Final Fantasy V Advance: FAQ/Walkthrough by Djibriel Version: 1.

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The Final Fantasy V Advance Walkthrough and Battle Tactics Guide Version 1.2 Djibriel, October 2010 "The first system, dealt with, is known as the Godai or 'Five Great Elemental Manifestations.' The elemental codes, in ascending order are... ...chi "earth"... ...sui "water"... ...ka "fire"... ...fu "wind", and... ...ku the "void"... " - unknown source Contents No number: Contents Foreword 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 9.0 10.0 11.0 Version History Introduction Set-up of the document, and slang you're going to start recognizing Walkthrough Menus and Game Options: As boring as a concrete floor in math class Jobs Action Abilities Game mechanics; real quick, I promise Characters Checklists for you Completionists Credits

No number: Disclaimer ********************************** 1.0 Version History **********************************

- Version 1.2 (10/13/2011) In this exciting new though minor update, I made everything better! Here is how: - The boss strategy section on Leviathan was greatly expanded - Some info was added on Gilgamesh' character entry, since he became a playable character in Dissidia Duodecim - The Quicksave trick versus the Gil Turtle had a fatal flaw in it, and was subsequently removed since it doesn't work. - Rewrote the Dancer section since I took a longer look at the class and its options throughout the game. - Major breakthrough added in the Surgate Castle Sciences; the Inn is not usable as soon as you gain acces to Exdeath's Castle! This info was added for all of those people that like to sleep in dead king's guest chambers. You can stop e-mailing me about it already. - A few minor things: Regen works on the Undead, you can steal twice from Carbuncle, Berserk trumps "Entranced!", and some added info here and there about how special weapon properties interact with special attacks that work with those weapons such as !Mug, !Jump, etc. The write-up for !Bladeblitz and !Finisher were also expanded, and an imperfection in section 10.1 was corrected; Drakenvale is easily entered at the end of the game, so all monsters there are still to be found had you missed them earlier. - Version 1.1 (06/15/2011) Everything that has a beginning, has an end. But everything that has a beginning also has an 1.1 update, and this is that update. Typos were fixed, and a superior lay-out for all walkthrough chapter headers were adapted. Some thing worthy of special notice: - A list of sailing encounters on the First World was added in chapter 4.15.1 - The hit routine of the Dark Arts' status ailment side-effect was discovered and consequently added (credits go to Deathlike2) - A mistake in the Minotaur strategy was fixed where I mentioned that the Counter support ability was disabled for the fight, while it is not. - Several creatures have physical attacks that you cannot Counter (and have some other zany behavior); this information has been added. - The Treasure Checklist in Section 10.3 now contains the treasures of the GBA-only content, completely mapping out Mr. Clio's monitored container contents. - Some shameful oversights in the sections about Omega Mk. II and Neo Shinryu were fixed. I won't say what they were. - Version 1.0 (02/24/2011) Added the final three chapters detailing Omega Mk. II, Neo Shinryu and the Cloister of the Dead. The guide is done! At last I'm free! This is the first version to appear on GameFAQs.

- Version 0.95 (12/08/2010) Added Overworld encounters for the first few chapters of the game, added section 10.4, rewrote a few sections, added content on the Sealed Temple, Necromancer Job and abilities, littered the guide with 'funny' Scott Pilgrim lines, you know the drill. - Version 0.9 (09/10/2010) Initial Release on the Collapse of Heaven and Earth, this is the document as it first appeared for the masses. ********************************** 2.0 Introduction ********************************** On the morning of April Fools' Day, 2005, I woke up in a sexual addiction treatment center in a suburb of Philadelphia. Nah, I'm playin'. That never happened to me. This, oh reader, is a walkthrough for FFVA, and by that is understood the game 'Final Fantasy V Advance', not for instance the 'Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association', who likely rued the day they opted for that specific abbreviation. You know, for a long long time, FF V was the black sheep of the series. Not that hard to understand; though it was released in Japan as soon as December 1992 and the ROM was distributed around that time as well (egads, both the internet and emulation are older than you think!), people didn't know how to read moonspeak. And even after its very first fan translation surfaced as early as 1997, written at the time by individuals known as Shadow and David Timko, this was three years after FF V's successor was released and the internet was still a relatively desolate place. A tumbleweed rolls by. The Great West first got its official look at FF V in the form of Final Fantasy Anthology. 'Dis be 'round 1999. The PSX port was a horror to behold. A lot of criticism concerning the translation roared quite justifiably, the load times were bad, bugs weren't fixed, low music quality. Faris talked like a porn actress pretending to be a pirate mocking her own background. The masses cried in unison. A baby in the back burps in disapproval. The official release never reached the West because it was deemed too difficult. FF V never profited all that much from the emulation scene, even though some kind of consensus has been reached over the 'standard' translation patch for the Super Famicom version (DeJap's). Nobody ANYWHERE has EVER liked anything ported to the PSX, so no surprise there. But at the very end, Final Fantasy V was able to ride the wave all the other 8- and 16-bit Final Fantasy games rode as well; the transition from console to handheld. Everybody was bored with coding NEW games for the Game Boy Advance, so there you go. The

thing's 32-bit anyway. Still emulation for a large part obviously, but Square-Enix had put a decent amount of effort, thought and new content into the game this time. The extras were actually kinda neat, the translation was handled as if Final Fantasy V was an extra long and interactive episode of Futurama (spot-on as far as the demographic was concerned) starring Philip J. Bartz and killing Movers while bungee-jumping beats the crap out of killing Movers while wasting your life away behind a controller and your third bag o' Cheetos that day. Decent documentation hasn't existed until instructrtrepe, saw the FF V ROM for what it was (kids, this was all pre-GBA); a largely uncharted landscape full of monsters, treasures and nubile women. Now, we've got pretty much everything we need; info, a canon translation, the interest of the masses. This document you're looking at, it's a weird project. I started this in 2006. Writing this, it's 2010. That's FOUR YEARS during which I've started the project, abandoned the project, re-started the project, abandoned the project, etcetera and ad infinitum. Every time I vowed to finish the thing this time, re-read the document, made changes throughout, then forgot all about it again in favor of Odinknowswhat. Working on these things is my passion, don't ask me to explain it... but I can honestly say that without the continued support and kind e-mails from around the world, I never would have pulled through on finishing this, the Final Fantasy V Advance Walkthrough and Battle Tactics Guide. So, hat's off to you! ********************************** 3.0 Set-up of the document, and slang you're going to start recognizing ********************************** A primary action ability is the action ability listed under 'Attack' and is unique to a Job. The Thief's primary action ability is 'Steal', for instance. You can't change primary action abilities. In this document, a (primary) action ability is indicated with a '!' marked in front of its name. A secondary action ability is what appears if you choose an action ability to fill a character's empty ability slot. Secondary action abilities can be a great or a horrible idea, depending on the mechanics behind it. Some Jobs function better with a secondary action ability than the Job it came from did. In this document, a (secondary) action ability is indicated with a '!' marked in front of its name. A support ability can be set, but won't appear in-battle. This is because a support ability is either passive or reactive, not something you choose to do. Counter lets you counter-attack physical attacks, for instance, or Vigilance

prevents back attacks. Every monster has a !Special Technique, which can have any number of facets. At the most basic, a !Special Technique is a modified physical attack, and physical modifiers are used to avoid it if possible. However, a !special technique can also merely set a status instead of dealing damage, pierce Defense unlike normal physical attacks or be unblockable and thus not subject to physical evasion. A monster's !Special is indicated by a '!' in front of its name. I make a distinction between four type of Jobs. This distinction is only strictly relevant as far as equipment options go. Stat-wise there are often similarities between Jobs in a selection. Heavy Armor Jobs are capable of wearing Heavy Armor, Clothes, Heavy Helmets and Shields. They generally have high Strength and high Stamina, making them perfect for Front Row melee position. Heavy Armor Jobs include the Knight, the Mystic Knight, the Berserker, the Dragoon, the Samurai and the Gladiator. Clothes Jobs are capable of wearing Clothes and Light Helmets. They can be considered melee units as well, though they tend to specialize in different ways of helping the party. Their Strength and Stamina tend to be lower than Heavy Armor Jobs, but they make up for it with higher Agility and special skills. Clothes Jobs include the Thief, the Monk, the Ninja and the Ranger. The Monk here is an exception to the expected stat lay-out, since the Monk's Strength and Stamina surpasses even the Heavy Armored Jobs. Robe Jobs are spellcasters capable of wearing Robes and Hats. They have weak physical stats but specialize in their respective schools of magic. Robe Jobs include the White Mage, the Black Mage, the Time Mage, the Summoner, the Geomancer, the Bard, the Necromancer and the Oracle. Hybrid Jobs are capable of wearing Clothes, Robes, Light Helmets, Hats and sometimes Shields. They are those that combine magical properties with physical utilities. Their stats are often mediocre across the board, with fewer high and low points. Hybrid Jobs include the Blue Mage, the Red Mage, the Chemist, the Dancer and Cannoneer. Since the Mime and the Freelancer have broader equipment selections than any kind of Job pool and they take on properties of the other Jobs, they cannot be classified.

Walkthrough chapters are governed like this:

Location: The Location given is, where possible, the same as the location given

in the menu when you're there. This is not a hard concept, I take :p Opponents: Enemies encountered and/or fought, often with a (#) given to indicate their Bestiary entry. On occasion, opponents are fought that have no entry in the Bestiary; in that case, no number is given (-). Rare but possible is the situation where a monster is actually distinct according to the game itself, but both add to the same listing in the Bestiary. No distinction is made between the monsters in this case, as it would serve no purpose. An example is the Goblins you fight with Bartz alone as your first battle and the Goblins you fight on the Overworld Map a bit later; stats and dropped items are different, but both add to the Bestiary listing of 'Goblin' at #1. I will talk about the Bestiary in the walkthrough itself, guiding you towards a complete one; section 10.2 of this document contains a Bestiary checklist if you want to keep track. Container contents: Any item that can be found when facing a chest, urn, barrel or similar container is given here. These are the items that count towards your Treasure %, with five exceptions: two Cottages in Tycoon Castle, a Blitz Whip in Jachol Cave, a Cottage in Surgate Castle you can only obtain when on Planet R and a Cottage you can find in Carwen, but only when on Planet R. These are also the five treasures Lone Wolf steals if you release him; these items are handled by a distinct event in the code. Section 10.1 of this document contains a treasure checklist if you want to keep track of these treasures; when following the document normally, you'll get all the treasures you'll need for that hard-earned 100% treasure hunter's super happy fun feeling. Miscellaneous items: Any item that you can obtain through means beyond the silly container just-lying-around practice. These items include items given to you by NPCs, but mostly those items you can steal from enemies or those that are dropped by foes, either randomly or always. These treasures do not count towards your Treasure % Blue magic: Any Blue spell you can obtain from the opponents listed in any given section, some will require !Control or application of the Confuse status. Features: Anything noteworthy that didn't fit in the other categories, this mostly includes spells you obtain from NPCs or books and Pianos. Final notice: there are three things any first-time player will want to be aware of that should be considered throughout the game; the Bestiary (which has no in-game effect, but people want it perfect), the treasure percentage (which as a collector's game has no other effect than giving you the items that you find) and how often you run, as fleeing powers up a blade called the Chicken Knife and debilitates a blade called the Brave Blade. I'll keep you informed about these ever-important issues throughout the document.

********************************** 4.0 The Walkthrough ********************************** Table of Contents: 4.1.1 4.1.2 4.1.3 4.1.4 4.1.5 4.1.6 Prelude; the demolition of the Wind Crystal Prelude; the road to Tule Prelude; Faris Scherwiz Prelude; the lands around Tule Prelude; the town of Tule Prelude; the Wind Shrine and Wing Raptor

4.2.1 The Wind Crystal Jobs 4.3.1 Preparing for the Torna Canal 4.3.2 The Torna Canal 4.4.1 The Ship Graveyard 4.4.2 The battle with Siren 4.5.1 The lands of Carwen 4.5.2 The town of Carwen 4.6.1 North Mountain 4.6.2 The battle with Magissa 4.7.1 Home sweet home; Castle Tycoon 4.8.1 The town of Walse 4.8.2 Castle Walse and the coming of the second meteorite 4.8.3 The golden warrior and the tower of Walse 4.8.4 The fight with Garula 4.9.1 The Water Crystal Jobs 4.10.1 Karnak county 4.10.2 The town of Karnak 4.10.3 Ice to see you, Shiva 4.11.1 The Fire-Powered Ship 4.11.2 The battle with Liquid Flame 4.12.1 Escaping Karnak Castle 4.13.1 Three Fire Crystal Jobs 4.14.1 En route to the Library of the Ancients 4.14.2 The Library of the Ancients and the battle with Ifrit 4.14.3 The battle with Byblos 4.15.1 The Seven Seas 4.16.1 The shores of Jachol 4.16.2 The town of Jachol 4.16.3 Jachol Cave 4.17.1 Shores of Istory 4.17.2 The town of Istory 4.17.3 The forests of Istory and the fight with Ramuh

4.18.1 4.18.2 4.18.3 4.19.1 4.20.1 4.20.2 4.21.1 4.21.2 4.22.1 4.23.1 4.23.2 4.23.3 4.24.1 4.24.2 4.24.3 4.25.1 4.26.1 4.27.1 4.27.2 4.27.3 4.28.1 4.28.2 4.29.1 4.30.1 4.30.2 4.30.3 4.31.1 4.31.2 4.31.3 4.31.4 4.31.5 4.32.1 4.32.2 4.32.2 4.32.4 4.33.1 4.34.1 4.35.1 4.35.2 4.35.3 4.36.1 4.37.1 4.37.2 4.37.3

The town of Crescent Crescent Island and the Black Chocobo Two Fire Crystal Jobs The town of Lix The battle with the Sandworm The Desert of Shifting Sands and Gohn, the Town of Ruin Ancient Ronka Ruins under Crescent Island Airship Exploitation; Prototype The Ancient Ruins and the battle with Adamantoise The cannons of the Flying Ronka Civilization The Flying Ronka Civilization The battle with Archeoaevis Meteorite 1; Karnak Meteorite Meteorite 2; Walse Meteorite Meteorite 3; Gohn Meteorite Right and Ready Alien World; Pao Island Galuf to the rescue; the first fight with Gilgamesh Escape to the Big Bridge The Big Bridge; the second fight with Gilgamesh The lands of Gloceana Regole The sealed castle of Kuza The power is yours; saving the planet one Moogle at the time The legacy of Mr. Moogle; Defiance The Moogle Village Castle Bal En route to Quelb The town of Quelb and Lord Kelger Vlondett Drakenvale The fight with Dragon Pod Ghido the Sage and Xezat Matias Surgate Surage Fleet; the third fight with Gilgamesh Xezat of Ice; the barrier tower The fight with Atomos The town of Moore The fight with Catoblepas Our brilliant leader: the great Sage Ghido The Great Forest of Moore The fight against the Guardians The fight with the Gil Turtle; get rich or die tryin' Castle Exdeath 1; ascension and the fight with Carbuncle The fourth fight with Gilgamesh The fight with the dark warlock Exdeath

4.38.1 A second prelude; the fight with Antlion

4.39.1 4.39.2 4.40.1 4.40.2 4.41.1 4.41.2 4.41.3 4.42.1 4.43.1 4.44.1 4.45.1 4.46.1 4.47.1 4.47.2 4.48.1 4.49.1 4.49.2 4.50.1 4.51.1 4.51.2 4.51.3 4.51.4 4.51.5 4.51.6 4.51.7 4.51.8 4.52.1 4.53.1 4.53.2 4.53.3 4.53.4 4.54.1 4.54.2 4.54.3 4.55.1 4.56.1 4.56.2 4.57.1

Mission statement Preparation for the Pyramid in the Desert of Shifting Sands The Pyramid of Moore; the Earth tablet The fight with Melusine Airship Exploitation: Planet R Airship Exploitation: They see me Odin', they hatin' Overworld Encounters: Planet R The Phantom Village The Island Shrine; the Wind tablet Fork Tower; the fight against Minotaur and Omniscient The sunken Tower of Walse; Famed Mimic Gogo and the 'final' shard The Great Sea Trench; the Fire tablet Istory Falls; the Water tablet Istory Falls; the battle with Leviathan The Secret Shards Taking the Black Chocobo; the battle with Bahamut Taking the Black Chocobo; the Phoenix Tower Wrapping Things Up; How to Kill Fiends and Mutilate People Interdimensional Rift; the Desert Interdimensional Rift; the Ruins Interdimensional Rift; the Forest Interdimensional Rift; the Cave Interdimensional Rift; the Library Interdimensional Rift; the Tower Interdimensional Rift; the Dimension Castle Interdimensional Rift; the Last Floor Facing the Void The Undeathables; Famed Mimic Gogo The Undeathables; Magic Pot The Undeathables; Omega The Undeathables; Shinryu The Sealed Temple; Unlocking The Sealed Temple; Arena The Sealed Temple; The Lethe Court The Dark Arts The Undeatables; Omega Mk. II The Undeatables; Neo Shinryu The Cloister of the Dead

------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.1.1 Prelude; the demolition of the Wind Crystal ********************************** Opponents:

Goblin (#1) Container contents: Phoenix Down The intro is fairly long and pleasant to watch. God, don't you just hate it when walkthrough writers go into detail about the intro? Then this happens, then that happens, some dude gets his hand cut off, than there's an explosion and the bad guy transforms...if you don't bother to watch the bloody intro, how dedicated can the player be to a walkthrough, one might ponder? Regardless, meet Bartz Klauser, young adventurer from the quiet town of Lix. Romantically wasting his life away in what has to be the smallest forest of the world, he is forcefully pulled into our collective attention when a meteorite falls from the sky and crashes into the ground near Bartz. He quickly discusses the situation with his best friend, the chocobo cleverly named Boko. Quickly putting out the campfire (remember, only you etc.), Bartz races to the scene. Welcome to controlling Boko on the Overworld. You could go north, but there's nothing interesting there. Let's focus on the meteorite now. When you reach the meteorite to the east, you'll dive right into Tycoon Meteorite. When you approach the Big Rock of Falling Fire, Bartz will hop off Boko to ensure his safety and carry on by foot. The first thing noticeable about the meteorite is the fact that an unconscious girl is being taken away by two goblins. Obviously that has nothing to do with the meteorite itself, but GOBLINS! You get the jump on them. This is your first battle, and your options are limited. There's a Broadsword in Bartz his right hand, and it was designed to kill things. The Goblins are a nuisance and you want them to die. The Goblins will punch you in the face when you let them; luckily, they are no trouble whatsoever. Use !Attack to win! I guess I could note that the left Goblin is in the Back Row, but since even with the damage reduction it'll go down in one hit, it's not really important. Like the chivalrous young hero protagonist that he is, Bartz rescues the girl and calms her down. There's a chance to give Bartz a name now. I'll just call him Bartz, but if you're the sort of person who takes an interest in the age-old Butz/Bartz debate, be my guest. There's confusion all around. Unknown to Bartz, the girl he has just saved is Lenna Charlotte Tycoon, princess of Tycoon and (gasp) daughter to Alexander Highwind Tycoon who is (gasp again) king of Tycoon. The good man went to check out the enigmatic Wind Crystal since it doesn't appear to do a whole lot lately, he's nowhere to be seen, and now there are meteorites. Before the story gets too interesting, however, there's also moaning. Even if you decide to leave with Lenna and tour the Overworld Map some more, there's no reason to do so. It

doesn't take a grade in anything to find somebody lying next to the meteorite. It's an old man. The old man wakes up when you talk to him, but acts rather confused. The cause seems to be amnesia. I'm sure we won't have to listen to this guy's slowly unravelling and undoubtedly tragic past throughout the rest of the game! The old man's name is Galuf. Now that everybody has regained his wits, both the young girl and the old man tell Bartz they need to go to the Wind Shrine, home of the Wind Crystal. Neither of them seems to have any business there, but Bartz has only just met them so has no reason to stop them. He lets 'em go, and the young girl and old man depart for a lifetime of adventure. They save the world. The End. Would you like a chocolate-covered pretzel? There's a little side-objective for Bartz too, by the way: see that gigantic dark all-concealing tree in the lower-right corner? There's a hidden passageway towards a Phoenix Down. Make sure to grab it; these babies sell for 500 Gil and have the power to revive fallen party members. Reunited with Boko, you quickly find yourself on the Overworld Map again. You can't return to the quiet little corner you started this game on, so you have no choice but to go north, even though you know there's nothing interesting there. This may very well be the most boring Final Fantasy out of...no, wait, it's an earthquake. In what I'm sure could have been a rather impressive action sequence hadn't this been an early Super Famicom/PSX/GBA game, an earthquake commences, shrill shrieks are heard in the distance and you're going to have to fight off two teams of two Goblins with Bartz, while Boko leaps over tremors like it's nobody's business. In the end, Bartz finds himself reunited with Lenna and Galuf, who join the party. With the road to Tule blocked, a town most probably required to pass through to reach the Wind Shrine, the road to the Wind Crystal is also blocked. Damn it all. Let's go north and see what kind of crazy plan we can cook up. It quickly seems the plan is cave-related. Boko's wise enough to quit right there. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.1.2 Prelude; the road to Tule ********************************** Opponents: Steel Bat (#2), Devil Crab (#3), Stroper (#4) Container contents: Leather Cap Cave, level 1:

35 % Steel Bat x 2 35 % Steel Bat x 2, Devil Crab 23 % Devil Crab x 2 6 % Steel Bat x 3 Cave, level 2 & 3: 35 % Stroper x 2 35 % Stroper x 2, Steel Bat 23 % Steel Bat x 3 6 % Steel Bat x 2 It's a cave. Like in most caves even in our world, there are bats, land crabs and mutant plant creatures that try to kill you. Here's what you'll want to do for utmost efficiency in killing them: Lenna will always be the first to act due to her superior Agility. Take the Broadsword from Bartz and give it to Lenna. Give Lenna's Knife she took from home and give it to Bartz. Galuf stays naked in your party, like old men should never do, but always do anyway. He'll have a 8 % chance of doing a critical hit with each punch, actually landing a solid blow: [CRITICAL-LINK] The monsters aren't very interesting yet so I'll just quickly name them and what they do. Steel Bats are flying bats. They attack physically, with !Claw (1.5 damage) and the Vampire spell. The Vampire spell acts like this: it drains (max HP current HP) damage. That means that the more damage a Steel Bat has taken, the more damage it'll do with Vampire. However, since you should be taking the SB's down with one or two hits anyway, you should pay no attention to its existence. Note that Vampire was supposed to deal only 50 % of that damage, but due to a bug that slipped in with the GBA port, it heals the caster completely. Stropers are entirely uninteresting. They merely fight and are silly. Devil Crabs have 3 Defense, which is enough to make life a little annoying for you. They attack physically and with !Pincer (Attack x 1.5). Any slash with the Broadsword will dispatch a creature, but note that Devil Crabs are the only ones with notable Defense meaning that they will nullify Galuf's punches (unless he scores a critical hit) and survive a single Knife slash. Strike Devil Crabs first and go for everything else second. Let this be a moment to say that running from battle could be BAD. Don't allow it. Why is this? Far, far into this game you may choose between two weapons, of which the sword version loses power every time you run away and have run away. Never run and it'll be one of the strongest Sword you'll ever find. Run a few times and it'll be just mediocre. The alternate option powers UP when you run,

but you can always start running then if you believe that weapon to be the superior of the two. Obviously, if you're already firmly rooted in the Brave Blade versus Chicken Knife debate and have chosen your school, feel free to run whenever you wish. Pansy. You could at this point return outside, but Bartz'll get on Boko automatically, so we're still not allowed to wander the Overworld Map freely. Guess we should continue. Once you enter the cave, Bartz will comment on the existence of a recovery spring to the left of you. Go there to heal up from the pain you received while fighting the Goblins. In the next room, the only path you can follow will take you across a small cutscene, for this cave is not uninhabited; a shady looking fellow checks his surroundings, notices nothing threatening and pushes a button to grand passage for him. Before you gloat over your hiding skills and follow him, be sure to grab the Leather Cap from the chest to your left. It doesn't really matter whom you stick it on; ladies first? Push the button like the other guy did to open the oddly snake-like door. Only a few steps further you'll notice a ship sailing merrily merrily down the stream, but how does it accomplish this feat without the wind blowing? Mysteries abound in this action-packed cave! Let's continue. Great. Now there's pirates. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.1.3 Prelude; Faris Scherwiz ********************************** It all seemed so nice and cozy back when it was just one of the forces of nature calling it quits for the day. You've spent the last few hours fighting through packs of Goblins while the ground collapsed underneath you and chasing the elusive road to this mysterious Tule through a cave filled with monsters. And now there's pirates. A cave filled with murderous thugs inspires Lenna to suggest making your location known, while Galuf remains convinced this is an unnecessarily complex path to certain death and suggests trying to steal the magically sailing pirate ship. And Bartz, let's face it, your hair day isn't that grand either. Poor guy. The only two pirates to be seen in the near vicinity of your party are both sleeping, which is a huge plus. The right one wakes up for a moment if you try and talk to him (you stupid!) but you can rest assured there are no lasting consequences, like with unsafe sex. Walk the plank the good way and enter the ship! Obviously you could just grab the wheel and make a go for it, but it might be wise to check the entire thing out before sailing to the horizon with it. Within the ship there are two doors;

the left one leads to a locked jail door leading to an empty jail, the right one houses yet another sleeping pirate, mumbling about Syldra or something. We'll deal with him later; time to make a run for it. Trying to grab the wheel, Bartz notices he can't get the wheel to turn, and while Lenna and Galuf are trying to figure out what's wrong with Bartz, they're discovered. Lenna quickly reveals her royal identity since it seems like a good idea to her; captain Faris Scherwiz seems more interested in her jewelry, though. The pirates don't even have to TRY before forcing the entire party to the ground, tied and ready to be locked up, so yay for the plot powers of our heroes so far. In the night: lamenting. In the morning: action! The prisoners are freed much to the dismay of Faris' crew, the order to sail to the Wind Shrine is given and the secret behind the ship's ever-lasting sailing powers is revealed to be a huge-ass sea...thingy, we only see her head. Her name is Syldra. Time to get this show on the road, savvy? Yeah, you'll want to tell the helpful first mate to buzz off. We're going to Tule first. There's all kinds of neat stuff to do there. It's to the west. You may choose to skip this entire section and dive into the Wind Shrine unprepared (which still doesn't make it too hard) but there's really no good reason to do so. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.1.4 Prelude; the lands around Tule ********************************** Opponents: Goblin (#1), Killer Bee (#5), Nutkin (#6), Stray Cat (#7), Gatling (#16), Big Horn (#17), Bandersnatch (#19) Grasslands near Tule: 35 % Goblin x 3 35 % Killer Bee x 2, Goblin 23 % Nutkin x 3 6 % Stray Cat x 4 Grasslands south-east of Tule, near and in the forest: 35 % Goblin 35 % Killer Bee x 2 23 % Goblin x 3 6 % Killer Bee x 2, Goblin

First off, before you enter Tule itself you should be aware of the fact that you're now on the Overworld Map without Boko, allowing you to fight random encounters. Speaking of Boko, it appears that Bartz has forgotten all about his best friend. We'll pick him up later. You can fight Goblins on the Overworld Map now. They're of a slightly different variety than the Goblins you defeated earlier; they'll rarely drop a Leather Cap now. Note that both varieties will make the same Goblin appear in the Bestiary, this being the more recent one. Goblin'll also randomly use a move called Goblin Punch, of which I'll explain the details later. It's basically a normal but unblockable physical attack with a few quirks. Killer Bees fly and attack physically with Attack and !Needle, which shouldn't be confused with the enemy attack Needle. !Needle inflicts 1.5 damage. Nutkin are chewing on their nuts while skirmishing, so they slowly regain HP during battle. Randomly a green 1 will pop up to indicate their incredible recovery rate. One hit should kill them; they attack with Attack and !Incisor. !Incisor never misses and ignores Defense, watch out! Stray Cats merely attack physically, sometimes with !Tail. Unassuming. Lands near Torna Canal: 35 % Bandersnatch, Big Horn 35 % Bandersnatch x 3 23 % Bandersnatch 6 % Gatling The enemy Bandersnatch can appear if you land on one of the thin strokes of land between Tule and the Wind Shrine. Bandersnatches are powerful creatures that may deal anywhere between 60 to 100 damage with their normal physical attacks and !Body Blow, their special technique. You'll want to brawl with them a bit for the Bestiary entry if you care about those things, but later; they almost one-hit kill you now unless you start leveling. Quite frumious, they are. Gatlings will normally just Attack, but if you hit them with an Attack of your own they'll counter with !Needle, a more powerful physical attack. They'll rarely drop Gold Needles. Big Horns attack with Attack and (shocker) !Horn, which is a more powerful physical attack. If you hit them with a Fire-elemental attack and they survive, they'll use Flee immediately to leave the battlefield, but you don't have any Fire-elemental attacks at this point. This is the first time you're free on the Overworld Map to fight your own battles the way you see fit. No doubt some guy has leveled to 99 right here.

Doesn't that knowledge make you feel great about yourself? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.1.5 Prelude; the town of Tule ********************************** Container contents: 100 Gil, 150 Gil, Ether, Leather Shoes x 2, Phoenix Down x 2, Potion x 2, Tent x 2 Features: Piano In the meantime: Tule! Check out Faris' equipment; he's got a Leather Shield on him and a Dagger, a more powerful knife than the Knife. Give him the Leather Cap you have and enter Tule. All the pirates will swarm into the Pub for the brew of sunshine known as grog and Faris won't stay behind. On a side note, make no mistake about the exceedingly disgusting nature of grog. Seriously, look it up. Hey, at least it helps fight off scurvy. Should you ever try to leave town, Faris'll automatically rejoin you using his pirate senses. The purple wizard-guy near the entrance of town wants to take you to the Greenhorn's Club. It's a good idea (although you could've walked yourself); it's on the southern-west edge of Tule. Claim your status as a beginner upon entrance an you'll be granted passage. There's a lot of info given here, but we're here for the treasure. I'm here for the info, remember? The crate contains a Tent, the barrel contains a Phoenix Down and the grey pot contains a Potion. The bottom green wizard mentions the existence of fake walls and sure enough, there's one leading around the grey pot to the chest you couldn't normally reach. It contains an Ether. The other chest contains 100 Gil. Time to go upstairs! Here's, a green wizard is standing over a chest, claiming he has a gift for you. Opening the chest nets you a battle with a Goblin! Kill it. Miscellaneous note: the first time you talk to the green wizard guy here, he'll say: "Inside this chest is a present from me!" and every subsequent time he'll say: "A-hua-hua! Sometimes monsters hide in treasure chests. From now on, be careful!". It doesn't matter when, or even if, you open the chest at all. Poor old guy is probably as blind as a bat. After the battle you'll get some Leather Shoes, which increase both your Defense and Magic Defense by 1. All right! Time to get out. Talk to the green-haired lady to open up the passage; mention you're no beginner anymore when you're on the other side of the counter and she'll forcefully throw you

out. Good times :P Time to explore town. In the barrel to the right of the Inn lies 150 Gil. To the north, a few crates and barrels stand together. One of the barrels contains a Potion and a crate contains a Tent. The big house to the far north belongs to Zok, the man who built the Torna Canal and a personal friend of the king of Tycoon. He doesn't seem to be home, however. To the far left of Zok's house there's a bush between all the trees where you can find a Phoenix Down, and to the far right is a crate over by the watermill which contains another pair of Leather Shoes. Equip 'em. Let's enter the Pub now. Faris is upstairs. One of the pirates mentions how he loves his captain, which is odd, since he's a dude. And Faris is also a dude. And two dudes, in a simplistic high fantasy setting like this one, that just don't fit. On stage, there's a piano. Woohoo! You must play it. Long story short, if you play all eight pianos in this game you unlock two more Songs for your Bards. Short story long: [PIANO-LINK]. Anyway, the Girls Of Little Shame are in your way. Sit down on the speshul seat to get them off stage and on your lap. For free! Now, you can reach the piano. You suck. Let's go upstairs and sleep off the shame. Faris the hippie pirate captain beat you to it. Bartz decides to check in on him. And then Galuf. And then they fall in love with the sleeping image of Faris the hippie pirate captain. What's the rating on this game again? We haven't cast a single Fire spell yet and the word 'flaming' already comes to mind. Regardless, before things can escalate Faris wakes up and locks the door, which seems like a good idea. Maybe some fresh air will do Bartz and Galuf some good. Gets rid of all the pheromones. Let's examine the shops: Weapon Shop: Broadsword 280 Gil Rod 200 Gil Staff 200 Gil Buy one Broadsword and leave it at that. The Rod is only useful if you have spells to cast and aren't going to use physicals anyway since it boosts your Magic Power by a tiny margin (1). The Staff is only useful if you really, really have no other choices. You'll get a free extra Broadsword in a very short while, so don't feel bad for the final character with a weak weapon. Have Galuf equipped with the Knife; since his Agility's the lowest of your characters, he attacks the last and thus the least. Don't let the game's Optimize function replace a Knife with a Rod; since their damage formulae are different, the Rod will be useless while the Knife will be not useless. Armor Shop:

Leather Shield 90 Gil Leather Cap 50 Gil Leather Armor 80 Gil What you're lacking in your inventory is three Leather Shields and three Leather Caps. You can even buy three Leather Caps, but since you're finding one for free in a little while, I see no reason to buy it here (although 50 Gil's a joke, too). Magic Shop: Fire 150 Gil Blizzard 150 Gil Thunder 150 Gil Cure 180 Gil Libra 80 Gil Poisona 90 Gil I'll discuss them all when you get to use them, okay? I do suggest buying at least the Blizzard Black Magic spell and the Cure White Magic spell so you can cast at least one spell in both classes once you obtain the means to do so. Blizzard is the best out of the three Black spells since it's the only one to hit an elemental weakness in the next dungeon. Item Shop: Potion 40 Gil Tent 250 Gil The Item Shop, like many item shops in this game, does not make enough profit to rent a building on its own; instead, it has to share with the Inn. Potions heal 50 HP, Tents restore 1000 HP and MP, but only on the Overworld Map and on Save Points. You'll get five Potions for free in a short while; another Tent or two couldn't hurt, though. We're done in Tule; let's go find that Wind Shrine all the cool kids are talking about. Sailing on the Overworld Map, it's possible to approach the Torna Canal that you pass on your way; the gates are locked, though. You can fight its monsters in front of the gate (they're not at all quality gates, you see), but there's nothing to gain for you so I don't suggest it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.1.6 Prelude; the Wind Shrine and Wing Raptor ********************************** Opponents: Black Goblin (#8), White Serpent (#9), Moldwynd (#10), Mani Wizard (#11), Wing Raptor (#243) Container contents: Broadsword, Leather Cap, Potion x 5, Staff

Miscellaneous items: Elixir (rare Moldwynd drop), Leather Shoes (rare Black Goblin drop), Rod (rare Mani Wizard drop) Blue spells: Aero, Goblin Punch Second floor: 35 % Black Goblin x 2 35 % White Serpent 23 % White Serpent, Black Goblin 6 % Moldwynd, Black Goblin, White Serpent Third floor: 35 % White Serpent, Black Goblin 35 % Moldwynd, Black Goblin, White Serpent 23 % Moldwynd x 3 6 % Mani Wizard, Moldwynd, Black Goblin Fourth floor: 35 % Mani Wizard, White Serpent 35 % White Serpent, Black Goblin 23 % Mani Wizard x 3 6 % Moldwynd x 3 The Wind Shrine is to the far north, surrounded by a little nice forest. Yeah, the cute critters in it might attack you, but compared to the entities that will be attacking you in the future it all seems harmless enough. Inside the shrine, a delegation of Tycoon citizens is awaiting help. The scholar to the left of the vial containing water from a recovery spring will give Lenna 5 Potions, which is nice enough of him. The vial itself will completely restore your party when you drink from it. Upstairs, monsters have infested the rooms and ol' Alex Tycoon's not coming back, so it's time to see if he's okay up there. Black Goblins attack with Goblin Punch and Attack, of which the former has been mentioned before. I'll explain how it works exactly when you master the move yourself. They rarely drop Leather Shoes, so you might want to stick around fighting them until you've obtained two (more). White Serpents have three attacks; Attack, !Tail (Attack x 1.5) and Entangle which sets Paralyze for about two turns. Paralyze prevents a character from taking actions, but it wears off eventually. White Serpents are weak to Iceelemental attacks, which might aid you in the future. Moldwynd are demons of wind. They are able to cast Aero on a single target, a Wind-elemental attack that deals around 70 damage. They can use Aero only once

without your aid (they lack the MP for more). They may also attack physically with Attack and !Critical attack (Attack x 1.5). They rarely drop Elixirs. Aero can be learned by Blue Mages later on in the game, but not now. Mani Wizards attack physically with Attack and !Magic Stick, but will cast either a Fire, Blizzard or Thunder spell on the entire party every third turn, hurting for about 20 HP on all characters. They'll have depleted all of their MP after a single spell, though. They rarely drop Rods. They are the only creature in the game, aside from the solo-Bartz Goblins of the very first fight, that are entirely incapable of dodging any physical attack; physical attacks will always hit them, regardless of their hit rate. On the second floor, there's a Tent in a chest and a door leading to a Save Point. Save at the Save Point if you want and continue. It's a consecrated circle, see? In this new room, there's a chest containing a Leather Cap to the right and some stairs allowing you to continue to the left. Equip the Leather Cap if you must and press on. On the third floor, you can either walk all the way around or know that there's a secret passage here; you can walk through the thin wall to get to the door on the other wise. This left door leads to a chest containing a Broadsword; the door to the right leads nowhere. Give this Broadsword to someone if it upgrades their physical power; the Dagger is about as powerful as a Broadsword when the wielder is level 4 and surpasses it on higher levels. The big-ass bird guarding the stairs? Yeah, it needs to go. It'll attack you as soon as you stand in front of it, but be sure you're fully healed as Wing Raptor is fully capable of delivering big ouchies if you're not careful. I kinda suggest reaching level 5 before tackling the feathered fiend as you get a nice damage boost when you reach it and you can find Leather Shoes and Elixirs in the meantime if luck is on your side. Wing Raptor Level: 1, HP: 250, MP: 25 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Potion (common) Win: Phoenix Down Status: Float Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Claw: Barrier-piercing Specialty Effect: Unblockable Vulnerable to: Death, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow Attacks: Attack, !Claw, Breath Wing You have no way of exploiting those status ailments, which is sad. You'll just

have to rely on physical violence, then. This is what Wing Raptor does: Wing Raptor's signature move is Breath Wing, a Wind-elemental attack that deals (25 % target's maximum HP) damage. Wing Raptor will either use Attack (33 %) or Breath Wing (66 %) for two turns, after which it'll fold its wings over its beak and stop attacking. It gains 20 Defense and 40% Evasion in doing so, making any physical attack useless. Rods and Staves have the power to damage Wing Raptor in this form, but you shouldn't attack him now, as he'll counter any violence done to him by !Claw, as he clearly indicates: "A fierce talon swipe will meet those when attack when its wings are closed!" After it takes two turns, it'll revert back to normal and use a Breath Wing attack to say hello. At 250 HP, Wing Raptor takes nine attacks with a level 4 party before going down. Sadly, that means it'll be able to take three rounds, during which he'll close itself down. If your party is fully healed it is entirely capable of taking in the worst case scenario of three Breath Wings. As long as you don't attack during his defensive phase, you're good to go. If you leveled beyond level 4, your Broadswords and especially your Dagger will do more damage and Wing Raptor should go down before going defensive at all. And you get another Phoenix Down. For that price, you'd expect them to be a little more rare, no? On the fourth floor, there's a hidden passageway to a chest containing a Staff. It's in the lower-right corner. Staves deal weak magical damage which remains equally powerful from the Back Row. Useless for your Freelancers right now. The fourth floor contains the Wind Crystal. Which is broken. Shit. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.2.1 The Wind Crystal Jobs ********************************** Upon discovery of the broken Wind Crystal, our heroes are left with precious little time to think it over, as a whole lot of freaky stuff happens right then and there. A sparkle from what we can assume is the Fire Crystal imbues Faris with the Spirit of Fire, Courage. Lenna obtains the Spirit of Water, Devotion. Galuf obtains the Spirit of Earth, Hope, while Bartz obtains the Spirit of the broken Wind Crystal, Passion. Once again, before anyone can discuss what exactly happened, a cracked and

tired voice calls towards Lenna. It's Alexander, and he's not looking too good. He tells you what the immobile crystals could not and sends you on a quest to protect the Crystals. The three remaining crystals are about to shatter according to King Tycoon, and they need to be prevented from doing so. Before the good King can continue however, a dark aura surrounds him and forcefully removes him from the room. The Crystal shards all hold the soul of a long-gone warrior of a certain class, and by equipping the crystal shard (how exactly that may be done is left to anybody's imagination) the Chosen Warriors may tap into the powers of these warriors. The souls have no name except for the Job they represent. For a quick tutorial on the Job system that is in any way superior to what the game gives you, please go here here: [JOB-LINK] For now, you'll want to know all about the Jobs you've been offered. I suggest you take a look at section 6.0 for information about the Jobs and abilities. Use these quick links to learn more about specific Jobs: [KNIGHT-LINK] [MONK-LINK] [THIEF-LINK]

[WHITEM-LINK] [BLACKM-LINK] [BLUEM-LINK] Abilities to possibly shoot for in the near future: Learning (Blue Mage) only takes a grand total of 10 + 20 ABP. The !Check you learn in the process is beyond worthless, but you'll want to be able to learn Blue Magic spells without having to resort to creating a Blue Mage when the offense clearly isn't there at that point of the game. !Black level 1 & !White level 1. With 10 ABP each it takes very little effort to learn the basics of one school of magic and put it on the other Job. More than one healer is a good thing, and you don't want an entirely offensively crippled character. Barehanded. From now on, you have acceptable to good physical offense on any character you choose regardless of what weapons you're carrying. Monk punches are very powerful, and Barehanded can be used to increase Strength to da max even when you're keeping your weapon. A related matter that fun for the whole family: if you set Barehanded on a Blue Mage Bartz (known as the 'Triple B combo'), Bartz will reveal a second face when punching an enemy! If you named Bartz 'Zaphod' just because of this, you are now AWESOME. Other notes: A White Mage without offense is a far inferior character than a Black Mage without support spells. I suggest going for offense first, especially when

starting out. The Monk learns Barehanded after only 45 ABP, giving any character the ability to have the game's best Strength and great to decent 'weapons'. Giving a Thief the Barehanded ability makes for a character with the highest Strength and Agility stats in the game; a great combination available from the very start of your ABP career! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.3.1 Preparing for the Torna Canal ********************************** Opponents: Steel Bat (#2), Devil Crab (#3), Stroper (#4) Container contents: 300 Gil, Ether, Tent Miscellaneous items: Potion x8 Blue Spells: Aero, Goblin Punch, Vampire Instead of taking the Warp Stone behind the altar, why not just walk on down? You'll earn some of those ABPs now, and it'll be fun. If you have a Blue Mage installed in your team, be sure to learn the Aero spell from Moldwynd enemies (uses randomly every second turn, only has the MP to cast it once) and Goblin Punch from the Black Goblins which they'll use whenever wherever for unlimited amounts of time since Goblin Punch doesn't cost any MP. Flex your new Jobs a little. All the way down, the Wind Shrine refugees will ponder the reason behind the broken Wind Crystal; could it be that the machine that amplified the Crystal's power was the cause? On your new Blue Magic spells: Aero is a slightly stronger and Wind-elemental version of your Black Magic spells. Goblin Punch is kind of odd. It basically takes the weapon(s) the caster has, applies the normal sword damage parameter and is non-elemental and unblockable. Also, when the 'caster' and the target share a level, Goblin Punch its power is multiplied by 8 and becomes barrierpiercing. In most cases just equivalent to a physical attack, but without a damage penalty from the Back Row and no random variance bonus damage, which is very slight. Blue Mages have almost no business in the Front Row when Goblin Punch has been learned. Using the pirate ship, you can sail to Tule. On the little peninsulas near the gates of the Torna Canal you can fight Gatlings, Big Horn and Bandersnatch monsters. Three Bandersnatch monsters give 300 Gil, 45 Experience Points and 3

ABP, so that's all right. They're kinda powerful though, so watch your step. In Tule, Faris will leave you again to go sulk in his room or whatever. The lovey-dovey scene can still be accessed if you didn't earlier. You can now go find the Weapon Shop if you wish to buy a Rod for your Black Mage(s) and go buy all the spells in the Magic Store. They're all very easy to understand. Libra checks a monster's Level, HP, Weakness and currently inflicted Status Effects while Poisona removes the Poison status from a target. Fire, Blizzard and Thunder are all similar except for their respective element. Buy them all; you'll utilize them all if you carry a Black Mage around. When you check back on Zok, he's home! Since the closest-by Crystal is the Water Crystal in the country of Walse and the only route there is through the Torna Canal, we need the keys. Never mind there's been rumors of a monster that has been long-sealed by the now rapidly weakening power of the Wind Crystal, we gots us some Water Crystal protection to do. Zok seems hesitant to give you the key up to the point he claims he's lost the keys. A likely story. In the night, it seems that Bartz' father has some Crystal-related backstory as well. Zok's watching Lenna sleep in the meantime, but we can hardly blame an old man's who is living alone. Zok slips Bartz the keys to the Torna Canal, as to not let Lenna know for some reason or another. Time to go, regardless; hope Faris is ready to say goodbye to his pirate buddies. It seems so. After walking from the Overworld Map onto the pirate ship, there's a cutscene to once again press the fact that shattering crystals is not a good thing. Before we make haste in saving the world, it's time to visit some buddies of us; Boko's still waiting for us near the Pirate Cave. Have Syldra pull the pirate ship all the way to the south-east, where you'll be able to touch land eventually. Walk up to the entrance of the cave, where Boko is nowhere to be found. Chasing after him will net you more encounters with some Steel Bats, which wouldn't have been too interesting hadn't it been for your Blue Mage(s), who can learn Vampire here. I've already explained the damage formula of Vampire: (max HP - current HP). When your Blue Mage is severely damaged, he or she can restore him- or herself quite nicely with a Vampire attack, and by its very nature the attack will be relatively useful throughout the entire game so keep in mind the Blue spellset has this power. In the Super Famicom release, Vampire deals (max HP - current HP) / 2 damage. Vampire being twice as strong in the GBA game is a bug, but since it's not our fault and it'd be silly to ignore the attack, never mind. When you find the pirate hideout, there's a skull button to the left of the entrance which opens a door to three chests containing a Tent, an Ether and 300 Gil. From one of the pirates walking around in the main room Faris obtains 8

Potions too. This guy wouldn't have been here if you came here before sending the Tule pirates home. Boko is having its wounds treated too; have Bartz say hello and leave the cave. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.3.2 The Torna Canal ********************************** Opponents: Sucker (#191), Octokraken (#192), Karlabos (#244) Miscellaneous items: Tent (guaranteed Karlabos drop) 35 % Octokraken x 2 35 % Sucker x 2 23 % Sucker x 2, Octokraken 6 % Octokraken x 2, Sucker The monsters of the Torna Canal only attack females, as a Tule NPC was kind enough to mention. However, for some odd reason this appears to include Faris as well, so while Lenna will be glad to spread some of the violence I don't think a pirate captain would like to be viewed as a woman by anything. No matter; he gets to mercilessly slaughter the mysogynist squids so it's all gravy. Another strange thing is that some powerful creature is known to be sealed here. If you got a powerful, violent creature that you want to seal away, the only man-made link between Walse and Tule is about the last place you'd want to lock it up. Oh, well. Suckers merely use physicals while sometimes using !Ten Arms, which is a stronger version. They're weak to Lightning-elemental attacks, so the Black Mages' Thunder spells take good care of them, killing them all in one hit even when MT'd. They'll only target Lenna and Faris, and whenever both are dead, they'll simply stop attacking altogether. The same goes for Octokraken, but this one is a tad more dangerous; not only does it not have an elemental weakness, it will also randomly use an attack called Electrocute every second turn which deals about 70 damage to a single (female) target. Take them out as quickly as possible and you shouldn't see it in action. Its special is called !Eight Arms and deals 150% damage. Obviously, the knowledge that only two of your characters are going to be hit is an advantage. If you have less than four Leather Shoes, give them to the Lenna and Faris. You could make both Lenna and Faris Knights and use !Guard continuously while Bartz and Galuf clear out the field, but the monsters really aren't dangerous enough to warrant extreme caution like that. Just keep an eye on Lenna and Faris' HP.

The Torna Canal is the only passage to Walse, and it's a dangerous one. The power of the Wind Crystal was used to seal away a specifically powerful monster, and since the wind has grown weak monsters have been flooding into the canal. Gosh, here's hoping we don't run into them! The entrance to the Torna Canal lies to the south-east of the Wind Shrine, but honestly, it's not very hard to find. Bartz will whip out Zok's key and open the gates for you. Lenna's obviously stupefied. Torna Canal, like so many ambitious young canals of our time, is a straightforward sailing route. You might be humored to find that the Thief's Sprint support ability and your normal dashing both work in tandem with Syldra so you can sail twice as fast :P. After a 45 degree turn downwards, a whirlpool will appear, apparently caused by *gasp* the powerful creature that was sealed here by the power of the Wind Crystal. Syldra's having trouble coping with the stream and succumbs to the power of the vortex. Out comes the boogie man. Karlabos Level: 5, HP: 650, MP: 100 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Potion (common) Win: Tent Weakness: Lightning Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Feeler Specialty Effect: Paralyze Vulnerable to: Stop, Slow Attacks: Attack, !Feeler, Tail Screw Karlabos' most dangerous attack is called Tail Screw. It reduces the HP of a character to a random single digit (0..9). Whenever this happens, a Cure spell or a Potion is in order ASAP. Karlabos' !Feeler sets Paralyze, which can be a nuisance if it touches your White Mage. Karlabos isn't a very difficult boss, and unless you're slamming your head on the controller in a particularly bizarre fashion the worst that can happen in this battle is a single character that falls due to a Tail Screw/physical combo. Karlabos is a great, almost insurmountable danger in self-inflicted single character challenges, but not much to worry about in a normal game. The Black Thunder spell is the prime damage dealer in this battle, while any character with the Barehanded ability will make great use of it too. All other attacks come far behind. Should a character with the !Blue ability find him- or herself at level 5, Goblin Punch deals extreme amounts of damage, otherwise Aero is the superior attack. You can Steal a Potion, which may not even be

worth your turn. You'll get a Tent after the battle. It seems the tentacled tormenter it still alive, and even in its damaged state it's much more powerful than Syldra. Dragging the water creature with it, Karlabos leaves the ship alone... but without a means of transportation, the pirate ship is as immobile as a rheumatic snail and without his best friend, captain Faris Scherwiz is nowhere near as pro-active as he used to be. The ship is merely floating along now... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.4.1 The Ship Graveyard ********************************** Opponents: Skeleton (#12), Carcruthl (#13), Undead Husk (#14), Mindflusher (#15), Siren (#245) Container contents: 990 Gil, Antidote x 2, Flail, Potion, Phoenix Down x 2, Tent Miscellaneous items: Bronze Armor (guaranteed (living) Siren drop), Bronze Shield (guaranteed (undead) Siren drop), Elixir (rare Carcruthl drop, rare Undead Husk drop), Flame Scroll (rare Mindflusher drop) Features: World Map "A gathering place for ruined and scuttled ships... and a nest for the undead." Waking up, the situation's looking grim. The uncontrollable pirate ship drifted right into the Ship Graveyard, where bad things happen to good people. Hey, at least you're fully restored from the fight with Karlabos earlier. You can always go below deck to sleep, although Galuf's the only person who gets a bed... Outside 35 % Skeleton 35 % Skeleton x 3 30 % Carcruthl x 2, Skeleton x 2 Inside first shipwreck, (partly) dry parts 35 % Carcruthl x 2, Skeleton x 2 35 % Skeleton x 3 30 % Skeleton

Submerged shipwrecks 35 % Undead Husk, Skeleton, Carcruthl 35 % Skeleton x 3 23 % Skeleton 6 % Undead Husk Partly submerged room just with Pitfall 35 % Undead Husk, Mindflusher 35 % Skeleton x 3, Mindflusher 23 % Undead Husk 6 % Mindflusher x 2, Undead Husk Shipwrecks after Save Point 35 % Mindflusher x 2, Undead Husk 35 % Undead Husk, Skeleton, Carcruthl 30 % Undead Husk x 2 All the enemies you'll face here are Undead! This means that normally curative attacks will damage them, life-restoring spells and items will instantly kill them (unless they're Heavy), they'll almost always be weak to Fire- and Holyelemental attacks, they will absorb Poison-elemental attacks, they will have a butt-load of status immunities and draining spells will have an inverse effect on them; they'll heal the target and damage the caster. This means the White Cure spell will damage the Undead while the Blue Vampire spell will heal them while damaging its caster. Skeletons are undead foot-soldiers. They attack using Attack and !Critical Attack, they're weak to Fire-elemental attacks and may rarely drop a Dagger. Daggers should at this point definitely outclass your Broadswords even though the menu indicates they're weaker. Goblin Punch users should stick to Broadswords; Knights that don't use Two-Handed should switch to Daggers where possible. Carcruthl merely use Attack. They're undead, look spiffy and are weak to Lightning-elemental attacks. That about covers it. They rarely drop Elixirs. Undead Husks are brutes whose bodies are as empty as their brains. Not only are they undead like all the monsters are in the Ship Graveyard, they're also made of stone; using a Gold Needle on them will instantly dissolve them by means of a self-applied Vanish attack. They rarely drop Elixirs like the Carcruthl, but are weak to Wind-elemental attacks such as Aero. They are the only monster in this game that are incapable of avoiding White spells at all; which seems strange since all White spells you have now are unblockable anyway. It must be a Japanese thing, I dunno. Mindflusher's !Lick deals normal damage but also adds the Sap status which shaves away your HP while you stare at it. They may randomly drop a Flame

Scroll, an item that's completely useless to you at this time. The vertical plank next to the pirate ship leads to a seemingly uninteresting rock. Waiting here for a second reveals two more stones however, opening up a string of rocks leading to a chest containing a Flail. The Flail is one of the few physical weapons for your White Mage. It's weak and White Mages should NEVER have to go without offensive spells to cast, but it's back-row compatible and it gives your White Mage something constructive to do when he or she is out of MP or Silenced. For some moderately decent physical damage on the White Mage (certainly better than you'll ever do in the rest of the game), combine TwoHanded with the Flail. It works. Track back and continue on to the right. You'll enter another derelict ship which is filled with fog and spider webs. Go down the stairs (there doesn't seem to be anything else to do). Before you pass through the door, the light betrays the existence of a more hidden door which leads to a Tent. Get back and pass through the door, where Faris will make a fuss about his clothes getting wet. An odd vain streak he hasn't shown before, but what needs to be done needs to be done. Enter the water. There's a little chest you can stand on to get your head above water, but without one of those stressing YOU HAVE THIS MUCH AIR LEFT bars there's little point in doing so. Swim/walk down the stairs. Down here, there's a chest with the classic pirate skull on it; examine it for 990 Gil. Continue to find a split in the road; the above door leads to a room containing a Phoenix Down (descend the stairs and try to maneuver to the chest, it's not that hard) while the other door to more stairs. Continue. There's a chest here containing a mere Potion, but also some stairs going up. Finally! The water seems to end in this room. To the tile up-left from the stairs exit is a broken piece of wood which collapses underneath you when you stand on it. Don't do it. Exiting gets you to a room filled with old, moldy food, four beds and some chests; the Chosen Warriors declare it to be a safe haven so we can assume it is exactly that. Lenna gets some me-time to go dry her clothes, and the boys are left to do the same. Faris doesn't want to cooperate, Bartz and Galuf shrug it off as nonsense, and finally the reason behind all the oddness is revealed. If the flowing purple hair, infatuated pirates and fellow Chosen Warriors, attacking Torna Canal monsters and huge chest hadn't already convinced you it was the case, you now learn Faris is a girl. Good gosh. Washed into the hands of the pirates one day, she pretended to be a boy. The amount of questions you probably have at this point is enormous and never answered, so let's accept this glaringly illogical plot twist and continue on. You all rest and get fully restored by it. The next room features a Save Point that you can use. When you taste sweet,

fresh air again you can go to the right or down; to the right is nothing, so let's go down. There's a piece o' ship here with a door which you can ignore if you want, but I really really suggest you don't. Let's get in there. The first thing you'll see lying around is an object that's just a shade too bright to be part of the scenery; it's a World Map. You'll notice later this is a magical World Map which adapts to your current situation, but we'll get there later. Grab it now. If you miss it here you'll have another chance to pick it up in the future at another location, but why skip it now? Even further down is a storage room with three chests containing two Antidotes and a Phoenix Down. Here, Mindflushers and Undead Husks abound, both of which drop interesting stuff and give 2 to 3 ABP in their formations, so if you want to Job-train, go ahead. Time to go back up. Continuing, there's what appears to be a dead end with a chest. Opening the chest reveals the remainder of the ship, because that is a logical thing to happen when you open chests. Walk up to the other end of the ship to see a string of stepping stones that's just too perfect to NOT be the exit out of here, so you can go prepare for a boss fight :) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.4.2 The battle with Siren ********************************** Something's not right here. Stella Klauser appears, mother to Bartz, and just as Bartz is about to check up on the situation his body goes limp. King Tycoon his appearance would have been more believable, but his presence in this context is alarming as we already know that Stella passed away at some time in the past. Strangely enough, Faris seems extremely taken by the appearance of King Tycoon; is there ANY normal thought process going on in that girl's head? The system falls down a little when the illusion created for Galuf doesn't ring any bells with him; amnesia, remember? Suddenly 'something' floats from the limp bodies of Bartz, Lenna and Faris, which the suddenly appearing Siren declares to be their souls. Bad shit! Galuf resolves the problematic situation by slapping. You'd hate to be married to the guy. Siren Level: 2, HP: 900, MP: 200 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Nothing Win: Bronze Armor Creature: Humanoid, Heavy Specialty: !Critical

Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Poison, Darkness, Old, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Stop, Slow Attacks: Protect, Cure, Libra, Thunder, Blizzard, Silence, Sleep, Haste, Slow Siren (Undead) Level: 2, HP: 900, MP: 200 Defense: 12, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Nothing Win: Bronze Shield Absorbs: Poison Weakness: Fire Creature: Humanoid, Heavy, Undead Specialty: !Venomous Clasp Specialty Effect: Adds Poison Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Darkness, Slow, Regen Attacks: Attack, !Venomous Clasp Siren works like this. She takes three turns, during which she will do this: 1st turn: 33 % each: Silence, Slow, Haste 2nd turn: 33 % each: Cure, Blizzard, Libra 3rd turn: 33 % each: Protect, Sleep, Thunder Then, she'll turn into her Undead form, which is clearly visible due to the text flashing across the screen and Siren herself turning red. In this state, she'll also take three turns of attacking with either Attack or !Venomous Clasp before returning back to 'normal'. Siren is pretty much immune to your magical attacks in her normal state, so if nobody needs healing this is where the Flail for the White Mage can come in relative handy. Pound away with your Knights, Monks and Thieves and have your mages...yeah, they're better off attacking too, it's just that they're nowhere near as good as the more physically inclined Jobs. When Siren changes into her Undead form, the fun's starting. Undead Siren receives incredible Defense so your physical attacks become next to useless. If you want characters without magical abilities to do *some* damage, Potions inflict a constant 50 damage. The Fire spell is obviously the most powerful spell you can cast on U. Siren, but Aero, Cure and Blizzard or Thunder spells also work pretty well (in that order). Note that throwing a Phoenix Down on Undead Siren will NOT kill her. Life-bringing items and spells still kill Undead enemies in this game as it does in every other Final Fantasy game, it's just that the trick doesn't work if the Undead target is also Heavy. Since the Bronze Armor is an overall better and more expensive item than the

Bronze Shield I might just advise you to shoot for defeating Siren in her normal state, but the difference is marginal. For some trivia, Siren would later make a few appearances as a summon monster, often focusing around setting the Silence status and/or dealing minor damage. She's a bit sexed-up as one of your allies, though, and not quite as Undead and creepy. When you're done, you're done. It's over! Go do something now, go read a book about airplanes. They can fly and are heavy. Oh yeah, and don't forget to cure possibly Poisoned characters, their HP slowly drops to 1 while you're walking. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.5.1 The lands of Carwen ********************************** Opponents: Gatling (#16), Big Horn (#17), Tatou (#18), Garula (#20) Near Ship Graveyard and Carwen: 35 % Gatling 35 % Gatling x 2, Big Horn 23 % Tatou x 2 6 % Big Horn, Gatling, Tatou Forest around North Mountain: 35 % Tatou x 2 35 % Big Horn, Gatling, Tatou 23 % Tatou x 2, Gatling 6 % Big Horn x 2 When you exit the Ship Graveyard, you'll find yourselves on solid land again. Your destination lies to the south, but the journey is not without its perils... Gatlings will normally just Attack, but if you hit them with an Attack of your own they'll counter with !Needle, a more powerful physical attack. They'll rarely drop the Gold Needles you so sorely missed versus the Undead Husks. Big Horns attack with Attack and (shocker) !Horn, which is a more powerful physical attack. If you hit them with a Fire-elemental attack they survive, they'll use Flee immediately to leave the battlefield. Tatou are big ugly lizards weak to Ice-elemental attacks. That about covers it. They drop Tents. Note that on the small patch west of Carwen, you can meet Garula, a passive massive non-aggressive tapir. Even though he doesn't attack you, he has a

Bestiary entry so you'll probably want to beat him up. The lovable oaf appearing here could be considered a bug, since he should really just be found in another area; take your chagrin over this fact out on the helpless creature. Oh yeah, the walkthrough. Carwen's to the south; just stick to the coastal line to the west and you'll see it no problem. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.5.2 The town of Carwen ********************************** Container contents: 1000 Gil, Antidote, Frost Rod Features: Piano Carwen is an entirely uninteresting black hole of a town, but at least they're playing Harvest Hoedown, so that's a plus. Now I was just informed by MerriamWebster that a Hoedown is a kind of square dance; and here I always thought of prostitutes whenever I came across the term. Yeah, it sure is funny having a foreign writer... Item Shop: Potion 40 Gil Antidote 30 Gil Eye Drops 20 Gil Maiden's Kiss 60 Gil Mallet 50 Gil Gold Needle 150 Gil Phoenix Down 1000 Gil Tent 250 Gil Yeah, 's shtuff. You could buy some Eye Drops, and make sure to buy some Gold Needles as the monsters in the upcoming dungeon have the power of petrification. Weapon Shop: Dagger 300 Gil Long Sword 480 Gil Rod 200 Gil Staff 200 Gil Your Knight(s) will really enjoy the upgrade in offensive power when you buy a new sweet Long Sword for them. At least they're no longer carrying the weakest sword in the game, eh? Your Blue Mages are less of a necessity to put a better sword on, but you'll like the increase in Goblin Punch power. Armor Shop: Bronze Shield

290 Gil

Bronze Helmet 250 Gil Bronze Armor 400 Gil Copper Cuirass 350 Gil Cotton Robe 300 Gil It's fairly straightforward as to what to buy for which characters. Everything's flat-out better than Leather equipment so check your current Jobs and give them their suited defensive upgrade. The only point of debate is your Blue Mage, which I'd rather give a Copper Cuirass than a Cotton Robe. Even though the Cotton Robe is better on statistics (+ 2 Defense and + 4 Magic Defense to + 3 Defense and + 2 Magic Defense of the Copper Cuirass) the enemies in this part will use physical attacks only so Defense is more important. Magic Shop: Fire 150 Gil Blizzard 150 Gil Thunder 150 Gil Sleep 300 Gil Cure 180 Gil Poisona 90 Gil Silence 280 Gil Protect 280 Gil The new spells for sale here are Sleep for your Black Magic spellbook and Silence and Protect for your White casters. There's no reason to skip them here, especially since all three spells will be valuable to you in both the near and the far future. Take a nap at the Inn if you're so inclined to restore from your long journey through the Ship Graveyard. Now, walk around town and work your Chosen Warrior magic; talk to NPCs and find the hidden items. There's an Antidote in one of the five barrels to the south of the Pub (this one: 0x000). A much more important treasure is the Frost Rod. Stand in front of the Pub sign and walk all the way down until you can't go any further; now, go left and down until you reach the far bottom crate containing an Frost Rod. The Frost Rod is one of the decent amount of weapons that give a damage increase to a specific element. This one boosts Ice (you're kidding!) by 50 %, making the Black Mage a superior offensive caster than the White Mage (since the Black Mage can equip it) and making the Ice spell the superior attack unless the target is weak to Fire or Bolt. Always keep track of what elemental rod you're carrying and cast accordingly, as 150 % damage is really sweet. The menu says that the Rod will sometimes cast the Blizzaga spell. This is grade-A balloney! The Rod can be used as an Item from the menu (when held, open 'Item' and press UP, you must equip it) to release all the Ice magic from the Rod and scatter a Blizzaga spell across the screen, destroying the Rod in the process. Blizzaga spells are really powerful, but now that the Frost Rod is still a luxury item it's not worth it to break it in combat.

Let's get the story rollin'. Talk to the green-haired lady to the south of the Pub, who'll tell you what we already know; there's the Kingdom of Walse to the south, a country amplifying the Water Crystal much like how Tycoon amplified the Wind Crystal. If we don't stop them soon it might just break on us, so we need to get there ASAP. However, we can't go by sea without Syldra or the wind. And we can't go by land or sea... Talking to the dock workers will have Bartz wondering about this constantly. There's now another green-haired woman near the Pub who talks about her husband. Enter the Pub. There's a new piano here! Play it, you still suck. If you have someone with the Find Passages support ability (Thieves have this ability inherently), you can see a hidden passage leading to a secret room to the far left of the Pub's ground floor. In here, the top grey pot contains 1000 Gil. You can also get behind the bar this way, but there's nothing there for you. Now, go to the top floor to find the man who raves about flying dragons. He raves about flying dragons! It must be Tycoon's Wind Drake as all other Wind Drake are extinct. A plan is quickly devised. Poisonous purple plants or not, we must find the Wind Drake so that we can travel to Walse. Make sure to drop by the Item Shop and purchase a few Gold Needle items. Leave the town of Carwen and travel north to North Mountain where the Wind Drake is supposedly residing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.6.1 North Mountain ********************************** Opponents: Rock Slug (#21), Gaelicat (#22), Cockatrice (#23), Headstone (#24), Magissa (#246), Forza (#247) Container contents: Gold Needle, Phoenix Down Miscellaneous items: Power Drink (guaranteed Forza drop), Silver Specs (common Headstone steal), Whip (guaranteed Magissa drop) Spells: Aero, Flash Slope leading into first cave, second slope: 35 % Rock Slug, Rock Slug

35 % Gaelicat 23 % Rock Slug, Rock Slug, Gaelicat 6 % Gaelicat, Gaelicat, Gaelicat 1st cave and 2nd cave: 35 % Rock Slug, Rock Slug, Gaelicat 35 % Gaelicat, Gaelicat, Gaelicat 23 % Headstone, Headstone, Rock Slug, Rock Slug 6 % Rock Slug, Rock Slug 3rd slope (Purple flowers): 35 % Cockatrice, Rock Slug, Rock Slug 35 % Headstone, Headstone, Rock Slug, Rock Slug 23 % Cockatrice 6 % Cockatrice, Cockatrice 4th slope (Magissa location): 35 % Cockatrice 35 % Gaelicat, Gaelicat, Gaelicat 23 % Gaelicat 6 % Gaelicat Summit (Wind Drake location): 35 % Cockatrice 35 % Cockatrice, Cockatrice 23 % Headstone, Headstone, Headstone, Headstone, Headstone 6 % Headstone, Headstone, Rock Slug, Rock Slug Rock Slugs are boring. They do battle, and they're weak to Fire-elemental attacks, including and solely limited to your Black Fire spells. Gaelicats are the most prolific enemies on the mountain, and by their very nature of being freaky sentient cats who try to employ leaves as primitive wings, they are Floating, which is still of no concern to you. They may evade your physical attacks, so if you have unblockable attacks to favor, favor them. Their Special is called !Cat Scratch and is essentially the same attack as the most powerful physical attack FF VI's Wild Boy Gau was able to perform. It's much weaker here, though. Cockatrices are the most dangerous enemies here, since they have a 33% chance every turn to use (alongside Attack and !Dive which is merely a stronger version of their physical attack) Beak. Beak sets the Petrify status ailment, which renders the target unable to take action, unable to be targeted by any 'attack' that doesn't remove the Petrify effect, and is marked as 'defeated', which means that the character in question won't obtain ABP or Experience when he exits the battle Petrified, and that a team full of Petrified characters will get you a Game Over. Cure Petrified characters with a Gold Needle as soon as

you can. You can steal them from the Cockatrices themselves, too. Headstone are the most interesting enemies to face around here as they'll be nice to you if you know how to work them. First off, they have common Silver Specs on them. Silver Specs share the Leather Shoes its + 1 Defense and + 1 Magic Defense and protects against the Darkness status to boot. Why Leather Shoes are always favored by selecting Optimum is a mystery as they are flat-out inferior to the Silver Specs. Headstone aren't very dangerous so make sure to Steal Silver Specs whenever Headstone and Thieves meet (obviously, four is plenty). The other notable feature of Headstone is the fact it often tries to use Flash while not having the MP to do so. Luckily, feeding them an Ether will give them the MP to use Flash so your Blue Mage(s) can learn it. Know that the Learning character needs to be affected by the spell in order to learn it, so if you equip him with Silver Specs he won't be able to learn the attack. Oh yeah, and they nullify Fire-, Ice- and Wind-elemental attacks, so Thunder is the way to go. If you have a Thief, there's no reason to skip on Stealing 4 Silver Specs at this point of the game, and if you have a character who can learn Blue Magic, be sure to use an Ether on one of the Headstones to have it cast Flash, as it's a truly useful attack to be able to perform. Make sure that your character in question isn't wearing the Silver Specs you stole, as he or she won't be able to learn the spell if it has no effect on the character with Learning set. This is a very simple and straightforward path leading up, alternating through caves and slopes. The first room contains two chests containing a Phoenix Down and a Gold Needle. Head south first for the Phoenix Down, then follow the other path for the Gold Needle and the exit. After a slope and another cave you'll wind up on a slope filled with purple plants which we have been warned about by Carwen NPC; these little guys are poisonous. Indeed, stepping on them will set the Poison status ailment on every character in your party, so avoid them at all costs. If you take a wrong turn immediately heal up with your White caster's Poisona spell. This is where those blasted Cockatrices start to show up, by the way, so keep your eye out for Petrification. You now pass through a cave with a Save Point. Use it, there's something exciting about to happen. On the next slope, Lenna will spot her father's Mythril Helm lying on the ground and will be immediately shot by a poisoned arrow when she tries to pick it up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.6.2 The battle with Magissa ********************************** Meet Magissa, a powerful sorceress of some sort who came looking for the Wind Drake to kill it and sell its horn, together with her freakish mutant 'husband'. She blocks your path by letting a part of the mountain crash down,

but this isn't enough to stop Faris. She finds a way there and soon enough you'll be facing the magical mistress herself. Oh! Look at that outfit! Magissa Level: 8, HP: 650, MP: 200 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Win: Whip Creature: Humanoid Specialty: !Critical Attack Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Poison, Darkness, Silence, Stop, Slow Attacks: !Critical Attack, Thunder, Drain, Fire, Blizzard, Aero, Regen Forza Level: 8, HP: 850, MP: 100 Defense: 3, Magic Defense: 5 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Potion (common) Win: Power Drink (always) Status: Float Creature: Heavy, Humanoid Specialty: !Tackle Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Tackle Magissa attacks you with a specific set of spells, which go like this: 1st turn: 33 % each: Fire, Ice, Thunder 2nd turn: 33 % each: Aero, !Critical Attack, Drain When Magissa has 300 Hit Points left or less, her first action will consist out of calling her hubby. I'm not sure of a seven-foot elemental golem or whatever the hell Forza is counts as a hubby, but surely any woman who takes a liking to whips can be counted on to spend her life with some guy who listens to her every command so even if Forza is humanoid, he's still dead on the inside. At any rate, as soon as Forza has entered the battlefield Magissa's first action is casting Regen on him. Afterwards, she'll continue with her normal spell AI script. Note that it is entirely possible to not see Forza at all if you manage to shave off Magissa's remaining 300 HP before she is able to take a turn, in which case you'll be screwed out of Forza's admittedly unimportant 100 % drop,

as well as his Bestiary entry. Forza just uses physical attacks, either 66 % Attack or 33 % !Tackle, which is 150 % times as strong. His physical attacks are quite powerful, especially !Tackle can hurt. Thieves and Monks had better beware. How to take care of them? Magissa falls to the Silence status ailment, so any White Mage or other character with the level 2 White command may cast it on her to stop all of her spells. Forza is vulnerable to Sleep, so Black Mages or level 2 Black casters may utilize that. The Blue spell Flash works on both targets, and while Magissa won't suffer from it much in her magic-based strategy the blinded Forza will suddenly be hitting a lot less effectively when he grumpily wakes up from the you-induced Sleep status. A Protect spell on those in the Front Row is also not a bad idea, especially the frail Thieves can benefit. After the vicious beauty and the beast have been dispatched, you'll obtain up to two future-oriented items: a Whip from Magissa and provided Forza made a showing, a Power Drink. The Power Drink is an item that can be consumed by the !Drink command you'll gain access to later in the game and the Whip is a weapon for the Beastmaster, a Job you'll gain access to later. The Whip is the strongest weapon you have at this point, and it's made even more powerful by the fact it deals the same amount of damage from the Back Row and the fact it randomly has the additional effect of Paralyzing Magic Beast-type creatures. You could switch a character to the Freelancer Class and equip it right now, but you don't need this weapon at this time and it's certainly not worth the loss of ABP being a Freelancer entails. Check that menu description of the Whip, a reference to this: crack that whip give the past the slip step on a crack break your momma's back when a problem comes along you must whip it before the cream sits out too long you must whip it when something's going wrong you must whip it "Whip it" - Devo (1980) You can look up the music video, but promise me to never look at it with a head full of acid. Note that the Mythril Helm has been added to your inventory. Walking on gets you to a cliff where Hiryu, the last Wind Drake of this world

is resting. Lenna'll casually throw her life away to heal the Wind Drake, but thankfully the Wind Drake has restorative powers previously not mentioned. Silly Lenna and her silly antics, walking in poisonous flowers like that. Bartz' acrophobia is subject to everybody's hilarity; remember to kill them all when they least expect it Some trivia here; "Hiryu" was, in the original Japanese game, the species' name while no individual Wind Drake had a name of their own. Hiryu means "flying dragon" in moonspeak. You automatically take off. This is the Wind Drake modus transporti of this game. The Wind Drake can't land in deserts, the sea, forests, mountains and the handicapped zone. What you can do is fly a circle around Carwen to show everybody the guy who tipped us off was telling the truth. Sure enough, entering Carwen and talking to the guy reveals that he's swimming in narcissistic him-love, but he'll do that even if you didn't flex your Wind Drake so we are not to blame. Walse lies to the south. Engage!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.7.1 Home sweet home; Castle Tycoon ********************************** Container contents: Cottage x 3, Diamond Bell, Elixir x 2, Ether x 2, Hi-Potion, Ashura, Maiden's Kiss, Phoenix Down x 2, Shuriken Miscellaneous items: Healing Staff What you say? Advance the plot? Say now Nancy, that's dangerous thinking. We're going to let everybody at Castle Tycoon know that Lenna is okay and that the King is down and out for the moment. The awesome, awesome treasures that lie waiting for you here could in theory have something to do with the fact I want you to go there, but only in theory, as no amount of treasure could every compete with character development! Fly south 'til you see a new town and a castle; this is Walse, and we'll go here in the near future. Head west from Walse by going north over the mountain range. Keep heading west over a desert land mass, then head southwest until you find a gap in the mountains. You're back at the start of the game! Fly in and follow the available path counterclockwise until you fly over the meteorite. You're done! As soon as you enter the courtyard but before you enter the castle, I want you to go find two super-hidden treasures. In the east wall lies a hidden passage not even the Find Passages support ability detects. Pass through it to find a hidden room of Castle Tycoon which contains two Cottages, which you can think of as Supertents. Should you try to open these chests for the first time when

you have released Lone Wolf (you'll come across Lone Wolf later), you'll find these chests to be empty. Trace back your steps to the courtyard and enter the castle. Entering the castle will get you a talk with the Chancellor of Castle Tycoon. It seems nowadays' armies are having a tough time coping with all the monsters that for some reason appear in greater numbers than ever. Partly out of a wish to save the world and partly out of a stubborn refusal to officially take over the throne, even for the time being, Lenna does not comply to the Chancellors offer to stay home and rule over Tycoon. The night is an offer she can't refuse, however. In the night: could the bishounen shemale pirate captain Faris Scherwiz really be a princess? She denies it all, but when you think of it it's really TOO CRAZY NOT TO WORK. When you wake, step outside and descend the stairs to find a Hi-Potion in one of the grey pots. Cross the great hall of Castle Tycoon and ascend the right wing to find the study, where old teacher hag Jenica mentions Lenna's sister Sarisa, who disappeared at a young age at sea. Oh, the subtle hints! In this room, a plethora of treasures in the pots and crates: a Cottage, an Ether, a Phoenix Down and an Elixir. Leave this place. When you find yourself in the great hall once more, enter the throne room and enter the right door (to the left, it's just Lenna's featureless room and the room of Alexander Tycoon, which you're not allowed to enter). Ascend the stairs to find six grey pots, containing in various intensity: an Ether, an Elixir, a Phoenix Down and a Maiden's Kiss. Ascend even further to reach the scenery of the opening cutscene; the view sure is pretty up here, ain't it? Now, go back down and go outside. A guard previously blocking a passageway to the left of the entrance has now moved a tile, giving you the freedom to explore it. You'll wind up in the surprisingly empty Storage room, but your Find Passages support ability detects a hidden passage! Even if you don't have it on you, that switch is too tempting to resist. Flick it and enter the hidden passage you can now enter. Behold, the Chancellor (did he lock himself in for you to find him?). The Chancellor gives you the Healing Staff, a Staff which casts Cura on the target when you Attack with it. It's a great free way of healing your characters, but if your White Mage doesn't have offensive spells at his or her disposal he or she really does become offensively impotent with this thing, so you should decide if it's for you or not. The remainder of the chests contain sweet-ass weapons including a Diamond Bell, a Shuriken and an Ashura. The Shuriken can only be used by the !Throw command of the Ninja, so it isn't of any concern at this point of the game. The Diamond Bell is, as its name would

apply, a Bell. Bells are odd weapons that randomly deal between 50 % and 100 % of their normally calculated damage, depends on the wielders Magic Power and to a lesser extent the wielders Agility and factors Magic Defense as opposed to Defense, all this while being unblockable and not working when Silence is in effect. End of story: hardly useful, and none of your current Jobs can equip it, but it does deal the same amount of damage from the Back Row making it far superior magical weapons than Rods and Staves. The weakest katana is the Ashura. Don't let the word 'weakest' give an indication of its current power, however. The Ashura is an incredibly powerful weapon at this stage of the game, which has the current disadvantage of being only useable by Freelancer class characters. Katanas use the 'basic' Sword damage formula, which makes it about twice as strong as the Long Swords from the get-go. To add sugar to the deal, all Katanas have the ability to randomly inflict Critical Hits (which deal double damage and pierce Defense). This particular Katana's CH ratio is 12 %. As much as it pains me to say it, I don't recommend using it as you encounter nothing dangerous enough to need the Ashura, hence the loss in ABP progress isn't worth using this awesome weapon for. We're done here, but we had a blast. We've made a grand detour through both the Ship Graveyard and Carwen, but we're finally ready. Let's fly to Walse now, it's to the east. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.8.1 The country of Walse ********************************** Opponents: Gatling (#16), Big Horn (#17), Tatou (#18), Bandersnatch (#19), Garula (#20) Container contents: Silver Specs Grasslands and forests: 35 % Tatou x2, Gatling 35 % Big Horn x2 23 % Gatling 6 % Bandersnatch Walse is a thriving town blessed by water so pure, monsters won't come near it. This doesn't go for the creature Garula though, friendly big tusked teddybear that it is. If you descend the stairs to the right of the entrance, into the moat, and enter the house in the south-west corner of the town of Walse, you'll find Silver Specs in the grey pot. One of the frogs in the pond throws a sweet Muppets reference at you; maybe this is just a town dude who is under the influence of the Black Toad spell?

Before debates start raging, let me assure you that the game proves you don't have to possess a crystal shard to be able to cast magic (else the Magic Shops'd be REALLY, REALLY hard-pressed to find customers). Magic Shop: Slow 80 Gil Regen 100 Gil Mute 320 Gil Haste 320 Gil Chocobo 300 Gil Sylph 350 Gil Remora 250 Gil Speaking of the Magic Shop, they're selling a brand new brand of Magic you are at this point unable to wield. The first four belong to the Time Mage, the last three to the Summoner. Man, this doesn't bode well for the continued existence of the Water Crystal...at any rate, there's no reason to buy them at this point so don't waste your Gil just yet. Weapon Shop: Battle Axe 650 Gil Long Sword 480 Gil Dagger 300 Gil The only new feature is the Battle Axe, of which the average damage output is similar to that of the Long Sword on a Freelancer classed character and inferior to one using a Whip. Regardless, you need to switch to the Freelancer class when you want to use it, and it's not particularly grand, so don't. Armor Shop: Iron Shield 390 Gil Iron Helm 350 Gil Iron Armor 500 Gil Kenpo Gi 450 Gil Cotton Robe 300 Gil Buy as you see fit. Don't forget that you found a Mythril Helm back at North mountain so buying a Iron Helm may be pointless. The Kenpo Gi is your first piece of armor with a stat boost: + 1 on Strength. Item Shop: Potion 40 Gil Antidote 30 Gil Eye Drops 20 Gil Maiden's Kiss 60 Gil Mallet 50 Gil Gold Needle 150 Gil Phoenix Down 1000 Gil Tent 250 Gil Make sure to dive into the Item Shop and buy a few Maiden's Kisses. There'll

be Toad status ailments soon. It's a funny thing you can buy kisses as an item to carry with you; it could prove THE solution to that one well-meaning virgin friend everybody seems to have. There's nothing else to do here, so let's talk to King Walse and have this stupid, stupid using the Water Crystal for the nation's welfare stopped. ... I'd be like telling Mister President of about every freaking country in the world that using gasoline is a big bad no-no, but whatever. While there is no reason to walk on the Overworld map now since you can fly between every location you want to visit, I want to point out that the encounters here are identical to those around Carwen with the exception of the lands surrounding the Tower of Walse to the North. Here, Garula appears, the passive and friendly creature that walks in and out of Walse. You can beat him up for free ABP (a single one!), but why not leave him alone? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.8.2 Castle Walse and the coming of the second meteorite ********************************** Opponents: Elf Toad (#25), Ice Soldier (#26), Jackanapes (#30), Ice Commander (#248), Shiva (#249) Container contents: 490 Gil, 1000 Gil x 2, Elven Mantle, Phoenix Down, Tent Miscellaneous items: Mythril Sword (common Ice Soldier steal), Frost Rod (guaranteed Shiva drop) Features: Lone Wolf Time Spells: Speed Summon Spells: Shiva Blue Spells: Moon Flute (in theory), Pond's Chorus When you enter the castle, there's a double wooden door to the right of the hallway and some stairs going down. Pass through the double wooden doors and in

the next room, go around the stairs going up to the stairs going down. There are hidden treasures here, containing a Phoenix Down, a Tent and 490 Gil. Track back to the main hall. There's an invisible timer ticking here, people! No, not really, I mean plot-wise. So let's say we forget about minor things for now and waltz right into King Walse' throne room, slam our fist on the table and demand discontinuation of the amplifying process of the Water Crystal. This aggression will not stand, man. King Walse: No. As a male writer, I'm obviously not allowed to say this, but there's something undeniably cute about King Walse. Maybe it's the fact he has no mouth, maybe it's the fact he's literally draped in colorful, partly purple robes, maybe it's that pink ball on his head or maybe it's just the way he raises his right hand in his Hey Ho Let's Go stance, but to me he is jey-ust precious! He's like a fluffy little pimp in that get-up. At any rate, there's a new meteor now, and here's hoping the falling meteors have no causal relation to the shattering crystals. King Walse moves out with some guards to check up on Walse Tower. To recap: King Walse, king of the country of Walse whose only mentionable city is called Walse, has left Walse Castle to check up on the Tower of Walse. Enough with the Walse! Let's follow the King out. Since the three notable features of Walse Castle are best left for a later time you can just walk out of the castle, climb on the Wind Drake and fly to the meteor. I talk about the meteor in the next chapter. If you must know about Jackanapes, the Summoned Monster Shiva that is sealed in the purified water by the Water Crystal and Lone Wolf the pickpocket, read on. When you enter the castle, you can continue on, enter the double wooden door or descend the stairs. For all three features, we must descend the stairs. Going even further down will get us to the cells. To the far right is a sinister old man, but on the left is where the action is happening. Lone Wolf the famous thief asks you if you want to release him. You could do so, but there are no upsides and only downsides to this. Once released, Lone Wolf will roam the world again, causing a few items to be removed from chests when YOU get there. These items include: a Blitz Whip and four Cottages, spread throughout the lands. Especially the Blitz Whip is annoying to lose as the only other way to obtain one is as a rare steal late in the game (as in: the Blitz Whip will be long useless by then). So don't. If you DO, however, you can enter his cell and check the grey pot,

which contains... nothing! In addition, the door will close behind you, forcing you to wait in the locked cell for a while before the door opens again (by itself, no less). Tight security these guys are running here. The blue-haired guy on the far left also asks you if you want to release him, but when you say "Yes" he'll get so excited he runs into the wall and passes out (which really is funny to watch a couple of hundred times on a rainy day). Get back up and find the other stairs going down in the upper-right corner. Let me tell you something about the dreaded demon Jackanapes. Jackanapes Level: 20, HP: 666, MP: 5000 Defense: 50, Magic Defense: 50 Evasion: 50%, Magic Evasion: 50% Steal: Elixir (rare), Iron Draft (common) Win: Phoenix Down (rare) Absorbs: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Poison, Holy, Earth, Wind, Water Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Moon Flute Jackanapes always attacks from behind, so unless you have a Thief in your party at the time (or somebody with the Vigilance support ability) you'll feel the effects of that. J-man will attack physically and with !Critical Attack (normal damage) and counter any damage done to him with a Moon Flute attack, an MT attack that sets Berserk on your characters. Your Blue Mage(s) can learn this move, but since you very likely won't be able to end this battle by a means other than escaping, there's no way to learn it at this point. Jackanapes, while not unbeatable in the full sense of the word, presents so much of a hindrance that defeating it at this point would require incredible amounts of leveling and luck. Jackanapes absorbs all elements, and since your only non-elemental spell is the physical Goblin Punch, you'll have to rely on physical attacks only to be able to damage this guy. Its 50 % Evade rating is bad enough, but with 50 Defense any monster buys itself an insurance policy that unless the attack in question is barrier-piercing, it's not going to leave an actual mark. The only way to hurt Jackanapes at this point is by means of a Critical Hit; the Fists have an 8 % chance (for God's sake, use Barehanded) and the Ashura has a 12 % CH ratio, but that's all you have. And you just don't have the HP and power at this point to rely on this. You'll be able to defeat this guy later, but for now I suggest leaving the treasures here alone, which contain the Time Speed spell for your future Time Mage(s), 1000 Gil, another 1000 Gil and an Elven Mantle. Note: if you know this game and know damn sure you want the Chicken Knife

later, there's no downside to equipping a Thief with the !Flee ability and run from every battle, thus obtaining the treasures easily. Normal running is not as effective; Jackanapes will likely kill at least one character before you manage to escape, and using a Phoenix Down for every encounter gets pricey very fast. The Elven Mantle is a nice Accessory which gives some nifty Elf-like stat boosts, including a 5 % Magic Evade you won't see in the menu. Its real power, however, is the fact that any character wearing the Elven Mantle will have an extra hit determination check where a rough 33 % of any blockable physical attack sent his or her way is stopped (with a spiffy cape animation, no less). It's really sweet and in my eyes superior to current and most future Defense/ Magic Defense raising Accessories. The final feature is the road leading to Shiva. You could prepare for Walse Tower by learning the Blue spell Pond's Chorus here from the Elf Toads and Stealing common Mythril Swords from the Ice Soldiers, but since you can do this preparation in the first few battles of Walse Tower itself I see no reason to go out of your way and do it here. Shiva herself is fairly difficult to defeat at this point and you might as well do it later. She's hardly helpful to you without a character being able to summon her in battle. Let's get to that bloody tower already, thee punkster! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.8.3 The golden warrior and the tower of Walse ********************************** Opponents: Elf Toad (#25), Ice Soldier (#26), Ricard Mage (#27), Wyvern (#28), Pas de Seul (#29), Garula (#250) Container contents: Ether, Maiden's Kiss, Silk Robe, Silver Armlet Miscellaneous items: Flame Rod (rare Ricard Mage drop), Mythril Knife (common Wyvern steal), Mythril Sword (common Ice Soldier steal) Features:

Blue Spells: Pond's Chorus 1st floor: 58 % Elf Toad, Elf Toad, Ice Soldier 42 % Ricard Mage, Ice Soldier, Ice Soldier

2nd floor: 35 % Ricard Mage, Ice Soldier, Ice Soldier 35 % Ricard Mage, Ricard Mage, Ricard Mage 30 % Elf Toad, Elf Toad, Ice Soldier 3rd floor: 35 % Wyvern 35 % Ricard Mage, Ice Soldier, Ice Soldier 30 % Wyvern, Pas de Seul 4th floor: 58 % Wyvern, Pas de Seul 42 % Pas de Seul 5th floor: 35 % Pas de Seul, Ricard Mage, Ice Soldier 35 % Wyvern, Pas de Seul 23 % Pas de Seul 6 % Pas de Seul, Pas de Seul 6th floor: 35 % Pas de Seul, Pas de Seul 35 % Ricard Mage, Ice Soldier, Ice Soldier 30 % Ricard Mage, Ricard Mage, Ricard Mage 7th floor: 70 % Wyvern, Wyvern 30 % Elf Toad, Elf Toad, Elf Toad 8th floor: 35 % Wyvern, Wyvern 35 % Ricard Mage, Ricard Mage, Ricard Mage 23 % Ice Soldier, Ice Soldier 6 % Wyvern Elf Toads are weak to Ice-elemental attacks, so any Black Mage with the Frost Rod should be taking them out easily. MT'd, the Blizzard spell isn't powerful enough to kill them, not even with the Frost Rod. When an Elf Toad is alone, it will randomly (33 %) start to use Pond's Chorus, which sets the Toad status. Once your Blue Mage has been hit by the attack, you can kill it and you'll have learned the Blue spell Pond's Chorus. Toad completely disables the enemy; it stops special techniques, and physical attack and physical defense drops to 0. It's nice enough, especially versus the boss we're about to face. Note that the highest density of Elf Toads can be found on the very first floor, so it's best to learn the spell there.

Ice Soldiers attack physically and randomly cast a Blizzard spell, but that's nothing too threatening. What's really important here is Ice Soldier's affinity for all things sword; not only will it rarely drop a Long Sword (lame), it has common Mythril Swords (awesome) for you to steal, which are superior to your current blades. You'll note the difference, especially with Two-handed, so make sure to get one for every potential sword-wielder in your party. Ricard Mages are arcane assholes. Here's what they do: 1st turn: 33 % each: Sleep, Slow, Stop 2nd turn: 33 % each: Cure, Drain, Attack They are vulnerable to Silence, but casting Silence on them all just won't do all the time so flat-out killing them before they get to the Drain spell is a better strategy. The interesting thing about them is the fact they rarely (the same old 1/16) drop a Flame Rod, which is simply the Fire-elemental Rod of the Frost Rod you found in Carwen. They upgrade your Fire-elemental attacks by 50%, so stick to Fire when you've got it equipped. Note that Ricard is a French alcoholic beverage, so you can picture these guys drunk if you want to. "Zut alors! Dormez! Canalisation! Merde! *hickup* Wyvern will just use Attack whenever, but not when they're alone. Oh, no. When alone, they'll get all freaky and whatnot. In fact, they'll use Breath Wing, of which the damage like with Wing Raptor will simply be 25 % of your maximum HP. Is that a good thing? No. Kill them as soon as possible, but not before you Steal one or more of those sweet common Mythril Knives they carry around. You want those for your Thieves. Pas de Seul is annoying. They have the most HP out of any creature here, and their !Fin attack adds Poison. They're weak to Lightning-elemental attacks, so Black Thunder spells work just fine. In keeping with the French Ricard Mages, Pas de Seul means something like 'dance for one person'. You can e-mail me the hidden symbolic meaning here if you have any ideas :/ Mount that Wind Drake of yours and go check out the meteor. Nobody's here and there's nothing interesting going on. There seems to be a weird discoloration on the very front of the meteorite however, which could indicate a hidden door of some sorts; there's nothing you can do to open it now, however. Let's check out Walse Tower, check out the entire militia of Walse surrounding it and all, that'd be kinda impressive. The entire militia of Walse consists out of two wounded soldiers eating dust. It seems only three made it up there; holy beast-baby Garula that went berserk and knocked the guards down, King Walse and an unknown warrior. Strangely enough, should you fly the Wind Drake back to Walse now, Garula will be happily prancing around with the little girl as always. It's a glitch in the Matrix!

The path is entirely straight-forward and without features until you cross the body of King Walse. Still alive, but hardly. He urges you to continue and stop Garula. It slowly becomes more and more apparent some force is consciously pushing for the destruction of the crystals, but who could possibly care for the death of this world? Could that being of darkness King Tycoon spoke off have any power to influence our reality? Next to King Walse is a pillar in the water overgrown with vines. This pillar can be climbed to reach a chest containing a Silk Robe, a nice new piece of equipment for your mages. The next floor houses a Save Point and a chest containing a Maiden's Kiss, an item used for removing the Toad status ailment. It's not until the eight floor that I get to mention something interesting again: these water-covered floors house three patches of overgrown structure. Climb the left one to find a Silver Armlet. Everybody but the Knight can equip it, but it seems to me that the Thieves and Monks of your party need it the most (especially the Thieves). Fall down the hole and climb the right patch. There's a chest with an Ether here. Climb the stairs here to reach the Water Crystal. Both anomalies wait for you near the - thank the gods - intact Water Crystal. Garula is battling the mysterious golden warrior...and winning. In a few words, it's explained that a being is controlling Garula, and that it by these means seeks to destroy the Water Crystal. We MUST stop Garula before it can accomplish this. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.8.4 The fight with Garula ********************************** Garula always was a common sight around the Water Tower, being one of the few monsters pure-hearted enough to stand the purified water. It's not this creature's fault that it was the target of manipulation, but we can't stand by and let the Water Crystal be destroyed. Garula Level: 3, HP: 1200, MP: 100 Defense: 7, Magic Defense: 4 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Hi-Potion (rare), Potion (common) Win: Hi-Potion Creature: Magic Beast Specialty: !Rush Specialty Effect: causes Sap status Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Toad, Poison, Darkness, Old, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Rush, Toad Garula attacks physically, and he hits hard and fast. He may counter any damage

done on him by up to two physical attacks after he has reached 800 HP or less, and his special technique !Rush adds the Sap status as well, which is a bad thing. Garula has four weaknesses you can exploit: - Being only physical in nature and never using anything else unless it's countering an attack makes it a sitting duck for any character who combines !Guard with the Counter support ability. With this combination, you can't lose since you take 0 damage, then counter-attack every time Garula tries something. - The Whip you won from Magissa may Paralyze the creature, so if you're willing to have a character lose out on 5 ABP you can really cripple Garula. - Flash, the Blue spell you may have learned from the Headstone on North Mountain. Setting Darkness on Garula will make all of his attacks miss 75 % of the time, which is a sweet deal. If you have Flash at your disposal, make sure to utilize it. - Pond's Chorus, the insane new hype spell for every Blue Mage teenager works against Garula. Sure, the creature may cast Toad on itself to remove the status, but that's a turn he could've spent attacking, and it misses on occasion. Physicals from Toads do no damage, but sadly !Rush still inflicts the Sap status. To be extremely mean to baby Garula, cast Silence on him before casting Pond's Chorus; Silence stops the Toad spell from Garula so he'll be stuck as a harmless Toad. Any combination of the above works like a charm. Remember that Garula is an opponent that is most dangerous when attacked head-on. If you use a Cure spell, and when you stop attacking the tusked terror, the barrage of attacks Garula seems to deliver will suddenly decrease dramatically in number. Take advantage of this. Garula can catch you off-guard, but you shouldn't let that happen. Any character with the Cover support ability works great as meatshield for unexpected Near Death characters, especially when paired with (you guessed it) !Guard or Counter. To be short, keep the initial damage to a minimum, Steal, cast Flash and Silence, whack him a little, cast Pond's Chorus and go all-out. There's little to worry about if you follow this strategy. After Garula has been dispatched (you'll learn later that Garula is still alive...are we actually going to KILL a boss one of these days?) the Water Crystal will shatter. Gods, all this work for nothing, that's just grand. The heavily wounded golden warrior will stumble to the exit in a vain attempt to see the light of day before dying, and just before he collapses he makes it known that he knows ol' Galuf. He proceeds to die, inconveniently blocking the exit, thus constituting a fire hazard. The Water Crystal shards shine a mysterious light. That's "Sparkle" for 'please use me'. There are six shards, but one of them is blocked from your path. When you pick up the five shards you can pick up at this point, Walse Castle starts

rumbling beneath your feat. There's a door, but before you can properly escape the entire peninsula sinks to the bottom of the ocean. Great, we'll be the Chosen Corpses in no time at all. Luckily, an old friend we believed to be gone comes to the rescue; Syldra helps the Chosen Warriors out of the pickle they're in with the last of his power. In a touching goodbye cutscene, Faris tearfully bids farewell to her trusted companion, who has been a friend and ally for years. The last cry of Syldra resonates in the souls of us all, and is almost too good a representation of the now irrecoverable situation of the Water crystal for us to bear. We've got new Jobs! AWESOME! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.9.1 The Water Crystal Jobs ********************************** One crystal shard went down to the depths, together with the Tower of Walse. But five shards of the now-broken Water Crystal were saved, and they now entrust you with five warrior souls of yore. [BERSERKER-LINK] [MYSTIC-LINK] [TIMEM-LINK] [SUMMONER-LINK] [REDMAGE-LINK] The Berserker starts every battle with the Berserk status, and favors Hammers and Axes in battle, both of which take only 25 % of the target's Defense into account and vary wildly in their damage output. Berserkers are slow, and while the Battle Axe is a but more damaging overall than, say, the Mythril Sword, the fact that the Berserker randomly targets opponents in the Back Row, has unpredictable damage output and misses every now and again, the Berserker is not a good choice right now. The Berserk ability that the Berserker learns after 100 ABP is a sound choice on Knights, Monks, Ninjas and other physically inclined Jobs. If your Knight has learned Twohanded, switching to Berserker isn't a bad idea; it's certainly the lazy man's choice (and boy am I lazy). The Mystic Knight has some difficult mechanics behind it, so definetely check out the link given above. Note that they take a turn to enchant their weapon before they can be anything but an inferior Knight. They aren't as hot versus random encounters, but are great boss slayers; especially with Twohanded does the damage fly. The spells they can imbue their weapons with, come from the Black and White list, the same you buy in the Magic Shops. The Mystic Knight is surprisingly fast for a Heavy Armor kinda Job; they are outrun only by Thieves. The Time Mage is just a Mage with a new school of magic; note that their Magic Power is nowhere near as high as the Black Mage, and more comparable with the White and Blue Mage. The spells you have right now are not very impressive, but that'll improve soon. Slow doubles a target's ATB count between turns,

Haste halves it. Mute is a strange spell that makes it impossible for allies and enemies alike to cast Black, White, Time, Summon spells, Spellblade effects or use Bells. Blue spells can still be cast though. Mute will always work, but some monster encounters (most notably boss battles) will not allow Mute to be cast. In random battles, the Time Mages are best used for either Black or Blue spells (if the action ability is set) or to cast Haste on your most powerful physical attacker. The Summoner is the one that can conjure up some Chocobo, some Sylph fey and Remora fish; all spells you could simply buy in Walse. This is also the Job that will be able to summon Shiva; the Summoner is generally the Job to go to for mass-nuking of the battlefield with heavy multi-target elemental attacks. At this point, the Summoner has three creatures to conjure. The Chocobo arrives to perform a Chocobo Kick to a single target; it targets Defense rather than Magic Defense and may miss due to Magic Evasion; there is an 8% chance that a Fat Chocobo may appear to deal unblockable damage that targets Defense to the entire enemy party. Sylph deals magical, unblockable damage to a single target and heals the amount of damage done / 4 to all four characters; Remora use Constrict to set Paralyze to a single target. The Red Mage is the Jack or Jill of all Trades, Master of None (but Swanky Hats). It's AWESOME now; the Red Mage is able to cast both Black and White magic; only up to the level 3 spells, but that's not an issue right now. Do note that the Red Mage's Magic Power is significantly lower than other Mages, which also means his or her MP will run out sooner. It's capable of wielding Swords and has a Strength bonus, but you'd better give him an elemental Rod and cast spells from the Back Row. If you have mastered level 3 !Black and level 3 !White, I'd personally shoot for !Summon from the Summoner rather than !Time from the Time Mage as especially Shiva can clean massive house and the Time Mage just fails to deliver at this stage of the game. If you have magically-inclined characters that have neither !White nor !Black to any large degree (focused on !Blue, for instance), you wish to learn !Red instead. Now that the overwhelming tragedies of the past moments have passed, there's time to reflect on more practical matters. Where is Hiryu? Is it safe? Is it alright? And where's King Walse, did he manage to escape Walse Tower while we were going head-to-head with the possessed Garula or was he swallowed in the raging waters? On the Overworld Map, it seems the Wind Drake made it to dry land, but we really couldn't expect anything else from a flying dragon such as the Wind Drake. Flying the Wind Drake to Walse Castle and walking through the halls to find the throne room and the subsequent quarters of King Walse teaches us that yes indeed, the mangled monarch is still alive enough to breathe. He urges you to travel to Karnak, where another Crystal is being amplified and where, as

news would have it, another meteor crashed, bad omens as they turn out to be. However, where should we find the means to go there? Karnak lies to the far west, across the mountains which are too high for the Wind Drake to pass over. Problems abound. A wandering Karnak soldier can be found in Walse Castle as well. He appears to have waken up near Walse. He was investigating the crashed Karnak meteor. Maybe there's a connection between the Walse meteorite and the Karnak meteorite? We might as well check it out. This is the time where you're told about the possibility of going back to Castle Tycoon, but I already told you to go there. If you haven't yet, now's the time, and I helpfully shift your attention towards said section, section 4.7.1. A little foreshadowing: in the town of Karnak, you'll be able to buy the Fira spell, which will be immensely helpful in the fight versus Shiva. You can either try to take her on now, which is also quite doable with some preparation (or, if you have one or more Flame Rods, broken Flame Rods), or go to Karnak, work through the cutscenes there, return to Walse and easily knock her out cold. That's funny because she's an Ice-elemental entity. [SHIVA-LINK] At any rate, fly the Wind Drake to the meteor and say goodbye to it, as you can't bring dragons of 7"3 or higher into the meteor. Inside, there's a tile that looks so psychedelic it either has to be a warp stone or something LSDrelated. It's not something LSD-related. Onto Karnak county! If you have a Summoner and have already defeated Shiva, make sure to give the Summoner a Frost Rod to deal 50 % extra damage with the Ice-elemental summon monster's attack. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.10.1 Karnak county ********************************** Opponents: Aegir (#31), Zu (#32), Wild Nakk (#33), Grass Tortoise (#34) Miscellaneous items: Elixir (rare Zu steal and rare Zu drop), Turtle Shell (guaranteed Grass Tortoise drop) Blue Spells: ???

Forests: 100 % Wild Nakk x5 West of the Forest: 35 % Aegir x3 35 % Zu 23 % Zu, Aegir x2 6 % Grass Tortoise x2 East of the Forest: 35 % Grass Tortoise x2 35 % Zu, Aegir x2 23 % Aegir, Grass Tortoise 6 % Zu, Grass Tortoise, Aegir Aegir are not very interesting other than the fact they have a Specialty Attack called !Tentacle that adds the Old status. Take care of them with fast and furious violence. The Old status gradually decreases all of your stats (Strength, Agility, Stamina and Magic Power), but not your level. Also note that while HP is normally tied to Stamina, in-battle modification of Stamina doesn't affect your current or maximum HP total. The massive Zu birds have over 849 HP. 850 HP, to be precise. They have a rare (1/16) Elixir drop and an even rarer (10/256) Elixir steal, but since they have nothing else you could potentially get one from every Zu you encounter. The odds are 1/66 for every Steal attempt, though, now that you aren't yet boosted by the Thief Glove accessory. Their special technique is just called !Critical Attack, so you'd think it's just 150% damage; but it's a meanie in disguise since the attack is unblockable and pierces Defense. The Wild Nakk wolves that inhabit the woods have a 33 % chance to use the Blue ??? spell every odd round. Make sure to learn it here as there's no reason not to; note that ??? won't get its name to appear when the Wild Nakks (or you) cast it; it'll just look like an alternative physical attack. Wild Nakks are weak to Fire-elemental attacks, so when you have a Fire Rod equipped MT Fire spells are their demise. MT Fira spells don't require Fire Rods to be fatal, obviously. Wild Nakks have some Magic Defense, so if the attack isn't barrier-piercing it'll have trouble killing them. The Wild Nakk x 5 monster formation you'll always encounter in the forest gives you 625 Gil, which is quite a hefty sum for little trouble. ??? is a non-elemental attack which deals (max HP - current HP) damage. In English, that means the more damage you've taken the more damage you'll do with ???. It's a fairly useless spell on the whole as you'd be better off trying to recover by means of Vampire or a Hi-Potion should you find yourself in a situation where ??? would be worth casting.

Grass Tortoises are merely notable for their glaring weakness to Ice-elemental attacks (Blizzard, Blizzara, Shiva) and the fact they drop a Turtle Shell every time. You'll find use for Turtle Shells in the future, but they are useless at the moment. Don't sell them! It's a straight-forward route all the way down to Karnak. The town of Karnak and Karnak Castle are to the south-west, but you'll have to take a little detour to the north-east to get there. When you reach Karnak, it seems it's quite a little dictatorial community: passage to the ship is prohibited, there's a big wall to hinder progress and passage to Karnak Castle is also prohibited. Let's dive into town and hear what's buzzing. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.10.2 The town of Karnak ********************************** Features: Piano, and... I'm not giving anything away, but don't drop the soap while you're there... What's buzzing is this: the wall is there to stop annoying scholars coming from the Library of the Ancients who claim exploiting the Fire Crystal is, in fact, bad. I'm sure the Queen will listen to US, no worries. We're a group of unlikely heroes, why shouldn't she? Don't forget to visit the Pub for some schmoozing with the locals and a fine piano for you to play. Furthermore, an NPC on the streets is boasting about the ridiculously inexpensive weapons and armor Karnak has to offer. Let's dive into the shops then, shall we? The Magic Shop seems closed for the day, but that doesn't mean we can't take abuse of the new weapons and armor Karnak has to offer us. Weapon Shop: Mythril Knife 112 Gil Mythril Sword 220 Gil Mythril Hammer 262 Gil Flame Rod 187 Gil Frost Rod 187 Gil Thunder Rod 187 Gil Flail 195 Gil Armor Shop: Mythril Shield Mythril Helmet Mythril Armor

147 Gil 137 Gil 175 Gil

Silver Armor 150 Gil Silk Robe 125 Gil Mythril Glove 150 Gil Silver Ring 125 Gil Okay, here's the deal. When you try to Sell something, nothing special happens. When you don't and exit the screenor do anything or try to buy an item, you are halted by the fact that Karnak guards carry you away, into Karnak prison. If you buy something, the price that was listed will be paid and you'll obtain the weapon in question. That Mythril Hammer is far and away the priciest item the shops have the sell, so that's where the biggest discount may be obtained. At any rate, you'll quickly find yourself in a jail-cell. Doin' your time (it's a second or 15) will cause the white-haired guy in the jail next to you to walk over to the wall and blow a hole in it. Talk to the guy to learn his identity. You quickly learn several very important facts. Meet Cid Previa, an engineer working for the country of Karnak. He used his knowledge to amplify the crystals of Tycoon, Walse and Karnak for the good of us all, not knowing it was, in fact, for the BAD of us all. Trying to prevent the Fire Crystal from shattering like the Wind Crystal and Water Crystal, he was put in jail by the queen of Karnak. And now he's here, being freed by the Karnak Chancellor as - gasp thrice - a crack has appeared in the Fire Crystal. It's probably too late, but they've finally started to listen to the voice of reason. Cid gets you out of jail too. And you were just about to get a sweet prison tattoo... Now what was this talk about werewolves earlier? A werewolf came out of the meteor? At any rate, Karnak Castle is open to your wanderings. Two points of interest: the Fire Crystal is the driving power behind the Fire-Powered Ship and is located in the basement of Karnak Castle. However, by the power of the same inconveniently placed flames that stop you from reaching any of the chests you see, nobody can access the Fire Crystal. The only way to reach it is through the Steamship, but it's been overrun by monsters much like the Wind Shrine. Also, Queen Karnak is nowhere to be seen, a fact overshadowed by the significance of the cracking Fire Crystal but odd nonetheless. When you try to leave the castle, the werewolf you've heard about a few times tries to enter the castle but is quickly chased off. Why is it that odd and mysterious characters appear always when one of those blasted meteors land? Now, the shops in Karnak are open again for you to exploit, but the prices have been raised significantly due to the possible financial instability that looms over Karnak. To compensate, the Magic Shop has opened its doors. Weapon Shop: Mythril Knife

450 Gil

Mythril Sword 880 Gil Mythril Hammer 1050 Gil Flame Rod 750 Gil Frost Rod 750 Gil Thunder Rod 750 Gil Flail 780 Gil If all is well you should have all the Mythril Knives and Mythril Swords you need, but if this is not the case, here's where you buy them. If you are planning on using a Berserker in the next dungeon you should definitely buy a Mythril Hammer, too. You don't have to buy anything else, as you shouldn't need more Flails and there's no specific reason to buy Rods. You could break Frost Rods versus the next boss creature for illegally huge amounts of damage though, so if that's your cup of tea then buy one or two for that very purpose. Armor Shop: Mythril Shield 590 Gil Mythril Helmet 550 Gil Plumed Hat 350 Gil Mythril Armor 700 Gil Silver Armor 600 Gil Silk Robe 500 Gil Mythril Glove 600 Gil Silver Armlet 500 Gil What's there to say about all this? Every character, no matter what Job he or she is currently wielding, should get a near-full upgrade from the Armor Shop in Karnak. Mythril Shields for everybody that can equip them, Mythril Helmet, Mythril Armor and Mythril Gloves for the Heavy Armor class characters, Plumed Hats, Silver Armor and Silver Armlets for the Clothes classes and Plumed Hats and Silk Robes for your mages. It's very simply and very nice. Magic Shop (Black): Fira 600 Gil Blizzara 600 Gil Thundara 600 Gil Poison 290 Gil Sleep 300 Gil Fire 150 Gil Blizzard 150 Gil Thunder 150 Gil The four new spells here are Fira, Blizzara, Thundara and Poison. If you have little money left and don't really want to sell anything, buy Fira and Blizzara and nothing else. Blizzara and Cura from the White Magic shop really are the priorities for the next dungeon, and Fira is just really really helpful versus Shiva. Fira, Blizzara and Thundara are simply stronger versions of the basic elemental spells of the Black Mage; Poison is an ST attack that sets the Poison status. On Spellblade, Fira and its brethren are stronger as well, but only versus targets weak to the element. Poison Spellblade turns the weapon into a

Poison-elemental one; it will set the Poison status as well upon a successful hit. Magic Shop (White): Cura 620 Gil Raise 700 Gil Confuse 650 Gil Silence 280 Gil Protect 280 Gil Cure 180 Gil Libra 80 Gil Poisona 90 Gil Cura and Raise are the priorities for now if you're low on money, else the Confuse spell is one you don't really want to skip. Raise revives a character, much like Phoenix Down; Confuse is an ST spell that sets the Confuse status, which is useful to disable an opponent temporarily and/or learning certain Blue spells. Magic Shop (Time): Gravity 620 Gil Stop 580 Gil Haste 320 Gil Mute 320 Gil Slow 80 Gil Regen 100 Gil Three new Time spells for you to buy: Gravity, Stop and Haste. Gravity deals (current HP / 2) damage, but will miss when the target is Heavy. Stop sets the Stop status; it'll last quite a while, but will be very quickly worn out if the target is Heavy. Note that Gravity is a grand spell for an upcoming boss, so don't pass it up! Item Shop: Potion 40 Gil Antidote 30 Gil Eye Drops 20 Gil Maiden's Kiss 60 Gil Mallet 50 Gil Gold Needle 150 Gil Phoenix Down 1000 Gil Tent 250 Gil If you're done and fully healed (that's what the Inn is for!), buy some Eye Drops (especially if you don't have any Silver Specs), save your game on the Overworld Map and head into the Fire-Powered Ship. It'll be fun and adventurey there! Oh, wait, no, there was still Shiva back in Walse Castle, and since she'll be immediately helpful in the Fire-Powered Ship we should definitely get her. Trace

back to the meteor and eventually to Walse Castle. You could sleep at the Inn of Walse to regain your health before doing so, obviously. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.10.3 Ice to see you, Shiva ********************************** Opponents: Elf Toad (#25), Ice Soldier (#26), Jackanapes (#30), Ice Commander (#248), Shiva (#249) Miscellaneous items: Frost Rod (guaranteed Shiva drop) Blue Spells: Pond's Chorus [SHIVA-LINK] Shiva is an Ice spirit sealed within the castle by the purified water of the Water Crystal. How exactly a flexible matter such as water could ever be used to seal anything is beyond any guess, though. Shiva is waiting for you in one of the towers of the castle. Shiva, obviously, being a recurrent magical entity throughout the series. Enter the castle, descend to the lower floor and leave this room through the door to the south. Outside, you have the option of walking into the water. Do so. To the top, there's a waterfall. It's concealing the entrance to the water tower of castle Walse, so enter in the middle to find it. Castle Walse Watertower: 58 % Elf Toad, Elf Toad, Elf Toad 42 % Ice Soldier, Ice Soldier The enemies here are ones you've already seen earlier and know how to deal with. Burn the soldiers, freeze the toads, steal some Mythril Swords if you could use some cash. Now, simply ascend the Water Tower until you reach what is quite obviously the resting place of Shiva herself. The impossible green-flame energy sphere thing? That's her, all-right. Interact with it to allow Shiva to speak for herself. Naturally assuming you're wanting to dominate her, she attacks you. Before you engage her, by the way, make sure that you have two characters in the Front Row and two in the Back Row, regardless of their Job. Shiva Level: 11, HP: 1500, MP: 1000

Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Phoenix Down (rare), Hi-Potion (common) Win: Frost Rod Absorbs: Ice Weakness: Fire Creature: Humanoid, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Poison, Darkness, Slow Attacks: Blizzara Ice Commander Level: 4, HP: 600, MP: 200 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Mythril Sword (common) Win: Heavy Sword (rare) Absorbs: Ice Weakness: Fire Creature: Humanoid Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Toad, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack Shiva is surrounded by a whole slew of Ice Commanders, too. These are all of the same elemental type as Shiva, so they absorb Ice and are weak to Fire-elemental attacks. You can steal Mythril Swords from them, and they rarely drop a Long Sword after the fight, so they're basically just Ice Soldiers with a different name, without the random Ice spellcasting and a whole lot more durability. They're vulnerable to everything from Pond's Chorus, Flash, Sleep to Poison. The fight isn't over until you've killed them too, so might as well start attacking them now. Shiva herself knows only two attacks, and they're both Blizzara. Every odd turn she will target every character in the Front Row, every even turn she'll target every Back Row character with it. It's that simple. ***** Fira strategy ***** How to deal with this? First, let loose with any status ailment-inducing attacks you might have. The Blue Flash attack is a wise idea, as is an MT'd Black Sleep spell. You likely won't hit all of the Commanders, but you'll be

glad to get some of the physical violence out of the way. If you have a Time caster, the Slow spells works on Shiva but it's not very important. Now, power up any Mystic Knights you might have with a Fira spell on their sword and get the show started. Pick apart the snoozing and/or blinded Commanders first. MT'd, it takes only two Fira spells to kill them, and that doesn't need a Flame Rod. A slash with a Fira sword does a lot of damage, and with Two-Handed it's almost an affront to God. The same goes for Shiva. Keep yourselves healed (took me hours to come up with this brilliant strategy, let me tell ya) and dish out the damage. If your level is 11, a Blue Goblin Punch definitely hurts, and anything Fire-related is obviously a good idea. Before long, Shiva'll be defeated and your Summoner will obtain the power to summon Shiva. ***** Non-Fira strategy: ***** Without having gone to Karnak, you don't have the Fira spell yet, you can't cast it on your swords and you haven't obtained the defense upgrade either, so it's all a little difficult. Strategy is vital here. If you have Flame Rods and aren't scared of breaking them, feel free to disregard all the text below, of course... Before you engage, make sure the Front Row/Back Row ratio is 2/2, and have a Blue caster and a White caster. Start the battle off with Flash from the Blue caster. Don't attack yet, just keep yourself healed. Now, hit the Commanders with Pond's Chorus (and possibly Sleep spells to stall until you can hit them with Pond's Chorus). After Shiva is surrounded by three toads, you've quickly eliminated the physical threat. Now, start attacking Shiva. If your party is primarily physical nature at this point, it' might be a good idea to clear out the Commanders first to remove the Back Row advantage of Shiva. If you don't have Flash and Pond's Chorus either you're probably either stuck breaking Flame Rods or seriously looking at going to Karnak anyway, as while I'm sure some asian dude could figure out a way to defeat Shiva without Fire 2 OR those Blue spells, I'm not going to try for you. EDIT: Some asian dude sent me a way to defeat Shiva without Fire 2 OR those Blue spells! Should you find yourself at level 11, Goblin Punch will deal 800% damage, taking her out quite fast. All that's left is the Ice Commanders, but a combination of Flash and Pond's Chorus should make them doable. When you're done, time to get to Karnak. Try out Shiva versus the random encounters there; Ice Soldiers will absorb Shiva's attack but that's all. A thing to consider; a Mythril Hammer Two-Handed Berserker is capable of

killing a Jackanapes (this is due to the fact that Axes and Hammers only consider 25 % of the target's Defense). So even if you don't want to flee, the 1000 Gil x 2, Speed spell and Elven Mantle are obtainable. It's going to cost you quite a lot of Phoenix Downs and luck, though. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.11.1 The Fire-Powered Ship ********************************** Opponents: Crew Dust (#37), Poltergeist (#38), Defeater (#39), Motor Trap (#40), Liquid Flame (#251) Container contents: Cottage, Elixir x3, Green Beret, Moonring Blade, Mythril Glove, Phoenix Down, Thief's Gloves Miscellaneous items: Ether (common Motor Trap steal), Speed Shake (rare Defeater drop) Features: World Map Blue Spells: Flash, Self-Destruct It seems the Fire-Powered Ship is sucking away the power of the Fire Crystal. Stop the cause, and the Fire Crystal may yet be saved. It's time to quickly dive into the Fire-Powered Ship and shut down the engine. Let's do it! You'd think that with all the destructive technological genius of Cid, they simply could have set off a bomb on the ship, but nobodies mentioning anything of the sort. You may counter that the Fire-Powered Ship is, like, totally special and needs to be preserved, but it's either a fancy boat or the benefits of fire for the entire world. Bulkhead 35 % Crew Dust x 2 35 % Crew Dust x 4 23 % Defeater, Motor Trap x 2 6 % Crew Dust, Defeater x 3, Motor Trap x 2 Bulkhead (Ramps) 35 % Crew Dust x 2, Defeater, Motor Trap x 2 35 % Poltergeist, Defeater, Motor Trap x 2 23 % Crew Dust, Defeater x 3, Motor Trap x 2 6 % Defeater, Motor Trap x 2

Bulkhead (Thief's Gloves room) 58 % Poltergeist, Defeater, Motor Trap x 2 42 % Crew Dust x 2, Poltergeist Bulkhead (Lever room) 35 % Poltergeist x 2 35 % Crew Dust x 2, Defeater x 2, Motor Trap x 2 23 % Defeater, Motor Trap x 2 6 % Crew Dust, Defeater x 3, Motor Trap x 2 NOTICE: All formations with two Motor Traps will lack the Motor Trap enemies when you encounter them. They will appear only when you have killed a sole Defeater on the battlefield. When you kill one together with other enemies (including other Defeaters), Motor Traps won't appear. If you kill the last Defeater with a Counter attack, Motor Traps won't appear. An NPC in Karnak talked about the Crew Dust and its tendency to cast Flash when alone. 'Tis true. If you didn't manage to extract Flash from the Headstones, here's where you'll definitely want to learn the attack. Crew Dust are weak to Ice-elemental attacks so MT'd Blizzara spells and Shiva clean major house. Crew Dust are also weak versus Wind-elemental attacks, but it's just that you don't have any truly powerful Wind-elemental attacks right now. Two Aero spells will take them down. They'll normally attack with physicals only, with the occasional !Sap thrown in (causes the Sap status). Another fun thing about Crew Dust is how they can't avoid Blue spells; they'll always hit. So eh... Flash and Vampire will never miss or something, Aero is unblockable anyway. Poltergeist absorbs Ice-elemental attacks but is weak to Wind. Its !Lick attack, which sets Confuse, is really annoying so dispatch them quickly; Aero really helps out. Motor Trap only appears when a sole Defeater is killed. Motor Trap has several interesting attacks. First, there's Gamma Ray, an ST attack that sets Stop on a target. When hit by a Lightning-elemental attack such as the Black Thunder spell, they'll cast Self-Destruct which deals the caster's current HP worth of damage while killing the caster. Self-Destruct can be learned by those with Learning set, but it's quite useless as a battle strategy. Defeaters only attack physically. They're weak to Ice-elemental attacks. They may drop Speed Shakes, items that can only be used by the !Drink command you can't have yet. Take note that when you encounter a single Defeater or when you leave a single Defeater on the battlefield and then kill it, it'll summon Motor Traps to give you trouble. Walk down the wooden interior of the Fire-Powered Ship until you suddenly encounter the technic rooms. Here's where the monsters start appearing. When you enter, you can see a white door; it leads to a chest containing a Mythril

Glove. Now, ascend the stairs and get up the stairs to the far left. It'll eventually net you an Elixir. Now, get back down. In this room you can still find a chest with a Cottage, and the only stairs you haven't used up to that point gets you another Elixir. Now, leave through the other white door, to the top-right of the room, to find an elevator. See the red switch? On this new weird metal ramp, there's a Phoenix Down to the right. If you haven't picked up the World Map in the Ship Graveyard you can find it here as well. Also, another elevator. Now, this is just getting needlessly complex! There's a pipe to the left of you. Seriously, who designed this thing? Cid, obviously, but why did he go bonkers during the process? A completely useless conveyer belt keeps you from opening a chest, too. Follow the pipe, white door, elevator, and now there are multiple options. Here's what they all go to: 1 2 3 4 1: Takes you back to a point you've already been. Useless. 2: You'll want to take this one last, as it continues the dungeon. 3: Nets you the chest you couldn't obtain earlier. It's a pair of Thief's Gloves! 4: A new sub-area where you eventually find a Green Beret. Nice. Get the Thief's Gloves first. Only Thieves (aside from Freelancers) can equip these lightweight gloves; they add more Defense than the Silver Armlet and double your chances of successfully obtaining an item with !Steal and !Mug. You now steal with 80% succes rate! They make sure that the Thief itself will forever be the superior robber, even if !Steal or !Mug is set on another Job. Get the Green Beret (for your Thief/Monk/Red Mage/Blue Mage) by entering pipe #4, then proceed to the right and throw yourself down #2. Before going through the white door, follow the stairs, flip the red switch and find a spiffy new weapon for the Thief. The Moonring Blade deals the same amount of damage from the Back Row and is powerful enough to remove the need for Barehanded, so stick another ability on your Thief and put him or her in the Back Row. The Moonring Blade has a substandard hit rate of 95%, which is one of its few downsides. Continue down the logical path. Don't step on the conveyer belt, you don't want to go that way. The other white door takes you to a Save Point: use it! This room is a final last switch puzzle before the boss, so have fun before it gets too serious. The puzzle is easy; just flip every switch you can reach once when you reach them, except for the very bottom one which takes care of you

wanting to return. There's a chest with an Elixir that you easily grab if you just flip every switch once. Now, enter the white door to finally find the engine in the Power Room. Oh, so there's Queen Karnak! And she's not nice to you now! Gosh, after doing stuff to King Tycoon and possessing Garula, that malevolent force we're trying to stop sure likes to find itself some high-profile lackeys. At any rate, by some logic I have yet to grasp, fire comes out of the engine and attacks you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.11.2 The battle with Liquid Flame ********************************** Yeah, there's no telling what happened here. Maybe Queen Karnak has awesome Fire-manipulating skills and that's why she's being controlled, in turn causing the flames from the engine to attack you. Maybe she was just a guard here and the power from far beyond controls the fire, who knows. At any rate, there's a flame monster to cope with now. Liquid Flame (Human) Level: 19, HP: 3000, MP: 100 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 15 Evasion: 20%, Magic Evasion: 0% Win: Flame Scroll Absorbs: Wind, Fire Nullifies: Water, Poison Weakness: Ice Specialty: !Rush: Barrier-piercing Specialty Effect: Unblockable Vulnerable to: Death, Confuse Attacks: Attack, !Rush, Blaze Liquid Flame (Hand) Level: 19, HP: 3000, MP: 30 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 30 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 0% Win: Flame Rod Absorbs: Fire Nullifies: Water, Wind, Earth, Holy, Poison, Lightning, Ice Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Ray Specialty Effect: adds Paralyze Vulnerable to: Death, Confuse Attacks: Attack, !Fingertips, Fira Liquid Flame (Whirlwind) Level: 19, HP: 3000, MP: 50

Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 15 Evasion: 30%, Magic Evasion: 0% Win: Flame Bow Absorbs: Wind, Fire Nullifies: Water, Poison Weakness: Ice Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: 1.5 damage Vulnerable to: Death, Confuse Attacks: Fira, Magnet Here's the deal, and it's a very simple one. Every form will randomly use one or two attacks, and will perform an especially nasty attack when you damage it, after which it'll revert to another form. Here we go: Normal attacks: Pre-change counter: Human - Attack, !Rush, Blaze Blaze Hand - Attack, !Ray Fira (ST) W Wind - Fira (on itself) Magnet I don't believe we've been over the Magnet attack before; odd as it may seem on an opponent such as this one, all that Magnet does is set the affected party member in the Front Row. If it already was in the Front Row, no effect will occur. Flame is like a Fire-elemental Breath Wing; it deals 25 % maximum HP damage. When in Human form, Liquid Flame's special !Rush is unblockable and ignores Defense. Human - 20 % Evasion Hand - 10 % Evasion, immunity to Ice-elemental attacks (including Blizzaraenhanced swords), is Heavy (Gravity doesn't work) W Wind - 30 % Evasion Liquid Lame (LOL!) starts of in its human form. The entire point of this battle is that every single time you damage Liquid Flame it deals an especially nasty attack and changes form. Thus, you'll want to have as few hits as possible, with as much damage output as possible. The Big Four when it comes to damage are Frost Rod-boosted Blizzara spells, Frost Rod-boosted Shiva summons, TwoHanded Blizzara swords and...Gravity! Gravity cuts the amount of current HP of Liquid Flame in half, dealing up to 1500 damage when Liquid Flame is undamaged. Note that Gravity doesn't work on the Hand form, as it is Heavy. Note: Obviously there's the option of breaking Frost Rods versus the Liquid Flame; while released Blizzaga spells do enough damage to utterly destroy Liquid Flame in two hits, I don't think it's necessary in a normal game and it's just going to cost you items/money which other strategies don't. If you find yourself playing a single class challenge or something, it's a win ticket; you can also simply change to a Time Mage, have it cast Gravity, absorbs the

first Blaze attack that will never kill anybody, then shatter an Ice Rod to kill the flame. Start the battle off with a Gravity spell, and heal up from the Blaze attack that is its counter. Mystic Knights are faster than Time Mages, so you should probably already have cast an Blizzara spell on any swords you may have wanted to imbue. If the Hand was called (that bloody thing!), have a neutral physical attack change it again (hey, your Clothes class character good for something too!) and attack whatever the result is with a heavy Ice-elemental nuking. It should be close to defeat now, so heal up from whatever damage you may have taken and deliver the final blow. There is no good reason to not have either Blizzara or Gravity, and that's basically all you need (Two-Handed Blizzara swords and Shiva are variations, really) so this pretty much the strategy you should follow. Two White or Red casters are supremely useful to be able to restore HP as quickly as possible. Of course, you could simply rough it out without carefully planning your violence; as long as you have the Cura spells to counter Blaze and Fira with, you shouldn't be in too much trouble. In this case, I should mention the fact that all parts are vulnerable to the White Confuse spell and that the W Windform very easily runs out of MP, so you might want to sit there and wait for it to run out of MP the first time you see it so you definitely have a brief moment of rest when you encounter it in the future. It's a toss-up what the best dropped item is; the Flame Rod is quickly usable but is for freaking sale already, the Flame Scroll is a 200 Gil item you'll be able to use in the near future one single time and it'll be a while before you'll be able to wield the Flame Bow within a Job, at which time you'll easily have the money to buy one. I'd pick the Flame Bow simply because the most expensive item, but it's entirely up to you. After the fight, we're hurried to go see the Fire Crystal. Funnily, if you trace back your steps at this point and talk to Cid, he'll give no notion to the fact that you've stopped the engine and urge you to, in fact, go stop the engine ;) After having endless fun with the conveyer belts once tied to the engine, I suggest you walk into the pipe and save the world already. Go on! I suggest you simply stand helplessly by while yet another crucial pillar this world is resting on crumbles before your very eyes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.12.1 Escaping Karnak Castle ********************************** Opponents: Sergeant (#41), Sorcerer (#42), Cur Nakk (#43), Gigas (#44), Iron Claw (#252)

Container contents: 2000 Gil x3, Elven Mantle, Elixir x6, Lightning Scroll, Main Gauche, Ribbon, Shuriken Miscellaneous items: Elixir (common Gigas steal), Gaia Gear (rare Sorcerer steal), Mage Masher common Sorcerer steal) White Spells: Esuna Blue Spells: Aero, Aera, Death Claw Well, that sucked all around, didn't it? It seems mysterious and quickly dying friends appear whenever a meteor crashes, and they all know Galuf. The Fire Crystal has shattered, and all we can do about the situation now is try to escape the exploding Karnak Castle before we're engulfed in its destruction. Here's the catch. There are plenty of chests, the contents of which are generally good. Most of them are guarded by monsters. There's a boss battle at the end where you can learn one of the greater Blue spells in the game long before the next chance arises, and if you are shooting for a perfect Brave Blade you can't run from any battles either. And all we have is 10 minutes to do it. We need a plan. First off, I'm just gonna go ahead and say it's entirely possible to simply dash trough the halls of Karnak Castle, fighting every random encounter and raiding every chest while still learning Death Claw at the end of it. But we need a team to handle such a situation. Enter Team America! Here's an example of what works remarkably well: A Mystic Knight with Two-Handed A Summoner with a Frost Rod A Black Mage with Learning with a Frost Rod A Thief with Barehanded The Thief will go first and use !Steal, but will be able to deal damage in longer fight. The Mystic Knight will go second and deal respectable damage; Knights and Berserkers are too slow. The casters clean up the battlefield with spells and Shiva. I want to talk about encounters now.

