Final Fantasy VI Walkthrough

Written by Djibriel

Contributor

2.40: Climbing the Fanatics Tower, For Real

Cultist's Tower Interior
5/16	Level 90 Magic	1
5/16	Level 50 Magic	1
6/16	Magic Urn	2

Air Anchor Room
	Magic Urn	2

Top and Fourth Tier
5/16	Level 90 Magic	1
5/16	Level 80 Magic	1
5/16	Level 80 Magic	2
5/16	Level 90 Magic	1
5/16	Level 60 Magic	1
1/16	Magic Urn	2

Third Tier
5/16	Level 60 Magic	1
	Level 30 Magic	1
	Level 10 Magic	2
5/16	Level 70 Magic	2
5/16	Level 50 Magic	1
5/16	Level 70 Magic	1
	Level 50 Magic	1
	Level 40 Magic	1
1/16	Magic Urn	2

Second Tier
5/16	Level 50 Magic	1
5/16	Level 40 Magic	1
	Level 50 Magic	1
	Level 60 Magic	1
5/16	Level 30 Magic	1
	Level 20 Magic	1
	Level 10 Magic	1
1/16	Magic Urn	2

Bottom Tier
5/16	Level 10 Magic	1
5/16	Level 20 Magic	1
5/16	Level 30 Magic	3
5/16	Level 40 Magic	1
5/16	Level 20 Magic	2
1/16	Magic Urn	2

Enemies: Holy Dragon, Magic Urn, Level 10 Magic, Level 20 Magic, Level 30 Magic, Level 40 Magic, Level 50 Magic, Level 60 Magic, Level 70 Magic, Level 80 Magic, Level 90 Magic

Party: Optional: Terra, Locke, Cyan, Shadow, Edgar, Sabin, Celes, Relm, Strago, Setzer, Mog, Gau, Gogo, Umaro

Welcome to the Fanatics Tower! You've almost certainly been here before; if not for some Moogle raiding, you likely picked up Strago here with Relm earlier. Regardless of the actions you've taken (or not) so far, I've always advised you to put off fighting the final opponent at the very top until later. Now is the time for that showdown. The tower has a series of enemies that are found nowhere else, and they all have a bevy of magical attacks warranting description:

Magic Urn is an odd enemy, if you can even call it that. The only chance of this opponent actually harming your party is if you're undead, and it has no intent of setting the status itself. On the first turn, it'll use either a Remedy item or an Ether, a Hi-Potion or Elixir on the second, and an Ether or a Hi-Ether on the third. If any of your characters has the Wound status set, it'll use a Phoenix Down on him/her (due to a bug, it'll have that response to the Reflect status in the PSX versions). If one is Petrified, it'll use a Gold Needle item (due to a bug, it responds to

Protect in the PSX versions). After it has used an item, it has a 33% chance at fleeing the battle using Escape; it'll also sometimes flee when you damage it. With 100 HP, absorption of all elements and status ailment invulnerability, it's difficult to harm the thing without killing it. If you have trouble accepting help or simply want to speed things up, the only way of killing these things is

Berserking a character, casting

Drain,

Meteor, or

Ultima, or summoning Esper

Bahamut,

Maduin,

Ragnarok, or Esper

Quetzalli. If you smell great Rage potential here, you're absolutely right.

Level 10 Magic casts level 1 spells every turn, and will counter any damage done to him with either a

Slow,

Stop, or

Haste spell. They're undead, and they have the normal Undead weaknesses: Fire and Holy, while absorbing Poison. They are vulnerable to

Silence, non-Reflective, Floating. No threat to a Relic

Reflect Ring party.

Level 20 Magic casts instant death attacks.

Gravity,

Graviga, and

Break are all potential occurrences on the first turn, with

Gravity,

Graviga, and

Banish available to the enemy on the second turn, followed by a loop of the same.

Banish is its most dangerous by far. This mage counters any time damage is dealt with either a

Rasp,

Confuse, or

Protect spell. It is weak to Poison, vulnerable to Instant Death, Reflective. These are one of the more dangerous enemies to run into with a Relic

Reflect Ring party; make sure you take them out quickly.

Level 30 Magic casts level 2 spells, and will counter every move you use against it with either an

Imp,

Osmose, or

Reflect spell. They are weak to Poison, absorbs Holy, non-Reflective.

Level 40 Magic casts

Drain,

Break, or

Vanish every turn. It will counter your attacks with either

Silence or

Sleep. This one is floating, weak to Lightning, absorbs Poison, non-Reflective, vulnerable to Mute.

