Final Fantasy VI Walkthrough

Cave
6/16	Bandit	1
6/16	Spritzer	1
5/16	Spritzer	2
5/16	Wererat	2

Monster formations: Silver Lobo, Silver Lobo, Guard Leader Megalodoth, Silver Lobo

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

Treasures: Elixir, Phoenix Down, Sleeping Bag

Terra wakes up alone, scared, and confused. An old man found you in the mines and nursed you back to health, but to make matters worse, you have to flee as soon as there's somebody to explain the situation to you. Such plot device! You get the fact that Narshe guards outside are trying to get to you. Scones will not be involved in the meeting, so you'd better make a run for it.

Remember when you were in the Back Row? Let's stick to that.

When you awoke, you received two Sleeping Bags (from the old man, we could assume). Sleeping Bags are like Tents, but for one person only. They completely restore HP/MP and remove any status ailment except for Zombie, but are only usable on a Save Point or the Overworld Map. Before you go, grab the Elixir in the clock.

Remember those Magitek attacks you just did? They're gone. Your party members have been magically consumed, and your magical tank of happiness exploded under your seat. Everything you love is finite. But don't fear too much, for a Final Fantasy tradition of old is about to set in: You can now hurt stuff with pointy things that you push into them using your muscles. Use it to your advantage.

If you're in for some leveling, I suggest moving to the Front Row. You'll take more damage, sure, but you can also kill Wererat and Spritzer with a single Attack command now, which is much more MP-friendly in the long run. If you seek to breeze through, stick to the Back Row and use

Fire. Out-of-battle

Cure is your friend.

These monsters and monster formations seem awfully familiar, don't you think? The difference is, though, now you're by your lonesome, without magical machines of malice and maniacal maiming under your command. I guess we can do it the old-fashioned way, then. Double Spritzer should be taken care of with a multi-target

Fire spell, as should a double Wererat. Start the Bandit/Spritzer battle off with an multi-target

Fire spell and finish Bandit off with a physical. You can't do anything about !Wrench now, so suffer in silence.

There are two chests here. Feel free to grab the left one; it contains a Sleeping Bag. Later it turns into an Elixir, which is much better, but you can steal them in large quantities by then so there's no need to wait. It'd be best to leave the right chest alone; while the Phoenix Down it now contains is nice, the Relic

Guard Bracelet Relic it transforms into later will be much nicer.

When you're past the two chests and the Save Point, remove Terra's Dirk

Mythril Knife and Shield

Buckler, and press on. The Narshe Guards will corner Terra, but she has a plan: Quickly, she collapses down a conveniently thin layer of rock that caves in underneath her. One could argue this isn't so much a plan as it is sheer luck, but I'm willing to give our heroine some credit here. Three flashbacks will be seen now: Terra getting her Slave Crown from Kefka, Terra being tested as the Imperial weapon she was meant to be, Terra at an Imperial parade. Behind the Emperor here, from left to right: Kefka Palazzo, General Leo Christophe, and General Celes Chere. A cozy bunch.

Locke arrives to the game! Locke and the old man chat about bygones and memories past, while the old man takes care of some exposition. Basic points: The Empire is evil, the Returners are fighting the Empire, and Narshe should join the Returners, but right now has not done a thing. Locke manages to reach Terra before the Narshe guards do, which is a good thing all in all. Terra is still unconscious, so she needs to be rescued. Locke is your new permanent character. That naming screen sure is a dead give-away, is it not? You can now control him using your controller. It won't be for long though, as the half dozen enemies, which come storming into the place, will ensure Terra is captured and Locke smacked around. But lo and behold, there are eleven Moogle friends for you to exploit as well! Sadly, you cannot enter their equipment menus, except for one, Mog. How bizarre. Foreshadowing?

Equip Locke with the equipment you snatched from Terra; the Shield

Buckler will be especially nice. You can put Mogret, Molulu, Moguel and Cosmog in the Back Row, as their weapons will still do full damage. Now, head into battle. Already know which team you want to use for the boss battle - it should be either the Locke party or the Mog party. Try to avoid fighting with this group, and catch the other monsters with your inferior groups. If you fail, the monsters will reach Terra, prompting Locke to say: "No...! I failed her..."

There are two battles here. First, I'll talk about the battle you engage in when you meet the walking monsters. This is the Megalodoth and the Silver Lobo formation. Aim all attacks on the Megalodoth at first, then the Silver Lobo. Don't bother using Steal with Locke; they carry nothing of importance. If you use Mog's party, you will notice that Mog learns the Twilight Requiem after one battle. Have him use this Dance for the other battles, as it kills stuff dead very seriously.

Steal is a new command, and while you will eventually encounter it in other forms, at this time it's just Locke's. Let's talk a bit more about it.

Each monster has two slots in which they can carry items. One slot holds the item you'll most commonly see being stolen, which is generally called the 'common steal'. The other item is the one you'll want, and this is the 'rare steal'. Locke has, when he successfully steals, an 87.5% chance of going for the common steal, and a 12.5% chance of going for the rare steal. If one of these spaces is empty, it will be ignored in the decision between the two items. If the common steal slot is empty, you're already looking at a 7/8 chance of missing before the success rate is even calculated.

Even if both slots are occupied, your Steal attempts won't always be successful. Remember, it is the opponent's interest to keep hold of its belongings. The chance of Steal working depends entirely on your level and the opponent's level. Speed is no issue, so raising it won't increase the success rate of Steal. What will make for a better thief is the Relic

Thief's Bracer. The Thief's Bracer doubles your chances at stealing. It won't stack with another Relic

Thief's Bracer (the +5 on Speed will, but the special effect won't). Steal will let you steal all sorts of items: Healing potions, weapons, armor, relics, you name it. What you can't steal: Vital body parts, girlfriends, money, dignity.

On to Mog! Mog's Dance skill is limited to the Twilight Requiem for now, a Dance he will learn as soon as he has fought one battle here. The Twilight Requiem will have the following random effects every turn:

7/16 Cave In - Removes 75% of target's current HP
6/16 Snare - Sets KO to a single enemy, prevents final counters
2/16 Will o' the Wisp - single-target magical, Fire-elemental attack
1/16 Poisonous Frog - single-target magical, Poison-elemental attack, also sets Poison

Guard Leader Bestiary #278	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	Humanoid	8	420	150	350	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	60	9	0	110	140	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Mythril Knife			Common: Hi-Potion
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
	None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			None
	Strategy
	Unless both Mog's team and Locke's team have been beaten down severely, there's no good reason to use the four-generic-Moogle party against the Guard Leader. Between the other two, the choice is up to you. As you cannot get a Game Over in this part of the game - a defeated party is sent back to a certain point with all characters at 1 HP - you can always fight Guard Leader with Locke until you have stolen a Mythril Knife. If you have trouble with the actual 'killing' part of the Guard Leader battle (Power-wise, not moral-wise), Mog has extremely dangerous attacks to offer, so you can use him for that. If you picked Mog's team, the Twilight Requiem will make short work of the fight regardless. If you picked Locke's team or the third and inferior party, you will want to kill one Silver Lobo and then focus your attack on the Guard Leader. As long as he's not alone, he won't use !Charge, an extremely strong physical attack that can kill weaker units in the Front Row. He will, on the other hand, use the Net attack to stop some of your party members. You can try to stall if Locke is hit if you want to. Expand Full Strategy

Before you engage in the Guard Leader battle, remove Mog's Lance

Mythril Spear and Shield

Mythril Shield. Equip the Shield on Locke if you're fighting the Guard Leader with him.

For some trivia knowledge some would appreciate, Molulu is Mog's girlfriend. Molulu is the weakest Moogle you'll find here and stands next to Mog on the battlefield on the second position of his group. Male chauvinist pig explanation of Molulu's weakness: She's a woman. Family-friendly support group-evading explanation: Although lacking in combat experience, Molulu excels in other areas and is exhibiting fine moral fiber in supporting her lover in battle anyway. At any rate, the Relic

Molulu's Charm you'll find later in the game, a Mog-exclusive Relic, is supposed to be given to him by Molulu.

1.3: Adventuring School and the Road to Figaro

Grasslands
10/16	Leaf Bunny	1
6/16	Leaf Bunny	2
6/16	Darkwind	1

Forest
10/16	Leaf Bunny	2
10/16	Darkwind	1
6/16	Leaf Bunny	2
6/16	Darkwind	2

Desert
5/16	Sand Ray	2
5/16	Alacran	3
5/16	Sand Ray	1
5/16	Alacran	2
1/16	Sand Ray	1
1/16	Alacran	3

Enemies: Silver Lobo, Leaf Bunny, Darkwind, Sand Ray, Alacran

Treasures: Ether, Potion, Sleeping Bag, Monster-in-a-box (Silver Lobo)

It was going to happen regardless of your wishes. This is the place where the game is explained to you. There will be one battle against the weakest opponent in the game. Try finding your chi or something. I hear it's located within you.

When you enter, the first thing you'll see is a man standing over a bucket. While normally I wouldn't advise you to go near people bending over buckets, let alone drink anything those buckets may contain, this specific bucket contains water from a Recovery Spring, magical springs that heal HP, MP, and remove all status effects.

There are three rooms in this building. Field Science is the one to the far right, and it's where the only monster here is located. Open the chest to fight a single Silver Lobo. Have Terra Defend (press right when in the command menu) and Locke Steal until you've gotten that Potion. You know you want it. Kill him with violence.

Find the Ether in the yellow pot in Field Science and open the chest in Battle Tactics (middle door) for a Sleeping Bag. Then, be bold and walk straight into Advanced Battle Tactics. There's a chest containing a Potion in there. Now, exit. The guy in front of the door advises you to skip Advanced Battle Tactics. What a Potion-hogger, eh?

Should you try to enter Narshe, a Narshe guard will rush to the scene and inquire to your name. You quickly run off. Having been dissed by a Narshe guard, you have no choice but to pursue a career in fighting for the greater good. Locke was told to bring Terra to the king of Figaro, and so he does. Castle Figaro lies in the middle of the desert, denying the rules of logic and reason. You need to cross the Overworld Map in order to reach it.

Equip the newly acquired Dirk

Mythril Knife on Terra. She won't use it, gods no, But it's still a 4 point increase in Attack, and I don't see why the hell not. Keep the Shield

Mythril Shield on Locke; he has more Hit Points, granted, but he will be taking more damage as well. For the battles against the grassland and forest monsters, it would be best for both Terra and Locke to sit safely in the Back Row, as neither of them will be using the Attack command. In the desert, put Locke in the Front Row, and keep Terra in the Back Row.

There are two kinds of battles here. There are the desert battles and the non-desert battles. The non-desert battles are no threat to you. If Locke comes up first, have him Steal. It'll get you moderately useless junk, solely limited to Potions. If Terra comes up, a multi-target

Fire spell kills everything.

Desert battles are different. In here, you'll face danger. And sand in your boots. Ahem. If you come across a double Sand Ray formation, have Locke Steal (Antidotes!) and Terra use a single-target

Fire spell, which should take one down in a single hit. Repeat for the other. If, however, you come across more than two, a multi-target

Fire spell followed by a physical from Locke kills. Do just that. Don't waste more than one

Fire spell in one battle unless you're close to the castle. Hey, did you know that the Sand Ray was based off an actual creature, the Trilobite? They're related to crabs, scorpions and spiders, but are extinct due to the fact they failed at life in general.

There's a Chocobo Stable hidden in the forest south of the desert. There's no reason to go there whatsoever. The owner will charge you 100 Gil to rent-a-bird. If this seems insane to you, remember that this is the same guy who hides his own shop in the woods. And here I was thinking you'd want to promote your shop if it depended on your amount of customers. I'll never understand capitalism.

1.4: Figaro Castle

Enemies: Magitek Armor

Treasures: Antidote, Gold Needle, Phoenix Down, Potion

You've reached Figaro Castle to find that everybody's mighty polite. There's not a whole lot to do here. Walk on. In the furthest room, Edgar Roni Figaro is casually lounging in his throne. Before you talk to Edgar, put Locke in the Front Row (if you hadn't already) and take his Shield

Mythril Shield from him. Once you've spoken, Locke'll leave. Edgar hits on you! Oh my, I can't see that working out. After the failing of his charms, he too leaves, leaving Terra to question her... sexuality? More or less.

When controlling Terra, equip the Shield

Mythril Shield on her and put her in the Front Row as well. There are two shops here, an Item shop and a Weapon shop. There's really not anything that you need to buy at the Item Shop. You could buy a Tent or two if you have the money, but you'll need 1250 Gil for the Weapon Shop. There, buy a Tools

Noiseblaster and a Tools

Bioblaster; you have, however, already obtained an Tools

Auto Crossbow by talking to Edgar. One should wonder where Edgar keeps his hands if he has the power to sneak stuff in your inventory without you noticing, especially since he's the token pervert of this game. Make sure to find the Potion, Antidote, Gold Needle, and Phoenix Down in the castle. All of them are easy to find so I won't bother pointing them out to you.

You need to find the High Priestess of the castle; she is located in the left wing. She'll tell you all about the rather tragic past of the Figaro throne. Sabin Rene Figaro, Edgar's twin brother, ran away, leaving his brother as the sole monarch, as things should be. In the Japanese game, she also states here that Sabin was smaller and weaker than Edgar when they were children. When the High Priestess is done telling her story, you can find Edgar again, who has returned to his throne. In the hallway, you meet the second man of the Figaro army, the Chancellor. Have a chat, by all means. As soon as Edgar starts to make small talk again, he is disturbed by the gravest of messages; Kefka Palazzo, a big man of the Empire, is coming for a visit, and something tells you he won't be wanting any of your scones.

Once controlling Edgar, keep him in the Front Row and equip Mog's Lance

Mythril Spear on him. This is a good chance to do that equipping, as events are about to transpire that might make you forget. Specifically, Edgar defies the Empire! He blatantly lies to Kefka when he asks if he knows anything about Terra, the girl who 'stole something of minor importance'. The only thing she stole was the Empire's dignity! Zing! Edgar also calls Kefka Emperor Gestahl's court mage. Does that mean that Kefka knows Magic as well?

Now, when you're controlling Terra again, take hold of that Sword

Mythril Sword. What a switch-happy game it is. You can follow Locke now if you want to.

You'll notice that Terra is one level, if not two, behind Locke. Edgar will be even stronger. If you want to equal the situation out a little, you can choose to leave the castle and fight some solo-Terra battles outside. I advise you do the training in the forest, though, as the desert enemies might !Numb you and grant you a Game Over of Death. From the forest, you might opt to rent a Chocobo to return to Figaro Castle, too.

That night: Misfortune! Kefka has royally screwed Figaro's alliance with the Empire; for a moment, all seems hopeless, but Locke had a plan! Turns out Edgar and the Chancellor had taken this possibility into account. Anyway, you escape your castle while said castle is digging its way through the desert. No, I don't know either why they didn't do that right away, before the bad guys set it on fire. You're now being chased by a platoon of Magitek. We saw how powerful they are, remember? You are going to die a painful but mercifully quick death.

It turns out that Magitek Armors are about as laughably incompetent in combat as they were awesome out of it. For this battle, the main objective is to avoid being hit. The enemies are susceptible to confuse, so use that knowledge to your advantage. Have Edgar use the Tools

Noiseblaster as soon as possible and keep them confused during the rest of the battle.

Simply let him bide his time if both are still confused and it's his turn to move again. Locke should Steal; Potions and Hi-Potions are nothing to get excited about, but Attack removes the Confuse status. Terra should pump out single-target

Fire spells. It'll get you a nice scene. Terra's Magic and their own self-destructive tendencies while confused will grant you victory. Bravo Figaro!

1.5: Through Figaro Cave

First Cave
10/16	Hornet	2
10/16	Foper	3
6/16	Hornet	1
6/16	Urok	2

Second & Third Caves
6/16	Urok	3
5/16	Foper	2
5/16	Urok	1
5/16	Hornet	2

Enemies: Foper, Hornet, Urok

Treasures: Ether x2, Phoenix Down

Figaro Castle is gone, and you still can't go to Narshe (don't try, the situation there hasn't changed since you left and you won't get in). I guess it's time to quest further into Edgar's lands, Figaro, to reach the Returners' Hideout. Terra should be useful in their battle against the evil Empire. Put everybody in the Back Row again. I know it gets boring now, but I promise I'll eventually let you keep characters in the Front Row. If you're wondering why Back Row characters still take reduced damage even when there's nobody in the Front Row to protect them - which is the nominal point of being in the Back Row - then I have no satisfying answer.

If you didn't use Terra's Magic spells in the battle against the Magitek Armors, you still can trigger the 'flipping-out' scene in normal battles. Throughout the cave you retain this possibility, but if you've not seen it before you step on the tile just in front of the exit, the ability to see the scene is lost. It's an entertaining scene, don't lose it!

Hornets are Floating creatures, but that doesn't make any difference at this point of the game. They attack physically with Attack and !Iron Stinger. Urok are horribly defenseless creatures, but there's something about Urok monsters I find particularly repulsive, so I don't feel bad about killing them. Besides, !Digestive Fluid sets Sap, of which I'm no fan. When you confuse them with the Tools

Noiseblaster, they might try to use the Magnitude 8 attack, but they have insufficient MP.

Foper are the only creatures here that might stand through a single Tools

Auto Crossbow attack. They can force you to sleep when you look in their eyes with !Forty Winks, but you'll have killed them before they get a chance to use an attack like that. They may try to use Dread Gaze when confused, a Petrifying attack, but it will fail due to insufficient MP.

Edgar is a very nice addition to your team. In fact, I'd say he's horribly overpowered at this stage of the game. Time to take advantage of it! Edgar can one-hit KO Hornet and Urok with his Tools

Auto Crossbow. If you don't meet Foper monsters, have Terra simply Defend and Locke Steal while you're waiting for Edgar's turn to come up. When Foper does in fact make an appearance, have Locke still Steal, Terra use a single multi-target

Fire on the group, and Edgar finish it off with his Tools

Auto Crossbow. If you're scared you wasted Gil on the Tools

Bioblaster, you'll gain use for it soon enough. If there's a choice, always try to Steal from Urok. A Potion is a Potion, but a Remedy is a Remedy, if you know what I mean!

As far as chests go, there are three in this cave. I know you're just dying to grab them, but desist and cease! Know that the amount of chests you shouldn't get is about to rapidly decrease, and these items, while 'meh' at this point (Phoenix Down upstairs, two Ethers downstairs) will transform into rad items in the near future. I advise you to let them be.

1.6: South Figaro and Off

Grasslands
6/16	Belmodar	1
5/16	Unseelie	2
5/16	Mu	2
5/16	Unseelie	1

Forest
6/16	Mu	4
5/16	Belmodar	1
5/16	Mu	2
5/16	Belmodar	1
	Unseelie	1
	Mu	2

Enemies: Belmodar, Unseelie, Mu

Treasures: 500 Gil, 1000 Gil, 1500 Gil, Antidote, Elixir, Eye Drops, Gold Needle, Green Cherry, Relic Hyper Wrist, Relic Hermes Sandals, Phoenix Down, Potion x3, Teleport Stone

You've reached South Figaro! Great. This is the first town you arrive in where you don't try to slaughter innocent inhabitants, so you should be able to shop, sleep at Inns, steal stuff from houses, and talk to NPCs: The usual RPG to-do list. How awesomely groundbreaking.

Item Shop: You might want to buy one or two Gold Needles, as it *is* possible to accidentally get a Petrified character in a bit, and you'll want something to counter its effects.

Weapon Shop: Buy a Sword

Great Sword and give it to Terra. Give the Sword

Mythril Sword to Locke. You'll be switching to a better weapon in no time, but for the time being, it's a free upgrade from the Dirk

Mythril Knife. You can buy the two Tools that aren't Tools

Auto Crossbows for Edgar (if your ignorant brother saved after the Figaro Castle experience without buying them there).

Armor Shop: Buy two Shield

Heavy Shields, three Helmet

Plumed Hats, a Armor

Cotton Robe, and a Armor

Kenpo Gi. Equip them with Optimize.

Relic Shop: Buy three Relic

Star Pendants and a Relic

Jeweled Ring. I'll leave the verdict on whether to purchase Relic

Knight's Code or Relic

Sprint Shoes up to you. Relic

Silver Spectacles have an actual purpose in this GBA release of the game (as opposed to earlier versions where the Darkness status did close to nothing). They are, however, still crummy as Darkness isn't a dangerous status ailment. Equip a Relic

Star Pendant on every character. The Relic

Jeweled Ring protects against Petrify. Because you won't be able to get yourself Petrified unless you level Terra up to level 68 (she learns the

Break spell at that point) or take tremendously stupid actions when facing Cirpius, you can just let the Relic rest in your Inventory. You'll need it later on.

Hidden Items: Like in the first cavern you explored with a lone Terra, there are items hidden here that are best left untouched for a while. Here's a list of the items in South Figaro currently, as well as the items they will become if left to age appropriately:

(items now) (items they become)
Phoenix Down - Phoenix Down
Potion - X-Potion
Antidote - Tent
Eye Drops - Remedy
Potion - Holy Water
Green Cherry - Tent
Gold Needle - Elixir
Teleport Stone - Phoenix Down

There's a Potion in the barrel between the Weapon and Armor Shop. I suggest skipping this one in order to come back for the X-Potion later; you've got plenty of Potions, but X-Potions will always be nice to have. There are Eye Drops in a box north of the entrance to the port, and an Antidote in the barrel just above it. They become a Tent and Remedy respectively, so it doesn't really matter what you do. The barrel next to the Chocobo Stable contains a Potion that becomes a Holy Water (leave it), the Green Cherry behind the Chocobo Stable becomes a Tent (grab the Green Cherry) and the Gold Needle in the box to the far southwest corner of the town becomes an Elixir (definitely leave this until after it changes).

Enter the large house in the northwest corner of South Figaro. You'll enter through the left door; exit through the right door. In one of the barrels you see here, there's a Phoenix Down.

Continue behind this corner of the house and you'll find yourself in a hidden room! Search the clock for an Elixir. Now, go back in the house and go up the stairs.

In one of the rooms, there will be a man writing a letter (who is he writing to? I'm sure it's not important. Couldn't be the enemy, anyway). Behind the bookcase, you'll find a secret entrance to a staircase, which leads to another staircase. Follow it in the next screen. Go all the way to the right until you're facing a wall; from here, go all the way down to the bottom. You should be out of sight now. Next, go right to enter a secret area with a Relic

Hyper Wrist and a pair of Relic

Hermes Sandals. The Relic

Hyper Wrist boosts Strength, increasing your physical attack power; the Relic

Hermes Sandals give you inherent and unremovable Haste status.

I suggest giving the Relic

Hermes Sandals to Locke and the Relic

Hyper Wrist to Edgar. If you had Relic

Sprint Shoes equipped on either, you can just pass them down to Terra. Exit. Going up will take you to a room with three doors. The first is empty, the second one contains a Save Point, and the third one contains four chests, respectively containing 500 Gil, 1000 Gil, 1500 Gil, and nothing. I, for one, believe the last one is symbolic for the meaning of life. Exit.

On the town wall, there's a group of three barrels you can see when standing near the Chocobo Stable. Find your way there (stairs are near the Armor Shop) and grab a Teleport Stone. It'll become a Phoenix Down later, but Teleport Stones are infinitely cooler at this stage of the game than Phoenix Downs will ever be. Finally, there's a Potion in the house of the old servant of the richest man in town. I figured I'd save the best for last.

Other stuff to do: In the Pub, there will be a dark man with a dog near the counter. Talking to him will allow you to name him. Shadow sure is mysterious. If you thought he was going to join your party now, think again. This guy is a ninja; they don't even consider bothering you in RPGs unless you're at least past the first serious town.

In the Japanese game, an old man in the Pub will also say that 'you' (Edgar) look like one of Duncan's students, which is the first hint there that Sabin went off to train under Master Duncan.

You've had your fun in South Figaro, bought some new armor, equipped some Relics, and met a mysterious stranger with the name of Shadow. I'd say it was worth it.

But, time to move on. Go straight north, as there's something of interest there. The enemies on the way are fairly standard stuff by now. Unseelies take more damage from Tools

Bioblaster than from Tools

Auto Crossbow, so use that on double Unseelies. They'll just attack physically and won't start using !Mythril Wrench until they're alone, and they shouldn't have the chance. The Anthology Bestiary claims they're Imperial maintenance troops. It's official media, but one wonders why Imperial maintenance troops would wander off into the lands to smack people with wrenches as opposed to, say, carry out maintenance to Imperial stuff.

Mus are obscenely boring creatures as they do nothing but Attack under any circumstance. The only interesting thing to note about them is the fact that they cannot be struck by Meteor Strike. A character you'll meet in the future can lift trains, hold up houses and whatnot, but he cannot lift this squirrel up in the air. It makes sense when you think about it while drunk.

Belmodars are the first genuinely dangerous-looking creatures you meet. They attack with Attack and !Rush, and counter Magic spells with a 1/3 shot at using Megavolt, so don't do that. You'll want to try to Steal a Claw

Mythril Claws from him; trust me on this one, even though it's a weapon none of your characters can equip... yet.

Make use of Edgar's Tools

Auto Crossbow in almost every encounter (excluding double Unseelie, which can be taken down easier with Tools

Bioblaster), have Locke Steal and Terra use Defend. Cure outside of battle when needed. When your level is decently high (9), Edgar should be taking out Unseelie in one hit with the Tools

Auto Crossbow as well.

1.7: Into the Mountain

Caves
10/16	Zaghrem	2
6/16	Gorgias	2

Slopes
11/16	Cirpius	3
5/16	Gorgias	1
5/16	Cirpius	3

Great Slopes
10/16	Trillium	2
5/16	Trillium	1
	Gorgias	1
	Cirpius	2

Foothills
10/16	Spritzer	2
	Trillium	1
	Zaghrem	1
6/16	Unseelie	2

Enemies: Spritzer, Zaghrem, Trillium, Gorgias, Cirpius, Vargas, Ipooh

Treasures: Potion, Dirk Main Gauche, Relic Gigas Glove, Tent x2

The three of you come across an odd hut in the middle of nowhere. Obviously, the most appropriate response is to explore it and take a nap if nobody is around. Let's just hope the beds and spoons are decently sized, or some bear might come for you. It's a Goldilocks/Square cross-reference! The flowers, stove, and dishes all draw a comment from Edgar. What is he talking about? We can rest assured it's a woman, however, since no man would profile himself through tea and domestic ornament like this. Duh. There's a Potion in the bucket. Egads! He was talking about his long-lost twin brother, Sabin. Outside, Edgar will show his double-headed coin to an old man and ask if he's seen 'this guy' (Sabin) before. Sabin has headed into Mt. Kolts; his mentor has been killed, and the mentor's son, Vargas, is missing too. Nice.

Mountains are always nasty to cross, and Mount Koltz is no exception. You will be attacked, spied upon, and tested severely. Also, expect a boss fight at the end, I might add. If that sounds fun, you're doing well. Stick everyone in the back row if they're not already there. This is the repetition style of learning.

This is highly frustrating for console players, but Zaghrem enemies carry Helmet

Bandanas, which are incredibly hard to obtain right now. They're rare steals, and the common steal is empty. This means that your Steal attempt automatically has a 7 in 8 chance of failing. It's a slightly stronger helmet for Locke, Terra, and a character you're about to obtain, so if you're really adamant about having the maximum equipment right now, try to get a few of them. The Tools

Auto Crossbow is a convenient way to kill Zaghrem. If it doesn't kill them outright, you can finish them off with Back Row physicals or a multi-target

Fire spell (although � note - you should really be saving your MP in this 'dungeon').

Cirpius are potentially the most dangerous, but they conveniently never live up to that promise. If you allow them to take three turns, they have a rare chance of using !Beak, which sets Petrify on a character. A triple Cirpius formation, however, can be killed in one go with the Tools

Auto Crossbow. When they show up with a Gorgias enemy, you'll want to confuse them until one of them has petrified the Gorgias with either !Beak or the

Break spell.

Gorgias is the only real threat here if you're diligent about handling Cirpius. They have stronger physicals, comparable to Guard Leader's pounding, and they have a 1/3 chance at countering every Attack command. Ergo, don't use it. A multi-target

Fire spell and an Tools

Auto Crossbow round will finish them.

Trillium, lastly, are annoying because they Poison you with !Poison Touch. They only use it the first round though, after which they'll take two turns just attacking you physically. This means you can easily use an Antidote or the

Poisona spell first and kill them second.

The first slopes feature no enemies, so you can safely walk into the cave. The cave is straightforward. The other side takes you to another slope, with monsters this time. You see a chest there, but you can't reach it. This cave has two 'hidden' passages leading to treasure. The first is to the south of the entrance. Around the square-ish bulge, you can reach an exit leading to the chest you saw earlier. It's a Dirk

Main Gauche! It's the first weapon you've run into which provides a stat boost, and it's a better weapon for Locke. Grab it and return.

To the right of the path/stairway, there's a hidden passage into another room, which holds a chest containing the Relic

Gigas Glove. The Relic

Gigas Glove is much better than the Relic

Hyper Wrist; while the Relic

Hyper Wrist boosts a stat used for physical damage calculation by 50%, the Relic

Gigas Glove simply boosts your physical damage by 25%, period. Equip it on Edgar to boost his Tools

Auto Crossbow. With the Relic

Gigas Glove equipped, Edgar should be taking everything out in one hit except for Gorgias, which can be finished with a single-target

Fire. Locke should Steal. Continue up the wooden pathway. Outside, you will walk around two slopes and reach two entrances into the mountain. Now, for the first time, you'll see a shadowy figure leaping away from you. Who could it be? Beyond this, the first of these two entrances takes you to a chest with a Tent, while the second one continues your way through Mt. Kolts.

Misty slopes with a bridge this time. The bridge looks like it might collapse, but it doesn't. Ever. The next room contains a Save Point, and when you leave it, you'll be on what I've dubbed as the Great Slopes at the Monster formations section. Follow them all the way down, and you'll eventually meet the shadowy figure that has been stalking your every move. It's Vargas. He believes you have something to do with Sabin, so he commences his violence. You get to hurt him now. Obviously, you've made sure that your HP is high enough for boss battles, as well as Terra's MP. Take the Relic

Gigas Glove from Edgar and give it to Locke; give his Relic

Hermes Sandals to Terra. Equip Edgar with the Relic

Hyper Wrist or, if you have it, the Relic

Knight's Code. The first one will give you a slight increase in offensive power, and the latter will make sure that Edgar takes physical damage in place of characters in Critical. It's a matter of personal preference as neither is going to produce miracles here.

Ipooh Bestiary #281	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	11	360	60	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	18	10	0	105	150	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Hi-Potion			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
	None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			None

Vargas Bestiary #280	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	Humanoid	12	11600	220	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	13	10	0	85	150	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Mythril Claws Rare: Potion			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
	None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control, Scan
	Strategy
	Two Ipooh bears initially protect Vargas; you can't harm him until you have killed them. Ipooh attack physically only, with Attack and !Claw. Vargas will casually switch between Attack and Gale Cut in an Attack-Gale Cut-Attack rhythm. Dance to it. After every 50 seconds, he will taunt you cruelly by saying: "Come on! What's the matter?" and use Attack twice, as if to insult you. What a jerk. Once he hits 10880 HP - that's after 720 damage - he will start getting bored with you and exclaim: "Enough of this! I'll send you all to the great beyond!" Just then, a new character will appear. It's Sabin Rene Figaro, long lost heir to the throne of Figaro and twin brother to Edgar. It seems that Vargas misunderstood the outcome of a successor issue concerning Duncan, their master in the martial arts and Vargas' father. Vargas turned to patricide, and here Sabin is complimenting Vargas on his fine spirit. Morals these days, let me tell ya... Anyway, Vargas executes "Blizzard Fist!" Blasting all inferior warriors of the field, the battle is up to Sabin alone. When Sabin has appeared and Vargas hits 10368 HP - that's 512 more damage - Sabin will lament over his master's teachings. You'll have to use a Blitz to win this battle. Once the primary Blitz technique has been used, Vargas will... die or run, it's kind of vague. At any rate, Vargas is never to be heard from again. Your strategy? When you engage Vargas, try to pick some Ipooh pockets (metaphorically) with Locke, have Edgar use Auto Crossbow, and Terra use single-target Fire spells on the Ipooh you looted. After you've taken care of the Ipoohs, switch to the Bioblaster with Edgar and have Terra on stand-by for a multi-target Cure spell for every Gale Cut that is sent your way. After a successful Steal attempt with Locke, have him attack. The Bioblaster will facilitate the bulk of your damage anyway, so spending a turn moving to the Front Row and then taking more damage there probably isn't justified. Eventually, Sabin will crash the party. Pay attention, as you are about to do the most complicated thing invented in video game history. That's right, you're about to execute a Blitz technique. Follow on-screen commands closely. Write them down. Remember. After you've completed a Raging Fist technique, you've won your battle. Expand Full Strategy

So there you have it! It's a sad and symbolic story, the rivalry of Sabin and Vargas. As a son to Duncan, he was forced to pursue a career in martial arts, even though Vargas resented it. When Master Duncan, after training (among others? It's not clear) Sabin and Vargas for 10 years, decides he's too old to uphold the title of Master any longer, he decides that Vargas should be his successor.

However, somehow Vargas understood that Sabin would be his father's follow up. The cause of this misunderstanding is never explained, and much like how Judas betrayed Jesus to his death, so did Vargas betray his father and took care of him. After that he went searching for Sabin, who knew that it was Vargas who was supposed to be the next Master. Believing that Edgar had something to do with Sabin, he attacked them, which led to the stand-off between Sabin and Vargas, from which Sabin has now emerged victorious.

Little can be said about your Mt. Kolts experience with Sabin. You can meet Spritzers here, which seem horribly misplaced in space. Aura Cannon is the strongest single-target attack you have at this point; take advantage of it, but only after you annihilated everything non-Gorgias on screen. If you have a Helmet

Bandana and/or Claw

Mythril Claws in your inventory, give them to Sabin.

Oh yeah, there's a Tent in the chest, you can't miss it.

1.8: The Returner's Hideout

Overworld
6/16	Mu	2
6/16	Unseelie	1
5/16	Unseelie	2
5/16	Mu	2
5/16	Belmodar	1

Enemies: Belmodar, Unseelie, Mu

Treasures: Antidote, Dirk Air Knife, Ether, Green Cherry, Hi-Potion, Relic Knight's Code, Phoenix Down x2, Relic White Cape

After descending from Mt. Kolts, you'll find yourself on the Overworld Map again. The Returners' Hideout is to the north. I won't bother explaining the battles and how Sabin fits into party strategy here; you were fully capable of handling these enemies without a 400 damage producing righteous killing machine, so I suspect you'll do just fine now that you've got one. If you still don't have a Claw

Mythril Claws, try going for one here.

You can, if you want to, hike back to South Figaro with Sabin in your party, which will get you a small cutscene with Duncan's wife. It's not very impressive and it's needlessly time-consuming, but if you're like me, you'll wind up doing it anyway, and a scene will occur in which Sabin has to break the news to Duncan's wife.

Do this scene or no, you'll head to the Hideout eventually. Once you enter the Hideout, you'll have to follow a Returner and enter the door he points you to. Enter and watch the cutscene. There's a Greek mythology reference here (a rather obvious one) and a symbolic position for Terra. How neat. When the scene's over, you're by yourself again. You can find a Phoenix Down in the chest in the room you woke up in. Go out and head up. You'll find three chests here: a Relic

Knight's Code, another Phoenix Down, and an Dirk

Air Knife, a stronger weapon for Locke that's also Wind-elemental. A hidden passage to the right of the three chests (walk around them) leads to a Relic

White Cape. Be sure to grab it. In the bucket and pot, which are standing next to each other, you can find an Antidote and a Ether. Furthermore, there's a Green Cherry in the pot in the conference room (the one with the large table) and a Potion in the save point room.

If you examine the top-right part of the large conference table, near Sabin, Terra will crouch down and say: "There's a scrap of paper lying here..." and you'll get two options, to trash it or leave it in place. If you toss it in the trash, nothing will happen. If you leave it there, and Banon calls the Returners around the table for a meeting, he'll freak out about the litter and throw it away himself. This makes Terra laugh (which, incidentally, probably is the only time Terra laughs in a long, long time as far as I can recall). This whole thing is supposed to be a Japanese joke that didn't port so well in the transition. Nobody has ever been able to explain to me why exactly this is supposed to be funny, so let's move on.

There's an Item Shop in the Hideout, and it's the first shop you can actually buy Hi-Potions at, so it might a good idea to stock up on some. A few Eye Drops are also nice if you think those black sunglasses are just so 1983.

You could, before moving on, hike back to Mt. Kolts with Terra alone. However, there will be an Imperial soldier guarding the entrance who'll chase you out on the World Map if you talk to him: "You! You're Returners!"

You need to talk to your three companions before you can talk to Banon. You meet Locke immediately upon crawling out of bed, Sabin is in the conference room and Edgar in the Save Point room where you met Banon earlier. You can now exit the Returner Hideout and talk to Banon. Now, you'll have to make a choice. If you immediately want to go for the offer, you'll get a Relic

Gauntlet. If you decline, you can get a Relic

Genji Glove from the Returner walking around in the storage room. If you decline three times, you'll get a Relic

Genji Glove from that same Returner in the middle of some important conversation. You'll want to pick the Relic

Genji Glove, trust me. Granted, the Relic

Gauntlet is more of a rarity, but that doesn't mean it's better (it isn't).

If you declined Banon's offer three times, Terra will walk back into the Hideout and mutter: "Hope... How could anyone put their hope in me?" Just then, a wounded Returner stumbles in with Banon. Locke, Edgar and Sabin will come rushing in. After some talk, Locke leaves for South Figaro while Terra, Edgar, Sabin and Banon set out through the back door, the Lethe River. As I promised, a Returner quickly sneaks into the conversation to give you a Relic

Genji Glove (truly one of the few acceptable reasons to interrupt important dialogue) and off you go.

If you did anything else, there'll be a meeting. Banon gets angsty about Magitek power, failing to realize that on the two occasions Magitek power has been employed so far, it accomplished nothing. Banon kinda steers towards the 'we need Magic too' topic when a wounded Returner stumbles in. Returners, assemble! Locke goes off to stop Imperial Forces in South Figaro by his lonesome and Terra, Banon, Edgar and Sabin will escape via the Lethe River, raging river of the wilderness. After the sequence has played out, your party will be without Locke (don't worry, his equipment is in your inventory) but with the addition of Banon. The fact that you can't name him should tip you off to his inferior status in your party. Although he's playable in battle, you cannot access his Equipment and Relic screen. His equipment, though, includes just a Rod

Punisher,

Magus Hat, and Armor

Silk Robe.

Don't immediately go to the raft; go up and remember where you came out. You'll need to find the hidden access to the Lethe River later in the game. For a fun little tidbit, go to the room Terra woke up in and stand under the chest and pride yourself on having seen one of the most elusive minor cutscenes in the game! Now get moving!

1.9: Escape on the River

Monster Pack 1
3/4	Nautiloid	1
3/4	Exocite	1
1/4	Lesser Lopros	1
1/4	Exocite	2

Monster Pack 2
3/4	Lesser Lopros	2
1/4	Nautiloid	1
	Exocite	1
	Lesser Lopros	1

Enemies: Lesser Lopros, Nautiloid, Exocite, Ultros

The Empire invaded South Figaro (notice how Edgar didn't respond whatsoever to that notion?) and is now coming to the Hideout. Time to run � er, raft - like the wind. We'll escape using a raft and the flowing water that carries it. Fun! Set everybody in the Back Row. You can strip the Relic

Star Pendants from your characters and apply Relic

Gigas Glove/ Relic

Hermes Sandals to Edgar, Relic

Hyper Wrist and Relic

Knight's Code to Sabin, and a Relic

White Cape to Terra. There's nothing remotely useful you can put in Terra's second Relic Slot (you'll want to have those Relic

Sprint Shoes in your inventory, and you won't be walking anyway).

First, I want you to exit the hallway you find yourself in through the northern entrance. Not only will you now know where you can find it from the Returners' Hideout, you can also walk over to the room where Terra woke up in and find the wounded Returner in bed. If you stand beneath the chest here, as mentioned last chapter, you'll catch the poor sap having a nightmare. You can trigger this cutscene every time you re-enter the room.

Welcome to Lethe River. The first rule of Lethe River is: You don't talk about Lethe River. The second rule of Lethe River is: You do not talk about Lethe River. The third rule of Lethe River is when Banon goes down, the game is over. Read: If Banon receives KO status, you'll get a Game Over. Protecting Banon should be your first priority. If you fail, you'll get a neat message saying, "Banon has fallen..." Read: Annoying. Fun fact: if you level Terra up to level 68 before meeting Banon, you can set Petrify with the

Break spell she learned and make him invincible. Then again, if you're leveled like that, you really needn't worry in the first place.

Exocite is your average physical attacker. He seems to have a specifically strong, instinct-based hatred for the elderly, as he will always target Banon for a single Attack after every six turns. You should have turned Exocite into little bits of Exocite nuggets by then, though.

Nautiloid is more annoying. Rather than doing damage with his Special, !Ink sets Dark, which is a useless thing to do but still looks rather stupid on your characters. To top that, his Defense is very strong (partly thanks to an inherent Protect status), so the Tools

Auto Crossbow and Attack commands will do little here. Also, after three turns he'll turn on Banon for an Attack, so beware.

Lesser Lopros are the strongest enemies here. They can use Attack, execute !Wing to set Sap on the party the second turn and can actually use Fireball the third one, which is a multi-target Fire-elemental attack and particularly dangerous. Lesser Lopros should be subdued by Tools

Noiseblaster at all times and taken out first if possible.

The strategy is simple. Keep the monsters at bay with Tools

Noiseblaster, use

Fire and Aura Cannon to deliver damage, and have Banon recover from any damage you might have taken with his special skill. As soon as you decide to hop on board the raft, you'll be taken down the Lethe River. However, there are many ways to Rome, and many ways to travel the Lethe River. At two points in the trip, you'll be asked to pick a direction. Each direction has an influence on the monsters you face.

Here's the run-down of your possibilities, with the monsters referenced by number corresponding to the formations chart herein. You'll first be required to have an encounter with a #1 group, and then you'll face a Straight/Left/Right decision. You'll want to pick Left for the shortest time of passing through and the potentially least amount of battles. If you're going for the most battles, or want to make sure you encounter a Lesser Lopros, pick 'Straight'. Most of these encounters happen only half the time, so it's possible that you might encounter just one battle, or even zero if you take the left path. If there's no percentage noted, though, you'll definitely have a battle at that point.

Straight:

Set 1 50% of the time
Set 2
Set 1 50% of the time
Set 1 50% of the time
Set 1

Left:

Set 1 50% of the time
Set 1 50% of the time
Set 2 50% of the time

Right:

Set 1
Set 1 50% of the time
Set 1 50% of the time

Regardless of your choice, you will end up at a small cave with a Save Point in it. When you get back on, you'll meet a group from set #1 again, and then reach a decision between up and left.

Up:

Set 2 50% of the time
Set 1 50% of the time
Set 1 50% of the time
Set 1 50% of the time
Set 1

You're back at the Up/Left decision, having circled.

Left:

Set 2 50% of the time

This path leads to a cave with a mandatory Save Point. If you've never stepped into a Save Point before, this will be when you see the the 'strange light fills the air' dialogue, and it will never again appear.

From second Save Point to exit:

Set 2 50% of the time
Set 1 50% of the time

At the end of the Lethe River ordeal, assuming you're doing the river for the first time (it's possible to come back later!), you'll encounter what looks like the ultimate Nautiloid. It's a huge purple octopus who goes by the name of Ultros...

Ultros Bestiary #282	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	13	3000	640	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	15	3	0	40	140	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Dried Meat			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control, Scan
	Strategy
	Ultros is a tough octopod whose Tentacle attack can be a huge pain if you're playing the game without over leveling. Everybody must be in the Back Row. If you are a moron and played with any of your characters in the Front Row, fix that. He'll start by delivering his intro speech and using an Attack. Then, if 10 seconds have passed (and they will have), he'll say "Oh, that one's a tasty morsel! I'd love to get my tentacles around her... sluuuuuurp!" and target Terra with a single-target Tentacle attack. If at his next turn another 10 seconds have passed, he'll say "Muscle heads? Hate 'em!" target Sabin with a single-target Tentacle attack and use a multi-target Tentacle attack on his next turn, followed by either Attack, !Ink or a single-target Tentacle in that very same turn; if not, he'll spread the happiness with a multi-target Tentacle/follow up with Attack/!Ink/ single-target Tentacle, wait a turn, and then hate on Sabin for his body. His next turn is devoted to an Attack and either an Attack, !Ink or single-target or multi-target Tentacle attack in the same turn. Then, he'll say "Your ugly mug gives me the creeps!" and use a single-target Tentacle attack on Banon, from where he'll start at his first multi-target Tentacle-Attack/!Ink/single-target Tentacle turn again. Also, every time he is targeted by a Fire-elemental attack, which at this stage is either a Fire spell from Terra or Sabin's Rising Phoenix Blitz, he will say "Yeeeouch! Seafood soup is NOT on the menu!" and counter with an !Ink attack... yeah, he's a talkative guy. Beating Ultros down is relatively simple if you pay close attention to his AI script. Have at the very least Terra and Banon in the Back Row using their Defend skill to reduce the power of Tentacle when you know they'll be targeted by it. Have Banon use Pray at all times, as his Attack is nothing to consider seriously (even though he possesses a snazzy weapon that you won't get on other characters for a long, long time). For damage output, have Terra use her Fire spells, Edgar fire off arrows with the Auto Crossbow, and Sabin use Aura Cannon. If he knows Rising Phoenix at this point, it's stronger than Aura Cannon, but if you're that highly leveled you probably don't need to worry much in the first place. Expand Full Strategy

If you defeat him, he'll escape underwater. Sabin won't like this and he'll go after him; sadly, Sabin does not consider he's more of a 'land-based' guy and Ultros appears to sane people as a generally aqua-themed creature. In other words: Sabin is dead in the water. Pun!

You'll now see a change of pace and a unique menu screen. There were initial plans for a normal menu screen where you could select your scenario from, but I guess they figured this would be more fun. They were right. It's Mog! Unlike your previous moogle encounter, you can't access this guy's equipment or relics, so don't bother. It's here that you'll need to decide what scenario to do first. Here's a quick list what you can gain from each scenario:

Terra/Edgar/Banon: A Sword

Rune Blade, and the ability to de-equip, most likely freeing a Relic

Gigas Glove and Relic

Hermes Sandals.

Locke: Helmet

Iron Helms, a Relic

Ribbon, one set of Relic

Earring, and a Rod

Thunder Rod if you left the Phoenix Down alone when you passed through the Cave of Figaro with Edgar, Locke, and Terra. This scenario ends with a boss fight, so it's dangerous to de-equip at the end.

Sabin: A Relic

Mythril Glove, a Relic

Barrier Ring, Helmet

Green Berets, Relic

Earring, a Relic

Sniper Eye, a Relic

Tintinnabulum and the ability to buy new equipment, including Helmet

Magus Hats, Armor

Iron Armor, Armor

Silk Robes, and Helmet

Bandanas. You are able to de-equip at the end.

Thus, I would advise you take the scenarios in the following order: Terra, Sabin, and Locke.

Terra's scenario is a cinch where no extra items are needed by a long shot. However, it does contain some strong Relics you can't free until you've played through it. Therefore, Terra's scenario first. Now, Locke's scenario could use Sabin's items and vice versa, but because Locke's scenario is probably the more difficult of the two and you can't properly de-equip at the end of Locke's means you should save it until the end.

On to the three scenarios: I'll handle them in the same order I advise you to take them in.

1.10: Scenario Terra

River Monster Pack 1
3/4	Nautiloid	1
3/4	Exocite	1
1/4	Lesser Lopros	1
1/4	Exocite	2

River Monster Pack 2
3/4	Lesser Lopros	2
1/4	Nautiloid	1
	Exocite	1
	Lesser Lopros	1

Grasslands
10/16	Hornet	2
6/16	Leaf Bunny	2
6/16	Darkwind	1

Forest
10/16	Leaf Bunny	2
10/16	Darkwind	1
6/16	Leaf Bunny	2
6/16	Darkwind	2

Desert
5/16	Sand Ray	2
5/16	Alacran	3
5/16	Sand Ray	1
5/16	Alacran	2
1/16	Sand Ray	1
1/16	Alacran	3

First Narshe Cave
10/16	Wererat	3
6/16	Bandit	1
6/16	Wererat	1

Second Narshe Cave
6/16	Wild Rat	3
6/16	Valeor	2
5/16	Valeor	3
5/16	Valeor	1
5/16	Wild Rat	1

Security Checkpoint
3/4	Darkside	2
1/4	Darkside	1
	Specter	1
	Eukaryote	3

Final Narshe Cave
6/16	Bandit	1
6/16	Spritzer	1
5/16	Spritzer	2
5/16	Wererat	2

Enemies: Lesser Lopros, Nautiloid, Exocite, Leaf Bunny, Darkwind, Valeor, Wild Rat, Apparition, Eukaryote, Darkside

Treasures: Sword Rune Blade

Terra's group gets a few more battles on the river.

Set 2 50% of the time
Set 1 50% of the time
Set 1 50% of the time

With Sabin gone, battles will take a little longer. Not to worry, though. Keep the Lesser Lopros Confused, take Nautiloid with a single-target

Fire spell, and fight Exocite with the Tools

Auto Crossbow. Have Banon on stand-by. You should be used to these guys by now.

You rode that Lethe River like a professional. You're right in front of Narshe; this should be a cinch. Now, keepin' it in the Back Row there, boss? I promise this is going to change. If you did any of the other scenarios before this one, upgrade your equipment, give Terra one or two Relic

Earring, and have Edgar stick to Relic

Gigas Glove/ Relic

Hermes Sandals.

You can just slaughter the overworld enemies left and right however you please; multi-target

Fire spell or Tools

Auto Crossbow, your pick. You'll want to work your way to Narshe, though. After some Narshe Guards show you disrespect, it's up to you to find an alternative entrance. Luckily, you remember that secret entrance from the start of the game. No, you do. The one to the left? Enter the cave and walk through it. You'll recognize it as being the one Locke carried the unconscious Terra through. Clear that cave and you'll walk over a snowy slope. You can see Narshe already to the right of you, but you still can't reach it. The next cave contains new enemies.

Both Valeor and Wild Rat monsters only attack physically, so there's little point in explaining what it is that they do. Valeors are the highest-ranking maintenance troops in the Empire. What the hell are all the Imperial guys doing in places where there's nothing for them to maintain?

Pass through it. On the other side, you'll encounter the Dreaded Security Check Point. From the Japanese game, you could have learned this is a testing place for Narshe Guards. Who made it? Who creates something like this period, let alone in a cave like this, punishing the weakest fighters in the game to follow its path with legions of undead monstrosities? Drunken wizards? Here's the deal. Follow the path of the sparkle thingy. Abandon knowledge of the will o' the wisp and do follow this one. If not, nine revolving lights will quickly surround you. If you manage to tag the yellow one, you'll be given a chance to get back on track. If not, you will have to fight a battle. Now, I am assuming that you acted on mistake and you were incapable of avoiding this clumsy act. However, it should be noted that you'll probably want to fight this illuminating magical sphere, as this is the only place where you'll find the nefarious Darkside enemy. Also, there is a small chance (25%) you will encounter here the interesting Apparition and Eukaryote. There's no reason you want to meet them and killing them is easy, but you'll make them appear on the Veldt so you don't end up with a needlessly incomplete Rage list. Apparition has a rare Rod

Ice Rod for stealing, but you sadly lack Locke at the moment.

Intruding further into the dark, cold mines will allow you to come across the location where the Moogles live. There's not much to do there right now. Resuming your quest will get you past the chest in this room; reach it and open it to obtain the Sword

Rune Blade. It is stronger than your current blade. Unfortunately, it consumes 12 to 18 MP to inflict a critical hit every time, so grab onto your few MP and stick with the Sword

Great Sword, as the Sword

Rune Blade is horribly cost-inefficient at this stage of the game. It also makes more sense to just leave the Sword

Rune Blade here. Despite the fact that the Sword

Rune Blade allows Terra or Celes to do more damage than she could do without it, you probably will never use it. Much later, the treasure here will change into a Relic

Ribbon, which is much better at that time than the Sword

Rune Blade is now.

When you walk out of the Moogle Den, you're pretty much done. Keep ignoring any closed chests you might encounter; their contents haven't changed yet. When you're out of the cave, you can safely de-equip everything. That was Scenario #1... hope you liked it.

The Old Man of Narshe has been given a name! His name is Arvis. Nothing much has changed in Narshe; they're still neutral even though the Empire attacked them, they haven't really done anything with the Esper, and are a generally indecisive bunch.

1.11: Scenario Sabin

Grasslands
6/16	Aepyornis	1
5/16	Chippirabbit	3
5/16	Aepyornis	1
5/16	Chippirabbit	2

Forest
5/16	Nettlehopper	2
5/16	Stray Cat	2
5/16	Chippirabbit	5
5/16	Aepyornis	2
5/16	Stray Cat	1
1/16	Aepyornis	1
	Stray Cat	1
	Nettlehopper	2

Imperial Camp
3/4	Doberman	3
1/4	Doberman	2

Enemies: Stray Cat, Aepyornis, Nettlehopper, Chippirabbit, Captain, Imperial Soldier, Templar, Magitek Armor, Doberman, Soldier (Imperial Camp),

Treasures: Relic Barrier Ring, Relic Mythril Glove, Remedy, Relic Star Pendant, Monster-in-a-box (Satellite)

So, Sabin was thrown off the raft and separated from his five-minute friends. Getting back to Narshe is going to be tedious, as you have no idea which way to go. Your only hope is to find somebody who can point out the way...

Keep Sabin in the Back Row with a Relic

White Cape and a Relic

Star Pendant. Even if you do have Relic

Earring, Aura Cannon kills everything in one shot anyway, so a power boost isn't needed. Beakor's !Featherdust can Poison you, so that's why I advise a Relic

Star Pendant.

Walk over to the house. Here, there are three main points of interest. The guy you met in South Figaro is here, there's a green soldier-type merchant on a chocobo who comes in and leaves pretty quickly, and there's a house to go in. First, go over to the merchant. He has a nice set of items for you. I suggest you buy 99

Shurikens from him. 2970 Gil is not that much, and it'll stop any worrying about the limit of Shadow's attacks for a good while. Also, buy 5 Skean

Invisibility Scrolls and 5 Skean

Shadow Scroll. You probably won't ever need any more.

Inside the house, you can touch the stove for a neat little scene about how crazy this guy in fact is, but there's nothing remotely useful for you to do here otherwise. Make sure you talk to the Crazy Old Man in question several times, as his lines change.

Talking to Shadow's dog just sends Sabin hiding behind various objects, so chat with Shadow and accept him into your party. It's not required as such; you can perfectly well finish the scenario without him. It's just that there's no reason whatsoever to ignore him, as not only is he a great asset to your team at this stage, he also comes with some Armor

Ninja Gear on him, which is great armor for now. Your additions to his equipment should be a Shield

Heavy Shield and a Helmet

Plumed Hat, which you can buy from the merchant if you have none to spare. Like I mentioned in the preparations, you'll want a Relic

Gigas Glove and a filler Relic on him, such as the Relic

Hyper Wrist. Stick him in the Back Row, as the very purpose of throwing something is ignoring the distance between you and the target.

There are moments in the game Shadow has the annoying tendency to have a chance of running off after every battle. I'll explain that when that chance actually presents itself. For now, Shadow is your loyal sidekick. In other words, Shadow will not run out on you right now.

On the Overworld Map, all violence directed at you is physical. In the first battle you fight with Shadow, have him Throw an Skean

Invisibility Scroll. This makes him invulnerable for the remaining journey on the Overworld Map. Throw

Shurikens and Aura Cannons at your heart's delight; you'll find there's little strategy in this scenario as most of your fights consist of taking hits and returning single-target one-hit KO's.

It seems there is an Imperial obstruction in the way. This is the Imperial Camp Shadow talked about, the one that will try to overcome the defenses of Doma at some point in the near future. We'll have to try to sneak past it. Keep Sabin in the Back Row, as well as Shadow if you brought him. As soon as you enter the Imperial Camp, a cutscene will ensue. It becomes apparent that General Leo is leading the attack on Doma, and that he's pretty popular with the soldiers. Kefka, on the other hand, is expected to drive Leo out of the mission and become a general himself, a thought that inspires fear in the soldiers. Also, Doma is being attacked. Right now. The scene switches to Doma, where chances of overcoming the attack are slim. However, the retainer, Cyan Garamonde, has a daring plan: Rush out of the castle to kill the leading officer; this might send the soldiers scurrying off for the time being.

After the scene, you are in control of Cyan. Equip Cyan with fancy new equipment you can offer him: Shield

Heavy Shield, Helmet

Plumed Hat or even an Helmet

Iron Helmet if you went through some pains in Locke's scenario already. Outside, eight Imperial soldiers are banging their heads against the walls of Doma in a sophisticated attempt to infiltrate it. The leading officer does nothing. You can pick a fight with any of the wandering Imperial soldiers (which will trigger a battle with two Imperial Soldiers), but it's of little use, as you'll be forced to fight Imperial Soldiers in the near future anyway. I suggest you simply go for the leader.

Captain Bestiary #36	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	Humanoid	12	456	20	50	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	18	10	0	5	110	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			Common: Phoenix Down Rare: Black Belt
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
	None			None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
	None			None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control
	Strategy
	The captain, surprisingly called 'Captain', will sometimes use !Axe in between his normal physicals. He has a 33% of countering any damage with !Axe, and that wraps it up for Captain. Cyan should be in the Back Row, so Captain's attacks shouldn't really hurt him. Cyan's #1 Bushido skill, Fang, will deal sufficient damage to easily kill Captain before Captain can come anywhere near killing Cyan. Bushido skill #2, Sky, will make sure that the Captain is killed in one hit. Bushido skill #3 works as well, although it takes needlessly long. Expand Full Strategy

Make sure you end up with a Relic

Black Belt rather than a Phoenix Down; the Relic

Black Belt is a nice Relic at this point of the game, and you can't get another one for quite some time. When you're done playing around with petty officers, the Imperial Soldiers, despite their overwhelming number, decide it would be best to flee, and the scene switches back to Sabin and Shadow.

Proceed to explore the Imperial Camp. To the left is an Imperial Soldier marching around; engaging him will get you a Imperial Soldier x2 and Magitek Armor battle. This walking soldier will re-spawn every time you leave and enter the Imperial Camp, by the way.

To the left are a seemingly passive guard dog and a chest in the large military tent. You'll be given three options when examining the chest: Kick it, hit it, and leave it.

If you Kick it, the guard dog outside will be alarmed and will attack you, triggering an attack. You'll be up against Dobermans, either two (25% chance) or three (the other 75%). They're the only Dobermans you'll ever see in the game, so if you're still cruising for the perfect Rage list, this is the option you'll want. Dobermans, strangely, do not appear in the Bestiary. After Kicking it, the chest is open. It contains a Relic

Star Pendant. If you Hit it, you'll fool an Imperial soldier by pretending to be a cat. After the soldier has disappeared, you'll be able to open the chest, which still contains a Relic

Star Pendant. If you Leave it, nothing will happen, unlike, say, leaving your wife.

