The Geomancer Guide for Final Fantasy V Advance Version 1.1 Djibriel, Augustus 2010 "Did you ever stop to notice, All the blood we've shed before... Did you ever stop to notice, the crying Earth, the weeping shores?" - Michael Jackson (1642-2009) Contents 1.0 Version History 2.0 Introduction 3.0 How !Gaia works 3.1 !Gaia formulae 3.2 !Gaia attack locations 3.3 !Gaia attack effects 4.0 Geomancer Challenge Game 5.0 How to use Gaia 6.0 Conclusion No number: Disclaimer ********************************** 1.0 Version History ********************************** - Version 1.1 (08/30/2010) This is the first version that saw the light of day at GameFAQs. Helpful as ever, Samurai Goroh pointed out how the background images could improve quality and clarity of the document. Links to these images were included, hosted on my own site. Here's hoping they won't go dead... Anyway, go thank Samurai Goroh for this update! - Version 1.0 (08/30/2010) Initial Release ********************************** 2.0 Introduction ********************************** Final Fantasy V is a game of powerful warriors, epic wizards and people with silly hats. If you are an intelligent person, you immediately recognize the hidden potential of the last category. Reflect status renders magic useless, all you have to do to avoid a sword is being someplace where the sword is not. But who ever devised defenses against silly hats? Madness. Who installed anti-Bell Materia in his armor? Folly. Ever turned to avoid leaves coming at you? Of course you haven't, and this is why the Geomancer is the most powerful unit in the game. It's like Sun Tzu wrote back in 500 b.C.: "Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to win. Also, use Geomancers." Geomancers dress up like Santa Claus, chime Bells like Santa Claus and kill everything in their path by turning pretty much everything they touch in unblockable arrows of death. Like Santa Claus. Look around you. Do you see how many things in the room you are occupying can be used to kill you? This is what the Geomancer does. Had they existed today, they would used razor-sharp mirrors, the electricity sockets coming out of the wall to electrocute you, your computerscreen exploding. Geomancers don't have eight reindeers; they have four horsemen of Apocalypse to help them out. They appear at random: Death, Famine, War and Leaf Swirl. Geomancers don't say "Yo-ho-ho". What is the point, if you just destroyed the entire quiet little hamlet with an Earthquake and everybody has been crushed under tons of bloody rubble? Geomancers don't bring gifts to children. They bring destruction to children. Do you see those hats? When a man walks down the street in a hat like that, people know he's not afraid of anything. This document is a testimony to their power. ********************************** 3.0 How !Gaia works ********************************** 3.0 How !Gaia works 3.1 !Gaia formulae 3.2 !Gaia attack locations 3.3 !Gaia attack effects ********************************** 3.1 !Gaia formulae ********************************** !Gaia has the user execute attacks based on the landscape of the battle; this can be identified through the background image. There are 34 different backgrounds, and 34 different Gaia skillsets. Some Gaia skillsets are completely identical, others have the same moves with other odds. The moves the !Gaia command will call up are randomly determined, but which moves are available at the time is fixed. When you use !Gaia, the game will randomly determine a number between 0 and the level of the !Gaia user (henceforth known as 'the caster'). If the result is anywhere between 0 to 10, Spell 1 is used. If the result is anywhere between 11 to 20, Spell 2 is used. If the result is anywhere between 21 to 50, Spell 3 is used. If the result is anywhere between 51 to 99, Spell 4 is used. Observations: - A caster of level 10 or lower will always use Spell 1 - A caster of level 50 has a solid 60 % chance of using Spell 3 and only a 20 % chance of any of Spell 1 or 2. - Spell 4 doesn't become available unless you grind; level 50 is in no way required to beat the game. The attacks Waterfall, Burning Sand and Bindweed are exclusive to casters exceeding level 50. In general, the best !Gaia user has as high a Magic Power as possible and boosts Fire, Poison, Wind, Earth and Water-elemental attacks. Water- elemental attacks can only be boosted with an Elemental Power potion (!Mix). Since this requires an extra action in-battle, a !Gaia user is optimally equipped with either a Magus Rod or Rune Chime, both of which boost all relevant elements except for Water. The best !Gaia user is a Freelancer with a Rune Chime and Oracle mastered. Job variations include a Summoner with a Magus Rod or a Geomancer with a Rune Chime and !Summon 5 as a secondary ability. !Gaia provokes the dreaded "React: physical" counters, and the game will not recognize it as a 'Magic' spell. This means that !Gaia, despite its magical nature, should not be used in the Fork Tower's Black Tower and provokes some enemies into casting Protect or the like. ********************************** 3.2 !Gaia attack locations ********************************** In brackets behind every terrain are both difficult enemies found in that location and, if needed, an explanation of the terrain. - Grasslands of Butz' World and Planet R (Prototype) 00 - 10 Gust 11 - 20 Earthquake 21 - 50 Wind Slash 51 - 99 Twister - Grasslands of Galuf's World (Kuza Beast) 00 - 10 Twister 11 - 20 Earthquake 21 - 50 Wind Slash 51 - 99 Twister - Forests (Ramuh, Purobolos x 6, Catoblepas, Crystal x 4, Melusine, Calofisteri) 00 - 10 Branch Arrow 11 - 20 Leaf Swirl 21 - 50 Branch Spear 51 - 99 Bindweed - Deserts (Dhorme Chimera, Sandworm, Sandcrawler, Landcrawler) 00 - 10 Sandstorm 11 - 20 Quicksand 21 - 50 Desert Storm 51 - 99 Burning Sands - Swamps (World 2 only) 00 - 10 Ignus Fatuus 11 - 20 Bottomless Bog 21 - 50 Poison Mist 51 - 99 Bottomless Bog - Beaches & Sunken Worus Tower (Prototype, Famed Mimic Gogo) 00 - 10 Tsunami 11 - 20 Phantom 21 - 50 Whirlpool 51 - 99 Big Wave - Mountain Slopes (Northern Mountain, Drakenvale) (Magissa, Forza, Golem, Dragon Pod, Bahamut) 00 - 10 Gust 11 - 20 Earthquake 21 - 50 Cave-In 51 - 99 Twister - Caves (Meteors, Great Sea Trench)(Siren, Skull Eater, Adamantoise, Manticore, Titan, Tyrannosaur, Gil Turtle, Antlion, Triton, Nereid, Phobos, Omega, Neo Shinryu) 00 - 10 Ignus Fatuus 11 - 20 Stalactite 21 - 50 Wind Slash 51 - 99 Cave-In - Waterfalls Cave (Ghido's Cave submerged, Istory Falls)(Tonberry, Leviathan) 00 - 10 Ignus Fatuus 11 - 20 Stalactite 21 - 50 Whirlpool 51 - 99 Cave-In - Stone architecture (Inhabited Castles, Semi-Overgrown Ruins, stone architecture outside) (Wing Raptor, Jackanapes, Shiva, Gilgamesh 1, Gilgamesh 2, Shield Dragon, Atomos, Odin, Wendigo, Azulmagia, Alte Roite/Jura Avis, Exdeath's Soul, Iron Giant, Catastrophe, Halicarnassus, Archeodemon) 00 - 10 Gust 11 - 20 Wind Slash 21 - 50 Sonic Boom 51 - 99 Twister - Big Bridge, stone architecture outside with railing (Iron Claw, Abductor, Twin Tania) 00 - 10 Gust 11 - 20 Wind Slash 21 - 99 Twister - Karnak Kastle (omgonfire) 00 - 10 Gust 11 - 20 Wind Slash 21 - 99 Sonic Boom - Overgrown Ruins, Ronka Ruins inside and outside (Wind Shrine, Walse Tower, Barrier Tower inside, Island Shrine, Castle Bal, Fork Tower, Phoenix Tower) (Garula, Soul Cannon, Ghidra, Archeoaevis, Minotaur, Omniscient, Magic Urn, Grand Aevis) 00 - 20 Wind Slash 21 - 50 Sonic Boom 51 - 99 Twister - Phoenix Tower Wall (Bandercoeurl, Liquid Flame, Kuza Beast, Soul Cannon 00 - 10 Wind Slash 11 - 20 Twister 21 - 50 Sonic Boom 51 - 99 Twister - Pyramid of Moore (Gargoyle x 2, Sekhmet, Mecha Head, Grand Mummy, Omega Mk. II) 00 - 10 Ignus Fatuus 11 - 20 Poison Mist 21 - 50 Sonic Boom 51 - 99 Cave-In - Exdeath's Castle Transformed (Blue Dragon, Red Dragon, Yellow Dragon, Carbuncle, Gilgamesh 4, Exdeath) 00 - 10 Gust 11 - 20 Wind Slash 21 - 99 Sonic Boom - Fire-Powered Ship (Liquid Flame) 00 - 10 Gust 11 - 20 Earthquake 21 - 99 Twister - Shipwreck Graveyard & Library of the Ancients (Ifrit, Byblos, Apanda) 00 - 50 Ignus Fatuus 51 - 99 Sonic Boom - Shipdeck (Ship Graveyard, Fire-Powered Ship, Airship) (Karlabos, Crayclaw, Gilgamesh 3, Enkidu, Stingray) 00 - 10 Tsunami 11 - 20 Whirlpool 21 - 50 Big Wave 51 - 99 Waterfall - Interdimenional Rift Crystal Area (Crystal Dragon, King Behemoth, Gilgamesh 5, Necrophobe, Shinryu, Guardian) 00 - 10 Wind Slash 11 - 20 Sonic Boom 21 - 99 Twister - Final Exdeath battle, Psychadelic Anime Background (Exdeath, Neo-Exdeath, Enuo) 00 - 99 Wind Slash Here are are 34 (but actually 32) different background images used in FFVA. Number 0E is a never-used image that wasn't even updated in the transition between SNES and GBA; if you should use a code to look at it, you'll notice how Butz is standing in places where he shouldn't be able to stand. Number 20 is just a duplicate of 0C, but the attacks are different. To my knowledge, 0C is always used. 00: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia01.png Overworld grasslands 01: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia02.png Overworld forests 02: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia03.png Overworld desert 03: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia04.png Overworld marshlands 04: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia05.png Overworld beaches 05: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia06.png Shipwreck Graveyard 06: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia07.png Caves 07: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia08.png Waterfall caves 08: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia09.png Overgrown ruins 09: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia10.png Architecture outside 0A: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia11.png Semi-overgrown ruins 0B: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia12.png Inhabited castle 0C: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia13.png Bridges 