Final Fantasy IV faq by Zeromus_X

[Zeromus_X]

*EDIT* Added in the Disclaimer, Foreward, and the Table of Contents.
*EDIT* Edited out Gamefaqs information, as it never got accepted.

Final Fantasy IV Walkthrough
by
‘Zeromus_X’ (Neo_Zeromus_X)

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Disclaimer
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This Walkthrough (soon to be Walkthrough/Faq) is copyright 2006 Zeromus_X If you really must absolutely have to use this on your site or whatever, just ask and there’s a good chance I’ll say yes. Just don’t be an ass and yoink it for your own personal use without asking me. For now, I’m only letting FFNet (http://www.ffnet.net/forum) use it. I’ve only completed the Walkthrough section for now (y’know, the most important part really), but I plan to add other things (lists, bestiary, etc.) later on. But for now, enjoy the bare walkthrough/story summary.

If you have any questions, comments, and most importantly feedback or corrections, contact me at [email protected] for e-mail. Contact me at [email protected] for my MSN address. Take note that isn’t my real e-mail address, just the address for my MSN account. Anyway, I appreciate any feedback, so don’t hesitate to leave any.

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Foreword
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This walkthrough is for the Playstation version of Final Fantasy IV, packaged with Chrono Trigger in a collection titled ‘Final Fantasy Chronicles’. Final Fantasy Chronicles isn’t common now, but nor is it extremely rare. I’m sure you can find one if you look around used game stores and check online, though prices for older games online are quite a bit more inflated than they really should be. I bought mine used at GameStop (before they stopped exchanging older games) for 19.99. If you look around, I’m sure you’ll find one eventually. If you do find one, you’ll probably find a Greatest Hits version, as they’re more common than the original print.

Now, of course, the Playstation version of Final Fantasy IV is far from the first version of the game. The game was first released in Japan for the Super Famicom, the fourth title in Square’s hit role playing game series, Final Fantasy. However, many complained that the game was too difficult, and as such, another, easier version was released in Japan dubbed Final Fantasy IV ‘Easytype’. Many things were altered, but the point was that it got a lot easier for the common player. The final boss’ appearance was also altered, and looks a lot less grotesque, to say the least.

Most westerners will probably recognize the game as it’s next version, under the title of ‘Final Fantasy II’ on the SNES. For marketing reasons, Square released Final Fantasy IV as the second Final Fantasy title in North America, and as to not confuse everyone, they named it ‘Final Fantasy II’. Final Fantasy VI followed it, as ‘Final Fantasy III’. When released in North America on the SNES, many things were tweaked; the names of enemies and characters for censorship and space restrictions, and many other things editted due to Nintendo of America’s past strict content guidelines. The game also had many abilities, spells, and items removed from it, making it much less complex. The game’s localization suffered immensely, as proper game translation wasn’t a priority back then.

The next version of the game came out in Japan for Bandai’s short lived handheld, the Wonderswan Color. This version features highly enhanced graphics, but is pretty much the same as the original Japanese version. The sound is pretty crappy, unfortunately.

In the future, the Final Fantasy IV ‘Hardtype’ (the original Japanese version of the game) was unnoficially fan translated by a group called J2e Translations, who have done game translations in the past. By using a Super Nintendo emulator (on your computer) and a copy of the Japanese ROM of the game, it was possible to use their translation patch to be able to enjoy the original, uncut version of the game on your own computer, in English no less. Some artistic liberties were taken for the script, however, but it remains more faithful to the original than the North American SNES version, including all the missing items and abilities.

Later on, it was re-released in Japan again on the Playstation, as a stand-alone game. Later, Final Fantasy IV, V, and VI were re-released on the Playstation in Japan as a part of the ‘Final Fantasy Collection’. A port of the game for North America was released, the version this guide covers, in the Final Fantasy Chronicles collection, along with Chrono Trigger, another famous Square Role Playing Game. It retains the same difficulty and skills, spells, and items as the original version of the game, so this is pretty much the true Final Fantasy IV. Another option would be the Game Boy Advance version. Final Fantasy IV for the Playstation was also re-released in Europe in Europe’s version of Final Fantasy Anthology, bundled with Final Fantasy V, the first time either of those games were released in Europe. The game features an almost entirely revised script, free of the localization woes the North American SNES version faced. Final Fantasy Chronicles enjoyed Playstation Greatest Hits success, joining the club with the other numerous Final Fantasy titles and collections.

Final Fantasy IV was next released for the Game Boy Advance in Japan, North America, and Europe. It includes many added features, most noticeably an ATB bar, new bonus dungeons and equipment, and especially the ability to switch out characters in your party for others after a point in the story, unavailable in the original versions. Unfortunately, due to having far more convenient options and configurations, and some bugs in the game, it suffered in the difficulty department, especially to old school players of the game. The game’s localization uses more or less the Chronicles’ script, with some revisions, and more letter space for proper fitting of enemy and equipment titles.

So, as you can see, Final Fantasy IV has had a history.

Now, onto the walkthrough. It is, of course, a walkthrough of the North American Playstation Final Fantasy Chronicles version of the game. It can be used as a walkthrough for the other version of the game, but take note that many enemy, spell, and other terminologies differ between the many versions of the game. The basic story remains the same, however, and most strategies.

Also, take note, that this walkthrough contains spoilers of the plot, as it’s summarized inside the walkthrough. By all means, use another walkthrough if you don’t want the story ruined for you. It isn’t like this is the best walkthrough in the world anyway. :p


With all that, just enjoy the walkthrough. I hope it explains everything clearly. If you’re ever confused about something or feel that something could be written better, feel free to contact me.

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Table of Contents
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((This is for users of the text walkthrough))

To navigate this guide more smoothly, and to find information in a certain section of the walkthrough, use the ‘Ctrl+F’ function, used in many other walkthroughs. Press the Ctrl and F keys on the keyboard at the same time to open up a little search bar. Type in a term and click on ‘Find Next’ or ‘Find Previous’ to navigate the walkthrough searching for that term. Also, use the section numbers in this table of contents to skip to specific sections. Hopefully this will each frustration in looking for specific information.

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CONTENTS
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((Page one of the FFNet thread has the following information))

Chapter One

1.0 - Introduction

1.1 - Castle Baron

1.2 - Town of Baron

1.3 - Mist Cave

1.4 - Mist

1.5 - Kaipo

1.6 - Water Cavern- South

1.7 - Water Cavern- North

1.8 - Damcyan

1.9 - Antlion Lair

1.9.1 - Return to Kaipo

Chapter Two

2.0 - Mount Hobs

2.1 - Fabul

2.2 - Baron-bound Ship

2.3 - Mysidia

2.4 - Mount Hobs

((Page Two of the FFNet thread has the following information))

2.5 - Return to Mysidia and the Devil’s Road

2.6 - Return to Baron

2.7 - Waterway

2.8 - Castle Baron (Part One)

2.9 - Castle Baron (Part Two)

Chapter Three

3.0 - But Before We Do That...

3.0.1 - Agart

3.0.2 - Mythril Village

3.0.3 - Mist

3.0.4 - Eblan Castle

3.1 - Troia (Town)

3.2 - Troia (Castle)

3.3 - Magnetic Cavern

3.4 - Tower of Zot (Part One)

3.5 - Tower of Zot (Part Two)

3.6 - Return to Troia

((Page three of the FFNet thread has the following information))

3.7 - Agart and the Entrance to the Underworld

3.8 - Dwarven Castle (Part One)

3.9 - Dwarven Castle (Part Two)

Chapter Four

4.0 - Tower of Babel (Part One)

4.1 - Tower of Babel (Part Two)

4.2 - Pitstop at Baron

4.3 - Eblan Cave

4.4 - Return to the Tower of Babel

4.5- Return to Dwarf Castle

4.6 - But Before We Do That, Again...

4.6.1 - Tomra

4.6. 2 - Kokkol’s Smithy

4.6.3 - Cave of Summons

4.6.4 - Town of Summons

4.6.5 - Sylph Cave

4.7 - Sealed Cave

4.8 - Dwarf Castle

4.9 - Mysidia

Chapter Five

5.0 - Wait a Minute! Don’t Go to the Moon Just Yet!

5.0.1 - Fabul

5.0.2 - Sylvan Cave

5.0.3 - Fabul

((Page four of the FFNet walkthrough has the following information))

5.0.4 - Adamant Grotto

5.0.5 - Kokkol’s Smithy

5.0.6 - Castle Baron

5.1- To the Moon!

5.2 - Lunar Paths

5.3 - Crystal Palace

5.4 - Hummingway Home

5.5 - Cave Bahamut

5.6- Return to Earth

5.7 - Giant of Babil

5.8 - Core of the Moon (Part One)

5.9 - Core of the Moon (Part Two)

[Zeromus_X]

Final Fantasy IV Walkthrough
by
‘Zeromus_X’


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1.0 The Introduction
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As the game begins, you see five airships flying across the world map. These are infamous ‘Red Wings’, the Royal Air Force of the Kingdom Baron. The captain is the Dark Knight, Cecil Harvey. The crew and captain both feel remorse over the horrible act they have committed by killing innocent mages in the city of Mysidia, in seizing the Water Crystal. However, Cecil tries dispelling the guilt from the crew by stating that it was their orders to do such a deed. Just then, the crew reports monsters attacking the airship from the sky.

Immediately, you are thrust into a battle. You cannot control this battle, it is just a part of the story. Cecil will use an item to quickly dispatch the monsters.

Afterwards, Cecil checks on his crew to see if everyone is alright. The airship is attacked again, by another group of monsters. Once again, this is another battle you cannot control and Cecil will use an item to destroy the enemy.

Recovering from the attacks, Cecil wonders why monsters have become more frequent all over the world lately. There is no time to ponder this matter more however; the Red Wings finally reach their destination of Castle Baron.

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1.1 Castle Baron
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Cecil walks into the castle to report to King Baron. He is greeted by the Captain of the Guards, Baigan. Cecil hands over the Water Crystal recently plundered from Mysidia, the land of Mages, to Baigan, who hands it to the King.

Cecil questions as to why they are asked to commit such atrocities, only to be chastised by the King and stripped of his rank as Captain of the Red Wings. The King then sends him to do a lowly errand, sending a ‘Bomb Ring’ to the Village Mist, a village of Summoners, beyond the Mist Cave. Cecil’s friend, Kain Highwind comes in to object, only to be forced along with Cecil to do his errand.

As they are forced outside, Kain tells Cecil that they depart in the morning to the Village Mist. Now you have control of Cecil. Go down out of this room to another room. You will notice a cell with three treasure chests in it. Go right and press OKAY facing the very noticeable switch on the wall to the left of the cell. The chests in the cell contain an Ether1 (Ether), 480 Gil, and a Tent.

Continue left, and go through the stairs. Cecil’s significant other, Rosa Farell, will have a brief conversation with him, saying she’ll meet up with him later tonight. After that, continue down, and when you exit the building, continue up. Cid Pollendina, a master engineer and airship pilot, also comes down to have a talk with Cecil, regarding the recent matter of wrongdoings. After that, continue up to enter a tower. Keep going up, and talk to the maid. She’ll move out of the way, and you can continue up once more. Walk towards Cecil’s bed to begin a scene.

Rosa will have a conversation with Cecil, trying to comfort him, but he believes he has no courage to defy his liege’s orders. Rosa leaves the room, saying that ‘the Cecil she knew wouldn’t say that.’ After that scene, Kain and Cecil will leave the Castle Baron, and you’ll get to hear the standard ‘Prologue’ theme, ‘Final Fantasy’, along with reading the introduction.

After all that, you’ll automatically be in the world map outside of Baron. However, before going on to the next area, there’s still some treasure that awaits inside the town of Baron.

[Zeromus_X]

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1.2 Town of Baron
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In this game, there are a lot of treasures hidden in pots and treasure chests. Just to recap, to obtain these items, you must press the OKAY button facing the items. From here on forward, I’ll refer to this as ‘checking’. (Whenever I say ‘check’, I mean do this.) Treasure chests should be a no-brainer though.

Check the group of pots next to the house north of the inn. The bottom pot contains a Potion. Incidently, that house is Rosa’s house. Enter it and check the pot in the upper left corner of the house for a MaidKiss. (Maiden’s Kiss.)

Now, go all the way to the northernmost part of town where the dancer is. (You can talk to her to have her dance, if you want. Cecil’s such a stud.) Go down the steps leading into the waterfall, and go down through the middle opening. You’ll be able to go through the entire stream that goes throughout the town. At the end, you’ll be at a pond outside the walls. Check around and you’ll be able to find a Tent and a HrGlass1 (Hourglass 1). You’ll stop if you run into one of the hidden chests, so you’ll know where the treasures are if you just check around.

Now, go into the Inn. Check the pot right next to the firewood on the left side of the inn for a Potion. Go up and you’ll notice more treasure chests in a cell. Check the sword on the left side of the cell wall to open the door. The chests contain, from left to right: EagleEye (Eagle Eye), Tent, and Eyedrops.

You may go into the item shop to purchase a few more potions, but that’s really all that’s here to do right now. Onto the adventure! Exit the town and enter the world map.

[Zeromus_X]

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1.3 Mist Cave
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To reach the Mist Cave, you must head northeast of Baron on the world map. Random encounters await you, of course, but the monsters in this area are very weak and can be taken down with normal attacks. (Don’t waste HP or time with Dark Wave or Jump.) If you really don’t want to go into these encounters, there’s a Chocobo Forest southeast of the desert near Baron. Check the Chocobo to ride it on the world map. Your walking speed is increased, and you don’t have random battles. (And you get to listen to the Chocobo theme, of course!)

Either way, somehow you need to get to the cave.

As you enter the cavern, you’ll notice there’s a lot of mist here. (How aptly named.) The encounters here are basically the same as on the world map near Baron, so you shouldn’t have any problems. You may want Kain to use Jump on the Sword Rats, as they have a bit higher HP than the other monsters. Head right and go up the first set of stairs, and then go left through the linear path. When you are able to go up, keep on going until you are stopped by a mysterious voice, warning you to ‘GO BACK’. Cecil will question the voice, getting no response. Ah well, no biggie. A mysterious voice warning you to ‘GO BACK’ just can’t be that big a deal, right?

Continue up and open the chest containing a Potion. Go back down and to the right across the bridge. You’ll see another small set of stairs going up, go up them, and to the right all the way to find a chest containing Eyedrops. Go back down those stairs, to where the bridge is, and go down. You’ll be at a point with stairs that go down, and a path leading right. Go down the stairs, and follow the path leading to a chest containing a Tent.

Go back to that crossroads, and now take the path leading right. Along the wall you’ll find a chest containing a Potion. Now continue up, only to be stopped by that mysterious voice again. This time it wants you to ‘LEAVE AT ONCE’. Keep going north, nearing the exit of the cave, and you’ll be stopped once more. The ‘KNIGHTS OF BARON’ are asked to ‘LEAVE NOW AND NO HARM WILL BEFALL YOU.’ If ‘YOU REFUSE’, you’ll have to fight the guardian of the Mist Village, and of course unless you want to wander around this cave for all eternity, you’ll have to do just that. Prepare for a boss fight!

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BOSS: Mist D. (Mist Dragon)
HP: 465
Experience Points: 700
Gil: 200
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Being the first real boss of the game, the Mist Dragon isn’t too difficult. Attack it with Cecil’s normal attack, and have Kain either Jump or just attack it. Not too many options. Don’t use Dark Wave as that doesn’t really do that much damage anyway, and it drains Cecil’s HP.

The Dragon’s normal attack is pathetically weak and practically bounces off of your fighters. However, the thing to watch out for is when the Dragon will ‘turn into mist’ (as you are notified to by the caption and the Dragon’s change of appearance). Attacking it in this form with a normal attack will result in it counter-attacking with its breath (“Cold Breath”), which does much more damage than its regular attack. So obviously don’t attack it when it’s turned into mist, got it? (Of course, it doesn’t do that much anyway, but if you accidently attack it more than once while it’s mist that could hurt you.)

When it does turn into mist, just chill out and parry or something. Wait for it to turn back into a dragon and then start smacking him again. He’ll go down eventually.
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After all that is said and done, continue up and exit the Mist Cave to the world map again.

[Zeromus_X]

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1.4 Mist
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When you exit the Mist Cave, you’ll be in the world map again. The Village Mist is directly west of you, so head there.

As you enter the village, the Bomb Ring sends off a bunch of Bombs to set the village on fire. (I find ‘Package’ less blatantly obvious than ‘Bomb Ring’ at what it’s going to do, but maybe that’s just me.)

Naturally, Kain and Cecil are surprised, and I’m sure all the people that just got incinerated were too. They then notice a green-haired little girl crying ‘Mommy’. Wait to go, guys.

Kain and Cecil head up to the girl. It turns out that she was the summoner of the guardian of the village, the Mist Dragon. By slaying the dragon, Cecil and Kain are responsible for killing the girl’s mother. You’re on a roll today! Cecil blurts out how they killed the dragon, startling the girl, who steps back.. Kain continues to say that if the King wanted all the villagers dead, then he must follow the order. Cecil disagrees, and refuses to continue anymore slaughter in the name of the King. He persuades Kain to stop all of this, but they really don’t have time to talk out this situation, or how on earth they’ll go up against the most powerful nation in the world.

Kain and Cecil try taking the girl with them, who adamantly refuses. Trying to kill the people who did in her mother after all, she then summons Titan (who really needs to put a shirt on or something) to put an end to you.

This is another battle you cannot win. As soon as Titan uses its special attack, the battle ends, and an earthquake is triggered. This causes a landslide, knocking Cecil unconscious.

After Cecil wakes up, he finds the girl unconscious nearby. Kain is nowhere to be found. Cecil then decides to try and save the girl, and find the nearest town. Separated from his friend, being a traitor to his nation, and trying to save a little girl who probably hates his guts? Whatever has Cecil gotten himself into?

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1.5 Kaipo
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Go north and you’ll be in a vast desert. In the middle of this desert, there is an oasis, and the desert town, Kaipo. Since the girl needs to rest and you only have Cecil in your party, it would be ideal to stop and rest there.

When you enter the town, Cecil will automatically go to the Inn. The innkeeper lets Cecil stay on the house, what a nice guy. Putting the girl down to bed, the girl comes awake, and Cecil tries to talk with her. Telling her his name, he also apologizes to her for all he’s done, and understands if he can’t be forgiven. As the girl remains silent, Cecil goes to bed himself.

Later in the night, soldiers from Baron storm the inn, waking Cecil from his slumber. They try killing the girl to completely eradicate all the summoners. Cecil refuses, and protects her. The General decides to kill Cecil if he won’t cooperate.

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BOSS: General, Soldier (3)
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This fight is simple, and you can end it rather quickly. But if you want more experience and Gil, you can do it the longer way.

If you do want that, then just kill off two of the Soldiers, leaving one alive. If you kill the final Soldier, the General will turn tail and escape. If you want to kill the General and receive more experience and Gil, leave one alive, then keep attacking the General. He’ll go down eventually, leaving one pathetic Soldier left for you to take care of. Otherwise, just kill all the Soldiers and you’ll be done.

One thing to note is that whenever the General says ‘Attack!’ in the caption box, all the soldiers will attack. Otherwise, they just stay there. That’s their only means of attack. It doesn’t really matter that much, but I just thought I’d point it out.
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After that’s over, the girl asks if Cecil is okay. She also tells Cecil her name, Rydia, and she is now a playable character in your party.

In the morning, you have control again, so now its time to get this show on the road. Grab the Ether1 (Ether) from checking the top pot above the weapon shop.

Now, go to the house in the northeast corner of Kaipo. Go all the way up to the back of the house, and who should you find but Cecil’s sweetheart, Rosa! It turns out that she tried meeting up with Cecil while he was on his mission, and caught sunstroke (er...’desert fever’.) The old man on the left side of the room mentions that the only way to cure the desert fever is to get a rare jewel called the ‘Sand Ruby’. Of course, it can only be found in the lair of a ferocious beast called the Antlion. Go figure.

That’s all there is to do in this town, for now, so exit and you should probably save if you haven’t by now.

[Zeromus_X]

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1.6 Water Cavern-South
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First things first: put Rydia in the back row. She starts off at level 1, and pretty much will die at any physical attack in the front row. Spend some time in the desert leveling her up, at least until she gets the Bolt1 spell. (Around level 10 would be ideal, if you really wanted to.) Many of the enemies in the next dungeon are weak to lightning-elemental spells, so that’s a good idea. Rydia does however, have one powerful spell, her initial Summon, Chocobo, which is good for about 100 damage. (Not bad for the beginning parts of the game.) It does use up a bit of MP however.

At any rate, head north. The antlion’s lair is near Damcyan, a nation to the north of Kaipo. You’ll have to go through the Water Cavern first, among other things.

As you enter, head north across a bridge to find two chests. The left chest contains a Potion and the right chest contains a MaidKiss (Maiden’s Kiss). Go back near the entrance and go left this time. You’ll pass through another bridge, and you should see an old man to the north and a chest to the south. The chest contains a Tent. Go north to speak to the old man.

As it turns out, this old man is a Sage, called Tellah. His daughter, Anna eloped with ‘A WICKED BARD’, and he senses an ill omen. He wants to go north to Damcyan to rescue her, but a ferocious monster blocks the path. Of course, now , with a Dark Knight and a Summoner, it shouldn’t be that hard to get rid of it, right?

Tellah will then join your party. He starts out at Level 20 with a few spells you won’t be seeing for awhile yet. However, don’t use his spells too often, conserve some of his MP for when you’ll really need it. (You don’t run into many MP-restoring items too early in the game.) Stick him in the back row with Rydia.

Now, continue north. When you see a set of stairs north and a bridge going right to a treasure chest, go right. The chest contains a Bomb. Keep going right until you get to a set of stairs leading into the water. Go down into the water, and go north to reach a treasure chest containing an IronRing (Iron Ring). Go back down into the water. Keep going left, and you’ll notice a waterfall, and right next to the waterfall is the ledge with the chest that had the Bomb inside. Go through the middle of the waterfall to enter a secret chamber. There are three chests here. The right chest has a Life. The upper-right chest has a X-Potion. The lower-right chest has a Ether2. (Ether 2).

If your party is getting tired (Or Rydia or Tellah are out of MP), use Tellah’s Exit spell to warp outside, and rest in Damcyan.

At any rate, after all of that, go back to before the bridge leading to the chest with a Bomb. Proceed north from there, through the passage to the second basement. Go north, across a bridge, and down some stairs into more water. Go left, and up some stairs to a chest containing a Potion. Go back down into the water, and go all the way down until you see another set of stairs going up. Then go left all the way to a chest that has an Ether1 (Ether). Now, take the bridge going south, and then follow the path to a door.

Inside that room, Tellah suggests that they take a rest. This room happens to be the first ‘Save Point’. Inside a Save Point, there are no random encounters, and you can use the pad in the center of the room to save your game and use Tents. Tellah will use a tent, but it won’t actually use any of your Tents. Tellah and Cecil both discuss who they are trying to save. Tellah observes how Rydia will grow into a powerful sorceress one day. Tellah also talks about the creature they must defeat, a horrible beast with eight tentacles. And Tellah still has a bad omen, thinking they should ‘hurry before its too late’.

After that, you’ll be on the Save Point. Save your game, and move on north. Take the first bridge you see right. Go up to open a chest with an IceRod (Ice Rod). If you want, have Rydia equip this and use it as an item in battle to do some damage; it casts Ice 1. (Her MP is too low at the moment to be able to use spells too often, as compared to Tellah’s. And his spells are more powerful anyway.)

Go down, into the water, and go right, and then up through the door. (Somehow you’re facing down when you get into the next room. Whatever.) In the next room, go left across the first bridge. Go down, and then right across a bridge and you’ll notice two treasure chests. The closer chest contains 580 Gil. The farther chest across another bridge contains a Bomb. Go back to the fork, and go left this time. Follow the path to another door to go through.

In this room, you’ll encounter the first of many ‘false walls’ in the game. They are walls you can walk through and take a path through the wall to other parts of the room. (Very useful.) You will need to use these to reach some treasure chests. You can tell if a wall is a false wall if the shadow that usually is on the side of every wall isn’t on the spot where the false wall is. (If that made sense.) Knowing this , you can easily spot false walls.

At the start of this room, go left, and you’ll go through the wall. Go all the way up, and then right, and you’ll be near the exit north of this room. Don’t go through it yet! Go down to open the chest containing a Potion. Now go back into the false wall. Go left on the upper part of the room, until you stop. Then go up all you can, and then right. Then go down, and then right again. You’ll be on the ledge that you could see but couldn’t get to before. Go down through the ledge and open the chest that contains a Feather. Now you may exit this room to the north.

In this room, there are many good items. Go up at the entrance, then down the stairs at the left. The upper chest contains a Notus. The lower chest contains an Ether 1. Go back up the stairs, and then to the right, across a bridge. (Don’t worry, you won’t fall off.) You’ll see the north exit, but don’t go through this one just yet. Go down. The upper chest contains a Dark (Dark Sword), and the lower chest contains a HrGlass1 (Hourglass 1). Now proceed north through the exit. This exit leads outside to the world map, where I recommend you use a Tent and save. When you’re ready, go north to the northern section of the Water Cave.

[Zeromus_X]

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1.7 Water Cavern- North
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Well, I meant cavern, but you know what I mean.

Anyway, as you enter, you only have one thing to do, and that is jump down this gigantic waterfall to reach the monster. (Don’t worry, you’ll be fine. Only in a video game.)

When you land, you’ll be next to a set of stairs. Climb them, and follow the linear path until you see a set of stairs going down to two chests. The left chest contains Hades (Hades Helmet), and the right chest contains Hades (Hades Gauntlets). Both are armor for Cecil to wear. Continue left and follow the path to a door.

In this room, from the entrance, head right. You’ll see two chests. The upper chest contains Hades (Hades Armor, more Dark Knight brand merchandise), and the lower chest contains Hermes. Continue north, go down the stairs into the water, and then north again to fight the boss.

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BOSS: Octomamm (Octomammoth)
HP: 2,350
Experience: 1,200
Gil: 500
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The Octomammoth is the creature blocking the way to Damcyan that Tellah was talking about. Surprisingly, it wouldn’t be all that hard for him alone to fry the monster, regardless of what he said about needing help. Have Rydia summon Chocobo, Tellah cast Bolt 1, and Cecil attacking it constantly. If you get hurt, have Tellah use Cure 2 or someone use Potions, but it really shouldn’t come to that.
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After you defeat the beast, head north and exit the Water Cavern. Time to go to Damcyan. (Finally!)

[Zeromus_X]

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1.8 Damcyan Castle
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From the exit of the Water Cavern, head north. You’ll be thrust into a scene. The Red Wings fleet bombs Damcyan, and suspenseful music starts playing. Enter Damcyan Castle, to see what the hell just happened here.

At the entrance, head north, ignoring the dead bodies of various guards... Go up the stairs, and on the second floor, open the one remaining chest to obtain a Tent. Head on up to the third floor. As you head up, you’ll shockingly discover the body of Tellah’s daughter, Anna, on the floor. Tellah, who rushes over to see her, sees the ‘bard’ nearby.

Prepare to hear one of the most hilarious, well-known one-liners in video game history.

Tellah engages battle with the bard (in an uncontrollable battle), enraged at thinking Anna’s death is his fault. The bard pleads for him to stop (because, like a Kaipo NPC said, he is a sissy), but after awhile, the voice of Anna brings Tellah back to his senses.

The whole crew rushes over to Anna’s body (which is barely alive), and Anna reveals that the ‘spoony bard’ is really Edward Chris von Muir, the prince of Damcyan. Anna apologizes for running away with him, saying that she still loves him, and couldn’t find happiness otherwise. She says they were going to return before the Red Wings attacked. (Such bad timing.)

Edward also reveals that a powerful sorcerer named Golbez was acting as captain of the Red Wings, and that he was collecting even more crystals like Cecil was before, seizing the Fire Crystal in Damcyan. He also says that Anna shielded him from the enemy arrows, sacrificing herself to save him.

Anna passes away, and Tellah goes into a rage, swearing death on Golbez. Edward cries, but Tellah tells him to shut up, and that crying won’t bring her back, and then he leaves the party. (No more cool spells...)

Unable to control his emotions, Edward starts crying over Anna, and Rydia tells him that even though she lost her mother, she won’t cry anymore. Cecil and Rydia help Edward on his feet, and he joins them on their task of retrieving the Sand Ruby, as only the royalty of Damcyan can enter the Antlion’s lair.

Well, enough of this semi-story summary. After that little scene is over, the party has access to the Hovercraft. This vehicle can go over the rocks that dot the ocean near Damcyan. You can use them to get back to Kaipo and rest and stock up on items, without going through that really annoying cave again. Of course, on the top floor of Damcyan Castle there are two pots, that when checked, restore your HP or MP.

Other than that, there isn’t much to do here anymore, so its on to that Antlion Lair we’ve wanted to go to for the entire past hour.

[Zeromus_X]

-------------------
1.9 Antlion Lair
-------------------

Before we do anything, please put Edward in the back row. His normal attack isn’t very noteworthy, or his special ability, which actually uses up Potions in your inventory to heal the party for a very small amount of HP. His ‘Sing’ can sometimes inflict status effects on the enemy, but other than that, he doesn’t have much else going for him. His attacks inflict some status effects depending on what harp he has equipped (assuming he hits the enemy...), so I guess that’s worth something.

At any rate, after you’re done preparing for the cave, get on the Hovercraft by pressing OKAY while in it on the world map. Go on the rocks in the ocean northeast of Damcyan Castle, and use them to reach the land mass east of Damcyan. On this piece of land is the Antlion Cave, our next destination.

At the entrance, head left until you reach a treasure chest that has a Silk Web inside. Go down the steps nearby and under the little bridge up to open a chest with a Potion. Keep going south from that chest to reach a path leading to two other chests. The lower chest contains a Tent. The upper chest contains a Potion.

