The Final Fantasy V Advance Walkthrough and Battle Tactics Guide Version 1.2 Djibriel, October 2010 "The first system, dealt with, is known as the Godai or 'Five Great Elemental Manifestations.' The elemental codes, in ascending order are... ...chi "earth"... ...sui "water"... ...ka "fire"... ...fu "wind", and... ...ku the "void"... " - unknown source Contents No number: Contents Foreword 1.0 Version History 2.0 Introduction 3.0 Set-up of the document, and slang you're going to start recognizing 4.0 Walkthrough 5.0 Menus and Game Options: As boring as a concrete floor in math class 6.0 Jobs 7.0 Action Abilities 8.0 Game mechanics; real quick, I promise 9.0 Characters 10.0 Checklists for you Completionists 11.0 Credits No number: Disclaimer ********************************** 1.0 Version History ********************************** - Version 1.2 (10/13/2011) In this exciting new though minor update, I made everything better! Here is how: - The boss strategy section on Leviathan was greatly expanded - Some info was added on Gilgamesh' character entry, since he became a playable character in Dissidia Duodecim - The Quicksave trick versus the Gil Turtle had a fatal flaw in it, and was subsequently removed since it doesn't work. - Rewrote the Dancer section since I took a longer look at the class and its options throughout the game. - Major breakthrough added in the Surgate Castle Sciences; the Inn is not usable as soon as you gain acces to Exdeath's Castle! This info was added for all of those people that like to sleep in dead king's guest chambers. You can stop e-mailing me about it already. - A few minor things: Regen works on the Undead, you can steal twice from Carbuncle, Berserk trumps "Entranced!", and some added info here and there about how special weapon properties interact with special attacks that work with those weapons such as !Mug, !Jump, etc. The write-up for !Bladeblitz and !Finisher were also expanded, and an imperfection in section 10.1 was corrected; Drakenvale is easily entered at the end of the game, so all monsters there are still to be found had you missed them earlier. - Version 1.1 (06/15/2011) Everything that has a beginning, has an end. But everything that has a beginning also has an 1.1 update, and this is that update. Typos were fixed, and a superior lay-out for all walkthrough chapter headers were adapted. Some thing worthy of special notice: - A list of sailing encounters on the First World was added in chapter 4.15.1 - The hit routine of the Dark Arts' status ailment side-effect was discovered and consequently added (credits go to Deathlike2) - A mistake in the Minotaur strategy was fixed where I mentioned that the Counter support ability was disabled for the fight, while it is not. - Several creatures have physical attacks that you cannot Counter (and have some other zany behavior); this information has been added. - The Treasure Checklist in Section 10.3 now contains the treasures of the GBA-only content, completely mapping out Mr. Clio's monitored container contents. - Some shameful oversights in the sections about Omega Mk. II and Neo Shinryu were fixed. I won't say what they were. - Version 1.0 (02/24/2011) Added the final three chapters detailing Omega Mk. II, Neo Shinryu and the Cloister of the Dead. The guide is done! At last I'm free! This is the first version to appear on GameFAQs. - Version 0.95 (12/08/2010) Added Overworld encounters for the first few chapters of the game, added section 10.4, rewrote a few sections, added content on the Sealed Temple, Necromancer Job and abilities, littered the guide with 'funny' Scott Pilgrim lines, you know the drill. - Version 0.9 (09/10/2010) Initial Release on the Collapse of Heaven and Earth, this is the document as it first appeared for the masses. ********************************** 2.0 Introduction ********************************** On the morning of April Fools' Day, 2005, I woke up in a sexual addiction treatment center in a suburb of Philadelphia. Nah, I'm playin'. That never happened to me. This, oh reader, is a walkthrough for FFVA, and by that is understood the game 'Final Fantasy V Advance', not for instance the 'Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association', who likely rued the day they opted for that specific abbreviation. You know, for a long long time, FF V was the black sheep of the series. Not that hard to understand; though it was released in Japan as soon as December 1992 and the ROM was distributed around that time as well (egads, both the internet and emulation are older than you think!), people didn't know how to read moonspeak. And even after its very first fan translation surfaced as early as 1997, written at the time by individuals known as Shadow and David Timko, this was three years after FF V's successor was released and the internet was still a relatively desolate place. A tumbleweed rolls by. The Great West first got its official look at FF V in the form of Final Fantasy Anthology. 'Dis be 'round 1999. The PSX port was a horror to behold. A lot of criticism concerning the translation roared quite justifiably, the load times were bad, bugs weren't fixed, low music quality. Faris talked like a porn actress pretending to be a pirate mocking her own background. The masses cried in unison. A baby in the back burps in disapproval. The official release never reached the West because it was deemed too difficult. FF V never profited all that much from the emulation scene, even though some kind of consensus has been reached over the 'standard' translation patch for the Super Famicom version (DeJap's). Nobody ANYWHERE has EVER liked anything ported to the PSX, so no surprise there. But at the very end, Final Fantasy V was able to ride the wave all the other 8- and 16-bit Final Fantasy games rode as well; the transition from console to handheld. Everybody was bored with coding NEW games for the Game Boy Advance, so there you go. The thing's 32-bit anyway. Still emulation for a large part obviously, but Square-Enix had put a decent amount of effort, thought and new content into the game this time. The extras were actually kinda neat, the translation was handled as if Final Fantasy V was an extra long and interactive episode of Futurama (spot-on as far as the demographic was concerned) starring Philip J. Bartz and killing Movers while bungee-jumping beats the crap out of killing Movers while wasting your life away behind a controller and your third bag o' Cheetos that day. Decent documentation hasn't existed until instructrtrepe, saw the FF V ROM for what it was (kids, this was all pre-GBA); a largely uncharted landscape full of monsters, treasures and nubile women. Now, we've got pretty much everything we need; info, a canon translation, the interest of the masses. This document you're looking at, it's a weird project. I started this in 2006. Writing this, it's 2010. That's FOUR YEARS during which I've started the project, abandoned the project, re-started the project, abandoned the project, etcetera and ad infinitum. Every time I vowed to finish the thing this time, re-read the document, made changes throughout, then forgot all about it again in favor of Odinknowswhat. Working on these things is my passion, don't ask me to explain it... but I can honestly say that without the continued support and kind e-mails from around the world, I never would have pulled through on finishing this, the Final Fantasy V Advance Walkthrough and Battle Tactics Guide. So, hat's off to you! ********************************** 3.0 Set-up of the document, and slang you're going to start recognizing ********************************** A primary action ability is the action ability listed under 'Attack' and is unique to a Job. The Thief's primary action ability is 'Steal', for instance. You can't change primary action abilities. In this document, a (primary) action ability is indicated with a '!' marked in front of its name. A secondary action ability is what appears if you choose an action ability to fill a character's empty ability slot. Secondary action abilities can be a great or a horrible idea, depending on the mechanics behind it. Some Jobs function better with a secondary action ability than the Job it came from did. In this document, a (secondary) action ability is indicated with a '!' marked in front of its name. A support ability can be set, but won't appear in-battle. This is because a support ability is either passive or reactive, not something you choose to do. Counter lets you counter-attack physical attacks, for instance, or Vigilance prevents back attacks. Every monster has a !Special Technique, which can have any number of facets. At the most basic, a !Special Technique is a modified physical attack, and physical modifiers are used to avoid it if possible. However, a !special technique can also merely set a status instead of dealing damage, pierce Defense unlike normal physical attacks or be unblockable and thus not subject to physical evasion. A monster's !Special is indicated by a '!' in front of its name. I make a distinction between four type of Jobs. This distinction is only strictly relevant as far as equipment options go. Stat-wise there are often similarities between Jobs in a selection. Heavy Armor Jobs are capable of wearing Heavy Armor, Clothes, Heavy Helmets and Shields. They generally have high Strength and high Stamina, making them perfect for Front Row melee position. Heavy Armor Jobs include the Knight, the Mystic Knight, the Berserker, the Dragoon, the Samurai and the Gladiator. Clothes Jobs are capable of wearing Clothes and Light Helmets. They can be considered melee units as well, though they tend to specialize in different ways of helping the party. Their Strength and Stamina tend to be lower than Heavy Armor Jobs, but they make up for it with higher Agility and special skills. Clothes Jobs include the Thief, the Monk, the Ninja and the Ranger. The Monk here is an exception to the expected stat lay-out, since the Monk's Strength and Stamina surpasses even the Heavy Armored Jobs. Robe Jobs are spellcasters capable of wearing Robes and Hats. They have weak physical stats but specialize in their respective schools of magic. Robe Jobs include the White Mage, the Black Mage, the Time Mage, the Summoner, the Geomancer, the Bard, the Necromancer and the Oracle. Hybrid Jobs are capable of wearing Clothes, Robes, Light Helmets, Hats and sometimes Shields. They are those that combine magical properties with physical utilities. Their stats are often mediocre across the board, with fewer high and low points. Hybrid Jobs include the Blue Mage, the Red Mage, the Chemist, the Dancer and Cannoneer. Since the Mime and the Freelancer have broader equipment selections than any kind of Job pool and they take on properties of the other Jobs, they cannot be classified. Walkthrough chapters are governed like this: Location: The Location given is, where possible, the same as the location given in the menu when you're there. This is not a hard concept, I take :p Opponents: Enemies encountered and/or fought, often with a (#) given to indicate their Bestiary entry. On occasion, opponents are fought that have no entry in the Bestiary; in that case, no number is given (-). Rare but possible is the situation where a monster is actually distinct according to the game itself, but both add to the same listing in the Bestiary. No distinction is made between the monsters in this case, as it would serve no purpose. An example is the Goblins you fight with Bartz alone as your first battle and the Goblins you fight on the Overworld Map a bit later; stats and dropped items are different, but both add to the Bestiary listing of 'Goblin' at #1. I will talk about the Bestiary in the walkthrough itself, guiding you towards a complete one; section 10.2 of this document contains a Bestiary checklist if you want to keep track. Container contents: Any item that can be found when facing a chest, urn, barrel or similar container is given here. These are the items that count towards your Treasure %, with five exceptions: two Cottages in Tycoon Castle, a Blitz Whip in Jachol Cave, a Cottage in Surgate Castle you can only obtain when on Planet R and a Cottage you can find in Carwen, but only when on Planet R. These are also the five treasures Lone Wolf steals if you release him; these items are handled by a distinct event in the code. Section 10.1 of this document contains a treasure checklist if you want to keep track of these treasures; when following the document normally, you'll get all the treasures you'll need for that hard-earned 100% treasure hunter's super happy fun feeling. Miscellaneous items: Any item that you can obtain through means beyond the silly container just-lying-around practice. These items include items given to you by NPCs, but mostly those items you can steal from enemies or those that are dropped by foes, either randomly or always. These treasures do not count towards your Treasure % Blue magic: Any Blue spell you can obtain from the opponents listed in any given section, some will require !Control or application of the Confuse status. Features: Anything noteworthy that didn't fit in the other categories, this mostly includes spells you obtain from NPCs or books and Pianos. Final notice: there are three things any first-time player will want to be aware of that should be considered throughout the game; the Bestiary (which has no in-game effect, but people want it perfect), the treasure percentage (which as a collector's game has no other effect than giving you the items that you find) and how often you run, as fleeing powers up a blade called the Chicken Knife and debilitates a blade called the Brave Blade. I'll keep you informed about these ever-important issues throughout the document. ********************************** 4.0 The Walkthrough ********************************** Table of Contents: 4.1.1 Prelude; the demolition of the Wind Crystal 4.1.2 Prelude; the road to Tule 4.1.3 Prelude; Faris Scherwiz 4.1.4 Prelude; the lands around Tule 4.1.5 Prelude; the town of Tule 4.1.6 Prelude; the Wind Shrine and Wing Raptor 4.2.1 The Wind Crystal Jobs 4.3.1 Preparing for the Torna Canal 4.3.2 The Torna Canal 4.4.1 The Ship Graveyard 4.4.2 The battle with Siren 4.5.1 The lands of Carwen 4.5.2 The town of Carwen 4.6.1 North Mountain 4.6.2 The battle with Magissa 4.7.1 Home sweet home; Castle Tycoon 4.8.1 The town of Walse 4.8.2 Castle Walse and the coming of the second meteorite 4.8.3 The golden warrior and the tower of Walse 4.8.4 The fight with Garula 4.9.1 The Water Crystal Jobs 4.10.1 Karnak county 4.10.2 The town of Karnak 4.10.3 Ice to see you, Shiva 4.11.1 The Fire-Powered Ship 4.11.2 The battle with Liquid Flame 4.12.1 Escaping Karnak Castle 4.13.1 Three Fire Crystal Jobs 4.14.1 En route to the Library of the Ancients 4.14.2 The Library of the Ancients and the battle with Ifrit 4.14.3 The battle with Byblos 4.15.1 The Seven Seas 4.16.1 The shores of Jachol 4.16.2 The town of Jachol 4.16.3 Jachol Cave 4.17.1 Shores of Istory 4.17.2 The town of Istory 4.17.3 The forests of Istory and the fight with Ramuh 4.18.1 The town of Crescent 4.18.2 Crescent Island and the Black Chocobo 4.18.3 Two Fire Crystal Jobs 4.19.1 The town of Lix 4.20.1 The battle with the Sandworm 4.20.2 The Desert of Shifting Sands and Gohn, the Town of Ruin 4.21.1 Ancient Ronka Ruins under Crescent Island 4.21.2 Airship Exploitation; Prototype 4.22.1 The Ancient Ruins and the battle with Adamantoise 4.23.1 The cannons of the Flying Ronka Civilization 4.23.2 The Flying Ronka Civilization 4.23.3 The battle with Archeoaevis 4.24.1 Meteorite 1; Karnak Meteorite 4.24.2 Meteorite 2; Walse Meteorite 4.24.3 Meteorite 3; Gohn Meteorite 4.25.1 Right and Ready 4.26.1 Alien World; Pao Island 4.27.1 Galuf to the rescue; the first fight with Gilgamesh 4.27.2 Escape to the Big Bridge 4.27.3 The Big Bridge; the second fight with Gilgamesh 4.28.1 The lands of Gloceana 4.28.2 Regole 4.29.1 The sealed castle of Kuza 4.30.1 The power is yours; saving the planet one Moogle at the time 4.30.2 The legacy of Mr. Moogle; Defiance 4.30.3 The Moogle Village 4.31.1 Castle Bal 4.31.2 En route to Quelb 4.31.3 The town of Quelb and Lord Kelger Vlondett 4.31.4 Drakenvale 4.31.5 The fight with Dragon Pod 4.32.1 Ghido the Sage and Xezat Matias Surgate 4.32.2 Surage Fleet; the third fight with Gilgamesh 4.32.2 Xezat of Ice; the barrier tower 4.32.4 The fight with Atomos 4.33.1 The town of Moore 4.34.1 The fight with Catoblepas 4.35.1 Our brilliant leader: the great Sage Ghido 4.35.2 The Great Forest of Moore 4.35.3 The fight against the Guardians 4.36.1 The fight with the Gil Turtle; get rich or die tryin' 4.37.1 Castle Exdeath 1; ascension and the fight with Carbuncle 4.37.2 The fourth fight with Gilgamesh 4.37.3 The fight with the dark warlock Exdeath 4.38.1 A second prelude; the fight with Antlion 4.39.1 Mission statement 4.39.2 Preparation for the Pyramid in the Desert of Shifting Sands 4.40.1 The Pyramid of Moore; the Earth tablet 4.40.2 The fight with Melusine 4.41.1 Airship Exploitation: Planet R 4.41.2 Airship Exploitation: They see me Odin', they hatin' 4.41.3 Overworld Encounters: Planet R 4.42.1 The Phantom Village 4.43.1 The Island Shrine; the Wind tablet 4.44.1 Fork Tower; the fight against Minotaur and Omniscient 4.45.1 The sunken Tower of Walse; Famed Mimic Gogo and the 'final' shard 4.46.1 The Great Sea Trench; the Fire tablet 4.47.1 Istory Falls; the Water tablet 4.47.2 Istory Falls; the battle with Leviathan 4.48.1 The Secret Shards 4.49.1 Taking the Black Chocobo; the battle with Bahamut 4.49.2 Taking the Black Chocobo; the Phoenix Tower 4.50.1 Wrapping Things Up; How to Kill Fiends and Mutilate People 4.51.1 Interdimensional Rift; the Desert 4.51.2 Interdimensional Rift; the Ruins 4.51.3 Interdimensional Rift; the Forest 4.51.4 Interdimensional Rift; the Cave 4.51.5 Interdimensional Rift; the Library 4.51.6 Interdimensional Rift; the Tower 4.51.7 Interdimensional Rift; the Dimension Castle 4.51.8 Interdimensional Rift; the Last Floor 4.52.1 Facing the Void 4.53.1 The Undeathables; Famed Mimic Gogo 4.53.2 The Undeathables; Magic Pot 4.53.3 The Undeathables; Omega 4.53.4 The Undeathables; Shinryu 4.54.1 The Sealed Temple; Unlocking 4.54.2 The Sealed Temple; Arena 4.54.3 The Sealed Temple; The Lethe Court 4.55.1 The Dark Arts 4.56.1 The Undeatables; Omega Mk. II 4.56.2 The Undeatables; Neo Shinryu 4.57.1 The Cloister of the Dead ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.1.1 Prelude; the demolition of the Wind Crystal ********************************** Opponents: Goblin (#1) Container contents: Phoenix Down The intro is fairly long and pleasant to watch. God, don't you just hate it when walkthrough writers go into detail about the intro? Then this happens, then that happens, some dude gets his hand cut off, than there's an explosion and the bad guy transforms...if you don't bother to watch the bloody intro, how dedicated can the player be to a walkthrough, one might ponder? Regardless, meet Bartz Klauser, young adventurer from the quiet town of Lix. Romantically wasting his life away in what has to be the smallest forest of the world, he is forcefully pulled into our collective attention when a meteorite falls from the sky and crashes into the ground near Bartz. He quickly discusses the situation with his best friend, the chocobo cleverly named Boko. Quickly putting out the campfire (remember, only you etc.), Bartz races to the scene. Welcome to controlling Boko on the Overworld. You could go north, but there's nothing interesting there. Let's focus on the meteorite now. When you reach the meteorite to the east, you'll dive right into Tycoon Meteorite. When you approach the Big Rock of Falling Fire, Bartz will hop off Boko to ensure his safety and carry on by foot. The first thing noticeable about the meteorite is the fact that an unconscious girl is being taken away by two goblins. Obviously that has nothing to do with the meteorite itself, but GOBLINS! You get the jump on them. This is your first battle, and your options are limited. There's a Broadsword in Bartz his right hand, and it was designed to kill things. The Goblins are a nuisance and you want them to die. The Goblins will punch you in the face when you let them; luckily, they are no trouble whatsoever. Use !Attack to win! I guess I could note that the left Goblin is in the Back Row, but since even with the damage reduction it'll go down in one hit, it's not really important. Like the chivalrous young hero protagonist that he is, Bartz rescues the girl and calms her down. There's a chance to give Bartz a name now. I'll just call him Bartz, but if you're the sort of person who takes an interest in the age-old Butz/Bartz debate, be my guest. There's confusion all around. Unknown to Bartz, the girl he has just saved is Lenna Charlotte Tycoon, princess of Tycoon and (gasp) daughter to Alexander Highwind Tycoon who is (gasp again) king of Tycoon. The good man went to check out the enigmatic Wind Crystal since it doesn't appear to do a whole lot lately, he's nowhere to be seen, and now there are meteorites. Before the story gets too interesting, however, there's also moaning. Even if you decide to leave with Lenna and tour the Overworld Map some more, there's no reason to do so. It doesn't take a grade in anything to find somebody lying next to the meteorite. It's an old man. The old man wakes up when you talk to him, but acts rather confused. The cause seems to be amnesia. I'm sure we won't have to listen to this guy's slowly unravelling and undoubtedly tragic past throughout the rest of the game! The old man's name is Galuf. Now that everybody has regained his wits, both the young girl and the old man tell Bartz they need to go to the Wind Shrine, home of the Wind Crystal. Neither of them seems to have any business there, but Bartz has only just met them so has no reason to stop them. He lets 'em go, and the young girl and old man depart for a lifetime of adventure. They save the world. The End. Would you like a chocolate-covered pretzel? There's a little side-objective for Bartz too, by the way: see that gigantic dark all-concealing tree in the lower-right corner? There's a hidden passageway towards a Phoenix Down. Make sure to grab it; these babies sell for 500 Gil and have the power to revive fallen party members. Reunited with Boko, you quickly find yourself on the Overworld Map again. You can't return to the quiet little corner you started this game on, so you have no choice but to go north, even though you know there's nothing interesting there. This may very well be the most boring Final Fantasy out of...no, wait, it's an earthquake. In what I'm sure could have been a rather impressive action sequence hadn't this been an early Super Famicom/PSX/GBA game, an earthquake commences, shrill shrieks are heard in the distance and you're going to have to fight off two teams of two Goblins with Bartz, while Boko leaps over tremors like it's nobody's business. In the end, Bartz finds himself reunited with Lenna and Galuf, who join the party. With the road to Tule blocked, a town most probably required to pass through to reach the Wind Shrine, the road to the Wind Crystal is also blocked. Damn it all. Let's go north and see what kind of crazy plan we can cook up. It quickly seems the plan is cave-related. Boko's wise enough to quit right there. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.1.2 Prelude; the road to Tule ********************************** Opponents: Steel Bat (#2), Devil Crab (#3), Stroper (#4) Container contents: Leather Cap Cave, level 1: 35 % Steel Bat x 2 35 % Steel Bat x 2, Devil Crab 23 % Devil Crab x 2 6 % Steel Bat x 3 Cave, level 2 & 3: 35 % Stroper x 2 35 % Stroper x 2, Steel Bat 23 % Steel Bat x 3 6 % Steel Bat x 2 It's a cave. Like in most caves even in our world, there are bats, land crabs and mutant plant creatures that try to kill you. Here's what you'll want to do for utmost efficiency in killing them: Lenna will always be the first to act due to her superior Agility. Take the Broadsword from Bartz and give it to Lenna. Give Lenna's Knife she took from home and give it to Bartz. Galuf stays naked in your party, like old men should never do, but always do anyway. He'll have a 8 % chance of doing a critical hit with each punch, actually landing a solid blow: [CRITICAL-LINK] The monsters aren't very interesting yet so I'll just quickly name them and what they do. Steel Bats are flying bats. They attack physically, with !Claw (1.5 damage) and the Vampire spell. The Vampire spell acts like this: it drains (max HP - current HP) damage. That means that the more damage a Steel Bat has taken, the more damage it'll do with Vampire. However, since you should be taking the SB's down with one or two hits anyway, you should pay no attention to its existence. Note that Vampire was supposed to deal only 50 % of that damage, but due to a bug that slipped in with the GBA port, it heals the caster completely. Stropers are entirely uninteresting. They merely fight and are silly. Devil Crabs have 3 Defense, which is enough to make life a little annoying for you. They attack physically and with !Pincer (Attack x 1.5). Any slash with the Broadsword will dispatch a creature, but note that Devil Crabs are the only ones with notable Defense meaning that they will nullify Galuf's punches (unless he scores a critical hit) and survive a single Knife slash. Strike Devil Crabs first and go for everything else second. Let this be a moment to say that running from battle could be BAD. Don't allow it. Why is this? Far, far into this game you may choose between two weapons, of which the sword version loses power every time you run away and have run away. Never run and it'll be one of the strongest Sword you'll ever find. Run a few times and it'll be just mediocre. The alternate option powers UP when you run, but you can always start running then if you believe that weapon to be the superior of the two. Obviously, if you're already firmly rooted in the Brave Blade versus Chicken Knife debate and have chosen your school, feel free to run whenever you wish. Pansy. You could at this point return outside, but Bartz'll get on Boko automatically, so we're still not allowed to wander the Overworld Map freely. Guess we should continue. Once you enter the cave, Bartz will comment on the existence of a recovery spring to the left of you. Go there to heal up from the pain you received while fighting the Goblins. In the next room, the only path you can follow will take you across a small cutscene, for this cave is not uninhabited; a shady looking fellow checks his surroundings, notices nothing threatening and pushes a button to grand passage for him. Before you gloat over your hiding skills and follow him, be sure to grab the Leather Cap from the chest to your left. It doesn't really matter whom you stick it on; ladies first? Push the button like the other guy did to open the oddly snake-like door. Only a few steps further you'll notice a ship sailing merrily merrily down the stream, but how does it accomplish this feat without the wind blowing? Mysteries abound in this action-packed cave! Let's continue. Great. Now there's pirates. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.1.3 Prelude; Faris Scherwiz ********************************** It all seemed so nice and cozy back when it was just one of the forces of nature calling it quits for the day. You've spent the last few hours fighting through packs of Goblins while the ground collapsed underneath you and chasing the elusive road to this mysterious Tule through a cave filled with monsters. And now there's pirates. A cave filled with murderous thugs inspires Lenna to suggest making your location known, while Galuf remains convinced this is an unnecessarily complex path to certain death and suggests trying to steal the magically sailing pirate ship. And Bartz, let's face it, your hair day isn't that grand either. Poor guy. The only two pirates to be seen in the near vicinity of your party are both sleeping, which is a huge plus. The right one wakes up for a moment if you try and talk to him (you stupid!) but you can rest assured there are no lasting consequences, like with unsafe sex. Walk the plank the good way and enter the ship! Obviously you could just grab the wheel and make a go for it, but it might be wise to check the entire thing out before sailing to the horizon with it. Within the ship there are two doors; the left one leads to a locked jail door leading to an empty jail, the right one houses yet another sleeping pirate, mumbling about Syldra or something. We'll deal with him later; time to make a run for it. Trying to grab the wheel, Bartz notices he can't get the wheel to turn, and while Lenna and Galuf are trying to figure out what's wrong with Bartz, they're discovered. Lenna quickly reveals her royal identity since it seems like a good idea to her; captain Faris Scherwiz seems more interested in her jewelry, though. The pirates don't even have to TRY before forcing the entire party to the ground, tied and ready to be locked up, so yay for the plot powers of our heroes so far. In the night: lamenting. In the morning: action! The prisoners are freed much to the dismay of Faris' crew, the order to sail to the Wind Shrine is given and the secret behind the ship's ever-lasting sailing powers is revealed to be a huge-ass sea...thingy, we only see her head. Her name is Syldra. Time to get this show on the road, savvy? Yeah, you'll want to tell the helpful first mate to buzz off. We're going to Tule first. There's all kinds of neat stuff to do there. It's to the west. You may choose to skip this entire section and dive into the Wind Shrine unprepared (which still doesn't make it too hard) but there's really no good reason to do so. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.1.4 Prelude; the lands around Tule ********************************** Opponents: Goblin (#1), Killer Bee (#5), Nutkin (#6), Stray Cat (#7), Gatling (#16), Big Horn (#17), Bandersnatch (#19) Grasslands near Tule: 35 % Goblin x 3 35 % Killer Bee x 2, Goblin 23 % Nutkin x 3 6 % Stray Cat x 4 Grasslands south-east of Tule, near and in the forest: 35 % Goblin 35 % Killer Bee x 2 23 % Goblin x 3 6 % Killer Bee x 2, Goblin First off, before you enter Tule itself you should be aware of the fact that you're now on the Overworld Map without Boko, allowing you to fight random encounters. Speaking of Boko, it appears that Bartz has forgotten all about his best friend. We'll pick him up later. You can fight Goblins on the Overworld Map now. They're of a slightly different variety than the Goblins you defeated earlier; they'll rarely drop a Leather Cap now. Note that both varieties will make the same Goblin appear in the Bestiary, this being the more recent one. Goblin'll also randomly use a move called Goblin Punch, of which I'll explain the details later. It's basically a normal but unblockable physical attack with a few quirks. Killer Bees fly and attack physically with Attack and !Needle, which shouldn't be confused with the enemy attack Needle. !Needle inflicts 1.5 damage. Nutkin are chewing on their nuts while skirmishing, so they slowly regain HP during battle. Randomly a green 1 will pop up to indicate their incredible recovery rate. One hit should kill them; they attack with Attack and !Incisor. !Incisor never misses and ignores Defense, watch out! Stray Cats merely attack physically, sometimes with !Tail. Unassuming. Lands near Torna Canal: 35 % Bandersnatch, Big Horn 35 % Bandersnatch x 3 23 % Bandersnatch 6 % Gatling The enemy Bandersnatch can appear if you land on one of the thin strokes of land between Tule and the Wind Shrine. Bandersnatches are powerful creatures that may deal anywhere between 60 to 100 damage with their normal physical attacks and !Body Blow, their special technique. You'll want to brawl with them a bit for the Bestiary entry if you care about those things, but later; they almost one-hit kill you now unless you start leveling. Quite frumious, they are. Gatlings will normally just Attack, but if you hit them with an Attack of your own they'll counter with !Needle, a more powerful physical attack. They'll rarely drop Gold Needles. Big Horns attack with Attack and (shocker) !Horn, which is a more powerful physical attack. If you hit them with a Fire-elemental attack and they survive, they'll use Flee immediately to leave the battlefield, but you don't have any Fire-elemental attacks at this point. This is the first time you're free on the Overworld Map to fight your own battles the way you see fit. No doubt some guy has leveled to 99 right here. Doesn't that knowledge make you feel great about yourself? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.1.5 Prelude; the town of Tule ********************************** Container contents: 100 Gil, 150 Gil, Ether, Leather Shoes x 2, Phoenix Down x 2, Potion x 2, Tent x 2 Features: Piano In the meantime: Tule! Check out Faris' equipment; he's got a Leather Shield on him and a Dagger, a more powerful knife than the Knife. Give him the Leather Cap you have and enter Tule. All the pirates will swarm into the Pub for the brew of sunshine known as grog and Faris won't stay behind. On a side note, make no mistake about the exceedingly disgusting nature of grog. Seriously, look it up. Hey, at least it helps fight off scurvy. Should you ever try to leave town, Faris'll automatically rejoin you using his pirate senses. The purple wizard-guy near the entrance of town wants to take you to the Greenhorn's Club. It's a good idea (although you could've walked yourself); it's on the southern-west edge of Tule. Claim your status as a beginner upon entrance an you'll be granted passage. There's a lot of info given here, but we're here for the treasure. I'm here for the info, remember? The crate contains a Tent, the barrel contains a Phoenix Down and the grey pot contains a Potion. The bottom green wizard mentions the existence of fake walls and sure enough, there's one leading around the grey pot to the chest you couldn't normally reach. It contains an Ether. The other chest contains 100 Gil. Time to go upstairs! Here's, a green wizard is standing over a chest, claiming he has a gift for you. Opening the chest nets you a battle with a Goblin! Kill it. Miscellaneous note: the first time you talk to the green wizard guy here, he'll say: "Inside this chest is a present from me!" and every subsequent time he'll say: "A-hua-hua! Sometimes monsters hide in treasure chests. From now on, be careful!". It doesn't matter when, or even if, you open the chest at all. Poor old guy is probably as blind as a bat. After the battle you'll get some Leather Shoes, which increase both your Defense and Magic Defense by 1. All right! Time to get out. Talk to the green-haired lady to open up the passage; mention you're no beginner anymore when you're on the other side of the counter and she'll forcefully throw you out. Good times :P Time to explore town. In the barrel to the right of the Inn lies 150 Gil. To the north, a few crates and barrels stand together. One of the barrels contains a Potion and a crate contains a Tent. The big house to the far north belongs to Zok, the man who built the Torna Canal and a personal friend of the king of Tycoon. He doesn't seem to be home, however. To the far left of Zok's house there's a bush between all the trees where you can find a Phoenix Down, and to the far right is a crate over by the watermill which contains another pair of Leather Shoes. Equip 'em. Let's enter the Pub now. Faris is upstairs. One of the pirates mentions how he loves his captain, which is odd, since he's a dude. And Faris is also a dude. And two dudes, in a simplistic high fantasy setting like this one, that just don't fit. On stage, there's a piano. Woohoo! You must play it. Long story short, if you play all eight pianos in this game you unlock two more Songs for your Bards. Short story long: [PIANO-LINK]. Anyway, the Girls Of Little Shame are in your way. Sit down on the speshul seat to get them off stage and on your lap. For free! Now, you can reach the piano. You suck. Let's go upstairs and sleep off the shame. Faris the hippie pirate captain beat you to it. Bartz decides to check in on him. And then Galuf. And then they fall in love with the sleeping image of Faris the hippie pirate captain. What's the rating on this game again? We haven't cast a single Fire spell yet and the word 'flaming' already comes to mind. Regardless, before things can escalate Faris wakes up and locks the door, which seems like a good idea. Maybe some fresh air will do Bartz and Galuf some good. Gets rid of all the pheromones. Let's examine the shops: Weapon Shop: Broadsword 280 Gil Rod 200 Gil Staff 200 Gil Buy one Broadsword and leave it at that. The Rod is only useful if you have spells to cast and aren't going to use physicals anyway since it boosts your Magic Power by a tiny margin (1). The Staff is only useful if you really, really have no other choices. You'll get a free extra Broadsword in a very short while, so don't feel bad for the final character with a weak weapon. Have Galuf equipped with the Knife; since his Agility's the lowest of your characters, he attacks the last and thus the least. Don't let the game's Optimize function replace a Knife with a Rod; since their damage formulae are different, the Rod will be useless while the Knife will be not useless. Armor Shop: Leather Shield 90 Gil Leather Cap 50 Gil Leather Armor 80 Gil What you're lacking in your inventory is three Leather Shields and three Leather Caps. You can even buy three Leather Caps, but since you're finding one for free in a little while, I see no reason to buy it here (although 50 Gil's a joke, too). Magic Shop: Fire 150 Gil Blizzard 150 Gil Thunder 150 Gil Cure 180 Gil Libra 80 Gil Poisona 90 Gil I'll discuss them all when you get to use them, okay? I do suggest buying at least the Blizzard Black Magic spell and the Cure White Magic spell so you can cast at least one spell in both classes once you obtain the means to do so. Blizzard is the best out of the three Black spells since it's the only one to hit an elemental weakness in the next dungeon. Item Shop: Potion 40 Gil Tent 250 Gil The Item Shop, like many item shops in this game, does not make enough profit to rent a building on its own; instead, it has to share with the Inn. Potions heal 50 HP, Tents restore 1000 HP and MP, but only on the Overworld Map and on Save Points. You'll get five Potions for free in a short while; another Tent or two couldn't hurt, though. We're done in Tule; let's go find that Wind Shrine all the cool kids are talking about. Sailing on the Overworld Map, it's possible to approach the Torna Canal that you pass on your way; the gates are locked, though. You can fight its monsters in front of the gate (they're not at all quality gates, you see), but there's nothing to gain for you so I don't suggest it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.1.6 Prelude; the Wind Shrine and Wing Raptor ********************************** Opponents: Black Goblin (#8), White Serpent (#9), Moldwynd (#10), Mani Wizard (#11), Wing Raptor (#243) Container contents: Broadsword, Leather Cap, Potion x 5, Staff Miscellaneous items: Elixir (rare Moldwynd drop), Leather Shoes (rare Black Goblin drop), Rod (rare Mani Wizard drop) Blue spells: Aero, Goblin Punch Second floor: 35 % Black Goblin x 2 35 % White Serpent 23 % White Serpent, Black Goblin 6 % Moldwynd, Black Goblin, White Serpent Third floor: 35 % White Serpent, Black Goblin 35 % Moldwynd, Black Goblin, White Serpent 23 % Moldwynd x 3 6 % Mani Wizard, Moldwynd, Black Goblin Fourth floor: 35 % Mani Wizard, White Serpent 35 % White Serpent, Black Goblin 23 % Mani Wizard x 3 6 % Moldwynd x 3 The Wind Shrine is to the far north, surrounded by a little nice forest. Yeah, the cute critters in it might attack you, but compared to the entities that will be attacking you in the future it all seems harmless enough. Inside the shrine, a delegation of Tycoon citizens is awaiting help. The scholar to the left of the vial containing water from a recovery spring will give Lenna 5 Potions, which is nice enough of him. The vial itself will completely restore your party when you drink from it. Upstairs, monsters have infested the rooms and ol' Alex Tycoon's not coming back, so it's time to see if he's okay up there. Black Goblins attack with Goblin Punch and Attack, of which the former has been mentioned before. I'll explain how it works exactly when you master the move yourself. They rarely drop Leather Shoes, so you might want to stick around fighting them until you've obtained two (more). White Serpents have three attacks; Attack, !Tail (Attack x 1.5) and Entangle which sets Paralyze for about two turns. Paralyze prevents a character from taking actions, but it wears off eventually. White Serpents are weak to Ice- elemental attacks, which might aid you in the future. Moldwynd are demons of wind. They are able to cast Aero on a single target, a Wind-elemental attack that deals around 70 damage. They can use Aero only once without your aid (they lack the MP for more). They may also attack physically with Attack and !Critical attack (Attack x 1.5). They rarely drop Elixirs. Aero can be learned by Blue Mages later on in the game, but not now. Mani Wizards attack physically with Attack and !Magic Stick, but will cast either a Fire, Blizzard or Thunder spell on the entire party every third turn, hurting for about 20 HP on all characters. They'll have depleted all of their MP after a single spell, though. They rarely drop Rods. They are the only creature in the game, aside from the solo-Bartz Goblins of the very first fight, that are entirely incapable of dodging any physical attack; physical attacks will always hit them, regardless of their hit rate. On the second floor, there's a Tent in a chest and a door leading to a Save Point. Save at the Save Point if you want and continue. It's a consecrated circle, see? In this new room, there's a chest containing a Leather Cap to the right and some stairs allowing you to continue to the left. Equip the Leather Cap if you must and press on. On the third floor, you can either walk all the way around or know that there's a secret passage here; you can walk through the thin wall to get to the door on the other wise. This left door leads to a chest containing a Broadsword; the door to the right leads nowhere. Give this Broadsword to someone if it upgrades their physical power; the Dagger is about as powerful as a Broadsword when the wielder is level 4 and surpasses it on higher levels. The big-ass bird guarding the stairs? Yeah, it needs to go. It'll attack you as soon as you stand in front of it, but be sure you're fully healed as Wing Raptor is fully capable of delivering big ouchies if you're not careful. I kinda suggest reaching level 5 before tackling the feathered fiend as you get a nice damage boost when you reach it and you can find Leather Shoes and Elixirs in the meantime if luck is on your side. Wing Raptor Level: 1, HP: 250, MP: 25 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Potion (common) Win: Phoenix Down Status: Float Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Claw: Barrier-piercing Specialty Effect: Unblockable Vulnerable to: Death, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow Attacks: Attack, !Claw, Breath Wing You have no way of exploiting those status ailments, which is sad. You'll just have to rely on physical violence, then. This is what Wing Raptor does: Wing Raptor's signature move is Breath Wing, a Wind-elemental attack that deals (25 % target's maximum HP) damage. Wing Raptor will either use Attack (33 %) or Breath Wing (66 %) for two turns, after which it'll fold its wings over its beak and stop attacking. It gains 20 Defense and 40% Evasion in doing so, making any physical attack useless. Rods and Staves have the power to damage Wing Raptor in this form, but you shouldn't attack him now, as he'll counter any violence done to him by !Claw, as he clearly indicates: "A fierce talon swipe will meet those when attack when its wings are closed!" After it takes two turns, it'll revert back to normal and use a Breath Wing attack to say hello. At 250 HP, Wing Raptor takes nine attacks with a level 4 party before going down. Sadly, that means it'll be able to take three rounds, during which he'll close itself down. If your party is fully healed it is entirely capable of taking in the worst case scenario of three Breath Wings. As long as you don't attack during his defensive phase, you're good to go. If you leveled beyond level 4, your Broadswords and especially your Dagger will do more damage and Wing Raptor should go down before going defensive at all. And you get another Phoenix Down. For that price, you'd expect them to be a little more rare, no? On the fourth floor, there's a hidden passageway to a chest containing a Staff. It's in the lower-right corner. Staves deal weak magical damage which remains equally powerful from the Back Row. Useless for your Freelancers right now. The fourth floor contains the Wind Crystal. Which is broken. Shit. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.2.1 The Wind Crystal Jobs ********************************** Upon discovery of the broken Wind Crystal, our heroes are left with precious little time to think it over, as a whole lot of freaky stuff happens right then and there. A sparkle from what we can assume is the Fire Crystal imbues Faris with the Spirit of Fire, Courage. Lenna obtains the Spirit of Water, Devotion. Galuf obtains the Spirit of Earth, Hope, while Bartz obtains the Spirit of the broken Wind Crystal, Passion. Once again, before anyone can discuss what exactly happened, a cracked and tired voice calls towards Lenna. It's Alexander, and he's not looking too good. He tells you what the immobile crystals could not and sends you on a quest to protect the Crystals. The three remaining crystals are about to shatter according to King Tycoon, and they need to be prevented from doing so. Before the good King can continue however, a dark aura surrounds him and forcefully removes him from the room. The Crystal shards all hold the soul of a long-gone warrior of a certain class, and by equipping the crystal shard (how exactly that may be done is left to anybody's imagination) the Chosen Warriors may tap into the powers of these warriors. The souls have no name except for the Job they represent. For a quick tutorial on the Job system that is in any way superior to what the game gives you, please go here here: [JOB-LINK] For now, you'll want to know all about the Jobs you've been offered. I suggest you take a look at section 6.0 for information about the Jobs and abilities. Use these quick links to learn more about specific Jobs: [KNIGHT-LINK] [MONK-LINK] [THIEF-LINK] [WHITEM-LINK] [BLACKM-LINK] [BLUEM-LINK] Abilities to possibly shoot for in the near future: Learning (Blue Mage) only takes a grand total of 10 + 20 ABP. The !Check you learn in the process is beyond worthless, but you'll want to be able to learn Blue Magic spells without having to resort to creating a Blue Mage when the offense clearly isn't there at that point of the game. !Black level 1 & !White level 1. With 10 ABP each it takes very little effort to learn the basics of one school of magic and put it on the other Job. More than one healer is a good thing, and you don't want an entirely offensively crippled character. Barehanded. From now on, you have acceptable to good physical offense on any character you choose regardless of what weapons you're carrying. Monk punches are very powerful, and Barehanded can be used to increase Strength to da max even when you're keeping your weapon. A related matter that fun for the whole family: if you set Barehanded on a Blue Mage Bartz (known as the 'Triple B combo'), Bartz will reveal a second face when punching an enemy! If you named Bartz 'Zaphod' just because of this, you are now AWESOME. Other notes: A White Mage without offense is a far inferior character than a Black Mage without support spells. I suggest going for offense first, especially when starting out. The Monk learns Barehanded after only 45 ABP, giving any character the ability to have the game's best Strength and great to decent 'weapons'. Giving a Thief the Barehanded ability makes for a character with the highest Strength and Agility stats in the game; a great combination available from the very start of your ABP career! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.3.1 Preparing for the Torna Canal ********************************** Opponents: Steel Bat (#2), Devil Crab (#3), Stroper (#4) Container contents: 300 Gil, Ether, Tent Miscellaneous items: Potion x8 Blue Spells: Aero, Goblin Punch, Vampire Instead of taking the Warp Stone behind the altar, why not just walk on down? You'll earn some of those ABPs now, and it'll be fun. If you have a Blue Mage installed in your team, be sure to learn the Aero spell from Moldwynd enemies (uses randomly every second turn, only has the MP to cast it once) and Goblin Punch from the Black Goblins which they'll use whenever wherever for unlimited amounts of time since Goblin Punch doesn't cost any MP. Flex your new Jobs a little. All the way down, the Wind Shrine refugees will ponder the reason behind the broken Wind Crystal; could it be that the machine that amplified the Crystal's power was the cause? On your new Blue Magic spells: Aero is a slightly stronger and Wind-elemental version of your Black Magic spells. Goblin Punch is kind of odd. It basically takes the weapon(s) the caster has, applies the normal sword damage parameter and is non-elemental and unblockable. Also, when the 'caster' and the target share a level, Goblin Punch its power is multiplied by 8 and becomes barrier- piercing. In most cases just equivalent to a physical attack, but without a damage penalty from the Back Row and no random variance bonus damage, which is very slight. Blue Mages have almost no business in the Front Row when Goblin Punch has been learned. Using the pirate ship, you can sail to Tule. On the little peninsulas near the gates of the Torna Canal you can fight Gatlings, Big Horn and Bandersnatch monsters. Three Bandersnatch monsters give 300 Gil, 45 Experience Points and 3 ABP, so that's all right. They're kinda powerful though, so watch your step. In Tule, Faris will leave you again to go sulk in his room or whatever. The lovey-dovey scene can still be accessed if you didn't earlier. You can now go find the Weapon Shop if you wish to buy a Rod for your Black Mage(s) and go buy all the spells in the Magic Store. They're all very easy to understand. Libra checks a monster's Level, HP, Weakness and currently inflicted Status Effects while Poisona removes the Poison status from a target. Fire, Blizzard and Thunder are all similar except for their respective element. Buy them all; you'll utilize them all if you carry a Black Mage around. When you check back on Zok, he's home! Since the closest-by Crystal is the Water Crystal in the country of Walse and the only route there is through the Torna Canal, we need the keys. Never mind there's been rumors of a monster that has been long-sealed by the now rapidly weakening power of the Wind Crystal, we gots us some Water Crystal protection to do. Zok seems hesitant to give you the key up to the point he claims he's lost the keys. A likely story. In the night, it seems that Bartz' father has some Crystal-related backstory as well. Zok's watching Lenna sleep in the meantime, but we can hardly blame an old man's who is living alone. Zok slips Bartz the keys to the Torna Canal, as to not let Lenna know for some reason or another. Time to go, regardless; hope Faris is ready to say goodbye to his pirate buddies. It seems so. After walking from the Overworld Map onto the pirate ship, there's a cutscene to once again press the fact that shattering crystals is not a good thing. Before we make haste in saving the world, it's time to visit some buddies of us; Boko's still waiting for us near the Pirate Cave. Have Syldra pull the pirate ship all the way to the south-east, where you'll be able to touch land eventually. Walk up to the entrance of the cave, where Boko is nowhere to be found. Chasing after him will net you more encounters with some Steel Bats, which wouldn't have been too interesting hadn't it been for your Blue Mage(s), who can learn Vampire here. I've already explained the damage formula of Vampire: (max HP - current HP). When your Blue Mage is severely damaged, he or she can restore him- or herself quite nicely with a Vampire attack, and by its very nature the attack will be relatively useful throughout the entire game so keep in mind the Blue spellset has this power. In the Super Famicom release, Vampire deals (max HP - current HP) / 2 damage. Vampire being twice as strong in the GBA game is a bug, but since it's not our fault and it'd be silly to ignore the attack, never mind. When you find the pirate hideout, there's a skull button to the left of the entrance which opens a door to three chests containing a Tent, an Ether and 300 Gil. From one of the pirates walking around in the main room Faris obtains 8 Potions too. This guy wouldn't have been here if you came here before sending the Tule pirates home. Boko is having its wounds treated too; have Bartz say hello and leave the cave. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.3.2 The Torna Canal ********************************** Opponents: Sucker (#191), Octokraken (#192), Karlabos (#244) Miscellaneous items: Tent (guaranteed Karlabos drop) 35 % Octokraken x 2 35 % Sucker x 2 23 % Sucker x 2, Octokraken 6 % Octokraken x 2, Sucker The monsters of the Torna Canal only attack females, as a Tule NPC was kind enough to mention. However, for some odd reason this appears to include Faris as well, so while Lenna will be glad to spread some of the violence I don't think a pirate captain would like to be viewed as a woman by anything. No matter; he gets to mercilessly slaughter the mysogynist squids so it's all gravy. Another strange thing is that some powerful creature is known to be sealed here. If you got a powerful, violent creature that you want to seal away, the only man-made link between Walse and Tule is about the last place you'd want to lock it up. Oh, well. Suckers merely use physicals while sometimes using !Ten Arms, which is a stronger version. They're weak to Lightning-elemental attacks, so the Black Mages' Thunder spells take good care of them, killing them all in one hit even when MT'd. They'll only target Lenna and Faris, and whenever both are dead, they'll simply stop attacking altogether. The same goes for Octokraken, but this one is a tad more dangerous; not only does it not have an elemental weakness, it will also randomly use an attack called Electrocute every second turn which deals about 70 damage to a single (female) target. Take them out as quickly as possible and you shouldn't see it in action. Its special is called !Eight Arms and deals 150% damage. Obviously, the knowledge that only two of your characters are going to be hit is an advantage. If you have less than four Leather Shoes, give them to the Lenna and Faris. You could make both Lenna and Faris Knights and use !Guard continuously while Bartz and Galuf clear out the field, but the monsters really aren't dangerous enough to warrant extreme caution like that. Just keep an eye on Lenna and Faris' HP. The Torna Canal is the only passage to Walse, and it's a dangerous one. The power of the Wind Crystal was used to seal away a specifically powerful monster, and since the wind has grown weak monsters have been flooding into the canal. Gosh, here's hoping we don't run into them! The entrance to the Torna Canal lies to the south-east of the Wind Shrine, but honestly, it's not very hard to find. Bartz will whip out Zok's key and open the gates for you. Lenna's obviously stupefied. Torna Canal, like so many ambitious young canals of our time, is a straightforward sailing route. You might be humored to find that the Thief's Sprint support ability and your normal dashing both work in tandem with Syldra so you can sail twice as fast :P. After a 45 degree turn downwards, a whirlpool will appear, apparently caused by *gasp* the powerful creature that was sealed here by the power of the Wind Crystal. Syldra's having trouble coping with the stream and succumbs to the power of the vortex. Out comes the boogie man. Karlabos Level: 5, HP: 650, MP: 100 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Potion (common) Win: Tent Weakness: Lightning Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Feeler Specialty Effect: Paralyze Vulnerable to: Stop, Slow Attacks: Attack, !Feeler, Tail Screw Karlabos' most dangerous attack is called Tail Screw. It reduces the HP of a character to a random single digit (0..9). Whenever this happens, a Cure spell or a Potion is in order ASAP. Karlabos' !Feeler sets Paralyze, which can be a nuisance if it touches your White Mage. Karlabos isn't a very difficult boss, and unless you're slamming your head on the controller in a particularly bizarre fashion the worst that can happen in this battle is a single character that falls due to a Tail Screw/physical combo. Karlabos is a great, almost insurmountable danger in self-inflicted single character challenges, but not much to worry about in a normal game. The Black Thunder spell is the prime damage dealer in this battle, while any character with the Barehanded ability will make great use of it too. All other attacks come far behind. Should a character with the !Blue ability find him- or herself at level 5, Goblin Punch deals extreme amounts of damage, otherwise Aero is the superior attack. You can Steal a Potion, which may not even be worth your turn. You'll get a Tent after the battle. It seems the tentacled tormenter it still alive, and even in its damaged state it's much more powerful than Syldra. Dragging the water creature with it, Karlabos leaves the ship alone... but without a means of transportation, the pirate ship is as immobile as a rheumatic snail and without his best friend, captain Faris Scherwiz is nowhere near as pro-active as he used to be. The ship is merely floating along now... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.4.1 The Ship Graveyard ********************************** Opponents: Skeleton (#12), Carcruthl (#13), Undead Husk (#14), Mindflusher (#15), Siren (#245) Container contents: 990 Gil, Antidote x 2, Flail, Potion, Phoenix Down x 2, Tent Miscellaneous items: Bronze Armor (guaranteed (living) Siren drop), Bronze Shield (guaranteed (undead) Siren drop), Elixir (rare Carcruthl drop, rare Undead Husk drop), Flame Scroll (rare Mindflusher drop) Features: World Map "A gathering place for ruined and scuttled ships... and a nest for the undead." Waking up, the situation's looking grim. The uncontrollable pirate ship drifted right into the Ship Graveyard, where bad things happen to good people. Hey, at least you're fully restored from the fight with Karlabos earlier. You can always go below deck to sleep, although Galuf's the only person who gets a bed... Outside 35 % Skeleton 35 % Skeleton x 3 30 % Carcruthl x 2, Skeleton x 2 Inside first shipwreck, (partly) dry parts 35 % Carcruthl x 2, Skeleton x 2 35 % Skeleton x 3 30 % Skeleton Submerged shipwrecks 35 % Undead Husk, Skeleton, Carcruthl 35 % Skeleton x 3 23 % Skeleton 6 % Undead Husk Partly submerged room just with Pitfall 35 % Undead Husk, Mindflusher 35 % Skeleton x 3, Mindflusher 23 % Undead Husk 6 % Mindflusher x 2, Undead Husk Shipwrecks after Save Point 35 % Mindflusher x 2, Undead Husk 35 % Undead Husk, Skeleton, Carcruthl 30 % Undead Husk x 2 All the enemies you'll face here are Undead! This means that normally curative attacks will damage them, life-restoring spells and items will instantly kill them (unless they're Heavy), they'll almost always be weak to Fire- and Holy- elemental attacks, they will absorb Poison-elemental attacks, they will have a butt-load of status immunities and draining spells will have an inverse effect on them; they'll heal the target and damage the caster. This means the White Cure spell will damage the Undead while the Blue Vampire spell will heal them while damaging its caster. Skeletons are undead foot-soldiers. They attack using Attack and !Critical Attack, they're weak to Fire-elemental attacks and may rarely drop a Dagger. Daggers should at this point definitely outclass your Broadswords even though the menu indicates they're weaker. Goblin Punch users should stick to Broadswords; Knights that don't use Two-Handed should switch to Daggers where possible. Carcruthl merely use Attack. They're undead, look spiffy and are weak to Lightning-elemental attacks. That about covers it. They rarely drop Elixirs. Undead Husks are brutes whose bodies are as empty as their brains. Not only are they undead like all the monsters are in the Ship Graveyard, they're also made of stone; using a Gold Needle on them will instantly dissolve them by means of a self-applied Vanish attack. They rarely drop Elixirs like the Carcruthl, but are weak to Wind-elemental attacks such as Aero. They are the only monster in this game that are incapable of avoiding White spells at all; which seems strange since all White spells you have now are unblockable anyway. It must be a Japanese thing, I dunno. Mindflusher's !Lick deals normal damage but also adds the Sap status which shaves away your HP while you stare at it. They may randomly drop a Flame Scroll, an item that's completely useless to you at this time. The vertical plank next to the pirate ship leads to a seemingly uninteresting rock. Waiting here for a second reveals two more stones however, opening up a string of rocks leading to a chest containing a Flail. The Flail is one of the few physical weapons for your White Mage. It's weak and White Mages should NEVER have to go without offensive spells to cast, but it's back-row compatible and it gives your White Mage something constructive to do when he or she is out of MP or Silenced. For some moderately decent physical damage on the White Mage (certainly better than you'll ever do in the rest of the game), combine Two- Handed with the Flail. It works. Track back and continue on to the right. You'll enter another derelict ship which is filled with fog and spider webs. Go down the stairs (there doesn't seem to be anything else to do). Before you pass through the door, the light betrays the existence of a more hidden door which leads to a Tent. Get back and pass through the door, where Faris will make a fuss about his clothes getting wet. An odd vain streak he hasn't shown before, but what needs to be done needs to be done. Enter the water. There's a little chest you can stand on to get your head above water, but without one of those stressing YOU HAVE THIS MUCH AIR LEFT bars there's little point in doing so. Swim/walk down the stairs. Down here, there's a chest with the classic pirate skull on it; examine it for 990 Gil. Continue to find a split in the road; the above door leads to a room containing a Phoenix Down (descend the stairs and try to maneuver to the chest, it's not that hard) while the other door to more stairs. Continue. There's a chest here containing a mere Potion, but also some stairs going up. Finally! The water seems to end in this room. To the tile up-left from the stairs exit is a broken piece of wood which collapses underneath you when you stand on it. Don't do it. Exiting gets you to a room filled with old, moldy food, four beds and some chests; the Chosen Warriors declare it to be a safe haven so we can assume it is exactly that. Lenna gets some me-time to go dry her clothes, and the boys are left to do the same. Faris doesn't want to cooperate, Bartz and Galuf shrug it off as nonsense, and finally the reason behind all the oddness is revealed. If the flowing purple hair, infatuated pirates and fellow Chosen Warriors, attacking Torna Canal monsters and huge chest hadn't already convinced you it was the case, you now learn Faris is a girl. Good gosh. Washed into the hands of the pirates one day, she pretended to be a boy. The amount of questions you probably have at this point is enormous and never answered, so let's accept this glaringly illogical plot twist and continue on. You all rest and get fully restored by it. The next room features a Save Point that you can use. When you taste sweet, fresh air again you can go to the right or down; to the right is nothing, so let's go down. There's a piece o' ship here with a door which you can ignore if you want, but I really really suggest you don't. Let's get in there. The first thing you'll see lying around is an object that's just a shade too bright to be part of the scenery; it's a World Map. You'll notice later this is a magical World Map which adapts to your current situation, but we'll get there later. Grab it now. If you miss it here you'll have another chance to pick it up in the future at another location, but why skip it now? Even further down is a storage room with three chests containing two Antidotes and a Phoenix Down. Here, Mindflushers and Undead Husks abound, both of which drop interesting stuff and give 2 to 3 ABP in their formations, so if you want to Job-train, go ahead. Time to go back up. Continuing, there's what appears to be a dead end with a chest. Opening the chest reveals the remainder of the ship, because that is a logical thing to happen when you open chests. Walk up to the other end of the ship to see a string of stepping stones that's just too perfect to NOT be the exit out of here, so you can go prepare for a boss fight :) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.4.2 The battle with Siren ********************************** Something's not right here. Stella Klauser appears, mother to Bartz, and just as Bartz is about to check up on the situation his body goes limp. King Tycoon his appearance would have been more believable, but his presence in this context is alarming as we already know that Stella passed away at some time in the past. Strangely enough, Faris seems extremely taken by the appearance of King Tycoon; is there ANY normal thought process going on in that girl's head? The system falls down a little when the illusion created for Galuf doesn't ring any bells with him; amnesia, remember? Suddenly 'something' floats from the limp bodies of Bartz, Lenna and Faris, which the suddenly appearing Siren declares to be their souls. Bad shit! Galuf resolves the problematic situation by slapping. You'd hate to be married to the guy. Siren Level: 2, HP: 900, MP: 200 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Nothing Win: Bronze Armor Creature: Humanoid, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Poison, Darkness, Old, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Stop, Slow Attacks: Protect, Cure, Libra, Thunder, Blizzard, Silence, Sleep, Haste, Slow Siren (Undead) Level: 2, HP: 900, MP: 200 Defense: 12, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Nothing Win: Bronze Shield Absorbs: Poison Weakness: Fire Creature: Humanoid, Heavy, Undead Specialty: !Venomous Clasp Specialty Effect: Adds Poison Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Darkness, Slow, Regen Attacks: Attack, !Venomous Clasp Siren works like this. She takes three turns, during which she will do this: 1st turn: 33 % each: Silence, Slow, Haste 2nd turn: 33 % each: Cure, Blizzard, Libra 3rd turn: 33 % each: Protect, Sleep, Thunder Then, she'll turn into her Undead form, which is clearly visible due to the text flashing across the screen and Siren herself turning red. In this state, she'll also take three turns of attacking with either Attack or !Venomous Clasp before returning back to 'normal'. Siren is pretty much immune to your magical attacks in her normal state, so if nobody needs healing this is where the Flail for the White Mage can come in relative handy. Pound away with your Knights, Monks and Thieves and have your mages...yeah, they're better off attacking too, it's just that they're nowhere near as good as the more physically inclined Jobs. When Siren changes into her Undead form, the fun's starting. Undead Siren receives incredible Defense so your physical attacks become next to useless. If you want characters without magical abilities to do *some* damage, Potions inflict a constant 50 damage. The Fire spell is obviously the most powerful spell you can cast on U. Siren, but Aero, Cure and Blizzard or Thunder spells also work pretty well (in that order). Note that throwing a Phoenix Down on Undead Siren will NOT kill her. Life-bringing items and spells still kill Undead enemies in this game as it does in every other Final Fantasy game, it's just that the trick doesn't work if the Undead target is also Heavy. Since the Bronze Armor is an overall better and more expensive item than the Bronze Shield I might just advise you to shoot for defeating Siren in her normal state, but the difference is marginal. For some trivia, Siren would later make a few appearances as a summon monster, often focusing around setting the Silence status and/or dealing minor damage. She's a bit sexed-up as one of your allies, though, and not quite as Undead and creepy. When you're done, you're done. It's over! Go do something now, go read a book about airplanes. They can fly and are heavy. Oh yeah, and don't forget to cure possibly Poisoned characters, their HP slowly drops to 1 while you're walking. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.5.1 The lands of Carwen ********************************** Opponents: Gatling (#16), Big Horn (#17), Tatou (#18), Garula (#20) Near Ship Graveyard and Carwen: 35 % Gatling 35 % Gatling x 2, Big Horn 23 % Tatou x 2 6 % Big Horn, Gatling, Tatou Forest around North Mountain: 35 % Tatou x 2 35 % Big Horn, Gatling, Tatou 23 % Tatou x 2, Gatling 6 % Big Horn x 2 When you exit the Ship Graveyard, you'll find yourselves on solid land again. Your destination lies to the south, but the journey is not without its perils... Gatlings will normally just Attack, but if you hit them with an Attack of your own they'll counter with !Needle, a more powerful physical attack. They'll rarely drop the Gold Needles you so sorely missed versus the Undead Husks. Big Horns attack with Attack and (shocker) !Horn, which is a more powerful physical attack. If you hit them with a Fire-elemental attack they survive, they'll use Flee immediately to leave the battlefield. Tatou are big ugly lizards weak to Ice-elemental attacks. That about covers it. They drop Tents. Note that on the small patch west of Carwen, you can meet Garula, a passive massive non-aggressive tapir. Even though he doesn't attack you, he has a Bestiary entry so you'll probably want to beat him up. The lovable oaf appearing here could be considered a bug, since he should really just be found in another area; take your chagrin over this fact out on the helpless creature. Oh yeah, the walkthrough. Carwen's to the south; just stick to the coastal line to the west and you'll see it no problem. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.5.2 The town of Carwen ********************************** Container contents: 1000 Gil, Antidote, Frost Rod Features: Piano Carwen is an entirely uninteresting black hole of a town, but at least they're playing Harvest Hoedown, so that's a plus. Now I was just informed by Merriam- Webster that a Hoedown is a kind of square dance; and here I always thought of prostitutes whenever I came across the term. Yeah, it sure is funny having a foreign writer... Item Shop: Potion 40 Gil Antidote 30 Gil Eye Drops 20 Gil Maiden's Kiss 60 Gil Mallet 50 Gil Gold Needle 150 Gil Phoenix Down 1000 Gil Tent 250 Gil Yeah, 's shtuff. You could buy some Eye Drops, and make sure to buy some Gold Needles as the monsters in the upcoming dungeon have the power of petrification. Weapon Shop: Dagger 300 Gil Long Sword 480 Gil Rod 200 Gil Staff 200 Gil Your Knight(s) will really enjoy the upgrade in offensive power when you buy a new sweet Long Sword for them. At least they're no longer carrying the weakest sword in the game, eh? Your Blue Mages are less of a necessity to put a better sword on, but you'll like the increase in Goblin Punch power. Armor Shop: Bronze Shield 290 Gil Bronze Helmet 250 Gil Bronze Armor 400 Gil Copper Cuirass 350 Gil Cotton Robe 300 Gil It's fairly straightforward as to what to buy for which characters. Everything's flat-out better than Leather equipment so check your current Jobs and give them their suited defensive upgrade. The only point of debate is your Blue Mage, which I'd rather give a Copper Cuirass than a Cotton Robe. Even though the Cotton Robe is better on statistics (+ 2 Defense and + 4 Magic Defense to + 3 Defense and + 2 Magic Defense of the Copper Cuirass) the enemies in this part will use physical attacks only so Defense is more important. Magic Shop: Fire 150 Gil Blizzard 150 Gil Thunder 150 Gil Sleep 300 Gil Cure 180 Gil Poisona 90 Gil Silence 280 Gil Protect 280 Gil The new spells for sale here are Sleep for your Black Magic spellbook and Silence and Protect for your White casters. There's no reason to skip them here, especially since all three spells will be valuable to you in both the near and the far future. Take a nap at the Inn if you're so inclined to restore from your long journey through the Ship Graveyard. Now, walk around town and work your Chosen Warrior magic; talk to NPCs and find the hidden items. There's an Antidote in one of the five barrels to the south of the Pub (this one: 0x000). A much more important treasure is the Frost Rod. Stand in front of the Pub sign and walk all the way down until you can't go any further; now, go left and down until you reach the far bottom crate containing an Frost Rod. The Frost Rod is one of the decent amount of weapons that give a damage increase to a specific element. This one boosts Ice (you're kidding!) by 50 %, making the Black Mage a superior offensive caster than the White Mage (since the Black Mage can equip it) and making the Ice spell the superior attack unless the target is weak to Fire or Bolt. Always keep track of what elemental rod you're carrying and cast accordingly, as 150 % damage is really sweet. The menu says that the Rod will sometimes cast the Blizzaga spell. This is grade-A balloney! The Rod can be used as an Item from the menu (when held, open 'Item' and press UP, you must equip it) to release all the Ice magic from the Rod and scatter a Blizzaga spell across the screen, destroying the Rod in the process. Blizzaga spells are really powerful, but now that the Frost Rod is still a luxury item it's not worth it to break it in combat. Let's get the story rollin'. Talk to the green-haired lady to the south of the Pub, who'll tell you what we already know; there's the Kingdom of Walse to the south, a country amplifying the Water Crystal much like how Tycoon amplified the Wind Crystal. If we don't stop them soon it might just break on us, so we need to get there ASAP. However, we can't go by sea without Syldra or the wind. And we can't go by land or sea... Talking to the dock workers will have Bartz wondering about this constantly. There's now another green-haired woman near the Pub who talks about her husband. Enter the Pub. There's a new piano here! Play it, you still suck. If you have someone with the Find Passages support ability (Thieves have this ability inherently), you can see a hidden passage leading to a secret room to the far left of the Pub's ground floor. In here, the top grey pot contains 1000 Gil. You can also get behind the bar this way, but there's nothing there for you. Now, go to the top floor to find the man who raves about flying dragons. He raves about flying dragons! It must be Tycoon's Wind Drake as all other Wind Drake are extinct. A plan is quickly devised. Poisonous purple plants or not, we must find the Wind Drake so that we can travel to Walse. Make sure to drop by the Item Shop and purchase a few Gold Needle items. Leave the town of Carwen and travel north to North Mountain where the Wind Drake is supposedly residing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.6.1 North Mountain ********************************** Opponents: Rock Slug (#21), Gaelicat (#22), Cockatrice (#23), Headstone (#24), Magissa (#246), Forza (#247) Container contents: Gold Needle, Phoenix Down Miscellaneous items: Power Drink (guaranteed Forza drop), Silver Specs (common Headstone steal), Whip (guaranteed Magissa drop) Spells: Aero, Flash Slope leading into first cave, second slope: 35 % Rock Slug, Rock Slug 35 % Gaelicat 23 % Rock Slug, Rock Slug, Gaelicat 6 % Gaelicat, Gaelicat, Gaelicat 1st cave and 2nd cave: 35 % Rock Slug, Rock Slug, Gaelicat 35 % Gaelicat, Gaelicat, Gaelicat 23 % Headstone, Headstone, Rock Slug, Rock Slug 6 % Rock Slug, Rock Slug 3rd slope (Purple flowers): 35 % Cockatrice, Rock Slug, Rock Slug 35 % Headstone, Headstone, Rock Slug, Rock Slug 23 % Cockatrice 6 % Cockatrice, Cockatrice 4th slope (Magissa location): 35 % Cockatrice 35 % Gaelicat, Gaelicat, Gaelicat 23 % Gaelicat 6 % Gaelicat Summit (Wind Drake location): 35 % Cockatrice 35 % Cockatrice, Cockatrice 23 % Headstone, Headstone, Headstone, Headstone, Headstone 6 % Headstone, Headstone, Rock Slug, Rock Slug Rock Slugs are boring. They do battle, and they're weak to Fire-elemental attacks, including and solely limited to your Black Fire spells. Gaelicats are the most prolific enemies on the mountain, and by their very nature of being freaky sentient cats who try to employ leaves as primitive wings, they are Floating, which is still of no concern to you. They may evade your physical attacks, so if you have unblockable attacks to favor, favor them. Their Special is called !Cat Scratch and is essentially the same attack as the most powerful physical attack FF VI's Wild Boy Gau was able to perform. It's much weaker here, though. Cockatrices are the most dangerous enemies here, since they have a 33% chance every turn to use (alongside Attack and !Dive which is merely a stronger version of their physical attack) Beak. Beak sets the Petrify status ailment, which renders the target unable to take action, unable to be targeted by any 'attack' that doesn't remove the Petrify effect, and is marked as 'defeated', which means that the character in question won't obtain ABP or Experience when he exits the battle Petrified, and that a team full of Petrified characters will get you a Game Over. Cure Petrified characters with a Gold Needle as soon as you can. You can steal them from the Cockatrices themselves, too. Headstone are the most interesting enemies to face around here as they'll be nice to you if you know how to work them. First off, they have common Silver Specs on them. Silver Specs share the Leather Shoes its + 1 Defense and + 1 Magic Defense and protects against the Darkness status to boot. Why Leather Shoes are always favored by selecting Optimum is a mystery as they are flat-out inferior to the Silver Specs. Headstone aren't very dangerous so make sure to Steal Silver Specs whenever Headstone and Thieves meet (obviously, four is plenty). The other notable feature of Headstone is the fact it often tries to use Flash while not having the MP to do so. Luckily, feeding them an Ether will give them the MP to use Flash so your Blue Mage(s) can learn it. Know that the Learning character needs to be affected by the spell in order to learn it, so if you equip him with Silver Specs he won't be able to learn the attack. Oh yeah, and they nullify Fire-, Ice- and Wind-elemental attacks, so Thunder is the way to go. If you have a Thief, there's no reason to skip on Stealing 4 Silver Specs at this point of the game, and if you have a character who can learn Blue Magic, be sure to use an Ether on one of the Headstones to have it cast Flash, as it's a truly useful attack to be able to perform. Make sure that your character in question isn't wearing the Silver Specs you stole, as he or she won't be able to learn the spell if it has no effect on the character with Learning set. This is a very simple and straightforward path leading up, alternating through caves and slopes. The first room contains two chests containing a Phoenix Down and a Gold Needle. Head south first for the Phoenix Down, then follow the other path for the Gold Needle and the exit. After a slope and another cave you'll wind up on a slope filled with purple plants which we have been warned about by Carwen NPC; these little guys are poisonous. Indeed, stepping on them will set the Poison status ailment on every character in your party, so avoid them at all costs. If you take a wrong turn immediately heal up with your White caster's Poisona spell. This is where those blasted Cockatrices start to show up, by the way, so keep your eye out for Petrification. You now pass through a cave with a Save Point. Use it, there's something exciting about to happen. On the next slope, Lenna will spot her father's Mythril Helm lying on the ground and will be immediately shot by a poisoned arrow when she tries to pick it up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.6.2 The battle with Magissa ********************************** Meet Magissa, a powerful sorceress of some sort who came looking for the Wind Drake to kill it and sell its horn, together with her freakish mutant 'husband'. She blocks your path by letting a part of the mountain crash down, but this isn't enough to stop Faris. She finds a way there and soon enough you'll be facing the magical mistress herself. Oh! Look at that outfit! Magissa Level: 8, HP: 650, MP: 200 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Win: Whip Creature: Humanoid Specialty: !Critical Attack Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Poison, Darkness, Silence, Stop, Slow Attacks: !Critical Attack, Thunder, Drain, Fire, Blizzard, Aero, Regen Forza Level: 8, HP: 850, MP: 100 Defense: 3, Magic Defense: 5 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Potion (common) Win: Power Drink (always) Status: Float Creature: Heavy, Humanoid Specialty: !Tackle Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Tackle Magissa attacks you with a specific set of spells, which go like this: 1st turn: 33 % each: Fire, Ice, Thunder 2nd turn: 33 % each: Aero, !Critical Attack, Drain When Magissa has 300 Hit Points left or less, her first action will consist out of calling her hubby. I'm not sure of a seven-foot elemental golem or whatever the hell Forza is counts as a hubby, but surely any woman who takes a liking to whips can be counted on to spend her life with some guy who listens to her every command so even if Forza is humanoid, he's still dead on the inside. At any rate, as soon as Forza has entered the battlefield Magissa's first action is casting Regen on him. Afterwards, she'll continue with her normal spell AI script. Note that it is entirely possible to not see Forza at all if you manage to shave off Magissa's remaining 300 HP before she is able to take a turn, in which case you'll be screwed out of Forza's admittedly unimportant 100 % drop, as well as his Bestiary entry. Forza just uses physical attacks, either 66 % Attack or 33 % !Tackle, which is 150 % times as strong. His physical attacks are quite powerful, especially !Tackle can hurt. Thieves and Monks had better beware. How to take care of them? Magissa falls to the Silence status ailment, so any White Mage or other character with the level 2 White command may cast it on her to stop all of her spells. Forza is vulnerable to Sleep, so Black Mages or level 2 Black casters may utilize that. The Blue spell Flash works on both targets, and while Magissa won't suffer from it much in her magic-based strategy the blinded Forza will suddenly be hitting a lot less effectively when he grumpily wakes up from the you-induced Sleep status. A Protect spell on those in the Front Row is also not a bad idea, especially the frail Thieves can benefit. After the vicious beauty and the beast have been dispatched, you'll obtain up to two future-oriented items: a Whip from Magissa and provided Forza made a showing, a Power Drink. The Power Drink is an item that can be consumed by the !Drink command you'll gain access to later in the game and the Whip is a weapon for the Beastmaster, a Job you'll gain access to later. The Whip is the strongest weapon you have at this point, and it's made even more powerful by the fact it deals the same amount of damage from the Back Row and the fact it randomly has the additional effect of Paralyzing Magic Beast-type creatures. You could switch a character to the Freelancer Class and equip it right now, but you don't need this weapon at this time and it's certainly not worth the loss of ABP being a Freelancer entails. Check that menu description of the Whip, a reference to this: crack that whip give the past the slip step on a crack break your momma's back when a problem comes along you must whip it before the cream sits out too long you must whip it when something's going wrong you must whip it "Whip it" - Devo (1980) You can look up the music video, but promise me to never look at it with a head full of acid. Note that the Mythril Helm has been added to your inventory. Walking on gets you to a cliff where Hiryu, the last Wind Drake of this world is resting. Lenna'll casually throw her life away to heal the Wind Drake, but thankfully the Wind Drake has restorative powers previously not mentioned. Silly Lenna and her silly antics, walking in poisonous flowers like that. Bartz' acrophobia is subject to everybody's hilarity; remember to kill them all when they least expect it Some trivia here; "Hiryu" was, in the original Japanese game, the species' name while no individual Wind Drake had a name of their own. Hiryu means "flying dragon" in moonspeak. You automatically take off. This is the Wind Drake modus transporti of this game. The Wind Drake can't land in deserts, the sea, forests, mountains and the handicapped zone. What you can do is fly a circle around Carwen to show everybody the guy who tipped us off was telling the truth. Sure enough, entering Carwen and talking to the guy reveals that he's swimming in narcissistic him-love, but he'll do that even if you didn't flex your Wind Drake so we are not to blame. Walse lies to the south. Engage! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.7.1 Home sweet home; Castle Tycoon ********************************** Container contents: Cottage x 3, Diamond Bell, Elixir x 2, Ether x 2, Hi-Potion, Ashura, Maiden's Kiss, Phoenix Down x 2, Shuriken Miscellaneous items: Healing Staff What you say? Advance the plot? Say now Nancy, that's dangerous thinking. We're going to let everybody at Castle Tycoon know that Lenna is okay and that the King is down and out for the moment. The awesome, awesome treasures that lie waiting for you here could in theory have something to do with the fact I want you to go there, but only in theory, as no amount of treasure could every compete with character development! Fly south 'til you see a new town and a castle; this is Walse, and we'll go here in the near future. Head west from Walse by going north over the mountain range. Keep heading west over a desert land mass, then head southwest until you find a gap in the mountains. You're back at the start of the game! Fly in and follow the available path counter- clockwise until you fly over the meteorite. You're done! As soon as you enter the courtyard but before you enter the castle, I want you to go find two super-hidden treasures. In the east wall lies a hidden passage not even the Find Passages support ability detects. Pass through it to find a hidden room of Castle Tycoon which contains two Cottages, which you can think of as Supertents. Should you try to open these chests for the first time when you have released Lone Wolf (you'll come across Lone Wolf later), you'll find these chests to be empty. Trace back your steps to the courtyard and enter the castle. Entering the castle will get you a talk with the Chancellor of Castle Tycoon. It seems nowadays' armies are having a tough time coping with all the monsters that for some reason appear in greater numbers than ever. Partly out of a wish to save the world and partly out of a stubborn refusal to officially take over the throne, even for the time being, Lenna does not comply to the Chancellors offer to stay home and rule over Tycoon. The night is an offer she can't refuse, however. In the night: could the bishounen shemale pirate captain Faris Scherwiz really be a princess? She denies it all, but when you think of it it's really TOO CRAZY NOT TO WORK. When you wake, step outside and descend the stairs to find a Hi-Potion in one of the grey pots. Cross the great hall of Castle Tycoon and ascend the right wing to find the study, where old teacher hag Jenica mentions Lenna's sister Sarisa, who disappeared at a young age at sea. Oh, the subtle hints! In this room, a plethora of treasures in the pots and crates: a Cottage, an Ether, a Phoenix Down and an Elixir. Leave this place. When you find yourself in the great hall once more, enter the throne room and enter the right door (to the left, it's just Lenna's featureless room and the room of Alexander Tycoon, which you're not allowed to enter). Ascend the stairs to find six grey pots, containing in various intensity: an Ether, an Elixir, a Phoenix Down and a Maiden's Kiss. Ascend even further to reach the scenery of the opening cutscene; the view sure is pretty up here, ain't it? Now, go back down and go outside. A guard previously blocking a passageway to the left of the entrance has now moved a tile, giving you the freedom to explore it. You'll wind up in the surprisingly empty Storage room, but your Find Passages support ability detects a hidden passage! Even if you don't have it on you, that switch is too tempting to resist. Flick it and enter the hidden passage you can now enter. Behold, the Chancellor (did he lock himself in for you to find him?). The Chancellor gives you the Healing Staff, a Staff which casts Cura on the target when you Attack with it. It's a great free way of healing your characters, but if your White Mage doesn't have offensive spells at his or her disposal he or she really does become offensively impotent with this thing, so you should decide if it's for you or not. The remainder of the chests contain sweet-ass weapons including a Diamond Bell, a Shuriken and an Ashura. The Shuriken can only be used by the !Throw command of the Ninja, so it isn't of any concern at this point of the game. The Diamond Bell is, as its name would apply, a Bell. Bells are odd weapons that randomly deal between 50 % and 100 % of their normally calculated damage, depends on the wielders Magic Power and to a lesser extent the wielders Agility and factors Magic Defense as opposed to Defense, all this while being unblockable and not working when Silence is in effect. End of story: hardly useful, and none of your current Jobs can equip it, but it does deal the same amount of damage from the Back Row making it far superior magical weapons than Rods and Staves. The weakest katana is the Ashura. Don't let the word 'weakest' give an indication of its current power, however. The Ashura is an incredibly powerful weapon at this stage of the game, which has the current disadvantage of being only useable by Freelancer class characters. Katanas use the 'basic' Sword damage formula, which makes it about twice as strong as the Long Swords from the get-go. To add sugar to the deal, all Katanas have the ability to randomly inflict Critical Hits (which deal double damage and pierce Defense). This particular Katana's CH ratio is 12 %. As much as it pains me to say it, I don't recommend using it as you encounter nothing dangerous enough to need the Ashura, hence the loss in ABP progress isn't worth using this awesome weapon for. We're done here, but we had a blast. We've made a grand detour through both the Ship Graveyard and Carwen, but we're finally ready. Let's fly to Walse now, it's to the east. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.8.1 The country of Walse ********************************** Opponents: Gatling (#16), Big Horn (#17), Tatou (#18), Bandersnatch (#19), Garula (#20) Container contents: Silver Specs Grasslands and forests: 35 % Tatou x2, Gatling 35 % Big Horn x2 23 % Gatling 6 % Bandersnatch Walse is a thriving town blessed by water so pure, monsters won't come near it. This doesn't go for the creature Garula though, friendly big tusked teddybear that it is. If you descend the stairs to the right of the entrance, into the moat, and enter the house in the south-west corner of the town of Walse, you'll find Silver Specs in the grey pot. One of the frogs in the pond throws a sweet Muppets reference at you; maybe this is just a town dude who is under the influence of the Black Toad spell? Before debates start raging, let me assure you that the game proves you don't have to possess a crystal shard to be able to cast magic (else the Magic Shops'd be REALLY, REALLY hard-pressed to find customers). Magic Shop: Slow 80 Gil Regen 100 Gil Mute 320 Gil Haste 320 Gil Chocobo 300 Gil Sylph 350 Gil Remora 250 Gil Speaking of the Magic Shop, they're selling a brand new brand of Magic you are at this point unable to wield. The first four belong to the Time Mage, the last three to the Summoner. Man, this doesn't bode well for the continued existence of the Water Crystal...at any rate, there's no reason to buy them at this point so don't waste your Gil just yet. Weapon Shop: Battle Axe 650 Gil Long Sword 480 Gil Dagger 300 Gil The only new feature is the Battle Axe, of which the average damage output is similar to that of the Long Sword on a Freelancer classed character and inferior to one using a Whip. Regardless, you need to switch to the Freelancer class when you want to use it, and it's not particularly grand, so don't. Armor Shop: Iron Shield 390 Gil Iron Helm 350 Gil Iron Armor 500 Gil Kenpo Gi 450 Gil Cotton Robe 300 Gil Buy as you see fit. Don't forget that you found a Mythril Helm back at North mountain so buying a Iron Helm may be pointless. The Kenpo Gi is your first piece of armor with a stat boost: + 1 on Strength. Item Shop: Potion 40 Gil Antidote 30 Gil Eye Drops 20 Gil Maiden's Kiss 60 Gil Mallet 50 Gil Gold Needle 150 Gil Phoenix Down 1000 Gil Tent 250 Gil Make sure to dive into the Item Shop and buy a few Maiden's Kisses. There'll be Toad status ailments soon. It's a funny thing you can buy kisses as an item to carry with you; it could prove THE solution to that one well-meaning virgin friend everybody seems to have. There's nothing else to do here, so let's talk to King Walse and have this stupid, stupid using the Water Crystal for the nation's welfare stopped. ... I'd be like telling Mister President of about every freaking country in the world that using gasoline is a big bad no-no, but whatever. While there is no reason to walk on the Overworld map now since you can fly between every location you want to visit, I want to point out that the encounters here are identical to those around Carwen with the exception of the lands surrounding the Tower of Walse to the North. Here, Garula appears, the passive and friendly creature that walks in and out of Walse. You can beat him up for free ABP (a single one!), but why not leave him alone? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.8.2 Castle Walse and the coming of the second meteorite ********************************** Opponents: Elf Toad (#25), Ice Soldier (#26), Jackanapes (#30), Ice Commander (#248), Shiva (#249) Container contents: 490 Gil, 1000 Gil x 2, Elven Mantle, Phoenix Down, Tent Miscellaneous items: Mythril Sword (common Ice Soldier steal), Frost Rod (guaranteed Shiva drop) Features: Lone Wolf Time Spells: Speed Summon Spells: Shiva Blue Spells: Moon Flute (in theory), Pond's Chorus When you enter the castle, there's a double wooden door to the right of the hallway and some stairs going down. Pass through the double wooden doors and in the next room, go around the stairs going up to the stairs going down. There are hidden treasures here, containing a Phoenix Down, a Tent and 490 Gil. Track back to the main hall. There's an invisible timer ticking here, people! No, not really, I mean plot-wise. So let's say we forget about minor things for now and waltz right into King Walse' throne room, slam our fist on the table and demand discontinuation of the amplifying process of the Water Crystal. This aggression will not stand, man. King Walse: No. As a male writer, I'm obviously not allowed to say this, but there's something undeniably cute about King Walse. Maybe it's the fact he has no mouth, maybe it's the fact he's literally draped in colorful, partly purple robes, maybe it's that pink ball on his head or maybe it's just the way he raises his right hand in his Hey Ho Let's Go stance, but to me he is jey-ust precious! He's like a fluffy little pimp in that get-up. At any rate, there's a new meteor now, and here's hoping the falling meteors have no causal relation to the shattering crystals. King Walse moves out with some guards to check up on Walse Tower. To recap: King Walse, king of the country of Walse whose only mentionable city is called Walse, has left Walse Castle to check up on the Tower of Walse. Enough with the Walse! Let's follow the King out. Since the three notable features of Walse Castle are best left for a later time you can just walk out of the castle, climb on the Wind Drake and fly to the meteor. I talk about the meteor in the next chapter. If you must know about Jackanapes, the Summoned Monster Shiva that is sealed in the purified water by the Water Crystal and Lone Wolf the pickpocket, read on. When you enter the castle, you can continue on, enter the double wooden door or descend the stairs. For all three features, we must descend the stairs. Going even further down will get us to the cells. To the far right is a sinister old man, but on the left is where the action is happening. Lone Wolf the famous thief asks you if you want to release him. You could do so, but there are no upsides and only downsides to this. Once released, Lone Wolf will roam the world again, causing a few items to be removed from chests when YOU get there. These items include: a Blitz Whip and four Cottages, spread throughout the lands. Especially the Blitz Whip is annoying to lose as the only other way to obtain one is as a rare steal late in the game (as in: the Blitz Whip will be long useless by then). So don't. If you DO, however, you can enter his cell and check the grey pot, which contains... nothing! In addition, the door will close behind you, forcing you to wait in the locked cell for a while before the door opens again (by itself, no less). Tight security these guys are running here. The blue-haired guy on the far left also asks you if you want to release him, but when you say "Yes" he'll get so excited he runs into the wall and passes out (which really is funny to watch a couple of hundred times on a rainy day). Get back up and find the other stairs going down in the upper-right corner. Let me tell you something about the dreaded demon Jackanapes. Jackanapes Level: 20, HP: 666, MP: 5000 Defense: 50, Magic Defense: 50 Evasion: 50%, Magic Evasion: 50% Steal: Elixir (rare), Iron Draft (common) Win: Phoenix Down (rare) Absorbs: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Poison, Holy, Earth, Wind, Water Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Moon Flute Jackanapes always attacks from behind, so unless you have a Thief in your party at the time (or somebody with the Vigilance support ability) you'll feel the effects of that. J-man will attack physically and with !Critical Attack (normal damage) and counter any damage done to him with a Moon Flute attack, an MT attack that sets Berserk on your characters. Your Blue Mage(s) can learn this move, but since you very likely won't be able to end this battle by a means other than escaping, there's no way to learn it at this point. Jackanapes, while not unbeatable in the full sense of the word, presents so much of a hindrance that defeating it at this point would require incredible amounts of leveling and luck. Jackanapes absorbs all elements, and since your only non-elemental spell is the physical Goblin Punch, you'll have to rely on physical attacks only to be able to damage this guy. Its 50 % Evade rating is bad enough, but with 50 Defense any monster buys itself an insurance policy that unless the attack in question is barrier-piercing, it's not going to leave an actual mark. The only way to hurt Jackanapes at this point is by means of a Critical Hit; the Fists have an 8 % chance (for God's sake, use Barehanded) and the Ashura has a 12 % CH ratio, but that's all you have. And you just don't have the HP and power at this point to rely on this. You'll be able to defeat this guy later, but for now I suggest leaving the treasures here alone, which contain the Time Speed spell for your future Time Mage(s), 1000 Gil, another 1000 Gil and an Elven Mantle. Note: if you know this game and know damn sure you want the Chicken Knife later, there's no downside to equipping a Thief with the !Flee ability and run from every battle, thus obtaining the treasures easily. Normal running is not as effective; Jackanapes will likely kill at least one character before you manage to escape, and using a Phoenix Down for every encounter gets pricey very fast. The Elven Mantle is a nice Accessory which gives some nifty Elf-like stat boosts, including a 5 % Magic Evade you won't see in the menu. Its real power, however, is the fact that any character wearing the Elven Mantle will have an extra hit determination check where a rough 33 % of any blockable physical attack sent his or her way is stopped (with a spiffy cape animation, no less). It's really sweet and in my eyes superior to current and most future Defense/ Magic Defense raising Accessories. The final feature is the road leading to Shiva. You could prepare for Walse Tower by learning the Blue spell Pond's Chorus here from the Elf Toads and Stealing common Mythril Swords from the Ice Soldiers, but since you can do this preparation in the first few battles of Walse Tower itself I see no reason to go out of your way and do it here. Shiva herself is fairly difficult to defeat at this point and you might as well do it later. She's hardly helpful to you without a character being able to summon her in battle. Let's get to that bloody tower already, thee punkster! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.8.3 The golden warrior and the tower of Walse ********************************** Opponents: Elf Toad (#25), Ice Soldier (#26), Ricard Mage (#27), Wyvern (#28), Pas de Seul (#29), Garula (#250) Container contents: Ether, Maiden's Kiss, Silk Robe, Silver Armlet Miscellaneous items: Flame Rod (rare Ricard Mage drop), Mythril Knife (common Wyvern steal), Mythril Sword (common Ice Soldier steal) Features: Blue Spells: Pond's Chorus 1st floor: 58 % Elf Toad, Elf Toad, Ice Soldier 42 % Ricard Mage, Ice Soldier, Ice Soldier 2nd floor: 35 % Ricard Mage, Ice Soldier, Ice Soldier 35 % Ricard Mage, Ricard Mage, Ricard Mage 30 % Elf Toad, Elf Toad, Ice Soldier 3rd floor: 35 % Wyvern 35 % Ricard Mage, Ice Soldier, Ice Soldier 30 % Wyvern, Pas de Seul 4th floor: 58 % Wyvern, Pas de Seul 42 % Pas de Seul 5th floor: 35 % Pas de Seul, Ricard Mage, Ice Soldier 35 % Wyvern, Pas de Seul 23 % Pas de Seul 6 % Pas de Seul, Pas de Seul 6th floor: 35 % Pas de Seul, Pas de Seul 35 % Ricard Mage, Ice Soldier, Ice Soldier 30 % Ricard Mage, Ricard Mage, Ricard Mage 7th floor: 70 % Wyvern, Wyvern 30 % Elf Toad, Elf Toad, Elf Toad 8th floor: 35 % Wyvern, Wyvern 35 % Ricard Mage, Ricard Mage, Ricard Mage 23 % Ice Soldier, Ice Soldier 6 % Wyvern Elf Toads are weak to Ice-elemental attacks, so any Black Mage with the Frost Rod should be taking them out easily. MT'd, the Blizzard spell isn't powerful enough to kill them, not even with the Frost Rod. When an Elf Toad is alone, it will randomly (33 %) start to use Pond's Chorus, which sets the Toad status. Once your Blue Mage has been hit by the attack, you can kill it and you'll have learned the Blue spell Pond's Chorus. Toad completely disables the enemy; it stops special techniques, and physical attack and physical defense drops to 0. It's nice enough, especially versus the boss we're about to face. Note that the highest density of Elf Toads can be found on the very first floor, so it's best to learn the spell there. Ice Soldiers attack physically and randomly cast a Blizzard spell, but that's nothing too threatening. What's really important here is Ice Soldier's affinity for all things sword; not only will it rarely drop a Long Sword (lame), it has common Mythril Swords (awesome) for you to steal, which are superior to your current blades. You'll note the difference, especially with Two-handed, so make sure to get one for every potential sword-wielder in your party. Ricard Mages are arcane assholes. Here's what they do: 1st turn: 33 % each: Sleep, Slow, Stop 2nd turn: 33 % each: Cure, Drain, Attack They are vulnerable to Silence, but casting Silence on them all just won't do all the time so flat-out killing them before they get to the Drain spell is a better strategy. The interesting thing about them is the fact they rarely (the same old 1/16) drop a Flame Rod, which is simply the Fire-elemental Rod of the Frost Rod you found in Carwen. They upgrade your Fire-elemental attacks by 50%, so stick to Fire when you've got it equipped. Note that Ricard is a French alcoholic beverage, so you can picture these guys drunk if you want to. "Zut alors! Dormez! Canalisation! Merde! *hickup* Wyvern will just use Attack whenever, but not when they're alone. Oh, no. When alone, they'll get all freaky and whatnot. In fact, they'll use Breath Wing, of which the damage like with Wing Raptor will simply be 25 % of your maximum HP. Is that a good thing? No. Kill them as soon as possible, but not before you Steal one or more of those sweet common Mythril Knives they carry around. You want those for your Thieves. Pas de Seul is annoying. They have the most HP out of any creature here, and their !Fin attack adds Poison. They're weak to Lightning-elemental attacks, so Black Thunder spells work just fine. In keeping with the French Ricard Mages, Pas de Seul means something like 'dance for one person'. You can e-mail me the hidden symbolic meaning here if you have any ideas :/ Mount that Wind Drake of yours and go check out the meteor. Nobody's here and there's nothing interesting going on. There seems to be a weird discoloration on the very front of the meteorite however, which could indicate a hidden door of some sorts; there's nothing you can do to open it now, however. Let's check out Walse Tower, check out the entire militia of Walse surrounding it and all, that'd be kinda impressive. The entire militia of Walse consists out of two wounded soldiers eating dust. It seems only three made it up there; holy beast-baby Garula that went berserk and knocked the guards down, King Walse and an unknown warrior. Strangely enough, should you fly the Wind Drake back to Walse now, Garula will be happily prancing around with the little girl as always. It's a glitch in the Matrix! The path is entirely straight-forward and without features until you cross the body of King Walse. Still alive, but hardly. He urges you to continue and stop Garula. It slowly becomes more and more apparent some force is consciously pushing for the destruction of the crystals, but who could possibly care for the death of this world? Could that being of darkness King Tycoon spoke off have any power to influence our reality? Next to King Walse is a pillar in the water overgrown with vines. This pillar can be climbed to reach a chest containing a Silk Robe, a nice new piece of equipment for your mages. The next floor houses a Save Point and a chest containing a Maiden's Kiss, an item used for removing the Toad status ailment. It's not until the eight floor that I get to mention something interesting again: these water-covered floors house three patches of overgrown structure. Climb the left one to find a Silver Armlet. Everybody but the Knight can equip it, but it seems to me that the Thieves and Monks of your party need it the most (especially the Thieves). Fall down the hole and climb the right patch. There's a chest with an Ether here. Climb the stairs here to reach the Water Crystal. Both anomalies wait for you near the - thank the gods - intact Water Crystal. Garula is battling the mysterious golden warrior...and winning. In a few words, it's explained that a being is controlling Garula, and that it by these means seeks to destroy the Water Crystal. We MUST stop Garula before it can accomplish this. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.8.4 The fight with Garula ********************************** Garula always was a common sight around the Water Tower, being one of the few monsters pure-hearted enough to stand the purified water. It's not this creature's fault that it was the target of manipulation, but we can't stand by and let the Water Crystal be destroyed. Garula Level: 3, HP: 1200, MP: 100 Defense: 7, Magic Defense: 4 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Hi-Potion (rare), Potion (common) Win: Hi-Potion Creature: Magic Beast Specialty: !Rush Specialty Effect: causes Sap status Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Toad, Poison, Darkness, Old, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Rush, Toad Garula attacks physically, and he hits hard and fast. He may counter any damage done on him by up to two physical attacks after he has reached 800 HP or less, and his special technique !Rush adds the Sap status as well, which is a bad thing. Garula has four weaknesses you can exploit: - Being only physical in nature and never using anything else unless it's countering an attack makes it a sitting duck for any character who combines !Guard with the Counter support ability. With this combination, you can't lose since you take 0 damage, then counter-attack every time Garula tries something. - The Whip you won from Magissa may Paralyze the creature, so if you're willing to have a character lose out on 5 ABP you can really cripple Garula. - Flash, the Blue spell you may have learned from the Headstone on North Mountain. Setting Darkness on Garula will make all of his attacks miss 75 % of the time, which is a sweet deal. If you have Flash at your disposal, make sure to utilize it. - Pond's Chorus, the insane new hype spell for every Blue Mage teenager works against Garula. Sure, the creature may cast Toad on itself to remove the status, but that's a turn he could've spent attacking, and it misses on occasion. Physicals from Toads do no damage, but sadly !Rush still inflicts the Sap status. To be extremely mean to baby Garula, cast Silence on him before casting Pond's Chorus; Silence stops the Toad spell from Garula so he'll be stuck as a harmless Toad. Any combination of the above works like a charm. Remember that Garula is an opponent that is most dangerous when attacked head-on. If you use a Cure spell, and when you stop attacking the tusked terror, the barrage of attacks Garula seems to deliver will suddenly decrease dramatically in number. Take advantage of this. Garula can catch you off-guard, but you shouldn't let that happen. Any character with the Cover support ability works great as meatshield for unexpected Near Death characters, especially when paired with (you guessed it) !Guard or Counter. To be short, keep the initial damage to a minimum, Steal, cast Flash and Silence, whack him a little, cast Pond's Chorus and go all-out. There's little to worry about if you follow this strategy. After Garula has been dispatched (you'll learn later that Garula is still alive...are we actually going to KILL a boss one of these days?) the Water Crystal will shatter. Gods, all this work for nothing, that's just grand. The heavily wounded golden warrior will stumble to the exit in a vain attempt to see the light of day before dying, and just before he collapses he makes it known that he knows ol' Galuf. He proceeds to die, inconveniently blocking the exit, thus constituting a fire hazard. The Water Crystal shards shine a mysterious light. That's "Sparkle" for 'please use me'. There are six shards, but one of them is blocked from your path. When you pick up the five shards you can pick up at this point, Walse Castle starts rumbling beneath your feat. There's a door, but before you can properly escape the entire peninsula sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Great, we'll be the Chosen Corpses in no time at all. Luckily, an old friend we believed to be gone comes to the rescue; Syldra helps the Chosen Warriors out of the pickle they're in with the last of his power. In a touching goodbye cutscene, Faris tearfully bids farewell to her trusted companion, who has been a friend and ally for years. The last cry of Syldra resonates in the souls of us all, and is almost too good a representation of the now irrecoverable situation of the Water crystal for us to bear. We've got new Jobs! AWESOME! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.9.1 The Water Crystal Jobs ********************************** One crystal shard went down to the depths, together with the Tower of Walse. But five shards of the now-broken Water Crystal were saved, and they now entrust you with five warrior souls of yore. [BERSERKER-LINK] [MYSTIC-LINK] [TIMEM-LINK] [SUMMONER-LINK] [REDMAGE-LINK] The Berserker starts every battle with the Berserk status, and favors Hammers and Axes in battle, both of which take only 25 % of the target's Defense into account and vary wildly in their damage output. Berserkers are slow, and while the Battle Axe is a but more damaging overall than, say, the Mythril Sword, the fact that the Berserker randomly targets opponents in the Back Row, has unpredictable damage output and misses every now and again, the Berserker is not a good choice right now. The Berserk ability that the Berserker learns after 100 ABP is a sound choice on Knights, Monks, Ninjas and other physically inclined Jobs. If your Knight has learned Twohanded, switching to Berserker isn't a bad idea; it's certainly the lazy man's choice (and boy am I lazy). The Mystic Knight has some difficult mechanics behind it, so definetely check out the link given above. Note that they take a turn to enchant their weapon before they can be anything but an inferior Knight. They aren't as hot versus random encounters, but are great boss slayers; especially with Twohanded does the damage fly. The spells they can imbue their weapons with, come from the Black and White list, the same you buy in the Magic Shops. The Mystic Knight is surprisingly fast for a Heavy Armor kinda Job; they are outrun only by Thieves. The Time Mage is just a Mage with a new school of magic; note that their Magic Power is nowhere near as high as the Black Mage, and more comparable with the White and Blue Mage. The spells you have right now are not very impressive, but that'll improve soon. Slow doubles a target's ATB count between turns, Haste halves it. Mute is a strange spell that makes it impossible for allies and enemies alike to cast Black, White, Time, Summon spells, Spellblade effects or use Bells. Blue spells can still be cast though. Mute will always work, but some monster encounters (most notably boss battles) will not allow Mute to be cast. In random battles, the Time Mages are best used for either Black or Blue spells (if the action ability is set) or to cast Haste on your most powerful physical attacker. The Summoner is the one that can conjure up some Chocobo, some Sylph fey and Remora fish; all spells you could simply buy in Walse. This is also the Job that will be able to summon Shiva; the Summoner is generally the Job to go to for mass-nuking of the battlefield with heavy multi-target elemental attacks. At this point, the Summoner has three creatures to conjure. The Chocobo arrives to perform a Chocobo Kick to a single target; it targets Defense rather than Magic Defense and may miss due to Magic Evasion; there is an 8% chance that a Fat Chocobo may appear to deal unblockable damage that targets Defense to the entire enemy party. Sylph deals magical, unblockable damage to a single target and heals the amount of damage done / 4 to all four characters; Remora use Constrict to set Paralyze to a single target. The Red Mage is the Jack or Jill of all Trades, Master of None (but Swanky Hats). It's AWESOME now; the Red Mage is able to cast both Black and White magic; only up to the level 3 spells, but that's not an issue right now. Do note that the Red Mage's Magic Power is significantly lower than other Mages, which also means his or her MP will run out sooner. It's capable of wielding Swords and has a Strength bonus, but you'd better give him an elemental Rod and cast spells from the Back Row. If you have mastered level 3 !Black and level 3 !White, I'd personally shoot for !Summon from the Summoner rather than !Time from the Time Mage as especially Shiva can clean massive house and the Time Mage just fails to deliver at this stage of the game. If you have magically-inclined characters that have neither !White nor !Black to any large degree (focused on !Blue, for instance), you wish to learn !Red instead. Now that the overwhelming tragedies of the past moments have passed, there's time to reflect on more practical matters. Where is Hiryu? Is it safe? Is it alright? And where's King Walse, did he manage to escape Walse Tower while we were going head-to-head with the possessed Garula or was he swallowed in the raging waters? On the Overworld Map, it seems the Wind Drake made it to dry land, but we really couldn't expect anything else from a flying dragon such as the Wind Drake. Flying the Wind Drake to Walse Castle and walking through the halls to find the throne room and the subsequent quarters of King Walse teaches us that yes indeed, the mangled monarch is still alive enough to breathe. He urges you to travel to Karnak, where another Crystal is being amplified and where, as news would have it, another meteor crashed, bad omens as they turn out to be. However, where should we find the means to go there? Karnak lies to the far west, across the mountains which are too high for the Wind Drake to pass over. Problems abound. A wandering Karnak soldier can be found in Walse Castle as well. He appears to have waken up near Walse. He was investigating the crashed Karnak meteor. Maybe there's a connection between the Walse meteorite and the Karnak meteorite? We might as well check it out. This is the time where you're told about the possibility of going back to Castle Tycoon, but I already told you to go there. If you haven't yet, now's the time, and I helpfully shift your attention towards said section, section 4.7.1. A little foreshadowing: in the town of Karnak, you'll be able to buy the Fira spell, which will be immensely helpful in the fight versus Shiva. You can either try to take her on now, which is also quite doable with some preparation (or, if you have one or more Flame Rods, broken Flame Rods), or go to Karnak, work through the cutscenes there, return to Walse and easily knock her out cold. That's funny because she's an Ice-elemental entity. [SHIVA-LINK] At any rate, fly the Wind Drake to the meteor and say goodbye to it, as you can't bring dragons of 7"3 or higher into the meteor. Inside, there's a tile that looks so psychedelic it either has to be a warp stone or something LSD- related. It's not something LSD-related. Onto Karnak county! If you have a Summoner and have already defeated Shiva, make sure to give the Summoner a Frost Rod to deal 50 % extra damage with the Ice-elemental summon monster's attack. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.10.1 Karnak county ********************************** Opponents: Aegir (#31), Zu (#32), Wild Nakk (#33), Grass Tortoise (#34) Miscellaneous items: Elixir (rare Zu steal and rare Zu drop), Turtle Shell (guaranteed Grass Tortoise drop) Blue Spells: ??? Forests: 100 % Wild Nakk x5 West of the Forest: 35 % Aegir x3 35 % Zu 23 % Zu, Aegir x2 6 % Grass Tortoise x2 East of the Forest: 35 % Grass Tortoise x2 35 % Zu, Aegir x2 23 % Aegir, Grass Tortoise 6 % Zu, Grass Tortoise, Aegir Aegir are not very interesting other than the fact they have a Specialty Attack called !Tentacle that adds the Old status. Take care of them with fast and furious violence. The Old status gradually decreases all of your stats (Strength, Agility, Stamina and Magic Power), but not your level. Also note that while HP is normally tied to Stamina, in-battle modification of Stamina doesn't affect your current or maximum HP total. The massive Zu birds have over 849 HP. 850 HP, to be precise. They have a rare (1/16) Elixir drop and an even rarer (10/256) Elixir steal, but since they have nothing else you could potentially get one from every Zu you encounter. The odds are 1/66 for every Steal attempt, though, now that you aren't yet boosted by the Thief Glove accessory. Their special technique is just called !Critical Attack, so you'd think it's just 150% damage; but it's a meanie in disguise since the attack is unblockable and pierces Defense. The Wild Nakk wolves that inhabit the woods have a 33 % chance to use the Blue ??? spell every odd round. Make sure to learn it here as there's no reason not to; note that ??? won't get its name to appear when the Wild Nakks (or you) cast it; it'll just look like an alternative physical attack. Wild Nakks are weak to Fire-elemental attacks, so when you have a Fire Rod equipped MT Fire spells are their demise. MT Fira spells don't require Fire Rods to be fatal, obviously. Wild Nakks have some Magic Defense, so if the attack isn't barrier-piercing it'll have trouble killing them. The Wild Nakk x 5 monster formation you'll always encounter in the forest gives you 625 Gil, which is quite a hefty sum for little trouble. ??? is a non-elemental attack which deals (max HP - current HP) damage. In English, that means the more damage you've taken the more damage you'll do with ???. It's a fairly useless spell on the whole as you'd be better off trying to recover by means of Vampire or a Hi-Potion should you find yourself in a situation where ??? would be worth casting. Grass Tortoises are merely notable for their glaring weakness to Ice-elemental attacks (Blizzard, Blizzara, Shiva) and the fact they drop a Turtle Shell every time. You'll find use for Turtle Shells in the future, but they are useless at the moment. Don't sell them! It's a straight-forward route all the way down to Karnak. The town of Karnak and Karnak Castle are to the south-west, but you'll have to take a little detour to the north-east to get there. When you reach Karnak, it seems it's quite a little dictatorial community: passage to the ship is prohibited, there's a big wall to hinder progress and passage to Karnak Castle is also prohibited. Let's dive into town and hear what's buzzing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.10.2 The town of Karnak ********************************** Features: Piano, and... I'm not giving anything away, but don't drop the soap while you're there... What's buzzing is this: the wall is there to stop annoying scholars coming from the Library of the Ancients who claim exploiting the Fire Crystal is, in fact, bad. I'm sure the Queen will listen to US, no worries. We're a group of unlikely heroes, why shouldn't she? Don't forget to visit the Pub for some schmoozing with the locals and a fine piano for you to play. Furthermore, an NPC on the streets is boasting about the ridiculously inexpensive weapons and armor Karnak has to offer. Let's dive into the shops then, shall we? The Magic Shop seems closed for the day, but that doesn't mean we can't take abuse of the new weapons and armor Karnak has to offer us. Weapon Shop: Mythril Knife 112 Gil Mythril Sword 220 Gil Mythril Hammer 262 Gil Flame Rod 187 Gil Frost Rod 187 Gil Thunder Rod 187 Gil Flail 195 Gil Armor Shop: Mythril Shield 147 Gil Mythril Helmet 137 Gil Mythril Armor 175 Gil Silver Armor 150 Gil Silk Robe 125 Gil Mythril Glove 150 Gil Silver Ring 125 Gil Okay, here's the deal. When you try to Sell something, nothing special happens. When you don't and exit the screenor do anything or try to buy an item, you are halted by the fact that Karnak guards carry you away, into Karnak prison. If you buy something, the price that was listed will be paid and you'll obtain the weapon in question. That Mythril Hammer is far and away the priciest item the shops have the sell, so that's where the biggest discount may be obtained. At any rate, you'll quickly find yourself in a jail-cell. Doin' your time (it's a second or 15) will cause the white-haired guy in the jail next to you to walk over to the wall and blow a hole in it. Talk to the guy to learn his identity. You quickly learn several very important facts. Meet Cid Previa, an engineer working for the country of Karnak. He used his knowledge to amplify the crystals of Tycoon, Walse and Karnak for the good of us all, not knowing it was, in fact, for the BAD of us all. Trying to prevent the Fire Crystal from shattering like the Wind Crystal and Water Crystal, he was put in jail by the queen of Karnak. And now he's here, being freed by the Karnak Chancellor as - gasp thrice - a crack has appeared in the Fire Crystal. It's probably too late, but they've finally started to listen to the voice of reason. Cid gets you out of jail too. And you were just about to get a sweet prison tattoo... Now what was this talk about werewolves earlier? A werewolf came out of the meteor? At any rate, Karnak Castle is open to your wanderings. Two points of interest: the Fire Crystal is the driving power behind the Fire-Powered Ship and is located in the basement of Karnak Castle. However, by the power of the same inconveniently placed flames that stop you from reaching any of the chests you see, nobody can access the Fire Crystal. The only way to reach it is through the Steamship, but it's been overrun by monsters much like the Wind Shrine. Also, Queen Karnak is nowhere to be seen, a fact overshadowed by the significance of the cracking Fire Crystal but odd nonetheless. When you try to leave the castle, the werewolf you've heard about a few times tries to enter the castle but is quickly chased off. Why is it that odd and mysterious characters appear always when one of those blasted meteors land? Now, the shops in Karnak are open again for you to exploit, but the prices have been raised significantly due to the possible financial instability that looms over Karnak. To compensate, the Magic Shop has opened its doors. Weapon Shop: Mythril Knife 450 Gil Mythril Sword 880 Gil Mythril Hammer 1050 Gil Flame Rod 750 Gil Frost Rod 750 Gil Thunder Rod 750 Gil Flail 780 Gil If all is well you should have all the Mythril Knives and Mythril Swords you need, but if this is not the case, here's where you buy them. If you are planning on using a Berserker in the next dungeon you should definitely buy a Mythril Hammer, too. You don't have to buy anything else, as you shouldn't need more Flails and there's no specific reason to buy Rods. You could break Frost Rods versus the next boss creature for illegally huge amounts of damage though, so if that's your cup of tea then buy one or two for that very purpose. Armor Shop: Mythril Shield 590 Gil Mythril Helmet 550 Gil Plumed Hat 350 Gil Mythril Armor 700 Gil Silver Armor 600 Gil Silk Robe 500 Gil Mythril Glove 600 Gil Silver Armlet 500 Gil What's there to say about all this? Every character, no matter what Job he or she is currently wielding, should get a near-full upgrade from the Armor Shop in Karnak. Mythril Shields for everybody that can equip them, Mythril Helmet, Mythril Armor and Mythril Gloves for the Heavy Armor class characters, Plumed Hats, Silver Armor and Silver Armlets for the Clothes classes and Plumed Hats and Silk Robes for your mages. It's very simply and very nice. Magic Shop (Black): Fira 600 Gil Blizzara 600 Gil Thundara 600 Gil Poison 290 Gil Sleep 300 Gil Fire 150 Gil Blizzard 150 Gil Thunder 150 Gil The four new spells here are Fira, Blizzara, Thundara and Poison. If you have little money left and don't really want to sell anything, buy Fira and Blizzara and nothing else. Blizzara and Cura from the White Magic shop really are the priorities for the next dungeon, and Fira is just really really helpful versus Shiva. Fira, Blizzara and Thundara are simply stronger versions of the basic elemental spells of the Black Mage; Poison is an ST attack that sets the Poison status. On Spellblade, Fira and its brethren are stronger as well, but only versus targets weak to the element. Poison Spellblade turns the weapon into a Poison-elemental one; it will set the Poison status as well upon a successful hit. Magic Shop (White): Cura 620 Gil Raise 700 Gil Confuse 650 Gil Silence 280 Gil Protect 280 Gil Cure 180 Gil Libra 80 Gil Poisona 90 Gil Cura and Raise are the priorities for now if you're low on money, else the Confuse spell is one you don't really want to skip. Raise revives a character, much like Phoenix Down; Confuse is an ST spell that sets the Confuse status, which is useful to disable an opponent temporarily and/or learning certain Blue spells. Magic Shop (Time): Gravity 620 Gil Stop 580 Gil Haste 320 Gil Mute 320 Gil Slow 80 Gil Regen 100 Gil Three new Time spells for you to buy: Gravity, Stop and Haste. Gravity deals (current HP / 2) damage, but will miss when the target is Heavy. Stop sets the Stop status; it'll last quite a while, but will be very quickly worn out if the target is Heavy. Note that Gravity is a grand spell for an upcoming boss, so don't pass it up! Item Shop: Potion 40 Gil Antidote 30 Gil Eye Drops 20 Gil Maiden's Kiss 60 Gil Mallet 50 Gil Gold Needle 150 Gil Phoenix Down 1000 Gil Tent 250 Gil If you're done and fully healed (that's what the Inn is for!), buy some Eye Drops (especially if you don't have any Silver Specs), save your game on the Overworld Map and head into the Fire-Powered Ship. It'll be fun and adventurey there! Oh, wait, no, there was still Shiva back in Walse Castle, and since she'll be immediately helpful in the Fire-Powered Ship we should definitely get her. Trace back to the meteor and eventually to Walse Castle. You could sleep at the Inn of Walse to regain your health before doing so, obviously. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.10.3 Ice to see you, Shiva ********************************** Opponents: Elf Toad (#25), Ice Soldier (#26), Jackanapes (#30), Ice Commander (#248), Shiva (#249) Miscellaneous items: Frost Rod (guaranteed Shiva drop) Blue Spells: Pond's Chorus [SHIVA-LINK] Shiva is an Ice spirit sealed within the castle by the purified water of the Water Crystal. How exactly a flexible matter such as water could ever be used to seal anything is beyond any guess, though. Shiva is waiting for you in one of the towers of the castle. Shiva, obviously, being a recurrent magical entity throughout the series. Enter the castle, descend to the lower floor and leave this room through the door to the south. Outside, you have the option of walking into the water. Do so. To the top, there's a waterfall. It's concealing the entrance to the water tower of castle Walse, so enter in the middle to find it. Castle Walse Watertower: 58 % Elf Toad, Elf Toad, Elf Toad 42 % Ice Soldier, Ice Soldier The enemies here are ones you've already seen earlier and know how to deal with. Burn the soldiers, freeze the toads, steal some Mythril Swords if you could use some cash. Now, simply ascend the Water Tower until you reach what is quite obviously the resting place of Shiva herself. The impossible green-flame energy sphere thing? That's her, all-right. Interact with it to allow Shiva to speak for herself. Naturally assuming you're wanting to dominate her, she attacks you. Before you engage her, by the way, make sure that you have two characters in the Front Row and two in the Back Row, regardless of their Job. Shiva Level: 11, HP: 1500, MP: 1000 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Phoenix Down (rare), Hi-Potion (common) Win: Frost Rod Absorbs: Ice Weakness: Fire Creature: Humanoid, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Poison, Darkness, Slow Attacks: Blizzara Ice Commander Level: 4, HP: 600, MP: 200 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Mythril Sword (common) Win: Heavy Sword (rare) Absorbs: Ice Weakness: Fire Creature: Humanoid Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Toad, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack Shiva is surrounded by a whole slew of Ice Commanders, too. These are all of the same elemental type as Shiva, so they absorb Ice and are weak to Fire-elemental attacks. You can steal Mythril Swords from them, and they rarely drop a Long Sword after the fight, so they're basically just Ice Soldiers with a different name, without the random Ice spellcasting and a whole lot more durability. They're vulnerable to everything from Pond's Chorus, Flash, Sleep to Poison. The fight isn't over until you've killed them too, so might as well start attacking them now. Shiva herself knows only two attacks, and they're both Blizzara. Every odd turn she will target every character in the Front Row, every even turn she'll target every Back Row character with it. It's that simple. ***** Fira strategy ***** How to deal with this? First, let loose with any status ailment-inducing attacks you might have. The Blue Flash attack is a wise idea, as is an MT'd Black Sleep spell. You likely won't hit all of the Commanders, but you'll be glad to get some of the physical violence out of the way. If you have a Time caster, the Slow spells works on Shiva but it's not very important. Now, power up any Mystic Knights you might have with a Fira spell on their sword and get the show started. Pick apart the snoozing and/or blinded Commanders first. MT'd, it takes only two Fira spells to kill them, and that doesn't need a Flame Rod. A slash with a Fira sword does a lot of damage, and with Two-Handed it's almost an affront to God. The same goes for Shiva. Keep yourselves healed (took me hours to come up with this brilliant strategy, let me tell ya) and dish out the damage. If your level is 11, a Blue Goblin Punch definitely hurts, and anything Fire-related is obviously a good idea. Before long, Shiva'll be defeated and your Summoner will obtain the power to summon Shiva. ***** Non-Fira strategy: ***** Without having gone to Karnak, you don't have the Fira spell yet, you can't cast it on your swords and you haven't obtained the defense upgrade either, so it's all a little difficult. Strategy is vital here. If you have Flame Rods and aren't scared of breaking them, feel free to disregard all the text below, of course... Before you engage, make sure the Front Row/Back Row ratio is 2/2, and have a Blue caster and a White caster. Start the battle off with Flash from the Blue caster. Don't attack yet, just keep yourself healed. Now, hit the Commanders with Pond's Chorus (and possibly Sleep spells to stall until you can hit them with Pond's Chorus). After Shiva is surrounded by three toads, you've quickly eliminated the physical threat. Now, start attacking Shiva. If your party is primarily physical nature at this point, it' might be a good idea to clear out the Commanders first to remove the Back Row advantage of Shiva. If you don't have Flash and Pond's Chorus either you're probably either stuck breaking Flame Rods or seriously looking at going to Karnak anyway, as while I'm sure some asian dude could figure out a way to defeat Shiva without Fire 2 OR those Blue spells, I'm not going to try for you. EDIT: Some asian dude sent me a way to defeat Shiva without Fire 2 OR those Blue spells! Should you find yourself at level 11, Goblin Punch will deal 800% damage, taking her out quite fast. All that's left is the Ice Commanders, but a combination of Flash and Pond's Chorus should make them doable. When you're done, time to get to Karnak. Try out Shiva versus the random encounters there; Ice Soldiers will absorb Shiva's attack but that's all. A thing to consider; a Mythril Hammer Two-Handed Berserker is capable of killing a Jackanapes (this is due to the fact that Axes and Hammers only consider 25 % of the target's Defense). So even if you don't want to flee, the 1000 Gil x 2, Speed spell and Elven Mantle are obtainable. It's going to cost you quite a lot of Phoenix Downs and luck, though. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.11.1 The Fire-Powered Ship ********************************** Opponents: Crew Dust (#37), Poltergeist (#38), Defeater (#39), Motor Trap (#40), Liquid Flame (#251) Container contents: Cottage, Elixir x3, Green Beret, Moonring Blade, Mythril Glove, Phoenix Down, Thief's Gloves Miscellaneous items: Ether (common Motor Trap steal), Speed Shake (rare Defeater drop) Features: World Map Blue Spells: Flash, Self-Destruct It seems the Fire-Powered Ship is sucking away the power of the Fire Crystal. Stop the cause, and the Fire Crystal may yet be saved. It's time to quickly dive into the Fire-Powered Ship and shut down the engine. Let's do it! You'd think that with all the destructive technological genius of Cid, they simply could have set off a bomb on the ship, but nobodies mentioning anything of the sort. You may counter that the Fire-Powered Ship is, like, totally special and needs to be preserved, but it's either a fancy boat or the benefits of fire for the entire world. Bulkhead 35 % Crew Dust x 2 35 % Crew Dust x 4 23 % Defeater, Motor Trap x 2 6 % Crew Dust, Defeater x 3, Motor Trap x 2 Bulkhead (Ramps) 35 % Crew Dust x 2, Defeater, Motor Trap x 2 35 % Poltergeist, Defeater, Motor Trap x 2 23 % Crew Dust, Defeater x 3, Motor Trap x 2 6 % Defeater, Motor Trap x 2 Bulkhead (Thief's Gloves room) 58 % Poltergeist, Defeater, Motor Trap x 2 42 % Crew Dust x 2, Poltergeist Bulkhead (Lever room) 35 % Poltergeist x 2 35 % Crew Dust x 2, Defeater x 2, Motor Trap x 2 23 % Defeater, Motor Trap x 2 6 % Crew Dust, Defeater x 3, Motor Trap x 2 NOTICE: All formations with two Motor Traps will lack the Motor Trap enemies when you encounter them. They will appear only when you have killed a sole Defeater on the battlefield. When you kill one together with other enemies (including other Defeaters), Motor Traps won't appear. If you kill the last Defeater with a Counter attack, Motor Traps won't appear. An NPC in Karnak talked about the Crew Dust and its tendency to cast Flash when alone. 'Tis true. If you didn't manage to extract Flash from the Headstones, here's where you'll definitely want to learn the attack. Crew Dust are weak to Ice-elemental attacks so MT'd Blizzara spells and Shiva clean major house. Crew Dust are also weak versus Wind-elemental attacks, but it's just that you don't have any truly powerful Wind-elemental attacks right now. Two Aero spells will take them down. They'll normally attack with physicals only, with the occasional !Sap thrown in (causes the Sap status). Another fun thing about Crew Dust is how they can't avoid Blue spells; they'll always hit. So eh... Flash and Vampire will never miss or something, Aero is unblockable anyway. Poltergeist absorbs Ice-elemental attacks but is weak to Wind. Its !Lick attack, which sets Confuse, is really annoying so dispatch them quickly; Aero really helps out. Motor Trap only appears when a sole Defeater is killed. Motor Trap has several interesting attacks. First, there's Gamma Ray, an ST attack that sets Stop on a target. When hit by a Lightning-elemental attack such as the Black Thunder spell, they'll cast Self-Destruct which deals the caster's current HP worth of damage while killing the caster. Self-Destruct can be learned by those with Learning set, but it's quite useless as a battle strategy. Defeaters only attack physically. They're weak to Ice-elemental attacks. They may drop Speed Shakes, items that can only be used by the !Drink command you can't have yet. Take note that when you encounter a single Defeater or when you leave a single Defeater on the battlefield and then kill it, it'll summon Motor Traps to give you trouble. Walk down the wooden interior of the Fire-Powered Ship until you suddenly encounter the technic rooms. Here's where the monsters start appearing. When you enter, you can see a white door; it leads to a chest containing a Mythril Glove. Now, ascend the stairs and get up the stairs to the far left. It'll eventually net you an Elixir. Now, get back down. In this room you can still find a chest with a Cottage, and the only stairs you haven't used up to that point gets you another Elixir. Now, leave through the other white door, to the top-right of the room, to find an elevator. See the red switch? On this new weird metal ramp, there's a Phoenix Down to the right. If you haven't picked up the World Map in the Ship Graveyard you can find it here as well. Also, another elevator. Now, this is just getting needlessly complex! There's a pipe to the left of you. Seriously, who designed this thing? Cid, obviously, but why did he go bonkers during the process? A completely useless conveyer belt keeps you from opening a chest, too. Follow the pipe, white door, elevator, and now there are multiple options. Here's what they all go to: 1 2 3 4 1: Takes you back to a point you've already been. Useless. 2: You'll want to take this one last, as it continues the dungeon. 3: Nets you the chest you couldn't obtain earlier. It's a pair of Thief's Gloves! 4: A new sub-area where you eventually find a Green Beret. Nice. Get the Thief's Gloves first. Only Thieves (aside from Freelancers) can equip these lightweight gloves; they add more Defense than the Silver Armlet and double your chances of successfully obtaining an item with !Steal and !Mug. You now steal with 80% succes rate! They make sure that the Thief itself will forever be the superior robber, even if !Steal or !Mug is set on another Job. Get the Green Beret (for your Thief/Monk/Red Mage/Blue Mage) by entering pipe #4, then proceed to the right and throw yourself down #2. Before going through the white door, follow the stairs, flip the red switch and find a spiffy new weapon for the Thief. The Moonring Blade deals the same amount of damage from the Back Row and is powerful enough to remove the need for Barehanded, so stick another ability on your Thief and put him or her in the Back Row. The Moonring Blade has a substandard hit rate of 95%, which is one of its few downsides. Continue down the logical path. Don't step on the conveyer belt, you don't want to go that way. The other white door takes you to a Save Point: use it! This room is a final last switch puzzle before the boss, so have fun before it gets too serious. The puzzle is easy; just flip every switch you can reach once when you reach them, except for the very bottom one which takes care of you wanting to return. There's a chest with an Elixir that you easily grab if you just flip every switch once. Now, enter the white door to finally find the engine in the Power Room. Oh, so there's Queen Karnak! And she's not nice to you now! Gosh, after doing stuff to King Tycoon and possessing Garula, that malevolent force we're trying to stop sure likes to find itself some high-profile lackeys. At any rate, by some logic I have yet to grasp, fire comes out of the engine and attacks you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.11.2 The battle with Liquid Flame ********************************** Yeah, there's no telling what happened here. Maybe Queen Karnak has awesome Fire-manipulating skills and that's why she's being controlled, in turn causing the flames from the engine to attack you. Maybe she was just a guard here and the power from far beyond controls the fire, who knows. At any rate, there's a flame monster to cope with now. Liquid Flame (Human) Level: 19, HP: 3000, MP: 100 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 15 Evasion: 20%, Magic Evasion: 0% Win: Flame Scroll Absorbs: Wind, Fire Nullifies: Water, Poison Weakness: Ice Specialty: !Rush: Barrier-piercing Specialty Effect: Unblockable Vulnerable to: Death, Confuse Attacks: Attack, !Rush, Blaze Liquid Flame (Hand) Level: 19, HP: 3000, MP: 30 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 30 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 0% Win: Flame Rod Absorbs: Fire Nullifies: Water, Wind, Earth, Holy, Poison, Lightning, Ice Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Ray Specialty Effect: adds Paralyze Vulnerable to: Death, Confuse Attacks: Attack, !Fingertips, Fira Liquid Flame (Whirlwind) Level: 19, HP: 3000, MP: 50 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 15 Evasion: 30%, Magic Evasion: 0% Win: Flame Bow Absorbs: Wind, Fire Nullifies: Water, Poison Weakness: Ice Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: 1.5 damage Vulnerable to: Death, Confuse Attacks: Fira, Magnet Here's the deal, and it's a very simple one. Every form will randomly use one or two attacks, and will perform an especially nasty attack when you damage it, after which it'll revert to another form. Here we go: Normal attacks: Pre-change counter: Human - Attack, !Rush, Blaze Blaze Hand - Attack, !Ray Fira (ST) W Wind - Fira (on itself) Magnet I don't believe we've been over the Magnet attack before; odd as it may seem on an opponent such as this one, all that Magnet does is set the affected party member in the Front Row. If it already was in the Front Row, no effect will occur. Flame is like a Fire-elemental Breath Wing; it deals 25 % maximum HP damage. When in Human form, Liquid Flame's special !Rush is unblockable and ignores Defense. Human - 20 % Evasion Hand - 10 % Evasion, immunity to Ice-elemental attacks (including Blizzara- enhanced swords), is Heavy (Gravity doesn't work) W Wind - 30 % Evasion Liquid Lame (LOL!) starts of in its human form. The entire point of this battle is that every single time you damage Liquid Flame it deals an especially nasty attack and changes form. Thus, you'll want to have as few hits as possible, with as much damage output as possible. The Big Four when it comes to damage are Frost Rod-boosted Blizzara spells, Frost Rod-boosted Shiva summons, Two- Handed Blizzara swords and...Gravity! Gravity cuts the amount of current HP of Liquid Flame in half, dealing up to 1500 damage when Liquid Flame is undamaged. Note that Gravity doesn't work on the Hand form, as it is Heavy. Note: Obviously there's the option of breaking Frost Rods versus the Liquid Flame; while released Blizzaga spells do enough damage to utterly destroy Liquid Flame in two hits, I don't think it's necessary in a normal game and it's just going to cost you items/money which other strategies don't. If you find yourself playing a single class challenge or something, it's a win ticket; you can also simply change to a Time Mage, have it cast Gravity, absorbs the first Blaze attack that will never kill anybody, then shatter an Ice Rod to kill the flame. Start the battle off with a Gravity spell, and heal up from the Blaze attack that is its counter. Mystic Knights are faster than Time Mages, so you should probably already have cast an Blizzara spell on any swords you may have wanted to imbue. If the Hand was called (that bloody thing!), have a neutral physical attack change it again (hey, your Clothes class character good for something too!) and attack whatever the result is with a heavy Ice-elemental nuking. It should be close to defeat now, so heal up from whatever damage you may have taken and deliver the final blow. There is no good reason to not have either Blizzara or Gravity, and that's basically all you need (Two-Handed Blizzara swords and Shiva are variations, really) so this pretty much the strategy you should follow. Two White or Red casters are supremely useful to be able to restore HP as quickly as possible. Of course, you could simply rough it out without carefully planning your violence; as long as you have the Cura spells to counter Blaze and Fira with, you shouldn't be in too much trouble. In this case, I should mention the fact that all parts are vulnerable to the White Confuse spell and that the W Wind- form very easily runs out of MP, so you might want to sit there and wait for it to run out of MP the first time you see it so you definitely have a brief moment of rest when you encounter it in the future. It's a toss-up what the best dropped item is; the Flame Rod is quickly usable but is for freaking sale already, the Flame Scroll is a 200 Gil item you'll be able to use in the near future one single time and it'll be a while before you'll be able to wield the Flame Bow within a Job, at which time you'll easily have the money to buy one. I'd pick the Flame Bow simply because the most expensive item, but it's entirely up to you. After the fight, we're hurried to go see the Fire Crystal. Funnily, if you trace back your steps at this point and talk to Cid, he'll give no notion to the fact that you've stopped the engine and urge you to, in fact, go stop the engine ;) After having endless fun with the conveyer belts once tied to the engine, I suggest you walk into the pipe and save the world already. Go on! I suggest you simply stand helplessly by while yet another crucial pillar this world is resting on crumbles before your very eyes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.12.1 Escaping Karnak Castle ********************************** Opponents: Sergeant (#41), Sorcerer (#42), Cur Nakk (#43), Gigas (#44), Iron Claw (#252) Container contents: 2000 Gil x3, Elven Mantle, Elixir x6, Lightning Scroll, Main Gauche, Ribbon, Shuriken Miscellaneous items: Elixir (common Gigas steal), Gaia Gear (rare Sorcerer steal), Mage Masher common Sorcerer steal) White Spells: Esuna Blue Spells: Aero, Aera, Death Claw Well, that sucked all around, didn't it? It seems mysterious and quickly dying friends appear whenever a meteor crashes, and they all know Galuf. The Fire Crystal has shattered, and all we can do about the situation now is try to escape the exploding Karnak Castle before we're engulfed in its destruction. Here's the catch. There are plenty of chests, the contents of which are generally good. Most of them are guarded by monsters. There's a boss battle at the end where you can learn one of the greater Blue spells in the game long before the next chance arises, and if you are shooting for a perfect Brave Blade you can't run from any battles either. And all we have is 10 minutes to do it. We need a plan. First off, I'm just gonna go ahead and say it's entirely possible to simply dash trough the halls of Karnak Castle, fighting every random encounter and raiding every chest while still learning Death Claw at the end of it. But we need a team to handle such a situation. Enter Team America! Here's an example of what works remarkably well: A Mystic Knight with Two-Handed A Summoner with a Frost Rod A Black Mage with Learning with a Frost Rod A Thief with Barehanded The Thief will go first and use !Steal, but will be able to deal damage in longer fight. The Mystic Knight will go second and deal respectable damage; Knights and Berserkers are too slow. The casters clean up the battlefield with spells and Shiva. I want to talk about encounters now. (Karnak Castle random encounters) 70 % Sergeant, Cur Nakk x3 30 % Cur Nakk Sergeants will never attack you. They always accompany Cur Nakk and will cause the Cur Nakk dogs to attack you by saying "You better bring it!". When you've killed all Cur Nakk dogs, they will say "Can't you take a hint? Eat this!" and get the hell out of there. Why Karnak soldiers would want to attack you in the first place is a mystery, as Karnak enlisted your help; maybe they feel you've failed them? They will very rarely drop a Silver Plate, but since you could already buy them if you want them, it's no big deal. Note that you'll need to kill them at least once for a Bestiary entry. The Sergeant you'll face at the end doesn't count, as it's a different one. Cur Nakk dogs heavily rely on Sergeants to damage you. They'll simply attack physically on their own, but when their Sergeants tell them to attack you, they'll use !Bite. When their Sergeant has been killed, they'll make a run for it using Flee. You'll sometimes see a single one as an encounter; they'll immediately use Flee, giving you 2 free ABP. A lot of the chests in this section are guarded by monsters. They often contain excellent treasures, and these chests do count towards your Treasure %. They are guarded by any combination of Sorceror, Gigas' enemies and Cur Nakks. Sorcerers, how I loathe thee. Next to physical attacks they have Confuse (first turn) and Toad (second turn) to cast, but that's not it. Nay it's their great potential as !Steal victims. Their common slot contains Mage Mashers, stronger Knives for whoever wants to equip them. They also have a 33 % chance of casting Silence on the target, hence their name. Sorcerer also have an awesome rare Steal, which is the Gaia Gear. Gaia Gear won't appear in stores for quite some time, and they have superior Defense and Magic Defense. In addition, they increase damage done by Earth-elemental attacks (of which you have none now) by 50 %. Chances are 10/256 you'll get one from your !Steal attempt, though. Cur Nakk dogs without Sergeants are mere cannon fodder. They'll simply attack physically on their own, and Flee when they're alone. When they're encountered leaping out of chests, accompanied by Sorcerers, they'll stick around and attack normally as long as the Sorcerer is there; when bereaved of their arcane ally, they'll hightail it out of there tail between their legs. Gigas are the dungeon's most prominent enemies. They have a common Elixir for you to Steal, feature almost every chest as a guardian and leave a Goliath Tonic every time you kill one. When they're damaged they have a 66 % chance of countering with a Aero spell on the entire party. Other attacks include Aera (uses randomly every turn) and !Elbow, which is unblockable and barrier- piercing. Elixirs are useful later on and this is the most easily abused source in the game, so make sure to try and Steal from every Gigas you encounter. If you're in luck, you might get to learn Aera from these guys, but don't sit around and wait for it, you're on the clock. Gigas' and Sergeants are the only who will be able to withstand a Frost Rod Shiva casting when you've leveled normally (15 or higher), so focus Barehanded punches and swords slinging on them before summoning the mistress of Ice. Steal whenever you can, especially from Sorcerers as their Gaia Gear truly is something to want. However, it's only a rare steal... Now, the rare Steal really rears its ugly head. The chances of actually stealing the rare item? 10/256. That's right. To illustrate how minor that chance is, here's a scenario to visualize the entire deal. Imagine a soccer field, right? A soccer field with 256 guys standing on it, enjoying their day off from their hellhole job at Taco Bell or something. Now, suppose you were to enter this soccer field and systematically, without remorse, start kicking these guys in the nuts. Here and there, you leave 10 lucky individuals alone. Now, after your job is done, you're panting from all the hard work near the side-lines and you look on the field. What do you see? You see 246 men groaning in pain, on their knees, on their face in the grass, asking their absent God what they did to deserve this. Here and there, you can see one or two men looking around and wondering what the hell just happened. That acne-infested teenager you left alone because he isn't going to use his privates in the near future anyway, standing knee-deep in an average amount of 24 full-grown, crying men? THAT's your rare steal right there. Good luck with that. You're automatically Dashing in this stage of the game, but that only goes for the 'normal' dashing, the one that you could enable with the Auto-Dash ability from the menu. If you have a Thief, you won't run any faster, which is strange. Normally, the Thief's Sprint ability stacks with both B-button Dashing and Auto- Dash, but since in this dungeon normal Dashing is set in stone, Sprint has no additional effect. There are plenty of simply great items to obtain while escaping from the monsters here, so you'll quite simply want to have a !Steal option in your team. The Thief's superior Agility makes sure he's the best for the job; be sure to equip the Thief's Gloves too. You get a 10:00 timer which starts to run as soon as you start to move. The timer will freeze when using a menu in-battle, but only if you had Battle Mode set to 'Wait' (check your menu). If you don't make it in time, the screen will start shaking while a red glow envelops the background. It means that the castle goes 'BOOM!' and it looks stunningly lame. You fell down in a room with a pot. This contains water from a Spring of Recovery, so if Liquid Lame busted you up you can quickly trace back and heal up. You start the big race in a room with a Save Point, where you can Save. The first room you dash through is the jail cells you were thrown in by Karnak soldiers earlier. There are no random encounters here yet. The chest in the left jail contains 2000 Gil and no monsters. The chest to the right contains an Elixir and is, as are all Elixir chests, guarded by monsters: Sorcerer, Cur Nakk, Cur Nakk (common) Gigas (rare) Karnak Castle ablaze random encounters: 70 % Sergeant, Cur Nakk, Cur Nakk, Cur Nakk 30 % Cur Nakk This next room knows random encounters. To the right is a chest containing a Shuriken, an item that you will soon be able to use. Don't miss it. It's guarded by what appears to be a fixed Gigas encounter. The left chest is even more vital as it contains a Ribbon. The Ribbon is pretty much the ultimate helmet of the entire game. It raises Strength, Agility, Vitality and Magic Power by 5 and protects against Death, Petrify, Toad, Poison, Darkness, Old, Berserk and Silence. Downside is that only the Dancer Job will be able to equip it (alongside the Freelancer), so in order to utilize it now would mean going Freelancer, which hinders progress. This chest is guarded: Sorcerer, Sorcerer(common) Gigas (rare) The next two rooms have no chests but do have random encounters. Continue to the main hall of Karnak Castle. There are five entrances/exits here. You come out of one. The one following the carpet leads into the throne room, where you have nothing to see but random encounters. The one leading out is one we don't want yet, so it's the two doors. We'll want to enter both doors and raid everything behind it. Let's start with the left one. A room filled with chests of which three are closed. The left-most chest contains 2000 Gil and is safe to open. Ignore the others for now. Exit using the stairs to the top-left. You'll find yourself on the walls of Karnak Castle. Dash to the stairway on the other side and descend to the chest. It contains an Elven Mantle, and is guarded: Gigas, Sorcerer, Cur Nakk (common) Gigas (rare) Trace back your steps until you're in the room where you left two chests alone. Open them now: the other two contain Elixirs and are guarded by monsters. The bottom one contains a fixed Gigas, the other one the following: Sorcerer, Sorcerer (common) Gigas (rare) To the south is a door where you appear on a balcony that connects the left and right towers. Enter the right tower. This part mirrors what you've just seen, only there are four chests. The right-most contains a safe 2000 Gil, the other one close to it contains an Elixir and is guarded by: Sorcerer, Cur Nakk, Cur Nakk (common) Gigas (rare) While the other two ones also contains Elixirs. The top-left is guarded by a fixed Gigas, the other one is guarded by: Sorcerer, Cur Nakk, Cur Nakk (common) Gigas (rare) Taking the stairs, following the walls and descending to the chest will net you a fight with: Gigas, Sorcerer, Cur Nakk (common) Gigas (rare) Your reward will be a Main Gauche, a Dagger that will allow the wielder to block 25 % of all physical attacks before even checking with the Evasion%. It's a great equip for Jobs that don't need to boost elements but don't physically attack either. Since it's such a powerful blade, it's about equal on damage output when boosted by Barehanded Strength, as Barehanded punches. Since the Main Gauche also gives the extra physical block and allows a Shield, it's a superior option. Now, trace back to the main hall. Before you leave, there are chests on either side of you. The left one contains the level 4 White Esuna spell, and is guarded by: Sorcerer, Sorcerer (common) Gigas (rare) The right one contains a Thunder Scroll and is guarded by: Sorcerer, Cur Nakk, Cur Nakk (common) Gigas (rare) Now, it's finally time to get out. You should have two minutes or so on the clock. Make sure you have enough MP to last a few rounds, and make sure your Learning character has it equipped. Now, get out and face what appears to be a normal random encounter just when you're about to leave the castle. Seargeant (Iron Claw in disguise) Level: 0, HP: 1000, MP: 25 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Potion (common) Win: Eye Drops (rare) Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow Attacks: - Iron Claw Level: 39, HP: 900, MP: 150 Defense: 20, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Hero Drink (common) Win: Silver Specs (rare) Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Toad, Mini, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical, Death Claw The Cur Nakk monsters are hardly different from their normal counterparts so I won't list them here. Here's the deal: when you kill all Cur Nakk dogs your party will notice something strange about the Sergeant: Bartz: "This guy..." Lenna: "He's no ordinary soldier!" Galuf: "Show us your true form!" Sergeant: "Hahahahaha! You wish to know my true identity? I am the famed bounty hunter... Iron Claw! MORPH!!!" At which point Iron Claw will reveal himself to be Iron Claw, a self-declared great bounty hunter. He proceeds to change form. This process reduces his maximum HP to 900, but any damage you did to him in his Sergeant form surpassing his 900 HP will still be there. Iron Claw's Defense shoots up to 20 all of a sudden, (he's made of iron, after all) so physical attacks will kinda stop hurting him as much. Iron Claw will then start pounding you into fine mist with his physicals and the Blue spell Death Claw. Defeating Iron Claw really isn't that big a deal; the problem is that you'll have to wait for your Blue Mage/Learning character to get hit by Death Claw as it's truly a nice attack to have. Death Claw is a single-target attack that reduces the target's HP to a single digit and sets Paralyze. It's like super- Gravity. As soon as you've bagged Death Claw (it may take a while, it's all random), you can set something like Sleep or Stop on the guy and whip out some magical attacks to kill him with. If you're really having trouble, scatter an elemental Rod to instantly kill the fiend. Note that it's possible to kill the Sergeant before he transforms, thus screwing yourself out of the Iron Claw Bestiary entry. Once Iron Claw has been defeated, quickly escape. Karnak Castle now explodes. Five of the Crystal shards of the Fire Crystal come flying to you, but only three land where you stand. The other two are nowhere to be found. The three shards contain the Ninja, Beastmaster and Geomancer Jobs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.13.1 Three Fire Crystal Jobs ********************************** If you want some in-depth explanation of the three new Jobs, you can check out more info on the Ninja, the Beastmaster and the Geomancer here: [NINJA-LINK] [BEASTM-LINK] [GEOMANCER-LINK] For now, let me suffice by saying the following. The Geomancer's !Gaia ability is great for mages, as it lets them magically attack with powerful damage output without using MP. The Diamond Bell is worthless, so the Main Gauche is a great equip for them. If you managed to steal any Gaia Gear, the Geomancer's Earth-elemental attacks will be boosted by 50%. The Ninja is awesome all around; their powerful Ninja Scrolls are only hindered by the Ninja's low Magic Power. Stick !Blue or a high-level magic skillset on the Ninja to raise it's Magic Power and make the damage really fly. They are inherently able to wield two weapons; when you have a support ability that lets them equip better weapons than Knives, you can increase their physical damage output as well. Barehanded is a great support ability for them, but not to replace their blades with punches. The highest damage output is obtained by simply using Barehanded its Strength boost with the dual Knife capacities of the Ninja. Note that Goblin Punch is based on menu-listed battle power, so Goblin Punch will use the battle power of both weapons combined! Nice. The Beastmaster is able to !Catch monsters who have 1/8 their maximum HP or less. When a monster is caught, !Catch will chance into !Release, which turns the caught monster loose on the battlefield for it to use a single attack. The monster will use its own stats. Beastmaster's have a lack of offense in general, so Barehanded is a great support ability. The Whip will have a 50% chance of setting Paralyze to opponents with the Magic Beast nature. If you want to use !Catch, the Blue spell Death Claw immediately puts the target creature in a weakened enough state to make !Catch work. Repeated Gravity spells from the Time skillset also works. The Beastmaster will also learn !Control after a total of 60 ABP, which will let you control a monster. If you return below deck of the Fire-Powered Ship and use !Control on a Motor Trap, it is able to use Missile, a Blue spell that deals 75% of the target's current HP damage. !Control is vital in learning a few Blue spells in this game, so make sure to learn it if you want a full Blue skillset. A few quick pointers on !Catch: physical attackers are your main source of damage, as they will always use the incredibly powerful Strong Fight. It's real name is 'Attack', but a man's gotta differentiate when a man's gotta differentiate. For other effects: Mani Wizard Death Undead Husk Break Gaelicat Float Zu Breath Wing Deals 25 % max HP damage, Wind-elemental Fun fact: Breath Wing always hits, and ignores every check except for elemental ones. Four released Zu birds will tear apart any target, regardless of HP, instant death immunity, Heavy nature, the works. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.14.1 En route to the Library of the Ancients ********************************** Opponents: Aegir (#31), Zu (#32), Grass Tortoise (#34), Silent Bee (#35), Mythril Dragon (#36), Dhorme Chimera (#58) Container contents: Flame Rod Miscellaneous items: Trident (rare Dhorme Chimera steal) Blue Spells: Aqua Breath, Transfusion Cid must be thoroughly devastated. And once you visit him on the Fire-Powered Ship, this seems to be exactly the case. The poor guy blames himself for the creation of the machines and the subsequent destruction of the three crystals. He flees from your sight before you can tell him all is okay. It'd be best to seek him out. Karnak city is a chaos with the sudden disappearance of the powers of Fire. The wounded Queen Karnak is in the top floor of the Inn. Nightmares plague her. A new weapon salesman has appeared in the Weapon/Armor Shop: Weapon Shop 2: Mythril Spear 790 Gil Kunai 600 Gil Whip 1100 Gil Diamond Bell 500 Gil Some new weapons for your new Jobs, basically, although none of them are very useful at this point. The Mythril Spear isn't equipable by any Job you currently have, not even the new ones. There's no reason to buy it, really. The Kunai adds 1 point to your Agility, but as a weapon it's weaker than the Main Gauche, the Moonring Blade and the Mage Mashers you could have stolen. Note that it's a Ninja-only weapon. You already have a Whip, and the Diamond Bell like almost all bells is worthless. Cid can be found in the top floor of the Pub, but he doesn't really want to talk to you. Hey, if he doesn't want to be helped, we can't do that for him. And sad as it may be, there are more important matters to attend to. We've still got a single Crystal left, and we have no idea where it is. Maybe the Ancient Library has some answers for us; with the destruction of Karnak Castle the path to the place was freed, and since Cid's grandson Mid lives there, maybe we can send the lad over to Cid to do some cheering. Don't forget to grab the Flame Rod on the western wall of Karnak, which you can now reach due to the non-existence of the flames blocking your path. Grasslands: 35 % Silent Bee, Silent Bee, Silent Bee, Silent Bee 35 % Zu, Grass Tortoise, Aegir 23 % Aegir, Aegir, Grass Tortoise 6 % Zu Forests: 35 % Mythril Dragon, Silent Bee, Grass Tortoise 35 % Mythril Dragon 30 % Mythril Dragon, Mythril Dragon, Mythril Dragon Desert: Always: Dhorme Chimera Silent Bee rarely uses Needle, a magical attack that sets either Dark or Silence (equal chance). Unassuming in any other regard, but being blinded is annoying. Aera on a single Silent Bee works great, as does a conjuration of Shiva. Mythril Dragon has great Defense and no elemental weakness, which makes them quite hard to take down. When it has lost over half their HP (the maximum amount of which is 600), it will use the Blue spell Transfusion the next turn on any monster that isn't itself. It's special technique, !Tail, is unblockable and pierces Defense, so watch out for that. You can steal rare Mythril Armor from them, but you shouldn't waste time as you can simply buy them in Karnak too. They very rarely drop Mythril Gloves, too. Dhorme Chimera Level: 23, HP: 1000, MP: 150 Defense: 20, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Trident (rare) Win: Phoenix Down (rare) Absorbs: Water Specialty: !Critical Attack Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical Attack, Aqua Breath Dhorme Chimera is the most interesting enemy right now. They live in the desert, and are mentioned by a scholar in Karnak. They're supposed to be quite frightening. They can either use Battle, !Critical (x 1.5) and the Blue spell Aqua Breath. Since they have a Defense and Magic Defense score of 20 and have 1000 HP, you'll be hard-pressed to kill them quickly. I suggest you Save on the Overworld Map and wander into the desert with a Blue Mage or the Learning support ability equipped. Level 2 elemental Black spells hurt him relatively badly, as do Axes/Hammers, Shiva and Released Grass Tortoises. Make sure to learn Aqua Breath here. Aqua Breath is a crazy expansive Blue magic spell. It's multi-target and NON-elemental. That's right, no Water element there. What it does have it the fact it deals eight times as much damage to Desert creatures. An upcoming boss battle will feature a creature of this type, so you'll absolutely want to pick it up; you will return here when your levels are a bit higher though, so you can postpone if you're so inclined. Transfusion can be learned in the forests surrounding the Library of the Ancients. The White Confuse spell can confuse the Mythril Dragon which will in turn have a chance to cast Transfusion on a character with the Learning ability. The Beastmaster's !Control ability is superior, obviously, as it allows you to choose Transfusion's target at will, but you probably don't have it yet. Now, enter the Library of the Ancients, where answers await. Note: you could continue down south-west, where you could eventually enter the desert there. Despite the fact the quicksand stops you from entering too far you could net a random encounter or two. There's no point in doing so though, so I won't mention them until you're forced to pass through. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.14.2 The Library of the Ancients and the battle with Ifrit ********************************** Opponents: Page 32 (#45), Page 64 (#46), Page 128 (#47), Page 256 (#48), Ifrit (#253), Byblos (#254) Container contents: Ether, Ninja Suit, Phoenix Down Miscellaneous items: Dark Matter (rare Byblos steal), Green Beret (rare Page 32 steal), Ninja Suit (rare Page 256 steal) Summon Spells: Ifrit Blue Spells: Aera, Level 5 Death, Magic Hammer, Moon Flute, Off-Guard Everything's a mess lately, and the Library of the Ancients is no exception. Cid's grandson, Mid, is missing, which is especially alarming since the books in the dark halls of the Library of the Ancients have been taken over by monsters increasingly often. In past times the Summoned Monster Ifrit would burn books possessed by monsters, but for some reason he threw in the towel as well. Our mission is to find Mid, as nobody else seems to be able to help us out... On the second floor is a pot containing water from a Spring of Recovery, and all the way upstairs, near a furnace, three books await you. The left and middle ones are tomes of ancient wisdom (or whatever) while the right book shows you exactly what all this talk of possessed books is all about. Page 32, Page 64 (common) Page 32, Page 64, Page 128, Page 256, Page 128, Page 64, Page 32 (rare) Page 32 looks like a living gargoyle of some sort, and wields the Blue Aera spell. It has a Green Beret as a rare Steal, so if you have a place for any more of them, try to go for it. Weak to Fire-elemental attacks like all pages. It will use the Banish spell when Released, allowing it to possibly one-shot the difficult boss at the end. Page 64 is the most lethal of the four pages as it wields the Blue spell Level 5 Death, which immediately kills any character with a level divisible by 5. It can also only be learned when the attack actually works, so if you find yourself at level 16 you won't be able to learn it now. If you have a party of level 15 characters, I suggest you go train outside until one or more (but not all!) of your characters has reached level 16. Take the level 15 character(s) in as Blue Mages and watch them get killed. Win the battle, heal up (or vice versa) and you've gained knowledge over the thing. Page 64 has Silver Specs as a rare Steal, which shouldn't excite you. Level 5 Death in this dungeon works on both Page 64 and Page 128, but at 22 MP it's a bit pricey to use often. Page 128 fails to deliver in both Blue spells and rare Steals, and has none in either category. As a common steal, however, it has an Ether, which is pretty useful to carry around in a game where MP can see depletion. It can use Slimer, which sets Slow and the Sap status. Weak to Fire, blah. Page 256 is obviously the grandest of pages. Every other turn, it'll use Moon Flute on your party, which anyone equipped to do so will immediately learn. As a Blue spell Moon Flute targets the own party, but Page 256 turns it against you. As a rare steal, it has a Ninja Suit, which is equal to the Mythril Armor in defenses but can also be equipped by Clothes classes, adds a respectable single point to your Agility and isn't nowhere near as heavy. If you were to !Control a Page 256, it can use Off-Guard, a Blue spell you can learn. Off-Guard halves the target's Defense and Magic Defense, making upcoming attacks more damaging. Dark rooms: 35 % Page 32, Page 64 35 % Page 64, Page 32, Page 64 23 % Page 64, Page 256, Page 32 6 % Page 32, Page 64, Page 128, Page 256, Page 128, Page 64, Page 32 Ninja Suit room and the room leading to it: 35 % Page 64, Page 64, Page 64 35 % Page 32, Page 32, Page 128, Page 128 23 % Page 128, Page 128, Page 256 6 % Page 32, Page 64, Page 128, Page 256, Page 128, Page 64, Page 32 Other rooms: 35 % Page 64, Page 128, Page 128, Page 32 35 % Page 32, Page 64, Page 128 23 % Page 128, Page 64, Page 256, Page 128 6 % Page 32, Page 64, Page 128, Page 256, Page 128, Page 64, Page 32 Since you'll only be fighting one enemy at the time, any Berserker would be glad to fight here. The Geomancer's !Gaia ability will often call up Ignus Fatuus, which despite its random nature is Fire-elemental and will often kill a page in a single shot. Setting !Gaia on a Black Mage or Summoner with a Flame Rod will boost its power even further. Be sure to learn the three Blue spells here, they're all grand. Note that one Page calling another upon defeat is a counter-attack it has to perform. When you prevent the counter-attack from happening, it'll be the last opponent even if it's scripted to call more. When you kill an enemy with a Counter attack, use !Catch to remove it from the battle or Release a Page 32 and have it cast Banish with success, no further enemies will be called. Anyway, heal up at the pot and dive into the twisted maze that is the Library. Shit, you can never find what you're looking for in these places, am I right? This one's infested with demons too, so it's double the amount of nasty. As soon as you enter, you find your path blocked, but when you push on you'll see how the bookshelf makes way for you. Here's how to navigate through this room: - Stand in the hole in the bookshelf you can reach - Pass through the other two holes you can now reach - Go up the ladder and go as far to the top-right as you can. The bookshelf should move - Continue as far to the right as possible. More moving should ensue. - Down the ladder. See the missing stone in the top-right corner? Use the action button to make way into the next room. Aye-aye-aye, a limited field view! Also, random encounters. Find the Ether in the chest to the right before you exit this room. In this next room, you need to go down a ladder. There's a chest you can't reach, a door and a ladder. The ladder doesn't seem to go anywhere, so let's try the door. No luck; a rebellious bookshelf refuses to let us pass. The ladder instead! Going up and pressing the action button sends us walking over bookshelves towards a book. Heal up, open the book and meet Ifrit, the demon of fire. Ifrit Level: 22, HP: 3000, MP: 1000 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 20%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Phoenix Down (common) Win: Flame Scroll (always) Absorbs: Fire Nullifies: Poison Weakness: Water, Ice Creature: Heavy Specialty: !High Kick Specialty Effect: adds Paralyze Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Poison, Darkness, Old, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow Attacks: Battle, !High Kick, Fira, Blaze Ifrit used to burn books with demons in them; he is much feared by all those sealed within the ancient tomes of this Library. But lately, he has become dormant, and now the Warriors of Light must wade through the evil Pages. Ifrit itself now offers you the use of its powers, but only to those that can avoid being burned to a crisp... Ifrit knows four different attacks, all of which will look familiar. Fira is a powerful spell that at normal levels really cripples a single character and at lower levels will kill one. Blaze is deals (max HP / 4) like it always does; Ifrit's Special !High Kick will set Paralyze along with dealing damage, so watch out. The fiery fiend is weak to Ice-elemental attacks. Also Water-elemental ones, but you can't take advantage of that right now. He also has a whole slew of status vulnerabilities, but since he is Heavy some of them will only work for a very short period of time, including Silence, Paralyze and Stop. Flash sets Darkness for the duration of the battle though, so that really helps stop those !High Kicks of his. Mystic Knights can choose either Blizzara or Silence Spellblade effects; Blizzara deals incredible damage obviously (especially paired with Twohanded), but Silence Spellblade effects stop Fira spells. Both strategies will prove to be incredibly effective. Frost Rod-boosted Blizzara spells or Shiva conjuration deals large amounts of damage. If you are having trouble, use !Catch to get a Page 128 on your side, it'll deal over 1000 damage in a single attack. Confuse isn't worth it, really. It'll make him cast Firaga on himself, which heals him by quite a lot. Make sure to avoid !Gaia, as the resulting Ignus Fatuus will heal Ifrit. The confusing part will work, but as previously said, he'll start healing like a madman so in all, just no. After the fight, you'll gain 5 ABP, a Flame Scroll and the power to summon Ifrit. Ifrit is a slightly more powerful and Fire-elemental version of Shiva, basically. If you have any Summoners around, swap the Frost Rod for a Flame Rod and start using Ifrit's Hellfire instead. Even though Ifrit is thematically connected to defeating the encounters in this Library, Fira is actually both more powerful and slightly cheaper on your MP... With Ifrit as an ally, the bookshelf that impeded your progress earlier suddenly remembers he needs to call his mother instead and lets you through. Don't miss the hole you can pass through to obtain a Ninja Suit; it's awesome for your Clothes class character(s), and is an upgrade from the Mythril Armor as well. Continuing will give you another dark room. The right exit will take you nowhere, the left exit will take you almost directly past a chest containing a Phoenix Down before taking you to the large hall. It seems we're almost to the bottom, and still no sign of Mid. In this next room, the final room, the path is pretty clear; push against the bookshelf to make it move, go stand on the tiny ladder and press the action button to make it move back. Instead of going out of the door, stand on the other tiny ladder and examine the bookshelf; a book will pop out for: Page 32, Page 64 (common) Page 32, Page 64, Page 128, Page 256, Page 128, Page 64, Page 32 (rare) The hole your fighting created takes you to a Save Point. Heal and Save up and continue. You'll find yourself seeing Mid, who seems unresponsive. Also, a horned demon comes to kill you! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.14.3 The battle with Byblos ********************************** Byblos Level: 24, HP: 3600, MP: 1000 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 30 Evasion: 30%, Magic Evasion: 20% Steal: Dark Matter (rare), Luck Mallet (common) Win: Iron Draft (always) Absorbs: Water, Wind, Earth, Holy, Poison, Lightning, Ice Weakness: Holy, Fire Creature: Magic Beast Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Poison, Darkness, Paralyze, Berserk, Slow Attacks: Battle, Armor, Confuse, Drain, Toad, Magic Hammer, Dischord, Web, Wind Slash Byblos was once found near the Wind Shrine, some thirty years ago, and was taken to the Library of the Ancients and sealed there after what we can assume was a long battle with Ifrit. He's loose again now, so it's time to stop him. 1st turn: Web, Magic Hammer, Battle 2nd turn: Battle, Confuse, Wind Slash 3rd turn: Magic Hammer, Battle, Web 4th turn: Dischord, Wind Slash, Battle Some new attacks here. Web sets Slow, easy as that. Magic Hammer is a Blue spell that halves the target's MP. Wind Slash is easily Byblos' most dangerous attack; it's a multi-target Wind-elemental attack that can hurt as much as 260 (Clothes characters) to 170 (Gaia Gear Magic characters). When Byblos is hurt to the point of 800 HP or below, he'll start countering your attacks. Any physical attack will be countered with a 33% Protect spell on Byblos' self, any Magic attack will be countered with a 33 % Toad spell on the caster and any other attack will have a 66 % shot at provoking a Drain spell, which is quite nasty as it deals around 170 damage. The two biggest weaknesses Byblos have are the Fire element and its lack of Heavy nature, the latter of which can be exploited with Death Claw, Missile, Gravity and a Released Page 32 its Banish spell. Banish will instantly kill Byblos, Gravity and Missile will deal tremendous amounts of damage and Death Claw will reduce Byblos' HP to a single digit. Note that it also adds Paralyze, so if you kill Byblos when he's Paralyzed you won't get his little goodbye speech. Some other things that work are a Beastmaster Whip's Paralyzing powers (especially in tandem with Slow, which makes the status last longer) and Remora's Constrict. On the Fire-elemental weakness; Fira is stronger than Ifrit, even if the latter is hyped a little versus Byblos. Twohanded Fira swords deal incredible amounts of damage but are made less effective by Protect in the end. You have at least one and possibly more Flame Scroll(s); Ninjas can Throw them for great amount of damage, especially when a Magic-boosted action ability such as !Black 1 is set on the Ninja. You don't really need to learn Magic Hammer as it's not that good of a spell, but if you want to here's it to learn. Don't frustrate your progress because of it; you'll have plenty chances in the future, and you won't have a good reason to use it before learning the spell is made possible by an easy random encounter. You can try to Steal as well; a Mallet is pretty crappy, but Dark Matter (although useless now) can be an item of great power in the future. If you've killed Byblos un-Paralyzed, he'll say: Arrrgh! So, this is the end... but only for me. Very soon, the master's seal will be blown wide open!!! If the final blow was dealt by Ifrit's Hellfire, he'll say: Ifrit...! The seal... You've... Very soon, the master's seal will be blown wide open!!! We've fought against being controlled by the dark nameless entity, and normal monsters so far. However, Byblos is the first powerful demon we face who is actually supporting his 'master'. When Byblos is ashes to ashes, dust to dust, Mid'll take you out of the Library, only to abandon you in search of his grandfather. Let's follow him; Mid mentioned how he could get the Fire-Powered Ship running again which certainly would be useful for us. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.15.1 The Seven Seas ********************************** Opponents: Sahagin (#193), Thunder Anemone (#194), Sea Ibis (#195), Corbett (#196) Miscellaneous items: Lightning Scroll (common Thunder Anemone drop), Trident (rare Corbett steal) Blue Spells: Goblin Punch When you chase after Mid and find Cid in the second floor of the Pub again, Mid enters with you and slaps some sense back into the old man. Also, they storm off to go fix you up some Fire-Powered Ship. Going up after them (there's a lot or following Cid & Mid from now one, better get used to it) will further the plot. Galuf finally tells you the backbone of the story. The dark mage Exdeath was sealed 30 years ago in this world by the power of the Crystals. Galuf was one of the four people who did this. So the meteor that appeared at the start of this game carried Galuf, the meteor near Walse tower sent the golden warrior and finally the meteor near Karnak came with the Werewolf, all bent on stopping the release of the seal on Exdeath. Galuf passes out from the hard work of remembering. Alas, we've got ourselves a Fire-Powered Ship to boss around. Let's take a look at the Map (R button)! See the white dot to the South-West? That's Jachol, our first stop. We'll also be visiting the South-Eastern crescent-shaped island. It's was named Crescent Island by the Unoriginal People in the Sky. On the seas, you will find yourself being attacked every now and again. Lightning-elemental attacks are nice to have so Black casters will have a good time. Note that while !Gaia was awesome all the time, it's not so hot on the Fire-Powered Ship. Tsunami is just moderate non-elemental damage to all targets, and Whirlpool reduces the non-Heavy targets to a single digit of HP. Sahagin are fishmen, weak to Lightning. You can Control them to see Goblin Punch, but you should already have it. Sea Ibis only has 25 HP. They have crazy Evasion and Magic Evasion though, so you'll want unblockable attacks to nail them. Shiva/Ifrit, Goblin Punch, just some options for you. Another thing to know, by the way, is that floating/flying enemies often are incapable of avoiding Aerial attacks. Aerial attacks are Bows and Whips. Beastmasters will Whip them up good, is what I'm saying. EVERY time. Thunder Anemones suck because they absorb Lightning-elemental attacks. You can't MT Thundara when they're around. They have no elemental weakness either. They compensate for being stupid by dropping Lightning Scrolls all the time. To the North-West, you may find Corbettes. They're mean mothers. They have 2800 HP, are weak to Lightning-elemental attacks and dish out mean physical attacks and Breath Wing. Flash is a great spell to utilize against them, and using !Control takes them right out of the battle. Gravity spells deal a lot of damage, and Death Claw simply destroys them if it connects. They'll be able to use Tailscrew when Controlled (also when used through !Release), so you can use their own attacks against them. While the allocation of these encounters across the Overworld Map is a complex science the people of NASA only recently figured out, it's also extremely unimportant to you. But, just for being thorough: Image the Overworld Map divided into 64 squares in an 8 by 8 fashion. Each square has a monster formation pack that you can encounter on the seas, even when there is no water there for you to sail on. The monster formations are distributed as follows: Monster Formatio Pack 0 58 % Sahagin x3 42 % Thunder Anemone x2, Sahagin Monster Formatio Pack 1 35 % Sea Ibis, Sahagin x2 35 % Sea Ibis x3 23 % Sahagin x3 6 % Thunder Anemone x2, Sahagin Monster Formatio Pack 2 35 % Sea Ibis, Thunder Anemone x2 35 % Thunder Anemone x2, Sahagin 23 % Sahagin, Thunder Anemone, Corbett 6 % Corbett x2 Monster Formatio Pack 3 35 % Sahagin x3 35 % Sea Ibis, Thunder Anemone x2 23 % Corbett x2 6 % Sahagin, Thunder Anemone, Corbett 2 2 2 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 3 0 0 3 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 3 0 0 0 0 0 3 3 3 0 0 0 0 3 3 3 3 0 0 1 1 1 1 3 3 0 0 1 1 1 1 3 3 3 3 1 1 1 1 So, to be perfectly clear, in the top-left corner of the Overworld Map, you will run into the monster formations found in Monster Formation Pack 2. You will notice that Packs 2 and 3 (the more difficult Packs) tend to appear on the edges of the Overworld, Pack 0 (the easiest Pack) is mostly encountered in those bodies of water enclosed by land and Pack 1 (the Sea Ibis-heavy Pack) is found around Crescent Island. You won't naturally come across Corbett enemies when you just sail from destination to destination. If you want to encounter them, just Quicksave and sail along the Western edge of the Overworld map. Corbett can prove especially formidable opponents at this stage of the game, as their physical attacks are quite devastating and they have 2800 HP. