Final Fantasy Origins (Playstation) FAQ/Walkthrough version Final (8/17/03) Copyright Martin Dale-Hench 2003 (hockeyfox@ameritech.net) IF YOU WANT THE FINAL FANTASY II GUIDE; INPUT THE FOLLOWING: "FF2j guide" IN YOUR FIND SYSTEM (CTRL+F) AND YOU SHOULD BE THERE. (of course, no " in the string) -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ .-,--' ,-_/ ,-,-. ,. , .-,--' ,. ,-,-. ,--,--' ,. .---. . . \|__ ' | ` | | / | ) \|__ / | ` | | `- | / | \___ | | | .^ | | |-. /~~|-. / | /~~|-. | |-. , | /~~|-. \ | | `' `--' ,' `-' ,' `-' `--' `' ,' `-' ,' `-' `-' ,' `-' `---' `--| .- | `--' A great darkness shrouded the world The wind died The sea raged The earth began to decay Only a prophecy kept hope alive the people's hearts. "When darkness veils the world, four warriors of light shall come." And after journeying far, four young warriors did at last appear In the hands of each rested a mysterious crystal... ----------------- TABLE OF CONTENTS ----------------- I. Intro II. Final Fantasy I Basics III. Final Fantasy I Walkthrough ~Chapter 1 - The Beginning ~Chapter 2 - The Adventure Starts ~Chapter 3 - The Earth Crystal ~Chapter 4 - The Fire Crystal ~Chapter 5 - The Levistone ~Chapter 6 - Class Change! ~Chapter 7 - The Water Crystal ~Chapter 8 - The Wind Crystal ~Chapter 9 - Back from the Future IV. Final Fantasy II Basics V. Final Fantasy II Walkthrough ~Chapter 1 - Royal's Orders ~Chapter 2 - Dreadnought ~Chapter 3 - The King's Last Words ~Chapter 4 - The Turn of the Tide ~Chapter 5 - The Masks and the Crystal Rod ~Chapter 6 - Up the Tower ~Chapter 7 - Chasing the Emperor ~Chapter 8 - Pandaemonium! VI. Final Fantasy I Secrets VII. Final Fantasy I Collections VIII. Final Fantasy I Bosses IX. Final Fantasy I Enemies X. Final Fantasy I Equipment XI. Final Fantasy I Magic XII. Final Fantasy I Shops XIII. Final Fantasy II Secrets XIV. Final Fantasy II Collections XV. Final Fantasy II Enemies XVI. Final Fantasy II Equipment XVII. Final Fantasy II Items XVIII. Final Fantasy II Magic XIX. Final Fantasy II Shops XX. Disclaimer/Credits/Version History FIND SYSTEM ----------- Just cut and paste the string above (on the Table of Contents) you want to go to. The string can be the entire sub-header, excluding the first '~'. Explanation: 1. highlight the string 2. Ctrl + C 3. Ctrl + F 4. Ctrl + V 5. Press "Find Next". ============================================================================== ----------------------------- I. INTRO ----------------------------- ============================================================================== Yoho... This is Fox again. The guide is, as it seems, is done. I will still accept e-mails that would help me in this guide but whatever. If you're wondering why you should use this guide over others, due to the sudden boom of new FFO guides. I'll tell you why... it doesn't have some detailed explanations on POINTLESS stuff. Like how to attack or use magic. Whatever, dude. I mean, you already know this stuff (right?) This makes the access to the walkthrough VERY SHORT and FAST. Plus, my walkthrough is very detailed, giving you info to every chest you need for the collection. I know my guide might not out-shine others in the terms of KB but this has the NECESSARY information and I feel that I display it in the best method. So sue me for trying to pull people to use my guide. *shrugs* The Walkthroughs are on the top, the stupid lists and that crap are on the bottom. Makes sense to me, crap should be in the bottom. Keep the praises and threats coming! I appreciate them more than you think! Here's an e-mail from my favorite secret admirer: "Fooled your ass you little mental defective!!! You think thieves are puny rats?! Guess what!? Screw your ass you little crap!!! Quick but worthless?!?! What kind of friggin retard are you!? I should find out where you live and kill you!!! You call yourself a final fantasy fan! LOL I hope you get drafted to a war and get your limbs blown off!!!" Hilarious stuff. Here's a little-known fact from me: I'm deaf (No, I am not shitting you.) and the United States does not let handicapped people like us (like we're actually HC anyway) into the army so no limbs picking for me. :) And no, I do not want any "Oh you're deaf? I'm sorry!" crap, please. Please do free to critique my FAQ or submit a new info for my Walkthrough or Secrets. As for the questions... I won't guarantee you that I will respond to them... That's all I can say for that matter. If you're wondering where's the Boss section for FF2, I decided to not include it because it all depends on how much you trained beforehand so it doesn't require much strategy. They're in the guide anyway. FF1 has some tough bosses if you don't know what to do so I included them. Peace out and happy gaming. ============================================================================== ----------------------------- II. FINAL FANTASY I BASICS ----------------------------- ============================================================================== I'll be really quick here... No need to write down POINTLESS info... that you should know already. If you do want more info, please do look in some other guide. Besides, I want the distance between the start and the walkthrough to be short. There ya go. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTROLS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X--------------------Select/confirm Circle---------------Cancel/dash (hold) Square---------------Go to the Items Menu (not in battles) Triangle-------------Main Menu Start----------------None L1-------------------Equipment Menu L2-------------------Config Menu R1-------------------Magic Menu R2-------------------Memo File ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SAVING ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Only ways to save into your memory card: use an Inn or use a Sleeping Bag/ Tent/Cottage. Simple as that. However, you could save into your disk with the new Memo File system. This way, you could quickly save ANYWHERE so when you die, you can come back at that point... The catch? The file will be lost once you turn off the console. To save on your Memo File, just go to the Main Menu and select Memo. You could Soft Reset and go to the 'Memo File' at the Start screen to 'restart' your game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CLASSES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ As you start a new game, you will have to chose a class for each of your characters. They will be that way forever, until the very end. There are six classes in all, each with their advantages and disadvantages. They can get 'evolved' into a new class. Here they are: Warrior -> Knight ----------------- -Most powerful class -Wields swords, the best weapons -High HP -High Defense -No Magic (Warrior) -Low Speed -Knight can use Level 1-3 White Magic Thief -> Ninja -------------- -Thief is a puny, weak rat -Quick but worthless -Ninja: one of the best fighters in the game -Wields some Swords (Ninja) -Can use some Black Magic -Overall, starts off weak but finishes strong Monk -> Master -------------- -High number of attacks -High damage -HIGH HP -No Swords or Armor (except for the Masamune) -Low Defense (Def = Monk's Lv!) -No Magic at all -Master is not a big upgrade Red Mage -> Red Wizard ---------------------- -Strongest Mage/Wizard in terms of Strength -Has plenty of Magic -Black and White magic are the same to him -Uses swords -Fairly low MP -Has better stats than White and Black Mages/Wizards, mostly White Mage -> White Wizard -------------------------- -Can use the entire arsenal of White Magic -High MP -Only thing other than Sanctuary, RM than can revive fallen characters -Can use Holy -Low stats other than INT and MP -Can't attack except for Dia spells and Holy Black Mage -> Black Wizard -------------------------- -Sometimes the most damaging member in the party -Attacks the entire squads of enemies with his magic -Able to cast Haste and Saber two vital magic -Lowest HP of all classes So... what's the best party? In my opinion... A White Mage is a must. As for the Black magic, either a Red Mage or a Black Mage will be fine. Go for Red Mage, tho. The other two slots? Stick with a Fighter and one more attacker (Fighter/Monk/Thief). I had: Fighter, Fighter, Black Mage, White Mage. Not bad. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EASY AND NORMAL ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ -At Level 50, Your BW and WW will have 99 MP on Easy while in Normal, they only have NINE!!!! BIG DIFFERENCE! -Shopkeepers are much, much nicer to you. Therefore, the items are cheaper. -Magic too. Lucky you! -Your characters needs less EXP to level up in the Easy Mode. In fact, you get 40% off. -In easy Mode, you max out at Level 99. In Normal.... only 50. Your choice. Normal mode isn't that hard anyway. (The following is not related to the Normal/Easy mode but it's still nice to know) -Some other stuff: in FF1 on NES, you had to choose to attack and that was it. I know that's too vague... Let me explain: If there's 4 Goblins in the enemy party, and you select 'Attack' for all of your characters... AND you decide to attack the top Goblin for every character. OK, your Fighter or whatever attacks... and kills the pathetic enemy. The other guys will still whiff at the thin air, where the former Goblin was located. It took the old-school gamers a LOT more planning back then! Today, it's just another one, chosen automatically by the CPU AI. -The names are different, of course. In NES, Water Naga is known as Naga. Marilith here was (I think) Kary. (Thanks, Derag, I thought Kary were Kraken! XD!) -The HP are different, too. The final boss has 2000 HP in NES, but 4000 HP on PSX. Weird. ============================================================================== ----------------------------- III. FINAL FANTASY I WALKTHROUGH ----------------------------- ============================================================================== ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ =-----------------------= CHAPTER 1 - THE BEGINNING =-----------------------= Recommended Level: 1 (Yeah, duh) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ======== Cornelia ======== OMG!!!! Look at that SHINY crystal!!!! I want the blue one! I bet it'll fetch me a LOT of dead presidents!!! *snaps out of the trance* Oh! Oh, hi! Yeah, well, I'm writing a walkthrough for Final Fantasy... and Final Fantasy II, too I hope. Anyway, Pick your honorable characters, which will devote their lives to you. I picked two Warriors, a White Mage, and a Black Mage. You know, you get to name them! Whoo! I called my Warriors Fox and Neo, my White Mage Slut69 and called my very sexy Black Mage Jesus. And yes, I did call my White Mage "Slut69". Moving on... You start off outside the little town of Cornelia, which, naturally, has a castle along with it. You start off with only 400 Gil but it's enough for some half-way decent armor... You could fight the enemies around your house for some EXP and more importantly, Gil, but let's go to the king himself right now. Go through the town and enter the majestic castle. Go straight to the nearest set of stairs and go up the stairs. Talk to the wimp guard up ahead, when you get to 2F. He will allow you in after debating with himself if the group is the Light Warrior squad. (What kind of security is that, for a king? Bleh.) After entering the King's throne room, he will exclaim that you are the warriors after seeing the precious crystals. (dunno where they got those...) He demands you to find her daughter, the Princess Sarah from a evil do-er up north (that's Garland, for your information). In exchange for her rescue, he will force his sex slaves to make a bridge for you to cross. Guess we have to start somewhere... Now, go back to the outside world and breathe the fresh air... Go into the village of Corneria and buy some Equipment for now. You don't have a lot of money but the equipment is cheap... for now. Wait until you see the magic's prices!!! You could buy some level one spells here in this very town... 100 Gil for Normal Level, 50 Gold for Easy level. I recommend buying Fire1 and Bolt1 for your Black Mage or Red Mage, if you have either one. For your White Mage or Red Mage, buy Cure1. The other spells are up to you... After buying some decent magic spells and equipment, I suggest you to head to the over world and train until you reach level 3 or MAYBE 4. Won't take long to get to level 3 so don't worry. If you want to go to level 4 it's going to take you a LONG time... If you need some healing, there's an Inn in the town (30 Gil). You can save at the Inn, too (can't save in the over world except for the Sleeping Bags, Tent, and Cottages... you actually have to pay to save in the Inn!). If you want some quick level-ups, go into the castle up to the north, where we're going to... =============== Temple of Chaos =============== Items: ------ Potion; Tent; Leather Cap ------ ________ ________ | ____ | | ____ | | |1 2 | | _| |5 6 | | | |_ __| Ż|_ _| |_ __| | |________ |__________________________________| ________| |_ ______ |o o o o| _____ _| | | |_ ŻŻŻo oŻŻŻ _| | | |_ |_ |______o o______| _| _| E-Entrance |o| | __________ | |o| 1-Potion | o o o o o _| |_ o o o o o | 2-Tent | | o BOSS o | | 3-Leather Cap | o o o o o | _| o o o o o | 4-Rune Blade |o| | Ż|o o o o| | |o| 5-Werebane |Ż | ŻŻŻŻ|_|ŻŻŻ |_ | 6-Gold Needle | |Ż _____o o_____ | | (4-6 are not | | _| o o |_ | | accessible right |Ż |______| ___o o___ |_____| Ż| now) ______|Ż | E | Ż|______ | ____ _____________|___________|____________ ____ | | | 3 | _| |_ | 4 | | | |_ __| | | |__ _| | |________| |________| The enemies here are very difficult to defeat with all that misses your damn warriors have. (*coughLightWarriors?blahcough*) However, their EXP is more than worth it. The Goblins only offer 5~7 EXP but the wolf squads in this temple offers 60+ EXP... Quick but tough. Get to level 3 (might take a few tries, deaths might hinder you, but keep going) and try to get all three items in the rooms to the northwest and to the southwest. Get to level 3 by fighting a battle and going back to the Inn, if needed. The map above will aid you in finding the items and the boss. Go to the middle of the temple and look for a door leading to the heart of the room. Garland! (If you've played FFIX, you would know of a Garland in that game... That Garland is a 'cameo' of this Garland. Not the same Garland, but it's just a name thing like Cid.) Looks like Garland is a vampire or something, with all that bats flying around aimlessly. Who's that sexy woman? Oh! The princess? What's this creep doing with the girl? Naughty man... ____________ BOSS:Garland ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ HP: 106 EXP: 130 Magic is ALMOST useless... except for Fire1. So cast Fire with your BM. For the rest of the classes, attack. WM or RM should heal every time the boss attacks. Not too hard, but if you haven't trained up to level 3, you're in trouble. Hell, with my Lv 3 Fighters (2), Lv 3 WM, and a Lv 2 BM, I beat this creep in 2 rounds. TOO EASY. Boo-yeah! The chick is saved! She leads you back to her father, the King of Cornelia. The King appreciates your hard work and tells of a 'Lukin' (sounds like a prophet) and asks you to 'rekindle' the crystals... He keeps the promise and rebuilds the bridge... Before leaving the castle, talk to Princess Sarah at least once to get a key item: LUTE. Go to an Inn and save your game... Leave Cornelia and cross the bridge to begin your adventure!!! A nice cut scene, I might add. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ =------------------------------= CHAPTER 2 - THE ADVENTURE STARTS =------------------------------= Recommended Level: 3~4 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Well, well, well... The actual adventure starts here. The preceding chapter is more like a prologue than a chapter. Your mission here is to go to Pravoca, a town to the east. As you come up to a set of mountains, take the path to the right to get to the town. However... I would recommend you to take a trek to the LEFT. That winding path leads you to a damp cave of Matoya's, where I will begin this chapter. ============= Matoya's Cave ============= Items: ------ Antidote; Potion; Potion ------ If you don't know where this damn place is, just go back to the bridge just north of Cornelia and take the first left you see and walk past the bay. Continue walking on the forest path until you see an isolated cave on the peninsula. Matoya's Cave! WARNING: the monsters en route to that cave is VERY tough for lower level-ers. I recommend, if you're going, that you save on your Memo File beforehand. In the cave, open the door to meet Mister Matoya himself. He will blabber about something like 'Crystal Eye'... Whatever that means, (you will find out what that means pretty soon) it does not matter right now. He can wait, we have to save the world! Don't ever forget that! Hah... (Why are we here in this pointless cave anyway?) Oh, back to the point... Loot his room and take the POTION, POTION, and ANTIDOTE from the chests to the left. Note: If you talk to the magical brooms, they will say this: "Flipp'er over, flip, flip! Elcric dn'a trats!" It is quite simple to figure this out... The broom said 'flip' THRICE. He must be implying something. Try flipping over the last sentence? What do you get? Yes, this: "start a'nd circlE" The ' in the 'and' is just there to throw you off. What does that mean? Just go to the over world and press those buttons to discover the hidden meaning. After this short (but according to my length of writing, it is otherwise) segment, head back to the fork in the mountains to the south. ======= Pravoca ======= To get to this crappy mini-city, go all of the way east until you get to a dead end. When you do, drop down and you should find Pravoca, sitting comfy next to a body of water. Enter, of course. Make sure you revive and heal your party members first, if necessary. After that, I recommend you to buy Ice (400-Normal 250-Easy Gil) for your BM or RM. As for the White Magic, there isn't a lot of good magic, but if you really want to spend some cash on those, you might want Invis1 or NulBolt. The rest of the cash should go to the weapons and armor. After all of that crap, go to the northwestern house and talk to the pirate leader, in the middle. This will anger the leader and trigger a battle with NINE pirates! Ack! I should have never spoke to him! _____________ BOSS: Pirates ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ HP: 6 each EXP: 40 each Bah... only 6 HP per guy? That's like nothing... But if you're having some trouble, just vanquish them with a successful hit of 'Sleep' from your RM or BM. Otherwise, just endure their attacks and kill them one by one. After defeating them all, the pirate boss will panic frantically so much that he gave up his coveted SHIP! I won't give a huge ship that easy myself! Heh... Now, you can either train a bit more or just go ahead and use that ship outside Pravoca, all ready for you. NOTE: While on the Ship, hold down the Circle Button and tap the X button 55 times. If you do this, the mini-game, "Concentration" will show up. For more information, refer to the Secrets section. ======== The Ship ======== ALL ABOARD!!!!!!! Let's get on the ship!!! Now, you were never told where to go but that's okay, I still love you. :) First of all, let's just train some and battle with the sea monsters. Yep, you will encounter monsters even on a ship drifting away in the sea. Where to go? Just head to the west, to Cornelia. While this town have nothing to offer to you as of now, it is pretty important to use that town as the board because of its cheap fare. (30 Gil for an Inn, 40 Gil for a revive) The monsters in the sea are very tough but offers a lot of experience points so seize this chance to level up to maybe 5 or even 6, if you are patient enough. An upcoming cave is tough as nails, so you have to be prepared to make it through... Best wishes to all of you... (If you're lost trying to find where Cornelia is, just press Circle and Start to bring the World Map. There ya go... :) ) After leveling up in the waters around Cornelia and harboring at the village to heal, get on your ship and head south. Dead south. Just enjoy the ride all of the way to the next shoreline. When you finally reach the next piece of land, go left a bit to reach yet another harbor/port/wharf (whatever floats your boat... OMG!!!!!! I GOT THE BEST PUN EVAR!!!!!!! OMG!!!!!) The enemies, once again, here are pretty tough, especially that infamous ogre. Just pummel him with normal attacks once you see him, if ever. Continue walking to the south until you see yet another castle surrounded by some pathetic houses. Please do enter that village. ======= Elfheim ======= There are a TON of stuff you can buy from this place! There are LVL 3 AND 4 magic in this village, all excellent magic. I recommend you get Cure2, Dia2, and Heal1 for your WM. As for your BM or RM, maybe level 2 attack spells would work (Bolt2, etc) and don't forget to grab 'Haste' in the LVL 4 Black Magic shop, very useful in boss battles. Last but not least, go to the Weapon Shop to pick some nifty stuff for your physical fighters. I got TWO Mythril Sword for 8000 Gil, they ROCK! (got the money via the ship mini-game) Don't forget to revive or/and heal if you need. (A NEAT thing: go to the tombstones behind the inn and press X on the left one and see what it says... "May Link rest in peace" Don't get it? This place is filled with Elves and Link himself is an elf... Still don't know who he is? The protagonist of the LEGENDARY series, the Legend of Zelda. A neat easter egg!) Anyway, let's go to the castle now... ============ Elven Castle ============ Ah, a nice castle. Wonder if Link ever saw this castle? (Hyrule Castle, anyone?) Just go up the stairs and take the left path after the dead end. Go into the room to the northwest. You see a beauty lying on the bed and the prince charming watching over him... (kiss her, dammit!) Talk to the prince charming and he will say that someone named Astos cursed the prince (oh, SHE'S a HE? XD) So... do we have to find this Astos guy? Yea, guess so... Leave the castle and head due west. You will come upon a little path through two set of mountains, and go into that valley. Beware of Ghasts in this area, their attacks include the ability to paralyze you, so kill them quickly with your powerful fighters. The monsters here in this valley are abundant and gives you plenty of EXP. An average battle here could land you about 120 EXP so you should train around here a bit since it's pretty close to the nearest village in case you get too weak. Anyway, there are two places to go right now, but only one of them is required. The other one is optional, but I recommend you to go there because the required cave, the Marsh Cave, is VERY tough and you need every EXP you can get. The 'optional' location is to the northwest, along the shoreline to the west. If you're going there, skip the next paragraph. (to the Western Keep) If you want to ignore or have completed surveying the optional castle, go south of the Castle and stick to the shoreline, all of the way to the end of this continent. It is a long trek from the Elfheim or the optional castle, so you should be healed before the journey. Also, it is a VERY good idea to bring some cottages or sleeping bags (bought from some shops). ============ Western Keep ============ As of right now, you cannot get any items but it is worth the trip because you must have gathered a lot of EXP up to this point from Elfheim. You might get mad at me because it was very difficult to get to this point (for some), but do not grieve... you will thank me later when you reach the Marsh Cave, especially if you're playing on the Normal Mode. What to do here? Just enter the room in the middle via the door to your left when you enter this keep. You will meet the king of this bat-filled (Dracula?) castle. He will request you abruptly to retrieve a crown from the southern marsh. That's where we're going to go! Onward! ========== Marsh Cave ========== Items: ------ Broadsword; Steel Plate; Cottage; Copper Amulet; Dagger; Crown; Gil ****** Monsters: ------ Anaconda; Zombie; Black Widow; Werewolf; Bloodbones; Warg Wolf; Crawler; Tarantula; Shadow; Skeleton; Gargoyle; Ghoul; Gray Ooze; Scorpion; Green Slime; Piscodemons ****** This place is basically a hole in the ground, obviously, as this place is shown as a black hole in the world map. As you're supposed to do, enter this tough cave. In this cave, you could go north, but I don't recommend it because you would find some Gil (680 Gil and 620 Gil) and two items that could be found to the south! Doesn't sound good, does it? So let's go to the south. The stairs to the B2F is in a room, so you have to enter it from the southern door. The path to the east leads to nothing but monsters. B2F: Pretty simple floor, if you want items. To the left, there is a room with a chest filled with 680 GIL. The two rooms to the right of that room, has the same treasure, but there's a catch: if you open one of those chests, the other chest will be empty so pick one! The item will be a BROADSWORD. After uncovering those items, go to the southeastern corner to go down to B3F. B3F: This floor has a LOT of items! That's why I decided to make a map of this place! The chests with a STEEL PLATE inside will disappear if you open one of the other chests with Steel Plate inside so you only have to pick one (best one: the northwest room). I recommend you to pick up the COTTAGE and COPPER ARMLET, before going to the room with the crown inside. If your party is too weak to go on, make a quick exit back outside and use your cottage/sleeping bag, if you have one. If you don't... good luck making all of the way to Elfheim! MAP: B3F OF MARSH CAVE ------------------------------------------------------------- | E ______ ______ ______ ______ | | | SP | oooo | | oooo | | oooo | 295 | | | | | o o | | o o | | o o | | | | |__ ___| oooo |__ ___| oooo |__ ___| oooo |__ ___| | |_______ | | o oooo o o oooo o o oooo o | ________| o oooo o o oooo o o oooo o | | |_ | ______ ______ ______ ______ | | | CA | oooo | C SP | oooo | | oooo | | _| | | | o o | | o o | | o o | | | _| |__ ___| oooo |__ ___| oooo |__ ___| oooo |__ ___| | | | | o oooo o o oooo o o oooo o o oooo o | |__ o oooo o o oooo o o oooo o o oooo o |_ | | | ______ ______ ______ ______ | | | | oooo | BOSS | oooo | 385 | oooo | SP | | | | | o o | | o o | | o o | | | _| |__ ___| oooo |__ ___| oooo |__ ___| oooo |__ ___| | |__ _| |o oooo o o oooo o o oooo o o oooo o | | o oooo o o oooo o o oooo o o oooo o | | | | __ ______ __ _____ __ _____ _ ______ | | | SA |oooo | MK |oooo | |oooo | 1020 | | | |___ | o |___ | o |___ | o |__ __| | -----'-----'----------'----'---------'----'---------'--'----- E: Entrance/Exit of B3F SP: Steel Plate (choose one, only one will be retrieved) CA: Copper Armlet C: Cottage 385: 385 Gil 295: 295 Gil SA: Silver Armlet (must have Mystic Key) MK: Mythril Knife (Mystic Key) 1020: 1020 Gil (Mystic Key) BOSS: The boss battle and the Crown After all that battling and item-collecting, go to the second room from the left and the bottom. Upon entering the room, you should be able to see a chest surrounded by some mystical statues... Must be something special. Before opening the chest, however, heal your party up... because it's time for a... ________________ BOSS: Piscodemon ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ HP: 84 (each) EXP: 276 (each) Every time you step on the panel just before the chest, you fight this Piscodemon squad. You could fight up to 4, but most of the time, there's 3 of them. Each monster has only 84 HP, but they are tough because of their tough shell and their attacks have high damage. Bolt is very good against them so use it, if you have it. I fought three of those and my Warriors beat them up along with my BM's Bolt1, and finished them off in 2 rounds... Only got hit once. Later in the game, you will encounter those jerk-offs as a normal enemy! Scared now? After beating the enemies, do not move! Just stand there and open the chest. Alas! The CROWN! Now you have to walk all of the way back to the over world! You should know the way... Once in the over world, you might want to use an cottage or sleeping bag for the safety's sake. Either way, go back to Elfheim to heal up 100% and save! OMG... This is a tough trip, indeed. After getting back up 100%, go back to the Western Keep to meet that mysterious king once again. ============ Western Keep ============ Items: Crystal Eye Once you arrive at this castle for the second time, (if you've visited this place before going into the Marsh Cave) you should be at least LVL 7. Yes, I know that this place has no monsters, but... you will fight a boss! Just go up to the guy and give him the crown. He will laugh maniacally and reveal his true image: ___________ BOSS: Astos ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ HP: 168 EXP: 2250 (yay!!!) This boss is very strong and has a good-sized health points. This boss has a lethal spell: Reaper. This move = instant kill, so be very afraid! A good0 way to win is with Haste (will only work if you're LVL 8). Have your RM or BM cast Haste on your strongest fighters and pummel him with attacks. Your RM or