Level 50 Magic is your typical undead mage, casting

Poison,

Bio, and

Death the first turn. The thing spends the next turn casting either Remedy (33%) or

Dispel (66%) on a monster. When damaged, it will retort with a

Berserk,

Slow, or spell. It's also got a random spattering of the typical strengths/weaknesses: Undead, weak to Fire and Holy, absorb Poison, vulnerable to instant death and Mute, non-Reflective.

Level 60 Magic casts

Quake,

Tornado, and

Holy. When damaged, it'll cast

Osmose,

Slowga, or

Regen on a single character. Weak to Fire-elemental spells, Level 60 Magic also absorbs Ice-elemental spells, is Floating, and is vulnerable to instant death and Mute. Non-Reflective, too.

Level 70 Magic casts the level 3 spells. When damaged, it'll respond with

Sleep,

Rasp, or

Shell. It absorbs Fire, and is weak to Ice and Water. Level 70 Magic is Reflective, but vulnerable to instant death and Mute.

Level 80 Magic is finally an opponent with some sophistication; she's a lady, after all. She'll cast

Cura,

Esuna, or

Haste when a character is Reflective. If that's not the case and a monster is Reflective instead, she'll cast level 3 spells on all monsters. If nobody on the battlefield has the Reflect status, she'll just go with

Poison or

Bio spells. When damaged while your characters have the Reflect status, she'll counter with

Curaga,

Cure, or

Reraise (which can't be Reflected...poor confused gal). When damaged while monsters with the Reflect status are around, she'll cast

Stop,

Dispel, or

Holy on a monster. If she's damaged with no Reflective targets around, she'll do nothing. She is weak to Poison, non-Reflective, vulnerable to instant death.

Level 90 Magic is the strongest random encounter here. The first three turns may feature

Flare,

Meteor, or

Meltdown.

Meteor is the most dangerous of these three, but

Meltdown is especially annoying, as Level 90 Magic absorbs Wind. Every fourth turn, the guy can cast a

Dispel spell and up to three

Flare spells. When damaged, he may counter with

Stop,

Thundaga, or

Reraise. Level 90 Magic is reflective, Floating, and vulnerable to Stop.

So yeah. I've never found much satisfaction in the Fanatics Tower's specific kind of challenge, but maybe you're just itching with excitement, I dunno. Here's a set of small tables to remind you of the opponents' statuses:

	Reflective	Undead	Floating	Death Immune	Can be Muted	Can be Berserked	Can be Stopped
Level 10 Magic		Yes	Yes		Yes	Yes
Level 20 Magic	Yes
Level 30 Magic						Yes
Level 40 Magic			Yes	Yes	Yes
Level 50 Magic		Yes			Yes		Yes
Level 60 Magic			Yes	Yes	Yes
Level 70 Magic	Yes				Yes		Yes
Level 80 Magic
Level 90 Magic	Yes			Yes		Yes	Yes

How to handle them:

Level 10 Magic: a

Raise spell
Level 20 Magic:

Banish or

Break spells (bounce off Relic

Reflect Ring characters)
Level 30 Magic:

Break spells
Level 40 Magic:

Silence
Level 50 Magic: a

Raise spell
Level 60 Magic:

Silence
Level 70 Magic:

Banish or

Break spells (bounce off Relic

Reflect Ring characters)
Level 80 Magic:

Break spells
Level 90 Magic:

Stop (bounce off Relic

Reflect Ring characters)

On the whole, especially against the weaker opponents, you may just want to go all-out on the offensive. Spells such as

Meteor and

Ultima never fail to deliver damage, no matter who the opponent is, and since nobody here absorbs Lightning-elemental attacks, cast

Thundaga on all four or your Relic

Reflect Ring characters to hit them.

Whom to bring? That really depends. Know that the Fanatics Tower is very special, and that ascending the tower means that you will temporarily lose all your skills except for Magic. Obviously, those with high Magic Power are favored, but much more important is how much you've built up your Magic skillset. If somebody knows

Ultima, bring him or her along no matter what else he or she has going on; next to that,

Meteor,

Flare,

Thundaga,

Stop,

Silence,

Raise, and curative/restorative spells are pretty much what you'll be wielding, so you'll want to bring those with you. Typically, assuming their Magic skillset is roughly the same as mentioned above, you'll want something like Terra, Celes, Relm, and whoever. If only one or two characters know

Ultima, bring Gogo along so that it can miraculously know

Ultima too.

Preparation: Relic

Reflect Rings are vital. You will need a Relic

Reflect Ring on every character, period. Inherent Reflect status makes climbing the tower much easier, and it is a very important factor when fighting the strongest mage this world has to offer: The Magic Master. Also, know that you'll be casting and receiving Magic spells only, so the Battle Power of weapons and Defense rating of equipment is useless. Equip accordingly. Relic

Ribbons are very nice as well, by the way, as a lot of status ailment spells will be coming your way, sometimes reflected off barriers and therefore capable of penetrating your magic shield of justice and sunlight known as a Relic

Reflect Ring.