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.16.1 The shores of Jachol ********************************** Opponents: Bomb (#49), Doublizard (#50), Bio Soldier (#51) Miscellaneous items: Battle Axe (common Bio Soldier steal), War Hammer (rare Bio Soldier steal) Blue Spells: Self-Destruct Darkgreen grasslands leading to Jachol: 35 % Bomb, Bomb, Doublizard 35 % Bio Soldier, Bio Soldier 23 % Bomb, Bomb 6 % Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb All light-green grasslands: 35 % Bio Soldier, Bio Soldier 35 % Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb 30 % Bomb, Bomb Forest and dark-green grasslands on the peninsula: 35 % Bomb, Bomb 35 % Bomb, Bomb, Doublizard 23 % Doublizard, Doublizard, Doublizard 6 % Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Don't be deceived by your gut instinct or even prior Final Fantasy knowledge; Bomb is not a Fire-elemental monster which is weak to Ice or something silly like that. All it does is attack physically and use Self-Destruct on rare occasions. You can learn it here if you somehow missed it/couldn't retrieve it from the Motor Trap enemies in the Fire-Powered Ship. Doublizards are weak to Ice-elemental attacks, as you'll find most lizard-like and dragon-like enemies to be. They're kinda sturdy but generally unassuming. When they turn around, exactly nothing happens; all that happens is that they will use a Battle attack when they're facing you with their 'normal' face, and when the turn around to attack with their lower face (the one they don't start with, I mean... all this trouble to refrain from using the word "Ass-face" isn't worth it) they'll use !Slip, which adds the Sap status. Bio Soldier is the strongest enemy here and has the potential to be very very dangerous. When they're with another Bio Soldier all is well, as they'll just use Battle. However, when a lone Bio Soldier is damaged, it'll counter with a Bio spell on the entire party, dealing over 200 damage to all characters. If a Ninja or Monk hits twice and doesn't manage to kill the guy, this even means TWO Bio spells. Avoid it at all costs. Another notable feature about the Bio Soldier is its common Battle Axe and rare War Hammer. The former is the weakest Axe/Hammer there is and could be previously bought in Walse, but the latter is stronger than the Ogre Axe you could purchase in Jachol and might be worth going for if you like Berserkers. ... Doublizards go both ways. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.16.2 The town of Jachol ********************************** Features: Piano Jachol's a town of adventurers, of which the armor and weapons are known throughout the world. It's a village inhabited by descendants of the ancient Ronka civilization, and many rare treasures are said to be found in the surroundings. It's a good place for us. Armor Shop: Green Beret 2500 Gil Ninja Suit 3000 Gil Sage's Surplice 1000 Gil It's fairly straightforward here. Buy Green Berets for every character that could benefit from one (remember: Blue and Red Mages also can equip it, so if you are planning on using either one on a Magic character, you could want to buy GB's for them). Ninja Suits for every Heavy Armor and Clothes class character, and Sage's Surplice for the Magic characters. They're not as good as Gaia Gear on the defenses, so you shouldn't buy them for characters that already have Gaia Gear. Sage's Surplice grants immunity to the Silence status, which is a nice feature for spellcasters on paper. Enemies will almost never try to Silence you, though, and it won't stop Mute. Weapon Shop: Ogre Killer 3200 Gil Coral Sword 2800 Gil Mage Masher 900 Gil Trident 2700 Gil Ashura 5800 Gil Silver Bow 1500 Gil Quite a few new and powerful weapons, but most of them are fairly redundant. The Ogre Killer is stronger than any Mythril Hammer you might wield, but both the War Hammer (rare steal from the Bio Soldier which roams near Jachol) and the Death Sickle are stronger so you might not even want to spend your money here if you do utilize Berserkers. Note how it says it's effective against giant's... There are no giant-type enemies in this game! The Coral Sword is simply a stronger sword for everybody who uses swords. It's Lightning-elemental too. The Mage Masher is a weapon you should have in abundance by now, but buy them for appropriate characters if you don't. The Trident is a Lightning- elemental Spear, but without any Job to equip it there's no point. The Ashura is still the best weapon you could hope to wield at this point, but again, it's not worth switching to Freelancer for. The Silver Bow, finally, is a fairly crappy two-handed Back Row weapon that no Job can equip. Magic Shop: Cura 620 Gil Raise 700 Gil Confuse 650 Gil Silence 280 Gil Protect 280 Gil Cure 180 Gil Libra 80 Gil Poisona 90 Gil Missed any White spells in Karnak? You can buy them here. Item Shop: Potion 40 Gil Antidote 30 Gil Eye Drops 20 Gil Maiden's Kiss 60 Gil Mallet 50 Gil Gold Needle 150 Gil Phoenix Down 1000 Gil Tent 250 Gil Well, you know. Same old. The Pub houses several NPC's all talking about the Cave of Jachol to the north. That's very interesting. There's a piano on the stage, which you should totally play! This is the first time your performance is more than just some scales; it's the first exercise from Le Piano Virtuose by Charles-Louis Hanon, but it's basically still a fancy scale practice. But it has a name and it's in French, and everybody knows French piano is better than regular piano. Also, you can dance with the lady, but the subsequent scene is so mind-numbingly stupid it just might wake you up from this dreamworld and make you realize you're playing a game again. So don't. There's very little to do in this town besides gathering up stuff for the Cave, so let's go to the Cave. I hear there's treasure. It's handy to have some Phoenix Downs handy; the monsters in the Cave of Jachol might decide to randomly kill characters and you want to be prepared. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.16.3 Jachol Cave ********************************** Opponents: Nutkin (#6), Skull Eater (#57) Container contents: Blitz Whip, Shuriken, Tent Welcome to the Cave of Jachol. Here's what's going down. There are a few treasures here, and random encounters of the bizarre kind. They're either Nut Eaters (those Regen-squirrels you met around the Wind Shrine at the very start of the game) and Skull Eaters. Concerning the latter, you either destroy them with the very limited range of attacks capable of destroying them, or you'll probably die hoping for them to use Flee rather than 1600-damage dealing physicals. 65 % Nutkin x 3 35 % Skull Eater x 6 The Nutkins pose no threat whatsoever. !Kick is very efficient at dealing with them in a single attack as it costs no MP. Whatever-you-have also works. Skull Eater Level: 32, HP: 1, MP: 100 Defense: 90, Magic Defense: 90 Evasion: 90%, Magic Evasion: 90% Steal: Tent (common) Win: Elixir (rare) Creature: Magic Beast Specialty: !Front Teeth Specialty Effect: Unblockable, adds poison & confuse Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Toad, Mini, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: Attack, !Incisor, Flee, (summon 6 Skull Eaters) The Skull Eaters are an entirely different story. They have exactly 1 HP, but their defenses are both 90, meaning they're almost impenetrable. They will 'counter' any Magic spell they survive by summoning five other Skull Eaters around them, effectively spelling your doom. Physically, they're incredibly powerful; their Special !Incisor is both barrier-piercing and unblockable and will deal around 1600 damage to a Front Row character. It's supposed to set Poison and Confuse, just sets Poison in reality, but in all practical aspects just kills a character in a single hit. Undeniably the best way to deal with them is setting !Black 1 or !Blue or something that boosts Magic Power to a Ninja and have that Ninja Throw a Scroll. It kills the Skull Eater, no questions asked. If you consider this option too pricey or should you find yourself with sharply limited amounts of Scrolls (which would be the case if you followed this walkthrough faithfully), your other opion is !Gaia. It'll either summon a Stalactite attack which kills the Skull Eater (it's a very powerful attack) or use Ignus Fatuus, which will confuse it half of the time. With a Flame Rod equipped, it may even kill it. If it uses !Incisor on itself, it's dead. If not, it's Battle, re-directing Skull Eater's attention to you without dealing any damage. Try again! Note that you won't get a listing from a Skull Eater in your Bestiary until you actually kill one. If you, for some reason, don't want to use !Gaia or !Throw, you can simply outlast the Skull Eater with Phoenix Downs and Raise spells, since they'll only kill one character maximum every turn. Every turn they have a 1/3 chance of using Flee, so it's a waiting game this way. A costly one, since Raise is MP-heavy and Phoenix Downs slam a hole in your wallet, but two White or Red casters should suffice to keep your team alive throughout the cave. Also note that the Cave of Jachol is somewhat of an ABP goldmine, since the Skull Eaters give 5 ABP and you'll see them often. This could be a good time to learn, say, the Beastmaster's !Control. I suggest you make at least a single character a Ninja; no punishment by any means, the Ninja gives a boost to your Preemptive attack rate, which increases your odds of besting a Skull Eater prior to it killing a character. The skull switch next to the entrance does nothing now and is only meant to open the entrance if you want to back-track. Pressing the other skull switch pushes back a large rock wall, freeing the path to a line-up of skull switches. Once you reach it, you could go pressing skull switches like some kind of moron, but that's not the way to go. Simply wait, and eventually the 'true' skull switch will be the only one not to disappear. Quickly press it before the other ones come back (making the skull switch ineffective) and another path opens. The door here is won't open, but there's a button in the opened chest next to it to open it. Crap, another opened chest even in this new room. However, all other chests contain items! There's a Shuriken and a Tent in the two chests you can easily reach to the left. Walk around to the third (and final) chest, and you may be able to open it for a Blitz Whip, but only if you haven't released Lone Wolf back in Walse Castle. If you have, the treasure will be gone. The Blitz Whip has a 33 % chance of casting Thunder (it's a non-elemental weapon by itself) so it won't paralyze creatures like the normal Whip does. Still Back Row OK like all whips, and it's Battle Power equals that of the Ashura (though damage output will be lower due to the Ashura's critical hits). A Beastmaster with Barehanded and the Blitz Whip deals comparable damage to a Monk of equal level punching in the Front Row. This is all. You can climb out of the north wall to enter the Overworld Map (possibly to use a Tent or to Save). Simply track back by logical means. You have no business in Jachol either anymore, so let's get back on the Fire-Powered Ship! Now, sails to the south-west until you've gone around the continent and then set sail for the south. You'll pass the map's edge and appear north; there's a continent to your south-east (the far north-west corner of the map). And on this continent, there is a town! It's Istory, town of waterfalls, another summon beast, sheep and a new Black spell. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.17.1 Shores of Istory ********************************** Opponents: Black Flame (#53), Stone Golem (#54) Blue Spells: Dark Spark Light-green grasslands: Always: Black Flame, Black Flame, Black Flame, Black Flame, Black Flame Dark-green grasslands: 58 % Stone Golem, Black Flame, Black Flame 42 % Black Flame, Black Flame, Black Flame, Black Flame, Black Flame Black Flames have a 50 % Evasion rating and a fairly high Magic Defense. Pair that with their absorption of Wind, Earth, Holy and Poison (meaning !Gaia is useless against them) and you've got some resistant cretins. They also wield Dark Spark, a Blue spell that halves the targets level when successful. Next to normal level-based Hit Rate checks, it can't be blocked by any means so it works on any target once you get around to a possible horrible Hit Rate. The way to go, if possible, is multi-target magical attacks that don't suffer in power when multi-targeted. Black Flames can't avoid the effects of !Sing, so Romeo's Ballad is quite effective in Stopping them if you already have a Bard around. Flame Rod Hellfire performed by Ifrit is a good one, Aqua Breath is expensive but successful, and especially the Ninja's scrolls work like a charm (while Black Flame is weak to Water- elemental attacks, you'll probably only have Thunder Scrolls in mass). Learn Dark Spark! Now children, it is time to learn about Dark Spark. Dark Spark halves the target's level and rounds down when the result isn't a whole number. Dark Spark has a poor hit rate, but nothing is immune to it! Dark Spark cuts down offense of the affected target obviously, but the target's level is also affected when levels are checked for various attacks, such as Goblin Punch, Level 5 Death, the works. Since Level 5 Death ignores Death immunity as well as the Heavy nature, smart application of Dark Spark spell can net you a two-turn instant defeat. In addition, if you didn't learn Level 5 Death earlier because your level wasn't right at the time, know that you can also affect your own level with Dark Spark, learning is now an option if you can take your level to something that can be divided by 5. Stone Golems are the opposite. They won't evade anything, but their Magic Defense is through the roof (50) and their Defense is fairly solid as well. The real kicker is their inherent Protect status that halves all physical damage done to them, even those that would normally ignore Defense. They're weak versus Lightning-elemental attacks, meaning Thunder Rod Thundara spells, Lightning Scrolls, Two-Handed Coral Swords and things like that work really well. Like all stone monsters, Stone Golem will die automatically when a Gold Needle item is used on it, which is also an option. They make quite potent lackeys as well; when Released, they perform Earthquake, an MT Earth-elemental attack that deals around 600 damage. You can, of course, prance into the forest, but I'll talk about all that after visiting Istory. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.17.2 The town of Istory ********************************** Black Spells: Toad Songs: Romeo's Ballad Welcome to the one-Starbucks town called Istory. There are a few sights to behold, so let's scout around. Armor Shop: Flame Ring 50000 Gil Coral Ring 50000 Gil Angel Ring 50000 Gil If you're having horrible flashbacks to endless Gil-hoarding games such as the original Final Fantasy, don't worry. You are not expected to buy any of these at this time; if you've been leveling you may have enough Gil to buy one, but you shouldn't as it will seriously cut your financial supplies you'll need in the future. Fluctuation-buffers are the basis of any responsible financial plan, I dare say! Just for kicks (or if you do decide to buy one of these right now or in the near future, which wouldn't be unthinkable per se): The Flame and Coral Rings concern themselves with elemental properties. The Flame Ring allows you to absorb Fire-elemental attacks and nullify the effects of Ice-elemental attacks. Water-elemental attacks will deal double damage, however. Also, it grants 5 Defense, 5 Magic Defense and 5% extra Magic Block. The Coral Ring is the opposite of the Flame Ring, kinda. It absorbs Water- elemental attacks, nullifies Fire-elemental attacks and takes double damage from Lightning-elemental attacks. Also, 5 Defense, 5 Magic Defense and 5% extra Magic Block. The Angel Ring has no elemental properties. Instead, it gives 10 (!) Magic Defense, 5 Defense, 10 % extra Magic Block and protects against the Old and Zombie status ailments. If you were to buy anything, I'd suggest this one; while the status immunities probably aren't as useful as the elemental properties (now), the sheer defensive properties of the Angel Ring as incredibly useful in this stage of the game. A hint: with a Flame Ring equipped any character with access to a Flame Bow or a self-targetable Fire-elemental spell can now heal itself/any target with a Flame Ring equipped. This is useful information in single Job challenges. Black Mages will want them for a far easier time, and Archers can do it as well. Flame Rings are a staple of a lot of challenges, as a lot of Single Class Challenges are such can only be completed by getting four Flame Rings here. Magic Shop: Gravity 620 Gil Stop 580 Gil Haste 320 Gil Mute 320 Gil Slow 80 Gil Regen 100 Gil Yeah, whatever. You should be able to cast any of the above anyway. If you haven't, here's where you can buy them again. Item Shop: Potion 40 Gil Antidote 30 Gil Eye Drops 20 Gil Maiden's Kiss 60 Gil Mallet 50 Gil Gold Needle 150 Gil Phoenix Down 1000 Gil Tent 250 Gil Normal items, but do note the hidden passage here leading to the back room! There's nothing there, some item shop owners just like their privacy. These guys live here, there are no normal houses in FFVA towns. You try bringing home a girl and running a 24-hour Item Shop. A little girl tips you off on a small surprise regarding the flowerbed. If you touch all the flower squares, the middle one will open up, a frog will come leaping out and give you the Black Toad spell. Sweet! Too bad it's not a Spellblade spell, really...to be more accurate, the exact requirements for obtaining the Toad spell are this: Touch all x squares and then touch the @ square: x0x 0 0 x0@ Nah, not really useful to know, but for trivia :P The big happening of the town is the sheep pen. Seems even duller than where I was born. The sheep in the bottom-right corner isn't a sheep at all, rather a girl in a Beastmaster costume. The sheep in the top-left corner is angry with the world and what it gives him, and rather than resorting to such gems as 'One step closer' by Linkin Park, he decides to kick you over the fence... but only if you talk to it from behind. Here, you'll meet a bard who teaches you Romeo's Ballad if you answer his question with 'Yes'. You're not lying, after all. Romeo here obviously referring to Shakespeare's play. Romeo was in love with some wench called Rosaline, but promptly forgot her upon meeting thirteen-year old Julia at some fancy dress party. He sneaks out and calls to his Julia on the balcony. Long story short, everybody dies and it's all Cupid's fault. Best to stay indoors and play video games instead! O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear; Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear! So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows, As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows. The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand, And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand. Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night. You can't perform Songs yet, I know. You'll be able to sing in the future, though. You can do anything you set your mind to. No, I mean it. Really. Now, go. There was an old man in the forest who can conjure up lightning. If this mere fact doesn't infuriate you enough to seek him out and beat him up, you haven't been taking your steroids. For preparation, equip Silver Specs on every physical fighter and remove any Coral Sword of Trident you might have equipped as they will heal the super-random encounter we're going to hunt down. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.17.3 The forests of Istory and the battle with Ramuh ********************************** Opponents: Mythril Dragon (#36), Black Flame (#53), Stone Golem (#54), Mini Dragon (#55), Ramuh (#255) Miscellaneous items: Dragon Fang (rare Mini Dragon steal) Summon spells: Ramuh Blue Spells: Dark Spark, Flash Pre-Ramuh smackdown odds: 70 % Ramuh 23 % Mini Dragon x 5 6 % Stone Golem, Black Flame x 2 Post-Ramuh smackdown odds: 70 % Mythril Dragon 23 % Mini Dragon x 5 6 % Stone Golem, Black Flame x 2 The Mini Dragon formation is actually incredibly powerful, so even with the preparations I'm going to give you it'd be wise to save up in advance. Mini Dragon Level: 22, HP: 1000, MP: 100 Defense: 30, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 30%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Dragon Fang (rare) Creature: Dragon Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Toad, Slow Attacks: Attack, Frostbite Mini Dragons can be encountered when chasing after Ramuh. They're the best source for Gil and Experience Points in World 1, so it's no surprise they're tough. Mini Dragons will often simply use Battle, but have a 33 % chance of using Frostbite every turn. It's a weak MT Ice-elemental attack without any special properties, but coming from Mini Dragon's colossal 50 Magical Power and a multiplier of 8 it'll leave a mark ranging from 120 (Heavy Armor characters) to 40 (Gaia Gear Magical characters). This seems bearable, but remember: there are five potential casters every turn. Mini Dragons have some pretty nasty defenses to overcome; while not quite as high as Stone Golem's defenses, these guys come in groups of five and have 1000 HP, so it balances out. They aren't vulnerable to any kind of prominent status ailment except for Toad and have no elemental weakness. A normally leveled Toad caster will generally hit 2 or 3 out of the five Mini Dragons so keeping them under your thumb with the Toad status isn't very easy (time-consuming mostly, as you'll want to MT Toad on the group, than pick apart every non-transformed dragon with Pond's Chorus or the spell). Catching one could be a good idea as these babies cast Holy upon Release, which is damn powerful. Again, multi-target magical attacks are the key. Aqua Breath, Thunder Rod Ramuh (or Flame Rod Ifrit if you haven't obtained the lightning-elemental geezer yet) and Ninja scrolls will decimate the little guys in three hits. Make sure you get to use these skills, else you're pretty much dead already. They have a rare Dragon Fang for Steal, but the odds are so low you'll actually score one I'm going to assume you'll never ever get one. Anyway, we're not here to play around. There's a random encounter in these forests by the name of Ramuh. Fight him once and have him perform his final speech to get him out of the way once and for all. There are ways around his final speech (setting either Berserk or Stop on him will prevent him from using the speech) which will make him appear after you've defeated him, but we're going to assume you have no business doing something like that. Ramuh Level: 21, HP: 4000, MP: 300 Defense: 20, Magic Defense: 5 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: High Potion (always) Win: Ramuh (always) Absorbs: Lightning Creature: Humanoid Specialty: !Rod Specialty Effect: Adds sap & aging Vulnerable to: Death, Mini, Darkness, Berserk, Stop, Slow Attacks: Battle, Thundara, Mini, Osmose, Flash, Electrocute, Lightning Ramuh is the Lightning-elemental counterpart to Shiva and Ifrit, and the most powerful of the three. He attacks with a barrage of Lightning-elemental spells, and even his Battle command looks like it was performed by a Thunder Rod. Electrocute is still very weak, but his Thundara spells hit hard; cast upon a single target, it'll likely cripple if not kill the unfortunate target. I don't think we've gone over Lightning before; it's basically Blaze/Breath Wing in a Lightning-elemental jacket, meaning it deals (maximum HP / 4) damage to every character. Flash is annoying as hell and can be learned by Blue Mages if they haven't already from Crew Dust or a Blockhead. Silver Specs can protect your physical sluggers; while the mages may avoid its effect due to their Magic Evasion, those with Heavy Armor will almost surely get hit without Silver Specs. Note that the rare physical attack Ramuh uses is a very special one. It provokes no Counter-attacks, nor does it dispel the Confuse, Sleep or Singing status you should not have at the moment. Ramuh has a few status vulnerabilities. Flash will work on him, Berserk attempts by either the Kiss of Blessing (Maiden's Kiss + Revivify) or the Bacchus' Wine (Revivify + Turtle Shell), and Stop by means of the Bard's Romeo's Ballad. I'm talking about !Mix and !Sing here, neither of which you have at the moment :/ If you have the Mini spell (if you've followed this walkthrough you don't have it yet) then Ramuh can be shrunk, but he will retaliate by casting the Mini spell on your entire party as well. Picking on somebody your own size is an important combat ethos, after all. However, the most glaring weakness Ramuh has lies in its lack of Heavy nature and his vulnerability to the Death status. Since he's not Heavy, the Stop status lasts a long time; and !Flirt, Gravity, Missile and Death Claw will work; because of the latter, the Death Sickle's 33 % Death spell will kill it. Releasing a Mani Wizard (Death) or a Corbette (Tail Screw) also works. If you've been following the walkthrough, Death Claw is clearly your best bet, but a combination of Slow, Stop and Gravity coming from your Time casters is also a very effective strategy. On pure damage output, !Releasing any Mini Dragon will result into an incredibly powerful Holy spell (around 2000 damage in a single hit), Berserkers perform very well at this stage of the game and !Black and !Summon spells, boosted with appropriate Rods, also get the job done very nicely. If you haven't been drinking too much in the last couple of years, you should remember me talking about the combination of Dark Spark and Level 5 Death; Dark Spark will reduce Ramuh's effective level from 21 to 10, turning him into a valid target for Level 5 Death. It's a two-hit instant defeat combo available to characters of all levels! Ramuh: ...Ifrit? What are you doing here? Ifrit: Lord Ramuh! I see you have become even more powerful. If you would lend that strength to us... Ramuh: Ifrit! No need to say more. You and I have never been enemies! After the fight you'll get a 'Ramuh' item. Maybe some summon beasts having an item has a storyline purpose, but I bet it's just because the programmers couldn't figure out how to unlock a summon beast right after a random encounter battle on the Overworld Map. Anyway, use the item in the menu to watch it disappear and unlock Ramuh for your Summoner. We're done here. Let's sail to the South-East, where Crescent Island is located. It's the crescent-shaped island. The innovation! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.18.1 The town of Crescent ********************************** Features: Piano Songs: Mighty March The people and Jachol talked about how there was something underneath of Crescent Island. When talking to the people here, it seems the soil is especially fertile but strange noises well up sometimes, and there are earthquakes. An inconveniently timed earthquake swallows up the Fire-Powered Ship as well, stranding you on the Island. Let's look around. Some girl tells you about the fact that rock-like creatures don't like Gold Hairpins; a reference to Gold Needles, not the headgear! Armor Shop: Plumed Hat 300 Gil Sage's Surplice 1000 Gil You shouldn't need to buy either, but if you find yourself lacking a frontal lobe, this is your chance to redeem yourself. Weapon Shop: Flame Bow 2500 Gil Frost Bow 2500 Gil Thunder Bow 2500 Gil Silver Harp 800 Gil Four weapons for Jobs you haven't obtained yet. You will soon, though. You'll win an Frost Bow in a boss battle not very long from now, and there's a chance you won a Fire Bow from Liquid Flame earlier. The Thunder Bow is the only one of interest anyway, so if you want to utilize a possible archer-like Job, buy that one. The Silver Harp is a horrible weapon. Rather than dealing physical damage or even dealing physical damage depending on your Magic Power (like Bells do), Harps simply cast a spell specially designed to be used by said Harps. The notes coming out of the Silver Harp deal exactly 1/16 of the target's current HP. Useless. Also requires two hands to be used. Item Shop: Potion 40 Gil Antidote 30 Gil Eye Drops 20 Gil Maiden's Kiss 60 Gil Mallet 50 Gil Gold Needle 150 Gil Phoenix Down 1000 Gil Tent 250 Gil I wonder how they make Maiden's Kisses. I wonder how you carry them in your pocket. I also wonder if in the Maiden's Kisses industry of Final Fantasy V, pretty young girls are fired for consuming a forbidden love, thus turning their products tainted. In general, making out with a toad doesn't turn the toad into something other than a toad, unless its one of those psychoactive toads, in which case anything could appear to happen, from toads turning into princesses to ATM machines demanding you feed it a stray cat. In a house to the south-east, there's a bard living by himself. He'll teach you the Mighty March, which sets Regen on all characters. Not all that good, but can't hurt. He then urges you to play some tunes on his piano, but even though you can (and should) play the piano here, it's apparently not good enough for him to compose any new songs. The tune you play is the first March from his three military marches, in D Major; it was originally composed by mister Franz Peter Schubert for 4 hands (quatre-mains) and could thus only be played by two players simultaneously. Some dude mentions a Black Chocobo in the forest. Legend has that these creatures are able to fly, which is a precious ability since we've lost our freaking Fire-Powered Ship and we need to get out of this place. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.18.2 Crescent Island and the Black Chocobo ********************************** Opponents: Doublizard (#50), Bio Soldier (#51), Harvester (#52), Black Flame (#53) Miscellaneous items: Death Sickle (rare Harvester drop), War Hammer (rare Bio Soldier steal) Blue Spells: Dark Spark 35 % Bio Soldier, Doublizard, Harvester 35 % Harvester, Harvester, Doublizard 30 % Harvester, Harvester, Black Flame, Black Flame The only new enemy here is Harvester. His business in attacking you is unclear, but he carries some neat weapons around. He has a common Silver Bow to Steal (useless to equip now that you have access to elemental bows which are slightly stronger, but great for selling) and will rarely drop a Death Sickle. The Death Sickle is a great weapon. It's extremely powerful and has a 33 % chance of casting Death which is an incredibly awesome side-effect that will even affect some bosses. If you ever want to use one of those spiffy Berserker employees, now's the time. Twohanded is Death Sickle's best friend, obviously. The tiny forest to the south of Crescent? Enter the middle square and you'll enter the forest. Here's the Black Chocobo. With Bartz, you get to catch it. If you want to quit, you can always talk to your fellow teammates. The Black Chocobo basically runs until it hits an object (the side, a tree, Bartz), then randomly picks a direction it wasn't running to previously and starts running that-a-way. Catching it isn't that hard. It won't fly properly, though. Faris smacks two Crystal Shards out of the bird; the two Crystal shards from the Fire Crystal we hadn't recovered yet! Finally, the Bard gives us a way to utilize the two Songs we have learned. It's also capable of equipping the crappy Silver Harp. The Ranger gives us a way to deal with the Bows. There's the Ranger and the Bard that have been added to your options. Both have their void to fill in this game, so let's take a look: The Ranger is another Job which is hard to classify, so I suggest you learn a bit about what they are and how they perform. They learn !Animals after 15 ABP, which is a great action ability for any mage to have. They're most notable for their capstone ability !Rapid Fire, which is made of awesome. [RANGER-LINK] The Bard has low stats and very poor equipment options, but !Sing is really awesome. Multi-target unblockable Stop status? Sign me up. [BARD-LINK] It takes only 175 ABP to learn !Sing, and it's an incredibly useful action ability that functions almost entirely independant of stats so any Job can use it effectively. The Ranger often struggles to match the damage output of other physical damage classes; Barehanded provides a damage boost that puts an arrow- happy Ranger on par with a Monk of equal level. Now that you have the Black Chocobo, our direct mission objective is going to the Library of the Ancients and talk to Cid 'nd Mid and complain about our lack of modus transporti. However, first you should make sure that you've found a Death Sickle if you have any intention of being awesome. Also, there's some other things we can do before finding Cid 'nd Mid, and since the latter are boring anyway, I suggest we do them first. Note: never park the Black Chocobo in the middle of this forest, as you'll have to catch it again :< Some like his dance upon capture, but there are also some who use scotch as deodorant so some clearly don't know what's right and wrong in the world. This is an exceptional opportunity for you to revisit Castle Walse and brawl with Jackanapes. There are two strategies you can follow. If you learned Level 5 Death at the Library of the Ancients, casting it versus Jackanapes will end the battle in your favor by killing Jackanapes outright. If you lack Level 5 Death, you can utilize Berserkers for a more troublesome but ultimately effective run. Two-Handed is a big bonus, as is the Death Sickle or War Hammer. Go in with a Berserker frontloaded with violent tendencies and a Thief to deflect Back Attacks. Have a Time Mage cast Haste upon the Berserker(s). Wait and keep yourself alive. After a few misses here and there, Jackanapes should be paste on the floor. Now casually stroll around, opening chests like it's just another day's work. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.19.1 The town of Lix ********************************** Opponents: Goblin (#1), Killer Bee (#5), Nutkin (#6), Stray Cat (#7) Songs: Alluring Air Surrounding forest: 35 % Nutkin x3 35 % Stray Cat x4 23 % Stray Cat, Killer Bee, Nutkin 6 % Killer Bee, Goblin Let's go to the last town we haven't visited yet, the town of Lix. It's located to the north-west of the Wind Shrine, is surrounded by weak monsters, forest and mountains. There are exactly three cutscenes centered around Bartz to be triggered here. One is triggered when you sleep at Lix' Inn (which will cost you nothing). It explains Bartz' history with his parents and explains why he is the adventurer he is now. The cutscene will remove the "Memento" rare item from your inventory, a rare item that serves no purpose. Another one is triggered when talking to the scholar running around town, who is a childhood friend of Bartz. His fear of heights (remember his reluctance regarding getting on the Wind Drake?) is showcased. The most important one is located in Bartz' old house where a bard now lives. A music box (the pink one) can be played, sinking Bartz into his memories. After the scene concerning the death of Stella, you can talk to the bard who'll teach you the Alluring Air, in my personal opinion the second-best Song there is; it sets Confuse to the entire enemy pary at no MP cost. Some claim the "Stella!!!" bit is a reference to A Streetcar named Desire. Other sources claim the S-M-R-T smart line from Bartz' scholar friend was taken from a Simpsons episode. Other sources still claim that the illuminati did 9-11. Believe what you will! The other notable features here are the shops. The Item Shop is important because due to Bartz being some kind of super-jock around these parts, the merchant will cut his prices down by 50 %. Stock up on items if you wish, it'll be especially useful when you want to play around with the !Mix ability in the future. Upstairs, there's more goodies: Weapon Shop: Kunai 600 Gil Shuriken 2500 Gil Flame Scroll 200 Gil Thunder Scroll 200 Gil Water Scroll 200 Gil Mainly just interesting due to the Scrolls that can now be bought in large quantities. First time you get to lay your hands on Water Scrolls, too. In the upcoming 'dungeon', most enemies will be weak to Water-elemental attacks, so Water Scrolls are nice to have. Shuriken are great to have as well, but they're very expensive. I'd say, buy 20 of each Scroll and two Shuriken, they'll serve you well. Armor Shop: Green Beret 2500 Gil Ninja Suit 3000 Gil The Armor Shop is also ninja-based, but this attire could've been purchased in Jachol four score and five centuries ago. Magic Shop: Esuna 3000 Gil If you missed the status ailment restoration spell in the exploding castle of Karnak, you can simply buy it here. It cures most status ailments, but not spasms. Item Shop: Ether 750 Gil Potion 40 Gil Antidote 30 Gil Eye Drops 20 Gil Mallet 50 Gil Maiden's Kiss 60 Gil Gold Needle 150 Gil Tent 250 Gil While most Item Shops across the world are identical, this one is different; not only is everything only half-priced, you cannot buy Phoenix Downs here but you CAN get Ethers. Maybe that whole Stella tragedy could have been averted, had this loser been decent enough to offer Phoenix Downs like every other normal Item Shop. Oh well, stock up on outdoor housing; this is the winter of our discount Tents. That's Shakespeare humor for ya! That's all, folks! Time to go to the Library of the Ancients. There, you'll learn that building a new Fire-Powered Ship and searching the seas for the Earth Crystal will have to wait for a while; King Tycoon was found in the Desert of Shifting Sands, and if anything he should be more than able to tell us something. If he's not being mind-controlled or something, obviously. The upcoming boss battle features a creature with the Desert nature. It'll cause Aqua Breath to deal 8 times as much damage. It you never learned the spell from Dhorme Chimera, now's the time. Get to the Desert of the Shifting Sands! Cid 'n Mid will chime the bells of your demise. I mean, to summon the Sandworm. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.20.1 The battle with the Sandworm ********************************** Opponents: Sandworm (#256) Sandworm Level: 18, HP: 3000, MP: 10125 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 10% Weakness: Water Creature: Desert Creature, Heavy Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Battle, Gravity, Quicksand Here's the deal. There are three Holes which Sandworm will regularly pop out. Every time you hit a hole with a non-Magic attack, it has a 66 % counter rate with a Gravity spell. The Sandworm in the meantime will use Battle and a move called Quicksand. Quicksand is an Earth-elemental attack that will deal 60 damage to everybody and set the Sap status. Note that the physical attack the Sandworm uses is like the physical attack used by Ramuh; it does not provoke Counters, nor does it dispel status ailments such as Confuse or Sleep. MT magical attacks are the way to go. Aqua Breath deals 8 times as much damage to Sandworm since it's a Desert creature. A normally leveled Blue caster will take out Sandworm in a single attack. Releasing a Dhorme Chimera will deal about 2300 damage, thoroughly crippling him (nets you counter-Gravity spells though). Water Scrolls are very powerful, especially if the character using !Throw has a mage's Magic Power, but they will provoke two Gravity spells as well. Summoning Thunder Rod Ramuh deals good damage too, and doesn't evoke counterattacks. It's not that hard a fight. Keep Berserkers away from this fight; they'll attack the holes most of the time. If your Death Sickle casts Doom on a hole, you'll get a chance of countering for both he physical strike and the added spell, strangely enough. When you're done, you've made a bridge. Excellent! *air guitar noises* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.20.2 The Desert of Shifting Sands and Gohn, the Town of Ruin ********************************** Opponents: Bomb (#49), Doublizard (#50), Bio Soldier (#51), Dhorme Chimera (#58), Sandboil (#59), Desert Killer (#60), Sand Bear (#61) Miscellaneous items: Javelin (rare Sand Bear steal) Blue Spells: Aqua Breath, Self-Destruct Desert of the Shifting Sands: 35 % Desert Killer, Desert Killer 35 % Desert Killer, Sandboil, Sandboil 23 % Sand Bear 6 % Sand Bear, Desert Killer, Sandboil Grasslands between the Desert of Shifting Sands and Gohn 35 % Bio Soldier x2 35 % Bomb x4 30 % Bomb x2 Grasslands around Gohn 35 % Bomb x2, Doublizard 35 % Bio Soldier x2 23 % Bomb x2 6 % Bomb x4 Patch of desert south of the Desert of Shifting Sands Always: Dhorme Chimera Sandboil will rarely use Spore, an attack that Poisons a single target. It's a desert-type creature like everything here and weak to the Water element Desert Killer is undead, weak to Water-elemental attacks and a Desert creature like logic would give us. They have the power to use Quicksand on their second turn, but you should've disposed of them before that. They may also Flee before you can kill them, but it's not bad. Sand Bear is just a big lug whose Special !Right Claw can set Sap in addition to dealing some physical damage. It's most prominent feature though is its rare Javelin Steal. The Javelin is a Spear and the most powerful weapon you can have at this point (even stronger than the Death Sickle). If you're a fan of the Freelancer class, you may want to pick one up here. Sand Bear has no common steal, so you'll get one eventually; the creature is vulnerable to every status ailment with the exception of Mini, so Pond's Chorus will help you in this fight greatly. Sand Bears are supremely powerful when caught, yielding a most impressive Strong Fight. They'll always drop an Antidote upon defeat. Ninja Water Scrolls are grand in this area; you could've bought them for 200 Gil a piece in Lix, and they instantly kill every random encounter here even without you having to boost the Ninja's Magic Power. !Gaia will have a fair chance of calling out Quicksand, which kills a target instantly. Sandstorm will set Darkness, so it's not like that's a total waste. Right, Down, Down until you can't go further (you'll be moved one tile to the left), then go left, down, there's the exit already in sight. You need to go around a single sandstream and you're there. You can find a Pyramid in the middle of the Desert of Shifting Sands, 'guarded' by two omnious looking gargoyles. However, there's nothing you can do here, so exploring the area will just get you some random encounters. At the end of the line, you'll come across Gohn, Town of Ruin. Here, King Tycoon will pop up every now and then, ever fleeing from your sight. You need to 'find' him a couple of times before you can corner him. First, you'll see him running away if you are trying to go up the stairs in front of you as soon as you enter Gohn. Now, there are three instances where you can see him. One is enough to proceed, but you can go find all three if you're so inclined: - South-east corner ruined house, to the left of the two green bushes - North-east corner ruined house, when trying to pass through the hole in the wall - To the far west is a staircase; if you approach it from the right, passing the thin leaveless tree Now, try to go up the stairs in the middle of Gohn again, where King Tycoon is waiting for you. The floor will cave in underneath you, and finally it is revealed what we had already guesses: the pirate captain Faris Sherwiz is actually Tycoon's long-lost heiress Sarisa Tycoon. Regardless, we need to split. Find the transporter to move. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.21.1 Ancient Ronka Ruins under Crescent Island ********************************** Opponents: Crayclaw (#257) Container contents: Shuriken x2 Miscellaneous items: Frost Bow (guaranteed Crayclaw drop) White Spells: Mini Action sequence! Mid 'nd Cid fly the Black Chocobo to Crescent Island (no, you dafts, not in the middle of the forest!) while you escape with your lives intact from the broken teleporter room. When you can move again, you'll eventually reach a door. Don't mess with it yet, but go down instead, around the staircase. There's a bedroom where you can rest a while (do so, there's a boss fight coming up). Thought the left door, you can see three chests and a button. Pushing the button won't remove the wall, though. What the hell? Buttons ALWAYS remove walls, it's RPG tradition. The button gives you a mission. Complete the following tasks in this order, as indicated by every mission statement: Enter the bedroom and decline the option to rest up. The right-most flowerbed holds a new step: Take a look at the right-most notes on the table There are two urns in the left room. Examining the left one will reveal a frog who will stomp out a book. Damned lever again! Pull it to have the wall removed. Actually, you could've just declined the offer of Pushing the button to open up the option of Pulling the lever right there, but that was more fun. The chests contain two Shuriken and the White Mini spell. This is likely your first encounter with the Mini status; it changes the affected target's sprite, sets Defense to 0, doubles Evasion% (but not Magic Evasion%) and physical damage is sharply reduced. Now, go back to where you emerged on this level, push the button to open the door (back in the forest, Cid 'nd Mid will fall through a hole in the floor). Continue to find a Save Point, your old Fire-Powered Ship (yes, you can enter the machine room and fight the monsters there if you want to, possibly use your newly-learned !Control to get a Motor Trap to cast Missile on you). Cid 'nd Mid will join you, get excited over the ship since it has propellers and make it fly. Talk to Cid for some trouble. Cray Claw Level: 43, HP: 2000, MP: 500 Defense: 25, Magic Defense: 25 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Coral Sword (common) Win: Frost Bow (always) Absorbs: Water Weakness: Lightning Creature: Heavy, Magic Beast Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow Attacks: Battle, Tailscrew, Slimer Cray Claw is pathetic. He's got a glaring weakness to Lightning-elemental attacks, so Thunder Scrolls, Two-Handed Thundara swords, Two-Handed Coral Swords, Thunder Rod Ramuh and simple Thundara spells take him out in two or three shots. He is vulnerable to the Death Sickle's random Death spell, can be put to Sleep, can be Paralyzed by the Whip, can be Stopped by Romeo's Ballad, Latch On and !Calm, you name it. Note that when you don't exploit his weakness(es), it will suddenly become painfully obvious that Crayclaw's defenses are fairly harsh for this time of the game, so this might prove some kind of roadblock of a battle in certain challenges. With a Guarding Knight present, Craw Claw can only hope to kill a character with a combination of Slimer-induced Sap and Tailscrew, which is quite a rare occurrence. At worst this is a slow battle, not a hard one. With cheese biscuits ...and mashed potatoes? After all's said and done, Cid 'nd Mid are geniuses and you have an airship! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.21.2 Airship Exploitation; Prototype ********************************** Opponents: Prototype (#56) Miscellaneous items: Dark Matter (guaranteed Prototype drop) Blue Spells: Flame Thrower, Missile If you were to lazy to visit Jachol, Istory and Lix with the Fire-Powered Ship or the Black Chocobo, now's the time. You're not getting any more reason to do so than you have now. Also, let's take a look at Prototype now, an enemy that's of great interest to you if you like to work with some of the more funky attacks. You need to have !Control to successfully defeat the thing without really going out of your way, though. Prototype Level: 23, HP: 5000, MP: 1000 Defense: 100, Magic Defense: 100 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Ether (common) Win: Dark Matter (always) Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Petrify, Darkness, Berserk, Silence, Slow Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Missile, Flame Thrower, Mustard Bomb, Blaster Prototype lives on the islands that lie between Crescent Island and the Jachol region, on the ones with forest (among others). He's the only encounter here, so you're bound to run into one. Prototype has 5000 HP, both Defense and Magic Defense are 100, is Heavy, and is only vulnerable to Petrify, Darkness, Silence and Berserk, all of which are either very hard to set or pretty worthless. He has no elemental weaknesses to pierce those defenses either. Why is he interesting and still defeatable? In addition to some physical attacks, he may use Missile (cuts current HP by 75 % unless the target is Heavy), Mustard Bomb (barrier-piercing non-elemental attack that also sets Sap), Blaster (sets either Paralyze or Death) and Flame Thrower (an ST Fire-elemental attack as strong as Aera). Your Blue Mage can learn both Missile and Flame Thrower. He'll use both randomly, so just wait. Aside from his incredible HP and defenses and level, his attacks aren't particularly lethal (though Blaster may one-hit kill a character). He also drops a Dark Matter every time he is defeated. The !Mix ability of a Job you'll get in the future can use these items, otherwise very rare, to create a Death Potion, an unblockable attack that sets Death. Since exactly 6 bosses are vulnerable to this attack and the Death Potion is far and away the best way to exploit it, I suggest you slay at least five Prototypes (you'll get one after a boss battle). The key to defeat is to !Control him and have him use Self-Destruct on himself. If, for some reason, you don't want to use !Control, you could Catch an Undead Husk in the Ship Graveyard; upon Release, it'll cast Break, which has quite a decent chance of turning the robot to stone, winning you the battle. Off-Guard can put a dent in his defenses, setting him up for normal salvage; it's a bore since 5000 HP is a lot, but it'll get the job done. Flame Thrower on a Blue caster with a Flame Rod is the most powerful spell a Blue caster has, and Missile is just a better Gravity spell. They're both good additions. He makes for a good !Catch as well, using Mega Flare to deal around 1000 damage to all enemies on-screen. Getting one is probably more effort than it's worth, though. If you must, you'll have to resort to fixed HP damage attacks to get him weak enough. Get one or more Zu monsters !Released for 1250 damage for every bird you set free. Whittle down the rest with Self-Destruct, ??? and/or Vampire spells. There! With Prototype, #56, slain you now have finished your Bestiary from #1 to #61, having encountered and killed every creature so far. Another note: With the new information regarding Lenna and Faris being siblings and all, a new cutscene opens up at Castle Tycoon; as soon as you enter the castle the Chancellor will once again offer you staying for the night, during which a memory will be shared between Lenna, Faris and the player. You're not really getting anything out of it, but it deepens character(s). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.22.1 The Ancient Ruins and the battle with Adamantoise ********************************** Opponents: Adamantoise (#258) Remember Gohn, Town of Ruin, where you almost had a confrontation with King Tycoon, south of the Desert of Shifting Sands? Fly near it (or approach the location by foot, it's pretty much the same) and the entire town will, holy freaking God, rise into the air. Trivia: the newly found desert houses grassland enemies. Let's ask Cid 'nd Mid what we should be doing now. It seems even the hidden characters that the Ronka civilization is composed of nowadays have also realized, at some unspecified point in the past, that the Earth Crystal is about the shatter. Which is bad news, but logical enough. They landed the city as to no longer burden the Earth Crystal, but it seems somebody under the powers of Exdeath has initiated flight sequence again. We need to stop that, but we can't reach the thing. Fortunately, the frontal lobes of Mid 'nd Cid are active as always. There's crazy talk of Adamantite which can strengthen the hull or whatever. Let's go find it, it's located in the Tycoon meteorite Galuf traveled in. When you open the Meteor, dive inside and remove the Adamantite from its location, you've DOOMED yourself. Trying to exit will have a powerful foe deliver woe onto thee. Stand your guard! Adamantoise Level: 20, HP: 2000, MP: 125 Defense: 25, Magic Defense: 5 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 50% Steal: Iron Draft (common) Win: Turtle Shell (always) Weakness: Ice Status: Protect, Shell Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Poison, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Silence, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical Attack Adamantoise is an interesting enemy. He just attacks with a barrage of powerful physical attacks, meaning he falls to the !Guard/Counter combo. He is vulnerable to Ice-elemental attacks, but since he's not Heavy and not protected from Instant Death attacks you'll want to nail him with attacks that take advantage of that. However, note that every time a magical attack would normally connect, it may miss versus Adamantoise due to his inherent Shell status, which in this game does not only affect magical damage output but actually reduces the Hit Rate of blockable magic attack by 50 %. Missile, Gravity and Death Claw all work on the guy, but you'll have a hard time actually hitting him with it. This also makes attacks like Flash, Poison and Slow often miss. Also, magical attacks that would normally cut straight through this guy's defenses (Ice-elemental attacks) are still halved in damage, so even Frost Rod Blizzara attacks will do around 600 damage. Two-Handed Blizzara Spellblades cut a big gaping hole in his HP pool, though, even through Protect. Level 5 Death is Adamantoise's bane; it's unblockable and nails him in a single shot. Basically, engage the boss with full HP on everybody, stick in the Back Row, equip Main Gauches and Elven Mantles where possible and you should prevail; you can't rely per se on sneaky tactics, but you should be fully prepared to simply outmuscle the guy. If not, set !Guard on a Monk and there's no losing. Fly back to the Catapult near Crescent Island so Cid 'nd Mid can get down and dirty with your airship and the Adamantite you brought them. Meanwhile, you rest up and replenish HP/MP like you should. In the morning: cannons! Bollocks. You can now use the action button where ever you are on the Overworld Map to either go up or down. Going up will allow you to face the flying ruins of Ronka (why are they called ruins?). Note: the Thief's Sprint support ability can speed up the ship. There are four small cannons here; face them to engage in a battle. Just for funsies, here's an example of one some focused builds you could have at the moment, modeled after my own personal favorites: LV 4 Knight LV 2 Monk LV 1 Berserker Kills stuff dead with great weapons, Barehanded was used early on to boost Knight damage and to give the Berserker an accurate alternative, now either Two-Handed or Berserk is used to boost damage depending on my love for the shield at that moment. Can change to Magic Knight in a jiffy versus bosses when so wished. LV 3 Blue Mage LV 3 Red Mage LV 2 Summoner / LV 3 Time Mage LV 1 Geomancer LV 1 Ranger Magic cannon, shoots spells and healing when appropriate. Both skillsets can be used on a Summoner or something from now on to boost damage. The Ranger is there for !Animals, which uses Magic Power and can be used for healing and miscellaneous effects. LV 2 Monk LV 2 Thief LV 2 Ninja LV 3 Blue Mage LV 2 Beastmaster Barehanded is used on Ninja, Thief and Beastmaster for extra damage, even if I want their special weapons (Barehanded boosts Strength, thus damage). The utility character. !Blue can be used on a Ninja to boost Scrolls and gives Goblin Punch and Vampire. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.23.1 The cannons of the Flying Ronka Civilization ********************************** Opponents: Flame Thrower (-), Rocket Launcher (-), Soul Cannon (#259), Launcher (#260), Launcher (#261) Miscellaneous items: Dark Matter (guaranteed Soul Cannon drop) Blue pells: Flame Thrower, Missile The two outer cannons each represent Formation A, the two inner cannons each represent Formation B. Formation A: Flame Thrower (common) Rocket Launcher x2 (rare) Formation B: Rocket Launcher x2 (common) Flame Thrower x2 (rare) The Flame Throwers will do nothing but use Flame Thrower, which is a Blue spell you could've learned from Prototype earlier. You can't miss it here. The Rockets will use either Missile or Rocket Punch. Rocket Punch is an attack that your Blue Mage can't learn. It cuts down current HP by 50 %, but also adds the Confuse status. Berserkers are nice against them; the Death Scythe and/or War Hammer is powerful, and Berserkers are inherently immune to the Confuse status. Knights with Berserk set can wield Coral Swords, which is also great as it targets their elemental weakness. The Flame Thrower will always drop some Speed Shakes; the Rocket Launchers will drop Iron Drafts. Both are consumables you cannot use at this moment. Deal with all of the them with Lightning-elemental attacks. Lightning Scrolls (especially boosted by a magical skillset), and Thunder Rod Ramuh are the best damage dealers as they are MT and don't suffer from MT penalties (like an MT Thundara spell would), but Thundara and Coral Swords work just as fine, only a little less fast. Two Ninjas with boosted Magic Power will take out these weapons with Lightning Scrolls before the cannons can even move. Obviously, if you have any Flame Rings you can absorb Flame Thrower, but it's one of the few benefits of buying a Flame Ring, otherwise a fairly crappy decision at this point. When you're done, the Master Cannon comes out. Crap. You can engage in a fight with it when you examine it. I strongly suggest you heal up entirely before this fight and install one or more characters with the ability to cast up to level 4 White spells. If this requires White Mages, so be it. Dealing Lightning- elemental damage, and a lot of it, is basically what the coming fight is about, so Two-Handed Mystic Knights, Thunder Rod Summoners and combining !Throw with a mage's Magic Power are all very good to have. Level 5 Death is also a great benefit in the upcoming battle. !Gaia is useless, Wind Slash will appear often and will do nothing since Soul Cannon doesn't take damage from Wind-elemental attacks. "Diffusion Beam Cannon: Online!" "Laser Crosshair Brightness: 20!" "Safety Lock: Offline!" "Barrel Pressure Rising!" "Blast Shielding Activated!" "Energy Cells 128 % Capacity" "Firing!" Wave Cannon. Soul Cannon Level: 36, HP: 22500 (effectively), MP: 1000 Defense: 5, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Potion (common) Win: Phoenix Down (common) Nullifies: Water, Wind, Poison Weakness: Lightning Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Wave Cannon Wave Cannon is a nasty attack. It deals maximum HP/2 damage to all characters and sets the Sap status too. If you don't heal between Wave Cannon attacks, you will die the next time. Soul Cannon itself will give a message every turn and will eventually use Wave Cannon right after "Firing!", as detailed above. After it's initial warming routine, it'll only take three turns to get ready for another Wave Cannon attack: "Diffusion Beam Cannon: Online!" "Barrel Pressure Rising!" "Energy Cells 128 % Capacity" "Firing!" Soul Cannon has two unnamed smaller cannons on its back, both with an effective HP ratio of 800. I'm saying effective in all cases as neither the Launchers nor Soul Cannon itself will live to see the full extent of its potential; when reaching a certain HP ratio, they will self-terminate with an explosion. The Launchers will attack with an unnamed attack called Valiant Attack which is a missile set to destroy half your current HP, also setting the Old status. It's really kinda nasty and will probably get you twice before you can take them out. You can take them down in what probably will be two MT Lightning- elemental attacks or the Blue Level 5 Death spell. Whatever, !Release a Prototype for Mega Flare, see if I care. Make absolutely sure to take them out first. Now, it's time to face Soul Cannon. It's basically just a race against time, that's what this is. Which is why Slow is such an asset in this battle. Characters being able to combine a Thunder Rod and/or a mage's Magic Power with the !Throw ability are the best damage dealers, so set either a spelllist on a Ninja or !Throw on a pure caster. Two- Handed Mystic Knights with a Thundara Spellblade are very strong as well. Set !Spellblade 1 to a Ninja, cast Thunder on both Knives and watch the damage fly. A good combination is a Time Mage with either level 3 Black or level 2 !Summon (!Summon is better). Slow and Haste can prove very useful, and Thunder Rod spells hurt pretty bad as well. If you're having trouble still, !Catch a few Sand Bears and unleash them for 2200 damage a hit, or buy a few Thunder Rods and break them in this battle for similair damage. You'll probably take a single Wave Cannon to the face even if you're decent on the preparation, which isn't too bad. if you choose your Job and ability combinations poorly, you might find yourself taking more, which is. The combination of steadily decreasing HP, characters whose stats have dropped dramatically with the Old status (even a short while in the status takes a toll on the Old characters) can prove an effective strategy for the opponent if you don't have the pure power of survival. In a lot of challenges, this is a tremendous roadblock of a battle since damage won't be high enough for you to take out Soul Cannon before you take quite a few Wave Cannon attacks to the face. A lot of Elixirs have been spent across the world in this battle, count on it. After the fight, you'll get two High Potions (from the Launchers) and a Dark Matter, one of the three !Mix items you won't be able to utilize yet. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.23.2 The Flying Ronka Ruins ********************************** Opponents: Ra Mage (#62), Ronkan Knight (#63), Stone Mask (#64), Enchanted Fan (#65), Lamia (#66), Archaotoad (#67), Hydra (#68), Ghidra (#69), Archeoaevis (#262) Container contents: 5000 Gil, Ancient Sword, Cottage, Elixir, Ether, Golden Armor, Golden Shield, Moonring Blade, Power Ring, Shuriken Miscellaneous items: Dark Bow (rare Enchanted Fan drop), Lamia's Tiara (rare Lamia steal), Dragon Fang (rare Hydra drop), Killer Bow (rare Ghidra steal) Blue Spells: Flash, Aera, White Wind, 1000 Needles, Pond's Chorus, Level 4 Graviga First floor: 35 % Ra Mage, Ronkan Knight 35 % Ronkan Knight, Ronkan Knight, Ronkan Knight 23 % Ra Mage, Stone Mask, Ra Mage, Stone Mask, Stone Mask 6 % Ronkan Knight, Ronkan Knight, Stone Mask, Stone Mask Second floor: 35 % Ra Mage, Stone Mask, Ra Mage, Stone Mask, Stone Mask 35 % Ronkan Knight, Ronkan Knight, Stone Mask, Stone Mask 23 % Enchanted Fan 6 % Enchanted Fan, Enchanted Fan Third floor: 35 % Enchanted Fan 35 % Enchanted Fan, Enchanted Fan 23 % Enchanted Fan, Ronkan Knight, Ronkan Knight 6 % Lamia Fourth floor: 35 % Enchanted Fan, Ronkan Knight, Ronkan Knight 35 % Lamia 23 % Lamia, Stone Mask, Stone Mask, Stone Mask 6 % Archeotoad, Archeotoad, Archeotoad Fourth floor (with button opening path to Archeoaevis room): 35 % Archeotoad, Enchanted Fan, Lamia 35 % Hydra 23 % Hydra, Ra Mage, Ronkan Knight 6 % Ghidra Fifth floor (all but Archeoaevis room): 35 % Lamia, Stone Mask, Stone Mask, Stone Mask 35 % Archeotoad, Archeotoad, Archeotoad 23 % Archeotoad, Enchanted Fan, Lamia 6 % Hydra Fifth floor (Archeoaevis room): 35 % Hydra, Ra Mage, Ronkan Knight 35 % Ghidra 23 % Ra Mage, Ronkan Knight 6 % Ronkan Knight x 3 It's one of those typical break-point dungeons! There is nice and elusive equipment, some of the Blue spells are very nice (especially White Wind... White Wind, I love you) and the monsters are tougher than anything you've seen so far. As for strategies, it's nice to have the following. You can Steal two nice items, though they are a rare steal. !Gaia will often use either Wind Slash or Sonic Boom, both of which are very useful. Wind Slash especially has great offensive capacities versus everything but the Enchanted Fans and the Ghidra enemies. !Animals will have a decent (40 %-ish) percent of summoning a Nightingale which heals a decent amount for no MP cost. The other results are also helpful. Having a character summoning Animals all the time will pretty much take care of the defensive aspect of the dungeon. Ra Mages cast level 2 elemental spells: Fira, Blizzara and Thundara, always on the entire party. You can set Silence, and they're quickly disposed off with physical attacks. They may rarely drop an Elixir, though their common Steal Sage's Surplice is less than stellar. Ronkan Knight are meatshields and fairly proficient at it as well. They'll often survive a single shot of even your most powerful attacks and while they don't cast any lethal spells their physical attacks, especially !Sling, hurt when absorbed in succession. A common Hi-Potion Steal is worth a shot, they're pretty good at this point of the game. They're vulnerable to Mini, which completely shuts them down; in addition, they have 20% Evasion but cannot evade Aerial attacks so Whips and Bows will never miss. Stone Masks attack physically only and will never use Flash normally, unlike their Headstone counterparts. They'll be able to cast the spell when Controlled though, so if you still haven't learned the attack this is another opportunity. Enchanted Fan is a feast for your party. They're annoying to fight due to the fact they absorb what's pretty much your best attack at this point - !Gaia's Wind Slash - but they make up for it in resource potential. First off, they randomly drop Dark Bows, which are stronger Bows for your Rangers which sets Darkness 2/3 of the time when possible. Second, they'll often use Aera, so if you didn't pick up the Blue spell from either Page 32 OR Gigas, here's where you can hardly avoid it. Lastly but most importantly, Enchanted Fans wield the mighty White Wind, a healing spell for your Blue Mage which heals the entire party for the amount of the caster's current HP. You'll need to Confuse or Control them to have them cast it on your Learning character(s), but since it's one of the most useful Blue spells in this game, it's worth it. If you miss it here, it'll be a really long time before you get to learn it again, so make sure to grab it here. When attacking with a Dark Bow, the screen will flash every time, as it would had you scored a Critical Hit. No CH was scored, though; it's all part of the Dark Bow's weapon animation. The screen will flash regardless of the Dark Bow setting Darkness (66%) or not (33%). Lamia also has two fabulous prizes for you, though both are harder to obtain. There's the Blue spell 1000 Needles, which causes 1000 HP damage regardless of the target's defensive properties. However, since it's an offensive spell there's only one way to learn it; by means of the Beastmaster's !Control. Have the Controller force the Lamia to cast 1000 Needles on your Learning character, revive him/her and you're good to go. The second one is an awesome piece of headgear: the Lamia's Tiara. It's got 1 more Defense than the Plumed Hat, 5 more Magic Defense, 5 more Magic Evasion and raises the character's Magic Power by 3. It also boosts the success rate of Sword Dance coming out of the !Dance ability, but since you have no access to it yet it shouldn't matter at this point. It's but a rare Steal though, and if you take a moment to think back to the horror of obtaining Gaia Gear and/or the Javelin, this'll be just like it. Lamia, on the offense, will try to use Entice on your male characters (she'll see through Faris' deceptive clothing and never target her) to set Confuse and may !Slap a person as well, which sets Paralyze. Quick note on 1000 Needles; not even regarding the fact that 1000 damage is quite decent at these levels, the spell will ALWAYS work. This means that it's a great way of damaging those pesky unkillables; Skull Eaters, Prototypes, Jackanapes, you name it. Archeotoad is pretty much an Elf Toad on steroids. Weak to Ice-elemental attacks like other lizards. It'll randomly use Pond's Chorus, so you can learn it if you haven't earlier; just make sure you've got some Maiden's Kisses lying around. An unassuming enemy. Hydra is the light-greenish multi-headed dragon. It's more or less Lightning- elemental; it absorbs the element and may use Lightning every even turn. Remember Lightning, the max HP/4-damage dealer much like Blaze and Breath Wing? Hydra's are remarkably sturdy but pose little threat overall as their attacks aren't all too powerful. They can drop a rare Dragon Fang, but for you sanity's sake, don't try to farm here. Level 5 Death works nicely to take them out in a single shot. I'm going to tackle Ghidra in a special way, because there are so many things notable about it. It's a very strong monster that holds treasure. Ghidra Level: 26, HP: 3000, MP: 1000 Defense: 20, Magic Defense: 5 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Killerbow (rare) Win: Phoenix Down (always) Absorbs: Ice, Lightning, Poison, Earth, Wind, Water Status: Reflect (always) Creature: Dragon, Undead Specialty: !Rush Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Darkness, Old, Paralyze, Berserk, Silence, Slow Attacks: Attack, !Rush, Poison Breath, Lightning, Level 4 Graviga - Ghidra absorbs all elements except for Fire and Holy. In addition, it is inherently Reflective. Damaging a Ghidra calls for physical attacks, Flame Thrower or 1000 Needles. Be careful with weapons that cast random spells (Mage Masher, Blitz Whip, Ancient Sword and most importantly the Death Sickle) as those spells will be Reflected onto your party. Also note that a Ghidra CANNOT be Controlled. The Ghidra is Undead, so you can use Hi-Potions to damage it. This dragon is the worst nuisance on the beach! - Ghidra will use physical attacks, Lightning and Poison Breath, an MT Poison- elemental attack that may set the status ailment. Its power is more or less random as it can deliver between 10 and 100 % of its full potential. - When a Ghidra dies, it'll cast Level 4 Graviga, a Blue spell which reduces the current HP of every struck target by 75 %. However, it'll only hit targets whose level is divisible by 4, so if your Blue Mage wants to learn the attack it better have an appropriate level. The Ghidra will not use the attack if it is Paralyzed or Berserked when it dies. - You can Steal a rare Killerbow from Ghidra; it's an even better bow than the Dark Bow which has an 8 % chance of flat-out killing the target. Good luck on that one. - The Ghidra is vulnerable to Paralyze, so a Whip or the Remora spell can halt it while you're pounding on it. Make sure to keep track of its HP though, since if you want to learn Level 4 Graviga the Ghidra shouldn't be Paralyzed upon defeat. Darkness also works. Since it's not Heavy, you could try to use a Phoenix Down or Elixir to either kill or cripple it; an Elixir used on an Undead target will have a similar effect to Death Claw, but without the Paralyze. Also note that when the Phoenix Down is turned into an attack, it will suddenly become blockable; Ghidra may resist its effects, but never those of the Elixir. Missile is a great way of damaging the Ghidra; Gravity will bounce off Reflect, so don't try it. - The Ghidra is difficult to deal with. Approach with caution. If you manage to learn Level 4 Graviga, note that it works on Ronkan Knight, Enchanted Fans, Lamias as well as Stone Masks. Level 4 Graviga deals (75% of the target's current HP) to those non-Heavy targets with a level divisible by 4. Sweet! If the target's level if divisible by 4 but also Heavy, the attack animation will play out but the target will receive 0 damage. Pass through the first room. On the second level, there are invisible stepping tiles. They're entirely logical as you can see where they start (where the grassy bits aren't there), but you can use the Thief's Passage ability to actually see them. There's also a chest containing a Golden Armor. Finally, we can get our Heavy Armor characters in actual Heavy Armor again! On the third level there's a chest you can reach only by some less-than-logical stepping tiles. It contains an Elixir; I kinda recommend the Passages ability here. Cross to the other side of the room to see three exits here. Ignore the first you could've accessed, we'll take that one last. The one leading into the middle of a wall takes you to a Save Point. Go to the far right (chest with Phoenix Down on the way!) which takes you to a chest with a Golden Shield. Equip it if you can (30 % Evasion, it's almost as good as an Elven Mantle now!). Get back to the split. The remaining one is the one to take. The path takes you quite easily to a new chest containing a Hi-Potion in the end. Another split now; there's a door and a stairway. The stairway takes you to treasure! The treasure room has trap holes in it: x x x x x oo x = chest o = hole The chests contain from left to right 2000 Gil, a Shuriken, an Ancient Sword, another Moonring Blade and a Power Ring. The Ancient Sword has a 33 % chance of casting Old (sets the ailment) while the Power Ring simply raises Strength by 3. It's not really that noticeable (maybe a damage increase of 10 %) but it has superior Defense to your current Armlets. Get back and go through the door. It's all straight-forward for a while until - confound it all - another split, at Level Five. The stairs go to a Save Point, where you can use a Tent and Save up. Note that here on Level Five, where the random encounters roam, you have your shot at finding a Ghidra. The odds are a mere 6%, though. Exclusive to the GBA game is a trick that you can use. When you Quicksave and then reload the game, you'll have secured the pattern of random encounters for the next few turns. The first battle here will contain the semi-rare 23% formation, the second will feature the ultra-rare 6% formation. This way, you can be sure to fight Ghidra every other turn if you're so inclined, by Quicksaving after every Ghidra. This trick holds true in every situation, but since this is the first time you have any business actually seeking out the rarest encounter, I wanted to talk about it here. Anyway, there's another split. The stairs take you to two chests, one containing an Ether and one containing a Cottage (a superior version of the Tent that simply refills HP and MP back to full rather than heal 1000 HP and 100 MP). Now, trace back and get into the only other lead you have, which'll take you to King Tycoon and some monster. A winged snake-monster. That don't go together at all in real life! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.23.3 The battle with Archeoaevis ********************************** Didn't really think this one through, really. So King Tycoon gives you an order and you readily comply; however, being a guardian of the Earth Crystal isn't Archeoaevis an ultimately positive force to you? Oh well, logic was never your strong suit. How's killing monsters with BELLS going for you lately? Archeoaevis Level: varies, HP: 8900 or more, MP: up to 10000 Defense: (varies), Magic Defense: (varies) Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 0% Win: Hero Cocktail (always) Absorbs: varies, Weakness: varies Status: Float Creature: Heavy or Nothing (varies) Specialty: varies: effects vary Specialty Effect: effects vary Vulnerable to: Darkness, Slow Can't Evade: Aerial Attacks: Battle, !Sap, !Wing Attack, !Tail, !Claw, !Tusk, Breath Wing, Frost, Blaze, Lightning, Maelstrom, Entangle Archeoaevis is a monster that switches elemental properties. The only way FF V is capable of performing this feat is by switching monsters altogether. You won't see it happen, but let me assure you you've killed five monster by the time you've given Archeoaevis his face full of damage. Every subsequent incarnation has lower Defense but higher Magic Defense than the previous form. Archeoaevis changes forms in this order: To change: Absorbs: Weak: Specialty: Magical attack used: 1st: 1600 HP None Wind Sap Breath Wing 2nd: 1600 HP Ice None Poison Frost 3rd: 1600 HP Fire None Darkness Blaze 4th: 1600 HP Lightning None Paralyze Lightning 5th: 2500 HP None None Confuse Breath Wing, Frost, Blaze, Lightning, Maelstrom, Entangle !Sap: Sets Sap !Wing Attack: Sets Poison !Tail: Sets Darkness !Claw: Sets Paralyze !Tusk: Sets Confuse To simplify a little, you'll have to deal at least 8900 HP damage before you've destroyed the serpent altogether. And you'll find that Archeoaevis is a difficult bastard to hurt... First off, Archeoaevis has quite a lot of Defense and Magic Defense. You can keep track of its HP and know at all moments which elements aren't absorbed. By always boosting the spell cast, Summoners and Black Mages can deal around 800 HP damage with -ra spells and elemental summons. Since the first form is weak to Wind-elemental attacks, Aera can be used for some decent damage, as can the !Gaia ability when it conjurs Wind Slash. After it loses its elemental edge, it becomes worthless. When the first four Archeoaevis' have been destroyed, the creature will appear to die, but revive in an instant. This is the final version; Defense is actually mediocre as opposed to high in this form, but Magic Defense is soaring so lay off any spells. This thing croaks after 2500 HP. He can use all four of the elemental MT spells the previous forms could use, but adds Maelstrom to the list. Maelstrom is an attack that reduces the target's HP to a single digit, much like Tail Screw. The problem is that it's MT. Be sure to heal up ASAP from Maelstrom. Entangle is annoying but not all that dangerous. !Fang sets Confuse, which is a nuisance. The final form is vulnerable to Level 5 Death, so if your Blue Mages are sick of 1000 Needles, this spell will get the job done nicely. The big damage dealers are Released monsters (Ronkan Knights attack for over 1500 damage, Mini Dragons cast Holy for about 2000 damage, Sand Bears inflict 2200 HP worth of pain), but these can only be used once and I'm not assuming you've got four powerful monsters stored just for the occasion. Another option that depletes your resources is Throwing Shuriken; they're most powerful than 1000 Needles, and this fight really is the best fight to use them in. Speaking of the attack, 1000 Needles is a great way of dealing damage as well. You'll be hard-pressed to reach this number with most other skillsets, it's unblockable and is never absorbed. The most useful tip I can give you, though, is the Berserker. Barrier-piercing properties, anyone? Normally, he'll deal anywhere between 300 and 800 damage with the Death Scythe and between 200 and 600 damage with the Ogre Killer. You can double that with the obvious Two-Handed support ability; were you considering anything else on a Berserker anyway? Support a Berserker with a Death Scythe held with both hands with a Haste spell and it'll be able to take down Archeoaevis by itself. A thing of beauty, say true. For variety's sake, the first form can be struck with a Dark Spark to set its level to 10 so that Level 5 Death will work, but it'll just cause the second form of Archeoaevis to appear like normal. If you're able to let your party revolve around the aforementioned Berserkers, install one or two Cura (preferably also Esuna) casters and you're set. Heal up Darkness should it hit your Berserker(s). Slow isn't all that useful as it's dispelled every time you 'kill' an Archeoaevis, so just keep focused on healing your main offense. Clothes characters are best off throwing Water Scrolls; Archeoaevis will never absorb Water-elemental attacks and their physical attacks are useless anyway. Should your Clothes characters be able to use !Blue, 1000 Needles is by far the best attack option. The same goes for Mages; next to healing, 1000 Needles is the strongest attack you can use. If the spell isn't learned, -ra spells when you know they won't be absorbed help out. Any Heavy Armor character that misses both Two-Handed AND a Death Scythe or Ogre Killer should bow his head in shame and revert to the Knight for damage output. It'll suck. A gimmick strategy consists out of taking advantage of unintended behavior of counter-attacking. Archeoaevis will not counter Counter-attacks, and thus will not call its next from when killed by a Counter-attack. Four Monks with, say, !Blue will be able to keep themselves healed with White Wind and wait while Archeoaevis provokes counters with its physical attacks. When the final blow is dealt, Archeoaevis will fall immediately after 1600 HP. You can start this strategy on all of his four appearances to to prevent the subsequent forms. All forms will appear in the Bestiary regardless of their appearance. For you troubles, you obtain no item worthy of mentioning; a Hero Cocktail normally, but a Goliath Tonic (1st form), Power Drink (2nd form), Speed Shake (3rd form) or Iron Draft (4th form) if you went with the counter route described above. King Tycoon heads off, cackling maniacally. This whole part of the game is more predictable than a Friends episode. With the notable exception obviously of that one time Ross slept with Rachel. I mean, oh my god. Know that once you've followed King Tycoon into yonder room, you won't be able to come back to a LOT of places for a long time with all four characters, some of them permanently. If you have any business left in this world, I suggest you attend to it now; take a quick peek at section 4.25.1 for more information. The cutscene is long and disastrous. To recap: Like we could have expected, King Tycoon has been under Exdeath's control ever since he disappeared from the Wind Shrine at the very start of our quest. He has likely been used as a vessel for Exdeath to seek out information about the one remaining, hidden Earth Crystal. Before Exdeath manages to kill you using Alexander Tycoon's body, a young girl enters the scene. Krile, granddaughter to Galuf, enters the flying ruins of Ronka using a meteorite. And even though her infantile spellcasting has released Exdeath's hold over Alex, the Earth Crystal still shatters. Bollocks. Exdeath, after its imprisonment of 30 years comes, zaps you a couple of times to demonstrate its power. It then leaves for its mission; return to Galuf's world which it left 30 years ago and take control over it. The Crystal shards remain under the evil influence of the dark mage. Alex sacrifices himself to save the shards and eventually bestow upon you the all-but final Jobs of the game. Then, the Ronka ruins crumble, having lost their power source. Escape is of the essence. The new Crystal shards contain Dragoon, Samurai, Chemist and Dancer. For more information, check up on their listing in the Job section: [DRAGOON-LINK] [SAMURAI-LINK] [CHEMIST-LINK] [DANCER-LINK] The Dragoon uses Lances, weapons that cannot be wielded with two hands (an oddity, if you ask me), but can do double damage with the !Jump ability, inherent to the Dragoon. It has the oddity of being the only meatshield Class that removes itself from the battlefield to attack, making it a rather poor damage sponge. However, it has its own build-in double-damage feature, so you're free to put !Blue or something on there. The most powerful weapon you have at the moment is the Javelin, and the Dragoon is the only Job capable of using it. Javelin Dragoons using Jump deal tremendous damage, but you should really halve the perceived damage since the Dragoon wastes a turn setting it up. At reasonable levels, a Ninja with Barehanded and two good blades deals more damage per turn, but the Dragoon is still extremely capable and is better equipped to deal with high-Defense enemies since the damage is done in one single blow rather than four lesser ones, as is the case with the Ninja. The Samurai right now equips Katanas, which is awesome. Katanas inflict critical hits like Barehanded punches sometimes do; the downside of Katanas over Swords is that !Spellblade cannot affect them. The Samurai's !Zeninage ability costs money, but deals sickening amounts of non-elemental and purely level-based damage. But it costs money, at a rate of: 50 * !Zeninage user's level * (# of targets attacked) The Chemist is an odd utility Job that cannot equip Rods and has trouble dealing damage; after 60 ABP it'll learn the !Mix ability, which grants you access to all kinds of powerful attacks, buffs, debuffs and other game-breaking techniques that break the game. !Mix is the best skillset ever. The Chemist itself gets double mileage out of Potions, Hi-Potions and Ethers, presumably because the Chemist is the only Job that understand you need to put them in your mouth. Since the Chemist can double its maximum and current HP with the Goliath Tonic, !Blue is a good action ability since ???, White Wind and Self-Destruct use HP to calculate effect. The Dancer has poor stats, and !Dance is random. However, the Dancer can equip the Ribbon to compensate for its poor stats, and the Lamia's Tiara increases the chances of !Dance its most powerful outcome, Sword Dance, from 25% to 50%, but it's either the Tiara or the Ribbon so choose wisely. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.24.1 Karnak Meteorite; the fight with Titan ********************************** Opponents: Titan (#264) Miscellaneous items: Gaia Hammer (rare Titan steal) Summon spells: Titan While the girls mourn over their deceased father, Galuf decides to return to his world. A three-man party is left behind to find a purpose in a dying world. It takes but one quick land anywhere on the Overworld Map to convince the trio to disregard Galuf's words. Now that the former King of Tycoon, Alexander Tycoon has died, a new cutscene has opened up at Castle Tycoon. Entering the castle will have the chancellor ask you if you want to spend the night again; in the night, there's character development and all that jazz. Cid 'nd Mid should know what to do. Traveling over to the Catapult will inform you of the fact they're traveled to Tycoon Meteorite to return the Adamantite to its former place. Or, you could just travel to Tycoon Meteorite right away, they'll be there even if you don't read the letter they've left behind. A new mission presents itself, courtesy of Cid 'nd Mid: travel to the meteorites of Walse (the one the golden warrior traveled in), Karnak (the werewolf) and the one which crash-landed near the ruined city of Gohn (Krile's meteorite) and let Cid 'nd Mid work their mojo. All three meteorites hold their own kind of trouble, so be sure to prepare. The next order is kinda important to follow, so listen well. The monster we'll face to obtain the power of Karnak's meteorite knows a powerful Earth-elemental attack we can protect ourselves against by allowing ourselves to Float. And how would we go about doing that? There are two options. Confuse a Gaelicat and it might cast Float on your party. Control one and make sure it does :) Also, if you have played around with your new Chemist enough to have gained the !Mix ability, Mix an Antidote and Maiden's Kiss to create Levisalve, which sets Float on a single character. Now, travel to Karnak Meteorite. Gadzooks! It turns out this meteorite has been swarmed by monsters! Yoink! Up to us to clear out the fallen wishing star. Inside is the nest of the summoned monster, which is the reason I brought you here in the first place. Make sure to Save on the Overworld Map, and bring a Thief. Titan Level: 1, HP: 2500, MP: 2000 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Gaia Hammer (rare), Potion (common) Win: Hi-Potion (common) Absorbs: Earth Creature: Humanoid, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Attack Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Paralyze, Stop, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical Attack, Earth Shaker Titan is a muscle-head, obviously. Physical attacks aren't your main concern, and while Earth Shaker can deal around 500 damage to all characters, you should have been able to circumvent all this drama with Gaelicats or Levisalve. A Time Mage on your side really helps you out by setting Slow and Stop on Titan, though Stop won't last long. Nothing is super effective against Titan. 1000 Needles is probably your most powerful attack; three thousand needles and Titan is dust. Setting !Black 1 or !Blue or something to a Ninja throw a Scroll is also most powerful. Magical attacks deal more damage than physical attacks, but Stamina helps to survive Earth Shaker attacks when you're earthbound. This is a great moment to !Release something most bodacious, like a Sand Bear or Mini Dragon. Chopping the giant's head off with a Berserker's Death Sickle is, as always, a solid strategy as well; Berserks have HP to spare, which is another plus. Remember the Berserker with the Death Scythe? Titan's Gaia Hammer is even MORE powerful. It has 15 more Battle Power (30 with Two-Handed), deals the same amount of damage from the Back Row (even though it doesn't say so) and has a 25% chance of using a Earthquake attack, which is an MT Earth-elemental attack. Coming from the Berserker's Magic Power (which should be around the neighborhood of 1) it'll deal around 500 damage to all; this could potentially be doubled for a character with a Mage's Magic Power. A Berserker helped out by !Summon... what will they think of next? Note that the Gaia Hammer boosts Earth-elemental attacks by 50 %. An important note to make is that you shouldn't shoot for the Gaia Hammer unless you'd like to explore the options it brings. Since Titan has a common steal as well, there's only a 5/128 chance (more or less 3,9%) that a Steal attempt that brings you an item will bring you a Gaia Hammer. Even with an emulator's Quick Save feature, that's a lot of reloads on average. You'll get a Gaia Hammer no problem later in the game. Titan's Gaia's Wrath attack, in the meantime, deals a LOT of Earth-elemental damage to everything that's not Floating. Gaia Gear you may have equipped and the Gaia Hammer which you are VERY unlikely to have equipped on a Summoner both boost its power by 50 %, making it a tremendous force surpassing every other alternative. Next meteorite: Walse? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.24.2 Walse Meteorite; the fight with the Purobolos ********************************** Opponents: Purobolos (#263) Blue spells: Self-Destruct All seems well until Purobolos descend from the heavens. The name of the beasty remains a mystery; could be spanish for 'pure borons', with boron being a chemistry element. More like 'pure MORONS', amirite. I like to think it stands for 'pure bollocks', a post-modern auto-reference of significance. And ridicule. Purobolos Level: 22, HP: 1500, MP: 100 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Eye Drops (rare), Potion (common) Win: Potion (rare) Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow Attacks: Battle, Arise, Cura, Self-Destruct A decently leveled Summoner with Gaia Gear wielding Titan's power can take out all six Purobolos in a single hit. I'm not counting on you having that, though. Purobolos' can be very, very annoying. Every time one is killed, it revives all deceased comrades with full HP. With 1500 HP and the ability to cast Self- Destruct every single turn, you'll want to deal with them very quickly. So, there's basically two approaches: The Silence status prevents a Purobolos from casting Arise when dying. It is, however, very difficult to set the ailment and deal sufficient damage at the same time. It's a shame the Mute spell has no effect in this battle. The best way to deal with the Purobolos is by dealing damage to all targets. Clothes characters can throw Scrolls, which are even better when a spell-list is set to the character to boost its Magic Power. Gaia's Wrath deals around 1100 damage (1700 when boosted), but beware; every Summoned monster attack makes a Purobolos cast Cura on itself, healing for about 200 HP. Aqua Breath deals around 800 damage as well. THE way to kill all Purobolos in a single hit if you're sick of them is the Samurai's !Zeninage; a level 25 character deals over 5000 damage to all targets. It'll cost you about 7500 Gil though, and it's really not necessary. I'd go with a Scroll followed up with Gaia's Wrath or something like that, works like a charm and doesn't cost you nothing except for a single Scroll. There is an oddity with the Gaia Hammer in this battle; only the Purobolos that is hit with the weapon will cast Arise upon death; if the MT magical Quake triggers, the other Purobolos will not counter, meaning no Arise. Bugged, but it could prove handy. I wonder where Cid 'nd Mid have Gohn? OMG pun intended. It's below the Desert of Streaming Sands, remember? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.24.3 Gohn Meteorite; the fight with the Manticore ********************************** Opponents: Manticore (#265) Miscellaneous items: Dragon Fang (common Manticore steal), Wind Spear (rare Manticore steal) Blue spells: Aqua Breath Cid 'nd Mid are taking an awfully long time. Turns out there's a monster involved. Who'da thunk it? Manticore Level: 19, HP: 3300, MP: 1000 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Wind Spear (rare), Dragon Fang (common) Win: Phoenix Down (always) Absorbs: Ice Creature: Magic Beast Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Poison, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical Attack, Aqua Breath, Frost The Manticore isn't all that tough; physical attacks combined with Aqua Breath (300 damage to all) and Frost (250 to all, but adds Sap) isn't too bad, but know that these attacks can kill those with few Hit Points in two hits. The best way of dealing with the Manticore is exploiting its lack of Heavy nature and status vulnerabilities. The Dancer's !Flirt ability can cripple the creature easily. The Blue spells Missile and Death Claw work, as do the Gravity and Stop spells from the Time spell book. And hey, you've still got a Two-Handed Berserker with the Gaia Hammer or Death Sickle itching for business. Since the Manticore is vulnerable to Death and Petrify, you could Catch a Mani Wizard (Death) or Undead Husk (Break) to take care of it; the Death Sickle's random Death spell will also do it in. There are two items you can steal from the Manticore. The Wind Spear is a new Spear, but the Javelin you could have obtained from the Sand Bear is quite a lot better and the odds of you getting a Wind Spear are terrible. There are no enemies that are weak to Wind that you encounter before you can buy the Wind Spear in stores, so the elemental edge is also non-existant. The Dragon Fang is a Mix item so inherently inferior to a new weapon, but it's probably the first one you'll get your hands on and it expands your Mix movepool. The Manticore shouldn't pose you with much troubles. It does, however, pose you with a Phoenix Down. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.25.1 Right and Ready ********************************** When all has been said and done, the warp spot to Galuf's World is on the peninsula south-east of Tule. But before you go, let's take a look at everything we could've gotten so far and see if we haven't missed anything: White spells: Cure, Libra, Poisona, Silence, Protect, Mini, Cura, Raise, Confuse, Esuna Black spells: Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Poison, Sleep, Toad, Fira, Blizzara, Thundara Time spells: Speed, Slow, Regen, Silence, Haste, Gravity, Stop Summon spells: Chocobo, Sylph, Remora, Shiva, Ramuh, Ifrit, Titan Blue: Aqua Breath Level 5 Death Level 4 Graviga Pond's Chorus Flash Moon Flute Death Claw Aero Aera Flame Thrower Goblin Punch Dark Spark Off-Guard Transfusion Vampire Magic Hammer Self-Destruct ??? 1000 Needles White Wind Missile Songs: Mighty March, Romeo's Ballad, Alluring Air Pianos: Tule, Carwen, Jachol, Karnak, Crescent Special treasures: Those in the Cave of Jachol The treasures guarded by Jackanapes Noteworthy items: The Iron Shield, Cotton Robe and Kenpo Gi all become unavailable forever past this point. If you've never bought any but want a full item list at the end of the game, travel to Walse to buy what you lack in your inventory. Bestiary (30%): Normal enemies: #1 - #69 Aquatic enemies: #191 - #196 Boss enemies: #243 - #265 Have you gotten enough Dark Matter items from the Prototypes? There's no such thing as too many of them, you know. Scrolls you can always buy in Lix; it'll be a while before you can buy them again. If you plan on using !Mix-a-lot, YOU'D BETTER LIKE BIG BUTTS, I mean, I suggest you stock up on Turtle Shells; they are one of the ingredients of Succubus Kiss, what'll probably by your main attacking move coming from Mixing. Also, if you want to buy Rings in Istory, it's certainly worthy of consideration. You'll have to fight extra to afford new equipment in the next parts of the game, but especially an Angel Ring is a worthy addition to any team. I'd advise against it as you don't actually need one at any time and it obstructs you from going on when you should, but it's up to you. Scrolls to Throw are also nice to have in bulk as it'll be a while before you can buy them again; especially Water Scrolls and Lightning Scrolls are nice. Seatbelt? Tray table in locked and upright position? Got your towel? Then, as German-born theoretical physicist Albert Einstein once said: Let's roll. Three heroes leap into the unknown... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.26.1 Alien World; Pao Island ********************************** Opponents: Pao (#70) Miscellaneous items: Tent (guaranteed Pao drop) Okay, so it's not really called Pao Island. It doesn't have an actual name, but it's an island full of Pao monsters without any other features. You think of a name, brainiac. There's nothing to do here. You can just walk around. There's Pao in the forests, Pao on the grasslands and Pao in the marshlands. Every small minute, no matter what you do, Lenna will suggest setting up a Tent. Never take girls camping, lemme tell ya, all they want to do is cuddle. Save now, and prepare Bartz for a solo battle. Actually using a Tent gets you a cutscene where Lenna and Faris are 'abducted' and Bartz is attacked by an aptly named 'Abductor'. Abductor Level: 22, HP: 1500, MP: 2000 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Gaia Gear (rare) Win: Ether (always) Status: Float (always) Can't Evade: Aerial Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Poison, Darkness, Old, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Hurricane This is a battle you can lose without getting a Game Over; you'll want to win, though, for a sweet Ether and a Bestiary entry. Since you'll be fighting alone and Abductor knows Hurricane (which it can use every turn), your objective here is to counter that somehow. There are plenty of ways. A Monk with !Guard or Knight with Counter will net you victory, but anything that allows Bartz to heal is grand enough; the !Blue skillset gives access to Vampire, which will almost never miss. !Time's Stop and Gravity spells are great ways around the fight; Stop will last a long time. That's just for winning the battle, though; if you want a shot at that rare Gaia Gear, a Thief is a necessity. Barehanded, !Mix, !Blue, !White, !Red and !Time all include ways of really screwing this guy over. The Abductor may use Hurricane on the very first turn, dropping Bartz' HP down to a single digit. NEVER take the first turn; you'll want to be able to retaliate immediately should Hurricane make an appearance. Keep your eye out for Hurricane, heal up when it comes and keep damaging the Abductor until it dies. If you win, you'll get an Ether for you troubles, a Bestiary entry for Abductor and a chest containing...poison gas. Crud, you lose. If you lose, you'll just get taken away by the Abductor. So no Ether for you, and no Bestiary entry for Abductor either. Crud, you lose. Trivia: if you win the battle, you get to walk around. Notice how the unlit campfire is one of the very few 2D objects in the game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.27.1 Galuf to the rescue; the first fight with Gilgamesh ********************************** Opponents: Tarantula (#71), Shell Bear (#72), Gilgamesh (#267) Miscellaneous items: Spear (rare Shell Bear steal) B2: 35 % Shell Bear 35 % Tarantula x 2 23 % Shell Bear, Tarantula x 2 6 % Tarantula x 4 B3: 35 % Tarantula x 2 35 % Tarantula x 4 23 % Shell Bear 6 % Shel Bear, Tarantula x 2 It seems Exdeath had a lot of followers waiting for it on Galuf's World. There's a castle and there's an army of monsters, and you're in the middle of it, being held hostage in a jail cell. Resistance is useless. Not even Bartz' Superman reference helps out here. Galuf appears not to be the type to be impressed by terrorists. He rushes to the castle on a Wind Drake's back, leaving his army behind to rescue his friends Rambo-style. Wait, there's Wind Drakes on this planet as well? When you're able to control him again, he'll be by his lonesome in a dungeon with random encounters. They're fit for the situation though, so extremely easy. Tarantulas are weak to Ice-elemental attacks, but with 200 HP they won't live through anything anyway. They may use Web which sets Slow, but only if you let them live to allow them. They always drop Potions. Shell Bears are a bit bulkier at 380 HP, but you should still be able to kill them with whatever you use. They have a rare Spear for stealing, which is horrible. It's an even weaker weapon than the Mythril Spear (the weakest Lance you can have at the moment) but it's unique so you'll probably want one. If you don't get one now, you'll lose out on the opportunity to obtain one forever, but we can wait until we get our teammates back. Luckily, Shell Bear has no common Steal item so just continue trying until you've got it. You can cast Toad or Pond's Chorus to make life easier on you in the meantime. The only door you can enter leads to a Save Point, which you may choose to use, or not use, it's up to you. If you press on, you'll end up in an apparantly featureless room. The water on both sides functions as a Recovery Spring, but Galuf starts out fully healed anyway. This first area is devoid of monsters. Basements 2 & 3 have Shell Bears and Tarantula's in them, but they shouldn't be much trouble. At the end of B 3, Gilgamesh waits for you. Gilgamesh Level: 26, HP: 11500 (effectively), MP: 2000 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Nothing Win: Elixir (always) Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Mini, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: A short introduction of Gilgamesh is in order, I believe. Gilgamesh set the tone for upcoming Final Fantasy games; a recurring villain that's more of a comic relief than anything else. Gilgamesh himself would later appear in other Final Fantasy games, switching between a powerful adversary or ally wielding legendary weapons or an incompetent but fierce warrior who wields cheap and useless imitations of said weapons. Surprisingly enough, Gilgamesh is one of the very few characters in the Final Fantasy games that's supposed to be a single entity; his appearance is often justified by 'traveling through dimensions'. Anyway, at this point Gilgamesh is at the starting point of his long career, and but a lackey to his master, Exdeath. The purpose of this fight is to damage Gilgamesh slightly to that he runs away. However if you actually manage to 'kill' Gilgamesh, you'll get an Elixir! If you want to get it, you'll need either !Time or !Blue, providing you got Death Claw. For winning the battle, just !Time will get the job done quickly enough as Gravity prompts him to escape immediately. Just with damage, you only need to deal 1500 HP damage to him, his defenses are absent and his attacks are nothing to worry about. A Main Gauche and Elven Mantle both help, but are not necessary. For Clothes Galuf, anything with Counter works, and Heavy Armor Galuf has the power of the Berserker on his side. You can't really lose. Note: unlike other monsters, Gilgamesh will make a showing in your Bestiary even if you don't kill him directly. If you're going for the kill, know that Gilgamesh will use Flee when he takes damage past the initial 1500 HP. Since Death Claw won't actually damage, just set his HP to a single digit, he won't respond with escape; follow up Death Claw with any ol' damaging spell and you're good. Alternatively, cast Slow on Gilgamesh and Haste on yourself. Wait for Gilgamesh to take a turn, then cast Stop on him. Quickly cast a succession of Gravity or Missile spells 'til he's in killing range, then finish him off. Better keep him in the back of your head. Because next time? He'll be deadly serious next time. At any rate, Galuf liberates his friends (don't worry, they're all still equipped with equipment and Jobs) so you can get out. You can once again Save at the Save Point. It's time to get back to Galuf's Castle and regroup, so we'll have to cross the Big Bridge Galuf followed on Krile's Wind Drake. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.27.2 Escape to the Big Bridge ********************************** Opponents: Devilfish (#73), Treant (#74), Strapparer (#75) Miscellaneous items: Elixir (rare Strapparer steal) Blue spells: Dark Spark, Death Claw, Transfusion Grassland: 35 % Strapparer x3 35 % Strapparer, Treant, Devilfish 30 % Strapparer x2, Treant x2 Forests: Always: Treant x3 Marshlands: Always: Devilfish x3 This is Galuf's world, which is actually quite similar to Bartz'. There are swamps here, can you believe it? Swamps yield great results with !Gaia, as an attack called Bottomless Bog may appear. Bottomless Bog kills everything by being an unblockable Death-setting attack (fails if target is Heavy). Devilfish are weird fish-like creatures that reside in swamps. They absorb Water-elemental attacks and are weak to Lightning-elemental ones, like most aquatic creatures. When Confused or Controlled they can use Transfusion, so you can learn it from them if you haven't learned it earlier. They can attack physically or by using Digestive Acid (remember, that annoying non-elemental attack which sets Slow and Sap?). Treants cast Berserk on themselves and allies to make their physical attacks stronger. For your Blue Mages this is a shame, as every second turn they can use Death Claw. If you never learned it from Iron Claw, now's your chance. They're weak to Fire-elemental attacks. You cannot use !Control for Death Claw, sadly. Strapparer are bizarre creatures entering our world through a rift in reality. This, however, doesn't make them very powerful. They randomly use Dark Spark, so you can pick that up if you haven't earlier, and you can Control them to gain access to the Death Claw spell. They have Elixirs (rarely) for stealing and are weak to Lightning-elemental attacks but absorb Fire-elemental attacks. Whatever you do, there's nothing to really to do but to get to the Big Bridge to the West of Castle Exdeath. Ramuh makes short work of most encounters here, as does !Gaia when walking in swamps. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.27.3 The Big Bridge; the second fight with Gilgamesh ********************************** Opponents: Merrow (#76), Flying Killer (#77), Little Chariot (#78), Neo Galura (#79), Gilgamesh (#268) Miscellaneous items: Trident (rare Gilgamesh steal) Blue spells: Goblin Punch, Aera Welcome to the Big Bridge! That theme you're hearing is world-famous for being kick-ass, so try not to find it to awesome. You might get 'mainstream'. The Big Bridge houses monsters you'll only find when touching a certain tile on the bridge. All tiles except for the introductionary one (the one that causes Galuf to give his warning) are randomly turned 'on' and 'off' so you could cross a tile which could get you monsters without getting any monsters. X: Exit 1: Little Chariot x 3 2: NeoGalura 3: Merrow x 3 4: NeoGalura, Merrow x 2 5. Little Chariot x 2, Flying Killer x 2 AND Little Chariot x 3 6: Flying Killer x 3 *** ** **: Midsection, Gilgamesh battle *** X ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 5.. ... ..5 ... ... ... 44. ... ... ..2 ... ... .3. ... ... ... ... ... .4. ... ... ... ... ... *** ** ** *** ... ... .6. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 45. ... ... .5. 5.. ... ... ... ... ... ... ..4 ... ... ... .3. ... ..2 ... ... ... 111 ... ... ... ... ... X X: Exit 1: Little Chariot x 3 2: NeoGalura 3: Merrow x 3 4: NeoGalura, Merrow x 2 5. Little Chariot x 2, Flying Killer x 2 AND Little Chariot x 3 6: Flying Killer x 3 *** ** **: Midsection, Gilgamesh battle *** I'd hate to sound less then interested in the monsters here, but the thing is they're rather boring. All of them attack physically only with the exception of Little Chariot, which randomly uses Mustard Bomb, which does about 300 damage and sets Sap. Neo Galura rarely drops Water Scrolls, but no other items of real interest appear. You can Catch none of them, would be a point of interest if you're interested in those kinds of points of interest. Ninja Scrolls and Summon monsters are both able to clean house quickly and efficiently. All monsters here are unique to the Big Bridge, so make sure to meet them all now for a full Bestiary. Taking that most Buddhist of all approaches, the middle road, will net you the most encounters here. NeoGalura is often missed; keeping to the right of the Big Bridge, below the Midsection, will quickly bring you into contact with the troublesome tapir. Gilgamesh Level: 28, HP: 6500, MP: 1000 Defense: 14, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Trident (rare), Hero Cocktail (common) Win: Wizard's Hat (always, in theory) Creature: Humanoid, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Darkness, Old, Berserk, (*Silence), Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical Attack, Jump, Haste, Protect, Shell, Goblin Punch, Aera, Electrocute, Wind Slash Gilgamesh certainly buffed up this time. Contrary to popular legends, you can NOT Steal a piece of Genji equipment from Gilgamesh this time; you'll have to do with the normal Hero Cocktail or the rare Trident. Gilgamesh will normally attack with physical attacks, Goblin Punch, Aera and Wind Slash. When he's gotten enough of a beat-down and has but 2500 HP left, the next hit he absorbs will cause a counter consisting out of a demented little speech and the casting of Protect, Shell and Haste, all nasty enough in their own right. He'll start using Jump after that. On enemies, Jump is a physical magic attack; its deal physical damage insomuch that it deals with the target's Defense, but its power comes from the caster's Magic Power. It's unblockable, by the way, and Elven Mantles won't help. The Protect status will, however. When you "kill" him, he'll use Flee, robbing you of the Wizard's Hat you otherwise would have obtained. He's immune to both Paralyze and Stop, so there's no avoiding it this time. The strategy to follow is easy. Put together a damaging team that can take a Wind Slash and heal up from it. Casting Mute in this battle will prove very beneficial, since the Haste/Protect/Shell combo really turns Gilgamesh into a nuisance. You can turn your Mages into Blue Mages so you can still attack and heal. The Ancient Sword is capable of setting Old on the guy, which helps out in the long run. Mages should stick to 1000 Needles or (when Mute was neglected) boosted Gaia's Wrath, support all allies with Haste, cast Slow and possibly cast Mute before Gilgamesh increases his potential. Gilgamesh doesn't have any weakness to exploit, so damaging him at this stage of the game where everything but !Zeninage is more or less balanced out is kinda difficult. His attacks aren't that dangerous though, so you'll win the fight for sure. When you're done, there's the second part of the Big Bridge. Make sure you meet all monsters here if you want that perfect Bestiary. When you're almost to the other side, the forces within Castle Exdeath and its four Barrier Towers put up the barrier, a destructive force which surrounds Castle Exdeath and forcefully blows away anything that is hit by the barrier. The Light Warriors just aren't quick enough. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.28.1 The lands of Gloceana ********************************** Opponents: Tunneller (#80), Birostris (#81), Fairy Orc (#82), Devourer (#83), Mandrake (#84) Miscellaneous items: Holy Water (common Fairy Orc steal) Blue spells: Transfusion Eastern Grasslands: 58 % Tunneller x 2 42 % Tunneller, Birostris x 2 Marshlands: 35 % Devourer, Fairy Orc x 2 35 % Devourer, Tunneller x 2 30 % Mandrake, Devourer x 2 Forests: 70 % Birostris x 5 30 % Tunneller x 2 Grasslands near Regole: 35 % Fairy Orc x 3 35 % Fairy Orc, Tunneller, Birostris 23 % Birostris x 5 6 % Tunneller x 2 We've been misplaced in space and are currently residing in Gloceana. It's a long hike through monster-infected marshlands to civilization, and the kind of civilization we'll find once we get there is a mystery. Tunnellers can use Dischord to halve your effective level for the duration of the fight. That's about the extent of their powers. Birostris' will use Transfusion on occasion unless they're alone ,like their palette swaps; we've been over this. The Devourer and Mandrake enemies will just attack you physically and throw some yucky goo your way; either Digestive Acid (Mandrake) or Slimer (Devourer). Note that Devourers absorb Lightning-elemental attacks, so your first instinct (zap aqua-things) is wrong. Mandrakes are weak to Fire. The most interesting enemies are the Fairy Orcs. If they're struck with a Cure spell, they'll heal the entire party with a Curaga spell. You can write fanfiction on why they do that; I'll proofread that for you no problem. In addition, if they find a character dead, they'll use Paraclete to raise it as a Zombie. Neither of these things should happen to you, but knowing is half the battle and the sooner we can get rid of these things, the better. You can obtain Holy Water from these creatures, which cures the Zombie status. It's not very likely you'll need to recover from that status anytime soon, but Holy Water makes an interesting !Mix reagent. It's not hard. Just walk all the way to the East. Stick to the Marshlands where possible; you'll definitely have an awesome !Gaia advantage there as Bottomless Bog will just kill the entire enemy party every time it appears. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.28.2 Regole ********************************** Features: Piano, endless 100 Gil machine Welcome to Regole! It's a small town surrounded by monsters on every side. As a counter to this problem, Regole has developed a secret weapon: alcohol. Regole's beer appears to be legendary. Speaking of 'legendary', to the south lies the sealed castle of Kuza, which houses the Twelve Weapons used in a forgotten war. Let's check it out. For now, the Inn Keeper gives us a free night, so let's take a rest. There's a cutscene. Now, exploit capitalism. Magic Shop (White): Blink 3000 Gil Shell 3000 Gil Esuna 3000 Gil You could've obtained Esuna earlier. Neither Blink nor Shell is vital for anything, though both are nice to have. Blink sets two Images on a single target, like the Ninja's !Image ability. Shell cuts magical damage and magical hit rates in half. If you're short on Gil, I suggest you skip these spells for now; they are beneficial afterthoughts to strategies at best. Magic Shop (Black): Drain 3000 Gil Break 3000 Gil Bio 3000 Gil These spells are all awesome. Drain isn't all that damaging but could be useful for your Black Mage; it makes for an awesome Spellblade effect, though; it simply heals the Mystic Knight(-wannabe) for whatever damage is dealt to the target. Don't strike Undead creatures, though. Break sets Petrify, so when you know what's vulnerable it's a great one-hit KO move. Again, you'll be surprised how often I'm going to advise Break Spellblade from now on to circumvent level- based hit rates; physical attacks are much easier to connect. Bio's just a stronger and Poison-elemental spell for your Black Mages. It's stronger than your boosted -ra spells and ignores Magic Defense almost entirely, so buy it. You'll be able to boost it in a short while ;) Magic Shop (Time): Comet 3000 Gil Slowga 3000 Gil Return 3000 Gil The Time Mage finally gets some serious use! Comet is the first offensive spell the Time Mage obtains. What it lacks in power and dependable nature (it's power is rather random), it's non-elemental nature and the fact it ignores the Reflect status makes it a decent attack. Slowga's just MT Slow. Return is awesome. It allows the player to completely restart a battle, everything about the obtained results erased. This can not only save you when things are looking particularly grim, it's most popular use lies in obtaining rare Steals every time from now on as even one-time only monsters can now be fought until you've gotten what you want. This way, not obtaining rare steals is nothing but proof of your weakness. A second purpose in casting Return could be to re-roll the formation; Pre-emptive and Back Attacks chances are calculated again, allowing any party with the Return spell to circumvent Back Attacks completely if they survive the first round to cast the spell. Weapon Shop: Orichalcum Dirk 3400 Gil War Hammer 6400 Gil Ashura 5800 Gil Sleep Blade 5600 Gil Wind Spear 5400 Gil Dark Bow 3800 Gil Dream Harp 1600 Gil Chain Whip 3300 Gil These new weapons, though all-round new and powerful, won't really mean much to you at the moment. The Sleep Blade is nice, but most people will be using Samurai or Dragoons at the moment. The Orichalcum Dirk is nice for Thieves and Ninjas, the Wind Spear is an increase for your Dragoons if you haven't stolen a Javelin and the Chain Whip is, thankfully, a new Whip with Paralyzing features. All other weapons are more or less useless now. You've - if everything went well - already obtained an Ashura and one or more Dark Bows. The War Hammer is weaker than both the Death Scythe and Gaia Hammer and the Dream Harp flat-out sucks. Dealing 1/8 current HP damage and adding Sleep. Pshw. New Weapons should be your last priority with your Gil. Armor Shop: Golden Shield 3000 Gil Golden Helm 3500 Gil Green Beret 2500 Gil Wizard's Hat 1500 Gil Golden Armor 4000 Gil Ninja Suit 3000 Gil Gaia Gear 2000 Gil Everything's peachy here. The only two things that stand out are the Wizard's Hat and the Gaia Gear. The former shouldn't be bought if you have Lamia's Tiaras as even though they have 1 point extra Defense, they're inferior in all other areas. The Gaia Gear is awesome; if you haven't stolen them from Sorcerers when escaping Karnak castle, you can finally get them. They boost Earth-elemental attacks, oh yes they do, and Titan will benefit greatly from it. One important thing to now realize is that by combining the Gaia Gear and a !Summon ability high enough to summon Titan, ANY Robe and Hybrid Job can perform as a very powerful mage. This is an excellent opportunity to train those Jobs that normally lack this ability, such as Bards, Chemists, Dancers and White Mages. Remember, Magic Power will be upgraded together with the !Summon ability. The Dancer will even be able to replenish MP by itself due to !Dance's 25% Mystery Waltz performance. Item Shop: Hi-Potion 360 Gil Potion 40 Gil Phoenix Down 1000 Gil Gold Needle 150 Gil Maiden's Kiss 60 Gil Mallet 50 Gil Eye Drops 20 Gil Antidote 30 Gil Ether 1500 Gil Holy Water 150 Gil Cottage 600 Gil Goliath Tonic 110 Gil Power Drink 110 Gil Speed Shake 110 Gil Iron Draft 110 Gil Hero Cocktail 110 Gil The Item Shops on this planet are notably superior to those on Bartz' old planet. Hi-Potions can now be consistently used by everybody, you can buy Holy Water (useful for !Mix) and the five liquids consumable by the Chemist's !Drink command are purchasable as well. If you wanna know how good they are, try out [DRINK-LINK]. I don't really recommend anything, just buy some Holy Water since you won't have a lot of it, and stock up on what you need more of. There's a little girl between both shops who has lost her Ribbon. You can talk to her by using the secret passage in the Armor Shop, but she can't be of any use to you now. People are valued by their possessions! At the Pub, you can get on stage to Dance 4 Gil! 100 Gil isn't that much, though. If you've got Find Passages on you, you'll be able to see the secret passage which leads to the game's sixth piano. Play it to improve your piano skills; the song played is a bit called 'Beautiful Dreamer' by Stephen Foster. The biggest asset this town has to offer, though, is its awesome selection of new spells and equipment. If you lack the money to buy everything you want, training is of the essence, young padawan. That's all, folks. I'm bored, let's travel south. You'll come across a castle! You were warned about this castle... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.29.1 The sealed castle of Kuza ********************************** Opponents: Tunneller (#80), Birostris (#81), Fairy Orc (#82), Devourer (#83), Mandrake (#84), Kuza Beast (#85), Shield Dragon (#86) Miscellaneous items: Elixir (rare Kuza Beast drop) Blue spells: Transfusion, ??? Marshlands: 35 % Devourer, Fairy Orc x 2 35 % Devourer, Tunneller x 2 30 % Mandrake, Devourer x 2 Forests: 70 % Birostris x 5 30 % Tunneller x 2 Grasslands near Regole: 35 % Fairy Orc x 3 35 % Fairy Orc, Tunneller, Birostris 23 % Birostris x 5 6 % Tunneller x 2 Grasslands south of the sealed castle of Kuza 35 % Mandrake, Tunneller, Birostris 35 % Fairy Orc, Tunneller, Birostris 30 % Kuza Beast Grasslands east of the sealed castle of Kuza 35 % Birostris x 5 35 % Tunneller x 2 30 % Kuza Beast The Kuza Beast looks very, very intimidating right now. It has massive damage potential, too; it uses the Blue spell ??? every turn, and with 5000 HP that turns out to be a one-hit KO attack very quickly. There are few ways to circumvent the Kuza Beasts from ripping you interesting new ways to bleed. !Control is the obvious one. Kuza Beasts can also be petrified, so a Break spell or Break Spellblade effect takes him out in a single shot. If you don't damage the Kuza Beast it'll never damage you, so there's plenty of time to set up your Mystic Knight. Kuza Beasts are not Heavy, so Death Claw + anything is a good strategy as well. Shield Dragon Level: 29, HP: 19999, MP: 20000 Defense: 40, Magic Defense: 25 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 50% Steal: Gold Shield (rare), Mythril Shield (common) Win: Golden Shield (rare) Status: Reflect, Protect, Shell Creature: Heavy, Dragon Specialty: !Hard Hit Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Poison, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Silence, Slow Attacks: Attack, !Knock Silly, Zombie Breath, Flee When you've entered the sealed castle, its halls are derelict. But all is not silent in the halls of the dead; guarding the relics of old, the ancient weapons of yore, are Shield Dragons. They've got quite a bit of Defense and Magic Defense, have an inherent Protect, Shell and Reflect status and attack with a lot of force. Physical attacks are bad; it's Special !Knock Silly sets Confuse. It may also use Zombie Breath, an MT non-elemental and random-damage attack which sets Zombie on every character it kills. There're but two ways to deal with a Shield Dragon. You can either run from them or Control them. Controlling them allows you to use Blaze on themselves for 4999 damage every time. After four Blaze attacks, the Shield Dragon should only have 3 HP left; something a physical in the back should be able to take care of. Fun fact: !Catch one and it'll use Almagest, an MT Holy-elemental attack. It's not incredibly powerful coming from Shield Dragon (around 750 damage), but it's this game's final boss trademark attack; only this cretin and some other random enemy uses it when Released. Fairy Orcs absorb it, since it's Holy-elemental! Jumping Jehosaphat! The twelve weapons have been petrified by the millennium they haven't been touched. Still, they represent a powerful force of good, and their names should sound familiar to most players. Excalibur Knightsword Assassin's Dagger Knife Sasuke's Katana Ninja Blade Holy Lance Lance Rune Axe Axe Masamune Katana Yoichi's Bow Bow Fire Lash Whip Sage's Staff Staff Magus Rod Rod Apollo's Harp Harp Gaia Bell Bell Galuf's enthusiasm is touching, but there's really nothing here but dusty and once-powerful museum pieces. Let's get out of here and travel further, down south and east. You'll be able to meet Kuza Beasts on the grasslands south of the Sealed Castle. Note that between Bestiary entry #86 (Shield Dragon) and #88 (Blood Slime, an enemy from the upcoming dungeon), Bestiary entry #87 will be empty for a long long time from now on, possibly worrying completionists. Don't worry, completionists. The void in your Bestiary and life will be filled. Eventually, you'll stop encountering monsters altogether, and you have but to go east to enter a forest. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.30.1 The power is yours; saving the planet one Moogle at the time ********************************** Opponents: Blood Slime (#88), Acrophies (#89), Moogle Eater (#90), Lesser Lopros (#91), Tyrannosaur (#269) Container contents: 4400 Gil, Phoenix Down Miscellaneous items: Elixir (rare Tyrannosaur drop) Blue spells: ???, Vampire There's a Moogle a-treehuggin' nearby, but as soon as you talk to the Moogle, he'll make a run for it and fall down a hole. Lenna's big heart for everything non-human makes another appearance and the crew decides to follow the Moogle and pull it out of its own problems. Welcome to the Underground Waterway. Note: you could also NOT talk to the Moogle and leave the forest at the other side. However, this'll just get you to a large desert surrounded by grassland and forest. While helping the Moogle creates another location in this part of the Overworld Map, it's not yet there. The two enemies you can meet in the desert, Cactus and Sandcrawler, are not worth your specific attention at this time and place in your life. "I pushed my soul - into a deep dark hole - and then I followed it in..." Main cave: 35 % Blood Slime x 3 35 % Moogle Eater, Acrophies, Blood Slime 23 % Lesser Lopros 6 % Blood Slime x 6 Small pathway: 35 % Acrophies x 4 35 % Moogle Eater x 2 23 % Lesser Lopros x 2 6 % Lesser Lopros *A* battles: Moogle Eater x 2 OR Acrophies x 4 *B* battles: Acrophies x 4 OR Moogle Eater, Acrophies, Blood Slime Whenever you get into the water in this cave, there are set tiles you're swept past which WILL trigger a battle every time you pass it. Walk into the water, and the current will sweep you onto a new piece of dry land. In the meantime, there's an *A* fight. The Acrophies are the most dangerous opponents since their physical attacks often come in waves of four are quite painful, especially their special technique called !Pincer. Level 5 Death or a helpful summoning of Ramuh takes them out right away. Moogle Eaters are just stupid squids that don't really know how to take damage or dish it out. The kind of enemy that brings a tentacle to a gun fight. The Blood Slimes cannot avoid ANY spell. No, seriously, try it. It's a shame the unblockable Ifrit takes them down in a single hit, else it'd be something to take advantage of. They're inherently Poisoned, but you won't notice since Poison stops taking effects when they're dead, which should be about 2 seconds into the battle. They can randomly use Vampire, but only when they're alive (which they are almost never). Since they're dying all the time, I'm assuming they live from sucking blood from the other monsters here? Lesser Lopros' have high defenses, are immune to the Poison elemental and can randomly use Breath Wing and Frost to make life difficult for you. To counter, use Fire-elemental attacks and the Toad status. The best way to deal with every single encounter here - except for the Lesser Lopros - is a boosted Judgment Bolt. It will kill everything in a single hit and isn't as harsh on your MP as Titan is. Acrophies are the most dangerous enemies here, as they have quite some Defense and are physically powerful; Level 5 Death works on them. If you have !Summon and/or !Blue set, Lesser Lopros succumb to Pond's Chorus and Level 4 Graviga spells. On the next dry bit, you've but one options: walk into the water again. Two *B* battles, a new current, a new piece of dry land. Here, there's a chest containing 4400 Gil. You can take two paths here; the one to the left and the one to the right. Should you go with the left slope, you'll fight an *A* battle and a *B* battle and appear in front of a small pathway where Lesser Lopros are abundant. You can take it to the main exit with a Phoenix Down chest. Should you go with the right slope, you'll fight a *B* battle and then an *A* battle and another bit of dry land before you have to fight another *A* battle. There's the Phoenix Down chest again. At the end of this rock formation, you'll find "Mr. Moogle" cornered by some Undead Horror. Approach to face the thing. Tyrannosaur Level: 29, HP: 5000, MP: 1000 Defense: 20, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Golden Shield (rare), Nothing (common), Win: Elixir (rare) Nullifies: Ice Weakness: Fire Creature: Dragon, Undead Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical Attack, ???, Poison Breath The Tyrannosaur isn't that hard, rest assured. It's got a big head, a lot of teeth and no flesh to speak of, but that's about it. It'll attack physically every turn, with Attack and !Critical Attack. Every non-magical attack will be countered by either Attack, !Critical Attack or the Blue ??? spell, which you'll definitely want to avoid. It'll kill a character rather quickly into the battle. When hit by a Wind, Earth, Water or Holy-elemental attack, it'll counter with Poison Breath on the entire party, but that's not too bad since you have no reason to attack the Tyrannosaur with any of those elemental attacks in the first place. The omni-counter takes preference over the counter to the elemental attack counter, so only the truly Magical elemental attacks will provoke Poison Breath; Aero and Aera will; summoning Titan will, Jumping with a Wind Spear, Throwing a Water Scroll and !Gaia's Wind Slash won't. The bane of this thing's semi-existence is any reviving item. Since its Undead but not Heavy, a Phoenix Down may kill it. Note that when the effect is inverted, it becomes susceptible to hit rates and thus may miss; Elixirs remain unblockable, so they'll reduce Tyrannosaur's HP to a single digit without fail. Tyrannosaur is equally vulnerable to the Samurai's !Iainuki, Gravity spells, Blue Missile and Death Claw spells, the Dancer's !Flirt, you name it. Should you want to go with some straight damaging attacks, boosted Fira and Flame Thrower spells and Fira Spellblade work like a charm. If there's anything to watch out for in this battle, it's the possibility of ??? appearing, which will likely kill a character, though it may miss due to Magic Evasion. To avoid this, stick to magical attacks; !Time, !Blue (but not Aera!), !Summon (but not Titan!), !Black and !White will never provoke counters, and with only physical attacks to worry about (which can be stopped by Darkness as well), it's not a dangerous fight. In the end, it'll rarely drop an Elixir. This guy shouldn't be too much of a bother. When the Moogle is free to move, he'll show you the way to something. The message is clear, though; don't wander into the desert. 'Kay. Whatever you say... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.30.2 The Legacy of Mr. Moogle; Defiance ********************************** Opponents: Cactus (#92), Sandcrawler (#93) Blue spells: 1000 Needles Encounters: 35 % Cactus x 3 35 % Sandcrawler 30 % Sandcrawler, Cactus x 2 Onto the Desert! I'm sure there's untold riches. Maybe that love interest for Bartz we're all still waiting for. Or maybe not, but a Moogle is a white and hot -pink bat/mole hybrid, and I'll be damned if we're ever going to take advice from it. It says so in Das Kapital. Also, the Cactus and Sandcrawler enemies that appear in the desert are unique to this location. I dunno about you, but I have trouble sleeping if I know I'm heading for an incomplete Bestiary. Cacti are the far less dangerous critters you'll encounter here. They attack physically and are weak to Water-elemental attacks. You can Control them into using 1000 Needles; if you missed the spell against the Lamia monsters you can pick it up here. They're weak to Water-elemental attacks, so a Water Scroll should definitely come in handy versus them. They've got a Heavy nature, by the way, which is surprising for an unassuming opponent such as the Cactus. They're Desert creatures as well, so Aqua Breath deals eight times as much damage; if you've never done 4000 damage before, now's your chance. Sandcrawler Level: 29, HP: 15000, MP: 1000 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 5 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 50% Steal: Tent (rare) Win: Power Drink (always) Creature: Desert, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Maelstrom The real threat are the Sandcrawlers, thankfully never appearing with more than a single Sandcrawler in a single battle. They have 15000 HP, which is thrice as much as that of the Tyrannosaur you faced a minute ago. Every turn they may use Maelstrom to lower your party's HP to a single digit. They're powerful on the physical attacks as well. They're hardly undefeatable, though. Control one and you've bought a ticket to victory. Petrify works so Break and the Break Spellblade effects will be able to take one down no problem. A Death Potion can kill one, as can the Death Sickle's random Death spell. I'd just go with what the Mystic Knight can offer you (Break Spellblade effects, for the slow people) as it's the most reliable. Aqua Breath, by the way, will deal a LOT of damage as well (around 4000 or beyond, depending on level and Magic prowess), so... Anyway, there's really nothing here. It's something for your Bestiary, these things don't appear anywhere else. Now, go find that place where Mr. Moogle went off to. The hairball must be around here somewhere. From the west-southern most corner, take one step to the east and up 'til you enter the Moogle Village. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.30.3 The Moogle Village ********************************** Container contents: 1 Gil, 10000 Gil, Cottage, Dancing Dagger, Elven Cloak, Ether, Phoenix Down As soon as you enter, the Moogles scatter like wild. You can't exit either; some frenzied Moogle will always run past you, blocking your path. There's three trees here with a door; the right-most one is accompanied by Mr. Moogle. In the meantime, there'll be Moogles running around at set intervals. Mr. Moogle invites us over for tea 'nd biscuits. Also, treasure. When you're done here, the Moogles will have magically understood you're not there to maim their cute little faces and will just walk around. Yes, they all say "Kupo!". In the middle treehouse, there's a Moogle Suit you can wear; in the left-most house there's a locked chest. Wearing the Moogle Suit will cause the nearby Moogle to get his groove on. Love is bought with merchandise, as in all cultures. There's an Elven Cloak inside, which in my case is always good news. If the sheer horror of a perfect Moogle costume lying around in a tree and you wearing it is lost on you, please remain in your basement forever. That's some weird Ed Gein shit right there. I mean, what else are a bunch of Moogles in a forest going to make a Moogle Suit out of? Branches? Sand? Or MOOGLES? On the Dancing Dagger; it has a 50 % chance of using !Dance as opposed to the normal physical attack. These dance effects are affected by gear that boosts the chance of Sword Dance appearing, so combining the Dancing Dagger with a Lamia's Tiara will work nicely. Whether it's a good idea to equip the Dancing Dagger is a toss-up; average damage output improves a little, but it becomes less dependable. It's a fun thing anyway, and if you're not using Attack it gives some stat boosts. Also note that the Dancing Dagger will never let the wielder dance when !Mug or !Focus is used. When you've raided the Moogle Village of its contents, talking to Mr. Moogle will get you out of there through a long and interesting cutscene. Fun fact: Krile appears to have the Power of Heart, rounding out the Planeteers in this game nicely. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.31.1 Castle Bal ********************************** Opponents: Objet d'Art (#99), Abductor (#270) Container contents: Angel Robe, Hero Cocktail Miscellaneous items: Great Sword, Lamia's Harp, Power Armlet (rare Aductor steal), Twin Lance (rare Objet d'Art steal) Time spells: Teleport Blue spells: Death Claw, Vampire ...Don't push it, kid. Here in Bal, bad jokes like that will get you PUNished... Castle Bal's your chance to regroup, come up with a plan versus Exdeath and take a rest you've truly deserved. It's a tense situation though; monsters under Exdeath's banner are surrounding the castle and Bal's army is ever shrinking in size. But let's focus; there's some nice options for you to exploit. When you're done with the cutscene (props for the translation), there's a chest containing a Hero Cocktail and a secret passage leading to a chest containing the Teleport spell the NPC soldier is talking about. The left-most building in the courtyard takes you to the shops! Weapon Shop: Orichalcum Dirk 3400 Gil War Hammer 6400 Gil Ashura 5800 Gil Sleep Blade 5600 Gil Wind Spear 5400 Gil Dark Bow 3800 Gil Dream Harp 1600 Gil Chain Whip 3300 Gil If you declined to buy some weapons in Regole, you can pick them up here! But they won't be stellar. Armor Shop: Golden Shield 3000 Gil Golden Helm 3500 Gil Green Beret 2500 Gil Wizard's Hat 1500 Gil Golden Armor 4000 Gil Ninja Suit 3000 Gil Gaia Gear 2000 Gil Gauntlet 3000 Gil You may think this is the same as before, but 'tis not! The Gauntlet is new. It's an accessory for Heavy Armor characters; it adds some more Defense than the Mythril Glove, but it's not that good if you have Elven Mantles to spare. Item Shop: Hi-Potion 360 Gil Potion 40 Gil Phoenix Down 1000 Gil Gold Needle 150 Gil Maiden's Kiss 60 Gil Mallet 50 Gil Eye Drops 20 Gil Antidote 30 Gil Ether 1500 Gil Holy Water 150 Gil Cottage 600 Gil Goliath Tonic 110 Gil Power Drink 110 Gil Speed Shake 110 Gil Iron Draft 110 Gil Hero Cocktail 110 Gil This is all identical to the shops in Regole. Take the stairs up. On the wall here, there's stairs downwards, but they're blocked from your vision by the tower. Just walk to the right. Take the stairs all the way down. The NPC here is has some good advice and there's a chest containing an Angel Robe. No longer "Physician, heal thyself" applies; the Angel Robe can only be worn by the Chemist (and Freelancers, obviously) and protects the wearer against the Poison element and status. The Angel Robe also gives 25 % Magic Evasion, which is actually unrivaled in the entire game as far as a single piece of equipment is concerned (the Aegis Shield works differently, mind). See the button behind the counter? You can push it from behind to open up a door in the wall. So THAT's how those merchants always get to those places! If you stand in between them, they'll forcefully throw you out of their business. Also, they'll give you a Lamia's Harp, a weapon that deals 3/16 maximum HP to non-Heavy targets and sets Confuse. You have no business with the thing since it deals poor damage and you can MT Confuse with Alluring Air, but the thought is nice. You can enter the moat surrounding Castle Bal in the bottom-left corner. Enter, go to the left, ignore the button and go all around the castle. On the far side of the moat in the bottom-left corner, a Great Sword has fallen in the water. Grab it. It's super-hidden and no part of your Treasure %. You can return by pushing the button. In Basement 1 of the main building, there's a Save Point. Going further into the depths of Castle Bal will get you in a featureless room with but one point of interest; the random appearance of enemies. 70 % Objet d'Art x 2 30 % Objet d'Art x 5 Objet d'Art enemies are "stone warriors with souls full of malice" as the game describes them at a later point of the game. They attack physically and cast the Break spell, but only have the MP to cast it once. When hit by a Gold Needle, they'll disappear by using Vanish. They've got 3300 HP and are weak to Lightning-elemental attacks. You can learn Death Claw from them, but only when you Control one and use an Ether on it to increase its MP. Another big selling point of these opponents is the Twin Lance. It's a rare steal but quite the awesome weapon. It's 20 Attack Power better than the Orichalcum Dirk and hits TWICE every time, actually more or less doubling it's normal damage output. It can only be used by Thieves, Ninjas and Freelancers though. When used with !Focus, or !Mug, the Twinlance will hit only once. If you've got the stomach for the time investment needed, they'll turn a Ninja with Barehanded into a straight-up murder machine. I'm talking four hits of 700 damage each. The x 2 formation gives off 4 ABP, the x 5 formation gives off 8 ABP. In addition, they can be easily defeated by Level 5 Death, which kills them all. Objet d'Art enemies are often used to train; not for Experience as they hardly give any, but simply to obtain such top-tier and usually late-game abilities such as !Doublecast, !Rapid Fire or Dual-Wield. I won't count on you doing this as it by no means is necessary and it seems wasteful of one's precious time, but if you want to do it, it does help out tremendously. On the top floor of the main building, Krile is in distress. The Wind Drake that helped Galuf rescue Bartz 'nd the lot has overstrained itself in said mission. Never mind the current political situation (you know, the WAR thing) or the practical impossibility of sneaking past Exdeath's armies, everybody agrees on the fact that playing for veterinarian to an admittedly useful drake takes priority. As soon as you're done toying around with the flying statues of death, you can go talk to the soldiers guarding the gates. King Galuf will order them to open the gates, which they'll do for you. It'll net you a battle with a SINGLE Abductor, the apparent entirety of Exdeath's stationed demon horde. The fight versus this guy is hardly worthy of description; he can use Vampire and Hurricane, so watch out. Vulnerable to Stop and Confuse, not Heavy. You can Steal a rare Power Armlet if you want one, you'll be able to buy those in a few minutes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.31.2 En route to Quelb ********************************** Opponents: Aquathorn (#94), Weresnake (#95), Kornago (#96), Cursed Being (#97) Blue spells: Pond's Chorus Marshlands 58 % Cursed Being, Kornago x 2 35 % Weresnake x 2 6 % Cursed Being x 2, Weresnake, Kornago Southern Forests: 42 % Cursed Being x 2, Weresnake, Kornago 35 % Kornago x 3 23 % Cursed Being, Kornago x 2 Eastern Marshlands: 35 % Cursed Being, Aquathorn 35 % Kornago x 3 30 % Weresnake x 2 Western Marshlands: 35 % Aquathorn 35 % Kornago, Werensnake, Aquathorn 30 % Aquathorn x 2 I should probaly give a description here... Aquathorns are conscious, swamp-dwelling plants that attack anything that comes close for sustenance. They can attack physically and have a 33% shot at using Slimer, which ensnares a character and slowly dissolves its body. That's just a creepy way of saying it sets Slow and Sap! When you Catch one, you get to see it cast a Death spell upon Release. Where does this pure hatred of life channeled into the purest example of dark arcane arts come from? Mysteries of an alien world... They absorb Water-elemental attacks and have a weakness to the Lightning element, befitting of their aquatic nature. Weresnakes are nothing special, except for the fact they're inherently Poisoned. You could cure it for them with an Antidote or somesuch, but they'll still try to kill you. Kornago toads are just super-delicious, but also quite murderous. They run away when they have less than 300 HP, which normally wouldn't be a problem since you could just let them; later on though, you'll want to Catch at least one of them. They're not Heavy and vulnerable to Paralyze, so Death Claw works like a charm when trying to obtain one; Stop and Sleep can also disable them. They will randomly use Pond's Chorus every turn as a stepping stone to their combined ambition to turn the world into a world of warty hides, long tongues and edible legs. It is not stated how or why Cursed Beings are cursed, and if this curse has anything to do with them walking on their hands. Maybe they're just trying to turn that frown upside-down? They're unassuming physical footsoldiers, but don't let a character fall in battle when they're around; they'll use Danse Macabre to raise him or her as a Zombie. A freaking ZOMBIE, man. Lightning-elemental attacks clean house versus the Aquathorns and Cursed Beings, !Gaia's Bottomless Swamp still kicks major ass in the marshlands and any Blue or Time caster can help in subduing a Kornago enemy for the greater good. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.31.3 The town of Quelb and Lord Kelger Vlondett ********************************** Miscellaneous items: Kornago Gourd, Potion x24 Songs: Requiem It seems we can just pass though the town. We're in a hurry, so let's just get to that gate and return later when things have quieted down. No such luck; upon further inspection, the gate is closed. Kelger, leader of Quelb and former Warrior of Dawn should be able to help us. Strangely, the entire town appears to be closed. Shops are closed, the Inn is closed and nobody seems to be around. The only house open to us is the big'un, but there's nobody there. Enter and leave, and you'll hear a voice stopping you. Lord Kelger Vlondett perhaps never was the strongest warrior amidst those of Dawn, but his fiery spirit knows endurance unheard of, and his lust for righteousness, though simple in nature, has made him a force of light to be reckoned with. In his old age he has weakened, but even the slightest fragrance of a connection to Exdeath prompts Kelger to test the new Light Warriors in the person of Bartz. His Lupine attack fails to deliver. Dorgann Klauser, father to Bartz Klauser, turns out to be the one who has taught Bartz to deflect the alien Lupine attack. Dorgann's name is all too familiar to both Warriors of Dawn... When all is said and done, get on the move. The shops here have some excelling material to offer. Weapon Shop: Orichalcum Dirk 3400 Gil War Hammer 6400 Gil Ashura 5800 Gil Sleep Blade 5600 Gil Wind Spear 5400 Gil Dark Bow 3800 Gil Dream Harp 1600 Gil Chain Whip 3300 Gil Kodachi 5100 Gil Killer Bow 5000 Gil Poison Rod 1500 Gil Shuriken 2500 Gil Flame Scroll 200 Gil Water Scroll 200 Gil Lightning Scroll 200 Gil Most that can be bought here could also be purchased earlier, so I won't be discussing it. The new Kodachi is useless; it's weaker than the Twin Lance even if the latter hadn't hit twice, and has no special effects. The Killer Bow has that 8 % chance to one-hit KO a non-Heavy target, which is nice; if you never obtained a Killer Bow earlier (could've stolen one from Ghidras), I suggest you pick one up now. The Poison Rod is the Rod that boosts your new Bio spells by 50%. If you plan on using Black Magic in the near future, definitely get one or two Poison Rods. The Scrolls are also for sale again; Flame Scrolls will serve you the best in the next dungeon. Armor Shop: Golden Shield 3000 Gil Golden Helm 3500 Gil Green Beret 2500 Gil Wizard's Hat 1500 Gil Golden Armor 4000 Gil Ninja Suit 3000 Gil Gaia Gear 2000 Gil Gauntlet 3000 Gil Twist Headband 3500 Gil Power Sash 4500 Gil Power Armlet 2500 Gil Nothing new here but some equipment for Clothes characters. Just buy whatever you need; both the Twist Headband and Power Sash have some nice stat boost and are better on defenses than your old gear, so simply upgrade. You already got a Power Armlet (maybe even two if all went well); you'll want to stick to Elven Mantles, so disregard its existence. The Magic Shop sells no new spells, so I won't bother listing them; they're identical to Regole's selection. At the Inn, you can get your hands on 'Quelb's finest dishes' which completely restore you. You'll have to sit at the table for the werewolf offering you this meal to go get them. He gives you 8 Potions and an after-dinner service for the first three times. Item Shop: Hi-Potion 360 Gil Potion 40 Gil Phoenix Down 1000 Gil Gold Needle 150 Gil Maiden's Kiss 60 Gil Mallet 50 Gil Eye Drops 20 Gil Antidote 30 Gil Ether 1500 Gil Holy Water 150 Gil Cottage 600 Gil Goliath Tonic 110 Gil Power Drink 110 Gil Speed Shake 110 Gil Iron Draft 110 Gil Hero Cocktail 110 Gil Wolves are selling items at the Inn, how amusing. You'll be able to see the Poison status appear a lot in the next dungeon, so unless you plan on bringing a character capable of casting Poisona, make sure you have a surplus of Antidotes to un-un-unpoison. In the top-right corner of the town, three werewolves are a-praying for your safe return. While their crude and animalistic religious devices are amusing, one of them teaches you the Requiem Song which is completely worth the slightly embarrassing rite. Requiem is an MT non-elemental barrier-piercing magical attack that's over FOUR times as powerful as something like a Fira spell. It only hurts creatures with an Undead nature, though. In Drakenvale, the two most dangerous random encounters are Undead, so bringing one or two characters with the !Sing ability wouldn't be a bad idea. Due to bad stats and poor equipment, Bards are generally a pain to keep around; Drakenvale is a place where they're really useful, so now's your chance! You can mess up their ceremony by standing in front of them, btw. You can deflect their little routine so that they'll run into walls 'nd stuff, it's really awesome :P An old man is searching in a well for a frog. If you go outside to !Catch a Kornago, you'll make him happy. As you know, Kornagos tend to Flee when they're weak enough to be caught, but they're not Heavy and vulnerable to Paralyze so Death Claw is awesome to both weaken and incapacitate them. If you approach the old man with a Kornago in your 'inventory', he'll offer a bargain; your Kornago and 10000 Gil for his Kornago Gourd. I'd take it; the Kornago Gourd is a heavy, heavy jar which occupies an Accessory slot. Rather than 1/8 maximum HP, the bare minimum to catch a monster with !Catch is 1/2 maximum HP with the Kornago Gourd equipped. If you don't have the 10000 Gil to fork over, no matter; this well, this old man and Kornago toads will always be here. It's no part of your Treasure% either, so no worries there. When you're done in Quelb, it's time to travel to Drakenvale, where the dragon grass awaits your arrival. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.31.4 Drakenvale ********************************** Opponents: Drippy (#100), Lycaon (#101), Bone Dragon (#102), Poison Eagle (#103), Zombie Dragon (#104), Golem (#271), Dragon Pod (#272), Dragon Flower (#273), ??? (-) Container contents: 5000 Gil, 7000 Gil, Bone Mail, Cottage, Hypno Crown, Phoenix Down, Wind Slash Miscellaneous items: Dark Matter (rare Zombie Dragon steal), Dragon Fang (guaranteed Zombie Dragon drop), Elixir (guaranteed Dragon Pod drop), Hayate Bow (rare Poison Eagle steal), Golem (guaranteed Golem drop) Summon spells: Golem Blue spells: Magic Hammer Caves: 35 % Zombie Dragon 42 % Zombie Dragon, Poison Eagle, Drippy 23 % Bone Dragon x 2 First two slopes: 35 % Drippy x 2 35 % Lycaon 23 % ??? --> Lycan x 5 6 % Lycaon x 5 Bridge slope: 35 % Bone Dragon, Drippy x 2 35 % Poison Eagle x 2 23 % ??? --> Lycan x 5 6 % Lycaon x 5 Bone Mail slope: 35 % Golem, Bone Dragon, Zombie Dragon --> Lycan x 5 35 % Poison Eagle, Drippy 23 % ??? --> Lycan x 5 6 % Lycaon Dragon grass slope: 35 % Golem, Bone Dragon, Zombie Dragon --> Lycaon x 5 35 % Bone Dragon, Poison Eagle, Lycaon x 2 23 % Bone Dragon x 2 6 % Lycaon Drakenvale is home to many mysterious creatures; undead dragons are but a grim memory of Drakenvale's former glory as the roost of the Wind Drake populace, its critters are aggressive but never a picture of health and among the slopes of Drakenvale climbs a monster of mud and stone, the Golem. It is a place of no return, rugged cliffs once dominated by a dragon population now in decline. And somewhere, possibly, grows the dragon grass... ??? is an odd encounter you won't be able to do anything with; this is the Golem we'll truly meet later. For now, he simply recognizes you as a threat (what, like you wouldn't mindlessly attack him), get in a physical attack and immediately Flee. Drippies are Pao palette swaps. They're like pigmy Berserkers, I dunno. You can Control them into using Magic Hammer on a character with Learning if you didn't pick the attack up from Byblos. They may even use it normally on you, aside from normal physical attacks and !Axe, which is just a bit more powerful. They're little threat and not that interesting. Lycaon attack in great numbers. They're weak to Fire-elemental attacks, so Fire Scrolls and Ifrit's Inferno both help clear them out. They may drop Holy Water, but that's about it. Bone Dragons are one of the two more formidable opponents Drakenvale houses. Undead Dragons, they're weak to Fire-elemental attacks and may use Bone, an attack that's entirely like Hurricane; it drops a single character's HP to a single digit. Their !Tail sets Paralyze when they attack with it, but there's nothing you can do about that. They're not that hard to defeat; Requiem is a very potent weapon when facing these things, as are attacks such as Gravity and Missile. Poison Eagles have only 100 HP, but evade a lot of attacks. Anything that's not normally blockable will help, such as spells, !Aim and Ninja Scrolls. They will swoop down and set Poison with their !Claw special. You can rarely steal a Hayate Bow from them; they have no common steal so that's nice. Goblin Punch and !Aim can help target the elusive birds of prey; they can't evade Bows and Whips either, so Beastmasters and Rangers are in luck. The Hayate Bow is actually really powerful at this stage of the game; it's a shame it had to go toe-to-toe with the Twin Lance surfacing as an option for Clothes characters, as that's a battle it loses. It has a 25 % of performing !Rapid Fire, which basically makes the Hayate Bow attack four times in a row at half strength while disregarding the opponent's Defense. It's also unblockable. Basically, for a little randomness you get more power. Zombie Dragons are the hardest enemies you face here; they are Undead Dragons like Bone Dragons yet more sturdy; they have 4590 HP, which is a lot. Next to physical attacks, Zombie Dragons may use Poison Breath if the battle drags on (if it's allowed to take three turns, actually), so try to prevent that. Check your Chemists totally ignore damage done by Poison Breath, by the way. Crank that Angel Robe. Zombie Dragons are not Heavy, so you could take advantage of that; they are vulnerable to Paralyze and Sleep, so that stops them; Requiem deals a lot of damage, as do Fire-elemental attacks. They have a rare Dark Matter for you to steal, and no common item. Paired with a guaranteed Dragon Fang drop every time you kill one, facing Zombie Dragons is a Mix user's slightly erotic dream. On the whole, there are quite a few powerful attacking methods you can employ here. Requiem will deal around 2000 damage to the Bone and Zombie Dragons; give a Bard a Mage's Magic Power to increase damage done (or set !Sing to a Job with much magical aptitude). A Ninja with two Twin Lances can deal around 2500 damage when all four hits connect, using !Gaia on the slopes may result into Cave-In which is extremely powerful. The Hayate Bow is fun to sling between 1000 and 2000 damage from the Back Row. You can't really go wrong, though take into account Drakenvale is simply a very handy place to level or even master the Bard Job in; in the future !Sing is an awesome ability while Bards are a bad idea due to all-round horrible stats and poor equipment options. A note on every ??? formation and formation including the Golem opponent: when property defeating a Golem, Bone Dragon, Zombie Dragon formation all these formations will be replaced by Lycaon x 5. It's a straight path through Drakenvale for the most part. Just follow the trail! There's a small grotto containing a chest with 5000 Gil in it when you first enter Drakenvale; loot it and press on on the slopes. You'll go past a chest containing a Cottage before you get to a big bridge. Cross it, it's what it was made for. There's a small cavern pathway before you come across a slope with bones scattered around the place. There are two items of interest here; a Bone Mail hidden in the bones just beneath the second dragon skull you see, and the illustrous Golem, Bone Dragon, Zombie Dragon monster formation. The Bone Mail falls in the 'Clothes' category, and it gives vastly superior Defense and Magic Defense to anything you have at the moment. It allows the wearer to absorb Poison-elemental attacks and protects against the Poison, Darkness, Old, Confuse and Berserk status ailments. This, however, comes at a great cost. A character wearing the Bone Mail becomes Undead in every sense of the word; what would work on Undead monsters now works on Bone Mail wearers. Spells such as Cura and Nightingale deal damage rather than heal, Death spells and Death Potions instantly restore a Bone Mail wearer to full health and revival items kill one instantly. In addition, when a Bone Mail character actually dies due to HP loss, there is NO way to revive him or her since revival items stopped working. To make the picture complete, Bone Mail wearers obtain some properties the game designers felt were more or less inherent to Undead creatures; a characters wearing the Bone Mail will take double damage from Fire- and Holy-elemental attacks and Regen can't be set. It's difficult to say if the Bone Mail is fit to replace 'normal' equipment. In any normal fight where you're not planning on healing by any means next to the Blue White Wind spell, the Bone Mail will simply grant you extreme defense, additional magic defense and a whole slew of status immunities. However, in boss fights you'll want to be able to cure, and a disability to revive one-fourth of your cast is a bad thing. Personally speaking, I know you'll get by fine without the Bone Mail and I'm just annoyed to see a random Nightingale hurt a character, but there are many who disagree with that statement and the Bone Mail will from now on ALWAYS be equipped by Optimum so you'll have to decide for yourself. When you've found the Bone Mail, you can see a cave. Enter the opening to find yourself in a room with a skull button you can't reach and something that looks like a door you can't open. Go stand between that door and the skull button and the 'door' and take two steps to the right to tumble down a hole! Geomancers will trigger the trap without falling, but you'll want to go down that hole. Open the chest, enter the door, push the skull button, go back and leave the other way and exit. There is now a slope to continue your journey through Drakenvale. But first, that Golem battle. Golem Level: 3, HP: 2500, MP: 1000 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 0, Magic Evasion: 0 Steal: Gold Needle (common and rare) Win: Golem (always) Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: - Bone Dragon Level: 37, HP: 3000, MP:500 Defense: 40, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 10% Absorbs: Poison Creature: Heavy, Dragon, Undead Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Darkness, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop, Regen Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Bone Zombie Dragon Level: 37, HP: 4000, MP: 1000 Defense: 20, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 10% Absorbs: Poison Weakness: Fire Creature: Heavy, Dragon, Undead Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Darkness, Old, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop, Regen Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Vampire, Poison Breath This is a strange battle; note that all three monsters are different from the ones you saw earlier; the two Dragons are Heavy, have no items on them, the Bone Dragon has a different special technique (the generic !Critical Attack rather than !Tail, and it doesn't set Paralyze either) and the Zombie Dragon is the only Zombie Dragon ever that could use Vampire. Here's the deal. Even though Golem is a non-human creature like the rest of Drakenvale's inhabitants, that doesn't mean that sometimes, just sometimes, ugly humanoids have feelings too. Anyway, these undead dragons are attacking Golem as soon as you find them, and Golem asks for your help. If you manage to kill them before Golem dies, he'll be grateful as a fistful of nearly-drowned kittens and drop you the 'Golem' item, which you can use to teach your Summoners how to utilize Golem's mighty protective prowess. If you fail, however, you'll just have to try again; he'll still randomly appear as the ??? creature and versus the two dragons. Golem's biggest enemies are Bone Dragon's Bone (which reduces his 2500 HP to a single digit, and it CAN work), Zombie Dragon's Vampire which it may use every third turn, and your random or MT attacks. Lay off the !Gaia; you don't want a Cave-in raining down. Don't ever bring a Berserker in this fight. Focus attacks on the dragons. It might even be a good idea to protect Golem; the Protect and Blink spells or a Dragon Kiss potion (Mix a Dragon Fang with a Maiden's Kiss) protect respectively against physical attacks sent his way and Bone (Dragon Kiss gives Golem a Heavy nature, so Bone will never connect). Flash is a great Blue spell to use; it may blind all three, causing the Dragon's attacks to miss often. Requiem is THE best attack to use in this battle as it will deal massive damage to both dragons but won't hit Golem. As long as you've got the ability to use Songs, Romeo's Balled sets Stop on both dragons as well. The Bone Dragon is vulnerable to Petrify, so you might want to take advantage of that fact. These dragons are tougher than usual, having more HP and defenses; they shouldn't be able to kill Golem before you can save him, though. You can Confuse all three of them with Alluring Air; but since confused opponents will start attacking each other, all you'll accomplish is that the Dragons will randomly attack each other in addition to attacking Golem randomly. Note that unlike most special battles, you can both Catch and Control these two Dragons to remove them as a threat from the battlefield. If Golem falls, the Dragons will take a turn to turn around and will start attacking you; the Zombie Dragon will now start to use Poison Breath, and the Bone Dragon will use Bone much more often. If you kill them now, no worries; you can meet the Golem + two undead Dragon formation again, as if nothing even happened and you never failed in the first place. If at first you don't succeed, it never happened! Stop the Dragons, Protect or possibly heal the Golem, and you should have little trouble. Kill the Zombie Dragon ASAP, as Vampire can be extremely lethal to Golem. So what does the one-armed bandit do? His attack is called Earthen Wall and it protects you from every physical attack sent your way. Golem's hand of mud and clay shoots forth from the earth to absorb physical attacks, but only stops those coming from the enemy. However, Golem can only take so much punishment before the effects of Earthen Wall wear off again; the amount of HP damage Golem can take before disintegrating equals (the summoner's level + 20) * 50. You can put up Golem's Earthen Wall when it has been taken down, but you can't 'refresh' the thing; if Earthen Wall is still in effect, summoning Golem will do nothing. Continue! Enter the next cave, and go left to find two chests containing the Wind Slash Katana and the Hypno Crown. The Wind Slash has a 12 % chance of performing a Gale Cut attack instead of a normal physical strike and boosts Wind-elemental attacks (not that you're likely to use any on Heavy Armor characters except for the Wind Slash's own Gale Cut attack). The Hypno Crown is another heavy piece of equipment (how slow do we want our Beastmasters to be?) which about doubles the chances of the !Control ability to work. Every Job can equip it. Note that both items are one-of-a-kind in this game. Trace back your steps and take the other path. It takes you past a chest with a Phoenix Down and an entry to a Save Point. Use it and take the other exit. Here's one final slope (the Golem, Bone Dragon, Zombie Dragon formation appears here as well, so if you haven't found Golem now's the time) to take you to the purpose of your visit to Drakenvale; the dragon grass. If you're looking for some kind of preparation and you're traveling with a Beastmaster, try catching a Bone Dragon; it's Bone attack will serve us well in the upcoming battle. You've got to be kidding me. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.31.5 The fight with Dragon Pod ********************************** "Grass isn't supposed to attack people!" The last Wind Drake of Lenna's world is still alive as far as we know, but the last Wind Drake of Galuf's world is dying as we speak. Things aren't looking too hot for the Wind Drake race as a whole, I'd say, and that's partly because of this vile thing; the dragon grass mutated. Maybe this is what Darwin meant, but that doesn't make it a useful thing to have happened. We still need the dragon grass no matter how big and powerful it grows, so let's see if we can cut down this thorned rose. Dragon Pod Level: 33, HP: 12000, MP: 1000 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 40 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Win: Elixir (always) Creature: Humanoid Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Stop, Slow Attacks: - Dragon Flower (all five) Level: 31/33/35, HP: 100, MP: 1000 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 50 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 30% Win: Phoenix Down (rare) Specialty: varies Specialty Effect: varies Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Toad, Mini, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: !Silver Powder / !Poison Powder / !Darkness Powder / !Paralyze Powder / !Confuse Powder It's a silly battle, trust me. Dragon Pod does nothing but sit there and remain fairly sturdy what with its 12000 HP and soaring Magic Defense. In the meantime, every turn it takes it summons Dragon Flowers. These little things attack physically with their damaging special techniques, and are arranged thusly: 5 1 4 3 2 1: Silver Powder: Unblockable, ignores Defense, sets Old 2: Poison Powder: Unblockable, ignores Defense, sets Poison 3: Darkness Powder: Unblockable, ignores Defense, sets Darkness 4: Paralyze Powder: Unblockable, ignores Defense, sets Paralyze 5: Confuse Powder: Unblockable, ignores Defense, sets Confuse All Dragon Flowers have a mere 100 HP, so any attack will kill them; with their amazing Magic Defense though, magical attacks will have to hit hard to do anything besides 0 damage. When you have to manually MT the spell, it's unlikely it'll do anything. Ifrit and its brethren will do little damage as well; Titan manages nicely, though, especially when boosted by Gaia Gear. !Kick is the supreme way of dealing with the Dragon Flowers; it takes no MP, kills everything that it hits and hits always, since Dragon Flowers have no Evasion. Defensive options a-plenty, though. A Bone Mail character will only take effects from !Paralyze Powder and Golem's Earthen Wall will stop all these attacks completely. Setting Berserk on the Dragon Pod (either by Mixing a Kiss of Blessing or Bacchus' Cider) causes the Dragon Pod to start attacking but will stop him from resurrecting the Dragon Flowers constantly. !Recover, the Chemist's third action ability, cures all the status ailments that can be set by the Dragon Flowers from the entire team for no MP cost. I always struggled to find an actual use for the Chemist's later action abilities, so if there ever was one, this is it... The Dragon Pod, though having a lot of HP and Magic Defense, lacks a Heavy Nature so there are a LOT of things to cripple this thing quickly. The Killer Bow's special effect, a Death Potion (Phoenix Down + Dark Matter), the Blue spells Missile and Death Claw, it all works. If you want to kill this thing with Harps, the Lamia Harp deals 32.5% current HP damage to it. When you Release a Bone Dragon you could Catch right here in Drakenvale, its Bone attack will drop Dragon Pod's HP to a single digit. After a Dark Spark, the Dragon Pod becomes vulnerable to Level 4 Graviga... hey, a boss battle use for Level 4 Graviga! Simply summon Golem at the start and you're pretty much set, all the rest is just especially quick. You get an Elixir for your troubles. Random note: according to the game data, both the Dragon Pod and Dragon Flowers would be under the effects of Regen. This is because plants absorb nutrients from the ground, causing them to regrow leaves in a matter of seconds. But they're not under the effects of Regen, due to a bug. If you need anymore ABP or Dragon Fangs, you can hike back down; the Time spell Teleport instantly takes you to the foot of Drakenvale as well, but walking back means more Dragon Fangs for you. Now, travel all the way back to Castle Bal. There's nothing of interest in Quelb. You'll have to take a detour through the moat of Castle Bal to actually enter, but that's a quick thing. Everybody needs to break into his own house every now and then, right? Right? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.32.1 Ghido the Sage and Xezat Matias Surgate ********************************** Opponents: Cure Beast (#115), Land Turtle (#116) Container contents: 5000 Gil Time spells: Float Songs: Swift Song Even when rushing upstairs to get the Dragon Grass to the Wind Drake you'll hear the rustle of the NPC's; Krile's not feeling too well. Also, we hear that King Xezat Surage has opened an attack on one of the four Barrier Towers that upholds the barrier protecting Castle Exdeath; we'll check later. Now's the time to heal the Wind Drake and head Krile's call; visit Ghido the Sage. As far as the dragon grass feeding procedure goes: everybody's stupid in the head but in the end it's all right so no biggie. Geez-oh-pete! Take the Wind Drake to the cave to the north-east of Drakenvale. You can scout around the Overworld Map (no new monsters) but as soon as you enter the cave itself, Exdeath decides it hasn't been quite enough of a bastard and submerges the entire island. Oh well. We could travel back to Castle Bal, but Krile's still telling us Ghido is calling. Disregard that, let's go find Xezat and see if we can be of any help there. To the west of what once was Ghido's Cave lies Surgate Castle. Around Surgate Castle, several new enemies appear. Grasslands: 35 % Land Turtle 35 % Cure Beast, Land Turtle x 2 30 % Cure Beast x 4 Cure Beasts are crazy. They look after everything that's not them; every even turn, they'll cast Cura on every target but themselves. They're not too powerful when it comes to restorative magic though, so no worries. They rarely drop Elixirs, which is something to look forward to. They're altruists all around, these bunnies. Land Turtles are your source of Turtle Shells in this world, which is nice to know if you're employing the Mix outcome of the Succubus Kiss. They're weak to Ice-elemental attacks like all lizards, and will always drop the lusted-after Turtle Shells. They merely attack physically, so no worries there. The enemies really aren't that interesting. Enter Surgate Castle. Nor the gates nor the guards are being very responsive but by pressing the button (isn't it the purpose of a castle to keep people OUT?) the gates open. Inside, there's magical fun and adventure! Everything starts in the Throne Room. Seems like King Xezat is a bachelor. The stairs in the top-left corner take you outside, on the walls. There's only one way to go, past some scholars. They've got an ancient book called the Sealed Tome, but half of it is missing. In the Library of the Ancients, there was a nameless book of which only half was present; maybe there's a connection? Alas, it doesn't matter. Downstairs is a cranky librarian (comes with the job, I suppose). There are three books and many more shelves. The books: Weird Ronka Register of Monsters Forbidden Book A-C D-F G-H I-K L-N O-Q R-S T-V W-X Y-Z *nothing* When not carrying around a book, Bartz will look for an ass magazine in the left part of the A-C shelf. Oh well, nobody's blaming you; one of your girls dresses like a man and the other wouldn't recognize an ass if she sat on one. Anyway, put the three books where they belong and the librarian will open up a new passage. If you screw up, you can leave the room and re-enter to see them scattered around again. In this room, a book gives you the tip of combining !Lance with a mage. I never found this very useful as MP isn't that much of a problem and I'd rather go with more diversity (!Mix can drain MP just fine, thank you), but it never was my place to disagree with in-game information. Also, books are stupid and only sissies read them. Continue to a room with a lot of stuff. One of the stuff is a chest containing 5000 Gil. Leave through the door and cross the courtyard to find another door leading to another room of useless junk and a single chest, this one containing the Float spell, ever-so-useful for avoiding Earth-elemental attacks. Trace your steps back to the Throne Room. The bottom-left stairway takes you to Xezat's room, where a book containing the Swift Song lies. An odd location to say the least; if there is one place where you'd rather not be too swift, it's the bedroom... You'll learn it upon inspection. The Swift Song slowly increases your Agility while your Bard is singing; he or she will stop singing when struck by a physical attack. Note that Agility is used when determining damage from !Throw (not the Scrolls), the Diamond Bell and Tinklebell and the Chicken Knife, so those will get a damage boost. The final stairway takes you down to the shops and Inn of Castle Surgate. Weapon Shop: Great Sword 3400 Gil Heavy Lance 6400 Gil Osafune 5800 Gil Poison Axe 5600 Gil You haven't got any Heavy Lances yet, but the Javelin you might have stolen from the Sand Bears in the Desert of Streaming Sands is a tad stronger and equally non-elemental. The Poison Axe is a non-elemental Axe stronger than the Death Sickle but weaker than the Gaia Hammer; it has a 67% chance of finishing a physical attack with the Poison spell; not what a Berserker is generally about, status ailments. The Osafune's simply the strongest Katana to date, it's not as funky as the Wind Slash, though. Buy whatever you think you need; none of these weapons are all too impressive or useless. The Armor Shop sells no new items, and the Magic Shop sells no new spells. When you're done, sleep at the Inn and take the Wind Drake to Xezat's fleet. Take a look at the World Map. See the south-eastern continent? This is the one where Castle Exdeath is found. To the east of this continent, Xezat has began his assault, as the continent is said to be relatively unprotected from that side. Fly there. There are fourteen ships, but only one of them is large enough for the Wind Drake to land on. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.32.2 Surgate Fleet; the third fight with Gilgamesh ********************************** Opponents: Gobbledygook (#105), Gilgamesh (#274), Enkidu (#275) Miscellaneous items: Genji Gloves (common Gilgamesh steal) Blue spells: Goblin Punch, Missile, Death Claw, Aera, Vampire The reunion between Xezat and Galuf is warm, but the situation is grim. Even though Xezat's attack is a bold one, Exdeath's situation is stable and strong and all the goodwill and rest in the world isn't enough to help out in this battle. Xezat offers the quarters of his flagship, and you should definitely take him up on his offer. Once you rest (you could still take the Wind Drake and travel around this world), you'll be rudely awakened by an attacking force. Seems the army of Exdeath still has enough steam left after the fights versus both Bal and Quelb. Talk to Xezat to get the party started. There's a total of three Gobbledygook monsters running around Xezat's flagship and one waiting for you at the nose of the ship. Fighting them isn't all that helpful, but I suppose it's nice versus Xezat's soldiers or something. They'll attack physically and may randomly use Goblin Punch; they're vulnerable to all status ailments, including such gems as Mini and Toad. When you've defeated the Gobbledygook standing still, you'll get a cutscene where Xezat defeats one of his own but gets slapped around by the monster called Enkidu. Back to you, Freddy. The path is open for you to face Gilgamesh for a third time. Make sure you're able to steal, as a unique item is about to be presented to you. Gilgamesh Level: 31, HP: 8888, MP: 888 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Genji Gloves (common) Win: Golden Shield (always) Creature: Humanoid, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Silence, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical Attack, Death Claw, Missile Enkidu Level: 29, HP: 4000, MP: 1000 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 20%, Magic Evasion: 20% Steal: Green Beret (common) Nullifies: Earth Status: Float Creature: Humanoid Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Silence, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical Attack, Aera, Missile, Wind Slash, Web, Dischord, White Wind "Ahhh...blue, blue skies and the rolling sea! It's days like this that get you high on life! But you, sirs, are harshing my buzz!" This is a fairly straight-forward battle. Gilgamesh does his thing; all of his attacks randomly pop up. When he hits 6000 HP, his next action will consist of summoning Enkidu, his legendary companion who will promptly restore him with White Wind. At that point, the battle becomes a tad more serious as there's now two targets attacking and casting spells, but there shouldn't be that much trouble. Enkidu doesn't have that much on an AI script either; all of his attacks are random as well. Note that he's Floating and thus nullifies Gaia Hammer's Earthquake attacks and Titan's Gaia's Wrath; in a shocking turn of events, Enkidu CAN evade Aerial attacks even though he's Floating; with 20% Evasion rate, they'll still land most of the time, though. "I see you're leisurely as ever, faithful sidekick!" "The old man gave me some trouble." "Ho? Let's return the trouble...and make it double! Come on!" Golem's Earthen Wall helps out nicely in this battle. Make sure to Steal one of the things Gilgamesh is famous for within the game; the first piece of Genji Equipment. The Genji Gloves are unique insofar you won't get a second pair of them; ev4r. The Genji Gloves grant superior Defense and protect against the Toad and Paralyze status ailments. Still not superior to the Elven Mantle in my book, but you never did find more than three at this point so there's still some poor heavily armored sap left with a Gauntlet or something silly like that. Oh yeah, Gilgamesh. Pound on him. You can set Slow on both Gilgamesh and Enkidu to lessen their amount of attacks. You can actually successfully Control Enkidu! This way, he can use a physical attack and Hurricane, which doesn't work on Gilgamesh but does work on Enkidu himself. You can have Enkidu Hurricane himself and add a second attack to get rid of the beast-man. Boosted Bio spells and Titan's Gaia's Wrath (also boosted) are pretty much your most potent magical attacks. If you have a Ninja with two Twin Lances, he'll be unrivaled in damage output. Heavy Armor characters get the short end of the stick here; they'll need to be Berserkers with the Two-Handed ability to deal enough damage (though it'll surpass all other attacks if it gets the maximum power in), but every time Earthquake appears it'll be a fairly weak attack which won't even hit Enkidu. Without Twin Lances, your Clothes characters won't be that awesome; you'll want to resort to the Hayate Bow, Barehanded or !Throw. If you kill Enkidu before Gilgamesh, the latter will give a little speech before ending the battle. "Enkidu! Faithful sidekick! I trust you can take care of the rest! Faithful sidekick? ...Enkidu? Hey! Sidekicks are NOT to ditch the hero!" You can use a combination of Dark Spark (once) and Level 5 Death to kill Gilgamesh before Enkidu manages to arrive in the first place, which the game never anticipated; Gilgamesh' sprite will be gone, but his voice will appear and give the above "Enkidu! Faithful sidekick!" speech to and about nobody in particular. Fun stuff, but you lose out on the Enkidu Bestiary entry if that's something you care about. Releasing an Aquathorn, Mixing a Death Potion, using the Killerbow and having it trigger the instant-kill or having a Death Sickle pull off its random Death spell also work here. At the end of the fight it almost looks like Gilgamesh gains the upper hand, but the Wind Drake and Xezat combine efforts to help you out of your pickle. It's time for a counter-attack on one of the barrier towers; now that we know Exdeath is aware of our location, there's no day like Today. You can rest if you want to. When you're done, the left room in the flagship's interior is where Xezat is waiting for you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.32.3 Xezat of Ice; the barrier tower ********************************** Opponents: Neon (#106), Magnetite (#107), Reflect Knight (#108), Traveler (#109), Level Tricker (#110), Gravitator (#111), Ziggurat Gigas (#112), Red Dragon (#133), Yellow Dragon (#134), Atomos (#276) Container contents: 9000 Gil, 18000 Gil, Blood Sword, Gold Hairpin Miscellaneous items: Reflect Ring (rare drop from Reflect Knight), Partisan (rare steal from Zigguart Gigas), Coral Ring (rare drop from Yellow Dragon), Flame Ring (rare steal from Red Dragon), Dark Matter (guaranteed Atomos drop) Blue spells: Flash, Time Slip, Level 2 Old, Level 3 Flare, Level 4 Graviga, Level 5 Death, Off-Guard Ground floor, 2nd Floor: 35 % Neon 35 % Traveler, Neon x 2 23 % Reflect Knight 6 % Traveler, Reflect Knight, Magnetite Note: since the Barrier Tower is such a vertical challenge, its contents are best listed in a floor-by-floor fashion. I will give encounters and monster descriptions as they become relevant. I've always found this area one of the more challenging locations the games offers; it's not so much that the monsters are difficult, it's just that there's no all-round way of dealing strong damage to all opponents. Titan is powerful but doesn't hit Travelers, Ziggurat Gigas' and Magnetites. Twin Lances are powerful ST damage dealers but sometimes miss. Reflect Knights take little damage from physical attacks and reflect magical ones. Bleh. Hey, at least there's a lot to find and learn here. The plan here is simple. The barrier tower itself, obviously, is also protected by a barrier. Not a magical one though; an electric barrier. Xezat attacks the generator to lift the electric barrier and expose the antenna; when that happens, you destroy it. In the meantime, you can keep in contact through the Whisperweed. Now, Xezat takes off; you can return to the submarine at any given time if you so please (you get back to the flagship where you can find the Wind Drake, but there's really no reason for you to do so). Onto the monsters! Neons are silly. They respond to physical attacks with the Flash spell, so don't. They don't have an elemental weakness, but Titan has little problems with them and they don't have a lot of HP regardless. They're NOT weak to Ice- or Wind-elemental elemental attacks, mind, unlike the Crew Dust you faced in the Fire-Powered Ship. Magnetite are agile little bastards that use the Magnet attack to pull any character into the Front Row. They're not too dangerous but just damn difficult to dispatch. They nullify Earth-elemental attacks so Titan's a no-go. They're weak to Lightning-elemental attacks; Ramuh's boosted Judgment Bolt works like a charm, as do Lightning Scrolls. Reflect Knights are annoying; they're quite sturdy on the Defense and have an inherent Reflect ability. Gaia's Wrath is the key to their defeat. Other magical attacks that ignore Reflect (Succubus Kiss, Judgment Bolt, Aqua Breath) also work. Note that Comet and Drain ignore the Reflect status as well. They rarely drop Reflect Rings, which are grand to pick up. I suggest you get four of 'em if you can be bothered; in many challenges, getting four Reflect Rings is a must. Travelers are silly witches that float over Gaia's Wrath like it's nothing. They randomly use Time Slip, an ST attack which sets Old and Sleep on a target. Your Blue Mages can learn this attack; you could wait for a lucky hit from Traveler's random AI script or simply Control one. They rarely drop Dream Harps: AWESOME (kidding). The best thing about boosting Earth-elemental attacks? It's done by robes! So you can boost Gaia's Wrath AND Ramuh's Judgment Bolt. You should do just that. Whenever Magnetites appear, summon Ramuh to kill them off, it's really the best thing to do about them. Gaia's Wrath to deal with Reflect Knights, Neon thingies and Level Trickers you'll see later. All the rest you'll have to do with physicals. It's not that hard, just takes a little longer than you're used to. The second floor houses a Save Point. Continue up. There are two chests here; one in your path and one you'll have to go around for. The latter contains a Blood Sword but is protected by either a single Red Dragon or two Yellow Dragons, both of which are powerful enough to give specific strategies for. I'd personally go for the Red Dragon in order to learn Level 3 Flare and get a guaranteed Flame Ring. Make sure one of your characters' levels is divisible by 3, otherwise trying to learn Level 3 Flare will be a wasted effort. You can use Dark Spark and/or !Mix potions that raise level to manipulate a target's level into becoming divisible by 3. Also note that you can run from these battles; you won't get the item from the chest, but you CAN steal items, run and fight the enemy again. This means unlimited Flame Rings if you so desire! You'll be forced to shoot for a Chicken Knife, but the thing's more powerful anyway :/ Before you open the chest, make sure you're fully healed as Red Dragon can open with an Atomic Ray attack before you even get to move; it can deal up to 650 damage to all characters, and double that to a Bone Mail enthusiast. Red Dragon Level: 30, HP: 7500, MP: 1000 Defense: 12, Magic Defense: 8 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 5% Steal: Flame Ring (rare), Hi-Potion (common) Win: Elixir (rare) Absorbs: Fire Weakness: Ice, Earth, Water Creature: Dragon, Undead, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Death, Poison, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop, Regen Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Atomic Ray Red Dragon: Not only is the Red Dragon a formidable foe, you'll also want to learn Level 3 Flare from it and probably want to obtain a Flame Ring, meaning you'll have to get in there with !Mix, !Control and Learning for Level 3 Flare and !Time and !Steal for the Flame Ring. The Red Dragon can use Atomic Ray to do anywhere between 400 and 600 damage (around 1200 to a Bone Mail character) to all targets. It's got a lot of HP and its physicals are brutal. It's Undead, so the Requiem is very powerful, and it's weak to Ice-, Water- AND Earth-elemental attacks so Blizzara Spellblade effects, Gaia's Wrath and the Gaia Hammer all deliver a lot of damage. You can Stop them as well. Control the Red Dragon. Steal and cast Return until you've got the Flame Ring you want. Now, we'll want to learn Level 3 Flare. It will need to bounce back onto a Learning character from a Reflect barrier, which we can only set at this stage of the game by the Mix outcome Dragon Defense (Phoenix Down + Dragon Fang), or !Release a Neon and have it use Reflect on a character with a Reflect Ring, thus setting Reflect on the Red Dragon. When Reflect is set on the Red Dragon, have it cast Level 3 Flare and revive the fallen. You may want to use !Jump or !Hide to have some character(s) survive if all characters could be hit by the attack; dealing over 2200 damage, it WILL kill. Yellow Dragon x2 Level: 38, HP: 8500, MP: 1000 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 5 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Thunder Rod (rare), Ether (common) Win: Coral Ring (rare) Absorbs: Lightning Creature: Dragon Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Death, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Lightning Yellow Dragons: They're easier for three reasons; they're not Undead, so the Death Sickle can dispatch them. They're not Heavy, so Missile, Gravity and Death Claw all work. Also, you don't really want anything from them but death, so you don't need to fiddle around. You'll definitely want to bring Control into the battle. Romeo's Ballad can Stop both, which is very helpful. When Controlled, they can use Hurricane on one and other (which works). You'll want to work fast with Yellow Dragons; their successive Lightning attacks are very, very nasty. They'll use Lightning when Released too, so you'll want to Catch one or both for the boss at the end of the tower. You're lucky if you can take a Coral Ring from this fight as a rare drop, but don't count on it. The Blood Sword is a Knightsword that drains HP, but it has an abysmal Hit Rate (25 %). Knightswords can only be equipped by Knights, if you must know. In addition, the damage formula used by the Blood Sword is not the normal Sword damage formula which depends on your Strength and the target's Defense, but it's the same one used by a normal Drain spell; the damage done by the Blood Sword depends on the wielder's Magic Power and the target's Magic Defense. In addition, it ignores Row! You could set a Mage's Magic Power to the Knight for increased damage, but then you'd have no way of making it hit often. You can combine it with !Aim to make in unblockable, which allows your Knight to restore around 500 HP every attack. !Rapid Fire also makes the blade get a perfect hit rate and unlike normal weapons the damage done isn't halved per strike! I'm not counting on you having the ability yet. Since the Blood Sword's listed Battle Power is quite impressive, it makes for a great Goblin Punch sword; the Blood Sword's boost to Magic Power will come in handy for those with a Blue spelllist. Mainly, the Blood Sword is just a novelty weapon. The Flame Ring makes the wearer absorb Fire-elemental attacks, nullify Ice- elemental ones and take double damage from Water-elemental attacks. They grant superior Magic Defense than everything you have at this point and even superior Defense to the sissy Power Armlets your Mages were stuck with when it came to Defense. Flame Ring versus Elven Mantle is a tough one; I'd still go with Elven Mantle since I'm a sucker for physical evasion (especially on mages) but the Flame Ring certainly has its merits. Fira, for instance, becomes a superior form of healing to Cura when everybody is draped in Flame Rings; it's more powerful and a Bone Mail wearer is also healed (the Flame Ring's absorption overrides the weakness coming from the Bone Mail). In addition, Rangers with Flame Bows can now function as healers for themselves... 