Now go back to near the entrance. A bit below and to the right of the entrance is a set of stairs leading up, and a bridge to the right of them. (With a chest below it.) Go right across that bridge, and then go up for a chest with Soft. Maneuver yourself below the bridge you crossed to reach the chest with a Potion. South of the chest with a Soft is the stairs leading to the second basement.

From the entrance of the second basement, keep going south until you reach a chest with a Notus. You’ll notice the door nearby. Enter it, and you’ll find a chest in that room with a Lamia (Lamia Harp.) Obviously a weapon for Edward. It has confusion as a status effect, which is kinda neat, and is also stronger than the harp he came equipped with. Exit this chamber.

Now, head left and up from the door to the chamber with the harp. You’ll see a set of stairs. Go up them, and you’ll be back at the first floor, near a door you probably noticed but couldn’t reach before. It happens to be a Save Point. Use a tent and save if you wish. There are also three chests in this room. They contain, from left to right: Exit, Ether 1, and Life. Exit after you’re done, and go back down the staircase to the second basement.

From the stairs that led to the first floor, head left, up, and right to reach the noticeable treasure chest with a HrGlass1 (Hourglass 1). Head west to reach a chest with a Silk Web. Head south, down the steps below the small bridge leading to the chest with a Silk Web, and follow the path until you see a set of stairs leading down. Go down them to reach the Antlion’s chamber.


In the chamber, continue going south, into the center of the chamber. (Ignore the sides, there’s nothing to do on them.) You’ll soon reach the Antlion’s nest. Edward, knowing the monster to be tame, reaches out to obtain the Sand Ruby from the monster’s nest. (I forgot to mention that it’s made of the secretion it makes when it lays eggs. Cecil really hasn’t been having the best week, has he?) Surprisingly, the Antlion tries biting Edward. It looks like we won’t be able to get this Sand Ruby without a fight.

------------------
BOSS: Antlion
HP: 1,100
Experience Points: 1,500
Gil: 800
-------------------

The Antlion isn’t particularly hard, but you should still be careful. It counters with an attack that usually does around 30 damage to a member of your party, but only when they attack with a normal attack. Instead of taking more damage then you’ll deal by attacking with Edward, have him use Potions if your characters are at low HP. Have Rydia just summon Chocobo. Have Cecil keep attacking it. It won’t take too long.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edward is surprised at the monster’s unorthodox behavior. Cecil comments on how monsters are multiplying rapidly, and how their behavior has changed as well, for some mysterious reason.

At any rate, it’s time to get out of here and get back to Kaipo! Either use that Exit item you found, use Rydia’s Warp spell if she’s at level 12 or above, or just do it the traditional way, and walk out.

[Zeromus_X]

--------------------------
1.9.2 Return to Kaipo
--------------------------

After returning to Kaipo, go back to the house where Rosa sleeps. Talk to her, and select the Sand Ruby from the list that pops up. It’ll cure her, and she’ll explain she came to get Cecil’s help and tried to find him. (Or she missed him, or whatever.) Cecil asks who Golbez is, and she’ll tell him that he’s the new captain of the Red Wings, who the King of Baron himself appointed. She’ll also remark at how the king hasn’t been himself lately, and that she suspects Golbez has been controlling him to collect the Crystals for himself. Golbez has already gained the Water Crystal of Mysidia (thanks to our good old hero here!), and the Fire Crystal of Damcyan. Now he only needs the Wind Crystal of Fabul, and the Earth Crystal of Troia.

After Rosa is introduced to Rydia and Edward, she also decides to go with them to help save the other Crystals. However, Edward notes that the path on Mount Hobs that leads to Fabul is blocked with thick ice. Rosa says that a Rydia should be able to cast a simple Fire spell, but Rydia is still traumatized by the fire that burned down her village.

Rosa tries getting up, but Cecil insists she stays and rests. Rosa says she won’t be a burden. Cecil can’t refuse, and Rosa now is a playable character in your party. (This means you can heal now! Without items! Yes!) With that decided, the party rests at Kaipo for the night.

However, in the evening, Edward goes out to the oasis, and plays his harp as he mourns Anna’s loss. Of course, a monster surprises and ambushes Edward as he plays. You are thrust into a battle with the monster, with Edward alone. Just keep attacking it, and eventually the spirit of Anna will come to encourage Edward. Continue to attack it, and you’ll eventually win the battle. Following that, a quick scene occurs with Edward and Anna’s spirit, who encourages Edward and gives him confidence.

In the morning , Cecil and co. awake, ready to move on. It’s time to go to Mount Hobs, and to Fabul. This is the end of the first chapter!

[Zeromus_X]

----------------------------------
2.0 Mt. Hobs (Mount Hobs)
----------------------------------


Once again, put the new member of your party in the back row. Use the ‘Row’ command in the menu to reserve three spaces of the party for the back row, and move Edward, Rydia, and Rosa on those three spaces, leaving Cecil for the front row.

To reach Mount Hobs, use the Hovercraft and go over those rocks that were near the piece of land with the Antlion’s lair. Instead of stopping there, continue east to reach another strip of land that you follow to reach Mount Hobs.

As you enter the mountain, the team is stopped by the thick wall of ice Edward mentioned. The group tries encouraging Rydia to use the Fire spell, but still traumatized, Rydia says that she hates fire. Rosa says that if they don’t reach Fabul in time, even more people will be in danger. Edward says that she’s been a big help for them all, and that she has the power to help even more people. Rydia finally decides not to be afraid anymore, and casts Fire on the wall of ice. She’ll now learn Fire 1 which you can use in battle.

Well, after that cutscene, continue up. Continue and follow the path until you see a door. Enter it, and take all the treasure in this area. There’s also a save point which you should use a Tent to rest and save at. The treasure chests, from left to right, contain: Tent, Potion, Soft, and 960 Gil. After you’ve gotten all the treasure, rested, and saved, go back through that door.

When you go back through that door, go right until you see another. Enter this door, and follow the path. Right before the steps leading up, you’ll see a chest containing Holy (Holy Arrows) for Rosa to equip.

As you climb to the top of the steps, the team sees a man, who resembles one of the monks of Fabul, who faces a group of monsters. An uncontrollable battle ensues where the man effortlessly defeats the Imp Captains that attacked him. Then, the party notices an even stronger monster that threatens him, and decides to jump in.



------------------------
BOSS: Mom Bomb, Gray Bomb (3), Bomb (3)
Mom Bomb:
HP: 11,000
Experience Points: 1,200
Gil: 1,900
------------------------

With the monk, who’s name is Yang, in your party, you now have a full team of five characters. Have Yan, Cecil, and Edward keep attacking, Rosa using Aim, Rydia summoning Chocobo. At first, the ‘Mom Bomb’ will look like any other bomb. As you attack it, it’ll transform into this ugly cloud (If this is the mother bomb, I don’t want to know who the father is...), and as you keep on attacking it, it’ll explode (you won’t actually have to take away it’s whole 11,000 HP), causing a lot of damage (~100) to the entire party. Hopefully everyone has enough HP to survive the blast. After the explosion, it’ll split up into three Bombs and Gray Bombs each. Have Rosa heal the party with Cure, and keep the attack up to destroy all of these new bombs. (Chocobo, and normal attacks from the guys.) If you don’t kill the bombs fast enough and they get weak, they’ll self-destruct to do moderate damage to a party member. (Though they die, as well, so it all works out.)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It turns out that Yang is the captain of monks at Fabul, and they were at a training session in the mountains. They got ambushed by the monsters, and only Yang survived. The group warns Yang of Golbez’s plot to steal the Crystals, which alarms Yang. Although he first declines help, the group introduces themselves to him and he accepts their support.

With that settled, the High Monk, Yang Feing Leiden joins the party. Continue through the door north, and follow the path to the exit of Mt. Hobs to the Fabul side of the world map.

[Zeromus_X]

-----------
2.1 Fabul
-----------

To reach Fabul, go east from the exit to Mt. Hobs until you go past the mountains and see a castle near the sea. This is Fabul.

When you enter Fabul, you’ll notice that it’s basically an entire town inside a castle. (Item Shop, Inn, etc.) If you have enough Gil, buy all the Demon equipment for Cecil, and maybe two Claws for Yang. After you’re done shopping and stocking up on items, continue up the stairs until you reach the throne room. Yang warns his liege of the upcoming assault from Baron. He introduces the rest of the group to the king. Cecil says there isn’t much time, and they need to fortify their defenses immediately. The king questions whether they should trust them, after all, Cecil and Rosa are citizens of Baron. Yang says that they risked their lives to save him, and they should be trusted. Edward also talks with the king, and convinces him that they are telling the truth. The king is convinced, and commands Yang to mobilize men for the battle. He also asks that Cecil and Edward assist Yang in defending the castle. Rosa and Rydia assist as medics and in guarding the Wind Crystal.

As the men wait at the front gate of Fabul, the Red Wings bomb the castle from above. Ground forces also storm the castle, and the men are there to stand guard. Now you must fight a series of battles with Cecil, Yang, and Edward. None of the fights are particularly difficult, so you should do just fine. The first fight is with a Captain and two Fighters, it’s similar to the fight with the General and Soldiers back in Kaipo.

After that battle, the men move back. There is another attack, and a second battle. This battle is with a Water Hag (the monster Edward already faced alone), an Imp Captain, and a Weeper. Kill off the Water Hag and Imp Captain first, then concentrate on the Weeper. Not too hard. After that, even more monsters storm the castle. The men move back again. You face the third battle, consisting of a Captain and two Fighters again. After that, the men are outnumbered and retreat to the throne room. Yang commands his men to lock the door, only for them to defy him and unlock the door to the throne room. It turns out they were monsters in disguise. The fourth battle is just against a weak Gargoyle. The fifth battle is against another group of Weeper, Imp Captain, and Water Hag.

After all that, Yang decides they must withdraw to the Crystal Room. As they run, Edward trips and another monster decides to attack. You must now fight the sixth, final battle against a Captain and two Fighters.

Finally, they reach the Crystal Room. As the men wait inside it, who should enter but Kain, Cecil’s friend who got separated! Cecil is glad to see his best friend alive, and asks him to fight with them. Kain jokingly asks if he should fight all of them or Cecil alone. Cecil is confused, so Kain decides for him, and Cecil alone is thrust into a battle with his best friend Kain.

---------------------------
BOSS: Kain Highwind
HP: ?
----------------------------

You cannot win this battle. Anything less than extreme power leveling or a cheating device will not let you win. Even if you do win, the story will play out like normal. So just let Kain Jump on you a few times and let it be over with, okay?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After Cecil gets stomped on by Kain, Cecil realizes that his best friend is under the sorcerer Golbez’s control. Kain says he’ll put Cecil ‘out of his misery’, and Yang, Edward, Rosa, and Rydia come to stop him. Rosa is appalled by Kain’s behavior, and Kain becomes embarrassed. (Kain also has feelings for Rosa, if you didn’t catch on to that already.)

Just then, a voice says scolds Kain for being ‘befuddled by a woman’. Cue the organ music, and you are introduced to the villain, Golbez. The group is pretty surprised. Golbez tells Kain to never hesitate to kill, and that he’ll show him how it’s done. Yang and Edward try to stop him, but Golbez just blows them away with a bolt of magical energy. (Pretty good villain behavior, if you ask me.) Golbez then orders Kain to seize the crystal. Rosa tries getting Kain to snap out of it, only for Golbez to kidnap her as a hostage. Golbez then leaves, followed by Kain who says they won’t be lucky next time.

After the villains leave, Rydia casts cure on the other men. Cecil feels guilty for letting the Crystal be stolen away, as well as Rosa. The group tries cheering him up, telling them that they have to rescue Rosa, and get the Crystals.

Now that you have control of Cecil again, go down and exit the Crystal Chamber. Check the pot on the way out in the throne room for a Hermes. Talk to the chancellor to discover that the King of Fabul is resting in his room.

Before we do that, however, we need to get some treasure. See the switch on the right side of the room, as well as an equally noticeable door near a torch? Step on the switch to open the door. Walk through the door to navigate a false wall. Go up from the door, right, down, and right to reach three chests, which from top to bottom contain: Silk Web, Demon (Demon Shield, for Cecil), and Ether 1. Now exit the throne room to the south. Instead of going all the way down to the first floor again, go to the southernmost part of the second floor to see a door. Go down through it to enter the outside of the castle. You’ll see two towers. Go through the left tower first. On the first floor of the left tower, you’ll notice a bunch of pots and three chests. The chests from top to bottom contain: Bomb, Notus, and a Potion. Check the pots near the top of the room. The left pot contains a ThorRage (Thor’s Rage). Continue to the second floor, and then keep going to the third. On this floor is Yang’s wife, who despite obviously living in an Eastern environment has a country accent. Go figure. There’s nothing to do there, but keep it in mind for later.

Now, exit the left tower and enter the right one. Continue to the second floor of the right tower, and check the pots on the right side of the second floor to find a Bacchus (Bacchus’ Wine). Keep going up to the third floor, the King’s chamber. The chest in the corner of the room contains a Tent. Now, go all the way back down to the Inn, and rest. (It’s for free.)

The gang discusses what they’re going to do. Cecil says that the only way they can fight Golbez is if they have an airship. But Baron is the only nation to have them. Yang suggests they sneak into Baron and steal an airship. Since Baron’s navy is weak, they should be able to go there by sea. Yang says he will obtain a ship tomorrow morning. They also inquire Cecil to who Kain is, learning that he was his best friend. In the morning, the gang is in the king’s chamber. The king arranges a ship, and also gives Cecil a sword that belonged to a Dark Knight that visited Fabul many years ago. He states that it has tremendous power, but is still a sword of darkness, and that the power of darkness can never overcome true evil. (You’ll want to remember that!) You then receive Death (Death Sword) for Cecil. It has a chance of slaying an enemy attacked with it instantly. The King remarks that if Golbez actually does collect all the Crystals, the world will suffer an unprecedented crisis...

With everything all taken care of, buy about 10 Lifes from the item shop, and buy the equipment for Cecil and Yang if you haven’t already. Go outside and save.

[Zeromus_X]

-----------------------------
2.1.2 Baron-bound Ship
-----------------------------

Directly east of Fabul is the ship that will take you to Baron. When you’re ready, enter it to go aboard.

Yang’s wife says goodbye to everyone, and the ship goes off. The ship sails smoothly. Yang asks what they’re going to do once they arrive at Baron. Cecil says they have to see Cid, Baron’s chief airship engineer. (I’m sure you remember him, right?) Edward shivers, and Rydia asks if he’s cold, to which he replies that he’s fine. The ship continues along, until a giant whirlpool appears. A giant monster emerges from the whirlpool, and as it turns out, this is the ‘lord of the sea’, Leviathan (according to the sailors).

The captain tries to hurry up and change course. As the ship rocks furiously, Rydia falls overboard. Yang jumps out to try and save her. The entire ship gets swallowed by the whirlpool.

Of course, the game isn’t over yet. Cecil awakens later on, discovering he’s been washed up in a shore near-wouldn’t you guess- Mysidia, the land of Mages. The town he pillaged at the very beginning of the game! How ironic! Well, seeing as how it’s just Cecil alone, and Mysidia is blocking the way from going anywhere else on the world map, that’s obviously your next destination.

[Zeromus_X]

---------------
2.3 Mysidia
---------------

Seeing as he pillaged their town and killed many innocent people, it isn’t too surprising that the villagers of Mysidia harbor ill will towards Cecil. Quite a few NPCs, when talked to, will curse Cecil.

The Black Mage near the entrance of the town will turn you into a toad. The Black Mage working at the diner will poison you with a drink. Finally, the dancer inside the Inn will turn you into a pig. So steer clear of those people, okay? The rest of the villagers will just scorn you.

Ignoring these individuals, head up to the northernmost house in Mysidia. (The biggest one.) This is the elder’s house. Enter it and talk to the old man in the middle, which is the elder. (Whom I’m sure you recognize from the beginning of the game?)

The elder asks what Cecil is doing here. Cecil says he can never ask for forgiveness. The elder replies that apologies will not bring the dead back to life. He remarks that Cecil too, has suffered, and is no longer a mindless killer. Cecil tells of Golbez, and how he’s kidnapped his friends, and how he got shipwrecked. The elder says that as long as he is dependant on the dark sword, he cannot defeat true evil (sound familiar?), and that he may even be consumed by darkness himself if he continues. In order to fight with true righteousness, Cecil must take a trial and become a Paladin, a warrior of light. He must climb Mount Ordeals east of Mysidia and take the test at the summit in order to become a holy knight. Of course, no one has ever actually passed the test, but Cecil will do anything to save his friends.

Of course, it’d still be really hard to do this test alone, so the Mysidian Elder sends two apprentice mages to help out Cecil, Palom and Porom. The girl, Porom, a White Mage who is obedient, and the boy, Palom, a Black Mage who is always getting into trouble. Porom is very soft spoken, and Palom is...’outspoken’ to say the least.

After they introduce themselves to Cecil, they become playable characters in your party. With that settled, it’d be a good time to save your game, if you haven’t already. You’ll notice that most of the equipment in Mysidia is pretty expensive, and there is some none in your party can even equip...yet. If you wish, you can go fight battles outside of Mysidia to raise Gil and Experience, but it isn’t necessary. Prime choices of equipment for both Palom and Porom are Magus (Magus Hat), GaiaGear (Gaia Gear), and Silver (Silver Ring). Of course, you probably won’t have enough money for all of that yet, but you will have a lot more Gil after you go through Mount Ordeals. The Zuu that is a frequent encounter outside town can be KO’d with Cecil’s Death Sword, and gives 489 Gil! Another way is to sell all of Cecil’s older Dark Knight equipment. It certainly wouldn’t take too long, either way. This also gives more experience to Palom and Porom so they can gain levels and better spells.

Whether you decide to raise money now, or just go ahead to the mountain now, Mount Ordeals lies east of Mysidia. Follow the long passage of land east until it opens up and you see a very large mountain. That mountain is Mount Ordeals.

[Zeromus_X]

-----------------------
2.4 Mt. Ordeals (Mount Ordeals)
-----------------------

Although it really shouldn’t be said, put Palom and Porom in the back row. An interesing thing about the twins is their abilities. Palom’s ‘Bluff’ increases his magic attack power. Porom’s ‘Cry’ will fluster the enemy and lower their attack power. Both twins have the ability, ‘Twin’ which allows them to both use their actions and charge up a super-powerful spell. However, this takes a very, very long time to charge and you could probably win the battle with Cecil or with other magic in the time it takes to charge it up. In my opinion, not very useful.

At any rate, as you enter the mountain, you’ll notice a wall of flames blocking the way. Palom will use his Ice spell to get rid of the flames (similar to the ice wall on Mt. Hobs), and then you see a ‘meanwhile, elswhere’ scene at Golbez’s hideout. You’ll see Rosa tied up with Kain keeping an eye on her. Golbez summons one of his minions, Milon of Earth, one of the four ‘Elemental Fiends’. Golbez orders Milon to stop Cecil from climbing the Mountain of Ordeals and taking the test to become a Paladin. Golbez mentions that Cecil’s sword of darkness is useless against Milon’s undead minions...

One thing to note about the monsters here is that a lot of them are considered undead. (Skeletons, Zombies, etc.) Besides being extremely weak to fire spells, spells like cure actually damage these undead foes! You can even use a Life or the Life spell to slay them instantly! I don’t recommend using so much MP or items for that, however. Also, like Golbez remarked, Cecil’s swords of darkness are ineffective, and will do only 1 damage to undead enemies.

Anyway, after that scene, you’ll have control again. Continue the path up the mountain, picking up the two Potions in chests along the way. Go through the door north to the next area. The next area is straightforward. Continue until you near the northern exit door. As you approach it, an old friend will appear.

And of course, with all the other surprises that have occurred (and will occur!), would it be too much to say that it’s Tellah who comes out of the door? That’s right, Tellah the Sage from back in Kaipo appears. Tellah asks Cecil if he too is looking for Meteo. Porom is surprised at this, and scolds Palom for being disrespectful as they introduce themselves to him. (Palom hints at what they’re really doing...) Tellah exasperated by the ‘noisy brats’, asks where Rydia and Edward are. Cecil tells him of the incident regarding the boat and Leviathan. He also tells how Rosa got captured by Golbez. Cecil then questions Tellah as to what he’s doing here. Tellah says that his spells aren’t strong enough to make a match for Golbez, so he seeks the legendary Black Magic, Meteo, on Mt. Ordeals. He senses a strong aura on the mountain, leading him to believe it lies here. Porom warns that the spell is too dangerous; and it requires too much vitality for someone of his age. Tellah says he will get vengeance, even if it costs him his very life. Tellah once again asks Cecil what he’s doing on the mountain, and Cecil tells of how he plans to become a Paladin in order to defeat Golbez, and to renounce the sword of darkness. With similar plans, Tellah decides to join your party, now playable again. He’s at whatever level he was at before; but now you should be nearing that level with Cecil as well, so I guess it all works out. Reserve three spots for the back row, and stick Tellah, Porom, and Palom in those.

Anyway, go north, and you’ll be on the next area. Go left all you can to notice a treasure chest containing Ether 1. Go back right, and then up until you reach a small bridge. Cross it, and grab the treasure along the way, another Ether 1 in a chest. Continue up through the door to the next area.

You’ll now be at the summit. As you enter, you’ll hear a strange noise which Porom blames on Palom, though he denies doing anything. Continue up, and don’t forget to rest with a Tent and save at the Save Point to the right. Continue up, and you’ll hear that sound again. Once again, Porom tells Palom to stop, and he denies making the sound. Continue up the steps and attempt to cross the bridge to the left, and you’ll stop once more, hearing that strange noise. Tellah senses evil nearby, and a voice says that it will enjoy killing them all. Cecil demand that they show themselves, and Golbez’s assassin, Milon, the Fiend of Earth, appears to try and put an end to the crew!


-----------------
BOSS: Milon, Ghast (4)
Milon:
HP: 3,500
Experience Points: 3,200
Gil: 2,000
-----------------

This fight will pit you against Milon and four of his undead servants. Just have Palom cast Fire 2 on all enemies, while having Tellah or Porom put on healing duty. Since Cecil’s attacks won’t effect the Ghasts, focus his attacks on Milon himself. The Ghasts are just like the normal undead enemies you’ve been fighting, so it won’t take too long. Take note that Milon seems to counter attack with Bolt 1. It won’t take too much HP away, but if it’s used multiple times, healing would be a good idea.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After you defeat Milon’s necromantic behind, go back to the Save Point, rest, and save. And, although it may seem a bit strange, use the ‘Row’ command in the menu to switch your party’s row positions. (Now your mages will be in the from, and Cecil should be in the back.) Just trust me on this one. Afterwards, try to go back through the bridge. You will be stopped, by Milon, again! Seems he won’t give up, even in death. Let’s see if we can teach him a lesson.

----------------
BOSS: Milon Z. (Milon Zombie)
HP: 3,523
Experience Points: 3,600
Gil: 2,500
----------------

When Milon attacks you again, you’ll be attacked from behind. Luckily (if you did what I said earlier), your mages will now be in the back, and Cecil will now be in the front because of this. So much for cowardice. Milon is now bigger, and a bit more powerful. His normal attack inflicts Poison status on the target, and he often uses this gas attack which I’m also guessing inflicts Poison. (It didn’t do anything to me, so I’m not completely sure.) He’s also considered undead. Cure spells will hurt him, and Fire spells also do a lot of damage. I still don’t recommend ‘attacking’ with Cure 2, it would be better to recover the party with it. Although I can’t comfirm this, I’ve heard some people say that using a Life or the Life spell will kill him off instantly, but I don’t know for sure. Either way, keep your party refreshed with Cure 2, keep using Fire 2, and have Cecil attack. If your mages run out of MP, use those Ethers you’ve been finding throughout the adventure. Eventually, he will fall, for the last time.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Now, continue and stand in front of that strange altar on the summit. Cecil will hear another mysterious voice, which says ‘My son...” The party is teleported to inside a crystal altar with a crystal mirror wall in front of them. The voice continues “Through much sorrow have I longed for your coming. I shall now entrust you with my power. By doing so, my pain will only grow. But there is no other way.”

With that, a sword of light appears out of the mirrored crystal wall, and as Cecil wields it, his appearance changes dramatically, from the black armor of a Dark Knight, to the Holy gear of a Paladin. (And with hair that could place him in any 80s rock band.) The voice continues, “Break from your past and overcome the darkness.”

Then, the Dark Knight version of Cecil comes out of the mirror. It tries to attack (the now Paladin) Cecil, and the rest of the group try to help him. Cecil tells them to stay back, and that this is his battle, to atone for his wrongs. You are now thrust into another boss fight, with Cecil, alone, against his own inner darkness.

[Zeromus_X]

((Continued from last section))


---------------------------------------
BOSS: D. Knight (Dark Knight)
HP: ?
---------------------------------------

The Dark Knight will continue to pummel you with Cecil’s old Dark Knight ability, ‘Dark Wave’. After awhile, a voice will tell you that ‘A true Paladin...will sheathe his sword’. Now, what exactly does this mean? This means you must Parry. Use the Parry command three times to overcome the Dark Knight. Although in the North American SNES version, it is possible to defeat the Dark Knight normally, it will be very difficult, if not virtually impossible to do that in the Playstation (among other) version (s). Either way, just defend three times, and ‘sheathe your sword’. If your HP gets low (say around 100), heal with Cecil’s newfound Cure magic or use an item.

You win when the mysterious voice says ‘Some fight for law...some fight for justice...Cecil...what will you fight for?”, and the Dark Knight desintegrates.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After the battle, the voice continues, “Well done. Now receive my spirit of light, and remember: Golbez must be stopped. Farewell, my son.” Now, Cecil, has become a Paladin.

The party congratulate him, but Cecil is still confused. He says the voice sounded familiar.

Meanwhile, after an (embarrassing...) exclamation from our Sage, Tellah recovers the memory of all his spells, and also gains knowledge of the Black Magic, Meteo. (He can’t use it in battle, however.) Porom and Palom try telling Cecil the truth of why they were asked to help him, but then Tellah starts rambling with his new confidence of how he’ll defeat Golbez.

Cecil is still confused at why the voice called him ‘my son’ and why it mentioned Golbez, but Tellah tells them to hurry to Baron. Cecil takes one more look at the mirror, and exits the altar.

After that, you’ll gain control again, and you’ll be outside the altar. You’ll notice that with Cecil’s class change, he’s also back at level 1. Of course, he has more HP and constitution than the other members of your party, so he’ll be okay. His sword can also own all the undead monsters in the area (all undead monsters, period really.) He’ll gain levels like crazy on the way down the mountain, so it’d be better to just walk down, as it isn’t that long anyway. Also, Cecil has the new 'Cover' command, which will allow him to guard allies with low HP.

With Tellah’s memory restored, he has access to all of his older spells, including level 3 spells of Fire, Ice, Bolt, and Cure! Of course, he’ll forever have 90 MP so you won’t be able to use too many spells at once and you won’t be able to cast Meteo...yet.

At any rate, it’s time to exit Mount Ordeals and return to Mysidia.

[Zeromus_X]

------------------------------------------------------
2.5 Return to Mysidia and the Devil’s Road.
------------------------------------------------------

When you exit Mt. Ordeals, there’s something you should take note of. South of the mountian, there is a square-shaped bunch of trees surrounded by a forest. This is another Chocobo forest. (Like the one back near Baron.) You can catch a Chocobo here, but another thing to note is that there are also White Chocobos. If you talk to them, they restore your MP. (This wasn’t an issue back in Baron.) Also, since you will probably have Gysahl (Gysahl Greens) with you, you should check the square spot at the upper part of the forest. A text box will appear, saying that it smells like Chocobos, and an item menu will prompt you to use an item. If you use a Gysahl, the Fat Chocobo will appear.

What exactly does this Fat Chocobo do? It can swallow (yes, swallow) your items and keep them in it’s stomach for safe-keeping. Why on earth would you want to do this? Well, later in the game, you will obtain or buy many items. The item menu can only reserve so many spaces for items at once, even using ‘Sort’ to clean out the menu. So, you can give the items you don’t use anymore or equip to the Fat Chocobo. You can also retrieve items from the Chocobo (don’t want to know how they ‘retrieve’ them, either...). It’s basically an item bank.

Anyway, the Chocobo can ride you back to Mysidia, or you can walk, and get more Gil and Experience. Either way.

Once you get back, the villagers are surprised that you passed the test! Can’t blame them for that either. You weren’t the nicest of guys before, right? Cecil can also equip that awesome Paladin equipment you couldn’t equip before. I recommend purchasing all of it. Sell off all unecessary (Dark Knight and otherwise) equipment and if you still don’t have enough, I’d stroll back to Mt. Ordeals. But you should have enough from selling and just going through the mountain once.

When you’re done shopping, stop by the elder’s house again and speak to him. He is also surprised Cecil succeeded. Embarrassed, the elder admits he sent the twins to spy on you. (With good reason.) Of course, it turned out there was no reason anyway.

The elder notices Cecil’s new sword, the Legend (Legend Sword). He asks where he found it. Cecil tells him about the voice on Mt. Ordeals and how he received the Legend Sword. The notices an inscription on the sword, which matches a Mysidian legend:

“One born of a dragon,
bearing darkness and light,
shall rise to the heavens
over the still land.

Bathing the moon in eternal
light, he brings a promise
to Mother Earth with bounty
and grace.”

Sounds good to me.

Cecil asks what the voice at Mt. Ordeals was, and why it called him son. The elder replies that he doesn’t know, nor does he know what the legend means. He says that the Mysidians, for generations have been told to pray for the fulfillment of the legend and to believe in the one with the sacred light. He belives Cecil might be that one.