If you're done in this part of the Imperial Camp and are ready to continue, you'll come across a cutscene in which General Leo is called home to Vector by Emperor Gestahl, leaving Kefka in charge. You can get up and stretch your muscles for two steps before Leo and Kefka meet before your eyes. Kefka and Leo do not get along. Leo hasn't disappeared from your sight for a second when Kefka orders the poisoning of Doma's water supply, which not only goes against the laws of honor and war, but will take out several Imperial prisoners within the walls of Doma castle. Even given your current position, you cannot allow this to happen - springing into action will throw you into battle.

You'll be fighting a character version of Kefka, who runs after taking one hit. He'll simply smack you over the head with his Special

Morning Star if you let him, so getting your butt kicked isn't even terribly interesting in this case. When he runs, he runs, and you'll follow. Don't immediately follow him all the way, though; there are important things to be done: In a tent, there are two chests. Ignore them for now and walk behind this tent. Automatically, you'll jump off a ledge and walk into another tent. Here, you'll find a Relic

Barrier Ring; swap it with Sabin's Relic

Star Pendant. He can enjoy the slight Aura Cannon damage increase. Now, walk back into the tent with two chests. The right one contains a Relic

Mythril Glove, which you can ignore for the rest of your life. The left one contains one of NASA's old-time prides: The Satellite. If you already completed Locke's scenario, give the Relic

Ribbon to Sabin at this point. If not, give him the Relic

Genji Glove and move him to the Front Row.

Satellite Bestiary #39	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	14	1800	250	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	120	13	0	0	150	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: X-Potion			Common: Green Beret
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
	None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control
	Metamorph Package
	Mythril Sword, Mythril Helm, Mythril Mail, Heavy Shield, Mythril Sword, Mythril Helm, Mythril Mail, Heavy Shield, Mythril Sword, Mythril Helm, Mythril Mail, Heavy Shield, Mythril Sword, Mythril Helm, Mythril Mail, Heavy Shield, Mythril Sword, Mythril Helm, Mythril Mail, Heavy Shield, Mythril Sword, Mythril Helm, Mythril Mail, Heavy Shield, Mythril Sword, Mythril Helm, Mythril Mail, Heavy Shield, Mythril Sword, Mythril Helm, Mythril Mail, Heavy Shield 32/256 Success Rate
	Strategy
	Satellite will normally use Attack, !Supersonic Wave, Scintillation, Magitek Laser and Missile to make your life harder than it already is. Every ninth turn it takes, Satellite will use Dischord to halve a character's level. After 25 seconds of fighting, Satellite will call two Imperial Soldiers to aid him. 55 seconds later, he'll call in three Imperial Soldiers to help him (if there are Imperial Soldiers from the previous calling still standing, he'll fill the number to 3), and 120 seconds later, he'll call four Imperial Soldiers (once again, he fills the screen up to four anyway). Finally, Satellite will counter any Blitz attack with Mega Berserk, making sure that Sabin will be Blitz-less in this battle, like an animal. Shadow should be Throwing Shurikens while Sabin can keep on pumping out Aura Cannons. If you didn't have a Ribbon, he will be Berserked by Satellite's Blitz-counter, Mega Berserk. It should be noted that Shadow will, for the first time, be vulnerable to attacks here as there's a large chance at least one of Satellite's magical attacks will be striking Shadow, removing the Invisible status. Expand Full Strategy

After the fight, you win a Helmet

Green Beret. Equip it on Sabin and swap his Relic

White Cape with the Relic

Mythril Glove. Return Sabin to his Back Row Aura Cannon-ing self and move on. Following Kefka further will get you into another battle with character Kefka. Have Shadow re-apply his Invisible status if you lost it versus Satellite.

After talking to Kefka for the third time, he'll run off and sends a pair of Imperial Soldiers and a pair of Templar at you. If Shadow is still visible, take care of that problem. Have Sabin Defend and keep his own HP up, while Shadow takes out the enemies one by one (Templars first). There's a large chance they will use strong physical counters on you, and Shadow can avoid all of them.

After Kefka breaks the universal honor code and Cyan learns that everything he loves is subject to Poison, you gain control of the good knight. Equip the Relic

Hermes Sandals on him and another nice filler Relic. You don't really have a choice but to go downstairs and watch Cyan rush into the royal chamber and watch the King of Doma die. Do not go into the door to the right when you leave the royal chamber. It contains graphic adultery, you hear? Instead, go to the bottom of the screen and see two doors there. Pick the right one and enter. There's a Remedy in a pot here. Talk to the Doma Sentry you see in this room, and try to explore the available door next to him. It seems the statement about 'survivors' was too hopeful. When you're done, put Cyan in the Front Row and enter the room I previously forbid you to enter.

You regain control of Sabin and Shadow once the scene is done. You can't exit left, as there's poison there (although you'll learn in a little while there's good distance between the Imperial Camp and Doma Castle - plot device laughs in the face of logic). No choice but to help Cyan! For some extra fun, try talking to Cyan when between the two attacking Imperial Soldiers. Cyan will fight automatically in these battles, having a 66% chance of using Attack and a 33% shot at Fang. Sabin and Shadow can stick to their trusted single-target power-blows, and you'll win the day without breaking a sweat in the battle formations you have to go through, which will be either three or four Soldiers.

After all is said and done, you get to run around in Magitek Armor again! How sweet it is! Heal any damage done to Sabin and Cyan with Healing Force (obviously Shadow wasn't touched at all; he's a non-generic ninja). Use Healing Force anyway, as his invisibility can, believe it or not, become a negative factor in the near future. Put Cyan back in the Back Row and blast your way through any opposition with whatever beam you can use. Everything kills everything, to be blunt. The helpless opposition includes combinations of Magitek Armor and Imperial Soldiers.

Finally! You've managed to sneak through an Imperial Camp without the loss of your life. Of course, you didn't so much 'sneak through' as you simply murdered everybody you saw, which was half of the Camp's population. Still, you live. That's good.

1.12: Scenario Sabin: The Phantasms

Grasslands North of Camp
6/16	Aepyornis	1
5/16	Nettlehopper	3
5/16	Aepyornis	1
5/16	Chippirabbit	2

Other Grasslands
6/16	Nettlehopper	3
5/16	Stray Cat	3
5/16	Aepyornis	1
	Stray Cat	1
	Nettlehopper	2

Forest
5/16	Nettlehopper	2
5/16	Stray Cat	2
5/16	Chippirabbit	5
5/16	Aepyornis	2
5/16	Stray Cat	1
1/16	Aepyornis	1
1/16	Chippirabbit	2

Desert
5/16	Sand Ray	2
5/16	Alacran	3
5/16	Sand Ray	1
5/16	Alacran	2
1/16	Sand Ray	1
1/16	Alacran	3

Phantom Forest First Two Screens
10/16	Ghost	1
6/16	Ghost	1
6/16	Poplium	2

Phantom Forest Second Two Screens
10/16	Ghost	2
10/16	Poplium	3
5/16	Ghost	3
1/16	Ghost	1

Train Platform
5/16	Angel Whisper	2
5/16	Cloud	1
5/16	Angel Whisper	2
5/16	Cloud	1
5/16	Angel Whisper	4
1/16	Bomb	3

Outside Train Cars
10/16	Bomb	1
6/16	Bomb	3

Inside Early Cars
6/16	Angel Whisper	1
6/16	Cloud	3
5/16	Angel Whisper	1
5/16	Living Dead	3

Escaping the Ghost Ambush
6/16	Angel Whisper	1
6/16	Cloud	3
5/16	Oversoul	2
5/16	Oversoul	1
5/16	Living Dead	2

Final Cars
6/16	Angel Whisper	1
5/16	Bomb	2
5/16	Cloud	2
5/16	Angel Whisper	1
	Living Dead	1
	Cloud	2

Enemies: Sand Ray, Alacran, Stray Cat, Aepyornis, Nettlehopper, Chippirabbit, Ghost, Poplium, Cloud, Angel Whisper, Oversoul, Bomb, Living Dead, Apparition, Siegfried, Phantom Train

Treasures: Relic Earring, Phoenix Down x2, Relic Sniper Eye, Monster-in-a-box (Apparition)

Having broken out like a bad case of acne, your only hope to reach Narshe is to travel through a dark forest east of Doma Castle. Save, darn you! Now that Sabin is no longer alone and scared, there is little direct reason for Shadow to linger. That means that starting from your escape from the Imperial Camp, he may randomly decide to leave you after every battle. It's just a 1/16 chance per battle, though, and is in no way influenced by the order you in which performed the scenarios (or any way you did anything else), despite the many myths and misconceptions about that. I can say that in a short while, there will be a situation in which Shadow will no longer be able to escape, but you'll need to make it there with Shadow at your side, preferably. This can be achieved by either saving beforehand and relying on your luck, killing Shadow until the party reaches said destination, or running from every battle.

You know how to handle the wildlife here. You can travel to Doma Castle, but you'll find it occupied by Imperial troops so you cannot enter. Just travel to the forest to the southeast. Welcome to Phantom Forest, called the Forest of Illusion in the Japanese game. After entering the forest, something quickly seems...off. Eyes from the darkness leering at you. Sounds from places you can't keep your eye on. You being on fire. Shadow's still a possible run-away, so keep him down if that's your strategy.

Ghosts are unfriendly undead and they hate you. Every first turn will be a

Fire spell or nothing, but the second turn can contain Attack, !Time Freeze (which sets Stop) or !Dancing Flame, a very strong single-target Fire-elemental attack that will probably shave off 150 HP. Poplium are waiting to be relieved from this unlife they're doomed to suffer through. They attack physically and if they're feeling particularly grumpy they might even use !Cling to slow you down.

This is, strategy-wise, a very boring and straightforward part of the game. Sabin, Cyan, and Shadow all have single-target attacks that can take out all enemies in one hit. Keep up with Fang,

Shuriken, and Aura Cannon. Use Potions when you are hit with an unlucky !Dancing Flame or when your HP is running low due to other causes.

You will find a Recovery Spring in which you will automatically heal yourself. Always stick to the next exit on the top of the screen; other exits will lead you in circles. Laugh at their attempts to trick you.

Eventually, you'll reach a train. The train was destroyed in the recent war between Doma and the Empire, and Sabin will talk about survivors and taking looks. Cyan will freak, but we're used to that by now. Pay little attention to him and climb aboard. You can revive Shadow now as, trapped on the Phantom Train as he is, he won't run away anymore. You'll want to keep hold of your high-tech reviving utilities, as a Save Point is nearby that you can use as well. The Phantom Train is a luxury, a transportation device unlike any other. Pulled by a locomotive, the Train features a Save Point, two train wagons for the rich, a restaurant wagon, and five normal wagons with the Conductor's working area in the far back.

Angel Whispers are emissaries from a magical world. They use Attack, as is the wont of monsters, and

Gravity, a spell that halves your amount of current HP. It's pretty annoying. This is also the first monster you'll see with inherent Sap status. The undead were supposed to be healed by this status, so this was supposed to be a recovering opponent. Instead, due to a bug, Whispers just waste away in their own misery.

Living Dead are warrior zombies possessed by an evil spirit. Nice. They attack physically and with !Slip Touch, which sets Sap. They're inherently boring and mediocre.

Cloud monsters are not undead. This is a surprising feat for a creature on the Phantom Train, and I don't really know why this is. They cast

Drain to little avail, as you'll be doing one-hit KO's against them, but it's a nice try. Also, !Unseen Strike damages.

Oversouls are undead skeletons born from a coalescence of hatred. Also, they're most rude. Every second turn they take can make them use Dread Gaze, an attack that sets Petrify on a single target. If they're alone they won't ever use Dread Gaze but they can use !Insanitouch, which sets Confused and is potentially even more dangerous than Dread Gaze.

Bombs are mostly found when you're walking outside, and they have nothing to do with the Phantom Train and its destination. If they attack at all, they use Blaze, a strong Fire-elemental attack they can either aim at a single character or at the entire party. Always go for Bombs first, but never allow yourself to hit them with a non-fatal attack as they could use Self-Destruct, which harms you as much as the Bomb in question has for current HP. Luckily, as Self-Destruct is all about self-destruction, the Bomb will be dead.

Even though a great variety of attacks will be sent your way, there's very little you can do about them. Continue to use your powerful single-target attacks, and have Shadow target Bombs and then Whispers before anything else, as their Blaze and/or Demi attacks are the biggest threats you face.

It's feasible that your Sabin has learned Rising Phoenix by now. While you must've levelled him to level 15 for Rising Phoenix to be an option, and while level 15 is over levelled at this point, it's not entirely dramatically high. Bombs absorb Fire/Rising Phoenix, so refrain from using it when facing them. Aura Cannon is more powerful on a single target, but both feed off the weaknesses that seem inherent to all undead enemies: Fire and Holy. You'll learn to use Rising Phoenix, I'm sure. Give Shadow the Relic

Hermes Sandals, as his single-target attacks will be the most important ones. Relic

Mythril Glove/ Relic

Gigas Glove Cyan in the Front Row, Aura Cannon Sabin in the Back Row with a Relic

White Cape and Relic

Barrier Ring.

Once you decide to board the train, there's no going back. The door will close behind you and the train will start moving. Examine the door, and Cyan will explain about the Phantom Train, which brings the deceased to the afterlife. Business must be small, with all those Phoenix Downs. When you're done gasping and shaking in fear, head to the right. You'll walk out of the train car and, if you keep that button down, into a new one. You'll see a ghost here. Talk to him and have him join your party! It's only temporary, but I'll discuss the White Robed a bit.

The ghost joins on a level quite similar to yours, and can use Attack, Possess, and Item. Since he has no weapons, his Attack is horribly weak. Possess is a quirky command that is only seen here; it will remove both the caster and the target from the battle. The caster is gone from the party after the battle ends. This command has a 3 out of 8 chance of succeeding against every target, regardless of one-hit KO protection, Evasion, or Magic Evasion. The ghost comes equipped with no equipment save one Relic: the Relic

Lich Ring. This turns the wearer into an Undead creature, which is exactly the story behind the temporary character. This means you will hurt the poor bastard with Potions and Hi-Potions and kill it instantly with Phoenix Downs. If it has fallen in battle, you cannot revive him (the Phoenix Down will miss). Outside of battle, however, you can heal with restorative items. If a temporary ghost character dies, he will be removed from the party.

Enter the cabin. If you look at the switch, you'll see a cutscene in which Cyan's fear of machinery is once again displayed in a humorous manner. If you examine the book, you'll see some dialogue. If you talk to the Conductor, you can ask some questions. In the top-left corner of the car, there's a hidden Tent just waiting for you to discover.

If you leave again, you'll see another ghost. If Shadow left you/if you haven't bothered with him at all, you can have this guy join you too, although this second ghost is always significantly more useless (the first ghost added to a no-ghost party is always the more capable).

Okay, to the left we go! This is where the Locomotive is located, which we need to shut down. In the next train car, you see all sorts of ghosts. Some will attack you, some will want to join you, and some will want to sell you items. You shouldn't really benefit from the items, but if you feel you could use extra from the following, be my guest to search them out. You'll encounter just one Ghost 75% of the time you prod one of the attacking ghosts, but 25% of the time you'll see three. Nothing particular to worry about. When you exit the train car to the left, you can use a ladder to climb up the car you just abandoned and come across an air vent you fall through should you stand on it. How rad! How entirely useless!

Going into the next train car will be a suicidal plan, as it turns out. Just seconds after you entered, a ghost will appear from behind and block your path back. There are no other exits. It's time to fight the bugger! Like all other ghosts that have attacked you when you talked to them, this is either a single Ghost or a triple Ghost formation. Once outside, you will be cornered by a mob of angry undead. And they're not doing the moonwalk either! Time to escape. The roof, however, fits the role of upper surface completely and provides no means of exit. Then, Sabin gets an idea. Who knows what those years of training have been good for? You escape, Shadow and the ghost carefully secured in your back pocket. Or something.

The ghosts pursue! Instead of making this into a pursuit scene, you can simply flick a switch to detach the rear train cars. Do so. Remember, this has no consequences for the otherwise innocent, as the only thing you do is trap dozens of souls in the mortal realms, denying them passage to the afterlife, including, but not limited to, those nice guys who wanted to sell you items and help you on your quest. But hey, you're the good guys, right? Once back inside, you can swap the same switch to clear your path. This is the train car you want to be in to find Oversoul, as they don't appear on earlier or subsequent train cars. The next train houses the Dish of the Damned! The Food of the Forgotten! The Cuisine of the Con...demned! Sitting at the middle table will make a ghost waiter serve you some food. Cyan will spaz out (he does that a lot) but you'll be fully healed, just like a meal in real life. You can repeat this for a less dramatic but more personal scene by switching lead characters the next time(s) you sit down.

You can't exit to the left, so go out and walk around the train car. Don't forget to go back in the other side and open the chest behind the waiters for an Relic

Earring. Swap one of Sabin's Relics with it, as you'll need the boost in Aura Cannon power in a bit.

You can't go around the next train car, so just get in! There are two compartments in this train car. The first one houses a chest, but as soon as you face it from the front (you can't open it from the side), you will hear an ominous voice! Of course, there's really no indication the voice is ominous, so I'm just making that up.

Siegfried Bestiary #48	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	7	100	5	1	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	1	10	0	50	150	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			Common: Green Cherry
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
	None			None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control, Scan
	Strategy
	After the introduction between you and Siegfried is done, it's time to fight. Siegfried has 100 HP and opens with a flurry of eight weak physical attacks. Chances are your Black Belt character or Interceptor kills him before he finishes all eight, but if that's not the case, you can just do whatever (except the Tiger Bushido skill!). Expand Full Strategy

Siegfried is impersonating the legendary swordsman Siegfried and had hoped to scare you off rather than actually having to fight you in any kind of serious battle. In the Japanese version, Siegfried continuously refers to himself as Mr. Me. It gets really annoying really quick. Anyway, the pansy has been beaten. You'll get a Green Cherry for your troubles.

Siegfried runs off with the treasure - Au revoir! Don't worry if you just missed the biggest kick-ass Gamma Sword just there; the chest isn't really a chest with contents anyway. The next room in the compartment appears empty, but this is not the case. See those two empty tiles to the left of the bench? The left one contains a Tent; just face it and press action. The right one contains a Relic

Fairy Ring, but you can't obtain it since you can't face it. Stupid programmers are the scourge of gaming.

On to the next car! Once again, it's a posh car with two compartments. The first one is completely empty. The second one is lined up with four chests; rejoice. From right to left, they contain a Phoenix Down, Relic

Sniper Eye (you can ignore this Relic for now, nothing evades your physicals at this stage of the game, and you're not using them anyway), Phoenix Down, and a Monster-in-a-Box. How frightening.

Apparition Bestiary #47	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	Undead	19	1500	10000	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	15	8	0	120	180	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			Common: Hyper Wrist
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control
	Strategy
	This is Apparition. According to the latest Anthology release, this is the ghost of a murdered person. Oh my. Apparition has normal access to three attacks: Attack, the Blizzard spell, and Leech, which drains HP. If you damage Apparition, he will hate you for it and get a 33% shot at attacking his attacker with !Lightning, which is nothing even remotely like Lightning-elemental. There are a number of ways to kill this thing humiliatingly easy, but the Top 2 of cheap tactics go right against my game ethics. Of course, there's taking advantage of Square's assumption that even though it's supposed to be a rather difficult enemy, it still should be vulnerable to a Phoenix Down, scoring a one-hit KO. Also, you're traveling with a ghost that is capable of delivering a one-hit KO on everything. But I'll guess that not only are you too good for the Phoenix Down move, you also don't want to lose your cool ghost guy just yet. So, when the battle begins, wait for Cyan's third Bushido skill, Tiger. Don't move with Sabin and Shadow or even the ghost; just skip to Cyan and use Tiger. It'll halve his current HP and should do 750 damage. Follow up with an Aura Cannon and a Shuriken and you should be done. Expand Full Strategy

You'll get a Relic

Hyper Wrist for your troubles, which is hardly satisfactory. Then again, it wasn't much trouble.

Before you can reach the next car, your ghost companion(s) will leave you. ...How troublesome (but not really). The next car contains a Save Point. Save. That is its point.

Finally, you made it to the locomotive. The engineer's compartment will make Sabin and Cyan excited before they even set as much as a single step within it. Sounds promising! In the top-left and the bottom-left corners of the room, you can read that you need to shut the first and third pressure valves. All three are now open, so just flip the first and third one, and go outside near the smoke stack. Before you operate, you should expect a major fight coming up. As preparation, move everybody to the Front Row and equip any Relic

Ribbon you might have. Equip the Relic

White Cape on Cyan (switch with Relic

Hyper Wrist).

Phantom Train Bestiary #284	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	Undead	14	1900	350	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	10	5	0	30	210	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			Common: Tent
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control
	Strategy
	The Phantom Train will start with the battle with either a physical attack, !Wheel, or Diabolic Whistle. The next four turns will be spent using normal physical attacks and his Special !Wheel; the fifth turn will be Diabolic Whistle, but only if there are at least two characters still alive. After every 15 seconds of battle, Phantom Train will use either Acid Rain (2/3) or Saintly Beam, an attack that deals multi-target Holy-elemental damage to your party. Finally, if Phantom Train has been damaged, he has a one in three chance of using !Wheel. For trivia, Saintly Beam used to be Phantom Train-exclusive until Holy Dragon Redux showed its pasty face for the Advance release. Given it's such a nasty move in that fight, its occurrence here at least shows the Phantom Train was on the right track. The fight against Phantom Train can be real easy and real bad, and it all depends on his Diabolic Whistle attack. This sets one random status ailment on your party out of the following: Darkness, Poison, Imp, Doom, Berserk, Confused, Sap and Slow. Due to a GBA-exclusive bug, you can circumvent all effects from this attack by equipping a Relic which protects against Imp (such as the White Cape). It should've still applied other status ailments in that case, but it doesn't. The ones you need to be concerned about are Imp, Berserk, and Confused. If one of your characters is Imped, you'll want to use Hi-Potions to damage Phantom Train. Hi-Potions inflict 250 worth of HP damage, which is superior to your crummy Imped Attack command. Smack your Confused characters, as there's nothing more fatal than Confused characters, especially when they have access to Rising Phoenix or barrier-piercing attacks. The Phantom Train battle is very much like the Apparition battle in the sense that using a Phoenix Down is the coward's way out, and that the strategy revolves around allowing Cyan to start the battle with his third Bushido skill, Tiger. After this, have Sabin come in with an Aura Cannon and Shadow with Shuriken. A lot of people have dubbed it 'hilarious' to have Sabin use Meteor Strike on the Phantom Train. If you want to see a tiny sprite lift a huge train, be my guest. Expand Full Strategy

After the fight is over, you're in for the most dramatic moment of your life. If you don't actually have a life, that is. Cyan Garamonde, who has lost everything he ever lived for, has to come face to face with his departed wife and son, only moments before the Phantom Train forcefully takes them away. I suppose it's only justifiable Cyan is slightly in shock after this.

You'll be able to leave after a set period of time. After all has been said and done, you find yourself on the Overworld Map.

1.13: Scenario Sabin: The Bar(r)en Falls

Formations
6/16	Nettlehopper	3
5/16	Stray Cat	3
5/16	Aepyornis	1
	Stray Cat	1
	Nettlehopper	2

Enemies: Stray Cat, Aepyornis, Nettlehopper, Opinicus Fish, Rhizopas

You've escaped the Phantom Train and find yourself at the southern edge of the Phantom Forest. To your right is Baren Falls, a great waterfall you must get past to reach the Veldt, which is full of dangerous monsters. It seems Sabin's scenario is packed with landmark-esque obstacles. Shadow, once again, may run away. Also, he will depart anyway in a very small bit; de-equip him of his equipment and relics. Give the Armor

Ninja Gear and Relic

Hermes Sandals to Sabin and pass the Relic

Gigas Glove to Cyan. If you're still suffering from bad status afflictions from Phantom Train's Diabolic Whistle, a Tent might be appropriate. Don't forget to move all but your Relic

Black Belt character to the Back Row.

Wait for Sabin's Rising Phoenix to kill everything or, should you lack that technique, slave away with those single-target slayers you've grown so familiar with. Make sure to fight Stray Cats here if you haven't before, as they will prove most useful.

Simply walk into the cave to the east and head all the way to the falls. Sabin and Cyan will discuss your bad situation and Shadow will leave you here. He'll be missed, but you'll get an even better character in a bit, so don't feel too bad about it.

You could return to the Phantom Forest, but there's really no point; you'll just find yourself walking through some familiar screens of the Phantom Forest and you'll eventually reach the other side.

Lacking your favorite ninja, your first course of action is hurling yourself down a waterfall packed with rabid piranhas with crazy spell casting abilities. I'd say it's clear who the brains in that team was. Before jumping, you might want to de-equip the Relic

Black Belt.

It may seem like you're getting assaulted non-stop with Opinicus Fish. What you'll see on-screen is monster formations of Opinicus Fish x2, Opinicus Fish x3 and Rhizopas. What'll happen here is that you'll be fighting Opinicus Fish for 60 seconds before Rhizopas appears. Which pack of Opinicus Fish monsters pops up entirely depends on which Opinicus Fish you killed last, but it shouldn't really concern you, as the normal Opinicus Fish are extremely weak.

What you do in the first 60 seconds is entirely up to you. If you want little fuss, you can just wait the 60 seconds out in the first battle, kill all but one, heal up with Tonics for the Rhizopas confrontation, and kill the last bugger. On the other hand, Opinicus Fish have a rare Potion drop, so if you want a shot at as many of those possible, kill as many Opinicus Fish as you can handle. Since Opinicus Fish only have 10 HP even a Back Row Attack command kills them, so do that. It's the fastest way.

Rhizopas Bestiary #285	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	13	775	39	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	14	3	0	110	175	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			Common: Remedy
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control
	Strategy
	As soon as Rhizopas comes, you're in trouble. This little guy has access to the El Ni�o spell, which will deal up to 250 damage to both characters. Your best bet is to go all-out offensive. While Rhizopas has very decent magical defense, Aura Cannon still out-damages Raging Fist (and Rising Phoenix, but that should be obvious). For Bushido, Tiger doesn't work, so just go with Fang. If you're really unlucky, Rhizopas kills you, and there's nothing you can do about that short of over-leveling. The odds aren't that high, though. Expand Full Strategy

1.14: Scenario Sabin: The Wild Boy

Enemies: Most everything you've seen so far; it's the Veldt, man!

Treasures: Elixir

You've managed to survive the Seafood of Doom, and now you're on the Veldt. You may come across a strange boy, dressed in animal hides. Life is strange. Re-equip that Relic

Black Belt if you took it off. Welcome to the Veldt! Here, random encounter monster formations are reproduced for you to fight. You will not gain Experience Points, and its main purpose is obtaining Rages for Gau, the character you will name shortly. For now, you'll have to go find Mobliz to the east. You'll fight battles in the meantime, and there's a chance you'll see Gau appear when you're done. You probably don't want to hurt the guy, but you can't run from him (the buttons will do nothing), so your only option is to smack him over the head to cause him to flee. The alternative is fleeing from the random encounters themselves, if possible.

Mobliz is a great backwater village supporting itself through hunting. There are some great shops here, so take a look around.

At the weapon shop, you'll want to buy a Knife

Kotetsu for Cyan, or two if you want to make him a Relic

Genji Glove/ Relic

Black Belt character (which is a wise decision). For armor, buy two Shield

Heavy Shields, two Helmet

Magus Hats, another Helmet

Plumed Hat, and two Armor

Iron Armors. The Helmet

Iron Helms are ridiculously expensive and you find better alternatives in a short while. At the item shop, you'll need to buy at least one Dried Meat, as it triggers a necessary cutscene. Dried Meat is basically a healing potion that heals a character for 150 HP (so it's inferior to normal Hi-Potions), but has the added property of also healing Undead monsters/characters, instead of hurting them like Potions and Hi-Potions do. For relics, it's never a bad idea to have Relic

White Capes ready, as they make grand filler relics. Make sure you leave at least 2500 Gil in your wallet. Finally, there is an Elixir hidden in the clock of the carrier pigeon house.

Don't bother paying the Inn fee; you can sleep at the bed in the back of the Relic shop. Take a look at the two kiddos in love; Duane and Katarin will make a more significant appearance in the future. There's a wounded lad from Maranda residing in Mobliz. He left the army when he heard they were heading for Doma, but was busted up for his insolence. They broke every bone in his body for leaving, to be more precise. Poor lad indeed. He has a honey in Maranda and you can help him with his situation! He receives letters from her, but can't write back. Do it for him, I say! You'll have to send a total of five parcels that direction: A letter, a record, a Potion (don't worry, it won't come from your stash), another letter, and finally a book. You can't send new stuff if the wounded soldier hasn't gotten any reply, which he gets if you sleep at the inn, speak to the salesmen of the Item, Weapon, Armor, or Relic shops, or see the scholar's explanation of the Serpent Trench.

That makes no sense whatsoever, I am completely aware of that. After you've sent the five parcels, the poor guy gives you a Relic

Tintinnabulum, a nice filler Relic and extremely rare, which gives the illusion it's actually more useful than it in fact is. If you're wondering what exactly a Relic

Tintinnabulum is, it's probably derived from 'tintinnabulation' which means 'ringing'. I can add that the Japanese game calls it a Cat's Bell; I guess we're supposed to assume that with every step the Relic

Tintinnabulum lets out a chime and heals the wearer a little.

Once you're done dancing and prancing in Mobliz, head to the Veldt again. The weird kid called Gau repeatedly said he was hungry, but you had nothing to help him with. Fortunately, Mobliz offers you the possibility of buying food, unlike other towns. Equip the Relic

Genji Glove and Knife

Kotetsu Katanas on Cyan and keep him in the Front Row, or stick with Back Row Cyan if you don't have a Relic

Genji Glove. The other Relic should be the Relic

Black Belt if you have the Relic

Genji Glove; while Fang still out-damages Cyan's Attack (it's pretty close), the counterattack will kill most critters here.

You're bound to run into a few battles here, and you're bound to come across Gau while doing so. You'll need both Sabin and Cyan alive for him to appear. Use a Dried Meat on him to trigger a long, long, yet surprisingly un-boring cutscene in which Gau joins you.

Gau arrives like a baby, completely naked and screaming nonsense. Equip him with what you have, which probably is a Shield

Buckler,

Bandana, and Armor

Kenpo Gi. You will want to swap Sabin's Shield

Mythril Shield with Gau's Shield

Buckler as Gau will have to be in the Front Row and can use the extra defense. Not only does Gau return to his spot in the team in the Front Row at all times, his physicals are important enough on the Veldt to warrant Front Row. As far as Relics go, you should have a Relic

Gigas Glove free. Set the other Relic slot up with a filler Relic ( Relic

White Cape is nice).

Gau joins with a few Rages already: Zaghrem, Exocite, Hornet, Silver Lobo, Magitek Armor, Belmodar, Cartagra, Wererat, and Angel Whisper. Zaghrem is nice, and Belmodar has its distant uses, but for the real good stuff (and there really is a lot of good stuff for Gau to Rage, make no mistake), you'll want to obtain these:

Enemy	Attacks	Attributes
Darkwind	Break	Inherent Float
Trillium	Bio	Absorbs Water
Alacran	!Numb (adds Stop)
Spritzer	Blaze	Absorbs Lightning, Inherent Float, Undead
Oversoul	Will o' the Wisp	Absorbs Poison, Undead
Stray Cat	!Cat Scratch
Guard Leader	Wind Slash
Lesser Lopros	Fireball	Inherent Float
Mu	Snare
Templar	Fira	Inherent Protect
Cloud	Thundara	One-Hit KO Protection
Satellite	Sonic Boom	Inherent Float, One-Hit KO Protection
Bomb	Blaze	Absorbs Fire, Inherent Float

The most important ones right now are Darkwind, Trillium, Alacran, Templar and Guard Leader/Lesser Lopros. If you've completed Locke's scenario already, Acrophies is just as good as Alacran for its purpose.

Really, unless you want to obtain as many Rages as possible, you can ignore other monsters. Keep in mind that Leaping at monsters such as Silver Lobo and Gorgias is just losing control of Gau's Leaping for the time being, which could make him miss out on the others.

Guard Leader has the strongest multi-target attack you can possess up to now: Wind Slash. He is, sadly, especially elusive due to the way the Veldt works, so don't feel too bad if you leave the Veldt without having met this one. Obviously, no Rage is mandatory, but keep in mind that Gau's usefulness exceeds all other characters if you find the right Rages, and he sucks beyond belief if you don't invest the time in him.

Satellites still drop Helmet

Green Berets, which are superior Helmets for everybody. Terra and a mystery character soon to be introduced (I'm talking about Celes) have an acceptable alternate option in the Helmet

Magus Hat, but ideally, you'll want to stick around until you've won another three Helmet

Green Berets (you'll find one extra before long).

When you're done chasing Gau around, stick him in the Back Row as the next dungeon will have him rely on magical attacks and go visit Crescent Mountain, located to the southeast. Gau has a gift for you there, and a bloke in Mobliz mentioned you could reach Nikeah by jumping into the raging current of the Serpent Trench. Who knows, those might be connected somehow!

1.15: Scenario Sabin: Over the Mountain and Through the Trench, to Nikeah We Go!

Pack #1
3/4	Actinian	3
1/4	Anguiform	1

Pack #2
Always	Anguiform	1
	Actinian	1
	Aspiran	1

Pack #3
3/4	Anguiform	2
1/4	Actinian	3
1/4	Aspiran	2

Enemies: Anguiform, Aspiran, Actinian

Treasures: Helmet Green Beret, X-Potion, Elixir

Well here we are at Crescent Mountain, just southeast of Mobliz; no rest for the weary, eh? Let's take a look around. To the right side of the plateau you're standing on, you can see a little cutscene (Seven steps up, one step to the side from the entrance) that is entirely useless. To the left, you'll see a little square sticking out where Gau will find you a Potion (which, believe it or not, is actually added to your inventory!). Proceed and you'll come across a ridge you can walk on.

All the way left, another cutscene will ensue where Gau will scare Sabin out of 500 Gil (which is actually subtracted from your total Gil). If you had less than that, Cyan will magically possess the remaining Gil instead of Sabin and nothing will be removed.

Proceeding further will allow Gau to find the diving helmet! Many a philosopher has pondered over the impossibility of three men sharing the same helmet, but none have found a satisfactory answer. Regardless, the cutscene will take you outside and plunge you into the cold, cold waters of the Serpent Trench.

Narshe is a long way if you take the wrong turn at the Lethe River! Having passed through an Imperial Camp, the lands of Doma, the Phantom Forest, Baren Falls, and the Veldt, you now need to reach Nikeah where a ferry should be available to take you to South Figaro and finally deliver you close to Narshe. The Serpent Trench - a raging current with violent monsters hunting for you � stands in your way. Make absolutely sure you have a fully equipped Gau. There are three monsters in the trench. You can really forget about Actinian; his physicals shouldn't really bother you that much, and whenever you meet a triple Actinian monster formation, Fang, Aura Cannon/Rising Phoenix and the Templar, Bomb, or Lesser Lopros Rages will clear it quickly. The other two are nastier.

Anguiform are dangerous not only because they have a murdering physical attack in !Garrotte, which is actually as painful as it sounds, but especially because they like to use

Aqua Breath when they are alone.

Aqua Breath is an extremely strong multi-target Water/Wind-elemental attack that will hurt for about 170-200 HP damage. Not nice. You should kill with Rising Phoenix if possible, but if you lack it, you should be careful. Gau's multi-target attacks don't guarantee a KO on multiple Anguiforms. Take them out as fast as possible with Aura Cannon, Fang, and either Trillium (absorbs

Aqua Breath and has very decent offense) or Cloud/Ghost (

Thundara slaughters any Anguiform period).

Aspiran are the trickiest. Whenever you meet them, keep hold of your precious secondary commands as Aspiran will counter any damage not inflicted by the Attack command with a 33% shot at Gigavolt for about 330-350 of damage to whatever hit him. Unless you gained more levels then you normally should, that kills you. Counter this with your Relic

Genji Gloved character to kill it or use Belmodar/Spritzer Rages, as they will allow Gau to absorb Gigavolt.

This is the 'map' of the Serpent Trench and the consequences of your choices. You start by fighting pack #1, then you'll get the choice of going either to the Left or to the Right. The Left features more monsters and a certain encounter with all the creatures of the Serpent Trench, the Right features a small cave with an X-Potion chest in it. On the Left, you'll fight #2 and #3, while on the Right you'll just fight #2 before the cave with the chest, and then the paths will reunite. However, no battle is fought before you are presented with yet another choice. Left again means monsters (#2 then #3 again), Right again means treasure (after another #3). This time, the cave will give you a Helmet

Green Beret, and then you'll have to stand on a certain tile to let the water out in this cave so you can proceed. After this, you'll safely reach Nikeah.

Nikeah is small town that thrives on their ports and ferries. There used to be remote access to the lands of Doma, but due to a recent rockslide, the path there is blocked. Imagine, if that hadn't been the case, you could've just walked to the west for a while back when it was just Sabin and found a way home.

You can buy another Lance

Mythril Spear at the weapon shop here if you wish, but you won't really use the Attack command with Edgar, so you can save your money.

You should've bought everything available at the Armor Shop a while ago, with the exception of the Armor

Silk Robes. Buy two of them.

How's your supply of Hi-Potions and Phoenix Downs looking? If you're low on them, it's never a bad idea to stock some of them up. Also, you might want to buy a few Smoke Bombs, as you don't have any of them right now and they could prove useful in the future. The only thing the Relic Shop has going for it is a collection of Relic

White Capes. You could buy one if you pulled enough Gil from your Veldt hunting (which means over 10000 Gil), but you might as well leave it.

There's an Elixir hidden in the clock of the Inn, as always. Take it. Finally, there's an awesome scene between Cyan and the hooker of the local Pub; you haven't lived a satisfying life without having seen it. In the Japanese game her position as Girl of Entertainment is stated much more blatantly, while Sabin will state how he knows plenty about girls.

When you're done in Nikeah, strip the boys of their gear and Relics, then put them on the ferry to South Figaro. Sabin's scenario is over.

1.16: Scenario Locke: South Figaro and its Secret

Formations
6/16	Commander	3
5/16	Vector Hound	2
5/16	Vector Hound	2
5/16	Commander	1

Enemies: Heavy Armor, Officer (Imperial Camp), Merchant, Commander, Vector Hound

Treasures: Relic Earring, Sword Great Sword, Shield Heavy Shield, Hi-Ether, Armor Iron Armor, Relic Ribbon, X-Potion

Locke has somehow managed to stall the actions of an entire army, safeguarding the Returner Hideout...for now. His mission now is to get to Narshe, but South Figaro is under strict martial law and nobody is allowed to leave, not even the Imperial Troopers themselves. But somehow, Locke has to find a way...

In preparation, equip the Relic

Genji Glove and Relic

Gigas Glove on Locke, and stick him with Armor

Ninja Gear and a Helmet

Green Beret. Keep him in the front Row for now. Obviously, if you haven't done the Sabin scenario yet, it'll be a Relic

Genji Glove/ Relic

Gigas Glove with Helmet

Bandana and Armor

Kenpo Gi. You see why it was a good idea to do Locke's scenario last?

A Magitek Armor soldier has blocked the normal entrance to the rest of town. There are two ways to continue: First, in the Item Shop, there's a Merchant. He insults you by stating your actual profession, so obviously you'll need to kill him. By successfully Stealing his item (either a Helmet

Plumed Hat or a Dirk

Main Gauche), you also steal his clothes. After the battle is over, you'll be in Merchant outfit. If you just beat him up instead of Stealing his clothes, you'll be plain Locke after the battle and you'll have gained nothing from the brawl. Once dressed up as a Merchant, you can go to the house of the servant (he was the waiter, to be precise) of the richest man in town and peacefully walk through to the other side of town. Or, if you're violent, you could just bust up the Heavy Armor guarding the area. This is extremely risky and is prone to failure if you're not slightly high-leveled. The other way is definitely the way it was meant to be done.

Once in the rest of South Figaro, your plan is simple: Mug a soldier and walk out of town in his clothes. Remember where you found the Teleport Stone here? Walk up the perimeter wall and go over to the three barrels. There's an Officer (Imperial Camp) walking around. Engage in a fight with him and Steal one of his items; once again, you'll walk away with his garment.

Another option is using a secret passage even the game designers forgot while creating this scenario for you: There's a big building that's built over the water here; it's to the left of the Armored trooper, and on the other side you can see it's the Inn/Cafe. Behind the part that's built over the water is a secret bridge you can use to walk over the water. You circumvent having to steal from the Officer (Imperial Camp) here, and if you're a match for the Heavy Armor you can circumvent stealing clothes entirely.

The only soldier you can convince is the one near the Chocobo stable, but the exit is still prohibited. Oh well, might as well gather some more information in the Pub; you learned from the soldier near the Magitek Armor that Narshe is the next target of the Imperial Army, so who knows what else you might learn? The Pub is bustling with activity! Chatting here will tell you there's an Imperial general held captive somewhere in South Figaro for treason, and there's talk of a secret passage out of South Figaro from the rich man's house. Too bad you can't enter it. But there also seems to be a secret passage from the rich man's house to another house in town, and what house could be more logical than the one of the servant? Better charm that old coot with some Cider to see if he talks.

Go downstairs and you'll find the merchant who continuously brought Cider to the old man when you first visited South Figaro with Edgar and Terra. Obviously, he says something that will make you want to beat him up. Since you're still in the outfit of the Officer (Imperial Camp), you'll want to steal his clothes again (else that kid won't let you pass). If you accidentally beat him up, there's always a merchant waiting for homicide in one of the rooms of the Inn.

Bring the Cider (which, by the way, is a Key Item) to the old servant and he will reveal the existence of a secret passage. He cannot remember his own password, nor is he willing to walk five steps to go over to his grandson and tell him it's okay. You'll have to go downstairs and guess. Or, I could just tell you the correct password is 'Courage'. You're in the secret passage to the rich man's house! Once you arrive, you'll see the clock you robbed earlier for an Elixir. If you didn't do that with Edgar and Terra, do so now. Exit, walk around to the door, and enter. Go up to the second floor. The right room has a girl saying something about 'Winding the Clock'. Guess that's what the kids call it these days, eh? The left room contains a grieving rich man, showing how capitalism ruins a man. Find the secret passage behind his bookcase and descend. Halfway to the basement, you will be asked to change your clothes. Doing so will turn you back into plain Locke. Doesn't matter if you do it or not. Walk on.

The next cutscene was subject to much debate. In all other versions of the game, Celes is smacked around quite a bit by the soldier, eventually falling to the floor. This was removed to fit the target audience in the U.S., though many felt the scene added drama to the situation and all. Oh well.

If you were plain ol' Locke or in Merchant mode, you'll hide in the rafters; if you're disguised as a soldier you'll simply give a salute. The dialogue you have with Celes will change based on your outfit too.

When you're done being the chivalrous young male protagonist (Final Fantasy players should be used to that), it's time to bust out. Celes points out that the soldier has something you want. Take it. I love how morals stop you from progressing at this point. Don't forget to equip Celes; she was wearing nothing but a Hair Band. Nothing. But. A Hair Band. If this is your last scenario, which it should be, her equipment is best off looking like this: Sword

Great Sword/ Sword

Rune Blade, Shield

Heavy Shield, Helmet

Green Beret, Armor

Silk Robe. If you haven't, it'll be Sword

Great Sword, Shield

Heavy Shield, Helmet

Plumed Hat (or Helmet

Bandana if you went through the trouble of stealing it), Armor

LeatherArmor. Keep Celes in the Back Row; she'll like it there. Walking out of the room, there are two more doors for you. The second one contains a Save Point and the third room is a room you should've looted earlier. A lot of junk, a ticking clock, and a clock that isn't ticking. Wind it with the Clock Key, and a cabinet will move, revealing a door. Way to go, Locke! Not only did you find a passageway out of South Figaro, you also won a powerful new ally. As a former general, Celes is bound to have a huge amount of information you can use. Also, she appears to be able to cast Magic, like Terra.

The strategy here is simple: Both Celes and Locke need to equipped in such a fashion that they can each take out one enemy in one hit. Typically, that means Celes with a pair of Relic

Earring and the

Blizzard spell and Locke with the Relic

Gigas Glove. The Relic

Genji Glove isn't necessary unless you're level 10 or lower and otherwise would just be harmful to your defense.

Vector Hounds are the more durable enemies, but even they should fall to a single attack. When a Vector Hound is alone, it will Flee, so take out Commanders first so you have to kill one less living thing. If everything looks good, simply try to nab some extra items with Locke (nothing to get excited about, sadly) while having Celes kill all with two multi-target

Blizzard castings. It's the most effective way, but don't do it all the time, as her MP isn't high enough to take such a constant toll.

Walking through this underground passageway can be frustrating; there are a few rooms seemingly blocked from your path. There is always a hidden path there, though. Once you find the stairs leading to an even lower location, note that there are two visible chests here, one containing Hi-Ether and one containing an X-Potion. Below the one with the X-Potion is a hidden chest containing a Relic

Ribbon. Be sure to grab it. The other visible treasures in the whole passageway include Armor

Iron Armor, Sword

Great Sword, Relic

Earring, and a Shield

Heavy Shield.

Make sure to find all items. The battles can be a tad boring due to their repetitiveness, but Locke and Celes tend to come to Narshe with the lowest levels so the extra experience doesn't really hurt. When you're done, you can leave. You'll see another set of stairs to the south of the stairs you're using to escape; that's the only room you can't gain entrance to. It's the basement of the house where Duncan's wife lives, and should you enter the basement from her house you'll find a Save Point there which you can't see now.

Now you're in South Figaro again, but you have no options besides escaping. You can talk to the Imperial Trooper who was pursuing Locke in the beginning of the scenario, but he will be completely incapable of recognizing either the person he was chasing a while ago and/or a famous general of his own army.

1.17: Scenario Locke: A Cave more Dangerous

Grasslands
6/16	Belmodar	1
5/16	Unseelie	2
5/16	Mu	2
5/16	Unseelie	1

Forest
6/16	Mu	4
5/16	Belmodar	1
5/16	Mu	2
5/16	Belmodar	1
	Unseelie	1
	Mu	2

Caves
5/16	Cartagra	1
5/16	Acrophies	2
5/16	Gold Bear	1
5/16	Acrophies	1
5/16	Acrophies	2
1/16	Cartagra	3

Enemies: Belmodar, Unseelie, Mu, Cartagra, Acrophies, Gold Bear, Tunnel Armor

Treasures: Ether, Rod Thunder Rod, X-Potion

You've finally escaped South Figaro. Now, it's all about reaching Narshe, tracking back to where you came from through the Cave of Figaro, Figaro Desert, and into Narshe. Unlike Terra, neither Locke nor Celes are infamous in the town, so walking into Narshe should be a piece of cake. You know the drill by now. Kill with

Blizzard spells and pointy knives. Belmodar will still counter spells with Megavolt, so lay off it when you meet one. Your goal is to reach the cave entrance to the northwest (anything else is blocked, and there's nothing there anyway). You can rest in Sabin's hut if you're hurt.

This is one of those nasty Changing Caves (caves that change). Not only do chest contents turn into other chest contents before you can say "Glachenspiell Gazette", monsters also change. No more inferior caterpillars who sport a fetish for attacking you; instead, land crabs will hound your steps. No more cycloptic furries, or even oversized bees to make your life miserable. Nay, purple trilobites inject poison and bears straight from El Dorado wrap their expansive paws around your neck. Danger!

Only, not really. The only thing that makes this dungeon somewhat annoying is the fact you only have two characters. !Poison Barb is more a nuisance than anything else (use an Antidote or the

Poisona spell, whichever you seem to have more resources for; out of battle, a Relic

Star Pendant can cure the Poison status by equipping it and removing it), while !Numbclaw can prolong the battle. The only strong attack you need to fear is !Gouge coming from Gold Bear, but as long as you keep your HP up, there's no need to worry.

Both Acrophies and Cartagra fall to a single single-target

Blizzard spell. Acrophies also falls to Locke's physical. Cartagras have a nasty Protect status that makes them pull through single physicals, so let Celes concentrate on them. Gold Bear monsters will have to be taken down with two hits unless you're high-leveled or equipped with the Relic

Genji Glove. Cure when needed, as logic applies once again.

You know the way. You could pick up an X-Potion from the chest to the west. The other chests will still become better later on so I'd leave them for now. The only real choice you should make is the chest on the upper level; it's a Rod

Thunder Rod now and will become a Relic

Hero's Ring later. The Rod

Thunder Rod can be broken during the next boss fight, pretty much insta-killing the thing, after which it's gone. The Hero's Ring will serve you very well in the future though. I'd go for the Relic

Hero's Ring just because the Rod

Thunder Rod is in no way necessary to make it through Tunnel Armor, but it's up to you. You heard strange noises all the time in this cave. You might have mistaken this for the rumbling of your stomach or the pleasant murmur of Russian tanks rolling through the streets, but nothing could be less true; it was a boss following you!

Tunnel Armor Bestiary #283	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	16	1300	900	250	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	10	15	0	29	145	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Bioblaster Rare: Air Knife			Common: Elixir
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
	None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control
	Strategy
	Tunnel Armor is more or less a scripted battle; it forces you to use Celes as a Runic user while Locke should Attack, Attack, Attack! Tunnel Armor is boring. He uses Attack, !Drill, Fire, Thunder, and Poison to hurt you. If he hits 384 HP, he'll swap the possibility of casting Poison for the ability to fire off Magitek Lasers. If he's been damaged, he'll sometimes counter with Attack. Have Celes under continual Runic during this fight. If your enemy casts a spell, have her use it as soon as possible. If the enemy uses a physical attack, just have Celes wait; there'll be a magical attack around the corner. Locke should try to steal something as long as Tunnel Armor still has anything. If you steal a second Air Knife, and Locke still has a Genji Glove with a Main Gauche equipped, you can use the second Air Knife by equipping it mid-battle. Have Locke use a Hi-Potion if either character gets low on HP; the strongest attack he'll be able to successfully use is !Drill, which hits for slightly over 100 HP worth of damage on a Genji Glove wearing, Front Row Locke. Otherwise, he should simply attack. Expand Full Strategy

Eventually, you'll beat the burrowing fiend, and you'll be good to go!

1.18: Reunited: Defend that Esper!

Enemies: Heavy Armor, Fidor, Corporal, Hunting Hound, Hell's Rider, Kefka

Reality split the Returners into factions, but due to the power of Friendship and Plot Device, they all found their way to Narshe to reunite, bigger and badder than before! Lo and behold, it was just in time to thwart the execution of evil plans! As Locke learned in South Figaro, a detachment from the Empire led by Kefka is planning to finish the job Terra started - obtain the mysterious Esper located in Narshe. For no particular reason at all, it was moved to the snowy hills behind Narshe, so it is here that the seven of you will have to make a stand. Obviously, Narshe guards will not be helping you whatsoever.

Preparation: You have an abundance of equipment and seven characters to equip it on. I'll give a brief overview on how to treat the seven characters now that the good relics seem surprisingly small in number:

Terra - Back Row
Sword

Great Sword
Shield

Heavy Shield
Helmet

Magus Hat/ Helmet

Green Beret
Armor

Silk Robe

Earring

Edgar - Back Row
Lance

Mythril Spear
Shield

Heavy Shield
Helmet

Green Beret
Armor

Iron Armor

Locke - Front Row
Dirk

Air Knife/ Dirk

Main Gauche
Dirk

Air Knife/ Dirk

Main Gauche
Helmet

Green Beret
Armor

Ninja Gear
Relic

Genji Glove

Celes - Back Row
Sword

Great Sword
Shield

Heavy Shield
Helmet

Magus Hat/ Helmet

Green Beret
Armor

Silk Robe

Sabin - Back Row
Claw

Mythril Claws
Shield

Buckler

Green Beret
Armor

Kenpo Gi

Cyan - Back Row
Knife

Kotetsu

Heavy Shield
Helmet

Green Beret
Armor

Iron Armor

Gau - Front Row
Shield

Mythril Shield
Helmet

Green Beret
Armor

Kenpo Gi

Earring

I'll leave most of the relics up to you. I'd really advise one pair of Relic

Earring on Gau, as he'll be doing monster multi-target magical damage. If you have Rising Phoenix, equip one more pair of Relic

Earring on Sabin as well. Relic

Hermes Sandals are great for those you want to attack first: Either Locke (for Stealing before killing) or Gau (for killing ASAP). Relic

Gigas Glove is nice for those you'll be doing physical with (Locke, Cyan; not Edgar), and the Relic

Black Belt is only worth it on Locke.

The teams! The monster hitters at this point of the game are Edgar and Gau. Edgar's Tools

Bioblaster, that one Tool you kept ignoring, will now hit the weak spot of a lot of enemies here and will take them down in one hit. You can complement him with a weaker character, so I would suggest Terra; her

Fire spells are starting to become really poor when talking damage output, and Edgar will like the

Cure spells.

Gau rules this part of the game even more than he rules most parts. He will be doing superior multi-target damage when using Lesser Lopros' Fireball or Guard Leader's Wind Slash, and is by far the best choice for both 'boss battles' you'll be battling. Gau should be the core of your superior team, and should be complemented by the other two characters that have things to offer besides damage: Locke (for Steal) and Celes (for Runic).

This leaves us with Sabin and Cyan. If Sabin knows Rising Phoenix, this team will more than make up for its lack of

Cure spells; if not, this is easily the weakest team out of the three. Both Cyan and Sabin will have sufficient single-target damage without the ability to heal beyond Hi-Potions, so they'll require your maintenance.

As soon as you are done with equipping everybody, talk to Banon to make your teams. My personal choice, as I've explained, is the following:

Edgar, Terra
Locke, Celes, Gau
Cyan, Sabin

When you're done, Kefka will appear with a frighteningly large amount of enemy soldiers at his disposal. They will line up and start walking to you. This is very much like defending Terra from the Guard Leader's minions; if the soldiers reach Banon, it's Game Over. Your job is to serve and protect. Block all three pathways to him with your three teams and have out-battle control over the one with Sabin and Cyan (as you'll be needing to feed them Potions outside of battle). When you run into a green soldier, you'll either fight a pack of four Corporals (75% of the time) or two Corporals and a Hunting Hound (25%). The brown soldiers, meanwhile, put you up against a Fidor and Corporal (75%) or two Corporals and a Heavy Armor (25%). When you get to the end, you will fight a Hell's Rider (the last brown soldier) and finally Kefka.

The battle strategy here is simple. If you have a strong multi-target character (Gau, possibly Sabin, Edgar against Troopers), let them do their killing. Strong single-target characters (Locke with Relic

Genji Glove, Sabin, Cyan) should pick apart single enemies. Weak offensive characters (Locke without Relic

Genji Glove, Terra, Celes) can support the general party by Stealing and Curing.

Corporals fall to Tools

Bioblaster and are generally weak units. Avoid the Attack command against them as their strong point is !Swing, which they'll only use to as a counter to Attack.

Hunting Hounds, like their palette swaps, Flee when alone. In a Corporal x2, Hunting Hound monster formation, you can take out the Corporals and ignore the dogs if you like.

Fidor dogs are heavily armored brutes that will probably survive single attacks if they're not really strong ones. They only get stronger when alone (they will start using !Pounce every time as opposed to only 33 % of the possible times), so weaken them/kill them first before you finish of the rest.

Heavy Armor are opponents you still recognize from Locke's scenario, where they were used as more-or-less unbeatable monster you had to run around. Here, you'll have to defeat them, which is considerably easier given the fact you have more than one character to work with. When Celes is in your party, the Imperial tank will recognize her and fear her magic, prompting him to use Magitek Barrier, which sets Protect and Reflect. You shouldn't be using

Blizzard anyway, so that won't be a concern. Don't start using Cloud or Templar, though.

After the two waves of 'normal' enemies are over, there are but two opponents remaining: Hell's Rider and Kefka. Rider is surfing around Kefka so you'll need to take him out first.

If a team is entirely killed, the characters will find themselves with 1 HP on the spot where the Save Point used to reside. This means that you can engage a battle, get yourself killed, and engage again. This also means you can Steal from what is supposed to be a single encounter time after time. Hell's Rider has a common Armor

Mythril Vest, a piece of armor everybody can equip that is superior to everything so far but the Armor

Ninja Gear. There's also a rare Elixir. Kefka features the same rare Elixir and common Hi-Ethers, a superior version to the insanely expensive Ether. I'd advise you to steal three Armor

Mythril Vests (you'll take one Armor

Ninja Gear along) and as many Hi-Ethers as you want. Hi-Ethers are very rare, very useful, and you're not going to get unlimited amounts of them until near the end of the game, and even then it's a huge stretch to try to obtain them. I've dubbed it the OnionRider trick, so make me proud and mention it wherever you go! You see, because like an onion, the beast has layers, and you peel several Armor

Mythril Vests off of him? OnionRider!

Hell's Rider Bestiary #286	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	Humanoid	14	1300	170	1290	400
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	48	10	0	120	150	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Elixir Rare: Mythril Vest			Common: Remedy
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
	None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			None
	Metamorph Package
	Golden Spear, Golden Shield, Golden Helm, Golden Armor, Golden Spear, Golden Shield, Golden Helm, Golden Armor, Golden Spear, Golden Shield, Golden Helm, Golden Armor, Golden Spear, Golden Shield, Golden Helm, Golden Armor, Golden Spear, Golden Shield, Golden Helm, Golden Armor, Golden Spear, Golden Shield, Golden Helm, Golden Armor, Golden Spear, Golden Shield, Golden Helm, Golden Armor, Golden Spear, Golden Shield, Golden Helm, Golden Armor, Golden Spear, Golden Shield, Golden Helm, Golden Armor, Golden Spear, Golden Shield, Golden Helm, Golden Armor, Golden Spear, Golden Shield, Golden Helm, Golden Armor, Golden Spear, Golden Shield, Golden Helm, Golden Armor, Golden Spear, Golden Shield, Golden Helm, Golden Armor, Golden Spear, Golden Shield, Golden Helm, Golden Armor 64/256 Success Rate
	Strategy
	Hell's Rider is a durable fellow who has an extremely strong physical attack in !Silver Lance, which he also uses to counter a successful Steal attempt. Every fourth attack, he has a 1/3 chance of using Venomist, a multi-target Poison-elemental attack with low accuracy that also sets the Poison status. Gau can take him out in a single hit with Mu's Snare and the Break spell from Darkwind and/or Commander. If you have nothing along those lines, Areneid's !Numb and Primordite's !Numbclaw will stop him in his actions. If you lack Gau (shame on you), Cyan's Tiger works great if used first, and any combination of your strongest attacks should suffice. He can also counter any Attack with Reverse Polarity on that character. Expand Full Strategy

Now, this is finally the confrontation with Kefka. He enslaved Terra's mind, set fire to castle Figaro, and destroyed Cyan's life. It's time to give him some payback for all that he's done.

Kefka Bestiary #287	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	Humanoid	18	3000	3000	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	25	9	30	55	160	30
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Elixir Rare: Hi-Ether			Common: Peace Ring
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
	None			None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control, Scan
	Strategy
	Kefka is vulnerable to Stop, so have Gau use the Alacran and/or Acrophies Rages for best results. Always have Runic in place, as he knows some very powerful spells that can one-hit KO your characters when focused in a single-target blast, regardless of row. Have your other character(s) give it their best shot. Terra's Fire cannot be used with Runic in place so she should focus on her other powers; she can cast Magic when Celes isn't on Runic stand-by or simply wield the Rune Blade to some very nice result. Locke should Attack, Edgar should unload his Auto Crossbow, Sabin relies on good old Aura Cannon, Cyan can use Fang or his fourth Bushido, Flurry, if he has access to it, and that's about it. The battle is slightly anti-climactic when you consider the implications of it, but you'll pull through. Expand Full Strategy

When Kefka is defeated, he'll manage to escape, leaving behind an utterly useless, albeit new, Relic

Peace Ring.