0D: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia14.png Library of the Ancients 0E: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia15.png DUMMY 0F: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia16.png Great Forest of Moore 10: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia17.png Mountain slopes 11: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia18.png Pyramids 12: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia19.png Ronka Ruins outside 13: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia20.png Roots 14: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia21.png Exdeath's Castle 15: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia22.png On deck 16: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia23.png Fire-Powered Ship inside 17: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia24.png Interdimensional Rift 18: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia25.png Ronka Ruins inside 19: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia26.png Shipwreck Graveyard decks 1A: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia27.png Karnak Castle ablaze 1B: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia28.png Phoenix Tower wall 1C: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia29.png Final Exdeath battle 1D: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia30.png Sunken Tower of Walse 1E: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia31.png Sandworm battle 1F: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia32.png Neo Exdeath battle 20: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia33.png DUMMY 21: http://tenchinohoukai.cavesofnarshe.com/Gaia34.png Overworld dark grasslands And here are the corresponding attacks for those locations: Spell 1 Spell 2 Spell 3 Spell 4 Terrain 00 Gust Earthquake Wind Slash Twister Terrain 01 Branch Arrow Leaf Swirl Branch Spear Bindweed Terrain 02 Sandstorm Quicksand Desert Storm Burning Sands Terrain 03 Ignus Fatuus Bottomless Bog Poison Mist Bottomless Bog Terrain 04 Tsunami Phantom Whirlpool Big Wave Terrain 05 Ignus Fatuus Ignus Fatuus Ignus Fatuus Sonic Boom Terrain 06 Ignus Fatuus Stalactite Wind Slash Cave-in Terrain 07 Ignus Fatuus Stalactite Whirlpool Cave-in Terrain 08 Wind Slash Wind Slash Sonic Boom Twister Terrain 09 Gust Wind Slash Sonic Boom Twister Terrain 0A Gust Wind Slash Sonic Boom Twister Terrain 0B Gust Wind Slash Sonic Boom Twister Terrain 0C Gust Wind Slash Twister Twister Terrain 0D Ignus Fatuus Ignus Fatuus Ignus Fatuus Sonic Boom Terrain 0E Gust Wind Slash Twister Twister Terrain 0F Branch Arrow Leaf Swirl Branch Spear Bindweed Terrain 10 Gust Earthquake Cave-in Twister Terrain 11 Ignus Fatuus Poison Mist Sonic Boom Cave-in Terrain 12 Wind Slash Wind Slash Sonic Boom Twister Terrain 13 Branch Arrow Leaf Swirl Branch Spear Bindweed Terrain 14 Gust Wind Slash Sonic Boom Sonic Boom Terrain 15 Tsunami Whirlpool Big Wave Waterfall Terrain 16 Gust Earthquake Twister Twister Terrain 17 Wind Slash Sonic Boom Twister Twister Terrain 18 Wind Slash Wind Slash Sonic Boom Twister Terrain 19 Tsunami Whirlpool Big Wave Waterfall Terrain 1A Gust Wind Slash Sonic Boom Sonic Boom Terrain 1B Wind Slash Twister Sonic Boom Twister Terrain 1C Wind Slash Wind Slash Wind Slash Wind Slash Terrain 1D Tsunami Phantom Whirlpool Big Wave Terrain 1E Sandstorm Quicksand Desert Storm Burning Sands Terrain 1F Wind Slash Wind Slash Wind Slash Wind Slash Terrain 20 Twister Wind Slash Sonic Boom Twister Terrain 21 Twister Earthquake Wind Slash Twister ********************************** 3.3 !Gaia attack effects ********************************** Damage attacks are based off of the level and Magic Power of the !Gaia user. If the attack is elemental, and the !Gaia user boosts that particular element, a 50 % damage boost will be given. Note that Water-elemental attacks can only be boosted by the Elemental Power attack (use !Mix to combine a Holy Water + Eye Drops). Physical attacks aren't really physical, as they use the caster's Magic Power to calculate damage done. However, these attacks use the target's Defense, not Magic Defense, to reduce damage. Level-based damage attacks only feature level as a damage factor, not Magic Power. Elemental boosts do apply. They tend to come out weakfish, though the given status ailment will come in handy. Random damage done by the Cave-In attack is randomly determined, and will be the same (though random) for every caster at any point in the game. Hit Rates are unaffected by Level, Magic Power or any other stat. "U" means unblockable, but unblockable attacks may still miss if the target is immune to a given status ailment or is otherwise protected from the attack. Damage attacks: Gust ST 38 Air-elemental Wind Slash MT 90 Wind-elemental Earthquake MT 90 Earth-elemental, misses if Float Desert Storm MT 90 Earth-/Wind-elemental Burning Sands MT 150 Fire-/Air-elemental Waterfall ST 120 Water-elemental Big Wave MT 90/120 Tsunami MT 38 Stalactite ST 120 Physical attacks: Branch Arrow ST 53 Branch Spear ST 150 Level-based damage attacks: Ignus Fatuus ST U Sets Confuse (50 %), Fire-elemental Leaf Dance MT U Sets Darkness (99 %), Wind-elemental Sandstorm MT U Sets Darkness (50 %), Earth-/Wind-elemental Poison Mist MT U Sets Poison (99 %), Poison-elemental Random damage attacks: Cave-In ST U Hits four times HP Effect attacks: Sonic Boom ST U Deals (75 % current HP) damage, misses if Heavy Twister ST 99% Sets HP to (0..9), misses if Heavy Whirlpool ST 99% Sets HP to (0..9), misses if Heavy Status attacks: Bindweed MT U Sets Slow Phantom ST 100% Sets Death Bottomless Bog MT U Destroys target, misses if Heavy Quicksand ST U Destroys target, misses if Heavy Note that the attacks Quicksand and Wind Slash also appear as monster attacks though these attacks are different, Earthquake and the "Quake" attack used by the Gaia Bell are not the same attack and Twister and the monster attack Hurricane are also two different attacks. ********************************** 4.0 Geomancer Challenge Game ********************************** "Harnessing the power of their surroundings, they easily avoid pits and floors with damaging effects." Stats: Strength: 28 (+ 04) Agility: 26 (+ 02) Vitality: 28 (+ 04) Magic Power: 48 (+ 24) Can equip: Knives, Bells, Hats, Robes, Armlets Freelancer gains: Strength bonus, Agility bonus, Vitality bonus, Magic Power bonus, Find Pits, Light Step !Fight !Gaia !Item 25 ABP !Gaia 50 ABP Find Pits 100 ABP Light Step !Gaia 25 ABP Action ability Can produce up to four different attacks depending on the current background and the level of the user. Find Pits 50 ABP Support ability Spots loose tiles in advance as opposed to tumbling down into them. Light Step 100 ABP Support ability Damage done by out-battle traps, spikes, poisonous flowers and lava are nullified for the entire team. Statuses set are also circumvented. In a Geomancer SCC, the Geomancer and/or the !Gaia command is not as good as it could be. We can't steal, so no early Mage Mashers, Gaia Gear and the like. We never get the awesome Magic Power of the Summoner or get to equip Rods to boost the Fire element or use the Magus Rod. Some observations: - Geomancers have a hard time dealing with physical attacks - Liquid Flame, Ifrit and Soul Cannon are the worst battles in existence. - Crystal Guardians, Exdeath and Catastrophe take very specific preparations - Geomancers equip Knives, Bells, Robes. - Normal Bells (Diamond bell, Tinklebell) deal magical damage depending on the Geomancer's Magic Power and Agility. Even though they're 'magical', they work as poorly on Mini and Toad as normal weapons and dispel Confuse and Sleep as well. Bells do not function when "Mute" is in effect (versus Magic Urns). - The Gaia Bell and Rune Chime function use the same formula as the Gaia Hammer and Rune Blade, respectively. This means that they may miss, work under Mute and use Strength and not Agility/Magic Power to power their hits. In addition, the Rune Chime's damage is cut in half when used from the Back Row. If the game designers are to be believed, these bells are used to whack people over the head with, which I must admit makes more sense than their sound being damaging. - Knives may miss, deal physical damage depending on the Geomancer's Strength. - Geomancers can protect against Flame- and Ice-elemental attacks (Flame Ring) and Water- and Fire-elemental attacks (Coral Ring). - Geomancers can boost Wind and Earth-elemental attacks for most of their careers. At the very end, this includes Fire and Poison attacks as well due to the Rune Chime, which also gives them a fairly decent Bell option again due to the Rune formula. - Geomancers can protect themselves against Darkness (Silver Glasses), Silence (Sage's Surplice), Confuse (Lamia's Tiara), Sleep, Paralyze, Stop and Slow (Hermes Sandals), Zombie and Old (Angel Ring) - Geomancers are unaffected by Silence. Darkness does not stop the Diamond Bell from inflicting unblockable hits. Toad and Mini do not cause lack of !Gaia ability. - Geomancers have a secondary magical attack in the Gaia Bell's Earthquake- like attack, which is about 170 % as strong as !Gaia's Earthquake. - Geomancers can attempt to Steal with the Thief Knife as soon as they get the Airship in the third World. Sadly, there is very little of value to gain this way. - Geomancers can use the Death spell through the Assassin's Dagger. - Geomancers can summon Golem, set Reflect with Carbuncle, set Petrify with Catoblepas and set Paralyze with Remora. One-time only. - Geomancers can only heal through Regen status and the Item ability. The following is the result of a single Geomancer SCC playthrough. I cheated with items; I gave myself four Flame Rings and four Reflect Rings to avoid over-leveling. These items are needed for a successful playthrough and will have you grind for money in World 1 for the Flame Rings and fight 'til you get four rare drops in the Barrier Tower in World 2. These are the GameShark symbols of Power: upon game start, it'll give you all Jobs. Turn everybody into a Geomancer upon team entry. 