Just then, Tellah interrupts them, saying they must go hurry to defeat Golbez. The elder finally notices him, and the Tellah says it’s been awhile. The twins say that they met him on Mt. Ordeals, and that he learned Meteo. The elder is shocked, and seconds the spell being too dangerous. Tellah could care less, and only wants to avenge Anna, and will kill Golbez at any cost.

Cecil says that nevertheless, they must get to Baron. The elder opens up the Devil’s Road, a dimensional passage that connects Baron to Mysidia. It was sealed shut after the raid, but the elder trusts that Cecil can traverse it safely. The elder then goes to the Tower of Prayer. (You can also reach it now, by going to the back of the Crystal Chamber.)

The elder tells the twins to return to their studies. The twins ask that they still accompany Cecil, and say that he wanted them to help him in the first place. The elder allows Porom and Palom to stay with the party.

To reach the ‘Devil’s Road’, you must go to the uppermost house on the east side of Mysidia. Inside is a teleporter, which will transport you through the dimensional road to a teleporter in Baron. (Which, will also be open of course for you to travel freely.) Beware, it does lower your party’s HP somewhat, but it isn't that much to worry about.

When you’re ready, go through the Devil’s Road back to Baron. It’s payback time!

[Zeromus_X]

------------------------
2.6 Return to Baron
------------------------

When you get back to Baron, you’ll find that the weapon and armor shops, and the door at the eastern part of town under Cid’s house is still locked. The Castle is heavily guarded, and nobody is allowed in. Looks like we’ll have to find another way.

The townspeople seem alarmed. (They’ve just caught on to the king’s behavior.) They say that Cid has been arrested for speaking out against the king. Another NPC mentions a Monk who is with the soldiers at the Inn. Sounds pretty interesting.

Head into the Inn, and in the diner you’ll see - suprise - Yang! Talk to him. Cecil will be overjoyed to find that Yang survived, but Yang won’t even recognize Cecil. Yang will remark that Cecil is a traitor to Baron, and commands the soldiers to seize him.

---------------------
BOSS: Guard (2)
---------------------
These guys are pretty weak. Just attack them like you would any normal monster. They can cast Mini and Pig on your characters, but with a round of Fire 2 on them, they won’t last long regardless.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After you beat them, Yang decides to take care of you.

----------------------
BOSS: Yang
----------------------
Yang shouldn’t be that much trouble, but be careful. Heal and revive your characters as necessary. A few level 3 spells from Tellah should do the trick. Eventually, Yang will come to his senses and the battle will end.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yang finally comes to his sense. Apparently, he suffered amnesia, and can’t remember anything after Leviathan attacked. With his memory gone, he was used by Baron. Cecil asks if Yang knows what happened to Rydia and Edward. Yang says that Rydia was swallowed by Leviathan and he doesn’t know the whereabouts of Edward.

The group decides to discuss everything in the Inn. Yang rejoins your party. As thanks for taking care of the soldiers, the innkeeper lets you stay for free. Everyone introduces themselves, and Yang apologizes for his actions. Cecil says that they must find Cid immediately. However, sneaking into the castle won’t be easy. Yang however, finds a key on his person. It turns out that the key is a Baron Key, which must have been given to Yang when they gave him command of those guards. With it, you can now unlock the doors in all of Baron by checking them and selectin the Baron Key from the obligatory item menu.

The weapon shop sells all the fangs for Yang you could’ve bought in Fabul. However, Yang no longer has those, so I suggest purchasing two BoltClaws (Bolt Claws). Buying a Kenpo (Kenpogi) and Headband for Yang will also suit him up appropriately. Silver (Silver Rings) are also good accessories for the whole party.

In addition, there is a secret passage in the weapon and armor shop. Go to the lower right corner of the room near the table. Go down to pass through a false wall, and then go right, up, left, and then you can go down two passages to go behind the counters of the weapon and armor shops. The chest in the weapon shop has a ThorRage (Thor’s Rage), while the armor shop has 2,000 Gil. (More spending money!)

When you want to proceed, head to that door below Cid’s house. You can unlock it with the Baron Key. As it turns out, this is the Waterway, the sewers beneath Baron. You’ll have to go through them to sneak into the castle.

[Zeromus_X]

-----------------
2.7 Waterway
-----------------

As you go through the door, you’ll enter a single normal looking room. There are alluring stairs right in front of you, but before you go down, notice that part of the wall on the right? It’s actually a false wall. Go through it right, and you’ll reach a chest containing 1,000 Gil. Continue down the stairs.

It should be noted that most of the enemies here are weak to Bolt spells. The exception is the ElecFish (Electric Fish) that absorb Bolt, but are susceptible to Ice spells.

In the second basement, follow the path down until you reach a crossroads. Go down first to reach three treasure chests. The treasure chests contain from left to right: HiPotion (Hi-Potion), Ether1 (Ether 1), and ThorRage (Thor’s Rage.) Afterwards, continue up and follow the linear path to the upper exit to the next floor.

In the third basement, you’ll notice there are many walls surrounding different rooms! Of course, there are many false walls in this room enabling you to walk through them. In the first enclosure, walk down, right, down, and left to reach a room with a HrGlass1 in a chest. Go down in this room, left, down, left, down, and right to the next room. In this enclosure is a chest with a Silk Web.

Now, go all the way back to that first enclosure. This time, go right. (To an enclosure with a waterfall.) In this enclosure, walk right through the wall on the right to pass through a false wall. Go down, then right to reach the next room. Open the chest on the platform in the center to obtain a Hermes (Hermes’ Shoes).

Now, see those rocks on the right side of this enclosure? One rock above three others? The wall inbetween those rocks is a false wall you can use as a shortcut to the exit of this room. Go right through it. Then continue up to reach the exit.

In this next area, follow the path up and go up a set of stairs. When you near the exit to the next floor, you’ll see an enclosure with a chest to the left. You guessed it, another false wall. Go left through it, down, left, and up, and you’ll reach the chest which contains an Ether1 (Ether 1). Now continue up the stairs to the next level.

As you enter this level, you’ll see a door in front of you. Go into it and enter a room which is a Save Point. Rest with a tent and save. However, don’t leave the Save Point just yet. See the rocks on the right wall? There are four rocks, but one doesn’t cover a spot near the wall. Stand on this spot and go right to pass through a false wall, down, and right to reach a chest containing an Ancient (Ancient Sword.). This is a sword for Cecil. Although it has lower attack then his Legend Sword he recieved when he became a Paladin, it has the chance to Curse the enemy struck by it. The choice is yours if you want a weapon that can debilitate the enemy, or can do more damage. (Of course, he doesn’t lose that much attack power.)

Exit the Save Point, and go right. Follow the stairs up, exit, and you’ll be out of the Waterway and back outside Baron Castle- in the moat!

[Zeromus_X]

---------------------------------
2.8 Baron Castle (Part One)
---------------------------------

When you exit the Waterway, you’ll notice you’ll be in Baron Castle’s moat, behind the castle. Go left, down, and right until you’re on the front side of the castle. You should notice an opening in the castle’s wall. Go through it, up. You’ll be back in the area where you talked to Cid at the beginning of the game. Take the door on the right and go up the stairs, then go right and down more stairs, and you’ll be back at the main hall of the castle. (Where the treasures were at the beginning.) Walk into the middle of this room and you’ll meet with a familiar face.

As it seems, Baigan, the Captain of the Guards comes out to greet you. Cecil asks if he is under Golbez’s control, but he says that his loyalty lies with Baron. Cecil asks where Cid is. Baigan says he had attempted to find him, but his men were ambushed and he is the sole survivor. Baigan decides that he’ll join Cecil and co.

Of course, you should realize what’s wrong with this picture. You already have five members in your party! The twins sense something wrong as well, saying a monster is nearby. Baigan comically looks around for the monster, and the twins accuse him of his shameful acting. Cecil asks if he too, betrays Baron. Baigan replies that Golbez’s wishes are Baron’s wishes, and that he granted him great power. It looks like you’ll have to take down Baigan!

--------------------------------------------
BOSS: Baigan, Right Arm, Left Arm
Baigan:
HP: 4,444
Experience Points: 4,800
Gil: 3,000

Right Arm:
HP: 444
Experience Points: 10
Gil: 0

Left Arm:
HP: 444
Experience Points: 10
Gil: 0
--------------------------------------------
Now this is an interesting boss. Well, not because of the ‘plot twist’ but more because it’s the first ‘multi-part’ boss you’ll fight. In order to win the battle, you have to kill Baigan’s body, right arm, and left arm. If you destroy both of his arms, he’ll regenerate them and you’ll have to kill them all over again. Therefore it’s a good idea to just kill off one of the arms and leave one alive. (They don’t cause too much damage anyway.) Also, if you cast a spell on Baigan’s body, he’ll cast Wall on himself. Anything that has Wall cast on it will reflect most magic spells back at a member of the enemy party. You definitely don’t want someone blasted back with Tellah’s Fire 3, do you? However, you can counter this by casting Wall on one of your own party members and ‘bouncing’ a spell at the enemy by casting a spell at the reflected member. (FYI, Tellah has Wall in his White Magic menu.)

With that said, use this following strategy. Have Cecil and Yang kill gang up on Baigan. Have Tellah cast one shot of a level 3 spell at Baigan’s body, but only once. (Wall, remember?) Have Porom put on healing duty with Cure 2. Have Palom cast Fire 2 on the Left Arm to kill it quickly. When Baigan casts Wall on himself, have Tellah cast Wall on one of your own party members. Tellah and Palom can both bounce back their own spells using the reflected character. If the battle gets rough, use Tellah to heal as well. (Of course, the Cure spell will reflect off of any reflected character, but it won’t be healing the enemy enough to really matter.)

Keep at it, and you’ll take down Baigan.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Cecil seems shocked that even Baigan, who was once loyal, would betray them.

After that, run all the way back to the Waterway’s save point, Tent, and Save. Then, return to the main hall and go north to enter the throne room.

[Zeromus_X]

------------------------------
2.9 Baron Castle (Part 2)
------------------------------

As Cecil confronts the king of Baron, the king calls Cecil an ingrate, by renouncing the sword of darkness without his authority. Cecil counters by saying that the king renounced his duty to his people.

The king, is confused at who Cecil is talking about. Then, he realizes he must be talking about the ‘old duffer who refused to surrender this kingdom’. The ‘king’ says he’s enjoyed impersonating him. Cecil asks what this imposter has done to the king. The imposter says he’ll see him soon enough, and Milon, in hell.

Then, the imposter sheds his ‘costume’, revealing himself to be a blue turtle-like creature. He reveals himself as the Devil of Water, Cagnazzo, another of Golbez’s Elemental Fiends!




---------------------
BOSS: Cagnazzo
HP: 5,312
Experience Points: 5,500
Gil: 4,000
---------------------
Now, you’d think being another Elemental Fiend, Cagnazzo would be tough. However, he’s actually pathetically easy. He’ll try surrounding himself with water to build up a tidal wave to attack you with, but casting a Bolt spell on him will get rid of all the water. Casting another Bolt spell will make him hide in his shell! Yes, the Fiend of Water is pitifully weak to electricity, as would be expected. Have Tellah cast Bolt 3, Palom cast Bolt 2, Yang attack with the Bolt Claws, and Cecil keep attacking. You may not even have to heal. He won’t last two castings of Bolt 3 from Tellah.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------.

After you kill Cagnazzo, who else but a furious Cid rushes into the room, ready to ‘knock the king’s teeth in’ as he puts it. Then, he realizes that Cecil is actually in the room. He thought Cecil died, and wants to know why Rosa isn’t with him. (It turns out she thought he was still alive and wanted to go find him, after all.) Cecil tells that Golbez kidnapped her. Cid is calls Cecil a pinhead and is furious at Golbez.

Tellah interrupts, and tells Cid to hurry to his airship. A funny scene occurs with Cid and Tellah insulting eachother. Porom breaks them up, and introduces everyone to eachother.

Cecil inquires as to where Cid hid his airship. Cid tells them he hid it where no one would suspect, and starts leading the group to it.

However, as they start walking out of the throne room and into a hall, they hear the voice of Cagnazzo cackling. He says that although they defeated him, he’ll make them join him in the next world. The walls of the hall begin closing in rapidly. They find out that the doors are locked. The twins, Porom and Palom, stand in front of each of the walls.

The twins say they have no choice, that they would’ve been glad to help out further, and thank Cecil. As the rest of the group objects, the twins cast Break on themselves to turn themselves into statues and stop the walls from closing in.

Tellah tries casting Esuna to change them back, but as they chose to turn into stone, attempting to cure them will have no effect.

Tellah says that now he will avenge both Porom and Palom, and Anna. The rest of the party grieves, Cid says that it’s time for payback, and begins leading the party to his airship, the Enterprise.

Meanwhile, the scene shifts to Golbez’s hideout. Golbez notes that Cecil has defeated two of his Elemental Fiends, and that his power continues to grow. Kain and Golbez also worry about how they’ll steal the last Crystal. Golbez says that it will be a problem retrieving it from where it is located, and Kain suggests that they force Cecil to get it for them. He also suggest that since they have Rosa as a hostage, they can exchange her for the Crystal. Golbez says that it just might work, and that he will destroy them both at the time of exchange. Kain says he will convey the terms to Cecil, and starts to leave. Rosa tells Kain to stop, but Kain tells her that she’ll see that he’s superior to Cecil soon enough.

Back at the castle, Cid reveals the secret passage that leads to his airship, the Enterprise. Cid lifts off, and as they fly into the air, they notice an enemy airship passing by. Cid prepares the battle stations, but then they notice a white flag on the enemy ship.

As the two ships connect, Kain walks forward. Cid swears at Kain for being a traitor. Cecil demands to know where Rosa is. Kain says that if they retrieve the Earth Crystal in Troia, they’ll return Rosa. The rest of the group scorns Kain for his behavior. Cecil begs Kain to snap out of it, but Kain will say no more on the matter.

After the enemy ship departs, Cecil tells Cid to go northwest, to the nation of Troia, where the Earth Crystal lies. This is the end of the second chapter.

[ChocoboMan]

Thanks for the walkthrough.

[Zeromus_X]

You're welcome. :) It's getting there. I'm working on some airship sidequests right now.

[Zeromus_X]

------------------------------------
3.0 But Before We Do That...
------------------------------------

Sure, you could continue the story with your newfound airship. OR, you could explore! Yeah, with an airship you can reach some places you couldn’t reach before. Let’s go over them, eh? Of course, all of this is optional, but you get some nice items and equipment out of it.

--------------
3.0.1 Agart
--------------

The town of Agart is a small village on an island south of Baron. Apparently the villagers are descended from dwarves or something. Whatever. It isn’t like that’s an important thing to take note of, right? You’ll also notice a well in the center of town who’s depth is supposedly unknown.

Another thing of interest is the observatory in the southwestern corner of town. There’s an actual telescope here, and the astronomers are studying funky things going on with one of the world’s two moons...pretty weird.

The weapon and armor shops sell different weapons and armor made from Iron, but don’t buy any. You’re going to find or have the opportunity to buy much better armor very soon. The grass to the left of the well area (where a red haired boy is usually walking around) hides a Boreas.


And see the house directly above the well area? If you go inside it, you’ll discover you won’t actually enter a new house area. You’ll just be walking around under a roof. (If that makes sense.) Check around to meet the Namingway in this town.

Well, other than that, not much else to do here...at least for now.

-------------------------
3.0.2 Mythril Village
-------------------------

This village is located on an island in the archipelago north of Mt. Ordeals. You’ll notice a cave on an island nearby, but you won’t be able to enter it at this point. Just land and enter this town.

And...what an interesting town it is! It seems it’s some sort of haven for midgets, frogs, and pigs. (All the status ailments...) They also process the metal mythril to forge supreme weapons and armor! Naturally you’ll want to look at their selection, as it offers unrivaled attack and defense for this point in the game. However, the equipment is quite expensive, so you may not be able to buy too much of it without going out to raise Gil. You may have to just wait until later to purchase any of this.

Now, onto the treasure. Like in Agart, there are houses you can actually ‘walk into’, except now there are more than just one. Unfortunately, these don’t have anything in them, so just ignore them.

However, there are more treasures hidden in the grass in this town than in Agart. Check the grass above the empty house to the north of town for Mythril (Mythril Dagger). The grass above the weapon and armor store conceals 5,000 Gil. The grass on the easternmost side of the town hides Mythril (Mythril Staff).

Before you leave, you can always get a kick out of the performing group outside the weapon and armor store.

------------
3.0.3 Mist
------------

Well, I’m sure you remember Mist, right? Turns out, there are actually some survivors here. (Somehow...) There’s also a few things we can pick up. You could’ve walked through the Mist Cave before, but now it’s easier with the airship.

When you enter, you’ll see that some people are still kickin’ it...all the normal people, anyway. It seems all the Summoners were wiped out. You can still talk to the NPCs and learn some interesting information, and of course, there’s some treasure to be found.

Check the grass in the northeastern part of the village (below the pond) for a Bomb. Go to the well at the southern part of town, and go right. You should pass through some trees into a secret passage. (Just like false walls). From going right, go up, and right, and search the grass for two more Bombs. (Now where do you think all these bombs came from?)

Now go to the house in the northwestern corner of the village. This happens to be Rydia’s old house. See the fireplace? It isn’t lit, so you can actually go up through a false wall. Then go right all the way to reach three chests. The upper chests contain from left to right: Tiara and Clothes. The lower chest contains a RubyRing (Ruby Ring).

Nothing much else to do here. If you’re still infiltrating Baron, the Dancing (Dancing Dagger) for Porom and Palom are good for them, but in my opinion, mages should stick to casting spells.

We just have one more place to go before stopping by Troia!

[Zeromus_X]

----------------------
3.0.4 Eblan Castle
----------------------

This next place is very mysterious. To reach Eblan easily, go east from Mt. Ordeals around the world map to see a continent with a very large tower. There’s a castle here, and it happens to be our last stop. However, be warned. It would be a very good idea to save before entering. In fact, some of the monsters here may be too tough for you. You can always do this sidequest at a later point in the game.

As you enter, you discover that the entire castle is abandoned. There aren’t any random encounters in this castle, but you could be surprised by monsters in chests...

Head up from the entrance and you’ll be at a three way fork. Go up through the main door. You’ll discover that most of the chests in this area have already been opened, save one in an enclosure. Go right at the left part of this enclosure (near the stairs to the next floor) to reach a chest containing a HiPotion (Hi-Potion). Head on up to the next floor.

On this floor you’ll notice even more treasure, behind walls. But you can’t get to them yet, so just head up to the next level.

Now you’ll be in the throne room. See the walls on the upper left and right corners of the room? Both are false walls. They lead to stairs down to behind the walls that enclosed treasure chests on the floor below. The left corner leads down to Unihorn (Unicorn Horn, upper chest), and an Alarm (lower chest). The right corner leads down to a Soft (upper chest), MaidKiss (Maiden’s Kiss, lower right chest), and a Cabin (lower left chest.) To reach the lower left chest, you have to keep going down, ‘behind’ the lower wall, and head left to get it. (It makes more sense after you try it.) Now head back to that three-way path near the entrance. It would be a good idea to go outside and save again. When you re-enter, go left at the fork this time, follow the path below the left gate, and enter the west tower.

When you enter the west tower, you’ll be outside of the doorway. However, go back into the doorway, two steps. Then go right, through another false wall. Then go up, and left to reach a chest that is a monster-in-a-box.

You probably haven’t opened up any ‘monster-in-a-box’ treasure chests up until now. When you open up a monster-in-a-box, you’ll be engaged in a battle with (usually pretty tough) enemies, but if you win, you’ll usually win a rare piece of equipment or item, so it’s well worth it. In this chest, you’ll have to fight a Staleman and four Skulls. These monsters may be a bit tough for you at this point in the game. Have Tellah immediately cast Fire 3 on all enemies. Have another person use the Boreas you found in Agart for great damage. Cecil should have the Legend Sword equipped to deal with the undead. Just gang up on the Staleman once the Skulls are finished. You may have to try more than once. You get a Sleep (Sleep Blade) for winning. Aptly named, it has a chance of putting the enemy struck by it to sleep (it actually has more power than the Legend Sword, so it’d be a good idea to equip it on Cecil). Once you win, you’ll probably be beat up so go fly to an Inn and return, and save again.

When you’re ready to return, go back to the room with the monster-in-a-box in the west tower. This time, go up the stairs to the next room. (You’ll be able to get that other enclosed chest in a minute.) On the second floor, you’ll be surrounded by pots. Search the group of pots at the top of the room; the bottom pot contains a Bacchus (Bacchus’ Wine). Search the bottom right pot of the lower group of pots to get another Baccus’ Wine. Also, below the pots, go right through a false wall. Then go up, and right to reach two treasure chests. The left chest contains 10,000 Gil, and the right chest contains Mute (Mute Arrows). Now see the left side of this room? Go into the little indentation to go back down to the first floor, to reach a chest containing Kamikaze. (It’s a spell item.) Go down from this enclosure to go back up to the second floor. Now exit and save your game again.

When you re-enter, there’s nothing left to do but go through the east tower. Go right at the fork and under the gate, and enter it.

When you enter, go behind the upper left column. Go left through a false wall, up, left, down, and right to reach a chest containing a Coffin. Now go up the stairs.


On the second floor, right when you enter, do not move left. Move right and check the switch on the wall to open up the door. Then go down, behind the wall, and left to maneuver yourself around the stairs as to not reset the switch from exiting the area. Go through the door. Open the chests on the left side, the upper chest contains an Exit, and the lower chest contains an Ether1 (Ether 1.) The right pot in the upper part of the room contains a Hermes (Hermes’ Shoes). Now, go to the right of the room. Do not step into the hole. Check the lower chest for a Cabin. Now go go two steps right from the right pot at the top part of the room. Go right through a false wall. Then go up, right, and down, and you’ll be behind the treasure chest that you couldn’t reach because of the hole. This chest is another monster-in-a-box. You’ll have to fight two BlackCats (Black Cats) and a Lamia. Have your melee fighters defend. The Black Cats retaliate physical attacks with an attack called ‘Bluster’ (mistranslated from ‘Blaster’) that will either paralyze one of your characters or kill them instantly. Have Tellah cast Bio or some other level 3 spell on all of them. When the Black Cats are finished, concentrate your fighters on the Lamia. You’ll get a BloodSpr (Blood Spear) afterwards. No-one in your party can equip this...right now.

Afterwards, exit, rest, and save again. Then, go back up to the second floor of the east tower. Now, you can walk into that hole. You’ll be back on the first floor, inside the right enclosure with a chest that contains HrGlass2 (Hourglass 2). Go down to enter a secret passage to the basement of the castle.

Follow the path until you see three chests. The two chests on the left both contain Ether 1. The right chest is a monster-in-a-box, three Mad Ogres. They are very dangerous. I highly recommend having Cecil attack with the Sleep Blade or Ancient sword to at least try and weaken them. Or have him Cover Tellah and Parry. Tellah should be casting Fire 3 or some other powerful spell. Yang and Cid can attack, or defend, but they’ll probably die eventually either way. I don’t blame if you want to skip this one. You get an Ag Apple (Agility Apple) afterwards.

Follow the path to a set of stairs that leads you outside the castle. That’s all the treasure there is here. Once again, you can always try this later, so don’t worry if you aren’t tough enough yet. It should also be noted that the continent of Eblan isn’t a bad place to level up, after all. The desert area north of the giant tower is good, as is the ‘eagle head’ shaped land mass above it.

[Zeromus_X]

-----------
3.1 Troia (Town)
-----------

When you’re all prepared to advance the story, head to Troia. The nation of Troia is located northwest of Mist Village. You’ll see the castle and the town of Troia nearby a waterfall. Since this country has so many forests, it’ll be hard to land the airship near Troia itself. However, fear not, there is one spot on the world map that you can land on near Troia, and it’s one square above the town of Troia and right of the castle. If you can land it there, you can just walk right into either part of Troia. If you have trouble accomplishing this, just land south of the forests on the normal ground. You’ll have to walk a very long way, however.

Either way, enter the town of Troia. First thing you’ll want to do, strange as it may seem, is take a swim. That’s right, at the eastern part of town you’ll see some steps you can use to go down into the water. Follow the river all the way until you see some steps that lead up. (Near a Namingway.) Go left through the trees, down, and left to reach a grassy enclosure. Check around to find 1,000 Gil, Ether 1, Illusion, and an Ether 2.

One last thing to do. Buy four RubyRings (Ruby Rings) for the whole party. Buy Feather (Feathered Hats) for everyone. I’ll tell you why in just a second.

---------------------
3.2 Troia (Castle)
---------------------

As you enter the castle, head up through the front gate to the main hall. Continue north past the guards to enter the room where the Eight Clerics of Troia reside. Talk to them all to them for useful information. It seems that the Dark Elf, who lives in a cave in the northeast, has stolen the Earth Crystal. If Cecil and co. retrieve the Crystal, they may borrow it to use as they see fit. However, there is a problem. The cave where the Dark Elf lives has a metallic field, because he is very weak to metallic weapons. To make it worse, his cave is located on a forest covered island to the northeast! How on earth are we going to get over there and even make it to the Dark Elf? Well, after we get done with a few things, I’ll tell you how, so just be a bit patient.

The first thing we need to do is very important. You won’t be able to get further in the story without doing this event. At the main hall (a three way fork), go through the left door. Follow the path until you end up at a bedroom. You’ll meet up with yet another familiar face, who you thought dead!

Yes, it’s Prince Edward of Damcyan. It turns out he somehow made it to Troia after Leviathan attacked. Wounded, he’s been resting in bed for some time. The gang talks to Edward. Edward wishes to join up again with the party, but he’s too injured to even get out of bed. Discovering that Rydia didn’t make it, he feels guilt for both Anna and Rydia’s deaths.

Cecil tells of how they must trade the Earth Crystal for Rosa. But the Crystal is in the hands of the Dark Elf, and his highly inconvenient metallic cave. To solve this dilemma, Edward lends the TwinHarp (Twin Harp) to the crew, calling it his ‘substitute’.

After that scene, exit and go back to the main hall, this time going right. Follow the path until you reach another door. When you enter it, you’ll see three sets of stairs. Ignore the left set of stairs for now, and go down the middle. Check the upper pot in the lower right corner of the room for a Bacchus (Bacchus’ Wine.) Now go up, and enter the right set of stairs. Press the switch on the floor to open up all the cells. From left to right, the treasures are a set of two of each: Tent, Hi-Potion, Ether 1, and Ruby Ring

Now, exit Troia Castle. It’s time to go get that Earth Crystal!

[Zeromus_X]

-------------------------
3.3 Magnetic Cavern
-------------------------

Of course, you’re probably saying ‘well how on earth am I supposed to get to the cave? You haven’t told me yet!’. Well, now I shall. You’ll have to walk to the very northernmost tip of the Troia continent. The northernmost patch of forest is actually a Chocobo forest. However, there’s something different about this forest. Besides yellow and white Chocobos, it also has black, flying chocobos. You just catch it like any other Chocobo, and you can fly with it. It can’t go over mountains, but can fly over the sea just fine. You have to land in a forest, however. Using this black Chocobo, you can fly to the Dark Elf’s cave on the forested island northeast of Troia. It should also be noted that this Chocobo forest doesn’t have a Fat Chocobo. Use another Fat Chocobo at the Chocobo forests near Mt. Ordeals or Baron to sort out your goods if necessary.

Right when you enter the cavern, the party feels the effect of the magnetic field. Any metallic equipment equipped on a party member will cause them to be paralyzed. Yang comments that his Claws aren’t affected, and Tellah comments on how they’ll stand invincible with his magic.

In reality, while you’re not invincible (far from it), his spells do help a lot. However, you need to re-equip your characters as necessary. All your party members must have Ruby Rings and Feathered Hats equipped. Remove all heavy armor from Cecil (including Paladin and Mythril armor) and Cid. (Cid can still equip his Wooden Hammer.) Tellah should be okay with Gaia Gear, and the aforementioned ring and cap. Yang should equip two claws and a Feathered Hat, Kenpogi, and Ruby Ring.

That being done, don’t be afraid to run from every battle. It isn’t too hard to run away, and you don’t have the fighting edge from not having proper weapons. Tellah’s spells definitely aren’t unlimited. After you outfit your party, go outside and save.

At the entrance, go right across a bridge, ignoring the stairs leading down for now. When you cross, you’ll see a chest which contains a HiPotion (Hi-Potion). Now take the stairs down, and follow the path until you reach another set of stairs to the next floor, and a chest. The chest contains a Unihorn (Unicorn Horn). Go down the stairs.

In the second basement, keep going left until you reach a wall, and a ledge leading up. Go up until you find a chest containing Ether 1. You can also just go left from the entrance, up and then left, around the pit, either way. Afterwards, go to the northern part of the area, where a bridge is. It crosses over a pit, and north of the pit is a door. Go through the door to enter a chamber with two chests. The left chest contains 2,000 Gil, and the right chest contains an Ether 1. Exit this chamber, and go down the stairs in the northwest corner of the area to go down to the third basement.

As soon as you enter the third basement, you’ll notice a door near the stairs. Enter it. Inside is a Save Point. Rest and save if you wish. Now go down, across a bridge to the next platform. Here is another door leading to another room. The three chests in this room contain, from left to right: HiPotion (Hi-Potion), Silk Web, and HrGlass1 (Hourglass 1.) Exit this room, and then continue across another bridge to the left. After you cross it, walk up under the archways leading to another door, that leads to the next area.

Once you enter this area, immediately head up to a chest containing a Fairy (Fairy Claw) for Yang. It has a chance of confusing an enemy struck by it. Head left to the next flight of stairs leading down to the fourth basement.


When you enter the fourth basement, cross the bridge to your left. Once you cross it, you should be on another platform with many ominous torches. To the right is another set of bridges that lead to another Save point. Once again, rest and save if you want. Head back to those torches, and go north. You’ll see a door, but don’t go through it just yet. Go right and up, behind the room, and then go left and you’ll see another treasure chest. It contains an Exit. Now, you can enter that room, which happens to be the Crystal Chamber.