(Karnak Castle random encounters) 70 % Sergeant, Cur Nakk x3 30 % Cur Nakk Sergeants will never attack you. They always accompany Cur Nakk and will cause the Cur Nakk dogs to attack you by saying "You better bring it!". When you've killed all Cur Nakk dogs, they will say "Can't you take a hint? Eat this!" and get the hell out of there. Why Karnak soldiers would want to attack you in the first place is a mystery, as Karnak enlisted your help; maybe they feel you've failed them? They will very rarely drop a Silver Plate, but since you could already buy them if you want them, it's no big deal. Note that you'll need to kill them at least once for a Bestiary entry. The Sergeant you'll face at the end doesn't count, as it's a different one. Cur Nakk dogs heavily rely on Sergeants to damage you. They'll simply attack physically on their own, but when their Sergeants tell them to attack you, they'll use !Bite. When their Sergeant has been killed, they'll make a run for it using Flee. You'll sometimes see a single one as an encounter; they'll immediately use Flee, giving you 2 free ABP. A lot of the chests in this section are guarded by monsters. They often contain excellent treasures, and these chests do count towards your Treasure %. They are guarded by any combination of Sorceror, Gigas' enemies and Cur Nakks. Sorcerers, how I loathe thee. Next to physical attacks they have Confuse (first turn) and Toad (second turn) to cast, but that's not it. Nay it's their great potential as !Steal victims. Their common slot contains Mage Mashers, stronger Knives for whoever wants to equip them. They also have a 33 % chance of casting Silence on the target, hence their name. Sorcerer also have an awesome rare Steal, which is the Gaia Gear. Gaia Gear won't appear in stores for quite some time, and they have superior Defense and Magic Defense. In addition, they increase damage done by Earth-elemental attacks (of which you have none now) by 50 %. Chances are 10/256 you'll get one from your !Steal attempt, though. Cur Nakk dogs without Sergeants are mere cannon fodder. They'll simply attack physically on their own, and Flee when they're alone. When they're encountered leaping out of chests, accompanied by Sorcerers, they'll stick around and attack normally as long as the Sorcerer is there; when bereaved of their arcane ally, they'll hightail it out of there tail between their legs. Gigas are the dungeon's most prominent enemies. They have a common Elixir for you to Steal, feature almost every chest as a guardian and leave a Goliath Tonic every time you kill one. When they're damaged they have a 66 % chance of countering with a Aero spell on the entire party. Other attacks include Aera (uses randomly every turn) and !Elbow, which is unblockable and barrierpiercing. Elixirs are useful later on and this is the most easily abused source in the game, so make sure to try and Steal from every Gigas you encounter. If

you're in luck, you might get to learn Aera from these guys, but don't sit around and wait for it, you're on the clock. Gigas' and Sergeants are the only who will be able to withstand a Frost Rod Shiva casting when you've leveled normally (15 or higher), so focus Barehanded punches and swords slinging on them before summoning the mistress of Ice. Steal whenever you can, especially from Sorcerers as their Gaia Gear truly is something to want. However, it's only a rare steal... Now, the rare Steal really rears its ugly head. The chances of actually stealing the rare item? 10/256. That's right. To illustrate how minor that chance is, here's a scenario to visualize the entire deal. Imagine a soccer field, right? A soccer field with 256 guys standing on it, enjoying their day off from their hellhole job at Taco Bell or something. Now, suppose you were to enter this soccer field and systematically, without remorse, start kicking these guys in the nuts. Here and there, you leave 10 lucky individuals alone. Now, after your job is done, you're panting from all the hard work near the side-lines and you look on the field. What do you see? You see 246 men groaning in pain, on their knees, on their face in the grass, asking their absent God what they did to deserve this. Here and there, you can see one or two men looking around and wondering what the hell just happened. That acne-infested teenager you left alone because he isn't going to use his privates in the near future anyway, standing knee-deep in an average amount of 24 full-grown, crying men? THAT's your rare steal right there. Good luck with that. You're automatically Dashing in this stage of the game, but that only goes for the 'normal' dashing, the one that you could enable with the Auto-Dash ability from the menu. If you have a Thief, you won't run any faster, which is strange. Normally, the Thief's Sprint ability stacks with both B-button Dashing and AutoDash, but since in this dungeon normal Dashing is set in stone, Sprint has no additional effect. There are plenty of simply great items to obtain while escaping from the monsters here, so you'll quite simply want to have a !Steal option in your team. The Thief's superior Agility makes sure he's the best for the job; be sure to equip the Thief's Gloves too. You get a 10:00 timer which starts to run as soon as you start to move. The timer will freeze when using a menu in-battle, but only if you had Battle Mode set to 'Wait' (check your menu). If you don't make it in time, the screen will start shaking while a red glow envelops the background. It means that the castle goes 'BOOM!' and it looks stunningly lame. You fell down in a room with a pot. This contains water from a Spring of Recovery, so if Liquid Lame busted you up you can quickly trace back and heal up. You start the big race in a room with a Save Point, where you can Save.

The first room you dash through is the jail cells you were thrown in by Karnak soldiers earlier. There are no random encounters here yet. The chest in the left jail contains 2000 Gil and no monsters. The chest to the right contains an Elixir and is, as are all Elixir chests, guarded by monsters: Sorcerer, Cur Nakk, Cur Nakk (common) Gigas (rare) Karnak Castle ablaze random encounters: 70 % Sergeant, Cur Nakk, Cur Nakk, Cur Nakk 30 % Cur Nakk This next room knows random encounters. To the right is a chest containing a Shuriken, an item that you will soon be able to use. Don't miss it. It's guarded by what appears to be a fixed Gigas encounter. The left chest is even more vital as it contains a Ribbon. The Ribbon is pretty much the ultimate helmet of the entire game. It raises Strength, Agility, Vitality and Magic Power by 5 and protects against Death, Petrify, Toad, Poison, Darkness, Old, Berserk and Silence. Downside is that only the Dancer Job will be able to equip it (alongside the Freelancer), so in order to utilize it now would mean going Freelancer, which hinders progress. This chest is guarded: Sorcerer, Sorcerer(common) Gigas (rare) The next two rooms have no chests but do have random encounters. Continue to the main hall of Karnak Castle. There are five entrances/exits here. You come out of one. The one following the carpet leads into the throne room, where you have nothing to see but random encounters. The one leading out is one we don't want yet, so it's the two doors. We'll want to enter both doors and raid everything behind it. Let's start with the left one. A room filled with chests of which three are closed. The left-most chest contains 2000 Gil and is safe to open. Ignore the others for now. Exit using the stairs to the top-left. You'll find yourself on the walls of Karnak Castle. Dash to the stairway on the other side and descend to the chest. It contains an Elven Mantle, and is guarded: Gigas, Sorcerer, Cur Nakk (common) Gigas (rare) Trace back your steps until you're in the room where you left two chests alone. Open them now: the other two contain Elixirs and are guarded by monsters. The bottom one contains a fixed Gigas, the other one the following:

Sorcerer, Sorcerer (common) Gigas (rare) To the south is a door where you appear on a balcony that connects the left and right towers. Enter the right tower. This part mirrors what you've just seen, only there are four chests. The right-most contains a safe 2000 Gil, the other one close to it contains an Elixir and is guarded by: Sorcerer, Cur Nakk, Cur Nakk (common) Gigas (rare) While the other two ones also contains Elixirs. The top-left is guarded by a fixed Gigas, the other one is guarded by: Sorcerer, Cur Nakk, Cur Nakk (common) Gigas (rare) Taking the stairs, following the walls and descending to the chest will net you a fight with: Gigas, Sorcerer, Cur Nakk (common) Gigas (rare) Your reward will be a Main Gauche, a Dagger that will allow the wielder to block 25 % of all physical attacks before even checking with the Evasion%. It's a great equip for Jobs that don't need to boost elements but don't physically attack either. Since it's such a powerful blade, it's about equal on damage output when boosted by Barehanded Strength, as Barehanded punches. Since the Main Gauche also gives the extra physical block and allows a Shield, it's a superior option. Now, trace back to the main hall. Before you leave, there are chests on either side of you. The left one contains the level 4 White Esuna spell, and is guarded by: Sorcerer, Sorcerer (common) Gigas (rare) The right one contains a Thunder Scroll and is guarded by: Sorcerer, Cur Nakk, Cur Nakk (common) Gigas (rare) Now, it's finally time to get out. You should have two minutes or so on the clock. Make sure you have enough MP to last a few rounds, and make sure your Learning character has it equipped. Now, get out and face what appears to be a normal random encounter just when you're about to leave the castle. Seargeant (Iron Claw in disguise)

Level: 0, HP: 1000, MP: 25 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Potion (common) Win: Eye Drops (rare) Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow Attacks: Iron Claw Level: 39, HP: 900, MP: 150 Defense: 20, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Hero Drink (common) Win: Silver Specs (rare) Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Toad, Mini, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical, Death Claw The Cur Nakk monsters are hardly different from their normal counterparts so I won't list them here. Here's the deal: when you kill all Cur Nakk dogs your party will notice something strange about the Sergeant: Bartz: "This guy..." Lenna: "He's no ordinary soldier!" Galuf: "Show us your true form!" Sergeant: "Hahahahaha! You wish to know my true identity? I am the famed bounty hunter... Iron Claw! MORPH!!!" At which point Iron Claw will reveal himself to be Iron Claw, a self-declared great bounty hunter. He proceeds to change form. This process reduces his maximum HP to 900, but any damage you did to him in his Sergeant form surpassing his 900 HP will still be there. Iron Claw's Defense shoots up to 20 all of a sudden, (he's made of iron, after all) so physical attacks will kinda stop hurting him as much. Iron Claw will then start pounding you into fine mist with his physicals and the Blue spell Death Claw. Defeating Iron Claw really isn't that big a deal; the problem is that you'll have to wait for your Blue Mage/Learning character to get hit by Death Claw as it's truly a nice attack to have. Death Claw is a single-target attack that reduces the target's HP to a single digit and sets Paralyze. It's like superGravity. As soon as you've bagged Death Claw (it may take a while, it's all random), you can set something like Sleep or Stop on the guy and whip out some

magical attacks to kill him with. If you're really having trouble, scatter an elemental Rod to instantly kill the fiend. Note that it's possible to kill the Sergeant before he transforms, thus screwing yourself out of the Iron Claw Bestiary entry. Once Iron Claw has been defeated, quickly escape. Karnak Castle now explodes. Five of the Crystal shards of the Fire Crystal come flying to you, but only three land where you stand. The other two are nowhere to be found. The three shards contain the Ninja, Beastmaster and Geomancer Jobs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.13.1 Three Fire Crystal Jobs ********************************** If you want some in-depth explanation of the three new Jobs, you can check out more info on the Ninja, the Beastmaster and the Geomancer here: [NINJA-LINK] [BEASTM-LINK] [GEOMANCER-LINK] For now, let me suffice by saying the following. The Geomancer's !Gaia ability is great for mages, as it lets them magically attack with powerful damage output without using MP. The Diamond Bell is worthless, so the Main Gauche is a great equip for them. If you managed to steal any Gaia Gear, the Geomancer's Earth-elemental attacks will be boosted by 50%. The Ninja is awesome all around; their powerful Ninja Scrolls are only hindered by the Ninja's low Magic Power. Stick !Blue or a high-level magic skillset on the Ninja to raise it's Magic Power and make the damage really fly. They are inherently able to wield two weapons; when you have a support ability that lets them equip better weapons than Knives, you can increase their physical damage output as well. Barehanded is a great support ability for them, but not to replace their blades with punches. The highest damage output is obtained by simply using Barehanded its Strength boost with the dual Knife capacities of the Ninja. Note that Goblin Punch is based on menu-listed battle power, so Goblin Punch will use the battle power of both weapons combined! Nice. The Beastmaster is able to !Catch monsters who have 1/8 their maximum HP or less. When a monster is caught, !Catch will chance into !Release, which turns the caught monster loose on the battlefield for it to use a single attack. The monster will use its own stats. Beastmaster's have a lack of offense in general, so Barehanded is a great support ability. The Whip will have a 50% chance of setting Paralyze to opponents with the Magic Beast nature. If you want to use !Catch, the Blue spell Death Claw immediately puts the target creature in a weakened enough state to make !Catch work. Repeated Gravity spells from the Time skillset also works.

The Beastmaster will also learn !Control after a total of 60 ABP, which will let you control a monster. If you return below deck of the Fire-Powered Ship and use !Control on a Motor Trap, it is able to use Missile, a Blue spell that deals 75% of the target's current HP damage. !Control is vital in learning a few Blue spells in this game, so make sure to learn it if you want a full Blue skillset. A few quick pointers on !Catch: physical attackers are your main source of damage, as they will always use the incredibly powerful Strong Fight. It's real name is 'Attack', but a man's gotta differentiate when a man's gotta differentiate. For other effects: Mani Wizard Death Undead Husk Break Gaelicat Float Zu Breath Wing

Deals 25 % max HP damage, Wind-elemental

Fun fact: Breath Wing always hits, and ignores every check except for elemental ones. Four released Zu birds will tear apart any target, regardless of HP, instant death immunity, Heavy nature, the works. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.14.1 En route to the Library of the Ancients ********************************** Opponents: Aegir (#31), Zu (#32), Grass Tortoise (#34), Silent Bee (#35), Mythril Dragon (#36), Dhorme Chimera (#58) Container contents: Flame Rod Miscellaneous items: Trident (rare Dhorme Chimera steal) Blue Spells: Aqua Breath, Transfusion Cid must be thoroughly devastated. And once you visit him on the Fire-Powered Ship, this seems to be exactly the case. The poor guy blames himself for the creation of the machines and the subsequent destruction of the three crystals. He flees from your sight before you can tell him all is okay. It'd be best to seek him out. Karnak city is a chaos with the sudden disappearance of the powers of Fire. The wounded Queen Karnak is in the top floor of the Inn. Nightmares plague her.

A new weapon salesman has appeared in the Weapon/Armor Shop: Weapon Shop 2: Mythril Spear 790 Gil Kunai 600 Gil Whip 1100 Gil Diamond Bell 500 Gil Some new weapons for your new Jobs, basically, although none of them are very useful at this point. The Mythril Spear isn't equipable by any Job you currently have, not even the new ones. There's no reason to buy it, really. The Kunai adds 1 point to your Agility, but as a weapon it's weaker than the Main Gauche, the Moonring Blade and the Mage Mashers you could have stolen. Note that it's a Ninja-only weapon. You already have a Whip, and the Diamond Bell like almost all bells is worthless. Cid can be found in the top floor of the Pub, but he doesn't really want to talk to you. Hey, if he doesn't want to be helped, we can't do that for him. And sad as it may be, there are more important matters to attend to. We've still got a single Crystal left, and we have no idea where it is. Maybe the Ancient Library has some answers for us; with the destruction of Karnak Castle the path to the place was freed, and since Cid's grandson Mid lives there, maybe we can send the lad over to Cid to do some cheering. Don't forget to grab the Flame Rod on the western wall of Karnak, which you can now reach due to the non-existence of the flames blocking your path. Grasslands: 35 % Silent Bee, Silent Bee, Silent Bee, Silent Bee 35 % Zu, Grass Tortoise, Aegir 23 % Aegir, Aegir, Grass Tortoise 6 % Zu Forests: 35 % Mythril Dragon, Silent Bee, Grass Tortoise 35 % Mythril Dragon 30 % Mythril Dragon, Mythril Dragon, Mythril Dragon Desert: Always: Dhorme Chimera Silent Bee rarely uses Needle, a magical attack that sets either Dark or Silence (equal chance). Unassuming in any other regard, but being blinded is annoying. Aera on a single Silent Bee works great, as does a conjuration of Shiva. Mythril Dragon has great Defense and no elemental weakness, which makes them quite hard to take down. When it has lost over half their HP (the maximum amount

of which is 600), it will use the Blue spell Transfusion the next turn on any monster that isn't itself. It's special technique, !Tail, is unblockable and pierces Defense, so watch out for that. You can steal rare Mythril Armor from them, but you shouldn't waste time as you can simply buy them in Karnak too. They very rarely drop Mythril Gloves, too. Dhorme Chimera Level: 23, HP: 1000, MP: 150 Defense: 20, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Trident (rare) Win: Phoenix Down (rare) Absorbs: Water Specialty: !Critical Attack Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical Attack, Aqua Breath Dhorme Chimera is the most interesting enemy right now. They live in the desert, and are mentioned by a scholar in Karnak. They're supposed to be quite frightening. They can either use Battle, !Critical (x 1.5) and the Blue spell Aqua Breath. Since they have a Defense and Magic Defense score of 20 and have 1000 HP, you'll be hard-pressed to kill them quickly. I suggest you Save on the Overworld Map and wander into the desert with a Blue Mage or the Learning support ability equipped. Level 2 elemental Black spells hurt him relatively badly, as do Axes/Hammers, Shiva and Released Grass Tortoises. Make sure to learn Aqua Breath here. Aqua Breath is a crazy expansive Blue magic spell. It's multi-target and NON-elemental. That's right, no Water element there. What it does have it the fact it deals eight times as much damage to Desert creatures. An upcoming boss battle will feature a creature of this type, so you'll absolutely want to pick it up; you will return here when your levels are a bit higher though, so you can postpone if you're so inclined. Transfusion can be learned in the forests surrounding the Library of the Ancients. The White Confuse spell can confuse the Mythril Dragon which will in turn have a chance to cast Transfusion on a character with the Learning ability. The Beastmaster's !Control ability is superior, obviously, as it allows you to choose Transfusion's target at will, but you probably don't have it yet. Now, enter the Library of the Ancients, where answers await. Note: you could continue down south-west, where you could eventually enter the desert there. Despite the fact the quicksand stops you from entering too far you could net a random encounter or two. There's no point in doing so though, so I won't mention them until you're forced to pass through. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4.14.2 The Library of the Ancients and the battle with Ifrit ********************************** Opponents: Page 32 (#45), Page 64 (#46), Page 128 (#47), Page 256 (#48), Ifrit (#253), Byblos (#254) Container contents: Ether, Ninja Suit, Phoenix Down Miscellaneous items: Dark Matter (rare Byblos steal), Green Beret (rare Page 32 steal), Ninja Suit (rare Page 256 steal) Summon Spells: Ifrit Blue Spells: Aera, Level 5 Death, Magic Hammer, Moon Flute, Off-Guard Everything's a mess lately, and the Library of the Ancients is no exception. Cid's grandson, Mid, is missing, which is especially alarming since the books in the dark halls of the Library of the Ancients have been taken over by monsters increasingly often. In past times the Summoned Monster Ifrit would burn books possessed by monsters, but for some reason he threw in the towel as well. Our mission is to find Mid, as nobody else seems to be able to help us out... On the second floor is a pot containing water from a Spring of Recovery, and all the way upstairs, near a furnace, three books await you. The left and middle ones are tomes of ancient wisdom (or whatever) while the right book shows you exactly what all this talk of possessed books is all about. Page 32, Page 64 (common) Page 32, Page 64, Page 128, Page 256, Page 128, Page 64, Page 32 (rare) Page 32 looks like a living gargoyle of some sort, and wields the Blue Aera spell. It has a Green Beret as a rare Steal, so if you have a place for any more of them, try to go for it. Weak to Fire-elemental attacks like all pages. It will use the Banish spell when Released, allowing it to possibly one-shot the difficult boss at the end. Page 64 is the most lethal of the four pages as it wields the Blue spell Level 5 Death, which immediately kills any character with a level divisible by 5. It can also only be learned when the attack actually works, so if you find yourself at level 16 you won't be able to learn it now. If you have a party of level 15 characters, I suggest you go train outside until one or more (but not

all!) of your characters has reached level 16. Take the level 15 character(s) in as Blue Mages and watch them get killed. Win the battle, heal up (or vice versa) and you've gained knowledge over the thing. Page 64 has Silver Specs as a rare Steal, which shouldn't excite you. Level 5 Death in this dungeon works on both Page 64 and Page 128, but at 22 MP it's a bit pricey to use often. Page 128 fails to deliver in both Blue spells and rare Steals, and has none in either category. As a common steal, however, it has an Ether, which is pretty useful to carry around in a game where MP can see depletion. It can use Slimer, which sets Slow and the Sap status. Weak to Fire, blah. Page 256 is obviously the grandest of pages. Every other turn, it'll use Moon Flute on your party, which anyone equipped to do so will immediately learn. As a Blue spell Moon Flute targets the own party, but Page 256 turns it against you. As a rare steal, it has a Ninja Suit, which is equal to the Mythril Armor in defenses but can also be equipped by Clothes classes, adds a respectable single point to your Agility and isn't nowhere near as heavy. If you were to !Control a Page 256, it can use Off-Guard, a Blue spell you can learn. Off-Guard halves the target's Defense and Magic Defense, making upcoming attacks more damaging. Dark rooms: 35 % Page 32, Page 64 35 % Page 64, Page 32, Page 64 23 % Page 64, Page 256, Page 32 6 % Page 32, Page 64, Page 128, Page 256, Page 128, Page 64, Page 32 Ninja Suit room and the room leading to it: 35 % Page 64, Page 64, Page 64 35 % Page 32, Page 32, Page 128, Page 128 23 % Page 128, Page 128, Page 256 6 % Page 32, Page 64, Page 128, Page 256, Page 128, Page 64, Page 32 Other rooms: 35 % Page 64, Page 128, Page 128, Page 32 35 % Page 32, Page 64, Page 128 23 % Page 128, Page 64, Page 256, Page 128 6 % Page 32, Page 64, Page 128, Page 256, Page 128, Page 64, Page 32 Since you'll only be fighting one enemy at the time, any Berserker would be glad to fight here. The Geomancer's !Gaia ability will often call up Ignus Fatuus, which despite its random nature is Fire-elemental and will often kill a page in a single shot. Setting !Gaia on a Black Mage or Summoner with a Flame Rod will boost its power even further. Be sure to learn the three Blue spells here, they're all grand.

Note that one Page calling another upon defeat is a counter-attack it has to perform. When you prevent the counter-attack from happening, it'll be the last opponent even if it's scripted to call more. When you kill an enemy with a Counter attack, use !Catch to remove it from the battle or Release a Page 32 and have it cast Banish with success, no further enemies will be called. Anyway, heal up at the pot and dive into the twisted maze that is the Library. Shit, you can never find what you're looking for in these places, am I right? This one's infested with demons too, so it's double the amount of nasty. As soon as you enter, you find your path blocked, but when you push on you'll see how the bookshelf makes way for you. Here's how to navigate through this room: - Stand in the hole in the bookshelf you can reach - Pass through the other two holes you can now reach - Go up the ladder and go as far to the top-right as you can. The bookshelf should move - Continue as far to the right as possible. More moving should ensue. - Down the ladder. See the missing stone in the top-right corner? Use the action button to make way into the next room. Aye-aye-aye, a limited field view! Also, random encounters. Find the Ether in the chest to the right before you exit this room. In this next room, you need to go down a ladder. There's a chest you can't reach, a door and a ladder. The ladder doesn't seem to go anywhere, so let's try the door. No luck; a rebellious bookshelf refuses to let us pass. The ladder instead! Going up and pressing the action button sends us walking over bookshelves towards a book. Heal up, open the book and meet Ifrit, the demon of fire. Ifrit Level: 22, HP: 3000, MP: 1000 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 20%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Phoenix Down (common) Win: Flame Scroll (always) Absorbs: Fire Nullifies: Poison Weakness: Water, Ice Creature: Heavy Specialty: !High Kick Specialty Effect: adds Paralyze Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Poison, Darkness, Old, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow Attacks: Battle, !High Kick, Fira, Blaze

Ifrit used to burn books with demons in them; he is much feared by all those sealed within the ancient tomes of this Library. But lately, he has become dormant, and now the Warriors of Light must wade through the evil Pages. Ifrit itself now offers you the use of its powers, but only to those that can avoid being burned to a crisp... Ifrit knows four different attacks, all of which will look familiar. Fira is a powerful spell that at normal levels really cripples a single character and at lower levels will kill one. Blaze is deals (max HP / 4) like it always does; Ifrit's Special !High Kick will set Paralyze along with dealing damage, so watch out. The fiery fiend is weak to Ice-elemental attacks. Also Water-elemental ones, but you can't take advantage of that right now. He also has a whole slew of status vulnerabilities, but since he is Heavy some of them will only work for a very short period of time, including Silence, Paralyze and Stop. Flash sets Darkness for the duration of the battle though, so that really helps stop those !High Kicks of his. Mystic Knights can choose either Blizzara or Silence Spellblade effects; Blizzara deals incredible damage obviously (especially paired with Twohanded), but Silence Spellblade effects stop Fira spells. Both strategies will prove to be incredibly effective. Frost Rod-boosted Blizzara spells or Shiva conjuration deals large amounts of damage. If you are having trouble, use !Catch to get a Page 128 on your side, it'll deal over 1000 damage in a single attack. Confuse isn't worth it, really. It'll make him cast Firaga on himself, which heals him by quite a lot. Make sure to avoid !Gaia, as the resulting Ignus Fatuus will heal Ifrit. The confusing part will work, but as previously said, he'll start healing like a madman so in all, just no. After the fight, you'll gain 5 ABP, a Flame Scroll and the power to summon Ifrit. Ifrit is a slightly more powerful and Fire-elemental version of Shiva, basically. If you have any Summoners around, swap the Frost Rod for a Flame Rod and start using Ifrit's Hellfire instead. Even though Ifrit is thematically connected to defeating the encounters in this Library, Fira is actually both more powerful and slightly cheaper on your MP... With Ifrit as an ally, the bookshelf that impeded your progress earlier suddenly remembers he needs to call his mother instead and lets you through. Don't miss the hole you can pass through to obtain a Ninja Suit; it's awesome for your Clothes class character(s), and is an upgrade from the Mythril Armor as well. Continuing will give you another dark room. The right exit will take you nowhere, the left exit will take you almost directly past a chest containing a Phoenix Down before taking you to the large hall. It seems we're almost to the

bottom, and still no sign of Mid. In this next room, the final room, the path is pretty clear; push against the bookshelf to make it move, go stand on the tiny ladder and press the action button to make it move back. Instead of going out of the door, stand on the other tiny ladder and examine the bookshelf; a book will pop out for: Page 32, Page 64 (common) Page 32, Page 64, Page 128, Page 256, Page 128, Page 64, Page 32 (rare) The hole your fighting created takes you to a Save Point. Heal and Save up and continue. You'll find yourself seeing Mid, who seems unresponsive. Also, a horned demon comes to kill you! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.14.3 The battle with Byblos ********************************** Byblos Level: 24, HP: 3600, MP: 1000 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 30 Evasion: 30%, Magic Evasion: 20% Steal: Dark Matter (rare), Luck Mallet (common) Win: Iron Draft (always) Absorbs: Water, Wind, Earth, Holy, Poison, Lightning, Ice Weakness: Holy, Fire Creature: Magic Beast Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Poison, Darkness, Paralyze, Berserk, Slow Attacks: Battle, Armor, Confuse, Drain, Toad, Magic Hammer, Dischord, Web, Wind Slash Byblos was once found near the Wind Shrine, some thirty years ago, and was taken to the Library of the Ancients and sealed there after what we can assume was a long battle with Ifrit. He's loose again now, so it's time to stop him. 1st turn: Web, Magic Hammer, Battle 2nd turn: Battle, Confuse, Wind Slash 3rd turn: Magic Hammer, Battle, Web 4th turn: Dischord, Wind Slash, Battle Some new attacks here. Web sets Slow, easy as that. Magic Hammer is a Blue spell that halves the target's MP. Wind Slash is easily Byblos' most dangerous attack; it's a multi-target Wind-elemental attack that can hurt as much as 260 (Clothes characters) to 170 (Gaia Gear Magic characters).

When Byblos is hurt to the point of 800 HP or below, he'll start countering your attacks. Any physical attack will be countered with a 33% Protect spell on Byblos' self, any Magic attack will be countered with a 33 % Toad spell on the caster and any other attack will have a 66 % shot at provoking a Drain spell, which is quite nasty as it deals around 170 damage. The two biggest weaknesses Byblos have are the Fire element and its lack of Heavy nature, the latter of which can be exploited with Death Claw, Missile, Gravity and a Released Page 32 its Banish spell. Banish will instantly kill Byblos, Gravity and Missile will deal tremendous amounts of damage and Death Claw will reduce Byblos' HP to a single digit. Note that it also adds Paralyze, so if you kill Byblos when he's Paralyzed you won't get his little goodbye speech. Some other things that work are a Beastmaster Whip's Paralyzing powers (especially in tandem with Slow, which makes the status last longer) and Remora's Constrict. On the Fire-elemental weakness; Fira is stronger than Ifrit, even if the latter is hyped a little versus Byblos. Twohanded Fira swords deal incredible amounts of damage but are made less effective by Protect in the end. You have at least one and possibly more Flame Scroll(s); Ninjas can Throw them for great amount of damage, especially when a Magic-boosted action ability such as !Black 1 is set on the Ninja. You don't really need to learn Magic Hammer as it's not that good of a spell, but if you want to here's it to learn. Don't frustrate your progress because of it; you'll have plenty chances in the future, and you won't have a good reason to use it before learning the spell is made possible by an easy random encounter. You can try to Steal as well; a Mallet is pretty crappy, but Dark Matter (although useless now) can be an item of great power in the future. If you've killed Byblos un-Paralyzed, he'll say: Arrrgh! So, this is the end... but only for me. Very soon, the master's seal will be blown wide open!!! If the final blow was dealt by Ifrit's Hellfire, he'll say: Ifrit...! The seal... You've... Very soon, the master's seal will be blown wide open!!! We've fought against being controlled by the dark nameless entity, and normal monsters so far. However, Byblos is the first powerful demon we face who is actually supporting his 'master'.

When Byblos is ashes to ashes, dust to dust, Mid'll take you out of the Library, only to abandon you in search of his grandfather. Let's follow him; Mid mentioned how he could get the Fire-Powered Ship running again which certainly would be useful for us. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.15.1 The Seven Seas ********************************** Opponents: Sahagin (#193), Thunder Anemone (#194), Sea Ibis (#195), Corbett (#196) Miscellaneous items: Lightning Scroll (common Thunder Anemone drop), Trident (rare Corbett steal) Blue Spells: Goblin Punch When you chase after Mid and find Cid in the second floor of the Pub again, Mid enters with you and slaps some sense back into the old man. Also, they storm off to go fix you up some Fire-Powered Ship. Going up after them (there's a lot or following Cid & Mid from now one, better get used to it) will further the plot. Galuf finally tells you the backbone of the story. The dark mage Exdeath was sealed 30 years ago in this world by the power of the Crystals. Galuf was one of the four people who did this. So the meteor that appeared at the start of this game carried Galuf, the meteor near Walse tower sent the golden warrior and finally the meteor near Karnak came with the Werewolf, all bent on stopping the release of the seal on Exdeath. Galuf passes out from the hard work of remembering. Alas, we've got ourselves a Fire-Powered Ship to boss around. Let's take a look at the Map (R button)! See the white dot to the South-West? That's Jachol, our first stop. We'll also be visiting the South-Eastern crescent-shaped island. It's was named Crescent Island by the Unoriginal People in the Sky. On the seas, you will find yourself being attacked every now and again. Lightning-elemental attacks are nice to have so Black casters will have a good time. Note that while !Gaia was awesome all the time, it's not so hot on the Fire-Powered Ship. Tsunami is just moderate non-elemental damage to all targets, and Whirlpool reduces the non-Heavy targets to a single digit of HP. Sahagin are fishmen, weak to Lightning. You can Control them to see Goblin Punch, but you should already have it.

Sea Ibis only has 25 HP. They have crazy Evasion and Magic Evasion though, so you'll want unblockable attacks to nail them. Shiva/Ifrit, Goblin Punch, just some options for you. Another thing to know, by the way, is that floating/flying enemies often are incapable of avoiding Aerial attacks. Aerial attacks are Bows and Whips. Beastmasters will Whip them up good, is what I'm saying. EVERY time. Thunder Anemones suck because they absorb Lightning-elemental attacks. You can't MT Thundara when they're around. They have no elemental weakness either. They compensate for being stupid by dropping Lightning Scrolls all the time. To the North-West, you may find Corbettes. They're mean mothers. They have 2800 HP, are weak to Lightning-elemental attacks and dish out mean physical attacks and Breath Wing. Flash is a great spell to utilize against them, and using !Control takes them right out of the battle. Gravity spells deal a lot of damage, and Death Claw simply destroys them if it connects. They'll be able to use Tailscrew when Controlled (also when used through !Release), so you can use their own attacks against them. While the allocation of these encounters across the Overworld Map is a complex science the people of NASA only recently figured out, it's also extremely unimportant to you. But, just for being thorough: Image the Overworld Map divided into 64 squares in an 8 by 8 fashion. Each square has a monster formation pack that you can encounter on the seas, even when there is no water there for you to sail on. The monster formations are distributed as follows: Monster Formatio Pack 0 58 % Sahagin x3 42 % Thunder Anemone x2, Sahagin Monster Formatio Pack 1 35 % Sea Ibis, Sahagin x2 35 % Sea Ibis x3 23 % Sahagin x3 6 % Thunder Anemone x2, Sahagin Monster Formatio Pack 2 35 % Sea Ibis, Thunder Anemone x2 35 % Thunder Anemone x2, Sahagin 23 % Sahagin, Thunder Anemone, Corbett 6 % Corbett x2 Monster Formatio Pack 3 35 % Sahagin x3

35 % Sea Ibis, Thunder Anemone x2 23 % Corbett x2 6 % Sahagin, Thunder Anemone, Corbett 22223333 22223003 22000003 33000003 33000033 33001111 33001111 33331111 So, to be perfectly clear, in the top-left corner of the Overworld Map, you will run into the monster formations found in Monster Formation Pack 2. You will notice that Packs 2 and 3 (the more difficult Packs) tend to appear on the edges of the Overworld, Pack 0 (the easiest Pack) is mostly encountered in those bodies of water enclosed by land and Pack 1 (the Sea Ibis-heavy Pack) is found around Crescent Island. You won't naturally come across Corbett enemies when you just sail from destination to destination. If you want to encounter them, just Quicksave and sail along the Western edge of the Overworld map. Corbett can prove especially formidable opponents at this stage of the game, as their physical attacks are quite devastating and they have 2800 HP. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.16.1 The shores of Jachol ********************************** Opponents: Bomb (#49), Doublizard (#50), Bio Soldier (#51) Miscellaneous items: Battle Axe (common Bio Soldier steal), War Hammer (rare Bio Soldier steal) Blue Spells: Self-Destruct Darkgreen grasslands leading to Jachol: 35 % Bomb, Bomb, Doublizard 35 % Bio Soldier, Bio Soldier 23 % Bomb, Bomb 6 % Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb All light-green grasslands: 35 % Bio Soldier, Bio Soldier

35 % Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb 30 % Bomb, Bomb Forest and dark-green grasslands on the peninsula: 35 % Bomb, Bomb 35 % Bomb, Bomb, Doublizard 23 % Doublizard, Doublizard, Doublizard 6 % Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Don't be deceived by your gut instinct or even prior Final Fantasy knowledge; Bomb is not a Fire-elemental monster which is weak to Ice or something silly like that. All it does is attack physically and use Self-Destruct on rare occasions. You can learn it here if you somehow missed it/couldn't retrieve it from the Motor Trap enemies in the Fire-Powered Ship. Doublizards are weak to Ice-elemental attacks, as you'll find most lizard-like and dragon-like enemies to be. They're kinda sturdy but generally unassuming. When they turn around, exactly nothing happens; all that happens is that they will use a Battle attack when they're facing you with their 'normal' face, and when the turn around to attack with their lower face (the one they don't start with, I mean... all this trouble to refrain from using the word "Ass-face" isn't worth it) they'll use !Slip, which adds the Sap status. Bio Soldier is the strongest enemy here and has the potential to be very very dangerous. When they're with another Bio Soldier all is well, as they'll just use Battle. However, when a lone Bio Soldier is damaged, it'll counter with a Bio spell on the entire party, dealing over 200 damage to all characters. If a Ninja or Monk hits twice and doesn't manage to kill the guy, this even means TWO Bio spells. Avoid it at all costs. Another notable feature about the Bio Soldier is its common Battle Axe and rare War Hammer. The former is the weakest Axe/Hammer there is and could be previously bought in Walse, but the latter is stronger than the Ogre Axe you could purchase in Jachol and might be worth going for if you like Berserkers. ... Doublizards go both ways. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.16.2 The town of Jachol ********************************** Features: Piano Jachol's a town of adventurers, of which the armor and weapons are known throughout the world. It's a village inhabited by descendants of the ancient

Ronka civilization, and many rare treasures are said to be found in the surroundings. It's a good place for us. Armor Shop: Green Beret 2500 Gil Ninja Suit 3000 Gil Sage's Surplice 1000 Gil It's fairly straightforward here. Buy Green Berets for every character that could benefit from one (remember: Blue and Red Mages also can equip it, so if you are planning on using either one on a Magic character, you could want to buy GB's for them). Ninja Suits for every Heavy Armor and Clothes class character, and Sage's Surplice for the Magic characters. They're not as good as Gaia Gear on the defenses, so you shouldn't buy them for characters that already have Gaia Gear. Sage's Surplice grants immunity to the Silence status, which is a nice feature for spellcasters on paper. Enemies will almost never try to Silence you, though, and it won't stop Mute. Weapon Shop: Ogre Killer 3200 Gil Coral Sword 2800 Gil Mage Masher 900 Gil Trident 2700 Gil Ashura 5800 Gil Silver Bow 1500 Gil Quite a few new and powerful weapons, but most of them are fairly redundant. The Ogre Killer is stronger than any Mythril Hammer you might wield, but both the War Hammer (rare steal from the Bio Soldier which roams near Jachol) and the Death Sickle are stronger so you might not even want to spend your money here if you do utilize Berserkers. Note how it says it's effective against giant's... There are no giant-type enemies in this game! The Coral Sword is simply a stronger sword for everybody who uses swords. It's Lightning-elemental too. The Mage Masher is a weapon you should have in abundance by now, but buy them for appropriate characters if you don't. The Trident is a Lightningelemental Spear, but without any Job to equip it there's no point. The Ashura is still the best weapon you could hope to wield at this point, but again, it's not worth switching to Freelancer for. The Silver Bow, finally, is a fairly crappy two-handed Back Row weapon that no Job can equip. Magic Shop: Cura Raise Confuse Silence Protect Cure Libra Poisona

620 Gil 700 Gil 650 Gil 280 Gil 280 Gil 180 Gil 80 Gil 90 Gil

Missed any White spells in Karnak? You can buy them here. Item Shop: Potion 40 Gil Antidote 30 Gil Eye Drops 20 Gil Maiden's Kiss 60 Gil Mallet 50 Gil Gold Needle 150 Gil Phoenix Down 1000 Gil Tent 250 Gil Well, you know. Same old. The Pub houses several NPC's all talking about the Cave of Jachol to the north. That's very interesting. There's a piano on the stage, which you should totally play! This is the first time your performance is more than just some scales; it's the first exercise from Le Piano Virtuose by Charles-Louis Hanon, but it's basically still a fancy scale practice. But it has a name and it's in French, and everybody knows French piano is better than regular piano. Also, you can dance with the lady, but the subsequent scene is so mind-numbingly stupid it just might wake you up from this dreamworld and make you realize you're playing a game again. So don't. There's very little to do in this town besides gathering up stuff for the Cave, so let's go to the Cave. I hear there's treasure. It's handy to have some Phoenix Downs handy; the monsters in the Cave of Jachol might decide to randomly kill characters and you want to be prepared. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.16.3 Jachol Cave ********************************** Opponents: Nutkin (#6), Skull Eater (#57) Container contents: Blitz Whip, Shuriken, Tent Welcome to the Cave of Jachol. Here's what's going down. There are a few treasures here, and random encounters of the bizarre kind. They're either Nut Eaters (those Regen-squirrels you met around the Wind Shrine at the very start of the game) and Skull Eaters. Concerning the latter, you either destroy them with the very limited range of attacks capable of destroying them, or you'll probably die hoping for them to use Flee rather than 1600-damage dealing physicals.

65 % Nutkin x 3 35 % Skull Eater x 6 The Nutkins pose no threat whatsoever. !Kick is very efficient at dealing with them in a single attack as it costs no MP. Whatever-you-have also works. Skull Eater Level: 32, HP: 1, MP: 100 Defense: 90, Magic Defense: 90 Evasion: 90%, Magic Evasion: 90% Steal: Tent (common) Win: Elixir (rare) Creature: Magic Beast Specialty: !Front Teeth Specialty Effect: Unblockable, adds poison & confuse Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Toad, Mini, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: Attack, !Incisor, Flee, (summon 6 Skull Eaters) The Skull Eaters are an entirely different story. They have exactly 1 HP, but their defenses are both 90, meaning they're almost impenetrable. They will 'counter' any Magic spell they survive by summoning five other Skull Eaters around them, effectively spelling your doom. Physically, they're incredibly powerful; their Special !Incisor is both barrier-piercing and unblockable and will deal around 1600 damage to a Front Row character. It's supposed to set Poison and Confuse, just sets Poison in reality, but in all practical aspects just kills a character in a single hit. Undeniably the best way to deal with them is setting !Black 1 or !Blue or something that boosts Magic Power to a Ninja and have that Ninja Throw a Scroll. It kills the Skull Eater, no questions asked. If you consider this option too pricey or should you find yourself with sharply limited amounts of Scrolls (which would be the case if you followed this walkthrough faithfully), your other opion is !Gaia. It'll either summon a Stalactite attack which kills the Skull Eater (it's a very powerful attack) or use Ignus Fatuus, which will confuse it half of the time. With a Flame Rod equipped, it may even kill it. If it uses !Incisor on itself, it's dead. If not, it's Battle, re-directing Skull Eater's attention to you without dealing any damage. Try again! Note that you won't get a listing from a Skull Eater in your Bestiary until you actually kill one. If you, for some reason, don't want to use !Gaia or !Throw, you can simply outlast the Skull Eater with Phoenix Downs and Raise spells, since they'll only kill one character maximum every turn. Every turn they have a 1/3 chance of using Flee, so it's a waiting game this way. A costly one, since Raise is MP-heavy and Phoenix Downs slam a hole in your wallet, but two White or Red casters should suffice to keep your team alive throughout the cave.

Also note that the Cave of Jachol is somewhat of an ABP goldmine, since the Skull Eaters give 5 ABP and you'll see them often. This could be a good time to learn, say, the Beastmaster's !Control. I suggest you make at least a single character a Ninja; no punishment by any means, the Ninja gives a boost to your Preemptive attack rate, which increases your odds of besting a Skull Eater prior to it killing a character. The skull switch next to the entrance does nothing now and is only meant to open the entrance if you want to back-track. Pressing the other skull switch pushes back a large rock wall, freeing the path to a line-up of skull switches. Once you reach it, you could go pressing skull switches like some kind of moron, but that's not the way to go. Simply wait, and eventually the 'true' skull switch will be the only one not to disappear. Quickly press it before the other ones come back (making the skull switch ineffective) and another path opens. The door here is won't open, but there's a button in the opened chest next to it to open it. Crap, another opened chest even in this new room. However, all other chests contain items! There's a Shuriken and a Tent in the two chests you can easily reach to the left. Walk around to the third (and final) chest, and you may be able to open it for a Blitz Whip, but only if you haven't released Lone Wolf back in Walse Castle. If you have, the treasure will be gone. The Blitz Whip has a 33 % chance of casting Thunder (it's a non-elemental weapon by itself) so it won't paralyze creatures like the normal Whip does. Still Back Row OK like all whips, and it's Battle Power equals that of the Ashura (though damage output will be lower due to the Ashura's critical hits). A Beastmaster with Barehanded and the Blitz Whip deals comparable damage to a Monk of equal level punching in the Front Row. This is all. You can climb out of the north wall to enter the Overworld Map (possibly to use a Tent or to Save). Simply track back by logical means. You have no business in Jachol either anymore, so let's get back on the Fire-Powered Ship! Now, sails to the south-west until you've gone around the continent and then set sail for the south. You'll pass the map's edge and appear north; there's a continent to your south-east (the far north-west corner of the map). And on this continent, there is a town! It's Istory, town of waterfalls, another summon beast, sheep and a new Black spell. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.17.1 Shores of Istory ********************************** Opponents: Black Flame (#53), Stone Golem (#54)

Blue Spells: Dark Spark Light-green grasslands: Always: Black Flame, Black Flame, Black Flame, Black Flame, Black Flame Dark-green grasslands: 58 % Stone Golem, Black Flame, Black Flame 42 % Black Flame, Black Flame, Black Flame, Black Flame, Black Flame Black Flames have a 50 % Evasion rating and a fairly high Magic Defense. Pair that with their absorption of Wind, Earth, Holy and Poison (meaning !Gaia is useless against them) and you've got some resistant cretins. They also wield Dark Spark, a Blue spell that halves the targets level when successful. Next to normal level-based Hit Rate checks, it can't be blocked by any means so it works on any target once you get around to a possible horrible Hit Rate. The way to go, if possible, is multi-target magical attacks that don't suffer in power when multi-targeted. Black Flames can't avoid the effects of !Sing, so Romeo's Ballad is quite effective in Stopping them if you already have a Bard around. Flame Rod Hellfire performed by Ifrit is a good one, Aqua Breath is expensive but successful, and especially the Ninja's scrolls work like a charm (while Black Flame is weak to Water- elemental attacks, you'll probably only have Thunder Scrolls in mass). Learn Dark Spark! Now children, it is time to learn about Dark Spark. Dark Spark halves the target's level and rounds down when the result isn't a whole number. Dark Spark has a poor hit rate, but nothing is immune to it! Dark Spark cuts down offense of the affected target obviously, but the target's level is also affected when levels are checked for various attacks, such as Goblin Punch, Level 5 Death, the works. Since Level 5 Death ignores Death immunity as well as the Heavy nature, smart application of Dark Spark spell can net you a two-turn instant defeat. In addition, if you didn't learn Level 5 Death earlier because your level wasn't right at the time, know that you can also affect your own level with Dark Spark, learning is now an option if you can take your level to something that can be divided by 5. Stone Golems are the opposite. They won't evade anything, but their Magic Defense is through the roof (50) and their Defense is fairly solid as well. The real kicker is their inherent Protect status that halves all physical damage done to them, even those that would normally ignore Defense. They're weak versus Lightning-elemental attacks, meaning Thunder Rod Thundara spells, Lightning Scrolls, Two-Handed Coral Swords and things like that work really well. Like all stone monsters, Stone Golem will die automatically when a Gold Needle item is used on it, which is also an option. They make quite potent lackeys as well; when Released, they perform Earthquake, an MT Earth-elemental

attack that deals around 600 damage. You can, of course, prance into the forest, but I'll talk about all that after visiting Istory. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.17.2 The town of Istory ********************************** Black Spells: Toad Songs: Romeo's Ballad Welcome to the one-Starbucks town called Istory. There are a few sights to behold, so let's scout around. Armor Shop: Flame Ring 50000 Gil Coral Ring 50000 Gil Angel Ring 50000 Gil If you're having horrible flashbacks to endless Gil-hoarding games such as the original Final Fantasy, don't worry. You are not expected to buy any of these at this time; if you've been leveling you may have enough Gil to buy one, but you shouldn't as it will seriously cut your financial supplies you'll need in the future. Fluctuation-buffers are the basis of any responsible financial plan, I dare say! Just for kicks (or if you do decide to buy one of these right now or in the near future, which wouldn't be unthinkable per se): The Flame and Coral Rings concern themselves with elemental properties. The Flame Ring allows you to absorb Fire-elemental attacks and nullify the effects of Ice-elemental attacks. Water-elemental attacks will deal double damage, however. Also, it grants 5 Defense, 5 Magic Defense and 5% extra Magic Block. The Coral Ring is the opposite of the Flame Ring, kinda. It absorbs Waterelemental attacks, nullifies Fire-elemental attacks and takes double damage from Lightning-elemental attacks. Also, 5 Defense, 5 Magic Defense and 5% extra Magic Block. The Angel Ring has no elemental properties. Instead, it gives 10 (!) Magic Defense, 5 Defense, 10 % extra Magic Block and protects against the Old and Zombie status ailments. If you were to buy anything, I'd suggest this one; while the status immunities probably aren't as useful as the elemental properties (now), the sheer defensive properties of the Angel Ring as incredibly useful in this stage of the game.

A hint: with a Flame Ring equipped any character with access to a Flame Bow or a self-targetable Fire-elemental spell can now heal itself/any target with a Flame Ring equipped. This is useful information in single Job challenges. Black Mages will want them for a far easier time, and Archers can do it as well. Flame Rings are a staple of a lot of challenges, as a lot of Single Class Challenges are such can only be completed by getting four Flame Rings here. Magic Shop: Gravity 620 Gil Stop 580 Gil Haste 320 Gil Mute 320 Gil Slow 80 Gil Regen 100 Gil Yeah, whatever. You should be able to cast any of the above anyway. If you haven't, here's where you can buy them again. Item Shop: Potion 40 Gil Antidote 30 Gil Eye Drops 20 Gil Maiden's Kiss 60 Gil Mallet 50 Gil Gold Needle 150 Gil Phoenix Down 1000 Gil Tent 250 Gil Normal items, but do note the hidden passage here leading to the back room! There's nothing there, some item shop owners just like their privacy. These guys live here, there are no normal houses in FFVA towns. You try bringing home a girl and running a 24-hour Item Shop. A little girl tips you off on a small surprise regarding the flowerbed. If you touch all the flower squares, the middle one will open up, a frog will come leaping out and give you the Black Toad spell. Sweet! Too bad it's not a Spellblade spell, really...to be more accurate, the exact requirements for obtaining the Toad spell are this: Touch all x squares and then touch the @ square: x0x 00 x0@ Nah, not really useful to know, but for trivia :P The big happening of the town is the sheep pen. Seems even duller than where I was born. The sheep in the bottom-right corner isn't a sheep at all, rather a

girl in a Beastmaster costume. The sheep in the top-left corner is angry with the world and what it gives him, and rather than resorting to such gems as 'One step closer' by Linkin Park, he decides to kick you over the fence... but only if you talk to it from behind. Here, you'll meet a bard who teaches you Romeo's Ballad if you answer his question with 'Yes'. You're not lying, after all. Romeo here obviously referring to Shakespeare's play. Romeo was in love with some wench called Rosaline, but promptly forgot her upon meeting thirteen-year old Julia at some fancy dress party. He sneaks out and calls to his Julia on the balcony. Long story short, everybody dies and it's all Cupid's fault. Best to stay indoors and play video games instead! O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright! It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope's ear; Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear! So shows a snowy dove trooping with crows, As yonder lady o'er her fellows shows. The measure done, I'll watch her place of stand, And, touching hers, make blessed my rude hand. Did my heart love till now? forswear it, sight! For I ne'er saw true beauty till this night. You can't perform Songs yet, I know. You'll be able to sing in the future, though. You can do anything you set your mind to. No, I mean it. Really. Now, go. There was an old man in the forest who can conjure up lightning. If this mere fact doesn't infuriate you enough to seek him out and beat him up, you haven't been taking your steroids. For preparation, equip Silver Specs on every physical fighter and remove any Coral Sword of Trident you might have equipped as they will heal the super-random encounter we're going to hunt down. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.17.3 The forests of Istory and the battle with Ramuh ********************************** Opponents: Mythril Dragon (#36), Black Flame (#53), Stone Golem (#54), Mini Dragon (#55), Ramuh (#255) Miscellaneous items: Dragon Fang (rare Mini Dragon steal) Summon spells: Ramuh Blue Spells:

Dark Spark, Flash Pre-Ramuh smackdown odds: 70 % Ramuh 23 % Mini Dragon x 5 6 % Stone Golem, Black Flame x 2 Post-Ramuh smackdown odds: 70 % Mythril Dragon 23 % Mini Dragon x 5 6 % Stone Golem, Black Flame x 2 The Mini Dragon formation is actually incredibly powerful, so even with the preparations I'm going to give you it'd be wise to save up in advance. Mini Dragon Level: 22, HP: 1000, MP: 100 Defense: 30, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 30%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Dragon Fang (rare) Creature: Dragon Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Toad, Slow Attacks: Attack, Frostbite Mini Dragons can be encountered when chasing after Ramuh. They're the best source for Gil and Experience Points in World 1, so it's no surprise they're tough. Mini Dragons will often simply use Battle, but have a 33 % chance of using Frostbite every turn. It's a weak MT Ice-elemental attack without any special properties, but coming from Mini Dragon's colossal 50 Magical Power and a multiplier of 8 it'll leave a mark ranging from 120 (Heavy Armor characters) to 40 (Gaia Gear Magical characters). This seems bearable, but remember: there are five potential casters every turn. Mini Dragons have some pretty nasty defenses to overcome; while not quite as high as Stone Golem's defenses, these guys come in groups of five and have 1000 HP, so it balances out. They aren't vulnerable to any kind of prominent status ailment except for Toad and have no elemental weakness. A normally leveled Toad caster will generally hit 2 or 3 out of the five Mini Dragons so keeping them under your thumb with the Toad status isn't very easy (time-consuming mostly, as you'll want to MT Toad on the group, than pick apart every non-transformed dragon with Pond's Chorus or the spell). Catching one could be a good idea as these babies cast Holy upon Release, which is damn powerful.

Again, multi-target magical attacks are the key. Aqua Breath, Thunder Rod Ramuh (or Flame Rod Ifrit if you haven't obtained the lightning-elemental geezer yet) and Ninja scrolls will decimate the little guys in three hits. Make sure you get to use these skills, else you're pretty much dead already. They have a rare Dragon Fang for Steal, but the odds are so low you'll actually score one I'm going to assume you'll never ever get one. Anyway, we're not here to play around. There's a random encounter in these forests by the name of Ramuh. Fight him once and have him perform his final speech to get him out of the way once and for all. There are ways around his final speech (setting either Berserk or Stop on him will prevent him from using the speech) which will make him appear after you've defeated him, but we're going to assume you have no business doing something like that. Ramuh Level: 21, HP: 4000, MP: 300 Defense: 20, Magic Defense: 5 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: High Potion (always) Win: Ramuh (always) Absorbs: Lightning Creature: Humanoid Specialty: !Rod Specialty Effect: Adds sap & aging Vulnerable to: Death, Mini, Darkness, Berserk, Stop, Slow Attacks: Battle, Thundara, Mini, Osmose, Flash, Electrocute, Lightning Ramuh is the Lightning-elemental counterpart to Shiva and Ifrit, and the most powerful of the three. He attacks with a barrage of Lightning-elemental spells, and even his Battle command looks like it was performed by a Thunder Rod. Electrocute is still very weak, but his Thundara spells hit hard; cast upon a single target, it'll likely cripple if not kill the unfortunate target. I don't think we've gone over Lightning before; it's basically Blaze/Breath Wing in a Lightning-elemental jacket, meaning it deals (maximum HP / 4) damage to every character. Flash is annoying as hell and can be learned by Blue Mages if they haven't already from Crew Dust or a Blockhead. Silver Specs can protect your physical sluggers; while the mages may avoid its effect due to their Magic Evasion, those with Heavy Armor will almost surely get hit without Silver Specs. Note that the rare physical attack Ramuh uses is a very special one. It provokes no Counter-attacks, nor does it dispel the Confuse, Sleep or Singing status you should not have at the moment. Ramuh has a few status vulnerabilities. Flash will work on him, Berserk attempts by either the Kiss of Blessing (Maiden's Kiss + Revivify) or the Bacchus' Wine (Revivify + Turtle Shell), and Stop by means of the Bard's

Romeo's Ballad. I'm talking about !Mix and !Sing here, neither of which you have at the moment :/ If you have the Mini spell (if you've followed this walkthrough you don't have it yet) then Ramuh can be shrunk, but he will retaliate by casting the Mini spell on your entire party as well. Picking on somebody your own size is an important combat ethos, after all. However, the most glaring weakness Ramuh has lies in its lack of Heavy nature and his vulnerability to the Death status. Since he's not Heavy, the Stop status lasts a long time; and !Flirt, Gravity, Missile and Death Claw will work; because of the latter, the Death Sickle's 33 % Death spell will kill it. Releasing a Mani Wizard (Death) or a Corbette (Tail Screw) also works. If you've been following the walkthrough, Death Claw is clearly your best bet, but a combination of Slow, Stop and Gravity coming from your Time casters is also a very effective strategy. On pure damage output, !Releasing any Mini Dragon will result into an incredibly powerful Holy spell (around 2000 damage in a single hit), Berserkers perform very well at this stage of the game and !Black and !Summon spells, boosted with appropriate Rods, also get the job done very nicely. If you haven't been drinking too much in the last couple of years, you should remember me talking about the combination of Dark Spark and Level 5 Death; Dark Spark will reduce Ramuh's effective level from 21 to 10, turning him into a valid target for Level 5 Death. It's a two-hit instant defeat combo available to characters of all levels! Ramuh: ...Ifrit? What are you doing here? Ifrit: Lord Ramuh! I see you have become even more powerful. If you would lend that strength to us... Ramuh: Ifrit! No need to say more. You and I have never been enemies! After the fight you'll get a 'Ramuh' item. Maybe some summon beasts having an item has a storyline purpose, but I bet it's just because the programmers couldn't figure out how to unlock a summon beast right after a random encounter battle on the Overworld Map. Anyway, use the item in the menu to watch it disappear and unlock Ramuh for your Summoner. We're done here. Let's sail to the South-East, where Crescent Island is located. It's the crescent-shaped island. The innovation! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.18.1 The town of Crescent ********************************** Features: Piano

Songs: Mighty March The people and Jachol talked about how there was something underneath of Crescent Island. When talking to the people here, it seems the soil is especially fertile but strange noises well up sometimes, and there are earthquakes. An inconveniently timed earthquake swallows up the Fire-Powered Ship as well, stranding you on the Island. Let's look around. Some girl tells you about the fact that rock-like creatures don't like Gold Hairpins; a reference to Gold Needles, not the headgear! Armor Shop: Plumed Hat 300 Gil Sage's Surplice 1000 Gil You shouldn't need to buy either, but if you find yourself lacking a frontal lobe, this is your chance to redeem yourself. Weapon Shop: Flame Bow 2500 Gil Frost Bow 2500 Gil Thunder Bow 2500 Gil Silver Harp 800 Gil Four weapons for Jobs you haven't obtained yet. You will soon, though. You'll win an Frost Bow in a boss battle not very long from now, and there's a chance you won a Fire Bow from Liquid Flame earlier. The Thunder Bow is the only one of interest anyway, so if you want to utilize a possible archer-like Job, buy that one. The Silver Harp is a horrible weapon. Rather than dealing physical damage or even dealing physical damage depending on your Magic Power (like Bells do), Harps simply cast a spell specially designed to be used by said Harps. The notes coming out of the Silver Harp deal exactly 1/16 of the target's current HP. Useless. Also requires two hands to be used. Item Shop: Potion 40 Gil Antidote 30 Gil Eye Drops 20 Gil Maiden's Kiss 60 Gil Mallet 50 Gil Gold Needle 150 Gil Phoenix Down 1000 Gil Tent 250 Gil I wonder how they make Maiden's Kisses. I wonder how you carry them in your pocket. I also wonder if in the Maiden's Kisses industry of Final Fantasy V, pretty young girls are fired for consuming a forbidden love, thus turning their products tainted. In general, making out with a toad doesn't turn the toad into something other than a toad, unless its one of those psychoactive toads, in which case anything could appear to happen, from toads turning into princesses

to ATM machines demanding you feed it a stray cat. In a house to the south-east, there's a bard living by himself. He'll teach you the Mighty March, which sets Regen on all characters. Not all that good, but can't hurt. He then urges you to play some tunes on his piano, but even though you can (and should) play the piano here, it's apparently not good enough for him to compose any new songs. The tune you play is the first March from his three military marches, in D Major; it was originally composed by mister Franz Peter Schubert for 4 hands (quatre-mains) and could thus only be played by two players simultaneously. Some dude mentions a Black Chocobo in the forest. Legend has that these creatures are able to fly, which is a precious ability since we've lost our freaking Fire-Powered Ship and we need to get out of this place. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.18.2 Crescent Island and the Black Chocobo ********************************** Opponents: Doublizard (#50), Bio Soldier (#51), Harvester (#52), Black Flame (#53) Miscellaneous items: Death Sickle (rare Harvester drop), War Hammer (rare Bio Soldier steal) Blue Spells: Dark Spark 35 % Bio Soldier, Doublizard, Harvester 35 % Harvester, Harvester, Doublizard 30 % Harvester, Harvester, Black Flame, Black Flame The only new enemy here is Harvester. His business in attacking you is unclear, but he carries some neat weapons around. He has a common Silver Bow to Steal (useless to equip now that you have access to elemental bows which are slightly stronger, but great for selling) and will rarely drop a Death Sickle. The Death Sickle is a great weapon. It's extremely powerful and has a 33 % chance of casting Death which is an incredibly awesome side-effect that will even affect some bosses. If you ever want to use one of those spiffy Berserker employees, now's the time. Twohanded is Death Sickle's best friend, obviously. The tiny forest to the south of Crescent? Enter the middle square and you'll enter the forest. Here's the Black Chocobo. With Bartz, you get to catch it. If you want to quit, you can always talk to your fellow teammates. The Black Chocobo basically runs until it hits an object (the side, a tree, Bartz), then randomly picks a direction it wasn't running to previously and starts running that-a-way. Catching it isn't that hard.

It won't fly properly, though. Faris smacks two Crystal Shards out of the bird; the two Crystal shards from the Fire Crystal we hadn't recovered yet! Finally, the Bard gives us a way to utilize the two Songs we have learned. It's also capable of equipping the crappy Silver Harp. The Ranger gives us a way to deal with the Bows. There's the Ranger and the Bard that have been added to your options. Both have their void to fill in this game, so let's take a look: The Ranger is another Job which is hard to classify, so I suggest you learn a bit about what they are and how they perform. They learn !Animals after 15 ABP, which is a great action ability for any mage to have. They're most notable for their capstone ability !Rapid Fire, which is made of awesome. [RANGER-LINK] The Bard has low stats and very poor equipment options, but !Sing is really awesome. Multi-target unblockable Stop status? Sign me up. [BARD-LINK] It takes only 175 ABP to learn !Sing, and it's an incredibly useful action ability that functions almost entirely independant of stats so any Job can use it effectively. The Ranger often struggles to match the damage output of other physical damage classes; Barehanded provides a damage boost that puts an arrowhappy Ranger on par with a Monk of equal level. Now that you have the Black Chocobo, our direct mission objective is going to the Library of the Ancients and talk to Cid 'nd Mid and complain about our lack of modus transporti. However, first you should make sure that you've found a Death Sickle if you have any intention of being awesome. Also, there's some other things we can do before finding Cid 'nd Mid, and since the latter are boring anyway, I suggest we do them first. Note: never park the Black Chocobo in the middle of this forest, as you'll have to catch it again :< Some like his dance upon capture, but there are also some who use scotch as deodorant so some clearly don't know what's right and wrong in the world. This is an exceptional opportunity for you to revisit Castle Walse and brawl with Jackanapes. There are two strategies you can follow. If you learned Level 5 Death at the Library of the Ancients, casting it versus Jackanapes will end the battle in your favor by killing Jackanapes outright. If you lack Level 5 Death, you can utilize Berserkers for a more troublesome but ultimately effective run. Two-Handed is a big bonus, as is the Death Sickle or War Hammer. Go in with a Berserker frontloaded with violent tendencies and a Thief to deflect Back Attacks. Have a Time Mage cast Haste upon the Berserker(s). Wait and keep yourself alive. After a few misses here and there, Jackanapes should be paste

on the floor. Now casually stroll around, opening chests like it's just another day's work. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.19.1 The town of Lix ********************************** Opponents: Goblin (#1), Killer Bee (#5), Nutkin (#6), Stray Cat (#7) Songs: Alluring Air Surrounding forest: 35 % Nutkin x3 35 % Stray Cat x4 23 % Stray Cat, Killer Bee, Nutkin 6 % Killer Bee, Goblin Let's go to the last town we haven't visited yet, the town of Lix. It's located to the north-west of the Wind Shrine, is surrounded by weak monsters, forest and mountains. There are exactly three cutscenes centered around Bartz to be triggered here. One is triggered when you sleep at Lix' Inn (which will cost you nothing). It explains Bartz' history with his parents and explains why he is the adventurer he is now. The cutscene will remove the "Memento" rare item from your inventory, a rare item that serves no purpose. Another one is triggered when talking to the scholar running around town, who is a childhood friend of Bartz. His fear of heights (remember his reluctance regarding getting on the Wind Drake?) is showcased. The most important one is located in Bartz' old house where a bard now lives. A music box (the pink one) can be played, sinking Bartz into his memories. After the scene concerning the death of Stella, you can talk to the bard who'll teach you the Alluring Air, in my personal opinion the second-best Song there is; it sets Confuse to the entire enemy pary at no MP cost. Some claim the "Stella!!!" bit is a reference to A Streetcar named Desire. Other sources claim the S-M-R-T smart line from Bartz' scholar friend was taken from a Simpsons episode. Other sources still claim that the illuminati did 9-11. Believe what you will! The other notable features here are the shops. The Item Shop is important because due to Bartz being some kind of super-jock around these parts, the merchant will cut his prices down by 50 %. Stock up on items if you wish, it'll be especially useful when you want to play around with the !Mix ability in the future.

Upstairs, there's more goodies: Weapon Shop: Kunai 600 Gil Shuriken 2500 Gil Flame Scroll 200 Gil Thunder Scroll 200 Gil Water Scroll 200 Gil Mainly just interesting due to the Scrolls that can now be bought in large quantities. First time you get to lay your hands on Water Scrolls, too. In the upcoming 'dungeon', most enemies will be weak to Water-elemental attacks, so Water Scrolls are nice to have. Shuriken are great to have as well, but they're very expensive. I'd say, buy 20 of each Scroll and two Shuriken, they'll serve you well. Armor Shop: Green Beret 2500 Gil Ninja Suit 3000 Gil The Armor Shop is also ninja-based, but this attire could've been purchased in Jachol four score and five centuries ago. Magic Shop: Esuna 3000 Gil If you missed the status ailment restoration spell in the exploding castle of Karnak, you can simply buy it here. It cures most status ailments, but not spasms. Item Shop: Ether 750 Gil Potion 40 Gil Antidote 30 Gil Eye Drops 20 Gil Mallet 50 Gil Maiden's Kiss 60 Gil Gold Needle 150 Gil Tent 250 Gil While most Item Shops across the world are identical, this one is different; not only is everything only half-priced, you cannot buy Phoenix Downs here but you CAN get Ethers. Maybe that whole Stella tragedy could have been averted, had this loser been decent enough to offer Phoenix Downs like every other normal Item Shop. Oh well, stock up on outdoor housing; this is the winter of our discount Tents. That's Shakespeare humor for ya! That's all, folks! Time to go to the Library of the Ancients. There, you'll learn that building a new Fire-Powered Ship and searching the seas for the Earth Crystal will have to wait for a while; King Tycoon was found in the Desert of Shifting Sands, and if anything he should be more than able to tell

us something. If he's not being mind-controlled or something, obviously. The upcoming boss battle features a creature with the Desert nature. It'll cause Aqua Breath to deal 8 times as much damage. It you never learned the spell from Dhorme Chimera, now's the time. Get to the Desert of the Shifting Sands! Cid 'n Mid will chime the bells of your demise. I mean, to summon the Sandworm. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.20.1 The battle with the Sandworm ********************************** Opponents: Sandworm (#256) Sandworm Level: 18, HP: 3000, MP: 10125 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 10% Weakness: Water Creature: Desert Creature, Heavy Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Battle, Gravity, Quicksand Here's the deal. There are three Holes which Sandworm will regularly pop out. Every time you hit a hole with a non-Magic attack, it has a 66 % counter rate with a Gravity spell. The Sandworm in the meantime will use Battle and a move called Quicksand. Quicksand is an Earth-elemental attack that will deal 60 damage to everybody and set the Sap status. Note that the physical attack the Sandworm uses is like the physical attack used by Ramuh; it does not provoke Counters, nor does it dispel status ailments such as Confuse or Sleep. MT magical attacks are the way to go. Aqua Breath deals 8 times as much damage to Sandworm since it's a Desert creature. A normally leveled Blue caster will take out Sandworm in a single attack. Releasing a Dhorme Chimera will deal about 2300 damage, thoroughly crippling him (nets you counter-Gravity spells though). Water Scrolls are very powerful, especially if the character using !Throw has a mage's Magic Power, but they will provoke two Gravity spells as well. Summoning Thunder Rod Ramuh deals good damage too, and doesn't evoke counterattacks. It's not that hard a fight. Keep Berserkers away from this fight; they'll attack the holes most of the time. If your Death Sickle casts Doom on a hole, you'll get a chance of countering for both he physical strike and the added spell, strangely enough.

When you're done, you've made a bridge. Excellent! *air guitar noises* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.20.2 The Desert of Shifting Sands and Gohn, the Town of Ruin ********************************** Opponents: Bomb (#49), Doublizard (#50), Bio Soldier (#51), Dhorme Chimera (#58), Sandboil (#59), Desert Killer (#60), Sand Bear (#61) Miscellaneous items: Javelin (rare Sand Bear steal) Blue Spells: Aqua Breath, Self-Destruct Desert of the Shifting Sands: 35 % Desert Killer, Desert Killer 35 % Desert Killer, Sandboil, Sandboil 23 % Sand Bear 6 % Sand Bear, Desert Killer, Sandboil Grasslands between the Desert of Shifting Sands and Gohn 35 % Bio Soldier x2 35 % Bomb x4 30 % Bomb x2 Grasslands around Gohn 35 % Bomb x2, Doublizard 35 % Bio Soldier x2 23 % Bomb x2 6 % Bomb x4 Patch of desert south of the Desert of Shifting Sands Always: Dhorme Chimera Sandboil will rarely use Spore, an attack that Poisons a single target. It's a desert-type creature like everything here and weak to the Water element Desert Killer is undead, weak to Water-elemental attacks and a Desert creature like logic would give us. They have the power to use Quicksand on their second turn, but you should've disposed of them before that. They may also Flee before you can kill them, but it's not bad. Sand Bear is just a big lug whose Special !Right Claw can set Sap in addition to dealing some physical damage. It's most prominent feature though is its rare Javelin Steal. The Javelin is a Spear and the most powerful weapon you can have

at this point (even stronger than the Death Sickle). If you're a fan of the Freelancer class, you may want to pick one up here. Sand Bear has no common steal, so you'll get one eventually; the creature is vulnerable to every status ailment with the exception of Mini, so Pond's Chorus will help you in this fight greatly. Sand Bears are supremely powerful when caught, yielding a most impressive Strong Fight. They'll always drop an Antidote upon defeat. Ninja Water Scrolls are grand in this area; you could've bought them for 200 Gil a piece in Lix, and they instantly kill every random encounter here even without you having to boost the Ninja's Magic Power. !Gaia will have a fair chance of calling out Quicksand, which kills a target instantly. Sandstorm will set Darkness, so it's not like that's a total waste. Right, Down, Down until you can't go further (you'll be moved one tile to the left), then go left, down, there's the exit already in sight. You need to go around a single sandstream and you're there. You can find a Pyramid in the middle of the Desert of Shifting Sands, 'guarded' by two omnious looking gargoyles. However, there's nothing you can do here, so exploring the area will just get you some random encounters. At the end of the line, you'll come across Gohn, Town of Ruin. Here, King Tycoon will pop up every now and then, ever fleeing from your sight. You need to 'find' him a couple of times before you can corner him. First, you'll see him running away if you are trying to go up the stairs in front of you as soon as you enter Gohn. Now, there are three instances where you can see him. One is enough to proceed, but you can go find all three if you're so inclined: - South-east corner ruined house, to the left of the two green bushes - North-east corner ruined house, when trying to pass through the hole in the wall - To the far west is a staircase; if you approach it from the right, passing the thin leaveless tree Now, try to go up the stairs in the middle of Gohn again, where King Tycoon is waiting for you. The floor will cave in underneath you, and finally it is revealed what we had already guesses: the pirate captain Faris Sherwiz is actually Tycoon's long-lost heiress Sarisa Tycoon. Regardless, we need to split. Find the transporter to move. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.21.1 Ancient Ronka Ruins under Crescent Island ********************************** Opponents:

Crayclaw (#257) Container contents: Shuriken x2 Miscellaneous items: Frost Bow (guaranteed Crayclaw drop) White Spells: Mini Action sequence! Mid 'nd Cid fly the Black Chocobo to Crescent Island (no, you dafts, not in the middle of the forest!) while you escape with your lives intact from the broken teleporter room. When you can move again, you'll eventually reach a door. Don't mess with it yet, but go down instead, around the staircase. There's a bedroom where you can rest a while (do so, there's a boss fight coming up). Thought the left door, you can see three chests and a button. Pushing the button won't remove the wall, though. What the hell? Buttons ALWAYS remove walls, it's RPG tradition. The button gives you a mission. Complete the following tasks in this order, as indicated by every mission statement: Enter the bedroom and decline the option to rest up. The right-most flowerbed holds a new step: Take a look at the right-most notes on the table There are two urns in the left room. Examining the left one will reveal a frog who will stomp out a book. Damned lever again! Pull it to have the wall removed. Actually, you could've just declined the offer of Pushing the button to open up the option of Pulling the lever right there, but that was more fun. The chests contain two Shuriken and the White Mini spell. This is likely your first encounter with the Mini status; it changes the affected target's sprite, sets Defense to 0, doubles Evasion% (but not Magic Evasion%) and physical damage is sharply reduced. Now, go back to where you emerged on this level, push the button to open the door (back in the forest, Cid 'nd Mid will fall through a hole in the floor). Continue to find a Save Point, your old Fire-Powered Ship (yes, you can enter the machine room and fight the monsters there if you want to, possibly use your newly-learned !Control to get a Motor Trap to cast Missile on you). Cid 'nd Mid will join you, get excited over the ship since it has propellers and make it fly. Talk to Cid for some trouble.

Cray Claw Level: 43, HP: 2000, MP: 500 Defense: 25, Magic Defense: 25 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Coral Sword (common) Win: Frost Bow (always) Absorbs: Water Weakness: Lightning Creature: Heavy, Magic Beast Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow Attacks: Battle, Tailscrew, Slimer Cray Claw is pathetic. He's got a glaring weakness to Lightning-elemental attacks, so Thunder Scrolls, Two-Handed Thundara swords, Two-Handed Coral Swords, Thunder Rod Ramuh and simple Thundara spells take him out in two or three shots. He is vulnerable to the Death Sickle's random Death spell, can be put to Sleep, can be Paralyzed by the Whip, can be Stopped by Romeo's Ballad, Latch On and !Calm, you name it. Note that when you don't exploit his weakness(es), it will suddenly become painfully obvious that Crayclaw's defenses are fairly harsh for this time of the game, so this might prove some kind of roadblock of a battle in certain challenges. With a Guarding Knight present, Craw Claw can only hope to kill a character with a combination of Slimer-induced Sap and Tailscrew, which is quite a rare occurrence. At worst this is a slow battle, not a hard one. With cheese biscuits ...and mashed potatoes? After all's said and done, Cid 'nd Mid are geniuses and you have an airship! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.21.2 Airship Exploitation; Prototype ********************************** Opponents: Prototype (#56) Miscellaneous items: Dark Matter (guaranteed Prototype drop) Blue Spells: Flame Thrower, Missile

If you were to lazy to visit Jachol, Istory and Lix with the Fire-Powered Ship or the Black Chocobo, now's the time. You're not getting any more reason to do so than you have now. Also, let's take a look at Prototype now, an enemy that's of great interest to you if you like to work with some of the more funky attacks. You need to have !Control to successfully defeat the thing without really going out of your way, though. Prototype Level: 23, HP: 5000, MP: 1000 Defense: 100, Magic Defense: 100 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Ether (common) Win: Dark Matter (always) Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Petrify, Darkness, Berserk, Silence, Slow Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Missile, Flame Thrower, Mustard Bomb, Blaster Prototype lives on the islands that lie between Crescent Island and the Jachol region, on the ones with forest (among others). He's the only encounter here, so you're bound to run into one. Prototype has 5000 HP, both Defense and Magic Defense are 100, is Heavy, and is only vulnerable to Petrify, Darkness, Silence and Berserk, all of which are either very hard to set or pretty worthless. He has no elemental weaknesses to pierce those defenses either. Why is he interesting and still defeatable? In addition to some physical attacks, he may use Missile (cuts current HP by 75 % unless the target is Heavy), Mustard Bomb (barrier-piercing non-elemental attack that also sets Sap), Blaster (sets either Paralyze or Death) and Flame Thrower (an ST Fire-elemental attack as strong as Aera). Your Blue Mage can learn both Missile and Flame Thrower. He'll use both randomly, so just wait. Aside from his incredible HP and defenses and level, his attacks aren't particularly lethal (though Blaster may one-hit kill a character). He also drops a Dark Matter every time he is defeated. The !Mix ability of a Job you'll get in the future can use these items, otherwise very rare, to create a Death Potion, an unblockable attack that sets Death. Since exactly 6 bosses are vulnerable to this attack and the Death Potion is far and away the best way to exploit it, I suggest you slay at least five Prototypes (you'll get one after a boss battle). The key to defeat is to !Control him and have him use Self-Destruct on himself. If, for some reason, you don't want to use !Control, you could Catch an Undead Husk in the Ship Graveyard; upon Release, it'll cast Break, which has quite a decent chance of turning the robot to stone, winning you the battle. Off-Guard

can put a dent in his defenses, setting him up for normal salvage; it's a bore since 5000 HP is a lot, but it'll get the job done. Flame Thrower on a Blue caster with a Flame Rod is the most powerful spell a Blue caster has, and Missile is just a better Gravity spell. They're both good additions. He makes for a good !Catch as well, using Mega Flare to deal around 1000 damage to all enemies on-screen. Getting one is probably more effort than it's worth, though. If you must, you'll have to resort to fixed HP damage attacks to get him weak enough. Get one or more Zu monsters !Released for 1250 damage for every bird you set free. Whittle down the rest with Self-Destruct, ??? and/or Vampire spells. There! With Prototype, #56, slain you now have finished your Bestiary from #1 to #61, having encountered and killed every creature so far. Another note: With the new information regarding Lenna and Faris being siblings and all, a new cutscene opens up at Castle Tycoon; as soon as you enter the castle the Chancellor will once again offer you staying for the night, during which a memory will be shared between Lenna, Faris and the player. You're not really getting anything out of it, but it deepens character(s). ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.22.1 The Ancient Ruins and the battle with Adamantoise ********************************** Opponents: Adamantoise (#258) Remember Gohn, Town of Ruin, where you almost had a confrontation with King Tycoon, south of the Desert of Shifting Sands? Fly near it (or approach the location by foot, it's pretty much the same) and the entire town will, holy freaking God, rise into the air. Trivia: the newly found desert houses grassland enemies. Let's ask Cid 'nd Mid what we should be doing now. It seems even the hidden characters that the Ronka civilization is composed of nowadays have also realized, at some unspecified point in the past, that the Earth Crystal is about the shatter. Which is bad news, but logical enough. They landed the city as to no longer burden the Earth Crystal, but it seems somebody under the powers of Exdeath has initiated flight sequence again. We need to stop that, but we can't reach the thing. Fortunately, the frontal lobes of Mid 'nd Cid are active as always. There's crazy talk of Adamantite which can strengthen the hull or whatever. Let's go find it, it's located in the Tycoon meteorite Galuf traveled in.

When you open the Meteor, dive inside and remove the Adamantite from its location, you've DOOMED yourself. Trying to exit will have a powerful foe deliver woe onto thee. Stand your guard! Adamantoise Level: 20, HP: 2000, MP: 125 Defense: 25, Magic Defense: 5 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 50% Steal: Iron Draft (common) Win: Turtle Shell (always) Weakness: Ice Status: Protect, Shell Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Poison, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Silence, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical Attack Adamantoise is an interesting enemy. He just attacks with a barrage of powerful physical attacks, meaning he falls to the !Guard/Counter combo. He is vulnerable to Ice-elemental attacks, but since he's not Heavy and not protected from Instant Death attacks you'll want to nail him with attacks that take advantage of that. However, note that every time a magical attack would normally connect, it may miss versus Adamantoise due to his inherent Shell status, which in this game does not only affect magical damage output but actually reduces the Hit Rate of blockable magic attack by 50 %. Missile, Gravity and Death Claw all work on the guy, but you'll have a hard time actually hitting him with it. This also makes attacks like Flash, Poison and Slow often miss. Also, magical attacks that would normally cut straight through this guy's defenses (Ice-elemental attacks) are still halved in damage, so even Frost Rod Blizzara attacks will do around 600 damage. Two-Handed Blizzara Spellblades cut a big gaping hole in his HP pool, though, even through Protect. Level 5 Death is Adamantoise's bane; it's unblockable and nails him in a single shot. Basically, engage the boss with full HP on everybody, stick in the Back Row, equip Main Gauches and Elven Mantles where possible and you should prevail; you can't rely per se on sneaky tactics, but you should be fully prepared to simply outmuscle the guy. If not, set !Guard on a Monk and there's no losing. Fly back to the Catapult near Crescent Island so Cid 'nd Mid can get down and dirty with your airship and the Adamantite you brought them. Meanwhile, you rest up and replenish HP/MP like you should. In the morning: cannons! Bollocks. You can now use the action button where ever you are on the Overworld Map to either go up or down. Going up will allow you to face the flying ruins of Ronka

(why are they called ruins?). Note: the Thief's Sprint support ability can speed up the ship. There are four small cannons here; face them to engage in a battle. Just for funsies, here's an example of one some focused builds you could have at the moment, modeled after my own personal favorites: LV 4 Knight LV 2 Monk LV 1 Berserker Kills stuff dead with great weapons, Barehanded was used early on to boost Knight damage and to give the Berserker an accurate alternative, now either Two-Handed or Berserk is used to boost damage depending on my love for the shield at that moment. Can change to Magic Knight in a jiffy versus bosses when so wished. LV 3 Blue Mage LV 3 Red Mage LV 2 Summoner / LV 3 Time Mage LV 1 Geomancer LV 1 Ranger Magic cannon, shoots spells and healing when appropriate. Both skillsets can be used on a Summoner or something from now on to boost damage. The Ranger is there for !Animals, which uses Magic Power and can be used for healing and miscellaneous effects. LV 2 Monk LV 2 Thief LV 2 Ninja LV 3 Blue Mage LV 2 Beastmaster Barehanded is used on Ninja, Thief and Beastmaster for extra damage, even if I want their special weapons (Barehanded boosts Strength, thus damage). The utility character. !Blue can be used on a Ninja to boost Scrolls and gives Goblin Punch and Vampire. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.23.1 The cannons of the Flying Ronka Civilization ********************************** Opponents: Flame Thrower (-), Rocket Launcher (-), Soul Cannon (#259), Launcher (#260), Launcher (#261) Miscellaneous items: Dark Matter (guaranteed Soul Cannon drop)

Blue pells: Flame Thrower, Missile The two outer cannons each represent Formation A, the two inner cannons each represent Formation B. Formation A: Flame Thrower (common) Rocket Launcher x2 (rare) Formation B: Rocket Launcher x2 (common) Flame Thrower x2 (rare) The Flame Throwers will do nothing but use Flame Thrower, which is a Blue spell you could've learned from Prototype earlier. You can't miss it here. The Rockets will use either Missile or Rocket Punch. Rocket Punch is an attack that your Blue Mage can't learn. It cuts down current HP by 50 %, but also adds the Confuse status. Berserkers are nice against them; the Death Scythe and/or War Hammer is powerful, and Berserkers are inherently immune to the Confuse status. Knights with Berserk set can wield Coral Swords, which is also great as it targets their elemental weakness. The Flame Thrower will always drop some Speed Shakes; the Rocket Launchers will drop Iron Drafts. Both are consumables you cannot use at this moment. Deal with all of the them with Lightning-elemental attacks. Lightning Scrolls (especially boosted by a magical skillset), and Thunder Rod Ramuh are the best damage dealers as they are MT and don't suffer from MT penalties (like an MT Thundara spell would), but Thundara and Coral Swords work just as fine, only a little less fast. Two Ninjas with boosted Magic Power will take out these weapons with Lightning Scrolls before the cannons can even move. Obviously, if you have any Flame Rings you can absorb Flame Thrower, but it's one of the few benefits of buying a Flame Ring, otherwise a fairly crappy decision at this point. When you're done, the Master Cannon comes out. Crap. You can engage in a fight with it when you examine it. I strongly suggest you heal up entirely before this fight and install one or more characters with the ability to cast up to level 4 White spells. If this requires White Mages, so be it. Dealing Lightning- elemental damage, and a lot of it, is basically what the coming fight is about, so Two-Handed Mystic Knights, Thunder Rod Summoners and combining !Throw with a mage's Magic Power are all very good to have. Level 5 Death is also a great benefit in the upcoming battle. !Gaia is useless, Wind Slash will appear often and will do nothing since Soul Cannon doesn't take damage from Wind-elemental attacks. "Diffusion Beam Cannon: Online!"

"Laser Crosshair Brightness: 20!" "Safety Lock: Offline!" "Barrel Pressure Rising!" "Blast Shielding Activated!" "Energy Cells 128 % Capacity" "Firing!" Wave Cannon. Soul Cannon Level: 36, HP: 22500 (effectively), MP: 1000 Defense: 5, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Potion (common) Win: Phoenix Down (common) Nullifies: Water, Wind, Poison Weakness: Lightning Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Wave Cannon Wave Cannon is a nasty attack. It deals maximum HP/2 damage to all characters and sets the Sap status too. If you don't heal between Wave Cannon attacks, you will die the next time. Soul Cannon itself will give a message every turn and will eventually use Wave Cannon right after "Firing!", as detailed above. After it's initial warming routine, it'll only take three turns to get ready for another Wave Cannon attack: "Diffusion Beam Cannon: Online!" "Barrel Pressure Rising!" "Energy Cells 128 % Capacity" "Firing!" Soul Cannon has two unnamed smaller cannons on its back, both with an effective HP ratio of 800. I'm saying effective in all cases as neither the Launchers nor Soul Cannon itself will live to see the full extent of its potential; when reaching a certain HP ratio, they will self-terminate with an explosion. The Launchers will attack with an unnamed attack called Valiant Attack which is a missile set to destroy half your current HP, also setting the Old status. It's really kinda nasty and will probably get you twice before you can take them out. You can take them down in what probably will be two MT Lightningelemental attacks or the Blue Level 5 Death spell. Whatever, !Release a Prototype for Mega Flare, see if I care. Make absolutely sure to take them out first. Now, it's time to face Soul Cannon.

It's basically just a race against time, that's what this is. Which is why Slow is such an asset in this battle. Characters being able to combine a Thunder Rod and/or a mage's Magic Power with the !Throw ability are the best damage dealers, so set either a spelllist on a Ninja or !Throw on a pure caster. TwoHanded Mystic Knights with a Thundara Spellblade are very strong as well. Set !Spellblade 1 to a Ninja, cast Thunder on both Knives and watch the damage fly. A good combination is a Time Mage with either level 3 Black or level 2 !Summon (!Summon is better). Slow and Haste can prove very useful, and Thunder Rod spells hurt pretty bad as well. If you're having trouble still, !Catch a few Sand Bears and unleash them for 2200 damage a hit, or buy a few Thunder Rods and break them in this battle for similair damage. You'll probably take a single Wave Cannon to the face even if you're decent on the preparation, which isn't too bad. if you choose your Job and ability combinations poorly, you might find yourself taking more, which is. The combination of steadily decreasing HP, characters whose stats have dropped dramatically with the Old status (even a short while in the status takes a toll on the Old characters) can prove an effective strategy for the opponent if you don't have the pure power of survival. In a lot of challenges, this is a tremendous roadblock of a battle since damage won't be high enough for you to take out Soul Cannon before you take quite a few Wave Cannon attacks to the face. A lot of Elixirs have been spent across the world in this battle, count on it. After the fight, you'll get two High Potions (from the Launchers) and a Dark Matter, one of the three !Mix items you won't be able to utilize yet. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.23.2 The Flying Ronka Ruins ********************************** Opponents: Ra Mage (#62), Ronkan Knight (#63), Stone Mask (#64), Enchanted Fan (#65), Lamia (#66), Archaotoad (#67), Hydra (#68), Ghidra (#69), Archeoaevis (#262) Container contents: 5000 Gil, Ancient Sword, Cottage, Elixir, Ether, Golden Armor, Golden Shield, Moonring Blade, Power Ring, Shuriken Miscellaneous items: Dark Bow (rare Enchanted Fan drop), Lamia's Tiara (rare Lamia steal), Dragon Fang (rare Hydra drop), Killer Bow (rare Ghidra steal) Blue Spells: Flash, Aera, White Wind, 1000 Needles, Pond's Chorus, Level 4 Graviga

First floor: 35 % Ra Mage, Ronkan Knight 35 % Ronkan Knight, Ronkan Knight, Ronkan Knight 23 % Ra Mage, Stone Mask, Ra Mage, Stone Mask, Stone Mask 6 % Ronkan Knight, Ronkan Knight, Stone Mask, Stone Mask Second floor: 35 % Ra Mage, Stone Mask, Ra Mage, Stone Mask, Stone Mask 35 % Ronkan Knight, Ronkan Knight, Stone Mask, Stone Mask 23 % Enchanted Fan 6 % Enchanted Fan, Enchanted Fan Third floor: 35 % Enchanted Fan 35 % Enchanted Fan, Enchanted Fan 23 % Enchanted Fan, Ronkan Knight, Ronkan Knight 6 % Lamia Fourth floor: 35 % Enchanted Fan, Ronkan Knight, Ronkan Knight 35 % Lamia 23 % Lamia, Stone Mask, Stone Mask, Stone Mask 6 % Archeotoad, Archeotoad, Archeotoad Fourth floor (with button opening path to Archeoaevis room): 35 % Archeotoad, Enchanted Fan, Lamia 35 % Hydra 23 % Hydra, Ra Mage, Ronkan Knight 6 % Ghidra Fifth floor (all but Archeoaevis room): 35 % Lamia, Stone Mask, Stone Mask, Stone Mask 35 % Archeotoad, Archeotoad, Archeotoad 23 % Archeotoad, Enchanted Fan, Lamia 6 % Hydra Fifth floor (Archeoaevis room): 35 % Hydra, Ra Mage, Ronkan Knight 35 % Ghidra 23 % Ra Mage, Ronkan Knight 6 % Ronkan Knight x 3 It's one of those typical break-point dungeons! There is nice and elusive equipment, some of the Blue spells are very nice (especially White Wind... White Wind, I love you) and the monsters are tougher than anything you've seen so far. As for strategies, it's nice to have the following. You can Steal two nice

items, though they are a rare steal. !Gaia will often use either Wind Slash or Sonic Boom, both of which are very useful. Wind Slash especially has great offensive capacities versus everything but the Enchanted Fans and the Ghidra enemies. !Animals will have a decent (40 %-ish) percent of summoning a Nightingale which heals a decent amount for no MP cost. The other results are also helpful. Having a character summoning Animals all the time will pretty much take care of the defensive aspect of the dungeon. Ra Mages cast level 2 elemental spells: Fira, Blizzara and Thundara, always on the entire party. You can set Silence, and they're quickly disposed off with physical attacks. They may rarely drop an Elixir, though their common Steal Sage's Surplice is less than stellar. Ronkan Knight are meatshields and fairly proficient at it as well. They'll often survive a single shot of even your most powerful attacks and while they don't cast any lethal spells their physical attacks, especially !Sling, hurt when absorbed in succession. A common Hi-Potion Steal is worth a shot, they're pretty good at this point of the game. They're vulnerable to Mini, which completely shuts them down; in addition, they have 20% Evasion but cannot evade Aerial attacks so Whips and Bows will never miss. Stone Masks attack physically only and will never use Flash normally, unlike their Headstone counterparts. They'll be able to cast the spell when Controlled though, so if you still haven't learned the attack this is another opportunity. Enchanted Fan is a feast for your party. They're annoying to fight due to the fact they absorb what's pretty much your best attack at this point - !Gaia's Wind Slash - but they make up for it in resource potential. First off, they randomly drop Dark Bows, which are stronger Bows for your Rangers which sets Darkness 2/3 of the time when possible. Second, they'll often use Aera, so if you didn't pick up the Blue spell from either Page 32 OR Gigas, here's where you can hardly avoid it. Lastly but most importantly, Enchanted Fans wield the mighty White Wind, a healing spell for your Blue Mage which heals the entire party for the amount of the caster's current HP. You'll need to Confuse or Control them to have them cast it on your Learning character(s), but since it's one of the most useful Blue spells in this game, it's worth it. If you miss it here, it'll be a really long time before you get to learn it again, so make sure to grab it here. When attacking with a Dark Bow, the screen will flash every time, as it would had you scored a Critical Hit. No CH was scored, though; it's all part of the Dark Bow's weapon animation. The screen will flash regardless of the Dark Bow setting Darkness (66%) or not (33%). Lamia also has two fabulous prizes for you, though both are harder to obtain. There's the Blue spell 1000 Needles, which causes 1000 HP damage regardless of the target's defensive properties. However, since it's an offensive spell

there's only one way to learn it; by means of the Beastmaster's !Control. Have the Controller force the Lamia to cast 1000 Needles on your Learning character, revive him/her and you're good to go. The second one is an awesome piece of headgear: the Lamia's Tiara. It's got 1 more Defense than the Plumed Hat, 5 more Magic Defense, 5 more Magic Evasion and raises the character's Magic Power by 3. It also boosts the success rate of Sword Dance coming out of the !Dance ability, but since you have no access to it yet it shouldn't matter at this point. It's but a rare Steal though, and if you take a moment to think back to the horror of obtaining Gaia Gear and/or the Javelin, this'll be just like it. Lamia, on the offense, will try to use Entice on your male characters (she'll see through Faris' deceptive clothing and never target her) to set Confuse and may !Slap a person as well, which sets Paralyze. Quick note on 1000 Needles; not even regarding the fact that 1000 damage is quite decent at these levels, the spell will ALWAYS work. This means that it's a great way of damaging those pesky unkillables; Skull Eaters, Prototypes, Jackanapes, you name it. Archeotoad is pretty much an Elf Toad on steroids. Weak to Ice-elemental attacks like other lizards. It'll randomly use Pond's Chorus, so you can learn it if you haven't earlier; just make sure you've got some Maiden's Kisses lying around. An unassuming enemy. Hydra is the light-greenish multi-headed dragon. It's more or less Lightningelemental; it absorbs the element and may use Lightning every even turn. Remember Lightning, the max HP/4-damage dealer much like Blaze and Breath Wing? Hydra's are remarkably sturdy but pose little threat overall as their attacks aren't all too powerful. They can drop a rare Dragon Fang, but for you sanity's sake, don't try to farm here. Level 5 Death works nicely to take them out in a single shot. I'm going to tackle Ghidra in a special way, because there are so many things notable about it. It's a very strong monster that holds treasure. Ghidra Level: 26, HP: 3000, MP: 1000 Defense: 20, Magic Defense: 5 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Killerbow (rare) Win: Phoenix Down (always) Absorbs: Ice, Lightning, Poison, Earth, Wind, Water Status: Reflect (always) Creature: Dragon, Undead Specialty: !Rush Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5

Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Darkness, Old, Paralyze, Berserk, Silence, Slow Attacks: Attack, !Rush, Poison Breath, Lightning, Level 4 Graviga - Ghidra absorbs all elements except for Fire and Holy. In addition, it is inherently Reflective. Damaging a Ghidra calls for physical attacks, Flame Thrower or 1000 Needles. Be careful with weapons that cast random spells (Mage Masher, Blitz Whip, Ancient Sword and most importantly the Death Sickle) as those spells will be Reflected onto your party. Also note that a Ghidra CANNOT be Controlled. The Ghidra is Undead, so you can use Hi-Potions to damage it. This dragon is the worst nuisance on the beach! - Ghidra will use physical attacks, Lightning and Poison Breath, an MT Poisonelemental attack that may set the status ailment. Its power is more or less random as it can deliver between 10 and 100 % of its full potential. - When a Ghidra dies, it'll cast Level 4 Graviga, a Blue spell which reduces the current HP of every struck target by 75 %. However, it'll only hit targets whose level is divisible by 4, so if your Blue Mage wants to learn the attack it better have an appropriate level. The Ghidra will not use the attack if it is Paralyzed or Berserked when it dies. - You can Steal a rare Killerbow from Ghidra; it's an even better bow than the Dark Bow which has an 8 % chance of flat-out killing the target. Good luck on that one. - The Ghidra is vulnerable to Paralyze, so a Whip or the Remora spell can halt it while you're pounding on it. Make sure to keep track of its HP though, since if you want to learn Level 4 Graviga the Ghidra shouldn't be Paralyzed upon defeat. Darkness also works. Since it's not Heavy, you could try to use a Phoenix Down or Elixir to either kill or cripple it; an Elixir used on an Undead target will have a similar effect to Death Claw, but without the Paralyze. Also note that when the Phoenix Down is turned into an attack, it will suddenly become blockable; Ghidra may resist its effects, but never those of the Elixir. Missile is a great way of damaging the Ghidra; Gravity will bounce off Reflect, so don't try it. - The Ghidra is difficult to deal with. Approach with caution. If you manage to learn Level 4 Graviga, note that it works on Ronkan Knight, Enchanted Fans, Lamias as well as Stone Masks. Level 4 Graviga deals (75% of the target's current HP) to those non-Heavy targets with a level divisible by 4. Sweet! If the target's level if divisible by 4 but also Heavy, the attack animation will play out but the target will receive 0 damage. Pass through the first room. On the second level, there are invisible stepping tiles. They're entirely logical as you can see where they start (where the grassy bits aren't there), but you can use the Thief's Passage ability to actually see them. There's also a chest containing a Golden Armor. Finally, we can get our Heavy Armor characters in actual Heavy Armor again! On the third level there's a chest you can reach only by some less-than-logical stepping tiles. It contains an Elixir; I kinda recommend the Passages ability

here. Cross to the other side of the room to see three exits here. Ignore the first you could've accessed, we'll take that one last. The one leading into the middle of a wall takes you to a Save Point. Go to the far right (chest with Phoenix Down on the way!) which takes you to a chest with a Golden Shield. Equip it if you can (30 % Evasion, it's almost as good as an Elven Mantle now!). Get back to the split. The remaining one is the one to take. The path takes you quite easily to a new chest containing a Hi-Potion in the end. Another split now; there's a door and a stairway. The stairway takes you to treasure! The treasure room has trap holes in it: x xx x x oo x = chest o = hole The chests contain from left to right 2000 Gil, a Shuriken, an Ancient Sword, another Moonring Blade and a Power Ring. The Ancient Sword has a 33 % chance of casting Old (sets the ailment) while the Power Ring simply raises Strength by 3. It's not really that noticeable (maybe a damage increase of 10 %) but it has superior Defense to your current Armlets. Get back and go through the door. It's all straight-forward for a while until - confound it all - another split, at Level Five. The stairs go to a Save Point, where you can use a Tent and Save up. Note that here on Level Five, where the random encounters roam, you have your shot at finding a Ghidra. The odds are a mere 6%, though. Exclusive to the GBA game is a trick that you can use. When you Quicksave and then reload the game, you'll have secured the pattern of random encounters for the next few turns. The first battle here will contain the semi-rare 23% formation, the second will feature the ultra-rare 6% formation. This way, you can be sure to fight Ghidra every other turn if you're so inclined, by Quicksaving after every Ghidra. This trick holds true in every situation, but since this is the first time you have any business actually seeking out the rarest encounter, I wanted to talk about it here. Anyway, there's another split. The stairs take you to two chests, one containing an Ether and one containing a Cottage (a superior version of the Tent that simply refills HP and MP back to full rather than heal 1000 HP and 100 MP). Now, trace back and get into the only other lead you have, which'll take you to King Tycoon and some monster. A winged snake-monster. That don't go together at

all in real life! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.23.3 The battle with Archeoaevis ********************************** Didn't really think this one through, really. So King Tycoon gives you an order and you readily comply; however, being a guardian of the Earth Crystal isn't Archeoaevis an ultimately positive force to you? Oh well, logic was never your strong suit. How's killing monsters with BELLS going for you lately? Archeoaevis Level: varies, HP: 8900 or more, MP: up to 10000 Defense: (varies), Magic Defense: (varies) Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 0% Win: Hero Cocktail (always) Absorbs: varies, Weakness: varies Status: Float Creature: Heavy or Nothing (varies) Specialty: varies: effects vary Specialty Effect: effects vary Vulnerable to: Darkness, Slow Can't Evade: Aerial Attacks: Battle, !Sap, !Wing Attack, !Tail, !Claw, !Tusk, Breath Wing, Frost, Blaze, Lightning, Maelstrom, Entangle Archeoaevis is a monster that switches elemental properties. The only way FF V is capable of performing this feat is by switching monsters altogether. You won't see it happen, but let me assure you you've killed five monster by the time you've given Archeoaevis his face full of damage. Every subsequent incarnation has lower Defense but higher Magic Defense than the previous form. Archeoaevis changes forms in this order: To change: Absorbs: Weak: Specialty: Magical attack used: 1st: 1600 HP None Wind Sap Breath Wing 2nd: 1600 HP Ice None Poison Frost 3rd: 1600 HP Fire None Darkness Blaze 4th: 1600 HP Lightning None Paralyze Lightning 5th: 2500 HP None None Confuse Breath Wing, Frost, Blaze, Lightning, Maelstrom, Entangle !Sap: Sets Sap !Wing Attack: Sets Poison !Tail: Sets Darkness !Claw: Sets Paralyze !Tusk: Sets Confuse

To simplify a little, you'll have to deal at least 8900 HP damage before you've destroyed the serpent altogether. And you'll find that Archeoaevis is a difficult bastard to hurt... First off, Archeoaevis has quite a lot of Defense and Magic Defense. You can keep track of its HP and know at all moments which elements aren't absorbed. By always boosting the spell cast, Summoners and Black Mages can deal around 800 HP damage with -ra spells and elemental summons. Since the first form is weak to Wind-elemental attacks, Aera can be used for some decent damage, as can the !Gaia ability when it conjurs Wind Slash. After it loses its elemental edge, it becomes worthless. When the first four Archeoaevis' have been destroyed, the creature will appear to die, but revive in an instant. This is the final version; Defense is actually mediocre as opposed to high in this form, but Magic Defense is soaring so lay off any spells. This thing croaks after 2500 HP. He can use all four of the elemental MT spells the previous forms could use, but adds Maelstrom to the list. Maelstrom is an attack that reduces the target's HP to a single digit, much like Tail Screw. The problem is that it's MT. Be sure to heal up ASAP from Maelstrom. Entangle is annoying but not all that dangerous. !Fang sets Confuse, which is a nuisance. The final form is vulnerable to Level 5 Death, so if your Blue Mages are sick of 1000 Needles, this spell will get the job done nicely. The big damage dealers are Released monsters (Ronkan Knights attack for over 1500 damage, Mini Dragons cast Holy for about 2000 damage, Sand Bears inflict 2200 HP worth of pain), but these can only be used once and I'm not assuming you've got four powerful monsters stored just for the occasion. Another option that depletes your resources is Throwing Shuriken; they're most powerful than 1000 Needles, and this fight really is the best fight to use them in. Speaking of the attack, 1000 Needles is a great way of dealing damage as well. You'll be hard-pressed to reach this number with most other skillsets, it's unblockable and is never absorbed. The most useful tip I can give you, though, is the Berserker. Barrier-piercing properties, anyone? Normally, he'll deal anywhere between 300 and 800 damage with the Death Scythe and between 200 and 600 damage with the Ogre Killer. You can double that with the obvious Two-Handed support ability; were you considering anything else on a Berserker anyway? Support a Berserker with a Death Scythe held with both hands with a Haste spell and it'll be able to take down Archeoaevis by itself. A thing of beauty, say true. For variety's sake, the first form can be struck with a Dark Spark to set its level to 10 so that Level 5 Death will work, but it'll just cause the second form of Archeoaevis to appear like normal. If you're able to let your party revolve around the aforementioned Berserkers, install one or two Cura (preferably also Esuna) casters and you're set. Heal up Darkness should it hit your Berserker(s). Slow isn't all that useful as it's

dispelled every time you 'kill' an Archeoaevis, so just keep focused on healing your main offense. Clothes characters are best off throwing Water Scrolls; Archeoaevis will never absorb Water-elemental attacks and their physical attacks are useless anyway. Should your Clothes characters be able to use !Blue, 1000 Needles is by far the best attack option. The same goes for Mages; next to healing, 1000 Needles is the strongest attack you can use. If the spell isn't learned, -ra spells when you know they won't be absorbed help out. Any Heavy Armor character that misses both Two-Handed AND a Death Scythe or Ogre Killer should bow his head in shame and revert to the Knight for damage output. It'll suck. A gimmick strategy consists out of taking advantage of unintended behavior of counter-attacking. Archeoaevis will not counter Counter-attacks, and thus will not call its next from when killed by a Counter-attack. Four Monks with, say, !Blue will be able to keep themselves healed with White Wind and wait while Archeoaevis provokes counters with its physical attacks. When the final blow is dealt, Archeoaevis will fall immediately after 1600 HP. You can start this strategy on all of his four appearances to to prevent the subsequent forms. All forms will appear in the Bestiary regardless of their appearance. For you troubles, you obtain no item worthy of mentioning; a Hero Cocktail normally, but a Goliath Tonic (1st form), Power Drink (2nd form), Speed Shake (3rd form) or Iron Draft (4th form) if you went with the counter route described above. King Tycoon heads off, cackling maniacally. This whole part of the game is more predictable than a Friends episode. With the notable exception obviously of that one time Ross slept with Rachel. I mean, oh my god. Know that once you've followed King Tycoon into yonder room, you won't be able to come back to a LOT of places for a long time with all four characters, some of them permanently. If you have any business left in this world, I suggest you attend to it now; take a quick peek at section 4.25.1 for more information. The cutscene is long and disastrous. To recap: Like we could have expected, King Tycoon has been under Exdeath's control ever since he disappeared from the Wind Shrine at the very start of our quest. He has likely been used as a vessel for Exdeath to seek out information about the one remaining, hidden Earth Crystal. Before Exdeath manages to kill you using Alexander Tycoon's body, a young girl enters the scene. Krile, granddaughter to Galuf, enters the flying ruins of Ronka using a meteorite. And even though her infantile spellcasting has released Exdeath's hold over Alex, the Earth Crystal still shatters. Bollocks. Exdeath, after its imprisonment of 30 years comes, zaps you a couple of times to demonstrate its power. It then leaves for its mission; return to Galuf's world which it left 30 years ago and take control over it. The Crystal shards

remain under the evil influence of the dark mage. Alex sacrifices himself to save the shards and eventually bestow upon you the all-but final Jobs of the game. Then, the Ronka ruins crumble, having lost their power source. Escape is of the essence. The new Crystal shards contain Dragoon, Samurai, Chemist and Dancer. For more information, check up on their listing in the Job section: [DRAGOON-LINK] [SAMURAI-LINK] [CHEMIST-LINK] [DANCER-LINK] The Dragoon uses Lances, weapons that cannot be wielded with two hands (an oddity, if you ask me), but can do double damage with the !Jump ability, inherent to the Dragoon. It has the oddity of being the only meatshield Class that removes itself from the battlefield to attack, making it a rather poor damage sponge. However, it has its own build-in double-damage feature, so you're free to put !Blue or something on there. The most powerful weapon you have at the moment is the Javelin, and the Dragoon is the only Job capable of using it. Javelin Dragoons using Jump deal tremendous damage, but you should really halve the perceived damage since the Dragoon wastes a turn setting it up. At reasonable levels, a Ninja with Barehanded and two good blades deals more damage per turn, but the Dragoon is still extremely capable and is better equipped to deal with high-Defense enemies since the damage is done in one single blow rather than four lesser ones, as is the case with the Ninja. The Samurai right now equips Katanas, which is awesome. Katanas inflict critical hits like Barehanded punches sometimes do; the downside of Katanas over Swords is that !Spellblade cannot affect them. The Samurai's !Zeninage ability costs money, but deals sickening amounts of non-elemental and purely level-based damage. But it costs money, at a rate of: 50 * !Zeninage user's level * (# of targets attacked) The Chemist is an odd utility Job that cannot equip Rods and has trouble dealing damage; after 60 ABP it'll learn the !Mix ability, which grants you access to all kinds of powerful attacks, buffs, debuffs and other game-breaking techniques that break the game. !Mix is the best skillset ever. The Chemist itself gets double mileage out of Potions, Hi-Potions and Ethers, presumably because the Chemist is the only Job that understand you need to put them in your mouth. Since the Chemist can double its maximum and current HP with the Goliath Tonic, !Blue is a good action ability since ???, White Wind and Self-Destruct use HP to calculate effect.

The Dancer has poor stats, and !Dance is random. However, the Dancer can equip the Ribbon to compensate for its poor stats, and the Lamia's Tiara increases the chances of !Dance its most powerful outcome, Sword Dance, from 25% to 50%, but it's either the Tiara or the Ribbon so choose wisely. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.24.1 Karnak Meteorite; the fight with Titan ********************************** Opponents: Titan (#264) Miscellaneous items: Gaia Hammer (rare Titan steal) Summon spells: Titan While the girls mourn over their deceased father, Galuf decides to return to his world. A three-man party is left behind to find a purpose in a dying world. It takes but one quick land anywhere on the Overworld Map to convince the trio to disregard Galuf's words. Now that the former King of Tycoon, Alexander Tycoon has died, a new cutscene has opened up at Castle Tycoon. Entering the castle will have the chancellor ask you if you want to spend the night again; in the night, there's character development and all that jazz. Cid 'nd Mid should know what to do. Traveling over to the Catapult will inform you of the fact they're traveled to Tycoon Meteorite to return the Adamantite to its former place. Or, you could just travel to Tycoon Meteorite right away, they'll be there even if you don't read the letter they've left behind. A new mission presents itself, courtesy of Cid 'nd Mid: travel to the meteorites of Walse (the one the golden warrior traveled in), Karnak (the werewolf) and the one which crash-landed near the ruined city of Gohn (Krile's meteorite) and let Cid 'nd Mid work their mojo. All three meteorites hold their own kind of trouble, so be sure to prepare. The next order is kinda important to follow, so listen well. The monster we'll face to obtain the power of Karnak's meteorite knows a powerful Earth-elemental attack we can protect ourselves against by allowing ourselves to Float. And how would we go about doing that? There are two options. Confuse a Gaelicat and it might cast Float on your party. Control one and make sure it does :) Also, if you have played around with your new Chemist enough to have gained the !Mix ability, Mix an Antidote and Maiden's Kiss to create Levisalve, which sets Float on a single character.

Now, travel to Karnak Meteorite. Gadzooks! It turns out this meteorite has been swarmed by monsters! Yoink! Up to us to clear out the fallen wishing star. Inside is the nest of the summoned monster, which is the reason I brought you here in the first place. Make sure to Save on the Overworld Map, and bring a Thief. Titan Level: 1, HP: 2500, MP: 2000 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Gaia Hammer (rare), Potion (common) Win: Hi-Potion (common) Absorbs: Earth Creature: Humanoid, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Attack Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Paralyze, Stop, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical Attack, Earth Shaker Titan is a muscle-head, obviously. Physical attacks aren't your main concern, and while Earth Shaker can deal around 500 damage to all characters, you should have been able to circumvent all this drama with Gaelicats or Levisalve. A Time Mage on your side really helps you out by setting Slow and Stop on Titan, though Stop won't last long. Nothing is super effective against Titan. 1000 Needles is probably your most powerful attack; three thousand needles and Titan is dust. Setting !Black 1 or !Blue or something to a Ninja throw a Scroll is also most powerful. Magical attacks deal more damage than physical attacks, but Stamina helps to survive Earth Shaker attacks when you're earthbound. This is a great moment to !Release something most bodacious, like a Sand Bear or Mini Dragon. Chopping the giant's head off with a Berserker's Death Sickle is, as always, a solid strategy as well; Berserks have HP to spare, which is another plus. Remember the Berserker with the Death Scythe? Titan's Gaia Hammer is even MORE powerful. It has 15 more Battle Power (30 with Two-Handed), deals the same amount of damage from the Back Row (even though it doesn't say so) and has a 25% chance of using a Earthquake attack, which is an MT Earth-elemental attack. Coming from the Berserker's Magic Power (which should be around the neighborhood of 1) it'll deal around 500 damage to all; this could potentially be doubled for a character with a Mage's Magic Power. A Berserker helped out by !Summon... what will they think of next? Note that the Gaia Hammer boosts Earth-elemental attacks by 50 %. An important note to make is that you shouldn't shoot for the Gaia Hammer

unless you'd like to explore the options it brings. Since Titan has a common steal as well, there's only a 5/128 chance (more or less 3,9%) that a Steal attempt that brings you an item will bring you a Gaia Hammer. Even with an emulator's Quick Save feature, that's a lot of reloads on average. You'll get a Gaia Hammer no problem later in the game. Titan's Gaia's Wrath attack, in the meantime, deals a LOT of Earth-elemental damage to everything that's not Floating. Gaia Gear you may have equipped and the Gaia Hammer which you are VERY unlikely to have equipped on a Summoner both boost its power by 50 %, making it a tremendous force surpassing every other alternative. Next meteorite: Walse? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.24.2 Walse Meteorite; the fight with the Purobolos ********************************** Opponents: Purobolos (#263) Blue spells: Self-Destruct All seems well until Purobolos descend from the heavens. The name of the beasty remains a mystery; could be spanish for 'pure borons', with boron being a chemistry element. More like 'pure MORONS', amirite. I like to think it stands for 'pure bollocks', a post-modern auto-reference of significance. And ridicule. Purobolos Level: 22, HP: 1500, MP: 100 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Eye Drops (rare), Potion (common) Win: Potion (rare) Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow Attacks: Battle, Arise, Cura, Self-Destruct A decently leveled Summoner with Gaia Gear wielding Titan's power can take out all six Purobolos in a single hit. I'm not counting on you having that, though. Purobolos' can be very, very annoying. Every time one is killed, it revives all deceased comrades with full HP. With 1500 HP and the ability to cast SelfDestruct every single turn, you'll want to deal with them very quickly. So, there's basically two approaches:

The Silence status prevents a Purobolos from casting Arise when dying. It is, however, very difficult to set the ailment and deal sufficient damage at the same time. It's a shame the Mute spell has no effect in this battle. The best way to deal with the Purobolos is by dealing damage to all targets. Clothes characters can throw Scrolls, which are even better when a spell-list is set to the character to boost its Magic Power. Gaia's Wrath deals around 1100 damage (1700 when boosted), but beware; every Summoned monster attack makes a Purobolos cast Cura on itself, healing for about 200 HP. Aqua Breath deals around 800 damage as well. THE way to kill all Purobolos in a single hit if you're sick of them is the Samurai's !Zeninage; a level 25 character deals over 5000 damage to all targets. It'll cost you about 7500 Gil though, and it's really not necessary. I'd go with a Scroll followed up with Gaia's Wrath or something like that, works like a charm and doesn't cost you nothing except for a single Scroll. There is an oddity with the Gaia Hammer in this battle; only the Purobolos that is hit with the weapon will cast Arise upon death; if the MT magical Quake triggers, the other Purobolos will not counter, meaning no Arise. Bugged, but it could prove handy. I wonder where Cid 'nd Mid have Gohn? OMG pun intended. It's below the Desert of Streaming Sands, remember? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.24.3 Gohn Meteorite; the fight with the Manticore ********************************** Opponents: Manticore (#265) Miscellaneous items: Dragon Fang (common Manticore steal), Wind Spear (rare Manticore steal) Blue spells: Aqua Breath Cid 'nd Mid are taking an awfully long time. Turns out there's a monster involved. Who'da thunk it? Manticore Level: 19, HP: 3300, MP: 1000 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Wind Spear (rare), Dragon Fang (common) Win: Phoenix Down (always) Absorbs: Ice

Creature: Magic Beast Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Poison, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical Attack, Aqua Breath, Frost The Manticore isn't all that tough; physical attacks combined with Aqua Breath (300 damage to all) and Frost (250 to all, but adds Sap) isn't too bad, but know that these attacks can kill those with few Hit Points in two hits. The best way of dealing with the Manticore is exploiting its lack of Heavy nature and status vulnerabilities. The Dancer's !Flirt ability can cripple the creature easily. The Blue spells Missile and Death Claw work, as do the Gravity and Stop spells from the Time spell book. And hey, you've still got a Two-Handed Berserker with the Gaia Hammer or Death Sickle itching for business. Since the Manticore is vulnerable to Death and Petrify, you could Catch a Mani Wizard (Death) or Undead Husk (Break) to take care of it; the Death Sickle's random Death spell will also do it in. There are two items you can steal from the Manticore. The Wind Spear is a new Spear, but the Javelin you could have obtained from the Sand Bear is quite a lot better and the odds of you getting a Wind Spear are terrible. There are no enemies that are weak to Wind that you encounter before you can buy the Wind Spear in stores, so the elemental edge is also non-existant. The Dragon Fang is a Mix item so inherently inferior to a new weapon, but it's probably the first one you'll get your hands on and it expands your Mix movepool. The Manticore shouldn't pose you with much troubles. It does, however, pose you with a Phoenix Down. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.25.1 Right and Ready ********************************** When all has been said and done, the warp spot to Galuf's World is on the peninsula south-east of Tule. But before you go, let's take a look at everything we could've gotten so far and see if we haven't missed anything: White spells: Cure, Libra, Poisona, Silence, Protect, Mini, Cura, Raise, Confuse, Esuna Black spells: Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Poison, Sleep, Toad, Fira, Blizzara, Thundara Time spells: Speed, Slow, Regen, Silence, Haste, Gravity, Stop

Summon spells: Chocobo, Sylph, Remora, Shiva, Ramuh, Ifrit, Titan Blue: Aqua Breath Level 5 Death Level 4 Graviga Pond's Chorus Flash Moon Flute Death Claw Aero Aera Flame Thrower Goblin Punch Dark Spark Off-Guard Transfusion Vampire Magic Hammer Self-Destruct ??? 1000 Needles White Wind Missile Songs: Mighty March, Romeo's Ballad, Alluring Air Pianos: Tule, Carwen, Jachol, Karnak, Crescent Special treasures: Those in the Cave of Jachol The treasures guarded by Jackanapes Noteworthy items: The Iron Shield, Cotton Robe and Kenpo Gi all become unavailable forever past this point. If you've never bought any but want a full item list at the end of the game, travel to Walse to buy what you lack in your inventory. Bestiary (30%): Normal enemies: #1 - #69 Aquatic enemies: #191 - #196 Boss enemies: #243 - #265 Have you gotten enough Dark Matter items from the Prototypes? There's no such thing as too many of them, you know. Scrolls you can always buy in Lix; it'll be a while before you can buy them again. If you plan on using !Mix-a-lot, YOU'D BETTER LIKE BIG BUTTS, I mean, I suggest you stock up on Turtle Shells; they are one of the ingredients of Succubus Kiss, what'll probably by your main attacking move coming from Mixing. Also, if you want to buy Rings in Istory, it's certainly worthy of consideration. You'll have to fight extra to afford new equipment in the next parts of the game, but especially an Angel Ring is a worthy addition to any team. I'd advise against it as you don't actually need one at any time and it obstructs you from going on when you should, but it's up to you. Scrolls to Throw are also nice to have in bulk as it'll be a while before you can buy them again; especially Water Scrolls and Lightning Scrolls are nice.