3rd Floor: 35 % Neon x 3 35 % Magnetite x 2, Reflect Knight x 2 23 % Traveler, Gravitator 6 % Level Tricker x 3 4th Floor: 35 % Traveler, Neon x 2 35 % Reflect Knight 23 % Traveler, Reflect Knight, Magnetite 6 % Level Tricker x 2, Traveler 5th Floor: 35 % Magnetite x 2, Reflect Knight x 2 35 % Traveler, Gravitator 23 % Level Tricker x 3 6 % Gravitator, Reflect Knight, Magnetite 6th Floor: 35 % Reflect Knight 35 % Traveler, Reflect Knight, Magnetite 23 % Level Tricker x 2, Traveler 6 % Gravitator, Reflect Knight, Level Tricker Level Trickers will attack physically and use Level 4 Graviga every turn. If you missed it earlier, pick it up here. Also, Level 5 Death and Level 2 Old are in its Control menu, so if you've got the levels to learn either, please do. You'll need to make the attack bounce off Dragon Defense (Dragon Fang + Phoenix Down, sets Regen, Protect, Shell and Reflect), but then you're in business. You can also Release a Neon; if it casts Reflect on a character with a Reflect Ring, the Reflect spell will bounce off to a random enemy. Another example of Exdeath's monster horde, Gravitators are wizards which employ, you know, gravity-based attacks. Whoever came up with the idea that gravity equals percentage-based damage should be hit. Anyway, you'll want to kill them before their Gravity and Graviga spells are becoming too much of a bother. Not interesting. Rarely drops Gaia Gear. Up you go! The monster formation packs change all the time, but nothing you'll really notice. You'll go past a chest containing 18000 Gil on the 6th floor, you can't miss it. A brief cutscene will disrupt your steady climbing on the 7th. 7th Floor: 35 % Traveler, Gravitator 35 % Level Tricker x 3 23 % Gravitator, Reflect Knight, Magnetite 6 % Ziggurat Gigas 8th Floor: 35 % Traveler, Reflect Knight, Magnetite 35 % Level Tricker, Traveler 23 % Gravitator, Reflect Knight, Level Tricker 6 % Ziggurat Gigas, Magnetite x 2 9th Floor: 35 % Level Tricker x 3 35 % Gravitator, Reflect Knight, Magnetite 23 % Ziggurat Gigas 6 % Ziggurat Gigas x 2, Magnetite Ziggurat Gigas are the most formidable opponents the Barrier Tower has to offer. They may use Hurricane whenever they feel like it, use Off-Guard to lower your defenses and their physicals are quite brutal. You can rarely steal a Partisan from these guys. They have no common steal, so it's a doable option; you can disable them with Confuse, Stop, Sleep, Darkness, everything except for Toad and Mini. If you never learned Off-Guard from Page 256 in the Library of the Ancients, you can do so here. The Partisan is a good bit stronger than the Javelin and the most powerful one-handed weapon you have at the moment, should you want to give your Freelancers some love. On the ninth floor, take the left door before going through the right one. Here, another chest is guarded by either a Red Dragon or two Yellow Dragons. Again, make sure you can survive a Red Dragon's initial Atomic Ray (around 650 Fire- elemental damage) before opening the chest, or it's an instant Game Over. If you got everything you wanted from the Red Dragon earlier (four Flame Rings and Level 3 Flare), try going for two Yellow Dragons here. Catch one or both, and maybe you'll get to take a Coral Ring home. Coral Rings are similar to Flame Rings, only their elemental properties differ. Coral Rings allow you to absorb Water-elemental attacks, nullify Fire-elemental ones and make the wearer weak to Lightning-elemental attacks. While overall less useful than the Flame Rings, there will be a fight in the future for which four Coral Rings nothing short of a necessity. The contents on the chest consist out of Gold Hairpin. This helmet can only be worn by Mages. It adds no Defense and only 2 Magic Defense, but it has a rad special property: the MP cost of spells cast by a character with the Gold Hairpin equipped is cut by 50 %. Especially Summoners can take advantage of this treat as Titan is rather heavy on the MP. 10th Floor: 35 % Level Tricker x 2, Traveler 35 % Gravitator, Reflect Knight, Level Tricker 23 % Ziggurat Gigas, Magnetite x 2 6 % Neon Top Floor: 35 % Gravitator, Reflect Knight, Magnetite 35 % Ziggurat Gigas 23 % Ziggurat Gigas x 2, Magnetite 6 % Neon x 3 There's a Save Point on the 10th Floor, use it to Save. When you arrive at the top floor, Xezat will contact you again. Things darken a little then. "You think it'll be that easy? Think again! Now pay...with your blood!" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.32.4 The fight with Atomos ********************************** Atomos Level: 41, HP: 19997, MP: 10000 Defense: 14, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 20% Steal: Flail (rare), Ether (common) Win: Dark Matter (always) Status: Haste Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Sleep Attacks: Gravity, Graviga, Slowga, Old, Comet Atomos is a bastard, but not too tough of a fight when you see past the fact he can kill two characters in a single round regardless of your defenses. But he won't do it very often. Honest. Whenever all four characters are alive, he'll cast Comet once or twice. Whenever a character is down (petrified works too, though there's no reason to cast it on yourself and Atomos certainly won't do it for you), he'll pull them in his direction. When directly in front of Atomos, he'll use an attack called Wormhole to remove them from the battlefield. In the meantime, he'll use some minor Time magic spells but none of them are too threatening. Old is annoying, quickly heal with Esuna; Slowga is the worst, set Haste to override the status if possible. There are three things you can do. First off, Atomos is vulnerable to Sleep, so cast the Sleep spell, cast Time Slip or utilize Sleep Spellblade effects to take advantage of the fact. Since the magical attacks miss on occasion, the Spellblade strategy is best. In addition, pounding the ever-living crap out of Atomos works as well: you should be able to kill him off before he uses Wormhole once. If you don't think you're going to make it, revive the fallen character and hope Atomos kills another party member this time. Since Atomos is Hasted the entire battle, he moves quickly. Haste is theoretically removable, but Atomos is immune to Slow (which would remove Haste) and you can't cast Dispel yet. A somewhat nice strategy that works is using Dark Spark to lower Atomos' level to 20, then use Level 5 Death to kill the thing in a single hit. Dark Spark won't hit often, though. Bio spells are very powerful, as is Gaia's Wrath. Dual Twin Lances and a Two- Handed Berserker deals significant damage (might wanna give him a Poison Axe rather than a Gaia Hammer; the former doesn't have the annoying tendency to deal out that weak Earthquake attack). A Ninja with two Twin Lances backed up with Barehanded is a menace in this fight, you'll love it. The Mix outcome Succubus Kiss also deals a LOT of damage (in the neighborhood of 3000), so that's nice. Releasing a Yellow Dragon I told you about deals 4999 damage, which is enough to warrant the use of a Beastmaster. Barehanded helps the dominator out when he's made his first impact. Keep Atomos snoozing, deal your damage and you'll easily live through this fight. For a bit of trivia, Atomos made a re-appearance as a summon monster later in Final Fantasy IX and was even given an appearance in a CG video (it's massive and destroys windows). While the mission objective has been reached, it's the end of the road for Xezat of Ice. And so, another Warrior of Dawn falls... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.33.1 The town of Moore ********************************** Opponents: Cure Beast (#115), Land Turtle (#116), Dechirer (#117) Container contents: Main Gauche Features: Piano You've got the liberty of sea-travel again, and rest assured the submarine grants access to a few places hitherto out of your reach. If you take the submarine to the surface and walk over the Exdeath's Castle, you'll find Xezat's troops there. The door is locked and unbreakable, so no progress past this point yet. Maybe Sage Ghido knows something? Note that the Wind Drake touched land close to the now-exploded Barrier Tower, with the fleet gone and all. If you ever want to visit some old locations, you can use the Wind Drake; none of the locations I'm going to discuss now are accessible with the Wind Drake. There's a few locations you can visit. You could travel to Surgate Castle and hear the rage and sadness of its inhabitants, but it doesn't help you. You could take the Wind Drake who waits for you on shore to Quelb and inform Kelger, but all you bring is sadness. Kelger: I see... Xezat has fallen... No, we set out to find Ghido a while ago, and now is the time to approach him. Krile's still urging us to go, so he must somehow still be alive; perhaps the cave took an air bubble with it while it sank, who knows. Maybe it's a sea turtle? However, there's a few things to be done before finding Ghido. We should go to Moore, western-most white dot on the World Map. If you travel east, you may pass a big dark crack in the sea floor; you cannot interact with it now, but 'tis of significant importance. Around Moore, there are forests filled with new random encounters! Forests: 35 % Dechirer x5 35 % Cure Beast, Land Turtle x2 30 % Cure Beast x4 Grasslands: 70 % Dechirer x5 23 % Cure Beast x4 6 % Land Turtle x3 The Cure Beasts and Land Turtles were already swarming the grasslands surrounding Surgate Castle, so those aren't new. Dechirer (French for 'to tear up') absorb Lightning and fall quickly to Level 5 Death. When you Catch them, they produce a Level 3 Flare spell, but you can't learn Blue spells from Released monsters. The town itself is so good, so blessed, so majestic that the word 'Mooregasm' is not unheard of in certain circles. There's little to do here; it's just a town covering its awesome new equipment and spell selection. There's a Main Gauche hidden in one of the barrels left of the Pub; just for evasive purposes, but still a decent blade. Know, by the way, that two Main Gauches do not stack as far as physical evasion is concerned. Speaking of Pubs, there's a Piano here! Play it! What you hear now is probably the most famous piece of music played in the game, it being the Alla Turca by Mozart. "A piano virtuoso indeed!!! ...After a bit more practice, anyway." Weapon Shop: Air Knife 3400 Gil Elven Bow 6400 Gil The Elven Bow, if you have one or more Hayate Bows, is incredibly useless in every sense of the word. What IS of note, though, is that the Elven Bow has a 15% chance of inflicting a Critical Hit, hitherto unheard of with Bows. This does not make it better than the Hayate Bow, but it is neat. The Air Knife, is awesome. Why? Because it boosts the thus far nigh-unboostable Wind-elemental attacks! This is especially good news since we're not far from obtaining Aeroga, the strongest Blue Wind-elemental attack. Buy them for your Mages and Clothes characters, they'll like them. I'm not sure what makes an Air Knife an Air Knife, though. Maybe the blade is made out of air, but I guess that would just make it a handle. Armor Shop: Diamond Shield 6000 Gil Diamond Helm 7000 Gil Tiger Mask 5000 Gil Sage's Miter 3000 Gil Diamond Armor 8000 Gil Diamond Plate 6000 Gil Luminous Robe 4000 Gil Diamond Armlet 4000 Gil Not much to say here, really. There's upgrades for everybody. You decide if you want to keep the Lamia's Tiaras or take up on the Sage's Miter. The latter has more Defense, the former more Magic Defense, gives a slightly greater Magic Power boost and protects against Confuse. I'd say go with the Tiara. Diamond Armlets should be useless amidst all the Genji Gloves, Elven Mantles and Flame Rings. Magic Shop (White): Curaga 6000 Gil Reflect 6000 Gil Berserk 6000 Gil Blink 3000 Gil Shell 3000 Gil Esuna 3000 Gil This is so sweet. I know you're excited. Buy them all, and use them with gusto. Curaga is, when MT'd, just a stronger Cura. ST, it will simply restore a character's HP back to full. When Curaga is cast on an Undead target, it will see its HP reduced to a single digit. Reflect causes a bunch of spells to bounce from the affected target to the other party. Both offensive and beneficial spells, that is. Most of the spells you can cast are vulnerable to Reflect; chapter 8.1.20 lists them in detail. Berserk just sets Berserk. If Gil is an issue, Curaga and Berserk are more important than Reflect, but see what you need; you can already set both Berserk and Reflect with !Mix. Magic Shop (Black): Firaga 6000 Gil Blizzaga 6000 Gil Thundaga 6000 Gil Drain 3000 Gil Break 3000 Gil Bio 3000 Gil The new 3rd tier spells all transfer to Spellblade as well. As Black Magic these're just very powerful. You can ditch the Poison Rod for the rest of the game and switch back to the weaker ones which boost the primary elements. On Spellblade effects, the elemental spells are a bit different from the others; when the target is vulnerable to the element and not Heavy, the Spellblade effect will simply kill the target in a single hit, disregarding damage output. If you're short on Gil at this point, consider getting only one of the level 5 spells here; as far as weaknesses in the upcoming parts goes, there really isn't much difference. Magic Shop (Time): Graviga 6000 Gil Hastega 6000 Gil Old 6000 Gil Comet 3000 Gil Slowga 3000 Gil Return 3000 Gil Especially Hastega is nice, as it sets Haste to all character. Graviga reduces the HP of a non-Heavy target by 87.5 %. Old sets Old! Get the others anyway if you have Gil to spare, which is unlikely at this point. Item Shop: Hi-Potion 360 Gil Potion 40 Gil Phoenix Down 1000 Gil Gold Needle 150 Gil Maiden's Kiss 60 Gil Mallet 50 Gil Eye Drops 20 Gil Antidote 30 Gil Ether 1500 Gil Holy Water 150 Gil Cottage 600 Gil Goliath Tonic 110 Gil Power Drink 110 Gil Speed Shake 110 Gil Iron Draft 110 Gil Hero Cocktail 110 Gil You may want to Mix some Death Potions in the future, so make sure you're not short on Phoenix Down. In addition, if you want to detour for another Summon spell, you'll see some petrification action, so more than a few Gold Needles won't hurt. Seriously, the petrification will be all over the place. This town's a hole. Get out. Now, get in yo' submarine and travel to the north where a new summon monster is waiting. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.34.1 The fight with Catoblepas ********************************** Opponents: Cure Beast (#115), Land Turtle (#116), Dechirer (#117), Druid (#176), Ironback (#177), Catoblepas (#281) Miscellaneous items: Angel Ring (rare Druid steal), Catoblepas (guaranteed Catoblepas drop) Summon spells: Catoblepas Blue spells: Dark Spark "Well, I was up there, and this huge eye started glaring at me! It's amazing I made it back alive!" With the submarine, travel to the northern-most white dot on the World Map. You should find a cave here; take the submarine there to find yourself in the Sea Floor Cave. Sea Floor Cave: 35 % Druid x 3 35 % Druid, Ironback 30 % Ironback x 3 There are two kinds of enemies here. Druids are magical adepts; they can slow you down with Web and weaken you with Dischord. They can also use Magnet and Image, an attack that makes them evade the next two physical attacks altogether. Their most dangerous attack is Encircle, which removes a character from battle. They have a rare Angel Ring steal, which is part of the reason you're here. You can Control them to have them cast Dark Spark on you if you wanna. The Ironbacks are massive beasts with incredible physical force and impressive defense. They should be weakened with Toad, Sleep, Flash or the like immediately. Their elemental weakness is Ice, so take advantage of that. They have an extremely strong !Release attack, so get one or more. A single Released Ironback one-shots the boss we're here to face; they're extremely easy to catch with a Kornago Gourd character and a single casting of Level 4 Graviga. Flash and Pond's Chorus cripple them easily, as does Death Claw. The Angel Ring is much more of a protective Accessory than the elemental rings are. Superior Magic Defense by far, superior Defense and immunity to two of the most crippling status ailments in the game, Old and Zombie. Nice. I suggest it as THE Accessory at this point in the game, surpassing the elemental rings, Elven Mantles and Genji Gloves. To be short, get four Angel Rings and Catch an Ironback to use versus Catoblepas if you're so inclined. Level 4 Graviga can be used on both Druid and Ironback enemies, so that's useful for weakening Ironbacks and other kinds of violence. Northern Lake Forest: 35 % Catoblepas --> Dechirer, Land Turtle, Cure Beast x 2 35 % Dechirer, Land Turtle, Cure Beast x 2 30 % Dechirer x 5 Tiny bits of grassland: 35 % Land Turtle 35 % Cure Beast, Land Turtle x2 30 % Cure Beast x4 Back on the Map, there's nothing there. Sure, a Chocobo forest, but the only Chocobo present is a female, so we can't ride her. That's not the kind of logic I grew up with, amiright guyz? Guyz? ... the thing we're looking for is Catoblepas, a random encounter. You'll randomly encounter it. Catoblepas Level: 38, HP: 5000, MP: 500 Defense: 20, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Phoenix Down (rare) Win: Catoblepas (always) Creature: Dragon, Heavy, Magic Beast Specialty: !Rush Specialty Effect: Paralyze Vulnerable to: Poison, Stop Attacks: Battle, Drain, Evil Eye Here's the eye! It's a pig. The pig is dangerous. It'll randomly attack physically and cast Drain, but its biggest annoyance is its Evil Eye attack, which it directs against everything that deals HP damage to it. The Ribbon protects against Petrify, but that's about it. The best you can do is prepare with Gold Needles. Summon Golem to protect against physicals. You can't really do anything about his Drain spell other than draining his MP, which a few successive Magic Hammer spells can accomplish. Drain deals around 300 damage, so you can easily outheal it. Even then, Evil Eye still lurks. You can simply skip to whoever deals the most damage to this guy. When Catoblepas counters this attack with Evil Eye, quickly restore the softness with a Gold Needle or Esuna with one of the three back-up characters. You won't lose this battle. Another option is casting Poison on his and simply waiting. He'll attack you all the while, but after 16 turns he'll definitely be dead and Evil Eye never made an appearance. Releasing an Ironback will deal anywhere between 5400 and 6000 damage, instantly killing Cato. This is useful! I suggest Catching another Ironback for the future. The next boss fight won't really need an Ironback, but being able to dish out that kind of damage at whatever level really is kinda useful. Anyway, you get the Catoblepas item after the battle. It teaches your Summoner to summon him in battle. It's simply an ST Petrify-inducing attack like Break was, but Catoblepas' Demon Eye is more accurate, ignores the Reflect status and looks cooler. It's also much more MP-costly. When you're done (also with the Angel Rings?), it's really really time to go visit Ghido. He's waiting for us and Krile's headache probably bothers her. It's right there in the middle of your World Map. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.35.1 Our brilliant leader: the great Sage Ghido ********************************** Opponents: Dark Aspic (#113), Metamorph (#114) Miscellaneous items: Staff of Light (rare Metamoprh drop) Blue spells: Pond's Chorus, Aeroga, Flash, Vampire First room, B2, B3: 35 % Metamorph (Shiva, Cait Sith, Elf Toad) 35 % Dark Aspic x 2 23 % Metamorph (Ifrit, Wyvern, Enchanted Fan) 6 % Dark Aspic x 4 The first room with hidden passages (officially still B3): 35 % Metamorph (Ifrit, Wyvern, Enchanted Fan) 35 % Metamorph (Shiva, Cait Sith, Elf Toad) 23 % Dark Aspic x 2 6 % Dark Aspic x 4 All others: 35 % Metamorph (Shiva, Cait Sith, Elf Toad) 35 % Metamorph (Ramuh, Crew Dust, Zombie Dragon) 23 % Metamorph (Ramuh, Crew Dust, Zombie Dragon) 6 % Dark Aspic x 4 Dark Aspic attacks physically and may use Vampire to restore lost HP. A Flame Scroll or Ifrit's Inferno should take them all out. They're not that interesting. Metamorph just sits there and takes abuse until he transforms into one of the three different forms that particular Metamorph you're facing can morph into. He'll use an attack based on his form and then revert. The attacks are these: Shiva: Blizzara Cait Sith: !Catscratch (unblockable, pierces Defense) Elf Toad: Pond's Chorus Ifrit: Blaze Wyvern: Breath Wing Enchanted Fan: Aeroga Ramuh: Lightning Crew Dust: Flash Zombie Dragon: Zombie Breath M. won't keep his Wind-elemental weakness when morphed. Metamorph may rarely drop a Staff of Light, but only when you kill him in his 'normal' form. Make sure to try and learn Aeroga from Metamorph's Enchanted Fan form; it's the 3rd tier Wind-elemental spell and the Blue Mage's most consistent means of powerful damage output in the game. Boosted with Air Knives (or the Wind Slash katana), they'll rip Metamorphs to shreds. Be wary of the Zombie Dragon form; Zombie Breath can deal up to 950 damage and turns all that it kills into Zombies (unless the target is protected by Angel Rings). The Staff of Light deals a little Holy-elemental damage and has the ability to cast the Holy spell when used as an item. It breaks when releasing the light inside. The Staff of Light is the best option for the White Mage easily, and has use on Time Mages and Chemists since it boosts Magic Power. I find myself going for physical evasion (Main Gauche) instead, but your experiences may differ. Get a Ninja and have them Throw Flame Scrolls; you no longer worry about Dark Aspic encounters. Those who can summon Ifrit will also do. What's left is the Metamorph. The Air Knife, Dragoon's Wind Lance and the Aeroga spell are your ticket to Wind-elemental attacks. Note that strangely, the Samurai's Wind Slash katana is, itself, not Wind-elemental. The random Gale Cut attack is, however, and the katana can be used to boost Wind-elemental attacks such as Aera and Aeroga. Any character using the Geomancer's !Gaia has a shot at Wind Slash, which can also be boosted by the Air Knife. When picking a random number between 0 and the !Gaia user's level, any result between 21 and 50 will net you Wind Slash. Since the other attacks are also useful (Will o' the Wisp may set Confuse on Metamorph, Stalactite deals solid damage), !Gaia is a good action ability here. Just walk on until you come in a room with one full chest, four empty ones and a lot of closed doors. Taking a heavy stone out of the middle chest closes the door you came through, but putting it any of the empty chests opens another one. 1 2 5 3 4 Take the stone from #5 and deposit it in #1. Walk into the newly opened door, push the button to open a new path and return. Take the stone from #1 and put it in #3. Continue to find yourself in what appears to be a dead end. There's a hidden passage to the south which is not of the kind you do or do not see with Find Passages; you'll see the thing when you get near. It leads to a skull switch; flip it open a new passage leading further down into the cave. Down here, a few caves are connected with the same kind of passages, you'll see them easily. Spelunking, that's what you're doing now. It continues like this for a while until you see a turtle in a pond. Diving in will take you to see the great Sage Ghido, old and wise leader of this world's resistance versus Exdeath. "By the briny beard of Neptune!" Note that Guido's derogatory tone is absent from the original game, and was implemented for fun by the GBA remake team; it was not a bad choice. When you've taken the Guardian Branch with you, you can return to the submarine. If you have yet to obtain a Staff of Light or have another reason to linger, do so. Else, you can cast Teleport to find yourself in the submarine again. The Forest of Moore, strangely, is near the town of Moore. I took you there earlier, so I won't discuss Moore again. If you feel the need to read up again, go back to section 4.33.1 or something. This is a good time to purchase things you lacked the finances for earlier. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.35.2 The Great Forest of Moore ********************************** Opponents: Mini Magician (#118), Galajelly (#119), Mammon (#120), Imp (#121), Wyrm (#122), (Crystal) (#277), (Crystal) (#278), (Crystal) (#279), (Crystal) (#280) Container contents: 2500 Gil, 4900 Gil, 9500 Gil, Ether, Phoenix Down, Cottage, Goliath Tonic, Morning Star, Elixir, Aegis Shield OR Flame Shield, Ash, Flametongue Miscellaneous items: Ash (rare (Crystal) drop), Dragon Fang (rare Wyrm drop), Elixir (rare (Crystal) steal) Blue pells: Lilliputian Lyric, Aera, Aeroga, Aqua Breath Entrance: 35 % Galajelly x 3 35 % Galajelly x 2, Mini Magician x 2 23 % Mammon x 3, Mini Magician x 2 6 % Mammon x 2, Galajelly x 2, Mini Magician Middle part: 35 % Mammon x 3, Mini Magician x 2 35 % Mammon x 2, Galajelly x 2, Mini Magician 23 % Imp x 2 6 % Imp, Mammon x 2, Galajelly Roots: 35 % Wyrm 35 % Wyrm, Mini Magician x 2 30 % Mini Magician x 6 Final part: 35 % Imp, Mammon x 2, Galajelly 35 % Imp x 2, Galajelly, Mini Magician 23 % Wyrm 6 % Wyrm, Mini Magician The Great Forest of Moore is the birthplace of Exdeath, and a dark maze of intelligent trees. Tree spirits may open paths for you, but you'll need to find them first. And even with the Guardian Branch, there are many creatures in the forest who don't take too kindly to strangers. Mini Magicians must never be Confused, as they will cast spells such as Return (hassle) and Mute (bad for you). They may randomly cast Lilliputian Lyric, a Blue spell, similar to Pond's Chorus, which sets Mini. Well, why not. You can't Control them for it, so you'll have to wait and be patient. They will use it every third turn. You can have your White Mage heal Mini with the Mini spell or use the so-far useless Mallet. Galajelly absorbs every element except Wind, and has crazy Evasion ratings. Aero spells are powerful enough, even MT'd, to kill them. !Gaia attacks always off them too, even Leaf Swirl. They have an attack called Rainbow Wind that sets both Darkness AND Silence, rendering a character incapable of both physical and most magical attacks. Mammon, like the Treants you saw earlier, like to cast the Berserk spell on themselves. Their physical onslaught is not very scary, and they are weak to Fire-elemental attacks. Imp! I hate the Imp. They are fairly sturdy since they have no elemental weaknesses and have 2000 HP. Also, they may cast Confuse on characters, which is annoying. Especially versus the Imps it is nice to be able to inflict Stop or Confuse status all the time. They are not very interesting at all, they just suck. Wyrms may look intimidating, but are not so. Physicals to disregard? Breath Wing very rarely? Puh-leaze. You and me, we eat these babies for dinner and then some. It is a Dragon. I've got a great strategy 4 u. All the monsters here are vulnerable to Romeo's Ballad, so have one character who can !Sing use it at all times. Have the other three attack, preferably with options that don't consume anything. Consider !Gaia as an easy way of dealing damage for the mages without using MP; though considerably weaker in terms of damage output, you'll suffer from *very* few hits in the Great Forest as long as you keep Romeo's Ballad up, so the speed of the battle isn't that important. Blue magic comes in read handy versus Galajelly encounters; Titan is a powerful attack versus all the other enemies here. This is a long-ass walk through the park for you, so if you are adamant about Black Mages and Summoners, prepare to use Ethers and the like. If you possess the !Mix ability, using a Lilith's Kiss (Ether + Maiden's Kiss) will restore all the MP a target has (Imps top the chart with 200), or simply !Mix a Turtle Shell and a Potion to create a 80 MP restoring Ether. Flame Scrolls are handy versus Mammons and, coming from sufficient Magic Power, able to kill Mini Magicians in a single hit as well. Enter the forest. Dead ahead is a chest containing 2500 Gil. To the right is a tree with a hole in it; this is where a tree's spirit can be found. Next to the three is a chest with an Ether. Get the Ether and interact with the tree go gain passage. Beneath the tree's roots, you travel to a new part of the forest. Going up, bending to the right for a few tiles, you'll come across a chest with 4900 Gil. Keep to the top edge and walk to the right to find a Phoenix Down in a chest surrounded by flowers. Continue following the top border to the right, but pass up a tree with a hole in it and continue. Eventually, there's a chest with 9500 Gil. Now, return to the spirit tree and open the new passageway. You clearly see a chest when you surface; it contains a Cottage. All the way to the right is a chest containing a Goliath Tonic. Go all the way up from there and find a special Save Point, which you might need by now. From there, go to the left, up and a little up again; there's a chest with an Elixir. Now, go all the way up and stick to the right side until you encounter a chest with a Morning Star. This is some kind of super-Flail; it deals physical damage and combines with Two-Handed. It's for everybody who uses Staves. Even with Two-Handed, damage isn't impressive. Now, go to the left. Suddenly, a disaster strikes. There's not really anywhere you can go. There's a chest here containing an Aegis Shield. If you wait for a very slight while, you'll be able to pick up a Flame Shield instead. Neither picking up the Aegis Shield nor the Flame Shield has any influence on your Treasure %. The Flame Shield gives 7 Defense, 40 % Evade, 5 Magic Defense and allows the wearer to absorb Fire-elemental attacks. The Aegis Shield gives only 5 Defense, 33 % Evade, no Magic Defense and merely protects against the Petrify status ailment. However, the Aegis Shield make a similar check to magical attack as the Main Gauche does for physicals. 33 % of any blockable magical attack misses a character with the Aegis Shield equipped. There is no such thing as 'unblockable' when it comes to the Aegis Shield; especially if you have Flame Rings, the Aegis Shield is probably the better choice. If you pick the Aegis Shield or not, eventually a Moogle will pop up. Drop down and wait until the fire has raged out. You can restore your HP/MP in the water. Go up to see the disastrous results of Exdeath's forest genocide. There's the chest again; you can pick up the Flame Shield now if you didn't pick the Aegis Shield earlier. Burned forest: 35 % Galajelly x 3 35 % Galajelly x 2, Mini Magician x 2 23 % Mammon x 3, Mini Magician x 2 6 % Mammon x 2, Galajelly x 2, Mini Magician Simply go to the left now that leaves and shadows are no longer blocking your vision. Get some Ash from a treasure chest. Ash can be Thrown, but it'll do pathetic damage and has no other use (at least, in the Super Famicom and PSX versions; it can be used with !Combine in FFVA). To the south there's an exit which'll take you to the Overworld Map. To the far left there's a Knightsword called the Flametongue; it's a Fire-elemental sword that's actually rather powerful. Note that a Knight with a Flametongue and a Flame Ring or Flame Shield can heal him- or herself. Also note that these Knights should be in the Front Row, as when they're in the Back Row they'll only deal 25% damage to themselves :/ Pressing on to the north will get you to the Guardian Tree. Enter, please. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.35.3 The fight against the Guardians ********************************** ? Level: 77, HP: 7777, MP: 10000 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 20% Steal: Elixir (rare) Win: Ash (rare) Absorbs: its respective element, Nullifies: Holy, Poison, Lightning, Ice Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Darkness, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical Attack, Firaga / Aeroga / Aqua Breath / Earth Shaker This fight has four targets. They represent the elements of the crystals; each target possesses a single element. This target absorbs that element and will use an elemental attack accordingly when weakened. Below 3000 HP, the Fire Guardian will cast Firaga, the Water Guardian will cast Aqua Breath, the Earth Guardian uses Earth Shaker and the Wind Guardian casts Aeroga. All attacks are always used on the entire party. The Guardians are laid out like this: Fire Wind Water Earth The key to their defeat lies in the lack of Heavy nature and vulnerability to the Death status. The Mix outcome Death Potion (Phoenix Down + Dark Matter) instantly kills a Guardian. Death Claw also works, although the Guardians' high level will make sure Death Claw will often miss. In the meantime, you can cast Slowga to lessen their amount of attacks, summon Golem to protect you from their physical abuse and blind the Guardians with the Flash spell. Flash may also miss, and the Mix outcome Dark Sigh (Eye Drops + Dragon Fang) sets Darkness disregarding their evasion, but if you're using !Mix than there's no reason not to instantly kill them anyway unless you don't have enough Dark Matter. If you don't have the ingredients or ability to create Death Potions and can't use Death Claw, this fight is a bit harder. Reflect Rings protect you from Firaga and Aeroga, and you can cast Float beforehand to avoid Earth Shaker (Float bounces off the Reflect Rings as well). If you need healing, you can Mix an Ether with some Eye Drops to gain a Resist Fire potion that will make the afflicted character absorb the Firaga spells. All that's left is Aqua Breath. Make sure to the set up the described protection barriers and cast Hastega to speed yourself up. Now, you'll want to make absolutely sure to pick on one target at the same time. You'll never be able to sustain your life when all four targets are using their elemental attacks. Use Graviga, Missile, dual Twin Lances, Succubus Kiss, Two-Handed Flametonque, boosted Firaga and boosted Aeroga; as long as you make sure the element is not absorbed by the target you're attacking, it'll work well. The fight isn't too hard, you can just maneuver yourself in a situation where you'll be VERY killed VERY quickly if you don't watch out. In the end, it seems we've made a bit of a slip-up there. Exdeath arrives to assume domination of the crystals of this world; the very crystals we've granted it access to. Krile comes to rescue us from Exdeath's torment only to find herself as a target of Exdeath's force as well. In a display both heroic and foolish, Galuf fights back the power of one of the crystals, shattering it. The effects of this act will have to be seen; for now, Galuf faces Exdeath, alone. Galuf will never die in this battle, though he'll remain at 0 HP for most of it. If he gains HP back, you'll see the Sap status in effect, which is continuous throughout the battle. If Galuf uses Self-Destruct, Transfusion or TNT (a !Mix outcome), the battle will end automatically. Exdeath will have to take 7000 damage before it'll get angered and casts the three ultimate spell from the main magic schools: the Black Flare spell, the White Holy spell and the Time Meteor spell. After that, damaging Exdeath three times will end the battle. ... And thus, Galuf Halm Baldesion fell, and so did the world weep. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.36.1 The fight with the Gil Turtle; get rich or die tryin' ********************************** Opponents: Undergrounder (#98), Gil Turtle (#282) Miscellaneous items: 10 Gil, 20 Gil, 40 Gil, 80 Gil, 160 Gil, 320 Gil, 640 Gil, 1280 Gil, 2560 Gil, 5120 Gil, 10240 Gil, 20480 Gil, 40960 Gil It's a harsh transition between Galuf's demise and the order of everyday, but as so often the world does not stop to mourn a single death. Exdeath must pay, but there's more to do. Mainly, since the end of the next dungeon will mean a BIG change in your options, this section is an overview of what you can still do here. There's a side-quest to be done which cannot be done later but is so special it's not like normal side-quests. Basically, all you get from it is a LOT of Gil, and the only thing you have to do is punch a turtle. I shouldn't forget to mention that this turtle is an undead demonic Testudine with the strength of a thousand evil armies and almost impenetrable defenses. It's also poisonous. Most parties won't be able to defeat it, and even if you followed everything I've told you so far. Gil Turtle is an extremely powerful opponent which requires you to utilize special tactics to take him down. Should you want to travel between Castle Bal and Castle Exdeath, you could take the Wind Drake and make a detour over Drakenvale and Quelb. However, a more direct route takes you through Gil Cave, of which the entrances lie east of Castle Bal and south-west of the Big Bridge. Here, only Undergrounder's appear; giant centipedes which attack with physical attacks and Earthquake, an MT Earth- elemental attack which you can avoid with Float. Level 4 Graviga can be used to quickly put a dent in all Undergrounder's HP, then finish with whatever. In the middle of the path under the mountains is a pathway downwards which eventually curls upwards to a door. There's a bit where you can't see your lead character, but as soon as you can see him or her again, every tile will award you with Gil! Every step will get you twice the amount the previous tile rewarded you with. None of these pieces o' gold count towards your Treausre %. However, only the sun is free these days and for every step you take there's a chance Gil Turtle will attack you. He'll only attack you when you pick up Gil, so on the way back he won't make a showing. But oh, when he does make a showing... Gil Turtle Level: 57, HP: 32768, MP: 8000 Defense: 40, Magic Defense: 55 Evasion: 40%, Magic Evasion: 40% Steal: Potion (rare), Hi-Potion (common) Absorbs: Water, Wind, Earth, Poison, Lightning, Fire Nullifies: Holy Weakness: Ice Status: Protect, Shell Creature: Undead, Heavy Specialty: !Turtle Specialty Effect: sets Darkness, Poison and Confuse Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Battle, !Turtle, Earthquake Gil Turtle's AI script is simple and effective. He's fast like greased lightning and attacks physically every turn. When damaged by whatever, he'll counter with !Turtle, which deals the same amount of brutal physical damage and sets Darkness and Poison. He counters every attack you send flying at him with two !Turtle attacks. When defeated, he'll use an Earthquake attack which deals around 3500 damage to the entire party. If you're not Floating, you die. Cast Float beforehand, I suppose. The strategy here depends a little on luck. His weakness is Ice, and that's what we'll have to exploit in order to defeat the thing. Boosted Blizzaga spells and Blizzaga spellblade effects are your best options on the offense; Requiem and Level 3 Flare also deal damage though quite a lot less. The key to your protection is the fact that whatever Gil Turtle is throwing at you, however, intimidatingly powerful, are simply blockable physical attacks. Also, Gil Turtle's fast and will decimate you if you're loitering, but his true strength is his dual !Turtle omni-counter. This means that you can relatively safely boost your own strength in the meantime. Equip Main Gauches and Elven Mantles; you've got two of the former and three of the latter if you picked up everything so far. Evasion is far superior to defense in this battle. The White Blink spell and the Ninja's !Image ability both grant the affected character the prospect of dodging the next two physical attacks, and Golem's Earthen Wall stops his attacks as well. With Golem, a few images and your own enhanced evasive abilities, Gil Turlte will get in precious few hits. Set up the above and cast Hastega. Now, have every character capable of dealing significant damage do so. If a character is not capable of making a large impact (say, you've made a Time Mage with !Summon to support the party) just use Defense rather than deal a little damage, as Gil Turtle's counterattacks aren't worth it. Keep healing, reviving and damaging and you should be able to outpower Gil Turtle. Note that once you leave the area behind the door, the tiles reset. Again, the first tile contains 10 Gil, the last tile contains 40960 Gil and Gil Turtle may appear whenever it feels like it. Infinite amounts of money, sure, but one trip gets you 81910 Gil which already is a all the Gil you'll be spending in the future so there's really no good reason to do it all again. Kelger: "Xezat...and Galuf... It seems I am all that remains of the Dawn Warriors... How ironic - the oldest and weakest of we four is the only one who still lives..." Ghido will also have some pricess advice for you if you bother to seek him out at this point: Ghido: "Exdeath is returning to his castle. Defeat him before it's too late!" In Castle Bal, everybody dislikes Exdeath. This is because it killed their king. The same goes for Surgate Castle, where all the soldiers mourn the death of King Xezat. Since so many wounded soldiers return from the siege on Exdeath's Castle, the Inn is needed as a hospital and you can't use it. If you never entered the Sealed Castle of Kuza, and you take your team there, a bug will occur: the doesn't take into account that Krile replaced Galuf in your team, so Galuf will still talk about the history of the castle. Like I said, at the end of the next dungeon comes a big change for you. Make sure you got the following; if you miss some stuff and care to see if you can still get it, please do. White: Blink, Shell, Esuna, Curaga, Reflect, Berserk Black: Drain, Break, Bio, Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga Time: Float, Teleport, Comet, Slowga, Return, Graviga, Hastega, Old Summon: Golem, Catoblepas Blue: Aqua Breath Level 5 Death Level 4 Graviga Level 3 Flare Level 2 Old Pond's Chorus Lilliputian Lyric Flash Time Slip Death Claw Aera Aeroga Flame Thrower Goblin Punch Dark Spark Off-Guard Transfusion Vampire Magic Hammer Self-Destruct ??? 1000 Needles White Wind Missile Songs: Requiem, Swift Song Pianos: Regole, Moore Noteworthy items: Those Staves of Light that are a rare drop from Metamorph are something to consider; past this point it's a rare steal from a boss and then it's all over as far as Staves of Light go. Best to get one now if you don't have it yet. Special treasures: There's really not that much you could have left behind. Found the treasures in the Moogle Village? Collected enough Dragon Fangs for the upcoming dungeon? Did you ever get the Kornago Gourd? Obtained the Swift Song and all? Stolen enough Twin Lances? Bestiary (52%): Normal enemies: #70 - #122 (exception #87), #176 and #177 Aquatic enemies: - Boss enemies: #266 - #282 Just for funsies, version 2, here's an example of one of my teams at the moment: LV 5 Knight LV 2 Monk LV 1 Dragoon LV 4 Samurai LV 1 Berserker LV 2 Ranger LV 2 Mystic Knight LV 3 Blue Mage Still mainly a heavy armor kinda guy, but Bartz is branching out into the world. A Ranger dip for !Aim, and I got !Blue for him. Goblin Punch and his HP-based attacks work well on a slow, strong hitter; Goblin Punch is unblockable when accuracy is of the essence. The Dragoon and Mystic Knight are more or less wasted ABP to be honest, as they don't teach anything funky they can't do better themselves. Eventually, Bartz will have to learn !Rapid Fire, Dual-Wield and master Monk, Thief and Oracle and he is working on NONE of those things at this point. Oh, well. Lenna: LV 3 Black Mage LV 6 Time Mage LV 5 Summoner LV 3 Blue Mage LV 3 Red Mage LV 2 Geomancer LV 2 Chemist LV 1 Ranger LV 2 Dancer Does things from the Back Row with Magic Power. Maxed out Summoner early so for the rest of her career, she's got the option to maximize Magic on herself. !Dance is 50% Magic-based, as is !Mix on some very rare occasions. What could be missing here is !Sing, I suppose... Working on Black Mage at the moment, which explains the arbitrary stop at LV 3 there. In the future lies the dreaded path to !Dualcast, but learning to master the four schools of magic comes first. Krile: LV 4 White Mage LV 6 Black Mage LV 5 Time Mage LV 1 Summoner LV 3 Blue Mage LV 3 Red Mage LV 2 Chemist LV 1 Geomancer LV 3 Bard *** LV 1 Ranger Another spellslinger, Krile has !Sing instead of !Summon 5. Mastered Bard even, but it was an accident, I promise. Working White Magic here... with the exception of !Summon 5 not a single magic skillset take precedence over another since if you want a magic skillset, you just become the appropriate Job and set another one to complement it. She'll be a !Dualcaster like Lenna in the future, but not now. Faris: LV 2 Monk LV 5 Thief LV 4 Ninja LV 2 Ranger LV 3 Beastmaster A short list, but most ABP disappeared into the Ninja class for Dual-Wield. Not quite there yet since I refuse to go out of my way for it, but being a Ninja is not a punishment. Faris walks around and either has !Control or Barehanded, depends on the dungeon. She walks around as a Thief until I know I've got all items I want. Like Bartz, Faris will become a !Rapid Fire, Dual-Wield monkey for me; she's getting there already, so I basically traded using Heavy Armor Jobs on Bartz NOW for reaching limit-breaking abilities earlier. I stand by that choice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.37.1 Castle Exdeath 1; ascension and the fight with Carbuncle ********************************** Opponents: Twin Lizard (#123), Blind Wolf (#124), Hellraiser (#125), Reflect Mage (#126), Magic Dragon (#127), Black Warlock (#128), Adamantite Golem (#129), Bandercoeurl (#130), Iron Fist (#131), Blue Dragon (#132), Red Dragon (#133), Yellow Dragon (#134), Imp (Ex) (-), Oiseaurare (Ex) (-), Jackanapes (Ex) (-), Abductor (Ex) (-), Carbuncle (#283), Gilgamesh (#284), Exdeath (#285) Container contents: 8000 Gil, 9900 Gil, Diamond Shield, Elixir x 2, Ether, Fuma Shuriken, Ice Shield, Hayate Bow, Icebrand, Kotetsu, Partisan, Twin Lance Miscellaneous items: Spear (rare Shell Bear steal), Reflect Ring (rare steal from Reflect Mage, common steal from Carbuncle), Power Staff (rare drop from Black Warlock), Judgment Staff (rare steal from Black Warlock), Beast Killer (rare steal from Iron Fist), Flame Ring (rare steal from Red Dragon), Excalipoor (guaranteed Gilgamesh drop), Genji Helm (common steal from Gilgamesh) Spells: White Wind, Aeroga, Off-Guard, Level 2 Old, Magic Hammer, Moon Flute, Level 3 Flare, Lilliputian Lyric, Pond's Chorus, Time Slip, Flash, Doom Ground Floor behind Save Point: 35 % Bandercoeurl, Blind Wolf x 2 35 % Iron Fist x 2 23 % Red Dragon, Blue Dragon 6 % Red Dragon 2nd Floor: 35 % Twin Lizard x 2 35 % Blind Wolf x 5 23 % Reflect Mage, Blind Wolf x 2, Twin Lizard 6 % Reflect Mage x 3 3rd Floor (illusion): 35 % Blind Wolf x 5 35 % Twin Lizard x 2, Blind Wolf, Hellraiser 23 % Reflect Mage, Blind Wolf x 2, Twin Lizard 6 % Reflect Mage x 3 A TASK OF H E R O E S As soon as you enter, the armies of Surgate lie defeated before you. None of them posed any challenge to Exdeath. However, your powers have improved greatly since the last time you got whipped by a band of pirates, so you shouldn't count this situation as proof you stand no chance either. In the basement, Shell Bears and Tarantulas still roam the place. If you never got that Spear from the Shell Bears, get one now or lose it forever. That water past the Save Point can still function as a Recovery Spring, which might aid you. If you go up, new monsters will start appearing. Ready for this? The Twin Lizards you encounter here are exactly like their counterparts you met near Jachol and on Crescent Island all these millennia ago, only a bit stronger. Weak to Ice-elemental attacks, no special properties. Blind Wolves are inherently affected by Darkness; they are, in fact, blind. However, they do manage to land a hit on occasion, and when the hit in question is their !Tusk attack it'll set Darkness on you as well. They only have 900 HP and are weak to Fire-elemental attacks; any serious attempt at multi-target violence will kill them, especially a conjuration of Ifrit. Hellraisers are restorative bunnies like the Cure Beasts you encountered earlier. However, they will simply attack physically until they die, at which point they'll cast Arise on a random target that isn't them. When the target in question was Dead, they'll be revived with full HP. If not, Arise will do nothing. Hellraisers can be Silenced, Stopped, Paralyzed and Berserked to prevent Arise from being cast. Reflect Mage use Fire, Fira, Blizzard, Blizzara, Thunder and Thundara on themselves. These attacks are weak, and the Reflect Mages themselves are frail. Just don't try to attack them with magical spells that bounce off. Also, make sure never to Confuse them (which basically means, never whip out an Alluring Air) as the Reflect Mages will now start casting Slowga and Thundaga on the enemy party, which bounces off unto you. Gaia's Wrath and physical attacks are grand versus them. They have a rare Reflect Ring steal, which is a much more reliable source than the Reflect Knight's rare drop. Make sure to get four of them! This is quite easy, since they have no common Steal item; Time Slip disables them for the duration of the fight and pierces Reflect. This dungeon is awesome, seriously. A lot of interesting and tough monsters, and all Jobs (much like the flying ruins of Lonka) are pretty much balanced so there's no quick way to defeat the opponents. In addition, all enemies here give really notable amounts of Experience and ABP so you may actually want to go for abilities such as !Rapid Fire and Dual Wield. Heavy Armor characters will notice that the Dragoon and Berserker both didn't get any better since you left Bartz' homeworld; you're still wielding the Gaia Hammer, and the Partisan is not much more powerful than the Javelin you stole before you even got a Dragoon in the first place. This makes them noteably less powerful than the Knight (whose Icebrand and Flametongue swords can be swapped around mid-battle for elemental might) and the Samurai catches up just before the final boss of this dungeon. Mage characters will see !Black re-appearing as the ultimate offensive force. Titan is still very useful for crowd control, Golem is a good idea even versus some random encounters (such as fighting dragons) and Catoblepas sees a few uses in the dungeon. Going up will get you to the second floor. Two chests here; the left one contains an Ether, the right one a Diamond Shield. Both should be pretty useless by now. On the third floor, you'll run into a dead end. An old friend helps us out, showing us the true form of Exdeath's castle. Gross. The Warriors of Dawn are dead. 3rd Floor (illusion lifted): 35 % Twin Lizard x 2, Blind Wolf, Hellraiser 35 % Twin Lizard x 2 30 % Reflect Mage x 3 4th Floor & 10th Floor: 35 % Magic Dragon 35 % Magic Dragon, Twin Lizard, Reflect Mage 23 % Magic Dragon x 3, Hellraiser, Blind Wolf 6 % Black Warlock Magic Dragons are neat. They're sturdy (having 2900 HP) and cast three Blue spells you may not have at this point: Aeroga, Off-Guard and Level 2 Old. Learn all three if you haven't. Magic Dragons are weak to Poison- and Wind-elemental attacks, so Bio and Aeroga (both can be boosted) kill them off relatively quickly. Level 3 Flare and Level 4 Graviga also work like a charm. Black Warlocks are your source for neat staves, and are quite dangerous in addition. They have a rare Judgment Staff you can steal, and drop a rare Power Staff when killed. They largely use annoyer tactics when they're not alone; Confuse, Drain, Stop and Slowga is what they'll cast in addition to using physical attacks. When alone though, the Black Warlock will tap into its darkest arts and start using Death, Break and Banish. Banish sets Death, by the way, to non-Heavy targets. These vile mages can be Confused, Stopped and Silenced, all of which is a good idea; Level 3 Flare can be used for damage. You really want that Judgment Staff; it's a better weapon than the Staff of Light since it boosts Magic Power by 3 instead of 2, and it can be used as an item to cast Dispel. When used in this fashion, it does NOT break, effectively giving you access to the Dispel spell through this Staff. It can be used to remove the inherent Protect and Shell status on Gil Turtle, making hurting it two times as easy. The Power Staff sets Battle Power to 0 and casts Berserk instead of dealing damage. Mildly useless. When Stealing, Time Slip, Sleep and Stop can be used to keep the Black Warlock subdued and not have it cast instant death spells all the time. On the fourth floor, there's a metallic switch on the wall you'll need to flip in order to get to a chest containing an Ice Shield, the best normal defensive shield so far. It equals the Flame Shield in every way, though it absorbs Ice rather than Fire (big surprise there). Better for random encounters than any other option, though I'd still go for Aegis Shield versus bosses. This is also the first floor you can encounter Black Warlocks. 5th Floor, 11th Floor: 35 % Black Warlock x 2 35 % Black Warlock x 2, Reflect Mage 23 % Adamantite Golem, Hellraiser x 3 6 % Adamantite Golem x 2 Adamantite Golem are what you'd expect. They attack physically with great strength and take hits well. They're weak to Lightning-elemental attacks (which is odd; Adamantite in our world equals Diamond, and Diamond equipment halves damage done by Lightning. Oh well, shucks if I care) and can be instantly dispatched by a Gold Needle like all stone-based monsters. They make this dungeon's best Catch/Release monster for random encounters as well, performing a powerful physical attack. On the fifth floor, there's a hidden passage that is nothing but a shortcut. Featureless in all other regards. 6th Floor, 12th Floor: 35 % Adamantite Golem x 2 35 % Adamantite Golem, Black Warlock, Reflect Mage 23 % Bandercoeurl x 2, Black Warlock 6 % Bandercoeurl, Blind Wolf x 2 Bandercoeurl...hey, did you know that the Coeurl is a fictional alien race of predators created by the late science fiction novelist A. E. van Vogt (1912-2000)? It's true. Within the Final Fantasy series, they're feared for their spellcasting abilities, most notably their tendency for Death-setting attacks which they employ with their large whiskers. These Bandercoeurls don't have visible whiskers, but they DO have the Blaster attack they can use. This attack targets a single character and either sets Paralyze (good) or Death (bad). They're weak to Fire-elemental attacks. The sixth floor has lava! You can access the chest containing an Elixir without much problems, but to get to the hidden chest containing a Hayate Bow you need to cross the lava. The Geomancer's Light Step ability or casting Float on the entire party will save you from pain and ridicule. Get into the lava at whatever descenscion that's closest to you and get into the bottom-right corner. There's a hidden passage taking you straight to the chest. 7th Floor: 35 % Bandercoeurl, Blind Wolf x 2 35 % Iron Fist x 2 23 % Red Dragon, Blue Dragon 6 % Red Dragon You've met the Red and Yellow variety (probably), but the Blue Dragon is a new one. Blue Dragon Level: 38, HP: 6900, MP: 1000 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 5 Evasion: 20%, Magic Evasion: 30% Steal: Cottage (rare), Dragon Fang (common) Win: Dragon Fang (rare) Absorbs: Ice Nullifies: Earth Status: Float (always) Creature: Dragon Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Poison, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Frost, Ice Storm This Ice-elemental dragon has no elemental weaknesses but uses and absorbs Ice-elemental attacks. Frost and Ice Storm are both powerful MT Ice-elemental attacks, and the Blue Dragon may also attack physically. With 6900 HP, it'll be a while before you can kill it with straight attacks. Ice Storm is an extremely powerful attack that can deal around 550 damage to all characters, and Frost will deal around 250 damage to all characters while setting Sap. Your Ice Shield makes one character absorb that damage, and Flame Rings will negate the damage as well. The Blue Dragon is vulnerable to Death, Petrify and Stop and lacks a Heavy nature, so while you can keep them at bay with Romeo's Ballad and the like, Break, Break Spellblade effects and Catoblepas' Demon Eye can instantly kill them. Break Spellblade effects are best, since Blue Dragons will avoid many blockable spells sent their way. You can steal common Dragon Fangs from them. The Red Dragon was a powerful guardian of two Barrier Tower chests earlier, but now that they're random encounters they haven't weakened in the slightest. You'll be a bit more fit to take them on head-to-head, but they can still pose a good amount of problems. If you haven't learned Level 3 Flare yet, a combination of !Control and the Reflect spell (see the Barrier Tower section for more info) can net you the spell. Boosted Blizzaga spells are extremely powerful versus the Red Dragon, else Requiem and Gaia's Wrath also get the job done. As you should still know, they attack with physical attacks and Atomic Ray, an MT Fire- elemental attack. Iron Fists simply attack physically and may counter your Attacks with a 33 % chance of using !Counter, which is unblockable, ignores Defense and sets HP Leak, so don't let them. They're kinda weak for all their bad-assery when it comes to looks. They also take double damage from the big three, Fire, Ice and Lightning. You can rarely steal Beast Killers from these cretins, stronger Whips for your Beastmasters. Beast Killers always deal a critical hit to creatures with the Magic Beast nature, which include (in this dungeon) Twin Lizards, Blind Wolves, Hellraisers, Rage, Magic Dragons, Bandercoeurls and Carbuncle. The seventh floor: a mini-game! But first, know that from the 7th to the 9th floor, you'll be encountering the elemental dragons. You can't really do anything against the Yellow Dragon's Lightning, but the Flame Ring absorbs Atomic Ray and nullifies Frost and Ice Storm, so you should swap to those if you have the items. As for abilities and such, !Sing, !Control and !Summon are all grand. Anyway, there are two chests here, one path you'll need to take to continue, and walls. Stand on the skull tile to send the bridge hurrying across the hole. Press the action button to stop the thing. When you hit a wall, a monster comes out! The left chest contains an Icebrand (an Ice-elemental Knightsword) and the right chest contains a Kotetsu Katana. Both are nice to have. Note that the Icebrand can be used in tandem with an Ice Shield to heal a target. 