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Final Fantasy VI Walkthrough

Written by  Djibriel
Contributor
Contributor / Fanart Editor & Data Manager / Contributor

Welcome to our Final Fantasy VI walkthrough, edited and expanded from Djibriel's original to make it faster and more web-y than ever before. Enjoy the rigorous attention to detail and sardonic wit herein!

1.1: Prelude: The Attack on Narshe

First Cave
10/16
3
6/16
1
1
Second Cave
6/16
1
1
5/16
2
5/16
2

Enemies: Guard, Silver Lobo, Megalodoth, Wererat, Spritzer, Bandit, Ymir

Narshe, a coal mining city that manages its own business and cares not for the war that is waged far away, has stumbled upon a mysterious find in their mines. The Empire, the all-consuming power-hungry nation to the far south of the world, has learned of this. Three of their most dangerous units are dispatched to claim this discovered treasure for the glory of the Empire, by any and all means necessary. Three soldiers of the Empire, piloting Magitek Armors, are sent out. One of them is a very special soldier of the Empire, and a future unlike any other is waiting for her.

Once you have control of the characters, open the menu and put all your characters in the Back Row. Magitek attacks, being magical beams and all, won't suffer from the 50% damage reduction of most back row attacks, but you'll be reaping the benefits of the reduced damage that hits back-row characters yourself.

This is the prologue of the game, and it concerns you, being overpowered, blasting your way through poor defenseless Narshe. Enjoy the Magitek powers while they last. Any offensive attack you perform at this point results in death on the other side. With this in mind, the choice is simple. If Terra comes up, have her use the multi-target Bio Blast attack. The Imperial soldiers can make themselves useful by using any of the three single-target beams; they are identical in power and are always fatal, so it doesn't matter what you do. After you've leveled a bit, you can use Terra's OCure out-battle to restore HP. Use it once with a multi-target effect and you're set. Do the same after the forced pincer attack you had to endure from the Silver Lobo, Guard, and Guard monster formation. The next one will feature Megalodoth.

These monsters will start using Snowstorm, a multi-target Ice-elemental attack, on you as soon as Terra (or, if not available, a randomly decided party member) has a level equal to or higher than 7. This is not the case when you encounter them now, so they will only attack you physically.

Although they have the second-highest Attack in the game, the fact they're level 1 effectively screws them out of any significant damage output. If you're in the Back Row, you'll see them doing 0 damage. Savor the sight; it'll be a while before you see it happening again on a physical attack. For extra fun, try using Confuser against them; it'll give you a little taste of what Snowstormy violence will be sent your way later in the game. For instant death on their side of the battlefield, Bio Blast works well enough as it kills all four targets instantly.

There is a minimum of two battles and maximum of five to be fought in this part of Narshe. When you enter, you can try to go right of the Inn. A single Silver Lobo will be sent after you.

You have no choice but to press on. You will encounter two Guards when you try to pass the Inn, there's no avoiding them. There are lines of what appear to be vents on the ground. You've been following the vertical line, you now come across a horizontal line of vents. If you stand on the tile where the two cross, two Silver Lobos will be sent after you, and then two Narshe Guards. You can avoid this by going around the tile in question. If you pass the Item Shop, you'll be caught in a pincer attack of two Guards and a Silver Lobo; this is unavoidable. Past that, you've entered a newly dug Mine Shaft in search of the Esper you're supposed to retrieve. You're up for some vermin in the mines.

You're past the town of Narshe. You can be proud of yourself; you just killed a number of brave men, undoubtedly with happy lives and families. Faintly, you can hear an orphan crying. Note: you will not actually hear an orphan crying. This is not an error in the walkthrough. Don't read everything so literally.

You can pretty much blast your way through these monsters too. In the first cavern, there are Wererat and Bandit, in the second, Spritzer. Wererat absorbs Poison, so while it may be tempting to use a multi-target spell against the largest group of enemies you're facing, don't. Spritzer absorbs Lightning, so in any battle you find one, avoid Thunder Beam like the demonic plague it is. Electricity fails at success, anyway.

A Bandit is one messed-up little dude with self-destructive tendencies of the worst kind: The kind that can hurt you as well. Every time you'll hurt it without killing it, there's a 33% chance he'll use !Wrench on himself. If, however, you dealt a fatal blow to him and he decides to execute that !Wrench, he'll find that he can't actually attack himself. Nay, one cannot attack the dead. He'll fling the tool in your direction instead. Avoid this by using Banisher, or try to not care.

Eventually, you'll come across a barrier. Biggs will knock it down for you, but as soon as you want to continue a Narshe Guard rushes out with quite a nasty surprise...

Ymir
Ymir
Bestiary #276
Type
Level
HP
MP
Gil
EXP
None
4
50000
120
0
0
Strength
Magic Atk.
Evasion
Defense
Mag. Def.
Mag. Evade
13
5
0
102
155
0
Stolen Items
Dropped Items
None
Common: Hi-Potion
Status Immunities
Elemental Immunities
darknesspoisonimppetrifydeathsilenceberserkconfusionsleepslowstop
None
Elemental Absorb
Elemental Weakness
lightning
None
Lores
Command Immunities
None
Control, Scan
  

Ymir (Head)
Ymir (Head)
Bestiary #277
Type
Level
HP
MP
Gil
EXP
None
6
1600
1000
0
0
Strength
Magic Atk.
Evasion
Defense
Mag. Def.
Mag. Evade
22
10
0
100
155
0
Stolen Items
Dropped Items
None
None
Status Immunities
Elemental Immunities
darknesspoisonimppetrifydeathsilenceberserkconfusionsleep
None
Elemental Absorb
Elemental Weakness
None
None
Lores
Command Immunities
None
Control, Scan
 
Strategy
 
This battle is quite simple. Biggs and Wedge will alert each other about the grave importance of avoiding attacking the shell at all costs. When they're done, you can move in for your very first boss battle.

The shell and the head are two separate entities. The shell will do nothing as long as you don't attack it, but every time you deal damage, it will counter with Megavolt. Megavolt won't be strong enough to actually kill a character at full HP, but it will be strong enough to do so in two hits.

The head will just attack physically and on occasion slow you down with !Slime. After every 10 seconds, it'll 'retreat in its shell', disappearing from the battlefield. He'll keep this up for 10 seconds, and he'll pop out again.

Your strategy? The main thing to avoid is selecting an attack on the head just when it retreats. It's because of this it's best to just go with one attack for each character in one period of 10 seconds. When you can move, make your generic Imperial soldiers attack with a Beam-class attack and the mysterious girl use Magitek Missile. Wait until the head has retreated and appeared again. Repeat. Ymir should be dead by now if you fought all the battles against the Narshe guards; if not, just go for another round.

Note: If you are beyond the shame of any man, you can go for the Ether the shell provides. Since the shell only has 120 MP, he can only use six Megavolt attacks. After this, it is helpless. If you whittle down its 50000 HP and make sure you kill both the shell and the head with one attack (use a calculator!), you'll get both the Ether and a Hi-Potion, and it'll only have cost you over an hour and your dignity. Expand Full Strategy
  
In the second cave, you finally come across the object of your mission: The dug-up Esper. But as soon as you get near it, the mind-slave of your party acts very weird indeed, and not long after the two soldiers grow suspicious, they are removed. We can't say for sure the Esper killed them or simply warped to some place, but we never ever see them again.

Alone, the Esper does something to Terra. Her Magitek Armor explodes underneath her, and all turns to an inky black.

Caves of Narshe: Final Fantasy VI
Version 6
©1997–2024 Josh Alvies (Rangers51)

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