Seatbelt? Tray table in locked and upright position? Got your towel? Then, as German-born theoretical physicist Albert Einstein once said: Let's roll. Three heroes leap into the unknown... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.26.1 Alien World; Pao Island ********************************** Opponents: Pao (#70) Miscellaneous items: Tent (guaranteed Pao drop) Okay, so it's not really called Pao Island. It doesn't have an actual name, but it's an island full of Pao monsters without any other features. You think of a name, brainiac. There's nothing to do here. You can just walk around. There's Pao in the forests, Pao on the grasslands and Pao in the marshlands. Every small minute, no matter what you do, Lenna will suggest setting up a Tent. Never take girls camping, lemme tell ya, all they want to do is cuddle. Save now, and prepare Bartz for a solo battle. Actually using a Tent gets you a cutscene where Lenna and Faris are 'abducted' and Bartz is attacked by an aptly named 'Abductor'. Abductor Level: 22, HP: 1500, MP: 2000 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Gaia Gear (rare) Win: Ether (always) Status: Float (always) Can't Evade: Aerial Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Poison, Darkness, Old, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Hurricane This is a battle you can lose without getting a Game Over; you'll want to win, though, for a sweet Ether and a Bestiary entry. Since you'll be fighting alone and Abductor knows Hurricane (which it can use every turn), your objective here is to counter that somehow. There are plenty of ways.

A Monk with !Guard or Knight with Counter will net you victory, but anything that allows Bartz to heal is grand enough; the !Blue skillset gives access to Vampire, which will almost never miss. !Time's Stop and Gravity spells are great ways around the fight; Stop will last a long time. That's just for winning the battle, though; if you want a shot at that rare Gaia Gear, a Thief is a necessity. Barehanded, !Mix, !Blue, !White, !Red and !Time all include ways of really screwing this guy over. The Abductor may use Hurricane on the very first turn, dropping Bartz' HP down to a single digit. NEVER take the first turn; you'll want to be able to retaliate immediately should Hurricane make an appearance. Keep your eye out for Hurricane, heal up when it comes and keep damaging the Abductor until it dies. If you win, you'll get an Ether for you troubles, a Bestiary entry for Abductor and a chest containing...poison gas. Crud, you lose. If you lose, you'll just get taken away by the Abductor. So no Ether for you, and no Bestiary entry for Abductor either. Crud, you lose. Trivia: if you win the battle, you get to walk around. Notice how the unlit campfire is one of the very few 2D objects in the game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.27.1 Galuf to the rescue; the first fight with Gilgamesh ********************************** Opponents: Tarantula (#71), Shell Bear (#72), Gilgamesh (#267) Miscellaneous items: Spear (rare Shell Bear steal) B2: 35 % Shell Bear 35 % Tarantula x 2 23 % Shell Bear, Tarantula x 2 6 % Tarantula x 4 B3: 35 % Tarantula x 2 35 % Tarantula x 4 23 % Shell Bear 6 % Shel Bear, Tarantula x 2 It seems Exdeath had a lot of followers waiting for it on Galuf's World. There's a castle and there's an army of monsters, and you're in the middle of

it, being held hostage in a jail cell. Resistance is useless. Not even Bartz' Superman reference helps out here. Galuf appears not to be the type to be impressed by terrorists. He rushes to the castle on a Wind Drake's back, leaving his army behind to rescue his friends Rambo-style. Wait, there's Wind Drakes on this planet as well? When you're able to control him again, he'll be by his lonesome in a dungeon with random encounters. They're fit for the situation though, so extremely easy. Tarantulas are weak to Ice-elemental attacks, but with 200 HP they won't live through anything anyway. They may use Web which sets Slow, but only if you let them live to allow them. They always drop Potions. Shell Bears are a bit bulkier at 380 HP, but you should still be able to kill them with whatever you use. They have a rare Spear for stealing, which is horrible. It's an even weaker weapon than the Mythril Spear (the weakest Lance you can have at the moment) but it's unique so you'll probably want one. If you don't get one now, you'll lose out on the opportunity to obtain one forever, but we can wait until we get our teammates back. Luckily, Shell Bear has no common Steal item so just continue trying until you've got it. You can cast Toad or Pond's Chorus to make life easier on you in the meantime. The only door you can enter leads to a Save Point, which you may choose to use, or not use, it's up to you. If you press on, you'll end up in an apparantly featureless room. The water on both sides functions as a Recovery Spring, but Galuf starts out fully healed anyway. This first area is devoid of monsters. Basements 2 & 3 have Shell Bears and Tarantula's in them, but they shouldn't be much trouble. At the end of B 3, Gilgamesh waits for you. Gilgamesh Level: 26, HP: 11500 (effectively), MP: 2000 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Nothing Win: Elixir (always) Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Mini, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: A short introduction of Gilgamesh is in order, I believe. Gilgamesh set the tone for upcoming Final Fantasy games; a recurring villain that's more of a comic relief than anything else. Gilgamesh himself would later appear in other Final Fantasy games, switching between a powerful adversary or ally wielding legendary weapons or an incompetent but fierce warrior who wields cheap and

useless imitations of said weapons. Surprisingly enough, Gilgamesh is one of the very few characters in the Final Fantasy games that's supposed to be a single entity; his appearance is often justified by 'traveling through dimensions'. Anyway, at this point Gilgamesh is at the starting point of his long career, and but a lackey to his master, Exdeath. The purpose of this fight is to damage Gilgamesh slightly to that he runs away. However if you actually manage to 'kill' Gilgamesh, you'll get an Elixir! If you want to get it, you'll need either !Time or !Blue, providing you got Death Claw. For winning the battle, just !Time will get the job done quickly enough as Gravity prompts him to escape immediately. Just with damage, you only need to deal 1500 HP damage to him, his defenses are absent and his attacks are nothing to worry about. A Main Gauche and Elven Mantle both help, but are not necessary. For Clothes Galuf, anything with Counter works, and Heavy Armor Galuf has the power of the Berserker on his side. You can't really lose. Note: unlike other monsters, Gilgamesh will make a showing in your Bestiary even if you don't kill him directly. If you're going for the kill, know that Gilgamesh will use Flee when he takes damage past the initial 1500 HP. Since Death Claw won't actually damage, just set his HP to a single digit, he won't respond with escape; follow up Death Claw with any ol' damaging spell and you're good. Alternatively, cast Slow on Gilgamesh and Haste on yourself. Wait for Gilgamesh to take a turn, then cast Stop on him. Quickly cast a succession of Gravity or Missile spells 'til he's in killing range, then finish him off. Better keep him in the back of your head. Because next time? He'll be deadly serious next time. At any rate, Galuf liberates his friends (don't worry, they're all still equipped with equipment and Jobs) so you can get out. You can once again Save at the Save Point. It's time to get back to Galuf's Castle and regroup, so we'll have to cross the Big Bridge Galuf followed on Krile's Wind Drake. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.27.2 Escape to the Big Bridge ********************************** Opponents: Devilfish (#73), Treant (#74), Strapparer (#75) Miscellaneous items: Elixir (rare Strapparer steal) Blue spells: Dark Spark, Death Claw, Transfusion

Grassland: 35 % Strapparer x3 35 % Strapparer, Treant, Devilfish 30 % Strapparer x2, Treant x2 Forests: Always: Treant x3 Marshlands: Always: Devilfish x3 This is Galuf's world, which is actually quite similar to Bartz'. There are swamps here, can you believe it? Swamps yield great results with !Gaia, as an attack called Bottomless Bog may appear. Bottomless Bog kills everything by being an unblockable Death-setting attack (fails if target is Heavy). Devilfish are weird fish-like creatures that reside in swamps. They absorb Water-elemental attacks and are weak to Lightning-elemental ones, like most aquatic creatures. When Confused or Controlled they can use Transfusion, so you can learn it from them if you haven't learned it earlier. They can attack physically or by using Digestive Acid (remember, that annoying non-elemental attack which sets Slow and Sap?). Treants cast Berserk on themselves and allies to make their physical attacks stronger. For your Blue Mages this is a shame, as every second turn they can use Death Claw. If you never learned it from Iron Claw, now's your chance. They're weak to Fire-elemental attacks. You cannot use !Control for Death Claw, sadly. Strapparer are bizarre creatures entering our world through a rift in reality. This, however, doesn't make them very powerful. They randomly use Dark Spark, so you can pick that up if you haven't earlier, and you can Control them to gain access to the Death Claw spell. They have Elixirs (rarely) for stealing and are weak to Lightning-elemental attacks but absorb Fire-elemental attacks. Whatever you do, there's nothing to really to do but to get to the Big Bridge to the West of Castle Exdeath. Ramuh makes short work of most encounters here, as does !Gaia when walking in swamps. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.27.3 The Big Bridge; the second fight with Gilgamesh ********************************** Opponents: Merrow (#76), Flying Killer (#77), Little Chariot (#78), Neo Galura (#79), Gilgamesh (#268)

Miscellaneous items: Trident (rare Gilgamesh steal) Blue spells: Goblin Punch, Aera Welcome to the Big Bridge! That theme you're hearing is world-famous for being kick-ass, so try not to find it to awesome. You might get 'mainstream'. The Big Bridge houses monsters you'll only find when touching a certain tile on the bridge. All tiles except for the introductionary one (the one that causes Galuf to give his warning) are randomly turned 'on' and 'off' so you could cross a tile which could get you monsters without getting any monsters. X: Exit 1: Little Chariot x 3 2: NeoGalura 3: Merrow x 3 4: NeoGalura, Merrow x 2 5. Little Chariot x 2, Flying Killer x 2 AND Little Chariot x 3 6: Flying Killer x 3 *** ** **: Midsection, Gilgamesh battle ***

X ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 5.. ... ..5 ... ... ... 44. ...

... ..2 ... ... .3. ... ... ... ... ... .4. ... ... ... ... ... *** ** ** *** ... ... .6. ... ... ... ... ... ... ... 45. ... ... .5. 5.. ... ... ... ... ... ... ..4 ... ... ... .3. ... ..2

... ... ... 111 ... ... ... ... ... X X: Exit 1: Little Chariot x 3 2: NeoGalura 3: Merrow x 3 4: NeoGalura, Merrow x 2 5. Little Chariot x 2, Flying Killer x 2 AND Little Chariot x 3 6: Flying Killer x 3 *** ** **: Midsection, Gilgamesh battle *** I'd hate to sound less then interested in the monsters here, but the thing is they're rather boring. All of them attack physically only with the exception of Little Chariot, which randomly uses Mustard Bomb, which does about 300 damage and sets Sap. Neo Galura rarely drops Water Scrolls, but no other items of real interest appear. You can Catch none of them, would be a point of interest if you're interested in those kinds of points of interest. Ninja Scrolls and Summon monsters are both able to clean house quickly and efficiently. All monsters here are unique to the Big Bridge, so make sure to meet them all now for a full Bestiary. Taking that most Buddhist of all approaches, the middle road, will net you the most encounters here. NeoGalura is often missed; keeping to the right of the Big Bridge, below the Midsection, will quickly bring you into contact with the troublesome tapir. Gilgamesh Level: 28, HP: 6500, MP: 1000 Defense: 14, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Trident (rare), Hero Cocktail (common) Win: Wizard's Hat (always, in theory) Creature: Humanoid, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None

Vulnerable to: Darkness, Old, Berserk, (*Silence), Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical Attack, Jump, Haste, Protect, Shell, Goblin Punch, Aera, Electrocute, Wind Slash Gilgamesh certainly buffed up this time. Contrary to popular legends, you can NOT Steal a piece of Genji equipment from Gilgamesh this time; you'll have to do with the normal Hero Cocktail or the rare Trident. Gilgamesh will normally attack with physical attacks, Goblin Punch, Aera and Wind Slash. When he's gotten enough of a beat-down and has but 2500 HP left, the next hit he absorbs will cause a counter consisting out of a demented little speech and the casting of Protect, Shell and Haste, all nasty enough in their own right. He'll start using Jump after that. On enemies, Jump is a physical magic attack; its deal physical damage insomuch that it deals with the target's Defense, but its power comes from the caster's Magic Power. It's unblockable, by the way, and Elven Mantles won't help. The Protect status will, however. When you "kill" him, he'll use Flee, robbing you of the Wizard's Hat you otherwise would have obtained. He's immune to both Paralyze and Stop, so there's no avoiding it this time. The strategy to follow is easy. Put together a damaging team that can take a Wind Slash and heal up from it. Casting Mute in this battle will prove very beneficial, since the Haste/Protect/Shell combo really turns Gilgamesh into a nuisance. You can turn your Mages into Blue Mages so you can still attack and heal. The Ancient Sword is capable of setting Old on the guy, which helps out in the long run. Mages should stick to 1000 Needles or (when Mute was neglected) boosted Gaia's Wrath, support all allies with Haste, cast Slow and possibly cast Mute before Gilgamesh increases his potential. Gilgamesh doesn't have any weakness to exploit, so damaging him at this stage of the game where everything but !Zeninage is more or less balanced out is kinda difficult. His attacks aren't that dangerous though, so you'll win the fight for sure. When you're done, there's the second part of the Big Bridge. Make sure you meet all monsters here if you want that perfect Bestiary. When you're almost to the other side, the forces within Castle Exdeath and its four Barrier Towers put up the barrier, a destructive force which surrounds Castle Exdeath and forcefully blows away anything that is hit by the barrier. The Light Warriors just aren't quick enough. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4.28.1 The lands of Gloceana ********************************** Opponents: Tunneller (#80), Birostris (#81), Fairy Orc (#82), Devourer (#83), Mandrake (#84) Miscellaneous items: Holy Water (common Fairy Orc steal) Blue spells: Transfusion Eastern Grasslands: 58 % Tunneller x 2 42 % Tunneller, Birostris x 2 Marshlands: 35 % Devourer, Fairy Orc x 2 35 % Devourer, Tunneller x 2 30 % Mandrake, Devourer x 2 Forests: 70 % Birostris x 5 30 % Tunneller x 2 Grasslands near Regole: 35 % Fairy Orc x 3 35 % Fairy Orc, Tunneller, Birostris 23 % Birostris x 5 6 % Tunneller x 2 We've been misplaced in space and are currently residing in Gloceana. It's a long hike through monster-infected marshlands to civilization, and the kind of civilization we'll find once we get there is a mystery. Tunnellers can use Dischord to halve your effective level for the duration of the fight. That's about the extent of their powers. Birostris' will use Transfusion on occasion unless they're alone ,like their palette swaps; we've been over this. The Devourer and Mandrake enemies will just attack you physically and throw some yucky goo your way; either Digestive Acid (Mandrake) or Slimer (Devourer). Note that Devourers absorb Lightning-elemental attacks, so your first instinct (zap aqua-things) is wrong. Mandrakes are weak to Fire. The most interesting enemies are the Fairy Orcs. If they're struck with a Cure spell, they'll heal the entire party with a Curaga spell. You can write

fanfiction on why they do that; I'll proofread that for you no problem. In addition, if they find a character dead, they'll use Paraclete to raise it as a Zombie. Neither of these things should happen to you, but knowing is half the battle and the sooner we can get rid of these things, the better. You can obtain Holy Water from these creatures, which cures the Zombie status. It's not very likely you'll need to recover from that status anytime soon, but Holy Water makes an interesting !Mix reagent. It's not hard. Just walk all the way to the East. Stick to the Marshlands where possible; you'll definitely have an awesome !Gaia advantage there as Bottomless Bog will just kill the entire enemy party every time it appears. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.28.2 Regole ********************************** Features: Piano, endless 100 Gil machine Welcome to Regole! It's a small town surrounded by monsters on every side. As a counter to this problem, Regole has developed a secret weapon: alcohol. Regole's beer appears to be legendary. Speaking of 'legendary', to the south lies the sealed castle of Kuza, which houses the Twelve Weapons used in a forgotten war. Let's check it out. For now, the Inn Keeper gives us a free night, so let's take a rest. There's a cutscene. Now, exploit capitalism. Magic Shop (White): Blink 3000 Gil Shell 3000 Gil Esuna 3000 Gil You could've obtained Esuna earlier. Neither Blink nor Shell is vital for anything, though both are nice to have. Blink sets two Images on a single target, like the Ninja's !Image ability. Shell cuts magical damage and magical hit rates in half. If you're short on Gil, I suggest you skip these spells for now; they are beneficial afterthoughts to strategies at best. Magic Shop (Black): Drain 3000 Gil Break 3000 Gil Bio 3000 Gil These spells are all awesome. Drain isn't all that damaging but could be useful for your Black Mage; it makes for an awesome Spellblade effect, though; it simply heals the Mystic Knight(-wannabe) for whatever damage is dealt to the target. Don't strike Undead creatures, though. Break sets Petrify, so when you

know what's vulnerable it's a great one-hit KO move. Again, you'll be surprised how often I'm going to advise Break Spellblade from now on to circumvent levelbased hit rates; physical attacks are much easier to connect. Bio's just a stronger and Poison-elemental spell for your Black Mages. It's stronger than your boosted -ra spells and ignores Magic Defense almost entirely, so buy it. You'll be able to boost it in a short while ;) Magic Shop (Time): Comet 3000 Gil Slowga 3000 Gil Return 3000 Gil The Time Mage finally gets some serious use! Comet is the first offensive spell the Time Mage obtains. What it lacks in power and dependable nature (it's power is rather random), it's non-elemental nature and the fact it ignores the Reflect status makes it a decent attack. Slowga's just MT Slow. Return is awesome. It allows the player to completely restart a battle, everything about the obtained results erased. This can not only save you when things are looking particularly grim, it's most popular use lies in obtaining rare Steals every time from now on as even one-time only monsters can now be fought until you've gotten what you want. This way, not obtaining rare steals is nothing but proof of your weakness. A second purpose in casting Return could be to re-roll the formation; Pre-emptive and Back Attacks chances are calculated again, allowing any party with the Return spell to circumvent Back Attacks completely if they survive the first round to cast the spell. Weapon Shop: Orichalcum Dirk 3400 Gil War Hammer 6400 Gil Ashura 5800 Gil Sleep Blade 5600 Gil Wind Spear 5400 Gil Dark Bow 3800 Gil Dream Harp 1600 Gil Chain Whip 3300 Gil These new weapons, though all-round new and powerful, won't really mean much to you at the moment. The Sleep Blade is nice, but most people will be using Samurai or Dragoons at the moment. The Orichalcum Dirk is nice for Thieves and Ninjas, the Wind Spear is an increase for your Dragoons if you haven't stolen a Javelin and the Chain Whip is, thankfully, a new Whip with Paralyzing features. All other weapons are more or less useless now. You've - if everything went well - already obtained an Ashura and one or more Dark Bows. The War Hammer is weaker than both the Death Scythe and Gaia Hammer and the Dream Harp flat-out sucks. Dealing 1/8 current HP damage and adding Sleep. Pshw. New Weapons should be your last priority with your Gil. Armor Shop: Golden Shield

3000 Gil

Golden Helm 3500 Gil Green Beret 2500 Gil Wizard's Hat 1500 Gil Golden Armor 4000 Gil Ninja Suit 3000 Gil Gaia Gear 2000 Gil Everything's peachy here. The only two things that stand out are the Wizard's Hat and the Gaia Gear. The former shouldn't be bought if you have Lamia's Tiaras as even though they have 1 point extra Defense, they're inferior in all other areas. The Gaia Gear is awesome; if you haven't stolen them from Sorcerers when escaping Karnak castle, you can finally get them. They boost Earth-elemental attacks, oh yes they do, and Titan will benefit greatly from it. One important thing to now realize is that by combining the Gaia Gear and a !Summon ability high enough to summon Titan, ANY Robe and Hybrid Job can perform as a very powerful mage. This is an excellent opportunity to train those Jobs that normally lack this ability, such as Bards, Chemists, Dancers and White Mages. Remember, Magic Power will be upgraded together with the !Summon ability. The Dancer will even be able to replenish MP by itself due to !Dance's 25% Mystery Waltz performance. Item Shop: Hi-Potion Potion Phoenix Down Gold Needle Maiden's Kiss Mallet Eye Drops Antidote

360 Gil 40 Gil 1000 Gil 150 Gil 60 Gil 50 Gil 20 Gil 30 Gil

Ether 1500 Gil Holy Water 150 Gil Cottage 600 Gil Goliath Tonic 110 Gil Power Drink 110 Gil Speed Shake 110 Gil Iron Draft 110 Gil Hero Cocktail 110 Gil The Item Shops on this planet are notably superior to those on Bartz' old planet. Hi-Potions can now be consistently used by everybody, you can buy Holy Water (useful for !Mix) and the five liquids consumable by the Chemist's !Drink command are purchasable as well. If you wanna know how good they are, try out [DRINK-LINK]. I don't really recommend anything, just buy some Holy Water since you won't have a lot of it, and stock up on what you need more of.

There's a little girl between both shops who has lost her Ribbon. You can talk to her by using the secret passage in the Armor Shop, but she can't be of any use to you now. People are valued by their possessions! At the Pub, you can get on stage to Dance 4 Gil! 100 Gil isn't that much, though. If you've got Find Passages on you, you'll be able to see the secret passage which leads to the game's sixth piano. Play it to improve your piano skills; the song played is a bit called 'Beautiful Dreamer' by Stephen Foster. The biggest asset this town has to offer, though, is its awesome selection of new spells and equipment. If you lack the money to buy everything you want, training is of the essence, young padawan. That's all, folks. I'm bored, let's travel south. You'll come across a castle! You were warned about this castle... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.29.1 The sealed castle of Kuza ********************************** Opponents: Tunneller (#80), Birostris (#81), Fairy Orc (#82), Devourer (#83), Mandrake (#84), Kuza Beast (#85), Shield Dragon (#86) Miscellaneous items: Elixir (rare Kuza Beast drop) Blue spells: Transfusion, ??? Marshlands: 35 % Devourer, Fairy Orc x 2 35 % Devourer, Tunneller x 2 30 % Mandrake, Devourer x 2 Forests: 70 % Birostris x 5 30 % Tunneller x 2 Grasslands near Regole: 35 % Fairy Orc x 3 35 % Fairy Orc, Tunneller, Birostris 23 % Birostris x 5 6 % Tunneller x 2 Grasslands south of the sealed castle of Kuza 35 % Mandrake, Tunneller, Birostris 35 % Fairy Orc, Tunneller, Birostris

30 % Kuza Beast Grasslands east of the sealed castle of Kuza 35 % Birostris x 5 35 % Tunneller x 2 30 % Kuza Beast The Kuza Beast looks very, very intimidating right now. It has massive damage potential, too; it uses the Blue spell ??? every turn, and with 5000 HP that turns out to be a one-hit KO attack very quickly. There are few ways to circumvent the Kuza Beasts from ripping you interesting new ways to bleed. !Control is the obvious one. Kuza Beasts can also be petrified, so a Break spell or Break Spellblade effect takes him out in a single shot. If you don't damage the Kuza Beast it'll never damage you, so there's plenty of time to set up your Mystic Knight. Kuza Beasts are not Heavy, so Death Claw + anything is a good strategy as well. Shield Dragon Level: 29, HP: 19999, MP: 20000 Defense: 40, Magic Defense: 25 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 50% Steal: Gold Shield (rare), Mythril Shield (common) Win: Golden Shield (rare) Status: Reflect, Protect, Shell Creature: Heavy, Dragon Specialty: !Hard Hit Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Poison, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Silence, Slow Attacks: Attack, !Knock Silly, Zombie Breath, Flee When you've entered the sealed castle, its halls are derelict. But all is not silent in the halls of the dead; guarding the relics of old, the ancient weapons of yore, are Shield Dragons. They've got quite a bit of Defense and Magic Defense, have an inherent Protect, Shell and Reflect status and attack with a lot of force. Physical attacks are bad; it's Special !Knock Silly sets Confuse. It may also use Zombie Breath, an MT non-elemental and random-damage attack which sets Zombie on every character it kills. There're but two ways to deal with a Shield Dragon. You can either run from them or Control them. Controlling them allows you to use Blaze on themselves for 4999 damage every time. After four Blaze attacks, the Shield Dragon should only have 3 HP left; something a physical in the back should be able to take care of. Fun fact: !Catch one and it'll use Almagest, an MT Holy-elemental attack. It's not incredibly powerful coming from Shield Dragon (around 750 damage), but it's this game's final boss trademark attack; only this cretin and some other random enemy uses it when Released. Fairy Orcs absorb it, since it's Holy-elemental!

Jumping Jehosaphat! The twelve weapons have been petrified by the millennium they haven't been touched. Still, they represent a powerful force of good, and their names should sound familiar to most players. Excalibur Knightsword Assassin's Dagger Knife Sasuke's Katana Ninja Blade Holy Lance Lance Rune Axe Axe Masamune Katana Yoichi's Bow Bow Fire Lash Whip Sage's Staff Staff Magus Rod Rod Apollo's Harp Harp Gaia Bell Bell Galuf's enthusiasm is touching, but there's really nothing here but dusty and once-powerful museum pieces. Let's get out of here and travel further, down south and east. You'll be able to meet Kuza Beasts on the grasslands south of the Sealed Castle. Note that between Bestiary entry #86 (Shield Dragon) and #88 (Blood Slime, an enemy from the upcoming dungeon), Bestiary entry #87 will be empty for a long long time from now on, possibly worrying completionists. Don't worry, completionists. The void in your Bestiary and life will be filled. Eventually, you'll stop encountering monsters altogether, and you have but to go east to enter a forest. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.30.1 The power is yours; saving the planet one Moogle at the time ********************************** Opponents: Blood Slime (#88), Acrophies (#89), Moogle Eater (#90), Lesser Lopros (#91), Tyrannosaur (#269) Container contents: 4400 Gil, Phoenix Down Miscellaneous items: Elixir (rare Tyrannosaur drop) Blue spells:

???, Vampire There's a Moogle a-treehuggin' nearby, but as soon as you talk to the Moogle, he'll make a run for it and fall down a hole. Lenna's big heart for everything non-human makes another appearance and the crew decides to follow the Moogle and pull it out of its own problems. Welcome to the Underground Waterway. Note: you could also NOT talk to the Moogle and leave the forest at the other side. However, this'll just get you to a large desert surrounded by grassland and forest. While helping the Moogle creates another location in this part of the Overworld Map, it's not yet there. The two enemies you can meet in the desert, Cactus and Sandcrawler, are not worth your specific attention at this time and place in your life. "I pushed my soul - into a deep dark hole - and then I followed it in..." Main cave: 35 % Blood Slime x 3 35 % Moogle Eater, Acrophies, Blood Slime 23 % Lesser Lopros 6 % Blood Slime x 6 Small pathway: 35 % Acrophies x 4 35 % Moogle Eater x 2 23 % Lesser Lopros x 2 6 % Lesser Lopros *A* battles: Moogle Eater x 2 OR Acrophies x 4 *B* battles: Acrophies x 4 OR Moogle Eater, Acrophies, Blood Slime Whenever you get into the water in this cave, there are set tiles you're swept past which WILL trigger a battle every time you pass it. Walk into the water, and the current will sweep you onto a new piece of dry land. In the meantime, there's an *A* fight. The Acrophies are the most dangerous opponents since their physical attacks often come in waves of four are quite painful, especially their special technique called !Pincer. Level 5 Death or a helpful summoning of Ramuh takes them out right away. Moogle Eaters are just stupid squids that don't really know how to take damage or dish it out. The kind of enemy that brings a tentacle to a gun fight. The Blood Slimes cannot avoid ANY spell. No, seriously, try it. It's a shame the unblockable Ifrit takes them down in a single hit, else it'd be something to take advantage of. They're inherently Poisoned, but you won't notice since

Poison stops taking effects when they're dead, which should be about 2 seconds into the battle. They can randomly use Vampire, but only when they're alive (which they are almost never). Since they're dying all the time, I'm assuming they live from sucking blood from the other monsters here? Lesser Lopros' have high defenses, are immune to the Poison elemental and can randomly use Breath Wing and Frost to make life difficult for you. To counter, use Fire-elemental attacks and the Toad status. The best way to deal with every single encounter here - except for the Lesser Lopros - is a boosted Judgment Bolt. It will kill everything in a single hit and isn't as harsh on your MP as Titan is. Acrophies are the most dangerous enemies here, as they have quite some Defense and are physically powerful; Level 5 Death works on them. If you have !Summon and/or !Blue set, Lesser Lopros succumb to Pond's Chorus and Level 4 Graviga spells. On the next dry bit, you've but one options: walk into the water again. Two *B* battles, a new current, a new piece of dry land. Here, there's a chest containing 4400 Gil. You can take two paths here; the one to the left and the one to the right. Should you go with the left slope, you'll fight an *A* battle and a *B* battle and appear in front of a small pathway where Lesser Lopros are abundant. You can take it to the main exit with a Phoenix Down chest. Should you go with the right slope, you'll fight a *B* battle and then an *A* battle and another bit of dry land before you have to fight another *A* battle. There's the Phoenix Down chest again. At the end of this rock formation, you'll find "Mr. Moogle" cornered by some Undead Horror. Approach to face the thing. Tyrannosaur Level: 29, HP: 5000, MP: 1000 Defense: 20, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Golden Shield (rare), Nothing (common), Win: Elixir (rare) Nullifies: Ice Weakness: Fire Creature: Dragon, Undead Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical Attack, ???, Poison Breath The Tyrannosaur isn't that hard, rest assured. It's got a big head, a lot of teeth and no flesh to speak of, but that's about it. It'll attack physically every turn, with Attack and !Critical Attack. Every non-magical attack will be countered by either Attack, !Critical Attack or the Blue ??? spell, which

you'll definitely want to avoid. It'll kill a character rather quickly into the battle. When hit by a Wind, Earth, Water or Holy-elemental attack, it'll counter with Poison Breath on the entire party, but that's not too bad since you have no reason to attack the Tyrannosaur with any of those elemental attacks in the first place. The omni-counter takes preference over the counter to the elemental attack counter, so only the truly Magical elemental attacks will provoke Poison Breath; Aero and Aera will; summoning Titan will, Jumping with a Wind Spear, Throwing a Water Scroll and !Gaia's Wind Slash won't. The bane of this thing's semi-existence is any reviving item. Since its Undead but not Heavy, a Phoenix Down may kill it. Note that when the effect is inverted, it becomes susceptible to hit rates and thus may miss; Elixirs remain unblockable, so they'll reduce Tyrannosaur's HP to a single digit without fail. Tyrannosaur is equally vulnerable to the Samurai's !Iainuki, Gravity spells, Blue Missile and Death Claw spells, the Dancer's !Flirt, you name it. Should you want to go with some straight damaging attacks, boosted Fira and Flame Thrower spells and Fira Spellblade work like a charm. If there's anything to watch out for in this battle, it's the possibility of ??? appearing, which will likely kill a character, though it may miss due to Magic Evasion. To avoid this, stick to magical attacks; !Time, !Blue (but not Aera!), !Summon (but not Titan!), !Black and !White will never provoke counters, and with only physical attacks to worry about (which can be stopped by Darkness as well), it's not a dangerous fight. In the end, it'll rarely drop an Elixir. This guy shouldn't be too much of a bother. When the Moogle is free to move, he'll show you the way to something. The message is clear, though; don't wander into the desert. 'Kay. Whatever you say... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.30.2 The Legacy of Mr. Moogle; Defiance ********************************** Opponents: Cactus (#92), Sandcrawler (#93) Blue spells: 1000 Needles Encounters: 35 % Cactus x 3 35 % Sandcrawler

30 % Sandcrawler, Cactus x 2 Onto the Desert! I'm sure there's untold riches. Maybe that love interest for Bartz we're all still waiting for. Or maybe not, but a Moogle is a white and hot -pink bat/mole hybrid, and I'll be damned if we're ever going to take advice from it. It says so in Das Kapital. Also, the Cactus and Sandcrawler enemies that appear in the desert are unique to this location. I dunno about you, but I have trouble sleeping if I know I'm heading for an incomplete Bestiary. Cacti are the far less dangerous critters you'll encounter here. They attack physically and are weak to Water-elemental attacks. You can Control them into using 1000 Needles; if you missed the spell against the Lamia monsters you can pick it up here. They're weak to Water-elemental attacks, so a Water Scroll should definitely come in handy versus them. They've got a Heavy nature, by the way, which is surprising for an unassuming opponent such as the Cactus. They're Desert creatures as well, so Aqua Breath deals eight times as much damage; if you've never done 4000 damage before, now's your chance. Sandcrawler Level: 29, HP: 15000, MP: 1000 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 5 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 50% Steal: Tent (rare) Win: Power Drink (always) Creature: Desert, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Maelstrom The real threat are the Sandcrawlers, thankfully never appearing with more than a single Sandcrawler in a single battle. They have 15000 HP, which is thrice as much as that of the Tyrannosaur you faced a minute ago. Every turn they may use Maelstrom to lower your party's HP to a single digit. They're powerful on the physical attacks as well. They're hardly undefeatable, though. Control one and you've bought a ticket to victory. Petrify works so Break and the Break Spellblade effects will be able to take one down no problem. A Death Potion can kill one, as can the Death Sickle's random Death spell. I'd just go with what the Mystic Knight can offer you (Break Spellblade effects, for the slow people) as it's the most reliable. Aqua Breath, by the way, will deal a LOT of damage as well (around 4000 or beyond, depending on level and Magic prowess), so... Anyway, there's really nothing here. It's something for your Bestiary, these things don't appear anywhere else. Now, go find that place where Mr. Moogle went off to. The hairball must be around here somewhere. From the west-southern

most corner, take one step to the east and up 'til you enter the Moogle Village. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.30.3 The Moogle Village ********************************** Container contents: 1 Gil, 10000 Gil, Cottage, Dancing Dagger, Elven Cloak, Ether, Phoenix Down As soon as you enter, the Moogles scatter like wild. You can't exit either; some frenzied Moogle will always run past you, blocking your path. There's three trees here with a door; the right-most one is accompanied by Mr. Moogle. In the meantime, there'll be Moogles running around at set intervals. Mr. Moogle invites us over for tea 'nd biscuits. Also, treasure. When you're done here, the Moogles will have magically understood you're not there to maim their cute little faces and will just walk around. Yes, they all say "Kupo!". In the middle treehouse, there's a Moogle Suit you can wear; in the left-most house there's a locked chest. Wearing the Moogle Suit will cause the nearby Moogle to get his groove on. Love is bought with merchandise, as in all cultures. There's an Elven Cloak inside, which in my case is always good news. If the sheer horror of a perfect Moogle costume lying around in a tree and you wearing it is lost on you, please remain in your basement forever. That's some weird Ed Gein shit right there. I mean, what else are a bunch of Moogles in a forest going to make a Moogle Suit out of? Branches? Sand? Or MOOGLES? On the Dancing Dagger; it has a 50 % chance of using !Dance as opposed to the normal physical attack. These dance effects are affected by gear that boosts the chance of Sword Dance appearing, so combining the Dancing Dagger with a Lamia's Tiara will work nicely. Whether it's a good idea to equip the Dancing Dagger is a toss-up; average damage output improves a little, but it becomes less dependable. It's a fun thing anyway, and if you're not using Attack it gives some stat boosts. Also note that the Dancing Dagger will never let the wielder dance when !Mug or !Focus is used. When you've raided the Moogle Village of its contents, talking to Mr. Moogle will get you out of there through a long and interesting cutscene. Fun fact: Krile appears to have the Power of Heart, rounding out the Planeteers in this game nicely. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.31.1 Castle Bal **********************************

Opponents: Objet d'Art (#99), Abductor (#270) Container contents: Angel Robe, Hero Cocktail Miscellaneous items: Great Sword, Lamia's Harp, Power Armlet (rare Aductor steal), Twin Lance (rare Objet d'Art steal) Time spells: Teleport Blue spells: Death Claw, Vampire ...Don't push it, kid. Here in Bal, bad jokes like that will get you PUNished... Castle Bal's your chance to regroup, come up with a plan versus Exdeath and take a rest you've truly deserved. It's a tense situation though; monsters under Exdeath's banner are surrounding the castle and Bal's army is ever shrinking in size. But let's focus; there's some nice options for you to exploit. When you're done with the cutscene (props for the translation), there's a chest containing a Hero Cocktail and a secret passage leading to a chest containing the Teleport spell the NPC soldier is talking about. The left-most building in the courtyard takes you to the shops! Weapon Shop: Orichalcum Dirk 3400 Gil War Hammer 6400 Gil Ashura 5800 Gil Sleep Blade 5600 Gil Wind Spear 5400 Gil Dark Bow 3800 Gil Dream Harp 1600 Gil Chain Whip 3300 Gil If you declined to buy some weapons in Regole, you can pick them up here! But they won't be stellar. Armor Shop: Golden Shield Golden Helm Green Beret Wizard's Hat Golden Armor

3000 Gil 3500 Gil 2500 Gil 1500 Gil 4000 Gil

Ninja Suit 3000 Gil Gaia Gear 2000 Gil Gauntlet 3000 Gil You may think this is the same as before, but 'tis not! The Gauntlet is new. It's an accessory for Heavy Armor characters; it adds some more Defense than the Mythril Glove, but it's not that good if you have Elven Mantles to spare. Item Shop: Hi-Potion Potion Phoenix Down Gold Needle Maiden's Kiss Mallet Eye Drops Antidote

360 Gil 40 Gil 1000 Gil 150 Gil 60 Gil 50 Gil 20 Gil 30 Gil

Ether 1500 Gil Holy Water 150 Gil Cottage 600 Gil Goliath Tonic 110 Gil Power Drink 110 Gil Speed Shake 110 Gil Iron Draft 110 Gil Hero Cocktail 110 Gil This is all identical to the shops in Regole. Take the stairs up. On the wall here, there's stairs downwards, but they're blocked from your vision by the tower. Just walk to the right. Take the stairs all the way down. The NPC here is has some good advice and there's a chest containing an Angel Robe. No longer "Physician, heal thyself" applies; the Angel Robe can only be worn by the Chemist (and Freelancers, obviously) and protects the wearer against the Poison element and status. The Angel Robe also gives 25 % Magic Evasion, which is actually unrivaled in the entire game as far as a single piece of equipment is concerned (the Aegis Shield works differently, mind). See the button behind the counter? You can push it from behind to open up a door in the wall. So THAT's how those merchants always get to those places! If you stand in between them, they'll forcefully throw you out of their business. Also, they'll give you a Lamia's Harp, a weapon that deals 3/16 maximum HP to non-Heavy targets and sets Confuse. You have no business with the thing since it deals poor damage and you can MT Confuse with Alluring Air, but the thought is nice. You can enter the moat surrounding Castle Bal in the bottom-left corner. Enter, go to the left, ignore the button and go all around the castle. On the far side

of the moat in the bottom-left corner, a Great Sword has fallen in the water. Grab it. It's super-hidden and no part of your Treasure %. You can return by pushing the button. In Basement 1 of the main building, there's a Save Point. Going further into the depths of Castle Bal will get you in a featureless room with but one point of interest; the random appearance of enemies. 70 % Objet d'Art x 2 30 % Objet d'Art x 5 Objet d'Art enemies are "stone warriors with souls full of malice" as the game describes them at a later point of the game. They attack physically and cast the Break spell, but only have the MP to cast it once. When hit by a Gold Needle, they'll disappear by using Vanish. They've got 3300 HP and are weak to Lightning-elemental attacks. You can learn Death Claw from them, but only when you Control one and use an Ether on it to increase its MP. Another big selling point of these opponents is the Twin Lance. It's a rare steal but quite the awesome weapon. It's 20 Attack Power better than the Orichalcum Dirk and hits TWICE every time, actually more or less doubling it's normal damage output. It can only be used by Thieves, Ninjas and Freelancers though. When used with !Focus, or !Mug, the Twinlance will hit only once. If you've got the stomach for the time investment needed, they'll turn a Ninja with Barehanded into a straight-up murder machine. I'm talking four hits of 700 damage each. The x 2 formation gives off 4 ABP, the x 5 formation gives off 8 ABP. In addition, they can be easily defeated by Level 5 Death, which kills them all. Objet d'Art enemies are often used to train; not for Experience as they hardly give any, but simply to obtain such top-tier and usually late-game abilities such as !Doublecast, !Rapid Fire or Dual-Wield. I won't count on you doing this as it by no means is necessary and it seems wasteful of one's precious time, but if you want to do it, it does help out tremendously. On the top floor of the main building, Krile is in distress. The Wind Drake that helped Galuf rescue Bartz 'nd the lot has overstrained itself in said mission. Never mind the current political situation (you know, the WAR thing) or the practical impossibility of sneaking past Exdeath's armies, everybody agrees on the fact that playing for veterinarian to an admittedly useful drake takes priority. As soon as you're done toying around with the flying statues of death, you can go talk to the soldiers guarding the gates. King Galuf will order them to open the gates, which they'll do for you. It'll net you a battle with a SINGLE Abductor, the apparent entirety of Exdeath's stationed demon horde. The fight versus this guy is hardly worthy of description; he can use Vampire and Hurricane, so watch out. Vulnerable to Stop and Confuse, not Heavy. You can

Steal a rare Power Armlet if you want one, you'll be able to buy those in a few minutes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.31.2 En route to Quelb ********************************** Opponents: Aquathorn (#94), Weresnake (#95), Kornago (#96), Cursed Being (#97) Blue spells: Pond's Chorus Marshlands 58 % Cursed Being, Kornago x 2 35 % Weresnake x 2 6 % Cursed Being x 2, Weresnake, Kornago Southern Forests: 42 % Cursed Being x 2, Weresnake, Kornago 35 % Kornago x 3 23 % Cursed Being, Kornago x 2 Eastern Marshlands: 35 % Cursed Being, Aquathorn 35 % Kornago x 3 30 % Weresnake x 2 Western Marshlands: 35 % Aquathorn 35 % Kornago, Werensnake, Aquathorn 30 % Aquathorn x 2 I should probaly give a description here... Aquathorns are conscious, swamp-dwelling plants that attack anything that comes close for sustenance. They can attack physically and have a 33% shot at using Slimer, which ensnares a character and slowly dissolves its body. That's just a creepy way of saying it sets Slow and Sap! When you Catch one, you get to see it cast a Death spell upon Release. Where does this pure hatred of life channeled into the purest example of dark arcane arts come from? Mysteries of an alien world... They absorb Water-elemental attacks and have a weakness to the Lightning element, befitting of their aquatic nature. Weresnakes are nothing special, except for the fact they're inherently Poisoned. You could cure it for them with an Antidote or somesuch, but they'll still try to kill you.

Kornago toads are just super-delicious, but also quite murderous. They run away when they have less than 300 HP, which normally wouldn't be a problem since you could just let them; later on though, you'll want to Catch at least one of them. They're not Heavy and vulnerable to Paralyze, so Death Claw works like a charm when trying to obtain one; Stop and Sleep can also disable them. They will randomly use Pond's Chorus every turn as a stepping stone to their combined ambition to turn the world into a world of warty hides, long tongues and edible legs. It is not stated how or why Cursed Beings are cursed, and if this curse has anything to do with them walking on their hands. Maybe they're just trying to turn that frown upside-down? They're unassuming physical footsoldiers, but don't let a character fall in battle when they're around; they'll use Danse Macabre to raise him or her as a Zombie. A freaking ZOMBIE, man. Lightning-elemental attacks clean house versus the Aquathorns and Cursed Beings, !Gaia's Bottomless Swamp still kicks major ass in the marshlands and any Blue or Time caster can help in subduing a Kornago enemy for the greater good. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.31.3 The town of Quelb and Lord Kelger Vlondett ********************************** Miscellaneous items: Kornago Gourd, Potion x24 Songs: Requiem It seems we can just pass though the town. We're in a hurry, so let's just get to that gate and return later when things have quieted down. No such luck; upon further inspection, the gate is closed. Kelger, leader of Quelb and former Warrior of Dawn should be able to help us. Strangely, the entire town appears to be closed. Shops are closed, the Inn is closed and nobody seems to be around. The only house open to us is the big'un, but there's nobody there. Enter and leave, and you'll hear a voice stopping you. Lord Kelger Vlondett perhaps never was the strongest warrior amidst those of Dawn, but his fiery spirit knows endurance unheard of, and his lust for righteousness, though simple in nature, has made him a force of light to be reckoned with. In his old age he has weakened, but even the slightest fragrance of a connection to Exdeath prompts Kelger to test the new Light Warriors in the person of Bartz. His Lupine attack fails to deliver.

Dorgann Klauser, father to Bartz Klauser, turns out to be the one who has taught Bartz to deflect the alien Lupine attack. Dorgann's name is all too familiar to both Warriors of Dawn... When all is said and done, get on the move. The shops here have some excelling material to offer. Weapon Shop: Orichalcum Dirk 3400 Gil War Hammer 6400 Gil Ashura 5800 Gil Sleep Blade 5600 Gil Wind Spear 5400 Gil Dark Bow 3800 Gil Dream Harp 1600 Gil Chain Whip 3300 Gil Kodachi 5100 Gil Killer Bow 5000 Gil Poison Rod 1500 Gil Shuriken 2500 Gil Flame Scroll 200 Gil Water Scroll 200 Gil Lightning Scroll 200 Gil Most that can be bought here could also be purchased earlier, so I won't be discussing it. The new Kodachi is useless; it's weaker than the Twin Lance even if the latter hadn't hit twice, and has no special effects. The Killer Bow has that 8 % chance to one-hit KO a non-Heavy target, which is nice; if you never obtained a Killer Bow earlier (could've stolen one from Ghidras), I suggest you pick one up now. The Poison Rod is the Rod that boosts your new Bio spells by 50%. If you plan on using Black Magic in the near future, definitely get one or two Poison Rods. The Scrolls are also for sale again; Flame Scrolls will serve you the best in the next dungeon. Armor Shop: Golden Shield 3000 Gil Golden Helm 3500 Gil Green Beret 2500 Gil Wizard's Hat 1500 Gil Golden Armor 4000 Gil Ninja Suit 3000 Gil Gaia Gear 2000 Gil Gauntlet 3000 Gil Twist Headband 3500 Gil Power Sash 4500 Gil

Power Armlet 2500 Gil Nothing new here but some equipment for Clothes characters. Just buy whatever you need; both the Twist Headband and Power Sash have some nice stat boost and are better on defenses than your old gear, so simply upgrade. You already got a Power Armlet (maybe even two if all went well); you'll want to stick to Elven Mantles, so disregard its existence. The Magic Shop sells no new spells, so I won't bother listing them; they're identical to Regole's selection. At the Inn, you can get your hands on 'Quelb's finest dishes' which completely restore you. You'll have to sit at the table for the werewolf offering you this meal to go get them. He gives you 8 Potions and an after-dinner service for the first three times. Item Shop: Hi-Potion Potion Phoenix Down Gold Needle Maiden's Kiss Mallet Eye Drops Antidote

360 Gil 40 Gil 1000 Gil 150 Gil 60 Gil 50 Gil 20 Gil 30 Gil

Ether 1500 Gil Holy Water 150 Gil Cottage 600 Gil Goliath Tonic 110 Gil Power Drink 110 Gil Speed Shake 110 Gil Iron Draft 110 Gil Hero Cocktail 110 Gil Wolves are selling items at the Inn, how amusing. You'll be able to see the Poison status appear a lot in the next dungeon, so unless you plan on bringing a character capable of casting Poisona, make sure you have a surplus of Antidotes to un-un-unpoison. In the top-right corner of the town, three werewolves are a-praying for your safe return. While their crude and animalistic religious devices are amusing, one of them teaches you the Requiem Song which is completely worth the slightly embarrassing rite. Requiem is an MT non-elemental barrier-piercing magical attack that's over FOUR times as powerful as something like a Fira spell. It only hurts creatures with an Undead nature, though. In Drakenvale, the two most dangerous random encounters are Undead, so bringing one or two characters with the !Sing ability wouldn't be a bad idea. Due to bad stats and poor equipment, Bards are generally a pain to keep around; Drakenvale is a place where they're

really useful, so now's your chance! You can mess up their ceremony by standing in front of them, btw. You can deflect their little routine so that they'll run into walls 'nd stuff, it's really awesome :P An old man is searching in a well for a frog. If you go outside to !Catch a Kornago, you'll make him happy. As you know, Kornagos tend to Flee when they're weak enough to be caught, but they're not Heavy and vulnerable to Paralyze so Death Claw is awesome to both weaken and incapacitate them. If you approach the old man with a Kornago in your 'inventory', he'll offer a bargain; your Kornago and 10000 Gil for his Kornago Gourd. I'd take it; the Kornago Gourd is a heavy, heavy jar which occupies an Accessory slot. Rather than 1/8 maximum HP, the bare minimum to catch a monster with !Catch is 1/2 maximum HP with the Kornago Gourd equipped. If you don't have the 10000 Gil to fork over, no matter; this well, this old man and Kornago toads will always be here. It's no part of your Treasure% either, so no worries there. When you're done in Quelb, it's time to travel to Drakenvale, where the dragon grass awaits your arrival. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.31.4 Drakenvale ********************************** Opponents: Drippy (#100), Lycaon (#101), Bone Dragon (#102), Poison Eagle (#103), Zombie Dragon (#104), Golem (#271), Dragon Pod (#272), Dragon Flower (#273), ??? (-) Container contents: 5000 Gil, 7000 Gil, Bone Mail, Cottage, Hypno Crown, Phoenix Down, Wind Slash Miscellaneous items: Dark Matter (rare Zombie Dragon steal), Dragon Fang (guaranteed Zombie Dragon drop), Elixir (guaranteed Dragon Pod drop), Hayate Bow (rare Poison Eagle steal), Golem (guaranteed Golem drop) Summon spells: Golem Blue spells: Magic Hammer Caves: 35 % Zombie Dragon 42 % Zombie Dragon, Poison Eagle, Drippy 23 % Bone Dragon x 2

First two slopes: 35 % Drippy x 2 35 % Lycaon 23 % ??? --> Lycan x 5 6 % Lycaon x 5 Bridge slope: 35 % Bone Dragon, Drippy x 2 35 % Poison Eagle x 2 23 % ??? --> Lycan x 5 6 % Lycaon x 5 Bone Mail slope: 35 % Golem, Bone Dragon, Zombie Dragon --> Lycan x 5 35 % Poison Eagle, Drippy 23 % ??? --> Lycan x 5 6 % Lycaon Dragon grass slope: 35 % Golem, Bone Dragon, Zombie Dragon --> Lycaon x 5 35 % Bone Dragon, Poison Eagle, Lycaon x 2 23 % Bone Dragon x 2 6 % Lycaon Drakenvale is home to many mysterious creatures; undead dragons are but a grim memory of Drakenvale's former glory as the roost of the Wind Drake populace, its critters are aggressive but never a picture of health and among the slopes of Drakenvale climbs a monster of mud and stone, the Golem. It is a place of no return, rugged cliffs once dominated by a dragon population now in decline. And somewhere, possibly, grows the dragon grass... ??? is an odd encounter you won't be able to do anything with; this is the Golem we'll truly meet later. For now, he simply recognizes you as a threat (what, like you wouldn't mindlessly attack him), get in a physical attack and immediately Flee. Drippies are Pao palette swaps. They're like pigmy Berserkers, I dunno. You can Control them into using Magic Hammer on a character with Learning if you didn't pick the attack up from Byblos. They may even use it normally on you, aside from normal physical attacks and !Axe, which is just a bit more powerful. They're little threat and not that interesting. Lycaon attack in great numbers. They're weak to Fire-elemental attacks, so Fire Scrolls and Ifrit's Inferno both help clear them out. They may drop Holy Water, but that's about it.

Bone Dragons are one of the two more formidable opponents Drakenvale houses. Undead Dragons, they're weak to Fire-elemental attacks and may use Bone, an attack that's entirely like Hurricane; it drops a single character's HP to a single digit. Their !Tail sets Paralyze when they attack with it, but there's nothing you can do about that. They're not that hard to defeat; Requiem is a very potent weapon when facing these things, as are attacks such as Gravity and Missile. Poison Eagles have only 100 HP, but evade a lot of attacks. Anything that's not normally blockable will help, such as spells, !Aim and Ninja Scrolls. They will swoop down and set Poison with their !Claw special. You can rarely steal a Hayate Bow from them; they have no common steal so that's nice. Goblin Punch and !Aim can help target the elusive birds of prey; they can't evade Bows and Whips either, so Beastmasters and Rangers are in luck. The Hayate Bow is actually really powerful at this stage of the game; it's a shame it had to go toe-to-toe with the Twin Lance surfacing as an option for Clothes characters, as that's a battle it loses. It has a 25 % of performing !Rapid Fire, which basically makes the Hayate Bow attack four times in a row at half strength while disregarding the opponent's Defense. It's also unblockable. Basically, for a little randomness you get more power. Zombie Dragons are the hardest enemies you face here; they are Undead Dragons like Bone Dragons yet more sturdy; they have 4590 HP, which is a lot. Next to physical attacks, Zombie Dragons may use Poison Breath if the battle drags on (if it's allowed to take three turns, actually), so try to prevent that. Check your Chemists totally ignore damage done by Poison Breath, by the way. Crank that Angel Robe. Zombie Dragons are not Heavy, so you could take advantage of that; they are vulnerable to Paralyze and Sleep, so that stops them; Requiem deals a lot of damage, as do Fire-elemental attacks. They have a rare Dark Matter for you to steal, and no common item. Paired with a guaranteed Dragon Fang drop every time you kill one, facing Zombie Dragons is a Mix user's slightly erotic dream. On the whole, there are quite a few powerful attacking methods you can employ here. Requiem will deal around 2000 damage to the Bone and Zombie Dragons; give a Bard a Mage's Magic Power to increase damage done (or set !Sing to a Job with much magical aptitude). A Ninja with two Twin Lances can deal around 2500 damage when all four hits connect, using !Gaia on the slopes may result into Cave-In which is extremely powerful. The Hayate Bow is fun to sling between 1000 and 2000 damage from the Back Row. You can't really go wrong, though take into account Drakenvale is simply a very handy place to level or even master the Bard Job in; in the future !Sing is an awesome ability while Bards are a bad idea due to all-round horrible stats and poor equipment options. A note on every ??? formation and formation including the Golem opponent: when property defeating a Golem, Bone Dragon, Zombie Dragon formation all these

formations will be replaced by Lycaon x 5. It's a straight path through Drakenvale for the most part. Just follow the trail! There's a small grotto containing a chest with 5000 Gil in it when you first enter Drakenvale; loot it and press on on the slopes. You'll go past a chest containing a Cottage before you get to a big bridge. Cross it, it's what it was made for. There's a small cavern pathway before you come across a slope with bones scattered around the place. There are two items of interest here; a Bone Mail hidden in the bones just beneath the second dragon skull you see, and the illustrous Golem, Bone Dragon, Zombie Dragon monster formation. The Bone Mail falls in the 'Clothes' category, and it gives vastly superior Defense and Magic Defense to anything you have at the moment. It allows the wearer to absorb Poison-elemental attacks and protects against the Poison, Darkness, Old, Confuse and Berserk status ailments. This, however, comes at a great cost. A character wearing the Bone Mail becomes Undead in every sense of the word; what would work on Undead monsters now works on Bone Mail wearers. Spells such as Cura and Nightingale deal damage rather than heal, Death spells and Death Potions instantly restore a Bone Mail wearer to full health and revival items kill one instantly. In addition, when a Bone Mail character actually dies due to HP loss, there is NO way to revive him or her since revival items stopped working. To make the picture complete, Bone Mail wearers obtain some properties the game designers felt were more or less inherent to Undead creatures; a characters wearing the Bone Mail will take double damage from Fire- and Holy-elemental attacks and Regen can't be set. It's difficult to say if the Bone Mail is fit to replace 'normal' equipment. In any normal fight where you're not planning on healing by any means next to the Blue White Wind spell, the Bone Mail will simply grant you extreme defense, additional magic defense and a whole slew of status immunities. However, in boss fights you'll want to be able to cure, and a disability to revive one-fourth of your cast is a bad thing. Personally speaking, I know you'll get by fine without the Bone Mail and I'm just annoyed to see a random Nightingale hurt a character, but there are many who disagree with that statement and the Bone Mail will from now on ALWAYS be equipped by Optimum so you'll have to decide for yourself. When you've found the Bone Mail, you can see a cave. Enter the opening to find yourself in a room with a skull button you can't reach and something that looks like a door you can't open. Go stand between that door and the skull button and the 'door' and take two steps to the right to tumble down a hole! Geomancers will trigger the trap without falling, but you'll want to go down that hole. Open the chest, enter the door, push the skull button, go back and leave the other way and exit. There is now a slope to continue your journey through Drakenvale. But first, that Golem battle.

Golem Level: 3, HP: 2500, MP: 1000 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 0, Magic Evasion: 0 Steal: Gold Needle (common and rare) Win: Golem (always) Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: Bone Dragon Level: 37, HP: 3000, MP:500 Defense: 40, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 10% Absorbs: Poison Creature: Heavy, Dragon, Undead Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Darkness, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop, Regen Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Bone Zombie Dragon Level: 37, HP: 4000, MP: 1000 Defense: 20, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 10% Absorbs: Poison Weakness: Fire Creature: Heavy, Dragon, Undead Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Darkness, Old, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop, Regen Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Vampire, Poison Breath This is a strange battle; note that all three monsters are different from the ones you saw earlier; the two Dragons are Heavy, have no items on them, the Bone Dragon has a different special technique (the generic !Critical Attack rather than !Tail, and it doesn't set Paralyze either) and the Zombie Dragon is the only Zombie Dragon ever that could use Vampire. Here's the deal. Even though Golem is a non-human creature like the rest of Drakenvale's inhabitants, that doesn't mean that sometimes, just sometimes, ugly humanoids have feelings too. Anyway, these undead dragons are attacking

Golem as soon as you find them, and Golem asks for your help. If you manage to kill them before Golem dies, he'll be grateful as a fistful of nearly-drowned kittens and drop you the 'Golem' item, which you can use to teach your Summoners how to utilize Golem's mighty protective prowess. If you fail, however, you'll just have to try again; he'll still randomly appear as the ??? creature and versus the two dragons. Golem's biggest enemies are Bone Dragon's Bone (which reduces his 2500 HP to a single digit, and it CAN work), Zombie Dragon's Vampire which it may use every third turn, and your random or MT attacks. Lay off the !Gaia; you don't want a Cave-in raining down. Don't ever bring a Berserker in this fight. Focus attacks on the dragons. It might even be a good idea to protect Golem; the Protect and Blink spells or a Dragon Kiss potion (Mix a Dragon Fang with a Maiden's Kiss) protect respectively against physical attacks sent his way and Bone (Dragon Kiss gives Golem a Heavy nature, so Bone will never connect). Flash is a great Blue spell to use; it may blind all three, causing the Dragon's attacks to miss often. Requiem is THE best attack to use in this battle as it will deal massive damage to both dragons but won't hit Golem. As long as you've got the ability to use Songs, Romeo's Balled sets Stop on both dragons as well. The Bone Dragon is vulnerable to Petrify, so you might want to take advantage of that fact. These dragons are tougher than usual, having more HP and defenses; they shouldn't be able to kill Golem before you can save him, though. You can Confuse all three of them with Alluring Air; but since confused opponents will start attacking each other, all you'll accomplish is that the Dragons will randomly attack each other in addition to attacking Golem randomly. Note that unlike most special battles, you can both Catch and Control these two Dragons to remove them as a threat from the battlefield. If Golem falls, the Dragons will take a turn to turn around and will start attacking you; the Zombie Dragon will now start to use Poison Breath, and the Bone Dragon will use Bone much more often. If you kill them now, no worries; you can meet the Golem + two undead Dragon formation again, as if nothing even happened and you never failed in the first place. If at first you don't succeed, it never happened! Stop the Dragons, Protect or possibly heal the Golem, and you should have little trouble. Kill the Zombie Dragon ASAP, as Vampire can be extremely lethal to Golem. So what does the one-armed bandit do? His attack is called Earthen Wall and it protects you from every physical attack sent your way. Golem's hand of mud and clay shoots forth from the earth to absorb physical attacks, but only stops those coming from the enemy. However, Golem can only take so much punishment before the effects of Earthen Wall wear off again; the amount of HP damage Golem can take before disintegrating equals (the summoner's level + 20) * 50.

You can put up Golem's Earthen Wall when it has been taken down, but you can't 'refresh' the thing; if Earthen Wall is still in effect, summoning Golem will do nothing. Continue! Enter the next cave, and go left to find two chests containing the Wind Slash Katana and the Hypno Crown. The Wind Slash has a 12 % chance of performing a Gale Cut attack instead of a normal physical strike and boosts Wind-elemental attacks (not that you're likely to use any on Heavy Armor characters except for the Wind Slash's own Gale Cut attack). The Hypno Crown is another heavy piece of equipment (how slow do we want our Beastmasters to be?) which about doubles the chances of the !Control ability to work. Every Job can equip it. Note that both items are one-of-a-kind in this game. Trace back your steps and take the other path. It takes you past a chest with a Phoenix Down and an entry to a Save Point. Use it and take the other exit. Here's one final slope (the Golem, Bone Dragon, Zombie Dragon formation appears here as well, so if you haven't found Golem now's the time) to take you to the purpose of your visit to Drakenvale; the dragon grass. If you're looking for some kind of preparation and you're traveling with a Beastmaster, try catching a Bone Dragon; it's Bone attack will serve us well in the upcoming battle. You've got to be kidding me. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.31.5 The fight with Dragon Pod ********************************** "Grass isn't supposed to attack people!" The last Wind Drake of Lenna's world is still alive as far as we know, but the last Wind Drake of Galuf's world is dying as we speak. Things aren't looking too hot for the Wind Drake race as a whole, I'd say, and that's partly because of this vile thing; the dragon grass mutated. Maybe this is what Darwin meant, but that doesn't make it a useful thing to have happened. We still need the dragon grass no matter how big and powerful it grows, so let's see if we can cut down this thorned rose. Dragon Pod Level: 33, HP: 12000, MP: 1000 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 40 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Win: Elixir (always) Creature: Humanoid Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None

Vulnerable to: Death, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Stop, Slow Attacks: Dragon Flower (all five) Level: 31/33/35, HP: 100, MP: 1000 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 50 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 30% Win: Phoenix Down (rare) Specialty: varies Specialty Effect: varies Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Toad, Mini, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: !Silver Powder / !Poison Powder / !Darkness Powder / !Paralyze Powder / !Confuse Powder It's a silly battle, trust me. Dragon Pod does nothing but sit there and remain fairly sturdy what with its 12000 HP and soaring Magic Defense. In the meantime, every turn it takes it summons Dragon Flowers. These little things attack physically with their damaging special techniques, and are arranged thusly:

5 1 4 3 2

1: Silver Powder: Unblockable, ignores Defense, sets Old 2: Poison Powder: Unblockable, ignores Defense, sets Poison 3: Darkness Powder: Unblockable, ignores Defense, sets Darkness 4: Paralyze Powder: Unblockable, ignores Defense, sets Paralyze 5: Confuse Powder: Unblockable, ignores Defense, sets Confuse All Dragon Flowers have a mere 100 HP, so any attack will kill them; with their amazing Magic Defense though, magical attacks will have to hit hard to do anything besides 0 damage. When you have to manually MT the spell, it's unlikely it'll do anything. Ifrit and its brethren will do little damage as well; Titan manages nicely, though, especially when boosted by Gaia Gear. !Kick is the supreme way of dealing with the Dragon Flowers; it takes no MP, kills everything that it hits and hits always, since Dragon Flowers have no Evasion. Defensive options a-plenty, though. A Bone Mail character will only take effects from !Paralyze Powder and Golem's Earthen Wall will stop all these attacks completely. Setting Berserk on the Dragon Pod (either by Mixing a Kiss of Blessing or Bacchus' Cider) causes the Dragon Pod to start attacking but will stop him from resurrecting the Dragon Flowers constantly. !Recover, the Chemist's third action ability, cures all the status ailments that can be set by the Dragon Flowers from the entire team for no MP cost. I always struggled

to find an actual use for the Chemist's later action abilities, so if there ever was one, this is it... The Dragon Pod, though having a lot of HP and Magic Defense, lacks a Heavy Nature so there are a LOT of things to cripple this thing quickly. The Killer Bow's special effect, a Death Potion (Phoenix Down + Dark Matter), the Blue spells Missile and Death Claw, it all works. If you want to kill this thing with Harps, the Lamia Harp deals 32.5% current HP damage to it. When you Release a Bone Dragon you could Catch right here in Drakenvale, its Bone attack will drop Dragon Pod's HP to a single digit. After a Dark Spark, the Dragon Pod becomes vulnerable to Level 4 Graviga... hey, a boss battle use for Level 4 Graviga! Simply summon Golem at the start and you're pretty much set, all the rest is just especially quick. You get an Elixir for your troubles. Random note: according to the game data, both the Dragon Pod and Dragon Flowers would be under the effects of Regen. This is because plants absorb nutrients from the ground, causing them to regrow leaves in a matter of seconds. But they're not under the effects of Regen, due to a bug. If you need anymore ABP or Dragon Fangs, you can hike back down; the Time spell Teleport instantly takes you to the foot of Drakenvale as well, but walking back means more Dragon Fangs for you. Now, travel all the way back to Castle Bal. There's nothing of interest in Quelb. You'll have to take a detour through the moat of Castle Bal to actually enter, but that's a quick thing. Everybody needs to break into his own house every now and then, right? Right? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.32.1 Ghido the Sage and Xezat Matias Surgate ********************************** Opponents: Cure Beast (#115), Land Turtle (#116) Container contents: 5000 Gil Time spells: Float Songs: Swift Song Even when rushing upstairs to get the Dragon Grass to the Wind Drake you'll

hear the rustle of the NPC's; Krile's not feeling too well. Also, we hear that King Xezat Surage has opened an attack on one of the four Barrier Towers that upholds the barrier protecting Castle Exdeath; we'll check later. Now's the time to heal the Wind Drake and head Krile's call; visit Ghido the Sage. As far as the dragon grass feeding procedure goes: everybody's stupid in the head but in the end it's all right so no biggie. Geez-oh-pete! Take the Wind Drake to the cave to the north-east of Drakenvale. You can scout around the Overworld Map (no new monsters) but as soon as you enter the cave itself, Exdeath decides it hasn't been quite enough of a bastard and submerges the entire island. Oh well. We could travel back to Castle Bal, but Krile's still telling us Ghido is calling. Disregard that, let's go find Xezat and see if we can be of any help there. To the west of what once was Ghido's Cave lies Surgate Castle. Around Surgate Castle, several new enemies appear. Grasslands: 35 % Land Turtle 35 % Cure Beast, Land Turtle x 2 30 % Cure Beast x 4 Cure Beasts are crazy. They look after everything that's not them; every even turn, they'll cast Cura on every target but themselves. They're not too powerful when it comes to restorative magic though, so no worries. They rarely drop Elixirs, which is something to look forward to. They're altruists all around, these bunnies. Land Turtles are your source of Turtle Shells in this world, which is nice to know if you're employing the Mix outcome of the Succubus Kiss. They're weak to Ice-elemental attacks like all lizards, and will always drop the lusted-after Turtle Shells. They merely attack physically, so no worries there. The enemies really aren't that interesting. Enter Surgate Castle. Nor the gates nor the guards are being very responsive but by pressing the button (isn't it the purpose of a castle to keep people OUT?) the gates open. Inside, there's magical fun and adventure! Everything starts in the Throne Room. Seems like King Xezat is a bachelor. The stairs in the top-left corner take you outside, on the walls. There's only one way to go, past some scholars. They've got an ancient book called the Sealed Tome, but half of it is missing. In the Library of the Ancients, there was a nameless book of which only half was present; maybe there's a connection? Alas, it doesn't matter. Downstairs is a cranky librarian (comes with the job, I suppose). There are three books and many more shelves. The books: Weird Ronka

Register of Monsters Forbidden Book A-C D-F G-H I-K L-N O-Q R-S T-V W-X Y-Z *nothing* When not carrying around a book, Bartz will look for an ass magazine in the left part of the A-C shelf. Oh well, nobody's blaming you; one of your girls dresses like a man and the other wouldn't recognize an ass if she sat on one. Anyway, put the three books where they belong and the librarian will open up a new passage. If you screw up, you can leave the room and re-enter to see them scattered around again. In this room, a book gives you the tip of combining !Lance with a mage. I never found this very useful as MP isn't that much of a problem and I'd rather go with more diversity (!Mix can drain MP just fine, thank you), but it never was my place to disagree with in-game information. Also, books are stupid and only sissies read them. Continue to a room with a lot of stuff. One of the stuff is a chest containing 5000 Gil. Leave through the door and cross the courtyard to find another door leading to another room of useless junk and a single chest, this one containing the Float spell, ever-so-useful for avoiding Earth-elemental attacks. Trace your steps back to the Throne Room. The bottom-left stairway takes you to Xezat's room, where a book containing the Swift Song lies. An odd location to say the least; if there is one place where you'd rather not be too swift, it's the bedroom... You'll learn it upon inspection. The Swift Song slowly increases your Agility while your Bard is singing; he or she will stop singing when struck by a physical attack. Note that Agility is used when determining damage from !Throw (not the Scrolls), the Diamond Bell and Tinklebell and the Chicken Knife, so those will get a damage boost. The final stairway takes you down to the shops and Inn of Castle Surgate. Weapon Shop: Great Sword 3400 Gil Heavy Lance 6400 Gil Osafune 5800 Gil Poison Axe 5600 Gil You haven't got any Heavy Lances yet, but the Javelin you might have stolen from the Sand Bears in the Desert of Streaming Sands is a tad stronger and equally non-elemental. The Poison Axe is a non-elemental Axe stronger than the Death Sickle but weaker than the Gaia Hammer; it has a 67% chance of finishing a physical attack with the Poison spell; not what a Berserker is generally about, status ailments. The Osafune's simply the strongest Katana to date, it's not as funky as the Wind Slash, though. Buy whatever you think you need; none

of these weapons are all too impressive or useless. The Armor Shop sells no new items, and the Magic Shop sells no new spells. When you're done, sleep at the Inn and take the Wind Drake to Xezat's fleet. Take a look at the World Map. See the south-eastern continent? This is the one where Castle Exdeath is found. To the east of this continent, Xezat has began his assault, as the continent is said to be relatively unprotected from that side. Fly there. There are fourteen ships, but only one of them is large enough for the Wind Drake to land on. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.32.2 Surgate Fleet; the third fight with Gilgamesh ********************************** Opponents: Gobbledygook (#105), Gilgamesh (#274), Enkidu (#275) Miscellaneous items: Genji Gloves (common Gilgamesh steal) Blue spells: Goblin Punch, Missile, Death Claw, Aera, Vampire The reunion between Xezat and Galuf is warm, but the situation is grim. Even though Xezat's attack is a bold one, Exdeath's situation is stable and strong and all the goodwill and rest in the world isn't enough to help out in this battle. Xezat offers the quarters of his flagship, and you should definitely take him up on his offer. Once you rest (you could still take the Wind Drake and travel around this world), you'll be rudely awakened by an attacking force. Seems the army of Exdeath still has enough steam left after the fights versus both Bal and Quelb. Talk to Xezat to get the party started. There's a total of three Gobbledygook monsters running around Xezat's flagship and one waiting for you at the nose of the ship. Fighting them isn't all that helpful, but I suppose it's nice versus Xezat's soldiers or something. They'll attack physically and may randomly use Goblin Punch; they're vulnerable to all status ailments, including such gems as Mini and Toad. When you've defeated the Gobbledygook standing still, you'll get a cutscene where Xezat defeats one of his own but gets slapped around by the monster called Enkidu. Back to you, Freddy. The path is open for you to face Gilgamesh for a third time. Make sure you're able to steal, as a unique item is about to be presented to you. Gilgamesh Level: 31, HP: 8888, MP: 888

Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Genji Gloves (common) Win: Golden Shield (always) Creature: Humanoid, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Silence, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical Attack, Death Claw, Missile Enkidu Level: 29, HP: 4000, MP: 1000 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 20%, Magic Evasion: 20% Steal: Green Beret (common) Nullifies: Earth Status: Float Creature: Humanoid Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Silence, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical Attack, Aera, Missile, Wind Slash, Web, Dischord, White Wind "Ahhh...blue, blue skies and the rolling sea! It's days like this that get you high on life! But you, sirs, are harshing my buzz!" This is a fairly straight-forward battle. Gilgamesh does his thing; all of his attacks randomly pop up. When he hits 6000 HP, his next action will consist of summoning Enkidu, his legendary companion who will promptly restore him with White Wind. At that point, the battle becomes a tad more serious as there's now two targets attacking and casting spells, but there shouldn't be that much trouble. Enkidu doesn't have that much on an AI script either; all of his attacks are random as well. Note that he's Floating and thus nullifies Gaia Hammer's Earthquake attacks and Titan's Gaia's Wrath; in a shocking turn of events, Enkidu CAN evade Aerial attacks even though he's Floating; with 20% Evasion rate, they'll still land most of the time, though. "I see you're leisurely as ever, faithful sidekick!" "The old man gave me some trouble." "Ho? Let's return the trouble...and make it double! Come on!" Golem's Earthen Wall helps out nicely in this battle. Make sure to Steal one of the things Gilgamesh is famous for within the game; the first piece of Genji Equipment. The Genji Gloves are unique insofar you won't get a second pair of

them; ev4r. The Genji Gloves grant superior Defense and protect against the Toad and Paralyze status ailments. Still not superior to the Elven Mantle in my book, but you never did find more than three at this point so there's still some poor heavily armored sap left with a Gauntlet or something silly like that. Oh yeah, Gilgamesh. Pound on him. You can set Slow on both Gilgamesh and Enkidu to lessen their amount of attacks. You can actually successfully Control Enkidu! This way, he can use a physical attack and Hurricane, which doesn't work on Gilgamesh but does work on Enkidu himself. You can have Enkidu Hurricane himself and add a second attack to get rid of the beast-man. Boosted Bio spells and Titan's Gaia's Wrath (also boosted) are pretty much your most potent magical attacks. If you have a Ninja with two Twin Lances, he'll be unrivaled in damage output. Heavy Armor characters get the short end of the stick here; they'll need to be Berserkers with the Two-Handed ability to deal enough damage (though it'll surpass all other attacks if it gets the maximum power in), but every time Earthquake appears it'll be a fairly weak attack which won't even hit Enkidu. Without Twin Lances, your Clothes characters won't be that awesome; you'll want to resort to the Hayate Bow, Barehanded or !Throw. If you kill Enkidu before Gilgamesh, the latter will give a little speech before ending the battle. "Enkidu! Faithful sidekick! I trust you can take care of the rest! Faithful sidekick? ...Enkidu? Hey! Sidekicks are NOT to ditch the hero!" You can use a combination of Dark Spark (once) and Level 5 Death to kill Gilgamesh before Enkidu manages to arrive in the first place, which the game never anticipated; Gilgamesh' sprite will be gone, but his voice will appear and give the above "Enkidu! Faithful sidekick!" speech to and about nobody in particular. Fun stuff, but you lose out on the Enkidu Bestiary entry if that's something you care about. Releasing an Aquathorn, Mixing a Death Potion, using the Killerbow and having it trigger the instant-kill or having a Death Sickle pull off its random Death spell also work here. At the end of the fight it almost looks like Gilgamesh gains the upper hand, but the Wind Drake and Xezat combine efforts to help you out of your pickle. It's time for a counter-attack on one of the barrier towers; now that we know Exdeath is aware of our location, there's no day like Today. You can rest if you want to. When you're done, the left room in the flagship's interior is where Xezat is waiting for you. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.32.3 Xezat of Ice; the barrier tower **********************************

Opponents: Neon (#106), Magnetite (#107), Reflect Knight (#108), Traveler (#109), Level Tricker (#110), Gravitator (#111), Ziggurat Gigas (#112), Red Dragon (#133), Yellow Dragon (#134), Atomos (#276) Container contents: 9000 Gil, 18000 Gil, Blood Sword, Gold Hairpin Miscellaneous items: Reflect Ring (rare drop from Reflect Knight), Partisan (rare steal from Zigguart Gigas), Coral Ring (rare drop from Yellow Dragon), Flame Ring (rare steal from Red Dragon), Dark Matter (guaranteed Atomos drop) Blue spells: Flash, Time Slip, Level 2 Old, Level 3 Flare, Level 4 Graviga, Level 5 Death, Off-Guard Ground floor, 2nd Floor: 35 % Neon 35 % Traveler, Neon x 2 23 % Reflect Knight 6 % Traveler, Reflect Knight, Magnetite Note: since the Barrier Tower is such a vertical challenge, its contents are best listed in a floor-by-floor fashion. I will give encounters and monster descriptions as they become relevant. I've always found this area one of the more challenging locations the games offers; it's not so much that the monsters are difficult, it's just that there's no all-round way of dealing strong damage to all opponents. Titan is powerful but doesn't hit Travelers, Ziggurat Gigas' and Magnetites. Twin Lances are powerful ST damage dealers but sometimes miss. Reflect Knights take little damage from physical attacks and reflect magical ones. Bleh. Hey, at least there's a lot to find and learn here. The plan here is simple. The barrier tower itself, obviously, is also protected by a barrier. Not a magical one though; an electric barrier. Xezat attacks the generator to lift the electric barrier and expose the antenna; when that happens, you destroy it. In the meantime, you can keep in contact through the Whisperweed. Now, Xezat takes off; you can return to the submarine at any given time if you so please (you get back to the flagship where you can find the Wind Drake, but there's really no reason for you to do so). Onto the monsters! Neons are silly. They respond to physical attacks with the Flash spell, so don't. They don't have an elemental weakness, but Titan has little problems

with them and they don't have a lot of HP regardless. They're NOT weak to Iceor Wind-elemental elemental attacks, mind, unlike the Crew Dust you faced in the Fire-Powered Ship. Magnetite are agile little bastards that use the Magnet attack to pull any character into the Front Row. They're not too dangerous but just damn difficult to dispatch. They nullify Earth-elemental attacks so Titan's a no-go. They're weak to Lightning-elemental attacks; Ramuh's boosted Judgment Bolt works like a charm, as do Lightning Scrolls. Reflect Knights are annoying; they're quite sturdy on the Defense and have an inherent Reflect ability. Gaia's Wrath is the key to their defeat. Other magical attacks that ignore Reflect (Succubus Kiss, Judgment Bolt, Aqua Breath) also work. Note that Comet and Drain ignore the Reflect status as well. They rarely drop Reflect Rings, which are grand to pick up. I suggest you get four of 'em if you can be bothered; in many challenges, getting four Reflect Rings is a must. Travelers are silly witches that float over Gaia's Wrath like it's nothing. They randomly use Time Slip, an ST attack which sets Old and Sleep on a target. Your Blue Mages can learn this attack; you could wait for a lucky hit from Traveler's random AI script or simply Control one. They rarely drop Dream Harps: AWESOME (kidding). The best thing about boosting Earth-elemental attacks? It's done by robes! So you can boost Gaia's Wrath AND Ramuh's Judgment Bolt. You should do just that. Whenever Magnetites appear, summon Ramuh to kill them off, it's really the best thing to do about them. Gaia's Wrath to deal with Reflect Knights, Neon thingies and Level Trickers you'll see later. All the rest you'll have to do with physicals. It's not that hard, just takes a little longer than you're used to. The second floor houses a Save Point. Continue up. There are two chests here; one in your path and one you'll have to go around for. The latter contains a Blood Sword but is protected by either a single Red Dragon or two Yellow Dragons, both of which are powerful enough to give specific strategies for. I'd personally go for the Red Dragon in order to learn Level 3 Flare and get a guaranteed Flame Ring. Make sure one of your characters' levels is divisible by 3, otherwise trying to learn Level 3 Flare will be a wasted effort. You can use Dark Spark and/or !Mix potions that raise level to manipulate a target's level into becoming divisible by 3. Also note that you can run from these battles; you won't get the item from the chest, but you CAN steal items, run and fight the enemy again. This means unlimited Flame Rings if you so desire! You'll be forced to shoot for a Chicken Knife, but the thing's more powerful anyway :/ Before you open the chest, make sure you're fully healed as Red Dragon can open with an Atomic Ray attack before you even get to move; it can deal up to 650

damage to all characters, and double that to a Bone Mail enthusiast. Red Dragon Level: 30, HP: 7500, MP: 1000 Defense: 12, Magic Defense: 8 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 5% Steal: Flame Ring (rare), Hi-Potion (common) Win: Elixir (rare) Absorbs: Fire Weakness: Ice, Earth, Water Creature: Dragon, Undead, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Death, Poison, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop, Regen Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Atomic Ray Red Dragon: Not only is the Red Dragon a formidable foe, you'll also want to learn Level 3 Flare from it and probably want to obtain a Flame Ring, meaning you'll have to get in there with !Mix, !Control and Learning for Level 3 Flare and !Time and !Steal for the Flame Ring. The Red Dragon can use Atomic Ray to do anywhere between 400 and 600 damage (around 1200 to a Bone Mail character) to all targets. It's got a lot of HP and its physicals are brutal. It's Undead, so the Requiem is very powerful, and it's weak to Ice-, Water- AND Earth-elemental attacks so Blizzara Spellblade effects, Gaia's Wrath and the Gaia Hammer all deliver a lot of damage. You can Stop them as well. Control the Red Dragon. Steal and cast Return until you've got the Flame Ring you want. Now, we'll want to learn Level 3 Flare. It will need to bounce back onto a Learning character from a Reflect barrier, which we can only set at this stage of the game by the Mix outcome Dragon Defense (Phoenix Down + Dragon Fang), or !Release a Neon and have it use Reflect on a character with a Reflect Ring, thus setting Reflect on the Red Dragon. When Reflect is set on the Red Dragon, have it cast Level 3 Flare and revive the fallen. You may want to use !Jump or !Hide to have some character(s) survive if all characters could be hit by the attack; dealing over 2200 damage, it WILL kill. Yellow Dragon x2 Level: 38, HP: 8500, MP: 1000 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 5 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Thunder Rod (rare), Ether (common) Win: Coral Ring (rare) Absorbs: Lightning Creature: Dragon Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Death, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop

Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Lightning Yellow Dragons: They're easier for three reasons; they're not Undead, so the Death Sickle can dispatch them. They're not Heavy, so Missile, Gravity and Death Claw all work. Also, you don't really want anything from them but death, so you don't need to fiddle around. You'll definitely want to bring Control into the battle. Romeo's Ballad can Stop both, which is very helpful. When Controlled, they can use Hurricane on one and other (which works). You'll want to work fast with Yellow Dragons; their successive Lightning attacks are very, very nasty. They'll use Lightning when Released too, so you'll want to Catch one or both for the boss at the end of the tower. You're lucky if you can take a Coral Ring from this fight as a rare drop, but don't count on it. The Blood Sword is a Knightsword that drains HP, but it has an abysmal Hit Rate (25 %). Knightswords can only be equipped by Knights, if you must know. In addition, the damage formula used by the Blood Sword is not the normal Sword damage formula which depends on your Strength and the target's Defense, but it's the same one used by a normal Drain spell; the damage done by the Blood Sword depends on the wielder's Magic Power and the target's Magic Defense. In addition, it ignores Row! You could set a Mage's Magic Power to the Knight for increased damage, but then you'd have no way of making it hit often. You can combine it with !Aim to make in unblockable, which allows your Knight to restore around 500 HP every attack. !Rapid Fire also makes the blade get a perfect hit rate and unlike normal weapons the damage done isn't halved per strike! I'm not counting on you having the ability yet. Since the Blood Sword's listed Battle Power is quite impressive, it makes for a great Goblin Punch sword; the Blood Sword's boost to Magic Power will come in handy for those with a Blue spelllist. Mainly, the Blood Sword is just a novelty weapon. The Flame Ring makes the wearer absorb Fire-elemental attacks, nullify Iceelemental ones and take double damage from Water-elemental attacks. They grant superior Magic Defense than everything you have at this point and even superior Defense to the sissy Power Armlets your Mages were stuck with when it came to Defense. Flame Ring versus Elven Mantle is a tough one; I'd still go with Elven Mantle since I'm a sucker for physical evasion (especially on mages) but the Flame Ring certainly has its merits. Fira, for instance, becomes a superior form of healing to Cura when everybody is draped in Flame Rings; it's more powerful and a Bone Mail wearer is also healed (the Flame Ring's absorption overrides the weakness coming from the Bone Mail). In addition, Rangers with Flame Bows can now function as healers for themselves... 3rd Floor: 35 % Neon x 3 35 % Magnetite x 2, Reflect Knight x 2 23 % Traveler, Gravitator 6 % Level Tricker x 3

4th Floor: 35 % Traveler, Neon x 2 35 % Reflect Knight 23 % Traveler, Reflect Knight, Magnetite 6 % Level Tricker x 2, Traveler 5th Floor: 35 % Magnetite x 2, Reflect Knight x 2 35 % Traveler, Gravitator 23 % Level Tricker x 3 6 % Gravitator, Reflect Knight, Magnetite 6th Floor: 35 % Reflect Knight 35 % Traveler, Reflect Knight, Magnetite 23 % Level Tricker x 2, Traveler 6 % Gravitator, Reflect Knight, Level Tricker Level Trickers will attack physically and use Level 4 Graviga every turn. If you missed it earlier, pick it up here. Also, Level 5 Death and Level 2 Old are in its Control menu, so if you've got the levels to learn either, please do. You'll need to make the attack bounce off Dragon Defense (Dragon Fang + Phoenix Down, sets Regen, Protect, Shell and Reflect), but then you're in business. You can also Release a Neon; if it casts Reflect on a character with a Reflect Ring, the Reflect spell will bounce off to a random enemy. Another example of Exdeath's monster horde, Gravitators are wizards which employ, you know, gravity-based attacks. Whoever came up with the idea that gravity equals percentage-based damage should be hit. Anyway, you'll want to kill them before their Gravity and Graviga spells are becoming too much of a bother. Not interesting. Rarely drops Gaia Gear. Up you go! The monster formation packs change all the time, but nothing you'll really notice. You'll go past a chest containing 18000 Gil on the 6th floor, you can't miss it. A brief cutscene will disrupt your steady climbing on the 7th. 7th Floor: 35 % Traveler, Gravitator 35 % Level Tricker x 3 23 % Gravitator, Reflect Knight, Magnetite 6 % Ziggurat Gigas 8th Floor: 35 % Traveler, Reflect Knight, Magnetite 35 % Level Tricker, Traveler 23 % Gravitator, Reflect Knight, Level Tricker 6 % Ziggurat Gigas, Magnetite x 2

9th Floor: 35 % Level Tricker x 3 35 % Gravitator, Reflect Knight, Magnetite 23 % Ziggurat Gigas 6 % Ziggurat Gigas x 2, Magnetite Ziggurat Gigas are the most formidable opponents the Barrier Tower has to offer. They may use Hurricane whenever they feel like it, use Off-Guard to lower your defenses and their physicals are quite brutal. You can rarely steal a Partisan from these guys. They have no common steal, so it's a doable option; you can disable them with Confuse, Stop, Sleep, Darkness, everything except for Toad and Mini. If you never learned Off-Guard from Page 256 in the Library of the Ancients, you can do so here. The Partisan is a good bit stronger than the Javelin and the most powerful one-handed weapon you have at the moment, should you want to give your Freelancers some love. On the ninth floor, take the left door before going through the right one. Here, another chest is guarded by either a Red Dragon or two Yellow Dragons. Again, make sure you can survive a Red Dragon's initial Atomic Ray (around 650 Fireelemental damage) before opening the chest, or it's an instant Game Over. If you got everything you wanted from the Red Dragon earlier (four Flame Rings and Level 3 Flare), try going for two Yellow Dragons here. Catch one or both, and maybe you'll get to take a Coral Ring home. Coral Rings are similar to Flame Rings, only their elemental properties differ. Coral Rings allow you to absorb Water-elemental attacks, nullify Fire-elemental ones and make the wearer weak to Lightning-elemental attacks. While overall less useful than the Flame Rings, there will be a fight in the future for which four Coral Rings nothing short of a necessity. The contents on the chest consist out of Gold Hairpin. This helmet can only be worn by Mages. It adds no Defense and only 2 Magic Defense, but it has a rad special property: the MP cost of spells cast by a character with the Gold Hairpin equipped is cut by 50 %. Especially Summoners can take advantage of this treat as Titan is rather heavy on the MP. 10th Floor: 35 % Level Tricker x 2, Traveler 35 % Gravitator, Reflect Knight, Level Tricker 23 % Ziggurat Gigas, Magnetite x 2 6 % Neon Top Floor: 35 % Gravitator, Reflect Knight, Magnetite 35 % Ziggurat Gigas 23 % Ziggurat Gigas x 2, Magnetite

6 % Neon x 3 There's a Save Point on the 10th Floor, use it to Save. When you arrive at the top floor, Xezat will contact you again. Things darken a little then. "You think it'll be that easy? Think again! Now pay...with your blood!" ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.32.4 The fight with Atomos ********************************** Atomos Level: 41, HP: 19997, MP: 10000 Defense: 14, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 20% Steal: Flail (rare), Ether (common) Win: Dark Matter (always) Status: Haste Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Sleep Attacks: Gravity, Graviga, Slowga, Old, Comet Atomos is a bastard, but not too tough of a fight when you see past the fact he can kill two characters in a single round regardless of your defenses. But he won't do it very often. Honest. Whenever all four characters are alive, he'll cast Comet once or twice. Whenever a character is down (petrified works too, though there's no reason to cast it on yourself and Atomos certainly won't do it for you), he'll pull them in his direction. When directly in front of Atomos, he'll use an attack called Wormhole to remove them from the battlefield. In the meantime, he'll use some minor Time magic spells but none of them are too threatening. Old is annoying, quickly heal with Esuna; Slowga is the worst, set Haste to override the status if possible. There are three things you can do. First off, Atomos is vulnerable to Sleep, so cast the Sleep spell, cast Time Slip or utilize Sleep Spellblade effects to take advantage of the fact. Since the magical attacks miss on occasion, the Spellblade strategy is best. In addition, pounding the ever-living crap out of Atomos works as well: you should be able to kill him off before he uses Wormhole once. If you don't think you're going to make it, revive the fallen character and hope Atomos kills another party member this time. Since Atomos is Hasted the entire battle, he moves quickly. Haste is theoretically removable, but Atomos is immune to Slow (which would remove Haste) and you can't cast Dispel yet.

A somewhat nice strategy that works is using Dark Spark to lower Atomos' level to 20, then use Level 5 Death to kill the thing in a single hit. Dark Spark won't hit often, though. Bio spells are very powerful, as is Gaia's Wrath. Dual Twin Lances and a TwoHanded Berserker deals significant damage (might wanna give him a Poison Axe rather than a Gaia Hammer; the former doesn't have the annoying tendency to deal out that weak Earthquake attack). A Ninja with two Twin Lances backed up with Barehanded is a menace in this fight, you'll love it. The Mix outcome Succubus Kiss also deals a LOT of damage (in the neighborhood of 3000), so that's nice. Releasing a Yellow Dragon I told you about deals 4999 damage, which is enough to warrant the use of a Beastmaster. Barehanded helps the dominator out when he's made his first impact. Keep Atomos snoozing, deal your damage and you'll easily live through this fight. For a bit of trivia, Atomos made a re-appearance as a summon monster later in Final Fantasy IX and was even given an appearance in a CG video (it's massive and destroys windows). While the mission objective has been reached, it's the end of the road for Xezat of Ice. And so, another Warrior of Dawn falls... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.33.1 The town of Moore ********************************** Opponents: Cure Beast (#115), Land Turtle (#116), Dechirer (#117) Container contents: Main Gauche Features: Piano You've got the liberty of sea-travel again, and rest assured the submarine grants access to a few places hitherto out of your reach. If you take the submarine to the surface and walk over the Exdeath's Castle, you'll find Xezat's troops there. The door is locked and unbreakable, so no progress past this point yet. Maybe Sage Ghido knows something? Note that the Wind Drake touched land close to the now-exploded Barrier Tower, with the fleet gone and all. If you ever want to visit some old locations, you can use the Wind Drake; none of the locations I'm going to discuss now are accessible with the Wind Drake.

There's a few locations you can visit. You could travel to Surgate Castle and hear the rage and sadness of its inhabitants, but it doesn't help you. You could take the Wind Drake who waits for you on shore to Quelb and inform Kelger, but all you bring is sadness. Kelger: I see... Xezat has fallen... No, we set out to find Ghido a while ago, and now is the time to approach him. Krile's still urging us to go, so he must somehow still be alive; perhaps the cave took an air bubble with it while it sank, who knows. Maybe it's a sea turtle? However, there's a few things to be done before finding Ghido. We should go to Moore, western-most white dot on the World Map. If you travel east, you may pass a big dark crack in the sea floor; you cannot interact with it now, but 'tis of significant importance. Around Moore, there are forests filled with new random encounters! Forests: 35 % Dechirer x5 35 % Cure Beast, Land Turtle x2 30 % Cure Beast x4 Grasslands: 70 % Dechirer x5 23 % Cure Beast x4 6 % Land Turtle x3 The Cure Beasts and Land Turtles were already swarming the grasslands surrounding Surgate Castle, so those aren't new. Dechirer (French for 'to tear up') absorb Lightning and fall quickly to Level 5 Death. When you Catch them, they produce a Level 3 Flare spell, but you can't learn Blue spells from Released monsters. The town itself is so good, so blessed, so majestic that the word 'Mooregasm' is not unheard of in certain circles. There's little to do here; it's just a town covering its awesome new equipment and spell selection. There's a Main Gauche hidden in one of the barrels left of the Pub; just for evasive purposes, but still a decent blade. Know, by the way, that two Main Gauches do not stack as far as physical evasion is concerned. Speaking of Pubs, there's a Piano here! Play it! What you hear now is probably the most famous piece of music played in the game, it being the Alla Turca by Mozart. "A piano virtuoso indeed!!! ...After a bit more practice, anyway." Weapon Shop:

Air Knife 3400 Gil Elven Bow 6400 Gil The Elven Bow, if you have one or more Hayate Bows, is incredibly useless in every sense of the word. What IS of note, though, is that the Elven Bow has a 15% chance of inflicting a Critical Hit, hitherto unheard of with Bows. This does not make it better than the Hayate Bow, but it is neat. The Air Knife, is awesome. Why? Because it boosts the thus far nigh-unboostable Wind-elemental attacks! This is especially good news since we're not far from obtaining Aeroga, the strongest Blue Wind-elemental attack. Buy them for your Mages and Clothes characters, they'll like them. I'm not sure what makes an Air Knife an Air Knife, though. Maybe the blade is made out of air, but I guess that would just make it a handle. Armor Shop: Diamond Shield 6000 Gil Diamond Helm 7000 Gil Tiger Mask 5000 Gil Sage's Miter 3000 Gil Diamond Armor 8000 Gil Diamond Plate 6000 Gil Luminous Robe 4000 Gil Diamond Armlet 4000 Gil Not much to say here, really. There's upgrades for everybody. You decide if you want to keep the Lamia's Tiaras or take up on the Sage's Miter. The latter has more Defense, the former more Magic Defense, gives a slightly greater Magic Power boost and protects against Confuse. I'd say go with the Tiara. Diamond Armlets should be useless amidst all the Genji Gloves, Elven Mantles and Flame Rings. Magic Shop (White): Curaga 6000 Gil Reflect 6000 Gil Berserk 6000 Gil Blink 3000 Gil Shell 3000 Gil Esuna 3000 Gil This is so sweet. I know you're excited. Buy them all, and use them with gusto. Curaga is, when MT'd, just a stronger Cura. ST, it will simply restore a character's HP back to full. When Curaga is cast on an Undead target, it will see its HP reduced to a single digit. Reflect causes a bunch of spells to bounce from the affected target to the other party. Both offensive and beneficial spells, that is. Most of the spells you can cast are vulnerable to Reflect; chapter 8.1.20 lists them in detail. Berserk just sets Berserk. If Gil is an issue, Curaga and Berserk are more important than Reflect, but see what you need; you can already set both Berserk and Reflect with !Mix. Magic Shop (Black):

Firaga 6000 Gil Blizzaga 6000 Gil Thundaga 6000 Gil Drain 3000 Gil Break 3000 Gil Bio 3000 Gil The new 3rd tier spells all transfer to Spellblade as well. As Black Magic these're just very powerful. You can ditch the Poison Rod for the rest of the game and switch back to the weaker ones which boost the primary elements. On Spellblade effects, the elemental spells are a bit different from the others; when the target is vulnerable to the element and not Heavy, the Spellblade effect will simply kill the target in a single hit, disregarding damage output. If you're short on Gil at this point, consider getting only one of the level 5 spells here; as far as weaknesses in the upcoming parts goes, there really isn't much difference. Magic Shop (Time): Graviga 6000 Gil Hastega 6000 Gil Old 6000 Gil Comet 3000 Gil Slowga 3000 Gil Return 3000 Gil Especially Hastega is nice, as it sets Haste to all character. Graviga reduces the HP of a non-Heavy target by 87.5 %. Old sets Old! Get the others anyway if you have Gil to spare, which is unlikely at this point. Item Shop: Hi-Potion Potion Phoenix Down Gold Needle Maiden's Kiss Mallet Eye Drops Antidote

360 Gil 40 Gil 1000 Gil 150 Gil 60 Gil 50 Gil 20 Gil 30 Gil

Ether 1500 Gil Holy Water 150 Gil Cottage 600 Gil Goliath Tonic 110 Gil Power Drink 110 Gil Speed Shake 110 Gil Iron Draft 110 Gil Hero Cocktail 110 Gil You may want to Mix some Death Potions in the future, so make sure you're not short on Phoenix Down. In addition, if you want to detour for another Summon

spell, you'll see some petrification action, so more than a few Gold Needles won't hurt. Seriously, the petrification will be all over the place. This town's a hole. Get out. Now, get in yo' submarine and travel to the north where a new summon monster is waiting. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.34.1 The fight with Catoblepas ********************************** Opponents: Cure Beast (#115), Land Turtle (#116), Dechirer (#117), Druid (#176), Ironback (#177), Catoblepas (#281) Miscellaneous items: Angel Ring (rare Druid steal), Catoblepas (guaranteed Catoblepas drop) Summon spells: Catoblepas Blue spells: Dark Spark "Well, I was up there, and this huge eye started glaring at me! It's amazing I made it back alive!" With the submarine, travel to the northern-most white dot on the World Map. You should find a cave here; take the submarine there to find yourself in the Sea Floor Cave. Sea Floor Cave: 35 % Druid x 3 35 % Druid, Ironback 30 % Ironback x 3 There are two kinds of enemies here. Druids are magical adepts; they can slow you down with Web and weaken you with Dischord. They can also use Magnet and Image, an attack that makes them evade the next two physical attacks altogether. Their most dangerous attack is Encircle, which removes a character from battle. They have a rare Angel Ring steal, which is part of the reason you're here. You can Control them to have them cast Dark Spark on you if you wanna. The Ironbacks are massive beasts with incredible physical force and impressive defense. They should be weakened with Toad, Sleep, Flash or the like immediately. Their elemental weakness is Ice, so take advantage of that. They have an extremely strong !Release attack, so get one or more. A single Released

Ironback one-shots the boss we're here to face; they're extremely easy to catch with a Kornago Gourd character and a single casting of Level 4 Graviga. Flash and Pond's Chorus cripple them easily, as does Death Claw. The Angel Ring is much more of a protective Accessory than the elemental rings are. Superior Magic Defense by far, superior Defense and immunity to two of the most crippling status ailments in the game, Old and Zombie. Nice. I suggest it as THE Accessory at this point in the game, surpassing the elemental rings, Elven Mantles and Genji Gloves. To be short, get four Angel Rings and Catch an Ironback to use versus Catoblepas if you're so inclined. Level 4 Graviga can be used on both Druid and Ironback enemies, so that's useful for weakening Ironbacks and other kinds of violence. Northern Lake Forest: 35 % Catoblepas --> Dechirer, Land Turtle, Cure Beast x 2 35 % Dechirer, Land Turtle, Cure Beast x 2 30 % Dechirer x 5 Tiny bits of grassland: 35 % Land Turtle 35 % Cure Beast, Land Turtle x2 30 % Cure Beast x4 Back on the Map, there's nothing there. Sure, a Chocobo forest, but the only Chocobo present is a female, so we can't ride her. That's not the kind of logic I grew up with, amiright guyz? Guyz? ... the thing we're looking for is Catoblepas, a random encounter. You'll randomly encounter it. Catoblepas Level: 38, HP: 5000, MP: 500 Defense: 20, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Phoenix Down (rare) Win: Catoblepas (always) Creature: Dragon, Heavy, Magic Beast Specialty: !Rush Specialty Effect: Paralyze Vulnerable to: Poison, Stop Attacks: Battle, Drain, Evil Eye

Here's the eye! It's a pig. The pig is dangerous. It'll randomly attack physically and cast Drain, but its biggest annoyance is its Evil Eye attack, which it directs against everything that deals HP damage to it. The Ribbon protects against Petrify, but that's about it. The best you can do is prepare with Gold Needles. Summon Golem to protect against physicals. You can't really do anything about his Drain spell other than draining his MP, which a few successive Magic Hammer spells can accomplish. Drain deals around 300 damage, so you can easily outheal it. Even then, Evil Eye still lurks. You can simply skip to whoever deals the most damage to this guy. When Catoblepas counters this attack with Evil Eye, quickly restore the softness with a Gold Needle or Esuna with one of the three back-up characters. You won't lose this battle. Another option is casting Poison on his and simply waiting. He'll attack you all the while, but after 16 turns he'll definitely be dead and Evil Eye never made an appearance. Releasing an Ironback will deal anywhere between 5400 and 6000 damage, instantly killing Cato. This is useful! I suggest Catching another Ironback for the future. The next boss fight won't really need an Ironback, but being able to dish out that kind of damage at whatever level really is kinda useful. Anyway, you get the Catoblepas item after the battle. It teaches your Summoner to summon him in battle. It's simply an ST Petrify-inducing attack like Break was, but Catoblepas' Demon Eye is more accurate, ignores the Reflect status and looks cooler. It's also much more MP-costly. When you're done (also with the Angel Rings?), it's really really time to go visit Ghido. He's waiting for us and Krile's headache probably bothers her. It's right there in the middle of your World Map. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.35.1 Our brilliant leader: the great Sage Ghido ********************************** Opponents: Dark Aspic (#113), Metamorph (#114) Miscellaneous items: Staff of Light (rare Metamoprh drop) Blue spells: Pond's Chorus, Aeroga, Flash, Vampire

First room, B2, B3: 35 % Metamorph (Shiva, Cait Sith, Elf Toad) 35 % Dark Aspic x 2 23 % Metamorph (Ifrit, Wyvern, Enchanted Fan) 6 % Dark Aspic x 4 The first room with hidden passages (officially still B3): 35 % Metamorph (Ifrit, Wyvern, Enchanted Fan) 35 % Metamorph (Shiva, Cait Sith, Elf Toad) 23 % Dark Aspic x 2 6 % Dark Aspic x 4 All others: 35 % Metamorph (Shiva, Cait Sith, Elf Toad) 35 % Metamorph (Ramuh, Crew Dust, Zombie Dragon) 23 % Metamorph (Ramuh, Crew Dust, Zombie Dragon) 6 % Dark Aspic x 4 Dark Aspic attacks physically and may use Vampire to restore lost HP. A Flame Scroll or Ifrit's Inferno should take them all out. They're not that interesting. Metamorph just sits there and takes abuse until he transforms into one of the three different forms that particular Metamorph you're facing can morph into. He'll use an attack based on his form and then revert. The attacks are these: Shiva: Blizzara Cait Sith: !Catscratch (unblockable, pierces Defense) Elf Toad: Pond's Chorus Ifrit: Blaze Wyvern: Breath Wing Enchanted Fan: Aeroga Ramuh: Lightning Crew Dust: Flash Zombie Dragon: Zombie Breath M. won't keep his Wind-elemental weakness when morphed. Metamorph may rarely drop a Staff of Light, but only when you kill him in his 'normal' form. Make sure to try and learn Aeroga from Metamorph's Enchanted Fan form; it's the 3rd tier Wind-elemental spell and the Blue Mage's most consistent means of powerful damage output in the game. Boosted with Air Knives (or the Wind Slash katana), they'll rip Metamorphs to shreds. Be wary of the Zombie Dragon form; Zombie Breath can deal up to 950 damage and turns all that it kills into Zombies (unless the target is protected by Angel Rings). The Staff of Light deals a little Holy-elemental damage and has the ability to cast the Holy spell when used as an item. It breaks when releasing the light

inside. The Staff of Light is the best option for the White Mage easily, and has use on Time Mages and Chemists since it boosts Magic Power. I find myself going for physical evasion (Main Gauche) instead, but your experiences may differ. Get a Ninja and have them Throw Flame Scrolls; you no longer worry about Dark Aspic encounters. Those who can summon Ifrit will also do. What's left is the Metamorph. The Air Knife, Dragoon's Wind Lance and the Aeroga spell are your ticket to Wind-elemental attacks. Note that strangely, the Samurai's Wind Slash katana is, itself, not Wind-elemental. The random Gale Cut attack is, however, and the katana can be used to boost Wind-elemental attacks such as Aera and Aeroga. Any character using the Geomancer's !Gaia has a shot at Wind Slash, which can also be boosted by the Air Knife. When picking a random number between 0 and the !Gaia user's level, any result between 21 and 50 will net you Wind Slash. Since the other attacks are also useful (Will o' the Wisp may set Confuse on Metamorph, Stalactite deals solid damage), !Gaia is a good action ability here. Just walk on until you come in a room with one full chest, four empty ones and a lot of closed doors. Taking a heavy stone out of the middle chest closes the door you came through, but putting it any of the empty chests opens another one. 1 2 5 3 4 Take the stone from #5 and deposit it in #1. Walk into the newly opened door, push the button to open a new path and return. Take the stone from #1 and put it in #3. Continue to find yourself in what appears to be a dead end. There's a hidden passage to the south which is not of the kind you do or do not see with Find Passages; you'll see the thing when you get near. It leads to a skull switch; flip it open a new passage leading further down into the cave. Down here, a few caves are connected with the same kind of passages, you'll see them easily. Spelunking, that's what you're doing now. It continues like this for a while until you see a turtle in a pond. Diving in will take you to see the great Sage Ghido, old and wise leader of this world's resistance versus Exdeath. "By the briny beard of Neptune!" Note that Guido's derogatory tone is absent from the original game, and was implemented for fun by the GBA remake team; it was not a bad choice. When you've taken the Guardian Branch with you, you can return to the submarine. If you have yet to obtain a Staff of Light or have another reason to

linger, do so. Else, you can cast Teleport to find yourself in the submarine again. The Forest of Moore, strangely, is near the town of Moore. I took you there earlier, so I won't discuss Moore again. If you feel the need to read up again, go back to section 4.33.1 or something. This is a good time to purchase things you lacked the finances for earlier. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.35.2 The Great Forest of Moore ********************************** Opponents: Mini Magician (#118), Galajelly (#119), Mammon (#120), Imp (#121), Wyrm (#122), (Crystal) (#277), (Crystal) (#278), (Crystal) (#279), (Crystal) (#280) Container contents: 2500 Gil, 4900 Gil, 9500 Gil, Ether, Phoenix Down, Cottage, Goliath Tonic, Morning Star, Elixir, Aegis Shield OR Flame Shield, Ash, Flametongue Miscellaneous items: Ash (rare (Crystal) drop), Dragon Fang (rare Wyrm drop), Elixir (rare (Crystal) steal) Blue pells: Lilliputian Lyric, Aera, Aeroga, Aqua Breath Entrance: 35 % Galajelly x 3 35 % Galajelly x 2, Mini Magician x 2 23 % Mammon x 3, Mini Magician x 2 6 % Mammon x 2, Galajelly x 2, Mini Magician Middle part: 35 % Mammon x 3, Mini Magician x 2 35 % Mammon x 2, Galajelly x 2, Mini Magician 23 % Imp x 2 6 % Imp, Mammon x 2, Galajelly Roots: 35 % Wyrm 35 % Wyrm, Mini Magician x 2 30 % Mini Magician x 6 Final part: 35 % Imp, Mammon x 2, Galajelly 35 % Imp x 2, Galajelly, Mini Magician

23 % Wyrm 6 % Wyrm, Mini Magician The Great Forest of Moore is the birthplace of Exdeath, and a dark maze of intelligent trees. Tree spirits may open paths for you, but you'll need to find them first. And even with the Guardian Branch, there are many creatures in the forest who don't take too kindly to strangers. Mini Magicians must never be Confused, as they will cast spells such as Return (hassle) and Mute (bad for you). They may randomly cast Lilliputian Lyric, a Blue spell, similar to Pond's Chorus, which sets Mini. Well, why not. You can't Control them for it, so you'll have to wait and be patient. They will use it every third turn. You can have your White Mage heal Mini with the Mini spell or use the so-far useless Mallet. Galajelly absorbs every element except Wind, and has crazy Evasion ratings. Aero spells are powerful enough, even MT'd, to kill them. !Gaia attacks always off them too, even Leaf Swirl. They have an attack called Rainbow Wind that sets both Darkness AND Silence, rendering a character incapable of both physical and most magical attacks. Mammon, like the Treants you saw earlier, like to cast the Berserk spell on themselves. Their physical onslaught is not very scary, and they are weak to Fire-elemental attacks. Imp! I hate the Imp. They are fairly sturdy since they have no elemental weaknesses and have 2000 HP. Also, they may cast Confuse on characters, which is annoying. Especially versus the Imps it is nice to be able to inflict Stop or Confuse status all the time. They are not very interesting at all, they just suck. Wyrms may look intimidating, but are not so. Physicals to disregard? Breath Wing very rarely? Puh-leaze. You and me, we eat these babies for dinner and then some. It is a Dragon. I've got a great strategy 4 u. All the monsters here are vulnerable to Romeo's Ballad, so have one character who can !Sing use it at all times. Have the other three attack, preferably with options that don't consume anything. Consider !Gaia as an easy way of dealing damage for the mages without using MP; though considerably weaker in terms of damage output, you'll suffer from *very* few hits in the Great Forest as long as you keep Romeo's Ballad up, so the speed of the battle isn't that important. Blue magic comes in read handy versus Galajelly encounters; Titan is a powerful attack versus all the other enemies here. This is a long-ass walk through the park for you, so if you are adamant about Black Mages and Summoners, prepare to use Ethers and the like. If you possess

the !Mix ability, using a Lilith's Kiss (Ether + Maiden's Kiss) will restore all the MP a target has (Imps top the chart with 200), or simply !Mix a Turtle Shell and a Potion to create a 80 MP restoring Ether. Flame Scrolls are handy versus Mammons and, coming from sufficient Magic Power, able to kill Mini Magicians in a single hit as well. Enter the forest. Dead ahead is a chest containing 2500 Gil. To the right is a tree with a hole in it; this is where a tree's spirit can be found. Next to the three is a chest with an Ether. Get the Ether and interact with the tree go gain passage. Beneath the tree's roots, you travel to a new part of the forest. Going up, bending to the right for a few tiles, you'll come across a chest with 4900 Gil. Keep to the top edge and walk to the right to find a Phoenix Down in a chest surrounded by flowers. Continue following the top border to the right, but pass up a tree with a hole in it and continue. Eventually, there's a chest with 9500 Gil. Now, return to the spirit tree and open the new passageway. You clearly see a chest when you surface; it contains a Cottage. All the way to the right is a chest containing a Goliath Tonic. Go all the way up from there and find a special Save Point, which you might need by now. From there, go to the left, up and a little up again; there's a chest with an Elixir. Now, go all the way up and stick to the right side until you encounter a chest with a Morning Star. This is some kind of super-Flail; it deals physical damage and combines with Two-Handed. It's for everybody who uses Staves. Even with Two-Handed, damage isn't impressive. Now, go to the left. Suddenly, a disaster strikes. There's not really anywhere you can go. There's a chest here containing an Aegis Shield. If you wait for a very slight while, you'll be able to pick up a Flame Shield instead. Neither picking up the Aegis Shield nor the Flame Shield has any influence on your Treasure %. The Flame Shield gives 7 Defense, 40 % Evade, 5 Magic Defense and allows the wearer to absorb Fire-elemental attacks. The Aegis Shield gives only 5 Defense, 33 % Evade, no Magic Defense and merely protects against the Petrify status ailment. However, the Aegis Shield make a similar check to magical attack as the Main Gauche does for physicals. 33 % of any blockable magical attack misses a character with the Aegis Shield equipped. There is no such thing as 'unblockable' when it comes to the Aegis Shield; especially if you have Flame Rings, the Aegis Shield is probably the better choice. If you pick the Aegis Shield or not, eventually a Moogle will pop up. Drop down and wait until the fire has raged out. You can restore your HP/MP in the water. Go up to see the disastrous results of Exdeath's forest genocide. There's the chest again; you can pick up the Flame Shield now if you didn't pick the Aegis

Shield earlier. Burned forest: 35 % Galajelly x 3 35 % Galajelly x 2, Mini Magician x 2 23 % Mammon x 3, Mini Magician x 2 6 % Mammon x 2, Galajelly x 2, Mini Magician Simply go to the left now that leaves and shadows are no longer blocking your vision. Get some Ash from a treasure chest. Ash can be Thrown, but it'll do pathetic damage and has no other use (at least, in the Super Famicom and PSX versions; it can be used with !Combine in FFVA). To the south there's an exit which'll take you to the Overworld Map. To the far left there's a Knightsword called the Flametongue; it's a Fire-elemental sword that's actually rather powerful. Note that a Knight with a Flametongue and a Flame Ring or Flame Shield can heal him- or herself. Also note that these Knights should be in the Front Row, as when they're in the Back Row they'll only deal 25% damage to themselves :/ Pressing on to the north will get you to the Guardian Tree. Enter, please. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.35.3 The fight against the Guardians ********************************** ? Level: 77, HP: 7777, MP: 10000 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 20% Steal: Elixir (rare) Win: Ash (rare) Absorbs: its respective element, Nullifies: Holy, Poison, Lightning, Ice Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Darkness, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical Attack, Firaga / Aeroga / Aqua Breath / Earth Shaker This fight has four targets. They represent the elements of the crystals; each target possesses a single element. This target absorbs that element and will use an elemental attack accordingly when weakened. Below 3000 HP, the Fire Guardian will cast Firaga, the Water Guardian will cast Aqua Breath, the Earth Guardian uses Earth Shaker and the Wind Guardian casts Aeroga. All attacks are always used on the entire party. The Guardians are laid out like this: Fire

Wind Water Earth The key to their defeat lies in the lack of Heavy nature and vulnerability to the Death status. The Mix outcome Death Potion (Phoenix Down + Dark Matter) instantly kills a Guardian. Death Claw also works, although the Guardians' high level will make sure Death Claw will often miss. In the meantime, you can cast Slowga to lessen their amount of attacks, summon Golem to protect you from their physical abuse and blind the Guardians with the Flash spell. Flash may also miss, and the Mix outcome Dark Sigh (Eye Drops + Dragon Fang) sets Darkness disregarding their evasion, but if you're using !Mix than there's no reason not to instantly kill them anyway unless you don't have enough Dark Matter. If you don't have the ingredients or ability to create Death Potions and can't use Death Claw, this fight is a bit harder. Reflect Rings protect you from Firaga and Aeroga, and you can cast Float beforehand to avoid Earth Shaker (Float bounces off the Reflect Rings as well). If you need healing, you can Mix an Ether with some Eye Drops to gain a Resist Fire potion that will make the afflicted character absorb the Firaga spells. All that's left is Aqua Breath. Make sure to the set up the described protection barriers and cast Hastega to speed yourself up. Now, you'll want to make absolutely sure to pick on one target at the same time. You'll never be able to sustain your life when all four targets are using their elemental attacks. Use Graviga, Missile, dual Twin Lances, Succubus Kiss, Two-Handed Flametonque, boosted Firaga and boosted Aeroga; as long as you make sure the element is not absorbed by the target you're attacking, it'll work well. The fight isn't too hard, you can just maneuver yourself in a situation where you'll be VERY killed VERY quickly if you don't watch out. In the end, it seems we've made a bit of a slip-up there. Exdeath arrives to assume domination of the crystals of this world; the very crystals we've granted it access to. Krile comes to rescue us from Exdeath's torment only to find herself as a target of Exdeath's force as well. In a display both heroic and foolish, Galuf fights back the power of one of the crystals, shattering it. The effects of this act will have to be seen; for now, Galuf faces Exdeath, alone. Galuf will never die in this battle, though he'll remain at 0 HP for most of it. If he gains HP back, you'll see the Sap status in effect, which is continuous throughout the battle. If Galuf uses Self-Destruct, Transfusion or TNT (a !Mix outcome), the battle will end automatically. Exdeath will have to take 7000 damage before it'll get angered and casts the three ultimate spell from the main magic schools: the Black Flare spell, the White Holy spell and the Time Meteor spell. After that, damaging Exdeath three times will end the battle.

...

And thus, Galuf Halm Baldesion fell, and so did the world weep. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.36.1 The fight with the Gil Turtle; get rich or die tryin' ********************************** Opponents: Undergrounder (#98), Gil Turtle (#282) Miscellaneous items: 10 Gil, 20 Gil, 40 Gil, 80 Gil, 160 Gil, 320 Gil, 640 Gil, 1280 Gil, 2560 Gil, 5120 Gil, 10240 Gil, 20480 Gil, 40960 Gil It's a harsh transition between Galuf's demise and the order of everyday, but as so often the world does not stop to mourn a single death. Exdeath must pay, but there's more to do. Mainly, since the end of the next dungeon will mean a BIG change in your options, this section is an overview of what you can still do here. There's a side-quest to be done which cannot be done later but is so special it's not like normal side-quests. Basically, all you get from it is a LOT of Gil, and the only thing you have to do is punch a turtle. I shouldn't forget to mention that this turtle is an undead demonic Testudine with the strength of a thousand evil armies and almost impenetrable defenses. It's also poisonous. Most parties won't be able to defeat it, and even if you followed everything I've told you so far. Gil Turtle is an extremely powerful opponent which requires you to utilize special tactics to take him down. Should you want to travel between Castle Bal and Castle Exdeath, you could take the Wind Drake and make a detour over Drakenvale and Quelb. However, a more direct route takes you through Gil Cave, of which the entrances lie east of Castle Bal and south-west of the Big Bridge. Here, only Undergrounder's appear; giant centipedes which attack with physical attacks and Earthquake, an MT Earth- elemental attack which you can avoid with Float. Level 4 Graviga can be used to quickly put a dent in all Undergrounder's HP, then finish with whatever. In the middle of the path under the mountains is a pathway downwards which eventually curls upwards to a door. There's a bit where you can't see your lead character, but as soon as you can see him or her again, every tile will award you with Gil! Every step will get you twice the amount the previous tile rewarded you with. None of these pieces o' gold count towards your Treausre %. However, only the sun is free these days and for every step you take there's a chance Gil Turtle will attack you. He'll only attack you when you pick up Gil,

so on the way back he won't make a showing. But oh, when he does make a showing... Gil Turtle Level: 57, HP: 32768, MP: 8000 Defense: 40, Magic Defense: 55 Evasion: 40%, Magic Evasion: 40% Steal: Potion (rare), Hi-Potion (common) Absorbs: Water, Wind, Earth, Poison, Lightning, Fire Nullifies: Holy Weakness: Ice Status: Protect, Shell Creature: Undead, Heavy Specialty: !Turtle Specialty Effect: sets Darkness, Poison and Confuse Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Battle, !Turtle, Earthquake Gil Turtle's AI script is simple and effective. He's fast like greased lightning and attacks physically every turn. When damaged by whatever, he'll counter with !Turtle, which deals the same amount of brutal physical damage and sets Darkness and Poison. He counters every attack you send flying at him with two !Turtle attacks. When defeated, he'll use an Earthquake attack which deals around 3500 damage to the entire party. If you're not Floating, you die. Cast Float beforehand, I suppose. The strategy here depends a little on luck. His weakness is Ice, and that's what we'll have to exploit in order to defeat the thing. Boosted Blizzaga spells and Blizzaga spellblade effects are your best options on the offense; Requiem and Level 3 Flare also deal damage though quite a lot less. The key to your protection is the fact that whatever Gil Turtle is throwing at you, however, intimidatingly powerful, are simply blockable physical attacks. Also, Gil Turtle's fast and will decimate you if you're loitering, but his true strength is his dual !Turtle omni-counter. This means that you can relatively safely boost your own strength in the meantime. Equip Main Gauches and Elven Mantles; you've got two of the former and three of the latter if you picked up everything so far. Evasion is far superior to defense in this battle. The White Blink spell and the Ninja's !Image ability both grant the affected character the prospect of dodging the next two physical attacks, and Golem's Earthen Wall stops his attacks as well. With Golem, a few images and your own enhanced evasive abilities, Gil Turlte will get in precious few hits. Set up the above and cast Hastega. Now, have every character capable of dealing significant damage do so. If a character is not capable of making a large impact (say, you've made a Time Mage with !Summon to support the party) just

use Defense rather than deal a little damage, as Gil Turtle's counterattacks aren't worth it. Keep healing, reviving and damaging and you should be able to outpower Gil Turtle. Note that once you leave the area behind the door, the tiles reset. Again, the first tile contains 10 Gil, the last tile contains 40960 Gil and Gil Turtle may appear whenever it feels like it. Infinite amounts of money, sure, but one trip gets you 81910 Gil which already is a all the Gil you'll be spending in the future so there's really no good reason to do it all again. Kelger: "Xezat...and Galuf... It seems I am all that remains of the Dawn Warriors... How ironic - the oldest and weakest of we four is the only one who still lives..." Ghido will also have some pricess advice for you if you bother to seek him out at this point: Ghido: "Exdeath is returning to his castle. Defeat him before it's too late!" In Castle Bal, everybody dislikes Exdeath. This is because it killed their king. The same goes for Surgate Castle, where all the soldiers mourn the death of King Xezat. Since so many wounded soldiers return from the siege on Exdeath's Castle, the Inn is needed as a hospital and you can't use it. If you never entered the Sealed Castle of Kuza, and you take your team there, a bug will occur: the doesn't take into account that Krile replaced Galuf in your team, so Galuf will still talk about the history of the castle. Like I said, at the end of the next dungeon comes a big change for you. Make sure you got the following; if you miss some stuff and care to see if you can still get it, please do. White: Blink, Shell, Esuna, Curaga, Reflect, Berserk Black: Drain, Break, Bio, Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga Time: Float, Teleport, Comet, Slowga, Return, Graviga, Hastega, Old Summon: Golem, Catoblepas Blue: Aqua Breath Level 5 Death Level 4 Graviga Level 2 Old Pond's Chorus Lilliputian Lyric

Level 3 Flare Flash

Time Slip Death Claw Aera Aeroga Flame Thrower Goblin Punch Dark Spark Off-Guard Transfusion Vampire Magic Hammer Self-Destruct ??? 1000 Needles White Wind Missile Songs: Requiem, Swift Song Pianos: Regole, Moore Noteworthy items: Those Staves of Light that are a rare drop from Metamorph are something to consider; past this point it's a rare steal from a boss and then it's all over as far as Staves of Light go. Best to get one now if you don't have it yet. Special treasures: There's really not that much you could have left behind. Found the treasures in the Moogle Village? Collected enough Dragon Fangs for the upcoming dungeon? Did you ever get the Kornago Gourd? Obtained the Swift Song and all? Stolen enough Twin Lances? Bestiary (52%): Normal enemies: #70 - #122 (exception #87), #176 and #177 Aquatic enemies: Boss enemies: #266 - #282 Just for funsies, version 2, here's an example of one of my teams at the moment:

LV 5 Knight LV 2 Monk LV 1 Dragoon LV 4 Samurai LV 1 Berserker LV 2 Ranger LV 2 Mystic Knight LV 3 Blue Mage Still mainly a heavy armor kinda guy, but Bartz is branching out into the world. A Ranger dip for !Aim, and I got !Blue for him. Goblin Punch and his HP-based attacks work well on a slow, strong hitter; Goblin Punch is unblockable when accuracy is of the essence. The Dragoon and Mystic Knight are more or less wasted ABP to be honest, as they don't teach anything funky they can't do better themselves.