And that was that. Terra leaves behind the equipment she had on her, thoughtfully.

1.19: Respite at Narshe

Treasures: 5000 Gil, Relic Earring, Elixir, Relic Hyper Wrist, Relic Reflect Ring, Relic Thief's Bracer, Dirk Thief's Knife

After killing the main part of their defensive force in the beginning of the game and being denied entrance two times in subsequent parts, it is finally time to embrace all that Narshe has to offer. To the west, there are the caves where the Moogles live. To the north are the coal mines and the passageway leading into the snowy mountains where you protected the Esper. The city itself, independent as it is, has many great items to offer you.

This is also the first time you have to make a choice between your seven characters. Who to take, who to leave behind? Since it mostly depends on personal preference, I will write from now on knowing that you could have every character combination possible, although I will expect you to have four party members.

As far as best characters at this point go, I'll do my best: Edgar buys two great new Tools in a short while, which definitely beat all other options. Edgar is a must-have at this point in the game. Sabin should reach level 15 if he hadn't already and learn his Rising Phoenix Blitz, a great multi-target attack that puts the significant hurt on pretty much everything. Gau is an offensive maniac at this point, only hindered by the fact he only uses the Awesome Attack 50 % of the time. However, he does have access to stuff like Auto-Protect, !Cat Scratch,

Bio, and !Numbclaw. If you found even one third of the Rages I recommended earlier, Gau is a much better choice then whoever is left. I'd definitely recommend these three characters for this scenario, as they'll have the easiest time coming through. If you didn't pick any of Gau's Rages, though, his only saving grace is Zaghrem, which, frankly, still puts him above Cyan but doesn't make him superior to Locke or Celes. Celes is a nice addition to your team as a

Cure user. You have all the offensive power you could ever need with Tools

Flash (Edgar's new multi-target damage Tool) and Rising Phoenix, so the fact she can't really damage stuff efficiently doesn't hurt her case. She'll also make a fine asset to the boss battle of the scenario, although nowhere near the usefulness of a good Raged-up Gau with Alacran or Acrophies. Locke doesn't have any offensive power to bring to your team either, but his purpose is the Steal command (obviously). There are quite a few rare Steals that are worth your time, and where Celes heals with

Cure, Locke simply adds an extra restorative item to your team in every battle. Cyan is the worst character right now. The only thing he can do is offense, and not only do you not need it, Bushidos are horrible at this part of the game. Fang is so-so and though Cyan learns Flurry, you either have to charge it up while the Figaro Brothers attack, in which case there's nothing left to Slam or put all other characters are on hold, which disrupts the flow of the battle. Also, Flurry is far inferior to Tools

Flash and Rising Phoenix.

Finally, you could choose to leave Narshe with only three characters and pick up an old 'friend' in Kohlingen: Shadow. Shadow will randomly leave you throughout the entire scenario, and is therefore a risky investment. Battle-wise, Shadow is a straight offense man with very acceptable single-target damage from a Thrown

Shuriken and extremely strong multi-target damage at the cost of 500 Gil a toss from the elemental scrolls in Kohlingen.

In the end, my personal recommendation is a team consisting of Edgar, Sabin, Gau, and Locke.

New weapons in Narshe include the Special

Chain Flail and the Special

Moonring Blade. The Special

Chain Flail is a weapon for Terra and Celes; Terra is gone and Celes will still do more damage with and

Blizzard spell than with the Special

Chain Flail. It's an entirely useless weapon, but you might want to buy it for completeness' sake. It deals the same amount of damage from the back row, so it has that going for it, but since the possible wielder at this point (Celes) loses the ability to Runic and shouldn't be attacking anyway, it's a moot point.

Blizzard spells do cost MP where a Special

Chain Flail attack does not, so in theory, it could have its use. The Special

Moonring Blade is a weapon for Locke that allows him to do full damage from the Back Row; a superior weapon without this feature can be found somewhere else. I'd buy one, as you may want to use it.

At the armor shop, Shield

Mythril Shields are finally available for everybody! Buy one for the entire team. All other items were previously obtainable.

Especially if you don't bring Celes, Hi-Potions might come in handy, so keep an eye out for your stock at the Item Shop. Phoenix Downs are ever useful, so make sure you have a few of those to throw around if necessary.

Hidden Items: In the clock in the Elder's House, you'll find an Elixir. A helpful peasant allows you to take his stuff in a house to the east. While normally that'd include such useless trinkets as paled paintings and broken silverware, what is offered here is very nice indeed. In the small shack, you'll find 5000 Gil, a Dirk

Thief's Knife, Relic

Earring, a Relic

Reflect Ring, a Relic

Thief's Bracer and a Relic

Hyper Wrist. The Dirk

Thief's Knife is Locke's superior weapon that I was talking about. The Relic

Thief's Bracer doubles his Steal success rate; the treasure hunter is quite hyped at this point!

If you walk to the north, where you entered the coal mines to find the Esper with Terra and company, you'll catch a glimpse of a being, dressed in white fur. Maybe at some point in the future you'll learn who or what it is.

Remember that elusive battle formation you hunted for in the Caves of Narshe, the one with Specter and Eukaryote from the security checkpoint? Well, guess what: Specter has a rare Rod

Ice Rod for you to steal, and with Locke, you finally have access to it. The odds are far too small, but while the Rod

Ice Rod is a weapon you cannot currently equip on anybody, you can break it for massive damage in battle, and it's nice to have at this point.

1.20: Getting to Kohlingen (With an Optional Side Trip)

Enemies: Leaf Bunny, Darkwind, Sand Ray, Alacran

Terra flew off. Not only do you personally care for her well-being, but she is also a key player in your struggle against the Empire; she must be retrieved or it will be a major setback for the Returners. Witnesses say they saw a soaring light, heading west... The western continent is accessible with Figaro Castle, the subterranean taxi. It's time to split your team between those who will seek Terra, and those who stay behind should the Empire attempt another attack to obtain the Esper. And now, you travel...

You have three Relic

Earring now to split between those of your party who can use it (Sabin, Gau, and Edgar). Celes' damage will be lower than the rest anyway, so trying to make something out of it will just be a waste of an Relic

Earring. If you have the Relic

Genji Glove, Locke and Cyan (in that order) will benefit from it, possibly paired with a Relic

Black Belt for Cyan, though you'll want to equip that Relic

Thief's Bracer on Locke.

There is one small task you can perform before going to Kohlingen and beyond, and that's taking Gau back to the Veldt to have him learn some new Rages. The two new Rages of interest are Anguiform and Aspiran. Anguiform performs

Aqua Breath, which, although weaker than Wind Slash on multiple targets, will nail the weakness of many more monsters later on. Aspiran uses Gigavolt, which is an obscenely strong magical attack that sometimes goes multi-target (far surpassing

Aqua Breath and Wind Slash in that aspect), but even its single-target surpasses anything. For comparison, it's almost as strong as a

Fira spell hitting a weakness. It's not entirely necessary as Gau's attacks are already stronger than whatever attacks your other characters have.

To visit the Veldt, take the Cave to South Figaro and pass through Mt. Kolts. You'll find the Returner Hideout again, and in Banon's Room, you can find the hidden passage to the raft. Jump on it, and after the same battles you had to fight earlier, you'll now take the path Sabin took when he drifted off. You find yourself near the hut of the crazy man again. Walk through the Phantom Forest (no Imperial Camp or Phantom Train this time) and jump down Baren Falls (no battles here either). You're on the Veldt now. Leap around until you're satisfied. Jump down the Serpent Trench and wind up in Nikeah. Take the ferry at the bottom of the map to South Figaro and you're on known territory. Oh yeah, and you're smuggled out of South Figaro in a chest; that never ceases to amuse the kids.

In Figaro Castle, there are new Tools for sale! Tools

Flash is a non-elemental, multi-target magical attack, so your Relic

Earring on Edgar will shine even more. Tools

Drill is an attack like Fang, Raging Fist, and

Shuriken: Physical, barrier-piercing, and non-elemental. Tools

Drill beats Fang and Raging Fist in power, though. Since Edgar is king, you can put him as the lead character to obtain a discount; the merchant will whine regardless but will only give a discount if Edgar is your leader. If you lack Edgar in your party but have Sabin, the merchant will notice... but no discount for you.

At this stage, the Meteor Strike Blitz will start becoming more dangerous than Aura Cannon when Sabin is without Relic

Earring. With Relic

Earring, the damage difference is marginal, but you'll want to get used to using Meteor Strike when only one monster is on the battlefield as it will do double damage when only one target remains.

Cyan will learn Flurry at level 15. The charge time becomes noticeable now, and the result is hardly worth it: Four hits on random targets with the same total damage as Tools

Drill. I would advise Cyan to stick to Fang and Attack (Fang is slightly stronger, but Relic

Genji Glove Attack is targetable).

Taking either Edgar or Sabin to Figaro Castle will draw a reaction from them. If you go sleep at the Inn of Figaro Castle with both Edgar and Sabin, a special scene will be revealed, however there's a better time to watch this so I'll bring it up later when the timing is right. When you're done, have the man in the room left of the entrance ship you to Kohlingen.

1.21: Kohlingen

Grasslands
6/16	Hell's Rider	1
5/16	Bloodfang	2
5/16	Vulture	2

Forest
6/16	Paraladia	2
6/16	Rock Wasp	3
5/16	Paraladia	1
	Vulture	1
	Iron Fist	1
5/16	Iron Fist	2
5/16	Rock Wasp	2

Desert
6/16	Sand Ray	1
6/16	Alacran	2
5/16	Fossil Dragon	1
5/16	Sand Ray	2

Enemies: Sand Ray, Alacran, Fossil Dragon, Vulture, Iron Fist, Bloodfang, Rock Wasp, Paraladia

Treasures: Elixir, Helmet Green Beret

You've safely arrived on the other side of the mountains, on an exciting new continent. New monsters, too! Check the enemy formations!

Kohlingen is a nice town without anything significantly wrong with it. It doesn't house any gargantuan frozen serpents, it's not being overrun by the Empire, it doesn't consist of hunters, dogs, and Mickey Mouse Club rejects; Kohlingen is your average village where the sun shines and the non-narcotic grass grows. But since that doesn't attract any tourists, you'll quickly notice that Kohlingen houses crazy people, preserves dead people, and has assassins in every Inn, not unlike whatever the hell the Russians did to Moscow after Lenin died.

The weapon shop has no new weapons for you, but what is interesting is the fact you can buy scrolls here. At 500 Gil a piece, they are really too expensive for you to buy in mass amounts. If you chose to hire Shadow, buy a few Skean

Flame Scrolls. All three are equal in power and only differ in their element, and the Fire-elemental ones are just the most useful.

A note on the scolls for those interested: Ninja magic/Ninjutsu is a factor in earlier and later Final Fantasy games, but since this game only offers a single secondary ability to every character, the game designers decided to relate Shadow's ninjutsu abilities to items and have him use them with his Throw command, even though you don't really throw scrolls.

The only new item of interest at the Armor Shop is the Helmet

Twist Headband. The Helmet

Twist Headband is a ridiculously expensive helmet that is actually inferior to the Helmet

Green Beret. If you have any characters that can equip it without having a Helmet

Green Beret for them, you might consider buying one, but note that you'll get another Helmet

Green Beret somewhere in this city. If you brought Locke instead of Celes, this might be a good time to make sure your amount of Hi-Potions doesn't drop to one-digit levels. Never travel without fewer than 5 Phoenix Downs and less than 20 Hi-Potions, as they're always useful. The most important are the Holy Waters; carry a few at all times, as the Zombie status they cure can only be healed by Tents and Holy Water and Tents are just a waste to use just for that.

To the northwest is Rachel's House, which houses an Elixir within yet another clock. Rachel has a history with Locke. If Locke is in your party, you'll learn more about his tragic past. If he isn't, you will learn nothing, like you always do when you make mistakes.

To the northeast, there is a large mansion that houses two points of interest. If you sneak through the back entrance, you'll find a Helmet

Green Beret in a barely-visible chest. If you descend to the cellar, you'll meet a crazy man who apparently keeps a body lying around, preserving it; if you have Locke, you can add some more story to him, and Celes will make a short but important supporting-actress performance when she's also in your party. The old man will refuse to divulge the secrets of the body if Locke isn't in your party, though.

In the Inn, there's Shadow waiting for you! For 3000 Gil he will offer to join your team as long as there's room for him; otherwise, he'll simply tell you to piss off. His merit in this scenario has been discussed earlier but it's important to stress again that Shadow might leave you at any time after every battle. Also, you now finally have access to the infamous Shadow's Dreams!

A burnt house here is inaccessible. A 'glowing monster' destroyed it; it seems Terra made a visit to Kohlingen and flew off again. But where? No sense doubting, as there's really only one place to go. We're off to Jidoor, to the South.

1.22: Next Stop: Jidoor

North Grasslands
6/16	Bloodfang	2
6/16	Vulture	1
5/16	Bloodfang	2
5/16	Vulture	2

South Grasslands
6/16	Iron Fist	2
6/16	Rock Wasp	2
5/16	Vulture	1
5/16	Iron Fist	1
5/16	Rock Wasp	4

Forest
6/16	Paraladia	2
6/16	Rock Wasp	3
5/16	Paraladia	1
	Vulture	1
	Iron Fist	1
5/16	Iron Fist	2
5/16	Rock Wasp	2

Desert
6/16	Sand Ray	1
6/16	Alacran	2
5/16	Fossil Dragon	1
5/16	Sand Ray	2

Enemies: Sand Ray, Alacran, Fossil Dragon, Vulture, Iron Fist, Bloodfang, Rock Wasp, Paraladia

Treasures: Relic Hero's Ring, Ether

While searching for Terra, you were told she went to Jidoor. But reaching Jidoor is not an easy task as the road there is a long and dangerous one.

Before you go all the way to Jidoor, let's take a look at some features this part of the game provides! A man in Kohlingen told you about his brother to the north, at Dragon's Neck, who dreams of building a colosseum. You'll want to pay this so-called lunatic a visit as one of his buckets houses an ever-so-precious Relic

Hero's Ring, which is basically Relic

Gigas Glove and Relic

Earring combined. They work on every character, but are especially nice on those who use both magical and physical attacks, such as Edgar and Gau.

The desert is dangerous! While most battles will just feature the same critters you faced on the other side of the mountains, you're more than likely to meet a Fossil Dragon before long. These undead dragons have witnessed their own bones bleaching in the sun, being polished by the never-ending sand storms of the desert. They have a fatal attack in !Bone (for which you'll need a Holy Water to cure), and Sandstorm is a nasty attack that deals about 200 HP worth of damage to your entire party. It's easily evaded, but at this point, your team isn't going to avoid an old man in a wheelchair, so watch out. Beating one of these monsters will get you 1870 Gil though, so it's worth the challenge if you're low on cash. The easiest way to take care of them is using a Phoenix Down or Holy Water (you can buy three Phoenix Downs or six Holy Waters from one battle, so it's a feasible strategy that goes easy on the wallet), but if you lack those, it's up to your most powerful attacks. Steal a Phoenix Down/Holy Water with Locke, Tools

Drill a hole with Edgar, Sabin can deliver massive pain with Aura Cannon (it's super-effective), Celes can make little difference regardless besides a multi-target

Cure when a Sandstorm attack kicks in, Cyan can use Tiger early on or deliver a Fang later, and Gau's Dark Side, Anguiform, Templar and Mu are extremely effective.

In the forest near the would-be Colosseum is a Chocobo Stable. If you don't feel like traveling and doing battle, you can always rent one here and reach Jidoor on a whim. To be honest, the monsters here, as well as their corresponding Rages (excluding Rock Wasp, which only appear near Jidoor anyway), are worth crap so you're not really missing out.

The grasslands and forests are littered with fairly useless enemies, but the Iron Fists are fairly dangerous. When they're alone they will use Stone, a horrid spell that not only will do 7.5x as much damage to you when you're the same level as the caster (in Iron Fist's case, 15) but will also Confuse anything that survives it. If you're level 15 and are hit with Stone, you die (it's over 1300 HP worth of damage, folks). If you're not and you're still hit, you go medieval with Tools

Auto Crossbow, Rising Phoenix, Wind Slash, and whatnot on your own party members. You'll want to avoid this scenario at all costs; kill Iron Fists first.

All other enemies are generally unassuming. Red Fang and Paraladia can poison you, so watch out, and give them priority over Rock Wasp bugs. These simple pests prolong the battle by putting you to sleep. They're easy enemies and you should destroy them.

Rising Phoenix and Tools

Flash rule supreme as heavy-hitting multi-target spells that can seriously weaken or kill anything they touch with consistent effort. Wind Slash, Gigavolt, and

Aqua Breath performed by Gau are going to kill everything when they occur. Let these characters do the hitting and have other characters run utility work. Celes can absorb Shamshir with Runic, so you might want to have her ready with it, should those two meet. Locke can Steal some rather uninteresting healing potions and Cyan can waste time in your party. There's a peninsula to the south of Jidoor, leading to a sole building. This is the Opera House, and it's closed.

Remember that day? Remember that day you went to visit your aunt's eccentric and rich sister, who had those beautiful crystal-like glasses you wanted to have so very, very bad? And remember when you told your mom and she told you that you would never ever earn enough money to buy one, no matter how hard you tried? This is like a city full of those rich sisters, but this time you can't punch them in the face and take what you like from them.

Jidoor has new weapons! The Claw

Kaiser Knuckless are for Sabin, and they're Holy-elemental. While they're fairly legendary throughout a lot of Final Fantasy games, here they have negligible use. I do suggest you pick up two of them, as there will be one scenario where they will come in handy. Knife

Kiku-ichimonji are new Knives for Cyan. If you have Cyan in your party, you probably made a Relic

Genji Glove/ Relic

Black Belt out of him; two Knife

Kiku-ichimonji improve his usefulness. Dirk

Kodachi blades are for Shadow; disregarding that you're unlikely to actually have him on the team, the fact that any Thrown

Shuriken will surpass any held blade in damage will make sure the Dirk

Thief's Knife is superior to equip. May be less of a non-factor if you brought Locke AND Shadow and have felt the necessity to equip the Dirk

Thief's Knife on the treasure hunter.

Jidoor sells expensive new armor. First and foremost, you'll notice Armor

Mythril Vests for sale. You should already have enough of them, but if you don't have enough to keep the Cyans and Edgars in your party pleased, you could get some. The Armor

Ninja Gear was thus far an exclusive item you kinda forgot to return to Shadow when he left, but it's likely the majority of your party can enjoy this thing. Finally, the Armor

White Dress: If you have money, buy two. The Armor

White Dress is great, giving a hefty Magic Boost and solid Magic Defense.

This is the first time you can buy noteworthy nice Relics! Relic

Earring are for sale in Jidoor. After the many new weapons, potions, scrolls, whatever, it's unlikely you have a lot of money to spare, but if your party can really use a third Relic

Earring (say, if you brought Gau, Edgar, Sabin, and Celes), consider buying one.

All the way to the north is a massive mansion that would be suitable as an attraction in a cheesy amusement park. There's an Ether in one of the buckets.

Time to explore the town! Beyond everything already described above, there's precious little to explore, actually; like in the case of real rich people, it's all appearance and little content. Remember the huge mansion to the north; the owner of it is Owzer, a famous art lover. The Auction House is closed for the time being; a convenient plot device employed to tell you that whatever you can buy here shouldn't be available yet. The NPCs are generally useless here, but there are three points of interesting information they provide:

Terra apparently headed north, into the mountains. That's where Zozo is.
People in Zozo lie. They lie!
The inhabitants of Zozo also steal.

Why would Terra use her newfound ability to travel by air to go to what sounds like the slums of Jidoor, detached, full of American Presidents? It will forever be a mystery. Or not, because you're about to find out.

1.23: Zozo

Outside
5/16	Gobbledygook	4
5/16	Hill Gigas	1
5/16	Harvester	1
5/16	Gobbledygook	2
1/16	Hill Gigas	1
1/16	Harvester	1

Inside
5/16	Veil Dancer	1
5/16	Veil Dancer	1
5/16	Harvester	2
5/16	Harvester	1
1/16	Veil Dancer	1
1/16	Gobbledygook	3

Enemies: Iron Fist, Harvester, Hill Gigas, Gobbledygook, Veil Dancer, Dadaluma

Treasures: Relic Brigand's Glove, Claw Burning Fist, Tools Chainsaw, Ether x2, Relic Hermes Sandals, Hi-Potion, Potion, X-Potion

Lore: Stone

Upon entering Zozo, the image you had of it will quickly abandon you. You expected poor people; you encounter pure madness. Staggering through the buildings are madmen mumbling about minutes, hours, and seconds. The exotic dancers wield arcane spells no human is to possess. Bulking giants attack you, shaking the ground with every twenty-ton step. Corpses rot on the street. Towering constructions reach into the sky. And somewhere in this chaos, Terra is waiting for you.

You should've equipped all new pieces of armor before entry. If you have Gau in your party, make sure his first Rage is something Float-inducing such as Ghost, Lesser Lopros, Aspiran, or Hornet. It will protect at least him from the dreaded Magnitude 8 attack you may encounter here. Save. Zozo is the most dangerous place you'll set foot into for a while, so make sure you're not caught with your shorts down.

First off, how to treat the enemies here. It's incomprehensible why these cretins wield the destructive power of Magic; there's certainly not a plot-related explanation given. But regardless, these inhabitants aren't going to give you random advice, allow you to raid their homes and take 300 Gil they contained in that bucket for over three generations, or sell you new stuff. They are here to kill you. It's up to you, but I'd say we kill them right back.

Veil Dancers should be your first concern, period. If they are alone, they start casting

Fira,

Blizzara, or

Thundara. Always. A focused single-target level 2 spell will probably kill a character. A multi-target spell will hurt your entire party more than anything you've encountered so far. Take them out ASAP when they're alone. If they come with other opponents, try to see if you can steal more Dirk

Thief's Knifes from them and then end their lives.

Hill Gigas is your second large concern. They just hit stuff, hard. If you keep your HP up, they're not going to kill you, but keep in mind that a weakened character can quickly fall victim to a devastating physical blow like the ones Hill Gigas delivers. If you kill one, there's a 33% chance they will end things with a Magnitude 8 attack. This hurts about as much as a multi-target level 2 spell, and since I just spent quite some words detailing the fact you want to avoid that at all costs, know that once again this is the case. You can avoid this fate by changing the giant into an Imp with Celes, or let him sink in a Snare attack, only employable by a well-trained Gau. Darkwind is also an efficient way of dealing with the wall of muscle, but

Break won't stop the Magnitude 8 attack. Cross your fingers and make sure you have four Potions or Celes'

Cure spell ready.

Harvesters are next. They're weak fighters, but when allowed to take a third turn, they will use Shadow's Throw technique to hurl either a Dirk

Dagger or a Dirk

Mythril Knife at you. This is crazy high single-target damage that's likely to take a character down in one shot. It ignores defense and Row, so if you see it, you're in trouble. The only way to dodge around these flying blades of death is the Invisible status.

And that's where our fourth and final random encounter comes in! Gobbledygook are Zozo's cannon fodder; useless pieces of Hit Points that run into your sharp objects and die from them. Compared to their fellow monsters here, they are doubly pathetic. They serve a grand purpose, though. If you have any means of setting Confuse, use it! Edgar's Tools

Noiseblaster is far and entirely superior to Gau's Zaghrem Rage (

Stone), but if you didn't bring Edgar, you have precious little choice should you want to employ this tactic. A confused Gobbledygook has a 33% chance of casting

Vanish on a random character of yours. The Invisible status remains after battle and makes you immune to all physical attacks sent your way, including items Thrown by Harvester. Two characters under Invisible is good, three is grand, but four is generally unconceivable as you can't control which character gets to be the target, and a

Vanish spell on an Invisible target is just going to remove the status.

So, welcome to Zozo! If you walk a bit into the town, you'll notice there are three buildings here. The one you passed is the smaller building, which has some treasure on top. The door says 'Cafe'. All the way to the north is a small building with only a clock to set. The final and remaining tower is what could be defined as the main dungeon, a construction even Gaudi didn't dare dream of. Twisted, man. I'll call the three buildings the Small Tower, the Tools

Chainsaw Tower and the High Tower, for readability. Not that hard.

Enter the Small Tower first. A Zozo crook shouts gibberish over his counter. Ignore him and continue to ascend. You'll meet a split here: A door to the left and one to the right. The left one takes you nowhere, like studying philosophy. The right one takes you outside, where you climb a frightening stairway to the next level. Here, the left door is rusted shut and the right one opens to reveal an Ether. Now, you can track back!

The Tools

Chainsaw Tower is the one you were meant to explore last. The trick is that there is a mysterious clock you can set. By collecting clues from the Zozo inhabitants, you could discover the time you needed to unlock a secret treasure. Here are all the clues you can find:

That clock doesn't have a minute hand. Of course, it never points to the right time, anyway! (This clue refers to the nearest clock, not the treasure clock. Examining the correct clock will indicate that the hand is at 2.)
The second hand on my watch is pointin' at 30.
The seconds? They're divisible by 20!
My watch's second hand is pointing at the 4.
Time, you say? It's 4:00.
Don't listen to the others! Trust me, it's 8:00!
Oh, it's 10:00! I'd better be getting home.
It's already 12:00.
It's 2:00.

With the options presented to you when trying to set the clock to the right time, it's clear that the hour must be 6:00, as all other options are stated by lying Zozo pigs. The seconds are not divisible by 20, and it's not 0:00:30. The minutes can be narrowed to only one option; the man who tells you there is no minute hand on that clock proceeds to say it isn't on the right time. Talking to the clock will reveal that the (minute) hand is standing on the two, in other words 0:10.

At any rate, after some trying here and there, it's clear that the real time is either 6:10:10 or 6:10:50. That is a 50% chance with no penalty for being wrong, but you'll quickly find out once you've tried one of them you know that the real answer is 6:10:50. When you reset the time to match this, a wall will slide away to reveal another pathway to a chest containing the Tools

Chainsaw. It's a powerful new Tool for Edgar that is basically Tools

Drill on crack with the annoying 25% tendency to try to go for an instant-kill, which has a small chance of missing, and always misses against targets immune to one-hit KO.

Now, for the High Tower! It's the one to the southwest, with the Relic shop logo above the entrance. When you enter, another politician in the making is waiting for you to listen to his crap. Leave him. You take a stairway outside to enter the second level, where cycloptic thieves run rampant. There are a total of seven of them, repeating themselves in an endless polonaise of decay and horror. Walk amongst them to leave. Now you're outside again!

At the end of the first set of stairs, you can face south and be asked if you want to use the Crane. Using the Crane will simply let you descend to the previous level. The Crane was probably installed so you could easily return to the ground without having to wade through the thieves. Maybe the designers figured it would in fact be impossible to return by those means; by clever navigational skills it's very much possible though. Pressing on, stair after stair, will get you to a dead end! Granted, there was a room with a Relic

Brigand's Glove on the way, but you cannot proceed. Time to pick up an ancient Zozo trick: Jumping between buildings. There is a small black entrance above the door you passed through to get outside. Enter it and face the west. Now, walk over there and jump! Twice!

The Relic

Brigand's Glove, by the way, is a Relic for Locke that allows him to change his Steal command into Mug, which is basically Attack + Steal. The Relic

Thief's Bracer also boosts the chances of stealing through Mug, and the chances of stealing are just as high for Mug as it is for Steal. The only downside (and very rarely upside) of Mug is that it makes the weapon lose some special powers. None of the weapons you have at this point will lose any effect, but the following weapons do:

The Ultima Weapon; Becomes a normal 255 Attack blade
Ichigeki, Assassin's Dagger, Wing Edge and Viper Darts will not execute X-type one-hit KO any more.
The Zantetsuken won't slice enemies, ever.
The Man-Eater won't double damage on 'Human' targets.
Blood Sword and Soul Sabre won't absorb respectively HP and MP and do normal damage instead.
Rune Blade, Ragnarok, Lightbringer, Punisher and the Organyx can't execute the MP-powered critical hit; in addition, the Organyx can't break on you.
No random extra damage from Hawkeye and the Sniper; the throw graphic won't be used either.
Dice and Fixed Dice become worthless due to the 2 and 3 Hit Rate for them, while graphic glitches ensue.
The Valiant Knife loses defense-ignoring properties and doesn't add the (max HP - current HP) damage.
Kazekiri won't cast Wind Slash.

You get back inside on the other side of the building and continue to travel. Ignore the first partly-hidden set of stairs to your left; it will only take you behind some counter. The second one gets you to your needed destination: Further. There is a Hi-Potion and also an Ether hidden in two pots here. Leave this detour of a building and jump back to the normal one. Jump again and you'll find yourself in a huge set of swirling stairs. Climb them. When you find yourself outside again, climb those stairs too. Don't forget to find the Claw

Burning Fist hidden in the small chamber here; the door is obvious. Eventually, you will reach Dadaluma.

Dadaluma Bestiary #288	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	Humanoid	22	3270	1005	1210	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	12	3	0	85	143	10
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Jeweled Ring			Common: Thief's Knife Rare: Twist Headband
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
	None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			None
	Strategy
	Dadaluma is...yeah, what the hell is he anyway? He's a crazy lying dog like the entire population of Zozo, charging at you as soon as he's finished saying he's going to let you by unharmed. He's some hybrid between a martial artist and a thief: The love child of a Harvester and an Iron Fist plus a load of anabolic steroids. Most of his attacks are physical, and his most powerful ones are thrown weapons. Your Invisible characters are relatively safe if he doesn't expose them with Shockwave, which is a weakish attack with the power to hit your Invisible targets. When he's taking enough damage to dive below 1920 HP, he'll use either a Potion or Hi-Potion three times and cast Protect on himself. That's only slightly annoying for Locke, as all other characters are going to attack either with barrier-piercing attacks or those that are magical of nature. There are some more twists and turns to Dadaluma's battle script! When you've hurt him with the Magic command two times, he will Throw one weapon and Jump in the air, being temporarily untouchable. He'll come down to damage a character for some minor physical hurting. He won't do all this if he has the Slow status, but since the only way to set it is by using Gau's Poplium Rage, there are much better things to set on Dadaluma. If you've hit him with the Attack command four times, he will Throw two weapons. Such violence. Obviously, you're never going to use Attack that much, but if you brought Locke and Cyan and went Attack-happy for some reason, watch out. Finally, after 30 seconds, he will call some aid. God knows he needs it by then, if he's not dead already. He'll whistle for two Iron Fists that you'll never face alone and thus escape their one and only strength: Stone. So yeah, you can imagine what to do. Try to nick that rare Thief's Bracer with Locke. Edgar can play with his new tools. Aura Cannon with Sabin. Cyan's Flurry will be better before Dadaluma has cast the Protect spell on himself, but Fang comes out victorious after he's successfully done so. Even when Protect isn't in effect, the wait time might make Fang more appealing to you. Celes' Imp spell can seriously cripple Dadaluma, as it actually works on him. His physicals will now always do twice as much damage, but his Shockwave/Throw days are over, so if you have any characters under Invisible, you're destined to win. Have her pose as a back-up Cure caster if necessary, and if you choose not to turn Dadaluma into an Imp, you'll want her ready with Runic to disable Protect for the Lockes and Cyans of this world. Gau's Alacran and Acrophies Rages will set Stop on Dadaluma, turning him completely useless. Trillium also offers Bio, which will hit for CRAZY damage. Shadow can simply toss his stuff; his Scrolls (especially when Earring-boosted) will come out stronger than his Shuriken, but you might not want to waste them on an easy fight like this. Expand Full Strategy

Yeah, when all is said and done, after a dungeon like Zozo a final boss like Dadaluma fails to impress anybody. Stepping over the battered corpse of the bandit king, you find yourself in a large room. There are two chests off to the sides here, containing rather nice items: an X-Potion and a set of Relic

Hermes Sandals. But most importantly, it houses Terra. I advise you to simply watch the scene yourself, and don't forget to take all your new sources of happiness and power with you. From now on, there will be a wizard/ghost character roaming the streets of Zozo as well as the Adventuring School in Narshe to explain how Magicite works. What great news!

1.24: Back to Jidoor

Grasslands
6/16	Iron Fist	2
6/16	Rock Wasp	2
5/16	Vulture	1
5/16	Iron Fist	1
5/16	Rock Wasp	4

Forest
6/16	Paraladia	2
6/16	Rock Wasp	3
5/16	Paraladia	1
	Vulture	1
	Iron Fist	1
5/16	Iron Fist	2
5/16	Rock Wasp	2

Enemies: Vulture, Iron Fist, Bloodfang, Rock Wasp, Paraladia

As it turns out, Terra is apparently safe in Zozo. All she needs is more time to understand her newfound powers. Esper

Ramuh, the ancient Esper of Lightning, in the meantime, begged you for a favor: The Empire's forbidden might, Magic, is extracted from Espers held within the city of Vector, in the Magitek Research Facility. Releasing them or otherwise disabling the flow of Magic to the Empire would deal a serious blow to its offensive forces. To top that, Esper

Ramuh's plea is understandable; no conscious being should be held into submission and tested on like this. But the Empire knows better than to allow offensive forces into their lands, and after conquering the entire Southern Continent, they disabled any means of non-military travel to and from there. So how will these Returners reach Vector? Jidoor might hold some answers.

Your choice of team is more limited now, as both Locke and Celes are forced into your party. It's too bad, as both are relatively weak characters at the moment. But hey, forced is forced. Know that physical attacks, unless barrier-piercing, are almost entirely useless in the next scenario, so Cyan is out from the get-go (Fang fails to measure up to your other offensive options, and Flurry is going to be laughable most of the time). Shadow is still in the Kohlingen Inn if you haven't already taken him from there. However, if you take him now, he will leave the party again later and to replace him you'll have to march all the way back to Narshe. You shouldn't consider Shadow at this point.

It boils down to Sabin, Edgar, and Gau. If you haven't trained Gau, it's no contest and you'll want to bring the Figaro brothers. If you have, it's no contest and you'll want to add Gau. Seriously, he is obscenely strong at this point of the game, provided you go Rage Hunting in a bit. Between Edgar and Sabin, I'd definitely pick Edgar over Sabin. They're about equal in offense at this point, but Edgar has the option of using the Tools

Noiseblaster, and being able to target will be a damn useful function before long.

If you picked Gau, you'll want to pick some new Rages from the new monsters you encountered. Useful Rages include: Anguiform, Aspiran, Rock Wasp, Veil Dancer, Gobbledygook and Hill Gigas. Hill Gigas' Magnitude 8 will be stronger than Wind Slash in multi-target damage, but it cannot hit Floating targets. Anguiform and Aspiran both hit the weakness of pretty much everything in the next real dungeon, so don't feel complete until you've found them. The previous section has instructions for returning to the Veldt.

Also, you've received Magicite! Magicite are awesome little gems that allow you to summon the corresponding Esper once a battle, learn the spells the Magicite teaches, and even in some cases give you a stat boost when you level up! To unequip an Esper, select a blank slot from the Esper list.

Your job now is to find a proper means of transportation towards the Empire. See, you need to go to Vector, capital of the Empire. This city is on a continent, and while you are also on a continent, it's sadly an entirely different one. While Celes is apparently wearing a bathing suit, swimming is not an option. Maybe you can get yourself a ship in Jidoor? Money buys anything, right? While walking to Jidoor, you'll be surprised to note that every battle ends with an added message of you obtaining Magic AP! That's good - those are the points you need to learn spells from your Magicite. Multiply the points you get by the learning rates for spells shown when viewing Magicite in the menu, and you can see how close you are to learning a particular spell.

When you've reached Jidoor, you may want to rest at the Inn. The guy standing in front of the counter has some new info about this guy called 'the gambler,' who likes operas. Kind of the dumbest thing ever, talking to strangers about strangers, no? At Owzer's place, you'll find somebody called the Impresario. He's having a bad time. Talk to him and grab the letter he drops as you leave. The Impresario is the Big Chief of the Opera. Everybody loves that place, especially because of the lead singer, Maria. Setzer Gabbiani, world-cruising playboy of a gambler that he is, has announced in a private letter to the Impresario that he will kidnap Maria right from the stage. The Impresario doesn't want Maria to be kidnapped. That's bad for business. However, he also does not want to call off the next show. That's bad for business. He's in a tight spot. Oh, the troubles of capitalism. You might also have noted that Celes is the 'spitting image' of Maria, it seems. At this point, you need to go to the Opera House, where you'll try to set up a meeting with Setzer, pilot of the world's only airship, the Blackjack.

Once you reach the Opera House, all will be self-explanatory. So, allow me to skip to the next thrilling action sequence, which involves a scene that ranks highly for many Final Fantasy gamers.

1.25: The Opera House

Enemies: Stunner, Goetia, Ultros

Here's the plan. Instead of Maria, who hid her pretty self somewhere, Celes will perform the Dream Oath, the massively popular opera about Draco and Maria (seems like the opera star and her part share the name), a story of love, war, honor, and as bad luck gives us, a squid. Yes, Ultros followed you here. The reason is not clear; it's doesn't seem to be revenge for beating him earlier, as it's entirely possible to use a team that features none of the characters you used to fight him the first time. But let evil be evil as long as you stop it (when convenient to your other goals). Celes needs to be successfully abducted here, and we can't have any octopi ruining the plan. Celes de-equipped herself when she changed into Maria's opera get-up, so if she was carrying anything other party members might be able to use, that's great.

The Impresario predicted Setzer would arrive in the first scene, and since Setzer is an undependable scoundrel who has no ties in life and has much to gain by surprising the Impresario in his abduction in as many ways possible, the prediction can be nothing but � okay, okay, you get the picture, the assumption is a bit dubious. Nonetheless, Celes needs to survive only through the first scene before she gets her proverbial homerun. Here's what she has to do: Sing. You could and should have memorized the lyrics before hitting the stage, as Locke presses you pretty hard to do so, but in case you didn't, here are the correct options - when first prompted, take the first option, then the second, then the first again. At that point, the flowers will appear, and you should run to pick them up (with the action button), as you will need to ascend the stairs, talking to Draco thrice, and reach the far end of the balcony before the interlude ends. If you fail to do this in time, Celes says: "Ah, I'm too late! So much for that..." The orchestra stops, and that's bad.

Every time you mess up the Opera (by messing up the lines, not moving fast enough, or being defeated by Ultros in combat), the Opera is halted and you find yourself outside of the building, where you can go back in to plead for another chance. After you mess up the first time, you get three chances. That's a total of four tries to get it right. If you fail four times, evolution clearly hasn't been kind to you and you receive the message "It looks like you weren't exactly born to be on stage..." along with an actual Game Over.

So, that's Celes' part. You can do it. Meanwhile, Ultros has decided to kill the woman on stage with the combined terror of weight and gravity, as he informed Locke via letter. Notifying your nemesis: Because that's useful for your chances of actually pulling it off, you see. Before you alert the Impresario, make sure to talk to your fellow characters. Amusing! The best is if you brought Shadow, against all possible odds and rules of logic: "Impresario: Your friend left. Said he'd fall asleep if he had to sit here for more than five minutes..."

You have five minutes to reach the lever on the right side of the Opera House, flip it, go to the rafters, which are accessible on the left side of the Opera House, fight your way through some annoying rats, and stop Ultros. So do it! Flip the far right switch in the room to the right. From left to right, we'll call the four switches "1," "2," "3," and "Super!" Why not? Switch 1 makes a sound like a dog barking, an essential feature of any opera facility. Switch 2 turns out the lights in the opera hall, causing the crowds to make little eyes in the darkness. Switch 3 opens a hole directly under you, causing you to slide on stage! You immediately get off by hopping on the heads of the crowd, bursting in the entrance hall of the Opera House, where the lead character will strike a pose and say 'Whew!' I suppose all three switches are pretty entertaining, but there's a threat of imminent squashing by aquatic nuisance and one can't just shrug that off, so what you'll want to flip is the Super Switch. Now, sprint all the way to the far left room (you'll pass the Impresario again) and pass the door (which would be locked if you hadn't flipped the switch in the far right room). Now, you're on the rafters. Don't fall now.

Just kidding! You can't fall down! You can, however, fight rats and get kicked out of the Opera House for another try if you lose. So, you don't want that. Each rat you run into triggers a battle - 75% of the time, you'll hit a Goetia and two Stunners; the other 25% chance gives you three Stunners and two Goetia. The Goetia monsters (yellow) are the main problem, the Stunners (black/green) the lackeys. If you take out all the Stunners while one or two Goetia still live, they'll call more, prolonging the battle. So have Edgar, Locke and Relic

Genji Glove'd Cyan and/or Sabin go for the single-target kill on those before you try to engage in multi-target slaughter.

Goetia are weak against Ice, so if Gau can Rage Veil Dancer or Darkside, that might be a good idea too. They have nothing worth stealing, so don't waste time there. Supposedly it's actually possible to get by without having to fight a single group of rats, but you'll skip both their Rages (not that good, I'll admit, but you can miss them, do you hear? miss them!) and it's a damn hard feat to boot.

Ultros Bestiary #289	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	19	2550	500	2	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	13	4	0	105	150	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Dried Meat			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control, Scan
	Strategy
	Before you try to hurt Ultros, make sure your Ramuh-wearing character is equipped with an Earring relic (or two). If you have a Burning Fist-wearing Sabin, he should be in the third or fourth position, as this will ensure that he faces Ultros' back at the start of the match. Make sure that your party is covered in Peace Rings/Ribbons, as Ultros has the ability to set Confuse, which is serious business. Ultros is back and he's better and badder then ever. Only not really, because he actually has fewer HP than he did when you first met him. To compensate, he has quite a few spells to throw at you, and has a nasty Command Script that gives him the power to, at the worst situation possible, actually take 10197 HP of damage before going down. Here's how that works: Ultros has four positions. He starts at Position 1. Every time he completes two turns he'll make a comment, switch to another position and start using different spells. Now the story and our eyes will have us believe that it's one Ultros, hopping about; the game, however, treats this battle as one with four Ultros's, each with his own set of 2550 HP. If you hurt Ultros but let him escape to a different position, you can Libra him and see he will again have 2550 out of 2550 HP. At least, that's what you would see if this Ultros weren't immune to Libra. So, the trick is to kill him as quickly as possible, before he can move around at all. For the record, he will go like this: 1 - 3 - 2* - 4 - 2 - 1 - 4 - 2 - 3 (If he reaches the 3 at the end of the chain, he'll attack four times before sliding back to 2*). So what does Ultros do? He counters Blitz techniques and Bushido skills with Acid Rain, a nasty Water/Poison-elemental attack that sets Sap. I'd advise against using those skills, especially because Sabin will inflict more damage with the Burning Fist then he will with his Blitz attacks (unless it's Rising Phoenix, and only if he's hitting with the Burning Fist in the back of Ultros). After every minute of battling, Ultros will use Imp Song, which changes the living characters on one side of him into Imps. This is very annoying and yet another reason to deal with Ultros as quickly as possible. Finally, his attack pattern is this, depending on his position: Attack, !Ink or Tentacle Attack (33%) or Fire (66%) Attack (33%) or Lv. 3 Confuse (66%) Attack or Megavolt or Drain Locke is fairly useless; Ultros has nothing to steal whatsoever. If Locke knows Slow or Thundara, have him cast it. Otherwise, just attack. Edgar's Chainsaw inflicts very decent damage, and I've said hopefully enough about Sabin's Burning Fist already to generate the impression that I actually want you to use it. Cyan should ignore his Bushido command and act like Locke. Gau, finally, can either pick a Rage like Aspiran or Cloud for direct violence (Aspiran is godly), or Acrophies/Alacran for causing Stop if you want to prevent him from changing position rather than going for a speed kill. Unless it's equipped on Sabin, summoning Ramuh takes priority over anything else; you may consider giving it to one of the others in the case that Ramuh is paired with Sabin leading up to this battle. It's basically a Thundara spell coming from someone who probably hasn't learned Thundara yet, which makes Ramuh incredibly effective against your marine adversary. Expand Full Strategy

Having stopped the threat that threatened the plan, the plan comes together! Setzer, quite possibly the most awesome character out of video game history as far as looks and style go, swoops down, grabs Celes, and in one awesome spin gets her out of her opera gown, into her normal clothes, and entirely tied up. Wow. Costume changes like that could have some... utility... in our world, no?

1.26: The Blackjack to Albrook

Treasures: Elixir, Ether, Hi-Potion

My God, Setzer is awesome. He's a world-traveling albino pirate who kidnaps this game's equivalent of Kylie Minogue to marry her on his own casino-zeppelin. His airship-crash-induced facial scars only make him more of a special case and nicely compliment the rather gothic black trench coat he got way before the Wachowskis had even dreamed about bending spoons that aren't there and bullet-time and whatnot.

Sadly, he gets punked by a band of unlikely heroes no one has even yet heard of. First, he is persuaded to listen to your tale of woe rather than kick you off his property. Then, he is converted from a rather pro-Empire guy to a full-fledged Narshesque or Swiss I-don't-knower. Finally, Setzer joins your cause! It was inevitable after all: You were given the option to give him a name, right? Celes will fool him with a double-headed coin. If Edgar is present, he'll give the coin to her. If Sabin is also present, he'll shout at his brother for a bit for obvious reasons (and if they're not obvious, you didn't take them to sleep at Figaro Castle, am I right?). The coin in question is a coin from Figaro, displaying Edgar's face on one side and Sabin's face on the other. You'll see it in action in the credits... but enough about this. You hitched a ride to the Empire. Go Returners.

Here's an interesting note if you are playing the SNES original or Playstation port. Normally, of course, we'd hide such version-specific data if you're not playing that game, but this one's a bit more interesting than most. You'll notice that Setzer joins the party despite pointing out that "the Empire's made me a rich man," making him sound awfully generous for acting against his monetary interests. This, however, is a mistranslation and is corrected in the GBA version of the game to say "the Empire's been bad for business", providing Setzer with a considerably less-noble motivation for helping out. The Japanese phrase in question, amounting to 'business has gone up' actually means that business has 'dried up' or 'evaporated', not increased. Criticize Woolsey if you wish, but Setzer surely appreciates the good press.

As soon as you get out of the Blackjack, you can re-enter the ship to see its full interior. From this point on, you can take advantage of Setzer's crew and their sweet services. There's a healing guy and an item guy. Good-for-nothing albino pirate gamblers only sharing with the rest of us for profit...

When you hop off the airship, you're near a town you've never seen. This is Square's gentle way of saying, "Oi! Go visit that town!" Well, do it. Don't forget to re-equip Celes. We don't want her running around naked. Well, I've seen enough GameFAQs posts that say that some of you would, but... oh, just re-equip already. Editor's note: See, this is why you should be posting at the CoN forums. They're considerably less creepy than that.

Albrook is one of the three major towns the Empire invaded and currently occupies. The Imperial troopers here won't directly recognize you, and won't attack you outright. If you try to enter the port, the Magitek Armored soldier will prevent your entry by means of hitting you. No HP will be lost, don't worry. Most soldiers will show themselves as patriotic pigs, and most inhabitants of Albrook will sigh and moan about their lot. The only useful information you receive here is that coming from a portrait painter and two scholars. The painter tells of a portrait he must do of the Emperor himself (you'll come across this painting in your travels later - foreshadowing!). The first scholar will talk about the fact that the monsters on the continent have only weak magical power (which is a flat-out lie as some of them have the power to outright create several new interesting ways for you to urinate if you don't watch out). The other one is talking about two ultimate weapons; one a sword, one a monster.

I'm sure we'll never meet either of them.

Weapon Shop: The Weapon shop has Sword

Bastard Swords (which you can ignore if you want, as neither Celes nor Edgar will ever use it), Knife

Kiku-ichimonji for Cyan that you previously bought in Jidoor (right?), and Claw

Venom Claws for Sabin, of which I recommend you buy two. You can leave Shadow's Dirk

Sakura for now, as he's not around and you'll be able to buy more of them later.

Armor Shop: The Olde Armore Shoppe sells nothing of value other than Helmet

Priest's Miters. They're the magical equivalent of the Helmet

Green Berets; where Helmet

Green Berets raise HP by 12.5 percent and give you a 10% bonus on your Evasion rating, the Helmet

Priest's Miter raises MP by that very amount and gives a 10% bonus on your Magic Evasion rating. It's a popular choice for obtaining a god-like assembly of equipment later in the game, but right now, you're probably better off with the Helmet

Green Berets as an HP boost is more useful than an MP boost and you'll be taking much more physical hits than magical ones. And yes, the chests in the Armor Shop are now, and will under any circumstance be, empty.

Relic Shop: The Relic Shop has Relic

Amulets and Relic

Reflect Rings. The Relic

Amulet will be kind of a necessity in later dungeons, but you can wait for now. Make sure to grab four Relic

Reflect Rings here, though. These Relic

Reflect Rings will make a few boss battles in the future much easier. The main attractions at the moment though are Relic

Earring;

Earrings are almost universally useful. You should have four Relic

Earring and a Relic

Hero's Ring; you might want to buy another one or even two. Relic

Earring are great damage boosters.

Item Shop: Items of +2/+2 using. First place you can buy a Remedy.

The Cafe is plain awesome. I wish there was a place in real-life that played Johnny C. Bad continuously; I wouldn't go there because I'd go stark raving mad, but it be nice to have around, just because. Items are hidden throughout the town. There's the mandatory Elixir in the clock in the hallway connecting the Armor Shop and the Cafe. There's a Hi-Potion in a barrel next to the Inn. A hidden Ether in the pot of the Weapon Shop closes the deal. On the whole, Albrook is a rather disappointing hole of a town, not at all worth the hassle of the whole having-Celes-abducted-by-a-flying-albino thing. So I suggest we explore the rest of the continent.

1.27: Traveling on the Southern Continent

Middle/West Grasslands
6/16	Grasswyrm	3
5/16	Don	3
5/16	Don	1
5/16	Wyvern	2

Southwest/East Grasslands
5/16	Don	1
5/16	Joker	1
5/16	Don	1
5/16	Wyvern	2
5/16	Joker	3
1/16	Litwor Chicken	5

Forest
10/16	Don	1
	Wyvern	1
	Litwor Chicken	2
6/16	Litwor Chicken	5

Desert
5/16	Bug	3
5/16	Bug	3
5/16	Fossil Dragon	1
5/16	Fossil Dragon	2
1/16	Bug	6

Enemies: Fossil Dragon, Litwor Chicken, Joker, Don, Wyvern, Grasswyrm, Bug

Welcome to what we like to call the Southern Continent: Vector in the middle, Albrook to the south, Tzen to the north, Maranda to the West, and an Imperial Observation Post seemingly built to protect a mountain range to the East. As is the tendency of games like the one we're talking about here, a new continent features new enemies that are stronger than the ones seen before.

Preparation: Re-equipped Celes? Good. Make sure you have Relic

Thief's Bracer on Locke, as the upcoming monsters might actually have something worth stealing. If any of the characters know

Float, cast it on the party. If not, have Gau (if present) Rage Hornet or a similar Rage that is Float-inducing.

There's a plethora (expensive word: +500 Exp.) of dangerous monsters around. Grasswyrms are entirely like Nettlehopper, only they're red. They're just as weak to Fire as their green brethren are, they're just as silly with their physical attacks and berserking attempts, and they're just as likely to find themselves in several flaming pieces on the cold earth in a relatively brief period of time.

The Don is simple Attack/Special cannon fodder, only it's kinda sturdy and tends to take more than one attack to kill. Also, they have a rare Helmet

Tiger Mask steal, a nice Helmet for Sabin and/or Gau that you probably want to swap for the Helmet

Green Beret (but only for the sake of being able to; I'd still say the Helmet

Green Beret is the better choice). For a bit of trivia, their Anthology Bestiary entry mentions these dogs were created as a test of using Magitek power. But then again, the Bestiary is so full of crap I tend to ignore it despite the fact it is official Square material.

Jokers are jerks. They're floating, so they're immune to your strongest multi-target attack (Gau's Magnitude 8). If you allow them to take more than one turn, they start casting Acid Rain on the entire party, which you'll want to prevent. If they're alone, they start casting

Thundara, which you will really want to prevent. Summoning Esper

Siren is a very good idea if you run into them, as doing so removes the threat of both spells. Tools

Noiseblaster also works well. Rarely, they will drop Rod

Mythril Rods. You didn't have those yet. If you were greedy, you'll have three different kinds of Rod already, and nobody to equip them. Beautiful.

Wyvern are... not floating. They have wings, and they are called 'wyvern', a word commonly reserved for flying serpents of death. They are in a flying position in their sprite, which was specifically designed to capture the very nature of the beast in one pose. Yet, not floating. It's a mockery of the concept of wing itself. Wyvern are monsters who will use Cyclonic when they're alone, a percentage-based attack that will remove 93.75% of the targets current HP. And Cyclonic hits all characters. Don't let this happen. They have rare Relic

Dragoon Boots for any Lockes you might have in your party, which also sell for a whole bunch of moola.

Litwor Chicken are the silliest and potentially the most deadly of the monsters found on the continent. When they're alone, they cast

Quake. Surely, they must've abandoned all hope of getting out of the battle alive, as it hurts them as well.

Quake is an Earth-elemental, barrier-piercing spell that hits every target on screen as long as it isn't Floating; it's seriously powerful. If you kept Stray around long enough for any of your characters to learn

Float, be sure to cast it if you are still touching the ground. Otherwise, they're weak to Ice and look silly.

The desert houses Fossil Dragon, though you should be used to their presence by now. Bugs are also found circling their bodies. Bugs are annoying because they tend to go out with a bang: a bang of petrifying their killer. Only if they were killed by a normal Attack, that is, and only if they were alone, and only 33% of the time, but still... avoid what ails ya, regardless.

To sum it up: Have Locke try and steal from Don and Wyvern monsters, don't let Litwor Chicken or Wyvern alone, both are weak to Ice attacks, summon Esper

Siren when you meet Jokers (and Wyvern and Litwor Chicken if you're not feeling confident about your ability to take them out first, since Esper

Siren stops

Quake and Cyclonic as well), and don't do drugs.

It's by no means mandatory or even very beneficial to visit the other three locations before going into Vector, but it doesn't hurt to do it in any way and it gives more back story to the game. It's up to you to decide if you'll want to do it. If you go to the mountains to see the Imperial Observation Post, eh...you get to fight monsters that have glands on their back that secrete Tents. A lot of them. You'll be fighting them anyway in the next serious dungeon. Tzen has Special

Boomerangs for sale, a slight improvement over the Special

Moonring Blade, Helmet

Mythril Helms for sale, featureless helmets for everybody but Sabin, and Relic

Black Belt Relics for sale. Maranda also has Special

Boomerangs and Helmet

Mythril Helms, but also Lance

Tridents for sale, a Water-elemental Spear, Armor

Mythril Mail for sale, better armor for Cyan and Edgar, and a free Remedy and Holy Water to find!

That's not everything, of course, but it's the basics. Hit the next chapter for more detail.

1.28: Optionally Delaying a Scary Trip to Vector

Enemies: Sergeant, Proto Armor, Mega Armor

Treasures: Holy Water, Remedy

First, to the Empire's eastern post. The base has a bit of a generic name for now, but the real name kinda reveals its purpose so we wouldn't want that yet. All you'll find here is a truly impenetrable Imperial Base, blocking access to whatever lies on the other side. You can fight the walking people here. The normal soldiers, regardless of color, will turn out to be four Sergeants, and the Armored soldier is a Proto Armor/Mega Armor combo.

Note on the four Sergeants: This is an easily controllable battle where you don't really have to fear sudden KO's creeping up on you. The thing is, though, Sergeants have a Tent for common steal. So, you have the option of complete restoration after every battle if you steal one. I tend to linger a while. It builds my stock of Tents to about 20 and gains some sweet spells in the meantime.

Tzen is a small town. Used to be an independent town, a monarchy no less. The Empire has slaughtered the royal family, and Tzen is currently under even more Imperial watch than Albrook is. There really isn't much to say about Tzen.The soldiers will be useless and passive as they were in Albrook, the citizens friendly and helpful. One will tell about an Imperial weapon called the Guardian, which can't move by itself but is extremely powerful. Oh well, we can always make a run for it should we come across it. Another man tells of a gate in the mountains to the East. The mountains were heavily guarded and impenetrable for you; could it be that the Empire is looking for something there?

Weapon Shop: The Weapon Shop offers nothing you can use other than the Special

Boomerang. The Special

Boomerang is a slightly better version of the Special

Moonring Blade, so if you were using it I suggest you replace it.

Armor Shop: Here's some Mythril equipment! However, you have plenty of Shield

Mythril Shields from Narshe, and you could've obtained enough Armor

Mythril Vests from Hell's Rider earlier. So, if you played smart so far, the only feature of meaning is the Helmet

Mythril Helms. It has a slight defensive boost over the Helmet

Green Beret and the Helmet

Priest's Miter, but it isn't worth the loss of the special properties inherent to those two headgears, in my opinion. And it's flat-out worse than the Helmet

Tiger Mask.

Relic Shop: Nice Relics for sale in Tzen. The Relic

Amulet is the first store-bought item that protects you from the Zombie status. You'll need it later, but not now. All other Relics are filler relics.

Item Shop: Present and accounted for.

You might want to grab a Chocobo in the hidden Chocobo Stable in the forest to the east of Tzen.

Maranda, Maranda... what do we know about Maranda? The last to fall against the Empire, it was General Celes Chere herself who led the attack to conquer the continent. It's still slightly trashed from the attack. Like Tzen, many of the city's young men were forced to fight in the army of the Empire. The wounded man you found in Mobliz was one of them, and his darling Lola still lives here. Lola lives in a little house in Maranda, and if you'll speak to her, her response depends on your actions in Mobliz.

If you sent an item, received her next request and then didn't respond to that subsequent letter, Lola will go back to her "mean heroes didn't help" text.

Weapon Shop: The Weapon Shop has three new weapons. The Lance

Trident, a Water-elemental Spear you might want to use later in the game, the mandatory Sword

Bastard Sword, and the Special

Boomerang you could've found in Tzen. On the whole, buy a Lance

Trident and leave.

Armor Shop: The Armor Shop has Mythril Equipment as well, but they're a little better at it. There's only one feature of interest if you visited Tzen earlier: The Armor

Mythril Mail, heavy defensive equipment for Celes, Cyan, and Edgar. I wouldn't recommend it on Celes though, as the Armor

White Dress is only slightly less protective and gives a very nice Magic bonus. Finally, let's not forget about the fact this is the first time you see Helmet

Green Berets in shops. It's not like you shouldn't be swamped in those buggers by now, but hey.

Item Shop: Say what? This town doesn't have one! I believe that makes it the only town ever, ever, ever in this game. Crazy world. Let's not start on Zozo, as that's more a dungeon than a town.

If you want two free items, find the Holy Water in the bottom crate west of the south exit and find the Remedy in one of the two crates near the arguing couple.