When you enter the Crystal Chamber, you should see the Dark Elf waiting, guarding the Earth Crystal. Talk to him to make him start TalKING LiKe THIs. After he comMENDs you for your efFort, he’ll tell you that your excurSION ends here, and that you’ll nevER get the crysTAL. You’ll now have to fight a boss battle.

--------------------
BOSS: Dark Elf
--------------------

Unfortunately, for this first fight, you’ll have to lose, as part of the story. After the Dark Elf does his little spell combo, the battle ends.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The party, weakened by the Dark Elf’s magic and helpless without proper equipment, are sensed by Edward back in Troia. He forces himself out of bed and to his harp, to play a tune that can break the Dark Elf’s magnetic field. His melody resonates from the Twin Harp, breaking the field and weakening the Dark Elf.

After the scene, you’ll step back and have a chance to re-equip your party as necessary. Equip them with whatever you had on before you replaced your weapons and armor. Step forward again and face the Dark Elf, now at a disadvantage.

-------------------------------------
BOSS: Dark Elf, Dark D. (Dark Dragon)
Dark Elf:
HP: 23,890
Experience Points: 1,000
Gil: 4,000

Dark Dragon:
HP: 3,927
Experience Points: 6,000
Gil: 5,000
-------------------------------------

As you re-engage the Dark Elf, you’ll find his spells are exponentially less effective then they were before. Keep attacking him with normal attacks. He also uses Wind to lower one of your characters down to critical health, have Tellah take care of that with healing. He also uses a special attack called ‘Whisper’ on one of your characters to turn them into a pig. Have Tellah cast Esuna or have someone use a Diet Food on the affected character. After the Dark Elf takes some damage, he transforms into his more powerful form, the Dark Dragon. You have to hurry and pile on the damage, because this dragon can really dish out the hurt if you slack off. Make sure Cecil has the Legend Sword equipped as it can do a lot of damage (around 700 per strike!)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After the party defeats the Dark Elf, Cecil thanks Edward. Go up to the go up to the Earth Crystal and examine it to obtain it. After that, either use the Exit item, Tellah’s Exit spell, or walk out, as the monsters have gotten considerably weaker now that you have proper equipment on. Either way, leave the Magnetic Cavern and return to Troia.

[Zeromus_X]

-----------------------
3.4 Return to Troia
-----------------------

With the Earth Crystal in hand, it’s time to return to Troia and report to the Eight Clerics. Ride the black Chocobo again, and it’ll automatically take you to it’s home. (Even over a mountain...) From the Chocobo forest, walk back to Troia Castle.

Take note, that there’s a neat trick here. You can go fight in the Magnetic Cavern to gain experience and Gil, and then when Tellah runs out of MP, go back to the Chocobo forest and talk to a white Chocobo. The party’s MP will be restored, so Tellah can heal everyone’s HP with his Cure spells. Then you can refill your party’s MP again. You could technically do this forever, though at some point you’ll probably want to progress in the game.

Enter the castle, and go up to the Clerics’ chamber. As you enter, the Clerics crowd around Cecil, amazed that he retrieved the Earth Crystal. Just then, darkness fills the chamber and Kain’s voice tells Cecil that it’s time. He tells Cecil to bring the Crystal aboard the airship and he’ll take him to Rosa. Then, light returns to the room.

The Clerics keep their word, and allow you to borrow the Crystal, regardless of circumstances. They also say to retrieve the treasure from the underground storage facility. Remember the left set of stairs from those three sets of stairs on the right side of the castle? You can go through them now. Talk to the guard there, and say yes when she asks if you’ve been given permission to enter. She’ll open the door for you. Go through it up, then go right, down, and left down a set of stairs. You’ll be in a room filled with treasure. From left to right, top to bottom: HiPotion (Hi-Potion), Remedy, Ether 1, Ether 2, Elixir, EchoNote (Echo Note), GreatBow (Great Bow), Fire (Fire Arrows), Fire (Fire Arrows), HiPotion (Hi-Potion), Remedy, Ether 1, Ether 2, Ag Apple (Agility Apple), EchoNote (Echo Note), Ice (Ice Arrows), Ice (Ice Arrows), and finally Bolt (Bolt Arrows).

When you’re ready (stocked up on items and fully restored), ride the airship. Kain’s airship will link up with the Enterprise. Kain will ask to see the Crystal. Cecil shows it to him, and asks where Rosa is. Kain tells him that she’s in the Tower of Zot, and takes the Enterprise up into the sky, into the tower. The group enters the tower, and while Kain disappears, Golbez begins talking to the crew. He congratulates Cecil, saying that he exceeded even his expectations. The party demands that he show himself, but he says that Rosa and himself are at the top of the tower. If they bring the Earth Crystal to the top, he will return Rosa. Golbez also tells them that they’d better hurry, before Rosa ends up dead. Looks like we’re going to have to climb to the top of this tower if we want to see our White Mage again.

[Zeromus_X]

--------------------
3.5 Tower of Zot (Part One)
--------------------

After the conversation with Golbez is done, you’ll have control again. Don’t worry, you can actually exit the tower without fear of Rosa dying. Just go through the teleporter where you entered. You can’t use the airship to go anywhere else, but you can use the Black Chocobo if you wanted to do that anyway. You can re-enter the tower by getting in the airship again, where it will automatically go up to the tower.

Be warned. The monsters in this tower are more powerful than any you’ve ever fought before up to this point. Running is certainly an option in some battles. If you don’t feel like you can make it, Exit out and level up some more. However, some of the equipment in the tower that you can find is very good. I recommend picking up all of it. You won’t be able to get the treasure after you complete the tower, so it really is in your best interests. Thankfully, the tower isn’t really that large a dungeon, so it isn’t easy to get lost in it.

Entering the tower, the first area is a very large maze-like room. Make your way to the upper-left corner for a chest with a Flame (Flame Armor) for Cecil. The upper right corner is the exit to the next floor.

On the second floor, head south from the entrance, until you see three little paths. The left path is the one you want to take. Walk through the path to the left until you see an opening to go down. Go down, and down again through another opening. Keep going down and you’ll be at the bottom of the room. Go left, to the lower left corner of the room, and go up. Up further you’ll see two paths. The left path leads to the exit to the next area, and the right leads to a chest which is a monster-in-a-box with a Flame Dog. Use Ice 3 on it to wipe it out quickly. Another funny way to defeat it is to have Yang confuse it with the Charm Claw. It’ll continually use it’s Flame attack on itself, only healing itself for a few HP so it’ll never attack you if you let it stay confused. Enough time to charge up one Ice 3 and do away with it. You’ll get a Flame (Flame Sword) for Cecil, which you obviously should equip. Go through the door on the left path to the next floor.

The third floor is another big maze room. Head down from the entrance, all the way right, all the way up, and all the way left to reach a door at the very upper left corner of the room to the next area.

On the fourth floor, head down from the entrance, and follow the linear path until you see a path going up. It’ll lead to three doors. All three doors go up to the next level, but to enclosed areas with treasure chests. The left door leads to a chest containing a HellClaw (Hell Claw) for Yang, and a Flame (Flame Shielf) for Cecil. The left door leads to a chest containing a Gaia (Gaia Hammer) for Cid. The right door leads to a chest containing a Wizard (Wizard Robe) that Tellah can equip. After you collect the treasure, head back down to the path you were on, and head right. It’s a linear path to the door to the next floor.

On the fifth floor, follow the path from the entrance until you see a door. Go through it to find a Save Point, of which I strongly recommend you rest and save at. When you’re ready to move on, exit the save point, and continue the path west until you see another door. Try to go through it and you’ll be stopped by three mysterious woman, who claim to be servants of the Devil of Wind, Valvalis, one of Golbez’s fiends. Get ready for a boss fight.

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BOSS: Magus Sisters (Sandy, Cindy, and Mindy)

Sandy:
HP: 2,591
Experience Points: 2,500
Gil: 3,000

Cindy:
HP: 4,599
Experience Points: 2,500
Gil: 3,000

Mindy:
HP: 2,590
Experience Points: 2,500
Gil: 3,000
-------------------------------------------------------------

If you’ve ever played Final Fantasy X, no doubt you’ll recognize the Magus Sisters. However, in Final Fantasy IV they definitely aren’t on your side. This may be one of the toughest boss fights you’ll have had to face up to this point.

First off, this fight requires much more strategy than any other battles up until now. The sisters have an attack pattern. Sandy (tall one) casts Wall on Cindy (chubby one), and Mindy (little one) bounces a spell of off Cindy to damage one of your characters. Together, they form the patented ‘Delta Attack’. If you kill Sandy or Mindy, Cindy will just revive them. This means you have to take care of Cindy first, and then dispatch the other two sisters. Tellah’s spells do the most damage of course, but she always has the ‘Wall’ status on. So how can we remedy this? Well, believe it or not, the sisters will actually help you out. Sandy will always cast Wall on Cindy, then Mindy will reflect a spell back onto you. However, this means she’ll bounce a Wall onto one of your own characters. This saves you the time of casting Wall yourself! Bounce back one of Tellah’s level 3 spells, and hope it hits Cindy. Have Cecil and Cid attack Cindy, Yang use Power on Cindy, and if one of your characters is low on HP, use a Hi-Potion to recover them. Have another character refresh Tellah’s MP with an Ether if he runs out. Once you defeat Cindy, the other sisters should go down without too much of a fight. Just cast spells and attack them, and they’ll go down quick enough.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After you defeat the sisters, they pout about how their Delta Attack failed, and disappear. (Always good for a laugh...) Go back to the Save Point, rest, and save. And although it will be an odd thing to ask, take off all of Tellah’s equipment (or at least the Wizard Robe and any Rune Armlets). You’ll find out why in short time.

When you want to proceed, go through the door the Magus Sisters were guarding. Proceed north to where Golbez and Kain are for a scene.

Golbez welcomes the crew to his lair. Tellah seems anxious, and Cecil demands to know where Rosa is. Golbez tells him to give him the Earth Crystal first. Cid warns Golbez that if anything happens to Rosa, he’ll pay, and Golbez says that if they don’t hurry, Rosa will die. Cecil hands over the Crystal, and then asks where Rosa is.

Golbez asks ‘Rosa? There is no Rosa.’ (Did you really expect the bad guy to just hold up his bargain?) The party is shocked.

Tellah demands that he return Rosa this minute. Golbez asks him if he has any idea who he is dealing with. Then Tellah asks how he could forget the monster that killed his daughter.

Tellah rushes past Cecil and tackles Golbez, saying that vengeance will be his.

------------------
BOSS: Golbez
------------------

This is another story battle. Tellah will cast his most powerful spells on Golbez, while Golbez shrugs them off, mocking Tellah. Realizing his spells are ineffective, Tellah realizes he must unleash the ultimate black magic, Meteo. The rest of the party warns not to use it, because it may destroy him in the process. But Tellah is ready to give anything to kill Golbez. Using all his power, he casts the spell, shocking Golbez, and incapacitating him.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Golbez is stunned, but not destroyed, wondering how anyone can know the ultimate destructive magic. Tellah falls over, exhausted. The party rushes over to Tellah’s side.

Golbez says it matters not, and that he still has the Crystal. He tells Kain to come with him, but it seems that Meteo broke Golbez’s control over him. Golbez remarks that Kain no longer serves any purpose, and starts to leave, saying that he will destroy Cecil someday. Cecil tries attacking Golbez, but Golbez blows him away with a bolt of magical energy. Golbez moves in for the kill, but hesitates, and starts flipping out, saying that next time, for certain, it will be over, and then he leaves.

The party crowds near Tellah, telling him to hold still. Tellah says that he was a fool for losing himself in hatred, and asks the party to avenge his daughter for him...

Then, Tellah dies.

The party mourns his loss, and Cecil swears that on his life, he will avenge Tellah and Anna.

[Zeromus_X]

-----------------------------------
3.6 Tower of Zot (Part Two)
-----------------------------------



Afterwards, you will have control again. Go and check on Kain. It turns out that Kain is still alive. Kain gets up, and apologizes to Cecil, but Cecil says that it isn’t his fault, as he was under Golbez’s control. Then, they both remember Rosa. Cecil asks where she is, and Kain says they have to hurry. They run through the doors at the back of the room, to where Rosa was being held captive. Rosa cries for help, and Cecil saves her just as a guillotine falls down on where she just was.

Cecil and Rosa have an emotional ‘reunion’ (quite literally). Kain feels embarrased, and then Rosa notices him, surprised. Cecil says that he’s no longer under Golbez’s control, because Tellah’s Meteo broke Golbez’s influence. Kain says that even though he was under Golbez’s control, he was still aware, and wanted to keep Rosa with him at any costs, and steps away.

Rosa steps toward Kain, and says that they should fight together. Kain says that after all he’s done, he can’t possibly join them. Then, Cecil steps near Kain, and insists that they fight together, and that they need his help more than ever now. Kain thanks Cecil and Rosa.

After all that, the White Mage Rosa Farell and the Dragoon Kain Highwind (re-)join the party. You’ll have control again, but DON’T MOVE YET. You still need to re-equip your party.

Hopefully you took my advice and un-equipped Tellah before he kicked the bucket. Equip Rosa with a stave or the Great Bow in the left hand and any arrows in the right. Give her a Tiara, Wizard Robe, and (if you have it) a Rune Armlet. If you don’t have that, then a Ruby Ring will do. If you did the sidequest earlier and got all the treasure from Eblan Castle, then give Kain the Blood Spear if you want, otherwise leave Kain’s equipment as is for now.

When you’ve outfitted everyone, proceed down the steps. You’ll be interrupted by another of Golbez’s minions again, and this time it’s the Devil of Wind, Valvalis. Valvalis is disappointed in Kain for joining with such weak people, despite all his powers. Kain says that he’s come to his senses, and has grown sick of siding with fiends like her. Valvalis says that she’ll enjoy killing them all, and without Tellah and Meteo, they stand no chance. Kain warns her that fighting in the air is his specialty too, and then she attacks...

------------------
BOSS: Valvalis
HP: 8,636
Experience Points: 9,000
Gil: 5,500
------------------

Yes, you heard me right before, Valvalis is quite female, as you can see. And despite what she said earlier, you stand quite a chance, even without Tellah. And of course, Kain will be very important in this battle. What really helps you out, is at the beginning of the battle have Rosa use a Hermes’ Shoes on herself, and then have someone use a Silk Web on Valvalis. This will slow her down so her attacks aren’t so frequent, and Rosa can heal faster. Have Kain use Jump on every turn. Valvalis turns into her ‘tornado’ form throughout the battle, and all physical attacks will do much less damage when she’s also in this form. The only way to turn her back into her normal form is to have Kain Jump on her. Beware, as she’ll immediately attack one of your characters when she reverts to her normal form. Valvalis also enjoys using Wind (a spell that turns a character’s HP to single digits), and Glare (gradually petrifies a character), and a strong physical attack when in tornado form. Remedy this by having Rosa heal any characters struck by Wind and having someone use a Soft item on anyone hit with Glare. When in her normal form, she just uses a weak physical attack. Have other characters use Hi-Potions when Rosa isn’t available to heal. When you turn Valvalis back to her normal form, immediately have all your melee fighters attack. This may be a very long, tedious fight.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When you defeat Valvalis, she warns you that the last Devil of Elements still remains. But regardless, she warns you that you’ll never leave the tower alive. As she laughs and fades away, the tower begins shaking, and collapsing.

Rosa then tells everyone to hold on to her, as she casts Exit to teleport everyone out of the Tower of Zot. When the group rematerializes, they’re inside Cecil’s room in Castle Baron.

Kain tells Cecil that they still have work to do, regarding the Crystals. Cecil says now that Golbez has Troia’s Earth Crystal, that he has all the Crystals. Kain says that he only has four. The Crystals Golbez has are only the Light Crystals, the Crystals of this world, which is the ‘surface’. There are still four more Dark Crystals that Golbez is trying to obtain. However, even though the group knows that more Crystals exist, they don’t know where to find them. Kain says that the Dark Crystals lie under the surface of the earth, in the underworld. Kain also says that when Golbez collects all the Crystals, he plans on using them to open a path to the moon, for some unknown reason. Kain doesn’t know anything more, but he knows that the key he was in charge of keeping, the Magma (Magma Key) is the key to opening up the underworld. Kain continues, saying that they have to use the key in a certain location to open the way to the underworld.


The group wonders where exactly they’ll have to go to open the path to the underworld, but Cid reassures them that with the Enterprise, they can go everywhere until they find it. Cecil says that they lost the airship when the Tower of Zot collapsed, but luckily Cid equipped the airship with auto-pilot. (Lucky, indeed...) The airship is actually right outside Baron.

With that, the crew decides to rest for the day, to prepare for their journey to the underworld. Cecil is confused as to why Golbez didn’t finish him off in the tower, but ignores it and decides to rest.

When Cecil wakes up, you’ll have control again. It’s now time to use this Magma Key to open the path to the underworld. But where on earth are we supposed to use it at? Well, that’s something that’s going to be told in the next section!

[Zeromus_X]

-------------------------------------------------------
3.7 Agart and the Entrance to the Underworld
-------------------------------------------------------

So, where exactly are we supposed to go? Well, if you did the sidequests earlier, you’ll probably remember Agart. (Section 3.0.1) It’s on an island south of Baron with a large mountain. When you get there, go into the center of town and check out the well. An item menu will pop up, Yep, you guessed it, this is the place where we have to use the Magma Key! Select the Magma Key from the item menu and Cecil will drop it into the well. After it falls down the (incredibly deep) well, and earthquake is triggered.

You’ll see a scene where a giant hole opens up on the mountain on the island of Agart. This hole is the entrance to the underworld. In order to enter it, you must fly the airship over it and land on it, and you’ll go through. Be absolutely certain that you’re ready to go, and are all stocked up on supplies with the best armor. Once you enter, you won’t be able to exit for awhile. When you want to proceed, go through the hole and enter the underworld.

When the airship goes through the hole in the mountain and enters the underworld, all goes well, at first. Then, the crew notices the Red Wings, who have somehow made it to the underworld as well. They also notice strange tanks. It turns out that the Enterprise is caught in the crossfire of the Red Wings and the mysterious tanks!

Cid daringly tries to bust through the line of fire, but the airship becomes greatly damaged, and starts falling apart. The airship goes down, and crashes.

Later on, Rosa wakes up Cecil, who fell unconcious. Cecil gets up and asks if everyone is alright. Cid remarks that the airship has suffered extreme damage.


When you gain control again, you’ll find that you’re in another world map, the underworld. Directly west is a castle. With the airship stranded, it looks like this is the only place to go.

-------------------------------------
3.8 Dwarven Castle (Part One)
-------------------------------------

No doubt you’ll notice something different about this castle. Hence the name, it’s a castle of dwarves. They seem to have some strange greeting, and are ruled by a king named Giott. Inside the main hall, a girl named Luca remarks at how all her dolls are missing. There’s only one piece of treasure you can get for now (all other places in the castle are currently blocked off.) Go to the left at the main hall, and up to an inn and an item store. The pot in this room contains 5,000 Gil. Before you continue, reserve one spot in the back row, and put Yang in the front row. You may take off all of Cid's equipment. Afterwards, just go straight up to the throne room.

When the party enters, they are welcomed by Giott. Cecil and Giott introduce eachother. Cecil says that they are searching for the Dark Crystals, and Giott says that Golbez’s group has been searching for them as well. Kain asks where the Dark Crystals are, and if they’ve been taken. Giott says that two have been taken, leaving two more left. However, Giott also says that the Dark Crystal in the castle is safe; they forced Golbez’s troops away with their tanks. The group remarks at how the tanks were fighting off the airships earlier. Giott says that these ‘air-ships’ are strange things the people of the surface have made. He asks if the group can aid them with their airship, to which Cid replies that he needs to repair the Enterprise first. He says that he needs to return to the surface and gather mythril to coat the airship so it can withstand the extreme heat of the underworld’s lava.

With that, Cid leaves the party.

Cecil asks Giott where the crystal in the castle is hidden. Giott replies that it’s hidden in the safest place, behind his throne.

Suddenly, Yang senses a presence behind the throne, and says something is spying on them. Giott opens the door behind his throne, that leads to the Crystal chamber. The party rushes in, and is suddenly locked inside. It appears that the presence Yang sensed was the bizarre group of dolls that seem to be alive, and have an annoying laugh. (Well now we know where Luca’s dolls have gone...) They claim to be Golbez’s minions, and attack the party.

-------------------------------------------------
BOSS: Cal (3), Brina (3), Calbrina

Cal:
HP: 1,369
Experience Points: 1,000
Gil: 500

Brina:
HP: 369
Experience Points: 1,000
Gil: 500

Calbrina:
HP: 5,315
Experience Points: 12,000
Gil: 5,000
-------------------------------------------------

These ‘Calbrina’ dolls are very irritating. However, they aren’t very tough, so try to exterminate them as quickly as possible. If you don’t finish all of them off in an amount of time, the remaining dolls will merge together to form a more powerful doll: Calbrina. To prevent this from happening, have Rosa cast Berserk on Cecil and Kain (and Yang too, if you want.). As long as there are at least two dolls left, they can merge together (even if it’s two of the same type...), so be quick. However, even if they merge together, be in for a rough fight. The Calbrina doll hits for upwards of 600 damage to a character in the front row. It also has ‘Glance’ which can confuse one of your characters, and casts ‘Hold’ which can paralyze a party member. Rosa should (obviously) be put on healing duty. Thankfully, it’s HP total is rather generous, and if you can keep up the attack it shouldn’t be too long. It is HIGHLY recommended that you take out all the dolls before they can merge together. Although the big Calbrina doll gives a generous Exp. reward, it isn’t worth it, as you’ll see in a moment.

Also, if you take too long destroying the giant Calbrina doll, it separates back into three Cals and Brinas, so it just really isn’t in your best interest to fool around.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After that, the Calbrina aren’t ‘yip-ho-ho’-ing anymore. They warn the group that Golbez knows they’re here, and is going to get them.

And of course, darkness fills the room, and Golbez makes an appearance. He commends the party for making their way to the underworld. Golbez then ‘rewards’ them by telling them what he’ll do when he collects all the crystals.

Golbez plans to collect all the Crystals of Light and Darkness. The Crystals are really keys to reactivating the Tower of Babil, which leads to the moon. Legends say that the moon possesses power beyond comprehension. Golbez says he only needs one more Crystal to achieve his dream. He thanks the party for helping him, and tells them to prepare for his ‘final reward’.

------------------
BOSS: Golbez
HP: ?
Experience Points: 15,000
Gil: 11,000
------------------

This battle is special because it’s a semi-story battle (you do have to win it), and you get to see a long-lost character again! If you fought the big Calbrina in the previous battle, you’ll probably be worn out for this one. Golbez will start by using ‘Hold Gas’ on your party, to immobilize them, all the while taunting the crew. Then he’ll summon a dragon, Shadow, to help him. Shadow will cast a spell called Demolish that instantly kills off all your party members one by one except Cecil. Just when the dragon moves in to kill Cecil, the Mist Dragon appears and decimates Shadow! Golbez is shocked, and then a voice asks if everyone is okay. Cecil is then cured of his paralysis. In case you didn’t guess it yet, yes, that’s right, Rydia is back! Rydia now joins the fray. However, if you’re really weak from the Calbrina battle, and you only have Cecil and Rydia on your team, don’t expect to win. You won’t be able to keep up with Golbez’s high level spells enough to revive and heal your entire party adequately. This is why it is highly recommended to kill the Calbrina dolls as quickly as possible. Nonetheless, with a healthy team, Golbez won’t take too long. Just use a Life to revive at least Rosa, keep up the healing, and try out Rydia’s new awesome summons.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When you win, you’ll see Golbez’s body lying on the ground. The group asks what happened to Rydia. It seems that Leviathan actually took Rydia to the ‘Land of Summons’ in the underworld. Rydia learned a lot there, and her power as a Summoner has increased (as you can see from her dazzling new Mist Dragon, Titan, Shiva, Ramuh, and Ifrit summons), but she can no longer use White Magic. Since time also flows differently in the Land of Summons, Rydia is much older now. (As you can see.)

The group thanks Rydia for saving their lives, but Rydia tells them they don’t need to. She says the Queen of Summons, Asura, told her that a mysterious force is at work, and they must all confront it together.

Then, the Summoner, Rydia re-joins the party.

[Zeromus_X]

-------------------------------------
3.9 Dwarven Castle (Part Two)
-------------------------------------

Unfortunately, it isn’t time to celebrate just yet. Golbez says that he cannot perish. (This can’t be good...) Golbez’s hand floats from his body and snags the Crystal, and then disappears.

Yes, this really sucks.

Cecil apologizes to King Giott, who replies that there’s still one Crystal left to protect. Rosa asks where they can find the remaining Crystal. Giott says that it’s hidden in the Sealed Cave to the southwest, where Golbez is currently heading. However, he can’t enter without the key to the cave. Giott requests that the team head for the Tower of Babil to retrieve the other seven Crystals. Of course, it won’t be easy to enter, as Golbez’s forces will heavily fortify the area. Giott says that the dwarve’s tanks will distract the enemy, while the team enters the tower. The crew must act quickly, before Golbez returns from the Sealed Cave. The team agrees to go to the Tower of Babil, and retrieve the Crystals. Giott says that the exit to the Tower of Babil is at the bottom of the castle, and that they may leave whenever they are ready.

Of course, it definitely isn’t time to leave just yet. It’s been awhile since we’ve gone on a treasure hunt, right? Now, you can access the entire castle.

Go to the right door in the main hall. This leads to a weapon and armor shop. You may buy a FlameSpr (Flame Spear) for Kain if you wish, or maybe two Dwarf (Dwarf Axes) for Cecil and Kain. At the armor shop, purchase Rune Armlets for Yang, Rydia, and Rosa, another Wizard Robe and Hat for Rydia, and Flame equipment (provided you have enough money) for Cecil and Kain.

When you’re done shopping, take the right set of stairs in the weapon and armor shop room. This is the east tower. Open the chest at the top of this room for a Dwarf (Dwarf Axe). Head up the stairs below the chest. You’ll be in a room filled with pots. Check one of the pots on the left side for a Bacchus (Bacchus’ Wine), you’ll have to go ‘behind’ the southwest wall to go around and reach it. Now go up to the next floor, which should be the fifth floor. You’ll be surrounded by four enclosures with chests. It’s time to go through some false walls. However, you’ll notice you’ll the stairs will be surrounded by passages with just one line. Rather than entering and exiting multiple times, you can actually go down ‘behind’ the wall, and around to the other doors. Either way, get the treasure.

From the entrance, head left through wall to open a chest with an Ether1 (Ether 1). Go down to reach a chest with an Elixir. Go right to open a chest with a HrGlass2 (Hourglass 2). Finally, go up to reach a chest with a Strength (Strength Gloves). Equip these on one of your melee fighters.

Now go back down to the floor above the weapon and armor shop to the right (The first floor of the east tower). Go south in this room to reach a door, go outside. Now go all the way to the left of this area (on top of the castle) to reach the west tower, and enter it. Go up the stairs. You’ll be in another room filled with pots. One of the pots near the bottom of the room contains another Bacchus (Bacchus’ Wine). Now go up the stiars.

Now you’ll be in another area with four enclosures with chests. However, this one is a bit different (well, other than the Namingway). The walls are completely shut off; you’ll need to go through some false walls in this one. From the entrance, go left through a wall to a chest with a HiPotion (Hi-Potion). Two steps left from the stairs, you’ll be inside the wall. Go up through the false wall. Go left, up, right, up, right, up, right, down, and you should be to the right of the upper chest. Go left from there to open it and obtain an Elixir. Now, from that wall to the right of the upper chest, go down. Then go right, and down. You should now be to the right of the right chest; near the Namingway. Open the chest to obtain an Ether1 (Ether 1). Now, from that wall, go down. Then go left, down, and right to reach the bottom chest. It contains a BlkBelt (Black Belt), armor for Yang.

That’s all the treasure for the main part of the castle. Before you continue to the secret passage, you may want to check out another secret room. Go to the weapon and armor shop. In between the two counters (behind a column), you can go up through a false wall. You’ll be in a bar (The ‘Rally-ho Pub’ to be exact). You can talk to the dwarf in the pub for him to do some drunken dance, if you want (I find it boring and it takes too long). The real secret here is another false wall. You should notice the cracked tile on the lower right corner of the room. Go right from that tile through a false wall, and go down the stairs. You’ll now be in the famous ‘Developer’s Room’. In here, you can have conversations with the original 1990 Development Team (Sakaguchi is the Chocobo ;)). There are also random encounters with some of the developers. You can win these fights, but it’d take a lot of skill and power, and you really don’t win anything anyway. They’re just there for laughs. Go to the up through the door at the right part of the first room to enter the music room; the composer Uematsu is the Namingway look-a-like in this room.

The other funny thing to do here is to go up the stairs. You’ll be in a bedroom. Besides talking to Tokita (the Black Mage look-a-like) for a funny conversation, check the bookcase for a gag item, the ‘Smut’. Using it will give a humorous reaction from Cecil. You can also win it from some of the developers when you fight them.

That’s all for the developer room. On a side note, you can really tell the translation team didn’t put their all in some of the developers’ speech...

Anyway, go back to the Inn. You may want to take a rest here, if you haven’t already. Go down the stairs in the inn and item shop to go down to the first basement. Check the pots on the right side of the room for three Gysahl (Gysahl Greens). The empty space is of course, a Fat Chocobo. Talk to the dwarf on the left side of the room (near the table) to open up the secret passage. Go up through the wall and left to go down to the second basement. Go through the passage until you see a path to the right. Go through the path to three chests, which contain a Cabin in each. Go back to the main passage, and follow it until you reach another set of stairs going up. Go up them to the Dwarven Base. Go to the right side of this room. The upper right corner hosts a recovery pot. The lower right corner is the stairs leading to the underworld’s world map, but this time, you’ll be on the other side of the mountains near the Dwarven Castle. It’s time to head north to the Tower of Babil. This is the end of the third chapter.

