab: Battle x 5 Sketch : !Throat Jab (rare), Battle (common) Vulnerable to: Imp, Petrify, Death, Condemned, Mute, Berserk, Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, !Throat Jab Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: Yes No restrictions. You see, the blue orb holds the monster-in-a-box Gigantos, a purely physical fighter that can kill Front Row character in one go with !Throat Jab. Gigantos will start the battle off with THREE !Throat Jab attacks, and continue to switch between Battle and !Throat Jab while countering any damage you do with two Battle attacks and a !Throat Jab. That's a lot of physical damage. If you self-applied the Clear status like I advised, you're invulnerable in this fight. If you're fighting him, Instant Death attacks work best. L.5 Doom offs him easily, as do Break, Shoat's Demon Eye, Snare (Rhodox Rage), and Doom. You can, of course, toy with him a little bit; try to steal his rare Elixir or common X-Potion. He's vulnerable to Stop as well, so for ensured victory, you can use a Stop/Doom combo if you're evil enough. For all your trouble, you get a Hardened, a stronger Dirk for Shadow without the Assassin's Instant-Death property. Since you should not be using Fight at all, I recommend sticking to your current blade, which should be either the Thiefknife or Assassin. Now, enter the bulge, which will swallow you and deliver you at another point in the dungeon. Go down and you'll come across an odd stone that you need to stand on to proceed. The landmass will expand, allowing you to cross where your path was previously impeded. Just walk over to the other side of this part, as there's only one way that gets you anywhere (another bulge you need to enter). The bulge delivers unto you a decision when you arrive and notice two new bulges. The right one takes you nowhere, so the left one it is. Left = right, what a world. The new delivery point immediately features a new stone to step on, so you do that. It lowers some part in front of you, but you can't reach that now. Go back and find the other stone waiting for you. You'll need to activate the obvious stepping-stone for another obvious obstacle, see. Continue and now you can reach the lowered part. Walk on and on, to the left, down, right and then northwards until you reach yet another stepping-stone. It'll reveal a familiar bulge, but before you enter it, you should go down the stairway below you for a Save Point and open the blue orb to the right of you, which contains a Beret. The Beret is a nifty helmet for Relm that increases her Sketch success, allowing her to be entirely useless with it more often than before. I'd stick to the Mystery Veil. If you're done, continue. You'll be asked if you want to return to the Blackjack now. There's no real reason to unless you're really out of resources, as at this point, you've almost completed the dungeon, and should you return to the Blackjack and fly up to the Floating Continent again, you'll have to do the entire dungeon again. Plus, Shadow will leave here and won't return to your party until you're back on the FC, where he will be waiting in the same spot as he was when you found him there for the first time (although he will be brooding rather than suffering face-down). If you do decide to hop off, remember that Shadow will take the equipment and Esper he has on him with him. Pressing on opens another pathway, where a beast is waiting for you. A beast created long, long ago, during the War of the Magi. A beast of mass destruction. A beast of pure power. AtmaWeapon. Before you fight him, have somebody cast Float on those in your team that lack Gaia Gear if possible (Gau, as always, can self-inflict it), equip the Coin Toss on Setzer if he's on your team and equip Wall Rings, if that's possible. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.45.3 The decisive battle with AtmaWeapon ********************************** AtmaWeapon Level: 37, HP: 24000, MP: 5000 Steal: Ribbon (rare), Elixir (common), Win: Elixir (always) Status: Float Special: !Full Power: Battle x 2 Sketch : !Full Power (rare), Battle (common) Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Battle, !Full Power, Fire 2, Bio, Flare, Quartr, Quake, W Wind, Rasp, Mind Blast, Flare Star, Meteo, Blaze Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: Yes Flare, W Wind, Rasp, and Meteo all screw with the RNG, but the only one you need to worry about is Flare, as that can be cast right away. AtmaWeapon is quite a challenge. Not quite as disgustingly horrible as Air Force, but you could maim the two cannons off Air Force and he'd be at your mercy as long as you had something to do about Speck. AtmaWeapon starts like a rather tough monster, and as he has the most HP of any normal monster so far (Intangir excluded), he'll be quite the little troublemaker. His normal battle script from the start consists of saying: "My name is Atma... ...I am pure energy...and as ancient as the cosmos. Feeble creatures, GO!" and then simply pound your character into submission with Battle, Flare, and Blaze. Flare is a snazzy new spell you're probably not familiar with yet. Flare is non-elemental and barrier-piercing, yet can be protected from with Wall Rings and the like. This is, until he reaches 12800 HP, at which point he'll start casting Bio, Quake, or Meteo, use either Battle or !Full Power, use an MT Fire 2 spell, and end with Mind Blast, an AtmaWeapon-specific attack. Mind Blast is an MT attack that randomly selects a character four times and sets on them one randomly selected status ailments out of the following possibilities: Dark, Zombie, Poison, Imp, Petrify, Condemned, Mute, Berserk, Muddled, Seizure, Sleep, Slow, and Stop. If a character is never chosen, he won't be affected by the spell; if a character was randomly selected three times, he'll get three randomly selected status ailments set on him. As you can imagine, you can come away from this attack with relatively minor damage, or with some fairly severe damage. It might be a good idea to summon Unicorn if you have it after Mind Blast has been used. After Mind Blast, AtmaWeapon will get even stronger. The message "Vast energy focused" will appear, and AtmaWeapon will give himself Safe, Shell, and Haste status and glow an eerie yellow. He'll wait for his next turn and glow yellow again. That next turn, he'll glow yellow for a long time, some cogwheels will spin (as the hobby assembly enthusiast, I wonder how the hell they did that), and AtmaWeapon will use the move Flare Star. Flare Star is a neat attack. It's fire-elemental and its damage depends on YOUR level. It multiplies the level of a random party member by 80 and splits the damage by the amount of characters you have. So, if you have a four-headed party, all level 25, the damage will be 500 per party member. After Flare Star, he basically starts over again with Bio/Quake/Meteo, etc. When you knock him below 6144 HP, he'll start using another set of spells: Battle, Quartr, W Wind, Rasp, and Blaze. Every time he is damaged in this stage, he'll have a 33 % chance of countering the attack with Flare. He'll keep this up until he dies. You can basically do two things here, if you ignore Vanish/Doom and its many ill-conceived brethren. In both scenarios you'll want your party covered in Wall Rings. Celes shouldn't need to use Runic until the final stage of AtmaWeapon when he gains the ability to cast Quartr, as that can be absorbed by Celes' Runic blade yet flies past Wall Rings. If a lot of your characters know the Rasp spell (say, three or four), you could try to Rasp his 5000 MP down to 0 and kill him that way. It will take longer than HP violence will, but if you just stick with attacking his MP, he'll never leave the 'safe' area of using Battle, Flare and Blaze, with which ZoneSeek and Wall Rings means easy victory. Even without those two, it'll be easier on you to handle it than the HP violence will. If you decide to just smack him to death with your ouchies, beware. Start the battle off with ZoneSeek to soften the blow of his magical attacks. Make staying alive priority one: Flare can do over 600 damage, so be prepared for a Flare spell at all times if you're not covered in Wall Rings. Cast Slow on him to slow him down. Try to steal a Ribbon with Locke, and if Edgar is in your party and he can use a Debilitator; use it until you've nailed a nice weakness to something you can exploit. Exploit it. If he uses Mind Blast, cure the most dangerous status ailments and proceed. If the message "Vast energy focused" appears, use Dispel to remove the positive status effects (and cast Slow again). Basically, it's a story of heal first and damage later. Terra, Celes, and Relm should just use their level 2 spells (Ice 2 is, by a very slight margin, the strongest of the three). Have Locke steal until he has acquired either an Elixir or a Ribbon, and use Hawk Eyes to fight with for the duration of the fight. Edgar can use Drill and Sabin AuraBolt for superior damage. Mog's Dance is up for debate. The Earth Dance is the home Dance, so it will never fail, and it also has the most damaging attack of all of Mog's attacks: Land Slide. The Water Rondo, on the other hand, has a more constant damage output, as both El Nino (most common attack) and Plasma (2nd most common attack) will work. In contrast, Earth Blues' Sonic Boom will fail whenever it's used. I'm leaning toward Earth Blues myself, but it's more a matter of personal preference. Setzer will probably want to stick to GP Rain. Even with double Earrings, his level 2 spells are inferior to GP Rain and his Slots aren't very useful in this fight. 7-Flush can't compare to GP Rain, Chocobop misses entirely due to AtmaWeapon's inherent Float and the other attacks are too rare to consider an option. Cyan's Quadra Slam out damages Dispatch, so try to have other characters attack while you wait for Quadra Slam to load. It might be safer, if you're less experienced, to simply stick to Dispatch and have him run utility work if that's necessary. If you seriously brought Cyan for some reason I expect you to have taught him at least one level 2 spell; with some Earrings, a level 2 spell will outdamage Dispatch. Strago's Aqua Rake attack is the strongest he'll be able to do. If you equipped Wall Rings, his Pearl Wind move will be very nice to have around. Step Mine might be stronger than Aqua Rake, but it should also be much more troublesome on your MP. Try it out and see what hurts more in your case. An added benefit of Aqua Rake, by the way, is it's dual-elemental nature; if you brought Edgar, there's a double chance Strago can exploit the Debilitator-induced weakness with the attack. Gau's best choices are probably either Ninja (Water Edge), Chimera (Aqua Rake), Bomb (Blaze) or Ing (Lifeshaver). Ninja is the strongest offensively, but you probably didn't go back to pick it up. Ing is very defensive; since it makes Gau absorb Fire-elemental attacks, it's inherently Floating and gives the Undead property, Ing will protect against Fire 2, Bio, Quake, Blaze, Flare Star and quite a few of the Mind Blaster-induced status ailments. If you have level 2 spells on Gau, I'd advise you to use Magic rather than Rages in this battle, as the level of control will be nice to have and with all the Battle attacks Gau uses, damage output will be higher overall. After AtmaWeapon has been defeated, you get an Elixir for beating him. Shadow will leave you, taking his equipment with him, and it will only take you five steps to come face to face with Emperor Gestahl and Kefka. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.45.4 Kefka's Betrayal ********************************** Before your eyes, Gestahl absorbs more and more of the power of the Statues. Celes will arrive if you didn't bring her, and in both cases, she will be spared from Gestahl's paralyzing spell, as Gestahl has an offer to make. Even after all this time collaborating with the Returners, he is still willing to allow her to return to his side. It certainly looks like the winning party, but Celes decides differently. In other words: DIS! Celes uses the sword given to her to stab Kefka. The desired effect (death) does not take place, however. Kefka, in a fit of rage, rushes into the field in the middle of the Goddesses and commands them to give him power. Nothing happens. Kefka repeats the statement. The Goddesses glow a little, about as enthusiastic about the job as a McDonald's employee on Mondays. Gestahl starts shouting about actually reviving the statues; according to Gestahl, reviving is bad. It was Kefka's plan all along though, so what gives? It's at this point that Gestahl realizes that he cannot have Kefka around; his practical use is over now that Gestahl has everything he lusted for, and the man is simply unstable. But when Gestahl tries to use the awesome power the Goddesses have bestowed upon him, nothing happens. The field of the Goddesses absorbs all Magic sent their way (even Merton, which is unRunicable!). Kefka gains control over the slowly reviving Statues and commands them to unleash their power on Gestahl. They do. Emperor Gestahl, your most important enemy throughout the game, dies. After that, Kefka does the unthinkable. Strago warned you earlier about the Statues. Move them from their spot, and this world they partly created will go haywire. At this time, Shadow arrives! Eager to deliver a payback from getting back-stabbed (and maybe even feeling guilty of being the tool of the Empire), he rushes in and traps Kefka between the field of the Statues. The paralyzing spell on your party members is lifted, and it's time to run. Recap: Celes stabs Kefka in his body. He reacts by swearing and killing Gestahl, much like how Bush responded to unaligned terrorist threats by going after Iraq. Kefka than proceeds to fuck everything up by moving the statues. Shadow arrives to stop him and tells you to get away; the Floating Continent is going down. Celes and co. run off while Shadow sacrifices himself to save the planet. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.45.5 Escape from the Floating Continent ********************************** Opponents: Naughty, Nerapa Container contents: Elixir Lores: Condemned, Roulette Monster formations: Naughty (always) You have six minutes, 6:00, to get off the Floating Continent. Goddess energy naturally takes on the form of monsters, and you have to plow through these newly born entities to reach the end (which is also the landing point of a particularly big sparkle, AKA a particularly powerful new creature). Preparation: You're still covered in Wall Rings if you listened to my advice. Keep them on! If Celes joined your party just now, give one to her as well. The Wall Rings protect from the Ice 2 spell the Naughty enemies cast, and it will be nice to have against the boss here as well. Shadow's equipment has been added to your inventory. Naughty enemies are a pain because they take time to defeat and you can't run from them. They're about wasting time, and they're fairly competent at it. Their attacks include Battle, !Hit, Ice 2, Blizzard, and Cold Dust. Sadly, they can use Cold Dust on the first turn, disabling a character. If you hit them with a Magic spell, they have a 33 % shot at using Mute. Note: this is NOT the Spell Mute; it's a monster attack with the same name, animation, and effect. A largely useless alternative, though this Naughty-only Mute attack will not bounce from Reflective targets, nor can it be absorbed by Celes' Runic blade. When you Imp them, their next turn will be spent on de-Imping themselves and using Escape. Since Celes is a mandatory character and she'll be above level 14 unless you were really going for an LLG, she'll know Imp. I suggest you use it. If Celes if frozen beforehand and nobody else knows the Imp spell, just take advantage of Naughty's weakness to Fire, Lightning, and Pearl. L.4 Flare works on him as well, so if Strago is around, he'll be able to do quite some damage with it. Sprint Shoes are great in any situation with a timer; while you shouldn't need them, they cut back the time you spend walking. Walk on, and the ground will crack underneath you. You'll make a surprised jump and can continue. Behind you, the part you just walked on falls off. Dangerous shit, this dungeon! Walk on, another crack, another part breaks off behind you. Walk on. Another crack. If you go to the featureless part below you now, a small part will come off. You'll want to press on, though. You now reach for a small plateau with a blue orb on it, but when you get near it the ground cracks beneath you. Should you now simply continue, the part you'll need to reach the blue orb will fall off. Go around the gap here so you can grab the treasure: an Elixir. Now you'll see the big sparkle: go over to it and prepare yourself. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.45.6 The battle with Nerapa and Exit ********************************** Nerapa Level: 26, HP: 2800, MP: 280 Absorbs: Fire, Nullify: Poison, Wind, Earth, Water Weakness: Ice, Lightning, Pearl Status: Reflect, Float Special: !Hit: Battle x 1.5 Sketch : !Hit (rare), Battle (common) Vulnerable to: Death, Condemned, Berserk, Muddled, Stop Attacks: Battle, Fire 2, Fire 3, Condemned, Roulette, Fire Ball Vanish/Doom: No Immunity to Clear status. Joker Doom: Yes Fire Ball and Roulette both mess with the RNG. Who are you kidding? Trying to obtain Joker Doom for Nerapa is like spending large sums of cash on learning how to make your own solar-powered shotgun with poisoned slugs so you can take care of your rodent problem. The big sparkle's name is Nerapa. He gets 10 out of 10 for style, but minus one billion for good thinking. I mean, here you are, with a timer quickening your pace, and he thinks it's a good idea to cast Condemned on the party. It's like: "If I give them TWO timers simultaneously, they'll have to move TWO times as fast!" If this is what Japanese logic is all about, I fail to see how they even managed to make this game work. Then again, it *is* the most bugged game currently mapped, so I guess that still doesn't say much. To prove my point, the battle with Nerapa (or a Naughty) will automatically terminate as soon as the global timer hits 0:04 seconds; enough time to still dive from the Floating Continent to "safety". You won't be able to wait for that special someone during those few moments, though... Anyway, being a pompous annoyance "Mwa ha ha you can't run!" and after casting Condemned on the party, he will now try to attack you. I very much doubt he won't be looking like a kitten that just came out of your microwave at this point, but let's give this guy some credit and assume that he's still standing. He can use Battle, Fire 2, Fire 3, and Fire Ball. Very spooky. Fire 3 actually hurts a bit. Now HERE'S a hoot: If you hit Nerapa with six Fight commands, he'll use Roulette. Next to the fact that Roulette can actually take Nerapa himself down, the mere thought that Nerapa could even survive six Fight attacks is laughable by itself. You'd need a Heal Rod or a rat-flail or something in order to pull that off. Anyway, back to not insulting this guy into submission (although you could). He's weak to Lightning AND Ice AND Pearl. He's also Floating. Just make sure you keep in the back of your mind this guy is inherently Reflective, which means you'll need to resort to your skills and summon attacks. There are literally hundreds of ways to off this guy, and they're all very easy. Gau's Rhodox Rage can enSnare him for a one-hit KO, as can a fatal Chainsaw attack. Bouncing a few Rasp spells off yourself will kill him. Bouncing a Doom spell off yourself will kill it. You can confuse him; you don't get any more pathetic than that. Just use your strongest attacks, be it Giga Volt, or AuraBolt, or Gem Dust, or what have you. Nerapa has 2800 HP. If you played your cards right, you were doing 2800 in one attack back there against Atma Weapon. Once you've beaten Nerapa, you can walk over to the edge and the Blackjack will appear under you. The airship's below. Jump!! Wait!! But Shadow is still back there! If you choose to Jump!!, the entire Floating Continent will come crashing down with Shadow on it and you will never, ever see him again. If you choose to Wait!!, you'll do nothing and you'll get the option Jump!! Gotta wait for SHADOW... every time you walk up the ledge. You'll want to keep standing there. He might still show up. And he does, once the timer hits 0:04 Shadow will appear, make a smart remark in the middle of the Tempest of Destruction and Doom you find yourself in, and will jump down on the Blackjack with you. If you were goofing off in the menu during 0:04 he still appears if you get out of it between 0:04 and 0:01, but if you wait until time runs out you're just going down. So, Shadow was going to sacrifice himself to save the planet. Only: a) he doesn't sacrifice himself and b) the planet isn't saved. In the next cutscene, a lot of bad things happen. Congratulations. You try to rally in the Esper troops from behind the Sealed Gate; you send them on a murderous rampage. You try to talk peacefully to them; you deliver them straight to Kefka. You try to stop Gestahl; you destroy the world. A competent bunch of heroes, these Returners. Real smart. Planet: I'm apocalypsing! As a side note, all equipment from all characters is now de-equipped, but due to a bug you now receive the equipment of the generic Moogle Kamog, one of the Moogles that helped you rescue Terra way in the beginning. This means you win a Boomerang and a Buckler. For free! So, you know, it's not all bad. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.46.1 Intermezzo; The Solitary Island ********************************** Rise and shine, commander. Rise and shine. Opponents: Peepers, EarthGuard, Black Drgn Miscellaneous items: Elixir (Peepers steal), Megalixir (EarthGuard steal) No words can be used to describe the blasphemy of Kefka's act. By moving the Statues he has shaken the very foundations of this world; earthquakes, tremors, eruptions and floods ensued. While trying to escape the Floating Continent, the Blackjack was torn apart from under your feet. Celes Chere, ex-General of an Empire that may not even exist anymore, wakes up in a dirty shack. One year has passed the face of time; by a stroke of coincidence the person who found her and took care of her was none other than the person who did so during her Imperial-flavored youth: Cid. Cid himself, now, seems weakened and doesn't seem to possess much will to carry on whatsoever. The entire population of the island has either passed away or has killed themselves, so Celes takes it on herself to take care of him for a while; at least it will keep the ghosts of the past away. Preparation: Celes is entirely unequipped, so you should help her out a little in said regard. As far as Relics go, make sure she is equipped with either an Amulet or Ribbon, as one of the monsters on the Solitary Island uses !Bone- Powder, which turns a character into a Zombie. This is an instant Game Over if it hits, so protect yourself from it. Monster formations: (wastelands) Peepers, Peepers (10/16) Peepers, Peepers, Peepers (6/16) (desert) EarthGuard, Peepers, Peepers (10/16) Black Drgn (6/16) Peepers are silly buggers that don't so much classify as monsters as they do dying animals on a rotten world. With 1 HP and inherent Seizure, they more likely than not will perish before they make a move. If they do manage to take a turn, it's either Battle, !Tail (Battle * 1.5), or Pearl Wind, for which Peepers don't have enough MP for. EarthGuard only has one attack: !PoisonTail, which sets Poison. However, EarthGuard shares the fate of Peepers: 1 HP, inherent Seizure. Wandering into the desert without an Amulet or Ribbon is incredibly stupid, so !PoisonTail shouldn't affect you. Black Drgn is the only actual opponent with a fighting chance on the island. The first turn can already feature Sand Storm; the second turn Sand Storm and !BonePowder. Sand Storm is the thing to watch out for; Celes is by her lonesome, so she takes quite some damage here. You can instantly defeat Black Drgn by casting a Life spell on him. Personally I don't consider it a shadowy tactic when the undead monster in question lacks Death protection (like Black Drgn), but if you don't want to go for it, you can cast Stop on him (perhaps combined with Slow so that it really takes its sweet time to wear off) and pound on him in the meantime with Fire 2. Note: Peepers have a rare Elixir steal and EarthGuard have a rare Megalixir steal. Right now, this is of no consequence, as you can't steal; later I'll point it out again. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.46.2 Intermezzo; Saving Cid ********************************** Now, you'll have to watch out for Cid's health. There's a hidden health bar for the guy, which you need to maintain. If you manage to take it up to 256, Cid becomes permanently healthy; if you allow it to drop down to 30, he will die. Here's how it goes down: Cid's health starts at 120. Every second you spend in any place that isn't the Overworld Map, Cid will drop his health bar down by 1. On the beach, there are fish you can catch. You can simply try to grab them when they come near the tiles you can stand on. There are four types of Fish: Fish (slow moving). Decreases Health bar by 16 when fed to Cid. A Rotten Fish (medium speed). Decreases Health bar by 4 when fed to Cid. Just a Fish (medium speed). Increases Health bar by 16 when fed to Cid. A Yummy Fish (fast moving). Increases Healthy bar by 32 when fed to Cid. All of these are Rare items. Once you've captured a kind of Fish, there's no way to get rid of it other than feeding it to Cid. The effects of the Fish you have caught are cumulative; if you have captured a Fish, a Rotten Fish, and a Yummy Fish, Cid will gain (-16 - 4 + 32 =) 12 points of health. 231 - 255 My dear, I ... feel I'm not going to be around much longer... 201 - 230 CELES, thanks for all you've done for me! 161 - 200 HackAck!! I feel a little better! 121 - 160 Cough...wheeze...I can't bear this any longer... 91 - 120 I...I'm not long for this cruel new world ... 61 - 90 My worst nightmare is to think of you alone here on this wretched island ... hack ... wheeze!! 31 - 60 Cough...hack...ACK!! While I can still talk, I...wheeze...pant...want to thank you...cough! 0 - 30 Good-bye... Whether or not Cid lives or dies has little impact other than, you know, it's Cid who lives or dies and Celes who reacts to it. Regardless of your efforts, Celes will get off the island fairly quickly: ----- Cid lives ----- After you've surpassed the 256 limit on Cid's Health bar, he's been successfully saved from death, he'll say: "I feel much better! Thanks, Celes!" and leave the bed. CELES: What's up? CID: CELES...the project that kept me going over the past year is down below. Go have a look at it! At this point, you can indeed take the look Cid urges you to take. It's a raft! CELES: Granddad. CID: CELES... You must leave this place. You have to find your friends! CELES: I know... But I'll bring 'em all back to meet you! CID: That LOCKE fellow, too, no doubt... (Switch to the beach, where Celes has dragged the raft to. She waves Cid goodbye and leaves the island) ----- Cid dies ----- After you've hit 30 or below and Celes is in the room, Cid will say "Good-bye...". If you enter the room with Cid's health at 30 or below, Cid will be dead. (Cid:) ... ... CELES: Granddad. You have to eat, or else... W...what's the matter? CELES: Cid... CELES: No...NO!! CELES: Granddad, ANSWER ME! Tell me you're just joking! (Celes flees the cabin, crying. Slowly, she crosses the Overworld map to a cliff to the north, which you could enter earlier. Here, she finds a lifeless bird. By examining it, a memory of Cid arises) CID: Those others who were here...when they were feeling down they'd take a leap of faith from the cliffs up north...perked 'em right up! CELES: Everyone's gone.... Even LOCKE, who promised to watch over me... The world's slowly ebbing away... Celes, closing her eyes, hesitates a moment. Then, she throws herself off the cliff. In the American version, Ted Woolsey was forced to make Celes' moment here a 'leap of joy'. What you're seeing here though, is Celes giving it all up and trying to commit suicide. In the Japanese game, she remembers Cid's words on how almost everybody has killed him or herself. One person dove off this very cliff. Nintendo at the time felt this was unfit to release to the American audience and had the Remake team change it to a more... positive moment. Celes comes to at the same beach she used to catch fish on. A bird is beside her. CELES: Phew... Why did you nurse me back to health? Did I ever ask you to help me?! CELES: A bandana??? No...it can't be... CELES: Hey, you! Where'd you get this?! Is the person who healed you still alive? Answer me! (The bird flies off) CELES: He's alive... LOCKE's still alive!!! If the unexplained magical healing properties of the bird confuse you, the Japanese game just states the bird protected Celes. How exactly it did THAT is as mysterious as the bird healing her, though. If you go inside Cid's shack now, you'll find a letter on the ground. By examining it, you'll learn it says: You need to leave! The others are surely waiting for you! Find the stairs next to the stove. Down them lies your road to freedom. Love, Granddad After pulling the raft from its resting place, Celes stands on the beach and laments. CELES: I'll make you proud of me...Granddad... (Off she goes.) - The debate over Cid's life is surprisingly adamant when you take into consideration that it doesn't really affect gameplay. Most people tend to think letting Cid die is the best way out of the situation; not only is catching fish a tedious enterprise, the consequences of Cid's demise give depth to the character of Celes. Others try to keep him alive for the sole reason that he is one of the major NPCs and this game's Cid. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.47.1 The World of Ruin ********************************** Opponents: Mesosaur, Gilomantis, Peepers, Chitonid, Gigan Toad, EarthGuard, Black Drgn, Osprey Miscellaneous items: Elixir (rare Peepers steal), Megalixir (rare EarthGuard steal) Staying on an island with nothing but sickly animals to keep you company is not what anybody would consider leading a rich and fulfilling life. It's time to see how badly this world has turned out; if the Empire is still standing with Kefka leading it, if any of that rogue squadron of Returners has survived; in other words, if there is still hope. Preparation: You can take your Zombie-protection off now if you want. Replace it with something that protects against Petrify for now (Ribbon or Jewel Ring will do). Try to apply the Clear status ASAP as it protects you from anything if you're smart. Since the enemies here are actually worth a damn, you'll want to equip a Morning Star and move to the Back Row if the whole Vanish thing isn't working out for you for whatever reason. You wake up near Albrook. You can go in right away, but for now, I'll give a quick run-down on the monsters in the area. Monster formations: Grasslands Mesosaur, Mesosaur (10/16) Gilomantis, Mesosaur (6/16) Wastelands, east Lunaris, Lunaris (10/16) Chitonid, Gigan Toad, Gigan Toad (6/16) Wastelands, west Lunaris, Osprey (10/16) Osprey, Chitonid, Gigan Toad (6/16) Forest Mesosaur, Mesosaur, Mesosaur, Mesosaur (10/16) Gilomantis, Gilomantis, Mesosaur (6/16) Desert EarthGuard, Peepers, Peepers (10/16) Black Drgn (6/16) Mesosaur is a small dinosaur whose name is derived from the prefix 'meso', which means 'middle'. Mesosaurea in our world were little swimming buggers 'famous' for being the first land-based animals to return to the sea; in this world, they are Battle/Special cannon fodder with a weakness to Ice. This is note-worthy; dinosaurs and lizards in general have a weakness to Ice. Mesosaurea will use Escape unless they are by themselves, in which case they'll stand to fight. !T. Lash causes Seizure. Gilomantis use Battle. When they are targeted by Fight, they sometimes use !Sickle, which is a more advanced way of inflicting damage or something. I wonder, if not with their sickles, how they normally attack you. They seem to have a wicked sharp stinger; maybe they slash with it. Regardless, they are kind of boring. Heh. Gigan Toads are cool. See, they're toads, and they're gargantuan. This makes them inherently violent, attacking with Battle, !Croak (damage), Slimer (sets Slow, looks spiffy), and Rippler. Rippler is an attack of utmost danger, but Gigan Toad lacks the MP to pull it off. Lunaris is Lobo WoR style. Rather than using !Bite to inflict damage, they use !Face Bite to blind (although I can't imagine a bite to the face that blinds and doesn't actually hurt as well). Stuff to plow through. Osprey is the only monster that actually is worth a damn right now. Not only can it pull off a !Beak attack in its third turn to petrify you, it will rarely retort with a Shimsham attack if you use Magic on it. Chitonid is normal Battle/Special stuff (!Carapace damages. Also, !Carapace refers to the dorsal section of an exoskeleton or shell found in a number of animal groups!) with one annoying habit: if it's by itself, it can counter any damaging attack with Sneeze. This tends to come into play if you employ a fatal MT attack to the entire monster party. Take out Chitonid first. Just walk around here and kill stuff with your attacks. Should you have Clear status and lose it again due to Slimer, Sneeze, or Shimsham, re-apply it. Kill Chitonid first, never use Magic on Osprey, and don't linger with Gigan Toads and you should be invulnerable. Eh...yeah. You'll want to go into Albrook now. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.47.2 Albrook ********************************** Welcome to Albrook. It's nice to see there are still some signs of civilization left. It's time to gather some info on this strange new world; after all, it can't be expected everybody took a full year's nap. Weapon Shop: Flame Sabre 7000 Blizzard 7000 ThunderBlade 7000 You should be both familiar with and possessive of these weapons, but if you for one reason or another want to have more of them, you can buy them here. I'd be a tight-ass about my cash right now if I were you, though. These weapons should be noted for their great use with the Throw command; they are basically elemental Ninja Stars; if you have great amounts of cash in the future, you can Throw these for insane damage if the target is weak against the element. For now, keep hold of your GP. Armor Shop: Gold Shld 2500 Bard's Hat 3000 Green Beret 3000 Gold Helmet 4000 Gold Armor 10000 Nothing new here, and nothing you should specifically want any more of. Relic Shop: Sprint Shoes 1500 Atlas Armlet 5000 Earrings 5000 Barrier Ring 500 MithrilGlove 700 True Knight 1000 Wall Ring 6000 Jewel Ring 1000 These must be tough times if a Relic shop owner can get away with selling rubbish like this. If you don't have a Jewel Ring or a Ribbon, definitely buy a Jewel Ring here. Item Shop: Potion 300 Tincture 1500 Fenix Down 500 Revivify 300 Remedy 1000 Sleeping Bag 500 Smoke Bomb 300 Warp Stone 700 If the Floating Continent was harsh on your supplies, you can restock some now. Make sure you have some Revivifies, and Sleeping Bags are, at the moment, cheaper versions of Tents, as you're traveling by your lonesome. Hidden Items: If you haven't picked them up in the WoB, there's a Potion in the barrel next to the Inn, a Tincture in the pot in the Weapon Shop, an Elixir in the clock in the Relic Shop/Cafe, and a Warp Stone in one of the crates on the docks. Also, two empty chests in the Armor Shop. Smiling happy people, walking on sunshine. Only kind of not. Albrook turned into a rather depressing mess of a town. The situation is bad. Kefka is ruling the world. Monsters abound. Albrook's port, once a thriving capital of aquatic travel and trade, is derelict. Your only hope is the rumor of a man who passed through Albrook recently, a man with the same shimmer of hope in his eyes. Hardly constructive, but worth a shot. The Japanese game makes specific mention of a 'monk' here. Albrook doesn't seem like a place to hang around in anyway. It's time to leave. It's time to see what became of Vector, Maranda, and Tzen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.48.1 En route to Tzen ********************************** Opponents: Mesosaur, Gilomantis, Peepers, Chitonid, Gigan Toad, EarthGuard, Osprey Miscellaneous items: Elixir (rare Peepers steal), Megalixir (rare EarthGuard steal) Monster formations: Grasslands Mesosaur, Mesosaur (10/16) Gilomantis, Mesosaur (6/16) Wastelands, east Lunaris, Lunaris (10/16) Chitonid, Gigan Toad, Gigan Toad (6/16) Wastelands, west Lunaris, Osprey (10/16) Osprey, Chitonid, Gigan Toad (6/16) Forest Mesosaur, Mesosaur, Mesosaur, Mesosaur (10/16) Gilomantis, Gilomantis, Mesosaur (6/16) Desert EarthGuard, Peepers, Peepers (10/16) Black Drgn (6/16) Back on the Overworld Map, you'll soon notice that Vector is no more and has been replaced by a tower. This is Kefka's seat, from where he rules the world. That's nice. Maranda has been broken off the continent to the west. Luckily, Tzen is still there. Note: As soon as you enter Tzen, you'll be sucked into a side-quest from where you'l emerge with Sabin. If you do not have either a Ribbon or a Jewel Ring on you, it is a bad idea to do this now; head back and purchase one in Albrook. But even if you are fully capable of completing the next bit, there are reasons to skip this section. There are advantages and disadvantages to consider; it's a World of Ruin dilemma. I'll list them here, but they may contain some minor spoilers: Advantages of skipping: - The next dungeon and the trek towards it will be completed with Celes alone if you skip your visit to Tzen, making her level up faster. Since other character's level depends on your current team's average (at this point only Celes) you will recruit other characters at a higher level automatically. - If you skip this side-quest, you will wind up with four characters whose level has been determined once you gain a new mode of transportation. This allows you to easily train these four characters, at which point you can recuit the others at the suitably inflated level. - Makes eventually completing this side-quest easier with more people on your team, though this is quite trivial Disadvantages of skipping: - Makes the next dungeon and the trek towards it somewhat harder, though it's not a difficult part of the game even with Celes only. - Makes an optional side-quest at this point, that allows you to obtain an Esper a bit earlier, significantly more difficult to the point it may not be wise to attempt it. - Inflates Celes' level and with that other characters. This is basically a good thing, but it prevents you from training these character's levels with the level-up boosts you'd potentially like to give them. For a first-time or somewhat casual player, I'd recommend diving into Tzen; it's on the way and Celes has been lonely long enough. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.48.2 Tzen; the Light of Judgment ********************************** When you step up the stairs, a disaster occurs! The Light of Judgment hits the town, and it quickly becomes clear that a child is trapped in one of the collapsing houses. Holding up the mansion is a familiar face: Sabin Rene Figaro, wandering heir to the throne of Figaro! It's good to see him still alive, but the situation asks for action. Leaving is impossible, as a citizen will ask you to stay and help: "Come on!! Please help!" As soon as you stand in front of the door Sabin will start talking to you and a timer will start, so let's see what you can do beforehand: Before you enter the house to save the child, you *can* get some healing at the Inn (you won't spend the night, but you'll get some sparkly action going on) and you can shop at the three shops Tzen has to offer. Weapon Shop: Kaiser 1000 Poison Claw 2500 Flame Sabre 7000 Blizzard 7000 ThunderBlade 7000 Fire Knuckle10000 It's nice to have two of each Claws. The Kaiser is too weak at this point, so you can ignore it. If you don't have two Poison Claws stock up until you do, and you're bound to miss at least one Fire Knuckle. Grab it, as a boss battle in the future could use double Fire Knuckles. Armor Shop: Gold Shld 2500 Beret 3500 Tiger Mask 2500 Gold Helmet 4000 Power Sash 5000 Gold Armor 10000 Berets for sale, so you could buy one if you missed it at the FC. The rest of the merchandise here is old news. Relic Shop: DragoonBoots 9000 Sneak Ring 3000 Black Belt 5000 Back Guard 7000 Sniper Sight 3000 Peace Ring 3000 Jewel Ring 1000 Amulet 5000 Sneak Rings for sale are new, but they don't help you. What you do want is a Jewel Ring if you still haven't bought one. Last chance, honest. Item Shop: Potion 300 Tincture 1500 Green Cherry 150 Fenix Down 500 Echo Screen 120 Revivify 300 Sleeping Bag 500 Super Ball 10000 In this time of turmoil, an entirely new item has appeared in the Item Shop: the Super Ball. Unseen by many, shunned by many, forgotten by many, the Super Ball is an item that deals damage in combat to random target for a random amount of damage. To be more precise: Super Ball deals 256, 512, 768, 1024, 1280, 1536, 1792, or 2048 HP damage against 1, 2, 3, or 4 randomly decided targets. If it the same monster is targeted twice by the Super Ball, he is hit twice, meaning that the damage can exceed 2048 HP. In short: Super Balls are very expensive, entirely random and most of the time not impressive enough to warrant its usage. Yes, in theory a Super Ball could do a total of 4 x 2048 = 8192 damage against a single target, which is insane at the moment, but I've never seen it do even remotely that kind of damage. Buy one if you want to fill your inventory, but you won't find a lot of use for them in most circumstances. When you're done shopping while everybody else is panicking, try to save the child by entering the house. For curiosity's sake, I've listed the responses given by the running townsmen and women if you manage to catch their attention: (Guy) Must have irritated Kefka... (Merchant) There are monsters inside! They keep petrifying everyone who goes in to help. You using suitable Relics? (Old man) We resisted Kefka, so he unleashed his Light of Judgment on us! (Old woman) Hurry, or the house'll collapse! Before you get near the mansion, set Celes up like this: Break Blade/Blizzard/ThunderBlade/Flame Sabre Gold Shld Mystery Veil Gold Armor/Gaia Gear Black Belt (vital!) Jewel Ring/Ribbon (likewise!) As soon as you stand in front of the door, you'll have your conversation with Sabin and the timer (6:00) will start running. If you are still outside of the house while the timer runs out, you get a Game Over: your screen will display Sabin saying: "I...I...I'm losing my grip...Keep up the fight, brother!" in an entirely black background. It doesn't matter if you're outdoors or indoors: Game Over, man. Better get in there and save that child. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.48.3 The Collapsing House ********************************** Opponents: HermitCrab, Pm Stalker, Scorpion Container contents: Drainer, Heal Rod, Hyper Wrist, Magicite, Pearl Rod, Tincture, Monster-in-a- box (Pm Stalker x4), Monster-in-a-box (Pm Stalker x4) Magicite: Sraphim Preparation: Black Belt and petrification protection, right? Monster formations: Scorpion, Scorpion, Scorpion (10/16) HermitCrab, HermitCrab, Pm Stalker (6/16) The Scorpion is the main annoyance in this house while the HermitCrab is the most dangerous. Meeting three Scorpion monsters will make you want to use MT magic violence, but their Magic Defense is through the roof, you don't have any barrier-piercing attacks at your disposal and using Fight three times takes a long time when time is of the essence. Hence the Black Belt; Scorpions will use !Doom Sting (sets Condemned) followed by Battle, so there's plenty of physical attacks to take advantage of, especially because Celes is alone anyway. HermitCrab have two attacks to fear. The first is Net; you may remember it from your fight against Marshal way, way back. Net stops, which is bad if you want to hurry (you want to hurry). They won't use it until their third turn though, so no worries as you will have killed them by then. Their other dangerous attack is !Rock. It petrifies, and is only used when a HermitCrab is alone and damaged by you. Sadly, this scenario includes MT killing everything on the battlefield. Protect yourself from ridicule and enjoy that Jewel Ring or Ribbon I advised you. Pm Stalkers are cannon fodder with a nice name; Pm stands for Post Mortem. Still stalking. They will use Drain, which is sad as this prevents total invulnerability by means of Vanish. It tends to do either 0 or 6 damage (6 is the damage a single Seizure hit inflicts). That's it. You can take them all out with an MT Fire 2 spell or Ifrit's Inferno. Use Fight and enjoy your counters during Scorpion battles, and MT Fire 2 spells or similar kinds of violence will suffice against everything else. Note: If you started this scenario later, you should have more characters. Edgar's AutoCrossbow is very nice against the Scorpions, so you don't really need the Black Belt on anybody. Make sure everybody is protected against Petrify though. I could talk and talk about your options if you have other characters, but since this entire bit was designed to be doable with only one character, a full team will have so little trouble here that explaining what to do would be insulting your position as a person capable of abstract thought. If you walk through the hallway, you'll come across a chest at the end. This contains a Heal Rod; make absolutely sure you grab it. Turn left and you'll see a chamber with a chest in it. The chest contains a Pearl Rod; go out the same way you got in. Continue to the left and you'll see two chests. The one in reach contains a Tincture, the one near the stairs leading downwards contains a monster-in-a-box (Pm Stalker x4). Go down the stairway and go up to the high living room or whatever it is. The right chest contains a Magicite shard, in the middle is the kid (grab it), and the left chest contains, again, the same monster-in-a-box of four Pm Stalkers. The one room here you didn't pass through contains a Drainer in a chest. Grab it if you like. Leave this mess. Upstairs and to the bottom is one chest you missed: it contains a Hyper Wrist. Grab it if you have the time, there's really no use for yet another one of these Relics. Sell it or something. If you're done, get out. Outside, the kid is safe and so is Sabin. There's hope! Yatta! Etcetera. Sabin joins the party. Note that at the end of the world, all characters except for Celes where removed from the roster, so to speak, so that Sabin's new WoR level will be calculated based on the average level of re-recruited characters only, in this case only Celes. This will be the case for all characters you (re-)acquire in this brave new world. If you haven't bought Sraphim yet, now's your chance to do so for only 10 GP. The world's going to heck in a hand basket... just look at this weird stone! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.49.1 The Serpent Trench ********************************** Opponents: Mesosaur, Gilomantis, Chitonid, Gigan Toad, Osprey, Delta Bug, Bloompire, Lizard, Buffalax. Black Drgn Miscellaneous items: Drainer (rare Lizard steal) This part, again, is optional. You get another Esper out of it, an encounter with another of your friends, and a boss battle. If you want to press on immediately, there's no rush and you can always get back later. In the tail of the Serpent Trench lies Mobliz, a town that got fried by the Light of Judgment earlier. Maybe it's time to take a look? It's not exactly on your way, but... do you even have anywhere specific to go now? Preparation: Equip an Amulet or Ribbon on Celes and Sabin! One of the monsters can turn you into a Zombie in the very first turn, and you'd be surprised how easy a Game Over is to obtain when one character is chewing on the brains of another. Monster formations: Grasslands Mesosaur, Mesosaur (10/16) Gilomantis, Mesosaur (6/16) Wastelands, west Lunaris, Lunaris (10/16) Chitonid, Gigan Toad, Gigan Toad (6/16) Wastelands, east Lunaris, Osprey (10/16) Osprey, Chitonid, Gigan Toad (6/16) Grasslands, Serpent Trench Bloompire, Bloompire, Lizard (6/16) Bloompire, Bloompire (5/16) Buffalax (5/16) Wastelands, Serpent Trench Buffalax, Delta Bug, Delta Bug (10/16) Delta Bug, Delta Bug, Delta Bug, Delta Bug (6/16) Northwest wastelands, Serpent Trench Delta Bug, Delta Bug, Delta Bug, Delta Bug (6/16) Buffalax, Lizard (5/16) Bloompire, Bloompire, Delta Bug (5/16) Forests, Serpent Trench Bloompire, Bloompire, Lizard (6/16) Bloompire, Bloompire (5/16) Buffalax (5/16) Three new monsters on the Serpent Trench: Buffalax are sickly animals that attack out of desperation. If you wait for four turns he'll swap his normal Battle attack with a !Riot, Battle, Battle combo. Gasp thrice! !Riot is merely Battle * 1.5, so there's Nothing to worry about. If he's hit by a Magic spell, he might counter with Sun Bath. So don't. Delta Bug uses Battle, !Rush (Battle * 1.5) and Mega Volt. Mega Volt is entirely too weak to worry about, but it does remove Clear status, and that's annoying. Let's see here... its name comes from the Greek symbol Delta, which was a triangle. I'm introducing you to a whole new world here, am I not? MT Fire 2 spells and/or the Fire Dance Blitz is the way to go. Bloompire are the most dangerous enemies here. They can start the fight off with Battle or !Energy Sap, which sets Zombie. The second turn can feature the Bio spell, which you don't want. The thing about Bloompire is their defenses: 254 Defense, 254 Magic Defense. They compensate by having only 12 HP, but still. Since they're undead, the best way to penetrate those defenses is by an MT Cure spell on them. Celes is bound to know it. Otherwise, MT Fire 2 spells and Fire Dance can get the job done if tweaked a little. Check how strong your flaming is to learn if this is a better option for you. Whenever Delta Bug appear, Fire Dance is a good idea to clean them all up in one go, as is an MT Fire 2 spell, if you lack Sabin. Buffalax is also weak to Fire-elemental attacks, so if you find a lone Celes facing one, just go with that element and hope he doesn't use Sun Bath. Bloompire is best disposed of with an MT Cure spell (on them, obviously). It's a good idea to cast Vanish on yourself; while the second turn of both Delta Bug and Bloompire can remove your Clear status with Mega Volt and the Bio spell, respectively, but you shouldn't let it come that far. Find the bridge to the Serpent Trench and walk up to the tail. When you're almost there, you can find a Chocobo Stable in the forest just south of the town of Mobliz. Regardless, you're here: Mobliz. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.49.2 The tail of the Serpent Trench; Mobliz ********************************** Opponents: Phunbaba Container contents: Fenix Down Lores: Blow Fish Magicite: Fenrir [PHUNBABA1-LINK] Preparation: There will be a boss battle here, so I want you to prepare for it. Ideally, you have Sabin with you, who I suggest you give a Hero Ring, Genji Glove, and two Poison Claws. Equipping Golem on either will be a good asset. Just keep Celes the way you like her, but make sure she can use Runic. If you don't have Sabin, the next battle will be very tough. Equip a Wall Ring and a Hero Ring, and save on the Overworld Map. Definitely have Golem on Celes if she's flying solo here. When you enter Mobliz, two dogs will start barking and a kid comes running out of a house before re-entering it. Before you follow him, grab the Fenix Down on one of the three barrels by the other burned house. You can take a nap in the bed of the abandoned Relic Shop for HP/MP restoration. When you enter the house, you can grab the Elixir in the clock if you didn't in the WoB. Go down the stairs to find a whole bunch of kids, Duane and Katarin and ...Terra! But as the cutscene progresses, you'll learn the situation is more complicated than 'hey-ho, let's go', and Terra refuses to leave. When you go outside (before you do, make sure you're fully equipped for the fight), a kid will come screaming in that Phunbaba is coming! You heard about Phunbaba in Albrook, a demon from the ancient world. Terra goes out to defend the children. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.49.3 The fight with Phunbaba ********************************** Phunbaba (# 1) Level: 26, HP: 60000, MP: 10000 Absorbs: Lightning, Weakness: Poison Special: !Solar Plex: Battle x 3 Sketch : !Solar Plex, Battle Control: Battle, !Solar Plex Vulnerable to: Nothing Attacks: Battle, !Solar Plex, Bolt 2, Bolt 3, Blow Fish Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions This battle is a scripted battle. Terra won't be able to deliver any damage as Phunbaba is blessed by the same kind of invulnerability as WoB Guardian was. Terra can slave away with physicals: 0 damage. She can cast Fire 2, Bio, and Drain: 0 damage (although she'll obtain HP from Drain). Terra is supposed to lose here. So, don't use Morph or Elixirs or anything. There is a way to circumvent the fixed outcome of the fight, and that's by using Vanish/Doom. This is only possible in the SNES versions though, as Square made the Vanish spell miss against this Phunbaba in the PSX versions. But it doesn't matter if you lose or win by cheating (it doesn't get you any items or MP either); the outcome will be entirely the same. Terra will be lying on the ground, facedown, and whoever came for her (most likely Celes and Sabin, but anything is possible) comes to her aid. Phunbaba (# 2) Level: 26, HP: 28000, MP: 10000 Absorbs: Lightning, Weakness: Poison Special: !Solar Plex: Battle x 3 Sketch : !Solar Plex, Battle Control: Battle, !Solar Plex Vulnerable to: Nothing Attacks: Battle, !Solar Plex, Bolt 2, Bolt 3, Blow Fish, Escape Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions Joker Doom: No. The game prevents you from spinning 7-7-7 in this battle. This is better. Phunbaba will start the battle with a physical, be it either Battle or !Solar Plex. Then, he'll start using Bolt 2 and Bolt 3 spells; finally, he can use Blow Fish, which is ill received, as 1000 damage is nothing to laugh at when it's coming for you. Phunbaba's name, if you're wondering, comes from the old Babylonian heroic poem 'Gilgamesh'. He was a monster there. He got killed, too. If you have a Celes/Sabin team, have Sabin use his dual Poison Claws for great damage. Don't bother with Celes her damage output; have her on Runic standby. Both should start the battle by calling up Golem's Earth Wall if they have him equipped. If Sabin is weak, you should break the Runic guard to cure him. Smack Phunbaba with Sabin's fists until he runs off. If you have a solo Celes party, summon Golem to start, and fill all other turns by casting Bio (or, lacking Bio, Ice 2) as quickly as you can. Fighting this guy with Celes only is a risk as no matter what you do, Blow Fish is very dangerous and Phunbaba can kill you. If you're low at HP, sneak in an X-Potion or Elixir. Any other team needs little guidance; you've obviously been around the world, have collected at least four characters, and have better equipment than you need to have. Bio spells come in handy. What else is there to say? Setzer can't spin Joker Doom here. The best Dance is Earth Blues, while the home dance, Wind Song is nigh worthless. Vaporite absorbs Bolt 2 and Bolt 3 while dealing acceptable damage, although a purple Mag Roader Rage with a Wall Ring is better. After Phunbaba storms off, Terra once again claims she won't be able to fight for you. When you try to leave, the kid at the entrance gives you your first new gem of happiness: the Esper Fenrir. The Japanese game makes mention of the Fenrir Magicite being a part of Phunbaba's dropped necklace. Equip it if no other Espers appear to teach better spells at the moment (X-Zone is nice, but not as strategic as Stop, Vanish, Mute, etc.). Note: If you already found the Falcon at this point, you can simply leave Mobliz and return to finally put a permanent stop to Phunbaba and recruit Terra. Read all about that here: [PHUNBABA2-LINK] Leave. We're going to the head of the Serpent Trench now; you can grab a Chocobo from the Chocobo Stable in the forest, it's ideal for long cross-country hikes like this. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.50.1 The head of the Serpent Trench; Nikeah ********************************** Welcome to Nikeah! Being pretty much the least important town in the entire WoB, some have chosen to mock it for its useless northern part where only the Inn is. Truly, Nikeah is not the best-looking town you've come across so far, but the in-game equivalent of total blasted doomsday just happened; I don't think we can judge less-then-perfect aesthetics right now. Weapon Shop: Rune Edge 7500 Flame Sabre 7000 Blizzard 7000 ThunderBlade 7000 Enhancer 10000 You probably already have at least one Rune Edge (either from grabbing the chest in the Moogle Cave or from Stealing it from Number 024 back in the day), but they are actually for sale now. Don't buy them; even with their MP-driven auto-critical they are not as strong as a normal blow from the great new weapon that's also for sale: the Enhancer. Grab three. What does the Enhancer do? First off, it gives a +7 bonus to your Magic Power, which is very nice, Also, it grants the wielder an extra 20% MBlock, which in this game, what with the Evade bug and all, is very, very nice indeed. I suggest you grab three and put two of them on Celes with a Genji Glove. The Enhancer really is a great weapon, and could be considered a weapon you want to keep equipped until the very end of the game in certain scenarios. Armor Shop: Diamond Shld 3500 Bard's Hat 3000 Green Beret 3000 Diamond Helm 8000 Gaia Gear 6000 Power Sash 5000 Diamond Vest12000 Entirely new items for sale in this Armor Shop! Victory galore. I'd grab one Diamond Shld, but don't equip it on Celes as her dual Enhancers will be much nicer. Ignore the Diamond Helm entirely; there are better helmets out there still (Mystery Veil, Bard's Hat, Green Beret). Grab ONE Diamond Vest and give it to Sabin. There'll be something nicer for Celes in a short while and Diamond equipment is crazy expansive (who would've guessed, huh). Relic Shop: White Cape 5000 Cure Ring 8000 Zephyr Cape 7000 Gale Hairpin 8000 Hyper Wrist 8000 Beads 4000 Amulet 5000 Czarina Ring 3000 "You took one look at me and thought I was a loser, right? You're obligated to buy from me now!" Oddest sentence of the entire game, if you ask me. Anyway, his merchandise isn't very special, except for the fact he has Beads for sale, whose only use lies in saving them up for the next Mardi Gras. Also, Cure Rings for sale; they were 20000 GP in the Auction House, so it's a relative bargain here. Cure Rings still suck though, and you could've gotten all the Cure Rings you ever wanted back on the FC. Other items for sale that previously weren't include Zephyr Capes (useless; White Capes are better, period), Gale Hairpins (one is enough), and Czarina Rings (Cute, those trigger-spell-when-Near-Fatal Relics, but hardly useful). Item Shop: Potion 300 Tincture 1500 Soft 200 Fenix Down 500 Revivify 300 Remedy 1000 Sleeping Bag 500 Tent 1200 Stock up if you want. Word on the street says that Figaro Castle has had an accident and that the South Figaro ferry is about to leave. However, if you talk to the captain of the ship, hoping for a lift, he tells you the ship belongs to the Crimson Robbers, the thieves that escaped the cells of Figaro Castle when it had the accident. They're in the Cafe. In the Cafe, talking to all of them reveals their story. Stuck in jail, they had the fortune of being freed by sandworms. Their boss perished, but their new leader Gerad will lead them into Figaro Castle to get their booty back. The thieves all leave the Cafe, but on-board they are still waiting for Gerad, who's still somewhere in town. When you walk into town, the lost king of Figaro is seen! However, he insists he is Gerad, the cunning leader of the Crimson Robbers. It seems the fact 'Gerad' is an anagram of 'Edgar' is mere coincidence. Follow him every time he tries to walk off, and eventually you'll sneak onto the ferry. Note: A lot of people find it strange that Sabin doesn't specifically react to this semi-Edgar. One could blame the fact Sabin isn't a mandatory character at this point, but few know there actually IS a line for Sabin at this point, it's just never accessed in the game. Here it is: SABIN: What's going on, here? Brother!! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.51.1 South Figaro; Gerad and the Crimson Robbers ********************************** Opponents: Commander, Vector Pup Container contents: Elixir, Fenix Down x2, Revivify, Tent x2, X-Potion South Figaro had only a taste of freedom again when the world collapsed. Invaded by the Empire, martial law, a king who has run off leaving other people to govern, an apocalypse; South Figaro has had it rough. But the people here haven't given up hope. They're rebuilding the houses and managing their affairs as good as they can. We could admire this kind of determination. Weapon Shop: Trident 1700 Stout Spear 10000 Enhancer 10000 Gold Lance 12000 The only new item here is the Gold Lance. As you could guess, it's a Lance stronger than the Stout Spear. While I think the Gold Lance looks kinda nice in combat, I would still prefer the Enhancer over the Gold Lance any day, so I won't tell you to buy one now, as in the next boss battle, the weapon with the highest Bat. Pwr will be automatically equipped on a character. Since the Enhancer provides the important benefit of 20 Mblock% while the Gold Lance doesn't, it's better to keep it out of your inventory. Although nothing will be said, you'll get a 50% discount if Edgar is your leading party member. Armor Shop: Diamond Shld 3500 Bard's Hat 3000 Green Beret 3000 Diamond Helm 8000 Gaia Gear 6000 Diamond Vest12000 DiamondArmor15000 I told you to hold off buying new equipment for Celes in Nikeah: the Diamond Armor is the reason. I suggest you buy two if possible; your GP will be running fairly low by now, but you'll thank me for it in the future. You could try selling some stuff you're sure you'll never use again, such as Hyper Wrists, Beads and the like. Although nothing will be said, you'll get a 50% discount if Edgar is your leading party member. Relic Shop: Goggles 500 Star Pendant 500 Fairy Ring 1500 Amulet 5000 RunningShoes 7000 Wall Ring 6000 Cure Ring 8000 Czarina Ring 3000 There's nothing here that you want. Two RunningShoes will be nice in the future, but you should already have at least two of them from chests. More importantly, make absolutely sure you don't leave before you have enough Amulets to protect four party members against Zombie (Ribbons also do this). This is vital. Although nothing will be said, you'll get a 50% discount if Edgar is your leading party member. Item Shop: Potion 300 Tincture 1500 Eyedrop 50 Echo Screen 120 Fenix Down 500 Revivify 300 Remedy 1000 Tent 1200 Stock those stockings if your stockings need stocking. The first time you arrived here, there was plenty to do. Now, the action in South Figaro is slightly less. Points of interest: - The four members of the Crimson Robbers can be found all over town. Here's what they have to say: "We're storming Figaro Castle! That treasure's rightfully ours!" (two) "Some guy came through here a little while ago looking for some secret treasure." "Souvenir of the Empire, anyone?!" (Standing over at an abandoned MagiTek Armor) The middle line there is rather odd for a thief that just escaped from jail, got to Nikeah and now just returned to South Figaro. In addition, a 'normal' South Figaro inhabitant says "We may be thieves, but at least we have goals in our lives!" There's no saying for sure, but it's likely those lines were accidentally swapped around. - A couple sexing each other up in the trees at the edge of town can be disturbed if you want to: "For each life lost, a new one arrives to fill the void! Okay! Nothing's gonna stop us!" (guy runs off) & "Oh...! That person!" (girl runs off) - Commander and Vector Pup opponents can still be found in the dungeon where Celes and Locke escaped from in the WoB. This is obviously an error as there's really no story-related reason for them to be there anymore. - The little daughter of the richest man in town, who mentioned the Clock Key earlier in the WoB, now talks about jumping and turtles. Crazy talk from a crazy person, probably. - Duncan is still alive! His wife informs you that he's meditating just north of Narshe. If there's some time in the future, we should definitely get Sabin to Duncan. We owe that to Sabin. When you find Gerad in the room of the Inn, he'll immediately leave and take the Crimson Robbers with him, still insisting that he is not Edgar. Still, Edgar or not, you'll want to follow him to see what his plans for Figaro Castle are. If it's Edgar, you'll want to know what the hell is going on; if it's not, we should defend the property of Figaro in Edgar's absence. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.51.2 Pursuing Gerad and the Crimon Robbers ********************************** Opponents: Sand Horse, Maliga, Latimeria, Nohrabbit Preparation: If you have Float, cast it on your party. That's about it. Grasslands Nohrabbit, Nohrabbit, Nohrabbit (always) Wastelands Maliga, Maliga, Nohrabbit, Nohrabbit (always) Desert Maliga, Maliga, Maliga (6/16) Sand Horse, Sand Horse (5/16) Sand Horse, Maliga, Maliga (5/16) Forest Latimeria (10/16) Latimeria, Nohrabbit, Nohrabbit, Nohrabbit (6/16) Nohrabbit is one of the few enemies in the game with a Magic Power high enough to supersede that of your characters (30), but you needn't fear; the only spells these guys cast are Cure, Cure 2, and Remedy, and for some reason unknown to man they cast it on you... when hit by Fight. Under normal circumstances you'll find them smacking you with Battle or !Carrot (Battle * 1.5, and the name is subject of ridicule by itself), but why bunnies would want to cure you upon slaughter is just silly. There were healing bunnies in FF V as well, but they tended to actually help themselves. Maybe it's a reflex reaction? Maliga is just an upgraded version of Exocite. Battle, !Scissors, a chance at a double !Scissors when they are alone. !Scissors is boring Battle * 1.5 shtuff. Exocite were water-based, but these wretches occupy the deserts; they are weak against Ice and Water. Latimeria resembles Anguiform, but that's where the similarities end. Anguiform had an exceedingly strong Special; Latimeria has the normal Battle * 1.5 !Wind-Up attack. Instead of being a creature of water and using Aqua Rake, Latimeria uses Magnitude8 on a regular basis. Weak against Lightning and immune to ID. Finally, Discovery Channel Fact: a Latimeria is a fish! Why the hell they made it a land crawler defies reason. Sand Horse is the most dangerous enemy here. Under normal circumstances they will repeatedly use Sand Storm or possibly !Clamp (Battle * 5!), and if they're alone they start using Battle. You'd assume they would want to keep their stronger attacks for the more dire situations, but oh well. Sand Horse is weak against Ice and Water like most desert dwellers, but its most prominent weakness is Rasp; it dies automatically when its MP reaches 0, and with only 100 MP, any Rasp spell should do one in. Float should circumvent Latimeria's Magnitude8, so just pound away there. Use Fight on Nohrabbit whenever you can, their healing will do you a lot of good. The only threat is Sand Horse; do them in with a Rasp spell or something you know will do significant ST damage. Summoning Bismark will take care of them, but you probably have better things to do than equip that sub-par fiend of an Esper. Enough dilly-dallying around. There really isn't anything on the entire continent that deserves our interest, so let's head into the Cave of Figaro, where we can assume the Crimson Robbers also headed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.51.3 Pursuing Gerad and the Crimon Robbers; Cave of Figaro ********************************** Opponents: Humpty, Cruller, NeckHunter, Dante Container contents: Ether, Hero Ring, X-Potion Preparation: A lot of monsters here will try to set the Muddled status on you, so equip Relics that protect against Muddled like Ribbons or Peace Rings. This is quite important, especially now that your characters are getting stronger; while you freeze in panic your twirling characters may cast X-Zone on themselves and give you a Game Over. Cave of Figaro NeckHunter, Cruller, Humpty, Humpty (10/16) Dante (6/16) Recovery Spring Humpty, Humpty, Humpty, Humpty (6/16) NeckHunter, NeckHunter (5/16) Dante (5/16) Corridor from Recovery Spring to Figaro Castle NeckHunter, NeckHunter (6/16) Humpty, Humpty, Humpty (5/16) Cruller, Humpty, Humpty (5/16) The first thing you see in the Cave of Figaro is an old acquaintance: Ziegfried! He explains it's wise to stay behind and let him - master swordsman that he is - clear all the monsters out of your path. He goes off to complete this goal, but since the last time we saw him he was all bark and no bite, it's more like him to keep you out of his way while he goes off to collect treasure that you would otherwise obtain. No time to linger and wait for something to happen, time to press on! Note: No matter how long you wait here, nothing will happen. Humpty is just really, really fat. Never mind that jolly Buddha or that figurine of the goddess of fertility; Humpty is a grotesquely obese little bugger with as much to offer to the eye as a festering wound. Battle and - ugh - !Hug (sets Muddled) are among his arsenal. Also, he's undead. What wretch has taken it onto himself to revive only the broadest of men? Cruller knows spells. One to be exact: Fire 2. I'd love to comment on other features of it, but... what the hell is it? A glibbering mass of goo and internal organs, or so it seems. Humpty at least had the decency to be overly disgusting in a humanoid form; Cruller can't even take that to its defense. Anyway, Cruller can start battles with Fire 2 and Battle, and if you keep him around long enough he can use Slimer and !BrainStorm (sets Muddled). Weak to Fire. NeckHunter uses !Mad Sickle (sets Muddled) and Battle. That's about it. They're probably supposed to be thieves or something; humans in dungeons almost never make sense in RPGs. They're susceptible to ID, they're Floating, and they're weak to Poison. Dante. Named after the Italian writer of La Divina Commedia (which is said to have been one of the sources of inspiration for this game by some fans), Dante is kind of weird. He's Undead, but doesn't absorb Poison. In fact, he's weak against it! His attacks consist out of Battle and !QuartzPike (Battle * 3), and he sometimes counters Magic spells with L. 3 Muddle. Dante is slightly more durable than the other enemies in the cave, so it might be nice information to have that the Life spell puts a stop to his existence. Stop, ironically, also puts a stop to his existence, but it'll wear off so you'll want to hurt him in the meantime. Here's the strategy. The theme of this dungeon is 'Muddled'. Almost all enemies can set it, and with new spells such as X-Zone, Muddled gets all the more dangerous. Wear Peace Rings and/or Ribbons to prevent the horror. Boost Sabin's Fire Dance or perhaps even Air Blade (which he learns at level 30) with a pair of Earrings or a Hero Ring; Fire Dance offs all Humptys and Crullers. Celes can take care of the remaining NeckHunter with her Enhancer(s). If Dante is ever encountered cast Life, Stop or do whatever normally works. This cave isn't too difficult to plow through. You know what the cave looks like. If you have left all the chests alone (and I've been advising you to do so, haven't I?), they should now contain an Ether, an X-Potion, and a very awesome Hero Ring. A HERO RING, rock on! Just walk to the other end; once you get there you'll notice its blocked, but you'll also notice the Crimson Robbers know a way into Figaro Castle regardless. Also: The guy once had a turtle. After the Crimson Robbers have disappeared and Ziegfried has followed them, you're free to pursue both by jumping on the turtle. Use the action button for that. You can think back to the little daughter of the richest man in South Figaro again; this is the second time she's given good advice. In the next room, you'll find an empty corridor with four chests that already have been looted. Darn that Ziegfried. Press on; we might be able to catch up with him. In the next room, a crossroad! If you go up, you'll come across Ziegfried opening a chest. As soon as he spots you, he runs off with the contents of the chest, never ever to be seen again. You can't follow him; just let him go. If you press on you come across what appears to be a dead end; a hidden passage to the bottom lets you exit, though. And then, the scenery changes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.51.4 Pursuing Gerad and the Crimon Robbers; Figaro Castle ********************************** Opponents: Humpty, Cruller, Drop, NeckHunter, Dante, Tentacle, Tentacle, Tentacle, Tentacle Container contents: Crystal Helm, Ether, Gravity Rod, Regal Crown, Soul Sabre, X-Potion Preparation: Keep the Peace Rings/Ribbons on there. Figaro Castle basement Humpty, Humpty, Humpty, Humpty (6/16) NeckHunter, NeckHunter (5/16) Dante (5/16) Engine Room Humpty, Humpty, Humpty, Humpty (6/16) Drop, Drop, Drop (5/16) Dante (5/16) As soon as you enter, relief washes over you like a giant sea of... water. It's Figaro Castle. Gerad seems oddly sympathetic towards a swooning local before running off. Seriously, can we even still assume Gerad is *not* Edgar? But why this farce? Drop is probably Edgar's home-built security system or something, there's no other explanation of automatic mechanical beings here. They do nothing but use !Mad Signal every turn, which sets Muddled if you let it. If you use Fight to damage it, it'll counter with Battle. Refrain from that, and kill them with Magic spells (they're weak to Lightning-elemental attacks) and Blitz techniques. Pushing on will take you up the stairs, but you can't go out of the castle or on the exterior; we're submerged here, remember? The only choice is to walk into the engine room, which was hitherto forbidden territory. You'll come across Figaro soldiers all over; obviously, the lack of food and fresh air has taken its toll. Simply ascending two stairs will take you into a room with four chests containing, from right to left, a Crystal Helm (don't bother equipping it), a Gravity Rod (what is it with Rods that new ones always appear when nobody can equip them?), which is an Earth-elemental weapon that randomly casts Quartr, an X-Potion, and an Ether. If you enter the door to the far left, you'll be able to go up some stairs, enter a door, and grab a Regal Crown, which you should equip on Sabin if he is around. Trace back your steps to the room with the four chests, and enter the middle door. Pass through the corridor and behold: the engine that drives Figaro Castle, its best-kept secret. However, the engine seems to be crawling with ...something. It must be the source of Figaro Castle's inability to move around lately. The Crimson Robbers themselves seem rather worried by it. Before you gently tap the shoulder of Gerad and kindly ask what the hell is going on here, you should know that this is the only room in the game where you can find Drop enemies. Their Rage is useless and they are entirely uninteresting other than their elusive nature. Also note that if you brought Celes here, without Sabin, this is good place to level up if you want to. Talking to Gerad means the start of a boss battle, so let's prepare. RunningShoes disables a large part of the boss' strategy, so equip them on both Sabin and Celes if possible. Wall Rings and/or Relics that provide immunity to the Poison status will come in handy as well. Summoning Golem and/or Fenrir is a great idea, as is Siren. So, the following party will be greatly prepared: Celes Enhancer Diamond Shld/Mithril Shld Mystery Veil DiamondArmor Wall Ring RunningShoes Esper: Golem/Siren/Fenrir Sabin Fire Knuckle Diamond Shld/Mithril Shld Regal Crown Diamond Vest Wall Ring RunningShoes Esper: Golen/Siren/Fenrir This is a forced Side attack by the way; know that the battlefield will look like this: Character #3 Tentacle Tentacle Character #1 Character #4 Tentacle Tentacle Character #2 If you didn't pick up Sabin in Tzen earlier, it's possible that you engage in a 'Side attack' while only attacking from the front (Edgar is automatically placed in the first slot convenient, so he'll be either #1 or #2 {if Celes was in #1} if you didn't pick up Sabin). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.51.5 The fight with the Tentacles ********************************** There are four Tentacles in the upcoming battle: Tentacle (bottom-right) Level: 31, HP: 7000, MP: 800 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Fire, Weakness: Ice, Water Special: !Seize: sets Slow Vulnerable to: Poison, Petrify, Mute, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Seize, Poison, Bio, Seize, Discard, Entwine Tentacle (bottom-left) Level: 32, HP: 6000, MP: 700 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Ice, Water, Weakness: Fire Special: !Seize: sets Slow Vulnerable to: Poison, Death, Condemned, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Seize, Poison, Bio, Seize, Discard, Entwine Tentacle (top-right) Level: 33, HP: 5000, MP: 600 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Lightning, Water Special: !Seize: sets Slow Vulnerable to: Poison, Petrify, Mute, Sleep, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Seize, Poison, Bio, Seize, Discard, Entwine Tentacle (top-left) Level: 34, HP: 4000, MP: 500 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Earth, Water Special: !Seize: sets Slow Vulnerable to: Petrify, Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, !Seize, Poison, Bio, Seize, Discard, Entwine Vanish/Doom: No Immunity to Clear status (all four opponents). Joker Doom: Yes Nothing the Tentacles use screws with the RNG. What's the point of this battle? There are four Tentacles. It gets rather confusing because each Tentacle has its own set of status immunities and elemental properties. But there is one thing that all Tentacles have in common; the attacks they perform, of which the most noticeable is the Seize, the attack both !Seize and Entwine are centered around. What does Seize do? Seize grabs a character and renders it completely helpless. During a period of about 30 seconds, the Tentacle that used Seize holds the character and gradually drains his or her HP. It's a weird little formula. It's non-elemental and barrier-piercing and has a 5/8 chance of dealing about 60 HP of damage every interval (which means that damage is taken less regularly if the Tentacle is slowed and more often if Hasted). Tentacles just use their normal attacks: Battle, !Seize to set Slow, Entwine as an MT means of setting Slow, Poison and Bio. If they're damaged, they have a 33% chance of countering with Battle. However, whenever a character is Slowed, a Tentacle will always use the Seize attack and will grab the character from which it drains HP. The Tentacle that has grasped a character doesn't perform attacks, and the character that is Seized cannot act. This lasts for about 30 seconds, at which point the Tentacle will use Discard to remove all the effects of Seize. Slow was removed when the Seize attack was used. This is why RunningShoes are so nice: with inherent Haste, both !Seize and Entwine will never work and thus Celes and Sabin will never be Seized during the battle. Start the battle off by summoning one or both of your physical protection Espers, Fenrir and/or Golem; both protect against Battle and, more importantly, !Seize. Employ Edgar's Bio Blaster to Poison up to three of the Tentacles. If one of your characters has Siren equipped, send her out to stop the Poison and Bio spells of two of the Tentacles. Now the MT offenses and defenses have been cast, it's time to kill off one Tentacle at a time. Cast Doom on the bottom-left Tentacle to dispatch it instantly. Obviously, the newly acquired X-Zone also works, but Doom's Hit Rate is superior and the Doom spell is more MP-efficient. If you summoned Siren, the most dangerous Tentacle right now is the top-left Tentacle, as that's the only Tentacle capable of casting Poison and Bio. Cast Stop if you have it, and focus Edgar's Drill and Sabin and Celes's level 2 spells on it until it dies. If you didn't summon Siren, you should cast the Mute spell on both the bottom-right and top-right Tentacles. If this isn't an option, it's best to kill the most fragile Tentacle first: the bottom-right Tentacle. Drill and Ice 2 will kill it very quickly. Now, the remaining Tentacles are left to your imagination. Don't bother with Antidotes when a character is Poisoned; the battle won't take that long, so sticking to Cure 2 spells to keep your HP up will suffice. If Sabin knows Air Blade, stick to that, have Edgar focus on his Drill attacks, and keep Celes around to whip out a level 2 spell that isn't absorbed whenever possible. When Doom or X-Zone has taken care of the bottom-left Tentacle, Ice 2 is absorbed by none of the Tentacles). The fight against the Tentacles can be a pain, but only if you don't prepare properly. You'll pull through. When the battle is over, Edgar will explain his situation. If Sabin is around, he'll say "Don't treat us like strangers anymore!". The Crimson Robbers will flee the scene with their treasure, assuming Gerad must have been eaten by the Tentacles. Edgar decides to let them go (the Japanese game makes clear their 'booty' was useless rubbish anyway) and shows he wants to stop Kefka like the others. SABIN: There's only one little problem, eh, brother! As soon as you can move, equip Edgar with two nice Relics. His headgear will probably be the Crystal Helm you picked up earlier; you can swap it with a Green Beret or Sabin's Regal Crown if you want. In the treasure chamber, you'll see eight emptied chests. Looks like the Crimson Robbers had quite a lot of items taken from them by the Figaro law enforcement. On the armor in the middle, you can find a Soul Sabre, which is basically an MP-version of the Drainer. It also has a 25% chance of casting Doom with every hit. It is a strange hybrid between a physical attack and a magical attack. It runs off Vigor, the wielder's Row matters, it's damage is boosted by an Atlas Armlet. However, it's damage is reduced by the target's Magic Defense and Shell. If you have Osmose, there's no real reason to equip it, so let's get out. When you emerge from the engine room, the old man who handles subterranean travel will say "Nonsense! It's been fixed! Next stop, the surface!" I always thought this was a weird line until I realized it's probably supposed to be a reply to Sabin's words he spoke over at the engine. Thus, Figaro Castle rises amidst the golden sand of Figaro Desert. But we've already seen there's nothing more here, so before you do anything else I suggest you take Figaro Castle to a shiny new continent: time to travel to Kohlingen once more. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.52.1 Figaro Castle ********************************** Welcome to Figaro Castle! It's been a rough day, so I suggest you take a nap for some free healing. If you didn't see the Figaro brothers cutscene earlier, Sabin will be off as soon as you advance up in the castle and you can't access the two towers of the castle because two soldiers are telling you to take a nap. They're not being very subtle over at Square. During the night, a cutscene. I won't bother describing it as it's mandatory, and you can look up additional info in the characters section. Needless to say, childhood nostalgia grabs the Figaro brothers, and the memories of days long gone only strengthen their resolve to stop Kefka. One of the girls in the guest room tells you about the Cult of Kefka. If ever a loved one of a person in the Cult would come to its aid, however, he or she might just snap out of it. Interesting. Item Shop: Potion 300 Tincture 1500 Antidote 50 Eyedrop 50 Echo Screen 120 Fenix Down 500 Remedy 1000 Tent 1200 What can I say? If you need anything, grab it here. If you have Edgar as your leading party member, you get a 50% discount. Weapon Shop: AutoCrossbow 250 NoiseBlaster 500 Bio Blaster 750 Flash 1000 Debilitator 5000 Drill 3000 A new Tool is for sale here! If you didn't Steal a Debilitator during the battle against the Cranes or Air Force, here's the thing for 5000 GP. And it's only 2500 GP if you have Edgar as the leading party member. Now, let's get the hell out and see what's happening in Kohlingen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.52.2 En route to Kohlingen ********************************** Opponents: Sand Horse, Maliga, Harpiai, Deep Eye, Bogy, Muus Miscellaneous items: Magicite (rare Muus steal) Lores: Aero, Pep Up If you're still enjoying the sun of Figaro, it's time to take Figaro Castle to the other side of the oceans. When you arise and leave the castle, you'll notice three dots on your Map: one to the north and two to the west. To the north is Dragon's Neck Colosseum, which I'll discuss later. To the west, there's Kohlingen and Daryl's Tomb. The northern-most one is Kohlingen. You want to go there now. Who knows what kind of interesting things are awaiting you there (I do, for one)? There's nothing for you now at Daryl's Tomb anyway; it's just a featureless bulge in the ground which offers no exciting activities. Monster formations: (Desert) Maliga, Maliga, Maliga (6/16) Sand Horse, Sand Horse (5/16) Sand Horse, Maliga, Maliga (5/16) (Grasslands) Harpiai (10/16) Muus (6/16) (Forest) Harpiai, Deep Eye, Deep Eye (6/16) Deep Eye, Deep Eye, Deep Eye, Deep Eye, Deep Eye, Deep Eye (6/16) Muus, Muus, Muus (5/16) Wasteland: Bogy, Bogy (10/16) Deep Eye, Muus, Muus, Deep Eye (6/16) Harpiai looks pretty dangerous; the last time we saw a sprite that big on a random encounter was the dreaded Behemoth. Harpiai's a big wimp though, so no worries! It uses Battle, !Nail (Battle * 1.5, you shouldn't ever see it unless you're waiting for it as it may appear every fourth round), Aero, which admittedly hurts pretty badly (it's like a Wind-elemental MT level 3 spell), and Pearl Wind. With 1500 HP, all you should do is kill it pretty quickly. It's weak to Wind-elemental attacks, so Sabin's Air Blade technique gets the job done, as does the usual violence. Deep Eye is one of those odd monsters that attacks you, and continues to use Escape every other turn. Every first turn they may lunge at you to use Battle or let you sink into that hypnotizing eye of theirs to use !Dreamland (sets Sleep). And yes, every second turn means 33% Escape. Kill them all quickly with Fire-elemental attacks such as an MT Fire 2 spell and Fire Dance. The interesting thing about Deep Eye is the fact they make for a Rage that uses the Dread attack, but the special property of Dread (only checks for Petrify protection, not ID protection) isn't important right now, so I'll talk about it later. Bogy is boring. !Oogyboog (Battle * 2) sounds kinda retarded too. Inherent Safe and immunity to ID attacks makes it slightly durable, but since in the extended period of time Bogy is allowed to live it accomplishes nothing of significance, you can just pound away until it dies. I'd love to give Muus a little credit as life is tough enough if you lack a backbone in the literal sense of the word. You'd miss out on massages, which if you ask me is like sex, only it doesn't make a mess or anything and you don't have to pay for it/have awkward moments when you break up/actually do anything yourself if you don't want to (Editor's note: the writer of these lines is nowhere near as much a chauvinistic pig as he would have you believe). But in the end, it's clear as day that Muus is as staggeringly dumb as 2006's Samuel L. Jackson flick 'Snakes on a Plane'. It may randomly use Pep Up, also as a counter to your Magic spells. Muus will never use Pep Up when it's the last monster standing on the field, and will solely use Battle and !Gunk (Japanese roots: Icky Sticky Goo) to set Slow. Like Flan monsters, Muus nulls the effect of every elemental attack that isn't Fire-, Ice- or Lightning- elemental. In the end, the only attack that could hurt you if protected by Clear is Harpiai's Aero, and quick acting and/or Mute setting prevents it from occurring. Sabin's Fire Dance Blitz technique helps against the Deep Eyes where his Air Blade is very effective against Harpiai. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.53.1 Kohlingen ********************************** Kohlingen! The last time you passed through here on a mission you were trying to find Terra. Right now, you're pretty much trying to find everybody. Kohlingen is another example of a city in despair. Nothing seems to work out anymore in this world. Points of interest in Kohlingen: - A girl mentions a man with a 'quaint' way of talking passed through Kohlingen recently. This must be Cyan! It's good to hear that old man is still kicking. We should pick him up when we have the chance, never mind his sub-par skills in combat ;). - To the north, a woman and a little girl are staring at a tile. They planted some seedlings there, and are trying to see if anything comes from it. Results so far have been disappointing. If you stand on the tile, they will reprimand you and you quickly jump off. - An old woman can show you a flashback of WoB Kohlingen. Ah, nostalgia... - A Narshe Guard tells you that Narshe has been forsaken and completely overrun by monsters. Poor Mog... - The old man who told you earlier of his crazy (younger, btw) brother who wanted to build a Colosseum now praises him as a visionary; apparently, the Colosseum has been built! We should definitely check it out some day. Also, a mean guy is fighting there looking for a weapon called the Striker. Handy info, lady. We're always looking for interesting new ways to be murdered. - Sadly for Celes, Locke isn't anywhere to be seen in Kohlingen. The man who preserves Rachel figures he's returned to his quest of finding the restoration relic to revive Rachel. But the main attraction in Kohlingen is waiting for you in the Pub, drinking his troubles away: Setzer Gabbiani. What was once a dashing pirate with more bravado than the entire city of Jidoor combined is now a broken man burping into his wine, brooding over his lost wings. Celes snaps him out of it; the sight of a beautiful woman hasn't lost its appeal for Setzer, apparently. Hope fills his heart, and he mentions another airship, in a tomb nearby. He shows you the way. We've got us another mission statement! On your way out, you run across the Narshe guard again, who has also been inspired by Celes's words. The mysterious Esper that was dug up at the very start of the game is still in Narshe. We might just be able to wake it up and harness its power in the struggle against Kefka! Item Shop: Potion 300 Tincture 1500 Antidote 50 Fenix Down 500 Revivify 300 Remedy 1000 Sleeping Bag 500 Tent 1200 Buy some Revivifies; 20 is a nice amount of have. Surely, you have Relics to protect against Zombie so you don't need to heal the status, but you can never be too safe when it comes to Zombies. If Night of the Living Dead has taught us anything, by the gods, it is that. Armor Shop: Diamond Shld 3500 Bard's Hat 3000 Green Beret 3000 Diamond Helm 8000 Diamond Vest12000 DiamondArmor15000 More of the same, but now that Setzer has joined your party you can use some more of it. I suggest you buy a DiamondArmor and a Diamond Shld; the Green Beret is still a superior Helmet to the Diamond Helm, and doesn't cost you anything. Weapon Shop: Darts 10000 Dice 5000 Trump 13000 Enhancer 10000 Gold Lance 12000 There are three weapons of interest here, and two new weapons for Setzer for sale! I'll discuss the Dice last, as they require the largest introduction. - The Trump weapon is oddly misnamed by Ted Woolsey; they look like darts in-battle, while a later weapon called the Doom Darts look like cards. The PSX version has this sorted out again, calling Trump the Doom Darts and vice versa. If this whole thing confuses you, take a look at section 8.13 for more information. At any rate, the Trump has the X-type Instant Death ability, like the Assassin Dirk. The next dungeon will be crawling with Undead enemies, making the Trump entirely useless. They'll have some use in Colosseum though, so if you feel like going there in a moment, buy two. - The Gold Lance could be bought earlier, but I advised against it as you would want the Enhancer its +7 Magic Power and + 20% Magic Block. Since the Jump command is about to take a great power-up and Lances are, as opposed to the normal 50% boost, twice as effective with Jump, you'll probably want the Gold Lance for Edgar. - The Dice are a very weird weapon. Allow me to pass judgment first; the Dice are not worth it. The Dice completely ignore any normal kind of physical damage formula (which is why they are always placed all the way down when choosing a Weapon in the Equipment screen), and instead do the following: When attacking with the Dice, two dice will be rolled on the target. The result of the dice determine the damage in the following manner: First dice roll * second dice roll * 2 * level Sadly, the Dice are rigged against Setzer, much like his Slot command is rigged against him: 1, 2, 3 and 4 have a 3/16 chance of being rolled, while 5 and 6 only have a 2/16 chance of being rolled. Fighting with the Dice makes for an unblockable, barrier-piercing attack (as the target's Defense isn't factored in the damage calculation whatsoever). While the Dice will be ideal in a bit, they are a consistently poor choice of weapon as the damage output is, on average, inferior to your normal weapons at this time. You should buy one, though, as 5000 GP isn't that much and you'll want to use them before you get another chance to buy them. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.53.2 Dragon's Neck Colosseum ********************************** Welcome to the Dragon's Neck Colosseum, a monument to combat. Fighters from all over the world gather here to test their skills against each other, as do several creatures. The stakes? Rare relics, priceless weaponry, the greatest of armor. Whatever you have, it can be found at the Colosseum at least twice as sturdy and sharp. First, let's scout around here. Ultros is a receptionist now; he warns you about Chupon and is a pest like usual, but doesn't attack you, in a surprising turn of events. The real Siegfried resides in a room where he warns you of his imposter (yes, you can fight Siegfried in the Colosseum, but not now). The last Imperial soldier is also here, and he gives you a hint about 'talking to the Emperor twice'. Strange, since the Emperor is quite thoroughly dead. In the Japanese game, this soldier mentions he gave this info to a certain friend of his earlier, a friend with a bandana. How does the Colosseum work? You bet an item. An opponent will rise to meet your challenge, always the same opponent for the same item. You'll lose your bet item regardless, but if you win, you'll be given an item in return, an item often greater than the one you bet in the first place. If you cast Warp in- battle or are Sneezed out of the battle, you'll keep your bet item. Your characters act like they are Muddled, but attack the 'normal' targets. That means that characters in the Colosseum will never use Item, Revert, Throw, Control, Slot, Leap, Def., or Possess. Item and Throw are great to have listed as such, as you don't have to have a chance of using that single Megalixir or throwing a unique weapon away. You can't run successfully in the Colosseum (you'll just start running but will never get anywhere - you don't take any turns though) but the Warp spell does work. Not all items can be traded for superior weapons here; most weak or common items will pit you against Chupon, who will promptly use Sneeze to end the battle (you can defeat him, but it'll take a long while before you'll even come close). If Chupon Sneezes you away, the battle is considered a draw and you'll keep the Item you wagered. At this point, here's what you can do to make your life better. Difficulty is measured in * symbols; more *'s means more problems: ** Flame Sabre - Ogre Nix Opponent: Evil Oscar ** Tintinabar - Exp. Egg Opponent: Dark Force * Elixir - Rename Card Opponent: Cactrot * Fenix Down - Magicite Opponent: Cactrot An explanation on the new items you can obtain here: The Rename Card is a 'secret' item that can only be found by fighting at the Colosseum. It enables you to rename one of your characters, after which it disappears. The Ogre Nix is a very odd weapon. It's stronger than what you've seen so far, and uses MP to inflict Critical hits. It can deal an incredible physical blow for only 12 to 19 MP a hit. In fact, it deals more damage on a critical blow than two Enhancers. Sadly, there is also a downside to the Ogre Nix. Namely, it can break while being used, and the chance is pretty big: an average of 28%. Here's how that's decided: [0..(last digit of attacker's HP + 1)] = 0 At any rate, you don't really want to risk losing your precious Ogre Nix; on the other hand, if you can't use it, what good does it do for you? There is one way to circumvent the whole breaking thing without it losing its charm; use the Black Belt! When countering, the Ogre Nix will never break. So, the best way to use the Ogre Nix is equip it on Celes and/or Edgar, stick to level 2 spells and/or Tools and swing the Ogre Nix in self-defense. To be fair, the Ogre Nix isn't that great or important a weapon. The Exp. Egg (Experience Egg) doubles the Experience Points gained by the wearer. Two Exp. Eggs don't stack, and ONLY the wearer receives twice as many Experience Points. - Flame Sabre - Ogre Nix Opponent: Evil Oscar Equip Sabin with two Fire Knuckles and a Ribbon. If Evil Oscar uses Sneeze, the battle is over and you'll still have your Flame Sabre. Eventually, Sabin's Fire Knuckles will pound Evil Oscar into burning pulp and you'll have won a new sword, the Ogre Nix. - Tintinabar - Exp. Egg Opponent: Dark Force Dark Force has about 9000 HP, and has a 1/4 chance at using Pearl Wind. Odds are you don't have the offensive strength to take him down before he takes you down. What you'll want to do is rely on your Instant Death weapons, as that's what Dark Force is susceptible to. Setzer's Trump weapons, if possible paired up with a Genji Glove, can take him out easily, as can a Soul Sabre. - Elixir - Rename Card Opponent: Cactrot - Fenix Down - Magicite Opponent: Cactrot Equip Setzer with the Dice you bought in Kohlingen. Relics, equipment, it's not needed. The Coin Toss Relic is a negative factor as that could make him win while losing some money as opposed to making him win without any downsides. Every time Setzer's turn comes up, he tosses out his Dice and wins. At any rate, do what you feel like investing time in and leave again. No items mentioned here are a truly significant improvement of your current team, and we have an airship to recover. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.53.3 Daryl's Tomb ********************************** Opponents: Orog, Osteosaur, Mad Oscar, PowerDemon, Exoray, Presenter, Dullahan Container contents: Crystal Mail, Czarina Gown, Exp. Egg, Genji Helmet, Man Eater, Monster-in-a- box (Presenter) Miscellaneous items: Dragon Claw x2 (guaranteed Presenter drop and Presenter (head) drop) Lores: Blow Fish, Sour Mouth First room Osteosaur (10/16) Orog, Orog (6/16) Orog, PowerDemon, PowerDemon (1/16) Main room Mad Oscar, Exoray (6/16) PowerDemon (5/16) Exoray, Exoray, Exoray (5/16) Lower level PowerDemon, Exoray, Exoray (6/16) Mad Oscar (5/16) Mad Oscar, Exoray (5/16) Preparation: The theme of the dungeon is Zombie! Of the five random encounter monsters present in this dungeon, four have the power to turn your characters into a Zombie. This is serious business, so you should definitely equip Relics to prevent this madness, even though the monsters here drop Revivifies like it's going out of style. Osteosaur. Osteo means 'bone', so it's an apt title. He sure looks rather terrifying; he appears in my top 10 rather-not-meet-IRL list anyway, just below 2004 pop idol Ashlee Simpson. Osteosaurea have three attacks. Battle and !Fossil (sets Zombie) should be obvious, but ChokeSmoke is an entirely new attack. ChokeSmoke sets Zombie, but only hits characters with the Wound status. In other words, it can only revive characters as Zombies. Used without intelligent AI script, it's almost always a wasted turn. Osteosaur is your run-of-the-mill undead opponent, weak against Fire and Pearl and whatnot. No biggy. Orog looks awesome. Every turn, it can use up to three (!) !Zombite attacks, which set Zombie. When damaged, it may retaliate with Battle; if harmed by Magic spells, a Bio spell may be sent your way. Aside of their looks and awesome Zombifying skills, Orog is rather boring. He's undead like almost everything in here, and has the normal weaknesses for it too. May drop an Amulet (12.5% chance) as opposed to the standard Revivify. PowerDemon's Special is called !Daze Dance and, in a shocking change of style, drains HP rather than setting Zombie. So, does PowerDemon lack the power of Zombie-setting? Nay, not at all. The rarely seen Soul Out attack can target a single character and turn him or her into a Zombie. Yawn. Furthermore, PowerDemon has 'Flare' written all over it, in its Rage, Sketch, and Control attacks. Luckily, PowerDemon will never actively use it against you. Exoray are the most common in here. They can use Battle, !DoomPollen (sets Zombie), and Virite, but they will only use Virite when alone. Since you should be covered in either Amulets or Ribbons, Virite's Poisoning effect will be lost on you, sticking Exoray with a weak, inaccurate Poison-elemental attack. Stick to what works against them, as they are as undead as the rest. The only living enemy in Daryl's Tomb is Mad Oscar. They are the most sturdy of the monsters here and use, besides Battle and !Drool (sets Seizure), Sour Mouth, an attack that sets Dark, Poison, Imp, Mute, and Muddle and can be learned by Strago in the future. Even with an Amulet, that turns one of your characters into a sleeping Imp that cannot even cast the Imp spell. I suggest dual Fire Knuckles on Sabin, as he will kill every target with it on a remotely decent level, including Mad Oscar. A Black Belt/Ogre Nix combo on Celes works very nicely (make sure she's in the Front Row here). If you didn't bother to grab the Ogre Nix at the Colosseum, just give her an Earrings Relic (or Hero Ring, obviously) and spam Fire 2 spells all over. Edgar can use Tools to inflict consistent damage (give him dual Enhancers if you like). His DragoonBoots/Dragon Horn/Gold Lance is less intelligent as you'll need one of those Relic slots for an Amulet/Ribbon. Setzer is the weakest link at the moment. GP Rain does more damage than 7-Flush/Chocobop with double Earrings behind them, so if you ever wanted to use GP Rain now's the time. You can't logically have double Earrings anyway, as you'll want an Amulet/Ribbon in there somewhere. Don't attack with Setzer's Trump, as that will just revive every monster but Mad Oscar (who IS susceptible to its X-type Instant Death). Push through the first room. Make sure you meet an Osteosaur here, as well as an Orog. Both have acceptable Rages you might just want to use. As soon as you enter the main chamber of the tomb, you'll notice you can go in five different directions. Oh, the difficulty! I'll tell you where you want to go though, so no worries. First, let's dive into the bottom-right path for some quick chesty action: it's a Genji Helmet, the strongest piece of heavy headgear in the game (and Crystal equipment hasn't even appeared on sale yet!). Equip it on Setzer or Edgar; it even beats the disgustingly over-used Green Beret. Now, get in the top-right room. This looks like just a tombstone in a deserted room, but examine the tombstone and another passageway opens! It leads to a skeleton button of some sort. Push it to raise the water level in a room. Trace back your steps to the main room, and dive into the bottom-left room. You'll come across a chest (Crystal Mail, something for Celes, Setzer, or Edgar), go down some stairs and come across another chest (Czarina Gown). The Czarina Gown is a Relm-exclusive piece of Armor that, sadly, isn't all that good. You can bet it later for a Minerva bustier at the Colosseum though, which is pretty much the best option for some characters including Celes. Enter the door to come in a watery room with another skeleton button. Press it to open a door you can't reach. Trace back to the main room, and go through the door in the middle, leading inwards. Here, another turtle! Had you not pushed skeleton button # 1, you couldn't have stepped on the turtle. Now, the faithful reptilian carries you across. On the other side, another skeleton button! Press it, and the water level of the room you pushed skeleton button # 2 in raises to your aid, carrying another turtle. But don't hop on just yet. Go down for now, and you arrive in a room with four tombstones. ERAU QSSI DRLO WEHT Collect all four inscriptions, and have a look at it. From bottom-right to top-left, backwards, it reads 'the world is square'. I've always found this to be the surprisingly beautiful jewel in the unholy and disgusting crown of Ted Woolsey. This is supposed to be the final revelation Daryl had while piloting her airship, the revelation that cost Daryl her life: not only is the Overworld Map square, which she might have seen from high above, the name of the company that created the game was at the time also Square, which would make the world 'Square' as well. In the Japanese version, it was an entirely different pun. One way, it read 'rest in peace'. The other way, it read 'rot and wither'. Very dark. Very gothic. Go back to the main room, and find the top-left room. Had you examined the tombstone in this room earlier, upon choosing to carve something would have given you a "Nothing appropriate comes to mind..." Now, you get to choose between the four inscriptions you read earlier. Start from the beginning of the backwards sentence (THEW, OLRD, ISSQ, UARE) and you'll be rewarded with the Game Over music and the secret of the hidden Exp. Egg in Daryl's Tomb: Find the "Exp. Egg" hidden in a back room in the third basement... Go to the room where you found the Czarina Gown (bottom-left room, down the stairs) and find the hidden passage to the chest there. Obviously, this was an option from the start, but I always thought this puzzle was pretty neat and didn't want to spoil it for you. >:) Go back to where you traced back for the inscriptions, and cross the water with the turtle. You'll enter a new room, with a Save Point and two chests. The right chest contains a Man Eater dirk. The Man Eater deals double damage to every opponent with a humanoid appearance. To learn about the opponents this includes, follow [MANEATER-LINK] Now, MT Float your party, because the left chest contains a monster-in-a-box, Presenter, which uses a ground-based attack. Make sure Float is set, and be sure to equip Shoat (Golem's nice too). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.53.4 The fight with Presenter ********************************** Whelk Head (Presenter Head) Level: 31, HP: 9845, MP: 1600 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Dragon Claw (always) Absorbs: Ice, Lightning, Water, No effect: Poison, Weakness: Fire Special: !Petriblast: sets Petrify Sketch : !Petriblast, Battle Control: Battle, !Petriblast Vulnerable to: Petrify, Death, Condemned, Mute, Sleep, Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, !Petriblast, El Nino, Mega Volt Presenter Level: 19, HP: 9230, MP: 1600 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Dragon Claw (always) Absorbs: Ice, Lightning, Water, Weakness: Fire Status: Float Special: !Hit: Battle x 1.5 Sketch : !Hit, Battle Control: Battle, !Hit Vulnerable to: Petrify, Death, Condemned Attacks: Battle, Blow Fish, Mega Volt, Giga Volt, Magnitude8. Vanish/Doom: Yes The shell only. You'll only get one Dragon Claw though, so it's a bad move. Joker Doom: Yes Blow Fish screws over the RNG. It won't use Blow Fish until the second turn though, so you should be able to set up Echo Screen/Joker Doom before it comes around. There are a few oddities about this thing. First off, it's supposed to be a scary Whelk upgrade, at which it fails. Second, notice how the shell is Floating but the head isn't? The tale of a creature whose head was too heavy to carry hasn't been new since Catoblepas, but I've never seen it applied to a snail before. Presenter also made an appearance in the 1996 Square game 'Bahamut Lagoon' which never hit the shores of America. Same name, same sprite, has a tendency to appear when you destroy buildings with Thunder-techs. Also, the game designers made a little mistake we're going to exploit here; we were never supposed to obtain more than one Dragon Claw from this fight, but we're getting two. Just watch me. The AI script of the head is simple. If you damage the head two times, it'll retract into its shell, disappearing from the battlefield. It'll remain there for 20 seconds, at which point is comes out again. It'll use Battle, !Petriblast, El Nino, and Mega Volt without too many difficulties to it, so be ready for any of them at all times. The shell attacks by itself, and is no longer just an object of counters. Battle, Mega Volt, and Blow Fish may appear at all times, and especially Blow Fish should be watched out for. When the head has been retracted, it'll stop using these attacks and switch over to Magnitude8. Whenever the shell is damaged, it has a 33% chance at retorting with Giga Volt. The strategy we're aiming for is simple. If one of the parts dies, the other one dies as well, but will NOT give us the item. Thus, if we want both Dragon Claws (and we certainly do, as Presenter is the only source for Dragon Claws in the game), we have to kill them both at the same time. First, our defenses! If you didn't cast Float earlier, do so at the start of the battle. ZoneSeek helps against Mega Volt, Giga Volt, and El Nino. Golem and/or Fenrir protect against Battle and !Petriblast. You could have Celes on Runic stand-by for Mega Volt and Giga Volt, but it's not worth it. Now, let's kill this snail. Since both targets are susceptible to Instant Death attacks and Petrify, the two best strategies are using X-Zone and using Shoat's Demon Eye. However, we don't want to take any chances, do we? First, if you have the Vanish spell, cast it on the shell to ensure that X-Zone/Demon Eye will hit it. Remember, this is NOT a bug exploit; the shell is susceptible to ID attacks, and setting Clear just makes sure it hits, what it was always supposed to do. Sadly, we can't apply Sleep or Stop to make sure X-Zone/Demon Eye works on the head, because both attacks check for the target's Stamina (in which case those steps are ignored). So, we'll just have to take our chances here. Since Demon Eye is more accurate than X-Zone, it takes preference. If the head is missed, I suggest you reload the game. When you're done, equip both Dragon Claws on Sabin. They are Pearl-elemental, so they still do massive damage to everything in the tomb. Not that it's really that big of a deal now, since we're about to leave it; in the next room, we finally come across the tombstone of Daryl herself. Examining it triggers a boss battle, which in my opinion is one of the better yet more redundant boss battles of this game. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.53.5 The fight with Dullahan ********************************** Before you do, I want you to throw around your equipment and Relics, as Dullahan (the boss) is rather tough and entirely unlike the random encounters you've been facing so far. - If you have a Dragon Horn, throw it on Edgar with some DragoonBoots. Equip a Gold Lance. Put him in the Back Row. - The boss is weak against Fire-elemental attacks, so Sabin's dual Fire Knuckles will take good care of him here. Give him a Hero Ring (or Atlas Armlet) and RunningShoes to accompany his bashing. A more defensive option would be sticking him in the Back Row and let loose with Fire Dance. - Celes' Ogre Nix/Black Belt set-up, if you had it, will be useless. She will be using Runic almost non-stop, so equip her defensively. Dual Enhancers are a good choice. Since Dullahan is pretty fast, I suggest RunningShoes on Celes to keep up with his spell casting. - Setzer should just run utility. Give him the Coin Toss to make sure he can just do constant damage when he doesn't need to do anything else. Two sets of Earrings and the Slot command also do the trick, but this isn't nearly as strong at this point and wastes more Relic slots. Also, make sure that none of your characters possess a level that is evenly divisible by the last digit of your party's gold. I'll explain why later. Dullahan Level: 37, HP: 23450, MP: 1721 Steal: Genji Glove(rare), X-Potion (common) Absorbs: Ice, Weakness: Fire Status: Float, Haste Special: !Morn Star: Battle x 2 Vulnerable to: Nothing Attacks: Battle, !Morn Star, Cure 2, Ice 2, Ice 3, Pearl, L? Pearl, Reflect???, Absolute0, N. Cross Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: Yes Pearl messes with the RNG. It doesn't use Pearl until its second turn though, not counting its L? Pearl attack he starts the fight with. In other words, it's no big deal as you can set up Echo Screen/Joker Doom well before that happens. Dullahan is badass. Although he looks like he'd rather impale you with that lance of his any day, he's an almost exclusive spell caster with inherent Haste. Both his spells and Magic Power are relatively strong, so expect a challenge here. Its name comes from an ancient spirit from Irish mythology: a headless horseman who only travels to collect somebody's life. Its carriage is made of bone, its horses have flaming eyes, and it will stop at nothing... Dullahan always starts the battle off with L? Pearl. This is a strong Pearl- elemental attack, in terms of power similar to level 3 spells. Its drawback is that it will only hit targets whose level is divisible by the last digit of your GP. This is why I told you to make sure that it never hits; it leaves quite a mark. Under normal circumstances, he'll just focus on his three main spells, being Ice 2, Ice 3, and Pearl. When he detects any characters in your party with the Reflect status, he'll use Reflect??? on your entire party. It will display "???? on wall-protected person", setting Dark, Mute, and Slow on every character with the Reflect status. If he dives beneath 10240 HP, he'll use Cure 2 instantly once. If he passes through four normal turns, he'll regain the ability to cast Reflect??? and/or Cure 2 if the situation calls for it. Finally, whenever you hit him, there's a 33% chance he counters with Battle. Oh, my. If you damage him eight times, he'll get four turns where he uses nastier spells. Ice2 and L? Pearl can make another appearance, but so can !Morn Star, Absolute0, and N. Cross. You can't Runic your way out of these new spells, which makes them harder to stop. N. Cross, while being vulnerable to Runic, is the most dangerous of the five. N. Cross sets the Freeze status ailment, which you could already encounter in the fight versus Naughty, who could set it with Cold Dust. N. Cross is MT, but uses an 'interesting' way to determine if it hits or not. After it checks if it hits or not (after Clear, Magic Block, the usual), it randomly misses from 0 to 4 characters. This makes sure that even when all characters are normally hit, you'll almost never see a party entirely frozen. That is good, as it's basically mega-Stop and you cannot protect against it AT ALL. Remember that the fastest way to dispel the Freeze status is to hit the party with a Fire- elemental attack; the Fire spell is obviously the best one. There are two strategies you can employ. I'll list them both, as both should be perfectly fail-safe if you know what you're doing. Here they are: Strategy # 1: Hit Points This is the strategy where we use violence to end Dullahan. First off, let's set up our available defenses. ZoneSeek is nice should Absolute0 make an appearance, as is Golem or Fenrir for !Morn Star and Battle counters. Have Celes use Runic, continuously. If she isn't wearing RunningShoes, make sure you cast the Haste spell on her. Now, let's get to the violence! Your main damage dealers here are Sabin and Edgar. Sabin should be in the Front Row with two Fire Knuckles. If Celes is absorbing one of Dullahan's spells, sneak a Bserk spell on Sabin for increased damage. If Edgar is equipped with the Dragon Horn, have him Jump. If not, stick to Tools; you can see what I want to do with him. Setzer should just stand by and use Potions on hurting characters. Since Celes should pretty much absorb all of Dullahan's attacks, you should be safe from his attacks. In the end, you should prevail. Strategy # 2: Magic Points. Or I suppose they are Mana Points, as you get Magic Points after battles. Whatever. Dullahan dies if you rasp away his MP. Thus, the entire offensive arsenal you get to use in this strategy is Rasp. The advantage of the strategy is that if you have two to four Rasp casters, you'll find that the battle is over far quicker. Its downside is that it DOES require that many Rasp casters, and that since Rasp is vulnerable to Runic, you can't protect yourself against Dullahan's attacks and have to regularly heal. On a normally raised party, I find both strategies equally satisfying; it's your pick, really. After you've defeated Dullahan, a passageway will be opened. Walk behind the tombstone to enter the final part of this dungeon, a long stairway leading downwards that is as much descending into Setzer's memory as anything... This tells the story of two rivaling friends. Setzer was about 18 here; not yet a gambler, but an airship enthusiast with the dream of building the fastest ship in the world, a dream he shared with his friend Daryl. Sadly, Daryl pulled an Icarus on Setzer and wrecked herself, together with her airship, the Falcon. Funny: the Japanese version of 'Or do you like chewing in my wake?' is 'Or do you like staring at my ass?' Upon ascending from the waters, Celes will spot - gasp - a bird. In the sky! A bird in the sky! This must be an omen. She quickly urges you to follow it, to the town of Maranda. So Setzer does. When you fly around, there's a change you'll be attacked by the monster called Doom Gaze. If you manage to defeat Doom Gaze (and you will in the future), you'll be rewarded with the Bahamut Magicite, which teaches the Flare spell. Defeating him at this stage is a complicated feat, though. If you want to know about Doom Gaze now, take a look at [DOOMGAZE-LINK]. Even if you choose to ignore Doom Gaze until such time you can more easily slay him, you may still run into him. Know that he starts every fight with L.5 Doom (so certain parties may face an instant Game Over) and that he can be run from, so some Warp Stones may be in order. Another important note: It is at this point that Gau's new WoR level is calculated, based on the average of Celes, Edgar, Setzer and possibly Sabin. That means that if you leveled to level 99 and then recruited Gau, he would still be found with the average level of the party you used to defeat Dullahan. If you really, truly want to gain access to Gau ASAP, that can be done. All you have to do is get rid of a party member if you recruited Sabin earlier, fly over to the Veldt and meet him there. However, how do you tell a party member to buzz off without his or her feelings? Fly over to Kekfa's Tower north of Albrook, descend into it and skip to the third party, to the far right. The Falcon's hook should fly over every now and again; you can grab it without having to set a step. Warp spells and Stones also work. Setzer will be piloting the Falcon by himself now, and you can go below deck to assemble a team of your choosing. There you go. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.54.1 Airship Exploitation: Visiting Maranda ********************************** Welcome to Maranda. The last time you visited Maranda it was one of the occupied towns, generally featureless, safe for Lola, the girlfriend of the wounded lad in Mobliz. A lot of random information is blurted out by the townspeople here. A thief mentions he visited the tower of the Cult of Kefka, and one of them used to mumble 'to the right of the treasure chest' in his sleep. Since none of the thieves ever made it past the first room, we should examine that place should we ever get there. Now, the bird turned out to be a carrier pigeon for Lola; according to Aishya, the girl running circles below Lola's house, she's been receiving a lot of letters lately. Once you enter her house, you find dozens of silk flowers here. Also, a letter seemingly written by the wounded lad in Mobliz, but that's impossible. Somebody must be posing as him. Accept the 'mission' of sending a carrier pigeon out as a reply so we can track the source of this imposter. The pigeon flies across the ruined lands of this new world until it reaches a town to the north of Jidoor, and although the world map has changed a lot, this town can be none other than Zozo. Weapon Shop: Gravity Rod 13000 SwordBreaker16000 Falchion 17000 Fire Skean 500 Water Edge 500 Bolt Edge 500 Inviz Edge 200 Shadow Edge 400 You've already found a Gravity Rod, and since it was entirely uninteresting back then I'm sure you can figure out you really don't need another one. The SwordBreaker is a new Dirk not suited for any of your characters. Sadly, the SwordBreaker took a serious blow from the Evade bug; since it's main advantage was a + 30% Evade - which obviously won't be affecting anything now - it's just a useless piece of Battle Power. The Falchion is useless as-is too, but there's one large reason why you should buy Falchions. You see, they can be bet at the Colosseum for Flame Shields. And Flame Shields can be bet for Ice Shields. So ideally, you'll just buy four of them and transform all of them into Flame Shields (you don't really need Ice Shields if you have Flame Shields as Flame Shields nullify Ice-elemental attacks). Forget about the Skeans for a moment; you have nobody to Throw them now anyway. Armor Shop: Crystal Shld 7000 Crystal Helm10000 Oath Veil 9000 Dark Gear 13000 Tao Robe 13000 Crystal Mail17000 Maranda features Crystal equipment! Excellent! Buy two Crystal Shields if you don't want to go for Flame Shields at the Colosseum later on, and two pieces of Crystal Mail as well. Equip them on those that can use it. The Oath Veil is probably supposed to be the ultimate girly helmet, but since it's inferior to both the Circlet and the Mystery Veil, just leave it. A nice set of Dark Gear is great for Sabin. The Tao Robe is pretty much the programmer's solution to the fact that Strago and Relm really didn't get any store-bought pieces of armor (monster hides like Chocobo Suits and Tabby Suits are never store-bought). Also, it's the ultimate equipment for a character not yet introduced, but we'll solve that problem when we get there. The Crystal Mail is boring yet superior to DiamondArmor, so get that for characters who still carry around that ancient piece of rubbish. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.54.2 Airship Exploitation: The Overworld Map ********************************** Opponents: Brachosaur, Tyranosaur, Harpy, Tumbleweed, Reach Frog, Hoover, Cactrot, Crawler, Sprinter, GloomShell, Geckorex, Spek Tor, Mantodea, Prussian, Zone Eater, Doom Gaze Miscellaneous items: Economizer (rare Brachosaur drop), Imp Halberd (rare Tyranosaur drop and rare Mantodea steal), Imp's Armor (rare Sprinter drop and rare Tyranosaur steal) Ribbon (rare Brachosaur steal), Titanium (rare Tumbleweed steal), TortoiseShld (rare Geckorex drop and rare Geckorex steal), X-Potion (rare Spek Tor steal). Lores: Aero, Blow Fish, L.5 Doom, Pearl Wind, Rippler, Step Mine Magicite: Bahamut "Take a few steps...you're bound to run into one!" Yes, the random battles on the Overworld map. Now that you practically START with the Falcon before you've explored so much of the Overworld Map, you never actually need to fight these guys. However, there are quite a few monsters here you won't find anywhere else, so even if it's for something trivial as a full Rage list or just for meeting them, I'll try to give a run-down on which enemies appear where. You can skip it if you want to. In other words: needless violence against grazing animals! It's a shame there's no option in this game where you can simply stay on the Falcon while blasting level 3 spells on defenseless livestock down below. Here's a neat little navigational chart for you if you're ever lost on where to go. Yeah, so it's no Paint Shop Pro, but I tried my best and one of today's most famous writers already said you couldn't bake a pie out of shit no matter how hard you try. 1 2 6 4 7 8 3 5 9 A B C D E F G H K I J L M N P O 1 - Dragon's Neck Colosseum 2 - Duncan's House 3 - Daryl's Tomb 4 - Kohlingen 5 - Figaro Castle (location 1) 6 - Narshe 7 - Crazy man's house 8 - Triangle Island 9 - Figaro Castle (location 2) A - Nikeah B - Doma Castle C - Cave of the Veldt D - South Figaro E - Zozo F - Fanatics Tower G - Mobliz H - Jidoor I - Opera House J - Maranda K - Tzen L - Kefka's Tower M - Albrook N - Solitary Island O - Thamasa P - Ebot's Rock For the record, the grasslands are the green tiles, the wastelands the grey ones. *** South-eastern continent (Thamasa): Grasslands & Forest: Harpy (10/16) Harpy, Prussian (6/16) Wastelands: GloomShell, GloomShell, GloomShell (10/16) Prussian, GloomShell (6/16) Harpy: Attacks physically with Battle and !Grip. Harpy rarely uses Aero to attack as well. When hit by a Magic spell, it might counter with a Battle or Cyclonic attack. GloomShell: GloomShell is weak to Ice-elemental attacks and acts like the HermitCrab monsters you faced earlier (with Celes most likely, trying to save that kid in Tzen); Battle and the Stop-setting Net attack are used, and when a single GloomShell is non-fatally damaged it may use !Rock, which sets Petrify. Prussian: Uses nothing but Battle and !Bear Hug to attack physically. Prussian is pretty boring, but it has a kick-ass Rage for Gau to offer (Land Slide, no elemental weaknesses) so make sure you meet one. *** South-western continent (Jidoor, Zozo, Maranda) Grasslands: Crawler, Crawler, Crawler (10/16) Geckorex, Geckorex, Reach Frog (6/16) Desert: Hoover (10/16) Cactrot (6/16) Forest: Reach Frog, Reach Frog, Reach Frog, Reach Frog (10/16) Mantodea, Mantodea (6/16) Wastelands: Crawler, Crawler, Crawler (10/16) Mantodea, Sprinter, Spek Tor, Spek Tor (6/16) Reach Frog: Ol' RF here is pretty famous among the bug hunters of this game; with the broken Rippler attack that swaps more statuses than it should (such as cuties like Morph, Rage, Dance, and Shadow's Dog Block) and the ability to use a Jump attack, this is probably the most bug-infected opponent you face. You shouldn't notice them if you're playing 'normally' though. RF uses Battle or !Tongue (Seizure) the first round, a Jump attack the second, he'll come down the third turn, and uses either Battle or Rippler the fourth. Loop from there. RF is weak to Ice-elemental attacks and vulnerable to ID attacks, so do whatever floats your boat there. Hoover: Without over-leveling, Hoovers are strong enough to kill you. They give 5 Magic Points and quite a lot of Experience Points, but you probably want to stay out of the desert at this moment. Hoovers are dangerous and prone to cause you pain, death, and mild discomfort. They're big defensive weakness is their lack of Death Protection, which should be exploited. Causing HP damage is just going to cause mean double Sand Storm counters and their amount of MP is too large to deplete every time you encounter one. Note that Hoover is protected from Petrify, so Break's superior Hit Rate to Doom isn't going to help you. Avoid percentage-based attacks, as they allow counters. Muddle, Stop and Bserk can help in keeping Hoover subdued while you make with the Doom spells. You may think that I'm being anal about these counter-attacks. This is entirely justified, make no mistake. While Sand Storm is an attack that is easily evaded, it's still three times as dangerous as Hoover's physicals. You'll simply want to evade it. If you have all characters protected with Thunder Shlds, Paladin Shld, and/or Minerva or simply 128 MBlock%, it doesn't really matter what you do as you'll laugh in the dusty, non-existing face of Sand Storm. What has an eye, but no face? A tornado. Amaze your friends! Cactrot: Cactrots give 10 Magic Points, which make them great spell teachers. However, not every character can easily dispatch them, and since they share the desert with the Hoover enemies, reaping the benefits at this moment may be too dangerous for your team. Cactrots are little 3 HP buggers who use Blow Fish on you every turn (and ten times Blow Fish in a single turn if you wait to long killing them). At this stage, Edgar can easily take care of them with a Drill or Chainsaw attack, or have Sabin unleash a Pummel Blitz technique. Setzer's Dice work too. Everything else misses if it can, or will do only 1 HP worth of damage. Crawler: Crawlers stand out because they are so very, very annoying. They rank up there with those guys who chew their gum too loudly, or obnoxious girls who just don't get that yes, you can get too pushy, especially if you manage to accompany every word you say with a little bit of spit that goes flying in my face, thank you very much. Crawlers use Battle and !Feeler, which sets Poison. When alone, Crawlers start to use the level-halving Dischord attack and Raid, which drains HP from you (if it isn't obvious). Ice-elemental attacks and ID attacks are their bane, and MT Confusion (such as the Noiseblaster) is a great move, as they will start using Step Mine on each other. Sprinter: If you Muddle them, they start using Cyclonic on themselves! Sprinters are vulnerable to such ID attacks. They may use Pearl Wind to restore HP, !Drainbeak which strangely enough drains MP (it tends to do nothing since they hardly ever consume their own MP), and of course attack physically too. They may drop (1/8 chance) an Imp's Armor, a piece of armor that absorbs Water-elemental attacks and has EXTREMELY grand Defense and Magic Defense, although it only grants the Defense aspect when the wearer has the Imp status. You can read more about all this here: [KAPPA-LINK]. Geckorex: Another land-roaming lizard that mainly stands out due to it being the source for another piece of Imp equipment, that being the TortoiseShld it rarely drops. Geckorex is a basilisk of some sort; it attacks physically and uses !Petriglare to set Petrify. In Rage, Control and Sketch attacks, petrification abilities run rampant. It's immune to Petrify, obviously. Ice-elemental attacks as usual (all lizards are weak to the element) and non-Petrification inducing ID attacks work too. Geckorex have 5000 HP and are quite sturdy, so you might want to take advantage of that. Spek Tor: Spek Tor is a ferocious little critter that pounces into combat despite the fact an emo singer's bad hair day could knock it out cold. With 250 HP and no special amount of defenses, Spek Tor will be gone very soon from the battlefield. When you confuse them, they may use Acid Rain, which kills them all. Spek Tor grants Ragers a great skill in the Blaster attack, which is an ST/MT ID attack that, unlike pretty much every other ID attack, doesn't check for Stamina. This doesn't mean much except for the fact that Stop/Blaster and Sleep/Blaster combos DO always work. Spek Tor attacks physically only, by the way, so nothing to mention there. Mantodea: Theoretically, Mantodea is merely Battle/Special cannon fodder. I should mention here that Mantodea's Battle attacks have the power to one-hit destroy a single character by pure damage output. You'll want to avoid that, and when hunting in these regions, the Clear status is definitely a plus. !MindReaper just takes away MP, but since Mantodea NEVER uses MP-reliant moves, it'll always do 0 damage unless you used Rasp or Osmose on the massive mantis. *** Triangle Island: Zone Eater (always) Zone Eater: Yeah, you'll want to lay off this guy for a while. Not that it's going to kill you, but strangely enough, it will transport you to a dungeon where you'll plenty of monsters that probably will kill you at this stage of the game. There's no good reason to dive in there now. Now here's an odd monster indeed. It absorbs Ice-elemental attacks, is weak against Pearl-elemental attacks, and nullifies all other elements. And all it seems to use is a rare Demi spell and the Engulf attack. Engulf is pretty much the same as Sneeze; it removes a single character from battle. If you run away with some characters 'in the body of Zone Eater', you'll just find them in your party at the end. If you kill the thing after some of your characters have been eaten, likewise. However, if your entire team fell victim to the Engulf attack, you'll find yourself in one of the worlds this Zone Eater ate; a cave, filled with humans (or at least, humanoids) bent on your destruction for some reason that doesn't involve logical thinking. Best to be on your guard. *** North-eastern continent (Dinosaur forest, crazy man's hut): Grasslands: Sprinter, Sprinter, Spek Tor, Spek Tor (10/16) Tumbleweed, Tumbleweed, Tumbleweed, Tumbleweed (5/16) Mantodea, Sprinter, Spek Tor, Spek Tor (1/16) Wastelands: Crawler, Crawler, Crawler, Crawler (6/16) Crawler (1/16) Crawler, Crawler, Crawler (5/16) Forest: Tyranosaur (10/16) Tyranosaur, Tyranosaur (5/16) (fixed Pincer) Brachosaur (1/16) Brachosaur: This is THE strongest random encounter in the game, and you absolutely positively don't want to mess with one at this time. It has the properties you'd expect: over 46000 HP, extremely high level (77), immune to every single status ailment you could throw at it including ID attacks and some very, very strong Special in !Swing (Battle * 6). Next to Battle, which you'll normally see (and which leaves quite a bruising all by itself), it can use some very strong attacks and spells, including Disaster (which it can MT, sets Dark, Imp, Condemned, Mute, Muddle, and Float), Meteor (non-elemental barrier-piercing spell that hurts a lot), Sneeze (a god-send in this battle, as it means you get to embrace the sweetness of life for a little longer), and Ultima. Ultima is like Meteor only so much stronger it'll do over 5000 HP worth of damage to every character you have. Unless he or she is alone, in which case you'll get to see the novelty of a monster inflicting 9999 damage to a character. In the future, you could beat Brachosaur with Relm's Control skill, a few other dirty tricks or just plain kill the bastard with violence before it can do the same to you. There's a decent enough reason to do so too, as it has a rare Ribbon for Stealing and a rare Economizer drop too (sets the MP cost of every Magic spell and Lore technique to 1). Now, however, this is not an option. Tyranosaur: The opponents in the fabled Dinosaur Forest are tough. Brachosaur is a rare freak occurrence, while Tyranosaur are dangerous enough as-is. Tyranosaurea have incredible physical strength, which is especially bad since not only can they channel this in a !Bite attack (Battle * 8), they also occasionally double-team your party from both sides, and that is NOT as sexy as it sounds. When a monster attacks from behind, its physical attacks will do more damage and become unblockable (although Interceptor and Golem can block these attacks, the Image status is useless in this aspect). On top of that, Tyranosaurea have the power to cast the Meteor spell, which damages the entire party for over 1500 HP. To stop this madness, cast a combination of Sleep and Slow on these dangerous dinosaurs and pound away with magical attacks. Ice-elemental attacks are the bomb, so Ice 2 and Ice 3 spells and Tritoch's Tri-Dazer really put the hurt on these babies. I wouldn't advise going in the Dinosaur Forest right now, but if you HAVE to have an Imp Halberd right now, Save beforehand and make sure you know how to make your opponents snooze the battle away. If not, there's no chance you'll survive an encounter. Tumbleweed: These strange creatures fall easily to L.5 Doom attacks, though you won't be able to cast it if you've followed the walkthrough so far. They use Battle and !Blinder, which sets Dark. When alone, a Tumbleweed may use Lifeshaver to recover HP. They're weak to Fire-elemental attacks and vulnerable to ID, so take advantage of the knowledge that you have. *** Northern continent (Narshe, Duncan's House) Grasslands: Geckorex, Geckorex, Reach Frog (5/16) Reach Frog, Reach Frog, Reach Frog, Reach Frog (5/16) Mantodea, Mantodea (5/16) Mantodea, Sprinter, Spek Tor, Spek Tor (1/16) Wastelands: Crawler, Crawler, Crawler, Crawler (6/16) Crawler (5/16) Crawler, Crawler, Crawler (5/16) Nothing new here. I can absolutely understand you're anxious to get the boring stuff out of the way and start pumping up! How does an all-game ultimate Blitz technique sound? One niche tactic I'd like to mention now is the following. If you didn't pick up Sabin in Tzen already, you should now have Celes, Edgar and Setzer on your team. Pick up Gau from the Veldt if you haven't already. You now have the four characters whose level is already determined; the levels of the rest is calculated when you recruit them. You can train these four now if you'd like, and pick the rest up at a higher level. You'll lose out on stat increases from Espers, but it sure is handy recruiting characters at bloated levels! Best way to train is roaming the grasslands around the Dinosaur Forest. Set Clear to the lot; you are now immune to all attacks except for Crawler's Dischord and Raid and Tumbleweed's Lifeshaver, all of which are attacks they will only use when they're alone. Make sure to tackle these guys with MT violence and they'll never touch you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.54.3 Airship Exploitation: Master Duncan; completing Sabin's training ********************************** We have our wings back! And as opposed to last time we got some improved transportation situation, we have almost the entire world left to explore. The story obviously directed us to Maranda, but not only is there so much to do before following the carrier pigeon to Zozo, some of it is even easier than the quest we were put on in Maranda. So, allow me to give you some pointers as to where you want to go first. Duncan is alive! His wife told us that, and Sabin probably is anxious to see his old master again and hear how it went down. Duncan's wife told us that Duncan was meditating north of Narshe. If you can't find Narshe right now, it's on the continent to the north of the 'head' of the Serpent Trench. Narshe, like it was before, is a dent in the mountains on the map. To the northeast of Narshe, you can find five trees on the map that form a Greek cross (+). Duncan's located on the middle tree. If you bring Sabin here, Duncan will come out and laugh off Sabin's worries. He'll then proceed to teach Sabin the eighth and final Blitz technique, the ultimate martial arts attack: Bum Rush. Sabin would have learned to perform it himself at level 70, but this sure is quicker. Bum Rush is, contrary to what you would believe, a MAGICAL attack, meaning that it can (and should) be boosted by Earrings. It's barrier-piercing and non-elemental and extremely strong, far surpassing anything the rest of your party can do right now (except maybe a lucky 4-hit combo with the Dragon Horn, but Bum Rush is constant). The Japanese game calls it the Illusion Battle Dance, which as you would expect is a lot cooler sounding than its American incarnation. If you go to Duncan with a party lacking Sabin, you'll see him jumping around: "Look out! Move! Cough...wheeze... Darn this old body... Hey...you deaf?" By accessing the menu when Duncan has leapt once or twice, you can make him restart; this way, you can have him jump into the black void around his house... Man, that's WAY deep down Lewis Carroll's rabbit hole if you ask me. :P -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.54.4 Airship Exploitation: Obtaining Palidor ********************************** Magicite: Palidor Let's see how (the corpse of) Cid is doing! If you find Cid on the Solitary Island, you'd think he would grab the opportunity of flying over to civilized areas; you can't take him, however. If he lives, he'll just say, "I feel much better! Thanks, CELES!" and continue to walk around his little cabinet like a senile. If he died, his letter is still there. Who would've moved it? Then again, who put it there in the first place? Mysteries. Time to ponder them over at the beach. But gasp, something has washed ashore: a piece of Magicite! 'Tis Palidor, one the greatest summons the game has to offer and a great Haste 2 spell tutor. You'll like it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.54.5 Airship Exploitation: Visiting Jidoor ********************************** Let's fly over to Jidoor for a moment now. Jidoor is still a thriving town, filled with people who find the end of the world a moderate inconvenience and an interesting new art theme. I don't think you need to be even near white trash to hate these guys with a passion. Walking around town, you hear that the bird you saw is one of the many carrier pigeons that have been flying to Maranda lately. Way back, when the world was still a shining square of happiness, Sabin and Cyan met up with a wounded lad in Mobliz who corresponded with his girlfriend in Maranda by means of these feathered friends. Sadly, Mobliz was hit by the Light of Judgment, and the wounded lad was killed. The other story of the day is concerning Owzer. Something is up with the guy; he had a fine new painter arrive at his house - a little girl. Could this be little Relm Arrowny? If you let Shadow live on the FC, you can already dive into Owzer's Mansion for the answer to that question, a dungeon, a boss, a new Esper and a character regained. I've got it planned for later times, but if you're impatient, you can take a look at [OWZER-LINK]. For now, you'll want to buy a few things here regardless: Weapon Shop: Man Eater 11000 Partisan 13000 Crystal 15000 Sniper 15000 Interesting new weapons here! Allow me to describe them. You know the Man Eater. When fighting certain foes, a double Man Eater strike will be superior to whatever you have, but these foes are generally not too much to worry about, so buying another one is probably a waste of money. The Partisan is superior to the Gold Lance, which means an upgrade for our new Dragoon Edgar. Buy one. The Crystal is just another plain sword whose base power is inferior to the Ogre Nix but superior to the Enhancer; it doesn't give any stat boosts and there's no real reason to attack with it. Don't buy it and stick to Enhancers or Ogre Nix/ Black Belt. The only interesting feature about the Crystal sword is that General Leo equipped it when he fought Kefka. The final weapon is the Sniper. It's an upgrade over the Hawk Eye, with the same 50% chance of doing 1.5 times as much damage against normal enemies and triple damage against enemies with the Float status. It's a great weapon to equip, but nobody right now can use it so just forget it for now. Conclusion: Buy a Partisan, than leave. :P Armor Shop: Circlet 7000 Dark Hood 7500 Crystal Helm10000 Dark Gear 13000 The Circlet is a nice Helmet with an all-round stat boost: +2 Vigor, +1 Speed, +3 Stamina and +4 Magic Power (which really is the only important one). Everybody can equip one, but everybody but one has superior Helmets at this moment (Celes's Mystery Veil, Edgar/Sabin's Regal Crown, Genji Helmet), so just buy one and stick it on the unfortunate sap who still went with that ancient Green Beret. The Dark Hood is rubbish, superior to the Circlet in Defense by 1 single point and inferior to it in all other ways. Forget about the Crystal Helm as well. A set of Dark Gear for Sabin is nice, though. In short: buy one Circlet and a set of Dark Gear if you didn't buy Dark Gear earlier in Maranda. Item Shop: Potion 300 Tincture 1500 Fenix Down 500 Revivify 300 Remedy 1000 Warp Stone 700 Sleeping Bag 500 Tent 1200 Buy stuff, it's good for you. Weren't you paying attention to the voices in your head? LIVE BUY CONSUME DIE. Relic Shop: Czarina Ring 3000 Guard Ring 5000 Atlas Armlet 5000 Cherub Down 6300 The interesting new Relic called 'Guard Ring' sets Safe on your character. Basically, the Relic cuts the damage of physical attacks by 1/3, always. Sadly, physical attacks are past their prime at this stage of the game, so its usefulness is kind of low. If you like the thought of a physical powerhouse who can withstand all blows, buy and equip one to whomever you feel should benefit; you're better off focusing on offense though. If you plan to use Gau, there's something you can do make absolutely sure you get one of his best Rages relatively quickly; enter Owzer's Mansion, read the diary if you want, turn on the lights near the stairs and examine the flower painting for a fight with three Nightshade enemies. This only applies if Shadow survived the Floating Continent; if he didn't, the house will just be lit and empty for now. More information can be found at [OWZER-LINK]. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.54.6 Airship Exploitation: The Auction House ********************************** Miscellaneous items: Hero Ring, Zephyr Cape Magicite: Golem, ZoneSeek The Auction House got a makeover! New items are for sale here. No longer does that talking Chocobo bother you. Sadly, TWO new useless items have been added to the collection: an Imp robot and 1/1200 of an airship. Debates rage over the fact if this is a piece of the Blackjack or a scale model of an airship; OBVIOUSLY it's the latter and the other side is stupid in the head, but it's up to you what you want to see in it. Regardless, you cannot buy either of these items. The reason you're here is the Hero Ring. You can buy ONE Hero Ring here, for 50000 GP. The Zephyr Cape is also exclusive, but since the Zephyr Cape is more expensive here than in WoR Nikeah (3000 GP more expensive, in fact), don't bother shooting for it here. Once you buy the Hero Ring, it won't appear again. If you didn't buy the Espers earlier, you'll want to do that now, too, although I don't see why you should've skipped on that earlier. - There's a 50% chance the item up for bidding is a Hero Ring. If you already bought it earlier, or the item isn't the Hero Ring, we continue. - Then, there's a 50% chance it's a 1/1200 of an airship. You can never buy this 'item' no matter how much you pay, as the father will always buy it. But if this item isn't the 1/1200 of an airship, we continue. - Then, there's a 50% chance it's the Golem Magicite! Nice. Try to buy it. If you already bought it earlier, or the item isn't Golem, we continue. - Then, there's a 50% chance it's the ZoneSeek Magicite. Good. If you already bought this item, or if it still isn't this item, we continue. - Then, there's a 50% chance it's a Zephyr Cape. If you already bought this item, or if it's not the Zephyr Cape, we continue. - If it's none of the above, it's an Imp Robot. Period. You can never buy the Imp Robot, as the father will always buy it. So in the end, if you haven't bought any of the pieces of Magicite yet, the odds will be as following: Hero Ring 50% 1/1200 of an airship 25% The Magicite Golem 12.5% The Magicite ZoneSeek 6.25% Zephyr Cape 3.125% Imp Robot 3.125% If you bought both Espers, but not yet the Hero Ring: Hero Ring 50% 1/1200 of an airship 25% Zephyr Cape 12.5% Imp Robot 12.5% If you bought the Hero Ring and both Espers: 1/1200 of an airship 50% Zephyr Cape 25% Imp Robot 25% Yeah, that means you can completely raid the WoR Auction House until nothing but useless junk is left. Don't worry; if another person buys a piece of Magicite, the Hero Ring or the Zephyr Cape, it will have a chance of appearing next time you pay the Auction House a visit. Prices are as follows: Hero Ring 50000 GP The Magicite Golem 20000 GP The Magicite ZoneSeek 10000 GP Zephyr Cape 10000 GP That means, by the way, that the Zephyr Cape is ridiculously overprized in the Auction House, as it's just 7000 GP from the small merchant in Nikeah. If you don't have enough money, fly the Falcon to the desert south of Maranda, where you'll be able to make a lot of quick cash. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.54.7 Airship Exploitation: Fanatics Tower ********************************** In Figaro Castle, we heard about the Cult of Kefka, which is located in the middle of the Serpent Trench, where they have erected a giant tower in Kefka's honor. From thieves you've heard there are treasures unheard of up there, but the going is rough. Trying to climb the tower right now would be stupid, but we can take a look regardless, right? What the hell? It seems that one of our former party members, Strago Magus, has lost his heart in despair. One of the Cult of Kefka, he doesn't respond to you at all. We heard earlier that a loved one should be able to break through this self-inflicted barrier. If we could manage to find Relm, we should bring her over here to see if we can break the spell on Strago. The thieves here are sitting at the foot of the tower, not because they think Kefka is their Speshul Boy but rather because of the treasures on the tower; so close, yet so far... It's revealed the most wondrous thing is at the very top, and one of the thieves offers you a secret for the insane sum of 100,000 GP. This is what he has to say if you pay his the full price: Hooey!!!! Right, here's the scoop: Beneath the Desert of Figaro lies an ancient castle loaded with treasure. By the way, an old man who lives in the Weapon Shop in Narshe is looking for you... One more stop before Maranda, the last populated city we haven't been to yet: Thamasa! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.54.8 Airship Exploitation: Thamasa ********************************** Sadly, neither Strago nor Relm is present, so all we can do here is take a look at the equipment they have to offer and talk to the townspeople. One woman mentions how Ebot's Rock is above water. As soon as we can convince Strago back on our side, we should bring him back to Thamasa. There's another mention of Doom Gaze, but that's about it. Pay your respects to General Leo's grave for a moment, and then go shop. Armor Shop: Mystery Veil 5500 Circlet 7000 Dark Hood 7500 Light Robe 11000 Diamond Vest12000 Do you remember I told you about the Tao Robe? Well, the Light Robe is like the Tao Robe, only inferior in every single way. Do I hear somebody say 'redundant'? Yes, I believe I do. It was me. If you want to have as many Items as possible, buy one. If not, don't. All other items are familiar to you. Weapon Shop: DaVinci Brsh 7000 Gravity Rod 13000 Pearl Rod 12000 Trump 13000 Gold Lance 12000 Man Eater 11000 Shuriken 30 Ninja Star 500 Like all Brushes, the DaVinci Brush is about as useful as a 'hurt me' sign in an ass-kicking contest. You can buy one or two Pearl Rods extra as they make great equips for Strago and Relm once you get them and everybody can break them (there's actually a brilliant moment to break Pearl Rods, against Doom Gaze). All the other weapons have been revealed to you. I also want you to buy some Ninja Stars; they turn into nice items at the Colosseum, and make nice attacks when you obtain Shadow. 99 Ninja Stars are actually *less* costly than that single Hero Ring you purchased in Jidoor, so don't feel too irresponsible when you overstock on them. Relic Shop: Barrier Ring 500 Fairy Ring 1500 Wall Ring 6000 Jewel Ring 1000 Czarina Ring 3000 Guard Ring 5000 Peace Ring 3000 Cure Ring 8000 Rings! RINGS! For the love of God, they have every Ring Relic available. Except for Hero Rings. And Sneak Rings. And Memento Rings. And Cursed Rings. And Rage Rings. And Relic Rings. Oh shucks, so they don't have every Ring Relic available. Give me some credit for distracting you from seeing that I don't have anything useful to say about this Relic Shop! Item Shop: Potion 300 Tincture 1500 Fenix Down 500 Revivify 300 Remedy 1000 Smoke Bomb 300 Sleeping Bag 500 Tent 1200 Potions! POTIONS! For the love of...I'm not getting away with this trick again, am I? How about another movie quote concerning consuming items? Choose Potions. Choose a chest. Choose a command. Choose Smoke Bombs, Crystal Mail and matching Helmets. Choose your future. But why would anyone want to do a thing like that? Now, get out. It's time for one more trip to the Colosseum before we dive into an actual dungeon for a change. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.54.9 Airship Exploitation: Doom Gaze ********************************** Opponents: Doom Gaze Lores: Aero, L.5 Doom Magicite: Bahamut To find Doom Gaze... yeah, finding Doom Gaze tends to be a pain. There are 4096 'tiles' on the Overworld Map. Doom Gaze possesses one of them. If you cross that tile with the Falcon, Doom Gaze will attack you. Doom Gaze will remain on the same tile until you fight him; if he escapes, he'll possess another random tile. Altitude doesn't matter. You'll just want to fly around, searching for him. Make SURE that you watch your levels; Doom Gaze will instantly kill any character whose level is divisible by 5, so a group where two or more characters are vulnerable to L.5 Doom should be trained a little. Listen to some good music while you're at it; Searching for friends (the theme playing when flying the Falcon) gets repetitive after a while. May I suggest Soulwax, partly because they're awesome, partly to boost European economy? If you're playing a ROM, you can download Terii's Doom Gaze finder here (it's dead easy): http://www.rpglegion.com/ff6/dgf/index.htm When you find him, you'll fight him. [DOOMGAZE-LINK] Doom Gaze Level: 68, HP: 55555, MP: 38000 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Ice, Poison, Weakness: Fire, Pearl Status: Float, Shell, Safe Special: !Bane Claw: sets Poison Sketch : !Bane Claw, Battle Control: Battle, !Bane Claw Vulnerable to: Nothing Attacks: Battle, Ice 3, Doom, Aero, L.5 Doom, Escape Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. HOWEVER, Vanish/X-Zone, Vanish/Atom Edge, Vanish/True Edge, Vanish/Cleave and Vanish/Snare all result into the final bit of 'Doom Gaze has died' not being set (as that's his final 'counter', so to speak), meaning that you won't gain the cutscene at the end. This means no Bahamut Magicite either. What you DO get: Doom Gaze will have gained back all HP and will be still available for you to defeat, so you'll have gained nothing in the end. Other ID attacks won't result in this situation, so Vanish/Doom and Vanish/Antlion and such are all fine. Joker Doom: Yes Free RNG shooting, as nothing Doom Gaze uses complicates matters. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No "When the world was ripped apart, many long-sealed monsters were released... Phunbaba...Doom Gaze..." "I saw Doom Gaze soaring through the sky! I'd rather take an acid bath than fight that thing!" "I saw a monster floating in the sky! It looked just like a fish." "You're gonna love this! Doom Gaze can't restore his HP after battle!" You've heard it all over the world... Doom Gaze soaring over the skies of this new world, terrorizing all in its path. An ancient demon who knows no remorse; no satisfactory pack of unlikely heroes can let this go on. Doom Gaze is a relatively simple, yet tough opponent, so prepare well. Doom Gaze will start every battle by using L.5 Doom; Safety Bits and Memento Rings protect against it if your level is right (or wrong, depending on your interpretation), but you likely don't have the former and can't use the latter. Doom Gaze may cast an Ice 3 or Doom spell the first turn, and may cast Doom or use Aero the second. After every two turns (not counting the initial L.5 Doom), Doom Gaze has a 66% chance of using Escape to flee the battle. When damaged, it may counter with Battle, as all bosses tend to do. Wall Rings are extremely potent to equip as they'll protect the party from the Ice 3 and Doom spells, and Thundr Shlds or the Minverva bustier help out against Aero. When these defensive measures have been taken, it's just a matter of inflicting as much damage in the few turns that Doom Gaze will likely give you. Note that since Doom Gaze can be run from, and he won't use Aero until the third turn, you could potentially run after every second turn Doom Gaze takes and only suffer from Battle attacks throughout your epic struggle with the fish look-a-like. So there's inherent Safe and Shell, a weakness to Fire- and Pearl-elemental attacks to consider, he absorbs Ice- and Poison-elemental attacks and no status ailment vulnerabilities to exploit. How are we going to take this guy down as good as possible? Breaking Rods was always powerful, but against Doom Gaze, they're a blessing; since spells executed by breaking Rods gain a barrier-piercing property, you'll be able to break Fire Rods for a barrier-piercing Fire 2 spell and Pearl Rods for a barrier-piercing Pearl spell (the latter is much more powerful). They will inflict tremendous amounts of damage. Other options may not be as optimal. Dragon Horn Jumpers will find their Jump attacks are hindered by Safe and the strict time window imposed on this battle. Sabin's Bum Rush pierces Doom Gaze's Shell status, so it'll be quite potent; the same goes for Setzer's GP Rain, though it's quite a lot weaker in practice. If you brought a Rager into this battle, the Io Rage will serve you well; Flare Star will inflict 9999 damage to Doom Gaze, and the Io Rage will also make the Rager immune to Aero. If you choose to break Pearl Rods or not, as long as you chuck out as many barrier-piercing attacks as humanly possible, Doom Gaze will eventually fall as with Wall Rings and nullifying of the Wind element, he's really got nothing on you. Doom Gaze will take a long time to take down if you're not breaking Rods, and you may have to find him quite a few times if your level is low. However, once you defeat him, you'll gain the Magicite remains of the Bahamut Esper. That's good! Not only does the god-king of all dragons teach Flare at a x2 rate (Flare is very powerful, barrier-piercing and non-elemental!), his summon attack Sun Flare is EXTREMELY powerful, barrier-piercing, and non-elemental. You'll enjoy him on your side. Trust me. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.55.1 Narshe ********************************** Opponents: Test Rider, Wizard, Nastidon, Psychot, Mag Roader (yellow), Mag Roader (brown), Red Wolf, Tritoch, Ice Dragon Container contents: Elixir, Pod Bracelet, Ribbon Miscellaneous items: Fire Rod (rare Wizard drop), Force Shld (guaranteed Ice Dragon drop), Ice Rod (rare Wizard steal), Moogle Charm (hidden on wall behind Mog), Thunder Rod (common Wizard steal) Magicite: Tritoch Note: The story wanted you to go to Maranda and follow the pigeon to Zozo, and I sent you around the world to optimize your equipment, learn Bum Rush, etcetera and so on. I haven't sent you in any dungeon. However, for various reasons, I believe it's better gameplay-wise to dive into Narshe first and get down in Zozo second. You get Mog and an entirely new (and hidden) character out of it, you get access to level 3 spells, and get a Relic that allows you to circumvent random encounters, giving you access to some items that you weren't supposed to obtain yet. It's really a sweet deal all in all, but you ignore the story flow here, and miss out on one little detail of the story as well (which I'll give when the time comes, but you won't see it on-screen). Whom to bring? People with Ice-elemental protection other than shields are preferred if you don't have enough shields to cover for the entire party. The Minerva bustier (Celes, Terra) or Snow Muffler (Gau, Mog) are examples. Otherwise, characters that can deal strong Fire-elemental damage are good to bring along. Everything started at Narshe and its Esper. Although the Esper is still residing in the snowy mountains, Narshe has changed a lot. Arvis is most likely dead; we haven't heard from him since the Empire backstabbed you while Terra and Locke were searching for the Espers near Thamasa. The Narshe Guards, always a force of justice, have been utterly destroyed altogether. Narshe: Nastidon, Red Wolf, Red Wolf (5/16) Red Wolf, Red Wolf, Red Wolf (5/16) Test Rider (5/16) Nastidon, Nastidon (1/16) Northern mines and first cave of Western mines: Mag Roader (yellow), Mag Roader (yellow), Mag Roader (brown) (10/16) Mag Roader (yellow), Mag Roader (brown), Mag Roader (brown) (6/16) Western mines: Wizard, Wizard, Wizard (5/16) Wizard, Wizard, Psychot, Psychot, Psychot (5/16) Red Wolf, Red Wolf, Psychot, Psychot (5/16) Psychot, Psychot, Psychot, Psychot, Psychot, Psychot (1/16) Nastidon's don't absorb Ice-elemental attacks. They don't even use them. They're just silly Battle/!Grab cannon fodder. They have inherent Safe, so they're more or less similar to those Bogy enemies you encountered earlier. The way to go is MT magical attacks; they're weak against Fire-elemental attacks. The same goes for Red Wolf. Attacks include Battle and !Rush (Battle * 1.5). They will, to me, be forever infamous because they are one of the two monsters that give a Battle/Special Rage with Death Protection. They are entirely uninteresting as opponents, however. Test Rider is another Battle/Special opponent. Its Special is !Gold Lance (Battle * 3). Much like its palette swap Rider, Test Rider will counter Steal (and in his case, also Capture) attempts with a !Gold Lance strike. Sadly for Test Rider, there really isn't a good reason to try to steal his items (a rare Partisan) so he won't be doing anything with it. When Sketched, Controlled, or Raged, Test Rider suddenly grants access to Flash Rain, but he will never use it on your party. The brown Mag Roader is inherently Hasted like the red Mag Roader was. The first turn consists out of Battle or !Rush (Battle * 2), the second turn out of Fire-elemental spells (Fire or Fire 2). Due to a bug, the brown Mag Roader takes over a part of another monster's AI script (Wild Cat), causing it to counter all damaging attacks with a chance at Battle, and rarely using Fire Ball when damaged while alone. The yellow Mag Roader lacks the purple Mag Roader's inherent Safe. What's left is a monster that's all facade and only possesses skill in rolling over and dying. It uses physicals in the first turn (33% !Wheel), Ice spells in the second (Ice and Ice 2). Wizards are annoying. They are mages in the classical sense of the word, almost exclusive spell casters while sporting low Defense and high Magic Defense. They use annoyer tactics; they cast Mute or Osmose (first turn), Rasp or Stop (second turn), or Muddle or Sleep (third turn). When they are hit by a spell themselves, they can counter with !Doom Step, which sets Zombie. They're also remarkable for their items: they have a common Ice Rod and a rare Thunder Rod for stealing and a rare Fire Rod drop. They're the only source for these three elemental Rods in the WoR (apart from the rare Ice Rod on Spectre on the Veldt...bleh). Psychots are coalescences of psychotic energy. And they hate you. The thing to remember about them is that they absorb Fire; none of your current massive damage dealers deal Fire-elemental damage, but still. Ice is their weakness. I'd like to make some neat brain freeze puns, but I can't think of any. Just do it. L.4 Flare works on every single one of the above enemies! Sadly, you probably lack access to the Lore command. Instead, Sabin's Air Blade should be pumped up as much as possible (you probably already had an Hero Ring/Earrings combo on Sabin, but if you hadn't this is the time to make it so). It kills and/or severely cripples most enemies here, and those that remain can be taken care of with Edgar's Flash, an MT level 2 spell, whatever. Test Rider and Psychot are the only notable exceptions; you're better off with a Bio spell or with the Rasp spell against TR (Test Rider dies when its MP reaches 0), and an MT Ice 2 spell is the way to go versus large Psychot groups. Before you go into the derelict city of Narshe, you can visit the Classroom for some free healing. Also: "Welcome to this classroom. We'll be here for you even if the world should crumble." That's just nice. We were told that the owner of the Weapon Shop was looking for us. Sadly, the door is locked, and as Lone Wolf told us, only a treasure hunter could pick that lock. Lacking Locke, we can do nothing but leave the town of Narshe again and dive into its mines; perhaps Mog is still around, and is willing to offer us his help. Remember how you snuck into the town of Narshe with Terra, Edgar, and Banon and came across the Moogles doing so? We're going to do just that. While facing the city entrance, walk to the left, past the Classroom, to the hidden switch to the far left. Open up the cave. Just follow the path; there are no new surprises. The Security Checkpoint is gone, however. Eventually you'll come across Mog. If you didn't rescue him in the WoB, he'll get his introduction scene again: Kupo!!! Don't scare me like that! (naming screen) If you did recruit him in the World of Balance, he'll get smart on you and say: MOG: Kupoppo! You're alive! I thought you were all feeding the worms, kupo! Kupohoho! Let's go!" Regardless, after Mog says he's a friend of the sasquatch that you could have spotted during the World of Balance, the screen fades to black for a while. If you had three characters, Mog will now be in your party; if you had four characters, he'll be waiting for you at the Falcon. If this happened (and it most likely did, as you've been a good boy), go find the Falcon and switch Mog with whomever you want out of your party. Honestly, I think Setzer is the weakest link at this point, but as Mog makes a great Dragoon, you can switch one Dragoon with another and switch Edgar out of your team. Regardless, do examine the wall Mog was staring at when you found him. You'll receive the Moogle Charm, a little crystal ball given to Mog by his now deceased girlfriend, Kuku. No wonder our little furry friend was lost in thought... The Moogle Charm is a great relic. It has no use in-battle whatsoever, but does grant you one small thing; it allows you to circumvent random battles entirely. A blessing for every SNES player and downright immediate salvation for PSX players, the Moogle Charm has its tactical use. You can dive into dungeons and grab great items that you weren't supposed to receive until you were man enough to tackle the dungeon itself. Put in practice, this usually means the items of the Fanatics Tower (except for the prized object at the very top of it) and a lot of items from Kefka's Tower. A second option would be to let Mog tackle one half of the dungeon requied to reintroduce a certain treasure hunter back into the party, a feat that unlocks some of the game's best equipment and some of its most powerful spells as well. Since the other half of the party will have to overcome great danger I have saved that dungeon for a more appropriate time in this walkthrough, but you can skip to 4.67.1 if you want to take a look at the Phoenix Cave right away. If you left the Rune Edge in the WoB, grab the Ribbon in the chest in this room. Armed with Mog, it's time to head into the mountains and locate the dormant Esper that you haven't been able to properly contact since the beginning of the game. Head out of the mines and head into the mountains, like you did when you first tried to rescue Mog. Exit by the normal exit, which enters into Arvis' old house. On your way, you should pass two chests. If you didn't rob them of their contents earlier, they should contain an Elixir and a Pod Bracelet, which is a poor man's version of the Marvel Shoes (it only sets Safe and Shell, not Haste and Regen like the Marvel Shoes add to that). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.55.2 Narshe's Snowfields; the battle with Ice Dragon ********************************** Snowfields: Wizard, Wizard, Wizard (5/16) Wizard, Wizard, Psychot, Psychot, Psychot (5/16) Red Wolf, Red Wolf, Psychot, Psychot (5/16) Psychot, Psychot, Psychot, Psychot, Psychot, Psychot (1/16) If you want to abuse the Moogle Charm now, skip ahead to [MOOGLE-RAID]. Don't worry; both dungeons you'll be visiting will be visited later for another good reason. For a quick list if what you'll obtain from raiding the Fanatics Tower and Kefka's Tower: Fanatics Tower: a Force Armor, an easy battle with the White Drgn from which you'll win a Pearl Lance upon your victory, a Genji Shld, a Safety Bit, and the Air Anchor, which is Edgar's eighth Tool. Kefka's Tower: a Red Cap, a Nutkin Suit, a Gauntlet, a Coronet, the Fixed Dice, a Minerva, a Tack Star, an Aegis Shld, a Force Shld, an easy battle with the Gold Drgn from which you'll win a Crystal Orb upon your victory, a Force Armor, and a Ribbon. With Mog in your party, get back into Narshe and go find the snowfields. This is your first chance to learn Mog's last Dance (save it for me... eheheh), the Snowman Jazz. It's a rather crummy Dance considering it's WoR-only, but Surge looks sweet and works especially well against the Psychot monsters you find here. In the snowfields, you'll find the Ice Dragon. Ice Dragon Level: 74, HP: 24400, MP: 9000 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Force Shld (always) Absorbs: Ice, Weakness: Fire Special: !Hit: Battle x 2 Sketch : Fire 3, Ice 3 Control: Battle, !Hit Vulnerable to: Poison, Mute, Berserk, Muddled, Slow Attacks: Battle, Surge, N. Cross, Absolute0 Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: Yes Nothing Ice Dragon uses influences your RNG. It's your call. Ragnarok's Metamorph: Yes 12.5% chance to obtain one of the following: Crystal Crystal Shld Crystal Helm Crystal Mail Go ahead and gawk at those status vulnerabilities if you like. However, I can't say that the Ice Dragon is the weakest of the eight brethren; as you'll see in the future, Gold Dragon is about as silly, while White Dragon is even worse. Ice Dragon can be fairly easily screwed over though. Sadly for Ice Dragon, his element is easily absorbed, his amount of HP rather low, and his status vulnerabilities downright horrible, but I'll try and treat Ice Dragon with the same amount of dignity I firmly believe everybody deserves. Except for Nerapa, obviously. What does Ice Dragon do? He can use all three spells normally. If you damage him, he might counter with Battle. If he dies, he might use one final Surge attack before rolling over, but that's about it. Honestly, Ice Dragon might very well be THE least interesting boss in the game. How to stop him? There are tons of ways! It doesn't really matter who you bring here. All you need is the Bserk spell and the Esper that teaches it, Phantom. Set Berserk on Ice Dragon, summon Phantom, and sit back. Use Poison or Bio to set Poison on the freezing fiend, and even Haste if you like; it will only speed up the Poisoning, as you're immune to everything he does. If you brought Mog, make sure you don't execute a Dance; the only one that doesn't have an inherent chance to remove your Clear status is the Dusk Requiem, which is pretty much useless (3/16 chance you'll damage him once you get it working). A slight variation is setting Poison to the Ice Dragon, setting Muddled through Muddle or the NoiseBlaster, then casting Vanish on the Ice Dragon so he can't smack himself out of the confusion. You've won right there! Gau's (or Gogo's) Io-induced Flare Star attack will do 9999 damage every time it appears at any level the caster is on, while Leafer or the purple Mag Roader make Gau and Gogo absorb the Ice-elemental attacks without any equipment. If you brought Edgar, you can tease the Ice Dragon by trying to make Poison his weakness (if you get it, Poison will take off about 3200 damage a hit at the peak of its glory). If you have the equipment and the status ailments to throw around, Ice Dragon is a joke. If you don't, his Absolute0 and Surge attacks will hurt real bad. The Mute status effect prevents N. Cross and Absolute0. If, for some reason, you don't opt for Bserk/Phantom, try setting Slow, Poison, and Mute (a neat way of doing this is casting Rflect on the guy and have Strago/Gogo execute Reflect???, but that's just novelty). Equip the easily obtained Ice Shields, Flame Shields, Snow Mufflers, and/or Minerva bustier and you won't feel a thing from Ice Dragon's attacks. Golem should be more than sufficient for Ice Dragon's physical attacks, but you can humiliate him extra by summoning Fenrir over Golem. Once you've defeated the Ice Dragon, you'll receive a Force Shield. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.55.3 Narshe's Snowfields; the battle with Tritoch ********************************** Pushing on, you'll come across a Save Point where you can use a Tent if you need one. In the next screen, you'll walk across a bridge that takes you to the mysterious Esper from the beginning of the game, the same frozen entity that prompted Terra to morph into her Esper form earlier and (possibly) overlooked Lone Wolf's taking hostage of Mog. As you come near it this time, it seems that the Esper has had it with the waiting itself. An eerie glow surrounds it, and Tritoch the Esper attacks you. Tritoch Level: 62, HP: 30000, MP: 50000 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Ice, Nullifies: Lightning, Poison, Wind, Pearl, Earth, Water, Weakness: Fire Special: !Hit: Battle x 1.5 Sketch : !Hit, Battle Control: Battle, !Hit Vulnerable to: Nothing Attacks: Ice 3, Rasp, Cold Dust Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: Yes Rasp and Cold Dust both mess with the RNG. Since Tritoch can use Rasp in the very first round (has a 66% shot at it, actually), you're probably hard-pressed to successfully pull of Joker Doom in this battle. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No Tritoch is attacking you. That's not very nice of him. Luckily, he has very little to damage you with. Ice 3 is his only offensive spell, and as most of your party is easily covered in Flame Shields, Ice Shield, or Minerva bustier, the spell will do nothing to them. If you lack the above equipment for all characters, it's worthy of notice that the Thunder Shields and Force Shields both halve damage done by Ice-elemental attacks (and the Force Shield grants the wearer inherent Shell, reducing the Ice 3 spell by another 33%). What Tritoch does is all very basic. He attacks normally with the above three spells, although he hardly ever uses Cold Dust just like that. Whenever Tritoch is hit by a Fire-elemental attack, he has a one-third chance of casting Rasp. Also, whenever Tritoch is hit by either SwdTech, Tools, Blitz, Lore, Sketch, or Rage, he has a one-third chance of casting Cold Dust to freeze the violator. The strategy the game wants you to follow is clear. Fire-elemental Magic is the key. You will mainly be casting Fire 2 here. Sabin's Fire Dance is weaker on a single target and may allow a Cold Dust attack, but if Sabin lacks Fire 2, just go ahead. If you brought Gau, the Toe Cutter Rage (Shrapnel) works great because it inherently absorbs Ice 3. A Rage like Scrapper is also great, providing you can combine it with an Ice Shld or Snow Muffler on the Rager. The Io Rage is even better as it will consistently deal 9920 damage every time Gau uses Flare Star and inherently nullifies Ice-elemental attacks, but it's unlikely you have it at this point. There's little strategy involved, as the battle as too easy. If you somehow didn't bring any equipment with elemental properties, ZoneSeek can help you out there. Haste on the entire party (now with the Haste2 spell, brought to you by Palidor) can shorten the time a character is Frozen; hell, just cast a Fire spell on the afflicted and watch him turn back to normal. Celes' Runic can absorb the Ice 3 and Rasp spells; it won't be necessary if you prepared enough, but if you haven't it's a great idea. As soon as you defeat Tritoch, he starts talking! Blast, he could've done that earlier and saved us a lot of trouble. "You know Terra, you're a half-Esper, and the Empire is evil and has abused you. Go side with the Returners. Here's my Magicite, it teaches level 3 spells so you fry anything on your path. Good luck! Oh, and don't stick Skittles up your nose." Regardless: an opening in the cliff. You can hop into it. RPG wisdom tells us that the 'No' option isn't going to get us treasure. A note on Tritoch: He teaches level 3 spells, which is sweet; sadly, he does so at a x1 rate which is decidedly slow. So Tritoch's summon attack, Tri-Dazer, will actually be your strongest magical attack on character as Celes and Terra for a while. Tri-Dazer, though, is an odd attack; it's tri-elemental; Fire-, Ice- and Lightning-elemental and about as powerful as a level 3 spell. How does this work? If a creature absorbs one of the elements, it absorbs the entire attack. If a creature nullifies one of the elements, it nullifies the entire attack. If a creature is weak against one of the elements, it is weak against the entire attack. So, you'll want to use Tri-Dazer against enemies that are weak to Fire, Ice, or Lightning, but don't absorb or nullify any of them. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.55.4 Umaro's Cave; the battle with three Pugs ********************************** Opponents: Pug, Tomb Thumb, Anemone, Ceritops, Poppers, Kiwok, Pugs, Umaro Container contents: Gauntlet, X-Ether, Monster-in-a-box (Pugs x3) Miscellaneous items: Minerva (rare Pugs steal and rare Pugs drop) Lores: Step Mine Magicite: Terrato Whom to bring? Mog is great, as he's needed to obtain the 'sasquatch muscle' you meet later on. Otherwise, the same people that did well in 4.55.1 will do well again here; the main danger of the cave monsters is Imp-setting where you need White Capes/Ribbons for anyway. Upper two levels Poppers, Poppers, Poppers, Poppers (5/16) Kiwok, Poppers, Poppers, Poppers (5/16) Kiwok, Ceritops (5/16) Pug (1/16) Umaro's room Anemone, Anemone, Anemone, Anemone (5/16) Ceritops, Tomb Thumb, Tomb Thumb (5/16) Anemone, Anemone, Tomb Thumb (5/16) Ceritops, Ceritops, Ceritops (1/16) Poppers are Rhodox palette swaps. Like Rhodox, they're un-Suplexable; I continue to wonder if they're just sitting in holes in the ground or ripple into our existence from a maddening rift in the space-time continuum. If this question doesn't confuse you, the Poppers' Stone attack may; they have a 33% chance of using it in their second turn. Not only does the Stone attack set Muddled on a successful hit, it will also completely make you to eat dirt if your characters are level 33; it's the same level as Poppers, and as you know, Stone deals 8 times as much damage when the level of the caster and the target as equal. Just make sure this doesn't happen by taking them out ASAP; they're weak to Fire, so Fire Dance or the newly acquired Tritoch can help. NoiseBlaster also works like a charm. An MT charm, to be precise. :P Another theory I'd like to credit Suonymona for mentions that Rhodox/Poppers are this game's version of FF V's Nut Eaters/Skull Eaters. They're both squirrel-like in appearance the colors are consistent (brown for the weaker, grey for the stronger). Since Sabin has a childhood fear of 'Nut Eaters', maybe the Rhodox' and Poppers' non-Suplexable nature doesn't come from the fact they are unable to be lifted, but rather comes from the fact Sabin can't bring himself to perform the attack on them. This wouldn't explain Gogo's behavior, though. Kiwok are boring. Their Special, !Pick, sets Imp. Weak against Fire like everything in the cave, it doesn't really matter if you torch them or just use other kinds of violence. The Sketch command has a 3/4 shot at pulling Cyclonic from this freaky bipod, which works against both Kiwok and Poppers. Kiwok are called 'leaders of the little monsters' by the Anthology Bestiary. What that's supposed to mean is left to anybody's imagination. Ceritops are pretty sturdy with inherent Safe, Death protection, and the ability to absorb your Lightning-elemental attacks. They're weak against Fire and really don't do anything special AI-wise (Battle and !Pal Maker, which sets *gasp* Imp), so take your time, they're not very dangerous. They have a mouth-watering Rage, though (inherent Safe, Lightning-absorption, ID protection, Giga Volt). Pug. The Tonberry. The notorious creatures that look like they're waddling over for a hug yet intend to flay the flesh from your skull while you're still alive. They have a lot of Hit Points (8000) for a normal monster and possess two very strong attacks. Every round, it will use Step Mine. Since Step Mine is unblockable, non-elemental, and barrier-piercing, there's no protection from it. I can't predict how much damage it will do, but 1700 is a fair guess, I'd say. Every time you damage a Pug, it will counter with a !Cleaver attack, which is eight times as strong as his normal Battle attack (which he never uses) - an incredible blow - AND another Step Mine attack. It slaughters you left and right! How to deal with one? The trick is the Imp status! Turn it into an Imp with the spell or Sour Mouth. It'll start to do automatic criticals now, so if you're not under the influence of Clear you should do so ASAP. Now, you can just pound it without fear. The quickest ways to a dead Pug are Fire-elemental attacks and the Deep Eye Rage. Since Pug is immune to ID attacks, but not to Petrify, most petrification attacks will fail where Dread will work. It has a rare Tintinabar drop, which is pretty spectacular, but as a Pug encounter by itself is rare enough, it's hardly a good source to find them. Anemone are pretty passive enemies. When with other monsters, they will merely use !Imp Touch every now and then, which sets Imp. If they've been damaged, they will heal themselves a little with Mega Volt; they both are weak to the element and absorb it, so not even the Debilitator can make Mega Volt hurt an Anemone. If an Anemone is all by itself though, it'll start to use Giga Volt on the party every turn, so you'll want to avoid that. Weak to Fire, like you suspected. Tomb Thumb are monsters I find specifically annoying for no apparent reason. Their Special is called !Dash, and it doesn't set Imp; it sets Haste! That's why they use it on themselves every second turn, too. Otherwise, it's just physical attacks when they're with others or Imp Song when they're alone. You've only seen Imp Song as a counter-attack so far, so I should point out that Imp Song is actually an MT attack. So, slap on as many Ribbons as you have and give White Capes to the other characters. You don't want to be turned into an Imp, and Ribbons are nice in the aspect of Muddled-protection for Stone. Summon Phantom at some time or just cast Vanish a couple of times; invulnerability is the goal here. Poppers' Stone isn't cast until the second round and Giga Volt and Imp Song only when the enemies in question are alone (don't allow it). Pug's Step Mine is unavoidable, but you can set Imp, possibly revive the fallen characters, and quickly re-apply Clear. Fire-elemental attacks rule here, but the only strong one you probably have at this point is Tritoch's Tri-Dazer. Fire 3 spells clean house though. Umaro's Cave is a cave with two themes. The first theme is out-battle, and it's pitfalls. Bloody, bloody pitfalls. They're not there to make you land on poisoned spikes or anything, but they do keep you from getting treasure. The other theme is Imp. Every monster here has the ability to turn you into one of those blasted Kappa water sprites. When you land, you have access to three parts of the cave. The far right one just leads you to a pitfall, so you have no business there. The one in the middle leads you to a chest with an X-Ether (the upper chest). Grab it and then return to the first cave you entered. Now, enter the far left cave-mouth. Make sure you don't stand on the two dark tiles there, as they are pitfalls. Walk around until you get a random battle. Make sure to end it with four characters with the Clear status. Siren is nice to equip as well, but only necessary if you can't set Imp or Mute in any way. Now, open the chest. As you may have guessed, 'tis a monster-in-a-box. Pugs (x3) Level: 62, HP: 30000, MP: 50000 Steal: Minerva (rare), Win: Minerva (rare) Absorbs: Water, Weak against: Fire Special: !Knife: Battle x 8 Sketch : !Knife, Battle Control: Battle, !Knife Vulnerable to: Imp, Mute, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Knife, Pearl Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: Yes Pearl messes with the RNG, but it's only used as counter to the Magic command, so you won't see it if you're going for Echo Screen/Joker Doom. Ragnarok's Metamorph: Yes 12.5% chance of obtaining one of the following: Imp Halberd TortoiseShld Titanium Imp's Armor Pugs are the more powerful yet more easily defeated version of Pug. They simply walk up to you and use Battle every time they take a step. If they're right in front of you - have taken eight steps - they use !Knife and return to their original position. If you hit them with a Magic spell, they counter with Pearl. Their Pearl spell is fairly weak and not even a direct threat, but it does remove the Clear status, which opens you up to their physical attacks. When you fight them, do whatever you want, so long as you make sure you stay under Clear. Mute the lot, cast an MT Bio, and cast a Haste 2 spell on them to speed up the Poisoning. They're weak against Fire, so the newly acquired summon attack, Tri-Dazer, packs a nice punch. The battle really revolves around staying invincible. Gau's Io Rage is really grand, as the Pugs' level is really high. You know what hurts by now, I assume. If you have a character with the Steal command, you could try to nick a Minerva if you don't have two yet; the only situation in which you need more than one Minerva is a team that features both Terra and Celes, but it doesn't hurt. Do know that due to the Pugs' high level and the Minerva being a rare Steal, it really makes for a small chance of success; you need to be at least level 50 for a chance of success. Once you're done, you cleared the entire top floor so it doesn't matter if you go back to the first cave and enter the middle cave-mouth to descend the stairs to the lower level or just fall through a pitfall. Regardless, find the Gauntlet in the chest here and push on. It's an easily maneuverable cave and you should reach the stairs before long. Ascend to find a switch. Ignore it; it triggers a pitfall right where you're standing. The next switch also does this, but allows you to enter a new part of the cave. This is the room of the sasquatch that Mog and various townspeople from Narshe were talking about earlier. The stairs up just lead to the point where you could see Umaro the sasquatch in the WoB and forces you to fall down there. It's a long hike back, and we still have work to do here. Examine the bone carving in the middle of the room to find a piece of Magicite in it! Once you choose to remove the remains of Terrato from the carving, an enraged yeti comes for you! You should know better than to mess with art... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.55.5 The battle with Umaro ********************************** Umaro Level: 33, HP: 17200, MP: 6990 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Ice, Weak against: Fire, Poison Special: !Tackle: Battle x 3 Sketch : !Tackle, Battle Control: Battle, !Tackle Vulnerable to: Poison, Berserk, Sleep, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Tackle, Jump, Item (Green Cherry), Snowball, Surge, Blizzard, Lode Stone Vanish/Doom: No Immunity to Clear status Joker Doom: Yes Snowball and Lode Stone mess with the RNG, but neither is used in the first 40 seconds of battle, so you should be fine. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No So, you've had three major battles with relatively easily defeated monsters with a weakness to Fire, so the game designers decided to add something new here. Sadly, the game designers lost the dictionary and forgot the meaning of the word 'new', and as a result Umaro is, yet again, a relatively easily defeated monster with a weakness to Fire. Umaro employs all kinds of freaky attacks to try to damage you. Normally, he'll use Battle, !Tackle, and Blizzard. He uses physical attacks only when only one character is alive, but I see no reason for that to occur other than in a SCC. Every 40 seconds (when 2 or more characters are alive), Umaro will either use Snowball (an unblockable ID attack that halves the target's current HP and sets Seizure), Surge, or Lode Stone (ID attack that takes off 75% of the targets current HP). Umaro may counter Fire-elemental attacks with either !Tackle or Blizzard, and every other kind of damage with !Tackle. Every third time Umaro is hit by a Magic spell, he'll use a Jump attack. The interesting part of this fight is the Green Cherry Item. When you use it on him or he uses it himself (automatically when he reaches 10240 HP), he will glow red and the following message will appear: "Power 100 times up! Defense up Mag Def up Speed up Recovery up" This means that Umaro sets Safe, Shell, Haste, and Regen on himself. Sadly for Umaro, he has Seizure immunity, so you never get to see Regen in action. The appearance of the Green Cherry means Dispel time for you! Dispel will remove all of his power-ups (so will Strago's Rippler Lore, by the way). Umaro is a very easy opponent. Since he has Berserk vulnerability, you can set it with the Bserk spell, summon Phantom, and effectively win the match right there. If this is not amongst your pool of options, combining Sleep with Slow should really cripple him too. If status ailments are too cheap for you, Umaro is simply weak enough to defeat with damaging and healing when appropriate. Fire 2 spells work just fine, as does Sabin's Bum Rush, Dragon Horn Jump attacks, you name it. After the battle is over, Umaro will be sitting in a corner, looking sad and pummeled. But hey, you broke his statue and, dunno, pummeled him, so I guess that makes sense. If you walk over him, don't be afraid; he won't attack you again. If you didn't bring Mog, he'll just go "Ooh..." and continue to sit there. If this happens, you can just return to get Mog and talk to him later; he'll still be sitting there. If you did bring Mog though, he'll go talk to Umaro. In a stunning display of taking advantage of the mentally disabled, Mog orders Umaro to join your cause. He'll stomp off to find the Falcon and wait there for you. You don't have to have Mog in your party to use Umaro, and using a Green Cherry on the character Umaro has no special effect over removing Imp like it always does. If you would like to learn more about Umaro, follow [UMARO-LINK]. Umaro, as a character, is generally considered the weakest character in the game. His stats are awesome, that's not the problem, and his Tackle and Character Toss attacks are nothing to scoff at. Not to mention the fact that with the two Relics made specifically for him (the Rage Ring and Blizzard Orb) he absorbs Fire and Ice while nullifying Lightning, taking care of the three basic elements in the game. Then why is Umaro still considered the weakest link? First off, you can't access his equipment. He's stuck with a feature-less, non-elemental Bone Club in his right hand and the Snow Muffler. Granted, the Snow Muffler is arguably the best armor to be 'stuck with', but this means that Umaro cannot adapt to a situation. He needs at least one Relic slot for a sufficient damage output, which doesn't help him. He can't learn or cast Magic like all the other characters, and can receive no Esper boosts, as he can't equip them. He's uncontrollable from the beginning, so he can never react to a surprise KO with a Fenix Down or fall back as a utility character. In short, Umaro is a completely one-dimensional character. This immediately explains his popularity by many first-time players; it's hard to go wrong with him. Every character can be tweaked to be superior to Umaro, but you have to know how in some cases, while it's impossible to go really wrong with Umaro; you bring him into battle; he'll do impressive damage. For now, if you've followed the walkthrough so far, you'll have neither the Rage Ring nor Blizzard Orb, so the best Umaro right now is one equipped with an Atlas Armlet (Hero Ring works, but Umaro won't benefit from the increase in magical damage) and a Gauntlet. Since Umaro comes without a shield anyway, the Gauntlet raises both the offense (his normal physicals only, not Tackle and Character Toss) and defense of the raging snowman. Now, you can just cast the Warp spell to get out. Or walk, do whatever pleases you. The path Umaro took is the only way to leave Umaro's caves. Note: You just obtained Terrato as well. Terrato isn't as powerful as Tritoch, almost nothing is weak to the Earth element and he doesn't hit Floating targets, but Terrato's Earth Aura *is* stronger than your level 2 spells so it's a nice Esper to summon for Terra/Celes/Relm/Strago if they haven't learned any truly powerful magic yet. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.55.6 The Moogle Raid ********************************** Container contents: Aegis Shld, Air Anchor, Coronet, Fixed Dice, Force Armor x2, Force Shld, Gauntlet, Genji Shld, Hero Ring, Minerva, Nutkin Suit, Red Cap, Ribbon, Stunner, Safety Bit, Tack Star Note that this section is entirely optional and in fact hardly what you're 'supposed' to do, feel free to skip it. It's the abusing of a no-encounter Relic to gain all sorts of late-game treasure from three dungeons you're not quite ready for. It *really* helps out. [MOOGLE-RAID] The following needs you to have Mog in your party, equipped with the Moogle Charm. It's the entire point of the quest, silly! Since you'll be walking anyway, might as well equip Sprint Shoes. The first stop is the Fanatics Tower. We see Strago prancing 'round like before, but now we go right past him, onto the Tower. On the first part of the stairway, there's a door we can enter. Enter and raid the chest; it contains a Safety Bit. The Safety Bit protects the wearer from Instant Death-magic; it's basically a Memento Ring for everybody. But wait a minute, didn't that thief in Maranda mention how one of his companions mumbled 'to the right of the treasure chest'? The thieves can never have gone too far, so you'd better check it out. Press the action button when standing to the right of the treasure chest. Something rumbles, and when you leave the door another one has appeared below you! When you enter this one, you can find a chest containing an Air Anchor, Edgar's final Tool. The Air Anchor does the following. Once an enemy is hit by the Air Anchor, it is allowed one more turn, after which it dies. It never misses, unless the target is immune to Instant Death attacks. The Air Anchor also deals damage, which is entirely redundant (as no damage will be done if it misses, and the damage is useless if the target dies the next round anyway). I myself have always liked the Air Anchor because it never fails and you can focus attacks on other opponents while you know the Anchored one has been taken care of; others will claim the Air Anchor is a scrubby Tool that allows for another attack while so many other ID attacks like Doom/Snare/Atom Edge do not. While in the Air Anchor room, remove your Moogle Charm and walk around! The only battles here feature Magic Urn. Not only do they heal you with a multitude of potions, they also Escape on their own after a while. They have a kick-ass Rage (allows Gau to absorb all eight elements regardless of equipment and immunity to all status ailments while casting Cure 3 half the time), so you'll want to meet them at least once. We press on! The door in the second part of the stairway contains a Genji Shield, which is a nice enough shield; third-best Defense in the game (lower than the legendary Paladin Shield and oddball TortoiseShield), respectable Magic Defense, and 20% Magic Block added to the wearer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The door in the third part of the stairway contains the Stunner, the most powerful Dirk for Shadow. It has a 25% chance of casting Stop every time a strike is made, but gives nothing in terms of fringe benefits. Famous for Colosseum tactics against the likes of Chupon and Siegfried, who are both vulnerable to the ailment and very hard to defeat by other means. The room also features the White Dragon; you can defeat him now if you want for a Pearl Lance: [WDRAGON-LINK]. The door in the fourth and last part of the stairway contains a Force Armor. The Force Armor is a great piece of armor, especially for those characters that have no other interesting pieces to equip (Locke, Cyan, Edgar, Setzer, and Shadow). It doesn't really have that much on Defense (inferior to Crystal Mail), but it's quite good on Magic Defense (only inferior to Genji Armor, rare Snow Muffler and oddball Imp's Armor), has great elemental advantages (50% Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, and Earth-elemental damage) and an added 30% Magic Block. The Force Armor is inferior to the Minerva in every way except for the MBlock, so don't equip it on the girls; it's a genuine toss-up for the boys, though. The Genji Armor is sturdier in both the Defense and Magic Defense department and gives all-round stat boosts to boot; the Force Armor makes for a more evasive character that is better suited to deal with elemental magical attacks. I prefer the Force Armor for non-specific boss battles and the Genji Armor for random encounters myself, but it's up to you. The top part of the Tower, where the 'wondrous' item lies, should be off-limits to you at this point; you can try to defeat the boss, but it's an enormous hassle to defeat the guy at this stage. If you want to try the pain-in-the-ass way (which for emulator users means juggling with Sonic Dive and for console players hours upon hours of MP-draining), skip ahead to [MAGIMASTER-LINK]. If not, just hike all the way back, which is my least favorite part of this game by far. Next and final stop, Kefka's Tower! Put Mog with the Moogle Charm in party # 1, and fill up the other two positions. You won't be using them, so don't worry about which characters to take. Walk around with Mog. You'll first come across a chest containing a Coronet, which boosts the wearer's Magic Power by 4 and raises the success rate of the Control ability (Relm's upgraded Sketch). Walking on gets us into a familiar area, a part of the Imperial Palace. Open the chest for the Fixed Dice (which makes Setzer eternally more appealing than he was so far). The Fixed Dice are Dice, but better. Dice sucked always, but the Fixed Dice is a better damage dealer than Setzer's other weapons on average (unless extreme circumstances appear, but meh). The main differences include the fact that The Fixed Dice have THREE Dice to multiply with, and upon the situation of three equal rolls (1-1-1, 2-2-2, etc.) the outcome is once again multiplied by the number rolled. Finally, the damage output of the Fixed Dice aren't cut down by the Offering, so Setzer can deal four of these attacks from the Back Row with the relic equipped. Now, walking on will get you to a dead end, so either use a Warp Stone, the Warp spell, or switch to one of your characters and touch the Crane to get out. Now, put Mog in party # 2 and continue raiding. The first chest you find is rather messily stacked on the background in the second room. It contains a Minerva. Continue to find a split in the road. Go up to grab the Tack Star in the chest, and then go down. You'll find yourself in the jail of the Imperial Palace, where Kefka was locked up when you were on the mission to find the Esper for a peace conference. A monster sits in Kefka's jail; ignore it for now and get out. You'll fall down. Go up the stairs to find two pipes. The right one takes you back to the Tack Star room, the left one allows you to continue. You'll find a Force Shield in the chest you see upon tasting fresh air again. Go down; don't bother with the two doors for now, and get to the far bottom-left to find a Force Armor in a chest. Get back to the two doors. The left one takes you to a button on the floor and a chest containing a Ribbon. Get out and take the right door. You can find the Gold Dragon waiting for you here, but no more chest contents. If you have the Bserk and Vanish spells, you can take him with Mog only; an average party at this point also can. If you want to take the dragon on now, take a look at [GDRAGON-LINK]. Warp out. Now, get Mog in party # 3. Walk downwards. Going to the left will clearly take you past three chests: a Red Cap (awesome), a Gauntlet, and a Nutkin Suit. Continuing down the logical path will eventually take you to a part of the derelict MagiTek Factory. Pick the chest for a Hero Ring and try to find the Aegis Shield hidden to the south. If you're playing on an emulator, simply disable layer 2 to see the path. If you're a console player, do the following: Go down into the darkness to the left of the spinning whatever-it-is. - Go all the way down - Go all the way to the right - Go all the way down - Go 1 step up - Go all the way to the left - Go all the way down - Take a few steps to the right and grab the Aegis Shield - Go back into the darkness and go all the way to the right - Go up and to the right until you don't go any further - Go all the way to the left, and all the way up to re-appear This is it! You've raided Kefka's Tower as far as you could. There's plenty more, but you'll need three thoroughly prepared parties to go further so there's a time for that later. Finally, it's possible to get a secret character really early. It's a fun character in a rainbow-coloured burqa that can perform ALL the skills, giving you Steal back among other options. There's a few neat treasures as well. All you gotta do is fly over to the Triangle Island to the northeast, take off the Moogle Charm, engage a Zone Eater (it won't kill Mog) and have it Engulf Mog. When inside, follow your heart: [EARLY-GOGO] When you pick up Gogo this early, make sure to check out the chapter detailing the Steal command in the World of Ruin. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.55.7 Round two: Dragon's Neck Colosseum ********************************** Welcome to the Dragon's Neck Colosseum, a monument to combat. You've had a nice trip around the world, obtained two fluffy mascots and probably used one of them to steal everything that wasn't nailed down. It's time to bet your newly acquired prizes to gain more prowess in combat. Again, more *'s means more difficulty. *** Falchion - Flame Shld Opponent: Outsider * Flame Shld - Ice Shld Opponent: IronHitman ** Murasame - Aura Opponent: Borras ** Aura - Strato Opponent: Rhyos ** Strato - Pearl Lance Opponent: Aquila *** Ninja Star - Tack Star Opponent: Chaos Drgn ** Tack Star - Rising Sun Opponent: Opinicus * Rising Sun - Bone Club Opponent: Allosaurus ** Bone Club - Red Jacket Opponent: Test Rider ** Sniper - Bone Club Opponent: Borras * Czarina Gown - Minerva Opponent: Sky Base *** Rename Card - Marvel Shoes Opponent: Doom Drgn For a casual playthrough, I suggest the following. Get one Red Jacket by betting one Ninja Star, bought in Thamasa, and continuing down the line until you win a Red Jacket. If you haven't obtained a Minerva earlier, do so now by betting your Czarina Gown. Marvel Shoes are the bee's knees, and Rename Cards are easily obtained from Elixirs. With a 128 % Mblock setup on Celes, they are easily acquired from Doom Drgn. If you declined the Moogle Raid, you will be able to reach this benchmark after the next dungeon, when you obtain a Force Armor. An explanation on the new items you can obtain here: The Flame Shield is a shield that, well, absorbs Fire-elemental attacks. It nullifies damage done by Ice-elemental attacks, and the wearer will receive twice as much damage from Water-elemental attacks. It teaches the Fire 2 spell at a x5 rate and will cast an unblockable, barrier-piercing Fire 3 spell when used in combat, after which it breaks. Its Defense rate is 1 point below that of the Ice Shield, which basically serves the same purpose. It's inferior to the Crystal Shield in terms of Defense and Magic Defense, but the elemental properties and the extra 10% Magic Block makes it come out superior in my book. The Ice Shield is a shield that, well, absorbs Ice-elemental attacks. It nullifies damage done by Fire-elemental attacks, and the wearer will receive twice as much damage from Wind-elemental attacks. It teaches the Ice 2 spell at a x5 rate and will cast an unblockable, barrier-piercing Ice 3 spell when used in combat, after which it breaks. Its Defense rate is 1 point above that of the Flame Shield, which basically serves the same purpose. It's inferior to the Crystal Shield in terms of Defense and Magic Defense, but the elemental properties and the extra 10% Magic Block makes it come out superior in my book. The Aura is simply superior to the Murasame. If you're disappointed by the sudden lack of legendary weaponry in your inventory, don't fret; the Aura is actually the Masamune, stupidly translated by Ted Woolsey. You can trade it away for an even more powerful Strato right now. The Strato, or Ame no Murakumo (Sword of the Billowing Clouds, or shortened as Heaven's Cloud), is the strongest weapon from Japanese mythology. In FF VI, it's a rather uninteresting weapon and the third-strongest weapon Cyan gets to lay his hands on without crossing the border of weapons he can normally equip. It's a very simple upgrade in Battle Power over the Aura. The Pearl Lance is a Pearl-elemental Lance that gives a +3 on Magic Power and has a 25% at casting Pearl every time you Fight with it or on every last Jump attack the wielder makes. The Pearl Lance is argued to be the best Lance out there, because the only one higher in Battle Power doesn't have a random spell casting applied. You may have found already if you took Mog lootin' in the Fanatic's Tower and went toe to toe with the White Drgn. The Tack Star is the ultimate throwing star. It eh.... yeah, it damages. A lot. You can't really buy them anywhere, they are hardly ever found in chests, and they only appears as a rare steal on a late-game enemy, so the Colosseum is your source for them. The damage increase over the Ninja Star probably isn't worth all the effort, but the Tack Star can be bet away in the Colosseum for other items. The Rising Sun is a Full Moon upgrade. It's weaker than the Sniper Special weapon and can only be gotten *later* than it. It's a passageway item at the Colosseum and should only be collected for that very purpose. The Bone Club is equally useless. Only one character, Umaro, can equip it, he comes with one and cannot be (un)equipped anyway. Another passageway item collected for completion and betting at the Colosseum. It can be sold for a purse full of 10000 GP. The Red Jacket is Sabin's ultimate Armor. Sadly for Sabin, it's the second- worst piece of ultimate Armor in the game. It nullifies any Fire-elemental attack and is superior to Diamond Vests and Crystal Mail and all that, but comes nowhere near other end-game pieces of equipment and has no special effect. It's also useful on Edgar for a short while, I might add. The Minerva is the piece of Armor you'll wind up keeping on Celes and Terra for the remainder of the game because it's the BEST armor in the game. Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Wind are nullified, and Water, Earth, Pearl, and Poison only deal 50% as much damage. To top it off, it grants the wearer an all-round stat boost (+1 Vigor, +2 Speed, +1 Stamina and +4 Magic Power for dessert) and 10% additional Magic Block. Its special effect is granting the wearer 25% extra MP. In other words, you'll want this on your armored girls most of the time. If you defeated the Pugs in Umaro's Cave, you might have found one or more already. Marvel Shoes are grand. They set Safe, Shell, Haste, and Regen on a character. This will make him or her take only 2/3 of the damage every attack normally does that isn't barrier-piercing, grants an immunity to Slow and Seizure, and basically makes sure that a character will stick around longer and act faster than he or she normally does. Marvel Shoes are great filler Relics; while Marvel Shoes take a spot that a Hero Ring can't take, some prefer the defensive route to the offensive one. - Falchion - Flame Shld Opponent: Outsider Outsider is vulnerable to ID, and that's your savior. Outsider uses Battle, !Ruin, Flare, and X-Zone. !Ruin kills you if it connects. X-Zone kills you if it connects. Every time you hurt Outsider, he's going to respond with Shurikens, Ninja Stars, or Tack Stars down your throat. Send in Setzer with dual Trumps and a Black Belt and you should be winning more battles than you lose. Sadly, you're just gonna have to rely on the X-type ID kicking in, or else you'll see Setzer eating dust like it's 311 B.C. - Flame Shld - Ice Shld Opponent: IronHitman IronHitman has little HP and weak defenses. Sending in Sabin with dual Dragon Claws and a Black Belt will guarantee you victory unless Sabin pulls off a Spiraler. If you have a Safety Bit, you can use it to protect against the Dischord attack. - Murasame - Aura Opponent: Borras - Sniper - Bone Club Opponent: Borras Celes with perfect Mblock will be immune to all of Borras' physical attacks, so she is sure to win the match. If you don't have that, I suggest Setzer with the Coin Toss and a Relic that sets Safe, like the Guard Ring you can purchase in Jidoor. This is a superior route to Bone Clubs and Red Jackets. - Aura - Strato Opponent: Rhyos Rhyos is a mean upgrade from the Chimera. He can use Surge (strong), Aero (even stronger), and Flare Star, which will kill you unless you have any way of nullifying it/absorbing it. Send in a character with a Flame Shield, as he or she will be protected from both Surge and Flare Star. An Ice Shield is not as smart as Aero will do double damage to such a target. Dragoon Edgar works best. - Strato - Pearl Lance Opponent: Aquila Aquila is a big bird. It uses Battle, !Flap, Shimsham, and Cyclonic. You can't protect against the latter two yet, so just send in Dragoon Edgar and hope for the best. If you don't have him, I regret to inform you that ID attacks don't work against this bird and you won't win the battle. - Ninja Star - Tack Star Opponent: Chaos Drgn Chaos Drgn has three attacks that are prone to screw you over. !Cinderizer will kill you if it connects. Disaster turns you into a Muddled Imp, which pretty much settles the score. Meteor is just very strong. You won't' be able to take two and live through it. Your best bet is to send it Dragoon Edgar and hope for Battle/Meteor. Chaos Drgn has quite some HP but weak defenses, so while in most cases you'll die, you really want to pull through a few times to get to the Red Jackets in the end. - Tack Star - Rising Sun Opponent: Opinicus Opinicus is a joke. He has little HP (3210), little Defense, and a weakness against Pearl-elemental attacks. Sabin with two Dragon Claws, a Black Belt, and Gaia Gear is almost sure to win. His Slide attack will be absorbed by the Gaia Gear, so the only worry is Surge, of which Sabin can take at least two before rolling over and dying. If you want to be really sure, try getting an Ice Shld first so you absorb both Slide AND Surge. - Rising Sun - Bone Club Opponent: Allosaurus Allosaurus is weak, but has a 1/3 chance of casting Doom. Equip a Wall Ring to reflect it back at him (he's vulnerable to ID). Any strong attack will take him out. - Bone Club - Red Jacket Opponent: Test Rider It's better to wait until after you've gotten yourself an Ice Shield so you absorb Flash Rain. If you have a Titanium to equip or perhaps a TortoiseShld, that works too (Flash Rain is Ice/Water, despite it's Lightning-elemental looks). Edgar would make a nice Dragon Horn Dragoon with an Ice Shield in this fight. Test Rider isn't really something to worry about. - Czarina Gown - Minerva Opponent: Sky Base 75% of the time, Sky Base will cast Doom. Sky Base is also vulnerable to Instant Death attacks. Grab a Wall Ring and equip it, and send in whoever. If your character attacks, Sky Base can counter with up to FOUR Blaster attacks. If your character damages Sky Base without killing him, the battle is over. So, start running as soon as you enter the fight! Your character will just run and never attack. He won't succeed in running away, and just Reflect the Doom spell to win. - Rename Card - Marvel Shoes Opponent: Doom Drgn Doom Drgn has four attacks: Battle, which normally wouldn't be that much of a disaster, yet will prove fatal in most cases in this battle. N. Cross, which has a small chance of freezing you. S. Cross, which is a strong Fire-elemental attack. And Fallen One, which is an unblockable attack that sets your character's HP to 1. Equip a Flame Shield (Red Jackets or Ice Shield won't be sufficient) on Dragoon Edgar. The only way you can be killed is receiving a Battle attack at 1 HP. You just need to pray that doesn't happen and that S. Cross heals you back up whenever you reach that level. To finish off, an impression what my team looks like at this point: EDGAR Pearl Lance Flame Shld Regal Crown Red Jacket Dragon Horn DragoonBoots SABIN Dragon Claw Ice Shld Circlet Red Jacket Hero Ring Earrings CELES Enhancer Enhancer Mystery Veil Minerva Hero Ring Genji Glove SETZER Trump Ice Shld Genji Helmet Crystal Mail Hero Ring Earrings -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.56.1 The battle with Phunbaba ********************************** Opponents: Phunbaba Container contents: Ether Lores: Blow Fish Whom to bring? Celes is great to bring; Runic is nice if you don't have enough Wall Rings to satisfy the entire party, and Celes's Minerva nullifies Phunbaba's Lightning-elemental attacks. Sabin is a great addition to your team as he'll be able to a lot of damage without disturbing him from his sleep with Bum Rush. Gau's not very useful, as his random physicals will disturb Phunbaba from his Sleep status, and the same goes for Umaro. Assuming you haven't fought Phunbaba earlier, you still have some things to do, which you can read about here: [PHUNBABA1-LINK] Assuming that you fought Phunbaba earlier and talked to Terra in Mobliz: [PHUNBABA2-LINK] This is a good time to check in on the kids in Mobliz again. That pigeon can wait for just a little bit longer (don't worry, we'll get with the pigeon next) and the last time we saw Terra, she wasn't doing so hot. Personal problems, loads of responsibility, and the ancient demon Phunbaba stampeding around would get the average nineteen-year old girl down, I'm sure. As soon as you enter Mobliz, nothing happens. The dogs have gotten used to you, so they don't bark. Descending in the orphan's shelter will teach you that the three older kids in town are gone; it seems that amidst all of the disaster, safe sex wasn't a priority for Duane and Katarin. Katarin's pregnant, Duane had thought of a better future than sitting in a dump of a town with his knocked-up 17-year old girlfriend like so many fine young men of our generation, and Terra... Where the hell is Terra? Best search around town. The Relic Shop's derelict, although there's a nice bed for you to sleep in if you feel like it. The only other standing house contains a dog that quickly sneaks off behind a bookcase and Duane, who laments. Follow the dog and you discover the haven within the haven; Terra and Katarin have retreated here to discuss the existence of the baby. Duane comes in to apologize for his 'awful husbandry'. Note that the 'husband' part was part of the localization; teenage pregnancy is bad enough, but in a couple that's not married yet? Unheard of, according to Square. At any rate, Phunbaba attacks again. Duane sticks to Katarin, Terra refuses to fight once more, and the kid asks you to rid the world of Phunbaba once and for all. With ten young eyes pointed at you, do you really have a choice? Before you go out, you can grab an Ether from the yellow pot here, so there's that choice. Before you go out, make sure you're properly equipped and healed up. Wall Rings will really help here, especially if you lack the Runic ability on your team. Obviously, people with a Thunder Shld and/or the Minerva bustier don't need a Wall Ring, as they absorb (Thunder Shld) or nullify (Minerva) Bolt 2 and Bolt 3 anyway. If you brought Umaro and already found a Blizzard Orb, equip it on him; not that his Storm attack is specifically strong in this battle, but the Blizzard Orb nullifies Lightning-elemental attacks. Phunbaba (BabaBreath) Level: 31, HP: 26000, MP: 10000 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Lightning, Weak against: Poison Special: !Solar Plex: Battle x 3 Sketch : !Solar Plex, Battle Control: Battle, !Solar Plex Vulnerable to: Nothing Attacks: Battle, !Solar Plex, Bolt 2, Bolt 3, Blow Fish, BabaBreath Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: No It's impossible to spin 7-7-7 in this battle; the game prevents it. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No Phunbaba (final) Level: 31, HP: 26000, MP: 10000 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Lightning, Weak against: Poison Special: !Solar Plex: Battle x 3 Sketch : !Solar Plex, Battle Control: Battle, !Solar Plex Vulnerable to: Sleep Attacks: Battle, !Solar Plex, Bolt 2, Bolt 3, Blow Fish Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: Yes Blow Fish messes with the RNG, but he doesn't use it until the third turn anyway. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No This isn't all that difficult, so I'll make it kinda quick. You rush out of the house to find Phunbaba approaching. You do battle with him. The first round, he'll throw a Battle or !Solar Plex attack. The next round consists out of Bolt 2 or Bolt 3, and the third round is Bolt 2, Blow Fish, or Battle. It loops. As soon as it hits 15360 Hit Points, it'll counter the first attack you throw at him with a double BabaBreath attack. BabaBreath is a Phunbaba-only attack that's exactly the same as Sneeze; it only looks different. Phunbaba targets two random characters and blows them away. They will also be removed from your party and can be found at the Falcon later. Here, the battle ends. If you somehow managed to completely circumvent this event by doing more than 15360 damage in one turn, he'll use BabaBreath only once and die. This is odd, as the thing going on here is that you can't really handle Phunbaba. Sure, you pound on him for a while, then he disables two of your characters just like that. On the offense, Phunbaba is temporarily resistant to the Sleep status so that doesn't work. Focus on your strongest attacks; Sabin's Bum Rush, Mog and Edgar's Jump attacks, Setzer's GP Rain attack (his Fixed Dice are stronger if you have them), Cyan's Quadra Slam technique, what have you. If you brought Gau to the scene, !Catscratch at decent level (30 and above) is the best bet versus Phunbaba for Gau. Tyranosaur's Meteo's decent, followed by Harpiai's Aero and Trilium's Bio. Vaporite absorbs Bolt 2 and Bolt 3, which is a great defensive choice if you didn't bring Wall Rings or a Runic user. Keep in the back of your head that Vaporite is undead, though. Rhinox isn't, but that really kills Gau's offense in the matter. Woolly absorbs the Lightning-elemental spells and has superior offense in Ice 3, but chances are slim you chose to pick up Gogo before Terra. Your Mages and lesser-trained characters have the Bio spell to use, and if any character has learned Quake than it is pure Magic (don't forget to cast Float, obviously). Note that since this battle fades out rather than actually ends, Strago won't be able to learn any Lores (aka Blow Fish) from this battle. Anyway, despite your perfect set-up and the little amount of damage Phunbaba will be able to do, you still get your face handed to you on an IKEA silver platter according to the storyline. No fair. So, Terra comes to save you! Sensing that her friends are in danger or something cheesy like that, she rushes to the rescue, unleashing the Esper within herself on her way. Round two. Now, you stand there with one or two less characters you picked beforehand, but with a permanently Morphed Terra as a replacement. Just continue to attack him. If Terra knows the Bio spell, have her use it. Since Terra doesn't have a Wall Ring and likely lacks the Minerva bustier as well, it can be a good idea to cast Shell or Rflect on her in this battle, even though she already takes half as much damage from the attacks due to her Morphed state. The Sleep status ailment works now, so have one of your characters cast it if possible and focus on magical attacks only. Before long, Phunbaba will fall. Interesting tidbit: this is actually the only battle in the entire game you can see the fallen Esper Terra sprite in. In normal situations, Terra will automatically Revert when she is killed, but not so in this battle. After the battle, the kids of Mobliz rush out of the houses to celebrate the victory, but instead of their Mama, they find a naked purple furry. They hide behind barrels for safety. One of the toddlers recognizes Terra and all surround her. Terra, meanwhile, has concluded that pacifism isn't the way to enlightenment and decides to fight for her loved ones, the children of Mobliz. When the scene is over, we can leave Mobliz behind; we can only hope that all will go well for them, and that the upcoming baby will never represent this world reborn when the credits roll. I wouldn't get my hopes up for that last one, by the way. An important note to make before we really go back on the Falcon, by the way, is the fact that as of now Terra will receive TWICE as much Morph time for every Magic Point she gains. That's awesomely sweet. Terra is entirely like Celes on her set-up and the way you should treat her; teach her Bahamut's, Terrato's, or Tritoch's spells, and equip the Minerva on her no matter what you have in mind. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.57.1 Following the pigeon ********************************** Finally, it's time to get on with the story and get busy with the pigeon you were prompted to deal with all these aeons ago. Whom to bring? The Minerva bustier is great against the boss you'll fight, so Celes and Terra are nice choices if you have up to two Minervas. Sabin is still a magical powerhouse, but Dragoon Edgar, Dragoon Mog, and Fixed Dice Setzer are pretty powerful too. If Gau has something like Magic Urn or Woolly, I'd bring him along. Never mind Umaro. It comes down to the characters you have proper equipment for, really. First stop, if you still remember, is Maranda, where the carrier pigeon first took us. Some pigeons surround Lola's house, and as we enter we find the entire room covered in beautiful silk flowers. Lola claims that her boyfriend, the wounded lad in Mobliz has sent them all, but we just visited that place; that poor guy was killed when Kefka attacked the town with the Light of Judgment. So, who has been deceiving this girl, keeping her hopes up? Examining the letters reveals that the handwriting of it resembles the handwriting of Cyan, who like no other, knows the pain of loss. Lola asks you if you can attach her reply to a carrier pigeon. Accept, and you'll receive the Rare item "Lola's letter". You can examine it to read the first two lines (Thanks for all the flowers, I'm worried about you...) Go outside and find the pigeon waiting for you near Lola's house; attach the letter (obviously, you'll lose it) and you'll see it fly across the Overworld Map to Zozo. It seems our characters have incredible eyesight if they can track a single bird that far. Jump on the Falcon and fly over to Zozo. Zozo still houses the same opponents as it did in the WoB, but I'm not going to comment on them again, as they're no real threat to you anymore. In Zozo, you find the pigeon resting for a bit near the entrance; pushing it a little makes it fly on, over, and behind the Small Tower. Up there, you may remember one of the doors being rusted shut; you could climb up there and experience this fact if you want to, but we're better off looking on the ground for help. Besides, didn't that one guy in Maranda say how the honest merchant here might be able to help us out one day? The honest merchant is willing to help us for a price; for 1000 GP, we can buy some Rust-Rid. He won't sell you the Rust-Rid if you haven't sent the pigeon all the way, so make sure you did that. The Rust-Rid is a Rare Item you gain if you pay the man. Climb up the stairs, and find the door that was rusted shut. You use the Rust-Rid, and presto: a new dungeon. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.57.2 Mount Zozo ********************************** Opponents: Ursus, Luridan, Scrapper, Punisher, Borras, Storm Drgn Container contents: Aegis Shld, Gold Hairpin, Ice Shld, Red Cap, Thunder Shld Miscellaneous items: Bone Club (rare Punisher steal), Thief Glove (rare Scrapper steal), Force Armor (guaranteed Storm Drgn drop), Muscle Belt (rare Borras steal), Rising Sun (common Punisher steal) Lores: Aero, Pearl Wind Magicite: Monster formations: (Caves) Ursus, Punisher (6/16) Borras (5/16) Ursus (5/16) (Bridge slope) Punisher, Scrapper, Punisher (6/16) Luridan, Luridan, Luridan, Luridan, Luridan, Luridan (5/16) Borras (5/16) (Slope before Cyan's settlement) Luridan, Luridan, Luridan, Luridan, Luridan, Luridan (6/16) Luridan, Luridan, Luridan (5/16) Borras, Ursus, Scrapper (5/16) Borras are upgraded HadesGigas. They don't use Magnitude8 and don't absorb Earth-elemental attacks either; they're just really powerful physically and have a lot of HP. It has a very nasty Special in !Uppercut, which is five times as powerful as Borras' Battle, and has two chances of attacking you every turn. Finally, they have a rare Muscle Belt steal; the Muscle Belt is a Relic that raises your max. HP by 50%, which really helps you defensively. They're nice targets for a Dread attack (has ID protection but no Petrify protection) too. Punishers are boring. They're stronger versions of the Harvesters you met down in Zozo, but not nearly as interesting. They counter Steal with Steal. You can Steal a common Rising Sun or rare Bone Club from them, which are limited to them and Colosseum appearances. They take two turns attacking normally, and a third turn in a frenzy of !Pummel (Battle x 2) and up to two Battle attacks. They're Floating, like all thief opponents, and weak against Poison, like all humans. Scrapper are strong Brawler-type enemies, but unlike Brawler and Iron Fist lack the ability to utilize the Stone attack. They have inherent Haste and attack with either Battle or !Knife (Battle x 1.5). They also counter any damaging attack with either Battle or !Knife. They have a rare Thief Glove steal. Great. In the Sketch, Control, and Rage department, Scrapper has access to Elf Fire, but he won't use it normally. Luridan's crazy! Just crazy, I tell you! It knows two silly terrain attacks only normally accessible through Mog's Dances. On the third turn, he may use Harvester (removes Dark, Poison, Petrify, Mute, Muddle, Seizure, Sleep, Slow and Stop), and on the fourth turn, it may use Kitty (MT, sets Haste). Exactly why a violent delta-shaped bug like Luridan has power over nightingales and young felines is left to anybody's imagination. On every non-Harvester/Kitty turn, Luridan will either use Battle or !Horn (Battle x 2). Since Luridan tends to travel in large packs of either three or six, the continuous pounding gets rather painful on the whole. They can be quickly dispatched by a decent MT Fire 2 spell, and Gau's MT magical violence in Harpiai's Aero also works wonders (Quake misses...why are they Floating?). Ursus are bears. They don't damage you; they just Steal GP from you. This was never a problem with other monsters that did this (Harvester, Dadaluma), as they never ran, so you just got the money back in the end. Ursus, however, will flee the second turn when given the chance. He'll try to Steal from you in the first turn, and counter any damaging attack you throw at him with a shot at a Steal attack, so chances are you really want to take him down ASAP. Sleep, Stop, and Berserk all work on him, and they're weak to the Fire element. Also, there's a trick with Ursus you can't execute now, but will be able to do later. Bring Relm with the Cat Hood equipped, and have either Relm herself or Gogo Control an Ursus. Now, just go ahead and damage it a little with something minor like a Bolt spell, and heal him afterwards. Some of the time, he'll counter with Steal. Now, since Ursus will Steal an incredible amount of money over time, and the Cat Hood doubles all GP obtained, you'll get your own money back twice. I'll remind you when you have the Cat Hood. :) All of the attacks of the monsters in Mt. Zozo are physical, so all you have to do is summon Phantom once or cast Vanish enough times to cover the entire party and you're more or less done until you reach the Storm Drgn here. For some trivia, all monsters have a high Evade rating. You don't notice due to the Evade bug, but you were really supposed to lay off the blockable physical attacks here. As you enter, you'll find a giant cave with wooden bridges going everywhere and nowhere. If you go up, you'll reach a dead end because both bridges here have collapsed. Go all the way to the left to find a chest containing an Ice Shld. If you go down a little, you'll find a wooden bridge going down and a chest containing a Red Cap, a brilliant piece of headgear that raises HP by 25%. I love and suggest it on every character that's not wearing a Mystery Veil at this moment. Follow the bridge downwards and it'll take you to a long set of stairs going down, to the left, past a chest containing a Thunder Shld, and eventually up again. The Thunder Shld is the best elemental shield there is. Unlike its Flame and Ice brethren, it has no elemental weakness, and next to absorbing Lightning- elemental attacks and nullifying Wind, it also halves damage done by Fire- and Ice-elemental attacks. I'd advise it over, say, the Genji Shield if your set-up can use some elemental resistance. Going up will get you past a chest with an Aegis Shld. Boy, the treasure in this dungeon really rocks, I tell you. The Aegis Shld is a shield primarily for magical attacks; its Magic Defense is better than the Genji Shld and its Magic Block% is also higher (40% is better than 20%, no?). It's not as good as defender against magical attacks as the Force Shld, and not as good against physicals as the Genji Shld, but it's a great shield on both areas. Although its lack of elemental properties makes it primarily a great choice for people who get their elemental properties from other sources (in other words, that's mostly Minerva wearers, people with the Cat Hood, or Force Armor). Outside, in the opening to the far left, you'll find a chest with a Gold Hairpin. The other exit takes you outside on the slopes of Mount Zozo, over a bridge. In the next cave, you find a Save Point and a button tile. If you stand on the button tile, a chest you can't reach opens to release the Storm Dragon, who flies freely around. Equip Minerva's and Thunder Shlds where possible now, and Golem/Fenrir and ZoneSeek are great to have around to summon. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.57.3 The battle with Storm Drgn ********************************** Storm Drgn Level: 74, HP: 42000, MP: 1250 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Force Armor (always) Absorbs: Wind, Weakness: Lightning Status: Float Special: !Wing Saber: Battle x 3 Sketch : Pearl Wind, Aero Control: Battle, !Wing Saber Vulnerable to: Nothing Attacks: Battle, !Wing Saber, Aero, Wind Slash, Rage, Cyclonic Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: Yes Nothing Storm Drgn uses messes with the RNG. Ragnarok's Metamorph: Yes 12.5% chance of obtaining one of the following: Crystal Crystal Shld Crystal Helm Crystal Mail Storm Drgn is the toughest dragon out of the bunch, and the specific scourge of the average LLG players, because one of Storm Drgn's attacks is the non-elemental, unblockable Rage attack, which you can't prevent Storm Drgn from using. Luckily, you probably have at least one Minerva wearer in your party at this point, and you just found a Thunder Shld you can equip on any given party member (except for Umaro, useless piece of muscle that he is), so you have at least two party members that nullify the Wind element. Storm Drgn can use three attacks normally: Battle, Wind Slash, and Rage. Rage and Wind Slash are about alike in power and they're both unblockable. Rage, however, is non-elemental where Wind Slash is Wind-elemental. As soon as Storm Drgn dives beneath 15360 Hit Points, he'll drop Wind Slash and Rage for more physicals (he'll start using !Wing Saber here): Aero and Cyclonic. Aero is about 1.2 times as powerful as Wind Slash, but 2.4 times as powerful when used on a single target (which will only happen if all the other characters are Wounded or in the air due to a Jump attack). Cyclonic, as you know from Wyvern and Wirey Drgn, is an MT percentage-based attack that will remove 93.75% of the targets current HP. Memento Rings and Safety Bits block the effects of Cyclonic, as do Rages with the ID Protection property. At the start, summon Golem or Fenrir to protect against the physical attacks Storm Drgn uses. ZoneSeek's Wall really helps against Wind Slash and Rage, but you should invest in individual Shell castings if you don't have ZoneSeek ready. Now, you'll want to use Rasp a few times to take care of Storm Drgn's MP; when it's gone (you can check with Scan, or keep track with a calculator), Storm Drgn won't be able to cast Aero or Cyclonic in it's 'dangerous' phase. If one of your party members has learned the Haste 2 spell from Palidor, by all means. Now, just start beating him! Terra's Morph can help boosting the damage of her spells (and halve the damage done by the magical spells, even though only Rage should ever damage Terra is you've played your cards right). Since Storm Drgn is weak against the Lightning-element, Bolt 2, Tri-Dazer, and Bolt 3 all hurt very nicely. Storm Drgn is rather strong and not to be taken lightly, especially since he won't succumb to your status ailment spells, but with the proper set-up, you shouldn't have a lot of problems. When the fight ends, you'll have defeated another dragon and obtain a Force Armor, which is great against magical attacks and halves the damage done from Fire-, Bolt-, Ice-, Wind-, and Earth-elemental attacks. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.57.4 Cyan Garamonde ********************************** After the battle, you can simply pursue you path without any kind of difficulty. Eventually, you'll reach a room filled with the same silk flowers you found in Lola's house, and a letter on a desk that reads: Dear Lola, I am writing to beg for your forgiveness. I am guilty of perpetuating a terrible lie... I have only now realized the error of my ways. I hope I can correct a great wrong. Your boyfriend, who you thought was in Mobliz, passed away some time ago. I have been writing in his stead... We humans tend to allow the past to destroy our lives. I impore you not to let this happen. It is time to look forward, to rediscover love, and embrace the beauty of life. You have so much of life left to live... CYAN Also, there's a locked chest. When we leave through the opening to the right, we see Cyan send a letter and recite a poem; when he notices you, he declares his alliance to your cause once again and freaks out about you seeing his silk flowers and reading his letters. It seems the year of solitude has hardly changed him. If you brought three characters, Cyan is now in your party; if not, he'll be waiting on the Falcon for you. If you go outside, you'll see something shimmering; it turns out to be the key to Cyan's secret chest. You can go back in and open the chest. You'll find two books here: a Machinery Manual (Japanese game: Machines for Dummies, Machines explained through comics, Overcome your fears of machines today and the Big Book of understanding machines) which supposedly cured Cyan's fear of machines and a "Book of Secrets", of which he's very possessive. If you have Cyan in your party at this moment, he'll make a small scene in which he takes this item from your party leader. The Japanese game just called this "Book of Secrets" a naughty magazine. So it's a fact, poetry-writing heart-broken samurai get lonely too. :P If you take Cyan to Lola, he'll exchange the "Everything's going swell here in Mobliz"-letter with the letter you read in Mount. Zozo. Lola will talk a little about her feelings and exclaims how she wants to meet this man who wrote all the letters; if you brought Cyan and at least one other party member, he or she will be about to break the secret when Cyan steps in and prevents the truth from surfacing, telling Lola to enjoy life. Case closed. Cyan, if you've been following the program a bit, probably learned two new SwdTech skills in your absence. Empowerer (which you may have already seen in the WoB, level 24) is an attack that drains both HP and MP in a single strike using some dragon-related power. It's strong enough to restore Cyan back to full in both aspects if you don't level too high, so unless the damage drained is hampered by the target, it's a great restorative move. Stunner is basically Cyan's version of Sabin's Air Blade, much like Dispatch is Cyan's version of Sabin's Pummel. Stunner is slightly stronger, non-elemental, and has a rough 55% chance of setting Stop if the struck opponent is still alive and vulnerable to the ailment: it's a random 140/256 chance ignoring any kind of Magic Block or Evade stat. With Quadra Slam still being there for you, Cyan's SwdTech skills truly are something to fear; it's the bloody charge time that holds you back. Waiting for SwdTech # 6 takes a really long time; even if you skip to all the other characters and input the commands for their long-animation attacks, Cyan won't always be done charging when the other characters are done, and at this point, the opponents have often already been defeated. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.58.1 The Veldt ********************************** The Veldt has altered a bit. You no longer have access to the town of Mobliz when walking on the Veldt, Crescent Mountain has disappeared and a new cave, mysteriously called the Cave of the Veldt has appeared. It's been quite a while since you picked up some new Rages, so I suppose it's time to go check up on our friend Gau again. You won't have to rescue him or do anything special to recruit him; just go fight on the Veldt with any party that has a free spot and he'll have the same ol' 57.5% chance of appearing like always. You've met a great load of monsters, so I'll give a quick rundown on the good ones you can look for. I'd like to advise you to enter the Cave of the Veldt and complete it before you start hunting for new Rages, since it unlocks two worthwhile new Rages and introduces a recurring monster on the Veldt that drops some really good stuff. Behemoth (Meteor) Ninja (absorbs Poison, inherent Float, Water Edge) Wirey Drgn (inherent Safe and Float, Cyclonic) EarthGuard (Big Guard) Mesosaur (Step Mine) Gilomantis (ID protection, Shrapnel)*1 Osteosaur (absorbs Poison, Undead, X-Zone) Orog (absorbs Poison, Undead, Pearl)*2 PowerDemon (absorbs Poison, Undead, Flare) Red Wolf (ID protection, !Rush (Battle x 1.5)) Mag Roader (brown) (inherent Haste, L.4 Flare) Ceritops (absorbs Lightning, ID protection, inherent Safe, Giga Volt) Luridan (inherent Float, Land Slide)*3 Scrapper (absorbs Poison, inherent Haste, Elf Fire) Black Drgn (absorbs Poison, Undead, Storm)*4 Punisher (inherent Haste and Float, Bolt 3) *1 Shrapnel is a non-elemental magical attack about as powerful as a level 3 spell. Under Rage, it randomly changes between an ST and MT spell, much like Fire 2, Giga Volt, and attacks like that. *2 Pearl is a Pearl-elemental spell that you will later learn from an Esper. It's slightly weaker than a level 3 spell. *3 Land Slide is an ST non-elemental barrier-piercing attack that's about 1.25 times as powerful as a level 3 spell on a single target. Superior to Flare in all ways, it was already Mog's second-strongest Dance attack. *4 Storm is exactly what you get when you invent an Ice-elemental Skean and make it not a Skean. Notable as one of Umaro's attacks, it's his strongest Ice-elemental attack until Gau gets his greedy little hands on Woolly. On how to use Gau in the WoR: It's a common notion that while Gau rocks people's socks in the WoB with his incredible offensive abilities, he's just a tank in the WoR while the offense is lacking. This is only partly true, however. For fairly far into the WoR, Gau's special attacks are still powerful enough to make most forms of MT damage pale in comparison. The most noticable picks on a good ol' fashioned MT violence Gau are: ChickenLip/Cluck. You should have ChickenLip from the WoB, but Cluck is just a slight alternative (absorbs Poison, but lacks ID protection). Quake never misses unless the targets floats, and also hits your side, so you'll want to make sure to always have Floating characters when using this Rage. When the opponents get hit and you don't, this is pretty much the best choice you have. Meteo is about as strong as Quake, hits all enemies and all enemies only AND is non-elemental. What's the problem then? Not only is obtaining Meteo slightly more of a feat then Quake is (you'll have to go in the woods and fight yourself a Tyranosaur), it also misses 20 % of the time. That's bad. On Floating targets, or when Quake doesn't work for any other reason, I suggest Meteo over pretty much everything else because of its pure power. If you can use neither, there's a slew of options waiting for you that are pretty good but not quite as good as ChickenLip-Cluck and Tyranosaur. Harpiai's Aero is a Wind-elemental level 3 spell on all targets. Gilomantis shares its power and is non-elemental, but may appear ST or MT which adds a level of randomness. As for ST damage, Prussian's Land Slide is a great option, as is Punisher's Bolt 3. The Punisher Rage will also induce Gau with auto-Haste and auto-Float, which doesn't hurt its case in the slightest. Always boost by Earrings! If you feel like your new Gau has been pumped up enough, find the newly formed Cave of the Veldt. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.58.2 The Cave of the Veldt and Allo Ver ********************************** Opponents: Rhyos, Toe Cutter, Allo Ver, SrBehemoth (living), SrBehemoth (undead) Container contents: Rage Ring, Striker, Monster-in-a-box (Allo Ver) Miscellaneous items: BehemothSuit (guaranteed SrBehemoth (undead) drop), Murasame (rare SrBehemoth (living) steal), Poison Rod (rare Toe Cutter drop and common Toe Cutter steal), Tiger Fangs (guaranteed Allo Ver drop) Lores: Condemned Monster formations: Toe Cutter (10/16) Toe Cutter, Toe Cutter (5/16) Rhyos (1/16) Whom to bring? Gau's a great choice here, as you can practice his new Rages here (which are great if you have some of the proper ones). Edgar's excellent to bring if you got his Air Anchor already and also great if you don't, as is Relm (although you probably don't have her yet). In Edgar's absence, Mog's a nice addition as well; it's about the Pearl Lance here. Celes's Runic ability comes in handy in the boss battle here too. For the random encounters, those who have learned Fire 3 are excellent. Toe Cutter is a big nasty Gilomantis upgrade. Toe Cutters absorb Ice-elemental attacks and have ID protection. To top it off, they have just enough HP to survive most MT spells, so it's hard to clean them up easily. On the offense, they're nothing to worry about; they just use Battle over and over again, countering every attack with a 33% shot at !Doomsickle (drains HP). Take them out with Fire- or Wind-elemental attacks. Sabin's Air Blade works really well on them, Cyan's Tempest Knife hurts them badly (although you'll want a Genji Glove/Hero Ring combination to ensure death), and L.4 Flare also hits the spot (the little brown Mag Roader's Rage allows Gau to cast it; it's all the way to the bottom of the Rage list). Air Blade and L.4 Flare should be boosted by Hero Rings and/or Earrings. Rhyos are very elusive, but pretty dangerous when you do encounter them. They have over 7000 Hit Points, no weaknesses and have ID protection, so they'll stay a while when you meet them. For three turns they'll just attack physically, but on the fourth turn Rhyos will get all fired up. He'll start with !Rage (Battle * 2), and use three of the following attacks: Blizzard, Fire Ball, Giga Volt, Magnitude8, or Aqua Rake. Three, that hurts pretty bad. You can stop this madness by casting a combination of Sleep, Slow and/or Stop on the monster, stopping his actions entirely (if you lay off of the physical attacks). Gau's Rages in the Cave otV: Harpiai works wonders on the Toe Cutters, but the brown Mag Roader with L.4 Flare (bottom) is grand on all monsters here. Quake is less desirable because it removes Clear even when Floating, and Meteo may miss. As soon as you enter, you'll see a familiar yet inhuman face: Interceptor! He'll retreat into the cave, so you'll want to follow him. To the right is nothing anyway. In the next room, you'll meet a group of four hunters who live in the cave. They'll talk of Gau and tell you that he won't approach if you're with four party members. One of the members will talk about a 'frightful dragon' that no human is able to defeat. He's not talking about one of the elemental dragons here, but about a rare random encounter: the Brachosaur, the most dangerous random encounter in the game. I'll talk about that bastard when we get there. In this same room is a chest that contains the Rage Ring, a Relic that allows Umaro to absorb Ice-elemental attacks (which he already did anyway due to the irremovable Snow Muffler on him), nullify Fire-elemental attacks, and add the Character Toss attack to his options. To learn more about the Character Toss attack, take a look at [UMARO-LINK]; it's basically an improved Umaro Tackle, a non-elemental barrier-piercing physical attack that requires another party member to work. Me, I like to believe he shouts, in Sasquatch gibberish: "MAN TORPEDO" before every hurl. That would amuse. Leave through the door. The Rage Ring takes care of all the elemental resistances Umaro is ever going to get, and with the added offense, you really want the Rage Ring on Umaro at all times. You'll end up in a place where you can go to the bottom and to the left. To the left (you'll have to navigate blindly for a few steps to reach it) is a chest containing a monster-in-a-box, the deity of Death called Allo Ver. Allo Ver was never supposed to be a one-time battle, but due to a formation mix-up, this is the only time you'll fight him. He was supposed to appear on the Veldt, providing you with Magic Points in this battle and providing you with more Tiger Fangs before the final dungeon, but he does neither. Allo Ver Level: 19, HP: 8000, MP: 8000 Steal: Tonic (common), Potion (rare), Win: Tiger Fangs (always) Absorbs: Poison, Weakness: Fire, Pearl Status: Undead Special: !Dead End: sets Death Sketch : !Dead End, !Dead End Control: Battle, !Dead End, !Dead End, !Dead End Vulnerable to: Petrify, Death, Condemned, Muddled, Slow Attacks: Doom, Condemned, Atomic Ray Vanish/Doom: Yes Note that Allo Ver is Undead, so Doom will just restore his HP. Joker Doom: Yes Atomic Ray screws over the RNG, but you shouldn't see it be used anyway. Ragnarok's Metamorph: Yes 12.5% chance of obtaining one of the following: Remedy Remedy Remedy Remedy Here's the deal. Every turn, Allo Ver will use Doom, Condemned, or do nothing. He also may counter every damaging attack you make with a Doom spell as well (33%). If you allow him to live for more than a minute, he'll cast eight consecutive Atomic Ray spells, which coming from his rather spectacular Magic Power (50!) means death to everybody who isn't specifically protected from Fire-elemental attacks. Don't bother with damage. The weakness of Allo Ver is ID attacks. As soon as you enter battle, have somebody cast Break or X-Zone. You may want to revive a character if he fell to Allo Ver's first turn Doom spell, but Break is definitely the way to go. I don't recommend Edgar's Air Anchor because Allo Ver may counter the Tool with a Doom spell, which you don't want. Regardless, Allo Ver is really more of a regular enemy than he is a boss, so you shouldn't have any trouble with him. The Lich Rage makes any Rager invulnerable, as Doom and Condemned will heal the Rager and Atomic Ray will be absorbed. After you've defeated Allo Ver, you can equip the non-elemental Tiger Fangs on Sabin if you like (if only for the extra increase in Magic Power), and trace back your steps a little and take the southern path this time. The path will take you a long way, but eventually you'll come across a room with a chest and a switch. The chest contains the Striker. The Striker is a rather feature-less weapon with the Assassin's X-type ID ability. It's a weapon you heard about earlier; a 'mean guy' in the Colosseum was looking for it. That's of little concern to you at this time; we still haven't found Interceptor yet. If you touch the switch, a new path opens up for you to take. Once you take the path: shock and awe! It's Shadow, and he's not looking healthy. If you didn't wait for Shadow at the Floating Continent, he's not here, but it will be Relm who's lying facedown on the rocks on the cave. In both cases, Interceptor will be standing guard, waiting for you to come over and help the both of them. Ascend the stairs, and you enter a room with a Save Point. Do your Save Point stuff and enter the room. While you're examining the wounded person, you're attacked from behind by a behemoth-like monster. Bollocks. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.58.3 The battle with SrBehemoth ********************************** SrBehemoth (living, blue) Level: 43, HP: 19000, MP: 1600 Steal: Murasame (rare), Win: Jewel Ring (rare), ThunderBlade (common)*1 Absorbs: Ice, Weakness: Fire, Poison Status: Undead Special: !Evil Claw: Unblockable Battle + Removes Reflect Sketch : !Evil Claw, !Evil Claw Control: Battle, !Evil Claw Vulnerable to: Imp, Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, !Evil Claw, Ice 2, Ice 3, Pearl, Imp, Meteo Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. However, I'd like to point out that using Vanish in combination with X-Zone, Odin's Atom Edge, Raiden's True Edge, the Cleave SwdTech or Snare would have rather bad results; it will prevent the second SrBehemoth from coming around, which will rob you of a Rage and the ability to obtain more than one BehemothSuit and Snow Muffler as opposed to infinite. Since the BehemothSuit is the best armor for Relm and Strago, and the Snow Muffler the best armor for Gau and Mog, you really don't want this to happen. Joker Doom: No/Yes You can't spin 7-7-7 in this battle; the game prevents it. As soon as you face off against the second SrBehemoth, 7-7-7 becomes an option. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No *1 Note that the game data says that this guy gives you a BehemothSuit 100% of the time, which is how it is supposed to be. However, they overlooked something with the data concerning the switch between the two SrBehemoths, so the items from the first SrBehemoth get grabbed from some random data location. In the US SNES versions, this means you either get a Jewel Ring or a ThunderBlade. I currently have no information about the Japanese game or the PSX port, although I've heard rather unconfirmed mentioning of a ValiantKnife and an Oath Veil. My ROM image copy of RPGone's version 1.2 translation had a rare Ninja Gear and a common ValiantKnife, but I dare not say if that goes for all of their patches or the Japanese game in general. SrBehemoth Level: 49, HP: 19000, MP: 9999 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: BehemothSuit (always) Absorbs: Poison, Weakness: Fire, Pearl Status: Undead Special: !Hypno Gas: sets Sleep Sketch : !Hypno Gas, Fire 3 Control: Battle, Battle, Battle, Battle Vulnerable to: Death, Condemned Attacks: Battle, !Hypno Gas, Doom, Meteo Vanish/Doom: Yes Note that the yellow SrBehemoth is Undead, so Doom will just restore his HP. Joker Doom: Yes No restrictions. Ragnarok's Metamorph: Yes 12.5% chance of obtaining one of the following: Cursed Ring Cursed Ring Thornlet Relic Ring The blue SrBehemoth, despite his appearance, is almost a pure spell caster. He'll normally attack with Ice 2, Ice 3, and Pearl spells which all hit with considerable force. If he hits 10240 Hit Points, he'll get more Ice 3 spells than before and throw Meteo in the mix, which hurts a bundle (around 1000 on every character, pretty much the same force Intangir used to throw Meteo attacks on you). If a character of yours is under the influence of Reflect, he'll target the character and use !Evil Claw to remove the Reflect status (the message "Effect of "Rflect" vanished" will appear) and return to his normal AI script. If multiple characters are under the influence of Reflect, he'll go down from character #1 to character #4, switching between !Evil Claw turns and normal AI script turns. Note that characters with Wall Rings still yield the "Effect of "Rflect" vanished" notion yet keep the status. If SrBehemoth is turned into an Imp, it'll respond to that by changing its AI Script. He'll now receive auto-criticals from being turned into an Imp and start using two Battle attacks every turn for three turns, after which it'll cast the Imp spell to try and remove the Imp status. He won't try to do this if he has the Reflect status at this moment, though. If SrBehemoth is hit by the Pearl spell, he'll counter with Meteo period. Sadly, due to a bug, this overrides the other normal counter, that of having a 33% at countering with Battle on every other damaging attack, so the next attack will also be countered with a Meteo attack. In other words, the Pearl spell eventually sends two extra Meteo attacks down your throat, so don't do it. The Orog and White Drgn Rages cast Pearl; ignore them. What to do? The best way to deal with the blue SrBehemoth is a combination of Imp and Stop. Now, give it everything you have. Cast Haste 2 to speed up the process. Summoning Fenrir or Golem helps protect against stray physicals from his side. Fire 2 and Fire 3 really hurt him. Gau's Scrapper Rage gives Gau inherent Haste and makes him use Elf Fire; it's great for the battle. If you don't have access to either the Imp or Stop status ailments, Celes's Runic can really help if you brought her. Bum Rush, Fixed Dice, Dragon Horn Jumps, you know what works. When you finally defeat SrBehemoth, he'll ripple away and the battle is over. But no! SrBehemoth's hatred for all things good has allowed him to survive death itself and return as an undead being to try to wreak havoc once more. Oh noes. Everybody runs to the other side of the screen, but don't fear; your Row is still intact (even though it doesn't look like it and it'd be entirely logical if Row hadn't been intact), so you don't have to change. This SrBehemoth is a little simpler. He'll just use Battle, !Hypno Gas, the Doom spell, or Meteo. He won't use Doom until the second turn, and Meteo until the third turn (after which he resets back). If he successfully uses !Hypno Gas on a person, he'll target that person next for four consecutive Battle attacks (of which the first one is sure to land). That's about it. The undead SrBehemoth's one weakness is the ID attack. He can be killed by X-Zone, Snare, and the Air Anchor Tool, and is hurt by Slash, Demi, you name it. Since SrBehemoth's first turn isn't dangerous and he has no dangerous counters, the Air Anchor really is a great option to use. The Dusk Requiem coming from Mog houses both Cave In and Snare which both truly cripple the massive menace. Since SrBehemoth is Undead and lacks ID protection anyway, the Life spell is a glorious option; the Life spell also works on Undead with ID protection mind you, but here it feels less like raping the system. :) When the battle is over, SrBehemoth will ripple away again. He's now a rather indestructible monster that roams the Veldt, attacking you every now and again. He leaves a BehemothSuit behind every time you meet him though, so it's really not all bad. After the battle, you'll crouch down and your party's leader will say: "We can't do anything for her here. Let's take her back to Thamasa using the airship." apparently Woolsey let Shadow die on the Floating Continent and found Relm here, prompting him to use 'her' in the translation. Forum newbies have grabbed the opportunity at many occasions to point out that Shadow is actually female, which simply isn't true; this was never his line. In the PSX game, this was 'fixed'; the line is now turned towards a male subject, making Relm a boy. Oh Square remake team, is there anything you can't mess up? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.59.1 Thamasa and the Colosseum once again ********************************** Back in Thamasa, we're helping the poor wounded character through a difficult dream. Here's the dream if you rescued Shadow from the Cave on the Veldt: (Clyde leaves a house that resembles Strago's house in Thamasa. A dog follows him and tries to stop him) You came to fetch me... But I won't be coming back... I want you, and the girl, to live in a peaceful world... (Clyde leaves. The dog, after looking back at the house and barking, follows him) Now, here's the dream if you left Shadow to die at the Floating Continent and found little Relm Arrowny in the Cave on the Veldt: (Strago and Relm are standing on the top floor of their house in Thamasa) Papa...? Where'd he go? Is he ever coming back? (Strago looks down, not answering) The character will now just lie in bed, recovering from the wounds. SHADOW: No need to worry. It's just a scratch. Also, he's gonna stand guard, so you just relax. RELM: I'm still a bit groggy... But I'm okay. Interceptor always makes me happy! That's great. You're back in Thamasa now, but there really isn't anything new to do here since the last time you visited the place, so just leave. As soon as you leave Thamasa, the character you rescued will depart as well. Shadow will have departed for the Colosseum, as indicated by the guy who previously talked about Doom Gaze: "If you're looking for the man dressed all in black, he left for the colosseum.". If you saved Relm things will be ever so slightly more complicated. She can now be in Jidoor: "One day, a man working for an aristocrat in Jidoor came and took that young woman back with him!". However, it's not a fixed occurance. In order to make Relm appear in Jidoor, you need to step on one of three specific tiles and exit Thamasa, re-enter, step on one of those tiles again, and exit again (which is a given). This process sounds far more unnatural than it comes to most players; one of these tiles lie on the stone path leading out of Thamasa to the southern exit, so as long as you follow that one, you'll be fine. It's time to go pick them up, I'd say. Shadow's just a stone's throw away. Fly the Blackjack to the Colosseum, and remember that notion about the Striker. Once you bet it, you won't find a monster fighting you for it (after you've fought this battle, or if you haven't met the criteria so far, this'll be Chupon), but the merciless mercenary himself: Shadow. Shadow is a complete pushover; unequipped, unarmed, and unable to use the Throw command in the Colosseum, Shadow is pathetic. But it doesn't even matter if you win or not; whether you win, lose (equipped a Heal Rod or something, right?), or Warp out of battle with the aptly named spell, Shadow will join you afterwards. And it's permanent this time (Shadow fans: yata!). Poor Shadow, though; his only joy in this world left is to fight. At least we can turn this into a positive force now that he intends to face Kefka himself. And boy, does he do it well! Skeans are very strong, and now you have the finances to really buy them en masse. Especially Fire Skeans often nail elemental weaknesses, so buy lots of those and a few of the other ones to make them feel appreciated. Now you're here at the Colosseum, you might as well bet the BehemothSuit nobody can equip yet for the Snow Muffler. The Snow Muffler is awesome, absolutely awesome equipment for both Mog and Gau. It's a scarf! Its great defensive properties allow Mog and Gau to reach the maximum 255 Defense, it absorbs Ice-elemental attacks and halve Fire-elemental attacks. - BehemothSuit - Snow Muffler Opponent: Outsider Outsider is vulnerable to ID, and that's your savior. Outsider uses Battle, !Ruin, Flare, and X-Zone. !Ruin kills you if it connects. X-Zone kills you if it connects. Every time you hurt Outsider, he's going to respond with Shurikens, Ninja Stars, or Tack Stars down your throat. Send in Setzer with dual Trumps and a Black Belt and you should be winning more battles than you lose. Sadly, you're just gonna have to rely on the X-type ID kicking in, or else you'll see Setzer eating dust like it's 311 B.C. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.61.1 Jidoor; Owzer's Mansion ********************************** Opponents: Dahling, Nightshade, Still Life, Wild Cat, Crusher, SoulDancer, Vindr, Chadarnook Container contents: 293 GP, Moogle Suit, Relic Ring, Soft, Tincture, Tonic Miscellaneous items: Moogle Suit (rare Dahling steal and rare SoulDancer steal), Nutkin Suit (rare Nightshade steal), Tabby Suit (rare Wild Cat steal), Super Ball (rare Crusher drop and rare Crusher steal), Chocobo Suit (rare Vindr steal) Magicite: Starlet [OWZER-LINK] First off, to enter this dungeon, you must have done two things. You must've either saved Shadow at the Floating Continent, or let Shadow die there and have saved Relm from the SrBehemoth in the Cave on the Veldt. If you let Shadow die and haven't saved Relm yet, Owzer's Mansion will be empty, yet lit up, and the Nightshade and Dahling paintings will not respond to your presence. Whom to bring? Uncontrollable characters are very poor in the boss battle at the end, so I'd advise against Gau and Umaro. Also, due to the time delay, I'd add Mog to the category as well as neither his Dances nor his Jump attacks are very useful there. Minerva wearers are favored once again, and if you already have a character that can Steal, that'd be grand (although the chance is small). I'd go for something like Terra, Shadow, Celes, and Sabin, but it's up to you. Shadow is AWESOME in this dungeon; Earrings-boosted Fire Skeans kill pretty much everything, and the boss is weak to Fire, too. When you enter the house, it will be dark inside. No sign of Relm or Owzer to be seen. Obviously if you saved Shadow earlier you don't even know Relm is supposed to be here, but you'll never get more evidence than you have now and you'd get all pissy if I entirely skipped two characters because the game doesn't tell you where they are. When you try to ascend the stairs to go to the art collection, a mysterious force holds you back. Stay...away...yeah, we're not going to listen to that. When we're at the foot of the stairs again, a diary appears. Here's Owzer's diary: - Just spent an absolute fortune. It's my largest painting yet, so I won't be able to put it with the others. I'll decide later where to display it. - An artist came from Zozo today. He wanted me to see his work. What a waste of time. - Bought a new stairway lamp at the Item Shop. Expensive, but one flip of the switch and everything's bright and cheery. - I invited over an artist from Kohlingen. About as talented as a bucket... - Something's happening to me. It started when I had that picture painted... And I've started hearing odd noises coming from downstairs. That's just swell. Something's up all right. At least we discovered how to get the room back to normal; just flip the switch on the stairway lamp and the room will light up, and you'll be able to proceed up the stairs. There are three paintings worth discussing here. The first one is the painting of the pink flowers. When you examine them, they will come alive and attack you! Note that once you've completed this dungeon and you haven't fought the NightShade enemies yet, the painting won't respond anymore. It's a battle with three NightShade enemies, which are well known through their Rage; both the Rage and the AI Script of these flowers feature the Charm attack. Charm sets a Muddled-like status, with a few differences. - First off, since it's not the Muddled status, you can't protect against it. Charm works on *everything* as long as it connects (Charm has a Hit Rate of 80, meaning that it'll have but a rough 80 % chance of connecting on a target with no Magic Block). - Second, the character or monster affected won't show any indication of being under the influence. Monsters won't look the other way, and characters won't spin right round. - Third, it's not dispelled when you use a physical attack. - Fourth, the Charm spell creates a bond between the Charm caster and the target. If the 'caster' of the Charm attack dies, the affected target will turn back to normal. If the caster of the Charm spell tries to attack with Charm on another target, it'll miss as long as the other Charmed target is still alive. Due to a bug, when one Charmer 'steals' the Charmee of another Charmer, this other Charmer - while not having a Charmee anymore - won't be able to Charm another target until his stolen Charmee is dead. Needless to say, Charm cripples every boss as it will completely disable their AI Script and they will start to attack themselves. Anyway, using Charm in a boss battle is just evil and sucks the fun out of the entire deal... so just don't use it. Back to NightShade. They're immune to every status ailment you throw at them, and can use Charm on the very first turn. What you'll want to do is go head-on with every kind of strong violence you have; they're specifically vulnerable to Fire-elemental attacks, so Fire Skeans, Tritoch's Tri-Dazer, and Fire 2 work very well. They have a rare Nutkin Suit for Stealing, but as this battle is pretty dangerous you'll probably don't want to bother. Just hope that they'll stick to their Battle and !Poison Pod (sets Poison) attacks for the most part, and that characters hit by Charm will stick to weaker attacks. The second painting of interest is the painting that has replaced the Ultros painting in the WoB; it's the portrait of Emperor Gestahl that he didn't want, so Owzer decided to buy it and hang it up here. The 'last Imperial trooper' at the Colosseum told you to talk to the Emperor twice, so examine the portrait twice; the second time, you'll obtain the Rare Item "Emperor's Letter", which reads as follows: The treasure is hidden where the mountains form a star... Could this be the grand treasure of the Empire, the ancient relic with restoration abilities? We should definitely inform Locke once we find him, or we may even meet him while we're there, who knows. Whenever you have obtained the Emperor's Letter after talking twice to the portrait in Owzer's Mansion in Jidoor, but before you have recruited Locke, the following dialogue will appear when you talk to the old man who lives alone on the northeast continent: Aged Man: The repairman, at last! "Uh, no. I was wondering if you knew anything about Emperor Gestahl’s map..." Aged Man: Map...?! Everyone’s askin’ ’bout that map! "Pardon?!" Aged Man: Little while ago, some guy wearin’ a bandana asked for the map. So I told him! "W...where is it?" Aged Man: It’s where the mountains form a star-shape! You should have just come out and asked me. No need to be shy! If you want to witness this holy grail of hidden cutscenes, fly the Falcon to the north-eastern continent. There's two white dots indicating a location on this continent; the northernmost one will take you to a solitary house, where the Aged Man lives. For the record, this 'map' is never mentioned outside of this cutscene, and neither is there ANY information about why our characters apparantly decide this guy should know something about Gestahl's possessions and he actually does. It's just weird. Time to press on! The picture of the lovely lady comes alive as well, as two Dahling opponents. Dahling use their first turn to set a status ailment, with either the Mute spell or the !Sightless Special, which sets Dark. The second turn will feature either the Ice 2 or Bolt 2 spells. When a Dahling has been damaged, she may use a Cure 2 spell *on the attacker*. I'm pretty sure that the AI scriptwriter intended for Dahling to use the Cure 2 spell on herself but forgot that counter attacks are typically carried out on the attacker, regardless of the spell's initial targets. Dahlings are nothing to fear. They have a rare Moogle Suit Steal. You'll notice this is a theme in this dungeon; most monsters have an animal suit Steal. Dahling are, unlike most paintings, weak against Poison and not against Fire, so you can use Bio or strong attacks of other kinds to dispatch them. Once you defeat the Dahlings opponents, the painting will be entirely destroyed to reveal a door. Enter to find more darkness and a stairway going down. Beware children, not even your Warp spell can help you leave this place... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.61.2 Owzer's Mansion, the Magic House ********************************** Monster formations: SoulDancer, SoulDancer, Crusher, Crusher (6/16) Vindr, Vindr (5/16) Vindr, Vindr, Wild Cat, Crusher, Crusher (5/16) Wild Cat are cats. They have a rare Tabby suit steal, and they attack physically. Due to a bug, they may use Fire Ball when alone (this was never the intention; Fire Ball was supposed to be a rare brown Mag Roader counter). Normally it just attacks with Battle and !Pounce. Its name might ring bells of that nasty Fidor Special, but Wild Cat's !Pounce is unassuming (Battle * 1.5) and shouldn't be feared. Crushers look unassuming. Fact of the matter is, they're really kind of not. 2095 HP isn't that unassuming, !Blow (Battle * 5) isn't that unassuming, and the Lifeshaver attack it uses when alone isn't that unassuming. It has a common Super Ball steal which makes it the only random encounter enemy here that doesn't have an animal suit for stealing. Kill it with fire; if you brought Gau his brown Mag Roader Rage (L.4 Flare) can really put a dent in their hides. SoulDancer is supposed to be a magician of some kind; with a stellar (for monsters) Magic Power of 30 and up to three spells in its Control menu (Drain, Osmose, and Fire 2) it seems likely that she will also attack magically, right? Wrong. She attacks by Throwing Dirks. You may still remember the last time you met an opponent with this ability; it was Dadaluma, and it was obscenely strong. You should survive the weaker Dirks, but the stronger ones (the strongest one being the Assassin) can do up to 1750 worth of damage, and remember that it's almost always non-elemental (Air Lancet is Wind-elemental so Thunder Shld wearers and Minerva wearers take no damage from it), barrier-piercing, Row-ignoring, and unblockable damage. The Image status doesn't help, and Golem doesn't catch the flying blades; only the Clear status can make you avoid the attacks of SoulDancer. This is what she'll do: 1st round: Dirk or MithrilKnife 2nd round: MithrilKnife or Guardian 3rd round: Air Lancet or Thiefknife 4th round: Thiefknife or Assassin (loop) Also, she counters any damage done to her with !Red Dance, which drains very little HP. She has a rare Moogle Suit steal too. Ways to cripple her include Berserk, Muddled, Sleep, and Stop. NoiseBlaster and Stray's Cat Rain help tremendously. Vindr are the strongest of all small birds. And with 885 HP, the same petrification abilities through !Beak like Cirpius and the so-so Acid Rain set in Control, Sketch, and Rage, that's not all good news for the small birds in general. If for some reason you have trouble killing them in one shot, Fire is their weakness (as it is of all small birds). They have a rare Chocobo Suit steal, befitting of their feathered nature. Strategy is simple yet again: have everybody under the influence of Clear, and don't let Wild Cat and Crusher enemies alone. Invincibility is nice. As soon as you've descended the stairs, you find more paintings. That's just great. These don't seem so threatening though; how could you be attacked by a painting of a door or a chair? But the joke's on you... If you get to close to the painting of the chair, the painting will suck you in, onto the chair, where you'll be attacked by a previously absent old lady. The old lady turns out to be a SoulDancer accompanied by her four cats. How's that for a stereotype? If you smack her around, she'll take her place on the chair and leave you alone. After you leave and re-enter the room, it'll just be a harmless painting of a chair again. When you continue, you see two doors. The left one leads to a chest containing a Moogle Suit! The Moogle Suit is just another animal suit, stronger than the Chocobo Suit but weaker than the Nutkin Suit. It nullifies Poison though, and gives a nice +5 on Magic Power. The best part, though, is the fact it changes the in-battle sprite of the wearer into that of a Moogle, which is totally sweet and has given seed to over a dozen 'weird glitch' topics from people who didn't make the Moogle Suit-Moogle sprite connection. The right door takes you to...three more doors. Nice. First, make sure you go around the doors and grab the hidden Relic Ring that lies there. The Relic Ring is a Relic that makes the user of it undead. This basically means that healing spells will hurt and the Doom spells and the eventual effect of the Condemned status will restore HP back to full. It can make for a nice combo if the equipped also has a weapon with X-type Instant Death; he or she can always restore his/her own HP back to full with one swing of a blade. Anyway, between the three doors, you'll want to pick the far left one. If you enter one of the others, you'll find yourself being thrown out of the door painting you saw earlier. If you've completed this dungeon, you won't even be able to enter the other two doors; they'll just be locked. Just continue, and don't wonder where you are. It doesn't make sense. When you enter a door, you'll suddenly find yourself in a new area with...floating chests. If you stand on the shadow of the floating chests, they'll come down and you'll be attacked; in every instance, it'll be a single SoulDancer and four Wild Cats. You won't get from the chests what the game says: What it says: 2000 GP Potion Ether Remedy What it is: 293 GP Tonic Tincture Soft If you're done toying around with the floating chest and gawking at the painting of Maria that appears to change every time you look at it, go examine the picture of the battle armor; it will be another battle, with a creature called Still Life. Still Life pretends to be a semi-boss, but is not. It looks very weird, he's got that much going for him; it appears to be a cloud of smoke with green lips that comes from behind a painting. It has four attacks up its proverbial sleeve: Battle, !Bane Kiss (sets Poison), Lullaby (an MT Sleep-inducing attack that's admittedly annoying), and Condemned, which Still Life uses to counter every blow he takes. Go all out with strong attacks against him; Bum Rush, Fire Skeans, Tri-Dazer, you know what hurts. He has a rare FakeMustache Steal, the Relic that turns Relm's Sketch ability into Control. You'll meet Still Life on the Veldt, so you'll be able to Steal one later if you want to. Just pound him now, he doesn't have enough HP to make Condemned a nuisance. Once Still Life has been defeated, a door will appear. The door, as you've been getting used to now, leads to more doors. Use the Save Point to your advantage and take the door to the right; the door to the left will throw you out of a door somewhere in a wall you saw earlier. You've finally found Owzer now, but he's changed quite a bit; from your average aristocrat pretty boy, he's changed into a coughing blob of a man who looks surprisingly much like Jabba the Hutt. Or any other Hutt, I guess they're all alike. Another theory states that the scholar-type guy you meet in the WoB isn't Owzer at all, and that Owzer always was a generally inhuman fat blob with a frogface for no apparant reason. Who apparantly lives somewhere in his house where other people can't reach him and despite his wheezing, sickly appearance went out of the house on a fairly regular basis to locate artists. It's not my theory, so I may sound slightly subjective here...then again, it *is* a silly theory :P When Owzer came across another piece of Magicite in the Auction House, he bought it and felt the irresistible urge to obtain a painting of the Esper therein contained. The large painting of the Esper Starlet created by Relm came alive like all of her artwork, but with an added problem this time; the demon Chadarnook arrived, enticed by the magic of the Magicite and the painting. He possessed the living Starlet painting and started to have an evil influence over all of Relm's paintings, the reality within Owzer's Mansion and finally Owzer himself. Relm, by the way, is still painting the painting; it's not quite done yet, as you'll learn later. Regardless, it's time to remove the evil demon Chadarnook from the living Starlet painting to save the life of Owzer so you can take Relm with you. Owzer begs you to keep the Starlet painting intact. Whatever. Before you talk to him, equip Thunder Shlds on as many characters as possible. Non-Minerva wearing characters take priority, as the Minerva bustier nullifies the Lightning element (which is what concerns us here). The Force Shld and Force Armor both halve damage done by the element, and Umaro's Rage Ring nullifies the element, even though that furry muscle package is quite useless in this battle. Protection from Water and Ice is also nice, as Flash Rain may appear in the next battle, although Lightning takes priority. The TortoiseShld, Titanium, Imp's Armor, and Snow Muffler allow you to absorb the attack, while the Minerva bustier also nullifies it. It's a real dang shame Umaro's uncontrollable nature is, in fact, uncontrollable by nature, as the combination of his inherent Snow Muffler and the Rage Ring really takes care of the majority of the opponent's attacks. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.61.3 Owzer's Mansion, the battle with Chadarnook ********************************** Chadarnook (Starlet) Level: 37, HP: 56000, MP: 9400 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Pearl, Water, Weakness: Fire Special: !Doom Kiss: sets Condemned Sketch : !Doom Kiss, Battle Control: Battle, !Doom Kiss Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Battle, !Doom Kiss, Lullaby, Charm, Phantasm Vanish/Doom: Yes Both targets are vulnerable to the Clear status. Joker Doom: No Spinning 7-7-7 is impossible in this fight. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No Chadarnook (Demon) Level: 41, HP: 30000, MP: 7600 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Lightning, Weakness: Fire, Pearl Special: !Hit: sets Condemned Sketch : !Hit, Battle Control: Battle, !Hit Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Battle, Bolt 2, Bolt 3, Flash Rain Vanish/Doom: Yes Both targets are vulnerable to the Clear status. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No Interesting trivia; the Japanese game showed much more skin on the Starlet image. No nipples or anything horrifying and ungodly like that, but still, more skin. Now here's an odd encounter. It's a living painting of the Esper Starlet, possessed by the demon Chadarnook. Even if you don't care about art in general or Owzer's pathetic pleas, there really isn't any point to damaging the painting; as soon as Chadarnook is exorcized, it won't be a threat anymore. So, the strategy is clear to us; wait until Chadarnook shows his face, and hurt it until it dies. We've been doing an awful lot of hurting so far, so we should be prepared soundly. You'll start out facing the Starlet painting. It'll use either Battle or the dreaded, blasted Charm attack. Fortunately, the effects of Charm are undone whenever your opponent changes, so it's not as much a bother as it could have been. After that first turn, the demon will make itself known. Chadarnook attacks with Lightning-elemental spells (Bolt 2 and Bolt 3) and the confusing Flash Rain; sparkly as it may look, it's actually Ice- and Water- elemental and has nothing to do with Lightning. He won't use Flash Rain until he starts getting weaker though; when he hits 15360 HP (after taking 14640 HP worth of damage, in other words), to be precise. The demon Chadarnook will always hide when he has been damaged five times, and after 40 seconds. Unfortunately, (and possibly unintentionally), it seems that the Starlet painting's timer is also used when Chadarnook checks his 40 seconds, so if you faced Starlet for 35 seconds and the monster changes, Chadarnook will only be there for a second or five before returning. This is particularly frustrating, as you'll have put in all your commands as soon as Chadarnook appeared, making you attack Starlet a few times in a row. Attacking Starlet is bad. Not only is it pointless (as soon as you deplete Starlet's HP, she'll just regenerate; she's immortal), it's rather dangerous, as Starlet has a mean counter. 33% Battle, 33% not doing anything, and 33% Phantasm. Blast Phantasm. Seriously. It's an MT attack that sets the super-duper-special HP Leak status on a target, which can only be seen in this battle. It's the same as Seizure, only it's so dangerous because it ISN'T Seizure. This means you can't protect from it with Relics, you can't override it by setting Regen, and you can't cure it in any way. As soon as HP Leak is set, any current Regen status (even if it's from a Cure Ring or Marvel Shoes) will be removed. Trying to set the Regen status on a character with the Regen spell or Kirin's Life Guard attack will accomplish nothing. All in all, the constant HP dropping gets annoying quickly, and even dangerous if you don't watch your HP. Don't be afraid to spend some turns healing even when it isn't immediately necessary. Starlet, by the way, will also attack normally after her first appearance; her arsenal consists out of Battle, !Doom Kiss (sets Condemned), the dreaded Charm, and the surprisingly crippling Lullaby, which (as you know) sets Sleep on all characters. So what to do? You should be covered in equipment that protects against Chadarnook's Lightning-elemental spells, and possibly against that Flash Rain attack too. Patiently wait out the first turn against the Starlet picture, than quickly throw whatever you have when the demon appears. He is extremely weak to Fire-elemental and Pearl-elemental spells, as he has a weakness to the element and its Magic Defense really isn't that stellar. Terra and Celes's Fire 2 and (preferably) Fire 3 spells will really hurt Chadarnook (Fire 3 takes priority over Pearl, too), but keep in mind that because Chadarnook absorbs Lightning-elemental spells, Tritoch's Tri-Dazer will be absorbed. Shadow's Fire Skeans should be boosted by Hero Rings and Earrings to ensure a lot of damage, although it should be noted that the much more expensive Flame Sabres will hurt much more. Setzer should throw his Fixed Dice around if possible; if not, Fire 2, Pearl, and Fire 3 take priority over the Coin Toss-induced GP Rain. Sabin should stick to Bum Rush regardless of his spell selection, where Edgar is probably better off sticking to Drill unless you're really sure that when he lands from a Dragon Horn Jump, he'll be landing on the demon (in which case, with the Pearl Lance, he'll be doing a LOT of damage). The same really goes for Mog; his Dances are useless, as he will also attack the Starlet painting when he's in a trance. Stick to spells if you don't want to risk Jump attacks (or just plain don't have the right equipment). Cyan is horrible, as often before, as his charge times mean you waste a lot of time in a battle where speed is top priority. Gau and Umaro (while certainly hard to take down) suffer from the uncontrollable nature. Gau should stick to his Magic spells if possible, while Umaro should be... Yeah, killing him in the middle of battle seems a little harsh, so you might be better off setting Stop on him if you for some reason defied me and brought him here. Since Chadarnook is weak to Fire- and Pearl-elemental attacks, breaking a Fire or Pearl Rod on the fiend inflicts great amounts of damage. Absolutely one of the best fights to do so. You can't do anything when Charm connects, and you can't do anything when Phantasm connects. Fenrir/Golem will help against the physicals (especially !Doom Kiss can be a pain), while the Haste 2 spell is an asset as always. If you have a few characters unprotected from Chadarnook's attacks, ZoneSeek's Wall attack can help. Basically, throw up your barriers and go all-out offensive when the demon is around while making sure your HP stays in the four digits at all times where possible. After you've defeated Chadarnook, all will return to normal. You'll learn that Chadarnook was probably enticed by the 'weird stone' Owzer bought at the Auction House, and he asks you to take it. It's on the right part of the shelf. With Starlet, you finally gain access to the Cure 3 spell! Relm also follows you out. It's possible you now have access to Relm's upgraded special skill: Control! If you want to learn all about it, check out [CONTROL-LINK]. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.62.1 Obtaining Strago ********************************** You learned from a man in Figaro Castle that people under the spell of the Cult of Kefka could be freed by meeting a loved one; with Relm in your party, we can try to turn Strago Magus back to our side. At the sight of the little girl, he leaps up in joy; no single word about his year of despair crosses his lips as he demands a primary spot in your party. Just like all the other characters, he joins your current party if there's room for him, and is placed on the Falcon if there's not. Regardless, the next parts of this walkthrough will be dedicated to raising both Relm and Strago to acceptable and even respectable levels of might on the battlefield, so I suggest you make a party that includes Relm and Strago (and no uncontrollable characters). If you were wondering, you still don't really have what it takes to tackle the top warrior of the Fanatics Tower, so it's useless and rather suicidal to go all the way up there. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.62.2 Bulking up the Thamasian Two ********************************** Lores: Aero, Big Guard, Blow Fish, Dischord, Sour Mouth, Pep Up, Rippler First, I want to look at the Control command. There's a respectable chance you gained access to it so far; if you obtained a FakeMustache from mugging Still Life, or already dove into the Zone Eater dungeon that I'll discuss quite a bit later in this document, you have this command at your disposal. [CONTROL-LINK] Control allows Relm to control a monster. What does this mean? The monster will stop its normal AI script. It'll still use counters though. Relm's hold over an opponent's psyche doesn't end until the opponent in question is attacked physically or either the Controlled or the Controllee obtains one of the following status ailments: Sleep, Muddled, Berserk, Death, Petrify, Zombie, Freeze, or Stop. The chance of Control working is exactly the same as Sketch working, and is based on both the Controller's level and the level of the opponent you're trying to Control. The Coronet Helmet raises Relm's Control success percentage, where the Beret raised Sketch success rate. When Relm is controlling a monster and it's her turn to act, you'll get the choice between the four (or less) Control commands of the monster she's controlling instead. The Control commands are also the ones a monster randomly uses when Muddled, and most of the time there's some reason to the attacks found there. Regardless, Control can be a strategic choice when you know what monsters are worth controlling; most of the time the 'monster stops attacking until I say so' is the sweetest part of the deal, but sometimes the Control commands really include some sweet attacks like Cold Dust, Flare Star, Death-setting Specials, and the like. Control is great to get a particularly powerful enemy out of the way (Brachosaur comes to mind), or to have an unlimited amount of Steal attempts without you having to worry about a thing. I'd say that for the loss of a Relic slot, a Relm with a good Magic arsenal is better off with a second Earrings than with a FakeMustache; I'll mention the usefulness of the Control ability when it should be mentioned. For now, if you have a FakeMustache, equip it, as the Control ability helps getting you Lores (although it won't grant access to Lores you couldn't already obtain anyway; it just makes life easier). Two more notes; if you used Mog's Moogle Charm to raid Kefka's Tower earlier, you should have a Coronet by now. Equip it for increased Control chances. Also, the Japanese name of the FakeMustache is "Dancho's Mustache"; Dancho was the name of the Impresario of the Opera House. Why a taped-on mustache allows you to control monsters is beyond logic. I'd mention something about Adolf Hitler, his mustache, the Germans, and how they're the missing link between animals and human beings if I wasn't so scared of the "Du werdest eine Krankenschwester brauchen"-like retorts. Now, it's time to reap the benefits of this strange new world; new monsters, new attacks, new Lores. I'll discuss them step by step. - If Strago hasn't yet learned Blow Fish, take him to the desert just south of Maranda, where Cactrot will use it every single turn it attacks. Make sure you can take Cactrot out after he uses Blow Fish, though. With Relm on your side, both Sketch and Control grant access to Blow Fish itself, which kills the Cactrot. - Now for one of the greater Lores you'll find: Aero, the Wind-elemental MT level 3 spell-like attack. Find a Harpy near Thamasa; you can't NOT fight a Harpy in the forests. You can Muddle or Control Harpy for Aero, and you can even wait for it to use the attack randomly. Harpiai near Kohlingen may also use it randomly, and can also be forced to use the spell through Sketch (75% chance) and Control. Aero is slightly more powerful than a level 3 spell in both MT and ST situations. Don't let the Wind element blow you away (heh); very few enemies are actually weak to the element, and those tend to be weak monsters too. But don't be discouraged; even though teaching Strago the level 3 spells is a good idea for elemental flexibility, Aero should be Strago's main form of attack unless elemental properties declare otherwise (or if you know L.4 Flare can connect). This is all until you get Strago's strongest Lore GrandTrain, but until then, Aero is for you. - If you missed Pearl Wind for some obscure reason, you can also find it on Harpiai (uses randomly) and Sprinter (uses randomly). - The Pep Up attack is entirely pointless and about as useful as jamming a pencil up your left eye socket and running around in a classic 'Kiss the cook' outfit while religiously chanting Madonna's breakthrough single Holiday. In other words, you'll never actually use it, but it's fitting of Strago's character. Near Kohlingen, you can find Muus ad infinitum; just wait for them to use Pep Up. You can force them with Control, but unless they're alone it shouldn't take them long. Don't Sketch them; Relm executing Pep Up will kill her. Yeah... Pep Up fully heals the targets MP, removes all negative status ailments except for Imp and Freeze (I'm counting Berserk as negative for the moment), and heals the target for the same amount of HP as the target currently has (which seems odd). The downside? It kills the caster and removes him from battle entirely. When Strago casts Pep Up, his role on the battlefield is over. Really, you should be very, very desperate if you use this attack. - Sour Mouth can be learned from Mad Oscar in Daryl's Tomb near Kohlingen. It's wise to equip Relics that protect against Zombie in the short while you're in the Tomb. Sketch will get you a 75% shot at Sour Mouth, its in Mad Oscar's Control menu and he'll use it pretty often when he's alone. If you meet any Orog opponents down the way, L.5 Doom offs him quite carelessly. Sour Mouth sets a lot of status ailments: Dark, Poison, Imp, Mute, Muddled, and Sleep, to be precise. It's ideal if you want to cripple an opponent but don't quite know what he's protected against; with Sour Mouth, you're bound to hit him in some form or another. A funny thing about Sour Mouth is that while it may set Imp, the sprite of the monster will not change because of it. - Big Guard. You'll really want to go with Sketch here. If you're really scared of the Sketch bug, make sure that you're either level 23 or level 16 and up with a Beret equipped. Meet an EarthGuard in the desert and Sketch it. A 75% chance of the painting using Big Guard. You can also quickly cast Stop on it, if the first character coming up knows the spell and isn't capable of using Sketch. If for some reason you really don't want to use Sketch, you can also meet it once, make Gau learn the EarthGuard Rage on the Veldt, and keep Strago around for when Gau casts Big Guard through the EarthGuard Rage. Big Guard is, quite simply, pretty neat. It sets both Safe and Shell on all party members, even in a Side Attack. It's a superior version of the ZoneSeek's Wall attack I've been mentioning so often; the MT Safe isn't that useful with Fenrir and Golem around, but certainly doesn't hurt you a bit. - The last Lore easily obtainable for now is Rippler. First, make sure your party is covered in the Clear status. Now, fly over to Jidoor and enter the forests to the north. Mess around until you meet up with four Reach Frogs. They have a 33% chance of casting Rippler every third turn; that's after the landing from their Jump attack. Rippler trades statuses. It takes all of the statuses of the caster and removes them if possible (Relic/equipment-induced statuses will remain) and applies it to the target is possible (immunities may prevent it). In turn, it takes all of the target's statuses and removes them if possible, and sets them on the caster if possible. Ideally, Rippler trades YOUR status ailments for THEIR positive statuses. Sadly, Rippler is prone to all kinds of more or less disturbing bugs; the most obvious one being that it trades far more statuses than it was ever supposed to, giving you the ability to trade Terra's Morph status (Muddle/Rippler) on other characters, as well as Shadow's Dog Block. A monster taking Dog Block from you and than dying will remove Interceptor from you PERMANENTLY. Another character stealing Dog Block from that very same enemy or directly taking it from Shadow by means of Muddle/Rippler will obtain Interceptor equally permanently. Just make sure you don't lose him forever, you wouldn't want that. Ideally, if you don't mind to abuse bugs, you'd want Interceptor on Gogo in the future (he can use the extra protection, and his superior equipment-boosted Magic Power makes sure Interceptor hits extra hard). Rippler as an attack isn't exactly hot stuff. It can copy some positive statuses from a few rare bosses such as Poltrgeist (Image, Float, Haste, Safe), Goddess (Haste, Shell), and Doom Gaze (Float, Shell, Safe). Oh yeah, and the Rippler attack is the only way to get rid of Countdown status (not counting completely random attacks such as Wild Bear). So for a quick reference, the Lores you could have obtained so far include: Condemned Big Guard L.3 Muddle Rippler Roulette Revenge Step Mine Stone Aqua Rake Pearl Wind Dischord Exploder Aero L.5 Doom Sour Mouth Blow Fish L.4 Flare Pep Up This section is called 'Bulking up the Thamasian two', so you might be wondering by now how we're going to bulk up Relm. There are three things that can be done to her (eh... gameplay-wise), and they're all equipment. One's the BehemothSuit; if you don't have two already, make sure you spend a while on the Veldt as there's NO doubt you'll run into one or two SrBehemoths before long. The BehemothSuit is also for Strago, by the way. The second thing we'll be doing for Relm is defeating another elemental dragon for his great item drop, but we'll get to that in a minute. No, the only thing we can really do for Relm specifically now is obtaining her best piece of headgear. +2 to Speed, +4 to Magic Power, 10% extra Magic Block, Superior Defense and Magic Defense to every other helmet (except for oddballs Thornlet and Titanium), and 50% damage reduction against Fire-, Lightning-, Ice-, Pearl-, Earth-, and Wind-elemental attacks. And, if all that wasn't enough, it doubles the GP gained from random battles. If that doesn't sound like a sweet deal, there is no pleasing you. How to get it? It's Colosseum material. The opponent is the Allosaurus, an unassuming giant lizard whose only dangerous attack (the Doom spell) can be easily circumvented with a Wall Ring. The trick here is to find the item the Allosaurus is willing to fight for: an Imp Halberd. There are two ways to find them, and both are nasty at this point. One is finding a Mantodea (your best bet is the forest to the north of Jidoor) and trying to steal one. It's a rare steal, and your best thief you currently have is Shadow with a double Thiefknife equip, which isn't that great. Chances are very low. Make sure you are all set with the Clear status, as otherwise Mantodea's physicals will rip you apart VERY quickly. You can increase your chances a little by abusing the bug that is Vanish/Dischord. Keep the Mantodea you're stealing from healed, as you don't want it to die without giving you the Imp Halberd first. You can go on for eternity without danger of dying, but it will probably take a long time indeed. The other option is the rare, 12.5% chance drop the Imp Halberd is for the Tyranosaur in the Dinosaur forest to the north of the Veldt. Tyranosaurs are extremely dangerous random encounters that are widely known for the fact they, in tandem, give the most Experience Points of any random encounter in the game. On the second turn, they may use Meteor, which will take off about 1500 HP worth of damage on every character. Quickly cripple them with a Sleep spell or the Sour Mouth Lore, and kill them as quick as you can with Ice-elemental spells. Don't bring uncontrollable characters, as they will snap the Tyranosaurs out of their snoozing (sure, Dance won't, but Dance sucks here). If you meet a Brachosaur, run like a madman. Save often, as Brachosaur is this game's Warmech. It presents death unto you, if you catch my drift. I'd consider the Mantodea method far superior, honestly. - Imp Halberd - Cat Hood Opponent: Allosaurus Equip a Wall Ring against his Doom spell, and a Star Pendant, Fairy Ring, or Ribbon against !PoisonClaw. The reflected Doom spell may work on Allosaurus, but it doesn't really matter, as Allosaurus is too weak to give special thought to. Now, let's go find the ultimate rod of the game, which carries Strago's last name and is the sure-fire drop of one of the elemental dragons, the Dirt Dragon. Before you go, make sure you have Cherub Down Relics for those characters that can't equip Gaia Gear. If you sold some of it, you can still buy more in the Armor Shop in South Figaro. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.62.3 The battle with Dirt Drgn ********************************** Opponents: Dirt Drgn Miscellaneous items: Magus Rod (guaranteed Dirt Drgn drop) There's commotion in the Opera House? Only one year after the Wandering Gambler threatened to kidnap the star of the Dream Oath, a dragon saw it fit to enter the Opera House and make it his den. Or something; I don't know what the hell the Dirt Drgn wants with the artistic bags of hot air of this place. Regardless, dragons are dangerous and need to be killed with violence. Equip Cherub Downs or Gaia Gear on every character before you go in. If you have Gau in your team and a decent Float-inducing Rage (Harpiai, Ninja, Hornet, Luridan, to name a few), he shouldn't need one, as Rage-induced Float status is equally irremovable. Do you remember the four switches in the right wing of the Opera House? If not, here's a modified copy/paste from the best guide released in years: Switch 1 Switch 2 Switch 3 Previous Super Switch. Switch 1 makes a sound like a dog barking. Switch 2 turns out the lights in the opera hall, causing the crowds to make little eyes in the darkness. Funny! Switch 3 opens a hole directly under you, causing you to slide on stage! Where you previously immediately got off by hopping on the heads of the crowd, bursting into the entrance hall of the Opera House, where the lead character would then strike a pose and say 'Surprise!', you'll now be granted access to the subject of the Impresario's distress, the Dirt Drgn. Dirt Drgn Level: 53, HP: 28500, MP: 16500 Steal: X-Potion (rare), Win: Magus Rod (always) Weakness: Wind, Water Status: Float Special: !Honed Tusk: Battle x 5 Sketch : Magnitude8, Bolt 3 Control: Battle, !Honed Tusk Vulnerable to: Poison, Sleep, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Honed Tusk, Quake, Magnitude8, 50 Gs, Slide Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: Yes Nothing Dirt Dragon uses has an effect on the RNG. Yippee. Ragnarok's Metamorph: Yes 12.5% chance of obtaining one of the following: Crystal Crystal Shld Crystal Helm Crystal Mail The Dirt Dragon is fairly unique; he's the only elemental dragon that doesn't absorb his own element (instead, he uses the Float status to circumvent almost all Earth-elemental damage). Why they chose to do this is beyond me, as even with Quake healing, Dirt Drgn wouldn't have been that crazy of a challenge. We may well never know. Every 20 seconds, the Dirt Drgn will use his 50 Gs attack, a Dirt Drgn-only move that removes the Float status on all targets. Irremovable Float, like the one given by the Cherub Down and Float-inducing Rages, will not be removed. Given the fact that Earth's G is, as you might expect, 1 G, 50 G is plain crazy; you'd effectively become 50 times as heavy as you normally are. Shadow would suddenly become 7250 lbs, for instance. But enough with the first-grade science. He has a one-third chance of countering any damage done to him with the dreaded !Honed Tusk attack, which really is quite strong. Any other attack he uses is either Battle or ground-based; Quake always misses Dirt Drgn himself, and the Magnitude8 and Slide attack should either miss or heal you if you've been smart up until now. Start the battle off by throwing up your barriers. Golem and Fenrir are particularly useful, as the only real threat in this battle should be Dirt Drgn's !Honed Tusk and Battle attacks. Strago's Big Guard should also help in that department. Haste 2 is great as always, and Kirin doesn't hurt either. Cast a combination of Sleep and Slow on the Dirt Drgn as well; remember that Sleep can also be set with Strago's Sour Mouth attack, which also sets Poison on the Dirt Drgn. Now that you've been bulked up plenty, and the Dirt Drgn is vulnerable in his extended slumber, it's time to start the magical offense. If you want to keep Dirt Drgn sleeping, keep Gau busy with Magic spells. Back Row Gau with 255 Defense and a Float-inducing Rage is invulnerable, but it may come at the cost of fallen party members. If you don't really care too much, as all characters are either draped in Gaia Gear or protected by Cherub Down, I should mention that Rages like Harpiai, Ninja, Hornet, and Luridan really help (especially Harpiai). Strago's Aero packs a proverbial wallop, and Shadow's Water Edges are pretty strong. If you don't care for the Sleep status, Thrown Blossoms are extremely painful to Dirt Drgn. Sabin's Bum Rush still gets the job done as always, and is superior to Air Blade even though it doesn't exploit a weakness. Mog's Water Rondo is a superior alternative to Jump attacks if you're going for a snoozing Dirt Drgn. His Wind Song is also an option; Wind Slash is weaker than El Nino, but you might prefer Wind Song's 6/16 Sun Bath to Water Rondo's 6/16 Plasma attack. All other characters should just stick to Magic spells. Umaro should be kept AWAY from this battle, as usual. His presence makes the Sleep status strategy rather impossible. After you've defeated the Dirt Drgn, you'll obtain a Magus Rod, which gives the same +7 Magic Power as the Enhancer does, but gives a 30% Magic Block bonus where the Enhancer only gives a 20% increase. The Magus Rod is sweet and is to be preferred over all other rods. Now we've gotten all the normal Lores we can easily gather, and optimized our equipment, it's time to dive into Thamasa for two things; Strago's ultimate Lore, and some quality Esper time that both Thamasians desperately need and deserve. Just for kicks, I'll give you an example of what my Thamasians look like at this point: Strago Magus Rod Thunder Shld Circlet BehemothSuit Hero Ring Earrings Relm (Magic-focused) Relm (Control-focused) Pearl Rod Aegis Shld Pearl Rod Aegis Shld Cat Hood BehemothSuit Coronet BehemothSuit Hero Ring Earrings FakeMustache RunningShoes -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.62.4 Gungho's assignment; Ebot's Rock ********************************** Opponents: Warlock, Displayer, Slatter, Cluck, Eland, Hippocampus, Opinicus, Hidon, Hidonite, Hidonite, Hidonite, Hidonite Miscellaneous items: Thornlet (rare Hidon steal) Lores: GrandTrain Whom to bring? Strago is mandatory, really. You just obtained Relm, and her big weakness is her lack of Esper time, so why not help her a little and bring her along as well? Thievery is nice to have access to at some point of the next dungeon, so either Shadow or Locke/Gogo is a welcome addition. Ragers are welcome as well, so why not bring Gau? To the north of Thamasa, on a small island, is Ebot's Rock. It's closed for now. As soon as you cross between the Armor Shop and the Item Shop, Relm will get excited about being back in Thamasa. However, not all is well at the home front; Gungho, Strago's former battle partner, took on Hidon, the legendary beast Strago hunted together with Gungho when he was young. Hidon was submerged under water together with the entire Ebot's Rock, but now that it has resurfaced, Gungho went ahead and tried his best. Now, he's been defeated and is bed-ridden. After listening to Gungho's pleas, Strago decides to go, and after a while, accepts Relm's help. Note that after this part, Strago is required to actually complete the dungeon that is Ebot's Rock. Relm, however, is not. (First cave, Save Point area, and Living chest area) Slatter, Warlock, Eland (5/16) Slatter, Slatter (5/16) Warlock, Cluck, Cluck, Eland, Eland (5/16) Hipocampus, Cluck, Cluck, Cluck (1/16) (Main room) Opinicus, Opinicus (5/16) Displayer (5/16) Opinicus, Hipocampus, Eland (5/16) Hipocampus, Hipocampus, Hipocampus (1/16) There's a theme here; warp stones in the dungeon, and every monster here has both a rare Warp Stone steal and a rare Warp Stone drop. That's just nice. And it's dark like a black steer's tookus on a moonless prairie night. The Warlock is an annoying little...warlock. Evil and vile throughout, it makes a mockery of the holy light by attacking with the Pearl spell, which is all it uses for attacking. It may try to drain back some of his lost MP with !MagicDrain, but he'll be attacking you with the Pearl spell; rarely over !MagicDrain normally, constantly while alone. The Warlock's Defenses are also very strong; Defense is high, Magic Defense extremely so. Barrier- piercing attacks should be your main priority against him; you might even use the Stop spell to make sure he doesn't hurt you in the meantime. The Displayer needn't worry you. It looks dangerous, but 'tis not. It may randomly use ChokeSmoke on the second, fifth, eighth (etc.) turn but it will be a wasted turn like always; it's Special is called !Rib, and unlike what you would expect, does Battle x 2 damage rather than setting Zombie. Common Undead weaknesses in Fire and Pearl. Slatter BEARS a close resemblance to Prussian, wouldn't you agree? See, it's funny because... Oh man, I'm too funny to BEAR with. Again! If you haven't figured out that I'm stalling because Slatter are rather boring, you haven't had enough sleep. They attack with Battle and !Choke (Battle * 1.5). They're not very powerful with it. The only interesting thing to say about them is the fact they take a distant liking to percentage-based attacks (75% Shimsham through Sketch, Cave In through Rage) while being immune to it themselves. Cluck are upgraded ChickenLip. Weak to Ice like their WoB brethren, but they also absorb Poison-elemental attacks. They have Quake written all over them, in Sketch, Control, and Rage alike; they'll have a 33% at using it when alone. Every second turn when not alone, Cluck has a 33% chance at using !Lick, which sets Petrify and is to be avoided. Elands...the little bastards are weak versus Lightning, and attack with Battle and !Stench, which sets Muddled. Unlike Humpty, they're not Undead, and that's why they don't absorb Bio attacks either; Control, Sketch and Rage all grant access to the spell. Eland is Dutch for moose. Don't do drugs! Hipocampus is nothing. Hippocampus is a lot of things: a mythical sea horse, half horse (the front) and half dolphiney-like or whatever (the back). It's the Latin name of the family of seahorses too, and it's also a part of the brain (humans have two Hippocampi). Hipocampus is nothing but a monster in FF VI. It attacks with Battle and !Clamp, which sets Seizure. It may counter any Magic attack with the Poison-/Water-elemental Acid Rain which sets Seizure, and any other attack with the much more powerful Ice-/Water-elemental Flash Rain attack. Both attacks also feature the Sketch and Control possibilities, and Rage features Flash Rain. The best way to deal with them is by casting Rasp; they have 82 MP and will die from sub-zero MP, leaving them unable to use final counters. Opinicus is another name derived from a chimera-like fictional monster; head of an eagle, body of a lion, the tail of a camel. Or, like, a stupid suffering fanged bull, like in this game. They are VERY similar to Buffalax, almost so much there's no doubt it's intentional; just like Buffalax they will use nothing but Battle for four turns before letting loose with Battle, Battle, !Riot, which once again is Battle * 1.5 like Buffalax' Special !Riot. When hit by Magic, Buffalax responded with Sun Bath; Opinicus responds by casting Wind Slash. The main difference is the fact that Opinicus is Undead, with the standard elemental properties of Undeads too. So, the strategy is clear. Cast Float on everybody to protect against a stray Quake attack, and make everybody invisible with Fader of Vanish. Now, don't let Cluck be the last monster on the battlefield, don't cast Magic on Opinicus, and kill Hipocampus with Rasp and you're invincible here until Hidon. On the dungeon: You missed them so far, right? Blasted, damned-for-all-time in-dungeon warp stones. Oh yeah, and it's real dark here, so naturally you can't see further than a few tiles around you. Great, now all we need are some annoying enemies at every corner we'd rather not fight since we're busy carrying around key items to actually get anywhere and we've found one of the more frustrating dungeons of the game. Here's the deal. The first warp stone (not capitalized to differentiate from the item Warp Stone) takes you to a living, talking chest that won't grant you passage since he's hungry. He's also a chest, lacking opposable thumbs, abstract thought, or even the most rudimentary of senses. Let's face it; bossing around other people to bring him food is really his most effective way of feeding himself. Your task here is to feed him enough Coral, the stuff of magic you find in the chests all around Ebot's Rock. In every chest, there's an equal 25% chance you find one of the following: 1 piece of Coral 2 pieces of Coral 3 pieces of Coral 5 pieces of Coral The talking chest will let you pass on two conditions. One: you need to have Strago. If you don't have Strago in your party, you can feed him all you want, but won't accomplish anything, either for you or for the chest. He eats, like so many young people of our time, because he's unhappy. It's a destructive and endless cycle of finding consolation in the very weakness he despises. I yap. Two: You need to feed him 22 pieces of Coral IN ONE GO. If you feed him 18, he'll send you off for more, and you still need to feed him 22 pieces of Coral again. So, while you scurry off to find a pencil and a slip of paper to write down how much Coral you're finding all around, I'm going to try to explain how the layout of Ebot's Rock is constructed. Just kidding. Every warp stone has up to four different locations it can warp you to. They're all in the same room, and in most cases there's only one warp stone to walk towards after possibly raiding a chest. There's no possible advantage of knowing where you are; warp, open chest, warp. Repeat if necessary. In the end, you'll have your 22 pieces of Coral and you can go 'find' the talking chest. It's up to luck how soon you come across it, obviously. Feed it, and you're allowed to continue. Finally, Hidon! The mere sight of the horrid creature sends shivers down Strago's spine. Can we assume Strago knows that this creature can teach him the most powerful of Lores, the fabled GrandTrain? The Japanese game sure mentions it, so it's time to pound him for great, sweet justice. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.62.5 The battle with Hidon ********************************** Hidon Level: 43, HP: 25000, MP: 12500 Steal: Thornlet (rare), Warp Stone (common), Win: Warp Stone (always) Absorbs: Poison, Weakness: Fire, Pearl, Earth Status: Undead Special: !Hit: Battle x 1.5 Sketch : !Hit, Battle Control: Battle, !Hit Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Battle, Poison, Bio, GrandTrain, Virite, ChokeSmoke, Raid Vanish/Doom: Yes Since Hidon is Undead, Doom will restore the bastard. Use X-Zone if you want to. Joker Doom: Yes Virite and Raid both screw the RNG, but they won't be used by Hidon unless he's alone. Go right ahead. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No Hidon attacks with Battle and Bio. That's what he does. He has a 33% shot at Bio there, and a 66% one at Battle. If you hit him with something, he has a small chance of countering with the Poison spell. Whenever a character dies in-battle (as in, the Wound status), Hidon will try to revive the fallen character as a Zombie with the ChokeSmoke attack, which will fail if the fallen character is immune to the Zombie status ailment. When Hidon is alone, his first turn will be spent on glowing an eerie yellow and attacking with the magnificent Lore GrandTrain, which will deal between 900 and 950 damage on your sorry ass. After that, you'll notice that Hidon is particularly mean when he's by himself; he'll start attacking with all kinds of crazy spells, including Virite (the MT Poison-elemental attack that misses a lot yet looks funky) and Raid (the non-elemental HP draining spell). 80 seconds after the last Hidonite perished, Hidon will call all Hidonites back into existence if all fell. If you kill them all again, Hidon will cast GrandTrain again, and then revive them again. Throw up your barriers where possible (Haste 2, Big Guard, Golem/Fenrir, Kirin) and set Slow on Hidon. Evasion of physical attacks is doubly important, as all the Hidonites will try to set nasty status ailments on you with their Specials. Now, it's time to take care of the Hidonites. While Bahamut's Sun Flare attack is by far the best way to take care of them all at once, well-timed doses of Cyan's Stunner attack, possibly paired with Edgar's AutoCrossbow or Flash Tools, should get the job done. The most difficult Hidonite to dispatch of is the one in the lower-left corner; inherently Reflective, absorbs all elements, ID protection. Shadow's stronger throwing Stars work well against him, as does Strago's Step Mine attack, Setzer's Fixed Dice, and Edgar's Drill. Also, don't forget to throw around stealing attempts until you've stolen something from Hidon; the common steal is a meager Warp Stone, but its rare steal is the Thornlet, an elusive item that, provided you choose the Ragnarok sword over the Ragnarok Esper in due time, can only be found here. The Thornlet is a piece of Headgear that's odd. The only thing it has going for it is the fact that its Defense is superior to everything, not including the Titanium on Imps. On the downsides, the Thornlet grants inherent Seizure to the wearer (thorns inflict pain) and has NO Magic Defense whatsoever. The Thornlet, as my verdict says, should be ignored. Your only reasons for getting one could be completing your Item list as much as possible and betting it later for a Mirage Vest. Now, behold the power of GrandTrain! As soon as that's all over, it's time to defeat this wretched being. Tritoch's Tri-Dazer attack, Fire 2, Fire 3, and Quake spells really hurt, as does Shadow's Fire Skean. Having Shadow Throw a Flame Sabre, Gravity Rod, or Pearl Rod hurts Hidon very badly. Mog or Edgar as Dragon Horn Dragoons paired with a Pearl Lance also deal great amounts of damage. Mog should definitely refrain from using Dances; the Dusk Requiem sucks. Bum Rush and Fixed Dice are reliable as always. Strago and Relm themselves really need to use their Magic skillset; if Strago's selection is extremely poor, I would suggest Aero or Step Mine. Obviously, if Strago is level 43, his Stone attack beats all other options (except for Fire 3). Cyan should probably stick to his Quadra Slam SwdTech skill, unless he has Fire 3. Why you would want to train Cyan enough to have him learn a level 3 spell boggles all normal minds, but I suppose it's a possibility. Gau has a few options, but most of them are kind of odd. Scrapper is nice enough, as it allows Gau to absorb Poison, Bio, and Virite. Inherent Haste and Elf Fire is good enough too. If you're not too concerned about that Poison ailment, have Gau engage ChickenLip (don't forget to cast Float on yourselves beforehand, since ChickenLip uses Quake). Finally, Magic Urn turns Gau into an ever- present tank that heals your party. Nice. And Umaro? Just let him go, man. After the fight, Strago will giggle like a little girl and run off to tell his friend. Gungho seems surprised and oddly vital when hearing the news, and both growling old men stay up late to celebrate. Relm, like the stereotype demands, is smarter and more mature than her old grandpa, and explains to the moronic player that, gasp thrice, Gungho was faking his wounds. When the player regains control over the party, you may or may not notice that the party hasn't been healed from the fight against Hidon, although they did spend the night in Thamasa. Possibly some of your characters are still poisoned, so you might as well take them to the 1 GP Inn and heal them with a decent nightly rest. Ah sleep, thou sweet mistress. A pretty important note here: outside of Strago's house, Gungho will walk around. Normally he'll just ask you if everything's okay, but every time you talk to him, there's a 12.5% chance that he'll say: "Hidon's appeared at Ebot's Rock again!". As soon as Gungho says this, Hidon will indeed appear on his original spot. To reach him, you'll have to gather another 21 Coral for the living chest that has also reappeared. Re-fighting Hidon is only important if you either haven't learned GrandTrain from the first fight or need a Thornlet, possibly to wager at the Colosseum for the odd Mirage Vest. It should also be noted that after the first time you defeat Hidon, Strago is no longer required to find Hidon. Now, you probably taught Relm at least the level 3 spells or Flare while still being equipped with that awesome Cat Hood and possibly the awesome Magus Rod, and Strago has the best MT damage of any character at the moment, so we can all celebrate their Thamasian existence. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.63.1 Another Colosseum trip ********************************** Sure, why the hell not, eh? Most of the below described items are "provided you have them" or "provided you want them", but I have to put them somewhere and this seems like a nice place. I'll go easy on you and start out with the really helpful ones! *** Heal Rod - Magus Rod Opponent: Pug ** Cat Hood - Merit Award Opponent: Hoover * Thornlet - Mirage Vest Opponent: Opinicus *** Minerva - Czarina Gown Opponent: Pug * Nutkin Suit - Genji Armor Opponent: Opinicus ** Snow Muffler - Charm Bangle Opponent: Retainer * Sneak Ring - Thief Glove Opponent: Tap Dancer ** Gauntlet - Thunder Shld Opponent: Vectagoyle * Genji Glove - Thunder Shld Opponent: Hemophyte *** Megalixir - Tintinabar Opponent: Siegfried You should know all items except for the Merit Award (if you're rusty on what they do and where to get them, you can Ctrl + F the document). The only reason you should want to trade in a Minerva for a Czarina Gown is when you have more than two Minerva bustiers and you want to have all items in the game at the end. I've never found a good use for the Gauntlet, and in my opinion the Genji Glove has outlived its usefulness as well, but there are a lot of players googoo for Genji Gloves, so they may not agree with me when I say you can turn those Relics into the awesome Thunder Shlds (save one of each if you're going for that 'perfect' end-game item list). You CAN steal Thunder Shlds in the final dungeon, but it's a long way there. - Heal Rod - Magus Rod Opponent: Pug - Minerva - Czarina Gown Opponent: Pug Pug is a bastard in the Colosseum. The trick here is that he will counter any damage done to him with both !Cleaver (Battle * 8) and a Step Mine attack. Death doesn't stop him from countering, and as it's highly unlikely you'll be able to survive two Step Mine attacks (not even mentioning the !Cleaver attack here), you must take down Pug in one shot, which is hard, as he's quite durable and not vulnerable to ID. Obviously, he also attacks normally, with Battle, !Cleaver, and the Break spell. First off, you'll want a Wall Ring, Jewel Ring, Ribbon, Safety Bit, or Memento Ring to protect against Break. Second, make sure you can survive the !Cleaver/Step Mine combo; Muscle Belts and Red Caps increase your HP for Step Mine, and you'll either want to evade or nullify !Cleaver entirely, so a high MBlock percentage or 255 Defense does the trick. On the offense, the Offering is almost required, either with the Fixed Dice or a ValiantKnife, whatever you have. - Cat Hood - Merit Award Opponent: Hoover Hoover is, if I'm not mistaken, the toughest enemy out there that's still vulnerable to ID. This is really what you'll want to take advantage of. He'll randomly use Battle, !Crush (Battle * 5), Sand Storm, and Quake. Every damage done will by countered with up to two Sand Storm attacks. Equip a Cherub Down for the Quake spell, and a Thunder Shld to nullify the Sand Storm attacks. If you can pair this with 255 Defense (on Mog), you can't lose. If you can't obtain invulnerability, it's best to go all-out offensive; Offering, possible Genji Glove, and weapons with either the X-type ID property or the Scimitar. Remember that the random Doom spell from the Soul Sabre and the Doom Darts won't work with the Offering. - Thornlet - Mirage Vest Opponent: Opinicus - Nutkin Suit - Genji Armor Opponent: Opinicus I discussed Opinicus earlier, so I won't do that now. - Snow Muffler - Charm Bangle Opponent: Retainer I discussed Retainer earlier, but the situation's so much different now I'd like to mention him again; get your MBlock as high as possible on a character that's bound to inflict a lot of damage on the guy. Fixed Dice, Offering, Force Shld, Force Armor, Bard's Hat, and White Cape. The chances are pretty good Setzer will outlive a Retainer this way. - Sneak Ring - Thief Glove Opponent: Tap Dancer All Tap Dancer does is Battle, !WaistShake (sets Muddled), Slow 2, and Haste 2. 255 Defense and a Peace Ring/Ribbon to protect against !WaistShake and you're set. - Gauntlet - Thunder Shld Opponent: Vectagoyle Battle, Giga Volt, Aqua Rake, and Blaze. A combination of Thunder Shld and Red Jacket takes care of all the powerful attacks here, so send in Edgar with this equipment and you're set. Sabin's good too, though he might use Spiraler. - Genji Glove - Thunder Shld Opponent: Hemophyte Hemophyte looks pretty neat, but that doesn't stop him from sucking all-round in the Colosseum. Battle, !CursedGaze (sets Seizure), and Shock Wave are all too useless to worry about, and Pearl can be reflected by a Wall Ring. Equip one and win. - Megalixir - Tintinabar Opponent: Siegfried Siegfried has three attacks: a 50% chance at Battle, a 25% Shrapnel which is rather painful, and a 25% HyperDrive, which kills you. There's NO circumventing it other than Runic, which isn't reliable enough. HyperDrive is a non-elemental barrier-piercing magical attack that cannot be Reflected. Coming from Siegfried, hyped as the greatest warrior that isn't in your team or called Kefka Palazzo, it delivers around 7200 damage. Your best bet is to take advantage of his vulnerability to the Stop status; equip on Shadow the Stunner, DragoonBoots, Dragon Horn, and as much MBlock% raising equipment as you can put on the guy. If you're in luck, a random Stop spell coming from the Stunner will kick in and disable Siegfried long enough for you to kill him. And yes, that's a gun he's holding. Sweet, eh? This could also be a great time to discuss the Merit Award. What does the Merit Award do? It allows the wearer to equip any weapon and any armor except for animal hides (Relm/Strago equips), the Snow Muffler, and the female-only equips (Minerva and Mystery Veil among others). It does take up a Relic slot though, so what characters would benefit enough from the expanded pool of options to sacrifice a Relic slot for? - Sabin's weapons are nothing special. A few minor stat boosts, that's all. In addition, his best armor is the Red Jacket, which next to nullifying Fire does nothing special and has a sub-par Defense and Magic Defense rating. An Enhancer/Magus Rod rather than the Tiger Fangs and a Genji Armor as opposed to the Red Jacket can really help him out both offensively and defensively. - Gau has all the Defense and Magic Defense he could ever dream of, so it's just the weapons that's important here. Yes, with the Merit Award, Gau can suddenly equip weapons! In general, I've found that the Sniper (store-bought in Jidoor) is the best option for Gau to wield; it bumps his Battle Power up to the maximum of 255, randomly (50%) deals 3 times as much damage to Floating targets and 1.5 as much to other targets, and it's easy to acquire. Sadly, Gau cannot equip the Merit Award in the PSX releases of this game. - Finally, Gogo can use the boost in armor as well; the Tao Robe and Dark Gear, both tied as most Defensive armor (Tao Robe is flat-out better, though), are even worse than the Red Jacket. The Genji Armor fits him nicely, and it gets a lot easier choosing SwdTech this way (although you shouldn't, as it blows as hard as ever). Most players kinda frown upon using the Merit Award as it has the potential of turning every character into a clone of each other. And yes, with the Merit Award, a combo of Illumina, Force Shld, Bard's Hat, and Force Armor is all too easy to pull off. I just figure that this way, we're still tasteful while helping out the characters we love. :) Gau and the Merit Award (and Gogo a little, sure): So for the entire WoB and a large chunk of the WoR, Gau has been a guy who uses an insanely strong magical attack 50 % of the time. But hey, times have changed; all your characters are capable of this insane MT violence and Gau just has his 255 Defense to back him up. Does this mean he is offensively crippled? NO! Or yes, if you're playing PSX. The key to offense on Gau in the latest stages no longer comes from overpowered Rages. It comes from the Merit Award. I can divide this section in two parts. First off, there's the Wind God. Wind God Gau is easily set-up: give him the Merit Award and a Tempest for a weapon, and have him Rage Stray Cat. Gau's physicals rise in power, there's that in the first place. However, the Wind Slash attacks he produces are also affected by the !Catscratch damage multiplier, so when a Wind Slash kicks in a !Catscratch attack Gau performs what's basically a 192 Base Power MT attack with NO split damage. To compare, Aero on multiple targets effectively has a Base Power of 62. That's pretty freaking insane. Combine the Wind God with the Offering to have him rise to unspeakable levels of damage (when he isn't whipping out puny physicals). If no Offering is present, a Hero Ring works well enough. But it needn't stop there with the Merit Award fun. Against bosses, pick an elemental weakness and equip a weapon accordingly. Pearl Rod !Catscratches hurt a LOT when they're hitting a weakness, let alone the Pearl x 4 that may kick in 25 % of the time. On Floating targets without elemental weaknesses (or multiple on different parts, such as in the final battle), the Sniper rules supreme. Versus human bosses, the Man Eater is also a great option as it works just as well as exploiting a weakness. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.64.1 Doma Castle ********************************** Now, there are a few side-quests left before there's really nothing better to do than break into Kefka's domain, and we've still got a disturbing lead to follow before we can answer to Celes's desperate wishes to reunite with Locke. With Cyan on our side, the fact that demons appear to roam around in Doma Castle has some meaning; we could check it out at the very least. Where's Doma Castle you ask? You can ask the old lady in Maranda, but I'll tell you anyway: to the east of the 'head' of the Serpent Trench, where Nikeah is located. Make sure that you have quite a few Green Cherries and Fenix Downs, and if you're planning to bring Shadow (which is a good idea), make sure you have over 30 Fire Skeans as well. Cyan is mandatory for this part. I can see from your shocked faces that after all the Cyan-bashing I did in the past, not only are you all heavily convinced of the fact he's horrible, this is also the reason you never really bothered to raise him. Little to no Esper time, no doubt? Not to digress; you don't really have to fight with him. :P Whom to bring? Terra is especially nice; I really advise you to bring her. You're probably sick of Strago and Relm by now, but if you want to take advantage of their newly acquired powers, be my guest; GrandTrain really is powerful, and there's a new Lore to be learned here as well. Shadow is great, as his Throw attack is targetable. The same goes for Setzer, but only if you have his Fixed Dice. Do NOT bring along Gau and Umaro; they'll have major trouble with the final battle here, which also means that YOU will have major trouble. I wouldn't really advise Edgar and Mog either, as the final battle is yet again an annoying peek-a-boo situation where you don't want to sit around waiting for them to come crashing down when you don't want them to. As soon as you enter Doma Castle, nothing seems odd. But hey, both the guy in Thamasa and the young man in Nikeah mentioned that the demons came after nightfall. If you haven't found the Doma Castle treasures in the WoB, you can do so now: You can find an Ether, an Elixir in the alarm clock in a bedroom, an X-Potion in the room Cyan found his dead wife and son in, and when you go outside on one of the walls, you can find a little room with a Fenix Down and some Beads. If you're done raiding the halls of the dead, find the bedroom where the option of sleeping will be presented to you. Do so if you're ready for the dungeon. Make sure you have a decently powerful character in the fourth slot (or in the third if Cyan's in the fourth slot). When the night has ended (don't worry, you've been healed), you will all get up. But wait, what's this? Cyan remains silent. When you go over to check on him, three creatures that look like little boys appear. They introduce themselves as the Dream Stooges, being Curley, Larry, and Moe. This is all a reference to the Three Stooges with the same name, a well-known American comedy act in the forties. Regardless, the Dream Stooges leap into Cyan's mind. Or something, whatever. You'll quickly notice this entire ordeal is 73% Lewis Carroll, 26% water, and a tiny bit of magic. You leap after them. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.64.2 Cyan's Soul ********************************** Opponents: Allosaurus, Critic, Pan Dora, Parasite, Barb-e, Curly, Larry, Moe Lores: Condemned, L.? Pearl, Pearl Wind, Roulette You start out with the character that was in the fourth slot of your party when you went to sleep; if this was Cyan, it'll be the character in the third slot. If you brought Gogo the mimic here and don't start out with him, you can see him lying around mimicking Mog's colour scheme; while this fits his role of copycat nicely, it's most certainly a bug. There are detached stairways of unidentifiable material all around the place and a lot of doors. The entire room looks like you've been sniffing Ether (and you might have) recently, and you're by yourself. Barb-e, Critic (5/16) Critic, Pan Dora, Pan Dora, Pan Dora (5/16) Allosaurus, Parasite, Parasite, Parasite (5/16) Allosaurus (1/16) Allosaurus is a crazy dino, that's for sure. It does nothing but try to poison you, and let's be honest with ourselves here Allo; that's just not very honorable for a giant lizard with fangs and claws, now is it? At least try to eat them. At any rate, the only thing it'll try to do to you is use !PoisonClaw and attack with Virite. Allosaurus is weak against Fire- and Pearl-elemental attacks and is vulnerable to ID attacks. The Anthology Bestiary mentions that Allosaurus is 'normally' human, but transforms into an Allosaurus in-battle, spewing poisonous breath (Virite). Critic is your gal if you neglected Strago a little during the WoB and brought him along for this ride. Every first turn may feature Roulette (33% chance), every second turn may feature the as-of-yet unseen L? Pearl (33% chance), and every third turn may contain Condemned (33% chance). If you want to, wait around until she has taught these Lores to Strago. Other attacks include Battle and !Slip Seed, which sets Seizure. She's a rare breed, having no palette swaps whatsoever. She's also rather weak defensively; Condemned shouldn't worry you, Roulette is a nuisance that's quickly recovered from and L? Pearl, should it connect, won't do all that much damage (about 550 when hitting multiple normally-equipped targets, 1100 on a single one). Pan Dora is Undead. Also, while they look like the least dangerous enemy, they're the worst. There are two attacks you have to watch out for; Evil Toot may set one out of the following status ailments on every party member: Dark, Poison, Imp, Condemned, Berserk, Muddled, Seizure, and Slow. Since they always appear in triple formation here, it can be quite bad if one or two character(s) have to swallow up to three Evil Toot attacks. Ribbons are a must. The other attack that's nasty is Absolute0; it's a straightforward Ice-elemental attack, but can deal about 500 damage to multiple normally equipped characters and 1000 on a single one. Revenge shouldn't be that much of a concern. Parasite are Aspik palette swaps. They're almost entirely alike. They attack with Battle and !Mind Stop, which sets Stop (Aspik's !Numbspines also did this). Every Fight command will be countered with a 66% shot at Giga Volt, which is a strong attack but fails to impress here, as Parasite's Magic Power is a stunning 1. 1000 HP and weak to Fire-elemental attacks. Barb-e smoked in the Japanese game. She stopped for the US kids, though. Smoking is bad for you! Ranging from bad breath and yellow teeth to an empty wallet, smoking is nothing but trouble. It's also damn well enjoyable after a long day might I add. Barb-E resists all status ailments (maybe she can get away with smoking due to Lung Cancer immunity, I dunno), and has an annoying tendency to use an Imp spell at the start of every battle. Her second turn may feature either the Drain spell or the Love Token attack. About Love Token: Love Token forces the affected character to take physical hits for the caster, like the caster is a Near Fatal character and the affected has a True Knight equipped. The affected will only absorb Fight/Battle and Special attacks; other attacks, physical or not, will be ignored. Anyway, heal the Imp status if it was set and then pound her as soon as possible with your strongest attacks. Any damage done will be countered by a 66% shot at !Slap, which sets Mute. Barb-e's Defense is rather poor and she's weak to Poison-elemental attacks, protected from ID, and immune to every status ailment but Slow and Stop. Whatever character you brought, it's vital you equip a Ribbon on him. Status ailments like Stop and Muddle are NOT nice when you're by yourself. Fire-elemental attacks are really strong, so Tritoch's Tri-Dazer, Fire 3, Fire Skeans, and Fire Dance should help you combat these pests. That Ribbon really is necessary; it protects against Barb-e's Imp and !Slap, Allosaurus's attempts at poisoning you, and Pan Dora's Evil Toot horror. You can protect against Roulette and Condemned with Memento Rings on Shadow and Relm, and Safety Bits and Relic Rings on the rest. If you're shooting for a full Rage list for some reason, make sure to encounter Critic and Allosaurus here as you won't be able to return to this place later. The other monsters can be found at other locations, too. They should encounter any enemy they want to here while they can, because you can't go back to this place after you leave... When you wake up, it's near a Save Point so you can save. To the left are three doors. It would take a very large block or boring text to describe where all the doors are leading, so here's a neat schematic! #0: Starting point, #1 (left door), #2 (middle door), #3 (right door) #1: Character, #4 (door) #2: #12 (door to the right), #13 (door to the left) #3: #8 (left door), #10 (right door) #4: #5, (top door) #6 (bottom door) #5: #8 (left door), #10 (right door) #6: #7 (door) #7: #5, (top door) #6 (bottom door) #8: #9 (door) #9: #8 (left door), #10 (right door) #10: Character, #11 (door) #11: #12 (door to the right), #13 (door to the left) #12: Save Point, #1 (left door), #2 (middle door), #3 (right door) #13: Final door, battle with the Dream Stooges. Explanation: both of your unconscious characters are guarded by a Dream Stooge. When you arrive, the Dream Stooge chickens out and runs off, as he's without his brothers; you reunite with your fallen comrade in arms and press on. If you found both characters, you can trigger the battle with the Dream Stooges at the final door; if you haven't collected all characters, nothing will happen there. The easiest path through this madness is this: #0 - #1 - #4 - #6 - #7 - #5 - #10 - #11 - #12 - #13 In plain English: Walk over to the three doors, and pick the left one. You scare off the Dream Stooge and find a character here. Leave through the door. Take the top door in the next section, which leads to two doors right next to each other. You'll want to take the right door, which leads to another Dream Stooge, who runs off and reunites you with your final character. Exit through the only door here, and walk over to the door to the far right in the next section. This door will lead you to the final door, standing between three... things. Out leap the three Dream Stooges, ready to do battle. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.64.3 Cyan's Soul; the battle with the Dream Stooges ********************************** Curley Level: 47, HP: 15000, MP: 2000 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Fire, Weakness: Ice, Water Status: Float Special: !Hit: Battle x 2 Sketch : !Hit, Battle Control: Battle, !Hit Vulnerable to: Sleep Attacks: Battle, Fire 2, Fire 3, Slow, Stop, Mute, Rflect, Life 2, Pearl Wind, Delta Hit Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No Larry Level: 47, HP: 10000, MP: 2000 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Ice, Wind, Weakness: Fire Status: Float Special: !Hit: Battle x 2 Sketch : !Hit, Battle Control: Battle, !Hit Vulnerable to: Death, Condemned, Mute, Muddled, Slow Attacks: Battle, Ice 2, Ice 3, Rflect, Delta Hit Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No Moe Level: 47, HP: 12500, MP: 2000 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Lightning Status: Float Special: !Hit: Battle x 2 Sketch : !Hit, Battle Control: Battle, !Hit Vulnerable to: Berserk, Stop Attacks: Battle, Bolt 2, Bolt 3, Safe, Haste, Rflect, Shell, Cure 2, Delta Hit Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: Yes Mute and Life 2 could screw with your RNG, but Mute won't be used by Curley until the second turn and Life 2 only appears when either Larry or Moe bites the dust. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No Curley is the strongest of the three Dream Stooges, and also the most vital one to take down. He has a random shot at casting Pearl Wind every now and again, which heals the other Stooges and himself. Even worse, he will cast Life 2 on a fallen comrade when he notices they're down. He'll attack with the status-inducing spells when all three brothers are alive, and with the Fire-elemental offensive spells when a comrade has been slain (which is a useless bit of the AI script, as Curley will always immediately make sure this is never the case with Life 2). When he's hit four times by a Magic spell, he'll cast Rflect on himself and start bouncing Fire 2 and Fire 3 spells off himself. When all three Stooges are alive, he'll cast Delta Hit every 30 seconds; Delta Hit is an unblockable ST attack that sets Petrify (doesn't work on targets immune to Petrify, obviously). He has a 33% chance of countering any of your attacks with a Fire 2 spell. Larry is the weakest of the three Dream Stooges; his amount of HP is the lowest and his status vulnerabilities are horrible; as if Death wasn't enough, he's an almost exclusive spell caster susceptible to Mute, and Muddled is crippling too. He's the Ice-elemental of the three. Like Curley, he'll cast Delta Hit when all three Stooges are there and 30 seconds have passed since the beginning of the battle/the last time Delta Hit appeared. He'll cast Rflect when he's hit by Magic four times and start reflecting Ice 2 and Ice 3 spells off himself. Larry will normally just attack with Battle; he'll start using Ice 2 and Ice 3 spells when one Stooge is down. He'll counter with a 33% Ice 2 spell. The interesting thing about Larry is that he may run away in the middle of a battle. When one of the Stooges is down, and Larry has been hit by four Magic spells, he'll run away. After 30 seconds (if you haven't won the battle yet), he'll return; his HP is back to maximum, but MP hasn't changed and any status ailments you might've set are still there. Moe is the middle child, and the only one without an elemental weakness. His bane is the Berserk status, and he has the Lightning-element. Like his brethren, he casts Delta Hit after 30 seconds, will cast Rflect on himself after four Magic spells, and start casting Bolt 2 and Bolt 3 on himself which bounce off; normally he uses support spells (Safe, Shell, Haste, and Cure 2), but he will start to cast offensive spells (Bolt 2 and Bolt 3) when one of the Stooges is down. Might counter any attack with a Bolt 2 spell. The boring one of the three. A note about Delta Hit: when the global battle timer reaches 30, the first Stooge to act will attack with Delta Hit. After that, the global timer is set to 0, so the other two Stooges won't use it. In other words, every 30 seconds only ONE Delta Hit will appear, not three. How to fight this battle? Set Mute on Larry (the Mute spell is obviously the most prominent way, but Strago's Sour Mouth is also a highly acceptable means; it'll also set Muddled) and Berserk on Moe (with the Bserk spell, possibly). Don't kill off Larry with a quick Doom spell just yet; our main priority is Curley. Cast a Sleep spell on him (once again, Sour Mouth works there) and pound him with magical attacks, preferably Ice-elemental attacks. When he's dead, abuse Larry's vulnerability to ID attacks and dispatch of him quickly. What you have left is a Berserked Moe who is no threat whatsoever. It's really an easy battle; barriers like Big Guard, Haste 2, Moon Song, Earth Wall, and Life Guard are nice, but really not necessary. You don't get any items for beating the Dream Stooges, but you'll get 6 Magic Points. After you've killed the Dream Stooges, you've taken care of the problem you came 'here' for, but you still have to find a way to get out of here. The door the Dream Stooges guarded is still open, so you might as well pass through. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.64.4 Cyan's Dream; the Phantom Train? ********************************** Opponents: Samurai, Rain Man, Suriander, Pan Dora, Parasite, Barb-e Container contents: Flame Shld, Genji Glove, Ice Shld, X-Potion Inside the cars: Rain Man, Rain Man (5/16) Samurai, Rain Man, Rain Man (5/16) Barb-e, Samurai, Suriander (5/16) Suriander, Pan Dora, Parasite, Parasite (1/16) You're now somehow traveling through Cyan's mind, searching for a way out. You're on a train now; since Cyan has really little experience with mechanical things, it's safe to say this is a memory of the Phantom Train. We'd best be on our guard; Cyan's mind is not devoid of the demons that torture him, and they don't leave us alone either. A few new enemies here. Samurai are very odd. Weak to Poison like most humans, their Defenses are horrible. And I mean just horrible. Worse physical Defense than Flan enemies, worse Magic Defense than Ultros #4. Every second turn they may use !Fatal, so take them out quickly. It'd be very hard to take them out slowly, mind, but you never know. ID-protected, by the way. Rain Man are crazy on the elementals. Weak to Ice, Pearl, and Water, almost every character should be able to nail these guys' weaknesses one way or another. They attack with physical attacks (!Umbrawler sets Sleep) and Flash Rain, the MT Ice-/Water-elemental attack. Not very strong, but strong enough to worry about. When Rain Men are alone, they'll use Bolt 3, which is even more of a nuisance. Their vulnerable to the Muddled status, so the NoiseBlaster and the L.3 Muddle Lore keep them busy while you kill them. Suriander surely surprises scarce sources; boring beyond borders, bestowing bruises by Battle, sometimes Sneeze. It also uses !Yawn (sets Sleep). ID-protected. The bloated creature is weak to Pearl-elemental attacks and vulnerable to the Sleep status, so if you want to make sure none of your characters get blown away by his omni-counter Sneeze attack, take advantage of that. ( LOCOMOTIVE ) ( SAVE POINT CAR ) ( MAZE CAR ) - Contains an Ice Shld ( LUMP OF METAL CAR ) - Contains a Genji Glove and a Flame Shld ( SAVE POINT CAR ) ( INACCESSIBLE ) To the right of you is a train car you can't enter. You can go up the ladder, but it serves no purpose. To the left of you is a train car, desolate of everything but a Save Point. Just pass through it. When you're outside again, you'll see a quick cutscene where Cyan escapes from a ghost, oddly similar to the scene in the game where Sabin and Cyan escape the ghosts. You can't enter the new train car until the scene is over. You can use the ladders to completely circumvent this car, but you don't want to do that, as you'll miss out on two treasures and an important hint. This new train car brings a chest, firmly locked away between two crates and a hole in the floor. When you flip the switch to the right of it, the left crates will move. However, after 4 seconds the crate will move back if you haven't raided the contents. If you fight a battle left of that crate (in the immediate horizontal line) the crate will move again; alternatively, if you enter the menu screen immediately to the right of it (stand next to the crate), it will also move. The easiest solution would be flicking the switch twice; at the second time the right crate will move, no questions asked, and will remain there until you leave the train car. The chest contains a Genji Glove. Further on is another chest, but you can't reach it; an empty chest will always block your path. The trick is to walk over to the closed chest to the left; opening it will get you the Rare item 'Lump of Metal', which you can use to pin the empty chest to the ground and walk around it to grab the Flame Shld in the chest. Finally, make sure that you flick the other switch in this train car too; three out of the six chests will close (flicking again will open them all up again), and the book says: "Memorize the positions. This knowledge might save you." Very well: 0 0 x x x 0 0 = Open x = Closed This next train car is a nasty one. It's a maze, with three switches that all change the furniture to block off your path and/or the other switches. Grab the Ice Shield and the X-Potion in the slightly hidden chest first. There are four switches in this car; the left-most switch isn't important right now, so it's #1 #2 #3 The order to handle the switches in is this: #3, #1, #3, #2, #3, #1 Now, your path is blocked off again by a wall, and there are six chests here, not unlike the chests you saw earlier. Flicking the switch appears to do nothing whatsoever. Close the chests like you saw earlier: 0 0 x x x 0 0 = Open x = Closed Flicking the switch will clear the path. You can walk outside to find another train car with a Save Point, and finally the caboose; the switches here do absolutely nothing. When you leave the room, you will warp out of this train and into a new section of Cyan's Dream. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.64.5 Cyan's Dream; Mechanical mines ********************************** Opponents: Sky Cap, PlutoArmor, Io So, this is the part where Cyan's still lingering fear of machines resides. Hulking, steaming technological horrors lunge for you, and the worst part is that your abilities are crippled by the fact that you are, in fact, riding one of those mechanical monstrosities yourselves. Yes, you're all covered in Imperial MagiTek Armor. Terra is the only character that will be able to use all eight attacks. If you brought Gogo, give him the Fight command in the Status menu so he can use MagiTek as well. Umaro (and Berserked characters) will randomly choose a Beam-class attack and will never use Heal Force. Monster formations: Io (6/16) PlutoArmor, PlutoArmor (5/16) PlutoArmor, Sky Cap (5/16) PlutoArmor attacks with Battle, !Crash (Battle x 2), and Tek Laser. When it's alone it'll start using the nastier machine attacks you'll be recognizing by now: Launcher and Shrapnel (and Tek Laser, still). When hit by Fight, it may counter with either Launcher (on the entire party) or Shrapnel (on the attacker itself), but this is only possible on the Veldt or when combining the Imp and Berserk status ailments on a character (which you don't really want). Shrapnel really is powerful and Launcher annoying as hell (for those of you that forgot, Launcher = 8 x Demi on random targets), so don't let PlutoArmor alone. Sky Cap is much less dangerous. It'll use R.Polarity and Tek Laser. When alone, it may start to attack with Missile - but compared to PlutoArmor's Launcher, that's nothing - and !SlipAnchor, which sets Seizure. Io is most noticeable for its Rage, which allows the Rager to attack with Flare Star. It will either do nothing (66%) or attack with !Crush (Battle x 3) for three consecutive turns; !Crush isn't that powerful. The fourth turn, it'll either use WaveCannon or Diffuser. Io's a little harder to take down, but little threat. The strategy, you ask? There's little, here. Know that the Beam attacks are about as powerful as level 2 spell, so if you have level 3 spells they'll be more powerful than the MagiTek attacks. You'll always want to switch between Heal Force and Bolt Beam in this dungeon, as Bolt Beam hits the weakness of all the enemies here. TekMissile is more powerful than Bolt Beam though, so Terra should stick to that. All enemies can be taken out by Terra's X-Fer, and both PlutoArmor and Sky Cap fall for Confuser. PlutoArmor can be crippled by status ailments such as Mute, Stop, and Berserk while Sky Cap really isn't a threat at all. Just walk around a while, there's only one path to take. As soon as you discover that you're walking around in circles, turn back and approach the situation from a different angle; start walking clockwise. Eventually you'll arrive at a slope you haven't seen before, and you'll see Cyan crossa bridge. As soon as you try to follow him, the bridge will collapse underneath you. Awesomeness: the game gives a MagiTek Armor to your leader in the dungeon. If you switch leaders, the new character will also gain MagiTek Armor, but the other character won't lose it. When you exit this part, the MagiTek Armor is taken from the leader, but not from the other three character. Thus in the next scene in this section, those characters will appear in MagiTek Armor in the cutscene. Neato! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.64.6 Cyan's Dream; Doma Castle ********************************** Opponents: Samurai, Rain Man, Suriander, Pan Dora, Parasite, Barb-e, SoulSaver, WrexSoul Miscellaneous items: Pod Bracelet (guaranteed WrexSoul drop), Memento Ring (rare WrexSoul steal), Aura (obtained from Cyan) Magicite: Alexandr You fall into a recognizable room; the guest chambers of Doma Castle, where you spent the night before Cyan was invaded by the Dream Stooges. You've gained a mission objective now; next to simply escaping Cyan's mind, it seems that his personal demon can be actually battled; WrexSoul, a composite monster made up of angry spirits, is its name. It's time to seek out this demon, so Cyan can find redemption, and you can get the hell out. (Everywhere, including the Save Point room and the throne room) Rain Man, Rain Man (5/16) Samurai, Rain Man, Rain Man (5/16) Barb-e, Samurai, Suriander (5/16) Suriander, Pan Dora, Parasite, Parasite (1/16) When you can move again, it's time to fulfill the request of Elayne and Owain, Cyan's wife and child. They're right, he doesn't deserve this, sub-par combat skills be damned! When you walk around, you can find three small cutscenes which all show a proud moment out of the past of Cyan Garamonde, retainer to King Doma. Outside, near the moat, to the left: (Cyan and Owain are jumping at each other, the sound of metal on metal) (Cyan:) Excellent concentration! With a little more practice, you'll be Doma's best fencer! (Owain:) Yippee! Papa praised me! I'm gonna go tell Mama! Outside, near the moat, to the right: (Cyan and Owain by the side of the moat) (Owain, jumping up and down:) Papa...fishing is boring! (Cyan:) This is part of your training. We must all learn patience. (Owain, calming down:) I love fishing! Inside, in the room where Cyan found Elayne and Owain dead: (Elayne:) Sweetheart... ... Do you love me? (Cyan, spazzing:) What do you want from me? A soldier doesn't say things like that! (Cyan, calmed:) I... ...I...loveth you. ...More than anything... (Owain, appearing from the bed:) I heard that! Yipee! "I loveth you...I loveth you!... Papa loves Mama!" (Elayne:) Owain!! Hush!! (Owain:) I heard that! (Owain runs off) If you haven't gotten the treasures from Doma Castle in the real world so far, you can even obtain them here: you can find an Ether, an Elixir in the alarm clock in a bedroom, an X-Potion in the room Cyan found his dead wife and son in, and when you go outside on one of the walls, you can find a little room with a Fenix Down and some Beads. WrexSoul is waiting for you in the throne room, sitting on the throne with Cyan lifeless on the ground next to him. The confrontation is inevitable. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.64.7 Cyan's Dream; the battle with WrexSoul ********************************** WrexSoul Level: 53, HP: 23066, MP: 5066 Steal: Memento Ring (rare), Win: Pod Bracelet (always) Absorbs: Fire, Pearl, Weakness: Ice Special: !KarmicBlow: sets Condemned Sketch : !KarmicBlow, Battle Control: Battle, !KarmicBlow Vulnerable to: Nothing Attacks: Battle, Bolt 3, Zinger Vanish/Doom: No Immunity to Clear status SoulSaver Level: 41, HP: 3066, MP: 566 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Fire, Pearl, Weakness: Ice Special: !MagicDrain: Drains MP Sketch : !MagicDrain, Battle Control: Battle, !MagicDrain Vulnerable to: Petrify, Death, Condemned, Berserk, Muddled, Slow Attacks: Battle, !MagicDrain, Fire 3, Ice 3, Bolt 3, Rflect, Cure Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: No You can't spin 7-7-7 in this battle. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No WrexSoul is obviously the main baddy here whom you'll have to defeat. The ironically called SoulSavers are the goons. At the start of the battle, WrexSoul will cast Zinger and leave the battlefield to invade one of your characters. He won't re-appear for you to damage him until the character he invaded receives Wound, Petrify, or Zombie status. When he's out he'll just sit there for a while, attack with Battle or casting Bolt 3. When either one or two SoulSaver(s) has the Reflect status, he'll cast Bolt 3 on it so it'll bounce off to your party. Like any proper boss, he'll counter Fight with a 33% shot at Battle. The SoulSavers are the bane of this battle. Virtually immortal, they'll regenerate as soon as you kill them off. Normally they'll just sit there, slinging the level 3 spells at your with ridiculously small amounts of effect. Whenever they hit 16 MP or less, they'll use !MagicDrain to drain you of your MP (and with a 50 Battle Power, their !MagicDrain is really quite strong). They'll cast Rflect on themselves as soon as WrexSoul is around, allowing him to cast Bolt 3 on them for damage on you. On all other turns that WrexSoul is around, they'll spend time casting Cure spells on WrexSoul for double-digit amounts of healing (in other words; neglectable). Before the normal, honest tactics, the usual method of winning this battle is casting X-Zone. The SoulSavers restore themselves over and over again, but when you successfully suck both SoulSavers into the parallel dimension with X-Zone, they can't do that and you'll just win the battle. The downside here is that you won't win the Pod Bracelet from WrexSoul, as you never actually defeat him. Normally, you'll just want to completely ignore the SoulSavers. Minerva wearers take no damage and anybody with an elemental shield should take very little damage all-round anyway (ThundrShlds are the best, as Bolt 3 is cast most often). First, throw up the usual barriers; Haste 2, Earth Wall, Big Guard, Moon Song, Life Guard, whathaveyou. Now, just check each character by killing him/her and reviving him/her. Strago can commit easy suicide with Exploder (careful: Pep Up removes him from the battle; you don't want that). Shadow can throw Ninja Stars or Shuriken to do unblockable and non-elemental damage, while Setzer's Fixed Dice serve the same purpose. If you don't have these characters, just go ahead with spells and Fight attacks where you can; Flare and Break are great for killing party members (provided it hits); Flare has a superior Hit Rate, but with Break you've actually killed a party member and can bring him/her back without any HP loss with a Soft or Remedy Item or Remedy spell. If the targeted character doesn't have too much MBlock, Strago's Stone attack can probably take him/her out in one hit; remember that Stone does 8 times as much damage when the target shares the caster's level, which is a likely case. Whenever WrexSoul appears, act fast and furious! His Magic Defense is a stunning 220, which makes sure that if a magical attack isn't barrier-piercing, it'll have to be an Ice 3 spell coming from Morphed Terra to do a lot of damage. Breaking Ice Rods and/or Ice Shields nets you barrier-piercing attacks, so if you lack power in your team that's an option. Ideally you'll want to stick to targetable attacks: Setzer's Fixed Dice, Shadow's Ninja Stars (Blizzard Swords hurt a LOT), and Edgar's Drill are good ones. Barrier-piercing attacks can even by MT'd; Sun Flare, GrandTrain, and Gau's Tyranosaur-induced Meteo attacks hurt badly. If you have the Flare spell, it's better than an Ice 3 spell if you have the choice. The pure magicians here should cast Flare or Ice 3, or simply resort to attacking. If Strago hasn't learned GrandTrain (or Quasar) yet, Step Mine is his best option (dual Ice Rods are also an option here, if you don't mind unusual set-ups). Celes's Runic really doesn't help that much, as the level 3 spells aren't a real threat, so just keep on attacking and healing with her. Sabin's only hope at leaving a mark is Bum Rush, with which you can only hope will hit WrexSoul itself. Umaro just rage. In the end, the WrexSoul battle isn't really dangerous; it's just very annoying, especially if you have your characters geared towards Magic Block and are doing quite well in the area. Your own characters can be surprisingly hard to take down. After WrexSoul has been defeated, Cyan will have a chance to talk to his departed wife and child. They gave him the courage to face his pain and despair, but even then, it turned out it was too strong for him. With your help though, he has exorcized WrexSoul. The love of his wife and child transforms into the image of a blade, which Cyan grasps... Back out, in the real world, the blade has been added to your inventory as a lousy Aura Knife, and now that Cyan has cleared his soul and redeemed himself, he'll gain control over ALL the SwdTech skills he hasn't acquired yet, up to #8, Cleave. Contrary to fairly popular belief, he won't just learn Cleave; he'll learn all SwdTech skills. It's likely you'll gain SwdTech skills #7 and #8 at this point. Number 7, Quadra Slice, is a physical, barrier-piercing attack that hits four times and is pretty powerful; a level 40 Cyan with a Hero Ring will reach a total of 8000 damage. Cleave is just Instant Death to everything that's vulnerable to it. The trick with both moves is that while they are grand, you really have to wait to reach them, even by inputting the commands of the other characters first. As a finishing touch to this scenario, you can walk into the throne room and find the Magicite remains of the Esper Alexandr, the only Esper to teach the Pearl spell. If you play the game like me, you turned the Murasame you found on the Floating Continent into an Aura, the Aura into a Strato, and the Strato into a Pearl Lance a long time ago, and this Aura is the first strong Knife you see again. Do turn it into a Strato at the Colosseum (fight a Rhyos) if this is the case; Cyan will appreciate it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.65.1 The road to the Ancient Castle and the fight with Master Pug ********************************** Opponents: Figaliz, Goblin, Enuo, Master Pug Container contents: Doom Darts, Ether, Magicite, Wing Edge, X-Potion, Monster-in-a-box (Master Pug) Miscellaneous items: Gradius (guaranteed Master Tonberry drop) Lores: CleanSweep, L.5 Doom, L.4 Flare, L.3 Muddle, Step Mine, Dischord If you had paid one hundred thousand GP to one of the thieves at the foot of the Fanatics Tower, you'll have heard of an ancient castle somewhere under the desert of Figaro, which is supposedly loaded with treasure. Now we're not greedy, but for eh...improved success chances or something; it'd be a good idea to take a look. Whom to bring? The theme of the next dungeon will be magical resistance. The caves leading to the castle and the castle itself will be filled with monsters with inherently Reflective tendencies and crazy Magic Defense, making any non-barrier-piercing magical attack useless. The Pearl element is very strong here, though. Pearl Lance Dragoons are great. So is a Sabin with dual Dragon Claws, suffering on the Defense as he may be in that case. Gau and Umaro are decent choices too, as their uncontrollable nature is no hindrance whatsoever in the next part of this fine game. Strago can learn Rippler, Blow Fish, and Dischord here, which is hardly a point, as he can learn all three on the bloody Overworld Map too; but he can also learn L.3 Muddle, L.4 Flare, L.5 Doom, and Step Mine here (if you missed it earlier), as well as a Lore that's probably new to you, CleanSweep. Make your team and fly the Falcon over to Figaro Castle, which is probably on the Kohlingen side of the sea at this point. Send it over to the Figaro desert, and it will reach a bumpy part of the journey where the old man piloting the castle will ask you if you want to investigate. Boy, do we ever. Walk over to the dungeons, where the hole the sandworm that freed the Crimson Robbers created is still present. You can use it exit the castle and enter the caves leading to the Ancient Castle. (All three caves, but not the Save Point room) Enuo, Goblin, Figaliz (6/16) Enuo, Enuo (5/16) Goblin, Figaliz, Figaliz (5/16) Figaliz is short for Figaro Lizard. They're entirely too much like Crawler enemies, only much harder to take down. !Gunk causes the Poison status, and they'll use either Raid or Dischord. He doesn't have a weakness to the Pearl element, so I would suggest barrier-piercing magical attacks and physical attacks of any kind; ID-attacks such as Gau's Wild Cat-induced Blaster attack, X-Zone, and Cyan's Cleave SwdTech will get the job done. Remember that Figaliz is Reflective though, so Doom and Break will bounce. Goblin is a nasty enemy that delights in attacking physically with some force. Battle isn't that tough, but !Zap (Battle x 4) really packs a punch. Whenever a Goblin is alone, he will start casting L.3 Muddle, L.4 Flare, or L.5 Doom every second turn, and a shot at Blaze in between. Control, Sketch, and Rage are filled up with level 3 spells, too. Their Defense is horrid, so their respectable 5555 HP isn't as bad as it seems. Abuse Goblin's weaknesses by attacking with Pearl Lances, Dragon Claws, and Pearl Rods. The random Pearl spells won't do anything, but the physical strikes themselves will get the job done nicely. ID attacks works as well. Enuo is a boiling glob of slimy mucus with certain powers over water. Normally it'll just attack with Battle or !Slime, which sets Slow. When an Enuo is alone though, it'll use Aqua Rake or CleanSweep, a new Lore for Strago. Wretched Defense, weakness to Pearl and ID attacks; abuse them at your heart's content. CleanSweep is an MT Water-elemental Lore for Strago. You're probably wondering why you need another one of those; Aqua Rake is already there. The trick is that: A, CleanSweep isn't partly Wind-elemental, B, CleanSweep hits both sides in a Pincer attack, and C, while CleanSweep is weaker, it doesn't split damage on multiple targets, making it stronger than Aqua Rake versus multiple targets. Aero beats both by far, so it's more or less trivia knowledge, but hey. In the room you first enter, there are two chests. To the left is a chest containing a Wing Edge, the strongest 'Special' weapon for Locke. It's main selling points are a + 7 to Speed, the Assassin and Trump's X-type ID property, and the fact it deals the same amount of damage from the Back Row. The chest to the right contains an Ether. There are three exits below; it doesn't really matter which one you take, but the middle one and the far right one take you directly to a monster-in-a-box while you have to walk around for it when leaving through the far left one. If you came in through the middle door, don't fret; you can walk through the wall to reach the chest you see. The chest you see to the top-right of this cave is the chest containing Master Pug, the toughest monster-in-a-box you'll find in this game. Master Pug Level: 73, HP: 22000, MP: 1200 Steal: Megalixir (rare), Elixir (common), Win: Graedus (always) Absorbs: Water Special: !Cleaver: Battle x 8 Sketch : !Cleaver, Battle Control: Battle, !Cleaver Vulnerable to: Poison, Sleep, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Cleaver, Bio, Fire 3, Ice 3, Bolt 3, Pearl, Quake, W Wind, CleanSweep, Step Mine, WallChange Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: Yes Pearl and W Wind both screw over your RNG, but won't be used on MP's first turn. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No Master Pug is very mean. He'll start the battle off with a Battle attack, but then the madness begins. Every 15 seconds, Master Pug takes a step forward. After seven steps he'll use !Cleaver on a random character and retreat halfway, meaning that he'll just have to take four more steps after that to reach the position where !Cleaver is used. Every step is accompanied with the ever-frustrating WallChange attack. Master Pug casts his spells in conformation his weakness, not unlike Number 024 way back in the day. Here's what he'll use: Weakness to Ice: Fire 3 (66%) Weakness to Fire: Ice 3 (66%) Weakness to Wind: Bolt 3 (66%) Weakness to Pearl: Bio (66%) Weakness to Lightning: W Wind (66%) Weakness to Poison: Pearl (66%) Weakness to Water: Quake (66%) Weakness to Earth: CleanSweep (66%) One of the worst parts, though, is his Step Mine counter to every damaging attack you perform. Depending on your actions and style of playing this game, that can do a lot of damage. The way to victory lies in his status ailment vulnerabilities. Cast Sleep on Master Pug, and pair it up with Slow as well. If you have enough people with control over the Rasp spell, you might try removing all his MP first; better safe than sorry, right? If you're done with that or simply don't want to bother, start attacking him with magical attacks. Physical attacks will wake him; stick to magical ones only. It's highly possible you manage to kill him before he even wakes up once. If he does wake up, just cast Sleep again; Strago's Sour Mouth Lore also works (sets Poison too, by the way). When you're done, you win a Graedus, a Pearl-elemental Dirk that can be equipped by pretty much everybody. It's a powerful weapon but doesn't have any interesting properties. Its Pearl-elemental nature can make it useful in this dungeon, though. The only other chest in this cave contains the Doom Darts, Setzer's most powerful 'normal' weapon. Like the Wing Edge, it deals the same amount of damage from the Back Row and has the Assassin's X-type ID property, but it doesn't boost any stats. In the PSX releases, you'll find the Trump here; it's the same weapon, but called Trump in the recent releases (while the WoR Kohlingen store-bought Trump is called Doom Darts there). You'll want to exit to the left of the screen to find another cave with two chests. They contain an X-Potion (to the left) and a shard of Magicite (the one to the bottom). The big feature here is the grand stairway leading into a random encounter-less room with a Save Point and another stairway going up. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.65.2 The Ancient Castle and the battle with KatanaSoul ********************************** Opponents: Samurai, Suriander, Lethal Wpn, Boxed Set, Figaliz, Goblin, Enuo, Barb-e, KatanaSoul, Blue Drgn Container contents: Blizzard Orb, Gold Hairpin, Punisher, X-Ether, Monster-in-a-box (KatanaSoul) Miscellaneous items: Offering (guaranteed KatanaSoul drop), Scimitar (guaranteed Blue Drgn drop) Lores: CleanSweep, Blow Fish, L.5 Doom, L.4 Flare, L.3 Muddle, Dischord, Rippler Magicite: Odin, Raiden (Outside of the Ancient Castle) Goblin, Figaliz, Figaliz (6/16) Goblin, Goblin (5/16) Barb-e, Samurai, Suriander (Inside of the Ancient Castle) Lethal Wpn (5/16) Boxed Set (5/16) Boxed Set, Boxed Set, Figaliz, Figaliz (5/16) Boxed Set, Boxed Set, Boxed Set, Boxed Set (1/16) If you forgot, Barb-e, Samurai, and Suriander could all be encountered in Cyan's Soul, so I won't have to explain them here. You can Ctrl + F to 4.64.2 if you want to learn about them. Lethal Wpn looks totally badass. With 9200 it's got quite the amount of HP, it's immune to every status effect except for ID (and Condemned) and has some nasty attacks up its sleeves. Normally this is where I say he will normally use Battle and !Metal Arm (Battle * 2) when he's with other monsters, as that's what his AI script says. However, you ALWAYS encounter this thing by itself, so it'll just randomly use Missile, Launcher, or Diffuser. Launcher is the worst out of the bunch (Diffuser may hurt if your Magic Defense/resistance to Lightning isn't all that hot). You'll want to use ID attacks against the fellow; he's inherently Reflective like almost everything here, but X-Zone flies right past that, as does Gau's Wild Cat/Spek Tor-induced Blaster attacks, his Rhodox-induced Snare, ID coming from weapons like the Assassin and Striker, etc. If you lack all that, focus on Lightning- and Water-elemental attacks that defy the existence of Reflect; Water Edge, Tri-Dazer, Aqua Rake, you know what to do. Boxed Set is a sweet enemy as well. Inherently Reflective and Floating, you'll be hard-pressed to take this guy out with any kind of magical attack (as you're used from monsters around here). Normally a Battle/!Mirror Orb (Battle * 3) zealot, he'll switch to Cold Dust and Meteo when alone. Meteo will hurt real badly, just across the 1000 HP line. Cold Dust induces Freeze like always and is a pain in the ass. A common weakness to Pearl-elemental attacks and ID attacks combined with a low Defense rating should make it obvious how to treat this bugger. You can Mute them, so if you're not sure about them you could always summon Siren or have Strago use a Sour Mouth attack to stop them from using their most dangerous attack. Of special note is the fact that both L.3 Muddle and L.5 Doom will work on these guys (also on the Figaliz monsters often accompanying them). If you brought Strago, you're in luck. When you approach the derelict halls of the ancient castle, once the proud monument of a civilization destroyed in and by the War of the Magi, the character most suited to know the legend will speak of the attack, and the legend of the magnificent battle between Odin and a powerful sorcerer of his time. Maybe we will be able to find the remains of Odin inside? Before you enter the main hall, there are two more or less hidden doors to the left and right of the large doors. To the right is an already open door leading to a chest containing the Punisher. The Punisher is a weapon that you haven't seen since Banon wielded it, and now it's special power can finally be seen. Like the Rune Edge and Ogre Nix, it has an MP-driven auto-critical. It doesn't have any real uses except if you brought Relm or a GrandTrain-less Strago along in this dungeon, as it's the strongest attacking Rod there is (although the Pearl Rod is hitting a weakness most of the time at this point). To the left is a chest containing the legendary Offering, one of the most talked-about Relics in the game. Guarding this item is a monster-in-a-box, KatanaSoul. I talked about Master Pug being the toughest monster in a box, but KatanaSoul is up there, competing for that title. KatanaSoul Level: 61, HP: 37620, MP: 7400 Steal: Strato (rare), Murasame (common), Win: Offering (always) Weakness: Poison Special: !SlayerEdge: sets Death Sketch : !SlayerEdge, Battle Control: Battle, !SlayerEdge Vulnerable to: Poison, Muddled Attacks: Battle, !SlayerEdge, Blow Fish, Shock Wave, Item (Fire Skean), Item (Water Edge), Item (Bolt Edge), Throw (Ashura), Throw (Imperial), GP Rain Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: Yes Blow Fish and Water Edge screw over the RNG. Water Edge has a 33 % chance of being KatanaSoul's starting attack. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No First off a note of doom: KatanaSoul is unique in the fact that he's a monster in a box you can run from. Doing so hurts your game though; you won't be able to fight him when you return to the chest, and thus you'll miss out on the Offering you win when you're still living and he's not. KatanaSoul is the perfect hybrid between a Samurai and a Ninja, as will become apparent by his AI script. Normally, his attacks will consist out of Battle, any of the three offensive ninja scrolls (Fire Skean, Water Skean, or Bolt Edge), and Gale Cut, Blow Fish, or Shock Wave. This isn't half bad for an opponent, but nothing spectacular either. It's when he's aggravated that he becomes lethal. When you battle him for longer than 40 seconds, he'll pump himself up. The message "KatanaSoul's power up!" will appear, and he will self- apply the Image and Reflect statuses, making him immune to every blockable Fight attack for the duration of Image and most Magic spells for the duration of Reflect. He'll also try to set Haste, but with inherent Slow immunity it will fail. Sad thing. He may counter Fight, Magic, and Lore with a Battle, but that's not the purpose of his counter script there; when hit six times by Fight, he'll use !SlayerEdge on a random party member, which is a simple one-hit Wound attack with an admittedly poor Hit Rate of 100. When hit three times by either a Magic spell or Lore attack (this includes 1 Lore and 2 Magic, for instance), he'll Throw either an Imperial (weakest ninja Dirk) or Ashura (weakest 'katana' Knife) at a random party member, doing about 8000 damage to him/her. He'll then spend the next turn using Setzer's GP Rain, dealing exactly 915 HP worth of damage to four party members (1220 to three if one is still down from the thrown blade). KatanaSoul's glaring weakness is the combination of vulnerability to the Muddled status and its own Special, !SlayerEdge. By setting Muddled with the Muddle spell, Strago's Sour Mouth Lore, Stray's Cat Rain, Edgar's NoiseBlaster, or whathaveyou, KatanaSoul has a 50% chance of killing himself with !SlayerEdge. Sketching nets you a 25% shot at !SlayerEdge too. Exploit this weakness for a far easier battle. If you're looking for more of a challenge or for some other reason don't want to muddle the poor warrior into defeat, here's what you'll want to do. First, throw up your barriers. Focus on the magical side; Big Guard (for Shell) or ZoneSeek's Wall, Haste 2, Kirin's Life Guard, etc. Golem and Fenrir help against !SlayerEdge, but you shouldn't see it directed at you anyway. Now, let loose with your characters. There's no reason to use Fight, Magic, or Lore on KatanaSoul. Terra, Celes, and Strago should really just wait out this battle. Attack with Bum Rush Blitzes, Cyan's SwdTech skills (Quadra Slice is nice), Jump attacks, the Drill Tool, etc. If you're really unlucky and brought all the wrong characters, just Fight (!SlayerEdge every sixth Fight attack isn't all that bad). When KatanaSoul powers up, Dispel removes all three positive statuses immediately. If you want to be evil, you can break the no-Lore rule one time and steal all three with Rippler (provided Strago's not prancing around with something like a Pod Bracelet or Marvel Shoes). After KatanaSoul dies, you'll receive an Offering! The Offering is often misused and - dare I say it - abused. So, it's time to sit down and discuss the Offering a little. What does the Offering do? It makes Fight attack four times in a row rather than one. It also makes every Fight attack become unblockable. The Offering Fight is also smart; it will never hit defeated opponents when there are still living ones on the battlefield. That's all good. It also removes random spell casting (but not Tempest's Wind Slash) and criticals (including MP-driven criticals), which is kinda bad in most situations. The downside is that it halves the power of EVERY physical attack of the person equipping it. This makes sure that every person equipped with the Offering would better stick to Fight as things like Quadra Slice, Drill, Suplex, and Pummel all halve in power. An often-heard combination is Genji Glove and Offering, allowing for eight physical strikes. Is it really that good? It delivers quite a lot of damage most of the time, and it looks flashy to see eight attacks in a row. However, you sacrifice two Relic slots and the ability to equip a shield here, and that's a lot of sacrificing. And is the damage really that good? Hardly. It's up there with a single Bum Rush, Quadra Slice, and luckier Dragon Horn Jump attack, sure, but that's about it. And once again, you're really being hurt defensively here. Then what are the better uses of the Offering? The odd weapons. The damage outcome of the Fixed Dice isn't cut by the Offering, so Setzer equipped with the Offering and the Fixed Dice will become exactly four times as powerful as a non-Offering Fixed Dice Setzer, all for the loss of only a single Relic slot. The same goes with Locke's ValiantKnife, but I'll explain about that weapon when you get there. Cyan's Tempest Wind Slashes won't decrease in power either, but even when all four hits turn into a Wind Slash attack, the damage won't be stellar. Weapons with the X-type Instant Death feature (and the Scimitar) don't lose their ID properties, so you'll have four consecutive shots at a 25% immediate dispatch. Thiefknives still attempt to steal and Hawk Eye/Sniper will still randomly inflict more damage. A quick note about the Thiefknives: the game can only store a single stolen item per attack, so if you combine the Offering with Thiefknives you'll only obtain the last item you succesfully stole. All others have been removed from the monsters but are not in your inventory. Let's press on. Inside, it'll be just a big hallway you have to cross. The next room is the throne room, with the statue of Odin in the middle of it. Petrification was the quickest strategy versus Odin in FF V, for trivia knowledge; now, you can add the Odin Magicite to your inventory by talking to the statue. The pathway to the right, right next to the thrones, takes you to a room with two chests: a Blizzard Orb for Umaro and a Gold Hairpin for absolutely nobody in particular. Also to the right, a little south of that very pathway is another pathway leading to the queen's room. There's an X-Ether in the bucket, but what really draws your attention is the sparkle on the bookcase. It turns out to be the queen's diary; it seems that the queen and Odin had a little romancin' air going on there. If Terra is in your party at this point, she'll step away from the party to look sad and say, "Love between a human and an Esper..." At this point, the jailer in Figaro Castle will change his line to: You found an ancient text at the library, right? And one of the scholars up in Figaro Castle will change his line to this: Ancient texts I'm studying speak of a 1000 year-old city beneath the sand. I wonder what this means, "...when the queen stands and takes 5 steps..." The Queen's throne is the one to the right. Face the throne, take five steps downwards, and press the 'action' button to make the castle rumble and shake for a slight moment there. Now, re-enter the queen's room to find that a stairway has appeared, leading even further down. This new hallway is devoid of random encounters, but there are two things of interest here; first, the petrified remains of the queen herself. If you have collected the Magicite of Odin and interact with the statue, a tear will come from the stone to drop upon his remains, turning it into Raiden, the Odin upgrade with the superior summon attack in True Edge and tutor of the awesome Quick spell. Also, the Blue Drgn. If you have any Imp equipment (TortoiseShld, Titanium, Imp's Armor), throw it on! The Blue Drgn is all about Water-elemental attacks, and that's what Imp equipment absorbs. Don't equip Ice Shields, as Aqua Rake will hit twice as hard when you don't have any Imp equipment; Flame Shlds are even worse, as they are weak against Water-elemental attacks in general. Thunder Shlds are great as they null the effects of Aqua Rake (as it's part Wind-elemental) and halve all damage done by Flash Rain (as it's part Ice-elemental); Force Shlds halve the damage done by Water-elemental attacks in general, too. Minerva wearers shine once again; they null Aqua Rake and Flash Rain and halve damage done by all other Water-elemental attacks. Snow Mufflers of Gau, Mog, and Umaro will allow them to absorb the Flash Rain attacks. Relics protecting from Seizure (that'd be Ribbon, Cure Ring and Marvel Shoes) are great, too. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.65.3 The battle with the Blue Drgn ********************************** Blue Drgn Level: 65, HP: 26900, MP: 3800 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Scimitar (always) Absorbs: Water, Weakness: Lightning Special: !Hit: Drains MP Sketch : Blaster, Ice 3 Control: Battle, !Hit Vulnerable to: Poison, Slow Attacks: Battle, Slow, CleanSweep, Aqua Rake, Rippler, Acid Rain, Flash Rain Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: Yes Blue Drgn won't use attacks that screw over the RNG. As long as you don't either, you'll be fine for the J. Dooming. Ragnarok's Metamorph: Yes 12.5% chance of obtaining one of the following: Crystal Crystal Shld Crystal Helm Crystal Mail As soon as the battle starts, the Blue Drgn will attack with CleanSweep. If Strago is in your party and hasn't learned CleanSweep from either the Enuo random encounters or the Master Pug enemy yet, you're set. Normally the blasted creature will attack with Battle and Acid Rain; believe me, Seizure will get very annoying very quickly if you don't have protection against the status. When Blue Drgn dives beneath 16384 HP, he'll also start attacking with Aqua Rake and Flash Rain. Every 40 seconds, Blue Drgn will have stored enough water for a CleanSweep attack as well. All in all, you will be continuously pounded by MT attacks. Every Magic spell or damaging attack may be countered by Battle, as usual. The difficult part of Blue Drgn's AI script is the Rippler spell. To put it simply (or as simply as possible), Blue Drgn will use Rippler IF: 1: One of your characters has the Haste status. If so, target that character; if more than one character have the Haste status, he picks the first one he meets when going from top to bottom. 2: If Blue Drgn isn't already affected by the Haste status. 3: If Blue Drgn isn't affected by the Safe status. 4: If it has been two turns ago (not counting the 40-second CleanSweep attack) that Blue Drgn used Rippler. If all those conditions are met, Blue Drgn will cast Slow on itself and proceed to use Rippler to try to steal the Haste status and give you the Slow status instead. So what to do? Throw up the boring old blah-blah barriers; Big Guard, Wall, Life Guard, Earth Wall, Moon Song, whathaveyou. If you brought Shadow, you do NOT want him to be the victim of Rippler (Interceptor could be stolen). Don't apply the Haste status. Attack with Lightning-elemental spells if possible; Tritoch's Tri-Dazer isn't absorbed, so that works; Bolt 3 is stronger, though. Bolt Edges work great, but ThunderBlades are even more (read: obscenely) powerful. The same old still works. The mages should stick to Lightning-elemental attacks. Edgar makes a good Dragon Horn Dragoon, as usual. Sabin's Bum Rush beats all, like usual. Setzer's GP Rain is still stronger than Slot, while the Fixed Dice (especially when paired with the Offering) is superior to both of them. Cyan can't really do his job as usual (you can set him up as a utility man). Gau's Aspik Rage allows him to absorb all Water-elemental attacks while making him attack with Giga Volt, a strong Lightning-elemental attack that will really hurt Blue Drgn. Actaneon and Exocite also allow Ragers to absorb Water- elemental attacks. You know, it's not really that the Blue Drgn is weak; no, with regular MT magical spells with some power behind them and no crippling status vulnerabilities, the Blue Drgn is a fairly solid contender. It's just that it really begins to show here that your characters are growing more overpowered by the day. If Bum Rush and Dragon Horn Dragoons weren't enough, you get to use Fixed Dice/Offering, equip armor like the Minerva and Cat Hood, and get access to all the awesome no-questions-asked attacks such as GrandTrain and Bum Rush. When you have defeated the Blue Drgn, you'll be rewarded with the Scimitar, one of Ted Woolsey's biggest goofs. The Japanese name of Odin's attack is 'Zantetsuken', 'Iron Cutting Blade'. The Scimitar was also called Zantetsuken; the Scimitar is therefore Odin's weapon. The link is lost on the average American/European gamer though, as Scimitar/Atom Edge doesn't ring any immediate bells other than the slicing effect of both. Anyway, it's the only non-Knife weapon Cyan can equip and pretty much his best option (for all that there his 'ultimate' weapon is slightly stronger, it has no neat side-effects like the Scimitar does). With Raiden obtained and the Blue Drgn defeated, there is nothing for you here. You can leave this place and tell the old man in Figaro Castle to advance with the castle. You can revisit this place any time you want to, as every time you travel under the sea with Figaro Castle the old man will be surprised by the oddness of the stratum. That guy must have trouble remembering his wife's birthday. "You never get me anything nice," she probably complains, but no... He loves her dearly and means her no harm. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.66.1 Triangle Island ********************************** Opponents: Zone Eater Monster formations: Zone Eater (always) All the way to the northeast, you can find an island that's shaped like a triangle. There's two groups of mountains there, some forests... it's where you possiby fought Intangir in the World of Balance. And you know about that island? [EARLY-GOGO] "The island is home to a monster that could suck up an entire ocean. What do you suppose might happen if it sucked you inside? That much I don't know!" Now here's an odd monster indeed. It absorbs Ice-elemental attacks, is weak against Pearl-elemental attacks, and nullifies all other elements. And all it seems to use is a rare Demi spell and the Engulf attack. Engulf is pretty much the same as Sneeze; it removes a single character from battle. If you run away with some characters 'in the body of Zone Eater', you'll just find them in your party at the end. If you kill the thing after some of your characters have been eaten, likewise. However, if your entire team fell victim to the Engulf attack, you'll find yourself in one of the worlds this Zone Eater ate; a cave, filled with humans (or at least, humanoids) bent on your destruction for some reason that doesn't involve logical thinking. Best to be on your guard. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.66.2 The world inside of the Zone Eater ********************************** Opponents: Covert, Ogor, Wart Puck, Karkass, Tap Dancer, Woolly Container contents: Ether, FakeMustache, Genji Armor, Hero Ring, Magical Brsh, Tack Star, Thunder Shld, Zephyr Cape Miscellaneous items: Ashura (common Ogor steal), Morning Star (rare Wart Puck steal), Imperial (common Woolly steal), Murasame (rare Ogor steal), Tack Star (rare Covert steal), Hardened (rare Woolly steal), Soul Sabre (rare Karkass steal) You find yourself within the Zone Eater cave. To the north is a beam of light; you can use this whenever you want to leave the innards of the Zone Eater and face the light of day again. However, for now it might be interesting to intrude ever further into the bowels of this strange creature. Who knows what oddities of another world we may find here that may help us in the struggle against Kefka. Preparation: A lot of elemental attacks and status ailments are thrown around, but rather than using full force you'll want to play it defensively this time. A Thunder Shld is a grand on everybody you can find; NEVER use Ice Shlds and Flame Shlds, as the former is weak to Wind Slash and the latter is weak against the Water Edge (and both will appear here). Equips Ribbons where possible; you'll want something to block Ogor's !Zombite (Zombie) and Karkass's !Figaro Tea (Imp). The Ribbon also protects against the Woolly's !Frenzy, which sets Berserk, but that's not really a threat. Monster formations: All caves except the last: Karkass, Karkass (5/16) Wart Puck, Ogor (5/16) Tap Dancer, Covert, Covert (5/16) Woolly, Woolly, Karkass, Karkass (1/16) Gogo's spot: Ogor, Ogor (5/16) Covert, Ogor (5/16) Wart Puck, Wart Puck (5/16) Tap Dancer, Woolly (1/16) Do you remember those Ninjas from the Floating Continent, bane of our being that they were? Coverts are like super-Ninjas. Though you'd think that a ninja smart enough to dress in DARK garments would be inherently superior to those flailing along in bright-red outfits (screws over the entire 'hide in the shadow' theme ninjas tend to carry around), Coverts can be a real pain, especially since Coverts lack the Ninjas main defensive weak point; Covert is immune to ID attacks. Every odd-numbered turn will be either a physical or Wind Slash, and every even turn he'll throw a Skean at you (all three may appear). MT'd, Wind Slash and the Skeans are equally strong. When hit by a Thrown weapon, Covert will respond by Throwing a Shuriken or Ninja Star of himself; avoid this at all cost. Finally, every Fight attack may make Covert use !Disappear on himself, which sets Clear. Cast Sleep, Stop, Slow 2, or Bserk to stop their magical MT attacks and off them quickly; they're NOT weak to Lightning as the Ninjas were, but they are weak to Pearl so the appropriate Pearl spell will serve you well here coming from a decent caster. Ogor is annoying, as he will use up to three !Zombite attacks every turn, which can quickly turn very fatal for you if you're not protected from Zombie. When hit by a Magic spell, Ogor has a 33% chance of countering with the Bio spell, and every other kind of damage may be countered with a Battle attack. Ogor is weak to Lightning- and Pearl-elemental attacks, and both Stop and Bserk will stop him from using those blasted !Zombites. Wart Puck: the only non-humanoid enemy in the cave. As much Battle/Special cannon fodder as they come this far in the game. !Yawn sets Sleep and is randomly used next to Battle, every turn. When hurt, Wart Puck may counter with an annoying Sneeze attack, so you'll want to take Wart Puck out in one shot to make sure nobody misses out on Magic Points. Immune to ID and every status ailment except for Sleep, your best bet is an ST Fire 3 spell as Wart Puck is weak to Fire-elemental attacks. Karkass, like all Ing palette swaps, is a pain. The only Undead random encounter immune to ID attacks (outside of the Fanatics Tower); Karkass is the superior opponent. Every Fight attack may be countered by Battle, every Magic spell will be countered by either a Bolt 3, Break, or Flare spell, and everything that damages Karkass and is neither Fight nor Magic will be countered by a Lifeshaver attack. In between of all the counter-attacks, Karkass will only use !Figaro Tea, which sets Imp. Use Life spells to take them out cleanly, and strong Fight attacks also work (you'll want to avoid the magical counter- attacks, they're quite strong). Since Karkass is weak against Pearl-elemental attacks, so next to Fixed Dice, Pearl Lance Dragon Horn Dragoons are very nice (note that Jump will be countered by Lifeshaver if the Karkasses survive the slaughter). Tap Dancer uses Battle and !WaistShake, which seduces and confuses you. That'd about it. You don't want to see them appear as they are always paired with two Coverts, but they're not very dangerous themselves. If you have Shadow or Gogo Throw something at them, they will counter by Throwing either an Enhancer or Crystal sword, so just don't use Throw on them and you'll be fine. "This enemy might look like a pierrot entertainer, but his lunatic performance puts victims into a Frenzy." Woolly is one of the most elusive monsters in the game, as they only appear randomly at a 1/16 rate in a few rooms where you'll want to breeze through. As an opponent, they're not very unassuming unless you're very unlucky; they will just use !Frenzy, which sets Berserk, and when they're targeted by Fight, they'll counter with Battle. These guys want to counter you into submission or whatever, I don't know what they're deal is. Anyway, they're big thing is elemental absorption; they absorb all elements except for Fire (weakness) and Pearl (normal reaction). There's no reason to be equipped with ANY weapon that's not non-elemental or Pearl-elemental at this point, but anyway. Woolly make a great Rage, casting Ice 3 randomly and absorbing six elements (the Fire weakness tends to be overruled by Gau's Snow Muffler), so you don't want to leave this place until you've encountered these guys at least once if you're a Gau fan. Let's get through this! Take the stairs down. You'll see another set of stairs going down, but it'll just take you to a blocked-off path. You'll want to go to the left, to a crazy pathway of unstable wooden pathways with strange green men walking on them. Whenever these cretins get a hold of you, they'll push you off the pathway, so you'll want to jump when they're not around. You'll want to get pushed off a least once though. This way, you'll reach the other side of the blocked-off cave below to gather the Ether and the Red Jacket lying there. Anyway, here's what the room looks like: ======= ========== =====x===== ===x== 0= ==x=== =====00=== ===== = - Pathway 0 - Chests On the pathway, there are two chests next to each other: Genji Armor to the right, and a Magical Brsh for Relm to the left (like all Brush weapons: utter crap). The Genji Armor is the ultimate heavy-class armor. Minerva is better by sheer elemental resistances and the MP + 25% bonus, but the Genji Armor is all-round the most useful armor for the heavy-equipment guys (Locke, Cyan, Edgar, Setzer, and surprisingly, Shadow). It tends to be outclassed by stuff like the Force Armor against bosses (for elemental resistances and MBlock and all), but all in all, Genji Armor is awesome. To the far left is a chest containing a FakeMustache. You could have obtained this thing earlier by stealing it from Still Lifes, but this is the sure-fire way of getting access to Relm's Control ability. If you want to learn about that, take a look at [CONTROL-LINK]. If you safely crossed the bridges, you'll now wind up in a room with a Save Point, devoid of monster formations as rooms like those usually are. Do your stuff, and equip some Sprint Shoes. Even if you're playing on an emulator I suggest you in-game Save here, as I've misjudged my actions in the past and saved just over my own death... Which is bad. In this next room, I should note first off that there are no monster formations. Second, you can't access the Menu in this room. Third, there's a big fucking ceiling falling down every few seconds. If you are crushed under the ceiling, it's an instant Game Over. You don't want that. So, that's what the Sprint Shoes are for. Sprint to the left, and grab the contents of the first chest in sight, a Zephyr Cape. Wait for the ceiling to fall, and before it moves back up again, grab the next chest, a Hero Ring. Wait in front of it until the ceiling drops and rises again. Now, sprint as far to the left as you can, take one step back and two down. You'll be caught safe in a hole in the ceiling now. Watch the ceiling rise and fall like the chest of your sleeping lover, and make a run for the final chest, containing a Tack Star for Shadow. Don't wait now, just exit below. There's a little, meaningless cave here with some monsters again! Leave. A jumping puzzle now. First, take the one-chest path to the left and the two- chest path above you to reach the pathway near the button; you can jump on the platform with the action button. It'll extend to extra tiles of pathway: one for you to leave, and one to reach the treasure. Jump off. Take the same one- chest path to the left, another one-chest jump, and then a one-chest jump up to the chest containing a Thunder Shld. Now go around again until you can jump on the platform with the button again; just take the one-chest jump the left instead, leading you to a door. Except for a whole new set of new monster formations without any new monsters, the point of interest here is the creature draped in fabric standing there. It's Gogo, the last character you will recruit in this game. After introducing itself as a master of the simulacrum, it will decide to both hone its own skills and help you on your quest by joining you in your cause. It'll join your party now; if you were traveling with less than four characters it'll now be in your party, if not, it'll be waiting on the Falcon for you. Gogo's all exciting! If you want to learn about the odd thing that is supposedly human, you might want to check out [MIMIC-LINK] For now, you can either use a Warp Stone or the Warp spell to get back out. Or, just hike all the way back and find the pillar of light waiting for you, if you lack warping means (it's the only way to travel!). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.66.3 Wake me up before you Gogo ********************************** Just a little talk about what you should do with Gogo now (and for the pun; I'm mighty proud of it). The best armor Gogo can equip is the Tao Robe, which stinks. It gives a + 5 to its Magic Power and + 10% MBlock, so it's not all bad, but compared to the other best equips it's pretty darn lame. You can buy one in Maranda for 13000 GP. Its other pieces of equipment? It can equip the Magus Rod, which is hands down its best option ever. As far as Helmets go, try to counter its lack of durability in most cases with more HP; if you have a Red Cap, Gogo will like it a lot. If not, just go with what gives the best Defense/Magic Defense (Genji Helmet/Dark Hood). Since it has NO elemental resistances whatsoever this way, and it comes nowhere near pulling off the Force Shld (a Defense rating of 130? Are you insane?), I suggest a Thunder Shld. An Aegis Shld is an acceptable substitute, although it'll lack anything elemental-related with that set-up. As far as Relics go, something to boost its magical damage output would be fine, and something to help it out defensively (Pod Bracelet, Marvel Shoes, hell, even Guard Ring) really helps. What skills to give to Gogo? Let's face it; the thing isn't too hot on the stats. Worst Vigor out of the final bunch (worse than Relm), third-worst Speed, second-worst Magic Power. So, what have we in the end? A utility character, mostly. This makes the Magic skillset excellent for it, as a lot of spells don't depend on your Magic Power to be effective (status spells, ID spells, reviving spells, etc.). Plus, while Magic tends to lack in pure power to other damaging skillsets (which is countered by the high Magic Power of the Magic wielders, mind, and I'm not counting Ultima and all), it does feature the four most common weaknesses (Fire, Ice, Lightning, Pearl) in quite some power, and it's targetable. Gogo makes as adequate a Stealer as Locke. It can equip the Sneak Ring, and only the character's level is used in the Steal chance, so there's no problem there. Gogo will probably never use SwdTech. Not only does it require you to use a blade with the SwdTech ability (probably the Graedus), which means getting rid of the awesome Magus Rod, the ability just plain sucks when you have a free choice in the matter. Tools on Gogo is fairly acceptable. However, now that we can freely choose between skillsets, Drill/Chainsaw is just outclassed by Throw and AutoCrossbow, Flash outclassed by GrandTrain and Air Blade, and we don't get excited over MT poisoning anymore either. What's left in Tools? MT unblockable Muddled from the NoiseBlaster, which is nice enough. Not a top-tier choice in my opinion, but you can work with it. Gogo doesn't make as great a Throw ninja as Shadow, but Throw is just plain awesome. Targetable, very powerful, all elements can be applied, you name it. Great for bosses really, as you don't want to waste too many resources on ST damage. Rage is good on Gogo. Not because of the damage output, as Gau's damage output started to decline a while ago, and just because Gau gained tank abilities in return doesn't mean the 50% usage of a spell most characters can surpass all the time doesn't suck all of a sudden. Flipside, Rage grants Gogo the elemental resistances and status immunities the frail thing so desperately needs. With a large enough Rage library and knowledge over it, you can ditch the Thunder Shld for an Aegis Shld and send him away. Blitz is Gogo's trump card when it comes to damage. Blitz was designed to work well on a character with sub-par Magic Power: Sabin. Now, Gogo has even lower Magic Power that Sabin, but his equipment tends to favor his Magic Power; with the assumed Magus Rod/Tao Robe combo, that's a +12 on Magic Power right there. Bum Rush hurts a LOT, and Air Blade isn't too bad. Lore's eh...multiple status effects from Sour Mouth is great, Big Guard is great, Pearl Wind isn't directly influenced by Gogo's bad stats either, and GrandTrain is pretty darn powerful so even when Gogo's GrandTrain is inferior to Strago's, it still hurts. Yeah, Lore is a good option, although you'll find that most of the weaker Lores (Aero, L? Pearl, CleanSweep) just come out like a wet fart from Gogo. I'm not going to discuss Sketch, Slot, Dance as that's all WoB/early WoR GP Rain skillsets designed to be outclassed by other means of damage output (Jump, Magic, Fixed Dice). They're all bad. Runic, in the end, is too situational to discuss here. In the end, something like this works: Mimic Magic/Rage/Tools Blitz Lore Blitz for ST damage, Lore for MT damage, protection, healing and status ailment setting, Magic for pretty much the same purpose only superior or inferior in some ways, and Mimic if something cool just happened (Sun Flare, something like that). The choice there depends on what you have and what you know. If your surrounding party members know quite a few decent spells, Magic is probably the best one out of the three. If you have the Rages and know your stuff, Rage is the more strategic option. If you lack good spells and never really bothered with Rages, Tools is a nice fallback option. Anyway, this was Gogo. Hope you have fun with the androgynous little bugger. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.66.4 The Steal command regained ********************************** So, we've just gotten the Steal command back. No more crossing fingers with Shadow's Thiefknives, unsupported by Sneak Rings; Gogo can Steal as often as it likes, without inflicting damage, with twice as much success as Shadow ever had thanks to the Sneak Ring it can equip. Here's a list of worthwhile Steal moments you so far lacked the abilities for: Owzer's Mansion: Dahling: rare Moogle suit, common Empty Wild Cat: rare Tabby Suit, common Empty Crusher: rare Empty, common Super Ball SoulDancer: rare Moogle Suit, common Empty Vindr: rare Chocobo Suit, common Empty Daryl's Tomb: Mad Oscar: rare X-Potion, common Empty Zone Eater cave: Covert: rare Tack Star, common Shuriken Ogor: rare Murasame, common Ashura Wart Puck: rare Dried Meat, common Flail Karkass: rare Soul Sabre, common MithrilBlade Woolly: rare Hardened, common Imperial Cave of the Veldt: Toe Cutter: rare Empty, common Poison Rod Cave to the Ancient Castle: Enuo: rare X-Potion, common Empty Mt. Zozo: Scrapper: rare Thief Glove, common Empty Punisher: rare Bone Club, common Rising Sun Borras: rare Muscle Belt, common Potion Ebot's Rock: Hidon: rare Thornlet, common Warp Stone Veldt: White Drgn: rare Pearl Lance, common X-Potion Nightshade: rare Nutkin Suit, common Empty Still Life: rare FakeMustache, common Empty Pm Stalker: rare X-Potion, common Empty Pugs: rare Minerva, common Empty Overworld: Brachosaur: rare Ribbon, common Empty Tyranosaur: rare Imp's Armor, common Empty TumbleWeed: rare Titanium, common Empty Reach Frog: rare Tack Star, common Potion Lizard: rare Drainer, common Empty Peepers: rare Elixir, common Empty Geckorex: rare TortoiseShld, common Empty Spek Tor: rare X-Potion, common Empty EarthGuard: rare Megalixir, common Empty Mantodea: rare Imp Halberd, common Empty Prussian: rare Full Moon, common Empty Muus: rare Magicite, common Empty Of special interest: - The animal suits you can steal in Owzer's Mansion eventually lead to a Genji Armor in the Colosseum, which is pretty much the best armor for Locke, Cyan, Edgar, Setzer, and Shadow. The animal suit here that takes the least time to turn into a Genji Armor is the Moogle Suit from the SoulDancers. You can Control them or set Clear to the entire party to facilitate the process. - Four Ribbons are grand, but be sure to bring Control along for Brachosaur, as you will die if you don't. Once you've Controlled one, you'd better be level 28 as otherwise, you'll never be able to Steal, Sneak Ring or not. You might want to use Vanish/Dischord to increase your chances as Brachosaur's level 77 is pretty difficult to overcome. Vanish/Dischord is still a bug though, so if you think that's yucky, you don't have to. - Be sure to have four pieces of Imp equipment. Best to steal four Titaniums from TumbleWeeds. Since they'll never use magical attacks unless they're alone, you can set Clear on your entire party and steal all four before you start to kill them. - Imp Halberds from Mantodea. If Shadow with the Thiefknives wasn't working for you, you can try again to obtain some of these odd weapons. They're awesome material to Throw as they have a stellar 254 Battle Power, and they turn into Cat Hoods (which turn into Merit Awards) at the Colosseum. Sweet! - Trying to Steal a FakeMustache from Still Life is the only way to having more than one character with the Control command. - Ogor is the source of Pearl Lances and Strato, if you don't have enough of those. Steal until you've found a Murasame, and bet in the Colosseum until you've won the weapon you want. - EarthGuards are the fabled sources of a rare Megalixir, the item that restores HP/MP back to full for the entire party in-battle. However, since EarthGuards have inherent Seizure and only 1 HP, you usually only get to take one shot at it. You can counter this by casting Stop and Slow (Stop first); since the Stop status halts all other interval-based effects, Seizure won't damage EarthGuard so you can have more Steal attempts. Slow just prolongs the moment. Sleep doesn't stop Seizure from taking damage, were you wondering. - Muscle Belts are Relics that increase your HP by 50%. They're great for those characters that fail to deliver on the defensive side (Sabin and Gogo) to increase durability in battle. Sadly, they're a rare Steal from Borras, and he has a normal Potion in the common slot. You'll just have to try a lot, I suppose. Done? You might want to dive into the Colosseum one last time now, or hunt some Rages on the Veldt, I dunno what you feel you've neglected in the past. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.67.1 Phoenix Cave ********************************** Opponents: Uroburos, Phase, Parasoul, Chaos Drgn, Sea Flower, Aquila, Necromancr, Trixter, Red Dragon Container contents: Dragon Horn, Ribbon, Warp Stone x2, Wing Edge Miscellaneous items: Economizer (rare Aquila steal), Strato (guaranteed Red Dragon drop) Lores: Blow Fish, L.4 Flare, L.? Pearl Long, long ago, almost a year, you met a man in the Auction House in Jidoor that talked about a relic that could 'bring back wayward spirits', but he had to admit only in the Imperial capital of Vector a relic like that existed. We haven't met this object of great power yet, but a hidden letter in the painting of Emperor Gestahl mentioned 'the treasure', lying somewhere where the mountains form a star. It's more than likely this is the same item, and it's also possible this is the item Locke has been searching for. We can use all the power we can get, and with Locke still nowhere to be found, it doesn't hurt to join him in his quest. Once we get the relic he's searching for, we may be able to find him. The Phoenix Cave is indeed hidden where the mountains form a star; just north of Tzen, where you found Sabin earlier, a large mountain range has a hole right in the middle, where you can use the 'cancel' button to lower two teams of four characters down into the dungeon. You know, this is the first time that it occurs to me it's probably just a volcano. Square calls it 'Phoenix Cave' and you just stop thinking... Whom to bring? It's kind of a toss-up. On the one hand, the stronger the characters you bring, the easier a time you'll have in this dungeon. And make no mistake, even though it lacks a proper boss battle at the end, this is pretty much the Zozo/Floating Continent of the WoR; you're used to the royal treatment, and all of a sudden the battles heat up and you're in danger again. On the other hand, this is the last dungeon before we dive into the final one, so you'll want to train the ones you've been neglecting so far. I tend to take the eight characters with the lowest level, but you might like to bring the stronger ones and level the weaker ones later. You now have two parties to control; use the Y button to switch between the two. Know that there's no shame in sharing the really great equipment between the two groups; the Offering is a one-of-a-kind Relic you might like on Setzer AND Gau while they're both in another party; the same goes for items like the Red Caps, the Gem Box, the Illumina, and the Paladin Shld (although you should not have them yet). Basic floors: Phase, Phase (5/16) Phase, Parasoul, Necromancr, Necromancr (5/16) Trixter, Trixter, Necromancr (5/16) Aquila, Chaos Drgn, Chaos Drgn (1/16) Lava floors: Trixter, Trixter, Trixter (5/16) Sea Flower, Sea Flower, Sea Flower, Sea Flower, Sea Flower (5/16) Chaos Drgn, Uroburos, Sea Flower, Sea Flower (5/16) Uroburos, Sea Flower, Sea Flower (1/16) Most of the enemies here absorb Fire-elemental attacks and are weak to Ice. Poetic irony that this cave is therefor extra accessible by the one member who wants it the most, Celes Chere? You'll recognize Uroburos from its palette swap Bloompire. Uroburos shares its incredible defenses, but isn't Undead so a Cure spell on them won't work. This time around though, you have plenty of barrier-piercing attacks you can utilize to straight-up murder their asses. Like most enemies in this cave, Uroburos absorbs Fire-elemental attacks, and has a rare Fenix Down to both Steal and find afterwards. Oh yeah, on the offense he uses Bio spells every second turn and !Doom Touch (which sets Zombie) on the fourth. Loop afterwards, obviously. Phase uses Battle and !Smirk, which sets Stop. When alone, it'll start using Blow Fish which deals 1000 damage as always, and whenever it's damaged it'll have a 33 % chance of retorting with Blow Fish too. Try to take them out in a single shot; Ice 2 and Ice 3 spells work like a charm. Parasoul are annoying as they may use their Special !Spin Slice on their first turn, which sets Muddled. Every second turn may feature the Ice-/Water-elemental Flash Rain, which should be absorbed or nullified by a large portion of your characters by now. When alone, it will start to use El Nino on you, which is about twice as powerful. Weak against Ice and vulnerable to ID. Chaos Drgn attacks rarely, but when it does it's probably bad. Most of it's turns are spent doing nothing; the only exceptions are its second turn and its seventh turn, after which it spends another five turns waiting before looping. Its second turn has a 33 % chance of Chaos Drgn using Disaster, an attack that you probably haven't seen; it can be MT'd and sets Dark, Imp, Condemned, Mute, Muddle, and Float. Its second turn has it use !Cinderizer one-third of the time, a Special that sets Death. Sea Flowers are kinda annoying. They often attack in large numbers and have quite a few Hit Points (4200) for cannon fodder. Also, their Special !Feeler sets Poison. Mass Ice- and Lightning-elemental attacks are the way to go; X-Zone also gets the job done very nicely. Aquila is famed for its rare Steal, the Economizer, a Relic which cuts MP usage for EVERY Magic spell and Lore technique down to 1. Trivia: this means it actually raises Reflect??? its MP cost, as it normally takes 0 MP to cast. Anyway, Aquila has mean physicals (!Flap hurts especially bad), absorbs Fire and sometimes uses Cyclonic out of the blue. It may counter damage with a 33 % chance of using a Shimsham attack (which you can have Celes absorb with her Runic blade, just to be on the safe side). Necromancrs, according to Anthology, are unfortunate mortals that have been hit by a !ZombiStick attack. They're like vampires; a spreading plague over the lands. Necromancrs are extremely dangerous, make no mistake about that. Why? They can use !ZombiStick on their very first turn, which obviously sets Zombie. That's annoying enough, but it doesn't stop there. Every time Necromancr is damaged, even if it IS fatal, it may counter with a Demi or Quartr spell on the character that damaged it. Also, when only a single Necromancr is alive, it will drop its normally physical-oriented AI script and randomly cast Doom, X-Zone and Flare spells, which are all bad. Their Flare spells deal around 1000 damage. The way to go at them is Life spells: Necromancers are Undead. Since Life spells don't damage you won't have to worry about the counter-attacks, so as long as you make sure no Necromancr is left alone you shouldn't need to see their wrath in action. Trixters are the only opponents in this volcano that don't absorb Fire. They like to use it, though. They'll normally use Fire 2 spells for the hell of it. If you use Rflect spells, they'll get into all kinds of crazy shenanigans, too. If any of your characters has Reflect status, they'll start casting Cure 2, Rflect and Haste spells on you; if any of them has the Reflect status, they'll start casting Fire, Fire 2 and Fire 3 spells on themselves. Very fun. They have incredibly high Magic Defense, so stick to physical attacks, especially Pearl-elemental ones will be succesful. Let's make the first party you act with Party #1, and the other party, Party #2. Easy enough, right? Let's dive into this volcano! Since most of the 'puzzles' in this dungeon consist out of clever switching between the two parties, I've taken the liberty of including a double hard return every time you switch parties; it's an eyesore in the FAQ, but really helps in my opinion. Note about the spikes in the cavern: they deal 400 damage every time you land or walk on them. They disregard status ailments, so Petrified character may still be hurt by them. Also, the spikes will NEVER kill a character; if a character has 400 HP or less, it'll set the amount of current HP to 1. Party #1: Walk inside of the cave. There are no enemies on the cliff, but there is the crane of the Falcon waiting for you; you can grab it any time you like to return to the Falcon with all characters aboard. Find the pressure tile inside and stand on it; it should open a pathway. When you get off the tile it closes again, so you'll have to stay put. Change to the other party. Party #2: Walk inside, and enter the newly opened door. On the other side, there's spikes to the top-right, a chest to the left and a passage to another pressure tile to the bottom-right. If you try to get the chest, you'll fall down through a gap in the floor onto some spikes, which deliver 400 HP of damage to your entire party. If you did this, you can go around to the bottom, up the stairs and stand on the pressure tile to permanently extend a bridge to the chest, which you can now open for a Wing Edge. Later, you'll be able to do this without taking 400 spike damage. Regardless, you'll want to move your party on top of the pressure tile right above the pressure tile #1 is standing on, and switch to the other party. There are two options here: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Option A, the shorter route which deals out-battle damage to your party: Party #1: Take the party over the spikes. If you're smart, you can minimize the damage to 400 a character (one spike-tile). To the bottom-right, there is a chest containing a Warp Stone; note that the pathway is partially obscured by a rock ceiling. Return, andGo down (ignore the spike-guarded chest (it's empty) and go to the right and up. Stand on the pressure tile there, go back, and trace down the pathway. Go all the way (you'll find an empty chest along the way) and switch. Party #2: Walk over the spikes (they'll deal a total of 1200 damage to your party). Go down the stairway to the left. If you haven't picked up the Wing Edge in the chest, do so now. If you have or if you're done, jump over the newly formed tiles. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Option B, the longer route which doesn't deal out-battle damage to your party: Party #1: Go up until you, not far from your starting point, come across another pressure tile. Stand on it to remove the spikes that were in #2's way earlier. Switch. Party #2: Walk across the disappeared spikes. To your left is a stairway going down; you can use it to enter a lower level, so you can re-appear again to claim your Wing Edge chest on the other end. The other path, a wooden bridge over the lava, is broken off for now, so if you grabbed the Wing Edge earlier, there's no reason to go down here. On the upper level, you'll want to walk to the far right, where you come across a stairway leading to another pressure tile. It removes some spikes in the area #1 is standing in. Switch. Party #1: Finally, some real action with #1! Walk over the disappeared spikes until you come across a stairway. Past the stairway is some more removed-spikes pathway to a chest, but the chest is Empty! You never know, maybe some random scoundrel or even Ziegfried might have emptied these chests, but maybe it was Locke? Regardless, turn back and descend the stairway. On the lower level, there are two paths; ignore the right one for now, as to the left is an (empty) chest and a pressure tile which causes some rocks to rise out of the lava, creating a pathway for #2. Switch. Party #2: Go the left and descend a level. Now, jump over the newly raised rocks to the other side, and again to reach the new area. On the other side, there's a chest with some spikes in front of it. You can bet your life and limbs to open it, but it'll just appear to be empty as the other chest, so don't. Before you enter the narrow passage, notice the pressure tile near the big rock blocking your path to the right. Stand on it, to cause another passageway to open, blocking yours. Switch. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Party #1: There's really no other way to go but down, following the path across the lava. You'll come across another chest, but it'll be empty like the others. Pressing on, enter the passageway #2 created for you. Go around and ignore the path leading over the spikes. Step onto the pressure tile, which restores the passageway to make room for #2. Switch. Party #2: For #2, there's a Save Point to the left, but you'll just want to stand on the pressure tile just there. Party #1: Move up and to the left, over the disappeared spikes. You'll come across a stairway. Go down the stairway to the lower level. A jumping puzzle now! Jump over the rocks to the left, below and to the right. Now, the first jumping option takes you to an empty chest; the other one takes you to a stairway going up again. You'll come across a skeleton switch; flip it to allow all the water from the upper level to flow over the lava, solidifying it so you can walk on it. Going down the little stairway just shows you that you won't be able to go on any further, so switch. Party #2: To the far left, there's another pressure tile. Stand on it to clear the path for #1. Party #1: Don't go all the way down below so far; there's a boss battle here, and you'll want the free option between your two parties. Go up the little stairway, and you'll see three pressure tiles: one up, and two below. You'll want to hit the single one. Switch. Party #2: As soon as you get off the pressure tile, you'll clear your own path to the other side. You can just go one way, which will take you to the solidified lava. You can now get to the unopened chest in the middle, which in a shocking turn of events isn't empty but contains a Ribbon. Go up the stairway that you couldn't get to by jumping over the rocks, and you'll find yourself on the upper level once more. Walk under the ceiling that blocks your view over your characters, and you'll reach a dead end; or not, as #2 created a pathway for you by raising the two rocks. Jump to the other side. Now, occupy one of the two pressure tiles that are right next to each other. Switch. Party #1: Get off the pressure tile and occupy the other pressure tile that's has been left. A pathway will clear. On the other side, you'll find a stairway leading to the exit of this dungeon. Party #1 or #2: Can go fight the roaming dragon here now. I should note that it's keeping itself near a chest here, which contains a Dragon Horn that you might find interesting. Party #2 or #1: Continue down the only path you can follow. Eventually, you'll find the last person you were missing: Locke Cole. And he just reached his life-long ambition too; the lost relic that is able to restore life, the Magicite remains of the Phoenix Esper. The scene switches to the village of Kohlingen. Note that you can return here later if you want to; there will be a red sparkle to the right of the Phoenix Esper chest. This is merely a warp sparkle that you can use to return to the Falcon. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.67.2 The battle with the Red Dragon ********************************** Red Dragon Level: 67, HP: 30000, MP: 1780 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Strato (always) Absorbs: Fire, Weakness: Ice, Water Special: !Eraser: Unblockable Battle + Removes Reflect Sketch : L? Pearl, Fire 3 Control: Battle, !Eraser Vulnerable to: Poison, Muddled, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Eraser, Fire 2, Fire 3, Flare, L.4 Flare, Fire Ball, S. Cross, Flare Star Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: Yes Flare, Fire Ball and S. Cross all screw with the RNG. Fire Ball can be used on the first turn. Ragnarok's Metamorph: Yes 12.5% chance of obtaining one of the following: Crystal Crystal Shld Crystal Helm Crystal Mail The Red Dragon is red, and lives in a volcano. He's a Fire dragon, in other words! You'll be laughing now, I assume; not only have you already spotted his weakness to the Muddled status, the Fire element is the one most easily protected against. The Red Jacket, Ice Shld, Minerva, and Blizzard Orb nullify it, the Flame Shld and Rage Ring absorb it, and if those resources aren't enough, the Force Shld, Thunder Shld, Cat Hood, Snow Muffler, and Force Armor all halve damage done by the element. Yeah, even though the Red Dragon tries to counter this by employing Flare spells and the L.4 Flare attack, he's still fairly easy. Every 40 seconds, Red Dragon will use a particularly powerful attack; either S. Cross, Flare Star, or L.4 Flare. Flare Star still deals Fire-elemental damage based on your level, S. Cross is just a strong MT Fire-elemental attack and L.4 Flare deals non-elemental barrier-piercing damage to every character whose level is divisible by 4. Normally, Red Dragon switches between Fire 2 (66%) and Fire Ball (33%). When he reaches 10240 HP (which is after having absorbed 19760 HP damage), he'll switch to Fire 3 (66%) or a Flare spell (33%). All these spells except for Fire Ball can be Reflected, but that may not be the wisest action to take; every character under the influence of Reflect will be targeted every second turn by !Eraser, from top character to bottom character, just like the living SrBehemoth and his !Evil Claw attack. !Eraser removes the Reflect status, but not when the status is inherent (through Wall Rings or Rage). Like most bosses, the Red Dragon has a 33% Battle counter to every damage he takes. What to do? He has a fairly low amount of MP, and all his dangerous attacks need MP to function. In his less dangerous phase, throw up your barriers (summon Fenrir and/or Golem, Kirin's Life Guard is useful as always, Haste 2, Big Guard, you name it). When you're done, start casting Rasp! You can check if he's out of MP with Scan if you can't keep track yourself. You should have crippled him before his first 40-second attack comes around. Now that Red Dragon is nothing but a big lizard of fire, attack him with attacks. It doesn't really matter, as he's pretty much done by now, but the strongest attacks tend to be Ice-elemental ones; the Ice 3 spell, thrown Blizzard swords (or Water Skeans), the usual Bum Rush and Dragon Horn Jump attacks, whatever works. Note that Tri-Dazer is absorbed, though. You can toy around with Muddled if you want, but it's not necessary. It's possible you figured you'd want Locke ASAP after obtaining the Falcon, grabbing Mog and his Moogle Charm for a no-encounter second party. If so, you came here without any equipment that absorbs Fire. Wall Rings help against Fire 2, but Fire Ball deals around 400 damage to all, and S. Cross deals a whoppin' 2000 damage to all. You can still win, though. Edgar can both Poison (Bio Blaster) and Muddle (Noiseblaster) the Red Dragon. If you keep Red Dragon continusouly occupied chasing its own tail while being crippled by Poison, you won't have to endure any of his attacks. If you can cast the Vanish spell, you can cast on the Red Dragon when he's Muddled; he'll stay Muddled forever, since he won't hit himself. If not, you'll have to keep reapplying. Edgar by his lonesome may not be able to keep up with Red Dragon since it smacks itself out of it every turn with physical attacks. Celes learns Muddle at level 32, and if you have no other characters with the Muddle spell, Stray can help out at least once in a pinch. Good luck! At the end, it's an easy battle. The Strato you get is little to celebrate, as you should be neck-deep in the buggers if you ever had the wish to do so. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.68.1 Locke Cole ********************************** Miscellaneous items: Elixir, Fenix Down, Flame Shld, ValiantKnife, X-Ether, X-Potion (obtained from Locke) Magicite: Phoenix Locke re-enters the party after having finally completed his life-long task and finding it to be a futile effort. However, he barely seems to mind; he's been released, not crushed. With him he brings the remains of the Phoenix Esper, and the treasures of the Phoenix Cave he collected along the way; an X-Potion, a Fenix Down, an X-Ether, an Elixir, a Flame Shld, and Locke's primary source of pride, the ValiantKnife. Note that there were but four empty chests in the Phoenix Cave; the Fenix Down might have been a rare drop from a monster, but we're still left with a mystery item. Bleh, who the hell cares? :P First off, if you haven't yet gotten Gogo by now, this is where the Steal command re-enters your game. If you want to work it, go check out section 4.66.3 to learn what Steal can do for you now. Locke has returned to your team! Defensively, there are few things to say. He has the more or less standard equipment options, which he shares with the likes of Setzer, Cyan, and Shadow. The Genji Armor is his strongest option, which is nicely complemented by the Thunder Shld for elemental resistances. If equipped with the ValiantKnife, the Red Cap is especially nice on Locke, as it indirectly boosts its average damage output with the ValiantKnife. On the offense, there are three weapons worth nothing for Locke: The Sniper. Remember the Hawk Eye from the late WoB? The Sniper is exactly that, only with updated Battle Power to make a stand in the WoR. No stat boosts, but it does hit for 1.5 as much damage 50%, and three times as much damage against Floating targets. The Wing Edge. His strongest normal weapon. Back Row compatible, +7 to both Vigor and Speed (which both matter little), +1 to Stamina, +2 to Magic Power and the Assassin's X-type Instant Death ability. There are two in this game, so you could Genji Glove it up if you want. Nice if you're going out to Steal anyway, but this time Locke CAN dish out damage like other characters, and that's because of the: ValiantKnife. The first noticeable feature of this awesome weapon is the fact it is barrier-piercing. Every strike is stronger than a Pummel or Dispatch attack coming from him. The second feature is even more important; every strike, (max HP - current HP) damage is added to the damage you're doing. In other words, that's what Revenge does; the more hurt Locke is, the more damage he'll do. It's prone to FF VIII Limit Break-fever - let's walk around while we're all busted up so we can do three times as much damage as usual - but it does work. The disadvantage over the other two weapons is the fact it isn't Back Row compatible and doesn't give any stat boosts. So, we're complete! Time to take on Kefka? There are two more things to do here, and we're going to get a few VERY broken items/abilities out of it. Like that, dontcha? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.68.2 Narshe revisited with Locke; Ragnarok and Cursed Shld ********************************** Opponents: Test Rider, Nastidon, Red Wolf Miscellaneous items: Cursed Shld (given to by NPC), Ragnarok (choose the sword when given the choice) Magicite: Ragnarok (choose the rock when given the choice) Welcome to Narshe! Lone Wolf tipped us off earlier; only a true treasure hunter could pick the locks of these houses. When Narshe was abandoned for reasons never explained in the game, the inhabitants were clearly planning to return, as they locked their stores and houses carefully. Meh, those items won't be needed by them when Kefka kills them all, so it's only logical we should be able to take them all. Besides, we need to find the owner of the Weapon Shop anyway; the thief at the bottom of the Fanatics Tower, where we found Strago, told us he was looking for us. Buildings locked include the following: The Inn. Unlocking this building will get you nothing. The Item Shop. Same here; there are neither salesmen nor leftover items here. The Relic Shop. Derelict like a plundered tomb. The Weapon Shop. Go around the counter and descend the stairs. Here, you'll find the owner of the shop. He shows you a piece of Magicite, and offers to forge a weapon out of it. You can choose between the Ragnarok Magicite and the Ragnarok Sword here. For a full comparison between the two, I suggest reading up on them in section 8.10; for a detailed explanation of the powers of the Ragnarok Esper's summon attack, follow [METAMORPH-LINK]. In short: The Esper's summon attack is pretty crappy but does grant access to some rare items you could otherwise get only a very limited amount of, while the Esper also teaches Ultima at a x1 rate, which is the strongest spell in the game. On the other hand, the Ragnarok Sword gives + 7 on all stats except for Speed (where it grants a +3), randomly casts Flare, deals MP-driven constant criticals and gives 30% MBlock. You can bet it at the Colosseum for the Illumina, which gives +7 on all stats, has the same MP-driven criticals ability, randomly casts Pearl with twice the power of a normal Pearl spell (due to the automatic criticals; Flare doesn't get to enjoy a power boost), has Back Row compatibility and gives 50% MBlock. I'd advise the sword unless you're really bent on a 254-item list, as you can learn Ultima in another way. The house above the Relic Shop has been empty throughout the WoB, but now you will find an old man sick in bed. He gives you the Cursed Shld, a possessed shield of awesome power, but useless now due to a curse. It's up to you to break it and unleash its awesome abilities if you're up to the task. The curse is broken when the shield is equipped on a living character other than Gogo for 256 battles. It doesn't matter if the character dies during the battle, as long as he or she is alive at the end of it. Gogo can't uncurse the Cursed Shld as the counter is semi-tied to gaining Magic Points, which Gogo doesn't gain at all. Equipping the Cursed Shld is bad. It makes the equipped character weak to all elements, and LOWERS all stats by 7. Also, it gives the equipper inherent Muddle, Berserk, Seizure, Mute, and Condemned. You wind up with a Berserked character that hits you every turn with a physical and dies after a while. You can either counter these effects with a Ribbon/Relic Ring combo (the Ribbon protects against all but Condemned, and the Relic Ring makes sure you're revived when the counter reaches that final 0), or get it to work to your advantage by equipping the Heal Rod and possibly the Offering for mad healing. There's two little vintage strategies I want to mention here that include the Cursed Shld: One: Relm/Strago/Gogo, Cursed Shld, no Ribbon, Heal Rod, possibly Offering. Every turn, this character will heal random characters. Yeah, it's kinda cute, but the fact it never got an official name such as 'Spinning Right Round Relm' or 'Top Man Strago' or something like 'Whirlwind Wee Girl' kinda should tip you off on the fact that it's not all that useful. Two: This strategy requires the elusive Intangir Rage. Equip the Cursed Shld on Gau or Gogo, as well as the Peace Ring, then Rage Intangir. The Peace Ring will prevent Berserk and Muddle, and the Intangir Rage will make the Cursed Shld bearer absorb all elements, as well as provide protection from the Condemned timer. The Cursed Shld' Mute-inflicing nature will prevent the Intangir Rager from casting Pep Up. The Rager, alongside the elemental and status ailment protection, also gains inherent Safe, Shell, Haste and Clear. Congratulations, you have created a creature that does almost nothing and will never die. Like a pet rock! The Paladin Shld is awesome. It allows the equipped to absorb Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Pearl while nullifying the effects of Earth, Poison, Wind, and Water. In other words, the wearer becomes entirely immune to elemental attacks. Add to that the second-best Defense rating (TortoiseShld on an Imp beats it) and third-best Magic Defense rating (TortoiseShld and Force Shld beat it) and + 40% MBlock and you've got yourselves the ultimate shield right there. The big bonus on top of all this is the fact it teaches Ultima at a x1 rate to the wearer. The quickest way to uncurse the Cursed Shld is fighting battles on Solitary Island. If you want some kind of extra meaning to the hours on the Solitary Island, you can bring Locke, Gogo, and Shadow to try to steal as many Elixirs (and possibly Megalixirs) as possible. If you want to go into the desert, be sure to equip Amulets or Ribbons to protect against EarthGuard's !PoisonTail and Black Drgn's !BonePowder. As far as (the) Ragnarok goes, you should take a look at [RAGNAROK-LINK] if you went with the Esper. If you went with the Sword, you absolutely want to trade it in for the Illumina at the Colosseum; aside from Ragnarok's random Flare being non-elemental and Illumina's random Pearl being Pearl-elemental, there is NO reason to stick to the original sword; - Ragnarok - Illumina Opponent: Didalos Didalos attacks with Battle, Flare, Flare Star, and Blaster. If you equip a Wall Ring and a Safety Bit/Memento Ring, Flare, and Blaster are not a threat anymore; a Flame Shld/Ice Shld or the Minerva bustier takes care of Flare Star and the Fire Wall Didalos sometimes uses to counter Fight attacks with. Battle is all that's left, and that's nothing to worry about. Don't send in Relm; her Sketch attacks will usually make a Quake spell appear, which hurts her as well. Obviously, from now on, I won't be assuming that you have either the Illumina OR the Paladin Shield; choosing the Esper over the Sword is a legitimate choice, and obtaining the Paladin Shld is quite a bit of work. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.68.3 Gau and his father ********************************** This is just a cutscene you're getting nothing out of, but still builds the character of Gau and strengthens the relationship of Gau and Sabin, so it's worth watching. It's kinda funny too. Relatively speaking. You'll want to bring, ideally, Locke and Edgar to accompany Sabin and Gau, as that'll net you the most individual cutscenes. If you brought Sabin to the crazy man in the shack by himself earlier, the following conversation will occur: AGED MAN: Oh, hello again! Yep, you were tops! SABIN: That's why we... AGED MAN: Quick! Fix that chair! Then you can use it to reach the roof. At this point, Sabin leaves the house, the party splits up, and Sabin says: "You don't suppose... Can this be GAU's father?" When you bring both Sabin and Gau to the crazy man, this will happen (with the same conversation preceding it): SABIN: You don't suppose... GAU, could this be your father? GAU: Uooo... SABIN: Come on, GAU. It's true, right? GAU: ...fffatherrr...? SABIN: Yes. This is definitely your father. GAU: ......??? ...GAU's...father?! Oooogauooooo! SABIN: Right!! Let's go tell your father the news! He needs to know you're his son! SABIN: Just a minute... We can't just go there with you looking like this. SABIN: I know! Let's go to Jidoor and give you a make-over! (The gang is now at the Inn in Jidoor. Gau is standing at the table) SABIN: No, GAU! Don't eat with your fingers! GAU: Yaoooo... SABIN: Don't say "Yaoooo" when you mean "Yes!" GAU: Ho! SABIN: ...... (The gang is now at the Item Shop in Jidoor. Everybody's busy) (If you recruited Terra:) TERRA: How do you like these? Wait! What about those? - "Hm...oh well..." TERRA: Did you say something? (Sabin freaks out and hides behind the counter) - "N...no! Nothing..." - ...Uh huh... (Always) CELES: Which is it gonna be? Oh! This is nice...but...Do you think it becomes GAU? - "Well..." CELES: What?! (Sabin freaks out and hides behind the counter) - "...Nothing..." (If you recruited Cyan, and he is not in your active party:) CYAN: What a jaunty hat! - "Not at..." CYAN: Wait a minute! Where's the hat? "......" (Always) (Gau now wears what appears to be some ridiculously bright red suit) SABIN: This is it! (GAU:) Me go to funeral? SABIN: Perfect! Functional yet sporty! Done! "I don't think..." (If Setzer is not in your active party:) SETZER: Phew! Completely lacking in fashion... SETZER: Excuse me, sir. Could you order some clothes like the ones I'm wearing? Impossible! SETZER! How dare you think of sticking him in that kinda getup?! (If both Edgar and Locke are in your active party) (Gau now wears a 3-piece tuxedo Armani'd be proud to weep over) EDGAR: I got it! A tuxedo, silk hat...and... ...a rose in his teeth! LOCKE: I think that's overdoing it just a bit...He should have a bandana on his head! (Gau pretty much now wears what Locke is wearing, admiring the red bandana on his head) EDGAR: What's so great about a bandana? Most of the time I see 'em tied around dogs at the beach! LOCKE: HEY! What do you mean by that? (Locke attacks Edgar, and sounds of punching and eventually the good old cartoonish birds-around-the-head sound the Muddle spell makes) When returning to Gau's father, there's is also another check made. This dialogue can also be accessed outside the Gau-centric cutscene, but there's no other logical time to visit this guy so I wanted to include it here. Whenever you have obtained the Emperor's Letter after talking twice to the portrait in Owzer's Mansion in Jidoor, but before you have recruited Locke, the following dialogue will appear when you talk to the old man: AGED MAN: The repairman, at last! "Uh, no. I was wondering if you knew anything about Emperor Gestahl's map..." AGED MAN: Map...?! Everyone's askin' 'bout that map! Pardon?! AGED MAN: Little while ago, some guy wearin' a bandana asked for the map. So I told him! W...where is it? AGED MAN: It's where the mountains form a star-shape! You should have just come out and asked me. No need to be shy! For the record, this 'map' is never mentioned outside of this cutscene, and neither is there ANY information about why our characters apparantly decide this guy should know something about Gestahl's possessions and he actually does. It's just weird. The rest of the cutscene is as mandatory, as it is sad, so I won't be giving the information away here. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.69.1 The Fanatics Tower and the battle with White Drgn ********************************** Opponents: White Drgn, Magic Urn, L.10 Magic, L.20 Magic, L.30 Magic, L.40 Magic, L.50 Magic, L.60 Magic, L.70 Magic, L.80 Magic, L.90 Magic Container contents: Air Anchor, Force Armor, Gem Box, Genji Shld, Safety Bit, Stunner Miscellaneous items: Crystal Orb (rare MagiMaster steal), Megalixir (guaranteed MagiMaster drop), Pearl Lance (White Drgn drop and rare White Drgn steal), X-Potion (common White Drgn steal) Welcome to the Fanatics Tower! We've probably been here before; if not for some Moogle raiding, we picked up Strago here with Relm earlier. Regardless of the actions you've taken so far, I've mentioned the Fanatics Tower quite a few times so far, always advising you to wait with fighting the final opponent on the very top. Now, it's time for the ultimate showdown of ultimate destiny: we're going to tackle this huge erect symbol of Kefka's manhood. Monster formations: Fanatics Tower inside: L.90 Magic (5/16) L.50 Magic (5/16) Magic Urn, Magic Urn (6/16) Air Anchor room: Magic Urn, Magic Urn (always) Top and fourth tier: L.90 Magic, L.80 Magic (5/16) L.80 Magic, L.80 Magic (5/16) L.90 Magic, L.60 Magic (5/16) Magic Urn, Magic Urn (1/16) Third tier: L.60 Magic, L.30 Magic, L.10 Magic, L.10 Magic (5/16) L.70 Magic, L.70 Magic, L.50 Magic (5/16) L.70 Magic, L.50 Magic, L.40 Magic (5/16) Magic Urn, Magic Urn (1/16) Second tier: L.50 Magic (5/16) L.40 Magic, L.50 Magic, L.60 Magic (5/16) L.30 Magic, L.20 Magic, L.10 Magic (5/16) Magic Urn, Magic Urn (1/16) Bottom tier: L.10 Magic, L.20 Magic (5/16) L.30 Magic, L.30 Magic, L.30 Magic (5/16) L.40 Magic, L.20 Magic, L.20 Magic (5/16) Magic Urn, Magic Urn (1/16) Magic Urn is a kinky enemy. Well...enemy? If it does intend to harm you in the first place, it seems to assume you're undead. The first turn, it'll use either a Remedy item or a Tincture, the second turn a Potion or Elixir, and the third turn a Tincture or an Ether. If any of your characters has Wound set, it'll use a Fenix Down on it (due to a bug, it'll respond to the Reflect status in the PSX versions). If one is Petrified, it'll use a Soft item (due to a bug, it responds to Safe in the PSX versions). After it has used an item, it has a 33% at fleeing the battle using Escape; it'll also sometimes flee when you damage it. With 100 HP, absorption of all elements and status ailment invulnerability, it's difficult to harm the thing without killing it. If you have trouble accepting help or simply want to speed things up, the only way of killing these things is Bserking a character, casting Drain, Meteor, or Ultima or summoning Bahamut, Maduin, Ragnarok, or Palidor. If you smell great Rage potential here, you're absolutely right. L.10 Magic casts level 1 spells every turn, and will counter any damage done to him by either a Slow, Stop, or Haste spell. They're undead, and have the normal Undead weaknesses: Fire and Pearl, while absorbing Poison. Vulnerable to Mute, non-Reflective, Floating. No threat to a Wall Ring party. L.20 Magic casts ID attacks. Demi, Quartr, and Break the first turn, Demi, Quartr, and X-Zone the second turn (loops afterwards). X-Zone is the most dangerous by far. He counters every damage done with either a Rasp, Muddle, or Safe spell. Weak to Poison, vulnerable to ID, Reflective. One of the more dangerous enemies here to a Wall Ring party; make sure you take them out quickly. L.30 Magic casts level 2 spells, and will counter every damage done with either an Imp, Osmose, or Rflect spell. Weak to Poison, absorbs Pearl, non-Reflective. L.40 Magic casts Drain, Break, or Vanish every turn. He will counter your attacks with either Mute or Sleep. Floating, weak to Lightning, absorbs Poison, non-Reflective, vulnerable to Mute. L.50 Magic is your typical undead mage, casting Poison, Bio, and Doom the first turn, and spends the next turn casting either Remedy (33%) or Dispel (66%) on a monster. When damaged, it will retort with either a Bserk, Slow, or Haste 2 spell. Undead, weak to Fire and Pearl, absorb Poison, vulnerable to ID and Mute, non-Reflective. L.60 Magic casts Quake, W Wind, and Pearl. When damaged, he'll cast Osmose, Slow 2, or Regen on a single character. Weak to Fire-elemental spells, absorbs Ice-elemental spells, Floating, vulnerable to ID and Mute. Non-Reflective. L.70 Magic casts the level 3 spells. When damaged, it'll respond with Sleep, Rasp, or Shell. Absorbs Fire, weak to Ice and Water. Reflective, but vulnerable to ID and Mute. L.80 Magic is finally an opponent with some sophistication; she's a lady, after all. She'll cast Cure 2, Remedy, or Haste when a character is Reflective. If that's not the case, but a monster is Reflective, she'll cast level 3 spells on all monsters. If nobody on the battlefield has the Reflect status, she'll just go with Poison or Bio spells. When damaged while characters around have the Reflect status, she'll counter with Cure 3, Cure, or Life 3 (which can't be Reflected...poor confused gal). When damaged while monsters with the Reflect status are around, she'll cast Stop, Dispel, or Pearl on a monster. If she's damaged with NO Reflective targets around, she'll do nothing. Weak to Poison, non-Reflective, vulnerable to ID. L.90 Magic is the strongest random encounter here. The first three turns may feature Flare, Meteor, or Merton. Meteor is the most dangerous of these three, but Merton is especially annoying, as L.90 Magic absorbs Wind. Every fourth turn, the guy can cast a Dispel spell and up to three Flare spells. When damaged, he may counter with Stop, Bolt 3, or Life 3. Reflective, Floating, vulnerable to Stop. So yeah. I've never found much satisfaction in the Fanatics Tower specific kind of challenge, but maybe you're going bananas behind your screen, I dunno. Here's a set of small tables to remind you of the opponents weaknesses: Reflective Undead Floating ID-protected L.10 Magic - Yes Yes - L.20 Magic Yes - - - L.30 Magic - - - - L.40 Magic - - Yes Yes L.50 Magic - Yes - - L.60 Magic - - Yes Yes L.70 Magic Yes - - - L.80 Magic - - - - L.90 Magic Yes - - Yes Mute, Berserk, Stop: L.10 Magic: Mute, Berserk L.20 Magic: L.30 Magic: Berserk L.40 Magic: Mute L.50 Magic: Mute, Stop L.60 Magic: Mute L.70 Magic: Mute, Stop L.80 Magic: L.90 Magic: Berserk, Stop How to handle them: L.10 Magic: a Life spell L.20 Magic: X-Zone or Break spells (bounce off Wall Ring characters) L.30 Magic: Break spells L.40 Magic: Mute L.50 Magic: a Life spell L.60 Magic: Mute L.70 Magic: X-Zone or Break spells (bounce off Wall Ring characters) L.80 Magic: Break spells L.90 Magic: Stop (bounce off Wall Ring characters) On the whole, especially against the weaker opponents, you may just want to go all-out offensive. Spells such as Meteor and Ultima never fail to deliver damage no matter who the opponent is, and since nobody absorb Lightning- elemental attacks, cast Bolt 3 on all four or your Wall Ring characters to hit them. Whom to bring? That really depends. Know that the Fanatics Tower is very special, and that ascending the tower means that you will temporarily lose all your skills except for Magic. Obviously, those with high Magic Power are favored, but much more important is how much you built up your Magic skillset. If somebody knows Ultima, bring him or her along no matter what else he or she has going on; next to that, Meteor, Flare, Bolt 3, Stop, Mute, Life, and curative and restorative spells are pretty much what you'll be wielding, so you'll want to bring those with you. Typically, assuming their Magic skillset is roughly the same, you'll want something like Terra, Celes, Relm, and whoever. If only one or two characters know Ultima, bring Gogo along so it miraculously knows Ultima too. Preparation: Wall Rings are VITAL. You WILL want a Wall Ring on every character. Inherent Reflect status makes climbing the tower much easier, and is a very important factor when fighting the strongest mage this world has to offer, MagiMaster. Also, know that you'll be casting and receiving Magic spells only, so that Battle Power of weapons and Defense rating of equipment is pointless. Equip accordingly. Ribbons are very nice as well, by the way, as a lot of status ailment spells will be coming your way, sometimes reflected off barriers thus penetrating your magic shield of justice and sunlight you call a Wall Ring. Also, make sure you cast Float on the party. A surprise Quake is easily countered but can be equally painful. Notes: At the Fanatics Tower, Fight is turned into Magic and every secondary skill disappears. Item's still there, but that's it. If you send Gogo up there, give it the Fight command as that'll turn into Magic (while its Magic command will be removed). Umaro doesn't suffer a bit from the Fanatics Tower's strange effect, as he will perform normally. When Berserked, characters will just use Fight. On the first part of the stairway, there's a door we can enter. Enter and raid the chest; it contains a Safety Bit. The Safety Bit protects the wearer from Instant Death-magic; it's basically a Memento Ring for everybody. But wait a minute, didn't that thief in Maranda mention how one of his companions mumbled 'to the right of the treasure chest'? The thieves can never have gone too far, so you'd better check it out. Press the action button when standing to the right of the treasure chest. Something rumbles, and when you leave the door another one has appeared below you! When you enter this one, you can find a chest containing an Air Anchor, Edgar's most rare Tool. The Air Anchor does the following. Once an enemy is hit by the Air Anchor, it is allowed one more action, after which it dies. It never misses, unless the target is immune to Instant Death attacks. The Air Anchor also deals damage, which is entirely redundant (as no damage will be done if it misses, and the damage is useless if the target dies the next round anyway). I myself have always liked the Air Anchor because it never fails and you can focus attacks on other opponents while you know the Anchored one has been taken care of; others will claim the Air Anchor is a scrubby Tool that allows for another attack while so many other ID attacks like Doom/Snare/Atom Edge do not. The only battles in the Air Anchor room feature Magic Urn. Not only do they heal you with a multitude of potions, they also Escape on their own after a while. They have a kick-ass Rage (allows Gau to absorb all eight elements regardless of equipment and immunity to all status ailments while casting Cure 3 half the time), so you'll want to meet them at least once. We press on! The door in the second part of the stairway contains a Genji Shield, which is a nice enough shield; third-best Defense in the game (lower than the legendary Paladin Shield and oddball TortoiseShield), respectable Magic Defense and 20% Magic Block added to the wearer. The door in the third part of the stairway contains the Stunner, the most powerful Dirk for Shadow. It has a 25% chance of casting Stop every time a strike is made, but gives nothing in terms of fringe benefits. Famous for Colosseum tactics against the likes of Chupon and Siegfried, both vulnerable to the ailment and very hard to defeat by other means. What the room also features is the White Dragon. [WDRAGON-LINK] White Drgn Level: 71, HP: 18500, MP: 12000 Steal: Pearl Lance (rare), X-Potion (common), Win: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Pearl Special: !Hit: Battle x 1.5 Sketch : Flare, Pearl Control: Battle, Pearl, Pearl, Pearl Vulnerable to: Mute, Slow, Stop Attacks: Pearl, Dispel Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: Yes Of course, the first time you fight him, it's on the Fanatics Tower where Slot is not available. On the Veldt, it's still possible. Pearl screws over the RNG, too, and may be used on the very first turn. Ragnarok's Metamorph: Yes 12.5% chance of obtaining one of the following: Crystal Crystal Shld Crystal Helm Crystal Mail Wow. There is SO little I can say about White Drgn here. He casts up to three Pearl spells every turn. When hit by a Magic spell, he has a 66% chance of countering with a Dispel spell. And that's it. You've seen a palette swap of the guy earlier, honestly, trying to drone on gets kinda embarrassing right now. He casts nothing but spells, and is vulnerable to Mute. That's all there is to it, just cast a Mute spell and you're done. You don't have to bother with Slow, Stop, and all that, just cast Mute and attack the guy with offensive spells. If you're getting low on MP, use Osmose. Try not to swallow anything sharp while playing, it's the only situation I can imagine where a loss is actually possible. If you brought either Locke or Shadow, equip Thiefknives and go for White Drgn's item, as both are nice. If you arrived here with a solo-Mog party, the strategy is only slightly different; since you don't want to take any chances, be sure you're equipped with a Wall Ring. If Mog doesn't know the Mute spell, equip Siren so Mog can summon her for her Hope Song attack. Now that White Drgn is at Mog's mercy, just attack until he's dead. When you're done, you get a Pearl Lance from an event afterwards. This is to make sure you don't get a Pearl Lance every time you see the White Drgn on the Veldt: YES, the cretin appears there! Makes quite a solid Rage too, casting Pearl and ID-protected and all. The door in the fourth and last part of the stairway contains a Force Armor. The Force Armor is a great piece of armor, especially for those characters that have no other interesting pieces to equip (Locke, Cyan, Edgar, Setzer, and Shadow). It doesn't really have that much on Defense (inferior to Crystal Mail), but it's quite good on Magic Defense (only inferior to Genji Armor, rare Snow Muffler, and oddball Imp's Armor), has great elemental advantages (50% Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, and Earth-elemental damage) and an added 30% Magic Block. The Force Armor is inferior to the Minerva in every way except for the MBlock, so don't equip it on the girls; it's a genuine toss-up for the boys, though. The Genji Armor is sturdier in both the Defense and Magic Defense department and gives all-round stat boosts to boot; the Force Armor makes for a more evasive character that is better suited to deal with elemental magical attacks. I prefer the Force Armor for non-specific boss battles and the Genji Armor for random encounters myself, but it's up to you. Welcome to the roof of the Tower, where the 'wondrous' item lies. Enter the little room to find a chest. As soon as you stand in front of the chest, a bit is set; when you leave the room, with or without the contents of the chest (the Gem Box Relic), you're going to be surrounded by members of the Cult of Kefka and a wizard will come for you, so be prepared. The Gem Box (or Soul of Thamasa, as it was called in the Japanese game) turns the Magic command into X-Magic. This means that you can cast TWO spells in one turn. This is obviously great, and best applied to those who rely heavily on their Magic skillset. The only drawback is the fact that you will lose the ability to summon the Esper you have equipped. The Gem Box is totally sweet, and a kind, loving mistress who's not afraid of the leather if you're not, I might add. [MAGIMASTER-LINK] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.69.1 The battle with MagiMaster ********************************** So, we've battled mages from level 10 to level 90; at the very top was Kefka's most treasured item, a gem-covered box containing the very soul of the town of Thamasa, home to 1000 years of Mage Warrior generations. This prized relic greatly enhances magical capabilities, allowing you to prepare two spells simultaneously and casting them in quick succession. The treasure is guarded though, by what may just be Kefka's strongest henchman. The ultimate mage: MagiMaster. Yes, after all the pompous introductions, I suppose we'd better slap him around a little bit until he allows us to leave. MagiMaster Level: 68, HP: 50000, MP: 50000 Steal: Crystal Orb (rare), Elixir (common), Win: Magelixir (always) Special: !Hit: Battle x 1.5 Sketch : Battle, Battle Control: Battle, Ultima Vulnerable to: Berserk Attacks: Fire 2, Ice 2, Bolt 2, Bio, Fire 3, Ice 3, Bolt 3, Doom, Ultima, Mute, WallChange Vanish/Doom: No Immunity to Clear status Joker Doom: Yes/No Do note though that you can NEVER use the Slot command on the Fanatics Tower, so you won't actually be able to spin 7-7-7 in the first place. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No Yesh. First turn, he casts a level two spell. Then, he casts a level 3 spell. Then, he casts TWO level 3 spells. After that, another double cast of two level 3 spells. Another turn after, a single level 3 spell, and his last turn before turning back to the level two spells can consist of Doom, Bio, or Mute. All of this is coming from a spectacular 50 (!!!) Magic Power, which means that you absorb the attack, have the Reflect status, or die a gargantuanesqually painful death. If MagiMaster has the Reflect status himself, he will bounce a level 3 spell off of himself every turn; MagiMaster will never self-apply the status, and there's no reason for you to cast it. You may have noticed that every spell MagiMaster uses is reflectable; and yes, that they are. However, the thing with MagiMaster is that not only is the ULTIMATE mage, he's also fiercely loyal to Kefka. So it's only logical that MagiMaster would be able to cast the strongest spell in the game, Ultima; and he won't let you go before casting it. As soon as you kill the MagiMaster, he will cast Ultima. It will deal between 5400 to 6100 damage to all of your characters, and unless you've overleveled (level 53 with Muscle Belt, 58 with Red Cap, 67 without any HP boosting equipment), that's just going to kill you deader than Grandma's infamous road kill surprise. Let's go through a few situations now: - You're followed the walkthrough, or know Life 3 at the very least: Keep yourself draped in Wall Rings at all times, as it will mean you are invincible. Do NOT attack MagiMaster; as soon as you do this, he will use WallChange, and he will start countering all your attacks with WallChange making him that much harder to take down. He will also counter to his own spells reflected back at him. If you just keep still, he won't start using WallChange, not even under the torment of his own attacks. Cast Life 3 on all your characters, and just wait this one out. Eventually, when MagiMaster has killed himself, he'll cast Ultima, everybody dies and is subsequently revived; you're free to go. - You don't have Life 3: This one's a tricky pony. You can cast Rasp over and over and over again until his 50000 MP are all gone; he won't be able to cast Ultima now. You'll have to keep him alive this way. This is easily done by casting the Bserk spell on MagiMaster while casting Vanish or summoning Phantom to protect yourself. Now, Rasp away. It'll take a very long while. You can check his MP score with the Scan spell. When he has less than 80 MP, you can kill him. There you go. Alternately, you could just damage a lot and summon Palidor; the trick here is to kill MagiMaster with one or more characters in the air. Ultima won't hit them, so you win. If you want to do this, carefully keep track of his HP with Scan; for optimum damage output, you'll want to equip barrier-piercing weapons where possible (Atma Weapon on Terra/Celes/Edgar/Locke, ValiantKnife on Locke, Fixed Dice or Dice on Setzer) to try and circumvent MagiMaster's crazy 250 Defense. - You don't have Rasp...and you don't have Palidor either. Da-amn Tiffany, your personal fetish for self-inflicted torture is your business, but I'd suggest you try to keep the painful situations to a minimum. Of course, it's not that I myself mind but it's just that you're kind of a disgrace to everybody *around* you and quite frankly, I can only take so much before I just leave you and your issues alone to enjoy myself on the beaches of Florida. Eh...yeah. Last chance, honest. Equip a character (Terra, Celes, Edgar) with a Wall Ring, Genji Glove, Rune Edge/Ragnarok/Illumina, and the Soul Sabre. The MP-critical weapon in the Right Hand, the MP draining weapon in the Left Hand. Now, cast Bserk on MagiMaster, Clear on your party, and Bserk and Haste on your magical weapon character. Every turn, he or she will attack and deal (12...19) MP damage. If you're setting this up so you can go do something else in the meantime (I trust you have taken a liking to your sanity?), Bserk a Heal Rod character to make sure MagiMaster doesn't die from the physical blows. Honestly, this is going to take AGES. - You don't have that either? Why in God's name did you see it fit to come up here anyway? I suppose pulling the power on your SNES right before MagiMaster casts Ultima stops him from using it. If you're reading this and hope for yet another strategy as this is the situation you're in, I somehow don't think you thought your cunning plan all the way through. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.70.1 End-game character evaluation ********************************** So, I'll be discussing characters here as they perform at this point, just to give you some comparison. I won't be advising Illumina or Paladin Shld, as I can't expect you to have it. Most Relic slots will be left empty if no Relics are vital to the set-ups we're going for (DragoonBoots/Dragon Horn and all that are mentioned, as is Rage Ring on Umaro, as not equipping it is folly). As far as the Illumina goes, you'll want to give it to Locke, as the girls really don't need it, and Edgar has enough damage potential too. The Paladin Shld is best given to a character that otherwise needs Thunder Shlds to gain elemental advantages; characters such as Strago, Gogo, and Sabin come to mind (especially because they really enjoy the defensive increases). A note about the Genji Helmets here. Genji Helmets are often the best helmets you can land on a character, yet they are rare. End-game, you have two Red Caps, a Coronet, a Regal Crown in your inventory; all can be turned into a Genji Helmet at the Colosseum (Red Cap - Coronet - Regal Crown - Genji Helmet). Red Caps are superior to Genji Helmets in my opinion, the Coronet is usable in an NMG and the Regal Crown is plain garbage in the end. You can have up to five Genji Helmets in the end, but you'll probably want to end up with two or three. In the suggestions I list, I list five character with a Genji Helmet, as well as two with a Red Cap. This isn't possible per se. However, you can switch the Genji Helmets between groups, and with the party recommendation I give it's entirely possible. In the final battle, hey, you can't. Circlets are the best back-up helmets. Gau is the only one who has specific use for a Genji Helmet, since disregarding oddities such as the Paladin Shield, Thornlet and Merit Award Crystal Helmet, he needs it to reach 255 Defense. Terra Terra (alternate 128% MBlock set-up) Enhancer Enhancer Aegis Shld Force Shld Mystery Veil Mystery Veil Minerva Force Armor - White Cape - White Cape Vigor: 32 Vigor: 31 Speed: 36 Speed: 34 Stamina: 29 Stamina: 28 Mag. Pwr: 53 Mag. Pwr: 49 Bat. Pwr: 147 Bat. Pwr: 147 Defense: 200 Defense: 145 Mag. Defense: 180 Mag. Defense: 206 MBlock%: 87 MBlock%: 137 Absorbs: Absorbs: Nullifies: Fire, Ice, Nullifies: Lightning, Wind Resists: Poison, Pearl, Earth, Resists: Fire, Bolt, Ice, Wind, Earth Water Terra kicks all kinds of ass late-game; she gets to wield all the best equips out there; I won't count on the Illumina, but I *will* count on the Minerva armor. Late-game Terra nullifies four elements and takes 50% from the other four. Her main point of offense is her Magic skillset, obviously, meaning that she can fling the four of the most popular elements to be weak against - Fire, Ice, Lightning, Pearl - with considerable force. A level 3 spell coming from Terra is going to leave a mark coming from her horribly bloated Magic Power, and her MBlock% isn't too bad either. Her alternate set-up is shooting for > 128% MBlock. Her Defense suffers greatly but with only Red Dragon's !Eraser, SrBehemoth's !Evil Claw, Doom's !Demon Rage, and Tentacle being able to hit you in the first place, that's of minor concern. Doesn't hog Illumina or Paladin Shld either, so that's a bonus. Locke ValiantKnife Thunder Shld Genji Helmet Genji Armor Muscle Belt - Vigor: 42 Speed: 43 Stamina: 33 Mag. Pwr: 31 Bat. Pwr: 159 Defense: 215 Mag. Defense: 169 MBlock%: 12 Absorbs: Thunder Nullifies: Wind Resists: Fire, Ice Pretty much the only remarkable feature of this set-up is the fact it includes the Muscle Belt. Locke lacks any real awesome armor (in fact, he's pretty much the schoolbook average Defensive character), so the Muscle Belt doesn't hurt to boost him there. In addition, the more HP Locke has to lose, the more power he can channel into that blue blade of happiness he carries around, the ValiantKnife. Nothing much else to say, really; Locke can really enjoy the Offering if you're looking for that other Relic to accompany the Muscle Belt. Note that Red Cap doesn't stack with the Muscle Belt when it comes to HP boosts. Locke's primary concern is his complete and utter lack of MBlock%, which doesn't quite fit an agile thief such as our Byronian hero, but this is his best shot. Cyan Scimitar Aegis Shld Genji Helmet Genji Armor - - Vigor: 45 Speed: 31 Stamina: 35 Mag. Pwr: 28 Bat. Pwr: 233 Defense: 220 Mag. Defense: 190 MBlock%: 41 Absorbs: Nullifies: Resists: I don't really like this set-up, but then again, I don't really like anything on Cyan (or should be something exceedingly heavy and/or spikey, heh). It's as good as it's going to get, though. Defense, Magice Defense and Mblock are all normal. The only point of debate is the weapon of Cyan. Some claim that since Dispatch outdamages the Fight command at all times, you should only consider using a weapon that has an added effect, be it either Scimitar's 25 % slice effect or Tempest's 50 % Wind Slash attack. If slicing is any kind of option I find a Doom spell far and away superior, and Wind Slash? A 48 Base Power magical attack coming from CYAN? Nay, while the above philosophy is actually sported by some respected peers, I find that Fight's targetable nature is often more useful than Wind Slash or random ID, so stick with your strongest weapon, also when you should find the more powerful yet featureless Sky Render in the near future. Shadow Thiefknife Thundr Shld Genji Helmet Genji Armor - - Vigor: 44 Speed: 44 Stamina: 32 Mag. Pwr: 36 Bat. Pwr: 111 Defense: 216 Mag. Defense: 171 MBlock%: 29 Absorbs: Lightning Nullifies: Wind Resists: Fire, Ice What can I say about Shadow here? Apart from his weapon, his defenses are entirely standard. You'd expect something more evasive and less durable for a Ninja, I'm sure, but this is what the game gives us. You can take Shadow any ol' way you like; give him two Earrings and watch his magical Skeans perform decently; give him a Hero Ring and a Hyper Wrist (due to Throw, actually fairly effective) and watch feable Shuriken clean house; pass on both Force Armor and Force Shld to make for that mad-dodging-Ninja you might think would fit him, I don't really care. Shadow has, as is befitting of a true cold-hearted warrior, no actual weaknesses to defend or extreme strengths to exploit, so have a field day with him. Edgar Pearl Lance Force Shld Genji Helmet Genji Armor DragoonBoots Dragon Horn Vigor: 59 Speed: 30 Stamina: 34 Mag. Pwr: 32 Bat. Pwr: 214 Defense: 176 Mag. Defense: 210 MBlock%: 51 Absorbs: Nullifies: Resists: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Earth, Water Canon Hiryuu Dragoon Edgar, I'd say. Obviously there's always the choice which (if any) piece of Genji equipment is replaced by an item that grants elemental properties. I liked this one the best, as it gives Edgar superior Magic Defense (honestly, 210 is really good), and while his Defense is lacking here, his status as Dragoon makes sure he will take far less physical hits than other characters anyway. Inherent Shell coming from the shield is nice icing on the proverbial cake, and 51% MBlock is plain solid. Edgar is mainly working his Jump attacks here, which means he's pretty limited to rather uncontrollable and random Pearl-elemental damage, but he's very good at it. The only non-Magic skills Edgar may still use are NoiseBlaster and Air Anchor (possibly Drill if you want to go for a sure and quick kill when you know the enemy is weakened enough). Sabin Sabin (Merit Award set-up) Tiger Fangs Enhancer Genji Shld Genji Shld Red Cap Circlet Red Jacket Genji Armor - Merit Award - - Vigor: 59 Vigor: 54 Speed: 44 Speed: 41 Stamina: 47 Stamina: 44 Mag. Pwr: 32 Mag. Pwr: 42 Bat. Pwr: 241 Bat. Pwr: 161 Defense: 209 Defense: 222 Mag. Defense: 143 Mag. Defense: 170 MBlock%: 24 MBlock%: 44 Absorbs: Absorbs: Nullifies: Fire Nullifies: Resists: Resists: Yes, with the Red Jacket as your ultimate armor, you can't expect to be very well suited to take hits, and with a grotesquely low Magic Defense as 143 that quickly becomes apparent. It was a toss-up for me between Thunder Shld and Genji Shld; Sabin could use the elemental properties, sure, but switching means that Sabin's Mag. Defense lowers to 121, which is just plain unacceptable. Since in this game extra Defense matters more if you have high Defense in the first place, Sabin will like the Red Cap better than the Genji Helmet's superior defenses. Defense is more or less okay-ish, slightly lower than most characters. Horrid MBlock too. On the offense, Sabin is basically a two-trick pony; Air Blade for MT damage and Bum Rush for ST damage. Unless you know it'll do the trick or you have a good follow-up move, Air Blade is pretty obsolete in the final dungeon; you want to kill or disable, not randomly throw damage around (it ain't Seiken Densetsu III, folks). Once again, Sabin relies on his Magic Power, so stick at least one Hero Ring/Earrings on him (he will also like defensive Relics such as Pod Bracelet and Marvel Shoes. Muscle Belt works, in which case you should swap the Red Cap for a Genji Helmet). On the alternate set-up: some players frown upon the Merit Award, but I feel it will help Sabin greatly in the final parts of this game. At the loss of a single Relic slot and Fire nullifying, Sabin gains here + 10 Magic Power, 13 Defense, 27 Magic Defense, and 20% MBlock. I say Sabin wins here. Replace Enhancer with Magus Rod where possible for 10% extra MBlock and 33 extra Battle Power. Celes Celes (alternate 128% MBlock set-up) Enhancer Enhancer Aegis Shld Force Shld Mystery Veil Mystery Veil Minerva Force Armor - White Cape - - Vigor: 35 Vigor: 34 Speed: 37 Speed: 35 Stamina: 32 Stamina: 31 Mag. Pwr: 50 Mag. Pwr: 46 Bat. Pwr: 151 Bat. Pwr: 151 Defense: 202 Defense: 142 Mag. Defense: 178 Mag. Defense: 199 MBlock%: 89 MBlock%: 129 Absorbs: Absorbs: Nullifies: Fire, Ice, Nullifies: Lightning, Wind Resists: Poison, Pearl, Earth, Resists: Fire, Bolt, Ice, Wind, Earth Water Celes is entirely like Terra with some very, very subtle stat differences and one major one; Celes has 2 extra inherent Mblock, which means that she needs 10 coming from equipment to reach that perfect 128. This, again, means that Celes can pull off Terra's road to perfect evasion while still making room for a Relic. That's good! Relm Relm (alternate 128 MBlock% set-up) Magus Rod Magus Rod Genji Shld Force Shld Cat Hood Cat Hood BehemothSuit Tao Robe - White Cape - White Cape Vigor: 32 Vigor: 26 Speed: 42 Speed: 36 Stamina: 28 Stamina: 22 Mag. Pwr: 61 Mag. Pwr: 60 Bat. Pwr: 179 Bat. Pwr: 179 Defense: 216 Defense: 146 Mag. Defense: 186 Mag. Defense: 193 MBlock%: 69 MBlock%: 129 Absorbs: Absorbs: Nullifies: Nullifies: Resists: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Resists: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, Pearl, Wind, Pearl, Earth Earth 61 fricking Magic Power! Yeah, Relm is a PURE Mage end-game. Sketch sucks beyond all human comprehension, and her physicals are nothing compared to her magical damage output. On the main set-up, her element protection comes from the Cat Hood, meaning she won't actually absorb or nullify anything, which is a darn shame - she will still take less damage than most characters, however. On the alternate set-up: a perfect MBlock% set-up. The good thing here is that she only needs ONE item you may want on another character to get there; everything else is either store-bought or pretty much Relm-focused anyway. Great Magic Power still, and her elemental resistances don't suffer either. A far greater set-up than the 'basic' one if you have the goods to spare. Strago Magus Rod Thunder Shld Circlet BehemothSuit - - Vigor: 36 Speed: 32 Stamina: 28 Mag. Pwr: 51 Bat. Pwr: 178 Defense: 195 Mag. Defense: 147 MBlock%: 47 Absorbs: Lightning Nullifies: Wind Resists: Fire, Ice Yes, as you can see, late-game Strago's Magic Power doesn't differ much from Terra's, even though the old man's less magically adept than the moody shapeshiftress ever was; you can thank the Magic-boosting equips for that. Strago is inferior to Terra in his role as Magic wielder, but where Terra has Morph, Strago has Lore. This is only partially useful late-game; Big Guard, Pearl Wind to heal through Wall Rings and Runic, and GrandTrain if Strago is Ultima-less. I'd say in the end, Strago isn't the hottest mage around, but since his Lores do add a certain degree of extra flexibility that Terra lacks, even though it's mostly on paper, Strago isn't completely outclassed. Pretty bad Magic Defense though, especially considering Strago is a mage himself. Setzer Setzer (Imp set-up) Fixed Dice Fixed Dice Genji Shld TortoiseShld Genji Helmet Titanium Force Armor Imp's Armor Offering Offering - - Vigor: 36 Vigor: 36 Speed: 32 Speed: 32 Stamina: 32 Stamina: 32 Mag. Pwr: 29 Mag. Pwr: 29 Bat. Pwr: 19 Bat. Pwr: 19 Defense: 207 Defense: 255 Mag. Defense: 182 Mag. Defense: 234 MBlock%: 51 MBlock%: 31 Absorbs: Absorbs: Water Nullifies: Nullifies: Resists: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Resists: Wind, Earth Right. I had a hard time deciding between Thunder Shld/Genji Armor and Genji Shld/Force Armor; the first one has great Defense and handles Lightning- and Wind-elemental attacks better, this one resists more elements and has a higher Magic Defense. Since magical attacks tend to be more dangerous end-game, this won the fair-day goose. Solid Defense, solid Magic Defense, pretty much standard MBlock, and the Fixed Dice. Setzer will be throwing the Fixed Dice for damage. That means that he's entirely random, especially when paired with the Offering, as you can't target specific enemies either that way. On the alternate set-up: Yes, this will need you to have the Imp status set. Perfect Defense, stunning Magic Defense, Setzer will just be a lot harder to take down. His bane here is status ailments, as 31% MBlock isn't that high, and since you need Imp, you can't equip a Ribbon. He'll lose his Magic skillset too, so unless you have three other characters with decent Magic skillsets, the tradeoff might not be worth it. Mog Pearl Lance Genji Shld Circlet Snow Muffler DragoonBoots Dragon Horn Vigor: 31 Speed: 37 Stamina: 29 Mag. Pwr: 42 Bat. Pwr: 210 Defense: 255 Mag. Defense: 195 MBlock%: 42 Absorbs: Ice Nullifies: Resists: Fire The reason I'm going with this set-up is simply the fact that gosh-golly Colonel Sanders, I'm afraid we're running out of Genji Helmets. This isn't much of a concern to Mog, though. This is his Dragoon set-up, and it's pretty much his only choice, as the little guy doesn't have the equipment to back him up as a great mage. Perfect Defense, great Magic Defense, very acceptable Magic Power should you want to sneak in a spell or like to see a Pearl spell employed on that ever-precious final Jump attack. A tad scrawny on the 'elemental protection' category, but with nigh-200 Magic Defense, it's not that bad. Gau Gau (Wind God set-up) - Tempest Thunder Shld Genji Shld Genji Helmet Crystal Helm Snow Muffler Snow Muffler White Cape Merit Award - Offering Vigor: 44 Vigor: 44 Speed: 38 Speed: 38 Stamina: 36 Stamina: 36 Mag. Pwr: 34 Mag. Pwr: 34 Bat. Pwr: 109 Bat. Pwr: 200 Defense: 255 Defense: 255 Mag. Defense: 195 Mag. Defense: 193 MBlock%: 48 MBlock%: 48 Absorbs: Ice, Lightning Absorbs: Ice Nullifies: Wind Nullifies: Resists: Fire Resists: Fire In my opinion the Thunder Shld/White Cape combo is superior to Genji Shld/ whatever Relic you want for a 255 Defense set-up; he's better with the elements and gains immunity to two nasty status ailments. Genji Shld gives more Magic Defense though. If you're REALLY into Rages, Genji Shld is superior, as you don't need the shield's elemental properties since you know how to self-apply them at every turn. Anyway, this set-up turns Gau into a tank; 255 Defense means immunity to physical damage that's not barrier-piercing, and 195 Magic Defense is very high as well. Very nice elemental attributes too, and standard amounts of MBlock. On the offense, Gau really doesn't have a lot to offer anymore; Rages tend to be inferior to Magic by now, so he'll just be casting spells with far less power than characters such as Celes and Relm. Gau shines on the defensive side, though. On the alternative set-up: Wind God! Rage Stray Cat; you'll have a 25% chance of a 200 power Wind-elemental physical, 25% chance of a 48 power Wind Slash attack, 25% chance of a 800 power Wind-elemental physical (Catscratch), and 25% chance of a 198 power Wind Slash attack, which is comparable to Crusader's Purifer attack without it hitting you. With the offering, you'll have FOUR hits, each sporting the above odds. The physicals will be halved in damage, but the Wind Slash attacks will not be. The Wind God is very, extremely, obscenely strong and needs to be taken advantage of. I picked a Crystal Helm for his head since you may want to save the Genji Helmets for other people, and giving one to Gau really doesn't open up any other options concerning 255 Defense. Gogo Magus Rod Thunder Shld Red Cap Tao Robe - - Vigor: 29 Speed: 33 Stamina: 22 Mag. Pwr: 38 Bat. Pwr: 181 Defense: 174 Mag. Defense: 120 MBlock%: 56 Absorbs: Lightning Nullifies: Wind Resists: Fire, Ice Yeah, Gogo does NOT take hits very well. The Genji Helmet over the Red Cap would have helped its defenses somewhat, but the 25% HP boost will help Gogo better in the long run. Thunder Shlds elemental resistances really help Gogo's survivability, but it's best to stick a protective Relic on it nonetheless; if you go with Muscle Belt, swap the Red Cap for a Genji Helmet. For the offense, Gogo should totally go with Throw on bosses and Bum Rush on randoms. Umaro Bone Club Snow Muffler Rage Ring - Vigor: 62 Speed: 33 Stamina: 46 Mag. Pwr: 37 Bat. Pwr: 198 Defense: 217 Mag. Defense: 158 MBlock%: 15 Absorbs: Fire, Ice Nullifies: Lightning Resists: Yes, Umaro's stats are pretty good, but it's a shame that we can't really take advantage of them. Umaro's Defense is above average, but the flip side of the coin is that you'll want him in the Front Row to deal better damage with his Fight attacks. Magic Defense is obviously sub-par; better than the likes of Gogo and Sabin (and even Strago), but still sub-par. Absorbing or nullifying the three basic elements is great, but on the offense, Umaro is both strategically unfit AND too weak to still make a good party member, even with the previously named advantages. Umaro is still superior to Magic-less Relms or poorly raised Gaus, though. So, that's my say on the characters at the final stage. I'm sure your undying love for everything Sabin might make you want to disagree with me, but I think this is a fairly solid objective view on the task at hand. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.71.1 Kefka's Tower: Preparation and explanation ********************************** Right. When you're fully prepared to tackle the final dungeon, you can fly over there. What does 'fully prepared' mean? Well, the following are nice additions to your party: - Make sure you have good equipment on everybody. Crystal Mail and Mithril Shlds are unacceptable. - Fenix Downs are great. Not every character may know a Life spell, and you will want to respond ASAP to fallen allies. - You should have more GP than you'll know what to do with. Buy some ThunderBlades, Blizzards and Flame Sabres in the Albrook Weapon Shop. They make great ammunition for Shadow and Gogo against the many bosses you'll be fighting. - Speaking of GP, do you remember L? Pearl? NO enemy in Kefka's Tower will ever drop an amount of GP that's not divisible by 10. This means that when you set the last digit of your GP stack to 1, you'll gain an MT Pearl-elemental attack that's as powerful as a MT'd level 3 spell. The easiest way of reaching #######1 GP is by obtaining and selling Magicite shards, which sell for 1 GP a piece. Team recommendations: #1 #2 #3 (Gold Drgn) (Skull Drgn) (Atma) (Inferno) -------------------------------------------------------(switch decision) (Doom) (Goddess) (Guardian) (Poltrgeist) Celes Terra Edgar Locke Setzer Sabin Strago Relm Cyan / Gogo Mog Shadow Gau / Gogo Here's a quick rundown on what the three parties will face. Half-way there's a switch for party #1. Going left or right affects the paths of all three parties, so I'm giving both scenarios here. #1 will know the most random encounters in the first part of the dungeon, but doesn't face any bosses before the left/right choice. If #1 goes left, these will have to face off against Doom and Atma; if #1 goes to the right, they'll have to face Goddess. #2 will meet Atma and the Gold Drgn. If #1 goes to the left, #2 will also face Goddess; if #1 goes to the right, these will face off against Guardian and Poltrgeist. #3 will have to defeat Inferno and the Skull Drgn in their travels. If #1 goes left, these will have to face Guardian and Poltrgeist; if #1 go to the right, they'll come across Doom. Party #1 will fight the most random encounters, but won't fight any bosses. I'd say the #3 party sees the toughest road ahead of it; Inferno is one of those Number 128/Air Force-esque "One Main Man And Two Parasitic Lackeys" bosses which tend to take a lot out of the party. This walkthrough has Party #1 go to the left. This is the best overall formation I could come up with. Why is that? Let's take a look at my genius: Edgar, Terra, and Celes are all on different teams. There will always be a spot on each of the teams to use the amazing Illumina. You decide if you want it on Celes or Locke in their team, though. Locke, Setzer, and Gau are the characters that will benefit the most from the unique Relic that is the Offering; this way, none of them will ever have to go without it as you can switch it around. Without giving too many spoilers, the teams are somewhat based on the bosses they'll face. Strago should be around for Doom, since that battle is the only battle in the game he can learn a certain Lore. Doom also has a great item for you to Steal, the finite item Safety Bit, so Locke is there to take it. Obviously, you could swap out Locke for Gogo. The Goddess fight is easier with ID Protection applied, and sending the two Memento Ring wearers to fight her makes life easier. Sending Gogo into party #3 is a good idea, since Guardian has a good Force Armor for you to take if you have a thief. The above is assuming you want to take all twelve 'character' characters with you, and not the hidden characters that can't equip Espers. Based on your style of play, it is possible you have a very weak character in Gau, and Cyan just plain isn't that great. Swapping either one of them out for Gogo is a good idea. I don't advise on Umaro in this walkthrough. All done? Ready. Set. Go. "It shinnied up like a monkey on a stick - and suddenly its face was pressed against the tough plastic sheet Will Hanlon had put over each of the pages in his book. Beverly screamed again and this time Eddie joined her, although his scream was faint and blue-breathless. The plastic bulged out - later they would all agree they saw it. Bill saw the bulb of the clown's red nose flatten, the way your nose will flatten when you press it against a windowpane. 'Kill you all!' The clown was laughing and screaming. 'Try to stop me and I'll kill you all! Drive you crazy and them kill you all! You can't stop me! I'm the Gingerbread Man! I'm the Teenage Werewolf!'" - King, Stephen (1986) It -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.71.2 Kefka's Tower: Reconnaissance ********************************** Opponents: Retainer, Dark Force, Steroidite, Doom Drgn, Mover, Madam, Vectaur, Brontaur, Land Worm, Scullion, Evil Oscar, Outsider, Hemophyte, Dueller, GtBehemoth, Vectagoyle, Fortis, Junk, Innoc, Didalos, Veteran, Sky Base, IronHitman, Prometeus, Inferno, Rough, Striker, Gold Drgn, Skull Drgn, Guardian, Doom, Goddess, Poltrgeist Container contents: Aegis Shld, Coronet, Fixed Dice, Force Armor x2, Force Shld, Guantlet, Hero Ring, Megalixir, Minerva, Nutkin Suit, Rainbow Brsh, Red Cap, Ribbon, Tack Star Miscellaneous items: Air Anchor (rare Scullion steal), Aura (rare Retainer steal), Aura Lance (guaranteed Poltrgeist drop), Break Blade (rare Outsider steal), Chainsaw (rare Dueller steal), Crystal Orb (guaranteed Gold Drgn drop and rare Atma steal), Drainer (common Atma steal), Excalibur (guaranteed Goddess drop), Flame Shld (rare Rough steal and rare Striker steal), Force Armor (common Guardian steal), Ice Shld (rare Inferno steal), Minerva (rare Goddess steal), Muscle Belt (guaranteed Skull Drgn drop), Sky Render (guaranteed Doom drop), Pod Bracelet (rare Doom Drgn steal), Red Jacket (rare Poltrgeist steal), Ribbon (rare Guardian steal), Safety Bit (rare Doom steal), Tack Star (rare Hemophyte steal), Thunder Shld (rare Steroidite steal), Tiger Fangs (rare GtBehemoth steal) Lores: Condemned, Roulette, CleanSweep, Aero, Blow Fish, Big Guard, Revenge, Pearl Wind, L.5 Doom, L.4 Flare, L.3 Muddle, Reflect???, L? Pearl, Step Mine, Dischord, Sour Mouth, Pep Up, Rippler, Quasar, Exploder Magicite: Crusader Since Kefka's Tower is so incredibly large and knows such an incredible variety in monster formations, monsters and areas, I'm going to lay the monsters down for you when you reach a room where you start meeting them, okay? ******************************************************************************** Start with Party 1 You'll start with Party #1, the left-most party. You can walk a nice distance into the dungeon, but you'll have to open the path of Party #1 up with both Party #2 and Party #3 at one point. Since equipment swapping is tedious, I'd rather complete its travels in one go. Stay where you are and switch to your friends in the middle. ******************************************************************************** Switch to Party 2 Kefka's Tower (garbage slopes): GtBehemoth, Evil Oscar, Vectaur (6/16) Vectaur, Vectaur, Vectaur, Vectaur (5/16) Brontaur, Evil Oscar (5/16) Ri-hi-hight, let's get this baby cracking. Naturally, since you're in the final dungeon and all, you're assuming that these cretins are going to be very, very tough on you. You're kinda semi-right. They can be mean if you let them, but as that went for quite a few other monsters out there there's nothing to really worry about. Since the How-to-Blitz topics have been at a steady 472.3 to 1 rate to the How-to-defeat-Kefka topics, I've always known that idiots tend to get filtered out early, so you're capable and all. Let's discuss, man to man. Warning: this chapter has a lot of monster descriptions because there are so many of them, and they're so interesting. Vectaur is short for 'Vector Dinosaur' or something mind-numbingly unoriginal like that. They like to attack physically (this includes !Tusk, which is just a tad stronger than Battle) and use Fire Ball. They're weak to Ice-elemental attacks like all lizards, but also to Water, so a CleanSweep attack isn't a half-bad idea if you like using obscure attacks to hit elemental weaknesses. They're immune to ID attacks, and you can Sketch (75%) and Control them for Pearl Wind attacks, which may help you. Evil Oscar is spunky and nasty. These nasty plants attack physically only under normal circumstances. When hit by a Magic spell they have a 1/3 chance of attacking with a !Demon Kiss attack, which sets Death. When alone, they will use Sour Mouth, like their tomb-dwelling Mad brethren. They absorb every element but the Fire element, to which they are weak like good little plants. They are vulnerable to every status ailment too, including Death, so use that to your advantage. Note that while Magic is usually a big no-no versus these guys, they will do nothing once they are dead, so FATAL Magic spells yield no counters. If you're sure you're going to do more than 7000 HP of damage or just cast Break, Doom, or X-Zone, there's nothing to worry about. GtBehemoths like to think of themselves as bigger, better versions of Behemoths, but in reality they really, truly are. They attack physically and with the Meteor spell (shaves off about 1500 HP, which is quite painful) and counter any damage done by !Hay Maker (Battle * 4). They're weak to Ice like normal Behemoths, but they have ID protection, which certainly makes their omni-counter all the more annoying. Thankfully, they are vulnerable to Sleep and Stop. It's a good idea to set one of them before attacking as !Hay Maker hurts. I should add a final note about the fact you can't run from them. Oh yeah, and you can steal rare Tiger Fangs from them. Tiger Fangs are fairly pointless on Sabin by this point, especially if you already have one, but you might appreciate the novelty behind having more than one. If your one of those Sabin + Genji Glove + Offering + dual Tiger Fangs crazies, be my guest. And stop reading. You have learned nothing. Party #2 starts out in front of a broken conveyer belt. Go down and enter the door. Use ID attacks on the Evil Oscars and Stop on the GtBehemohts. When you enter the door, you'll enter a cave. You're now in a CAVE made out of garbage. Boy, talk about messed up feng shui! Mog's home dance here is the Dusk Requiem. Kefka's Tower (garbage caves party #2): Brontaur, Brontaur (10/16) Evil Oscar, Evil Oscar, Evil Oscar (6/16) Brontaur has always kinda stood out for me, as it's the opponent most prone to ID attacks while being immune to ID attacks, if that makes sense. It's one of the strongest monsters susceptible to the Dread attack coming from a Deep Eye Rage, and the Ragnarok Esper has a nigh-100% Hit Rate too. For a dinosaur, it sure knows some funky attacks; it borrowed Lifeshaver from those blasted flying skeletons and is also able to produce the Atomic Ray attacks usually found on machines; Atomic Ray is probably something breath-related or whatever. Their Special, !Wail, is very powerful too. The Imp status really cripples them, as does the Stop status. Weak to Ice, as logic would imply. There's a chest smacked in a random corner, containing a Minerva armor. All the conveyer belts here are broken. You'll come across two doors now; one is more or less hidden, but both are indicated by the signs hanging over the doors. The one to the top will get you to a Tack Star in a chest. To the south, you'll enter the door and find yourselves in the cells of the Imperial Palace. Seems like a lifetime ago Kefka was imprisoned here to trick us. The toilets are broken now... Boy, that really burns me up when that happens. Kefka's Tower (Imperial jail cells): Hemophyte, Retainer (10/16) Retainer, Retainer, Dark Force (6/16) Hemophyte is just one of the biggest anti-climaxes of the game. Honestly, he had everything going for him. He's like that rich kid from high school who was both good-looking and athletic and managed to turn up five years later as a meth addict. Sharing a sprite with the likes of Orog and Ogor - a very awesome sprite too - Hemophyte the big old scary demon warrior really...doesn't do anything. He throws ChokeSmoke attacks around, which we have previously appointed THE most useless attack ev4r when not used with some thought, and when alone, he starts to use Shock Wave. Shock Wave very well may just be... hang on...yes, THE weakest monster attack in the game. Counters with !CursedGaze which sets Seizure, still ranking as #1 laughable status ailment that actually works. Way to go, pal. Just trash him with what you normally do. Retainers may very well be familiar faces to you as you could've brawled with them in the Colosseum. They're not quite as annoying in 'real life', but they come bloody close and that's bad enough. They attack physically, often two times every turn. Every fourth turn, a Wind Slash attack may make its appearance, sometimes even two in a row. The kicker, as always, is that !Tradeoff attack it pulls out of thin air every time you kill it. The strategy to use here is the Imp status; set Imp and kill them. The Imp status will transform their physicals into automatic criticals, but it's worth it. They will still be able to use Wind Slash, because it costs them no MP. They have the Aura Knife as a rare steal; you shouldn't need any at this stage of the game, but you can change them into Strato Knives at the Colosseum, which are stronger weapons for Shadow to Throw than Tack Stars. Dark Force is generally hailed as the ultimate Lore resource, and that's for a good reason too. Dark Force uses all the Lores available to Strago except for Big Guard, ForceField, GrandTrain, and Pep Up. CleanSweep can only be accessed by Dark Force when they are Muddled or Controlled. Since this means that Dark Force can throw a wide array of nasty attacks your way, you'll want to kill them as quickly as possible. ID attacks work, and especially. L.5 Doom is great way to accomplish their deaths. Lacking this, X-Zone and Break spells are your best options. If Strago lacks Lores at this stage, here's Dark Force's AI script for the ultimate learning experience: 1st turn randomly: Condemned, Roulette, Aqua Rake 2nd turn randomly: Revenge, Pearl Wind, L.5 Doom 3rd turn randomly: L.4 Flare, L.3 Muddle, Reflect??? 4th turn randomly: L? Pearl, Step Mine, Launcher 5th turn randomly: Dischord, Sour Mouth, Imp Song 6th turn randomly: Aero, Blow Fish, Exploder 7th turn randomly: Rippler, Stone, Quasar Loop The two Lores that you are likely to not know at this stage are Reflect??? and Quasar; the former is a ridiculously horrible attack that sets Dark, Mute, and Slow on every Reflective opponent on the battlefield (which would have been mildly useful one hundred years ago, while scouting the Ancient Castle, a place you have no business returning too), while Quasar is just a non-elemental, barrier-piercing attack that would have been extremely fine hadn't it been for the fact that GrandTrain is better in every relevant way but MP cost. In the far left cell, there's a monster waiting for you. Fighting it is entirely optional, and you don't get anything necessarily positive out of it. Still, it's fun, so go ahead and do it anyway. Cast Float on your party if you can, and if you have Celes or Gogo in your party, you'll want to make sure they can use their Runic skill. Atma Level: 67, HP: 55000, MP: 19000 Steal: Crystal Orb (rare), Drainer (common), Win: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Poison, Wind, Pearl, Earth, Water Special: !Hit: Battle * 1.5 Sketch : !Hit, Battle Control: Battle, !Hit Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Battle, Fire 3, Ice 3, Bolt 3, Meteor, Ultima, Quake, CleanSweep, N. Cross, Flare Star, S. Cross Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: Yes Meteor and S. Cross screw over the RNG. Luckily, not used on the first turn. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No Remember when some scholar-type guy told you there were two so-called Atma Weapons? Strangely enough, you ought to own one and have defeated the other, so what's the deal with this guy? Clearly, now that Kefka has control over the Goddesses, he's made them craft an ever-stronger version of the legendary beast of mass destruction we destroyed a year ago. Or something. I'm Atma... Left here since birth... Forgotten in the river of time... I've had an eternity to ponder the meaning of things... And now I have an answer! Atma isn't THAT interesting. Normally, he uses the level 3 spells, switching to a N. Cross or S. Cross attack every now and then. When he hits 32640 HP, he'll revert to Fire 3, Quake, and Meteor spells, and CleanSweep and Flare Star. When you hurt the fiend, he may counter with Battle, but what Atma is actually doing is storing the hate he develops from your blows into the ultimate attack: whenever he is hurt 12 times, he will stop acting and start storing energy: "Unknown light surrounded Atma!" It'll proceed to glow yellow and do nothing for two turns before unleashing the strongest attack known to man: Ultima. It hurts really bad (count on around 2400 HP worth of damage), and you don't want that. Atma's unique elemental coverage makes Pearl Lance Dragoons useless, so give them Partisans at the start of the battle. Summon your barriers: Big Guard, Haste 2, ZoneSeek's Wall, Earth Wall, Moon Song, Life Guard, you know what works. Don't forget to set Slow on Atma, and you might try Stealing too, although there's nothing especially grand to obtain in this fight. Now, keep yourself healed and make sure you only execute the strongest attacks. Ideally, if you don't have Runic, you want to take out Atma in twelve hits or less, which makes for a needed average of around 4600 damage a hit. That shouldn't be TOO much of a problem, right? If it is, there's a few ways around the situation: - The Life 3 spell. - Have a character summon Palidor around the time Atma flashes yellow for the second time, making Ultima miss all your characters. - Don't attack Atma; just set Rflect and keep yourself healed with Heal Rods, Potions, and Pearl Wind until his own level 3 spells have damaged him enough to lower him in his 'dangerous phase'. Debilitator might help to speed things up there. Now that he's already fairly damaged, you should be able to kill him before he gets to Ultima. Obviously, if you do have Runic at your side there's nothing to worry about as when Atma starts glowing, you can just initiate the Runic skill and watch the attack be absorbed by the blade. Don't forget that Gogo can equip the Man Eater or Graedus to utilize Runic as well. You can use the crushed, bloody remains of the monster to rest, gather your mind, zone out for a few moments. This hollow carcass is your Fortress of Solitude, your little haven in the chaotic fast-paced world around you. Yeah, I'm talking about a Save Point that's now here. When you're done peace-ing out, exit through the door. Alas, it was a fake! You tumble down towards the ground. In this new room, you'll fight nothing but Movers and Steroidites. Kefka's Tower (Imperial stairway): Mover, Mover, Mover (10/16) Steroidite (6/16) Poor Movers; you were really hurt by the Evade bug. The thing about Mover, or what it was supposed to be, is that they have 254 Magic Defense (that's real high) and nigh-perfect Evade, so that NEITHER PHYSICAL NOR MAGICAL ATTACKS WOULD HURT IT! So first, the Evade bug comes around so every Fight commands kills the hell out of them, and then everybody realizes that all our characters are crammed full of barrier-piercing and unblockable attacks in the first place. With 120 HP, you don't need a lot of strategy. Normally, Mover attacks physically and with !Silencer (take a wild guess), and when alone it uses Blow Fish and Big Guard. If Strago is around and hasn't learned Big Guard yet, there is NO reason to leave this area before taking it with him. Spells such as Meteor solve the Mover problem very quickly, as does GP Rain, the AutoCrossbow or a Fight command with the Offering equipped. Steroidite is pretty much the opposite of Mover; more HP than you can shake a stick at (no, that's just a figure of speech; you could shake a stick at it if you wanted to) while having crappy Defense. It uses Blizzard and Giga Volt to attack, while using Cold Dust and N. Cross to freeze your party. Slow and Stop both work on the guy, and Pearl-elemental spells hit its weakness. Set the statuses and rough it out. The most notable thing about Steroidite is its rare steal: a Thunder Shld. Experience tells that you can hardly have enough Thunder Shlds, especially since they can be transformed into Genji Shlds at the Colosseum and can be broken in-battle for barrier-piercing Bolt 3 spells. Go up the stairs into the next room, which is chock-full of pipes going everywhere. You'll encounter new monsters here as well. You enter through the far right tube; the one to the left of it takes you all the way back to the Tack Star room, should you so please (escaping this hellhole and not having Warp spells or Warp Stones would be your only reason to do so). The far left tube takes you to outside again, on the trash-slopes. The encounters here can be dangerous, but they're all vulnerable to ID attacks and the Mute status ailment. Equipping Siren or Odin/Raiden on a character can really help shutting them all up in one swoop. Kefka's Tower (Facility rooms): Junk, Junk, Junk (6/16) IronHitman, IronHitman, IronHitman (5/16) Dueller, Fortis (5/16) IronHitman's sprite doesn't bode too well for it. And nay, with 2000 Hit Points, physical attacks and the Dischord Lore there's no reason to fear these tiny metallic soldiers. They're weak to Lightning. They succumb easily to an MT Bolt 3 spell, a Tritoch summon, a Bolt Edge, or something along those lines. Junk is scrap metal with just enough self-conscience to explode when you come near. That's basically what they do; at the slightest hint of danger, they sacrifice themselves by using Exploder or Pep Up. There's also a chance that on the first turn will have them do nothing; if this is the case, there's a small chance they will use !Parallout on themselves on the second turn, which sets Clear. Regardless, act fast when you meet them. 2000 HP of damage to a character isn't something you were really waiting for, so make sure you take them out ASAP. They're weak machines. Bolt 3 spells and Bolt Edges galore. Fortis. That's Latin for 'strong' if you don't mind the possible grammatical inaccuracy. They attack with Fire Ball, Snowball, and Missile. Fire Ball is entirely too weak to worry about, especially since most of your characters either absorb or take reduced damage from the attack. Missile is annoying when it hits, but Snowball especially stands out, as it's unblockable, and it's unlikely you have characters running around with Safety Bits or Memento Rings. When struck by a Lightning-elemental attack, Fortis will respond with a !Double Arm (Battle * 1.5) and Battle attack. Obviously the Battle attack is supposed to be part of the whole !Double Arm ordeal there. Where do these armors come from? Who makes them anymore? Who'd be demented enough to ride around in one to protect a guy like Kefka all day? Senseless as they may be, Dueller can be a real pain. They have the ability to cast L.4 Flare and L.5 Doom, and since you don't really prepare for them, you may suddenly find two of your characters facedown before you blink twice. Whenever damaged, the Dueller may counter with a Shrapnel attack, which is nasty enough too. The Mute status followed up with ID spells is the way to go. Dueller has a Chainsaw as a rare steal, so if you never bothered to grab the thing in Zozo, you can try your luck here. You'll arrive on familiar garbage slopes. GtBehemoths and all that, you know. The next chest you see contains a Force Shld (excellent!) Ignore the doors for now and go all around the conveyer belts to find a Force Armor in a chest. Now, find the two doors again and enter the left one that you're seeing en profile. You're in a room with a chest and a button. Find the Ribbon in the chest and push the button on the floor. You've now opened up a patch for Party #1. Leave. Enter the other door. A small garbage passageway filled with Vectagoyles and Brontaurs greets you before you exit. Kefka's Tower (garbage passageway party #2) Vectagoyle, Vectagoyle (10/16) Brontaur, Brontaur (6/16) Vectagoyle. Like 'Vector Dinosaur', this cute quadro-headed freak of nature is a 'Vector Gargoyle'. They're not as dangerous as the Chimera was when you met it, and not as cool or elusive as Rhyos. It is immune to all status ailments though, and has a large pool of elemental attacks that are kinda too weak to worry about. Blizzard, Blaze, Aqua Rake, and Giga Volt may all appear when going head-to-head with a Vectagoyle. Four attacks, four heads, there's probably a link there. When attacked by Fight, they'll often counter with eh...!Counter (Battle * 2). You'll wind up in a room where the Gold Drgn is waiting for you. The random encounters can be dangerous as well, so beware. Kefka's Tower (Gold Dragon's room) Veteran, Veteran, Veteran (10/16) Didalos, Veteran (6/16) Veteran is all about ID attacks. Condemned and Dread feature its normal AI script (although, let's be frank here, there's nothing 'normal' about this grotesque stare on wings), and it has a 1/3 chance of countering Magic spells with a Roulette attack. Strago fans that haven't had their gambling fix all month, here's your chance. Veteran lacks elemental weaknesses, has a lot of HP (10000), and is immune to ID attacks, so taking them out is difficult. Mute or Berserk kills their threat, and Stop works too. Disable them, attack, and simply revive the characters that might expire from Condemned. Siren is a great Esper to have around in this room, since she disables all Veterans in one summoning (though not Didalos, sadly). Didalos uses L.5 Doom, which is annoying. It also uses the Bio spell, Virite, the Demi spell normally and the Reflect??? attack whenever a character is Reflective. Didalos is the easiest source for the Lore too. Didalos counters Fight attacks with Fire Wall 1/3 of the time. They're not very special: they're Undead so a Life spell takes them out quickly. Nifty Metamorph set, I must admit (Cursed Ring, Relic Ring, Thornlet). A small note on the Cursed Ring; it is an item that can only be acquired by betting the Cursed Shield at the Coliseum (not advised) or by summoning the Ragnarok Esper versus either Veteran, Didalos or the SrBehemoth. It is a ring adorned with a tiny horned goat's skull, and gives you the magnificent evil benefit of learning X-Zone at an x5 rate and an inherent Doom timer. For completionists, it is. The Gold Drgn should be one of the two still alive if you didn't face it with Mog alone during a hypothetical Moogle Raid. If so, take it on now to reduce the number of dragons to one. [GDRAGON-LINK] Gold Drgn Level: 62, HP: 32400, MP: 4000 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Crystal Orb (always) Absorbs: Lightning, Weakness: Water Special: !Hit: Battle x 4 Sketch : Ice 3, Bolt 3 Control: Battle, !Hit Vulnerable to: Poison, Berserk Attacks: Battle, Bolt, Bolt 2, Bolt 3, Rflect, Giga Volt Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: Yes Nothing Gold Drgn uses screws over the RNG. Ragnarok's Metamorph: Yes 12.5% chance of obtaining one of the following: Crystal Crystal Shld Crystal Helm Crystal Mail What does Gold Drgn do? First off, every four Fight commands he gets especially pissed and the message "Gold Dragon begins to store energy!" will be displayed. Gold Drgn will spend a turn doing nothing (aka, charging for Bolt 3), and the very next round, Gold Drgn will cast a Bolt 3 spell on the entire party. We faced a level 3 spell with fair warning halfway through the WoB, for crying out loud! If a living character has the Reflect status, Gold Drgn will cast the Rflect spell on himself and will start bouncing Bolt and Bolt 2 spells off itself. Every Magic spell can be countered by a Bolt or Bolt 2 spell anyway, but Gold Drgn will not counter Magic spells when he is charging for the Bolt 3 spell. Normally, Gold Drgn will just attack with Bolt and Bolt 2 spells, and Giga Volt attacks. Gold Drgn is an incredibly easy enemy at this point; all of his attacks are either Battle or Lightning-elemental; Bolt, Bolt 2, Giga Volt, and Bolt 3 are all vulnerable to Celes's Runic, and Lightning is very easily absorbed or nullified by equipment such as Thunder Shlds, Paladin Shld, Minerva, or Rage Ring. The bane of Gold Drgn's existence, however, is Phantom; cast the Bserk spell on Gold Drgn. Hell, set Berserk in some other way; the neat thing about late-game battles is that you can do so much. The Sky Cap Rage attack with Megazerk, and the Insecare Rage with !Wing Whisp, which also sets Berserk. At any rate, Berserk the Ryuu D'or and summon Phantom (or cast Vanish on the entire party) to obtain invulnerability. If you're here with Mog alone, just equip a Thundr Shield and do everything you can to reduce damage done by physical attacks, such as equipping a Guard Ring or Pod Bracelet, putting Mog in the Back Row and maximizing his Defense. If Mog comfortable survives Gold Drgn's attacks, it doesn't really matter what kind of attacks he uses. Breaking a Poison Rod can be a great help in whittling down the dragon's HP if you have no other way of significantly putting the hurt on it. You'll win a Crystal Orb from the guy. The Crystal Orb could have been obtained earlier throughout the game (rare Steal from both MagiMaster - Berserk a character with Thiefknives equipped to steal on the Fanatics Tower - and a rare Steal from Atma, but this is likely your first encounter. Crystal Orbs aren't very special; they raise maximum MP by 50%. Yeah, with MP not really being an issue in this game, and with the existence of Economizer Relics, the Crystal Orb fails to stand out. After the battle, you can leave through the door, walk through one small featureless room, and find yourself into a grand metal hall. There are no random encounters in this final location. There's a button on the floor on the far end, but it doesn't seem to do anything by itself. Kefka's Tower (Imperial corner-room) Outsider, Outsider, Madam (5/16) Hemophyte, Retainer (5/16) Retainer, Retainer, Dark Force (5/16) Dark Force, Dark Force (1/16) Madam is a tough opponent, and as she often appears with two Outsiders, things look even grimmer. I'd say that every battle with a Madam/double Outsider formation is more dangerous than most of the boss battles you have to engage in this dungeon. Madam is difficult to describe, as what she basically does is throw powerful spells around is a manner loosely related to her current situation. Any time she is damaged, she may cast either Cure 2 on herself/her party, the Meteor spell on your party, or both. When all monsters are Reflective, she'll cast Cure 3 on YOUR party, which makes no sense whatsoever. Getting the enemy party Reflective, though, takes a lot of effort in a situation where you get nothing out of a Reflective enemy party, so that scenario shouldn't present itself. In no particular order, the spells she can cast (all on the targets you'd naturally assume): Cure 2, Cure 3, Remedy, Life 3, the level 3 spells, Flare, Pearl, Safe, Shell, Regen, and Haste. Oh yes, and she rarely throws in a completely useless !Sightless attack to blind a character. All in all, you want to stop those spells. Imp, Berserk, and Stop are all ways to do just that. Make it a priority when facing that dreaded Madam/Outsider/ Outsider combo, as a Bserk spell never fails. Outsiders are THE most universally damaging opponents in this game. Not the most dangerous, as they are easily dispatched, but with inherent Haste, the ability to use the Throw command every turn, and a Throw counter to every non-fatal attack you perform, they're more than likely are going to sneak at least ONE blade down your throat. Every turn, they either Throw a ninja blade or a katana in this order: Imperial or Ashura Kodachi or Kotetsu Blossom or Forged Hardened or Tempest Striker or Murasame When damaged by the Fight command, any Outsider will respond with a Shuriken; at every damaging attack that's not a Fight command, they will respond with either a Ninja Star or a Tack Star. Funnily enough, Outsiders appear to have a strong yet bizarre sense of honor; if they have not succeeded in killing your entire party by the time they Throw either a Striker or Murasame, they will kill themselves with their !Ruin attack. Whenever you meet Outsiders, you want to stop their actions immediately. You may Muddle them with the NoiseBlaster of the L.3 Muddle Lore to divert their attention for a moment before attempting to kill them using X-Zone or Break. They have a rare Break Blade Steal. If, for some unthinkable reason, you want to go for them, cast Stop to make your life a lot easier. If you put this party on the button, you're done with these guys for now. De-equip all precious items and Espers and switch to Party #3. ******************************************************************************** Switch to Party 3 I won't go over the monsters again, but I'll give the formation odds just so you know what you can expect. Kefka's Tower (garbage slopes): GtBehemoth, Evil Oscar, Vectaur (6/16) Vectaur, Vectaur, Vectaur, Vectaur (5/16) Brontaur, Evil Oscar (5/16) Kefka's Tower (garbage caves party #3): GtBehemoth, Vectaur, Vectaur (10/16) GtBehemoth, Evil Oscar, Vectaur (6/16) You stand in front of moving conveyer belts. Nice. Stand on the left one to allow it to take you down (the good way). First, you'll come across a door to the left. There's a chest containing a Red Cap next to the door, and when you enter the door and fight your way through the passageway, you'll find a metal ramp which holds up two chests; a Gauntlet to the left and a Nutkin Suit to the right. This ramp holds enemies such as Innoc and Scullion, which are both quite tough, so be on your guard. Kefka's Tower (Gauntlet/Nutkin Suit metal corridor) Scullion (6/16) Prometheus (5/16) Innoc, Innoc, Innoc (5/16) 'Innoc' is short for 'Innocent'. And that's how they kinda work you, too. You'll come to despise these satellites very quickly, let me assure you. They attack with !BrainBlast (sets Muddled), Plasma, Cold Dust, and very rarely L? Pearl. Unless you made a conscious effort to set the last digit of your GP amount to 1 (so Strago could abuse the move), L? Pearl won't hit very often. A lot of your characters should nullify or even absorb Plasma, so the main annoyance is Muddled and Frozen party members. You'll want to Muddle them with Noiseblasters and/or cast X-Zone to get rid of them. L.4 Flare also works if the simple "remove HP until I win"-based strategy is your kind of plan. They're also weak to Lightning- and Water-elemental attacks. Now HERE'S a modern Prometheus! It stands out because it has no Rage, which is quite surprising for a random encounter such as Prometheus. It attacks with !Drill (Battle * 1.5) and Shrapnel, which hurts a bit. When hit by a Fight command, it may use S. Cross (on the attacker only) and when hit by a Magic spell, it may counter with N. Cross (on the attacker only, so it hardly ever actually sets that Freeze status). Prometheus is a durable machine, I'll give it that, but there's nothing VERY dangerous about him so just pound him. It's weak to Lightning- and Water-elemental attacks, as you'd suspect. If for some reason you never Stole or simply bought that Debilitator, you can Steal one from Prometheus. Scullion. The last random encounter I got to describe. ;-; And it's all exciting too! Its most redeeming feature is the fact it has a rare Air Anchor to Steal, so if you never bothered to go up the Fanatics Tower or forgot to listen to one-eyed bums in Maranda, here's a shot at the precious Tool. Let's not forget that Scullion is actually kind of a challenge; it starts the battle off with !Gamma Rays, which sets Condemned. Shucks. Its attacks may include more !Gamma Rays, WaveCannon, Launcher, and Grav Bomb, a percentage-based attack...you've never seen before unless you Raged a Lethal Wpn. It's not that big of a deal, it just halves your current HP score. When Scullion dies, it fires off a final Atomic Ray on its slayer, which ST'd can hurt a lot if the character in question is shield-less, or Gogo or something. Set Stop, cast Bolt 3 and Throw Water Skeans and all that to kill it. Get back out and find the other door which (through another featureless room filled with enemies) to find what appears to be a part of the MagiTek Facility. The enemies in this section are Fortis, Dueller, and Sky Base, for which great caution is advised. Siren is a great Esper to summon since she disables all magical machines instantly (though Fortis' Snowball will still work since it doesn't cost Fortis any MP). Kefka's Tower (first garbage passageway party #3) Brontaur, Brontaur (6/16) GtBehemoth, Vectaur, Vectaur (5/16) Evil Oscar, Evil Oscar, Evil Oscar (5/16) Kefka's Tower (MagiTek Facility) Fortis, Fortis (10/16) Dueller, Dueller, Sky Base (6/16) Sky Base is hell if you don't know how to take 'em. They start every battle with the L.5 Doom attack to weed out those unfortunate enough to be vulnerable to it. They then spend three turns using !Mind Slap (sets Stop) or cast the Doom spell. Their true strength though, is the fact they will counter ANY damage done to them, besides damage coming from a Fight command, with up to four (!!!) Blaster attacks. Know that when the initial attacker is killed in this counter and Sky Base decides to use at least one other Blaster attack, it'll default to 'random' targeting. This means that your entire party might be targeted, and I'm talking MT here. Never let this happen. Take out Sky Base with ID attacks or set the Mute status to prevent all this from ruining your life. There's a Hero Ring in the chest, and also a hidden Aegis Shld in this room; if you're playing on an emulator, simply disable layer 2 to see the path. If you're a console player, do the following: Go down into the darkness to the left of the spinning whatever-it-is. - Go all the way down - Go all the way to the right - Go all the way down - Go 1 step up - Go all the way to the left - Go all the way down - Take a few steps to the right and grab the Aegis Shield - Go back into the darkness and go all the way to the right - Go up and to the right until you don't go any further - Go all the way to the left, and all the way up to re-appear Anyway, get on the conveyer belt to continue. When you exit, you'll see a tube to the left of you. This will suck you in when you stand in front of it and take you back to the other end of the conveyer belt. Walk past the new Save Point and save if you must; you're only seven steps away from a surprise boss battle with Inferno. Down below you'll see an empty chest; it'll always be empty. Inferno Level: 67, HP: 30800, MP: 9700 Steal: Ice Shld (rare) Absorbs: Fire, Weakness: Lightning Special: !Sobat: Battle x 3 Sketch : !Sobat, Battle Control: Battle, !Sobat Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: !Sobat, Bolt 2, Bolt 3, Meteor, Delta Hit, Atomic Ray, Giga Volt, TekBarrier, Shock Wave Striker Level: 67, HP: 11000, MP: 2600 Steal: Flame Shld (rare) Absorbs: Ice, Weakness: Fire Special: !Slash: Battle x 2 Sketch : !Slash, Battle Control: Battle, !Slash Vulnerable to: Petrify, Death, Condemned, Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, Shrapnel Rough Level: 69, HP: 8000, MP: 770 Steal: Flame Shld (rare) Absorbs: Lightning, Weakness: Ice Special: !Rapier: Battle x 1.5 Sketch : !Rapier, Battle Control: Battle, !Rapier Vulnerable to: Petrify, Death, Condemned, Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, !Rapier Vanish/Doom: No All three parts are immune to the Clear status. Joker Doom: No Meteor, Atomic Ray, TekBarrier all screw with the RNG. Atomic Ray may be used on the very first turn, has a 66 % of showing up in fact. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No The battle against Inferno is a rather simple one, although it is frustrating that the main body and the blades don't share elemental properties. As you would expect, the main body is the one with all the fancy spells and with the most HP. Rough is the left blade, and it just attacks physically with Battle and !Rapier. Once you destroy it, it'll take 20 seconds to grow back. Striker, the right blade, is a tad meaner than Rough; next to Battle, it also uses Shrapnel, the magical non-elemental attack that's as strong as a level 3 spell. Like Rough, it grows back 20 seconds after you destroy it. Inferno uses a barrage of magical and mostly elemental attacks such as Bolt 2, Atomic Ray, Shock Wave, and Giga Volt. When Inferno has both blades, it will use Delta Hit every 30 seconds. Delta Hit is still an unblockable attack that sets Petrify, so watch out for it. When Inferno has only ONE blade, it will only use Bolt 3 and Meteor spells (Meteor is especially nasty). The first time you destroy both blades, Inferno will use TekBarrier to set both Safe and Reflect on itself. Every time you damage Inferno, it may respond with a !Sobat attack that's just annoying. Your strategy is simple. You have no business caring about Rough and Striker whatsoever. Cast Slow 2 at the start of the battle and cast Stop spells on both blades to make sure they are out for a while. Cast Haste 2, and summon ZoneSeek or call out a Big Guard attack if Strago is around. Now, focus all your offense on the main body. Let's not bother with Meteor and TekBarrier. The big weakness of Inferno is the Bolt 3 spell. It's an incredibly strong Lightning-elemental spell you can easily target to just hurt Inferno (it'll heal Rough if you MT it), and one or more of your characters should be able to cast it with considerable power. If Shadow and/or Gogo is around you can have him/it chuck a few ThunderBlades at the infernal machine for large amounts of damage. Another possibility if you have spare Thunder Shlds is break those; re-target the broken shield onto the main body by targeting your own party once, then switching back to Inferno. In the end, Inferno is the only 'random' boss of the entire dungeon, and it isn't incredibly hard if you prepared for the dungeon properly. Sadly, you get nothing out of the battle with Inferno short of some measly Magic Points. When you've given this ghost from the past a smackdown, you can continue. You'll walk through yet another garbage hallway into the garbage clearing again. Honestly, FF V's final dungeon had a lot of style with the blue crystals and the infinity of stars and planets in the background; they kinda took a tumble with the new installment if you ask me. This passageway contains nothing but Land Worms, by the way. Kefka's Tower (other two garbage passageways party #3) Land Worm (always) Land Worm is a big, big enemy that takes little effort to defeat. It uses the area around you to crush you: Magnitude8 comes from below, and Lode Stone (that unblockable 75% ID attack) from above. Rarely it uses !Compress, which is nothing but an unimpressive physical attack. The only status ailment Land Worm is protected against is Imp, so Doom/Break/Stop away. How about a Stop/Blaster combo? You'll see a chest that contains a Megalixir to your right, and to your left is a pathway to a new door, a conveyer belt, and an opened chest with a red sparkle on it. REMEMBER THIS CHEST IF YOU PLAN TO LEAVE THE DUNGEON AT SOME POINT. After you've hit this switch once to extend the path for Party #1, leave and return, the red sparkle will be gone, so you'll have nothing but an open chest to look for. Don't go through the door quite yet, but go with the conveyer belt; it'll take you to a chest containing the Rainbow Brsh, the strongest Brush weapon for Relm. Sadly, it still sucks horribly and is in every important way inferior to the Magus Rod, which you should keep equipped on her. Now, go around to enter the door. Through another trash hallway filled with Land Worms, you'll come across another elemental dragon. Kefka's Tower (Skull Drgn room and ensuing hallway) Outsider, Outsider, Madam (5/16) Hemophyte, Retainer (5/16) Retainer, Retainer, Dark Force (5/16) Dark Force, Dark Force (1/16) It's the last one; it's time to see what this Dragon Seal is all about. Skull Drgn Level: 62, HP: 32800, MP: 1999 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Muscle Belt (always) Absorbs: Poison, Weakness: Fire, Pearl Special: !Hit: Removes Reflect (unblockable) Sketch : Rasp, Battle Control: Battle, !Hit Vulnerable to: Nothing Attacks: Battle, Specter, Elf Fire, Condemned, Disaster Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: Yes Nothing Skull Drgn uses increases the RNG. Ragnarok's Metamorph: Yes 12.5% chance of obtaining one of the following: Crystal Crystal Shld Crystal Helm Crystal Mail Skull Drgn...just isn't very threatenig. It's a generally sub par dragon as-is once you ignore the fact it has no status vulnerabilities to exploit, but at the very end of the game? It's kind of ridiculous and sad all at the same time. For Skull Drgn, it's like going against Tiger Woods; doesn't mean its golf skills stink; it's just that it's Tiger fucking Woods. Battle, Condemned, Elf Fire, and Specter all feature the first three turns, Condemned easily the most popular one. Every fourth turn, Skull Drgn may use Disaster, which is clearly its most crippling attack. It will be randomly ST'd or MT'd by the semi-Undead dragon, and it sets Dark, Imp, Condemned, Mute, Muddle, and oddly enough, the Float status. You should know the rest; one little tidbit about Specter is that the graphic designers never expected any monster to use Specter, so instead of a graphic of the caster (Skull Drgn in this case) you'll see a half-baked sprite of your leading party member instead. Every damage it takes may be countered by Battle. Throw on Ribbons where possible. You shouldn't need any special protection for Elf Fire, as it's about as powerful as Fire 2, but you can equip Flame Shlds, Ice Shlds, Minerva bustier, or a Rage Ring to absorb or nullify the attack. On the offense, just do whatever you have learned works. Since it's possible you have Ragnarok's Metamorph at your disposal, you can try that for a quick win. Fire 3 spells are extremely powerful (more so than the Pearl spell). Ragers can Rage SrBehemoth to cast Fire 3 and become immune to Condemned (the eventual death trigger will heal him), and the Imp, Mute, and Muddled status that Disaster may set (the remaining Dark and Float statuses that will be set are nothing to worry about for obvious reasons). Gogo should Rage like Gau. If you bought Flame Sabres for Shadow, those are superior to other weapons Shadow can throw. When you're done with the fight and this was, in fact, the last of the eight dragons of this world, the message "Defeated all 8 dragons...Dragon Seal broken!!" will appear. The screen will shake, frightful sounds will sound through the halls of Kefka's fortress, and you'll obtain the last Esper you'll get: Crusader. A note about Crusader: the attack it uses when you summon them, Purifier, is a powerful magical non-elemental attack that targets both enemies and allies alike. It's a bad idea to summon Crusader in normal situations. It quickly teaches Meteor at a x10 rate though. Merton is a Fire/Wind-elemental attack that hits both enemies and allies as well. It's barrier-piercing, but by absorbing or nullifying the attack with Flame Shlds (absorb) or Thundr Shlds and the Minerva (nullifies) it can still be a safe spell to cast. It's a bit weaker than Ultima, but then again, everything is. Now that you're done, it's time to continue. We must make haste! Go through the featureless Imperial corner and you'll find yourself in the same grand Imperial hall as Party #2, and there's a button on your side of the elevated pathway as well. Stand on it, and when Party #2 is standing on the other button, you'll see the door opening. Sadly, nobody is there to enter the door; let's switch back to Party #1, shall we? ******************************************************************************** Switch to Party 1 With both Party #2 and Party #3, we've helped clear the path for Party #1. It's time to see where it leads. Fortune and fame, perhaps? Walk down to come across two conveyer belts; the left one goes down, the right one goes up. Kefka's Tower (garbage slopes): GtBehemoth, Evil Oscar, Vectaur (6/16) Vectaur, Vectaur, Vectaur, Vectaur (5/16) Brontaur, Evil Oscar (5/16) In these slopes of the garbage tower, you'll see a chest; it contains a Coronet. By now, it's rather outdated when it comes to defenses; it boosts the chances of Control working, but I'd say the Cat Hood is better even when you're using Control. Next room; more slopes, more conveyer belts, slightly different encounters. Kefka's Tower (garbage caves party #1): GtBehemoth, Vectaur, Vectaur (10/16) GtBehemoth, Evil Oscar, Vectaur (6/16) Enter the door with the flashing yellow triangle above it. This is recognizable! It's a part of the former Imperial Palace. It seems Kefka formed his garbage fortress around the former seat of Emperor Gestahl. How deliciously ironic. You'll start meeting new enemies here (Retainer, Dark Force, Hemophyte). Kefka's Tower (Imperial Castle): Dark Force, Dark Force (10/16) Outsider, Outsider, Madam (6/16) You will come across a chest containing the Fixed Dice. If you haven't gotten them before, Setzer must have sucked throughout the entire World of Ruin; this is his shot at redemption. If you brought Strago here, you may want to equip a Wall Ring to learn Reflect??? when it's cast, or almost any other Lore he may lack at the moment. Remember, you still can't have a full Lore list at this point; there's at least one missing from his roster. The Fixed Dice are Dice, but better. Dice sucked always, but the Fixed Dice is a better damage dealer than Setzer's other weapons on average (unless extreme circumstances appear, but meh). The main differences with the Dice include the fact that there are THREE Dice to multiply with, and upon the situation of three equal rolls (1-1-1, 2-2-2, etc.) the outcome is once again multiplied by the number rolled. Finally, the damage output of the Fixed Dice aren't cut down by the Offering, so Setzer can deal four of these attacks from the Back Row with the relic equipped. When you leave the room, you're outside again. Not for long though, as you quickly dive back in a door. There's more Imperial design here (and more new enemies, being Junk, IronHitman, Dueller, and Fortis), and you should remember this room from your time with Party #2. You should be able to continue because of them. Kefka's Tower (Facility rooms): Junk, Junk, Junk (6/16) IronHitman, IronHitman, IronHitman (5/16) Dueller, Fortis (5/16) You can continue! You pass through the tubes room now. Note that you can find the Break Blade chest here again, but it will be empty, whether you picked up the Break Blade or not in the WoB. Beware the Sky Base encounter here! Siren is great in this room, since it shuts down Sky Base, IronHitman, Innoc and Fortis in one summoning. Prometheus is the only encounter not vulnerable to both Mute and ID attacks. Kefka's Tower (Tube room): Sky Base, IronHitman, IronHitman, IronHitman, IronHitman (6/16) Innoc, Fortis (5/16) Prometheus (5/16) When you leave, there's a little featureless room that contains the dreaded Doom Drgn opponents. They have an amazing Rage, but you must be willing to leave for the Veldt and comb through hundreds of encounters to get it. They can be very threatening, so you may wish to equip a Charm Bangle or Moogle Charm in this small room to avoid seeing them. When you've survived them, you're outside again! Kefka's Tower (Garbage U-turn passageway party #1): Doom Drgn (10/16) Doom Drgn, Doom Drgn (6/16) Doom Drgn is one of the toughest enemies in the game, so make sure you're prepared when you could be about to face one or two (I'll point it out). Every turn, they have a 33% of using S. Cross, that super-strong MT Fire- elemental attack. Every fifth turn may feature either N. Cross or Flare Star, which both suck, and follow it up immediately by attacking themselves with !Melt, which sets Clear. Every turn these monsters don't use a sophisticated attack such as a Cross or Flare Star, they'll use Battle. Every time you damage them, they have a 1/3 chance of using Fallen One. You may remember this attack from Sketching Black Drgns or facing Doom Drgns in the Colosseum, but to refresh your memory: Fallen One sets the HP of every character to 1. If you meet them, Sketch may produce Fallen One (25%) or N. Cross (75%), and Control certainly makes things easier. Otherwise, there are no status ailments worth setting and ID doesn't work either, so you'll just have to rough it out. Grab some Flame Shlds mid-battle if you're not prepared for Fire-elemental attacks and use your strongest attacks. Like all dragons, they sport a weakness to Ice-elemental attacks. If you're Controlling them anyway, they have a rare Pod Bracelet for Stealing, which is kind of nice if you lack four Marvel Shoes. Now that Party #3 has extended the broken conveyer belt by hitting the sparkling chest on the other side (see? The sparkle is gone...), you may continue. After you cross the conveyer belt, you can find a Tack Star in a chest to your left. When you enter the door, you'll find yourself on the grand elevated pathway. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.71.3 Kefka's Tower: The source of all Magic ********************************** The door is open, four trusted friends on either side of you. You've been lucky so far, nothing disastrous has happened...but we can rest assured that the going will be increasingly rough from here on, and the fate of this world lies behind those doors. There is no telling just how powerful Kefka is; we have Magicite, but so does he; and he has the power of the three Stone Goddesses as well. ******************************************************************************** Stay with Party 1 Walk Party #1 through the door. You will leave behind the 'safe' room and start encountering those blasted encounters again. Kefka's Tower (swap room) Scullion (10/16) Innoc, Innoc, Innoc (6/16) You'll come across a button on the floor; standing on it won't achieve anything as far as you can see. Walk to the left, and the path will close behind you. To the top, there's another button tile; like the other one, it doesn't appear to do anything. Go down and you'll face a 4-ton weight, which you can drop on the button tile down below where one of your teams is standing now. Obviously, you can't push it while the team is standing on it (Look out! Get outta the way!), so switch to that party to get away first. ******************************************************************************** Switch to Party 2 Get off the button! Switch. ******************************************************************************** Switch to Party 3 Get off the button as well. Switch. ******************************************************************************** Switch to Party 1 Drop the weight! It seems the increased weight of the falling weight does something else entirely than just standing on it; it opens up a path towards the elevated pathway. With Party #1, get back in to stand on the button tile. ******************************************************************************** Switch to Party 2 With Party #2, pretty much repeat what you did with Party #1, only mirrored. Go stand on the other button tile; still nothing happens. Let's see what happens when we stand on all three button tiles simultaneously, okay? Drop the weight and go stand on the button. Switch to the remaining party down below. ******************************************************************************** Switch to Party 3 With the remaining party (Party #3), go stand on the third and final button tile; the ground beneath you will change and a pathway will form. Your initial reflex reaction it to continue; however, what you want to do is go back DOWN, where you'll gain access to a NEW button tile that opens up two doors for the other teams to pass through. Now, press on through the new door. Kefka's Tower (Guardian room) Madam, Veteran, Veteran (10/16) Didalos, Didalos (6/16) Now, you may continue up to face a relic of old... Guardian Level: 67, HP: 60000, MP: 5200 Steal: Ribbon (rare), Force Armor (common), Win: Nothing (always) Weakness: Lightning, Water Special: !Ink: Battle x 1.5, sets Dark Sketch : !Ink, Big Guard Control: Battle, !Ink, Plasma Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Battle, !Ink, Throw (MithrilKnife), Throw (Ashura), Item (Tonic), Item (Potion), Flare, Stone, Entwine, Atomic Ray, Tek Laser, Diffuser, WaveCannon, Flare Star, Launcher, Tentacle, Missile, Meteo, Shock Wave Vanish/Doom: No Immunity to the Clear status Joker Doom: Yes Usage on Tonics and Potions, Flare, Atomic Ray, WaveCannon, Meteo all screw over the RNG. Luckily, nothing on the first turn, so there's nothing to worry about. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No Unbelievable. It took you HOW many hours of your life exactly to get from 'Guard' to 'Guardian'? Truth be told, the Guardian is one of the few battles in which a high amount of Magic Power (25) and strong magical attacks are combined in such a fashion things could look grim for your party due to the sheer force of Guardian's attacks. Thankfully, most of this can be circumvented one way or another. Here's what's cracking. Guardian has a puny unimpressive AI script when he's 'normal': it features such outdated attacks as Tek Laser, Missile, and Atomic Ray. Guardian quickly detects you are far too strong to be beaten in this manner, and after two turns Guardian will include one of its battle programs. It'll try it out on you for a while, and will power down to its 'normal' state for another two turns before loading another battle program. Here's the rundown on Guardian's four battle programs: "Included battle program!" "Ran Ultros's battle program!" This is what could be considered its weakest program. It'll use Tentacle here (which is nowhere near as painful as it once was), but also Entwine (unblockable, but you can counter this with a Haste 2 spell, and RunningShoes and Marvel Shoes make you immune), !Ink, and Stone. It'll take four turns emulating Ultros before going back down into its normal AI script, and Entwine will always be the last move it'll use. "Included battle program!" "Ran battle program!" This nameless battle program heavily resembles the combat style of Dadaluma, so we can chalk it up to him should we really need a name. Also, the Anthology Bestiary mentions Dadaluma as the source of this battle program. Shock Wave and Battle are nothing to be worried about, but the third turn, Dadaluma Guardian will throw a MithrilKnife or Ashura (doing extreme amounts of damage and killing characters not protected by Clear) and use three healing potions (Tonics or Potions may both appear) just before using TekBarrier to set both Safe and Reflect. You'll want to use Dispel or Rippler as soon as this happens. After this has happened, Guardian will go back to normal. "Included battle program!" "Ran Air Force's battle program!" This is simply Guardian's upgraded machine phase. It'll use such predictable beauties as Tek Laser, Diffuser, and Launcher. At its fourth turn mimicking Air Force, it'll say: "Wave Cannon! Count down!!" "Count 3!" "Count 2!" "Count 1!" All in one turn and use WaveCannon on you, which is still coming from that 25 Magic Power we've been taking hits from so far. It'll hurt a bundle if you're not protecting from it with Thunder Shlds, Minerva or Blizzard Orb. After WaveCannon, it's back to normal for Guardian. "Included battle program!" "Ran Atma's battle program!" Far and away the most dangerous of Guardian's battle programs, Atma's battle program will have Guardian use Battle, cast Flare, use Meteo, and at the fourth turn say "Vast energy focused", glow yellow two times and use Flare Star, which isn't as impressive, as you might have feared. After this, Guardian will revert back to normal and start going all Ultros on yo' sorry asses again. The trick here is to act fast. If you have prepared decently so far, you shouldn't need to see Air Force's battle program in action whatsoever, let alone Atma's. And this is good, since facing Atma Guardian is something you don't want if you're going for a victorious battle. Cast Slow on Guardian and Haste 2 on yourself ASAP and throw up a Big Guard (if you have Relm but not Strago, Sketch will give it to you 3/4 of the time) or Wall. Golem and Fenrir won't be a real asset now since the only physical attacks worth fearing - Tentacle and the Thrown blades - will hit you anyway. It might be a good idea to cast Life 3 on all of your characters when he's not pulling out the big guns. Now, go all out on the guy! The fact Guardian is a machine and therefore weak to Lightning really helps you out here, as Bolt 3 is a spell most, if not all, of your mages should have. If you have Thunder Shlds to spare, you could break them for barrier-piercing Bolt 3 attacks too. If you have a Stealer in your midst, Stealing is definitely a pro; a Ribbon isn't too shabby, and the Force Armor is one of the finite useful items in the game. Quadra Slice, Tritoch's Tri-Dazer, Bum Rush, Bahamut's Sun Flare, Fixed Dice, ValiantKnife, Jump attacks, you know what works on what characters by now. A good Rage to use is Ceritops; it makes the Rager absorb to Lightning-elemental attacks, makes him immune to Missile and Launcher, has inherent Safe and features Giga Volt as an attack. Another strong contender is Karkass, which provides ID immunity and Bolt 3. Beware though, a Karkass Rager is Undead. When you're done, you can build a primitive metal shelter out of the metallic scrap metal of the metal weapon. Yes, another Save Point, and I don't get to gross you out with this one. :/ When you've Saved and rested, you can press on; the path will take you to yet another garbage tunnel where you see an opposing conveyer belt. Kefka's Tower (garbage caves party #3) GtBehemoth, Evil Oscar, Vectaur (6/16) Brontaur, Evil Oscar (5/16) Vectaur, Vectaur, Vectaur, Vectaur (5/16) Kefka's Tower (garbage slopes): GtBehemoth, Evil Oscar, Vectaur (6/16) Vectaur, Vectaur, Vectaur, Vectaur (5/16) Brontaur, Evil Oscar (5/16) When you exit, there's a hidden Ribbon for you to find to the south of the door you came out of. Go down until you hit the wall, go two steps to the right and one down. There's the Ribbon! Now, when you press on you come across an idol that shakes you with equal parts dread and determination. You've reached the resting place of one of the three Goddesses, the stone statue of the goddess Poltrgeist. Equip stuff that lets you absorb Fire-elemental attacks (Flame Shlds, the Paladin Shld, a Rage Ring for Umaro), since that'll be really useful. Never equip Ice Shlds, as Aero will rip them apart real ugly. Minerva armor and Red Jackets both nullify Fire-elemental attacks too. If you have nothing left, Thunder Shlds are a great option (as attacks such as Aero and WaveCannon will be absorbed/nullified while Fire-elemental attacks will be halved in damage). And heal, but that should be obvious. If you have a few Quake casters on your team, Float up. Poltrgeist is the Goddess of Fire and appears to be the most 'evil' of the three. Her Japanese name was 'Kishin', a word that roughly translates into 'divine'. If you accept the fact the three Goddesses stand for three major religions, Poltrgeist most likely stands for a feminine incarnation of Satan, fire-themed and evil and all (yeah, I know, there's Holy Fire and Dante had Satan frozen up to his waist in ice, I don't care. The immediate and popular theme of hell is 'fire' and that's what is important now). Sporting the axe of a lifetime and a rack most girls would kill (or take plastic surgery) for, Poltrgeist would stand out in any crowd. Poltrgeist Level: 67, HP: 58000, MP: 18900 Steal: Red Jacket (rare), Win: Aura Lance (always) Absorbs: Fire, Wind, Weakness: Poison Status: Haste, Safe Special: !Psygrip: Battle x 2 Sketch : !Psygrip, Battle Control: Battle, !Psygrip Vulnerable to: Stop Attacks: Battle, !Psygrip, Fire 3, Stop, Aero, Blaster, WaveCannon, S. Cross Flare Star, Shrapnel, Meteo Vanish/Doom: No Immunity to Clear status Joker Doom: Yes WaveCannon, S. Cross and Meteo all screw over your RNG; Poltrgeist won't use any of them at the beginning of the fight, though. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No Poltrgeist would have started out with inherent Image too, but since the game designers also gave her Image immunity, this status is never applied. Too bad for her. Poltrgeist is the least inventive Goddess of the bunch, as she shows us NO new attacks. But we can forgive her, as she's so especially awesome. So, what does she try to do to us? Her normal AI script has her use Battle, !Psygrip, Shrapnel (this one gets kind of painful when it hits), and the Stop spell. You should immediately remove the Stop status with a Dispel spell if a character is affected, since as soon a character suffers from the Stop status, Poltrgeist will use a Blaster attack to kill the person off. If the Stopped character isn't immune to ID attacks, this WILL hit, so beware. A little note about !Psygrip: the Japanese game calls this Special attack 'Tyrfing', after a cursed sword from goth folklore. Poltrgeist gets increasingly mean once you damage her beyond 32640 HP, as she will start the heavy artillery with the powerful MT attacks: Aero, S. Cross, Flare Star, and Meteo will now appear, and you don't have to worry anymore about any kind of physical attack or the Stop/Blaster combo. Finally, every time Poltrgeist is damaged, she may cast a Fire 3 spell on the sorry ass of the attacker, and after she's damaged eight/sixteen/etc. times, her next move will be WaveCannon. You have two proverbial trump cards against her (if it were real Trump cards, you could've gotten 99 way back. :P) First off, you're draped in equipment that absorbs and/or nullifies her elemental attacks. Make Fire- elemental protection a priority, as you'll see that element the most, especially with the existence of that Fire 3 omni-counter. Second, Poltrgeist is vulnerable to the Stop status, so what are we even worrying about? Do note that since Poltrgeist is inherently Hasted, it won't stick around as long as you usually expect, so barriers and Fire-elemental protection certainly isn't excessive luxury. Set Stop on Poltrgeist ASAP, and make MT Shell your next priority by means of Big Guard, Wall, or individual Shell-casting. Haste 2 is grand as usual to keep up with Poltrgeist and while stuff such as Regen and physical protection isn't really necessary or all that useful, it doesn't hurt either. Now, start pounding Poltrgeist with everything you have! Make no mistake; the Poison- elemental weakness is nothing you can really work with, as a neutral level 3 spell is stronger than Bio while the latter is hitting a weakness. You might even want to set a better elemental weakness with the Debilitator to speed things up. Your Dragoons will have a hard time penetrating Poltrgeist's Defense and Safe status, so you might want to keep them around for utility shift this time. Shadow may throw Poison Rods for great damage (barrier-piercing). Gau is great Raging a monster such as Woolly (Ice 3, absorbs every element but Fire which the Snow Muffler takes care of), Evil Oscar (same story, casts Bio), Uroburos (absorbs Fire-elemental attacks, casts Quake), or just an offensive Rage such as Stray Cat (care to give Gau a Poison Rod?), Prussian, Tyranosaur, or whatever. Locke, Sabin, Cyan, Setzer, and Strago shouldn't have any trouble penetrating Poltrgeist's defenses. For the pure Magic skillset characters the Quake spell is the second-best option after Ultima. If you don't have it or Float isn't an option, it's all about the Flare. Remember that Cyan's Stunner SwdTech can be used to set Stop, though it will only do so roughly 55% of the time. Other ways to induce the Stop status is Shadow's Stunner blade or Gau's Areneid, Primordite, Chitonid or Bug Rages. In the end, Poltrgeist is the easiest of the three Goddesses to defeat, and that's all due to the Stop status vulnerability. If it hadn't been for that, I would've ranked her in the middle. Poltrgeist is all about the MT violence, and if you have the defenses and elemental resistances to keep up with that, you're basically in the clear even if you choose NOT to apply the Stop status. After you hand Poltrgeist her defeat, the statue will glow and disappear entirely. That's one down, two to go...since the battle between the Goddesses is said to have been an equal one, this means that we should also be able to defeat the other Statues, right? The Aura Lance, by the way, is the strongest Lance in the game although it has no random spell casting whatsoever, so it's difficult to say if Aura Lance's superior Battle Power and non-elemental nature outweigh the 1/4 Pearl spell of the Pearl Lance. With this party, you can just walk through the door and find a nice Save Point for you to heal up and Save. The room is devoid of monsters. Jump down the hole in the ground to reach one of three button tiles in a monster-less room. You can go out and find yourself back with the opposing conveyer belt, but there's no point as this is where this party needs to be. Switch to Party #1! ******************************************************************************** Switch to Party 1 With Party #1, go down and pass through the door Party #3 made for you. Going around will allow you to pass through the room Party #3 fought Guardian in, and eventually into a room where broken test tubes once used by Cid del Norte Marquez surround the statue of one of the three Goddesses, the stone statue of the goddess Doom. Kefka's Tower (Doom room) Scullion (10/16) Innoc, Innoc, Innoc (6/16) Doom's Japanese name was 'Majin', a word many Dragonball Z fanboys should know. It roughly means 'demon'. Once again, going with the three-religion theory, this goddess represents Hinduism, where demons are opposing the several true gods at every turn, which could mean both good fortune and bad luck for whatever human was the target. Doom Level: 73, HP: 63000, MP: 4800 Steal: Safety Bit (rare), Win: Sky Render (always) Absorbs: Ice, Poison, Weakness: Pearl Special: !Demon Rage: Battle x 4, Unblockable Sketch : !Demon Rage, Battle Control: Battle, !Demon Rage Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Battle, !Demon Rage, Ice 3, ForceField, Absolute 0, N. Cross, R.Polarity, Targetting Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: Yes No problems here, Doom doesn't screw with the RNG at all. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No Doom is one heck of an ice queen, I tell you. Luckily, she's also pretty predictable and one-dimensional, which in my opinion makes her quite easy to defeat (certainly easier than Goddess or Poltrgeist once you ignore Stop exists). Her normal moves include the ever-present Battle, Ice 3 spells, the Absolute 0, and the annoying N. Cross attack, from which is easily recovered by a simple Fire spell. Every eight time you'll damage her, she'll use R. Polarity to change the Row of your entire party. Of course, she gets extra mean when you damage her enough. Once Doom hits 32640 HP, the message "Doom's aura is shaking!" appears, and gasp thrice, so it appears to do. By doing this, Doom self-applies the Image, Reflect, and Haste statuses, meaning that you want to cast Dispel to get rid of all three of them and quickly cast Slow or Slow 2 to reduce her speed even further. If Strago knows Reflect???, it will set Slow on Doom when it self-applies Reflect as well. From now on though, she will ignore her ST/MT Ice-elemental violence and focus on but a few select attacks. Every 20 seconds, Doom will use the ForceField attack, which is a Lore Strago will ONLY be able to learn in this battle. ForceField takes an element not previously taken care of by ForceField and completely makes it ineffective. It doesn't matter how strong the caster is or if the target is weak to said element: once the element has been picked, this element will do exactly 0 damage for the duration of the battle. Once all eight elements have been rendered useless, ForceField will do nothing anymore. Aside of ForceField, Doom will use Battle and Targetting. Targetting does absolutely nothing but 'store' that target in her memory, as the very next turn she will use !Demon Rage on that person, period. Should this person suddenly not be available, !Demon Rage will be used on a random person. Of course the game would have us believe that the Targetting move somehow makes !Demon Rage unblockable, but !Demon Rage is unblockable period, so nyeah. That's it! Pretty easy, I'd say. Set Slow at the start of the match, throw up the barriers you like, and pummel Doom with the strongest attacks you have. Strago might appreciate his L? Pearl attack now that you've a) obviously brought him here and b) made sure to rig it into always hitting. It's a bit stronger than the regular Pearl spell and isn't reflected when Doom sets Reflect to herself. Have Gau engage in a Rage that will have him produce non-elemental damage since you won't be able to easily stop him once Doom starts nullifying the elements. The Pearl spell is really useful when Doom is in her 'easy' phase, but beware that you don't waste turns casting 0-damage Pearl spells when she's left said phase. Make sure you don't keep Image, Haste, and Reflect around on Doom: everybody who knows the Pearl spell knows Dispel too, and Terra learned it naturally at level 37. If you brought Locke or Gogo, make sure to steal the Safety Bit before you start damaging Doom; it will be useful later on in the third and last Goddess fight. Doom shouldn't give you that much trouble, really. When another one of Kefka's magical goddess pillars has been broken down, you'll obtain Cyan's strongest weapon. The Sky Render, or Mutsu no Kami, is Cyan's strongest weapon. Since Dispatch will always out damage any Fight attack and Sky Render doesn't have any fringe benefits other than that broken 20% Evade, you won't find it very useful, so you might want to stick with the Scimitar (insta-slice) or Tempest (Wind Slash) instead. When you're defeated Doom in battle, a Save Point will be created for you so you can heal up and saveguard your game. Walk on to find another one of the three conveniently placed together button tiles. Now, switch to Party #2. ******************************************************************************** Switch to Party 2 Kefka's Tower (Goddess room) Outsider, Outsider, Madam (5/16) Hemophyte, Retainer (5/16) Retainer, Retainer, Dark Force (5/16) Dark Force, Dark Force (1/16) With Party #2, the route is exactly like that of the party you just commanded around. Go around to find the door, walk through Guardian's room, and eventually reach a room draped in Imperial symbols and banners. Amidst of them rests the last one of the three goddesses, the statue of the goddess eh... So, we have three goddesses. How shall we name them? How about...Goddess? Before you engage in combat with this Goddess gal, make sure you're properly prepared. Thunder Shlds are a must on every character that isn't protected from Lightning-elemental attacks, but even more importantly is ID protection. Memento Rings and Safety Bits on every possible character. If you followed this walkthrough to the letter, you brought Relm and Shadow here, and have just stolen a second Safety Bit. Obviously, Gau and Gogo will be able to self- apply ID protection with the Rage command, so if you have more characters than ID protection Relics, spare them. Equip the Aura Lance or a Partisan if your resident Dragoon is wielding a Pearl Lance. Goddess was called 'Megami'. It pretty much translates in *gasp* Goddess. It's more along the line of Shinto, Roman or Greek deities though; not quite as omnipotent but rather 'human' in their emotions. I personally feel that Goddess represents the ancient Roman/Greek polytheistic religion(s). She holds a Minerva bustier as a Steal. Minerva was the Roman goddess of (among other things) wisdom and war; her Greek name was Athena. She is the most pronounced 'female' of the three Goddesses. She resembles the character of Athena/Minerva pretty closely; cunning and tricking relate to her battle style (Love Token, Charm), wings are not uncommon on pictures of Athena/Minerva, and Goddess too is shows with a single wing. Within the context of her two fellow goddesses, she comes out the most righteous of the three; Poltrgeist as the evil Satan, Doom as the neutral Hindu demon, Goddess is the 'good' goddess. Goddess Level: 68, HP: 44000, MP: 19000 Steal: Minerva (rare), Win: Excalibur (always) Absorbs: Lightning, Pearl Status: Shell, Haste Special: !Hit: Battle x 1.5 Sketch : !Hit, Battle Control: Battle, !Hit Vulnerable to: Nothing Attacks: Battle, Bolt 2, Bolt 3, Quasar, Lullaby, Flash Rain, Love Token, Charm, Overcast Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: Yes The only attack Goddess uses which ups the RNG is Love Token, which she won't use unless she employs it as a counter to your Fight attack. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No Goddess is in my eyes the toughest goddess to defeat. Not only are there no crippling status ailment weaknesses to exploit (not even Slow!) and no elemental weaknesses, Goddess tends to employ your character for her damage output, and that just plain sucks. Her Lightning-elemental nature isn't your biggest concern as you can easily absorb or nullify those attacks; it's her sneaky manipulation attacks you need to watch out for. Her normal AI script features Battle, Bolt 2, Bolt 3, Lullaby, and Charm. Lullaby is the same MT Sleep-inducing attack as it was versus Still Life, and Charm is still as grotesquely annoying as ever. Since this is the only battle in the game where the danger of Charm isn't limited by quickly the expiring monsters that use it, it might be wise to kill off the character affected to make sure no really horrible things come shooting out of the affected character (X-Zone, Spiraler, Pep Up, Meteor, Ultima all come to mind). When damaged below 32640 HP (that's the critical number of Atma and all the three Goddesses; coincidence?) she actually becomes less of a threat. She'll focus more on plain damaging attacks: Flash Rain, more Bolt 3 spells and the non-elemental barrier-piercing Lore Quasar, which is for all relevant purposes a slightly weaker version of GrandTrain. But we haven't touched the true power of Goddess yet. When she is hit by a Fight command, she has a 1/3 chance of employing the Love Token attack, which I discussed earlier (when facing Barb-e). It basically makes sure every Fight and Special attack your characters perform hit the affected character. This is bad news for the Lockes, Gaus, and Setzers of your party. Fight and Special attacks performed in tandem with the Offering will ignore Love Token though. When damaged in any other way, she might counter with a Bolt 2 spell, which is nowhere near as bad. But here's the kicker, kids! When damaged eight times, Goddess will use her unique Overcast attack. It looks all shwirly and features those cute little angels so far only seen when using Life, Life 2, or Life 3. Now, what does Overcast do? Basically two things. First off (and this would be bad by itself), it sets Condemned on the entire party. This means that once the timer reaches 0, your entire party dies unless you managed to get rid of the timer, either by using Rippler or by dying and reviving. But it's here where the even more dangerous effect of Overcast shows its face. When a character hit by Overcast dies, it doesn't receive the traditional Wound status, but it gets the Zombie status instead. This means that your deceased characters may attack you as well, and that reviving them back to maximum HP is impossible. Thankfully, Big Guard covers the entire team, even in this Side attack. Haste 2 isn't quite as strategic in the area, even though you still may want to speed up every characters, especially since Goddess herself has inherent Haste status. Throw out your most damaging attacks, and know that Goddess her high Magic Defense and inherent Shell status makes sure Ultima, Quake, and Flare are far and away the superior spell choices for your mages (in that order of power, too). Your Pearl Lance Dragoons are useless, as Goddess will absorb their Jump attacks. Switch to the Aura Lance or a Partisan if you haven't already. Make sure you keep an eye out if Love Token is in effect and act accordingly. Goddess is 'back side' is the side without the golden wing. Physical attacks made by characters on the back side will deal 50 % extra damage. This is a great fight to Throw the rare Tack Stars you have, especially when Goddess is facing away from Shadow/Gogo. If Relm is lacking barrier-piercing spells, switch her to the Front Row and use the Punisher to inflict critical damage. You could also have her break Rods or Shields, since all those spells become barrier-piercing. Goddess wil absorb Pearl Rods and Thunder Rods 'nd Shlds, obviously. Quickly throwing out your strongest attacks, covered in Thunder Shlds and Safety Bits, and just having a little bit of luck makes sure Goddess shouldn't be too much of a bother. But lacking those three elements can really break this battle in Goddess's favor so be prepared, keep yourself healed, and make damn sure Charm, Love Token, and Overcast don't catch you off-guard. When you prevail, you'll obtain the legendary sword Excalibur. Its majestic light illuminates the area around you, and you can feel its hunger for justice over the forces of evil. It also stinks. It's Pearl-elemental and as you might expect fairly strong, but since your characters have NO business actually wielding weapons without kick-ass special properties, the Excalibur simply loses out to Illumina and Ragnarok swords, the ValiantKnife, Lances of decent forge for Edgar, and even the store-bought Enhancer. "Defeat the Statues, and magical power will not disappear...Kefka drained the Statues' power, the source of magic...?" If this was the third Statue you bested, you'll notice that nothing really interesting has happened, and one of your characters thinks aloud to him or herself how this is possible. It seems Kefka has drained the Statues of their awesome magical properties (which might explain you beating them in the first place). Next to controlling the magical powers that hold together this world, he has actually ABSORBED these powers into himself. Facing him is a suicide mission for sure, but hey, you've come too far to make it out alive, and you never had much chance to succeed in the first place. All you can do now is press on and face Kefka Palazzo, the man who became a god. Anyway, great, there's a Save Point now. Use it, as it's the last chance you'll get to Save before the final apocalyptic battle between good and evil. That's the kind of thing you really, really want to have a Save option for. Walk on to find the third button tile. If all three parties stand on all three button tiles, three warp beams or whatever they are come down to take you to Kefka. Heal up, make five or six characters you like the best to hog all the awesome relics and equipment and equip useful Espers such as Golem, Fenrir, Palidor, and Bahamut. The amount of attacks you'll face is so large it's impossible to give real advice here. There are a few things that can really help you out, though: - The final battle features a large array of status ailments thrown at you, including an unblockable attack that sets Mute (and Dark) on all characters, a Zombie-inducing Special, two Petrify-inducing attacks of which one is unblockable, etcetera. You'll want to protect your characters from this with Ribbons. Since the MT Mute is possibly the most crippling of all, White Capes make the best alternative when you're all out of Ribbons. - Where Bahamut and especially Palidor can really give a boost to your offenses, Golem and Fenrir are extremely awesome to have around. There are Specials up there that set Zombie and Death, and the final enemy has some extremely powerful physical attacks. Equip them on the characters you plan to take up there. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.71.4 Kefka's Tower: The Final Battle ********************************** Opponents: Short Arm, Long Arm, Face, Tiger, Tools, Magic, Hit, Girl, Sleep, Kefka Miscellaneous items: Atma Weapon (common Sleep steal), Megalixir (common Kefka steal), Ragnarok (common Girl steal) So, that's it. There was never a grand master plan. There was never a hidden motive, a noble cause unknown to us. All Kefka ever wanted was power, and now that he has it all he seeks is destruction. Your happiness infuriates him, as your will and love for life are the polar opposites of everything Kefka is. There is no choice but to end him. Welcome to the final battle of this game. Here's how it works: You get a menu with a Reset option, all the characters names, and an End option. You now pick an order of characters. The first four are the four that will be sent into battle. Every time you defeat a tier and one or more characters suffer from Wound, Petrify, or Zombie, he or she will be removed and the next character on the list takes the empty spot. Reset just resets all the characters you picked so far, and End defaults any openings in your personal list with the natural order of the characters you see on the left side. Every time you defeat a tier, you will be lifted up to fight a new battle. Some battle properties are carried over to the next battle, and some are not. What is carried over: - Current HP/current MP - Statuses and status ailments - The RNG uses for determining Slot possibilities - The temporary Hide status induced by Jump and Palidor's Sonic Dive - If you have executed a Desperation Attack with a character - If you have summoned an Esper with a character What is not carried over: - Rage and Dance status; you will be able to select a new one at the start of the next tier - The effects of ForceField - The effects of Golem's Earth Wall - The status on Cyan's SwdTech bar if you were charging - Runic and Retort 'statuses' A few miscellaneous notes about the final battle: - Strago will not be able to learn Lores in the final battle - Joker Doom cannot be spun in the final battle unless you are facing Kefka himself, in which case it is possible. - All targets in the final battle have Clear immunity, so no combination of Vanish/whatever will work. - No target in the final battle is vulnerable to the powers of Ragnarok's Metamorph. - All targets of the three tiers before Kefka cannot be Scanned, Suplex'd, Controlled, or Sketched. Characters to take up there: - Terra can really dish out some damage up there if you took the time to teach her Flare and/or level 3 spells. If she knows Ultima, take her. If she is equipped with the Gem Box, take her. - Locke is a guy I find particularly useful in the fifth slot. Since he is incredibly more useful in the actual final battle than in the preceding battles, he makes a great back-up unit versus Kefka himself should you lose a character beforehand. - Cyan, even if he does know Quick, isn't all that hot in the final battle. He can do some incredible damage versus Kefka, but he kinda stinks in the other three battles, which are dangerous enough of their own. I advise against him. - Shadow just isn't very special compared to other characters. He has his moments and can Throw, which means TARGET, but with enough Flare casters there's really nothing Shadow can do that other people can't do equally well while having other benefits. - Edgar's Air Anchor is something I personally like to see in the final battle as you can basically use it twice while never having to worry about the struck targets again. Jump is a little too random to be really good, but he's not too bad. If you take him up there, make sure to give him the Aura Lance as one important opponent absorbs the Pearl element. - Sabin's defenses are just crap. He can't target his Bum Rush technique, and it's not much stronger than the tweaked damage output of other characters. I'd say no. - Celes is awesome. Runic is a blessing versus Kefka. A large Magic skillset is a prerequisite, but once she has it, she can work it very nicely. The Minerva bustier to take care of a lot of elements to boot: yes! - Strago's merit lies with Pearl Wind, Big Guard, and GrandTrain, but in my opinion that's not quite enough if he has close to no Magic skillset. If he can help in that department with grey Magic and such, he's a grand competitor. - Sketch and Control is just worthless, so it boils down to nice elemental properties. If she's got a good Magic skillset she can hold her own very well, but if she hasn't, there's no way to take her up there. - Setzer...random damage x 4 (Fixed Dice/Offering) worked like a charm for all those bosses, but now that you have to fight ten targets paired in groups of up to four make Fixed Dice lose quite a lot of shine. Decent versus Kefka like all the other Offering/Quadra guys, but it doesn't work that good versus multiple targets. - Mog is basically Edgar with better defenses and without the Air Anchor. It's an even trade, especially since Mog can pretty much nullify one of the most dangerous attacks Kefka has to offer due to his 255 Defense. If he has that, and some support Magic to help the team, go for it. If not, :( - Gau has the 255 Defense trump card like Mog, and one other grand thing going for him on the SNES release: Offering/Sniper. Dear Lord, with pretty much every target Floating sky-high his damage output will exceed that of the Wind God himself. If he lacks Merit Award capabilities due to you having purchased an inferior version of the game, I wouldn't bother with him at all. - Gogo's bad defenses really, really hurt him, and his ability to assign skillsets doesn't help him enough to warrant usage. - Umaro should only be there if you hate yourself. (Insert rough-sounding equivalent of "let's do this") --- First Tier --- Targets: Short Arm, Long Arm, Face Short Arm Level: 73, HP: 27000, MP: 10000 Steal: Elixir (common) Weakness: Water Special: !VacuumWave: Battle x 1.5 Control: Battle, !VacuumWave Vulnerable to: Mute, Berserk, Slow Attacks: Battle, !VacuumWave Short Arm is incapable of doing anything magical, and will normally just use Battle. It has a 66% chance of countering every damage it takes with Battle too. When it hits 10112, it may start to use !VacuumWave, which is a tad stronger. Did you know '112' is the Dutch alarm number? Long Arm Level: 73, HP: 33000, MP: 10000 Steal: Elixir (common) Weakness: Wind Special: !Red Claw: drains HP Control: Battle, !Red Claw Vulnerable to: Petrify, Death Attacks: Battle, Shock Wave Long Arm is only slightly more inventive than its Short twin and switches between Battle and Shock Wave. When it hits 10240 HP, Long Arm takes a break from the Shock Wave attacks and uses either Battle or does nothing whatsoever. When Long Arm is the last target to be taken out in this first battle, it'll use up to three Shock Wave attacks before going palm-up. Face Level: 74, HP: 30000, MP: 10000 Steal: Elixir (common) Weakness: Fire Special: !Slip Hit: sets Seizure Control: Battle, !Slip Hit Vulnerable to: Nothing Attacks: !Slip Hit, Quake, Safe, Haste, Magnitude8, R.Polarity, Dread 'Tis a Face only a mother could love, I suppose, and since there is no mother to speak of, it only makes sense this creature is captured in a state of continuous furious torment. It doesn't really do a lot normally, very rarely using either R.Polarity or !Slip Hit. Every fifth turn it'll use either Safe or Haste on one of its Arms. Of course, the trouble begins once you pound it enough and it hits 10240 HP. From this moment on it'll never rest and use either !Slip Hit or the Petrify-inducing Dread attack. In this damaged state, every fifth turn may feature Dread, Magnitude8, or R.Polarity. The final notion of Face is that when Face is the last target to be killed, it'll go with a Quake spell. The first tier of the final battle is beyond any doubt the easiest tier, and since every succeeding tier will be more difficult to handle than the previous one, it makes sense to use the relative harmlessness of this titan to your advantage. Start the battle off by reducing the damage you're taking. Take out Long Arm easily by employing an ID attack: either use the Air Anchor on it or cast Break spells until one hits. Now, cast Slow on Short Arm and you're good to go. Make sure that you do NOT summon Golem or Fenrir right now: their effects don't carry to the next tier and you'll need them much more up there. Now that you're just taking !Slip Hits and rare physical hits from the fiend, it's time for your barriers. Haste 2, Big Guard, Regen, Life 3, you've got all the time in the world and there's nothing stopping you from applying all the positive status ailments you see fit to apply. Know that if you brought Terra to this battlefield, you can have her Morph and let her Morph timer run out while she's Sleeping to make her Morph status permanent. If you're done, it's time to finish this titan off. You'll want to take out Face before Short Arm, so focus your attacks on it. Since Face is weak to Fire-elemental attacks, an ST Fire 3 spell leaves a huge dent, as do Thrown Flame Sabres. There's nothing particularly interesting to say about the do's and don't of this battle; focus your powers mainly on Face, as you want to take it out first, and simply inflict damage as efficiently as possible. You've had much more experience with your characters than I have, so go with what has proven itself. --- Second Tier --- Targets: Tiger, Magic, Hit, Tools Tiger Level: 70, HP: 30000, MP: 1000 Steal: Elixir (common) Absorbs: Earth, Weakness: Ice Special: !Doom Tusk: sets Zombie Control: Battle, !Doom Tusk Vulnerable to: Poison Attacks: Battle, !Doom Tusk, N. Cross, Flare Star, S. Cross Tiger will act VERY rarely, but when it does, the effects tend to be less than desirable for your part of this ordeal. Characters that absorb Fire are relatively safe from Tiger's attacks, but those that take full damage aren't experiencing any definition of the term 'lucky day'. Tiger's normal AI script reads Nothing - strong attack - Nothing - 1/3 Battle - loop, but once you pound it below 11520 it'll get mad and start using the strong attacks every turn, with a 1/3 chance of using !Doom Tusk in the same turn afterwards. This frenzied Tiger is far and away the most troublesome opponent of this tier and is priority number one. Since his elemental weakness is the popular and easily exploitable Ice-elemental variant, Ice 3 spells and Thrown Blizzard blades are extremely strong attacks versus the ferocious feline. Did You Know That: Tiger's image is the exact same one as Sabin uses when he executes his Desperation Attack 'Tiger Break'? Tools Level: 73, HP: 24000, MP: 10000 Steal: Elixir (common) Weakness: Lightning Special: !Hit: Battle x 1.5 Control: Battle, !Hit Vulnerable to: Death, Slow, Stop Attacks: Delta Hit, Atomic Ray, Tek Laser, Diffuser, Absolute 0, Missile, Grav Bomb If you thought you had seen the last of these repetitive machines moves when you destroyed the Empire's most powerful weapon, you had better think again. Tools is less than picky with its AI script and will randomly use any of its attacks in any situation with only one quirk: once Tools hits 11520 HP, it'll stop using Atomic Ray and start using the ever-so-slightly stronger Absolute 0 attack. Magic Level: 72, HP: 41000, MP: 10000 Steal: Elixir (common) Weakness: Earth Special: !Hit: Battle x 1.5 Control: Battle, !Hit Vulnerable to: Mute Attacks: Poison, Drain, Ice 2, Bio, Fire 3, Ice 3, Bolt 3, Pearl, Flare, Quartr, Rasp, Mute, Sleep, Muddle, Haste, Stop, Imp, Rflect, Haste 2, Slow 2, Dispel, Life 3 Magic uses spells. A lot of them. It has all kinds of conditions too, so allow me to present it unto you in the following manner: Normal: Poison, Drain, Bio, Fire 3, Muddle, Haste, Imp, Haste 2 30720: Ice 3, Bolt 3, Pearl, Flare, Sleep, Stop, Rflect, Slow 2, Life 3 20096: Ice 2, Fire 3, Bolt 3, Pearl, Flare, Rasp, Mute 10240: Starts using 33% Quartr spell as an omni-counter 5120: Starts using 33% Quartr and up to two Dispel spells as an omni-counter Note that when Magic dies, its Mute status will be removed and its final counter WILL produce results. Hit Level: 73, HP: 28000, MP: 10000 Steal: Elixir (common) Weakness: Poison Status: Float Special: !10 Hits: Battle x 1.5 Control: Battle, !10 Hits Vulnerable to: Berserk, Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, !10 Hits Hit hits you. Every turn it uses Battle. It never rests or does something remotely interesting; it just sits there and pounds every character it can get its hands on. When it dies, it uses !10 Hits once and follows up with nine Battle attacks before croaking for good. Obviously you were supposed to believe the nine Battle hits were part of !10 Hits, but thank goodness you have me to suck the fun out of every single one of those little tricks. :/ You're still buffed up from the previous battle, so there's no need to do it now. Don't touch Golem/Fenrir yet. Start by killing Tools ASAP; once again, the Air Anchor really helps. Doom spells are a suitable replacement. Cast the Mute spell on Magic, or use the Sour Mouth Lore. If Magic managed to set Haste on Hit, cast Slow to counter the effects. Now, you should have killed Tools, crippled Magic into uselessness, and Slowed the inherently inferior Hit. What's left is Tiger. Focus all your attacks on Tiger. Like I said, Ice 3 spells and Thrown Blizzard blades really hurt it. When N. Cross hits home, use a Fire spell to recover. Don't let Zombies roam either; cure immediately and make destroying Tiger a priority over healing as Tiger is the only dangerous opponent on the field and since you're in trouble, he can't be more than 10000 HP away from defeat. Once Tiger is down, recover from any wounds you might've obtained and go for Magic instead. After you've killed Magic (there's no special tricks), you probably have one or more characters who lost their positive statuses due to !Doom Tusk, dying otherwise or Dispel. Re-set them since Hit won't be KO-ing anybody anytime soon and then finally go for the kill of the final part. Hit's !10 Hits shouldn't hurt too bad; even in such large numbers its weak and inaccurate physicals fail to impress. --- Third Tier --- Targets: Girl, Sleep Girl Level: 58, HP: 9999, MP: 10000 Steal: Ragnarok (common) Absorbs: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Poison, Wind, Pearl, Earth, Water Weakness: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Poison, Wind, Pearl, Earth, Water Special: !Calmness: sets Sleep Control: Battle, !Calmness Vulnerable to: Nothing Attacks: !Calmness, Life 2, Pearl Wind Girl just isn't that interesting. Obviously I know the trick to girls in general are smiling and nodding and asking exactly WHY she thinks her golden retriever bitch 'Sandy' is getting depressed, but this Girl is too darn simple to get excited over. Pearl Wind may feature every turn, and !Calmness may make a cameo appearance too. When you dare kill off Sleep before Girl, Girl will respond by casting Life 2 on Sleep, reviving it. Note that Sleep won't grow back to its max HP, but to 9999 HP instead, which is good news for us. Sleep Level: 71, HP: 40000, MP: 10000 Steal: Atma Weapon (common) Status: Float Special: !Calmness: sets Death Control: Battle, !Calmness Vulnerable to: Nothing Attacks: Battle, !Calmness, W Wind, Merton, Condemned, Train, Meteo Girl is just there to keep Sleep around, which is bad enough for you, as Sleep is a particularly nasty enemy to have around. Every odd turn, Sleep may cast either W Wind or Merton, and every even turn, Sleep will either Battle or use Condemned. Since this tends to be a long battle, Condemned quickly becomes a burden. Sleep really goes for the kill once it hits 10240 HP, though. Once you've brought this disaster on yourself, Sleep will use Meteo. Always. Not only this, but it also obtains an omni-counter: 33% Meteo, 33% nothing, and 33% Train, a new attack. Train is unblockable and it sets Dark and Mute, which is pretty bad as unless your characters are White Cape-, Ribbon-, or Rage-protected, they can kiss their Magic and Lore skillset goodbye until they are healed. Once Sleep is killed, it'll use at least one and possibly two !Calmness attacks to set Death on a character, which is pretty bad, since characters killed this way cannot be revived right after and disappear from your team. The first priority of this battle is Golem or Fenrir. As soon as this is in place, Girl needs to go down. It is vital you have non-elemental and targetable attacks to use for this purpose. Edgar's Drill Tool, Shadow's Ninja Stars, Falchions, Tack Stars or Imp Halberds, Fixed Dice, Flare spells, and Ragnarok or Illumina swings are all grand. Obviously, nothing is stopping you from hurting Sleep in the meantime, so GrandTrain and Ultima aren't out of the question either. Taking down Girl can be quite tedious, as she is constantly healed by both her own Pearl Wind attacks and Sleep's Merton spells. If you brought Locke or Gogo with a Steal command, you might try to Steal Girl's Ragnarok sword; if one of your characters is wielding an Enhancer, replace it. Once Girl has been killed, you just need to rough it out with Sleep. Keep yourselves healed and always recover from Train. You just need to bridge the dangerous gap between Sleep having 10240 HP and Sleep having 0 HP, as in this period Sleep simply is strong enough to kill you when his AI script gives him the chance. The best route in the end is to go all-out offensive and give Sleep as little time as possible to use Meteo. When Sleep dies, it'll use either one or two !Calmness attacks. This is why we kept Golem and/or Fenrir around for all this time: avoiding the gruesome fate of a successful !Calmness attack. Having circumvented this dirty last trick, it's time to rise even further up in the Heavens and face the Fallen One himself. --- Kefka --- Boys and girls, can you say "Hallelujah"? The last time we saw Kefka he was giving scary little rants on top of his palace of garbage, much like your average New York drug-addict hobo, but now that we have survived his insane creation he comes descending from above to destroy us personally. I think 'to smythe' is the correct word here. I say, it's not easy to commit deicide, but dammit, we can try. TERRA : I know what love is...! LOCKE : And I have learned to celebrate life...and the living. CYAN : My family lives on inside of me. SHADOW: I know what friendship is... and family... EDGAR : It is my dream to build a kingdom in which I can guarantee freedom, and dignity. SABIN : I have come to experience anew the love of my brother! CELES : I've met someone who can accept me for what I am. STRAGO: I have a special little Granddaughter! RELM : And I have a brave Grandpa who'll stand by me through it all. SETZER: My friend's airship... and her love! MOG : I have my friends here! GAU : You my friends! Me uwaooo all of you! Kefka Level: 71, HP: 62000, MP: 38000 Steal: Megalixir (common) Nullifies: Poison Status: Float Special: !Havoc Wing: Battle x 4 Sketch : !Havoc Wing, Ultima Control: Battle, !Havoc Wing Vulnerable to: Nothing Attacks: Battle, !Havoc Wing, Fire 3, Ice 3, Bolt 3, Meteor, Ultima, HyperDrive, Train, Goner, Revenger Vanish/Doom: No Immunity to Clear status. You ain't getting out this easy, junior. Joker Doom: Yes Note that the RNG of the previous three battles didn't reset, so you're very unlikely to have an appropriate situation. If you really want to spin it, make sure to keep track or something. Ragnarok's Metamorph: No Boys and girls, can you give me that "Hallelujah"? Kefka is a being that has stolen powers capable of pretty much everything. He has seen to it that both Atma Weapons were recreated. He has enslaved the Statues and absorbed their energy. He wields the Light of Judgment with ease. He's mighty powerful, would be the idea to take from this paragraph. So how does the final boss of Final Fantasy VI do battle? He'll start the battle with that demented little speech of his. Characters that were in the air when you defeated the third tier could land from their attacks before he starts it. His first attack is Fallen One, reducing your HP to 1. After that, it's all about physicals, !Havoc Wing, level 3 spells, and that most annoying of attacks, Train. !Havoc Wing is his most popular, and in most instances, the most powerful attack Kefka will perform. As soon as Kefka hits 32640 HP, he gets quite a lot meaner. Calling a head into existence, he'll say "The end comes beyond chaos." and the screen will start to shake. The next turn, he'll execute a Goner attack. Goner is an MT magical non-elemental attack that in terms of pure power is the strongest attack in the game. However, it lacks the barrier-piercing ability, so sufficient Magic Defense should make sure that your characters all survive a single Goner slaughter. After using the entire Goner circus, Kefka will use two attacks for two turns: !Havoc Wing, Train, or Revenger. Revenger is also a new attack: it's like an MT Dispel that only removes positive status ailments. It removes Clear, Image, Regen, Haste, Shell, Safe, Reflect, Life 3, Float. After those two turns, Kefka will once again start to charge up for Goner. 2560 HP from there, at 30080 HP, Kefka will start employing a horrible omni- counter: every damage he takes, he may counter with either Battle or HyperDrive. HyperDrive is an extremely strong attack that's both unblockable and barrier- piercing, so any character struck is likely to die unless he or she was really power-leveled. At 10240 HP, this HyperDrive counter even changes into an Ultima spell, which is obviously even worse, as it's even stronger than HyperDrive, though the power is cut since it targets every character. Keep in mind that Ultima may be absorbed by a Runic blade. HyperDrive and Ultima are NOT employed when Kefka is charging for Goner and until the turn he takes after Goner. This is vital information, as quite frankly, Kefka's counters are what make him a mean opponent. The last 'stage' of Kefka's battle tactic is when he hits 7680 HP, which is when he just charges up for Goner, uses it, cast a Meteor spell, and charges up for Goner again. Meteor is especially troublesome since it cannot be absorbed by a Runic blade. Kefka has a LOT of strong spells that will fly all your fancy elemental protection. The trick here is to keep reviving characters that die (I find this is mostly due to !Havoc Wing attacks) and try to avoid being hit by HyperDrive and Ultima as much as possible. If you can employ the Runic skill, both attacks are vulnerable to its powers so take advantage of that. If not, I suggest you only attack when Kefka is charging for Goner. Locke should definitely try to Steal the Megalixir Kefka possesses; it's a great way to heal up after a Fallen One attack, and the two you obtained from chests might not be enough. Mog should Jump as usual; he's a real asset in this battle since not only will he do a lot of damage, 255 Defense means that he will be practically immune to !Havoc Wing. The same goes for Gau. The best Rages for him are the pure offensive ones. Stray Cat, possibly paired with a Sniper or Man Eater, will really hurt Kefka. Edgar should do nothing but Jump. If you find Cyan up there, try to reach Quadra Slice. Quick is a real asset on Cyan in this battle, as it is in all. For Setzer it's Fixed Dice, which should be obvious. Shadow should first empty your amount of Imp Halberds. Other weapons that are more powerful than Tack Stars/Ninja Stars that you are unlikely to have equipped include Graedus, Stunner, Excalibur, Pearl Lance, Sky Render, Strato, Heal Rod, and Wing Edge. Strago should use GrandTrain. Sabin and Gogo should use Bum Rush. If Terra is Morphed, she should definitely stick to level 3 spells, but if she's not, Flare is the superior option. Relm should just use Flare or level 3 spells too. If Celes is around, I suggest keeping her on Runic stand-by, as it's really awesome in this battle. If it conflicts too much with your other characters, it's a bad idea, obviously, so take a look at what you took up there and decide what's best. Kefka isn't extremely tough; he can just catch you off-guard with some of his most powerful attacks. If you make sure that doesn't happen, he's an entirely beatable final boss. If your characters are all decked out with Quick spells, a Gem Box here, an Offering there, and Ultima everywhere, Kefka is an incredible walk in the park. Boomklatsch! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.72.1 The Ending ********************************** You win. Buy Franzia. Drink it. The Ending is basically you enjoying the song called 'Ending Theme'. It's a wild passepartou of all the character songs you've heard throughout the game. You'll see neat scene of the character in question if you have recruited him or her in the WoR; if you did not do so, you'll get a black-'nd-white image of the place they probably would have called 'home'. I'll give all possible outcomes here. CELES: TERRA! You're back! Note that Terra flies to Kefka's Tower after the fight with Kefka if you never picked her up in Mobliz, and that you could have regained and Leapt Gau in the WoR to get his not-there scene. (If you obtained Cyan:) (A mechanical pathway collapses under Edgar) EDGAR: CYAN! Think you can handle that switch?! CYAN: Machines...I HATE machines! (Cyan hops around the switch. Eventually he gets annoyed and jumps it, which does the trick and extends a pathway) CYAN: You just have to show technology who's boss!! (He laughs while the scene fades out) (If you didn't obtain Cyan:) The music plays while the menu portrait of Cyan Garamonde is shown with a black and white image of the outside of Doma Castle in the background. (Always) (The party meets a split. Setzer throws a coin, which goes to the left. Celes and Edgar go to the left, but Setzer stops them) SETZER: Wait! (The party goes to the right. Just then, an explosion destroys the left door) SETZER: Let's go that way!! Sometimes in life you just have to FEEL your way through a situation! SETZER: Daryl... I'm starting to sound just like you! (If you obtained Sabin:) (Edgar attempts to open a door, but a metal construct comes crashing down. Before it can crush Edgar, Sabin rushes in and holds up the construct while Edgar opens the door) SABIN: I didn't turn my back on the kingdom, big brother... I knew you'd be a better king. I trained hard knowing I might have to help you one day... Now I know why I have these stupid muscles! (The door opens and Sabin throws the construct away. Everybody leaves, leaving Edgar to strike a pose) (If you didn't obtain Sabin:) EDGAR: Where's SABIN when you need him...? EDGAR: Ladies first! (If you obtained Mog:) (A construct collapses underneath Mog and Edgar. Edgar manages to swing himself to safety, but there is no such help for Mog, who's clinging to a pipe) MOG: Heeeeelp! Save me! (Edgar finds a crane and uses it to transport Mog to safety) MOG: The hair!! Watch the hair!!! (Edgar laughs) (If you didn't obtain Mog:) The music plays while the menu portrait of Mog is shown with a black and white image of Tritoch its location in the snowy hills of Narshe in the background. (If you obtained Umaro:) (Celes comes to a crashing halt when she runs headfirst into a locked door) CELES: It won't open! UMARO: U'ghaaaa! (Umaro, rather than opening the door, smashes in an entire wall of garbage to open up a new pathway. Celes looks at Umaro before rushing away) UMARO: U'ghaaaa! (Umaro flexes his muscles) (If you didn't obtain Umaro:) The music plays while the menu portrait of Mog is shown with a black and white image of Tritoch its location in the snowy hills of Narshe in the background. (If you obtained Gogo:) (More metal construction falls apart, trapping Celes and Gogo with a switch and both Edgar and Setzer unable to continue) CELES: Both buttons have to be pressed simultaneously... SETZER: GOGO! Watch CELES and do exactly what she does! (Gogo mirrors Celes's actions and Edgar and Setzer are able to continue. While leaving the room, Gogo is still mimicking Celes and falls into a hole, making eyes in the darkness) (If you didn't obtain Gogo:) The music plays while the menu portrait of Gogo is shown with a black and white image of the bridge jumping puzzle in the Zone Eater cave in the background. (If you obtained Gau:) (Gau halts, looking down the mountain of trash. Celes and Edgar also stop) GAU: GAU find short cut! (Gau uses some kind of slide made out of garbage to crash down the mountain. Celes and Edgar follow a bit later. Gau's all excited, jumping up and down) GAU: GAU find short cut! (Gau throws Celes on a slide, then follows her) (If you didn't obtain Gau:) The music plays while the menu portrait of Gau is shown with a black and white image of the WoB Crescent Mountain cave in the background. (If you obtained Locke:) (Celes rushes out, but leaves a bandana behind) "Come on! This floor's about to break apart!" (Celes returns to pick up the bandana, but the ground metal construct underneath her breaks apart. She manages to hold on, and Locke rushes to the rescue) CELES: LOCKE!! LOCKE: I will not let go... ...I promise! You almost ate it trying to pick up that silly trinket! (The ground starts shaking again, so Locke rushes out, taking Celes with him) (If you didn't obtain Locke:) (Edgar:) Come on! This floor's about to break apart! SETZER: Don't fall! Remember, you promised me you'd do your "Maria" act again! SETZER: What a woman! Your life is hanging by a bandana! CELES: This is my good luck charm... When I found this, my life took a turn for the better... CELES: LOCKE... Promise me someday you'll look after me again?! (Always) (A piece of Magicite comes floating out of Terra's possession) TERRA: Father......? MADUIN: TERRA...we must part now. We Espers will disappear from this world... forever. MADUIN: But if the human part of you is very strongly attached to something or someone... You will probably be able to remain in this world as a human being... (Relm, if you obtained Strago:) (Relm and Strago are walking in the opposite direction of a conveyer belt. Strago is too slow) RELM: Grandpa! Stop goofing around!! (Relm takes Strago and her back) STRAGO: Sorry, dear... RELM: If I hear even a peep out of you, I'm gonna draw your portrait! STRAGO: No! Anything but that! RELM: ... ...but you know... Just once I'd really like to do a portrait of you ...on canvas, of course! STRAGO: RELM! How can you be thinking about pictures at a time like this?! (Relm, if you didn't obtain Strago:) RELM: I won't be done in by an older woman! RELM: Wait a minute, lover boy! RELM: You can't just throw me aside! RELM: How about a nice portrait for you, hmm?! (If you didn't obtain Relm:) The music plays while the menu portrait of Relm is shown with a black and white image of Strago's house in Thamasa in the background. (If you obtained Shadow:) (Shadow goes in the opposite direction of the rest of the party. Interceptor follows him. Shadow shakes his head and sends Interceptor away) SHADOW: Interceptor! Get going! (Interceptor more or less refuses, and comes to his master again) SHADOW: Stay well... (Shadow runs off and hides in a corner) SHADOW: Baram! I'm going to stop running. I'm going to begin all over again... (The rubble starts shaking around Shadow) (If you didn't obtain Shadow:) The music plays while the menu portrait of Shadow is shown with a black and white image of Strago's house in Thamasa in the background. (If you obtained Strago:) (Strago rushes in and tries to grab a crane. It's just out of his reach and the crane goes away) STRAGO: No...NO!!!! A "kid" like me doesn't know the meaning of defeat! (Strago follows and crane and catches it, lowering the crane to pick up Relm as well) STRAGO: Gotcha!! (If you didn't obtain Strago:) The music plays while the menu portrait of Strago is shown with a black and white image of Strago's house in Thamasa in the background. Honestly, when I saw the words 'and you' appear on-screen for that very first time, I felt all tingly inside. All the other stuff you see is mandatory, so there's no point if me writing it out for you. ... Told you they were going to make that horrible baby metaphor, didn't I? ********************************** 5.0 Menus and Game Options: As boring as a concrete floor in math class ********************************** Table of Contents: 5.1 Item 5.2 Skills 5.3 Equip 5.4 Relic 5.5 Status 5.6 Config 5.7 Save Danger: humor void ahead. This is just an explanation of how the menu works. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.1 Item ********************************** There are three functions within Item. You'll start off in Use, where you're able to select and possibly use an item. When moving the cursor on an item, a short description of its use will appear in the second text box. This text box also houses the number of different items you are carrying around. If it's an actual Item (meaning it has no symbol in front of it), a Tool or a Skean there's nothing you can do with it but move it around. If it's anything else, you'll be able to learn more about it by selecting it and pressing the Action button (i.e. , pressing it twice). By doing this, you'll enter a screen which tells you: If it's a weapon, the element it attacks with (if any) and the characters who can equip it. By hitting the 'left' button you can learn if it's compatible with SwdTech, Runic and/or 2-hand (Gauntlet's effect) and its stat boosts (which includes Battle Power). If it's a shield, helmet, piece of armor or relic, the elemental properties of it, divided over 50% damage, absorb, nullifying and being weak to an element. By hitting the 'left' button you can learn about its stat boosts. By pressing 'L' or whatever button you saw fit for taking over its tasks you can jump 10 Items back; by pressing 'R' you'll jump 10 items down. Arrange lets you automatically arrange all the items in your inventory, sorting them out and putting them together in the following fashion: Items - Dirks - Swords - Lances - Knives - Rods - Brushes - Stars - Special - Gambler - Claws - Shields - Helmets - Armor - Tools - Skeans - Relics Rare simply allows you to view the Rare, Key Items you have obtained during your quest. You can't really use Rare Items but they'll be used in events/are necessary to continue, have plot-related value, etcetera. You can select the different Rare Items and marvel at their descriptions. There will also be a number in the second text box to show how many different Key Items you possess. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.2 Skills ********************************** In the second text box you'll see the same info you saw in the menu screen; statuses, Level, HP/MP info. Also, you'll see the name of the Esper equipped here, if an Esper is equipped. To the top-left there's a list of skills. They are only available if the character you selected can actually use the skill. Espers is always available. When moving the cursor on an Esper, you'll notice that in the top text box you'll see a short description of their summon attack. Next to the Esper names is the MP cost displayed their summon attacks require. By selecting an Esper you'll learn about the spells he/she/it teaches, the Learning Rate by which it does so and how well you're underway to learning the spell (obviously, 100 % means you can use it). TO UNEQUIP AN ESPER, SIMPLY CHOOSE AN EMPTY SLOT. In the Magic menu, provided the character in question knows any, you can take a look at all the spells the character knows. If they are simple and white you can use them right now; spells which are usable outside of battle include: Float (to set the Float status, can be MT'd in the menu by pressing L or R) Imp (to set or lift the Imp status) Warp (to Warp out of dungeons outside of battle) Dispel (to remove Float, as that is its only use outside of battle) Cure, Cure 2 and Cure 3 (for healing) Life, Life 2 (for reviving) Antdot (to cure the Poison status) Remedy (to cure Dark, Poison and Petrify) Spells not yet fully learned have a percentage behind them. If you haven't even bothered trying to learn the spell and are stuck at 0 % the spell won't even appear, otherwise the percentage indicates how far you're on your way. If you hit the 'Y' button here, you can swap to a different mode that will let you see how much MP the spells here will take. Spells not fully learned will disappear entirely in this mode. Equipped Relics such as Gold Hairpin (halves MP cost) and Economizer (turns MP cost of every spell into 1) will be taken into account. *This is not an option in the Japanese SNES game. SwdTech allows you to BEHOLD! This is where you could change the SwdTech names in the Japanese version, but the American version just shows the SwdTech moves to you and gives a slight description. Blitz allows you to view the button combination necessary for the Blitz attacks. The names are not shows here, but this is the lay-out: Pummel AuraBolt Suplex Fire Dance Mantra Air Blade Spiraler Bum Rush Lore gives you all the Lores Strago and Gogo can use with their respective MP cost. Rage lists all the Rages you have collected. Nothing more. Skip through them by 16 at a time with L and R if you want to. Dance simply lists the Dances available to Mog and Gogo. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.3 Equip ********************************** You can multi-target the Equip feature by pressing 'left'. Selecting it while MT'd will get you the equipment and relics of all characters, but you can't change them. When ST'd, you enter a screen of the character selected and his equipment. In this screen, you can press L or R to switch between characters. With Equip, you get to select a new piece of equipment for one of the four slots. With Optimum, your equipment will be automatically decided. The decision is based on Battle Power for weapons and Defense for Shields, Helmets, and Armor. There are 10 items that are never equipped with Optimum; these include Drainer, Soul Sabre, Atma Weapon, Imp Halberd, Heal Rod, Cursed Shld, TortoiseShld, Thornlet, Titanium and Imp's Armor, all because their Battle Power/Defense stat doesn't say anything about their actual nature in-battle (except for Thornlet, but with that inherent Seizure, who wants to equip it anyway?). With Remove you can remove a piece of equipment. If a character has no weapons, he or she automatically obtains the semi-weapon of his or her Fists, which add 10 to his or her Battle Power. With Empty, you automatilly de-equip the character of all pieces of equipment, not counting Relics. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.4 Relic ********************************** Like with Equip, you can multi-target it to access the Equipment and Relics of all character without being able to change it. ST'd, you get to appoint new Relics with Equip and remove them with Remove. You can press L or R to switch between characters. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.5 Status ********************************** All information about your character's current situation is displayed with Status. Over the screen, the following information is shown: Name Level Current HP and maximum HP Current MP and maximum MP Status effects currently set Amount of Experience Points needed to obtain the next level Amount of Experience Points gained so far Esper equipped, if any. Commands Stats Like Equip and Relic, you can switch between characters with L & R. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5.6 Config ********************************** - Battle Mode There are two types of Battle Mode: Active and Wait. When Battle Mode is set to Active, all characters and monsters with automatic AI scripts - Umaro, Berserked/Muddled characters, Ragers, Dancers, all monsters unless affected by Control, etcetera - will take actions while you are busy selecting stuff from in-battle menus. When Battle Mode is set to Wait, ATB Gauges will stop when you are selecting a spell/skill/whatever from in-game menus. Unless you have three automatic characters and one character with an extensive menu list - and that's only Throw and Rage -, you'll want to stick to Wait. - Battle Speed You'd expect a general Battle Speed-affecting option to actually affect the entire battle, no? In fact, all that Battle Speed does is control the rate at which monster ATB Gauges fill up. You could say that Battle Speed is more a difficulty-level option. Note that 1 is by no means 'Hard', but 6 is simply 'even easier'. - Message Speed Does NOT handle out-battle text and in-battle dialogue, much to the surprise of well-thinking individuals. The only thing Message Speed controls is the amount of time attack names are seen in-battle when they are used. I see no reason to set it to anything but 1 but I'm sure there's some kind of reason for it as Square would NEVER do anything illogical and/or unnecessary.* * The author of this document does not feel responsible for any actions caused by people actually believing this. - Command Settings You can play this game with a 'Short' menu. The 'Short' feature itself adds very little to the game, but you get to customize the location of the four commands if you hit the action button when you've selected Short in the menu, and these changes affect the Window version menu too (put the Fight command in slot #3 in Short, it'll also be in slot #3 in Window). With 'Window', you'll get the FIGHT RUNIC MAGIC ITEM lay-out, and with the 'Short' version you will get a FIGHT RUNIC MAGIC ITEM lay-out. Whatever gets you hot, I suppose. - Gauge This handles the ATB Gauge of the game. Turning the option 'On' will show you the progress of the ATB bar in-battle for you. Turning it 'Off' will leave it off, making room for the maximum HP next to current HP for your characters: 349~1509 (current HP~max HP) I prefer turning the Gauge on as it's the default option, and I've always played like this; both options have their merits though, so it's up to you. - Sound Stereo or Mono. Oh, the agonies of choice! The peril of decisions! I can't really comment on this feature as I play the game on an emulator, but I'm sure it unfolds exactly as you'd think it would. - Cursor When setting the Cursor option to Memory, the game will remember what action you took and set the cursor for that character at that very command, so you don't need to select Throw and then search for those Shurikens; the cursor will just start on Throw, and after being selected, start on Shuriken. Advised, especially when you're working with an Active Battle Mode. When you set Cursor to Reset, it does none of the above and simply rests on the first command in your character menu. - Re-equip There are certain Relics that force your equipment to be re-decided when you equip or de-equip them. These Relics are the Merit Award, Gauntlet, and Genji Glove. The Re-equip option lets you decide in what fashion this is done: With Optimum, your equipment will be automatically decided. The decision is based on Battle Power for weapons and Defense for Shields, Helmets, and Armor. There are 10 items that are never equipped with Optimum; these include Drainer, Soul Sabre, Atma Weapon, Imp Halberd, Heal Rod, Cursed Shld, TortoiseShld, Thornlet, Titanium and Imp's Armor, all because their Battle Power/Defense stat doesn't say anything about their actual nature in-battle (except for Thornlet, but with that inherent Seizure, who wants to equip it anyway?). - Controller Very strictly speaking, FF VI can be a four-player game! By selecting 'Multiple' under Controller, you can have two different controllers controlling four different characters. Swap your controllers around and have four people control their favorite character. Select the characters and their respective controllers by setting 'Multiple' and pressing the Action button. 'Single' obviously is the standard setting which you'll use almost always. * In the Japanese SNES game, you can also change what the buttons on your controller do. The seven buttons could each be given one of the seven actions: Confirm, Cancel, Menu (summons Menu screen), Party (switches party if possible), Row Change (summons 'Row' command when the menu is 'Short'), Defend (summons Def. command when the menu is 'Short'). - Magic Order Changes the order of your spells. Here are the possibilities: 1: Healing, Attack, Effect 2: Healing, Effect, Attack 3: Attack, Effect, Healing 4: Attack, Healing, Effect 5: Effect, Healing, Attack 6: Effect, Attack, Healing The traditional, default setting is #1 and the way the data in the game is governed is true to #3. It doesn't really matter what you do. - Window Lets you select a background for out-battle dialogue, menus and in-battle spell and event announcements. There's not a lot to say as you can see for yourself what it all looks like; the only thing I can add is that I really, really hope nobody has ever finished the game while using Window #8 :) - Color This allows you to alter all the colors in your window of choice. It works with the traditional fail-proof mixing and matching of 32 shades of Red (R), Green (G) and Blue (B). 0 means nothink, 31 is the hardest/brightest shade of the color. Font handles the letters/numbers/symbols you see on your quest, Window the 7 colors the background is composed out of. If you don't like the changes you've made, you can always reset back to default by standing on Font or any of the colors under Window and pressing the Action button. The large screen will feature your character(s). The one highest on the list is the character you'll see walking around when you're controlling the team. Next to a menu portrait which is directly based off of Yoshitaka Amano's concept artwork, you'll see status icons if they are affected by them, Level info, maximum and current HP and current and maximum MP. By pressing left you'll be able to access the Order function. This way you can switch the leading party member and put the characters in the Front or Back Row, which is the one they'll start each battle with. The 'Cancel' button allows you to leave the Order function. ********************************** 6.0 The Characters. Poor saps. ********************************** Table of Contents: 6.1 Terra Branford 6.2 Locke Cole 6.3 Mog 6.4 Edgar Roni Figaro 6.5 Sabin Rene Figaro 6.6 Cyan Garamonde 6.7 Setzer Gabbiani 6.8 Shadow 6.9 Gau 6.10 Celes Chere 6.11 Relm Arrowny 6.12 Strago Magus 6.13 Emperor Gestahl 6.14 Kefka Palazzo 6.15 Cid del Norte Marguez 6.16 Leo Cristophe 6.17 Banon 6.18 Gogo 6.19 Umaro The following data contains spoilers about their history and current situation. It doesn't so much spoil the story though, as everything listed here already happened before the game starts off. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.1 Terra Branford ********************************** Terra (original name: Tina) Branford Mage Warrior Vigor 31 Speed 33 Stamina 28 Magic Power 39 Battle Power 12 Defense 42 Magic Defense 33 MBlock 7 Evade 5 Equipment: Sword, Helmet, Armor Starting equipment: R-Hand MithrilKnife L-Hand Buckler Head Leather Hat Body LeatherArmor Age: 18 Height: 5'7" Weight: 105 lbs. Birthdate: October 18 Blood Type: ?? Hometown: The Esper World Treasure: A broken piece of Magicite Likes: Animals Dislikes: Crowded places Often pets Moogles. Terra's past is a dark one indeed. Conceived by the Esper Maduin and a human girl called Madonna who one day stumbled into the Esper World, Terra is unique in being the only half-Esper in existence. At the tender age of two, Imperial forces invaded the Esper World, killed Terra's mother Madonna, and took Maduin away to be experimented upon. From that day on, Terra was raised as a biological weapon to work for the Empire, and has never left the laboratories of Vector until she is dispatched for the very first time on a mission in Narshe... - Both general Leo and Celes have known about Terra's existence. - At early development stages, Terra was designed to be male, and she would perish at the end of the game. Special skill: Morph. [MORPH-LINK] When Terra uses Morph, she turns into her Esper form for a while, tapping into the awesome power of these beings. When Terra is Morphed, she will do twice as much physical and magical damage, and take 50 % damage from all non-barrier-piercing magical attacks. Morphing is only temporary, and will wear out in time. The length of the time she can stay morphed depends on the amount of Magic Points she receives (unlike other characters, she will also receive Magic Points if she isn't equipped with an Esper or piece of equipment that teaches spells). The minimum value of the Morph bar is 00, the maximum 256. Her Morph bar will increase with Magic Points gained * 2. You can't Morph if the Morph bar has value 16 or lower. When Morphed, the Morph bar gets more complicated: the entire time you can Morph is set to 65535, and is slowly reduced by the outcome of the following formula: ((65535 / morph duration counter) / 8) + 1 Spoilers ahoy: In the WoR, you have to find her two times before she agrees to join you. In the second time, she'll save your ass against Phunbaba. During this fight she is continuously under the effect of Morph. After the fight, her control over her Esper form is much better, which results in a much more positive Morph bar: ((65535 / morph duration counter) / 16) + 1 In other words, her Morph bar effectively becomes twice as slow. Long story in one sentence: Terra gains Morph energy from Magic Points and loses it when she's in Morph status, so try to save up on your Morph energy for particularly tough battles. Terra is also one of the two characters that learn natural Magic: Level 1 - Cure Level 3 - Fire Level 6 - Antdot Level 12 - Drain Level 18 - Life Level 22 - Fire 2 Level 26 - Warp Level 33 - Cure 2 Level 37 - Dispel Level 43 - Fire 3 Level 49 - Life 2 Level 57 - Pearl Level 68 - Break Level 75 - Quartr Level 86 - Merton Level 99 - Ultima -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.2 Locke Cole ********************************** Locke (original name: Lock) Cole Treasure Hunter Vigor 37 Speed 40 Stamina 31 Magic Power 28 Battle Power 14 Defense 46 Magic Defense 23 MBlock 2 Evade 15 Equipment: Dagger, Sword, Plain Sword, Helmet, Light Mail Starting equipment: R-Hand Dirk L-Hand Head Leather Hat Body LeatherArmor Age: 25 Height: 5'9" Weight: 147 lbs. Birthdate: November 24 Blood Type: O Hometown: ?? Treasure: Bandana Likes: Maps Dislikes: Mushrooms Often takes naps in open fields What we know of Locke Cole's past starts in Kohlingen, where he had a relationship with Rachel, a girl he also went on expeditions with. One time, however, Locke almost tumbled down a pathway that broke away underneath him. Rachel saved him, but opened her eyes with a severe case of amnesia. Her parents blamed Locke for this, and as Rachel didn't know any better, she kindly asked Locke to leave as he was upsetting her parents. Locke, with a broken heart, left. Rachel regained her memory just before an Imperial attack on Kohlingen (which, surprisingly, apparently didn't work out as Kohlingen at no point in the game is occupied), where she was killed. Before she died, however, she said: "If a man named LOCKE returns, please tell him I love him..." When Locke heard this, he devoted his life to bringing her back from the dead. There are legends of a hidden treasure that has the power to restore life. It's in Imperial hands though, and Locke joins the Returners in an effort to make something out of his life during his search for this ancient relic. In the Returners, Locke Cole is the link between Banon and Edgar, king of Figaro and a spy in the Empire. - There is no in-game representation or explanation about his hate for mushrooms whatsoever. Allergy? - At early development stages, Locke Cole was supposed to be a much more angsty character than he turned out to be. - Also, his special skill would have been Runic rather than Steal, which would have made no sense whatsoever. Special skill: Steal [STEAL-LINK] Steal allows a character to, you know, steal. Each monster has two slots in which they can carry items. One slot holds the item you'll most commonly see being stolen, which is generally called the 'common steal'. The other item is the one you'll want, and this is the 'rare steal'. Locke has, when he successfully steals, an 87.5 % chance of going for the common steal, and a 12.5 % chance of going for the rare steal. If one of these spaces is empty, it *will* be ignored in the decision between the two items. If the common steal slot is empty, you're already looking at a 7/8-miss chance before the success rate is decided. Your Steal attempts won't always be successful. Remember, it is the opponent's interest to keep hold of its belongings. The chance of Steal working depends entirely on your level and the opponent's level. Speed is no issue, so raising it won't increase the success rate of Steal. What will make for a better thief is the Sneak Ring. The Sneak Ring doubles your chances at stealing. It won't stack with another Sneak Ring (the +5 on Speed will, but the special effect won't). Steal will let you steal all sorts of items: Healing potions, weapons, armor, relics, you name it. What you can't steal: vital body parts, girlfriends, money, dignity. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.3 Mog ********************************** Mog Moogle Vigor 29 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 12) Speed 36 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 14) Stamina 26 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 33) Magic Power 35 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 12) Battle Power 16 Defense 52 Magic Defense 36 MBlock 12 Evade 10 Equipment: Spear, Hat, Light Armor Starting equipment: R-Hand Mithril Pike L-Hand Mithril Shld Head Body Age: 11 Height: 4'0" Weight: 95 lbs. Birthdate: May 11 Bloodtype: ?? Hometown: Narshe Treasure: The crystal ball given to him by his lover, Kuku Likes: People who pet him Dislikes: People who pull his tail or the red ball on his head Often sings and dances Mog, as a mascot and optional character save for the very beginning, doesn't have a lot of story going for him. We know Mog is male, that he has a girlfriend named Kuku, and that he's living in the caves near Narshe, not bothering much with people's affairs. On occasion, he feeds the Yeti who lives in the area. - Mog is the unofficial mascot of the game, and many more Moogles with the name Mog or a variation on it have appeared in other Final Fantasy games. Special skill: Dance [DANCE-LINK] By using the Dance command, Mog can use the power of the terrain around him. There are eight Dances, each in correspondence with a type of terrain. To learn a Dance, Mog must have completed a battle fighting with a proper background. If he or Gogo himself changes the background (I'll get into that in a bit) he won't learn the Dance. He can be dead by the end of the battle, you can even drag his lifeless body through a battle. Doesn't matter, he'll learn the Dance. Maybe going face-down in the dirt gets him in touch with nature or something zen-esque like that (note: zen teachings in no way involve being dragged face-down through the dirt). There are eight Dances: Wind Song (grasslands and plains of the Overworld Map) Forest Suite (forests of the Overworld Map, Phantom Forest) Desert Aria (deserts of the Overworld Map) Love Sonata (towns and houses; Zozo, the Imperial Palace, the Ancient Castle) Earth Blues (slopes of Mt. Koltz, Floating Continent) Water Rondo (Serpent Trench, Lete River) Dusk Requiem (caves) Snowman Jazz (snowfields) All Dances have four moves listed, with different odds of being used: Wind Song 7/16 43.75 % Wind Slash - MT Wind-elemental attack 6/16 37.5 % Sun Bath - MT healing move 2/16 12.5 % Plasma - ST Lightning-elemental attack 1/16 6.25 % Cokatrice - ST barrier-piercing non-elemental attack that also sets Petrify. Misses if target is protected from ID. Forest Suite 7/16 43.75 % Rage - MT non-elemental attack 6/16 37.5 % Harvester - MT move that removes Dark, Poison, Petrify, Mute, Muddle, Seizure, Sleep, Slow and Stop 2/16 12.5 % Elf Fire - ST Fire-elemental attack 1/16 6.25 % Wombat - ST non-elemental barrier-piercing attack. Doesn't hit Floating targets Desert Aria 7/16 43.75 % Sand Storm - MT Wind-elemental attack 6/16 37.5 % Antlion - ST attack that sets Wound, prevents final counters. 2/16 12.5 % Wind Slash - MT Wind-elemental attack 1/16 6.25 % Kitty - MT move that sets Haste on all characters Love Sonata 7/16 43.75 % Elf Fire - ST Fire-elemental attack 6/16 37.5 % Specter - ST attack that sets Muddled 2/16 12.5 % Snare - ST attack that sets Wound, prevents final counters 1/16 6.25 % Tapir - MT move that removes Dark, Zombie, Poison, Imp, Petrify, Condemned, Mute, Berserk, Muddled, Seizure, Sleep, Slow and Stop; also restores HP and MP back to full when the target has the Sleep status. Earth Blues 7/16 43.75 % Land Slide - ST non-elemental barrier-piercing attack 6/16 37.5 % Sonic Boom - ST attack that deals (current HP * 0.625) damage. Also sets Seizure 2/16 12.5 % Sun Bath - MT healing move 1/16 6.25 % Whump - ST non-elemental barrier-piercing attack. Doesn't hit Floating targets Water Rondo 7/16 43.75 % El Nino - MT Water-elemental attack 6/16 37.5 % Plasma - ST Lightning-elemental attack 2/16 12.5 % Specter - ST attack that sets Muddled 1/16 6.25 % Wild Bear - MT healing attack, removes all status ailments. Dusk Requiem 7/16 43.75 % Cave In - ST attack that deals (current HP * 0.75) damage. Also sets Seizure 6/16 37.5 % Snare - ST attack that sets Wound, prevents final counters 2/16 12.5 % Elf Fire - ST Fire-elemental attack 1/16 6.25 % Pois. Frog - ST Poison-elemental attack, also sets Poison Snowman Jazz 7/16 43.75 % Snowball - ST attack that deals (current HP * 0.5) damage. Also sets Seizure 6/16 37.5 % Surge - MT Ice-elemental attack 2/16 12.5 % Snare - ST attack that sets Wound, prevents final counters 1/16 6.25 % Ice Rabbit - MT healing move Every battle is 'home terrain' to one Dance; you could learn the Dance in the battle, and when executing the Dance in this area Mog will never fail. If you try to use a Dance other than the one learned by the area, there's a 50 % chance Mog will stumble, aka do nothing that turn other than falling down. If you do manage to execute the Dance in alien surroundings, the background will change to accommodate the new Dance (if the Water Rondo is successfully executed in the desert, the background will change to an underwater battlefield). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.4 Edgar Roni Figaro ********************************** Edgar Roni Figaro Mechanic Vigor 39 Speed 30 Stamina 34 Magic Power 29 Battle Power 20 Defense 50 Magic Defense 22 MBlock 1 Evade 4 Equipment: Spear, Sword, Knight Sword, Helmet, Armor Starting equipment: R-Hand MithrilBlade L-Hand Buckler Head Leather Hat Body LeatherArmor Age: 27 Height: 6'0" Weight: 169 lbs. Birthdate: August 16 Blood Type: O Hometown: Figaro Treasure: Two-headed coin Likes: Ladies Dislikes: Lectures and the people who give them Often creates odd weapons and redecorates his room Edgar Roni Figaro has been born a prince to the throne of Figaro, together with his twin brother Sabin Rene Figaro. His mother died at childbirth. At the age of 14, Edgar participated in the 'hunting of the Antlion', a Figaro rite of passage into adulthood. With the help of his brother, he succeeded. When Edgar was 17, the Empire poisoned his father, Stewart Remy Figaro. At this point, Sabin decided he wanted out of his role as the next successor of the throne, and Edgar proposed a coin toss. Picking "heads" for Sabin, he threw a coin with on one side his own face, and on the other side Sabin's. For the dense among you; he was cheating, making sure that Sabin would win. Sabin accepted his victory and ran away, leaving Edgar as the new king of Figaro. As the king, he has no choice but to play nice when the Empire is looking. In the meantime, Edgar hasn't forgotten which nation had his father murdered, and collaborates with the Returners. - At the age of 15, Edgar got into trouble for hitting on the wife of his uncle. - Gold is the color of sand, blue the color of water. This is why Edgar always dresses in yellow and blue. - Blue eyes are a sign of nobility in Figaro, which is a good thing for Edgar as his eyes are so blue it's downright creepy. Special skill: Tools [TOOLS-LINK] Edgar has eight different Tools he can use, but you'll have to acquire them first. One Tool is enough; multiple copies of the same Tool have no added effect, and Tools will never break or wear out. AutoCrossbow - MT physical, non-elemental damage NoiseBlaster - MT, sets Muddled on all targets Bio Blaster - MT magical, poison-elemental damage and the 'Poison' status effect Flash - MT magical, non-elemental damage Drill - ST physical, barrier-piercing damage Chainsaw - ST physical, barrier-piercing damage. Has a 25 % chance of going for an instant kill Debilitator - Adds an elemental weakness to a single target Air Anchor - Makes a single target die upon the next turn -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.5 Sabin Rene Figaro ********************************** Sabin (original: Mash/Matthew) Rene Figaro Blackbelt Vigor 47 Speed 37 Stamina 39 Magic Power 28 Battle Power 26 Defense 53 Magic Defense 21 MBlock 4 Evade 12 Equipment: Knuckles, Hat, Light Armor Starting equipment: R-Hand MetalKnuckle L-Hand Head Leather Hat Body Kung Fu Suit Age: 27 Height: 6'3" Weight: 233 lbs. Birthdate: August 16 Blood Type: O Hometown: Figaro Treasure: Two-headed coin Likes: Nuts Dislikes: Nut-Eaters (a specific kind of weak monster resembling a squirrel) Often trains. Sabin Rene Figaro has been born a prince to the throne of Figaro, together with his twin brother Edgar Roni Figaro. His mother died at childbirth. At the young age of 3, Sabin is attacked by a Nut-Eater (a squirrel-like monster), and he developed a severe disliking for them. At the age of 8, Sabin became very ill, which is a trend in the family. To restore his health and build up resistance, Sabin began his physical training (not under Duncan yet, though). At the age of 14, he succeeded in passing into adulthood by catching an Antlion with his brother Edgar, even though Sabin was very ill. At the age of 17, his father died. Sabin took this very poorly. He developed hatred for the Empire and for those who were already busy with the preparation of the installment of the new successor. He told his brother he had enough and wanted to leave. Edgar suggested a coin toss, and picked "heads" for Sabin. Sabin never knew that Edgar cheated in the coin-toss, throwing a double-headed coin ensuring victory for Sabin. Sabin won and left the castle. After a certain period of time, he met master Duncan, who accepted him as his pupil in the martial arts. - His original Japanese name is supposedly derived from the apostle Matthew. Special skill: Blitz [BLITZ-LINK] Sabin can execute the Blitz attacks by means of pressing the correct button sequence. Blitz attacks are learned by gaining levels: Level 1 - Pummel - ST physical, non-elemental barrier-piercing attack Level 6 - AuraBolt - ST magical, Pearl-elemental attack Level 10 - Suplex* - ST physical, non-elemental barrier-piercing attack Level 15 - Fire Dance - MT magical, Fire-elemental attack Level 23 - Mantra - Heals all characters but the caster for the amount of the caster's current HP / number of characters. Level 30 - Air Blade - MT magical, Wind-elemental attack Level 42 - Spiraler - Heals all characters and removes negative status effects. Kills caster Level 70 - Bum Rush - ST magical, non-elemental barrier-piercing attack The Blitz techniques can be executed as follows: Pummel : Left, Right, Left AuraBolt : Down, Down/Left, Left Suplex : X, Y, Down, Up Fire Dance : Left, Left/Down, Down, Down/Right, Right Mantra : R, L, R, L, X, Y Air Blade : Up, Up/Right, Right, Right/Down, Down, Down/Left, Left Spiraler : R, L, X, Y, Right, Left Bum Rush : Left, Left/Up, Up, Up/Right, Right, Right/Down, Down, Down/Left, Left An alternate way to do Blitzes which most people find more fail-proof and easier to input, is by converting the diagonals into double arrow input. This means for four of the Blitz techniques the following: AuraBolt : Down, Down, Left Fire Dance : Left, Left, Down, Down, Right Air Blade : Up, Up, Right, Right, Down, Down, Left Bum Rush : Left, Left, Up, Up, Right, Right, Down, Down, Left -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- * Suplex is a special attack that needs its own paragraph. It has its own "cannot be Suplex'd" byte in the game so it deserves it. Suplex deals double damage when only one opponent is around. Code-wise, it would be better to say that it deals half damage when more than one opponent is on the battlefield. However, since Suplex can never target more than one opponent at a time, it would seem like it deals double damage when only target is around, and that's also how at least one Square-approved piece of media. Furthermore, there are quite a few monsters that cannot be Suplex'd at all. Rain Man, Apokryphos, Whisper, Rhodox, Pterodon, FossilFang, Doom Drgn, Dark Wind, Vulture, Harpy, Trapper, Hornet, CrassHoppr, Trilium, Bloompire, Hoover, Chupon 12, Sky Armor, Telstar, Vaporite, Ing, Brainpan, Bomb, Still Life, Boxed Set, Mover, Aspik, Ghost, Dark Side, Crawly, Joker, Goblin, Apparite, Peepers, Wyvern, Zombone, Cirpius, Gobbler, Harpiai, Drop, Mind Candy, WeedFeeder, Over Grunk, Sky Cap, Land Worm, Chaser, Poplium, Misfit, Grenade, Pan Dora, Parasite, Hipocampus, Spectre, Slurm, Outsider, Parasoul, Pm Stalker, Poppers, Vindr, Rinn, Insecare, Black Drgn, Wirey Drgn, Psychot, Karkass, Balloon, Spit Fire, Lich, Osprey, Bug, Aquila, Junk, Mandrake, Necromancr, Trixter, Woolly, Veteran, Mega Armor, Vargas, Shiva, Ifrit, Number 128, Inferno, Crane, Crane, Air Force, Tritoch, AtmaWeapon, Tentacle x4, Doom Gaze, Chadarnook, Doom, Goddess, Poltrgeist, Kefka, Ultros 1234, Siegfried, Blades 4, Kefka (Narshe), Storm Drgn, Skull Drgn, Piranha, Rizopas, Final Battle Components, Naughty, Zone Eater, Atma That's quite a list. What you need to remember is this, though: Suplex picks an opponent from the ground and slams it, after leaping in the air, back into it. Logic tells us that, for instance, flying enemies can't be picked up from the ground. In summary, you can be almost entirely sure your Suplex attempt will fail if the opponent is: (PL means 'palette swap', meaning the sprite is the same, the colors (palette) is different) - Emerging from the ground in one way or another (Rhodox PL, Hoover PL, Crawly PL, FossilFang PL, Trilium PL, Apokryphos PL, Cranes, Ultros 1, Doom, Goddess, Poltrgeist, Tentacles) - Attached to the wall or ceiling (Trapper PL, Still Life, Chadarnook) - Attached to other 'monsters' (Number 128, Inferno, the four blades that go with these bosses, Air Force, Laser Gun, MissileBay, all targets in the final battle. - Obviously flying as opposed to floating opponents (Joker PL, Pterodon PL, Dark Wind PL, Vulture PL, Harpy PL, Hornet PL, CrassHoppr PL, Sky Armor PL, Telstar PL, Veteran, Speck, Doom Gaze, Kefka) - Weird opponents of which you kinda guessed they flew but couldn't be really sure of (Whisper PL, Vaporite PL, Ing PL, Bomb PL, Boxed Set PL, Aspik PL, Mover, Ghost PL, Naughty PL, AtmaWeapon PL) - Fish throwing themselves out of a waterfall just to bite you in the knee (Piranha PL) - Miscellaneous: Chupon, Brainpan, Hipocampus, Outsider, Woolly, Mega Armor, Vargas, Shiva, Ifrit, Tritoch, Ultros, Siegfried, Kefka (Narshe) If you command Sabin to use Suplex in a monster formation which contains monsters both susceptible and immune to Suplex, Sabin will always go for the targets he can Suplex; in other words, Sabin will never miss unless he really can't get anything done with Suplex. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Bum Rush can be learned at level 70, but also through a plot-related event. Spoilers ahoy: In the WoR, you can find Duncan training by himself near Narshe. Enter his house by finding the five trees that form a cross and enter the middle one. By bringing Sabin, you'll see a cutscene in which Sabin completes his training. When the cutscene is over, Sabin will know Bum Rush. He will not know any of the other Blitz techniques he has yet to acquire, though. Spoilers end. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.6 Cyan Garamonde ********************************** Cyan (original: Cayenne) Garamonde Knight Vigor 40 Speed 28 Stamina 33 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 32) Magic Power 25 Battle Power 25 Defense 48 Magic Defense 20 MBlock 1 Evade 6 Equipment: Katana, Helmet, Armor Starting equipment: R-Hand Ashura L-Hand Buckler Head Leather Hat Body LeatherArmor Age: 50 Height: 5'10" Weight: 158 lbs. Birthdate: January 3 Bloodtype: A Hometown: Doma Treasure: A watch with a picture of his family in it Likes: Tradition Dislikes: Machines He keeps a collection of antique weapons Cyan is the retainer to the King of Doma, King Doma (silly, isn't it?), and was retainer to King Doma's father too. Doma has been at war with the Empire for a while now, but the Empire hasn't made a full-scale attack on its castle yet. Cyan has a wife, Elayne, and a son, Owain. Special skill: SwdTech [SWDTECH-LINK] Cyan can execute SwdTech skills by charging up. The bar will start at SwdTech 1 and will charge up to the most sophisticated SwdTech Cyan knows, ultimately 8, and will start at 1 again. To pick a SwdTech, press the action button when the SwdTech bar has reached the SwdTech you want to perform. New SwdTech skills are learned as Cyan levels. Level 1 - Dispatch - ST non-elemental, barrier-piercing attack Level 6 - Retort - Allows the user to counter the next physical attack directed at him with an ST magical, barrier-piercing attack. Level 12 - Slash - ST attack that cuts the target's current HP by 50 % and sets Seizure. Level 15 - Quadra Slam - Four physical, non-elemental attacks Level 24 - Empowerer - Drains HP and MP from a single target Level 34 - Stunner - MT magical, non-elemental attack that also sets Stop Level 44 - Quadra Slice - Four physical, non-elemental barrier-piercing attacks. Level 70 - Cleave - MT attack that sets Wound and prevents final counters. All SwdTech skills can also be acquired through a plot-related event. Spoilers ahoy: In the WoR, you can take Cyan (and three other characters) to the derelict Doma Castle and sleep in one of the bedrooms. Cyan will not wake up, three demons will leap into his mind to feast on his soul and you'll follow him. When the dungeon is over, Cyan will have met his former demons and have cleared his soul of its impurity and confusion. He will have obtained an Aura katana and have learned all eight SwdTech skills, regardless of his level. Spoilers end. - In the Japanese version of the game, you can rename your SwdTech skills. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.7 Setzer Gabbiani ********************************** Setzer Gabbiani Gambler Vigor 36 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 32) Speed 32 Stamina 32 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 31) Magic Power 29 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 28) Battle Power 18 Defense 48 Magic Defense 26 MBlock 1 Evade 9 Equipment Cards, Dice, Helmet, Armor Starting equipment: R-Hand Cards L-Hand Mithril Shld Head Bandana Body Mithril Vest Age: 27 Height: 5'9" Weight: 106 lbs. (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide claims it's 136) Birthdate: February 8 Blood Type: AB Hometown: ?? Treasure: The "Blackjack" Likes: Serious duels Dislikes: Quitting, easily scared people Setzer is often found playing Solitaire When Setzer Gabbiani was about 18 years old, he wasn't the only airship pilot in the world, and he wasn't a gambler either. Next to his Blackjack, there was the Falcon, an airship owned by his friend Daryl. Their friendship and simultaneous rivalry revolved around their airships. One day, Daryl pulled an Icarus; in an attempt to go even higher, even faster, she disappeared for a while. Much later, the wreck of the Falcon was found. Setzer made a huge memorial for his friend near Kohlingen, and stored the Falcon there as well. Setzer is a very rich man who enjoys breaking a rule or two when it suits his fancy. He's a big fan of operas, and especially has a thing for Maria, a famous and gorgeous opera singer. - Setzer is an albino. - Setzer's facial scars are as a result from an airship crash. - His first name is German and means 'he who places a bet'. - While initially equipped with a Bandana, he can't actually equip it, so as soon as you take it off you can't get it back on. Special skill: Slot [SLOT-LINK] Setzer is a gambler, but also, he's a Gambler. It's his Class. His weapons are all game-based (either cards, darts or dice), and his special skill involves the most prominent of Las Vegas imagery: the Slot machine. You spin it, you win it. Most of the time, anyway. On a normal, losing spin, you get minor recovery. If you're really unfortunate (as in, really, really unfortunate), you roll Snake Eyes and cast Joker Doom on your own party. Quick run-down to his abilities: Three diamonds: 7-Flush Non-elemental damage to all opponents Three Chocobo's Chocobop Non-elemental barrier-piercing damage to all opponents that doesn't hit Floating enemies Three airships H-Bomb Non-elemental damage to all opponents. Stronger than 7-Flush. Three dragons Mega Flare Non-elemental barrier-piercing damage to all opponents. It's the same attack you get when you summon the Esper Bahamut, which you won't get for a quite some time. Three BAR symbols A random Esper is summoned, not including Odin and Raiden. There's a small chance (1/25) this will produce Crusader, whose Purifier attack hits you as well, meaning death early on. 7 - 7 - BAR Joker Doom Instant death to your entire party. Characters in the air from a Jump attack are spared, and Life 3 restoration can prevent a Game Over. Three 7's Joker Doom Instant death to the enemy party. There are some battles where this cannot be rolled. Anything else Lagomorph Small amount of restoration to the entire party. Also cures Dark, Poison and Sleep. 7-Flush and Chocobop, the weakest attacks Setzer can produce, can be rolled under any circumstance. The other attacks can be impossible to obtain in certain situations despite the fact your timing is perfect. It can be complicated for some, and due to its technical nature, I don't think it has a place in this document. Master ZED's Slot ability Guide covers it most thoroughly; try to find it. For even more information: [SLOT-LINK2] - The WoB Ragnarok trick How does WoR equipment in the WoB sound to you? Fire absorption where you really aren't supposed to be able to do it? Sounds good? Don't get your hopes up... The WoB Ragnarok trick is, in reality, an illusion. It's possible, yes. It doesn't exploit bugs, no. But the odds are so astronomically small that even when you're abusing Save States on an emulator, you're likely to spend hours getting it to work. The pay-off can be very nice but it still isn't worth it. This is the trick: Setzer's 3-BAR summons a random Esper, which can include any Esper except for Odin and Raiden. Ergo, there's a small chance that Ragnarok will be summoned (1 in 25). Some WoB monsters will transform into nice items. Examples: Crystal equipment from ProtoArmor Striker, Assassin or Trump from Ninja Marvel Shoes from SlamDancer Flame Shld from Chimera, Grenade and Bomb Ogre Nix from HadesGigas I think the most useful items here are Flame Shlds and Marvel Shoes, although the others wouldn't hurt your cause whatsoever. Why is this only in theory? Let's calculate: Through the Magicite item, you'll never get this to work due to the way the RNG table of FFIII works. This with the exception of all but the That means you have to set up Setzer in such a way that he'll be able to pull off BAR-BAR-BAR. Then: 4 % (Ragnarok odds) 12.5 % (odds that Ragnarok actually hits one of these critters) 25 % (good item odds, as in the case of Marvel Shoes/Flame Shld and Ogre Nix, the other 75 % will get you a Tonic) The final odds are 0.125 % of getting the item you desire. That's 1 in 800. Assuming you can use all items (ProtoArmor/Ninja), that's 0.5 %, or 1 in 200. Note: Just because I'm horrible like that, I once managed to land a Crystal Helmet against a ProtoArmor on the Veldt after half an hour. I also have a failed attempt at a Flame Shld on my record; I give up after about an hour of trying. So, like I said, while the trick makes for interesting trivia, only a dog of a man would scrape an advantage out of this trick, like leftovers from a plate. - The Echo Screen/Joker Doom trick. To properly explain this trick (and for you to understand it completely), I'll have to get a little technical. If you want the full version, go visit masterzed.cavesofnarshe.com and find Master ZED's Slot ability Guide. For the very, very short version: All Slot attacks other than 7-Flush, Chocobop and Lagomorph (H-Bomb, Sun Flare, BAR-BAR-BAR and the two Joker Doom attacks) can randomly not be used as the game will skip over the necessary slot outcome, even if your timing is perfect. To determine if an attack is allowed or not, the game uses a little routine called an RNG: a Random Number Generator. Think of it as a pair of dice. Not the fuzzy kind for you car, mind you (although those are awesome). The problem is, a microprocessor (the little thingy that makes the game work) is purely logical, and there's nothing random about it. Instead, the 'RNG' is affected by certain spell animations. Every battle, the RNG starts at 00. Certain RNG values allow certain attacks. 00 allows nothing. This is why you will NEVER use Joker Doom as the first attack in a battle, EVER. For H-Bomb and BAR-BAR-BAR, half of the RNG values will allow it. For Sun Flare, one quarter of the RNG values will allow it. For Joker Doom the Good and Joker Doom the Bad, only 3.125 % will allow it; that's eight values out of the possible 256. Echo Screen and Smoke Bomb are the only two attacks you will be able to use that set the RNG from its original position of 00 to a position that allows EVERY Slot outcome, including Joker Doom. Obviously, Smoke Bomb tends to make you run away, so Echo Screen is the more canonized version of the trick. If you make sure no other influential spell animation has been used between using the Echo Screen and initiating Slot, the only thing you'll need to worry about is timing. Again: this is just the poor man's version of the explanation. I really suggest you go read Master ZED's document. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.8 Shadow ********************************** Shadow (real name: Clyde Arrowny) Ninja Vigor 39 Speed 38 Stamina 30 Magic Power 33 Battle Power 23 Defense 47 Magic Defense 25 MBlock 9 Evade 28 Equipment: Ninja Sword, Hat, Light Armor Starting equipment: R-Hand Imperial L-Hand Head Body Ninja Gear Age: ?? (at least older than 25, most likely somewhere between 35 and 40) Height: 5'10" Weight: 145 lbs. Birthdate: ?? Bloodtype: ?? Hometown: ?? Treasure: A watch with somebody's picture in it Likes: Hard-boiled eggs Dislikes: Dreams Clyde Arrowny was a thief who one day over-did it when he robbed a train of one million GP together with his partner, Baram. At this point Baram thought of the name Shadow for Clyde, but Clyde did not use it. While escaping with the loot, Baram was wounded and asked Clyde to kill him, as he did not want to be captured. Clyde couldn't bring himself to do this and ran off. Later, a weakened Clyde arrived in Thamasa. A period of time passed in which Clyde befriended the dog Interceptor. Eventually, he left Thamasa, as he wanted Interceptor and 'the girl' to live in peace. Interceptor followed him, though. Since then, the mercenary Shadow has walked the earth, earning money wherever he can. Shadow is known for his ruthlessness and the company of his dog, which mauls anyone that dares to come near it. Special skill: Throw [THROW-LINK] When Shadow Throws a weapon, it's gone for good. Don't worry though; there are three kinds of Shuriken specially designed for Throwing: Shuriken (Battle Power: 86) Ninja Star (Battle Power: 132) Tack Star (Battle Power: 190) When a weapon is thrown, it will become barrier-piercing, Row-ignoring and Unblockable and deal twice as much damage as it normally would with these properties. All special properties of the weapon thrown are disregarded, but elemental features still apply. There are also five scrolls for Shadow to 'Throw', which allow him to use the ancient Ninjutsu magic: Fire Skean - MT magical, Fire-elemental attack Water Edge - MT magical, Water-elemental attack Bolt Edge - MT magical, Lightning-elemental attack Shadow Edge - sets Image on the user Inviz Edge - sets Clear on the user Special status: Dog Block [INTERCEPTOR-LINK] Shadow travels the world with his dog, Interceptor. Interceptor will be a random ally in-battle, and will make Shadow's appeal even greater when it comes to killing things most efficiently. When it has been decided that a physical attack would normally hit Shadow, after taking into account Clear (but before Golem, Image and Magic Block), there's a 50 % chance that Interceptor will block a physical attack for you. If you actually get an Interceptor block animation, there's a 50 % chance that Interceptor will use a counter-attack (but never against another character): Takedown is an ST magical non-elemental barrier-piercing attack (1/2). Will not hit Floating enemies. Wild Fang is an ST magical non-elemental barrier-piercing attack (1/2). Will not hit Floating enemies. Stronger than Takedown. Interceptor is considered to have a Defense of 192 for purpose of damage calculation, but unlike Golem, he will never run out of HP. There's only one instance where Interceptor will not cover for Shadow, and this is the Floating Continent, as Interceptor is in Thamasa at the time. Also, due to a bug in the Rippler move, it's possible to swap Dog block to a monster or another character! Monsters that use Rippler are Reach Frog and Blue Dragon. If you kill the monster in question before you use Rippler yourself, the Interceptor will be GONE from the battlefields. FOREVER. However, by using Rippler on a monster that used Rippler itself or setting Muddled on somebody who is about to use Rippler can make any character obtain Shadow's Dog Block status. Shadow will never regain Interceptor and the character in question will never lose Interceptor. Unless, obviously, you choose to mess with Rippler again and you swap him to another character/back to Shadow. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.9 Gau ********************************** Gau Wild Child Vigor 44 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 15) Speed 38 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 16) Stamina 36 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 14) Magic Power 34 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 21) Battle Power 99 Defense 44 Magic Defense 34 MBlock 18 Evade 21 Equipment: Hat, Light Armor Starting equipment: R-Hand L-Hand Head Body Age: 13 Height: 5'2" Weight: 110 lbs. Birthdate: April 5 Blood Type: B Hometown: The Veldt Treasure: A teddy bear he was holding when he was thrown onto the Veldt Likes: Shiny things Dislikes: Clothes, especially formal clothes Gau was born in a dysfunctional house. His father was unstable and an alcoholic, and his mother passed away at birth. Something in the mind of Gau's father snapped at the sight of his son, and he 'realized' the mother of his child had given birth to a monster. Horrified, he took the baby to the Veldt, where all other monsters breed. He abandoned the kid there, and over the years told himself it had all been a dream. Gau, in the meantime, did not die; he was accepted and raised by the monsters of the Veldt. Although life on the Veldt is a never-ending struggle for food, it has merely honed his battle skills. On occasion, he steals shiny things from the nearby village Mobliz. - Gau distinctly dislikes being anywhere but solid land. He doesn't like being either in or on water, and flying is much the same. Special skill: Rage and Leap [RAGE-LINK] Short version (only, in reality, the longer): http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/snes/file/final_fantasy_iii_rage_a.txt Long version (only, in reality, the shorter): When selecting Rage by using the arrow keys (yes, they're used in this game) and actually using the action button, a menu screen will appear where you can pick between every Rage you have. Select one, and watch how Gau and/or Gogo gets into a killing frenzy, randomly switching between a normal Battle command and a special attack every turn, automatically, until the Rage user is either killed or victorious. At first glance. There is a Rage for pretty much every random encounter monster in the game, and even a few odd bosses here and there. Every Rage is named after its corresponding monster. There is the Brawler monster at Mt. Koltz, and there is the Brawler Rage. When Gau or Gogo selects the Brawler Rage, he will become the Brawler in several aspects. Not only will he randomly perform a specific attack 50 % of the time, he will adopt elemental attributes, inherent statuses, and special properties of this monster. Confused yet? Let's look at Brawler. This monster absorbs Poison-elemental attacks. As soon as Gau takes his first turn in this Rage, he will start absorbing Poison. Elemental properties are always handled in such a way that the most positive outcome for the target is determined, not counting ForceField (which rules all) and having no special treatment, which is always overruled. So, if Gau's equipment says he should absorb Ice-elemental attacks, yet his Rage says he should be weak against it, the absorbing will prevail. In other words: ForceField --> Absorbing --> nullify --> 50 % damage --> weakness Let's look at another monster. Let's look at Apokryphos, a creature from the Floating Continent. This monster is immune to certain status ailments. For Apokryphos, these status ailments are: Zombie, Poison, Imp, Condemned, Near Fatal, Berserk, and Muddled. Upon entering the Apokryphos Rage, Gau and/or Gogo will become immune to these status ailments as well, effectively protecting him from every single one of these life-threatening ailments without having to sacrifice a Relic slot. The status ailments Rage can protect against are: Dark, Zombie, Poison, Clear, Imp, Petrify, Condemned, Near Fatal, Image, Mute, Berserk, Muddled, Seizure, Sleep, Slow, Stop and finally Wound. Note that Death protection doesn't really include being immortal. Death protection will grant Gau the same effects Relm and Shadow receive from the Memento Ring (and every character from the Safety Bit): he will be immune to death-based attacks such as Demi, Missile, and Dischord. Also, note that some of these sudden status protections will appear more positive than negative (Clear, Image, Berserk). You'll have to live with it :) I told you about special properties, right? The properties I was talking about are these three: Die if MP = 0, Human, and Undead. Die if MP = 0 is a pesky property that you don't really want but isn't really harmful either. When the MP of the Rage user reaches 0 by means of an MP attack (Rasp, Osmose), the Death status will automatically be set. A grand total of two enemies I can come up with use Rasp, so you should have no fear. Human is a very slight property that only comes into play when somebody somehow targets the Rage user with the Man Eater, as he'll take double damage. That's all there is to it. In all my play-throughs I have never had his happen, so let's pretend this feature isn't there, okay? Undead is the most annoying one. Becoming Undead will give the Rage user some advantages, and in some rare situations it's a good thing. The undead Rage user will not die from Doom, enemy Roulette, the Reaper that comes with Condemned and any strike with the Assassin/Striker/Wing Edge/Trump but instead will be fully healed by it. The downside, however, is that curative spells will now harm the undead Rage user. Those spells that will heal regardless of being undead or not are: Pep Up Lagomorph The Dried Meat Item Fight command with the Heal Rod Tapir (only when the target has the 'Sleep' status) All others, such as Cure/Cure2/Cure3, Pearl Wind, and Mantra will damage Gau, and given the nature of healing spells they will kill him very quickly. Be aware. Let's look at Brawler yet again. The monster is always under the influence of the Berserk status. As soon as Gau or Gogo selects this Rage, the Berserk status is applied to the Rage user. A Rage-inflicted status (ailment) is not removable/curable. A status protection Relic will prevent Rage- inflicted status ailments coming into play, though. Should Gau or Gogo have been wearing a Ribbon or Peace Ring, the auto-Berserk would not have been applied. Both positive and negative statuses are applied in some cases. Templar benefits from auto-Safe, and Enuo suffers from auto-Seizure. Status ailments are often hardly more than a small annoyance, beneficial statuses is what it's all about in some battles. There is yet another thing that the Rage user receives, and it's the Special attack. Some Rages will have no spell for the second attack, but instead have the monster's Special. This Special can vary from status- infliction (Primordite's Numblade causes 'Stop', Mind Candy's SleepSting causes 'Sleep') to a physical attack stronger than Battle (Hornet's IronNeedle is 1.5 times stronger than Battle, Stray Cat's Catscratch is 4 times stronger than Battle). Obviously, Gau will be doing this monster’s Special attack should his Rage force him to do so. Every monster has a 'weapon' of which the graphic is shown. This weapon is also placed on a Rager. Note that this does not, in any way, have an influence of the power of the physical attack itself. Some monsters use a Trident, other use a Partisan; the latter is not stronger then the first when you see it on a Rager. So, this is what the Rage user receives. To be clear, the Rage user does *not* take over: - Any kind of statistic, including Evade and Magic Block - Stolen items - Control and Sketch attacks - Morph items - AI Script The Rage user stays in the monster-induced frenzy until the battle is over or the Rage user is Petrified or killed. Also, Rippler can take away the 'Rage' status, which causes the Rage user to stop with the frenzy thing. Look at the bugs section for more info about that. So, to be perfectly clear, let me sum it all up: - Two attacks, of which one is always Battle - Elemental properties, which are placed alongside of the existing ones - Status protection, which are placed alongside of the existing ones, with Death Protection being the exception. - Inherent statuses/status ailments, which can be prevented by means of status protection - Special properties, which include Die if MP = 0, Human, and Undead, which replace the current special properties. - Special attack - Weapon graphic, which replaces the current weapon graphic, unless the held weapon is Dice or Fixed Dice. The effect and strength of the weapon are not affected in any way. A list of all Rages, their attacks, and elemental properties alone would be far too large. If you want a good guide, try my Rage Guide, as it's specifically designed in all its 300 KB splendor to explain it: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/snes/file/final_fantasy_iii_rage_a.txt -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.10 Celes Chere ********************************** Celes Chere Rune Knight Vigor 34 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 31) Speed 34 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 31) Stamina 31 Magic Power 36 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 29) Battle Power 16 Defense 44 Magic Defense 31 MBlock 9 Evade 7 Equipment: Sword, Knight Sword, Helmet, Armor Starting equipment: R-Hand L-Hand Head Hair Band Body Age: 18 Height: 5'8" Weight: 128 lbs. Birthdate: March 10 Blood Type: B Hometown: Vector Treasure: a rose brooch Cid del Norte Marquez gave her, called Celes itself Likes: Books Dislikes: Weak men Celes is often found chatting with Cid or making rose brooches We don't know a lot about Celes, actually. She was artificially created as a warrior of the Empire, but not as a MagiTek knight: more as a Mage Knight. She was given magical power at a certain point in her life, but has never known it came from Espers. She is a general to the Empire, but how she got there at the age of 18 is a mystery. She led the attack into Maranda, and was practically raised by Cid, who loves her like a (grand)-daughter. - Celes knows about the existence of Terra. Special skill: Runic [RUNIC-LINK] Runic disables Celes as a character, and sets her up as an advanced Lightning Rod: any Magic will be absorbed by her Runic blade and converted into MP. The only drawbacks here are that Celes can't act and the fact that should Celes have absorbed the spell in the first place by means of elemental properties (say, she absorbs Ice 2 by means of her Ice Shield), absorbing it with the Runic blade will damage her MP. When Celes has absorbed a spell, she won't absorb any other spells until you command her to use Runic again. Also, take note that Celes will be more than happy to absorb Magic your own characters cast. The spells that Celes can absorb are: Any Magic spell BUT: Meteor Quake W Wind Merton Warp Quick And she can absorb the following monster attacks: Megazerk Blaster Atomic Ray Tek Laser Diffuser Mega Volt Giga Volt 50 Gs N. Cross HyperDrive Disaster Shimsham Scar Beam Fire Wall Celes is also one of the two characters who learn natural magic due to her unique upbringing: Level 1 - Ice Level 4 - Cure Level 8 - Antdot Level 13 - Imp Level 18 - Scan Level 22 - Safe Level 26 - Ice 2 Level 32 - Haste & Muddle Level 40 - Bserk Level 42 - Ice 3 Level 48 - Vanish Level 52 - Haste2 Level 72 - Pearl Level 81 - Flare Level 98 - Meteor - If Celes reaches or passes level 32 when she's not in your party at the time, she will not learn Muddle at that level, nor will she at another level unless equipped with Stray. If you recruit her for the first time at a level of 32 or higher, she will know Muddle. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.11 Relm Arrowny ********************************** Relm Arrowny Artist Vigor 26 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 10) Speed 34 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 13) Stamina 22 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 11) Magic Power 44 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 34) Battle Power 11 Defense 35 Magic Defense 30 MBlock 9 Evade 13 Equipment: Paint Brush, Rod, Hat, Stuffed Toy Starting equipment: R-Hand Chocobo Brsh L-Hand Mithril Shld Head Plumed Hat Body Silk Robe Relic1 Memento Ring Age: 10 Height: 5'0" Weight: 88 lbs. Birthdate: September 9 Blood Type: B Hometown: Thamasa Treasure: a ribbon made by her mother Likes: Pancakes with syrup and eggs Dislikes: Caterpillars, big people Relm loves to paint pictures, and she collects ribbons. Relm has lived in Thamasa all her life, and is quite used to the concept of magic. She herself has the amazing skill of bringing everything she paints to life and making it do what she wants. Also, she curses like a sailor. Relm lives with Strago Magus, whom she considers her grandfather. She knows he isn't her family, though. Relm's father ran away when she was little, and her mother has died. To remember her mother by, she has a ribbon she made and a special ring. - In the Japanese version of the game, her cursing was much worse. - The reason she can control monsters is quite simple: she knows their name. - In the Japanese game, she refers to herself in the third person: "No fair to Relm..." "Relm will paint their portraits", etc. Special skill: Sketch [SKETCH-LINK] Relm's ability is Sketch, and I dare say it's the worst ability in the game. What it does is this: It takes the target's Vigor or Magic Power, and uses one of the two attacks every monster has in their Sketch listing with those stats. Not only does that mean that what Sketch brings up is unpredictable and untargetable, monster stats also plain suck (Locke has a Magic Power of 28 when its not boosted by anything, your average monster has 10). On top of that, a lot of, say, Fire-elemental monsters will obviously produce Fire-elemental Sketch attacks, which they absorb, and sometimes the Sketch attack is something like Exploder. If you really want to know when Sketch actually is useful, make sure to take a quick glance at my Sketch Guide: it deserves props for other things than the intro, darn it: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/snes/file/final_fantasy_iii_sketch.txt Relm is a character you have to make proud by giving her a lot of nice Espers. She has the highest starting Magic Power in the game, and her equips are very nice (and will be even nicer later on). So just because Sketch blows chunks you shouldn't dismiss Relm. However, unless there's a large chance the attack in question is an instant-death attack or one with fixed damage or a useful status ailment, Sketch probably isn't worth the turn. Also, there's the infamous SKETCH BUG. What's that all about? Master ZED, leading authority on FF VI blunders and one heck of a guy has the following to say about it: The infamous Sketch bug - Follow this link; http://masterzed.cavesofnarshe.com/GameDocs/ff3sktch.txt If not, here's the short of it; the Sketch bug occurs whenever you miss an enemy with Sketch. What happens is that the game loads up a pointer from an unknown spot in the ROM and uses it to load a monster sprite even though there's no point because it missed. The unknown spot is dictated by offset 7E:20FF/7E:2100 in the RAM, which is part of the first character's in-battle spell list, the 28th spell to be exact. 7E:20FF is an unknown byte that also serves as the byte that dictates whether a spell is greyed out, and 7E:2100 is the spell's aiming byte. Normally, this bug produces nothing, but under the correct circumstances, the game will go haywire from this bad sprite loading. The effects range from messed up item lists, equipment changes, town/dungeon PC sprite glitches, blackouts, freezeups, intense graphic glitches, etc. This can be seen rather easily when Mute or a spell with the same aiming type is in slot 28, and Sketch misses. There are coincidentally three known methods of seeing the bug in FF3us v1.0 with Mute and the like; normal, being an Imp at the beginning of battle, and becoming an Imp in battle. So long as the first character casts no spells, the unknown byte will only change from Imp transformations, so the bug is easy to get. Beware, however, that the bug could erase your saves on the cart, so usage there is *NOT* encouraged by myself. For further information, check my Sketch bug guide, linked to above. This bug also exists in FF6j SFC, however there is no known method of getting the game to go haywire yet. When that is found, the Sketch bug guide will be the first of these two guides to be updated. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.12 Strago Magus ********************************** Strago (Stragos) Magus Lore Master Vigor 28 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 9) Speed 25 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 9) Stamina 19 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 9) Magic Power 34 (Nintendo's Final Fantasy III Player's Guide falsely claims it's 31) Battle Power 10 Defense 33 Magic Defense 27 MBlock 7 Evade 6 Equipment: Rod, Hat, Stuffed Toy, Lore Starting equipment: R-Hand Mithril Rod L-Hand Mithril Shld Head Plumed Hat Body Cotton Robe Age: 70 Height: 4'11" Weight: 95 lbs. Birthdate: June 13 Bloodtype: O Hometown: Thamasa Treasure: His monster costume collection Likes: Monsters Dislikes: Being treated like an "old timer" Strago likes to make monster costumes Strago is an inhabitant of the town of Thamasa, which makes him a direct descendent of the Mage Warriors of yore. Long ago, when Strago was young, he hunted down a legendary monster called Hidon with his friend Gungho. Hidon is very hard to track down, and Strago never succeeded in finding him. Hidon is currently living in Ebot's Rock, which is submerged in the sea, and Strago has more or less given up on ever defeating him. Strago is raising little Relm Arrowny, the daughter of a friend of his. He's doing a particularly poor job, which doesn't stop Relm and Strago from loving each other to death. - Strago has a wife called Lara who is 65 years old and is a Geomancer. - Japanese credits claim Strago's name is 'Stragus'. Folly. - In the Japanese game, Strago uses a lot of double lines, like 'she is in the house, she is'. Special skill: Lore [LORE-LINK] Strago is the FF VI Blue Mage. His special skill is called Lore, with which he can use several monster attacks. In order for him to learn these attacks, he needs to be both present and conscious at the time of the enemy attack. This means he won't learn new skills when he's suffering from Wound, Petrify, Zombie, Dark, Sleep, Muddled, Stop and Freeze. What happens after he has correctly witnessed the attack doesn't matter, be it Wound, Zombie or rheumatoid arthritis. Condemned - sets Condemned on a single target Roulette - A cursor flies over all targets, and you get to decide at what point it slows down. The target it stops at, be it friend or foe, will die. CleanSweep - MT magical, Water-elemental attack Aqua Rake - MT magical, Wind/Water-elemental attack Aero - MT magical, Wind-elemental attack Blow Fish - Always deals 1000 damage to a single target Big Guard - MT attack that sets Safe and Shell Revenge - deals (caster's maximum HP - caster's current HP) damage to a single target Pearl Wind - MT healing move that heals for (caster's current HP) L.5 Doom - sets Death to all opponents whose level is divisible by 5 L.4 Flare - a magical, non-elemental barrier-piercing attack to all opponents whose level is divisible by 4 L.3 Muddle - sets Muddled to all opponents whose level is divisible by 3 Reflect??? - MT attack that sets Dark, Mute and Slow, but it will not target any opponent without the Reflect status L? Pearl - a magical, Pearl-elemental attack on all opponents whose level is divisible by (last digit of party's amount of GP) Step Mine - ST magical attack that deals (steps taken / 32) damage ForceField - Completely nullifies a random element Dischord - Halves the level of a single opponent Sour Mouth - Sets Dark, Poison, Imp, Mute, Muddled and Sleep on a single target. Pep Up - Completely heals the targets HP, MP and status, but the caster dies Rippler - Swaps all statuses between the caster and target Stone - Optionally MT magical, non-elemental attack that sets Muddled. Deals 8 times as much damage if the caster's level equals the target's level Quasar - MT magical, non-elemental, barrier-piercing attack GrandTrain - MT magical, non-elemental, barrier-piercing attack Exploder - Deals (caster's current HP) damage to a single target, but kills the caster -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.13 Emperor Gestahl ********************************** Emperor Gestahl (original name: Ghastra) Age: ?? Height: 5'8" Weight: 156 lbs. Birthdate: October 26 Bloodtype: B Hometown: Vector Likes: Power Dislikes: Being told what to do Has an art collection Emperor Gestahl is your average evil dictator. He stands at the head of the Empire, and lusts for continuously increasing power, preferably world domination at the end of it all. Gestahl has had the Empire attack Albrook, Tzen and Maranda, has issued the attack on the Esper World and has generally caused everything that has made the Empire appear evil to all outside of it. As the head of the Empire, Emperor Gestahl has several people work under him. Kefka Palazzo, general Leo Christophe, and general Celes Chere are his first officers. He is allied with Figaro, and finds a rebel group in the Returners, led by Banon. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.14 Kefka Palazzo ********************************** Kefka Palazzo Age: ?? Height: 5'4" Weight: 105 lbs. Birthdate: November 19 Bloodtype: AB Likes: Mirrors Dislikes: General Leo Christophe Kefka likes to play with puppets Starting equipment: R-Hand Morning Star L-Hand Head Mithril Helm Body Mithril Vest Relic1 Ribbon Not a lot is known about Kefka before his Magic infusion, as that's what changed him into the infamous man he now is. Kefka was the first subject of Magic infusion, and while the experiment was a success, it left him unstable and, well, stark-raving mad. Kefka is not a general, but has a lot of influence over the Emperor and is his right-hand man. He holds a special grudge against Leo, who is the antithesis of everything he himself is and is in rank still higher than Kefka. - People wonder if his name is derived from Franz Kafka, the Jewish-German writer whose works still boggle the minds of literary critics around the world. I've read more Kafka than I care for and can safely say that even if such is the case, there are no specific grounds for it. - His last name is Italian. While some believe it means 'clown', the Italian name for clown is 'pagliaccio'. Palazzo means 'castle'. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.15 Cid del Norte Marguez ********************************** Cid del Norte Marguez Age: 46 Height: 5'3" Weight: 132 lbs. Birthdate: May 27 Bloodtype: B Likes: Meditation, Knowledge Dislikes: Vulgar affairs, especially money - Cid del Norte Marguez is a Spanish name. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.16 Leo Cristophe ********************************** Leo Cristophe Age: 30 Height: 6'1" Weight: 182 lbs. Birthdate: July 8 Bloodtype: O Likes: Honor Dislikes: Contemptible people Leo likes to listen to music Starting equipment: R-Hand Crystal L-Hand Aegis Shld Head Gold Helmet Body Gold Armor Relic1 Atlas Armlet Relic2 Offering General Leo is a warrior's warrior. It's not quite clear what such a nice fellow is doing in the highest ranks of the Empire. Not much is known about Leo, other than the fact he refused a magic infusion when it was offered to him. - General Leo is the only colored man in this game, and as far as I know the first to appear in the Final Fantasy games period. Special skill: Shock Shock is an MT magical, non-elemental attack. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.17 Banon ********************************** Banon (original name: Bannan) Age: 54 Height: 5'6" Weight: 154 lbs. Birthdate: October 23 Bloodtype: A Likes: Peace Dislikes: Chaos Banon reads a lot (apparently, this includes Greek mythology ;) ) Starting equipment: R-Hand Punisher L-Hand Head Magus Hat Body Silk Robe Banon is the leader of the Returners. He has been for a while now. Why exactly he hates the Empire enough to live in caves is unknown. - Banon is a priest, and his supernatural healing abilities are from a divine source (Health was more like 'Pray' in the Japanese game). Special skill: Health Health makes Banon cast Cure 2 on the entire party, which makes it an MT healing move. Unlike Cure 2 though, it's blue. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.18 Gogo ********************************** Gogo Mimic Vigor 25 Speed 30 Stamina 20 Magic Power 26 Battle Power 13 Defense 39 Magic Defense 25 MBlock 6 Evade 10 Equipment: Dagger, Rod, Robe, Light Armor Starting equipment: R-Hand MithrilKnife L-Hand Mithril Shld Head Plumed Hat Body Mithril Vest Age: ?? Height: 5'5" Weight: 132 lbs. Birthdate: ?? Blood Type: ?? Hometown: ?? Treasure: ?? Likes: Mimicry Dislikes: ?? Yeah, the entire point is that we know nothing about Gogo, nor will we ever. There are no hidden cutscenes, no hidden background; Gogo is Gogo is Gogo, to semi-paraphrase Gertrude Stein. Some speculate Gogo could be Daryl, Setzer's deceased friend, but there is no real evidence to support that theory. Another tidbit about Gogo is how it appeared in FF V as well... 'A' Gogo, anyway. It guarded the crystal chip of the Mimic class, and you had to fight the creature for it. At the start, Gogo tells you that you should mimic it, which means that you shouldn't do a thing (it doesn't either). If you do attack it, it will start using extremely strong attacks that make it VERY tough to take down. When you win, you gain the crystal chip and Gogo will cast a spell like X-Zone on itself to disappear from the game. Special skill: Mimic [MIMIC-LINK] The Mimic skill allows Gogo to repeat the attack of the character that acted before it. Mimic doesn't waste resources; if Shadow throws a Shuriken, one Shuriken will be removed from your inventory; if Gogo Mimics Shadow throwing one, it will not use up a Shuriken. The same goes with Items; the only exception is GP Rain, which will cost the party GP, even when Gogo Mimics the action. Gogo will pick the same target as well where possible. If the previous target is unavailable (dead), Gogo will either pick a random target ('normal' spells) or - if the attack lacks the 'retarget if target is dead' bit - will try to attack the dead target anyway. The only possibly fatal ST spells without this bit are: Cure, Cure 2, Cure 3, Life, Life 2, Ragnarok's Metamorph, Heal Force, X-Fer, Condemned, Step Mine After an obviously failed attempt at attacking the dead (only attacks that cure the status that killed the target can hit a dead target; try Muddle/Fenix Down to see a monster revived), Gogo will then randomize targeting AFTER the failed attempt. Gogo can't Mimic the following attacks/actions, and will default to a Fight attack: - Umaro's attacks - Morph/Revert - Control - Leap - Row - Def. - Landing from a Jump attack; this is not considered a turn and Gogo will use either the attack performed before the character landed, or default to Fight if there were no attacks performed before the character landed. - Quick-(attack)-(attack); Gogo will only perform the last attack. - Offering-Fight; Gogo will not act as though it is equipped with the Offering. - Dragon Horn Jump; Gogo will only land once when Mimicking a multiple landings Jump attack. Gogo *will* Mimic the following (among the obvious ones): - Wild Fang/Take Down - X-Magic - Jump - Mimicking a Raging character will have Gogo perform the same attack the Raging character performed, while also applying the Rage the Raging character was using. - Mimicking a Dancing character will have Gogo perform the same attack the Dancing character performed, while also applying the Dance the Dancing character was using. Special skill: Indirect Mimic When going to Gogo's Status menu, you will notice a cursor next to its skills, which start out as Mimic, empty, empty, empty. By pressing 'action' on an empty slot, you can assign your characters skills to Gogo. A full list looks like this: Fight Magic Item Steal SwdTech Throw (never mind the yellow streak here) Tools Blitz Runic Lore Sketch Slot Dance Rage Note that SwdTech and Runic will be grayed out if you don't have an appropriate weapon equipped. This doesn't mean you can't assign it, though, just that you won't be able to use it in-battle before you equip an appropriate weapon. If you let Shadow die at the FC, Gogo will lack Throw among its options. If you employed intense bugs to circumvent obtaining characters (Celes is the easiest, but other characters are possible as well), Gogo will not be able to pick the commands of the characters you circumvented. Gogo can equip all the skill-changing relics as well, so you can also obtain these commands: Jump (Fight + DragoonBoots) X-Magic (Magic + Gem Box) Capture (Steal + Thief Glove) Control (Sketch + FakeMustache) GP Rain (Slot + Coin Toss) Gogo cannot equip Espers, so what good is the Magic command on it? Gogo will know all of the spells the characters in its team know. So if you stick it in a team with Terra, Celes, and Strago, it will be able to cast all of the spells Terra, Celes, and Strago can. Note that when you send Gogo into the Colosseum, it will be without any party members and will know NO spells. Gogo will never, EVER, learn something by itself. With the Lore skillset, it will only be able to use the Lores Strago knows. If Gogo comes across a Lore Strago hasn't yet learned, Gogo will not learn the Lore, even if it picked Lore as a command. The same goes for gaining SwdTechs and Blitz techniques (if Gogo reaches the appropriate level earlier than Cyan or Sabin) and learning Dances; Gogo will never do it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 6.19 Umaro ********************************** Umaro Yeti Vigor 57 Speed 33 Stamina 46 Magic Power 37 Battle Power 47 Defense 89 Magic Defense 68 MBlock 5 Evade 8 Equipment: Bone Club, Snow Muffler Starting equipment: R-Hand Bone Club L-Hand Head Body Snow Muffler Age: 4 Height: 6'10" Weight: 436 lbs. Birthdate: September 9 Blood Type: ?? Hometown: The mines of Narshe Treasure: A club made of behemoth bone Likes: Bones Dislikes: Caterpillars Is often found carving bones Umaro is a yeti that lives in the mines of Narshe. He is rather helpless by himself, so Mog decided to take care of him when he found him. In exchange for food, Umaro helps Mog out whenever he can. Legends of the snowman circulate throughout Narshe. Special skill: Furious Yeti attacks [UMARO-LINK] Umaro is uncontrollable in combat, and will do whatever he pleases to wreak havoc upon the enemies. With the help of the Relics Rage Ring and Blizzard Orb, Umaro can hone his 'skills' with more defensive elemental properties and a larger and more dangerous pool of attacks. Umaro may choose out of up to four different attacks to perform. Note that 'Tackle' and 'Character Toss' don't have actual names; the ones I'm using here are pretty much canon on message boards. Tackle was named after his !Special when you fight him, and Character Toss... it's what he does, isn't it? - Fight Umaro performs a normal physical attack on a random target with his weapon, the Bone Club. The Bone Club is a normal non-elemental weapon without any special properties, and with Umaro's Battle Power + the Bone Club's power, it's a 198 Battle Power attack. - Tackle Umaro performs a barrier-piercing physical attack that ignores Row on a random single target. The power behind the blow is Umaro's Battle Power, which is 198. Tackle's power is NOT boosted by the Gauntlet (it is by Hyper Wrist and Atlas Armlet/Hero Ring, though). - Character Toss (requires Rage Ring) Umaro picks up a character and throws it at a single enemy, inflicting non-elemental barrier-piercing physical damage. The power of this attack is Umaro's Battle Power + the tossed character's Battle Power, which in pretty much all instances results into the maximum of 255. If a character is under the effect of Sleep or Muddled and Umaro decides to toss a character, he will always toss the character affected. When there are no characters to toss, Umaro will use a Tackle attack instead. Umaro was supposed to inflict a 'critical hit' Character Toss when throwing Mog, but since Character Toss can't get critical hits, this is never seen. - Storm (requires Blizzard Orb) Umaro performs a Storm attack. Storm is an unblockable Ice-elemental multi-target attack that hits both sides when caught in a Pincer attack. Umaro is not de-equipped when the guy on the Falcon de-equips all your other characters; he keeps both his Bone Club and Snow Muffler, and any Relics you might have given him. Umaro will randomly use a Beam-class attack when riding in MagiTek Armor, never Heal Force or any of the other attacks. Umaro acts normally in the Fanatics Tower and is unaffected by the loss of skills the other characters suffer through. When Umaro is equipped with the Black Belt, he may counter with ANY attack he can perform, including Tackle, Character Toss, and Storm. Storm will target the entire enemy party when Umaro counters with it. ********************************** 7.0 Game mechanics; real quick, I promise ********************************** Table of Contents: 7.1 Desperation Attacks 7.2 Status effects 7.3 Statistics 7.4 Battle Timing 7.5 Running 7.6 MagiTek 7.7 Battle formations 7.8 Metamorph [BATTLE-LINK] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.1 Desperation attacks ********************************** One of the more hidden gimmicks of this game is the Desperation attack; if you're a forum-browsing brother you'll be certain to come across it every now and then; if you're just playing the game you're likely to have missed it entirely or, when you come across it, be entirely too flabbergasted to make any sense out of it. If a character is in Near Fatal status, which under all normal circumstances means he or she is crouching down and has less than 1/8 of his/her maximum HP, there's a 1 in 16 chance he or she will perform an attack based on his/her inner strength, the Desperation Attack when he or she selects the Fight command. - Characters under the effects of Muddled, Image, Clear, and/or Zombie will never perform a Desperation attack. - If the battle hasn't lasted for about 25 seconds/13 Condemned intervals, no Desperation attack will be used. - If the character in question has already used his/her DA, he/she won't do it again. Terra - Riot Blade - Deals ST magical non-elemental barrier-piercing damage Locke - Mirager - Deals ST magical non-elemental barrier-piercing damage Cyan - Back Blade - Deals ST magical non-elemental barrier-piercing damage Shadow - Shadow Fang - Deals ST magical non-elemental barrier-piercing damage, also sets Seizure Edgar - Royal Shock - Deals ST magical non-elemental barrier-piercing damage Sabin - Tiger Break - Deals ST magical non-elemental barrier-piercing damage Celes - Spin Edge - Deals ST magical non-elemental barrier-piercing damage Strago - Sabre Soul - Sets Death, misses targets immune to ID Relm - Star Prism - Sets Death, misses targets immune to ID Setzer - Red Card - Deals ST magical non-elemental barrier-piercing damage Mog - MoogleRush - Deals ST magical non-elemental barrier-piercing damage Gogo - X-Meteo - Deals ST magical non-elemental barrier-piercing damage Obviously, any damaging DA is sickeningly powerful. The strongest DA, MoogleRush, has the exact same power as an ST Ultima spell, which is the strongest spell in the game and is said to completely ruin any challenge the game possesses. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2 Status effects ********************************** Table of Contents: 7.2.1 Dark 7.2.2 Zombie 7.2.3 Poison 7.2.4 Clear 7.2.5 Imp 7.2.6 Petrify 7.2.7 Condemned 7.2.8 Near Fatal 7.2.9 Image 7.2.10 Mute 7.2.11 Berserk 7.2.12 Muddled 7.2.13 Seizure 7.2.14 Psyche/Sleep 7.2.15 Regen 7.2.16 Slow 7.2.17 Haste 7.2.18 Stop 7.2.19 Shell 7.2.20 Safe 7.2.21 Reflect 7.2.22 Freeze 7.2.23 Life 3 7.2.24 Float 7.2.25 Hide 7.2.26 Wound Status effects are the weapon of the experienced. Just because Sabin's Pummel packs a bunch doesn't mean a well-timed Sleep spell can't cripple your enemy twice as hard. Sadly, most tend to ignore the usage of status effects and pout when their characters are hit by it. Following is a detailed introduction to all status effects worthy of mentioning. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.1 Dark ********************************** Due to a bug in the game, Dark does nothing. It was supposed to reduce the Hit Rate of a character's/monster's physical attacks by 50 %, but it doesn't now. Its only effect is preventing Strago from learning Lores. Dark lingers after combat and can be healed by using an Eyedrop, a Remedy, the Remedy spell or using a Tent. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.2 Zombie ********************************** On characters: Characters that suffer from Zombie are considered 'dead' in terms of Game Over. HP is dropped to 0 and healing spells have no effect. Characters under Zombie will still use attacks (the same as Berserked characters; Fight, Jump, Capture, Rage and Magitek). They will randomly attack either an ally/allies or opponent(s). On every Fight command a character under Zombie makes, he/she has a 1/16 chance of inflicting Dark and a 1/16 of inflicting Poison, never both. When Zombie is set, Dark, Poison, Clear, Near Fatal, Berserk, Muddled and Sleep will be automatically removed. Zombie will prevent characters from benefitting from/using the Black Belt or True Knight Relics, prevent Strago from learning Lores and Desperation Attacks will not be executed. On monsters: Monsters that suffer from Zombie are considered 'dead' in terms of battle won. HP is dropped to 0 and healing spells have no effect. Monsters under Zombie will still continue with their normal AI script and become invisible and normally untargetable. They will randomly attack either an ally/allies or opponent(s). When Zombie is set, Dark, Poison, Clear, Near Fatal, Berserk, Muddled and Sleep will be automatically removed. Zombie lingers after combat and can be healed by using a Revivify. Tents do not remove the Zombie status. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.3 Poison ********************************** The Poison status deals Poison-elemental damage to its target. The Poison status cannot be set if the target nullifies the Poison element, regardless of actual protection from the Poison status. The damage can be nulled by nulling the element mid-battle somehow, and can be absorbed if the target absorbs the Poison element. While a character is poisoned, they will periodically take poison damage. The amount of damage done by poison is calculated as follows: Max Damage = (Max HP * stamina / 1024) + 2 (if this value is greater than 255 it is set to 255) Damage = Max Damage * ([224..255]) / 256 For characters, it's the above formula with Damage = Damage / 2. The damage output gets another added damage multiplier every time damage is taken (* 2, * 3, * 4, etcetera). The limit is * 8. Poison damage is randomly taken every interval (see Battle Timing at 7.4) 12.5 % of the time. Poison lingers after combat and can be healed by using an Antidote, a Remedy, casting the Antdot spell, the Remedy spell or by using a Tent. Outside of combat, the amount of damage done per step is : (Max HP / 32). With every step the screen will spazz out on you. Poison outside of combat will never actually kill a person, and he or she will always remain on 1 HP while walking. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.4 Clear ********************************** The Clear status makes all physical attacks miss. All magical attacks will ignore Hit Rate/Magic Block and (due to a bug), will also allow magical attacks to hit regardless of Death Protection (Vanish/Doom) or Death status (Vanish/Life2). Clear status will be removed if a magical attack connects. Clear overrides the Reflect status; if both are applied spells that would normally bounce off of the Reflect status will connect. Spells that miss on characters with Clear status (L.4 Flare on targets with unsuitable levels, Quake on Floating targets, etc.) will miss but still remove the Clear status. Characters with the Clear status will never make use of the True Knight Relic or use Desperation Attacks. Clear lingers after combat and can be removed by casting a spell on them that has effect (spells like Cure on a character at full health will not remove the Clear status) or by using a Tent. Dispel specifically has the power to remove Clear, but since it's a magical spell, its power is wasted in that aspect. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.5 Imp ********************************** On characters: The Imp status gives the afflicted the appearance of a Kappa water spirit in battle, but not out of battle. The Imp status will grey out every command but Fight, Jump, X-Magic, Magic and Item. From the Magic and X-Magic commands, only the Imp spell is selectable. Imps benefit from the Defense and Battle Power of the following pieces of equipment: Imp Halberd, TortoiseShld, Titanium, Imp's Armor. Imps do not benefit from the Defense and Battle Power of all other pieces of equipment, including Fists. 1 is added to both Defense and Battle Power instead. Imp lingers after combat and can be removed by a Green Cherry, a Remedy, the Imp spell (can be used outside of combat) or by using a Tent. On monsters: The Imp status doesn't necessarily change the monster into a Kappa water spirit, this only happens when the monster is hit by the Imp spell. Imp prevents most of the attack of the monsters and replaces them with Battle attacks. Attacks not prevented are: Items, Throw, Storm, and attacks normally used by Mog when he is Dancing. The Imp spell can also be executed by monsters afflicted by Imp. The Imp status reduces the Battle Power of the afflicted monster to 1. Some monsters retain their complete Battle Power though, and do automatic critical hits as well. These monsters are: Retainer, Brawler, Were-Rat, Ursus, Rhinotaur, Fidor, Baskervor, Siegfried, HadesGigas, Pug, Figaliz, Buffalax, General, Covert, Iron Fist, Slatter, Rhinox, Tusker, Ralph, Chitonid, Spek Tor, Sp Forces, Scrapper, Ceritops, Vermin, Bogy, Adamanchyt, Chaos Drgn, Borras, Gold Bear, Pugs, Dadaluma, Number 024, SrBehemoth (living) and Naughty. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.6 Petrify ********************************** Petrified characters and monsters are considered dead. Petrified monsters become invisible and untargetable. Petrified characters will still be targeted by monster attacks. Petrified targets will never evade attacks but will never take damage. The only exception to this is the Atma Weapon; when struck by this sword a petrified target will lose 1 HP. When Petrify is set, the following statuses will be removed: Dark, Zombie, Poison, Clear, Image, Mute, Berserk, Muddled, Seizure, Sleep. A petrified character is also immune to these statuses as long as he stays Petrified. Petrify stops the ATB bar and stops every effect of an interval (see Battle Timing at 6.4). This means that Petrified characters will not get a chance to run away, the Condemned timer will not decrease, Poison, Regen and Seizure effects won't be felt and Reflect, Freeze and Sleep intervals won't be decreased. Petrified characters cannot be picked up by Palidor's Sonic Dive or absorb spells with Runic. Strago cannot learn Lores when he suffers from Petrify. A Petrified character will never use the Black Belt or True Knight Relics. Petrify lingers after battle and can be healed with a Soft, a Remedy, the Remedy spell or by using a Tent. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.7 Condemned ********************************** Characters under Condemned get a timer over their head. When the timer expires, an unblockable Doom spell will be cast on the target. If the target is protected from Instant Death attacks, it will survive the outcome of the timer; if the target is undead, it will be healed. The amount of intervals before the Doom spell is activated is determined as followed: Value of timer = 81 - a random number from level of caster to ((2 * level of caster) - 1) If this value is less than 21 then the countdown is set to 20 instead The timer is reduced by 1 every interval (see Battle Timing at 7.4). If the Condemned status is inherent (in other words, inflicted by the Cursed Ring or Cursed Shld), the 'level of caster' will be set to 20, meaning that the timer'll be a random number between 60 and 41. Condemned does not linger after combat and cannot be removed by any conventional way of healing; only Spiraler, Tapir, Wild Bear and Pep Up can remove Condemned. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.8 Near Fatal ********************************** Near Fatal is a status that is automatically set when a character drops below 1/8 of his/her maximum HP and automatically removed when he/she rises above it. The character will crouch down in battle, and have a chance at a Desperation Attack. Since it's not a strategic status but a way for the game to check if you can use DA's, it cannot be removed by other means than increasing your amount of current HP. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.9 Image ********************************** Image will make you immune to all physical attacks that aren't unblockable or coming from an opponent that hits you from behind. Every physical attack that is evaded has a 25 % chance of removing the Image status. Characters under influence of Image will never use a Desperation Attack. If the character in question also has Sleep, Freeze or Stop set, Image will do nothing. If the character in question is waiting to use Retort when he's hit by a physical attack, Image will do nothing. Image does not linger after battle and can be removed by Dispel. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.10 Mute ********************************** Mute greys out the Magic and Lore commands on characters and makes it impossible to use any Magic spell, Lore or monster attack that consumes MP to cast. It doesn't stop spells without an MP cost (such as Sneeze) and has no effect on weapons that consume MP to create automatic criticals (Rune Edge, etc.) If a spell is cast by means of Rage and Sketch, the spells will not be executed unless the spell has no MP cost. Mute does not linger after battle and can be healed with an Echo Screen, a Remedy item and the Remedy spell. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.11 Berserk ********************************** Berserk makes a character uncontrollable. The character will only use the following commands: Fight, Jump, Capture, Rage and Magitek (randomly Fire Beam, Ice Beam or Bolt Beam), or the attack that the character was about to use when he was Berserked. Even if the Fight command wasn't an option from the menu, a Fight command is still added to the list of possible commands used (but not while riding a Magitek Armor). Any physical attack gets a 50 % boost in damage. Monsters afflicted by Berserk will do nothing but use Battle attacks. Berserk prevents a character from learning Lores. Berserk does not linger after battle and can be removed with the Dispel spell. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.12 Muddled ********************************** On characters: A Muddled character will become uncontrollable, and will randomly use an attack. However, the aiming is reversed so the a Muddled character will always be attacking other characters and healing/aiding monsters. Commands that will never be used while Muddled are: Item, Revert, Throw, Control, Slot, Leap, Def. and Possess. These commands/resulting attacks may still be used if they were selected before the character became Muddled. A character cannot learn Lores while Muddled, will never make use of the Black Belt and True Knight Relics and no character will use a Desperation Attack while Muddled. If Umaro is in the party and decides to use his Throw Character attack, he will favor Muddled characters whenever possible. When he has used his Throw Character attack, the character thrown will have his/her Muddled status removed. Muddled does not linger after battle and is automatically removed when struck by a physical attack. It can be removed with the Remedy spell. On monsters: Monsters turn around on the battlefield and randomly select one of the attacks in their Control menu. These may differ from the attacks normally used. For targetting purposes, everything will be reversed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.13 Seizure ********************************** The Seizure status hurts the afflicted over time, like the Poison status. Unlike the Poison status however, damage does not increase. The damage formula is like Poison: Max Damage = (Max HP * stamina / 1024) + 2 (if this value is greater than 255 it is set to 255) Damage = Max Damage * ([224..255]) / 256 If Seizure is set on a target with the Regen status, the Regen status will be removed; if the Regen status is permanent, Seizure will not be set. If Regen is set on a target with the Seizure status, the Seizure status will be removed; if the Seizure status is permanent, Regen will not be set. Seizure damage is randomly taken every interval (see Battle Timing at 7.4) 25 % of the time. Seizure does not linger after battle and can be healed with a Remedy item, the Antdot spell and the Remedy spell. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.14 Psyche/Sleep* ********************************** * Since Psyche is retarded, every description of 'Psyche' outside of the game has always been Sleep. The PSX versions also make mention of Sleep rather than Psyche. This document continues the tradition. Sleep stops the ATB gauge and prevents the afflicted from taking action. Any attack directed at a target afflicted with Sleep obtains a perfect Hit Rate. Any physical attack that strikes a target afflicted by Sleep will remove the Sleep status. Characters under the effects of Sleep will not be picked up by Sonic Dive, will never use the Black Belt or True Knight Relics, will not learn Lores and will not absorb spells with Runic. If Umaro is in the party and decides to use his Throw Character attack, he will favor Sleeping characters whenever possible. When he has used his Throw Character attack, the character thrown will have his/her Sleep status removed. When Sleeping targets go undisturbed, Sleep lasts for 18 intervals or about 36 seconds when they are automatically waken up. A tapir will appear and Sleep is removed. The tapir has nothing to do with Mog's Tapir spell. Sleep does not linger after battle and can be healed with the Remedy spell or by striking the target with a physical attack. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.15 Regen ********************************** The Regen status heals the afflicted over time. It shares the damage formula of Poison and Seizure, only it's used for healing: Max Damage = (Max HP * stamina / 1024) + 2 (if this value is greater than 255 it is set to 255) Damage = Max Damage * ([224..255]) / 256 If Seizure is set on a target with the Regen status, the Regen status will be removed; if the Regen status is permanent, Seizure will not be set. If Regen is set on a target with the Seizure status, the Seizure status will be removed; if the Seizure status is permanent, Regen will not be set. Regen randomly kicks in every interval (see Battle Timing at 7.4) 25 % of the time. Regen does not linger after battle and can be removed with the Dispel spell. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.16 Slow ********************************** Reduces the speed of the ATB bar, and there will be twice as much time between two intervals (see Battle Timing at 7.4). This means the period of time between Poison and Seizure damage and Regen healing becomes longer, and the Condemned timer will count down slower. Freeze, Sleep and Stop will last longer while Slow is set. Characters afflicted by Slow will have less chances of running away. If Slow is set on a target with the Haste status, the Haste status will be removed; if the Haste status is permanent, Slow will not be set. If Haste is set on a target with the Slow status, the Slow status will be removed; if the Slow status is permanent, Haste will not be set. Slow does not linger after battle and can be healed by the Remedy spell and the Dispel spell. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.17 Haste ********************************** Increases the speed of the ATB bar, and there will be 25 % less time between two intervals (see Battle Timing at 7.4). The period of time between Poison and Seizure damage and Regen healing becomes shorter, and the Condemned timer will count down faster. Freeze, Sleep and Stop will last for a shorter period of time while Haste is set. Characters afflicted by Haste will have more chances of running away. If Slow is set on a target with the Haste status, the Haste status will be removed; if the Haste status is permanent, Slow will not be set. If Haste is set on a target with the Slow status, the Slow status will be removed; if the Slow status is permanent, Haste will not be set. Haste does not linger after battle and can be removed by the Dispel spell. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.18 Stop ********************************** Stop stops the ATB gauge and prevents the afflicted from taking action. Any attack directed at a target afflicted with Stop obtains a perfect Hit Rate. Stop prevents the character from being picked up by Sonic Dive, counter- attacking with the Black Belt, blocking an attack for another character with the True Knight, learning Lores and absorbing spells with Runic. Stop stops every effect of an interval (see Battle Timing at 7.4) except for decreasing the Stop timer by one every interval. This means that Stopped characters will not get a chance to run away, the Condemned timer will not decrease, Poison, Regen and Seizure effects won't be felt and Reflect, Freeze and Sleep intervals won't be decreased. Stop lasts for 18 intervals (see Battle timing at 7.4) or about 36 seconds. Stop does not linger after battle and can be healed by the Dispel spell. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.19 Shell ********************************** Reduces damage taken from magical attacks by 1/3. Barrier-piercing attacks also ignore Shell. Shell does not linger after battle and can be removed by the Dispel spell. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.20 Safe ********************************** Reduces damage taken from physical attacks by 1/3. Barrier-piercing attacks also ignore Safe. Safe does not linger after battle and can be removed by the Dispel spell. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.21 Reflect ********************************** Makes the following spells bounce off of the initial target and hit members of the opposing party instead: Scan, Slow, Rasp, Mute, Safe, Sleep, Muddle, Haste, Stop, Bserk, Imp, Rflect, Shell, Haste2, Slow2, Fire, Ice, Bolt, Poison, Fire2, Ice2, Bolt2, Bio, Fire3, Ice3, Bolt3, Break, Doom, Pearl, Flare, Cure, Cure 2, Cure 3, Fire Beam, Ice Beam, Bolt Beam, TekBarrier Reflect lasts for 26 intervals (see Battle timing at 7.4) or about 52 seconds. If the original caster belongs to the party that's going to be hit by the bounced-off spell, there's a 50 % chance the caster will be hit by the spell instead of a random target out of the available targets. Reflected spells only do 50 % as much damage as they would normally do. Clear overrides the effects of Reflect. Reflect makes the target vulnerable to Reflect???. Reflect does not linger after battle and can be removed by the Dispel spell. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.22 Freeze ********************************** Freeze stops the ATB gauge and prevents the afflicted from taking action. Any attack directed at a target afflicted with Freeze obtains a perfect Hit Rate. Freeze prevents the character from being picked up by Sonic Dive, countering with the Black Belt, blocking with the True Knight, learning Lores and absorbing spells with Runic. Freeze lasts for 34 intervals (see Battle Timing at 7.4) or about 68 seconds. Freeze does not linger after battle and can be healed by using a Fire-elemental attack on the target. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.23 Life 3 ********************************** Life 3 brings back a target from the dead when he/she receives the Wound status. A Life spell is cast immediately upon the target's reception of Wound. Characters under the influence of Life 3 will never use Desperation Attacks. Life 3 does not linger after battle and can be removed by the Dispel spell. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.24 Float ********************************** Float makes the afflicted float in battle. Targets with Float become immune to the following spells: Quake, Earth Aura (Terrato), Whump, Wombat, Chocobop, Magnitude8, Slide, Takedown (Interceptor) and Wild Fang (Interceptor). Targets with the Float status become more vulnerable to the special effect of the Hawk Eye and Sniper weapons. Float lingers after battle and can be removed by the Dispel spell. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.25 Hide ********************************** Hide is the status you receive while you're off-screen by means of Jump and Sonic Dive, have run away or have been forced to flee (Sneeze, Engulf). Hide prevents you from being hit by any attack, but obviously you can't issue actions either. Hide allows a character to circumvent pretty much everything: he/she cannot be picked up by Sonic Dive, won't counter-attacking with the Black Belt or protect other characters with the True Knight, cannot learn Lores and cannot absorb magic through Runic. Characters who have finished the battle with the permanent Hide of fleeing don't get Experience points/Magic points. A battle in which everybody on the field is dead yet some have received the Hide status will be treated as a battle from which everybody has fled. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.2.26 Wound ********************************** Wound is a status automatically set when a monster's or character's amount of HP drops below 0. Wounded targets are considered 'dead'. If the character or monster has the 'die if MP = 0' property, it will also receive Wound status when MP reaches 0 or 'below' by means of an MP-damaging spell. Wounded characters are inoperable and cannot be targeted by spells without the specific ability to target Wounded characters. Wound is the standard way of being defeated in battle. Wounded characters cannot learn Lores, counter-attack with the Black Belt, protect characters with the True Knight, be picked up with Sonic Dive or absorb spells with Runic. ********************************** 7.3 Statistics ********************************** Table of Contents: 7.3.1 Vigor 7.3.2 Speed 7.3.3 Stamina 7.3.4 Magic Power 7.3.5 Battle Power 7.3.6 Defense 7.3.7 Magic Defense 7.3.8 Evade 7.3.9 Magic Block -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.3.1 Vigor ********************************** Vigor is a factor in determining the amount of physical damage your character will deliver. Obviously, more Vigor means more damage. Vigor, however, is only a small factor in formula, so boosting it with Espers and Relics (Hyper Wrist) will make little impact. Primary physical attacks for your characters include: Fight/Jump The AutoCrossbow, Drill, Chain Saw and Air Anchor Tools The Pummel and Suplex Blitz techniques The Dispatch, Quadra Slam and Quadra Slice SwdTech skills Any Thrown weapon other than Skeans Gau's Battle and !Special attacks -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.3.2 Speed ********************************** Speed is a determining factor in your ATB gauge. Characters with a lot of Speed have an ATB bar that fills up faster than character with less Speed. However, Speed is a fairly worthless stat to raise, as the change is rather insignificant and you'll need to raise the Speed stat a LOT if you ever want to double-turn another of your characters. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.3.3 Stamina ********************************** Stamina is a minor stat that determines HP gained by Regen, as well as HP lost by Poison and Seizure. The more Stamina a character has, the more HP will be gained/lost. A second influence of Stamina is the amount of HP a Tintinabar will heal per step, although take heed: Stamina given to you by equipment will NOT be taken into account by the Tintinabar. The final and most important use of Stamina is evading Instant Death attacks. More Stamina means more evasion of them. The spells that check for Stamina are the following: Break, Doom, Demi, Quartr, X-Zone, W Wind, Shoat, Odin, Raiden, Antlion, Snare, X-Fer, and Grav Bomb. Stamina is a complete waste of your time. While 128 Stamina will ensure none of the above attacks will ever make a hit, it's not worth it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.3.4 Magic Power ********************************** Magic Power is a factor in determining the damage you do with magical attacks. Magic Power of all stats has THE most influence in damage output, which is why it's usually the best stat to raise on characters. Primary magical attacks for your characters include: Any Magic spell The Bio Blaster and Flash Tools The AuraBolt, Fire Dance, Air Blade and Bum Rush Blitz techniques The Retort, Empowerer and Stunner SwdTech skills The Skeans Any attack Gau performs other than Battle and !Special The Slot attacks The Dances All Lores -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.3.5 Battle Power ********************************** Battle Power is only raised by the weapons you equip, and is a factor in determining Fight damage (not Desperation Attacks, though), Umaro's Charge attack, and Umaro's Throw attack (the Battle Power of the character thrown and Umaro's Battle Power is used). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.3.6 Defense ********************************** Defense is only raised by equipment and Relics and is a factor in determining physical damage taken by your characters. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.3.7 Magic Defense ********************************** Magic Defense is only raised by equipment and Relics and is a factor in determining the amount of damage taken from magical attacks. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 7.3.8 Evade ********************************** Evade was supposed to be a factor in the amount of physical attacks you evaded. Instead, due to silly coding by Square employees, Evade does NOTHING. Weapons, equipment, and Relics that raise your Evade stat will NOT increase the amount of physical hits you avoid. Instead, all evasion checks are made via Magic Block. ********************************** 7.3.9 Magic Block ********************************** Magic Block was supposed to only determine the amount of magical attacks you avoided. Due to Square employees being an incompetent bunch, Magic Block also determines the amount of physical attacks you evade. 128 % Magic Block or more means that you cannot be touched by any attack that can be evaded, be it magical or physical. ********************************** 7.4 Battle Timing ********************************** A character's ATB Bar is determined by Speed. Some numbers: Speed 25, Slowed (initial Strago) 16.2 seconds to fill up entirely Speed 25 (initial Strago) 8.1 seconds to fill up entirely Speed 40 (initial Locke) 6 seconds to fill up entirely Speed 128 (maximum) 2.5 seconds to fill up entirely Speed 128, Hasted (maximum) 1.9 seconds to fill up entirely Monsters don't have an ATB bar, but their turns are determined with Speed and your Battle Speed setting. Every character and monster also has an individual timer which is determined by intervals: An interval on a normal target comes around every 2 seconds. An interval on a hasted target comes around every 1.5 second An interval on a slowed target comes around every 4 seconds Every interval: - Is Stop set on the target? If so, decrease the Stop timer by one and skip all other steps. - A character gets a chance to run. - The Condemned timer on character and monsters decreases by one (only visually on characters). - There's a 62.5 % chance of receiving Seize damage. - There's a 12.5 % chance of receiving Poison damage. - There's a 25 % chance of receiving Regen or Seizure damage. - Is Reflect set on the target? If so, decrease the Reflect timer by one. - Is Freeze set on the target? If so, decrease the Freeze timer by one. - Is Sleep set on the target? If so, decrease the Sleep timer by one. Note that the % chances of Seize, Poison and Regen/Seizure add up to a 100 %? A character will never suffer from two ailments at the same interval. It's Seize damage OR Poison damage OR Seizure/Regen coming into effect. ********************************** 7.5 Running ********************************** Characters run if [1...run success value] > [pursue value] If they are running, the following amount is added to the characters run success value every interval Terra: 4 Locke: 5 Cyan: 3 Shadow: 5 Edgar: 4 Sabin: 4 Celes: 4 Strago: 3 Relm: 5 Setzer: 4 Mog: 5 Gau: 5 Gogo: 4 Umaro: 3 Banon: 2 Leo: 3 Vicks: 4 Wedge: 4 Pursue value is determined as follows: every monsters present adds 2 to the pursue value, but the following monsters add 6: Retainer, Apokryphos, Dark Force, Steroidite, Doom Drgn, Tyranosaur, Anguiform, Hoover, Mover, Crawler, Madam, Goblin, Power-Demon, Vectaur, Dragon, Brontaur, Allosaurus, Test Rider, Scullion, SoulDancer, Parasite, Evil Oscar, Outsider, Hemophyte, Scrapper, Opinicus, Vindr, Kiwok, Mantodea, Dueller, Muus, Punisher, Vectagoyle, Mag Roader (yellow), Fortis, Junk, Borras, Mag Roader (brown), Innoc, Red Wolf, Didalos, Veteran, Sky Base, IronHitman, Prometheus, Guardian ********************************** 7.6 MagiTek ********************************** [MAGITEK-LINK] There are moments in this game where you'll be able to take advantage of one of the Empire's most dangerous weapons: the Imperial MagiTek Armor. Whether you admire their sleek design in their appearance in the game or if you prefer the dark, Amano-based metallic monstrosities of the game's logo and the FMV in the Anthology version, the MagiTek Armor is a whole lot of kick-ass. What can it do? Fire Beam - ST magical, Fire-elemental damage Bolt Beam - ST magical, Lightning-elemental damage Ice Beam - ST magical, Ice-elemental damage Bio Blast - MT magical, Poison-elemental damage, also sets Poison and Seizure Heal Force - ST healing Confuser - MT attack, sets Muddled X-Fer - ST attack, sets Death, prevents final counters TekMissile - ST magical, non-elemental, barrier-piercing attack. Also sets Seizure. While riding MagiTek Armor, the Fight command is changed in the Magitek command and your secondary ability is disabled. Gau's Rage command is also turned into MagiTek, while Gogo's Rage command is not. The only abilities you can use while riding MagiTek Armor are Magitek, Magic and Item. When Palidor is summoned, you will be able to perform a Jump attack as well. You shouldn't be normally able to use Fight attacks; a Berserked or Muddled character will always use one of the three beam-class attacks (Fire Beam, Ice Beam, Bolt Beam), and the Black Belt will have no effect on a character riding MagiTek Armor. Terra is the only character in the game who is able to deploy all eight attacks. All other character can only use Fire Beam, Bolt Beam, Ice Beam and Heal Force. Gogo should be given a Fight command when he's in MagiTek Armor, or else he won't be able to use the Magitek command. Mimic is disabled like any other secondary skill. Umaro will randomly pick one of the three beam-class attacks, never Heal Force. ********************************** 7.7 Battle Formations ********************************** There are four kinds of battle formations: The normal battle formations: Rows are enabled, as is running (unless any of the monsters you're facing doesn't allow running). Your party stands at the far right of the screen and faces left; the monsters vice versa. The normal battle formation has a 208/255 chance of happening in a normal situation. The Back Attack: Your character is surprised and attacked from behind; when the battle starts, they are facing the monsters, but are on the left side of the screen and the monsters on the right side. Rows are enabled, but every character normally in the Front Row is now treated as if he or she was in the Back Row, and characters in the Back Row are treated like Front Row characters. Running is enabled like normal. Preemptive attacks are disabled. All characters take longer to take their first turn. The Back Attack has an 8/255 chance of happening in a normal situation. The Pincer Attack: Your party is caught between the monsters and stands in the middle. On both sides of the screen are monsters present, facing the party. Rows are enabled, but everybody is in the Front Row. The Row command can be used to switch to the Back Row (which makes NO sense) but no visual effect is shown. Running is disabled until one side of the monsters is cleared. Preemptive attacks are disabled. Characters that are physically attacked from behind take 1.5 as much damage, and these physical attacks become unblockable (meaning no amount of M.Block or Image status will block it, but Earth Wall, Interceptor and the Clear status will). The Pincer attack has an 8/255 chance of happening. A Side Attack: Your party has managed to catch the monsters off-guard and you have surrounded the enemy party. On both sides of the screen are party members; Party members #1 and #2 to the right, and #3 and #4 to the left, which are the ones starting out facing the back of the monsters. Rows are enabled as usual, as is running. Attacking a monster in the back will result in 1.5 as much damage and the attack becomes unblockable as usual. A Side Attack has a 31/255 chance of happening. In addition, one extra situation may occur, that being the Preemptive attack. This may happen in addition to a normal battle or a Side Attack; the ATB bars of all your characters start out completely full, giving you an(other) advantage. In a normal battle, the chances of a Preemptive attack are 1/8; in a Side Attack, the chances are 7/32. The Gale Hairpin Relic doubles these odds. The Back Guard will protect your party from Back and Pincer Attacks if possible. It won't protect against forced Back or Pincer attacks, such as the undead SrBehemoth on the Veldt (forced Back attack) or the dual Tyrannosaur monster formation (forced Pincer). ********************************** 7.8 Metamorph ********************************** [METAMORPH-LINK] Metamorph is the attack performed by the Ragnarok Esper when summoned. For the 6 MP it costs, you really can't expect much from it; slim as the chances may be though, the Metamorph's unique ability to turn opponents into items may prove useful. Metamorph doesn't take Death Protection into consideration, nor is the Hit Rate affected by MBlock. Every monster has his own 'Metamorph success change' bit. This is why combos like Stop/Metamorph or even Vanish/Metamorph just don't guarantee a hit. There are two uses the Metamorph can have for you. The first one is obtaining rare items in quantities hitherto not thought of. The other one is the fact it kills monsters in one hit without checking for Death Protection; it may very well be a successful monster slayer if you know what monsters to target. First off, a list of rare items you can only get more of if you opt for the Esper (not taking BAR-BAR-BAR and Magicite into consideration): Safety Bit Striker Cursed Ring Relic Ring Other rare items that are hard to obtain and can be produced with Metamorph: Genji Glove Pod Bracelet Ribbon Megalixir Thornlet Exp. Egg Marvel Shoes Safety Bit: White Drgn 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Boxed Set 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Critic 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Trixter 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Woolly 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Striker: Ninja 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Covert 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Outsider 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Cursed Ring: SrBehemoth 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Didalos 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Veteran 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Relic Ring: SrBehemoth 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Didalos 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Veteran 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Genji Glove: Samurai 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Retainer 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Pod Bracelet: White Drgn 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Critic 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Ribbon: Dahling 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Madam 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Pan Dora 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Barb-e 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Megalixir: Magic Urn 25% * 6.25% = 1.5625% Intangir 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Thornlet: SrBehemoth 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Didalos 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Veteran 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Exp. Egg: Harpy 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Harpiai 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Aquila 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Marvel Shoes: SlamDancer 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% SoulDancer 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Tap Dancer 25% * 12.5% = 3.125% Now, there's also the issue of Metamorph being an attack that sets Wound and doesn't respect ID immunity whatsoever. So here's a list of monsters that are immune to ID but have a Morph Hit Rate equal or superior to 50%: Hazer - 99% Baskervor - 50% Brachosaur - 50% Tyranosaur - 50% ChickenLip - 99% Warlock - 50% Slatter - 50% Rhinox - 50% Chitonid - 50% Brontaur - 99% Drop - 50% Crusher - 50% Cephaler - 99% Gigan Toad - 50% Latimeria - 50% Hemophyte - 50% Sp Forces - 50% Wizard - 99% Scrapper - 50% Ceritops - 50% Lunaris - 99% Nastidon - 50% Adamanchyt - 50% Psychot - 99% Muus - 99% Karkass - 50% Mandrake - 99% Red Wolf - 50% Out of those, the only really spectacular one is Brachosaur; the strongest random encounter in the game has an immediate 50% chance of falling without a fight if you summon Ragnarok. 