1 2 3 4 1: Abductor or Imp 2: Oiseaurare or Abductor 3: Jackanapes or Abductor 4: Abductor or Imp Note that these are not the exact same monsters you encounter someplace else in the game; Oiseaurare, for example, won't have that awesome rare steal you'll be able to get later, nor will any fight you complete here make an addition to your Bestiary. They perform much like their counterparts, though. Should you want to walk back, standing on the skull tile on the other end will instantly put the bridge in the right position for you to walk over. There's a Save Point here, leading you to a room where dragons roam. There are powerful creatures you'll definitely want to prepare for. !Control is awesome, and equipping Flame Rings helps protect against Blaze, Frost and Ice Storm. To the right is a hidden passage leading to a chest with an Elixir, to the left is a chest with 9900 Gil. 8th Floor: 35 % Adamantite Golem, Black Warlock, Reflect Mage 35 % Yellow Dragon 23 % Red Dragon 6 % Red Dragon, Blue Dragon 9th Floor: 35 % Iron Fist x 2, Black Warlock 35 % Yellow Dragon x 2 23 % Blue Dragon x 3 6 % Adamantite Golem, Hellraiser x 3 Yellow Dragons lack elemental weaknesses, but also the Heavy property. Make sure you can exploit this weakness, as the fact they can continuously spam Lightning is a recipe for disaster (though those with Diamond equipment will only take half damage). Throw Death Potions, Dark Elixirs, Death Claw, Missile, !Flirt, Graviga around like it's nobodies business. Romeo's Ballad can Stop them, which is nice. Yellow Dragons make a grand !Catch versus the final battle of this dungeon, by the way; Lightning deals 25 % maximum HP, and the boss has quite a lot of it. If you can pick up a Coral Ring after the fight that'd be grand, but in my opinion shooting for four Coral Rings is simply too bothersome (fighting Gil Turtle so you can buy four later is less of a bother). The ninth and tenth floor will have you alternating often. This is where Iron Fists start appearing. They have a rare Beast Killer Whip for stealing, a Whip which may randomly Paralyze the target (like so many Whips) but will also always deal a critical hit to Magic Beasts, making them quite powerful. Go up and down again to find yourself in a room full of lava. Again, Light Step or Float are a must here. Walk to the far right and go up the stairs to grab the chest containing 8000 Gil. Go back and go up the other stairway open to you. To the left lies a field with skull tiles, rigged with trap floors. The Geomancer's Find Pits is the only thing that allows you to spot them before you tumble down. 2 xxx x00xx xxxxxxx 1x0x0xxx4 xxxxx0x xxx0x xxx 3 1: Entry point 2: Warp tile to Carbuncle 3: Tile to re-connect passageway 4: Chest with Twin Lance 0: Trap floor To the far right is a chest containing a Twin Lance. If you want to continue, take the bottom skull tile; if you want to get your hands on a new summon beast, take the top one. You'll be warped straight to Carbuncle, whose form may surprise. If you have less than four Reflect Rings, send in a Thief! "I'll join you - if you're stronger than me. Come on, show me what you got!" Carbuncle Level: 44, HP: 15000, MP: 10000 Defense: 50, Magic Defense: 50 Evasion: 70%, Magic Evasion: 50% Steal: Goliath Tonic (rare), Reflect Ring (common)** Win: Turtle Shell (rare) Nullifies: Earth Status: Float, Reflect (always) Creature: Heavy, Magic Beast Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Petrify*, Toad*, Mini*, Poison*, Darkness, Old*, Sleep*, Paralyze*, Confuse*, Silence, Stop*, Slow Attacks: Cura, Fira, Blizzara, Thundara, Bio, Stop, Confuse, Break, Banish, Death *: only when in healing form **: you can steal succesfully from both forms Carbuncle will cast any of the Black -ra spells for three turns... on himself. Since these spell bounce off, they'll hit one of your characters instead. After three offensive spells, he'll turn into another monster. Not that you'll see this happening; he just does. This other form - I'll call it his healing form - will cast Cura on himself with rather pitiful effects. In this form, he stops Floating, his Reflect barrier is gone, he's weak to all elements and vulnerable to a LOT more status ailments (as described above). The turn after Cura, he'll change back into his normal, hard-to-damage self and he will start casting three more offensive spells. When below 10000 HP, he'll cast Bio, Stop and Confuse. When below 3000 HP, he'll cast Break, Banish and Death, easily the most dangerous spells he could use. Here's the deal. Carbuncle is almost impossible to damage by any large extent. His Defense and Magic Defense both are extremely high, he has no elemental weaknesses, is immune to Titan's Gaia's Wrath and is inherently Reflective. However, his healing form is when the getting's good. He'll drop a lot of status immunities, his Heavy nature and his Reflect status His defensive and evasive properties will plummet; he'll just keep 10% Evasion and a bit of Defense. You'll just have to sit back and heal and buff up when Carbuncle is in his offensive mode. Casting Shell on all characters really helps. Flame Rings protect against Fira and Blizzara, so that's a good thing. Silence Spellblade effects will keep Carbuncle from casting spells, but since his Evade is rather high you might want to combine !Aim or !Rapid Fire with !Spellblade to make sure it hits. You can take the opportunity to steal a Reflect Ring from the fiend. When Carbuncle has cast Cura, act quickly. If you got the options available to you, Carbuncle should never reach his offensive state again. Since Carbuncle's healing form is another monster altogehter as far as the game is concerned, you'll also be able to nab the items of the healing form Carbuncle, which include another common Reflect Ring and a rare Goliath Tonic. Missile, Graviga, Death Claw and Dark Elixir all work all of a sudden. You can use Romeo's Ballad, Alluring Air, Stop or Sleep to prevent Carbuncle from ever leaving this weakened state. Now, pound on him. Break and Break spellblade effects end the battle instantly. Now that Carbuncle lost his Heavy nature and has gained a weakness against all elements, Spellblade effects of Bio and the -aga spells also kill him instantly. A Dark Elixir or Death Claw followed by the slightest of attacks kills him. Boosted -aga spells deliver massive damage. The battle should be over as soon as you saw Cura appear. Carbuncle, as a Summon, will set Reflect to all allies; note that Carbuncle is a level 4 Summon spell, so those with level 3 !Summon won't be able to conjure him. When you're done, descend. You'll get onto another skull warp tile. Get back to the skull tile platform, avoid the pitfalls, stand on the bottom tile and continue. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.37.2 The fourth fight with Gilgamesh ********************************** There's a Save Point here, which you'll want to use. On the eleventh floor, there's a prominent chest in the middle of the room. If you try to open it, you'll be forced to fight Gilgamesh again. If you don't, you can avoid the battle, but you'll also miss out on the three pieces of Genji equipment you haven't obtained yet. I'd definitely open the chest. Not now, though; to the right is a stairway going up to two chests containing a Fuma Shuriken and a Partisan (lame). To continue, pick the chest (or not) and walk up the stairs only to be halted by the general of Exdeath's army (or not). "Enough expository banter! Now we fight like men! And ladies! And ladies who dress like men!" Gilgamesh Level: 53, HP: 55000, MP: 2000 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 15 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 30% Steal: Gauntlet/Nothing* (rare), Hi-Potion/Genji Helm* (common) Win: Excalipoor (always) Status: Float Creature: Humanoid, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical Attack, Dischord, Lilliputian Lyric, Dancehall Daze, Flash, Hurricane, Pond's Chorus, Time Slip, Rocket Punch *: When morphed That's a LOT of HP Gilgamesh has, but know that he'll have written has own death sentence once he starts yappin', which is starts when you have dealt around 13000 HP worth of damage. Gilgamesh' strategy relies mostly on setting annoying status ailments and weakening you while attacking with physical attacks. He'll use all attacks more or less randomly, so I won't bother listing his exact AI script. Summon Golem's Earthen Wall and cast Hastega to push the battle considerably in your odds. Wearing Bone Mail or a Ribbon really helps in this battle as they'll stop most everything Gilgamesh uses to annoy you. You CAN'T steal the Genji Helm just yet; this'll come later. If you're looking for a good way to damage Gilgamesh, boosted Black -aga spells are by far the best way to damage Gilly. Dual Twin Lances also get the job done nicely. Your Heavy Armor character(s) will have to sit back and be happy with dealing less damage; Two-Handed Icebrand or Two-Handed Greatsword with Drain Spellblade effects are probably your best options. After taking enough damage, Gilgamesh will start talking. You can actually stop dealing damage now; he'll go through his lines every turn now, adding insult to injury every time. In the middle of his speech, he'll transform into his eight- armed ultra form and attack you with one of the twelve weapons from the Sealed Castle of Kuza, the Excalibur. Now that Gilgamesh is morphed, go for the steal! He's got a common Genji Helm this time. Keep defending and healing until what turns out to be a common enemy takes care of the fight. The Excalipoor is an odd weapon. It has 100 Battle Power, yet deals 1 damage? The truth is that the Excalipoor is actually a very weak weapon, dealing 1 damage every hit. However, its power when used with Goblin Punch or when Thrown is the listed 100, so for both you could utilize the weapon. A 100 Battle Power Goblin Punch or even a 200 Battle Power Goblin Punch (with Two-Handed) isn't that powerful, though; when paired with Barehanded to boost Strength, it does become a fair force to be reckoned with; another option would be a Knight with !Blue. The Genji Helm is just a very good helmet that also protects against the Mini and Confuse status ailments. Continue. On the 13th floor, an unlucky number, does the dark mage Exdeath try to destroy yet another world by breaking its foundations. Its goals are unknown, but the effects of its actions are not. It has caused the deaths and destruction of more things precious than your heart can manage to sum up. It must pay; this must be the end of his conquests; it must be destroyed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.37.3 The fight with the dark warlock Exdeath ********************************** "Believe what you wish. Simple-minded fools such as yourselves could never hope to understand my motives. It matters not. I will tolerate no more interruptions!" Exdeath Level: 66, HP: 32768, MP: 32768 Defense: 25, Magic Defense: 25 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 85% Steal: Judgment Staff (rare), Elixir (common) Nullifies: Poison Weakness: Holy Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Vacuum Wave Specialty Effect: 150 % damage, adds the Sap status Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Battle, !Vacuum Wave, Dispel, Bio, Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Doom, Level 3 Flare, Haste, Gravity, Meteor, Reverse Polarity, 100 Gs, Blaze, Earth Shaker, Hurricane, Zombie Breath Exdeath will be a supreme test of your strength and wisdom; its HP is by far the highest of any enemy you've had to defeat so far, and its attacks vary greatly. Its broad array of attacks are employed when it starts off. You've seen most of them, though Exdeath uses them with great effect. Doom is a Blue spell you can learn from the fiend; it sets a Countdown on a target. When the countdown reaches 0, the target dies. Doom doesn't work on Heavy targets. 100 Gs removes the Float status. Zombie Breath is an MT barrier-piercing non-elemental attack which, should it kill any of your characters, turns it into a Zombie. If the character is wearing an Angel Ring or is otherwise protected against the Zombie status ailment, he or she will just die. So, y'know, good news there. The effects of Doom are annoying, and there's no way to get rid of it. It's possible to defeat Exdeath before the timer runs out, but you'll need to be powerful indeed. Setting Haste on any person with a Countdown will halve the number (setting Slow will double it), but that shouldn't stop you from using Hastega. If you really want to learn it now, Return is a good spell for that; since Exdeath will cast Doom 66% of the time on his first turn but almost never later in the battle, you could simply cast Return until he has cast Doom on your Learning character. Alternatively, you could cast Return until Exdeath starts off with a physical attack to circumvent Doom altogether. When Exdeath hits 16000 HP (around halfway), it'll get more offensive but also more linear. It'll use physical attacks, !Vacuum Wave and the -aga spells only, though it'll often take two actions in a row. In this stage, a combination of Golem's Earthen Wall or the Image status and the Reflect status completely nullify all of its attempts of damaging you. When reaching 7000 HP, it'll seriously weaken and stop taking two actions in a row; as a last resort, it'll try his hand on the ultimate Time magic, Meteor. This is an extremely powerful attack that hits four times four random targets on your side for powerful barrier-piercing non-elemental damage. Reflect status is ignored by Meteor. An interesting point is that Exdeath here was supposed to have inherent Regen set, but it isn't active in this battle. Its regenerative abilities are even an important plot point if you remember the reason he was sealed in Bartz' world in the first place; oh well. There are a few tactics you can use. Heavy Armor characters, I'm sad to say, won't be all that useful in this fight. Their physical attacks will cause Exdeath to cast Dispel more often than is necessary. Their damage will be sub- par. Mystic Knights with Dual-Wield or Two-Handed can cast Drain on their weapons and become self-sustaining throughout the fight. !Blue is a worthwhile ability on Knights and such; White Wind and Goblin Punch benefit greatly, Vampire, Dark Spark and Off-Guard are nice benefits as well. Yes! Mages are the best in this fight. Boosted -aga spells deal around 2000 damage. When you have a party covered in the Reflect status (Reflect Rings or Caruncle's Ruby Light) you can cast the spell on all four targets. 3000 damage divided by two (due to MT casting) but bounced off to Exdeath four times (due to there being four targets) equals a lot of damage. This also works with the Blue Aeroga spell, only even boosted this'll get you 1500/3000 damage-ish. Anybody with the !Mix ability also is able to deal a lot of damage, and this one doesn't depend on the Reflect status. First, drink a Goliath Tonic. If you lack the !Drink command, you can mix an Elixir with a Dragon Fang for the same result. Now, mix a Dragon Fang with some Holy Water to produce the Holy Breath attack, a Holy-elemental attack that deals as much damage as the caster has at that point. Your characters temporarily bloated amount of HP paired together with the fact Holy Breath deals double damage as it's Holy-elemental... again, around 4000 damage. This works best on those with high Stamina, so Monks are ideal for this. !Mix also grants you the ability to revive fallen characters completely healed (both HP and MP) by combining a Potion with a Phoenix Down, and completely heal themselves with a Succubus Kiss (Turtle Shell + Maiden's Kiss). !Mix really rocks, never forget it. Clothes characters can keep themselves busy in this battle, sure. First, the Beastmaster's !Catch ability allowed it to capture a Yellow Dragon before the fight. When released, its Lightning attack will deal exactly 25 % of Exdeath's maximum HP, being 8192. You could even - when you disregard the party ethics I've been wanting you to follow - have four Beastmasters release four Yellow Dragons for a quick win. Adamantite Golems are also very powerful. Dual Twin Lances are quite efficient as well; set Berserk with the White Mage or through !Mix and watch the damage fly. Exdeath has some Defense though; you can remove some of it with Off-Guard or Turtle Soup (Mix an Antidote with a Turtle Shell). NEVER SET SLOW, as Exdeath will retort with a Haste spell every time. Slow and Slowga spells are out. You could theoretically, dunno, !Catch a Tarantula and get it to use a Thread attack to set Slow and not have Exdeath counter it. In addition, you can set Reflect on Exdeath, bounce the Slow spell from one of your Reflective characters, have Exdeath bounce HIS Haste spell off his own Reflect barrier onto one of your characters. Man, fun stuff. Summon Golem for physical protection and Carbuncle for magical protection and offense increase for -aga casters. Have your physical characters do whatever they wanna do and cast -aga spells on all four characters to deal your massive damage. Exdeath should be a walk in the park if you have the abilities to pull this one off. Anyway, Exdeath is one of the tougher battles you've faced so far, but nothing extremely difficult. When you've defeated Exdeath, the three crystals of Galuf's world shatter... ... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.38.1 A second prelude; the fight with Antlion ********************************** Opponents: Antlion (#286) You appear outside of Castle Tycoon. The scenery has notably changed; the meteorite is gone, but with a clear path you can no longer travel to the cave you found when trying to get to the Wind Shrine so long ago. But these things don't matter right now; Exdeath is gone and we're back home when we were told we would never be able to return. How? At any rate, Castle Tycoon looks inviting. Let's win some information there. NOTICE: de-equip Lenna and Faris at this point. Note that you can walk all you want on the Overworld Map; no enemies here. The information bit'll have to come later; it seems both Lenna and Faris are swept away by Tycoon's royal staff. A few moments later, both sisters are smack dab in their thrones, dancers are dancing and you can't talk to either of them. Their emotions at this point can only be called a mystery. Krile, however, runs off to lament on the balcony, which isn't odd considering this entire situation is bizarre. Butz gets the hots for Faris again. Don't even think about it. She's got some battle scars, dude. If you wanna date Faris, rumor is you'll have to defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends, and they're ALL pirates. Before you talk to her, you can go to the left door and enter the King's room which you couldn't enter earlier. Here, you can see his diary, containing the story of the day Sarisa refused to mount Hiryu. If you slept at Castle Tycoon after Galuf left, you have already seen this cutscene and it won't show again. If not, now's the time. The cutscene will only trigger if you already heard the story about Sarisa from Jenica; the old hag can be found in the right wing of the castle. If you never found the treasures here, you can do so now; but a soldier blocks the pathway to where the Diamond Bell, Ashura and Shuriken were stored, so you can't get 'em now. After you've found Krile on the balcony, you have no choice but to leave with a two-man party. "Well, things worked out just fine in the end. What a relief! ...But something about the sky seems kind of strange, don't you think? And it's only right above Tycoon..." "As legend has it, a thousand years ago, the skies over Tycoon were rent asunder." Before you can really leave, you're rudely informed by the fact a bridge over the river to the south-west is finished. On the Overworld Map, walk to the bridge and cross it (it's what it's there for). To the north lies the Pirate Cave, where you'll find Boko. So you do. He's got a little family too; could it be the female Chocobo from Northern Lake? Meh, not all species are nearing extinction in this game. ...or aren't they? Anyway, you find yourself on Boko on the Overworld Map. The thing here is that Chocobo's are able to cross rivers. You can get off and enter Pirate Cave, but there's really no point in doing so. There are no enemies either. Take Boko to Castle Tycoon and past it, going north and west where possible. The party's still going. You'll pass Torna Canal which lies to the north and the peninsula which lies to the south. Eventually, you come across the town of Tule. There's nothing new here for you to do but gather some information. Of special notice is some guy mentioning a 'mutant turtle' has been spotted in the cave to the west. This may be either Ghido or Gil Turtle...let's check it out! When saying 'no' to the girl at the counter of the Greenhorn's Club, you'll get a lesson in being a Freelancer. Also, the Mime Job is mentioned, which in the pre-GBA versions was the last Job you could obtain. If you missed the Piano here, make sure to play it. Or if you didn't miss it, you can use it as an excuse to get the girls to dance for you. When you're done, mount Boko again. Cross the river to find a small passageway in between two mountain ranges. Now, you'll leave the Map. Take a few steps to find yourself within a battle versus the Antlion, a giant insectiod monster that lures foes inside his sand trap to weaken and devour them. Antlion Level: 34, HP: 8100, MP: 1000 Defense: 20, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Hi-Potion (common) Win: Cottage (always) Nullifies: Earth Weakness: Water Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Darkness, Old, Sleep, Berserk, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical Attack, Digestive Acid, Dischord, Flee After a powerful opponent such as Exdeath, the Antlion can be a surprising annoyance. Since you fight it with only Bartz and Krile, you attack less and your options are limited. Also, Antlion continues to weaken you slowly with a combination of Dischord, Digestive Acid and physical attacks. When Antlion dies, he'll use Flee to rob you of your Cottage. Cast Berserk on Antlion. And Slow. And Old. And the rest, all status ailments help. Time Slip is grand. But mainly just Berserk, as the status stops Dischord from appearing and prevents Flee, giving you your well-deserved Cottage (and 3000 Gil!). Continuous and wise application of Sleep may also do the trick (Spellblade never misses). If Berserk from White, using the Power Staff or mixing a Bacchus' Cider (Holy Water + Turtle Shell) isn't an option for some reason, you'll have to rough things out. HP-based attacks and fixed damage attacks disregard level, so you could always rely on those. Holy Breath (Dragon Fang + Holy Water) and Dragon Breath (Dragon Fang x 2) after a Goliath Tonic both work very well, as does 1000 Needles. Aside from that, getting in one or two boosted -aga spells when the caster isn't yet affected by Dischord does some real damage, as do dual Twin Lances or a Thrown Water Scroll. The fight's ultimately an easy one. After the fight, you'll have to wait a while, try to grab the rope four times to re-enter the surface and find Faris waiting for you. Faris joined the party! Know that a bit later in the game you can take Faris to the Pirate Cave for a surprising yet awesome gift; this can't be triggered yet, though. Continue on; there is nowhere you can go but to the cave. The mutant turtle turns out to be of the friendly variety. Ghido explains... Once upon a time, the earth was one. However, a dreadful evil bearing the name Enuo. Enuo was able to control the Void, the ultimate power, the very antithesis of existence. Though Enuo was defeated, the Void lingered, and the people living on the planet were forced to split the world in two by splitting the crystals in two. The two halves were sent far away from each other across time, dimension and space. In between lies the Interdimensional Rift, where the Void could be sealed away as it could not be destroyed; one cannot undo what isn't. Exdeath's goal was holding control over the Void, and thus control over the world. In order to do this, it needed to gain access to the Void in the first place. Anyway, it seems Exdeath tricked us. It also seems its plot powers still far surpass that of our heroes, no matter how often we smack its ass in battle. At that moment, the Interdimensional Rift that was sealed by the divided worlds re-appears, no longer bound by its former cage. The Void appears right above Castle Tycoon, just as it did 1000 years ago. Ghido is a strong warrior, it seems. "You think I sat around seven centuries munching on pizza?" At any rate, not strong enough, and with Bartz, Krile and Faris he is blasted out of his refuge to find himself near the Library of the Ancients. Here, the scholars of the Library and the scholars of Surgate Castle have found each other in chaotic times to combine the Sealed Tome. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.39.1 Mission statement ********************************** Location: The Overworld Map Features: Mana's Paean (Song spell) Here's the deal. Our mission is twofold. One: Exdeath needs to be stopped. Two: the Void needs to be dealt with. Exdeath has retreated into the Interdimensional Rift where it is slowly learning to master the Void, but according to Ghido we'll never make it to him as Exdeath isn't the only evil creature that is and was. We'll need to harness the power of the 12 Legendary Weapons, the very same that have proven to be able to defeat Enuo. The book begins to speak... "After Enuo's defeat, the weapons of legend were sealed within the Castle Kuza. To break the seals, the four tablets must be assembled. One rests alongside spirits of the past, blessed by soil... One rests within an island shrine, kissed by wind... One rests beneath the ocean's floor, engulfed by flames... One rests beyond the river's torrents, protected by water... Along with the keys to open the seals - the four tablets - are sealed our servants. If the tablets are moved, our servants will awaken... The ultimate spells of white and black... The magic of time and space, Meteor... The sea king, Leviathan... and the dragon king, Bahamut... Present this book unto the gate and the way to the seals will be opened." When all is said and done, the scholars have a lot of useful information about this brave new world. On the roof of the Library, the right scholar can teach you Mana's Paean, a song that will slowly increase your Magic Power in battle. A paean is a solemn thanksgiving, in this case to the source of mana; in return, this source bestows you with greater arcane might. Make sure to get it now, you won't be able to learn this again at a later date. If you haven't learned Level 5 Death yet, the Pages are still available in the dungeon part of the Library; you can manipulate your level with Dark Spark if your level isn't right. When you're done here, leave this place. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.39.2 Preparation for the Pyramid in the Desert of Shifting Sands ********************************** Opponents: Sleepy (#135), Triffid (#136), Hedgehog (#137), Python (#138), Shadow (#139), Elm Gigas (#140), Desertpede (#141), Bulette (#142), Slug (#154), Gloom Widow (#155), Mykale (#156) Container contents: Cottage Miscellaneous items: Dark Matter (rare drop from Desertpede), Death Sickle (rare Mykale steal), Healing Staff (common steal from Sleepy), Brave Blade OR Chicken Knife Blue spells: 1000 Needles, Aeroga, Dark Spark, Off-Guard, Vampire Walking around here may trigger encounters with all sorts of normal-like yet strong critters. Since Overworld enemies generally aren't that interesting, allow me to describe them as a whole... Sleepies cast Sleep a lot, but have little HP. They have a common Healing Staff for you to steal... not so powerful now, but interesting anyway. You can now Dual-Wield them if you set Equip Rods on a Ninja. So awesome. Triffids attack physically and cast Berserk on themselves. They are the only powerful !Catch here, if you must know. Hedgehogs can be controlled into using 1000 Needles; they'll never use it normally, but they will respond to any !Attack with a Needle spell (the 50/50 Darkness/Silence one). Pythons randomly use Vampire and Entangle, so beware. Shadows attack physically, but can be Controlled for Off-Guard and Dark Spark. How nice. Elm Gigas is the most dangerous one here; it may randomly use Aeroga, which deals around 900 damage to a single target. It has a whopping 4170 HP as well, which is quite a lot for a random encounters. Fortunately it's not Heavy. In addition, it starts the battle snoozing; Sleep is set! Stick to magical attacks (or !Mineuchi) and you should not wake it up before you kill it. You can Control them so you can force Aeroga out of them for you to learn, but note that they won't respond to your commands until you've lifted Sleep from them. Random note: Elm Gigas is one of two creatures with removable Float! Use the Judgment Staff to get rid of it (or cast Dispel, when later in the game). While the Elm Gigas will retain his immunity to Earth-elemental attacks, it now can be hit by Squirrel and Wild Boars from the !Animals command. Oh, the insight I present thee... Anyway, use Missile, Graviga, Stop and other things of that nature to kill Elm Gigas before he kills a character with Aeroga. Slugs, Gloom Widows and Mykales won't start appearing until the forests around Moore; the Mykales are interesting because they can teach you Aero, 1000 Needles and Lilluptian Lyric when !Controlled; in addition, they may randomly use Moon Flute on the party. The rarely stolen Death Sickle is a sweet thing; if you got bored waiting for the Harvester to drop one, here's your chance. The Slugs may randomly use Slimer; the Gloom Widow's !Needle attack sets Paralyze. The Slugs are weak to Fire, the Gloom Widows are weak to Water. Ninjas with boosted Magic Power will have a field day in these forests. Level 3 Flare hits all three monsters, and is supremely powerful. North of the Library of the Ancients lies Castle Surgate! While mainly just filled with confused NPCs, there is a single treasure here you can now collect you couldn't collect earlier. Find the library lady and help her out once more (the books and locations are the same as last time). Follow her, and go down the stairs. Before you took on Exdeath, a purple-robed man was here, talking about Catoblepas. Now that he's gone, check the crate positioned against the wall in the back; it's a Cottage! If you released Lone Wolf, the crate will be EMPTY! This Cottage is not taken into account when your treasure % is given. Trivia: when looking at the left side of the A-C shelf now, Lenna will still make an appearance. Even further to the north lies Karnak; again, nothing here but NPCs talking about how the world has changed, and about how Dwarves exist. Queen Karnak is still bed-ridden at the Inn; if you missed the piano here earlier, now's your chance... likewise for the Flame Rod in the barrel on the city wall. West of the Library lies what once was the Great Forest of Moore. Burned down by Exdeath and being pushed away by the mountains of a rivaling world, the Guardian Tree is about the only thing still standing. The Desert has stopped being annoying on the navigational side; a positive side-effect of the world's decay. It's like a heritage. Before you enter the Pyramid, travel across the desert to find the town of Moore. In the desert, Bulettes and Desertpedes appear; Bulettes are quite physically evasive. They have a powerful special technique called !Body Blow which is unblockable, ignores Defense and sets Paralyze, so kill it quicky. Desertpedes have extremely strong Quicksand attacks, but you'll only see it when you Confuse or Control them, or Catch one for later Release. They rarely drop Dark Matter, which is grand; kill them easily with Level 5 Death. Aqua Breath deals 800% damage to them since they're Desert creatures. Here, the townspeople are shocked by the disappearance of the great forest, but they're good-natured enough about it. There is still a piano here if you forgot it earlier. Also, a haunted shed has been unlocked. Go around the Pub and enter the shed on the blind side. Here, there's a hidden passage through the trees even your Thief cannot see. x x x xxxxx x x x x x x xxx x x x x x x xxxxxxxxx x x x x x x 0 "Think you're brave? Take what's in the crate on the left. If you're a coward, take what's in the one on the right." The left chest contains the Brave Blade, the strongest weapon in the entire game. It's non-elemental and gives a +5 on Strength. However, every time you run from a battle or use !Flee, !Smoke or the Teleport spell to escape, the Battle Power of this weapon decreases by 1. Every time you have run in the past has already affected this weapon, and actions taken after you've obtained the blade will continue to affect it. Note that through !Throw or with Goblin Punch, Battle Power will always be 150 no matter how often you ran. The right chest contains the Chicken Knife. Its power increases by 1 every two times you run or use !Flee, !Smoke or Teleport, to a maximum of 127. Since the Chicken Knife's damage formula also takes Agility into account, the Chicken Knife turns out to be even more powerful in a normal game than the Brave Blade. Also, fleeing is never a problem anymore. The Chicken Knife gives a +5 on Agility and has a 25 % chance of using !Flee rather than !Attack, escaping the battle. With !Focus, !Rapid Fire, !Dance or !Mug, this will never happen; with !Aim, it still can. Note that through !Throw or with Goblin Punch, Battle Power will always be 1 no matter how often you ran. I suggest you go for the Brave Blade if you want to feel like a righteous bad-ass and go for the Chicken Knife if you want a truly convenient weapon to have. If you go with the Chicken Knife, make sure to power it up; you can head into the desert and use !Flee until you've maxed out the weapon. A Two-Handed Knight with a Brave Blade is simply monstrous at this point, as is about any physical Job with the Chicken Knife (albeit, to a lesser extent). Time to visit the Pyramid. Maybe we can buy mini-pyramids to decorate our cottages, but let's make sure they're not mini-cursed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.40.1 The Pyramid of Moore; the Earth tablet ********************************** Opponents: Objet d'Art (#99), Black Warlock (#128), Bandercoeurl (#130), Lamia Queen (#143), Rajiformes (#144), Ushtabi (#145), Archeosaur (#146), Zephyrus (#147), Mummy (#148), Aspis (#149), Mecha Head (#150), The Damned (#151), Grand Mummy (#152), Sekhmet (#153), Steel Fist (#181), Melusine (#287), Gargoyle (#288) Container contents: 8000 Gil, 9000 Gil, 10000 Gil, 12000 Gil, Crystal Armor, Ice Shield, Cursed Ring, Flame Shield, White Robe, Dark Matter x 6, Elixir x 4, Gaia Hammer, Cottage, Black Robe, Black Garb, Gold Hairpin, Ribbon, Protect Ring Miscellaneous items: Judgment Staff (rare Black Warlock steal), Power Staff (rare Black Warlock drop), Thief's Gloves (rare steal from Sekhmet), Crystal Armor (rare Sekhmet drop), Lamia's Tiara (rare drop from Lamia Queen), Thornlet (rare steal from Lamia Queen), Dragon Fang (guaranteed Archeosaur drop), Kaiser Knuckles (rare drop from Steel Fist), Elixir (rare Zephyrus drop and rare Zephyrus steal), Twin Lance (rare Objet d'Art steal) Features: Tablet Blue spells: 1000 Needles, Off-Guard, Dark Spark, Level 3 Flare, Aqua Breath, Aeroga, Missile, Flame Thrower, ???, Doom "One rests alongside spirits of the past, blessed by soil..." As you approach the Pyramid of Moore, the door remains closed. You were warned that the slabs were protected by gargoyles, and sure enough they're here. They seem largely inanimate though. Let this be a lesson to you! Spinster's tales! Bolderdash! Humbug! AN UNDIGESTED BIT OF BEEF, A BLOT OF MUSTARD, A CRUMB OF CHEESE, A FRAGMENT OF AN UNDERDONE POTATO! Also, as you examine the door, the Gargoyles attack you. Gargoyle (x2) Level: 33, HP: 5000, MP: 300 Defense: 13, Magic Defense: 12 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 35% Steal: Potion (common), Phoenix Down (rare) Win: Hi-Potion (rare) Absorbs: Holy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Creature: Humanoid, Heavy Vulnerable to: Death, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow Can't Evade: Aerial Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Transfusion These Gargoyles are a nuisance, but not too much. The big thing you need to remember is that if one has fallen and the other is yet to act, the first thing it'll do revive the other one. So you either kill them both simultaneously or you completely screw with their AI script. In the meantime you'll be pelted by physical attacks like it's nobodies business. This is an easy battle, so I won't insult your intelligence by talking too long about the Gargoyles. I'd rather insult your intelligence by questioning the existence of your academic degrees, lolol. Throw up Golem to stop the physical attacks. Transfusion won't make an appearance except for 1 33 % chance every fifth round, so you should just end the battle before they can use it. Flash can stop their physical onslaught. If you're not sure you can take them out with MT attacks, you could set Berserk on one and kill the other; they keep coming back because they revive eachother, see. Sleep is a great way of stopping their meddlesome attempts at killing you. Like I said, either use MT attacks or use Berserk. Titan's Gaia's Wrath (whose is it anyway?) is grand, as are MT -aga spells from the !Black selection. Boost to your heart's content if you opt for this route, and keep your ST attacks in check. Level 3 Flare works like a charm. Expect heavier pounding if you utilize Berserk (you may even scoff at the White magic skillset and use a Power Staff instead), but with Flash and Golem, there's still no need to worry at all. Cheap? Sure, but you're the Light Warriors on a mission to save the world. Being successful is just very important to us all. When the guardian gargoyles have fallen and we have spent a page from the Sealed Tomb, we may enter into that most ancient of places, the Pyramid of Moore. This is quite a long dungeon, so bring plenty of items. The Gold Hairpin for a Mage is a good idea, his or her MP will be is serious peril of reaching 0 otherwise. Notice: after this dungeon and some other thing, your party will be once again filled to the maximum of four. Some players like to keep their levels about equal, or would rather clear the upcoming dungeon with four characters rather than three. It is perfectly doable to flee from every battle in the pyramid, avoid all chests (or at least those with guardians), fill your team back up to four characters and return here. You'll be forced to face a few Aspis snakes and I don't know it it's even possible to avoid all Mecha Heads (though you can do with fighting only one) and there's the Mummy x3 formation that you'll be forced to take on, but that's it! A Thief with !Flee will come first every battle, it you're gone before the enemy'll know what happened. First floor: 35 % Lamia Queen x 2 35 % Lamia Queen 30 % Ushabti x 6 Third floor: 58 % Zephyrus (Dhorme Chimera, Ronkan Knight) 35 % Lamia Queen, Rajiformes 6 % Zephyrus (Adamantine Golem, Bio Soldier) Fifth floor: 35 % Sekhmet --> Queen Lamia 35 % Queen Lamia 30 % Zephyrus (Ziggurat Gigas, Tunneller) Note: once you've defeated Sekhmet once, the Queen Lamia formation will appear 70 % of the time Sixth floor: 35 % Rajiformes, Ushabti, Lamia Queen 35 % Lamia Queen, Rajiformes 23 % Zephyrus (Adamantine Golem, Bio Soldier) 6 % Zephyrus (Dhorme Chimera, Ronkan Knight) Seventh floor: 35 % Ushabti, Ushabti, Ushabti, Lamia Queen 35 % Zephyrus (Adamantine Golem, Bio Soldier) 23 % Lamia Queen 6 % Ushabti x 6 Eighth floor: 35 % Lamia Queen, Lamia Queen, Ushabti, Ushabti 35 % Zephyrus (Ziggurat Gigas, Tunneller) 23 % Lamia Queen, Lamia Queen 6 % Ushabti x 6 I'll give a quick yet comprehensive lecture on the opponents here. Since this is a pyramid, it's very old. All monsters therefore are either Undead or unliving to begin with; all other residents long-since passed away (this with the exception of its one unique inhabitant, the mystic Sekhmet). The abundant Undead Lamia Queens are perhaps the most interesting as they rarely drop Lamia's Tiaras, headgear you haven't seen since the Lonka Ruins. They can use 1000 Needles randomly every second turn, so make sure to learn it if your Blue Mages still haven't. In addition, you can steal rare Thornlets from them. They are quite useless, but rare all the same. The Undead Rajiformes has little to offer except for needless violence and a weakness to Lightning- elemental attacks, and the living Ushabti constructs can use both Dark Spark and Off-Guard, though you'll have to feed them an Ether before they can actually use it. The most interesting encounter you can have is one with a Zephyrus, a small fairy that summons other creatures to fight for her. These creatures can be either an Adamantine Golem, a Bio Soldier, a Ziggurat Gigas or a Tunneller, but a single Zephyrus can only summon two out of those four (this depends on the possible monster formations for a given floor). They are all different monsters than the ones you fought earlier. The only interesting difference besides improved toughness is the fact that the Tunneller as summoned by Zephyrus may randomly use Level 3 Flare. Whenever a monster is fighting for the Zephyrus, she will try her best to buff the creature with recovery and other helpful magic. Zephyrus are remarkably sturdy given their frail build and tend to evade a lot of your blows, but Stop and Paralyze can cripple her quickly. Note that none of the four creatures she may conjure add to your Bestiary. The Requiem Song is a must-have for the Pyramid of Moore, as all Lamia Queens, Rajiformes and all the Damned, Aspis and Archeosaurus monsters will suffer greatly from its effects. Back !Sing up with high Magic Power. A second caster is nice to have to deal MT Lightning-elemental damage to the Ushabti enemies, but a Lightning Scroll will deal sufficient damage to one-shot them all every encounter. Brave Blade wielders and Chicken Knife users, when powered up, will deal great amounts of damage. The Pyramid of Moore can be a repetitive dungeon, but it's not a hard one when you keep an eye out for your HP. When you enter the Pyramid, there are two paths open to you to the left. You'll want to take the left-most one first. Go up to find spikes popping up from the floor. These damage tiles deal 1/24 maximum HP damage to your party and add the Poison status, even to those wearing the Bone Mail! The Float status and the Light Step ability circumvent this, but there's no need to resort to these tactics. The are three buttons on the wall; pressing the left-most one and the right-most one once will create a path for you through the spikes. Your path will now be blocked by a sandstream. You have no choice but to cross its path and be swept away. Below lies a chest guarded by four The Damned. These opponents are durable and powerful, but they do nothing but physical attacks which is a blessing. They're Undead like so many creatures in this place, so Requiem hurts them a lot, if not outright killing them. They can teach you the Blue Off-Guard and Doom spells; use !Control, feed the slave an Ether, let it cast the spell you want. For your troubles you'll get another Ice Shield. Across your path slither two Aspis snakes. Go up and follow the path. You'll walk past the sandstream, now safely on the other side. On the 2nd Floor, there are a few hidden passages your Thief can spot. Two Aspis snakes are released here. When you leave this place, you'll find a standing sarcophagus. When you stand in front of it, it will open and out walk the Grand Mummy. The Grand Mummy has 6000 HP and uses physical attacks and Dancehall Daze, an attack that sets Sleep. He's weak to Fire-elemental attacks and isn't Heavy, so he's really not that much of a pain to take down. A single boosted Firaga spell does the trick, and a Two-Handed Flametonque Knight deals a lot of damage as well. About the same as a Two-Handed Brave Blade Knight, tee-hee. You can easily keep the thing at bay in the meantime with !Flirt, though the implications of that act may be a tad to grotesque for your taste. When you're done, you can grab a Cursed Ring from a chest within the sarcophagus. It's defensive properties are awesome, but it gives the wearer a Countdown in battle. For random encounters, this shouldn't be a problem, and equipping the Cursed Ring is actually a fairly good idea at this point if you ask me. If you carry around any Bards or Dancers, frail as they are, a Cursed Ring can really help them out here. For longer battles though, the status may pose a problem. Now, track back to the entrance. Now you're here, there's always the option of quickly leaving for a Cottage and Save. Return and take the right path. Your path will be clear to you. You'll encounter two more Aspis snakes on the 2nd Floor. The second floor is, by the way, devoid of random encounters. On the 3rd Floor are three chests you can grab, all protected by monsters. The left one contains a Flame Shield and is guarded by The Damned x 4, the middle one contains a Dark Matter and is also guarded by The Damned x 4, and the right one contains a White Robe and is guarded by an Archeosaur (common) or an Archeosaur and two Ushabti (rare). The Archeosaur has 9960 HP, can use physical attacks, !Claw (sets Poison), Poison Breath and Zombie Breath. The thing is Heavy, a Dragon and Undead, so... Boosted Firaga spells, Firaga spellblade effects and such are a good idea. You can Control the Archeosaur as well, which is a great idea; Archeosaurea don't use Zombie Breath until the fourth turn, but it's best to make sure you never see it appear at all. You can learn Level 3 Flare from him with the tested Control/Reflect combo one so often can apply to learn Level 3 Flare. The undead dragon will always drop a Dragon Fang post-scuffle, so that's a bonus. The White Robe is awesome. Vitality and Magic Power + 3, increased defenses and 20 % Magic Block. Wear it, brothers and sisters. Note that Stamina increase on equipment really doesn't do much; it doesn't influence HP, but it does boost Regen healing. To the right, you can see a stairway turning light and turning dark again. When light, you'll slip off the stairs into the spikes, which like the ones you saw earlier deal damage and poison you. Float and Light Step allow you to circumvent the damage, but you'll slip off the stairway regardless. On the 4th Floor, Mecha Heads roam the place rather than random encounters. I suggest you clear out the room first. There's a total of 6 Mecha Heads (and two Aspis that are released in the meantime). Mecha Heads are machines that employ the standard machine attacks: Flame Thrower and Missile, but also, Wave Cannon, Mustard Bomb and Reverse Polarity. When any of your character use !Jump, the Mecha Head will force the character to land with Interceptor Rocket. No special effects occur when you do manage to land with Jump, so why Mecha Head takes special precaution to one of the weaker attacks you can use at this point is beyond me. Lacking a Heavy nature and being weak to Lightning-elemental attacks opens up the possibility to take down Mecha Head with Thundaga Spellblade effects. Boosted Thundaga spells also get the job done. Have a character Control the Mecha Head, set up Thundaga Spellblade when he's not looking and strike from behind (have the Mecha Head use ??? on himself). Failsafe strategy! Without Control, you'll just have to absorb a few attacks; Stop works, so Stop and Romeo's Ballad both help out. Thundaga cast by a Black Mage or by someone else will just be devastating by itself, so you don't need to prepare if you don't want to. Anyway, when all is clear, go to the far left. Push a button to remove the spikes leading up to the chest and release two Aspis. Kill them and open the chest, which is guarded by an Archeosaur. It contains a Black Robe, which is pretty much the best Robe in the Pre-GBA games. It's like the White Robe, only doesn't invest in the useless Stamina department and boosts Magic Power by a higher margin. There are two sarcophagus' in the room. The two chests around the right sarcophagus contain Elixirs. Opening the right sarcophagus releases a mummy. You can fight it if you want. They're easy as long as you attack them simultaneously; when alone, a Mummy may use Danse Macabre, which sets Zombie to a single character which just plain sucks. Past the fight lies a chest with a Thornlet, giving you the third and last piece of "evil" equipment. The Thornlet grants the best Defense of the game and it gives an immunity to Sleep, though it gives the wearer an inherent Sap status. The thing's a bad idea. The other sarcophagus takes you further in, past another Mummy x 3 formation. There's a Save Point here. Sekhmet Level: 41, HP: 6000, MP: 0 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 5 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 20% Steal: Thief's Gloves (rare), Hi-Potion (common) Win: Crystal Armor (rare) Specialty: !Sling Specialty Effect: Adds Darkness Creature: Humanoid, Magic Beast, Heavy Vulnerable to: Darkness, Old, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: Attack, !Sling On the 5th floor doth Sekhmet appear, one of the Brothers (though Sekhmet the Egyption Goddess he's named for was, y'know a goddess). He's a formidable warrior, and once you defeat him he won't appear again. The trick here, however, is not defeating him until you really want to. He has a rare Thief's Gloves steal, and by running away after you get it you can get as many as you like. You'll need to use Return as he also has a common steal (Hi-Potion). Obviously running is not an option for you if you went with the Brave Blade, but sucks to be you then. Naw, just kidding: the Catch ability works on him, and when caught he won't set the bit. In other words, Steal until you get the Thief's Gloves (use Return), then reduce him to 3000 HP or lower and Catch him. Get rid of Sekhmet on another random encounter, as his !Release is Strong Fight and it's capable of killing himself in a single blow. Sekhmet is quite the brawler in the meantime, so don't underestimate him. Darkness and Confuse are two handy status ailments to set on him, and he can be Paralyzed or Stopped (the former with a whip too, as he's got a Magic Beast nature so the Beast Killer is a beast killer). At level 41, a combo of Dark Spark and Level 5 Death will net you victory as well. "You may have defeated me, but my brother in the tower will - gahhh!" For fun, Catch Sekhmet and !Release him later versus his brother :p There are three paths you can take here. Go up to find two chests. The left one contains a Dark Matter guarded by The Damned x 4. The right one contains a Crystal Armor guarded by Objet d'Art x 5. Go back. There's a hidden passage here that you can spot with Find Passages. You'll want to equip it temporarily to see where you're going. There's only one chest you can reach this way. The chest contains a Black Garb, improved armor for your Clothes character(s). The chest is guarded by either: Bandercoeurl x 2, Black Warlock or Steel Fist x 3 You'll want to fight the latter, as even if you still really want a Judgment Staff, you can get one later. The Steel Fists are powerful physical warriors who counter every Attack command with !Air Fist, which sets Old and Sap. When a Steel Fist is alone, it will display the message "Focusing energy..." and use the powerful Strong Fight the following turn which will kill a character. If you're really lucky, you get to take some Kaiser Knuckles with you after the fight, which boosts Barehanded attacks. They have NO status immunities, so setting Toad, Petrify or Death takes care of them easily enough. Their Magic Evasion however is very high, so use !Spellblade or !Mix potions. They cannot avoid Aerial attacks, so Whips and Bows will always strike true. Barehanded punches are normally based off your Level and Battle Power. However, with Kaiser Knuckles the Battle Power is inherently boosted by 50, making Barehanded punches nice enough again. In addition, they boost Strength by 5 and give more Defense than other Accessories (except for the Genji Gloves and Cursed Ring). This is really great time for a Monk; Berserk really boosts the damage. Now, climb the stairway you have yet to explore. On the 6th Floor, multiple sandstreams appear, but there are buttons within reach to stop them. However, without a running sandstream you can't enter the hole which leads you to some treasure chests. The first sandstream takes you to a chest with a Dark Matter guarded by The Damned x 4. Get the chest and head back. The second button stops the second sandstream, which would have taken you to the Black Garb chest you picked up earlier. Next to the second button is a door. Enter the door to find two buttons. The right one is the wrong one (oh, irony!); it makes the wall throw you in the pit, onto the first sandstream and further down. The left one makes the wall retreat to make way for four chests. The two to the right contain 8000 and 9000 Gil; the two left ones contain Dark Matters. Both are guarded by The Damned x 4. Anyway, the third sandstream gives you nothing, so simply stop it and traverse it. The 7th Floor contains more treasure, though you'll have to work for it. Pass up on the stairway and enter the left door. With Find Passages, you'll discover a long hidden passage which takes you to a total of three chests: a Gaia Hammer (guarded by The Damned x 4), 10000 Gil and a Cottage. Now, get up the stairway. The tiles on the 8th floor switch around. Stand a while to observe which tiles are 'safe' (which never disappear). If you drop down, you'll be able to open a chest containing an Elixir. You'll want to fall at least once for the treasure. The three chests in the room exist out of a Gold Hairpin, a Ribbon and Protect Ring. Furthermore, you'll want to traverse the tiles to the right first. You'll be able to open two chests. Dark Matter (The Damned) and 12000 Gil. Return to the main room and exit on the left side. The two chests here contain an Elixir and a last Dark Matter guarded by The Damned x 4. On the stairway to the door in the middle, the light tiles slide you down. Take care. On the 8th Floor, you'll able to finally obtain one of the four tablets. You'll taken to the top of the Pyramid, where the Dragon King Bahamut will rise beneath the peninsula where you left the airship to warp to Galuf's world. Bahamut is the most powerful summon spell in the game; sadly, it appears you'll still have to seek him out before you'll be able to call him forth in battle. The airship also floats in your direction. Good news all around! ....surprised there's no boss, aren't you? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.40.2 The fight with Melusine ********************************** Heh. You'll want to get to the airship, so head east. Walk through the patch of forest to engage in a cutscene. Lenna has escaped the Void, which is awesome news, but the effects of her time there are less then positive and things turn for the worse very quickly. While you are incapacitated by a friend's powers, Exdeath commands the Void to consume the Library of the Ancients, its scholars and Ghido. After Exdeath has returned to the Interdimensional Rift to continue its work on mastering the Void, Hiryu dives down in a kamikaze attack to rescue Lenna from the demon that's possessing her. Success. Melusine is one of the Eleven of the Rift, Exdeath's elite force of unstoppable demons. Each a soul filled with malice, they were recruited with the promise of a world ruled by demons. Locked away for a 1000 years, their madness, rage and power are overflowing. Eleven Satanic rules of the Earth, Eleven the fool's amount, Eleven the first of the Master numbers... Melusine Level: 29/33, HP: 20000, MP: 500 Defense: 90/0, Magic Defense: 0/90 Evasion: 10%/0%, Magic Evasion: 10%/90% Steal: Leather Cap/Leather Shoes/Leather Cap/Leather Armor (rare) Win: Maiden's Kiss (rare) Absorbs: Fire/Ice/Lightning Nullifies: Water, Wind, Earth, Holy, Poison Weakness: Fire/Ice/Lightning Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Darkness, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: Attack, Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Entice, Barrier Change Melusine's "thing" is her Barrier Change attack, which calls into existence another form of herself. HP is transferred, but statuses aren't. Elemental properties are swapped around, and there's no set pattern as Melusine will call forth a random other Melusine. Her AI script isn't that difficult; she will simply randomly use physical attacks, use level 5 Black spells or switch to another form. Melusine has incredible amounts of Defense in all but one of her forms. Her Magic Defense is normally 0, but since she nullifies all elements and she swaps around her reaction to Fire, Ice and Lightning it's difficult to take advantage of that. When her Defense is turned down to 0, her Magic Defense soars to 90, so her 'weakness' becomes physical in that state; in addition to having 0 Defense, so will also become unable to avoid Aerial attacks such as Whips and Bows. Her first form is weak to Fire-elemental attacks, so if you know what you're doing you can kill her before she even moves to another form. Two-Handed Flametongue Knights are grand; when hitting a weakness, all attacks become barrier-piercing, remember? Boosted Firaga spells also deal incredible amounts of damage, especially when bounced off three characters unto Melusine. With the Brave Blade or the Chicken Knife, you can set Firaga Spellblade effects and watch the damage fly to sickening heights. You can always check Melusine's form with Libra, !Scan or !Analyze. If you detect no elemental weaknesses, this means that Melusine will have 0 Defense, meaning physical attacks are once again a very good option. The battle is easy if you have what it takes. A combination of Golem and Carbuncle completely shuts down Melusine's offenses, as does all-round application of the Dragon Shielding Mix (Ether + Dragon Fang) combined with Golem. If you focused on physical characters, this is an incredibly nasty battle as you can hardly touch Melusine. The Poison Axe cut through her Defenses nicely; the Gaia Hammer you're now bound to have is more powerful, but the Earthquake attack will be a wasted turn. Non-elemental magical attacks are quite rare, but 1000 Needles and Comet are safe (if relatively weak) bets at all times. Lenna joined the party... Use a Cottage to bring back Lenna. In the meantime, while you're traveling to the Sealed Castle of Kuza, Exdeath uses the Void it controls more and more to erase the town of Walse and Castle Walse, the town of Istory, the Moogle Village, and Bartz' hometown, Lix. Bartz throws a hissy fit. Jeesh, he's not thrilled about all the side-quests or anything. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.41.1 Airship Exploitation: Planet R ********************************** Opponents: Shield Dragon (#86), Exdeath's Soul (#87), Slug (#154), Gloom Widow (#155), Mykale (#156), Frost Bull (#173), Istory Lythos (#174), Spizzner (#175), Nix (#197), Water Scorpion (#198), Vilia (#199), Gel Fish (#200), Rukh (#201), Sea Devil (#202), Stingray (#203) Container contents: Cottage Miscellaneous items: Death Sickle (rare Mykale steal), Dragon's Whisker (rare Stingray drop), Dark Matter (common Stingray steal), Rune Blade (rare Stingray steal), Dragon Fang (rare Istory Lythos drop), Judgment Staff (rare Istory Lythos steal), Defender (rare Sea Devil steal), Angel Ring (rare Vilia drop), Silver Specs (rare Vilia steal), Murasame (rare Rukh steal), Ribbon Summon spells: Syldra Blue spells: Moon Flute, 1000 Needles, Lilliputian Lyric, Aero, Mighty Guard, Goblin Punch, ??? Songs: Sinewy Etude Now that you've gotten the airship, there is a LOT of stuff you can do. I'll give it to you in the most logical order, which isn't that hard. First off, we're going to raid this entire place of all its little treasures we can find without diving head-first in one of the deathtraps this game regards as 'dungeons'. The goodies: - A powerful new Blue spell, Mighty Guard - A Ribbon from an NPC from Regole and a Cottage found in Carwen - A new song, the Sinewy Etude - A new summoned monster, Syldra, found in the Pirate Cave - Three weapons from the Sealed Castle of Kuza - Rare stolen weapons including a Rune Blade, a Defender, a Murasame and a very rare Dragon's Whisker - A new summoned monster, Odin, fought in Castle Bal Where Tycoon Castle once was, the Void broke free of its 1000-year old prison, at the same location it did one millennium ago. Don't fly the airship into it, you'll get sucked into trouble you can't handle yet. In the north-east corner of the World Map lies the massive Gloceana Desert. To the west lies Regole. Remember the little girl whose Ribbon had gone missing? She has found it again, and donates to your cause to fight Exdeath. It's super-effective against instant death, Petrify, Toad, Poison, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Silence, evil and breast cancer, I hear. Regole still offers the pleasures of alcohol and dancing, should you be in need of some short-sighted ways of dealing with problems. Also, a piano if you missed it earlier; it's hidden in the Pub. Hidden pianos are the BEST pianos. Now, in the south-east corner of the Gloceana Desert, Carwen lies. Here, you can find a Cottage from a barrel you couldn't pick up earlier as an NPC was blocking the path. It's right of the Pub, down at the docks, middle barrel. If you freed Lone Wolf, you won't be able to get the Cottage here as the fiend has taken it. Also, one of the women (the one south of the Pub, between two bushes) here asks you if you think she's pretty. If you answer 'yes', "she" will reveal his true nature as a mimic and speed off. The person you just spoke was Gogo, master of the simulacrum... his miming skills will astonish you. You'll meet him later, have no doubt. In addition, the NPCs here are of the weirdest variety. One of 'em mentions how the odd mimic was planning on visiting the Tower of Walse. THIS IS A PLOT HOOK. There is a piano here if you missed it before. Northeast of the Desert of the Swirling Sands, in Surgate Castle, you can find some scholars who escaped the Library of the Ancients. No matter, they're not important. I mean, they're important in the sense that every human life is unique and priceless like a beautiful snowflake and all, but they're not directly relevant to our quest. If you didn't get the Cottage yet, now's the time! The long, thin stretch of land in the south-east corner of the Map has a slight bulge in it. This is the former Crescent Island. Fly there to find the Minstrel who offered to teach you new songs based on your piano skills earlier. If you've played all seven pianos so far, your rendition of Mozart's Alla Turca should impress him enough to compose the Sinewy Etude, a song which slowly increases your Strength in battle. An etude, for those unfamiliar with the player's side of music, is a piece of music written to make the player more competent at his instrument; it's a kind of homework. Also in Crescent: Mid! He's panicking, not confronting issues at hand and generally unfit for military service should the opportunity present itself. Whatever, let him be. He might find the personal strength to deal with his personal demons. Probably not, though. Take the airship to where Lix used to be, now a gaping black hole across the coastline to the far north and a bit to the east. Alternatively, you can sail to the very south-eastern corner of the World Map, or if you want to take a look at chapter 4.41.2 of this document, basically anywhere where you encounter monster formation pack 108 on the seas. Here, while sailing around, you'll always encounter a Rukh bird (rarely with two Sea Devils). This bird has a rare Murasame for stealing, a Katana which is stronger than your current Osafune and with a very high critical hit ratio. Super-sweet and fun to use! The Sea Devils have a rare Defender, a Knightsword with the Main Gauche's evasive properties; it also casts Protect when used as an item without breaking. The Rukh enemy has 9000 HP, which is a lot. Next to fairly powerful physicals, it may use Breath Wing and even Zombie Breath. It is vulnerable to every status ailment except for those that change form (Toad and Mini), so you should be able to cripple it and then let loose with damage. !Control is a good command in this battle; it's Breath Wing helps in defeating the massive avian. In the very south-western corner of the World Map, more fun stuff is happening! Here, you'll be able to encounter the following: 42 % Nix x2 35 % Gel Fish x4 23 % Vilia Nix are Sahagin upgrades, boring as hell. You can get Goblin Punch from their !Control menu. Gel Fish are just jellyfish that washed aboard; they're weak to Lightning and may use ??? through !Control; they're so physically weak they'll always inflict 0 damage. Vilia may not look like it, but she attacks physically only and with great force to boot. Golem will help you when you run into the floating flower girl. The Gel Fish formation gives a nice 8 ABP, a single Rukh gives 8 ABP, when followed by two Sea Devils it's 13 ABP, the single Vilia a whopping 25 ABP! Not a bad place to look around for ABP without gaining levels, as nothing on the wide seas gives you Experience Points. Vilia may drop a rare Angel Ring, but between getting them from Druids and getting all the Gil you ever wanted from Gil Turtle, that might not be something to swoon over. Water Scorpions are all over the place; just sail around in any location but the two I just gave. South of Moore is a piece of desert, for instance; west of this desert lie waters that include a 65% shot at finding them. They just attack physically, or may !Sting you to set Paralyze. Weak to Lightning! On the ocean, imagine! For more information on this subject of sea (or land) encounters, 4.41.2 has all the info on overworked monster formations you could ever need. You can spot Boko on the World Map as well. From here, you should be able to find the Pir