1.29: Vector, Seat of Power

Walking Soldiers
3/4	Belzecue	2
3/4	Sergeant	2
1/4	Belzecue	2
1/4	Sergeant	1

Mechanized Soldiers
3/4	Proto Armor	1
3/4	Onion Knight	2
1/4	Proto Armor	2

Facility Guards
3/4	Belzecue	2
3/4	Sergeant	2
1/4	Belzecue	2
1/4	Sergeant	1

Enemies: Sergeant, Belzecue, Proto Armor, Guardian

Well, here you are, deep in the heart of the Empire. Vector is the capital of the Empire and houses its two most important structures. First is the Imperial Palace, home to Emperor Gestahl, General Leo Christophe, and General Kefka Palazzo; the other is the Imperial Magitek Research Facility, where the very source of Magic is somehow obtained under the eyes of master scientist Cid del Norte Marguez.

There's a lot to do here. In the part of town closer to the Imperial Palace (to the north), soldiers roam the streets. Normal troopers and armored troopers have different monster formations.

There's not much to see in terms of landmarks. The Inn is not very trustworthy. The guy behind the counter looks like a Zozo bum, and sure enough, after he's offered you the room free, there's a 50% chance he'll come and steal 1000 Gil during the night. If you don't have 1000 Gil you'll see the man sneak around in the night, but the '1000 Gil was stolen!' message won't pop up and no money will be lost. No, you're better off going to the slim house to the left of the Inn, where an old woman will ask you to pledge your allegiance to the Empire. If you do so, all will be fine. If you refuse, she will send two... Narshe Guards after you? After you have beaten them, she will offer you a free healing service every time you talk to her, much like a Recovery Spring. A less successful way of healing yourself is going over to the running kid, who was subject to one of Cid's experiments and now has the power to heal with the

Cure spell. Sadly, he's not very good at it, and will be able to only heal 1 HP at the time. He can also 'heal' the dead without actually reviving them; the only chance in the game you'll be able to see a dead character with HP above zero. The Weapon Shop and Armor Shop sell nothing you couldn't buy in Albrook.

Weapon Shop: You shouldn't need anything here. If you haven't bought a Dirk

Sakura blade yet, now's your chance. The Dirk

Sakura was called the Sakurafubuki in the Japanese game; 'sakura' is 'cherry blossom' and 'fubuki' is blizzard. Elegant and graceful like the sakura, destructive and ruthless like a blizzard; the perfect ninja weapon - at least for now. Note that the Dirk

Sakura is Wind-elemental.

Armor Shop: This Armor Shop is exactly the same as the one in Albrook, so you shouldn't see anything new.

Item Shop: Heh, yeah. No Item Shop here either, I guess Maranda wasn't all that unique.

The inhabitants of Vector are, understandably, pro-Empire, but will provide you with information nonetheless. You learn that General Leo refused a Magitek infusion, where Kefka was Cid's first experiment, which supposedly turned him into the ranting fool he now is. Imperial soldiers on the higher regions of town will recognize you and engage in a fight. Every time you either win or run away, you'll find yourself on the southern edge of town again.

If you managed to elude all the troops and you try to enter the Imperial Palace to the far north of the city, you'll be heard by an Imperial Soldier within the Palace, and you hide. If you walk away again, a member of the Imperial Special Force will send the Guardian after you.

Guardian is invulnerable in the true sense of the word. You can't damage him in any way, he's immune to any status effect including Invisible, you can't normally spin Joker's Death against him; you name it. He's the very model of a plot device that looks like an enemy. You can't go here, sonny. The only way out of this battle that doesn't include running yourself is using Confuse on somebody who is about to use a Smoke Bomb; the Smoke Bomb will target Guardian, and you cause Guardian to run away itself. This has the same effect as running away, anyway.

Now, make sure you're fully healed before you engage in the rescue mission of a lifetime.

Three soldiers guard the road to the Imperial Magitek Research Facility, and you can't just smack them around in broad daylight in the middle of Vector. Luckily, and old man standing behind some crates is a sympathizer of the Returners and offers you his assistance. While he pretends to throw up (great plan, sport), you sneak behind the soldiers' back on the metal rafters. Just walk into the crates and you'll jump onto them, automatically walking over to the other side of the human barrier. If you come too close near the soldiers now, a battle will be triggered, so try not to do that. If you want out after leaping off the beams, though, it's the only way.

1.30: Magitek Research Facility

First Room
6/16	Belzecue	2
6/16	Sergeant	2
5/16	Belzecue	2
5/16	Sergeant	1
5/16	Proto Armor	1
5/16	Onion Knight	2

Second Room
6/16	Onion Knight	5
5/16	Proto Armor	2
5/16	Belzecue	2
5/16	Sergeant	1

Enemies: Onion Knight, Sergeant, Belzecue, Proto Armor

Treasures: Relic Dragoon Boots, Ether, Sword Flametongue, Armor Golden Armor, Helmet Golden Helm, Shield Golden Shield, Sword Icebrand, Tent, Sword Thunder Blade, Remedy, X-Potion, Relic Zephyr Cloak

Unbelievable: You managed to reach Vector and actually made it into the IMRF (Imperial Magitek Research Facility) itself. But you didn't think the place would be unguarded, did you? The IMRF not only is the laboratory where Cid del Norte Marguez strolls ever onwards in the mysteries of magic, making the Empire both more dangerous and more despicable by the second; it's also the building where the Magitek Armors are created. Each of these machines is a nature-perverting hybrid of metal and magic, designed and infused for the sole purpose of killing stuff dead. You're walking into the power source of the Empire. No, I don't think it will be unguarded at all.

Preparation: Everybody in the Back Row. This is a theme-based dungeon, and the theme is "If ye can't top 200 Defense, ye ain't no kinda man." If your physical attack isn't specifically barrier-piercing, the result will be analogous to butting your head against a brick wall. So, Front Row is useless. Relic

Genji Glove is useless. A weapon's Attack is useless; if your Locke runs around with a Special

Boomerang, you might as well switch it to a Dirk

Thief's Knife as neither will do even a remotely impressive amount of damage, though the Dirk

Thief's Knife at least has added benefits. The same goes for swords, so if you have a Sword

Rune Blade granting you that extra 10% Evasion, go for it.

So yes, if it can't penetrate defenses and doesn't boast any additional properties, you'll be hard-pressed to find a use for it. I think it might be wise to give a quick recap on what's useful here and what's not:

Useful:

Magic, especially Thunder and Thundara
Summon attacks, which especially means Ramuh right now
Flash, Drill, Chainsaw
Raging Fist, Meteor Strike, Aura Cannon, Rising Phoenix
Fang, Sky, Tiger
Rage-inflicted magical attacks, which besides Magic, includes Aspiran's Gigavolt, Anguiform's Aqua Breath, Guard Leader's Wind Slash and Hill Gigas' Magnitude 8

Not useful:

Attack
Auto Crossbow
Flurry
Rage-inflicted physical attacks, which include Specials such as !Cat Scratch

So yes, try to boost your magical attacks. Cyan will be especially boring and useless here, as Fang starts to definitely lack in power and is only single-target. Locke, unless he can make use of some of the more-potent magic, such as Esper

Siren or a

Thunder spell, should do nothing but Steal (wear a Relic

Thief's Bracer; Relic

Brigand's Glove is nigh useless) and use some Hi-Potions, if necessary. If you have a Gau around who can Rage Anguiform, you should just wait for him to use

Aqua Breath and stall with Tools

Noiseblaster, Runic,

Cure, and Steal, as he will end the battle when he attacks with it. If you're low-leveled, some Relic

Earrings might help. If you lack Gau and/or his Anguiform Rage but have the Figaro brothers, a Tools

Flash/Rising Phoenix combo with some Relic

Earring behind it should end all. If you lack both, you'll have to employ some more sneaky tactics.

The ultimate way of dealing with enemies here is having a character with (1 or 2) Relic

Earring, especially Celes, summon Esper

Ramuh for Judgment Bolt. Judgment Bolt will kill everything it touches, and it's not random like Gau's

Aqua Breath. However, it will cost you 25 MP per summon, so unless you switch Esper

Ramuh around (which is a lot of trouble as it slows spell learning down) you'll have to use Ethers to keep it up.

The most common foe is the one you found earlier in the Imperial Observation Post and strolling about the streets of Vector: Sergeant. Their most attractive feature is their common Tent Steal, and otherwise they're very straightforward. Cid programmed them with Program 65, which, when executed, will silence the target for the duration of the battle. Their set of elemental weaknesses is rather strange; humans tend to succumb to Poison whereas machines are usually more likely to have a problem with Lightning and Water. Maybe this and the fact that they're apparently programmed is a hint they are some kind of cyborgs? At any rate, normal cannon fodder you have to plow through.

Sergeants are often accompanied by Belzecue dogs. They're canine versions of the Sergeant, really. Cid has provided them with Program 95, which ignites madness in the target, confusing them for the rest of the battle. Same weaknesses, same treatment. Don't worry too much about them confusing your Sabin when he is about to execute a Rising Phoenix Blitz; they will never use it unless they're alone, and you're bound to take them on with multi-target attacks anyway, right?

The metallic vermin of the IMRF are the Onion Knight robots. They're small, have little HP, are kinda weak, and only attack in large numbers. To compensate for their lack in offensive power, Cid set them up to use Program 55, one that turns the target into the illustrious Imp creature that is incapable of doing anything that isn't rolling over and dying. The Tools

Flash Tool alone will finish them off without a lot of trouble, let alone Rising Phoenix and

Aqua Breath.

The Empire is about to release a new kind of Magitek Armor, but they have created nothing but prototypes for them yet; the Proto Armor is the pure chassis of the new model, but fully operational. Its powers over the standard Magitek Armor include, besides the standard electricity-based Magitek Laser, a missile support unit to fire off either a single Missile or go for the massive Launcher attack to attack multiple targets simultaneously, a blinding flash of light called Scintillation (also used by the Satellite) to blind the offensive party, and Cid's personal touch, Program 35, which by magical means fuels the body to deliver physical damage. Esper

Siren is massively useful to halt all magical attacks should you wish to disable them prior to destroying them. Tools

Noiseblaster works too. Besides, Scintillation and Launcher, both more dangerous than Missile, are only carried out if the Proto Armor is either alone or has just been targeted by an Attack command, which is just foolishness to begin with.

You are now entering what the Bestiary refers to as the Magitek Factory: The part of the building where the Magitek Armors are being created. What you'll want to do first is go all the way to the left, through a pipe, on a conveyer belt, to a chest that contains, oh sweetness, a Sword

Flametongue. It's a nice Fire-elemental sword that mildly boosts your Magic; give it to either Celes or Edgar (with a slight preference to Edgar, as you'll be using him more). You'll notice a crane going back and forth. Face the crane, and when it's on your side, quickly jump onto it with the Action button to let it carry you across the gap. Over here, you'll see two pipes where the ends that are facing the screen kinda look like eyes. You'll want to enter the right one first to obtain access to the chest - an Ether - before climbing back and allowing your party to climb down the left one.

The stairs will drop you on another conveyer belt, which drops you off near a chest and another pipe. The pipe will take you back should you so desire (with an elevator! Oh, my!), but you probably won't. Grab the chest (X-Potion). The path downwards will get you exactly nowhere (you can't make the elevator go down to where you are), so get on the conveyer belt that takes you further into the factory.

It delivers you to another chest! The Sword

Thunder Blade is waiting for you. If you had an Edgar or Celes left to equip it on, do so (there's really no point in switching it with the Sword

Flametongue, but if it pleases ye...). Move down a little and there'll be another chest. Such treasury! It's a Remedy. Get on the newly visible conveyer belt and don't forget about the chest you see on the way down; we'll be coming for it later. No chest left behind.

There's a slight break from the conveyer belt here. Continuing right on will simply get you to advance the dungeon, but you'll miss treasures! Rather nice ones, actually, although nothing can compare to the two blades you've already picked up here.

To the bottom-left is the first accessible chest, which contains Relic

Dragoon Boots. Going up the ladder near it will get you (through a door) to the chest you passed earlier, which will contain a Shield

Golden Shield. It's also the way out if you still want to sissy out of the mission. Descending the stairs near the Relic

Dragoon Boots chest again, you'll want to go all the way to the right (just past a crane that has no use here) and all the way to the bottom, where you'll see a door leading to a chest containing a Helmet

Golden Helm. Exit the door and go all the way to the right, where you'll see a small chamber of which only the inner wall is visible. Here, a chest is hidden with Armor

Golden Armor. Exit the room and walk up the stairs for the Tent in the chest. Hike back to the place where the conveyer belt dropped you off in this room, but don't continue just yet; go up the stairs above the conveyer belt. You'll meet plenty of crates here (with, as your sharp eye has probably noticed, the Imperial Logo on 'em). There's a hidden entrance to the right just below the fifth crate. If you're having trouble finding it, face the first crate you come across, take five steps down, go all the way to the right, and take one step back. Go down a while and you'll see the hidden chamber with two chests; one the Sword

Icebrand sword, a blade made entirely out of never-melting ice which serves as the Ice-elemental equivalent of the Sword

Flametongue and Sword

Thunder Blade, as well as the Relic

Zephyr Cloak, which boosts both Evasion stats by 10% and introduces a spiffy cape animation when you block something with it.

When you're done, it doesn't matter if you hike back or continue down; if you go down, you'll fall out of the end, and a while later, appear at the end of a pipe close to the conveyor belt you were just thinking of continuing.

Get on the conveyor belt and simply walk on until you meet a friendly face, by which I mean a certain kind of friend who would like to hit you in the abdomen with a rather large and heavy object and who would probably enjoy extra ice in his drinks.

1.31: Imperial Magitek Research Facility: The Pit

Formations
10/16	Flan	4
6/16	Flan	6

Enemies: Trapper, Flan, General, Destroyer, Lenergia, Ifrit, Shiva, Number 024

Kefka. You don't get to fight him or even confront him this time, and all he basically does is prove with his power-hungry monologue what you already knew; the facility houses Espers, and magic is being drained from them. There's one thing that clings to you, or at least should cling to you, like one of those little corn skins between your teeth: Kefka mentions reviving the Statues, as if this would be of great value to him. What is this Warring Triad?

Preparation: Nothing special, as the monsters, while changing, will also be annoyingly much like the ones you met earlier in their high regard of physical defense. There are a tiny few exceptions, but hey, they're zeroes.

Great Scott, would the famous Cid del Norte Marguez wade through tiny metallic leprechauns, stumble over conveyer belts, and fly up on ascending cranes to his lab every single day? Remove the semi-futuristic crazy-scientist-lab setting and he'd have to be Mary bloody Poppins! But I digress. You made it past the factory...at least, it seems you did. Take a look around. You're standing in some kind of...death room. Skeletons everywhere, two lifeless Espers who you saw thrown down here. One could pick a nicer spot for a picnic.

First, the layout. The blue Esper, Shiva, is blocking a door. She won't respond to your calls. There's another door, leading to a small room with no purpose one could easily pinpoint (although there's a Save Point glowing on the ground). A hook provides you escape from the room...but all is not silent in the halls of the dead. The red Esper, Ifrit, stirs. And blue goop, all around you, appears to move by itself, splitting and sinking into the tiles.

Flan are this game's incarnation of the Pudding, the Jello, the Blobra... they're in every game; semi-liquid monsters who are not particularly dangerous but are rather a pest to take on due to their extreme physical protection and oft-changing elemental weakness. In this game, Flan are entirely unlike their counterparts. Final Fantasy VI Flan are immune to all the non-basic elements, and their defense is, well, pathetic. A Defense rating of 13. That's...just great. Take them out any ol' way you want, but take note; these monsters have had time to feast upon the 'useless' corpses of many Espers thrown here; they might have some Magicite Shards on them. Flan, by the way, appear in two different groupings. The first is your average four-headed party. The second appears to be only a single Flan enemy, but when you kill it, two more will appear. If you kill those, three more will appear, until you've killed them. If you kill the first Flan or the last of the two Flan with Gau's Mu's Snare, you won't get any more Flan down your throat. Gotta save room for real flan.

Now, it's time to turn our attention to the two Espers here. Equip as many Relic

Reflect Rings as you have (obviously, one on every character is plenty) and face them.

Shiva Bestiary #291	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	21	3000	500	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	15	7	20	200	110	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities

	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control, Scan

Ifrit Bestiary #290	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	21	3300	600	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	25	7	20	215	115	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities

	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control, Scan
	Strategy
	The battle against Ifrit and, if you allow it, Shiva, is not your classic battle of good vs. evil. Nay, two scared, dying members of an abused race turn like a dog in a corner on whoever comes near them. Ifrit, the fire Esper, and Shiva, the ice Esper... eternal counterparts. Ifrit is the fire Djinni. Next to a physical attack, he performs Fire and Fira spells and a deadly Blaze attack that ignores Reflect Rings and Runic blade alike. If provoked by three Magic spells from you, he will charge up for a massive Firaga attack, which you'll want to avoid at all costs if you're not fully protected from the spell by Reflect Rings, Celes' Runic, or Gau's possible inherent Fire-elemental absorption. Shiva, the Ice Queen, will come at you with the more basic Blizzard and Blizzara spells, on occasion switching on performing a nasty Snowstorm attack which, while not as strong, penetrates Reflect Rings and Runic. If damaged she can be quick to retort with a Blizzard spell, and when hit three times with a Magic spell herself she will cast a Reflect spell on one of your characters, which will send any Blizzard and Blizzara spell she will cast on you back at her, healing her. The trick here is to defeat one of them. If this happens, the Espers will realize they're not fighting someone coming for their death and they will sense Ramuh's soul near you. However, you can't just focus on one just like that, as you will only fight one at a time. Every time the magical, behind-the-scenes bit 3 reaches an amount of 5, they'll switch in for the other. The quickest approach may lie in taking Ifrit down before he can call on Shiva, but that may not always be possible. Bit 3 is incremented when the Esper is damaged by any means or the Magic skill is used on them (even if it doesn't actually damage them). Their Defenses are through the roof, much like most opponents you've faced so far. You know how to deal with that, although these magical beasts also take no damage from elemental magic unless it's their own element (which they'll absorb) or their weakness. So, you can forget about your Magic skill. If you're sure you won't be able to pull off a Blitzkrieg against Ifrit anyway, you might want to start the battle off with a Slow spell if you have it, else it's a wasted turn as it increments bit 3. Drill/Chainsaw does great damage, especially when backed up with a Gigas Glove. Celes can cast a Blizzard spell (Runic, with frequent counter-spells, doesn't work as well as you'd think and is entirely redundant if you are fully protected by Reflect Rings). Sabin can Raging Fist Ifrit and perform Rising Phoenix when Shiva's around. Locke has no business being a thief in this battle, and might as well grab the Icebrand against Ifrit (he might pull off the random Blizzard spell) and the Flametongue against Shiva (or plain cast the Fire spell if he knows it). Cyan's Fang is the only thing he can do with some success, useless cretin that he is. Gau's irresponsible nature makes him a bit untrustworthy here. With other characters backing him up, the wisest course of action will probably be Zaghrem, as it is non-elemental, magical damage against both targets. Along with the violence, summoning Kirin to aid you throughout the battle and casting a lot of Cure spells is a probably a great idea as you may not have Reflect Rings here. The Runic blade, more often than not, catches an enemy Blizzard while letting the Blizzara spell slip by. Expand Full Strategy

1.32: Imperial Magitek Research Facility: The Lab

Stairs
6/16	Trapper	3
5/16	General	2
5/16	General	1
5/16	Onion Knight	2

Tube Room
6/16	Lenergia	2
6/16	Destroyer	1
5/16	Lenergia	1
5/16	Destroyer	2

Enemies: Trapper, Flan, General, Destroyer, Lenergia, Number 024

Treasures: Sword Stoneblade

When all is done, Ifrit and Shiva will realize their position and will offer themselves to you as Magicite. It's possible to leave the Magicite of Esper

Ifrit here and miss it forever; note that there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to do so. I say you grab Esper

Shiva and

Ifrit and equip them if you think their x5

Blizzara and

Fira spell learn rates look yummy to your tummy. Esper

Shiva's

Rasp and

Osmose spells do not hurt your cause at the slightest;

Rasp is a great tactical spell, and

Osmose simply means you won't need any MP-restoring potions anymore. Ever. Rather than using the crane to escape, I suggest you press on and open the door. On the other side are stairs. A whole mother lode of them. You'll find new enemies here, of which the most dangerous ones are the Trapper robots.

Trapper robots care not for personal safety or any kind of intelligence or battle skill. They care for nothing; as robots, they are nihilists. They perform only three tasks: Casting Lv. 3 Confuse, casting

Lv. 4 Flare, and casting

Lv. 5 Death. They will throw fits if you let them be. The spells will do what you would have kind of guessed they did: Lv. 3 Confuse confuses any character whose level is divisible by 3,

Lv. 4 Flare casts a

Flare-like attack on every character whose level is divisible by 4, which means pure sonic death at this stage of the game, and

Lv. 5 Death... well, it kills any character whose level is divisible by 5. If you find that all your characters are level 18, you might want to go back and steal some Magicite Shards from the Flan until you've collectively reached 19, and if your level is 15 or (especially) 20 you'll need to do this, as you'll never make it otherwise. To take care of Trappers with utmost efficiency, summon Esper

Ramuh or cast

Thundara if you have it. If you brought Edgar, Tools

Noiseblaster works very well, and like you could expect, Gau's Anguiform-induced

Aqua Breath kills them straight up.

Generals, finally, are mere humans. Their Defense is high but not sky-high, and they're normal and weak to

Poison attacks. Unleash the new-found fury of Esper

Ifrit and

Shiva if you want; these decorated officers are unassuming compared to the enemies you've found so far. They have restorative powers in an actual spell they learned,

Cura, but they won't make a lot of use out of it, as they're often too busy being dead to use it.

Lenergia. Is it any surprise the Lenergia appears to be so weak, especially next to horned demons from the underworld? They're unassuming opponents you can take down any way you want, but know that when left alone, they start attacking with Shamshir attacks non-stop. They make for a great MP-refiller for Celes, as it's basically a 20 MP gain every turn the Lenergia takes.

Oh, right, then there are the horned demons from the underworld. They're called Destroyer. I hope I didn't get you all worried; stress is bad. And they're not that dangerous once you get to know them. They make silly physical swipes with their claws, and on occasion try to poison you with !Poison Strike, but it's not until they are met with solitude that they start showing their true colors, which are very, very, incompetent. When alone, the Destroyer tries to cast the overly cheap Reraise spell, the spell that grants an automatic revive of a fallen character right after he dies. Sadly, the spell takes 50 MP, and Destroyer only has 35. So sorry. Their incredible defense, one-hit KO protection, and Lightning-absorbing can make them tedious to take down; a combination of Tools

Flash and Rising Phoenix, not mentioning the trusted

Aqua Breath, will get the job done.

The room you enter after the Stairs of Seeming Infinity contain five vacant tubes; three to the top of the screen, two to the bottom. Hidden to the left of the bottom-left tube is a Sword

Stoneblade. The Sword

Stoneblade sadly lacks any special stat bonus properties, but makes up for it with having impressive Attack and a rather interesting randomly cast spell in

Break, a petrifying move.

At this point, if any of your characters stuck with Esper

Cait Sith long enough to learn

Float, have him or her cast it on the party (this can be done outside of battle), as when you continue, you meet the... yes, what the hell is this guy?

Number 024 Bestiary #292	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	Humanoid	24	4777	777	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	20	3	0	170	100	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Blood Sword Rare: Rune Blade			Common: Flametongue Rare: Icebrand
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
	Variable			None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control
	Strategy
	Machines tend to have that crippling weakness to Lightning, and they also usually have some sort of Program ## move to dish out. This guy has neither. He uses spells and wields swords, so you'd almost assume he was a human if it wasn't for the 'System error!' message that goes off in the middle of the battle. A cyborg, then, like the Sergeant? We can only guess. The facts remain that Number 024, while no real challenge even if you forget about his status ailment weaknesses, is just so darn versatile we still love him anyway. The guy's main move, Barrier Change, shuffles all the elemental properties of the caster and picks one element to set as its weakness. Then, it sets one element as the element it absorbs. First effects: You'll never know what exactly your elemental attacks will do: 75% chance they'll do nothing, 12.5% chance they'll heal him, 12.5% chance they'll do double damage. Conclusion: Waste of time, think of alternative means of violence. But this fellow adapts his fighting style according to his weakness. You can sort his weakness from what he hits you with, if you like. If his weakness is fire, you'll see ice attacks. Vice versa, too. If lightning, you'll see water. Again, vice versa. If it's wind, he'll use earth-based attacks like Magnitude 8 and Cave In, and if it's earth he'll go to wind attacks like Sonic Boom and Gale Cut. If he's weak to poison, he'll try to cure himself, and if he's weak to Holy-elemental, he'll try to attack you physically or use Reverse Polarity. Here's what he'll do. He'll simply strike you physically for 30 seconds (this first round doesn't indicate Holy weakness). Then, he'll do his first Barrier Change. When you manage to strike his weakness (you can figure it out via Libra spell), he'll perform it again. If 30 seconds of action elapses first instead (are you taking a nap?), he'll perform another Barrier Change anyway. After he has performed a Barrier Change three times, he'll go haywire, even though you haven't destroyed him; the result of this 'System error' is apparently calling up Arctic Hares (the more successful branch of the Lagomorph family), enjoying Sunbaths, and finding his true self with the Libra spell. After 30 seconds of this, he'll snap out of it again, starting over as if he had cast his first Barrier Change of the battle. Weird stuff, man. But you won't have to see all this madness. The Sleep spell, taught to you by Siren, works on the fiend, as does Cait Sith's Imp spell. Alone, they severely cripple him; together, they are an unstoppable force. Keep him sleeping and make sure you only cast Magic. If that blasted neutral Tapir shows up and awakens him, cast Sleep again as soon as possible. If Gau is among your forces, just have him relax. Try to steal with Locke; Rune Blade or Blood Sword, both are nice additions if nothing else. I'd especially go for the Blood Sword if you have any choice in the matter, as it's quite unique. In the end, Number 024's Hit Points will run out, and he will die. Victory dance, coffee break, et cetera. Expand Full Strategy

It seems this Number 024 was guarding the room where the remaining Espers are being subdued in their test tubes. We know that Esper

Ramuh,

Kirin,

Siren, and Esper

Cait Sith escaped, which might explain the empty test tubes we saw earlier. In this room, six Espers fuel the Empire's power. Meet Esper

Bismarck and Esper

Maduin,

Unicorn and Esper

Catoblepas, and Esper

Phantom and Esper

Carbuncle. There's a lever over there. It's a fictional universe: I'll be damned if the most prominent button or lever in the room isn't at least slightly self-destructive. Use it.

The IMRF shakes on its foundations. Time to save your own lives first and ponder important questions later. Join Cid on the elevator, and get out of the place.

1.33: Indiana Jones and the Temple of Magitek

Fights 1 and 3
3/4	Magna Roader (Purple)	1
1/4	Magna Roader (Purple)	1
1/4	Magna Roader (Red)	1

Fights 2, 4 and 5
3/4	Magna Roader (Purple)	2
1/4	Magna Roader (Red)	4

Enemies: Magna Roader (Purple), Magna Roader (Red), Number 128, Right Blade, Left Blade

I've always thought that Cid comes off very clean very quick in this game. Cid del Norte Marquez is a ruthless scientist who experimented on sentient beings in an attempt to remove their very life energy to the benefit of the Empire. Just because as a scientist he feels the war should be stopped doesn't he mean he feels even the slightest remorse at his actions per se; he regrets them being used for military purposes, apparently, but shows no regret on his glorious victories in the field of science. And he certainly wasn't showing signs of stopping until we stepped in. It's just awfully convenient and nobody seems to want to bring it up again, is all.

Preparation: Celes, the poor lass, was de-equipped upon her exit from your party. You'll want to keep everybody in the Back Row here and equip everyone to their best possible ability, as the next opponents will not have as much Defense as those you've seen just now. You've obtained six new Espers, and you can check them out if you want. There's no way you'll learn new spells before the next boss, but their effects can be nice. I really, really suggest equipping Esper

Phantom, as his Ghostly Veil attack can turn the entire party invisible, which is a good thing against both the monsters and the boss you're about to face.

When you arrive, you're bound to notice the Save Point waiting for you there. Cid plays another emo-card by declaring himself as the almost-daddy of Celes, and how sorry he feels her life was dedicated to warfare. Before he can go on, though, Kefka is heard close by, and Cid pushes you into a mine cart. I'm not sure what the graphic designers were thinking here, but it can only be interpreted as one of those paintings of which close inspection only reveals rubbish, while standing away a long distance you'll suddenly notice it's a fish! Or a tree! Or even your deity of choice! At any rate, abstract gaming is not pleasant. I think it's supposed to be some kind of underground railroad from the perspective of a viewer in a speeding mine cart, but I'm not sure. Best not to dwell on it too much. Right now, you'll face five monster formations before the eventual boss, without time to heal or change equipment in between. Note that this is the only place you can get to the red version of the beasties that appear here. If you want to be sure you encounter every enemy in the game, you might have to reset if you're unlucky.

Anyway: Magna Roader (Purple) are big and weak. Magna Roader (Red) are small and weaker. Magna Roader (Purple) possess

Fire and

Fira spells, both horribly weak. Magna Roader (Red) attack with

Blizzard and

Blizzara spells. Both monsters are cannon fodder with especially low amounts of Defense. Their spells are more annoying than dangerous (as they prevent you from summoning Esper

Phantom at the start of the five monster formations and gain invulnerability for the time being).

Make sure you're fully prepared - or as fully prepared as possible � at the end of the fifth monster formation behind you. The next battle will be unpleasantly like being difficult. Here's how to pull that off nice and professional-like. Step one: Silence the remaining opponent(s). Step two: Summon Esper

Phantom. Heal up with Potions and Hi-Potions until you're at full health. Smack the last Roader down. You're good to go.

Left Blade Bestiary #295	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	22	700	470	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	13	5	0	120	150	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
				None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control

Right Blade Bestiary #294	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	21	400	150	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	20	5	0	120	150	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
				None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control

Number 128 Bestiary #293	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	23	3276	810	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	13	3	0	120	125	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Kazekiri			Common: Tent
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
				None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control
	Strategy
	Number 128 is not so much a human with the cybernetic parts in him as a robot with flesh on it. To top it, he's stronger than anything you've ever encountered so far. There are three attacking parts here, and only three party members. The absolute worst part is the fact that he carries a very rare sword on him, a sword that will remain useful throughout the entire game, of which only two exist; one in a chest you'll find two dungeons from now, one as a rare steal on this very opponent. It's by no means horrible if you don't obtain it, but it's really nice if you do. There are two blades. Left Blade and Right Blade. They're to the left and right of Number 128. Hence their names. They attack physically every round, and throw in a mean Special if you're in bad luck. If you kill them, they'll be back within 15 seconds. Left Blade knows Shamshir, which is especially dangerous as it reveals invisible characters. The main body is the worst, as you could imagine. Physical strikes more powerful than those of the blades, a Special that drains HP, the ability to cast the Blizzard spell, and cast a Net over a character. The latter two reveal invisible characters. But when both blades are killed, he gets really mean. He will cast Haste on himself to increase his amount of turns and begin using almost exclusively magical attacks. Gale Cut and Atomic Rays are both multi-target attacks, and Atomic Rays hurts quite a bundle. Shockwave is an attack you saw earlier on Dadaluma, and Blaster is its most dangerous move; while inaccurate, it will simply kill any character it does hit. If you are under the influence of Invisible, you get a Game Over. So here's the strategy if you don't have Phantom at your disposal and/or have summoned him earlier: Ignore the blades and try to focus on the main body. Locke should use Hi-Potions or Phoenix Downs when necessary, and spend all other turns trying to get that Kazekiri blade rare steal. He's also useful for casting Slow spells on the blades to dampen their aggression, if he has learned it. Edgar is reliable and powerful with Drill or Chainsaw, but his brother not so much. If Sabin doesn't know the Thundara spell, I suggest Rising Phoenix. Eventually it will take out the blades, but Phantom gave us a head start at the very least, and you can always summon him again if you entered the battle while invisible. With Cyan, it's the same, only with Fang. If you obtain the Kazekiri, give it to him and simply Attack the body. Gau can Rage Anguiform to be sure to hit the body every Aqua Breath, or Rage Aspiran if you're feeling lucky. Gigavolt is stronger, yet not always multi-target. A few additional tips: If (most of) your party is revealed and you can still summon Phantom, do so. Invisibility is definitely a positive status as long as you can keep at least one blade around at all times. Counter your adversary's Haste spell with a Slow spell from your side when possible. If you find yourself in the rare position of having Catoblepas equipped but not Phantom, summon the piglet Esper right away. There's a rather large chance he'll take out both blades in one go. Number 128 is one of the most dangerous opponents of the game given its relative setting, and if your luck is just really, really bad it's possible to die even if you're a rather experienced player, especially if you're trying to get the Kazekiri. Expand Full Strategy

A note about the common Phoenix Downs you were supposed to get for killing the blades; you'll never get them. The blades will always ripple away, which is an action before they disappear. As such, you'll only make them disappear, you never actually 'kill' them.

1.34: Robotic Arms Want to Give You a Hug

Formations
5/16	Chaser	1
5/16	Trapper	3
5/16	Sergeant	4
5/16	Chaser	1
5/16	Onion Knight	3
1/16	Onion Knight	4

Enemies: Onion Knight, Sergeant, Chaser, Crane (Left), Crane (Right)

Well, officially, the mission was a success. You penetrated the Imperial Magitek Research Facility. You didn't exactly rescue the eight Espers you managed to find, but you did take their Magicite remains as per their request, which is just as good, really. Nobody on your side died. Cid is just a scientist, but his promise to try to persuade the Emperor is a glimmer of hope. Yet, the loss of Celes weighs heavily, and you're not out of Vector yet.

Preparation: Equip the Knife

Kazekiri on Cyan if you haven't already. You can once again go for a simply what's-best set-up, as neither impossibly high Defense nor insane flurries of physical attacks are present now. Summoning Esper

Bismarck will be very useful in the next boss battle (don't worry; it'll take a while before there's another boss fight after it), so you might want to equip it. The Sword

Flametongue and Sword

Thunder Blade should not stay equipped (go with Sword

Icebrand instead), and any Claw

Burning Fist should be swapped with Claw

Venom Claws.

Your infiltration didn't go unnoticed, however, and the Imperial forces are now attempting to chase you down. The aptly named Chaser robot is one of them. Chaser robots rain death from above, so it's your task to, you know, kinda geyser death from below.

Back to Chaser robots. They're the last of Cid's protective metal golems you'll meet. Chaser robots can shoot Magitek Lasers and weaken opponents by use of

Dischord (which halves their level, as I explained with Satellite, their palette swap). It can also attack with a Plasma attack, which is actually very powerful. Plasma is single-target, luckily, so if one of your characters dies you can simply revive him. If you encounter them alone, their death will cause three Trappers to appear (unless you kill him with Gau's Mu Snare), and if you meet him with three Onion Knights already present, take him out first, as he will just continue to call more if you take them all down.

Save at the Save Point if you want to. You can stroll into the Magitek Factory again here, but one of the pipes collapsed, so you can't go very far. The fact that even this part is shaking hints at the fact the entire building is going down; this was more than you could've hoped for. Simply run down the rails and you'll meet up with Setzer. The Empire was becoming paranoid, and the hustle and bustle in Vector alarmed him. He notices the lack of Celes, but understands the need to escape. The four of you rush out of Vector, freedom nigh. But not nigh enough. Kefka plays a last card in a final attempt to stop you from escaping. Cranes. I don't know about the countries you guys live in, but here in the Netherlands, cranes are not an uncommon sight if there's building going on, which there tends to be from time to time. They tend not to attack us, though. These two attack in pairs, can use Magic, and can significantly screw you up if you're not careful. You have one character you couldn't equip beforehand: Setzer. Setzer comes with Gambler

Cards, a

Mythril Shield, and a Armor

Mythril Vest only... So, that's pretty terrible. Fun fact: Setzer's not wearing a helmet in the GBA version because in the SNES and PSX releases of the game, he was wearing a Helmet

Bandana, a piece of headgear he can't equip. He. Just. Can't.

There are two Cranes, and they're not completely the same.

Crane (Right) Bestiary #297	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	24	2300	447	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	14	4	0	125	120	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control

Crane (Left) Bestiary #296	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	23	1800	447	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	14	4	0	145	120	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Noiseblaster			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control
	Strategy
	Crane (Right) is fire-based. It will attack physically and use the Fire and Fira spell. When hit by a Fire-elemental attack of any kind, it will charge, going through "THERMAL REACTION LEVEL: 1" to "THERMAL REACTION LEVEL: 2" and finally to "THERMAL REACTION LEVEL: 3 UNLEASHING THERMAL ENERGY" at which point it will, indeed, release all that thermal energy (target the entire party with a Firaga spell). When alone, the right crane will boost its defenses with Magitek Barrier, which grants both Protect and Reflect, protecting it from Magic spells. After one minute of fighting, the message "The crane shakes the deck!" will appear and the Crane (Right) will perform a Magnitude 8 attack. Finally, every third time it has been damaged, it will perform a Thundara spell on the other Crane (Left), charging it. It has a rare Debilitator steal that you might want; it's another Tool for Edgar. The Crane (Left) is pretty much the same, only lightning-based. From "ELECTRIFICATION LEVEL: 1" it will pass through "ELECTRIFICATION LEVEL: 2" and "ELECTRIFICATION LEVEL: 3 Electrical energy unleashed!" performing a multi-target Gigavolt attack. All other features are the same, only it will cast a Fira spell on the other crane every third time it has been damaged. If you brought Gau and he knows how to perform the Anguiform Rage, you're in luck, as the Aqua Breath attack is incredibly powerful in this battle, up to the point where an Earring-boosted Aqua Breath will probably kill one Crane in one hit. Do not let him enter a Rage that performs either Fire or Lightning based attacks, and don't let him enter a Rage with a special attack that is Reflectable. Locke can do little here but try to Steal the Debilitator from the Crane (Right). Focus on one Crane at the time where possible. Drill / Chainsaw and Aura Cannon are songs often sung right now, and Cyan can enjoy his Kazekiri. Setzer is easily the weakest link at this point, lacking in proper equipment. Just try to nail a diamond or Chocobo on your first spin; that will make for the most consistent damage output. Expand Full Strategy

The Cranes are not as hard as Number 128 was, and you're bound to gain the upper hand if you don't make any mistakes. Now, it's time to fly to Zozo. Let's see what Terra has been doing in the meantime; with Celes gone, we need Terra to fill the role of ex-Imperial magic woman.

1.35: Terra's Flashback

When you arrive in the sanctuary Esper

Ramuh prepared for Terra, one of the pieces of Magicite you took from the Imperial Factory will begin to glow, much like Esper

Valigarmanda did when it and Terra crossed paths. It's Maduin, and he inspires a memory in Terra...

Through Maduin, you get to relive the history of Terra's birth. Maduin is the Gate Keeper of the Esper world, whose job is to make sure whatever needs to stay out stays out. A youthful Esper informs you that there's something going on near the gate. The gate is near Maduin's cave, to the north. The strong winds of the day have already alarmed the Elder of the Esper World, who sees them as an ill omen. You can chat to the various other Espers around, but they won't give you much information that is of great import.

When you reach the gate, you see a collapsed girl - a human girl. Choosing to let her lay there simply won't continue the plot, so take her with you. Once she has been delivered to her bed to rest, the Elder will come to see her. The Espers are not happy about her arrival; history has taught them (and us) that humans and Espers don't mix. While the day has cleared, the moods of the Espers have not; talking to the Espers again will change their responses from earlier, into darker discussions of the human, and the path to the gate will be blocked.

Talking to the girl will wake her up. Her name is Madeline. Maduin gives her a pendant for no apparent reason, perhaps as a gift of good will. It appears to be a unique pendant, that much is for certain.

When Maduin wakes up, he quickly notices Madeline is gone. The Elder is waiting outside, concerned about the situation, and while outside one Esper laments on the worst possible scenario ("If the humans learned of our powers and decided to try to make use of them... That would be a terrible thing indeed."), another one saw Madeline go to the gate. Try to catch up with her. Apparently, she slipped by the guard, as he has no idea what's going on. In a rapid-fire and metaphorical cutscene sequence, Madeline decides to stay behind with Maduin. They have a baby, and they name the baby Terra.

Fast forward to two years later, and the same winds of ill fate howl through the Esper World, and the Empire marches in. They beat up and take several Espers. Amidst the chaos, Madeline takes her chance and tries to escape with Terra. When Maduin tries to catch up with her, tragedy ensues... Terra is taken by the Empire, Madeline is killed by the Emperor, and Maduin's fate is sealed to suffer in the heart of the Empire at the hands of Cid.

After this, Terra wakes up, and it's time to go. Regrouping is done. Time for action. From this point on, Terra finally gains access to a second skill: Morph.

1.36: Airship Exploitation Part One

Enemies: Bomb, Grenade, Briareus, Devourer, Chimera, Leaf Bunny, Darkwind, Intangir

We're free to do what we want now. This is the glorious moment I cherish in all the Final Fantasy games I've ever played - the first time on an airship. The Blackjack awaits your command! Nothing is off-limits. Well, except for Vector. Guardian is waiting for your arrival, and there's no real way to gain entry to Vector now.

Getting Seraph

In Tzen, a crook is hiding in the trees next to the Relic shop. During your mission in the Imperial Magitek Research Facility, this guy managed to sneak out a piece of Magicite, and he's offering to sell it to you now. 3000 Gil is not a lot of money, and even though the Esper Esper

Seraph doesn't teach you any spells you couldn't have obtained from other Espers, her learning rates are much more user-friendly. Esper

Seraph is far and above the best White Magic Esper you'll get for quite a while. You can wait until later - you'll know when - at which point he'll offer you the 'stone' for only 10 Gil (With the world falling apart like it is, I guess it doesn't do me much good to hold on to this glowing stone...). I advise just buying it right now.

The Auction House: Golem and Zona Seeker

The Auction House in Jidoor is finally open. It's not so much the bidding here that's annoying. You'll be asked twice if you want to outbid the current price; if you say no, you don't get the item, if you say yes two times, you get the item. It's just that there are two items right now you want - two pieces of Magicite, Esper

Golem and

Zona Seeker � and you might have to cycle through the lineup a bit in order to acquire them. Here's how the Auction House works.

There's a 50% chance the item up for bidding is "a gorgeous pair of" Relic

Angel Wings, a Relic that gives you the automatic ability to Float. If it's not, we continue. Then, there's a 50% chance it's a walking, talking Chocobo. You can never buy this 'item' no matter how much you pay, as the father will always buy it. But if this item isn't the Chocobo, we continue. Then, there's a 50% chance it's the Esper

Golem Magicite! Nice. Try to buy it. If you already bought it earlier, or the item isn't Esper

Golem, we continue. Then, there's a 50% chance it's the Esper

Zona Seeker Magicite. Good. If you already bought this item, or if it still isn't this item, we continue. If it's none of the above, it's an Relic

Angel Ring. Period.

So, the odds of a Magicite showing up in a given round are based on the Magicite you've already bought. The odds of other items change accordingly, too, but you're here for the Magicite, so let's talk about that. If you have neither, Esper

Golem will be a 12.5% chance and Esper

Zona Seeker will be 6.25%. If you have one or the other, the remaining one will be a 12.5% chance. If you manage to get outbid by hitting the wrong option or not having enough money, don't worry, the person who buys it will put it back up for sale and it might show up in your next visit or any visit thereafter until bought again. Below you can see tables that explain the odds a bit more clearly.

No Espers
Item	Chance
Angel Wings	50%
Chocobo	25%
Golem	12.5%
Zona Seeker	6.25%
Angel Ring	6.25%

One Esper (Either!)
Item	Chance
Angel Wings	50%
Chocobo	25%
(The Remaining Esper)	12.5%
Angel Ring	12.5%

Both Espers
Item	Chance
Angel Wings	50%
Chocobo	25%
Angel Ring	25%

If you're curious what each item will cost you:

Angel Wings: 10000 Gil
The Magicite Golem: 20000 Gil
The Magicite Zona Seeker: 10000 Gil
Angel Ring: 20000 Gil

If you don't have enough money, fly the Blackjack to an area where Fossil Dragon monsters appear; they give great amounts of money and you should be able to handle them pretty easily by now.

Locating Grenade

Formations
10/16	Bomb	6
5/16	Bomb	1
1/16	Grenade	1

In the large forest west of the Veldt, only Bombs seem to appear. There is a rare chance you'll encounter a Grenade, though. Fighting one gets you nothing, but if you want a complete Rage list and/or Bestiary, you'd better have met one, as you will never come across one by following the story only. Note that the Grenade will possibly appear in a boss battle in the future, where it can get a Bestiary entry but cannot be learned as a rage.

I suggest you bring Edgar, as he has brilliant means of taking them all out in one shot, and at least one character with

Cure and/or

Cura, as Blaze will still hurt every time, no matter how repetitive it will begin to seem.

Grenade enemies have 3000 HP, but very poor Defense and Magic Defense. Target them with Ice-elemental attacks and just whatever you have. One-hit KO attacks work well, though he is immune to Petrify. If you use Attack on him, he can use

Self-Destruct on you, which is likely to kill the initial attacker, so try to avoid it. If he uses !Mesmerize, you have little choice in the matter unless you manage to use

Dispel before the situation gets too serious.

Obtaining Gaia Gear

Grasslands
6/16	Devourer	1
6/16	Briareus	1
5/16	Briareus	1
5/16	Briareus	2

Forest
6/16	Devourer	3
5/16	Chimera	1
5/16	Chimera	1
5/16	Devourer	2

On the continent to the east of the Veldt, there are three new monsters: Briareus and Devourer on the grasslands and Devourer and Chimera in the forest. I'll tell you how to deal with them when you actually need to go there (check the chapter on Crescent Island if you'd like to hear about them now, I recommend it). The Briareus have a rare Armor

Gaia Gear you can steal from them, and there's nothing in the Common slot, so you can just keep trying. Chimera drop the alternate nice armor, the Armor

Golden Armor, for your Edgars and Cyans. Armor

Gaia Gear in particular would be very nice to have going in to the next dungeon, and this is the only way of obtaining it.

To the north of this continent is the town of Thamasa. The Inn charges outrageous fees, the Weapon and Armor Shop will refuse to help you (we reserve the right to deny service blah blah), and you aren't getting anything out of anybody; info, items, nothing. We'll come back here someday.

Intangir

Grasslands
6/16	Leaf Bunny	2
6/16	Darkwind	1
5/16	Leaf Bunny	1
5/16	Intangir	1

Forest
6/16	Intangir	1
5/16	Leaf Bunny	3
5/16	Darkwind	2
5/16	Leaf Bunny	2
5/16	Darkwind	1

On the small triangle-shaped island to the northeast of the World Map, you'll find lots of enemies you've probably seen before. However, you'll also find Intangir monsters. Intangir are massively powerful, absorb all elements, and are invisible. They confuse a lot of first-time players. When you damage them, they retaliate with an Meteor attack, which is likely to actually kill anybody it hits, as it will damage for over 900 HP.

You can no longer use the cheap

Vanish/

Death trick now that you're on the GBA. So, the only ways to kill an Intangir now are to either keep it continuously subdued with

Stop or use Joker's Death against it. As for damage output while the Intangir is stopped, here's what to do: since his Defense is very good and he absorbs all elements, you'll want to make use of Edgar's Tools

Drill, Sabin's Meteor Strike and Cyan's Fang. Later in the game, should you want to return for extra-hard MP grinding, Relm's Sketch results in a 75% shot at

Traveler, which is another powerful attack against Intangir, though keep in mind that Sketch always misses monsters under the effects of Invisible. Strago can just use it from the Lore menu, obviously.

Veldt Hunting

It's a great time for the hunting down of some new Rages. You have a whole set of new spells to learn, Espers to use, monsters to see... have fun. Here are some slick new rages:

Enemy	Attack	Status Changes
Anguiform	Aqua Breath	Inherent Darkness
Aspiran	Gigavolt	Inherent Float
Rock Wasp	!Sleep Stinger	Inherent Float
Veil Dancer	Blizzara
Gobbledygook	Vanish
Hill Gigas	Magnitude 8
Litwor Chicken	Quake
Chimera	Aqua Breath	lots of status immunities, one-hit KO protection
General	Cura	Inherent Protect
Magna Roader (purple)	Bio	Inherent Haste
Destroyer	Reraise	Inherent Protect, one-hit KO protection
Briareus	Cyclonic
Intangir	Transfusion	Inherent Invisible, Protect, Shell, Haste, Regen and Float*

*You'll have to prevent the casting of the self-destructive Transfusion attack with Silence before Gau initializes the Rage.

Some older rages you might be missing:

Enemy	Attack	Status Changes
Darkwind	Break	Inherent Float
Trillium	Bio	Absorbs Water
Alacran	!Numb (Stop)
Spritzer	Blaze	Absorbs Lightning, Inherent Float, Undead
Oversoul	Will o' the Wisp	Absorbs Poison, Undead
Stray Cat	!Cat Scratch
Guard Leader	Wind Slash
Lesser Lopros	Fireball	Inherent Float
Mu	Snare
Templar	Fira	Inherent Protect
Cloud	Thundara	one-hit KO protection
Satellite	Sonic Boom	Inherent Float, one-hit KO protection
Bomb	Blaze	Absorbs Fire, Inherent Float

That's enough exploitation for now. Carry on!

1.37: Allied Narshe

Well, it's Narshe again. The first time Terra came here, she was violently pulled out of the clutches of the Empire. The second time, she was again touched by Esper

Valigarmanda and lost control of herself. Narshe has not been a good city to Terra at all; let's hope it has some good news this time. And so it appears! Narshe, ever-unsure about their role in the war, has finally decided to stand with the Returners against the Empire. A plan is revealed wherein Narshe and Figaro team up to make for war. But the Empire, even without an ever-increasing number of Magitek Armors, is a force far greater then Narshe and Figaro combined. The gate needs to be opened; the Espers need to be contacted. Surely, they would be willing to aid against those who have wronged their species so much. Terra is the necessary link; a new mission is given.

Narshe is once again bustling with activity! New weapons and equipment are being sold in the city's stores in preparation for the upcoming war.

In the Weapon Shop, there's a new kind of Rod in town: The Rod

Poison Rod. You can let it rest for now. The Special

Morning Star is a Back Row weapon for Celes and Terra, simply an upgraded version of the Special

Chain Flail. The most interesting sell here is the Special

Hawkeye for Locke. The Special

Hawkeye has a 50% chance of doing x1.5 damage (no visual effect) to non-Floating enemies and 3 times as much damage against Floating enemies (it will appear to be thrown). Very nice. Buy one, or two if you feel you want to use Locke and the Relic

Genji Glove together.

The Armor Shop sells new equipment as well. Shield

Golden Shields and Helmet

Golden Helms for the heavy-equippers (you still have to get Armor

Golden Armors from the Chimera if you want them), a Helmet

Tiara for Terra (the first actual helmet I'll outright recommend over the Helmet

Green Beret), and Armor

Power Sash for those guys whose name isn't Edgar or Setzer.

Relic Shop: Nothing new here, but if you feel like you could use something, don't hesitate.

Item Shop: There's nothing remarkable here other than the fact this is the first town that sells Shadow's scrolls when he isn't a possible party member. Except for Albrook. Is that a weird point to mention, then? Yes.

But this isn't all. One odd character has chosen to take advantage of the situation of Narshe: Lone Wolf, the infamous thief, has paid a visit. Lone Wolf is a character from Final Fantasy V (if not, the two are so similar there's bound to be a conscious running theme here). The prior Lone Wolf was a thief locked up in a dungeon in some castle. He looked like a humanoid wolf, or a werewolf, which appeared in larger numbers later in the game, though Lone Wolf himself has no clear connection to them and it's even possible he's just a guy with a mask. You had the option of releasing him, but he would just take three treasures you would then be unable to obtain later in the game. None of that's really relevant to this game's version, though, really.

The old man who gave you his treasures earlier (remember, the house with the Dirk

Thief's Knife and Relic

Thief's Bracer in it?) worries about the treasure he didn't give you; the locked chest. If you are kind enough to take a look for him, you'll just see Lone Wolf running off with its contents. Follow Lone Wolf to retrieve the treasure! He escapes to the mines. The path is straightforward. On occasion, you'll see Lone Wolf running from you. Eventually, you'll have him cornered, but the situation suddenly escalates, as Lone Wolf has taken a Moogle hostage. If you try to approach, Lone Wolf will threaten to kill the Moogle. Some folks, unworthy of this walkthrough, will tell you that you can recruit Mog by trying to walk towards Lone Wolf over and over and over until you lose patience and spam message boards or something, but this is humbug. The trick here is to simply stand still at the spot you automatically back away to. After a while, the Moogle will be able to free itself, and in the struggle that ensues, both are thrown over a side of the cliff. Will you help the Moogle, or will you try to obtain the treasure you initially came for?

The treasure is a Relic

Gold Hairpin, a Relic that cuts your MP usage in half. It's a Relic I only find useful when playing a Low Level Game, as you will be able to cast spells you otherwise don't have the MP for. But in a normal game, the better (and morally superior) choice is helping the Moogle. This Moogle is an old acquaintance of yours, the leader of the gang of Moogles who helped Locke save Terra. To top that, he appears to be able to talk, something no other Moogle can do. Apparently was contacted by Esper

Ramuh at some point in time and was told to join your cause. So, he joins your cause, and runs off to your airship.

Mog is the unofficial mascot of this game, and everybody thinks he's bloody adorable. Myself, I just appreciate him as one of the strongest characters the game has to offer. Right now, his main power lies in his special ability, Dance, with which he summons awesome power from the very terrain around him and the animals that live there to put the hurt on your enemies. Let's go collect Dances for him!

Go to the Blackjack and change your party so that it includes Mog. You'll notice his level is very high: 5 levels higher, in fact. Equip him (you'll see he uses Lances, mostly) and head out to the open sky.

Land in front of Narshe and fight some Leaf Bunnies on the grasslands to make him learn the Wind Rhapsody. Stride into the forest for the Forest Nocturne and enter the desert for the Desert Lullaby.

Now, get back on the Blackjack and fly to South Figaro where you can climb Mt. Koltz. On the slopes, Mog will learn the Earth Blues (possibly the most universally useful Dance). If you didn't pick up the Twilight Requiem while protecting Terra earlier, you can head in one of the caves to learn it.

Fly the Blackjack to Zozo and fight a battle there; the Love Serenade will be Mog's.

The Dance that is the hardest to obtain, and the only actually missable Dance in the game, is the Water Harmony. There are currently two places where Mog can learn it: On the Lethe River and in the Serpent Trench, both of which will become inaccessible in the not-so-distant future. Both take you along a one-way route to a radically different place, so that's annoying. GBA players will be able to fight a single boss battle which takes place underwater where you can bring Mog to learn the Water Harmony. I suggest you learn the Dance now. The quickest way is to land in front of Baren Falls, and leap down the raging waters. Don't worry, there won't be any Opinicus Fish to worry about this time. Walk across the Veldt and enter Crescent Moutain. Jump in the Serpent Trench to re-appear in Nikeah. Grab a Chocobo in the local Stable (to the north) and ride the big bird all the way to Baren Falls again.

Now, you've gained 6 or 7 out of 8 Dances in very little time! That's more than Cyan can say; he probably has gained about one Bushido since you recruited him, lazy hobo that he is.

We've concluded Mog's training. Let's see if we can advance the plot now.

1.38: Rampage of the Millennium

First Cave
6/16	Lich	3
5/16	Provoker	2
5/16	Antares	1
	Provoker	1
	Lich	1

Basement 1
6/16	Outcast	3
5/16	Provoker	2
5/16	Provoker	2
5/16	Lich	2

Basement 2
6/16	Antares	3
5/16	Zombie Dragon	1
5/16	Zombie Dragon	1
5/16	Outcast	2

Basement 3
6/16	Outcast	3
5/16	Zombie Dragon	2
5/16	Zombie Dragon	1
5/16	Outcast	2

Enemies: Outcast, Provoker, Zombie Dragon, Antares, Lich, Ninja, Kefka

Treasures: Dirk Assassin's Dagger, Elixir, Relic Genji Glove, Relic Heiji's Jitte, Hi-Ether x3, Magicite Shard x3, Knife Kazekiri, Tent, Sword Ultima Weapon, X-Potion

The Empire abducted several Espers about twenty years ago, and kept an Imperial Base around to guard the Sealed Gate. The Espers sealed it from the inside, so there's no way for the Empire to actually get in. But you have to try for the sake of the Returners. So now it's your mission to sneak through this Imperial Observation Post and pass through the cave to reach the Sealed Gate and... Yeah, do what exactly? Terra seems like the most likely way of getting contact. Let's see what we can do when we get there.

Once again, I want to stress how nice your life will be if you collect four sets of Armor

Gaia Gear, which you can obtain via rare Steal from Briareus on the grassland of the continent East of the Veldt. Thank yourself for your patience! Listen up, friends: Relics are important in the first few parts of this dungeon. One of the enemies can cast

Fire,

Fira and

Firaga (!) so Relic

Reflect Rings are very handy, especially since

Firaga is really powerful and could kill you. Relic

Peace Rings/ Relic

Ribbons are great to equip against this very same enemy's Confuse-setting Special.

Time to choose a new four-headed party out of your eight-headed available party! Mog is the most powerful party member at this point; those five extra levels don't hurt his cause, and his Water Harmony Dance cleans house like nothing before in the next dungeon. El Niño equals death to the most common and most dangerous enemy. A much surer way of making fatal hits is giving Relic

Dragoon Boots to Mog and equipping a Lance

Trident. Sabin is another great choice; go for either a Relic

Genji Glove and two Claw

Kaiser Knuckles or Relic

Earring and Aura Cannon spamming. Edgar's Tools

Chainsaw with a Relic

Gigas Glove is another great asset to your team. Terra is a mandatory character, so there's little to choose there (although she is very weak at this point, so be warned). Cyan, Knife

Kazekiri or not, is simply strategically unfit for the next dungeon. Gau is great if he knows Anguiform or Chimera Rages, but not quite as good as the other characters. Setzer's Slot is too unreliable at this moment, and he would have to pull something like Dive Bomb or Sun Flare out of his... nose.... in order to finish off Outcasts, so he's a bad choice. Locke, finally, is simply too weak without heavy Relic-boosting.

In Terra's case, I'd especially advise you to allow her to have some private moments with Esper

Shiva, as that's the fastest route to a powerful spell that isn't

Bio or

Fira (as both are useless in the upcoming dungeon).

If you have Armor

Gaia Gear, equip it. If you have four sets of it, I suggest you swap Edgar out of the party - he can't equip it - and replace him with Gau (or one of the others; it really doesn't matter that much as long as it isn't Cyan, as he can't equip it either).

Terra, in the meantime, isn't a happy camper. She needs some support, as when she enters the Imperial Camp by herself she'll go: "...I know I can do this, but still... I really don't want to go there all alone..." and will refuse to continue.

The first three rooms are partly filled with monsters you won't find in the rest of the dungeon: Provoker, Antares, and Lich.

Provokers are nasty upgrades of your average Angel Whisper. They absorb Fire-elemental attacks, and have a one-third chance of countering any attack that damages them with Imp Song. Sadly, Esper

Siren stands helpless against them, so you'll just have to try to kill them in one hit. Aura Cannon, Tools

Chainsaw,

Blizzara, double Claw

Kaiser Knuckles, all works great.

