Final Fantasy VI Walkthrough
Written by Djibriel
Contributor
2.31: Gungho's Assignment
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Enemies: Warlock, Displayer, Slatter, Cluck, Eland, Hipocampus, Opinicus,
Hidon, Hidonite, Hidonite (2), Hidonite (3), Hidonite (4)
Lore: 
GrandTrain
Party: Relm, Strago Optional: Terra, Cyan, Shadow, Edgar, Sabin, Celes, Setzer, Mog, Gau, Umaro
There is a small island to the north of Thamasa called Ebot's Rock. It's closed for now. Foreshadowing? Back in Thamasa, as soon as you cross between the Armor Shop and the Item Shop, Relm will get excited about being back home. However, not all is well on the home front; Gungho, Strago's former battle partner, took on Hidon, the legendary beast Strago hunted together with Gungho when they were young. Hidon was submerged under water along with Ebot's Rock itself, but, now that the cave has resurfaced, Gungho had another go. That didn't go over too well; he's been defeated and is now bed-ridden. After listening to Gungho's pleas, Strago decides to go after the beast, and after a while, accepts Relm's help. Note that, after this scene, Strago is actually required to complete the dungeon that is Ebot's Rock. Relm, however, is not. There's a theme here: Warp stones are found throughout the dungeon and all monsters have a Warp Stone as both their rare drop and rare steal. That's kind of them.
The Warlock is an annoying little... warlock. Evil and vile throughout, it makes a mockery of the holy light by attacking with the
Pearl spell, which is actually all it uses for attacking. It may try to drain back some of its lost MP with !MagicDrain, but it'll be attacking you almost exclusively with the Pearl spell (and entirely exclusively when it's alone). The Warlock's Defenses are also very strong; its Defense is high, its Magic Defense extremely so. Barrier-piercing attacks should be your main priority against him; you might even use the 
Stop spell to make sure he doesn't hurt you in the meantime.The Displayer needn't worry you. It looks dangerous, but this is not the case. It may randomly use ChokeSmoke on the second, fifth, eighth (etc.) turn but it will be a wasted turn like always; its Special is called !Rib and, unlike what you would expect, does Battle x2 damage rather than setting Zombie. Common Undead weaknesses in Fire and Pearl can also be found in this opponent.
Slatter bears a close resemblance to Prussian, wouldn't you agree? See, it's funny because... Oh man, I'm too funny to bear. Again! If you haven't figured out that I'm stalling because Slatter is a rather boring enemy, you haven't had enough sleep. They attack with Battle and !Choke (Battle * 1.5). They're not very powerful with it. The only interesting thing to say about them is the fact they take a distant liking to percentage-based attacks (75% Shimsham through Sketch, Cave In through Rage) while being immune to it themselves.
Cluck are upgraded ChickenLip. Weak to Ice like their WoB brethren, they now also absorb Poison-elemental attacks. They have
Quake written all over them, in Sketch, Control, and Rage alike; they'll have a 33% chance of using it when alone. Every second turn when not alone, Cluck has a 33% chance at using !Lick, which sets Petrify and should be avoided.Elands... these little oddities are weak against Lightning, and they attack with Battle and !Stench, which sets Confuse. Control, Sketch and Rage all grant access to the spell. Unlike Humpty, they're not Undead, and that's why they don't absorb
Bio attacks either. Hipocampus is worth nothing. Hippocampus is a lot of things: A mythical sea horse, half horse (the front) and half dolphin thing or whatever (the back). It's the Latin name of the family of seahorses too, and it's also a part of the brain (humans have two Hippocampi). Hipocampus is nothing but a monster, here. It attacks with Battle and !Clamp, which sets Seizure. It may counter any Magic attack with the Poison- or Water-elemental Acid Rain (which sets Seizure), and it can counter any other form of attack with the much more powerful Ice- or Water-elemental Flash Rain attack. Both attacks also feature Sketch and Control potentiality, and the Rage list features Flash Rain. The best way to deal with them is by casting
Rasp; they have 82 MP and will die from sub-zero MP, leaving them unable to use final counters.Opinicus are very similar to Buffalax, almost so much so that there's no doubt it's intentional; just like Buffalax, they will use nothing but Battle for four turns before letting loose with Battle, Battle, and !Riot (which once again is Battle * 1.5, unsurprisingly like Buffalax's Special of the same name). When hit by Magic, Buffalax responded with Sun Bath; Opinicus responds by casting Wind Slash. The main difference is the fact that Opinicus is Undead, with the standard elemental properties of Undeads too.
