Final Fantasy VI Walkthrough
Written by Djibriel
Contributor
2.35: Completing the Ancient Castle
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Castle Interior |
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Enemies: Samurai, Suriander, Armored Weapon, Lunatys, Figaro Lizard, Devil, Enuo, Coco, Samurai Soul
Lore: 
Tsunami, 1000 Needles, , Lv. 4 Flare, Lv. 3 Confuse, Dischord, Rippler
Party: Optional: Terra, Cyan, Shadow, Edgar, Sabin, Celes, Relm, Strago, Setzer, Mog, Gau, Umaro
Armored Weapon looks totally badass. It has a relatively high 9200 HP, it's immune to every status effect except for instant death (and
Doom) and has some nasty attacks up its sleeves. Normally, this is where I would say, "it will normally use Battle and !Metal Arm (Battle * 2) when he's with other monsters, as that's what his AI script says." However, since you always encounter this thing by itself, it'll just randomly use Missile, Launcher, or Diffuser. Launcher is the worst out of the bunch (Diffuser may hurt if your Magic Defense/resistance to Lightning isn't all that hot). You'll want to use instant death attacks against the fellow; he's inherently Reflective like almost everything here, but 
Banish flies right past that, as does Gau's Coeurl Cat/Lycaon-induced Blaster attacks, his Mu-induced Snare, Instant Death coming from weapons like the 
Assassin's Dagger and Ichigeki, etc. If you lack all that, focus on Lightning- and Water-elemental attacks that defy the existence of Reflect: 
Water Scroll, Tri-Dazer, Aqua Breath, you know what to do.Lunatys is a sweet enemy as well. Inherently Reflective and Floating, you'll be hard-pressed to take this guy out with any kind of magical attack (as you're used to with the monsters around here). Normally a Battle/!Electrode (Battle * 3) zealot, he'll switch to Cold Dust and Meteo when alone. Meteo will hurt real badly: just across the 1000 HP line. Cold Dust induces Freeze like always and is a pain in the ass. A common weakness to Holy-elemental attacks and instant death attacks combined with a low Defense rating should make it obvious how to treat this bugger. You can Mute them, so you could always summon
Siren or have Strago use a Bad Breath attack to stop them from using their most dangerous attack. Of special note is the fact that both Lv. 3 Confuse and Lv. 5 Death will work on these guys (also on the Figaro Lizard monsters often accompanying them). If you brought Strago, you're in luck.When you approach the derelict halls of the ancient castle, once the proud monument of a civilization destroyed during the War of the Magi, the character most suited to know the story will speak of the attack and the legend of the magnificent battle between Odin and a powerful sorcerer of his time. Maybe we will be able to find the remains of Odin inside? Before you enter the main hall, there are two more or less hidden doors to the left and right of the large doors. To the right is an already open door leading to a chest containing the
Punisher. The Punisher is a weapon that you haven't seen since Banon wielded it, and now that you've acquired the weapon, its special power can finally be seen. Like the 
Rune Blade and Organyx, it has an MP-driven auto-critical. It doesn't have any practical use unless you brought Relm or a Grand Delta-less Strago along for this dungeon, as it's the strongest attacking Rod there is (except for when the Holy Rod is hitting a weakness).To the left is a chest containing the legendary
Master's Scroll, one of the most talked-about Relics in the game. Guarding this item is a monster-in-a-box, Samurai Soul. I talked about Master Tonberry being the toughest monster in a box, but Samurai Soul is definitely up there competing for that title.Samurai Soul  Bestiary #329 |
Type |
Level |
HP |
MP |
Gil |
EXP |
Humanoid | 61 | 37620 | 7400 | 30000 | 0 | |
Strength |
Magic Atk. |
Evasion |
Defense |
Mag. Def. |
Mag. Evade |
|
25 | 11 | 20 | 115 | 175 | 0 | |
Stolen Items |
Dropped Items |
|||||
Common: Master's Scroll | ||||||
Status Immunities | Elemental Immunities | |||||
        | None | |||||
Elemental Absorb | Elemental Weakness | |||||
None |  | |||||
Lores | Command Immunities | |||||
Control | ||||||
Strategy | ||||||