928817FE881A 0B3576A55A09 C48399889B2E E2064B2A2F36 E6066A2AAF37 Now, everybody is Geomancer. Your whole team looks awesome! Just kidding, your team looks like it's composed out of special children, the kind that loves you unconditionally and has potential. Those kids, in a Russian winter. The first fight features feather-capped foes. Their faces looks like they need some Branch Arrow implants. Make it so, number one. Your first dungeon is "Cave". The attack you'll use is Ignus Fatuus all the time. Ignus Fatuus, meaning fool's light, is said to lead weary travelers astray in swamps. Also, it burns the face off of bats and plants, apparently. Damage output will be erratic since Ignus Fatuus' power is random, but it'll one-shot everything it touches... for now. Blah, blah, blah. Faris joins your team, equipped with a Knife. Raid Tule of its measly measly contents; of notice are the two Leather Shoes and the fact you can't buy any decent weapons for your Puffy Hat Clowns you call team members. Buy three Leather Hats and put them on your head. The Goblin in the chest will face GUST. On the Overworld, you should learn that every diagonal tile near water will be a beach background. Beaches are not mandatory to see, ever. It's fun! On the shores, you'll use Tsunami attacks, which are surprisingly non-elemental for the wavey looks of it. Your first true dungeon is "Wind Shrine". You'll use Gust all the time with !Gaia, befitting of this building's purpose. Moldwynds absorb Gust, so let Faris take Front-Row seat and slay them with his Knife. Wing Raptor is too easy, as Gust inflicts far more damage than you would have normally been able to inflict. Wing Raptor's Defense form will not help it versus the mighty power of Gust. Upon the destruction of the Wind Crystal, you'll be awarded with so-called "reliable" and "good-looking" Jobs. These are for schmucks and we shall ignore them forever. At Zok's House, Bartz will recall his father, a powerful anti- Ridiculous Hat advocate and a constant antagonist in our hero's mind. You'll be On A Ship in the Torna Canal, something you'll be a lot in this game. Faris will always go first due to his superior Agility and kill everything with a Tsunami. Karlabos, the boss here, is easily washed away by repetitious Tsunami summoning; counter Tail Screw attacks with Potions. No chance of losing at all. Ship Graveyard: Oh sweet purple skies, thine !Gaia attacks are like any others. Tsunami attacks wash away all that is unholy outside. Inside, Ignus Fatuus guide the way, not misleadingly, to victory. However, Calcruthl are immune to it; Knife them, Potion them or run. Running is not a bad thing; the Chicken Knife needs powering up anyway. Low-powered Ignus Fatuus attacks may Confuse Undead Husks, chiming in the unfortunate era of non-fatal Ignus Fatuus appearances. Talking about appearances: Faris is not a dude. I can't even begin to tell you how many sexually aggressive cutscenes they removed between Japan and the States. Not everything that glistens is gold in this world, and hardly any girls are girls (especially on the internet). Faris is a dude, and Siren is a zombie. The fight takes place in a cave. Ignus Fatuus deals decent damage and can Confuse Siren. Undead Siren takes massive amounts of damage since she's now weak to Fire-elemental attacks. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Carwen gets you Daggers! Get three, just for kicks. Upgrade equipment as well. North Mountain! The first mountain! As a member of the Silly Hat Brigade, you must appreciate the towering gigases of nature. See those purple flowers! Do you SEE them? Remember how they Poison you? Well, as Geomancers, you're just too cool to be Poisoned by flowers. You ignore their touch, so walk all over their hostile little petals if you please. Confused Gaelicats may cast Float on you. They have a notable amount of Magic Defense, so they won't go down quickly. Headstones pose trouble; they're immune to both Gust and Ignus Fatuus. Dagger in the petriface or run, your call. Magissa and Forza team up on you. Use an Antidote to cure Lenna from her ailment and !Gaia away. Gust is still a powerful attack; they have no chance. In the cutscene, Lenna IS affected by the Poisonous plants. Just another example about how every problem in life can be circumvented by being a Geomancer. Except your Silly Hat problem, that'll stay with a vengeance. Walse is boring as hell, and Castle Walse doesn't bode well for you. You can't defeat Jackanapes as it'll absorb Gust. Take the Elven Mantle and 2000 Gil and run from all battles. In a no-nonsense game, your level should be too low to take a hit and live. Tower of Walse features a new background: the overgrown ruined shrine. Oh My God, you'll call out Wind Slash 100 % of the time (unless you reach past level 20), so every formation will fall quickly. Wyvern has a Mythril Knife, for Geomancer SCC rules dictate you can't get them. Too baa-aad. Garula is a piece of cake in the face of Wind Slash. Three dosages, tops. You get more Jobs to disregard. Also, Syldra dies again. We don't need HER. Back in the day, we used Gust attacks to bring bosses down and we LIKED it. Tycoon Castle gives you nothing but a Diamond Bell. It's actually a mistranslation! "Giyaman" comes from the Dutch word "diamant", true, but it's the name for a Glass Bell, at the end of the line. Pro-Tip: glass bells don't work. The Diamond Bell runs off of Magic Power, so Lenna uses it the best. Her Chancellor, anyway. It's about as powerful as a Gust attack (which is starting to get kinda sucky), but it's targetable. Karnak, after all that legal jazz, offers you a full equipment upgrade. A very boring equipment upgrade, though. Notice how the guys are wearing Silk Robes. Try googling those. Anyway, buy a load of Potions for healing. Inside of the Fire-Powered Ship, it's back to Gust. Luckily, the Crew Dust and Poltergeist enemies are weak to the attack. Past level 11, you start to get a shot at Earthquake, which is quite a bit more powerful, multi-target and doesn't affect any target here. Liquid Flame: 3000 HP You're going to get a beatdown from Liquid Flame. A million times. He won't stop 'til you cry. Do you remember your buddy "Gust"? It will just fan the flame, brother. You have several options. First, there's the stabbing. Always the stabbing as option B. Second, there's Earthquake. At level 11, that's a slight shot. With every level you gain, your chance of Earthquake increase (also your HP). Very long fight. Stab the fire until it changes into a tornado. It will now start the healing. Take your time with using Potions 'til your maxed out and the blazing inferno lacks the MP to heal itself. Now, know that 33 % of this monster is now helpless except for the fact it'll change out of that helpless form as soon as you damage it. Start using !Gaia until you hit the Jackpot: Earthquake. It'll deal 500 damage or so.... only one-sixth of what'll you'll have to do. You stab the thing. Pray it changes into a tornado often. Whenever it does, have all four with a full ATB bar while the Diamond Bell wielder damages the thing. ...it's a bad day when a glass bell is the most powerful option you have. Heal up with Potions whenever the tornado appears. Eventually, the hand will run out of MP to use Fira as well, making the humanoid the only dangerous form left. Since the hand has a lot of Magic Defense, the Diamond Bell will be useless and Mythril Knives must suffice. With access to emulators, you could of course fire off Earthquake after Earthquake... but that'd be cheating, you naughty you. Exploding Karnak features a Main Gauche, an Elven Mantle and a bunch of Elixirs you will want to have. Ignore the other chests, as you don't have much time and your kung fu (Gust, rare Wind Slash) is weak. The major threat (Gigas) absorbs both. The Main Gauche and Elven Mantles will help you avoid physical attacks, by the way. Gaia Gear and Mage Mashers are close, so close, but you cannot steal. Poo. NOTICE: The Elixirs are really handy; you'll want 16 full HP recovery items before Soul Cannon, and you have two Hi-Potions and thus need 14 Elixirs. The Iron Claw battle will feature a new background and a new attack: Twister! Mostly just a high-level addition to the wind-themed locations, it features as the most basic attack of this one. Rarely, Wind Slash will deal damage; Twister will just drop the target's HP to a single digit. The Heavy nature protects the target from this fallacy; none of the targets here have it. If you Twister the Sergeant and finish him off, Iron Claw will never make an appearance. Twister works on Iron Claw as well. And finally, here we are. Legal Geomancers. I'll admit half the fun is gone now that they are 'allowed', but insights now gained are doubly valuable since they apply in a normal game as well. What have we now? A targetable, non-elemental magical attack in the Diamond Bell, a solid physical choice in the Main Gauche and two character 'stuck' with the default choice for all four, the !Gaia command which starts to feature, more and more, the second spell. Let's get to the Library, but not before getting two extra Diamond Bells. Their damage is decent, higher than Gust and Mythril Knives. Also restock on Potions and Phoenix Downs. You'll pass the desert, which features the new attack Sandstorm (erratic low damage plus 50 % Darkness status). The Dhorme Chimera here is very powerful and you have no business overcoming difficult odds to defeat it. The Library will have you use Ignus Fatuus all the time. All targets here are weak to the attack, but it's still random in damage output. The Confuse status will never apply as all targets are immune. You can run away on occasion if you want. Be careful with Levels 10, 15, 20, etc... Page 64 will eat them alive with Level 5 Death. Ifrit: 3000 HP Ifrit is a bore. The fiend will absorb Ignus Fatuus, but Confuse may still be set. You'll have to chime him into submission. His Magic Defense is respectable; the Main Gauche will