===================================================== 1-0. No Equipment Natural Magic Game Guide ===================================================== -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Foreword -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This guide is mainly a guide for the No Equipment Natural Magic Game, but it is also, to a much lesser extent, a guide for the No Equipment Game. The reason I didn't write a separate guide for the NEG is explained further on in this guide. This guide belongs to me. If you want to use it or sell it, you must consult me about it first. If I allow you to use it, you must give me full credit for the guide. This guide was intended to be put up on www.gamefaqs.com and ONLY there. If you want to use it, put up a link to gamefaqs.com instead of just putting it up on your own site. This document is Copyright 2004, Sean MacMahon (Best of the Worst). All rights reserved. FINAL FANTASY and all related articles belong solely to Square Co., Ltd. No breach of copyright intended. There are a lot of people to thank, and since putting it all in a paragraph would be too bulky-looking, so here's a list :). - Meeple Lard, for creating the Natural Magic Game Challenge; my idea to take on this challenge, and consequently this guide, would never have come to be without it. - MasterZED, for his Monster Statistics Guide, as I was referencing his guide quite a bit, mainly for rage abilities of different monsters, but also for help in creating my strategies if I ever felt I didn’t know my enemy enough. - Terii Senshi, for his Algorathims Guide. I used this mainly for minimizing roaming time on the Veldt, and also for his section on the strength and attributes of different spells and abilities. - Atom Edge for his Item Guide, from which I got a few useful tidbits of information about temporary characters and about the items that change if you choose to take them later. - Djibriel, for giving me a few suggestions on strategies for Kefka (at Narshe), Dadaluma, and Ultros (at the Opera House). - CjayC for posting this guide and for running gamefaqs.com. Now, a few things about this guide. When I wrote it I was assuming that any who would attempt this challenge were already familiar with this game, and so I didn’t include much in my walkthrough other than fight strategies. There’s almost nothing in here about where to find treasure chests or anything else that isn’t related to the challenge. Also, I urge you to use the walkthrough in this guide as more of a reference, rather than an actual walkthrough. If you complete this challenge by reading my strategies every step of the way, then you haven't really challenged yourself, you’ve just had me complete it for you, in a sense. My methods for completing this challenge are probably not the only ways of doing it; so try it on your own, first. If you’re stumped by a certain part, then by all means, consult my walkthrough; that’s really what I intended it for. If you want to contact me about this guide, my email address is thecanadian0710@hotmail.com. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Revision History -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- v. 1.0 - The guide's first posting. v. 1.1 - Made a few minor spelling and grammar corrections. v. 1.5 - Included additional strategies for Kefka (at Narshe), Dadaluma, and Ultros (at the Opera House). - Included a strategy for Doom Gaze (in addition to the lazy one I included in the first version :P). - Made a few minor changes to the walkthrough. - Added the Battle Speed rule (I feel stupid for not including this in the first version). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Table of Contents -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Below is the table of contents. To jump to a section, just type control+F, and then type in the corresponding number of the section that you want to skip to. If you want to jump to a certain section of the walkthrough, type the name of the area, including the asterisks. 1-1. Overview 1-2. Rules 1-3. Tips and Tricks 1-4. Character Evaluations 1-5. About the No Equipment Game 1-6. Walkthrough ##The World of Balance## *Narshe* *Figaro Castle* *Figaro Cave* *South Figaro* *Mt Kolts* *Returner’s Hideout* *Lete River* *Terra’s Scenario: Lete River Continued* *Narshe Revisited* *Locke’s Scenario: South Figaro Revisited* *Figaro Cave Revisited* *Sabin’s Scenario: Crazy Guy’s House* *Imperial Camp* *Phantom Forest and the Ghost Train* *Barren Falls* *The Veldt* *The Battle at Narshe* *Figaro Castle Revisited and Kolinghen* *Jidoor* *Opera House* *Vector and the Magitek Factory* *Narshe Revisited Again* *Sealed Cave* *Vector Revisited* *Albrook* *Esper Mountain* *The IAF Sequence and the Floating Continent* ##The World of Ruin## *Solitary Island* *Tzen and the Collapsing House* *Nikeah and South Figaro* *Figaro Cave and Figaro Basement* *Kolinghen and Daryl’s Tomb* *Mobliz* *Narshe* *The Veldt* *Narshe Revisited and Umaro’s Cave* *Cave in the Veldt, Thamasa, and the Coliseum* *Jidoor and Owzer’s House* *Thamasa Revisited and Ebot’s Rock* *Triangle Island* *Figaro Castle Revisited and the Ancient Castle* *Phoenix Cave* *Maranda, Zozo, and Mt. Zozo* *Doma Castle* *Mobliz Revisited* *Narshe Revisited Again* *Opera House* *Fanatics Tower* *Kefka’s Tower* 1-7. Conclusion -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1-1. Overview -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I came up with the idea for this challenge after I completed Meeple Lard’s Natural Magic Game. I found it to be rather easy, and I realized that the reason that it was so easy was because you could just give all of your characters their best equipment, meaning that even if you don't have magic to heal/buff yourself with or to destroy your enemies with at will, you still can be too strong for your enemies to handle, even at relatively low levels. This inspired me to try another challenge, the No Equipment Game. The No Equipment game is obviously just a game in which your characters will never use equipment at any time. However, they can still use the esper system (more detail on the NEG in section 1-5). However, after trying that, I found that it, too, was very easy (maybe even easier than the NMG). The reason for that was because in spite of the fact that your characters had very weak defenses, and had less means of offense (no use for the “Fight” command), you could just use your spells to completely make up for it. The strategy for the NEG became very monotonous, starting after the raid on vector. It went as follows: beginning of fight, cast zoneseek, cast golem/phantom/fenrir, hit enemies with spells, fight over. Very easy, and very boring. This then inspired me to combine the two easier challenges into a challenge that was much harder, the No Equipment Natural Magic Game. The No Equipment Natural Magic Game is a game where your characters will never use any equipment or any espers at any time. This means that both your offenses, and more notably your defenses, will be down considerably more than in a NMG or a NEG. You'll basically be relying on your specials and items 99% of the time. I found this challenge to be difficult, but also to be fun to complete. Personally, I won’t do a challenge that I am not enjoying doing. That’s why I hate LLGs, they take too damn long for my tastes. I would recommend this challenge for people who like to really test themselves without driving themselves insane. Now that the overview is out of the way, I'll tell you the rules. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1-2. Rules -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. This rule is pretty obvious, but it still needs to be said. DON'T FRIGGIN CHEAT!! This means that you aren't allowed to use GameShark, game genie, pro action replay, hacking programs...well you get the point. 2. No character may use any equipment at any time. In cases where a character joins you in the middle of a battle (Sabin in the Vargas battle, Setzer in the crane battle and Relm in the Ultros battle), just remove their weapon and shield and play as normal. Just be sure to take off the rest of their equipment after the battle is over. NOTE: The only one of those three where it REALLY matters that you remove his equipment is the crane battle with Setzer. See, with Sabin and Relm, the battle will be over in one round once they arrive, so them wearing equipment won’t make much of a difference. 3. There's one exception: I will let you equip Sprint Shoes in all parts of the game except for areas where you are timed to do something (such as the collapsing house in Tzen, the time before the Vector Banquet when you have to talk to all the soldiers, or the escape from the Floating Continent). The way I see it, walking faster won't have an effect on the difficulty of a NENMG unless you are being forced to do something within a certain time window. 'Nuff said on that. 4. No character may have an esper equipped at any time. This is the "Natural Magic" part of the challenge, since the only ways that anyone will be using any spells are if Terra or Celes learn a spell naturally, if Gogo is in the same party as Terra or Celes and you've either given him the magic command or had him mimic a spell, or if you have Gau or Gogo use a rage that lets them cast a spell. 5. Just like in a NMG, you can only break rods and shields that you've found in chests. If you got it anywhere else, then you can't use it. 6. Try to avoid over-levelling. Yes, I know that some people love to go out of their way to be at ridiculously high levels, but for this challenge, I'm going to forbid it. I know that it's hard to regulate this rule, so I'm just going to give you a bit of advice that'll make things easier: Just don’t wander aimlessly. When you’re in an area with enemies, just go from point A to point B, fighting and winning every battle that you encuonter along the way. The experience that you get from those fights will level you up "naturally". 7. The game is to be completed in relative entirety, meaning that you complete all side quests and defeat all bosses. If you don't want to get all of Gau's rages or all of Strago's lores, then that's cool, cause it ain't part of the challenge. Mind you, I'm almost positive that you can't defeat MagiMaster in the Fanatic's Tower side quest in a NENMG without over- levelling like crazy, which, as you know, I have made forbidden, so don’t worry about that particular boss. 8. Battle speed should be set no lower than 3. Myself, I played through the entire game on battle speed 1, but 2 or 3 is okay; the difference in difficulty shouldn't be too big. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1-3. Tips and Tricks -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. No matter what situation you're in, all of your characters should be in the back row. Even in a normal game, it’s a good idea to have certain characters in the back row at all times, since the only attacks that don't do full damage from the back row are the "fight" command (unless you have a row-ignoring weapon) and Gau's physical rages. So since you won't be using the "fight" command at all, except for in the very early parts of the game when enemies do little damage anyway, and since Gau only really has one physical rage that's worth using (Stray Cat), which you definitely won't be using that often, is there any reason NOT to use the back row? That's what I thought :P. 2. Make sure that you always have a healthy stock of items on you. This shouldn't be a problem, since you will no longer be spending any money on equipment. 3. If you ever need money, for some reason, just sell any piece of armour that you may have picked up. DON’T sell strong weapons; they are put to much better use when Shadow throws them. 4. Speaking of which, since you have all this spare money, you can (if you want to. Personally, I didn’t except for some of the end-game bosses) take advantage of Shadow’s ability to hit with all elements with the “Throw” command. Just buy elemental weapons in bulk. Remember, though, that some of these elemental weapons you can only buy in the World of Balance, namely the Poison Rod and the Blossom, for poison and wind-elemental damage respectively. Also remember that my strategies that say “Have Shadow to throw Ninja stars” or something, you can change to “Have Shadow throw Flame Sabres/Blizzards/Pearl Rods”, etc. 5. Make sure that you know what you're about to go up against before you go into a dungeon, and choose your characters accordingly (if you even have a choice at the time). With the restrictions you'll be playing with, you can't afford to make stupid mistakes. 6. This one is kinda obvious, but for those of you who need all the practical advice you can get, I'm still gonna say it. If you think that you can't win a battle, then RUN AWAY. It’s also a good idea to keep smoke bombs and warp stones on you. Use the bombs for battles, and use the stones for escaping dungeons that you don’t want to walk back to the entrance for once you’ve completed it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1-4. Character Evaluations -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- These are pretty straightforward. The only thing that might confuse people would be the “Overall Rating”. Basically, I ranked the characters from 1-14, 1 being the best, and 14 being the worst. Now that that’s been made clear, here are the evaluations. -Terra- Terra is a rather strong character. She has the highest natural magic stat of the useful characters, and Fire magic to accompany it. This is good because many enemies in this game are weak against fire. Also, Terra learns Cure2, which makes her a good healer (although Pearl Wind is still better, overall). Finally, Terra knows Morph, which boosts her all-around offense and defense considerably. The reason she is ranked number six, however, is because there are not many times in the game where Terra will be most useful than another character, which would probably be due either to her not being around, or to her not having learned her next level Fire spell, meaning that her existing spells would be too weak for your purposes. Overall Rating: 6 -Locke- Locke is the second worst character in the game. See, Locke’s special, “steal”, doesn’t have any offensive or defensive uses whatsoever. This means that he would have to rely on the “fight” and “item’ commands to be useful in a fight, and as we all know, “fight” is useless in this game. However, Locke can still be somewhat useful. See, if you don’t want to use Relm because you’re afraid of the Sketch glitch, Locke can replace her and act as an “item healer”. He has the highest natural speed in the game, so he’ll do a fairly good job at this. Overall Rating: 13 -Edgar- Edgar is a fairly useful character. His tools, while not incredibly impressive in terms of damage, are still fairly strong, and also reliable, since you can target them. In the WoB, they clean house pretty much up until the Floating Continent. After that, the only useful tools that he has are Drill and Chain Saw, and in some cases, Autocrossbow. Still, he isn’t a bad choice. Overall Rating: 7 -Sabin- Sabin is tied with Gau because they are both equally useful in this game, but for different reasons, and hence it is often a matter of choosing between one of the two to make your “ultimate party” for a certain area or boss. Early on, in the World of Balance, his blitzes are much more useful than later, mainly because the enemies all suck at that time :). However, starting at around the Sealed Cave, Sabin becomes a somewhat lesser choice, as others are simply beating him in damage. In the World of Ruin, his only useful Blitzes are Bum Rush, Air Blade, and in certain situations, Mantra (but Mantra’s usefulness doesn’t last long). Also, While Sabin can hit three elemental weaknesses with Aurabolt, Fire Dance, or Air Blade, you usually won’t be using them for that purpose. Aurabolt is single-targeted, and Bum Rush, also single- targeted, beats it in damage even against an enemy who is weak against holy. Fire Dance, while useful for a while in the World of Balance, is only ever useful in the World of Ruin for Daryll’s Tomb, and that’s only because you don’t have Air Blade at that time. Also, there are very few enemies weak against Wind, so Air Blade isn’t useful for that purpose. Now that I’m done bashing Sabin’s abilities, it’s time I explained why he received such a high ranking. See, while Sabin’s only use is raw damage output, that’s exactly why he is useful for this challenge! Air Blade is a strong multi-targeted attack that costs nothing to use, and Bum Rush is consistently stronger than Shadow throwing a Ninja Star, although Shadow is always stronger when he is hitting an enemy’s elemental weakness. Still, Sabin’s ability to do massive amounts of damage with single attacks puts him at a ranking near the top. Essentially, Sabin is better than Gau if you want to play offensively. Overall Rating: 4.5 -Celes- Celes gets a ranking of eight because she is basically a lesser version of Terra. Firstly, her best healing spell is Cure, which is only useful for healing outside of battle. Second, she knows Ice spells, and there are many more enemies weak against Fire than there are weak against Ice. Thirdly, her magic stat isn’t quite as high as Terra’s, although it is by no means low. Finally, she doesn’t have the advantage of Morph. Mind you, once Celes learns Ice3 she becomes more powerful than Edgar against certain enemies, but that’s not saying much, and it doesn’t happen until the end of the game, so the ranking stays. Overall Rating: 8 -Cyan- Cyan is the single worst character in this challenge. See, Cyan needed to have a sword equipped to be able to use his special. Since you won’t be using equipment in this game, Cyan has nothing but the “fight” and “item” command to use. As if that weren’t enough, Cyan doesn’t even make a good “item healer”, because of his low speed. Overall Rating: 14 -Gau- Gau is tied with Sabin because they are both equally useful in this game, but for different reasons, and hence it is often a matter of choosing between one of the two to make your “ultimate party” for a certain area or boss. Gau’s Rages give him a number of attributes that are often essential to certain areas of the game, and very useful for boss fights. For example, Gau’s rages can give him status and elemental resistances, as well as elemental absorptions. Also, Gau’s rages can give him auto-spell effects, such as auto-float or auto-reflect. Finally, the spells/attacks that Gau uses with certain rages are very strong/useful, and when put together can make for strategies that would make certain areas/bosses that would normally have been impossible, possible. However, unless you really need to have an elemental absorption or a status immunity, Gau isn’t as useful as Sabin, due to the fact that he isn’t as good as him for raw damage output, and his only useful healing rage, Magic Urn, isn’t something to be relied upon. Not to mention that you get it so late in the game. Essentially, Gau is better than Sabin if you want to play defensively. Overall Rating: 4.5 -Shadow- Shadow is the most useful offensive character in the game. His throw command gives him two things: 1) A defense-ignoring single- targeted attack with which he can hit any elemental weakness in the game, and which he can target, and 2) A fire, water, or lightning-elemental multi- targeted attack that is the equivalent of a level 2.5 spell in strength. Damn useful. Not to mention he is the only character other than Gogo who can put himself in the Image Status, which is useful for certain tough fights. And even though Gogo can do everything Shadow can, Shadow’s stats are MUCH better than Gogo’s, so Shadow does a better job of it. Then again, this is true with any skill that Gogo is mimicking that does damage/heals based on stats. Overall Rating: 3 -Setzer- Setzer can’t really offer much in any point of the game except for the Sealed Cave. His slots just aren’t stronger than anyone else’s attacks otherwise. He’s still stronger than Relm, Locke, or Cyan, though, so he ranks in at number 11. Overall Rating: 11 -Mog- In the WoB, Mog’s dances are ridiculously strong. However, in the WoR, they lag behind somewhat. Not to mention that you can’t control him while he’s dancing. You’ll probably end up getting more use out of Umaro. Still, Mog is capable of helping out in a fight, since some of his attacks that he uses through his dances are still strong, and he can heal with his dances, too. Overall Rating: 10 -Strago- I can’t imagine completing this challenge without Strago. While most of his Lores aren’t really that useful, the few that are, are absolutely essential to defeating most bosses. Pearl Wind is the best form of reliable healing in the game, and Big Guard is the single best way to make up for having a lack of armour. Also, he has a powerful attack in GrandTrain, and Sour Mouth and Stone are very nice ways of making random encounters easier. He is an excellent character. Overall Rating: 2 -Relm- Relm has only ever been useful in any game for two things: 1) Helping Strago learn Lores, and 2) teaching her magic to take advantage of her magic stat, which is the highest in the game, naturally. Since Relm won’t know any spells in this challenge, she is a very weak character. However, Sketch can still surprise you if you use it on the right enemy. You might just get a weak physical, but you might also get a strong/useful spell. If you don’t want to use her because of the Sketch glitch, you can replace her with Locke, and have Locke act as an item healer. It’s not much of a loss. Overall Rating: 12 -Umaro- Umaro is actually surprisingly useful in a NENMG. He has a high enough defense rating to be able to fight in the front row safely, which means that he can take advantage of his high attack power when he fights. Not to mention that he absorbs Ice damage and halves Fire damage. Some people might argue that because the game has him permanently equipped with a snow muffler and a bone club that he shouldn’t be allowed to