The Walkthrough and Battle Tactics Guide; WoR Version 1.2 Djibriel, June 2006 "Who says life is fair?" - Final Fantasy VI ad ..."The "OC guide to beating the game while rabid and one-armed making clever use of a wall" - Imzogelmo Contents No number: Contents Foreword (11/14/2005, by Imzogelmo) 1.0 Version History 2.0 Introduction 3.0 Set-up of the document, and slang you're going to start recognizing 4.0 Walkthrough (includes link) 5.0 Game Options: As boring as a concrete floor in math class (link) 6.0 Characters. Poor saps. (includes link) 7.0 Game mechanics; real quick, I promise (includes link) 8.0 Not Infrequently Asked Questions (includes link) 9.0 Espers and their Magicite 10.0 Final Fantasy VI Junkie links 11.0 Credits; People I love because they've done things I wanted them to do No number: Disclaimer ********************************** Foreword (11/14/2005, by Imzogelmo) ********************************** The year was 1994. Until that time, humanity seemed a bleak existence -- why, the 20th century alone saw the world ravaged by two world wars, a tense period known as the Cold War, and various regional conflicts. Finally, in the latter decades of the century, a new ray of hope emerged -- the video game. Instead of fighting and killing one another, now mankind could do so vicariously or, if it was preferred, two could team up and do battle against a fictional foe. Like all forms of expression, the video game underwent many reformations (or generations) before the recipe became "just right." Several genres of game sprang into being: platform games, shoot-em-ups, action/adventures, sports, puzzlers, fighting games, and RPGs. Each type of game appealed to a different type of player or interest, and all the while advances were being made both in capacity of games' data and complexity of the hardware used to run it. By the early 1990's, the types of presentation that would work with a given genre were well-established, and players could afford to specialize in a particular genre without narrowing the field of games too greatly. That brings us back to 1994, or, as Nintendo called it, "The year of the cartridge." In that year, _Final_Fantasy_VI_ was released, and there was much rejoicing. The genre was RPG; the fictional foe was the evil Emperor Gestahl, and later, the pompous nihilist Kefka. Sure, there were other RPGs before it, but none that struck the perfect balance of character similarity vs. diversity, importance of storyline vs. gameplay, and plot linearity vs. non-linearity. The depth of characters and robustness of the game engine (plus the time investment required to fully explore the nuances of the game) made this one of the highest- rated games in terms of replayability. Furthermore, the vivid graphics and moving musical score made it a complete experience, not just a game. "But it is just a game!" I hear someone in the back say. No, it is not just a game. In the fast-paced world where information is old as soon as it can be emailed, a video game generally has a very small window of time that it is considered new or exciting. For the early history of video games that may not have been so true, but for the entire history of this game, the internet has been a very influential medium for discussion among players. For many fans of the series, this is still the greatest game, in spite of the hype surrounding some of its successors. So no, it is not "just a game" -- it is a culture. And like many great cultures, it needs great works to explain, enhance, and record its story. To document every piece of useful (and no-so-useful) data on a culture -- that's a difficult task. Many approximations have come forward, but always they have had inaccurate, inconsistent, or insufficient information. That is not meant as an insult on previous guides -- like I said, it's difficult. Much information has been uncovered through deliberate playing and replaying of the game, through hacking its internal code and data, and through combined effort of its many fans. This guide seeks to improve upon and surpass all previous attempts. This guide seeks to be the great work of which I speak. This guide covers _everything_. ********************************** 1.0 Version History ********************************** Version History: - Version 1.2 (07/08/2006) I mentioned that Tri-Dazer is a good idea versus Umaro, which it isn't as Umaro absorbs Ice-elemental attacks. Fixed. Expanded and most notable corrected the Charm description. I said that a Charmer can switch Charmees, which is not the case; the second target of a Charm attack just won't be hit until the first one has died. Expanded on how to obtain more Genji Helmets and why I list five characters with Genji Helmets and two with Red Caps in section 4.70.1. In fact, now that I mention it, I gave a Genji Helmet to Cyan where there was a Circlet earlier; when I looked over it I noticed it's entirely possible, and how I love to spite people :P Added section 8.16, Siegfried/Ziegfried. Fine, you pansies. Added the controversy about Owzer in section 4.61.2 I rewrote 4.71.1, "Kefka's Tower: Preparation and explanation". Boy, was that crappy. The current writing gives you exactly what all three parties face in both scenarios (Party #1 going left or right) to clear up any confusion. Updated Thanks and Credits section. Unbelievable; I missedn an ENTIRE SECTION. You're all almost as braindead as me for not noticing before I did. Section 10.0 "Final Fantasy VI Junkie links" has been added, and what previously was section 10.0 is now section 11.0. Sure, section 10.0 may be a Copy/Paste from the other half, it's still important if you ask me. Removed some rubbish I had placed at the very end which concerned itself with to wide a margin (81 on several occasions!). - Version 1.1 (07/05/2006) First revision. They're always the most rough ones. I made a lot of spelling and grammar corrections, obviously. Fixed the ones that were pointed out to me. Some spacing problems, too. Fixed, again. Corrected the amount of Coral needed in Ebot's Rock. It's 22, not 21. Updated Thanks and Credits section. Added the attacks of both KatanaSoul and Master Pug in their respective sections. Whoops... Noted the Nut Eater/Rhodox & Poppers connection which may explain their resistance to the Suplex Blitz technique. Added the existence of an X-Potion in Cyan's Dream. I forgot a treasure, shame on me. Added a religious note on Goddess and her background/symbolic role. Added section 8.15, Timeline Added RNG evaluation on all bosses. Added a note about the spikes in the Phoenix Cave. Added the existence of a few bugs, including - MagiTek Armor in Cyan's Dream may linger after its apprioriate appearance - Magic Urn responds to the wrong statuses - Spikes damage Petrified characters Added some Anthology Bestiary information on Woolly, NecroMancrs, Kiwok, Guardian and Allo Ver. - Version 1.0 (06/30/2006) Initial Release ********************************** 2.0 Introduction ********************************** I was tired. And I was sick and tired of always being sick and tired. I can't really tell you when it started, because I wasn't around when it did. It probably started innocently...a friend invited a friend over to come play his new SNES game. "That armored guy with the sword is awesome!" a pimple-cheeked girl with glasses but with a radiant smile would say. "Dispatch kills everything he touches!" she would add. The guy would sigh. "This guy is much better. He kicks all kinds of ass with Fire Dance. It looks so cool, too!" This boy, who'd later grow up to be one of the most successful failures of his lifetime, loved Sabin with all his teenage heart. Neither knew that they started a great tradition. And by 'great', I mean 'unwanted and horrible'. Illiterates would somehow manage to drool over the keyboard in such a way it created a post that stated that Gau sucks. Good men wasted good time countering said horror. Locke was awesome because of his Speed, only he wasn't. Cyan has great equips, only he doesn't. Or did he? Gogo was awesome because he could equip any skill by going to the status screen. But that was just practical on paper, some said. Others wept over this statement, which they considered a lie fueled by hate and lack of a social life. Others had a social life and claimed that it wasn't all that important as long as you had fun. Heh. In short: there were debates. And here's something funny to consider; you'd think that numbers, data output, logical solutions and expectations would be beyond personal interpretation. A common Dutch saying states, "one cannot argue about opinions". That's the biggest load of feces ever to hit the scene of sayings, I think. You can argue about opinions; you can't argue about facts. So, you'd think that in a game where the same Dispatch in the same situation always results into the same damage output, there'd be little place for debate. Ugh. Besides, it was time somebody took this task upon himself. There's so much known about this game, yet even the best walkthroughs were almost entirely, but not quite, unlike the walkthrough they were supposed to be. So here it is! I've prophesized on numerous occasions that I would never write a document like this on the basis of the fact I would go bat-shit crazy and wouldn't be able to stop typing, making the document a behemoth of unreadable gibberish (most likely consisting out of Relm fetishism and little bits of info nobody in their right mind find amusing). But what is the document you're seeing? Does it really contain everything? Is it some kind of Hitchhiker's Guide to FF VI? The Encyclopedia CCLV VIea? The Kamog Sutra, where you'll learn all about Tantric Gameplay (lasts for hours; winning the battle is NOT the main goal)? I think the best mental image of the document can be extracted from all the following possible titles that have passed the revue while creation was still a process of the present: (by PrattDaBard, of which the last part of his name is more apt than the middle part will reveal) "The Spoiler-Filled Walkthrough" "The Ecumenical FF3 Encyclopedia" "The Compendious FF3 Companion" "The Un-Restricted FF3 Reader" "FF3: an Exhaustive Exhortation" "The All-Inclusive FF3 Compendium" "The Far-Reaching FF3 FAQ" "FF3 for Fools" "A Discursive Dissertation on FF3" "A Panoptic FF3 Primer" "FF3: The Liberal Lexicon" "The Hefty FF3 Handbook" "The Full FF3 Folio" "Djibriel's Dictionary" (by Imzogelmo) "Everything You Always Wanted to Know about FF3 (But Would've Got Flamed for Asking)" "640 KB Ought to be Enough for Anybody" (ed: 640. Heh) "The FF3 Bible" "Detailed Journal of Information By Resolute, Industrious Exploratory Learning" (ed: I especially loved this one, people with thinking brains can figure out why) (by Assassin) "Mages are from Thamasa, Warriors are from Doma" "An Idiot's A-Z guide to FF3: from Albrook to Tzen" "Gestahl: The Man, the Dog, the Legend" "101 Easy Pet Care Tips for your Emperor" "Just Hold it 'til Vector: A Globetrotter's Guide to Bladder Control" "I Feel Safe in Suits: Gary Newman's Easy Tutorial to Dancing in MagiTek" "Djibriel's Humility Fest" (by Hollywood Narrator) "A Cyan Lover's Least Favorite Guide" "That One Guide That Doesn't Worship the NP Guide" --Warning This is my fourth document meant for public release, and as I was with the other three, I'm pretty excited about it. My other projects will both be very helpful for this guide; while the Level # Lore Guide will be only moderately useful, and the Sketch Guide just managed to confirm what everybody already knew, a lot of walkthroughs contain a string of question marks concerning Gau and his Rage ability. My Rage Guide taught me exactly what to fill in those question marks. Now, I've basically gotten two kinds of responses about the Rage Guide. Most of it was very positive, and I'm thankful for that. It's great to see the document being linked to all the time (get this: almost as often as the How to Blitz Guide!). But there are a few who've said that my guide contains a major flaw; I'm too talkative. I elaborate and fill it with too much information. You see, there's a reason for that. Everybody has his own personal little fetish; mine is Final Fantasy VI. I've played the game to death and know far more about it than could ever be considered healthy. I want all that information to shine through in my documents, as I personally think it's awesome to know all those things. Also, I tend to waste lines on introductions, puns, and other stuff that could have been left out. That's mostly for personal pleasure. As the bored, soulless eyes of your high school math teacher can tell you, explaining stuff that's incredibly basic to you tends to be less fun than, say, sharing a beer with friends or having incredibly awesomely crazy sex... with a woman. You're looking at the most complete walkthrough that exists out there. I can make that statement without false modesty. But if you're repelled by overly verbose descriptions, if you like your walkthroughs clean and quick and to the point with tables and abbreviations and all that, there are other documents for you. One that's generally been called the best one before this one was written is Atom Edge's Walkthrough. It can be found at GameFAQs, but is at the time of writing three years old. Slightly outdated, but it features all of the commonly asked questions and lists a lot of more obscure items. ********************************** 3.0 Set-up of the document, and slang you're going to start recognizing ********************************** First off: if you have a question, I've answered it. That's the premise we're working with here. If the question you have seems oddly GENERAL to you, as in: is of influence through the entire game, you won't find it in the Walkthrough; you will find it in the FAQ at the bottom. So, if you want to know about stats, or what-does-this-do or something, go there. Question: I noticed you used the terminology from the older SNES versions. I hope you're aware of the fact there are PAL-versions available in Europe and the US, and the US have even seen an Anthology release where it's offered together with FFV. Why not adapt the names to that game? They're slightly different, and as they were changed from the original, obviously what was meant to happen. Yes, I am aware. Sadly so, in fact. I think Master ZED said it best when he mentioned how he took the PSX port as a personal insult. They did close to nothing to fix old bugs, inserted a couple of new ones, raped Ted Woolsey's legacy by using the entire translation with a couple of minor changes while removing his name from the credits, and gave us a game with sound and graphics INFERIOR to the SNES game that was released five years prior to the PSX release: SNES: Release Data Final Fantasy VI Square Enix 04/02/94 JP Final Fantasy III Square Enix 10/20/94 US PAL version: Release Data Final Fantasy VI (w/FFX Demo) Sony Interactive Studios America 03/01/02 EU Final Fantasy VI Square Enix 03/11/99 JP Anthology: Release Data Final Fantasy Anthology Electronic Arts 05/17/02 EU Final Fantasy Anthology Square Enix 09/30/99 US Also, Anthology has three different names for each monster; In-battle the names were shortened to 9 characters, in the Rage List there were with the normal ten, and in the Bestiary they were a shocking 8. All SNES names can be easily recognized when you've only been playing/are playing Anthology, as it doesn't take a genius to know that Mithril and Mythril is the same material and that a Fenix Down is the same as a Phoenix Down. To conclude, the PSX blows. The SNES has died, long