be your main damage dealer, though due to Ifrit's Evasion it may miss. Bells never miss. Blaze deals (max HP/4) damage, which is bad news. Try to keep up. You can re-direct his attention by Confusing him for a short while, but every Firaga will undo over 1100 HP worth of your effort, so this is a dangerous tactic. Bleh, books are good for nothing but useless phantoms, it's proven once again. Byblos: 3600 HP The first real boss, though due to the restricted nature of our game, we've run into a fair deal of (mostly Fire-elemental) trouble already. Byblos is weak to Ignus Fatuus, though immune to the Confuse part. His counters, Toad and Protect, do nothing to prevent Ignus Fatuus from burning through his HP. Dischord is annoying as it'll reduce damage done. When it's close to the end, it'll start to cast Drain, but due to Silk Robes you're well protected and Ignus Fatuus out-damages the healing done by Drain. Not a difficult fight at all. First stop: Jachol! Using !Gaia on the Fire-Powered Ship is boring, since Tsunami is MT and weak and Whirlpool is ST and doesn't kill anything ever. SEE, though, how the mighty Sea Ibis falls before the Tsunami. Jachol houses Sage's Surplice (boosts your Defenses) and Mage Mashers, which boost your Magic Power by 1. You can entertain yourself in the Jachol Cave if you like, but there's nothing for you there. You can easily kill Skull Eaters though: Stalactite kills them, high-powered Ignus Fatuus kills them and they fall to Confuse 50 % of the time as well. Istory houses everything and nothing. The Flame, Coral and Angel Rings offer all kinds of protection against all sorts of things, but you are underpaid for this kind of expense. Ramuh is useless to you. Crescent is very boring as well, so just catch a Black Chocobo and get out. Lix is useful for mass amounts of Potions for half price. Why oh why no Phoenix Downs though? Sandworm: 3000 HP It seems that Cid 'nd Mid are Geomancers, as well as the rest of the sane world. They wield Bells, apparently! Seriously though, the Sandworm sucks. !Gaia is useless; Sandstorm is weak and provokes two Gravity counterspells, Quicksand just fails to perform since the Sandworm is a Heavy target. Bells to call the Sandworm, Bells to kill the Sandworm. Luckily though, the Sandworm has crap for Magic Defense. Keep using Potions to counter the effects of the Sandworm's Quicksand attack (different from !Gaia's Quicksand, luckily) and you should be fine. In the Desert of the Shifting Sands, !Gaia'll summon weak Sandstorms and kill a single target with Quicksand. Though long, battles aren't dangerous; Sandstorm sets Darkness, and the enemies aren't very powerful. As a side note, this is the moment in a no-nonsense playthrough I find myself having mastered Geomancer; level 15. As a Geomancer, I have learned nothing I could not already do. Cray Claw: 2000 HP Annoying battle since Tsunami is so weak, Whirlpool doesn't work and Cray Claw has decent Defense and Magic Defense. Diamond Bells may deal 0 damage on lesser hits. On the other hand, Cray Claw is not very dangerous as all its attacks are single-target. In the Back Row, counter every Tail Screw with two Potions, keep at it with Diamond Bells or !Gaia (Tsunami beats the Bell, but every Whirlpool is a wasted turn). You'll win at the end, but it'll go down a lot smoother if the bastard keeps his Slimer attacks to itself. Elven Mantles help avoid Tail Screw and Slimer from landing. NOTICE: From now on, you can train anywhere on the Overworld Map. Do so on Crescent Island; the encounters are decent in Exp., the Earthquake attack just murders the enemies here and the rare Death Sickle drop is nice for selling. Adamantoise: 2000 HP Much better! Elven Mantles and Main Gauche avoid physicals. Stalactite and Ignus Fatuus are reduced in potency by Adamantoise's inherent Shell, but it's cool. Stalactite's pretty powerful and Adamantois's attacks are all ST. No worries. The small cannons aren't that big of a deal, since you can heal between fights. Keep Knives equipped so you can use low-powered blows to snap characters out of Confuse. Geomancers will use the acceptable Wind Slash every time. For the Soul Cannon, you will need a lot of Elixirs. These are dropped by Moldwynd, Undead Husks, Calcruth and Zu enemies. Moldwynds come in three and don't inflate your level needlessly. Soul Cannon: 12500 HP Immune to Wind. This sucks BALLS. The "Valiant Attack" special Aging Missiles will make your life hard; if you're lucky, one character will gradually grow useless over the course of the battle. If you're unlucky, more will. Your first round should consist out of a fatal mob-stabbing of one of the Launchers before it gets a missile out there. With "mob-stabbing" I mean a single Main Gauche and three D. Bells, but mob-stabbing sound more aggressive and I really hate this fight. The second round should consist out of the destruction of the second. Your level needs to be sufficient in order to do this. Level 17 and beyond should be fine. The second Launcher has a 33 % chance of not doing anything. These are the fights you will need; one character becoming useless over the progress of the fight will make it so much harder. Reset until you manage to avoid all Valiant Attacks. Wave Cannon deals (max HP / 2) damage. The ensuing Sap status removes around 100 HP as well. You will need full HP recovery items to heal up between Wave Cannon attacks; Hi-Potions and Elixirs are these. Phoenix Downs can also be used to revive a character killed by Wave Cannon to have it attack as often as possible before it gets put down again. Use the two girls to revive the boys for optimum turn flow. I managed to defeat Soul Cannon with 14 Elixirs, 2 Hi-Potions, 7 Phoenix Downs and at level 18. I had two characters down at the end of the fight and could not have taken another Wave Cannon shot. I used four Diamond Bells. When done, you get two Hi-Potions back. Restock on Phoenix Downs if necessary. Now is the time to get 200.000 Gil for four Flame Rings. You will need them. This is very horrible. Five dogs near Karnak get you 600 GP. Crescent enemies at Crescent Island drop Death Sickles which sell for a hefty price. I don't know what to tell ya. Ronka Ruins! Every character of level 20 and below will just use the awesome Wind Slash. A rare Sonic Boom may appear past level 20. Two Wind Slashes kills every opponent that doesn't absorb the attack. Enchanted Fans absorb Wind Slash; Diamond Bells or running helps here. Luckily it has 0 Magic Defense, making Bell hits quite decent. Run from Ghidras, as they absorb Wind Slash and use powerful attacks. If you must defeat one, Sonic Boom works on it so past level 20 you have a shot at dealing a massive amount of damage one time. Ra Mages rarely drop Elixirs. Archeoaevis: 8900 HP (sorta) Enter with all in Front Row, Knives equipped. Wind Slash are the standard. If you're past level 20, you may use Sonic Boom, which is a wasted effort. First two hits will land super-effective, all other hits will hit normally until he dies and revives. In the meantime, the winged snake will use very few attack since it'll be busy changing its elements when it hits certain HP benchmarks. Now, the fiend absorbs your Wind Slash attacks and becomes a lot more difficult to deal with. This last form has 2500 HP and has crazy Magic Defense, meaning that Bells are useless. Mob-stabbing time. You have a single Main Gauche and three Mage Mashers; but them to good use. When Mealstrom appears, you're in bad shape. Elven Mantles may help avoid the attack. This fight is much more doable than the Soul Cannon one, but you've expanded most of your resources so healing will probably be difficult. You have gained three Hi-Potions between Soul Cannon and Archeoaevis, so you could use those. !Tusk sets Confuse, so that sucks. When all four Crystals have shattered and Exdeath is revived, there is nothing to worry about because you can avoid trapfalls. The trapfalls of despair, that is. King Alexander Tycoon dies, which is fairly logical as he is the only being not capable of turning into a Geomancer and thus genetically inferior to the other PCs. Exdeath is a very powerful and evil Geomancer who instead of summoning Gusts uses his !Gaia ability to sink islands, burn forests and gain terrain mastery over the "Void". As a tree, he himself can launch Branch Spears in every setting, often using this attack in cutscenes to how how awesome he is. Titan: 2500 HP If only we had the Gaia Gear we'd be so entitled to due to our Geomancer heritage! Never mind, we can use Ignus Fatuus to Confuse a Gealicat to set Float on us at North Mountain. The attack must be weak enough to let the thing survive, and still has only a 50 % chance of setting the status, so keep trying. Earth Shaker is not strong enough to kill a level 20 full HP Geomancer anyway. As for offense, you now should have about a 50/50 shot between the two attacks. Stalactite is powerful, Ignus Fatuus is not. If you're past level 20, the rare Wind Slash will also deliver. Manticore: 3300 HP This guy has powerful MT attacks, so you'll have to hope for a few Stalactites in a row and a few physicals from his side. If you get unlucky, he'll eat you for breakfast, lunch and dinner no problem. If you get lucky...well, let's face it, if you got lucky more often you probably wouldn't be doing a Geomancer SCC. Purobolos: 1500 HP (x 6) This fight will make you realize the futility of life. It sucks that bad. Your terrain is the Forest, which features Branch Arrow (ST) and Leaf Swirl (erratic MT damage plus 50 % Darkness). The Darkness helps versus the physicals, but these guys will cast MT Arise upon defeat and may use Self-Destruct every second turn for great amounts of damage. I advise you to use !Gaia until the first one dies. Hopefully, many Leaf Swirls have reduced the HP of the others quite a bit. Now, you can either wait and take your chances with hopefully weak Self-Destruct attacks or take your chances with Mage Mashers, which may set Silence. I chose the former, used some Phoenix