Final Fantasy VI Walkthrough
Written by Djibriel
Contributor
2.30: A Dragon in the Opera House
Enemies: Earth Dragon
Party: Optional: Terra, Cyan, Shadow, Edgar, Sabin, Celes, Relm,Strago,Setzer, Mog, Gau, Umaro
Do you remember the four switches in the right wing of the Opera House? They're referenced in this very guide, much earlier, which is one of the reasons this guide is so stellar. Starting from the left, the first switch makes a sound like a dog barking. Switch 2 turns out the lights in the opera hall, causing the crowds to make little eyes in the darkness. Funny! The third switch is the one you want now; before, it dropped you back to the entrance hall, but now it will take you to the stage, which means that for some reason, someone rewired this trap door in the last year. To what end? The final switch was the one you wanted in the WoB, but not now. Hit the third switch when you're ready to fight.
Earth Dragon Bestiary #342 |
Type |
Level |
HP |
MP |
Gil |
EXP |
None | 53 | 28500 | 16500 | 0 | 0 | |
Strength |
Magic Atk. |
Evasion |
Defense |
Mag. Def. |
Mag. Evade |
|
23 | 12 | 0 | 110 | 150 | 0 | |
Stolen Items |
Dropped Items |
|||||
Common: X-Potion | Common: Magus Rod | |||||
Status Immunities | Elemental Immunities | |||||
None | ||||||
Elemental Absorb | Elemental Weakness | |||||
None | ||||||
Lores | Command Immunities | |||||
None | Control | |||||
Metamorph Package | ||||||
Strategy | ||||||
The Earth Dragon is fairly unique; he's the only elemental dragon that doesn't absorb his own element (instead, he uses the Float status to circumvent almost all Earth-elemental damage). Why they chose to do this is beyond me, as even with Quake healing, Earth Dragon wouldn't have been that crazy of a challenge. We may well never know. Every 20 seconds, the Earth Dragon will use his 50 Gs attack, an Earth Dragon-only move that removes the Float status on all targets. Irremovable Float, like the one given by the Angel Wings and Float-inducing Rages, will not be removed. Given the fact that Earth's G is, as you might expect, 1 G, 50 G is plain crazy; you'd effectively become 50 times as heavy as you normally are. Shadow would suddenly become 7250 lbs, for instance. But enough with the first-grade science. He has a one-third chance of countering any damage done to him with the dreaded !Honed Tusk attack, which really is quite strong. Any other attack he uses will be either Battle or ground-based. Quake always misses Earth Dragon himself, and the Magnitude 8 and Landslide attacks should either miss or heal you if you've been smart up until now. Start the battle off by throwing up your barriers. Golem and Fenrir are particularly useful, as the only real threat in this battle should be Earth Dragon's !Honed Tusk and Battle attacks. Strago's Mighty Guard should also help in that department. Hastega is great as always, and Kirin doesn't hurt either. Cast a combination of Sleep and Slow on the Earth Dragon as well: remember that Sleep can also be set with Strago's Bad Breath attack, which also can set Poison on the Earth Dragon. Now that you've been bulked up plenty, (and the Earth Dragon is vulnerable in his extended slumber) it's time to start the magical offensive. If you want to keep Earth Dragon sleeping, keep Gau busy with Magic spells. Back Row Gau with 255 Defense and a Float-inducing Rage is invulnerable, but it may come at the cost of fallen party members. If that sounds a bit cheap to you, and since all characters are either draped in Gaia Gear or protected by Angel Wings, I should mention that Rages like Marchosias, Ninja, Hornet, and Luridan really help (especially Marchosias). Strago's Aero packs a proverbial wallop, and Shadow's Water Scrolls are pretty strong. If you don't care for the Sleep status, Thrown Sakuras are extremely painful to Earth Dragon. Sabin's Phantom Rush still gets the job done as always, and it is superior to Razor Gale even though it doesn't exploit a specific weakness. Mog's Water Harmony is a superior alternative to Jump attacks if you're trying to maintain a snoozing Earth Dragon. His Wind Rhapsody is also an option; Wind Slash is weaker than El Nino, but you might prefer Wind Rhapsody's 6/16 Sun Bath to Water Harmony's 6/16 Plasma attack. All other characters should just stick to Magic spells. Umaro should be kept far away from this battle, as usual. His presence makes the Sleep status strategy rather impossible. Expand Full Strategy | ||||||
After you've defeated the Earth Dragon, you'll obtain a Magus Rod, which gives the same +7 Magic Power as the Enhancer does, but gives a 30% Magic Block bonus where the Enhancer only gives a 20% increase. The Magus Rod is sweet and is preferable over all other rods.
Now we've gotten all the normal Lores we can easily gather and optimized our equipment, it's time to dive into Thamasa for two things: Strago's ultimate Lore and some quality Esper time that Thamasians both desperately need and deserve.
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.