WM should heal EVERY time with Cure2. The boss has level 2 magic spells so he will damage every member of your party. Strong, yes, but not tough. Fire2 or Bolt2 could easily damage him heavily (60 points!). Finish him off with attacks from your physical fighters. If you're having some trouble, you can clamp him down with Silence. You will receive the CRYSTAL EYE after defeating Astos. Congrats! There's nothing to do as of now so let's go back to your ship! ============= Matoya's Cave ============= Items: Jolt Tonic Go back to Elfheim if you need to heal and some reviving (is that a word?). Get on your ship and sail north, toward Cornelia. However, don't stop at the port south of Cornelia... Just go around and go under the bridge that the loyal king made for you. You will find another port north of the bridge. Use that to get off to dry land. Walk further north to find... the Matoya's Cave! Remember this nut case? ^_^ And yes, his magic brooms are still here! Woo-hoo! Go up to Matoya and give your Crystal Eye to him (her? Who knows) and he will give you the JOLT TONIC in the exchange. Guess that'll wake the Prince up... Let's get back to the ship and ride the casbah back to the Elfheim, where the sleeping beauty is waiting for thee... ============ Elven Castle ============ Items: ------ Mystic Key; Mythril Hammer; Bronze Gloves; 400 Gil; 330 Gil; Bronze Gloves ------ Alright, let's cut to the chase and wake that poor guy! Walk up to the servant (I think he's a pervert!) and talk to him. He will exclaim and grab your Jolt Tonic away from you and use it to wake his lover up. The prince will talk like he's in a dream... Anyway, he gives you the MYSTIC KEY, a rare item that will open up some locked doors. Let's LOOT!!!!!! First place to loot: here! Yay! get out of the castle but not the castle grounds... Just get out via the stairs to the southeast or southwest. Stick to the wall and walk around the castle until you see an isolated room. That's your first use for the Mystic Key! In that room, therein lies a MYTHRIL HAMMER, BRONZE GLOVES, 400 GIL, and 330 GIL. Easy! Let's loot some more! ========== Mystic Key ========== Items: ------ Western Keep: Steel Gloves; Power Staff; Falchion Marsh Cave: Silver Armlet; Mythril Knife; 1080 Gil Temple of Chaos: Werebane; Rune Blade; Gold Needle ------ Those items that you can get, listed above, are optional. Some items I do recommend, but others... I do not. Nevertheless, I do think you should get some rather than none. Let's proceed. First, go to the Western Keep to get those treasures: STEEL GLOVES, POWER STAFF, and FALCHION. I recommend getting them, especially if you're low on money. They are valuable stuff, ya know. Before getting them, just don't step on the spaces right front of the chests. Doing so will trigger a fight... not too tough, but annoying. If you really do want those fights (with Mummies and Wraiths), be my guest. Next... the next nearest place is the Marsh Cave. What does that stupid cave have in its chests? SILVER ARMLET, 1080 GIL, and MYTHRIL KNIFE. I do NOT recommend getting those. Why? First, you have to trek all of the way to the cave, and that's long. Then you have to scale down all of the way to B3F and that's EXTRA long! THEN... you have to go find the rooms and FIGHT yet another monster to get the treasure! The monsters? The Piscodemons, the monster that you fought to get the Crown! Isn't that ANNOYING!?!?! Chances are, you might die on the way if you're not careful. Those items are good, but not worth the trouble at all. If you want to there anyway, use the map I made up above for B3F of Marsh Cave... All of the items are there. Besides, you will get those items soon, in someplace else. However, if you want the 100% Collection rate, you'll have to grab them. Lastly, the final place to go before getting back on the storyline: the Temple of Chaos. You know, the palace where you fought the first boss, Garland. Land just under Cornelia Castle and go north to the temple. The treasures are to the northeast and southeast. And yes, I do recommend getting those items because it's not even a hassle. The items: WEREBANE, RUNE BLADE, and GOLD NEEDLE. The weapons (Werebane and Rune Blade) are actually good, so it's worth it. After collecting the wanted items, let's go back to the place where you started: Cornelia Castle. ======== Cornelia ======== Items: ------ Steel Plate; Iron Shield; Crosier; Mythril Knife; Saber; Nitro Powder ------ Very simple here. Just go left or right after entering the castle to find a narrow path. Follow the path to the back. When you're done, just go down the opening. You should stumble upon a wizard in a corner. Ignore him and move on... You see two doors leading to two different rooms. Guess what? You can enter those rooms with your new key! The right room has three treasures, and the left one also has three. The most important item of all: the NITRO POWDER. You shall find out why soon... Another valuable item is definitely the MYTHRIL KNIFE because with this, your BM could be more lethal, at last! (not by much, though! ^_^) With the Nitro Powder, your quest can go on... Go on the ship once again and ride it along the coast of Cornelia, to the northwest. After a while, you will find a port... Hmmm... interesting... Let's dock! On foot, stick to the southern shoreline and walk along the beach until you reach a path to the south. In that area, there are some mountains... but one of those mountains has a cave inside. Find it and enter... =========== Mt. Duergar =========== Items: ------ 450 Gil; 575 Gil; 575 Gil; Tent; Helmet; Mythril Knife; Wyrmkiller; Grand Helm; Mythril Mail; Cottage ------ Treasure galore!!! Yes, first thing you got to do here is to find the treasure! I would make an ASCII map for the chests, but luckily, there's no enemies here so you can look around without any worries! (No ASCII map, too!) Head up after entering to find a cozy room with two treasure chests: 450 GIL and 575 GIL. Lousy crap. Bah... Let's look some more... Go all of the way south and find the south-most room in the mountain. The rest of the items are all there! EIGHT of them! Enjoy the spoils! By the way, if you have a Thief in your party, make sure you pick Wyrmkiller up... it's the best weapon in the game for that class, besides the almighty Masamune. After the hunting, go to the dwarf closest to the chest-filled south room. He has a white beard, a green hat and red clothes. (minus the hat, he's Santa!) Talk to him and he want go like this "!", the famous exclamation bubble. He takes your Nitro Powder from you and puts it into a good use and explodes the rock to form a canal... Guess what does this mean? Yes, you can pass through it to broaden your horizons!!!! You rock! (Pun intended) Get out of this place and get back to your ship... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ =---------------------------= CHAPTER 3 - THE EARTH CRYSTAL =---------------------------= Recommended Level: 10~12 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ In the ship, you can explore the new leagues of water, but there's not much to look. The place to go is to the west of Mt. Duergar... There lies a small ghost town called Melmond. Luckily, it is a mere 3 steps away from its nearest port... ======= Melmond ======= Jumpin' jacks! The first thing I said about this place that is positive: the Magic! Simply amazing arsenal... Life1, Cure3, Fire3, AND Heal2! Make sure you have PLENTY of Gil to buy those! *drools* Enjoy this ubitiqious town and buy some Magic, Weapons/Armor, and rest at the ever-comfy Inn. Make sure you buy the Silver Armlets. Knight's Armor is pricey and that makes you think that it is very... how to say... special. Well, no. It raises your DEF by 34 but decreases your EVA by 33. Not good. I recommend you to talk to people around here, because they will explain to you about what's going on in this area. Some people would talk to you about a scary place called 'Terra Cavern'. Curious... If you're like Curious George, then let's GO!!!! To where? Fool! The Terra Cavern, of course! Walk out of the town and walk to the southwest. You should be able to detect a narrow strip of dry land leading to an isometric triangle island. Naturally, that's where the mysterious Terra Cavern lies. Go between the ranges to discover the cavern. (Make sure you're going to the SOUTHWEST, not EAST! There's a cave called Titan Cave and that's not the right one...) ============ Terra Cavern ============ Items: ------ B1F: 1975 Gil, 880 Gil, Potion, 795 Gil, Antidote B2F: Coral Sword, Tent, 330 Gil, 5000 Gil, Leather Shield, 575 Gil B3F: 1020 Gil, Potion, Sleeping Bag, 3400 Gil, Star Ruby B4F: 1455 Gil, 5450 Gil, 1520 Gil, Staff, 3400 Gil, Tent, 1250 Gil, Mythril Shield ****** Monsters: ------ Anaconda; Black Widow; Cobra; Cockatrice; Gargoyle; Ghast; Gnoma; Golbin Guard; Hill Gigas; Lizard; Minotaur; Mummy; Ochre Jelly; Ogre; Ogre Chieftain; Ogre Mage; Piscodemon; Sphinx; Tarantula; Troll; Warg Wolf; Werewolf; Wight; Wraith ------ This damn cavern is too damn long and hard! 'Tis a deadly combination... Despite all of that, this underground place is an excellent place to train and a fabulous place to discover treasure. As you can see from the item list, there are plenty of chests to open up. However, do not be afraid to go back to Melmond for healing. It might take you 2-3 trips to fully complete this scavenger. Let's pray for a moment... For your information, most of the chests have a monster waiting for you: Gnoma. This monster is VERY lethal, can REALLY damage your party with his single physical attack. However, he gives out a good deal of EXP (325 for each one in 4 surviving characters) so don't complain. :) Remember, you can go back out to heal! Start off by going straight up to find a chest and around the path to find a chest with 1975 GIL. Yeah, too much work for something so little... but it's important to get great EXP. And yep, a Gnoma here. Good luck. You could either go south to find two rooms with 880 GIL, POTION, 795 GIL, and an ANTIDOTE or just ignore the Gnoma-infested traps and go to the right and get to B2F. B2F: Several crossing paths and they end up with different treasures... The best one would be the north/middle path because the south path leads to crappy stuff and you don't want to fight Gnomas for those CRAP! Yea... Thought so... The northern path leads to the northeast corner, which has a neat treasure: CORAL SWORD. There are also a TENT and 330 GIL sitting nearby. If you want to go to the southwestern corner, here's the treasure that you will uncover: 5000 GIL, LEATHER SHIELD, and 575 GIL. After all of that, go to the middle path and go down to B3F... the stairs are located to the right, in the middle. B3F: Go right and you will see a door leading to a little room with a single chest. Walk up to it (don't worry, no Gnoma this time :-) ) and open it up for a nice, comfy SLEEPING BED. Go back onto the original path and walk up. You see yet another door to the left, but therein lies an encounter with a Gnoma. The spoils: 3400 Gil. Your decision. The path to the right will lead to another Gnoma for... (drum roll) a POTION! Blargh. Let's take the left path. Go around the path and head south. (on the way, you see two doors... The second door has a chest for 1020 GIL and a Gnoma encounter so I recommend you to ignore it...) Finally, a door at the very end. Guess what? Gnoma? Nope. The LAST battle in this damn dungeon... Just endure this battle and it's all over after this battle. _____________ BOSS: Vampire ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ HP: 156 EXP: 1200 So easy yet so tough to keep all of those alive. Well, not that hard. This boss has HIGH attack power so you better heal your party up if you want all of them alive. The HP is ridiculously low for a boss so it should be no problem for you. Fire2 and Dia2 are the killer spells against him. Physical attacks also work wonders. I killed him with only 3 attacks: 2 Physical Attacks and a Fire2. However, he killed my WM before I could kill him. Sad. After the battle, go ahead and open the treasure for... the STAR RUBY! Go ahead and try to open the remaining door... It's locked! Bah... let's leave to heal up. I trust you know the way out and I sure don't hope you're low on health, either! Run, Forrest, Run! Sorry, I always wanted to say that! Get back to Melmond to heal up your surviving members, but if you want some reviving, you'll have to use the ship to get back to Cornelia... Yeah, no church here! (I know, this is a frickin' madness!) What now? Walk to the west from Melmond and, after a long stroll, you come upon a cave in the mountains... ============ Titan's Cave ============ Items: ------ Great Axe; 450 Gil; 620 Gil; Mythril Helm ------ I like this place... Little place with some nice items, nothing big. Go up to the rock guy blocking your way (you would know already if you came here before going to Terra Cavern) and he will ask you to give up the Star Ruby you uncovered in Terra Cavern. He'll much it up and let you pass... I know you see the stairs just north of there, but just go south to find a room with some valuable treasure: GREAT AXE, 1070 GIL, and MYTHRIL HELM. After that, yes, you may go back to the stairs you saw earlier to get out of the cave. You will appear at the over world again. There are only one path to follow and please do walk on it to find yet another cave... =========== Sage's Cave =========== Items: Earth Rod Pretty simple! No items to find, nothing to do except to go to the northwestern corner and talk to the hermit sage. Somehow, he knows about your venture with the Vampire... he gives you the EARTH ROD. You have to go back to the point where you made a rendezvous with the Vampire. Yes, the end of B3F of Terra Cavern. Tough luck... If you need some healing (but I doubt it), go to Melmond for their unique (maybe not) Inn! When you're ready, go to Terra Cavern to explore the dangerous cave even further. Be prepared... ============ Terra Cavern ============ Items: ------ B4F: 3400 Gil; Staff; 1520 Gil; 5450 Gil; 1455 Gil; Tent; 1250 Gil; Mythril Shield (B4F only- B1F to B3F items are on previous Terra Cavern section) ****** Monsters: ------ Anaconda; Black Widow; Cobra; Cockatrice; Gargoyle; Ghast; Gnoma; Gobin Guard; Hill Gigas; Lizard; Minotaur; Mummy; Ochre Jelly; Ogre; Ogre Chieftain; Ogre Mage; Piscodemon; Sphnix; Tarantula; Troll; Warg Wolf; Werewolf; Wight; Wraith ------ **IMPORTANT NOTE: If you go to the left of the entrance in this cavern, you might get into a famed, but infamous, hall: the Hall of Gigas. In this spot, you will fight 3-4 (most of the time, it's 3-4 but sometimes... it might be 1 or 2) HILL GIGAS, OGRES, or OGRE CHIEFTAINS! Scary! This yields you a GREAT deal of experience and Gil, paving your road to make it smoother! All of this were notified to me by Natah Villegas! I was aware of this before but I wasn't 100% certain on this one. Thanks, man.