Downs to counteract fatal Self-Destruct attacks and won the day. I loved how Cid 'nd Mid got all excited about seeing some Bombs explode in our faces while we really weren't doing anything. You beat World 1! Make sure you got the second Elven Mantle. For my playthrough I was level 20, had not yet seen a Spell 3 appear. The new world houses swamplands, which are unique to this world. They are black on the Overworld Map and will have a Geomancer use Bottomless Swamp as Spell 2, which instantly destroys any non-Heavy target. Pao enemies fall to every attack, so use a Tent. Give Bartz the Elven Mantle and Main Gauche for increased durability. Also note that the Grasslands give a different background and different attacks: instead of Gust as Spell 1, it'll feature Twister, which reduces a non-Heavy target's HP to a single digit. Forest and beaches are the same. Farm some Tents, then go sleep. Abductor: 1500 HP Hope that Hurricane doesn't hit or appear. Branch Spear is very powerful, but rare. Leaf Swirl's Darkness may get set. The Diamond Bell is a more consistent damage output than !Gaia. Heal if you must win. Solo Geomancer Galuf to the rescue; Wind Slash kills all. Gilgamesh is too easy; you'll easily outmuscle the guy. A rare Sonic Boom that may appear will hit, do massive amounts of damage and force Gilgamesh to retreat instantly. Shell Bears may drop Hi-Potions. Big Bridge features the same Gust/Wind Slash/Sonic Boom routine as the castle. Wind Slash is the best, you'll easily plow through the encounters here. The Little Chariots may drop Hi-Potions. Gilgamesh 2: 6500 HP (2500 HP) Difficult fight! Sonic Boom won't work anymore, and due to his fair Magic Defense your normal damaging attacks aren't very hot. You'll easily pound him into his buffing state, though. Silence (through Mage Mashers) no longer work on Gilgamesh 2, so too bad. When he casts Haste, Protect and Shell your life becomes more miserable. Your attacks start doing less than half damage and he starts double-turning you. Jump is easily his most dangerous attack; normal physicals can be blocked, Electrocute is very weak. You should still be able to just pound on him, and revive/heal when needed. All of his attacks are ST after his buffing. Gilgamesh, by the way, is also a Geomancer! He uses Wind Slash and looks ridiculous. I just love picturing this fight, the colorful bad-talking samurai getting thrown around by all kinds of storms inside that little hall you're fighting in. Walk over the marshes to Regole, where you can buy interesting things! In the meantime, Fairy Orcs may drop Hi-Potions, and confused Fairy Orcs may heal you. Regole gives you Orichalcum Dirks, which are more powerful physical weapons for your Geomancers. You'll still want to stick to Mage Mashers for the Magic Power boost, but they may be useful later. Wizard's Hats and Gaia Gear boost your defenses. Gaia Gear boosts Earth-elemental attacks (Earthquake on the Grasslands) by 50 %. The Item Shop gives out Hi-Potions for only 360 Gil a unit! Get 20 or so. Continue. Walk on the grasslands south of Regole. If you meet a Kuza Beast, Twister will bring it down to a few HP. You meet a Moogle, a reclusive being that lives in the forest. Sounds like a race of tiny Geomancers to me. This waterey cave may feature Stalactite and Ignus Fatuus, both of which are ST and not powerful enough to kill anything in a single shot. I run a lot here. Lesser Lopros is weak to Ignus Fatuus; weak to Fire and it sets the Confuse status. Tyrannosaur: 5000 HP Geomancers also harness the power of items, so a Phoenix Down is all this takes. Ignus Fatuus also hits a weakness, Stalactite is decent, the rare Wind Slash also damages sufficiently. Tyrannosaur has a specific counter to Wind-elemental attacks (Poison Breath), but the omni-counter to the !Gaia command takes precedence over the Wind-elemental nature so the counter isn't employed. Note how this battle does not take place in a watery cave background but a normal cave background. !Gaia may be countered by a physical, !Critical attack or ???, which deals (full HP - current HP) damage and probably kills a character. Elven Mantles help avoid the attack. There is a powerful creature in the desert called the Sandcrawler. Run from it (kill Cactus enemies if necessary before running). The Cactus enemies will get you in trouble as they are immune to Quicksand. Sandstorm isn't very damaging. Desert Storm may appear if you're level 21 or beyond; it'll deal great amounts of damage. Note that both Sandstorm and Desert Storm is boosted by your Gaia Gear. Darkness from Sandstorm helps you out as well. From the Moogles, you get a Dancing Dagger and a third Elven Mantle. The Dancing Dagger has a 50 % chance of using !Dance instead of the normal physical, picking either a HP draining move, an MP draining move (useless), an ST Confuse setting attack or a powerful physical attack. The Geomancer wielding it can now Confuse in any situation, but the chance is slim. I understand that "true" SCC rules dictate that this is illegal, but I think that' stoopid. Castle Bal, etcetera. You walk over to Drakenvale (stay in the swamps) and face Kelgar, who easily falls for your Geomancer prowess. It seems the original Dawn Warriors were Geomancers as well, bad-asses as they were. They must've been, sealing Exdeath below the ground they opened up for him. Buy 10 Antidotes to cure after Poison Eagles and Poison Breath attacks. Drakenvale is EASY. You've seen caves before and you've seen slopes before, but now that you're past level 20, you'll notice that Spell 3 on the slopes is Cave-In, arguably the most powerful !Gaia attack there is. It operates completely independent of your level or magic power and deals great amounts of damage. The MT Earthquake attack is boosted by your Gaia Gear. Inside of the caves, your attacks are not as damaging, but Ignus Fatuus Confuses Bone Dragons so it's not all bad. Allow yourself to fall where you need to fall to proceed; as Geomancers, sometimes you are just TOO GOOD. You find a Hypno Crown somewhere along the way; the !Control boost is wasted on you, but the defense increase is nice. The Wind Slash katana cannot be equipped by you, which is too bad; it boosts Wind-elemental attacks. The Golem fight is a bad fight, since !Gaia also targets the Golem you want to save. Use Hi-Potions if you must win; they damage the undead dinosaurs for 500 damage and can heal the Golem. Dragon Pod: 12000 HP EASY! Earthquake takes care of the small flowers; Cave-In and Earthquake both target the Dragon Pod. Evasion is great, so Elven Mantles and Main Gauche ON. Gust will do nothing to Dragon Pod, but you'll easily win this just by using !Gaia and see what happens. I suggest you walk down, as Dragon Fangs sell for a hefty sum and you could use the Experience. Not like you're legally allowed to use Teleport anyway. Later, you get the mission of seeking out Sage Ghido, an ancient turtle Geomancer. Exdeath uses !Gaia to sink an island. Why can't we do that? On Xezat's ship, !Gaia easily takes the Gobbldegooks out. Note that Big Wave is, like Tsunami, non-elemental. Whirlpool works on the Gobbledygooks. Gilgamesh 3: 8888 HP Enkidu: 4000 HP !Gaia really blows in this battle. Tsunami is very weak, Whirlpool doesn't work on Gilgamesh, Big Wave isn't even that hot and pretty rare. Luckily, Gilgamesh' attacks aren't too difficult to handle now that we have Hi-Potions. Use the Dancing Dagger and three Diamond Bells to stab Gilgamesh until he calls Enkidu. Hit Enkidu with Whirlpool and stab it quickly, then finish off Gilgamesh. A very easy battle, just a very long one. After the battle, get some rest and enter the Barrier Tower. In the Barrier Tower, you will get Gust, Wind Slash and the increasingly less rare Sonic Boom as Spell 3. There are a few things of interest here. The Yellow Dragons from chests are vulnerable to Sonic Boom. Reflect Knights rarely drop Reflect Rings; get four of them. The Yellow Dragon may rarely drop a Coral Ring; could yourself lucky if you get one. Ziggurat Gigas enemies absorb Wind; run from them. YOU NEED FOUR REFLECT RINGS. DO NOT FIGHT ATOMOS BEFORE YOU HAVE THEM. Atomos: 19997 HP This is a tough fight, since Atomos has decent Magic Defense. Sonic Boom doesn't work and Gust is nigh-useless. A Dancing Dagger participant isn't a bad idea. Have one man down at any given time. Use Phoenix Downs on every character that gets too close and let another character get dragged towards Atomos. Eventually, you'll have done enough damage; this should be before he starts eating your team. I accomplished this task without Wormhole-appearances at level 23. And thus, old Geomancer Xezat of Ice (terrain mastery of snowfields) bites the dust. Let's get to Moore. Moore! HECK YES MOORE. This is the most Geomancer-friendly town in existence. There's a great shopping list for you here. 4 Air Knives, which boost all your Wind-elemental attacks (the very many) by 50 %. Luminous Robes, Sage's Miters and a single Diamond Armlet for that one schmuck you denied an Elven Mantle. Also find that second Main Gauche. Remember that now we no longer boost Earthquake unless we specifically change into Gaia Gear. Also note that we now have to choose between boosting Wind and Main Gauche evasion / Diamond Bells precision action. Let's stick with the Air Knives and Luminous Robes for now, as we have no Earth-elemental attacks where we're going: Ghido's Cave. Complete it, it's easy. The Metamorpha is weak to Wind, but watch out for the Dark Aspic's Vampire attacks. If you want to defeat Catoblepas, buy 10 Gold Needles or so. Catoblepas: 5000 HP If you must face him, he's in the Forest. There are no elemental attacks here, so equip Main Gauche and Mage Mashers. Pray for a few Branch Spears and you're done. Leaf Swirl's Darkness works. There really is no need to get him. The Forest of Moore kind of sucks. Branch Spear is the only decent attack and it's ST. At level 25, you only have a 20 % shot at seeing it. Leaf Swirl is boosted by Air Knives, sets Darkness and kills Galajelly's