Eventually, Bartz will have to learn !Rapid Fire, Dual-Wield and master Monk, Thief and Oracle and he is working on NONE of those things at this point. Oh, well. Lenna: LV 3 Black Mage LV 6 Time Mage LV 5 Summoner LV 3 Blue Mage LV 3 Red Mage LV 2 Geomancer LV 2 Chemist LV 1 Ranger LV 2 Dancer Does things from the Back Row with Magic Power. Maxed out Summoner early so for the rest of her career, she's got the option to maximize Magic on herself. !Dance is 50% Magic-based, as is !Mix on some very rare occasions. What could be missing here is !Sing, I suppose... Working on Black Mage at the moment, which explains the arbitrary stop at LV 3 there. In the future lies the dreaded path to !Dualcast, but learning to master the four schools of magic comes first. Krile: LV 4 White Mage LV 6 Black Mage LV 5 Time Mage LV 1 Summoner LV 3 Blue Mage LV 3 Red Mage LV 2 Chemist LV 1 Geomancer LV 3 Bard *** LV 1 Ranger Another spellslinger, Krile has !Sing instead of !Summon 5. Mastered Bard even, but it was an accident, I promise. Working White Magic here... with the exception of !Summon 5 not a single magic skillset take precedence over another since if you want a magic skillset, you just become the appropriate Job and set another one to complement it. She'll be a !Dualcaster like Lenna in the future, but not now. Faris:

LV 2 Monk LV 5 Thief LV 4 Ninja LV 2 Ranger LV 3 Beastmaster A short list, but most ABP disappeared into the Ninja class for Dual-Wield. Not quite there yet since I refuse to go out of my way for it, but being a Ninja is not a punishment. Faris walks around and either has !Control or Barehanded, depends on the dungeon. She walks around as a Thief until I know I've got all items I want. Like Bartz, Faris will become a !Rapid Fire, Dual-Wield monkey for me; she's getting there already, so I basically traded using Heavy Armor Jobs on Bartz NOW for reaching limit-breaking abilities earlier. I stand by that choice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.37.1 Castle Exdeath 1; ascension and the fight with Carbuncle ********************************** Opponents: Twin Lizard (#123), Blind Wolf (#124), Hellraiser (#125), Reflect Mage (#126), Magic Dragon (#127), Black Warlock (#128), Adamantite Golem (#129), Bandercoeurl (#130), Iron Fist (#131), Blue Dragon (#132), Red Dragon (#133), Yellow Dragon (#134), Imp (Ex) (-), Oiseaurare (Ex) (-), Jackanapes (Ex) (-), Abductor (Ex) (-), Carbuncle (#283), Gilgamesh (#284), Exdeath (#285) Container contents: 8000 Gil, 9900 Gil, Diamond Shield, Elixir x 2, Ether, Fuma Shuriken, Ice Shield, Hayate Bow, Icebrand, Kotetsu, Partisan, Twin Lance Miscellaneous items: Spear (rare Shell Bear steal), Reflect Ring (rare steal from Reflect Mage, common steal from Carbuncle), Power Staff (rare drop from Black Warlock), Judgment Staff (rare steal from Black Warlock), Beast Killer (rare steal from Iron Fist), Flame Ring (rare steal from Red Dragon), Excalipoor (guaranteed Gilgamesh drop), Genji Helm (common steal from Gilgamesh) Spells: White Wind, Aeroga, Off-Guard, Level 2 Old, Magic Hammer, Moon Flute, Level 3 Flare, Lilliputian Lyric, Pond's Chorus, Time Slip, Flash, Doom Ground Floor behind Save Point: 35 % Bandercoeurl, Blind Wolf x 2 35 % Iron Fist x 2 23 % Red Dragon, Blue Dragon

6 % Red Dragon 2nd Floor: 35 % Twin Lizard x 2 35 % Blind Wolf x 5 23 % Reflect Mage, Blind Wolf x 2, Twin Lizard 6 % Reflect Mage x 3 3rd Floor (illusion): 35 % Blind Wolf x 5 35 % Twin Lizard x 2, Blind Wolf, Hellraiser 23 % Reflect Mage, Blind Wolf x 2, Twin Lizard 6 % Reflect Mage x 3 A TASK OF H E R O E S As soon as you enter, the armies of Surgate lie defeated before you. None of them posed any challenge to Exdeath. However, your powers have improved greatly since the last time you got whipped by a band of pirates, so you shouldn't count this situation as proof you stand no chance either. In the basement, Shell Bears and Tarantulas still roam the place. If you never got that Spear from the Shell Bears, get one now or lose it forever. That water past the Save Point can still function as a Recovery Spring, which might aid you. If you go up, new monsters will start appearing. Ready for this? The Twin Lizards you encounter here are exactly like their counterparts you met near Jachol and on Crescent Island all these millennia ago, only a bit stronger. Weak to Ice-elemental attacks, no special properties. Blind Wolves are inherently affected by Darkness; they are, in fact, blind. However, they do manage to land a hit on occasion, and when the hit in question is their !Tusk attack it'll set Darkness on you as well. They only have 900 HP and are weak to Fire-elemental attacks; any serious attempt at multi-target violence will kill them, especially a conjuration of Ifrit. Hellraisers are restorative bunnies like the Cure Beasts you encountered earlier. However, they will simply attack physically until they die, at which point they'll cast Arise on a random target that isn't them. When the target in question was Dead, they'll be revived with full HP. If not, Arise will do nothing. Hellraisers can be Silenced, Stopped, Paralyzed and Berserked to prevent Arise from being cast. Reflect Mage use Fire, Fira, Blizzard, Blizzara, Thunder and Thundara on themselves. These attacks are weak, and the Reflect Mages themselves are frail. Just don't try to attack them with magical spells that bounce off. Also, make sure never to Confuse them (which basically means, never whip out an Alluring Air) as the Reflect Mages will now start casting Slowga and Thundaga on the

enemy party, which bounces off unto you. Gaia's Wrath and physical attacks are grand versus them. They have a rare Reflect Ring steal, which is a much more reliable source than the Reflect Knight's rare drop. Make sure to get four of them! This is quite easy, since they have no common Steal item; Time Slip disables them for the duration of the fight and pierces Reflect. This dungeon is awesome, seriously. A lot of interesting and tough monsters, and all Jobs (much like the flying ruins of Lonka) are pretty much balanced so there's no quick way to defeat the opponents. In addition, all enemies here give really notable amounts of Experience and ABP so you may actually want to go for abilities such as !Rapid Fire and Dual Wield. Heavy Armor characters will notice that the Dragoon and Berserker both didn't get any better since you left Bartz' homeworld; you're still wielding the Gaia Hammer, and the Partisan is not much more powerful than the Javelin you stole before you even got a Dragoon in the first place. This makes them noteably less powerful than the Knight (whose Icebrand and Flametongue swords can be swapped around mid-battle for elemental might) and the Samurai catches up just before the final boss of this dungeon. Mage characters will see !Black re-appearing as the ultimate offensive force. Titan is still very useful for crowd control, Golem is a good idea even versus some random encounters (such as fighting dragons) and Catoblepas sees a few uses in the dungeon. Going up will get you to the second floor. Two chests here; the left one contains an Ether, the right one a Diamond Shield. Both should be pretty useless by now. On the third floor, you'll run into a dead end. An old friend helps us out, showing us the true form of Exdeath's castle. Gross. The Warriors of Dawn are dead. 3rd Floor (illusion lifted): 35 % Twin Lizard x 2, Blind Wolf, Hellraiser 35 % Twin Lizard x 2 30 % Reflect Mage x 3 4th Floor & 10th Floor: 35 % Magic Dragon 35 % Magic Dragon, Twin Lizard, Reflect Mage 23 % Magic Dragon x 3, Hellraiser, Blind Wolf 6 % Black Warlock Magic Dragons are neat. They're sturdy (having 2900 HP) and cast three Blue spells you may not have at this point: Aeroga, Off-Guard and Level 2 Old. Learn all three if you haven't. Magic Dragons are weak to Poison- and Wind-elemental

attacks, so Bio and Aeroga (both can be boosted) kill them off relatively quickly. Level 3 Flare and Level 4 Graviga also work like a charm. Black Warlocks are your source for neat staves, and are quite dangerous in addition. They have a rare Judgment Staff you can steal, and drop a rare Power Staff when killed. They largely use annoyer tactics when they're not alone; Confuse, Drain, Stop and Slowga is what they'll cast in addition to using physical attacks. When alone though, the Black Warlock will tap into its darkest arts and start using Death, Break and Banish. Banish sets Death, by the way, to non-Heavy targets. These vile mages can be Confused, Stopped and Silenced, all of which is a good idea; Level 3 Flare can be used for damage. You really want that Judgment Staff; it's a better weapon than the Staff of Light since it boosts Magic Power by 3 instead of 2, and it can be used as an item to cast Dispel. When used in this fashion, it does NOT break, effectively giving you access to the Dispel spell through this Staff. It can be used to remove the inherent Protect and Shell status on Gil Turtle, making hurting it two times as easy. The Power Staff sets Battle Power to 0 and casts Berserk instead of dealing damage. Mildly useless. When Stealing, Time Slip, Sleep and Stop can be used to keep the Black Warlock subdued and not have it cast instant death spells all the time. On the fourth floor, there's a metallic switch on the wall you'll need to flip in order to get to a chest containing an Ice Shield, the best normal defensive shield so far. It equals the Flame Shield in every way, though it absorbs Ice rather than Fire (big surprise there). Better for random encounters than any other option, though I'd still go for Aegis Shield versus bosses. This is also the first floor you can encounter Black Warlocks. 5th Floor, 11th Floor: 35 % Black Warlock x 2 35 % Black Warlock x 2, Reflect Mage 23 % Adamantite Golem, Hellraiser x 3 6 % Adamantite Golem x 2 Adamantite Golem are what you'd expect. They attack physically with great strength and take hits well. They're weak to Lightning-elemental attacks (which is odd; Adamantite in our world equals Diamond, and Diamond equipment halves damage done by Lightning. Oh well, shucks if I care) and can be instantly dispatched by a Gold Needle like all stone-based monsters. They make this dungeon's best Catch/Release monster for random encounters as well, performing a powerful physical attack. On the fifth floor, there's a hidden passage that is nothing but a shortcut. Featureless in all other regards. 6th Floor, 12th Floor:

35 % Adamantite Golem x 2 35 % Adamantite Golem, Black Warlock, Reflect Mage 23 % Bandercoeurl x 2, Black Warlock 6 % Bandercoeurl, Blind Wolf x 2 Bandercoeurl...hey, did you know that the Coeurl is a fictional alien race of predators created by the late science fiction novelist A. E. van Vogt (1912-2000)? It's true. Within the Final Fantasy series, they're feared for their spellcasting abilities, most notably their tendency for Death-setting attacks which they employ with their large whiskers. These Bandercoeurls don't have visible whiskers, but they DO have the Blaster attack they can use. This attack targets a single character and either sets Paralyze (good) or Death (bad). They're weak to Fire-elemental attacks. The sixth floor has lava! You can access the chest containing an Elixir without much problems, but to get to the hidden chest containing a Hayate Bow you need to cross the lava. The Geomancer's Light Step ability or casting Float on the entire party will save you from pain and ridicule. Get into the lava at whatever descenscion that's closest to you and get into the bottom-right corner. There's a hidden passage taking you straight to the chest. 7th Floor: 35 % Bandercoeurl, Blind Wolf x 2 35 % Iron Fist x 2 23 % Red Dragon, Blue Dragon 6 % Red Dragon You've met the Red and Yellow variety (probably), but the Blue Dragon is a new one. Blue Dragon Level: 38, HP: 6900, MP: 1000 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 5 Evasion: 20%, Magic Evasion: 30% Steal: Cottage (rare), Dragon Fang (common) Win: Dragon Fang (rare) Absorbs: Ice Nullifies: Earth Status: Float (always) Creature: Dragon Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Poison, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Frost, Ice Storm This Ice-elemental dragon has no elemental weaknesses but uses and absorbs

Ice-elemental attacks. Frost and Ice Storm are both powerful MT Ice-elemental attacks, and the Blue Dragon may also attack physically. With 6900 HP, it'll be a while before you can kill it with straight attacks. Ice Storm is an extremely powerful attack that can deal around 550 damage to all characters, and Frost will deal around 250 damage to all characters while setting Sap. Your Ice Shield makes one character absorb that damage, and Flame Rings will negate the damage as well. The Blue Dragon is vulnerable to Death, Petrify and Stop and lacks a Heavy nature, so while you can keep them at bay with Romeo's Ballad and the like, Break, Break Spellblade effects and Catoblepas' Demon Eye can instantly kill them. Break Spellblade effects are best, since Blue Dragons will avoid many blockable spells sent their way. You can steal common Dragon Fangs from them. The Red Dragon was a powerful guardian of two Barrier Tower chests earlier, but now that they're random encounters they haven't weakened in the slightest. You'll be a bit more fit to take them on head-to-head, but they can still pose a good amount of problems. If you haven't learned Level 3 Flare yet, a combination of !Control and the Reflect spell (see the Barrier Tower section for more info) can net you the spell. Boosted Blizzaga spells are extremely powerful versus the Red Dragon, else Requiem and Gaia's Wrath also get the job done. As you should still know, they attack with physical attacks and Atomic Ray, an MT Fire- elemental attack. Iron Fists simply attack physically and may counter your Attacks with a 33 % chance of using !Counter, which is unblockable, ignores Defense and sets HP Leak, so don't let them. They're kinda weak for all their bad-assery when it comes to looks. They also take double damage from the big three, Fire, Ice and Lightning. You can rarely steal Beast Killers from these cretins, stronger Whips for your Beastmasters. Beast Killers always deal a critical hit to creatures with the Magic Beast nature, which include (in this dungeon) Twin Lizards, Blind Wolves, Hellraisers, Rage, Magic Dragons, Bandercoeurls and Carbuncle. The seventh floor: a mini-game! But first, know that from the 7th to the 9th floor, you'll be encountering the elemental dragons. You can't really do anything against the Yellow Dragon's Lightning, but the Flame Ring absorbs Atomic Ray and nullifies Frost and Ice Storm, so you should swap to those if you have the items. As for abilities and such, !Sing, !Control and !Summon are all grand. Anyway, there are two chests here, one path you'll need to take to continue, and walls. Stand on the skull tile to send the bridge hurrying across the hole. Press the action button to stop the thing. When you hit a wall, a monster comes out! The left chest contains an Icebrand (an Ice-elemental Knightsword) and the right chest contains a Kotetsu Katana. Both are nice to have. Note that the Icebrand can be used in tandem with an Ice Shield to heal a target.

12 34 1: Abductor or Imp 2: Oiseaurare or Abductor 3: Jackanapes or Abductor 4: Abductor or Imp Note that these are not the exact same monsters you encounter someplace else in the game; Oiseaurare, for example, won't have that awesome rare steal you'll be able to get later, nor will any fight you complete here make an addition to your Bestiary. They perform much like their counterparts, though. Should you want to walk back, standing on the skull tile on the other end will instantly put the bridge in the right position for you to walk over. There's a Save Point here, leading you to a room where dragons roam. There are powerful creatures you'll definitely want to prepare for. !Control is awesome, and equipping Flame Rings helps protect against Blaze, Frost and Ice Storm. To the right is a hidden passage leading to a chest with an Elixir, to the left is a chest with 9900 Gil. 8th Floor: 35 % Adamantite Golem, Black Warlock, Reflect Mage 35 % Yellow Dragon 23 % Red Dragon 6 % Red Dragon, Blue Dragon 9th Floor: 35 % Iron Fist x 2, Black Warlock 35 % Yellow Dragon x 2 23 % Blue Dragon x 3 6 % Adamantite Golem, Hellraiser x 3 Yellow Dragons lack elemental weaknesses, but also the Heavy property. Make sure you can exploit this weakness, as the fact they can continuously spam Lightning is a recipe for disaster (though those with Diamond equipment will only take half damage). Throw Death Potions, Dark Elixirs, Death Claw, Missile, !Flirt, Graviga around like it's nobodies business. Romeo's Ballad can Stop them, which is nice. Yellow Dragons make a grand !Catch versus the final battle of this dungeon, by the way; Lightning deals 25 % maximum HP, and the boss has quite a lot of it. If you can pick up a Coral Ring after the fight that'd be grand, but in my opinion shooting for four Coral Rings is simply too bothersome (fighting Gil Turtle so you can buy four later is less of a bother). The ninth and tenth floor will have you alternating often. This is where Iron Fists start appearing. They have a rare Beast Killer Whip for stealing, a Whip which may randomly Paralyze the target (like so many Whips) but will also

always deal a critical hit to Magic Beasts, making them quite powerful. Go up and down again to find yourself in a room full of lava. Again, Light Step or Float are a must here. Walk to the far right and go up the stairs to grab the chest containing 8000 Gil. Go back and go up the other stairway open to you. To the left lies a field with skull tiles, rigged with trap floors. The Geomancer's Find Pits is the only thing that allows you to spot them before you tumble down. 2 xxx x00xx xxxxxxx 1x0x0xxx4 xxxxx0x xxx0x xxx 3 1: Entry point 2: Warp tile to Carbuncle 3: Tile to re-connect passageway 4: Chest with Twin Lance 0: Trap floor To the far right is a chest containing a Twin Lance. If you want to continue, take the bottom skull tile; if you want to get your hands on a new summon beast, take the top one. You'll be warped straight to Carbuncle, whose form may surprise. If you have less than four Reflect Rings, send in a Thief! "I'll join you - if you're stronger than me. Come on, show me what you got!" Carbuncle Level: 44, HP: 15000, MP: 10000 Defense: 50, Magic Defense: 50 Evasion: 70%, Magic Evasion: 50% Steal: Goliath Tonic (rare), Reflect Ring (common)** Win: Turtle Shell (rare) Nullifies: Earth Status: Float, Reflect (always) Creature: Heavy, Magic Beast Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Petrify*, Toad*, Mini*, Poison*, Darkness, Old*, Sleep*, Paralyze*, Confuse*, Silence, Stop*, Slow Attacks: Cura, Fira, Blizzara, Thundara, Bio, Stop, Confuse, Break, Banish, Death

*: only when in healing form **: you can steal succesfully from both forms Carbuncle will cast any of the Black -ra spells for three turns... on himself. Since these spell bounce off, they'll hit one of your characters instead. After three offensive spells, he'll turn into another monster. Not that you'll see this happening; he just does. This other form - I'll call it his healing form will cast Cura on himself with rather pitiful effects. In this form, he stops Floating, his Reflect barrier is gone, he's weak to all elements and vulnerable to a LOT more status ailments (as described above). The turn after Cura, he'll change back into his normal, hard-to-damage self and he will start casting three more offensive spells. When below 10000 HP, he'll cast Bio, Stop and Confuse. When below 3000 HP, he'll cast Break, Banish and Death, easily the most dangerous spells he could use. Here's the deal. Carbuncle is almost impossible to damage by any large extent. His Defense and Magic Defense both are extremely high, he has no elemental weaknesses, is immune to Titan's Gaia's Wrath and is inherently Reflective. However, his healing form is when the getting's good. He'll drop a lot of status immunities, his Heavy nature and his Reflect status His defensive and evasive properties will plummet; he'll just keep 10% Evasion and a bit of Defense. You'll just have to sit back and heal and buff up when Carbuncle is in his offensive mode. Casting Shell on all characters really helps. Flame Rings protect against Fira and Blizzara, so that's a good thing. Silence Spellblade effects will keep Carbuncle from casting spells, but since his Evade is rather high you might want to combine !Aim or !Rapid Fire with !Spellblade to make sure it hits. You can take the opportunity to steal a Reflect Ring from the fiend. When Carbuncle has cast Cura, act quickly. If you got the options available to you, Carbuncle should never reach his offensive state again. Since Carbuncle's healing form is another monster altogehter as far as the game is concerned, you'll also be able to nab the items of the healing form Carbuncle, which include another common Reflect Ring and a rare Goliath Tonic. Missile, Graviga, Death Claw and Dark Elixir all work all of a sudden. You can use Romeo's Ballad, Alluring Air, Stop or Sleep to prevent Carbuncle from ever leaving this weakened state. Now, pound on him. Break and Break spellblade effects end the battle instantly. Now that Carbuncle lost his Heavy nature and has gained a weakness against all elements, Spellblade effects of Bio and the -aga spells also kill him instantly. A Dark Elixir or Death Claw followed by the slightest of attacks kills him. Boosted -aga spells deliver massive damage. The battle should be over as soon as you saw Cura appear. Carbuncle, as a Summon, will set Reflect to all allies; note that Carbuncle is

a level 4 Summon spell, so those with level 3 !Summon won't be able to conjure him. When you're done, descend. You'll get onto another skull warp tile. Get back to the skull tile platform, avoid the pitfalls, stand on the bottom tile and continue. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.37.2 The fourth fight with Gilgamesh ********************************** There's a Save Point here, which you'll want to use. On the eleventh floor, there's a prominent chest in the middle of the room. If you try to open it, you'll be forced to fight Gilgamesh again. If you don't, you can avoid the battle, but you'll also miss out on the three pieces of Genji equipment you haven't obtained yet. I'd definitely open the chest. Not now, though; to the right is a stairway going up to two chests containing a Fuma Shuriken and a Partisan (lame). To continue, pick the chest (or not) and walk up the stairs only to be halted by the general of Exdeath's army (or not). "Enough expository banter! Now we fight like men! And ladies! And ladies who dress like men!" Gilgamesh Level: 53, HP: 55000, MP: 2000 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 15 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 30% Steal: Gauntlet/Nothing* (rare), Hi-Potion/Genji Helm* (common) Win: Excalipoor (always) Status: Float Creature: Humanoid, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical Attack, Dischord, Lilliputian Lyric, Dancehall Daze, Flash, Hurricane, Pond's Chorus, Time Slip, Rocket Punch *: When morphed That's a LOT of HP Gilgamesh has, but know that he'll have written has own death sentence once he starts yappin', which is starts when you have dealt around 13000 HP worth of damage. Gilgamesh' strategy relies mostly on setting annoying status ailments and weakening you while attacking with physical attacks. He'll use all attacks more or less randomly, so I won't bother listing his exact AI script. Summon Golem's Earthen Wall and cast Hastega to push the battle considerably in

your odds. Wearing Bone Mail or a Ribbon really helps in this battle as they'll stop most everything Gilgamesh uses to annoy you. You CAN'T steal the Genji Helm just yet; this'll come later. If you're looking for a good way to damage Gilgamesh, boosted Black -aga spells are by far the best way to damage Gilly. Dual Twin Lances also get the job done nicely. Your Heavy Armor character(s) will have to sit back and be happy with dealing less damage; Two-Handed Icebrand or Two-Handed Greatsword with Drain Spellblade effects are probably your best options. After taking enough damage, Gilgamesh will start talking. You can actually stop dealing damage now; he'll go through his lines every turn now, adding insult to injury every time. In the middle of his speech, he'll transform into his eightarmed ultra form and attack you with one of the twelve weapons from the Sealed Castle of Kuza, the Excalibur. Now that Gilgamesh is morphed, go for the steal! He's got a common Genji Helm this time. Keep defending and healing until what turns out to be a common enemy takes care of the fight. The Excalipoor is an odd weapon. It has 100 Battle Power, yet deals 1 damage? The truth is that the Excalipoor is actually a very weak weapon, dealing 1 damage every hit. However, its power when used with Goblin Punch or when Thrown is the listed 100, so for both you could utilize the weapon. A 100 Battle Power Goblin Punch or even a 200 Battle Power Goblin Punch (with Two-Handed) isn't that powerful, though; when paired with Barehanded to boost Strength, it does become a fair force to be reckoned with; another option would be a Knight with !Blue. The Genji Helm is just a very good helmet that also protects against the Mini and Confuse status ailments. Continue. On the 13th floor, an unlucky number, does the dark mage Exdeath try to destroy yet another world by breaking its foundations. Its goals are unknown, but the effects of its actions are not. It has caused the deaths and destruction of more things precious than your heart can manage to sum up. It must pay; this must be the end of his conquests; it must be destroyed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.37.3 The fight with the dark warlock Exdeath ********************************** "Believe what you wish. Simple-minded fools such as yourselves could never hope to understand my motives. It matters not. I will tolerate no more interruptions!" Exdeath Level: 66, HP: 32768, MP: 32768 Defense: 25, Magic Defense: 25 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 85% Steal: Judgment Staff (rare), Elixir (common)

Nullifies: Poison Weakness: Holy Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Vacuum Wave Specialty Effect: 150 % damage, adds the Sap status Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Battle, !Vacuum Wave, Dispel, Bio, Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Doom, Level 3 Flare, Haste, Gravity, Meteor, Reverse Polarity, 100 Gs, Blaze, Earth Shaker, Hurricane, Zombie Breath Exdeath will be a supreme test of your strength and wisdom; its HP is by far the highest of any enemy you've had to defeat so far, and its attacks vary greatly. Its broad array of attacks are employed when it starts off. You've seen most of them, though Exdeath uses them with great effect. Doom is a Blue spell you can learn from the fiend; it sets a Countdown on a target. When the countdown reaches 0, the target dies. Doom doesn't work on Heavy targets. 100 Gs removes the Float status. Zombie Breath is an MT barrier-piercing non-elemental attack which, should it kill any of your characters, turns it into a Zombie. If the character is wearing an Angel Ring or is otherwise protected against the Zombie status ailment, he or she will just die. So, y'know, good news there. The effects of Doom are annoying, and there's no way to get rid of it. It's possible to defeat Exdeath before the timer runs out, but you'll need to be powerful indeed. Setting Haste on any person with a Countdown will halve the number (setting Slow will double it), but that shouldn't stop you from using Hastega. If you really want to learn it now, Return is a good spell for that; since Exdeath will cast Doom 66% of the time on his first turn but almost never later in the battle, you could simply cast Return until he has cast Doom on your Learning character. Alternatively, you could cast Return until Exdeath starts off with a physical attack to circumvent Doom altogether. When Exdeath hits 16000 HP (around halfway), it'll get more offensive but also more linear. It'll use physical attacks, !Vacuum Wave and the -aga spells only, though it'll often take two actions in a row. In this stage, a combination of Golem's Earthen Wall or the Image status and the Reflect status completely nullify all of its attempts of damaging you. When reaching 7000 HP, it'll seriously weaken and stop taking two actions in a row; as a last resort, it'll try his hand on the ultimate Time magic, Meteor. This is an extremely powerful attack that hits four times four random targets on your side for powerful barrier-piercing non-elemental damage. Reflect status is ignored by Meteor. An interesting point is that Exdeath here was supposed to have inherent Regen set, but it isn't active in this battle. Its regenerative abilities are even an important plot point if you remember the reason he was sealed in Bartz' world

in the first place; oh well. There are a few tactics you can use. Heavy Armor characters, I'm sad to say, won't be all that useful in this fight. Their physical attacks will cause Exdeath to cast Dispel more often than is necessary. Their damage will be subpar. Mystic Knights with Dual-Wield or Two-Handed can cast Drain on their weapons and become self-sustaining throughout the fight. !Blue is a worthwhile ability on Knights and such; White Wind and Goblin Punch benefit greatly, Vampire, Dark Spark and Off-Guard are nice benefits as well. Yes! Mages are the best in this fight. Boosted -aga spells deal around 2000 damage. When you have a party covered in the Reflect status (Reflect Rings or Caruncle's Ruby Light) you can cast the spell on all four targets. 3000 damage divided by two (due to MT casting) but bounced off to Exdeath four times (due to there being four targets) equals a lot of damage. This also works with the Blue Aeroga spell, only even boosted this'll get you 1500/3000 damage-ish. Anybody with the !Mix ability also is able to deal a lot of damage, and this one doesn't depend on the Reflect status. First, drink a Goliath Tonic. If you lack the !Drink command, you can mix an Elixir with a Dragon Fang for the same result. Now, mix a Dragon Fang with some Holy Water to produce the Holy Breath attack, a Holy-elemental attack that deals as much damage as the caster has at that point. Your characters temporarily bloated amount of HP paired together with the fact Holy Breath deals double damage as it's Holy-elemental... again, around 4000 damage. This works best on those with high Stamina, so Monks are ideal for this. !Mix also grants you the ability to revive fallen characters completely healed (both HP and MP) by combining a Potion with a Phoenix Down, and completely heal themselves with a Succubus Kiss (Turtle Shell + Maiden's Kiss). !Mix really rocks, never forget it. Clothes characters can keep themselves busy in this battle, sure. First, the Beastmaster's !Catch ability allowed it to capture a Yellow Dragon before the fight. When released, its Lightning attack will deal exactly 25 % of Exdeath's maximum HP, being 8192. You could even - when you disregard the party ethics I've been wanting you to follow - have four Beastmasters release four Yellow Dragons for a quick win. Adamantite Golems are also very powerful. Dual Twin Lances are quite efficient as well; set Berserk with the White Mage or through !Mix and watch the damage fly. Exdeath has some Defense though; you can remove some of it with Off-Guard or Turtle Soup (Mix an Antidote with a Turtle Shell). NEVER SET SLOW, as Exdeath will retort with a Haste spell every time. Slow and Slowga spells are out. You could theoretically, dunno, !Catch a Tarantula and get it to use a Thread attack to set Slow and not have Exdeath counter it. In addition, you can set Reflect on Exdeath, bounce the Slow spell from one of your Reflective characters, have Exdeath bounce HIS Haste spell off his own Reflect barrier onto one of your characters. Man, fun stuff.

Summon Golem for physical protection and Carbuncle for magical protection and offense increase for -aga casters. Have your physical characters do whatever they wanna do and cast -aga spells on all four characters to deal your massive damage. Exdeath should be a walk in the park if you have the abilities to pull this one off. Anyway, Exdeath is one of the tougher battles you've faced so far, but nothing extremely difficult. When you've defeated Exdeath, the three crystals of Galuf's world shatter... ...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.38.1 A second prelude; the fight with Antlion ********************************** Opponents: Antlion (#286) You appear outside of Castle Tycoon. The scenery has notably changed; the meteorite is gone, but with a clear path you can no longer travel to the cave you found when trying to get to the Wind Shrine so long ago. But these things don't matter right now; Exdeath is gone and we're back home when we were told we would never be able to return. How? At any rate, Castle Tycoon looks inviting. Let's win some information there. NOTICE: de-equip Lenna and Faris at this point. Note that you can walk all you want on the Overworld Map; no enemies here. The information bit'll have to come later; it seems both Lenna and Faris are swept away by Tycoon's royal staff. A few moments later, both sisters are smack dab in their thrones, dancers are dancing and you can't talk to either of them. Their emotions at this point can only be called a mystery. Krile, however, runs off to lament on the balcony, which isn't odd considering this entire situation is bizarre. Butz gets the hots for Faris again. Don't even think about it. She's got some battle scars, dude. If you wanna date Faris, rumor is you'll have to defeat her seven evil ex-boyfriends, and they're ALL pirates. Before you talk to her, you can go to the left door and enter the King's room which you couldn't enter earlier. Here, you can see his diary, containing the story of the day Sarisa refused to mount Hiryu. If you slept at Castle Tycoon after Galuf left, you have already seen this cutscene and it won't show again. If not, now's the time. The cutscene will only trigger if you already heard the

story about Sarisa from Jenica; the old hag can be found in the right wing of the castle. If you never found the treasures here, you can do so now; but a soldier blocks the pathway to where the Diamond Bell, Ashura and Shuriken were stored, so you can't get 'em now. After you've found Krile on the balcony, you have no choice but to leave with a two-man party. "Well, things worked out just fine in the end. What a relief! ...But something about the sky seems kind of strange, don't you think? And it's only right above Tycoon..." "As legend has it, a thousand years ago, the skies over Tycoon were rent asunder." Before you can really leave, you're rudely informed by the fact a bridge over the river to the south-west is finished. On the Overworld Map, walk to the bridge and cross it (it's what it's there for). To the north lies the Pirate Cave, where you'll find Boko. So you do. He's got a little family too; could it be the female Chocobo from Northern Lake? Meh, not all species are nearing extinction in this game. ...or aren't they? Anyway, you find yourself on Boko on the Overworld Map. The thing here is that Chocobo's are able to cross rivers. You can get off and enter Pirate Cave, but there's really no point in doing so. There are no enemies either. Take Boko to Castle Tycoon and past it, going north and west where possible. The party's still going. You'll pass Torna Canal which lies to the north and the peninsula which lies to the south. Eventually, you come across the town of Tule. There's nothing new here for you to do but gather some information. Of special notice is some guy mentioning a 'mutant turtle' has been spotted in the cave to the west. This may be either Ghido or Gil Turtle...let's check it out! When saying 'no' to the girl at the counter of the Greenhorn's Club, you'll get a lesson in being a Freelancer. Also, the Mime Job is mentioned, which in the pre-GBA versions was the last Job you could obtain. If you missed the Piano here, make sure to play it. Or if you didn't miss it, you can use it as an excuse to get the girls to dance for you. When you're done, mount Boko again. Cross the river to find a small passageway in between two mountain ranges. Now, you'll leave the Map. Take a few steps to find yourself within a battle versus the Antlion, a giant insectiod monster that lures foes inside his sand trap to weaken and devour them.

Antlion Level: 34, HP: 8100, MP: 1000 Defense: 20, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Hi-Potion (common) Win: Cottage (always) Nullifies: Earth Weakness: Water Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Darkness, Old, Sleep, Berserk, Slow Attacks: Battle, !Critical Attack, Digestive Acid, Dischord, Flee After a powerful opponent such as Exdeath, the Antlion can be a surprising annoyance. Since you fight it with only Bartz and Krile, you attack less and your options are limited. Also, Antlion continues to weaken you slowly with a combination of Dischord, Digestive Acid and physical attacks. When Antlion dies, he'll use Flee to rob you of your Cottage. Cast Berserk on Antlion. And Slow. And Old. And the rest, all status ailments help. Time Slip is grand. But mainly just Berserk, as the status stops Dischord from appearing and prevents Flee, giving you your well-deserved Cottage (and 3000 Gil!). Continuous and wise application of Sleep may also do the trick (Spellblade never misses). If Berserk from White, using the Power Staff or mixing a Bacchus' Cider (Holy Water + Turtle Shell) isn't an option for some reason, you'll have to rough things out. HP-based attacks and fixed damage attacks disregard level, so you could always rely on those. Holy Breath (Dragon Fang + Holy Water) and Dragon Breath (Dragon Fang x 2) after a Goliath Tonic both work very well, as does 1000 Needles. Aside from that, getting in one or two boosted -aga spells when the caster isn't yet affected by Dischord does some real damage, as do dual Twin Lances or a Thrown Water Scroll. The fight's ultimately an easy one. After the fight, you'll have to wait a while, try to grab the rope four times to re-enter the surface and find Faris waiting for you. Faris joined the party! Know that a bit later in the game you can take Faris to the Pirate Cave for a surprising yet awesome gift; this can't be triggered yet, though. Continue on; there is nowhere you can go but to the cave. The mutant turtle turns out to be of the friendly variety. Ghido explains... Once upon a time, the earth was one. However, a dreadful evil bearing the name

Enuo. Enuo was able to control the Void, the ultimate power, the very antithesis of existence. Though Enuo was defeated, the Void lingered, and the people living on the planet were forced to split the world in two by splitting the crystals in two. The two halves were sent far away from each other across time, dimension and space. In between lies the Interdimensional Rift, where the Void could be sealed away as it could not be destroyed; one cannot undo what isn't. Exdeath's goal was holding control over the Void, and thus control over the world. In order to do this, it needed to gain access to the Void in the first place. Anyway, it seems Exdeath tricked us. It also seems its plot powers still far surpass that of our heroes, no matter how often we smack its ass in battle. At that moment, the Interdimensional Rift that was sealed by the divided worlds re-appears, no longer bound by its former cage. The Void appears right above Castle Tycoon, just as it did 1000 years ago. Ghido is a strong warrior, it seems. "You think I sat around seven centuries munching on pizza?" At any rate, not strong enough, and with Bartz, Krile and Faris he is blasted out of his refuge to find himself near the Library of the Ancients. Here, the scholars of the Library and the scholars of Surgate Castle have found each other in chaotic times to combine the Sealed Tome. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.39.1 Mission statement ********************************** Location: The Overworld Map Features: Mana's Paean (Song spell) Here's the deal. Our mission is twofold. One: Exdeath needs to be stopped. Two: the Void needs to be dealt with. Exdeath has retreated into the Interdimensional Rift where it is slowly learning to master the Void, but according to Ghido we'll never make it to him as Exdeath isn't the only evil creature that is and was. We'll need to harness the power of the 12 Legendary Weapons, the very same that have proven to be able to defeat Enuo. The book begins to speak... "After Enuo's defeat, the weapons of legend were sealed within the Castle Kuza. To break the seals, the four tablets must be assembled. One rests alongside spirits of the past, blessed by soil... One rests within an island shrine, kissed by wind... One rests beneath the ocean's floor, engulfed by flames...

One rests beyond the river's torrents, protected by water... Along with the keys to open the seals - the four tablets - are sealed our servants. If the tablets are moved, our servants will awaken... The ultimate spells of white and black... The magic of time and space, Meteor... The sea king, Leviathan... and the dragon king, Bahamut... Present this book unto the gate and the way to the seals will be opened." When all is said and done, the scholars have a lot of useful information about this brave new world. On the roof of the Library, the right scholar can teach you Mana's Paean, a song that will slowly increase your Magic Power in battle. A paean is a solemn thanksgiving, in this case to the source of mana; in return, this source bestows you with greater arcane might. Make sure to get it now, you won't be able to learn this again at a later date. If you haven't learned Level 5 Death yet, the Pages are still available in the dungeon part of the Library; you can manipulate your level with Dark Spark if your level isn't right. When you're done here, leave this place. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.39.2 Preparation for the Pyramid in the Desert of Shifting Sands ********************************** Opponents: Sleepy (#135), Triffid (#136), Hedgehog (#137), Python (#138), Shadow (#139), Elm Gigas (#140), Desertpede (#141), Bulette (#142), Slug (#154), Gloom Widow (#155), Mykale (#156) Container contents: Cottage Miscellaneous items: Dark Matter (rare drop from Desertpede), Death Sickle (rare Mykale steal), Healing Staff (common steal from Sleepy), Brave Blade OR Chicken Knife Blue spells: 1000 Needles, Aeroga, Dark Spark, Off-Guard, Vampire Walking around here may trigger encounters with all sorts of normal-like yet strong critters. Since Overworld enemies generally aren't that interesting, allow me to describe them as a whole... Sleepies cast Sleep a lot, but have little HP. They have a common Healing Staff for you to steal... not so powerful now, but interesting anyway. You can now

Dual-Wield them if you set Equip Rods on a Ninja. So awesome. Triffids attack physically and cast Berserk on themselves. They are the only powerful !Catch here, if you must know. Hedgehogs can be controlled into using 1000 Needles; they'll never use it normally, but they will respond to any !Attack with a Needle spell (the 50/50 Darkness/Silence one). Pythons randomly use Vampire and Entangle, so beware. Shadows attack physically, but can be Controlled for Off-Guard and Dark Spark. How nice. Elm Gigas is the most dangerous one here; it may randomly use Aeroga, which deals around 900 damage to a single target. It has a whopping 4170 HP as well, which is quite a lot for a random encounters. Fortunately it's not Heavy. In addition, it starts the battle snoozing; Sleep is set! Stick to magical attacks (or !Mineuchi) and you should not wake it up before you kill it. You can Control them so you can force Aeroga out of them for you to learn, but note that they won't respond to your commands until you've lifted Sleep from them. Random note: Elm Gigas is one of two creatures with removable Float! Use the Judgment Staff to get rid of it (or cast Dispel, when later in the game). While the Elm Gigas will retain his immunity to Earth-elemental attacks, it now can be hit by Squirrel and Wild Boars from the !Animals command. Oh, the insight I present thee... Anyway, use Missile, Graviga, Stop and other things of that nature to kill Elm Gigas before he kills a character with Aeroga. Slugs, Gloom Widows and Mykales won't start appearing until the forests around Moore; the Mykales are interesting because they can teach you Aero, 1000 Needles and Lilluptian Lyric when !Controlled; in addition, they may randomly use Moon Flute on the party. The rarely stolen Death Sickle is a sweet thing; if you got bored waiting for the Harvester to drop one, here's your chance. The Slugs may randomly use Slimer; the Gloom Widow's !Needle attack sets Paralyze. The Slugs are weak to Fire, the Gloom Widows are weak to Water. Ninjas with boosted Magic Power will have a field day in these forests. Level 3 Flare hits all three monsters, and is supremely powerful. North of the Library of the Ancients lies Castle Surgate! While mainly just filled with confused NPCs, there is a single treasure here you can now collect you couldn't collect earlier. Find the library lady and help her out once more (the books and locations are the same as last time). Follow her, and go down the stairs. Before you took on Exdeath, a purple-robed man was here, talking about Catoblepas. Now that he's gone, check the crate positioned against the wall in the back; it's a Cottage! If you released Lone Wolf, the crate will be EMPTY! This Cottage is not taken into account when your treasure % is given. Trivia: when looking at the left side of the A-C shelf now, Lenna will still make an appearance. Even further to the north lies Karnak; again, nothing here but NPCs talking about how the world has changed, and about how Dwarves exist. Queen Karnak is

still bed-ridden at the Inn; if you missed the piano here earlier, now's your chance... likewise for the Flame Rod in the barrel on the city wall. West of the Library lies what once was the Great Forest of Moore. Burned down by Exdeath and being pushed away by the mountains of a rivaling world, the Guardian Tree is about the only thing still standing. The Desert has stopped being annoying on the navigational side; a positive side-effect of the world's decay. It's like a heritage. Before you enter the Pyramid, travel across the desert to find the town of Moore. In the desert, Bulettes and Desertpedes appear; Bulettes are quite physically evasive. They have a powerful special technique called !Body Blow which is unblockable, ignores Defense and sets Paralyze, so kill it quicky. Desertpedes have extremely strong Quicksand attacks, but you'll only see it when you Confuse or Control them, or Catch one for later Release. They rarely drop Dark Matter, which is grand; kill them easily with Level 5 Death. Aqua Breath deals 800% damage to them since they're Desert creatures. Here, the townspeople are shocked by the disappearance of the great forest, but they're good-natured enough about it. There is still a piano here if you forgot it earlier. Also, a haunted shed has been unlocked. Go around the Pub and enter the shed on the blind side. Here, there's a hidden passage through the trees even your Thief cannot see. x x x xxxxx x x x x x x xxx x x xxx x xxxxxxxxx xx xx x x 0 "Think you're brave? Take what's in the crate on the left. If you're a coward, take what's in the one on the right." The left chest contains the Brave Blade, the strongest weapon in the entire game. It's non-elemental and gives a +5 on Strength. However, every time you run from a battle or use !Flee, !Smoke or the Teleport spell to escape, the Battle Power of this weapon decreases by 1. Every time you have run in the past

has already affected this weapon, and actions taken after you've obtained the blade will continue to affect it. Note that through !Throw or with Goblin Punch, Battle Power will always be 150 no matter how often you ran. The right chest contains the Chicken Knife. Its power increases by 1 every two times you run or use !Flee, !Smoke or Teleport, to a maximum of 127. Since the Chicken Knife's damage formula also takes Agility into account, the Chicken Knife turns out to be even more powerful in a normal game than the Brave Blade. Also, fleeing is never a problem anymore. The Chicken Knife gives a +5 on Agility and has a 25 % chance of using !Flee rather than !Attack, escaping the battle. With !Focus, !Rapid Fire, !Dance or !Mug, this will never happen; with !Aim, it still can. Note that through !Throw or with Goblin Punch, Battle Power will always be 1 no matter how often you ran. I suggest you go for the Brave Blade if you want to feel like a righteous bad-ass and go for the Chicken Knife if you want a truly convenient weapon to have. If you go with the Chicken Knife, make sure to power it up; you can head into the desert and use !Flee until you've maxed out the weapon. A Two-Handed Knight with a Brave Blade is simply monstrous at this point, as is about any physical Job with the Chicken Knife (albeit, to a lesser extent). Time to visit the Pyramid. Maybe we can buy mini-pyramids to decorate our cottages, but let's make sure they're not mini-cursed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.40.1 The Pyramid of Moore; the Earth tablet ********************************** Opponents: Objet d'Art (#99), Black Warlock (#128), Bandercoeurl (#130), Lamia Queen (#143), Rajiformes (#144), Ushtabi (#145), Archeosaur (#146), Zephyrus (#147), Mummy (#148), Aspis (#149), Mecha Head (#150), The Damned (#151), Grand Mummy (#152), Sekhmet (#153), Steel Fist (#181), Melusine (#287), Gargoyle (#288) Container contents: 8000 Gil, 9000 Gil, 10000 Gil, 12000 Gil, Crystal Armor, Ice Shield, Cursed Ring, Flame Shield, White Robe, Dark Matter x 6, Elixir x 4, Gaia Hammer, Cottage, Black Robe, Black Garb, Gold Hairpin, Ribbon, Protect Ring Miscellaneous items: Judgment Staff (rare Black Warlock steal), Power Staff (rare Black Warlock drop), Thief's Gloves (rare steal from Sekhmet), Crystal Armor (rare Sekhmet drop), Lamia's Tiara (rare drop from Lamia Queen), Thornlet (rare steal from Lamia Queen), Dragon Fang (guaranteed Archeosaur drop), Kaiser Knuckles (rare drop from Steel Fist), Elixir (rare Zephyrus drop and rare Zephyrus steal), Twin Lance (rare Objet d'Art steal)

Features: Tablet Blue spells: 1000 Needles, Off-Guard, Dark Spark, Level 3 Flare, Aqua Breath, Aeroga, Missile, Flame Thrower, ???, Doom "One rests alongside spirits of the past, blessed by soil..." As you approach the Pyramid of Moore, the door remains closed. You were warned that the slabs were protected by gargoyles, and sure enough they're here. They seem largely inanimate though. Let this be a lesson to you! Spinster's tales! Bolderdash! Humbug! AN UNDIGESTED BIT OF BEEF, A BLOT OF MUSTARD, A CRUMB OF CHEESE, A FRAGMENT OF AN UNDERDONE POTATO! Also, as you examine the door, the Gargoyles attack you. Gargoyle (x2) Level: 33, HP: 5000, MP: 300 Defense: 13, Magic Defense: 12 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 35% Steal: Potion (common), Phoenix Down (rare) Win: Hi-Potion (rare) Absorbs: Holy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Creature: Humanoid, Heavy Vulnerable to: Death, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow Can't Evade: Aerial Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Transfusion These Gargoyles are a nuisance, but not too much. The big thing you need to remember is that if one has fallen and the other is yet to act, the first thing it'll do revive the other one. So you either kill them both simultaneously or you completely screw with their AI script. In the meantime you'll be pelted by physical attacks like it's nobodies business. This is an easy battle, so I won't insult your intelligence by talking too long about the Gargoyles. I'd rather insult your intelligence by questioning the existence of your academic degrees, lolol. Throw up Golem to stop the physical attacks. Transfusion won't make an appearance except for 1 33 % chance every fifth round, so you should just end the battle before they can use it. Flash can stop their physical onslaught. If you're not sure you can take them out with MT attacks, you could set Berserk on one and kill the other; they keep coming back because they revive eachother, see. Sleep is a great way of stopping their meddlesome attempts at killing you.

Like I said, either use MT attacks or use Berserk. Titan's Gaia's Wrath (whose is it anyway?) is grand, as are MT -aga spells from the !Black selection. Boost to your heart's content if you opt for this route, and keep your ST attacks in check. Level 3 Flare works like a charm. Expect heavier pounding if you utilize Berserk (you may even scoff at the White magic skillset and use a Power Staff instead), but with Flash and Golem, there's still no need to worry at all. Cheap? Sure, but you're the Light Warriors on a mission to save the world. Being successful is just very important to us all. When the guardian gargoyles have fallen and we have spent a page from the Sealed Tomb, we may enter into that most ancient of places, the Pyramid of Moore. This is quite a long dungeon, so bring plenty of items. The Gold Hairpin for a Mage is a good idea, his or her MP will be is serious peril of reaching 0 otherwise. Notice: after this dungeon and some other thing, your party will be once again filled to the maximum of four. Some players like to keep their levels about equal, or would rather clear the upcoming dungeon with four characters rather than three. It is perfectly doable to flee from every battle in the pyramid, avoid all chests (or at least those with guardians), fill your team back up to four characters and return here. You'll be forced to face a few Aspis snakes and I don't know it it's even possible to avoid all Mecha Heads (though you can do with fighting only one) and there's the Mummy x3 formation that you'll be forced to take on, but that's it! A Thief with !Flee will come first every battle, it you're gone before the enemy'll know what happened. First floor: 35 % Lamia Queen x 2 35 % Lamia Queen 30 % Ushabti x 6 Third floor: 58 % Zephyrus (Dhorme Chimera, Ronkan Knight) 35 % Lamia Queen, Rajiformes 6 % Zephyrus (Adamantine Golem, Bio Soldier) Fifth floor: 35 % Sekhmet --> Queen Lamia 35 % Queen Lamia 30 % Zephyrus (Ziggurat Gigas, Tunneller) Note: once you've defeated Sekhmet once, the Queen Lamia formation will appear 70 % of the time Sixth floor: 35 % Rajiformes, Ushabti, Lamia Queen

35 % Lamia Queen, Rajiformes 23 % Zephyrus (Adamantine Golem, Bio Soldier) 6 % Zephyrus (Dhorme Chimera, Ronkan Knight) Seventh floor: 35 % Ushabti, Ushabti, Ushabti, Lamia Queen 35 % Zephyrus (Adamantine Golem, Bio Soldier) 23 % Lamia Queen 6 % Ushabti x 6 Eighth floor: 35 % Lamia Queen, Lamia Queen, Ushabti, Ushabti 35 % Zephyrus (Ziggurat Gigas, Tunneller) 23 % Lamia Queen, Lamia Queen 6 % Ushabti x 6 I'll give a quick yet comprehensive lecture on the opponents here. Since this is a pyramid, it's very old. All monsters therefore are either Undead or unliving to begin with; all other residents long-since passed away (this with the exception of its one unique inhabitant, the mystic Sekhmet). The abundant Undead Lamia Queens are perhaps the most interesting as they rarely drop Lamia's Tiaras, headgear you haven't seen since the Lonka Ruins. They can use 1000 Needles randomly every second turn, so make sure to learn it if your Blue Mages still haven't. In addition, you can steal rare Thornlets from them. They are quite useless, but rare all the same. The Undead Rajiformes has little to offer except for needless violence and a weakness to Lightning- elemental attacks, and the living Ushabti constructs can use both Dark Spark and Off-Guard, though you'll have to feed them an Ether before they can actually use it. The most interesting encounter you can have is one with a Zephyrus, a small fairy that summons other creatures to fight for her. These creatures can be either an Adamantine Golem, a Bio Soldier, a Ziggurat Gigas or a Tunneller, but a single Zephyrus can only summon two out of those four (this depends on the possible monster formations for a given floor). They are all different monsters than the ones you fought earlier. The only interesting difference besides improved toughness is the fact that the Tunneller as summoned by Zephyrus may randomly use Level 3 Flare. Whenever a monster is fighting for the Zephyrus, she will try her best to buff the creature with recovery and other helpful magic. Zephyrus are remarkably sturdy given their frail build and tend to evade a lot of your blows, but Stop and Paralyze can cripple her quickly. Note that none of the four creatures she may conjure add to your Bestiary. The Requiem Song is a must-have for the Pyramid of Moore, as all Lamia Queens, Rajiformes and all the Damned, Aspis and Archeosaurus monsters will suffer greatly from its effects. Back !Sing up with high Magic Power. A second caster is nice to have to deal MT Lightning-elemental damage to the Ushabti enemies,

but a Lightning Scroll will deal sufficient damage to one-shot them all every encounter. Brave Blade wielders and Chicken Knife users, when powered up, will deal great amounts of damage. The Pyramid of Moore can be a repetitive dungeon, but it's not a hard one when you keep an eye out for your HP. When you enter the Pyramid, there are two paths open to you to the left. You'll want to take the left-most one first. Go up to find spikes popping up from the floor. These damage tiles deal 1/24 maximum HP damage to your party and add the Poison status, even to those wearing the Bone Mail! The Float status and the Light Step ability circumvent this, but there's no need to resort to these tactics. The are three buttons on the wall; pressing the left-most one and the right-most one once will create a path for you through the spikes. Your path will now be blocked by a sandstream. You have no choice but to cross its path and be swept away. Below lies a chest guarded by four The Damned. These opponents are durable and powerful, but they do nothing but physical attacks which is a blessing. They're Undead like so many creatures in this place, so Requiem hurts them a lot, if not outright killing them. They can teach you the Blue Off-Guard and Doom spells; use !Control, feed the slave an Ether, let it cast the spell you want. For your troubles you'll get another Ice Shield. Across your path slither two Aspis snakes. Go up and follow the path. You'll walk past the sandstream, now safely on the other side. On the 2nd Floor, there are a few hidden passages your Thief can spot. Two Aspis snakes are released here. When you leave this place, you'll find a standing sarcophagus. When you stand in front of it, it will open and out walk the Grand Mummy. The Grand Mummy has 6000 HP and uses physical attacks and Dancehall Daze, an attack that sets Sleep. He's weak to Fire-elemental attacks and isn't Heavy, so he's really not that much of a pain to take down. A single boosted Firaga spell does the trick, and a Two-Handed Flametonque Knight deals a lot of damage as well. About the same as a Two-Handed Brave Blade Knight, tee-hee. You can easily keep the thing at bay in the meantime with !Flirt, though the implications of that act may be a tad to grotesque for your taste. When you're done, you can grab a Cursed Ring from a chest within the sarcophagus. It's defensive properties are awesome, but it gives the wearer a Countdown in battle. For random encounters, this shouldn't be a problem, and equipping the Cursed Ring is actually a fairly good idea at this point if you ask me. If you carry around any Bards or Dancers, frail as they are, a Cursed Ring can really help them out here. For longer battles though, the status may pose a problem. Now, track back to the entrance. Now you're here, there's always the option of quickly leaving for a Cottage and Save. Return and take the right path. Your path will be clear to you. You'll

encounter two more Aspis snakes on the 2nd Floor. The second floor is, by the way, devoid of random encounters. On the 3rd Floor are three chests you can grab, all protected by monsters. The left one contains a Flame Shield and is guarded by The Damned x 4, the middle one contains a Dark Matter and is also guarded by The Damned x 4, and the right one contains a White Robe and is guarded by an Archeosaur (common) or an Archeosaur and two Ushabti (rare). The Archeosaur has 9960 HP, can use physical attacks, !Claw (sets Poison), Poison Breath and Zombie Breath. The thing is Heavy, a Dragon and Undead, so... Boosted Firaga spells, Firaga spellblade effects and such are a good idea. You can Control the Archeosaur as well, which is a great idea; Archeosaurea don't use Zombie Breath until the fourth turn, but it's best to make sure you never see it appear at all. You can learn Level 3 Flare from him with the tested Control/Reflect combo one so often can apply to learn Level 3 Flare. The undead dragon will always drop a Dragon Fang post-scuffle, so that's a bonus. The White Robe is awesome. Vitality and Magic Power + 3, increased defenses and 20 % Magic Block. Wear it, brothers and sisters. Note that Stamina increase on equipment really doesn't do much; it doesn't influence HP, but it does boost Regen healing. To the right, you can see a stairway turning light and turning dark again. When light, you'll slip off the stairs into the spikes, which like the ones you saw earlier deal damage and poison you. Float and Light Step allow you to circumvent the damage, but you'll slip off the stairway regardless. On the 4th Floor, Mecha Heads roam the place rather than random encounters. I suggest you clear out the room first. There's a total of 6 Mecha Heads (and two Aspis that are released in the meantime). Mecha Heads are machines that employ the standard machine attacks: Flame Thrower and Missile, but also, Wave Cannon, Mustard Bomb and Reverse Polarity. When any of your character use !Jump, the Mecha Head will force the character to land with Interceptor Rocket. No special effects occur when you do manage to land with Jump, so why Mecha Head takes special precaution to one of the weaker attacks you can use at this point is beyond me. Lacking a Heavy nature and being weak to Lightning-elemental attacks opens up the possibility to take down Mecha Head with Thundaga Spellblade effects. Boosted Thundaga spells also get the job done. Have a character Control the Mecha Head, set up Thundaga Spellblade when he's not looking and strike from behind (have the Mecha Head use ??? on himself). Failsafe strategy! Without Control, you'll just have to absorb a few attacks; Stop works, so Stop and Romeo's Ballad both help out. Thundaga cast by a Black Mage or by someone else will just be devastating by itself, so you don't need to prepare if you don't want to.

Anyway, when all is clear, go to the far left. Push a button to remove the spikes leading up to the chest and release two Aspis. Kill them and open the chest, which is guarded by an Archeosaur. It contains a Black Robe, which is pretty much the best Robe in the Pre-GBA games. It's like the White Robe, only doesn't invest in the useless Stamina department and boosts Magic Power by a higher margin. There are two sarcophagus' in the room. The two chests around the right sarcophagus contain Elixirs. Opening the right sarcophagus releases a mummy. You can fight it if you want. They're easy as long as you attack them simultaneously; when alone, a Mummy may use Danse Macabre, which sets Zombie to a single character which just plain sucks. Past the fight lies a chest with a Thornlet, giving you the third and last piece of "evil" equipment. The Thornlet grants the best Defense of the game and it gives an immunity to Sleep, though it gives the wearer an inherent Sap status. The thing's a bad idea. The other sarcophagus takes you further in, past another Mummy x 3 formation. There's a Save Point here. Sekhmet Level: 41, HP: 6000, MP: 0 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 5 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 20% Steal: Thief's Gloves (rare), Hi-Potion (common) Win: Crystal Armor (rare) Specialty: !Sling Specialty Effect: Adds Darkness Creature: Humanoid, Magic Beast, Heavy Vulnerable to: Darkness, Old, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: Attack, !Sling On the 5th floor doth Sekhmet appear, one of the Brothers (though Sekhmet the Egyption Goddess he's named for was, y'know a goddess). He's a formidable warrior, and once you defeat him he won't appear again. The trick here, however, is not defeating him until you really want to. He has a rare Thief's Gloves steal, and by running away after you get it you can get as many as you like. You'll need to use Return as he also has a common steal (Hi-Potion). Obviously running is not an option for you if you went with the Brave Blade, but sucks to be you then. Naw, just kidding: the Catch ability works on him, and when caught he won't set the bit. In other words, Steal until you get the Thief's Gloves (use Return), then reduce him to 3000 HP or lower and Catch him. Get rid of Sekhmet on another random encounter, as his !Release is Strong Fight and it's capable of killing himself in a single blow. Sekhmet is quite the brawler in the meantime, so don't underestimate him. Darkness and Confuse are two handy status ailments to set on him, and he can be

Paralyzed or Stopped (the former with a whip too, as he's got a Magic Beast nature so the Beast Killer is a beast killer). At level 41, a combo of Dark Spark and Level 5 Death will net you victory as well. "You may have defeated me, but my brother in the tower will - gahhh!" For fun, Catch Sekhmet and !Release him later versus his brother :p There are three paths you can take here. Go up to find two chests. The left one contains a Dark Matter guarded by The Damned x 4. The right one contains a Crystal Armor guarded by Objet d'Art x 5. Go back. There's a hidden passage here that you can spot with Find Passages. You'll want to equip it temporarily to see where you're going. There's only one chest you can reach this way. The chest contains a Black Garb, improved armor for your Clothes character(s). The chest is guarded by either: Bandercoeurl x 2, Black Warlock or Steel Fist x 3 You'll want to fight the latter, as even if you still really want a Judgment Staff, you can get one later. The Steel Fists are powerful physical warriors who counter every Attack command with !Air Fist, which sets Old and Sap. When a Steel Fist is alone, it will display the message "Focusing energy..." and use the powerful Strong Fight the following turn which will kill a character. If you're really lucky, you get to take some Kaiser Knuckles with you after the fight, which boosts Barehanded attacks. They have NO status immunities, so setting Toad, Petrify or Death takes care of them easily enough. Their Magic Evasion however is very high, so use !Spellblade or !Mix potions. They cannot avoid Aerial attacks, so Whips and Bows will always strike true. Barehanded punches are normally based off your Level and Battle Power. However, with Kaiser Knuckles the Battle Power is inherently boosted by 50, making Barehanded punches nice enough again. In addition, they boost Strength by 5 and give more Defense than other Accessories (except for the Genji Gloves and Cursed Ring). This is really great time for a Monk; Berserk really boosts the damage. Now, climb the stairway you have yet to explore. On the 6th Floor, multiple sandstreams appear, but there are buttons within reach to stop them. However, without a running sandstream you can't enter the hole which leads you to some treasure chests. The first sandstream takes you to a chest with a Dark Matter guarded by The Damned x 4. Get the chest and head back. The second button stops the second sandstream, which would have taken you to the Black Garb chest you picked up earlier. Next to the second button is a door. Enter the door to find two buttons. The right one is the wrong one (oh, irony!); it makes the wall throw you in the pit, onto the first sandstream and

further down. The left one makes the wall retreat to make way for four chests. The two to the right contain 8000 and 9000 Gil; the two left ones contain Dark Matters. Both are guarded by The Damned x 4. Anyway, the third sandstream gives you nothing, so simply stop it and traverse it. The 7th Floor contains more treasure, though you'll have to work for it. Pass up on the stairway and enter the left door. With Find Passages, you'll discover a long hidden passage which takes you to a total of three chests: a Gaia Hammer (guarded by The Damned x 4), 10000 Gil and a Cottage. Now, get up the stairway. The tiles on the 8th floor switch around. Stand a while to observe which tiles are 'safe' (which never disappear). If you drop down, you'll be able to open a chest containing an Elixir. You'll want to fall at least once for the treasure. The three chests in the room exist out of a Gold Hairpin, a Ribbon and Protect Ring. Furthermore, you'll want to traverse the tiles to the right first. You'll be able to open two chests. Dark Matter (The Damned) and 12000 Gil. Return to the main room and exit on the left side. The two chests here contain an Elixir and a last Dark Matter guarded by The Damned x 4. On the stairway to the door in the middle, the light tiles slide you down. Take care. On the 8th Floor, you'll able to finally obtain one of the four tablets. You'll taken to the top of the Pyramid, where the Dragon King Bahamut will rise beneath the peninsula where you left the airship to warp to Galuf's world. Bahamut is the most powerful summon spell in the game; sadly, it appears you'll still have to seek him out before you'll be able to call him forth in battle. The airship also floats in your direction. Good news all around! ....surprised there's no boss, aren't you? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.40.2 The fight with Melusine ********************************** Heh. You'll want to get to the airship, so head east. Walk through the patch of forest to engage in a cutscene. Lenna has escaped the Void, which is awesome news, but the effects of her time there are less then positive and things turn for the worse very quickly. While you are incapacitated by a friend's powers, Exdeath commands the Void to consume the Library of the Ancients, its scholars and Ghido. After Exdeath has returned to the Interdimensional Rift to continue its work on mastering the Void, Hiryu dives down in a kamikaze attack to rescue Lenna from the demon that's possessing her. Success. Melusine is one of the Eleven of the Rift, Exdeath's elite force of unstoppable demons. Each a soul filled with malice, they were recruited with the promise of

a world ruled by demons. Locked away for a 1000 years, their madness, rage and power are overflowing. Eleven Satanic rules of the Earth, Eleven the fool's amount, Eleven the first of the Master numbers... Melusine Level: 29/33, HP: 20000, MP: 500 Defense: 90/0, Magic Defense: 0/90 Evasion: 10%/0%, Magic Evasion: 10%/90% Steal: Leather Cap/Leather Shoes/Leather Cap/Leather Armor (rare) Win: Maiden's Kiss (rare) Absorbs: Fire/Ice/Lightning Nullifies: Water, Wind, Earth, Holy, Poison Weakness: Fire/Ice/Lightning Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Darkness, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: Attack, Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Entice, Barrier Change Melusine's "thing" is her Barrier Change attack, which calls into existence another form of herself. HP is transferred, but statuses aren't. Elemental properties are swapped around, and there's no set pattern as Melusine will call forth a random other Melusine. Her AI script isn't that difficult; she will simply randomly use physical attacks, use level 5 Black spells or switch to another form. Melusine has incredible amounts of Defense in all but one of her forms. Her Magic Defense is normally 0, but since she nullifies all elements and she swaps around her reaction to Fire, Ice and Lightning it's difficult to take advantage of that. When her Defense is turned down to 0, her Magic Defense soars to 90, so her 'weakness' becomes physical in that state; in addition to having 0 Defense, so will also become unable to avoid Aerial attacks such as Whips and Bows. Her first form is weak to Fire-elemental attacks, so if you know what you're doing you can kill her before she even moves to another form. Two-Handed Flametongue Knights are grand; when hitting a weakness, all attacks become barrier-piercing, remember? Boosted Firaga spells also deal incredible amounts of damage, especially when bounced off three characters unto Melusine. With the Brave Blade or the Chicken Knife, you can set Firaga Spellblade effects and watch the damage fly to sickening heights. You can always check Melusine's form with Libra, !Scan or !Analyze. If you detect no elemental weaknesses, this means that Melusine will have 0 Defense, meaning physical attacks are once again a very good option. The battle is easy if you have what it takes. A combination of Golem and Carbuncle completely shuts down Melusine's offenses, as does all-round

application of the Dragon Shielding Mix (Ether + Dragon Fang) combined with Golem. If you focused on physical characters, this is an incredibly nasty battle as you can hardly touch Melusine. The Poison Axe cut through her Defenses nicely; the Gaia Hammer you're now bound to have is more powerful, but the Earthquake attack will be a wasted turn. Non-elemental magical attacks are quite rare, but 1000 Needles and Comet are safe (if relatively weak) bets at all times. Lenna joined the party... Use a Cottage to bring back Lenna. In the meantime, while you're traveling to the Sealed Castle of Kuza, Exdeath uses the Void it controls more and more to erase the town of Walse and Castle Walse, the town of Istory, the Moogle Village, and Bartz' hometown, Lix. Bartz throws a hissy fit. Jeesh, he's not thrilled about all the side-quests or anything. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.41.1 Airship Exploitation: Planet R ********************************** Opponents: Shield Dragon (#86), Exdeath's Soul (#87), Slug (#154), Gloom Widow (#155), Mykale (#156), Frost Bull (#173), Istory Lythos (#174), Spizzner (#175), Nix (#197), Water Scorpion (#198), Vilia (#199), Gel Fish (#200), Rukh (#201), Sea Devil (#202), Stingray (#203) Container contents: Cottage Miscellaneous items: Death Sickle (rare Mykale steal), Dragon's Whisker (rare Stingray drop), Dark Matter (common Stingray steal), Rune Blade (rare Stingray steal), Dragon Fang (rare Istory Lythos drop), Judgment Staff (rare Istory Lythos steal), Defender (rare Sea Devil steal), Angel Ring (rare Vilia drop), Silver Specs (rare Vilia steal), Murasame (rare Rukh steal), Ribbon Summon spells: Syldra Blue spells: Moon Flute, 1000 Needles, Lilliputian Lyric, Aero, Mighty Guard, Goblin Punch, ??? Songs: Sinewy Etude Now that you've gotten the airship, there is a LOT of stuff you can do. I'll

give it to you in the most logical order, which isn't that hard. First off, we're going to raid this entire place of all its little treasures we can find without diving head-first in one of the deathtraps this game regards as 'dungeons'. The goodies: - A powerful new Blue spell, Mighty Guard - A Ribbon from an NPC from Regole and a Cottage found in Carwen - A new song, the Sinewy Etude - A new summoned monster, Syldra, found in the Pirate Cave - Three weapons from the Sealed Castle of Kuza - Rare stolen weapons including a Rune Blade, a Defender, a Murasame and a very rare Dragon's Whisker - A new summoned monster, Odin, fought in Castle Bal Where Tycoon Castle once was, the Void broke free of its 1000-year old prison, at the same location it did one millennium ago. Don't fly the airship into it, you'll get sucked into trouble you can't handle yet. In the north-east corner of the World Map lies the massive Gloceana Desert. To the west lies Regole. Remember the little girl whose Ribbon had gone missing? She has found it again, and donates to your cause to fight Exdeath. It's super-effective against instant death, Petrify, Toad, Poison, Darkness, Old, Berserk, Silence, evil and breast cancer, I hear. Regole still offers the pleasures of alcohol and dancing, should you be in need of some short-sighted ways of dealing with problems. Also, a piano if you missed it earlier; it's hidden in the Pub. Hidden pianos are the BEST pianos. Now, in the south-east corner of the Gloceana Desert, Carwen lies. Here, you can find a Cottage from a barrel you couldn't pick up earlier as an NPC was blocking the path. It's right of the Pub, down at the docks, middle barrel. If you freed Lone Wolf, you won't be able to get the Cottage here as the fiend has taken it. Also, one of the women (the one south of the Pub, between two bushes) here asks you if you think she's pretty. If you answer 'yes', "she" will reveal his true nature as a mimic and speed off. The person you just spoke was Gogo, master of the simulacrum... his miming skills will astonish you. You'll meet him later, have no doubt. In addition, the NPCs here are of the weirdest variety. One of 'em mentions how the odd mimic was planning on visiting the Tower of Walse. THIS IS A PLOT HOOK. There is a piano here if you missed it before. Northeast of the Desert of the Swirling Sands, in Surgate Castle, you can find some scholars who escaped the Library of the Ancients. No matter, they're not important. I mean, they're important in the sense that every human life is unique and priceless like a beautiful snowflake and all, but they're not directly relevant to our quest. If you didn't get the Cottage yet, now's the time!

The long, thin stretch of land in the south-east corner of the Map has a slight bulge in it. This is the former Crescent Island. Fly there to find the Minstrel who offered to teach you new songs based on your piano skills earlier. If you've played all seven pianos so far, your rendition of Mozart's Alla Turca should impress him enough to compose the Sinewy Etude, a song which slowly increases your Strength in battle. An etude, for those unfamiliar with the player's side of music, is a piece of music written to make the player more competent at his instrument; it's a kind of homework. Also in Crescent: Mid! He's panicking, not confronting issues at hand and generally unfit for military service should the opportunity present itself. Whatever, let him be. He might find the personal strength to deal with his personal demons. Probably not, though. Take the airship to where Lix used to be, now a gaping black hole across the coastline to the far north and a bit to the east. Alternatively, you can sail to the very south-eastern corner of the World Map, or if you want to take a look at chapter 4.41.2 of this document, basically anywhere where you encounter monster formation pack 108 on the seas. Here, while sailing around, you'll always encounter a Rukh bird (rarely with two Sea Devils). This bird has a rare Murasame for stealing, a Katana which is stronger than your current Osafune and with a very high critical hit ratio. Super-sweet and fun to use! The Sea Devils have a rare Defender, a Knightsword with the Main Gauche's evasive properties; it also casts Protect when used as an item without breaking. The Rukh enemy has 9000 HP, which is a lot. Next to fairly powerful physicals, it may use Breath Wing and even Zombie Breath. It is vulnerable to every status ailment except for those that change form (Toad and Mini), so you should be able to cripple it and then let loose with damage. !Control is a good command in this battle; it's Breath Wing helps in defeating the massive avian. In the very south-western corner of the World Map, more fun stuff is happening! Here, you'll be able to encounter the following: 42 % Nix x2 35 % Gel Fish x4 23 % Vilia Nix are Sahagin upgrades, boring as hell. You can get Goblin Punch from their !Control menu. Gel Fish are just jellyfish that washed aboard; they're weak to Lightning and may use ??? through !Control; they're so physically weak they'll always inflict 0 damage. Vilia may not look like it, but she attacks physically only and with great force to boot. Golem will help you when you run into the floating flower girl. The Gel Fish formation gives a nice 8 ABP, a single Rukh gives 8 ABP, when

followed by two Sea Devils it's 13 ABP, the single Vilia a whopping 25 ABP! Not a bad place to look around for ABP without gaining levels, as nothing on the wide seas gives you Experience Points. Vilia may drop a rare Angel Ring, but between getting them from Druids and getting all the Gil you ever wanted from Gil Turtle, that might not be something to swoon over. Water Scorpions are all over the place; just sail around in any location but the two I just gave. South of Moore is a piece of desert, for instance; west of this desert lie waters that include a 65% shot at finding them. They just attack physically, or may !Sting you to set Paralyze. Weak to Lightning! On the ocean, imagine! For more information on this subject of sea (or land) encounters, 4.41.2 has all the info on overworked monster formations you could ever need. You can spot Boko on the World Map as well. From here, you should be able to find the Pirate's Cave. You can land in the little hole in the mountains for a shortcut. Enter the cave where the pirates live only have Faris rush off to a nearby shore. Syldra will appear, and with the help of Krile she'll give us her power. Remember kids: friendship can only be measured in battle power. Man, I'm so nihilistic I think Sartre was full of it! Syldra's Thunderstorm is a massively powerful Wind-elemental attack which you can boost with the Air Knife. It's now what Titan was when you first got him. Dancers, Chemists, Bards and all those Jobs can boost the power behind it. It is the best. If you want to have more Air Knives, you can buy them in Moore. Moore Air Knives! Fly back to Tule. To the east and a bit to the north lies the Sealed Castle of Kuza. The scholars of the Wind Shrine now inhabit the halls. With the tablet, you can go to the room with the twelve weapons. As soon as you place the tablet on the sparkling tile, the exit will submerge and you can pick out any three of the twelve weapons sealed here. Before you reach the room of the Twelve Weapons, though, you might encounter Shield Dragons or an enemy called Exdeath's Soul, that elusive #87 you've been missing in your Bestiary for half a game now. Encounters within Kuza, the Sealed Castle: 58 % Exdeath's Soul 42 % Shield Dragon Exdeath's Soul Level: 1, HP: 20000, MP: 20000 Defense: 40, Magic Defense: 45 Evasion: 50%, Magic Evasion: 0% Win: Dark Matter (always) Nullifies: Earth Weakness: Holy Creature: Humanoid, Heavy, Undead

Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Death, Slow Attacks: Attack, Death, Banish, Reaper's Sword "I've got Exdeath's Soul, but I'm not Exdeath's soldier" - The Aevis Killers (2004) These phantom spirits of a great and terrible mage (guess which one) have 20000 HP (!) and are immune to all status ailments. They are weak to Holy-elemental attacks, are Heavy, Humanoid and Undead of nature and will either use physical attacks or try to set Death by means of either Death spells, Banish spells or a Reaper's Sword attack. Exdeath's Soul has a very high Evasion rating as well, so damaging it is a chore. !Drink + !Mix (Holy Breath) is very powerful. This is a random fight that may call for boss tactics; Hastega, Golem and Carbuncle are not wasted luxuries. I should note that Exdeath's Soul is immune to !Control, so no luck there. Requiem can be very powerful in dealing with the fiend. Exdeath's Soul is not a difficult fight per se since all of its attacks are ST (meaning you can always keep reviving and dealing damage) and they miss often. But it'll be a long fight. The Twelve Sealed weapons: Excalibur Holy-elemental Knightsword that's quite a bit more powerful than all other options; unless you count a fully powered Brave Blade. Adds Strength + 5 Assassin's Dagger A Knife that has a 25 % chance of casting Death on its target. Sasuke's Katana A much more powerful version of a Main Gauche, this baby lets you dodge 25 % of all physical attacks before a Hit Rate check is made. Can only be equipped by Ninjas. Stacks with the Main Gauche, meaning two separate checks. Holy Lance A Holy-elemental Lance which adds Strength + 3. Second only to a difficult-to-obtain Lance you'll get in the very last dungeon. Rune Axe An Axe with an AWESOME property that is slightly wasted on the Berserker. Grants Magic Power + 3 Masamune A Katana with allows the wielder to start with a full ATB bar every battle, allowing him or her to take the first turn in every situation. Often inflicts a critical hit, casts Haste when used as an item. Yoichi's Bow A powerful bow. Grants Strength + 3 and Agility + 3 It has a Critical Hit rating chance of 30 %

Fire Lash Sage's Staff

A non-elemental Whip that randomly casts Firaga. A Staff which boosts Holy-elemental attacks by 50 %; deals eight times as much damage versus the Undead, casts Raise when used as an item. Magus Rod A Rod which boosts Fire-, Ice-, Lightning-, Poison-, Earth- and Wind-elemental attacks by 50 %. Deals Fire-, Ice- and Lightning-elemental damage. Apollo's Harp Deals magical, non-elemental damage. Inflicts eight times as much damage on creatures with a Dragon or Undead nature. Gaia Bell Has a 25 % chance of using Earthquake, boosts Earthelemental attacks by 50 % It's hard to pinpoint the three best ones right now. The Gaia Bell inherently fails, I'm sorry to say. The Fire Lash isn't that awesome in my opinion, though if you plan on using a Beastmaster in the near future it's definitely an improvement over the Chain Whip (though not as good as a Dragon's Whisker, which you can obtain on the Overworld Map). The Assassin's Dagger is good for two things: Battle Power and its random Death spell. Neither of them are extremely impressive at this point in the game. The Sage Staff is useful only for boosting the power of the Holy spell which you don't have yet, and for damaging Undead. Apollo's Harp deals incredible amounts of damage versus Undead targets (such as Exdeath's Soul) and Dragon targets; the latter nature can be set through the Dragon Kiss Mix potion. The Rune Axe deserves a very special mention. It's already more powerful than your Gaia Hammer, even without the Rune damage increase. For 5 MP (which the Berserker isn't going to use anyway), 10 is added on its normal 71 Battle Power. However, it's with the Multiplier that the Rune damage increase gets freaky. Next to the normal Strength * Level modifier that's used, this value is increased by a similar formula with Magic Power * Level. Should those stats be the same, the damage output would double. On the Berserker, whose Magic Power is extremely low, this is only a damage increase of about 6 %. Meh, still a free 10 Battle Power regardless of that stupid formula, and the Rune Axe is plain stronger than the Gaia Hammer and doesn't have that annoying tendency to use Earthquake instead. Just know that in the future, when you get both Strength and Magic Power equal (on a Freelancer, for instance), the Rune Axe easily keeps up with a fully powered Brave Blade in damage output. I'd personally go with the Masamune, Sasuke's Katana (if you picked the Brave Blade) or Excalibur (if you picked the Chicken Knife). If you, however plan on specifically using a Dragoon, Ranger, Beastmaster, Berserker or Bard, their respective weapons really make them more useful then they are without them. The above are just kinda the best weapons for an all-round party in my opinion. Note that the only weapons I would advise against are the Fire Lash and the Gaia Bell. The latter is absolutely useless and the former is outclassed by a Whip you can guarantee to wield after the next assignment.

One trick with Apollo's Harp: with the !Mix outcome Dragon Kiss (Dragon Fang + Maiden's Kiss), you can set the Dragon type to every opponent. This makes Apollo's Harp a very powerful weapon versus these targets, especially when it's used by a character with a Summoner's Magic Power. When you're done, you'll see a brief scene of Exdeath sending some of its ultra-demons out to get you. I'm sure we won't be having to face them one-by-one at the end of certain ruins. It's fun to see how the Holy Lance, Sage's Staff, Excalibur and Apollo's Harp make dealing with Exdeath's Soul so much easier already. Set Haste to the weapon's wielders and watch the damage fly. To the south of the Gloceana Desert, there's a little piece of land sticking out In its neighborhood, old-time enemies such as Sahagin and Thunder Anemones appear. If you're not encountering them, you're on the wrong spot. There's a rare 1/16 chance a monster called Stingray will appear. Stingray Level: 93, HP: 30000, MP: 1000 Defense: 60, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 40%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Rune Blade (rare), Dark Matter (common) Win: Turtle Shell (rare), Nothing (common) Absorbs: Water Nullifies: Earth Specialty: !Fin Specialty Effect: Adds Poison Creature: Heavy Vulnerable to: Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: Attack, !Fin This creature is extremely strong and randomly drops a Dragon's Whisker, the strongest Whip in the game. But this isn't the biggest reason we've come to fight the fiend. When Controlled (you can Confuse it) it can use Mighty Guard, a Blue spell which sets Protect, Shell and Float to the entire party at once. It's awesome, and Stingray is its only source. Also, this creature has a rare steal: the Rune Blade. It's a sword with the same property of the Rune Axe. It does have a commons steal in Dark Matter (because ITS SMOOTH FLAT BODY BELIES THE DARKNESS WITHIN), but you'll just have to cast Return a few times. As an opponent, the Stingray is resilient but doable. It has 30000 HP. It's getting crazier and crazier, huh? It is Heavy, sadly, and has no elemental weaknesses. It can be Paralyzed (but it won't take long). Slow works, as does Stop and Confuse. Never set Confuse, though, as Tidal Wave attacks on itself

will heal it for 8000 HP or so. Poison would be a good way of dealing damage, you'll be facing the Stingray for a long time. Now for the goodies! Mighty Guard sets Protect, Shell and Float on all allies, so that's one of the best defensive buffs ever. The Dragon's Whisker is a mighty Whip which will always deal a Critical Hit versus Dragons and will try to Paralyze a target 50 % of the time. It is a better Whip than the Fire Lash in my opinion. The Rune Blade is like the legendary Rune Axe, but since it is a Sword (not a Knightsword, a normal one) it can be given to those that manage to combine physical might with magical skills. Red and Blue Mages as well as Mystic Knights will wield it with potency (compare with the Greatsword if you must), while the best recipient is obviously a Knight with !Summon 5. Crazy, crazy amounts of damage, comparable to a fully powered Brave Blade even. It is easily the most damaging Sword for those not capable of wielding the Knightswords, even though its listed Battle Power isn't too hot. Important note: though the Rune Blade is a sweet deal on the Mystic Knight due to the Mystic Knight's inherent Magic Power and Strength, the Rune Blade is actually incompatible (!) with Spellblade magic. So it's a good deal for random encounters (paired with Two-Handed, Barehanded or Berserk if you will), but if you wanna use the saracen scourge for its Spellblade tactics in longer battles, switch to another blade. To the north, where Istory used to be, you can find three new critters for your Bestiary. The Frost Bull attacks physically only, and runs when subjected to a Fire-elemental attack (like its cousin, Big Horn). Spizzner is a mere Magic Beast cannon fodder; reminiscent of the Sand Killers, the Spizzner is not Undead. Istory Lythos may attack physically or use Frostbite; they have impressive defenses and possess a rare Judgment Staff for you to take. Bio is a good way of dealing with them; they're not weak to it or anything, but it cuts nicely through their Magic Defense and is unblockable. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.41.2 Airship Exploitation: They see me Odin', they hatin' ********************************** Opponents: Nutkin (#6), Skull Eater (#57), Objet d'Art (#99), Odin (#290) Miscellaneous items: Flame Shield (rare Odin drop), Protect Ring (rare Odin steal) Summon spells: Odin Blue spells: Death Claw

That's enough. Spot the large light-green patch to the south-east of the Desert of the Shifting Sands? Here, the Castle of Bal is located. Remember Jachol Cave? Which ultimately led to some pointless little dent in the mountains? The castle is now placed right on top of that place, so you can get to the locked basement of the Castle of Bal through Jachol Cave. Travel through Jachol Cave. If you forgot how to, check back to section 4.16.3 (Jachol Cave). The Monk's !Kick is still a great way of dealing with the Nut Eaters here. With your rising power, you may now survive a Skull Eater's !Incisor (when its target is in the back row) and see him/her get Poisoned but not Confused, unless the target is protected from Poison but not from Confuse (doable only through the Resist Poison Mixture), in which case you'll get Confused characters. Now that you're in Bal Castle's basement, you'll encounter Objet d'Art again. Level 5 Death kills all formations instantly; Thundaga is a straight-damage alternative if you just want to kill things. Simply walk up to the orb thingy that's supposed to represent summon beasts because Square was too lazy making separate sprites for the three that feature the game. Talk to Odin and accept two times to engage in a fight with the eight-legged harbinger of doom. "It's your funeral..." Odin Level: 2, HP: 17000, MP: 500 Defense: 20, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 80% Steal: Protect Ring (rare) Win: Flame Shield (rare) Absorbs: Holy Creature: Humanoid, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Petrify, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Zantetsuken Odin! That's not his hair, that's his cape. He's wearing a helmet, how could that be his hair? This isn't a rock musical about the anti-Vietnam movement, this is a Japanese fantasy game. Notice how Sleipnir, Odin's horse, has six legs. The purpose of this fight appears to be testing the extent of your powers; how much damage can you inflict in a minute? However, with Odin being vulnerable to Petrify, all it takes is the setting of this ailment to end the battle. Though Odin has spectacular amounts of Magic Evasion, he hardly has any Evasion so

Break Spellblade effects are easily your best option. Odin has a rare Protect Ring steal. Though useful at this point, many people make the mistake of thinking you NEED this opportunity to get four Protect Rings in the game. This isn't true as an infinitely re-fightable enemy also has a rare Protect Ring for stealing, but you won't fight it in a while so it's technically better to grab one here. Note that Return won't reset the counter Odin inflicts on you, so it's no guarantee you'll get one. Odin's physicals are extremely weak, but Zantetsuken is a very powerful attack. It's a magical attack whose random non-elemental damage output isn't based on level. It can deal anywhere between 400 and 1600 damage to the entire party, and Odin can use it on his very first turn. Shell helps, but you don't really have the time unless you can Mighty Guard it up in a single go across the entire party. Since the White Berserk spell is unblockable and Odin's normal physicals aren't that threatening, it might be a good idea to cast the spell to make sure Odin doesn't kill your Break Spellblade knight or dame. If you got any turns to spare but no access to Berserk, the Sleep, Time Slip, Remora and Stop spells all hinder the guy for a few seconds (Sleep-inducing spells for the rest of the battle). Send in a Mystic Knight (not with a Rune Blade!) and one or more Thieves with Thief's Gloves for maximum stealing attempts. Return does NOT reset the timer. This is retarded in every possible sense of the word, but it doesn't. You'll have to Save outside of Jachol Cave on the pre-GBA versions. In the European version released later than the US version, they made Return affect the timer like it should have. Eventually, you'll have stolen your Protect Ring and you can finish off Odin with the Mystic Knight. If you're really lucky you might've gotten a Flame Shield here as well. If you're too late, Odin kills you after the battle. He can simply choose to kill you, since he's Odin. "Time's up! Better luck next time!" Odin's Zantetsuken is the best summon attack ever. It's an unblockable attack that kills anything it hits and disregards Death immunity. It does however check for the Heavy nature, and as soon a single target on-screen has it, Odin will use Gungnir instead, a non-elemental single-target attack which deals damage based on your Magic Power and the target's Defense. If all enemies on-screen are vulnerable to Zantetsuken, Odin may still use Gungnir (this random chance is based on level) but since the Gungnir attack is powerful enough on its own it's not too bad. Rather than hiking back through Jacole Cave, you can also unlock the doors to the Castle of Bal from the inside and walk out random encounter-free. You can even pick up the Wind Drake (the lone one from Galuf's old World; the other one killed itself to save Lenna, remember?) but since it can't land anywhere the

airship couldn't already take you, it's just a novelty thing. Anyway, I will now take you to a secret on the Overworld Map. You'll get your only vague hint on its exact location at some point later in the game, but right now the advantages are too good to pass up and there's quite some Crescent NPCs discussing a phantom village appearing the forest. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.41.3 Overworld Encounters: Planet R ********************************** Opponents: Goblin (#1), Killer Bee (#5), Nutkin (#6), Stray Cat (#7), Gatling (#16), Big Horn (#17), Tatou (#18), Bandersnatch (#19), Garula (#20), Aegir (#31), Zu (#32), Wild Nakk (#33), Grass Tortoise (#34), Silent Bee (#35), Mythril Dragon (#36), Double Lizard (#50), Bio Soldier (#51), Harvester (#52), Black Flame (#53), Dhorme Chimera (#58), Sandboil (#59), Desert Killer (#60), Sand Bear (#61), Weresnake (#95), Kornago (#86), Cursed Being (#97), Sleepy (#135), Triffid (#136), Hedgehog (#137), Python (#138), Shadow (#139), Elm Gigas (#140), Desertpede (#141), Bulette (#142), Slug (#154), Gloom Widow (#155), Mykale (#156), Frost Bull (#173), Istory Lythos (#174), Spizzner (#175), Ankheg (#184), Ammonite (#185), Landcrawler (#186), Sahagin (#193), Thunder Anemone (#194), Sea Ibis (#195), Corbett (#196), Nix (#197), Water Scorpion (#198), Vilia (#199), Gel Fish (#200), Rukh (#201), Sea Devil (#202), Stingray (#203) Miscellaneous items: Death Sickle (rare Mykale steal), Dragon's Whisker (rare Stingray drop), Dark Matter (common Stingray steal), Rune Blade (rare Stingray steal), Dragon Fang (rare Istory Lythos drop), Judgment Staff (rare Istory Lythos steal), Defender (rare Sea Devil steal), Angel Ring (rare Vilia drop), Silver Specs (rare Vilia steal), Murasame (rare Rukh steal) Spells: Moon Flute, 1000 Needles, Lilliputian Lyric, Aero, Mighty Guard, Goblin Punch, ??? Woohoo! Okay, you may want to skip this 'chapter', but I felt I needed to include it anyway. In the previous chapter, I have detailed all noteworthy exploits to be found the Overworld Map, but 'tis by no means an exhaustive talk on everything to be found under the big blue skies. The Overworld Map is divided 8 by 8 = 64 squares; each squares is filled with a set of four possible monster formations for the sea, the grasslands, the forests and the desert. I shouldn't have to explain that even though the game has 'desert' encounters in a square filled with sea only, it is not relevant to you since you can't access it.

Generally speaking, some things can be said about overworld encounters. Forest encounters are the same as grassland encounters, except in places where old, weak monsters from the first part of the game appear. To the north, grasslands are inhabited by Spizzner, Frost Bulls and Istory Lythos monsters. In the middle, you already faced encounters filled with Elm Gigas', Triffids, Sleepies, Shadows, Pythons and Hedgehogs. In the south half, it's Slugs, Gloom Widows and Mykales that roam the lands. Centered, more or less, around the former location of Tycoon Castle roam a large amount of 'old' monsters from when Bartz' world was still disconnected from Galuf's world. Between these critters you can find Garula, who's apparently still alive after fleeing Walse like a big hairy tusked Judas. Grass Tortoises can be found at the grasslands on square F6, which is a great place of farming Turtle Shells. At the grasslands of squares G2 and H5 and the forests of H6, you can find the encounters from near Quelb before Exdeath merged the two worlds; you can still find Kornago frogs here to trade for a Kornago Gourd in Quelb. So, here's the map: A1 A2 A3 A4 A5 A6 A7 A8 B1 B2 B3 B4 B5 B6 B7 B8 C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 D1 D2 D3 D4 D5 D6 D7 D8 E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 E7 E8 F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 G1 G2 G3 G4 G5 G6 G7 G8 H1 H2 H3 H4 H5 H6 H7 H8 And here are the monster formations for those squares. Each number indicates a set of monster formations that is listed below. A1: 104 (sea) A2: 89 (grass), 105 (sea) A3: 106 (sea) A4: 108 (sea) A5: 109 (sea) A6: 91 (grass), 104 (sea) A7: 91 (grass), 105 (sea) A8: 90 (grass), 106 (sea) B1: 89 (grass), 108 (sea) B2: 89 (grass), 109 (sea) B3: 159 (desert), 104 (sea) B4: 90 (grass), 105 (sea) B5: 90 (grass), 159 (desert), 106 (sea)

B6: 91 (grass), 96 (desert), 108 (sea) B7: 90 (grass), 109 (sea) B8: 90 (grass), 104 (sea) C1: 105 (sea) C2: 75 (grass), 106 (sea) C3: 73 (grass), 108 (sea) C4: 71 (grass), 109 (sea) C5: 70 (grass), 104 (sea) C6: 69 (grass), 96 (desert), 105 (sea) C7: 67 (grass), 110 (sea) C8: 68 (grass), 108 (sea) D1: 84 (grass), 109 (sea) D2: 76 (grass), 77 (desert), 104 (sea) D3: 74 (grass), 105 (sea) D4: 74 (grass), 106 (sea) D5: 64 (grass), 108 (sea) D6: 0 (grass), 14 (forest), 109 (sea) D7: 65 (grass), 104 (sea) D8: 66 (grass), 105 (sea) E1: 85 (grass), 106 (sea) E2: 82 (grass), 78 (desert), 108 (sea) E3: 80 (grass) E4: 81 (grass), 104 (sea) E5: 3 (grass), 2 (forest), 159 (desert), 105 (sea) E6: 6 (grass), 4 (forest), 159 (desert), 106 (sea) E7: 86 (grass), 108 (sea) E8: 109 (sea) F1: 104 (sea) F2: 83 (grass), 105 (sea) F3: 82 (grass), 106 (sea) F4: 83 (grass), 108 (sea) F5: 10 (grass), 7 (forest), 109 (sea) F6: 12 (grass), 8 (forest), 104 (sea) F7: 86 (grass), 105 (sea) F8: 106 (sea) G1: 108 (sea) G2: 45 (grass), 109 (sea) G3: 80 (grass), 104 (sea) G4: 81 (grass), 105 (sea) G5: 106 (sea) G6: 19 (grass), 108 (sea) G7: 86 (grass), 109 (sea)

G8: 104 (sea) H1: 107 (sea) H2: 106 (sea) H3: 108 (sea) H4: 87 (grass), 109 (sea) H5: 45 (grass), 104 (sea) H6: 87 (grass), 45 (forest), 105 (sea) H7: 87 (grass), 106 (sea) H8: 108 (sea) These are all the possible monster formations to be found on the Overworld map: (0) 35 % Goblin 35 % Killer Bee x2 23 % Goblin x3 6 % Killer Bee x2, Goblin (2) 35 % Nutkin x3 35 % Stray Cat x3 23 % Stray Cat, Killer Bee, Nutkin 6 % Killer Bee x2, Goblin (3) Always: Goblin (4) 35 % Gatling 35 % Gatling x2, Big Horn 23 % Tatou x2 6 % Big Horn, Gatling, Tatou (6) 35 % Tatou x2, Gatling 35 % Big Horn x2 23 % Gatling 6 % Bandersnatch (7) 35 % Bandersnatch, Big Horn 35 % Bandersnatch x3 23 % Bandersnatch 6 % Gatling (8)

Always: Garula (10) Always: Wild Nakk x5 (12) 35 % Grass Tortoise x2 35 % Zu, Aegir x2 23 % Aegir x2, Grass Tortoise 6 % Zu, Grass Tortoise, Aegir (14) 35 % Mythril Dragon, Silent Bee, Grass Tortoise 35 % Mythril Dragon 30 % Mythril Dragon x3 (19) 35 % Bio Soldier, Double Lizard, Harvester 35 % Harvester x2, Double Lizard 30 % Harvester x2, Black Flame x2 (45) 35 % Cursed Being x2, Weresnake, Kornago 35 % Kornago x3 23 % Cursed Being, Kornago x2 6 % Cursed Being x2, Weresnake, Kornago (64) 35 % Sleepy x4 35 % Triffid x3 23 % Triffid, Sleepy, Shadow 6 % Hedgehog, Shadow x3 (65) 35 % Triffid x3 35 % Triffid, Sleepy, Shadow 23 % Hedgehog, Shadow x3 6 % Hedgehog, Sleepy, Triffid x2 (66) 35 % Triffid, Sleepy, Shadow 35 % Hedgehog, Shadow x3 23 % Hedgehog, Sleepy, Triffid x2 6 % Sleepy x4 (67) 35 % Hedgehog, Shadow x3

35 % Hedgehog, Sleepy, Triffid x2 23 % Sleepy x4 6 % Triffid x3 (68) 35 % Hedgehog, Sleepy, Triffid x2 35 % Sleepy x4 23 % Triffid x3 6 % Triffid, Sleepy, Shadow (69) 35 % Python, Hedgehog, Triffid 35 % Python x2, Triffid x2 23 % Shadow x2, Triffid 6 % Shadow x2, Python, Hedgehog (70) 35 % Python x2, Triffid x2 35 % Shadow x2, Triffid 23 % Shadow x2, Python, Hedgehog 6 % Python, Hedgehog, Triffid (71) 35 % Shadow x2, Triffid 35 % Shadow x2, Python, Hedgehog 23 % Python, Hedgehog, Triffid 6 % Python x2, Triffid x2 (73) 35 % Elm Gigas 35 % Elm Gigas, Shadow, Python 23 % Python, Hedgehog, Triffid 6 % Python x2, Triffid x2 (74) 35 % Elm Gigas, Shadow, Python 35 % Elm Gigas, Hedgehog, Sleepy 23 % Python x2, Triffid x2 6 % Shadow x2, Triffid (75) 35 % Elm Gigas, Hedgehog, Sleepy 35 % Elm Gigas 23 % Shadow x2, Triffid 6 % Python, Hedgehog, Triffid (76)

35 % Elm Gigas, Hedgehog, Sleepy 35 % Elm Gigas, Shadow, Python 30 % Elm Gigas (77) 35 % Desertpede x4 35 % Bulette 23 % Bulette, Desertpede x2 6 % Bulette x2 (78) 35 % Bulette x2, Desertpede 35 % Desertpede x4 23 % Bulette x2 6 % Bulette (80) 35 % Slug x4 35 % Slug x2, Gloom Widow x2 23 % Gloom Widow x3 6 % Mykale x2 (81) 35 % Slug x2, Gloom Widow x2 35 % Gloom Widow x3 23 % Mykale x2 6 % Slug x4 (82) 35 % Gloom Widow x3 35 % Mykale x2 23 % Slug x4 6 % Slug x2, Gloom Widow x2 (83) 35 % Mykale x2 35 % Slug x4 23 % Slug x2, Gloom Widow x2 6 % Gloom Widow x3 (84) 35 % Mykale, Gloom Widow, Slug 35 % Slug x4 23 % Gloom Widow x3 6 % Mykale, Gloom Widow, Slug (85)

42 % Mykale, Slug x3 35 % Slug x2, Gloom Widow x2 23 % Mykale x2 (86) 35 % Mykale, Slug x3 35 % Mykale, Gloom Widow, Slug 30 % Mykale x2 (87) 35 % Mykale x2 35 % Mykale, Gloom Widow, Slug 30 % Mykale, Slug x3 (89) 35 % Frost Bull 35 % Frost Bull x2 23 % Spizzner x2 6 % Istory Lythos x5 (90) 35 % Istory Lythos 35 % Frost Bull x2 23 % Spizzner x2 6 % Istory Lythos (91) 35 % Spizzner x2 35 % Spizzner x3 23 % Spizzner, Frost Bull x2 6 % Istory Lythos (104) 58 % Corbett x2 42 % Nix x2 (105) 58 % Nix x2 42 % Nix, Water Scorpion x3 (106) 65 % Water Scorpion x2 35 % Corbett x2 (107) 42 % Nix x2 35 % Gel Fish x4

23 % Vilia (108) 94 % Rukh 6 % Rukh, Sea Devil x2 (109) 35 % Rukh, Sea Devil x2 35 % Sea Devil x3 30 % Rukh (110) 35 % Sahagin x3 35 % Thunder Anemone x2, Sahagin 34 % Sea Ibis, Sahagin x2 6 % Stingray (159) 35 % Desert Killer x2 35 % Desert Killer, Sandboil x2 23 % Sand Bear 6 % Sand Bear, Desert Killer, Sandboil Exciting stuff. Compelling and rich. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.42.1 The Phantom Village ********************************** Opponents: Weresnake (#95), Kornago (#86), Cursed Being (#97), Slug (#154), Gloom Widow (#155), Mykale (#156) Container contents: Thief Knife Miscellaneous items: Mirage Vest Features: Piano In Crescent, you heard about villages appearing in the forest. Time to investigate, it's not like we've got anything going on at the moment except for that saving-the-world thing and the recent departure of all that we hold dear. At our destination, we're going to go on an unholy shopping spree that dwarves even our worst nightmares we have about taking our girlfriends into town; best

be prepared. If you want more Gil, I'd advise you to sail around in the lake near Crescent, where Rukh enemies give you 5000 Gil and have a rare Murasame for you to Steal and Sea Devils give 3000 Gil a kill and have a rare Defender. Rukhs succumb to Sleep/Time Slip, Sea Devils can be quickly dispatched by Odin or Thundaga spells. Grassland and forests near Crescent 35 % Mykale, Slug x3 35 % Mykale, Gloom Widow, Slug 30 % Mykale x2 Forests around the Phantom Village 35 % Cursed Being x2, Weresnake, Kornago 35 % Kornago x3 23 % Cursed Being, Kornago x2 6 % Cursed Being x2, Weresnake, Kornago Kornago From Crescent, follow the streak of land to the south-west. The third patch of forest is the one we want. Walk around, and about half of the battles you encounter won't be a battle at all; it'll take you straight into the Phantom Village, a town that was sealed - accidentally - within the Interdimensional Rift together with the Void and all the vile demons a 1000 years ago. Today's lesson; when you're immortal, you talk like a douchebag... This city is littered with hidden passages that you'll only be able to see with the Passages support ability present. I'll take you through all its features. First, find the Armor Shop. Armor Shop 1: Crystal Shield 2500 Gil Crystal Helm 10500 Gil Black Cowl 6500 Gil Circlet 4500 Gil Crystal Armor 12000 Gil Black Garb 9000 Gil Black Robe 8000 Gil White Robe 8000 Gil All straightforward stuff, really. This town features the last shops where you'll get better equipment, so make it count. You should have some Heavy Armor that's equal to what's sold here. Black Robes are better than White Robes. The Circlet is pretty much the first helmet for Mages that can best the Lamia's Tiara; it gives as much Magic Power boosting and has quite a lot more Defense than the Tiara. The crate on the shop can be examined to open a path to the second Armor Shop. Armor Shop 2:

Hermes Sandals 50000 Gil Angel Ring 50000 Gil Flame Ring 50000 Gil Coral Ring 50000 Gil Lamia's Tiara 2500 Gil Angel Robe 3000 Gil If you stole everything you could've stolen so far, you have all the Angel and Flame Rings you could ever use. In addition, you don't have a lot of use for Coral Rings in the near future (though you'll want four end-game). Lamia's Tiara can be found in the Pyramid of Moore, the Angel Robe is largely inferior to something like the Black Robe. No, the grand item here is the Hermes Sandals. What do they do? They grant the wearer inherent Haste, and this tidbit makes them the best accessories in the game. Protect Rings are awesome as all-round protective accessories. When the boss fight in question features certain elemental attacks, you probably want to resort to Flame or Coral Rings. For some characters, a Thief's Gloves, Kornago Gourd or Kaiser Knuckles is needed for what you want to do. But the Hermes Sandals, in my humble opinion, are what you should be wearing when you don't have a specific reason to be wearing something specific. They allow you take twice as many turns. You don't defend as well as you could be doing, but you absorb far fewer hits, can react faster to a surprise attack and when a character with Hermes Sandals is killed, they'll still have Haste when revived, something Hastega can't do for you. Of course, for boss battles it's a viable strategy to take them off and equip Angel Rings or Protect Rings because you know you're going to cast Hastega; if dying is improbable, it's worth considering. ...anyway, if you have the Gil, buy four. Now, leave the Armor Shop and find the Weapon Shop. Weapon Shop 1: Flametonque 10000 Gil Icebrand 11000 Gil Gaia Hammer 12800 Gil Morning Star 7800 Gil Rune Bow 10000 Gil Kiku-ichimonji 14800 Gil Partisan 10200 Gil New items include the Rune Bow and the Kiku-ichimonji. The former is useless. Very, very useless. It's a Bow that sets Silence 1/3 if the time. And deals NO DAMAMGE. Also, you can wield it in one hand? The Kiku is a stronger Katana than the Osafune. If you picked up the Masamune earlier, or if you stole a Murasame from a Rukh you can find on the oceans, this is useless to you. If not, grab one. There's no specific reason you should buy anything else here.

Magic Shop 1: Mini 300 Gil Toad 300 Gil Speed 30 Gil Float 300 Gil Teleport 600 Gil Chocobo 300 Gil Sylph 350 Gil Remora 250 Gil Presto, all the spells you could've found somewhere and could never buy in a shop. This except the elementary summon spells, which you can no longer purchase in Walse (since it's gone). Around the back is where the good stuff's at. Walk outside and approach the shop from the left, in the back. Magic Shop 2: Arise 10000 Gil Dispel 10000 Gil Death 10000 Gil Osmose 10000 Gil Quick 10000 Gil Banish 10000 Gil Some sweet moves are added to your arsenal. They're from the sixth and last level of the Black, White and Time schools of magic, how could they not be awesome? Arise recovers a KO'd character with full HP while Dispel removes all positive magic effects from a target; you already had this spell at your disposal if you had a Judgment Staff, but here it is legit. Death simply sets Death on a single target while Osmose drains MP. Banish can instantly destroy a non-Heavy target, but its hit rate isn't too hot. Its fluff indicates that targets Banished are sent to the Interdimensional Rift, so that's something fun. Quick is crazy; it sets the character casting it in some sort of time hole, giving him or her two turns while the rest of the battlefield takes no action. It's real great but also crazy expensive on MP; 99 MP plus two spells (or five with !Dualcast) absolutely destroys your MP reserve. It is likely Gil is running low now; the only truly useful spell you won't want to miss is Arise. Item Shop: Potion Hi-Potion Phoenix Down Maiden's Kiss Antidote Eye Drops Gold Needle Mallet Elixir

40 Gil 360 Gil 1000 Gil 60 Gil 30 Gil 20 Gil 150 Gil 50 Gil

50000 Gil

Ether 1500 Gil Holy Water 150 Gil Goliath Tonic 110 Gil Power Drink 110 Gil Speed Shake 110 Gil Iron Draft 110 Gil Hero Cocktail 110 Gil The item shop owners here don't believe in Cottages; they've been stuck in the same town frozen in time for a 1000 years; camping gear outlets have really suffered from it financially. They do, however, sell Elixirs are the downright ridiculous prize of 50000 Gil. You can buy 833 Maiden's Kisses with 50000 Gil. What'd you rather have, a refill on your HP and MP or enough booty for a lifetime at your every convenience? Find the hidden entrance to the Pub on the back side which'll get you after the bar. One of the barrels contains a Thief Knife, a Knife that uses !Mug instead of !Attack half of the time. You'll have to corner the bartender to get it. Leave using the stairs. The Thief Knife follows the same logic as the Chicken Knife in that it will not use !Mug with !Store, !Jump, !Dance. Here, you'll encounter a challenge; travel around the world with Boko and obtain a fabulous price. The price in question is a Mirage Vest, some Clothes which is a bit less defensive than the Black Garb but gives the wearer a single Image at the start of every battle, making him or her evade any single physical attack which comes his or her way. It's very awesome, so I suggest you take the tour. I'll talk about the tour later. Continue. A townsman mentions there's a piano here somewhere. You walk past a pot containing Life of a Recovery Spring. After this room, you'll find yourself in a tunnel under the Phantom Village. To the right is a door that opens into the Interdimensional Rift which is blown shut every time you open it. To the far right is a stairway which leads you to the second Weapon Shop. Weapon Shop 2: Fuma Shuriken 25000 Gil Shuriken 2500 Gil Twin Lance 10800 Gil Moonring Blade 1100 Gil Flame Scroll 200 Gil Water Scroll 200 Gil Lightning Scroll 200 Gil Ninja stuff. The only thing you could take from this list is another Twin Lance if you were lazy in the face of your forefathers. And Objet d'Arts, lazy in their face too. Head back into the tunnel, but instead go to the far left. Rather than hitting a wall, there's a hidden passage. You can use your Thieves to see it. Ignore

the stairway you encounter for now, just push on until you reach the eight and final piano. Sitting on your stool, you now play the opening of Arabesque number one from Debussy's Deux Arabesques. "You have mastered the piano!!! All others quake in fear at your superhuman keyboard manipulation skill!" Get your ass to the stairway you passed up earlier. Here, you can catch the Black Chocobo! Grab it, you'll need it later to enter an area you can't access by any other means. Note: you can land the Black Chocobo in the middle of the forest west of the Desert of the Shifting Sands, the forest that once was the Great Forest of Moore. This prevents you from ever mounting the Chocobo ever again. This can lock up your progress in the worst case and prevent you from ever reaching certain area's in a mildly less bad situation. Bad idea, don't do it. If you want to, you can fly the Black Chocobo to the great desert to the north-east. Find the forest and roam around the sands. If you encounter a Landcrawler, know that you can steal a rare Defender Knightsword from him. Return to Crescent and visit the Bard there. Play Debussy's most famous arabesque for the good man on his piano, and amaze the everlastin' coocoo out of him. The Hero's Rime will increase your level during battle. Well, not really. It just increases your level for purposes of damage calculation, but your effective level for purposes of Goblin Punch, Level # Blue spells and the like will remain the same, unlike levels gained through Hero Cocktails and such. Finally, fly the Airship to Boko. If you tour around the world, meet up with the Airship again and fly back to the Phantom Village, you'll get your Mirage Vest. Your tour will follow the following places: Travel north-west 'til you reach Karnak, then go south to the best of your ability until you see Surgate Castle. Further south lies Quelb; the townswolves here have little interesting to say. Go south even further 'til you see Bal Castle, then turn to the east for a bit until you can get between the mountains to travel along the thin strip of land that connects the continent with Crescent Island. Pass Crescent and go north until you reach the hole in the earth that once was Tycoon Castle. From here, find Ghido's former cave again; Ta-da! You have now traveled across the world! Go take the airship to collect your spoils in the Phantom Village. But there is one more thing you must do for me first. Take Boko to Istory Falls. Go Eastwards now, past Tule, up past the Sealed Castle, past Regole, all the way west until you encounter a collection of

connected rivers. Enter these rivers and scout until you find the waterfall. Just behind the waterfall on the Map, in the middle, you enter the place. Take one step forward to find the Magic Lamp. Details on this wondrous item can be found in section 8.3.1. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.43.1 The Island Shrine; the Wind tablet ********************************** Opponents: Prototype (#56), Mecha Head (#150), The Damned (#151), Executor (#157), Oiseaurare (#158), Shadow Dancer (#159), Numb Blade (#160), Tot Aevis (#161), Covert (-), Pantera (-), Wendigo (#289) Container contents: 9000 Gil, 12000 Gil, Beast Killer, Circlet, Crystal Helm, Dark Matter, Dragon Fang, Elixir, Ether x 2, Hi-Potion, Iron Draft, Protect Ring, Rising Sun Miscellaneous items: Mirage Vest (rare Oiseaurare steal), Dancing Dagger (rare Shadow Dancer steal), Ice Shield (rare Numb Blade steal), Aevis Killer (common Tot Aevis steal, rare Tot Aevis drop) Features: Tablet Spells: Level 2 Old, Level 3 Flare, Level 4 Graviga, Level 5 Death, Doom, Off-Guard, ???, Missile, Flame Thrower, Self-Destruct, Mind Blast "One rests within an island shrine, kissed by wind..." In the middle of the World Map there's a large sea. On the southern edge, you can see an island which turns out to have appeared right in the middle of the Big Bridge. The Island Shrine existed earlier, but surrounded by mountains you had no way to enter it. Now, the path is open. Guarding the doorway are two Gargoyles. You've fought them earlier, so you know how to deal with them. Remember: Yes to Berserk, no to Holy! Excalibur and the Holy Lance are out. With Syldra at your side, Faris' old buddy is without a doubt the easiest way of clearing out the battlefield against these grey guardians; boosted by Air Knives, Magus Rod or possibly even Wind Slash or Rune Chime, the post-mortem plesiosaurus deals great amounts of damage. All rooms leading to first pipe and switch room: 35 % Executor 35 % Executor x 3

23 % Oiseaurare x 2 6 % Tot Aevis Rooms the pipes lead to: 35 % Shadow Dancer 35 % Executor 23 % Tot Aevis 6 % Oiseaurare x 5 2nd Floor and 4th Floor: 35 % Shadow Dancer, Executor, Oiseaurare 35 % The Damned, Oiseaurare 23 % Oiseaurare x 5 6 % Tot Aevis 3rd Floor: 35 % Oiseaurare x 2 35 % Executor x 3, Oiseaurare 23 % Executor 6 % Tot Aevis 5th Floor and 7th Floor: 35 % Numb Blade x 2 35 % Shadow Dancer, Executor, Oiseaurare 23 % Tot Aevis 6 % Oiseaurare x 5 The Damned hid in Pyramid of Moore chests all the freaking time, but they're loose now. What's the deal with The Damned, anyway? They went to Harvard. They practice law in prestigious New York firms. They're undead pests, vulnerable to Level 4 Graviga. All this is common knowledge. But deep inside, what really makes them tick? Executor enemies will use every level-based Blue spell, ranging from Lv. 5 Death, Lv. 4 Graviga and Lv. 3 Flare to Lv. 2 Old. The Flare variant was slightly problematic to obtain earlier, so you may want to learn it here. All these spells can be Reflected, so that's a good way to defend yourselves if you find your team vulnerable to the Death or Flare attacks. Level 3 Flare itself is a great way to get rid of Executors if you want to give them a bun out of their own oven. Oiseaurare is the source for Mirage Vests, as you can rarely Steal one from these enemies. They may appear in large large numbers, so you should have no shortage of tries. Mirage Vests are great in combination with Hermes Sandals, as you'll end fights before the Image status can be challenged twice. "Oiseau rare" is french for 'rare bird'. Considering Oiseaurare is neither a bird nor infrequent in the slightest, this is a case of dadaist humor not often found in

Japanese video games. They can cast Confuse spells on the first turn; Lamia's Tiara, Ribbons, the Genji Helm and Bone Mail protect you from auto-mutilation. The Mirage Vest sets a one-time Image status to the wearer. The Blink spell and the Ninja's !Image action ability both set 2; the Mirage Vest just sets one. In quick battles such as random encounters, they grant physical immunity to some extent; they battle'll likely end before a character is hit twice. In longer battles, a bug may be exploited; Mirage Vest's Image status is re-loaded every time equipment's switched in-battle; send a Thief's dagger from the Right to the Left Hand, the Image is back. Try it out, amaze your friends! Note that by switching equipment in-battle, you also lose the powers of Resist Fire, Ice, Lightning, Poison, Dragon Shield and Elemental Power. Nobody cares! Tot Aevis Level: 47, HP: 33090, MP: 1000 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 20%, Magic Evasion: 60% Steal: Ether (rare), Aevis Killer (common) Win: Aevis Killer (rare) Absorbs: Wind Nullifies: Earth Status: (Always) Float Creature: Heavy, Aevis Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Darkness, Confuse, Silence, Slow Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Beak, Breath Wing Tot Aevis is a fatass. It has 33090 HP, and is both Heavy and protected from Death attacks. It has no elemental weaknesses, but absorbs Wind. You will be fighting these things for a while. As a common steal, it has the Aevis Killer Bow, which always scores a Critical Hit on the Aevis type (big birds). Why would a big bird have its own death warrant with it? The questions of life are hard questions to answer indeed. Tot Aevis may set Petrify with Beak, attack physically and use Breath Wing. Since Tot Aevis strikes hard, Golem is a great way of keeping you Not-Death, the preferred state. As you can see the Tot Aevis is vulnerable to the Confuse status, but don't since Breath Wing heals it for great amounts of damage when turned on itself. When you're done, you GET NOTHING. You LOSE. GOOD DAY, SIR. Except possibly another Aevis Killer. The Aevis Killer is far more powerful than the Hayate Bow, and is a decent alternative to Yoichi's Bow seeing as how Tot Aevis enemies appear here and are such a humongous drag. Aevis Killers suffer no abnormal miss chance, so setting Berserk with this Bow will not make it miss. That's a good thing to know. Shadow Dancers will attack physically, but may also use Dancehall Daze to inflict Sleep on a single target. They have a rare Dancing Dagger for stealing.

There is no reason why you should want one, but they're fun and you had only one so far. Numb Blade samurai have a rare Ice Shield for stealing! They're great in Knight Single Job Challenges, help out against the boss fight of this place and are generally good to have. Now that the exciting stuff is out of the way, the Dumb Blade sets Paralyze with !Mineuchi. See! The !Mineuchi which the Samurai Job learns after 10 ABP IS supposed to set Paralyze. I told you. These samurai have no other special features. Being able to use !Steal successfully is a great thing in this dungeon, so you'll probably want a Thief around. Chicken Knife + !Mug is a great idea you might wish to employ. Syldra boosted by an Air Knife is exceedingly powerful at the moment, so use it for crowd control. What's left is the challenge of the Tot Aevis, so rise to meet it. Buff spells and an Aevis Killer are great weapons. Since this fight takes so long, you might even find use for the buff Songs from the Bard. Prepare against Confuse spells by Confuse-resistant equipment or Reflect Rings that also help against the Executor's spells (but remove the Thief's Gloves as an option). Push through the heavy doors of the Island Shrine to find another apparently featureless room. With Find Passages, you can see a hidden passage to the right which takes you to a chest containing 12000 Gil. The next room will take you to a pipe, which will suck you in. Here, in the room with the switches, two treasures are hidden from you. On the wall to the left, one tile above the bottom-right tile, you can find a Hi-Potion. In the bottom-right corner, on the right wall, you can find an Iron Draft. Useless items, but they're there and if you miss them you'll have to cry yourself to sleep, I suppose. Switches behave as follows: Up/Up = Back to the entrance Up/Down = Takes you to a chest containing an Elixir Down/Down = Takes you to a chest containing 9000 Gil Down/Up = Takes you further in. Raid both the Elixir and 9000 Gil chests before pressing on; get back to the switches room, flip the left one down and the right one up and get into that inviting tube. Here, there's a chest containing either Covert or Pantera. Both monsters are exclusive to being a monster-in-a-box in this chest, so you'll never be able to defeat both on the same file (though you can see both by opening the chest and running away a few times). Neither has a Bestiary entry, so no worries there. The Covert is a red-clad ninja who may attack physically or use either Wind

Slash or Blaze. It has 7000 HP. When you kill him, he'll go "Illusion" and summon two of his kind before passing away. Since they overlap perfectly, you won't see the first one die and the other two appear. Now, you'll have to fight two Coverts but you'll only see one on the battlefield. After you've killed the other two, the Covert will say "That's far enough!" and die. Golem is nice. The Pantera is a super-Coeurl. It attacks physically and may randomly use Blaster, which sets either Paralyze or Death, 50-50 chance. Sadly, the Pantera battle is bugged. See, what was supposed to happen was this. When you allowed Pantera to live for two turns, it would summon two images of itself. "Illusion!" One of them would randomly be the 'real' Pantera and take damage. The other two would be invulnerable to harm. You'd be attacking decoy target a lot as the real Pantera often switched. When Pantera would have died, the two images would Flee. However, rather than starting this switch-eroo, the Pantera's will actually self-terminate as a first turn after multiplying. Regardless of its guardian, you'll get a Rising Sun for you trouble, which is basically an upgraded version of your Moonring Blade, a Thief- and Ninjaspecific weapon which deals the same amount of damage from the Back Row. It is not a bad weapon, but is badly outperformed by the many other great weapons you've obtained (magic-boosting ones, Chicken Knife, Assassin's Dagger). It is also Aerial, so it will always hit those monsters that cannot avoid Aerial weapons, which includes most Floating enemies. You'll want a Thief in here anyway, and coupled with the Strength coming from Barehanded, the Rising Sun will deal respectable amounts of damage. Continue for a Save Point. Welcome to the 2nd Floor. To the left, you can find a chest with an Ether. To the right, a secret passage detectable by a Thief will lead you to a chest containing a Crystal Helm. Both are useless. In the middle of the room is a chest containing either a Mecha Head or a Prototype. The former is one of those mechanical menaces you found in the Pyramid of Moore; the latter was the undefeatable thing you Controlled and Self-Destructed for Dark Matters back in World 1. For whatever reason, bring a Mystic Knight; the Mecha Head will instantly fall against Thundaga spellblade effects, and the Prototype is vulnerable to Petrify, so Break Spellblade effects kill it instantly. You'll get a Protect Ring for your troubles; the third one if you've been following so far. Press on. The third floor will place you directly for a door. Get in and grab the chest's contents, a Beast Killer Whip. Lame! We got those a century ago, but it is still a good Whip if you never got the Dragon's Whisker. On the rest of the third floor, some trap halls exist which drop you down to the second floor. Evade them with the Geomancer's Find Pits to protect you from ridicule from your peers. Float does not work agains pitfalls. Note that the third floor can pride itself on supreme Oiseaurare density, so if you're Mirage Vest hunting, here's the place to be.