Antares are small scorpion-like creatures with no special power. They can put you to sleep with !Dreamstinger, and have a slight chance of countering attacks with a Magnitude 8 spell, though they lack the MP to do so. Way to go there, champ. Strong multi-target attacks are particularly helpful here, like Tools

Flash, Chocobo Stampede, Magnitude 8, Sandstorm, you name it.

Liches are the worst, man. They can start the battle with !Insanitouch. Confused characters are never a good idea; with a little luck you can snap them out of it before bad things happen, but chances always exist you'll have to swallow a Rising Phoenix or something before you do. To top this madness, they can cast

Fira with considerable power and can even cast

Firaga. Their

Firaga attacks taste like burning. You'll want to avoid that. You can't shut them up with Esper

Siren or Silence. If you have Edgar, Tools

Noiseblaster can confuse them to buy you enough time to kill them. Charge for Lich immediately. You won't meet a lot of them, so there's no shame in using a Phoenix Down or

Raise spell if you run into one, although a single-target

Blizzara spell or something might be more cost-efficient.

If your level is really low, make sure you have four Relic

Reflect Rings, and keep them on your characters at all times. This should prevent Lich's spells from hurting you. Like I said before, Relic

Peace Rings and Relic

Ribbons protect nicely against !Insanitouch.

Every step you take after those three rooms consist out of only two enemies: Zombie Dragon and Outcast. Zombie Dragons are bigger, so you'd assume they're more dangerous. Such folly. Relic

Reflect Rings are useless once you get into Zombie Dragon territory, and status-prevention Relics can be removed as well as Outcast's !Glare just sets Darkness and Zombie Dragon's !Bone attack, while setting the dangerous Zombie status, is so rare and used so late in the encounter you shouldn't even see it.

Zombie Dragons just attack physically, unless you wait a really, really long time, until they have a slight chance of turning a character into a Zombie with !Bone. Zombie Dragons are the only enemies in this blasted cave that don't absorb Fire, so if somebody knows or learns

Fira here (Terra learns it naturally at level 22), use it to great effect. Otherwise, you know how to handle monsters now. Gau can flush Zombie Dragons nicely with Mu's Snare.

Outcasts are entirely different. Their Lifeshaver move is extremely strong. It's an Earth-elemental attack that functions entirely like

Drain; drains HP, can't drain more than the amount of damage the caster has lost. Since it's such a strong attack at this point, the Outcast will most likely recover all of the HP it had lost. If both his lack of HP and the targets possession of it allows, Liveshaver can do up to 750 damage; unless you are equipped with Armor

Gaia Gear, in which case you don't need to worry as you'll absorb the attack and the Outcast will damage itself. Nice! If you're equipped with Armor

Gaia Gear, there's no need to worry about specific tactics, and you can just pound away. But without, the highest priority when facing Outcast is this: take them out in one shot. This way, they have no chance of casting Liveshaver (You cannot Silence the jerks). If you brought Locke with you, definitely try to Steal four Relic

Amulets here; they are a common steal, so the task requires little work.

You can one-hit KO them in a multitude of ways so long as you set up properly. Relic

Earring/Aura Cannon is a good method, while Relic

Genji Glove/double Claw

Kaiser Knuckles is a nice alternative. Jump/ Lance

Trident works well on Edgar or Mog, although the latter might enjoy Dancing the Water Harmony better; El Niño not only kills Outcast, it sends them flying in the bloody Clouds of Magellan.

Aqua Breath, sadly, probably isn't strong enough at this point, even with a Relic

Hero's Ring or Relic

Earring behind it.

If you did bring Armor

Gaia Gear for all your boys and girls, Gau can make Briareus's Cyclonic work to great effect as every opponent is vulnerable to one-hit KO attacks. Sure, Wyvern works just as well, but since we got the Armor

Gaia Gear from Briareus enemies in the first place, let this be a tribute.

When you arrive at the Imperial Base, there are no soldiers around. That's mighty suspicious, and can only lead to bad things: Either the soldiers are somewhere else, preparing for a major attack, or the Empire has decided they will let you go the Sealed Gate, which means they've got some nasty trick up their sleeves. Still, we shall press on.

Boy, is it hot in this cave. The Cave to the Sealed Gate is a volcanic area, and the monsters have adapted to it. At least there's one thing cool here: There's already a chest in the very first room! It contains the Dirk

Assassin's Dagger, a brilliant semi- Dirk

Thief's Knife that randomly kills in one hit. The comparison with the Dirk

Thief's Knife comes from the fact it's both Locke/Shadow only and gives stat boosts, making it a nice option even if you don't plan on using Attack. The Dirk

Assassin's Dagger revives the Undead though, all the time, so I wouldn't suggest equipping it here (even if you weren't going to use it for attacking, Dirk

Thief's Knife's special abilities are better).

The next room has another chest, this one containing a Knife

Kazekiri blade. If you hadn't stolen one from Number 128, this is the only one you'll find in the game barring end-game GBA-only Soul Shrine adventures. It has a 50% chance of nulling the special effects of the physical strike and casting Wind Slash instead. It's pretty much the most interesting weapon Cyan will ever get his hands on, so cherish it (for all the Cyan-slandering I participate in).

The next room is a 'puzzle': Every 1.5 seconds or so, the pathway changes from one state to the other. Explaining how to get across would be folly, as any attempt to explain would likely just sound confusing, and it's not that hard in the first place. However, the screenshot to the right does show with white squares each of the safe tiles on which to stand during motion. The chest to the right contains an X-Potion, and the chest to the bottom contains the Relic

Heiji's Jitte Relic, a Relic that changes Setzer's ability from Slot into Gil Toss.

If you, like I, think throwing coins is a rather silly way of doing damage, you may be interested to hear that it is not without precedence. Coin throwing was previously featured in Final Fantasy V as a grossly overpowered attack and actually has its roots in Japanese folklore. The Heiji's Jitte, you see. Zenigata Heiji was a kind of 'Sherlock Holmes' during the samurai era who stopped/killed his foes by throwing a coin at them. A Jitte is a specialized weapon specifically designed to catch an opponent's blade, used in the day by the law enforcement to disarm criminals. What Heiji's Jitte has to do with Heiji's coin throwing antics remains a mystery.

Gil Toss, while more consistent, is inferior to Slot, especially when Setzer is equipped with Relic

Earring, as he should be. The Tools

Flash Tool is a good indicator of the total amount of damage inflicted by Relic

Heiji's Jitte actually splits the damage between its targets, so the more targets, the weaker it turns out. Besides that, there's no way of boosting it other than level, AND it costs you money every time you use it by an [amount of gold used] = [Level * 30] ratio. There are times - in the future - where it'll be worth it to equip the Relic, but not now.

The room's exit is to the bottom-right of the screen. Here, you come across a choice: Right or dead ahead. Going to the right will get you to a chest with a Hi-Ether in it. Grab it, hike back, and continue. You'll want to go up the diagonal, nature-crafted stairway, at the end of which you will find a bridge with a switch next to it. If you press the switch, the bridge will collapse under you and you'll fall down, but no HP damage will be done, and you 'hear a distant sound'. Going to the left and up will get you to a chest with... a Relic

Genji Glove! A very useful Relic indeed. If you have the equipment and the characters, you can add a double Lance

Trident Attacker to the party this way, eliminating the Jumping time. Mmm. Go back and continue this time.

You'll see a plateau with two switches, and a bridge with a switch next to it. Go over to the two switches on the plateau. The left switch opens the door to a Save Point and a chest with a Tent in it; the right switch triggers a battle with a Ninja and accomplishes nothing otherwise (you won't ever make this Ninja appear on the Veldt). If you decide to fight the Ninja, make sure you heal yourself, as he's bound to get in at least one Thrown Scroll. The best way of dealing with the Ninja is by utilizing one-hit KO attacks; the

Death spell should do the trick, otherwise the Rhodox Rage or Twilight Requiem will offer a good chance at success. If you don't want to rely on luck, he's weak to Lightning, so

Thundara and Gau's Aspiran's Gigavolt work well. He doesn't have that many HP, and when he dies, he will talk about hidden treasures in the 'plaza beneath the grand stairway'. Few people seem to know actually what he's talking about there, but luckily yours truly is among them.

The switch on the bridge (doesn't that sound like a Dr. Seuss novel to you?) is mandatory this time, as it will create a large stairway. Egads, a grand stairway I might add.

Behold, the plaza! This already is the plaza the Ninja risked his life for, littered with treasure. This is where they are:

Invisibility Scroll: One step down and one step to the left from the lowest stairway tile.
Remedy: Six steps down from the Invisibility Scroll.
293 Gil: Three steps up from the treasure chest visible here.
Water Scroll: Three steps down and three steps to the right from the lowest stairway tile.

The chest here contains an Hi-Ether. Let's move on. When you enter the little cave, you'll have to find your way up through a hidden tunnel, but a monkey with half a brain could do that, so I won't be helping you. When you emerge, you can open the chest for an Elixir.

This next part is kind of frustrating to 'pin down'. There are two stepping tiles in front of you. The first one accomplishes about as much as I know about car mechanics: Absolutely nothing. It creates a stairway to a featureless little six-tile area. The second stepping tile breaks apart a bridge leading to a chest; you can walk around it or step on it anyway and go another route I'll point out in a bit. The chest in question contains not an item or a monster, but a switch. Switch-in-a-box. Heh. Flick it, or don't, it doesn't do anything remotely interesting.

Going down will get you to another stepping tile. This one is more of a friend to you; it opens a door to a small cave with four chests: Two Magicite Shards, an Hi-Ether, and the Sword

Ultima Weapon.

The Sword

Ultima Weapon is a nifty sword that's more special than useful. A scholar in Albrook mentioned it, remember? It was created during the War of the Magi, along with a monster with the same name. Meeting the sword was the better choice, I think. The Sword

Ultima Weapon will do rather weak, barrier-piercing damage at this point of the game when the wielder is at his maximum HP; its damage is partially based on the max HP/current HP ratio where the Sword

Ultima Weapon will do more damage when the wielder at full health and almost no damage when the wielder only has a few HP left. The Sword

Ultima Weapon gains strength with the wielder's level, and can achieve three lengths, depending on the damage output (it changes from short to medium beyond 500 HP damage, and from medium to long at 1000). I wouldn't equip it at this point. A few points of rumor and interest:

The Ultima Weapon is rather famous for starring in the horrid legend claiming you can Throw this weapon for an instant kill against the final boss. You can't throw the Ultima Weapon. Case closed.
When you combine the Ultima Weapon with Mug, it will lose its special damage formula and it'll become a normal sword with an Attack of 255, which is rather nice. Most people will argue that this is a bug, though.
An urban myth for... ahem... increasing the size of your Ultima Weapon includes wearing Green Berets or Red Caps and equipping Muscle Belts, all to increase maximum HP and boost that blue thing. It doesn't work, as it's the ratio that's important, not max HP.
Isn't it wicked? It's like a lightsaber.

Let's walk over to the new pathway. You'll encounter a switch you have to press to raise land to the right of you so you can cross it. Here's a switch as well; if you stepped on the bad stepping tile earlier, you can press it so you can walk over to the chest.

The switch, by the way, would block your path if you had stood on the two useless/bad stepping tiles earlier, and only as long as you didn't fight a random encounter. I really don't know why programmers even bother with things like this. Moving on will get you a chest with a Magicite Shard. From here on, it's a straight path to the Sealed Gate. As soon as Terra wants to call out to the Espers: Oh noes! Kefka has followed you here, hoping you'd be able to open the Sealed Gate and deliver more Espers to the Empire. Folly! How could you have been so foolish? Time to put the hurt on Kefka!

Like in the Imperial Camp, you fight a human Kefka. I won't bother really listing what he does and how you should handle it, as the fight ends as soon as you do anything to Kefka, be it helpful to him or damaging. For trivia purposes, I'll list his moves, though:

Poison,

Fira,

Dischord, Attack,

Rasp,

Slow, and Special. He doesn't actually have a Special attack though, as he's a character, so instead, the attack name pop-up will display nothing, Kefka will take one step forward and raise his arms (like Gau performing a Special), and without any attack animation, the attack will miss. Oh yes, and don't use Magicite Shards, as those cancel on characters, including opponent characters.

During the battle with Kefka, Terra manages somehow to make contact with the Espers behind the Gate. The door opens, but something is wrong; rather than asking what you want, several Espers bolt out the door, flying off, sending shockwaves of power through your body. When they are gone, the door closes behind you and is blocked with an eerily skull-like barricade of rocks. Terra urges you to get out when she awakens, and maybe it's wise to follow her advice.

The cave has a new exit; take it for a shortcut. Make sure that you've collected all the treasures you wanted, as once you get out of the cave and board the Blackjack, there's no going back in unless you go out of your way to do so (ominous foreshadowing).

Once you pass through the Imperial Base and find your ally at the other end, he'll tell you that the Espers have flown to Vector. You were planning to have them attack it anyway, but it's doubtful if this sort of haste is for the best...

The identity of the ill-news bringer depends on the composition of your party, but starting from the most likely one, the game works down the list from Locke to Cyan, Edgar, Sabin, and finally Setzer. Actually, it's quite impossible for you to encounter Setzer here, as you'll at the very worst have a Terra/Locke/Cyan/Edgar party, in which case it's still Sabin who delivers the news. Ah, goddess of unnecessary coding!

Immediately afterwards, you find yourself flying to Vector. But you start feeling some vibration, and it isn't the good vibration Marky Mark & The Funky Bunch or the Beach Boys used to sing about. No sih, not at all. You'll find yourself near Maranda. Absolutely nothing has changed in this town, so you might as well go find the hidden Chocobo Stable and hike to Vector. The Stable is hidden in the narrow part in the forest to the East of Maranda.

As you can see when you arrive, Vector is in ruins. Seems the Espers smacked it around with a club called 'Destruction'. The Returners are, without any apparent reason, exposing themselves to the Empire now that it seems weakened. I'm sure they won't call the soldiers on you, sillies. Even Banon and Arvis are here. Banon will declare you mad for even bringing up the option of talking with Espers; clearly, they are barbarians whose bones are filled with violence and manslaughter. Looking at the path of destruction without discretion in their wake, it's hard to argue otherwise, however validated their anger may be. Entering the Imperial Magitek Research Facility will accomplish exactly nothing, as you can't. Entering the Imperial Palace, however, will get you an Imperial escort who will take you to the Emperor himself.

1.39: The Imperial Palace

Enemies: Sergeant, Imperial Elite, Mega Armor

Treasures: Relic Alarm Earring, Ether, Relic Gale Hairpin, Holy Water, X-Potion

It appears that the Emperor has changed from the power-hungry antagonist to the sorrowful ally! The Espers destroyed his town, his pride. He's been severely punished already for his arrogant lust for control and domination; but can a man change so quickly, so completely? For now, you can do what Cid has asked you to do, and try to warm the hearts of Imperial Soldiers. At the very least, it'll give you something positive to do until you can start negotiations with the Emperor.

There are 24 soldiers to talk to. You have four minutes. Two hundred forty seconds. You will be rewarded for your behavior in the Palace; it starts here. You get a point for every soldier you talk to, and another five for every soldier you manage to convert. For maximum enjoyment and treasure, you'll want to talk to all of them (you can skip 3 of the passive ones without any penalty). Skip any treasure chests for now; you can get them a little while later when the seconds aren't of any importance.

Every normal trooper who wishes to fight you turns out to be a single Sergeant unit, and every Armored trooper that confronts you is a single Mega Armor.

Bio spells and barrier-piercing attacks work great against the Sergeant units; one-hit KO attacks work nicely (including

Break). As far as the Mega Armor goes, one-hit KO attacks go well against him too (although he has Petrify protection for

Break). He may counter Attacks with Magitek Laser and non-fatal Magic spells with Missile, so be wary.

If you die, you don't get a Game Over but you will find yourself out-battle after a red flash. You'll get the 1 point for talking to the soldier but not the 5 points for defeating the soldier. If you escape the battle by running, using Smoke Bombs or the Teleport Stone/

Teleport spell, you'll find yourself out of battle after a green flash, and you'll get 1 point but not the other 5. You can't run from Mega Armor regardless. If you let the timer run out during a battle, there's a blue flash and you'll get 1 point but, again, not 5.

Walk right ahead and talk to the first four soldiers. Take a turn to the right (from your view). Ignore the first door for now; it houses Kefka, who talks too much and would expend a lot of your precious time. Go up the stairs and enter the door on this floor. In this room, you can talk to a soldier, a Special Forces unit, and a soldier in the bathroom. Get out of the room and go up the stairs. Here, you enter the balcony of the palace. You can talk to five soldiers here, and one soldier in the cabin on top (which you might recognize as the one from which Kefka released the Cranes) wants to fight you. Fight him (it's a single Sergeant) and press on. Enter the door to the other side of the little cabin on top.

In here, there's a wandering soldier. You should be at 14 by now. Go further down. Enter the first new door. There are four wandering soldiers below the soldier in the bed and one above. One of the four wants to fight you; do so. When you have talked to all in the room, enter the bathroom, where another soldier wants to fight you. You're on 21 now. Get out, ignore the next door (treasure only), and go out of the palace. There are two soldiers here and an Armored soldier who wants to fight; it's a Mega Armor now. Kill it and you have the final, 24th soldier.

Forty-four points maximum for this phase and then it's dinner time! At the great Banquet, where you'll hopefully settle matters with the Empire, you'll be repeatedly asked to fill gaps in the conversation. Your choice influences how much the Emperor likes you, and how much he'll reward you for showing up. It's like trying to hit on that hot girl at the bar, only with me showing you what works well and what will get you slapped in the face.

Gestahl: At last, we can all be together, sharing a meal at the same table! Let us make a toast! To what shall we raise our glasses?

Answer	Points
To the Empire.	2
To the Returners.	1
To our homelands.	5

Gestahl: As you may know, I've imprisoned Kefka for his crime of using poison against Doma. What do you think should be done with him?

Answer	Points
Leave him in jail.	5
Pardon him.	1
Execute him.	3

Gestahl: I am truly sorry about what occured in Doma. No one ever dreamed Kefka would use poison.

Answer	Points
What's done is done.	1
That was inexcusable.	5
Apologize again!	3

Gestahl: By the way...With regard to General Celes...

Answer	Points
Was she an Imperial spy?	1
Celes is one of us!	5
We trust her whether she spied or not.	3

Was there anything else you wanted to ask?

Answer	Points
Why'd you start the war?	2
Why do you want peace now?	2
Why'd we have to talk to your men?	2

Gestahl: With your permission, I'd like to talk about the Espers...

Answer	Points
I still have a few things to ask.	*
Okay.	0

* Every question you ask will get you 2 points, but the same question asked twice will cost you 10 points.Gestahl: The Empire has been decimated by the Espers that emerged from the Sealed Gate. They're just too powerful... If we don't do something, they'll tear the entire world apart!

Answer	Points
They have gone a bit too far...	5
You're the one who brought them here in the first place!	2

Gestahl: When the Espers came through on their rampage, all of my ambitions faded in an instant. Now I find myself asking why I ever wanted that much power in the first place. Of course, there is no excuse for the atrocities I committed in the name of conquest. By the way...what was that first question you asked me a minute ago?

Answer	Points
Why'd you start the war?	*
Why do you want peace now?	*
Why'd we have to talk to your men?	*

* If you answer correctly, you get 5 points. If not, 0 points for you.Cid: You must be getting tired... Why don't we take a short break?

Answer	Points
(Take a break.)	*
(Keep talking.)	*

* Here, you'll get the option of walking about a bit and talking to the Imperial Elite, who will challenge you. You get 5 points for kicking Imperial Elite in his bathing suit area within 2 minutes. If you fail, you get 0 points.Gestahl: Is there anything you wish to hear me say?

Answer	Points
That you really want peace.	3
That your war is truly over.	5
That you're sorry.	1

Gestahl: I have a Magitek armor transport ship moored in the port of Albrook... I had hoped to send it to Crescent Island with all haste. Would you please go on board?

Answer	Points
Yes	3
No	0

* If you first answer no, and then answer yes, you won't get the 3 point increase.
And this is it.

49 points to earn at the Banquet. Plus 44, that's 93. Nice.

The negotiations were a success! You are to be dispatched, now employed of all things by the Empire of all governing bodies, to seek out the Espers who destroyed Vector. General Leo Christophe will accompany you. If you're done, Terra gets a solo mission... until Locke mixes himself in it again. That guy has a serious problem with being left behind, it seems. Locke and Terra will go to Crescent Island to search for the Espers. Congrats.

When you leave, an Imperial Elite unit will come up to you, and reward you for your troubles in the Palace, based on the number of points you earned in the walkabout and banquet scenes:

Always: South Figaro is liberated. You gain nothing but your pride for it.
50-66: South Figaro is liberated. You gain nothing but your pride for it. Doma Castle is liberated. Some minor items and your pride. Things are looking up!
67-76: South Figaro is liberated. You gain nothing but your pride for it. Doma Castle is liberated. Some minor items and your pride. Things are looking up! The locked house in the Imperial Observation Post near the Cave to the Sealed Gate is opened. This is very nice.
77-90: South Figaro is liberated. You gain nothing but your pride for it. Doma Castle is liberated. Some minor items and your pride. Things are looking up! The locked house in the Imperial Observation Post near the Cave to the Sealed Gate is opened. This is very nice. You get a Tintinnabulum from the Emperor! He likes you!
90-93: South Figaro is liberated. You gain nothing but your pride for it. Doma Castle is liberated. Some minor items and your pride. Things are looking up! The locked house in the Imperial Observation Post near the Cave to the Sealed Gate is opened. This is very nice. You get a Tintinnabulum from the Emperor! He likes you! You get a Ward Bangle from the Imperial Elite unit you are talking to! He wants to have your man-babies! Run like the wind!

Well then, if you'll excuse me...

As soon as you have your new Locke/Terra combo (something probably not seen since you tried to locate Figaro Castle in the desert south of Narshe), you'll notice that you have received the items all other characters were equipped with. That's nice. Don't you hate when games don't do that for you? For equipment, I'd advise something like this:

Terra:
Sword

Blood Sword/ Sword

Icebrand/

Thunder Blade
Shield

Golden Shield
Helmet

Tiara

White Dress
Relic

Earring,

Earring

Locke
Sword

Ultima Weapon
Special

Hawkeye

Green Beret
Armor

Power Sash
Relic

Genji Glove/ Relic

Brigand's Glove

Roaming the Imperial Palace, you can now find the things you skipped earlier in your rush to be helpful for the Empire. They're hard to miss, and include an Relic

Alarm Earring, an X-Potion, a Relic

Gale Hairpin, a Holy Water, and an Ether. Also, you can find Kefka in jail, who's so annoyed he's about to go soil himself.

1.40: Departing from Albrook

Treasures: 8000 Gil, 13000 Gil, 20000 Gil, Relic Alarm Earring, Relic Angel Ring, Relic Angel Wings, Elixir x2, Sword Flametongue, Relic Hermes Sandals, Hi-Ether, Relic Reflect Ring, X-Potion, Teleport Stone

Other than the fact Gau seems to remember things about his father who supposedly threw him out seconds after he was born, you notice here that Setzer is missing. I can divulge here that Setzer is not in Vector at all; he's on the Blackjack, over at Maranda. Together with Cid, he's repairing his beloved airship. You can go over there if you want to and watch the often missed and delightful scene between the two. It really is a good cutscene and provides some backstory for something you'll have to do later, so go check it out. Setzer will tell you afterwards that the airship will be out of commission for a while and that you might as well take the Emperor's boat in Albrook.

Anyway, the real new treasure lies in the Imperial Base at the Cave to the Sealed Gate. Enter the house, and prepare to be stumped; the Empire has made a great gesture of good will with this gift. The chests here include: An X-Potion, an Relic

Angel Wings Relic, a Hi-Ether, a Relic

Reflect Ring, Relic

Hermes Sandals, an Elixir, an Relic

Angel Ring, and an Relic

Alarm Earring, together with 8000 Gil + 13000 Gil + 20000 Gil = 41000 Gil. There's a hidden chest with an Elixir hidden by the south wall, and there's a Sword

Flametongue in the stove.

If you want to, you can go and visit Tzen and Maranda; there's really nothing for you there, but you can see how both towns have been abandoned by the oppressive Imperial forces, and how glad everybody is that the war is finally over.

At any rate, as soon as you can get to Albrook, you'll find the entry to the port open. You immediately appear next to two crates, one of which contains a Teleport Stone. General Leo is discussing with subordinates here; he tells you to go and take a rest at the Inn, but not before 'introducing' you to two 'strangers': The first is Shadow, while the second another general of the Empire, General Celes Chere. Locke spazzes out and Celes runs off. You can bask in Shadow's idea of humor for a while before acknowledging Leo has made arrangements, and you can rest at the Inn free.

If you ignored Shadow both with Sabin and in Kohlingen (weird, but possible!), this is the first time you'll meet him. So as opposed to 'friendly' banter, he'll mention giving Interceptor a run out before the boat leaves port. Resting at the Inn will trigger a sad cutscene in which Locke and Celes exchange their names and offer charged silences to each other.

When morning comes, the freighter takes off for its overnight trip. Events transpire under the stars! When the morning comes, everybody is already awake. You can learn from the soldiers that rumors say magic still exists on Crescent Island � must be folly - and you can talk to Leo for your mission briefing. General Celes and General Leo will try to gain information, while Terra, Locke, and Shadow are dispatched by themselves. There's a town to the north called Thamasa, so it might be a good idea to try to learn something there.

1.41: Crescent Island and Thamasa

Grasslands
6/16	Devourer	1
6/16	Briareus	1
5/16	Briareus	1
5/16	Briareus	2

Forest
6/16	Devourer	3
5/16	Chimera	1
5/16	Chimera	1
5/16	Devourer	2

Enemies: Briareus, Devourer, Chimera

Treasures: Echo Screen, Eye Drops, Gold Needle, Green Cherry, Phoenix Down

Lore: Aqua Breath

You've been dropped off at the southern end of Crescent Island. Shadow, now under employment by the Empire, aids you in your search, and you can at least be certain he won't run out on you this time. Be sure to equip Shadow in the latest fashion fads, and it might be useful to have him equip a nice Esper like Esper

Siren to unlock his Magic ability. If you decide to stay around and fight some monsters for whatever reason, summon Esper

Phantom; it will be very nice.

The monsters here are pretty interesting. The only one you need to worry about right now is Briareus. As you don't need to go through the forest, but you might want to, so I'll take a look at the forest beasts too. Briareus are turtle-like monsters that only attack physically. I've mentioned them earlier for their rare Armor

Gaia Gear Steal, a nice addition to your equipment options. If a single Briareus is damaged, there's a 33% chance it will counter with Snort, an odd attack that basically forces the target to run. There's nothing you can do about it, sadly.

Devourer, to me, stand out because of their overwhelming usefulness with Rage-centered single-character challenge games. Devourer is one of the two monsters that combine a Special with one-hit KO protection on Gau, which is very nice. As opponents, they stand out for their great physical defense (auto-Protect) and the fact they occasionally employ Ultros' Tentacle attack, which makes them the only random encounter monsters to use it. Tentacle is a very strong attack, so take out Devourer as soon as possible.

Crescent Island's Magnum Monster is Chimera. They have a lot of HP, are invulnerable to all prominent status effects, and torment the party with magical multi-target attacks, which include

Aqua Breath on a regular basis and

Blizzard, Fireball, and Cyclonic when they're alone. Don't take Chimera for granted; keep your HP up and don't go easy on him. The only way out of a head-on fight is casting

Berserk on him; his physical attacks also hurt, but if you're quick, you can simply shrug it off with Esper

Phantom.

In short, if you act quickly with Chimera around (he'll always take at least one turn before he employs a magical attack), Esper

Phantom gives you invulnerability.

As soon as you enter Thamasa, you'll notice strange things going on. There's an unfriendly atmosphere, and the Innkeeper charges insane amounts of money (well, 1500 Gil a night is very expensive!). But hey, at least the shops are open now! Also, five free items are lying around town: There's an Echo Screen in the top barrel next to the mayor's house, a Green Cherry in the barrel next to Strago's house, a Gold Needle in the bottom barrel near the Relic shop, an Eye Drops in the middle barrel near the Item shop, and a Phoenix Down in the upper barrel next to the Inn.

The Armor Shop is open! You can finally buy your Armor

Gaia Gear if you were too lazy to Steal it earlier. Also, the Helmet

Mystery Veil, a great helmet for Celes and Terra that you'll want to keep equipped for a long time. Also, Armor

Golden Armor, but you really don't want to buy any more, as the next dungeon - where you'll be able to choose your own party members - will need Armor

Gaia Gear wearers anyway.

The Weapon Shop is also open. Rods for sale now? Such folly. I suggest you buy an Rod

Ice Rod; leave it at that as far as Rods are concerned (you'll understand why later on). New weapons also include a Lance

Heavy Lance for Edgar and Mog, and Gambler

Darts for Setzer. While I can guarantee you none of these characters will really use those weapons, it doesn't hurt to boost their Attack.

There's nothing new or particularly fancy in the Item or Relic shops.

Someone advises you to talk to the old man who lives on the edge of town. It's to the northeast of the plaza. In here, you'll meet a strange man indeed... his name is Strago Magus, and he's with his lovely adopted granddaughter Relm Arrowny. While Strago is explaining to you that he has no idea whatsoever what Espers are (even though he's supposed to be the expert in town), Relm barges in and asks if they can 'use magic too.' How odd! How terribly, terribly odd! Relm is not only not attacked by Interceptor, but actually seems to be befriended by him. Disappointed yet suspicious, you leave the house. Around town, odd things happen. Behind Strago's house you can interrupt what appears as a

Cure casting, and behind the large mansion a kid is practicing what looks like fire magic. How can this be? Regardless, it's been a tough day, so I say we'd better take a nap at the Inn, which has suddenly taken on a much more customer-friendly pricing...

Important note: Before you take your nap, de-equip Shadow of his equipment, Relics and most importantly, of his Esper. All set? Good. If you don't do this, he'll take it all with him when he goes, not to be seen for a while.

In the middle of the night: Panic! Strago wakes you up as he needs your help; Relm is trapped inside the mansion, and it's on fire! It's getting progressively worse. You go with the old man, while Shadow stays behind. This isn't what he is paid to do, so he doesn't do it. Outside, Strago shows you exactly what you've been 'suspecting' so far. He tries to use magic to calm the flames. The entire population of Thamasa tries to use magic to calm the flames. They fail. Strago goes in, and you rush after him. This all makes sense, as if all else fails, try to stab the flames with your weapons. It'll do some good.

1.42: The Burning Mansion

Wandering Flame
3/4	Balloon	3
1/4	Balloon	6

Trap Door
	Balloon	4

Enemies: Grenade, Balloon, Flame Eater

Treasures: Rod Flame Rod, Rod Ice Rod

Lore: Self-Destruct

The mansion is on fire, and somewhere is a scared little 10-year-old waiting to be rescued by you. Her adoptive grandfather, despite the fact IT'S NOT POSSIBLE, has magical powers. This turns out to be an odd night indeed.

Preparation: You have a new party member: Strago. He's a mage, but in this dungeon, he'd do well to preserve MP, as his magical skills are grossly overkill. I suggest you equip him with an Rod

Ice Rod,

Mythril Shield, Helmet

Priest's Miter or Helmet

Magus Hat, and some Armor

Gaia Gear. As far as Espers go, Esper

Shiva is a brilliant pick, as she teaches five spells that are all very useful in this dungeon and for Strago in general. Also, equip Locke and Terra with Sword

Icebrand blades (Hawk Eye with a Relic

Gigas Glove is sufficient).

A bit of tactical information regarding your future use of Strago. Strago is the FF VI Blue Mage. His special skill is called Lore, with which he can use several monster attacks. Right now, he knows

Aqua Breath, a powerful multi-target Water/Wind-elemental attack,

Stone, an inaccurate attack that deals non-elemental damage and does 7.5 times as much damage if the attacker and target have the same level (remember Gau during the Narshe Raid?), and

Revenge Blast, which has a damage output equal to [caster's maximum HP] � [caster's current HP], aka dealing the damage the caster currently has on him.

All the roaming flames here indicate flame monsters: Balloon. Letting them touch you means either a battle with three Balloons, or a battle with six Balloons. Balloons rarely use

Self-Destruct and attack physically otherwise, so I suggest summoning Esper

Phantom or casting

Vanish during the first battle. Use a multi-target attack to finish off the six Balloons (multi-target

Blizzara spell,

Aqua Breath, Esper

Shiva's Diamond Dust) and use physical attacks for the three.

You can either use the Confuse spell, Esper

Cait Sith's Cat Rain attack, or the

Stone Lore to confuse Balloon monsters, in which case they're likely to use

Self-Destruct on each other. This will make Strago learn

Self-Destruct, an attack he will hopefully never, ever have to use, as it's horrid; it kills the caster, and all it does is damage equal to the caster's current HP to a single target.

The first two rooms are straightforward. The third room has two doors standing next to each other. The left one opens to expose four flames leaping out, catching you in a four- headed Balloon monster formation that is a fixed Pincer attack. This happens every time you try to enter the door. The right one allows you to continue. In this room, two more doors: The right door takes you to a room with a chest in it containing a Rod

Flame Rod. The left one allows you to continue. In this room, two more doors: The right one takes you to a room with a chest in it containing an Rod

Ice Rod. The left one allows you to continue.

The next room is simply a hallway. It opens into the largest room of the house, where the source of the blaze is located. If you take one step into the room, it will attack you. Equipping Esper

Zona Seeker helps for the battle, as does Esper

Kirin (as usual). Try to equip as many Relic

Reflect Rings as possible; you're bound to have two from treasures. You can circumvent the Relic

Reflect Rings by equipping Esper

Carbuncle, but while that doesn't take any Relic slots, it's not what a sane man would call permanent.

1.43: The Espers Gather

Caves
6/16	Adamankary	1
6/16	Bonnacon	2
5/16	Adamankary	2
5/16	Bonnacon	5

Slopes
6/16	Venobennu	2
5/16	Mandrake	1
5/16	Land Grillon	2
5/16	Mandrake	3

Enemies: Bonnacon, Land Grillon, Adamankary, Mandrake, Venobennu, Ultros

Treasures: Armor Chocobo Suit, Rod Healing Rod, Armor Tabby Suit, X-Potion

Lore: White Wind

Remember when you died in a fire? That didn't happen. Shadow came in and saved the day, just to rescue his dog. He decided he might as well just spare your sorry lives while he was in the neighborhood. Or so he would have us think. Wotta guy, eh? We now know that Thamasa is the village of the Magi's descendants. Or, to stick with the Latin roots, the Magorum descendants. During the War of the Magi, Magicite-powered humans called Magi fought alongside of normal humans and Espers. When the war ended, the Espers retreated and the humans hated the remaining influence of the magical: The Magi. They were forced to flee, and just as the Espers founded the Esper World, so did the Magi found Thamasa. Their descendants have lost some of the magical potency of their ancestors after those thousand years, but they're still powerful enough to actually use the magic the world had, until recently, forgotten for so long.

As soon as Strago mentions that the mountains to the west might be worth a look, Shadow takes off. It seems that he will 'search for the Espers his own way.' You shouldn't forget that despite the fact Shadow has fought alongside of you, he is a moral-deficient individual, employed by the Empire, whose interests are still rather questionable. He's breaking a direct order for no apparent reason. Highly suspicious. Also highly obnoxious for strategic consistency.

With Strago in your party, you get the new mission of finding Espers in the mountains. Nice. Relm offered to join, but despite her prominent naming screen, was refused entry into the party, which even has a free spot for her. Obviously we'll never see her again.

There's a Relic hidden in Strago's house on the second floor: Hidden in the bulge in the left wall, it's near the small table with the two chairs surrounding it. This Relic, the Relic

Memento Ring, is at this moment entirely useless to you. If you're playing the PSX release, this is one of those rare situations where they changed something, and poorly. For PSX it's called a 'Safety Ring'. At least, that's what it says when you grab it here; if you check your inventory or try to equip it, it'll speak of a 'Safty Ring'. Nice.

When you're done, take a nice and uneventful nap at the Inn and head out to the mountains. Thus, a typical Byronian hero accompanies the half-Esper magical prodigy and the elderly sage in search of immensely powerful beings. Glad to know we're back on track with traditional storytelling in the Western heritage. If we find the powers we seek, we can get the peace the Returners have fought so hard for. Maybe. Start by making sure your equipment and Espers are comfortable. It isn't a bad idea to summon Esper

Phantom at the very start, as most attacks are physical here. Relic

Jeweled Rings and Relic

Ribbons are nice to protect against the Petrifying Special of one of the monsters on the slopes, though, as this particular monster also has the power to remove your Invisible status.

There are five entirely new monsters roaming these mountains, two in the caves and three on the slopes.

Bonnacon is a palette swap, and any resembling an Urok can be nothing but very, very weak. An Relic

Earring-boosted multi-target

Fire spell tends to take them all out (although at lower levels, you might need a follow-up multi-target spell: Boo). They share the caves with Adamankary monsters. Rather soon for a palette-swap in this case, don't you think? You only just met Briareus at the foot of these mountains. That's just not right. There's no penetrating this creature's hide (unless it's with barrier-piercing physical attacks, obviously). You'll want to stick to magical attacks when opposing them. Don't ever use Attack, ever, as they have a one/third chance of using Snort, which will break your ever-so-fragile invisibility.

On the slopes, you'll find a brilliant new enemy called Venobennu. They attack physically only, having a small chance of trying to poison you with !Featherdust. After they've taken three turns, they'll use

White Wind, but only if there's some two of them on-screen; when alone, they'll never use

White Wind. The first time

White Wind appears, have Strago stand there and observe; he'll learn the magnificent move. Witness the power of Blue Magic!

Also, check out the Land Grillon. Remember Nettlehopper? Remember Grasswyrm? I'm sure you don't, as both are dull as heck. Land Grillon have a more diverse color pattern, but fail to impress on all other levels.

Mandrakes are without a doubt the most dangerous creatures this mountain has to offer. The Anthology Bestiary says their vines are made out of metal, but that's not important right now. Every second turn, they may use !Stonetouch, which sets Petrify to the poor fool that suffers it. The Invisible status, a Relic

Ribbon and/or a Relic

Jeweled Ring will help you stay soft and limber. The second great annoyance they are capable of is their ability to retaliate against any damage you inflict with a 33% chance of using a Leech attack, draining about 300 HP worth of damage from you and dispelling your Invisible status.

Stop spells stop their Leech counter-attacks, or you could even opt to simply run from them.

Fira spells are especially effective versus them.

The entrance of the mountains lies north of the forest here. The entrance wasn't here before, if you were wondering, so you haven't been missing anything. The first room houses a chest with a Rod

Healing Rod - keep hold of this one. The Rod

Healing Rod is a spiffy Rod that heals all targets, be it living or undead. At this point of the game, a Front Row character using it is likely to fully heal the target character (it'll do about 1000 HP worth of curing). Personally, I think the supposed equippers of a Rod

Healing Rod, Strago and Relm, will usually be too busy doing the exact same thing with a single-target

Cura spell, which still allows them the convenience of equipping an offensive weapon, but there are people out there who are in love with the Rod

Healing Rod because it's MP-free. Much later in the game you can trade your Rod

Healing Rod for a weapon that is so awesome I'm even at a loss for coming up with a quip to describe how awesome it is. Just kidding, I have one, but it's so awesome that it cannot be put into type. So yeah, definitely don't ever sell the thing. For trivia, the Rod

Healing Rod was at one time intended to auto-target your party under Attack. Instead, they only succeeded in making it auto-target your party under Throw, though for some reason this would automatically result in Shadow's death. In the GBA release, they simply cut their losses and removed the property whatsoever.

The cave opening to the north and left will just link to each other, so take the right one (to the right). You'll see a quick 'unrecognizable' red flash dash from the corner of your eye, but that's just foreshadowing being a jerk.

In the slopes here, you can find Venobennu monsters. You'll want to meet them at least once to learn

White Wind.

White Wind is a full-party healing move that cures for the same amount of Hit Points the caster currently has. This sounds like a silly move, as you'd guess the more you're damaged, the more you need healing, and that's exactly when this move tends to be useless (if Strago is near-fatal,

White Wind will do essentially nothing).

White Wind is very useful though, as it can heal characters with Relic

Reflect Rings and surpasses Runic.

If you cross these slopes and enter a new cave, you see the red movement again. What's with your eyes these days? The new cave can be easily passed through; you see a lot of broken pathways here, but you can't reach them anyway. The next room houses three golden statues. Strago will freak out when he sees them and begin to explain. Remember when Kefka talked about reviving the Statues, and how fun he thought that was going to be? Better learn about them, then. These golden icons are mere representations of the real Warring Triad, and even these shimmer with power. Strago muses that perhaps the Espers came here to bask in this power so familiar to them (and obviously, this is where it's said the Espers were created all this time ago). There is a message inscribed in the bases of the statues that explains much more of why they're important.

As soon as you intend to leave, a familiar octopod crashes the party. It's Ultros. Laugh or die. He mentions something about Siegfried (calls him 'big brother' in the Japanese version), throws a semi-smart retort to Locke's comment (he jumped at him a little bit too, it seems that Locke has become his personal nemesis since they met on stage), and attacks you.

Ultros Bestiary #299	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	25	22000	750	3	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	22	7	0	95	155	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Dried Meat			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			None
	Strategy
	Ultros isn't very hard this time around. He starts the battle off with the message "Thought you wouldn't see me again? I've got more lives than I do arms!" He'll normally use Attack, !Ink, Stone, and Tentacle. After every minute of battle, he'll use Hailstone, a percentage-based attack that removes 75% of your current HP. Every other turn, he'll start by taking a little slither in your direction. Once he has slithered eight times, he uses a particularly nasty spell: Either Aqua Breath or Magnitude 8. You can easily take both (especially the latter if you're equipped with Gaia Gear, as you should be), but you can make him back off one slither if you hit him three times with a Magic spell (not a Lore, however). Not that that's really advisable, but I'll explain that in a minute. When Ultros reaches the low grounds of mere 15360 HP, he'll cast Haste and Protect on himself. "I know what you're thinking... Man, that was cheap! Sorry, so sorry!" Indeed. Once you've cast five spells on him, he'll go red and the screen will say: "Ultros alters his body composition! Use elemental attacks at your own risk!" This means that any Fire-elemental spells will be countered by Firaga, Ice-elemental spells by Blizzaga, and Lightning-elemental spells by Thundaga. As soon as you bring Ultros down to 10240 HP, a cutscene will trigger to bring in Relm. She'll chat with Ultros, and some moments later - after the obviously hi-la-rious cutscene has passed - will join you on your side against Ultros. If you use her Sketch ability on him, Ultros will say: "How can this be? I'm just a...washed-up old octopus?" and leave. The strategy is pretty straightforward. I wouldn't bother with offensive spells whatsoever if I were you (other than two Slow spells, one to start off with and one to counter his Haste/ Protect combo with). If you have Golem's Stop spell, use it to great effect and cast it every time you see Ultros taking another turn. Strago's Rods, should they have the Fire or Lightning element, will do decent damage overall (especially when that random spell steps in). Ultros Floats, so Locke can horribly abuse that with his Hawkeye(s) (you can cast Berserk on Locke if you feel like you can sacrifice controlling him). Terra can wield Flametongues and/or Thunder Blades to hurt Ultros a bundle. If Strago's level is 25, he can rock out with his rock out; Stone will do major damage. Try to Steal a White Cape, as it's basically free and generally useful. End the battle with Sketch if you want to. Expand Full Strategy

Even if Relm never shows up in-battle, she'll still take all the credit for the victory. Kids these days. Relm's ability is Sketch, and I dare say it's the worst ability in the game. Right now, I suggest you give Relm an Esper to teach her a good spell pronto. Esper

Shiva is perfect, but Strago is probably still struggling with the whole learning thing, so either Esper

Ifrit or

Catoblepas will make for a generally quick road to success. She starts with the equipment on the left; I'd advise upgrading to the equipment on the right:

Brush

Chocobo Brush -- Rod

Flame Rod/ Rod

Thunder Rod/ Rod

Ice Rod (in that order of preference)
Shield

Mythril Shield -- Shield

Mythril Shield
Helmet

Plumed Hat -- Helmet

Mystery Veil/ Helmet

Tiara

Silk Robe -- Armor

White Dress/ Armor

Gaia Gear

She also comes equipped with a Relic

Memento Ring; you found one earlier in Strago's house. It can be equipped by two people, of which Relm is one. Another character you already know can also equip it, but it's not Strago. Odd. Who else could possibly be protected by Relm's dead mother? Checking its properties reveals this character is Shadow...

The next room contains a Save Point and three tiles that look like they might cave in underneath you. These cave in underneath you. The top one takes you to a place in the broken walking bridge maze; here you can head to the slopes and find two nice pieces of equipment: The Armor

Chocobo Suit and the Armor

Tabby Suit. Equip Strago and Relm accordingly. You can jump off to a familiar path. The loose tile to the far right will take you to an X-Potion, and the loose tile to the bottom-left will advance your path to the Espers. After you pass this last slope, you enter a room brimming with magical energy...

The Espers have indeed gathered in this mountain, and they don't look too friendly. They've stopped Strago and Relm from leaving and are slowly surrounding you. Even though they have the plot power to wipe three members of your party from this world like excrement from a boot, you still prepare for battle; until an Esper who once discovered Terra's mother face-down near the entrance of the Esper World, and who we know based on the game's lore to have once been human herself, recognizes the power within Terra and saves the day. It's Yura.

The Espers are talking peace and non-carnage now. The Espers were gathering near the Sealed Gate, plotting how to rescue their captured comrades. It took them eighteen bloody years; way to go, champs. Just at that time, in a great coincidence, Terra called out to the Espers and, according to Yura, it was her who opened the gate. As we knew from Terra herself, Espers in our world tend to go absolutely off-the-wall crazy, and that's what happened to Yura and his merry friends. And now they're here, feeling sorry about all that.

1.44: Epilogue

Epilogue time! Every conflict has been resolved, the war is over, the Espers have been calmed down, everybody is happy. Leo and Yura apologize like two lovers after an argument, and Locke makes a light-hearted innuendo about Celes. Everybody smiley face. The End.

Or is it? Kefka appears. How is this possible? Isn't he stuck in jail? Did he escape? Or... was he released? Is everybody safe? Within seconds, Kefka has sent Magitek Armors on you that have knocked down all your party members, killed three Espers, knocked Leo out cold, and caused general unhappiness. During the conversation between Kefka and Leo, it becomes clear that the Empire has set you up. When Shadow heard you mentioning the Espers being at the Eastern Mountains, he most likely reported to the Emperor, who sent Kefka and a Magitek Armor division to Thamasa as soon as possible. Who knows what he has done to your friends in the meantime.

You wake up as Leo Christophe. Leo can't leave town, as where ever he ventures, the Guardian will attack him, leaving him no choice but to turn back. Houses are all empty (though you can just shop away; it's like a Wal-mart policy). You *can* pick up the Relic

Memento Ring with him, if you haven't already, but there's little point. There's one sensible thing to do: Talk to Kefka and fight him. He is a disgrace to the Empire.

Leo has awesome equipment and has quite a high level. The Emperor called him his greatest warrior; it shows. Due to the Relic

Master's Scroll Relic, he attacks four times rather than one time with the Attack command, and his Relic

Gigas Glove really boosts his damage with it. His special skill, Shock, is a multi-target non-elemental magical attack.

This time Kefka uses several attacks, including Attack,

Poison,

Drain,

Bio, and

Firaga. Strategy isn't really important, as you can't really lose this battle. If Leo is in the Front Row, his Attack command will do more damage than Shock. You can use Magicite Shards for miscellaneous effects, but it bears no purpose whatsoever and wastes resources. Once you 'kill' Kefka, he'll put on a nice show starring Gestahl.

All in all, a rotten day. You leave Interceptor behind in Thamasa.

1.45: Airship Exploitation II: More Airship, More Exploitation

Treasures: Elixir, Hi-Ether, Hi-Potion, Phoenix Down, Relic Prayer Beads, X-Potion

Lore: Doom, Dischord, Lv. 3 Confuse, Lv. 4 Flare, Lv. 5 Death, Transfusion, Roulette, Traveler

As soon as you find yourself outside of Thamasa, you'll want to board the Blackjack. A cutscene in which bad things happen is triggered. Gestahl and Kefka have reached the Warring Triad, and have apparently used them to set afloat the continent of the Cave to the Sealed Gate, creating a massive airborne weapon from which Gestahl can probably wreak havoc without fearing any kind of retribution. This is bad.

Change to a party without Strago in it, and head back into Thamasa. You can find Gungho, an old acquaintance of Strago, near the Inn. The man does little but call Strago a 'monumental coward'. Ouch. The dialogue expands if you go back in with Strago. Anyhow, you're back airborne now and I'm sure you're simply dying to stop the Emperor from doing nasty things with the Warring Triad, but there's no rush (he'll wait!), and there are quite a few things to do first.

The world is now barren of Imperial activity. Vector and the Imperial Palace are completely deserted, and there are no soldiers in Albrook anymore. Albrook is rather overshadowed at the moment, as the Floating Continent is right above it. I don't see why they would want to linger there; if I had a floating landmass the size of Belgium floating over my head, I think I'd high-tail it to Germany before long.

Lores!

For now, how about a few Lores? I'll explain how to get as many Lores as you can at this point of the game:

Doom
Rummage around on the Veldt until Gau encounters and Leaps a Zombie Dragon. When you get Gau back, have him Rage Zombie Dragon. His special attack is Doom, and Strago will learn it if he's paying attention. Doom sets a timer over the target's head and uses an automatic unblockable Death spell if the timer runs out. Monsters can be immune to both Doom and (Instant) Death, mind. Rather useless.: Dischord
Meet either a Chaser or a Satellite on the Veldt. Satellite will *always* use Dischord after he's taken nine turns, Chaser will use it randomly. Dischord is an attack that halves the target's level. If the target is immune to one-hit KO, Dischord will fail. The best use of Dischord lies in stealing; lowering an opponent's level increases your chances of stealing.: Lv. 3 Confuse
Try to meet up with a Trapper (the hanging robots from the IMRF, remember). They will randomly and happily use Lv. 3 Confuse. If Gau already learned the Trapper Rage, Strago can learn it from the feisty kid.: Lv. 4 Flare
It's like with Lv. 3 Confuse, only you need to make sure that Lv. 4 Flare doesn't kill your entire party.: Lv. 5 Death
Trappers, Trappers, Trappers, Trappers. And waiting.: Transfusion
Make sure you have encountered at least one Intangir, and go Rage-hunting on the Veldt. When Gau learns the Intangir Rage, he can execute it to use Transfusion. Strago will learn it, although I can't see a use for it whatsoever.: Roulette
Make sure you have Relm in your party for this one. Try to find Onion Knight enemies on the Veldt. If you Sketch one, there's a 75% chance it will cast Roulette. Strago can watch and learn. Roulette's animation causes the cursor to spin around. You know, as if you had a broken controller. If you hit the action button, it'll slow down and deliver an unblockable Death spell (though targets immune to one-hit KO still survive the attack). I'm sure you could get Roulette targeting down to a science, but it's not really worth it.: Traveler
Fly over to South Figaro. You can take a walk there and enjoy the freedom of the town for a moment, but the real treat lies just outside of its borders. Unseelie, when confused, will somehow while drooling and flailing their arms around and being generally amusing to look at use the Traveler attack. Traveler is a brilliant attack with fixed damage. It's non-elemental, barrier-piercing, and the direct output of a simple mathematical formula. The damage you deal is created by the number of steps your party has taken divided by 32; the MP it costs is calculated by the number of minutes you've played divided by 30. In case you were wondering, whenever monsters use this attack they use your party's amount of steps for it. That's hardly fair. It's like tax money, only they use it to spy on you rather than help your poor family members through the winter. Er, wait, I suppose tax money does both of those things now. Rewrite: It's like tax money!

New Rages!

New monsters you'll want to Leap include Antares and Outcast. Below is the old list of monsters you're still interested in.

Enemy	Attack	Status Changes
Darkwind	Break	Inherent Float
Trillium	Bio	Absorbs Water
Alacran	!Numb (Stop)
Spritzer	Blaze	Absorbs Lightning, Inherent Float, Undead
Oversoul	Will o' the Wisp	Absorbs Poison, Undead
Stray Cat	!Cat Scratch
Guard Leader	Wind Slash
Lesser Lopros	Fireball	Inherent Float
Mu	Snare
Templar	Fira	Inherent Protect
Cloud	Thundara	One-Hit KO protection
Satellite	Sonic Boom	Inherent Float, One-Hit KO Protection
Bomb	Blaze	Absorbs Fire, Inherent Float
Anguiform	Aqua Breath	Inherent Darkness
Aspiran	Gigavolt	Inherent Float
Rock Wasp	!Sleep Stinger	Inherent Float
Veil Dancer	Blizzara
Gobbledygook	Vanish
Hill Gigas	Magnitude 8
Litwor Chicken	Quake
Chimera	Aqua Breath	lots of status immunities, one-hit KO protection
General	Cura	Inherent Protect
Magna Roader (Purple)	Bio	Inherent Haste
Destroyer	Reraise	Inherent Protect, one-hit KO protection
Briareus	Cyclonic
Intangir	Transfusion	Inherent Invisible, Protect, Shell, Haste, Regen and Float*
Antares	Magnitude 8	Absorbs Fire
Outcast	Lifeshaver	Absorbs Fire and Poison, Inherent Float, Undead

*You'll have to prevent the casting of the self-destructive Transfusion attack with Silence before Gau initializes the Rage.

Doma!

Off to Doma Castle! Doma Castle was occupied all this time, but Gestahl opened it up to you back when he was pretending to play nicely. Doma Castle has generally little and valueless treasure for you. You can find a Hi-Ether, an Elixir in the alarm clock in a bedroom, an X-Potion in the room Cyan found his dead wife and son in, and, when you go outside on one of the walls, you can find a little room with a Phoenix Down and some Relic

Prayer Beads. Relic

Prayer Beads are broken in all versions but the Advance one, so allow me to talk about them a bit.

Relic

Prayer Beads give the character +20% Evasion, which is a nice effect by itself. However, it goes on. When a physical attack is performed on a character with Relic

Prayer Beads, the hit rate of that attack is halved. Attacks which always hit due to a perfect hit rate or another circumstance will still always hit. Not too shabby � so long as you're playing the Advance version, which is the only one in which the Beads work.

That'll do for now. Back to our regularly-scheduled heroism.

1.46: Preparation for the Floating Continent

Now, I'm going to have to give you a small spoiler, as otherwise I'd be constantly busy with trying to get you to do things while I can't explain why they're particularly useful. Here we go: After the next dungeon, you will not be able to travel the whole world anymore for a while. So, if there are things you have yet to do - obtaining Water Harmony, meeting some snazzy, elusive monsters, buying more weaponry - this is the time. Stock up on Phoenix Downs, as they're always useful. I specifically want you to have four sets of Armor

Gaia Gear, and four Helmet

Priest's Miters would be nice as well.

I'd like to direct you to Kohlingen now, as I want you to buy a good amount of Ninja tools. Maybe 40 Skean

Lightning Scrolls and 20 Skean

Flame Scrolls. You can laugh in the face of Skean

Water Scrolls, as they are useless. The entire deal of 60 new scrolls will just cost you 30000 Gil, which isn't that much. Also, tip for the future: If you have excess money at this point, you might consider buying a few Dirk

Sakura blades, 10 or so. They make for excellent single-target Wind-elemental Throw objects, the best there are.

If you've been a good boy so far, check out the Bestiary under the Config menu option. Having followed this walkthrough, you should have filled the Bestiary for 33%, possessing a solid block of exposed monsters from 1 (Guard) to 103 (Venobennu). When you're done with whatever you want to do, go to the Floating Continent.

Let's see here. As replacement for the Espers you stole from their Facility in Vector, the Empire has obtained a lot of new Magicite. Before long, this might be a real problem. The more pressing issue at the moment, however, is the fact that Gestahl is up there on his cozy Floating Island, with the power of three ancient gods at his disposal. He doesn't need Magicite, Magitek Armor, or honorable generals. As soon as you become an actual inconvenience, he need only wish for your demise in order to make it be so. Eh, we can always try to stop him anyway. We've got an albino who throws coins.

Which is not necessarily to say you need Setzer. Whom, then, to bring to the Floating Continent? It's hard to give proper advice concerning your party for the next round. First off, you can only take three - that seems weird, doesn't it? Second off, your ability to make it through the majority of the dungeon with ease is largely dependent on your Magic skills; the more prepared (especially with effect magic) the better. A few pointers (not at all meant to discuss every character):

Terra is a person who relies on Magic. When properly equipped, she can always make herself known on the battlefield. Plus, she has the uncanny ability to go into Rambo mode when she's in Trance. Definitely a solid contender, especially in boss battles.
Celes is, like Terra, a character who is decent in the dungeon and very good against the boss fights. Her Runic ability really helps at some points in the next dungeon, but as she is forced into your party at some point later in the dungeon anyway, bringing Celes means that you'll have to go through (an admittedly easy) part of the dungeon with only three characters rather than four.
Cyan, as always, should stay behind. He tended to be subpar up until this point, and now he's just plain bad. He would have a shining moment in the battle against the Imperial Air Force, as his Kazekiri blades make for great Wind Slash spammers, but after that, it's a never-ending road of pain and misery. He can't even equip Gaia Gear.
Edgar can't equip Gaia Gear either, but he makes up for it with his Noiseblaster. A lot of opponents on the Floating Continent can be easily subdued with this Tool, including the source of Lifeshaver. Though chances are you might still get hit by the attack, it's not quite disastrous enough to warrant that much caution. Though full party Gaia Gear is nice and allows you to have Gau Rage Litwor Chicken for full-party healing, Edgar's multi-target Confusion move definitely isn't a bad idea.
Mog reigns supreme over all characters, especially if you waited until now to pick him up and he's five levels above you. Make sure to allow him to learn at least Siren's spells to start with, though.
Should you take Mog, I would advise against Gau, as you don't want to lose control over two characters in the same party. His Rage ability makes for an unnecessary random factor anyway.
Locke is rather weak, a guy who needs dual Hawkeyes and a Gigas Glove if he's going to leave a mark. Fact of the matter is, though, the next dungeon contains a monster with a rare Genji Glove steal, something some people go absolutely wild for. And no, you won't find them anywhere else.

It's really just a matter of preference. If pressed, I'd go for a Mog/Terra/Locke party, but that's assuming they know some spells. It's up to you.

Equipping the characters kind of depends on which you choose to take, but you'll work that out as you create the party of three. Note that Sword

Icebrand,

Flametongue, and Sword

Thunder Blade are interchangeable, as are Helmet

Green Berets and Helmet

Priest's Miters. Helmet

Green Berets give slightly more HP and Evasion while a Helmet

Priest's Miter raises your MP and increase your Magic Evasion. I'd lean towards the Helmet

Green Berets, but it's your choice. Here are some options!