First off, a note of warning: Samurai Soul is unique in the fact that he's a monster in a box you can run from. Doing so hurts your game though; you won't be able to fight him when you return to the chest, and thus you'll miss out on the Master's Scroll.Samurai Soul is the perfect hybrid between a Samurai and a Ninja, as will become apparent by his AI script. Normally, his attacks will consist of Battle, any of the three offensive ninja scrolls ( Flame Scroll, Water Scroll, or Lightning Scroll), and Gale Cut, 1000 Needles, or Shockwave. This isn't half bad for an opponent, but nothing spectacular either. It's when the enemy is aggravated that it becomes lethal. When you've battled him for longer than 40 seconds, he'll pump himself up. The message "Samurai Soul's power up!" will appear, and he will self-apply the Image and Reflect statuses, making him immune to every blockable Fight attack for the duration of Image and most Magic spells for the duration of Reflect. He'll also try to set Haste, but with inherent Slow immunity it will fail. Sad thing.He may counter Fight, Magic, and Lore with a Battle, but that's not the purpose of his counter script there; when hit six times by Fight, he'll use !Assassin Blade on a random party member, which is a simple one-hit Wound attack with an admittedly poor Hit Rate of 100. When hit three times by any combination of Magic spells or Lore attacks, he'll chuck a weapon (either Kunai or  Ashura) at a random party member, doing about 8000 damage to him/her. He'll then spend the next turn using Setzer's GP Rain, dealing exactly 915 HP worth of damage to four party members (1220 to three if one is still down from the thrown blade).Samurai Soul's glaring weakness is the combination of vulnerability to the Confuse status and its own Special, !Assassin Blade. By setting Confuse with the  Confuse spell, Strago's Bad Breath Lore, Cait Sith's Cat Rain, Edgar's  Noiseblaster, or whathaveyou, Samurai Soul has a 50% chance of killing himself with !Assassin Blade. Sketching nets you a 25% shot at !Assassin Blade too. Exploit this weakness for a far easier battle.If you're looking for more of a challenge or for some other reason don't want to muddle the poor warrior into defeat, here's what you'll want to do. First, throw up your barriers. Focus on the magical side; Mighty Guard (for Shell) or Zona Seeker's Wall, Hastega, Kirin's Life Guard, etc. Golem and Fenrir help against !Assassin Blade, but you shouldn't see it directed at you anyway.Now, let loose with your characters. There's no reason to use Fight, Magic, or Lore on Samurai Soul. Terra, Celes, and Strago should really just wait out this battle. Attack with Phantom Rush Blitzes, Cyan's SwdTech skills (Tempest is nice), Jump attacks, the Drill Tool, etc. If you're really unlucky and brought all the wrong characters, just Fight (!Assassin Blade every sixth Fight attack isn't all that bad). When Samurai Soul powers up, Dispel removes all three positive statuses immediately. If you want to be evil, you can break the no-Lore rule one time and steal all three with Rippler (provided Strago's not prancing around with something like a Guard Bracelet or Miracle Shoes). Expand Full Strategy | ||||||
After Samurai Soul dies, you'll receive the
Master's Scroll! The Master's Scroll is often misused and - dare I say it - abused. So, it's time to sit down and discuss the Master's Scroll a little. What does the Master's Scroll do? It causes Fight to execute four attacks in a row rather than just one. It also makes every Fight attack become unblockable. The Master's Scroll Fight is also smart; it will never hit defeated opponents when there are still living ones on the battlefield. That's all good. It also removes random spell casting (but not Kazekiri's Wind Slash) and criticals (including MP-driven criticals), which is kinda unfortunate in most situations. The downside is that it halves the power of every physical attack of the person equipping it. This makes sure that any person equipped with the Master's Scroll would better stick to Fight as things like Tempest, Drill, Meteor Strike, and Raging Fist all halve in power.An often-heard combination is