The fourth floor is featureless. The fifth floor has two chests; another Ether and a Dragon Fang. If you approach these chests directly, you'll find pitfalls instead; go around to grab them and proceed. There are pitfalls around the exit. The sixth floor is another Save Point. The seventh floor has two chests: a Dark Matter to the left and a Circlet to the right. In the middle, however, another tablet lies. This is the tablet that will release the most powerful White spell and most powerful Black spell to you in the form of entrance to Fork Tower. Cid, like Mid told you in Crescent, is trapped underneath the tower, so we could both augment our own power and help a friend in the meantime. Oh yeah, and there's a boss battle. Wendigo, one of The Eleven of the Rift is here to pull off two things Pantera could never hope to accomplish. First, a successful trick of invulnerability and deception. Second, sweet bloody victory. Wendigo Level: 7, HP: 20000, MP: 8192 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Dark Matter (common) Absorbs: Water Nullifies: Earth Status: Float (always) Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Darkness, Sleep, Slow Attacks: Attack, Confuse, Mind Blast, Hurricane, Frost I'm not sure what Wendigo stands for. A blue-ish apparition of a naked man with a club and something strange on his forehead. He's like Dr. Manhatten, but a bad guy. The Wendigo has four bodies, but only one of them is vulnerable to harm. At every time he takes HP damage, he'll jump to a random body and set his current HP to all four targets. For the fake targets this doesn't matter since they're invulernable to harm, but it ensures that Wendigo has only 20000 HP, and any damage you do in whatever body he's in will count down on the same 20000 HP. Whenever you use an MT attack (even those that deal no damage, such as Flash), all three decoy bodies will retaliate with Frost. An exception here is the Wind Slash katana's Gale Cut attack, but that's not exactly a solid strategy basis. The switching of bodies doesn't start until you first hurt Wendigo, so the

first strike will always land. This makes it a decent idea to, say, release a Bulette at the start of the battle to hit for a lot of damage. In this initial attack, the Wendigo body with the MOST damage taken is the one that from that point on will be the 'real' Wendigo's HP that's jumping across blue naked bodies. The Wendigo may randomly use an attack called Mind Blast. This magical attack is non-elemental and barrier-piercing and sets both Paralyze and Sap. It's a Blue spell that'll be of use later on; it's very cheap, both Paralyze and Sap can hardly ever be set by your characters and since it's non-elemental, it's never absorbed. It IS Reflectable, though. It's a Blue spell! If you're set on learning it, don't use Carbuncle. His other attacks are not as noteworthy; Hurricane misses very often due to Wendigo's low level, as does Confuse. His attacks look like the Fire Lash, even though he carries a spectral club. How delightfully eccentric! The Wendigo's attacks are little and weak, so it's just a battle against the annoyance of having to target up to three targets before you hit the right one. Flame Rings and the Ice Shields you can steal in this very room both nullify and absorb the Frost attack; in the Ice Shield's case, Sap will still be set. Mind Blast (also, Confuse) can be reflected, so Carbuncle is a good idea. That and Golem, and you're a long way to winning the battle. If you're not one for games, apply Resist Ice (Mix a Phoenix Down with some Antidote) or Ice Shields to everybody, then let loose with your best MT attacks, likely boosted Syldra and/or !Zeninage. If you'd rather play it 'fair', it's best if you have some power behind your blows; having a Bard buff you during the battle is not a bad idea, specifically since you got the Bard's Best Song In The World not too long ago. Single-target boosted Black -aga spells are quite powerful. Another status ailment you can set is Sleep. Sleeping fake targets will not retaliate with Frost attacks, not will Sleeping 'real' Stalkers jump to other bodies. If you set Sleep to all targets at the start of the battle before dealing any damage and provoking the body-switching, you can just unleash powerful MT magical attacks to all four opponents. From the battle you can learn what could be your all-but-last Blue spell, Mind Blast. Not if you got Carbuncle all up in your business, obviously. Now that you have the Second Tablet, you can return to the Sealed Castle and obtain three more Legendary Weapons. For the next dungeon, Sasuke's Katana may prove useful due to its blocking nature while Yoichi's Bow is a powerful physical weapon that allows the Back Row. Since the Holy spell becomes available before you obtain the next Tablet, the Sage Staff is another good option. Note also that the Mirage Vest is a godsend in the Fork Tower; might want to get at least one (you'll get one from that NPC in the Phantom Village). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4.44.1 Fork Tower; the fight against Minotaur and Omniscient ********************************** Opponents: Goblin (#1), Mani Wizard (#11), Bandersnatch (#19), Ricard Mage (#27), Tiny Mage (#162), Chrono Controller (#163), Flaremancer (#164), Dueling Knight (#165), Iron Muscles (#166), Berserker (#167), Minotaur (#291), Omniscient (#292) Container contents: Defender, Ether, Hi-Potion, Wonder Wand Miscellaneous items: Flame Shield (rare Dueling Knight steal), Healing Staff (rare Chrono Controller steal), Blitz Whip (rare Flaremancer steal), Kornago Gourd (rare Omniscient steal) White spells: Holy Black spells: Flare "The tower of strength is the one on the right. Cast spells if you will; won't help in a fight." "The tower on the left is the magic path. Even if you've got muscles, enemies just laugh." Flawed poetry describing cardboard means of gaining power; how neat does it get? The Fork Tower is located on Crescent Island, or what once was Crescent Island I guess. It's thing surrounded by a desert so small it's pretty much just a pile of sand. There are two towers on this thing. The left one is the Black Tower; every enemy here will rip you apart the moment you attack with anything but Magic attacks, so you have little choice. The right tower is the White Tower, where muscles mean awesome and spellcasting is for little fairy boys. First, you'll have to split your party into two parties. It would seem only logical to send two characters to each end of the tower. Know that once you have a Reflect Ring, the entire Black Tower is a walk in the park. It's the Tower of Power that can get you a little trouble, so you could choose to split 1/3. At any rate, neither of the two towers are very hard and only the guardian of the Holy spell presents some actual challenge, so you decide. The Black Tower of Magicks is to the left, the White Tower of Prowess is to the right.

Black Tower: Exterior regions, 5th Floor and 8th Floor: 35 % Tiny Mage x 2 35 % Chrono Controller 23 % Tiny Mage x 4 6 % Mani Wizard x 3 2nd Floor and 6th Floor: 35 % Tiny Mage x 4 35 % Chrono Controller x 2, Tiny Mage 23 % Flaremancer 6 % Mani Wizard x 3 3rd Floor, last exterior region and 9th Floor: 35 % Flaremancer 35 % Flaremancer x 2 23 % Flaremancer, Chrono Controller, Tiny Mage 6 % Ricard Mage x 3 4th Floor and 7th Floor: 35 % Flaremancer, Chrono Controller, Tiny Mage 35 % Tiny Mage x 2 23 % Chrono Controller 6 % Ricard Mage x 3 White Tower: Exterior regions, 5th Floor and 8th Floor: 35 % Dueling Knight 35 % Iron Muscles 23 % Dueling Knight x 2 6 % Goblin x 3 2nd Floor and 6th Floor: 35 % Dueling Knight x 2 35 % Iron Muscles, Dueling Knight 23 % Berserker 6 % Goblin x 3 3rd Floor, last exterior region and 9th Floor: 35 % Berserker 35 % Berserker, Iron Muscles, Dueling Knight 23 % Berserker x 3 6 % Bandersnatch x 3

4th Floor and 7th Floor: 35 % Berserker x 3 35 % Iron Muscles 23 % Berserker 6 % Bandersnatch x 3 You start in the Black Tower, so let's talk about the wizards here first... The Tiny Mage is the White Mage of the Black Tower; it casts only White magic, making its only actually dangerous attacks Confuse. Normally, Mini would be bad to you, but since it only affects physical attributes and you'll be casting Magic anyway, never mind. The spells the Tiny Mage uses include: Cura, Confuse, Shell, Mini, Libra, Dispel. When struck by a non-Magic attack, it will retaliate with a single Encircle attack, removing one of your characters from the battlefield. Don't. The Chrono Controller is the Time Mage of the Black Tower. The spells it can cast are: Graviga, Slow, Regen, Float, Gravity, Comet, Slowga, Old, Banish and Hastega. Of these, the only really bad one is Banish, it won't use it until its fourth turn so you should've long since dispatched them by then. When struck by a non-Magic attack, it will counter with a Meteor spell, which is bad business. Should you want to steal one of its Healing Staves, note that Steal causes a Meteor counter. The Chrono Controller can be Silenced, so use that to your advantage. The Flaremancer is the Black Mage and the most dangerous opponent of the Black Tower. It's one of the four demons the Necromancer Job can summon later in the game, when it uses a Flare spell. It can cast Fira, Blizzara, Thundara, Bio, Break, Firaga, Blizzaga and Thundaga. When struck by a non-Magic attack, he'll counter with two Strong Fight physical attacks doing 9999 damage. The Flaremancer has a rare Blitz Whip you can steal. Useless, but if you really want to go for one you'd best Berserk the Flaremancer before attempting to touch the creature's possessions as it'll counter your !Steal attempts. Mind if I don't discuss the Ricard Mages and ManiWizards? With Reflect Rings, no attack will ever touch you. Make absolutely sure to never, never use anything that's not !White, !Time, !Black, !Summon, !Red or !Blue on the opponents here. You should quickly rush to the top. The path is very straightforward; on the fourth floor you'll find an Ether; on the seventh floor you'll find the Wonder Wand. The Wonder Wand will cast the weakest White spell (Cure) and work it's way up from there, skipping Libra, up to Holy and Dispel. It'll even cast these spells if you haven't bought or found them yet. When done with all White spells, it'll start with Black spells from Fire to Flare and Death. When prepared right, this Rod can fire off Firaga, Thundaga, Blizzaga and Flare in four subsequent turns,

even when the character wielding the Rod is Silenced, can't cast any magic due to Mute or has no MP. The Wonder Wand also casts Return when used an item without breaking, so in the very very few battles where Mute is present from the get-go, you can still cast Return with the Wonder Wand. Note that there is only a single byte that governs what spells are 'up' for casting for any given Wonder Wand; should you get another one (which is possible), the list of spells is shared between Wonder Wands. To make it even more clear; Dual-Wielding Wonder Wands will get you two subsequent spells, such as Cure with the right hand and Poisona with the left hand. When your character(s) is/are at the eight floor of the Black Tower, it's almost time for the switch. NOW is your chance to equip and prepare for the boss of the Black Tower! When you're at the top of the Black Tower, you'll skip to your party in the White Tower. So, time to discuss those! The Dueling Knight is the only enemy that will respond to you using Magic; the White Tower is far more lenient when it comes to the rules. When struck by Magic, the Dueling Knight will say that Magic is forbidden and counter with four physical attacks you'll easily survive. The Dueling Knight also has a rare Flame Shield you can steal; getting up to four in your inventory is an unnecessary luxury, but there is a battle where Fire resistance is very important and you may not want to muck about with Flame Rings in that battle. Iron Muscles is big, fat and stupid. It hits. Kill it. The same goes for Berserker, though they can be more easily forgiven for their silliness since they rarely drop Death Sickles. Mirage Vests, Hermes Shoes and powerful weapons will get you through this location easily. Yoichi's Bow, the Gaia Hammer and the Dragon's Whisker/Fire Lash are powerful weapons which deal as much damage from the back row. The White Tower mirrors the Black Tower in lay-out. On the fourth floor you'll find a Hi-Potion, and on the seventh floor you'll find a chest containing a Defender, a new Knightsword. The Defender tends to see little air-time since it's likely you already have either a fully powered Brave Blade or the legendary Excalibur, but the Defender is actually a very decent weapon. You could've stolen them earlier from Sea Devils or Landcrawlers, but here it is lying around in a chest. It has the same inherent 25 % evasive abilities the Main Gauche has, it has a very solid Battle Power and it casts Protect when used as an item without breaking. At the top of the White Tower, you can fight Minotaurus, the brother of Sekhmet and the guardian of the ultimate White spell, Holy. Minotaur Level: 37, HP: 19850, MP: 0

Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Fuma Shuriken (rare), Leather Shoes (common) Absorbs: Water, Earth, Holy, Poison, Nullifies: Earth Creature: Heavy, Humanoid Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Holy The Minotaur attacks physically only. Within the battle, the effects of Mute will be set so you can't cast Magic versus the Minotaur. Key here is the protection from physical attacks. The Mirage Vest is a great asset, as is the Knight's !Guard and Cover abilities. As always, the !Guard/Counter strategy ensures your victory as Minotaur will not be able to damage you. The Defender is a grand equip in the fight; you can 'cast' Protect with it while it would otherwise be more difficult and require the !Drink or !Mix ability. With the Magic Lamp, you can summon Golem which is a blessing in this fight. The !Image ability also helps a lot as you can use it to nullify up to two attacks. The Wonder Wand, in addition to the Defender Sword, allows you to set Protect on a character, which is definitely a plus. You might want to equip the Wonder Wand anyway so you can try to get the Fuma Shuriken from the Minotaur. Should that be the case, I suggest a Red Mage with a Lamia's Tiara equipped; when you don't need the Wonder Wand, you can equip the Dancing Dagger and attack physically, dealing about 3000 damage. If you have a Rune Blade, that's an easier option to consider. The Minotaur is a tough fight since its attacks are powerful and you don't have a full party, but since all of his attacks are relatively easily countered you can defeat him without much trouble. When Minotaur dies, he'll cast Holy but lack the MP; with an Ether you could've allowed him to actually cast the spell; it doesn't do over 1000 damage to a single target. Within a second or 5, you'll have to interact with the red sphere to engage in a fight with the Omniscient, or else Fork Tower will explode in a fashion similar to how Karnak Castle would have exploded if you let the timer run out. Omniscient Level: 53, HP: 16999, MP: 30000 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 8 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Kornago Gourd (rare), Potion (common) Weakness: Wind Status: Protect, Shell Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Darkness, Old, Paralyze, Berserk, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: Cure, Libra, Silence, Mini, Cura, Confuse, Reflect, Fire, Blizzard,

Poison, Toad, Fira, Blizzara, Thundara, Drain, Bio, Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Slow, Regen, Haste, Float, Gravity, Stop, Graviga, Return, Flare Omnisicent the all-knowing archanist randomly casts any of the above spells. Of course, there's a certain pattern to it, but it's not of any importance. When Omniscient hits 4000 HP, his attack pattern changes and he won't cast anything but 5th tier Black magic, which deals over 2000 damage to a single target. Upon defeat Omniscient will cast Flare. When wearing Reflect Rings you'll be immune to all of the wizard's attacks, disregarding Drain. This, however, does not guarantee your victory as Omniscient's Regen casting will keep him healed from his spells that will reflect off you. His weakness to Wind-elemental attacks cannot be exploited with !Gaia, but Aeroga and Syldra's Thunderstorm - boosted, naturally - really hurt him. The thing to this fight is the Kornago Gourd. There are only two of them in this game, and this is the second. Every non-Magic command is countered by a Return spell by Omniscient. Every non-Magic command? Nah, just for the occasion, and because you've finished your plate like a good boy for the past three years, Square made an exception and you get to use !Steal without having him use Return. So, a Thief with !Blue or !Summon (a Thief can equip the Air Knife) is awesome to bring into the battle. The Reflect Ring takes priority over the Thief's Gloves so you might find yourself missing a few Steal attempts, but eventually you'll wade through all the Potions and get your Gourd. Note that using the Judgment Staff to 'cast' Dispel will cause Omniscient to counter with Return. If you lack Reflect Rings, by the way, you can set it with Reflect, Carbuncle's Ruby Light and Dragon Defense (Dragon Fang + Phoenix Down), but you'll have to make sure it stays in the fight as non-inherent Reflect tends to fade off after a while. The fight with Omniscient isn't a difficult one, and when it's all over Fork Tower fades from this existence to pass into another. The Catapult, restplace of the airship, is now freed so we can free Cid. Holy is a massively powerful spell, and your only source of Holy-elemental damage. Its power can be boosted by the Sage's Staff and the Rune Chime, the latter which you probably hadn't have access to (it's a rare drop in the final dungeon). Flare is non-elemental and therefor weaker than boosted -aga spells. It does almost entirely disregard the target's Magic Defense, and looks pretty spiffy. They're also Spellblade effects. Holy is just like Firaga and the like, but Holy-elemental. Flare adds 100 to the blade's Battle Power and let's the attack use only 25% of the target's Defense; Flare is the only Spellblade effect that simply powers up the blade (significnatly!) without having to check for elemental properties.

When you're done, the Tower has disappeared and the Catapult is open once again. Fly your Airship into it to find Cid. Down in the stairs in the room with that button that opened the hole all that time ago. Cutscences, cutscenes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.45.1 The sunken Tower of Walse; Famed Mimic Gogo and the 'final' shard ********************************** Opponents: Moldwynd (#10), Elf Toad (#25), Jackanapes (#30), Crew Dust (#37), Bomb (#49), Black Flame (#53), Prototype (#56), Dhorme Chimera (#58), Enchanted Fan (#65), Treant (#74), Birostris (#81), Drippy (#100), Dark Aspic, (#113), Lamia Queen (#143), Famed Mimic Gogo (#297) Miscellaneous items: Thornlet (rare Lamia Queen steal), Gold Hairpin (rare Famed Mimic Gogo steal) Blue spells: Lv. 2 Old, Lv. 3 Flare, Lv. 4 Graviga, Lv. 5 Death, Missile, Flame Thrower, Self-Destruct, Time Slip, Moon Flure, Aero, ???, 1000 Needles, Aqua Rake, Magic Hammer, Death Claw, White Wind, Aero, Goblin Punch, Dark Shock, Pond's Chorus, Lilliputian Lyric, Flash, Transfusion, Aeroga, Vampire NOTE: At the end of this submerged tower, you'll quarrel with an opponent over the a crystal shard, but you don't actually (have to) beat him in order to obtain it. In fact, Famed Mimic Gogo is quite unbeatable... but not entirely. If you want to defeat this thing, you should not dive into this dungeon now but wait until the very end of the game. If this is your madness, you can already sneak a peek at how this will be accomplished: [GOGO-LINK] Enter the Catapult. You'll find Cid trapped in a spinning wheel. Mid appears from nowhere, even though he has no actual means to reach the Catapult. And just because it seems to be theme for today, they decide to mess with your airship for no apparent reason at all. When all is over and you're grown past the fact they actually re-used an old cutscene, you can scoot. Faris suggest we try to find the third tablet which lies under the ocean's floor, but we have other things to do. Underwater, you will find four dots catching your attention. The one in the middle of nowhere is the location of the Third Tablet, but we're going to let it slide for now. The western-most sparkle is just the location of the lake near Moore, which you once used as your only entry point. The north- western dots is the location of the Fourth Tablet, but we're going to ignore that one as well!

Just south of Karnak, you can take the submarine to a hidden cavern where Mr. Clio the Psychic lives. He'll give you useless info, but it's fun. His name is not from Japan (he's nameless in the original game), but a reference to Miss Cleo, some self-proclaimed psychic shaman woman from the States. Remember the place where I told you you could find Stingray? Beneath the vast Gloceana Desert, you can submerge the airship to find the sunken Tower of Walse. It still holds one of the crystal shards of the Water Crystal, and we need all the help we can get versus Exdeath and its minions. Let's dive in! When you leave the Airshupmarine, you'll get a timer of 7:00 minutes. If you run out of breath, you die! This is not something that should happen. No worries, it's not very hard. All the monsters here have been rendered black, so there's no telling who or what they are. However, I've listed them! Top Floor: 42 % Traveler, Jackanapes, Moldwynd 35 % Level Checker, Prototype 23 % Bomb, Wild Nakk, Lamia Queen Nineth Floor: 42 % Enchanted Fan, Goblin, Black Flame 35 % Dhorme Chimera, Drippy, Treant 23 % Elf Toad, Mini Magician, Crew Dust Eight Floor: 42 % Birostris, Magic Dragon, Dark Aspic 35 % Elf Toad, Mini Magician, Crew Dust 23 % Traveler, Jackanapes, Moldwynd Seventh Floor: 42 % Bomb, Wild Nakk, Lamia Queen 35 % Traveler, Jackanapes, Moldwynd 23 % Enchanted Fan, Goblin, Black Flame Sixth Floor: 35 % Enchanted Fan, Goblin, Black Flame 35 % Level Checker, Prototype 30 % Birostris, Magic Dragon, Dark Aspic Fifth Floor: 35 % Birostris, Magic Dragon, Dark Aspic 35 % Dhorme Chimera, Drippy, Treant 23 % Bomb, Wilk Nakk, Lamia Queen 6 % Enchanted Fan, Goblin, Black Flame Fourth Floor:

35 % Bomb, Wild Nakk, Lamia Queen 35 % Elf Toad, Mini Magician, Crew Dust 23 % Level Checker, Prototype 6 % Traveler, Jackanapes, Moldwynd Third Floor: 35 % Level Checker, Prototype 35 % Traveler, Jackanapes, Moldwynd 23 % Dhorme Chimera, Drippy, Treant 6 % Elf Toad, Mini Magician, Crew Dust Second Floor: 42 % Dhorme Chimera, Drippy, Treant 35 % Enchanted Fan, Goblin, Black Flame 23 % Elf Toad, Mini Magician, Crew Dust First Floor: 35 % Elf Toad, Mini Magician, Crew Dust 35 % Birostris, Magic Dragon, Dark Aspic 23 % Dhorme Chimera, Drippy, Treant 6 % Level Checker, Prototype The only enemy really worth nothing specifically in this context is Prototype. Unless you have !Control (so you can make it Self-Destruct) or any means of setting Petrify (Break, Break !Spellblade, Catoblepas), you are in a for a long long battle you don't have the time for. Have one of the above. !Rapid Fire cuts through its defenses nicely as well, but doesn't work quite as fast. There is one new enemy as well: the Level Checker. It checks your level, then disregards than information and drives into walls. Seriously, it does not modify its level-based attacks at all, it's just curious or something. Search can be Reflected! Nobody cares. It may rarely drop an Elixir. It's interesting to note how every enemy, though seemingly randomly selected, is the stereotypical tutor of a Blue spell. Not all Blue magic can be learned here, but a great deal of spells you could have learned so far are present here if you missed them earlier. The ones that are missing are Doom, Roulette, Aeroga, Off-Guard, Mind Blast and Mighty Guard. You know where to go! Fight through unseen enemies from the past. If you use the 'Read Ahead' support ability here, which you probably don't have since you must've waited for a good amount of chapters before you entered this Sunken Tower to get the Job that teaches it, you don't encounter any enemies if you just stick to the shortest path. On the fifth floor, a chest is closed. Goodies? No, but you are able to restore your Air supply, setting the timer back to 7:00.

At the first floor, you can find the final shard! A cryptic message appears when you want to take it. "Yes" will do nothing. "No" will get you in trouble. Famed Mimic Gogo Level: 77, HP: 47714, MP: 60000 Defense: 30, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 30%, Magic Evasion: 99% Steal: Gold Hairpin (rare), Leather Armor (common) Win: Tiger Mask (rare) Nullifies: Water Creature: Humanoid, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Silence, Slow Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Strong Fight, Holy, Flare, Meteo, Maelstrom, Ice Storm, Aqua Breath, Frost This is a very simple battle to win, since you don't have to do anything! Gogo urges you to mimic his movements, and if you remain passive like him, he'll eventually remove himself from the battlefield. Famed Mimic Gogo, for all his outlandish attire and speech, is one of the most difficult opponents in the game. If you provoke him with a physical attack (including !Steal), he may either counter with a normal physical, !Critical Attack or Strong Fight, which will kill a character. If you use a spell on him, even if it is benificial, he will counter with either a Holy, Flare or Meteo spell, which are all very powerful. If you deal 14714 damage to him and survive to see it, he will become strongly agitated. "You uncultured boors! Know you nothing of an artist's soul? Cut! Cut! Stop TRYING to mimic! Start over, recenter, and begin!" Then, he will cast Meteor thrice in a row and kill you with powerful attacks. You are not equipped to handle this fight at all right now, so this is a Game Over for you. Just do nothing! You could attempt to Steal that Gold Hairpin if you want, but note that Return does not reset the global timer of drowning so you don't have infinite attempts. For the purposes of this walkthrough, I'm going to return here later with better equipment options just to defeat this guy. You probably shouldn't, but it's pretty much the same as you could do without the Mime Job no problem. If you win, you get the Mime Job! The Mime should really just be seen as an alternate Freelancer. Like the Freelancer, he obtains stats and inherent support abilities of mastered Jobs. There is a differce, though. Freelancers can equip every piece of equipment in the game and have two ability slots. Mimes can equip almost every shield and piece of armor and accessory (even such

travesties as the Thief's Gloves and Angel Robe) except for the Ribbon set. On weapons, the Mime can equip only Knives, Rods, Staves and the three weapons the Thief and Ninja can use (Moonring Blade, Rising Sun, Twin Lance). I find the Mime a better congregation Job for mages, but the Freelancer better for physical attackers. [MIME-LINK] When you're done either getting the Mime shard or leaving it there for future brawls with Famed Mimic Gogo, you're done here. Let's get out. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.46.1 The Great Sea Trench; the Fire tablet ********************************** Opponents: Unknown (#168), Unknown (#169), Unknown (#170), Unknown (#171), Unknown (#172), Triton (#293), Nereid (#294), Phobos (#295) Container contents: Water Scroll, Dragon Fang, Ether, Phoenix Down, Flame Ring, Kaiser Knuckles Miscellaneous items: Beast Killer (rare Unknown (spore2) steal) Time spells: Meteor Blue spells: Doom, Transfusion, Flame Thrower "One rests beneath the ocean's floor, engulfed by flames..." Do you remember when I talked about the white sparkle in the middle of the ocean? The one you could see on the Submarine map? Go there! It's the Great Sea Trench, the location of the Third tablet. I will not talk about Gargoyles, but they are there. All the enemies here are called Unknown. What, did you think I wouldn't know the enemies here? I know everything. B2: 35 % (blob) x 2 35 % (blob), (worm) x 2 23 % (worm) x 4 6 % (spore2) x 3

B4: 35 % (worm) x 4 35 % (blob) x 2, (worm) 23 % (spore1), (worm), (blob) 6 % (spore2) x 3 B4 (back room): 35 % (spore1), (worm), (blob) 35 % (spore1) x 3 30 % (spore2) x 3 B5: 35 % (blob), (worm), (skeleton) x 2 35 % (spore1), (blob), (skeleton) 23 % (spore1) x 3 6 % (spore2) x 3 B6: 58 % (skeleton) x 3 35 % (spore1), (blob), (skeleton) 6 % (spore2) x 3 B8: 35 % (blob) x 2 35 % (blob), (spore1) x 2 23 % (spore1) x 3 6 % (spore2) x 3 All enemies here start with Protect set; though you can remove it with the Dispel spell or using the Judgment Staff as an item, your means of dealing damage should be magical in nature anyway. Unknown (blob) looks like a fat...thing sliming. It's the biggest one and weak to water. As a reaction to every !Attack, it will remove a character from the battlefield and kill itself with an attack called Possess, but your character will be fine when the battle is over though missing out on ABP. It may use Slimer. Unknown (worm) is also sliming, but it also looks like a worm. They use Digestive Acid and Slimer. Ukh. Then there is Unknown (spore). There are two types. Those that come in trios will revive each other if one or two are down. The initially surviving member(s) will then attempt to use Delta Attack, but they normally lack the MP. They should be taken out with MT attacks, which are vastly superior in this dungeon anyway. You can steal a rare Beast Killer Whip from this variety. The

other version of Unknown (spore) is boring and will just attack physically and use Spore to set the Poison status. Sometimes, because this game hates you, three of these enemies will be of the boring variety. You can test out if you can steal a Beast Killer by killing one and see what happens. I've called the boring one (spore1) and the also boring but Whip-carrying one (spore2). The most sturdy opponent here is Unknown (skeleton). They like to use the Doom spell all the time, setting a timer which will kill at 0. Blue Mages can learn this attack. All the enemies here are weak on Magic Defense, have high Defense and inherent Protect and are Undead. Boosted Syldra summoning and Requiem are very powerful MT attacks to deal here. The Sage Staff and Apollo's Harp will deal a LOT of damage to a single target, killing it instantly. Blades, Knives and Swords probably shouldn't be used here unless they are the Holy Lance or Excalibur; but even they will run into Protect. Welcome to B2! We can't stop here, for this is bat country. There are enemies and a chest containing a Water Scroll. Square, this is FAKE treasure. We don't want this! Continue. B3 features a single Save Point, which is great, I guess. B4 has skeleton buttons. A lot of them. You'll need to press the first, but not the second in order to continue lave-free (or at all). The Geomancer's Light Step and the Float status circumvents lava damage, if you forgot. In the back room, there are a lot of skeleton buttons to choose from. The are all traps! Except for the one in the top-right corner, that is the one that creates a path. Go back to the slightly higher plateau and go up to witness the new path, leading to a chest containing an awesome Flame Ring. If you descend the stairs out of this room, you will meet lava. You could care less about the lava, or you could return and press the second button you passed. It will drop you a level down, but safely on the ground. B5. There are pits of lava you could've fallen in from B4, and a staircase leading down to B6. Don't forget to open the chest here, it contains a Dragon Fang. AWESOME. Unknown (skeleton) starts to appear here. B6 has more lava and more rocky pathways, but this time you can't avoid going through the lava. There are chests as well for you to open: Ether and Phoenix Down. It is all clear to us now. This is the dungeon of SUCK. B7...leads to a door? With Dwarves? Dwarves! Welcome to the great Dwarven Kingdom!

The Armor and Weapon shop here is the same guy. When called from the front or back, he'll sell armor. From the sides, he'll sell weapons. The selection here is quite excellent...but it's the selection from the Phantom Village. Had I not been this much of a spoil-sport, this is the first time you would have seen these items. Now, they are useless. Rallybo is digging a tunnel. Likely out of pure frustration over being called like a children's game from Mexico. He'll point you to the location of the Phantom Village. So there it was! When you're done with the people of small stature...little people...I mean, the vertically challenged...Dwarves. When you're done with the Dwarves, you can exit into a lake free of encounters. There is a small dent in the bottom wall you see can be used to recharge the Magic Lamp! It'll flash regardless of the Magic Lamp recharging or not, but never more than once without you leaving and entering. Such trivia! At what we can call B8 or something, the second chest you see contains Kaiser Knuckles. But you can't get it. Nyah-nyah. There are buttons on this floor, a lot of them. Most are fake. The one to the far right isn't, though, and opens up a pathway to a chest containing the Knuckles. You could have gotten them earlier, but the chance was almost non-existent. Barehanded punches are normally based off your Level and Battle Power. However, with Kaiser Knuckles the Battle Power is inherently boosted by 50, making Barehanded punches nice enough again. In addition, they boost Strength by 5 and give more Defense than other Accessories (except for the Genji Gloves and Cursed Ring). They are for your Monk to use. Pressing the other three buttons in this room disarms the trap behind the other chest, so when you open it, the door just opens. The chest was empty, but we can rise again to B7, where the Third tablet is already waiting for us. However, Exdeath's guardians are ever-present, and the three little piggies are all on our case. These three creatures were recruited as one, one of the Eleven of the Rift. Together with Wendigo and another, unknown demon, they were more than anxious to escape the Interdimensional Rift after a thousand years. And now, here they are... Triton Level: 37, HP: 13333, MP: 10000 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 25 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 60% Steal: Elixir (rare), Gold Needle (common) Win: Power Drink (rare) Absorbs: Fire

Weakness: Ice Creature: Undead Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Stop, Regen Attacks: Attack, Blizzaga, Ice Storm, Frost, Delta Attack Nereid Level: 20, HP: 13333, MP: 10000 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 25 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 60% Steal: Elixir (rare), Gold Needle (common) Win: Protect Drink (rare) Absorbs: Ice Weakness: Fire Creature: Undead Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Stop, Regen Attacks: Attack, Firaga, Flame Thrower, Delta Attack Phobos Level: 39, HP: 13333, MP: 10000 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 25 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 60% Steal: Elixir (rare), Gold Needle (common) Win: Goliath Tonic (rare) Absorbs: Poison Weakness: Earth Creature: Undead Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Stop, Regen Attacks: Attack, Bio, Rainbow Wind What? They are babies that go Oink and are named after moons. Make up your mind! What are these? They are demons from the Interdimensional Rift, they don't have to make sense I guess. They have little swords and capes as well. This is likely some sort of crazy Japanese reference to Hero Babies or the like, I dunno. This fight is the three Unknown (spore) fight on crack. All three targets are Undead and NOT Heavy, so you can kill them any way you like. Raise spells, Phoenix Downs, Curaga, all that jazz. However, if one of them falls, the others

will revive him with full HP and a Delta Attack will take place. This is not good. They are Undead, so Requiem works great. None of the targets absorb Syldra or MT Thundaga spells, so go with those. You'll want to damage all targets equally to avoid revival, so Titan's Gaia's Wrath is a no-go. Don't attack physically, not even !Kick (as Nereid will take half damage). Carbuncle can help you avoid a lot of attacks should it come to that. Firaga, Bio and Blizzaga are Reflectable, as well as Delta Attack. Combine with Golem and/or Mighty Guard for a lot of protection. For a cheap victory, Odin's Zantetsuken or the Samurai's !Iainuki can instantly end the fight by killing them all in a single shot. You can !Flirt with the mutant babies (but you won't want to), you can cast Curaga (ST), Graviga, Death Claw or Missile on them all then finish them off with Syldra, your choices are endless. When you're done, you get the ultimate !Time spell, this being Meteo. It is basically a non-elemental attack, only it attacks four times. It is very powerful on a single target, but wasteful on multiple ones. It deals random damage as well, and every shot is affected gravely by Magic Defense so lowpowered blows may even get you 0 damage. I'm making it sound bad, it's not. It's just random. When you're done, learned Doom, got every treasure, there is no reason not to Teleport out. I should not have to remind you that you can take three more Sealed Weapons from the relevant castle. Now that you have Holy, the Sage's Staff becomes an attractive option for White Mages and Chemists, Time Mages and Red Mages with Holy spells. It's time to find the last of the four tablets, the one hidden behind Istory Falls. Take the airshupmarine to river leading up to Istory Falls, both located to the north-west. Now, land in the sea just south to it, and submerge your vessel. Somewhere here (the map indicates this with a white dot) lies the entrance to a cave on the Sea Floor where Ironbacks and Druids still roam. Sea Floor Cave: 35 % Druid x 3 35 % Druid, Ironback 30 % Ironback x 3 You can Catch Ironbacks for a great one-time Release attack and steal Angel Rings from the Druids, but you already knew that. When you reach the surface, you're in front of a piece of desert. Desert:

35 % Desert Killer x2 35 % Desert Killer, Sandboil x2 23 % Sand Bear 6 % Sand Bear, Desert Killer, Sandboil Hey, old encounters! So that Javelin you can only obtain by stealing it from a Sand Bear is not missable, that's possibly good news. When you're done playing in this sand pit, walk over the other end of the desert to reach the entrance of the strange coiling caves behind Istory Falls. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.47.1 Istory Falls; the Water tablet ********************************** Opponents: Mercury Bat (#178), Coral (#179), Aquagel (#180), Steel Fist (#181), Alchymia (#182), Red Dragon Toad (-), Hydra Toad (-), Ghidra Toad (-), Tonberry (#183), Leviathan (#296) Container contents: 12000 Gil, Turtle Shell, Ether, Air Knife, Goliath Tonic, Rune Blade, Protect Ring, Phoenix Down, Reflect Ring, Enhancer Miscellaneous items: Man-Eater (rare Alchymia steal), Mirage Vest (rare Tonberry drop), Kaiser Knuckles (rare Steel Fist drop), Reflect Ring (guaranteed Leviathan drop) Summon spells: Leviathan Blue spells: Vampire, Aqua Breath "One rests beyond the river's torrents, protected by water..." Welcome to the cave behind the Waterfall! It is said that the road to Shangri-La the land of milk and honey, could be found behind a waterfall. But there's something even better in this cave. Stronger weapons! Take one toke of Istory Falls' sweet fragrance... One toke? You poor fool! Wait till you see those goddamn bats. Entree room, second room: 35 % Mercury Bat x 3 35 % Aquagel x 3 23 % Alchymia, Red Dragon Toad 6 % Tonberry

B2: 35 % Mercury Bat x 5 35 % Aquagel x 2, Coral x 2 23 % Alchymia, Hydra Toad 6 % Tonberry B3: 35 % Coral, Mercury Bat x 2 35 % Steel Fist 23 % Steel Fist x 3 6 % Tonberry B4: 35 % Coral x 4 35 % Steel Fist, Mercury Bat x 3 23 % Alchymia, Ghidra Toad 6 % Tonberry B5: 35 % Aquagel 35 % Steel Fist x 3 23 % Alchymia, Red Dragon Toad 6 % Tonberry As an erudite reader may have predicted, this is bat country. Mercury Bats have very little HP (500) and use Vampire. Their !Claw Special Technique adds the Old status, but these fights should be over quickly. Aquagel will attack physically and is weak to Lightning-elemental attacks. Coral is pretty much the same, though it may rarely use Spore to Poison a target. Now on to the interesting enemies! Steel Fists are a drag. They counter every !Attack with !Air Fist, which sets Old and HP Leak. They may randomly drop Kaiser Knuckles, which is a good thing if you ever want four Monks or something. They are immune to NO status ailments, but their Magical Evasion is fairly high. Sleep Spellblade and !Mix potions such as Toad's Kiss (Maiden's Kiss + Dark Matter) can help you out. Odin's Zantetsuken looks at level, never at Magic Evasion; he's a great way of finishing any Steel Fist encounter you... encounter. Alchymia will always be accompanied by a toad. If you let her be, she'll dispel the Toad status of the monster, revealing it as either a souped up Red Dragon (no elemental weaknesses, no rare Flame Ring steal) or an improved Hydra (may use either a powerful Tidal Wave attack or Poison Breath). If you kill the froggy before she can reveal its true nature, she'll start casting Death spells on you. Take her out from the back row with spells such as Flare. She has a rare Man-Eater for you to steal. A Man-Eater Jump attack will kill her in a

single hit! Note that the Dragon Toads do not affect the Bestiary. The Man-Eater is a Knife only useable by the Dancer. In addition, it functions more like a Lance; it is incompatible with Spellblade and deals double damage with the !Jump attack. Man-Eaters will always deal a Critical Hit versus Humanoid targets, being twice as powerful and ignoring Defense. A Dragoon with equip Ribbon (which also allows the Man-Eater) or a Dancer with !Jump is great fun. Those frogs, by the way, can be changed BACK into frogs easily; in addition, you could lift the curse yourself if you want to. The Tonberry makes its first Final Fantasy appearance in this game, in this very cave. How cool! It's the rare encounter in all rooms; this demon's power is enough to bring death with just one blow. Tonberries have 39393 HP, slowly walk over to you and stab you in the face when they reach you. Seriously, they use three !Knife attacks in a row, and it'll demolish you. !Knife is unblockable, barrier-piercing and incredibly powerful. Tonberries are Humanoid and not Heavy, so despite their dangerous nature they can be easily dispatched. They are immune to Instant Death and Petrify, but Odin's Zantetsuken, !Iaiuki, and !Flirt are ways to stopping the tiny fiend. If you lack the ability to exploit its lack of Heavy nature, the Blink spell grants you immunity to its murderous attacks. They may rarely drop a Mirage Vest. The gargoyles. Goyle their gars good with Berserk and with not-Holy spells. Upon entry, you'll find a cave overflowing with water. You can use the stairs to ascend and the waterfalls to descend. There are three chests here, containing a Turtle Shell, Ether and an Air Knife, all of which are mildly useless but not entirely so. Find the door to continue. You'll get to go either left or right. Go right. B2 is where the good stuff's at. Walking down will get you to a chest containing a Goliath Tonic, but you can't miss the 'hidden' pathway to a chest with a Rune Blade. Rune Blade! You could've gotten one from a Stingray, but this is less effort. Rune Blades are awesome. Put them on Mystic Knights and Red/Blue Mages with !Dance and a Lamia's Tiara for great effects. Leave the water and go left. Enter the water, leave the water. Go up to find a chest you can't get since there's a waterfall blocking your way. In the Super Famicom (Japanese SNES) game, you needed a Thief to get it. You'll be able to run with the B button, though, so there's no need. Good gracious, it's a Protect Ring! It's the fourth. To the bottom-left is the exit. B3 houses a single pathway, two chests (Phoenix Down, Reflect Ring) and a single exit. It leads to a Save Point!

B4 is dark as the ocean's floor. You'll want a Geomancer (or a character with the Find Pits ability) here, since there are a few snares here and there that will drop you to B5. It's annoying when you still have business here. In the room you access in the middle of B4, a chest contains an Artemis Bow. The Artemis Bow is an accurate Bow without Critical Hit features or stat boosts. Altogether inferior to Yoichi's Bow, it does always inflicts a Critical Hit on Magic Beasts, making it a solid alternative when facing them. There are no Magic Beasts here, though. In the larger room of B4, the bottom-left chest contains 12000 Gil and the upper-left one has an Enhancer, the most powerful Sword (not Knightsword) when speaking Attack Power. The Enhancer is the Sword for those Jobs that want to equip a Sword but not really attack with it. If you favor support or magical mayhem over physical damage, the Enhancer is better than the Rune Blade. Blue Mages will like it better, likely. In addition, if you want to use the Mystic Knight for Spellblade, the Enhancer's were it's at. Go down to B5 now. There are three chests here. Always press the buttons next to the chests first, else you might get spiked on the surrounding traps. There is a Fuma Shuriken, a Titan's Axe and an Aegis Shield. The Titan's Axe is the most powerful Axe ever. It's far more powerful than a Gaia Hammer. However, it does not ignore row, so when your Berserker picks a target in the back, it'll deal halve damage. The second Aegis Shield is AWESOME. In the middle of this room is a cave which grants you access to an Artemis Bow, which is more powerful than Yoichi's Bow and deals critical damage to Magic Beasts, but will otherwise never inflict a critical hit nor give any stat boosts. You decide. The bottom-left chest containing the Titan's Axe had two spikes surrounding it. Push the button and they'll disappear. You'll have to jump down in one of those holes... to find the Fourth tablet! When you walk away though, a demon sent out by Exdeath halts you. Before swords are drawn, though, one of the Eleven of the Rift turns to face the Sea King, Leviathan. So, now there's Leviathan. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.47.2 Istory Falls; the battle with Leviathan ********************************** Leviathan Level: 37, HP: 40000, MP: 2000 Defense: 25, Magic Defense: 15

Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 70% Steal: Nothing (rare), Elixir (common) Win: Reflect Ring (always) Absorbs: Water Nullifies: Earth, Fire Weakness: Lightning Creature: Heavy, Dragon Specialty: !Tail Specialty Effect: Adds Sap Vulnerable to: Darkness, Silence, Slow Attacks: Attack, !Tail (sets Sap), Entangle, Aqua Breath, Tidal Wave Leviathan, the Sea King, a promise made to you by the Sealed Tome. You can skip him here no worries; exiting the dungeon and returning will have you find him waiting for you for all eternity. He's an adamant fellow! Leviathan's attacks are simple and brutal. Tidal Wave will deal around 800 to all targets, and he can use it twice in some turns. 1600 damage to a character will likely kill it, so you're either sporting Coral Rings, have a Goliath Tonic applied or, most likely, have Shell active. Entangle still sets Paralyze. Aqua Breath is non-elemental and will punch through Coral Rings, but will only deal between 200 and 300 damage to non-Shelled targets. It's essential to be able to withstand a dual Tidal Wave attack. Mighty Guard is the best defensive option, but applying Shell through other means is fine and dandy. Sufficiently capable !White casters can cast Shell, and you can use !Mix to create a Dragon Defense potion (Phoenix Down + Dragon Fang). Any character with a Coral Ring will just absorb Tidal Wave, so no Shell is needed. Those characters with Shell active will need to keep their HP above 750 to be able to withstand Leviathan's most powerful onslaught; Golem, Protect and Image are additional protective measures you can apply. Also consider Leviathan's counter-attacks. Every Magic spell may provoke a Tidal Wave attack 33% of the time. Every other attack, damaging or not, may provoke a 33% Entangle attack. If you're not careful with your spells, you could see more Tidal Waves than even your Shelled characters can handle. Since Leviathan is a Dragon, Apollo's Harp really hurts the thing. A Berserker with Two-Handed and a Titan's Axe is very powerful as well, as is casting Thundaga off four Reflective targets (or just on Leviathan). You have a lot of offensive and defensive options. Thundaga Spellblade is something to consider as well. For your optional troubles, you get a guaranteed Reflect Ring and a powerful Water-elemental Summon spell, Leviathan. Leviathan, as an attack, is very powerful, obviously a fair bit more powerful

than Syldra. However, there is the thing of its Water element. There is NO piece of equipment in the game that boosts Water-elemental attacks. Non-boosted, it comes out weaker than boosted Syldra. If you, however, use the Mix Elemental Power (Eye Drops + Holy Water), Leviathan will be the most powerful summon attack in the game. When you're done, you can Teleport out (or take the waterfall in this very room). Grab the last three of the Legendary Weapons, walk out and go watch the cutscene. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.48.1 The Secret Shards ********************************** Features: Oracle (job), Cannoneer (job), Gladiator (job) Since we are in GBA land, we'll also get to go to the Bonus Dungeon! "I heard there was an earthquake down south! We can only hope that no one was hurt... No one knows the cause of the earthquake... I wonder if some underground volcano erupted. If only we had a submarine, we could go take a look, but..." All the way down south, in the seas near the forest of the Phantom Village, you see some bubbly action going on. It's a new Great Rift in the sea! If you take the submarine above it, you'll get sucked in. All you have to do is take the three new crystal shards of unknown origin, watch the cutscene, and get out. The Oracle gives you generally useless abilities and can only equip Staves and Robes. Combine with !White for best effects. The Oracle has the highest Magic Power bonus in the game, so master this Job for great results. Never mess with !Predict; only the Japanese could make use out of it. If you do want to mess around with !Predict, be my guest. Damage done is independent of level and Magic Power, but it is boosted by elemental boosting weapons. Since it features a large array of elements, it is best used by those wielding the Rune Chime (and to a lesser extent, the Magus Rod). The Cannoneer is a Job that teaches you how to use !Open Fire and !Combine two presumably gunpowder-related techniques. Both commands operate on level alone, and on neither Strength nor Magic Power. The elemental results of !Open Fire are affected by elemental boosts, though, meaning that !Combine works best with those with access to Rods or the Rune Chime. The Gladiator has the best stats of any Heavy Armor Job, combining the highest Strength (tie with Monk) with Agility as good as the Ninja's. It lacks Stamina, though and therefor HP, though. !Finisher has a solid chance of inflicting 9999

elemental damage every shot, and this chance increases while you level in Gladiator. Even if you fail, you often inflict a Critical Hit with the weapon you're carrying. The Gladiator can equip Knightswords, Swords, Axes (but not Hammers?), Knives, Bows and Shields, so I'm sure you'll find something you'll like. [ORACLE-LINK] [CANNONEER-LINK] [GLADIATOR-LINK] It really is too bad that the Cannoneer's !Combine takes 500 ABP to learn, as it really is a sweet ability; the Gladiator's !Finisher takes only 100 ABP, but since it gets better with Gladiator level even that ability cannot be learned properly with a Gladiator 'dip'. All three of these Jobs, to make their time worthwhile, require a serious effort. Before you go on to the next chapter of this walkthrough and the game, seek out the merchant! You can find him in Karnak, Crescent and Bal Castle; in all cities, he'll stay at the Inn. Buy all the Blitzshot you can carry; you don't really need the other two. On a peculiar note; if you travel a bit to the east under water from the new Great Rift, you'll encounter the mysterious monolithic Mo'ai. It's somewhat of a recurring Easter Egg in the Final Fantasy series; it appeared earlier in FFIV. On the MOON. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.49.1 Taking the Black Chocobo; the battle with Bahamut ********************************** Opponents: Rock Slug (#21), Gaelicat (#22), Cockatrice (#23), Headstone (#24), Ankheg (#184), Ammonite (#185), Landcrawler (#186), Bahamut (#298) Miscellaneous items: Defender (rare Landcrawler steal), Dragon Fang (rare Bahamut steal, guaranteed Bahamut drop) Summon spells: Bahamut Blue spells: Flash, Aqua Breath I've been to the desert on a bird with no name... Check your map and see where you parked your Black Chocobo. Take it to the great desert to the north-east. Ignore the tower to the south-west and head up until you find North Mountain.

In the desert, you may find a few new enemies! Ankhegs are reminiscent of the Undergrounder of the Gil Cave; centipedes that use Quake attacks. They do not absorb Earth-elemental attacks like their lesser brethren, and are weak to Ice. Ammonites are mere cannon fodder. Of special note is how neither the Ankhegs nor the Ammonites register as Desert dwellers; Aqua Breath will not go medieval on their asses. Level 3 Flare hits these critters nicely, though. Landcrawlers only appear to the south of the desert. They have 22000 HP and may use Maelstrom; an MT attack that reduces the target's HP down to a single digit. They have a Special Technique called !Crush, which sets Confuse; watch out for that. They are vulnerable to Death and not Heavy, so Odin, the Death spell and other things of that nature help out. Landcrawlers are immune to Petrify, unlike the Sandcrawlers you could've seen earlier. They have a common Ancient Sword and a rare Defender for the Stealing, if you're still interested at this point. Ascending the Mountain should be easy. The enemies haven't upgraded since the last time you came here, so something like !Kick should kill everything. The purple flowers are still poisonous, but now you can use Float or Light Step to trample all over them. Bahamut will use an Earth-based attack, so if you for some reason lack the Float spell, you can Control or Confuse a Gaelicat to have it cast Float for you. Use the Save Point. At the summit, where you once found Hiryu, the Wind Drake, you now face a prize you were promised back when you had but a single tablet: Bahamut, god-king of dragons. Bahamut Level: 99, HP: 40000, MP: 10000 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 5%, Magic Evasion: 33% Steal: Dragon Fang (common and rare) Win: Dragon Fang (rare) Nullifies: Earth Status: Float (always) Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Darkness, Silence, Slow, Stop Can't Evade: Aerial, Song Attacks: Attack, Aqua Breath, Mega Flare, Poison Breath, Zombie Breath, Maelstrom, Ice Storm, Lightning, Blaze, Earth Shaker, Atomic Rays, Frost Bahamut has a large array of elemental MT assaults, some of which are more painful than others. Blaze and Lightning basically do the same thing (max HP/4 damage), and the other attacks are just magical attacks you should protect yourselves from with Mighty Guard (or, lacking that, Shell). Of special notice are Maelstrom and Mega Flare. He will use his powerful attacks depending on his

current amount of HP: < 35000: Atomic Rays, Frost < 30000: Blaze, Earth Shaker < 25000: Aqua Breath, Lightning < 20000: Maelstrom, Ice Storm < 15000: Poison Breath, Zombie Breath < 10000: Mega Flare Maelstrom is just a pain in the neck. Shell status and Aegis Shields will make it miss often, but it's a dangerous move when it connects as it'll drop your character's HP to a single digit. Mega Flare will deal over 2000 damage to all targets. You must either make sure he never gets to use it, or make it bounce off from the Reflect status. Bahamut will start using Mega Flare when he has 10000 HP or less, so that's doable. When reflected from four targets, he'll deal 9999 damage to himself, ending the battle right there. Defensively, calling on Carbuncle or Reflect Rings is not a bad idea; Mega Flare and Atomic Ray are helped out by it, and you can cast Firaga and the like on yourselves for increased damage output. Ice Shields help against Ice Storm, Frost, Atomic Ray and Blaze; they're grand. Bahamut, when undamaged, will only use physical attacks, Atomic Ray and Frost. When suitable protected from these attacks by a combination of Golem and Ice Shields/Flame Shields/Dragon Shield (the Mix potion), you can start buffing if you like since you're immortal. Shell is good (Mighty Guard is quicker), Dragon Kiss helps against Maelstrom. Bahamut is NOT a Dragon, sadly, so Apollo's Harp, Dragon's Whisker and Dragon Cannon (!Combine) are out. Useful tactics include Hastega, Mighty Guard, Golem and Carbuncle (that order, where applicable), then have a Hasted character continuously use Romeo's Balad to keep Bahamut's heart at ease while you slaughter him. Big damage dealers include Two-Handed or Berserk Brave Blade/Titan's Axe/Rune Blade wielders, !Gaia's Cave-In (which won't appear all the time), Sword Dance with a powerful weapon (wear a Lamia's Tiara), you name it. If you deem it unfair that Bahamut is not a Dragon, you can make it so (number one) with the Dragon Kiss (Dragon Fang + Maiden's Kiss) and exploit his faux Dragon nature. Bahamut is the strongest summon spell in the game! It's barrier-piercing and non-elemental, and thus not capable of being boosted. It's about as powerful as boosted Syldra, but not as powerful as boosted Leviathan. Boosted Leviathan is a hassle though, what with the in-battle preparation and all. As you can see, we now have all spells except for two. We're missing a single Blue spell (if you kept up) and a single Summon spell. Let's get them! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.49.2 Taking the Black Chocobo; the Phoenix Tower

********************************** Opponents: Ankheg (#184), Ammonite (#185), Landcrawler (#186), Lemure (#187), Partenhope (#188), Cherie (#189), Kuza Beast (x) (-), Soul Cannon (x) (-), Liquid Flame (x) (-), Bandercoeurl (x) (-), Magic Pot (#190) Container contents: 5000 Gil, 10000 Gil, 15000 Gil, 20000 Gil, 25000 Gil, Phoenix Down x 4, Aevis Killer Miscellaneous items: Defender (rare Landcrawler steal), Reflect Ring (common Lemure steal, rare Parthenope drop), Ribbon (rare Lemure steal), Rainbow Suit (common Parthenope steal), Coral Ring (rare Parthenope steal), Hermes Sandals (rare Cherie drop), Red Slippers (common Cherie steal), Elven Cape (rare Cherie steal), Protect Ring (rare Soul Cannon (x) steal) Summon spells: Phoenix Blue spells: 1000 Needles, Pond's Chorus, Roulette, Flash, Aeroga, Lilliputian Lyric, Time Slip, ??? The Phoenix Tower is the place where dragons come to die. It is a 30-story building where succubi of multiple origins hound your steps and even the walls are bent on your destruction. Sounds like fun? Here's the deal. Most floors will have no visible route upstairs, so you'll have to walk around the main pillar and search the wall there. You'll basically go round and round. The exit will always be both left and right of the middle tile, but one of the stairs is guarded while the other is not. There is a fixed pattern here; I'll give it to you. The guardian is random, but note that the four monsters are NOT the same monster you encountered earlier. They are improved ones. Note that these creatures do not affect your Bestiary; if you missed Bandercoeurl earlier, you can't pick it up here. Examining the wall is great with characters with !Black, !Spellblade or !Combine, as the three main elements can be put to great use here. The Bandercoeurl is weak to Fire-elemental attacks and may randomly use a Blaster attack, which either sets Paralyze or Death. It is also a Magic Beast, so Artemis Bow/Beast Killer wielders, rejoice! Liquid Flame is weak to Water- and Ice-elemental attacks, and may use either Fira, !Ray and Blaze. !Ray will set Paralyze. It will heal itself with Firaga

every second out of four turns, but you shouldn't let it come to that. The new and improved Soul Cannon is most noteworthy because of its rare Protect Ring steal. If you missed the one on Odin, you'll only have three. Not that Protect rings are the most awesome of Accessories, but they are the most defensive overall. Soul Cannon is weak to Lightning-elemental attacks and may use either Missile (75 % current HP damage), Wave Cannon (50 % maximum HP damage to all) and Gamma Rays (sets Stop). The Kuza Beast has no elemental weaknesses, but is a Magic Beast (also, Heavy) so you could take advantage of that. Kill the Kuza Beast quickly, as it can use the ??? Blue spell that can be very powerful considering Kuza Beast's 10000 HP. A Berserk spell helps; those physical may still pack a punch, but they're nowhere near as dangerous as ??? spells. 1st - 4th Floor: 94 % Lemure, Parenthope 6 % Parenthope, Cherie The random encounters are all female demons with great items and no status immunities. Dancers or those with Ribbons equipped will have a great advantage as they nullify their many status-related attacks. Angels Rings also help out, since the most dangerous attack used in this building is Danse Macabre, which sets Zombie. Two-Handed or Berserk weapons will often kill a target, and the Man-Eater will also prove to be very powerful (use either !Jump or equip Ribbons on a physically resilient Job). Romeo's Ballad and especially Alluring Air are very awesome. The ladies will often use status ailment attack on themselves, giving you all the time in the world to strike with Syldra and the like. A Dancer with an Air Knife and abundant Syldra conjuring will be a great addition to your team. None of the ladies are Heavy, so Odin performs miracles here. Lemure is a Humanoid that attacks physically and uses Spore to Poison. When targeted by !Attack, it may respond with either Hug (restores HP to full, sets Petrify) or Pond's Chorus. Carries both Wall Rings and the awesome Ribbon! At a later point in the game, we will be advised to not let its beauty blind us to its sins. Lemures IRL are palm-sized monkeys with the big eyes for the nightseeing; they ain't beautiful, but I'd pay good money to see it commit sins. Parthenope is a Humanoid that attacks physically and randomly uses Roulette to kill a target on the battlefield. Roulette does that. You can learn the attack with Learning and/or Blue Mages, but since its effects are the same when cast by both the enemy and you - and you're probably not too happy when you see the spell cast - you should never ever use it. Parthenope carries the Rainbow Suit and a rare Coral Ring, which is ironic since the original Parthenope from Greek mythology drowned like it was going out of style.

Cherie is the most dangerous opponent. Normally it'll just use Dancehall Daze to set Sleep and random physical attacks, but when struck by !Attack it may use Danse Macabre to turn you into a Zombie. Thriller! Thrillah nights.... Common Red Shoes for stealing, and a rare Elven Cape we'd have killed for earlier in the game. The Rainbow Suit is a Dancer-only piece of equipment that's great on Defense, protects against Confuse and boosts the Sword Dance rate of !Dance and the success of !Flirt, much like the Lamia's Tiara. Dancers should use it over the Black Garb, but if you have a Mirage Vest to spare it's a toss-up. The Red Shoes also boosts !Dance/!Flirt in the same way and has more Defense than the Protect Ring. No Regen and no Magic Defense to speak of, though. Protect Ring still wins unless you want to employ !Dance and want to keep your Ribbon and Mirage Vest. Ascend the stairs! 1st Floor: Left stairway is safe 3rd Floor: Left stairway is safe 4th Floor: Right stairway is safe Every fifth floor will hold two urns, or vases, or what you want to call it. One will contain treasure, the other will house a Magic Pot encounter! It'll guard a treasure, but the real gem is the fight itself... Magic Pot is designed to be fairly unbeatable. It has 65255 HP, maximum Defense and Magic Defense, 95 % Evasion, 99 % Magic Evasion, is Heavy and immune to all status ailments. Inherent Protect and Shell, immunity to !Control and !Catch. The Mute status is set across the fight, so spellcasting is out. All it will ever do is demand Elixirs and completely restore its HP with a nameless move that graphically resembles an Elixir. Every Elixir you feed them will have them run away 33 % of the time, setting you up with 100 ABP. Some will claim that you're best off using !Mime to duplicate Elixirs, but why would squander the awesome 100 ABP on the Mime, which teaches you nothing except public ridicule? If you feel you want to be holding on to your Elixirs for the most, use the Wonder Wand as an item to cast Return regardless of the Mute status. I suggest you take the opportunity to give ABP on Jobs that are not nearly as good as the abilities they gave you. Red Mages, Rangers and Dancer come to mind. You can do as you like, however. If you wish to one day actually destroy a Magic Pot, I advise you to leave one alone for now; if you are a better man or woman than you are now, you could take one of with a few very specific set-ups. If you're curious how that could be accomplished, or to see if you could already pull it off, take a gander at

[POT-LINK] 5th - 8th Floor: 94 % Parenthope, Cherie 6 % Cherie, Lemure On the fifth floor, the left urn contains 5000 Gil, the right urn is a Magic Urn protecting a Phoenix Down underneath. The sixth floor has an open staircase. 9th - 12th Floor: 94 % Cherie, Lemure 6 % Parenthope, Cherie 7th Floor: Left stairway is safe 8th Floor: Left stairway is safe 9th Floor: Right stairway is safe On the tenth floor, the left urn contains 10000 Gil, the right urn is a Magic Urn protecting another Phoenix Down. The eleventh floor has an open staircase. 13th - 16th Floor: 94 % Lemure x 3 6 % Lemure, Parenthope 12th Floor: Left stairway is safe 13th Floor: Left stairway is safe 14th Floor: Right stairway is safe On the fifteenth floor, the right urn contains 15000 Gil while the left urn is a Magic Pot. It's sitting on... a Phoenix Down! The sixteenth floor has an open staircase. 17th - 20th Floor: 94 % Parthenope x 3 6 % Cherie, Lemure 17th Floor: Left stairway is safe 18th Floor: Left stairway is safe 19th Floor: Right stairway is safe On the twentieth floor, the left urn contains 20000 Gil while the right urn is, in fact, a Magic Pot! It protects a Phoenix Down. The twenty-first floor has an open staircase. 21th - 24th Floor:

94 % Cherie x 3 6 % Parenthope, Cherie 22nd Floor: Right stairway is safe 23th Floor: Left stairway is safe 24th Floor: Right stairway is safe This 25th floor houses the final Magic Pot of the game! The right urn houses 25000 Gil, while the left urn is a Magic Pot protecting an Aevis Killer. How original! If you ever want to kill a Magic Pot, skip the one you can find here. In a shocking twist of events, the floor above an urn floor does not have a visible stairway! 25th - 29th Floor: 94 % Lemure, Partenhope, Cherie 6 % Lemure, Parthenope 26th Floor: Left stairway is safe 27th Floor: Left stairway is safe 28th Floor: Right stairway is safe On the twenty-ninth floor, the hidden staircase is right in the middle. On the top of the Phoenix Tower, a touching (and interactive) cutscene awaits you. The choices you make for Lenna's past are irrelevant for the eventual outcome, so I'll just let you go on with it. Phoenix is a powerful MT Fire-elemental attack, but you may not want to use it just for that; at 99 MP, it's very costly. The target you select is the target of an Arise spell; the flames of rebirth that purge the battlefield are just a bonus. You can use Teleport to travel back down the Phoenix Tower in an instant. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.50.1 Wrapping Things Up; How to Kill Fiends and Mutilate People ********************************** Remember, there is no such thing as 'needed'. To my knowledge, single Job challenges have all made it to the end (all Berserkers, a single White Mage, there is no limit to the amount of self-depravation mankind is capable of), so you really don't need anything. However, the following things are awesome to have or, if not, to shoot for from now on: The Ninja's Dual-Wield is great for those characters that focus on weapons. Remember that Knights and Gladiators can use the Defender as a second weapon to score some physical evasion, and the Ninja can use Sasuke's Katana for that purpose. The Main Guache is too weak to consider now. !Rapid Fire is your

best option versus single targets. You should have all spells. This is not that big a deal except for Blue for which a full list really isn't necessary to have a full list of (Doom, Roulette, Transfusion are all useless). The Mighty Guard spell will come in real handy in the upcoming ordeal. Make sure to pack at least Arise and Hastega. Bestiary (79%): Normal enemies: #87, #123 - #190 Aquatic enemies: #191 - #203 Boss enemies: #283 - #298 You could've chosen to neglect obtaining the Mime Job and avoid facing Famed Mimic Gogo just now; if so, you will have an explainable hole at #297. Just for funsies, version 3, here's an example of one of my teams at the moment: Bartz: LV 6 Knight *** LV 4 Monk LV 1 Dragoon LV 5 Ninja *** LV 4 Samurai LV 1 Berserker LV 2 Ranger LV 6 Mystic Knight *** LV 3 Blue Mage LV 3 Cannoneer *** Bartz can punch, slice and stab with whatever weapon he sees fit. Due to the attention going to obtaining !Combine, !Rapid Fire isn't here yet. Bartz can, however, set Dual Wield to any Job he chooses, and use !Spellblade 6 when he so chooses. If he needs an MT attack, needs to set a status or exploit a Creature Type, !Combine is there. !Blue is also present for when I want to. Lenna: LV 1 Ranger LV 6 White Mage LV 6 Black Mage LV 6 Time Mage LV 5 Summoner LV 3 Blue Mage LV 3 Red Mage LV 2 Geomancer

LV 2 Chemist LV 3 Bard *** LV 2 Dancer Lenna has mastered !White, !Black, !Time, !Summon and !Blue and can mix and match spelllists however I see fit. She lacks !Dualcast at this moment, but is almost there. Krile: LV 3 Thief LV 1 Ranger LV 6 White Mage LV 6 Black Mage LV 6 Time Mage LV 5 Summoner LV 3 Blue Mage LV 4 Red Mage *** LV 2 Chemist LV 1 Geomancer LV 3 Bard *** LV 2 Oracle Due to Krile being around in the Pyramid, she has somewhat of an ABP edge over Lenna. She's the same, only she has mastered !Dualcast and is, therefor, more or less done as far as spellcasting goes. Thief and Oracle levels mark the start of her ability score optimization. Faris: LV 7 Monk *** LV 6 Thief LV 5 Ninja *** LV 1 Berserker LV 4 Ranger *** LV 3 Beastmaster LV 1 Summoner LV 3 Blue Mage Berserk was learned; it's a great booster for Monk and Ranger. Faris has learned to Dual Wield and use !Rapid Fire, but lacks !Spellblade as far as that ancient time-honored broken combo goes. The funky Summoner level is there for boosting the Berserker's Gaia Hammer and Rune Axe :p The Thief is about ready to be mastered; with Monk present, all that's left is mastering Oracle for best stats across the board. If you take the airshupmarine to Mr. Clio the psychic friend who lives in a

pineapple under the sea south of Karnak, he *should* tell you that you obtained 68% of all treasures if you followed this walkthrough faithfully. If you chose to let a single Magic Pot live to pound its whacky face in in the future, that number will be 67%, so don't be alarmed. Anyway, what you might possibly need before entering the Rift and putting a stop to Exdeath's destructive plans once and for all are items. Ninja Scrolls can be bought in the Phantom Village, you can get ammo for !Combine in either Karnak, Crescent or Bal Castle and all other items should be lying all over the place. When you're ready, you know where to go. The Void, bane of all that is, opened up over Castle Tycoon. The Void ripped itself free from the constraints of the Interdimensional Rift, a place created when the world was divided to conquer the Void. Here, in this alien place, Exdeath has retreated, working relentlessly to command the Void even further. Within the Interdimensional Rift, an unknown number of demons and other evil creatures have been locked away, all promised freedom by Exdeath. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.51.1 Interdimensional Rift; the Desert **********************************

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...

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Opponents: Dhorme Chimera (#58), Ankheg (#184), Ammonite (#185), Landcrawler (#186) Miscellaneous items: Defender (rare Landcrawler steal)

When the thousands of evil creatures were sealed away 1000 years ago, those that governed this monumental process did not exactly cut with a surgeon's precision. Large parts of the lands were sealed away as well; among them a large desert. "The desert was the apotheosis of all deserts, huge, standing to the sky for what looked like eternity in all directions" - King Stephen of the Dark Tower 35 % Ammonite x5 35 % Ankheg x3 23 % Landcrawler 6 % Dhorme Chimera The Ammonites, Ankhegs and Landcrawlers are creatures you already encountered around the Phoenix Tower; the Dhorme Chimera is a creature you faced when traveling between Karnak and the Ancient Library, and again around the Ruined City of Gohn. These should be news to you; Level 3 Flare hits all but the Chimera, and Odin can strike them all as well. The Landcrawler is sturdy, but not Heavy. The path of this first part of the Interdimensional Rift is very linear. Sandstreams indicate we are truly no longer on our own planet; the Desert of the Shifting Sands has fallen silent, but these streams are apparently not tied to the Crystals of either world. A single wall and an eventual door tell us that whatever this location once was, it was inhabited by the Ancients. When you reach the door, Exdeath bids you a warm welcome... you've defeated Melusine, the Wendigo, Triton, Nereid and Phobos already, and watched another sealed demon be defeated by Leviathan. Seven of the Eleven of the Rift are left, each more malicious than the next: the monstrous mage Azulmagia, the beholder Catastrophe, the wicked fey Calofisteri, the tome demon Apanda, the terrible creature Twintania, the king of the dark castle Halicarnassus and finally the immortal, Necrophobe. They will do everything in their not inconsiderable power to destroy you, so tread carefully... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.51.2 Interdimensional Rift; the Ruins ********************************** Opponents: Ronkan Knight (#63), Stone Mask (#64), Enchanted Fan (#65), Lamia (#66), Archeotoad (#67), Ghidra (#69), Grenade (#204), Baldanders (#205), Death Dealer (#206), Level Checker (#207) Container contents: Blood Sword, Cottage, Dark Matter, Elixir x2, Ether

Miscellaneous items: Rune Chime (rare Baldanders drop), Angel Ring (rare Baldanders steal), Flame Shield (rare Grenade steal), Elixir (rare Level Checker drop) Blue spells: Self-Destruct, Roulette, Aeroga, Level 5 Death, Level 4 Graviga, Level 3 Flare, Level 2 Old "My name is Enuo, king of kings: look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!" Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare. The lone and level ruins stretch far away." - a Russian poem Few facts are mentioned about the Ancient Ronka civilization, though we know that 1000 years ago they were the ones to conquer Enuo with the twelve nowlegendary weapons and that a branch still existed until a short time ago, when the Ronka city was forcibly lift up in the air to hasten the shattering of the Earth Crystal. And now, we encounter a part of their culture in the Interdimensional Rift; what does this portend? Chain drop-off, first room: 59 % Grenade x2, Death Dealer 35 % Baldanders, Level Checker 6 % Ghidra Three chains room 35 % Level Checker 35 % Baldanders x2, Grenade 23 % Baldanders, Level Checker 6 % Enchanted Fan, Ronkan Knight x2 Third room 35 % Level Checker x2, Grenade 35 % Death Dealer x2, Level Checker, Baldanders 23 % Level Checker x4 6 % Archeotoad x3 Exit chain room... three whole tiles! 35 % Baldanders 35 % Death Dealer x4 23 % Baldanders x2, Grenade 6 % Lamia, Stone Mask x2 As you can see, every rare formation is a blast from the past; formations from the flying Ruins of Ronka, in this case. This is something you'll see more often in the other area's of the Interdimensional Rift as well. I will not

discuss these simple monsters. The Grenades will simply attack physically, but beware of casting spells; any Blue, White, Black, Time or Summon spell will be countered by Self-Destruct. They are vulnerable to all status ailments except for the sprite- altering ones, so use it to your advantage. You can nab a rare Flame Shield if you can Steal. There are Enchanted Fan upgrades here, and they're called Baldanders. They may randomly use Aeroga every turn, so beware; halt their assault with any status ailment you can think of as they won't be immune. They're great with the items; common Turtle Shell steal, rare Angel Ring, rare Rune Chime drop! The Rune Chime is the best weapon for Freelancer mages, as it boosts both the elements of the Magus Rod (Fire, Ice, Lightning, Poison, Earth, Wind) but also Holy. This makes it the best option for anybody combining !Black and !White, or using !Combine or !Predict. In addition, its damage formula functions like an Axe; it works when Mute is in effect (as opposed to the Diamond Bell) and deals half damage from the Back Row. When a Freelance mage has the Strength of a Monk, the Rune Chime will even be a formidable physical attack! Note that Mimes cannot equip the thing, so that's too bad for them. Death Dealer is a Heavy Humanoid, halting clever Odin usage right there :( They'll use Roulette all the freaking time, which blows. Silence, Toad and Berserk stop this nonsense. Level Checker is a creature you could've encountered earlier, in the sunken tower of Walse. It checks your level, then disregards that information and drives into walls. Seriously, it does not modify its level-based attacks at all, it's just curious or something. It will then cast either Level 5 Death, Level 4 Graviga, Level 3 Flare or Level 2 Old on the target it used Search on. Search can be Reflected! When Level Checkers are tricked into casting the spells on each other, only Level 2 Old and Level 3 Flare will do something. It may rarely drop an Elixir. At 5000 HP and no elemental weakness, they can linger... fortunately they're not Heavy, so Odin takes care of your problems. All things here are vulnerable to Confuse and Stop, so anyone with the !Sing ability can really help out. Odin can kill everything except those blasted Death Dealers, which is another thing to remember. Boosted Syldra cleans major house when Odin would just throw his lame Gungnir. If you walk around with Reflect Rings, you'll be protected from Level Checkers and Baldanders' Aeroga; Bone Mail helps against Roulette (the attack will fully heal the 'undead' target). Hop on and off the chain to lower yourself into the ruins. The room you enter contains a few chests; an Ether to the left and a Cottage to the right. Pass through two doors and find two more chests containing an Elixir and some Dark

Matter. Leave the room. This new room takes you to three ever-revolving chains; the right-most one takes you to a chest containing another Elixir. Ignore the middle one and take the left-most chain to get to the exit of this room. If you wish to obtain one or more Rune Chimes, this is the room with the highest odds of running into Baldanders, so there you go. The third room has you facing two stairs; take the right stairway to see a chest containing a Blood Sword. Take the other stairway to find another revolving chain; it'll take you out of these ruins and into... the Phantom Village? You can't talk to the NPCs, or draw hilarious genitalia on their faces or anything, so that's a bore. You can't shop, sleep in beds, do anything. You can drink from the grey pot with healing water though, so you're fully restored! Keep on going; you can't play the piano, you can't take the Thief Knife (since the bartender blocks your path), you can't even interact with the crate in the Armor Shop to open up the path to the second Armor Shop. Boring, boring. Leave this place only to find yourself in the forest... not too surprising, since the Phantom Village in the timestream also rested amidst the trees. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.51.3 Interdimensional Rift; the Forest ********************************** Opponents: White Flame (#208), Moss Fungus (#209), Farfarello (#210), Calofisteri (#300) Container contents: Dragon Fang, Enhancer, Ribbon, Lillith Rod Miscellaneous items: Elixir (rare White Flame steal), Lilith Rod (rare Farfarello steal) Blue spells: White Wind, Pond's Chorus, Lilliputian Lyric "Midway upon the journey of our life I found myself within a forest dark, for the straightforward pathway had been lost. Ah me! How hard a thing it is to say What was this forest savage, rough and stern, which in the very thought renews the fear." - Dante Aligheiri's Inferno It is said that evil beasts were sealed into the Rift; right along with the

forests and caves they were living in! Oh, my... 35 % White Flame x2, Moss Fungus, Farfarello 35 % Moss Fungus x3 23 % Moss Fungus, White Flame x4 6 % Farfarello x5 White Flames are much more easily taken care of than their palette swap brethren, luckily. All they do is absorb Holy, so beware. Third and fourth turns could theoretically be spent on White Wind, but they're dead by then. 1600 HP isn't much. Moss Fungus is said to grow on the graves of poisoned people. They're weak to Fire-elemental attacks and Water-elemental ones; Leviathan works out nicely. They attack physically, but beware: !Knock Silly sets Confuse. They can also employ Web and Spore to set Slow and Poison. If you use !Lance on one, they'll have a 66% shot at countering with Rainbow Wind, so eh... don't use !Lance. Let's be honest here; have you ever used !Lance? Farfarello are tiny little trickster wizards that either drain your resources with Drain or Osmose or sing a happy little tune, either Pond's Chorus or Lilliputian Lyric. They come with inherent Protect, so physical attacks aren't your route; strong MT magical attacks are better; they're weak to Bio spells. You can steal a rare Lilith Rod, but you also find one in a chest here. Leviathan slays all encounters in a single Tidal Wave. Make sure to protect against Confuse; you can use a Lamia's Tiara, Rainbow Dress, Red Slippers, Bone Mail or the Berserk ability. Ribbons do NOT protect against Confuse! Mirage Vests also make sure you dodge at least one !Knock Silly, which is generally all you need before you get a Leviathan in there. Like in the Great Forest of Moore, your vision is impaired. Unlike the Great Forest of Moore, teleportation magickx will do you no good; the Teleport spell won't work here. Don't worry, I'll guide you through. Your vision is impaired, like it was in the Great Forest of Moore. You have an additional disadvantage though; you cannot use Teleport to flee the scene (though in-battle Teleport is fine). Behind the first large tree you encounter on your path, you can find a chest which contains a Dragon Fang. When you press on further into the forest, you'll find a field; stick to the left and you'll find a chest containing a Ribbon. If you never stole one, this is your fourth one. Hey, status immunity across the board! Go down and find a chest with an Enhancer. Go up again, leaning to the right and you'll find the chest containing the Lilith Rod. The Lilith Rod performs an attack similar to the !Flirt ability; when the strike is successful (you'll see a purple hit animation on the target, never

works on a Heavy target), the next turn of the target will be spent doing nothing. Any equipment that boosts !Dance and !Flirt also increases the success rate of the Lilith Rod. 25% of the time, the Rod may follow up with an Osmose attack. It's such a weird thing. Waving your 'rod' around usually doesn't charm anyone, let alone fungus. A narrow passageway to the right takes you to a tree with a hole in it. A tree spirit from the Forest of Moore? And sure enough, one comes out to open up a passageway between its roots. But before you can press on, it seems not all tree spirits are helpful. Appearing from between the roots is Calofisteri, one of the Eleven of the Rift. Calofisteri Level: 68, HP: 18000, MP: 1000 Defense: 50, Magic Defense: 30 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Reflect Ring (rare), Plumed Hat (common) Win: Diamond Plate (rare) Creature: Humanoid, Magic Beast, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Poison, Darkness, Old, Silence, Slow Can't Evade: Song Attacks: Drain, Poison, Bio, Cura, Protect, Esuna, Shell, Reflect, Regen, Haste, Old, Stop Hey, another naked chick in the forest! But this one is blue... As a corrupted guardian spirit of the woods, Calofisteri is a subtle warrior. Her AI script changes when you have Reflect or when she has Reflect. When neither you nor she has the reflective barrier up, she will cast either Stop, Old or Reflect (which may provoke her to cast more damaging spells off her). If the blue wonder has Reflect set but you do not, she will cast Bio, Poison, Old and Stop on herself to do damage and disable; she may also randomly cast Reflect again, which bounces off her own Reflect barrier, thus setting the status on one of the characters (which in turn allows her to start buffing herself). If you have Reflect, she will start casting Cura, Protect, Esuna, Shell, Regen and Haste on you to give herself beneficial statuses; these can all be removed with Dispel, Reflect or not. Whenever she takes damage, she will counter with a Drain spell; aside from the very rare Bio spell, this is her only way of dealing damage. At around 350 damage, that's bad news for the naked blue chick in the forest. Since so very few of her spells actually damage you, simply make removing her buffs and debuffs with respectively Dispel and Esuna a priority. She has no particular resistances, so aside from a Protect, Shell or Reflect she may put up, damaging her is not a problem. Since she is both a Humanoid and Magic

Beast, the Man-Eater, Beast Killer and Artemis Bow all punch right through to the heart of the matter. Silence Spellblade, Slow or Romeo's Ballad and setting Old aren't all that necessary, but since Calofisteri is obviously used to playing with her prey, it might be fun to do the same to her before you show her that annoyer tactics are neither fun nor productive in the long run. When you're done here, passing beneath the tree will take you to a cave. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.51.4 Interdimensional Rift; the Cave ********************************** Opponents: Drippy (#100), Lycaon (#101), Poison Eagle (#103), Zombie Dragon (#104), Metamorph (#114), Orukat (#211), Great Dragon (#212), Achelon (#213), Golem (#271), Omega (#311) Container contents: Coral Ring, Angel Ring Miscellaneous items: Dark Matter (common Orukat steal), Dragon Fang (common Great Dragon steal, rare Great Dragon drop), Turtle Shell (common Achelon steal), Staff of Light (rare Metamorph drop), Omega Medal (guaranteed Omega drop) Summon spells: Golem Blue spells: Flame Thrower, Flash, Vampire, Magic Hammer "And they shall go into the holes of the rocks, and into the caves of the earth, for fear of the Light Warriors, and for the glory of their majesty, when they arise to shake terribly the earth." - Isaiah First room 35 % Orukat x4 35 % Achelon x3 23 % Great Dragon 6 % Zombie Dragon, Poison Eagle, Drippy Waterfall room 35 % Orukat x2, Achelon 35 % Great Dragon, Achelon, Orukat 23 % Achelon x3 6 % Golem, Bone Dragon, Zombie Dragon --> Lycaon x5

Third room 35 % Great Dragon 35 % Orukat x4 23 % Achelon x3 6 % Metamorph (Ramuh, Crew Dust, Zombie Dragon) First off, note that in the second room of this cave, Golem can be found if you missed his rocky ass in Drakenvale earlier. It's the rarest encounter there. If you did manage to register that you recruited Golem, that rare formation will be contain five Lycaon cats. Orukat are the evil blobs of eyes, rising to meet your determined stare. Their gaze may petrify; they can use Evil Eye when alone, which sets Petrify. They have wonky elemental attributes (absorb Holy, weak to Water and Earth) but have a common Dark Matter steal so that's all good. This is the easiest Dark Matter source in the game, and given its beneficial nature when used with !Mix or !Combine, farming them is a good thing. Just lay off the Excalibur, Holy Lance and Holy spells. Great Dragon is neither Dragon nor Heavy. Boo! Fraud! It uses Blaze and Flame Thrower alongside physical attacks to damage, and may counter any non-spell (!Black, !White, !Time, !Blue or !Summon) with an Earthquake attack. Setting Float is easier than treading carefully around his humongous ass. You can steal common Dragon Fangs from him... open wide buddy, here comes the tooth fairy's evil twin brother, and he don't leave no coins... (unless you use !Zeninage). Weak to Water as well. Speaking of evil twin brothers, meet Catoblepas'! He's called Achelon. Attacks physically, counters damage with Evil Eye, done. Common Turtle Shell for stealing, and nobody knows why or how. This is an easy dungeon! Set Float to make sure the Great Dragon's Earthquake attack fails, and summon Leviathan to wash away all your troubles. All three enemies here are weak to the element. Thieves are nice to farm !Mix and !Combine consumables; the Aegis Shield and Ribbon protect against the Evil Eye attacks you shouldn't encounter at all. The Great Dragon will probably survive a single Tidal Wave; just do whatever to it to finish it, it's not Heavy and vulnerable to Mini and Toad. Descend the stairs to find yourself in the main room where water streams down the rocks. The random encounters here'd better be careful! Continue to find an entrance. Go past it, and stand under the waterfall to the right. Go up to find a hidden entrance to a chest containing an Angel Ring. Nice! Head back, and find the entrance again. Go in it! That's the purpose of an entrance. You can also skip it and slide down the waterfall in the back, but you'd miss out on a Save Point and a chest. You see a thing of darkness down below; we'll get there.

Find a chest with a Coral Ring, go down to find a Save Point. Cottage and Save up, then appear out of the entrance to find a timeless weapon without a soul, OMEGA. You can try to defeat it now, but you'll need some specific strategies (in short, !Rapid Fire, Dual Wield and !Spellblade 5 to 6 in a single character). If you want to fight the technological abomination, you can do so: "The roiling skies let loose a vile beast without a soul; Omega was its name." [OMEGA-LINK] In a normal game, you're more likely to want to pass it up right now, it's in no way mandatory. If you never face the thing, you'll never engage it. Flee past it to reach the exit of the cave and... a library? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.51.5 Interdimensional Rift; the Library ********************************** Opponents: Apanda (#299) Miscellaneous items: Ash (guaranteed Apanda drop, rare and common Apanda steal) Blue spells: Magic Hammer "At other times he would pass an entire day in the great hall of the library, leafing through manuscripts as if seeking nothing but his own enjoyment (while, around us, the corpses of monks, horribly murdered, were multiplying)." - ancient text on the historical murders at the Library of the Ancients It's an eeeeevil library, mind. I think both religious and anti-religious zealots would agree that books can be very dangerous. We've already experienced this fighting the possessed tomes in the Library of the Ancients... again, those Ancients. What comes next? Page 512? Page... 1024? First, examine the two books on the shelves. The right one talks about Omega and Shinryu, one of which we've already encountered. They were more powerful even than the legendary weapons twelve, thus more powerful than the Enuo we've been hearing so much about. Exciting stuff. The left one talks about Gigaflare and how it leaves the caster defenseless. If we could learn Gigaflare, we'd certainly be wary... but we can't, 'cause we have no more room in the menu to list it. The book on the table triggers a dimensional switch, but its guardian Apanda,

one of the Eleven of the Rift, jumps out to stop you from ever observing its effects. But hey, if it thought we'd never get this far he must be a poor judge of strength. Buddy, have we got the surprise for you... Apanda Level: 59, HP: 22200, MP: 1000 Defense: 23, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 20%, Magic Evasion: 30% Steal: Ash (common & rare) Win: Ash (always) Weakness: Fire Creature: Magic Beast, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Darkness, Berserk, Silence, Slow Attacks: Attack, Protect, Confuse, Drain, Magic Hammer, Wind Slash, Web, Dischord This guy has a relation with Byblos, the first servant of Exdeath we ever did defeat, the one that came into Bartz' world together with Exdeath, fleeing before the Warriors of Dawn. What this demon is, is unclear. However, the combat behavior of Byblos and Apanda is similar and Apanda also shares a fear of Ifrit. Maybe this guy's, like, Bizarro Byblos or something. Let's examine! It will attack with all sorts of magical attacks to complement simply punching you in the face 'til you bleed; Confuse, Magic Hammer, Wind Slash, Web and Dischord may all appear. Dischord is bad, but you could counter with a !Mix that raises level. Hi-Potion + Dragon Fang equals Dragon Power, which raises level by 20. Any magic attack (again, !Black, !White, !Time, !Summon and !Blue) may provoke either Drain or Toad as a counter; any other damaging attack may provoke either Drain or Protect. Quickly within the fight, Apanda will have Protect up. Drain will do around 600 HP, already a fair bit more powerful than Calofisteri's Drain. Even though Ifrit is one of the weaker Fire-elemental attacks we can conjure up at this point, Apanda has a severe phobia for our ally. When summoned, he will cause Apanda to turn the other way and cower in a corner. "Gah, Ifrit! Scary!" *tremble* The next turn, Apanda will find the courage to turn around, use Panacea, and resume the battle, only to cower again when Ifrit is summoned once more. This way, you never really have to battle Apanda at all; summon Ifrit and pound upon the terrified thing 'til it stops moving. Firaga spells are supremely powerful, as is Firaga Spellblade, the Flametongue and the like. Another strategy is simply setting Berserk and let Golem, Mighty Guard and/or Blink take care of

the rest. Panacea is the Greek goddess of curative medicine; named after her is a mythical medicine that is supposed to cure all ailments. If you want to cure Apanda's fear of Ifrit permanently, setting Berserk or killing it senseless both get the job done nicely. When Apanda has fallen, you've engaged the dimensional switch. Wonder where we turn up now? Too bad you can't use the bed here to rest in. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.51.6 Interdimensional Rift; the Tower ********************************** Opponents: Ninja (#214), Dragon Aevis (#215) Miscellaneous items: Artemis Bow (rare Dragon Aevis steal) "Believe it or not, I'm walking on air. I never thought I could feel so free. Flying away on a wing and a prayer, Who could it be? Believe it or not, it's OH MY GOD NINJAS ARE EVERYWHERE GET THEM PLEASE HELP" - Joey Scarbury, 528 b.C. 35 % Dragon Aevis x2 35 % Ninja x2 23 % Dragon Aevis 6 % Dragon Aevis, Ninja This is a very straightforward part without any chests, only two new enemies. A Thief or character with the Find Passages support ability can see where to go; even blind, it's easy as you won't fall off. Ninjas are not Humanoid, so don't even bother. They're killing machines. When struck with !Attack, they may counter with Image to avoid the next two physical blows altogether. They attack physically, sometimes with !Yagyuu's Strike which sets Sap. Yagyuu is this famous Japanese samurai or something, possibly famous for setting Sap with his sword strikes. They're vulnerable to Petrify and Death and are not Heavy, but have incredible amounts of Evasion (70%) and Magic Evasion (90%) so taking advantage of that is difficult. Petrify Spellblade effects paired with !Aim or !Rapid Fire helps out, as does Odin (but it won't execute Zantetsuken when a Dragon Aevis is present). Level 4 Graviga also works and never misses. They may rarely drop the expensive Fuma Shuriken!

The Dragon Aevis are NOT Dragons, but they ARE Aevis. So the Aevis Killer helps out here. They're Heavy as well, so Odin can't even solve this one for you. They attack physically and use Breath Wing, which is a concern; none of the major status ailments work except for Petrify, so Catoblepas should be called forthwith. They're also weak to Water, so Leviathan might be a better solution for you. You can get a rare Artemis Bow from them; hey, why not. They're very powerful versus Magic Beasts. They also drop Dragon Fangs all the freaking time, which is great. When you Catch them, they'll use Breath Wing upon Release. That's a really sweet attack to use in the final battle of this game, so if you want to you can Catch one or more here and store them for later usage. There's one direction you can go in. Go in that direction until you reach the Dimension Castle, the halls of which are filled with an exhaustive amount of treasure and danger. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.51.7 Interdimensional Rift; the Dimension Castle ********************************** Opponents: Mythril Dragon (#36), Mini Magician (#118), Galajelly (#119), Mammon (#120), Blind Wolf (#124), Hellraiser (#125), Magic Dragon (#127), Red Dragon (#133), Yellow Dragon (#134), Sword Dancer (#216), Death Claw (#217), Fury (#218), Yojimbo (#219), Iron Giant (#220), Ramuh (#255), Azulmagia (#301), Alte Roite (#302), Jura Aevis (#303), Catastrophe (#304), Halicarnassus (#305), Twintania (#306) Container contents: Thor Hammer, Hermes Sandals, Man-Eater, Rainbow Dress, Red Sandals Miscellaneous items: Enhancer (rare Sword Dancer steal), Thor Hammer (rare Death Claw steal), Cursed Ring (rare Fury steal), Reflect Ring (common Fury steal), Murakumo (rare Yojimbo steal), Titan's Gloves (rare Azulmagia steal), Dragon Lance (rare Jura Aevis steal), Aegis Shield (rare Halicarnassus steal), Elven Mantle (rare Halicarnassus drop), Tinklebell (rare Twintania drop), Flame Shield (rare Twintania steal) Summon spells: Ramuh Blue spells: Death Claw, Level 3 Flare, Dark Spark, Off-Guard, Goblin Punch, Mind Blast, Aeroga, Doom, Roulette, Aero, Level 2 Old, 1000 Needles, Level 5 Death, Level 4 Graviga, Mighty Guard, Vampire, Lilliputian Lyric, Flash, ???, Aqua

Breath, Aera, Flame Thrower, Pond's Chorus, Missile, Magic Hammer, Time Slip, White Wind, Self-Destruct "But I am not in heart to describe beauty, for when I had seen the view I explored further. Doors, doors, doors everywhere, and all locked and bolted. In no place save from the windows in the castle walls is there an available exit. The castle is a veritable prison, and I am a prisoner! " - memoire of an unlucky interdimensional traveler That's a lot of stuff, isn't it? This is the final area of the Interdimentionsal Rift before we dive into the very Void itself. Halicarnassus rules the Dimension Castle, and four of the Eleven of the Rift are still alive. Throw open those heavy doors and meet your destiny. Ground floor, including wing towers 35 % Sword Dancer x2 35 % Death Claw x2, Sword Dancer x2 23 % Iron Giant 6 % Magic Dragon x3, Hellraiser, Blind Wolf Sword Dancers are the graceful footsoldiers of whatever civilization was imprisoned together with the Dimension Castle. They can attack physically, use !High Kick (which is more powerful) and Danse Macabre, which sets Zombie to a single character. Angel Rings help protect against that (but Ribbons won't), and note that any status ailment can work on them (including Toad, which just stops the possibility of Danse Macabre). Humanoid, not Heavy. You can nab some rare Enhancers from them, sweet swords for your Blue Mages if you don't plan on using !Attack at all and the best enchantable blades for Mystic Knights. Death Claws use Death Claw all the freaking time. They're notable since they can't be Controlled, I guess; weak to Water, not Heavy, so those with Leviathan and Odin can choose how to kill them. They have a rare Thor Hammer for you; you could get one now; you'll find one in a chest here as well. Iron Giants are the second-worst Giants. They attack with powerful physical swings from that grand blade of his, and uses Rocket Punch to deal 50% current HP damage and set the Confuse status. When struck with an !Attack, he'll counter with a powerful !Takedown, so don't do that 'cause !Takedown is unblockable and ignores Defense, making it quite potent. They look very intimidating, but they are vulnerable to Death and Petrify and are not Heavy, so take advantage of that fact rather than trying to plow through their 18000 HP. Throw open the heavy doors, and meet your destiny. Here, in the main hall, are seven exits. You appeared out of one. Another one is a staircase in the middle of the room going up, but the doors there are closed. Going around the staircase will have you find the stairs going down to the basement, but we'll

get there later. To the left, the visible door leads to an otherwise featureless little room packed with spears you can't pick up. The other one takes you outside, to a small tower. Here, in a chest, you can pick up a Thor Hammer, which is a bit less powerful than the Titan's Axe but Back Row OK and therefor better versus random monster formations. It is also an Aerial weapon; you actually throw this thing around, much like the weapon of the comic book hero Thor. Or so I've been told; comics are for total geeks. Go back to the main hall. To the right, the visible door gets you nowhere like the other one, so go outside. Another small tower houses a chest containing Hermes Sandals. Go back to the main hall, and circle around the staircase to find the stairs going down to the basement. In the basement, there are no random encounters. There are quite a few NPCs running around here though. To the left is Azulmagia, one of the Eleven of the Rift. To the right, Catastrophe the beholder is holding a girl captive; Catastrophe is another one of the Eleven, though apparently loathe to work together with Azulmagia (or the other way around). A total of six old men are locked away in their cells as well. What a mess. Walk to the left first. There's a chest there you can't reach yet, but there's also Azulmagiavwaiting for you. The towering fiend is optional, but nets you a new item and a Save Point, so why not? He's a righteous detective, this one, inquiring into your business like a nosy no-good. Good boys don't lie; but good guys also get punished in the Dimension Castle. Proclaim your heroism and face Azulmagia, monstrous mage of the Eleven of the Rift. Azulmagia Level: 57, HP: 27900, MP: 50000 Defense: 30, Magic Defense: 70 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 33% Steal: Titan's Gloves (rare), Elixir (common) Win: Black Cowl (rare) Weakness: Poison Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable: Darkness Attacks: Doom, Roulette, Aqua Breath, Level 5 Death, Level 4 Graviga, Level 2 Old, Level 3 Flare, Pond's Chorus, Lilliputian Lyric, Flash, Time Slip, Death Claw, Aero, Aera, Aeroga, Flame Thrower, Goblin Punch, Dark Spark, Off-Guard, Mind Blast, Vampire, Magic Hammer, Mighty Guard, Self-Destruct, ???, 1000 Needles, White Wind, Missile Azulmagia uses Blue Magic, like, a lot. I mean, like all the time. He's telling us he can quit whenever he wants, but we can tell he's not too sure himself anymore. Azulmagia lacks a few Blue spells, though! Moon Flute and Transfusion,

Azulmagia doesn't know and doesn't care about. But the attacks Aeroga, 1000 Needles, Level 3 Flare, Aqua Breath, Magic Hammer and Self-Destruct are Blue spells Azulmagia never got his ginormous hands on, and he'll be more than happy to test them out on you should he learn them in the process of this battle... In addition, there's the Titan's Gloves to think about, unique in this game as a rare steal from this guy only. You miss them now, you miss them forever, so take a Thief and Return caster in there. When you use any of those Blue spells on him, he'll learn them from you and change his AI script accordingly. Normal AI Script: 33% Dark Spark, 33% Off-Guard, 33% Mind Blast 33% Doom, 33% Roulette, 33% Level 2 Old 33% Level 5 Death, 33% Level 4 Graviga, 33% Mighty Guard 33% Lilliputian Lyric, 33% Flash, 33% ??? 33% Aera, 33% Flame Thrower, 33% Missile 33% Time Slip, 33% Death Claw, 33% White Wind Learned Level 3 Flare! 66% Level 3 Flare, 33% Dark Spark 66% Level 3 Flare, 33% Off-Guard 66% Level 3 Flare, 33% Goblin Punch 66% Level 3 Flare, 33% Mind Blast (return to normal AI script) Learned Aeroga! 66% Aeroga, 33% Doom 66% Aeroga, 33% Roulette 66% Aeroga, 33% Aero 66% Aeroga, 33% Level 2 Old (return to normal AI script) Learned 1000 Needles! 66% 1000 Needles, 33% Level 5 Death 66% 1000 Needles, 33% Level 4 Graviga 66% 1000 Needles, 33% Mighty Guard (return to normal AI script) Learned Vampire! 66% Vampire, 33% Lilliputian Lyric 66% Vampire, 33% Flash 66% Vampire, 33% ??? (return to normal AI script) Learned Aqua Breath! 66% Aqua Breath, 33% Aera

66% Aqua Breath, 33% Flame Thrower 66% Aqua Breath, 33% Pond's Chorus 66% Aqua Breath, 33% Missile (return to normal AI script) Learned Magic Hammer! 66% Magic Hammer, 33% Time Slip 66% Magic Hammer, 33% Death Claw 66% Magic Hammer, 33% White Wind (return to normal AI script) Learned Self-Destruct! Self-Destruct (ashes to ashes, dust to dust) Phew! I'm not normally a fan of direct AI transcript, but since you may want to learn a Blue spell or two here, the specific circumstances of their appearance may be relevant for you. Azulmagia's quite absent-minded, that much is true; when you teach him a Blue spell, then teach him another Blue spell, you can teach him the first Blue spell again! He'll regain his enthusiasm for the spell as well. If your level allows you to dodge Level 3 Flare, teaching him that spell is the safest for you. If that is not an option, the Magic Hammer routine is also a great one. Aggravating Azulmagia into using Aeroga or Vampire is a bad idea; Aeroga deals about 1800 damage, and Vampire and the ??? spell in that list are very dangerous on a creatures with over 20000 HP. Another neat thing to consider is Reflect + Level 3 Flare; everything in that part except for Goblin Punch is Reflectable, Level 3 Flare hurts Azulmagia and Dark Spark and Off-Guard are super-duper when they connect on Azulmagia. People may tell you to use Self-Destruct to end the battle! Possible, it does work, but you'll lose out on ABP for a single character as Azulmagia will take a character with him. Azulmagia has a lot of attacks, some of which are very dangerous. Throw up Mighty Guard and Hastega; Shell will reduce damage dealt and reduce the hit rate of status ailment spells as well. Cast Magic Hammer or possible Level 3 Flare, and the battle is yours. Bio Spellblade is very powerful; Bio is not a very powerful spell, so that Poison-elemental weakness is much better exploited with Mystic Knights. Set Berserk for added effects; if you have one or two casters to heal and clear bad effects, possibly boost levels or stats through !Sing or !Mix, a Mystic Knight can take Azulmagia down by itself. Titan's Gloves are a *bit* better than Kaiser Knuckles for those not punching Barehanded; they have better Defense, boost Stamina (for Regen) and protect against Mini. Oh, joy. They can only be equipped by Heavy Armor Jobs, and they

decrease Agility and Magic Power by 5. They're unique though! There's a Save Point here now, so that's beneficial. Do your thing with it, then look around to see what's the buzz. You can engage the old men through the bars if you must. This way, you don't have to open the door and can nicely pick them off at your leisure. These jokers have rare Dragon Lances you can steal, and can start with an Encircle attack. I suggest a Thief and two characters capable of casting Return if you want to make sure you get a Dragon Lance from at least one of the battles. Alte Roite Level: 58, HP: 6000, MP: 1000 Defense: 45, Magic Defense: 60 Evasion: 70%, Magic Evasion: 60% Steal: Holy Water (rare), Potion (common) Win: Healing Staff (rare) Creature: Humanoid, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Poison, Darkness, Berserk, Silence, Slow Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Encircle Oh... my aching back! Just 'cause there's six of them, doesn't mean they're not serious business. They'll attack physically, which ain't too bad, or use Encircle 33% of the time to remove a character from the fight. That blows, and you can't really stop it. Berserk works, but you don't wanna set it 'cause after defeating the old man, he transforms into the creature you're probably here for: the Jura Aevis! If you set Berserk, kill him with a Counterattack or use Chaos Cannon to kill him, he won't transform. If you use a Gold Needle on Alte Roite, it seems he is cursed with a petrified spine; he'll return the favor by healing himself completely, then go on attacking. Craziness! His Evasion and Magic Evasion is through the roof, as is his Magic Defense and to a slightly lesser extent his Defense. Bio and Flare punch through nicely, as does Holy. After 6000 HP... Alte Roite reveals his true form! Jura Aevis Level: 61, HP: 15000, MP: 1000 Defense: 35, Magic Defense: 30 Evasion: 20%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Dragon Lance (rare), Turtle Shell (common) Win: Dragon Fang (always) Absorbs: Wind, Lightning, Ice, Fire Nullifies: Earth Status: Float

Creature: Aevis Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Poison, Darkness, Old, Paralyze, Silence, Slow Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Breath Wing, Blaze, Lightning, Maelstrom, Entangle Blast, he became a lot harder. On the upside, he lost his Heavy nature, which is absolutely the path to his destruction. You want this thing to appear because it has a rare Dragon Lance for you. Dragon Lances are the strongest Lances in the pre-GBA era, and the key to the defeat of some very nasty critters. You can also get them later in a random encounter, but this thing is here now! His many HP-based attacks are a pain, but you can keep him busy with Paralyze; Whips and the Remora summon help out there, as well as Mind Blast. Slow also helps. Since his level is 61, the Dark Spark/Level 5 Death combo works; but since he isn't Heavy anyway, you might want to forego this bothersome technique and just cast Banish or summon Odin instead. Especially if you plan on defeating the Magic Pot and the Famed Mimic Gogo later, obtaining Dragon Lances is very nice. However, with every Return spell you cast you'll have to plow through another old man; waiting for the Crystal Dragon later may be quicker farming. The three old men in the bottom jail cell were running around a chest containing a Rainbow Dress; the three old men in the other one guarded some Red Slippers. Now that you have all the Dragon Lances you'll ever need (or not), time to move on! If we are to continue, we'll have to get past the beholder, Catastrophe. You can't open the door, but you may gaze into Catastrope's Evil Eye. Eyes to see you... Catastrophe Level: 71, HP: 19997, MP: 19997 Defense: 40, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 15%, Magic Evasion: 33% Steal: Cottage (rare), Elixir (common) Win: Gold Needle (always) Absorbs: Earth Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Darkness, Old, Paralyze, Slow Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, 100 Gs, Evil Eye, Earth Shaker

Catastrophe is not intelligent enough to put up a decent fight like, say, Azulmagia; C. packs the punch, but doesn't know how to deliver it. He'll attack randomly with physical attacks, stare at you with his Evil Eye to set Petrify to a single target or use Earth Shaker to deal anywhere between 900 and 1100 damage across the board. He won't even counter stuff, but he will get mad at you if you cleverly avoid his Earth-based attacks with Float; he'll stop attacking and use 100 Gs to pull you down to the castle's floors. So, you know, casting Float every turn will have him use 100 Gs every turn, and YOU still have three other characters for the damage department. In addition, you could even set Float outside of battle, then waltz in there with Reflect Rings; 100 Gs reflects, so you just won the battle right there as Catastrophe won't ever attack again unless you Dispel your own Reflect/Float status. A single character with the Reflect Ring/Float thing will have Catastrophe fixated on pulling him or her down, so the other three can use all those other Accessories you like so much. Aegis Shields and Ribbons protect against Evil Eye, but if you let Catastrophe attack, Evil Eye really isn't the worst of your problems; Earth Shaker is very powerful and can take you down fast unless you Curaga or White Wind it up every single turn following it. Since Catastrophe doesn't have any elemental weaknesses, crippling status immunities or exploitable natures to take advantage of, just throw out your most powerful attacks. His level is 71, so after a successful Dark Spark he becomes vulnerable to Level 5 Death. Something to remember! Look at that. Eye haven't seen such an easy fight in ages, but it's not polite to stare. Ah, enough with the eye puns, it looks more like an evil spud anyway. Receive your Kiss of Blessing from the girl. What's a girl like that doing in a place like this? Don't ask her, she'll think you're hitting on her. When you go up, you'll find yourself outside! Outside 35 % Death Claw x2, Sword Dancer x2 35 % Fury x2, Death Claw 23 % Yojimbo, Ninja 6 % Ramuh --> Mythril Dragon If you let old man Ramuh wander the forests near Istory all those chapters ago, you can find him here, outside, as the rarest encounter. Else, a Mythril Dragon takes his place. Furies are supermages that are able to cast two spells every turn; normally, they'll combine either Death, Berserk or nothing with Stop, Drain or nothing. When alone, they get especially mad at you and combine two -aga spells or

combine either Silence, Toad or Mini with Comet, Slowga or Bio. That's a lot of spells. They're weak to Water, so Leviathan kills them easily; they're Heavy, so there's no easy getting rid of them. Silence, Death and Petrify do work when Leviathan is not as your disposal, though. If you want more Cursed Rings for who knows what, get 'em from these guys. Yojimbo's !Wring sets both Poison and Darkness; an annoying combo. It was supposed to set Paralyze, but it doesn't. These ronin carry a Murakumo as a rare steal, a stronger Katana than the Masamune; it lacks any special features, though. Set Mini or whatever, who cares how you beat them as anything goes :p Ignore the door you first see and walk over the left wing of the Dimension Castle. You'll find yourself in an apparently featureless room, but Thieves know better; there's a passage to the right. Go in, follow the trail until you reach the hitherto unreachable chest containing a Man-Eater. If you didn't use Thieves, these are a total of three Dancer-only pieces of equipment you see for the first time. Trace back your steps, and enter the second floor or the Dimension Castle. There are no random encounters here in the throneroom, but if you descend in the middle of the room, there will be random encounters in the staircase. Flip the switch to open the doors; these doors will be closed again once you leave this room, so unless you forgot something on the other side there's little point in going through the heavy wooden doors. Staircase 49 % Iron Giant, Death Claw x3 35 % Death Claw x2, Sword Dancer x2 6 % Yellow Dragon x2 The throne has but a single seat... a lonely king, this castle has. If you try to go to the exit once, you'll be pulled onto the throne; twice, and Halicarnassus of the Questionable Gender appears to kill you. Well, y'know, he/she tries. If you wanna be a smart-ass, cast the Toad spell on all characters not equipped with a Ribbon or Genji Gloves; you'll understand how this helps out when the battle starts. Halicarnassus Level: 97, HP: 33333, MP: 5000 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 66% Steal: Aegis Shield (rare), Staff of Light (common) Win: Elven Cape (rare) Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Mini, Darkness, Old, Silence, Slow

Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Haste, Shell, Dispel, Holy, Ribbit, Reverse Polarity, Strong Fight King Queen of the Dimension Castle will start the battle with the Alchymia's Ribbit attack, toggling the Toad status on all party members. Those not protected by the Ribbon or Genji Gloves will find themselves looking small, green and delicious in the eyes of strange old men in Quelb (also, the French). Those who entered the fight as a toad will find themselves restored. Sweet! Halicarnassus will muck about for quite a few turns, using physical attacks and the odd buff (Haste or Shell), Reverse Polarity or Dispel, but every seventh turn will be a Holy spell cast at a single party member, which will either hit Reflect or kill the target; it does about 9500 damage (half that with Shell in place). After the Holy spell, Ribbit is used again; Toad's not cured from the first attack will now be restored (and vice versa). The last thing to know is that Halicarnassus hates third parties entering into the arena; Summon magic will be punished by Strong Fight, which kills a character. This is an easy battle; Dispel can be used to remove Haste and Shell if they give you pain. Don't use Summon Magic. An odd status vulnerability of Halicarnassus is Mini; though with his/her level being 97, it is almost impossible to set. !Combine a Mallet with any type of shot and you'll have a straight 75% chance of inflicting the status; note that Strong Fight is not affected by Mini's debilitating effects. Also good is using !Mix to put together an Eye Drops and a Dragon Fang; the resulting Dark Sigh sets Darkness, really hindering the physical onslaught. Silence can be set, but lasts only a while; Silence Spellblade is an option, but only debatably better than, say, Flare Spellblade. With his/her Holy spell being the only intimidating factor of the battle, you could summon Carbuncle to help out; since Halicarnassus is not the target of this summon spell, he/she won't counter. Black spells bouncing off four targets is always a sweet deal; just be careful Dispel doesn't remove one of the four barriers. If you never got a Staff of Light, here's your chance; it's still not really missable in the real sense of the word if you pass it up here, but waiting for the rarest encounter to drop a rare drop is not a lot of fun. The Aegis Shield is a great thing to have! Behind the throne room, there is a back room with only some stairs going to the top of the castle. There's a unique encounter pattern, though! Back room 35 % Iron Giant 35 % Death Claw, Fury, Sword Dancer 23 % Iron Giant x2

6 % Red Dragon Summit of castle 35 % Sword Dancer, Fury x2 35 % Death Claw, Fury, Sword Dancer 23 % Yojimbo x2 6 % Mammon x2, Galajelly x2, Mini Magician At the top of the Dimension Castle, the last guardian between you and the Void makes itself known; Twintania, the most terrible weapon of mass destruction the Void has ever sealed within. He's nowhere near as sexy as his name implies. Twintania Level: 39, HP: 50000, MP: 10000 Defense: 30, Magic Defense: 16 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Flame Shield (rare), Phoenix Down (common) Win: Tinklebell (rare) Weakness: Water, Holy Creature: Magic Beast, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Darkness, Silence, Slow Attacks: Atomic Ray, Ice Storm, Mind Blast, Wind Slash, Tidal Wave, Mega Flare, Giga Flare Twintania is a right bastard. He'll attack with powerful MT attacks; Wind Slash and Atomic Ray ain't that powerful, so forget about those. Mind Blast is a neat trick of Twintania's; unlike any other foe or character in this fine game, he can MT the thing, setting Paralyze to all four characters (unless protected by Genji Gloves or Hermes Sandals). Ice Storm is just powerful stuff. He'll start with two turns of either Atomic Ray, Ice Storm or a physical; then he'll use MT Mind Blast, followed by two turns of Wind Slash. THEN, he charges Gigaflare, but first I want to talk about his counters. Twintania may counteract any magical attack (this means anything coming from !Red, !White, !Black, !Time, !Blue or !Summon) with Mega Flare; any other attack can provoke a 33% shot at Tidal Wave, which deals impressive Water-elemental damage. Coral Rings help out against those. Book of Magic, Volume 14: "The secret of Gigaflare... When storing power for this magic, you become utterly defenseless for a moment... Casters, be wary." When Twintania starts going for Giga Flare, he'll change into another monster. Check this statblock for the changes: Level: 30, HP: (as first form), MP: (as first form)

Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Titan's axe (common) Win: Murasame (rare) Weakness: Water, Holy (as first form) Creature: Magic Beast (no longer Heavy) Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Toad, Darkness, Silence, Slow, Stop First off, note that Twintania became vulnerable to instant death through Holy Spellblade, Odin's Zantetsuken, Death spells, Banish spells, Death Claw, the works. In addition, Toad can be set! Since Twintania also changes items you can steal and he drops, there's something to consider. The normal Twintania may rarely drop a Tinklebell; it's the only one in the game, so you'll likely salivate all over the idea of getting one even though it's not very good. However it's also likely you'll want that second Titan's Axe; it's the only second Titan's Axe in the game! So you'll likely want to a) have Twintania change form and steal a Titan's Axe b) survive Gigaflare somehow c) kill the normal Twintania and hope for a Tinklebell So, how to survive Gigaflare? You can set Toad, which causes Gigaflare to do nothing. After another turn, Twintania's normal sprite which suddenly appear in place of the toad; this signals the normal Twintania's return. Kill with violence. If you can set Shell and can take a punch of about 1550 HP on one or more characters, you can survive Gigaflare straight up; Goliath Tonic may help out if it's necessary. Without Shell, Gigaflare deals over 3000 HP damage, which is too much for you (unless, again, Goliath Tonics). When fighting Twintania, keep on the defensive on the first two turns as Ice Storm is quite powerful and there is no need to swallow a Tidal Wave or Mega Flare. When Twintania's signaling the Gigaflare attack; Steal! Then, set Toad or brace for impact, whichever option you chose. When the normal Twintania is back, pound for great justice (also, possibly a Tinklebell). Since Twintania is weak to both Water and Holy, damaging him needn't be a chore; your best bet is probably summoning Carbuncle and spamming spells; if he counters with Megaflare, he'll just hurt himself (Megaflare is reflectable). Another option is equipping Coral Rings across the board and going with anything BUT spells; you'll keep yourself healed throughout the fight due to Twintania's torrents. The Tinklebell... the Gaia Bell functions like a Back Row OK Hammer, the Rune

Chime like a Rune weapon (such as the Rune Blade). The Tinklebell is the only other bell besides the Diamond one that actually functions as a bell; it deals unblockable, non-elemental magical damage from the Back Row and doesn't function when Mute (but not pre-set Mute) is in effect. There you go. Feel happy with it? You're not using Geomancers, it's not powerful and it doesn't aid in spellcasting so nobody wants to hold it. When you're done, walk on up and scroll on down to read the final chapter of this long and epic struggle. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.51.8 Interdimensional Rift; the Last Floor ********************************** Opponents: King Behemoth (#221), Crystal Dragon (#222), Necromancer (#223), Gorgimera (#224), Mindflayer (#225), Crystelle (#226), Belphegor (#227), Mover (#228), Gilgamesh (#307), Necrophobe (#308), Barrier (#309), Gilgamesh (#310), Shinryu (#312), Exdeath (#313) Container contents: Elixir, Fuma Shuriken x3, Ragnarok Miscellaneous items: Elixir (common Necrophobe steal, Blood Sword (rare King Behemoth steal), Dragon Lance (rare Crystal Dragon steal), Bone Mail (rare Necromancer steal), Aegis Shield (rare Gorgimera steal), Main Gauche (rare Mindflayer steal), Rising Sun (rare Belphegor steal), Ice Shield (rare Belphegor drop), Genji Shield (common Gilgamesh steal), Thief's Gloves (rare Necrophobe steal), Reflect Ring (rare Barrier steal), Genji Armor (common Gilgamesh steal), Dragon's Whisker (rare Shinryu steal), Dragon Seal (guaranteed Shinryu drop), Wonder Rod (rare Exdeath steal) Blue spells: ???, Transfusion, Mind Blast, Flash, Roulette, Mighty Guard, Level 2 Old, Level 3 Flare "That is, for Zen Buddhism, the term, E M P T Y does not refer to any particular

STATE Rather, it seems that Zen understands 'Empty' as something like THE ARDOR OF BE-ING that guarantees the perpetual appearance and disappearance of whatever is." ... Hey, it's the last floor. Here is where the Void is sealed. Crystalline islands are floating in a vacuum. This is the center of the Interdimensional Rift, where the most powerful and most evil creatures were sucked in. Best be on our guard; this is where Exdeath is waiting for you, confident you'll never even reach it while it gains ever-increasing mastery of the powers of all-consuming nothing. THIS is where all vile beings go that fall victim to Banish spells. This place is so far removed from the normal world, your Teleport spells fail to take you back now; you'll have to walk to the eldritch teleport zone you arrived with. Best be on our guard. First floor: 35 % King Behemoth 35 % King Behemoth x2 23 % Crystal Dragon 6 % Belfegor, Belfegor King Behemoth are towering... well, they're behemoths. As if they were living embodiment of the deadly sin of sloth, they won' do a lot normally; every third out of four turns, they'll attack physically, which is admittedly quite painful. These creatures are dangerous because of their counter-attacks; every spell is countered with a Meteo spell, every other damaging attack is countered by either a normal physical or !Critical Attack, which deals 150% damage. They're weak to Water-elemental attacks, but it shouldn't concern you; you'd rather not damage these things. They've vulnerable to Death and Petrify, and are not Heavy, so Break Spellblade effects, Catblepas, Odin or even Death Claw (Paralyze stops the counter-Meteo) is the answer to the problem they pose. They may rarely drop a Twin Lance and you can steal a rare Blood Sword from them, but I can't imagine you're swooning over either one at this point of the game. Crystal Dragon is likely this dungeon's most formidable opponent. Sitting at 17500 HP, absorbing Fire, Ice, Lightning and Wind-elemental attacks, Heavy, the

works. It has Regen set when it starts the battle as well. It attacks with Breath Wing 66% of the time, else the shiny dragon will attack physically at which it is quite proficient. It's major weakness is Death, which it is vulnerable to; With 50% Magic Evasion, it's difficult to set though. Death Potions are awesome naturally, but you may not have !Mix or the resources to toss one at every Crystal Dragon that crosses your path. If you can't set Death, it's still a Dragon; Apollo's Harp, Dragon Lances and Dragon's Whiskers really help out. Speaking of Dragon Lances, it's this monster's rare Steal; if you find yourself lacking them after the Jura Aevis encounters, this is your only place to find them. Oh yeah, you can remove their Float status with Dispel, like with the Elm Gigas. So useless... At least it'll remove the Regen status as well. Belphegor is not as dangerous as the King Behemoths and Crystal Dragons, but dangerous nonetheless. They attack physically only, no problem. They're Magic Beasts, so the Artemis Bow kills them dead; as does Level 5 Death by the way, they're level 55. They may rarely drop Ice Shields and have rare Rising Suns if you want more than one. They're not Heavy, destroy them any way you like (but not Earth-elemental attacks, it heals them). On this first floor you should have both a single character being able to summon Odin and another one being able to chuck Death Potions. You'll breeze through easily on your way to Exdeath. On the first floor, you'll find yourself in a wide, open space. It's a crystal island floating in space, but luckily there's breathing possibilities. There's a chest you can see containing a Fuma Shuriken. Also, a familiar face might just be resting in the middle of an eldritch warp zone... Gilgamesh Level: 59, HP: 37000, MP: 0 Defense: 0, Magic Defense: 35 Evasion: 5%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Genji Shield (common) Win: Rune Bow (rare) Creature: Humanoid, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: Attack Note: obviously, if you didn't open the Excalipoor chest in Exdeath's Castle back in the day, Gilgamesh was never banished to the Interdimensional Rift and he won't be here, nor will he make any other future appearance. This is basic causality, no need to get worried.

That stat block is merely for curiosity; note that you'll likely never get to see the Rune Bow drop. Gilgamesh is frightened, and in his panic attacks all monsters in sight to drive them away. At first, he will not recognize you: Have at thee, vile beast! Take this! Rahhh! After taking away over 7000 HP, he'll pause for a moment to reflect on his position and recognize you. He'll blather for a while, then run off to the exit, into the Dimension Castle. Gilgamesh seems to have no ill intent now that his master Exdeath has betrayed him by banishing him here. Before starting his exit speech, you'll want to get his Genji Shield, the only location for one in this fine game. It's the Shield with the best Defense in the game and protects against Paralyze and Mini, so it has that going for it. Note that since Mini doubles Evade%, combining the Mini status with a Genji Shield will give the character perfect (99%) Evade. Since the Genji Shield protects against the status, set Mini first (or outside of battle), then apply Genji Shield. Note that it's possible to kill Gilgamesh here; you'll have to deal him over 30000 HP damage between two of his turns. An example of accomplishing this would include Slow, using a Dragon Kiss to set the Dragon nature, then have two Dragoons Dual-Wielding Dragon Lances use !Jump. You'll get 15 Gil and a rare Rune Bow for your trouble, and you affect *nothing*; Gilgamesh will still leave for the exit after the fight is over. Second floor: 35 % Necromancer, Gorgimera 35 % Gorgimera x2 23 % Belphegor x2 6 % Mover x3 Necromancers totally suck. They attack physically half the time, but nobody cares about that; no, they use an attack called Zombie Powder the other half of the time, and that's just an unblockable attack that sets Zombie. Not even Ribbons protect against Zombie, only Angel Rings do. Best to take them out of the fight ASAP; !Control helps, as does any status ailment as long as you manage to land it past their Magic Evasion of 50%. They're Undead, so Requiem really hurts them. They have a rare Bone Mail for you to steal; you can do some nice things with a party draped in Bone Mail so getting three extra isn't a bad idea. Gorgimera attack physically normally, but resort to MT magical attacks when they're alone. Atomic Ray, Frost and... Electrocute. You remember Electrocute? From the Octokraken, when you were level 5 or something? Who still uses this.

Gorgimera, this is the FINAL DUNGEON. Focus. Gorgimera is not Heavy and weak to Water, so Summoners can choose between Odin and Leviathan. Check this; they have a rare Aegis Shield for you to steal! You want an Aegis Shield on every character not Dual-Wielding and you likely don't have enough, so take your chances here. Movers are where it's at, since they give you 150000 Gil and 199 ABP when you kill them. They're difficult to take down though; this is not so much a fight where you brawl for survival, more like a race to see if you can kill them before they run from you. Movers have 10000 HP, are Heavy and Undead and are immune to both Petrify and Death. They're weak to Fire-elemental attacks. To kill them, Requiem, Flame Scrolls, Firaga and the costly Phoenix can really help out. If you Control one, it'll be able to use Transfusion, killing it (while restoring a character). Slowga works fine; they don't have a lot of Magic Evasion and you really want to keep them from acting as long as possible. If you leave them alone, here's what will happen. Movers don't do anything, except one of them will use a Delta Attack or a physical attack, and the formation will switch. The new formation will just be three Movers; 'new' Movers will have a current HP based on a random Mover alive at the time of the shift. Bug? Possibly, it certainly seems strange. Anyway, when a Mover gets a turn now, it'll just terminate the battle; no ABP or Gil for you. Anyway, where you really wanted !Mix on a character the previous floor, you'll really appreciate !Sing on this one; Requiem works great versus both Necromancers and Movers and can set Stop to both Gorgimera and Belfegor while you wait for Odin to come (or your other characters to kill them with damage). Since so many nice things can be stolen here, a Thief is a sweet deal; you'll want to master Thief on all characters anyway for that awesome Agility, and that 199 ABP Mover formation really helps out in that direction. The path for you to take is quite obvious. You'll come across another chest containing yet another Fuma Shuriken, and a chest with an Elixir in it. Notice how you pass a root on your way? Exdeath's influence can already be seen. Third floor: 35 % Mindflayer, Crystelle x2 35 % Mindflayer x4 23 % Crystal Dragon 6 % Belphegor, Crystelle x2, Mindflayer Mindflayers are the intelligent demons with an appetite for minds, which they extract with Mind Blast. Their hearts must be blacker than black for them to only live here. They're very annoying to kill, since they have no elemental weaknesses and are Heavy. They have no status immunities, but a Magic Evasion of 66%, which is quite high. Break Spellblade effects + !Bladeblitz takes them all out, but I dunno if you have it. They'll randomly attack with physical

violence or Mind Blast and will counter any damage done with a 66% shot at Mind Blast. Mind Blast is Reflectable, so if the Paralyze is getting you down, Carbuncle can help out. The Genji Shield, Genji Gloves and Hermes Sandals make a character immune to Paralyze, so those help out. Intermezzo: we are later told that the Mindflayer's magical strength is nothing to make light of. Not terribly inclined to respect authority of any kind, here is a list of magical power jokes and insults: "Hwah! You tentacle-faced losers couldn't Mind Blast your way out of a paper bag filled with magic!" "I'll have you know I've got half a mind to stab you right in the tentacle! Unrelated query; could I have the other half back?" "Mind, your own business", a support group for hapless Mindflayer victims. "Fighting these fiends is a no-brainer!" We will now return to our normal schedule. Crystelle is a sentient piece of the landscape. I guess, I dunno. It absorbs all elements, has an Evasion of 50% and a Magic Evasion of 30%, has 50 Defense but 0 Magic Defense. It also has 3 HP. Goblin Punch, Sylph, !Aim, it's easy. You can Catch one for it to use Mighty Guard upon Release, but Blue Mages can't learn anything from Released monsters so that's just interesting for when you're doing a challenge of some sort. On this floor, Mindflayers are your biggest conern; boosted Syldra and !Zeninage are quite adept at taking them out. Summoners are also great versus the Crystelles; Sylph makes short work of them while healing you a bit as a fringe benefit. Any person with !Mix can help against the Crystal Dragons that re-appear on this floor. This next floor has you pass a stairway leading down to a chest. This is where Shinryu has its lair, a dragon too powerful even for the Ancients with the Legendary Weapons to subdue. It was sealed here ages ago, and now guards a chest with the Ragnarok, a sword more powerful than even Excalibur. I do not talk about him now, rather would have you best him at a later date; if you want to grapple with the God-Dragon now, here's your destiny: [SHINRYU-LINK] Continue up above to find a chest with... a Fuma Shuriken! Press on, ever on, to the nearest warp zone. This is a straightforward part of the game, lemme tell you. Near the chest, there is a branch of a great tree...

Fourth floor: 35 % Crystelle, Necromancer, Mindflayer 35 % Gorgimera, King Behemoth 23 % Belphegor, Crystelle, Mindflayer 6 % Mover x3 Here, those with !Sing can Confuse the Mindflayers and seriously harm the Necromancers and Movers; those with !Summon can summon Odin to kill Gorgimeras and King Behemoths as well as destroy Crystelles. Roots are intertwined throughout the crystal, and you are walking to the source of this overgrowth... to the left of of this room is a bright green light, which is guarded by the most powerful and last surviving member of the Eleven of the Rift; the immortal, Necrophobe... Send a Thief. Necrophobe Level: 66, HP: 44044, MP: 10000 Defense: 50, Magic Defense: 50 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 75% Steal: Thief's Gloves (rare), Elixir (common) Win: Luminous Robe (rare) Weakness: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Poison, Wind, Earth, Water, Holy Status: Invulnerable Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Vacuum Wave Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5, Adds Sap Vulnerable to: Darkness, Silence, Slow Attacks: Attack, !Vacuum Wave, Death, Hurricane Barrier (x4) Level: 44, HP: 8800, MP: 300 Defense: 30, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Reflect Ring (rare), Hi-Potion (common) Nullifies: Earth Status: Reflect (always) Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Death, Petrify, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Flare, Holy Necrophobe is an invincible target. He'll never take damage or any effect from anything, and you cannot target him manually. Any attack that will randomly select a target will also target Necrophobe, but it will never do anything. Things that randomly target an enemy include:

!Rapid Fire !Release !Animals !Gaia !Call !Oath Berserked characters The Meteor spell Reflected spells Any of these attacks may randomly target Necrophobe and thus have no effect at all. MT effects will always include Necrophobe, but will have no effect on Necrophobe. Okay, I think we understand each other on the subject :p You'll have to deal with the Barriers that make Necrophobe invincible. They are Heavy and have no elemental weakness, but vulnerable to both Death and Petrify. Summoning Catoblepas (possibly twice with !Dualcast), Chaos Cannon, Break Spellblade effects plus !Rapid Fire and Death Potions are all perfectly usable ways of inflicting either Death or Petrify without having to worry about Reflect. Of course, 8800 HP isn't that much if you don't want to worry about setting status ailments; a few Thunderstorms from Syldra, a !Zeninage if you must, and they're gone as well. In the meantime, the Barriers will cast Flare and Holy spells at each other; they'll hit you for around 1000 damage. There are four of these spells coming your way without having time to heal in between, so that wave is going to hurt. Mighty Guard cuts the damage in half, see if you can get it up before it's too late (which is, coincidentally, the same thing your girlfriend demanded last night, pa-dum tsss). Every even turn, they MT one of the Black -aga spells, which sends four half-powered versions of that spell to random party members. Looks exciting, but probably bad for your health. When the Barriers are gone, Necrophobe will remain invulnerable until he starts talking about now he's really mad and you're going to regret this, at which point Necrophobe himself starts attacking, starting with a Flash. Necrophobe attacks twice every turn, with powerful physicals or !Vacuum Wave, which also sets Sap along with even more physical pain. Necrophobe may rarely use Hurricane to drop a character down on his or her knees, and very rarely a Death spell may appear. It should be no surprise that the Protect and Image status and Golem's Earthen Wall are a great help in this part of the battle. In the meantime, Necrophobe is open to your violence and theft; a rare Thief's Gloves could be nice. He's weak to all elements! Holy spells, high elemental Spellblade effects, -aga Black spells, Syldra or Leviathan, it's all very, very powerful. Note that you'll want to chip away no more than 9999 HP every attack, since when Necrophobe takes damage and is at 9999 HP or below, you'll possibly gain the help of an enemy turned friend...