Terra: Sword

Icebrand,

Golden Shield, Helmet

Mystery Veil, Armor

Gaia Gear, Relic

Earring,

Earring

Locke: Special

Hawkeye,

Green Beret, Armor

Gaia Gear, Relic

Genji Glove, Relic

Thief's Bracer

Edgar: Sword

Blood Sword, Shield

Golden Shield, Helmet

Green Beret, Armor

Golden Armor, Relic

Hero's Ring, Relic

Earring

Sabin: Claw

Burning Fist, Shield

Mythril Shield, Helmet

Green Beret, Armor

Gaia Gear, Relic

Earring,

Earring

Cyan: Knife

Kazekiri,

Green Beret, Armor

Power Sash, Relic

Hero's Ring, Relic

Genji Glove

Gau: Empty, Shield

Mythril Shield, Helmet

Green Beret, Armor

Gaia Gear, Relic

Hero's Ring, Relic

Earring

Celes: Sword

Thunder Blade, Shield

Golden Shield, Helmet

Mystery Veil, Armor

Gaia Gear, Relic

Earring,

Earring

Setzer: Gambler

Darts,

Golden Shield, Helmet

Green Beret, Armor

Gaia Gear, Relic

Earring,

Earring

Mog: Lance

Heavy Lance, Shield

Golden Shield, Helmet

Green Beret, Armor

Gaia Gear, Relic

Earring,

Earring

Strago: Rod

Thunder Rod, Shield

Mythril Shield, Helmet

Green Beret, Armor

Gaia Gear, Relic

Earring,

Earring

Relm: Rod

Thunder Rod, Shield

Mythril Shield, Helmet

Mystery Veil, Armor

Gaia Gear, Relic

Earring,

Earring

If you're all properly equipped, let's roll.

1.47: The Airborne Approach

Airship
3/4	Sky Armor	2
3/4	Spitfire	1
1/4	Sky Armor	1
1/4	Spitfire	1

Enemies: Sky Armor, Spitfire, Typhon, Ultros, Air Force, Laser Gun, Missile Bay, Bit

Uh-oh!
It's the Imperial air force!
They've got us surrounded!
We're going to have to engage them!

So it seems you still haven't gone through every last one of the Imperial soldiers just yet. Lovely. You'll have to fight four battles in succession now. Each battle can either consist of a single Spitfire and a single Sky Armor, or a Spitfire and two Sky Armors. It's always a forced pincer, but that's okay, as they have little damaging physical attacks to take advantage of it with. In between, you have a bit of time to use Items and whatnot. Then, you'll notice how "There's something strange up ahead! It's coming this way!" You have to fight two additional battles against the IAF like this. After the third, Ultros hops off that, well, whatever it is that he approaches you on. He just has an unshakeable talent for making one want to tear him a new one. Sky Armors are the weaker of the two. Normally, they simply use Magitek Laser or !Reverse Thruster, but if one is alone, it might even consider firing a Missile or two. Spitfires are the scourge of the low-level player. Every turn, he has a 33% chance of using Absolute 0, a multi-target Ice-elemental attack. If he's alone, he has a 33% of using Diffractive Laser, a multi-target Lightning-elemental attack that is about half as effective as Absolute 0 is, so I don't know what's up with that.

The strategy is very simple. If Strago has access to

Lv. 5 Death, he should use it to take out any Spitfire monsters right away (

Lv. 4 Flare affects Sky Armor, but that's probably far too expensive). Esper

Siren just stops these guys from doing any damage whatsoever (not counting Spitfire's Specials), so make sure one of your characters has it. Summon Esper

Siren, listen to her Lunatic Voice, loot the buggers if you have Locke with you (rare Elixirs on Spitfire, and the common Ether isn't half bad either), and kill them all. Wind Song (home Dance!), Cyan's Knife

Kazekiri blades and Gau's Guard Leader Rage all offer a chance at Wind Slash, which kills all enemies (on both sides of you).

It's worthy of note that the Spitfire, the proud top model of the Imperial Air Force, is not Floating. And we figured those Wyvern were bad. Ugh.

"No, really! This is our last battle! Honest!"

Typhon Bestiary #300	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	26	10000	40000	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	13	10	0	100	55	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Dagger			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control, Scan

Ultros Bestiary #301	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	26	17000	8000	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	10	3	0	20	10	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Dried Meat			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control, Scan
	Strategy
	Ultros is an absolute joke this time, with a very simple script and weak stats. He has three attacks: Attack, !Octopus Ink, and Tentacle, so we're back to basics. If he reaches 12800 HP - that's about 5000 damage, something a Bio spell coming from a normally leveled Earring-boosted Terra can do in ONE hit - he will complain and call his buddy, Typhon. "Ultros: Looks like I lose again! But today I brought along a buddy of mine! Mr. Typhon! Come on down!!!" From here, he'll keep attacking like he used to, only he'll talk about the monstrosity now. Typhon is nothing to worry about either. His attacks are unassuming, his stats fairly weak: Attack and Fireball are past their prime. When he dies, he'll use a final Snort attack on everybody. Gezondheid! Strategy? Psh. Summoning Phantom at the very start takes care of Attack and !Octopus Ink, and you can Berserk or Silence Mr. Typhon as soon as he comes down. You're invulnerable. Not that a normal Cure or Cura spell couldn't prevent any kind of danger, but... on the offensive side, Fira and Bio work very well on Ultros (yes, he suddenly traded his Lightning-weakness for a Poison one), and Chupon can suck down some Blizzara spells. It's just acceleration material though, as this is a very easy battle. Expand Full Strategy

Typhon sneezed you off the ship! And if he didn't, you probably tripped after completing that obscene victory dance of

Vanish/

Doom. You fall off the Blackjack, tumbling down towards the Floating Continent. On the way down, you'll encounter the head of the IAF, a big machine thingy called Air Force. I wouldn't know if it's piloted or just a sentient machine or what; all I know is it's attacking me with very powerful spells I'm not too fond of. Let's take a look at him.

Laser Gun Bestiary #303	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	24	3300	335	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	12	9	0	130	140	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: X-Ether			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
	None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			None

Missile Bay Bestiary #304	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	25	3000	7000	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	12	8	0	135	150	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Debilitator			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
	None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			None

Bit Bestiary #305	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	25	420	285	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	12	10	0	230	160	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Amulet			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
	None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control

Air Force Bestiary #302	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	25	8000	750	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	10	12	0	150	120	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Elixir			Common: Princess Ring
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
	None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control
	Strategy
	The parts to this battle: Air Force, Laser Gun (the part to the right of Air Force), and Missile Bay (the dark red part below Air Force). In the SNES game, the Missile Bay was light grey like the Laser Gun. Why they decided to change that of all things will forever be a mystery. Missile Bay fires off Missile attacks. Nothing ground-shaking there. If it gets weak and reaches 1536 HP - that's after taking 1464 HP damage - it might get a shot at using Launcher. Laser Gun uses Magitek Laser and Atomic Rays. If it hits 1536 HP � after taking 1764 HP damage - it loses the Atomic Rays option, but gains Diffractive Laser, which is slightly weaker than Atomic Rays. Air Force itself will just use Magitek Laser and Diffractive Laser. When Laser Gun dies, a Bit will be released. Bit is an opponent that takes no turns; the only thing it does is float about on constant Runic stand-by, absorbing all your Magic spells. At this point, Air Force will try to self-apply Haste status (and fail, as he's immune to Slow) and start counting down; at this point, the Bit will leave the battlefield and Air Force will use Wave Cannon, a very strong multi-target Lightning-elemental attack. By this point, you should be fully healed though, so you won't die from it if all is well. After Wave Cannon, Air Force will launch another Bit and start counting again. The first thing on your mind is taking out Missile Bay. If you have Locke in the party, try to Steal for as long as he's around; Missile Bay has a rare Debilitator you probably don't have yet. Zona Seeker is a brilliant summon here, as the Shell status can really help you out in this battle, and once Missile Bay is gone, you can safely summon Kirin to override all Sap effects with the positive Regen blessings. Heal regularly, keep your defenses up, and you'll defeat Air Force in no time at all. If you're really having trouble, you can break Thunder Rods. Something to remember if you're playing the game blindfolded. Or just blind. An alternate strategy if you picked three characters that all heavily rely on Magic (Locke, Relm, Celes, for example) is the following. Since you want to prevent Bit from showing up above all else, don't kill Laser Gun. Instead, you can stop his attacks for long periods of time if you combine the Slow and Stop status ailments on it. Kill off Missile Bay, use your speed-reducing grey magic on Laser Gun and focus all spells on Air Force. No Bit, no Wave Cannon, no fuss. Expand Full Strategy

You'll get a Relic

Princess Ring for your trouble, which is about as useless as a traveling carnival prize of the same name.

1.48: The Floating Continent

Floating Continent
10/64	Ninja	2
10/64	Brainpan	2
	Misfit	1
	Apocrypha	1
6/64	Dragon	1
6/64	Behemoth	1
6/64	Misfit	2
5/64	Behemoth	1
5/64	Apocrypha	1
5/64	Misfit	2
5/64	Apocrypha	1
5/64	Platinum Dragon	3
5/64	Apocrypha	3
5/64	Brainpan	3
1/64	Behemoth	2
1/64	Ninja	2
1/64	Platinum Dragon	1

Enemies: Brainpan, Misfit, Apocrypha, Dragon, Platinum Dragon, Behemoth, Ninja

Treasures: Helmet Beret, Knife Murasame, Monster-in-a-box (Gigantos)

Lore: Lv. 3 Confuse, Lv. 4 Flare, Lv. 5 Death, 1000 Needles

Welcome to the Floating Continent! The Floating Continent is one of the most fun and dangerous dungeons in the game, so if you're not enjoying it, I suggest you quit the game. Just kidding; I already wrote the second half of the walkthrough, so you're sticking it out whether you like it or not. Kefka and Gestahl are standing with the Statues, sadly, on the other end of the Floating Continent. You'd better high-tail it there as fast as possible, as who knows what they're about to do. On the other end, you're likely to die once you get there. But hey, you caused this mess, better try to clean it up as well.

Shadow is waiting for you. Although to the untrained eye, it seems like Shadow is more or less 'severely wounded and unable to go anywhere else' rather than 'tricking you with awesome ninjutsu skills of yore.' At any rate, Shadow bears a personal grudge against the Empire, and goes with you to get his revenge. You also notice that Shadow can equip the Relic

Memento Ring, which would appear to have been a Relm-only Relic. Hmm. An important detail: Since Interceptor is in Thamasa, he obviously will not be defending Shadow in-battle at this moment. You can't go back to Thamasa and pick up Interceptor now that you know where his owner is at, either.

Equip Armor

Gaia Gear where possible, and stick everybody in the Back Row unless it's vital for their strategy (and quite frankly, I can't think of anybody fitting that profile besides Gau, and even he is better off in the Back Row, at the cost of passing over his !Cat Scratch urges in favor of other animal instincts). Make sure you have nice Espers on everybody, and set Shadow on his path of supportive Espers (I'd suggest you switch from Esper

Siren to

Catoblepas). Shadow's main power lays in his Scrolls now, so go for Relic

Earring rather than Relic

Gigas Gloves.

You've met a Ninja earlier, in the Cave to the Sealed Gate. What goes down now is the same as what went down then. They use one of the three ninjutsu Scrolls and very rarely use a normal Attack. Lightning-elemental attacks get them very quickly, as do one-hit KO attacks. You can

Imp them, but they'll still be able to use the Scrolls (Imps can still use Items, or any attack which doesn't use MP). They rarely drop a

Fuma Shuriken, which is an upgraded

Shuriken. Save them for later.

Apocrypha are odd little demon-buggers who attack physically only, until there's only one left. A lone Apocrypha will counter any damage received with

Lv. 5 Death,

Lv. 4 Flare, or

Lv. 3 Confuse. This makes for a great time for Strago if he hasn't learned all of those attacks yet, but annoying for the rest of your party. Try to circumvent this circumstance by taking Apocrypha out first in the groups in which they appear (or all at the same time). If you find yourself stuck against a lone Apocrypha,

Break and other one-hit KO attacks can kill it without provoking any kind of counter in any way. An even better way of doing this is the

Rasp spell, as reducing Apocrypha's MP to 0 kills him. Silence/Lunatic Voice also works. You can rarely Steal Relic

Angel Rings from them.

Behemoths are legendary Final Fantasy monsters, and in this dungeon they may just be the most dangerous monsters you can encounter, especially due to the fact that they can appear in tandem. This means two Behemoths in one fight, for those of limited vocabulary. They tend to use physical attacks, but their Special !Beatdown is very strong. If they are alone (which they often are), they'll counter any damage you do with a 66% chance at countering with !Beatdown. Luckily, you can use Petrification and other one-hit KO attacks to go around this. They're weak to Ice, but while

Blizzara will deal a nice amount of damage, KO attacks like

Death,

Catoblepas's Demon Eye, and Gau's Mu Rage-induced Snare are by far the easiest way out of an encounter with Behemoth monsters.

If you are forced to fight them head-on, you're in slightly more trouble, but it still can be done with relative ease. If you have

Vanish around or Esper

Phantom equipped, make everybody invisible before attacking. Heal regularly.

Blizzara is a powerful spell here, and Strago's

Lv. 4 Flare is especially fruitful as well.

Brainpan monsters are bloody annoying. They randomly Stop one of your characters with !Smirk, and when they are alone, they will use

1000 Needles, an attack that will always deal 1000 HP of damage. Strago can learn it if he's around. The proper way of treating them is mass attack: They are weak to Fire and Lightning, so Shadow's Scrolls should severely cripple them in a small amount of time. Try to Steal some Relic

Earring if Locke is with you; any amount lower than 24 is a bad amount. Brainpan are also nice for Sketching, by the way, as both !Smirk and

1000 Needles will be unhappily received when released on the other end of the battlefield.

Dragons are even more dangerous than Behemoths, when left unattended. They're also very famous for being the only source of Relic

Genji Gloves besides those that chests and events give you (which is often not enough to satisfy our Genji cravings). If you run into one, your first action should be disabling him, as his attacks include !Tail (which is his Special and will likely kill you), Revenge Blast (with a maximum HP of 7000, it can also become very painful), Snowstorm and Freezing Dust, an attack that will freeze one character solid, thereby disabling him/her. Every time a Dragon has been damaged, it'll have a 33% chance of using Snort. There's danger all around here, and they're immune to one-hit KO attacks. To handle them, cast either

Sleep or

Stop on them, possibly both, and try to shave off as much HP as possible while he's incapacitated. He's weak to Lightning, so

Thundara, Gigavolt (although you'll probably want to lay off Rages against Dragon as the random physical attack will wake him up), and Skean

Lightning Scrolls work very well. If Locke or Shadow is in the party and you have at least one Dirk

Thief's Knife, Steal from every Dragon you encounter. Even one extra Relic

Genji Glove is nice.

Misfits are Outcast palette swaps, and are, once again, un-Silencable bastards that use Lifeshaver. Luckily, at this point, you should be fully clothed in Armor

Gaia Gear, and Edgar and Setzer should just keep themselves healed. They're weak to Fire, which was not the case with the original Outcast, so take advantage of that.

Break and

Rasp both kill Misfit in one hit when they connect (

Break sometimes misses).

Platinum Dragon is the last random encounter monster we'll see in this dungeon. Imagine Wyvern, Floating, with a very high amount of Defense. That's basically it. The trick to defeating them easily is turning them on each other. Tools

Noiseblaster and Esper

Cait Sith's Cat Rain will make them randomly use Cyclonic on each other, after which you can simply pick them apart with any ol' multi-target attack you have. If you lack multi-target confusion devices, you can try to Sketch them if Relm is around for Cyclonic, or simply use one-hit KO attacks on one at a time. They can use Cyclonic themselves when they're alone, so keep that in mind. Esper

Catoblepas can take care of them all if you summon him, although he might miss sometimes.

Pick up Shadow, and after some "I am not worthy" dialogue he will join your party for the time being. Note that bringing Shadow along is entirely optional, although not bringing him is just not very smart.

Walk to the right, and a passageway will automatically open for you. This is a theme in the dungeon; a lot of passageways will open or have to be opened. Walk on and you'll open another passage. Now, you'll come across a blue orb to the north of you; these are the Floating Continent's version of chests. Open it for the Knife

Murasame, which does not live up to its name in this game and should not be equipped, as Fang is better than any Attack you'll pull off with it. Should you have brought Cyan and find yourself using nothing but anyway, the Knife

Murasame's 10% Evasion boost is nice.

Now, you'll encounter again what seems like a dead end. To the north, a stairway will open into a bulge in the landscape, and to the south, one will open towards a blue orb if you approach it. You'll want to grab the blue orb first, but not until after you've finished at least one battle and have summoned Esper

Phantom so that you can open this orb with an invisible team.

1.49: The Floating Continent Continued: Evil Approaches

Enemies: Brainpan, Misfit, Apocrypha, Dragon, Platinum Dragon, Behemoth, Ninja, Gigantos, Ultima Weapon

Did you use Phantom last chapter, before coming here? You're going to want to. Seriously. You see, the blue orb holds the monster-in-a-box Gigantos.

Gigantos Bestiary #306	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	Humanoid	25	6000	1120	0	7750
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	20	10	0	1	1	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Elixir Rare: X-Potion			Common: Sasuke
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
	None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			None
	Metamorph Package
	Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx, Potion, Potion, Potion, Organyx 32/256 Success Rate
	Strategy
	Here's a purely physical fighter that can kill a Front Row character in one go with !Throat Jab. Gigantos will start the battle off with three !Throat Jab attacks, and continue to switch between Attack and !Throat Jab while countering any damage you do with two Attacks and a !Throat Jab. That's a lot of physical damage. If you self-applied the Invisible status like I advised, you're invulnerable in this fight. Boom. If you're fighting him, one-hit KO attacks work best. Lv. 5 Death offs him easily, as do Break, Catoblepas, Snare (Mu Rage), and Death. You can, of course, toy with him a little bit; try to steal his rare Elixir or common X-Potion. He's vulnerable to Stop as well, so for ensured victory, you can use a Stop/Death combo if you're evil enough. For all your trouble, you get a Sasuke blade, a stronger weapon for Shadow without the Assassin's Dagger's one-hit KO property. Since you should not be using Attack at all, I recommend sticking to your current blade, which should be either the Thief's Knife or Assassin's Dagger. Expand Full Strategy

Now, enter the bulge, which will swallow you and deliver you at another point in the dungeon. Go down and you'll come across an odd stone that you need to stand on to proceed. The landmass will expand, allowing you to cross where your path was previously impeded. Just walk over to the other side of this part, as there's only one way that gets you anywhere (another bulge you'll need to enter). This bulge delivers you into a crossroads, where you must choose from two new bulges. The right one takes you nowhere, so the left one it is.

The new delivery point immediately features a new stone to step on, so do that. It lowers some part in front of you, but you can't reach that now. Instead, go back and find the other stone waiting for you. You'll need to activate the obvious stepping-stone for another obvious obstacle; continue to reach the lowered part. Walk on and on, to the left, down, right and then northwards until you reach yet another stepping-stone. It'll reveal a familiar bulge, but before you enter it, you should go down the stairway below in order to find a Save Point and the blue orb to the right of it, which contains a Helmet

Beret. The Helmet

Beret is a nifty helmet for Relm that increases her Sketch success, improving the frequency but, sadly, not the utility of the ability. I'd stick to the Helmet

Mystery Veil. If you're done, continue.

You'll be asked if you want to return to the Blackjack now. There's no real reason to unless you're really out of resources, as at this point, you've almost completed the dungeon, and should you return to the Blackjack and fly up to the Floating Continent again, you'll have to do the entire dungeon again. Plus, Shadow will remain here and won't rejoin to your party until you return to the floating continent, where he will be waiting in the same spot as when you first found him there (although he will be brooding rather than suffering face-down). If you do decide to hop off, remember that Shadow will take the equipment and Esper he has on him with him.

Pressing on opens another pathway, where a beast is waiting for you. A beast created long, long ago, during the War of the Magi. A beast of mass destruction. A beast of pure power. Ultima Weapon. Before you fight him, have somebody cast Float on those in your team that lack Armor

Gaia Gear if possible (Gau, as always, can self-inflict it), equip Relic

Heiji's Jitte on Setzer if he's on your team and equip Relic

Reflect Rings, if that's possible.

Ultima Weapon Bestiary #307	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	37	24000	5000	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	45	5	20	142	97	10
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Ribbon Rare: Elixir			Common: Elixir
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
	None			None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control
	Strategy
	Ultima Weapon is quite a challenge. Not quite as disgustingly horrible as Air Force, but you don't have the ability to divide and conquer that made the Air Force battle palatable. Ultima Weapon starts like a rather tough monster, and as he has the most HP of any normal monster so far (Intangir excluded), he'll be quite the little troublemaker. His normal battle script starts with a pretty rockin' speech, and then it continues to simply pound your character into submission with Attack, Flare, and Blaze. Flare is a snazzy new spell you're probably not familiar with yet. Flare is non-elemental and barrier-piercing, though you can protect yourself with Reflect Rings and the like. This is, until he reaches 12800 HP, at which point he'll start casting Bio, Quake, or the enemy version of Meteor, use either Attack or !Full Power, use an multi-target Fira spell, and end with Mind Blast. Mind Blast is a multi-target attack that randomly selects a character four times and sets one randomly selected status ailments out of the following possibilities: Darkness, Zombie, Poison, Imp, Petrify, Doom, Silence, Berserk, Confuse, Sap, Sleep, Slow, and Stop. If a character is never chosen, he won't be affected by the spell; if a character was randomly selected three times, he'll get three randomly selected status ailments set on him. As you can imagine, you can come away from this attack with relatively minor damage, or with some fairly severe damage. It might be a good idea to summon Unicorn if you have it after Mind Blast has been used.Due to a GBA-exclusive bug, you can circumvent all effects from the attack in this version by equipping a Relic which � under normal circumstances � only protects against Imp (such as the White Cape). Gaining Imp immunity with a Rage will work as well. After Mind Blast, Ultima Weapon will get even stronger. The message "Focusing energy" will appear, and Ultima Weapon will give himself Protect, Shell, and Haste status and glow an eerie yellow. He'll wait for his next turn and glow yellow again. That next turn, he'll glow yellow for a long time, some cogwheels will spin (as a hobby assembly enthusiast, I wonder how the heck they did that), and Ultima Weapon will use the move Flare Star. Flare Star is a neat attack. It's fire-elemental and its damage depends on your level. It multiplies the level of a random party member by 80 and splits the damage by the amount of characters you have. So, if you have a four-headed party, all level 25, the damage will be 500 per party member. After Flare Star, he basically starts over again with Bio/Quake/(enemy) Meteor, etc. When you knock him below 6144 HP, he'll start using another set of spells: Attack, Graviga, Tornado, Rasp, and Blaze. Every time he is damaged in this stage, he'll have a 33% chance of countering the attack with Flare. He'll keep this up until he dies. You can basically do two things here. In both scenarios you'll want your party covered in Reflect Rings. Celes shouldn't need to use Runic until the final stage of Ultima Weapon, when he gains the ability to cast Graviga, as this can be absorbed by Celes' Runic blade yet flies past Reflect Rings. If a lot of your characters know the Rasp spell (say, three or four), you could try to Rasp his 5000 MP down to 0 and kill him that way. It will take longer than HP violence will, but if you just stick with attacking his MP, he'll never leave the 'safe' offensive scheme (Attack, Flare, and Blaze), against which Zona Seeker and Reflect Rings result in easy victory. Even without those two, it'll still be easier on you to handle it than the standard HP-depletion method will. If you decide to just smack him to death with your ouchies, beware. Start the battle off with Zona Seeker to soften the blow of his magical attacks. Make staying alive priority one: Flare can do over 600 damage, so be prepared for a Flare spell at all times if you're not covered in Reflect Rings. Cast Slow on him to slow him down. Try to steal a Ribbon with Locke; you'll thank yourself for the effort later. If Edgar is in your party and can use a Debilitator, use it until you've nailed a nice weakness to exploit. Then exploit it (as if you needed me to say that!). If he uses Mind Blast, cure the most dangerous status ailments and proceed. If the message "Vast energy focused" appears, use Dispel to remove your adversary's positive status effects (and don't forget to cast Slow again). Basically, it's a story of heal first and damage later. Terra, Celes, and Relm should just use their level 2 spells (Blizzara is, by a very slight margin, the strongest of the three � unless, of course, you've Debilitator'd him to have a weakness). Have Locke steal until he has acquired either an Elixir or a Ribbon, and use Hawkeyes to fight with for the duration of the battle. Edgar can use Drill and Sabin Aura Cannon for superior damage. Mog's Dance is up for debate. The Earth Blues is the home Dance, so it will never fail, and it also has the most damaging attack of all Mog's attacks: Rock Slide. The Water Harmony, on the other hand, has a more constant damage output, as both El Ni�o (most common attack) and Plasma (2nd most common attack) will work. In contrast, Earth Blues' Sonic Boom will fail whenever it's used. I'm leaning toward Earth Blues myself, but it's more a matter of personal preference. Setzer will probably want to stick to Gil Toss. Even with double Earring, his level 2 spells are inferior to Gil Toss and his Slots aren't very useful in this fight. Prismatic Flash can't compare to Gil Toss, Chocobo Stampede misses entirely due to Ultima Weapon's inherent Float and the other attacks are too rare to consider an option. Cyan's Flurry out-damages Fang, so try to have other characters attack while you wait for Flurry to load. It might be safer, if you're less experienced, to simply stick to Fang and have him run utility work if that's necessary. If you seriously brought Cyan for some reason I expect you to have taught him at least one level 2 spell; with one pair of Earring, a level 2 spell will outdamage Fang. Strago's Aqua Breath attack is the strongest he'll be able to do. If you equipped Reflect Rings, his White Wind move will be very nice to have around. Traveler might be stronger than Aqua Breath, but it should also be much more troublesome on your MP. Try it out and see what works for you. An added benefit of Aqua Breath, by the way, is its dual-elemental nature; if you brought Edgar, there's a double chance Strago can exploit the Debilitator-induced weakness with the attack. Gau's best choices are probably Ninja (Water Scroll), Chimera (Aqua Breath), Bomb (Blaze) or Outcast (Lifeshaver). Ninja is the strongest offensively, but you probably didn't go back to pick it up. Outcast is very defensive; since it makes Gau absorb Fire-elemental attacks, is inherently Floating, and gives the Undead property, Outcast will protect against Fira, Bio, Quake, Blaze, Flare Star and (due to a bug) all the effects of Mind Blast. If you have level 2 spells on Gau, I'd advise you to use Magic rather than Rages in this battle, as the level of control will be nice to have. And, with all the Attacks Gau uses, damage output will be higher overall. Expand Full Strategy

After Ultima Weapon has been defeated, you get an Elixir for beating him. Shadow will leave you, and it will only take you five steps to come face to face with Emperor Gestahl and Kefka.

1.50: Kefka's Ascension and the Escape from the Floating Continent

Floating Continent (Escape)
	Naude	1

Enemies: Naude, Nelapa

Treasures: Elixir

Lore: Doom, Roulette

Before your eyes, Gestahl absorbs more and more of the power of the Warring Triad. Celes will arrive if you didn't bring her, and in both cases, she will be spared from Gestahl's paralyzing spell, as Gestahl has an offer to make. Even after all this time collaborating with the Returners, he is still willing to allow her to return to his side. It certainly looks like the winning party, but Celes decides differently.

Celes uses the sword given to her to stab Kefka. The desired effect (death) does not take place, however. Kefka, in a fit of rage, rushes into the field in the middle of the Goddesses and commands them to give him power. Nothing happens. Kefka repeats the statement. The Warring Triad glows a little, about as enthusiastic about the job as a McDonald's employee on a Monday. Gestahl starts shouting about actually reviving the statues; according to Gestahl, reviving is bad. It was Kefka's plan all along though, so what gives?

It's at this point that Gestahl realizes that he cannot have Kefka around; his practical use is over now that Gestahl has everything he lusted for, and the man is simply unstable. But when Gestahl tries to use the awesome power the Warring Triad has bestowed upon him, nothing happens. The field of the Warring Triad absorbs all Magic sent their way (even

Meltdown, which is un-Runicable!). Kefka gains control over the slowly reviving gods and commands them to unleash their power on Gestahl. They do. Emperor Gestahl, your most constant enemy throughout the game, dies. After that, Kefka does the unthinkable. Strago warned you earlier about the Warring Triad. Move them from their spot, and this world they partly created will go haywire. This is bad.

Suddenly, Shadow arrives! Eager to deliver a payback from getting back-stabbed (and maybe even feeling guilty of being the tool of the Empire), he rushes in and traps Kefka between the field of the Statues. The paralyzing spell on your party members is lifted, and it's time to run � even if that means doing so without Shadow. You have six minutes, 6:00, to get off the Floating Continent. Goddess energy takes on the form of monsters (naturally), and you have to plow through these newly-born entities to reach the end (which is also the landing point of a particularly big sparkle, AKA a particularly powerful new creature).

You're still covered in Relic

Reflect Rings if you listened to my advice. Keep them on! If Celes joined your party just now, give one to her as well; it's worth the time. The Relic

Reflect Rings protect from the

Blizzara spell the Naude enemies cast, and it will be nice to have against the boss here as well.

Naude enemies are a pain because they take time to defeat and you can't run from them. They're about wasting time, and they're fairly good at it. Their attacks include Attack, !Hit,

Blizzara, Snowstorm and Freezing Dust. Sadly, they can use Freezing Dust on the first turn, disabling a character. If you hit them with a Magic spell, they have a 33% shot at using Silence. A largely useless alternative, though this Naude-only Silence attack will not bounce from Reflective targets, nor can it be absorbed by Celes' Runic blade. When you

Imp them, their next turn will be spent on de-Imping themselves and using Flee. Keep in mind that when you always use the

Imp spell to make them run, you'll never get their listing in the Bestiary.

Since Celes is a mandatory character and she'll be above level 14 unless you were really going for an low-level game, she'll know

Imp. I suggest you use it. If Celes is frozen beforehand and nobody else knows the

Imp spell, just take advantage of Naude's weakness to Fire, Lightning, and Holy.

Lv. 4 Flare works on him as well, so if Strago is around, he'll be able to do quite some damage with it. Relic

Sprint Shoes are great in any situation with a timer; while you shouldn't need them, they cut back the time you spend walking.

Walk on, and the ground will crack underneath you. You'll make a surprised jump before being allowed to continue. Behind you, the part you just walked on falls off. Dangerous stuff, this dungeon! Walk on, another crack, another part breaks off behind you. Walk on. Another crack. If you go to the featureless part below you now, a small part will come off. You'll want to press on, though. You now reach for a small plateau with a blue orb on it, but when you get near it the ground cracks beneath you. Should you now simply continue, the part with the blue orb you'll need to reach will fall off. Go around the gap here so you can grab the treasure: An Elixir. Now you'll see the big sparkle: Head over to it and prepare yourself.

Nelapa Bestiary #308	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	Humanoid	26	2800	280	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	11	10	0	105	150	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities

	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	Doom, Roulette			Control
	Strategy
	The big sparkle's name is Nelapa. He gets 10 out of 10 for style, but minus one billion for good thinking. I mean, here you are, with a timer quickening your pace, and he thinks it's a good idea to cast Doom on the party. A bit redundant, if not outright illogical. Sillier yet, the battle with Nelapa (or a Naude) will automatically terminate as soon as the global timer hits 0:04 seconds; enough time to dive from the Floating Continent to "safety". What was the point of the timer in the first place? 0:04 isn't enough time to wait for that special someone, though... Anyway, after the pompous chatter and casting Doom on the party, he will finally get around attacking you. He can use Attack, Fira, Firaga, and Fireball. Very spooky. Firaga actually hurts a bit. Now here's a hoot: If you hit Nelapa with six Attack commands, he'll use Roulette. Next to the fact that Roulette can actually take Nelapa himself down, the mere thought that Nelapa could even survive six Attacks is laughable in itself. You'd need a Healing Rod or a rat-flail in order to pull that off. Anyway, back to not insulting this guy into submission (although you could). He's weak to Lightning and Ice and Holy. He's also Floating. Just make sure you keep in the back of your mind this guy is inherently Reflective, which means you'll need to resort to your skills and summon attacks. There are literally hundreds of ways to off this guy, and they're all very easy. Gau's Mu Rage can enSnare him for a one-hit KO, as can a fatal Chainsaw attack. Bouncing a few Rasp spells off yourself will kill him. Bouncing a Death spell off yourself will kill him. You can even confuse him; enemies don't get any more pathetic than that. Just use your strongest attacks, be it Gigavolt, or Aura Cannon, or Diamond Dust, or what have you. Nelapa has 2800 HP. That's it. If you played your cards right, you were doing 2800 in one attack back there against Ultima Weapon. Pushover. Expand Full Strategy

Once you've beaten Nelapa, you can walk over to the edge and the Blackjack will appear under you. What's your choice, jump or wait?! If you choose to jump, the entire Floating Continent will come crashing down with Shadow on it and you will never, ever see him again. If you choose to wait, you'll do nothing and you'll get the choices again every time you walk up the ledge. You'll want to keep standing there. He might still show up! And he does: Once the timer hits 0:04 Shadow will appear, make a smart remark in the middle of the Tempest of Destruction and Doom you find yourself in, and will jump down on the Blackjack with you. If you were goofing off in the menu during 0:04 he still appears if you get out of it between 0:04 and 0:01, but if you wait until time runs out you're just going down. Quite frankly, if that's the case, you deserved it.

So, Shadow was going to sacrifice himself to save the planet. However:

He doesn't sacrifice himself.
The planet isn't saved.

Zero for two, there, pal.

In the next cutscene a lot of bad things happen. Congratulations. Things haven't been going our way lately: You try to rally in the Esper troops from behind the Sealed Gate, they go on a murderous rampage; you try to talk peacefully to them, and instead you inadvertently deliver them straight to Kefka; you try to stop Gestahl, you end up destroying the world. Understandably, the Returners must be doubting their competency as heroes.

Planet: I'm apocalypsing!

As a final side note to this initial section of the game, due to a bug you now receive the equipment of the generic Moogle named Cosmog, one of the Moogles that helped you rescue Terra way in the beginning. This means you win a Special

Boomerang and a Shield

Buckler. For free! Now things are looking up.

2.1: Intermezzo; The Solitary Island

Wastelands
10/16	Peeper	2
6/16	Peeper	3

Desert
10/16	Land Ray	1
10/16	Peeper	2
6/16	Black Dragon	1

Enemies: Peeper, Land Ray, Black Dragon

Party: Celes

Rise and shine, commander. Rise and shine.

No words can be used to describe the blasphemy of Kefka's act. By moving the Statues he has shaken the very foundations of this world; earthquakes, tremors, eruptions and floods ensued. While trying to escape the Floating Continent, the Blackjack was torn apart from under your feet.

Celes Chere, ex-General of an Empire that may not still exist, wakes up in a dirty shack. One year has passed; by a stroke of coincidence, the person who found her and took care of her was none other than the person who did so during her Imperial-flavored youth: Cid. Cid himself, now, seems weakened and doesn't seem to possess much will to carry on. The entire population of the island has either passed away or have killed themselves, so Celes takes it on herself to take care of him for a while; at least it will keep the ghosts of the past away.

Preparation: Celes is entirely unequipped, so you should help her out a little in said regard. As far as Relics go, make sure she is equipped with either an Relic

Amulet or

Ribbon, as one of the monsters on the Solitary Island uses !Bone Powder, which turns a character into a Zombie. This is an instant Game Over if it hits, since you have only one party member, so protect yourself from it.

Peeper are silly buggers that don't so much classify as monsters as they do dying animals in a rotten world. With 1 HP and inherent Seizure, they more likely than not will perish before they make a move. If they do manage to take a turn, it's either Battle, !Tail (Battle * 1.5), or

White Wind, for which Peeper don't have enough MP for.

Land Ray only has one attack: !Poison Tail, which sets Poison. However, Land Ray shares the fate of Peeper: 1 HP, inherent Seizure. Wandering into the desert without an Relic

Amulet or

Ribbon is incredibly stupid, so !Poison Tail shouldn't affect you.

Black Dragon is the only actual opponent with a fighting chance on the island. The first turn can feature Sand Storm; the second turn Sand Storm and !Bone Powder. Sand Storm is the thing to watch out for; Celes is by her lonesome, so she takes quite some damage if hit. You can instantly defeat Black Dragon by casting a

Raise spell on him. Personally I don't consider it a shadowy tactic when the undead monster in question lacks Death protection (like this one), but if you don't want to go for it, you can cast

Stop on him (perhaps combined with

Slow so that it really takes its sweet time to wear off) and pound on him in the meantime with

Fira.

Note: Peeper have a rare Elixir steal and Land Ray have a rare Megalixir steal. Right now, this is of no consequence, as you can't steal; later I'll point it out again.

While exploring, you'll have to note Cid's health. There's a hidden health bar for the guy, which you need to maintain. If you manage to take it up to 256, Cid becomes permanently healthy; if you allow it to drop down to 30, he will die. The health starts at 120. Every second you spend in any place that isn't the Overworld Map, Cid will lose 1 health.

On the beach, there are fish you can catch. You can simply try to grab them when they come near the tiles you can stand on. There are four types of Fish: A slow-moving Fish decreases the health bar by 16 when fed to Cid. A Rotten Fish (with medium speed) decreases the bar by 4 when fed to Cid. "Just a" Fish also swims with medium speed and increases health by 16 when fed to Cid. A "Yummy", fast-moving Fish increases the bar by 32 when fed to Cid.

All of these are Rare items. Once you've captured a kind of Fish, there's no way to get rid of it other than feeding it to Cid. The effects of the Fish you have caught are cumulative; if you have captured a Fish, a Rotten Fish, and a Yummy Fish, Cid will gain 12 health points (-16 - 4 + 32).

Cid has various conversational responses based on his health. This is the only way to tell approximately where his health is on the scale of dead to awesome.

231 - 255: My dear, I ... feel I'm not going to be around much longer...
201 - 230: Celes, thanks for all you've done for me!
161 - 200: HackAck!! I feel a little better!
121 - 160: Cough...wheeze...I can't bear this any longer...
91 - 120: I...I'm not long for this cruel new world ...
61 - 90: My worst nightmare is to think of you alone here on this wretched island ... hack ... wheeze!!
31 - 60: Cough...hack...ACK!! While I can still talk, I...wheeze...pant...want to thank you...cough!
0 - 30: Good-bye...

Whether or not Cid lives or dies has little impact other than, you know, that Cid lives or dies and Celes reacts to it. Regardless of your efforts, Celes will get off the island fairly quickly.

If you want to read about the options in more detail, enable spoilers.

The debate over saving Cid's life is surprisingly heated when you take into consideration that it doesn't really affect the end result. Most people tend to think letting Cid die is the best way out of the situation; not only is catching fish a tedious enterprise, but the consequences of Cid's demise give depth to the character of Celes. Others try to keep him alive for the sole reason that he is one of the major NPCs and this game's 'Cid'.

2.2: The World of Ruin

Grasslands
10/16	Fafnir	2
6/16	Killer Mantis	1
6/16	Fafnir	1

E. Wastelands
10/16	Luna Wolf	2
6/16	Murussu	1
6/16	Gigantoad	2

W. Wastelands
10/16	Luna Wolf	1
10/16	Rukh	1
6/16	Rukh	1
	Murussu	1
	Gigantoad	1

Forest
10/16	Fafnir	4
6/16	Killer Mantis	2
6/16	Fafnir	1

Desert
10/16	Land Ray	1
10/16	Peeper	2
6/16	Black Dragon	1

Enemies: Fafnir, Killer Mantis, Peeper, Murussu, Gigantoad, Land Ray, Black Dragon, Rukh

Party: Celes

Staying on an island with nothing but sickly animals to keep you company is not what anybody would consider leading a rich and fulfilling life. It's time to see how badly this world has turned out; if the Empire is still standing with Kefka leading it, if any of that rogue squadron of Returners has survived - in other words, if there is still hope.

Preparation: You can take your Zombie-protection off now if you want. Replace it with something that protects against Petrify for now ( Relic

Ribbon or

Jeweled Ring will do). Try to apply the Clear status ASAP as it protects you from anything if you're smart. Since the enemies here are actually more than a joke, you'll want to equip a Special

Morning Star and move to the Back Row if the whole

Vanish thing isn't working out for you for whatever reason.

You wake up near Albrook. You can go in right away if you'd like, but for now I'll give a quick run-down on the monsters in the area.

Fafnir are cannon fodder with a weakness to Ice. This is note-worthy; dinosaurs and lizards in general have a weakness to Ice. Fafnirs will use Escape unless they are by themselves, in which case they'll stand and fight. !Tongue Lash causes Seizure.

The Killer Mantis uses Battle. When they are targeted by physical attacks, they sometimes use !Kama, which is a more advanced way of inflicting damage or something. I wonder, if not with their sickles, how they normally attack you. They seem to have a wicked sharp stinger; maybe they slash with it. Regardless, they are kind of boring.

Heh. Gigantoads are cool. See, they're toads, and they're gargantuan. This makes them inherently violent, attacking with Battle, !Croak (damage), Sticky (sets Slow, looks spiffy), and

Rippler. The monsters have access to

Rippler, but they lack the MP to pull it off.

Luna Wolf is Silver Lobo, WoR style. Rather than using !Bite to inflict damage, they use !Face Chomp to blind (although I can't imagine a bite to the face that blinds and doesn't actually hurt as well). Stuff to plow through.

Rukh is the only monster that actually is worth recognition right now. Not only can it pull off a !Beak attack in its third turn to petrify you, it will occasionally retort with a Shimsham attack if you use Magic on it.

Murussu is normal Battle/Special stuff (!Carapace damages: the name itself refers to the dorsal section of an exoskeleton or shell found in a number of animal groups!) with one annoying habit: if it's by itself, it can counter any damaging attack with Sneeze. This tends to come into play if you employ a fatal multi-target attack to the entire monster party. Take out Murussu first when it's in a group with other monsters.

Just walk around here and kill stuff with your attacks. Should you have Clear status and lose it again due to Sticky, Sneeze, or Shimsham, re-apply it. Kill Murussu first when you encounter them, never use Magic on Rukh, and don't linger with Gigantoads and you should be invulnerable.

Eh...yeah. You'll want to go into Albrook now, so, welcome. It's nice to see there are still some signs of civilization left. It's time to gather some info on this strange new world; after all, it can't be expected that everybody took a full year's nap like Celes.

Weapon Shop: You should be both familiar with and have ownership of these weapons. I'd be tight with my cash right now if I were you, though. These weapons should be noted for their great use with the Throw command; they are basically elemental

Fuma Shurikens; if you have great amounts of cash in the future, you can Throw these for insane damage if the target is weak against the element. For now, keep hold of your GP.

Armor Shop: Nothing new here, and nothing you should specifically want any more of.

Relic Shop: These must be tough times if a Relic shop owner can get away with selling rubbish like this. If you don't have a Relic

Jeweled Ring or a Relic

Ribbon, definitely buy a Relic

Jeweled Ring here.

Item Shop: If the Floating Continent was harsh on your supplies, you can restock some now. Make sure you have some Revivifies, and Sleeping Bags are, at the moment, cheaper versions of Tents, as you're traveling by your lonesome.

Hidden Items: If you haven't picked them up in the WoB, there's a Hi-Potion in the barrel next to the Inn, an Ether in the pot in the Weapon Shop, an Elixir in the clock in the Relic Shop/Cafe, and a Teleport Stone in one of the crates on the docks. Also, there are two empty chests in the Armor Shop.

Smily happy people, walking on sunshine. Only kind of not. Albrook turned into a rather depressing mess of a town. The situation is bad. Kefka is ruling the world. Monsters abound. Albrook's port, once a thriving capital of aquatic travel and trade, is derelict. Your only hope is the rumor of a man who passed through Albrook recently, a man with the same shimmer of hope in his eyes. Hardly constructive, but worth a shot. The Japanese game makes specific mention of a 'monk' here. Albrook doesn't seem like a place to hang around in anyway.

It's time to leave. More specifically, it's time to see what became of Vector, Maranda, and Tzen.

2.3: Tzen and the Light of Judgement

Formations
10/16	Scorpion	3
6/16	Zokka	2
6/16	Nightwalker	1

Enemies: Fafnir, Killer Mantis, Peeper, Murussu, Gigantoad, Land Ray, Rukh, Zokka, Nightwalker, Scorpion

Party: Celes

Back on the Overworld Map, you'll soon notice that Vector is no more and has been replaced by a tower. This is Kefka's seat, from where he rules the world. That's nice. Maranda has been broken off the continent to the west. Luckily, Tzen is still there.

Note: As soon as you enter Tzen, you'll be sucked into a side-quest from where you'll emerge with Sabin. If you don't want this, or are not ready yet (you'll want the Relic

Jeweled Ring/ Relic

Ribbon now), don't enter Tzen and skip the next part instead. It is strongly recommended to dive into Tzen rather than skipping it, however, and the game pretty much counts on you doing so, but whatever floats your boat, I suppose.

When you step up the stairs, a disaster occurs! The Light of Judgement hits the town, and it quickly becomes clear that a child is trapped in one of the collapsing houses. Holding up the mansion is a familiar face: Sabin Rene Figaro, wandering heir to the throne of Figaro! It's good to see him still alive, but the situation asks for action. Leaving is impossible, as a citizen will ask you to stay and help: "Come on!! Please help!" As soon as you stand in front of the door Sabin will start talking to you and a timer will start, so let's review what you can do in town beforehand:

Before you enter the house to save the child, you can get some healing at the Inn (you won't spend the night, but you'll get some sparkly action going on) and you can shop at the three shops Tzen has to offer.

Weapon Shop: It's nice to have two of each Claw weapon. The Claw

Kaiser Knuckles are too weak by this point in the game so you can ignore it; if you don't have two Claw

Venom Claws stock up until you do. You're bound to benefit from at least one Claw

Burning Fist, so grab it, as a boss battle in the future can use double Claw

Burning Fists.

Armor Shop: There are Helmet

Berets for sale, so you could buy one if you missed it at the Floating Continent. The rest of the merchandise here is old news.

Relic Shop: The Relic

Thief's Bracers for sale are new, but they won't really help you. What you do want is a Relic

Jeweled Ring if you still haven't bought one. Last chance, honest.

Item Shop: In this time of turmoil, an entirely new item has appeared in the Item Shop: the Super Ball. Unseen by many, shunned by many, forgotten by many, the Super Ball is an item that deals damage in combat to random target for a random amount of damage. To be more precise, Super Ball deals 256, 512, 768, 1024, 1280, 1536, 1792, or 2048 HP damage against 1, 2, 3, or 4 randomly decided targets. If the same monster is targeted twice by the Super Ball, he is hit twice, meaning that the damage can exceed 2048 HP.

In short: Super Balls are very expensive, entirely random and most of the time not impressive enough to warrant their use. Yes, in theory a Super Ball could do a total of 4 x 2048 = 8192 damage against a single target, which is an insane amount at the moment, but I've never seen it do even remotely that kind of damage. Buy one if you want to fill your inventory, but you won't find a lot of use for them in most circumstances.

When you're done shopping (while everybody else is panicking), try to save the child by entering the house. Before you get near the mansion, set Celes' equipment up as so:

Weapon: Sword

Stoneblade/ Sword

Icebrand/

Thunder Blade/ Sword

Flametongue
Shield: Shield

Golden Shield
Helmet: Helmet

Mystery Veil
Armor: Armor

Golden Armor/ Armor

Gaia Gear
Relics: Relic

Black Belt (vital!) and Relic

Jeweled Ring/ Relic

Ribbon (likewise!)

As soon as you are standing in front of the door, you'll have a conversation with Sabin and the timer (6:00) will start running. If you are still outside of the house while the timer runs out, you get a Game Over: your screen will display Sabin in an entirely black background. It doesn't matter if you're outdoors or indoors, though: Game Over, man. Better get in there and save that child.

Preparation: Relic

Black Belt and petrification protection, right?

The Scorpion is the main annoyance in this house while the Zokka is the most dangerous. Meeting three Scorpion monsters will make you want to use multi-target magic violence, but their Magic Defense is through the roof, you don't have any barrier-piercing attacks at your disposal and using Fight three times takes a long time when time is of the essence. Hence the Relic

Black Belt; Scorpions will use !Lethal Sting (sets Condemned) followed by Battle, so there's plenty of physical attacks to take advantage of, especially when the only character they can attack is Celes.

Zokka have two attacks to fear. The first is Net; you may remember it from your fight against Guard Leader way, way back. Net Stops, which is bad if you want to hurry (you want to hurry). They won't use it until their third turn though, so no worries as should have killed them by then. Their other dangerous attack is !Rock. It petrifies, and is only used when a Zokka is alone and damaged by you. Sadly, this scenario includes multi-target killing everything on the battlefield. Protect yourself from ridicule and enjoy that Relic

Jeweled Ring or Relic

Ribbon I advised you.

Nightwalkers are cannon fodder with a nice name. They will use

Drain, which is sad as this prevents total invulnerability by means of

Vanish. It tends to do either 0 or 6 damage (6 is the damage a single hit from Seizure inflicts). That's it. You can take them all out with a multi-target

Fira spell or Esper

Ifrit's Inferno.

Use Fight and enjoy your counters during Scorpion battles, and multi-target

Fira spells or similar kinds of violence will suffice against everything else.

If you started this scenario later, out of order from this walkthrough, you will probably have more characters. Edgar's Tools

Auto Crossbow is very nice against the Scorpions, so you don't really need the Relic

Black Belt on anybody. Make sure everybody is protected against Petrify though. I could talk and talk about your options if you have other characters, but since this entire bit was designed to be doable with only one character, a full team will have so little trouble here that explaining what to do would be insulting your position as a person capable of abstract thought.

If you walk through the hallway, you'll come across a chest at the end. This contains a Rod

Healing Rod; make absolutely sure you grab it. Turn left and you'll see a chamber with a chest in it. The chest contains a Rod

Holy Rod; go out the same way you got in. Continue to the left and you'll see two chests. The one in reach contains a Ether, the one near the stairs leading downwards contains a Nightwalker-y monster-in-a-box.

Go down the stairway and go up to the high living room or whatever it is. The right chest contains a Magicite shard. In the middle of this room is the kid you were supposed to be finding. Remember? Grab it. The left chest contains, again, the same monster-in-a-box: four Nightwalkers. The one room here you didn't pass through contains a Sword

Blood Sword in a chest. Grab it if you like. Now leave this mess.

Upstairs and to the bottom is one chest you missed: It contains a Relic

Hyper Wrist. Grab it only if you have the time, as there's really no use for yet another one of these Relics. Sell it or something. If you're done, get out. Outside, both the kid and Sabin will be safe. There's hope! Yatta! Et cetera. Sabin joins the party.

If you haven't bought Esper

Seraph yet, now's your chance to do so for only 10 GP. The world's going to heck in a hand basket... just look at this weird stone!

2.4: The Serpent Trench

Grasslands
10/16	Fafnir	2
6/16	Killer Mantis	1
6/16	Fafnir	1

E. Wastelands
10/16	Luna Wolf	2
6/16	Murussu	1
6/16	Gigantoad	2

W. Wastelands
10/16	Luna Wolf	1
10/16	Rukh	1
6/16	Rukh	1
	Murussu	1
	Gigantoad	1

Trench: Grasslands
6/16	Vampire Thorn	2
6/16	Lizard	1
5/16	Vampire Thorn	2
5/16	Devoahan	1

Trench: Wastelands
10/16	Devoahan	1
10/16	Delta Beetle	2
6/16	Delta Beetle	4

Trench: Forests
6/16	Vampire Thorn	2
6/16	Lizard	1
5/16	Vampire Thorn	2
5/16	Devoahan	1

Enemies: Devoahan, Delta Beetle, Vampire Thorn, Fafnir, Killer Mantis, Murussu, Gigantoad, Rukh,

Party: Celes, Optional: Sabin

This part, again, is optional. You get another Esper out of it, an encounter with one of your friends, and a boss battle. If you want to press on immediately, there's no rush to take care of this now, since you can always come back later.

In the tail of the Serpent Trench lies Mobliz, a town that was fried by the Light of Judgement earlier on. Maybe it's time to take a look? It's not exactly on your way, but... do you even have anywhere specific to go in the first place?

Preparation: Equip an Relic

Amulet or

Ribbon on Celes and Sabin! One of the monsters can turn you into a Zombie in the very first turn, and you'd be surprised how easy it is for your party to be eliminated when it consists of only two members.

Three new monsters on the Serpent Trench:

Devoahan are sickly animals that attack out of desperation. If you wait for four turns he'll swap his normal Battle attack with a !Rage, Battle, Battle combo. Gasp thrice! !Rage is merely 1.5x its normal attack, so there's nothing to worry about. If he's hit by a Magic spell, he might counter with Sun Bath. So don't.

Delta Beetle uses Battle, !Slam (another 1.5x Battle) and Megavolt. Megavolt is entirely too weak to warrant worrying about, but it does remove Clear status, and that's annoying. Let's see here... its name comes from the Greek symbol Delta, which was a triangle. I'm introducing you to a whole new world here, am I not? Multi-target

Fira spells and/or the Rising Phoenix Blitz is the way to go.

Vampire Thorn are the most dangerous enemies here. They can start the fight off with Battle or !Life Drain, which sets Zombie. The second turn can feature the

Bio spell, which you don't want. The obnoxious thing about Vampire Thorn is their defenses: 254 Defense, 254 Magic Defense. They compensate by having only 12 HP, but still. Since they're undead, the best way to penetrate those defenses is by a multi-target

Cure spell on them. Celes is bound to know it. Otherwise, multi-target

Fira spells and Rising Phoenix can get the job done if tweaked a little. Check how strong your flaming magic is to see if this is a better option for you.

Whenever Delta Beetles appear, Rising Phoenix is a good idea to clean them all up in one go, as is a multi-target

Fira spell if you lack Sabin. Devoahan is also weak to Fire-elemental attacks, so if you find a lone Celes facing one, just go with that element and hope he doesn't use Sun Bath. Vampire Thorn is best disposed of with a multi-target

Curaga spell (on them, obviously). It's a good idea to cast

Vanish on yourself; while the second turn of both Delta Beetle and Vampire Thorn can remove your Clear status with Megavolt or the

Bio spell (respectively), you shouldn't let it get that far.

Find the bridge to the Serpent Trench and walk up to the tail. When you're just about to the Trench, you'll find a Chocobo Stable in the forest just south of the town of Mobliz. Doesn't really matter now, you're here: Mobliz.

Preparation: There will be a boss battle here, so I want you to prepare for it. Ideally, you should have Sabin with you, who I suggest you give a Relic

Hero's Ring, Relic

Genji Glove, and two Claw

Venom Claws. Equipping Esper

Golem on either will be a good asset. Just keep Celes the way you like her, but make sure she can use Runic.

If you don't have Sabin, the next battle will be very tough. Equip a Relic

Reflect Ring and a Relic

Hero's Ring, and save on the Overworld Map. Definitely have Esper

Golem on Celes if she's flying solo here.

When you enter Mobliz, two dogs will start barking and a kid will come running out of a house before re-entering it. Before you follow him, grab the Phoenix Down on one of the three barrels by the other burned house. You can take a nap in the bed of the abandoned Relic Shop for HP/MP restoration.

When you do enter the house that the kid entered earlier, you can grab the Elixir in the clock if you didn't in the WoB. Go down the stairs to find a whole bunch of kids, Duane and Katarin and ...Terra! But as the cutscene progresses, you'll learn the situation is more complicated than 'hey-ho, let's go', and Terra refuses to leave. When you go outside (before you do, make sure you're fully equipped for the fight), a kid will come screaming in that is coming! You heard about in Albrook, a demon from the ancient world. Terra goes out to defend the children.

This battle is a scripted battle. Terra won't be able to deliver any damage as is blessed by the same kind of invulnerability as Guardian from the WoB was. Terra can slave away with physicals: 0 damage. She can cast

Fira,

Bio, and

Drain: 0 damage (although she'll obtain HP from

Drain). Terra is supposed to lose here. So, don't use Morph or Elixirs or anything.

Humbaba (1) Bestiary #309	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	31	28000	10000	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	15	6	0	100	130	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control
	Strategy
	This is better. Humbaba (1) will start the battle with a physical attack, be it either Battle or !Solar Plexus. Then, he'll start using Thundara and Thundaga spells; finally, he can use 1000 Needles, which will likely be ill received, as 1000 damage is nothing to laugh at when it's coming for you. Humbaba (1)'s name, if you're wondering, comes from the old Babylonian heroic poem 'Gilgamesh'. He was a monster there. He got killed, too. If you have a Celes/Sabin team, have Sabin use his dual Venom Claws for great damage. Don't bother going on the offensive with Celes due to her lower damage output; have her on Runic standby. Both should start the battle by calling up Golem's Earth Wall if they have him equipped. If Sabin is weak, you should break the Runic guard to cure him. Smack Humbaba (1) with Sabin's fists until he runs off. If you have a solo Celes party, summon Golem to start, and fill all other turns by casting Bio (or, if lacking Bio, Blizzara) as quickly as you can. Fighting this guy with Celes only is a risk as no matter what you do, 1000 Needles is very dangerous and Humbaba (1) can kill you. If you're low at HP, sneak in an X-Potion or Elixir. Any other team needs little guidance; you've obviously been around the world, collected at least four characters, and have better equipment than neccessary. Bio spells still come in handy. What else is there to say? Setzer can't spin Joker's Death here. The best Dance is Earth Blues, while the home dance, Wind Rhapsody is nigh worthless. Spritzer absorbs Thundara and Thundaga while dealing acceptable damage, although a Magna Roader (Purple) Rage with a Reflect Ring is better. Expand Full Strategy

After storms off, Terra once again claims she won't be able to fight with you. When you try to leave, the kid at the entrance gives you your first new gem of happiness: the Esper Esper

Fenrir. The Japanese game makes mention of the Esper

Fenrir Magicite being a part of 's dropped necklace. Equip it if no other Espers appear to teach better spells at the moment (

Banish is nice, but not as strategic as

Stop,

Vanish,

Silence, etc.).

Note: If you already found the Falcon at this point, you can simply leave Mobliz and return to finally put a permanent stop to and recruit Terra.

Leave. We're going to the head of the Serpent Trench now; you can grab a Chocobo if you want from the Chocobo Stable in the forest.

2.5: The Head of the Serpent Trench: Nikeah

Party: Celes, Optional: Sabin

Welcome to Nikeah! This city is pretty much the least important town there is, and some mock it for the useless northern part where only the inn is located. Truly, Nikeah is not the best-looking town you've come across so far, but the in-game equivalent of total blasted doomsday just happened; I don't think it's fair for us to judge its less-then-perfect aesthetics right now.

Weapon Shop: You probably already have at least one Sword

Rune Blade (either from grabbing the chest in the Moogle Cave or from Stealing it from Number 024 back in the day), but they are actually for sale now. Don't buy them; even with their MP-driven auto-critical they are not as strong as a normal blow from the great new weapon that's also for sale: the Sword

Enhancer. Grab three. What does the Sword

Enhancer do? It gives a +7 bonus to your Magic Power, which is very nice. I suggest you grab three and put two of them on Celes with a Relic

Genji Glove. The Sword

Enhancer really is a great weapon, and could be considered a weapon you want to keep equipped until the very end of the game in certain scenarios.

Armor Shop: Entirely new items for sale in this Armor Shop! Victory galore. I'd grab one Shield

Diamond Shield, but don't equip it on Celes as her dual Sword

Enhancers will be much nicer. Ignore the Helmet

Diamond Helm entirely; there are better helmets out there still ( Helmet

Mystery Veil, Helmet

Priest's Miter, Helmet

Green Beret). Grab one Armor

Diamond Vest and give it to Sabin. There'll be something nicer for Celes in a short while and Diamond equipment is crazy expensive (who would've guessed, huh).