So, the strategy is clear. Cast
Float on everybody to protect against a stray Quake attack, and make everybody invisible with Fader or Vanish. Aside from this, don't let Cluck be the last monster on the battlefield, don't cast Magic on Opinicus, and kill Hipocampus with Rasp and you're invincible here until Hidon.Here's the deal in this cave. The first warp stone (not capitalized to differentiate from the item Warp Stone) takes you to a living, talking chest that won't grant you passage since he's hungry. He's also a chest, lacking opposable thumbs, abstract thought, or even the most rudimentary of senses. Let's face it; bossing around other people to bring him food is really his most effective way of feeding himself. Your task here is to feed him enough Coral, the stuff of magic you find in the chests all around Ebot's Rock. In every chest, there's an equal 25% chance you find one, two, three, or five pieces of coral. The talking chest will let you pass on two conditions. One: You need to have Strago. If you don't have Strago in your party, you can feed him all you want but won't accomplish anything, either for you or for the chest. He eats, like so many young people of our time, because he's unhappy. It's a destructive and endless cycle of finding consolation in the very weakness he despises. Two: You need to feed him 22 pieces of Coral in one go. If you feed him 18, he'll send you off for more, and in the meantime he'll get hungry enough to need all 22 pieces of Coral again.
So, while you scurry off to find a pencil and a slip of paper to write down how much Coral you're finding all around, I'm going to try to explain how the layout of Ebot's Rock is constructed.
Just kidding. Every warp stone has up to four different locations it can warp you to. They're all in the same room, and in most cases there's only one warp stone to walk towards after possibly raiding a chest. There's no possible advantage of knowing where you are; warp, open chest, warp. Repeat if necessary. In the end, you'll have your 22 pieces of Coral and you can go 'find' the talking chest. It's up to luck how soon you come across it, obviously. Feed him, and you're allowed to continue. Finally, Hidon! The mere sight of the horrid creature sends shivers down Strago's spine. Can we assume Strago knows that this creature can teach him the most powerful of Lores, the fabled
GrandTrain? The Japanese game sure mentions it, so it's time to pound him for the sake of great, sweet justice.Hidon  |
Type |
Level |
HP |
MP |
Gil |
EXP |
Undead | 43 | 25000 | 12500 | 0 | 0 | |
Strength |
Magic Atk. |
Evasion |
Defense |
Mag. Def. |
Mag. Evade |
|
13 | 10 | 0 | 110 | 160 | 0 | |
Stolen Items |
Dropped Items |
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Common: Warp Stone | ||||||
Status Immunities | Elemental Immunities | |||||
          | None | |||||
Elemental Absorb | Elemental Weakness | |||||
|    | |||||
Lores | Command Immunities | |||||
Control | ||||||
Strategy | ||||||
Hidon attacks with Battle and Bio. That's what he does. He has a 33% shot at using Bio, and a 66% shot at Battle. If you hit him with something, he has a small chance of countering with the Poison spell. Whenever a character dies in-battle (aka the Wound status), Hidon will try to revive the fallen character as a Zombie with the ChokeSmoke attack, which will fail if the fallen character is immune to the Zombie status ailment. When Hidon is alone, its first turn will be devoted to glowing with an eerie yellow light and attacking with the magnificent Lore GrandTrain, which will deal between 900 and 950 damage on your sorry posterior. That's about when you'll notice that Hidon is particularly mean when it's by itself; it'll start attacking with all kinds of crazy spells, including Virite (the multi-target Poison-elemental attack that misses a lot yet looks funky) and Raid (the non-elemental HP draining spell). Eighty seconds after the last of the Hidonite has perished, Hidon will call his minions back into existence. If you kill them all again, Hidon will cast GrandTrain again, and then revive them again.Throw up your barriers where possible ( Haste 2, Big Guard,  Golem/Fenrir, Kirin) and set Slow on Hidon. Evasion of physical attacks is doubly important, as all the Hidonites will try to set nasty status ailments on you with their Specials. Now, it's time to take care of the Hidonites. While Bahamut's Sun Flare attack is by far the best way to take care of them all at once, well-timed doses of Cyan's Stunner attack, possibly paired with Edgar's  Autocrossbow or Flash Tools, should get the job done. The most difficult Hidonites