*** Fight your way to the point on B3F where you fought Vampire. You can get some of the items you didn't get on the first run through now. Up to you... Since you're a bit more stronger, you should stay around a more longer to train up. Again, it is a good idea to make multiple trips to this cavern for the health. Get up to the point with the stone wall... Open up your items menu and choose the 'Key Items' Sub-header to display the key items. Highlight the 'Earth Rod' and... use it! The stone tablet will disappear into thin air. The stairs to B4F appears. Gogogogogogo! B4F: To the north, there is some chests with Gil totaling up to 11,825 and a STAFF. However, some monsters guard it. The southern path leads to a treasure room with 1250 GIL, TENT, and a MYTHRIL SHIELD. Your decision. Either room has some guardians that you have to defeat to get through. Or you could bypass them and go down to B5F, the final level in this horrid dungeon. The exit is to the EXTREME northwest. You know what to do. B5F: Very easy here: Stick to the left path and go south when you can. It will lead you to a door. A... CRYSTAL?!?!?! Wait... let's HEAL up first and save your game (Memo). Why? It's time for a boss battle! Proceed and press X on the crystal. __________ BOSS: Lich ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ HP: 800 EXP: 2200 As you can see, this boss has a LOT of HP. This boss also has level 2 Black Spells such as Ice2, Bolt2, Slow2, Sleep2, etc. They are very damaging, too, inflicting damage upwards to 150. Despite the size of the HP, you have to make this battle swift. Don't heal too much, your WM have to use the Dia2 spells, it works WONDERS on this boss, 150 easy damage points. Your attackers should keep hitting on the boss, for maybe 50-60 points each attack. Your BM should cast Haste because Lich as high defense against Magic so it's worthless to cast Magic. If you're having trouble... it could be a good idea to cast NulIce or NulBolt to cease the heavy damage you receive from the magic. Don't stop pressing him with attacks and he should go down within 5 rounds. Remember, try to maximize your attack options. If you have a Black Mage, cast Haste or Steel on your attackers... After the battle, your Earth Crystal will shimmer! 1 down, 3 to go! After a rather lengthy dance of your comrades (jumping jacks), go around the crystal and stand on the light portal. It will transport you all of the way to the over world! Stay and heal up in Melmond to prepare for your next objective! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ =--------------------------= CHAPTER 4 - THE FIRE CRYSTAL =--------------------------= Recommended Level: 15~17 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Get back into your ship and ride the waves to the west. More like southwest... To make it easier, press Start and Circle while in the over world. It will bring the map up. You should be in the middle left, below a dot (Melmond)... Your next target is all of the way to the east... It's the SOUTHEAST-MOST dot in the map. See it? Yeah, that's where. Go to the west (remember, the world is round so if you go across the border to the west, you will come out on the east line) and go south a bit to find a port directly east of the next target (use the map to see if it's the right port). There are some ports around that shoreline but only one will access that town. Walk to the west and around a thin body of water to find a town... ============= Crescent Town ============= Item: Canoe This place is REALLY cool... for your physical attackers, that is. The weapon and armor stores is filled with Mythril items, and most of them are limited to Warrior, Ninja, and Red Mage. If those characters aren’t full of Mythril, go buy the missing Mythril items to even it up. As for Magic... not bad, but not good, either. For your BM, Bolt3 is a definite choice. You could get Quake, it's a very good spell... As for Reaper and Stun, they're ALRIGHT... Not worth it tho. WM: Just get Invis2 and Shld2 for the hell of it. The other two are worthless. If you want one more spell for your WM, then get Stona. After the Shop-A-Thon, go to the back of the town to find a small bridge to the east side. Follow the grassy path down and right to find a circle of 12 sages (Knights of the Round?) Talk to all of them if you like, but the only one you have to talk is the one right to the 'leader' of the sages. The 'X' is the one: o o o o o o o o o o o x He will grant you a VERY important Key Item: the CANOE! now you can travel across shallow waters where your ship couldn't! The sage also tells you to go to Mt. Gulg to vanquish the demon who resides there. By the way, remember when someone said something about a 'Lukin' guy (the King said that, I believe)? The 'x' is Mr. Lukin himself. Let's go! **NOTE: You don't have to follow my path, through the areas in order (Ice Cavern then Citadel of Trails, then etc...), so you can go ahead and do some other dungeon and mix the order up to make this game more harder/fun. You can go to: Mt Gulg; Ice Cavern; and Citadel of Trials. ======== Mt. Gulg ======== Items: ------ B2F: 4150 Gil; Claymore; 750 Gil; 795 Gil; Mythril Helm; 1520 Gil; Mythril Shield; 1455 Gil; Mythril Axe; 1760 Gil; Potion; Antidote; 1520 Gil; 1975 Gil; Mythril Gloves; Mythril Helm; Potion; Tent B4FB: Gold Needle; 2750 Gil; 1760 Gil; 880 Gil; Antidote; Ice Brand; Flame Shield; 7340 Gil; 10 Gil; 155 Gil; Cottage; 2000 Gil; Staff; 1250 Gil B5F: Gold Needle; Flame Mail ****** Monsters: ------ Centipede; Fire Gigas; Fire Hydra; Fire Lizard; Hellhound; Gray Ooze; Hill Gigas; Horned Devil; Hyenadon; Lava Worm; Lizard; Minotaur; Ogre Chieftain; Ogre Mage; Pyrolisk; Pyros; Red Dragon; Scorpion; Sphinx; Wraith ------ NOTE: You should stock up your Potions to 99 and buy a couple of Cottages before going to the volcano!!! Seriously, before you go to this hell, (it is literally hell, it's a volcano!) you need to train up to LVL 14 or even 15 because the monsters there are not grateful to you and there is a boss at the end to make it even worse. The monsters in the shallow waters are pretty tough but yield a lot of EXP points. Train in the waters front of the Crescent Town until you're LVL 14 or 15, if needed. Use your Canoe on the waters right next to the town and follow the river to the north (turn left on the 1st fork). On the next fork, go right. Then left and continue until you see a branch going DIRECTLY west. Go on that way and you will end up, after a LONG ride, at an area with a fiery mountain and some trees around it. Enter that mountain. First thing: the lava WILL hurt you, but only 1 HP per step. The upside: NO monster encounters here. So if you're hurting really badly, it's good to step on the lava. The lava will decrease your health, but it won't kill you (stays at 1 HP). So it's pretty valuable to you in certain situations. B1F: No items here! This is a 'fool' level. You would walk around this level, looking for some items but there aren't any. Just go STRAIGHT to the left to find a nice set of stairs down to B2F. B2F: The stairs to B3F is to the left, no obstructions on the way... but... There are a LOT of treasures waiting for you up above. The most valuable prize is easily the Claymore, the most POWERFUL weapon yet. Everything else is just Gil or Mythril stuff. The Claymore is the only thing that is 'unique' or 'exclusive' in this level. Now, I recommend you to go through the second door from the right (start). After entering that door, you will see a chest... it's just some GIL (1520) protected by two Pyros. Not too tough but is it worth it? Up to you. After that, go up to find yet another chest so open it up from the SIDE (I don't know if there's an encounter from the front) for a MYHTRIL HELM. Continue walking north, towards that unopened chest to the left. Walk up to it and a Pyros will face you. Defeat it and... open the chest for the CLAYMORE! Yay! The rest of the chests on this level are pure crap... If you really want to get them, suit yourself. The chest to the right has a POTION. and the chests to the left has Gil and Mythril Glove/Helm/Shield/Axe. You know, that crap you already have. If you've explored the north part of the B2F, I recommend you to go back to the Over world and use your Cottage or Sleeping Bag to get ready for the venture downstairs. ***Another recommendation: Collect ALL of the items in B2F for a LOT of experience points and go back to the over world... use the Cottage if you have one. If you don't then just go back to town to buy one and return to the mountain and save outside the entrance with your Cottage. You NEED the MP but not HP because it will go down anyway (lava). By the time you get to B3F, you should be at least Lv 16-17. To get to B3F, like I said before, just go left of the entrance to B2F and endure the lava. B3FA: Like B1F, this is a REALLY simple floor. Nothing to do here expect to go left for the entrance of B4F. Just try to watch your HP, you don't want it to be too low when you finally fight a monster. B4FA: A LARGE floor! It's ALL lava here! The exit is to the southeast, so run across the layer of lava to the exit. B3FB: Another empty floor, but it's more like a maze this time. The stairs to the fourth floor is in the southwestern corner. To get there, go left, down, down and left. B4FB: Finally, some chests! Wait... is that good thing? Anyway, there are several places with chests. The only important room: the northwestern. It has a FLAME SHIELD and ICE BRAND waiting for you. The Ice Brand is VERY valuable in this dungeon, especially against the boss! There are also an ANTIDOTE, 7340 GIL, and 880 GIL in that room. Not bad! However, you have to fight TWO Lava Worm to get them all. Don't worry, they're not tough! :) The other rooms has some crappy number of Gil and sucky stuff like... STAFF. Ignore them unless you're going for the perfect Collection record. Some of them are protected by some tough monsters so be prepared if you want to get them. You want to go deeper into the cavern? Alright, the entrance to the FINAL floor is located at the southern-most point. Just follow the path all of the way south. You'll find it, don't worry. B5F: Alas... The final level in this grueling dungeon... It's a big level, but only a small portion is worth anything. To the east, (north, middle, and south) there are three rooms with a chest each. The chests are 'connected' so you have to pick which one to open and the other two will be empty. The treasure: a puny GOLD NEEDLE. Grab it if you want to get the 100% in the Collections. More importantly, there is an excellent treasure to the west. DEAD west. From the stairs, go that way and you should find a door. Make your way through that room to the chest. However, you will have to encounter a Red Dragon and a Fire Lizard if you want the treasure. Defeat those bastards to get to the almighty FLAME MAIL! The DEF is just... AMAZING! This is all worth it! Go back to the 'main'/'central' room and head to the southwestern corner. After a long walk on the solid ground, (or frozen lava, but whatever) you witness a door leading to a room very similar to the one you saw in Terra Cavern. Uh-oh... A boss battle??? Yep! CURE ALL OF YOUR CHARACTERS AND SAVE ON YOUR MEMO FILE! Walk up to the shiny red crystal and press on it to initiate a boss battle... ______________ BOSS: Marilith ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ HP: 1200 EXP: 2475 (not bad...) The first thing... This boss is OBVIOUSLY a fire lover, since it is buried within the raging lava. What do you do? Cast Ice on him? Nope... Cast NulFire, you fool! Along with your Flame Mail and Shield, you should be all right. After that, don't cast any Ice spells because she is not weak to those spells... Just use your BM or RM to cast Haste or any status enriching spells to your attackers. After that, you may cast the magic to damage the boss. The healers should just keep watch and see if anyone need some help. Cure3 is always helpful! You need some more tips? Shield2 is not a bad idea, considering that the boss tends to attack more than cast magic. Level 3 spells are a very good alternative for your BM even though it may not damage Marilith a lot. If all is well for your party, your fire crystal shines at last! There goes the lame dance/jump again! I hate that dance! X_X Then... GO INTO THE PORTAL to warp back to the over world!!! (Sorry, you have to travel back to a town by yourself... HA) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ =-----------------------= CHAPTER 5 - THE LEVISTONE =-----------------------= Recommended Level: 18~20 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ What's new? No, I'm not trying to initiate a friendly conversation with you. Who cares about you anyway? I mean, what is NEW? What did you get? Yeah, the Canoe! That's right. So what do you do now? Look for some more streams to find some new stuff! Where to start? Let's return to the ship first (make sure you buy the items that you didn't have a chance to buy in the Crescent Town such as magic before leaving) and go due north. If you don't know where you parked your ark, it's just east of here, beyond some mountains. Ride the ship to the north and stick to the shoreline (should be to your west) until you see a small gap for your ship to get through. Go into that little bay and turn to your left. A river! Cool... Just hop into the river via your ship (you will get into the canoe) or dock at the port nearby and walk to the river. In the river, there are MANY branching paths, but only one path really matter but thing can get really confusing, so please do follow me! Tip-toe to the fork and grab the north path. Another fork awaits, but take my word and go to the right. YET another fork: upper and lower. Take the lower one and take the west path after that to come to a rest at a grassy area. Have a nap in your Cottage/Tent/Sleeping Bag or whatever, and save on your Memo File, if you wish. After that, enter the isolated cave to get into... ========== Ice Cavern ========== Items: ------ B1F: 9500 Gil; Sleeping Bag; Ice Shield; 10,00 Gil; Potion B4F: Shirt; Flame Sword; Levistone B5F: Ice Armor; Mythril Gloves; 7900 Gil; 5454 Gil; 180 Gil; 12,350 Gil; 5000 Gil; 9900 Gil (SO MUCH Gil!) ****** Monsters: ------ Bloodbones; Cockatrice; Dark Wizard; Ghast; Ice Gigas; Mindflayer; Mummy; Piscodemon; Remora; Specter; White Dragon; Wight; Winter Wolf; Wraith ------ This level is a fun and a