Relic Shop: "You took one look at me and thought I was a loser, right? You're obligated to buy from me now!" Oddest sentence of the entire game, if you ask me. Anyway, his merchandise isn't very special, except for the fact he has Relic

Prayer Beads for sale, whose only use lies in saving them up for the next Mardi Gras. Also, Relic

Angel Rings are for sale; they were 20000 GP in the Auction House, so it's a relative bargain here. Relic

Angel Rings still suck though, and you could've gotten all the Relic

Angel Rings you ever wanted back on the Floating Continent. Other items for sale that previously weren't include Relic

Zephyr Cloaks (useless: Relic

White Capes are better, period), Relic

Gale Hairpins (one is enough), and Relic

Princess Rings (Cute, a trigger-spell-when-near-fatal Relic, but hardly useful).

Item Shop: Stock up if you want.

The word on the street is that Figaro Castle has had an accident and that the South Figaro ferry is about to leave. However, if you talk to the captain of the ship, hoping for a lift, he tells you the ship belongs to the Crimson Robbers, the thieves that escaped the cells of Figaro Castle when it had the accident. They're in the Cafe.

In the Cafe, talking to all of them reveals their story. Stuck in jail, they had the fortune of being freed by sandworms. Their boss perished, but their new leader Gerad will lead them into Figaro Castle to get their booty back. The thieves all leave the Cafe, but on-board they are still waiting for Gerad, who's still somewhere in town.

When you walk into town, you'll see the lost king of Figaro! However, he insists he is Gerad, the cunning leader of the Crimson Robbers. It seems the fact 'Gerad' is an anagram of 'Edgar' must be mere coincidence. Follow him every time he tries to walk off, and eventually you'll sneak onto the ferry.

Note: A lot of people find it strange that Sabin doesn't specifically react to this semi-Edgar. One could blame the fact Sabin isn't a mandatory character at this point, but few know there actually is a line for Sabin at this point built into the game, it just isn't ever referenced.

2.6: South Figaro: Pursuing the Crimson Robbers

Grasslands
Always	Desert Hare	3

Wastelands
Always	Cancer	2
Always	Desert Hare	2

Desert
6/16	Cancer	3
5/16	Sandhorse	2
5/16	Sandhorse	1
5/16	Cancer	2

Forest
10/16	Oceanus	1
6/16	Oceanus	1
6/16	Desert Hare	3

Enemies: Sandhorse, Cancer, Oceanus, Desert Hare

Party: Celes, Optional: Sabin

South Figaro had only a taste of freedom again when the world collapsed. Invaded by the Empire, placed under martial law, ruled by a king who has run off leaving other people to govern, put through an apocalypse; South Figaro has had it rough. But the people here haven't given up hope. They're rebuilding the houses and managing their affairs as well as they can. We could admire this kind of determination.

Weapon Shop: The only new item here is the Lance

Golden Spear. As you could guess, it's a Lance stronger than the Lance

Heavy Lance. While I think the Lance

Golden Spear looks kinda nice in combat, I would still prefer the Sword

Enhancer over the Lance

Golden Spear any day, so I won't tell you to buy one now, especially since, in the next boss battle, the weapon with the highest Bat. Pwr will be automatically equipped (which would be the Lance

Golden Spear rather than the Sword

Enhancer, which is actually the superior weapon). Although nothing will be said, you'll get a 50% discount if Edgar is your leading party member.

Armor Shop: I told you to hold off buying new equipment for Celes in Nikeah; the Armor

Diamond Armor is the reason. I suggest you buy two if possible; your GP will be running fairly low by now, but you'll thank me for it in the future. You could try selling some stuff you're sure you'll never use again, such as Relic

Hyper Wrists, Relic

Prayer Beads and the like. Although nothing will be said, you'll again get a 50% discount if Edgar is your leading party member.

Relic Shop: There's nothing here that you want. Two Relic

Hermes Sandals will be nice in the future, but you should already have at least that from chests. More importantly, make absolutely sure you don't leave before you have enough Relic

Amulets to protect four party members against Zombie ( Relic

Ribbons also do this). This is vital. Again (although still nothing will be said), you'll get a 50% discount if Edgar is your leading party member.

Item Shop: Stock those stockings if your stockings need stocking.

The first time you arrived here, there was plenty to do. Now, the action in South Figaro is slightly more mundane. Points of interest:

The four members of the Crimson Robbers can be found all over town, and you can speak to them for a bit of exposition.
A couple... well, in flagrante delicto in the trees at the edge of town can be disturbed if you want to
Commander and Vector Hound opponents can still be found in the dungeon where Celes and Locke escaped from in the WoB. This is obviously an error as there's really no story-related reason for them to be there anymore.
The little daughter of the richest man in town, who mentioned the Clock Key earlier in the WoB, now talks about jumping and turtles. Crazy talk from a crazy person, probably.
Duncan is still alive! His wife informs you that he's meditating just north of Narshe. If there's some time in the future, we should definitely get Sabin to Duncan. We owe that to Sabin.

When you find Gerad in the room of the Inn, he'll immediately leave and take the Crimson Robbers with him, still insisting that he is not Edgar. Still, Edgar or not, you'll want to follow him to see what his plans for Figaro Castle are. If it's Edgar, you'll want to know what the hell is going on; if it's not, we should defend the property of Figaro in Edgar's absence.

Preparation: If you have

Float, cast it on your party. That's about it.

Desert Hare is one of the few enemies in the game with a Magic Power high enough to surpass that of your characters (30), but you needn't fear; the only spells these guys cast are

Cure,

Cura, and

Esuna, and for some reason unknown to man they cast it on you... when hit by Fight. Under normal circumstances you'll find them smacking you with Battle or !Carrot (1.5x Battle damage), but the concept of bunnies wanting to cure you upon slaughter is just silly. There were healing bunnies in Final Fantasy V as well, but they tended to actually help themselves. Maybe it's a reflex reaction?

Cancer is just an upgraded version of Exocite. Their moves are Battle, !Pincer, and a chance at a double !Pincer when they are alone. !Pincer is more boring 1.5x normal damage stuff. Exocite were water-based, but these wretches occupy the deserts; they are weak against Ice and Water.

Oceanus resembles Anguiform, but that's where the similarities end. Anguiform had an exceedingly strong Special; Oceanus has the normal Battle * 1.5 !Corkscrew attack. Instead of being a creature of water and using

Aqua Breath, Oceanus uses Magnitude8 on a regular basis, as well as being weak against Lightning and immune to instant death.

Sandhorse is the most dangerous enemy here. Under normal circumstances they will repeatedly use Sand Storm or possibly !Mouth Clamp (5x Battle!), and if they're alone they start using Battle. You'd assume they would want to keep their stronger attacks for the more dire situations, but oh well. Sandhorse is weak against Ice and Water like most desert dwellers, but its most prominent weakness is

Rasp; it dies automatically when its MP reaches 0, and with only 100 MP, any

Rasp spell should do one in.

Float should circumvent Oceanus's Magnitude8, so just pound away there. Use Fight on Desert Hare whenever you can, their healing will do you a lot of good. The only threat is Sandhorse; do them in with a

Rasp spell or something you know will do significant single-target damage. Summoning Esper

Bismarck will take care of them, but you probably have better things to do than equip that sub-par fiend of an Esper.

Enough dilly-dallying around. There really isn't anything on the entire continent that deserves our interest, so let's head into the Cave of Figaro, where we can assume the Crimson Robbers also headed.

2.7: Pursuing the Crimson Robbers: Cave of Figaro

Figaro Cave
10/16	Neck Hunter	1
	Cruller	1
	Humpty	2
6/16	Dante	1

Corridor
6/16	Neck Hunter	2
5/16	Humpty	3
5/16	Cruller	1
5/16	Humpty	2

Recovery Spring
6/16	Humpty	4
5/16	Neck Hunter	2
5/16	Dante	1

Enemies: Humpty, Cruller, Neck Hunter, Dante

Party: Celes, Optional: Sabin

A lot of monsters here will try to set the Confuse status on you, so equip Relics that protect against Confuse like Relic

Ribbons or Relic

Peace Rings. This is quite important, especially now that your characters are getting stronger; while you freeze in panic your twirling characters may cast

Banish on themselves and give you a Game Over.

The first thing you see in the Cave of Figaro is an old acquaintance: Siegfried! He explains that it would be wise to stay behind and let him - master swordsman that he is - clear all the monsters out of your path. He goes off to complete this goal, but, remembering your previous encounter with him, it's more consistent with his character to keep you out of the way while he goes off to collect treasure that you would otherwise obtained. Note: No matter how long you wait here, nothing will happen. You might want to consider simply pressing on.

Humpty is just really, really fat. Never mind that jolly Buddha or that figurine of the goddess of fertility; Humpty is a grotesquely obese little bugger with as much to offer to the eye as a festering wound. Battle and - ugh - !Hug (sets Confuse) are among the moves in his arsenal. Also, he's undead. That's an interesting twist to the end of the nursery rhyme.

Cruller knows spells. One to be exact:

Fira. I'd love to comment on other features of it, but... what the heck is it? A glibbering mass of goo and internal organs, or so it seems. Humpty at least had the decency to be overly disgusting in a humanoid form; Cruller can't even take that to its defense. Anyway, Cruller can start battles with

Fira and Battle, and if you keep him around long enough he can use Sticky and !Brainstorm (sets Confuse). It is weak to Fire.

Neck Hunter uses !Mad Sickle (sets Confuse) and Battle. That's about it. They're probably supposed to be thieves or something; humans in dungeons almost never make sense in RPGs. They're susceptible to instant death, they're Floating, and they're weak to Poison.

Dante. Named after the Italian writer of The Divine Comedy (which is said to have been one of the sources of inspiration for this game by some fans), Dante is kind of weird. He's Undead, but doesn't absorb Poison. In fact, he's weak against it! His attacks consist out of Battle and !Crystal Lance (Battle * 3), and he counters Magic spells with

Lv. 3 Confuse on rare occassion. Dante is slightly more durable than the other enemies in the cave, so you may consider the fact that the

Raise spell will immediately put a stop to his existence a nice bit of information.

Stop, on the other hand, will put a momentary stop to his existence, but it'll wear off so you'll want to hurt him in the meantime.

Here's the strategy. The theme of this dungeon is 'Confuse'. Almost all enemies can set it, and with new spells such as

Banish, Confuse gets all the more dangerous. Wear Relic

Peace Rings and/or Relic

Ribbons to prevent the horror. Boost Sabin's Rising Phoenix or perhaps even Razor Gale (which he learns at level 30) with a pair of Relic

Earring or a Relic

Hero's Ring; Rising Phoenix offs all Humptys and Crullers. Celes can take care of the remaining Neck Hunter with her Sword

Enhancer(s). If you encounter Dante, use

Raise,

Stop, or whatever normally works. This cave isn't too difficult to plow through.

You know what the cave looks like. If you have left all the chests alone (and I've been advising you to do so, haven't I?), they should now contain an Hi-Ether, an X-Potion, and a very awesome Relic

Hero's Ring. A Hero's Ring, rock on! Just walk to the other end; once you get there you'll notice it's blocked, but you'll also notice the Crimson Robbers know a way into Figaro Castle regardless.

Also: The guy once had a turtle.

After the Crimson Robbers have disappeared and has followed them, you're free to pursue both by jumping on the turtle. Use the action button for that. You can think back to the little daughter of the richest man in South Figaro again; this is the second time she's given good advice.

In the next room, you'll find an empty corridor with four chests that already have been looted. Darn that . Press on; we might be able to catch up with him.

In the next room, a crossroad! If you go up, you'll come across opening a chest. As soon as he spots you, he runs off with the contents of the chest, never ever to be seen again. You can't follow him; just let him go. If you press on you come across what appears to be a dead end; a hidden passage to the bottom lets you exit, though.

And then, the scenery changes.

2.8: Pursuing the Crimson Robbers: Figaro Castle and the Tentacles

Figaro Castle Basement
6/16	Humpty	4
5/16	Neck Hunter	2
5/16	Dante	1

Engine Room
6/16	Neck Hunter	2
5/16	Dropper	3
5/16	Cruller	1
5/16	Humpty	2

Enemies: Humpty, Cruller, Dropper, Neck Hunter, Dante, Tentacle 1, Tentacle 2, Tentacle 3, Tentacle 4

Party: Celes Optional: Sabin

Preparation: Keep the Relic

Peace Rings/ Relic

Ribbons from last chapter on.

As soon as you enter, relief will wash over you like a giant sea of...water. It's Figaro Castle. Gerad seems oddly sympathetic towards a swooning local before running off. Seriously, can we even still assume Gerad is not Edgar? But why this farce?

Dropper is probably Edgar's home-built security system or something, there's no other explanation of automatic mechanical beings here. They do nothing but use !Mad Signal every turn, which sets Confuse if you let it. If you use Fight to damage it, it'll counter with Battle. Accordingly, refrain from doing that and kill them with Magic spells (they're weak to Lightning-elemental attacks) and Blitz techniques.

Pushing onward will take you up the stairs, but you can't go out of the castle or to the exterior areas; we're submerged here, remember? The only choice is to walk into the engine room, which was hitherto forbidden territory. You'll come across Figaro soldiers all over; obviously, the lack of food and fresh air has taken its toll.

Simply ascending two stairways will take you into a room with four chests containing, from right to left, a Helmet

Crystal Helm (don't bother equipping it), a Rod

Gravity Rod, which is an Earth-elemental weapon that randomly casts

Graviga (what is it with Rods that new ones always appear when nobody can equip them?), an X-Potion, and an Hi-Ether. If you enter the door to the far left, you'll be able to go up some stairs, enter a door, and grab a Helmet

Royal Crown, which you should equip on Sabin if he is around.

Trace back your steps to the room with the four chests, and enter the middle door. Pass through the corridor and behold: the engine that drives Figaro Castle, its best-kept secret. However, the engine seems to be crawling with... something. It must be the source of Figaro Castle's inability to move around lately. The Crimson Robbers themselves seem rather worried by it.

Before you gently tap the shoulder of Gerad and kindly ask what the hell is going on here, you should know that this is the only room in the game where you can find Dropper enemies. Their Rage is useless and they are entirely uninteresting other than their elusive nature.

Talking to Gerad means the start of a boss battle, so let's prepare. Relic

Hermes Sandals will disable a large part of the boss' strategy, so equip them on both Sabin and Celes if possible. Relic

Reflect Rings and/or Relics that provide immunity to the Poison status will come in handy as well. Summoning Esper

Golem and/or Esper

Fenrir is a great idea, as is Esper

Siren. So, to sum up, a party looking like this will be quite prepared:

Celes
Weapon: Sword

Enhancer
Shield: Shield

Diamond Shield/ Shield

Mythril Shield
Helmet: Helmet

Mystery Veil
Armor: Armor

Diamond Armor
Relics: Relic

Reflect Ring and Relic

Hermes Sandals
Esper: Esper

Golem/

Siren/

Fenrir

Sabin
Weapon: Claw

Burning Fist
Shield: Shield

Diamond Shield/
Helmet: Helmet

Royal Crown
Armor: Armor

Diamond Vest
Relics: Relic

Reflect Ring and Relic

Hermes Sandals
Esper: Esper

Golem/

Siren/

Fenrir

This battle will always have you pincer the enemy. The first two characters in order will be to the right of the monsters, and the others will be to the left. If you have only Celes at this point, Edgar appear to the right with her.

Tentacle 1 Bestiary #311	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	33	5000	600	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	13	8	0	102	153	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
				None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control

Tentacle 2 Bestiary #310	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	31	7000	800	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	13	8	0	102	153	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control

Tentacle 3 Bestiary #313	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	34	4000	500	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	13	8	0	102	153	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness
				None
	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control

Tentacle 4 Bestiary #312	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	32	6000	700	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	13	8	0	102	153	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control
	Strategy
	What's the point of this battle? There are four Tentacles. It gets rather confusing because each Tentacle has its own set of status immunities and elemental properties. But there is one thing that all Tentacles have in common; the attacks they perform, of which the most noticeable is the Grab, the attack both !Stun and Entwine are centered around. What does Grab do? Grab seizes a character and renders it completely helpless. During a period of about 30 seconds, the Tentacle that used Grab holds the character and gradually drains his or her HP. It's a weird little formula. It's non-elemental and barrier-piercing and has a 5/8 chance of dealing about 60 HP of damage at each interval (which means that damage is taken less regularly if the Tentacle is slowed and more often if Hasted). Tentacles just use their normal attacks: Battle, !Stun to set Slow, Entwine as a multi-target means of setting Slow, Poison and Bio. If they're damaged, they have a 33% chance of countering with Battle. However, whenever a character is Slowed, a Tentacle will always use the Grab attack and will grab the character from which it drains HP. The Tentacle that has grasped a character doesn't perform attacks, and the character that is under a Grab cannot act. This lasts for about 30 seconds, at which point the Tentacle will use Release to remove all the effects of Grab. Slow was removed when the Grab attack was used. This is why Hermes Sandals are so nice: with inherent Haste, both !Stun and Entwine will never work and thus Celes and Sabin will never be Seized during the battle. Start the battle off by summoning one or both of your physical protection Espers, Fenrir and/or Golem; both protect against Battle and, more importantly, !Stun. Employ Edgar's Bioblaster to Poison up to three of the Tentacles. If one of your characters has Siren equipped, send her out to stop the Poison and Bio spells used by two of the Tentacles. Now that the multi-target offenses and defenses have been cast, it's time to kill off one Tentacle at a time. Cast Death on the bottom-left Tentacle to dispatch it instantly. Obviously, the newly acquired Banish also works, but Death's Hit Rate is superior and the Death spell is more MP-efficient. If you summoned Siren, the most dangerous Tentacle right now is the top-left Tentacle, as that's the only Tentacle capable of casting Poison and Bio. Cast Stop if you have it, and focus Edgar's Drill and Sabin and Celes's level 2 spells on it until it dies. If you didn't summon Siren, you should cast the Silence spell on both the bottom-right and top-right Tentacles to achieve the same effect. If this isn't an option, it's best to kill the most fragile Tentacle first: the bottom-right Tentacle. Drill and Blizzara will kill it very quickly. From this point, the remaining Tentacles are left to your imagination. Don't bother using Poisona when a character is Poisoned; the battle won't take that long, so sticking to Cura spells to keep your HP up will suffice. If Sabin knows Razor Gale, use it exclusively. Have Edgar focus on his Drill attacks, and keep Celes around to whip out a level 2 spell that won't be absorbed whenever possible (the lower left Tentacle is the only one that absorbs Blizzara; once you've used Death or Banish to dispatch it, this spell is your best elemental option). The fight against the Tentacles can be a pain, but only if you don't prepare properly. You'll pull through. Expand Full Strategy

When the battle is over, Edgar will explain his situation. If Sabin is around, he'll say "Don't treat us like strangers anymore!". The Crimson Robbers will flee the scene with their treasure, assuming that Gerad must have been eaten by the Tentacles. Edgar decides to let them go (the Japanese version's dialogue makes it clear that their 'booty' was useless rubbish anyway) and shows he wants to stop Kefka like the others.

As soon as you can move, equip Edgar with two nice Relics. His headgear will probably be the Helmet

Crystal Helm you picked up earlier; you can swap it with a Helmet

Green Beret or Sabin's Helmet

Royal Crown if you want.

In the treasure chamber, you'll see eight emptied chests. Looks like the Crimson Robbers had quite a lot of items taken from them by the Figaro law enforcement. On the armor in the middle, you can find a Sword

Soul Sabre, which is basically an MP-based version of the Sword

Blood Sword. It also has a 25% chance of casting

Death with every hit. There's no real reason to equip it, so let's get out.

When you emerge from the engine room, the old man who handles subterranean travel will say "Nonsense! It's been fixed! Next stop, the surface!" I always thought this was a weird line until I realized it's probably supposed to be a reply to Sabin's line said back by the engine.

Thus, Figaro Castle rises amidst the golden sand of Figaro Desert. But we've already seen there's nothing more to do here, so you might as well go ahead and take Figaro Castle to a shiny new continent: time to travel to Kohlingen once more.

2.9: Figaro Castle and the Road to Kohlingen

Desert
6/16	Cancer	3
5/16	Sandhorse	2
5/16	Sandhorse	1
5/16	Cancer	2

Grasslands
10/16	Marchosias	1
6/16	Mousse	1

Forest
6/16	Marchosias	1
6/16	Deepeye	2
5/16	Deepeye	6
5/16	Mousse	3

Wasteland
10/16	Bogy	2
6/16	Deepeye	2
6/16	Mousse	2

Enemies: Marchosias, Deepeye, Bogy, Mousse

Party: Edgar, Celes, Optional: Sabin

Welcome to Figaro Castle! It's been a rough day, so I suggest you take a nap for some free healing. If you didn't see the Figaro brothers cutscene earlier, Sabin will be off as soon as you advance up in the castle. At this point, a soldier will be stationed at each of the two towers, preventing you from entering until you've taken a nap. They're not being very subtle over at Square.

During the night, a cutscene will ensue. I won't bother describing it as it's mandatory. In short, childhood nostalgia grabs the Figaro brothers, and the memories of days long gone only strengthen their resolve to stop Kefka. One of the girls in the guest room will tell you about the Cult of Kefka. If ever a loved one of a person in the Cult would come to their aid, however, he or she might just snap out of it. Can't imagine that being helpful later on.

Item Shop: What can I say? If you need anything, grab it here. If you have Edgar as your leading party member, all purchases will be 50% off.

Weapon Shop: A new Tool is for sale here! If you didn't Steal a Tools

Debilitator during the battle against the Cranes or Air Force, the same thing can be got now for 5000 GP. And it's only 2500 GP if you have Edgar as the leading party member.

Whether or not you're still enjoying the sun of Figaro, it's time to take Figaro Castle to the other side of the ocean. When you arise and leave the castle, you'll notice three dots on your Map: one to the north and two to the west. To the north is Dragon's Neck Colosseum, which I'll discuss later. To the west, there's Kohlingen and Daryl's Tomb. The northern-most of these is Kohlingen, where you want to go next. Who knows what kind of interesting things are awaiting you there (Besides me, of course)! There's nothing for you now at Daryl's Tomb anyway; it's just a featureless bulge in the ground which offers no exciting activities. For now.

The Marchosias enemy looks pretty dangerous; the last time we saw a sprite that big on a random encounter was the dreaded Behemoth. Marchosias's a big wimp though, so no worries! It uses Battle, !Talon (Battle * 1.5, you shouldn't ever see it unless you're waiting for it as it may appear every fourth turn),

Aero, which admittedly hurts pretty badly (it's like a Wind-elemental multi-target level 3 spell), and

White Wind. With only 1500 HP, however, you should be able to kill it pretty quickly. It's weak to Wind-elemental attacks, so Sabin's Razor Gale technique gets the job done, as does the usual violence.

Deepeye is one of those odd monsters that begins by attacking you and proceeds to use Escape every other turn. Every first turn they will either lunge at you with Battle or let you sink into that hypnotizing eye of theirs, a process also known as !Dreamland (sets Sleep). And yes, every second turn means a 33% chance of Escape. Kill them all quickly with Fire-elemental attacks such as a multi-target

Fira spell and Rising Phoenix. The interesting thing about Deepeye is the fact they make for a Rage that uses the Dread attack, but the special property of Dread (only checks for Petrify protection, not instant death protection) isn't important right now, so I'll talk about it later.

Bogy is boring. !Growl (Battle power * 2) sounds kinda stupid too. Inherent Safe and immunity to instant death attacks makes the thing slightly durable, but, since Bogy is still incapable of accomplishing anything of significance against your party, you can just pound away until it dies.

In the end, it's fairly apparent that Mousse is as staggeringly dumb as 2006's Samuel L. Jackson flick 'Snakes on a Plane.' It may randomly use

Transfusion, and it may also respond with the move as a counter to your Magic spells. Mousse will never use

Transfusion when it's the last monster standing on the field: it will solely use Battle and !Venom (Japanese roots: Icky Sticky Goo) to set Slow in this scenario. Like Flan monsters, Mousse nulls the effect of every elemental attack that isn't Fire-, Ice- or Lightning- elemental.

In the end, the only attack that could hurt you (if protected by Clear) is Marchosias's

Aero, which can be marginalized by setting Mute or simply reacting quickly. Sabin's Rising Phoenix Blitz technique helps against the Deepeyes where his Razor Gale is very effective against Marchosias.

Now, Kohlingen! The last time you passed through here on a mission you were trying to find Terra. Right now, you're pretty much trying to find everybody. Kohlingen is another example of a city in despair. Nothing seems to work out anymore in this world. A few points of interest in Kohlingen:

A girl mentions a man with a 'quaint' way of talking passed through Kohlingen recently. This must be Cyan! It's good to hear that the guy is still kicking. We should pick him up when we have the chance, never mind his sub-par skills in combat!
To the north, a woman and a little girl are staring at a tile. They planted some seedlings there, and are trying to see if anything comes from it. Results so far have been disappointing. If you stand on the tile, they will reprimand you and you quickly jump off.
An old woman can show you a flashback of WoB Kohlingen. Ah, nostalgia...
A Narshe Guard tells you that Narshe has been forsaken and completely overrun by monsters. Poor Mog...
The old man who told you earlier of his crazy (younger, by the way) brother who wanted to build a Colosseum now praises him as a visionary; apparently, the Colosseum has been built! We should definitely check it out some day. Also, a mean guy is fighting there looking for a weapon called the Ichigeki. Handy info, lady. We're always looking for interesting new ways to be murdered.
Sadly for Celes, Locke isn't anywhere to be seen in Kohlingen. The man who preserves Rachel figures he's returned to his quest of finding the restoration relic to revive Rachel.

For all this, the main attraction in Kohlingen is waiting for you in the Pub, drinking his troubles away: Setzer Gabbiani. What was once a dashing pirate with more bravado than the entire city of Jidoor combined (a lot) is now a broken man burping into his wine and brooding over his lost wings.

Celes snaps him out of it; the sight of a beautiful woman hasn't lost its appeal for Setzer, apparently. Hope fills his heart, and he mentions another airship, in a tomb nearby. He shows you the way. We've got ourselves another mission!

On your way out, you run across the guard from Narshe again, who has also been inspired by Celes's words. The mysterious Esper that was dug up at the very start of the game is still in Narshe. We might just be able to wake it up and harness its power to use in the struggle against Kefka!

Item Shop: Buy a bunch of Holy Water potions; 20 is a nice amount of have. Surely, you have Relics to protect against Zombie so you don't need to heal the status, but you can never be too safe when it comes to Zombies. If Night of the Living Dead has taught us anything, by the gods, it is that.

Armor Shop: More of the same, but now that Setzer has joined your party you could use some more of the good stuff. I suggest you buy a Armor

Diamond Armor and a Shield

Diamond Shield; the Helmet

Green Beret is still a superior helmet to the Helmet

Diamond Helm, and doesn't cost you anything.

Weapon Shop: There are three weapons of interest here, and two new weapons for Setzer for sale! I'll discuss the Gambler

Dice last, as they require the largest introduction. The Gambler

Viper Darts has the X-type Instant Death ability, like the Dirk

Assassin's Dagger Dirk. The next dungeon will be crawling with Undead enemies, making the Gambler

Viper Darts entirely useless. They'll have some use in Colosseum though, so if you feel like going there in a moment, buy two. The Lance

Golden Spear could be bought earlier, but I advised against it as you would want the Sword

Enhancer, with its +7 Magic Power and +20% Magic Block. Since the Jump command is about to take a great power-up and Lances are, as opposed to the normal 50% boost, twice as effective with Jump, you'll probably want to pick up the Lance

Golden Spear now for Edgar. The Gambler

Dice are a very weird weapon. Allow me to pass judgment first; the Gambler

Dice are not worth it. The Gambler

Dice completely ignore any normal kind of physical damage formula (which is why they are always placed all the way down when choosing a Weapon in the Equipment screen). When attacking with the Gambler

Dice, two dice will be rolled on the target. The result of the dice determine the damage by taking the first die's value multiplied by the second die's value, multiplied by two, multiplied by Setzer's level. Sadly, the Gambler

Dice are rigged against Setzer, much like the Slot command is rigged against him: 1, 2, 3 and 4 have a 3/16 chance of being rolled, while 5 and 6 only have a 2/16 chance of being rolled.

Fighting with the Gambler

Dice makes for an unblockable, barrier-piercing attack (as the target's Defense isn't factored in the damage calculation whatsoever). While this will make the Gambler

Dice ideal in a bit, they are a poor choice of weapon as the damage output is consistently inferior to your normal weapons at this time.

You should buy one, though, as 5000 GP isn't that much and you'll want to use them before you get another chance to buy them. For now, move on.

2.10: Daryl's Tomb

First Room
10/16	Skeletal Horror	1
5/16	Borghese	2
1/16	Borghese	1
1/16	Cloudwraith	2

B2F
6/16	Malboro	1
6/16	Exoray	1
5/16	Cloudwraith	1
5/16	Exoray	3

B3F
6/16	Cloudwraith	1
6/16	Exoray	2
5/16	Malboro	1
5/16	Malboro	1
5/16	Exoray	1

Enemies: Borghese, Skeletal Horror, Malboro, Cloudwraith, Exoray, Angler Whelk, Dullahan

Party: Edgar, Celes, Setzer, Optional: Sabin

Preparation: The theme of the dungeon is Zombie! Of the five random encounter monsters present in this dungeon, four have the power to turn your characters into a Zombie. This is serious business, so you should definitely equip Relics to prevent this madness, even though the monsters here drop Revivifies like they're going out of style.

Skeletal Horror sure looks rather terrifying; he appears in my top 10 rather-not-meet-IRL list anyway, just below 2004 pop idol Ashlee Simpson. Skeletal Horrors have three attacks. Battle and !Moldy Bone (sets Zombie) should be obvious, but Crypt Dust is an entirely new attack. Crypt Dust sets Zombie, but only hits characters with the Wound status. In other words, it can only revive characters as Zombies. Used without intelligent AI script, it's almost always a wasted turn. Skeletal Horror is your run-of-the-mill undead opponent, weak against Fire and Holy and whatnot. No biggy.

Borghese looks awesome. Every turn, it can use up to three (Three!) !Zombie Touch attacks, which set Zombie. When damaged, it may retaliate with Battle; if harmed by Magic spells, a

Bio spell may be sent your way. Aside from their looks and awesome Zombifying skills, Borghese is rather boring. He's undead like almost everything in here, and has the normal weaknesses that accompany that status. May drop an Relic

Amulet (12.5% chance) as opposed to the standard Holy Water.

Cloudwraith's Special is called !Mysterious Dance and, in a shocking change of style, drains HP rather than setting Zombie. So, does Cloudwraith lack the power of Zombie-setting? Nay, not at all. The rarely seen Soul Extraction attack can target a single character and turn him or her into a Zombie. Yawn. Furthermore, Cloudwraith has '

Flare' written all over it, in its Rage, Sketch, and Control attacks. Luckily, Cloudwraith will never actively use it against you.

Exoray are the most common in here. They can use Battle, !Deadly Pollen (sets Zombie), and Venomist, but they will only use Venomist when alone. Since all characters should be covered by either Relic

Amulets or Relic

Ribbons, Venomist's Poisoning effect will be lost on you, leaving Exoray with a weak, inaccurate Poison-elemental attack. Stick to what works against them, as they are as undead as the rest.

The only living enemy in Daryl's Tomb is Malboro. They are the sturdiest of the monsters here and use, besides Battle and !Drool (sets Seizure),

Bad Breath, an attack that sets Dark, Poison, Imp, Mute, and Muddle. It can be learned by Strago in the future: don't worry, I'll address it again at that time. Even with an Relic

Amulet, this move will turn one of your characters into a sleeping Imp that cannot even cast the

Imp spell.

I suggest dual Claw

Burning Fists on Sabin, as he will be able to kill every target so long as he is at a remotely decent level, including Malboro. A Relic

Black Belt/ Sword

Organyx combo on Celes works very nicely (make sure she's in the Front Row here). If you didn't bother to grab the Sword

Organyx at the Colosseum, just give her an Relic

Earring Relic (or Relic

Hero's Ring, obviously) and spam

Fira spells all over the place. Edgar can use Tools to inflict consistent damage (give him dual Sword

Enhancers if you'd like). His Relic

Dragoon Boots/ Relic

Dragon Horn/ Lance

Golden Spear is less intelligent in this area as you'll need one of those Relic slots for an Relic

Amulet/

Ribbon. Setzer is the weakest link at the moment. GP Rain does more damage than Prismatic Flash/Chocobo Stampede with double Relic

Earring behind them, so if you ever wanted to use GP Rain now's the time. You can't logically have double Relic

Earring anyway, as you'll want an Relic

Amulet/

Ribbon in there somewhere. Don't attack with Setzer's Gambler

Viper Darts, as that will just revive every monster but Malboro (who is susceptible to its X-type Instant Death).

Push through the first room. Make sure you meet an Skeletal Horror here, as well as an Borghese. Both have acceptable Rages you might just want to use.

As soon as you enter the main chamber of the tomb, you'll notice you can go in five different directions. Oh, the choices! I'll tell you where you want to go though, so no worries. First, let's dive into the bottom-right path for some quick chesty action: it's a Helmet

Genji Helm, the strongest piece of heavy headgear in the game (and Crystal equipment hasn't even gone on sale yet!). Equip it on Setzer or Edgar; it even beats the disgustingly over-used Helmet

Green Beret.

Now, get into the top-right room. This looks like just a tombstone in a deserted room, but examine the tombstone and another passageway opens! It leads to a skeleton button of some sort. Push it to raise the water level in a room.

Trace back your steps to the main room, and dive into the bottom-left room. After coming across a chest ( Armor

Crystal Mail: something for Celes, Setzer, or Edgar), go down some stairs and continue to find another chest ( Armor

Regal Gown). The Armor

Regal Gown is a Relm-exclusive piece of Armor that, sadly, isn't all that good. You can bet it later for a Armor

Minerva Bustier bustier at the Colosseum though, which is pretty much the best armor option for several characters, including Celes. Enter the door to find yourself in a watery room with another skeleton button. Press it to open
a door you can't reach. Trace back to the main room, and go through the door in the middle, leading inwards...

...where you'll find another turtle! Had you not pushed skeleton button #1, you couldn't have stepped on the turtle. Now, the faithful reptilian carries you across.

On the other side, you'll be met with another skeleton button! Press it, and the water level of the room where you pushed the second skeleton button will rise to your aid, carrying with it another turtle. But don't hop on just yet. Go down for now, and the party will arrive in a room with four tombstones. Clockwise from the top left, they read: "ERAU", "QSSI", "WEHT" and "DLRO."

Collect all four inscriptions, and have a look at it. From bottom-right to top-left, backwards, it reads 'the world is square'. I've always found this to be the surprisingly beautiful jewel in the unholy and disgusting crown of Ted Woolsey. This is supposed to be the final revelation Daryl had while piloting her airship, the revelation that cost Daryl her life: not only is the Overworld Map in the shape of a square, which she might have seen from high above, but the name of the company that created the game was at the time also Square, which would make the world 'Square' as well.

In the Japanese version, it was an entirely different pun. One way, it read 'rest in peace'. The other way, it read 'rot and wither'. Very dark. Very gothic.

Go back to the main chamber, and find the top-left room. Had you examined the tombstone in this room earlier, upon choosing to carve something would have given you a "Nothing appropriate comes to mind..." Now, you get to choose between the four inscriptions you read earlier. Start from the beginning of the backwards sentence (THEW, OLRD, ISSQ, UARE) and you'll be rewarded with the Game Over music and the secret of the hidden Relic

Growth Egg in Daryl's Tomb:

"Find the ' Relic

Growth Egg' hidden in a back room in the third basement..."

Go to the room where you found the Armor

Regal Gown (bottom-left room, down the stairs) and find the hidden passage to the chest there. Obviously, this was an option from the start, but I always thought this puzzle was pretty neat and didn't want to spoil it for you!)

Go back to where you traced back for the inscriptions, and cross the water with the turtle. You'll enter a new room, with a Save Point and two chests. The right chest contains a Dirk

Man-Eater dirk.

The Dirk

Man-Eater deals double damage to every opponent with a humanoid appearance. There are some strange things that the game considers human.

Now, multi-target

Float your party, because the left chest contains a monster-in-a-box, Angler Whelk, which uses a ground-based attack. Make sure Float is set, and be sure to equip Esper

Catoblepas ( Esper

Golem's nice too).

2.11: Angler Whelk and Dullahan

Enemies: Angler Whelk, Dullahan

Party: Edgar, Celes, Setzer, Optional: Sabin

Angler Whelk Bestiary #314	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	19	9230	1600	1000	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	53	10	0	160	195	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			Common: Dragon Claws
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	1000 Needles			Control

Angler Whelk (Head) Bestiary #315	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	31	9845	1600	1000	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	75	7	0	80	150	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities

	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control
	Strategy
	There are a few oddities about this thing. First off, it's supposed to be a scary Ymir upgrade, a task at which it fails. Second, notice how the shell is Floating but the head isn't? The tale of a creature whose head was too heavy to carry hasn't been new since Catoblepas, but I've never seen it applied to a snail before. Angler Whelk also made an appearance in the 1996 Square game 'Bahamut Lagoon', which never hit the shores of America. Same name, same sprite, has a tendency to appear when you destroy buildings with Thunder-techs. Also, the game designers made a little mistake we're going to exploit here; we were never supposed to obtain more than one Dragon Claws from this fight, but we're getting two. Just watch me. The AI script of the head is simple. If you damage the head two times, it'll retract into its shell, disappearing from the battlefield. It'll remain there for 20 seconds, at which point is comes out again. It'll use Battle, !Petriblast, El Nino, and Megavolt without causing itself any difficulties, so be ready for any of them at all times. The shell attacks by itself, and is no longer just an auto-counter dummy. Battle, Megavolt, and 1000 Needles may appear at all times, of which 1000 Needles should be watched for especially. When the head has retracted, it'll stop using its normal attacks and switch over to Magnitude 8. Whenever the shell is damaged, it has a 33% chance at retorting with Gigavolt. The strategy we're aiming for is simple. If one of the parts dies, the other one dies as well, but will NOT give us the item. Thus, if we want both sets of Dragon Claws (and we certainly do, as Angler Whelk is the only source for Dragon Claws in the game), we have to kill them both at the same time. First, our defenses! If you didn't cast Float earlier, do so at the start of the battle. Zona Seeker helps against Megavolt, Gigavolt, and El Nino. Golem and/or Fenrir protect against Battle and !Petriblast. You could have Celes on Runic stand-by for Megavolt and Gigavolt, but it's not worth it. Now, let's kill this snail. Since both targets are susceptible to Instant Death attacks and Petrify, the two best strategies are using Banish and using Catoblepas's Demon Eye. However, we don't want to take any chances, do we? First, if you have the Vanish spell, cast it on the shell to ensure that Banish/Demon Eye will hit it. Remember, this is not a bug exploit; the shell is susceptible to instant death attacks, and setting Clear just makes sure the intended move hits, exactly what it was always supposed to do. Sadly, we can't apply Sleep or Stop to make sure Banish/Demon Eye works on the head, because both attacks check for the target's Stamina (in which case those steps are ignored). So, we'll just have to take our chances here. Since Demon Eye is more accurate than Banish, it takes precedence. If the head is missed, I suggest you reload the game. Expand Full Strategy

When you're done, equip both Claw

Dragon Claws on Sabin. They are Holy-elemental, so they still do massive damage to everything in the tomb. Not that it's really that big of a deal now, since we're about to leave it; in the next room, we finally come across the tombstone of Daryl herself. Examining it triggers a boss battle, which in my opinion is one of the better yet more repetitive boss battles of this game.

Before you enter the fight, I want you to throw around your equipment and Relics, as Dullahan (the boss) is rather tough and entirely unlike the random encounters you've been facing so far.

If you have a Dragon Horn, throw it on Edgar with some . Equip a Golden Spear. Put him in the Back Row.
The boss is weak against Fire-elemental attacks, so Sabin's dual Burning Fists are actually preferred here. Give him a Hero's Ring (or Gigas Glove) and Hermes Sandals to accompany the bashing.
Celes' Organyx/Black Belt set-up, if you were using it earlier, will be useless. The battle will require that she use Runic almost non-stop, so equip her defensively. Dual Enhancers are a good choice. Since Dullahan is pretty fast, I suggest Hermes Sandals on Celes to keep up with his spell casting.
Setzer should just run utility. Give him the Heiji's Jitte to make sure he can just do constant damage when he doesn't need to do anything else. Two sets of Earring and the Slot command also do the trick, but this isn't nearly as strong at this point and wastes more Relic slots.

Also, make sure that none of your characters possess a level that is evenly divisible by the last digit of your party's gold. I'll explain why later.

Dullahan Bestiary #316	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	37	32450	1721	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	55	7	10	130	160	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	Common: Genji Glove Rare: X-Potion			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control
	Strategy
	Dullahan is a stud. Although he looks like he'd rather impale you with that lance of his any day, he's almost exclusively a spell caster with inherent Haste. Both his spells and Magic Power are relatively strong, so expect a challenge here. The boss' name comes from an ancient spirit from Irish mythology: a headless horseman who only travels to collect somebody's life. His carriage is made of bone, his horses have flaming eyes, and he will stop at nothing... Dullahan always starts the battle off with Lv. ? Holy. This is a strong Holy-elemental attack, in terms of power similar to level 3 spells. Its drawback is that it will only hit targets whose level is divisible by the last digit of your GP. This is why I told you to make sure that it never hits; it will leave quite a mark if it does. Under normal circumstances, he'll just focus on his three main spells: namely, Blizzara, Blizzaga, and Holy. When he detects any characters in your party with the Reflect status, he'll use Reflect ??? on your entire party. It will display "Holy cast if level is divisible by ?.", setting Dark, Mute, and Slow on every character with the Reflect status. If he dives beneath 10240 HP, he'll use Cura instantly. If he passes through four normal turns, he'll regain the ability to cast Reflect ??? and/or Cura if the situation calls for it. Finally, there is a 33% chance that it will counter your attack with Battle. Oh, my. After damaging him eight times, he'll get four turns where he will use some of his nastier spells. Blizzara and Lv. ? Holy can make another appearance, but so can !Morning Star, Absolute Zero, and Northern Cross. You can't Runic your way out of these new spells, which makes them harder to stop. Northern Cross, while being vulnerable to Runic, is the most dangerous of the five. Northern Cross sets the Freeze status ailment, which you might have already encountered in the fight against Naude, who could set it with Freezing Dust. Northern Cross is multi-target, but uses an 'interesting' way to determine whether it hits or not. After the game checks if Northern Cross is blocked (after looking for Clear, Magic Block, the usual), it randomly misses from 0 to 4 characters. This ensures that even when all characters are normally hit by the move, you'll almost never see a party entirely frozen. That is good, as it's basically mega-Stop and there is no way to protect against it at all. Remember that the fastest way to dispel the Freeze status is to hit the party with a Fire-elemental attack; the Fire spell is obviously the best one. There are two strategies you can employ. I'll list them both, as both should be perfectly fail-safe if you know what you're doing. Here they are: Strategy #1: Hit Points This is the strategy where we use violence to end Dullahan. First off, let's set up our available defenses. Zona Seeker is nice should Absolute Zero make an appearance, as is Golem or Fenrir for !Morning Star and Battle counters. Have Celes use Runic, continuously. If she isn't wearing Hermes Sandals, make sure you cast the Haste spell on her. Now, let's get to the violence! Your main damage dealers here are Sabin and Edgar. Sabin should be in the Front Row with two Burning Fists. If Celes isn't busy with absorbing one of Dullahan's spells, sneak a Berserk spell on Sabin for increased damage. If Edgar is equipped with the Dragon Horn, have him Jump. If not, stick to Tools; you can see what I want to do with him. Setzer should just stand by and use Hi-Potions on hurting characters. Since Celes should pretty much absorb all of Dullahan's attacks, you should be safe in that regard. In the end, you should prevail. Strategy #2: Magic Points Dullahan dies if you rasp away his MP. Thus, the entire offensive arsenal required for this strategy is Rasp. The advantage of the strategy is that if you have two to four Rasp casters, you'll find that the battle is over far more quickly. Its downside is that it does require two to four Rasp casters, and that, since Rasp is vulnerable to Runic, you can't protect yourself against Dullahan's attacks and will, consequently, have to regularly heal. On a normally leveled party, I find both strategies equally satisfying; it's your pick, really. Expand Full Strategy

After you've defeated Dullahan, a passageway will be opened. Walk behind the tombstone to enter the final part of this dungeon, a long stairway leading downwards that is as much descending into Setzer's memory as into any physical location...

The scenes to follow tell the story of two rivaling friends. Setzer was about 18 here; not yet a gambler, but an airship enthusiast with the dream of building the fastest ship in the world: A dream he shared with his friend Daryl. Sadly, Daryl pulled an Icarus on Setzer and wrecked herself, together with her airship, the Falcon. Upon ascending from the waters, Celes will spot - gasp - a bird. In the sky! A bird - of all places - in the sky! This must be an omen. She quickly urges you to follow it, to the town of Maranda. So Setzer does.

When you fly around, there's a chance you'll be attacked by the monster called Deathgaze. Deathgaze will drop the Esper

Bahamut Magicite, which teaches the

Flare spell. There's no reason to not obtain these skills right away, but it's better to get some new equipment before you take the guy on. If you want to know about Deathgaze now, take a look at our Deathgaze guide. Make sure that you save ASAP once you get the Falcon, since you never know when an unprepared party might meet up with this flying fiend.

Another important note: if you really, truly want to gain access to Gau, that can be done now or any time in the future. All you have to do is get rid of a party member, fly over to the Veldt and meet him there. However, how do you tell a party member to buzz off without his/her feelings? If you have a Teleport Stone or a character with the

Teleport spell, fly over to Kekfa's Tower, descend into it and warp out. Setzer will be piloting the Falcon by himself now, and you can go below deck to assemble a team of your choosing. There you go.

2.12: Airship Exploration: Visiting Maranda

Party: Edgar, Celes, Setzer, Optional: Sabin

Welcome to Maranda. The last time you visited Maranda, it was one of the occupied towns and generally featureless. For all intents and purposes, it's pretty much the same - featureless, save for Lola, the girlfriend of the wounded lad in Mobliz. A lot of random information is blurted out by the townspeople here. A thief mentions he visited the tower of the Cult of Kefka, and one of them used to mumble 'to the right of the treasure chest' in his sleep. Since none of the thieves ever made it past the first room, we should examine that place should we ever get there.

The bird Celes saw turned out to be a carrier pigeon for Lola; according to Aishya, the girl running circles below Lola's house, she's been receiving a lot of letters lately. Once you enter her house, you find dozens of silk flowers here. Also, you'll notice a letter seemingly written by the wounded lad in Mobliz, though we know that to be impossible. Somebody must be posing as him. Accept the 'mission' of sending a carrier pigeon out as a reply so we can track the source of this imposter.

The pigeon flies across the ruined lands of this new world until it reaches a town to the north of Jidoor, and although the world map has changed a lot, this town can be none other than Zozo.

Before leaving, enjoy the shops.

Weapon Shop: You've already found a Rod

Gravity Rod, and since it was entirely uninteresting back then I'm sure you can figure out by yourself that you really don't need another one. The Dirk

Swordbreaker is a new Dirk not suited for any of your characters. The thing does give you quite a bump to Evade, though! The Sword

Falchion is useless as-is too, but there's one large reason why you should buy Sword

Falchions. You see, they can be bet at the Colosseum for Shield

Flame Shields. And Shield

Flame Shields can be bet for Shield

Ice Shields. So ideally, you'll just buy four of them and transform all of them into Shield

Flame Shields (you don't really need Shield

Ice Shields if you have Shield

Flame Shields as Shield

Flame Shields nullify Ice-elemental attacks). Forget about the Skeans for a moment; you have nobody to Throw them now anyway.

Armor Shop: Maranda features Crystal equipment! Excellent! Buy two Shield

Crystal Shields if you don't want to go for Shield

Flame Shields at the Colosseum later on, and two pieces of Armor

Crystal Mail as well. Equip them on those that can use it. The Helmet

Oath Veil is probably supposed to be the ultimate girly helmet, but since it's inferior to both the Helmet

Circlet and the Helmet

Mystery Veil, just leave it. A nice set of Armor

Black Garb is great for Sabin. The Armor

Magus Robe is pretty much the programmer's solution to the fact that Strago and Relm really didn't get any store-bought pieces of armor (monster hides like Armor

Chocobo Suits and Armor

Tabby Suits are never store-bought). Also, it's the ultimate equipment for a character not yet introduced, but we'll discuss that more once we get there. The Armor

Crystal Mail is boring-yet-superior to Armor

Diamond Armor, so get that for characters who still carry around that ancient piece of rubbish.

2.13: Airship Exploration: Finding Duncan and Moving On

Party: Edgar, Celes, Setzer Optional: Sabin

We have our wings back! And as opposed to the last time we were provided with an improved transportation situation, we now have almost the entire world left to explore. The story obviously directed us to Maranda, but not only is there so much to do before following the carrier pigeon to Zozo, some of it is even easier than the quest we were put on in Maranda. So, allow me to give you some pointers as to where you want to go first.

Duncan is alive! His wife told us that, and Sabin probably is anxious to see his old master again and hear how everything went down. Duncan's wife told us that Duncan was meditating north of Narshe. If you can't find Narshe right now, it's on the continent to the north of the 'head' of the Serpent Trench. Narshe, like it was before, is a dent in the mountains on the map. To the northeast of Narshe, you can find five trees on the map that form a Greek cross (+). Duncan is located in the middle tree.

If you bring Sabin here, Duncan will come out and laugh off Sabin's worries. He'll then proceed to teach Sabin the eighth and final Blitz technique, the ultimate martial arts attack: Phantom Rush. Sabin would have learned to perform it himself at level 70, but this sure is quicker. Phantom Rush is, contrary to what you would believe, a magical attack, meaning that it can (and should) be boosted by Relic

Earring. It's barrier-piercing and non-elemental and extremely strong, far surpassing anything the rest of your party can do right now (except maybe a lucky 4-hit combo with the Relic

Dragon Horn, but Phantom Rush has consistency). The Japanese game calls it the "Illusion Battle Dance", which, as you would expect is a lot cooler sounding than its American incarnation.

If you go to Duncan with a party lacking Sabin, you'll see him jumping around: "Look out! Move! Cough...wheeze... Darn this old body... Hey...you deaf?" By accessing the menu when Duncan has leapt once or twice, you can make him restart; this way, you can have him jump into the black void around his house... Man, that's way deep down Lewis Carroll's rabbit hole if you ask me.

Next, let's return to the Solitary Island. Seems like it's already been a while already, doesn't it? After meeting Cid on the Solitary Island, you'd think he would grab the opportunity to fly over to civilized areas; you can't take him, however. If he lives, he'll just continue to walk around his little cabinet like a senile. If he died, his letter is still there. Who would've moved it? Then again, who put it there in the first place? Mysteries.

Time to ponder them over at the beach. But gasp, something has washed ashore: A piece of Magicite! 'Tis Esper

Quetzalli, one the greatest summons the game has to offer aside from being a great tutor of the

Hastega spell. You'll like it.

Let's fly over to Jidoor for a moment now. Jidoor is still a thriving town, filled with people who find the end of the world a moderate inconvenience and an interesting new art theme. I don't think it requires any sort of impoverished background to hate these guys with a passion. Walking around town, you hear that the bird you saw earlier is one of the many carrier pigeons that have been flying to Maranda lately. Way back, when the world was still a shining square of happiness, Sabin and Cyan met up with a wounded lad in Mobliz who corresponded with his girlfriend in Maranda by means of these feathered friends. Sadly, Mobliz was hit by the Light of Judgment, and the wounded lad was killed.

The other story of the day is concerning Owzer. Something is up with the guy; he had a fine new painter arrive at his house - a little girl. Could this be our little Relm Arrowny? If you let Shadow live on the Floating Continent, you can already dive into Owzer's Mansion for the answer to that question, a dungeon, a boss, a new Esper and a character regained. I've got it planned for later times. For now, you'll want to buy a few things here and move on.

Weapon Shop: Interesting new weapons here! Allow me to describe them. You are familiar with the Dirk

Man-Eater. When fighting certain foes, a double Dirk

Man-Eater strike will be superior to whatever else you currently have, but these foes are generally not too much to worry about to begin with, so buying another one would probably be just a waste of money. The Lance

Partisan is superior to the Lance

Golden Spear, which means an upgrade for our new Dragoon Edgar. Buy one. The Sword

Crystal Sword is just another plain sword whose base power is inferior to the Sword

Organyx but superior to the Sword

Enhancer; it doesn't give any stat boosts and there's no real reason to attack with it. The only interesting feature about the Sword

Crystal Sword sword is that General Leo equipped it when he fought Kefka. Stick to Sword

Enhancers or the Sword

Organyx/

Black Belt combination.

The final weapon is the Special

Sniper. It's an upgrade over the Special

Hawkeye, with the same 50% chance of doing 1.5 times as much damage against normal enemies and triple damage against enemies with the Float status. While it's a great weapon, nobody can use it at the moment, so just forget it for now.

Conclusion: Buy a Lance

Partisan, than leave.

Armor Shop: The Helmet

Circlet is a nice Helmet with an all-round stat boost: +2 Vigor, +1 Speed, +3 Stamina and +4 Magic Power (which really is the only important one). Everybody can equip one, but everybody with one exception should have superior Helmets at this moment (Celes's Helmet

Mystery Veil, Edgar/Sabin's Helmet

Royal Crown, Helmet

Genji Helm), so just buy one and stick it on the unfortunate sap who was still using that ancient Helmet

Green Beret. The Helmet

Black Cowl is rubbish, superior to the Helmet

Circlet in Defense by 1 single point and inferior to it in all other ways. Forget about the Helmet

Crystal Helm as well. A set of Armor

Black Garb for Sabin is nice, though. In short: buy one Helmet

Circlet and a set of Armor

Black Garb if you didn't buy Armor

Black Garb earlier in Maranda.

Item Shop: They have one.

Relic Shop: The interesting new Relic called ' Relic

Protect Ring' sets Safe on your character. Basically, the Relic cuts the damage of physical attacks by 1/3, always. Sadly, physical attacks are past their prime at this stage of the game, so its usefulness is kind of low. If you like the thought of a physical powerhouse who can withstand all blows, buy and equip one to whomever you feel should benefit; you're better off focusing on offense though.

If you plan to use Gau, there's something you can do to make absolutely sure you get one of his best Rages relatively quickly; enter Owzer's Mansion, read the diary if you want, turn on the lights near the stairs and examine the flower painting for a fight with three Rafflesia enemies. This only applies if Shadow survived the Floating Continent; if he didn't, the house will just be lit and empty for now. More information is relevant only when you tackle the whole mansion.

The Auction House got a makeover! New items are for sale here. No longer will that talking Chocobo bother you. Sadly, two new useless items have been added to the collection: an Imp robot and 1/1200 of an airship. Debates rage over whether this is a piece of the Blackjack or a scale model of an airship; obviously it's the latter, but what you want to see in it is up to you. Doesn't matter; you cannot buy either of these items. The reason you're here is the Relic

Hero's Ring. You can only buy one Relic

Hero's Ring here, for 50000 GP. The Relic

Zephyr Cloak is also exclusive at the moment, but since the Relic

Zephyr Cloak is more expensive here than in WoR Nikeah (3000 GP more expensive, in fact), don't bother shooting for it here. Once you buy the Relic

Hero's Ring, it won't appear again. If you didn't buy the Espers earlier, you'll want to do that now, too, although I don't see why you should've skipped on that earlier.

The auctions follow a script:

There's a 50% chance the item up for bidding is the Excalipoor. If you already bought it earlier, or the item isn't the Excalipoor, or if you didn't talk to the NPC outside who mentioned the sword, continue.
There's a 50% chance the item up for bidding is a Hero's Ring. If you already bought it earlier, or the item isn't the Hero's Ring, continue.
Next, there's a 50% chance it's a 1/1200 of an airship. You can never buy this 'item' no matter how much you pay, as the father will always buy it. Continue.
Next, there's a 50% chance it's the Golem Magicite! Nice. Try to buy it. If you already bought it earlier, or the item isn't Golem, continue.
After that, there's a 50% chance it's the Zona Seeker Magicite. Good. If you already bought this item, or if it still isn't this item, we continue.
Finally, there's a 50% chance it's a Zephyr Cloak. If you already bought this item, or if it's not the Zephyr Cloak, continue.
If it's none of the above, it's an Imp Robot, end of story and script. You can never buy the Imp Robot, as the father will always buy it.

That script can be a little hard to follow as you try to do the math around what you have and have not purchased. To be more explicit, if you haven't bought any of the pieces of Magicite, and haven't unlocked the Sword

Excalipoor yet, the odds will be as following:

Hero's Ring: 50%
1/1200 Airship: 25%
The Magicite Golem: 12.5%
The Magicite Zona Seeker: 6.25%
Zephyr Cloak: 3.125%
Imp Robot: 3.125%

If you bought both Espers, but not yet the Relic

Hero's Ring:

Hero's Ring: 50%
1/1200 Airship: 25%
Zephyr Cloak: 12.5%
Imp Robot 12.5%

If you bought the Relic

Hero's Ring and both Espers:

1/1200 Airship: 50%
Zephyr Cloak: 25%
Imp Robot 25%

Yeah, that means you can completely raid the WoR Auction House until nothing but useless junk is left. Don't worry; if another person buys a piece of Magicite, the Relic

Hero's Ring or the Relic

Zephyr Cloak, it will have a chance of appearing next time you pay the Auction House a visit. Since it's not a real auction, the "bids" required to win are as follows:

Excalipoor: 500000 GP
Hero's Ring: 50000 GP
The Magicite Golem: 20000 GP
The Magicite Zona Seeker: 10000 GP
Zephyr Cloak 10000 GP

That means, by the way, that the Relic

Zephyr Cloak is ridiculously overpriced in the Auction House, as it's just 7000 GP from the small merchant in Nikeah. If you don't have enough money, fly the Falcon to the desert south of Maranda, where you'll be able to make a lot of quick cash.

2.14: First Visit to the Fanatics Tower

Party: Edgar, Celes, Setzer Optional: Sabin

In Figaro Castle, we heard about the Cult of Kefka. It seems they have erected a giant tower in Kefka's honor, located in the middle of the Serpent Trench. From thieves you've heard there are treasures unheard of up there, but that getting there is going to be rough. Trying to climb the tower right now would be stupid, but we can stop by for a look at least, right?

One of our former party members is there! Strago Magus has lost his heart in despair at the state of the world and the apparent loss of his granddaughter. Now one of the Cult of Kefka, he doesn't respond to you at all. We heard earlier that a loved one should be able to break through this self-inflicted barrier. If we could manage to find Relm, we should bring her over here to see if we can break the spell on Strago.

The thieves here are sitting at the foot of the tower, not because they think Kefka is their Speshul Boi but rather because of the treasures on the tower; so close, yet so far... It's revealed the most wondrous thing is at the very top, and one of the thieves offers you a secret for the insane sum of 100,000 GP. Don't pony up the cash, he tells you just two things: one, that there's an ancient castle below the surface of the Figaro desert which is loaded with treasure; two, that an old man in the Weapon Shop in Narshe has been looking for the remnants of the Returners.

Time to check up on the last still-populated city we haven't been to yet: Thamasa!