Gilgamesh Level: 93, HP: 55000, MP: 60000 Defense: 35, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 30%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Genji Armor (common) Creature: Heavy, Humanoid Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Few relevant stats, as you can see. If you skipped the Excalipoor chest in Exdeath's castle all those moons ago, he obviously won't be here now and you'll have to reduce Necrophobe's HP down to 0 just like any other battle. If not, here he is... As soon as Gilgamesh appears, Necrophobe becomes invulnerable again; a clear sign that this is Gilgamesh' battle, not yours anymore. Do know that this is your small window of stealing the only Genji Armor in the game; don't pass it up. Necrophobe will attack Gilgamesh twice before deciding Flare might be the best way to finish him off; at which point, Gilgamesh will retaliate with a glorious sacrifice. Note: There have been reports about Gilgamesh not showing up even when all the known conditions are met. At this point, I have not been able to verify this or discover the cause, if in fact present at all. Information or save states are greatly appreciated. We live in the interactive age, after all. Write your own chapter in Djibriel's walkthrough today! The Genji Armor is the most physically resilient Heavy armor in the original SNES game, protecting against Confuse and Toad to boot. A sweet deal, and the final part of your steadily growing Genji set. When all is done, you find the last Save Point of the game. From now on, it's simply a straight march to our destination; Exdeath. With Movers as the rare encounter here and the mass amounts of ABP to be found here, this is the place to, y'know, what do you youngest call it? Grind, farm, 'max it up', really 'get into it', etcetera. At some point in the future, you really have everything you want for your characters; they needn't get that elusive Three Stars above their head as a Freelancer, but mastering Thief, Monk and Oracle maximizes stats. !Rapid Fire, !Spellblade level 6 and Dual-Wield are great for all physically inclined characters; mastering !White, !Black, !Time, !Summon and !Blue are great for all arcane specialists, and make sure to reach !Dualcast for maximum potential. Whenever you load Quicksave data, the second battle you'll see will be the Mover formations; you'll be masterin' Jobs like something really adept at masterin' Jobs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.52.1 Facing the Void

********************************** Opponents: Exdeath (#313), Neo Exdeath (#314) Miscellaneous items: Dragon Lance (rare Neo Exdeath steal), Murakumo (rare Neo Exdeath steal), Ragnarok (rare Neo Exdeath steal) It was over thirty years ago that a tree used to seal countless evil spirits gained self-awareness. This composite soul terrorized an alien world until four brave man, known as the warriors of Dawn, chased the vile creature to our peaceful world. Once there, it could not be destroyed, but was sealed with the power of the Crystals, the four elemental pillars of the world. They were the fundament of all life, but an unthinkable four-fold cataclysm happened, and the creature that made himself known as Exdeath escaped to return to its world of origin. It developed a plan to gain control over the ultimate power to exact its dark judgment on all its enemies. It was to be a successful plan. But it is the fate of the world that warriors stand up in the face of destruction time and again; the Ancients versus Enuo, the warriors of Dawn thirty years ago and now you, here, in the Interdimensional Rift. When you approach, the prelude to this final chapter takes place. Castle Bal, Faris' pirate crew and their hideout, Coco, Cid 'nd Mid and the Catapult are all sucked into the Void, effectively removing all allies you had back at Planet R. Exdeath traps you into the Void as well, but unexpected help arrives. When it is over, you are free to customize your character for the final confrontation with Exdeath. You could also leave Exdeath now, travel back to the eldrtich warp point that connects the Last Floor to the Dimensional Castle and Teleport out of the Interdimensional Rift. In doing so, something funky happens: Space warps and distorts... Time climbs upward... And you are delivered to a time period just before Exdeath's final wave of onslaught. Bal Castle, the Pirate Hideout and the Catapult are all still there, and if you return to Exdeath he'll make his speech again. Anyway, it's time for that final showdown. Freelancers and Mimes are likely what you want, as ABP gain doesn't matter anymore, and these two Jobs (likely) have awesome stats, great equipment options and (likely) a few useful inherent abilities. If not, Summoners, White, Time and Blue Mages, Mystic Knigths, Ninjas and Samurai make the best base classes due to useful inherent action abilities.

Ribbons are a must. Exdeath will throw around a large array of status ailments, so Ribbons are great. Favor Magic Defense over Defense; Aegis Shields are incredibly awesome and are to be applied unless Dual-Wield is very important to the set-up of your character. !Blue, !Mix and especially !Sing are very awesome support abilities for buffing; !Summon, !Spellblade and !Combine are very potent offensive capabilities. Exdeath Level: 77, HP: 49001, MP: 30000 Defense: 35, Magic Defense: 25 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 15% Steal: Wonder Wand (rare), Phoenix Down (common) Creature: Humanoid, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Slow Can't Evade: Aerial Attacks: Attack, Flare, Holy, Meteor, Doom, White Hole THIS is the Entropic Adversary's true form; its humanoid form was always a shell, a mask. It seems that the power of the Void is something that's not quickly harnessed; Exdeath is as of yet incapable of using it in a fast-paced battle. Exdeath will use but two attacks; a physical attack and White Hole, a singletarget magical attack that sets both Death and Petrify to a single character. Characters that have protection from either status ailment nullifies the entire attack; that means those with Ribbons and Aegis Shields are safe, but also those equipped with Bone Mail. With !Mix, you can put some Holy Water with some Phoenix Down to create a Lifeshield, that grants the affected character immunity from Death-setting attacks, including White Hole. Since White Holy takes 99 MP to cast, destroying Exdeath's pool of MP by means of Dark Ethers (Mix some Ether + Dark Matter) and Lilith's Kisses (Mix Ether with a Maiden's Kiss) can eventually put a stop to White Hole forever and also stop the damaging spells Exdeath will start casting as the fight continuous). This is the perfect moment for you to buff yourself to the skies; physical attacks are quite powerful but easily nullified with Blink spells, Golem's Earthen Wall and Mighty Guard. White Hole shouldn't have any effect if you listened to my advice; if White Hole does manage to affect a character, the two-turn revival process is admittedly bothersome. Use Lifeshield to protect against White Hole if you did send a character without proper protection up there. !Blue gives you Mighty Guard, the ability to take only half damage from both physical and magical attacks, while giving the characters vulnerable to White Hole increased odds to avoid the attack. This is extremely helpful. !Sing gives

you the ability to set Regen on all those not equipped with a Protect Ring; Hero's Rime increases your level over time, greatly increasing your offensive power; Mighty March isn't normally so great, but with Stamina pumped like awesome it'll heal about 300 HP every time; not bad at all. !Mix gives you the ability to raise your level through Dragon Power (Potion + Dragon's Fang), mix up your own Goliath Tonic (Elixir + Dragon's Fang) to double your HP. Elemental Power (Eye Drops + Holy Water) is great to set on those that can use !Combine, !Black or !Summon; normally you'd want to use weapons that boost elements, but if you know you'll take care of that within the battle, that opens up the possibility to equip a weapon such as the Defender, Sasuke's Katana, Enhancer or Man-Eater; weapons that provide passive benefits that don't include elemental boosts. Since Exdeath has no elemental weakness but also close to no Defense or Magic Defense, you can simply dive into your strongest attacks. !Rapid Fire, especially when combined with Flare Spellblade effects and/or Dual-Wield, is especially powerful. Note that the Man-Eater deals critical damage to Exdeath, but cannot be enchanted with Spellblade effects. With !Dualcast, you can cast two spells simultaneously; post-Elemental Power Leviathan summoning is most powerful; Meteor strikes four times and is independent from your level; the higher your level is (or boosted) the likelier it is that Meteor does less damage than a single 'normal' spell. Exdeath cannot avoid Aerial attacks, so Whips, Bows, the Rising Sun and Thor Hammer will never miss. You know, it's a tree. You miss trees, you did a bad thing trying out for this whole worldsaving business. When Exdeath starts taking damage and is pushed beyond 30000 HP left, it will resort to the raw power of the Black and White school of magic; Flare and Holy will start making appearances. Both are extremely powerful; they'll deal around 2300 damage, which is probably enough to one-hit kill any character not protected by the Shell or Reflect status. In his final 10000 HP, it'll start casting Meteor; this is easily its most dangerous attack, especially versus those wearing Heavy Armor or Clothes. And then, after 49001 HP, Exdeath loses control. Like Enuo before it, when faced with the warriors with the Legendary Weapons, the Void turns against those who foolishly attempts to control the uncontrollable, and it envelops Exdeath...

...

...

...

I am Neo Exdeath! All memories... dimensions... existence... All that is shall be returned to nothing. Then I, too, can disappear... ...forever!!!

Neo Exdeath (Vacuum) Level: 81, HP: 50000, MP: 65000 Defense: 30, Magic Defense: 25 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 76% Steal: Murakumo (rare) Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Vacuum Wave Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Darkness, Silence, Slow, Stop Attacks: Attack, !Vacuum Wave, Comet, Meteor, Malestrom, Almagest Neo Exdeath (Dragon) Level: 83, HP: 55000, MP: 65000 Defense: 30, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 75% Steal: Dragon Lance (rare) Creature: Dragon, Heavy Specialty: !Vacuum Wave Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Darkness, Paralyze, Silence, Stop Attacks: Attack, !Vacuum Wave, Dispel, Comet, Meteor, Maelstrom, Grand Cross, Almagest Neo Exdeath (Magic Beast) Level: 67, HP: 55000, MP: 65000 Defense: 30, Magic Defense: 19 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 80% Steal: Fuma Shuriken (rare) Creature: Magic Beast, Heavy Specialty: !Vacuum Wave Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Petrify, Darkness, Old, Silence, Stop Attacks: Attack, !Vacuum wave, Comet, Meteor, Maelstrom, Almagest Neo Exdeath (Humanoid) Level: 86, HP: 60000, MP: 65000 Defense: 30, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 10%, Magic Evasion: 66% Steal: Ragnarok (rare) Creature: Humanoid Specialty: !Vacuum Wave Specialty Effect: Attack x 1.5 Vulnerable to: Poison, Darkness, Silence, Slow, Stop

Attacks: Attack, !Vacuum Wave, Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Flare, Holy, Dispel, Comet, Meteor, Aeroga, Delta Attack, Maelstrom, Almagest The abomination that calls itself Neo Exdeath has no place in this world; but what the hell is it? It seems to be a combination of all that was sealed in the Void at some point; evil creatures, dragons, seductive succubi, warlocks, all driven to fulfill the philosophy of the Void, if any; all must become none. And so we become complete, for the five great elemental manifestations are Wind, Water, Earth, Fire and Void... Neo Exdeath is composed out of four targets, which you can think of as completely separate entities. Though some sprite-related tricks have been accomplished to make it seen this is a single composite being, all four targets have different stats, different attacks and different weaknesses to exploit. All four targets are rather slow and have big gaps in their AI script where they do nothing, so they won't take as many turns as most creatures, nor will they act on every turn that's presented to them; when they do act, though, they have the capacity for great destruction. When only a single target is left out of the four, that target will assume the consciousness of the other three targets and continuously attack with most of the powerful spells available to the four targets as a whole. The front target points to the front-most and largest creature, that of the muscular man with the red horns and the painted face. This creature is the only one out of the four targets without a specific nature, and since it is the one most fond of using physical attacks including !Vacuum Wave, I have dubbed it (Vacuum). It will use physical attacks only normally until it dies or is the only one left, but I'll talk about Neo Exdeath's desperation attack after discussing all four parts. (Vacuum) is vulnerable to Slow and Darkness mainly (Stop doesn't last long, Silence doesn't hinder him); Slow is best set with Slow Cannon from !Combine; Darkness is best set with the unblockable Dark Sigh (Eye Drops + Dragon Fang). After a successful Dark Spark spell, it'll becomes vulnerable to Level 5 Death as well; but getting Dark Spark to work on a level 81 target with 76% Magic Evasion is nigh-undoable. Behind (Vacuum) is (Dragon); the pointer here indicates the snarling red demon's face on a coiled body. This creature is the one responsible for the lines "The laws of the universe mean nothing!" and the Grand Cross attack. Grand Cross inflicts one out of 18 effects: it can inflict Death, Petrify, Toad, Mini, Poison, Zombie, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow, Doom, Sap or reduce a target's HP down to a single digit (but not when the target is Heavy). Stop has a twice as big a chance of being set as any of the other 16 effects. The Ribbon stops most of the more dangerous ones, including Death, Petrify, Toad and Berserk; there's still plenty of nasty stuff to be set. If Grand Cross fails to set a randomly select status ailment, it won't try to set something else; you'll often see Grand Cross do nothing on characters sufficiently protected by Ribbons or Genji gear. Besides Grand Cross

(Dragon) may also use Dispel very rarely as well as Meteor, which just sucks. Meteor doesn't make an appearance before (Dragon) is brought down to 15000 HP or below though. The Dragon's Whisker, Dragon Lance and !Combine's Dragon Cannon are all quite powerful versus this specific target, as is the Apollo's Harp. Far in the back row, hiding below where the marker indicates a human skeleton, is (Human), the spellcaster of the four. Whenever a powerful spell is seen onscreen, you have this guy to blame for it. It may use any of the powerful spells from !Black, !White and !Blue, but also Delta Attack to set Petrify; where all other monsters needed two other casters to perform this thing, (Human) can do it whenever it isn't alone, regardless of surviving allies. (Human) is quite notorious for being NOT Heavy, opening it up to all kinds of silly shenanigans. !Flirt, !Iainuki, Odin's Zantetsuken, Antilixir, it all works (provided it gets past the impressive Magic Evasion). Odin won't normally use Zantetsuken since there are other, Heavy targets on the field; from the Magic Lamp though, he will. Odin will appear to affect the entire thing, but the remaining three targets will pull Neo Exdeath back together. Another especially humorous attack here is Banish, which may work; you will, while fighting in the Interdimensional Rift, throw a part of a solid behemoth of creatures into the Rift. It makes no sense! Anyway, Odin from the Magic Lamp is really the only unblockable attack that destroys non-Heavy targets you have; Doom from !Blue or !Condemn will put an unblockable timer there. Sure, it'll take a while, but it WILL kill. And hey... a use for !Predict of all things! (Magic Beast) is the last and most dangerous of the four targets, as this is the one that can use Almagest. The pointer here leads to an undead ram-like creature, grinning like an idiot. Almagest is a multi-target Holy-elemental attack that also sets Sap; it will deal around 1800 damage to all characters, assuming no Shell status or them blocking the attack with an Aegis Shield. This is by far the most powerful attack Neo Exdeath has; take care with it. Since it's a Magic Beast, the Artemis Bow and the Beast Killer Whip deal double damage, but that's a triviality; (Magic Beast) is vulnerable to the Petrify status ailment! This means that it can be taken out of the fight in a single attack, but setting Petrify is, as always, tricky business when the target has such a high level and Magic Evasion. Catoblepas is more accurate than Break, but master is always application of Break Spellblade effects, then sticking the affected blade into the smiling creature's gullet. At some point, you will have reduced these four targets down to a single target. Out of murderous desperation, Neo Exdeath will use this target as a conduit for all its power; all AI scripts for all four targets are the same when it's alone. It will take two actions on each turn, and each can be a Comet or Meteor spell, Attack or !Vacuum Wave, a Maelstrom attack or Almagest. Luckily he'll always use Maelstrom as a second attack out of two turns. So, destroy destruction itself! (Magic Beast) must be the first to go, since

Almagest is so dangerous. Apply Break to your blade, then swing it; Catoblepas and Break spells will have a chance of hitting if you lack !Spellblade. Then, destroy (Human) with Odin, an Antilixir (Elixir + Dark Matter) or Doom. If you have !Mix, (Eye Drops + Dragon Fang) Dark Sigh helps against (Vacuum); if you don't have it, don't bother. Properly gimped, it is time to inflict damage upon the creature. Since Neo Exdeath becomes so much more frightening once it only has a single target left, it is best to divide the damage across (Dragon) and (Vacuum) evenly; MT attacks are best. Slow Cannon can help in reducing the amount of attacks coming your way; Slowga has a lesser chance of hitting but is an acceptable substitute. If your team is mainly geared towards single-target attacks or is, due to !Rapid Fire and Meteor spells, not really suitable to aim its violence, (Dragon) is much more dangerous than (Vacuum) so that evil red unicorn must die first. The fight with Neo Exdeath can definitely one of the toughest fights this game has to offer, but since you have so much time to prepare you should be wellguarded, buffed left and right and ultimately suited to destroy the bane of all existence. From two Goblins to this monstrosity, Wind's Quest has brought Bartz far... When the gruesome battle is over, you are free to watch the cutscenes. If any of the character was Dead, Petrified or a Zombie at the end of the fight, they will lack the strength to left the Void by themselves, and they will be absent from the period of time narrated by whoever is the narrator. Krile will be the narrator when everbody made it out alive, Bartz will be the narrator if any one of the girls has fallen, and Lenna will be the narrator when Bartz was left behind. Faris is almost never the narrator, likely because she can neither read nor write. Yar!

Ygg d r a s i l What miracle is this? This giant tree. It stands ten thousand feet high But doesn't reach the ground. Still it stands. Its roots must hold the sky.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.53.1 The Undeathables; Famed Mimic Gogo ********************************** Opponents: Famed Mimic Gogo Miscellaneous items: Gold Hairpin (rare Famed Mimic Gogo steal) Between what once was the very end of the game and all the bonus material, I would like to take a minute to tell you about the four creatures so difficult to defeat, they are simply harder than Neo Exdeath. Omega and Shinryu are the easier of the four, while Magic Pot and Famed Mimic Gogo were simply never created to be defeated in the realm of combat. Strangely, it seems that the game designers adhered to the concept that not all problems can be solved through violence. This, as I'll demonstrate, is an urban myth. In Carwen, some cross-dressing dude fled from your gaze after transforming into YOU. That ain't cool. Normal people would have followed him earlier, would have done nothing for a while, then got the Mime shard and continued playing. Normal people, who probably have loads of friends, play an instrument, got a special someone. BUT WE'RE NOT NORMAL PEOPLE. THIS THING WILL DIE NOW BECAUSE WE'RE SPECIAL. [GOGO-LINK] Famed Mimic Gogo Level: 77, HP: 47714, MP: 60000 Defense: 30, Magic Defense: 20 Evasion: 30%, Magic Evasion: 99% Steal: Gold Hairpin (rare), Leather Armor (common) Win: Tiger Mask (rare) Nullifies: Water Creature: Humanoid, Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Silence, Slow Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Strong Fight, Holy, Flare, Meteor, Maelstrom, Ice Storm, Aqua Breath, Frost

Famed Mimic Gogo, for all his outlandish attire and speech, is one of the most difficult opponents in the game. If you provoke him with a physical attack (including !Steal), he may either counter with a normal physical, !Critical Attack or Strong Fight, which will kill a character. If you use a spell on him, even if it is beneficial, he will counter with either a Holy, Flare or Meteor spell, which are all very powerful. If you deal 14714 damage to him and survive to see it, he will become strongly agitated. "You uncultured boors! Know you nothing of an artist's soul? Cut! Cut! Stop TRYING to mimic! Start over, recenter, and begin!" Then, he will cast Meteor thrice in a row and kill you with powerful attacks. You are not equipped to handle this fight at all right now, so this is a Game Over for you. There is another thing to consider, and that is the fact that this fight is bugged. When Gogo starts the Uncultured Boors speech, he'll lapse into saying that and cast Meteor, which is good. Well, not good, but that's the way it was meant to be. Then, he'll say it again! And cast another Meteor. Then a third Meteor, will all kinds of useless speech at the end that's not meant to be there: Dragged into another dimension! Odin: All right, that's far enough! Turning to stone... Can't escape! Countdown to Pestilence...4 KO'd! Countdown to Eruption...5 KO'd! Level halved! KO'd! Next two turns are 'normal' in that they do what they're meant to do: a consecutive Maelstrom, Ice Storm and Aqua Breath combo, followed that next turn by a consecutive Frost, Ice Storm and Aqua Breath combo. This sounds nasty, but you need to realize that by this point you have either killed Famed Mimic Gogo already or have failed. After these attacks, FMG will try another Meteor, but it'll be followed by all the garbled text. Loop from there. See, the trick here is to defeat Famed Mimic Gogo really quickly and brutally. The fatal commands must have been given to the character and unstoppable in nature when you do actually see the 'uncultured boors' speech in the first place. Options to kill the Famed Mimic include: - Get a single character with !Rapid Fire, !Spellblade 6 and two of your most powerful enchantable blades in the game. Enter the fight and start buffing that character with Dragon Potions (Mix a Potion with a Dragon Fang) to boost

his level. If you deal around 6000 damage per strike with a Flared Up Rapid Fire Attack, you got the fiend. - Use only attacks that circumvent counters! This is taking advantage of bugs, but if it works for you, it works for you. 3 Reflected character + one character to absorb, then cast the appropriate spell (Firaga or Blizzaga) on yourself. Chaos Cannon (Combine Blitzshot with Dark Matter) also doesn't provoke counters. - Mix a Dragon Kiss (Dragon Fang + Maiden's Kiss) to set the Dragon nature to Famed Mimic Gogo. Now, have five Dragon Lances and use !Jump with them. At least one will have to Dual-Wield. The Dragon Lance will deal 9999 a hit, killing Famed Mimic Gogo on the fifth one. If you really have no shame, Famed Mimic Gogo has a rare Gold Hairpin; if you must have it, you can cast Return until you get it; note that the Return spell doesn't Return your drown timer. If you win, you get the Mime Job! [MIME-LINK] ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.53.2 The Undeathables; Magic Pot ********************************** Opponents: Ankheg (#184), Ammonite (#185), Landcrawler (#186), Lemure (#187), Partenhope (#188), Cherie (#189), Kuza Beast (x) (-), Soul Cannon (x) (-), Liquid Flame (x) (-), Bandercoeurl (x) (-), Magic Pot (#190) Miscellaneous items: Defender (rare Landcrawler steal), Reflect Ring (common Lemure steal, rare Parthenope drop), Ribbon (rare Lemure steal), Rainbow Suit (common Parthenope steal), Coral Ring (rare Parthenope steal), Hermes Sandals (rare Cherie drop), Red Slippers (common Cherie steal), Elven Cape (rare Cherie steal), Protect Ring (rare Soul Cannon (x) steal) Blue spells: 1000 Needles, Pond's Chorus, Roulette, Flash, Aeroga, Lilliputian Lyric, Time Slip, ??? The above block of text is identical to the one used for the Phoenix Tower on your first run; obviously most os the container contents have likely been taken by this point. Only a single Phoenix Down or Aevis Killer is hidden beneath that most impish of encounters, the Magic Pot. Truly a crazy, crazy gimmick fight, it is not even meant to give you a Game Over if you piss it off (as was

the case with the Famed Mimic). Attacking the Magic Urn is like bashing your head against a wall, made of titanium, itself backed up by other walls made of titanium that are cheering it on not to give up. Underwater. Well, you get the idea. But have no fear, I'll help you. I'm from the Netherlands, I know everything there is to know about Magic Pot *drumroll* If you left one alone, now's the time to kill it, for it CAN be done! Search out the Black Chocobo you tamed, and fly it to the forests to the east of the great desert between North Mountain and the Phoenix Tower. Descend the Chocobo, walk over to the Phoenix Tower, and start climbing to the vase you left the Magic Pot in. [POT-LINK] Magic Pot Level: 91, HP: 65255, MP: 50000 Defense: 255, Magic Defense: 255 Evasion: 95%, Magic Evasion: 99% Steal: Hi-Potion (rare) Win: Elixir (rare) Status: Protect, Shell Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: (full heal) Here's the thing. The battle starts with Mute set, so !Black, !White, !Time, !Blue (unlike in normal Mute, where Blue spells still work), !Sing and !Spellblade are out. Things that do work are !Condemn, !Predict, spells cast by using an item (such as Masamune's Haste or Fire Rod's Firaga), !Call, the Magic Lamp and all Bells; as far as the Diamond Bell and Tinklebell go, that's definitely an inconsistency. Apollo's Harp also works. Magic Pot uses (full heal) every turn; it shares an animation with the Elixir, and fully heals the Magic Pot back to 65255 HP. Magic Pot has ridiculous Defense, Magic Defense, perfect Evasion and Magic Evasion, a level of 91 and is weak to no elements or status ailments. It is the perfect roadblock of a battle. Mute is set, so the characters can't speak, sing or chant; but if nothing can come out, stuff can still go in! Increasing the level of a single character is the key to Magic Pot's defeat. !Sing can't be used, so Hero's Rhyme is out; !Mix Potions or Hi-Potions with a Dragon Fang to create a brew called Dragon Power, which increases the character's level by 20. With a one or two Dual-Wield !Rapid Fire attacks between its turns, this thing must go down. Since both Slow and Haste can be set during the battle, you can get in more

than just a single attack. Now, for the specifics! Obviously, Dual-Wield !Rapid Fire is a must. !Rapid Fire allows us to always hit and pierce Defense. Sadly, Protect is still up, and we can't cast Dispel to remove it. Using the Judgment Staff as an item gets the Job done, and the Wonder Wand can even cast Dispel if you don't have a Judgment Staff and are reluctant to fight Istory Lythos creatures for one. With Protect down, it's time to start buffing. Keep creating Dragon Power and stack them up on your designated kill machine. Using the Masamune in-battle lets you set Haste to the character. You can also set Slow to the Magic Pot; while theoretically you could, dunno, Release a Gloom Widow to use a Web attack, the chances it'll hit are astronomically small. No, you'll want to !Combine some gunpowder with a Turtle Shell for a clean 75% shot at setting Slow. With Magic Pot Slowed and unProtected, you're pretty much done; use that one or two !Rapid Fire and you're done! An alternate strategy has you set the Dragon nature through Dragon Kiss and have your superwarrior wield two Dragon Lances or a Dragon Lance and a Dragon's Whisker. Every connecting attack with these weapons will deal twice as much damage; you'll hardly need to boost your level if you have these weapons preset. Apollo's Harp and Dragon Cannon deal some damage if you're short on it, but you shouldn't be. Congratulations are in order; you've accomplished nothing you couldn't have done by simply feeding the guy. It's like you beat up the homeless man that always hangs around the mall just so you can tell your friends you could, like, totally do it. Man, you're so punk, Avril Lavigne called me to get her your number. She wants to make out with you for hours and hours. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.53.3 The Undeathables; Omega ********************************** Opponents: Drippy (#100), Lycaon (#101), Poison Eagle (#103), Zombie Dragon (#104), Metamorph (#114), Orukat (#211), Great Dragon (#212), Achelon (#213), Golem (#271), Omega (#311) Miscellaneous items: Dark Matter (common Orukat steal), Dragon Fang (common Great Dragon steal, rare Great Dragon drop), Turtle Shell (common Achelon steal), Staff of Light (rare Metamorph drop), Omega Medal (guaranteed Omega drop) Summon spells: Golem

Blue spells: Flame Thrower, Flash, Vampire, Magic Hammer "The roiling skies let loose a vile beast without a soul; Omega was its name." - Thousand-year-old book Omega is not a coincidental weapon of mass destruction; it is as orchestrated one. Once, we learned that Galuf came from an 'alien' planet; now we know that the two worlds were one and there is not such thing as alien. Except for the two creatures that came here from above, the dread machine Omega and the dragon Shinryu. When the warriors wielding the Twelve Legendary Weapons defeated Enuo, they were unable to destroy this eldritch machine. But we have a fair shot, because not only is Omega a walking atom bomb spelling death for all that it encounters, it is also lonely at night. [OMEGA-LINK] Omega Level: 119, HP: 55530, MP: 60700 Defense: 190, Magic Defense: 150 Evasion: 95%, Magic Evasion: 90% Win: Omega Medal (always) Absorbs: Fire, Ice, Poison, Holy, Earth, Wind, Water Weakness: Lightning Status: Reflect, Shell, Stop (expires) Creature: Heavy Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Slow, Stop Can't Evade: Song Attacks: Flame Thrower, Atomic Ray, Delta Attack, Blaster, Rainbow Wind, Wave Cannon, Maelstrom, Earthquake, Search, Rocket Punch, Mustard Bomb, Encircle Omega is a murder machine, and it was designed to be very good at it. This is the AI Script Omega was coded with: - 33% chance of either Atomic Ray, Delta Attack or Blaster - Wave Cannon - 33% chance of either Rainbow Wind, Flame Thrower or Atomic Ray - Wave Cannon - No interrupt: 33% chance of either Delta Attack, Blaster or Wave Cannon 33% chance of either Maelstrom, Earthquake or Rainbow Wind - Search (save target until end next turn) - 33% chance of either Rainbow Wind, Flame Thrower or Atomic Ray (on Search target)

- Wave Cannon (loop) Counterattack to all HP damage: - No interrupt: Target: Random target 33% chance of either Rocket Punch, Rocket Punch or Mustard Bomb 33% chance of either Rocket Punch, Rocket Punch or Encircle See what I did there? By directly listing the AI Script, I not only displayed the relevant information in the clearest manner possible, but it also acts as a reminder of Omega's mechanical nature. Form and Fuction baby, form and function. So any attack that deals damage will cause two counter-attacks; Rocket Punch will set Confuse to all characters without protection against the ailment (Lamia's Tiara, Rainbow Suit, Genji Helm, Genji Armor, Bone Mail), Mustard Bomb will kill a character and Encircle will remove a character from the battlefield for the rest of the fight. Search will save its target, and Omega will exclusively deal with this target until the end of its next turn. If Atomic Ray is the next attack, it will only be fired at the Search target; if any counter-attacks are provoked in the meantime, they'll all home in on the Search target. Omega will wait for a small margin of time before starting its onslaught; it'll start with a Stop status that'll quickly expire. But you can re-set it if you want! Omega may be the most powerful creation of all, but it has never known the love of a woman. It KNOWS this. Exploit this weakness in the circuits that make up his heart with Romeo's Ballad, which stops the eldritch machine in its tracks. Despite Omega's stellar level and Magic Evasion, Romeo's Ballad will never miss. Know that the small duration op the Stop status is less than the time it takes for Omega to reach a new turn, and it's also shorter than the time a single Hasted character takes to reach a new turn, so a single Hasted Bard is not enough to keep Omega at bay. Two should do the trick, but Romeo's Ballad overlaps; if you have both Bards sing righter after each other, Omega will still get some turns. You'll have to find a flow in which you can spread out the two timers, but I can't tell you how to do that; you'll have to experience it. Omega's got an inherent Shell up, so even barrier-piercing attacks will deal less damage than you'd expect. Its inherent Reflect barrier stops what probably is anybody's fight tactics when facing this thing; Thundaga spamming. Sappy poetry is all well and good, but it will only delay the thing. We need to destroy it, and that is where !Spellblade comes in. THE solution to the Omega problem is Thundaga Spellblade paired with Dual-Wield !Rapid Fire. Set Thundaga Spellblade effects on the sword, unleash !Rapid Fire, win the battle.

A single character can do this. For maximum potency, equip the Omega Slayer with a Ribbon (protects against Delta Attack), Bone Mail (protects against Blaster's Death) and a Flame Ring (protects against Atomic Ray and Flame Thrower). The other three characters will need to keep Omega busy while your Slayer sets up the Spellblade effect; characters that can Sing Romeo's Ballad and wear Hermes Sandals are a good idea; White Mages can respond quickly with Curaga, Arise and Esuna as well, so take your pick there. When your Slayer is set, unleash !Rapid Fire. You'll kill Omega in a single turn. Good for you! As they say, it is better to have loved and lost then to have never loved at all and be killed in a waterfall cave for no clear reason whatsoever. Above strategy is not the only one; a party draped in Flame Shields (a rare steal from Grenades in the Ruins), Ribbons, Bone Mail and Reflect Rings can withstand most attacks Omega can dish out, and cast Thundaga on the own party in return; White Wind can heal Bone Mail wearers between the Wave Cannon attacks and Rocket Punches that will not Confuse, but will damage. This is a messy, uncertain tactic, but a viable one; Slow Cannon will help out here, as it's the only way of setting Slow to something with a level of 119 and a Magic Evasion as high as Omega's. Carbuncle can help out as well; it reflects Delta Attack, Blaster, Atomic Rays and Search (Search!). Something awesome: if you Reflect Search to itself, it'll attack itself the next turn :p You now receive 50000 Gil, 100 ABP and a Badge! Congratulations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.53.4 The Undeathables; Shinryu ********************************** Opponents: King Behemoth (#221), Crystal Dragon (#222), Necromancer (#223), Gorgimera (#224), Mindflayer (#225), Crystelle (#226), Belphegor (#227), Mover (#228), Shinryu (#312) Container contents: Ragnarok Miscellaneous items: Elixir (common Necrophobe steal, Blood Sword (rare King Behemoth steal), Dragon Lance (rare Crystal Dragon steal), Bone Mail (rare Necromancer steal), Aegis Shield (rare Gorgimera steal), Main Gauche (rare Mindflayer steal), Rising Sun (rare Belphegor steal), Ice Shield (rare Belphegor drop), Dragon's Whisker (rare Shinryu steal), Dragon Seal (guaranteed Shinryu drop) Blue spells:

???, Transfusion, Mind Blast, Flash, Roulette, Mighty Guard, Level 2 Old, Level 3 Flare "The dragon Shinryu came upon (Omega's) heels. Not e'en the legendary weapons twelve were able to subdue these evil beasts. Inside the Rift the demons were interred; so should they stay until forever's end their names to stay unspoken evermore." - Thousand-year-old book Omega paced back and forth inside its cave, either incapable or unwilling to go beyond its prison. But a machine is easily confined, a dragon adapts. Especially God-Kings of dragonkind, those are like wicked smart. So the Ancients, who could not defeat Shinryu, had to put him in a chest. Y'know, to seal him away. It's like a mystical chest, hidden away in the darkest corners of reality. The also put a really good sword in the chest. Some argue that hiding ancient treasures somewhere along with unspeakable evil is a great way to let dumb-ass adventurers actively seek out the treasures, releasing the evil in the process. But what were the Ancients to do? Just let the sword lying around in some treasure chest NOT guarded by a God-King of Dragons? That's not how the Ancients roll. [SHINRYU-LINK] Shinryu Level: 97, HP: 55500, MP: 51000 Defense: 60, Magic Defense: 60 Evasion: 20%, Magic Evasion: 95% Steal: Dragon's Whisker (rare), Dragon Fang (common) Win: Dragon Crest (always) Absorbs: Holy Creature: Heavy, Dragon Specialty: !Critical Specialty Effect: None Vulnerable to: Darkness, Berserk, Silence, Slow Attacks: Attack, Roulette, Level 2 Old, Level 3 Flare, Mighty Guard, Ice Storm, Atomic Ray, Lightning, Maelstrom, Demon Eye, Poison Breath, Tidal Wave, Zombie Breath Shinryu starts his battles off with a Tidal Wave of enormous magnitude; it deals over 8000 damage. That means that every character not equipped with a Coral Ring or in a stroke of luck protected by an Aegis Shield (33 % chance) is now dead. Tidal Wave - or any other Water-elemental attack - will not make an appearance for the rest of the battle, so even though you'll want at least two characters with a Coral Ring, you don't need to have them across the board; as long as you're prepared to fully revive any character not protected at the start of the battle. !Summon 5, !White 6 and !Mix grants access to full HP recovery.

Important note: Shinryu will have to get a turn before it can use Tidal Wave; a character with a Masamune or sufficient Agility and the Hermes Sandals can outspeed the God-King of Dragons to do stuff like set Berserk before this wave comes crashing down. More on Berserk later. The first turn can mean either Maelstrom, Attack or Roulette. Roulette may kill a character; Maelstrom can be very dangerous; Shinryu's high level means Maelstrom is quite accurate and will often hit. Curaga is great way of countering its effects; Arise can counter Roulette. The next turn means either Ice Storm, Atomic Ray or Lightning. Lightning ain't too bad, it's just 25 % maximum HP damage. Those equipped with Coral Rings will take double damage though; watch out for that. Atomic Ray and Ice Storm are both really powerful. Atomic Ray will be nullified by Coral Ring characters, but Ice Storm will kill everybody; Ice Shields can protect against this, as can Resist Ice potions (Mix a Phoenix Down with some Antidote) or Dragon Shielding (Mix a Dragon Fang with an Ether); Dragon Shielding also helps against any Atomic Ray and Lightning attacks Shinryu may unleash at a later instance. If you're still alive by this point, Shinryu'll get serious. Third turn is a double-turn; first one is either Maelstrom, Attack or Roulette like it's first turn, then either Mighty Guard, Level 2 Old or Level 3 Flare. Level 3 Flare either kills or does nothing; Mighty Guard is a nuisance which you can Dispel with the spell or the Judgment Staff. The fourth turn is another double-turn, and the last unique one before Shinryu loops its AI script. First turn is a 66% shot at Attack or Evil Eye which sets Stone to a single character, then either 66% Attack or Poison Breath which deals Poison-elemental damage to all; compared to stuff like Ice Storm, it's not as nasty, this meaning it doesn't kill you outright. After this fourth turn, e.a. the second double-turn, it doesn't use Tidal Wave but just picks an attack out of the first turn again. When Shinryu hits 20000 HP, it'll let loose with a one-time Zombie Breath attack. So, y'know, watch out for that 'cause it kills you and turns you into Zombies. There are two strategies. You can either Berserk Shinryu; in its rage, it'll be a far easier target and can either be completely nullified or just be outmuscled. The Berserk spell is a simply infallible way to enrage the dragon; calling its father a 'fat, flatulent git' is not quite as effective but twice as fun. Another strategy is pile up enough super-effective damage quick enough that Shinryu is dead before he realizes what's going on. Both are popular and effective, so you can take your pick. Setting Berserk to Shinryu is easy, as the White Berserk is spell is

unblockable and it lasts forever. The Power Staff can duplicate its effects, as can the !Mix outcome Bacchus' Cider (Holy Water + Turtle Shell). Now, Shinryu will unleash a simple physical attack each turn; when it lands, it will kill a character. If the character charged with setting Berserk is given the Masamune as a weapon, he or she can move before the Tidal Wave. Golem and Mirage Vests can combine to grant a lot of missing physicals even before Evasion kicks in. With !Mix, you can set Darkness with a Dark Sigh (Eye Drops + Dragon Fang), it'll never miss. Going in with three character who are near-death and a character with !Guard gives you immunity as well. You could even just keep up with Shinryu's death count and revive any character that falls. Basically, Shinryu was dead in the water as soon as Berserk was set; the rest is just being fancy about it. If you want to let Shinryu go about its business like normal, you'll need to be more careful. Shinryu is a Dragon; an archaic strategy would have you acquire six Dragon Lances from assorted Crystal Dragons right here in the Void, set Dual-Wield to three Dragoons and !Jump for joy. This is possible, but not necessary. A character with the Quick spell (!Time 6) and Apollo's Harp can deal comparable damage, since Apollo's Harp is so effective against dragons. Giving a Quick spell to a Dragoon with a Dragon Lance is also a great idea; you'll give the Dragoon two !Jump attacks in the time-pocket you create with Quick, so you'll get the same result without having character disappear from the battlefield, the Dragoon will still have a Shield, you'll only need a single Dragon Lance for that character and you're not giving Shinryu time to utterly annihilate you, as he so often does. So with but a single Dragon Lance, you already got four extremely powerful hits. Dualcasting Flare, Meteo or Bahamut is also as effective as usual, since Shinryu lacks a Shell status (unless he gets Mighty Guard up). With enough Agility and inherent Haste status, you can have all characters act before Tidal Wave appears; give Quick to all, and you can take out Shinryu no problem without Coral Rings at all. A risky venture, but hey, that's us. Danger is our middle name. You get a Dragon Seal for your trouble, and a Ragnarok. Following this walkthrough, you could've stolen Ragnarok swords from Neo Exdeath; this is your most likely source, though. It's not as good as a fully-powerd Brave Blade, but doesn't lock you into a no-run game. The Dragon Seal is useless. Hooray! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.54.1 The Sealed Temple; Unlocking ********************************** Opponents: Nutkin (#6), Blue Dragon (#132), Red Dragon (#133), Yellow Dragon (#134),

Mecha Head (#150), Chrono Controller (#163), Flaremancer (#164), Vilia (#199), Rukh (#201), Sea Devil (#202), Stingray (#203), Grenade (#204), Level Checker (#207), Dragon Aevis (#215), Sword Dancer (#216), Death Claw (#217), Fury (#218), Yojimbo (#219), Iron Giant (#220), Gorgimera (#224), Mindflayer (#225), Crystelle (#226), Belphegor (#227), Mover (#228), Mini Satana (#229), Assassin (#230), Soul Eater (#231), Behemoth (#232), Dark Elemental (F) (#233), Dark Elemental (I) (#234), Dark Elemental (L) (#235), Exoray (#236), Dinozombie (#239), Gil Turtle (#282) Container contents: Blastshot x 3, Buckshot, Blitzshot x 2, Cottage, Dark Matter x 2, Elixir x 2, Ether, Fuma Shuriken, Iron Draft, Mace of Zeus, Power Drink, Turtle Shell, Vishnu Vest Miscellaneous items: Blitz Whip (common Flaremancer steal), Murasame (rare Rukh steal), Defender (rare Sea Devil steal), Rune Blade (rare Stingray steal), Dragon's Whisker (rare Stingray drop), Flame Shield (rare Grenade steal), Artemis Bow (rare Dragon Aevis steal), Enhancer (rare Sword Dancer steal), Thor Hammer (rare Death Claw steal), Cursed Ring (rare Fury steal), Reflect Ring (common Fury steal), Murakumo (rare Yojimbo steal), Aegis Shield (rare Gorgimera steal), Main Gauche (rare Mindflayer steal), Rising Sun (rare Belphegor steal), Ice Shield (rare Belphegor drop), Grand Helm (guaranteed Gil Turtle drop) Blue spells: Doom, Roulette, Level 5 Death, Level 4 Graviga, Level 2 Old, Level 3 Flare, Pond's Chorus, Lilliputian Lyric, Death Claw, Aeroga, Flame Thrower, Mind Blast, Mighty Guard, Self-Destruct Hey, kid. Wanna go do some GBA-only bonus content? It's way hard. As far as items go, I find four Hermes Sandals a must for random encounters. I would highly recommend using four characters equipped with these Hasteinducing winged boots; they give inherent Haste and make you look most moxious. There will be a boss that loves to spam Zombie all up in your face; having four Angel Rings will be a tremendous help in preventing those Zombie Powder attacks from having any effect. Since that time-tested combo of !Spellblade and !Rapid Fire will be called upon a few times, having at least two out of the Excalibur, 150 Battle Power Brave Blade and a Ragnarok will be a blessing as it'll give your !Rapid Fire user of choice two very strong weapons to !Spellblade !Rapid Fire with. As far as abilities go, things are more difficult. Having Monk/Thief/Oracle mastered for all four will help everybody survive hits like a champ, move as fast as they can and perform wizardry with utmost effect. Read Ahead, the Oracle support ability that sharply reduces random encounter rate will also be a blessing. You'll run mad, MAD, if you don't have it. Monster encounter rate

is similair to what you've seen so far, but the battles take longer to win so it becomes a big big hassle to move from one side of the room to the next. Next up, buffs are very important. Mighty Guard is a must, Hastega is a must, Golem and Carbuncle are a must. Have all of these things. A good strategy would be to have a single dual Knightsword Freelancer with !Rapid Fire and !Spellblade, a single dual Katana Freelancer with !Blue, !Combine or !Mix (take your pick) and two Mimes with !Dualcast and two magic spelllists of your choice. Stick a Ribbon on the Freelancers, Gold Hairpins on your Mimics. You'll get four turns before the enemy even acts; very few enemies can withstand a focused !Rapid Fire, Zantetsuken or dual Syldra (whatever applies). Ready? Super-ready? Travel to the new boiling Greater Sea Trench. That's your pathway to all that juicy GBA-only content! You picked up the three new Jobs here earlier, but couldn't open the other two doors at that time. With the defeat of Neo Exdeath, it seems nothing really changed. The final fight with Exdeath is located in a temporal mini-plane that stands outside of reality as we know it. He destroys towns, and you can still return to them; you kill his ass, he's still alive. But this pathway was still opened! Push the skeleton button to move the entire cave to a new, unknown, location. You can no longer move to the airshupmarine, but you can enter the door to the left. The middle door is still sealed by the mysterious power of the programmers not wanting you to go there. It's a Save Point and then it's you entering the Sealed Temple. Sealed Temple: 35 % Sword Dancer, Fury, Death Claw 35 % Sword Dancer x 2, Fury 23 % Grenade x 5 6 % Dragon Aevis x 2 The Sealed Temple starts off light with a few monsters you already know. Don't cast spells on Grenades unless they're fatal (Zantetsuken works), Furies are Heavy but are weak to Water, like the Death Claws. There are three ways into the Sealed Temple. The big heavy doors are locked. The Sealed Temple, in a shocking turn of events, is actually sealed. We'll spend the rest of this chapter working towards opening those doors, no kidding. We'll enter the left door first to obtain some treasure, then return to this place. Walk down and enter the left door to enter the "Dungeon". Sealed Temple - Dungeon: 35 % Sword Dancer, Fury, Death Claw

35 % Dragon Aevis x 2 23 % Red Dragon, Yellow Dragon 6 % Mini Satana You'll encounter more Dragon Aevis' here (which are vulnerable to Petrify and weak to Water-elemental attacks), encounter some old elemental dragons and very rarely encounter your first new enemy, the Mini Satana. This is one of the Satanas that lives in the Sealed Temple. It smells a little worse than your average Satana, unless all of your Satanas are Mini Satanas, in which case it smells exactly as bad as your average Satana. Mini Satanas will either attack physically or cast the Reflect spell on themselves. Once Reflect is set, they'll start casting Thundaga, Sleep and Confuse spells on themselves, which obviously bounce off onto you. When Thundaga hits, it'll deal truly massive amounts of damage (neighbourhood of 3000) and likely kill a character. They're Heavy and protected against all relevant status ailments including Death and Petrify, so you'll just have to duke it out. They've got high Evasion, Magic Evasion, and Magic Defense, but Defense is 0 so !Aim with any strong weapon is a great way of picking them off. The Artemis Bow deals critical damage. Since Mini Satana is alone right now, !Rapid Fire is a good way of dealing with them. !Control also works wonders, but a Hypno Crown takes the place of a Ribbon so you decide if that's for you. There are hidden passages in the Dungeon, so a Thief or Freelancer/Mime who once mastered Thief will be a great help. Starting at the entrance, simply walk to your right to find your first hidden passage. Enter and follow it to find a chest containing a Blastshot. You can continue to your left through another hidden passage to a chest containing a Buckshot. Having found these two marvelous treasures, simply return to the entrance of the Dungeon and leave this place. You can take a quick look, if you want to explore the Dungeon still, at the Archeodemon locked in the middle jail. We'll have to deal with him later. You just left the Dungeon and are back at the top of the Sealed Temple. Since the middle door is still closed, open the right one. You now find yourself in the "Corridor". Sealed Temple - Corridor: 35 % Sword Dancer x 2 35 % Grenade x 5 23 % Blue Dragon, Yellow Dragon 6 % Assassin, Assassin (Image) You need to know some stuff about these Assassin dudes. When you run into one, there's just a single monster. This Assassin knows how to use !Yaguu's Strike, which sets Sap. It has 10000 HP. When you kill it, it'll summon an

Assassin (Image). You won't see anything change on-screen, though. This new Assassin will use !Wring instead, which sets Darkness and Poison (or Paralyze if the target is protected from both Darkness and Poison). Assassin (Image) is identical to the normal Assassin except for the fact it will counter !Attack with the Image attack 66% of the time where the original Assassin will only do so 33% of the time. !Rapid Fire, especially with a Man-Eater, will quickly dispatch the blue-robed ninja killer. Walk down the hallway in the Corridor. When you get the option to go down south, ignore it; there are two warp points there to take you to a new location, but we'll get there later at a more opportune time. Continue to the left to find the entrance to the Hall of Souls. Ruined Shrine - Hall of Souls: 35 % Mini Satana, Flaremancer x 2 35 % Mini Satana, Fury x 2 23 % Mini Satana x 2 6 % Dark Elemental (F), Dark Elemental (I), Dark Elemental (L) The Hall of Souls is overrun by new enemies; Mini Satanas appear almost always, while the rare encounter is filled with Dark Elementals. You may want to abandon !Rapid Fire for more focused attacks; the Artemis Bow works well with !Aim on these flying fiends. The Flaremancers were previously found in the Black Tower, where physical attacks were forbidden. They'll still murder you when you use anything but a magical attack; !Summon works really well in killing Flaremancers with possibly Reflected Mini Satanas on the field. I highly recommend Reflect Rings equipped across all four characters, as all encounters here will use magical attacks. There are three different kinds of Dark Elementals. All have 5500 HP, Heavy nature and all resist all relevant status ailments including Death and Petrify. All three will randomly use Aeroga on a single target and White Wind to heal all Dark Elementals. There's a (F) one that is weak to Fire, will randomly use Firaga and absorbs Ice and Lightning. There's an (I) one that will use Blizzaga, is weak to Ice and absorbs Fire and Lightning, and there's a (L) one that will randomly use Thundaga, is weak to Lightning and will absorb Fire and Ice. If you strike a Dark Elemental with an elemental attack (Fire, Ice or Lightning only) that they aren't weak to, they'll counter with a corresponding level 5 Black spell (so Dark Elemental (F) counters Ramuh with a Thundaga spell, etc.). If you've got Reflect Rings on, they can't really hurt you. You can check their weakness with Libra, !Analyze or just by seeing what spells they cast. They got no Magic Defense at all, so Syldra just destroys them. You are in the Hall of Souls! Walk down a bit to see a hidden passage to your left. If you don't got the goods to see one, get a Thief. Follow this hidden passage until you're in a normally visible corridor again. If you go

up, you'll just walk into a pitfall eventually, so go down and collect the treasures; two Blitzshot items. You can't get anywhere else without falling down a pitfall, so retrace your steps through the hidden passage until you're at the start of the hidden passage again. Walk down a bit 'til your in the middle of the cross intersection. Walk to the right to see another hidden passage. It leads to two chests with two Blastshot items. Treasure here really blows so far, I'm sorry. Anyway, it's time to walk back to the intersection and walk south this time. We're leaving this Hall of Souls into... the Hall of Doubt. Ruined Shrine - Hall of Doubt: 35 % Mini Satana x 2, Chrono Controller 35 % Dark Elemental (F), Dark Elemental (I), Dark Elemental (L) 23 % Dark Elemental (I), Dark Elemental (L), Dark Elemental (F) 6 % Dark Elemental (L), Dark Elemental (F), Dark Elemental (I) Dark Elementals all over the freaking place. Reflect Rings are a must, and summon Syldra whenever you want to. You are now in a cave-like area called the Hall of Doubt. Which way to go? Choices, choices. Going to the right will have you meet a dead end, so go to the left. You come across an Ether, and then a skull button! Press it to visibly move the rock that impeded your progress. Go back to the entrance and walk to the right, past the rock you moved. Walk up to the other skull button and pass it on the right side to find a chest with... a Mace of Zeus. A new weapon! The Mace of Zeus looks like a Staff, but damages like a Flail. You only equip Staves if you want to boost Holy with the Sage's Staff, and the Mace of Zeus doesn't do that. It has no purpose at all, sadly. Return to the second skull button and push it to move the big rock back to its previous location. You're cut off from the entrance now, but you can get to another chest with some Dark Matter. Awesome. Get back to the second skull switch. You can ignore it, since we'll just pass it on the left side to find a hole in the ground. Get in there! You are now in the Hall of Watchmen. Ruined Shrine - Hall of Watchmen: 35 % Mecha Head, Level Checker x 2 35 % Mecha Head x 2, Level Checker 23 % Mindflayer x 3 6 % Exoray x 5 Those Mecha Heads aren't Heavy, so Zantetsuken them in pieces, as with those Level Checkers. Mindflayers still suck, but Reflect Rings protect against all of Level Checker's attacks as well as the Mindflayer's Mind Blast and the Firaga attacks of those new enemies here, the Exoray.

Nobody likes Exoray. There are five different types, but they only really differ in their !Specialty Attack. They all got 5500 HP, are Heavy but are not protected from Death and are weak to Fire. Each turn they attack either physically (at which they're really proficient), use their !Specialty (which includes a Paralyze, Poison, Darkness, Aging and Confuse variety) and a Firaga spell, which deals fatal amounts of damage. If you let a single Exoray live and then damage it, it'll re-spawn three destroyed Exoray. Respawned Exoray counter HP damage with a 33% shot at Zombie Powder, which sucks like there's no tomorrow. Especially because you're wearing Reflect Rings, not Angel Rings. Take Exoray out with Firaga spells, !Combine's Flame Cannon (Blitzshot + Flame Scroll) and Flame Scrolls quickly does away with them; for longer battles, Ribbons and Golem help against those pesky !Specialty Attacks. Anyway, Hall of Watchmen is where you are now, and there's no known way back. Going up will take you to an NPC whose pride and joy is all-purpose softener, curing Petrification even beyond a Gold Needle's reach. That'll be really useful exactly never. You should absolutely talk to him, or else a quest won't progress later and you'll have to backtrack. To the right lies a warp point to some place you have no business going to yet, so go to the left, where you'll enter Titan's Grotto. Titan's Grotto - B2: 35 % Behemoth 35 % Behemoth, Yojimbo 23 % Gorgimera x 2 6 % Dinozombie You've only seen King Behemoths so far. While conventional RPG wisdom dictates royal versions are always superior, these 'normal' Behemoths pack a stronger punch. They never do anything but counter any kind of HP damage with either a normal physical attack or the 150% damage !Critical Attack. When you slay them, they cast Meteor. You can circumvent this nasty business with setting either Poison or Sleep. Let the Behemoth snooze with either Time Slip, Sleep Spellblade effects or the Sleep spell, then kill the Behemoth with magical attacks. No counters, no Meteor! That Dinozombie! It's Heavy, Dragon, Undead, immune to everything but weak to Holy-elemental attacks. It may use Bone, Poison Breath and the ever-aweful Zombie Breath, but Zombie Breath only on every third turn. Quickly kill it with the Apollo's Harp, Sage's Staff or repeated Holy spells, it'll go down quickly. You'll want to take those Reflect Rings off now, as they're useless here. !Blue is great here because of Time Slip for the Behemoths and Missile for the Yojimbo and Gorgimera enemies. !Summon works wonders to deal powerful magical damage and to summon Odin on those Gorgimera encounters.

You can really only go one way here until you have the option of going down some stairs. Go there for an Elixir, then go back up and follow the path further into Titan's Grotto B1. Before you go though, make sure to use !Catch on a Behemoth in B2, and then not Release it. You'll need one in a story event; it's like that Kornago Gourd gig back in Quelb, only mandatory for the completion of this dungeon. Speaking of the Kornago Gourd, it'll make Catching the Behemoth much easier. Titan's Grotto - B1: 35 % Iron Giant, Gorgimera 35 % Yojimbo x 2 23 % Iron Giant, Yojimbo 6 % Dinozombie On B1 there are no new enemies, but also no Behemoths. Did you get one? You really should've. You can only go one way, and that's passing the waterfalls towards a chest containing the Vishnu Vest. Vishnu the preserver, great god of the Hindu, bestowed these Clothes with superior Defense and Magic Defense as well as halving Fire-, Ice- and Lightning-elemental damage by 50%. Nice armor, 'tis. We've exhausted all options on this side of the Hall of Watchmen. Let's get to that warp point! Travel back through Titan's Grotto and cross the Hall of Watchmen towards the warp point. Choose to warp. Welcome to the River of Souls. It's eh... I don't really know why there is a river of souls. Souls aren't made of water. River of Souls - B1: 35 % Soul Eater 35 % Soul Eater x 2, Skull Eater x 2, Nutkin x 2 23 % Soul Eater, Skull Eater x 5 6 % Nutkin, Soul Eater x 4 River of Souls - B2: 35 % Rukh 35 % Belphegor, Crystelle x 2 23 % Vilia 6 % Mover x 3 River of Souls - B3: 35 % Sea Devil, Rukh 35 % Belphegor x 2, Crystelle 23 % Stingray 6 % Mover x 3 There were squirrels that ate nuts, okay. Then there were squirrels that ate skulls. Nasty, but doable. Now, they eat souls. The blue ones eat souls. They're harder than the other two obviously. They've got 7000 HP and there's

no way to one-shot them, though you can put them to Sleep. They'll attack physically with quite some force and they may use Drain, Osmose and Death Claw. Their Specialty Attack !Incisor sets Confuse, so watch out for that. Skull Eaters fall quickly to stuff like Mind Blast, Bio, 1000 Needles, anything that pierces Magic Defense mostly. Ninja Scrolls and !Combine attacks kill them right quickly, leaving Soul Eaters at the mercy of your !Rapid Fire barrage. !Control is real useful in this dungeon as Rukh, Soul Eater, Vilia and Stingray are all powerful monsters that appear by themselves. Enemies here aren't particulary dangerous. It's the season for Hermes Sandals! You are warped near the entrance to the River of Souls; going up will take you to the Sealed Temple's "Dungeon" area, but we don't want to go there. Let's take a look at the River of Souls. Walking into the water will have you taken away by the current to another location, so it's important to know which way you're going. I'm here for that. Ignore the first staircase into the water and walk to the left. Take the second staircase into the water, and you'll be swept onto another platform. To the far right (ignore the option below) you'll see a chest with an Iron Draft. Go back to the split and go down below; there's a staircase here. Take it and the water'll take you to another chest with a Power Drink. We're stuck on this platform and there's no staircase, so drop down the hole to B2. To the left is another chest, this one containing a Dark Matter. Go down the staircase here; the water'll take you to a new platform. A bit to the left is a new chest with a Turtle Shell (a lot of reagents in this dungeon!) Walk up 'til you see a path to your right. Ignore it, and go to the left, up and around the water until you see four staircases here. Which one, which one? The second one from the left is the one you want, as it'll take you to the lone island in the middle with the Elixir chest. Get it, walk down the staircase and you'll find yourself on a platform to the right. Go up and arch to the right to find your path blocked by a purple turtle. Cast Float on the team, then face it. Gil Turtle Level: 57, HP: 40000, MP: 1000 Defense: 50, Magic Defense: 60 Evasion: 50%, Magic Evasion: 60% Steal: Turtle Shell (rare) Drop: Grand Helm (always) Absorbs: Water, Wind, Earth, Poison, Lightning, Fire Nullifies: Holy Weakness: Ice Status: Protect, Shell

Creature: Undead, Heavy Specialty: !Turtle Specialty Effect: sets Darkness, Poison and Confuse Vulnerable to: Slow, Regen Attacks: Battle, !Turtle, Earthquake This Gil Turtle is slightly different than the original one, but it don't matter much. A bit more HP, its defenses are slightly higher, that's about it. The same stategy you could've applied versus the original Gil Turtle still works here. For a longer description, please check out section 4.36.1 For now, it will probably do to mention how you should cast Dispel or use the Judgment Staff to remove the inherent Protect (and Shell) from the Gil Turtle, then enhance two swords with Blizzaga Spellblade effects and let loose with !Rapid Fire. It'll kill the fiend easily. In the meantime, do whatever. !Rapid Fire with the Sage's Staff, cast Quick and play on Apollo's Harp two times, cast Blizzaga on the thing, I don't care. This should be an easy battle with all the Golem, Mighty Guard, Mirage Vests and what have you. Make sure that Float is up (through Float or Mighty Guard) to avoid that final Earthquake attack when Gil Turtle's fat ass hits the ground. When you're done, you get a Grand Helm. It's got a bit more on Defense than the Genji Helm, but doesn't protect against statuses. It's no option now that you're draped in Ribbons, but if you ever want to switch to a Heavy Armor Job again, it might be for you. Anyway, continue down the hallway to find B3 of the River of Souls. To your right, you can find a chest with a Cottage. To your left, a long narrow path with nowhere to go but further down. When you press on, you'll encounter a split; to the left you'll meet a chest with a Fuma Shuriken just after a turn up north; pick up that chest, then continue. You'll walk up to a man standing there. He'll challenge you to go catch a Behemoth. But you already did! He releases the seal on the main door back at the start of this whole ordeal, where the real evilly evils lay waiting for you. Walk back to River of Souls - B2. Continue on B2 while sticking to the right and later as far up as you can and you'll easily spot the entrance to B1. Walk to the right and never enter the water 'til you come at the spot where you were warped to in the first place, which is also where you can leave the River of Souls and enter the "Dungeon" part of the Sealed Temple. Simply walk around the jail cells towards the entrance here to find yourself out on top of the Sealed Temple. I think it's time you headed back to that airshupmarine for a quick rest, Save and a new chapter...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.54.2 The Sealed Temple; Arena ********************************** Opponents: Blue Dragon (#132), Red Dragon (#133), Yellow Dragon (#134), Mecha Head (#150), Grenade (#204), Level Checker (#207), Moss Fungus (#209), Great Dragon (#212), Achelon (#213), Ninja (#214), Dragon Aevis (#215), Sword Dancer (#216), Death Claw (#217), Fury (#218), Yojimbo (#219), Iron Giant (#220), Gorgimera (#224), Mindflayer (#225), Mini Satana (#229), Assassin (#230), Soul Eater (#231), Behemoth (#232), Dark Elemental (F) (#233), Dark Elemental (I) (#234), Dark Elemental (L) (#235), Exoray (#236), Duelist (#237), Dinozombie (#239), Claret Dragon (#240), Ironclad (#241), Grand Aevis (#315), Archeodemon (#316) Container contents: Apocalypse, Blastshot, Blitzshot x2, Buckshot, Cottage x4, Dark Matter x4, Elixir, Ether x2, Fuma Shuriken x2, Gladius, Hero Cocktail, Holy Water x2, Hyper Wrist, Kagenui, Longinus, Phoenix Down, Royal Crown, Sorceror's Mantle, Turtle Shell, Water Scroll Miscellaneous items: Flame Shield (rare Grenade steal), Artemis Bow (rare Dragon Aevis steal), Enhancer (rare Sword Dancer steal), Thor Hammer (rare Death Claw steal), Cursed Ring (rare Fury steal), Reflect Ring (common Fury steal), Murakumo (rare Yojimbo steal), Aegis Shield (rare Gorgimera steal), Main Gauche (rare Mindflayer steal), Earthbreaker (rare Ironclad steal), Fairy Bow (guaranteed Grand Aevis drop), Chaos Orb (guaranteed Archeodemon drop) Blue spells: Level 5 Death, Level 4 Graviga, Level 2 Old, Level 3 Flare, Death Claw, Aeroga, Flame Thrower, Mind Blast, Vampire, Mighty Guard, Self-Destruct, ???, White Wind, Missile You can open the doors into the main room of the Sealed Temple now, called the "Arena". Note that the common Assassin encounter here features an (Image) version only, and the rare Assassin encounters features both like normal. Sealed Temple - Arena: 35 % Mini Satana 35 % Assassin (Image) 23 % Red Dragon, Blue Dragon 6 % Assassin, Assassin (Image) Walking into the Arena, you'll soon come across two options; you can take the top route or the bottom one. The top route will take you to a dead end, so take the bottom one. Walk around until you can reach a chest containing

a Dark Matter, enter the hidden passage left of the chest for a Hero Cocktail. Now walk south of the Dark Matter chest to find another chest with a Holy Water and a passage leading further in. There are two options here. There's a hidden passage which takes you to the Gladius (a Holy-elemental Knife that boosts Agility a bit). If you're working with Freelancers, you won't use it. Get back through the hidden passage and walk north, where your progress is impeded by a statue. You can't even try to use a Gold Needle on it. Make sure to interact with it, though, else you won't be able to solve its mysteries. We'll need that multi-softener after all! Whodda thunk it. There was this NPC in the Hall of Watchmen who had it, remember? We'll need to go there again. Leave this place and return to the outside of the Sealed Temple. Enter the right door, into the "Corridor". At the split in the Corridor, walk south towards the two warp points you never used. The left one will take you to a part of Titan's Grotto you haven't been to yet. You'll appear next to a chest with some Dark Matter in it. You can only walk to the right from here, then take the stairs down for an Elixir. Walk towards the waterfall to your left, and let it sweep you down to the level below you, where you can find the entrance to B2. Here, simply follow the path down 'til you appear in the Hall of Watchmen. In the Hall of Watchmen, go north as soon as you can to find the NPC you need. He'll be more than happy to give you his invention (as long as you interacted with the statue), but it'll only last 5:00 minutes when he takes it out of the Tupperware or something. So you gotta get to that statue in under 5 minutes! Piece of cake with Read Ahead, don't worry. From the NPC, walk to the right and take the warp point there. It'll take you to the River of Souls B1, but just go up and leave that place to find yourself in the "Dungeon" of the Sealed Temple. Simply walk to the left and around the jail cells to leave it, then enter the big doors in the middle. You'll remember this place, so just walk to the statue and use the softening serum, but only when you're prepared... Grand Aevis Level: 97, HP: 42000, MP: 20000 Defense: 60, Magic Defense: 40 Evasion: 30%, Magic Evasion: 20% Steal: Cottage (rare) Win: Fairy's Bow (always) Absorbs: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind Status: Float Creature: Heavy, Aevis Vulnerable to: Slow Attacks: !Wing Attack, Blaster, Breath Wing, Evil Eye, Maelstrom, Paraclete,

Poison Breath, Zombie Breath, Zombie Powder Dark Elemental Level: 74, HP: 5500, MP: 10000 Defense: 70, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Hi-Potion (rare) Win: nothing Nullifies: Fire, Ice, Lightning Creature: Heavy Vulnerable to: Slow, Stop Attacks: Aeroga, White Wind, Self-Destruct Grand Aevis is very difficult to deal with. First off, he's very very fast, so he'll keep up with you if you're Hasted and will double-turn you if you're not. Second, he'll throw a barrage of attacks at you that are difficult to defend against; all of the attacks listed above with the exception of Paraclete he'll use randomly. Few straigth-damage attacks as you can see, but both Maelstrom and Breath Wing are very dangerous, let alone Zombie Breath. Ribbons will protect against Evil Eye. Angel Rings will help against Zombie Powder which is otherwise unblockable, so I advise you wear them. Then, there's the Dark Elementals. They're different from the random ones in that they have no elemental weakness and won't react to elemental spells. They'll just sit there and randomly use White Wind and Aeroga. When they're both destroyed and Grand Aevis suffers HP damage, they'll be revived with full HP. They're bad news because they heal Grand Aevis with White Wind all the time and they're the Grand Aevis' defense against !Rapid Fire as with them around !Rapid Fire will often target the Dark Elementals, and Grand Aevis will be in the back row halving most physical attacks. There is no quick victory here, you'll just want to set Slow and then be able to nuke Grand Aevis in the back while at all times you're able to counter attacks sent your way. You start the battle out with Angel Rings most likely, not Hermes Sandals, so it's likely you'll get your first turn while you've suffered already. Slow Cannon works wonders; you can't really set Slow with conventional attacks since Grand Aevis has such a high level and Magic Evasion. Masamune-wielders will get a turn prior to everybody else, so use that knowledge to your advantage to get either Slow Cannon or Mighty Guard up before anything else happens on-screen. Flare and Holy are the supreme spells to use; they ignore Grand Aevis' Magic Defense and are powerful and targetable. !Rapid Fire is generally a waste, since there's those Dark Elementals onscreen most of the time. !Rapid Firing an Aevis Killer will take care of the back row issue and will always deal critical damage to the Grand Aevis. You could deal decent amounts of damage if you get Flare Spellblade effects

going on and find yourself in a situation where you get Grand Aevis alone. Dark Elementals take a lot of damage from boosted Syldra, !Combine attacks such as Holy Cannon (Hero Cocktail + Blitzshot). You get a Fairy's Bow for your trouble, the strongest Bow there is. It has a 12% chance of casting Confuse on the target; quite useless. When you're done, follow the path until you you find the exit. Go up and find the chest with an Ether in it before you leave this place, then leave this place. You have entered the Heart of Ronka. Heart of Ronka - Treasure Room: 59 % Exoray x 5 35 % Iron Giant x 2 6 % Ironclad Exoray will be your most frequent encounter here, and since the Iron Giant can be Zantetsuken'd really the only encounter to worry about. They're weak to Fire, so !Combine Flame Cannon (Flame Scroll + Blitzshot) and Firaga takes care of them quick. If you find yourself to be slow, Reflect Rings help against the Exoray's Firaga spells. You very rarely run into Ironclad, an Iron Giant upgrade. It's Heavy and immune to everything. It's got very potent physical attacks obviously, as well as Rocket Punch and Hurricane. Summon Golem versus this guy, as every kind of HP damage will be countered by either a normal physical or the barrier-piercing, unblockable !Takedown. With 22000 HP, it's best to make sure you attack as few times as possible. !Rapid Fire's nice, but provokes two counters in a row so beware. You can steal a rare Earthbreaker, the most powerful Axe there is, but I'll talk about it when you find one. In the Treasure Room, you'll find four chests from the get-go: Ether x 2 and two Fuma Shuriken. Go south and find a Dark Matter and a Cottage where the path splits. Go south for a Cottage, a Blitzshot and the Sorceror's Mantle, a cloak that halves all elemental attacks in damage and adds 10% Evasion and 20% Magic Evasion. Stick to your Hermes Sandals. Get back to the split, and walk to the right for two Holy Water items. Walk south and head into the B1 level. Heart of Ronka - B1: 35 % Mecha Head x 2, Level Checker 35 % Mindflayer x 3 30 % Exoray x 5 Here, you only find a chest featuring the Kagenui, the strongest Ninja blade which attempts to cast Stop 20% of the time. The Kagenui has something to do with pinning your opponent's shadow to the ground or whatever. It adds to your Agility and is Spellblade OK, so you might want to equip it. Now, get

back to the Treasure Room, get to the split and walk to the left, where you find a Blitzshot and a Phoenix Down and can now enter B1 from the other side. You can walk to the right, but you'll just reach the Kagenui chest from an unapproachable angle. Go south to find a heavy stone / chest puzzle similair to Ghido's submerged cave. 1 2 5 3 4 Take the stone from chest #5 and deposit it in #1. Enter the opened door and find a Blastshot and a Buckshot. Return and deposit the stone in #4. The leftmost door opened now; pick up Hyper Wrist. The Hyper Wrist boosts Strength by 5 and Battle Power by 10, but won't give Battle Power to weapons that have none (Rune Bow, Power Staff) or that work with magical attacks (Rods, Harps). Put the stone in chest #3 to further your journey into B2. Heart of Ronka - B2: 42 % Exoray x 5 35 % Mindflayer x 2, Achelon 23 % Iron Giant x 2 In B2, you'll see a chest to the right immediately. It's a Cottage, go get it. You'll find a rotating chain lift that you encountered earlier in the Ruins section of the Interdimensional Rift; climb down to enter the Warp Zone, which is nowhere near as handy as the Warp Zone in that classic Mario game. Warp Zone: 35 % Mecha Head, Level Checker x 2 35 % Moss Fungus x 3 23 % Exoray x 5 6 % Moss Fungus x 2, Mindflayer Right and then up will take you to a warp point that'll take you to the start of the Sealed Temple, but we don't want to go there. No, you'll want to go down and then walk to the right to find a total of five rotating chains you can choose from. All but the left-most one will take you at some point in a series of rooms connected with hidden passages. Best to take the second from the left, walk into the hidden passage to the left and follow it to a chest containing an Apocalypse, a Knightsword even stronger than the Ragnarok. Good stuff for your !Spellblade !Rapid Fire monkey. Return to the Warp Zone and take the left-most rotating chain out of the five to B2. Enter the small hidden passage to your left at B2 and go all the way up. See that long staircase, flanked by statues to your left? Go down that staircase to find yourself in the Abyssal Falls.

Abyssal Falls - B1: 35 % Duelist x 5 35 % Assassin, Assassin (Image) 23 % Great Dragon, Dragon Aevis 6 % Soul Eater x 3 Duelist appears as a single brawler, but after every !Specialty Attack he'll change into a random other Duelist. HP is carried over, status ailments are not. The purpose of this all is that a single Duelist will appear to have five different Specialty Attacks: !Left Jab (150% damage) !Air Fist (sets Old and Sap) !High Kick (sets Paralyze) !Elbow (Unblockable and barrier-piercing) !Body Slam (Unblockable, barrier-piercing, adds Paralyze) Duelist has 15000 HP and is a Human. Any HP damage is countered by a 33% shot at Strong Fight, which deals 9999 damage and kills a character. It's best to use !Rapid Fire with one or more Man-Eaters; instant kill, no fuss. Berserk can also be set to circumvent the Strong Fight threat, but it will boost Duelist's already impressive physical might. Walk to the right of the massive waterfall and then go down. Keep sticking to the right as much as possible, and you'll be passing two chests containing a Cottage and the Royal Crown. The latter is interesting because it features 5% Evasion and truly superior Magic Defense and 10% Magic Evasion. Freelancers will want a Ribbon or Gold Hairpin still, but if you turn back into a Job that cannot equip Ribbons and can't benefit from Gold Hairpins, the Royal Crown is a sweet helmet every Job can use. You can find a staircase going down to B2 south of the Royal Crown chest. Abyssal Falls - B2: 35 % Duelist x 5 35 % Great Dragon, Dragon Aevis 23 % Mini Satana x 2 6 % Dark Elemental (I), Dark Elemental (L), Dark Elemental (F) Go down two stairs until you see an opening protected by a magic barrier. This is the path leading into Neo Shinryu's Roost, we'll get there later. To the right here, you can find a staircase leading down in the the Treasure Room of the Abyssal Falls. Abyssal Falls - Treasure Room: 35 % Duelist x 5 35 % Assassin, Assassin (Image), Yojimbo 23 % Assassin, Assassin (Image), Ninja

6 % Claret Dragon Take the Dark Matter x 2, Turtle Shell, Water Scroll and Cottage. Why they made a Treasure Room for these is unknown. Go back up to B2 and walk to the left, past the blocked entrance to Shinryu's Roost. A waterfall is blocking your way; it'll always sweep you downwards. You can open a chest for a Coral Ring here. The button briefly stops the waterfall from flowing, but you'll need to Dash after pressing that button to pass the waterfall before it starts flowing again. If you made it, you find yourself in the Hall of Tranquility. No monsters here, just a Save Point and a pale, yellow-eyed NPC who tells you what's up: There are three more enemies to go after. There's Omega Mk. II to the left, there's Neo Shinryu to the right and there's Enuo to the south. But your progress to Enuo halted as of yet; you need to defeat Archeodemon first. He's all the way at the start of the Sealed Temple! No worries, we won't have to travel far. Up north in the Hall of Tranquility, go get the Longinus, the strongest Lance of this game. Go Save, then make the journey home. Pass through Abyssal Falls B2 and then B1. You're back at the Heart of Ronka. Go up the long stairway flanked with statues, then go back south in the parallel hallway 'til you see the rotating chain lift to your right. Go down to enter the Warp Zone. Walk to the right and then up to find a warp point leading to the start of the dungeon. You're back! You can go rest and save at the Airshupmarine if you want to. It's the left door we want, leading to the "Dungeon" part of the Sealed Temple. In the middle jail, the Archeodemon is waiting for us. Equipped as we are with the jail key, we can open 'er up and face the music. Archeodemon Level: 17, HP: 50000, MP: 62000 Defense: 80, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Phoenix Down (rare) Win: Chaos Orb (always) Absorbs: Fire, Ice, Lightning, Poison, Holy, Earth, Wind, Water Status: Protect (always) Creature: Heavy, Magic Beast, Undead Vulnerable to: Darkness, Slow Attacks: Flare, Holy, Meteor, ???, Curse, Drain Touch, Giga Flare, Mega Flare Don't worry, with proper preparation he won't rip much. Archeodemon is a vile thing, an Undead abertation that uses Dark Arts. He's a monster, allright. He's got a few "things". Thing 1 is that he uses Flare, Mega Flare and Giga Flare. Flare and Giga Flare deal around 2300 to non-Shelled targets, the latter to all charactes on-screen. Mega Flare does around 2000. Remember that Flare and Mega Flare can be Reflected, but Giga Flare cannot; also note that

Giga Flare will not be accompanied by a weakness in defense like it did with Twintania. Thing 2 is how he's difficult to damage. The bastard absorbs all elements and will counter any non-Magic attack with a Death spell focused on itself, meaning full HP restoration. You could set Reflect on the Archeodemon to prevent Death from landing, but you'll still have to deal with the Death spell coming your way (not ideal) and Archeodemon's inherent Protect and massive Defense. Archeodemon will start the battle with Drain Touch, a GBA-only attack that will feature your Dark Arts skillset in the future. Second turn, it'll cast Flare. He'll then go all "Focusing Power" like, wait for two turns and then cast either Mega Flare (66%) or Giga Flare (33%). He'll keep looping this until he's damaged below 20000 HP, at which point he'll start randomly casting Flare, Holy and Meteor spells, through in a random Hurrican attack, Death spell or Drain Touch, spend every fourth turn Focusing Power, then waiting a single turn before using either Giga Flare (66%) or Mega Flare (33%). In the meantime, he'll counter any non-Magic attack with a Death spell focused on himself and any Magic spell with either Curse (33%), the Blue ??? spell (33%) or nothing. He will not counter when he's Focusing Power. Drain Touch is a HP draining attack that is about twice as strong as Drain, will never miss and in a shocking turn of events does NOT have inverse effects on the Undead, so you can drain HP from them and Bone Mail wearers without problems. Curse sets a random status ailment out of Toad, Mini, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Confuse, Berserk, Silence and HP Leak; Ribbon -wearers will be well-protected. Archedemon has no weakness as such; he's Undead so Apollo's Harp and the Sage's Staff can be used to great effects, but he'll counter with Death so it's a no-go unless you set Reflect. I wouldn't really advise you go ahead with that strategy though. Your biggest asset in this battle is the !Time skillset. As a single creature with 0 Magic Defense, Archeodemon is a prime target for Meteor spells. Everybody who can cast Meteor can also cast Quick. I'd suggest four characters with !Time 6, paired with !Dualcast where possible. Sling Meteor spells after Meteor spells after the guy. The only drawback is that Archeodemon may counter with either Curse (will likely have no effect) and ???, the latter will kill a character when it lands. Since Meteor hits multiple times, Archeodemon may counter up to two times. Since Archeodemon will use no physical attacks and all of his attacks pierce Magic Defense, the only thing you could want from equipment is stat boosts and Magic Evasion; Angel Robe (25% ME) and Black and White Robes (20%) are superior in this department. You'll avoid a lot of ??? attacks equipped with these, especially with Shell up. So! Get in there, cast Mighty Guard and then either cast Quick/Meteor/Meteor

or Meteor/Quick/Meteor/Meteor/Meteor/Meteor. Gold Hairpins are handy here, as this strategy is MP-heavy. Flare is also an option instead of Meteor, but it'll come out weaker. !Combine's Slow Cannon isn't an option, as the Death counter will also remove Slow. When Archeodemon manages to get in a lucky ??? attack, revive and continue. Archeodemon should never really get into "Focusing Power", as he should be dead before he gets there. When you slay the fiend, the warp point leading into the Lethe Court will be opened up to you. Leave the "Dungeon" to go outside, then enter the big door in the middle. In the "Arena", walk towards the Heart of Ronka, go left at the first split, go down until you encounter the chest puzzle, put the stone in the bottom-left chest, go to the right in the Heart of Ronka, find the large staircase flanked by statues, go down into the Abyssal Falls B1 and later B2, where you must go to the right and Dash after pushing the skeleton button to stop, drop and roll behind the waterfall. In the Hall of Tranquility, go Cottage and Save and prepare for the Lethe Court. Take the warp point below the NPC. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.54.3 The Sealed Temple; The Lethe Court ********************************** Opponents: Great Dragon, (#212), King Behemoth (#221), Crystal Dragon (#222), Assassin (#230), Behemoth (#232), Dinozombie (#239), Claret Dragon (#240), Ironclad (#241), Hades (#242), Guardian (#317), Launcher (#318), Launcher (#319), Wave Cannon (#320), Enuo (#323) Container contents: Elixir, Mutsunokami, Robe of Lords Miscellaneous items: Earthbreaker (rare Ironclad steal), Cursed Ring (rare Hades steal), Bone Mail (rare Hades drop and rare Enuo steal), Crystal Orb (guaranteed Guardian drop) Blue spells: Doom, Roulette, Flash, Flame Thrower, Dark Spark, Off-Guard, Mighty Guard, Missile Lethe Court - The Shadowed Gate 35 % Ironclad 35 % Assassin, Assassin (Image), Dinozombie 23 % King Behemoth, Behemoth 6 % Hades

Here be dragons, watch out. I mean 'dragons' here metaphorically, there are not really dragons here. Ironclad, Assassin and Dinozombie require Golem and powerful attacks. King Behemoth isn't Heavy, Behemoth is vulnerable to Sleep. Hades is new. He's not a good boy. Hades Level: 97, HP: 33333, MP: 10000 Defense: 30, Magic Defense: 40 Evasion: 50%, Magic Evasion: 60% Steal: Cursed Ring (rare) Win: Bone Mail (rare) Absorbs: Poison, Weakness: Holy Creature: Undead, Heavy Vulnerable to: Slow, Stop Attacks: !Sickle, Death, Flare, Dark Spark, Doom, Roulette, Curse, Deep Freeze, Meltdown, Almagest, Reaper's Sword It seems Azulmagia was only a single example of a race of giant Blue Mages. Hades has 33333 HP, is Heavy, Undead and immune to everything you'd like to set on it. It uses Black spells (Flare, Death), Blue spells (Doom, Roulette, Dark Spark), Dark Arts (Deep Freeze, Meltdown, Curse) and two impressive monster attacks: Reaper's Sword and ALMAGEST. That thing uses Almagest, you just lost over 5000 HP on the entire party. The only things that can protect you against that are Aegis Shield (33% nullify), Sorceror's Mantle (50% damage), Shell status (50% damage) and the Force Shield (nullifies). Whatta guy. Deep Freeze and Meltdown both inflict sufficient damage to kill the character it targets, unless it's protected from Ice (Deep Freeze) or Fire (Meltdown). Kill these things ASAP. You can't use !Control or !Catch on these guys, which is a pain. Quick + Apollo's Harp, all the Holy spells you can throw at it, stuff like that. Hades counters Magic with either Flare (33%) or Death (33%) and non-Magic with !Sickle (33%), so Carbuncle prior to Holy slaying might be a good idea. Also note that Hades is not fickle with that !Sickle and will leave quite a mark. The path here is crystal clear. There's a chest with a Mutsunokami (strongest katana with a 50% (!) critical percentage) and an Elixir. Find the eldritch warp point. Youll be transported to another part of the Shadowed Gate; nothing to do here but find the next eldritch warp point. Another part of the Shadowed Gate here; there's the next warp point to the left of you, which leads to the Stairs of Destiny. Lethe Court - The Stairs of Destiny 35 % Ironclad 35 % Crystal Dragon x 2 23 % Claret Dragon, Great Dragon

6 % Hades Bend to the right and follow the stairs unil you find the Robe of Lords, a Robe with truly superior Defense, Magic Defense and Magic Evasion (24%). No special properties. Get back to the entrance of the SoD, then go to the left. You'll meet a sparkle. Guardian Level: 97, HP: 55000, MP: 60000 Defense: 40, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Blitzshot (rare) Win: Crystal Orb (always) Absorbs: Lightning Creature: Heavy Vulnerable to: nothing Attacks: Gravity, Graviga, Off-Guard, Atomic Ray, Delta Attack, Electrocute, Encircle, Reverse Polarity, Wave Cannon Level: 97, HP: 22000, MP: 55000 Defense: 20, Magic Defense: 0 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 0% Steal: Blitzshot (rare) Absorbs: Lightning Creature: Heavy Vulnerable to: nothing Attacks: Wave Cannon Launcher x2 Level: 97, HP: 20000, MP: 50000 Defense: 10, Magic Defense: 10 Evasion: 0%, Magic Evasion: 10% Steal: Blastshot (rare) Absorbs: Lightning Creature: Heavy Vulnerable to: nothing Attacks (Left one): Missile, (Valiant Attack), Rainbow Wind, Rocket Punch Attacks (Right one): Flash, Missile, (Valiant Attack), Mustard Bomb Guardian! Throwback to FFIII for the SNES? Who knows. The Guardian will feel like this dungeon's easiest boss fight, but it still a nice challenge. The Guardian has three additional animus' built into it. There are two Launchers that simultaneously attack you and protect the Guardian itself, and there is the Wave Cannon front panel that does nothing until it's ready to fire, at which point it performs a double Wave Cannon attack. You're either having one or more character in the air with !Jump, or you've lost your

battle as double Wave Cannon deals 100% of your maximum HP and inflicts Sap just for the hell of it. The Guardian itself is immune to attacks until you've destroyed both Launchers, at which point you can start damaging it. You'll start the battle being attacked by the two Launchers and the Wave Cannon front panel starting its countdown. The Launcher on top is capable of using the nameless (Valiant Attack), which is a missile attack which cuts current HP by 50% and sets Old. In addition, it may use Missile, Rocket Punch and Rainbow Wind. The other Launcher can use (Valiant Attack), and Flash, Missile and Mustard Bomb. Both Launchers have 20000 HP; every first turn is (Valiant Attack), every second turn is one of the other options. The Wave Cannon goes like this: DIFFUSION BEAM CANNON: ONLINE LASER CROSSHAIR BRIGHTNESS: 20 SAFETY LOCK: OFFLINE BARREL PRESSURE RISING BLAST SHIELDING: ACTIVATED ENERGY CELLS: 128% CAPACITY FIRING - (dual Wave Cannon) You'll want to destroy both Launchers and the Wave Cannon, then pound on the Guardian itself. The Guardian itself won't start attacking until it's Launchers have been destroyed, at which point it'll start off with a Delta Attack. Three more attacks can be performed, after which Guardian will have repaired both Launchers. When those are back, it'll turn itself invincible again. Ribbons, Bone Mail and Angel Rings are what protect you from the weakening effects of (Valiant Attack). Ribbons are best, since they also help against Delta Attack, Flash and Rainbow Wind. The most important target to focus on is the Wave Cannon, as that's the countdown to Game Over part of the machine. In the meantime, you'll take percentage-based damage, but with all them Ribbons on yer head, you won't suffer a lot. Next up, time to take out the Launchers. !Dualcast Holy and Dual-Wield Flare Spellblade effects are very powerful in this fight. Once when the Launchers are gone, Guardian will be a lone target. Time to bust out !Rapid Fire, !Dualcast Meteor, stuff you know and like. For your troubles, you'll get a Crystal Orb. It'll give you +5 Magic Power, superior Magic Defense and 12% Magic Evasion, once more proving there are tons of ways to be inferior to Hermes Sandals. Ascend for the final showdown. Lethe Court - The Void is bereft of any random encounters. The story of Bartz, Lenna, Krile and Faris mirrors the story of the Dawn

Warriors 30 years ago, but it also mirrors the story of mysterious group of warriors 1000 years ago. These warriors took up the Twelve Legendary Weapons (which takes at least fourteen hands) at faced a terrible mage called Enuo. Enuo was immortal, but traded away his immortality for even greater power; power over the Void. It is said that Enuo was slain by the Twelve Legendary Weapons, leaving the Void behind. But it seems that Enuo's evil is not easily destroyed... Enuo Level: 97, HP: 60000, MP: 65000 Defense: 100, Magic Defense: 30 Evasion: 20%, Magic Evasion: 120% Creature: Heavy Vulnerable to: Slow, Stop Attacks: Protect, Shell, Berserk, Holy, Poison, Bio, Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Flare, Osmose, Regen, Haste, Slowga, Graviga, Meteor, Aqua Breath, Aeroga, Pond's Chorus, Drain Touch, Deep Freeze, Meltdown, Evil Eye, White Hole, Grand Cross, Giga Flare This fight is actually two fights in a row. There's the first fight with Enuo, which is difficult. Then the Power of the Void increases, after which a refreshed Enuo will attack you again with inherent Protect and Shell with a few very dangerous attacks. Enuo starts with two tentacles that aid him in his endeavors. These tentacles are invulnerable and not normally targetable, but random-target attacks such as !Rapid Fire and the Meteor spell may still hit them. The tentacles cannot be removed from the fight and cast spells and perform other attacks as well as Enuo does. The tentacles are responsible for the buff spells that may appear during the fight, as well as the rare Grand Cross and Giga Flare attacks. I highly advise four Freelancers for this fight. Since so many statusailments will be thrown around the battlefield, Ribbons are a must and Mimes cannot equip them. After the Power of the Void increases, Enuo will start to use Danse Macabre fairly often, and you really don't want that to have any effect. Angel Rings are a must-have accessory for this season's fashion anyway! The majority of Enuo's attacks are reflectable so it's tempting so summon Carbuncle ASAP. Make sure you get Mighty Guard before you do this though; certain spells (Aqua Breath, Meteor, the Dark Arts) will still hit a target with Reflect set, and you'll want the Shell status on the entire party to protect yourself against those attacks. Mighty Guard is vulnerable to Reflect, so you can't cast it after Carbuncle has arrived. Not having Reflect is also an option if you want to keep the option for Curaga open. ST spells may kill a character though, even with Shell applied. Dude, it's ENUO. He murders Light Warriors for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

After Enuo has taken about five turns, one of the tentacles will always use Grand Cross, which may even harm those with a Ribbon equipped should it decide to set Confuse, a Countdown 'til Death or HP to a single-digit level. When Enuo makes like a chameleon and starts taking on the colour of the everchanging psychadelic anime background, you know it's coming. After about ten turns of Enuo action, the same tentacle will unleash a Giga Flare attack, but it'll deal around 2000 damage to non-Shelled targets so it's no biggie (relatively). Again, Giga Flare is heralded by Enuo's colour-swapping madness. Since Enuo has two fake targets, !Rapid Fire and Meteor will only hit 33% of the time. The Holy spell, boosted by either the Sage's Staff or a Rune Chime, is a very powerful and consistent means of damage output. Boosted level 5 Black spells are also quite powerful. Flare Spellblade effects can make weapons like the Ragnarok and Apocalypse very powerful, and when they do land they inflict a massive beating. In conclusion, for the first fight I advise at least one !Blue caster for Mighty Guard and emergency White Wind spells at least two !White casters for Curaga, Arise and mostly Holy spells (!Dualcast is really nice) and all characters equipped with Ribbons and Angel Rings. !Time is a nice asset for Hastega and Quick. You may even wish to employ somebody with !Mix to use Goliath Tonics on the party in preparation of increased Void Power. !Combine can be good for Slow Cannon if you find Enuo's quantity of attacks unbearable. The Power of the Void is increasing! There is now more of nothing. Or possibly the nothing is more powerful. Enuo is truly powerful. Socrates said: "The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing." and Mark Twain said: "Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand." The Buddha said: "To live a pure unselfish life, one must count nothing as one's own in the midst of abundance.". So our foe is a truly wise altruist who has moved past frivolities. Don't think this is all talk about some philosophical abstract either. As Voltaire said, a witty remark proves nothing. Enuo Level: 97, HP: 60000, MP: 65000 Defense: 100, Magic Defense: 30 Evasion: 20%, Magic Evasion: 120% Steal: Bone Mail (rare) Status: (Always) Protect, (Always) Shell Creature: Heavy Vulnerable to:nothing Attacks: !Dimension Zero, Holy, Flare, Meteor, Level 3 Flare, Level 4 Graviga, Level 5 Death, Drain Touch, Deep Freeze, Meltdown, Almagest, Grand Cross, Danse Macabre, Reaper's Sword, White Whole, Hurricane, Mealstrom

Enuo has restored its HP back to 60000 HP, and with inherent Protect and Shell set, removing it will be quite a chore. On the upside, Enuo has done away with the two tentacles, which means !Rapid Fire greatly increased in accuracy. On the downside, it'll only deal half damage compared to the first round. When Enuo has regenerated himself, he'll start off with a brutal double-turn which may feature !Dimension Zero, Meteor or Almagest (equal chance) followed by either !Dimension Zero, White Hole or Maelstrom. If Golem was up, he could have taken a single !Dimension Zero. When all that is past and you're still standing, Enuo is now done with you. He'll cast according to the following loop: - !Dimension Zero, Meteor or Almagest !Dimension Zero, White Hole or Maelstrom - Flare, Holy or Delta Attack - Almagest (66%) or Grand Cross (33%) - Drain Touch, Deep Freeze or Meltdown - Level 3 Flare, Level 4 Graviga or Level 5 Death - !Dimension Zero (loop) Enuo even has interesting counter-attacks! Whenever he suffers damage, he'll counter with either White Hole (33%), Danse Macabre (33%) or nothing. Every even time he is damaged, he counters with Reaper's Sword (33%), Hurricane (33%) or nothing. Reaper's Sword kills any character without a Ribbon. White Hole kills and petrifies any character without a Ribbon. Danse Macabre sets Zombie to any character without an Angel Ring. See why you want those items? Enuo is difficult to damage at this point, as all damage is halved. You cannot remove Protect or Shell, and Enuo is now immune even to Slow. It's a true slugfest, this fight. There are a few attacks that will prove much more powerful than the others. Above and beyond the competition is !Rapid Fire with Flare Spellblade effects applied. Second, when !Finisher calls for an elemental attack, the 9999 damage will not be affected by any kind of damage inhibitor, but this is a 50% chance at best. Should you have a !Mix user with doubled HP from a Goliath's Tonic, any mix that deals (current HP) damage will be quite powerful compared to other powerful attacks. Some examples include Holy Breath (Holy Water + Dragon Fang) and Dragon Breath (two Dragon Fangs). Finally, Needle Cannon will deal 3000 damage. This is not a lot, but it's still probably more than normal magical attacks and since Slow Cannon is a such a help in the first fight, it's not unreasonable to assume that you have !Combine around. If you failed to bring the Angel Rings, you'll have a fun time removing Zombie from characters only to find yourself stuck with low-HP characters while Enuo rains destruction upon your sorry ass. If you failed to equip

Ribbons on certain characters, please enjoy them going down almost continuously. If you did both, it's still a decent fight Enuo puts up; Almagest is powerful, !Dimension Zero is powerful, a stray Level # Blue spell may fuck you up completely. Only a combination of Mighty Guard, Goliath's Tonics for everybody and prime numbers on your level will truly keep you safe. When Enuo falls, he falls hard. There's an earthquake in space, then there are explosions in space. Worst. Final. Battle. Ever. Note that while this battle is very reminiscent of the battle versus Exdeath, Enuo does not respawn after you kill him once. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.55.1 The Dark Arts ********************************** When you awaken, you find yourself near a crystal shard. Since all other options are prohibited at the moment, pick it up. Prisoned within the shard is the deliciously evil spirit of an ancient Necromancer 'hero'. The Necromancer equips Rods and Knives, Hats, Robes and Armlets like any typical mage-type Job, and all of his Dark Arts are based off the Necromancer's Magic Power. He's got comparable Magic Power to a Black Mage; quite decent and just a bit lower than the Summoner and the Oracle. What's noteworthy about the Necromancer is his Strength (a small bonus compared to vanilla Freelancer) which is completely useless and his Stamina, which is very high for a Robe-type; higher even than the Knight! Not quite the luxury you might imagine, though... The Necromancer is inherently quasi-Undead, sort of. He takes damage from all kinds of healing attacks; Cure/Cura/Curaga, Nightingale, all types of potions, you name it. Drain attacks such as Drain, Vampire and Drain Kiss invert when the target is a Necromancer. He is in all regards like a regular Undead creature or like a character wearing a Bone Mail, but there is one very important different; the Necromancer's reaction to revival items, spells and attacks. They'll never kill a Necromancer when one is alive; they'll just set HP to a single digit. If Necromancer is down, you CAN revive him or her; Arise will set HP to full, Phoenix will set HP and MP back to full, you name it. This is an important benefit over Bone Mail-type of turning Undead. The Necromancer can therefor be healed by: White Wind, using draining moves WITH the Necromancer, using draining moves ON the Necromancer and simply reviving the Necromancer when he's down and out. The Chaos Orb is an Accessory that raises Fire, Ice and Lightning-elemental damage by 50% and gives inherent Regen and some Magic Defense. This frees

up a weapon for another purpose than elemental boosting, so you'll probably want to end up with a Main Gauche unless you set a "Equip X" support ability for who knows what reason. But it's not that good. Main Gauche gives 33% an additional physical evasion check. By using a Protect Ring and a Magus Rod, you've got the Air- and Poison-elemental boosted, more Magic Defense, way more Defense and better Regen healing, I'd say you can forget all about that Chaos Orb. Dark Arts are sweet. They're main purpose is to blanket the enemy party in powerful elemental mayhem that kills. Drain Touch, Dark Haze and Curse are just to have a bit of fun. All elemental spells are equally strong; Dark Flare piercies Magic Defense like Flare does and Doomsday is just the strongest attack. If you boost elements, the more easily acquired elemental attacks are way stronger than either Dark Flare or Doomsday, so when you learn Hellwind you already learned the best attack the Necromancer will ever use! For more information on the Necromancer, take a look at [NECROMANCER-LINK] It is now time to travel the lands to collect all of the Dragonballs. I mean, all of the clues that uncover the location of the Holy Grail. I mean, the Dark Arts. There's a Mindflayer right in front of you to kick things off! Drain Touch Anyway, there's a Mindflayer patiently waiting for its demise at the hands of a Necromancer. Set !Summon or !Black on the Necromancer and kill the Mindflayer with an attack coming from a Necromancer. You just learned Drain Touch, an unblockable HP-draining attack almost twice as strong as the Black Drain spell. A fun note about the Drain Touch attack is that it's the only HP-draining attack that does not invert effects on an Undead target. If you fail to kill the Mindflayer in an adequate manner, you can either seek out another Mindflayer in the Interdimensional Rift or confront a The Damned in the Island Shrine. Hellwind Push the button to leave this place. Take the airshupmarine to Bal Castle and enter the basement, where Objet d'Art roam the place. Have a Necromancer cast Level 5 Death or a boosted Thundaga spell to kill one or all living statues. You just learned Hellwind! It's Air-elemental (boost with Magus Rod or Air Knife) and sets Petrify on whatever is strange enough to both survive the damage onslaught and is vulnerable to Petrify. Behemoth Kings or something, whatever. You could also choose to hunt down a Stingray for Hellwind. Note: there are five Dark Arts that combine elemental damage with the chance of a status ailment being set. The elemental damage is unblockable, but the status ailment isn't. The status ailment is set when the target is vulnerable to the ailment and when a random number between 0 and 99 is smaller than the

target's Magic Evasion%. So versus a target with 75% Magic Evasion, Hellwind and its kin will inflict their status ailment 25% of the time. Evil Mist Only a short walk to the north of Castle Bal lies Quelb. Pass it up and enter Drakenvale to the north. In the caves you can find a Zombie Dragon. Kill it with a Phoenix Down of Hellwind spell and you'll learn Evil Mist, the Poisonelemental version of Hellwind that, gasp thrice, sets Poison to whatever it doesn't slay outright. Nothing worth caring about is specifically weak to Poison, but it's a fun spell to use regardless. Evil Mist can also be learned from the Unknown (blob) from the Great Sea Trench. Dark Flare Hey, one of the two 'ultimate' Dark Arts! Go to Kuza Castle and heal up. Make sure you got no problem dealing with either Shield Dragons nor Exdeath's Souls. The latter is the one we're hunting. If you run into one, remember it has 20000 HP and that you'll want to get the final blow for your Necromancer. Hellwind works wonders. Dark Flare pierces Magic Defense and is non-elemental; not as powerful as boosted elemental attacks but a bit more powerful than non-boosted elemental attacks. If you have Bahamut blow up the place, it's more powerful than Dark Flare but a bit more costly on your MP. You won't see much use for Dark Flare in practice unless you want to clear the place of Crystelles or something. Dark Haze Where did you park your Black Chocobo? I always leave mine near Phantom Village. Anyway, go seek it out and travel to the forest near North Mountain and the Phoenix Tower. Dismount your Black Chocobo and enter the Phoenix Tower. Scout around for a Lemure and kill it with some Hellwind to learn Dark Haze. Dark Haze deals no damage, but is simple a blockable spell that sets both Confuse and Old. Exorays from the Sealed Temple can also teach you Dark Haze. Meltdown In that very same Phoenix Tower, you get to encounter Liquid Flame randomly when you search the walls for stairs going up. If you encounter one, kill it with some repetitive Evil Mist and Hellwind spells to learn Meltdown, the Fire-elemental one. It's ST only, though, which makes it inferior to Hellwind. It may set... Sap. Honestly? You could also learn Meltdown from Claret Dragon, though nobody will want to. We still got four more attacks; Deep Freeze (ST Ice-elemental attacks that sets Stop), Chaos Drive (MT Lightning-elemental attack that sets Paralyze), Curse which sets all kinds of status ailments to a single target and Doomsday, the ultimate Dark Art. All four spells can only be learned in the Sealed Temple, so now it's time to get those Dark Arts to you quickly.

You're on the Overworld Map presumably, so it's time to get back to the Sealed Temple and kick Omega Mk. II technological teeth in and follow that succes up with Neo Shinryu's destruction. South of the forest where the Phantom Village is located, you'll see the trench. You'll automatically enter the strange place when you submarine your way down. The NPC that initially told you about the Necromancer Job is still there, randomly spewing out hints on the monsters that can teach you Dark Arts. You need to press the skull button to get to the other plane, location or dimension, whereever it is you're going. When you've done so, you can enter the Sealed Temple to the left. I'm going to give you real quick directions to the Hall of Tranquility, from where you can start your mission to kill the last two baddies of the game. - From the start of the Sealed Temple, walk south and enter the middle doors, the ones you had to unlock earlier. - In the Arena, stick to the outer wall until you reach the middle chamber where you fought the Grand Aevis. Go up and follow the path until you reach the stairs going down, and follow them into the Heart of Ronka's Treasure Room. If you meet any Assassins along the way, you can learn Deep Freeze from them if a Necromancer kills them. If you meet any Mini Satanas, they can teach you Chaos Drive. - In the Treasure Room, go south 'til you reach the first split, then walk to the left, then south again to reach the Heart of Ronka, B1. If you meet any Exoray, your Necromancer can learn Dark Haze from them. - Walk to the south until you reach the chest puzzle. Put the heavy stone in the bottom-left chest and enter the door that opens. Follow the path into B2. - Walk a bit south and to the left, past the rotating chain lift. You see the long staircase; find the entrance and descend the staircase down into the Abyssal Falls B1. - Go down 'til you reach B2. - In B2, walk to the left until you find the waterfall that blocks your path. Make sure you can Dash out of battle, then push the skull button and run past the waterfall while it's disabled. You can then continue into the Hall of Tranquility. - The teleport zone below the NPC will take you to the Lethe Court. In the first room, you have a 35% chance of finding an Ironclad, which will teach you Curse when you kill it with a Necromancer. The rare encounter is Hades, which will teach you the most powerful Dark Art, Doomsday. Deep Freeze is an ST Ice-elemental attack that may set Stop and Chaos Drive is an MT Lightning-elemental attack that may set Paralyze. Curse may set any one of the following status ailments: Toad, Mini, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Confuse, Berserk, Silence or HP Leak. Since it picks one prior to checking for status immunities, it's completely useless. Doomsday is a very powerful attack,

but it does not pierce Magic Defense like Dark Flare does and is often less powerful than Dark Flare, let alone boosted elemental spells. When you're done, get back to the Hall of Tranquility and Cottage up, since we're going dumpster-diving into Omega Mk. II's lair. Enter the pyramid to the left. You'll find yourself in the Incubi's Path. Oh man, why can't we ever find ourselves in, I dunno, the Chocolate Cake Path? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.56.1 The Undeathables; Omega Mk. II ********************************** Opponents: Mecha Head (#150), Necromancer (#223), Mini Satana (#229), Medusa (#238), Dinozombie (#239), Omega Mk. II Container contents: Ash x2, Blitzshot x2, Dark Matter x2, Demon's Rod, Elixir, Hero Cocktail, Holy Water Miscellaneous items: Force Shield (guaranteed Omega Mk. II drop) Blue spells: Flame Thrower, Missile Dark Arts: Chaos Drive Time for some Rage against the Machine. Tomb of Memory - Incubi's Path: 35 % Dinozombie, Mecha Head 35 % Medusa, Mini Satana 23 % Medusa x2 6 % Dinozombie, Necromancer This is a very simple stroll through the pyramid park. By that I mean that the directions are easy. Patrolling around the scene are... Omegas. There is no narrative explanation for this. Omega is supposed to be a one of a kind creature. Maybe all of these are cheap duplicates, made in Taiwan and all that. They're equally effecive as the real deal though. I highly suggest destroying all the Omega machines prior to exploring the rest of the cavern. For detailed explanation, try [OMEGA-LINK], even though you probably know how to handle him. You kill one of these by setting Thundaga Spellblade effects to a Dual-Wield !Rapid Fire character. Hermes Sandals on

that guy or girl help out. Don't attack him in the meantime, he'll just counter. Don't forget to equip a Ribbon on your !Rapid Fire cannon, else Delta Attack or Blaster may seriously hamper your plans for Omega domination. Every Omega gives you 100 ABP, and you only need a single specialized character to take out Omega within two rounds. Something to think about. Do note that when you try to level up Oracles or something, they won't be able to equip Ribbons and may fall to status ailment attacks. There are six Omega machines running around here, the lot of which contributes a total of 600 ABP and 300000 Gil unto your party. In the meantime, you may encounter monsters randomly as well, and Medusa enemies are new. They are quite frail for Sealed Temple monsters, standing at a mere 7500 HP. They use Entice a lot, which sets Confuse. Earlier Lamia-type enemies only targeted male characters with the move, but these girls appreciate beauty in all its forms. They counter damage with a 1/3 chance at Evil Eye, which may set Petrify on those characters not equipped with a Ribbon. Rainbow Dresses are good in this place, since Ribbons don't protect against Confuse but Rainbow Dresses do. When you've cleared the floor of Omega copies, it's time for treasure! Start at the entrance and see the hidden passage to your left. It contains Ash. Return to the entrance. Go up and stick to the right wall to come across another hidden passage which leads you to a chest containing an Elixir. Return to the main chamber. Ignore the exit for now and continue to find the chest with a Demon's Rod. It's a useless piece of crap that randomly casts Death but doesn't boost any elements. Now, you see the exit to your right. Go there! Tomb of Memory - Decedent's Path: 35 % Necromancer, Archeosaur 35 % Mini Satana x2 23 % Medusa, Lamia Queen x2 6 % Dinozombie Right at the start, go all the way up to find a button. Push it to remove the magical barrier that kept you from visiting Neo Shinryu. But first things first; bionic bros before dragon hoes is what I always say. Get back to the entrance. You see a hidden passage to your right, but don't go there; there's just a pit that'll take you to the River of Souls, and nobody goes there anymore. Go to the left to find another button you can pass up; it'll create a sandstream that sweeps you back to the main chamber of the Incubi's Path. The button in the far right will open up a passage in the Incubi's Path, so push it, then push the button you just passed up, to the left. Find the newly

opened door, then enter. Tomb of Memory - Iniquity's Path: 35 % Dinozombie, Medusa 35 % Dinozombie 23 % Medusa, Mini Satana 6 % Medusa x3 A lot of hidden passages here. Find the one to the bottom-right, then follow it to come across a chest containing some Dark Matter. Follow it further for some useless rooms and a Blitzshot chest. Return to the start of the hidden passage. Now, go to the left where you previously went right to find a chest with a Hero Cocktail (watch out for the hole!) go into the hidden passage to the left of the chest to reach another chest with some Dark Matter. You have now raided this floor fully, so drop down any hole you please. Let's pick one right here. Tomb of Memory - Throne Room: 35 % Medusa, Necromancer x2 35 % Dinozombie 23 % Medusa x3 6 % Dinozombie This is the weirdest Throne Room I've ever seen, mostly because there is no throne. You find yourself near a chest containing some more Ash. Go north for a new chest featuring a Blitzshot. The top button will open up a door so you can continue. Also press the other one. Slide down the tiny slippery slope and continue to the right; do ignore the second slippery slope as you'll be stuck and will have to walk back. To the bottom-right, there is a chest containing a Holy Water. Up, there's a door you opened with that other button just now which takes you to another button. This one opens up the door in the middle, which leads to... Omega Mk. II. Omega Mk. II Level: 97, HP: 65000, MP: 60000 Defense: 200, Magic Defense: 200 Evasion: 100%, Magic Evasion: 100% Steal: Elixir (rare) Win: Force Shield (always) Absorbs: (Fire, Ice, Lightning), Poison, Holy, Earth, Wind, Water Weakness: (Fire, Ice, Lightning) Status: (Always) Reflect, Shell Creature: Heavy Vulnerable to: Slow, Stop Attacks: When you took Omega down, maybe somebody somewhere was looking at you. We

are not alone. Omega was a perfect killing machine, with only two weakness. An emotional weakness to Romeo's Ballad, but you can't change a soul. Then there was Thundaga Spellblade !Rapid Fire, which functions like a Five Point Palm Exploding Heart Technique. And this is what was upgraded. Omega Mk. II has some higher stats than its prototype, most notably higher HP. Its AI script is mostly identical, with the exception of his new software which allows it to respond to !Rapid Fire. - First turn only: Barrier Change - 33% chance of either Atomic Ray, Delta Attack or Blaster - Wave Cannon - 33% chance of either Rainbow Wind, Flame Thrower or Atomic Ray - Wave Cannon - No interrupt: 33% chance of either Delta Attack, Blaster or Wave Cannon 33% chance of either Maelstrom, Earthquake or Rainbow Wind - Search (save target until end next turn) - 33% chance of either Rainbow Wind, Flame Thrower or Atomic Ray (on Search target) - Wave Cannon (loop) Counterattack to Fire, Ice or Lightning element when its currently weak against it: - No interrupt: Barrier Change (change to either Fire, Ice or Lightning weakness) Counterattack to !Rapid Fire: - 33% chance of (Full HP heal), Encircle or nothing (since !Rapid Fire hits multiple times but may only provoke two counters at most, this counter is executed twice) Counterattack to all HP damage: - No interrupt: Target: Random target 33% chance of either Rocket Punch, Rocket Punch or Mustard Bomb 33% chance of either Rocket Punch, Rocket Punch or Encircle So he functions like Omega, but when you hit it with an elemental attack that strikes its weakness, it changes form into any of its three forms. It's either weak to Fire, Ice or Lightning. When !Rapid Fire is used and it's not fatal, Omega Mk. II may either respond with Encircle (bad) or a nameless full HP restorative move. I guess it has something to do with nanobots, I dunno. So the mission here is to set up either Firaga, Blizzaga or Thundaga spellblade

on a Dual-Wield character. That takes at least two turns, and Omega Mk. II is wicked fast. Second, we need to know which element we want and make sure we don't provoke a Barrier Change before the properly applied elemental is unloaded upon Omega Mk. II's sorry ass. Reflect Rings across the team protect against Delta Attack, Atomic Ray and Search. In addition, you can cast Libra on one of your characters to find out Omega Mk. II's current elemental weakness. Flame Rings on everbody is possibly an ever better option since you absorb Atomic Ray and Flamethrower and you can steal cast Curaga and Mighty Guard, but you'll have to have !Analyze if you want to discover how to hurt Omega Mk. II. With either Flame Rings or Reflect Rings combined with Ribbons and Float, all that can really hurt you is Wave Cannon. As long as you use nothing but !Rapid Fire, the regular counters won't appear. With at least two characters with either Curaga or White Wind (Curaga is not an option with Reflect Rings), you can simply outlast Omega Mk. II's attacks. If you can check its elemental weakness, apply the relevant one and let loose with !Rapid Fire. If not, you can just try 'til you get it right. It's possible that Omega Mk. II survives the first !Rapid Fire, but if it's of the proper element the Barrier Change counter will take precedence over the Encircle/full heal counter. You can then attack it with the proper !Rapid Fire a second time, thus ending Omega Mk. II. Flame Rings with !Analyze is really the best. If you bring Omega Mk. II to near death with a good !Rapid Fire, then heal it a bit with a wrong !Rapid Fire it may respond with a full heal or Encircle, which could remove your !Rapid Fire character from the fight. If you go in with Reflect Rings, Flame Thower plus Wave Cannon may kill a character, also bad news. You get a Force Shield out of the deal. It's got superior Defense and nullifies all elemental attacks, which is just grand. No, really, it's super-awesome. Imagine nullifying Holy, Almagest, Firaga and all that. I highly suggest you use it if you have any Shieldbearers in your party; it's a good combo with the Mirage Vest. The downside of the Force Shield is its lack of Evasion; during a random encounter, you're unlikely to absorb more than a single physical hit on any character, and the Mirage Vest will allow you to dodge it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.56.2 The Undeathables; Neo Shinryu ********************************** Opponents: Shield Dragon (#86), Blue Dragon (#132), Red Dragon (#133), Yellow Dragon (#134), Great Dragon (#212), Dragon Aevis (#215), Crystal Dragon (#222), Claret Dragon (#240), Neo Shinryu (#322) Container contents:

Ash x2, Blastshot, Blitzshot x2, Elixir x2, Flame Scroll x2, Lightning Scroll, Maximillian, Phoenix Down, Ribbon, Ultima Weapon Miscellaneous items: Artemis Bow (rare Dragon Aevis steal), Dragon Lance (rare Crystal Dragon steal) Blue magic: Level 3 Flare, Flame Thrower Dark Arts: Meltdown We can't stop here. This is dragon country. Entryway: 35 % Red Dragon, Yellow Dragon, Blue Dragon 35 % Great Dragon, Dragon Aevis 23 % Shield Dragon x2 6 % Crystal Dragon You should be familiar with all enemies here. All enemies here with the exception of Great Dragon and Dragon Aevis have the Dragon nature, so Dragon Lances, Apollo's Harp and Dragon Cannon (Blitzshot + Dragon Fang) inflict a lot of damage. Shield Dragons can be problematic. !Rapid Fire with one or more Dragon Lances will help dispatch them quickly. Crystal Dragons are best dispatched with Death Potions. Flame Rings can help you throughout the dungeon; Red Dragon's Atomic Ray, Blue Dragon's Frost, Great Dragon's Blaze and Claret Dragon's Flame Thrower are all absorbed or negated. Make sure to have Float set, we'll have to cross some lava before we're done here. Having mastered a Geomancer on a single character and using him or her as a Freelancer or Mime will also do the trick. Actually using a Geomancer will have such negative impact in-battle you're better off just soaking up the lava. First off, let's go up a bit and then continue to the right. Pass the skull button for now, and go up and to the right to reach a chest containing an Elixir! Now, it's time to raid the Treasure Room before we push on towards Neo Shinryu. The Treasure Room is below us. Push the skeleton button you passed a few seconds ago to fall to the floor below. Treasure Room 35 % Red Dragon, Yellow Dragon, Blue Dragon 35 % Shield Dragon x2 23 % Crystal Dragon 6 % Claret Dragon

You fall one a long stretch of stone. If you go to the left, you'll wind up in a place where you can ascend to the Entryway, but we just got here! Enter the lava lake. In the middle is a large platform with ten chests waiting for you. In it (from top-left to bottom right): a Flame Scroll, a Lightning Scroll, a Maximillian, some Ash, another Flame Scroll, a Phoenix Down, a Blitzshot, an Elixir, a Blastshot and some more Ash. The Maximillian is mostly a better Genji Armor, as it gives more Defense and Magic Defense. It doesn't protect against any status ailments like the Genji Armor does, though. Return to the thin stretch of rock you landed on, and go counter-clockwise this time around. When you can leave this place do so, since there's nothing more to be found here. When you return to the Entryway, you'll find another skeleton button on this very rock island. Push it to connect a small chest-carrying island to a more accessible location. Leave this island by entering the lava and go to the right, where you can eventually (a bit up) find a staircase up the rock formation to the right. Find the chest to the bottom (Blitzshot) and simply backtrack, ignoring the island with the skeleton button and sticking to the outer wall. You'll pass that closed chest. When you can leave the lava at the far left, do so. You should recognize this location, you've been here before. To the south-east, the chest is waiting for you. It's a Ribbon! We've taken all the treasure here. Remember where you just got out of the lava? Get back in there and go back to the far right, sticking to the outer wall. When at the far right you can get out of the lava, don't do so. Pass the staircase and go further north, where you can find an entrance into Shinryu's Roost. Shinryu's Roost 35 % Red Dragon, Yellow Dragon, Blue Dragon 42 % Claret Dragon 23 % Crystal Dragon, Dragon Aevis It's unlikely you'll fight many battles here, since all you'll have to do here is walk straight on 'til you reach the CHEST. You should prepare for the CHEST, since its contents may surprise you. Or not, since there's a Neo Shinryu in there and now you know that. (Neo Shinryu) (Attacks, always Invulnerable) Level: 97 Status: Invulnerable (Always) Attacks: Attack, !Critical Attack, Mute, Mighty Guard, Almagest, Blaze, Breath Wing, Earthquake, Ice Storm, Lightning, Maelstrom, Poison Breath, Tidal Wave,

Zombie Breath Neo Shinryu (Counter-attacks, toggles Invulnerable) Level: 97, HP: 65000, MP: 60000 Defense: 100, Magic Defense: 100 Evasion: 20%, Magic Evasion: 120% Steal: Elixir (rare) Absorbs: Holy Creature: Dragon, Heavy Vulnerable to: Darkness, Silence, Slow Attacks: Meteor, Doom, Giga Flare, White Hole, Zombie Powder, (Fake Image) Neo Shinryu doesn't kiss nice. He's a real bad-ass kind of dragon. He goes from 0 to murder in under 8 seconds. If your having a really shitty day, it's this thing's fault somehow. Don't fight him. This is HIS game, and the only way to win is not to play. Or play really well I suppose, that also works. But he's way difficult, you should know that. He's the mostest difficult. This dragon makes the Dalai Lama say very bad words. Okay, here's the thing. Neo Shinryu has a lot of attacks. A lot of them will kill you. By healing and reviving alone, you can't outlast him and still deal sufficient damage. So the defensive strategy doesn't work. At the same time, Neo Shinryu has this shtick where he randomly cancels out your attacks. In addition, he has three dummy targets, which will randomly absorb your randomly targetted !Rapid Fire and Meteor attacks (among others). So the offensive strategy also doesn't work. What does work? The super-defensive and the ultraoffensive strategy! More on that after the break. First I want to talk about Neo Shinryu's random negation of your attacks. This is what will happen. First off, Neo Shinryu has three dummy targets; we've seen this douchebaggery before with Enuo, among others. It severly cripples your chances with !Rapid Fire to the point where !Attack has a higher average damage output due to all the missing !Rapid Fire will do. This also means that the Meteor spell, !Released monsters and other random-target attacks will have a 75% chance of striking a dummy target. Second, Neo Shinryu itself will randomly troll you out of well-deserved damage output. Here's how that happens. Forget about two of the dummy targets, they're not important now. There are two Neo Shinryu enemies. One is the one in charge of attacking every round; this one is immune to damage, always, so it's essentially a third dummy target that also attacks. It's invulnerable like Necrophobe when surrounded by his Barriers, or like an invisible dummy target. Second, there's the Neo Shinryu that is in charge of counters; this one toggles its invulnerability states every turn, and it moves like greased lightning. You won't be able to keep up or track his turns; to your inferior human naked eye, you'll never know if this Neo Shinryu is vulnerable to damage or not until you try. Neo obviously does not take turns when a character has just cast Quick, so

during those two turns Neo Shinryu is either vulnerable to both attacks or immune to both attacks. When wielding two weapons, either both strike a vulnerable target or neither; this goes for !Jump with two weapons as well. So, since the vulnerable part of Neo Shinryu toggles its invulnerability at every turn, it can be said to have a 50% chance of letting your attacks inflict damage. A random-target attack must face its three dummy targets and thus has only a 12.5% chance of inflicting damage. When Neo Shinry is vulnerable, it has a 25% chance of connecting, but the player won't have this information until it first sees damage appear. If you fight Neo Shinryu a couple of times in a row like yours truly did, you'll get a knack for the flow of this battle; you see an attack deal no damage, you wait a bit and then unleash hell for a great chance of finding Neo Shinryu vulnerable. So in conclusion, there are four targets, only one can ever be damaged and this target toggles its invulnerability every turn. Cute! Neo Shinryu, having set up these defensive perimeters, will do the following. It'll start off with Mighty Guard, which cuts down any hits you DO land by 50%. A Judgment Staff or Dispel spell is needed to counter. Then, the following AI script will loop: - Maelstrom - 33% chance of either Ice Storm, Ice Storm or Blaze - Zombie Breath - 33% chance of either Earthquake, Earthquake or Lightning - No Interrupt: Attack Attack - 33% chance of either Poison Breath, Poison Breath or Breath Wing - Curse - 33% chance of either Tidal Wave, Tidal Wave or Almagest (loop) When you bring Neo Shinryu down to 15000 HP or less, it'll cast Mute and switch to physical attacks only. - No Interrupt: 33% chance of either Attack, Attack or !Critical Attack 33% chance of either Attack, Attack or !Critical Attack - No Interrupt: 33% chance of either Attack, !Critical Attack or Nothing 33% chance of either Attack, !Critical Attack or Nothing 33% chance of either Attack, !Critical Attack or Nothing (loop) Note that all of these attacks are executed by the continuously invulnerable

Neo Shinryu. The Neo Shinryu you hurt will never attack, just toggle its invulnerability and employ counter-attacks. When struck by !Rapid Fire, it may counter a 33% chance of either Zombie Powder, Doom or nothing. Since !Rapid Fire is most inaccurate already and there's no room for Angel Rings in our set-up, that means !Rapid Fire is pretty much the worst attack to use versus Neo Shinryu ever. Any other damaging move may provoke a 33% shot at White Hole, but with Ribbons in place it will have no effect. When you kill Neo Shinryu, it'll have two last aces up its sleeve; Giga Flare and Meteor. It'll cast both, in that order, as a final counter-attack. These attacks are not as strong as most of NS' attacks, but should still be in the back of your mind when you're approaching Neo Shinryu's demise. Giga Flare deals about 1500 damage to a non-Shelled party. It all looks fairly managable, but until you've seen the terrifying competence and speed that accompany these attacks, the dread will start. Luckily for you, we at Djibriel Enterpresis have constructed not one but two strategies to employ. They've done studies, you know. 15% of the time, they work EVERY time. We guarantee it. Dragoons Execute Airborne Tactics Hopefully (or D.E.A.T.H.): Neo Shinryu is a Dragon. The 'strategy' here is to set up four characters with Dual-Wield and two Dragon Lances, Hermes Sandals, !Jump and !Time 6. You cast Quick, then launch your terrified combatants into the air. Due to Quick, you won't have to suffer ATB increase while your character plunges screaming towards his or her doom. There's a 50% chance that landing will deal a lot of damage. If so, you can !Jump again. If not, your next !Jump will fail as well, so you might as well cast Hastega, heal or revive if necessary. Cue the next character! You can have one character not use Quick so he or she is in the air when Giga Flare/Meteor appears. Also note this front-loaded team can use Dispel by equipping the Judgment Staff mid-battle. This is a high-risk, high-reward strategy, and likely the cause of the infuriating "Lolz Neo Shinryu is 2 Ezy" shout-outs across the internet. Note that this strategy requires a lot of Dragon Lances and characters knowing !Time 6, !Jump and Dual-Wield, which is not at all the case for everybody. In addition, you have straw for defenses here, so Neo Shinryu will rip you some interesting new holes when he gets the chance. He'll get those chances a lot. Chemists Outlast Wyrm's Endless Rampage (or C.O.W.E.R.): The polar opposite of the strategy listed above, this turtle-like defensive strategy is almost sure to work and demands much more reasonable parameters. The basic idea is to postpone offense until you're so hopped up on buffs that you can casually trade blows with Neo Shinryu. Since his arsenal is so incredibly diverse, that requires a lot of buffs. Enter with Coral Rings

and Ribbons. The Force Shield will be a tremendous benefit; have the character most adept at buffing (ideally a !Time/!Mix Freelancer) equip it. Ice Shields for the others, they will nullify Ice Storm and Blaze. Since Defense and Magic Defense mean almost nothing in this fight, the Mirage Vest is a great equip. !Blue and !Time are just incredibly useful here, but !Mix is without a doubt the most important skillset. !Blue is only used for White Wind and Mighty Guard. !Time is used for Quick, Hastega and, in a pinch, Float. !Mix is used for these things: Potion + Ether X-Potion Potion + Phoenix Down Resurrection Ether + Dragon Fang Dragon Shielding Elixir + Dragon Fang Goliath Tonic Maiden's Kiss + Dragon Fang Dragon Kiss Right. From the get-go, Ribbons are in place to protect you from White Hole (a counter) and most everything that Curse has to offer. With Ice Shields and Coral Rings, you've also taken care of Ice Storm, Blaze and Tidal Wave. Dragon Shielding helps to absorb Blaze and Lightning. Goliath Tonic helps survive damage from Zombie Breath, Breath Wing and Almagest. Dragon Kiss gives immunity to Maelstrom. Try to keep Mighty Guard up at all times; it reduces damage by a lot and its Float prevents a Game Over from Earthquake. Second, Goliath Tonic is top priority. The doubled HP will stay with you even if you fall, which you will do a lot. Dragon Shielding and Dragon Kiss protect you against 2 out of 8 turns, these being the Ice Storm/Blaze turn and the Mealstrom turn. Note that your Force Shield character doesn't need Dragon Shielding. Reviving (and curing Zombie) should always take priority over healing, healing should always take priority over buffing. You will gradually gain more and more turns during which Neo Shinryu performs an attack you can just ignore. Make no mistake, you will die all the time. But you can always revive with full HP and MP, and those that have both !Time and !Mix can revive two characters in one turn. Your Force Shield character can only die from physical attacks. All buffs except for Mighty Guard will remain with the character even when he or she dies. Eventually, you will have a party with massive HP, Shelled across the board. Only physical attacks, Breath Wing, Tidal Wave and Almagest will still leave a mark, but they can be healed with White Wind. Stray physicals may still kill a character even with Protect and Goliath Tonic active, but they're quickly revived. It is now time for offense! It will be a slow process, since you really only have !Attack to work with. Give Apollo's Harp to a Quick caster; Dragon Lances work okay even without

!Jump. Since Neo Shinryu has 100 Defense, anything that doesn't automatically score a Defense-ignoring Critical Hit will not leave a mark. 20% Evasion may randomly be a hindrance for Dragon Lance wielders. Again, the Judgment Staff can be used to remove Mighty Guard from Neo Shinryu. When all is said and done and Neo Shinryu dies an unimpressive working class death, an Ultima Weapon is yours! It's the BEST weapon. It's even a normal Sword, so Blue Mages, Mystic Knights and Cannoneers can use it as well. It's a sword with the power of destruction. Contrast this to the Derrida Weapon, which only has the power of deconstruction! What a blade! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------4.57.1 The Cloister of the Dead ********************************** Wanna take your ridiculously overpowered gear and go take on antagonists from the past, no fight of which is even nearly as challenging as those you've already won? Ofcourse you do! You built up a staggering amount of hate, I can tell. Let's kill things dead that previously we had slightly more trouble killing dead. Assuming you're still standing near the battered body of Neo Shinryu, here's to get to the Cloister of the Dead. Exit Shinryu's Roost. Walk through the lava in a couter-clockwise fashion, sticking to the outer edge, 'til you've completed a half circle and can get out. A bit to the south-west, you can exit Shinryu's Lair. In the Abyssal Falls, simply walk up all the until you reach the Heart of Ronka. In the Heart of Ronka, walk up the stairway, then turn the turner and walk down 'til you find a rotating chain elevator. Get to the Warp Zone, where at the top you can warp to the entrance of the Sealed Temple. Exit the Sealed Temple, 'cuz we're done here forever now. There's a Save Point here as well. In the ??? cavern with the NPC, you can just waltz into the middle door and begin your 'trial'. You could go out into the real world (I mean the real world within the game, obviously) to buy/farm some more !Mix or !Combine reagents if you want, but it probably won't be necessary. The bosses here are upgraded versions of the ones you fought earlier. Imagine having fought a four-year when you yourself were four years old. Also imagine that at your current age you meet this guy again, but now he's SIX years old. Assuming your name is not Stephen Hawking (if so: mad propz!), this scenario should end with a weeping toddler and some free candy. This is pretty much how the Cloister of the Dead plays out, only minus the candy. Since I do not wish to insult your intelligence, I will not bother to list stat blocks or real strategies for most of these opponents, since they are by far easier than most random encounters in the Sealed Temple. If you are curious about these

monsters, please consult the Algorithm FAQ at GameFAQs, it's quite good. Some things that you may be interested in to know: - All monsters in the Cloister have neither item for stealing nor dropped items. - All monsters have identical AI scripts to their former selves, with the exception of a select few small upgrades (Cure -> Curaga) - All monsters add to your Bestiary entry, even though they are different monsters. If you missed Necrophobe or Jackanapes earlier, you can now list their old formes in the Bestiary with the new enemies. The new enemies have no seperate Bestiary entry. Suffice to say that a single !Spellblade/!Rapid Fire character and three utility characters is the way to go. !Blue, !Mix, !Summon and !Combine all have some merit. I like to send in characters with Ribbons, Mirage Vest and Hermes Sandals, it's a great all-round set-up. First wave: HP: Wing Raptor 12000 Garula 10000 Siren 14000 Forza, Magissa 16000 (Forza), 13000 (Magissa) Gil Turtle 40000 - Have you ever exploded in a whirlwind of steel to kill a bird? If not, here's your chance. !Rapid Fire kills the Wing Raptor unless you're sporting Mythril Swords. When you spare it for a few turns and it turns into its defensive stance, you can humiliate it just as easily since !Rapid Fire ignores Defense. - You rule, Garula drools. It's very much like the Wing Raptor fight, only now it's a tapir. It's vulnerable to Toad and also everything. - Siren can cast Curaga and Thundaga rather than Cure and Thunder, but is otherwise the same. You can use !Rapid Fire to destroy her, or wait until she turns into Undead Siren and THEN use !Rapid Fire to destroy her. - Magissa has upgraded spells like Siren did, Forza is present when the battle starts and Magissa's first turn is spent on an MT Regen spell, a feat no other foe or character is able to duplicate in the entire game. This battle may take more than a single turn since there's two targets, but they do not pose any threat. - The wave ends with Gil Turtle. Blizzaga !Rapid Fire kills the turtle in a single hit when you remove Protect with the Dispel spell or Judgment Staff. If you decline to remove Protect, using Blizzaga !Rapid Fire twice is a good alternative. Watch out for Earthquake at the end, have Mighty Guard or Float up.