live the SNES! Slang: Ctrl + F: That most holy of combos, and the road to salvation. Had enough of the ridicule of those more adapted to today's lifestyle than you? Have you been bossed around by the 'elite' for far too long? Don't take it out on the naturally superior, but Physician, heal thyself: Ctrl + F is the search function. Learn to love it like your long-lost little brother. ST: Single-target. It targets a single target. MT: Multi-target. It targets multiple targets, in most cases all. LLG: Low Level Game. A playthrough in which the level of the characters is kept as low as possible. The current lowest score has been an average of around 7.2, ranging from 6 to 13. NMG: Natural Magic Game. Called a challenge while it's really not, it just prevents you from equipping Espers and items that teach spells. Naturally learned Magic and Lores are allowed. !Special: It's great to have an obvious distinction between spells and Special attacks, the modified physical attacks that either set a status effect, do x times as much damage as the normal physical attack, or drain HP/MP. Every Special I've listed in this document (that's quite a lot) is preceded by an exclamation point to identify it as such. My Sketch Guide already featured this. The exclamation point doesn't find any feedback in the game whatsoever, and isn't canon in the current other documents out there, but I felt it was a good idea. ID (Instant Death) attack: Instant Death attacks are attacks that check for the Instant Death protection bit. Most of the time, these attacks set Wound (Doom, Snare, etcetera), but other attacks also use this feature, most noticeably percentage-based attacks like Demi and Cyclonic. Several Petrifying spells will check for ID next to Petrify protection, and the oddball Overcast and the level-halving attack Dischord also check for it. The X-type ID of the Assassin, Trump, Striker, Wing Edge and the dicing effect of the Scimitar also check for ID protection. The following attacks are ID attacks: Roulette, Break, Demi, Doom, Quartr, W Wind, X-Zone, Atom Edge, True Edge, Demon Eye, Cleave, Slash, Antlion, Cave in, Cockatrice, Snare, Snowball, Sonic Boom, Air Anchor, Chain Saw's ID attack, X-Fer, Condemned, Dischord, L.5 Doom, Roulette, Blaster, Cyclonic, Grav Bomb, Overcast, Shimsham, SabreSoul, Star Prism Note that this makes Joker Doom the only Wound-setting attack that doesn't check for the bit, and Dread the only 'normal' Petrify-setting attack that doesn't check for ID protection. ********************************** 4.0 The Walkthrough ********************************** If you're confused by the fact that this document's first Walkthrough chapter is chapter 46, I'd like to remind you of the fact that the first half of the walkthrough is in another document. Thank you for your patience. 4.1.1 Prelude: The attack on Narshe 4.1.2 Prelude: The newly dug mineshaft 4.1.3 Prelude: The battle with Whelk 4.2.1 Old Man's House 4.2.2 Escape through the mines 4.3.1 Defending Terra from Marshal 4.4.1 Classroom for the Beginner 4.4.2 Traveling to Figaro Castle 4.5.1 Figaro Castle 4.5.2 Fighting off MagiTek power 4.6.1 Traveling through Figaro Cave 4.7.1 South Figaro 4.7.2 The Overworld Map around South Figaro 4.8.1 Sabin's Hut 4.8.2 Mt. Koltz 4.8.3 The battle with Vargas 4.9.1 Traveling to the Returners' Hideout 4.9.2 The Returners' Hideout 4.10.1 Escaping over the Lete River 4.10.2 The first fight with Ultros 4.11.1 Choosing a scenario 4.12.1 Scenario Terra/Edgar/Banon: Lete River continued 4.12.2 Scenario Terra/Edgar/Banon: Traveling to Narshe 4.12.3 Scenario Terra/Edgar/Banon: Narshe 4.13.1 Scenario Sabin: Meeting Shadow and finding the Imperial Camp 4.13.2 Scenario Sabin: Imperial Camp and Doma 4.13.3 Scenario Sabin: Telstar and Imperial Camp continued 4.14.1 Scenario Sabin: Traveling to the Phantom Forest 4.14.2 Scenario Sabin: The Phantom Forest 4.15.1 Scenario Sabin: The Phantom Train 4.15.2 Scenario Sabin: Specter and the Phantom Train continued 4.15.3 Scenario Sabin: The battle with GhostTrain 4.16.1 Scenario Sabin: Traveling to Baren Falls 4.16.2 Scenario Sabin: Baren Falls 4.16.3 Scenario Sabin: Traveling over the Veldt to Mobliz 4.17.1 Scenario Sabin: Mobliz 4.17.2 Scenario Sabin: Recruiting Gau 4.17.3 Scenario Sabin: Veldt Hunting 4.17.4 Scenario Sabin: Crescent Mountain 4.18.1 Scenario Sabin: The Serpent Trench 4.18.2 Scenario Sabin: Nikeah 4.19.1 Scenario Locke: South Figaro 4.19.2 Scenario Locke: Secret Underground Passge of South Figaro 4.20.1 Scenario Locke: Traveling to Figaro Cave 4.20.2 Scenario Locke: Figaro Cave 4.20.3 Scenario Locke: The battle with TunnelArmr 4.21.1 Defending the Esper from Kefka 4.21.2 Rider 4.21.3 The battle with Kefka 4.22.1 Narshe 4.23.1 Traveling to Kohlingen and optional trip to the Veldt 4.23.2 Figaro Castle 4.24.1 Kohlingen 4.25.1 Traveling to Jidoor 4.25.2 Jidoor 4.26.1 Zozo 4.26.2 Chainsaw Riddle and Zozo continued 4.26.3 The battle with Dadaluma and meeting with Ramuh 4.27.1 Magicite and Owzer's Mansion in Jidoor 4.28.1 The Opera House 4.28.2 The Dream Oath (Celes' Opera Performance) 4.28.3 Stopping Ultros 4.28.4 The second fight with Ultros 4.29.1 The Blackjack 4.30.1 Albrook 4.30.2 Traveling on the Southern Continent 4.30.3 The Imperial Base near the Mountains 4.30.4 Tzen 4.30.5 Maranda 4.31.1 Vector 4.31.2 Imperial MagiTek Research Facility; MagiTek Factory 4.31.3 Imperial MagiTek Research Facility; The Pit 4.31.4 The battle with Ifrit and Shiva 4.31.5 Imperial MagiTek Research Facility 4.31.6 The battle with Number 024 4.31.7 Imperial MagiTek Research Facility; Mine Cart Ride 4.31.8 The battle with Number 128 4.32.1 Escaping Vector 4.32.2 The battle with the Cranes 4.33.1 Zozo; Terra's Flashback 4.34.1 Airship Exploitation: Sraphim 4.34.2 Airship Exploitation: Auction House: Golem and ZoneSeek 4.34.3 Airship Exploitation: Locating Grenade 4.34.4 Airship Exploitation: Obtaining Gaia Gear 4.34.5 Airship Exploitation: Intangir 4.34.6 Airship Exploitation: Veldt hunting 4.34.7 Intermezzo; Espers 101 4.35.1 Narshe 4.35.2 Lone Wolf persecution and recruiting Mog 4.35.3 Dance lessons, including Water Rondo 4.36.1 Cave to the Sealed Gate 4.36.2 Coin Toss and Cave to the Sealed Gate continued 4.37.1 Esper rampage; Snake eyes 4.38.1 Vector; Imperial Palace 4.38.2 The Banquet 4.38.3 Items of the Imperial Base near the Cave to the Sealed Gate and Setzer's cutscene 4.39.1 Albrook 4.40.1 Traveling to Thamasa; Crescent Island 4.40.2 Thamasa 4.40.3 The Burning Mansion 4.40.4 The battle with FlameEater 4.41.1 Leaving Thamasa 4.41.2 Crescent Island's Eastern mountains 4.41.3 The third fight with Ultros 4.41.4 Relm and the Espers' gathering place 4.42.1 Epilogue 4.42.2 Leo versus Kefka 4.43.1 Airship Exploitation: Rage and Lore hunting 4.43.2 Airship Exploitation: Doma Castle 4.44.1 Preparation for the Floating Continent 4.44.2 Imperial Air Force 4.44.3 The fourth fight with Ultros 4.44.4 The battle with Air Force 4.45.1 The Floating Continent 4.45.2 Gigantos and the Floating Continent continued 4.45.3 The decisive battle with AtmaWeapon 4.45.4 Kefka's Betrayal 4.45.5 Escape from the Floating Continent 4.45.6 The battle with Nerapa and Exit The magical gateway to said document: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/snes/file/final_fantasy_iii_l.txt Table of Contents: 4.46.1 Intermezzo; The Solitary Island 4.46.2 Intermezzo; Saving Cid 4.47.1 The World of Ruin 4.47.2 Albrook 4.48.1 En route to Tzen 4.48.2 Tzen; the Light of Judgment 4.48.3 Tzen; the Collapsing House 4.49.1 The Serpent Trench 4.49.2 The tail of the Serpent Trench; Mobliz 4.49.3 The fight with Phunbaba 4.50.1 The head of the Serpent trench; Nikeah 4.51.1 South Figaro; Gerad and the Crimson Robbers 4.51.2 Pursuing Gerad and the Crimson Robbers 4.51.3 Pursuing Gerad and the Crimson Robbers; Cave of Figaro 4.51.4 Pursuing Gerad and the Crimson Robbers; Figaro Castle 4.51.5 The fight with the Tentacles 4.52.1 Figaro Castle 4.52.2 En route to Kohlingen 4.53.1 Kohlingen 4.53.2 Dragon's Neck Colosseum 4.53.3 Daryl's Tomb 4.53.4 The fight with Presenter 4.53.5 The fight with Dullahan 4.54.1 Airship Exploitation: Visiting Maranda 4.54.2 Airship Exploitation: The Overworld Map 4.54.3 Airship Exploitation: Master Duncan; completing Sabin's training 4.54.4 Airship Exploitation: Obtaining Palidor 4.54.5 Airship Exploitation: Visiting Jidoor 4.54.6 Airship Exploitation: The Auction House 4.54.7 Airship Exploitation: Fanatics Tower 4.54.8 Airship Exploitation: Thamasa 4.54.9 Airship Exploitation: Dragon's Neck Colosseum 4.54.10 Airship Exploitation: Doom Gaze 4.55.1 Narshe 4.55.2 Narshe's Snowfields; the battle with Ice Dragon 4.55.3 Narshe's Snowfields; the battle with Tritoch 4.55.4 Umaro's Cave; the battle with three Pugs 4.55.5 The battle with Umaro 4.55.6 The Moogle Raid 4.56.1 The battle with Phunbaba 4.57.1 Following the pigeon 4.57.2 Mount Zozo 4.57.3 The battle with Storm Drgn 4.57.4 Cyan Garamonde 4.58.1 The Veldt 4.58.2 The Cave of the Veldt and Allo Ver 4.58.3 The battle with SrBehemoth 4.59.1 Thamasa and the Colosseum once again 4.61.1 Jidoor; Owzer's Mansion 4.61.2 Owzer's Mansion, the Magic House 4.61.3 Owzer's Mansion, the battle with Chadarnook 4.62.1 Obtaining Strago 4.62.2 Bulking up the Thamasian Two 4.62.3 The battle with Dirt Drgn 4.62.4 Gungho's assignment; Ebot's Rock 4.62.5 The battle with Hidon 4.63.1 Another Colosseum trip 4.64.1 Doma Castle 4.64.2 Cyan's Soul 4.64.3 Cyan's Soul; the battle with the Dream Stooges 4.64.4 Cyan's Dream; the Phantom Train? 4.64.5 Cyan's Dream; Mechanical mines 4.64.6 Cyan's Dream; Doma Castle 4.64.7 Cyan's Dream; the battle with WrexSoul 4.65.1 The road to the Ancient Castle and the fight with Master Pug 4.65.2 The Ancient Castle and the battle with KatanaSoul 4.65.3 The battle with the Blue Drgn 4.66.1 Triangle Island 4.66.2 The world inside of the Zone Eater 4.66.3 Wake me up before you Gogo 4.66.4 The Steal command regained 4.67.1 Phoenix Cave 4.67.2 The battle with the Red Dragon 4.68.1 Locke Cole 4.68.2 Narshe revisited with Locke; Ragnarok and Cursed Shld 4.68.3 Gau and his father 4.69.1 The Fanatics Tower and the battle with White Drgn 4.69.2 The battle with MagiMaster 4.70.1 End-game character evaluation 4.71.1 Kefka's Tower: Preparation and explanation 4.71.2 Kefka's Tower: Reconnaisance 4.71.3 Kefka's Tower: The source of all Magic 4.71.4 Kefka's Tower: The Final Battle 4.72.1 The Ending 4.73.1 The proverbial postcoital cigarette -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.46.1 Intermezzo; The Solitary Island ********************************** Rise and shine, commander. Rise and shine. Location: Solitary Island Party members: Celes Opponents: Peepers, EarthGuard, Black Drgn No words can be used to describe the blasphemy of Kefka's act. By moving the Statues he has shook the very foundations of this world; earthquakes, tremors, eruptions and floods ensued. While trying to escape the Floating Continent, the Blackjack was torn apart from under your feet. Celes Chere, ex-General of an Empire that may not even exist anymore, wakes up in a dirty shack. One year has past the face of time; by a stroke of coincidence the person who found her and took care of her was none other than the person who did so during her Imperial-flavored youth: Cid. Cid himself, now, seems weakened and doesn't seem to possess much will to carry on whatsoever. The entire population of the island has either passed away or has killed themselves, so Celes takes it on herself to take care of him for a while; at least it will keep the ghosts of the past away. Preparation: Celes is entirely unequipped, so you should help her out a little in said regard. As far as Relics go, make sure she is equipped with either an Amulet or Ribbon, as one of the monsters on the Solitary Island uses !Bone- Powder, which turns a character into a Zombie. This is an instant Game Over if it hits, so protect yourself from it. Monster formations: (wastelands) Peepers, Peepers (10/16) Peepers, Peepers, Peepers (6/16) (desert) EarthGuard, Peepers, Peepers (10/16) Black Drgn (6/16) Peepers are silly buggers that don't so much classify as monsters as they do dying animals on a rotten world. With 1 HP and inherent Seizure, they more likely than not will perish before they make a move. If they do manage to take a turn, it's either Battle, !Tail (Battle * 1.5), or Pearl Wind, for which Peepers don't have enough MP for. EarthGuard only has one attack: !PoisonTail, which sets Poison. However, EarthGuard shares the fate of Peepers: 1 HP, inherent Seizure. Wandering into the desert without an Amulet or Ribbon is incredibly stupid, so !PoisonTail shouldn't affect you. Black Drgn is the only actual opponent with a fighting chance on the island. The first turn can already feature Sand Storm; the second turn Sand Storm and !BonePowder. Sand Storm is the thing to watch out for; Celes is by her lonesome, so she takes quite some damage here. You can instantly defeat Black Drgn by casting a Life spell on him. Personally I don't consider it a shadowy tactic when the undead monster in question lacks Death protection (like Black Drgn), but if you don't want to go for it, you can cast Stop on him (perhaps combined with Slow so that it really takes its sweet time to wear off) and pound on him in the meantime with Fire 2. Note: Peepers have a rare Elixir steal and EarthGuard have a rare Megalixir steal. Right now, this is of no consequence, as you can't steal; later I'll point it out again. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.46.2 Intermezzo; Saving Cid ********************************** Now, you'll have to watch out for Cid's health. There's a hidden health bar for the guy, which you need to maintain. If you manage to take it up to 256, Cid becomes permanently healthy; if you allow it to drop down to 30, he will die. Here's how it goes down: Cid's health starts at 120. Every second you spend in any place that isn't the Overworld Map, Cid will drop his health bar down by 1. On the beach, there are fish you can catch. You can simply try to grab them when they come near the tiles you can stand on. There are four types of Fish: Fish (slow moving). Decreases Health bar by 16 when fed to Cid. A Rotten Fish (medium speed). Decreases Health bar by 4 when fed to Cid. Just a Fish (medium speed). Increases Health bar by 16 when fed to Cid. A Yummy Fish (fast moving). Increases Healthy bar by 32 when fed to Cid. All of these are Rare items. Once you've captured a kind of Fish, there's no way to get rid of it other than feeding it to Cid. The effects of the Fish you have caught are cumulative; if you have captured a Fish, a Rotten Fish, and a Yummy Fish, Cid will gain (-16 - 4 + 32 =) 12 points of health. 231 - 255 My dear, I ... feel I'm not going to be around much longer... 201 - 230 CELES, thanks for all you've done for me! 161 - 200 HackAck!! I feel a little better! 121 - 160 Cough...wheeze...I can't bear this any longer... 91 - 120 I...I'm not long for this cruel new world ... 61 - 90 My worst nightmare is to think of you alone here on this wretched island ... hack ... wheeze!! 31 - 60 Cough...hack...ACK!! While I can still talk, I...wheeze...pant...want to thank you...cough! 