easily. All other ones will probably be slowly stabbed to death by flying branches of various kinds. Battles aren't very dangerous, but they are slow. Crystal Guardians: 7777 HP (x 4) Fire Wind - Water Earth Aw, man. Phantom, Twister, Whirlpool all would've made this battle so easy. Use !Gaia until you've gotten a few Leaf Swirls to set Darkness on all (most) targets. Then, pound on the Fire one until it starts casting powerful Firaga spells on your characters. With Flame Rings, you are now fully healed every turn, and thus can take every powerful MT spell.... but only ONE. Now, mob- stab the Earth and Water crystals, switch from Air Knives to Orichalcum Knives and kill the Wind crystal, which will be tedious due to Back Row. Finish off the Fire one, you're done. Versus Exdeath, just use !Gaia. Ever heard about fighting fire with fire? You're now fighting trees with trees. There is a long cutscene, and we get Krile in exchange for Galuf. Krile has more Agility and Magic Power and is a superior Geomancer to Galuf in all relevant respects, so don't mourn the old man. Gil Turtle is impossible for you. There is no way to set Float for a Geomancer, which is needed to survive the final Earthquake attack. Restock on Hi-Potions and Phoenix Downs if necessary. In Exdeath's Castle, keep Air Knives on, run from Blue Dragons and rain every chest. It's very easy. Even when the illusion is dispelled and the background changes, you won't use other attacks. Laugh, as you are doing the only SCC that circumvents walking on sunshine, I mean, lava. It's nice leveling here; Magic Dragons give loads of Exp., are weak to Wind and Wind Slash appears often.On the dragon-infested area's, equip the four Flame Rings to counter Atomic Ray and Frost. Sonic Boom works on Yellow Dragons still. A note about your level here; the more you level, the more HP and power behind Wind Slash (and Gust) you get, which is good. However, chances of Sonic Boom also increase, which translates into more wasted turns versus bosses. Take care. Carbuncle: 15000 HP Wait until he has cast three spells, then quickly unleash !Gaia wrath. He is weak to Wind and Sonic Boom works now. Normally, he takes little damage and Sonic Boom doesn't work. Pray you don't bring him to his knees and then let him slip into offensive action again; he'll kill you with spells. Gilgamesh 4: Gilgamesh 4 is not something to worry about, though !Gaia's Sonic Boom will always miss. He'll double-turn you, so keep healing. You can also ignore him; taking him into the Rift with you gets you nothing but a scripted fight with Necrophobia. When you do fight him, note that you've won the fight when he starts talking. Exdeath: 32768 HP A good fight, not too tough even. Normal parties would have you buff up to keep up with his massive array of MT attacks, but no such luxury for you. In addition, your offense is unreliable. Equip Reflect Rings! Luckily, you can keep up with him and can use Phoenix Downs/Hi-Potions for every attack he uses. Always keep at least two characters at 600 HP or beyond in case he uses an MT attack. Level 3 Flare will bounce off (4 times!) for a lot of damage if you're lucky. When Reverse Polarity makes an appearance, get back to the Back Row as ! Vacuum Wave just murders you in the Front Row. Eventually he'll start casting Fira-/Blizza-/Thundaga which'll bounce off. Keep healing with Hi-Potions, he'll take himself down in the end. We just beat World 2! World 3 is awesome in a bit, but for now we just lose Lenna and Faris. Antlion: 8100 HP Easy. Stalactite and Wind Slash are powerful attacks versus the single opponent. Main Gauches and Elven Mantles help avoid the attacks. At Ghido's place, Exdeath shows you why he is the superior Geomancer. He IS trees, he doesn't just use them for murder like you do. Travel from the Library to Moore; equip Gaia Gear and Air Knives along the way to boost the elemental attacks you use. Elm Gigas absorbs Wind Slash and Floats above Earthquake, so that's a bad opponent. Desert Storm is Spell 3 in the Desert; it's Earth-/Wind-elemental and fairly powerful. Get the Chicken Knife, which is a powerful physical weapon for a single character. Spend time running from now on until you have a 128 Base Power Knife, it'll do you some good. Get that character in the Front Row and give him an Elven Mantle for sure. Gargoyles: You must take them out simultaneously, which is a pain. !Gaia isn't very good; you can Poison them with Poison Mist but the damage is pitiful. In addition, Ignus Fatuus can't Confuse them. Sonic Boom doesn't work. In the Pyramid of Moore, !Gaia really blows. Ignus Fatuus and Poison Mist are erratic in damage output and Sonic Boom doesn't kill anything ever. At least you have the Chicken Knife now. Air Knives boost nothing here, so Main Gauche it is. The Damned (from chests) are healed by Poison Mist. The Aspis have very high Magic Defense, so Knives are the way to go. The undead dragons takes ages to defeat with Hi-Potions. I suggest that you run from everything in the Pyramid of Moore, open no guarded chests and get the tablet at the end. Note that the many poisonous spikes in the Pyramid have no meaning for you. You get a White Robe and Black Robe from guarded chests, which are better for you than Luminous Robes. You also get a lot of Gil, a few Elixirs and a Protect Ring from unguarded ones. Lamia Queens may drop a Lamia's Tiara rarely, which has great Magic Defense, protects against Confuse and replaces the random random Temptation Tango on the Dancing Dagger with a Swords Dance attack. Not really necessary. There is no boss in the Pyramid, luckily. The Mecha Heads are vulnerable to Sonic Boom; you can't run from them, so this is the key to their defeat. After two Sonic Booms, I suggest you mob-stab until they're dead. Their Defenses are very high; avoid as many as possible. The Mummies are also vulnerable to Sonic Boom, and Ignus Fatuus hits a weakness. Melusine: 20000 HP Sucks. The disrobed damsel has four forms. All take no damage for Leaf Swirl (though Darkness will be set) and only one out of four has 0 Defense; the others have a LOT, so Branch Arrow will do nothing and Branch Spear is heavily gimped. Diamond Bells hit 0 Magic Defense, except on the one with 0 Defense (!Gaia). Equip Diamond Bells and Reflect Rings. When Barrier Change is seen (after she's hit by her own spells), look at the damage done by the Bells. If it's 0, she has now 0 Defense and it's time to switch over to !Gaia until she uses Barrier Change again. The Chicken Knife is also a great option, if it's powered up sufficiently. Easy fight, takes a long time. Get to the Sealed Castle, and take the Gaia Bell and Assassin's Dagger. The other weapons are useless to you. The Assassin's Dagger has a 25 % shot at casting Death, which is sweet. The Gaia Bell uses the Gaia Hammer damage formula, uses Strength and may thus come out weaker than the Diamond Bell. It's a non-elemental Bell with a 25 % of casting a powerful MT Earth-elemental attack. It inherently boosts Earth- elemental attacks; it doesn't stack with Gaia Gear. It eh... as THE legendary weapon for a Geomancer SCC, it really blows. 25 % isn't often, and the normal hit is just pitiful. Get to the Phantom Village. Find the Thief Knife and buy four Circlets, Black Robes and four Lamia's Tiaras. You should also get four Hermes Sandals. You are now equipped with the equipment you'll use to tackle the rest of the game, barring a few elemental Rings here and there. Dancing Dagger (Shadow Dancer, Island Shrine) Get the Magic Lamp; you can now Summon Bahamut, Leviathan, Odin (instant Death versus non-Heavy targets), Syldra (powerful), Carbuncle, Golem (useful versus physical attacks) and a lot of crap until you recharge again. *** Intermission *** Obtaining the other three tablets, the conquest of the Black and White Tower of Flare and Holy, ascending Phoenix Tower and obtaining the Mime crystal shard are all very useless. You obtain nothing to boost a Geomancer but, I guess, Elixirs and Gil. Fighting at the Ronka Ruins locations for an extended period of time will get you more Elixirs, more Gil and random Rune Chime drops. Island Shrine: Check your level. If your party is divisible by 3 or 5, use Reflect Rings for sure, as Level 5 Death and Level 3 Flare will be used often by Executor opponents. I was level 30 here :/ (I had done Interdimensional Rift first). Equip Air-boosting equipment (Air Knife, Rune Chime). Gargoyles :( Easier here since !Gaia is better; Sonic Boom will fail, Wind Slash hits all for decent damage, only Gust may put thing out of context. Magic Lamp helps, but isn't really needed. The pitfalls here are no problem. Tot Aevis takes forever, Sonic Boom doesn't work, absorbs other !Gaia attacks. Run. Pantera will self-terminate upon Illusion! in the Advance game. Covert is a Geomancer-in-a-box, using Wind Slash at being badass. It's a slugfest. Mecha Head in the chest falls to Sonic Boom and Wind-elemental assault. Every enemy here, in fact, is vulnerable to Sonic Boom. Except that Tot Aevis, he'll mess your day up. Wendigo: 20000 HP Sonic Boom will hit the dud targets and do nothing. Wind Slash will definitely hit the 'correct' Wendigo without provoking a counter-attack, so all you have to do is survive the physical attacks and Mind Blast. The Paralyze part of Mind Blast will not work when you have Hermes Sandals equipped; truly the best thing since sliced bread. Equip Lamia's Tiara versus Confuse spells. The closer your casters are to level 20, the shorter this battle will be. Easy. Split Towers: One goes to the left (Magic), three go to the right (physical). Black Tower: !Gaia counts as non-Magic, will be punishes severely. Don't fight any enemies until you reach Omniscient. White Tower: Back Row! Circlets rather than Lamia's Tiara. Elven Capes helps avoid physical attacks, but Hermes Sandals helps kill thing faster. Minotaur: 19850 HP With Hermes Sandals, you outspeed him, so outheal him. It's very simple. Omniscient: 16999 HP Equip Reflect Rings! !Gaia and !Attack urges