Genji Glove and Master's Scroll, allowing for eight physical strikes. Is this combination really that good? It delivers quite a lot of damage most of the time, and it looks flashy to see eight attacks in a row. However, you sacrifice two Relic slots in addition to the ability to equip a shield by doing this, and that's a lot of sacrificing. Is the damage output really that good to justify the sacrifice? Hardly. It's up there as far as offensive prowess goes with a single Phantom Rush, Tempest, and a luckier Dragon Horn Jump attack, sure, but that's about it. And once again, you're losing a lot defensively here.Then what are the better applications of the
Master's Scroll? In short, the odd weapons. The damage outcome of the 
Fixed Dice isn't cut by the Master's Scroll, so Setzer equipped with the Master's Scroll and the Fixed Dice will become exactly four times as powerful as a non-Master's Scroll Fixed Dice Setzer, all for the loss of only a single Relic slot. The same goes for Locke's Valiant Knife, but I'll explain about that weapon once you've gotten it. Cyan's Kazekiri Wind Slashes won't decrease in power either, but even when all four hits turn into a Wind Slash attack, the damage won't be stellar. Weapons with the X-type Instant Death feature (and the Zantetsuken) don't lose their instant death properties, so you'll have four consecutive shots at a 25% immediate dispatch. A Thief's Knife still attempts to steal, and a 
Hawkeye or Sniper will still randomly inflict more damage.A quick note about the
Thief's Knife; the game can only store a single stolen item per attack, so if you combine the Master's Scroll with a you'll only actually obtain the last item you succesfully stole. All others have been removed from the monsters but are not in your inventory.Let's press on. Inside, there will just be a big hallway you have to cross. The next room is the throne room, with the statue of Odin in the middle of it (Petrification was the quickest strategy versus Odin in Final Fantasy V, you might recall). Now, you can add the
Odin Magicite to your inventory by talking to the statue. The pathway to the right, just next to the thrones, takes you to a room with two chests: a Blizzard Orb for Umaro and a Gold Hairpin for absolutely nobody in particular.Also to the right, a little south of that very pathway, is another pathway leading to the queen's room. There's an X-Ether in the bucket, but what really draws your attention is the sparkle on the bookcase. It turns out to be the queen's diary; it seems that the queen and Odin had a little romancin' going on for a while there. If Terra is in your party at this point, she'll step away from the party to look sad and say, "Love between a human and an Esper..."
At this point, one of the scholars up in Figaro Castle will change his dialogue line to this: "Ancient texts I'm studying speak of a 1000 year-old city beneath the sand. I wonder what this means, '...when the queen stands and takes 5 steps...'" Of course, you needn't wonder, because you're about to find out. The Queen's throne is the one to the right side of the screen. Face the throne, take five steps downwards, and press the 'action' button to make the castle rumble and shake for a slight moment. Now, re-enter the queen's room to find that a stairway has appeared, leading even further down.
This new hallway is devoid of random encounters, but there are two things of interest here; first, the petrified remains of the queen herself. If you have collected the Magicite of
Odin and interact with the statue, a tear will come from the stone to drop upon his remains, turning it into Raiden, the Odin upgrade with the superior summon attack, True Edge, and the ability to teach the awesome Quick spell. Also:Blue Dragon  Bestiary #338 |
Type |
Level |
HP |
MP |
Gil |
EXP |
None | 65 | 26900 | 3800 | 0 | 0 | |
Strength |
Magic Atk. |
Evasion |
Defense |
Mag. Def. |
Mag. Evade |
|
13 | 10 | 0 | 110 | 150 | 0 | |
Stolen Items |
Dropped Items |
|||||
None | Common: Zantetsuken | |||||
Status Immunities | Elemental Immunities | |||||
 | None | |||||
Elemental Absorb | Elemental Weakness | |||||
 |  | |||||
Lores | Command Immunities | |||||
Control | ||||||
Metamorph Package | ||||||
Crystal Sword,  Crystal Helm,  Crystal Shield,  Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail32/256 Success Rate | ||||||
Strategy | ||||||