0 - 30 Good-bye... Whether or not Cid lives or dies has little impact other than, you know, it's Cid who lives or dies and Celes who reacts to it. Regardless of your efforts, Celes will get off the island fairly quickly: ----- Cid lives ----- After you've surpasses the 256 limit on Cid's Health bar, he's been successfully saved from death and he'll say: "I feel much better! Thanks, Celes!" and leave the bed. CELES: What's up? CID: CELES...the project that kept me going over the past year is down below. Go have a look at it! At this point, you can indeed take the look Cid urges you to take. It's a raft! CELES: Granddad. CID: CELES... You must leave this place. You have to find your friends! CELES: I know... But I'll bring 'em all back to meet you! CID: That LOCKE fellow, too, no doubt... (Switch to the beach, where Celes has dragged the raft to. She waves Cid goodbye and leaves the island) ----- Cid dies ----- After you've hit 30 or below and Celes is in the room, Cid will say "Good-bye...". If you enter the room with Cid's health at 30 or below, Cid will be dead. (Cid:) ... ... CELES: Granddad. You have to eat, or else... W...what's the matter? CELES: Cid... CELES: No...NO!! CELES: Granddad, ANSWER ME! Tell me you're just joking! (Celes flees the cabin, crying. Slowly, she crosses the Overworld map to a cliff to the north, which you could enter earlier. Here, she finds a lifeless bird. By examining it, a memory of Cid arises) CID: Those others who were here...when they were feeling down they'd take a leap of faith from the cliffs up north...perked 'em right up! CELES: Everyone's gone.... Even LOCKE, who promised to watch over me... The world's slowly ebbing away... Celes, closing her eyes, hesitates a moment. Then, she throws herself off the cliff. In the American version, Ted Woolsey was forced to make Celes' moment here a 'leap of joy'. What you're seeing here though, is Celes giving it all up and trying to commit suicide. In the Japanese game, she remembers Cid's words on how almost everybody has killed him or herself, of which one has dove off this very cliff. Nintendo at the time felt this was unfit to release to the American audience and had the Remake team change it to a more...positive moment. Celes comes too at the same beach she used to catch fish on. A bird is beside her. CELES: Phew... Why did you nurse me back to health? Did I ever ask you to help me?! CELES: A bandana??? No...it can't be... CELES: Hey, you! Where'd you get this?! Is the person who healed you still alive? Answer me! (The bird flies off) CELES: He's alive... LOCKE's still alive!!! If the unexplained magical healing properties of the bird confuse you, the Japanese game just states the bird protected Celes. How it did THAT exactly is as mysterious as healing her, though. If you go inside Cid's shack now, you'll find a letter on the ground. By examining it, you'll learn it says: You need to leave! The others are surely waiting for you! Find the stairs next to the stove. Down them lies your road to freedom. Love, Granddad After pulling the raft from its resting place, Celes stands on the beach and laments. CELES: I'll make you proud of me...Granddad... (Off she goes.) - The debate over Cid's life is surprisingly adamant when you take into consideration that it doesn't really affect gameplay. Most people tend to think letting Cid die is the best way out of the situation; not only is catching fish a tedious enterprise, the consequences of Cid's demise give depth to the character of Celes. Others try to keep him alive for the sole reason that he is one of the major NPCs and this game's Cid. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.47.1 The World of Ruin ********************************** Location: Southern Continent Party members: Celes Opponents: Mesosaur, Gilomantis, Peepers, Chitonid, Gigan Toad, EarthGuard, Black Drgn, Osprey Staying on an island with nothing but sickly animals to keep you company is not what anybody would consider leading a rich and fulfilling life. It's time to see how badly this world has turned out; if the Empire is still standing with Kefka leading it, if any of that rogue squadron of Returners has survived; in other words, if there is still hope. Preparation: You can take your Zombie-protection off now if you want. Replace it with something that protects against Petrify for now (Ribbon or Jewel Ring will do). Try to apply the Clear status ASAP as it protects you from anything if you're smart. Since the enemies here are actually worth a damn, you'll want to equip a Morning Star and move to the Back Row if the whole Vanish thing isn't working out for you for whatever reason. You wake up near Albrook. You can go in right now, but for now, I'll give a quick run-down on the monsters here. Monster formations: Grasslands Mesosaur, Mesosaur (10/16) Gilomantis, Mesosaur (6/16) Wastelands, east Lunaris, Lunaris (10/16) Chitonid, Gigan Toad, Gigan Toad (6/16) Wastelands, west Lunaris, Osprey (10/16) Osprey, Chitonid, Gigan Toad (6/16) Forest Mesosaur, Mesosaur, Mesosaur, Mesosaur (10/16) Gilomantis, Gilomantis, Mesosaur (6/16) Desert EarthGuard, Peepers, Peepers (10/16) Black Drgn (6/16) Mesosaur is a small dinosaur whose name is derived from the prefix 'meso', which means 'middle'. Mesosaurea in our world were little swimming buggers 'famous' for being the first land-based animals to return to the sea; in this world, they are Battle/Special cannon fodder with a weakness to Ice. This is note-worthy; dinosaurs and lizards in general have a weakness to Ice. Mesosaurea will use Escape unless they are by themselves, in which case they'll stand to fight. !T. Lash causes Seizure. Gilomantis use Battle. When they are targeted by Fight, they sometimes use !Sickle, which is a more advanced way of inflicting damage or something. I wonder, if not with their sickles, how they normally attack you. They seem to have a wicked sharp stinger; maybe they slash with it. Regardless, they are kind of boring. Heh. Gigan Toads are cool. See, they're toads, and they're gargantuan. This makes them inherently violent, attacking with Battle, !Croak (damage), Slimer (sets Slow, looks spiffy), and Rippler. Rippler is an attack of utmost danger, but Gigan Toad lacks the MP to pull it off. Lunaris is Lobo WoR style. Rather than using !Bite to inflict damage, they use !Face Bite to blind (although I can't imagine a bite to the face that blinds and doesn't actually hurt as well). Stuff to plow through. Osprey is the only monster that actually is worth a damn right now. Not only can it pull off a !Beak attack in its third turn to petrify you, it will rarely retort with a Shimsham attack if you use Magic on it. Chitonid is normal Battle/Special stuff (!Carapace damages. Also, !Carapace refers to a dorsal section of an exoskeleton or shell, in a number of animal groups!) with one annoying habit: if it's by itself, it can counter any damaging attack with Sneeze. This tends to come into play if you employ a fatal MT attack to the entire monster party. Take out Chitonid first. Just walk around here and kill stuff with your attacks. Should you have Clear status and lose it again due to Slimer, Sneeze, or Shimsham, re-apply it. Kill Chitonid first, never use Magic on Osprey, and don't linger with Gigan Toads and you should be invulnerable. Eh...yeah. You'll want to go into Albrook now. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.47.2 Albrook ********************************** Location: Albrook Party members: Celes Opponents: None Welcome to Albrook. It's nice to see there are still some signs of civilization left. It's time to gather some info on this strange new world; after all, it can't be expected everybody took a full year's nap. Weapon Shop: Flame Sabre 7000 Blizzard 7000 ThunderBlade 7000 You should be both familiar with and possessive of these weapons, but if you for one reason or another want to have more of them, you can buy them here. I'd be a tight-ass about my cash right now if I were you, though. These weapons should be noted for their great use with the Throw command; they are basically elemental Ninja Stars; if you have great amounts of cash in the future, you can Throw these for insane damage if the target is weak against the element. For now, keep hold of your GP. Armor Shop: Gold Shld 2500 Bard's Hat 3000 Green Beret 3000 Gold Helmet 4000 Gold Armor 10000 Nothing new here, and nothing you should specifically want any more of. Relic Shop: Sprint Shoes 1500 Atlas Armlet 5000 Earrings 5000 Barrier Ring 500 MithrilGlove 700 True Knight 1000 Wall Ring 6000 Jewel Ring 1000 These must be tough times if a Relic shop owner can get away with selling rubbish like this. If you don't have a Jewel Ring or a Ribbon, definitely buy a Jewel Ring here. Item Shop: Potion 300 Tincture 1500 Fenix Down 500 Revivify 300 Remedy 1000 Sleeping Bag 500 Smoke Bomb 300 Warp Stone 700 If the Floating Continent was harsh on your supplies, you can restock some now. Make sure you have some Revivifies, and Sleeping Bags are, at the moment, cheaper versions of Tents, as you're traveling by your lonesome. Hidden Items: If you haven't picked them up in the WoB, there's a Potion in the barrel next to the Inn, a Tincture in the pot in the Weapon Shop, an Elixir in the clock in the Relic Shop/Cafe, and a Warp Stone in one of the crates on the docks. Also, two empty chests in the Armor Shop. Smiling happy people, walking on sunshine. Only kind of not. Albrook turned into a rather depressing mess of a town. The situation is bad. Kefka is ruling the world. Monsters abound. Albrook's part, once a thriving capital of aquatic travel and trade, is derelict. Your only hope is the rumor of a man who passed through Albrook recently, a man with the same shimmer of hope in his eyes. Hardly constructive, but worth a shot. The Japanese game makes specific mention of a 'monk' here. Albrook doesn't seem like a place to hang around in anyway. It's time to leave. It's time to see what became of Vector, Maranda, and Tzen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.48.1 En route to Tzen ********************************** Location: Southern Continent Party members: Celes Opponents: Mesosaur, Gilomantis, Peepers, Chitonid, Gigan Toad, EarthGuard, Osprey Back on the Overworld Map, you'll soon notice that Vector is no more and has been replaced by a tower. This is Kefka's seat, from where he rules the world. That's nice. Maranda has been broken off the continent to the west. Luckily, Tzen is still there. Note: As soon as you enter Tzen, you'll be sucked into a side-quest from where you'll emerge with Sabin. If you don't want this, or are not ready yet (you'll want the Jewel Ring/Ribbon now), don't enter Tzen and skip the next part instead. It is strongly recommended to dive into Tzen rather than skipping it, and the game pretty much counts on you doing so, but whatever floats your boat I suppose. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.48.2 Tzen; the Light of Judgment ********************************** Location: Tzen Party members: Celes Opponents: None When you step up the stairs, a disaster occurs! The Light of Judgment hits the town, and it quickly becomes clear that a child is trapped in one of the collapsing houses. Holding up the mansion is a familiar face: Sabin Rene Figaro, wandering heir to the throne of Figaro! It's good to see him still alive, but the situation asks for action. Leaving is impossible, as a citizen will ask you to stay and help: "Come on!! Please help!" As soon as you stand in front of the door Sabin will start talking to you and a timer will start, so let's see what you can do beforehand: Before you enter the house to save the child, you *can* get some healing at the Inn (you won't spend the night, but you'll get some sparkly action going on) and you can shop at the three shops Tzen has to offer. Weapon Shop: Kaiser 1000 Poison Claw 2500 Flame Sabre 7000 Blizzard 7000 ThunderBlade 7000 Fire Knuckle10000 It's nice to have two of each Claws. The Kaiser are too weak at this point so you can ignore it; if you don't have two Poison Claws stock up until you do, and you're bound to miss at least one Fire Knuckle. Grab it, as a boss battle in the future can use double Fire Knuckles. Armor Shop: Gold Shld 2500 Beret 3500 Tiger Mask 2500 Gold Helmet 4000 Power Sash 5000 Gold Armor 10000 Berets for sale, so you could buy one if you missed it at the FC. The rest of the merchandise here is old news. Relic Shop: DragoonBoots 9000 Sneak Ring 3000 Black Belt 5000 Back Guard 7000 Sniper Sight 3000 Peace Ring 3000 Jewel Ring 1000 Amulet 5000 Sneak Rings for sale are new, but they don't help you. What you do want is a Jewel Ring if you still didn't buy one. Last chance, honest. Item Shop: Potion 300 Tincture 1500 Green Cherry 150 Fenix Down 500 Echo Screen 120 Revivify 300 Sleeping Bag 500 Super Ball 10000 In this time of turmoil, an entirely new item has appeared in the Item Shop: the Super Ball. Unseen by many, shunned by many, forgotten by many, the Super Ball is an item that deals damage in combat to random target for a random amount of damage. To be more precise: Super Ball deals 256, 512, 768, 1024, 1280, 1536, 1792, or 2048 HP damage against 1, 2, 3, or 4 randomly decided targets. If it the same monster is targeted twice by Super Ball, he is hit twice, meaning that the damage can exceed 2048 HP. In short: Super Balls are very expensive, entirely random and most of the time not impressive enough to warrant its usage. Yes, in theory a Super Ball could do a total of 4 x 2048 = 8192 damage against a single target, which is insane at the moment, but I've never seen it do even remotely that kind of damage. Buy one if you want to fill your inventory, but you won't find a lot of use for them in most circumstances. When you're done shopping while everybody else is panicking, try to save the child by entering the house. For curiosity's sake, I've listed the responses of the running townsmen and women if you manage to catch their attention: (Guy) Must have irritated Kefka... (Merchant) There are monsters inside! They keep petrifying everyone who goes in to help. You using suitable Relics? (Old man) We resisted Kefka, so he unleashed his Light of Judgment on us! (Old woman) Hurry, or the house'll collapse! Before you get near the mansion, set Celes up like this: Break Blade/Blizzard/ThunderBlade/Flame Sabre Gold Shld Mystery Veil Gold Armor/Gaia Gear Black Belt (vital!) Jewel Ring/Ribbon (likewise!) As soon as you stand in front of the door, you'll have your conversation with Sabin and the timer (6:00) will start running. If you are still outside of the house while the timer runs out, you get a Game Over: your screen will display Sabin saying: "I...I...I'm losing my grip...Keep up the fight, brother!" in an entirely black background. It doesn't matter if you're outdoors or indoors: Game Over, man. Better get in there and save that child. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.48.3 The Collapsing House ********************************** Location: Tzen, Collapsing House Party members: Celes Opponents: HermitCrab, Pm Stalker, Scorpion Preparation: Black Belt and petrification protection, right? Monster formations: Scorpion, Scorpion, Scorpion (10/16) HermitCrab, HermitCrab, Pm Stalker (6/16) The Scorpion is the main annoyance in this house while the HermitCrab is the most dangerous. Meeting three Scorpion monsters will make you want to use MT magic violence, but their Magic Defense is through the roof, you don't have any barrier-piercing attacks at your disposal and using Fight three times takes a long time when time is of the essence. Hence the Black Belt; Scorpions will use !Doom Sting (sets Condemned) followed by Battle, so there's plenty of physical attacks to take advantage of, especially because Celes is alone anyway. HermitCrab have two attacks to fear. The first is Net; you may remember it from your fight against Marshal way, way back. Net stops, which is bad if you want to hurry (you want to hurry). They won't use it until their third turn though, so no worries as you will have killed them by then. Their other dangerous attack is !Rock. It petrifies, and is only used when a HermitCrab is alone and damaged by you. Sadly, this scenario includes MT killing everything on the battlefield. Protect yourself from ridicule and enjoy that Jewel Ring or Ribbon I advised you. Pm Stalkers are cannon fodder with a nice name; Pm stands for Post Mortem. Still stalking. They will use Drain, which is sad as this prevents total invulnerability by means of Vanish. It tends to do either 0 or 6 damage (6 is the damage a single Seizure hit takes). That's it. You can take them all out with an MT Fire 2 spell or Ifrit's Inferno. Use Fight and enjoy your counters during Scorpion battles, and MT Fire 2 spells or similar kinds of violence will suffice against everything else. Note: If you started this scenario later, you should have more characters. Edgar's AutoCrossbow is very nice against the Scorpions, so you don't really need the Black Belt on anybody. Make sure everybody is protected against Petrify though. I could talk and talk about your options if you have other characters, but since this entire bit was designed to be doable with only one character, a full team will have so little trouble here that explaining what to do would be insulting your position as a person capable of abstract thought. If you walk through the hallway, you'll come across a chest at the end. This contains a Heal Rod; make absolutely sure you grab it. Turn left and you'll see a chamber with a chest in it. The chest contains a Pearl Rod; go out the same way you got in. Continue to the left and you'll see two chests. The one in reach contains a Tincture, the one near the stairs downwards contains a monster-in-a-box (Pm Stalker, Pm Stalker Pm Stalker, Pm Stalker). Go down the stairway and go up the high living room or whatever it is. The right chest contains a Magicite shard, in the middle is the kid (grab it), and the left chest contains, again, the same monster-in-a-box of four Pm Stalkers. The one room here you didn't pass through contains a Drainer in a chest. Grab it if you like. Leave this mess. Upstairs is one chest you missed, to the bottom: It contains a Hyper Wrist. Grab it if you have the time, there's really no use for yet another one of these Relics. Sell it or something. If you're done, get out. Outside, the kid is safe and so is Sabin. There's hope! Yata! Etcetera. Sabin joins the party. If you haven't bought Sraphim yet, now's your chance to do so for only 10 GP. The world's going to heck in a hand basket... just look at this weird stone! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.49.1 The Serpent Trench ********************************** Location: Overworld Map Party members: Celes, Optional: Sabin Opponents: Mesosaur, Gilomantis, Chitonid, Gigan Toad, Osprey This part, again, is optional. You get another Esper out of it, an encounter with another of your friends, and a boss battle. If you want to press on immediately, there's no rush and you can always get back later. In the tail of the Serpent Trench lies Mobliz, a town that has been fried by the Light of Judgment earlier. Maybe it's time to take a look? It's not exactly on your way, but... do you even have someplace specific to go now? Preparation: Equip an Amulet or Ribbon on Celes and Sabin! One of the monsters can turn you into a Zombie in the very first turn, and you'd be surprised how easy a Game Over is to obtain. Monster formations: Grasslands Mesosaur, Mesosaur (10/16) Gilomantis, Mesosaur (6/16) Wastelands, east Lunaris, Lunaris (10/16) Chitonid, Gigan Toad, Gigan Toad (6/16) Wastelands, west Lunaris, Osprey (10/16) Osprey, Chitonid, Gigan Toad (6/16) Grasslands, Serpent Trench Bloompire, Bloompire, Lizard (6/16) Bloompire, Bloompire (5/16) Buffalax (5/16) Wastelands, Serpent Trench Buffalax, Delta Bug, Delta Bug (10/16) Delta Bug, Delta Bug, Delta Bug, Delta Bug (6/16) Forests, Serpent Trench Bloompire, Bloompire, Lizard (6/16) Bloompire, Bloompire (5/16) Buffalax (5/16) Three new monsters on the Serpent Trench: Buffalax are sickly animals that attack out of desperation. If you wait for four turns he'll swap his normal Battle attack with a !Riot, Battle, Battle combo. Gasp thrice! !Riot is merely Battle * 1.5, so there's Nothing to worry about. If he's hit by a Magic spell, he might counter with Sun Bath. So don't. Delta Bug uses Battle, !Rush (Battle * 1.5) and Mega Volt. Mega Volt is entirely too weak to worry about, but it does remove Clear status, and that's annoying. Let's see here... its name comes from the Greek symbol Delta, which was a triangle. I'm introducing you to a whole new world here, am I not? MT Fire 2 spells and/or the Fire Dance Blitz is the way to go. Bloompire are the most dangerous enemies here. They can start the fight off with Battle or !Energy Sap, which sets Zombie. The second turn can feature the Bio spell, which you don't want. The thing about Bloompire is their defenses: 254 Defense, 254 Magic Defense. They compensate by having only 12 HP, but still. Since they're undead, the best way to penetrate those defenses is by an MT Cure spell on them. Celes is bound to know it. Otherwise, MT Fire 2 spells and Fire Dance can get the job done if tweaked a little. See how good your flaming is to learn if this is a better option for you. Whenever Delta Bug appear, Fire Dance is a good idea to clean them all up in one go, as is an MT Fire 2 spell, if you lack Sabin. Buffalax too is weak to Fire-elemental attacks, so if you find a lone Celes facing one, just go with that element and hope he doesn't use Sun Bath. Bloompire is best disposed of with an MT Cure spell (on them, obviously). It's a good idea to cast Vanish on yourself; while the second turn of both Delta Bug and Bloompire can remove your Clear status with Mega Volt and the Bio spell, respectively, you shouldn't let it come that far. Find the bridge to the Serpent Trench and walk up to the tail. When you're almost there, you can find a Chocobo Stable in the forest just south of the town of Mobliz. Regardless, you're here: Mobliz. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.49.2 The tail of the Serpent Trench; Mobliz ********************************** Location: Mobliz Party members: Celes, Optional: Sabin Opponents: Phunbaba Lores: Blow Fish [PHUNBABA1-LINK] Preparation: There will be a boss battle here, so I want you to prepare for it. Ideally, you have Sabin with you, who I suggest you give a Hero Ring, Genji Glove, and two Poison Claws. Equipping Golem on either will be a good asset. Just keep Celes the way you like her, but make sure she can use Runic. If you don't have Sabin, the next battle will be very tough. Equip a Wall Ring and a Hero Ring, and save on the Overworld Map. Definitely have Golem on Celes if she's flying solo here. When you enter Mobliz, two dogs will start barking and a kid comes running out of a house before re-entering it. Before you follow him, grab the Fenix Down on one of the three barrels by the other burned house. You can take a nap in the bed of the abandoned Relic Shop for HP/MP restoration. When you enter the house, you can grab the Elixir in the clock if you didn't in the WoB. Go down the stairs to find a whole bunch of kids, Duane and Katarin and ...Terra! But as the cutscene progresses, you'll learn the situation is more complicated than 'hey-ho, let's go', and Terra refuses to leave. When you go outside (before you do, make sure you're fully equipped for the fight), a kid will come screaming in that Phunbaba is coming! You heard about Phunbaba in Albrook, a demon from the ancient world. Terra goes out to defend the children. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.49.3 The fight with Phunbaba ********************************** Phunbaba (# 1) Level: 26, HP: 60000, MP: 10000 Absorbs: Lightning, Weakness: Poison Special: !Solar Plex: Battle x 3 Sketch : !Solar Plex, Battle Control: Battle, !Solar Plex Vulnerable to: Nothing Attacks: Battle, !Solar Plex, Bolt 2, Bolt 3, Blow Fish Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions This battle is a scripted battle. Terra won't be able to deliver any damage as Phunbaba is blessed by the same kind of invulnerability as WoB Guardian was. Terra can slave away with physicals: 0 damage. She can cast Fire 2, Bio, and Drain: 0 damage (although she'll obtain HP from Drain). Terra is supposed to lose here. So, don't use Morph or Elixirs or anything. There is a way to circumvent the fixed outcome of the fight, and that's by using Vanish/Doom. This is only possible in the SNES versions though, as Square made the Vanish spell miss against this Phunbaba in the PSX versions. But it doesn't matter if you lose or win by cheating (it doesn't get you any items or MP either); the outcome will be entirely the same. Terra will be lying on the ground, facedown, and whoever came for her (most likely Celes and Sabin, but anything is possible) comes to her aid. Phunbaba (# 2) Level: 26, HP: 28000, MP: 10000 Absorbs: Lightning, Weakness: Poison Special: !Solar Plex: Battle x 3 Sketch : !Solar Plex, Battle Control: Battle, !Solar Plex Vulnerable to: Nothing Attacks: Battle, !Solar Plex, Bolt 2, Bolt 3, Blow Fish, Escape Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions Joker Doom: No. The game prevents you from spinning 7-7-7 in this battle. This is better. Phunbaba will start the battle with a physical, be it either Battle or !Solar Plex. Then, he'll start using Bolt 2 and Bolt 3 spells; finally, he can use Blow Fish, which is ill received, as 1000 damage is nothing to laugh at when it's coming for you. Phunbaba's name, if you're wondering, comes from the old Babylonian heroic poem 'Gilgamesh'. He was a monster there. He got killed, too. If you have a Celes/Sabin team, have Sabin use his dual Poison Claws for great damage. Don't bother with Celes her damage output; have her on Runic standby. Both should start the battle by calling up Golem's Earth Wall if they have him equipped. If Sabin is weak, you should break the Runic guard to cure him. Smack Phunbaba with Sabin's fists until he runs off. If you have a solo Celes party, summon Golem to start, and fill all other turns by casting Bio (or, lacking Bio, Ice 2) as quickly as you can. Fighting this guy with Celes only is a risk as no matter what you do, Blow Fish is very dangerous and Phunbaba can kill you. If you're low at HP, sneak in an X-Potion or Elixir. Any other team needs little guidance; you've obviously been around the world, have collected at least four characters, and have better equipment than you need to have. Bio spells come in handy. What else is there to say? Setzer can't spin Joker Doom here. The best Dance is Earth Blues, while the home dance, Wind Song is nigh worthless. Vaporite absorbs Bolt 2 and Bolt 3 while dealing acceptable damage, although a purple Mag Roader Rage with a Wall Ring is better. After Phunbaba storms off, Terra once again claims she won't be able to fight for you. When you try to leave, the kid at the entrance gives you your first new gem of happiness: the Esper Fenrir. The Japanese game makes mention of the Fenrir Magicite being a part of Phunbaba's dropped necklace. Equip it if no other Espers appear to teach better spells at the moment (X-Zone is nice, but not as strategic as Stop, Vanish, Mute, etc.). Note: If you already found the Falcon at this point, you can simply leave Mobliz and return to finally put a permanent stop to Phunbaba and recruit Terra. Read all about that here: [PHUNBABA2-LINK] Leave. We're going to the head of the Serpent Trench now; you can grab a Chocobo if you want in the Chocobo Stable in the forest. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.50.1 The head of the Serpent Trench; Nikeah ********************************** Location: Nikeah Party members: Celes, Optional: Sabin Opponents: None Monster formations: Desert: Black Drgn (always) Welcome to Nikeah! Being pretty much the least important town in the entire WoB, some have chosen to mock it for its useless northern part where only the Inn is. Truly, Nikeah is not the best-looking town you've come across so far, but the in-game equivalent of total blasted doomsday just happened; I don't think we can judge less-then-perfect aesthetics right now. Weapon Shop: Rune Edge 7500 Flame Sabre 7000 Blizzard 7000 ThunderBlade 7000 Enhancer 10000 You probably already have at least one Rune Edge (either from grabbing the chest in the Moogle Cave or from Stealing it from Number 024 back in the day), but they are actually for sale now. Don't buy them; even with their MP-driven auto-critical they are not as strong as a normal blow from the great new weapon that's also for sale: the Enhancer. Grab three. What does the Enhancer do? First off, it gives a +7 bonus to your Magic Power, which is very nice, Also, it grants the wielder an extra 20% MBlock, which in this game, with the Evade bug and all, is very, very nice indeed. I suggest you grab three and put two of them on Celes with a Genji Glove. The Enhancer really is a great weapon, and could be considered a weapon you want to keep equipped until the very end of the game in certain scenarios. Armor Shop: Diamond Shld 3500 Bard's Hat 3000 Green Beret 3000 Diamond Helm 8000 Gaia Gear 6000 Power Sash 5000 Diamond Vest12000 Entirely new items for sale in this Armor Shop! Victory galore. I'd grab one Diamond Shld, but don't equip it on Celes as her dual Enhancers will be much nicer. Ignore the Diamond Helm entirely; there are better helmets out there still (Mystery Veil, Bard's Hat, Green Beret). Grab ONE Diamond Vest and give it to Sabin. There'll be something nicer for Celes in a short while and Diamond equipment is crazy expansive (who would've guessed, huh). Relic Shop: White Cape 5000 Cure Ring 8000 Zephyr Cape 7000 Gale Hairpin 8000 Hyper Wrist 8000 Beads 4000 Amulet 5000 Czarina Ring 3000 "You took one look at me and thought I was a loser, right? You're obligated to buy from me now!" Oddest sentence of the entire game, if you ask me. Anyway, his merchandise isn't very special, except for the fact he has Beads for sale, whose only use lies in saving them up for the next Mardi Gras. Also, Cure Rings for sale; they were 20000 GP in the Auction House, so it's a relative bargain here. Cure Rings still suck though, and you could've gotten all the Cure Rings you ever wanted back on the FC. Other items for sale that previously weren't include Zephyr Capes (useless; White Capes are better period), Gale Hairpins (one is enough), and Czarina Rings (Cute, those trigger-spell-when-Near-Fatal Relics, but hardly useful). Item Shop: Potion 300 Tincture 1500 Soft 200 Fenix Down 500 Revivify 300 Remedy 1000 Sleeping Bag 500 Tent 1200 Stock up if you want. Word on the street says that Figaro Castle has had an accident and that the South Figaro ferry is about to leave. However, if you talk to the captain of the ship, hoping for a lift, he tells you the ship belongs to the Crimson Robbers, the thieves that escaped the cells of Figaro Castle when it had the accident. They're in the Cafe. In the Cafe, talking to all of them reveals their story. Stuck in jail, they had the fortune of being freed by sandworms. Their boss perished, but their new leader Gerad will lead them into Figaro Castle to get their booty back. The thieves all leave the Cafe, but on-board they are still waiting for Gerad, who's still somewhere in town. When you walk into town, the lost king of Figaro is seen! However, he insists he is Gerad, the cunning leader of the Crimson Robbers. It seems the fact 