2.15: Thamasa

Party: Edgar, Celes, Setzer Optional: Sabin

Sadly, neither Strago nor Relm is present (as you should already know if you're following the walkthrough), so all we can do here is take a look at the equipment they have to offer and talk to the townspeople.

One woman mentions how Ebot's Rock is above water. As soon as we can convince Strago back on our side, we should bring him back to Thamasa to investigate that - he has a history with that rock. There's another mention of Deathgaze, but that's about it. Pay your respects to General Leo's grave for a moment, and then go shop.

Armor Shop: Do you remember I told you about the Armor

Magus Robe? Well, the Armor

Luminous Robe is like the Armor

Magus Robe, only inferior in every single way. Do I hear somebody say 'redundant'? Yes, I believe I do. It was me. If you want to have as many Items as possible, buy one. If not, don't. All other items are familiar to you.

Weapon Shop: Like all Brushes, the Brush

Da Vinci Brush is about as useful as a 'hurt me' sign in a boxing match. You can buy one or two extra Rod

Holy Rods as they make great equips for Strago and Relm once you get them and everybody can break them (there's actually a brilliant moment to break Rod

Holy Rods, against Deathgaze). All the other weapons have been previously revealed to you. You should also buy some

Fuma Shurikens; they turn into nice items at the Colosseum, and make for great attacks when you obtain Shadow. 99

Fuma Shurikens are actually *less* costly than that single Relic

Hero's Ring you purchased in Jidoor, so don't feel too irresponsible when you overstock on them.

Relic Shop:
Rings! Rings! For the love of God, they have every Ring Relic available. Except for Relic

Hero's Rings. And Relic

Thief's Bracers. And Relic

Memento Rings. And Relic

Cursed Rings. And Relic

Berserker Rings. And Relic

Lich Rings. Oh shucks, so they don't have every Ring Relic available. Give me some credit for distracting you from noticing that I don't have anything useful to say about this Relic Shop!

Item Shop:Hi-Potions! Hi-Potions! For the love of... I'm not getting away with this trick again, am I? How about another movie quote concerning consuming items? Choose Hi-Potions. Choose a chest. Choose a command. Choose Smoke Bombs, Armor

Crystal Mail and matching Helmets. Choose your future. But why would anyone want to do a thing like that?

Now, get out. It's time for one more trip to the Colosseum before we dive into an actual dungeon for a change.

2.16: Narshe

Narshe
5/16	Lukhavi	1
5/16	Garm	2
5/16	Garm	3
5/16	Test Rider	1
1/16	Lukhavi	2

Northern Mine & Western Mine 1st Cave
10/16	Magna Roader (Yellow)	2
10/16	Magna Roader (Brown)	1
6/16	Magna Roader (Yellow)	1
6/16	Magna Roader (Brown)	2

Western Mines
5/16	Wizard	3
5/16	Wizard	2
5/16	Psychos	3
5/16	Garm	2
5/16	Psychos	2
1/16	Psychos	6

Enemies: Test Rider, Wizard, Lukhavi, Psychos, Magna Roader (Yellow), Magna Roader (Brown), Garm

Party: Edgar, Celes, Setzer Optional: Sabin

A Note of Reminder: The story wanted you to go to Maranda and follow the pigeon to Zozo, and I sent you around the world to optimize your equipment, learn Phantom Rush, and so on, and so forth. I haven't sent you into any dungeon. However, for various reasons, I believe it's better gameplay-wise to dive into Narshe first and get down in Zozo second. You get Mog and an entirely new (and hidden) character, access to level 3 spells, and a Relic that allows you to circumvent random encounters, giving you access to some items that you weren't supposed to obtain yet. It's really a sweet deal all in all, but you ignore the story flow here, and miss out on one little detail of the story as well (which I'll give when the time comes, since you won't be able to actually watch it on-screen).

Whom to bring? People with Ice-elemental protection from a source other than shields are preferred (if you don't have enough shields to cover for the entire party). The Armor

Minerva Bustier (Celes, Terra) or Armor

Snow Scarf (Gau, Mog) are examples. Otherwise, characters that can deal strong Fire-elemental damage will be good to have along.

Everything started with Narshe and its Esper. Although the Esper itself is still residing in the snowy mountains, Narshe has changed a lot. Arvis is most likely dead; we haven't heard from him since the Empire backstabbed you while Terra and Locke were searching for the Espers near Thamasa. The Narshe Guards, always a force of justice, have been utterly destroyed.

Lukhavis don't absorb Ice-elemental attacks. They don't even use them. They're just silly Battle/!Claw Swipe cannon fodder. They have inherent Safe, so they're more or less similar to those Bogy enemies you encountered earlier. The way to go is multi-target magical attacks; Lukhavis are weak against Fire-elemental attacks.

The same goes for Garm. Attacks include Battle and !Bodyslam (Battle * 1.5). They will, to me, be forever infamous due to the fact that they are one of the two monsters that give a Battle/Special Rage with Death Protection. They are entirely uninteresting as opponents, however.

Test Rider is another Battle/Special opponent. Its Special is !Golden Lance (Battle * 3). Much like the enemy that shares its palette, Hell's Rider, Test Rider will counter Steal (and Capture as well, in this case) attempts with a ! Lance

Golden Spear strike. There really isn't a good reason to try to steal its items (a rare Lance

Partisan) and Test Rider certainly won't be doing anything with it. When Sketched, Controlled, or Raged, Test Rider will suddenly have been granted access to Flash Rain, but it will never use this move on your party in a random encounter.

The Magna Roader (Brown) is inherently Hasted like the Magna Roader (Red) was. The first turn consists of either Battle or !Bodyslam (Battle * 2) and you'll see Fire-elemental spells (Fire or

Fira) employed in the second. Due to a bug, the Magna Roader (Brown) takes over a part of another monster's AI script (Coeurl Cat), causing it to counter all types of attack with a chance at Battle. On rare occasions it can also counter with Fire Ball when damaged while alone.

The Magna Roader (Yellow) lacks the Magna Roader (Purple)'s pre-set Safe. What's left is a monster that's all facade and only possesses skill in the field of rolling over and dying. It uses physicals in the first turn (33% !Wheel) and Ice spells in the second (

Blizzard and

Blizzara).

Wizards are annoying. They are mages in the classical sense of the word, almost exclusive spell casters that sport low Defense and high Magic Defense. Wizards use annoying tactics; they can cast

Silence or

Osmose (first turn),

Rasp or

Stop (second turn), or

Confuse or

Sleep (third turn). When they are hit by a spell themselves, they can counter with !Fallen Footsteps, which sets Zombie. They're also remarkable for their items: they have a common Rod

Ice Rod and a rare Rod

Thunder Rod for stealing and a rare Rod

Flame Rod drop. They're the only source for these three elemental Rods in the WoR (apart from the rare Rod

Ice Rod found on the Specter enemy on the Veldt...bleh).

A Psychos is a coalescence of psychic energy. And they hate you. The thing to remember about them is that they absorb Fire; none of your current massive damage dealers deal Fire-elemental damage so this shouldn't really be a problem, but now you can't say I didn't warn you. Ice is their weakness. I'd like to make some neat brain freeze puns, but I can't think of any. Just do it.

Lv. 4 Flare works on every single one of the above enemies! Sadly, you lack access to the Lore command if you've been following along. Instead, Sabin's Razor Gale should be pumped up as much as possible (you probably already had an Relic

Hero's Ring/ Relic

Earring combo on Sabin, but if you hadn't this is the time to make it so). It kills and/or severely cripples most enemies here, and those that remain can be taken care of with Edgar's Tools

Flash, a multi-target level 2 spell, or whatever. Test Rider and Psychos are the only notable exceptions; you're better off with a

Bio spell or with the

Rasp spell against Test Rider (Test Rider dies when its MP reaches 0), and a multi-target

Blizzara spell is the way to go when you're facing large Psychos groups.

Before you go into the derelict city of Narshe, you can visit the Classroom for some free healing. That's just nice. We were told that the owner of the Weapon Shop was looking for us. Sadly, the door is locked, and as Lone Wolf told us, only a treasure hunter could pick that lock. Lacking Locke, we can do nothing but leave the town of Narshe again and dive into its mines; perhaps Mog is still around, and perhaps he is even willing to offer us his help.

Remember how you snuck into the town of Narshe with Terra, Edgar, and Banon and came across the Moogles in the process? We're going to do just that. Just follow the path; there are no new surprises. The Security Checkpoint is gone, however. Eventually you'll come across Mog. After Mog says he's a friend of the sasquatch that you could have spotted during the World of Balance, the screen fades to black for a while. If you had three characters, Mog will now be in your party; if you had four characters, he'll be waiting for you at the Falcon. If this happened (and it most likely did, as you've been a good boy), go find the Falcon and switch Mog with whomever you want out of your party. Honestly, I think Setzer is the weakest link at this point, but as Mog makes a great Dragoon, you can switch one Dragoon with another and leave Edgar back at the airship.

Once ready to proceed, examine the wall Mog was staring at when you found him. You'll receive the Relic

Molulu's Charm, a little crystal ball given to Mog by his now deceased girlfriend, Molulu. No wonder our little furry friend was lost in thought...

The Relic

Molulu's Charm is a great relic. It has no use in-battle whatsoever, but it does grant you one small thing; it allows you to circumvent random battles entirely. A time-saving blessing for every player and downright salvation for those playing on a Sony console, the Relic

Molulu's Charm certainly also has a tactical use: you can dive into dungeons and grab great items that you weren't supposed to receive until you were man enough to actually tackle the dungeon itself. When put into practice, this usually means the items of the Fanatics Tower (except for the prized object at the very top of it) and a lot of items from Kefka's Tower are now within your grasp, many hours of gameplay early.

If you left the Sword

Rune Blade in the WoB, grab the Relic

Ribbon in the chest in this room.

Armed with Mog, it's time to head into the mountains and locate the dormant Esper that you haven't been able to properly contact since the beginning of the game. Head out of the mines and head into the mountains, like you did when you first tried to rescue Mog. Exit by the normal exit, which leads into Arvis' old house. On your way, you should pass two chests. If you didn't rob them of their contents earlier, they should contain an Elixir and a Relic

Guard Bracelet, which is a poor man's version of the Relic

Miracle Shoes (it only sets Safe and Shell, which the Relic

Miracle Shoes can set in addition to Haste and Regen).

2.17: Narshe Snowfields

Formations
5/16	Wizard	3
5/16	Wizard	2
5/16	Psychos	3
5/16	Garm	2
5/16	Psychos	2
1/16	Psychos	6

Enemies: Test Rider, Wizard, Lukhavi, Psychos, Magna Roader (Yellow), Magna Roader (Brown), Garm, Valigarmanda, Ice Dragon

Party: Edgar, Celes, Setzer Optional: Sabin

If you want to abuse the Relic

Molulu's Charm now, skip ahead. Don't worry; both dungeons you'll be visiting now will be visited later for another good reason. For a quick list of what you'll obtain from raiding the Fanatics Tower and Kefka's Tower:

Fanatics Tower: a Armor

Force Armor, an easy battle with the Holy Dragon from which you'll win a Lance

Holy Lance upon victory, a Shield

Genji Shield, a Relic

Safety Bit, and the Tools

Air Anchor, which is Edgar's eighth Tool.

Kefka's Tower: a Helmet

Red Cap, a Armor

Nutkin Suit, a Relic

Gauntlet, a Helmet

Hypno Crown, the Gambler

Fixed Dice, a Armor

Minerva Bustier, a Shuriken

Pinwheel, an , a Shield

Force Shield, an easy battle with the Gold Dragon from which you'll win a Relic

Crystal Orb upon your victory, a Armor

Force Armor, and a Relic

Ribbon.

With Mog in your party, get back into Narshe and go find the snowfields. This is your first chance to learn Mog's last Dance (save it for me... eheheh), the Snowman Rondo. It's a rather crummy Dance considering you can't get it until this late in the game, but Surge looks sweet and works especially well against the Psychos monsters you find here.

In the snowfields, you'll find the Ice Dragon.

Ice Dragon Bestiary #340	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	74	24400	9000	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	13	10	0	110	150	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			Common: Force Shield
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control
	Metamorph Package
	Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail 32/256 Success Rate
	Strategy
	Go ahead and gawk at those status vulnerabilities if you like. However, I can't say that the Ice Dragon is the weakest of the eight brethren; as you'll see in the future, Gold Dragon is about as silly, while Holy Dragon is even more pathetic. The Ice Dragon can be fairly easily screwed over though. Sadly for Ice Dragon, his element is easily absorbed, his amount of HP rather low, and his status vulnerabilities are downright horrible, but I'll try and treat Ice Dragon with the same amount of dignity I firmly believe everybody deserves. Except for Nelapa, obviously. What does Ice Dragon do? He can use all three spells normally. If you damage him, he might counter with Battle. If he dies, he might use one final Avalanche attack before rolling over, but that's about it. Honestly, Ice Dragon might very well be the least interesting boss in the game. How to stop him? There are tons of ways! It doesn't really matter who you bring here. All you need is the Berserk spell and the Esper that teaches it, Phantom. Set Berserk on Ice Dragon, summon Phantom, and sit back. Use Poison or Bio to set Poison on the freezing fiend, and even Haste if you like: it will only speed up the Poisoning, as you'll be immune to everything he does. If you brought Mog, make sure you don't execute a Dance; the only one that doesn't have an inherent chance to remove your Clear status is the Twilight Requiem, which is pretty much useless anyways (there's only a 3/16 chance you'll damage him once you get it working). Gau's (or Gogo's) Io-induced Flare Star attack will do 9999 damage every time it appears regardless of what level the caster is at, while Leaf Bunny or the Magna Roader (Purple) make Gau and Gogo absorb the Ice-elemental attacks without any equipment. If you brought Edgar, you can tease the Ice Dragon by trying to make Poison his weakness (if you get it, Poison will take off about 3200 damage a hit at the peak of its glory). If you have the equipment and the status ailments to throw around, Ice Dragon is a joke. If you don't, his Absolute Zero and Avalanche attacks will hurt real bad. The Mute status effect will prevent it from being able to use Northern Cross and Absolute Zero. If, for some reason, you don't opt for Berserk/Phantom, try setting Slow, Poison, and Mute (a neat way of doing this is casting Reflect on the guy and have Strago/Gogo execute Reflect ???, but that's just novelty). Equip the easily obtained Ice Shields, Flame Shields, Snow Scarfs, and/or Minerva Bustier bustier and you won't feel a thing from Ice Dragon's attacks. Golem should be more than sufficient for Ice Dragon's physical attacks, but you can humiliate him further by summoning Fenrir in addition. Expand Full Strategy

Once you've defeated the Ice Dragon, you'll receive a Shield

Force Shield.

Pushing on, you'll come across a Save Point where you can use a Tent if necessary. In the next screen, you'll walk across a bridge that takes you to the location of the mysterious Esper from the beginning of the game, the same frozen entity that prompted Terra to morph into her Esper form earlier and (possibly) overlooked as Lone Wolf took Mog hostage. As you approach it this time around, it becomes evidence that the Esper is sick of waiting. An eerie glow surrounds it, and the Esper Valigarmanda attacks you.

Valigarmanda Bestiary #320	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	62	30000	50000	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	19	4	0	254	70	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities

	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			None
	Strategy
	Valigarmanda is attacking you. That's not very nice of him. Luckily, he has very little to damage you with. Blizzaga is his only offensive spell, and as most of your party is easily covered in Flame Shields, Ice Shields, or the Minerva Bustier bustier, the spell will do nothing to them. If you lack the above equipment for all characters, it's worthy of notice that the Thunder Shields and Force Shields both halve damage done by Ice-elemental attacks (dont't forget that the Force Shield also grants the wearer inherent Shell, reducing damage done by the Blizzaga spell by another 33%). What Valigarmanda does is all very basic. The Esper attacks normally with the above three spells, although he hardly ever uses Freezing Dust just like that. Whenever Valigarmanda is hit by a Fire-elemental attack, it has a one-third chance of casting Rasp. Also, whenever Valigarmanda is hit by either SwdTech, Tools, Blitz, Lore, Sketch, or Rage, it has a one-third chance of casting Freezing Dust to freeze the attacker. The strategy the game wants you to follow is clear. Fire-elemental Magic is the key. You will mainly be casting Fira here. Sabin's Rising Phoenix deals weaker damage to a single target and may incite a Freezing Dust attack, but if Sabin lacks Fira, it will have to serve as a suitable backup. If you brought Gau, the Twinscythe Rage (Shrapnel) works great because it inherently absorbs Blizzaga. A Rage like Devil Fist is also great, providing you can combine it with an Ice Shield or Snow Scarf on the Rager. The Io Rage is even better as it will consistently deal 9920 damage every time Gau uses Flare Star and inherently nullifies Ice-elemental attacks, but it's unlikely you have it at this point. There's little strategy involved beyond this, as the battle is quite easy. If you somehow didn't bring any equipment with elemental properties, Zona Seeker can help you out there. Cast Haste on the entire party (now with the Hastega spell, brought to you by Quetzalli) can shorten the time a character is Frozen; heck, if that's taking too long as well feel free to just cast a Fire spell on the afflicted and watch him turn back to normal. Celes' Runic can absorb the Blizzaga and Rasp spells; it won't be necessary if you prepared enough, but if you haven't it's a great idea. Expand Full Strategy

As soon as you defeat Valigarmanda, he starts talking! Blast, he could've done that earlier and saved us a lot of trouble. "You know Terra, you're a half-Esper, and the Empire is evil and has abused you. Go side with the Returners. Here's my Magicite, it teaches level 3 spells so you can fry anything on your path. Good luck! Oh, and don't stick Skittles up your nose." More or less, that is.

A note on Esper

Valigarmanda: He teaches level 3 spells, which is sweet; sadly, he does so at a x1 rate which is tantalizingly slow. In this case, Esper

Valigarmanda's summon attack, Tri-Dazer, will actually be your strongest magical attack for characters such as Celes and Terra for a while. Tri-Dazer, though, is an odd attack; it's tri-elemental; Fire-, Ice- and Lightning-elemental and about as powerful as a level 3 spell. How does this work? If a creature absorbs one of the elements, it absorbs the entire attack. If a creature nullifies one of the elements, it nullifies the entire attack. If a creature is weak against one of the elements, it is weak against the entire attack. So, you'll want to use Tri-Dazer against enemies that are weak to Fire, Ice, or Lightning, but don't absorb or nullify any of them.

Now, there's an opening in the cliff. You can hop into it. RPG wisdom tells us that the 'No' option to bail out isn't going to get us treasure. Or danger.

2.18: The Caves of Narshe

Upper Two Levels
5/16	Knotty	4
5/16	Tzakmagiel	1
5/16	Knotty	3
5/16	Tzakmagiel	1
5/16	Illuyankas	1
1/16	Tonberry	1

Umaro's Room
5/16	Anemone	4
5/16	Illuyankas	1
5/16	Onion Dasher	2
5/16	Anemone	2
5/16	Onion Dasher	1
1/16	Illuyankas	3

Enemies: Tonberry, Onion Dasher, Anemone, Illuyankas, Knotty, Tzakmagiel, Tonberries, Yeti

Lore: Traveler

Party: Edgar, Sabin, Celes, Setzer, Mog

Whom to bring? Mog is ideal, as he's needed to obtain the 'sasquatch muscle' you meet later on. Otherwise, the same people that did well in when you first arrived in WoR Narshe will do well again here; the main danger posed by the cave monsters you'll find ahead is Imp-setting, which can be prevented by the Relic

White Capes/ Relic

Ribbons you already have anyways.

Knotty are Mu palette swaps. Like Mu, they're un-Meteor Strike-able; I continue to wonder if they're just sitting in holes in the ground or ripple into our existence from a maddening rift in the space-time continuum. If this question doesn't confuse you, the Knotty'

Stone attack may; they have a 33% chance of using it in their second turn. Not only does the

Stone attack set Confuse on a successful hit, it will also completely make you to eat dirt if your characters are level 33; it's the same level as Knotty, and as you know,

Stone deals 7.5 as much damage when the level of the caster and the target as equal. Just make sure this doesn't happen by taking them out ASAP; they're weak to Fire, so make use of either the Rising Phoenix or the newly acquired Esper

Valigarmanda. also works like a charm. A multi-target charm, to be precise.

Another theory for which I'd like to credit Suonymona mentions that Mu/Knotty are this game's version of Final Fantasy V's Nut Eaters/Skull Eaters. They're both squirrel-like in appearance the colors are consistent (brown for the weaker, grey for the stronger). Since Sabin has a childhood fear of 'Nut Eaters', maybe the Mu' and Knotty' non-Meteor Strikeable nature doesn't come from the fact they are unable to be lifted, but rather comes from the fact Sabin can't bring himself to perform the attack on them. This wouldn't explain Gogo's behavior, though.

Tzakmagiel are boring. Their Special, !Peck, sets Imp. Weak against Fire like everything in the cave, it doesn't really matter if you torch them or just use other kinds of violence. The Sketch command has a 3/4 shot at pulling Cyclonic from this freaky bipod, which works against both Tzakmagiel and Knotty. Tzakmagiel are called 'leaders of the little monsters' by the Anthology Bestiary. What that's supposed to mean is left to anybody's imagination.

Illuyankas are pretty sturdy with inherent Safe, Death protection, and the ability to absorb your Lightning-elemental attacks. They're weak against Fire and really don't do anything special AI-wise (Battle and !Pal Maker, which sets *gasp* Imp), so take your time, they're not very dangerous. They have a mouth-watering Rage, though (inherent Safe, Lightning-absorption, instant death protection, Giga Volt).

Tonberry. The Tonberry. The notorious creatures that look like they're waddling over for a hug yet actually intend to flay the flesh from your skull while you're still alive. They have a lot of Hit Points (8000) for a normal monster and possess two very strong attacks. Each round, this foe will use

Traveler. Since

Traveler is unblockable, non-elemental, and barrier-piercing, there's no protection from it. I can't predict how much damage it will do to your party, but 1700 is a fair estimation, I'd say. Every time you damage a Tonberry, it will counter with a !Knife attack, which is eight times as strong as its normal Battle attack (which he never uses) - an incredible blow - and another

Traveler attack. This thing slaughters you left and right! How to deal with one? The trick is the Imp status! Turn it into an Imp with the spell of the same name or

Bad Breath. It'll start to do automatic criticals now, so if you aren't under the influence of Clear this is the time to set it. Now, you can just pound away without fear. The quickest ways to a dead Tonberry are Fire-elemental attacks and the Deepeye Rage. Since Tonberry is immune to instant death attacks but not to Petrify, most petrification attacks will fail where Dread Gaze will work. These enemies have a rare Relic

Tintinnabulum drop, which is pretty spectacular, but as a Tonberry encounter in itself is rare enough, it's hardly a good way to obtain them.

Anemone are pretty passive enemies. When with other monsters, they will use !Imp Touch every now and then, which sets Imp. If they've been damaged, they will heal themselves a little with Megavolt; they absorb the element, so don't try to use it against them. If an Anemone will start to use Giga Volt on the party every turn if it is by itself, so you'll want to avoid that. They are weak to Fire, as you suspected.

Onion Dasher are monsters I find especially annoying for no specific reason. Their Special is called !Dash, and it doesn't set Imp; it sets Haste! That's why they use it on themselves every second turn, too. Otherwise, you just have to worry about physical attacks when they're with others or Imp Song when they're alone. Given that you've only seen Imp Song as a counter-attack so far, I should point out that Imp Song is actually a multi-target attack.

So, in general, slap on as many Relic

Ribbons as you have and give Relic

White Capes to the other characters. You don't want to be turned into an Imp, and Relic

Ribbons are nice in the aspect of Confuse-protection for

Stone. Summon Esper

Phantom at some point or just cast

Vanish a couple of times; invulnerability is the goal here. Knotty'

Stone isn't cast until the second round and Giga Volt and Imp Song only when the enemies in question are alone (don't allow it). Tonberry's

Traveler is unavoidable, but you can set Imp, possibly revive the fallen characters, and quickly re-apply Clear. Fire-elemental attacks rule here, but the only strong one you probably have at this point is Esper

Valigarmanda's Tri-Dazer.

Firaga spells clean house, though.

Umaro's Cave is a cave with two themes. The first theme is out-of-battle, and it's pitfalls. Bloody, bloody pitfalls. They're not there to make you land on poisoned spikes or anything, but they do keep you from getting treasure. The other theme is Imp. Every monster here has the ability to turn you into one of those blasted Kappa water sprites.

When you land, you will have access to three parts of the cave. The far right one just leads you to a pitfall, so you have no business there. The one in the middle leads you to a chest with a Hi-Ether (the upper chest). Grab it and then return to the first cave you entered. Now, enter the far left cave-mouth. Make sure you don't stand on the two dark tiles there, as they are pitfalls. Walk around until you get a random battle. Make sure to end it with four characters with the Clear status. Esper

Siren is nice to equip as well, but only necessary if you can't set Imp or Mute in any way. Now, open the chest. As you may have guessed, 'tis a monster-in-a-box.

Tonberries are the more powerful yet more easily defeated version of Tonberry. The three of them simply walk up to you and use Battle every time they take a step. If they have taken eight steps, they use !Switchblade and return to their original position. If you hit them with a Magic spell, they counter with

Holy. Their

Holy spell is fairly weak and not even a direct threat, but it does remove the Clear status, which opens you up to their physical attacks.

When you fight them, do whatever you want, so long as you make sure you stay under Clear. Mute the lot, cast a multi-target

Bio, and cast a

Hastega spell on them to speed up the Poisoning. They're weak against Fire, so the newly acquired summon attack, Tri-Dazer, packs a nice punch. The battle really revolves around staying invincible. Gau's Io Rage is really grand, as the Tonberries' level is really high. You know what hurts by now, I assume. If you have a character with the Steal command, you could try to nick a Armor

Minerva Bustier if you don't have two yet; the only situation in which you need more than one Armor

Minerva Bustier is a team that features both Terra and Celes, but it doesn't hurt to have the extra around. Do know, however, that due to the Tonberries' high level and the Armor

Minerva Bustier being a rare Steal, it really makes for a small chance of success.

Once you're done, you'll have cleared the entire top floor, meaning that it doesn't matter if you go back to the first cave, enter the middle cave-mouth and descend the stairs to the lower level or just drop through a pitfall. Regardless, find the Relic

Gauntlet in the chest here and push on. It's an easily maneuverable cave and you should reach the stairs before long. Ascend to find a switch. Ignore it; it triggers a pitfall right where you're standing. The next switch also does this, but allows you to enter a new part of the cave.

This is the room of the sasquatch that Mog and various townspeople from Narshe were talking about earlier. The stairs up just lead to the point where you could see Umaro (the sasquatch) in the WoB and force you to fall down from there. It's a long hike back, and we still have work to do here, so don't mess around. Examine the bone carving in the middle of the room to find a piece of Magicite in it! Once you choose to remove the remains of Esper

Midgardsormr from the carving, an enraged yeti comes for you! You should know better than to mess with art...

Yeti Bestiary #322	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	Humanoid	33	17200	6990	10	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	25	11	0	100	150	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control
	Strategy
	So, you've had three major battles against relatively easily defeated monsters with a weakness to Fire. Yeti is no different: a relatively easily defeated monster with a weakness to Fire. Yeti employs all kinds of freaky attacks to try to damage you. Normally, he'll use Battle, !Tackle, and Blizzard. He uses physical attacks only when one of your characters is remains, but I see no reason for that to occur. Every 40 seconds (when 2 or more characters are alive), Yeti will either use Snowball (an unblockable ID attack that halves the target's current HP and sets Seizure), Surge, or Lode Stone (ID attack that takes off 75% of the targets current HP). Yeti may counter Fire-elemental attacks with either !Tackle or Blizzard, and every other kind of damage with !Tackle. Every third time Yeti is hit by a Magic spell, he'll use a Jump attack. The interesting part of this fight is the Green Cherry Item. When you use it on him or he uses it himself (automatically when he reaches 10240 HP), he will glow red. This means that Yeti sets Safe, Shell, Haste, and Regen on himself. Sadly for Yeti, he has Seizure immunity, so you never get to see Regen in action. The appearance of the Green Cherry means Dispel time for you! Dispel will remove all of his power-ups (so will Strago's Rippler Lore, by the way). Yeti is a very easy opponent. Since he has Berserk vulnerability, you can set it with the Berserk spell, summon Phantom, and effectively win the match right there. If this is not one of the options in your playbook, combining Sleep with Slow should really cripple him too. If status ailments are too cheap for you, Umaro is simply weak enough to defeat with damaging (so long as you heal when appropriate). Fira spells work just fine, as does Sabin's Phantom Rush, Dragon Horn Jump attacks, you name it. Expand Full Strategy

After the battle is over, Umaro will be sitting in a corner looking sad and pummeled. But hey, you broke his statue and, I dunno, pummeled him, so I guess that makes sense. Don't be afraid to walk over to the brute; he won't attack you again. If you didn't bring Mog, he'll just go "Ooh..." and continue to sit there. If this happens, you can just return with Mog and talk to him later; he'll still be sitting there.

If you did bring Mog, though, he'll go talk to Umaro on behalf of the party. In a stunning display of taking advantage of the mentally disabled, Mog orders Umaro to join your cause. He'll stomp off to find the Falcon and wait there for you. You don't have to have Mog in your party to use Umaro, and using a Green Cherry on the character Umaro has no special effect over removing Imp like it always does.

Umaro, as a character, is generally considered the weakest character in the game. His stats are awesome: that's not the problem, and his Tackle and Character Toss attacks are nothing to scoff at. Not to mention the fact that with the two Relics made specifically for him (the Relic

Berserker Ring and Relic

Blizzard Orb) he absorbs Fire and Ice while nullifying Lightning, taking care of the three basic elements in the game. Then why is Umaro still considered the weakest link? First off, you can't access his equipment. He's stuck with a feature-less, non-elemental Special

Bone Club in his right hand and the Armor

Snow Scarf. Granted, the Armor

Snow Scarf is arguably the best armor to be 'stuck with', but this means that Umaro cannot adapt to a situation. Any character needs at least one Relic slot for sufficient damage output, which doesn't help here. He can't learn or cast Magic like all the other characters (not to mention that he can receive no Esper boosts either, as he can't equip them). He's uncontrollable from the beginning, so he can never react to a surprise KO with a Phoenix Down or fall back as a utility character.

In short, Umaro is a completely one-dimensional character. This immediately explains his popularity with many first-time players; it's hard to go wrong with him. Every other character in the game can be tweaked to be superior to Umaro, but you would have to know how to do this in some cases, whereas it's impossible to really go wrong with Umaro: you bring him into battle, he'll do impressive damage.

For now, if you've followed the walkthrough so far, you'll have neither the Relic

Berserker Ring nor Relic

Blizzard Orb, so the best Umaro right now is one equipped with an Relic

Gigas Glove ( Relic

Hero's Ring works, but Umaro won't benefit from the increase in magical damage) and a Relic

Gauntlet. Since Umaro comes without a shield anyway, the Relic

Gauntlet raises both the offense (his normal physicals only, not Tackle and Character Toss) and defense of the raging snowman.

Now, you can just cast the

Teleport spell to get out. Or walk, do whatever pleases you. The path Umaro took is the only way to leave Umaro's caves. Note: You just obtained Esper

Midgardsormr as well. Esper

Midgardsormr isn't as powerful as Esper

Valigarmanda, almost nothing is weak to the Earth element and he doesn't hit Floating targets, but Esper

Midgardsormr's Earth Aura is stronger than your level 2 spells so it's a nice Esper to summon for Terra/Celes/Relm/Strago if they haven't learned any truly powerful magic yet.

2.19: The Moogle Raid

Party: Mog, Optional: Edgar, Sabin, Celes, Setzer, Umaro

Note that this section is entirely optional and in fact hardly what you're 'supposed' to do, so feel free to skip it. Basically, this little errand is the abusing of a no-encounter Relic to gain all sorts of late-game treasure from two dungeons you're not quite ready for. The spoils you gain here will really help out.

The following excursion will require you to have Mog in your party equipped with the Relic

Molulu's Charm. After all, that's's the entire point of the quest, silly! Since you'll be walking anyways, you might as well equip Relic

Sprint Shoes.

The first stop is the Fanatics Tower. We'll see Strago prancing 'round like before, but we're gonna go right past him, onto the Tower. On the first part of the stairway, there's a door we can enter. 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 gone too 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! By entering this one, you can find a chest containing an Tools

Air Anchor: Edgar's most rare Tool.

Once an enemy is hit by the Tools

Air Anchor, it will be allowed one more turn, after which it will die. It 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 while you know the Anchored one has been taken care of; others will claim the Tools

Air Anchor is a scrubby Tool that allows for the enemy to execute one more attack while so many other instant death attacks like

Death/Snare/Atom Edge do not.

While in the Tools

Air Anchor room, remove your Relic

Molulu's Charm and walk around! The only battles here 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 regardless of equipment and immunity to all status ailments while casting

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

We press on! The door in the second part of the stairway contains a Genji Shield, which is a nice enough shield; it boasts the third-best Defense in the game (lower than the legendary Shield

Paladin's Shield and oddball Shield

Tortoise Shield), respectable Magic Defense, and a boost of 20% Magic Block 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 its value in Colosseum tactics against the likes of Typhon and Siegfried, who are both vulnerable to the ailment and very hard to defeat by other means. The room also features the Holy Dragon; you can defeat him now if you want for a Lance

Holy Lance. His strategy is covered in chapter 2.40.

The door in the fourth and last part of the stairway contains a Armor

Force Armor. The Armor

Force Armor is a great piece of armor, especially for those characters that have no other interesting pieces to equip (Locke, Cyan, Edgar, Setzer, and Shadow). It doesn't really have that much for Defense (inferior to Armor

Crystal Mail), but it's quite good in the area of Magic Defense (only inferior to Armor

Genji Armor, rare Armor

Snow Scarf and oddball Armor

Reed Cloak), elemental advantages (50% Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind, and Earth-elemental damage), and an added 30% Magic Block.

The Armor

Force Armor is inferior to the Armor

Minerva Bustier in every way except for the MBlock, so don't equip it on the girls; it's a genuine toss-up for the boys, though. The Armor

Genji Armor is sturdier in both the Defense and Magic Defense departments and gives all-round stat boosts to boot; the Armor

Force Armor makes for a more evasive character that is better suited to deal with elemental magical attacks. I prefer the Armor

Force Armor for non-specific boss battles and the Armor

Genji Armor for random encounters myself, but it's up to you.

The top part of the Tower, where the 'wondrous' item lies, should be off-limits to you at this point; you can try to defeat the boss, but it's an enormous hassle to defeat the guy at this stage. If you want to try the pain-in-the-ass way (which for emulator users means juggling with Sonic Dive and for console players hours upon hours of MP-draining), skip ahead to chapter 2.40. If not (recommended), just hike all the way back, which is my least favorite part of this game by far.

Next and final stop for raiding, Kefka's Tower!

Put Mog with the Relic

Molulu's Charm in party #1, and fill up the other two positions. You won't be using them, so don't worry about which characters to take.

Walk around with Mog. You'll first come across a chest containing a Helmet

Hypno Crown, which boosts the wearer's Magic Power by 4 and raises the success rate of the Control ability (Relm's upgraded Sketch). Walking onward will put us into a familiar area: a part of the Imperial Palace. Open the chest for the Gambler

Fixed Dice (which makes Setzer infinitely more appealing than he has been thus far).

The Gambler

Fixed Dice are Gambler

Dice, but better. Gambler

Dice always sucked, but the Gambler

Fixed Dice are a better damage dealer than Setzer's other weapons on average. The main differences include the fact that The Gambler

Fixed Dice have three dice to multiply with, and upon the situation of three equal rolls (1-1-1, 2-2-2, etc.) the outcome is once again multiplied by the number rolled. Finally, the damage output of the Gambler

Fixed Dice isn't cut down by the Relic

Master's Scroll, so Setzer can deal four of these attacks from the Back Row with the relic equipped.

Now, walking on along this passage will get you to a dead end, so either use a Teleport Stone, the

Teleport spell, or switch to one of your characters and touch the Crane to get out. Now, put Mog in party #2 and continue raiding.

The first chest you find is rather messily stacked on the background in the second room. It contains a Armor

Minerva Bustier. Continue to find a split in the road. Go up to grab the Shuriken

Pinwheel in the chest, and then go down. You'll find yourself in the jail of the Imperial Palace, where Kefka was locked up while you were on the mission to find the Esper for that phony peace conference. A monster sits in Kefka's jail; ignore it for now and get out. You'll fall down. Go up the stairs to find two pipes. The right one takes you back to the Shuriken

Pinwheel room; the left one allows you to continue forward (go left). You'll find a Force Shield in the chest you see upon tasting fresh air again. Go down; don't bother with the two doors for now, and get to the far bottom-left to find a Armor

Force Armor in a chest. Get back to the two doors. The left one takes you to a button on the floor and a chest containing a Relic

Ribbon. Get out and take the right door. You can find the Gold Dragon waiting for you here, but no more chest contents. If you have the

Berserk and

Vanish spells, you can take him on with Mog alone; an average party at this point should be able to as well. If you want to take the dragon on now, take a look at chapter 2.43. Warp out.

Now, get Mog in party #3. Walk downwards. Going to the right will clearly take you past three chests: a Helmet

Red Cap (awesome), a Relic

Gauntlet, and a Armor

Nutkin Suit. Continuing down the logical path will eventually take you to a part of the derelict MagiTek Factory. Pick the chest for a Relic

Hero's Ring and try to find the Shield

Aegis Shield hidden to the south. To get there, do the following:

Go down into the darkness to the left of the spinning whatever-it-is.
Go all the way down
Go all the way to the right
Go all the way down
Go 1 step up
Go all the way to the left
Go all the way down
Take a few steps to the right and grab the Aegis Shield
Go back into the darkness and go all the way to the right
Go up and to the right until you don't go any further
Go all the way to the left, and all the way up to re-appear.

That's it! You've raided Kefka's Tower as far as you could. There's plenty more, but you'll need three thoroughly prepared parties to advance any further. Rest assured, there will be a time for that later.

2.20: Encountering Humbaba (1)

Enemies:

Lore: 1000 Needles

Party: Optional: Edgar, Sabin, Celes, Setzer, Mog, Umaro

Whom to bring? Celes is great to bring; Runic is nice if you don't have enough Relic

Reflect Rings to satisfy the entire party, and Celes's Armor

Minerva Bustier nullifies 's Lightning-elemental attacks. Sabin is a great addition to your team as he'll be able to deliver a lot of damage without disturbing from its sleep via Phantom Rush. Gau's not very useful, as his random physicals will wake the boss from its Sleep status, and the same goes for Umaro.

Assuming you haven't fought already, you still have some things to do which you can read about in chapter 2.4. Otherwise, assuming that you fought earlier and talked to Terra in Mobliz as well, this is a good time to check in on the kids in Mobliz again. That pigeon can wait for just a little bit longer (don't worry, we'll get to that next). Terra wasn't doing so hot the last time we saw her. How can you blame her: personal problems, loads of responsibility, and the ancient demon stampeding around would get any average nineteen-year old girl down, I'm sure.

As soon as you enter Mobliz... nothing happens. The dogs have gotten used to you, so they don't bark. Descending in the orphan's shelter will reveal that the three older kids in town are gone; it seems that amidst all of the disaster, safe sex wasn't a priority for Duane and Katarin. Katarin's pregnant, Duane had thought of a better future than sitting in a dump of a town with his knocked-up 17-year old girlfriend (like so many fine young men of our generation), and Terra... Where the hell is Terra? Best search around town.

The Relic Shop's derelict, although there's a nice bed for you to sleep in if you feel like it. The only other standing house contains a dog that quickly sneaks off behind a bookcase and Duane, who laments. Follow the dog and you discover the haven within the haven; Terra and Katarin have retreated here to discuss the existence of the baby. Duane comes in to apologize for his 'awful husbandry'.

At any rate, attacks again. Duane sticks to Katarin, Terra refuses to fight once more, and the kid asks you to rid the world of once and for all. With ten young eyes pointed at you, do you really have a choice? Before you go out, make sure you're properly equipped and healed up. Relic

Reflect Rings will really help here, especially if you lack the Runic ability on your team. Obviously, people with a Shield

Thunder Shield and/or the Armor

Minerva Bustier bustier don't need a Relic

Reflect Ring, as they absorb ( Shield

Thunder Shield) or nullify ( Armor

Minerva Bustier)

Thundara and

Thundaga anyway. If you brought Umaro and already found a Relic

Blizzard Orb, equip it on him; not that his Snowstorm attack is specifically strong in this battle, but the Relic

Blizzard Orb will at least nullify Lightning-elemental attacks.

Humbaba (2)	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	31	60000	10000	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	53	10	0	102	153	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			None
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	None			Control
	Strategy
	This isn't all that difficult, so I'll make it kinda quick. You rush out of the house to find Humbaba (2) approaching. You do battle with him. The first round, he'll throw a Battle or !Solar Plexus attack. The next round consists of Thundara or Thundaga, and the third round is Thundara, 1000 Needles, or Battle. It loops from this point. As soon as it reaches 15360 Hit Points, it'll counter the next attack you throw at him with a double Humbaba Breath attack. Humbaba Breath is a Humbaba (2)-only attack that's exactly the same as Sneeze; it only looks different. Humbaba (2) targets two random characters and blows them away. They will also be removed from your party and can be found at the Falcon later. Here, the battle ends. If you somehow managed to completely circumvent this event by doing more than 15360 damage in one turn, he'll use Humbaba Breath only once and die. This is odd, as the thing going on here plot-wise is that you can't really handle Humbaba (2). Sure, you pound on him for a while, then he disables two of your characters just like that. On the offensive, Humbaba (2) is temporarily resistant to the Sleep status, so that doesn't work. Focus on your strongest attacks; Sabin's Phantom Rush, Mog and Edgar's Jump attacks, Setzer's GP Rain attack (his Fixed Dice are stronger if you have them), Cyan's technique, what have you. If you brought Gau to the scene, !Catscratch at decent level (30 and above) is the best bet versus Humbaba (2) for Gau. If this isn't an option for Gau, Tyrannosaur's Meteo is also decent, followed in usefulness by Marchosias's Aero and Trillium's Bio. Spritzer absorbs Thundara and Thundaga, which is a great defensive choice if you didn't bring Reflect Rings or a Runic user. Keep in the back of your head that Spritzer is undead, though. Destroyer isn't, but that really kills Gau's offense in the matter. Baalzephon absorbs the Lightning-elemental spells and has superior offense in Blizzaga, but chances are slim you chose to pick up Gogo before Terra. Your Mages and lesser-trained characters have the Bio spell to use, and if any character has learned Quake then it is pure magic here (don't forget to cast Float, obviously). Note that since this battle fades out rather than actually ends, Strago won't be able to learn any Lores (aka 1000 Needles) from this battle. Anyway, despite your perfect set-up and the little amount of damage Humbaba (2) will be able to do against your party, you still get your face handed to you on an IKEA faux-silver platter according to the storyline. No fair. So, Terra comes to save you! Sensing that her friends are in danger or something cheesy like that, she rushes to the rescue, unleashing the Esper within herself on her way. Round two: Fight! There you stand, with one or two less characters than what you picked beforehand but with a permanently Morphed Terra as a replacement. Basically, just continue to attack Humbaba (2) in the same fashion. If Terra knows the Bio spell, have her use it. Since Terra doesn't have a Reflect Ring and likely lacks the Minerva Bustier as well, it might be a good idea to cast Shell or Reflect on her in this battle, even though she already takes half as much damage from the attacks due to her Morphed state. The Sleep status ailment works now, so have one of your characters cast it if possible and focus on using magical attacks only. Before long, Humbaba (2) will fall. Interesting tidbit: This is actually the only battle in the entire game in which you can see the fallen Esper Terra sprite. In normal situations, Terra will automatically revert to human form when she is killed, but not so in this battle. Expand Full Strategy

After the battle, the kids of Mobliz will rush out of the houses to celebrate the victory. Instead of their Mama, however, they find a naked purple furry thing. Like any good stranger-fearing bunch, they hide behind barrels for safety. One of the toddlers recognizes Terra and then all the kids will surround her. Terra, meanwhile, has concluded that pacifism isn't the way to enlightenment and decides to fight for her loved ones, the children of Mobliz. With the scene over, the party can leave Mobliz behind; we can only hope that all will go well for them, and that the upcoming baby will never serve as a representation of this world reborn when the credits roll. I wouldn't get my hopes up for that one.

An important note to make before we really get back on the Falcon, by the way, is the fact that as of now Terra will receive twice as much Morph time for every Magic Point she gains. That's awesomely sweet. Terra is entirely like Celes on her set-up and the way you should treat her; teach her Esper

Bahamut's, Esper

Midgardsormr's, or Esper

Valigarmanda's spells, and equip the Armor

Minerva Bustier on her no matter what you have in mind.

2.21: Following the Pigeon

Party: Edgar, Sabin, Celes, Setzer, Mog, Umaro

Finally, it's time to get on with the story and get busy with the pigeon you were prompted to deal with all these eons ago. Once again, the magic question is: whom to bring? The Armor

Minerva Bustier bustier is great against the boss you'll fight, so Celes and Terra are nice choices if you have enough Armor

Minerva Bustiers. Sabin is still a magical powerhouse, but Dragoon Edgar, Dragoon Mog, and Gambler

Fixed Dice Setzer are pretty powerful too. If Gau has something like Magic Urn or Baalzephon, I'd bring him along. Never mind Umaro. It boils down to which characters you have proper equipment for, really.

First stop, if you still remember, is Maranda, where the carrier pigeon first took us. Some pigeons surround Lola's house, and as we enter we find the entire room covered in beautiful silk flowers. Lola claims that her boyfriend, the wounded lad in Mobliz, has sent them all, but we just visited that place; that poor guy was killed when Kefka attacked the town with the Light of Judgement. Who has been deceiving this girl, keeping her hopes up? Examining the letters reveals that the handwriting resembles that of Cyan, who, like no other, knows the pain of loss.

Lola asks you if you can attach her reply to a carrier pigeon. Accept, and you'll receive the Rare item "Lola's letter". You can examine it to read the first two lines (Thanks for all the flowers, I'm worried about you...) Go outside and find the pigeon waiting for you near Lola's house; attach the letter (obviously, you'd just lose it) and you'll see it fly across the Overworld Map to Zozo. It seems our characters have incredible eyesight if they can track a single bird that far.

Jump on the Falcon and fly over to Zozo. Zozo still houses the same opponents as it did in the WoB, and thus I'm not going to comment on them again, as they're no real threat to you anymore. In Zozo, you find the pigeon resting for a bit near the entrance; pushing it a little makes it fly on, over, and behind the Small Tower. Up there, you may remember one of the doors being rusted shut; you could climb up there and experience this fact if you want to, but we're better off looking on the ground for help. Besides, didn't that one guy in Maranda say how the honest merchant here might be able to help us out one day?

The honest merchant is willing to help us for a price; for 1000 Gil, we can buy some Rust-Rid. He won't sell you the Rust-Rid if you haven't sent the pigeon all the way, so make sure you did that. The Rust-Rid is a Rare Item you gain if you pay the man. Climb up the stairs, and find the door that was rusted shut. You use the Rust-Rid, and presto: a new dungeon.

2.22: Mount Zozo

Caves
6/16	Mugbear	1
6/16	Punisher	1
5/16	Glasya Labolas	1
5/16	Mugbear	1

Bridge Slope
6/16	Punisher	2
6/16	Devil Fist	1
5/16	Luridan	6
5/16	Glasya Labolas	1

Final Slope
6/16	Luridan	6
5/16	Luridan	3
5/16	Glasya Labolas	1
	Mugbear	1
	Devil Fist	1

Enemies: Mugbear, Luridan, Devil Fist, Punisher, Glasya Labolas, Storm Dragon

Lore: Aero, White Wind

Party: Optional: Terra, Edgar, Sabin, Celes, Setzer, Mog, Umaro

Glasya Labolas are upgraded Hill Gigas. They don't use Magnitude8 and don't absorb Earth-elemental attacks either; they're just really powerful physically and have a lot of HP. They have a very nasty special in !Uppercut, which is five times as powerful as Glasya Labolas' Battle and has two chances of attacking you every turn. Finally, they have a rare Relic

Muscle Belt steal; the Relic

Muscle Belt is a Relic that raises your max. HP by 50%, which really helps you defensively. They have Instant-Death protection but no Petrify protection.

Punishers are uninteresting. They're stronger versions of the Harvesters you met down in Zozo, but not nearly as complex. They counter Steal with Steal. You can steal a common Special

Rising Sun or rare Special

Bone Club from them, the sources of which are limited to these enemies and certain Colosseum appearances. They will attack normally for two turns and use their third turn to unleash a frenzy of !Clobber (Battle x 2) in addition to up to two additional Battle attacks. They're Floating (like all thief opponents) and weak against Poison (like all Humans).

Devil Fists are strong Zaghrem-type enemies, but unlike Zaghrem and Iron Fist lack the ability to utilize the

Stone attack. They have inherent Haste and attack with either Battle or !Knife (Battle x 1.5). They also counter any damaging attack with either Battle or !Knife. They have a rare Relic

Brigand's Glove steal. Great. In the Sketch, Control, and Rage department, Devil Fist has access to Elf Fire, but he won't use it under normal conditions.

Luridan is crazy! Just crazy, I tell you! It knows two silly terrain attacks only normally accessible through Mog's Dances. On the third turn, he may use Forest Healing (removes Dark, Poison, Petrify, Mute, Muddle, Seizure, Sleep, Slow and Stop), and on the fourth turn it may use Meerkat (multi-target, sets Haste). Exactly why a violent delta-shaped bug like Luridan has power over nightingales and young felines is left to anybody's imagination. On every non-Harvester/Meerkat turn, Luridan will use either Battle or ![eattack]gba[/eattack] (Battle x 2). Since Luridans tend to travel in large packs of either three or six, the continuous pounding can get rather painful on the whole. They can be quickly dispatched by a decent multi-target

Fira spell, and Gau's multi-target magical violence by means of Marchosias's

Aero also works wonders (

Quake misses...why are these things Floating?).

Mugbear are bears. They don't damage you; they just Steal GP from you. This was never a problem with other monsters that did this (Harvester, Dadaluma), as they never ran, allowing you to just get the money back in the end of the encounter. Mugbear, however, will flee the second turn when given the chance. He'll try to Steal from you in the first turn and counter any damaging attack you throw at him with a shot at another Steal attack, so chances are that you'll really want to take this bear down ASAP.

Sleep,

Stop, and

Berserk all work just fine towards this end, and they're weak to the Fire element.

There's a little trick that can be executed with Mugbear in light of this information. You won't be able to use it now, so I will mention it again once that time arrives. Here it is, though: return to Mount Zozo with Relm in the party with the Helmet

Cat-Ear Hood equipped, and have either Relm herself or Gogo Control an Mugbear. Now, just go ahead and damage it a little with something minor like a

Thunder spell, healing him afterwards. Some of the time, he'll counter with Steal. Now, since Mugbear will Steal an incredible amount of money over time, and the Helmet

Cat-Ear Hood doubles all GP obtained, you'll get your own money back twice. I'll remind you that the key phrase here is with the Helmet

Cat-Ear Hood equipped. Without it, you're just being stupid.

All of the attacks used by monsters in the Mt. Zozo area are physical, so all you have to do is summon Esper

Phantom once or cast

Vanish enough times to cover the entire party and you'll be more or less home free until you reach the Storm Dragon here. For some trivia, all monsters in the area have a high Evade rating.

As you enter, you'll find a giant cave with wooden bridges going everywhere and nowhere. If you go up, you'll reach a dead end because both bridges here have collapsed. Go all the way to the left to find a chest containing an Shield

Ice Shield. If you go down a little, you'll find a wooden bridge going down and a chest containing a Helmet

Red Cap, a brilliant piece of headgear that raises HP by 25%. I love it and suggest using it on every character that's not wearing a Helmet

Mystery Veil at this moment. Follow the bridge downwards and it'll take you to a long set of stairs going down, to the left, past a chest containing a Shield

Thunder Shield, and eventually up again.

The Shield

Thunder Shield is the best elemental shield there is. Unlike its Flame and Ice brethren, it has no elemental weakness, and next to absorbing Lightning-elemental attacks and nullifying Wind, it also halves damage done by Fire- and Ice-elemental attacks. I'd advise it over, say, the Shield

Genji Shield if your set-up is left wanting some elemental resistance.

Going up will get you past a chest with an Shield

Aegis Shield. Boy, the treasure in this dungeon really rocks, I tell you. The is a shield primarily for magical attacks; its Magic Defense is better than the Shield

Genji Shield and its Magic Block% is also higher (40% is better than 20%, no?). It's not as good defense against magical attacks as the Shield

Force Shield, and not as good against physicals as the Shield

Genji Shield, but it's a great shield in both areas combined. Its lack of elemental properties makes it primarily a great choice for people who get their elemental resistances from other sources (in other words, that's mostly Armor

Minerva Bustier wearers, people with the Helmet

Cat-Ear Hood, or Armor

Force Armor).

Outside, in the opening to the far left, you'll find a chest with a Relic

Gold Hairpin. The other exit takes you outside on the slopes of Mount Zozo, over a bridge. In the next cave, you will find a Save Point and a button tile. If you stand on the button tile, a chest you can't reach opens to release the Storm Dragon, who flies freely around. Equip Armor

Minerva Bustiers and Shield

Thunder Shields wherever possible now, and Esper

Golem/

Fenrir and Esper

Zona Seeker are great to have around to summon.

2.23: The Nastiest Dragon and Cyan

Enemies: Storm Dragon

Party: Optional: Terra, Edgar, Sabin, Celes, Setzer, Mog, Umaro

Storm Dragon Bestiary #341	Type	Level	HP	MP	Gil	EXP
	None	74	42000	1250	0	0
	Strength	Magic Atk.	Evasion	Defense	Mag. Def.	Mag. Evade
	13	9	0	110	150	0
	Stolen Items			Dropped Items
	None			Common: Force Armor
	Status Immunities			Elemental Immunities
				None
	Elemental Absorb			Elemental Weakness

	Lores			Command Immunities
	Aero, White Wind			Control
	Metamorph Package
	Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail, Crystal Sword, Crystal Helm, Crystal Shield, Crystal Mail 32/256 Success Rate
	Strategy
	Storm Dragon is the toughest dragon out of the bunch, and the specific scourge of the average "Low-Level Game" players (those who intentionally keep their levels low for a challenge) because one of Storm Dragon's attacks is the non-elemental, unblockable Leaf Swirl attack, which you can't prevent Storm Dragon from using. Luckily, you probably have at least one Minerva Bustier wearer in your party at this point, and, since you just found a Thunder Shield that can be equipped on any given party member (except for Umaro, the useless piece of muscle that he is), you should have at least two party members capable of nullifying the Wind element. Storm Dragon can use three attacks normally: Battle, Wind Slash, and Leaf Swirl. Leaf Swirl and Wind Slash are about alike in power and they're both unblockable. Leaf Swirl, however, is non-elemental, whereas Wind Slash is Wind-elemental. As soon as Storm Dragon dives beneath 15360 Hit Points, he'll drop Wind Slash and Leaf Swirl in favor of more physicals (he'll start using !Wing Saber here as well) - Aero and Cyclonic. Aero is about 1.2 times as powerful as Wind Slash, but 2.4 times as powerful when used on a single target (which will only happen if all the other characters are Wounded or in the air due to a Jump attack). Cyclonic, as you know from Wyvern and Platinum Dragon, is a multi-target percentage-based attack that will remove 93.75% of the targets current HP. Memento Rings and Safety Bits block the effects of Cyclonic, as do Leaf Swirls with the Instant-Death Protection property. At the start, summon Golem or Fenrir to protect against the physical attacks Storm Dragon uses. Zona Seeker's Wall really helps against Wind Slash and Leaf Swirl, but you should invest in individual Shell castings if you don't have Zona Seeker ready. Next, you'll want to use Rasp a few times to take care of Storm Dragon's MP; when it's gone (you can check with Libra, or keep track with a calculator), Storm Dragon won't be able to cast Aero or Cyclonic in its 'dangerous' (second) phase. If one of your party members has learned the Hastega spell from Quetzalli, make use of it, by all means. That said and done, just start beating him! Terra's Morph can help boost the damage of her spells (and halve the damage done to her by the magical spells, even though only Leaf Swirl should ever damage Terra if you've played your cards right). Since Storm Dragon is weak against the Lightning-element, Thundara, Tri-Disaster, and Thundaga all hurt very nicely. Storm Dragon is rather strong and not to be taken lightly, especially since he won't succumb to your status ailment spells, but with the proper set-up, you shouldn't have a lot of problems. Expand Full Strategy

When the fight ends, you'll have defeated another dragon and obtain a Armor

Force Armor, which is great against magical attacks and halves the damage done by Fire-, Bolt-, Ice-, Wind-, and Earth-elemental attacks. After the battle, you can simply pursue the path without any kind of difficulty. Eventually, you'll reach a room filled with the same silk flowers you found in Lola's house, and a letter on a desk that will give confirmation to the hunch you no doubt already had. Also, there's a locked chest! When we leave through the opening to the right, we see Cyan send a letter and recite a poem; when he notices you, he declares his alliance to your cause once again and freaks out about you seeing his silk flowers and reading his letters. It seems the year of solitude has hardly changed him. If you brought three characters, Cyan is now in your party; if not, he'll be waiting on the Falcon for you.

If you go outside, you'll see something shimmering; it turns out to be the key to Cyan's secret chest. You can go back in and open the chest. You'll find two books here: a Machinery Manual (Japanese translation: Machines for Dummies, Machines Explained Through Comics, Overcome Your Fears of Machines Today and the Big Book of Understanding Machines) which supposedly cured Cyan's fear of machines and a "Book of Secrets", of which he's very possessive. If you have Cyan in your party at this moment, he'll make a small scene in which he takes this item from your party leader. The Japanese game just called this "Book of Secrets" a naughty magazine. So it's a fact, poetry-writing, heart-broken samurai get lonely too.

If you take Cyan to Lola, he'll exchange the "Everything's going swell here in Mobliz"-letter with the letter you read on Mount Zozo. Lola will talk a little about her feelings and exclaim how she wants to meet whatever man wrote all the letters; if you brought Cyan and at least one other party member, he or she will be about to break the secret when Cyan steps in and prevents the truth from surfacing by telling Lola simply to enjoy life. Case closed.

Cyan, if you've been following the program a bit, probably learned two new skills in your absence. Dragon (which you may have already seen in the WoB at level 24) is an attack that drains both HP and MP in a single strike using some dragon-related power. It's strong enough to restore Cyan back to full in both categories if you aren't leveled too high, so unless the damage drained is hampered by the target, it's a great restorative move. Eclipse is basically Cyan's version of Sabin's Razor Gale, much like Fang is Cyan's version of Sabin's Raging Fist. Eclipse is slightly stronger, non-elemental, and has a 55% chance of setting Stop if the struck opponent is still alive and vulnerable to the ailment: It has a 140/256 chance and ignores any kind of Magic Block or Evade stat.

With Flurry still a viable option as well, Cyan's Bushido skills are truly something to fear; it's the bloody charge time that holds you back. Waiting for Bushido #6 takes a really long time; even if you skip to all the other characters and input the commands for their long-animation attacks, Cyan won't always be done charging when the other characters are done, and by this point the opponents have often already been defeated.

2.24: The Veldt