[Zeromus_X]

-----------------------
4.0 Tower of Babil
-----------------------

Getting to the Tower of Babil may be confusing. From the exit of the Dwarven Base, go west, then north until you get to a clearing. Further north will be a group of dwarf tanks, and the tower.

When you first enter the tower, climb up the long set of stairs at the entrance and go up until you see a three-way split, with a door to the north. Take the left path to a chest with Ice (Ice Arrows). Keep going down to the lower left corner to a chest with even more Ice (Ice Arrows). Now go back to the split, and take the right path. Follow it to an Ether1 (Ether 1). It’s below an archway which may look like a wall and confuse you; just go under it. After you gather the treasure continue to the north door to the second floor.

Right when you enter the second floor, proceed left to a chest containing a Bandanna. Continue down, and follow the path until you see a door. Inside is a room with a chest, which is a monster-in-a-box with a strange enemy dubbed ‘Alert’. Attacking it causes it to call on security and alert another monster to join the fray. Luckily the Alert monster is pretty weak to physical attacks, so it won’t take much to take it down. You’ll get an IceSpear (Ice Spear, for Kain) for winning. Afterwards, exit the little room. Continue to the right, you’ll notice another door above you, to the right. Go inside for another chest, another monster-in-a-box with an Alarm monster. You’ll get an IceBrand (Ice Brand, for Cecil) for winning. Now exit that room, and continue up to the door to the third floor.

Again, at the entrance of this floor, go left from the entrance for a chest. In this case, it contains a CatClaw (Cat Claw, for Yang). Now head to the right of the entrance. You’ll notice three paths, again. The path leading down reveals a door and a chest (which contains a Life). The door leads to an enclosure on the fourth floor with a two chests. The chest on the left side contains an Archer (Archer’s Bow?). The chest on the right contains a Notus. Now go back to the split to the right of the door from the second floor. Go up this time, and go into the corner for a chest with a Hi-Potion. Then go back up to the top of the room, and go left and follow the path to the door leading to the fourth floor.

When you enter the fourth floor, head left from the entrance to a door leading to yet another small room, which is a Save Point. Rest and save here. Then, exit the Save Point and go north, until you see a bridge going right. Go across it to the other side. You should see another bridge going left above you, a door to your right, and a path leading down to two more doors. Go down to those two doors. The door to the left is another small room with a monster-in-a-box containing an Alert monster. You’ll get an IceShld (Ice Shield) for this one. The right room is an empty room.

Now, go back up to the door to the right of the long bridge you just crossed. It’s another room with an Alert in a treasure chest. IceArmor (Ice Armor) is the prize this time. Now exit this small room, and go left across the upper bridge. At the end is the door to the fifth floor.

When you enter the fifth floor, you’ll notice a chest to the right of you, across a chasm. To reach it, go down from the entrance, then right and up some stairs, it contains a Boreas. Now go back down, and right to continue. You’ll see a big set of stairs leading up in the center of the room; ignore them for now. Continue to the right side of the room. Stairs leading down to the lower-right corner of the room lead to a chest containing a HiPotion (Hi-Potion). The door to the sixth floor is in the upper-right corner.

As you enter the sixth floor, you’ll be in and enclosure. Just go left to the door to the seventh floor; there’s no way to explore the outside part of this floor at the moment.

Whew! Almost there! Once in the seventh floor, you’ll notice another separate area to the left, which you can’t reach by a wall. Same deal as the sixth floor. Just head right from the entrance to a door, inside is a Save Point. Rest and save, you know the drill. Now head back to the entrance to the seventh floor, and head down. Follow the path until you see a chest to your left and another path to your right, leading up. Open the chest for an Ether2 (Ether 2). Then take the path to your right, to the eight floor.

On the eight floor, just follow the path until you see a set of stairs going up. Go up them, and a scene will ensue. A doctor is saying goodbye to a being called Rubicant, who mentions that the nation of Eblan and it’s ninja have been decimated...he tells the doctor to take care of things while he is gone. He then teleports away using a strange device.

Then, the doctor (with his Kefka-esque laugh...) starts prancing around, celebrating now that both his bosses, Golbez and Rubicant are gone. The party listens in on him, and then Rydia makes a wisecrack, revealing the party’s presence. The doctor then realizes the party is there, and is surprised that Cecil made it up the tower. Kain remarks at how the doctor was caught at a bad time, and mocks him. The doctor (revealing himself to be Doctor Lugae) says that although he may not be one of Golbez’s four fiends, he is still the brains behind the operation, and promises to protect the tower. Kain makes another remark, saying he isn’t impressed. Doctor Lugae is fed up, and sics his ‘great creation’ on the crew.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
BOSS: Dr. Lugae, Balnab, Balnab-Z (Balnab Zombie?), Lugaborg (Lugae Cyborg)

Dr. Lugae:
HP: 4,936
Experience Points: 5,500
Gil: 2,000

Balnab:
HP: 4,832
Experience Points: 5,500
Gil: 2,500

Balnab-Z:
HP: 4,518
Experience Points: 20
Gil: 2,500

Lugaborg (Lugae Cyborg):
HP: 9,321
Experience Points: 10,101
Gil: 4,000
----------------------------------------------------------------------

If there’s one thing we know for sure about Final Fantasy IV, the bosses of giant mechanical towers are very interesting indeed. This is an interesting fight because the fight can change depending on which one you decide to kill first. If you kill Lugae first, Balbab will self-destruct (and outright kill a member of your party). If you kill Balnab first, Lugae will repair him to create ‘Balnab-Z’. But before any of that, Lugae will order his creation to attack at the beginning of the battle, and it’ll humorously attack its creator. Whichever way you want to fight, it isn’t a tough battle. Rydia should summon Ramuh or Titan, Kain should Jump on who you want to focus on, Yang can use ‘Power’ on the target, Rosa should be put on healing duty, and Cecil should just attack. It won’t take long. After you win that battle, Doctor Lugae starts getting serious. He’ll turn into his true form, a strange cyborg, dubbed ‘Lugaborg’. If Balnab self-destructed, revive the person who died in the last battle. Lugaborg’s main attack is a ‘Beam’ attack, which seems to do random damage to the target. He also uses ‘Emission’, a very weak fire-based attack, and ‘Gas’, which puts one of your characters to sleep. Just use the same tactics as the last battle, and Lugaborg should go down with haste. One thing to note, is that Lugaborg will use a ‘Poison’ attack to poison all your characters. Don’t bother with trying to cure all of your party members; surprisingly the doctor will heal your party’s status ailments throughout the battle (can’t really complain, eh?).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After the battle, you’ll receive a ‘TowerKey’ (Tower Key). The doctor tells the party that they are too late. The Tower of Babil connects the underworld and overworld, and Rubicant has taken all the Crystals to the surface. He then exclaims that his cannons will blow the dwarf fleet away, and then promptly explodes (well, that’s what it looks like!). The party then decides that they have to hurry to the cannons, and stop them before the dwarves are hurt.

[Zeromus_X]

--------------------------------------
4.1 Tower of Babil (Part Two)
--------------------------------------

So, where are these ‘super cannons’? Remember that long flight of stairs on the fifth floor? With the Tower Key, you can unlock the door at the top that was inaccessible before (and why I said to ignore it). That door leads to the Tower of Babil’s cannons. Go back to it, and before you do anything, it would be a good idea to un-equip Yang. Just saying...

Check the door, and an item menu will pop up. Select the Tower Key, and you’ll unlock the door. Go through it, and the team confronts the monsters arming the cannons. You’ll have to fight three Dark Imps, which don’t really need a big text box to tell you how to kill them. After the imps are defeated, they destroy the cannons controls, and then die. Yang then steps away from the party, saying that he’ll take care of the cannons. The party tries stopping him, but he knocks them all back down the steps. Yang thanks Cecil and everyone, and says to tell his wife that he loves her, and then says goodbye. The cannon room then explodes.

And that’s why you had to de-equip Yang! When you get out of here, it would be a good idea to sell all his stuff; it isn’t like anyone else is going to equip it anytime soon (I know, I’m a heartless fiend :)).

Exit the tower; yes, you’ll have to walk all the way down as neither Exit or Warp will have any effect. When you get all the way back to the huge set of stairs on the first floor entrance, you’ll hear Golbez’s voice again! Yeah, he’s a great guy. He says that Cecil never ceases to amaze him, and then destroys the stairs. The team falls (from a great height? This doesn’t make sense to me, no matter how many times I play the game...), and Cid catches the team at the last second with his mythriled-up airship. Cid asks the team where Yang is, and Cecil explains how he sacrificed himself to save the dwarves. Cid also asks who Rydia is, and Cecil explains how she’s a Summoner of Mist. Suddenly, one of the Red Wings catches up to the Enterprise, in hot pursuit. Cid tries getting away, but it seems the Red Wings have been extremely upgraded.

The chase continues across the underworld, until the Enterprise’s engine can take no longer. Cid tells Cecil to take the wheel. Cid then tells Cecil to fly up to the surface, and says that he’ll seal the entrance to the underworld with a bomb. He tells them to go back to Baron and talk to his men. The crew tries telling Cid not to do it, but I think you understand the martyr agenda by now. Cid then leaps off the airship, detonating the bombs he had attached to himself.

The Enterprise then makes it back up to the overworld, as the explosion seals the entrance to the underworld once more. The crew mourns the losses of Yang and Cid, but Cecil pulls the group together, saying they must hurry to Baron.

You now have control of the Enterprise again, and you’re back up in the overworld. Our next destination is Baron.

------------------------
4.2 Pitstop at Baron
------------------------

Land back at Baron. It would be a good idea to sell all unecessary equipment (including Yang’s) or make a deposit at the Fat Chocobo ‘bank’. When you’re ready to continue, enter Castle Baron.

Have a chat with some of the soldiers for some interesting info. It seems that people have heard the voice of the late King Baron from below the castle...something we’ll have to check into later. But for now, we have some business to attend to.

From the main hall (where you fought Baigan, the cell with three treasure chests, etc.), take the stairs to the right. Go through the next set of stairs down, until you see a switch in the wall. Check it to open up a door, go up through it, and right through a false wall. Go down to reach six treasure chests. From top to bottom, left to right, they contain: Ether1 (Ether 1), Ether1 (Ether 1), Unihorn (Unicorn Horn), Unihorn (Unicorn Horn), Life, and Life. Now go back to the switch, and continue down.

When you go outside again, you should see two red-haired guys. These are Cid’s students. Talk to one of them for them to start attaching a hook to the Enterprise. They say that Cid ordered them to attach it, so that the airship could carry the Hovercraft (didn’t forget the Hovercraft, did you?). Just fly directly over the Hovercraft and press OKAY to pick it up. Press OKAY again to unload the Hovercraft. You can now go pretty much anywhere, including the Cave of Eblan on the Eblan continent.

Cecil says that there’s something he has to tell them about Cid, but his students interrupt Cecil and say that they know he’s impossible to deal with and to please babysit him for a little longer (hah!).

Well, after that’s taken care of, you’ll be back outside Baron on the Enterprise. Go back to Mt. Hobs (or wherever you last left the Hovercraft), and pick it up with the Enterprise. When you have it loaded up, go back to the Eblan continent. In case you didn’t pick it up from what Dr. Lugae mentioned, the Tower of Babil is actually that huge tower that you see on the Eblan continent. It’s so huge, it extends from the underworld to above the overworld (gotta love Final Fantasy). Unload the Hovercraft, and land on the Eblan continent. If you haven’t gotten all the treasure from the abandoned Eblan Castle, you should be strong enough to do so without problems now. For information on that sidequest, jump to section 3.0.4.

To continue, get into the Hovercraft and go across the shallow rocks by the coast nearby Eblan Castle, and follow them until you reach a previously inaccessible cave. Enter the Cave of Eblan.

[Zeromus_X]

------------------
4.3 Eblan Cave
------------------

Right from the entrance, head right through a false wall, into the noticeable enclosure. Open the chest inside for a Shuriken. Right below the chest with a Shuriken, go right through another false wall. Open the chest in this enclosure for a Remedy. Go back left through the false wall, back to the first enclosure. Go down the steps and into the water. Go to the lower right corner of the enclosure and go right through a false wall. Follow the path in the water down until you see a set of stairs going up. Go up them, and follow the ledge along the wall until you reach a bridge going left. Go south from that bridge to a chest with a Vampire. Now go across the bridge. Ignore the steps going up; just go across the bridge at the lower part of this platform. Then keep going left until you reach the stairs going down to the next floor.

The second basement appears to be a shelter for the people of Eblan. There are no random encounters on this level. Talk to some of the guards; apparently with their castle destroyed, this hideaway is all that’s left of the proud people of Eblan.

The rightmost door is an inn and item shop. The door next to that is a weapon and armor store. Buy a Black (Black Robe) for Rydia, and an Ice Shield and Ice Armor for Kain or Cecil (whichever isn’t wearing the ice equipment you’ve already obtained). You may also buy a Power (Power Staff) for Rosa, if you wish. The door on the leftmost side of the room is the infirmary, the Namingway is located here, and you can get more information from the NPCs. It seems the Prince of Eblan has left to try and scout the enemy, and avenge his parents. Check the pots at the left and right sides of the infirmary for two Potions; although those are outdated by now.

When you’re ready to continue, head up the stairs at the upper part of the second level. It seems that this cave is also a passage to the upper part (the overworld’s part) of the Tower of Babil. When you first enter the Pass to Babil, immediately open the chest right near the entrance for an Ether1 (Ether 1). You’ll see more chests that are out of reach because of some boulders, but don’t worry about those right now. Instead follow the path on the left side of the room until you come across a guard laying on the ground, and a chest containing a Tent. You’ll see the stairs to the next area; but don’t go through them just yet. Right to the left and one space below the wounded soldier is a gap in the wall. Go down through it, yet another of these fascinating false walls. Then go right, and collect the previously out-of-reach treasure, a HiPotion (Hi-Potion). Now continue up the stairs to the next area.

In this area, go up from the entrance until you see another fallen guard. Ignore the upper-left area of this room, and go to the upper right area up the steps to a chest with a Kamikaze. Once again, there is another out-of-reach chest that we’ll get to later. Ignore it, and keep going down until you see a fallen guard and stairs below you, and an enclosure to your right (with a torch). Go right through a false wall, across from the torch, and open up the chest with a Shuriken. Now go down the stairs below you, the fallen guard near them says that the prince went after Rubicant.

You’ll now be back at a section of ‘Pass to Babil’ area you couldn’t reach before. Right when you enter there are three chests. The left chest contains a HiPotion (Hi-Potion), and the right chests contain a Cabin and another HiPotion (Hi-Potion). To the right of the space above the rock one space above the two chests on the right is a false wall. Go right through it, then down, right, down, and right again to reach two enclosed chests. Both chests contain Elixirs. Now from the stairs, keep going down until you reach a fallen guard who warns that when the prince gets mad, you can’t stop him (makes you wonder what kind of guy this prince is anyway...). Go to the right, and then down, until you reach a two-way split. To the left is a chest with a Silk Web. The right leads to three more chests, which from left to right contain: HrGlass2 (Hourglass 2), Life, and Life. From those three chests, continue up until you reach another set of stairs. Go up them.

Now you’ll be back in the section of the second ‘Pass to Babil’ area you couldn’t reach before. Whee. Right near the entrance is a door, a Save Point. It’d be a good idea to rest and save here. Also, the wall right of the space above the rocks on the right side of the room is a false wall. Go right through it, down, and right, to reach a monster-in-a-box. Two Stalemen monsters will attack. With Kain and Cecil’s ice weapons, they won’t last long. You’ll get a BloodSwd (Blood Sword) for winning. When you’ve done everything, exit the Save Point.

After you exit, go to the left part of this area. You’ll see the chest near the torch; you’re now on the other side of those boulders. Go up to a chest with a Soft. Now, go up the path to the left of the door to the Save Point. Follow it, and you’ll encounter the Prince of Eblan, Edward ‘Edge’ Geralding, who’s confronting the fiend of fire, Rubicant. Edge announces that he’ll kill Rubicant, but Rubicant acts nonchalant.

-------------------
BOSS: Rubicant
-------------------

Another story battle! Watch as Edge gets his behind handed to him on a silver platter. Edge attacks Rubicant with a Flame technique, but Rubicant shrugs it off. Calling Edge’s technique poor, he responds with a fire attack of his own, ‘Scorch’, and promptly toasts Edge.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Edge falls, and Rubicant says he looks forward to when they’ll meet again (what a gentleman...), and then teleports away. Edge yells at him to come back, but is out of strength, and falls over.

Cecil and company rush over towards him. Cecil asks him if he’s alright. Edge curses over losing, and asks who the crew are and what they’re doing here. Rydia explains that they’re after Rubicant too, but Edge tells them to stay out of it, and that Rubicant is his to defeat. Kain remarks that he obviously doesn’t know who he’s dealing with, the most powerful of the four Elemental Fiends. Edge retorts, saying that he’s the Prince of Eblan, famed for it’s Ninjutsu for generations, and says he can take care of himself. Then, Rydia yells at him to stop it. She mentions Tellah, Yang, and Cid are all gone, and doesn’t want to see any more people die, and starts crying. The crew tries comforting her.

Cecil says that Rubicant is the strongest Elemental Fiend. Although the odds are against them, they must recover the Crystals. Edge decides he’ll join up with them, and that he “can’t bear to see a pretty girl cry”. Rosa then casts Cure on Edge, and heals him.

Edge rejoices over having ‘two babes’ in the party, and exclaims that it’s time to bust in and attack. Rydia feels relunctant over having such an...’emotional’ fellow in the party. The Ninja Prince Edward ‘Edge’ Geraldine now joins the party.

Immediately after all that, examine the wall to your left. You’ll notice part of the shadow is missing, the sign of a false wall. Go left through the shadow-less spot of the wall to your left, through a false wall, and open the chest that you couldn’t reach before. It contains an Ether2 (Ether 2). Now go up through the stairs to the north, and enter the Tower of Babil again, this time from outside the walls.

[Zeromus_X]

---------------------------------------
4.4 Return to the Tower of Babil
---------------------------------------

Let’s review our newest party member. Edge is ambidextrous; he can equip a weapon in both hands. He can also use some basic Elemental attacks with ‘Ninjutsu’, and use ‘Throw’ to dart unused weapons at the enemy, for decent damage. You can even buy cheap weapons you don’t use anymore just for the sake of throwing them for some extra damage. There are also certain items that are solely for the purpose of using Throw with them, such as the Shuriken you found in the Eblan Cave. And finally, using ‘Steal’, Edge will attempt to steal an item from an enemy. Usually he’ll miss at lower levels, but you can steal the same item over and over again, and theoretically steal any amount of it that you want. However, without a high Agility stat, Edge won’t succeed very often in his pickpocketing attempts.

From the entrance, keep going up the stairs. You’ll eventually be stopped by a wall that prevents access to inside the tower, but Edge will work some of his Ninjutsu and pull the party right through the wall.

Right after he does that, you’ll have control again. Just in case, you actually can go right through the wall to exit the tower by going up next to it and pressing OKAY. Edge will pull you through again. Anyway, grab the chest up near you for a Unihorn (Unicorn Horn). After that, follow the linear path until you’re near the door to the next level. Ignore it, and go to the right and up for a chest with a HrGlass2 (Hourglass 2). Now go through the door.

On this next area, go right and up from the entrance, and follow the path along the ledge until you see steps below you and another ledge to your left. Go down the long steps to a monster-in-a-box with four Mad Ogres. These are quite tough. Go all out with Rydia’s summons (except Titan), attacks from Cecil, Kain, and Edge, and Rosa healing the party of course. It wouldn’t be a bad idea to have Rosa cast Berserk on one of the fighters. For winning, you’ll receive an Ogre (Ogre Axe). It does exceptional damage against Ogre enemies, so those Mad Ogres in this area can be offed in one hit. Now head back up the long steps, and take the left path. Follow it until you reach the door to the next area, and go through it.

On this area, follow the path from the entrance until you reach the next door. Don’t head through it yet. Instead go to the right, to another chest containing a Succubus. Now go through the door.

The next level is the outside section you couldn’t reach before in the tower. From the entrance, head right, and follow the path (notice that enclosure?), picking up the Ashura (a katana for Edge) on the way. Then enter the door to the next level.

On this floor, head right from the entrance. Follow the linear path, ignoring that glowing orb, it’s just for show. On the right side of this floor you’ll see two doors. The left door is a Save Point, resting and saving would be very ideal. Exit the Save Point, and go through the right door to the next floor.

This next floor is just an enclosure. Go through the door on the left to the next floor.

Right when you enter this floor, you’ll see two bridges going down as you enter. Go down the left one; the right one is a dead end. Once you go down, follow the path until you see a bridge going up to a door, which leads to the next area. Ignore it, and keep going left until you see three more bridges going up. Go up the middle one to a chest containing a whopping 82,000 Gil. Now go through the door, or try to...

[Zeromus_X]

((Continued from previous post))

You’ll be stopped by Edge’s parents. The King of Eblan calls out Edge’s name, and he is shocked to see them. Edge is surprised that they are alive, and they say that they must go, and want him to come with them. Edge asks where they are going, and they say that they must all go to hell. The party rushes in to help Edge.

------------------------------------------------------------------
BOSS: K. Eblan (King Eblan), Q. Eblan (Queen Eblan)

K. Eblan (King Eblan):
HP:60,000
Experience and Gil: 0

Q. Eblan (Queen Eblan):
HP: 60,000
Experience and Gil: 0
-------------------------------------------------------------------

It seems that Edge’s parents have both been turned into monsters! Well, somehow...Just keep attacking them, and Edge will try talking to his parents. Their fire-based attacks aren’t anything to worry about, you won’t even need to heal. Eventually, Edge’s parents will snap out of it, and apologize to Edge. They’ll say they are no longer human, and don’t belong in this world. They tell Edge that they must go, and tell him Eblan is in good hands. They encourage him to be good to his people. Telling him they love him, they disappear.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After that, Edge grieves, and the party is silent. However, there isn’t much time for remembrance, as the fiend of fire, Rubicant, teleports into the room. Edge curses at Rubicant, but Rubicant apologizes to Edge for his loss, saying that Dr. Lugae turned his parents into monsters. Rubicant says he only desires to fight fair. Edge gets even angrier, and Rubicant says he admires his spirit. But he warns that anger never bears true strength, and only blinds him. Edge tells him to shut up, and that he’ll show him the power of anger. Then, a message will pop up saying that Edge’s dormant powers have been awakened. Edge will then learn the Ninjutsu ‘Flood’ and ‘Blitz’.

Rubicant says that although it is interesting, nothing can penetrate his cloak of fire, even ice. The party then regroups, and you’ll have control again. You can go back to the Save Point now if you wish, but it isn’t necessary. Talk to Rubicant to continue. He’ll recover your party’s HP and MP (to ‘fight fair’, what a nice guy), and then your party will engage him.

---------------------
BOSS: Rubicant

HP: 34,000
Experience Points: 18,000
Gil: 7,000
-------------------------------

Yet another interesting fight, last of the four fiends aside. When Rubicant’s cloak is up, he absorbs all elemental attacks. (i.e., ice and fire based attacks will heal him, instead of hurt). He’ll also ‘heal’ himself with his own elemental attacks when his cloak is up. Have Kain Jump and have Cecil attack him for very good damage. With the ice weapons, Cecil and Kain should do good chunks of damage regardless. Edge should use Flood when Rubicant’s cloak is down, or simply attack when it is up. I just use him to use Lifes when one of my party members are hit with Scorch, however. Rydia should use Ice 2 when his cloak is down and Bio or Titan when it is up (or you could just use Bio or Titan regardless). Rosa should be healing of course. Rubicant’s two main attacks are Fire 2 to all party members (very, very weak, 50~ 100 damage), a double physical attack (he attacks twice), and Scorch, which is very powerful and can do upwards of 1~2,000 damage to a party member. Luckily, he doesn’t use this all the time. Immediately have Rosa revive and/or heal any party members hit by Scorch. Especially Cecil and Kain as they are your primary damage dealers. Although Rubicant is the last of the four devils, and has the most HP, he isn’t necessarily tough at all. Just keep up the attack, and restore as needed, and it’ll be over pretty quick. Just don’t mess up and accidently heal Rubicant with an elemental attack when his cape is up.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rubicant is impressed by the crew’s teamwork, praising them for being ‘five working as one’. He warns them that they will still never defeat his master, Golbez. He says farewell to the crew, and bursts into flames. Edge tells his parents that they can now rest in peace.

Just then, men from Eblan come rushing in to the room. Edge is surprised at the Chancellor of Eblan and other soldiers suddenly appearing. It seems they had wanted to assist Edge in fighting Rubicant, but well, it’s a bit too late now. Edge says that Cecil and the crew had helped him out. He then asks them who Golbez is. Kain tells him that he plans to gather all eight of the world’s crystals to somehow reach the moon. Edge asks them why, Kain replies that they don’t know other than that some great power resides there. Edge remarks that he must be the mastermind behind all this, and decides to continue on with the crew. The chancellor says that Eblan needs Edge, but Edge replies that that can wait, and they need to stop Golbez before it’s all too late. The chancellor gives up trying to persuade Edge, and tells the party to take care of him. The men from Eblan wish good fortune for Edge, and then rush out of the tower (makes you wonder how they made it past all the baddies...must be a powerful team, eh? :p) Edge is all pumped up to face Golbez, and Rydia says that they still need to rescue the crystals.

What a remarkable idea! Continue up to the door Rubicant was guarding, and go through it. However, as the party tries entering the crystal chamber, they fall through a trap door.

Yay for deus ex machina! Better get used to it!

The party falls all the way down to the underworld floors again. Once you land, the party remarks at what a nasty drop it was. Right when you gain control again, head straight up to a chest with a HiPotion (Hi-Potion). Then head down to the door to the next area.

In this next area, just follow the path to another door. Go through it, and then follow the path (that enclosure on the right look familiar? ;)), and then when you see an open area to your right with some stairs, climb the stairs to a chest with a HiPotion (Hi-Potion). Then continue to the lower left corner of the open area, and follow the path to the door to the next floor.

As you enter the next floor, the group is astonished. It seems that this is a dock for an enemy airship. Edge says they should steal it to bust out of here. Rydia exclaims that that would be stealing. Edge says ‘who cares’, and jumps on board. Rosa says that it might be a trap. Edge is impressed with the airship, and decides to dub it ‘Falcon’, and asks Rydia what she thinks, to which she says ‘whatever’. Cecil says they have to get going, and Edge takes the wheel.

The airship, ‘Falcon’ then takes off. You’ll now be cruising around in the underworld. Unfortunately, the Falcon cannot go over the lava that is common in the underworld, restricting you to the one giant land mass where the Dwarf Castle and Tower of Babil are. There’s nothing to do in the Tower of Babil of course, since you’re in the underworld section, so the only place to go is the Dwarf Castle.

[Zeromus_X]

-------------------------------------
4.5 Return to the Dwarf Castle
-------------------------------------

Enter the castle and go up to the throne room. Cecil will have a conversation with King Giott. Giott will ask if Cecil recovered the crystals, and Cecil will apologize for not being able to retrieve them.

Giott says that Golbez is very persistent, and is trying to open up the Sealed Cave (remember? Where the last crystal is kept). He says it is only a matter of time before Golbez succeeds, and tells the crew that they must get the Crystal before Golbez does. He then calls his daughter, Luca, over to him. Giott then takes Luca’s necklace, which turns out to be the only key to the Sealed Cave. You’ll then have control again, go talk to Giott and he’ll entrust you with the Necklace. The team now has to go to the Sealed Cave to the southwest, and retrieve the final Crystal.

Of course, there is still one problem. The Falcon still can’t go over lava. And the only person in the world skilled enough to upgrade the airship is Cid, who of course sacrificed himself earlier on to aid in the party’s escape.

Well, what if I told you he really isn’t dead? Would that be surprising? Go to the first basement of the castle (where a Fat Chocobo is available, the entrance to the secret passage), and go to the door on the left side of the room. This is the infirmary. And sure enough, Cid is sleeping in the middle bed on the top. As you approach the beds, the team splits up and crowds around Cid. The party is pretty surprised (I mean, he did blow himself up, seriously), and after a humorous reunion, Cid asks Cecil what Golbez is up to. Cecil informs him that only one Crystal is left remaining. Rosa says that they can’t go after the last Crystal, as they left the Enterprise on the surface. Kain says that they took an enemy airship, but it isn’t capable of flying over magma. Cid then says that they’re all hopeless without him, and then hops out of bed, regardless of what the nurses say. He then hopse to sprucing up the Falcon, with the help of Edge and some dwarves.

After the Falcon is upgraded, Cid retires back to bed. He says that they can now fly over anything. Then, Cid falls asleep, exhausted. The crew thanks Cid for all his help, and then you’ll have control again.

With the Falcon fully upgraded, you can now truly ‘take to the skies’ underground. You can now fly over all magma in the underworld. This opens up more places than just the Sealed Cave in the underworld, a few of which are mentioned by the dwarves in the throne room of the Dwarf Castle.

[Zeromus_X]

---------------------------------------------
4.6 But Before We Do That, Again...
---------------------------------------------
Much like the first time you got the airship, you are now free to explore before moving on with the plot. There are quite a few places to go to. You can skip these sections and jump to section 4.7 to go through the Sealed Cave.

---------------
4.6.1 Tomra
---------------

Tomra is the town south of the Dwarf Castle (the cave you pass on the way here is the Sealed Cave, which we’ll get to later). Another town of dwarves, they are separated from the other dwarves in the underworld because of the lava, and are surprised at people from the overworld visiting. They even have a different greeting, ‘lal-ho’ instead of ‘rally-ho’. The equipment here is superb, and worth a buy. You may not have enough money, so if you really want to splurge, Gil-farming is in order. You don’t have to buy all the stuff I tell you to (not the more expensive stuff, anyway), but the extra protection is sure nice.