be used. The way I see it, if you could take those two things off, they would count as equipment, but since you can’t, they don’t. Hence, Umaro is not illegal to use. Overall Rating: 9 -Gogo- Gogo is the single most useful character in the game. He can do anything that any other character can (except for Morph), and you can set him up with any combo of commands that you like, giving him amazing versatility. It doesn’t really matter that he has low stats, the difference in damage between Gogo’s and whichever character’s special he’s using is usually not that disheartening. Overall Rating: 1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1-5. About the No Equipment Game -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The NEG is so simple, I’m only going to be making a few points about it. They should be more than enough help for you to take on this “challenge”. - The rules for this challenge are the same as a NENMG, except you can use Espers to teach spells and boost stats. - Your characters will have little individuality in this challenge, since all you’ll really be using is the “Magic” command. - Gogo and Umaro are pointless to use, as you can’t boost their stats, since they can’t equip Espers. Not to mention that Umaro can’t use magic at all anyway. - Once your characters can use Magic, the only special abilities worth using in this challenge are Blitz, Throw, Lore, Morph, and in a few specific cases, Rage. - Before the end of Zozo, a NEG is no different than a NENMG. - During the Opera House and the Magitek Factory, Locke should use Ramuh, since it will be the only way that he can do damage. - After the Magitek Factory, the boss strategy (and for some random encounters, as well) for the rest of the game is as follows: Cast Zoneseek, cast Fenrir/Phantom/Golem, attack with spells/specials, heal as necessary, fight over. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1-6. Walkthrough -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ===================================================== *Narshe* Watch the opening scene. Once you have control of Terra, Vicks and Wedge, take off Terra’s equips, and put her in the back row. You can put Vicks and Wedge in the back row too, if you like. Just make your way to the end of the mines, you don’t need to save if you don’t want to. You’ll encounter your very first boss fight: Whelk. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Whelk- He’s not any harder than in a normal game, so just kill the foo’. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After that, watch the scene, then head through the mines. Skip the items if you like, but remember that they become an elixir and a pod bracelet in the WoR. The elixir would be useful, but the pod bracelet would be useless, and since I can’t remember which items become which, I’ll just suggest to either take both or none. After Terra falls through the floor, watch the scene and the first multi-party battle will begin. I recommend using the party with Mog in it. Take off Mog’s equips, of course, and if you like, put him in the back row. If you’re also worried about the other Moogles in your party, you can put Kupop, Kuku, Kamog, and Kupan in the back row, and they’ll still do the same damage. I can’t remember which of those are in Mog’s party, but oh well; you’ll be fine either way. In every battle after his first, Mog should use his Dusk Requiem Dance, as nothing in here survives Mog’s moves when he uses that dance. Once you beat the Marshal, you get control of Locke and Terra. Go into the Beginner’s Hall, heal up, loot the place of items, and then go outside and save your game. You should head to Figaro Castle now. You should also put Locke and Terra in the front row, for two reasons: 1) the enemies here are too weak to do much damage to you, even in the front row, and 2) you’ll need to put everyone in the front row anyway, for the upcoming fight with the M-Tek Armours. ===================================================== *Figaro Castle* After talking to Edgar, get the items that are in the two rooms where the merchants are, and then buy a Bio Blaster and a Noise Blaster. Use the rest of your money on items, emphasizing potions, antidotes, and if you feel like it, phoenix downs. Go talk to Matron, and then go back to Edgar. Once you have control of Edgar, take off his equipment. After the following events, you’ll fight the M-Tek Armours. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -M-Tek Armours (2)- You get back attacked for this fight, so it’s a good thing that your characters were put in the front row beforehand, otherwise they’d be in the front row for this battle instead of the back row. You can have some fun with these things. Have Edgar use Noise Blaster to confuse them both. Then have Terra cast Fire, have Locke steal, and have Edgar either use Bio Blaster or use Noise Blaster again if one of them comes back to its senses. You should take no more damage than that from the initial two hits these guys get on you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Watch the scene, then head over to Figaro Cave. Remember to put your characters back in the back row. ===================================================== *Figaro Cave* A little suggestion: DON”T take any of the treasures from here, they will become better ones later on. Oh, and don’t bother using a sleeping bag or a tent before entering the cave, cause there’s a recovery spring in the first room. Just make your way though to South Figaro. ===================================================== *South Figaro* Once you’re there, buy a pair of Sprint Shoes if you want to (I’m assuming you do), then stock up on more items. You can go to the pub and name Shadow if you want. Oh, and be sure not to take any of the items in the town. You won’t need any of them now, and most of them become better items in Locke’s scenario/the WoR. Once you’re done, rent a chocobo (or walk, I guess), and go to Mt Kolts. ===================================================== *Mt Kolts* This place isn’t too hard. As long as you are in the back row, and you keep an eye on your HPs, you should be fine. Edgar should use Autocrossbow, Terra should cast Fire, and Locke should either steal, use items to heal, or punch things. Make your way to Vargas. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Vargas- This fight isn’t hard at all. Have Terra cast Fire, or if you need her to, Cure. Have Edgar use Autocrossbow, and have Locke just sit there and heal with items if anyone gets low on HP. Once they’re done with, use the same strategy against Vargas until Sabin appears. Once Sabin is on his own, just use Pummel. You don’t really have to remove his equipment now; the fight won’t last more than a few seconds once he arrives. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the battle, watch the scene. Sabin joins your party. Be sure to take off his equipment now. Once you’re out, head to the Returner’s Hideout. ===================================================== *Returner’s Hideout* Just go though all the mandatory story crap, making sure to loot the place of everything it has. It doesn’t matter whether you take the genji glove or the gauntlet, they’re both worth 1GP, and you can’t use either of them. Also, if you don’t have a healthy supply of potions (I would say at least 20), be sure to buy them now. It might also be a good idea to spend some money on tonics, although you don’t need to. Once you’re ready, put Banon in the back row and hop on the raft. ===================================================== *Lete River* Every round of battle, have Terra cast Fire, have Edgar use Autocrossbow, have Sabin use Aurabolt, and have Banon use Health. Choose left each time you’re asked which way to go. Eventually you’ll fight Ultros. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Ultros- He’s easy. Use the same strategy that I mentioned above, and he’ll go down. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the battle, watch the scene, and you’ll be prompted to choose a scenario. It doesn’t really matter which one you choose first, but I’ll be listing them in the order that I chose them. ===================================================== *Terra’s Scenario: Lete River Continued* For the rest of the Lete River, use the same strategy as told above, minus Sabin. You’ll soon arrive near Narshe. ===================================================== *Narshe Revisited* Make your way to Arvis’ house. Be sure to take the rune edge, since it’s worth money, and the ribbon that it would normally turn into isn’t. Once you arrive, the scenario ends. ===================================================== *Locke’s Scenario: South Figaro Revisited* Once you have control, just go back and forth between the merchant costume and the officer costume, doing all the necessary tasks, same as in a normal game. Once you get to the secret passage in the Rich Man’s house, go down the stairs and you’ll find Celes. If you like you can take the running shoes and the hyper wrist from the room that the hidden staircase on the lower wall of the basement hallway leads to. Otherwise, just head into the room with all the crap in it, open all the chests, wind the clock, and enter the maze. The enemies in here don’t take that much to kill, but if you wander aimlessly they can wear you out pretty quickly. Just have Locke punch and have Celes cast Ice. You don’t really need any of the treasures in here, so just head out to the world map, and then to Figaro Cave. ===================================================== *Figaro Cave Revisited* You can take two of the treasures that are in here now. The treasures that they become in the WoR aren’t as good for our purposes as the treasures that they are now. Take the X-potion that’s up the left staircase as you enter the cave, and take the Thunder Rod that’s up the top- left staircase in the next room. Also, be sure to encounter a Primorde while you're here, as we'll be using it's Rage later on. Eventually you’ll get back to the room with the recovery spring in it. This is where we begin our training. Train Locke and Celes up to level 14. The reason they have to be at this level is because otherwise one of the upcoming boss’ attacks could kill them in one hit, which would mess up our entire strategy. You can heal as often as you like with the recovery spring nearby. Once you’re ready, try to head outside, and TunnelArmour will attack you. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -TunnelArmour- Normally, this guy would be easy because Celes could absorb his magic with her Runic blade. However, because she can’t use it, we have to have enough HPs to survive them, which is why I had you level your party up to 14. The strategy is as follows: Have Celes cast Ice every round, and have Locke heal every round. If TunnelArmour uses his physical, use a tonic. If he uses Drill or a spell on a single target, use a potion. If he used a spell on both of your characters, have each character use a potion on him/herself (Celes can cast Cure on herself instead of a potion). You’ll kill him eventually. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I know that you could’ve just used that Thunder rod that you just picked up, but it would have been a waste. After the battle, Locke’s Scenario Ends. ===================================================== *Sabin’s Scenario: Crazy Guy’s House* Go to the house next to you and you’ll find Shadow. Seriously, accept his help. Then talk to the Merchant and buy 99 shurikens. There is no excuse not to be able to afford 99 of them, unless you’ve been buying WAY to many items. In any case, once you’ve done that, head outside to the Imperial Camp. ===================================================== *Imperial Camp* There are a lot of scenes to watch in here, so to avoid being redundant, I’m not going to keep typing, “watch the scene”. You can get treasures from the tents if you want. The chest in the closest tent on the left from the entrance must be kicked to open. You’ll have to fight a few Dobermans after you kick it. Just use Aurabolt and throw shurikens. In another tent, there’s a chest with a monster-in-a-box, Telstar. Use the same strategy. Eventually you’ll gain control of Cyan. Take off his equipment and fight the leader. Just use your physical and heal if you need to. After Cyan goes berserk and you help him fight off the guards, take the Magitek Armour. Once you’re out, head for the Phantom Forest. ===================================================== *Phantom Forest and the Ghost Train* Make your way to the train. There’s no point in taking along a Ghost, since it’ll only leech the exp you get from winning fights. While you’re here, be sure to encounter a Hazer (I’m sure that you will, they aren’t rare). At the car with all the dinner tables you can completely restore your party. If you try to open the lone chest that’s in a particular room, you’ll fight with Ziegfried. This fight is always pretty funny; it’s usually over before my characters even have the chance to choose a command, as Interceptor blocks one of his weak ass attacks and counterattacks, killing him in one hit. Anyway, in another room there are four chests, one of which contains a monster-in-a-box, Specter. It isn’t hard at all to defeat. Once you’re at the train car, pull the left and right switch in the conductor’s room, then go up to the smoke stack and pull that switch. You’ll fight the frickin’ train now, for some reason. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Phantom Train- For a laugh, have Sabin use Suplex. Now then, if you want to beat him normally, have Sabin use Aurabolt, have Shadow throw shurikens, and have Cyan sit there and heal if anyone needs healing. Or you can do it the quick way and use a phoenix down on him. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After that’s done with, watch the scene. You’ll then appear on the world map again. Go to Barren Falls. ===================================================== *Barren Falls* Before you enter this place make sure that you have encountered a Stray Cat. Once you have, jump off the cliff. You’ll start fighting a bunch of piranhas as you fall. Just use “fight” against them, they only have like 10 HP. Eventually, Rizopas will attack. Have Sabin use Aurabolt, and have Cyan attack. Repeat for an easy win. You’ll then wash ashore on the veldt, and a scene will take place in which you name Gau. You are then free to move around on the Veldt. ===================================================== *The Veldt* Have Gau join your party. Now then, we COULD just go into the serpent trench and end the scenario, but we need to power Gau up first. I want you to get the following rages: - Hazer - Templar - Pterodon - Stray Cat - Marshal - Primorde The reason I say to get them now is because Gau’s rages suck right now, and those are the useful (and sometimes essential) ones for this challenge that we have access to now. Also, if you try and get them later, it will take longer as you will have encountered more enemies. If you don’t understand me, just read the section about the veldt in Terii Senshi’s Algorithims Guide on gamefaqs.com. Once you’ve gotten all those rages, head into the Cave in the Veldt. Watch the scene, and then jump into the river. Sabin should use Aurabolt, Cyan should heal with items, and Gau should use either Pterodon or Hazer, depending on what you’re fighting. Aspiks are weak against Fire, Anguiforms are weak against Bolt, and Actaneons are weak against both elements. The battles here aren’t too hard, just be sure to kill everything quickly. Oh yeah, watch out for the Aspiks, ‘cause when they die they might cast Giga Volt, which will either kill one of your characters, if it was single-targeted, or severely hurt your entire party, if it was multi- targeted. You’ll wake up in Nikeah. Buy items if you need to, then hop aboard the ship. This is the end of Sabin’s scenario. ===================================================== *The Battle at Narshe* Watch the scene. Once in the snowfields, just save your game and talk to Banon, since you have no equipment to rearrange. The war begins. I would suggest that you choose one super-party instead of three lesser parties. Cyan and Locke are already out of the question because they suck in this challenge. That leaves five characters to make a party of four from. Well, let’s think. Everything here is weak against Fire, so Terra’s in. Edgar’s Autocrossbow is powerful against the enemies here, too, so he’s in. Gau can use his Pterodon Rage for nice Fire damage, so he’s in. Although you probably don’t have Fire Dance yet, Sabin’s Blitzes are still strong, so he’s in. Celes is out because she is basically exactly like Terra, except she has lower magic power and her spells will be weaker because she can’t exploit any weaknesses. Something else I might suggest (and is what I actually ended up doing) is not using Terra at all, and just using Edgar, Sabin, and Gau. Putting Terra in the party is kinda pointless, since she leaves immediately afterwards, and when you get her back her level is recalculated, so the experience she gets here means nothing at all. In any case, make your party and blast through the enemy until you get to Kefka. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Kefka- He’s kinda hard, but you should be fine. Basically the only two attacks you’ll need to worry about are Ice2 and Drain. If someone gets drained after you’ve done lots of damage to him, that character WILL die. Also, Ice2 can wipe out your entire party, if you don’t keep an eye on your HPs. Sabin should use Aurabolt, Edgar should use Autocrossbow, Gau should use Templar, Terra should either cast Cure or Fire, Celes (if you used her, for some reason), should cast Cure or Ice. --UPDATE-- An easier way to win this battle is to have Gau use the Primorde Rage, as Kefka is vulnerable to stop. Once he's stopped, all you have to do is unload your attacks on him. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After he’s done with, watch the scene. You are then prompted to form a party to find Terra with. As you know, Locke and Cyan are out of the question, which SHOULD make things easy, because with them out you only have four characters left, right? Wrong. If you only take three characters, you can get Shadow temporarily from Kolinghen. I suggest that you do the latter. Take Sabin, Edgar, and Gau. Before you go to Figaro Castle, go to the small house with all the treasure in it. Loot it now, since the money from these items will come in handy. Anyway, head to Figaro Castle once you’re done. ===================================================== *Figaro Castle Revisited and Kolinghen* At Figaro Castle, put Edgar in the lead and buy his new tools, Flash and Drill. Oh, and buy items from here, too. Talk to the guy in the entrance to the basement to go to Kolinghen. Once at Kolinghen, go to the pub and talk to Shadow. Pay him the 3000 GP and he’ll join. If you’re low on shurikens, replenish your supply at the weapon shop. You can also buy some skeans if you’re worried (it doesn’t matter which kind), but you won’t really need them. After you’re done, head to Zozo. ===================================================== *Zozo* I should tell you about the enemies in here. The Gabbldegaks and Harvesters are nothing to worry about, but the SlamDancers and HadesGigases are. SlamDancers are capable of casting the level 2 black spells. If said spells are targeted against one character, it will kill him/her. If it’s targeted against your entire party, it will either cripple you, or kill some of your characters and cripple others, or kill your whole party. Be sure to kill these things as soon as possible when you encounter them. Also, the HadesGigases, while not a huge threat for most of the battle, cast Magnitute8 when they die. This attack will, also, either cripple you, or kill you. It might be best to just avoid HadesGigases altogether. One thing to remember, though: you’ll want to encounter a SlamDancer at least once, since we’ll be using its rage later on in the game. The first thing that you should do is get the Chain Saw. For those of you who can’t remember how, go to the north-most building, and set the clock to 6:10:50. After that, make your way to the top of the town. You’ll eventually encounter Dadaluma. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Dadaluma- He isn’t hard at all. Gau should use Templar, Sabin should use Aurabolt, Edgar should use Drill, Shadow should throw shurikens, and if you didn’t take my advice and decided to bring Celes, have her cast Ice. --UPDATE-- Dadaluma is also vulnerable to stop. Just have Gau bust out his Primorde Rage and the fight is in the bag. Dadaluma is really weak anyway, so it's not like you HAVE to use it, yeah? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once you’ve finished him off, continue upwards until you find Terra. Watch the scene. You’ll then be prompted to form a party. Unfortunately, you HAVE to take Locke and Celes. The real question is which of the other three should you take along? Yes, I am purposely excluding Cyan. Here’s what they have to offer. Sabin: He’s a good choice. He probably knows Fire Dance by now, and that attack is really useful for the Factory. Mind you, using Blitzes against Ultros will make him counterattack with Acid Rain. It’s probably Ultros’ strongest attack, but it’s still not that strong. Edgar: His tools will be a huge help. Drill or Chain Saw against bosses, Flash against the rats in the Opera House and the enemies in the Factory. Gau: Well, his rages are strong (stronger than Tools or Blitz, for the most part), but they’re less practical than Blitzes or Tools because you can’t control him that way. He’s still strong though; you definitely won’t feel weaker if you choose him. Once you’ve, chosen your party, head to Jidoor. ===================================================== *Jidoor* Go to the topmost house, talk to the Impresario, then ride a chocobo (or walk…) to the Opera House. ===================================================== *Opera House* Once you’ve arrived, go through all the storyline stuff. For those of you who don’t want to bother memorizing Celes’ lines, the correct ones are, in order, “Oh my hero…”, “I’m the darkness…”, and “Must I…”. Once you’re up in the rafters, the fighting begins. The best way to kill the rats is to use Fire Dance, Flash, and/or Pterodon. Make sure to kill the yellow rats quickly, or else they’ll summon more grey rats. Before you fight Ultros, put Sabin (if you’re using him) in the third or fourth position (one of the two lower ones), and put Locke and your other character in the first and second positions (the two higher ones). Now go fight Ultros. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Ultros- He isn’t too hard. Locke should just sit there and heal whoever needs healing. Edgar should use drill, Gau should use Templar, and Sabin should use Fire Dance. The reason I had you position your characters as I did is because now, Sabin is on his own on one side of Ultros, and the other two characters are on the other side. This is better because when Sabin uses a blitz on Ultros, Ultros will counterattack with Acid Rain, which will do over 150 damage to all characters on the side that he uses it on. If Sabin is the only one who gets hit, then there are less people to heal, right? --UPDATE-- If you chose to use Gau, you can make this fight a cinch by using Primorde to inflict stop on him(aren't you glad you picked up this Rage?). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the fight, watch the scene. You’ll end up beside Albrook. There’s nothing to do there, or in any of the towns on this continent, for that matter, besides stock up on items. Once you’re ready, head to Vector. ===================================================== *Vector and the Magitek Factory* Just talk to the returner-sympathizer and you’ll end up in the Factory. Everything in here is weak against Bolt, so Gau should use his Hazer rage. Sabin should use Fire Dance against groups of enemies, and Aurabolt against the ProtoArmours, Edgar should use Flash against the groups of enemies, and Chain Saw against the ProtoArmours. Locke should steal or use items. Celes should either cast Ice or Cure. Make your way through the factory collecting treasure along the way. Once you get to the place with Ifrit and Shiva, save your game in the left room, then talk to Ifrit to begin the fight. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Ifrit and Shiva- These two are like a tag team, in the sense that they keep rotating who fights against you. To avoid accidentally healing one of them, I suggest this strategy. Sabin should use Pummel (these two nullify all elements other than either Fire or Ice, and since they don’t share one of those as a weakness, it’s just better not to use elemental attacks at all). Edgar should use Drill. Gau should use Stray Cat (for the same reasons as Sabin). Locke should sit there and heal with potions. Celes should heal with Cure, or if you want, have her cast Ice on Ifrit. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the fight you get their useless magicite. Save your game if you want and head through the right door, up the stairs, past the tubes, until you get to Number 024. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Number 024- This guy is pretty easy. Just have Celes cast Imp on him. He’ll be reduced to nothing but physical attacks. You can just unload on him and he’ll go down easily. Mind you, you may still have to heal, since his physicals still hurt you with no equipment on. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After that, head through the door, watch the scene, save your game and hop on to the mine cart. The Magroaders will go down easily with one or two uses of Flash, Fire Dance, and/or Pterodon. Eventually, you’ll encounter Number 128. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Number 128- This guy is kinda tricky. He mainly uses physical attacks, and they DO hurt. He can also cast stop on your characters. First of all, Sabin should use Fire Dance, NOT Aurabolt or Pummel. See, Number 128 has his main body (which is what we want to kill), and two arms (which are a waste of time to kill). Since Blitz can’t be targeted, it’s better to just hit all the targets with a weaker attack than risk having a stronger attack miss the target completely. Edgar should use Drill on the main body, Gau should use Pterodon, and Locke should heal with potions. As long as you keep your HPs up, you’ll survive. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Afterwards, you’ll end up on the train tracks beside a save point. Use the save point if you want (I recommend using it), then head down the tracks until you meet Setzer. Watch the scene, then a boss fight initiates. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Cranes- First thing’s first. Remove Setzer’s weapon and shield. Now for the strategy. The left crane absorbs Bolt, and the right one absorbs Fire. I would suggest killing the right one first, since it will cast Bolt spells on the left one. Have Sabin use Aurabolt. Have Edgar use Drill. Have Setzer use his Slots. Have Locke heal with items, as always. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the fight, watch the scene. You get Terra back (yay). Do as she says and head to Narshe. ===================================================== *Narshe Revisited Again* Watch the scene. After you regain control of your party, head back to the house that had all the treasure in it. Follow Lone Wolf to where he is holding Mog hostage. Do as he says and don’t move. Mog will break free and you’ll be given the choice of saving Mog or Lone Wolf. Seriously, save Mog. In addition to being necessary for many areas of the World of Balance, he’s probably the most powerful character in the game at this point. Besides, saving Lone Wolf will only get you a Gold Hairpin, which you can’t use anyway. Now that you have Mog in your party, it’s time to all of his Dances that we can, since right now all he will likely have is Dusk Requiem. This is how to get them: - Wind Song: fight on a grassy plain on the world map - Forest Suite: fight in a forest - Love Sonata: fight in a town (go to Zozo) - Earth Blues: fight on a mountain (the cliff areas of Mt Kolts is best) - Desert Aria: fight in the desert - Dusk Requiem: fight in a cave (you should already have this one, though, if you used Mog at all in the battle with Locke and the Moogles) - Water Rondo: fight underwater (the Serpent Trench is the only place where you can do this) - Snowman Jazz: you can’t get this one yet The only three that we REALLY need to get are Wind Song, Earth Blues and Water Rondo. The Water Rondo is tricky to get, so I’ll walk you through it. Bring Gau along for this. Oh yeah, remember that if you want to learn a Dance, you have to be fighting on its corresponding terrain. So if you are in the mountains and you use Wind Song successfully, the terrain will change, which means that you won’t learn Earth Blues. Land the airship beside Nikeah. Rent a chocobo and head all the way to Barren Falls. Then jump off, and you’ll be on the veldt again. Before you head to the cave in the veldt, run around on the veldt and get Gau the following rages: - Aspik - Anguiform - SlamDancer Those are the last of Gau’s rages that you’ll need in the WoB. After you’ve gotten them, head into the cave in the veldt, then jump into the Serpent Trench. After you’re out, you’ll be in Nikeah, and Mog will have learned Water Rondo. Head outside and there’s your airship. Now it’s time to go to the Sealed Cave, but before we do, we need to understand what we’re up against. ===================================================== *Sealed Cave* In the sealed cave, everything absorbs Fire except for an enemy called Zombone. Oddly enough, most of the enemies in here are also undead. There are two parts to this place: the dark caves and the fiery caves. In the dark caves, you’ll find Apparites, Coelecites, and Liches. The first two are weak against Ice, and the third is only weak against Holy. They all absorb Fire. In the fiery caves, the only two enemies you’ll encounter are Ings and Zombones. Zombones are, like any normal undead creature, weak against Fire. Ings absorb Fire, but are weak against water. Since the fiery caves make up the majority of this dungeon, we’re going to prepare for that, mainly. That’s why I had you do all the things that you did before coming here. Now to choose characters. As always, I’m leaving out Locke and Cyan. Terra: You have to take her here, anyway, which is a shame, since she doesn’t offer much in the way of offense OR defense. Edgar: His tools do non-elemental damage, so he isn’t really at a disadvantage here. On the other hand, he doesn’t have an advantage over anything here, either, since his tools aren’t especially strong. I would say no to choosing him. Sabin: Fire Dance is pretty much useless here. Aurabolt is still strong, but because it only targets one enemy at a time, it makes him less useful than a few of the other characters. I would also have to say no to Sabin. Setzer: His slots are surprisingly strong in this place. He’s a good choice. Gau: Anguiform casts Aqua Rake, which is some of that water damage that we’re aching for. Also, he can cast Ice2 with SlamDancer against the enemies in the dark caves, and if you encounter a group of Zombones, he can use Templar for Fire2. He’s an excellent choice. Mog: His Water Rondo Dance cleans house in this place. Use it in any battle other than one with only Zombones in it. In one of those battles, use Dusk Requiem. Mog is also an excellent choice. As you can see, the best party to use for this place is Terra, Gau, Mog, and Setzer. Take those four and head in. Against a group of Zombones, have Terra cast Fire, have Gau use Templar, have Mog use Dusk Requiem, and have Setzer use his slots. In any other battle, have Mog use Water Rondo, have Gau use Anguiform, have Setzer use his slots, and have Terra cast Cure, either to heal the party or to attack the undead enemies with. It’s also a good idea to have Gau floating. To do this have him use his Aspik rage. He’ll be inflicted with Float, and the effect will last you until you use a tent or rest at an inn. The reason we want Gau to be floating is because the Ings in here can use an attack called Lifeshaver, which is a very powerful drain spell. If you’ve done a lot of damage to one of these things, then that attack will likely kill you. However, if one of your characters is floating, that character can’t be hit by it. Once you come to a point where there’s a big rock with two switches on it, press the left switch and a doorway will open. Inside is a save point and a chest containing a tent. Flipping the switch on the right will initiate a fight with an enemy called Ninja. His skean attacks are the only attacks that you’ll need to worry about with him. They hit your entire party for HEAVY damage. The best way to kill him is to just go all out and hit him with your best attacks. Gau should use Aspik, Mog should use Dusk Requiem, Setzer should use his slots, and