Second wave: Preparation: one character with !Summon is really nice for the last fight of this wave. HP: LiquidFlame 13000 Soul Cannon 30000 (Soul Cannon), 12000 (Launcher x 2) Purobolos 6000 (x6) Minotaur 24000 Triton/Nereid/Phobos 18000 (all three) - LiquidFlame has the same three-form shenanigans he did when summoned by queen Karnak, and has the same resistances in these forms as he did back then. Only this time, it just means nothing. !Rapid Fire is more like !Rapid Extinguish in this case. Get it? Since LiquidFlame isn't Heavy, any touch of Blizzaga Spellblade effects will kill it instantly. - The Soul Cannon takes a long while to charge, during which a Thundaga !Rapid Fire is to be executed. For funsies, you can cast Level 5 Death to destroy the Launchers; their increased level took them to level 50. You get 10 Experience Points here. - With all these targets, !Rapid Fire may not be all that effective. Or is it? Silence Spellblade effects makes sure these guys don't revive fallen comrades. A quicker solution to the Purobolos problem is to carpet-bomb the lot with !Combine attacks; !Summon will make them cast Curaga on themselves, which sets their HP to full. Zantetsuken just kills them, though. - Versus Minotaur, Mute is set. So you can !Rapid Fire in blissfull silence. The Assassin's Dagger is an instant-kill versus this guy, but nobody cares. He didn't put any of his Essence Point in MP either, so still no Holy spell upon defeat. - If there's some strange pigs in your neighborhood, who ya gonna call? If your answer was "Ghostbusters" rather than Odin, you're not being practical. Sure, Odin has none of the comedic genius of Bill Murray, but you can't argue with his effective brand of ultra-violence.

Third wave: Preparation: Two or more !Time casters are really great, since the fourth fight is Archeodemon. HP: Byblos 12000 Tyranosaur 22000 Dragon Pod 20000 (Dragon Pod), 3000 (Dragon Flower x 4) Archeodemon 50000 Apanda 35000

- Byblos isn't Heavy and weak to Fire, so Firaga Spellblade effect kill him instantly. - Tyranosaur isn't Heavy and weak to Fire, so Firaga Spellblade effect kill him instantly. You know, like Byblos? You'll have an easier time provoking its Poison Breath counter with the plethora of Holy-, Earth-, Wind- and Water-elemental attacks you can employ at this stage, but since you can also kill it instantly there is no reason to bother. - Dragon Pod isn't Heavy and vulnerable to Death; a Death Potion (Phoenix Down + Dark Matter) kills it instantly. Needle Cannon (!Combine a Blitzshot with a Gold Needle) deals 3000 to every target on-screen, which is enough to kill all Dragon Flowers. An easy fight. - Archeodemon is exactly like the fight in the Sealed Temple, and much more dangerous than any other fight in this or previous wave. The same strategy applies as when you faced it earlier; spam Meteor 'til victory. For more information, check the relevant section. This really is the only challenging fight in the entire Cloister. - Apanda is a cakewalk. No seriously, all the hardship involved in walking down a hallway of cake is about as difficult to stomach is this fight is to win. Apanda loves fire in the face, no matter where it comes from. Is this burning an eternal flame? No, because the fight takes a few seconds. Fourth wave: Preparation: Not much this time. HP: Manticore 13000 Adamantoise 18000 Jackanapes 6000 Calofisteri 24000 Twintania 55000 - Manticore isn't Heavy or immune to Death. We now know for whom the bell tolls. - Adamantoise starts with inherent Protect and Shell. A Judgment Staff makeover removes these effects, setting Adamantoise up for Blizzaga Spellblade death. - Jackanapes has monstrous Defense and Magic Defense and absorbs all elements, making it immune to everything except what you were going to use anyway, this being !Rapid Fire. With 6000 HP, it's no fair fight. Lacking !Rapid Fire, two Needle Cannons also take care of Jackanapes. - Calofisteri has almost no offense, so you can just pound on her with whatever. - Twintania has no elusive item drops for you this time, so you can just wait until it charges for Giga Flare, then summon Odin, throw a Death Potion, cast Banish, etc. Fifth wave:

Preparation: HP: Omniscient 23000 Wendigo 30000 Sandworm 18000 Atomos 25000 Halicarnassus 44444 - Omniscient will cast Return after any damaging attack that's not Magic, so that means we'll have to use Silence Spellblade !Rapid Fire. Omniscient is weak to Aeroga and Syldra's Thunderstorm. So there. - Flare Spellblade attacks will deal massive damage to Wendigo, but lay off the !Rapid Fire unless you want to eat up to three Frost counters. You'll guess wrong quite a few times, but Wendigo doesn't really hurt you in the meantime and it doesn't take a lot of effective hits to bring the Wendigo down. Mighty Guard helps to keep Hurricane ineffecitve. - Sandworm is very weak to Aqua Breath, but it will no longer kill it in a single display of bubbles. Aqua Breath does not provoke Gravity spells from the holes, so stick with it 'til the Sandworm falls. If you lack !Blue, Flare Spellblade effects deal a lot of damage as well. - Atomos is vulnerablet to Sleep; Sleep Spellblade effect !Rapid Fire will take care of him quickly. His Comet spells are much easier to survive as well, so you need not play the one-man-down game anymore. - Halicarnassus gets angry when !Summon is used on him, so don't. All else is fair game; Flare Spellblade !Rapid Fire is most effective. Since Holy may appear, Carbuncle or Mighty Guard can be used to prevent a death. Final wave: Preparation: A summoner is nice, and !Combine will really help out as well. HP: Crystals 15000 (x4) Melusine 24000 Catastrophe 33333 Azulmagia 40000 Necrophobe 55055, 12000 (Barrier x4) - The Crystals are not Heavy, so one Zantetsuken is all it takes. Death Potions, Banish or Killer Cannon are alternatives. - Melusine starts off weak to Fire, so if you make sure the first hit you land on her is a Firaga Spellblade !Rapid Fire, you'll have a OHKO on your hands. - Catastrophe will employ Earthquake when nobody is floating, and 50 Gs when you are. Carbuncle can be used to repel 50 Gs easily while you pile on the damage.

- Azulmagia is weak to Poison-elemental attacks. Bio Spellblade !Rapid Fire takes him down in a single flurry. - Necrophobe is the final battle in the Cloister of the Dead. While your !Rapid Fire monkey can choose any of the high-end elemental Spellblade effects (Firaga, Bio, Holy), Killer Cannon be used to instantly destroy most, if not all, of the Barriers. Remaining Barriers can be killed with Death Potions, Catoblepas or whatever, as long as you remember that they are Reflective. When all four Barriers are gone, wait until Necrophobe takes a single turn (he'll cast Flash), then !Rapid Fire for great justice. "I see you've returned safely... I assume that means you have defeated the monster hordes, correct? Then I bestow upon you this token extolling your triumph." Received "Medal of Smiting"! ... and so the FAQ reader and Final Fantasy V Advance player lived happily ever after, having been briefly diverted from the inevitability of his or her death by the collection of this "Medal of Smiting", a fictional trophy of no value.

THE END

********************************** 5.0 Menus and Game Options: As boring as a concrete floor in math class ********************************** Start menu: New Game: Starts a new game. Load Game: Loads any of the up to four games you've saved in the past. To indicate what games they are, the location of saving, playtime, amount of Gil and party status is given. When the game has been finished (i.e. the Super Famicom and PSX final boss has been defeated and the ending has played) a white star is present after 'File'. Extra: These obviously only exist in the Advance release. They contain the Bestiary and Music Player. - Bestiary The Bestiary allows you to see the stats of all normal monsters in the game, including bosses. You can select any of the four save files you currently have

to view all monsters once killed at the moment of saving. A percentage is displayed right to 'Monsters slain' to indicate your progress. Completely filing the Bestiary bestows no in-game benefits, though a 100% FFVA Bestiary has been known to function as a powerful aphrodisiac (not really). Every listed monster has three stars which disappear when you've seen their stats. They all have a number and after the name you can see exactly how many of this species you've killed. Press action to view the monster's stats, elemental properties, nature and status immunities. In-game menu: Job: Allows you to select a character for Job switching; after you've picked a Job you'll be automatically sent to the Ability menu to select an action or support ability, which you can skip by pressing B. You are then transported to the Equip menu where you are either assigned 'Optimum' equipment or left to equip your character yourself (depending on your preferences). Ability: Allows you to select a support or action ability without changing the Job. You are then transported to the Equip menu where you are either assigned 'Optimum' equipment or left to equip your character yourself (depending on your preferences). Action abilities are indicated with exclamation marks (!). You can naturally only choose abilities that you have earned, with the exception of !Attack and !Item which are inherent to all Jobs but the Mime and which are given automatically as options when you obtain the Mime Job. Item: You can view your inventory here, and use restorative potions to heal HP and remove status ailments. Tents and Cottages can only be used on the Overworld Map or on Save Points. 'Sort' automatically sorts out your equipment by type, a feature not present in the original SNES game. It uses the following list: Potions Drinks (for !Drink and !Combine) Reagens (for !Mix and !Combine) Shuriken (for !Throwk and !Combine) Gunpowder (for !Combine) Knives (also Man-Eater) Ninja Blades Swords Knightswords Lances (also Twin Lance) Axes/Hammers Katanas Rods Staves (also Flail and Morning Star) Bows

Harps Whips Bells Moonring Blade/Rising Sun Shields Light Helmets Hats Heavy Helmets Clothes Robes Heavy Armor Gauntlets Armlets Shoes Rings Misc. Accessories There are also Rare items, with nothing but a narrative purpose. Magic: You can select a character and have him or her use Magic spells provided they are capable of casting them; the proper Job or action ability must be set. You can cast the following spells from the menu; Cure, Poisona, Cura, Raise, Esuna, Curaga, Arise, Dispel (can only remove Float), Toad, Float and Teleport (which warps you to the beginning of a dungeon if you're in one; if not, the spell can't be used). Equip: You can equip your equipment with Equip! Optimize will only look at listed Attack when determining weapons, and only at Defense when looking at your Head, Body and Accessory slots. Since you may want equip weapons or armor for other purposes, and because weapons have different damage algorithms, the 'Optimum' choice may not be the best. Status: Allows you to look at all relevant information of a character with the notable exception of Magic Evasion, the hidden stat. Equipment weight is listed on the second screen, as is any monster you may be carrying around due to !Catch. Config: - Battle Mode set to 'Wait' will have monster stop acting when you're picking through your menus. Their ATB bar will not fill, they will not execute attacks. Helpful, but removes a sense of urgency that may be contributing to your gaming experience. - Battle Speed determines the pause between you selecting your command and your characters executing it, and gives you more time to choose options when Battle Mode is set to 'Active'. The Speed spell appears to alter this setting for the duration of the battle, setting it to about 5, easing the flow of a

tough battle if your Battle Speed is normally set pretty low. - Battle Message governs the time battle messages will fill the screen - Command Settings 'Standard' is what you're used to; Short will let every conceivable action be governed by a single button push, customizable if you're so inclined. - ATB Gauge 'On' lets the game show you its naughty ATB Gauge; if 'Off', it'll display maximum HP along with current HP in that space. - Reequip tells the game what to do when you change Job and/or Ability; apply 'Optimum' equipment without your intervention, or you doing all the work. Early in the game, Optimize has no drawbacks; later, you may want to think a bit about your favorite set-up. - Cursor Position set to 'Remember' is great if you're lazy and have one-trick ponies for characters. It lets the game remember the last place the cursos was one the previous turn, so that it stays on !Kick, !Zeninage or !Item, however you please. It'll even remember an option out of a subset menu, such as Syldra from !Summon. - Auto-Dash lets you run all the time; you'll still have to press B for the Thief's Sprint ability, it won't automatically do that even if you have a Thief or another character with the Sprint ability. - Window Color lets you change the Window Color, Einstein. - Bestiary lets you see all your victims; their number slain, their name, most of their attributes (not Magic Evasion though, of their possession of a Heavy nature if applicable, neither inherent statuses). Quicksave: lets you quicksave a game; the save file is removed when you load it once, so you can't retry things from a quicksave file. Something quirky with this game is how it forces you into a set pattern of monster formations; the 23% one first, the 6% one second. This allows you to quickly scout out elusive monsters if you want to fight them; handy versus Stingray, Tonberry, Movers, things of that nature. A bug it is, so feel dirty if you use this. Save: Normal Saving. In the original SNES game, there were also options to set Sound to Mono or Stereo, you could have greater control over the function of the various buttons and you could play the game with two players, assigning any of the characters to either controller. THE END ********************************** 6.0 Jobs [JOB-LINK] ********************************** Jobs will become available throughout the game. When in a Job, a character will gain ABility Points, or ABP. By gaining ABP, the character unlocks an ability learned from that Job, but only for him- or herself.

Setting a Job will change the stats of the character. What is absolutely vital to understand is the concept that leveling does not in any way raise stats or enhance compatibility. A level 50 Bartz raised as a Monk all the time will make as good a Black Mage as one raised as a Black Mage all that time. HP is changed along with a different Stamina value (since Stamina governs HP) and MP is changed along with a different Magic (Power) value (since Magic governs MP). Unlike Freelancers, Jobs will have a limited equipment pool. A Knight can equip Swords and Knightsword, but not Harps. A White Mage can equip Robes, but not Heavy Armor. Jobs can have inherent abilities that are set no matter what. A Monk will always have Barehanded and Counter, a Mystic Knight will always have Magic Shell. Mastering a Job will unlock the stat boosts (but not penalties!) and most inherent abilities of that Job (if any) for the Freelancer and Mime Jobs. When Bartz masters the Monk Job, he will have the Monk's Strength, Agility and Stamina as a Freelancer, but not the Monk's abysmal Magic Power. In addition, he will gain Counter and Barehanded as inherent abilities, but not the HP boosting support abilities. Some action and support abilities not only allow a character to execute a feat it would not normally be able to; some also raise stats to pass along the stat of the Job the ability came from. The Knight's Equip Sword support ability also gives the character the Knight's Strength (but only if it were higher than the original Job's Strength). Abilities that grant a spell list often increase Magic Power while equipment options often increase Strength and Agility. Below is a list of all the Jobs and their statistic adjustments. I grouped them according to equipment options, which is a good indication of their intended role. Heavy Armor, Clothes and Hybrid Jobs are subsequently listed from highest Strength to lowest Strength; the Robe Jobs are listed from highest Magic to lowest Magic. Since HP and MP are directly governed by respectively Vitality and Magic Power, those values are not given. Str. Agl. Vit. Mag. Heavy Armor: Gladiator 26 14 3 -14 Knight 23 1 20 -14 Berserker 21 - 9 25 -23 Samurai 19 2 19 -12 Dragoon 18 5 15 -12 Mystic Knight 14 14 14 1

Clothes: Monk 26 1 26 -23 Ranger 16 12 1 - 5 Ninja 15 14 3 -10 Beastmaster 13 1 8 - 3 Thief 1 16 2 - 6 Hybrid: Cannoneer 9 6 6 4 Blue Mage 8 1 3 23 Red Mage 8 4 6 8 Dancer 5 5 -10 - 5 Chemist 2 3 6 -4 Robe: Oracle - 9 - 1 - 4 36 Summoner -10 - 1 - 1 33 Black Mage - 9 - 2 31 Necromancer 4 1 21 29 White Mage - 7 1 25 Time Mage - 5 2 - 3 24 Geomancer 4 2 4 24 Bard - 8 8 - 9 11 Note that characters have slightly different statistics compared to each other. The difference is minor, though, and if you want to use this knowledge to minimize weak points or maximize strong points is entirely up to you. Str. Agl. Vit. Mag. Bartz Lenna Galuf Faris Krile 1 3 1 2 1 4 2 4 2 3 2 2 4 3 3

Bartz' stats synergize well with Jobs with high Strength and Vitality, which includes Heavy Armor Jobs. Lenna has the highest innate Magic Power of the five characters you get to control, Galuf has the highest Vitality of the five and a bit of Strength, so he leans towards Front Row physical positions as well. Faris has the highest all-round stats with a peak in Agility, so she is your Joker. She is best with Knives, Bows and Whips though, as well as the !Throw command. Krile has both the highest Agility and additional Magic Power, so she maximizes damage output from spellcasters. Table of Contents:

6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 6.5 6.6 6.7 6.8 6.9 6.10 6.11 6.12 6.13 6.14 6.15 6.16 6.17 6.18 6.19 6.20 6.21 6.22 6.23 6.24 6.25 6.26

Knight Monk Thief Dragoon Ninja Samurai Berserker Ranger Mystic Knight White Mage Black Mage Time Mage Summoner Blue Mage Red Mage Beastmaster Chemist Geomancer Bard Dancer Necromancer Oracle Cannoneer Gladiator Mime Freelancer

I will talk below about how action and support abilities work. If an action ability opens up a menu with multiple choices or the action ability itself will randomly do any number of things, section 7.0 will have it listed. I will also talk about how a Job will perform through the game in a manner I hope you'll find unbiased. Since it's impossible to tackle a Job as a whole, I'll look at it from three sides: the Job itself (and how it may perform with other abilities), the abilities it teaches (and how useful they can be on other Jobs) and how it affects the Freelancer (and Mime) Job. This is to circumvent ratings without meaning; giving the Red Mage a high score disregards how bad it sucks, giving it a low score ignores !Dualcast, giving it a medium score reflects neither. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.1 Knight [KNIGHT-LINK] ********************************** "Valiant warriors who protect allies low on HP." Stats:

Strength: + 23 Agility: + 01 Vitality: + 20 Magic Power: - 14 Can equip: Knives, Swords, Knightswords, Shields, Heavy Helmets, Clothes, Heavy Armor, Gauntlets Freelancer gains: Cover, Strength bonus, Agility bonus, Vitality bonus !Attack !Guard ---!Item 10 ABP Cover 30 ABP !Guard 50 ABP Two-Handed 100 ABP Equip Shield 150 ABP Equip Armor 350 ABP Equip Swords Cover 10 ABP Support ability A character with Cover will absorb Battle and Special Techniques meant for other characters, but only characters that are crouching down (having 12.5 % of their maximum HP or less). If the character in question has Petrify, Zombie, Death, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk or Stop set, or is off-screen, Cover won't activate. !Guard 40 ABP Action ability After using !Guard, the character will not perform any action but to sit there, guarding. The guarding character will not take any direct damage from physical hits, though the Sap status caused by the physical hit will still damage the character. Counterattacks are still activated, so physical attackers can be completely locked down by a combination of !Guard and the Counter support ability. Two-Handed 90 ABP Support ability (needs to be equipped) Will raise any character's Strength to base Freelancer Strength + 13. In addition, Swords, Knightswords, Axes/Hammers and Katanas, in addition to those weapon groups, the Staff, the Flail and the Morning Star may be held in two hands, doubling damage done. No shield can be equipped while this support ability is active. Equip Shield 190 ABP Support ability (needs to be equipped) Shields can be equipped. Equip Armor 340 ABP Support ability (needs to be equipped)

Heavy Armor can be equipped. This only includes armor, not shields, heavy helmets or gauntlets. Equip Swords 710 ABP Support ability (needs to be equipped) Will raise any character's Strength to base Freelancer Strength + 23. Also, Swords and Knightswords can be equipped. As a Job: The Knight is the first heavy armor Job you get, and will not get outclassed at the physical powerhouse department. The Knight has the highest Strength in the original installment, and you won't be getting to the slightly more powerful Gladiator in a long long time. The only heavy armor Job with more Stamina is uncontrollable and slow. The Knight is the only Job that is able to equip the powerful Knightswords and is the only heavy armor Job with a support ability that helps out the team. The combination of Cover and !Guard can provide immunity to physical attacks for the entire team, provided the other three characters are all crouching down. The Knight is simple, really, but good at what it does. Taught abilities: The Knight is the essential starting point of any heavy armor characters. Two-Handed helps out Berserkers, Samurai, Mystic Knights and Gladiators alike. The Equip Knightstuff abilities will only find meaning it you multiclass outside of the Heavy Armor Jobpool, and if you're sure you won't need extra options in a boss fight or dungeon, Equip Shields can really rank up a mage's survivability, but only later in the game where Shields have a stronger impact. Ninjas can benefit from two Knightswords, and the Strength boost comes in handy as well. !Guard is useful on Monks to make units physically invulnerable while still doing damage (through Counter). Cover is a triviality late-game where the Mirage Vest, Mighty Guard and Golem make sure physical attacks are not very dangerous in general. It can be handy when you're forced to revive a character with a Phoenix Down or Raise spell; they'll be vulnerable before they're healed further, and Cover provides them with efficient protection. Freelancer gains: Nice Strength and Stamina bonus (though not as high as the Monk's). While playing like a pro, Cover should never kick in at all, though as a safety net it's better than nothing. A Mastered Knight turned Freelancer is better at it than a Knight due to equipment choices such as a Ribbon and more Magic Power to utilize a Rune Blade. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.2 Monk [MONK-LINK] ********************************** "Masters of hand-to-hand combat who intuitively counterattack."

Stats: Strength: + 26 Agility: + 01 Vitality: + 26 Magic Power: - 23 Can equip: Light Helmets, Clothes, Armlets Freelancer gains: Counter, Strength bonus, Agility bonus, Vitality bonus !Attack !Kick ---!Item 15 ABP !Focus 30 ABP Barehanded 45 ABP !Chakra 60 ABP Counter 100 ABP HP +10% 150 ABP HP +20% 300 ABP HP +30%

!Focus 15 ABP Action ability Forces the character to wait one turn, only to strike with twice the power of a !Attack command on the next one. !Focus removes the weapon's random spellcasting and special abilities, though Spellblade effects will be in effect and critical hits (including MP-driven ones) will work normally. Weapons that deal damage based on Magic Power, such as Rods and the Blood Sword (not Staves) will work normally, but won't get the damage boost. Barehanded 45 ABP Support ability (needs to be equipped) Barehanded gives the character base Freelancer Strength + 26 and greatly increases the potential of the Fists weapon (the one you use when you have no weapon equipped). !Chakra 90 ABP Action ability Heals the user with a 30 base power healing spell and also removes Darkness and Poison. Cannot be used on another target than the caster. Counter 150 ABP Support ability For every successful physical attack, a character equipped with this ability has a 50 % chance of retaliating with a physical attack. Since counter-attacks are itself never countered, this can be used to circumvent counter-attacks, monster calling and bit setting of various kinds. Certain bosses use physical attacks that cannot be Countered. All weapons work normally when used in a counter-attack, but weapons that randomly perform a command (Thief

Knife, Chicken Knife, Gale Bow) will never do so, and the Twin Lance will only attack once. HP +10% 250 ABP Support ability (needs to be equipped) Increases maximum HP by 10 % HP +20% 400 ABP Support ability (needs to be equipped) Increases maximum HP by 20 % HP +30% 700 ABP Support ability (needs to be equipped) Increases maximum HP by 30 % Other features: !Kick !Kick is the only Action ability in this game that is not actually learned by the Job that uses it, making !Kick Monk-only. It deals multi-target physical damage to the enemy party as if it had delivered a single unarmed blow to all targets. The Barehanded support ability and the Kaiser Knuckle accessory boost the power done by !Kick, but equipped weapons will be completely ignored. As a Job: The Monk is on-and-off the most powerful Clothes Job. The Monk has the highest Strength AND Vitality of the game and is very cheap to equip as he uses no weapons whatsoever. What he lacks on pure Defensive armor he makes up for with a very high amount of Hit Points. !Kick is a nice MT physical attack that in a shocking change of pace can NOT be learned and be put on another class. The inherent support ability of the Monk, Counter, is nothing to scoff at; 50 % of all physical attacks that strike the Monk will be countered with a !Attack command. Taught abilities: !Focus is not generally useful as it takes twice as long to deal twice as much damage. In addition, no random spellcasting, so it seems you generally lose out. However, !Focus will never let a random command butt into the attack, so the Chicken Knife can be used without fear of fleeing and the Dancing Dagger can be used without seeing Mystery Waltz for the umptienth time. Barehanded is one of the greatest things ever, though. Barehanded is the support ability that turns your otherwise incredibly weak Fists into weapons to be feared. Your Fists themselves become more powerful the higher the character's level is. Barehanded also imbues the character with the Monk's Strength (+ 26) so any character given the Barehanded ability will make as much use out of it as the Monk itself. You needn't even throw your weapons away; Barehanded will make sure you swing that blade with much more fury than before. Freelancer gains: The Monk is awesome here. The Monk gains the highest Strength and Stamina increase of any Job on the market, and inherent Counter to boot. If you want super-Freelancers, you can't let the Monk slide. Note that the ability to punch

like a Monk needs to be equipped, as well as the HP bonus abilities. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.3 Thief [THIEF-LINK] ********************************** "Expert bandits who espy secret passages and foil back attacks. They can sprint by holding the B Button." Stats: Strength: + 01 Agility: + 16 Vitality: + 02 Magic Power: - 06 Can equip: Knives, Light Helmets, Clothes, Armlets, Moonring Blade, Rising Sun, Twin Lance, Thief's Gloves Freelancer gains: Find Passages, Sprint, Vigilance, Artful Dodger, Strength bonus, Agility bonus, Vitality bonus !Attack !Steal ---!Item 10 ABP Find Passages 20 ABP !Flee 30 ABP Sprint 50 ABP !Steal 75 ABP Vigilance 150 ABP !Mug 300 ABP Artful dodger Find Passages 10 ABP Support ability There are hidden passages in walls, and this ability allows you to see them clearly. There are also invisible stepping tiles at some location which appear to fall under this catagory. !Flee 30 ABP Action ability This ability allows you to escape immediately from any battle you can escape from. It does simply count as having run away, so the Brave Blade and the Chicken Knife are affected. Sprint 60 ABP Support ability Allows you to run in dungeons. It is needed to get a single chest in this game, and it's useful in timed situations. Also, once you're used to running and you stop doing it, your brain feels like it's going to explode. Arguably

the only support ability to actually make your characters weaker as as opposed to your sanity, as they won't benefit from it. !Steal 110 ABP Action ability Attempts to steal an opponent's item. Vigilance 185 ABP Support ability Turns any Back Attacks you might've otherwise encountered into normal situations, even fixed Back Attacks. !Mug 335 ABP Action ability Attacks and steals in a single attack. When using !Mug, no weapon will ever have a special effect or cast an additional spell. Artful Dodger 635 ABP Support ability Gives the character an Agility of base Freelancer +16. As a Job: Boy, the Thief really sucks as a melee unit. Thankfully, that is not what the Thief is about. The Thief has really poor Strength for a Clothes Job, and the bad Stamina doesn't help his case. If you want to make a Thief a damage dealer or capable healer, make sure you give him an ability that both gives him offensive options and raises the proper stat for it: Barehanded and any spellcasting skillset comes to mind. You will, however, return to the Thief every now and then as even though he can pass !Steal on to other Jobs, those Jobs won't be able to equip the Thief's Gloves. If you want to steal, you'll want a Thief, no exceptions. Taught abilities: The Thief teaches you how to be a Thief, but poorer. !Steal and !Mug's item producing qualities won't work as well without a pair of Thief's Gloves and all the other abilities are, well, they're nice. I mean, they're not useless. You just won't ever specifically think to yourself "If only I had those right now". Artful Dodger can be used to let Berserkers take the first turn, but that's about it. Freelancer gains: There is some use to sticking to the Thief past some boss fights with rare items, though! The Thief has the highest Agility in the game, meaning that you'll want to master it for Freelancer stat optimizing. Vigilance and Sprint certainly don't hurt; a Back Attack can be very painful. Freelancers with the !Steal ability are better Thieves than Thieves, since stats are better. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.4 Dragoon [DRAGOON-LINK] **********************************

"Dragon knights who specialize in jumping and lance attacks." Stats: Strength: + 18 Agility: + 05 Vitality: + 15 Magic Power: - 12 Can equip: Knives, Lances, Shields, Heavy Helmets, Clothes, Heavy Armor, Gauntlets Freelancer gains: Strength bonus, Agility bonus, Vitality bonus !Attack !Jump ---!Item 50 ABP !Jump 150 ABP !Lance 400 ABP Equip Lances !Jump 50 ABP Action ability Allows the character to use a Jump attack, causing it be jump into the air and remain off-screen for a period of time about equivalent of a turn. It will then land with an unblockable physical attack that's like an !Attack, only Row has no effect, special effects and additional magic spells won't be used. Critical hits (including MP-driven "critical hits" and auto-critical hits due to Nature exploitation) may occur at normal odds. In addition, Spears (including the Twin Lance), the Man-Eater and the Judgment Staff and the Staff of Light (due to a bug) will deal double damage. Spellblade effects will be applied through !Jump. Weapons that deal no damage and instead produce a spell (Harps, Wonder Wand, Healing Staff, etc.) will do nothing in tandem with !Jump. Rods may miss even with !Jump; Lilith Rods will apply their special effects, but may also miss. The attack Interceptor Rocket is specifically designed to stop Jump attacks. !Lance 200 ABP Action ability This ability is an unblockable magical attack that drains both HP and MP from a single target. Equip Lances 600 ABP Support ability (needs to be equipped) Gives the character base Freelancer Strength +18, and allows the character to equip Lances. While the Twin Lance is technically a Lance, it doesn't fall under this catagory, nor does the Man-Eater (you might've been confused by their illogical Jump bonus). As a Job:

The Dragoon is, more than any other Job, good at surviving. It takes fewer hits then the others due to !Jump, and it shares its impressive armor options with fellow heavy armor Jobs. Other heavy armor Jobs can take Two-Handed to double damage, the Dragoon must Jump, which means that the Dragoon will be away for half of the battle and the battle will be longer. Neither of these things bode well for more frail units. I can give the best impression by calling the Dragoon the only egoistical heavy armor Job there is. If this is a good trait to have for a meatshield is something you must decide for yourself. I find the best Dragoons to be those that defy the very thing that makes them Dragoon and start to Dual-Wield Lances on the ground or cast Blue or Summon spells with the aid of Air Knives. Taught abilities: Lances are just inferior choices to Knightswords (which are powerful) and Katanas (which have critical hit possibilities), so the only reason to equip them is !Jump. Equip Lances on any Job inherently lacks !Jump, so it's useless on anything but a Dragoon-themed Freelancer. !Jump is useless without Lances, so the same generally goes for that. The two classes that can benefit from !Jump are the Gladiator (the only other Job that can wield a Lance) and technically the Dancer with a Man-Eater, but that combo works better with the Dragoon as a base Job and the Equip Ribbon ability. The Twin Lance used by Thieves, Ninjas and Mines also deals double damage through !Jump, but since it'll hit only once as opposed to twice through !Jump, it's kind of a moot point. !Lance is a bit useful, I guess, on mages. !Mix replenishes MP as well though, and has infinite amounts of miscellaneous options as a side dish. Freelancer gains: The Dragoon has inferior stats to other Jobs and no inherent ability is passed on. You can safely ignore the Dragoon if you want to end up as a Freelancer. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.5 Ninja [NINJA-LINK] ********************************** "Stealthy fighters who excel at surprising enemies and can wield two weapons at once." Stats: Strength: + 15 Agility: + 14 Vitality: + 03 Magic Power: - 10 Can equip: Knives, Ninja Knives, Light Helmets, Clothes, Armlets, Moonring Blade, Rising Sun, Twin Lance Freelancer gains: First Strike, Dual-Wield, Strength bonus, Agility bonus, Vitality bonus

!Attack !Throw ---!Item 10 ABP !Smoke 30 ABP !Image 50 ABP First Strike 150 ABP !Throw 450 ABP Dual-Wield !Smoke 10 ABP Action ability This ability allows you to escape immediately from any battle you can escape from. It does simply count as having run away, so the Brave Blade and the Chickenknife are affected. !Image 30 ABP Action ability Sets Image (2), causing the character to avoid two physical hits without fail. First Strike 50 ABP Support ability Doubles the chances of running into a Preemptive strike. !Throw 150 ABP Action ability Opens up a menu which allows you to Throw a large array of weapons. Ninja Scrolls depends on Magic Power, thrown weapons (including Throw-only weapons such as Ash, Shuriken and Ninja Stars) are simply an incredibly powerful physical strike that depends on Level, Strength and Agility. When an item is thrown, it will be gone from you inventory. Thrown weapons ignore all aspects of the weapon throw, as well as Row and element. !Throw is also unblockable. For more info on !Throw, see [THROW-LINK] Dual-Wield 450 ABP Support ability The character is able to wield a weapon in each hand. Obviously this doesn't work with Two-Handed weapons, such as Bows and Harps. As a Job: I want you to answer this serious question. Have you ever seen a ninja in any video game that wasn't better at everything than the other characters? The Ninja as a Job has it all. Decent Strength, great Agility and inherent First Strike and Dual-Wield. The damage potential is already there, you needn't really stick anything on there to make it work. Equip (weapon) can be a great support ability since Knives aren't the greatest thing, but that's just overkill. A magic skillset to boost the Ninja's Magic Power to mage levels is also incredibly effective to make Scrolls very powerful. In this scenario, it's a damn shame that the Ninja has no way of boosting the elements.

Taught abilities: !Throw is divided in the physical apartment and the magical one. The Ninja is THE best physical thrower as no Job combines Strength and Agility quite like him (Ranger and Mystic Knight come darn close). However, the truly deadly potential of !Throw lies in its Scrolls. A Lightning Scroll is about 2.5 as powerful as Ramuh, but damage generally comes out about equal due to the Ninja's only crappy stat, Magic Power. Stick !Throw on a Mage, equip an elemental Rod of your choosing (Fire or Lightning) and watch the sickening amounts of damage fly. !Image has potential it can hardly live up to. With a party full of !Image users, you can effectively make your entire party immune to physical attacks. However, it comes at the great cost of an ability slot so that probably won't be the case. In addition, while self-applied Image is great, it's not good enough to, again, warrant an entire slot. Had it been a Scroll to Throw it would've made the perfect preparation attack, but as it stands you either need to find a physical-only boss or don't bother. Dual-Wield is double damage at the cost of a shield, like Two-Handed. The big difference is that this works with any weapon (unless it requires two hands). On Thieves, Dragoons, Beastmasters and Dancers, this can greatly improve their damage output. Actually Dual-Wield and Two-Handed are very similar. When both can be used, Dual-Wield is more reliable (as it make two Hit Rate checks and can hit with either) as Two-Handed is slightly more powerful most of the time since the most powerful weapon is often unique (meaning the other hands needs to 'settle' for a less powerful one). Freelancer gains: Awesome! First Strike is a good thing and the Ninja gives a very decent Agility boost, but Dual-Wield is where it's at. It is a required component for the most powerful physical combo in the game and is just great all around. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.6 Samurai [SAMURAI-LINK] ********************************** "Master swordsmen whose keen reflexes allow them to intercept and deflect enemy attacks." Stats: Strength: + 19 Agility: + 02 Vitality: + 19 Magic Power: - 12 Can equip: Knives, Katanas, Shields, Heavy Helmets, Clothes, Heavy Armor, Gauntlets

Freelancer gains: Shiradori, Strength bonus, Agility bonus, Vitality bonus !Attack !Zeninage ---!Item 10 ABP !Mineuchi 30 ABP !Zeninage 60 ABP Shiradori 180 ABP Equip Katanas 540 ABP !Iainuki !Mineuchi 10 ABP Action ability Deals normal !Attack damage, disregard special effects and doesn't allow for special effects. It also does *not* dispel Controlled, Confuse and Sleep status, making it the only physical attack that is able to circumvent this. All official sources state !Mineuchi adds Paralyze, but this isn't the case, due to what most likely can be called a bug. !Zeninage 40 ABP Action ability !Zeninage is an INCREDIBLY powerful physical attack. I mean, really. It far surpasses anything but the very late-game vintage set-ups, is non-elemental and unblockable. The only downside is how it costs you money. It's 50 * level * enemies attacked. Shiradori 100 ABP Support ability Before 'normal' Hit Rate calculations begin, the character has a 25 % chance of dodging the attack anyway when this ability is equipped. Equip Katanas 280 ABP Support ability Gives the character base Freelancer Strength + 19 and allows them to equip Katanas. !Iainuki 820 ABP Action ability This unique attack is a true gamble. It's a multi-target attack that attempts to kill all targets immediately. It has a 85 % Hit Rate but also takes into account the level factor all magical attacks do. It will never work on Heavy targets. As a Job: The Samurai wields the most impressive weapon of all. His MIND. Just kidding, he wields Katanas. It's uses the normal Sword's damage formula and is compatible with Two-Handed, but aside of all that Katanas simply tend to be strong. The best thing they've got going is the fact they have critical hit rates. This makes the Samurai the Heavy Armor Job with the best average damage output. It's really a damn shame Katanas and !Spellblade don't go together. The

Samurai has inherent Shiradori and thus avoid more physical attacks than other Jobs. I don't even consider !Zeninage as it's this game auto-win button. His stats are decent. Strength a bit below the Knight and Berserker, but his weapon selection make him the more dangerous one anyway. Taught abilities: !Zeninage is not an ability, it is a sin. !Zeninage is not an ability, it is a sin. !Zeninage is not an ability, it is a sin. !Zeninage is not an ability, it is a sin. !Zeninage is not an ability, it is a sin. !Zeninage is not an ability, it is a sin. !Zeninage is not an ability, it is a sin. !Zeninage is not an ability, it is a sin. !Zeninage is not an ability, it is a sin. !Zeninage is not an ability, it is a sin. !Mineuchi is bugged and useless. !Iainuki is slow, unpredictable death versus many honorless opponents. These are useless, and there are no other abilities learned. None that are not a sin, I mean. Freelancer gains: Inherent Shiradori is nothing to scoff at, but that's about it. There is no stat that the Samurai improves better than other heavy armor Jobs, so for a Freelancer the Samurai offers little but the action abilities it learns. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.7 Berserker [BERSERKER-LINK] ********************************** "Always berserk in battle, these feral warriors sacrifice commands to gain attack strength and power." Stats: Strength: + 21 Agility: - 09 Vitality: + 25 Magic Power: - 23 Can equip: Axes, Hammers, Shields, Heavy Helmets, Clothes, Heavy Armor, Gauntlets Freelancer gains: Strength bonus, Vitality bonus (no commands, acts automatically) 100 ABP Berserk

400 ABP Equip Axes Berserk 100 ABP Support ability (needs to be equipped) Sets the Berserk status in-battle. This makes the character uncontrollable but increases physical damage done by 50 %. This also makes the character immune to Confuse. The character does not start acting until it would normally be able to select an attack. Equip Axes 500 ABP Support ability (needs to be equipped) Gives the character base Freelancer Strength + 21 and, don't be fooled, it DOES allows the character to equip both Axes AND Hammers. As a Job: The Berserker shines early in the game. With great amounts of HP and great Strength, the Berserker can deliver extreme amounts of damage when given the Two-Handed ability. Remember, no Action ability will actually work on the Berserker (outside of giving stat boosts). The Death Sickle which is obtained late in the first world is an extremely potent weapon. Combining the Gaia Hammer with an action ability that raises Magic Power is also extremely potent, and since it's Back Row OK will never suffer from row penalties. When the worlds change, you start to gain more and more control over your battle situation and both you and the opponents can create more and more special effects on the battlefield. The Berserker is too easily fazed; its great damage output can now be equalled by other (mainly magical) Jobs and the lack of control becomes an extreme hindrance. Taught abilities: Berserk is a useful ability if you favor defense over offense, as opposed to Dual-Wield and Two-Handed, it increases damage without decreasing defense. The loss of control is something you'll have to keep in mind, though. Since you'll often curse at your Berserked unit for attacking a unit in the Back Row for lesser damage, Berserk is best set when facing single targets or when wielding weapons that deal the same amount of damage from (and to) the Back Row. Axes and Hammers are unique weapons as they only take 25 % of the target's Defense into account, making them able to cut through high-Defense enemies and deliver more damage on the whole; they're not very impressive otherwise since they do no deliver Critical Hits or work with Spellblade, and equip Axes is therefor a poor ability to set. Freelancer gains: It is a GOOD thing the Freelancer doesn't pick up auto-Berserk, as that would make mastering the Berserker a liability. As for stats, the Berserker gives great Strength and Stamina, but not as good as the Monk. Nothing to see here, is what I'm saying. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.8 Ranger [RANGER-LINK]

********************************** "Nature-loving archers who can call on local wildlife for aid." Stats: Strength: + 16 Agility: + 12 Vitality: + 01 Magic Power: - 05 Can equip: Knives, Bows, Light Helmets, Clothes, Armlets Freelancer gains: Strength bonus, Agility bonus, Vitality bonus !Attack !Aim ---!Item 15 ABP !Animals 45 ABP !Aim 135 ABP Equip Bows 405 ABP !Rapid Fire !Animals 15 ABP Action ability Calls forth a random woodland friend to aid you in battle. For more info on !Animals, see [ANIMALS-LINK] !Aim 60 ABP Action ability Performs a !Attack command, but unblockable. Rods may still miss. Cannot be used when affected by the Darkness status ailment. Equip Bows 195 ABP Support ability (needs to be equipped) Gives the character base Freelancer Strength + 16 and base Freelancer Agility +12 and allows the character to equip Bows. !Rapid Fire 600 ABP Action ability Allows the character to attack physically four times, but the multiplier is halved and Defense isn't taken into account. !Rapid Fire cannot be blocked, and additional spells and special effects won't come into play. The third and fourth strike of !Rapid Fire provoke no counters, nor do they dispel Sleep, Confuse or Controlled. As a Job: The Ranger has good Strength for a Clothes Job, but low Stamina. This is countered by the fact that the Ranger can remain in the Back Row. He's quite poor against magic attacks for this reason, as he has neither the HP nor the magical robes to withstand them. The only thing that makes a Ranger stand out

as a Job is the ability to wield Bows and the ability to strike with unerring accuracy. Bows are not very good, lack impressive special abilities and their damage is really hard to boost since it requires two hands. Without !Aim, you will see that their accuracy is also pretty bad, this being only 70 % for most Bows. The most powerful Bows for their time are the Hayate Bow when stolen in Drakenvale and the Artemis Bow when wielded versus Magic Beasts, which makes them quite potent. Taught abilities: I can be quick about Equip Bows, 'cause it sucks. Bows without !Aim miss a lot. There is no reason to especially want them. If you want damage potential on White and Time Mages, equip an offensive magic skillset. Other Jobs are better served by better physical options such as Barehanded or Dual-Wield. There's a few niche scenarios (the Artemis Bow really does pack a great punch versus Magic Beasts, and has a non-bad Hit Rate so that's good on Thieves or somesuch) where you can use those two anyway, though.!Aim on other Jobs is often a triviality as well, since Bows are about the only weapons to miss often anyway. Except Axes and Hammers, but you can't !Aim with a Berserker, so the Gladiator is the only Job (wielding both Axes and Bows) that could negate a present miss chance. The Blood Sword is another notable oddity where !Aim could prove useful. !Animals is very sweet, actually. Those few that deal damage will run off Magic Power, so !Animals is best utilized on a Job with high Magic Power. With only 15 ABP needed to learn the command, it's a great secondary action ability for Black Mages and Summoners since they already can deal great amounts of damage. !Rapid Fire is where physical attacks get broken. The attack becomes effectively twice as powerful, is unblockable, ignores Defense and has no random effects. With Dual-Wield, that's eight attacks. !Rapid Fire works together with !Spellblade. !Rapid Fire is the best physical-related ability in the game and you can't pass it up. For this reason, the Ranger is not a forgotten Job but a very popular one. Freelancer gains: Nothing, really. No inherent qualities and no stat boots worth mentioning when you compare them to other options. Freelancers are best employed as physical attacks though (since Mimes are better casters), and you'll want !Rapid Fire for them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.9 Mystic Knight [MYSTIC-LINK] ********************************** "Able to enchant swords, these magical warriors automatically cast Shell when HP is low."

Stats: Strength: + 14 Agility: + 14 Vitality: + 14 Magic Power: + 01 Can equip: Knives, Swords, Shields, Heavy Helmets, Clothes, Heavy Armor, Gauntlets Freelancer gains: Magic Shell, Strength bonus, Agility bonus, Vitality bonus, Magic Power bonus !Attack !Spellblade ---!Item 10 ABP Magic Shell 20 ABP !Spellblade (level 1) 30 ABP !Spellblade (level 2) 50 ABP !Spellblade (level 3) 70 ABP !Spellblade (level 4) 100 ABP !Spellblade (level 5) 400 ABP !Spellblade (level 6) Magic Shell 10 ABP Support ability When the character reaches Near Death status (12.5 % maximum HP or less), a Magic Barrier will be immediately cast, setting Shell on the character, halving magical damage done and halving the Hit Rate for magical attacks. !Spellblade 1 30 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Strength + 4 and base Freelancer Magic Power - 9 and allows the character to cast up to level 1 Sword Magic. For more info on !Spellblade, see [SPELLBLADE-LINK] !Spellblade 2 60 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Strength + 6 and base Freelancer Magic Power - 7 and allows the character to cast up to level 2 Sword Magic. !Spellblade 3 110 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Strength + 8 and base Freelancer Magic Power - 5 and allows the character to cast up to level 3 Sword Magic. !Spellblade 4 180 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Strength + 10 and base Freelancer Magic Power - 3 and allows the character to cast up to level 4 Sword Magic.

!Spellblade 5 280 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Strength + 12 and base Freelancer Magic Power - 1 and allows the character to cast up to level 5 Sword Magic. !Spellblade 6 680 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Strength + 14 and base Freelancer Magic Power + 1 and allows the character to cast all Sword Magic. As a Job: The Mystic Knight has surprising stats for a heavy armor Job, as its Agility and Magic Power are higher than you'd expect. He ranks quite high in Agility compared to other Jobs (second!) and he even gets a tiniest of Magic Power boosts over a Freelancer. His Strength and Stamina, obviously, suffer. Strength is comparable to Clothes Jobs and Stamina, while high, is bad compared to other heavy armor Jobs. As a melee tank, he is good enough but bad compared to similair options. The Mystic Knight doesn't hit as hard as the other Jobs and needs to spend a turn casting a spell on his weapon before he can be anything but a weaker Knight. This turns out great for boss fights and bad for random encounters, to put it bluntly. Two-Handed is a great support ability to boost his damage, at the expense of a Shield, and Equip Sword puts him on the level of the Knight. Taught abilities: Magic Shell, of course, is useless even as a free support ability; there's no way you'll want to give up your single ability slot for it. !Spellblade as an ability is half-decent, but not awesome. A Knight with !Spellblade will be better than a Mystic Knight. However, you'll really want a support ability such as Two-Handed or Dual-Wield to increase damage so you'll wind up returning to the Mystic Knight anyway. Ninjas really benefit from Spellblade by the way, since Knives are affected by !Spellblade and they have inherent Dual-Wield. Freelancer gains: Magic Shell, technically, but you shouldn't need to see it. The stat boosts are nothing to write home about either. The best physical attacker contains a slot for !Spellblade 6 however, so you'll want to master Mystic Knight regardless. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.10 White Mage [WHITEM-LINK] ********************************** "Priests who use white magic to heal and protect allies." Stats: Strength: - 07 Agility: + 01 Vitality: 00

Magic Power: + 25 Can Equip: Staves, Hats, Robes, Armlets Freelancer gains: Agility bonus, Magic Power bonus !Attack !White ---!Item 10 ABP !White (level 1) 20 ABP !White (level 2) 30 ABP !White (level 3) 50 ABP !White (level 4) 70 ABP !White (level 5) 100 ABP !White (level 6) 300 ABP MP +10% !White 1 10 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 15 and allows the character to cast level 1 White Magic. For more info on !White, see [WHITE-LINK] !White 2 30 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 17 and allows the character to cast level 2 White Magic. !White 3 60 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 19 and allows the character to cast level 3 White Magic. !White 4 110 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 21 and allows the character to cast level 4 White Magic. !White 5 180 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 23 and allows the character to cast level 5 White Magic. !White 6 280 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 25 and allows the character to cast all White Magic. MP +10% 580 ABP Support ability (needs to be equipped) Maximum MP increases by 10 %. As a Job:

White Mages suck! Boo! No, seriously, it's easy to miss how bad they are, but they are. Here's how. They have quite a bit less Magic Power than, say, Black Mages or Summoners. In addition, they can equip neither Rods NOR Knives. Throughout their career, the White Mage cannot boost Black spells or even the powerful Wind-elemental attack of the Summoner. Not counting the very end where through a single Staff the White Mage can boost the Holy spell, you will always be better off sticking White magic on a Black Mage or Summoner. There is a small window during with Titan is your most powerful spell; since the White Mage can equip Gaia Gear, he can boost like everybody else. Taught abilities: !White is quite potent, and thus the White Mage is redeemed. Buffs are often trivial, but healing of HP and status ailments is useful and raising the fallen even moreso. What can I say? You'll want a spot for !White versus bosses. At the end of the game, the single offensive White spell, Holy, makes a grand appearance. The only two weapons to boost its power are a Staff and a Bell, thus making the Time Mage, Red Mage, Chemist, Geomancer and Oracle the best Holy casters. Otherwise, !White just runs off Magic Power, so powerful mages make powerful White mages. Freelancer gains: Nothing, really. MP + 10% needs to be set and is inferior to the similar MP + 30% anyway. The only stat is really raises is Magic Power, at which it is not very adept compared to other Mages. !White 6 is awesome to be able to set to Freelancers and Mimes, though. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.11 Black Mage [BLACKM-LINK] ********************************** "Wizards whose powerful black magic strikes fear into enemies." Stats: Strength: - 09 Agility: 00 Vitality: - 02 Magic Power: + 31 Can equip: Knives, Rods, Hats, Robes, Armlets Freelancer gains: Magic Power bonus !Attack !Black ---!Item

10 ABP !Black (level 1) 20 ABP !Black (level 2) 30 ABP !Black (level 3) 50 ABP !Black (level 4) 70 ABP !Black (level 5) 100 ABP !Black (level 6) 450 ABP MP +30% !Black 1 10 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 16 and allows the character to cast level 1 Black Magic. For more info on !Black, see [BLACK-LINK] !Black 2 30 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 19 and allows the character to cast level 2 Black Magic. !Black 3 60 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 22 and allows the character to cast level 3 Black Magic. !Black 4 110 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 25 and allows the character to cast level 4 Black Magic. !Black 5 180 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 28 and allows the character to cast level 5 Black Magic. !Black 6 280 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 31 and allows the character to cast all Black Magic. MP +30% 730 ABP Support ability (needs to be equipped) Increases maximum MP by 30 % As a Job: The Black Mage has great Magic Power (second only to the Summoner and late-game Oracle) and the ability to wield Rods. You've won right there! The Black Mage has everything you'd want from him. I don't know what to say about him! The Black Mage is better at healing than the White Mage if you give him White spells, and since he has offense built-in the Black Mage can be boosted by, say, Equip Shield, !Lance, !Animals, whatever half-decent utility option you can think of. Just don't try to give weapons to the guy, it's not what he's here for. Taught abilities: The Black spelllist is quite excellent throughout the entire game. The three

elements the Black Mage specializes in are the three most popular elements to be weak against and are easily boosted as well. It's too bad the ultimate Black spell, Flare, is non-elemental and cannot be boosted, meaning it'll fall short of boosted 'lesser' spells. Black spells have a problem with Reflective enemies, but they are rare indeed. Freelancer gains: Nothing again, really. Not the highest Magic Power, no inherent abilities. MP + 30% is quite useless as well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.12 Time Mage [TIMEM-LINK] ********************************** "Masters of space and time, these mages easily bend all dimensions to their will." Stats: Strength: - 05 Agility: + 02 Vitality: - 03 Magic Power: + 24 Can equip: Knives, Rods, Staves, Hats, Robes, Armlets Freelancer gains: Agility bonus, Magic Power bonus !Attack !Time ---!Item 10 ABP !Time (level 1) 20 ABP !Time (level 2) 30 ABP !Time (level 3) 50 ABP !Time (level 4) 70 ABP !Time (level 5) 100 ABP !Time (level 6) 250 ABP Equip Rods !Time 1 10 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 14 and allows the character to cast level 1 Dimension Magic. For more info on !Time, see [TIME-LINK] !Time 2 30 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 16 and allows the character to cast level 2 Dimension Magic.

!Time 3 60 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 18 and allows the character to cast level 3 Dimension Magic. !Time 4 110 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 20 and allows the character to cast level 4 Dimension Magic. !Time 5 180 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 22 and allows the character to cast level 5 Dimension Magic. !Time 6 280 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 24 and allows the character to cast all Dimension Magic. Equip Rods 530 ABP Support ability (needs to be equipped) Allows the character to equip Rods, Staves and the Flail & Morning Star. As a Job: The Time Mage performs as a lesser Black Mage; Magic Power is lower by a fair bit and !Time has trouble dealing damage, meaning that you're stuck setting something like !Black or !Summon as your secondary ability. The Time Mage can, however, equip Rods and thus have enough damage potential as long as you make sure they can cast spells to deal damage in the first place. You won't be disappointed by the Time spellist, though their worth is far more clear in longer battles where buffs and debuffs make the difference. Taught abilities: Equip Rods, to start with that, is worthless. It would be needed if there was a Job with respectable Magic Power and elemental options that would otherwise lack any means of boosting elements. There is no such thing. A Ninja or Beastmaster could stand to boost Scrolls and Released monster attack, but the Ninja is better off with an ability to boost Magic Power and the only monsters worth Catching and Releasing are those who use the non-elemental Strong Fight anyway. !Time is a great skillset to set on Black Mages and Summoners, as it gives them buff and debuff options next to violence. Since such a large part of !Time doesn't depend on the caster's Magic Power or elemental boosting, !Time is the only skillset that works well on any Job; Monks could use it and be glad they did (though lay off the Comet spells). Freelancer gains: Nothing. Magic Power isn't too hot, other stats don't do anything and the Time Mage has no inherent abilities. !Time is a great second spellist for a Mime,

though; together with !Dualcast and either !Black or !Summon, !Time is an essential cogwheel in the Magical Mime Machine of Massacre. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.13 Summoner [SUMMONER-LINK] ********************************** "Sorcerers with the ability to summon magical beings and harness their power." Stats: Strength: - 10 Agility: - 01 Vitality: - 01 Magic Power: + 33 Can equip: Knives, Rods, Hats, Robes, Armlets Freelancer gains: Magic Power bonus !Attack !Summon ---!Item 15 ABP !Summon (level 1) 30 ABP !Summon (level 2) 45 ABP !Summon (level 3) 60 ABP !Summon (level 4) 100 ABP !Summon (level 5) 500 ABP !Call !Summon 1 15 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 17 and allows the character to cast level 1 Summon Magic. For more info on !Summon, see [SUMMON-LINK] !Summon 2 45 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 21 and allows the character to cast level 2 Summon Magic. !Summon 3 90 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 25 and allows the character to cast level 3 Summon Magic. !Summon 4 150 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 29 and allows the character to cast level 4 Summon Magic.

!Summon 5 250 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 33 and allows the character to cast all Summon Magic. !Call 750 ABP Action ability Calls forth a random Summon monster that you've obtained for no MP cost. Call may use any attack; Odin will use Gungnir when Heavy targets are present, Fat Chocobo may appear and Phoenix may revive a character if it randomly targets a Dead character. As a Job: The Summoner goes toe-to-toe with the Black Mage the entire game, sometimes surpassing it and sometimes falling behind it a bit. Better at crowd control versus stronger ST attacks. Various defensive options versus offensive status ailments. As a Job, the Summoner has a bit higher Magic Power and was the most powerful caster until the Oracle was invented. Summoners can equip Rods as well, so nothing to wish for there. The Summoner is awesome. Taught abilities: The offensive spells are awesome. Titan can be boosted with Gaia Gear and thus by White Mages. Syldra can be boosted by a Knife and thus by any Job except the Monk and White Mage. Golem and Odin are just great as additional options next to straight violence. !Summon is a great offensive ability for those that lack offensive options, generally better so than !Black. !Call is not very practical in serious fights, but it's fun and it's free. Just note that !Call does not boost Magic Power in any way, so it's best to use !Call on Black Mages, Summoners and Oracles. Freelancer gains: The highest Magic Power boost in the old games and only the second-highest in the GBA release, the Summoner gives a hefty boost to spellcasting shlobs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.14 Blue Mage [BLUEM-LINK] ********************************** "Mages with the ability to learn monster's special skills." Stats: Strength: - 08 Agility: + 01 Vitality: + 03 Magic Power: + 23 Can equip: Knives, Swords, Rods, Shields, Hats, Light Helmets, Clothes, Robes, Armlets

Freelancer gains: Agility bonus, Vitality bonus, Magic Power bonus, Learning !Attack !Blue ---!Item 10 ABP !Check 20 ABP Learning 70 ABP !Blue 250 ABP !Scan !Check 10 ABP Action ability Displays target's current HP and maximum HP. Due to a bug, it won't display elemental weaknesses like it was supposed to. Learning 30 ABP Support ability In order to learn Blue Magic after a battle, the struck target needs to have the Learning ability equipped. !Blue 100 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 23 and allows the character to cast all Blue magic the party has learned up to that point. For more info on !Blue, see [BLUE-LINK] !Scan 350 ABP Action ability Displays a target's current HP, maximum HP, elemental weaknesses and currently inflicted status ailments. As a Job: As the only Job to combine both Learning and the ability to cast Blue magic, you'll find yourself switching to them on occasion. However, the Blue Mage's Magic Power isn't very impressive for a Mage, Goblin Punch works better on characters with higher Strength and White Wind, ??? and Self-Destruct work better on those with much Vitality. Since Blue Mages can equip Rods, setting a high !Summon or !Black spelllist is a great way to give even more offense to the Blue Mage; with healing, buffs and debuffs, the Blue Mage already has all the utility he'll ever need. Taught abilities: !Blue is a great ability that can deal magical damage, HP-based damage, Strength-based damage and various buffs and debuffs, so there really isn't any Job that uses it much better than others. An interesting and important note is, though, that the Air Knife boosts the Wind-elemental attacks; everybody can equip the Air Knife except for the Monk and the White Mage, so it's easy to boost the element. A downside could be that learning Blue spells when they become available can be a true hassle sometimes. For more, see [BLUE-LINK]

Freelancer gains: Learning, but by the time you switch to Freelancers you probably no longer need to learn anything. Stat boosts aren't impressive either. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.15 Red Mage [REDMAGE-LINK] ********************************** "Versatile mages, versed in both black and white magic. Stats: Strength: + 08 Agility: + 04 Vitality: + 06 Magic Power: + 08 Can equip: Knives, Swords, Rods, Staves, Hats, Light Helmets, Clothes, Robes, Armlets Freelancer gains: Strength bonus, Agility bonus, Vitality bonus, Magic bonus !Attack !Red ---!Item 20 ABP !Red (level 1) 40 ABP !Red (level 2) 100 ABP !Red (level 3) 999 ABP !Dualcast !Red 1 20 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 2 and allows the character to cast level 1 White and Black Magic. !Red 2 60 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 5 and allows the character to cast level 2 White and Black Magic. !Red 3 160 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 8 and allows the character to cast level 3 White and Black Magic. !Dualcast 1159 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 8 and allows the character to cast level 3 White and Black Magic. In addition, this ability allows you to cast two spells in a single turn from the Red spelllist as well as any !Black,

!White, !Time and !Summon spell your character is able to perform. As a Job: The Red Mage seems a jack-of-all-trades, but is actually the greatest mage as long as you give him higher-level spells and the Magic Power that comes with it. The Red Mage may be able to equip Swords, but without Shields, Heavy Armor or decent Stamina, you'll want to play him as a pure caster. As a caster, he lacks the Magic Power to be truly effective. His ability to wield Rods and Staves makes him a worthwhile recipient of a spellist which boosts his Magic Power to great levels, though. A Red Mage with !Summon has all the strengths of a Summoner, but more Stamina and up to eighteen additional utility spells. The Red Mage does not learn any spell of a higher level than level 3, meaning that after the first third of the game, the Red Mage falls behind in power even more harshly without multiclassing. Keep his offense up to date with something like !Summon and he'll play as the greatest caster ever, but since you get no short-term reward of leveling as one, it's likely you'll abandon him in favor of upgrading spellists of other casters or learning other abilities. Taught abilities: The !Red spell-list levels twice as slowly but gets you both White and Black spells to cast. This is great in the first world, and being able to throw around status ailments and Raise is still a great boon to any caster even when the damaging and healing spells fall behind in power. !Red 3 is a great ability to have during the first world. !Dualcast is what makes mages great. You'll want this so bad, people often don't have any idea what to do with the Red Mage and still suffer through 999 ABP just to get the ability for their Summoners. !Dualcast is undeniably awesome, though learning the ability need not be a chore. !Summon or !Black, boost the element(s), you're as good as any Black Mage or Summoner itself. Freelancer gains: Stat gains across the board, technically, but they're overshadowed by other Jobs. !Dualcast is key to the magical mayhem that can be unlocked end-game, so get it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.16 Beastmaster [BEASTM-LINK] ********************************** "Trainers whose open hearts and strong wills allow them to capture and control enemy monsters." Stats: Strength: + 13 Agility: + 01

Vitality: + 08 Magic Power: - 03 Can equip: Knives, Whips, Light Helmets, Clothes, Armlets Freelancer gains: Strength bonus, Agility bonus, Vitality bonus !Attack !Catch / !Release ---!Item 10 ABP !Calm 50 ABP !Control 100 ABP Equip Whips 300 ABP !Catch !Calm 10 ABP Support ability Sets Stop, but NEVER works on creatures with a Magic Beast nature. Unblockable. This is a bugged command, as the intention obviously was to affect Magic Beasts only. !Control 60 ABP Support ability Allows the character to control the mind of an opponent, making it fight for you. Equip whips 160 ABP Support ability Gives the character 37 Strength and 25 Agility and allows the character to equip Whips. !Catch 460 ABP Support ability Allows the character to catch and subsequently release monsters to remove and attack monsters on the battlefield. For more info on !Catch, see [CATCH-LINK] The Beastmaster revolves around three major things which distinguishes the Job from any other. First off, there's the Whip. Whips are often fairly powerful, always Back Row OK and either cast an additional spell or attempt to Paralyze the target. This is awesome, though damage output is often sub-par compared to weapons that focus on dealing damage only. !Control is one of the greatest abilities the game has to offer, and you don't even need to be a Beastmaster to make use of it. Control lets you control a monster. This keeps them from attacking you (which is more useful the stronger the creature is) and lets you pick an attack from their Control attacks and set a target for it. This is most useful for learning elusive Blue spells, but there are monsters that are undefeatable by normal standards if it hadn't been for !Control. The Hypno Crown, available to Mages and Clothes Jobs, boosts the success rate of !Control.

!Catch as an ability will likely never venture outside of the Beastmaster's grasp, since it is made so much better by the Kornago Gourd, an Accessory only that Job can equip. The Mime and Freelancer can make use of !Catch though, in specific circumstances. !Catch basically comes down to you hunting down a monster somewhere, going through the trouble of bringing it down to its knees, Catching it (thereby losing its dropped item and Exp. gain), then keeping it around until you can Release it versus a boss for major damage. It's a great cannon, but a pain to keep loaded. The only thing the Beastmaster does that is not sweet is !Tame, which is just irrelevant. It's bugged; it was supposed to work on Magic Beasts, but now all it does is NOT work on Magic Beasts and work on everything else. It sets Stop for a very small period of time; you cannot properly keep a target subdued with !Calm. Since the Stop spell is already around when you get this ability, and since Stop is so much better in every way (longer duration, affects every kind of target), !Calm is useless. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.17 Chemist [CHEMIST-LINK] ********************************** "Apothecaries who can mix powerful brews, and gain twice the benefit when drinking potions and ethers." Stats: Strength: + 02 Agility: + 03 Vitality: + 06 Magic Power: - 04 Can equip: Knives, Staves, Hats, Light Helmets, Clothes, Robes, Armlets, Angel Robe Freelancer gains: Strength bonus, Agility bonus, Vitality bonus, Pharmacology !Attack !Drink ---!Item 15 ABP Pharmacology 30 ABP !Mix 45 ABP !Drink 135 ABP !Recover 405 ABP !Revive Pharmacology 15 ABP Support ability

Doubles the amount Potions, Hi-Potions, Ethers and Ether Dry items heal. !Mix 45 ABP Action ability Allows the character to mix two items from your inventory to perform a move that can range from healing and defensive options to damaging and debilitating effects. For more info on !Mix, see [MIX-LINK] !Drink 90 ABP Action ability Allows the character to drink one of the five Drinks you can find and purchase in the game, gaining a variety of positive effects from them. A character with the !Drink ability can only target himself with the Drinks, not other characters. For more info on !Drink, see [DRINK-LINK] !Recover 225 ABP Action ability Removes Darkness, Poison, Mini, Toad, Silence, Confuse, Paralyze, Sleep and Old status ailments on all characters. Was supposed to cure Petrify, but doesn't. !Revive 630 ABP Action ability Revives all dead allies with 6.25 % their max HP at no MP cost. As a Job: The Chemist is probably the best self-buff unit in the game. Any worthwhile battle can be started with setting Haste and doubling HP, even increasing level if you want to. This comes at the cost of poor equipment options, though. Merely Knives and Staves means you can only really boost Syldra and Holy at the end of the game. Massive HP is useful for powerful Holy Breath and Dragon Breath !Mix attack and certain Blue spells such as White Wind, ??? and Self-Destruct as well. The Chemist is best used as a support character; the healing/reviving backbone of a party that just never seems to die. Taught abilities: Pharmacology is trivial mostly, though 1000 HP healing is great in the second third of the game. !Drink is a great self-buff ability that gives extra oomph to Blue Mages and Mixers (Since White Wind, ???, Self-Destruct and Breaths all look at the caster's HP, and Goliath Tonic is awesome). !Drink also works like a charm on any character with Barehanded, since damage done with Fists is depended on level much more than other weapons' damage is. !Recover and !Revive are two commands you shouldn't need to use; though MT, you can the same thing ST in a skillset so much more versatile. The kicker, obviously, is !Mix. !Mix is the best ability in the game, really. It can revive and heal better than !White, has better buff possibilities then anything ever and can deal a LOT of damage as well. There are downsides, though. Mixing things is a bother since you need to scroll through your menu all the time. In addition, it consumes items, and the more potent !Mix outcomes uses the three items you'll only find as monster drops, this being the Turtle

Shell, the Dragon Fang and the Dark Matter. Especially damage-dealing Mixes will always use these rare items. !Mix doesn't care about elemental boosting, and has but a few attacks which run off Magic Power, so the difference between Jobs you put it on is small. Chemists themselves are great since after a Goliath Tonic, Dark Breath, Dragon Breath and Holy Breath are twice as powerful. !Mix also features what is easily the best way of draining MP from enemies, so it has this on Robe Jobs as well. Freelancer gains: Chemist's stats are not very good. Pharmacology isn't very hot end-game, but if you for some reason mastered Chemist early, then switched to a Freelancer, 1000 HP Hi-Potions are nice. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.18 Geomancer [GEOMANCER-LINK] ********************************** "Harnessing the power of their surroundings, they easily avoid pits and floors with damaging effects." Stats: Strength: + 04 Agility: + 02 Vitality: + 04 Magic Power: + 24 Can equip: Knives, Bells, Hats, Robes, Armlets Freelancer gains: Strength bonus, Agility bonus, Vitality bonus, Magic Power bonus, Find Pits, Light Step !Attack !Gaia ---!Item 25 ABP !Gaia 50 ABP Find Pits 100 ABP Light Step !Gaia 25 ABP Action ability Can produce up to four different attacks depending on the current background and the level of the user. For more info on !Gaia, see [GAIA-LINK] Find Pits 75 ABP Support ability Spots loose tiles in advance as opposed to tumbling down into them. Light Step 175 ABP Support ability

Damage done by out-battle traps, spikes and lava are nullified for the entire team. Statuses set are also circumvented. As a Job: Horrible. HORRIBLE! It's only useful stat is Magic Power, at which it is not as potent as Black Mages and Summoners, more along the lines of Blue and White Mages. It gets a little Strength and Agility boost, both of which mean noting to it. It cannot equip Rods or Staves to boost spells. Its inherent abilities are useless. It gets a theoretical saving grace in the Rune Chime which boosts all elements except for Water, making it a grand !Black and !Summon user. This is late-game, though. Very late-game, when you don't want to use Geomancers anymore. Taught abilities: !Gaia is great, the others stink. !Gaia is a great ability as long as you realize that it does not boost Magic Power and should be set on Jobs with high Magic Power. !Gaia uses powerful attacks when you first get it, but the attacks used are hardly upgraded. !Gaia is a thing of the past when you get to the later stages of the game. Find Pits and Light Step are both abilities that can be ignored if you have the Float spell present. In other words: get !Gaia, get out. Freelancer gains: Find Pits and Light Step! Nothing to speak of. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.19 Bard [BARD-LINK] ********************************** "Musicians whose dulcet tones soothe savage beasts...or kill them." Stats: Strength: - 08 Agility: + 08 Vitality: - 09 Magic Power: + 11 Can equip: Knives, Harps, Hats, Robes, Armlets Freelancer gains: Agility bonus, Magic Power bonus !Attack !Sing ---!Item 25 ABP !Hide 50 ABP Equip Harps

100 ABP !Sing !Hide / !Reveal 25 ABP Action ability Runs away from the fight, becoming untargetable by any attack. While hiding, no other action can be taken but to eventually return to the battlefield with the !Reveal ability. Equip Harps 75 ABP Support ability Gives the character base Freelancer Agility + 11 and base Freelancer Magic Power + 11 and allows the character to equip Harps. !Sing 175 ABP Action ability Allows the character to sing all songs learned by the party up to that point. For more info on !Sing, see [SING-LINK] As a Job: Those stats! So painful. The Bard must have the blues. The worst Magic Power of any Robe Job in the game. The second-lowest Stamina and therefor HP. The Bard takes hits like a dusty old marshmallow, has horrible equipment options. Harps are all useless except for Apollo's Harp, and only then versus Dragons and the Undead. The Bard has got to be the worst Job in the game, the !Sing skillset not counted. Offensively completely inept and unsuited for traditional means of gaining offense (since no Rods and horrible survival rates in the Front Row), the Bard should only be used for learning !Sing in area's where Undead are plentiful (thus learning !Sing and mastering the Job) and subsequently discarded to put !Sing on better Jobs. Taught abilities: !Hide can be abused by having Zombie characters on the battlefield. !Hide your remaining character(s) and have your invincible Zombies clear the field. Since they'll only attack allies, you'll need Reflect Rings on them and weapons that randomly cast spells, such as the Blitz Whip or Death Sickle. The spells will be re-directed to the enemy, and you win! Beyond that, it's really just a gimmick command. I find Equip Harps is actually useful since the Apollo's Harp can deal peerless damage versus Undead and Dragon bosses, and those you target with a Dragon Kiss. Since the Apollo's Harp 'attack' is actually a spell, a Harp-wielding Summoner will be much more proficient with it than a Bard ever will. !Sing is just a great debuff command. I do not much care for the statincrease Songs outside of the final Exdeath battle, but Requiem and the Stop/Confuse songs are very useful in large stretches of the game. !Sing is great on everything. Freelancer gains: No stats to speak of, no inherent abilities. Nada. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.20 Dancer [DANCER-LINK]

********************************** "Fighters whose smooth moves confuse enemies, leaving blood on the dance floor." Stats: Strength: + 05 Agility: + 05 Vitality: - 10 Magic Power: - 05 Can equip: Knives, Hats, Light Helmets, Clothes, Robes, Armlets, Man-Eater, Ribbon, Rainbow Dress, Red Slippers Freelancer gains: Strength bonus, Agility bonus !Attack !Dance ---!Item 25 ABP !Flirt 50 ABP !Dance 325 ABP Equip Ribbons !Flirt 25 ABP Action ability When successfully struck by Flirt, the enemy will replace the attack of the next turn with a text message displaying "Entranced!". The Lamia's Tiara, Rainbow Dress and Red Slippers double the chances of !Flirt working successfully. Never works on creatures with a Heavy nature. The Berserk status trumps "Entranced", and a target struck by both effects will simply attack as if !Flirt hadn't been used. !Dance 75 ABP Action ability Randomly chooses one out of four dances and executes it. The Lamia's Tiara, Rainbow Dress and Red Slippers double the chances of Sword Dance appearing, and remove the possibility of Tempting Tango altogether. For more info on !Dance, see [DANCE-LINK] Equip Ribbons 400 ABP Support ability Allows a character to equip the Man-Eater, Ribbon, Rainbow Dress and Red Slippers. As a Job: What's worse than a Mage without Magic Power? A rogue without Strength or Agility! The Dancer has horrible stats; it's the only Job that loses more stat points than it gains compared to a Freelancer, and it has the game's lowest Stamina and HP. You won't get far with !Attack, and !Dance invites

the Dancer to take the Front Row; a risky gambit with so few HP to spare. Without a useful support or action ability, the Dancer will be quite the liability. You can either take advantage of Sword Dance, or work with the fact that the Dancer can boost Earth- and Wind-elemental spells. If you want to go with a Sword Dance set-up, it's advised to get a Lamia's Tiara at the Ronka Ruins and supplement with Equip Bows/Whips/Axes to allow for the Back Row. !Summon and !Blue need no explanation. Taught abilities: !Flirt is a cute little stall option to stop anything not Heavy dead in its tracks for a single round. I like it in a party with Berserkers or other damage-heavy Berserk fighters; stall the enemy, let the others do the damage. !Dance needs equipment that increases Sword Dance likeliness to be effective, and only Mages (who lack the Strength) have those in the Lamia's Tiara. I do find some use with Red and Blue Mages with !Dance, a Lamia's Tiara and a Rune Blade, but that's a rare and late-game option. Equip Ribbons is nice on a Dragoon since the Man-Eater accidentally doubles damage on Jump, opening up a Dragoon with a Ribbon and a Man-Eater as a viable choice. It may also be viable on a Ninja, who can already do a lot of damage due to inherent DualWield, and Black Mages and Summoners who have all the offense they need, as long as you can boost elements. Freelancer gains: Nothing. Freelancers can already equip Ribbons, which are awesome. !Dance is not very useful if you have more consistent means of dealing damage, and !Flirt pales in comparison to the horrible things you can do to non-Heavy targets in skillsets such as !Blue or !Mix. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.21 Necromancer [NECROMANCER-LINK] ********************************** "Dark wizards who are masters of the undead, and have no fear of the Dark Arts." Stats: Strength: + 4 Agility: + 1 Vitality: + 21 Magic Power: + 29 Can equip: Rods, Hats, Robes, Armlets, Chaos Orb (unique effect) Freelancer gains: Strength bonus, Agility bonus, Vitality bonus, Magic Power bonus !Attack !Dark Arts

---!Item 15 ABP !Oath 30 ABP !Dark Arts (level 1) 45 ABP !Dark Arts (level 2) 60 ABP !Dark Arts (level 3) 100 ABP !Dark Arts (level 4) 200 ABP !Dark Arts (level 5) 300 ABP Undead !Oath 15 ABP Action ability Calls forth a random demon as if used through the !Release command. For more information, see [OATH-LINK] !Dark Arts 1 30 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 13 and allows the character to cast level 1 Dark Arts. For more info on !Dark Arts, see [DARKARTS-LINK] !Dark Arts 2 45 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 17 and allows the character to cast level 2 Dark Arts. !Dark Arts 3 60 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 21 and allows the character to cast level 3 Dark Arts. !Dark Arts 4 100 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 25 and allows the character to cast level 4 Dark Arts. !Dark Arts 5 200 ABP Action ability Gives the character base Freelancer Magic Power + 29 and allows the character to cast level 5 Dark Arts. Undead 300 ABP Support ability Turns the character Undead. Similair to the effect of the Bone Mail, but there are differences. Draining spells except for Drain Touch are inverted, most healing spells and items deal damage instead. On living characters with the Undead support ability, reviving spells and items set HP to a sinlge digit. Character with the Undead support ability with Death set can be revived normally. As a Job: The Necromancer has the right stats, the right equipment options and the right action ability. Its Magic Power is comparable to that of the Black Mage, which is quite decent. Strength is irrelevant on a Necromancer, but the lack

of Agility penalty is nice. It's Stamina that is surprising; comparable to that of a Knight! Ofcourse, healing can be a problem for the Necromancer, so the additional HP is hardly unnecessary. The Necromancer has Drain Touch to restore a bit of its HP, and White Wind can do it. Otherwise, you're stuck 'til the Necromancer bites the dust, at which point you can use revival spells and items. Since the Necromancer is only available at the end of the game, it has to compete with strong Freelancers and Mimes that can Dualcast powerful Summon magic to outdamage the Necromancer while having more HP and not have that pesky Undead property to consider. Still, if you've got no room for !Dualcast, the Dark Arts outmuscle Black and Summon magic in the damage department. Strongly consider one or more !Blue casters to complement the Necromancer; White Wind is truly the best way of keeping the Necromancer alive. Taught abilities: !Oath is completely useless. Even the most powerful attack (Flare) barely hits 1300 damage which doesn't cut it late-game. Undead can be used to protect a character from Death spells and draining attacks. No enemy in the game will use these attacks with such frequency and potency to require the Undead support ability; it's a good thing it's not inherent on the Freelancer/Mime after mastering the Necromancer. What the Necromancer brings to the table is Dark Arts, simple. It's a great skillset to put on any Job with the ability to equip Rods or even Knives (Hellwind is great). Freelancer gains: All four stats are boosted by the Necromancer, but none of them any higher than other Jobs. Undead is NOT inherent to the Freelancer after mastering the Necromancer Job. You get nothing here. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.22 Oracle [ORACLE-LINK] ********************************** "Soothsayers who can predict natural disasters - and direct them at foes." Stats: Strength: - 09 Agility: - 01 Vitality: - 04 Magic Power: + 36 Can equip: Staves, Hats, Robes, Armlets Freelancer gains: Magic Power bonus !Attack !Condemn ---!Item

20 ABP !Condemn 50 ABP !Predict 150 ABP ABP Up 300 ABP Read Ahead !Condemn 20 ABP Action ability Ten spells from the White and Black school can be cast for no MP cost, but with a timer that depends on the Oracle Job level of the caster. Doesn't work on Heavy targets. For more info on !Condemn, see [CONDEMN-LINK] !Predict 70 ABP Action ability Randomly does stuff depending on the caster's last digit of MP and the target's last digit of HP. For more info on !Predict, see [PREDICT-LINK] ABP Up 220 ABP Support ability Gives the character 150 % normal ABP gained after a battle. Read Ahead 520 ABP Support ability Sharply decreases random encounter rate. As a Job: The Oracle has the highest Magical damage output in the game! Sadly, this feature is immediately gimped by the fact it needs another action ability to really damage anything. Also, it cannot equip Rods or Bells. It has really crappy stats on the physical side but all you really need to do is give the Oracle !White 6 (Holy) or !Summon 5 (Bahamut/Leviathan) and you won't regret using one. Taught abilities: !Condemn is just REALLY crappy. It doesn't take any MP, never misses and can be used regardless of Silence, Toad or Reflect on the target. On the other hand, even the fastest timer of 10 increments is too slow. The only mildly useful feature is Doom, which kills when the timer reaches 0. It's like a Death Potion, only it sucks. Theoretically best used on a Summoner with the Magus Rod, but in practice best used not at all. Read Ahead is nice if you want to explore dungeons as unhindered as possible; it's more a gameplay feature than a strategic support ability, much like Sprint and Lure. !Predict deserves its own paragraph. It's only useful in the longer battles, as it won't execute at all in shorter battles. You can really only use a 'safe' prediction 40 % of the time and its power is quite random. The sheer ingenuity of the ability intrigues me, as well as the fact you really need to have no friends at all to learn how to use this command. I feel this ability stinks, but it's fun to toy around with it. If you must use it, it's best used on a character with a broad selection of elemental-boosts, so those with Rods or the Rune Chime will work. Note that damage comes from level only, so Magic Power is

irrelevant; a Monk could do it as effectively as an Oracle. Freelancer gains: The highest Magic score in the game; Freelancers who want all the high stats will want to master this. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.23 Cannoneer [CANNONEER-LINK] ********************************** "Tinkerers with the know-how to combine items into weapons both beautiful and destructive" Stats: Strength: + 05 Agility: + 05 Vitality: - 10 Magic Power: - 05 Can equip: Knives, Swords, Shields, Hats, Light Helmets, Clothes, Robes, Armlets Freelancer gains: Strength bonus, Agility bonus !Attack !Open Fire ---!Item 50 ABP !Open Fire 150 ABP Exp Up 300 ABP !Combine !Open Fire 50 ABP Action ability Performs a non-elemental, unblockable attack against a single target that will attempt to set a random status ailments (Darkness, Poison, Confuse or Death). For more info on !Open Fire, check [OPENFIRE-LINK]. Exp Up 200 ABP Support ability (needs to be equipped) Increases the amount of Experience Points gained by the character with Exp Up set by 50%. !Combine 500 ABP Action ability Allows the character to combine a Buckshot, Blastshot or Blitzshot item with another consumable to perform a multi-target attack which can various elemental, status-inducing or miscellaneous properties. For more information on !Combine, check [COMBINE-LINK].

As a Job: The Cannoneer is quite decent. His main selling point as a Job is !Open Fire, which does damage comparable to a normal Attack coming from a Job that was meant to use !Attack. This situation gives the Cannoneer the added bonus of being able to take the Back Row and equip weapons that he doesn't need to attack with but otherwise help him out, such as the Main Gauche. In addition, the random status ailments will prove to be useful, and !Open Fire is even unblockable, so there's that bonus as well. The Cannoneer does, however, lack the true Oomph of other Jobs, and its damage output is difficult to increase. Taught abilities: !Open Fire is a great action ability for Thieves, Bards and Dancers; it's a Back Row OK damage option that acts independent of Strength or Magic Power and is well-suited for support of less offensively-inclined Jobs. Exp Up shouldn't really see much use; level-grinding isn't very effective in this game, partly due to your ability to raise Level in-battle. If you must have a Master File with level 99 characters, this ability will be a godsend to you. The real gem of the Job is obviously !Combine; it's fairly damaging, resources aren't generally an issue and it provides the party with a way to set several status ailments without taking normal magical hit algorithms in account. Like !Open Fire, !Combine uses neither Strength nor Magic Power and is thus equally effective regardless of stats; the elemental attacks are affected by elemental boosts though, so !Combine is more effective on those characters with Rods, Staves or the Rune Chime. Freelancer gains: The stats aren't interesting, but !Combine is a solid option even for Freelancers in some battles. Mastering the Cannoneer won't be too much of a chore. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.24 Gladiator [GLADIATOR-LINK] ********************************** "Skilled warriors who can master any blade." Stats: Strength: + 26 Agility: + 14 Vitality: + 3 Magic Power: - 14 Can equip: Knives, Swords, Knightswords, Lances, Axes, Bows, Shields, Heavy Helmets, Light Helmets, Heavy Armor, Clothes, Guantlets Freelancer gains: Strength bonus, Agility bonus, Vitality bonus !Attack

!Finisher ---!Item 30 ABP Lure 70 ABP !Finisher 150 ABP Long Range 450 ABP !Bladeblitz Lure 30 ABP Support ability (needs to be equipped) Sharply increases random encounter rate. !Finisher 100 ABP Action ability Performs either a 9999-damage elemental attack of the character's Crystal spirit, inflicts a Critical Hit with the equipped weapon if possible, or fails. The odds of these three possibilities depend on the Gladiator Job level obtained by the user. For more info on !Finisher, see [FINISHER-LINK]. Long Range 250 ABP Support ability (needs to be equipped) Allows the character to deal full damage with the equipped weapon(s) from the Back Row, regardless of the weapon. !Bladeblitz 700 ABP Action ability Performs a physical attack with the equipped weapon on all enemy targets. All strikes are affected by target's Evasion and Row modifier; the damage done is only 75 % of !Attack's damage. Row modifiers are ignored if the weapon used ignores Row modifiers. Random spellcasting and replacement functions will be ignored, though all versions of critical hits may appear normally. MP-driven criticals will subtract MP once for every target struck. Elemental properties are applied as they would normally be. The Lilith Rod will apply the "Entranced!" effect to all non-Heavy targets it strikes. !Bladeblitz cannot work with weapons that cast spells, such as Harps and the Wonder Wand. As a Job: The Gladiator certainly is unique; it has the highest Strength of all Heavy Armor Jobs, and ties with the Monk for game's highest Strength altogether. Impressive Agility as well, but the Gladiator has crap Stamina (and thus HP) for a Heavy Armor Job and is therefor not well suited to take hits, especially magical ones as he has neither the HP nor the Magic Defense to survive them well. The Gladiator's got the most impressive !Attack command of the game; he's able to equip a wide variety of weapons which allows him to exploit nature weaknesses of Dragons, Magic Beasts and Aevis creatures whenever he encounters them. In addition, he's a great character to put !Aim or !Jump on when giving the relevant weapon; he's a more powerful archer than the Ranger, and a better Jumper than the Dragoon. Giving the Gladiator either a Bow with !Aim or a Lance with !Jump also boosts his survivability, since he becomes Back Row OK. The

Aegis Shield is a supreme choice for the Gladiator as it'll cover his big weakness, this being magical attacks. !Finisher is a gamble that is not always well evaluated; Courante's FAQ, for instance, advocates !Finisher against everything as soon as you get it. 9999 damage regardless! The odds of this attack are 50 % at best though, and when adequately prepared and normally leveled, it is often easy to match the average damage output as well as maintain a level of certainty. But it's hard to go wrong with !Finisher, as it'll deal that much coveted 9999 damage elemental attack every now and again, and it looks awesome. Taught abilities: Lure is a game feature, useful for grinding or when you're searching out a rare encounter or something. I have trouble finding a good use for Long Range; the only Jobs that necessarily holds the Front Row and would do well to go to the back are the Thief, Ninja and Dancer, which may as well learn !Summon 5, !Open Fire or Equip Whips/Equip Bows by the time you actually get the Gladiator. Now, !Finisher obviously works as well on any Job as it does on the Freelancer, and is a great option to give Thieves, Bards, Chemists and Dancers a shot at some really decent damage. !Finisher works best when Gladiator is mastered, obviously. !Bladeblitz isn't too hot; it's better to take out targets one a time with a strong elemental attack or strategic status ailment; throwing damage around is for Summoners, not physical attackers. Break Spellblade + !Bladeblitz is a fun combo though. Freelancer gains: If you want perfect stats on your Freelancer you'll have to master Monk anyway, so that perfect Strength isn't an issue. I wouldn't put !Finisher on a Freelancer with the existence of !Spellblade and/or !Rapid Fire either, and there are no inherent abilities the Freelancer assumes from the Gladiator. Useless to master, but fun to use. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.25 Mime [MIME-LINK] ********************************** "Skilled mimics who can copy allies' actions perfectly" Stats: Strength: maximum + 26, Monk/Gladiator Agility: maximum + 16, Thief Vitality: maximum + 26, Monk Magic Power: maximum + 36, Oracle Can equip: Knives, Rods, Staves, Shields, Heavy Armor, Clothes, Robes, Moonring Blade, Rising Sun, Twin Lance, Angel Robe, Thief's Gloves

Can possess these inherent qualities: Cover, Barehanded, Counter, Find Passages, Sprint, Vigilance, Learning, Magic Shell, First Strike Dual-Wield, Light Step, Shiradori, Pharmacology !Mimic ---------999 ABP !Mimic !Mimic 999 ABP Action ability Copies last ally's move without expanding resources. As a Job: The Mime is neither a 'normal' Job nor like the Freelancer. It's really confusing if you're lacking in brainsmarts. The Mime shares the Freelancer's ability to take the best of all Jobs; when you mastered the Monk Job, the Mime Job will have its good stats and inherent abilities, just as the Freelancer will. This gives the Mime potentially awesome stats and all the nice inherent abilities you grew to love during the rest of the game. It is somewhat 'gimped' compared to the Freelancer in equipment options, but since it can equip Rods, Staves and Shields, the Mime has all equipment a spellcaster could ever want. In addition to great equipment options (it really only misses the Rune Chime), it has THREE ability slots to fill rather than two; !Attack and !Item will be added as options as soon as you get access to the Mime Job, and you get to choose three abilities. Among the options here are !Dualcast and two schools of magic. The Mime is the best spellcasting Job in the game, hands down. Taught abilities: Sucks. !Mimic is nice on occasion; you could have a character perform an expensive !Dualcast (double Bahamut or double Meteor), then using !Mimic on all until whatever bothered you is dead, but that's a boring, inflexible and cheap tactics that isn't going to make the game fun anytime soon. Beyond 'hit the ultra-kill button again without using MP', !Mimic isn't too hot. !Mimic: - Mimics (Defend) - Mimics !Call by releasing a random Summon Beast, not the same one - Mimics !Animals by conjuring a random woodland friend - Mimics !Jump attacks when the Jump is made; a landing isn't considered something to Mimic - Mimics !Zeninage by using up Gil just like using the command itself - Mimics !Item, !Mix, !Throw and !Combine without using any further items - Mimics counterattacks due to Counter and Magic Barrier - picks the same target when possible, but retargets if the mimicked target is not available anymore

- targets self when the mimicked attack automatically targets self (such as !Guard, !Spellblade, etc.) Freelancer gains: There's the thing, right. Nothing, as the Mime itself gains stuff from other Jobs. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------6.26 Freelancer [FREELANCER-LINK] ********************************** "Unspecialized fighters who can equip any armor or weapon." Stats: Strength: 24 (maximum 50, Monk / Gladiator) Agility: 24 (maximum 40, Thief) Vitality: 24 (maximum 50, Monk) Magic Power: 24 (maximum 60, Oracle) Can equip: Can possess these inherent qualities: Cover, Barehanded, Counter, Find Passages, Sprint, Vigilance, Learning, Magic Shell, First Strike, Dual-Wield, Light Step, Shiradori, Pharmacology !Attack ------!Item The Freelancer gains positive stat boosts from Mastered Jobs, as well as most inherent abilities to those Jobs. It can also combine any two abilities in the game, making it capable of mimicking every action (except !Kick) there is. The Freelancer has lowish average stats across the board, but since abilities grant stats in this game, it can do everything. Basically, it's a better X than X itself, in every case. A Freelancer with Barehanded is a better Monk than a Monk due to equipment options. A Freelancer with !Black 6 is a better caster than a Black Mage, due to equipment options as well as superior Magic Power! When you've mastered Monk, Thief and Summoner and have equipped a Ribbon, your stats will be nicely inflated. As far as equipment goes, the Freelancer can equip anything. This includes the Ribbon and Aegis Shield, which are the two best defensive pieces of equipment in the game. Fighters can equip any weapon, so they can swap between those that favor a particular enemy type (Dragon's Whisker, Beast Killer, Man-Eater) in-battle. Mages can equip the Rune Chime, which has the broadest array of

elemental boosts in the game. Since the Freelancer gets almost all inherent support abilities of other Jobs, it'll be quite useful. The ones that stand out most are Vigilance and First Strike (you'll be perfectly set up every battle), Counter and Shiradori to work with physical attacks and Dual-Wield for the option to swap away a Shield for another weapon, whether it is for extra stat boosts or just the power of it. The Freelancer has no ABP-related growth. Instead, you 'master' the Freelancer Job as soon as you have mastered all other available Jobs. Mastering the Freelancer will get you nothing but three stars over the Freelancer sprite. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.0 Action abilities ********************************** Table of Contents: 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 7.8 7.9 7.10 7.11 7.11 7.12 7.13 7.14 7.15 7.16 7.17 7.18 7.19 7.20 7.21 !Throw !Animals !Spellblade !White !Black !Time !Summon !Blue !Catch !Release !Drink !Mix !Gaia !Sing !Dance !Oath !Dark Arts !Condemn !Predict !Finisher !Open Fire !Combine

------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.1 !Throw [THROW-LINK] ********************************** The three elemental ninja scrolls use the normal magical attack formula.

Water Scroll: Water-elemental damage to all opponents Flame Scroll: Fire-elemental damage to all opponents Lightning Scroll: Lightning-elemental damage to all opponents Throwing weapons, including Shuriken, Fuma Shuriken and Ash, makes for an unblockable physical attack which uses the Knives' normal damage formula with these exceptions: - Power is doubled - Row is ignored - Elemental property of the weapon is ignored When Throwing weapons, the Attack Power is displayed in the menu is used in the damage formula, not the actual Attack Power. As far as non-equippable weapons go: Ash 25 Shuriken 50 Fuma Shuriken 117 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.2 !Animals [ANIMALS-LINK] ********************************** The game picks a random number between the character's level and 0, and produces an attack accordingly: 0 = Mysidian Rabbit (does nothing) 1- 4 = Squirrel (ST non-elemental attack, misses against Floating targets) 5- 9 = Bee Swarm (Mt non-elemental attack, random weak damage) 10-19 = Nightingale (MT curative attack, removes Poison and Dark) 20-29 = Flying Squirrel (MT attack that sets Paralyze on all opponents) 30-39 = Falcon (Deals 75 % current HP damage, misses vs. Heavy targets) 40-49 = Skunk (MT attack that sets Poison and Dark on all opponents) 50-59 = Wild Boar (ST non-elemental attack, misses against Floating targets) 60-99 = Unicorn (fully heales all character's HP) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.3 !Spellblade [SPELLBLADE-LINK] ********************************** !Spellblade works with all Knives, Ninja Blades, Swords and Knightswords with the following exceptions: Man-Eater, Rune Blade, Excalipoor and the Blood Sword. MP Spell: Effect:

2 Fire

Adds Fire-elemental property, gains double power and barrierpiercing property when striking a weakness 2 Blizzard Adds Ice-elemental property, gains double power and barrierpiercing property when striking a weakness 2 Thunder Adds Lightning-elemental property, gains double power and barrier-piercing property when striking a weakness 1 Poison Adds Poison-inducing property, adds Poison-elemental property, gains double power and barrier-piercing property when striking a weakness 1 Silence Adds non-elemental property, adds Silence-inducing property. 2 Sleep Adds non-elemental property, adds Sleep-inducing property. 5 Fira Adds Fire-elemental property, gains triple power and barrierpiercing property when striking a weakness 5 Blizzara Adds Ice-elemental property, gains triple power and barrierpiercing property when striking a weakness 5 Thundara Adds Lightning-elemental property, gains triple power and barrier-piercing property when striking a weakness 13 Drain Adds HP-draining property. Effects are inverted when striking an Undead creature. 15 Break Adds non-elemental property, adds Petrify-inducing property. 16 Bio Adds Poison-elemental property, instantly kills non-Heavy opponents weak to the element. When the target is Heavy, it gains quadruple power and a barrier-piercing property. 15 Firaga Adds Fire-elemental property, instantly kills non-Heavy opponents weak to the element. When the target is Heavy, it gains quadruple power and a barrier-piercing property. 15 Blizzaga Adds Ice-elemental property, instantly kills non-Heavy opponents weak to the element. When the target is Heavy, it gains quadruple power and a barrier-piercing property. 15 Thundaga Adds Lightning-elemental property, instantly kills non-Heavy opponents weak to the element. When the target is Heavy, it gains quadruple power and a barrier-piercing property. 10 Holy Adds Holy-elemental property, instantly kills non-Heavy opponents weak to the element. When the target is Heavy, it gains quadruple power and a barrier-piercing property. 30 Flare Increases Battle Power by 100 and only 25 % of the target's Defense is taken into account. 1 Osmose Adds MP-draining property. When calculated damage is more than 0, 25 % of the target's current MP is drained instead. If not, no effect. Effects are inverted when striking an Undead creature.

Elemental Sword magic only has an effect on damage if the target has a specific reaction versus said element. Absorbed elements will be absorbed, nullified elemental swords will miss and when the target is weak to the element, Defense will be ignored entirely and the power will be multiplied by either 2 (Fire, Ice, Bolt), 3 (Fira, Blizzara, Thundara) or 4 (Bio, Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga and Holy). In addition,level 3 elemental spells and Bio and Holy cast on swords will make them kill any target weak to the element instantly, unless the target is Heavy. Status-inducing Spellblade magic will make the sword non-elemental and will apply the status when the initial sword strike hits the target, even when it does not deal any damage. Drain-inducing Spellblade effects deals normal damage but drains damage done. The effect is reversed when the target is Undead. Osmose-inducing Spellblade effects calculates normal damage. If it does over 0 damage, it'll drain 25 % of the target's current MP instead of dealing normal damage. Flare Spellblade effects will increase Battle Power by 100 and will only use 25 % of the target's Defense in its calculation. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.4 !White [WHITE-LINK] ********************************** MP Spell: Effect:

4 Cure Restores HP. ST/MT 1 Libra Determines target's HP, MP and weakness. ST 2 Poisona Removes the Poison status ailment. ST 2 Silence Sets Silence. ST 3 Protect Sets Protect. ST 5 Mini Toggles the Mini status ailment. ST/MT 9 Cura Restores HP. ST/MT 29 Raise Revives target. ST 4 Confuse Sets Confuse. ST 6 Blink Sets Blink 2. ST 5 Shell Sets Shell. ST 10 Esuna Removes Darkness, Poison, Mini, Toad, Petrify, Silence, Confuse, Paralyze, Sleep and Old. ST 27 Curaga Restores HP. ST/MT

15 Reflect 8 Berserk

Sets Reflect. ST Sets Berserk. ST

50 Arise Revives target with full HP. ST 20 Holy Holy-elemental damage. ST 12 Dispel Removes Float, Image 1, Image 2, Berserk, Regen, Slow, Haste, Stop, Shell, Protect and Reflect. ST ------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.5 !Black [BLACK-LINK] ********************************** MP Spell: Effect:

4 Fire Deals Fire-elemental damage. ST/MT 4 Blizzard Deals Ice-elemental damage. ST/MT 4 Thunder Deals Lightning-elemental damage. ST/MT 2 Poison 3 Sleep 8 Toad Sets Poison. ST/MT Sets Sleep. ST/MT Toggles the Toad status. ST/MT

10 Fira Deals Fire-elemental damage. ST/MT 10 Blizzara Deals Ice-elemental damage. ST/MT 10 Thundara Deals Lightning-elemental damage. ST/MT 13 Drain Drains HP from target, revers effects when the target is Undead. ST 15 Break Sets Petrify. ST 16 Bio Deals Poison-elemental damage. ST/MT 25 Firaga Deals Fire-elemental damage. ST/MT 25 Blizzaga Deals Ice-elemental damage. ST/MT 25 Thundaga Deals Lightning-elemental damage. ST/MT 39 Flare Deals barrier-piercing non-elemental damage. ST 29 Death Sets Death. ST 1 Osmose Drains MP from target, revers effects when the target is Undead. ST ------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.6 !Time [TIME-LINK] ********************************** MP Spell: 4 Speed Effect: Sets Battle Speed to 3 for the duration of the battle.

4 Slow 4 Regen 3 Mute

Sets Slow. ST Sets Regen. ST

Disables the usage of White, Black, Time, Summon, Spellblade Magic and Songs on both sides. This spell cannot be used in some monster formations (most notably most boss battles). 5 Haste Sets Haste. ST 10 Float Sets Float. ST/MT 9 Gravity Halves target's current HP, misses if target is Heavy. ST 8 Stop Sets Stop. ST 15 Teleport Flees the battlescene in-battle. Out-battle, this spell allows you to escape caverns and other dungeons. 7 Comet 9 Slowga 1 Return Non-elemental damage at random power. ST Sets Slow. MT Starts the battle all over again, no effects saved.

18 Graviga Cuts 7/8 of target's current HP, misses if target is Heavy. ST 15 Hastega Sets Haste. MT 4 Old Sets Old. ST 42 Meteor Four times non-elemental damage at random power. All strikes are ST but more than one target can be hit. 77 Quick Allows the caster to take two consecutive turns in a row while time freezes around them. 20 Banish Erases the target, but doesn't work when the target is Heavy. ST ------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.7 !Summon [SUMMON-LINK] ********************************** MP Spell: Effect:

4 Chocobo Chocobo Kick: Non-elemental physical damage to a single target. Has a 8 % chance of summoning Fat Chocobo, which deals stronger non-elemental physical damage to the entire field. Not unblockable, may miss due to Magic Evasion. 8 Sylph Whisperwind: deals non-elemental damage. Damage done is split between live party members, which they gain as HP. ST 2 Remora Constrict: sets Paralyze. ST 10 Shiva Diamond Dust: Ice-elemental damage. MT 12 Ramuh Judgment Bolt: Lightning-elemental damage. MT 11 Ifrit Hellfire: Fire-elemental damage. MT

25 Titan Gaia's Wrath: Earth-elemental damage. MT 18 Golem Earthen Wall: Protects the party from physical attacks. 33 Catoblepas Demon Eye: Sets Petrify. ST 45 Carbuncle Ruby Light: Sets Reflect. MT 32 Syldra Thunderstorm: Wind-elemental damage. MT 48 Odin Zantetsuken: Destroys all non-Heavy targets. When Heavy targets are available on the battlefield, Odin will choose Gungnir instead, which is a non-elemental physical attack on a single target. 99 Phoenix Flames of Rebirth: Revives one ally with full HP. In addition, Fire-elemental damage is done to all enemies. MT 39 Leviahtan Tsunami: Water-elemental attack. MT 66 Bahamut Mega Flare: Non-elemental attack. MT ------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.8 !Blue [BLUE-LINK] ********************************** 10 Doom: Sets a Countdown to Death 1 Roulette: Pick a random target to cast Death upon 38 Aqua Breath: Non-elemental attack that deals eight times as much damage to desert creatures 22 Level 5 Death: Casts Death on all enemy targets whose level is divisble by five 9 Level 4 Graviga: Casts Graviga on all enemy targets whose level is divisble by four 11 Level 2 Old: Casts Old on all enemy targets whose levels are divisble by 2 18 Level 3 Flare: Barrier-piercing non-elemental damage on all enemy targets whose level is divisble by three 5 Pond's Chorus: Sets Toad, ST 5 Lilliputian Lyric: Sets Mini, ST 7 Flash: Sets Darkness, MT 9 Time Slip: Sets Old and Sleep. 3 Moon Flute: Sets Berserk on all characters. 21 Death Claw: Reduces HP to a single digit, sets Paralyze, misses when target is Heavy. 4 Aero: Wind-elemental attack, ST/MT. 10 Aera: Wind-elemental attack, ST/MT. 24 Aeroga: Wind-elemental attack, ST/MT. 5 Flame Thrower: Fire-elemental attack, ST. 0 Goblin Punch: Non-elemental physical attack of which the power depends on the weapon held by the caster. Deals eight times as much damage when the levels of the caster and target are the same. 27 Dark Sprak: Halves target's level. 19 Off-Guard: Halves targets's Defense.

13 Transfusion: Restores target's HP and MP to full, kills caster and removes the caster from battle. 6 Mind Blast: Non-elemental damage, sets Paralyze. 2 Vampire: Drains damage done, deals (max HP - current HP)/2 damage. NOTE: due to a bug, it deals (max HP - current HP) damage in FFV Advance. 3 Magic Hammer: Halves MP of one target. 72 Mighty Guard: Sets Protect, Shell and Float on all characters. 1 Self-Destruct: Deals (current HP) damage, sets Death on caster. 3 ???: Deals (max HP - current HP) damage. 25 1000 Needles: Deals 1000 damage. 28 White Wind: Heals all targets for the caster's current HP's worth. 7 Missile: Cuts a target's current HP by 75 %, misses when target is Heavy. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.9 !Catch [CATCH-LINK] ********************************** !Catch only works when the target has less than 12.5 % of its maximum HP. When the user has the Kornago Gourd equipped, !Catch will work when the opponent has 50 % or less of its maximum HP. When the opponent is immune to being caught, !Catch will always fail. Only one monster can be held at a time, as the !Catch command will automatically change into the !Release command. Captured monsters can always be seen outside of battle in the Status menu. A target removed from the battlefield with !Catch will never be able to execute a final attack. In addition, it won't be tagged as 'defeated', so it won't appear in your Bestiary or increase your number of that particular monster slain, it will never drop an item and it won't reward you with Experience Points. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.10 !Release ********************************** The stats of the monster caught are used when determining damage, not that of the !Release user. Elemental boosts from his or her equipment IS factored in. You can never learn Blue magic from spells used by Released monsters. Note that in the Effect: description, I don't give a description when the attack performed is a spell available through other means, as those attacks are explained elsewhere. Strong Fight is an unnamed move that you will only very rarely find in an opponent's AI Script, and even then always as a counter to something; the game uses it as a move that kills a character regardless of your level and defense.

The used damage formula is: Monster Attack * 8 + (0..(Monster Attack/8)) * Monster Attack Multiplier, Defense guards Monster: Goblin Steel Bat Devil Crab Stroper Killer Bee Attack: Effect:

Flare Vampire Strong Fight Spore Sets Poison Needle Sets either Darkness or Silence (50/50 chance) Nutkin Strong Fight Stray Cat Strong Fight Black Goblin Strong Fight White Serpent Entangle Sets Paralyze Moldwynd Aera Mani Wizard Death Skeleton Thundara Calcruthl Embrace Fully restores HP, sets Petrify Undead Husk Break Mindflusher Confuse Big Horn Strong Fight Tatou Strong Fight Bandersnatch Blaster Sets either Death or Paralyze (50/50 chance) Rock Slug Slimer Sets Slow and Sap Gaelicat Float Cockatrice Beak Sets Petrify Headstone Flash Elf Toad Pond's Chorus Ice Soldier Blizzara Jackanapes Doom Aegir Rainbow Wind Sets Darkness, Silence and Sap Zu Breath Wing Deals 25 % max HP damage, Wind-elemental Wild Nakk Strong Fight Grass Tortoise Strong Fight Silent Bee Needle Sets either Darkness or Silence (50/50 chance) Mythil Dragon Frost MT Ice-elemental damage, sets Sap Crew Dust Flash Poltergeist Drain Defeater Electrocute St Lightning-elemental damage Page 32 Banish Page 64 Strong Fight Page 128 Strong Fight Page 256 Comet

Bomb

Self-Destruct Uses Bomb's HP (440) to deal damage, does not kill caster Doublizard Strong Fight Bio Soldier Bio Harvester Wind Slash MT Wind-elemental damage Black Flame Dark Spark Stone Golem Earthquake MT Earth-elemental damage Mini Dragon Holy Prototype Mega Flare MT barrier-piercing, non-elemental damage Dhorme Chimera Aqua Breath Sandboil Spore Sets Poison Desert Killer Quicksand MT Earth-elemental damage, sets Sap Sand Bear Strong Fight Ra Mage Break Ronkan Knight Strong Fight Stone Mask Reflect Enchanted Fan Ice Storm MT Ice-elemental attack Lamia 1000 Needles Archeotoad Pond's Chorus Hydra Lightning Deals 25% maximum HP damage, Lightningelemental Ghidra Earth Shaker MT Earth-elemental damage

Pao (Panacea) Tarantula Web Sets Slow Shell Bear Strong Fight Devilfish Transfusion Treant Strong Fight Strapparer Death Claw Tunneller Earthquake MT Earth-elemental damage Birostris Transfusion Fairy Orc Curaga Devourer Strong Fight Mandrake Digestive Acid Non-elemental damage, sets Slow and Sap Kuza Beast Strong Fight Shield Dragon Almagest MT Holy-elemental damage, sets Sap Blood Slime Vampire Acrophies Strong Fight Moogle Eater Aqua Breath Lesser Lopros Breath Wing Deals 25 % max HP damage, Wind-elemental Cactus 1000 Needles Sandcrawler Maelstrom Reduces HP to a single digit, MT Aquathorn Death Weresnake Entangle Sets Paralyze Kornago Pond's Chorus Cursed Being Magic Hammer

Undergrounder Earthquake MT Earth-elemental damage Objet d'Art Break Drippy Magic Hammer Lycaon Strong Fight Bone Dragon Bone Reduces HP to a single digit (versus Golem) Attack Poison Eagle Float Zombie Dragon Poison Breath MT Poison-elemental damage (verus Golem) Earth Shaker MT Earth-elemental damage Gobbledygook Mustard Bomb Non-elemental damage, adds Sap Neon Reflect Magnetite Gamma Ray Sets Stop Reflect Knight ??? Traveler Time Slip Level Tricker Level 4 Graviga Gravitator Graviga Ziggurat Gigas Hurricane Reduces HP to a single digit Dark Aspic Vampire Metamorph Old Cure Beast Curaga Land Turtle Strong Fight Dechirer Level 3 Flare Mini Magician Firaga Galajelly Rainbow Wind Sets Darkness, Silence and Sap Mammon Berserk Imp Confuse Wyrn Breath Wing Deals 25 % max HP damage, Wind-elemental Twin Lizard Strong Fight Blind Wolf Strong Fight Hellraiser White Wind Reflect Mage Thundaga Magic Dragon Blaze Deals 25 % max HP damage, Fire-elemental Black Warlock Banish AdamantiteGolem Strong Fight Bandercoeurl Blaster Either sets Death or Sap Iron Fist Strong Fight Blue Dragon Ice Storm MT Ice-elemental attack Red Dragon Atomic Ray MT Fire-elemental attack Yellow Dragon Lightning Deals 25 % max HP damage, Lightning-elemental Imp (Ex) Confuse Oiseaurare (Ex) Blaster Either sets Death or Sap Jackanapes (Ex) Old

Sleepy Sleep Triffid Strong Fight Hedgehog 1000 Needles

Python Entangle Sets Paralyze Shadow Vampire Elm Gigas Hurricane Reduces HP to a single digit Desertpede Quicksand Mt Earth-elemental damage, sets Sap Bulette Strong Fight Lamia Queen Entice Sets Confuse Rajiformes Aqua Breath Ushtabi Flash Archeosaur Frost MT Ice-elemental damage, sets Sap Zephyrus Banish > Dhorme Chimera Aqua Breath > AdamantiteGolem Strong Fight > Ziggurat Gigas Aeroga > Ronkan Knight Strong Fight > Bio Soldier Blaze Deals 25% maximum HP damage, Fire-elemental > Tunneller ??? The Damned Doom Sekhmet Strong Fight Slug Digestive Acid Non-elemental damage, sets Sap Gloom Widow Web Sets Slow Mykale Time Slip Executor Level 5 Death Oiseaurare Rainbow Wind Sets Darkness, Silence and Sap Shadow Dancer Strong Fight Numb Blade Reaper's Sword Deals physical damage and sets Death Tot Aevis Beak Sets Petrify Tiny Mage Thundaga Chrono Controller Banish Flaremancer Flare Dueling Knight Strong Fight Iron Muscles Earth Shaker MT Earth-elemental damage Berserker Strong Fight Unknown (Spore1) Slimer Sets Slow and Sap Unknown (Blob) Strong Fight Unknown (Worm) Digestive Acid Non-elemental damage, sets Sap Unknown (Spore2) Attack Unknown (Skull) Doom Frost Bull Ice Storm MT Ice-elemental attack Istory Lythos Atomic Ray MT Fire-elemental attack Spizzner Wind Slash Druid Encircle Removes target from battle, is considered dead. Ironback Strong Fight Mercury Bat Vampire Coral Spore Sets Poison Aquagel Aqua Breath Steel Fist Rocket Punch Halves target's current HP, sets Confuse

Alchymia Ribbit Toggles Toad > Red Dragon Atomic Ray MT Fire-elemental attack > Ghidra Earthquake MT Earth-elemental attack > Bone Dragon Bone Reduces HP to a single digit Tonberry Death Ankheg Earthquake MT Earth-elemental attack Ammonite Quicksand Mt Earth-elemental damage, sets Sap Landcrawler Maelstrom Reduces HP to a single digit, MT Lemure Entice Sets Confuse Parthenope White Wind Cherie Strong Fight

Sahagin Strong Fight Thunder Anemone Spore Sets Poison Sea Ibis Beak Sets Petrify Corbett Tail Screw Reduces HP to a single digit, sets Paralyze Nix Wind Slash Water Scorpion Strong Fight Vilia Almagest MT Holy-elemental attack, sets Sap Gel Fish Banish Note: target's self, so no effect Rukh Breath Wing Sea Devil Strong Fight Stingray Tidal Wave MT Water-elemental attack

Grenade Self-Destruct Baldanders Aeroga Death Dealer Doom Level Checker Level 3 Flare White Flame White Wind Moss Fungus Banish Note: target's self, so no effect Farfarello Osmose Orukat Evil Eye Sets Petrify Great Dragon Strong Fight Achelon Ice Storm MT Ice-elemental attack Ninja Strong Fight Dragon Aevis Breath Wing Deals 25 % max HP damage, Wind-elemental Sword Dancer Strong Fight Fury Flare Yojimbo Reaper's Sword Deals physical damage and sets Death King Behemoth Giga Flare MT barrier-piercing, non-elemental damage Crystal Dragon Attack Necromancer White Wind Gorgimera Tidal Wave MT Water-elemental attack Mindflayer Mind Blast Crystelle Mighty Guard

Belphegor Mover

Hurricane Reduces HP to a single digit Delta Attack Non-elemental damage, sets Petrify

Mini Satana Confuse Assassin Strong Fight Soul Eater Strong Fight Behemoth Attack Dark Elemental Firaga Dark Elemental Blizzaga Dark Elemental Thundaga Exoray Firaga Duelist Strong Fight Medusa Entice Sets Confuse Dinozombie Bone Reduces HP to a single digit Claret Dragon Flare Ironclad Rocket Punch Halves target's current HP, sets Confuse Hades Almagest MT Holy-elemental attack, sets Sap ------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.11 !Drink [DRINK-LINK] ********************************** All drinks are single-target and can only be self-applied. The effects of Power Drink and Hero Cocktail are cumulative, but the effects of Goliath Tonic are not. Note that due to a bug, Power Drink only affects Goblin Punch, not other physical damage which uses weapons. Goliath Tonic: Doubles maximum and current HP for the duration of the battle Power Drink: Boosts Battle Power, but due a bug only affects Goblin Punch Speed Shake: Sets Haste Iron Draft: Sets Protect Hero Cocktail: Adds 10 levels for the duration of the battle. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.12 !Mix [MIX-LINK] ********************************** All brews combined with the !Mix command are single-target, can be used on both friend and foe. The list below mentions all possible combinations. Ingredients: Potion Potion Potion Potion Result:

+ Potion Potion (1) + Hi-Potion Lifewater + Ether X-Potion + Elixir Elixir

Potion Potion Potion Potion Potion Potion Potion Potion Hi-Potion Hi-Potion Hi-Potion Hi-Potion Hi-Potion Hi-Potion Hi-Potion Hi-Potion Hi-Potion Hi-Potion Hi-Potion Hi-Potion Ether Ether Ether Ether Ether Ether Ether Ether Ether Ether Ether Ether Elixir Elixir Elixir Elixir Elixir Elixir Elixir Elixir Elixir Elixir Elixir Elixir

+ Phoenix Down Resurrection + Maiden's Kiss Maiden's Kiss (2) + Holy Water Potion (1) + Antidote Neutralizer + Eye Drops Cure Blindness + Turtle Shell Ether (3) + Dragon Fang Dragon Power + Dark Matter Devil's Juice + Potion Lifewater + Hi-Potion Hi-Potion (4) + Ether Balm of Gilead + Elixir Elixir + Phoenix Down Resurrection + Maiden's Kiss Maiden's Kiss (2) + Holy Water Hi-Potion (4) + Antidote Neutralizer + Eye Drops Cure Blindness + Turtle Shell Triple Ether + Dragon Fang Dragon Power + Dark Matter Devil's Juice + Potion X-Potion + Hi-Potion Balm of Gilead + Ether Ether (3) + Elixir Elixir + Phoenix Down Reincarnate + Maiden's Kiss Lilith's Kiss + Holy Water Ether (3) + Antidote Resist Poison + Eye Drops Resist Fire + Turtle Shell X-Potion + Dragon Fang Dragon Shield + Dark Matter Dark Ether + Potion Elixir + Hi-Potion Elixir + Ether Elixir + Elixir Elixir + Phoenix Down Reincarnate + Maiden's Kiss Lilith's Kiss + Holy Water Elixir + Antidote Elixir + Eye Drops Elixir + Turtle Shell Dud Potion (5) + Dragon Fang Goliath Tonic + Dark Matter Antilixir

Phoenix Down Phoenix Down Phoenix Down Phoenix Down Phoenix Down Phoenix Down Phoenix Down Phoenix Down Phoenix Down Phoenix Down Phoenix Down Phoenix Down

+ Potion Resurrection + Hi-Potion Resurrection + Ether Reincarnate + Elixir Reincarnate + Phoenix Down Phoenix Down + Maiden's Kiss Kiss of Life + Holy Water Lifeshield + Antidote Resist Ice + Eye Drops Resist Thunder + Turtle Shell Remedy + Dragon Fang Dragon Defense + Dark Matter Death Potion

Maiden's Kiss + Potion Maiden's Kiss (2) Maiden's Kiss + Hi-Potion Maiden's Kiss (2) Maiden's Kiss + Ether Lilith's Kiss Maiden's Kiss + Elixir Lilith's Kiss Maiden's Kiss + Phoenix Down Kiss of Life Maiden's Kiss + Maiden's Kiss Maiden's Kiss (2) Maiden's Kiss + Holy Water Blessed Kiss Maiden's Kiss + Antidote Levisalve Maiden's Kiss + Eye Drops Lamia Kiss Maiden's Kiss + Turtle Shell Succubus Kiss Maiden's Kiss + Dragon Fang Dragon Kiss Maiden's Kiss + Dark Matter Toad Kiss Holy Water Holy Water Holy Water Holy Water Holy Water Holy Water Holy Water Holy Water Holy Water Holy Water Holy Water Holy Water Antidote Antidote Antidote Antidote Antidote Antidote Antidote + Potion Potion (1) + Hi-Potion Hi-Potion (4) + Ether Ether (3) + Elixir Elixir + Phoenix Down Lifeshield + Maiden's Kiss Blessed Kiss + Holy Water Holy Water (6) + Antidote Samson's Might + Eye Drops Elemental Power + Turtle Shell Bacchus' Cider + Dragon Fang Holy Breath + Dark Matter Dud Potion (7) + Potion Neutralize + Hi-Potion Neutralize + Ether Resist Poison + Elixir Elixir + Phoenix Down Resist Ice + Maiden's Kiss Levisalve + Holy Water Samson's Might

Antidote Antidote Antidote Antidote Antidote Eye Drops Eye Drops Eye Drops Eye Drops Eye Drops Eye Drops Eye Drops Eye Drops Eye Drops Eye Drops Eye Drops Eye Drops Turtle Shell Turtle Shell Turtle Shell Turtle Shell Turtle Shell Turtle Shell Turtle Shell Turtle Shell Turtle Shell Turtle Shell Turtle Shell Turtle Shell

+ Antidote Antidote + Eye Drops Smelling Salts + Turtle Shell Turtle Soup + Dragon Fang Poison Breath + Dark Matter Poison + Potion Cure Blindness + Hi-Potion Cure Blindness + Ether Resist Fire + Elixir Elixir + Phoenix Down Resist Thunder + Maiden's Kiss Lamia Kiss + Holy Water Elemental Power + Antidote Smelling Salts + Eye Drops Eye Drops + Turtle Shell Speed Shake + Dragon Fang Dark Sigh + Dark Matter Dark Gas + Potion Ether (3) + Hi-Potion Triple Ether + Ether X-Potion + Elixir Dud Potion (5) + Phoenix Down Remedy + Maiden's Kiss Succubus Kiss + Holy Water Bacchus' Cider + Antidote Turtle Soup + Eye Drops Speed Shake + Turtle Shell Iron Draft (9) + Dragon Fang Dud Potion (8) + Dark Matter TNT + Potion Dragon Power + Hi-Potion Dragon Power + Ether Dragon Shielding + Elixir Goliath Tonic + Phoenix Down Dragon Defense + Maiden's Kiss Dragon Kiss + Holy Water Holy Breath + Antidote Poison Breath + Eye Drops Dark Sigh + Turtle Shell Dud Potion (8) + Dragon Fang Dragon Breath + Dark Matter Dark Breath

Dragon Fang Dragon Fang Dragon Fang Dragon Fang Dragon Fang Dragon Fang Dragon Fang Dragon Fang Dragon Fang Dragon Fang Dragon Fang Dragon Fang

Dark Matter + Potion Devil's Juice Dark Matter + Hi-Potion Devil's Juice

Dark Matter Dark Matter Dark Matter Dark Matter Dark Matter Dark Matter Dark Matter Dark Matter Dark Matter Dark Matter

+ Ether Dark Ether + Elixir Antilixir + Phoenix Down Death Potion + Maiden's Kiss Toad Kiss + Holy Water Dud Potion (7) + Antidote Poison + Eye Drops Dark Gas + Turtle Shell TNT + Dragon Fang Dark Breath + Dark Matter Shadowflare

Below is a list of possibly outcomes. Effects that duplicate normal items (such as the Elixir) and consumables available through the !Drink command (such as the Iron Draft) have been omitted. Sometimes the result of a !Mix is a unique attack with a name identical to an existing item; numbers are used to indicate this difference. There are three different kinds of Dud Potions; again, numbers are used to indicate the difference. All attacks are single-target and can target both friend or foe; attacks are unblockable unless mentioned otherwise. - Antilixir: Sets target's HP to a single digit, not unblockable - Bacchus' Cider: Sets Berserk - Balm of Gilead: Fully restores MP - Blessed Kiss: Sets Berserk, Image 2 and Haste, ignores status immunities - Cure Blindness: Restores a bit of HP and removes Darkness status - Dark Breath: Deals (caster's max HP - caster's current HP) damage - Dark Ether: Deals (75% target's current MP) MP damage, not unblockable - Dark Gas: Sets Darkness, not unblockable - Dark Sigh: Sets Darkness, Confuse and Sap - Death Potion: Sets Death - Devil's Juice: Deals 666 damage, not unblockable. - Dragon Breath: Deals (caster's current HP) Fire-, Ice- and Lightning-elemental damage - Dragon Defense: Sets Reflect, Protect, Shell and Regen - Dragon Kiss: Sets Dragon Nature and Heavy Nature - Dragon Power: Increases effective level by 20 - Dragon Shielding: Grants immunity to the Fire, Ice and Lightning elements - Dud Potion (5): Either (25% chance) attempts to set the target's HP to a single digit (misses if Heavy) or (75% chance) sets Sap - Dud Potion (7): Sets Poison - Dud Potion (8): Deals (target's current HP / 4) damage and sets Confuse - Elemental Power: Grants a 50% power boost to attacks of all eight elements; does not stack with pre-existing elemental power boosts given by equipment - Ether (3): Heals 80 MP, double with Pharmacology - Hi-Potion (4): Heals 900 HP, double with Pharmacology - Holy Breath: Deals (caster's current HP) Holy-elemental damage - Holy Water (6): Restores a bit of HP and removes Zombie status - Iron Draft (9): Sets Protect Shell, as opposed to the Iron Draft from the

!Drink menu which just sets Protect - Kiss of Life: Revives character with 50% max HP and full MP - Lamia Kiss: Sets Confuse - Levisalve: Sets Float - Lifewater: Sets Regen - Lifeshield: Grants Death immunity (only instant Death) - Lilith's Kiss: Drains MP, inverts effects on the Undead, not unblockable - Maiden's Kiss (2): Restores a bit of HP and removes Toad status - Neutralizer: Restores a bit of HP and removes Poison status - Poison: Sets Poison, not unblockable - Poison Breath: Deals (caster's current HP / 2) Poison-elemental damage - Potion (1): Heals 90 HP, double with Pharmacology - Reincarnation: Revives character, restores HP and MP back to full - Remedy: Removes Petrify, Toad, Mini, Poison, Darkness, Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk, Silence, Stop, Slow - Resist Fire: Grants immunity to the Fire element - Resist Ice: Grants immunity to the Ice element - Resist Thunder: Grants immunity to the Thunder element - Resist Poison: Grants immunity to the Poison status (not element) - Resurrection: Revives character, restores HP and MP back to full - Samson's Might: Increases effective level by 10 - Shadowflare: Non-elemental barrier-piercing magical attack, sets Sap - Smelling Salts: Removes Old, Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse, Berserk and Silence - Succubus Kiss: Drains HP, inverts effects on the Undead, not unblockable - TNT: Deals (caster's current HP) damage, kills caster - Toad Kiss: Sets Toad - Triple Ether: Heals 160 MP, double with Pharmacology - Turtle Soup: Halves Defense and Magic Defense - X-Potion: Fully restores HP Note that the effects of Resist Fire, Resist Ice, Resist Thunder, Dragon Shielding and Elemental Power are permanent, but are (due to a bug) cancelled when you change equipment in-battle. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.13 !Gaia [GAIA-LINK] ********************************** !Gaia has the user execute attacks based on the landscape of the battle; this can be identified through the background image. There are 34 different backgrounds, and 34 different Gaia skillsets. Some Gaia skillsets are completely identical, others have the same moves with other odds. The moves the !Gaia command will call up are randomly determined, but which moves are available at the time is fixed. When you use !Gaia, the game will randomly determine a number between 0 and the level of the !Gaia user (henceforth known as 'the caster').