Omniscient to counter with a Reset spell. When Omniscient successfully casts either Silence or Stop on himself, use !Gaia IMMEDIATELY after. It'll damage him quite a bit with Wind Slash hopefully. Silence/Stop wears off before his next turn, you see. Magic Lamp may also help for consistent damage output early on. Note that between Leviathan and Syldra, you'll need to *clear* the Lamp as Odin'll just be a wasted turn. A failed Zantetsuken does not provoke a counter. After a while, he'll start casting more powerful spells on you, damaging himself more. You may find the opponent going in an AI loop, using the same set of moves over and over again. If this will hurt Omniscient more than it'll heal him, this is a problem that'll solve itself. If not, have him cast Return. With two characters, have one attack the other with a Mage Masher. The Silence spell will bounce off to the competition, who will respond with Return only if the spell hits (in which case it'll do nothing). When Slowed, Omniscient could even been double-teamed; set Silence, use !Gaia once. Great Trench: The enemies here take sufficient damage to most likely die in eight !Gaia attempts. The more Wind Slash attacks the merrier. There is little to say here. The skeletons are your biggest problem, but Ignus Fatuus confuses them. You can walk over the lava no problem. In the white lake, you can recharge the Magic Lamp in a corner on the southern wall. Gargoyles now in caves! Stalactite and Ignus Fatuus are ST. Only attack if at least two other characters are ready to focus on the other if necessary. Easy win. Triton/Nereid/Phobos: 13333 HP (x 3) You can summon Odin from the Magic Lamp and win instantly. If you choose the hard way, things are tougher. All three can be Confused (though the red one absorbs the Ignus Fatuus attack), but you must kill them all in a single hit or they'll revive themselves. Use Elixirs on all three, then use four !Gaia attacks in quick succession. Large chance of success. On the way out, recharge the Magic Lamp to Bahamut. Speaking of Bahamut... Bahamut: 40000 HP This is the BEST terrain for a boss battle. Cave-in deals major damage, though Gust is useless and Earthquake will miss. You have a solid 1/3 shot at Cave-in at level 30, and it increases between 30 and 50. There are two strategies; Hermes Sandals gives you a very solid shot at defeating Bahamut with quick violence. Reflect Rings bounces off Atomic Ray and Mega Flare. Cave-in does somewhere near 4000 damage on most occasions, may be more or less depending on your luck. Istory Falls: Make sure you have four Coral Rings by this point. You can find one in a chest in the Interdimensinal Rift; the other three will have to be bought. Gargoyles in a watery cave suck the most. Try to keep your damage equally spread with !Attack after !Gaia has split their current HP apart too much. Luckily, they pose little threat now. Istory Falls takes Spell 1 and Spell 2 from normal caves, but takes it's redemption Wind Slash and makes it into the Whirlpool sad state of affairs. !Gaia releases no MT damage, and Stalactite as best attack isn't too hot. Since !Gaia sucks so bad, I advice Front Row and physical attacks; you have a Chicken Knife, a Thief Knife, a Dancing Dagger and a Gaia Bell. Nothing here is immune to Whirlpool, but it's hardly unblockable and the enemies here such as Steel Fist, Alchymia and Tonberry all have considerable amounts of Magic Evasion so it may be a while before it actually connects. Past the first Save Point, you get into a normal cave for a bit, which is better for !Gaia. Note that the large spikes coming out of the ground will even hit Geomancers. Leviathan: 40000 HP Surprisingly difficult battle. !Gaia sucks again. Whirlpool obviously doesn't work against Leviathan, Ignus Fatuus is nullified and can't set Confuse and Stalactite is pretty rare. Equip Coral Rings and get to the Front Row. Leviathan's physicals will slay you, but those are ST and thus manageable. Tidal Wave will heal you; the non-elemental Aqua Breath will not. This is a long and costly battle. Magic Lamp helps, though Leviathan will heal itself. Now, cash in your three tablets for nine Legendary Pieces of Useless Junk You Can't Even Sell and the portal opens up to the new Advance Jobs. You can't continue. Phoenix Tower: Wall battles actually have a different attack set! It sucks. Every attack but Spell 1 fails on Heavy targets, which all these critters are. Magic Pot: You cannot hope to defeat it. This battle is Mute, so Bells do not work. Wind Slash deals no damage, the other attacks fail to deliver. With Knives, you cannot damage it enough. Elixirs can make the battle end; the 100 ABP is useless for you. Wall battles must not rely on !Gaia, so use Gaia Bell/Chicken Knife/Thief Knife and Dancing Dagger. With Elven Mantles, you outspeed and outheal the opponents. Random battles are far easier when you're boosting Wind, so make sure to switch all the time, bothersome as though that may be. What are you doing here anyway? Phoenix is useless to you. Sunken Tower features beach attacks! Mandatory Phantom for the first time. Phantom is interesting in that it sets Death and checks for Death immunity rather than destroying a target and checking for a Heavy nature. There is an important difference. Most enemies are weak here except for Jackanapes and Prototype, both of which were considerable hindrances earlier in the game. Jackanapes is easily Belled to death. The Dhorme Chimera is immune to Phantom, as are the other two powerful monsters. Run from Prototypes, you're on the clock. Gogo: ? Like Omega and Shinryu, no chance in hell Geomancers can take this bad boy down. They are simply not powerful enough in offense and lack special abilities that help them overcome this weakness. Phantom and Whirlpool will obviously miss; Tsunami will provoke nastiness. Let the timer run out and win. Get back to the Sub. We're done here, let's get to end-game. *** Interdimensional Rift *** Buy a lot of Phoenix Downs, Hi-Potions, a few Gold Needles. Dive into the Interdimensional Rift and reach the Ronka Ruins-like location. In the desert, I advise Gaia Gear to boost the attacks. Quicksand takes care of Landcrawlers, which absorb other attacks. Combined Darkness from Sandstorm and the fairly powerful Desert Storm will take things down no problem. Burning Sands makes everything even easier, if you got your PCs past level 50. It's good leveling in the ruins, as Spell 1 and Spell 2 are Wind Slash. Equip Air Knives. The Baldanders rarely drop Rune Chimes, your ultimate weapon. Make sure you have four Hermes Sandals before you continue. You should now be able to fire off eight !Gaia attacks before the enemy even moves, all elemental ones boosted. Rune Chimes use the Rune Blade damage formula (depends on Strength) are NOT Back Row OK, work with Mute and boost all elemental attacks you use except Waterfall and Leviathan's Tsunami. The Forest blows. The creature here have a lot of Defense (except the Moss Fungus) so the Branch attacks aren't too powerful. You have no alternative. Calofisteri: 18000 HP Another naked chick in the forest, but this one is blue. Has a lot of Defense, and you use physical attacks in the forest. Branch Arrow is useless. Leaf Swirl can deal 0 damage on weaker hits as well. Bindweed may set Slow. Bells are probably more powerful, but !Attack provokes a Drain counter, which is bad. Long battle, but Stop doesn't work due to Hermes Sandals and Drain isn't very strong and misses often. Branch Spear and Gaia Bell's Earthquake are your hardest hitters. Calofisteri can Reflect a character, than cast Protect and/or Shell. Old may also appear. This sucks, but there's nothing you can do. Omega: 55530 HP Don't think so. Stalactite deals no damage, as do Bells. Wind Slash and Ignus Fatuus heal the mad machine. I have no data on Cave-in, but I theorize it won't get you past the thing as it'll do 0 damage or just not enough. Apanda: 22000 HP Ignus Fatuus all the time, which is boosted by Rune Chimes. It counters these attack with Drain or Protect, however, it he is more potent with it than Calofisteri. Equip Lamia's Tiaras to protect against Confuse, and keep up with healing and reviving. Magic Hammer and Web are wasted turns on his part, and Dischord is just annoying. His most powerful attack is Wind Slash, which deals around 450 damage to a team of Black Robe Geomancers. Very doable. The Bridge features powerful opponents and !Gaia isn't kind to you, so just run. Azulmagia: 27900 HP Crazy Magic Defense as well as Heavy, so Bells, Gust and Sonic Boom are completely out. Wind Slash is weak. Chicken Knife, Gaia Bell, Thief Knife and Dancing Dagger (+ Lamia's Tiara) was my offense; Reflect Rings for defense. Mind Blast will be Reflected, as will Dark Spark, Off-Guard, Level # etc. If the reflected spells hit, the fight will become easier and easier. My performance notable increased after he hit himself with both Dark Spark and Off-Guard, but that probably shouldn't be surprising. I got Level 2 Old to work, after which he became increasingly useless :p Alto Roite / Jura Aevis: Alte Roite has a lot of Magic Defense and is Heavy. Sonic Boom works on Jura Aevis. Why are you fighting these? Catastrophe: 19997 HP No Float :( He murders you. This is bad. Get OUT OF THE RIFT. Make sure to have the Magic Lamp at full potential (for the Necrophobe fight), find a Stingray south of Phoenix Tower and use the Dancing Dagger without a Lamia's Tiara until you've used Tempting Tango on the thing. When it uses Mighty Guard, run away. You now have Float. All you have to do now is return to Catastrophe and don't use Tents/Cottages and healing pots in the process. Good luck with that! Restock on Phoenix Downs and Hi-Potions while you're at it. Everybody who gets killed between Stingray and Catastrophe will lose the Float status. Return to Catastrophe, equipped with at least one Reflect Ring. 100 Gs will be the only thing he uses, and it doesn't do anything to you. You can have the other three characters with Hermes Sandals, he'll