relatively short one. You could breeze through this one if you have a BM with Fire2 or 3. Otherwise, make sure you have a well- equipped party and you should be fine. The monsters here are actually weaker and yields LESS EXP than the previous ones so don't worry! Even the boss ain't that hard! However, you have to be aware for a potentially dangerous monster: the White Dragon. Its most lethal attack, IceStorm, hits every character for upwards of 150 damage each! It has only 200 HP so kill it quickly with your attackers and Fire3 before it could even attack one. You goal is to grab the well-hidden treasure: the Levistone. What does it do? 9999 damage to the final boss? Nah... It's nothing except an item to allow something to FLY! Let's move on... B1F: There are 5 items on this floor, but you can't access them right now so let's ignore them and follow the road to the next staircase. B2FA: Bah. There's nothing to see here except some fine-sheeted ice (did a Zamboni come by?) so just take either path (west, south) to get to the next staircase. B3F: REALLY small one. You know what to do. If you don't then you're not playing the game or haven't looked at the screen. B2FB: Another small one, but this one has a room. Go around the wall to find the door leading to this puny room. In this room you see a weird glowing blue object flanked by two chests. Wait... did you notice the cracks on the floor? Aye, they are indeed cracks. Do not step on them unless you really want to fall down to B4F. Take your time to dodge the cracks to get to the chests (SHIRT and FLAME SWORD). The right chest is a SHIRT, but you have to fight 3 or 4 dangerous Dark Wizards that are more than capable of taking all of the characters away in 2 rounds. I suggest you to get the chest for the Collection percentage later, when you're much, much more stronger. If you try to find a way to the middle object, you can't find one. What to do? Just step on a crack and let gravity pull you down! B4F: Immediately after you fall down, you fight a squad of Specter-type enemies. Destroy them and move on. After exiting the room, you see a weird type of tile that is completely unique to you. Stepping on it will damage your characters for 1 Hp each. However, there are no random encounters in those platforms. If you've gotten to Mt. Gulg, you would know what I'm talking about because this stuff is VERY similar to the lava in Gulg. Back to the point, you may go to the left to find a room guarded by a White Dragon with two chests: MYHTRIL GLOVES and ICE ARMOR. The Ice Armor, like the Fire Armor, is VERY useful in this dungeon. Go further south and you see a fork... to the left is a room filled with Gil, guarded by some wolves. You coiuld bypass the encounter point by not stepping on the middle space to the left of the chests. Like this: xxx o xxx The 'o' is the encounter point. You should be able to figure out how to get all of the chests without fighting the tough wolves. The six chests total up to 40,784 Gil! Wow... Anyway, to the right, the stairs just leads you back to B1F. B1F: Go around the room to open a chest with a POTION. Go through the other door (you can go to the room just below for 10,000 Gil without any encounter fight) and go to the right. Now, before you do anything... You have two options: take the staircase to the northeast and go back to the over world (do this if you DESPERATELY need some healing) OR enter the room for three nice items and a Boss Battle. Also, if you go back to the over world, you'll have to explore the dungeon all over again to get to this point again! Let's enter the final room! You see a crack up ahead. Of course, don't step on it YET. Grab 9500 GIL, SLEEPING BAG, and ICE SHIELD from the chests and DROP down the hole!!! Just as you were going to grab the blue stone away, you get an encounter battle! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ______________ BOSS: Evil Eye ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ HP: 162 (yes, 162!!!!!!!) EXP: 3225 (For a 162-HP boss? Pretty good!) A very simple boss. SIMPLE. Just do 162 worth of damage and he's down. Wait... there MUST be a catch in this! He can't be THAT easy! Well, there is a small catch... Doom. He knows THE nasty spell, Doom. It, if connected, will result in a fatal hit. Remember, he has only _162_ HP! Just attack with everything you got and you're done! You wanna know how I beat the boss? Well... I commanded my two Fighters to Attack, my WM to cast Invis2 (just in case it makes the Doom attack miss) and make my BM cast Bolt3. My WM came out first and cast the seemingly worthless Invis2... Then my BM cast Bolt3 for 172 damage. Battle over. :) Grab the LEVISTONE and step on the crack to the either side. If you want to fight Evil Eye again, please feel free to go one step south! You have to maneuver your way through B4F to get back to B1F and take the northeastern stairs to return to the sweet, sweet over world!!! ============= Crescent Town ============= Make your way back to Crescent Town (dock your ship the next port south of here) and save at the Inn if you like. Do whatever you want to do here, and leave to the west. Remember the river to Mt. Gulg? Its way is to the northwest. You will use the same river, but don't go to the north or west... Just go directly south of Crescent Town and you should see a broad-open river, eager for your canoe. Ride it to the east and south. Get on the solid ground just before the deep sea. Hmmm.. what's that? A desert? Never seen a desert around this area, how strange! Anyway, go into the desert (just be ON the desert/sand) and go to your Item Menu and select Levistone from the 'Key Items' sub-menu. Mysterious as its seem, or even impossible, the sand breaks apart like God did to the Red Sea and spurts the AIRSHIP out! It's all yours now! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ =-----------------------= CHAPTER 6 - CLASS CHANGE! =-----------------------= Recommended Level: 20~24 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ With your new levitating machine, you can access to the entire realm of Final Fantasy. However, the first place you should go is the Citadel of Trials, to the north. This place has an item, Rat's Tail, that will trigger a class change, THE most important advancement in this game you will ever undertake. You may and can bypass this ordeal, but please do it unless you want a harder challenge. That castle also has two VERY unique and RARE items: (other than the Rat's Tail) the Healing Staff and the Gauntlets. Those items are very vital to your success in the Normal Mode. Yep, you REALLY need to go there! First off, go to the northeast corner and look around for a town enclosed by mountains... that's Gaia. Some decent BM and WM magic awaits you but you don't have to buy them right now. The equipment here are too expensive, but if you have plenty of Gil, you could buy them (Protect Rings). You should buy 99 potions, 99 antidote and some cottages/tents if you need. Back on your airship, go west of Gaia, to the central part of the northern hemisphere. Look for a broken down, shabby, fugly castle. You cannot land anywhere close to it because the ground is unsuitable for your airship (light green). What to do? Just go a bit north and west to find a place with dark green grass. Land there, since it is the closest place to the Castle. Walk around the bay... it's a long walk so you might want to save your game on the memo file after every few battles. The monsters to the Citadel aren't too tough but they can be deadly, especially that Sand Worm, which will use Earthquake, an automatic KO. I recommend staying close to the airship and fight the monsters until you're at least LVL 21 or 22 if you're not there yet. After walking around the bay, save your game with a tent or cottage and enter the ordeal. ===================== The Citadel of Trials ===================== Items: ------ 2F: Gauntlets* 3F: Healing Staff; Ruby Armlet; Ice Brand; Steel Gloves; Cottage; Gauntlets*; 7340 Gil; 1455 Gil; Rat's Tail ****** Monsters: ------ Clay Golem; Dragon Zombie; Horned Devil; King Mummy; Medusa; Mindflayer; Mummy; Necrotaur; Nightmare; Rakshasa ------ Alright, you ready? If you're not... I'm going to tell you here, right now. This castle hunting is OPTIONAL. Yes, you don't have to go. Decide for yourself. Start off by going up to the exact center of the floor to find a elder. He will notice that you have the crown (you got this a LONG TIME ago) and warp off to Neverland (or whatever). What to do? Go to the northwestern corner of the floor to find a door leading to a throne. Get on the throne to warp up to 2F. The second floor is very deceiving and confusing. You have to travel around the floor by the warp points. Since it's illogical to explain the warps and their points with words, I'm going to make a map for ya. You can thank me later. :) .-------. .-------. |X | |Gaunt- | | 7 |------------------------------| lets | | | | | | '-------' | ------------------- ' -----' | .---|____ _________ | S = Start | | X |X '________| | | | | | | | 2 | | | Step in order from 1 to | | |3 _____|___ | | | 8 to get to 3F. Before you | | |_______| | | | X| get on the 8th warp, go to | | | --| S |--------| |__| the northeastern corner for | | | '--- --' | X| the GAUNTLETS. If you don't | | | 4 | | | want to get it now, you can | | | | 1 | | get it later in 3F. (Fight | | |-----------------------|8 | Clay Golems) | 6| |X | | .-------| |_______________________| .-------. X = worthless warp point | X| | Stairs| | |------------------------------| to 3F | | 5| | | '-------' '-------' 3F: How fun! You just revolve around the origin of the floor, picking items from the chests on the way! Just go up to the first chest for the famous HEALING STAFF and equip it on your WM. However, the plate directly behind the door is guarded by a pack of Nightmare so if you want the item, you'll have to fight them twice... one for entering and one for leaving. Afterwards, go left (of course!) for the RUBY ARMLET, ICE BRAND, and STEEL GLOVES. To the south of that point has three more chests: COTTAGE, 7340 GIL, and 1455 GIL. If you haven't gotten the Gauntlets back in 2F, you can get it right here. (By the way, did anyone notice the increase of the frequency of the battles between this place and the over world? Maybe it's just me...) BEFORE YOU GO UP TO THE LAST REMAINING CHEST, save your game on your memo file, equip your attackers with the Flame Brand(s), make sure you characters are all right, no one below 100 or 150 HP. Now, go open the chest and you get the RAT'S TAIL... Yay! Walk to the throne to warp back to the over world... but wait... before you go, you have to fight the... ______________________ BOSS: Dragon Zombie(s) ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ HP: 268 each EXP: 2331 each Another easy one... Just use your WM's Dia spells and BM/RM's Fire spells. Your attackers should have the Flame Sword to damage them heavily. That's all. Yep, pretty easy. Step on the chair to warp back to 1F and pave your way to the over world! ================ The Dragon Caves ================ Items: Tent; Gold Needle; 575 Gil; 10 Gil; 500 Gil; Cottage; 1455 Gil; 2750 Gil; 2000 Gil; 9500 Gil; 160 Gil; 2750 Gil; 1520 Gil Save with your Tent or Cottage if you like and fight your way back to the airship. You really don't have to heal in any Inn/Church but you can if you want. To make the Rat's Tail useful, go to the southwest of the Citadel to find a string of islands with some holes in them. I recommend you start off with the west-most island to get some items and cash. The items you can get are listed above, and you don't have to fight anything to get them because there are no random encounters in those Dragon Caves. Take your time getting them all. When you've gotten all of the items in the caves by jumping from one cave to another via the airship, enter the right cave on the island with two caves. After a LONG shrinking hallway, you finally find a stairs leading to a sword- infested hall. At the end of the room is... the incomparable BAHAMUT!!!! He sees the Rat's Tail and recognizes your efforts to get it. He immediately transform all of your characters to the ultimate form. We kick ass now... The 'evolutions': ----------------- Warrior -> Knight Thief -> Ninja Monk -> Master Red Mage -> Red Wizard White Mage -> White Wizard Black Mage -> Black Wizard You should go ahead and buy Warp2 for your WM, Life1 for your RW, Cure spells for youe Knight, and Black spells for your Ninja. (Thanks to Red Scarlet for the help!) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ =---------------------------= CHAPTER 7 - THE WATER CRYSTAL =---------------------------= Recommended Level: 22~25 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ =============================== Gaia & The Search for the Fairy =============================== Gaia: Japanese for 'Earth'. Thought you'd like to know... :) Go to the town of Gaia to the northeast, surrounded by mountains. From the over world, the town looks gray, probably symbolizing the depressing earth background. Once in this town, you, of course, would think fast and dash for the magic stores. Well, you could... but I won't advise you on it. I'd rather you to hold back for now because of the steep prices and the chances are: you won't use it as much any time soon. But if you have a butt-load of cash, just go ahead and shop like there's no tomorrow. The point of this town is the valuable information about the Faeries's unique ability. If you talk to the man next to the magic shops to the left, he will tell you about an substance called Oxyale (sounds like some kind of a liquor... but whatever) and only Faeries can collect it. Interesting... You could search for hours and hours to find more information about the missing Faeries, but you could just come here and find out about them... :) Just go to your Airship and ride the casbah to the northwest piece of land. However, the northwest continent is just right of the town of Gaia so it's not a long ride from the town if you went the right way! Hah. The lone desert on the land has a smaller piece of sand to the north, next to a forest. Land just next to that desert, to the west, right next to the shore. Walk to that 'separated' desert and enter the caravan, which is in the middle of the desert. In the little gypsy town, enter the sole store and open up the shop menu. Aha. The BOTTLED FAERIE. Grab it for the low, low, looooooow price of.... 50,000 Gil! If you don't have the money, then sell some of your equipment! HAHAHA! Well, that's what I did! Heh. After buying the worthless piece of junk, return to your Airship and head for Gaia yet again. By now, you should know what you should do... to locate the spring and use the Faerie to retrieve the Oxyale. The spring is to the northeast, but you have to trek to the west and circle the path to the east for the spring. Go to your Key Items Menu and release your poor, trapped Faerie. She will thank you and get the OXYALE for you! (This reminds me of... the original Legend of Zelda... Hmmm...) The function of the town of Gaia is done for now. Its has served its purpose. Good-bye. Nah, I'm just kidding, you'll be back. Leave to the same location where you got the Bottled Faerie. This time, however, you should land just below the large desert. Find a spot just north or south (doesn't matter) of the river and land there. You have two options now. You could travel by foot to the right to the town of Onlak for some shopping, or you could stop by the Waterfall Cavern for a quick level up and get an essential item. I recommend you to go to the town first to heal up or get some new stuff. I'm going to the Cavern first because I will return to Onlak later. ================ Waterfall Cavern ================ Items: ------ Spellbinder; Ribbon; 13,450 Gil; 6,400 Gil; 5,000 Gil; Defender; Warp Cube ****** Monsters: ------ Clay Golem; Cockatrice; Green Dragon; King Mummy; Mummy; Nightmare; Pyrolisk ------ To get to this dark underground abode, use your canoe to go north, against the current of the river that lies a few steps left of the town of Onlak. At the end of this stream, there is a waterfall pouring. Go into the waterfall to discover this palace. (Well, not a palace... but anyway) This place is REALLY oh-so-simple. You start off in the bottom right corner and everything you need/want is in the bottom left corner so let's go there! Go left all of the way until you reach a fork with two paths: up and down. Take the bottom path and you should reach the hidden room with all of the items: SPELLBINDER, RIBBON(!!!), 13,450 GIL, 6,400 GIL, 5,000 GIL, and the DEFENDER. You might have noticed a robot walking around in the room... He's actually friendly, so don't be afraid. Talk to him and he will you the WARP CUBE. Right now, it's not important, but it will be pretty soon. Let's backtrack to the stairs and canoe back to the land and walk east to Onlak. ===== Onlak ===== Heal up and buy whatever you want. This place has the great Saber and Heal3 magic so buy them for 45,000 Gil apiece. Unfortunately, there is no equipment store so you'll have to bear with your current format. Luckily, the following dungeon has plenty of newer equipment and they will replace most of your equipment... Saves ya money, I guess. :) Save at the Inn if you like. Go across the tiny stream cutting the town in half and follow the path right. At the end, there is a mermaid (or at least she looks like one, I guess) blocking your way to a submarine. Talk to her and she will state: "Warriors with Oxyale..." and disappear into thin air... A ghost?! Hmmm... Go into the sub (turns out that it's actually a barrel!) and it will transport you to the ocean bottom, where you will reach the 'Sunken Shrine', 3F. ============= Sunken Shrine ============= Items: ------ 2F: Light Axe; 5450 Gil; 385 Gil; Giant's Glove; 7690 Gil; 8135 Gil; 2750 Gil; Ribbon; 9900 Gil; 7340 Gil 3F: 2000 Gil; 9900 Gil; 450 Gil (3FB); 100 Gil (3FB) 4F: 20 Gil; Diamond Armor; Light Axe; Mage's Staff; 12,350 Gil 5F: Diamond Armlet; 9000 Gil; 1760 Gil; 4150 Gil; 2750 Gil; 10,000 Gil; 10 Gil; Antidote; Diamond Shield; 5000 Gil; Diamond Gloves; Diamond Helm; Rosetta Stone ****** Monsters: ------ Aquos; Cockatrice; Deepeyes; Ghost; King Mummy; Mummy; Pyrolisk; Sahagin Chief; Sahagin Prince; Sea Scorpion; Sea Snake; Sea Troll; Shark; Water Naga; White Shark ------ Before we start, I want to tell you have TWO objectives here. The first one is go up and search for the Rosetta Stone. The second one is to go down and eliminate the third Fiend, Kraken. You have to do both but, obviously, you should go up because you gather EXP on the way that might benefit on the boss fight. To begin, there are two stairs on the opening floor (3F, not 1F). The right set goes up, to the Rosetta Stone. The left one, as you figured, goes down, toward the depths of the dungeon to Kraken. I'm going to start going up. 3F: Walk up, through the Roman pillars (Atlantis?) and go right when you see two big black slabs to reach a room with 2000 GIL inside. If you want another 9900 GIL, go left from the 2000 Gil room and walk past the central path to get to the other side. Walk up to find yet another door. Yep, the 9900 Gil is in there. Now, you know what to do... pick one of the stairs. The right one goes up, to the Rosetta Stone. The left one goes down, to Kraken. Your choice. 4F: Items are aplenty here. Since the enemies aren't that hard, just take your time collecting the items. The most important item: the DIAMOND ARMOR, which is hidden in the chest in the top room. Trek to the north and enter the room for this item. 20 GIL is in the middle room, and to the bottom left: LIGHT AXE. In the rooms left of the stairs to 5F, MAGE'S STAFF and 12,350 Gil lies all alone in their rooms. The stairs is to the extreme bottom right. 5F: My favorite floor of all! NO ENEMIES HERE!!! Yep, you heard (read) me right! All you have to do is gather every treasure and grab the Rosetta Stone! There are many treasures to uncover and they are scattered throughout the rooms in this shrine. There are THIRTEEN treasures, including the Rosetta Stone in this floor so count them so you don't miss anything! You could talk to the Mermaids if you like, but they are full of blabber. If you're wondering how to get to the room with the Rosetta Stone, just go to the northwestern path and it will lead you there. This room is spherical, like the Earth so if you go left, you will come out in the right side... neat, huh? If you have the magic spell Warp2, you can use it here to teleport back to Onlak for a quick heal. If you don't, then I guess you have to go back the hard way. :) Good luck. Remember to take the left stairs when you come back to go down to Kraken. 2F: This floor has some treasures but you cannot access them right now. The only thing you can do is to go up to a new set of stairs, leading to 3FC. 3FC: Hah. What do you think? Go on to 4FA. 4FA: There is a room with nothing inside so ignore it and go around it to locate the stairs to 3FB. 3FB: Open the door and enter the room to find two chests (450 GIL and 100 GIL). After finding how pathetic the cash is in here, take the other door to the stairs. 2F: Finally! The OTHER side of 2F, the side with the treasures! Let's go south to a room with 8135 GIL and 7690 GIL. Leave the room and go left to find one more room with those treasures: 5450 GIL, 385 GIL, and the ever powerful GIANT'S GLOVE! This item, when used in battle, will heighten your attack power!! Go north to find a lone treasure: LIGHT AXE (another one, blah). RIBBON (protects you from status ailments so it is better than you think, depsite its +1 DEF advantage), 9900 GIL, 7340 GIL, and 2750 GIL are all in the room right of the Light Axe. After collecting them all, go to the northwest corner for the final stairs. 1F: Bah... No treasures here but you have to walk for a while to get to the end... The end of this floor has the third crystal, the blue one... Hmmm... Go left once you enter this floor. Go up and continue until you see a left. Of course, take that left and proceed until you see a door. Yep. The final door, leading to the boss. Nah, I'm kidding! :D This room is a winding one, just there to make this dungeon a bit longer. (damn you, Squaresoft!) Find the other door and go on to the final room. (I'm serious this time...) As you should have already knew, save on your memo file and heal up. This boss is fairly tough, but not too tough that you can't handle it. Go up to the ball and tap X... (been a long time since our last boss, sniff) ____________ BOSS: Kraken ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ HP: 1600 EXP: 4245 This battle is a VERY anti-climax one. While the boss is gigantic, the size of the HP is off the charts, and the strength of this boss is over- whelming, this one is simple to master. This boss has no magic other than Bolt2 to damage you so he depends on his brute strength to kill you. Now, to take away the 1600 HP he has, you use your attackers. With their pure strength, they will damage him for about... 15 points. Yes, 15! It does make it even tougher, doesn't it? Well, no. If you've gotten the GIANT'S GLOVE earlier, you can master this battle without any trouble. The Giant's Glove heightens your attack power and it seems to 'remove' the defense of Kraken's. Use this glove as an item to boost your fighter (he must be choosing it). After that, boost your fighters even more with your BM/RM's Haste. With those, your fighters can attack for upwards for 450 damage! Your WM/WW should cast physical barriers (Shld2 and Invis2). I could talk all day about this battle but I'll sum it up with a few steps: (My team: Neo-Knight; Fox-Knight; Slut69-WW; Jesus-BW) Round 1: Neo: Giant's Glove Fox: Gauntlets for 100 Damage Slut69: Invis2 Jesus: Haste on Neo Round 2: Neo: Attack (8x) for 400 Damage Fox: Giant's Glove Slut69: Shld2 Jesus: Haste on Fox Round 3: Neo: Attack (8x) for 400 Damage Fox: Attack (8x) for 400 Damage Slut69: Gauntlets for 100 Damage Jesus: Bolt3 for 150 Damage Round 4: Kraken has about 50-150 damage left so finish him off! See? Extremely easy. No healing needed! After the enjoyable battle, you get to dance again! Step on the portal to warp back to the over world, just outside Onlak. Enter the town to heal up or whatever. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ =--------------------------= CHAPTER 8 - THE WIND CRYSTAL =--------------------------= Recommended Level: 25~28 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ With three of the Fiends out of the way, let's charge the fortress of the fourth Fiend. Without a doubt, this Fiend has a large following to help him survive any opposers. Therefore, you have to encounter through some large obstacles... to be specific: TWO dungeons. Well, unless you're dyslexic, (why are you reading this if you are, anyway?) you DID read about the two dungeons. To add injury to insult, you have to go through the dungeons consecutively without any 'breaks' for healing. All I have to say: good luck. First, go to Melmond to meet a rather strange person, Dr. Unne. You probably don't remember where Melmond so bring your World Map up (Circle + Start) and move the pointer down to 'Melmond' and press X. Look at the World Map... you should be shown the location of Melmond. It is just across the ocean from Onlak, in the middle of the world. ======= Melmond ======= Upon the arrival, ignore everything you see in the beginning and go up and walk over the bridge to the upper part of Melmond. Immediately turn right and stick to the right side. You should eventually see a blond man standing patiently on the graveyard. Go talk to him and he will exclaim about your Rosetta Stone, which you just got from the Sunken Cavern. (I did tell you to get it, didn't I?) He explains that this stone deciphers the legendary Lufenian language (Latin, perhaps?) The wacky doctor Unne teaches you the magical Lufenian language. Congrats, you're now fluent for that language! Leave the town and hop into your Airship. Your next location: Lufenia, the birthplace of the language you just learned. Go northwest or northeast, to the northeastern continent, where Gaia lies. To the west of Gaia, there is a fairly large desert that resembles the Sahara Desert. Wait, don't go there yet, kiddo. Go southeast from that desert and follow that forest-y peninsula. At the extreme end of that jutting piece of land, you finally find the town of Lufenia. Oddly, you cannot land anywhere near it because of the lack of de-forestation. The nearest landing spot for your lovable airship: to the north, just next to the pond/lake. The spot is only one unit in length and width so look around carefully for it (northeastern side of the pond). Yes, you have to walk all of the way to Lufenia. Good training, no? No? Too bad. ======= Lufenia ======= There's virtually nothing to do here, yet this is a valuable town for your game progress. First, ignore the fruitcakes and go to the northeastern corner. You will see a gap leading to nowhere. Trust me on this and walk directly east. You won't be placed in the over world... Instead, you will see a well- hidden Magic store. They have the BEST spells in the game, one for your WW and another for your horny BW (I mean the hat!). Flare will make the enemies scream for their mommies and Life2 will revive your fallen warriors back to FULL health! They rule... Your next objective (it was your primary one anyway): To locate the man with the Bell. The man standing on the bottom corner of the eastern hemisphere, undoubtedly waiting for you. Talk to the blonde and he will give you the BELL. Leave this just-got-worthless town (now this town has LITERALLY nothing!) for your airship again. (Yeah... another long walk back! Round trip fare!) Once back at your Airship, heal up (nearest town is Gaia) and re-stock your items with 99 Potions and some Cottages. Time for the 4th Fiend! Let's go west of Lufenia and Gaia, to the desert. Fly over the desert and circle around it until you see a tower speared into the desert's heart. That's your next journey, the Tower of Mirage. Memorize its location so you won't get lost and go south and final landing spot just below the desert. Walk up and battle the monsters until you reach the Tower... =============== Tower of Mirage =============== Items: ------ 1F: Vorpal Sword; 18,010 Gil, Tent; Aegis Shield; 2750 Gil; 3400 Gil; 800 Gil; Healing Helm 2F: Dragon Mail; 10,00 Gil; Sunblade; 7600 Gil; Cottage; 8135 Gil; 7900 Gil; Thor's Hammer; 12,350 Gil; 13,000 Gil ****** Monsters: ------ Black Knight; Blue Dragon; Chimera; Cockatrice; Guardian; Hellhound; King Mummy; Medusa; Mummy; Nightmare; Pyrolisk; Sabretooth; Vampire; Weretiger; Wyrm; Wyvern ------ Before we start, you have to know the following: You can use Warp2 to return to the over world after the chest-collecting if you feel that you cannot endure 5 more floors that exist in the next dungeon. But if your party are well-equipped and strong enough, you can collect all of the items and beat the Fiend all in one run. However, don't be afraid to return for some healing if you need since this Tower is fairly short with 3 straightforward floors. You can literally blow through this place if you don't pay attention to the items. Now, let's start. 