If the result is anywhere between 0 to 10, Spell 1 is used. If the result is anywhere between 11 to 20, Spell 2 is used. If the result is anywhere between 21 to 50, Spell 3 is used. If the result is anywhere between 51 to 99, Spell 4 is used. Terrain 1: Overworld grasslands Terrain 2: Overworld forests Terrain 3: Overworld desert Terrain 4: Overworld marshlands Terrain 5: Overworld beaches Terrain 6: Shipwreck Graveyard (inside) Terrain 7: Cave (inside) Terrain 8: Waterfall caves Terrain 9: Flying Ronka Ruins (outside) Terrain 10: Castle (torches) Terrain 11: Castle (pillars) Terrain 12: Barrier Tower (outside) Terrain 13: Bridges Terrain 14: Library of the Ancients Terrain 15: Karnak Castle (ablaze) Terrain 16: Tree Spirit Passage (underground of forest) Terrain 17: Mountain slopes Terrain 18: Pyramid of Moore (inside) Terrain 19: Ronka Ruins Terrain 20: Overworld forests (World 2) Terrain 21: Exdeath's Castle Terrain 22: On deck (sailing) Terrain 23: Fire-Powered Ship (machines) Terrain 24: Interdimensional Rift (crystals) Terrain 25: Overgrown shrine ruins Terrain 26: Ship Graveyard (on deck) Terrain 27: Overgrown castle ruins Terrain 28: Ruins (wall) Terrain 29: Exdeath battle (final battle) Terrain 30: Walse Tower (sunken) Terrain 31: Sandworm battle (three holes) Terrain 32: Neo-Exdeath battle (final battle) Terrain 33: Castle (outside) Terrain 34: Overworld grasslands (Galuf's World) Spell 1 Spell 2 Spell 3 Spell 4 Terrain 1 Gust Earthquake Wind Slash Twister Terrain 2 Branch Arrow Leaf Swirl Branch Spear Bindweed Terrain 3 Sandstorm Quicksand Desert Storm Burning Sands Terrain 4 Ignus Fatuus Bottomless Bog Poison Mist Bottomless Bog Terrain 5 Tsunami Phantom Whirlpool Big Wave

Terrain 6 Terrain 7 Terrain 8 Terrain 9 Terrain 10 Terrain 11 Terrain 12 Terrain 13 Terrain 14 Terrain 15 Terrain 16 Terrain 17 Terrain 18 Terrain 19 Terrain 20 Terrain 21 Terrain 22 Terrain 23 Terrain 24 Terrain 25 Terrain 26 Terrain 27 Terrain 28 Terrain 29 Terrain 30 Terrain 31 Terrain 32 Terrain 33 Terrain 34

Ignus Fatuus Ignus Fatuus Ignus Fatuus Sonic Boom Ignus Fatuus Stalactite Wind Slash Cave-in Ignus Fatuus Stalactite Whirlpool Cave-in Wind Slash Wind Slash Sonic Boom Twister Gust Wind Slash Sonic Boom Twister Gust Wind Slash Sonic Boom Twister Gust Wind Slash Sonic Boom Twister Gust Wind Slash Twister Twister Ignus Fatuus Ignus Fatuus Ignus Fatuus Sonic Boom Gust Wind Slash Twister Twister Branch Arrow Leaf Swirl Branch Spear Bindweed Gust Earthquake Cave-in Twister Ignus Fatuus Poison Mist Sonic Boom Cave-in Wind Slash Wind Slash Sonic Boom Twister Branch Arrow Leaf Swirl Branch Spear Bindweed Gust Wind Slash Sonic Boom Sonic Boom Tsunami Whirlpool Big Wave Waterfall Gust Earthquake Twister Twister Wind Slash Sonic Boom Twister Twister Wind Slash Wind Slash Sonic Boom Twister Tsunami Whirlpool Big Wave Waterfall Gust Wind Slash Sonic Boom Sonic Boom Wind Slash Twister Sonic Boom Twister Wind Slash Wind Slash Wind Slash Wind Slash Tsunami Phantom Whirlpool Big Wave Sandstorm Quicksand Desert Storm Burning Sands Wind Slash Wind Slash Wind Slash Wind Slash Twister Wind Slash Sonic Boom Twister Twister Earthquake Wind Slash Twister

Gust ST 38 Wind-elemental Wind Slash MT 90 Wind-elemental Earthquake MT 90 Earth-elemental, misses if Float Desert Storm MT 90 Earth-/Wind-elemental Burning Sands MT 150 Fire-/Wind-elemental Waterfall ST 120 Water-elemental Big Wave MT 90/120 Tsunami MT 38 Stalactite ST 120 Branch Arrow ST 53 Targets Defense Branch Spear ST 150 Targets Defense Ignus Fatuus ST U Sets Confuse (50 %), Fire-elemental Leaf Dance MT U Sets Darkness (99 %), Wind-elemental Sandstorm MT U Sets Darkness (50 %), Earth-/Wind-elemental Poison Mist MT U Sets Poison (99 %), Poison-elemental Cave-In ST x 4 U Hits four times, random damage

Sonic Boom ST U Deals (75 % current HP) damage, misses if Heavy Twister ST 99 % Sets HP to (0..9), misses if Heavy Whirlpool ST 99 % Sets HP to (0..9), misses if Heavy Bindweed MT U Sets Slow Phantom ST 100% Sets Death Bottomless Bog MT U Destroys target, misses if Heavy Quicksand ST U Destroys target, misses if Heavy For more information, take a look at my Geomancer Guide, which is theoretically uploaded at GameFAQs when you, the reader, are looking at this document. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.14 !Sing [SING-LINK] ********************************** Sinewy Etude: Gradually increases the party's Strength, caster keeps on singing until damaged. Swift Song: Gradually increases the party's Agility, caster keeps on singing until damaged. Mighty March: Sets Regen on all characters Mana's Paean: Gradually increases the party's Magic Power, caster keeps on singing until damaged. Hero's Rime: Gradually increases the party's level, caster keeps on singing until damaged. Requiem: Strong non-elemental damage to all opponents, but only to those with an Undead nature. Romeo's Ballad: Sets Stop on all opponents. Alluring Air: Sets Confuse on all opponents. Several enemies cannot evade effects caused by Sing even when their magic evasion would normally give them a chance to do so. These enemies include: Blockhead, Crew Dust, Black Flame, all Unknown enemies, Calotisteri and Omega. Songs are learned from books and Bards you find throughout the game. Two songs, the Hero's Rime and Sinewy Etude, are taught to you only when you've reached a certain degree of AWESOME on the piano. [PIANO-LINK] "You have mastered the piano!!! All others quake in fear at your superhuman keyboard manipulation skill!" The only piano's actually giving you any benefit are the seventh and last piano tunes, but you need to have played all others to actually access these. The seventh tune inspires the Bard in Crescent to teach you Mana's Paean, the final tune inspires him to teach you Hero's Rime. In addition, your piano skills soar to unknown heights. Sure, it's useless versus Exdeath, but wouldn't you rather

be an erudite huomo universalis than a rampaging brute? Tule: In the Pub. You need to sit to the left of the stage to get the dancer's off the stage so you can enter and play. Carwen: In the Pub. Karnak: In the Pub. Jachol: In the Pub, on stage. Crescent: In the Minstrel's House on the eastern edge of town. Regole: In the Pub. Find the hidden passage which leads to the piano. Moore: In the Pub. Phantom Village: Enter the Pub from the back door. Follow the path until you a split; find the hidden passage, ignore the stairway and go further until you find the piano. None of these towns are ever consumed by the Void, so they're not missable. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.15 !Dance [DANCE-LINK] ********************************** All Dance attacks are single-target and unblockable. All four attacks have a 25 % chance of occuring. Tempting Tango: Sets Confuse Mystery Waltz: Drains MP Jitterbug: Drains HP Sword Dance: Deals four times normal !Attack damage and disregard random spellcasting. All other effects, such as Spellblade, Dual Wield and Two-Handed are taken into account. The Lamia's Tiara, Rainbow Dress and Red Slippers double the chances of Sword Dance appearing at the cost of Tempting Tango, which will never appear when the user has one of these items equipped. When !Dance is used all special properties of the weapon is ignored except for (auto-)Critical Hits when using Sword Dance. Spellblade effects are also ignored. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.16 !Oath [OATH-LINK] ********************************** Oath is nothing more than the usage of four monsters as if you had used !Release with them in your inventory. This does not affect the captured monster in any way, and you needn't have caught them to randomly produce them with the !Oath ability. The monsters in question are: Monster Attack

37.5 % Skeleton Thundara 25 % Rajiformes Aqua Breath 25 % Flaremancer Flare 12.5 % Zombie Dragon Poison Breath

------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.17 !Dark Arts [DARKARTS-LINK] ********************************** Dark Arts are learned when a specific enemy tied to that Dark Art is killed by a Necromancer. When the monster isn't killed by the Necromancer itself, the spell isn't learned. The Dark Arts can be learned from the following monsters: Dark Art: Tutors:

Drain Touch Mindflayer The Damned Dark Haze Lemure Exoray Deep Freeze Assassin Dark Elemental Evil Mist Zombie Dragon Unknown (blob) Meltdown Liquid Flame Claret Dragon Hellwind Objet d'Art Stingray Chaos Drive Mini Satana Curse Ironclad Dark Flare Tonberry Exdeath's Soul Doomsday Hades Most Dark Arts that deal damage also have a chance of inflicting a status ailments. While the elemental damage is unblockable, the status ailment bit is not. This status ailment is set when (0..99) < (target's Magic Evasion%). MP Attack: Effects:

15 Drain Touch Drains HP from a single target, does NOT inverse effects on the Undead. 18 Dark Haze Sets Old and Confuse on all targets 38 Deep Freeze Ice-elemental attack to a single target, also sets Stop 38 Evil Mist Poison-elemental attack to all targets, also sets Poison 38 Meltdown Fire-elemental attack to a single target, also sets Sap 38 Hellwind Wind-elemental attack to all targets, also sets Petrify 38 Chaos Drive Lightning-elemental attack to all targets, also sets Paralyze 42 Curse Sets a random status ailment 52 Dark Flare Non-elemental attack on all targets

66 Doomsday

Non-elemental attack on all targets

------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.18 !Condemn [CONDEMN-LINK] ********************************** All Condemn attack are single-target and unblockable, but none of them will work when the target has a Heavy nature. No more than a single Condemn times can be set on a target at the same time; all subsequent attempts to set a Condemn will fail until the timer of the first has expired. The timer depends on the Oracle's Job level reached with a minimum of 10. Like all timers, the timer is halved or doubled by the effects of Haste and Slow, respectively, and stopped alltogether by the effects of Stop. Rejuvenation: Cura on target when countdown is up Recuperation: Esuna on target when countdown is up Brimstone: Fira on target when countdown is up Black Frost: Blizzara on target when countdown is up Judgment: Thundara on target when countdown is up Salienta: Toad on target when countdown is up Doom: Kills enemy when countdown is up. Still Wing: Stop on target when countdown is up ------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.19 !Predict [PREDICT-LINK] ********************************** The !Predict command causes a powerful attack to be executed. First Rank has a 5 second countdown, Second Rank has a 4 second countdown and Third Rank has a three second countdown. Aside from the fact that predictions that cost more MP take less time to execute, the Rank of the prediction has no effect on the attack itself. The attack used depends on the last digit of the caster's current MP. It is vital you keep track of this, as not all !Predict attacks are as beneficial as you would have liked. The power behind the attack is based on the target's LAST digit of the target's current HP. The higher this number is, the more powerful the attack will be. A target with 19 HP will be hit much harder than one with 301 HP. This is because 9 > 1. !Predict attacks that hit both the enemy and your party will hit the enemy far more strongly than it will hit you. Status ailments set will have an equal chance, however. !Predict damage is independent of stats or level, but can be boosted by elemental boosting equipment and Elemental Power. 0 Cleansing is a non-elemental attack that only targets the enemy.

1 Deluge is a water-elemental attack that hits all targets on-screen that may set Toad. 2 Eruption is a fire-elemental attack that hits all targets on-screen that may set Sap. 3 Starfall is a non-elemental attack that hits all targets on-screen that may set Death. 4 Rockslide is an earth-elemental attack that hits all targets on-screen. Note that Rockslide can also hit Floating targets, unlike most Earth-elemental attacks. 5 Divine Judgment is a holy-elemental attack that damage all opponents and restores MP to all allies 6 Healing Wind is a healing move that only targets your allies that may Dispel 7 Blessing is a healing move that only targets your allies that may set Regen 8 Hurricane is a wind-elemental attack that hits all targets on-screen that may set Silence. 9 Pestilence is a poison-elemental attack that only targets your allies that may set Poison. Generally speaking, Cleansing is the most powerful and beneficial offensive attack, Healing Wind and Blessing are healing moves that will only target the party. Divine Judgment attacks the enemy and restores you. Pestilence is the only one clearly bad for you. The other attacks can be used at your own discretion. Note that Starfall's random Death doesn't care about the sharply reduced damage output on your side, so it's a very dangerous move. So, to recap, you need to look at the caster's current MP. When the last digit of this value is 0, 5, 6 or 7, !Predict will execute an attack that is purely beneficial to you. The numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 8 can be used at your own discretion; they'll damage you and may set a status ailment on your characters, but keep in mind that elements can be absorbed and status ailments can be protected against. When the number is 9, never use !Predict. 9 is the number of Beelzebub. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.20 !Finisher [FINISHER-LINK] ********************************** The !Finisher command is a new GBA command that is quite a bit more powerful than previous physical options you had at your disposal. !Finisher unleashes either a critical hit or a max-powered elemental attack. The Critical Hit! attack inflicts a normal !Attack where the weapon or weapons used inflicts a critical hit automatically. Other critical hit effects, such as MP-driven critical hits used by Rune weapons or automatic criticals based on Nature (Man Eater, Aevis Killer, etc.) don't stack with

!Finisher's Critical Hit!. MP-driven critical hit weapons will still cause the character to lose MP when using Critical Hit!, though. Staves and Harps deal normal damage with Critical Hit!, Rods and the Blood Sword can inflict critical hits, however. The Elemental Attack! inflicts 9999 damage to the target, unless the target nullifies or absorbs the element. The element is determined by the character using and is tied to the Crystal spirit it inherits in the story: Bartz will use a Wind-elemental attack Lenna will use a Water-elemental attack Galuf/Krile will use an Earth-elemental attack Faris will use a Fire-elemental attack In addition to the critical hit and the elemental attack, the !Finisher command may also fail, in which case nothing happens. The chances of these three possibilities occuring depend on the Gladiator Job level that is reached on the character using the !Finisher command: Job Level 0 Job Level 1 Job Level 2 Job Level 3 Job Level 4 37.5 % failure, 37.5 % Critical Hit, 25 % Elemental Attack 31.25 % failure, 37.5 % Critical Hit, 31.25 % Elemental Attack 31.25 % failure, 31.25 % Critical Hit, 37.5 % Elemental Attack 31.25 % failure, 25 % Critical Hit, 43.75 % Elemental Attack 25 % failure, 25 % Critical Hit, 50 % Elemental Attack

------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.21 !Open Fire [OPENFIRE-LINK] ********************************** All Open Fire attacks are single-target and unblockable. 6/16 %: black attack, weakest attack, sets Poison 5/16 %: purple attack, weakest attack, sets Darkness 4/16 %: red attack, sets Confuse (ignores Confuse immunity) 1/16 %: X-attack, strongest attack, sets Death (ignores Undead nature) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------7.22 !Combine [COMBINE-LINK] ********************************** All !Combine effects are multi-target and unblockable. Two items are needed to produce a !Combine attack: one kind of ammo and one kind of non-ammo. The only effects that truly differ next to power are those coming from the Gold Needle and the Dark Matter. Those attacks that inflict a status ailment alongside damage have a static 75 % chance that the status will be inflicted

Buckshot Table: Gold Needle: Needle Shot 1000 damage Mallet: Mini Shot Sets Mini Goliath Tonic: Quake Shot Earth-elemental Power Drink: Power Shot Sets Berserk Speed Shake: Silver Shot Sets Old Iron Draft: Vulner Shot Halves Defense and Magic Defense Hero Cocktail: Divine Shot Holy-elemental Turtle Shell: Slow Shot Sets Slow Dragon Fang: Dragon Shot Double damage versus Dragons Dark Matter: Chaos Shot Sets Confuse Flame Scroll: Flame Shot Fire-elemental Water Scroll: Water Shot Water-elemental Lightning Scroll: Spark Shot Adds Lightning element Ash: Dark Shot Sets Darkness Shuriken: Normal Shot Fuma Shuriken: Killer Shot Double damage versus Humanoids Blastshot Table: Gold Needle: Needle Burst 2000 damage Mallet: Mini Burst Sets Mini Goliath Tonic: Quake Burst Earth-elemental Power Drink: Power Burst Sets Berserk Speed Shake: Silver Burst Sets Old Iron Draft: Vulner Burst Halves Defense and Magic Defense Hero Cocktail: Divine Burst Holy-elemental Turtle Shell: Slow Burst Sets Slow Dragon Fang: Dragon Burst Double damage versus Dragons Dark Matter: Chaos Burst Sets Poison Flame Scroll: Flame Burst Fire-elemental Water Scroll: Water Burst Water-elemental Lightning Scroll: Spark Burst Adds Lightning element Ash: Dark Burst Sets Darkness Shuriken: Normal Burst Fuma Shuriken: Killer Burst Double damage versus Humanoids Blitzshot Table: Gold Needle: Mallet: Goliath Tonic: Power Drink: Speed Shake: Iron Draft: Needle Cannon 3000 damage Mini Cannon Sets Mini Quake Cannon Earth-elemental Power Cannon Sets Berserk Silver Cannon Sets Old Vulner Cannon Halves Defense and Magic Defense

Hero Cocktail: Divine Cannon Holy-elemental Turtle Shell: Slow Cannon Sets Slow Dragon Fang: Dragon Cannon Double damage versus Dragons Dark Matter: Chaos Cannon Sets Death Flame Scroll: Flame Cannon Fire-elemental Water Scroll: Water Cannon Water-elemental Lightning Scroll: Spark Cannon Adds Lightning element Ash: Dark Cannon Sets Darkness Shuriken: Normal Cannon Fuma Shuriken: Killer Cannon Double damage versus Humanoids

********************************** 8.0 Game mechanics; real quick, I promise ********************************** Table of Contents: 8.1 8.2 8.3 8.4 8.5 8.6 8.7 8.8 Status ailments Natures Special items Attack types ATB, Agility and Equipment Weight Statistics Critical Hits Defense and Magic Defense

------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1 Status ailments ********************************** 8.1.1 8.1.2 8.1.3 8.1.4 8.1.5 8.1.6 8.1.7 8.1.8 8.1.9 8.1.10 8.1.11 8.1.12 8.1.13 8.1.14 8.1.15 8.1.16 Near Fatal Darkness Poison Mini Toad Silence Confuse Paralyze Sleep Old Berserk Image Float Regen Slow Haste

8.1.17 8.1.18 8.1.19 8.1.20 8.1.21 8.1.22 8.1.23 8.1.24

Stop Shell Protect Reflect Sap Zombie Petrify Death

------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.1 Near Fatal ********************************** Not a status ailment per se, Near Fatal provokes different behavior nonetheless. Near Fatal characters will be protected from physical attacks by Knight and those with the Cover support ability. The Shell status will be set on those with the Magic Shell support ability. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.2 Darkness ********************************** Darkness cuts the hit rate of all blockable physical attacks made my the monster or character by 75 %. It also prevents the character from using the !Aim action ability. Darkness lingers after battle. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.3 Poison ********************************** Poison deals non-elemental damage equal to the affected target's maximum HP/16. Out of battle, every stop taken results into damage equal to the character's maximum HP/64. Poison will inflict no damage on a character with Stop set. Poison lingers after battle. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.4 Mini ********************************** Mini doubles the affected target twice its normal Evade %, but reduces Battle Power to 3 (also for Throw and Goblin Punch purposes) and Defense to 0. Mini also affects the sprite of the affected out of battle, which is hilarious. A combination of the Mini status and the Genji Shield gives a character complete physical evasion. Mini lingers after battle. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.5 Toad ********************************** Toad nullifies Defense, Magic Defense and Evade %. Battle Power is set to 3 (also for Throw and Goblin Punch purposes). All secondary abilities are blacked

out except for !Black. Only the Toad spell may be used from the skill menu. Monsters under the effects of Toad may also use Toad spell. Toad also affects the sprite of the affected out of battle. Toad lingers after battle. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.6 Silence ********************************** Silence prevents the usage of !Black, !White, !Time, !Spellblade, !Summon, !Sing and !Dark Arts and the spell listed thereunder. All other magical attacks can still be executed, most notably Blue magic and enemy attacks of all kinds. Enemies with Silence set may still use Dark Arts attacks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.7 Confuse ********************************** Confused characters will turn against their allies, defaulting to a physical attack aimed at another character. If they are capable of casting !White, !Black or !Red spells, they may also cast offensive spells on your allies or helpful spells on your enemies. A Confused target cannot avoid physical attacks, not even with the help of Elven Cloaks, Main Gauches, or Aegis Shields. Confused creatures automatically come to their senses when they take physical damage, but not magical damage. The only two exceptions are !Mineuchi and the last two hits of !Rapid-Fire. Confused characters will not Cover for other allies. Confused monsters will randomly use any of the (maximum) four attacks listed in its Control menu with reverse targeting, aiding you and harming other monsters. Counterattacks and normal AI attacks are not executed. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.8 Paralyze ********************************** Paralyzed creatures cannot act, nor will they Cover for other allies. The duration of Paralyze depends on the attack setting it. A Paralyzed target cannot avoid physical attacks, not even with the help of Elven Cloaks, Main Gauches, or Aegis Shields. Paralyze wears off automatically. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.9 Sleep ********************************** Sleeping creatures cannot act. The duration of Sleep depends on the attack setting it. A Sleeping target cannot avoid attacks, not even with the help of Elven Cloaks, Main Gauches, or Aegis Shields. Sleeping creatures automatically wake up when they take physical damage, but not magical damage. The only two exceptions are !Mineuchi and the last two hits of !Rapid-Fire. Sleeping characters will not Cover for other allies. Sleep wears off automatically.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.10 Old ********************************** Characters under the influence of Old will see their stats gradually deteriorate to 1; their level will remain the same. Monsters will have their level and agility gradually sink to 1 for all purposes; attacks that check for level will look at this deteriorating level. Old lasts the entire battle until cured, but is automatically removed at the end of battle. Level 2 Old ignores Old immunity. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.11 Berserk ********************************** Berserked characters or monsters will deal 50% as much damage with their normal physical attacks, but are forced to execute a basic physical attack every turn. Berserked targets are immune to the effects of Confuse and !Flirt and the Lilith Rod, nor can they be the vicim of !Control. Berserked characters will not Cover for other allies. Monsters will not counter attacks when Berserked, but characters with Counter set may still. Kiss of Blessing ignores Berserk immunity. Berserk wears off automatically. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.12 Image ********************************** Image sets up a duplicate target that causes the next physical attack that would otherwise hit, miss. When Image is successful in helping avoid a physical attack, it will be removed. !Image, the Kiss of Blessing and the Blink spell set two Images, the Mirage Vest only gives a single Image. Image status wears off after battle. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.13 Float ********************************** Float status lets the target avoid ground-based attacks; many monsters have inherent Float to simulate flying enemies. Ground-based attacks include Titan (Gaia's Wrath), Earthquake, Quake (from the Gaia Bell and Gaia Hammer), Squirrel and Wild Boar. Rockslide, Quake Shot, Quake Burst and Quake Cannon are all Earth-elemental attacks that disregard the Float status; note that many enemies with inherent Float are also immune to Earth-elemental attacks. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.14 Regen ********************************** Regen periodically regenerates HP based on your Level and Stamina; skills that raise level or stamina also boost the HP healed by Regen. Regen will not heal a character with Stop status. Dragon Armor ignores Regen immunity. Regen will heal creatures with an Undead nature normally.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.15 Slow ********************************** Causes the ATB bar from both characters and monsters to take twice as long to fill. Mutually exclusive from Haste; Slow is removed when Haste is set and vice versa. Slow doubles countdown timers caused by the Doom spell and !Condemn. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.16 Haste ********************************** Causes the ATB bar from both characters and monsters to take half as long to fill. Mutually exclusive from Slow; Haste is removed when Slow is set and vice versa. Haste halves countdown timers caused by the Doom spell and !Condemn. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.17 Stop ********************************** Stopped creatures cannot act. The duration of Stop depends on the attack setting it. A Stopped target cannot avoid physical attacks, not even with the help of Elven Cloaks, Main Gauches, or Aegis Shields. Stopped characters will not Cover for other allies. Timers will not go on; ATB bar will be frozen, Countdown timers, status duration timers, Regen and Poison will not take effect. Note that Sap will continue. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.18 Shell ********************************** Targets with Shell active take only half damage from magical attacks, and magical attacks that are not unblockable have their Hit Rate halved as well. Magical attacks that are almost entirely barrier-piercing are still halved in effect; magical attacks that disregard Magic Defense due to elemental edges are still halved in damage, magical attacks that deal a set amount of damage are unaffected. Shell automatically ends after battle. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.19 Protect ********************************** Targets with Protect active take only half damage from physical attacks. Physical attacks that disregard Defense due to an elemental edge or any other physical attack that ignores Defense completely is still halved by Protect. Protect automatically ends after battle. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.20 Reflect ********************************** The Reflect status allows certain spells to bounce off the target onto the

opposing party. These spells will be reflected: - All White spells except for Dispel - All Black spells except for Drain and Psyche - Slow, Regen, Haste, Float, Gravity, Stop, Slowga, Graviga, Hastega, Old, Banish - Lv. 5 Death, Lv. 4 Graviga, Lv. 3 Flare, Lv. 2 Old, Aero, Aera, Aeroga, Mind Blast, Mighty Guard, Dark Shock, Off-Guard - Delta Attack, Search, 100 Gs, Blaster, Gamma Ray, Atomic Rays, Frostbite, Electrocute, Mega Flare (enemy) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.21 Sap ********************************** Sap causes the current HP of the target to drop by a marginal, absolute amount every interval. Stop will not stop the erosion. The duration of Sap depends on the attack setting it. Sap automatically ends at the end of the battle. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.22 Zombie ********************************** Characters with Zombie set are considered 'dead', and four Zombies gets you a Game Over. Zombies have their HP set to 0, and attack automatically, with basic !Attacks, directed at the party. Zombies are immune to Darkness, Poison, Float, Mini, Toad, Petrify and Death, and damage dealt to them have no effect. Zombies will not Cover for other allies. Zombie lasts after the battle, and can only be cured by Holy Water; Tents and Cottages will not heal this most unholy of status ailments. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.23 Petrify ********************************** Characters with Petrify set are considered 'dead', and four statues gets you a Game Over. Petrified characters keep their HP score, but can no longer act, nor can they Cover for other allies. You cannot target Petrified characters with conventional attacks; only those that are specifically designed to be able to hit characters with Petrify can be directed at them. Monsters with Petrify set are just killed, and cannot be healed. Petrify lingers after battle. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.1.24 Death ********************************** Characters with Death set are considered 'dead', and four characters with Death set gets you a Game Over. Characters with Death set cannot act, cannot Cover for other allies and cannot be hit with conventional attacks. Their HP drops to 0 if not already there. Though Death immunity is possible, Death immunity is disregard when HP is brought to 0, when the Death immune target uses an attack

that kills the caster, when the Death-setting attack is one that destroys the target (as it checks for Heavy nature rather than Death status immunity). While revival attacks will normally 'heal' Death, they will set Death on Undead targets. Death lingers after battle. Death is all. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.2 Natures ********************************** Natures are creature types which are used to determine a weapon's or spell's possible effect on the target. Natures are typically fixed; they can never be removed and can never be set with the exception of the Dragon Kiss attack, a Mix coming from a Dragon Fang and a Maiden's Kiss, which sets both the Heavy and Dragon nature on whatever target it's used on. Table of Contents: 8.2.1 8.2.2 8.2.3 8.2.4 Undead Heavy Magic Beast Dragon, Humanoid, Desert and Aevis

------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.2.1 Undead ********************************** Note that Undead has nothing to do with elemental properties; they are often put together on enemies and the Bone Mail, but inherently they have nothing to do with eachother. Creatures with an Undead nature invert the effects of draining spells, are damaged by curative spells and items but are fully restored by the Death spell and linked attacks. Those with an Undead nature: - Gain HP by those attacks which drain HP and/or MP: damage is dealt to the caster instead. - Normal restorative attacks and items damage instead of heal with the sole exception of White Wind. - Restorative attacks and items that normally restore HP back to full instead reduce the target's current HP to a single digit. This is not the case when the creature also has a Heavy nature, in which case the attack does nothing. - Death, Death Potions, Level 5 Death and Roulette restore the target's HP back to full instead of setting Death. - Reviving attacks and items set Death when cast on Undead creatures; when the Death status is set, these attacks and items will not revive them. This is

not the case when the creature also has a Heavy nature, in which case the attack does nothing. - Takes damage from the Requiem Song. This song has no effect on creatures without the Undead nature. - The Sage's Staff and the spell used by Apollo's Harp deal eight times as much damage. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.2.2 Heavy ********************************** The Heavy nature can be described as a nature which grants resistence to all kinds of instant-death effects and other debilitating properties that do not include the actual Death status immunity bit. "Bosses" and the Heavy nature often go hand in hand, but not always; certain random encounters possess the Heavy nature, and certain bosses lack it. The term "Heavy" was coined by instructrtrepe when he needed a word for some odd bit that prevented funky stuff. The term "Heavy" is NOT an official term, and you'll note that this nature is the only one not mentioned in the Bestiary. A Heavy nature allows the creature to circumvent: - Immediate destruction at the hands of Bio, Firage, Blizzaga, Thundaga and Holy Spellblade effects when the target is weak to said element - The effects of !Flirt and the Lillith Rod - Percentage-based attacks such as Graviga, spells used by all Harps (but not Apollo's Harp), Missile, Level 4 Graviga, etc. - Attacks which reduce the current HP total to that of a single digit, such as Antilixir, Tailscrew, Death Claw, etc. - For those that also have an Undead nature, destruction at the hands of reviving items and spells, reduction of current HP to a single digit at the hands of Curaga, Elixirs, X-Potion, Transfusion and Embrace. - Destruction attacks and spells such as Odin's Zantetsuken, Banish and !Iainuki - Death by countdown such as inflicted by the Blue Doom spell - The results of !Condemn - Being forcefully removed from the battlefield by Encircle or Possess - The effects of Grand Cross - Status ailments set that have a timer such as Stop, Paralyze, Sap and Silence will have a sharply reduced time of effect; about 25% of the time a normal character takes to charge his/her ATB bar ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.2.3 Magic Beast ********************************** The Magic Beast nature is just there to check for a certain type of creature

for the purposes of certain attacks. - The Beastmaster's !Calm command was supposed to set Stop only on creatures with a Magic Beast nature; instead, it can set Stop on all targets except for Magic Beasts. - The Artemis Bow and the Beast Killer Whip deal twice as much damage to creatures with a Magic Beast nature. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.2.4 Dragon, Humanoid, Desert and Aevis ********************************** Dragon: The Dragon Lance and Dragon's Whisker deal twice as much damage to creatures with a Dragon nature. The spell used by Apollo's Harp deals eight times as much damage. The !Combine attacks Dragon Shot, Dragon Burst and Dragon Cannon all deal twice as much damage. Humanoid: The Man-Eater deals twice as much damage to creatures with a Humanoid nature. The !Combine attacks Killer Shot, Killer Burst and Killer Cannon all deal twice as much damage. Desert: Aqua Breath deals eight times as much damage to creatures with a Desert nature. These include every creature that can be only encountered in the desert, with the inclusion of the Sandworm and the exclusion of Dhorme Chimera, Ankheg and Ammonite for whatever reason. Aevis: The Aevis Killer deals twice as much damage to creatures with an Aevis nature. These typically include giant birds (Zu palette swaps), winged snakes (Archeoaevis palette swaps) and the Dragon Aevis.

********************************** 8.3 Special items ********************************** Table of Contents: 8.3.1 8.3.2 8.3.3 8.3.4 8.3.5 The Magic Lamp The Wonder Wand Special Weapon Properties Special Armor Properties Special Accessory Properties

------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.3.1 The Magic Lamp ********************************** The Magic Lamp can be found behind Istory Waterfall, which can only be reached on Boko's back in Planet R, the fused world. When using the Magic Lamp in battle, it'll summon the 'strongest' summon monster (Bahamut) and work it's way down from there. You need not be able the summon the monster normally for the Magic Lamp to produce the attack. It will go as such: Bahamut, Leviathan, Phoenix, Odin, Syldra, Carbuncle, Catoblepas, Golem, Titan, Ifrit, Ramuh, Shiva, Remora, Sylph, Chocobo Every time you use the Magic Lamp, a weaker summon monster will appear, until eventually Chocobo is reached. The Chocobo can be summoned 20 times before the move Egg Chop is used by the Magic Lamp, which displays the cryptic text "Too far away!" and continues to do nothing. Through the Magic Lamp, Phoenix will never resurrect a character, Odin will never use Gungnir (Zantetsuken will fail when it encounters a Heavy target) and the Chocobo will never appear as its Fat incarnation. You can recharge the Magic Lamp at it's place of origin, Istory Waterfall, or the underground lake near the Dwarves, at which point Bahamut once again will be the first one to come out. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.3.2 The Wonder Wand ********************************** The Wonder Wand will cast the weakest White spell (Cure) and work it's way up from there, skipping Libra, up to Holy and Dispel. Here, it'll start with Black Magic, going from Fire to Flare, Death and Osmose. Here, it'll reset. Quite simply like this: Cure, Poisona, Silence, Protect, Mini, Cura, Raise, Confuse, Blink, Shell, Esuna, Curaga, Reflect, Berserk, Arise, Holy, Dispel, Fire, Blizzard, Thunder, Poison, Sleep, Toad, Fira, Blizzara, Thundara, Drain, Break, Bio, Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, Flare, Death, Osmose, *reset to Cure* The Wonder Wand can be used to cast any of these spells when the effects of Mute have been set. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.3.3 Special Weapon Properties **********************************

What's not listed here is Back Row OK, Spellblade compatability, elements, stat boosts and Attack Power; all are given by the game itself. - Mage Masher: Has a 33 % chance of casting Silence. - Main Gauche: Has a 25 % chance of avoiding a blockable physical attack. - Dancing Dagger: Has a 50 % chance to !Dance rather than !Attack - Air Knife: Boosts Wind-elemental attacks by 50 % - Thief Knife: Has a 50 % chance to !Mug rather than !Attack - Assassin's Dagger: Has a 25 % chance to cast Death - Man-Eater: Deals double damage to Humanoid targets, does twice the amount of damage with !Jump. - Chicken Knife: Has a 25 % chance to !Flee rahter than !Attack - Sasuke's Katana: Has a 25 % chance of avoiding a blockable physical attack. - Kagenui: Has a 25 % chance of casting Stop. - Ancient Sword: Has a 33 % chance of casting Old. - Sleep Blade: Has a 50 % chance of casting Sleep. - Rune Blade: Uses 8 MP for a 'critical hit' with 20 more Attack Power. - Excalipoor: Deals 1 damage, always. - Blood Sword: Drains damage done, effects are reversed on the Undead. - Defender: Has a 25 % chance of avoiding a blockable physical attack, casts Protect when used as an item. - Twin Lance: Hits twice. - Death Sickle: Has a 33 % chance of casting Death. - Poison Axe: Has a 67 % chance of casting Poison. - Gaia Hammer: Has a 25 % chance of casting Earthquake INSTEAD of !Attack. Boosts Earth-elemental attacks by 50 % - Rune Axe: Uses 5 MP for a 'critical hit' with 10 more Attack Power. - Ashura: Critical Hit Rate of 12 % - Wind Slash: Critical Hit Rate of 12 %, has a 12 % chance of casting Wind Slash INSTEAD of !Attack, boosts Wind-elemental attacks by 50 % - Osafune: Critical Hit Rate of 12 % - Kotetsu: Critical Hit Rate of 12 % - Kiku-ichimonji: Critical Hit Rate of 12 % - Murasame: Critical Hit Rate of 25 % - Masamune: Critical Hit Rate of 15 %, casts Haste when used as an item. Wielder starts every battle with a full ATB bar. - Murakumo: Critical Hit Rate of 20 % - Mutsunokami: Critical Hit Rate of 50 % - Flame Rod: Casts Firaga when used as an item, then breaks. Boosts Fireelemental attacks by 50 % - Frost Rod: Casts Blizzaga when used as an item, then breaks. Boosts Ice-

elemental attacks by 50 % - Thunder Rod: Casts Thundaga when used as an item, then breaks. Boosts Lightning-elemental attacks by 50 % - Poison Rod: Casts Bio when used as an item, then breaks. Boosts Poisonelemental attacks by 50 % - Lilith Rod: Deals no damage, has the effect of !Flirt, has a 25 % chance of casting Osmose. - Magus Rod: Boosts Fire-, Ice-, Lightning-, Poison, Earth- and Wind-elemental attacks by 50 % - Wonder Wand: Casts Return when used as an item. For !Attack purposes, see section 8.3.2 - Demon's Rod: Has a 16 % chance of casting Death - Power Staff: Casts Berserk on the target, no physical damage. - Healing Staff: Casts Cura on the target, no physical damage. - Sage's Staff: Casts Life when used as an item. Boosts Holy-elemental attacks by 50 % - Staff of Light: Casts Holy when used as an item, then breaks. - Judgement Staff: Casts Dispel when used as an item. - Dark Bow: Has a 66 % chance of setting Darkness. - Rune Bow: Has a 33 % chance of setting Silence, no physical damage. - Killer Bow: Has a 8 % chance of destroying the target, never when the target has a Heavy nature - Hayate Bow: Has a 25 % of using !Rapid Fire rather than !Attack - Aevis Killer: Deals twice as much damage to Aevis'. - Artemis Bow: Deals twice as much damage to magical creatures. - Fairy's Bow: Has a 12 % chance of setting Confuse - Silver Harp: Deals 1/16 current of HP damage - Dreamp Harp: Deals 2/16 current of HP damage, sets Sleep - Lamia's Harp: Deals 3/16 current of HP damage, sets Confuse - Apollo's Harp: Magical attack, deals eight times as much damage to Dragons and the Undead. - Whip: Has a 50 % chance of Paralyzing Magic Beast creatures. - Blitz Whip: Has a 33 % chance of casting Thunder. - Chain Whip: Has a 50 % chance of Paralyzing Magic Beast creatures. - Beast Killer: Has a 50 % chance of Paralyzing Magic Beasts deals twice as much damage to Magical Beasts - Fire Lash: Has a 33 % chance of casting Firaga. - Dragon's Whisker: Has a 50 % chance of Paralyzing magical creatures, deals twice as much damage to Dragons. - Gaia Bell: Has a 25 % chance of casting Earthquake, boosts Earth-elemental attacks by 50 % - Rune Chime: Uses 5 MP for a 'critical hit' with 10 more Attack Power. Boosts

Fire-, Ice-, Lightning-, Poison-, Holy-, Earth- and Wind-elemental attacks by 50 % ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.3.4 Special Armor Properties ********************************** - Aegis Shield: Has a 33 % chance of blocking a magical attack, makes the wearer immune to Petrify. - Diamond Shield: Halves damage done by Lightning-elemental attacks. - Flame Shield: Absorbs Fire-elemental attacks. - Ice Shield: Absorbs Ice-elemental attacks. - Genji Shield: Makes the wearer immune to Mini and Paralyze. - Force Shield: Makes the wearer immune to all elemental attacks - Gold Hairpin: Halves MP cost of spells - Lamai's Tiara: Makes the wearer immune to Confuse, boosts chances of Sword Dance appearing when a Dance is executed. - Diamond Helmet: Halves damage done by Lightning-elemental attacks. - Ribbon: Makes the wearer immune to Death, Petrify, Toad, Poison, Darkness, Old, Berserk and Silence. - Genji Helm: Makes the wearer immune to Mini and Confuse. - Thornlet: Inflicts Sap, makes the wearer immune to Sleep. - Diamond Armor: Halves damage done by Lightning-elemental attacks. - Genji Armor: Makes the wearer immune to Toad and Confuse. - Gaia Gear: Boosts Earth-elemental attacks by 50 % - Angel Suit: Makes the wearer immune to Poison-elemental attacks and the Poison status. - Diamond Plate: Halves damage done by Lightning-elemental attacks. - Mirage Vest: Inflicts Image 1 - Rainbow Suit: Makes the wearer immune to Confuse, boosts chances of Sword Dance appearing when a Dance is executed. - Bone Mail: Makes the wearer absorb Poison-elemental attacks, take 50 % damage from Ice-elemental attacks and take double damage form Fire- and Holyelemental attacks. Makes the wearer immune to Death, Poison, Darkness, Old, Confuse, Berserk and Regen. Makes the wearer Undead. - Vishnu Vest: Halves damage done by Fire-, Ice- and Lightning-elemental attacks. - Sage's Surplice: Makes the wearer immune to Silence. - Gaia Gear: Boosts Earth-elemental attacks by 50 % ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.3.5 Special Accessory Properties **********************************

- Thief's Gloves: Boosts !Steal succes rate form 40 % to 80 % - Titan's Gloves: Makes the wearer immune to Mini. - Genji Gloves: Makes the wearer immune to Toad and Paralyze. - Elven Mantle: Has a 33 % chance of avoiding a blockable physical attack. - Hermes Sandals: Inflicts Haste - Red Slippers: Makes the wearer immune to Confuse, boosts chances of Sword Dance appearing when a Dance is executed. - Reflect Ring: Inflicts Reflect - Protect Ring: Inflicts Regen - Kaiser Knuckles: Makes Barehanded-enhanced Fists even more powerful - Silver Specs: Makes the wearer immune to Darkness - Angel Ring: Makes the wearer immune to Zombie and Old - Flame Ring: Makes the wearer absorb Fire-elemental attacks, become immune to Ice-elemental attacks and take double damage from Water-elemental attacks. - Coral Ring: Makes the wearer absorb Water-elemental attacks, become immune to Fire-elemental attacks and take double damage from Lightning-elemental attacks. - Kornago Gourd: !Catch works on 50 % HP and below as opposed to 12.5 % HP and below. - Cursed Ring: Inflicts Countdown to Death - Hyper Wrist: Increases Attack by 10 - Sorceror's Mantle: Halves damage done by all elemental attacks - Chaos Orb: Boosts Fire-, Ice- and Lightning-elemental attacks by 50 %, inflicts Sap. When the character is a Necromancer, Sap is not inflicted but Regen is set instead. ********************************** 8.4 Attack types ********************************** The bottom line of any 'normal' damage formula in the game is as follows: Damage done = (Attack - Defense OR Magic Defense) * Multiplier There are several kinds of attacks that differ from this base formula in one way or another. These include: Magical attacks Physical magical attacks Curative magical attacks Curative/status-removing magical attacks Barrier-piercing magical attacks Random magical attacks Random level-based magical attacks Magical attacks are affected by the caster's Magic Power and level. Resistence

is based off the target's Magic Defense. Elemental boosts and elemental properties of the attack and the target are factored in. Examples: Firaga, Ramuh's Judgment Bolt, Water Scroll ^1 HP-draining attacks use the exact same damage formula but drain damage done and the effects are inverted on creatures with an Undead nature. ^2 Whispering Wind uses the exact same damage formula, but each character not with the Death or Petrify status gains 25 % of the damage dealt as HP. ^3 Ground-based attacks use the exact same damage formula but miss versus target's with the Float status. Example: Squirrel, Earthquake, Gaia's Wrath. Physical magical attacks are affected by the caster's Magic Power and level. Resistence is based off the target's Defense. Elemental boosts and elemental properties of the attack and the target are factored in. Examples: Chocobo Kick and Fat Chocobo, Branch Spear, Jump (enemy magic), Reaper's Sword. Curative magic damage is affected by the caster's Magic Power and level. Defense and Magic Defense are ignored. Damage is dealt to creatures with an Undead nature. Examples: Cure, Cura ^1 Curative magic damage that heals HP back to full uses the same damage formula, but heals HP back to maximum disregaring actual damage output when cast on a single target. Creatures with an Undead nature will see HP dropping to a single digit, though this effect won't be executed when the creature is also Heavy. Examples: Curaga Curative magic damage which also heals status effects is affected by the caster's Magic Power and level. Magic Defense is NOT ignored but factored in. Damage is dealt to creatures with an Undead nature. Examples: Nightingale, Chakra, Neutralize. Barrier-piercing magical attacks are affected by the caster's Magic Power and level. Resistence is based off the target's Magic Defense, but only 1/32 thereof. Elemental boosts and elemental properties of the attack and the target are factored in. Examples: Flare, Giga Flare, Level 3 Flare, Requiem. ^ Quite a few spells use the exact same damage formula as the normal Barrier- piercing magical attacks formula, but add the Sap status. Examples: Bio, Mustard Bomb, Almagest, Frost, Shadowflare, Mind Blast. ^2 MP-draining attacks use the exact same damage formula but drain damage done and the effects are inverted on creatures with an Undead nature. Random magical damage is based off NO stats of the caster. Attack ranges anywhere from 50 to 200 and the Multiplier is nothing but the spell's power. Resistence if based off the target's Magic Defense. Examples: Zantetsuken (enemy magic), Cave-In, Meteor, Zombie Breath Random level-based magical defense has an Attack ranging anywhere from 10 to 100 while the multiplier is equal to the caster's (level / 8) - 2. Elemental boosts and elemental properties of the attack and the target are factored in. Examples: Bee Swarm, Poison Breath, Ignus Fatuus.

Others: Breath Wing, Blaze and Lightning: damage done equals 25 % of the target's maximum HP. Elemental boosts are ignored, but elemental properties of the attack and the target are factored in. Wave Cannon: damage done equals 50 % of the target's maximum HP, and the Sap status is added. Self-Destruct, Holy Breath, TNT, Poison Breath, Dragon Breath: damage done equals the caster's current HP. Elemental boosts are ignored, but elemental properties of the attack and the target are factored in. In the case of Self-Destruct and TNT, Death is set to the Caster. White Wind heals HP equal to the caster's current HP. The effects are NOT inverted on creatures with an Undead nature. Goblin Punch's Attack is either the monster's Strength or both of your weapons' combined Battle Power. The multiplier equals that of swords. When the level of the caster and target are the same, the damage is multiplied by 8. One little note is that Goblin Punch uses the Battle Power shown in-menu, not the one used. These two are identical in all situations but the following: Actual Battle Power: Menu Battle Power: Barehanded Fists varies 3 K. Knuckles Barehanded Fists varies + 50 3 Rune Edge 70 (with MP) 50 Excalipoor 1 100 Rune Axe 81 (with MP) 71 Staff of Light 30 45 Sage's Staff 45 53 Judgment Staff 45 60 Silver Harp 0 15 Dream Harp 0 25 Lamia's Harp 0 35 Apollo's Harp 0 45 Rune Chime 55 (with MP) 45 Goblin Punch uses non-boosted Fists, thus making it very weak. The MP-inflicted damage boost on the Rune Edge, Rune Axe and Rune Bell are not taken into account, the three Staves wind up using a stronger power than the actual power which is used for a magical damage output and the Harps cast a spell instead of using their Battle Power so it's just there for menu and Goblin Punch purposes. The biggest exception is the Excailbur which has a menu power of 100 (which is VERY good at that time) while actually having one of 1. With Goblin Punch, you

may tap into the awesome hidden power that is the 100. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.5 ATB, Agility and Equipment Weight ********************************** Agility does not have a big impact on speed. You will have to tweak considerably and add Haste and/or Slow to the mix if you ever want to see a character double-turn another character. The ATB bar increases with the same speed no matter what your Agility stat is; the *start* of it is affected. When a character's ATB bar reaches 255, he/she gets to go. The ATB bar starts at (120 - Agility + (Equipment Weight/8)). Haste doubles this value, Slow halves this value. I'll give an example as to how little effect this gives in play: Thief Krile with optimized Agility-boosting items will have 49 Agility and 4 Equipment Weight. Berserker Bartz with Genji equipment will have 16 Agility and 26 Equipment Weight. This means that the difference between the speed demon and the slow slugger is only 30 ATB units. The Berserker only goes 70% as fast as the Thief; the rogue will double-turn rarely, if at all due to slow-down from imputting commands and the Berserker's automatic nature. Does this mean that Agility is worthless? Not at all! Agility affects damage done by Bells, the Chicken Knife and Weapons used with !Throw. In addition, Agility is a major factor in turn order, as it will be forever fixed in circumstances barring Haste and tweaking. Agility may be an important factor in your strategy, it just won't make you act more often. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.6 Statistics ********************************** Strength: Strength measures your physical prowess. Strength is a major factor in determining damage done by Swords, Axes, Hammers, Katanas, Spears, Barehanded attacks, Knives, Bows and Whips. In addition, damage dealt by !Throw and !Kick as well as the Goblin Punch spell is affected by Strength. Stamina: Stamina measures your constitution and physical resilience. Your Stamina is what determines how much HP you have. Note that Stamina boosts due to equipment is never used in this formula, so your equipment does not affect your HP in any case. Next to HP, Stamina is a factor in determining how much HP you gain from the Regen status. Since Stamina governs HP, Stamina also indirectly affects all attacks based off your current HP, such as Holy Breath, ??? and Self-Destruct.

Agility: The main influence of Agility lies in the charge time of the character's ATB bar; the higher the character's Agility, the faster he or she will regain the ability to act. In addition, Agility is a factor in determining the damage done by Bells (but not the Rune Chime or Gaia Bell), !Throw (but not Scrolls) and the Chicken Knife. It is also a factor in normal Knives, Ninja Blades, Bows and Whips, but due to a bug this influence is marginal. Magic: Magic Power is the key ability that influences the damage output (or healing) of magical attacks, including those that target Defense. Rods, Staves, Apollo's Harp, the Blood Sword, the Diamond Bell and Tinklebell, Rune Blade, Rune Axe and the Rune Chime. It also includes several action abilities, including !Lance, !Chakra, !Throw (but only the Scrolls), !Gaia, !Animals and !Dance (but not Sword Dance). Magic Power also determines the amount of MP of the character. Evasion: Targets cannot Evade physical attacks when the target has Sleep, Paralyze, Confuse or Stop set. Prior to a normal Evasion check, checks are made for special pieces of equipment: 25 % chance the attack misses when the character has the Shiradori support ability set (inherent to the Samurai) 25 % chance the attack misses when Sasuke's Katana and/or a Defender is equipped (note that two of these weapons do not stack) 25 % chance the attack misses when a Main Gauche is equipped (note that two Main Gauches do not stack) 33 % chance the attack misses when an Elven Mantle is equipped The Mini status doubles the target's Evasion%. When the target has the Toad status, Evasion% is set to 0. The Mani Wizard and the Goblins from Bartz' first three fights can under no circumstance evade a physical attacks. A large list of mostly airborne enemies cannot evade Aerial weapons; these include Thor's Hammers, all Bows, all Whips and the Rising Sun (but not the Full Moon). Magic Evasion: Magic Evasion is a hidden stat, but is governs the likelihood of magical attacks affecting the target. Damaging spells are almost always unblockable, but status ailment-inducing magical attacks and the like are often not. In addition, Rods and the !Flirt command check for Magic Evasion. Prior to a normal Magic Evasion check, a check is made for the Aegis Shield; even normally unblockble attacks have a 33 % chance they won't connect even before a Magic Evasion check is made. Sleeping, Confused, Paralyzed or Stopped characters cannot use the Aegis Shield to block magical attacks.

The chance of a magical attack hitting becomes: (Listed Spell Hit Rate + Caster's Level) - Target Level Since Magic Evasion is a hidden stat, here is a list of all pieces of equipment that grand the wearer a Magic Evasion bonus: Flame Shield 5 Ice Shield 5

Gold Hairpin 5 Plumed Hat 5 Lamia's Tiara 10 Wizard's Hat 5 Hypno Crown 5 Sage's Miter 5 Circlet 5 Ribbon 5 Thornlet Royal Crown 10 10

Cotton Robe 15 Silk Robe 16 Sage's Surplice 17 Gaia Gear 18 Luminous Robe 19 Black Robe 20 White Robe 20 Robe of Lords 24 Mirage Vest Bone Mail Vishnu Vest 3 10 5 Rainbow Suit Angel Robe 4 25

Silver Armlet 5 Diamond Armlet 5 Angel Ring 10 Protect Ring 10 Flame Ring 5 Coral Ring 5 Elven Mantle 5 Hermes Sandals 5 Silver Specs 3 Red Shoes 3 Cursed Ring 10 Sorceror's Mantle 20 Chaos Orb 10 Crystal Orb 12 For info on Defense and Magic Defense, take a look at section 8.8! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.7 Critical Hits [CRITICAL-LINK] ********************************** Critical Hits occur on physical attacks made with the !Attack command. Only Fists (Barehanded or otherwise), katanas and some bows can inflict critical hits normally, and the chance of inflicting one varies for every weapon. A Critical Hit's power is doubled, and Defense of the unlucky target is completely ignored.

!Rapid Fire, !Aim and Sword Dance may inflict a critical hit. !Finisher may inflict a critical hit with the equipped weapon, regardless if it is normally capable of doing so. Fists 8%

Ashura 12% Wind Slash 12% Osafune 12% Kotetsu 12% Kiku-ichimonji 12% Murasame 25% Masamune 15% Murakumo 20% Mutsunokami 50% Elven Bow 15% Yoichi's Bow 30% Some specific weapons will always inflict a critical hit on targets which they are coded to be very effective against. These weapons and their respective favored enemies are: Man-Eater Humanoid Aevis Killer Aevis Artemis Bow Magic Beast Beast Killer Magic Beast Dragon's Whisker Dragon Dragon Lance Dragon Note that other damage types make magical weapons inflict eight times as much damage to a favored target, but this has nothing to do with critical hits. Also note that Rune weapons make the screen flash as if a critical hit were inflicted. This is not the case, it just shows that the extra damage through MP consumption was a succes. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------8.8 Defense and Magic Defense ********************************** Normally, you can assume that physical damage is reduced by Defense and that magical attacks are reduced in potency by Magic Defense. This is usually the case, but not always. In addition, FFV (Advance) has several ways of screwing around defenses without you expecting it. Note that the following attacks have randomized power behind their blows, so

that damage output may seem erratic while Defense/Magic Defense remains constant: Delta Attack, Poison Breath, Bee Swarm, Leaf Swirl, Sandstorm, Ignus Fatuus, Poison Mist, Comet, Meteo, Zantetsuken (enemy), Cave-In Physical attacks which ignore Defense completely: - !Rapid Fire with all weapons - Weapons which are strong versus a specific creature ignore Defense. For details, see section 8.7 just prior to this one. - Critical hits from Fists, Katanas and !Finisher ignore Defense. - Goblin Punch (but only when level is identical between caster and target) - Elemental damage when the target is weak against that element. In addition, when the target absorbs the element, Defense is also ignored, but the damage heals the target instead. The includes both weapons which normally have the elemental property and elements set with !Spellblade. - In addition, it is a possible (and fairly popular) property of monster's !Special attcks. Physical attacks which ignore 75 % of the target's Defense: - Axes, Hammers, Gaia Hammer - Rune Blade, Rune Axe and Rune Chime - Weapons imbued with Flare !Spellblade Weapons that target Magic Defense: - Rods - Sage Staff, Staff of Light, Judgment Staff - Blood Sword - Bells - Harps Note that targets with the Toad and Mini status have 0 Defense for purposes of damage calculation. Magical attacks which ignore Magic Defense completely: - Attacks which heal the target ignore Magic Defense. - Elemental damage when the target is weak against that element. In addition, when the target absorbs the element, Defense is also ignored, but the damage heals the target instead. - Attacks which deal a set amount of damage/healing such as 1000 Needles and Potions ignore Magic Defense. Magical attacks which ignore Magic Defense for 97 % (31/32): - Flare, Lv. 3 Flare and Giga Flare

- Bio, Stomach Acid, Mustard Bomb, Almagest, Quicksand, Blaze, Shadowflare - Psyche, !Lance (but only the MP part), Mystery Waltz, Lilith Kiss - Mind Blast, Requiem Spells that target Defense: - Odin's Gungnir - Chocobo Kick, Fat Chocobo - Branch Arrow and Branch Spear - Jump (enemy) - Reaper's Sword - Goblin Punch Goblin Punch is the only attack out of those listed above that uses Strength (and the equipped weapon(s)) and not Magic Power for purposes of damage calculation. Note that targets with the Toad status have 0 Magic Defense for purposes of damage calculation.

********************************** 9.0 Characters ********************************** Table of Contents: 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 9.5 9.6 9.7 9.8 9.9 9.10 9.11 9.12 9.13 9.14 9.15 Bartz Klauser Lenna Charlotte Tycoon Sarisa "Faris" Scherwil Tycoon Krile Mayer Baldesion Galuf Halm Baldesion Dorgann Klauser Kelger Vlondett Xezat Matias Surgate Exdeath Gilgamesh Alexander Highwind Tycoon Cid Previa Mid Previa Ghido Boko

------------------------------------------------------------------------------9.1 Bartz Klauser **********************************

Name: Bartz Klauser Age: 20 Height: 5'8" (1.76) Weight: 128 lb (58 kg) Birthplace: Lix Strength: 27 Agility: 28 Vitality: 27 Magic Power: 25 Bartz Klauser is the son of Stella, a girl from Lix and a man called Dorgann Klauser, who raised him after Bartz' mother Stella past away. They traveled a lot together, and it was Dorgann's dying wish that Bartz would see more of the world; Dorgann passed away three years before the start of the game. Bartz is fulfilling his father's wish by traveling around the world with his Chocobo companion Boco. Bartz is the only character you get to give a name in Final Fantasy V, and is its clear protagonist. Bartz is portrayed a somewhat of a dullard in the new GBA translation, though this is not something that appeared strongly in the original game. He does not have many clear character traits, though he is afraid of heights. Bartz is usually portrayed with swords in CGI material, one of which is the Brave Blade. During a significant event during the game, he attempts to cure a person with a Curaga spell, so if FFV and FFVA media is to be believed, Bartz takes a liking to the Knight and White Mage Jobs. In Dissidia, he is labeled as more of a Mime, mimicking the other character's attacks and even donning a cape during his EX Mode. His ultimate attack there is the Spellblade-Dual WieldRapid Fire attack, and during EX Mode he gains the Goblin Punch attack. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------9.2 Lenna Charlotte Tycoon ********************************** Name: Lenna Charlotte Tycoon Age: 19 Height: 5'3" (1.61) Weight: 99 lb (45 kg) Birthplace: Tycoon Strength: 24 Agility: 26 Vitality: 25 Magic Power: 28

Lenna is the young princess of Tycoon, and is the only remaining heir to the throne. At an ungiven age, she has lost her big sister; later still, her mother fell gravely ill. The only cure would be a Wind Drake's tongue, but only one was still alive and thus the survival of Lenna's mother would mean the extinction of the species. Regardless, Lenna set out with a knife to obtain the medicine, but due to circumstance (the specifics of which can be determined in the game) was ultimately unwilling to go through with it. Her mother passed away, but Lenna was protective of Hiryu, the world's last Wind Drake, ever since. During the game, Lenna displays some rash acts of self-sacrifice. In an important cutscene of the game, Lenna attempts to cast a Raise spell, indicating a bond with either the White Mage or the Red Mage Job. Due to her superior Magic Power, Lenna is the superior caster of the group, and she lacks the Strength to bring physically inclined Jobs to their full potential. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------9.3 Sarisa "Faris" Scherwil Tycoon ********************************** Name: Sarisa Scherwil Tycoon Age: 20 Height: 5'7" (1.70) Weight: 117 lb (53 kg) Birthplace: Tycoon Strength: 26 Agility: 27 Vitality: 26 Magic Power: 26 Faris is the oldest daughter of King Alexander Highwind Tycoon and is first in line to ascend the throne upon his demise, but she doesn't know it. In fact, she doesn't anything about her noble family; all she does know is that she's a blossoming young girl on a pirate ship who managed to bluff her way to the position of captain with the terrible secret of her femininity kept secret for fear of what would happen if her crew would find out. Faris got the name of her pirate captain identity as she washed up as a pre-teen aboard a pirate ship; when pronouncing 'Sarisa' in a nearly drowned slur, the pirates understood it to mean 'Faris', a name she kept on the seas. She's got an unexplained history with a massive plesiosaur-like monster dubbed Syldra, who pulls along Faris' pirate ship across the watery ways. Faris kept a Pendant she had the day she washed up on the pirate's ship, but does not know what kind of pendant it is. In the Dawn of Souls remake of the original Final Fantasy, 'Sarisa' was a

default name for the Thief character. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------9.4 Krile Mayer Baldesion ********************************** Name: Krile Mayer Baldeson Age: 14 Height: 5' (1.54) Weight: 88 lb (40 kg) Birthplace: Bal Strength: 24 Agility: 28 Vitality: 24 Magic Power: 27 Krile is an orphan living with her grandfather, the king of Bal Castle and former Warrior of Dawn Galuf Baldesion. Her parents one day traveled into the Gloceana desert, only to never return. She keeps non-Humanoids as company, sharing a room with a Moogle - a normally shy forest creature - and a Wind Drake. She has a great aptitude for magic; she's able to communicate with all kinds of animals and creatures, including Moogles and Chocobos. She really is hyper-sensitive; she can sense danger her friends are in, she can receive messages from a great distance, she can see specters and her eyes can pierce illusions. In addition, she is able to cast at least rudimentary Black magic. During the game, Krile gets her share of the same plot powers the other characters obtain. During one cutscene, her Strength is seen to surpass that of Bartz, but even before she becomes a Warrior of Light she is seen casting Thunder spells on two several occasions, possibly displaying a link between Krile and the Black or Red Mage Job. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------9.5 Galuf Halm Baldesion ********************************** Name: Galuf Halm Beldesion Age: 60 Height: 5' (1.68) Weight: 144 lb (64 kg) Birthplace: Bal Strength: 26 Agility: 24 Vitality: 28 Magic Power: 24

Galuf Halm Baldesion is a popular king and a hero of old; he is one of the Warriors of Dawn who defeated Exdeath thirty years ago. He is unmarried, but he has a granddaughter; if her father or mother was related to Galuf is not mentioned. Galuf, along with the other Warriors of Dawn, was forced to lock the dark warlock Exdeath on an alien world, where he chased Exdeath and one of its lackeys. They used the power of four crystals to lock Exdeath away, but when Galuf learns the power of those crystals is fading, he wastes no time and journeys to the alien world, bringing along both weapons and armor. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------9.6 Dorgann Klauser ********************************** Dorgann Klauser was one of the Warriors of Dawn, the legendary group of four warriors that managed to defeat Exdeath. While the Warriors of Dawn were forced to seal the creature away, Dorgann was the only one who decided to stay on the alien world; he gave no reason to his comrades, but found himself married with a son not long after. Dorgann Klauser lost his wife over ten years before his own death, alongside his son Bartz when they were traveling the world. His dying wish was that his son would see more of the world, a wish his son honored to his day. In the Dawn of Souls remake of the original Final Fantasy, 'Dorgan' was a default name for the Monk character. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------9.7 Kelger Vlondett ********************************** Kelger Vlondett is the leader of the Werwolf town Quelb. Himself a Wereworld, he is one of the Warriors of Dawn. Though he considers himself the weakest of the four, he is a powerful warrior. In his concept art he is depicted with a sword, and his Lupine Attack is quite potent. In the Dawn of Souls remake of the original Final Fantasy, 'Kelger' was a default name for the Thief character. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------9.8 Xezat Matias Surgate ********************************** Xezat is one of the Warriors of Dawn, nicknamed 'Xezat of Ice' for no reason given. He became the king of Surgate (must've been in the family) when he came back from defeating Exdeath, but could never grow accustomed to the royal life. In his concept art, he is portrayed with a big flail and a tremendously goofy hat.

In the Dawn of Souls remake of the original Final Fantasy, 'Zeza' was a default name for the Warrior character. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------9.9 Exdeath ********************************** Following the defeat of the terrible being Enuo and its creation, the Void, at the hands of Twelve Warrios and the Twelve Weapons, the land was purged of evil. The Great Forest of Moore became the place where malevolent souls were imprisoned in. A single towering tree was used, but something went wrong. Filled with the hatred and contempt of the evil spirits inside, the tree took on a will of its own. This tree is Exdeath. Exdeath was sealed away by Ghido the Sage for 500 years, but 30 years prior to the game's unfolding, Exdeath got free. He collected demonic servants to do whatever, and was faced by the Warriors of Dawn. They cornered him after he had left the world he was born in. It is on this other world that Exdeath was once again sealed away, this time by the power of the Crystals of that world. But evil never rests, and while Exdeath's physical form is imprisoned his terrible and dark will holds sway over the lands... Exdeath in other games: Exdeath has made a number of appearances in other games, though they probably shouldn't be considered canon or whatever. In the multi-Final Fantasy fighting game Dissidia Final Fantasy, Exodus the 'Entropic Adversary' is one of the few villains who truly wishes to destroy everything by means of the Void. He is a slow unit whose strength lies in counter-attacks and magical defenses. In Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, Exdeath is renamed Exodus. One of the 'Totema', a pillar of a fake world, the Exodus tree must be defeated in order to destroy the fake world. As an enemy he is defenseless, but at as Totema on the side of the protagonist, Exodus can be summoned by Viera to deal MP damage to all enemies. On both his hands, the Zodiac sign of Libra (Scales) can be seen. Exodus returns in Final Fantasy XII as an Esper, a powerful Scion of Darkness. Again tied to Libra, Exodus is the Judge-Sal, a being created to judge the value of all things in the world. He grew unattached to the world however, and felt it should be destroyed. For this rebellion, he was cast down. Note that his inclusion as a Scion of Darkness retro-actively makes him one of the Lucavi from Final Fantasy Tactics.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------9.10 Gilgamesh ********************************** Gilgamesh starts out as the only shown officer of Exdeath's army, which is lying dormant until the dark warlock returns. His background is never given, his reasons for participating in Exdeath's army not revealed. He is a powerful warrior, but is played as the comic relief; especially in the GBA translation, they packed Gilgamesh full of all kinds of pop-culture references. Gilgamesh is famous in this game for carrying that most elusive of equipment, the Genji Armor set. Genji Armor is portrayed as traditional samurai armor, all decorative and whatnot. Gilgamesh would become quite popular apparently, as he features in a lot of Final Fantasy games after this game; especially in remakes. Gilgamesh is often seen chasing rare swords of various kinds. Gilgamesh makes a playable appearance in the fighting game Dissidia Duodecim, where he stumbles upon the world of the game and grows determined to find Bartz. He find Bartz and engages him in battle, but is ultimately defeated. Gilgamesh also encounters Exdeath, who is defeated by him. Gilgamesh attacks with various swords and other weapons in the game, which feature both weapons from FFV(A) and other Final Fantasy weapons. Gilgamesh wields the Excalibur, Excalipoor, Masamune, Battle Axe and the Chicken Knife, opposed to Bartz' Brave Blade, as well as the Nagitana (the spear he carries in his FFV(A) pre-morph sprite) and the Genji Blade, a reference to the Genji equipment he carries in this game. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------9.11 Alexander Highwind Tycoon ********************************** Alexander Highwind Tycoon is the good king of Tycoon. Though valiant in his effort to keep his lands stable, his life has met with tragedy time and again. His wife died of an illness. His eldest daughter has disappeared on the sea. And now, the wind falters and monsters have overrun the Wind Shrine. Just as Alexander has fought through the floors of the altar and has reached the Wind Crystal, the Crystal shatters... Every character called 'Highwind' in any Final Fantasy game has been a Dragoon. These include Ricard Highwind (FFII), Kain Highwind (FFIV) and Cid Highwind (FFVII). Seeing Alex' helmet and affinity with the Wind Drake, it is not a long shot to say that the King of Tycoon is a Dragoon as well. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------9.12 Cid Previa

********************************** Cid Previa is an elderly inventor who discovered a way to harness the power of the three known Crystals. He discovered that long ago, the Crystals were much more powerful, and Cid created machines to amplify them. It was Cid's work that allowed the Water Crystal to protect the kingdom of Walse and the Fire Crystal to power the furnaces of Karnak, as well as its Fire-Powered Ship. Cid discovers that his machines can cause an imbalance in the Crystals that might shatter them; though he doesn't know about their secondary role in keeping Exdeath at bay, he knows enough about them to recognize the danger of their destruction. Karnak, however, flourished because of the amplification and refused to stop the process, sending Cid to jail instead. Cid has a grandson in Mid Previa, who is a bookish scholar residing at the Library of the Ancients. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------9.13 Mid Previa ********************************** Mid Previa is a young scholar with big glasses and a haircut like he's just begging to be punched in the face. He appears to be quite absent-minded, and was taught by his grandfather to never give up in his pursuits. In the Dawn of Souls remake of the original Final Fantasy, 'Mid' was a default name for the Black Mage character. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------9.14 Ghido ********************************** Ghido is a great sage in a distant world. He possesses strong ties to the magical world, is a powerful warrior and resides in his cave, forever keeping his calm and watchful eye over the well-being of all creatures. He orchestrated the detention of Exdeath from the very start, using the power of the four Crystals of his world to keep the dark warlock sealed in the Great Forests of Moore. Ghido displays a sharp tongue and apparent dislike of Bartz throughout the game, though it must be considered that both features were added by the GBA team; Ghido was a much more neutral character in the original game. In the Dawn of Souls remake of the original Final Fantasy, 'Gill' was a default name for the Red Mage character. It should be noted here that Ghido and 'Gill' were both different translations for Ghido's original Japanese name.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------9.15 Boko ********************************** Boko is a Chocobo. Wark!

********************************** 10.0 Checklists for you Completionists ********************************** 10.1 10.2 10.3 10.4 Bestiary Checklist Spell Checklist Treasure Checklist Item Checklist

------------------------------------------------------------------------------10.1 Bestiary Checklist ********************************** This is a list of the entire Bestiary, and the location where you can find them on a "complete" file, this being one where you have finished every dungeon. Those monsters without a location given are the missable monsters; if you've managed to complete the game with this monster missing in your Bestiary, you have no hope of ever filling that slot. Toooo baaaaaad. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 Goblin Overworld Map Steel Bat Pirates' Hideout Devil Crab Pirate's Hideout Stroper Pirate's Hideout Killer Bee Overworld Map Nutkin Overworld Map Stray Cat Overworld Map Black Goblin Wind Shrine White Serpent Wind Shrine Moldwynd Wind Shrine Mani Wizard Wind Shrine Skeleton Calcruthl Undead Husk Mindflusher Gatling Overworld Map Big Horn Overworld Map Tatou Overworld Map Bandersnatch Overworld Map

20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66

Garula Overworld Map Rock Slug North Mountain Gaelicat North Mountain Cockatrice North Mountain Headstone North Mountain Elf Toad Tower of Walse Ice Soldier Ricard Mage Wyvern Pas de Seul Jackanapes Tower of Walse Aegir Overworld Map Zu Overworld Map Wild Nakk Overworld Map Grass Tortoise Overworld Map Silent Bee Overworld Map Mythril Dragon Overworld Map Crew Dust Fire-Powered Ship Poltergeist Fire-Powered Ship Defeater Fire-Powered Ship Motor Trap Fire-Powered Ship Sergeant Sorcerer Cur Nakk Gigas Page 32 Page 64 Page 128 Page 256 Bomb Tower of Walse Double Lizard Overworld Map Bio Soldier Overworld Map Harvester Overworld Map Black Flame Overworld Map Stone Golem Mini Dragon Prototype Tower of Walse Skull Eater Jachol Cave Dhorme Chimera Tower of Walse Sandboil Overworld Map Desert Killer Overworld Map Sand Bear Overworld Map Ra Mage Ronkan Knight Interdimensional Rift; the Ruins Stone Mask Interdimensional Rift; the Ruins Enchanted Fan Tower of Walse Lamia Interdimensional Rift; the Ruins

67 Archeotoad Interdimensional Rift; the Ruins 68 Hydra 69 Ghidra Interdimensional Rift; the Ruins 70 Pao 71 Tarantula 72 Shell Bear 73 Devilfish 74 Treant Tower of Walse 75 Strapparer 76 Merrow 77 Flying Killer 78 Little Chariot 79 Neo Garula 80 Tunneller 81 Birostris Tower of Walse 82 Fairy Orc 83 Devourer 84 Mandrake 85 Kuza Beast 86 Shield Dragon Sealed Castle 87 Exdeath's Soul Sealed Castle 88 Blood Slime 89 Acrophies 90 Moogle Eater 91 Lesser Lopros 92 Cactus 93 Sandcrawler 94 Aquathorn 95 Weresnake Overworld Map 96 Kornago Overworld Map 97 Cursed Being Overworld Map 98 Undergrounder 99 Objet d'Art Castle Bal 100 Drippy Drakenvale 101 Lycaon Drakenvale 102 Bone Dragon Drakenvale 103 Poison Eagle Drakenvale 104 Zombie Dragon Drakenvale 105 Gobbledygook 106 Neon 107 Magnetite 108 Reflect Knight 109 Traveler 110 Level Tricker 111 Gravitator 112 Ziggurat Gigas -

113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158

Dark Aspic Tower of Walse Metamorph Interdimensional Rift; the cave Cure Beast Land Turtle Dechirer Mini Magician Interdimensional Rift; the Dimension Castle Galajelly Interdimensional Rift; the Dimension Castle Mammon Interdimensional Rift; the Dimension Castle Imp Wyrm Twin Lizard Blind Wolf Interdimensional Rift; the Dimension Castle Hellraiser Interdimensional Rift; the Dimension Castle Reflect Mage Magic Dragon Interdimensional Rift; the Dimension Castle Black Warlock Pyramid of Moore (possible monster-in-a-box) Adamantite Golem Bandercoeurl Pyramid of Moore (possible monster-in-a-box) Iron Fist Blue Dragon Red Dragon Interdimensional Rift; the Dimension Castle Yellow Dragon Interdimensional Rift; the Dimension Castle Sleepy Overworld Map Triffid Overworld Map Hedgehog Overworld Map Python Overworld Map Shadow Overworld Map Elm Gigas Overworld Map Deserptede Overworld Map Bulette Overworld Map Lamia Queen Pyramid of Moore Rajiformes Pyramid of Moore Ushabti Pyramid of Moore Archeosaur Pyramid of Moore (monster-in-a-box) Zephyrus Pyramid of Moore Mummy Pyramid of Moore Aspis Pyramid of Moore (summoned by various buttons) Mecha Head Pyramid of Moore (wandering sprites) The Damned Island Shrine Grand Mummy Pyramid of Moore Sekhmet Pyramid of Moore Slug Overworld Map Gloom Widow Overworld Map Mykale Overworld Map Executor Island Shrine Oiseaurare Island Shrine

159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203

Shadow Dancer Island Shrine Numb Blade Island Shrine Tot Aevis Island Shrine Tiny Mage Crono Controller Sealed Temple Flaremancer Sealed Temple Dueling Knight Iron Muscles Berserker Unknown Great Sea Trench Unknown Great Sea Trench Unknown Great Sea Trench Unknown Great Sea Trench Unknown Great Sea Trench Frost Bull Overworld Map Istory Lythos Overworld Map Spizzner Overworld Map Druid Sea Floor Cave Ironback Sea Floor Cave Mercury Bat Istory Falls Coral Istory Falls Aquagel Istory Falls Steel Fist Istory Falls Alchymia Istory Falls Tonberry Istory Falls Ankheg Overworld Map Ammonite Overworld Map Lancrawler Overworld Map Lemure Phoenix Tower Parthenope Phoenix Tower Cherie Phoenix Tower Magic Pot Phoenix Tower Sucker Octokraken Sahagin Overworld Map Thunder Anemone Overworld Map Sea Ibis Overworld Map Corbett Overworld Map Nix Overworld Map Water Scorpion Overworld Map Vilia Overworld Map Gel Fish Overworld Map Rukh Overworld Map Sea Devil Overworld Map Stingray Overworld Map

204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242

Grenade Interdimensional Rift; the Ruins Baldanders Interdimensional Rift; the Ruins Death Dealer Interdimensional Rift; the Ruins Level Checker Interdimensional Rift; the Ruins White Flame Interdimensional Rift; the Forest Moss Fungus Interdimensional Rift; the Forest Farfarello Interdimensional Rift; the Forest Orukat Interdimensional Rift; the Caves Great Dragon Interdimensional Rift; the Caves Achelon Interdimensional Rift; the Caves Ninja Interdimensional Rift; the Tower Dragon Aevis Interdimensional Rift; the Tower Sword Dancer Interdimensional Rift; the Dimension Castle Death Claw Interdimensional Rift; the Dimension Castle Fury Interdimensional Rift; the Dimension Castle Yojimbo Interdimensional Rift; the Dimension Castle Iron Giant Interdimensional Rift; the Dimension Castle King Behemoth Interdimensional Rift; the Last Floor Crystal Dragon Interdimensional Rift; the Last Floor Necromancer Interdimensional Rift; the Last Floor Gorgimera Interdimensional Rift; the Last Floor Mindflayer Interdimensional Rift; the Last Floor Crystelle Interdimensional Rift; the Last Floor Belphegor Interdimensional Rift; the Last Floor Mover Interdimensional Rift; the Last Floor Mini Satana Sealed Temple; Ruined Shrine - Hall of Souls Assassin Sealed Temple; Abyssal Falls - Treasure Room Soul Eater Sealed Temple; River of Souls - B1 Behemoth Sealed Temple; Titan's Grotto - B2 Dark Elemental Sealed Temple; Ruined Shrine - Hall of Doubt Dark Elemental Sealed Temple; Ruined Shrine - Hall of Doubt Dark Elemental Sealed Temple; Ruined Shrine - Hall of Doubt Exoray Sealed Temple; Heart of Ronka - B2 Duelist Sealed Temple; Abyssal Falls - B1 Medusa Sealed Temple; Tomb of Memory - Incubi's Path Dinozombie Sealed Temple; Tomb of Memory - Incubi's Path Claret Dragon Sealed Temple; Shinryu's Roost Ironclad Sealed Temple; Lethe Court - The Shadowed Gate Hades Sealed Temple; Lethe Court - The Shadowed Gate

------------------------------------------------------------------------------10.2 Spell Checklist ********************************** If you mind any open spots in any of your spell lists by the end of the game, here is if and where you can still find them. Note that not a single White,

Black, Time or Blue spell is really missable. There's a few summon beasts you can pass by though, as can a few songs. On the Blue spells; I've listed what I deemed the easiest location when circling the Overworld of Planet R with your airshupmarine. Obviously, in most cases there are other options. Cure Libra Poisona Silence Protect Mini Cura Raise Confuse Blink Shell Esuna Curaga Reflect Berserk Arise Holy Dispel Buy in Tule Buy in Tule Buy in Tule Buy in Karnak Buy in Karnak Buy in Phantom Village Buy in Karnak Buy in Karnak Buy in Karnak Buy in Regole Buy in Regole Buy in Regole Buy in Moore Buy in Moore Buy in Moore Buy in Phantom Village - (not missable) Buy in Phantom Village

Fire Buy in Tule Blizzard Buy in Tule Thunder Buy in Tule Poison Buy in Karnak Sleep Buy in Karnak Toad Buy in Phantom Village Fira Buy in Karnak Blizzara Buy in Karnak Thundara Buy in Karnak Drain Buy in Regole Break Buy in Regole Bio Buy in Regole Firaga Buy in Moore Blizzaga Buy in Moore Thundaga Buy in Moore Flare - (not missable) Death Buy in Phantom Village Osmose Buy in Phantom Village Speed Slow Buy in Phantom Village Buy in Karnak

Regen Buy in Karnak Mute Buy in Karnak Haste Buy in Karnak Float Buy in Phantom Village Gravity Buy in Karnak Stop Buy in Karnak Teleport Buy in Phantom Village Comet Buy in Regole Slowga Buy in Regole Return Buy in Regole Graviga Buy in Moore Hastega Buy in Moore Old Buy in Moore Meteor - (not missable) Quick Buy in Phantom Village Banish Buy in Phantom Village Chocobo Buy in Phantom Village Sylph Buy in Phantom Village Remora Buy in Phantom Village Shiva - (missable) Ramuh Interdimensional Rift; the Dimension Castle Ifrit - (not missable) Titan - (not missable) Golem Interdimensional Rift; the Caves Catoblepas - (missable) Carbuncle - (missable) Syldra Pirates' Hideout Odin Castle Bal Phoenix Phoenix Tower Leviathan Istory Falls Bahamut North Mountain Doom Island Shrine, Control The Damned Roulette Phoenix Tower, Parthenope uses randomly Aqua Breath Istory Falls, Control Aquagel Level 5 Death Island Shrine, Executor uses randomly Level 4 Graviga Island Shrine, Control Executor, Executor uses randomly Level 2 Old Island Shrine, Control Executor, Executor uses randomly Level 3 Flare Island Shrine, Control Executor, Executor uses randomly Pond's Chorus Overworld Map, Control Kornago, Kornago uses randomly Lilliput Lyric Overworld Map, Control Mykale Flash Fire-Powered Ship, Control Crew Dust Time Slip Phoenix Tower, Control Cherie Moon Flute Overworld Map, Control Mykale, Mykale uses randomly Death Claw Castle Bal, Control Objet d'Art Aero Wind Shrine, Moldwynd uses randomly

Aera Interdimensional Rift; the Ruins, Control Enchanted Fan Aeroga Phoenix Tower, Control Cherie Flame Thrower Tower of Walse, Prototype uses randomly Goblin Punch Overworld Map, Control Goblin, Goblin uses randomly Dark Spark Overworld Map, Control Shadow, Shadow uses randomly Off-Guard Overworld Map, Control Shadow, Shadow uses randomly Transfusion Overworld Map, Control Mythril Dragon Mind Blast Interdimensional Rift; the Last Floor; Mindflayer uses randomly Vampire Overworld Map, Control Shadow, Shadow uses randomly Magic Hammer Drakenvale, Control Drippy Mighty Guard Overworld Map, Control Stingray Self-Destruct Tower of Walse, Bomb uses randomly ??? Overworld Map, Wild Nakk uses randomly 1000 Needles Overworld Map, Control Mykale White Wind Interdimensional Rift; the Forest, Control White Flame Missile Fire-Powered Ship, Control Motor Trap Sinewy Etude: Crescent, before eighth piano played (missable) Swift Song: Surgate Castle Mighty March: Crescent, before seventh piano played (missable) Mana's Paean: - (missable) Hero's Rime: Crescent Requiem: Quelb Romeo's Ballad: - (missable) Alluring Air: - (missable) Drain Touch: Have a Necromancer destroy a Mindflayer or a The Damned Dark Haze Have a Necromancer destroy a Lemure or an Exoray Deep Freeze Have a Necromancer destroy an Assassin or a Dark Elemental Evil Mist Have a Necromancer destroy a Zombie Dragon or an Unknown (blob) Meltdown Have a Necromancer destroy a Liquid Flame or a Claret Dragon Hellwind Have a Necromancer destroy an Objet d'Art or a Stingray Chaos Drive Have a Necromancer destroy a Mini Satana Curse Have a Necromancer destroy an Ironclad Dark Flare Have a Necromancer destroy a Tonberry or an Exdeath's Soul Doomsday Have a Necromancer destroy a Hades ------------------------------------------------------------------------------10.3 Treasure Checklist ********************************** This is a list of all the treasures Mr. Clio knows about, which spans almost the entirety of all treasures you can obtain out of battle. Items given to you by NPCs never count, nor do the treasures that can be stolen by Lone Wolf. The Great Sword in Castle Bal's moat does not count either. Having obtained 100% of all treasure chests will give you nothing extra, but

it's a completionist thing I guess. The game lists them in a particular order and the list hereafer reflects that order. On rare occassions, treasures from one area are scattered a bit, but it should otherwise be clear enough. Rest assured that all of these treasures are mentioned in the walkthrough at some point. Wind Shrine 00 Broadsword

Wind Shrine - 3rd Floor

Greenhorn's Club (Tule) 01 Ether Greenhorn's Club - 1st Floor 02 100 Gil Greenhorn's Club - 1st Floor 03 Potion Greenhorn's Club - 1st Floor 04 Phoenix Down Greenhorn's Club - 1st Floor 05 Tent Greenhorn's Club - 1st Floor 06 Leather Shoes (guarded) Greenhorn's Club - 2nd Floor Pirate's Hideout 07 Leather Cap 08 Tent 09 Ether 0A 300 Gil Wind Shrine 0B Tent 0C Leather Cap 0D Staff Tule 0E 150 Gil 0F Leather Shoes 10 Potion 11 Tent 12 Phoenix Down Ship Graveyard 13 Flail 14 Phoenix Down 15 Tent 16 990 Gil 17 Potion 18 Antidote 19 Antidote 1A Phoenix Down Carwen 1B Antidote

Cave - Level 2 Pirates' Hideout Pirates' Hideout Pirates' Hideout

Wind Shrine - 2nd Floor Wind Shrine - 3rd Floor Wind Shrine - 4th Floor

Tule Tule Tule Tule Tule

Ship Graveyard Shipwreck Shipwreck Shipwreck Shipwreck Shipwreck Shipwreck Shipwreck

Carwen

1C Frost Rod 1D 1000 Gil North Mountain 1E Gold Needle 1F Phoenix Down Walse 20 Silver Specs Castle Tycoon 21 Hi-Potion 22 Ether 23 Elixir 24 Phoenix Down 25 Cottage 26 Ether 27 Elixir 28 Phoenix Down 29 Maiden's Kiss 2A Shuriken 2B Diamond Bell 2C Ashura

Carwen Carwen - Pub

North Mountain - Cave North Mountain - Cave

Walse - House

Castle Tycoon - 1st Floor Castle Tycoon - Room Castle Tycoon - Room Castle Tycoon - Room Castle Tycoon - Room Castle Tycoon - 4th Floor Castle Tycoon - 4th Floor Castle Tycoon - 4th Floor Castle Tycoon - 4th Floor Castle Tycoon - Storehouse Castle Tycoon - Storehouse Castle Tycoon - Storehouse

Castle Walse 2D Elven Mantle 2E 1000 Gil 2F Speed (Time spell) 30 1000 Gil 31 490 Gil 32 Tent 33 Phoenix Down Tower of Walse 34 Silk Robe 35 Maiden's Kiss 36 Silver Armlet 37 Ether Tycoon Meteorite 38 Phoenix Down

Castle Walse - B1 Castle Walse - B1 Castle Walse - B1 Castle Walse - B1 Castle Walse - Storehouse Castle Walse - Storehouse Castle Walse - Storehouse

Tower of Walse - 5th Floor Tower of Walse - 5th Floor Tower of Walse - 9th Floor Tower of Walse - 9th Floor

Tycoon Meteorite

Karnak Castle 39 Esuna (White spell) (guarded) Karnak Castle - 1st Floor 3A Lightning Scroll (guarded) Karnak Castle - 1st Floor 3B 2000 Gil Karnak Castle - 2nd Floor 3C Elixir (guarded) Karnak Castle - 2nd Floor

3D Elixir (guarded) Karnak Castle - 2nd Floor 3E Elixir (guarded) Karnak Castle - 2nd Floor 3F 2000 Gil Karnak Castle - 2nd Floor 40 Elixir (guarded) Karnak Castle - 2nd Floor 41 Elixir (guarded) Karnak Castle - 2nd Floor 42 Ribbon (guarded) Karnak Castle - B3 43 Shuriken (guarded) Karnak Castle - B3 44 2000 Gil Karnak Castle - B4 45 Elixir (guarded) Karnak Castle - B4 46 Elven Mantle (guarded) Karnak Castle - B1 47 Main Gauche (guarded Karnak Castle - B1 Karnak 48 Flame Rod

Karnak

Fire-Powered Ship, minus Elixir, Mythril Glove and Moonring Blade 49 Cottage Fire-Powered Ship - Bulkhead 4A Phoenix Down Fire-Powered Ship - Bulkhead 4B Elixir Fire-Powered Ship - Bulkhead 4C Green Beret Fire-Powered Ship - Bulkhead 4D Thief's Gloves Fire-Powered Ship - Bulkhead 4E Elixir Fire-Powered Ship - Bulkhead Library of the Ancients 4F Ether Library of the Ancients - B1 50 Phoenix Down Library of the Ancients - B1 51 Ninja Suit Library of the Ancients - B1 Jachol Cave 52 Shuriken 53 Tent Catapult 54 Shuriken 55 Shuriken 56 Mini (White spell) Ronka Ruins 57 Golden Armor 58 Elixir 59 Phoenix Down 5A Golden Shield

Jachol Cave - B2 Jachol Cave - B2

Catapult - Living Quarters Catapult - Living Quarters Catapult - Living Quarters

Ronka Ruins - Level Two Ronka Ruins - Level Three Ronka Ruins - Level Three Ronka Ruins - Level Three

Fire-Powered Ship 5B Mythril Glove Fire-Powered Ship - Elevator 5C Elixir Fire-Powered Ship - Elevator 5D Moonring Blade Fire-Powered Ship - Elevator

5E Hi-Potion 5F 5000 Gil 60 Shuriken 61 Ancient Sword 62 Moonring Blade 63 Power Armlet 64 Ether 65 Cottage

Ronka Ruins - Level Four Ronka Ruins - Level Four Ronka Ruins - Level Four Ronka Ruins - Level Four Ronka Ruins - Level Four Ronka Ruins - Level Four Ronka Ruins - Level Five Ronka Ruins - Level Five

Exdeath Castle 66 Ether Castle Exdeath - 2nd Floor 67 Diamond Shield Castle Exdeath - 2nd Floor 68 Ice Shield Castle Exdeath - 4th Floor 69 Ether Castle Exdeath - 5th Floor 6A Elixir Castle Exdeath - 6th Floor 6B Hayate Bow Castle Exdeath - 6th Floor 6C Icebrand Castle Exdeath - 7th Floor 6D Kotetsu Castle Exdeath - 7th Floor 6E 9900 Gil Castle Exdeath - 8th Floor 6F Elixir Castle Exdeath - 8th Floor 70 8000 Gil Castle Exdeath - Keep 71 Twin Lance Castle Exdeath - Keep 72 Partisan Castle Exdeath - Keep 73 Fuma Shuriken Castle Exdeath - Keep Underground Waterway 74 4400 Gil Underground Waterway 75 Phoenix Down Underground Waterway Moogle Village 76 Cottage 77 Dancing Dagger 78 1 Gil 79 10000 Gil 7A Phoenix Down 7B Ether 7C Elven Cloak

Moogle Village - House Moogle Village - House Moogle Village - House Moogle Village - House Moogle Village - House Moogle Village - House Moogle Village - House

Castle Bal 7D Angel Robe Castle of Bal - 1st Floor 7E Hero Cocktail Castle of Bal - Throne Room 7F Teleport (Time spell) Castle of Bal - Throne Room Drakenvale 80 Bone Mail 81 5000 Gil

Drakenvale - Trail Drakenvale - Cave

82 Cottage 83 7000 Gil 84 Hypno Crown 85 Wind Slash 86 Phoenix Down Castle Surgate 87 5000 Gil 88 Float (Time spell)

Drakenvale - Cave Drakenvale - Cave Drakenvale - Cave Drakenvale - Cave Drakenvale - Cave

Surgate Castle - Library Surgate Castle - Library

Barrier Tower 89 Blood Sword (guarded) Barrier Tower - 2nd Floor 8A 9000 Gil Barrier Tower - 2nd Floor 8B 18000 Gil Barrier Tower - 6th Floor 8C Gold Hairpin (guarded) Barrier Tower - 10th Floor Moore 8D Main Gauche

Moore

Great Forest of Moore 8E 2500 Gil Great Forest of Moore 8F Ether Great Forest of Moore 90 4900 Gil Great Forest of Moore 91 Phoenix Down Great Forest of Moore 92 9500 Gil Great Forest of Moore 93 Ash Great Forest of Moore 94 Flametongue Great Forest of Moore 95 Cottage Great Forest of Moore 96 Goliath Tonic Great Forest of Moore 97 Elixir Great Forest of Moore 98 Morning Star Great Forest of Moore Island Shrine 5th Floor 99 Ether Island Shrine - 5th Floor 9A Dragon Fang Island Shrine - 5th Floor Pyramid of Moore 9B Elixir Pyramid - Inside 9C Elixir Pyramid - Inside 9D Black Robe (guarded) Pyramid - Inside 9E Thornlet Pyramid - Inside 9F Dark Matter (guarded) Pyramid - Inside A0 Crystal Armor (guarded) Pyramid - Inside A1 Cursed Ring Pyramid - Inside A2 Ice Shield (guarded) Pyramid - Inside A3 Flame Shield (guarded) Pyramid - Inside A4 Dark Matter (guarded) Pyramid - Inside

A5 White Robe (guarded) Pyramid - Inside A6 Black Garb (guarded) Pyramid - Inside A7 Dark Matter (guarded) Pyramid - Inside A8 Dark Matter (guarded) Pyramid - Inside A9 Dark Matter (guarded) Pyramid - Inside AA 9000 Gil Pyramid - Inside AB 8000 Gil Pyramid - Inside AC Gaia Hammer (guarded) Pyramid - Inside AD 10000 Gil Pyramid - Inside AE Cottage Pyramid - Inside AF Elixir Pyramid - Inside B0 12000 Gil Pyramid - Inside B1 Dark Matter (guarded) Pyramid - Inside B2 Elixir Pyramid - Inside B3 Dark Matter (guarded) Pyramid - Inside B4 Protect Ring Pyramid - Inside B5 Ribbon Pyramid - Inside B6 Gold Hairpin Pyramid - Inside Island Shrine, minus two treasures on the 5th floor B7 12000 Gil Islaxnd Shrine B8 Hi-Potion Island Shrine B9 Iron Draft Island Shrine BA Beast Killer Island Shrine BB Rising Sun (guarded) Island Shrine BC Ether Island Shrine - 2nd Floor BD Protect Ring (guarded) Island Shrine - 2nd Floor BE Crystal Helm Island Shrine - 2nd Floor BF 9000 Gil Island Shrine C0 Elixir Island Shrine C1 Dark Matter Island Shrine - 7th Floor C2 Circlet Island Shrine - 7th Floor Black Tower C3 Ether C4 Wonder Wand White Tower C5 Hi-Potion C6 Defender Great Sea Trench C7 Water Scroll C8 Flame Ring C9 Dragon Fang CA Ether CB Phoenix Down

Black Tower - 4th Floor Black Tower - 7th Floor

White Tower - 4th Floor White Tower - 7th Floor

Great Sea Trench Great Sea Trench Great Sea Trench Great Sea Trench Great Sea Trench

CC Kaiser Knuckles Istory Falls CD Ether CE Turtle Shell CF Air Knife D0 Goliath Tonic D1 Rune Blade D2 Protect Ring D3 Reflect Ring D4 Phoenix Down D5 Enhancer D6 12000 Gil D7 Artemis Bow D8 Fuma Shuriken D9 Aegis Shield DA Titan's Axe

Great Sea Trench

Istory Falls - B1 Istory Falls - B1 Istory Falls - B1 Istory Falls - B2 Istory Falls - B2 Istory Falls - B2 Istory Falls - B3 Istory Falls - B3 Istory Falls - B3 Istory Falls - B4 Istory Falls - B4 Istory Falls - B5 Istory Falls - B5 Istory Falls - B5

Phoenix Tower DB 5000 Gil Phoenix Tower - 5th Floor DC Phoenix Down (guarded) Phoenix Tower - 5th Floor DD 10000 Gil Phoenix Tower - 10th Floor DE Phoenix Down (guarded) Phoenix Tower - 10th Floor DF Phoenix Down (guarded) Phoenix Tower - 15th Floor E0 15000 Gil Phoenix Tower - 15th Floor E1 20000 Gil Phoenix Tower - 20th Floor E2 Phoenix Down (guarded) Phoenix Tower - 20th Floor E3 Aevis Killer (guarded) Phoenix Tower - 25th Floor E4 25000 Gil Phoenix Tower - 25th Floor Phantom Village E5 Thief Knife

Phantom Village

Interdimensional Rift; the Ruins E6 Ether The Rift - Ruins E7 Cottage The Rift - Ruins E8 Elixir The Rift - Ruins E9 Dark Matter The Rift - Ruins EA Elixir The Rift - Ruins EB Blood Sword The Rift - Ruins Interdimensional Rift; the Forest EC Dragon Fang The Rift - Forest ED Ribbon The Rift - Forest EE Enhancer The Rift - Forest EF Lillith Rod The Rift - Forest

Interdimensional Rift; the Cave F0 Angel Ring The Rift - Cave F1 Coral Ring The Rift - Cave Interdimensional Rift; the Castle F2 Thor Hammer The Rift - Dimension Castle F3 Hermes Sandals The Rift - Dimension Castle F4 Red Sandals The Rift - Dimension Castle F5 Rainbow Dress The Rift - Dimension Castle F6 Man-Eater The Rift - Dimension Castle Interdimensional Rift; the Last Floor F7 Fuma Shuriken The Rift - Last Floor F8 Fuma Shuriken The Rift - Last Floor F9 Elixir The Rift - Last Floor FA Ragnarok (guarded) The Rift - Last Floor FB Fuma Shuriken The Rift - Last Floor Sealed Temple FE Buckshot FF Blastshot 100 Ether 101 Gladius 102 Holy Water 103 Dark Matter 104 Hero Cocktail River of Souls 105 Iron Draft 106 Power Drink 107 Goliath Tonic 108 Turtle Shell 109 Dark Matter 10A Elixir 10B Cottage 10C Fuma Shuriken Titan's Grotto 10D Dark Matter 10E Elixir 10F Vishnu Vest 110 Elixir Ruined Shrine 111 Blitzshot 112 Blitzshot 113 Blastshot

Sealed Temple - Dungeon Sealed Temple - Dungeon Sealed Temple - Arena Sealed Temple - Arena Sealed Temple - Arena Sealed Temple - Arena Sealed Temple - Arena

River of Souls - B1 River of Souls - B1 River of Souls - B1 River of Souls - B2 River of Souls - B2 River of Souls - B2 River of Souls - B3 River of Souls - B3

Titan's Grotto - B1 Titan's Grotto - B1 Titan's Grotto - B1 Titan's Grotto - B2

Ruined Shrine - Hall of Souls Ruined Shrine - Hall of Souls Ruined Shrine - Hall of Souls

114 Blastshot 115 Elixir 116 Mace of Zeus 117 Dark Matter 118 Blitzshot 119 Ether

Ruined Shrine - Hall of Souls Ruined Shrine - Hall of Doubt Ruined Shrine - Hall of Doubt Ruined Shrine - Hall of Doubt Ruined Shrine - Hall of Doubt Ruined Shrine - Hall of Doubt

Heart of Ronka 11A Kagenui Heart of Ronka - B1 11B Blastshot Heart of Ronka - B1 11C Buckshot Heart of Ronka - B1 11D Hyper Wrist Heart of Ronka - B1 11E Cottage Heart of Ronka - B2 11F Apocalypse Heart of Ronka - B2 120 Cottage Heart of Ronka - Treasure Room 121 Sorceror's Mantle Heart of Ronka - Treasure Room 122 Blitzshot Heart of Ronka - Treasure Room 123 Blitzshot Heart of Ronka - Treasure Room 124 Phoenix Down Heart of Ronka - Treasure Room 125 Dark Matter Heart of Ronka - Treasure Room 126 Cottage Heart of Ronka - Treasure Room 127 Holy Water Heart of Ronka - Treasure Room 128 Holy Water Heart of Ronka - Treasure Room 129 Ether Heart of Ronka - Treasure Room 12A Ether Heart of Ronka - Treasure Room 12B Fuma Shuriken Heart of Ronka - Treasure Room 12C Fuma Shuriken Heart of Ronka - Treasure Room Abyssal Falls 12D Cottage 12E Royal Crown 12F Coral Ring 130 Longinus 131 Dark Matter 132 Turtle Shell 133 Dark Matter 134 Water Scroll 135 Cottage 136 Demon's Rod 137 Ash Tomb of Memory 138 Elixir 139 Blitzshot 13A Dark Matter 13B Hero Cocktail 13C Dark Matter

Abyssal Falls - B1 Abyssal Falls - B1 Abyssal Falls - B2 Abyssal Falls - Hall of Tranquility Abyssal Falls - Treasure Room Abyssal Falls - Treasure Room Abyssal Falls - Treasure Room Abyssal Falls - Treasure Room Abyssal Falls - Treasure Room Abyssal Falls - Treasure Room Abyssal Falls - Treasure Room

Tomb of Memory - Incubi's Path Tomb of Memory - Inquity's Path Tomb of Memory - Inquity's Path Tomb of Memory - Inquity's Path Tomb of Memory - Inquity's Path

13D Holy Water 13E Blitzshot 13F Ash

Tomb of Memory - Throne Room Tomb of Memory - Throne Room Tomb of Memory - Throne Room

Shinryu's Lair 140 Blitzshot Shinryu's Lair - Entryway 141 Elixir Shinryu's Lair - Entryway 142 Ribbon Shinryu's Lair - Entryway 143 Flame Scroll Shinryu's Lair - Treasure Room 144 Lightning Scroll Shinryu's Lair - Treasure Room 145 Maximillian Shinryu's Lair - Treasure Room 146 Ash Shinryu's Lair - Treasure Room 147 Flame Scroll Shinryu's Lair - Treasure Room 148 Phoenix Down Shinryu's Lair - Treasure Room 149 Blitzshot Shinryu's Lair - Treasure Room 14A Elixir Shinryu's Lair - Treasure Room 14B Blastshot Shinryu's Lair - Treasure Room 14C Ash Shinryu's Lair - Treasure Room 14D Ultima Weapon Shinryu's Lair - Shinryu's Roost Lethe Court 14E Mutsunokami 14F Elixir 150 Robe of Lords

Lethe Court - The Shadowed Gate Lethe Court - The Shadowed Gate Lethe Court - The Stairs of Destiny

------------------------------------------------------------------------------10.4 Item Checklist ********************************** Below are all items that can be found in this game and how to obtain them. I've judged buying an item simpler than stealing and stealing simpler than shooting for a drop from a monster. Some items are one-of-a-kind or otherwise finite. The Chicken Knife and Brave Blade are mutually exclusive. 02 *1 Knife (Faris' starting equipment) 03 Dagger (buy in Carwen) 04 Mythril Knife (buy in Karnak) 05 Kunai (buy in Karnak) 06 Mage Masher (buy in Jachol) 07 Main Gauche (rare steal from Mindflayer) 08 Kodachi (buy in Quelb) 09 Orichalcum Dirk (buy in Quelb) 0A Air Knife (buy in Moore) 0B *1 Assassin's Dagger (Legendary weapon) 0C *1 Sasuke's Katana (Legendary weapon) 63 *1 Chicken Knife (obtain from NPC, either this or weapon #61) 6B Man-Eater (rare steal from Alchymia)

6C *1 Thief Knife (found once in Phantom Village) 6D Dancing Dagger (rare steal from Shadow Dancer) 6F *1 Gladius (found once in Sealed Temple) 70 *1 Kagenui (found once in Sealed Temple) 0D Broadsword (buy in Tule) 0E Long Sword (buy in Carwen) 0F Mythril Sword (buy in Karnak) 10 Coral Sword (buy in Jachol) 11 Ancient Sword (common steal from Landcrawler) 12 Great Sword (buy in Surgate Castle) 13 Sleep Blade (buy in Quelb) 14 Defender (rare steal form Landcrawler) 15 *1 Excalibur (Legendary weapon) 16 Ragnarok (rare steal from Neo Exdeath (Humanoid)) 55 Blood Sword (rare steal from King Behemoth) 56 Rune Blade (rare steal from Stingray) 57 Flametongue (buy in Phantom Village) 58 Icebrand (buy in Phantom Village) 5C *1 Excalipoor (found once in Exdeath's Castle) 61 *1 Brave Blade (obtain from NPC, either this or weapon #63) 6E Enhancer (rare steal from Sword Dancer) 71 *1 Ultima Weapon (found once in Sealed Temple) 72 *1 Apocalypse (found once in Sealed Temple) 17 Javelin (rare steal from Sand Bear) 18 *1 Spear (rare steal from Shell Bear) 19 Mythril Spear (buy in Karnak) 1A Trident (buy in Jachol) 1B Wind Spear (buy in Quelb) 1C Partisan (buy in Phantom Village) 1D Heavy Lance (buy in Surgate Castle) 1E Twin Lance (buy in Phantom Village) 1F *1 Holy Lance (Legendary weapon) 20 Dragon Lance (rare steal from Crystal Dragon) 73 *1 Longinus (found once in Sealed Temple) 21 Battle Axe (steal from Bio Soldier) 22 Mythril Hammer (buy in Karnak) 23 Ogre Killer (buy in Jachol) 24 War Hammer (buy in Quelb) 25 Poison Axe (buy in Surgate Castle) 26 Gaia Hammer (buy in Phantom Village) 27 *1 Rune Axe (Legendary weapon) 28 Thor Hammer (rare steal from Death Claw) 69 Death Sickle (rare drop from Harvester) 6A *1 Titan's Axe (rare steal from Twintania (charging))

74 *1 Earthbreaker (rare steal from Ironclad) 29 Ashura (buy in Jachol) 2A *1 Wind Slash (found once in Drakenvale) 2B Kotetsu (rare drop from Numb Blade) 2C Osafune (buy in Surgate Castle) 2D Kiku-ichimonji (buy in Phantom Village) 2E Murasame (rare steal from Rukh) 2F *1 Masamune (Legendary weapon) 30 Murakumo (rare steal from Yojimbo) 75 *1 Mutsunokami (found once in Sealed Temple) 31 Rod (buy in Tule) 32 Flame Rod (buy in Karnak) 33 Frost Rod (buy in Karnak) 34 Thunder Rod (buy in Karnak) 35 Poison Rod (buy in Quelb) 36 Lilith Rod (rare steal from Farfarello) 37 *1 Magus Rod (Legendary weapon) 60 Wonder Wand (rare steal from Exdeath) 76 *1 Demon's Rod (found once in Sealed Temple) 38 Staff (buy in Tule) 3A Power Staff (rare drop from Black Warlock) 3B Healing Staff (rare steal from Sleepy) 3C *1 Staff of Light (common steal from Halicarnassus) 3D *1 Sage's Staff (Legendary weapon) 3E Judgment Staff (rare steal from Istory Lythos) 77 *1 Mace of Zeus (found once in Sealed Temple) 5E Flail (buy in Karnak) 5F Morning Star (buy in Phantom Village) 3F Flame Bow (buy in Crescent) 40 Frost Bow (buy in Crescent) 41 Thunder Bow (buy in Crescent) 42 Dark Bow (buy in Quelb) 43 Killer Bow (buy in Quelb) 44 Elven Bow (buy in Moore) 45 *1 Yoichi's Bow (Legendary weapon) 46 Artemis Bow (rare steal from Dragon Aevis) 65 Silver Bow (buy in Crescent) 66 Hayate Bow (rare steal from Poison Eagle) 67 Rune Bow (buy in Phantom Village) 68 Aevis Killer (common steal from Tot Aevis) 78 *1 Fairy's Bow (dropped once by Grand Aevis)

47 Silver Harp (buy in Crescent) 48 Dream Harp (buy in Quelb) 49 Lamia's Harp (rare drop from Lemure) 4A *1 Apollo's Harp (Legendary weapon) 4B Whip (buy in Karnak) 4C Chain Whip (buy in Quelb) 4D *1 Blitz Whip (rare steal from Flaremancer) 4E *1 Fire Lash (Legendary weapon) 4F Dragon's Whisker (rare drop from Stingray) 5D Beast Killer (rare steal from Unknown (spore2)) 50 Diamond Bell (buy in Karnak) 51 *1 Gaia Bell (Legendary weapon) 52 Rune Chime (rare drop from Baldanders) 53 *1 Tinklebell (rare drop from Twintania (non-charging)) 59 Moonring Blade (buy in Phantom Village) 5A Shuriken (buy in Quelb) 5B Fuma Shuriken (buy in Phantom Village) 62 *1 Ash (guaranteed drop from Apanda and other locations) 64 Rising Sun (rare steal from Belphegor) 81 Leather Shield (buy in Tule) 82 Bronze Shield (buy in Carwen) 83 *1 Iron Shield (once purchasable in Walse) 84 Mythril Shield (buy in Karnak) 85 Golden Shield (buy in Quelb) 86 Aegis Shield (rare steal from Gorgimera) 87 Diamond Shield (buy in Moore) 88 Crystal Shield (buy in Phantom Village) C4 Flame Shield (rare steal from Grenade) C6 *1 Genji Shield (common steal from Gilgamesh #5) CD Ice Shield (rare steal from Numb Blade) D3 *1 Force Shield (dropped once by Omega Mk. II) 89 Leather Cap (buy in Tule) 8A Bronze Helm (buy in Carwen) 8B Iron Helm (common steal from Iron Giant) 8C Mythril Helm (buy in Karnak) 8D Golden Helm (buy in Quelb) 8E Diamond Helm (buy in Moore) 8F Crystal Helm (buy in Phantom Village) C7 *1 Genji Helm (common steal from Gilgamesh #4) CC Thornlet (rare steal from Lamia Queen) D2 *1 Grand Helm (dropped once by Gil Turtle (Sealed Temple))

90 Plumed Hat (buy in Karnak) 91 Wizard's Hat (buy in Quelb) 92 Sage's Miter (buy in Moore) 93 Circlet (buy in Phantom Village) 94 *1 Gold Hairpin (rare steal from Famed Mimic Gogo and two chests) 99 Lamia's Tiara (buy in Phantom Village) 95 Ribbon (rare steal from Lemure) 96 97 98 C3 Twist Headband (buy in Quelb) Green Beret (buy in Jachol) Black Cowl (buy in Phantom Village) Tiger Mask (buy in Moore)

CB *1 Hypno Crown (found once in Drakenvale) CC *1 Royal Crown (found once in Sealed Temple) 9A Leather Armor (buy in Tule) 9B Bronze Armor (buy in Carwen) 9C Iron Armor (rare steal from Iron Giant) 9D Mythril Armor (buy in Karnak) 9E Golden Armor (buy in Quelb) 9F Diamond Armor (buy in Moore) A0 Crystal Armor (buy in Phantom Village) C8 *1 Genji Armor (rare steal from Gilgamesh #6) D6 *1 Maximillian (found once in Sealed Temple) A1 Copper Cuirass (buy in Carwen) A2 *1 Kenpo Gi (once purchasable in Walse) A3 Silver Plate (buy in Karnak) A4 Ninja Suit (buy in Jachol) A5 Diamond Plate (buy in Moore) A6 Black Garb (buy in Phantom Village) AE Mirage Vest (rare steal from Oiseaurare) B9 Power Sash (buy in Quelb) BF Bone Mail (rare steal from Necromancer) D5 *1 Vishnu Vest (found once in Sealed Temple) A7 *1 Cotton Robe (once purchasable in Walse) A8 Silk Robe (buy in Karnak) A9 Gaia Gear (buy in Quelb) AA Sage's Surplice (buy in Jachol) AB Luminous Robe (buy in Moore) AC Black Robe (buy in Phantom Village) AD White Robe (buy in Phantom Village) D4 *1 Robe of Lords (found once in Sealed Temple)

BB Angel Robe (buy in Phantom Village) CF Rainbow Dress (common steal from Parthenope) AF Protect Ring (rare steal from Soul Cannon (Phoenix Tower)) B0 *1 Thief's Gloves (rare steal from Necrophobe) B1 *1 Titan's Gloves (rare steal from Azulmagia) B2 Elven Mantle (rare steal from Cherie) B3 Cursed Ring (rare steal from Fury) B4 Silver Specs (common steal from Headstone) B5 Hermes Sandals (buy in Phantom Village) BC Angel Ring (buy in Phantom Village) BD Flame Ring (buy in Phantom Village) BE Coral Ring (buy in Phantom Village) C0 Leather Shoes (rare drop from Black Goblin) CA Reflect Ring (common steal from Fury) D7 *1 Chaos Orb (dropped once by Archeodemon) D8 *1 Crystal Orb (dropped once by Guardian) D9 *1 Sorceror's Mantle (found once in Sealed Temple) DA *1 Hyper Wrist (found once in Sealed Temple) B6 Mythril Glove (buy in Karnak) C2 Gauntlet (buy in Quelb) C9 *1 Genji Gloves (common steal from Gilgamesh #3) B7 B8 BA C1 Silver Armlet (buy in Karnak) Diamond Armlet (buy in Moore) Power Armlet (buy in Quelb) Kaiser Knuckles (rare drop from Steel Fist)

C5 *1 Kornago Gourd (NPC interaction in Quelb) D0 Red Slippers (common steal from Cherie) E0 E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 E7 E8 E9 EA EB EC Potion (buy in Quelb) Hi-Potion (buy in Quelb) Ether (buy in Quelb) Elixir (buy in Phantom Village) Phoenix Down (buy in Quelb) Maiden's Kiss (buy in Quelb) Holy Water (buy in Quelb) Turtle Shell (guaranteed drop by Grass Tortoise) Antidote (buy in Quelb) Eye Drops (buy in Quelb) Dragon Fang (common steal from Great Dragon) Dark Matter (common steal from Orukat) Gold Needle (buy in Quelb)

ED F0 F1 F2 F3 F4 F5 F6 FC FD FE

Mallet (buy in Quelb) Tent (buy in Quelb) Cottage (buy in Quelb) Goliath Tonic (buy in Quelb) Power Drink (buy in Quelb) Speed Shake (buy in Quelb) Iron Draft (buy in Quelb) Hero Cocktail (buy in Quelb) Flame Scroll (buy in Quelb) Water Scroll (buy in Quelb) Lightning Scroll (buy in Quelb)

F7 *1 Dragon Seal (dropped once by Shinryu) F8 *1 Omega Badge (dropped once by (Omega, Interdimensional Rift)) -3 *1 Medal of Smiting EF *1 Magic Lamp (found once atop Istory Falls) F9 *1 Ramuh (dropped once by Ramuh) FA *1 Catoblepas (dropped once by Catoblepas) FB *1 Golem (dropped once by Golem) -0 Buckshot (buy in Karnak) -1 Blastshot (buy in Karnak) -2 Blitzshot (buy in Karnak) ********************************** 11.0 Credits; People I love because they've done things I wanted them to do ********************************** It's a little-known fact that I can't really do anything. When 'writing', I usually just slam my head on the keyboard, or type down passages from books I think I like based on what other people say. In fact, I know just enough about the English language to play Leisure Suit Larry 1. After entertaining myself for about three years with dadaistic prose, it is then left to my proofreaders and other fine folk to make some sense out of they 1 mB text file of nonsense. "This section is called Drakenvale, you might want to talk a bit about Drakenvale in it" they might say, or possibly "stop talking about prophylactics, it's likely to alienate the average reader". So the people below are the ones you should really like for this document, as they are the enablers, the editors, the feeders. Samurai Goroh is a smart man. What's more, I have strong suspicions he is, in fact, a wizard. He does stuff with text files that I can only dream about. He trims 'em, he checks 'em, he perfects 'em. He knocks walkthroughs right out of the park. But does he know how to love?

Silktail is, perhaps, not a man at all. He swoops down, gives information, then leaves. He might be a robot, a well-designed one with a broad programming on the subject of Final Fantasy V and a pleasant absence of the need to express itself socially in any way. Chen. I must admit I don't much care for his "If you don't spend days leveling for the sole purpose of leveling you have no patience and are weak" attitude he did list a few treasures I would have otherwise never heard about. Deathlike2 from the Slick Productions forum, for figuring out the Dark Arts hit routine. majesticmystic, proofreader! A predecessor in that he wrote a walkthrough for this game before me, he knows his stuff. Whenever you find me talking about Bard songs and piano tunes, that's the mystic talking; which is somewhat shameful, since I've been playing the piano for more than ten years... MajinKain0 for contributing in the GameFAQs topics. I don't really know him. There was a long time during which the 0.9 release was up at my website while kindred souls glanced over the guide. Feedback was posted at GameFAQs, then used to improve the document! A time-tested procedure. Thank you, Aussie_BBQ, Gurges, guwa, JSH357, jvtruman, LinkRJB, Locke1620, MalcolmMasher, shadow chao 10, ShadowMan787, suicune girl, winterking heish, zeekybookydoog! I think that's it. If you feel that you are missing from this list, that's because you were even more helpful than all those other guys and girls and I didn't want you lumped together with 'em. For various additions and suggestions after the first official release, I'd like to thank: Reuben Stripes and Jae Shin. It is, of course, useless to thank one's significant other in a file like this; the magnitude of my girlfriend's influence can't really be described, for that is the way of things. So I'll limit myself to the pragmatic. For the last months of this document's creation, I had no computer. This was done on hers. So, y'know, without her this couldn't have been here. ********************************** Disclaimer and legal necessities ********************************** This was written in 2010, by Djibriel, and is copyrighted by me. You are unauthorised to present this document, partly or whole, as written by somebody else as the authors of the respective bodies of text. You are unauthorised to change anything in this document for any other purpose then personal use without my explicit permission.

You are unauthorised to come to my house and eat my children without my explicit permission. All rights reserved.

Final Fantasy V Advance: FAQ/Walkthrough by Djibriel Version: 1.2 | Last Updated: 2011-10-14 | View/Download Original File Hosted by Return to Final Fantasy V Advance (GBA) FAQs & Guides