Also, make sure you cast

Float on the party. A surprise

Quake is easily countered but can be equally painful.

At the Fanatics Tower, Fight is turned into Magic and every secondary skill disappears. Item's still there, but that's it. If you send Gogo up the tower, give it the Fight command as that'll turn into Magic (while its Magic command will be removed). Umaro doesn't suffer a bit from the Fanatics Tower's strange effect, as he will perform normally. When Berserked, characters will just use Fight.

There's a door we can access on the first part of the stairway. Enter and raid the chest; it contains a Relic

Safety Bit. The Relic

Safety Bit protects the wearer from Instant Death magic; it's basically a Relic

Memento Ring for everybody. But wait a minute, didn't that thief in Maranda mention how one of his companions mumbled "to the right of the treasure chest?" The thieves could never have gotten very far, so you'd better check it out. Press the action button when standing to the right of the treasure chest. Something rumbles and, when you leave the door, another one will have appeared below you! When you enter this one, you can find a chest containing an Tools

Air Anchor, Edgar's most rare Tool.

The Tools

Air Anchor does the following. Once an enemy is hit by the Tools

Air Anchor, it is allowed one more action, after which it dies. The tool never misses, unless the target is immune to Instant Death attacks. The Tools

Air Anchor also deals damage, which is entirely redundant (as no damage will be done if it misses, and the damage is useless if the target dies the next round anyway). I myself have always liked the Tools

Air Anchor because it never fails and you can focus attacks on other opponents with the knowledge that the Anchored one has been taken care of; others will disagree on account that, unlike instant death attacks, the Tools

Air Anchor allows an opponent to squeeze off a final attack.

The only battles in the Tools

Air Anchor room feature Magic Urn. Not only do they heal you with a multitude of potions, they also Escape on their own after a while. They have a kick-ass Rage (allows Gau to absorb all eight elements and provides immunity to all status ailments, regardless of equipment, while casting

Curaga half the time), so you'll want to meet them at least once.

We press on! The door in the second part of the stairway contains a Shield

Genji Shield, which is a nice enough shield; it provides for the third-best Defense in the game (lower than the legendary Shield

Paladin's Shield and oddball Shield

Tortoise Shield), respectable Magic Defense, and +20% Magic Block added to the wearer. The door in the third part of the stairway contains the Dirk

Kagenui, the most powerful Dirk for Shadow. It has a 25% chance of casting

Stop every time a strike is made, but gives nothing in terms of fringe benefits. This weapon is famous for Colosseum tactics against the likes of Typhon and Siegfried, who are both vulnerable to the ailment and very hard to defeat by other means. I suppose now would be a good time to mention the Holy Dragon in the corner.

Holy Dragon Bestiary #344	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	71	18500	12000	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	13	9	0	110	150	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Holy Lance Rare: X-Potion			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
				None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control
	Metamorph Package
	Angel Ring, Angel Ring, Safety Bit, Guard Bracelet 32/256 Success Rate
	Strategy
	Wow. There is just so little I can say about Holy Dragon here. He casts up to three Holy spells every turn. When hit by a Magic spell, he has a 66% chance of countering with Dispel. And that's it. Heck, you've even seen a palette swap of the thing earlier. Holy Dragon casts nothing but spells, and is vulnerable to Mute. That's all there is to it, just cast a Silence spell and you're done. You don't have to bother with Slow, Stop, and all that, just cast Silence and attack the thing with offensive spells. If you're getting low on MP, use Osmose. Try not to swallow anything sharp while playing, as that's the only situation I can imagine where a loss on your part is actually possible. If you brought either Locke or Shadow, equip a Thief's Knife and go for Holy Dragon's steal items, as both are nice. If you arrived here with a solo-Mog party (with the hopes of raiding chests), the strategy is only slightly different; since you don't want to take any chances, be sure you're equipped with a Reflect Ring. If Mog doesn't know the Silence spell, equip Siren so Mog can summon her for the Hope Song attack. Now that Holy Dragon is at Mog's mercy, just attack until he's dead. Expand Full Strategy

After the battle, you'll get a Lance

Holy Lance from an event. This is to make sure you don't get a Lance

Holy Lance every time you see the Holy Dragon on the Veldt: yes, the cretin appears there! It makes for quite a solid Rage too, casting

Holy and instant death protection and all.

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Caves of Narshe: Final Fantasy VI
Version 6
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