In the armor shop, buy a Tiara for Rosa or Rydia (whoever isn’t wearing the one you already obtained earlier, or buy two if you don’t have that one), three Golds (Gold Rings) for Rydia, Rosa, and Edge (to replace those outdated Rune Armlets), and two Diamond (Diamond Gauntlets) for Cecil and Kain. You can buy Diamond Shields, Helmets, and Armor for Cecil and Kain, but it’s really expensive and only offers 1 more point of defense than the Ice equipment they already have.

In the weapon shop, buy a Chain (Chain Whip) for Rydia, and another Ashura for Edge, to replace his leftover Kunai. All the other selections are things you should already have found or things you could previously buy, but you can stock up on Mute Arrows for Rosa if you really want.

The item shop contains all the status-ailment curative medicines for sale, so you should stock up on at least 20 of each. Stock up on Lives and Hi-Potions, as well. You can also buy a few Cabins or Tents.

Now, for the greedy scumbag in all of us. The house in the upper left corner of town is a treasure trove. Ironically, one of the dwarves inside will say ‘weapons for sale’. On the left side of the room, from top to bottom, the chests contain: Bomb, ThorRage (Thor’s Rage), and the pot contains a Notus. On the right side of the room, from top to bottom: the pot contains a Bestiary, and the chests contain an Ether2 (Ether 2), and 2,000 Gil.

That’s it for now. Now to our next destination.

----------------------------
3.6.2 Kokkol’s Smithy
----------------------------


Kokkol’s Smithy is tucked away in the southeastern corner of the underworld. Inside you’ll find a smithy named Kokkol (bet you couldn’t have guessed that!), and his assistants. Apparently Kokkol is in a bit of a slump, and hasn’t created any remarkable weapons lately, and just sleeps all the time. What a shame.

Check the pots in the first floor. In no order, you’ll find a Remedy in a pot on the lower part of the room, and a HiPotion (Hi-Potion) in a pot in the upper part of the house.

Take the stairs to the next floor. You’ll find Kokkol sleeping in this room. He says his smithing days are over, and that he could never find the legendary ore, Adamant. I guess that’s rough, but I don’t get upset because I don’t have a million dollars, and sleep all the time, do I? Check the shelf in his room for a SomaDrop (Soma Drop). This increases a character’s maximum MP by 10.

Anyway, keep this place in mind for later, it’s time to move on.

[Zeromus_X]

-----------------------------
3.6.3 Cave of Summons
-----------------------------

The Cave of Summons is located on an island northwest of Tomra and the Sealed Cave. First of all, do not even dare to attempt this cave until Rosa is at level 36 and has learned Float and Wall. Without these, it will be rather pointless to go through this cavern. It would be possible, but very tedious. Like the Eblan Castle, you may not want to do this until a later point in the story when your characters are stronger. But, doing this earlier will prove beneficial in the long run.

As you enter the cave, Rydia will speak, saying that she passed through this cave when she left the Land of Summons. She says they should ask the King of Summons, Leviatan (Leviathan) for help. How wonderful that she’s able to get through this entire cave alone. She must have ran a lot, I’d guess.

Right near the entrance, you’ll see four glowing floor panels. When stepped on, these panels will damage any and all characters in your party that don’t have the Float status. This is why Rosa having Float is such a necessity. Have her cast Float on the entire party on the menu screen (it can multi-target), and re-apply it on every level, as the effect vanishes once you enter a new area. Not only will you be undamaged by the glowing floor panels, but you will be immune to earth elemental attacks, which some of the more powerful monsters in the cave (like Arachnes) are fond of using. Of course, you could always run from every battle if you feel you aren’t up to snuff.

That being said, let’s begin. At the entrance, cast Float on the party of course. Go down, and from the first split, head right to a chest with a HiPotion (Hi-Potion). Continue up from that chest to the upper right corner of the room to a chest with a Life. On the left side of the section with the chest containing a Life, go left through a clearly visible false wall (how nice of them to illuminate them within this cave). At the other side is a chest with and Ether1 (Ether 1). The stairs leading to the next level are in the lower left corner of the room.

On the second level, from the entrance, follow the path to the right until you see a path leading up and a path leading to the corner with a chest. Open that chest to obtain a HiPotion (Hi-Potion). Now continue up the northern path, until you reach a split with a path leading right and a path leading left. Follow the path leading left to a chest with a Cabin. Then take the right path and go down the stairs to the next area.

In the third area, you should notice that the different sections of this area of the cave are divided by little squares with paths leading to other squares (if that makes sense). From the entrance, go to the square left, down, right, and down from the stairs. Open up the chest to receive a Life. You should see a square to your left with three chests. To enter it, go to the square to the left and down from the stairs. Then from that square, head left through a false wall. Then go down, and right when you are to the left of a square with three treasure chests. They contain, from left to right: a HiPotion (Hi-Potion), a VenomAxe (Venom Axe) for Cecil or Kain, and a Kikuichi for Edge. Then re-enter the false wall to the left of this square. Continue down, then right, then up, and when you see a square with another chest in it on the right side of this area, go left out of the false wall and open it up for a Bestiary. Re-enter the false wall, and continue up until you can’t go up anymore, and can go left outside of it. From that square, go to the square one square up and left of it for a chest that is a monster-in-a-box with five Warriors inside. Two shots of Titan and some normal attacks from your melee fighters should do them in quick. Remember to keep your party refreshed with Rosa’s Cure 3. Afterwards, you’ll receive the Defense (Defense Sword), which is an excellent blade for Cecil which will also increase his defense as well as his offense.

The center of this area hosts a teleportation pad that’ll lead to the Town of Summoned Beasts. It’s time to meet with the King of Summons, Leviathan.

[Zeromus_X]

------------------------------
3.6.4 Town of Summons
------------------------------

When you enter the Town of Summons, many of the friendly monsters there will greet Rydia, and welcome her and her friends.

Right from the entrance where you teleported from the Cave of Summons, go left to reach a chest with an Ether1 (Ether 1). Then, from the teleportation pad, go south down the steps and right to reach a chest with 6,000 Gil.

Then, step one space right above that chest, and go straight up. You’ll go through a secret teleporter to a hidden area with some treasure chests, which boast some impressive items. From top to bottom, left to right, the contents of the hidden chests are as follows: Yoichi (Yoichi Bow), Ether2 (Ether 2), Yoichi (Yoichi Arrows), and an Elixir. Now teleport back to near the chest that had 6,000 Gil.

From that chest with 6,000 Gil, head right and up the steps to a chest with 5,000 Gil. Now go back to that chest that had an Ether 1. Up the steps to the left of it is a chest with a Bestiary. Continue right to the teleportation pad to the next area.

However, before you start exploring the area, stop. Immediately go back through the teleportation pad to the previous area, but DON’T MOVE. You’re about to obtain one of the most important items in the entire game. You should be standing directly on the first town area’s pad that leads to the second area. Step down. You should see the chest nearby. Go down and right to open the chest that contains a Rat Tail.

Of course, you’re probably wondering why a Rat’s Tail is one of the most important items in the game. For now, it doesn’t have a use, but it WILL come in handy later. For now, just hold onto it.

Now go to the second area of the town, you should see an item shop above you with an exceedingly hyperactive Chocobo. An inn is inside the item shop, along with goods you can restock on.

In the armor shop, purchase two Aegises (Aegis Shields) for Cecil and Kain, and two Sorcerers (Sorcerer Robes) for Rosa and Rydia. In the weapon shop, purchase a Kotetsu for Edge (one arm should wield the Kikuichi you recently obtained), one Lunar (Lunar Staff) for Rosa, and a FairyRod (Fairy Rod) for Rydia.

The house west of the inn/item shop features a save point, and two chests. The left chest contains a Bestiary, and the right chest contains a Life. Make sure to save your game here! When you want to continue, enter the building with a Chocobo standing in front of it, the house south of the house with a Save Point. This is the the library.

Go down to the basement from the stairs in the corner, and skim through some of the books. You’ll learn more about the history of summons, and that the two moons were apparently once one moon. You’ll learn that a powerful summon, Odin, was only defeated once by being struck by lightning. You’ll learn that somewhere, a God of Summons exists who can only be defeated by relecting his own power towards him. You’ll also learn of a whale from the moon. And finally, one book states that only those that have defeated the Queen of Summons, Asura, may fight the King of Summons, Leviathan.

Continue and step on the teleportation pad in the library’s basement. You’ll be in the throne room. You’ll see a woman and an old man, with some monster assistants. If you talk to the old man, he’ll deny that he’s the king and insist that he’s just some old man. Yeah right. If you talk to the woman, you’ll find out she’s Asura, the Queen of Summons.

Asura and Rydia are happy to finally see eachother again. Asura asks what Rydia has come back for. Rydia says that they need her help. Asura says she would be glad to help, but they must first defeat her in battle and prove their worth, according to their custom. She’ll then ask if you have the strength and courage to challenge her. Answer ‘yes’, and the fight with the Queen of Summons will begin.

--------------------------------
BOSS: Asura
HP: 31,005
Experience Points: 20,000
Gil: None
--------------------------------

This battle is the sole reason why Wall for Rosa is essential. Immediately have Rosa cast the Wall spell on Asura when she gets a turn. This is because Asura will cast Cure 3, Cure 4, and Life (?) on herself every couple of turns. This would make her nearly impossible to defeat normally. Now, with Wall cast on her, the spells will reflect off of her and recover your own characters instead! You may have Rosa cast Berserk on Edge and Cecil, and have Kain use Jump or put him on item duty. Have Rydia summon Titan nonstop. Have Rosa recover and revive the party as necessary from Asura’s other normal attacks. Eventually, Asura will go down.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After you defeat the Queen of Summons, she’ll allow Rydia to call upon her at will. Rydia will then learn the Summon magic, ‘Asura’. Now go back to the inn and rest, and then go back to the Save Point and save again. Then, return to the royal chamber and talk to the old man.

The old man will say that the crew has great strength to defeat Asura, but that strength is not enough to defeat evil alone. Only with a strong spirit along with strength can a person steer one’s powers towards righteousness. The old man asks if they will test their spirit against his powers. Say yes, and the old man will reveal himself as the King of Summoned Beasts, Leviathan!

----------------------------------
BOSS: Leviatan (Leviathan)
HP: 50,0001
Experience Points: 28,000
Gil: 0
-----------------------------------

Now THIS might be a tough battle. I certainly don’t blame you for leaving to try this at another time, if you so desire. Be in for a rough ride if you want to actually have this powerful beast at your disposal. Leviathan automatically starts the battle with the Big Wave attack which can do a moderate amount of damage to your party as compared to their maximum HP. However, that surprisingly isn’t his most devastating attack. His Ice 2 can do moderate damage to your mages in the back row, and be devastating to Cecil and Kain. Have someone use a Life on anyone that falls. Rosa should be constantly using Cure 3 on the party, but if you have a break, Haste Rydia or Berserk Cecil or Edge. Rydia should keep using Bio, and Edge should use Blitz until his MP runs out, otherwise he should just attack. Cecil should attack. This battle may take awhile, as you can see by Leviathan’s astronomical HP rating.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After you defeat Leviathan, he will entrust his power to Rydia. Now you have the Lord of the Seas, the King of Summoned Beasts, Leviathan, at your side! Rydia now learns the Summon magic, ‘Leviatan’. Go back and rest at the inn, and make sure to grab all the treasure and stock up on supplies if you haven’t already. When you’re ready to leave, use Exit to teleport out of the Land of Summons.

[Zeromus_X]

----------------------
3.6.5 Sylvan Cave
----------------------

This mysterious cave is the first part of a sidequest which can be continued later in the game. Of course, you can wait until later to do the whole thing at once, but it’s better to get things out of the way earlier. Once again, this is completely optional. The monsters here may be too much for you, but if you already have Float, and have completed the Cave of Summons, it shouldn’t be too tedious.

The Sylvan Cave is located in the northwest corner of the underworld. Like the Cave of Summons, you’ll need to cast Float on every level to avoid being damaged by the glowing floor panels. This cave may also be very confusing; there are many more false walls here that lead to hidden treasure than most other dungeons. The monsters here are also very resilient, although not impossible to defeat, especially if you’ve already completed the Cave of Summons and obtained Asura and Leviathan. One monster to watch out for, however, is a monster called Malboro (Marlboro). Malboros use two attacks; ‘Breath’ which inflicts a variety of negative status effects on a character, and ‘Digest’ which steadily lowers a characters HP. Breath is the more dangerous of the two. Since Remedies are hard to come by, I wouldn’t blame you if you ran from any and all Malboros you encounter (if not all encounters, period).

At the entrance, you’ll notice an enclosure and some chests to your left. Ignore them, you can’t reach them right this second. Instead go right to three chests. The chest on the far right isn’t possible to reach right now, so just open the other two chests. The top chest contains Angel (Angel Arrows), and the bottom chest contains a Bestiary. Now, go down the steps to the next level located down from the entrance.

On the second basement, from the stairs, go right, up, then left to reach another set of stairs leading down. Go down them and follow the path to reach three chests. Once again, there are three chests with one chest blocked away by the others into a wall. Open the upper left chest for a HiPotion (Hi-Potion). The lower chest contains a MaidKiss (Maiden’s Kiss). Now, to reach the blocked off treasure chest, step on the tile one space below the lower chest, then go right through a false wall. Then go up, and left to be in the wall right next to the blocked off chest. Open it up for a FairyRod (Fairy Rod). Now, go back to the stairs to the second floor, but don’t go through them. From the tile one space down of the stairs, step to the right, through a false wall. Then go up, and then right when you’re to the left of a room with a bunch of empty treasure chests. Go up the stairs above you.

Now you’ll be in the right enclosure of the second floor. Go right, and down following the path, picking up the treasure from the four chests along the way. They contain, from left to right, up to down: Remedy, Kamikaze, 2,000 Gil, and 3,000 Gil. Continue down the path. You’ll see many empty chests, along with some chests that are still closed. There’s also a hole in the ground, avoid it for now. Open all the chests which in no particular order contain: Bestiary, Exit, MaidKiss (Maiden’s Kiss), MaidKiss (Maiden’s Kiss), and an Ether1 (Ether 1). Now, this is completely optional. If you wish, you may step into the hole to reach some treasure, but it’s a lot of dangerous monsters-in-a-boxes with many dangerous monsters in them. The treasure you receive probably isn’t worth the danger, so it’s completely up to you whether you want to get it all or not. If you jump down the hole, you’ll be down on the third basement. From the landing point, head straight up and follow the path to the end, and then go left through a false wall. You’ll now be inside that blockade of treasure chests. Step on the teleportation pad and you’ll warp to a different area.

In this new area, you’ll see six treasure chests. The chests contain rather unecessary ‘attack’ items which cast a spell when used and aren’t really that useful. If you want them for some sense of completion, well, here they are. At least you’ll get a good amount of experience points for everyone. However, some chests contain somewhat powerful equipment too, so it isn’t a complet waste. Unfortunately, each and every one of these chests are a monster-in-a-box. The same strategy applies for all of the chests; have Rydia cast Leviathan (or Titan, if you don’t have Leviathan) have Rosa heal the party, have the men attack. For the chests with Malboros, you may have trouble. You’ll have to dish out healing items appropriately for the many status ailments they can inflict, especially if Rydia or Rosa gets hit by Breath. Have Cecil or Rosa use Esuna on anyone afflicted so they can get back on their feet. With that in mind, let’s start the looting. The chest on the upper left hosts six Ghosts, you’ll get an Inferno for winning. The chest on the upper middle contains six more Ghosts, and you’ll get a Blizzard for winning. The upper right chest will surprise you with six more Ghosts, the prize is a LitStorm (Lightning Storm). The lower right chest contains two Malboros and two Dark Trees. You’ll get a FullMoon (Full Moon) for winning, a great boomerang for Edge, although the Kotetsu has the same attack power it does. The lower middle chest houses a whopping four Malboros. Save me Jebus. Leviathan is great here. The prize is an Avenger (Avenger Sword), which will make the wielder act as if Berserk were cast on them in battle. The final, lower right chest is home to two Centipedes (Centipedes). The prize is ten Medusa Arrows, these can turn the target into stone, a nice instant kill.

When you’ve gathered all the treasure (or not), step on the transporter to your right to exit the cave. When you’re ready to continue traversing the cave, go back to that staircase from the first floor on the second floor.

From the stairs leading from the first floor, not very far down are a set of stairs leading up. Go up them to go back up to the first floor, in a different area. When you enter this area, right to the right of you is a Save Point, a good place to rest and save. Afterwards, go up from the Save Point. Then go into the upper right corner of this enclosure (basically eight steps up from the Save Point and five steps to the right). Then go right through a false wall. Then go up, right, and up all the way, then left to be inside the wall to the right of that first closed off treasure chest. Open it for an ElvenBow (Elven Bow). Now, from the stairs you came up from the second basement, go left this time. You’ll see stairs leading back down to the second basement, but don’t go down them yet. Instead go left and up from them, and open two chests which from left to right contain a Cabin and 1,000 Gil. Now go down this next set of stairs.

You’ll now be back in a different area of the second basement. Follow the path from the stairs up until you reach another set of stairs leading back up to another area in the first floor. Go up it, and follow the path to reach that enclosure on the first floor you couldn’t reach before. Open all the chests, which contain from left to right, bottom to top: Fire (Fire Arrows), Ice (Ice Arrows), Bolt (Bolt Arrows), Ether1 (Ether 1), and a HiPotion (Hi-Potion). Now go back down the stairs to the enclosure of the second basement. Continue up the path until you see a set of stairs going down to the third basement, but do not continue down them. Instead walk through the wall to the right of them, a false wall. Then go down, right, up, and then go left when you’re to the right of the enclosure with a chest. It’s a monster-in-a-box with six Tiny Toads and a Toad Lady. Naturally, they’ll cast Toad on your party members. Quickly de-toad Rydia with a Maiden’s Kiss or Esuna if she’s been transformed so she can unleash Leviathan or Titan on the enemy. You can also kill off the frogs with one of Ninja’s Ninja magics, and then kill off the Toad Lady with normal attacks. For whatever reason, she’ll cast Toad on anything, even herself...You’ll get a MageMash (Mage Masher) for winning. It’s a dagger that has a chance of inflicting ‘Mute’ status on the target. After all that, go back out of the false wall and go down the stairs to the third basement.

From the stairs leading from the second basement, go down, left, and up to the corner for a chest with an Elixir. Then go down and follow the path until you reach a strange house (yes, a freaking house). Enter the house, and you’ll find some fairies, ‘Sylphs’, which are the residents of this cave. They are very surprised at humans being in their cave, and tell you to go away. Or course, we aren’t leaving just yet. Check the two chests on the right side of the house for a HellClaw (Hell Claw) and a CatClaw (Cat Claw), two weapons that are for Yang that have no use now and you should just sell them when you get out of here.

Go to the left side of this room, and you’ll meet yet another familiar face lying in bed. It’s Yang! Surprisingly (...), Yang survived the explosion of the super cannons and actually flew all the way over to this cave, where the Sylphs found him and have been taking care of him for some time. Unfortunately, Yang hasn’t waken up yet. The Sylphs refuse to give back Yang, so that’s all there is to do here for now. Just make sure you’ve talked to Yang and the Sylphs. Go up the stairs in the middle of the room, and on the second floor, step up onto the pedestal to exit the cave.

[Zeromus_X]

-------------------
4.7 Sealed Cave
-------------------

Whether you decided to do the side quests or not, you’ll need to get moving with the story eventually. It’s time to go to the Sealed Cave. The Sealed Cave is located just northwest of Tomra. When you enter the cave, inspect the door in the first room. An item list will pop up, use the ‘Necklace’ that belonged to Luca to open the door. Then step through it to the next area.

From the entrance of the first basement, go right, then down across the rope (wire?). Go down until you see a door leading into a mini-chamber, but DON’T OPEN IT YET! There’s something you need to know about the doors in this dungeon. Every single door in this dungeon is really a monster in disguise, a ‘TrapDoor” (Trap Door). They have 5,000 HP each, and constantly use an attack called ‘Dmension’ (Dimension) to immediately kill one of your party members, one by one. Luckily, it’ll use up one turn between attacks to use Scan on the character it’ll attack next. That way, you’ll know who it’ll attack first and can plan accordingly. Have the men attack, and Rydia use Titan or Leviathan (Leviathan can kill it in one casting). They don’t take too much to defeat, but if you don’t do enough damage in time, a monster will come out of it to replace it, and you’ll have to fight it.

It should be noted that not all the doors here lead to treasure or anything noteworthy, however, the Trap Doors give out excellent experience points.

Open this first door, and kill the Trap Door. Go inside the miniature chamber and open two chests. The left chest contains a Kotetsu, and the right chest contains an Ether1 (Ether 1). Then exit the chamber. Now a bit below and to the left of the chamber is a chest. Open it up for a Bestiary. Now go to the left of that miniature chamber, and keep going left until another rope going up is above you. Go across it, and you should see another door on the other side. Open it, fight the Trap Door, and go through to the next area.

At the entrance of this new chamber, go up until you see a chest to your left. It contains a HiPotion (Hi-Potion). Now, above you, are two doors. Both doors lead to empty rooms, so only go through them if you want the experience points. The chest on the right side of the room contains and Ether1 (Ether 1). The stairs to the second basement are in the lower right corner of the room.

From the entrance of the second basement, go straight down across another rope. Then, when you reach the other side, go right for a treasure chest with a StarVeil (Star Veil). This item can be used in battle to cast Wall on the user. Save these!! Don’t use these ever, unless I explicitly say so! They will be extremely useful for a tough battle in the future.

After that, go back up across the rope, and then go right across a bridge. Open up the chest right on the other side for a Life. Then go up, along the ledge. At the top of this area, you’ll see six doors. Yes, six doors. That’s a lot. From right to left, the first door leads to an empty room; the second door leads to chest with a Light (Light Sword) for Cecil; the third door leads to two chests containing a Fuma (Fuma Shuriken), Elixir, and a third chest with another StarVeil (Star Veil, hang on to it!); the fourth door leads to an empty room, the fifth door leads to a Save Point (rest here and save, please); and the sixth door leads to two chests, which contain another Kotetsu and a Ninja (Ninja...Mask? Well, it’s a headgear) for Edge.

Whew! Now, after all that, go to the left side of this area. You should see another ledge that goes down. Follow it all the way down, until you see another door. This door leads to the next area to continue.

In this new chamber, keep going up from the entrance until you reach a chest. Open it up for an Ether1 (Ether 1). Then go left, and down, to the lower left corner of the chamber to the stairs to the next chamber.

On this floor, open up the two chests near the entrance for a HiPotion (Hi-Potion) and a Life. The door on the left side of the room leads to an empty room. The entrance to the third basement is hidden on the very bottom of this room; it’s rather difficult to see. It’s one step two steps below the giant stone column in the lower part of the room.

At the entrance to the third basement, cross the bridge down from it to a new platform. At the center of this platform is a rope leading down to another platform, but don’t go down it yet. Grab the MuteBell (Mute Bell) out of the chest on the right side of this platform. The door leads to an empty mini-chamber. When you’ve grabbed the treasure, climb down the rope. When you reach the platform below, head to the right, to a door leading to another chamber, it hosts many boxes and chests. The two chests contain an Ether2 (Ether 2) and a X-Potion. The boxes contain nothing, unfortunately. Now, from the point where the rope is, head to the left, and go up. You’ll reach the stairs leading down to a Save Point. For all that is good and holy, rest and save your game here, if you haven’t already. Head down to entrance to the fourth basement.

As you enter the fourth basement, you’ll notice two ropes to your left and to your right. They don’t lead anywhere, so just ignore them. Just go around the ledges on the left or right side and go around to the stairs in the center of the chamber down to the fifth basement.

In the fifth basement, just go up across the bridge, and open the door to fight the final Trap Door. Go through it and you’ll finally reach the Crystal Room. Go up to the Crystal and check it to obtain it. You’ll receive the Dark (Dark Crystal). Before you leave the room, refill Rydia and Rosa’s MP. Now exit the Crystal Room, and attempt to leave by going down across the bridge.

To the party’s surprise, the walls suddenly start closing in! Snagging the Crystal must’ve triggered this trap. Looks like the crew will have to fight the walls to survive!

---------------------
BOSS: EvilWall (Evil...Wall)
HP: 28,000
Experience Points: 23,000
Gil: 8,000
---------------------

This is truly a battle against time! If the Evil Wall gets close enough to the party, it’ll just use it’s instant death attack, ‘Crush’ on one character at a time. The goal is to obviously kill it before it can do this. Rydia should cast Bio first, and then spam Leviathan or Titan. If you don’t have Leviathan, just have her spam Bio. The men should use Bacchus’ Wine on themselves to cast Berserk on themselves, and Rosa should cast Haste to speed up the damage. You’d be surprised how much damage Berserk and Hasted fighters can do! Since the Evil Wall doesn’t do much damage with his normal attack, Rosa shouldn’t need to heal. This fight is a source of frustration for numerous people, don’t lose hope if you lose multiple times. Just keep trying, using this strategy, although he isn’t too hard if you do it correctly.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After that, you’ll have to walk all the way out of the cave, as Exit and Warp aren’t effective here (unfortunately...). Luckily, the trek out of the cavern isn’t as long as the journey in. When you get to the room before the first room (the entrance), DE-EQUIP KAIN. Yes, Kain is leaving the party. Can you guess why?

Well, Golbez is why. Right when you try to exit the cave, Golbez’s voice commands Kain to give him the Crystal. Kain resists at first, but he’s a dumbass and eventually just flips out again. Kain then seizes the Dark Crystal from Cecil. Golbez, talking through Kain, announces that with all the Crystals, the way to the moon will finally open, and he can activate the Giant of Babil. Kain then leaves, and the party is left Crystal-less, again.

Yeah, what the hell.

Well, with the crew in a very, very, very bad position, there’s nothing else to do but give the bad news to King Giott. Head back to the Dwarf Castle.

[Zeromus_X]

--------------------
4.8 Dwarf Castle
--------------------

Fly back to the Dwarf Castle, and enter the throne room. Giott greets the party, and asks to see the Crystal. Cecil then tries telling him what happened, but Giott catches on. He says that if they have all the Crystals, there is nothing they can do, unless the ‘Lunar Whale’ legend comes true. Cecil inquires as to what this Lunar Whale is. Giott says it is a huge ship spoken of in legend, and recites the first line of a familiar prophecy. Cecil is surprised at this, and exclaims that it’s the Mysidian legend. Giott asks if he knows of Mysidia, and Cecil replies that it’s the home of mages in the overworld. Giott is excited that Mysidia really exists, and Cecil says that he’s met the elder of Mysidia, who’s now tirelessly praying in the Tower of Worship.

Giott says that he must be praying for the Lunar Whale legend to come true. He says that they must hurry to Mysidia. Rosa remarks that the portal connecting the overworld and underworld is sealed, and they can’t use the Tower of Babil either. Then, a voice replies that they should dig their way out.

Cid enters the room! Cid says that he’ll attach a drill to the Falcon’s bow, so they can drill through the rocks (nevermind how this doesn’t really make any sense). The party is concerned for Cid’s health, asking him if he should be in bed, but Cid says that they shouldn’t worry. Edge asks if he can really do it, but Cid says it’s a piece of cake.

Cid, the dwarves, and even Edge help out with the work. Cid, however, collapses from overworking himself, again. Cid rests in bed in the infirmary, and the party thanks him for all the help he’s done. Now, with a drill attached to the Falcon, the crew can finally get out of the underworld, and open up the portal between the two worlds.

Go outside, and get in the Falcon. Then, fly to the portal between the overworld and the underworld, the large hole in the northeast corner of the underworld.

With the drill attached to the Falcon, the massive hole on the mountain near Agart is now open again. Travel between the two worlds is possible again! Now, it’s time to go to Mysidia and meet up with the elder.

---------------
4.9 Mysidia
---------------

Right when you enter the town, the Elder and his assistants will have anticipated your arrival and ask you to follow them to the Tower of Worship.

The Mysidian Legend is recited, again:

“One born of a dragon,
bearing darkness and light,
shall rise to the heavens
over the still land.

Bathing the moon in eternal
light, he brings a promise
to Mother Earth with bounty
and grace.”

The elder of Mysidia and his mages all pray for the legend to come true. Suddenly, the screen starts flashing psychedelically! A whirlpool appears from inside the ‘mouth’ of the serpent that is the Mysidian continent. The elder is overwhelmed and tells everyone to look, that their prayers have been answered.

A giant ship rises from the whirlpool, and sure enough, it too is flashing psychedelically.

The elder says that there is no doubt, the glorious ship, the Lunar Whale, has arisen!

The elder tells Cecil that a strange voice addressed him in their prayers. It said to “come hither to the moon”. Someone must await Cecil and the gang on the moon! However, Cecil asks how it’s possible for them to go to the moon. The elder replies that the Lunar Whale came from the moon. An old Mysidian record reveals that the Crystal inside the ship controls navigation between the earth and the moon. The flight panel on board the ship controls how you use the Lunar Whale as you would a normal airship.

Cecil says that he’ll see what he can do. It looks like it’s time to go to the moon! The final chapter, chapter five, is upon us!

[Zeromus_X]

----------------------------------------------------------------
5.0 Wait A Minute! Don’t Go To the Moon Just Yet!
----------------------------------------------------------------

I know you might be anxious, but let’s not be hasty. We have a few very important things to do before we venture to the moon! If you haven’t done the Land of Summons and Sylvan Cave side-quests, do those now, before stepping foot on the moon. (Sections 4.6.3, 4.6.4, and 4.65.) After you’ve done those, move on and do these very important side-quests. It should be noted that the Lunar Whale isn’t capable of going through the portal between the underworld and overworld, you’ll have to use the Falcon or Enterprise for that.