If you have any Imp equipment ( Tortoise Shield, Saucer, Reed Cloak), throw it on! The Blue Dragon is all about Water-elemental attacks, and that's what Imp equipment absorbs. Don't equip Ice Shields, as Aqua Breath will hit twice as hard when you don't have any Imp equipment; Flame Shields are even worse, as they are weak against Water-elemental attacks in general. Thunder Shields are great as they null the effects of Aqua Breath (as it's part Wind-elemental) and halve all damage done by Flash Rain (as it's part Ice-elemental); Force Shields halve the damage done by Water-elemental attacks in general, too. Minerva Bustier wearers shine once again; Minerva Bustier nulls Aqua Breath and Flash Rain and halves damage done by all other Water-elemental attacks. Equipping Snow Scarfs on Gau, Mog, and Umaro will allow them to absorb the Flash Rain attacks. Relics protecting from Seizure (that'd be Ribbon, Angel Ring and Miracle Shoes) are great, too.As soon as the battle starts, the Blue Dragon will attack with Tsunami. If Strago is in your party and hasn't learned from either the Enuo random encounters or the Master Tonberry enemy yet, here's your chance. Normally, the blasted creature will attack with Battle and Flash Rain; believe me, Seizure will get very annoying very quickly if you don't have protection against the status. When Blue Dragon dives beneath 16384 HP, he'll also start attacking with Aqua Breath and Flash Rain. Every 40 seconds, Blue Dragon will have stored enough water for a Tsunami attack as well. All in all, you will be continuously pounded by multi-target attacks. Any Magic spell or damaging attack you use against the Blue Dragon may be countered by Battle, as usual.The difficult part of the Blue Dragon's AI script is the Rippler spell. To put it simply (or as simply as possible), Blue Dragon will use Rippler if:
If all those conditions are met, Blue Dragon will cast Slow on itself and proceed to use Rippler to try to steal the Haste status and give your character the Slow status instead. So what to do? Throw up the boring old blah-blah barriers: Mighty Guard, Wall, Life Guard, Earth Wall, Moon Song, and so on. If you brought Shadow, you do not want him to be the victim of Rippler, ever (Interceptor could be stolen). Don't apply the Haste status. Attack with Lightning-elemental spells if possible. Valigarmanda's Tri-Disaster isn't absorbed, so that works; Thundaga is stronger, though. Lightning Scrolls work great, but Thunder Blades are even more powerful. The same old stuff still works. The mages should stick to Lightning-elemental attacks. Edgar makes a good Dragon Horn Dragoon, as usual. Sabin's Phantom Rush beats all, like usual. Setzer's GP Rain is still stronger than Slot, while the Fixed Dice (especially when paired with the Master's Scroll) are superior to both of them. Cyan can't really do his job as usual (though you can set him up as a utility man). Gau's Aspiran Rage allows him to absorb all Water-elemental attacks while making him attack with Gigavolt, a strong Lightning-elemental attack that will really hurt Blue Dragon. Actinian and Exocite also allow Ragers to absorb Water-elemental attacks.You know, this battle's ease doesn't mean that the Blue Dragon is weak; on the contrary, with regular multi-target magical spells packing some power behind them and no crippling status vulnerabilities, the Blue Dragon is a fairly solid contender. It's just that the fact that your characters are becoming more overpowered really begins to show by now. If Phantom Rush and Dragon Horn Dragoons weren't enough, you get to use Fixed Dice/Master's Scroll, equip armor like the Minerva Bustier and Cat-Ear Hood, and have access to all the awesome no-questions-asked attacks such as Grand Delta and Phantom Rush. Expand Full Strategy | ||||||
When you have defeated the Blue Dragon, you'll be rewarded with the
Zantetsuken. It's the only non-Knife weapon Cyan can equip and pretty much his best option (while his 'ultimate' weapon is slightly stronger, it has none of the neat side-effects the Zantetsuken does).With
Raiden obtained and the Blue Dragon defeated, there is nothing more for you here. You can leave this place and tell the old man in Figaro Castle to advance with the castle. You can revisit this place any time you want to, as every time you travel under the sea with Figaro Castle the old man will be surprised by the oddness of the stratum. The guy probably has trouble remembering his wife's birthday too.
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.