'Gerad' is an anagram of 'Edgar' is mere coincidence. Follow him every time he tries to walk off, and eventually you'll sneak onto the ferry. Note: A lot of people find it strange that Sabin doesn't specifically react to this semi-Edgar. One could blame the fact Sabin isn't a mandatory character at this point, but few know there actually IS a line for Sabin at this point, it's just never accessed in the game. Here it is: SABIN: What's going on, here? Brother!! -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.51.1 South Figaro; Gerad and the Crimson Robbers ********************************** Location: South Figaro Party members: Celes, Optional: Sabin Opponents: None South Figaro had only a taste of freedom again when the world collapsed. Invaded by the Empire, martial law, a king who has run off leaving other people to govern, an apocalypse; South Figaro has had it rough. But the people here haven't given up hope. They're rebuilding the houses, managing their affairs as good as they can. We could admire this kind of determination. Weapon Shop: Trident 1700 Stout Spear 10000 Enhancer 10000 Gold Lance 12000 The only new item here is the Gold Lance. As you could guess, it's a Lance stronger than the Stout Spear. While I think the Gold Lance looks kinda nice in combat, I would still prefer the Enhancer over the Gold Lance any day, so I won't tell you to buy one now, as in the next boss battle, the weapon with the highest Bat. Pwr will be automatically equipped, being the Gold Lance rather than the Enhancer (which is the one you want). Although nothing will be said, you'll get a 50% discount if Edgar is your leading party member. Armor Shop: Diamond Shld 3500 Bard's Hat 3000 Green Beret 3000 Diamond Helm 8000 Gaia Gear 6000 Diamond Vest12000 DiamondArmor15000 I told you to hold off buying new equipment for Celes in Nikeah: the Diamond Armor is the reason. I suggest you buy two if possible; your GP will be running fairly low by now, but you'll thank me for it in the future. You could try selling some stuff you're sure you'll never use again, such as Hyper Wrists, Beads and the like. Although nothing will be said, you'll get a 50% discount if Edgar is your leading party member. Relic Shop: Goggles 500 Star Pendant 500 Fairy Ring 1500 Amulet 5000 RunningShoes 7000 Wall Ring 6000 Cure Ring 8000 Czarina Ring 3000 There's nothing here that you want. 2 RunningShoes will be nice in the future, but you should already have at least two of them from chests. More importantly, make absolutely sure you don't leave before you have enough Amulets to protect four party members against Zombie (Ribbons also do this). This is vital. Although nothing will be said, you'll get a 50% discount if Edgar is your leading party member. Item Shop: Potion 300 Tincture 1500 Eyedrop 50 Echo Screen 120 Fenix Down 500 Revivify 300 Remedy 1000 Tent 1200 Stock those stockings if your stockings need stocking. The first time you arrived here, there was plenty to do. Now, the action in South Figaro is slightly less. Points of interest: - The four members of the Crimson Robbers can be found all over town. Here's what they have to say: "We're storming Figaro Castle! That treasure's rightfully ours!" (two) "Some guy came through here a little while ago looking for some secret treasure." "Souvenir of the Empire, anyone?!" (Standing over at an abandoned MagiTek Armor) The middle line there is rather odd for a thief that just escaped from jail, got to Nikeah and now just returned to South Figaro. In addition, a 'normal' South Figaro inhabitant says "We may be thieves, but at least we have goals in our lives!" There's no saying for sure, but it's likely those lines were accidentally swapped around. - A couple sexing each other up in the trees at the edge of town can be disturbed if you want to: "For each life lost, a new one arrives to fill the void! Okay! Nothing's gonna stop us!" (guy runs off) & "Oh...! That person!" (girl runs off) - Commander and Vector Pup opponents can still be found in the dungeon where Celes and Locke escaped from in the WoB. This is obviously an error as there's really no story-related reason for them to be there anymore. - The little daughter of the richest man in town, who mentioned the Clock Key earlier in the WoB, now talks about jumping and turtles. Crazy talk from a crazy person, probably. - Duncan is still alive! His wife informs you that he's meditating just north of Narshe. If there's some time in the future, we should definitely get Sabin to Duncan. We owe that to Sabin. When you find Gerad in the room of the Inn, he'll immediately leave and take the Crimson Robbers with him, still insisting that he is not Edgar. Still, Edgar or not, you'll want to follow him to see what his plans for Figaro Castle are. If it's Edgar, you'll want to know what the hell is going on; if it's not, we should defend the property of Figaro in Edgar's absence. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.51.2 Pursuing Gerad and the Crimon Robbers ********************************** Location: Overworld Map (Figaro Desert) Party members: Celes, Optional: Sabin Opponents: Sand Horse, Maliga, Latimeria, Nohrabbit Preparation: If you have Float, cast it on your party. That's about it. Grasslands Nohrabbit, Nohrabbit, Nohrabbit (always) Wastelands Maliga, Maliga, Nohrabbit, Nohrabbit (always) Desert Maliga, Maliga, Maliga (6/16) Sand Horse, Sand Horse (5/16) Sand Horse, Maliga, Maliga (5/16) Forest Latimeria (10/16) Latimeria, Nohrabbit, Nohrabbit, Nohrabbit (6/16) Nohrabbit is one of the few enemies in the game with a Magic Power high enough to supercede that of your characters (30), but you needn't fear; the only spells these guys cast are Cure, Cure 2, and Remedy, and for some reason unknown to man they cast it on you... when hit by Fight. Under normal circumstances you'll find them smacking you with Battle or !Carrot (Battle * 1.5, and the name is subject of ridicule by itself), but when bunnies would want to cure you upon slaughter is just silly. There were healing bunnies in FF V as well, but they tended to actually help themselves. Maybe it's a reflex reaction? Maliga is just an upgraded version of Exocite. Battle, !Scissors, a chance at a double !Scissors when they are alone. !Scissors is boring Battle * 1.5 shtuff. Exocite were water-based, but these wretches occupy the deserts; they are weak against Ice and Water. Latimeria resembles Anguiform, but that's where the similarities end. Anguiform had an exceedingly strong Special; Latimeria has the normal Battle * 1.5 !Wind-Up attack. Instead of being a creature of water and using Aqua Rake, Latimeria uses Magnitude8 on a regular basis. Weak against Lightning and immune to ID. Finally, Discovery Channel Fact: a Latimeria is a fish! Why the hell they made it a land crawler defies reason. Sand Horse is the most dangerous enemy here. Under normal circumstances they will repeatedly use Sand Storm or possibly !Clamp (Battle * 5!), and if they're alone they start using Battle. You'd assume they would want to keep their stronger attacks for the more dire situations, but oh well. Sand Horse is weak against Ice and Water like most desert dwellers, but its most prominent weakness is Rasp; it dies automatically when its MP reaches 0, and with only 100 MP, any Rasp spell should do one in. Float should circumvent Latimeria's Magnitude8, so just pound away there. Use Fight on Nohrabbit whenever you can, their healing will do you a lot of good. The only threat is Sand Horse; do them in with a Rasp spell or something you know will do significant ST damage. Summoning Bismark will take care of them, but you probably have better things to do than equip that sub-par fiend of an Esper. Enough dilly-dallying around. There really isn't anything on the entire continent that deserves our interest, so let's head into the Cave of Figaro, where we can assume the Crimson Robbers also headed. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.51.3 Pursuing Gerad and the Crimon Robbers; Cave of Figaro ********************************** Location: Cave of Figaro Party members: Celes, Optional: Sabin Opponents: Humpty, Cruller, NeckHunter, Dante Preparation: A lot of monsters here will try to set the Confuse status on you, so equip Relics that protect against Confuse like Ribbons or Peace Rings. This is quite important, especially now that your characters are getting stronger; while you freeze in panic your twirling characters may cast X-Zone on themselves and give you a Game Over. Cave of Figaro NeckHunter, Cruller, Humpty, Humpty (10/16) Dante (6/16) Recovery Spring Humpty, Humpty, Humpty, Humpty (6/16) NeckHunter, NeckHunter (5/16) Dante (5/16) Corridor from Recovery Spring to Figaro Castle NeckHunter, NeckHunter (6/16) Humpty, Humpty, Humpty (5/16) Cruller, Humpty, Humpty (5/16) The first thing you see in the Cave of Figaro is an old acquaintance: Ziegfried! He explains its wise to stay behind and let him - master swordsman that he is - clear all the monsters out of your path. He goes off to complete this goal, but remembering your previous encounter with him it's more along his alley to keep you out of his way while he goes off to collect treasure that you would normally obtain. No time to linger and wait for something to happen, time to press on! Note: No matter how long you wait here, nothing will happen. Humpty is just really, really fat. Never mind that jolly Buddha or that figurine of the goddess of fertility; Humpty is a grotesquely obese little bugger with as much to offer to the eye as a festering wound. Battle and - ugh - !Hug (sets Confuse) are among his arsenal. Also, he's undead. What wretch has taken it onto himself to revive only the broadest of men? Cruller knows spells. One to be exact: Fire 2. I'd love to comment on other features of it, but... what the hell is it? A glibbering mass of goo and internal organs, or so it seems. Humpty at least had the decency to be overly disgusting in a humanoid form; Cruller can't even take that to its defense. Anyway, Cruller can start battles with Fire 2 and Battle, and if you keep him around long enough he can use Slimer and !BrainStorm (sets Confuse). Weak to Fire. NeckHunter uses !Mad Sickle (sets Confuse) and Battle. That's about it. They're probably supposed to be thieves or something; humans in dungeons almost never make sense in RPGs. They're susceptible to ID, they're Floating, and they're weak to Poison. Dante. Named after the Italian writer of La Divina Commedia (which is said to have been one of the sources of inspiration for this game by some fans), Dante is kind of weird. He's Undead, but doesn't absorb Poison. In fact, he's weak against it! His attacks consist out of Battle and !QuartzPike (Battle * 3), and he rarely counters Magic spells with L. 3 Muddle. Dante is slightly more durable than the other enemies in the cave, so it might be nice information to have that the Life spell puts a stop to his existence. Stop, ironic enough, also puts a stop to his existence, but it'll wear off so you'll want to hurt him in the meantime. Here's the strategy. The theme of this dungeon is 'Confuse'. Almost all enemies can set it, and with new spells such as X-Zone, Confuse gets all the more dangerous. Wear Peace Rings and/or Ribbons to prevent the horror. Boost Sabin's Fire Dance or perhaps even Air Blade (which he learns at level 30) with a pair of Earrings or a Hero Ring; Fire Dance offs all Humptys and Crullers. Celes can take care of the remaining NeckHunter with her Enhancer(s). If Dante is ever encountered, Life, Stop, or whatever normally works. This cave isn't too difficult to plow through. You know what the cave looks like. If you have left all the chests alone (and I've been advising you to do so, haven't I?), they should now contain an Ether, an X-Potion, and a very awesome Hero Ring. A HERO RING, rock on! Just walk to the other end; once you get there you'll notice its blocked, but you'll also notice the Crimson Robbers know a way into Figaro Castle regardless. Also: The guy once had a turtle. After the Crimson Robbers have disappeared and Ziegfried has followed them, you're free to pursue both by jumping on the turtle. Use the action button for that. You can think back to the little daughter of the richest man in South Figaro again; this is the second time she's given good advice. In the next room, you'll find an empty corridor with four chests that already have been looted. Darn that Ziegfried. Press on; we might be able to catch up with him. In the next room, a crossroad! If you go up, you'll come across Ziegfried opening a chest. As soon as he spots you, he runs off with the contents of the chest, never ever to be seen again. You can't follow him; just let him go. If you press on you come across what appears to be a dead end; a hidden passage to the bottom lets you exit, though. And then, the scenery changes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.51.4 Pursuing Gerad and the Crimon Robbers; Figaro Castle ********************************** Location: Figaro Castle Party members: Celes, Optional: Sabin Opponents: Humpty, Cruller, Drop, NeckHunter, Dante, Tentacle, Tentacle, Tentacle, Tentacle Preparation: Keep the Peace Rings/Ribbons on there. Figaro Castle basement Humpty, Humpty, Humpty, Humpty (6/16) NeckHunter, NeckHunter (5/16) Dante (5/16) Engine Room Humpty, Humpty, Humpty, Humpty (6/16) Drop, Drop, Drop (5/16) Dante (5/16) As soon as you enter, relief washes over you like a giant sea of...water. It's Figaro Castle. Gerad seems oddly sympathetic towards a swooning local before running off. Seriously, can we even still assume Gerad is *not* Edgar? But why this farce? Drop is probably Edgar's home-built security system or something, there's no other explanation of automatic mechanical beings here. They do nothing but use !Mad Signal every turn, which sets Confuse if you let it. If you use Fight to damage it, it'll counter with Battle. Refrain from that, and kill them with Magic spells (they're weak to Lightning-elemental attacks) and Blitz techniques. Pushing on will take you up the stairs, but you can't go out of the castle or on the exterior; we're submerged here, remember? The only choice is to walk into the engine room, which was hitherto forbidden territory. You'll come across Figaro soldiers all over; obviously, the lack of food and fresh air has taken its toll. Simply ascending two stairs will take you into a room with four chests containing, from right to left, a Crystal Helm (don't bother equipping it), a Gravity Rod (what is it with Rods that new ones always appear when nobody can equip them?), which is an Earth-elemental weapon that randomly casts Quartr, an X-Potion, and an Ether. If you enter the door to the far left, you'll be able to go up some stairs, enter a door, and grab a Regal Crown, which you should equip on Sabin if he is around. Trace back your steps to the room with the four chests, and enter the middle door. Pass through the corridor and behold: the engine that drives Figaro Castle, it's best-kept secret. However, the engine seems to be crawling with ...something. It must be the source of Figaro Castle's inability to move around lately. The Crimson Robbers themselves seem rather worried by it. Before you gently tap the shoulder of Gerad and kindly ask what the hell is going on here, you should know that this is the only room in the game where you can find Drop enemies. Their Rage is useless and they are entirely uninteresting other than their elusive nature. Talking to Gerad means the start of a boss battle, so let's prepare. RunningShoes disables a large part of the boss' strategy, so equip them on both Sabin and Celes if possible. Wall Rings and/or Relics that provide immunity to the Poison status will come in handy as well. Summoning Golem and/or Fenrir is a great idea, as is Siren. So, the following party will be greatly prepared: Celes Enhancer Diamond Shld/Mithril Shld Mystery Veil DiamondArmor Wall Ring RunningShoes Esper: Golem/Siren/Fenrir Sabin Fire Knuckle Diamond Shld/Mithril Shld Regal Crown Diamond Vest Wall Ring RunningShoes Esper: Golen/Siren/Fenrir This is a forced Side attack by the way; know that the battlefield will look like this: Character #3 Tentacle Tentacle Character #1 Character #4 Tentacle Tentacle Character #2 If you didn't pick up Sabin in Tzen earlier, it's possible that you engage in a 'Side attack' while only attacking from the front (Edgar is automatically placed in the first slot convenient, so he'll be either #1 or #2 {if Celes was in #1} if you didn't pick up Sabin). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.51.5 The fight with the Tentacles ********************************** There are four Tentacles in the upcoming battle: Tentacle (bottom-right) Level: 31, HP: 7000, MP: 800 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Fire, Weakness: Ice, Water Special: !Seize: sets Slow Vulnerable to: Poison, Petrify, Mute, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Seize, Poison, Bio, Seize, Discard, Entwine Tentacle (bottom-left) Level: 32, HP: 6000, MP: 700 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Ice, Water, Weakness: Fire Special: !Seize: sets Slow Vulnerable to: Poison, Death, Condemned, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Seize, Poison, Bio, Seize, Discard, Entwine Tentacle (top-right) Level: 33, HP: 5000, MP: 600 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Lightning, Water Special: !Seize: sets Slow Vulnerable to: Poison, Petrify, Mute, Sleep, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Seize, Poison, Bio, Seize, Discard, Entwine Tentacle (top-left) Level: 34, HP: 4000, MP: 500 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Nothing (always) Absorbs: Earth, Water Special: !Seize: sets Slow Vulnerable to: Petrify, Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, !Seize, Poison, Bio, Seize, Discard, Entwine Vanish/Doom: No Immunity to Clear status (all four opponents). Joker Doom: Yes Nothing the Tentacles use screws with the RNG. What's the point of this battle? There are four Tentacles. It gets rather confusing because each Tentacle has its own set of status immunities and elemental properties. But there is one thing that all Tentacles have in common; the attacks they perform, of which the most noticeable is the Seize, the attack both !Seize and Entwine are centered around. What does Seize do? Seize grabs a character and renders it completely helpless. During a period of about 30 seconds, the Tentacle that used Seize holds the character and drains it from its HP. It's a weird little formula. It's non-elemental and barrier-piercing and has a 5/8 chance of dealing about 60 HP of damage every interval (which means that damage is taken less regularly if the Tentacle is slowed and more often if Hasted). Tentacles just use their normal attacks: Battle, !Seize to set Slow, Entwine as an MT means of setting Slow, Poison and Bio. If they're damaged, they have a 33% chance of countering with Battle. However, whenever a character is Slowed, a Tentacle will always use the Seize attack and will grab the character from which it drains HP. The Tentacle that has grasped a character doesn't perform attacks, and the character that is Seized cannot act. This lasts for about 30 seconds, at which point the Tentacle will use Discard to remove all the effects of Seize. Slow was removed when the Seize attack was used. This is why RunningShoes are so nice: with inherent Haste, both !Seize and Entwine will never work and thus Celes and Sabin will never be Seized during the battle. Start the battle off by summoning one or both of your physical protection Espers, Fenrir and/or Golem; both protect against Battle and, more importantly, !Seize. Employ Edgar's Bio Blaster to Poison up to three of the Tentacles. If one of your characters has Siren equipped, send her out to stop the Poison and Bio spells of two of the Tentacles. Now the MT offenses and defenses have been cast, it's time to kill off one Tentacle at a time. Cast Doom on the bottom-left Tentacle to dispatch it instantly. Obviously, the newly acquired X-Zone also works, but Doom's Hit Rate is superior and the Doom spell is more MP-efficient. If you summoned Siren, the most dangerous Tentacle right now is the top-left Tentacle, as that's the only Tentacle capable of casting Poison and Bio. Cast Stop if you have it, and focus Edgar's Drill and Sabin and Celes's level 2 spells on it until it dies. If you didn't summon Siren, you should cast the Mute spell on both the bottom-right and top-right Tentacles. If this isn't an option, it's best to kill the most fragile Tentacle first: the bottom-right Tentacle. Drill and Ice 2 will kill it very quickly. Now, the remaining Tentacles are left to your imagination. Don't bother to use Antidote when a character is Poisoned; the battle won't take that long, so sticking to Cure 2 spells to keep your HP up will suffice. If Sabin knows Air Blade, stick to that, have Edgar focus on his Drill attacks, and keep Celes around to whip out a level 2 spell that isn't absorbed whenever possible (when Doom or X-Zone has taken care of the bottom-left Tentacle, Ice 2 is absorbed by none of the Tentacles). The fight against the Tentacles can be a pain, but only if you don't prepare properly. You'll pull through. When the battle is over, Edgar will explain his situation. If Sabin is around, he'll say "Don't treat us like strangers anymore!". The Crimson Robbers will split the scene with their treasure, assuming Gerad must have been eaten by the Tentacles. Edgar decides to let them go (the Japanese game makes clear their 'booty' was useless rubbish anyway) and shows he wants to stop Kefka like the others. SABIN: There's only one little problem, eh, brother! As soon as you can move, equip Edgar with two nice Relics. His headgear will probably be the Crystal Helm you picked up earlier; you can swap it with a Green Beret or Sabin's Regal Crown if you want. In the treasure chamber, you'll see eight emptied chests. Looks like the Crimson Robbers had quite a lot of items taken from them by the Figaro law enforcement. On the armor in the middle, you can find a Soul Sabre, which is basically an MP-version of the Drainer. It also has a 25% chance of casting Doom with every hit. There's no real reason to equip it, so let's get out. When you emerge from the engine room, the old man who handles subterranean travel will say "Nonsense! It's been fixed! Next stop, the surface!" I always thought this was a weird line until I realized it's probably supposed to be a reply to Sabin's words he spoke over at the engine. Thus, Figaro Castle rises amidst the golden sand of Figaro Desert. But we've already seen there's nothing more here, so before you do anything else I suggest you take Figaro Castle to a shiny new continent: time to travel to Kohlingen once more. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.52.1 Figaro Castle ********************************** Location: Figaro Castle Party members: Edgar, Celes, Optional: Sabin Opponents: None Welcome to Figaro Castle! It's been a rough day, so I suggest you take a nap for some free healing. If you didn't see the Figaro brothers cutscene earlier, Sabin will be off as soon as you advance up in the castle and you can't access the two towers of the castle because two soldiers are telling you to take a nap. They're not being very subtle over at Square. During the night, a cutscene. I won't bother describing it as it's mandatory, and you can look up additional info in the characters section. Needless to say, childhood nostalgia grabs the Figaro brothers, and the memories of days long gone only strengthen their resolve to stop Kefka. One of the girls in the guest room tells you about the Cult of Kefka. If ever a loved one of a person in the Cult would come to its aid, however, he or she might just snap out of it. Interesting. Item Shop: Potion 300 Tincture 1500 Antidote 50 Eyedrop 50 Echo Screen 120 Fenix Down 500 Remedy 1000 Tent 1200 What can I say? If you need anything, grab it here. If you have Edgar as your leading party member, you get a 50% discount. Weapon Shop: AutoCrossbow 250 NoiseBlaster 500 Bio Blaster 750 Flash 1000 Debilitator 5000 Drill 3000 A new Tool is for sale here! If you didn't Steal a Debilitator during the battle against the Cranes or Air Force, here's the thing for 5000 GP. And it's only 2500 GP if you have Edgar as the leading party member. Now, let's get the hell out and see what's happening in Kohlingen. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.52.2 En route to Kohlingen ********************************** Location: Kohlingen Party members: Edgar, Celes, Optional: Sabin Opponents: Harpiai, Deep Eye, Bogy, Muus If you're still enjoying the sun of Figaro, it's time to take Figaro Castle to the other side of the oceans. When you arise and leave the castle, you'll notice three dots on your Map: one to the north and two to the west. To the north is Dragon's Neck Colosseum, which I'll discuss later. To the west, there's Kohlingen and Daryl's Tomb. The northern-most one is Kohlingen. You want to go there now. Who knows what kind of interesting things are awaiting you there (I do, for one)? There's nothing for you now at Daryl's Tomb anyway; it's just a featureless bulge in the ground which offers no exciting activities. Harpiai looks pretty dangerous; the last time we saw a sprite that big on a random encounter was the dreaded Behemoth. Harpiai's a big wimp though, so no worries! It uses Battle, !Nail (Battle * 1.5, you shouldn't ever see it unless you're waiting for it as it may appear every fourth round), Aero, which admittedly hurts pretty badly (it's like a Wind-elemental MT level 3 spell), and Pearl Wind. With 1500 HP, all you should do is kill it pretty quickly. It's weak to Wind-elemental attacks, so Sabin's Air Blade technique gets the job done, as does the usual violence. Deep Eye is one of those odd monsters that attacks you, and continues to use Escape every other turn. Every first turn they may lunge at you to use Battle or let you sink into that hypnotizing eye of theirs to use !Dreamland (sets Sleep). And yes, every second turn means 33% Escape. Kill them all quickly with Fire-elemental attacks such as an MT Fire 2 spell and Fire Dance. The interesting thing about Deep Eye is the fact they make for a Rage that uses the Dread attack, but the special property of Dread (only checks for Petrify protection, not ID protection) isn't important right now, so I'll talk about it later. Bogy is boring. !Oogyboog (Battle * 2) sounds kinda retarded too. Inherent Safe and immunity to ID attacks makes it slightly durable, but since in the extended period of time Bogy is allowed to live it accomplishes nothing of significance, you can just pound away until it dies. I'd love to give Muus a little credit as life is tough enough if you lack a backbone in the literal sense of the word. You'd miss out on massages, which if you ask me is like sex, only it doesn't make a mess or anything and you don't have to pay for it/have awkward moments when you break up/actually do anything yourself if you don't want to (Editor's note: the writer of these lines is nowhere near as much a chauvinistic pig as he would have you believe). But in the end, it's clear as day that Muus is as staggeringly dumb as 2006's Samuel L. Jackson flick 'Snakes on a Plane'. It may randomly use Pep Up, also as a counter to your Magic spells. Muus will never use Pep Up when it's the last monster standing on the field, and will solely use Battle and !Gunk (Japanese roots: Icky Sticky Goo) to set Slow. Like Flan monsters, Muus nulls the effect of every elemental attack that isn't Fire-, Ice- or Lightning- elemental. In the end, the only attack that could hurt you if protected by Clear is Harpiai's Aero, and quick acting and/or Mute setting prevents it from occurring. Sabin's Fire Dance Blitz technique helps against the Deep Eyes where his Air Blade is very effective against Harpiai. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.53.1 Kohlingen ********************************** Location: Kohlingen Party members: Edgar, Celes, Optional: Sabin Opponents: None Kohlingen! The last time you passed through here on a mission you were trying to find Terra. Right now, you're pretty much trying to find everybody. Kohlingen is another example of a city in despair. Nothing seems to work out anymore in this world. Points of interest in Kohlingen: - A girl mentions a man with a 'quaint' way of talking passed through Kohlingen recently. This must be Cyan! It's good to hear that old man is still kicking. We should pick him up when we have the chance, never mind his sub-par skills in combat ;). - To the north, a woman and a little girl are staring at a tile. They planted some seedlings there, and are trying to see if anything comes from it. Results so far have been disappointing. If you stand on the tile, they will reprimand you and you quickly jump off. - An old woman can show you a flashback of WoB Kohlingen. Ah, nostalgia... - A Narshe Guard tells you that Narshe has been forsaken and completely overrun by monsters. Poor Mog... - The old man who told you earlier of his crazy (younger, btw) brother who wanted to build a Colosseum now praises him as a visionary; apparently, the Colosseum has been built! We should definitely check it out some day. Also, a mean guy is fighting there looking for a weapon called the Striker. Handy info, lady. We're always looking for interesting new ways to be murdered. - Sadly for Celes, Locke isn't anywhere to be seen in Kohlingen. The man who preserves Rachel figures he's returned to his quest of finding the restoration relic to revive Rachel. But the main attraction in Kohlingen is waiting for you in the Pub, drinking his troubles away: Setzer Gabbiani. What was once a dashing pirate with more bravado than the entire city of Jidoor combined is now a broken man burping into his wine, brooding over his lost wings. Celes snaps him out of it; the sight of a beautiful woman hasn't lost its appeal for Setzer, apparently. Hope fills his heart, and he mentions another airship, in a tomb nearby. He shows you the way. We've got us another mission statement! On your way out, you run across the Narshe guard again, who has also been inspired by Celes's words. The mysterious Esper that was dug up at the very start of the game is still in Narshe. We might just be able to wake it up and harness its power in the struggle against Kefka! Item Shop: Potion 300 Tincture 1500 Antidote 50 Fenix Down 500 Revivify 300 Remedy 1000 Sleeping Bag 500 Tent 1200 Buy some Revivifies; 20 is a nice amount of have. Surely, you have Relics to protect against Zombie so you don't need to heal the status, but you can never be too safe when it comes to Zombies. If Night of the Living Dead has taught us anything, by the gods, it is that. Armor Shop: Diamond Shld 3500 Bard's Hat 3000 Green Beret 3000 Diamond Helm 8000 Diamond Vest12000 DiamondArmor15000 More of the same, but now that Setzer has joined your party you can use some more of it. I suggest you buy a DiamondArmor and a Diamond Shld; the Green Beret is still a superior Helmet to the Diamond Helm, and doesn't cost you anything. Weapon Shop: Darts 10000 Dice 5000 Trump 13000 Enhancer 10000 Gold Lance 12000 There are three weapons of interest here, and two new weapons for Setzer for sale! I'll discuss the Dice last, as they require the largest introduction. - The Trump weapon is oddly misnamed by Ted Woolsey; they look like darts in-battle, while a later weapon called the Doom Darts look like cards. The PSX version has this sorted out again, calling Trump the Doom Darts and vice versa. If this whole thing confuses you, take a look at section 8.13 for more information. At any rate, the Trump has the X-type Instant Death ability, like the Assassin Dirk. The next dungeon will be crawling with Undead enemies, making the Trump entirely useless. They'll have some use in Colosseum though, so if you feel like going there in a moment, buy two. - The Gold Lance could be bought earlier, but I advised against it as you would want the Enhancer its +7 Magic Power and + 20% Magic Block. Since the Jump command is about to take a great power-up and Lances are, as opposed to the normal 50% boost, twice as effective with Jump, you'll probably want the Gold Lance for Edgar. - The Dice are a very weird weapon. Allow me to pass judgment first; the Dice are not worth it. The Dice completely ignore any normal kind of physical damage formula (which is why they are always placed all the way down when choosing a Weapon in the Equipment screen), and instead do the following: When attacking with the Dice, two dice will be rolled on the target. The result of the dice determine the damage in the following manner: First dice roll * second dice roll * 2 * level Sadly, the Dice are rigged against Setzer, much like his Slot command is rigged against him: 1, 2, 3 and 4 have a 3/16 chance of being rolled, while 5 and 6 only have a 2/16 chance of being rolled. Fighting with the Dice makes for an unblockable, barrier-piercing attack (as the target's Defense isn't factored in the damage calculation whatsoever). While the Dice will be ideal in a bit, they are a consistently poor choice of weapon as the damage output is, on average, inferior to your normal weapons at this time. You should buy one, though, as 5000 GP isn't that much and you'll want to use them before you get another chance to buy them. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.53.2 Dragon's Neck Colosseum ********************************** Location: The Colosseum Party members: Edgar, Celes, Optional: Sabin, Setzer Opponents: a'plenty [COLOSSEUM1-LINK] Welcome to the Dragon's Neck Colosseum, a monument to combat. Fighters from all over the world gather here to test their skills against each other, as do several creatures. The stakes? Rare relics, priceless weaponry, the greatest of armor. Whatever you have, it can be found at the Colosseum at least twice as sturdy and sharp. First, let's scout around here. Ultros is a receptionist now; he warns you about Chupon and is a pest like usual, but doesn't attack you, in a surprising turn of events. The real Siegfried resides in a room where he warns you of his imposter (yes, you can fight Siegfried in the Colosseum, but not now). The last Imperial soldier is also here, and he gives you a hint about 'talking to the Emperor twice'. Strange, since the Emperor is quite thoroughly dead. In the Japanese game, this soldier mentions he gave this info to a certain friend of his earlier, a friend with a bandana. How does the Colosseum work? You bet an item. An opponent will rise to meet your challenge, always the same opponent for the same item. You'll lose your bet item regardless, but if you win, you'll be given an item in return, an item often greater than the one you bet in the first place. If you cast Warp in- battle or are Sneezed out of the battle, you'll keep your bet item. Your characters act like they are Confused, but attack the 'normal' targets. That means that characters in the Colosseum will never use Item, Revert, Throw, Control, Slot, Leap, Def., or Possess. Item and Throw are great to have listed as such, as you don't have to have a chance of using that single Megalixir or throwing a unique weapon away. You can't run successfully in the Colosseum (you'll just start running but will never get anywhere - you don't take any turns though) but the Warp spell does work. Not all items can be traded for superior weapons here; most weak or common items will pit you against Chupon, who will promptly use Sneeze to end the battle (you can defeat him, but it'll take a long while before you'll even come close). If Chupon Sneezes you away, the battle is considered a draw and you'll keep the Item you wagered. At this point, here's what you can do to make your life better: Easy wins: Fenix Down - Magicite Opponent: Cactrot Elixir - Rename Card Opponent: Cactrot Doable wins: Flame Sabre - Ogre Nix Opponent: Evil Oscar Murasame - Aura Opponent: Borras Tintinabar - Exp. Egg Opponent: Dark Force Ribbon - Gold Hairpin Opponent: Dark Force Gold Hairpin - Dragon Horn Opponent: Evil Oscar Hardly doable wins: Charm Bangle - Dragon Horn Opponent: Retainer An explanation on the new items you can obtain here: The Rename Card is a 'secret' item that can only be found by fighting at the Colosseum. It enables you to rename one of your characters, after which it disappears. The Ogre Nix is a very odd weapon. It's stronger than what you've seen so far, and uses MP to inflict Critical hits. It can deal an incredible physical blow for only 12 to 19 MP a hit. In fact, it deals more damage on a critical blow than two Enhancers. Sadly, there is also a downside to the Ogre Nix. Namely, it can break while being used, and the chance is pretty big: an average of 28%. Here's how that's decided: [0..(last digit of attacker's HP + 1)] = 0 At any rate, you don't really want to risk losing your precious Ogre Nix; on the other hand, if you can't use it, what good does it do for you? There is one way to circumvent the whole breaking thing without it losing its charm; use the Black Belt! When countering, the Ogre Nix will never break. So, the best way to use the Ogre Nix is equip it on Celes and/or Edgar, stick to level 2 spells and/or Tools and swing the Ogre Nix in self-defense. The Aura is simply superior to the Murasame. If you're disappointed by the sudden lack of legendary weaponry in your inventory, don't fret; the Aura is actually the Masamune, stupidly translated by Ted Woolsey. The Exp. Egg (Experience Egg) doubles the Experience Points gained by the wearer. Two Exp. Eggs don't stack, and ONLY the wearer receives twice as many Experience Points. The Dragon Horn is a beauty. Whenever the wearer uses a Jump command (by either wearing DragoonBoots or by being picked up by the Palidor Esper you'll receive in a while), the wearer won't come down once, but twice, thrice or sometimes even four times. Here are the odds: 75% chance for 2 attacks 18.75% chance for 3 attacks 6.25% chance for 4 attacks - Fenix Down - Magicite Opponent: Cactrot Equip Setzer with the Dice you bought in Kohlingen. Relics, equipment, it's not needed. The Coin Toss Relic is a negative factor as that could make him win while losing some money as opposed to making him win without any downsides. Every time Setzer's turn comes up, he tosses out his Dice and wins. - Flame Sabre - Ogre Nix Opponent: Evil Oscar Equip Sabin with two Fire Knuckles and a Ribbon. If Evil Oscar uses Sneeze, the battle is over and you'll still have your Flame Sabre. Eventually, Sabin's Fire Knuckles will pound Evil Oscar into burning pulp and you'll have won a new sword, the Ogre Nix. - Murasame - Aura Opponent: Borras Equip Sabin with two Poison Knuckles and a Black Belt. Make sure you Save, as this battle will be over soon, regardless of its outcome. All Sabin needs at a decent level is two Fight commands; all that Borras needs if Sabin is at a decent level is two !Uppercuts. The Black Belt increases your chances at killing him before he kills you. - Tintinabar - Exp. Egg Opponent: Dark Force Dark Force has about 9000 HP, and has a 1/4 chance at using Pearl Wind. Odds are you don't have the offensive strength to take him down before he takes you down. What you'll want to do is rely on your Instant Death weapons, as that's what Dark Force is susceptible to. Setzer's Trump weapons, if possible paired up with a Genji Glove, can take him out easily, as can a Soul Sabre. - Charm Bangle - Dragon Horn Opponent: Retainer Retainer's three bad habits are all Instant Death-related. He has a 25% at using !Tradeoff every turn, which kills you. He also can cast Condemned, giving you only a limited time to off him. But the worst part is that he will always use !Tradeoff when he dies. High Magic Block increases the chance to circumvent that guaranteed !Tradeoff, but you won't be able to deal enough damage in that case. If you really want to give it a shot, my personal luck has always been with Sabin, dual Poison Claws, and a White Cape. It's a slim chance, but it's as good as it gets at this point and the Dragon Horn is really awesome. - Ribbon - Gold Hairpin Opponent: Dark Force If you think you really don't need full Ribbon coverage (and you really don't, to be honest), you can bet a Ribbon for a Gold Hairpin when fighting a Dark Force (possibly for swapping it with a Dragon Horn later). - Gold Hairpin - Dragon Horn Opponent: Evil Oscar If you chose the Gold Hairpin over Mog earlier or decided you weren't going to use that Ribbon anyway, you can easily trade your Gold Hairpin for a Dragon Horn right now. For strategy, just take a look at what I said earlier. At any rate, do what you feel like investing time in and leave again. We have an airship to recover. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.53.3 Daryl's Tomb ********************************** Location: Daryl's Tomb Party members: Edgar, Celes, Setzer, Optional: Sabin Opponents: Orog, Osteosaur, Mad Oscar, PowerDemon, Exoray, Presenter, Dullahan First room Osteosaur (10/16) Orog, Orog (6/16) Orog, PowerDemon, PowerDemon (1/16) Main room Mad Oscar, Exoray (6/16) PowerDemon (5/16) Exoray, Exoray, Exoray (5/16) Preparation: The theme of the dungeon is Zombie! Of the five random encounter monsters present in this dungeon, four have the power to turn your characters into a Zombie. This is serious business, so you should definitely equip Relics to prevent this madness, even though the monsters here drop Revivifies like it's going out of style. Osteosaur. Osteo means 'bone', so it's an apt title. He sure looks rather terrifying; he appears in my top 10 rather-not-meet-IRL list anyway, just below 2004 pop idol Ashlee Simpson. Osteosaurea have three attacks. Battle and !Fossil (sets Zombie) should be obvious, but ChokeSmoke is an entirely new attack. ChokeSmoke sets Zombie, but only hits characters with the Wound status. In other words, it can only revive characters as Zombies. Used without intelligent AI script, it's almost always a wasted turn. Osteosaur is your run-of-the-mill undead opponent, weak against Fire and Pearl and whatnot. No biggy. Orog looks awesome. Every turn, it can use up to three (!) !Zombite attacks, which set Zombie. When damaged, it may retaliate with Battle; if harmed by Magic spells, a Bio spell may be sent your way. Aside of their looks and awesome Zombifying skills, Orog is rather boring. He's undead like almost everything in here, and has the normal weaknesses for it too. May drop an Amulet (12.5% chance) as opposed to the standard Revivify. PowerDemon's Special is called !Daze Dance and, in a shocking change of style, drains HP rather than setting Zombie. So, does PowerDemon lack the power of Zombie-setting? Nay, not at all. The rarely seen Soul Out attack can target a single character and turn him or her into a Zombie. Yawn. Furthermore, PowerDemon has 'Flare' written all over it, in its Rage, Sketch, and Control attacks. Luckily, PowerDemon will never actively use it against you. Exoray are the most common in here. They can use Battle, !DoomPollen (sets Zombie), and Virite, but they will only use Virite when alone. Since you should be covered in either Amulets or Ribbons, Virite's Poisoning effect will be lost on you, sticking Exoray with a weak, inaccurate Poison-elemental attack. Stick to what works against them, as they are as undead as the rest. The only living enemy in Daryl's Tomb is Mad Oscar. They are the most sturdy of the monsters here and use, besides Battle and !Drool (sets Seizure), Sour Mouth, an attack that sets Dark, Poison, Imp, Mute, and Muddle and can be learned by Strago in the future. Even with an Amulet, that turns one of your characters into a sleeping Imp that cannot even cast the Imp spell. I suggest dual Fire Knuckles on Sabin, as he will kill every target with it on a remotely decent level, including Mad Oscar. A Black Belt/Ogre Nix combo on Celes works very nicely (make sure she's in the Front Row here). If you didn't bother to grab the Ogre Nix at the Colosseum, just give her an Earrings Relic (or Hero Ring, obviously) and spam Fire 2 spells all over. Edgar can use Tools to inflict consistent damage (give him dual Enhancers if you like). His DragoonBoots/Dragon Horn/Gold Lance is less intelligent as you'll need one of those Relic slots for an Amulet/Ribbon. Setzer is the weakest link at the moment. GP Rain does more damage than 7-Flush/Chocobop with double Earrings behind them, so if you ever wanted to use GP Rain now's the time. You can't logically have double Earrings anyway, as you'll want an Amulet/Ribbon in there somewhere. Don't attack with Setzer's Trump, as that will just revive every monster but Mad Oscar (who IS susceptible to its X-type Instant Death). Push through the first room. Make sure you meet an Osteosaur here, as well as an Orog. Both have acceptable Rages you might just want to use. As soon as you enter the main chamber of the tomb, you'll notice you can go in five different directions. Oh, the difficulty! I'll tell you where you want to go though, so no worries. First, let's dive into the bottom-right path for some quick chesty action: it's a Genji Helmet, the strongest piece of heavy headgear in the game (and Crystal equipment hasn't even appeared on sale yet!). Equip it on Setzer or Edgar; it even beats the disgustingly over-used Green Beret. Now, get in the top-right room. This looks like just a tombstone in a deserted room, but examine the tombstone and another passageway opens! It leads to a skeleton button of some sort. Push it to raise the water level in a room. Trace back your steps to the main room, and dive into the bottom-left room. You'll come across a chest (Crystal Mail, something for Celes, Setzer, or Edgar), go down some stairs and come across another chest (Czarina Gown). The Czarina Gown is a Relm-exclusive piece of Armor that, sadly, isn't all that good. You can bet it later for a Minerva bustier at the Colosseum though, which is pretty much the best option for some characters including Celes. Enter the door to come in a watery room with another skeleton button. Press it to open a door you can't reach. Trace back to the main room, and go through the door in the middle, leading inwards. Here, another turtle! Had you not pushed skeleton button # 1, you couldn't have stepped on the turtle. Now, the faithful reptilian carries you across. On the other side, another skeleton button! Press it, and the water level of the room you pushed skeleton button # 2 in raises to your aid, carrying another turtle. But don't hop on just yet. Go down for now, and you arrive in a room with four tombstones. ERAU QSSI DRLO WEHT Collect all four inscriptions, and have a look at it. From bottom-right to top-left, backwards, it reads 'the world is square'. I've always found this to be the surprisingly beautiful jewel in the unholy and disgusting crown of Ted Woolsey. This is supposed to be the final revelation Daryl had while piloting her airship, the revelation that cost Daryl her life: not only is the Overworld Map square, which she might have seen from high above, the name of the company that created the game was at the time also Square, which would make the world 'Square' as well. In the Japanese version, it was an entirely different pun. One way, it read 'rest in peace'. The other way, it read 'rot and wither'. Very dark. Very gothic. Go back to the main room, and find the top-left room. Had you examined the tombstone in this room earlier, upon choosing to carve something would have given you a "Nothing appropriate comes to mind..." Now, you get to choose between the four inscriptions you read earlier. Start from the beginning of the backwards sentence (THEW, OLRD, ISSQ, UARE) and you'll be rewarded with the Game Over music and the secret of the hidden Exp. Egg in Daryl's Tomb: Find the "Exp. Egg" hidden in a back room in the third basement... Go to the room where you found the Czarina Gown (bottom-left room, down the stairs) and find the hidden passage to the chest there. Obviously, this was an option from the start, but I always thought this puzzle was pretty neat and didn't want to spoil it for you. >:) Go back to where you traced back for the inscriptions, and cross the water with the turtle. You'll enter a new room, with a Save Point and two chests. The right chest contains a Man Eater dirk. The Man Eater deals double damage to every opponent with a humanoid appearance. To learn about the opponents this includes, follow [MANEATER-LINK] Now, MT Float your party, because the left chest contains a monster-in-a-box, Presenter, which uses a ground-based attack. Make sure Float is set, and be sure to equip Shoat (Golem's nice too). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.53.4 The fight with Presenter ********************************** Whelk Head (Presenter Head) Level: 31, HP: 9845, MP: 1600 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Dragon Claw (always) Absorbs: Ice, Lightning, Water, No effect: Poison, Weakness: Fire Special: !Petriblast: sets Petrify Sketch : !Petriblast, Battle Control: Battle, !Petriblast Vulnerable to: Petrify, Death, Condemned, Mute, Sleep, Slow, Stop Attacks: Battle, !Petriblast, El Nino, Mega Volt Presenter Level: 19, HP: 9230, MP: 1600 Steal: Nothing (always), Win: Dragon Claw (always) Absorbs: Ice, Lightning, Water, Weakness: Fire Status: Float Special: !Hit: Battle x 1.5 Sketch : !Hit, Battle Control: Battle, !Hit Vulnerable to: Petrify, Death, Condemned Attacks: Battle, Blow Fish, Mega Volt, Giga Volt, Magnitude8. Vanish/Doom: Yes The shell only. You'll only get one Dragon Claw though, so it's a bad move. Joker Doom: Yes Blow Fish screws over the RNG. It won't use Blow Fish until the second turn though, so you should be able to set up Echo Screen/Joker Doom before it comes around. There are a few oddities about this thing. First off, it's supposed to be a scary Whelk upgrade, at which it fails. Second, notice how the shell is Floating but the head isn't? The tale of a creature whose head was too heavy to carry hasn't been new since Catoblepas, but I've never seen it applied to a snail before. Presenter also made an appearance in the 1996 Square game 'Bahamut Lagoon' which never hit the shores of America. Same name, same sprite, has a tendency to appear when you destroy buildings with Thunder-techs. Also, the game designers made a little mistake we're going to exploit here; we were never supposed to obtain more than one Dragon Claw from this fight, but we're getting two. Just watch me. The AI script of the head is simple. If you damage the head two times, it'll retract into its shell, disappearing from the battlefield. It'll remain there for 20 seconds, at which point is comes out again. It'll use Battle, !Petriblast, El Nino, and Mega Volt without too many difficulties to it, so be ready for any of them at all times. The shell attacks by itself, and is no longer just an object of counters. Battle, Mega Volt, and Blow Fish may appear at all times, and especially Blow Fish should be watched out for. When the head has been retracted, it'll stop using these attacks and switch over to Magnitude8. Whenever the shell is damaged, it has a 33% chance at retorting with Giga Volt. The strategy we're aiming for is simple. If one of the parts dies, the other one dies as well, but will NOT give us the item. Thus, if we want both Dragon Claws (and we certainly do, as Presenter is the only source for Dragon Claws in the game), we have to kill them both at the same time. First, our defenses! If you didn't cast Float earlier, do so at the start of the battle. ZoneSeek helps against Mega Volt, Giga Volt, and El Nino. Golem and/or Fenrir protect against Battle and !Petriblast. You could have Celes on Runic stand-by for Mega Volt and Giga Volt, but it's not worth it. Now, let's kill this snail. Since both targets are susceptible to Instant Death attacks and Petrify, the two best strategies are using X-Zone and using Shoat's Demon Eye. However, we don't want to take any chances, do we? First, if you have the Vanish spell, cast it on the shell to ensure that X-Zone/Demon Eye will hit it. Remember, this is NOT a bug exploit; the shell is susceptible to ID attacks, and setting Clear just makes sure it hits, what it was always supposed to do. Sadly, we can't apply Sleep or Stop to make sure X-Zone/Demon Eye works on the head, because both attacks check for the target's Stamina (in which case those steps are ignored). So, we'll just have to take our chances here. Since Demon Eye is more accurate than X-Zone, it takes preference. If the head is missed, I suggest you reload the game. When you're done, equip both Dragon Claws on Sabin. They are Pearl-elemental, so they still do massive damage to everything in the tomb. Not that it's really that big of a deal now, since we're about to leave it; in the next room, we finally come across the tombstone of Daryl herself. Examining it triggers a boss battle, which in my opinion is one of the better yet more redundant boss battles of this game. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.53.5 The fight with Dullahan ********************************** Before you do, I want you to throw around your equipment and Relics, as Dullahan (the boss) is rather tough and entirely unlike the random encounters you've been facing so far. - If you have a Dragon Horn, throw it on Edgar with some DragoonBoots. Equip a Gold Lance. Put him in the Back Row. - The boss is weak against Fire-elemental attacks, so Sabin's dual Fire Knuckles will take good care of him here. Give him a Hero Ring (or Atlas Armlet) and RunningShoes to accompany his bashing. - Celes' Ogre Nix/Black Belt set-up, if you had it, will be useless. She will be using Runic almost non-stop, so equip her defensively. Dual Enhancers are a good choice. Since Dullahan is pretty fast, I suggest RunningShoes on Celes to keep up with his spell casting. - Setzer should just run utility. Give him the Coin Toss to make sure he can just do constant damage when he doesn't need to do anything else. Two sets of Earrings and the Slot command also do the trick, but this isn't nearly as strong at this point and wastes more Relic slots. Also, make sure that none of your characters possess a level that is evenly divisible by the last digit of your party's gold. I'll explain why later. Dullahan Level: 37, HP: 23450, MP: 1721 Steal: Genji Glove(rare), X-Potion (common) Absorbs: Ice, Weakness: Fire Status: Float, Haste Special: !Morn Star: Battle x 2 Vulnerable to: Nothing Attacks: Battle, !Morn Star, Cure 2, Ice 2, Ice 3, Pearl, L? Pearl, Reflect???, Absolute0, N. Cross Vanish/Doom: Yes No restrictions. Joker Doom: Yes Pearl messes with the RNG. It doesn't use Pearl until its second turn though, not counting its L? Pearl attack he starts the fight with. In other words, it's no big deal as you can set up Echo Screen/Joker Doom well before that happens. Dullahan is badass. Although he looks like he'd rather impale you with that lance of his any day, he's an almost exclusive spell caster with inherent Haste. Both his spells and Magic Power are relatively strong, so expect a challenge here. Its name comes from an ancient spirit from Irish mythology: a headless horseman who only travels to collect somebody's life. Its carriage is made of bone, its horses have flaming eyes, and it will stop at nothing... Dullahan always starts the battle off with L? Pearl. This is a strong Pearl- elemental attack, in terms of power similar to level 3 spells. Its drawback is that it will only hit targets whose level is divisible by the last digit of your GP. This is why I told you to make sure that it never hits; it leaves quite a mark. Under normal circumstances, he'll just focus on his three main spells, being Ice 2, Ice 3, and Pearl. When he detects any characters in your party with the Reflect status, he'll use Reflect??? on your entire party. It will display "???? on wall-protected person", setting Dark, Mute, and Slow on every character with the Reflect status. If he dives beneath 10240 HP, he'll use Cure 2 instantly once. If he passes through four normal turns, he'll regain the ability to cast Reflect??? and/or Cure 2 if the situation calls for it. Finally, whenever you hit him, there's a 33% chance he counters with Battle. Oh, my. If you damage him eight times, he'll get four turns where he uses nastier spells. Ice2 and L? Pearl can make another appearance, but so can !Morn Star, Absolute0, and N. Cross. You can't Runic your way out of these new spells, which makes them harder to stop. N. Cross, while being vulnerable to Runic, is the most dangerous of the five. N. Cross sets the Freeze status ailment, which you could already encounter in the fight versus Naughty, who could set it with Cold Dust. N. Cross is MT, but uses an 'interesting' way to determine if it hits or not. After it checks if it hits or not (after Clear, Magic Block, the usual), it randomly misses from 0 to 4 characters. This makes sure that even when all characters are normally hit, you'll almost never see a party entirely frozen. That is good, as it's basically mega-Stop and you cannot protect against it AT ALL. Remember that the fastest way to dispel the Freeze status is to hit the party with a Fire- elemental attack; the Fire spell is obviously the best one. There are two strategies you can employ. I'll list them both, as both should be perfectly fail-safe if you know what you're doing. Here they are: Strategy # 1: Hit Points This is the strategy where we use violence to end Dullahan. First off, let's set up our available defenses. ZoneSeek is nice should Absolute0 make an appearance, as is Golem or Fenrir for !Morn Star and Battle counters. Have Celes use Runic, continuously. If she isn't wearing RunningShoes, make sure you cast the Haste spell on her. Now, let's get to the violence! Your main damage dealers here are Sabin and Edgar. Sabin should be in the Front Row with two Fire Knuckles. If Celes is absorbing one of Dullahan's spells, sneak a Bserk spell on Sabin for increased damage. If Edgar is equipped with the Dragon Horn, have him Jump. If not, stick to Tools; you can see what I want to do with him. Setzer should just stand by and use Potions on hurting characters. Since Celes should pretty much absorb all of Dullahan's attacks, you should be safe from his attacks. In the end, you should prevail. Strategy # 2: Magic Points. Or I suppose they are Mana Points, as you get Magic Points after battles. Whatever. Dullahan dies if you rasp away his MP. Thus, the entire offensive arsenal you get to use in this strategy is Rasp. The advantage of the strategy is that if you have two to four Rasp casters, you'll find that the battle is over far quicker. Its downside is that it DOES require that many Rasp casters, and that since Rasp is vulnerable to Runic, you can't protect yourself against Dullahan's attacks and have to regularly heal. On a normally raised party, I find both strategies equally satisfying; it's your pick, really. After you've defeated Dullahan, a passageway will be opened. Walk behind the tombstone to enter the final part of this dungeon, a long stairway leading downwards that is as much descending into Setzer's memory as anything... This tells the story of two rivaling friends. Setzer was about 18 here; not yet a gambler, but an airship enthusiast with the dream of building the fastest ship in the world, a dream he shared with his friend Daryl. Sadly, Daryl pulled an Icarus on Setzer and wrecked herself, together with her airship, the Falcon. Funny: the Japanese version of 'Or do you like chewing in my wake?' is 'Or do you like staring at my ass?' Upon ascending from the waters, Celes will spot - gasp - a bird. In the sky! A bird in the sky! This must be an omen. She quickly urges you to follow it, to the town of Maranda. So Setzer does. When you fly around, there's a change you'll be attacked by the monster called Doom Gaze. Doom Gaze will drop the Bahamut Magicite, which teaches the Flare spell. There's no reason to not obtain these skills right away, but it's better to get some new equipment before you take the guy on. If you want to know about Doom Gaze now, take a look at [DOOMGAZE-LINK]. Make sure that you save ASAP once you get the Falcon, since you never know when an unprepared party meets up with this flying fiend. Another important note: if you really, truly want to gain access to Gau ASAP, that can be done. All you have to do is get rid of a party member, fly over to the Veldt and meet him there. However, how do you tell a party member to buzz off without his/her feelings? If you have a Warp Stone or a character with the Warp spell, fly over to Kekfa's Tower, descend into it and Warp out. Setzer will be piloting the Falcon by himself now, and you can go below deck to assemble a team of your choosing. There you go. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 4.54.1 Airship Exploitation: Visiting Maranda ********************************** Location: Maranda Party members: Edgar, Celes, Setzer, Optional: Sabin Opponents: None Welcome to Maranda. The last time you visited Maranda it was one of the occupied towns, generally featureless, safe for Lola, the girlfriend of the wounded lad in Mobliz. A lot of random information is blurted out by the townspeople here. A thief mentions he visited the tower of the Cult of Kefka, and one of them used to mumble 'to the right of the treasure chest' in his sleep. Since none of the thieves ever made it past the first room, we should examine that place should we ever get there. Now, the bird turned out to be a carrier pigeon for Lola; according to Aishya, the girl running circles below Lola's house, she's been receiving a lot of letters lately. Once you enter her house, you find dozens of silk flowers here. Also, a letter seemingly written by the wounded lad in Mobliz, but that's impossible. Somebody must be posing as him. Accept the 'mission' of sending a carrier pigeon out as a reply so we can track the source of this imposter. The pigeon flies across the ruined lands of this new world until it reaches a town to the north of Jidoor, and although the world map has changed a lot, this town can be none other than Zozo. Weapon Shop: Gravity Rod 13000 SwordBreaker16000 Falchion 17000 Fire Skean