to dispatch is the one in the lower-left corner (it is inherently Reflective, absorbs all elements, and has Instant Death protection). Shadow's stronger throwing stars work well against this one, as does Strago's Step Mine attack, Setzer's  Fixed Dice, and Edgar's Drill. Also, don't forget to throw around stealing attempts until you've stolen something from Hidon; the common steal is a meager Warp Stone, but the rare steal is a  Thornlet, an elusive item that, provided you choose the  Ragnarok sword over the Ragnarok Esper once the time comes, can only be found here.The Thornlet is an odd piece of Headgear. The only thing it has going for it is the fact that its Defense is superior to everything, not including the Titanium on Imps. On the downside, the Thornlet grants inherent Seizure to the wearer (thorns inflict pain) and has no Magic Defense whatsoever. The verdict, then, is that the Thornlet should be ignored. The only valid reasons for getting one are either to complete your item list as much as possible or to bet it later for a  Mirage Vest.Now, behold the power of GrandTrain! As soon as that's all over, it's time to defeat this wretched being. Tritoch's Tri-Dazer attack, Fire 2, Fire 3, and Quake spells really hurt, as does Shadow's  Fire Skean. Having Shadow Throw a Flame Sabre,  Gravity Rod, or Pearl Rod hurts Hidon very badly. Equipping Mog or Edgar as a  Dragon Horn Dragoon paired with a  Pearl Lance can also deal great amounts of damage. Mog should definitely refrain from using Dances; the Dusk Requiem sucks. Bum Rush and Fixed Dice are reliable as always. Strago and Relm themselves really need to rely on their Magic skillset if used; if Strago's selection is extremely poor, I would suggest Aero or Step Mine. Obviously, if Strago is level 43, his Stone attack surpasses all other options (except Fire 3). Cyan should probably stick to his Quadra Slam SwdTech skill, unless you've put in the time to teach him Fire 3. Gau has a few options, but most of them are kind of odd. Scrapper is nice enough, as it allows Gau to absorb Poison, Bio, and Virite. Inherent Haste and Elf Fire are good enough too. If you're not too concerned about that Poison ailment, have Gau engage Chickenlip (don't forget to cast Float on yourselves beforehand, since ChickenLip uses Quake). Finally, Magic Urn turns Gau into an ever-present tank that heals your party. Nice. And Umaro? Just let him go, man. Expand Full Strategy | ||||||
After the fight, Strago will giggle like a little girl and run off to tell his friend. Gungho seems surprised and oddly vital when hearing the news, and both aging men stay up late to celebrate. Relm, just like the stereotype demands, is smarter and more mature than her old grandpa, and explains to the moronic player that Gungho was faking his wounds. When the player regains control over the party, you may or may not notice that the party hasn't been healed from the fight against Hidon, although they did spend the night in Thamasa. It's possible that some of your characters are still poisoned, so you might as well take them to the cheap Inn and heal them with a good night's rest.
A pretty important note here: after this event, Gungho can be found walking around the outside of Strago's house. Normally he'll just ask you if everything's okay, but any time you talk to him, there's a 12.5% chance that he'll say: "Hidon's appeared at Ebot's Rock again!". As soon as Gungho says this, Hidon will indeed appear on his original spot. To reach him, you'll have to gather another 22 Coral for the living chest that has also reappeared. Re-fighting Hidon is only important if you either haven't learned
GrandTrain from the first fight or need a Thornlet, possibly to wager at the Colosseum for the Mirage Vest. It should also be noted that after the first time you defeat Hidon, Strago is no longer required to find Hidon.Now, you probably taught Relm at least the level 3 spells or
Flare while she was still equipped with that awesome Cat Hood or possibly the awesome Magus Rod, and Strago has the best multi-target damage of any character at the moment, so we can all celebrate their Thamasian existence. I think we've done pretty darn well with our Thamasian friends.
Caves of Narshe: Final Fantasy VI
Version 6
©1997–2024 Josh Alvies (Rangers51)
All fanfiction and fanart (including original artwork in forum avatars) is property of the original authors. Some graphics property of Square Enix.
Version 6
©1997–2024 Josh Alvies (Rangers51)
All fanfiction and fanart (including original artwork in forum avatars) is property of the original authors. Some graphics property of Square Enix.