99% isn't entirely accurate in this table; it's actually 99.609375% (in other words, there's a 1/256 chance it'll miss). The eight elemental dragons (as well as ProtoArmor) all wield a 12.5% chance of a successful Metamorph attack for a piece of Crystal equipment (Crystal (sword), Crystal Shld, Crystal Helm, CrystalArmr). ********************************** 8.0 Not Infrequently Asked Questions ********************************** Table of Contents: 8.1 Dude, where's my airship? 8.2 Drill VS Chainsaw; the eternal struggle 8.3 I'm about to head for the big WoB/WoR switcheroo, what can I miss? 8.4 Shadow's Dreams. That, with question marks. 8.5 Vanish/Doom. Explain? 8.6 Where are all the Rare items, and what do they do? 8.7 Kutan? 8.8 How to work with Esper boosts? 8.9 Where the best place to train when it comes to Magic Points? 8.10 Hu---man? 8.11 Imp equipment and the Imp warrior 8.12 Ragnarok; Sword or Esper? 8.13 Trump and Doom Darts...what's the deal? 8.14 255 Items Checklist 8.15 Timeline 8.16 Siegfried/Ziegfried A kind of fan service which doesn't include the female cast of a webcomic in French maid outfits! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.1 Dude, where's my airship? ********************************** - I can't find my Airship. It has left me. I promised to Mother I would take good care of it this time. Where is it? If it's not in the area around you (make sure you check everything), it's highly likely you were trying to get Mog's Water Rondo and forgot all about it. This means it's either at the entrance of the Returners' Hideout or at the mouth of the Cave on the Veldt. This is the route you'll want to take (start reading at the point you are now): Go to the Returners' Hideout over Mt. Koltz near South Figaro. Seek out the room you first met Banon in, and find the rather hidden entrance to the Lete River. Ride it. On the other side, go WEST to Nikeah, under the mountain range. Take the ferry from Nikeah to South Figaro, where the captain of the ferry will smuggle you out of town in a treasure chest if South Figaro is still occupied. Climb Mt. Koltz and you're at your starting point. Note that the Blackjack is invisible while riding a Chocobo, so you should hop off if you want to see if it's there. If this does not apply, the airship is still somewhere near you; there's no other alternative. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.2 Drill VS Chainsaw; the eternal struggle ********************************** - In a lot of battles, especially in the WoB, where Edgar appears, it's clear that I have to choose between Drill and Chainsaw. Chainsaw is more powerful, but it also misses entirely 25 % of the time because the thing goes for an instant-kill sometimes. So, which one is better when I know the target is immune to Instant Death, like most bosses? Answer: The answer to this question is entirely mathematic. Drill has a Battle Power of 191; Chainsaw has a Battle Power of 252. Assuming that Drill hits four times, and Chainsaw the average of three times (and one miss), we get: 4 x 191 = 764 3 x 252 = 756 The difference is almost zilch here. But does Battle Power directly parallel damage output? A test with a level 5 Edgar, a test with a level 50 Edgar, and a test with a level 99 Edgar. We'll assume non-boosted Vigor levels. 191 + ((5 * 5 * 269)/256) * 3/2 = 230 191 + ((50 * 50 * 269)/256) * 3/2 = 4131 191 + ((99 * 99 * 269)/256) * 3/2 = 16212 --> 9999 252 + ((5 * 5 * 330)/256) * 3/2 = 300 252 + ((50 * 50 * 330)/256) * 3/2 = 5085 252 + ((99 * 99 * 330)/256) * 3/2 = 19203 --> 9999 230 x 4 = 920 4131 x 4 = 16524 16212 x 4 = 64848 300 x 3 = 900 5085 x 3 = 15225 19203 x 3 = 57609 So, Drill comes out slightly on top here. Of course, Drill becomes far superior to Chainsaw once Chainsaw hits the 9999 cap. While I've theorized what would happen if the cap weren't there to show average damage differences, Chainsaw's extra damage would decrease as Drill continues to be stronger, as Chainsaw will obviously never surpass 9999. Chainsaw will hit the maximum damage somewhere around level 71 without damage-boosting Relics. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.3 I'm about to head for the big WoB/WoR switcheroo, what can I miss? ********************************** - I'm about to go to the World of Ruin. What can I have missed in the WoB? Almost nothing. Things you can have missed are: The Tintinabar the Wounded Lad in Mobliz gives you after you have helped him correspond with his lassie in Maranda. A whole bunch of monsters you didn't fight and can never get a Rage for. Go with http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/snes/file/final_fantasy_iii_rage_a.txt. It's my Rage Guide, and chapter 3.2 mentions ALL the WoB monsters you could ever hope to encounter. Obtaining WoB Mog and getting his Water Rondo. If you've arrived at this point and you don't have the following, you've lost them forever already: Atma Weapon, Tempest (x2), the Coin Toss Relic, the Magicite Ifrit. Sucker! If you're concerned about not having at least one copy of every item in the game, this is a list of WoB-only items: Atma Weapon x 1 *1 Epee RegalCutlass Mithril Pike *2 Blossom Kodachi Tempest x 2 Chocobo Brsh x 1 (unique item) Boomerang *3 Hawk Eye Morning Star Cards x 1(unique item) MetalKnuckle x 1 (unique item) Hair Band Leather Hat Magus Hat Plumed Hat *4 Tiara Cotton Robe Iron Armor Kung Fu Suit LeatherArmor Ninja Gear Silk Robe White Dress *1 The Atma Weapon can also be stolen in the final battle *2 If you wait until the WoR to recruit Mog in your party, he'll come with a Mithril Pike equipped *3 Due to a bug, a Boomerang and a Buckler are added to your inventory when you enter the WoR. *4 When you recruit Gogo, he comes equipped with a Plumed Hat -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.4 Shadow's Dreams. That, with question marks. ********************************** - What's up with Shadow's Dreams? Can I see them anywhere? Does a full moon affect my chances, or perhaps wearing a silly paper hat while playing? Every time you sleep in a bed and Shadow is in your party -- it need not be an Inn, any single bed will suffice -- there is a 50 % chance a dream sequence will be triggered. The only Inn where this will never happen is the Inn in Thamasa once it sells arrangements for 1 GP. There is NOTHING that affects this 50 % chance. The dreams are seen in a set sequence: Dream # 1: Dark background. The dream is accompanied by strange noises. BARAM: Clyde...I'm...done for...F...find me here...Please, Clyde... Dream # 2: Baram and Clyde rush through what looks like the Phantom Forest. BARAM: Yahoooo! We did it, Clyde! CLYDE: A million GP! What a blast! I love this! BARAM: Guess it's time to change our name. CLYDE: Our name? BARAM: We need something more_appropriate. BARAM: Such as...? BARAM: ... SHADOW! Not bad, huh? CLYDE: Great train robbers of the century... SHADOW...? Dream # 3: Baram and Clyde at what looks like the shores of the Veldt. Baram is down, Clyde still standing. CLYDE: Open your eyes! BARAM: I'm scared...hack, cough...Is...is this MY blood...? CLYDE: You're gonna be okay! BARAM: I've let you down... I'm sorry... CLYDE: Save your strength. We're almost to a town. BARAM: You don't have to pretend. I know. I've lost...too much blood. BARAM: Get going! I'm gonna slow you down. CLYDE: But...! BARAM: You wanna get caught? BARAM: Before you go... You have to use your knife... CLYDE: WHAT!!!! BARAM: Think what they'll do to me if I get caught. I don't want to go through that. Do me this favor. BARAM: Are you...shaking? I can't believe it! You're acting like a coward! Come on, you weakling! Grab a knife and... CLYDE: I CAN'T! BARAM: Clyde!!! CLYDE: I'm sorry... BARAM: Clyde! How dare you!? Dream # 4: Clyde, alone now, stumbles into a town resembling Thamasa. A woman approaches. : Hey...HEY! Stay with me now! CLYDE: Where...am...? : A small village called Thama...Hang in there! And that's all there is. The fifth dream will be seen at a fixed time if you have saved Shadow; another dream will be experienced by Relm if you haven't. There are NO other dreams, no matter what other people say. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.5 Vanish/Doom. Explain? ********************************** - What exactly is Vanish/Doom? All the cool kids are using it, but isn't it dangerous? [VANISHDOOM-LINK] There's a bug in this game. To be honest with you, there are over 160 documented bugs in this game, but among the few major ones, one would definitely be the one usually called Vanish/Doom, although it has many vile incarnations. Here's the deal. When the game determines if an attack will hit the target, it goes through a lot of things. M.Block, Golem, Reflect status, you name it. One of these checks is to see if the target has Clear status; if the attack is magical, the attack always hits. Another check is made on Death-based attacks; if the target has immunity to it, death-based attacks will always miss. Sadly, the game does it in this order: (If attack is magical) If target is under Clear status, the attack ALWAYS hits. If attack is Death-based, and the target has Death immunity, the attack ALWAYS misses. You see the problem here? So, when you apply the Clear status to a target immune to Death-based attacks, such as all bosses and a few tougher enemies, you can still kill them in one hit. Vanish/Doom is the common combo, but Vanish/Snare, Vanish/X-Zone, and Vanish/Demi are not unheard of. Another more interesting combination is Vanish/Dischord; this can halve the level of pretty much any creature over and over again, making them less and less of a threat and more susceptible to, for instance, Steal attempts. It's difficult to say if this is a bug. Not because of its woefully erroneous nature, but because Square has, since they discovered its existence, gone out of their way to say it's NOT a bug. They have only partly fixed it in Anthology, etcetera. I still say it IS a bug if only for the fact that several battles that should have been concluded in a certain manner (Ultros #3 with Relm showing up, Ultros #4 with Chupon Sneezing you off the Blackjack, Phunbaba #1 against Terra) can be cut short with Vanish/Doom. So, Relm will boast about her presence where she never appeared, you'll just kind of 'fall' off the Blackjack because Chupon never sneezed you off of it, and other crazy antics like that. Also, Vanish was never meant to make magical attacks connect PERIOD, disregarding all other properties. Ragnarok's Metamorph may still miss on targets under Clear, Float still allows you to circumvent damage from ground- based attacks, L.# Lores still miss if the level is inappropriate, etcetera. Another, lesser known, result of the bug is the fact it allows spells only normally successfully used on character with the Wound status (Life 2, ChokeSmoke, such attacks) to work on living targets. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.6 Where are all the Rare items, and what do they do? ********************************** Cider Cider, taken from a merchant -Obtained when you defeat the responsible Merchant in South Figaro. Is needed to advance the game. Old Clock-Key An Old Clock-Key, found on a soldier -Obtained when you search the sleeping soldier that was supposed to guard general Celes Chere. Is needed to advance the game. Fish A yummy fish -Obtained when fishing on the Solitary Island. Very healthy! Fish Just a fish -Obtained when fishing on the Solitary Island. Healthy. Fish A rotten fish -Obtained when fishing on the Solitary Island. Not very healthy. Fish Fish -Obtained when fishing on the Solitary Island. Very unhealthy. Lump of Metal A heavy weight. Put it into a chest, and... -Obtained in Cyan's Soul, this is found in a chest. Is needed to obtain the Flame Shld in this dungeon. Lola's Letter Thanks for all those flowers! I'm worried about you... -Obtained when talking to Lola and offering to attach it to the carrier pigeon outside. Lost when attaching it to the carrier pigeon; Is needed to obtain Cyan. Coral A piece of coral, found in the cave near Ebot's Rock -Obtained in Ebot's Rock, 22 of these are needed to satisfy the living chest which prevents access to Hidon itself. Books Simple book on machinery... And "Book of Secrets"... -Obtained when finding the key to Cyan's locked chest and opening it. Serves no purpose. Royal Letter At a star-shaped mountain-range... -Obtained when examining Gestahl's portrait in Owzer's Mansion twice. Reveals the location of the mysterious reviving power Locke searched for. Rust Rid Rust solvent -Obtained when bought from the honest man in Zozo for 1000 GP. Is needed to obtain Cyan. Pendant A pendant worn by the girl who pilots the MagiTek armor -In your inventory from the very start, a pendant worn by Terra. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.7 Kutan? ********************************** Hardly a frequently asked question, I didn't know where else to stick it :\ [KUTAN-LINK] Note that this entire section wouldn't be here if it wasn't for Novalia Spirit, who really deserves a lot of credit for the discovery of this thing alone, not to mention the over 100 bugs he found and the breaking down of the Mag Roader puzzle. Internet rumors speak of reviving Leo and/or acquiring Kappa the Imp. Reviving Leo is impossible and Kappa is just an Imped character with the Kappa name and a set of equipment you give to him. No, the only character that comes close to somehow being the 15th character is Kutan, one of the minor Moogles who helped you defend Terra! How is this possible? Read on. You never really acquire Kutan at any point of the game. Rather, you allow the game to reach for a character you were supposed to have but never did. In Locke's scenario, the trick is to leave South Figaro *without* saving Celes from her terrible fate. Obviously, this isn't normally possible as you at the very least need the Clock Key to continue, which you can't get until you release Celes. But you don't have go that far. You know the 'scram, you blockhead' soldier that was chasing Locke at the very beginning of the scenario and continued to promptly forget about him? We have to pass him. We do this by exploiting a poorly coded aspect of the game. We'll have to send both Locke and the trooper at the same tile. If this succeeds, Locke passes *through* the trooper and is free to leave South Figaro. Sadly, the game normally prevents this. However, if you enter the menu screen, leave it and immediately try to possess the same tile the trooper is going for, it'll work. It might fail a few times, but it does work. If you want to, you can enter the tunnel you were supposed to enter with Celes from the other side by entering the hidden back door in the house of Duncan's Wife; this'll get you the treasure contained here. Make sure not to wander OUT of this basement on the other side; you can't get back in without the Clock Key, which you can't get without recruiting Celes. As a side note, this allows Locke to leave South Figaro dressed as either a Merchant or Imperial trooper. Now, the second part of the problem lies in Locke having to fight through the Cave of Figaro by himself and defeating TunnelArmr by himself, a battle which is scripted and was designed to require the Runic skill which you lack now. You'll have to powerlevel a little or abuse the Thunder Rod in the chest if you want to make it through here. This is the first time Kutan will make a small appearance; it will be him who will do the 'Something's coming outta the wall!!' line. During the battle, no name will be shown when the Runic speech is given (Just you watch, etc.). Back in Narshe, Locke will appear with a comrade, but it's not Celes; Kutan, Moogle sprite and all, will appear and do everything Celes does. Do the expressions, say the lines, etcetera. KUTAN: I'm a soldier, not some love-starved twit! EDGAR: Cold as ice...... While preparing for Kefka's Raid on Narshe, it turns out Kutan hasn't changed a bit; his level hasn't risen, his equipment and Relics is still off-limits, he still has a MithrilBlade and a Buckler and nothing else and he's in the same state you left him. You can't take him to the Save Point; the character you're controlling immediately resets back to Terra and Kutan enters the line of characters again. In the line of characters, by the way, Kutan momentarily changes his Moogle sprite for the Celes one. After the battle, Kutan is normally choosable in your party, although he walks around like Celes in the room. Kutan doesn't appear in shop screens either. You can just go on with the game until the Opera House; Kutan will change into Maria's opera gown and get the normal opera Celes sprite. Also, his equipment will be removed, which is bad as you can never get it back on. After that, he's given the normal Celes sprite. It's still Kutan though. The story continues, and at the Imperial MagiTek Research Facility Kutan is taken from you, not to be returned until you gain access to the Floating Continent. It's at this point that you can finally return to South Figaro and try to find Celes there; the game will lock up as soon as you pass the room where Celes is getting a beating. Locke (whether he is in your party or not) will say his line, and screen will switch to the room, and stop proceeding there. If you don't bring Kutan to the FC, he'll join you there to stop Gestahl. He and Shadow fail, you make a run for it, kaboomchy, WoR. Kutan wakes up in the WoR, from which points it's all Kutan until the end. The only noteworthy effect Kutan has on the WoR is Gogo missing Runic as an option. Ofcourse, Kutan is a consistently poor character to fight with. He joins you in the middle of the Narshe Raid at a very low level, his equipment consists of a MithrilBlade and a Buckler and cannot be changed until he Opera House from which point he's entirely naked, he doesn't have any skills, he can't equip Relics, he can't equip Espers and learn or use Magic and his stats are extremely poor: Vigor 16 Speed 14 Stamina 12 Magic Power 33 Battle Power 21 Defense 44 Magic Defense 29 MBlock 5 Evade 7 But still, it's absolutely hilarious to see Locke go protective on Kutan, have a Moogle lament 'her' position in the Empire and 'her' history as a Magic wielder, and have Owzer claim 'she' looks exactly like Maria. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.8 How to work with Esper boosts? ********************************** Most Esper you run into on your path towards world peace, flowers and honey will give you a so-called Esper boost, or level-up bonus. The level-up bonuses are obviously applied when you gain a level and have an Esper equipped. If, for instance, Sabin gains a level with Ramuh equipped, he will gain one extra point on his standard Stamina stat. HP + 10 % and MP + 10 % does NOT mean overall HP/MP! It concerns the HP/MP gained at that level. Say, Terra levels from level 26 to level 27. She gains 82 HP in the process. With Siren equipped, she gains 82 HP + (10 % of 82 HP =) 8 HP is 90 HP. Crummy? Why, yes :P First, it's important to know how much effect the stats themselves have on the gameplay. I think I just explained the needlessly inferior status of HP/MP boosts given by Espers. The only reason why you'd want to include these if for a perfect 9999 HP/999 MP character. If this is the goal you're shooting for, realize that you'll want to do that on specific levels, as HP/MP increase per level-up isn't the same for every level. For HP, you'll want to equip Bahamut (HP + 50 %) when gaining level 69, 70 and 71. This applies to each character. For MP, you'll want to equip Crusader (MP + 50 %) when: - For Terra, Celes, Relm and Mog: when gaining level 48, 49 and 50. - For Locke, Edgar, Shadow, Setzer, Strago and Gau: when gaining levels 48, 49, 50 and 51. - For Cyan and Sabin: when gaining level 48, 49, 50, 51 and 52. This is due to the MP starting levels being different enough to have an impact (as opposed to HP). Stamina is worthless to raise. Since higher Stamina also increases Poison and Seizure damage, I'd say the Regen boost is a moot point; hardly anybody ever uses the Tintinabar (for good reasons, too) and as far as the protection from ID-attacks go; if it's a random encounters, there's almost always some way to stop the enemy from using an ID attack, and if it's a boss battle you can often just cover your asses in Safety Bits and Memento Rings. It would take a maximum of 55 levels (Strago) and a minimum of 45 levels (Sabin) with a Stamina + 2 Esper like Golem to obtain perfect a Stamina rating which WILL protect you from every attack that checks for Stamina. Speed is pretty much worthless to raise as well. There's the immediate shortage of Speed-boosting Espers to consider; there's only one of them (Odin), he's gotten fairly late in the WoR and only raises Speed by 1. Next to that, Speed can have a maximum of two uses on a character. You either want him/her to attack first in battle as often as possible, or you want that character to double-turn other characters. A character with a high Speed rating is always hurt by the time you have to spend telling other characters what to do, and sending out the Speedy one only just isn't worth it. In short, Speed just doesn't make enough of an impact on the gameplay to justify the loss of other stat boosts. Vigor, the secondary stat to raise in most occassions. This is the way to boost physical damage. It's not as much a factor in the eventual damage output as Magic Power is in magical attacks, but it's still noticeable. Worth raising for characters who rely mostly on physical attacks for damage. Magic Power is, in most cases, the jackpot stat to raise. You see, not only does everybody obtain the Magic command, most secondary skills are primarily of partly magical in nature as well. Also, it has much more effect on the damage output than Vigor. Terra - Magic. Mind that some tend to mention Vigor here as well, since she does make an effective fighter, but I tend to experience she's drawing from her Magic pool a lot more than from physical attacks Besides, even when killing things with the Illumina/Ragnarok, the random spell will benefit from the Magic Power increase. Locke - Vigor. He's not entirely worthless as a Mage since he does get to use the +7 Magic Power Ragnarok and Illumina, but that's really only when you go out of your way to make a physical character a magiacl one. He needs to focus on his weapons really, all the way until end-game, so best to raise the damage there. Edgar - Vigor. His Fight, Jump and Tools options all revolve around physical damage. Once again, due to stuff like the Enhancer you can make him an acceptable mage if you train him to be one, but for a canon Edgar, just go with Vigor. Sabin - Magic. I've been pressing the Sabin = mage issue throughout the walkthrough section, but if you're still surprised: Sabin's Blitzes are, short of Pummel and Suplex, magical. There's no reason for him to use Fight, as all of his weapons (including the Tiger Fangs) suck. Shadow - If you plan on going on until level 99, just go with Magic, as his Throw attacks will hit the ceiling by then. Magic boosts the power of his Skeans, but do note that his primary way of dealing damage is the Shuriken/Ninja Star throughout the game, which is entirely physical. Gau - Magic, primarily. Since Gau's Rage choices will always result into a 50 % Battle attack, Vigor is never wasted on Gau; however, in these Rage choices the other attacks are always what you're going for, and are almost always magical. Add the facts that the power of the Wind God Tempest is magical and that late-game you'll be casting Magic spells with him a lot in my expierence, and you'll reach the conclusion that you'll want to stay on his magical side. Celes - Magic, like Terra entirely. Celes is a *little* more focused on the physical side than Terra is, but Magic is still what it should be about if you're going for total efficiency. Strago - Magic, no doubt whatsoever. Lore is magical, Magic is magical, and his Rods kinda blow in most situations anyway. Relm - Magic. Rods suck, Brushes even more so, Sketch uses the stats of the monsters anyway, and all that's left is her Magic skillset to wield. Mog - Vigor. His Dances are Magical, as is the random Pearl spell he might cast from the Pearl Lance, but his Jump attacks are physical and that IS his primary source of damage dealing. Magic isn't lost on Mog in any way, though, so you might want to switch around. Setzer - Magic. Sure, he's a primarily 'physical character', but neither GP Rain nor Fixed Dice use Vigor to determine damage, and while Slot is obsolete in the WoR higher Magic power does boost both Slot and Magic. Cyan - Eh...yeah. That's really kind of a tough one. Cyan has the lowest starting Magic Power of the final 14 and his equips do little to increase it (Genji Armor a little, but that's it), so he makes a horrible mage. On the other hand, his weapon selection isn't too special and most SwdTechs take too long. If you want to go with a more canon version of Cyan who relies primarily on Dispatch, Quadra Slam/Slice and Fight, raise Vigor; if you want to go with an alternate Cyan who relies in Tempest Wind Slashes, the Stunner SwdTech and his Magic skillset, go with Magic Power. The bad thing there is that he'll be downright inferior in what he does to a lot of other characters, but I'm tempted to say that's the better Cyan of the two. Yeah, that's a lot of Magic Power boosting. Since all characters have the Magic skillset, you really need a persuasive reason to raise physical damage output. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.9 Where the best place to train when it comes to Magic Points? ********************************** - I'm in the late WoR, and being excessive-compulsive (there's no shame!) and all, I want to teach every single spell to every single character. Where can I bask in all the Magic Points I want? When in doubt, beat up vacuum cleaners. There's no place like the Maranda Desert (the desert south of Maranda, lord of the mind). There are two monsters there, Cactrots and Hoovers. Cactrots are little 3 HP buggers who use Blow Fish on you every turn (and ten times Blow Fish in a single turn if you wait too long killing them). Hoovers are massive sandworms who can counter your attack with up to two devastating Sand Storm attacks and kill a single character with !Crush, unless this character has the best defensive equipment it can get. The Cactrots give 10 MP, NO Experience Points, and 10000 GP. The Hoovers 5 MP, 7524 Experience Points to divide amongst your party members and 10000 GP. The encounter rate is 10/16 for a single Hoover and 6/16 for a single Cactrot. Now, here's the proper way to kill Cactrots: Terra -> Atma Weapon + Sniper Sight Locke -> Atma Weapon/ValiantKnife + Sniper Sight Cyan -> Dispatch Shadow -> Throw whatever, preferably Shuriken, as they are cheap and otherwise worthless Edgar -> Drill Sabin -> Pummel, Bum Rush Celes -> Atma Weapon + Sniper Sight Strago -> Blow Fish/Step Mine/Quasar/GrandTrain. Economizer might help. Relm -> Control, for it can target itself with Blow Fish Setzer -> Dice/Fixed Dice, Chocobop Mog -> Earth Blues, for Land Slide and Whump. Gau -> Behemoth/Mesosaur/Brainpan/Cactrot/etc. Gogo -> Pummel/Drill/Dispatch Meteor and Ultima are great alternatives for those on the list which cannot use unblockable and barrier-piercing attacks without leaving a fair share to chance or equipping otherwise worthless Relics. Cactrots fall to everything including GAIJIN SMASH (ed.: not an actual attack), but Hoovers are dangerous and prone to cause you pain, death, and mild discomfort. They're big defensive weakness is their lack of Death Protection, which should be exploited. Causing HP damage is just going to cause mean double Sand Storm counters and their amount of MP is too large to deplete every time you encounter one. Note that Hoover is protected from Petrify, so Break's superior Hit Rate to Doom isn't going to help you. Avoid percentage-based attacks, as they allow counters. Use Doom with whatever character you have. Sadly, the uncontrollable nature of most superior Instant Death attacks can't justify their usage in this situation. Stuff that is superior to Doom, Hit Rate wise, is: Odin's Atom Edge and Raiden's True Edge, and Cyan's Cleave (though you'll want to go with Quick in that case). Same goes for Gogo. That's it. In the meantime, other status ailments may help. Hoovers are vulnerable to Muddle and Stop, so could set those before trying to kill them with Doom. Bserk can also be used if you have no other options. You may think that I'm being anal about these counter-attacks. This is entirely justified, make no mistake. While Sand Storm is an attack that is easily evaded, it's still three times as dangerous as Hoover's physicals. You'll simply want to evade it. If you have all characters protected with Thunder Shlds, Paladin Shld and/or Minerva, or simply 128 MBlock%, it doesn't really matter what you do as you'll laugh in the dusty, non-existing face of Sand Storm. What has an eye, but no face? A tornado. Amaze your friends! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.10 Hu---man? ********************************** - What's a human? The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has the following to say about humans: a bipedal primate of the superfamily Hominoidea, together with the other apes: chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and gibbons. Now, that was hardly your question, wasn't it? You were simply curious what targets are in this game defined as 'Human' for purposes of the Man Eater's damage. [MANEATER-LINK] These include (sorted by palette swaps): Guard, Marshal, and StillGoing Soldier, Commander, Trooper, and Commando Templar, General, and Sp Forces Ninja, Covert, and Outsider Samurai, Retainer, and KatanaSoul Orog, Ogor, and Hemophyte Hazer, Warlock, Wizard, and L.20 Magic Dahling, Madam, Barb-E, and L.80 Magic Rain Man, Joker, Parasoul, and L.40 Magic Brawler, Iron Fist, and Scrapper Dark Force and L.70 Magic (NOT WrexSoul) Siegfried (NOT the Ziegfried {fake} Siegfried) Rider, Test Rider, and Dante, Pipsqueak and Tomb Thumb (NOT IronHitman) Repo Man, GreaseMonk, Gabbldegak, and 1st Class, Harvester, NeckHunter, and Punisher SlamDancer, SoulDancer, and Tap Dancer (NOT L.30 Magic) HadesGigas and Gigantos Critic Spectre, Necromancr, and L.10 Magic (NOT Ghost and Lich) Allo Ver (NOT Osteosaur) Trixter, Naughty, and L.90 Magic Woolly and L.60 Magic Veteran (It's an eye with wings! What the hell?) Umaro MagiMaster SoulSaver Curley, Larry, and Moe Face, Magic, Hit, and Sleep Final Kefka Yeah, I'm sorry, that's just a block of info that doesn't always make sense and can hardly be made more accessible. :/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.11 Imp equipment and the Imp warrior ********************************** As soon as you obtain the Falcon in this brave new World of Ruin and fly around and beat up helpless ostriches, you notice some weird new pieces of equipment that start at the top of your equipment list but are never equipped with Optimum. Also, why is it that they don't appear to do anything? Here's the deal: [KAPPA-LINK] There are four pieces of Imp equipment (that's an entire set), this being the Imp Halberd (non-elemental Lance every character but Umaro can equip), the TortoiseShld, the Titanium helmet, and the Imp's Armor, all of which sport incredible Defense and Magic Defense while absorbing Water-elemental attacks and teaching the Imp spell at a x1 rate. They don't fully work unless you have the Imp status, though. Battle Power and Defense of these items are reduced to 1 when they are equipped on a character that is not an Imp. Magic Defense, Evade and MBlock do still work, as does the elemental properties and the spell teaching. Win an Imp's Armor from a Sprinter, Steal a Titanium from the Tumbleweeds, Steal a TortoiseShld from a Geckorex, and Steal an Imp Halberd from a Mantodea and you've got your Imp warrior right there. Turn a character into an Imp, equip away, and you have a character that excels in defensive properties yet lacks a little on the offense. This can be remedied by giving this Imp warrior the DragoonBoots and a Dragon Horn; the ultimate Dragoon (remember, the Imp Halberd has a Battle Power of 254, which is far superior to the strongest 'normal' Lance). All this guy lacks is versatility. It's up to you if the lack of special skill and Magic skillset (not to mention a possibly cool set of sprites) outweighs the defensive and often offensive advantages of this Imp Dragoon. Personally, I feel that Cyan and Sabin make great Imp Dragoons as they lack the Magic Power for a truly effective offensive Magic skillset and they lose very little with their special skill since the average Jump result isn't too much weaker than Quadra Slice/Bum Rush. I should also add that Setzer could also be pimped this way while still keeping the Fixed Dice, since the Fixed Dice its damage output ignores the Imp status of the wielder. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.12 Ragnarok; Sword or Esper? ********************************** I pose unto you a conundrum. A riddle, if you will. Sword versus Esper debating time. The Ragnarok sword should be turned into the Illumina right away; there is no reason not to. The Illumina is the bestest most awesome sword in the game. - 255 Battle Power (the maximum) - Never misses unless the target has the Clear status, not even Image or facing a Cactrot will prevent landing a blow - Uses (12...19) MP for automatic critical hits - Randomly casts Pearl, but since the automatic critical also affects the spell it's actually Pearl x 2 - +7 to every stat: Vigor, Stamina, Speed, and Magic Power - + 50% Magic Block (and Evade) - Deals the same amount of damage from the Back Row BUT, you can Steal the Ragnarok sword in the final battle so you can have both if you go with the Esper. The Ragnarok Esper teaches Ultima, which is far and away the best offensive spell in the game. It's non-elemental, barrier-piercing, MT and stronger than anything that's not tweaked so hard it's embarrassing. The Esper summon attack is pretty bad but does grant access to elusive items for the completionists out there. BUT, the Paladin Shld also teaches Ultima, and technically the Magicite item also may summon Ragnarok to do the same job. BUT BUT, getting the Paladin Shld is tedious enough to make sure that most players won't want to uncurse it. And don't mention the odds of landing the morph you want with those Magicite shards, as that's just horrible. In the end? Sorry man, it depends. Want the best most awesome game in the world? Go with the sword, since you can pretty much get everything the Esper gives you in some other way if you're willing to lose your sanity in doing so. If you, on the other hand, want to beat this game and move on with your life, go with the Esper since that'll give you one or two characters with the Ultima spell before the end, which is pretty sweet. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.13 Trump and Doom Darts...what's the deal? ********************************** So like, we have two weapons here. One of them consists out of three flying cards that randomly cast Doom. The other is three darts that share the Assassin's X-type ID property. Ted Woolsey messed up their names, and because the PSX releases 'fixed' this, there's even more confusion. So here's a quick table to remind you: * Japanese SNES Release PSX Release X-type ID darts: Intense Darts Trump Doom Darts Random Doom cards Death Card Doom Darts Trump -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.14 255 Items Checklist ********************************** This list assumes that you have completed every dungeon in the game and have raided the entire content of Kefka's Tower. If the location listed is morphing certain enemies, you can rest assured that this is the only way to obtain one if you haven't already. This is the case for the Assassin Dagger, the Striker Dagger, the Heavy Shield, the Mithril Helmet, the Cursed Ring, the Safety Bit, and the Relic Ring. Finally, note that I've separated the Daggers that only Shadow can equip without the Merit Award and all the other Daggers, as the game data also makes this distinction. - Daggers 00 Dirk Steal from Tap Dancer (common) 01 MithrilKnife Steal from Pterodon (common) on the Veldt 02 Guardian Steal from Pterodon (rare) on the Veldt 03 Air Lancet Win from Scrapper (rare) 04 Thiefknife Steal from SlamDancer (rare) 05 Assassin Morph Covert 06 Man Eater Buy in WoR Jidoor Weapon Shop 07 SwordBreaker Buy in WoR Maranda Weapon Shop 08 Graedus Bet Atma Weapon at the Colosseum 09 ValiantKnife *1 (comes with Locke when recruited in the WoR) - Swords 0A MithrilBlade Steal from Karkass (common) 0B RegalCutlass *1 (Buy in WoB South Figaro Weapon Shop) 0C Rune Edge Buy in WoR Nikeah Weapon Shop 0D Flame Sabre Buy in WoR Albrook Weapon Shop 0E Blizzard Buy in WoR Albrook Weapon Shop 0F ThunderBlade Buy in WoR Albrook Weapon Shop 10 Epee *1 (Buy in WoB Albrook Weapon Shop) 11 Break Blade Steal from Outsider (rare) 12 Drainer Steal from Lizard (rare) 13 Enhancer Buy in WoR Nikeah Weapon Shop 14 Crystal Buy in WoR Jidoor Weapon Shop 15 Falchion Buy in WoR Maranda Weapon Shop 16 Soul Sabre Steal from Karkass (rare) 17 Ogre Nix Bet Flame Sabre at the Colosseum 18 Excalibur *1 (Sure Goddess drop) 19 Scimiter Bet Illumina at the Colosseum 1A Illumina Bet Ragnarok at the Colosseum 1B Ragnarok Steal from Girl (final battle) (common) 1C Atma Weapon Steal from Sleep (final battle) (common) - Spears 1D Mithril Pike *1 (Buy in WoB Mobliz Weapon Shop) 1E Trident Buy in WoR South Figaro Weapon Shop 1F Stout Spear Buy in WoR South Figaro Weapon Shop 20 Partisan Buy in WoR Jidoor Weapon Shop 21 Pearl Lance Bet Strato at the Colosseum 22 Gold Lance Buy in WoR Thamasa Weapon Shop 23 Aura Lance Bet Sky Render at the Colosseum 24 Imp Halbred Steal from Mantodea (rare) - Daggers (Shadow-only Ninja weapons) 25 Imperial Steal from woolly (common) 26 Kodachi *1 (Buy in WoB Jidoor Weapon Shop) 27 Blossom *1 (Buy in WoB Albrook Weapon Shop) 28 Hardened Steal from Woolly (rare) 29 Striker Morph from Covert 2A Stunner *1 (Fanatics Tower chest) - Knives 2B Ashura Steal from Ogor (common) 2C Kotetsu *1 (Buy in WoB Mobliz Weapon Shop) 2D Forged *1 (Buy in WoB Jidoor Weapon Shop) 2E Tempest *1 (Cave to the Sealed Gate chest) 2F Murasame Steal from Ogor (rare) 30 Aura Steal from Retainer (rare) 31 Strato Bet Aura at the Colosseum 32 Sky Render Bet Aura Lance at the Colosseum - Rods 33 Heal Rod *1 (Tzen's Collapsing House chest) 34 Mithril Rod Dropped by Joker (rare) on Veldt 35 Fire Rod Dropped by Wizard (rare) 36 Ice Rod Steal from Wizard (rare) 37 Thunder Rod Steal from Wizard (common) 38 Poison Rod Steal from Toe Cutter (common) 39 Pearl Rod Buy in WoR Thamasa Weapon Shop 3A Gravity Rod Buy in WoR Thamasa Weapon Shop 3B Punisher *1 (Ancient Castle chest) 3C Magus Rod Bet Heal Rod at Colosseum - Brushes 3D Chocobo Brsh *2 (Relm comes equipped with one) 3E DaVinci Brsh Buy in WoR Thamasa Weapon Shop 3F Magical Brsh *1 (Gogo's Cave chest) 40 Rainbow Brsh *1 (Kefka's Tower chest) - Stars 41 Shuriken Buy in WoR Thamasa Weapon Shop 42 Ninja Star Buy in WoR Thamasa Weapon Shop 43 Tack Star Bet Ninja Star at the Colosseum - Special weapons 44 Flail Steal from Wart Puck (common) 45 Full Moon Steal from Prussian (rare) 46 Morning Star *1 (Buy in WoB Thamasa) 47 Boomerang *2 (added to inventory at the end of the WoB) 48 Rising Sun Steal from Punisher (common) 49 Hawk Eye *1 (Buy in WoB Thamasa) 4A Bone Club Steal from Punisher (rare) 4B Sniper Buy in WoR Jidoor Weapon Shop 4C Wing Edge *1 (Phoenix Cave chest) - Gambler weapons 4D Cards *2 (Setzer comes equipped with one) 4E Darts Buy in WoR Kohlingen Weapon Shop 4F Trump Buy in WoR Kohlingen Weapon Shop 50 Doom Darts *1 (Cave to Underground Castle chest) 51 Dice Buy in WoR Kohlingen Weapon Shop 52 Fixed Dice *1 (Kefka's Tower chest) - Claws 53 MetalKnuckle *2 (Sabin comes equipped with one) 54 Mithril Claw Steal from Rhinotaur (rare) or Exocite (rare) on Veldt 55 Kaiser Buy in WoR Tzen Weapon Shop 56 Poison Claw Buy in WoR Tzen Weapon Shop 57 Fire Knuckle Buy in WoR Tzen Weapon Shop 58 Dragon Claw *1 (Kill either Presenter or its shell; both for 2) 59 Tiger Fangs Steal from GtBehemoth (rare) - Shields 5A Buckler Steal from GreaseMonk (rare) on the Veldt 5B Heavy Shld Morph Mag Roader (brown) 5C Mithril Shld Steal from General (rare) 5D Gold Shld Buy in WoR Albrook Armor Shop 5E Aegis Shld *1 (Mt. Zozo chest) 5F Diamond Shld Buy in WoR South Figaro Armor Shop 60 Flame Shld Bet Falchion at the Colosseum 61 Ice Shld Bet Flame Shld at the Colosseum 62 Thunder Shld Steal from Steroidite (rare) 63 Crystal Shld Buy in WoR Maranda Armor Shop 64 Genji Shld Bet Thunder Shld at the Colosseum 65 TortoiseShld Steal from Geckorex (rare) 66 Cursed Shld *1 (obtain from Narshe's sick old man) 67 Paladin Shld *1 (uncurse Cursed Shld) 68 Force Shld Bet Paladin Shld at the Colosseum - Helmets 69 Leather Hat *2 (Terra, Locke, Cyan, Edgar and Sabin come equipped with one) 6A Hair Band *1 (Buy in WoB South Figaro Armor Shop) 6B Plumed Hat *1 (Buy in WoB South Figaro Armor Shop) 6C Beret Buy in WoR Tzen Armor Shop 6D Bandana Steal from Brawler (rare) on the Veldt 6E Magus Hat *1 (Buy in WoB Nikeah Armor Shop) 6F Iron Helmet Steal from HeavyArmor (rare) on the Veldt 70 Coronet Bet Red Cap at the Colosseum 71 Bard's Hat Buy in WoR South Figaro Armor Shop 72 Green Beret Buy in WoR South Figaro Armor Shop 73 Head Band Steal from Iron Fist (rare) on the Veldt 74 Mithril Helm Morph Mag Roader (brown) 75 Tiara *1 (Buy in WoB Thamasa Armor Shop) 76 Gold Helmet Buy in WoR Tzen Armor Shop 77 Tiger Mask Buy in WoB Tzen Armor Shop 78 Red Cap *1 (Mt. Zozo chest) 79 Mystery Veil Buy in WoR Thamasa Armor Shop 7A Circlet Buy in WoR Thamasa Armor Shop 7B Regal Crown Bet Coronet at the Colosseum 7C Diamond Helm Buy in WoR South Figaro Armor Shop 7D Dark Hood Buy in WoR Jidoor Armor Shop 7E Crystal Helm Buy in WoR Jidoor Armor Shop 7F Oath Veil Buy in WoR Maranda Armor Shop 80 Cat Hood Bet Imp Halberd at the Colosseum 81 Genji Helmet Bet Regal Crown at the Colosseum 82 Thornlet Steal from Hidon (rare) 83 Titanium Steal from Tumbleweed (rare) - Armor 84 LeatherArmor *2 (Terra, Locke, Cyan, and Edgar come equipped with one) 85 Cotton Robe *1 (Buy in WoB South Figaro Armor Shop) 86 Kung Fu Suit *1 (Buy in WoB South Figaro Armor Shop) 87 Iron Armor *1 (Buy in WoB Nikeah Armor Shop) 88 Silk Robe *1 (Buy in WoB Nikeah Armor Shop) 89 Mithril Vest Steal from Commando (rare) on the Veldt 8A Ninja Gear *1 (Buy in WoB Jidoor Armor Shop) 8B White Dress *1 (Buy in WoB Jidoor Armor Shop) 8C Mithril Mail Steal from ProtoArmor (rare) on the Veldt 8D Gaia Gear Buy in WoR South Figaro Armor Shop 8E Mirage Vest Bet Thornlet at the Colosseum 8F Gold Armor Buy in WoR Tzen Armor Shop 90 Power Sash Buy in WoR Tzen Armor Shop 91 Light Robe Buy in WoR Thamasa Armor Shop 92 Diamond Vest Buy in WoR South Figaro Armor Shop 93 Red Jacket Bet Bone Club at the Colosseum 94 Force Armor *1 (Sure drop from Storm Drgn) 95 DiamondArmor Buy in WoR South Figaro Armor Shop 96 Dark Gear Buy in WoR Maranda Armor Shop 97 Tao Robe Buy in WoR Maranda Armor Shop 98 Crystal Mail Buy in WoR Maranda Armor Shop 99 Czarina Gown Bet Minerva at the Colosseum 9A Genji Armor Bet Nutkin Suit at the Colosseum 9B Imp's Armor Steal from Tyranosaur (rare) 9C Minerva Steal from Pugs (rare) 9D Chocobo Suit Steal from Vindr (rare) 9E Tabby Suit Steal from Wild Cat (rare) 9F Moogle Suit Steal from SoulDancer (rare) A0 Nutkin Suit Bet Moogle Suit at the Colosseum A1 BehemothSuit Sure drop from SrBehemoth on the Veldt A2 Snow Muffler Bet BehemothSuit at the Colosseum - Tools A3 NoiseBlaster Buy in WoR Figaro Castle Weapon Shop A4 Bio Blaster Buy in WoR Figaro Castle Weapon Shop A5 Flash Buy in WoR Figaro Castle Weapon Shop A6 Chain Saw Steal from Dueller (rare) A7 Debilitator Buy in WoR Figaro Castle Weapon Shop A8 Drill Buy in WoR Figaro Castle Weapon Shop A9 Air Anchor Steal from Scullion (rare) AA AutoCrossbow Buy in WoR Figaro Castle Weapon Shop - Skeans AB Fire Skean Buy in WoR Maranda Weapon Shop AC Water Edge Buy in WoR Maranda Weapon Shop AD Bolt Edge Buy in WoR Maranda Weapon Shop AE Inviz Edge Buy in WoR Maranda Weapon Shop AF Shadow Edge Buy in WoR Maranda Weapon Shop - Relics B0 Goggles Buy in WoR Nikeah Relic Shop B1 Star Pendant Buy in WoR South Figaro Relic Shop B2 Peace Ring Buy in WoR Thamasa Relic Shop B3 Amulet Buy in WoR Tzen Relic Shop B4 White Cape Buy in WoR Nikeah Relic Shop B5 Jewel Ring Buy in WoR Thamasa Relic Shop B6 Fairy Ring Buy in WoR Thamasa Relic Shop B7 Barrier Ring Buy in WoR Thamasa Relic Shop B8 MithrilGlove Buy in WoR Albrook Relic Shop B9 Guard Ring Buy in WoR Thamasa Relic Shop BA RunningShoes Buy in WoR South Figaro Relic Shop BB Wall Ring Buy in WoR South Figaro Relic Shop BC Cherub Down Buy in WoR Jidoor Relic Shop BD Cure Ring Buy in WoR Thamasa Relic Shop BE True Knight Buy in WoR Albrook Relic Shop BF DragoonBoots Buy in WoR Tzen Relic Shop C0 Zephyr Cape Buy in WoR Nikeah Relic Shop C1 Czarina Ring Buy in WoR Thamasa Relic Shop C2 Cursed Ring Morph Veteran or Didalos C3 Earrings Buy in WoR Albrook Relic Shop C4 Atlas Armlet Buy in WoR Jidoor Relic Shop C5 Blizzard Orb Bet Rage Ring at the Colosseum C6 Rage Ring Bet Blizzard Orb at the Colosseum C7 Sneak Ring Buy in WoR Tzen Relic Shop C8 Pod Bracelet Steal from Doom Drgn (rare) C9 Hero Ring Bet Pod Bracelet at the Colosseum CA Ribbon Steal from Brachosaur (rare) CB Muscle Belt Steal from Borras (rare) CC Crystal Orb Bet Muscle Belt at the Colosseum CD Gold Hairpin Bet Crystal Orb at the Colosseum CE Economizer Steal from Aquila (rare) CF Thief Glove Steal from Scrapper (rare) D0 Gauntlet *1 (Umaro's Cave chest) D1 Genji Glove Steal from Dragon (rare) on the Veldt D2 Hyper Wrist Buy in WoR Nikeah Relic Shop D3 Offering *1 (Sure drop from KatanaSoul) D4 Beads Buy in WoR Nikeah Relic Shop D5 Black Belt Buy in WoR Tzen Relic Shop D6 Coin Toss *1 (Cave to the Sealed Gate chest) D7 FakeMustache Steal from Still Life (rare) on the Veldt D8 Gem Box *1 (Fanatics Tower chest) D9 Dragon Horn Bet Charm Bangle at the Colosseum DA Merit Award Bet Cat Hood at the Colosseum DB Memento Ring *1 (Relm comes equipped with one) DC Safety Bit Morph from Boxed Set DD Relic Ring Morph from Veteran or Didalos DE Moogle Charm *1 (Spot where you find Mog in the WoR) DF Charm Bangle Bet Snow Muffler at the Colosseum E0 Marvel Shoes Bet Rename Card at the Colosseum E1 Back Guard Buy in WoR Tzen Relic Shop E2 Gale Hairpin Buy in WoR Nikeah Relic Shop E3 Sniper Sight Buy in WoR Tzen Relic Shop E4 Exp. Egg Bet Tintinabar at the Colosseum E5 Tintinabar Bet Megalixir at the Colosseum E6 Sprint Shoes Buy in WoR Albrook Relic Shop - Items E7 Rename Card Bet an Elixir at the Colosseum E8 Tonic Steal from Red Wolf (rare & common) E9 Potion Buy in WoR Kohlingen Item Shop EA X-Potion Steal from Spek Tor (rare) EB Tincture Buy in WoR Kohlingen Item Shop EC Ether Steal from L.50 Magic (rare), use Thiefknives and Bserk ED X-Ether *1 (Umaro's Cave chest) EE Elixir Steal from Peepers (rare) EF Megalixir Steal from EarthGuard (rare) F0 Fenix Down Buy in WoR Kohlingen Item Shop F1 Revivify Buy in WoR Kohlingen Item Shop F2 Antidote Buy in WoR Kohlingen Item Shop F3 Eyedrop Buy in WoR South Figaro Item Shop F4 Soft Buy in WoR Nikeah Item Shop F5 Remedy Buy in WoR Kohlingen Item Shop F6 Sleeping Bag Buy in WoR Kohlingen Item Shop F7 Tent Buy in WoR Kohlingen Item Shop F8 Green Cherry Buy in WoR Jidoor Item Shop F9 Magicite Bet a Fenix Down at the Colosseum FA Super Ball Buy in WoR Tzen Item Shop FB Echo Screen Buy in WoR South Figaro Item Shop FC Smoke Bomb Buy in WoR Thamasa Item Shop FD Warp Stone Buy in WoR Jidoor Item Shop FE Dried Meat Steal from Brontaur (rare) FF Empty Default *1 When you're at the end of the game, completed everything, and don't have this item in your inventory, you can't get it anymore. *2 Is forced in your inventory at one point. Once you lose it, there's no getting it back. In the end, it's possible to obtain up to 254 items by: - Following this entire walkthrough bit for bit - Choosing the Ragnarok Sword over the Ragnarok Esper - Betting the Ragnarok at the Colosseum for the Illumina - Using the Magicite item or Slot's BAR-BAR-BAR attack to morph the undead SrBehemoth, Veteran, or Didalos into a Cursed Ring - Steal the Ragnarok sword from Girl in the final battle In this scenario, the only missing item is either the Cursed Shld or the Paladin Shld, as you can never have both of them at the same time. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.15 Timeline ********************************** About the source of all this: Thing is, I have no absolute, direct guarantee this information is distributed by Square itself. This is why I felt like it might need a note about the origin of all this. About a year ago, a poster at the Caves of Narshe forum by the name of Shiva Indis claimed she had purchased a Japanese game guide which was never translated. She knew Japanese and called it the Final Fantasy VI Creation Data Collection. She had translated parts of it and put together the following information. She gave us the Japanese characters for the name of the booklet which indeed gave results on Google, and seemed entirely trustworthy. I've chosen to include her timeline here, but note that I can't absolutely guarantee its factual correctness. I've merged her information with what we already know to make a detailed timeline up until the events of the game. 5400 years prior: Mt. Koltz forms in a large volcanic eruption. To the best knowledge from the few surviving records, it has only erupted once. Mt. Koltz establishes itself as the highest peak of the world. 1200 years prior: The eastern country Doma successfully functions as a state, or this is what they claim at any rate. 1000 years prior: End of the War of the Magi. The Espers are not seen from this point onward. Mage Warriors are persecuted; the survivors form Thamasa. The Goddesses turn themselves to stone; the Statues are guarded by the Espers as per the Goddesses' demand. 980 years prior: Doma's historical record "A Faithful Account of the War of the Magi" is lost. The cause of the loss remains a mystery. 735 years prior: Opening of the World Peace Council. The council leader proclaims the "Esper Eradication". 685 years prior: The Empire is founded as a military state with the goal of policing the world. 600 years prior: "Samurai" are first officially appointed as warriors in Doma. 208 years prior: An Industrial Revolution and cultural renaissance successively flourish. 202 years prior: In the country Figaro on the north continent, Figaro Castle is completed. 199 years prior: Discovery of large deposits of coal. People dreaming of making fortunes gather; industrial states form. 150 years prior: Narshe starts an independent political organization with the intent of commercial solidarity. Transforms from a small state with ceaseless conflicts to a nation with a stable, unified self-government. 120 years prior: Rumors spread that hidden Figaro treasures lay in Mt. Koltz, drawing treasure-hunters into the region. In the end, the existence of the treasure was never confirmed. 84 years prior: After the industrial revolution, the mechanization of Figaro Castle proceeds. 74 years prior: Gestahl of the Empire is born as the heir of line of military officers. Figaro Castle's first submerge attempt fails catastrophically. A temporary royal palace is built in South Figaro. 70 years prior: Strago Magus is born. 68 years prior: Figaro appoints large numbers of engineers to improve the mechanisms in Figaro Castle. It successfully submerges on it's third attempt, and later comes to be feared as the phantom mechanical castle. 59 years prior: A coup d'etat occurs in the Empire. Gestahl's father is heavily involved. 54 years prior: Banon is born. 50 years prior: Cyan Garamonde is born. 46 years prior: Cid del Norte Marguez is born. 38 years prior: Armament stockpiling proceeds in the Empire to increase influence. In the same year, Vector is completed. 30 years prior: Leo Christophe is born. 27 years prior: Edgar Roni Figaro, Sabin Rene Figaro and Setzer Gabbiani are born. 25 years prior: Locke Cole is born. 20 years prior: Gestahl is elevated to Emperor at the age of 52, demonstrating almost superhuman charisma. In response to the Empire's aggression, Narshe's weapons trade comes to rival it's coal trade. The two states enter a mutual peace accord that could in fact be called a nonagression treaty. Henceforth Narshe takes a position of neutrality, siding neither with the Empire, nor with rebel organizations. 18 years prior: Terra Branford and Celes Chere are born. *1 16 years prior: First Imperial expeditionary campaign. The Empire claims the southeast continent, and also opens the Imperial MagiTek Research Facility. Terra Branford is taken, along with several other Espers. Terra's mother, Madonna, is killed by Emperor Gestahl. 13 years prior: Gau is born and subsequently tossed onto the Veldt by his father. His mother dies giving birth. 12 years prior: Reorganization of the Imperial military by Leo Christophe, Kefka Palazzo and others completes. The first results from the Imperial MagiTek Research Facility are announced in the Empire. 11 years prior: Mog is born. 10 years prior: Relm Arrowny is born. 8 years prior: Second Imperial expeditionary campaign. Immediately after the MagiTek Armor field tests, conquest of the southern continent begins. Figaro forges an alliance with the Empire. In South Figaro, a minor riot, most likely the work of the Returners, occurs in response to the alliance with the Empire. 7 years prior: Stewart Remy Figaro, King of Figaro, is covertly killed by the Empire. His successor, Edgar Roni Figaro, upkeeps alliance with the Empire out of necessity. He would later secretly aid the Returners. 3 years prior: Doma commences small skirmishes with the Empire. 2 years prior: The Empire begins it's third campaign, with eastern Doma as it's starting point. Discovery of the frozen Esper in the deepest section of Narshe's coal mines. Somehow, this highly sensitive information is leaked... End of timeline. *1: Celes claims she was infused as a baby. However, due to the timeline, the Empire did't release results of magic extraction until six years AFTER her birth. It doesn't fit like a glove, but Celes could have been incorrect about her past and the Empire could have obtained results long before they declared it to the world. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.16 Siegfried/Ziegfried ********************************** He's a mystery, isn't he? For full reference, and to point out how badly Ted Woolsey messed this thing up, there's this section. We're introduced to the character of Siegfried on board of the Phantom Train: MAN: I am Ziegfried, the world's greatest swordsman! He attacks the party, with the name 'Siegfried'. He's fast but extremely weak physically and is quickly defeated. He's so shocked over his defeat his name changes on the spot yet AGAIN: SIGFRIED: Impossible! I...I'm the greatest... But I'll still laugh last! He grabs the contents of the chest (which is simply an event tile, not a chest you could actually get anything from) and storms off, not to be seen for a long while. Ultros makes a quick refence to the guy with the words :"G'heh, heh...these shiny statues are all mine! These'll get Ziegfried's attention!" After the Apocalypse, you come across him yet again: SIGFRIED: Pretty dangerous from here on. I'll go in first and clear out all the monsters. Wait here. However, he never returns. When you tire of waiting and follow his trail, you'll see many emptied treasure chests. When you finally (this is optional) confront him bending over a chest, he flees rather than confronting you with the words "On the hum, let's go!!!!" In the Dragon's Neck Colosseum, you can find Siegfried again. He appears far less spastic and says: "Someone's been pretending to be me! Don't be fooled!" with the name 'Sigfried'. You can face him yet again this time, when betting a Megalixir. Again, his name is Siegfried in-battle. As an opponent, he is now formidable. Next to a Battle attack, he knows the powerful Shrapnel attack and the incredibly powerful HyperDrive attack which does over 7000 damage. Defeating him is possible yet extremely tough without specialized set-ups. There's no reason to doubt Colosseum Siegfried when he says he has an imposter; the extreme difference in power and attitude gives credibility to the theory. On fora, the 'real' (Colosseum) Siegfried is often called Siegfried while the 'fake' (all others) Siegfried is labelled Ziegfried, though that distinction isn't backed up by in-game facts other than inconsistent usage of his name by ol' Ted. ********************************** 9.0 Espers and their Magicite ********************************** Table of Contents: 9.1 Ramuh 9.2 Kirin 9.3 Siren 9.4 Stray 9.5 Ifrit 9.6 Shiva 9.7 Unicorn 9.8 Maduin 9.9 Shoat 9.10 Phantom 9.11 Carbunkl 9.12 Bismark 9.13 Golem 9.14 ZoneSeek 9.15 Sraphim 9.16 Palidor 9.17 Fenrir 9.18 Tritoch 9.19 Terrato 9.20 Starlet 9.21 Alexandr 9.22 Phoenix 9.23 Odin 9.24 Bahamut 9.25 Ragnarok 9.26 Crusader 9.27 Raiden - How should I treat my Espers? What character should know which spells? My world is built on a foundation of confusion and I can't see through the fog of not knowing what to do! Help? I'd like to add a quick note on the offensive Espers. Since they are generally lacking in power over the Magic spells in your inventory (not counting Bahamut only being inferior to Ultima and Alexandr as he's slightly stronger than the Pearl spell), you'll want to stick to the spells in most situations, However, there are a few advantages the summon attack has over the Magic spells: - Isn't vulnerable to Runic, so it can be summoned when Celes is there absorbing enemy spells. - Isn't bothered by the Reflect status. Enemies with the Reflect status are so rare that it becomes a non-factor, but Sraphim can heal Reflective characters. - It targets the enemies on both sides in a Pincer attack. - A more or less common mistake is to believe that Espers that target your party (Kirin, etc.) ignore the Vanish status, much like items. Esper usage DOES remove Clear. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.1 Ramuh ********************************** Ramuh Location: Zozo Level-up Bonus: Stamina + 1 Bolt . . . . . . . x10 Bolt 2 . . . . . . x 2 Poison . . . . . . x 5 Bolt Fist: MT Lightning-elemental attack, slightly weaker than an MT Bolt 2 MP Cost: 25 Ramuh is the first offensive Esper you get, and as Bolt 2 is a very nice spell to have in the only dungeon that lies between obtaining Ramuh and obtaining eight more Espers in the IMRF, he shines like a star. After that, Bolt 2's slow rate makes it easier to look to Ifrit and Shiva first for level 2 needs, as Bolt and Poison aren't particularly useful either. If you want to learn the spells anyway, remember that you'll want to switch to Maduin when Poison is learned. As with most Espers who simply damage when summoned, Bolt Fist isn't very impressive; it's powerful, but not quite as powerful as a level 2 spell, and it's very expensive. By its Lightning-elemental nature, it can be a tremendous force in the IMRF, though. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.2 Kirin ********************************** Kirin Location: Zozo Level-up Bonus: None Cure . . . . . . . x 5 Cure 2 . . . . . . x 1 Regen . . . . . . x 3 Antdot . . . . . . x 4 Scan . . . . . . . x 5 Life Guard: sets Regen on all characters MP Cost: 18 Kirin is a largely secondary utility Esper that teaches spells that just don't make the cut. Cure is only nice for MT casting, as at the stage of the game where Cure 2 isn't much more readily available, Potions will probably outshine a Cure spell. The ST Regen spell is a waste of time, as are Antdot and Scan, as you won't be Poisoned a lot and you tend to have Terra or Celes with you who know the spell anyway. Kirin is a nice summon that nicely complements all battles, and it's definitely a plus if you have Kirin available in the battle. It's especially nice to summon if a lot of party members suffer from Seizure, as it'll remove that and set Regen in its place. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.3 Siren ********************************** Siren Location: Zozo Level-up Bonus: HP + 10 % Sleep . . . . . . x10 Mute . . . . . . . x 8 Slow . . . . . . . x 7 Fire . . . . . . . x 6 Hope Song: sets Mute on all enemies MP Cost: 16 Of the first four Espers you get, Siren is the most useful. Siren would have earned a spot among my favorites for that x 10 Sleep spell, which is useful on several strong enemies, but Mute seals the deal VERY tightly. Magical attacks are usually far stronger than physical attacks, and Mute stops their existence. Slow is nice to have against bosses, and Fire, though lacking in power, is a nice way of dispelling the Freeze status throughout the game. Hope Song itself is almost as useful as the spells Siren teaches. Wyvern, Sky Armor/Spit Fire, ProtoArmor, Apokryphos; there are quite a few monster formations you can entirely disable by summoning Siren. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.4 Stray ********************************** Stray Location: Zozo Level-up Bonus: Magic Power + 1 Muddle . . . . . . x 7 Imp . . . . . . . x 5 Float . . . . . . x 2 Cat Rain: sets Muddled on all enemies MP Cost: 28 Stray kind of lingers between being useful and being...not. Muddle, obviously, is nothing to be proud of. Imp has its charms in the direction of a couple of enemies, and can help during the Naughty-outrunning and Number 024. Float has a slow learning rate I don't appreciate, but Float is useful to have around if you know the enemies can use Earth-elemental attacks. Any character will benefit more from an Esper like Siren, Phantom, or Golem, but a team might want Stray's spells on its side. Cat Rain is entirely useless. It's like the NoiseBlaster, only it costs MP and takes up space in your Esper slot! I suppose it's still superior to L.3 Muddle, though. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.5 Ifrit ********************************** Ifrit Location: IMRF pit Level-up Bonus: Vigor + 1 Fire . . . . . . . x10 Fire 2 . . . . . . x 5 Drain . . . . . . x 1 Inferno: An MT Fire-elemental attack slightly weaker than Fire 2 MP Cost: 26 Ifrit is one of the two Espers that have the fastest learning rate for a level 2 spell, and for that case, you'll want to equip him on a lot of people. However, it should be noted that Ifrit, for all it's worth, is inferior to Shiva, as he teaches no other spell more credible than Fire, while Shiva offers prospects of both Rasp and Osmose. Drain is a very useful spell, but a x1 learning rate makes sure you can only learn it if you decide to use the character from obtaining Ifrit on in every step you take, with Ifrit equipped. In the WoB, it probably isn't worth it. Inferno can be nice to whip out if your Relm is learning Fire 2 but hasn't actually done so yet, but otherwise it shares the fate of every other purely offensive summon attack: the scrap-heap. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.6 Shiva ********************************** Shiva Location: IMRF pit Level-up Bonus: None Ice . . . . . . . x10 Ice 2 . . . . . . x 5 Rasp . . . . . . . x 4 Osmose . . . . . . x 4 Cure . . . . . . . x 3 Gem Dust: An MT Ice-elemental attack slightly weaker than Ice 2 MP Cost: 27 Shiva is one of the monumentally useful Espers you'll find. Together with Ifrit, she has the fastest learning rate on a powerful level 2 spell, and when you're done with that, you're well underway to learning both Rasp and Osmose, two spells that are very useful (and in Osmose's case, almost mandatory) for any serious spellcaster. Gem Dust fails to impress. Not even Strago in the Burning Mansion really makes use of it, as the geezer has Aqua Rake for his MT magical means already. While Gem Dust is a nice attack that I like to see in action, it has no particular value over an MT Ice 2 spell, besides the obvious. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.7 Unicorn ********************************** Unicorn Location: IMRF Tube room Level-up Bonus: None Cure 2 . . . . . . x 4 Remedy . . . . . . x 3 Dispel . . . . . . x 2 Safe . . . . . . . x 1 Shell . . . . . . x 1 Heal Horn: Removes Dark, Poison, Petrify, Mute, Muddled, Seizure, Sleep, Slow, and Stop from all characters. MP Cost: 30 Unicorn's spells should probably not be completely learned when equipped. Short of the completely optional Sraphim, he's the fastest Cure 2 teacher you'll have right now and the only Remedy teacher. Dispel, although at an even slower rate, is nice for some boss fights, although it should be noted that Terra learns it naturally. Safe and Shell at x 1 rates are a disgrace and should never be achieved. Heal Horn is an attack you'll likely summon Unicorn to see once and than forget forever. The Atma Weapon battle offers a situation where having Heal Horn is handy, but that's one instance for the countless times Heal Horn will be a useless extra option for you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.8 Maduin ********************************** Maduin Location: IMRF Tube room Level-up Bonus: Magic Power + 1 Fire 2 . . . . . . x 3 Ice 2 . . . . . . x 3 Bolt 2 . . . . . . x 3 Chaos Wing: An MT non-elemental attack slightly weaker than a level 2 spell. MP Cost: 44 Maduin has the highest overall net value over level 2 spells; after only 34 Magic Points, the wielder has learned all three level 2 spells. Often, you'll find you need only one anyway and would like to stick to Ifrit and Shiva for their superior learning rates, but if time is not of the issue, I'll readily admit that three level 2 spells have their charms over only one. Relm is an excellent candidate for Maduin, as she tends to come in low-leveled and needs strong Magic to survive; if you want to use her, you'd do best to send her to two or three levels of training, and equipping Maduin makes for a very sweet deal. Chaos Wing is very expensive on your MP, and while it's stronger than your average Inferno/Gem Dust/Bolt Fist attack, it's still not superior to a normal MT level 2. I find no use for it, other than the snazzy animation. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.9 Shoat ********************************** Shoat Location: IMRF Tube room Level-up Bonus: HP + 10 % Bio . . . . . . . x 8 Break . . . . . . x 5 Doom . . . . . . . x 2 Demon Eye: sets Petrify on all enemies, misses on targets immune to ID MP Cost: 45 Shoat may just be THE most useful Esper of them all. The first spell you'll learn from it is Bio, which basically is the poor man's level 2 spell (it's weaker, though it sets Poison). Since Shoat is largely a supportive Esper, you probably won't find a lot of use for Bio since you'll often find it on characters with a low Magic Power stat, but this also means that you often have Bio as the only offensive spell on those characters, so it does have its uses. The real treasures are Break and Doom, though. Especially on the Floating Continent, the hardest dungeon in the WoB for sure, a lot of dangerous monsters are vulnerable to these spells, and casting them is by far superior to simply smacking them with your hurting stick. Demon Eye is very expensive, but as it sets Petrify on the entire enemy party, it's actually worth it. There are a lot of monsters out there immune to Petrify, not to mention the amount of monsters immune to Instant Death attacks (Demon Eye checks for both) so an inexperienced player tends to see it miss a few times too often and disregard Shoat. If you know when to summon him, though, he can be brilliant. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.10 Phantom ********************************** Phantom Location: IMRF Tube room Level-up Bonus: MP + 10 % Bserk . . . . . . x 3 Vanish . . . . . x 3 Demi . . . . . . x 5 Fader: sets Clear on all characters MP Cost: 38 Phantom is definitely an Esper to consider once your support character has learned everything Siren has to give. Bserk is a nice spell to cast on your own characters once they have nothing better to do than Fight anyway (consider Locke, Cyan, Sabin with certain set-ups). Vanish delivers the all-powerful invisibility, which is, if tactically applied, one of the greatest status afflictions there is. Demi just sucks. Fader is awesome. Long before you actually get the ST spell Vanish, Phantom can make your party invisible. This is especially an issue at Number 128 where you cannot have Vanish yet, but there are quite a few instances where full-party invisibility will really help you out (Esper Gathering Place, Ultros/Chupon) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.11 Carbunkl ********************************** Carbunkl Location: IMRF Tube room Level-up Bonus: None Rflect . . . . . x 5 Haste . . . . . . x 3 Shell . . . . . . x 2 Safe . . . . . . x 2 Warp . . . . . . x 2 Ruby Power: sets Reflect on all characters MP Cost: 36 Carbunkl's spells don't make the cut. Rflect is an ST spell that fails to impress by its very nature: it seeks to protect from Magic spells, yet it's only ST and it will fade away after a certain amount of time. Ruby Power and Wall Rings are both superior there. Haste is the only nice thing Carbunkl has to offer. Warp is just for running purposes (both in-battle and out of dungeons), and Safe and Shell are learned too slowly here. Ruby Power has limited use. And by 'limited', I mean VERY SMALL. Like, Link in Zelda: the Minish Cap small. You won't even be able to helpfully use it in a normal battle, and the few boss battles where you may need Reflect protection (FlameEater and AtmaWeapon), you'll want to go with Wall Rings and ZoneSeek. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.12 Bismark ********************************** Bismark Location: IMRF Tube room Level-up Bonus: Vigor + 2 Fire . . . . . . . x20 Ice . . . . . . . x20 Bolt . . . . . . . x20 Life . . . . . . . x 2 Sea Song: An MT Water-elemental attack about as strong as a level 2 spell. MP Cost: 50 Bismark is a horrible choice if you want to equip an Esper. By the time you obtain him, you've probably already watched both Celes and Terra take a tremendous tumble on the damage scales because their level 1 spells simply didn't do it anymore. And here a big whale comes along and offers all three of them to you. At crazy learning rates, sure, but you simply don't really want them. Life x 2 is too slow. Bismark doesn't have my vote for president. Sea Song is the strongest summon attack in the WoB, and it's the only choice most characters have if they want to perform a Water-elemental attack. Sadly, the Water element doesn't have much use, so that's a non-issue. Nice to have against the monsters in Vector after you've completed the IMRF and against the Cranes, I'll say that. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.13 Golem ********************************** Golem Location: Jidoor Auction House Level-up Bonus: Stamina + 2 Safe . . . . . . . x 5 Stop . . . . . . . x 5 Cure 2 . . . . . . x 5 Earth Wall: absorbs physical attacks for the party MP Cost: 33 Golem is ZoneSeek's counterpart; where ZoneSeek is the ultimate Mage Esper, Golem is one of the best support Espers out there. Safe is crummy, but Golem is the only Esper in the WoB to teach Stop, a spell that nails the weakness of many a powerful monster; it entirely disables them, leaving them inactive momentarily while all your attacks get a perfect Hit Rate on them. I just have to mention Gau's superiority with Numblade early in the game, do I not? Earth Wall is absolutely marvelous. Earth Wall actually absorbs physical attacks for you. If they don't miss you, a hand of earth will appear to take the damage rather than your character. Earth Wall can take as much damage as the current HP of the summoner during the summoning. It can't block Thrown items and Tentacle, though. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.14 ZoneSeek ********************************** ZoneSeek Location: Jidoor Auction House Level-up Bonus: Magic Power + 2 Rasp . . . . . . . x20 Osmose . . . . . . x15 Shell . . . . . . x 5 Wall: sets Shell on all characters MP Cost: 30 Such folly! When I managed Shoat being the most useful Esper out there, I had clearly not considered ZoneSeek. Any Mage's best friend in the whole wide universe, ZoneSeek rushes you through Rasp towards Osmose, a necessity as it removes one of the downsides of Magic usage almost entirely; Magic decreases your MP, but Osmose can simply drain it back again. Rasp has its moments in the Floating Continent but especially will do so later in the game, and while Shell isn't specifically interesting, it doesn't hurt. Wall is a blessing to any fight where you expect a lot of magic to fly around. For bosses, this mainly includes Air Force and AtmaWeapon in the WoB. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.15 Sraphim ********************************** Sraphim Location: Tzen (local thug) Level-up Bonus: None Life . . . . . . . x 5 Cure 2 . . . . . . x 8 Cure . . . . . . . x20 Regen . . . . . . x10 Remedy . . . . . . x 4 Reviver: an MT curation spell slightly weaker than Cure 2 MP Cost: 40 Sraphim is a great Esper that nicely fills in all of your White Magic needs in the WoB, far surpassing the likes of Kirin and Unicorn in learn rates. Sraphim is necessary for everybody you want to have as a healer: Life, Cure 2, and Remedy are all handy to have around at all times. Reviver is useless. You'll have Cure 2 in ten battles at the most, at which point Reviver becomes entirely redundant unless you're equipped with Wall Rings or want to remain invisible. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.16 Palidor ********************************** Palidor Location: Solitary Island Level-up Bonus: Nothing Haste . . . . . . x20 Slow . . . . . . . x20 Haste 2 . . . . . x 2 Slow 2 . . . . . . x 2 Float . . . . . . x 5 Sonic Dive: Forces all on-screen party members to use a Jump attack without losing a turn unless the party member is suffering from Petrify, Sleep, Stop, or Freeze status. MP Cost: 61 Slow should be old news and a common asset to boss battles by the time you blow the yellow sand off of the Palidor Magicite, but as the only other Esper teaching Haste is a crappy one overall, and Palidor also teaches Haste 2, all can be forgiven and you'll want to have a Haste 2 spell caster as often as possible. Slow 2 is rather useless, as most battles with more than one enemy aren't dangerous enough to defend the usage of a Slow 2 spell in. You should've crept out of the WoB with at least one Float caster too, but on Palidor, it's a mandatory spell, as if you're not going for Haste 2, why in the name of holy stuff would you equip it? Because of Sonic Dive! Sonic Dive is greatly overpowered, and you can center entire set-ups around its existence. It's basically free damage that can be tweaked in more ways than I can count. You can wait until four characters can attack, summon Palidor and quickly give an input to the other three characters to make sure they'll attack immediately after they land, you can have a Dragon Horn jumper with an extra Relic slot (Atlas Armlet/Hero Ring?), you can force Jumping in situations where you're not supposed to (the MagiTek part of Cyan's Soul, the Fanatics Tower), etcetera. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.17 Fenrir ********************************** Fenrir Location: Mobliz Level-up Bonus: MP + 30% Warp . . . . . . . x10 X-Zone . . . . . . x 5 Stop . . . . . . . x 3 Moon Song: sets Image on all characters MP Cost: 70 Stop is extremely useful, but at a slower rate than Golem while most characters should have already learned the spell makes Stop on Fenrir not quite as hot as it could have been. Warp is just novelty. The real reason to equip Fenrir next to its summon attack is X-Zone. At a x5 rate it comes at a pretty speedy rate, and since X-Zone, while being a little inaccurate, always sucks in at least one monster out of several, it's hardly ever a wasted turn when the enemies are vulnerable to ID attacks. Moon Song sets Image. It's a great replacement of AND addition to Golem's Earth Wall in any boss fight, as it really has no downsides. Like Kirin, it's just good to have summoned in pretty much any battle. A great support Esper for all supportive Magic casters. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.18 Tritoch ********************************** Tritoch Location: Narshe snowfields Level-up Bonus: Magic Power + 2 Fire 3 . . . . . . x 1 Ice 3 . . . . . . x 1 Bolt 3 . . . . . . x 1 Tri-Dazer: MT Fire-, Ice- and Lightning-elemental attack. MP Cost: 68 The level 3 spells. They're your most basic magical damage output in the WoR, where you can compare all other means of doing damage to. They're particularly grand when they're hitting a weakness obviously; that's what they were designed for, as Flare (which you'll get earlier in most circumstances) is stronger than the level 3 spells against most enemies. Unlike Flare however, they have the ability to be MT'd. Tritoch is the only Esper that teaches the Ice 3 and Bolt 3 spells, and is a grand choice to set on any spell caster. Tri-Dazer isn't that hot in theory, but in practice, it really shines. As soon as you obtain it, you find yourself with a summon attack almost as strong as a level 3 spell, and it'll be a while before you actually gain access to it. On Terra, Celes, Relm, and Strago, Tri-Dazer is a great attack to perform before you've learned the level 3 spells itself. Besides, no attack hits a weakness as often as Tritoch's Tri-Dazer; just make sure it isn't absorbed or nullified. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.19 Terrato ********************************** Terrato Location: Umaro's Cave Level-up Bonus: HP + 30% Quake . . . . . . x 3 Quartr . . . . . x 1 W Wind . . . . . x 1 Earth Aura: MT Earth-elemental attack; doesn't hit Floating enemies MP Cost: 40 Quartr is horrid, like Demi. Less accurate, MT, shaves off 75% of the targets current HP. If the enemy is vulnerable to ID attacks, might as well go with Doom (or, in multiple cases, X-Zone). W Wind is worse. It's unfocused, meaning it hits you as well. There's little point to it; with a little more patience, you don't have to sacrifice your own safety. Quake, however, is just grand. As long as you keep YOUR team Floating (Gaia Gear is too weak to be a real option for my tastes, even with constant crazy healing from Quake) and make sure the enemies aren't Floating, Quake will surpass Bahamut's Sun Flare, Air Blade, Stunner, and GrandTrain in damage. Earth Aura is usually little more than a curiosity. If Terrato is placed on a character without control over the level 3 spells, Pearl, or Flare, Earth Aura has its uses. However, Earth Aura is weaker than all those and doesn't hit Floating targets, which really hurts its cause. Add the fact almost no enemies are weak to the element, and Earth Aura fades into the darkness of useless attacks. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.20 Starlet ********************************** Starlet Location: Owzer's Mansion Level-up Bonus: Stamina + 2 Cure . . . . . . . x25 Cure 2 . . . . . . x16 Cure 3 . . . . . . x 1 Regen . . . . . . x20 Remedy . . . . . . x20 Group Hug: An MT curation spell stronger than Cure 2 MP Cost: 74 Starlet is a white magic woman. It teaches Sraphim's WoB white magic at an insane rate (except for Life), and the spell that sticks out is Cure 3. Cure 3 is a great spell to have around, but due to its slow learning times, you need to be careful as to which character you're going to burden with the task of keeping HP up. I'd say that Starlet's lightning-fast Cure 2 and Remedy spells are more of an advantage than the slow Cure 3 spell. Group Hug can be nice in some situations, but most of them are very rare. Group Hug is mainly useful in the antebellum, where you don't have Cure 3 at hands yet or are protected by Reflect or Runic by some means. Unlike Sraphim's summon attack though, Group Hug is actually powerful enough to use seriously. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.21 Alexandr ********************************** Alexandr Location: Doma Castle Level-up Bonus: Nothing Pearl . . . . . . x 2 Shell . . . . . . x10 Safe . . . . . . . x10 Dispel . . . . . . x10 Remedy . . . . . . x15 Justice: MT Pearl-elemental attack. MP Cost: 90 Let's be honest with ourselves here: Shell and Safe kinda suck, and very much so at the point of the game where you obtain Alexandr. Dispel has its use in two or three battles from this point on, so that's nothing to get excited about. Remedy is mediocre but still noticable for an awesome x 15 rate. The only thing Alexandr really has going for him is the Pearl spell. Pearl is slightly weaker than a level 3 spell, and the most prominent group of enemies weak to the element - the Undeads - are often also weak against Fire. Pearl is more of an asset to your mages than a standard attack spell, but a x 2 rate might help there and in the Phoenix Cave, Fire 3 fails anyway. Justice is slightly stronger than the Pearl spell on a single target, and it's the only MT Pearl-elemental attack you'll lay your hands on (I suppose Offering-Fight with a Pearl-elemental weapon kind of counts, and there's L? Pearl, but bleh). If you find yourself in a situation where the equipped character relies on Magic yet hasn't learned any of the powerful spells (level 3, Flare, Pearl), it can be a great summon. And it helps a lot in the Phoenix Cave. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.22 Phoenix ********************************** Phoenix Location: Phoenix Cave Level-up Bonus: Nothing Life . . . . . . . x10 Life 2 . . . . . . x 2 Life 3 . . . . . . x 1 Cure 3 . . . . . . x 2 Fire 3 . . . . . . x 3 Rebirth: Revives all Wounded allies and restores them up to 25% of their maxium HP, rather than 12.5% as most other restoration attacks do. MP Cost: 110 Fastest Life teacher around, fastest Cure 3 teaches around, fastest Fire 3 teacher around. The spells to drool over, though, are the slow ones on Phoenix; Life 2 is Phoenix-only, as is the awesome support spell Life 3. Since both these spell have nothing to do with Magic Power, Phoenix is ideal on every support caster you can find. As soon as you get Phoenix, I advise you to never leave home without one, with both of these spells ready to use. If all goes well, you should never, ever have to summon Phoenix, but when you are caught horribly off-guard and find more than one character down, Phoenix is there. It's even more effective than a Life spell/Fenix Down, as Phoenix restores 25% of the character's maximum HP rather than the standard 12.5%, but Rebirth's insane MP cost might not make it worth summoning Phoenix for a single fallen party member. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.23 Odin ********************************** Odin Location: Ancient Castle Level-up Bonus: Speed + 1 Meteor . . . . . . x 1 Atom Edge: sets Death to all enemies, prevents final counters. MP Cost: 70 Yeah, Odin teaches only one spell, but unlike other solo-spell Espers, it isn't mind-blowingly good. I'll admit it has its immediate strategic advantages; flies past Runic and Reflect, non-elemental, barrier-piercing, unblockable. You always win with Meteor, but it kinda lacks in damage when compared to slightly less constant spells such as Fire 3. Most people tend to keep Odin around because of the fact he's the only Esper that increases Speed; Speed raising isn't all that good though, and it's a trivial matter. Atom Edge is and has always been Odin's signature attack; he arrives on the battlefield and kills stuff dead. In this game, Atom Edge really isn't that good though, but as an MT ID spell it beats X-Zone any day. Atom Edge was the translation from Zantetsuken, which in the Japanese version was also the name for the Scimitar. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.24 Bahamut ********************************** Bahamut Location: Wherever; after defeating Doom Gaze on the Overworld Map Level-up Bonus: HP + 50% Flare . . . . . . x 2 Sun Flare: MT non-elemental barrier-piercing attack MP Cost: 86 Bahamut teaches only one spell; Flare. The fact that he teaches it at a x2 rate where most standard strong WoR spell (level 3 spells, Meteor on Odin, Ultima) come at a x1 rate is nice. Flare itself is superior to the level 3 spells in power (against the average monster anyway) and its non-elemental by nature. Obviously this also means you can never use Flare to exploit a weakness, but it's a fairly constant damage output that'll be your most offensive ST spell until you get Merton or Ultima. Sun Flare is just awesome. Unlike all other Espers with a damaging summon attack, Sun Flare continues to be grand throughout the entire game. It's MT, non-elemental, barrier-piercing, and very strong; it's inferior to Ultima and Merton, sure, and against a single target Bum Rush comes out superior as well. But it's stronger than Strago's most dangerous Lores (GrandTrain and L.4 Flare), stronger than Mog's extremely rare most offensive Dance attack (Wombat), you name it. Sun Flare, against the average target, will equal Tritoch's Tri-Dazer in power...when it's hitting a weakness. Sun Flare is great on the Fanatics Tower and an awesome attack if you haven't...well, even if you have learned the level 3 spells, Sun Flare is still awesome. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.25 Ragnarok ********************************** Ragnarok Location: Narshe Weapon Shop Level-up Bonus: Nothing Ultima . . . . . x 1 Metamorph: Transforms a single target into an item MP Cost: 6 It teaches Ultima. That's all that's really necessary to say here; there's just as little point to explaining why winning the battle is a positive thing. Ultima is non-elemental, barrier-piercing, unblockable. It always works. And it's just so bloody STRONG! It beats Bum Rush on a single target. It beats GrandTrain. Honestly, unless you're really tweaking ST damage, breaking Shields where there's a weakness involved, or going for an attack that hits more than one time on high levels (Quadra Slice, Genji Glove Fight, and/or Offering + Fight), Ultima is the strongest attack you'll be able to perform on pretty much any character. It's an instant Desperation Attack for 80 MP. Ragnarok's Metamorph attack comes at a measly 6 MP and isn't all that useful. It's very strange though. It transforms enemies into items. It doesn't check for ID protection as you might expect, but checks for a byte only used by Metamorph to see how large the chance is it works (this means it may miss targets under Clear). To learn more: [METAMORPH-LINK] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.26 Crusader ********************************** Crusader Location: Wherever; after you defeat the eight elemental dragon Level-up Bonus: MP + 50% Merton . . . . . . x 1 Meteor . . . . . . x10 Purifier: Unfocused non-elemental damage MP Cost: 96 Crusader is brought to you as the ultimate Esper, and while I would pick other Espers over this one concerning both summon attacks (Palidor's Sonic Dive for the win) and spell teaching (Raiden, no contest), Crusader is very nice indeed. While Meteor is good enough to warrant a x1 rate on Odin, it's good enough to be nice to have around at all times (you'll be sure to be able to do MT damage this way at all times). Merton is a great spell. Fire/Wind-elemental, it hits all targets on-screen, including your characters. If you're not paying attention that's a downside, but you can tweak your party with Flame Shlds to make Merton an unRunicable Ultima on the opposing party and a Cure 3 spell on XTC on your own party. Merton is very nice. Purifier, Crusader's attack, stands out for the very fact it sucks so bad. If you would accidentally summon it with Magicite or with Setzer in the earlier part of the game, you'd be dead. And it's still a very nasty spell. It's non-elemental violence to everything on-screen, like Merton. It's not barrier- piercing though, so your party has great Magic Defense and...you know what? I'm sure there are ways to limit the damage, but honestly, let's not ever use Purifier, okay? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9.27 Raiden ********************************** Raiden Location: Ancient Castle Level-up Bonus: Vigor + 2 Quick . . . . . . x 1 True Edge: sets Death to all enemies, prevents final counters MP Cost: 80 Raiden is the direct upgrade from Odin, and it shows. Raiden teaches Quick at the ironically slow learning rate of x1, but it's worth it. Quick is gray magic but can be applied to every character with great success. What Quick does is this: it doubles your turn. You get to act twice, all other movement stops around you after you've cast Quick, and they don't get to act until you have finished your two turns. It's entirely too broken on everything and everybody, but Cyan will especially love the spell, as it basically removes the downside of the SwdTech system, as nothing happens while Cyan is charging anyway. True Edge is like Atom Edge, only slightly more expensive and slightly more accurate at that thing it is that it does. ********************************** 10.0 A Flippin' Contest! ********************************** From 2007 to 2012, I ran a contest on a hidden acrostic in this very guide. As promised at the first release, this contest closed 21 december 2012. Even though the contest is over and I will no longer offer the grand prize, the hidden message can still be found... ********************************** 11.0 Final Fantasy VI Junkie links and contact information ********************************** If you call yourself a true FF VI junkie (there's no shame!), you'll want to know as much as possible. Concerning various aspects of the game, the documents you might want to read as additional material are the following (almost all have been uploaded to GameFAQs): Contact Djibriel: I can be reached a Djibriel at gmail dot com or make a topic at either www.gamefaqs.com or www.cavesofnarshe.com. This was written in the autumn of 2005, so if you're living in 2012 and the ancient Maya gods are at the verge of consuming this planet, the forums may pose a better solution as those tend to last longer. And even if I carved an elegant 'D' in a piece of woodwork and have traveled to the horizon, there'll be someone there to tell you :) Technical and property documents: - Terii Senshi's Algorithms FAQ concerns itself with all the damage formulas, hit determination formulas and the specific odds, chances, and effect of almost everything you want to know. - The Attack Guide of Master ZED features all attacks (even the dummied ones) and their specific behavior and attributes. - Atom Edge's Item FAQ basically tells you where and how to find all the items in the game. - Master ZED's Monster Statistics Guide tells you everything you need to know about every monster in the game. Strategy documents: - MeepleLard's Character FAQ gives a highly detailed approach to handling your characters. Some might not like their favorite character labeled as 'mediocre', but MeepleLard has succeeded in listing the facts and finding the perfect balance between all the opinions. - Master ZED's Slot Ability Guide is THE guide to taking Slot from a random skill of madness and despair to a cold, hard science and exploiting it in every way possible. - Mnrogar's Colosseum Guide, next to all the specific info about the items you can bet and what you'll receive for it, gives detailed strategies for all opponents. - Assassin's Lores Acquisition Guide is a comprehensive list of all the locations a Lore can linger at and a great read. - Skoobouy's Condensed Lore Guide is another option concerning hunting down Lores. Less wordy than Assassin's document, some may find his approach superior. - My very own (Djibriel, remember?) Rage Guide was released to teach you everything you ever wanted to know about the Rage ability. Detailed boss strategies, tips, equipment choices; for those who have left Gau out of their team so far, this document will definitely persuade you to use him and join in the Glory of the Truth and the Light. - Skoobouy's Condensed Rage Guide. Again, less wordy than its competitor. Also features legions of tables and houses a walkthrough based on Veldt trips. Self-mutilation and masochism documents: A 6:30 Speed Walkthrough challenge document by BalnabZ. I've seen a time of 4:48, but I'm not very deep into the speed game... the document is a solid cornerstone if you want to make an attack of your own. An LLG (Low Level Game) Walkthrough by SharkESP Another LLG document by rjpageuk / Crinkles. You might want to combine the knowledge of both these documents for the best source of specific LLG information (although I certainly will tell you to keep this file around as well) An - get this - LLNMG document by Zelgaddis, who combined the worst aspects of the LLG and NMG and still survived through the entire game. Worthy of admiration. An SCC (Single Character Challenge) Walkthrough by MeepleLard. Right now, it hasn't been completed, but at the very least, it should give you a nice amount of pointers. Miscellaneous documents; Been there? Done that? Bought the t-shirt? Your hobbies, job, and sex life all revolve around Final Fantasy VI and you have no idea what to do next? Master ZED's Bugs and Glitches guide has mapped each and every known bug in this game, and you can try them all out. Like the cancer it in fact represents, the number of bugs is ever growing at a steady pace and ZED is always looking for new additions. Websites: http://masterzed.cavesofnarshe.com The Unoriginal White Sheet A lot of custom monster patches, a New Game + patch, the Test patch, which allows you to do anything at any point of the game, and a large number of documents including the latest versions of the Attack Guide, Bugs and Glitches Guide, Monster Stats Guide, Sketch bug guide, Slot ability guide, and even a W Wind Guide if you're really desperate for a new angle. ;) http://www.rpglegion.com Final Fantasy VI Encyclopedia THE encyclopedia concerning FF VI. You can find pretty much everything on this site, even if it can be a little hard to navigate. http://www.gamefaqs.com GameFAQs Pretty much THE FF VI community. We get the worst kind here, but also the best; between the How To Blitz topics, you'll be able to find every answer there is. And if we don't know the answer right away, it's a challenge that we'll meet with a vengeance. ;) Beware though, if you're not in the mood for overwhelming loads of stupidity, be very careful with your choice of topic to watch. :P http://www.mnrogar.com Mnrogar's Den Mnrogar's own Colosseum Guide is located here, as are several LLG Save States for all parts of the game, a custom monster patch, and a list of Links that features pretty much every even remotely interesting FF VI website. Also available at mnrogar.com are the forums. They're basically for the FF VI ROM hacker who wants to look beyond the editors, so while we should be able to answer any game-related question for you, it might be wiser to ask around at GameFAQs first. http://www.tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com Collapse of Heaven and Earth... Tenchinohoukai My own site. I apologize for a lot of things concerning this site. The amount of pop-ups for starters, and the horrible layout for eh...seconds. Contains the Loser Club, a list of every dummied bit of data in the game, my Level # Lore Guide (you know it's good for something), my Rage Guide, and this document. Also, some humorous and serious fan fiction if you're into that kind of thing. http://homepage.mac.com/glennfield/MagiTek/index.html MagiTek: Final Fantasy VI A complete list of Treasure Chest contents, the Character Guide from the "Final Fantasy III Player's Guide" as released by Nintendo, and some info about how to worship Setzer's Fixed Dice. ********************************** 12.0 People I love because they've done things I wanted them to do ********************************** An amazing list! Terii Senshi, for discovering so many of the more basic algorithms. By discovering the backbone of the game, Terii has partly created this document as well. His site has been often used during the creation of this document. Hollywood Narrator, for proofreading and being a back-up support unit. Those are the best, man. Assassin, for investing more time in this document than can ever be asked of a person whose favorite word is 'sloth'. Proofreader and faithful spotter of my imperfections. Concerning this game anyway. MeepleLard and Imzogelmo for opinion and other input. Objectivity is a goal that cannot be reached alone. Novalia Spirit for discovering the facts behind the Mag Roader appearance in the mine cart ride and discovering both the secret bridge in South Figaro and the Kutan bug Brian Sulpher, for pointing out some specific flaws in the lay-out rather than throwing hands in the air and moaning about its 'unreadable nature'. Various GameFAQs people who pointed out incorrect sentences, wanted to see something changed, had a little more information on whatever subject or helped in any other way. These include (in no specific order): majesticmystic, Master ZED, Evan Streb, Eevee208, N W A 1986, ackackatk, The Que, HaroldV, Kahran042, Novalia Spirit, SurfingVaporeon, alphasmart3000, Big Daddy Corn, Polizei, YamiExodia, CanDman421, Galbalan, Balnab, Elle, Cacticus, AtmaZero, Suonymona, Shotgunnova, Ozmodiar23, ArmorVil001, jayman7, Letum, live2play06, SubwoofersIcecream, alphasmart3000, ShadowMan787, CJV521, zz1000zz, gasimakos, R_O_B_Sentry, AdamOusley, AtmaZero, AngellicKarma, LightAura, enigmatiq, tiornys and GauRocks. Cyrus Rodgers. You'll live forever in our hearts, man. The anonymous masses of the GameFAQs' Final Fantasy III board. Boy, can they be stupid every now and then, but they keep the scene flowing. Their how-to-Blitz topics are our blood, the favorite-character-polls our soul. The masterminds behind Nananca Crash. You'd think that one addiction would overrule the other; instead, they appear to support each other, which in my case leads to a bizarre mixture of this document, Daft Punk, webcomics, and hitting bishie main characters from adult games with a bicycle. Awesome Music Makers; including, but not limited to: Electric Six, Daft Punk, Fake ID, Franz Ferdinand, Keane, Paul Simon, the Beatles, Ramses Shaffy, the Kaiser Chiefs, Coldplay, Oasis, and Nobuo Uematsu and the Black Mages. Mommy. ;_; ********************************** Disclaimer and legal necessities ********************************** This was written in 2005, by Djibriel, and is copyrighted by me. You are unauthorized to present this document, partly or whole, as written by somebody else as the authors of the respective bodies of text. You are unauthorized to change anything in this document for any other purpose than personal use without my explicit permission. You are unauthorized to stab me in my eyes without my explicit permission. All rights reserved.