use 100 Gs. His defenses are pretty decent, so that's another long fight. Sonic Boom fails, obviously, so pray for a lot of Wind Slashes. Halicarnassus: 33333 HP First Ribbit turns you to Frogs, but !Gaia still works. Second Ribbit turns you back. Reverse Polarity should be countered by changing your Row, as its physical attacks only his guy uses (on Geomancers). He may cast Shell on himself, which blows. Haste also worsens your condition. The Holy spell he will use after a while will kill a non-Reflective character and will be followed by another Ribbit attack, which toggles Frog (cured? You're Frog again. Frog? Cured again!) Twin Tania: 50000 HP Equip four Flame Rings to protect against Atomic Ray and Icestorm. Keep healing until Twin Tania is charging up for Giga Flare. Use the Magic Lamp to summon Odin for a quick kill. !Gaia's Twister and Sonic Boom attacks are lethal as well. An alternate strategy can be used if you a) feel the Magic Lamp is cheating or b) want to have a shot at that rare Tinklebell. Equip Coral Rings. Every attack will have a 33 % shot at having Twin Tania counter with Tidal Wave, which heals your party back to full. Coral Rings negate Atomic Ray as well. !Gaia is not very good here; Spell 1 (Twister) and Spell 2 (Sonic Boom) will miss unless Twin Tania is charging for Giga Flare. After every third turn, he'll use Mind Blast (MT), Wind Slash, Wind Slash, and then Twin Tania will change into Twin Tania the second, which is vulnerable to Sonic Boom/Twister and will NOT drop a Tinklebell. Giga Flare deals over 3000 damage and cannot be avoided by Geomancers at all. For a Tinklebell, you must kill Twin Tania in six turns or have over 3000 HP, which is leveling beyond madness. GBA Twin Tania 2 is immune to Confuse, so Tempting Tango doesn't work either. The Tinklebell, if you somehow got one, is like the Diamond Bell only much stronger. Get out now, recharge the Magic Lamp Interdimensional Rift: The enemies here are all very powerful. You must not attempt to fight those that are Heavy as Spell 2, 3 and 4 are Sonic boom and two times Twister. Belphegor absorbs Earth-elemental attacks (Gaia Bell), Crystalle absorbs all elements but has only 3 HP, Necromancer is immune to Earth, Crystal Dragon absorbs Wind. In the end, it is "safe" to fight King Behemoths, Necromancers, Gorgimera's, Belphegors and Crystelles and it is NOT safe to try and fight Mindflayers, Movers and Crystal Dragons. Gilgamesh 5: You need to deal 7000 damage for him to end the fight. His physical barrage is relentless and !Gaia isn't to kind to you. Three Rune Chimes and a Gaia Bell will last you through the fight. Don't take Front Row, he'll eat you alive. With Hermes Sandals you outspeed and thus outheal him. Shinryu: 55500 HP Haha, no. Coral Rings can absorb the initial Tidal Wave, but !Gaia is useless and there is no way to even consider Belling this thing. Necrophobe: 44044 HP Barrier: 8800 HP (x 4) Reflected Flare and Holy spells must not kill you in a single shot for you to stand a chance in this fight. You'll want a fully charged Magic Lamp for this battle as well. Summon Bahamut, Leviathan, (Odin) and Syldra. Continue down to Golem and then use !Gaia. Pray for a few Wind Slashes so you can end the Barriers quickly. Catoblepas has a fair chance of taking one of the out. When the Barriers are destroyed, Necrophobe can be damaged. He is weak to Wind Slash now. Golem will absorb a few hits, and Hermes Sandals will make you outheal him. Easy battle from this point on. When Gilgamesh shows up, Necrophobe becomes immune again. I toyed around with Assassin's Dagger and Mage Mashers on Reflective characters to Silence/kill the Barrier, but the chances are really slim of it working it all and you lose Haste status for it. Also, the Silence status is removed after a single round. Catoblepas can take out a single Barrier. Final Battle. Rune Chime/Air Knife, Lamia's Tiara, Black Robe, Hermes Sandals Exdeath: You lack Ribbons. White Hole means two turns using Phoenix Down, Gold Needle. In may miss versus Magic Evasion; pray it does. In the upside, !Gaia will produce Wind Slash all the time. Save your Magic Lamp for later. Exdeath has no MT attacks; use Phoenix Downs, nothing else. When Meteor shows up, you're almost there. Also, it'll really hurt you, possible killing 75 % of your time (or all, if you're really boned). If you manage to get past it by speed-rezzing, you're good to go versus the true final boss. Neo-Exdeath: Almagest is your biggest problem. It deals around 1700 damage with Hermes Sandals, and Magic Defense doesn't really matter. It's Holy-elemental, you can't defend from it. You'll have to level until your Geomancers have that kind of HP, and then be at full HP when Almagest comes around (at the end of its shaking, would be when). The red dragon-like part is the most dangerous one; focus on that one. Your attacks are MT, this is a good thing. At all times must you be able to have three character alive and of those three characters two must have over .. HP. This way, you can survive any attack that Neo Exdeath uses. Almagest deals over 1600 damage. Start your battle with four dosages of the Magic Lamp; Odin will kill the bottom-left part, resulting in a sweet animation. Bahamut, Leviathan and Syldra deal major damage; Golem may be useful as well later on. ********************************** 5.0 How to use Gaia ********************************** "Please, sir, could I have some MORE..." !Gaia's effectiveness is tied to three facets of its casters. There's level, the caster's Magic Power, and in some cases elemental up. The Summoner is best used as a base Job for the !Gaia ability. Its Magic Power is second only to the Oracle, but it can equip Knives and Rods as well, meaning that all elemental attacks except for Big Wave can be boosted. Black Mages and Blue Mages work similarly well, though the Summoner stands above all. High Magic Power is as simple as turning into a Summoner or mastering the Job and turning into a Freelancer/Mime. EASY! But how do we boost the elements? Wind: Air Knife, Wind Slash, Magus Rod, Rune Chime Earth: Gaia Hammer, Gaia Bell, Magus Rod, Rune Chime, Gaia Gear Fire: Flame Rod, Magus Rod, Rune Chime Poison: Poison Rod, Magus Rod, Rune Chime The Gaia Gear can be obtained (through thievery) just prior of getting access to !Gaia itself. Boosting the Earth-elemental is important on the Overworld Map, as Earthquake features on the grasslands and desert attacks are always (partly) Earth-elemental. The Flame Rod can be used for a small part of the !Gaia lifeline to boost Ignus Fatuus (and, in theory, Heat Sand). This is recommended when using !Gaia in the Library of the Ancients, as everything here is weak to Fire and you won't be seeing anything else unless you increased your level past 50 (in which case you should consider a girlfriend). A big boost for !Gaia users comes in the form of the Air Knife, purchasable in the village of Moore. Most every location that's inside of a building features Wind-elemental attacks. Wind Slash is easily the most popular attack !Gaia performs. It's also the attack that will be used 100 % of the time during the final battle, so boosting it is a great asset. When you get the first Tablet, you'll want to choose the Gaia Bell and the Magus Rod for maximum !Gaia potential; the former increases Earth-elemental attacks and is a decent weapon for Geomancers; the Magus Rod increases all elements except for Holy (not used) and Water (never boosted). Finally, in the Ronka Ruins-like part of the Interdimensional Rift ultra- dungeon, the enemy called 'Baldanders will rarely (5/128) drop a Rune Chime, which boosts all the elements the Magus Rod does, can be equipped by Geomancers themselves and packs a hefty punch when used as a weapon, making it the ideal weapon of choice for any mage... including every !Gaia user! The Gaia Hammer can be used to boost Earth-elemental attacks, though Equip Axes/ Hammers is a suboptimal choice for a Geomancer. !Gaia on a Berserker won't work for obvious reasons. In a similar vein, you can use the Wind Slash Katana to increase Wind-elemental attacks in power before you get the Air Knife, but only a Freelancer would be able to utilize this function; a Samurai with !Gaia or Geomancer with equip Katana would lack the Magic Power for truly great justice. In the rare cases you don't care about elemental attacks at all, you can always increase Magic Power. Geomancers are stuck with a Dancing Dagger, Circlet or Lamia's Tiara, Black Robe and/or Elven Mantle or Crystal Orb for a maximum boost of 14 Magic Power. Freelancers have more options; two Blood Swords, a Ribbon, a Black Robe and a Crystal Orb boosts Magic Power by 25, though leaves the !Gaia user with questionable defenses and lack of Hermes Sandals. Elemental boosts can be safely ignored in Forests, Beaches, the Sunken Walse Tower, Waterfall Caves and on deck, where attacks are non-elemental but still depend on your Magic Power. ********************************** 6.0 Conclusion ********************************** Time to wrap this baby up. !Gaia can really dish it out with: - Earthquake on the grasslands on World 1 - Ignus Fatuus versus the Pages in the Library, - Stalactite versus Skull Eaters, - Wind Slash versus formations in the Ronka Ruins, - Bottomless Bog versus everything, - Twister versus Kuza Beasts, - Cave-In versus Dragon Pod, - Cave-In versus Bahamut. In all other instances, minus ten points for efficiency but plus a million for silly hats. ********************************** Disclaimer and legal necessities ********************************** This was written in 2010, by Djibriel, and is copyrighted by me. You are unauthorised to present this document, partly or whole, as written by somebody else as the authors of the respective bodies of text. You are unauthorised to change anything in this document for any other purpose then personal use without my explicit permission. You are unauthorised to hit me with a rhythm stick without my explicit permission. All rights reserved.