--------------
5.0.1 Fabul
--------------

This is the second part of the side quest that you should’ve started with the Sylvan Cave (section 4.6.5). After you do that, continue it with this.

After discovering Yang in the Sylvan Cave, go back to Fabul, and talk to his wife in the west tower. She’ll be surprised that her husband is in the underworld, and get upset at him, for making everyone think he was dead (or it was the onions ;)). She’ll give you a key item, ‘Pan’, to ‘smack that no-good in the head’ as she puts it. Then, leave Fabul, and go back to the underworld.

---------------------
5.0.2 Sylvan Cave
---------------------

When you re-enter the underworld, go back to the Sylvan Cave. It shouldn’t be too long now that you don’t have to get all the treasure. Enter the Sylph’s house, and talk to Yang. Then, an item menu will pop up. Select the Pan from the menu, and you’ll smack Yang over the head with it. The Sylphs will tell you to stop, but Yang will finally wake up. He says that he wants to sleep a little longer before his training.

The party is overjoyed that Yang is alright, and Yang says that they Sylphs saved his life. Rosa says just as he saved the party by destroying the cannons. Yang says he’ll join the party again, but the Sylphs insist that he rest. Yang says he cannot rest while the rest of them risk their lives. The Sylphs then say that they’ll fight in Yang’s place. Yang is confused, but the Sylphs say that they’ll allow Rydia to call upon them in battle any time. Rydia will then learn the Summon magic, ‘Sylph’.

With that, Yang rests again. Now exit the Sylvan Cave, and go back to the overworld, and then return to Fabul.


-------------
5.0.3 Fabul
-------------

After you whack Yang with the pan, and receive the Sylph summon, speak with Yang’s wife again in Fabul. An item menu will pop up. Select the Pan to return Yang’s wife’s frying pan. She’ll thank you, and say that this item might come in handy. She’ll then give you the ‘Knife’, and say to tell Yang not to worry about her.

So, what does this knife do, you ask? In battle, have Edge throw it to do a whopping guaranteed 9,999 damage (the highest it can go!). Due to this item’s extreme usefulness, save it for a rainy day. In fact, you may not want to use it until I tell you to.

Well, that’s it for the Sylvan Cave side-quest. Time to finish up some other stuff.

[Zeromus_X]

--------------------------
5.0.4 Adamant Grotto
--------------------------

This side-quest involves the use of the Enterprise and the Hovercraft. You can only do this after you’ve visited the Town of Summons (Section 4.6.3 and 4.6.4) and obtained the Rat Tail from the chest there.

To reach the Adamant Grotto, you’ll need to use the Hovercraft. Fly back to Eblan with the Falcon and then get into the Enterprise. Then grab the Hovercraft from near the Eblan Cave. Then, fly to the Mythril Village. Remember that cave nearby, that you couldn’t reach before? Now you can. Put down the Hovercraft on the Mythril Village island and then land the Enterprise there as well. Then get in the Hovercraft, and navigate it over the shallow rocks to the cave nearby the Mythril Village island. This cave is the Adamant Grotto.

You’ll see a midget and his son at the center of an altar. It seem that this guy has a strange fascination with animal tails, and collects them. Talk to the guy in the center, and an item menu will pop up. Select the Rat Tail from the menu and you’ll hand it over. As thanks for giving him a new tail, the man will reward you with a piece of Adamant, a legendary ore!

Now, there’s someone we need to show this legendary metal to. Remember Kokkol, the smith? Go back to the underworld, and visit Kokkol’s Smithy again (tucked into the southeastern corner of the underworld).

---------------------------
5.0.5 Kokkol’s Smithy
---------------------------

Go inside the smithy, and go to Kokkol’s bedroom on the second floor. Talk to the sleeping smith and an item menu will appear. Select the Adamant from the menu.


Needless to say, Kokkol is thrilled. His inspiration is fired up again from finally finding the legendary ore. He tells Cecil to hand over that old sword, so he can give it new life (the Legend Sword, now you know why you couldn’t get rid of it all this time). Then, follow him downstairs and talk to him. He’ll have refitted your Legend Sword, and forged it into the holy sword, Excalibur. You’ll then receive the Excalibur, Cecil’s second best sword. Needless to say, you’ll be kicking ass now. Only one other sword in the game is more powerful than this sword, but you won’t be seeing it for awhile.

Well, Kokkol’s all fired up to be a smith again, so we helped someone on top of getting an awesome sword. Way to go! Time to continue.

[Zeromus_X]

----------------------
5.0.6 Castle Baron
----------------------

Remember how some guards in Castle Baron were mentioning that they heard voices in the basement of the castle? It’s finally time to investigate that.

Go to the area where Cid’s assistants hang out (the right side of the castle). You should see a gate, with a path leading to the right tower. Enter the right tower.

On the first floor of the tower, there are some nice treasures you can obtain. You can find two Bacchuses (Bacchus’ Wine) and two Hermes (Hermes’ Shoes) in the first floor. To reach the leftmost chest, go down the steps right below it and go back up without moving off them. After you’ve gathered those chests, go up the stairs to the right.

On the second floor, check the two chests on the left side for two HiPotions (Hi-Potions). Go up the stairs to the third floor, and check all the chests in that room for an Ether1 (Ether 1) and two Tents. Check the pot on the right side of the room for another Ether1 (Ether 1). Once you’ve gathered all the treasure, go outside and save.

After you’ve made sure you’ve saved (please, save twice if you must), go back to the right tower, and go down the stairs to the basement of the castle. The left pot in the basement contains an Elixir. Go right through the path to another set of stairs. You’ll be stopped by an invisible wall earlier in the game, if Rydia wasn’t in your party..

Once you’re in the second basement, follow the path until you reach a throne. You’ll then hear the deceased King of Baron’s voice! He’ll appear on the throne. Cecil is once again reminded of what happened to his liege, but the king tells him not to grieve. Through death, the king has gained eternal power. He says that Rydia may call upon him at will, thereupon he will appear as an almighty summon. However- you know the drill- the crew must defeat him first.

---------------
BOSS: Odin
HP: 20,001
Experience Points: 18,000
Gil: 0
---------------
So, remember that book in the Town of Summons? Well, I’ll remind you anyway. It said that Odin only fell once, when he was struck by lightning. This of course, means that Odin is very weak to lightning-based attacks. This will probably be a tough battle, regardless.. Odin has relatively low HP, but there’s a strict time limit before he uses his ultimate attack and mows down your entire party. This can often do upwards of 3-4,000 damage to your entire party. Needless to say, only the most (obsessive compulsive) power leveled parties will survive it, but most people aren’t going to waste their time doing that. You’ll have to take down Odin before he can use it. And, of course, his weakness to lighting will play a part in that. Have Edge use Blitz, have Rydia cast Bolt 2. You can tell Odin is ready to use his ultimate attack when he lifts up his sword. This is an indicator that you’re running out of time. You must finish him off quickly, or it’ll all be over. If you still can’t defeat Odin, you can come back later to fight him again, when you’ve leveled up more. If Rydia has Bolt 3, it shouldn’t be too much though.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After you win, the king says that Cecil has come of age. He says that the fate of the world lies in your hands and that he’ll fight by your side as Odin. Rydia will then learn the Summon magic, ‘Odin’.

[Zeromus_X]

---------------------
5.1 To the Moon!
---------------------

After you’ve done these side-quests (and please, make absolutely sure you’ve obtained Asura and Leviathan), and stocked up on supplies, it’ll be time to finally go to the moon. Enter the Lunar Whale. You’ll notice that the Lunar Whale is pretty awesome, it has a control panel (at the top) to navigate it like a normal airship, a Fat Chocobo you can use without using a Gysahl Green, and beds for everyone to act like an inn. But, to get to the moon, you must examine the Crystal inside the Lunar Whale, which will automatically pilot you to the moon. It’s time to find out what all this is about!

When the Lunar Whale reaches the moon, you can navigate freely. However, see that giant blue crystal tower? That’s our next destination. However, unfortunately, you can’t land in front of it. Instead, land just a bit northwest of it, right above a set of stairs in a cliff. Right near you should be a cave, enter it to go through one of the first ‘Lunar Paths’ that we’ll have to traverse to get to that ominous blue tower.

Take note, the monsters on the moon are a good step up from the monsters you’ve encountered previously. You should do just fine with a party with levels ranging in the late 30s, as you’ll level up a lot from the great experience you win here. Remember, Leviathan truly is your friend.

---------------------
5.2 Lunar Paths
---------------------

When you enter the first Lunar Path, take the way to the right near the entrance to a chest that is a monster-in-a-box. You’ll have to fight two Procyotes and two Juclyotes (should be ‘Eucaryote’ and ‘Procaryote’, two types of cells in the body...). They hit hard, so use Leviathan to finish them quickly. You’ll get an ‘Au Apple’ (Gold Apple) for winning, it increases a party member’s HP by 100, a better version of the Silver Apple.

Heal up your characters, and continue on the Lunar Path. Right when you reach the exit, head to the right to two chests. One chest contains a MoonVeil (Moon Veil, hang onto this too!), and another contains a Stardust (a spell item). Go out of the exit, and you’ll be back in another section of the moon’s world map again. Follow the linear path to the next Lunar Path.

From the entrance of the second Lunar Path, head down and go through the linear path to the exit. There isn’t any treasure here.

When you exit again, head west. You’ll soon reach that blue crystal tower.

------------------------
5.3 Crystal Palace
------------------------

In this beatiful place, there are not random encounters, so don’t fret.

Right when you enter, to your left is a path leading to a spot that when stood upon, will refill the party’s HP and heal them of all status ailments. The right path leads to a spot which refills your MP.

When you’re ready to go on, go up the center path. The truth is about to be revealed.

When the crew steps into the center chamber, a voice thanks them for coming. The room starts flashing, and a mysterious bearded, robed man appears on the throne at the center.

Cecil asks who this man is. He replies that he is FuSoYa, guardian of the Lunarians. Rosa inquires as to who the Lunarians are.


FuSoYa explains that eons ago, a planet between Mars and Jupiter was on the brink of destruction, as a meteor crashed into it (this planet later became the asteroid belt) The survivors escaped by ship to the blue planet. Cecil asks if this planet is their home. FuSoYa says that it is, called Earth. However, because the people of Earth were still evolving, the survivors created another moon, where they now sleep.

Edge tries understanding all of this, trying to affirm the situation. FuSoYa says that some Lunarians were relunctant though. One Lunarian even planned to destroy all life on Earth and usurp the planet. The party is appalled at this.

FuSoYa says that he forced him to sleep, but even through long repose, the power of his will continues to grow. His very will has further corrupted evil souls on Earth, inciting them to gather the Crystals. Cecil says Golbez being one of them. Edge asks who this Lunarian is.

FuSoYa says that his name is Zemus. He plans to use the Crystals, the Lunarian’s source of energy, to restore the Tower of Babil and bring down the Giant of Babil to annihilate all life on Earth. FuSoYa assures the party that this is not the Lunarians’ wish. The Lunarians wait quietly for the Earthlings to evolve, and long to commune with them in the future.

Cecil asks how the Lunar Whale came into being. FuSoYa replies that his brother, KluYa made it long ago to travel to the blue planet, which he had longed to visit. He introduced the concept of airships and interdimensional transportation like the Devil’s Road to the Earthlings. He also fell in love with an Earthling woman, and they had two children.

FuSoYa says that Cecil is one of those children.

Cecil is shocked. He now realizes what the voice on Mount Ordeals was. FuSoYa says that it was no doubt the spirit of KluYa. He says that Cecil resembles KluYa greatly.

As Cecil tries absorbing this startling revelation, FuSoYa tells Cecil that KluYa gave him his power to fight Zemus. He says they must stop Zemus for the sake of both their races, and says they must depart for the Tower of Babil.

Edge says that the Tower of Babil is shielded, so they can’t enter. FuSoYa says that he’ll come along and neutralize the barrier. Then, FuSoYa, the Lunarian, joins the party.

You may notice that FuSoYa is pretty kick ass. He has every Black and White magic spell in the game, and comes to your party at level 50 (pretty high, compared to your party which will probably be in the 30s.) He also has a special ability, ‘Regen’ (Regenerate) which will gradually refill the party’s HP. To be honest, this ability is quite worthless, as FuSoYa should be casting spells to aid the party in some fashion, but at least it introduces the ‘Regen’ status to the FF series. Also, reserve three spots in the back row, and put Rosa, Rydia, and FuSoYa in them. Cecil and Edge belong in the front rows of course.

You may go up and speak with the Lunar Crystals for some interesting info, but there really isn’t anything else to do here. Exit the Crystal Palace, and trek back to the Lunar Whale. But DO NOT go back to Earth yet! Instead, operate the control panel on the Lunar Whale. We have some quick things to do on the moon first.

[Zeromus_X]

------------------------------
5.4 Hummingway Home
------------------------------

The Hummingway Home is located south of the Crystal Palace; it’s a cave inside an enclosure you must land the Lunar Whale in. Inside, you’ll see many Namingway look-a-likes. These ‘Hummingway’ just enjoy playing their flutes all the time and chilling out, I guess. Apparently one of them who was good at making nicknames decided to travel to Earth, and became the first Namingway.

Talk to one of the Hummingway (you’ll have to talk to all of them until you find the right one) and he’ll offer many rare goods to sell to your party. Here you can buy many items that were only available in chests throughout the whole game, like Ether 1 and 2s, Elixirs, Cabins, Bestiaries, and a new item, ‘Whistle’ (Gysahl Whistle). Using this item on the field can call upon the Fat Chocobo, anywhere.

However, these items are very expensive. You probably won’t afford but a few Ether 1s or 2s right now. But keep this place in mind for later, the goods offered here are too great to pass up.

----------------------
5.5 Cave Bahamut
----------------------

West (or east....well, to the left or right) of the Crystal Palace is a circular mountain range, with a cave in a mountain in the middle (like an eye). Land on the top of this mountain range, above the steps leading down. Then go down them, and enter the cave (saving beforehand, of course). This is the Cave of Bahamut.

From the entrance, head down. At the spot that branches out to three directions south of the entrance, head down to reach a chest with a Genji (Genji Glove). Then go back up, and go right this time.

You should see a wall to your right. See that indentation on the upper part? Stand in it, and go right through a false wall. Then go up and right to reach a chest with a Genji (Genji Shield). Then follow the path through a ledge down to the stairs to the second basement.

In this floor, from the entrance, follow the path until you see a chest to the left of a column. Open it to receive Genji (Genji Armor). Continue right, and you should see a one space wide land bridge leading north. DON’T GO ACROSS IT YET. Instead, go right and open the chest with a Genji (Genji Helmet). Now go across the land bridge. As you try and cross, you’ll suddenly enter battle with a ferocious beast, the Behemoth.

--------------------------------
BOSS (sorta...): Behemoth
HP: 23,000
Experience Points: 57,000
Gil: 65,000
--------------------------------

Yeah, this thing is mean. Not only does it have a whole bunch of HP, but it hits hard too. Fortunately, it only counterattacks. This means you can cast Armor and Blink on your party members to increase their defense before moving in on the attack. Use Rosa and FuSoYa for this, but you may not have to cast it on your mages in the back row. That’ll really cut down the damage from the Behemoth’s attacks. After you’ve done that, use Edge and Cecil to attack the beast. If your party gets weak, put Rosa and FuSoYa on healing duty. Remember, just use Parry if a party member is of no use. Rydia won’t be important for this, as the Behemoth has a high resistance to magic, and it’ll even counterattack magic, making it not worth it in the long run. And also, take note, if you cast Holy on the Behemoth, it’ll retaliate with ‘Storm’, a spell that’ll reduce all your characters’ HP to single digits! So try avoiding that.
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After that dreadful fight, your party may be worn out. Warp outside and rest inside the Lunar Whale, then return. Your party may be worn out quite often, even from the normal encounters. What’s even worse, is that you’ll have to fight even more Behemoths on every land bridge throughout this cave! Fortunately, you’ll only have to fight them once, and they won’t attack again.

Once you defeat the first Behemoth and have rested, continue up from that first land bridge. Go down the stairs to the third basement.

At the entrance of the third basement, just continue down the land bridge below you. Fight the next Behemoth. Then, after that, follow the long land bridge until you’re before an altar. The part of the bridge right before the altar hosts the third and final Behemoth. After defeating it, you may go outside and rest and save again.

Afterwards, head on up to this altar. You’ll see a boy and a girl standing below it, and they have some pretty funny text boxes. Climb the stairs to talk to a strangely dressed man.

Depending on what you’ve done earlier, one of two things might happen. If you haven’t defeated Leviathan yet, the man will tell you to leave. If you have, however, he’ll say that it still proves nothing. He announces that he, Bahamut, the God of Summons, will decree the final judgement.

--------------------
BOSS: Bahamut
--------------------

HP: 45,001
Experience Points: 35,000
Gil: 0
--------------------
Like with Odin, this fight too is a race against time. When the countdown reaches zero, Bahamut will unleash his ultimate attack, Mega Flare, which will annihilate your party. However, again like Odin, the library in the Town of Summons has the clue to defeating him. A book in the library said that the only way to defeat Bahamut was to reflect his power back at him. So, it’s time to put those Star and Moon Veils to work. Have Rosa and FuSoYa cast Wall on themselves, and have Rydia, Edge, and Cecil use Star and Moon Veils on themselves. Then, your party should all have the ‘Wall’ status on themselves. Now, when Bahamut unleashes MegaFire (should be ‘Mega Flare’), it’ll bounce off your party and deal 9,999 damage to himself! Just keep hitting him with all you got (normal attacks, Leviathan, Holy, and so on) and he’ll go down without problem.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bahamut will compliment the party’s spirit and strength, and allow Rydia to summon him anytime. Rydia will then learn the Summon magic, ‘Bahamut’. Now exit this cave and rest up in the Lunar Whale. Save as well. That’s all there is to do on the moon, so let’s hurry back to Earth and stop Zemus’ evil plot! When you're ready, examine the Crystal inside the Big Whale and return to Earth.

[Zeromus_X]

---------------------------------------------------
5.6 Return to Earth
---------------------------------------------------

When the Lunar Whale reaches Earth again, the party is greeted by a massive tremor near the Tower of Babil. FuSoYa says that they are too late, that the Giant of Babil has been unleashed.

Then, from the Tower of Babil, a giant mechanical menace, the Giant of Babil appears. It begins walking and destroying all in it’s path. The party was too late.

The crew is surprised, and Rydia says that they must stop the giant. Then, Cecil notices something.

Just then, dwarven tanks appear from the south. Giott and his men fire at the Giant, slowing it down. Yang and the Sylphs are also in another tank, aiding in the fight.

Then, the Red Wings appear. Cid and his engineers, as well as some soldiers from Baron are helping as well. The elder of Mysidia, along with the de-petrified Palom and Porom, are also in another airship. Edward and the clerics of Troia are there too, and Edward says he finally has the courage to fight. Everyone is aiding in the fight for survival, the fight for Earth.

Cecil thanks all of them. With the Giant of Babil staggered by the fire, FuSoYa says that they have a chance to enter the Giant of Babil, and destroy it from within.


Cid takes the Enterprise and picks up the crew. FuSoYa introduces himself to Cid, and says to approach the giant’s mouth. Cid then tells the crew to hang on, and drops the team into the giant’s mouth.

The party falls, and lands right inside the Giant of Babil. It’s time to get this show on the road.

----------------------
5.7 Giant of Babil
----------------------

Note that you won’t be able to return here afterwards, obviously, so snag all the treasure!

From where the party lands, go up until you reach the chute to the next area (these are basically the stairways of the Giant of Babil). You’ll enter the Neck. Just go down another chute here, and enter the Chest.

From the entrance to the chest, go down and right, following the path until you see a chest above you. Open it up for a Shuriken. Go down and follow the path until you see another chest, it contains a HiPotion (Hi-Potion). Keep going along the path, you’ll find another chest which contains an Ether1 (Ether 1). Then keep going until there’s a three-way split. The way up the steps leads to the chute to the next area. The way to the right and up leads to a chest with Yoichi (Yoichi Arrows). The way to the left leads to a chest with an Alert item, this automatically starts a predetermined battle with monsters in the area. Save this for later. Now go up the path to the chute.

You’ll now be in the Stomach. From the entrance, head up some steps to a chest with an Ag Apple (Silver Apple). Then go left. You should see two paths going up. The right path leads to a chest with a SomaDrop (Soma Drop). Now go up the left path going up, it’s a linear path to the next chute.

You’ll now be in the unnamed Passage. Keep following the path, you’ll eventually see a chest above you, it’s a monster-in-a-box with Last Arm monster. It’s basically a tougher version of the Alert monster in the Tower of Babil. It’ll use a ‘Magnet’ attack to paralyze your characters, but you should be able to defeat it in time before it gets all of your party members. You’ll get an Elixir for winning.

Now, continue through the linear path, until you see a Save Point (it looks different from the other Save Points in the game, however, it’s a glowing blue pad on the left). Then continue up to the chute, which leads to the Stairwell.

At the entrance of this area, head up. You’ll soon be stopped by four familiar faces.

The four elemental devils appear. They say that you cannot stop the Giant of Babil, and say that it’s your turn to go to hell. Cecil is surprised at the four fiends appearing. Cagnazzo says that their true master, Zemus, blessed them with a second life. Rubicant will fully restore the party, saying that they too, will fight as a team like the crew fought him.

--------------------
BOSS: Elements
(All statistics are the total of the four fiends.)
HP: 105,000
Experience Points: 63,000
Gil: 10,000
--------------------

Even with their combined forces, the elemental fiends aren’t too tough. Still, be careful. Physical attacks are very poor against them, use their elemental properties against them instead. Also, casting Blink on Cecil and Edge will pretty much nullify physical attacks. You’ll have to fight them one at a time, starting with Milon. For Milon, watch out for his Curse attack, which should be healed immediately, and his strong physical attack. Bahamut and Holy do extreme damage. He won’t take too long. After Milon, you’ll fight Rubicant. You won’t have to worry about his cloak technique here, just give him all you got. He’ll mostly fight you with weak fire-based attacks, again, with the exception of Glare, but even it only does around 300 damage to your party. Flood does decent damage, and Ice 3 will do almost guaranteed straight 9s. It also saves Rydia and FuSoYa MP. After Rubicant, you’ll fight Cagnazzo again. Bolt 3 will do straight 9,999 damage against him. Bolt 2 and Blitz are also good alternative attacks. The final fiend you’ll have to face is Valvalis again. She’s really weak against Holy, and Cecil’s Excalibur sword does several thousand damage. And, Bahamut of course, is always effective. She casts Glare (gradual petrification) like last time, but she shouldn’t last long enough for any of your characters to actually turn to stone. Watch out for Storm though, it reduces all your characters’ HP to single digits, heal afterwards.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After you defeat the fiends, Milon and Cagnazzo beg Zemus for another chance. Valvalis laments losing again, and Rubicant says farewell to the heroes.

After you have control again, go back to the Save Point, rest, and save. Then go back to the Stairwell area and head north, to the next chute. You’ll now be in the Core of the giant. Head up the steps, and an alarm will sound. FuSoYa says they have reached the core. Edge is in awe at how huge it is. FuSoYa says the defense system repairs the main system, and they must destroy it first.

---------------------------------------
BOSS: CPU, Attacker, Defender

CPU:
HP: 30,000
Experience Points: 50,000
Gil: 10,333

Attacker:
HP: 3,000
Experience Points: 0
Gil: 0

Defender
HP: 3,000
Experience Points: 0
Gil: 0
---------------------------------------

Like FuSoYa suggest, destroy the Defender first. It constantly heals the CPU, making it impossible to kill. On top of that, the CPU will cast Wall on itself, limiting you to just using Cecil and Edge’s attacks. DO NOT, I repeat, do not kill both the Attacker and Defender. If you do, the CPU will retaliate by using it’s special attack which always does 9,999 damage to a character (meaning you have no way of surviving it). So don’t kill the Attacker. It has a very weak laser attack anyway, which can be remedied simply by healing often. Focus your attacks on the Defender. have Edge and Cecil concentrate on the CPU. ‘Bouncing’ spells off of your party members is risky, as it isn’t guaranteed to hit the CPU and you might hit the Attacker instead. You may have Edge throw any unnecessary equipment, except the Knife, at the CPU. Rydia can wait on the sidelines and use items if need be. Her Summons aren’t needed because you could potentially kill both the Attacker and Defender on accident. Rosa should be put on healing duty, but you may want to Haste up Cecil and Edge. Eventually, the CPU will fall, and you’ll have just the Attacker to deal with. Promptly destroy it.
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After the CPU is destroyed, the party rejoices. Then, Golbez, furious, appears. He threatens to kill everyone. FuSoYa then becomes enraged. He yells at Golbez, asking him if he’s forgotten who he is. Golbez tells him to stop, but FuSoYa commands him to awaken. Then, FuSoYa casts a strange spell, and then falls down, exhausted.

Golbez then seems to come to his senses. He asks himself how he bore so much hatred. FuSoYa says that he has come to, and asks him what his father’s name is.

Golbez says that his father’s name is KluYa.

[Zeromus_X]

((Continued from last section))

The entire crew, especially Cecil, is shocked at this. This means that Golbez was, all along, really Cecil’s brother.

FuSoYa states that Golbez was controlled by Zemus’ telepathy. Since Golbez has Lunarian blood, he easily fell prey to his influence, and it amplified its effects.

Cecil realizes that all the time, he was fighting his own brother. He also realizes that he could have just been easily chosen as Golbez was. Golbez says no, that Zemus chose him because of the evil in his soul.


Golbez then goes off, saying he’ll settle this himself. FuSoYa tells him to wait, and that since Zemus is also another Lunarian, he will accompany him.

Golbez says farewell to Cecil. He and FuSoYa leave, and needless to say, FuSoYa is out of your party.

The crew asks Cecil if he will go with them. Rosa remarks that Golbez is now willing to die to right his wrongs. Cecil is still having a hard time absorbing all this new information.

Suddenly, the Giant of Babil starts shaking. It’s finally collapsing, with no Core to sustain it. The crew can’t find an exit, but then Kain appears and says to come this way. He says they’ll talk later, but now they have to leave immediately. The party barely escapes from the Giant of Babel, and then returns to convene inside of the Lunar Whale.

Kain says that he’s finally broken free of Golbez’s control, once and for all (since, he is no longer under Zemus’ control). But Kain says he doesn’t expect them all to forgive him. Edge gets angry at Kain, saying that it was his fault the giant was revived. Then, Rosa rushes to his side, saying that Golbez was being manipulated too, and that it wasn’t Kain’s fault. She then explains the situation to Kain.

Kain then decides that he’ll go to the moon too, to get even with Zemus. Edge says he’ll just end up being controlled again. Kain asks him to kill him if that happens. Then Edge says he’ll have to go with him, since he wants to ‘bust up’ Zemus anyway.

Cecil then decides that he’ll go to the moon as well. But he tells Rosa and Rydia to stay behind, so that they’ll be safe. The girls adamantly refuse, but Cecil says that he doubts they’ll all return safe this time. The girls refuse again, but Cecil yells at Rosa to get off. Edge then convinces Rydia to leave as well. Then, the men use the Crystal to fly to the moon.

When they land, Cecil asks if they’re all ready. The men then try leaving the Lunar Whale, discovering that the women were hiding there all along. After an emotional agreement, the entire team decides to go and confront Zemus. Kain is now back in your party. It’s finally time to confront Zemus and begin the final battle.

[Zeromus_X]

---------------------------------------
5.8 Core of the Moon (Part One)
---------------------------------------

To reach Zemus’ lair, the crew must travel to the core of the moon, which is below the Crystal Palace. Before, you couldn’t enter, but now that the Tower of Babil has fallen, the seal is broken.

Go to the chamber behind the room where you met FuSoYa earlier. You’ll see the eight Crystals of the moon, and you can even talk to them for information. Apparently Golbez and FuSoYa have already entered the core, to confront Zemus some time ago. In addition, there are many powerful weapons that once posed a threat to Lunarians sealed in the core along with Zemus. Pretty interesting place.

When you want to enter the final dungeon, step on the tile in the center of the Crystal room. After a ten-minute lightshow, the Lunar Crystals will teleport you to the lunar subterrane. You can teleport back by stepping on the same tile. Before entering, I recommend stocking up on Hi-Potions, Ethers if you have enough Gil, and every other type of medicine, like 20 of each status ailment medicine. You don’t want to use up too much MP on the trek down. Buy three sets of 99 Hi-Potions so you can heal in between battles with them, without using MP. Also, buy 99 Lives if you haven’t already. I highly recommend getting all the summons if you’ve missed any, especially Bahamut. Also, sort out your inventory. Give all unnecessary items to the Fat Chocobo or sell them, especially useless ‘spell items’ which just waste space in your inventory.

When you’re ready, step on that tile. The Crystals say they’ll guide you to the core.

At the entrance (the teleport pad), head up, and then left. You should see a ‘missing shadow’ on the wall to your left, a false wall. Go left through it, then down, then left, and follow the ledge to reach a teleport pad. Step on it, and you’ll be warped to an enclosure in the first floor. You should see some stairs north of you. Go down them, and you’ll be in an enclosure in the second floor. From here, follow the path until you reach a chest above you that is a monster-in-a-box. It contains two Warlocks and two Karys. Leviathan or Bahamut and the men attacking will finish them. You’ll get a Sage (Sage’s Staff) for winning. Equip this on Rosa, it’ll raise her Will by 15 points. Now, from that treasure chest, head left, and down, to another teleport pad. Step on it.

Now you’ll be in another area. Just follow the path until you reach another set of stairs. You’ll be in a hidden area in the third basement. Follow the path until you reach an altar with a floating sword on it. Have Rosa cast Float on the entire party. Put Rydia, Rosa, and Kain in the back row, and Edge and Cecil in the front ranks (two spaces in front, three in back). Heal up the party and examine the weapon. An evil voice says the following:

“To the seeker of this blade, I bring death!”