1F: The stairs to 2F is RIGHT NEXT to the entrance! Just go through the door that you can see right now. Go left a bit and you will see another door. Once you enter through that door, you can see the stairs to 2F. However, if you want the delicious (and worthy) items on this floor, you'll have to search a bit longer. They are located at the middle of the room but you have to circle the room to discover the tombs. The treasures: TENT, HEALING HELM (works the same way at the Healing Staff if you use it as an item), 800 GIL, 2400 GIL, 18,010 GIL, VORPAL SWORD, AEGIS SHEILD, and 2,750 GIL. Then return to the bottom part for the stairs to 2F. 2F: Another simple one, but you have to walk a great distance to get to the spoils and the exit. Just follow the path that comes before you until you finally reach an opening that leads you deeper into the room (a LONG walk). If you want the prizes, go right to another opening and go down for a door leading to the central room, which has: 8135 GIL, 7900 GIL, THOR'S HAMMER, 12,350 GIL, 13,000 GIL, COTTAGE, 7,600 GIL, SUNBLADE, 10,000 GIL, and the DRAGON MAIL. Exit the room and head up again. Don't go through any openings! If you paid attention on your walk around this floor, you should've saw a set of stairs with a monster walking around it. Yep, go up those stairs (north part). 3F: The last floor in this Tower... Another straightforward one, but this time, it's much, MUCH easier. Go down to find a door leading to a lone room... Before you enter those doors, save on your memo and heal up your party (not to the max, not that tough of a battle). Proceed to the doors and a Blue Dragon will confront you for the sake of his job (guardian). This guy has a feverishly high attack power, but he has only 454 HP so you could take him down if you have two powerful physical attackers. Just cast Haste on one of your attackers and pick him apart. After the battle, proceed to the flashing stone flanked by 4 stone slabs. Once you step on it, you will be warped up to the Flying Fortress! If you didn't get warped, then it is very evident that you forgot to get the WARP CUBE earlier. Refer to the Waterfall Cavern in Chapter VIII for this item. =============== Flying Fortress =============== Items: ------ 1F: Potion; 9,900 Gil; 4150 Gil; 7900 Gil; Venom Blade; 6720 Gil; Healing Helm; Protect Ring; 180 Gil; 5000 Gil 2F: Diamond Gloves; Mythril Helm; Cottage; 13,000 Gil; 880 Gil; Adamantine; Ribbon; Diamond Shield; White Robe; Black Robe 3F: 9,000 Gil; Potion; Protect Ring; 5,450 Gil; Gold Needle; 6,400 Gil; 9,500 Gil; Shirt; Protect Cloak; 8,135 Gil; Gold Needle; 4,150 Gil; Sasuke; 3,400 Gil ****** Monsters: ------ Aeros; Black Knight; Chimera; Clay Golem; Dark Flan; Dark Warrior; Earth Medusa; Evil Eye; Fire Hydra; Manticore; Medusa; Mindflayer; Neochu; Nightmare; Rakshasa; Soldier; Spirit Naga; Stone Golem; Vampire Lord ------ If you dash for the stairs on every floor without grabbing any treasures, you could end up in the top floor, facing Tiamat without any scratches on your party. Of course, you could differ. The items here are extraordinary and you, without a doubt, will benefit from it. Items such as Diamond Shield, Adamanite, and Protect Ring will make you salivate when you discover their true meanings. (Especially Adamanite, a MUST get!) The monsters here can be annoying with their status-changing spells (Death, etc.) so I recommend you to save on your Memo file every battles or so (cheap but it works... heh). Remember, save often and beware of the dangerous monsters here! 1F: Plenty of items here... As you go out of the room you got in via the Warp Cube, you see that you have 4 paths to go... Where to go? Well, let me summarize all that with a nice ASCII art! Stairs to 2F | | | | Potion | 6720 Gil 9900 Gil | Healing Helm 4150 Gil------------------Start---------------Protect Ring 7900 Gil | 180 Gil | 5000 Gil | | | Venom Blade Venom Blade is fairly effective, since it can kill this dungeon's boss in one hit. Easy as that, huh? Go wherever you wish. 2F: An easy level to paint out. Stairs to 1F (Start) Mythril Helm | Cottage | Diamond Gloves \ | / \ | / \ | / \| / Ribbon 13000 Gil---------------------------------Diamond Shield 880 Gil /|\ / | \ / | \ Adamanite (A / | \ White Robe MUST GET!!!) | Black Robe Stairs to 3F 3F: The layout is more chunked than 1F's but it has the basic directions so I can make a ASCII map of it. Please note that the directions to the treasure are GENERALLY speaking, not the direct arrow. The upper room is a bit to the left but it’s more to the north than it is to the left so you should know what I mean. Protect Ring Potion 5450 Gil 9000 Gil | | | | Sasuke | 9500 Gil Gold Needle | Gold Needle 4150 Gil------------------Start---------------Protect Cloak 3400 Gil | 8135 Gil Stairs to 4F | 6400 Gil | | | none I would say go to the north AND east rooms first (order doesn't matter) and go to the west room last because the stairs is right next to the room. Make sure you get Sasuke if you have a Ninja in your party, it's his best weapon next to the Masamune (Masaume again... blargh). Protect Cloaks are the best shields for the mages. 4F: Just go right or left twice and go south twice to find the entrance to 5F. Yawn. 5F: Save your game now, and heal up all of the way! Walk up the hall and click on the Crystal for.... (drum roll) a BOSS BATTLE!!! ____________ BOSS: Tiamat ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ HP: 2000 EXP: 5496 A menacing boss and she look tough to slay... and she is! Especially with 2000 HP... She throws a variety of attacks at you such as physical claw attacks, Thunderbolt, Toxin (VERY lethal!), and some other minor ones. Make sure your WW keeps your party's HP at the VERY HIGH levels! Toxin can throw your party off if you're not careful enough. As usual, your Knights/Ninjas should use the Giant's Glove and have your BW/RW cast Haste on them. With those, your Knights can attack for about 500 Damage! Pretty nice! Your WW and BW can barely scratch the boss so let them concentrate on the healing and the status boosters. Your WW could cast NulBolt to prevent the high damage from the Thunderbolt spell. After that, you could heal or cast Shld2 to shut down the physical damage all of the way. Again, like Kraken, you have to reply on your physical attackers to win this semi-tough battle. One more tip: Break can wipe her out in a single fierce blow. (Thanks, Red Scarlet.) After the battle... just go on the warp! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ =------------------------------= CHAPTER 9 - BACK FROM THE FUTURE =------------------------------= Recommended Level: 35+ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Before we all start raiding the final dungeon and assassinate the ultimate boss, make sure your party are at least level 35. You could do this by fighting enemies with fairly high EXP (Rivers) or fighting the Evil Eye in the Ice Cavern over and over (one hit kill from your Knight or Master). If you're on a roll, just go on to level 40 because you will need every level up! The dungeon is a grueling test for your ENDURANCE... not your power! Well, you need power, but you need the endurance more. So buy 99 Potions, 99 whatever, and get all of the magic you need (Flare and Life2... you must have those magic!) Another must-have item: EXCALIBUR! If you've gotten the Adamantite from the previous dungeon, you can get this item. Go to the Dwarf Cave and enter the northern room to talk to Smithy. He will forge the sword for free! It's all yours! All done? Let's go back to the beginning of the time! Toward the timeless town of Corneria! Save and heal at the Inn and go to the Temple of the Fiends (to the north, where you fought the first boss, Garland.) =============== Temple of Chaos =============== Items: ------ 3F: 45,000 Gil; 65,000 Gil B2F: Sasuke; Protect Ring; Protect Cloak; 26,000 Gil B4F: Masamune ****** Monsters: ------ 1F-3F: Black Knight; Chimera; Dark Flan; Dark Warrior; Death Eye; Dragon Zombie: Green Dragon; Ice Gigas; Purple Worm; Rhyos; Vampire Lord; White Dragon; Winter Wolf ------ B1F: Basilisk; Clay Golem; Earth Medusa; Gnoma; Lich; Stone Golem ------ B2F: Fire Gigas; Fire Lizard; Lava Worm; Manticore; Pyros; Red Dragon ------ B3F: Aquos; Deepeyes; Kraken; Sahagin Prince; Sea Scorpion; Sea Snake; Sea Troll; Water Naga; White Shark ------ B4F: Aeros; Doom Knight; Dragon Zombie; Iron Golem; Mindflayer; Nightmare; Purple Worm; Stone Golem; Vampire; Vampire Lord ------ The Temple is fairly long and there's a good reason behind it. You have to go up to 3F first to unlock a way down to the basements, where the true battles occur. The Four Fiends are back, hence the name of this temple. Yes, Lich, Marilith, Kraken and Tiamat are all here. Before we start, you should know about a neat survival technique: (you should have known about this but I'm saying this just in case) use your Healing Staff and Helm to heal your party EVERY battle. Use your Wizards for healing. Never, never use magic unless it is used for wiping out a LARGE (6+) party of enemies OR the bosses. Your Knights and Monks can handle them all with some decent healing. Got that? Good. The enemies here are pretty tough, but nothing that you can't handle. They are actually pretty easy for you if your levels are high enough (35+). Some enemies to watch out: Mindflayer and Vampires in B4F and White Dragons in 1F-3F. That's about it. Onward! Go up to the crystal in the central room and touch it... 1F -- Four staircases here. Two inaccessible right now. One leads to the dead end. One remains. The southeastern corner. Yep, that stairs goes up to 2F. Let's go! 2F -- Go to the east and a sparkling brand new stairs leads you to 3F. 3F -- Go down until you clear the second room and head east. Follow the pillars to the entrance to the central room, where a Death Eye will confront you. Destroy it with Fire magic and physical attacks. Hmm.... You see your first chests in this dungeons! Must be tasty! Let's see what's inside! Ughhh... 45,000 GIL and 65,000 GIL? We don't need that now! We need some powerful swords that split the bosses in half! Meh. Back to the point, stand on the tile in front of the stone slab in the middle of the room. Play the LUTE that you got AGES ago. A ladder appears out of nowhere! 2F -- Get out of the room you're in and head west, then north. Go to the north- western corner to find the stairs down to 1F. 1F -- Just hop from the northeastern corner to the northwestern corner for the stairs down. B1F - Earth --- ----- Sigh... NOW there's a TOUGH floor! Walk around the horn (up, right, and down, to the other side of the floor) to locate the highly protected stairs. Why protected? Let's SAVE and HEAL before you find out! ^_^ You will fight the first Fiend, Lich, here. Just pummel him with your Knights and Monks while your Wizards use Healing Helm/Staff (don't want to waste magic on him). He has only 1000 HP so your Fighters should be able to take him down within 2 rounds. However, he casts FLARE to your party so be prepared to withstand the damage! Good luck. B2F - Fire --- ---- Yep, another floor guarded by a Fiend. But before that, you should pick up some of the treasures that reside on this floor. To the south of the entrance from B1F, there's a PROTECT RING. To the right of the Protect Ring, therein lies a PROTECT CLOAK. Further east is a chest with 26,000 GIL. Not recommended. To the extreme south (go to the western end for the path down) is a room with SASUKE. You could just skip them all and head to the stairs, just to the right of the stairs you came in, down to B3F without any hassle. Of course, you have to defeat the second Fiend before moving on... Marilith! Bah. Too easy. Just cast NulFire and kick her ass with Haste powered-up Knights/Monks. 1400 HP is nothing to you right now. B3F - Water --- ----- Oh boy, oh boy. Nothing in this level but you have to go through countless rooms to get to the next set of stairs. Just maneuver through the rooms, heading to the southeastern corner, where the stairs awaits. The next Fiend? Kraken. Surprisingly, he isn't weak to Bolt. He has buffed his muscles and is prepared to smash your party to pieces. Fear not. Cast Shld2 to offset this. Your RM and BM should cast Haste to power your attackers up to finish him off. His HP is another 400 above the previous one: 1800. B4F - Wind --- ---- This floor has one of the game's BEST weapons, but it's long and far away... You'll have to fight through a LOT of battles to get it. The weapon: MASAMUNE! IMO, I think it's worth it, since ANY character can use it!!!!! Really! To get it, go south to the next block room, and go east. Continue going east until you see a narrow path, still heading east. Take that path and it will lead you to the room with the Masamune inside. Do what you please with it. Whether if you've collected the weapon or not, go to the room right of the one that you entered (you entered the northwestern corner so go to the north- eastern corner). However, the only way to that room is from the northwestern corner so you have to go there first in order to get to the stairs. Yet another boss... Bah. This is REALLY getting old! Tiamat is tougher this time so you should cast your toughest magic for your party's sake. He wields a variety of magic and attacks so you have to be prepared to take the damage. You could always cast NulAll to lessen the damage. Like always, haste your attackers to maximize the inflicted damage. You could waste a turn to cast Saber (Giant's Gloves) if you think you can take a round's worth of damage. If you have Masamune, just equip it on your Knight and use Giant's Glove and cast Haste on him. He should do 1000+ damage easily. B5F --- HEAL TO THE MAX AND SAVE!!!!!!!!!! No battles here except for the FINAL boss! Dodge the pillars and head to the heart of the floor. Alas... you meet the young Garland! He already knew that you killed him 2 thousand years in the future (he was rather easy, bah) but the Four Fiends revived him back... Bah, let's FIGHT!!! ___________ BOSS: Chaos ŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻŻ HP: 4000 (!!!) He has a lifetime's worth of HP AND he casts Cure4, which heals himself ALL OF THE WAY to the MAX, OFTEN! (Did all of that caps hurt you? too bad.) He has, like most of the bosses, has a high defense against magic so don't waste your Flare and Holy on him. Your WM should cast NulAll while your BM or RM casts Haste and Steel to your party. Your attackers MUST use the Giant's Glove or you're going to have a tough time! In other words, this is just another regular boss battle... it's just a prolonged one. Here's my battle report: Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 ------- ------- ------- ------- KN-Neo Attack Giant's Glove Attack Attack KN-Fox Giant's Glove Attack Attack Attack WW-Slut69 NulAll (Neo) Shld2 Life 2 (Jesus) NulAll (Jesus) BW-Jesus Haste (Neo) Haste (Fox) Dead Steel Chaos Attack Blaze Tsunami Tornado Round 5 ------- KN-Neo Attack KN-Fox Attack (KILL!!!) WW-Slut69 Cure4 (69) BW-Jesus Flare Chaos Attack That's about it. Luckily for me, Chaos never cast the ever-annoying Cure4 so I was able to kill him quickly. When you've defeated him, congrats! And enjoy the ending! The ending is just a crappy text-based one. But you had fun playing this game, right? Heh... thanks for using my Final Fantasy I Walkthrough!!! Remember to save at the end! ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ ~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~- -~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~ FF2j guide , . .;. ,,. ......, . ;;'',"';;. .,,,,,,. .,;;, .. ;'''"'"'"'"';,.. .;;;. .;';. .''"';,,;'"'"';;;;;,. .XXX' ;o. ,o,'; '";''o;'',,,,,,;'"XXX;;'" ;o,", 'XX" ;" ,"o. '''' "'". Xo;X 'X. ,Xo"' O@,;,X'''. ,,. ;;"X;X'.OX. ;X'X, XoXX. oX. "XOX XOOX O X Xo;' 'X. ,X%X' @@.,;X;;;. .. ;;"X'"; %X. ;XOX, o'X'. X#X "X"x ,XX, O X X%X 'X. ,X%o' .%@, ,X',,.... .,,"X%X %X, ;X%X, 'X .X%X .Xo XX O X Xo" 'X. ,XO%' ,O%, .X;,,, ..,,"X''.,OX' ;X%@, 'X .X=X ;X" XX O X Xo. 'X. ,X'X' ;O@;.,X;';. ...'X,,.;%X".;XoX, 'X ,X%X "x'X XX O X Xo 'X. ,X.X' "o%".,X;X;. ...'X,..'oXo ;X;X, 'X 'XoX "X'X XX O X ."' ;". ,".", ';"'.,o"o,. ......;o,..';'' ;".o. ;" ';'' ."o; '" "'". ''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''';;;;;;;;;,,,... ..,;;;;;;;;''''; .. .. ,;;,;;,;',;..;;,;,.,';;,,...o. ., ,.;.,.,,.., , ,,.;.;, ...o. **View the art from afar to get the best quality** In a distant land... The peace long enjoyed by the people came to a crashing end. The emperor of Palamecia summoned fiends from another dimension... And the empire launched its campaign for world conquest. In response, a rebel force arose in the kingdom of Fynn. In the ensuing clash between rebel and empire, Castle Fynn was taken. The rebels were forced to retreat to the remote town of Altair. Amidst the chaos, four youths also fled the occupied Fynn. They were childhood friends, now orphaned and homeless... And they suddenly found themselves running for their lives. ============================================= Final Fantasy II ASCII ART by Dark Phenomenon ============================================= ============================================================================== ----------------------------- IV. FINAL FANTASY II BASICS ----------------------------- ============================================================================== Where to start, what to say? This game, at the first glance, is rather simple but behind the flowers are the horrors of leveling up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTROLS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ X--------------------Select/confirm Circle---------------Cancel/dash (hold) Square---------------Magic Menu Triangle-------------Main Menu Start----------------Main Menu L1-------------------Items Menu L2-------------------Equipment Menu R1-------------------Status Menu R2-------------------Formation Menu ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ATTRIBUTES ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ There is no level-up system, it is replaced with this odd-ball system: you are rewarded when you frequently use that stat. Ugh. Here is the chart to make it more easier to understand: Here's how you get the bonuses: (over MANY BATTLES means that it is counted together from every battle) HP ---> Severe loss of HP in ONE BATTLE MP ---> Frequent use of MP in ONE BATTLE Strength ---> Attacking, over MANY BATTLES Endurance ---> Losing HP, over ONE BATTLE Spirit ---> Using White Magic, over MANY BATTLES Intelligence ---> Using Black Magic, over MANY BATTLES Accuracy ---> Use of Weapons, over MANY BATTLES Evasion ---> Physical Attacks are aimed at you, over MANY BATTLES Agility ---> Physical Attacks are aimed at you, over MANY BATTLES Magic Defense ---> Magic Spells are aimed at you, over MANY BATTLES Weapon Level ---> Levels up after 100 uses Magic Level ---> Levels up after 100 'points' of usage You also can get some losses in those attributes if you're lucky. -As you gain STR, you might decrease INT. -As you gain INT, you might decrease END. -As you gain SPR, you might decrease STR. As for the Magic Levels, its power increases as its level goes up. The maximum is 16. Same thing goes to the Weapon Levels. I know this is a weak explanation but this has a reason. The explanations is below... || || || \/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ BATTLE SYSTEM/LEVELING UP (This includes the dirty way of doing this so read this!) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ As expected from a NES game, this one is turn-based in the form of the party. The ENTIRE party selects its commands for the turn and you watch as both sides duke it out for a turn each. So simple, you can't NOT understand it. However, the question is the absense of the most important number in most RPGs: the levels of your characters. Instead, your HP, MP, Strength, Intelligence, and everything else is determined by your frequency for the need of them. The developers intended the system to be created so that whenever you get to a tougher place, the stats goes up accordingly. So when you fight a huge behemoth and your party is amusingly weak and barely survives it, you are rewarded physically so the next time you face this monster, it is easier. Well, it was their INTENTIONS. Sadly, it does not show. Why won't it show? Well, for one, it is VERY easily abused, which I will explain to you further on. Another reason is that it is not effective. You're in the middle of a dungeon and you're battling to survive it until the end, you don't have the chance to heal up except if you can afford to go back. Now, you are supposed to get rewarded HERE! Your HP is in peril and MP is almost dried up! You get rewarded by raising the MAXIMUM number of the HP/MP, not by a curative method. So you got 100 HP and you get 50 HP bonus... You die trying to get out. Where's the 50 HP now? That brings us to the reason why we abuse the concept. It is simply too difficult to do it in the 'honest' method. We just get the bonuses BEFORE we are supposed to get it, that's all. I sound like a ex-con trying to prove why I did it. But you will do the same, so don't call me anything yet. Getting the bonuses early just paves the way to an easy road. The example I gave you in the second paragraph should be enough for you to comphrend why we do it. The only statuses that can be manipulated are: HP, MP, Weapon level and Magic Level, the visual effects. The other statueses can, theorically, be manipulated but I won't call that because you actualy earned it but whatever. How do you do it? Simple. As for the HP, you just hack at yourself until you have under 50% of the original HP (the number of HP when you entered that battle). If you do it successfully (deaths won't work, sorry), you have a good chance, not definite, of getting the HP bonus. The MP bonus, like every stat bonus, is only attained in the battles despite its ability to be used outside the battles. You have to use it quite frequently in a battle to get the bonus. Again, like the HP bonus, the more MP you use in a battle, the better the chance of getting it. The Weapon Level is the dirtiest one of all. It is used to make your proficiency, the ability to use the given weapon well, stronger. It is determined by the number of your uses of that weapon. Every 100 hacks with the weapon, you gain a level. So... you might ahve figured the trick out... No? OK, here goes. You select your enemy (or ally! ha) for your attack and confirm it. Now the cursor (the hand) should be on the next person. At this time, de-select (Circle) and the cursor is back to the original guy. Do it over and over (X, X, O, X, X, O, repeat). The reason why this works is that the developers programmed the game to count the SELECTION of the attack bar, not when you USE it. Hell, the programmers probably knew of this trick, but they just had to leave it in because without it, your weapons would be kinda weaker because think of the battles that you only had to use one or two attacks to win. By the way, you can only level your weapon up once per battle so don't go doing the X, X, O thing a thousand times! You'll only level your weapon once in that battle! Magic Level... Same as weapons level: select the magic you wish to use, then the target, then cancel, and repeat up to 100 times. But beware not to over-level-up your magic, since MP use goes up as your level for that magic goes up. It's no use having a strong magic if you don't have enough MP to use it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ASK/MEMORIZE/ITEMS ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A unique addition for this game: the Keyword/Memory system. Throughout the game, you will undoubtedly hear new terms that you have to learn to get along. In the previous (and future!) games, you would just talk to anyone and they'd know what you were talking about. Not in this game. You will have to actually ASK people the SUBJECT and they might tell you what's up. The key terms are rather easy to spot, it's always in red. When this happens, select the 'Memorize' option and it's in your log book! Yay! To ask a person, just select the 'Ask' option after you've come up to the person and pressed X to have a chat. Some people will know what to tell you, but not everyone. Also, in some courses throughout the game, you will have to give or show a person a certain item. To do this, select the 'Item' command and select the item! It's all simple! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SAVING ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ A bit different from Final Fantasy 1. Well, completely different. The ONLY time, and I mean ONLY, you can save on your MEMORY CARD is when you're on land in the overworld. However, there is still a MEMO FILE available. Like Final Fantasy 1's, it allows you to save anywhere, even in the dungeons. That way, if you made a stupid mistake in a deep place, you won't have to re-do the entire thing or even more. BUT... once you turn your PSX/PS2 off, it's all gone since it is stored in the disc not the hardware or the memory card. Tough luck. *shrug* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MAIN MENU ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Items ===== Pretty obvious here. All of the items are shown here, including the 'Key Items'. They cannot be thrown away so you have to preserve your space and constantly sell some of your un-needed stuff. There is only 63 slots for your precious items so items has to come and go. You can sort/organize it. Magic ===== View your magic and its levels here. Some White Magic can be used in this menu. Equipment ========= View your character's Attack and Defense and the weapons/armors. You can have the AI pick the best set for your Attack or Defense via the sub-menu "Strongest" and "Best Defense". Status ====== View every stat your character has. The Mastery thing on the right is your character's proficiency for the given weapons. Formation ========= Change the row formation for the characters. Keywords ======== View the keywords you have learned so far and its meanings. Config ====== Auto Target--- If ON, the character will change targets when its target is defeated. If OFF, it won't and miss. Map--- GLOBE will give you the spherical view of the map. MAP is the flat version. O Dash--- Turn on/off for the ability to run. Cursor--- In battles, ON will make your cursor stay on the last target you attacked on the next turn. OFF will do the opposite. Sound Output---Stereo or Mono. Controller---DEFAULT controls are shown above. You may change the controls via the CUSTOM selection to your preference. Text Speed---4 is the slowest, 1 the fastest. On 1, the test will almost literally pop out. Item Sorting--- Select the order you would like your items to be arranged. Vibration--- Turn it on or off, duh. Window Color--- Change the color to your preference. Collections--- View your collection of the data (Bestiary, Items, Arts) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ONE MORE THING... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Red Scarlet recommended me to discuss the 2 Weapons versus one Weapon and a Shield. RS has told me that he prefers two weapons over one and a shield. Myself, however, has always used one and one. Both sides has its highs and lows, but they're around equal. TWO WEAPONS Of course, you would opt for this since, if both of them connects, they would combine to execute a LARGE number of damage to the enemy. Yeah, it would rock... BUT there is an if. IF BOTH of them connects. As you could have seen in the menus while you were fondling with them, each person is either right-handed or left-handed. What does it mean? Yes, it is their DOMINANT arm. So, the weapon on that arm will use the weapon to its fullest potiental. On the other hand, literally, will only do the partial amount. The partial effect also has a effect on its ACCURACY! Shocking... You don't know what it means? It just means that the weapon on that arm will miss more than it should. While it does miss, it does hit sometimes... Ultimately, the theory of this one would be: "It miss, yeah, but if it works, it's awesome! It's like 'just in case'." Remember, the weak arm has an impact on the STR and ACC. One more advantage: if you use two different weapons, you could level them up at the same time, making it easier to level them all. But eh. ONE WEAPON AND SHIELD That's where I come in. You got the weapon on the stronger arm, hacking at the bad guys with powerful strokes. The other arm is left to dry out... with a stale shield. Sounds horrible? Wait until you get this... the BEST shield would only absorb 10% of the attacks. Even worse now? Not for me. Having a shield have saved my ass several times, especially in tough battles with guardians. It has a cumulative effect on your HP. In one battle, it won't look much if it absorb only one... but if you trek through a large dungeon such as Jade Passage/Pandaemonium, you will absorb more and more attacks, rather strong mind you, and it adds up. You use less MP for curing and you save yourself the trouble of reviving, perhaps. That's why I wear my ever-trusty shield... I'm alright with one. BOTTOM LINE Both sides are useful, so don't go straight to my method because _I_ use it or go to the 2 weapons because it sounds so bad-ass. Think it over. In fact, I equip my first three characters with a sword and shield and equip the fourth