You’ll then be assaulted by the first of the Core’s bosses.
----------------------------------------
BOSS: White D. (White Dragon)
HP: 32,700
Experience Points: 55,000
Gil: 0
-----------------------------------------

Being the first of the Lunar bosses, the White Dragon isn’t too tough. Still, don’t let your guard down. First off, the White Dragon absorbs thunder-based spells, so Blitz, Ramuh, and Bolt 3 are a no-no. Second, the White Dragon has a few tricks up his sleeve. He uses ‘Blitz’, a weak single target thunder-elemental attack. This is nothing to worry about. However, he also has ‘Gaia Rage’ as a counterattack to summons, an attack that does around 700 damage to all your characters, something to worry about. However, with Float on, that’ll nullify the damage of this attack. Another of his attacks is the infamous ‘Storm’ which lowers everyone’s HP to single digits. This is very dangerous. Immediately heal after it. He also regularly uses Slow throughout the battle to hamper your characters’ speed. However, even more obnoxious than that, is his regular physical attack which can really hurt your front lines (over 1,000 damage!). But here’s a surefire strategy to take him down. Before the battle, you should’ve cast Float on everyone. Now Gaia Rage will be nullified. Now, have Edge use his Ninja skill, ‘Image’ to cast Blink on himself. Then have Rosa cast Blink on Cecil. Now the dragon’s physical attacks are meaningless. Just have Cecil and Edge whale on him for the whole battle, Kain Jump, Rosa recover the party from Storm, and Rydia summon Bahamut. Not a single characters should be wounded with this strategy.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After defeating the White Dragon, you’ll receive the legendary weapon, the Murasame, for Edge. Now use Exit to teleport out of the core, and recover the party with the two healing pads in the Crystal Palace. Then, save, and return to the core’s entrance.

Now, from the entrance, go up the steps and this time to right. There’s a very noticeable false wall to your right. Go right through it, up, and right to reach an outside ledge. Follow it to a chest that is a monster-in-a-box. It contains two RedGiants (Red Giants). Bahamut and attack them, and you’ll get Ninja (Ninja Gear) for Edge after winning. Now go back to near the entrance, and go down this time. You’ll see a set of stairs leading down to the second basement, go down them.

In the second basement, go down from the entrance, and right, following the path. You’ll eventually be at a dead end, that is actually a false wall. Go right, through it. Then, go up. Right when you’re at the right of a chest in the wall, take a left. Then go down, left, up, and right. Open the chest for a FireLash (Fire Lash Whip) for Rydia. Then, go back on the main track of the false wall. Go up. Then go left, and walk through an enclosure, and go through another short false wall passage to the left. You should be right below a set of stairs. Don’t go through them yet. Instead, go to the left. Open up the chest containing a Dragon (Dragon Shield) for Kain. Now go down the stairs.

You’ll now be in the third basement now. Go down, and you should immediately see the stairs to the fourth basement. Ignore them for now. Instead, go down a bit further. Six steps down and four steps right of the stairs to the fourth basement is a false wall. Go right, through it. Then go up, and right, to reach an enclosure with a chest. Open it up for a Dragon (Dragon Helmet) for Kain. Then, from this enclosure, go right through another false wall. Then go down, left, down, and left to reach a lower enclosure. Open the chest up for Dragon (Dragon Armor) for Kain. Then go left to another chest, which contains Dragon (Dragon Gloves) for Kain. Now go all the way back to those stairs, and go down to the fourth basement.

As you enter the fourth basement, you’ll be on the top platform of many platforms stacked together by columns. Go all the way to the right of the top platform, and open a chest with Artemis (Artemis Arrows). Then go down the steps to the second platform. Go to the left, and you should see a doorway. Go through it, and enter a mini-chamber. The chest inside contains an Elixir. Now go outside back to the platform. Go all the way to the right, and you’ll find more steps leading down. Go down them, to a third platform. Enter the doorway here to access the next area.

In this big chamber, open the chest in the upper right corner for a Blizzard. Then go to the lower left corner, and open a chest with a X-Potion. Then go through the exit on the left side. When you come out, you’ll be in the other side of the lowest platform. Open the chest on the left which is a monster-in-a-box containing a Behemoth. Use the same strategy as you did when you fought these in the Cave of Bahamut. You’ll receive a Stardust (Stardust Rod) for Rydia. It increases her Wis (Wisdom) by 20! Now go down the stairs below you to the fifth basement.

Go down the steps, ignoring the mysterious unreachable door and sword to your right. Open the chest on the very left, which is a monster-in-a-box with Red D. And Blue D. (Red and Blue Dragons, respectively). Use Bahamut and be constantly healing your party from their assaults. Cast Blink on Cecil, Edge should use Image, Rosa should thereafter constantly be healing, and Kain should be Jumping. Keep up the damage, and recovery, and you should win with minimum hassle. You’ll get a Crystal (Crystal Shield) for Cecil for winning. Then go through the doorway to your right.

[Zeromus_X]

((Continued from last section))

In this chamber, walk up and then go right through the obvious false wall. Open up the chest in the enclosure for a Protect (Protect Ring). Equip this on anyone you see fit, I gave it to Edge for his lack of really great equipment. After that, go through the false wall at the right of this enclosure, then go down, left, down, and right to get out of the wall. Then go down, and open the chest on the outside ledge for another monster-in-a-box. It contains a Behemoth, and you’ll get Crystal (Crystal Armor) for Cecil afterwards. Now, go back into that chamber. Then go up, up some stairs, and you’ll be outside, on another ledge. Go right to open a chest that is a monster-in-a-box with two Red Dragons. Same strategy as the other dragon battle applies here. For winning, you’ll get Crystal (Crystal Gloves) for Cecil. Then go to the far left of this ledge, and enter the doorway on the left side. You’ll enter a chamber.

In this chamber, open the chest in the lower left corner for a White (White Robe), excellent armor for Rosa. Then go up the stairs to the north. You’ll be on the lowest platform of the fifth basement. Go left to a chest, yet another monster-in-a-box. It contains a D. Fossil and a Warlock. Just Summon and attack them to death like you’ve been doing to all the other monsters-in-a-boxes. You’ll get the final piece of Crystal gear for Cecil, the Crystal (Crystal Helm). Now, go to the right of this bottom platform. Enter the doorway to a mini-chamber to the right of the stairs that lead down to the sixth basement. Open the chest for an Inferno. Now go down the stairs to the sixth basement, outside this room.

From the entrance to the sixth basement, you should see two chests to the right and left of you, on ledges. Open up the left chest for Artemis (Artemis Arrows), and the right chest for a Fuma (Fuma Shuriken). Now you should see two sets of stairs below you. Go down the left set of stairs, and open up the chest for a Cabin. Then go down the right set of stairs, and follow the ledge to a doorway, to another chamber. Open the chest in the upper left corner of this room, a monster-in-a-box. It contains a Warlock and three Karys. Simple, after winning, you’ll receive a Minerva (Minerva Gown), which you should give to either Rosa or Rydia. Give the White Robe to Rydia, if you decide to give Rosa the Minerva Gown, in that case. Now go down the stairs in the upper right corner of the room, and go down to the seventh basement.

From here, follow the path and ledge to a series of doorways. Enter the left door first. You’ll find a Save Point here, I highly suggest you rest and save here. Now, it’s treasure time.

After you’ve rested and saved at the left door’s Save Point, go outside the Save Point and go to the next door (the middle door). Unequip Rosa of her equipment, and set the battle mode to ‘Wait’ if you have it on Active. Go up to the weapon on the pedestal in this chamber, and you’ll be stopped by a tremor, another sinister voice.

“The coveter of this holy spear shall perish!”

You’ll now have to fight the next Lunar boss.

---------------------
BOSS: Plague
HP: 33,333
Experience Points: 31,105
Gil: 550
----------------------

This boss might frustrate you. He’ll begin the fight by casting ‘Doom’ on each of your characters. This means you have an incredibly strict time limit to take him down, 10 seconds! Granted, it is possible to do this normally, but it’s very frustrating. After he puts the death sentence on your party, he’ll start casting Haste on your characters, which actually helps you a bit. However, there are other ways to counter his countdown. Kill off one of your characters, and then revive them. Then, Plague will cast Doom again (because it notices someone doesn’t have the countdown), resetting the countdown on everyone, so you’ll have more time. This is why I suggest taking off all of Rosa’s equipment and then use her to kill someone off, use a Life on her to revive her for this strategy. Then, she’ll have low enough HP to be killed off in one hit. Now whenever the countdown gets low (say, 3-4), kill her off and revive her. You can easily control the timer now. Then, with this set up, use your strongest attacks. Rydia should summon Bahamut, and Kain should Jump. Cecil and Edge should be saved for killing off Rosa. If anyone else gets a turn when the countdown is low and Rosa is already dead, use a Life. If you do plan on not using this strategy, you’ll have to go all out. Attack, Jump, Bahamut, et all. This requires a bit more leveling to do, so I recommend just using the first strategy. With it, the fight won’t last long.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After winning you’ll receive the legendary weapon, HolyLnce (Holy Lance), for Kain. It’s his best weapon. It can cast the spell, Holy, when he uses it as an item while it’s equipped. Unfortunately, the damage is very poor.


Go back to the Save Point, rest, and save. Re-equip Rosa, and set the battle mode on Active if you had that before and preferred it. Now enter the third door, and attempt to go through the two columns near the doorway. You’ll be stopped by a flash of light, and another voice, or two.

“By sacred force, we shall protect the ribbons.”

You’ll now have to fight not one, but two more bosses.

------------------------
BOSS: Lunasaur (2)
HP: 23,000 (each)
Experience Points: 29,500 (each)
Gil: 0
------------------------

This fight can be really tough, or still aggravating. The Lunasaurs both use a weak Flame attack which may do around 300 damage to all your party members. The Lunasaurs don’t hit very hard, so just have Rosa constantly heal to stay on top. DO NOT use physical attacks. If you hit them with a physical attack, they’ll start getting nasty. They’ll cast Wall on themselves, and bounce back Bio on your team, often doing it twice to the same person for 1,500 damage-over 2,00 damage each hit, pretty much guaranteeing their demise. Instead, have Rydia summon Bahamut. While they counter summons with a ‘Recover’ skill that recovers 2,300 HP, Bahamut should do enough damage over 2,300 go make a difference. Here’s a good strategy. Have Rosa cast Haste on Rydia. Have the others use Hermes’ Shoes and have someone use a Silk Web on the Lunasaurs. Have Cecil cover Rosa. Then have Rydia summon Bahamut, Kain Jump, Edge throw any unused shuriken and weapons, and Rosa heal the party. If you take too long, they’ll occasionally use a really bad ‘Breath’ attack on your whole party. This is like the Malboro’s Breath attack, only ten times worse. If any members of your party aren’t hit by it (my Cecil and Rosa were immune somehow, Cecil had his Crystal equipment, and Rosa has here Sage’s Staff, Tiara, White Robe, and Gold Ring), then use Esuna or Remedies to get your party up and running again. Remember, have Edge throwing and Kain Jumping on one target, once you kill one Lunasaur, the other shouldn’t take so long. Once you kill off one of the Lunasaurs, you can use normal attacks on them, as they won’t cast Bio afterwards. The remaining one will still Wall itself, but it won’t bounce back Bio. If this is still giving you a headache, go and level up more, or just try again. But if you’re in the 50s, it shouldn’t take too long.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For beating these highly annoying skeletal monstrosities, you can open the two chests in this chamber for two Ribbons, headgear anyone can equip that prevents all status abnormalities! They also raise your stats by a good amount. Equip these on any two people besides Cecil, his Crystal gear already prevents status ailments.

Now, go back to the Save Point, rest, and save. Definitely don’t want to do that again.

[Zeromus_X]

((Yeah, well, the final dungeon is a doozy))

Exit, and instead of continuing on, go back to the sixth basement. Go to that left set of stairs, and go down, to that chest that contained a Cabin. See the ledge to your left? You can actually walk across an invisible bridge here. Go two steps up above the chest, and five steps left to walk over it. Go to the left, and walk along the ledge. You should notice a long set of stairs off to the left that you can’t reach from here. See this wall here, at the center of this platform? You should notice the false wall on the upper left part of it. Go right through it, and down to go down an invisible set of stairs. You’ll warp down to the lower part of the sixth basement. From these stairs, go down, and open a nearby chest for an Au Apple (Golden Apple). Then go right, and go across a land bridge and follow it to the right. You should find a teleport pad here. Stand on it, and you’ll warp to that set of stairs off to the right you couldn’t reach before. Go up the stairs, and stand on another pad. You’ll be in the fifth basement, in another off-set of stairs. Go up them, and you should find a treasure chest on a platform. It’s another monster-in-a-box, with a Behemoth. You’ll get another Protect (Protect Ring) for winning. Head up again, from this platform, up another set of stairs, and step on the teleport pad there.

You’ll be transported to a room with a Save Point. PLEASE REST AND SAVE HERE. After you do that, go down and exit this chamber. You’ll be on the ledge to the right of the stairs in the fifth basement you passed by before. Go right to a pedestal with another sword. Examine it, and the room will darken. Another voice condemns you:

“Those damned by Zemus shall never bear this sword!”

Prepare for possibly the worst of the lunar bosses so far.

-------------------
BOSS: Wyvern
HP: 60,000
Experience Points: 64,000
Gil:0
---------------------

Oh dear. This thing is pretty horrible. Bahamut-wannabe. It starts out with it’s own version of ‘MegaFire’ that does a bit over 1,000 damage to everyone! Sometimes you can get unlucky, and it’ll do from 2,000 to 3,000 damage, and pretty much fry your entire party. It only gets worse after that. It’ll cast Wall on itself, and then repedeately bounce Flare spells off of itself to your party. This can do 400-1,000 or a little more damage to your whole party. This isn’t as lethal as ‘MegaFire’ of course, but the problem is that it seems to cast it every two freaking seconds. Have Rosa heal the crew. Cecil and Edge should attack. Kain should Jump. If Rydia summons any offensive Summons, prepare for a counterattack, another ‘MegaFire’ which won’t hit your whole party, but still does extreme damage. So don’t ever summon. Asura is an exception, if you want extra healing, so Rydia isn’t completely useless in this battle. If you can, right at the beginning of the battle, before it casts Wall on itself, quickly use a Silk Web item to slow him down a bit. That’ll help so he isn’t nuking you every two seconds. Also, have Rosa cast Haste on Cecil, Edge, and Kain, the bulk of your attack. Then Rosa can heal to her heart's content. It should also be noted that after Wall wears off, Wyvern will use a Recover skill to gain 6,000 HP, and then re-cast Wall (though I’ve witnessed him mess up and cast Flare on himself when Wall wasn’t applied). So you still need to be quick even with the adequate recovery of your own, in this battle. But, if you can dish out the damage and keep everyone’s HP high, it shouldn’t be too much.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After defeating this monstrosity, you’ll receive the Ragnarok. This is Cecil’s most powerful sword, even more powerful than Excalibur. Still, save the Excalibur for later.

Now, return to that first Save Point we visited on the seventh basement, the left door of those three doors. Rest, and save here. If you want to Exit out, and restock on supplies (especially Ethers), you may do so now. Otherwise, let’s continue. The core isn’t too long to go through again, once you’ve gathered all the treasure and know your way around.

From the Save Point on the seventh floor, go outside to the ledge. Then go right, following the ledge. Then go up all you can, and left, and go down the steps. Go left, and enter the nearby doorway. You’ll be in the final floors of the moon’s core, the ‘crystal floors’.

[Zeromus_X]

----------------------------------------
5.9 Core of the Moon (Part Two)
----------------------------------------

In this lovely new crystalline environment, you’ll encounter extremely difficult enemies. The game even lets you know this by playing the boss battle theme when you get into a random encounter here. If you’re just trying to get through, use Edge’s Smoke Ninja magic, or use Exit to escape from the battles. However, the monsters here give unrivaled experience points, so if you feel the need to level up, you know where to go.

From the entrance, head right and go down some stairs. Then follow the ledge left all the way until you see a chest and more steps going down. Open the chest for a Fuma (Fuma Shuriken). Then go down the steps.

Go to the right, and you should see stairs up above you, leading down. But, take the path down and to your right, to another pedestal with a sword. It’s time to fight the final Lunar boss.

When you examine the weapon, yet another voice warns you:

“None shall ever bear the cursed sword Masamune!”

Prepare for yet another tough battle.

--------------------
BOSS: Ogopogo
HP: 50,000
Experience Points: 61,000
Gil: 0
--------------------

Ogopogo has a funny name. He’s also a Leviathan wannabe. He’s also not very nice. He begins the battle by using his special attack, Big Wave, twice. This will do around 700-upwards of 1,000 damage to your entire party. Use Asura or Cure 4 to recover from this. Ogopogo counters offensive summons with ‘Blaze’, a relatively weak fire attack, but don’t take anything for granted. Ogopogo will also use Big Wave and two Big Waves throughout the battle, another reason to be healing constantly. Another of Ogopogo’s attacks is his physical attack, doing around 1,000 damage to your characters in the front ranks. Edge’s Image and Blink is acceptable for this, but constant healing is adequate. Have Cecil and Edge attack, Rydia summoning Bahamut, and Kain Jumping. Rosa should be put to work as your wonderful healer, Cure 4 everyone every round. If someone dies, have someone else use a Life to revive them, and Rosa’s Cure 4 should get them back up to speed. Although you need to be healing constantly, this isn’t necessarily a tough battle, compared to the previous Lunar bosses.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After winning, you’ll receive the Masamune, Edge’s best weapon. It paired with the Murasame make a wonderful couple of deadly katana. Now hike back to the Save Point on the seventh basement. Rest, save, and return to this area. Then, go down the stairs above you to reach the next crystal floor.

From the entrance here, head down the nearby steps below. Go right, and follow a ledge to a chest which contains an Elixir. Go down another set of steps below. Then go left, and go down another flight of stairs. Keep going right, and you’ll notice a chest. It contains a Whistle (Gysahl Whistle). Continue right along the path until you reach a teleport pad. Step on it and go on to the next area.

From the entrance to this next area, follow the path, left, down some steps, right, down some steps, open up a chest for a Fuma (Fuma Shuriken), left all the way, open a chest for another Fuma Shuriken, go down and right, then down to another teleport pad to the fourth area.

This next area hosts new monsters as encounters, ‘Breath’ (Zemus’ Breath), Zemus’ scout, and ‘Mind’ (Zemus’ Mind) which is a guard. Zemus’ Breath casts Scan and ‘reports to Master Zemus’, and Zemus’ Mind likes confusing your party members. Ignore them and run away, they have too much HP to deal with often. They are an excellent source of experience, however.

In this fourth area, head left from the entrance. Then go down a long flight of stairs. Then go right, and down another flight of stairs. Go left from here, and step on another teleport pad at the end.

You’ll now be in the final area. Don’t worry about healing anyone, you’ll see why eventually.

As the party climbs up the stairs, to an almost skull-like platform of crystal, they see Golbez and FuSoYa up ahead, confronting Zemus. Cecil calls out to them, but they’ve already begun engaging Zemus.

-----------------
BOSS: Zemus
HP: ?
Experience Points: ?
Gil: ?
------------------

This is a story battle. FuSoYa will use all his debilitating White magic on Zemus, and Golbez will unleach all his offensive Black magic. Then, Golbez and FuSoYa both decide to finish Zemus by both casting Meteo on him. Zemus mocks them, telling them to die trying. They then unleash the ultimate spell, ‘W. Meteo’ on Zemus. Zemus then says that the body may die, but the spirit lives on, and then, perishes.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zemus then falls over, dead. Golbez says that it is finally done. FuSoYa says that it was a waste, that a man with such power should be consumed with evil.

The team, especially Edge, is overjoyed, and runs over to meet the two. FuSoYa says that they meet again. Edge is dissapointed that he was beaten to defeating Zemus.

Golbez is surprised at Cecil, and says his name. Cecil is silent. Rosa then says Cecil’s name.

Then, Zemus’ body starts twitching. It then bursts into flames, and a voice starts talking to the party.

“I am the incarnation of Zemus’ enmity...

Zeromus, the absolute darkness, the epitome of hate.”

The chamber starts shaking and thunder even flashes inside the core of the moon. The entire group, except Golbez and FuSoYa, is taken back and falls over.

FuSoYa says that death only increased Zemus’ hatred. Golbez says that he doesn’t care what if he calls himself Zemus or Zeromus, he will destroy him once and for all.

FuSoYa then announces that his hatred ends with them, and they engage with this new incarnation of Zemus’ hatred.

--------------------
BOSS: Zeromus
HP: ?
Experience Points: ?
Gil: ?
--------------------

FuSoYa and Golbez then engage Zeromus, who looks....’abstract’ to say the least. Golbez and FuSoYa both cast the ultimate spell, Meteo, but Zeromus just absorbs the spell. FuSoYa says that Meteo is useless, so they must use the Crystal. Golbez then uses the Crystal on Zeromus, but it does nothing. Zeromus says that the light of the Crystal is eclipsed in the hands of darkness, and that it is no use. Zeromus then casts Meteo on FuSoYa and Golbez, defeating them.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zeromus continues speaking...

“Agony...Death...The hatred will rage on until all dies.”

All seems lost for the crew, as the core of the moon begins flashing violently, as Zeromus’ madness and hatred rage on.

Then, the scene shifts to the Tower of Wishes in Mysidia.

Porom and Palom beg the elder to do something. The elder says it is time. He says they must pray for the team, and pray for the entire world. He tells Palom and Porom that they shall send everbody’s prayers to Cecil. Yang, Edward, Porom, Palom, the elder of Mysida, the mages, the Clerics of Troia, Luca and Giott, Cid, Cid’s engineers, and everyone else prays for the crew. Edward tells Cecil to show them his courage, once more. Cid says that they’re all waiting for them to return. Giott says to return peace to Mother Earth. Luca tells them all to stand up and fight. The clerics say that they’re their last hope. The twins encourage the team. The elder tells the moon of the heavens to receive their prayers.

Back in the moon’s core, Cecil stands up. He calls out his brother, and walks over to Golbez, who is on the floor. Golbez calls out to Cecil, and tells him to use this, and you’ll receive the Crystal.

Cecil tells Zeromus, that for all life, and those who gave their lives, that they won’t lose.

[Zeromus_X]

((Continued from last section, almost there!!))

-----------------------------
FINAL BOSS: Zeromus
HP: 105,000
Experience Points: 0
Gil: 0
-----------------------------

As the battle begins, Porom and Palom encourage the party, giving them life. Edward and Tellah’s spirit pray to give you strength. Yang and Cid wish for them, and give them vitality. FuSoYa and Golbez tell them they must previal, and Golbez says that with Cecil’s holy power, he must trust in the Crystal, and reveal Zeromus’ true form.

With all the people back on Earth praying for the crew, they are restored, and somehow standing in this trippy outer space background. As it stands, Zeromus is invulnerable to all manner of attack. You can, however, attempt having Edge steal an important item from this form of Zeromus, the Drk. Matter (Dark Matter). This will be handy for Zeromus’ true form, but it takes a very long time to steal successfully and really isn’t worth it.

Instead, skip over to Cecil’s turn, and have him use the Crystal from the Item menu. This will make Zeromus reveal his true, grotesque form.

Zeromus will begin the battle with his most powerful attack, ‘Big Bang’. Not only does this do upwards of 1,500-2,000 damage to every member of your party, it also slowly eats away at your HP like Bio. If you stole the Dark Matter from his first form (blue spaghetti mop), apparently the damage from Big Bang will be decreased, but I’ve honestly only stolen it once and never payed attention to the results. Zeromus also employs ‘Black Hole’, which nullifies all positive effects on the party (like Haste and Berserk). So don’t bother with spells like that, they’re only a waste of time. He also uses Bio (damage and gradual drain of HP), Flare (extreme non-elemental magic damage, and a physical attack which isn’t that impressive. He’ll also use Whirl, an attack that’ll put a character’s HP at single digits, definitely not good when you’ve been hit by Big Bang. To make things even worse, Zeromus regularly uses Big Bang throughout the battle.

So, how do we destroy the epitome of hatred? Have Cecil attack. Edge should use Throw and dart the Knife, Excalibur, and any other unused weapons at this monster. Rydia can summon, but take heart that Zeromus counters Bahamut with his Flare spell, and any other offensive summon with Bio on everyone. Rydia will probably die at lower levels due to her low HP anyway, making her all the more useless, but you could use her for items, if you so wish. Rosa should be healing. Nonstop. Cure 4. On everyone. Every turn. No exceptions. Even though Holy does a lot of damage, Zeromus counters with Whirl, the single digit HP attack, not good after Big Bang. Use an Elixir on her if she runs out of MP. Kain should Jump, hopefully he’ll avoid a Big Bang attack while he’s in the air. That pretty much summarizes what everyone should be doing. Feel free to use Elixirs in this battle, you should have several saved up from being found in chests throughout the game. Remember, Zeromus isn’t exactly a pushover. If you still can’t defeat him, go back and level up in the crystal floors of the core of the moon. If your party is in the late 40s, it’ll be possible, but very tedious. If your party is in the 50s, it’ll be challenging enough but not overly frustrating. If your party is in the 60s, you shouldn’t have too much of a problem. Just keep trying, Zeromus is one of the toughest Final Fantasy final bosses after all. But, you can tell he’s getting weak when he starts using Meteo, it’s very weak hitting for under 1,000 damage and may not even hit the whole party. Fix up your characters, and then attack him a few more times, and he should go down.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Zeromus begins disintegrating, but warns the party that he will never perish, as long as evil exists in the hearts of the living. The room shakes and flashes, and finally, Zeromus is destroyed.

After Zeromus is finally vanquished, FuSoYa and Golbez stand up. The party steps forward, as Zeromus explodes and is finally gone from this world.


FuSoYa is amazed at how much power the team has. He says that the residents of Earth may have evolved even faster than they had thought. However, the party still wonders about Zeromus’ final words. FuSoYa reassures that party that although evil will never die, there will always exist good to stop it. Good and evil both exist in the hearts of all living things. Just as there is an overworld and an underworld. Goodness exists because evil exists, and it was the goodness that the party wielded that destroyed Zemus.

After the party concurs with this, FuSoYa says that it is finally time for him to go and sleep with the other Lunarians, as Zemus-and his hatred-are gone from this world. He asks what the others will do. Cecil says that they’ll return home, there are people worried about them. FuSoYa says that he’s glad they all have wonderful friends. He looks forward to the day they meet again.

Golbez then walks over to FuSoYa and asks him if he can come and sleep too. He cannot return to Earth after all the atrocities he’s committed. He’d also like to meet his father’s people. FuSoYa acknowledges that Golbez has Lunarian blood, and allows him to come too. He warns him that it will be a very long sleep. Golbez thanks FuSoYa, and they begin walking up the steps to the chamber where the Lunarians rest. Golbez stops, and turns toward Cecil. He remarks that Cecil sounded worried when he called out his name. He asks if this means that Cecil has forgiven him. Then he says that that would be foolish, that he could never be forgiven after all he’s done.

FuSoYa says that they are off to spend many years in slumber. He prays that the blue planet will be peaceful, for a long, long, time. He then beckons Golbez to come, and Golbez follows him up the steps.

Cecil says nothing to Golbez. The rest of the team ask him if he’s going to just let him go, and that he’s his brother. Cecil still remains silent. Golbez says goodbye to everyone, going even further up the steps. The crew insists that Cecil say something.

Cecil then steps up, and says goodbye to his brother, and Golbez thanks him, for his redemption, redemption shared by both brothers of the moon.

"One born of a dragon,

bearing darkness and light,

shall rise to the heavens over the still land.

Bathing the moon in eternal light,

he brings a promise to Mother Earth with bounty and grace.

But someday the moon shall depart,

seeking its own light.

The sons of moon and Earth shall then part,

divided by the flow of time."

((Rest of story summary coming soon, until then, enjoy the walkthrough!))

[Staircase]

Looks Great. I just a few miniutes ago beat FF3 and now im onto FF4 again. Im not very far into it but ive been using this faq and its great. Thanks a bunch for writing all this, its very explanitory.

[Zeromus_X]

Thank you! I'm happy to help! :)

Eh...I guess I promised to write the epilogue. I should finish that sometime...

[richboywonder]

will there be a lunar ruins guide?

[Zeromus_X]

That's only in the Gameboy Advance version, and this faq covers the PS1 version*. So, not unless I want to replay the GBA version sometime. :o

More people worldwide would have the PS1 version first, so that's why I picked it. Though I guess now the GBA version would be more widespread.

[Zeromus_X]

((Double posts to bump thread...er...well, bump a stickied thread to the best of my ability, anyway))

Added in a Disclaimer, Foreward, and Table of Contents to the first post. All text in (()) isn't in the text guide. I also fixed some typos in my text guide.

[richboywonder]

did you submit this walkthrough to gamefaqs.

[Zeromus_X]

No, I actually couldn't do that, because the lines are way over the margin of 79 characters. No big deal.

[Phoenix Flame]

Wow!

I'm totally impressed and awe-inspired Zero! Great job with the walkthrough!

So you think the PS1 version is the way to go for this game? Or should I get the GBA version?

[Zeromus_X]

I would go ahead and get the GBA version. It has an overall better translation, the ability to switch party members, and extra dungeons (which aren't covered here, but the main story walkthrough should still be sufficient).

[Phoenix Flame]

Awesome! Thanks for all your imput tonight.

[Spec Highwind]

better translation
:D

Cecil: But I must hurry!
Elder: I understand.
But do not hurry.

[Gackt Camui]

i have never played this one. i feel like such a deeduhdee. guess i should read everything about it so i can know more huh?

[Marius]

its a fun game i enjoyed it.:)

[Jewellery]

That's good, I'll top it.