Terra should cast Fire. Anyway, make your way through the cave until you get to the Sealed Gate. Watch the scene, leave the cave, go back to the airship, watch the scene, and then head to Vector. ===================================================== *Vector Revisited* Go and talk to the Emperor, and then start the soldier converting. I actually forgot to un-equip my sprint shoes, so I was able to talk to all of the soldiers with lots of time to spare, when I should have just been walking, according to my rules. For that reason, I don’t actually know if it’s possible to talk to all 24 soldiers in four minutes without being able to run, but I can advise you on the fastest way to go about doing it. First of all, head to the front door, talking to all the soldiers along the way. Then head through the front door, and talk to the three down here. You’ll have to fight one of them. Aspik, Chain Saw, or Aurabolt should take care of any soldiers that you’ll have to fight here in one hit, if not, then two. Once you’ve talked to those ones, go back inside and go through the left door. DON”T go through the first door you see, but go up the stairs and through the next door. Talk to all the soldiers in here, making sure to talk to the one who’s hiding in the bathroom through the door in the top left corner of this room. You’ll have to fight two soldiers in here. Next, head out the door, and make your way upstairs. Once you get to the balcony, talk to the soldiers that are on the left hand side where you are, then head to the middle and up the stairs, talking to the two guys in Magitek Armour that are in front of the door. Go through the door and you’ll fight another soldier. Then head down, go to the right, talk to the other guy standing there, and go through the door. Make your way to the staircase, and then go down a level and through the first door you see. The remaining three guys are here. Like I said, I don’t know if it’s possible to talk to all of them without Sprint Shoes, since I forgot to take mine off. The rewards you get from talking to all of them are useless, though, since it’s just equipment, which you can’t use, and money, which you have plenty of, anyway. After your four minutes are up, you’ll be called into the banquet. Gestahl will start talking, and you’ll be given a series of choices of responses to what he says. Again, the rewards you get for choosing the right responses are useless to us, but if you want to get them anyway, here are the correct responses: - “To our hometowns” - “Leave him in jail” - “That was inexcusable” - “Celes is one of us” - When he lets you ask him questions, ask him each one ONCE, and only once. Remember which one you asked him first. Then say “Let’s talk about espers” - “The espers have gone too far” - When he asks you which question you asked him first, simply select which one you asked first - When Cid asks you if you would like to take a break, say yes. Then go up to one of the four guys sitting beside Gestahl and agree to fight them. After the battle, take your seat - “That the war is really over” - Say yes the first time he asks for Terra’s help If you did all of this correctly, you’ll get a charm bangle and tintinabar. Just head to Albrook once you’re finished. ===================================================== *Albrook* Go to the dock, talk to Leo on the ship, stay at the inn, watch the scene, wake up, talk to Leo on the ship again, watch the scene, and you’ll arrive on Triangle Island. Head up to Thamasa. ===================================================== *Thamasa and the Burning House* Search through the various barrels in town for useless items, if you want, otherwise just go to Strago’s house, and watch the scene. Then go rest at the inn, watch the scene, and then head into the burning house. First, take off Strago’s equipment. Then just make your way through the house. Against the enemies in here, your only way of killing them is having Strago cast Aqua Rake. You’ll have to choose between a left and a right door a total of three times. Always choose the right doors first, before taking the left doors. Choosing the first right door just takes you to the next set of doors, but the other two times you’ll find a Fire Rod, and then an Ice Rod. The Ice Rod is very important. After getting the rods from the right rooms, take the left door. Continue through the house until you encounter Flame Eater. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Flame Eater- First, have Strago cast Aqua Rake to get rid of the balloons. Then have Terra Morph, and use the Ice rod on Flame Eater. If it doesn’t kill him instantly, it will only take a couple of castings of Aqua Rake to take him down. Easy fight. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Afterwards, watch the scene. Then, head to the mountains. ===================================================== *Esper Mountain* A few things should be said about this place. First of all, don’t use physical attacks on the Adamanchts (I don’t know why you would, but just don’t anyway), as they will counterattack with Sneeze. Second, don’t cast Aqua Rake on the Mandrakes, and watch out when you kill them, because they may use raid just as they die, which will probably do some serious damage to one of your characters, if it doesn’t kill him/her. Thirdly, and most importantly, be sure to encounter a group of Abolishers on the cliffs. Don’t do anything for three turns and they will cast Pearl Wind. Once they have, simply kill them and Strago will have learned it. You WILL need this Lore for the floating continent. Anyway, just make your way to the statues, watch the scene, and then fight Ultros. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Ultros- Have Terra morph and use that Fire Rod that we still have. Then have her cast Fire2. Have Locke use items to heal if you need to, and have Strago either cast Stone or Pearl Wind. Eventually, Relm will come. Watch the scene, use Sketch, and the fight will be over. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Afterwards, just make your way up to the room with the espers in it. Watch the series of scenes that follow. Once you have control of your party again, board the airship, and watch the scene. ===================================================== *The IAF Sequence and the Floating Continent* Before we try this, we need to makes some preparations. First, buy 99 tonics and potions. Second, buy lots of skeans. Personally, I just bought 50 of each elemental skean, and 20 inviz and shadow edges. That way I didn’t have to buy any more for a long time. If you only want to buy the bare minimum right now, for some reason, then I would suggest getting 20 of each elemental skean, one inviz edge, and about 10 shadow edges. Oh, and it would also be nice to have some shurikens, too. Finally, you should have lots of phoenix downs; I would say 30, to be safe. You may not need to use one at all, but it’ll suck if you DO need one and you don’t have any. Next, make sure that you have a few other things. I’m mainly talking about Pearl Wind for Strago, Wind Song and Earth Blues for Mog, and for Gau, you should have Aspik, Marshal, Templar, and SlamDancer. If you followed my advice so far, you should already have all of these things, but I’m just making sure that you don’t forget anything. Now that we’re all stocked up and powered up, we can head to the continent itself. Your party should be Strago, Gau, and Mog. The battles with the Sky Armours and Spit Fires are easy. Simply have Gau use Marshal (Wind Slash), have Mog use Wind Song (All of the moves that go with this song are strong, and it’s the home terrain, so Mog will never stumble), and have Strago cast Aqua Rake. The thing that all of these moves have in common is Wind-elemental damage, which these enemies are weak against. Eventually, you’ll fight Ultros and Chupon. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Ultros and Chupon- In this fight, have Gau use Aspik, have Mog use Wind Song, and have Strago sit there and heal (only if you need to, though. Remember that Mog will use Sun Bath rather frequently with Wing Song, so wait until he does something before you cast Pearl Wind) until Chupon comes, then have him cast Aqua Rake. See, it doesn’t matter that we’re healing Ultros, as long as we do damage to Chupon, the battle will end and we can continue. Once this happens, you’ll fight Air Force. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Air Force- The first thing that we want to do is get rid of Air Force’s appendages, since they are the only things that actually do damage. He is weak against water and bolt, so have Strago cast Aqua Rake, have Gau use Aspik, and have Mog use the Thunder Rod that you have before using Wind Song. Don’t worry about the speck. This boss is easy; he should die before his countdown reaches 0. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once that fight is over, you’ll land on the floating continent. Get Shadow and save your game. Now I’m going to tell you all about the enemies in this place, because the information will be VERY helpful. See, all the enemies in here all have a weakness except for the Wirey Dragons. You WILL need to exploit those weaknesses in some way if you want to win battles. Now for battle strategies. Brainpan: One of the easier enemies in this place. The only thing that you’ll have to worry about with them is them using smirk on one of your characters, which inflicts stop on whoever it hits. Note that Strago can learn Blow Fish from these things if there is only one of them remaining. I didn’t, however, because the way I killed them, they all died together in one attack. See, they’re weak against Fire and Bolt, and Shadow has those Fire Skeans and Bolt Edges. One use of one of those and they’ll all go down. If one of them uses Smirk on Shadow before he can throw a skean, have Gau use Aspik, have Mog use Earth Blues (for the record, Mog will ALWAYS be using Earth Blues, no matter what he’s fighting), and have Strago cast Aqua Rake. They’ll still die pretty quickly. Apokryphos: These things are also pretty easy. They have three Lores that Strago can learn: Lvl 5 Doom, Lvl 4 Flare, and Lvl 3 Muddle. They cast them randomly as counterattacks. You’ll need to learn Lvl 4 Flare, at least, if you want to make it out of the floating continent without cheating. They are weak against Water and Bolt, so the best way to kill them is to have Shadow throw either a Water or Bolt Edge, have Strago cast Aqua Rake, and have Gau use Aspik. Misfit: These things can be a pain. They aren’t very strong except for when they use Lifeshaver. You’ve already had experience with that attack so I won’t need to explain it to you. The best way to avoid being hit by it is to wait until they do something, then launch an all out attack. Hopefully they’ll die, and if they don’t, then hopefully they won’t use Lifeshaver. They are weak against fire, so have Gau use Templar, and have Shadow throw Fire Skeans. Strago can just cast Aqua Rake. Behemoth: They aren’t so bad. They have a lot of HP, and they counterattack with Take Down, which is a fairly powerful physical attack, but that’s all they do. The only character that can exploit their weakness to Ice is Gau, so have him use SlamDancer. Shadow should throw Shurikens, and Strago should cast Aqua Rake, or if you have it, Lvl 4 Flare. You should encounter one at least once, as it's Rage is very useful in the WoR. Wirey Dragon: They appear in groups of three, and they have no weakness. The best way to kill them is for Strago to cast Aqua Rake, Gau to use Marshal, and Shadow to throw skeans (doesn’t matter which ones). Dragon: It’s weak against Thunder, and it’ll use Sneeze as a random counterattack. Have Gau use Aspik, have Shadow throw Bolt Edges, and have Strago cast Aqua Rake. Ninja: These are the most dangerous enemies on the Floating Continent. They throw skeans for very heavy damage on your entire party, they’re fast, and you can’t run from them. You need to beat them quickly. They’re weak against thunder, so have Gau use Aspik, and have Shadow throw Bolt Edges Strago should still cast Aqua Rake. We’re not quite done with the strategies, even though we’ve listed all the enemies in here. See, if they appear in a mixed group, then we’ll need to alter our strategies. - Behemoths can appear with Misfits sometimes. If that happens, use the Misfit Strategy. - Apokryphoses, Misfits, and Brainpans can appear together in different groups. Sometimes it’s just two of the three in a group, sometimes it’s all three. If there is even one Misfit in the group, use the Misfit Strategy. Otherwise, use the Brainpan strategy. - Dragons, Wirey Dragons, and Ninjas will only ever appear on their own. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, it’s time to move on. This place is actually more straightforward than it looks, so I’ll leave it up to you to solve the “puzzles”. If you want the hardened knife, and you want to know how to beat Gigantos, here’s how: Basically, Gigantos is a pure physical attacker, and a VERY fast and VERY strong one at that. I beat him easily, however, by having Shadow use that inviz edge that I told you to bring along. See, Gigantos doesn’t cast any spells, so the vanish status will never wear off for this fight. Hence, Shadow cannot be hurt. Also, something that I didn’t try but that you could probably do is to cast Lvl 5 Doom on him, since he’s level 25. In any case, make your way through the place until you get to the spot where the Beret is. The platform below that leads to a save point. USE IT. Then go ahead beyond the airship and fight AtmaWeapon. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -AtmaWeapon- This is the hardest boss thus far. He has lots of strong attacks and spells that we can do nothing to prevent. However, the main two that we will hope that he never casts are Quarter and W Wind. This is what I want you to do. Have Gau use Aspik. Have Mog use Wind Song until it succeeds. Have Shadow throw a Shadow Edge on himself, and then have him throw skeans (they’re stronger than shurikens in this case). If his image status ever wears off, have him use another Shadow Edge. Strago should literally just sit there and wait until he has to heal anyone with Pearl Wind. But remember that you may not have to use it, since Mog’s Wind Song has a high chance of using Sun Bath, which is a very good healing spell. In the event of Atma using either W Wind or Quarter, wait until it’s Shadow’s turn. Have him use an X-potion (or an elixir if you don’t have any X-potions) on Strago, and then have Strago cast Pearl Wind. Just pray that Atma doesn’t use some multi-targeting attack on your party before you heal, because it will probably kill you. If Mog or Gau dies, use Shadow to revive him, and then have Strago cast Pearl Wind. If Shadow dies, revive him with Strago, then next round have Shadow throw a Shadow Edge and have Strago cast Pearl Wind. If Strago dies, have Shadow revive him, then next round have Shadow use either an elixir or an X-potion on him, and have him cast Pearl Wind. The order of priority to revive someone is Strago, Shadow, Mog, and Gau. You’ll be able to beat Atma with this strategy unless the worst happens and he follows up W Wind or Quarter with a spell that hits your entire party. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once he’s done with, go back to the save point and save your game. If you haven’t learned Lvl 4 Flare, you need to learn it now. Also, if you haven't encountered a Behemoth, you should also do it now. Once you're ready, head up to where Gestahl and Kefka are. Watch the scene. You then appear in the final part of the Floating Continent. This is one of those timed areas, so you’ll have to take off your sprint shoes. Before Nerapa, the only enemy you’ll encounter will be a Naughty. You’ll need to kill them as quickly as possible. Have Strago cast Lvl 4 Flare, have Gau use Templar, and have Mog use Earth Blues. Celes should not cast Ice, as it will heal them. Eventually, you’ll encounter Nerapa. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Nerapa- Nerapa is kinda tricky. He has reflect on him, so we won’t be able to exploit his weakness to Ice or Bolt. Have Mog use Earth Blues, have Gau use Stray Cat (I’m actually not sure if Giga Volt is reflectable, I didn’t chance it when I fought Nerapa. If it isn’t, then Aspik is a better choice than Stray Cat), have Strago cast Stone, and have Celes heal with Cure. You should beat him quickly enough. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- One item of mention is that in order to save Shadow, you need to have gotten to the end, been given the option of waiting or jumping, and have chosen to wait BEFORE the timer reaches 0:05. If you didn’t manage to do it, then restart. We WILL need Shadow in the WoR. I know that this is frustrating (it took me a few tries before I managed to do it), but just keep at it. Once you’re finished, watch the scene. ===================================================== *Solitary Island* First of all, congratulations for reaching the World of Ruin. I know that it wasn’t easy. Well, unfortunately, it doesn’t get easier from here on (For the most part). Once you have control of Celes, either save or kill Cid. It doesn’t matter which. Watch the next scene and you’ll appear close to Albrook. Head there and stock up on items. After you’re ready, head to Tzen. ===================================================== *Tzen and the Collapsing House* Watch the scene as you enter, then head into the house. You’ll have to take off your sprint shoes for this, since it’s timed. Don’t worry, though, it’ll be easy. One thing that I should mention is that HermitCrabs are capable of petrifying you. Since you have no way of blocking it, just run from them. Actually, if you aren’t at level 26 for this place (I wasn’t), which means that Celes doesn’t know Ice2 yet, you should run from all the battles in here. There are eight treasure chests in this house, all of which you have time to open. You don’t have to get the one by the stairs on the first floor and the one to the right of the kid, since they’re monster-in-a-box battles that you don’t get an item for beating. Actually, I can’t remember if the monster box is to the left or the right of the kid, but if you happen to choose the wrong one, don’t worry, since you can run from this battle, for some reason. Just collect the treasures in here, making sure to get the Drainer (you’ll see why later) and make your way out with the kid. Watch the scene and Sabin will join you. Now it’s time to get Edgar, but before we do, we need to level Celes up to 26 if she isn’t already. The best way to do this is to fight enemies on the way to Nikeah on the Serpent Trench. The Delta Bugs will die in one hit from Fire Dance, the Bloompires will die in one hit from Pummel (use this instead of Fire Dance), the Buffalaxes will die from a few uses of Pummel, and the Lizards will die from one Pummel and one casting of Ice. (Interestingly enough, while Aurabolt was always stronger than pummel in the WoB, pummel is always stronger than Aurabolt in the WoR, unless you’re using Aurabolt against an undead creature). Once you’ve levelled up, head to Nikeah. ===================================================== *Nikeah and South Figaro* Head to the Pub and talk to all the bandits until one of them leaves, then find Gerad by the shops and talk to him. Head to the dock, watch the scene, and you’ll arrive in South Figaro. Go to the inn and talk to Gerad, then once he leaves, head to Figaro Cave. ===================================================== *Figaro Cave and Figaro Basement* You can get the last treasure from here, now. In battle, against Humpties or Crullers have Sabin use Fire Dance to eliminate them in one hit, and against Neckhunters, have Celes cast Ice2 and have Sabin use Pummel. Make your way to the turtle, watch the scene, jump across the pond, then make your way through to the castle. Once you’re there, make your way to the basement and collect all the treasures. Head to the engine room and you’ll fight the tentacles. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Tentacles (4)- This battle is very hard if you don’t eliminate these things quickly, and the best way to do that is to kill off the ones with lower HP first, then to exploit weaknesses. Here’s how to go about it. In the first round, have Sabin use that pearl rod on the top-left tentacle, have Edgar use Chain Saw, and have Celes cast Ice2. It should die. Then have Edgar and Celes do the same thing on the top-right one, and have Sabin use Pummel and hope that it hits the top-right one. Repeat until it dies. Once the two bottom ones are left, have Celes and Edgar do their thing on the one on the left (it may be the one on the right that is weak against Ice, I can’t remember), and have Sabin continue to use Pummel. Once there is only one left (the one that absorbs Ice), just have Celes sit there while Sabin and Edgar use Pummel and Drill until it dies. That strategy will net you a victory, granted that you keep an eye on your HP. Try not to let it fall below 700. Otherwise, Bio might kill you. Don’t worry about curing poison, just keep your HPs up and you’ll be fine. If you’re still having trouble, then just level Sabin up to 30. He’ll learn Air Blade, which none of the tentacles can absorb, and is also more powerful than Pummel. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once you’re done with the battle, watch the scene, and Edgar will join. Go into the treasure room and take the Soul Sabre, if you didn’t keep the Drainer. Make your way over to the old guy by the basement entrance and go to Kolinghen. ===================================================== *Kolinghen and Daryl’s Tomb* Once you’re in Kolinghen, go to the pub and talk to Setzer. After he joins, stock up on items if you need to, then head over to Daryl’s Tomb. In here, you will probably have Zombie inflicted on you more than once. Thankfully, everything in here seems to drop revivifies 100% of the time, so you will not have much of a problem with it. Just make your way through, flipping all the necessary switches, until you come to the save point. Even though we get no real rewards for beating him, I still want you to kill the Presenter. Be sure to save your game first, though. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Presenter- A tough fight, this one is. If you don’t follow a specific pattern you will probably die. When the head is out, have Celes and Setzer sit there and wait to heal people if they need it. Have Sabin use Fire Dance, and have Edgar use Drill. When the head is in the shell, have everyone sit there and heal themselves. If your entire party is hurt, Celes and Setzer should heal Sabin as much as they can, then Sabin should use Mantra. Do it in that order, otherwise Mantra will be very weak. The head doesn’t have much HP, so you should be able to survive long enough to win. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After that’s over with, save your game, and head into the next room, where you will fight Dullahan. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Dullahan- First of all, make sure that the singles digit of your current GP isn’t a multiple of your party’s level. Otherwise Lvl? Pearl will hit you. Sadly, because of his ridiculous magic spamming, Dullahan is too hard for the NENMG party to take on without breaking either the over-levelling rule or breaking the no-equipment rule in a minor way. Since the former would screw up the entire game, I’m going to tell you to do the latter. Remember how I told you to keep either the Drainer or the Soul Sabre? Well, this is why. Equip one of those two on Celes, and in each round have her use Runic (I chose these two because they don’t cost anything to get and they don’t give any bonuses that would give Celes an unfair advantage. That’s why you can’t use the Enhancer; it gives you a 20% mblock boost. If you don’t have either of these things, just go back to Nikeah and buy a different sword from there). This will make Dullahan’s magic spamming no threat. Of course, he’s still got a few attacks to watch out for, like Absolute Zero (which ignores Runic), his physical, which is fairly powerful, and Morn Star, which is basically a row-ignoring physical attack. He’s even more difficult because he has over 20 000 HP. Here’s the strategy: Every round, have Celes use Runic. Have Setzer sit there and wait to heal people with items. Have Edgar use Drill, or heal people with items if he has to, and have Sabin use Pummel, and heal with Mantra. If the entire party is hurt, have Setzer and Edgar heal Sabin, then have Sabin use Mantra. If anyone can find a way to beat Dullahan without breaking any rules, please let me know. My email address is at the beginning of this guide. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once you’ve won, watch the scene. You’ll have control of the airship, finally. However, don’t follow Celes’ orders to follow the frickin’ bird. We have other things to do first. I want you to go to Duncan’s house to get Bum Rush for Sabin. I’m sure that you know where it is, but just in case, it’s the five trees that form a cross on the island that Narshe is on. After you’ve done all that, it’s time to head to Mobliz. ===================================================== *Mobliz* Head to the centre house and talk to Terra. Phunbaba will attack after some Dialogue. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Phunbaba- Begin the fight by having Terra kill herself. Your party will then come to fight. Sabin should use Bum Rush, Edgar should use Drill, and Celes and Setzer should work on keeping everyone’s HP above 1000 at all times, in case Phunbaba casts Blow Fish. If your entire party is badly hurt, do the Mantra trick that I’ve mentioned before (heal Sabin as much as you can, then have Sabin use Mantra). Phunbaba will run away after you’ve hurt him enough. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There’s nothing more that we want to do here, for now, so we’re going to level up a little. Head to the cave in the veldt, where you can fight ToeCutters. Bum Rush will kill them in one hit. Train until everyone is at level 30. After you’re done, head to Narshe. It’s time to get Mog. ===================================================== *Narshe* Once you arrive, head to the Moogle’s cave. It's quicker to go through Arvis' house. You should have no problems with the enemies in here, but I still want to say a few things. First, groups of psychots will die in one hit from a multi-targeting casting of Ice2 or Air Blade. Second, Wizards will counterattack magic with Doom Step, which inflicts Zombie on one character. The best way to kill them is one at a time, so have Sabin use Bum Rush and have Edgar use Chain Saw. Once you have Mog back, leave Narshe and head to the veldt. ===================================================== *The Veldt* Take a party of three and walk around for a bit. Eventually, Gau will join you again. The reason I had you get Mog first is because when we get Gau his level will be lower than everyone else's, which means that your characters’ average level will be lower, which means that Mog’s level would be lower if we got him afterwards. First, go into the Cave in the Veldt and encounter a Toe Cutter (it shouldn't take long at all). Now take Gau, Sabin, Edgar, and either Mog or Celes (they’re the strongest characters right now) to Triangle Island. Get engulfed by a Zone Eater. Once you’re in there, walk around near the pillar of light (since it’s the exit, and we won’t be here for long) and hope that you encounter a Woolly. Once you do, you can just escape the battle if you want to (you can still get the rage this way, and you probably will want to do this because the enemies in here are too powerful to take on as we are now). Now we’re ready to wander around on the veldt and get the following rages: - Woolly - Toe Cutter - Behemoth Now that we have Woolly for Ice3 and six elemental absorptions, Toe Cutter for Ice absorption andShrapnel, and Behemoth for Meteor (not “Meteo”, “Meteor”), we can continue. Let’s head back to Narshe. ===================================================== *Narshe Revisited and Umaro’s Cave* Bring Gau, Mog, Sabin, and Edgar. This time, head up to the area where Tritoch is. Avoid fighting the Ice Dragon. Save your game and fight Tritoch. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Tritoch- Mog has no way of hurting Tritoch, except for Elf Fire, which is a rare cast in the dances that use it, so have him use Wind Song instead, since it has a high rate of using Sun Bath. Sabin should use Bum Rush, Edgar should use Drill, and Gau should use Toe Cutter. The beauty part about Toe Cutter is that with it, Gau can’t be killed by Tritoch, so if you wanted, you could have him use it, then go do something else for a few minutes, then come back and resume your game. Also, the reason that I didn’t have you use Woolly is because Ice3 would heal Tritoch. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once you’re done with him again, save your game once more and then jump down into the opening. Make your way to Umaro’s den, collecting treasures if you want to. Just be sure to not open the chest that has the Pugs in it, you’ll die if you do. We’ll come back for them later, just for the sake of “challenging” ourselves. Once you’re at Umaro’s den, inspect the skull and take the magicite, which will make Umaro attack. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Umaro- Still not a hard boss, but his attacks hurt more in a NENMG. Have Gau use Toe Cutter, have Sabin use Bum Rush, have Edgar use Drill, and have Mog use Wind Song. If you need to heal and Mog isn’t using Sun Bath, use the “Heal Sabin+Mantra” trick. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Afterwards, talk to Umaro and he’ll join your party. Head back to the world map. Now it’s time to go back to the Cave in the Veldt. We’re getting Shadow. ===================================================== *Cave in the Veldt, Thamasa, and the Coliseum* Take Gau, Umaro, Sabin, and Edgar. We want Umaro because he absorbs Ice damage. Not to mention that he has such High attack power and defense, which lets him fight in the front row without a disadvantage. Make your way through the cave. Be sure to collect the Striker. Save your game before going to where Shadow is. You’ll fight SrBehemoth. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -SrBehemoth- First chance you get, have Gau use Toe Cutter. Again, Woolly isn’t a good choice here because SrBehemoth absorbs Ice. After that, have Sabin use either Bum Rush or Mantra, and have Edgar use Drill. Without two characters being able to absorb Ice, this guy could wipe out your party very quickly. Once he appears in his undead form, just use a phoenix down. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the fight is over, watch the scene, and then head to the coliseum. Bet the striker, beat the shit out of Shadow, and he’ll join you. Now that we have one of the most powerful characters in this challenge, it’s time to stock up on skeans and stars if you’re low. Buy skeans from Maranda’s weapon shop, and buy stars from Thamasa’s weapon shop. Once you’re ready, head to Jidoor. ==================================================== *Jidoor and Owzer’s House* Bring Shadow, Gau, Sabin, and Edgar and head up to Owzer’s house. Check the lamp on the wall to light up the place, and then check the picture of the woman to fight a couple of Dahlings. They aren’t hard. Once you’ve had your way with them, a door will open. Just make your way through the doors. Everything in here except for the SoulDancers will be killed in one use of a Fire Skean. When you get to the three doorways that keep alternating which one isn’t blocked, wait until the left one is open, then go through. Once you get to the save point, save your game and heal if you want, and then head through the topmost door to fight Chadarnook. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Chadarnook- Have Gau use Woolly. Now the only thing that can hurt him is this boss’ physical attack, which really means nothing, because Gau will get healed by Chadarnook’s Bolt spells more than he will get hurt by his physical attacks. The only problem you might encounter is if the Woman uses Doom Kiss on Gau, in which case you’ll have to try and keep your characters alive to revive Gau when he dies. The pattern of attack you should follow is: heal when the woman appears, and go all out offensive when the demon appears. Shadow should throw Ninja Stars, Sabin should use Bum Rush, and Edgar should use Drill. This fight is easy enough; through without Woolly it would probably be impossible without over-levelling. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the fight is over, you get Relm back. Take her to the Fanatic’s Tower to get Strago back. Now it’s time to learn some Lores. Unless you went out of your way to learn as many Lores as you could in the WoB, Strago most likely only has Condemned, Aqua Rake, Revenge, Pearl Wind, Stone, and Lvl 4 Flare. You may also have Lvl 5 Doom and Lvl 3 Muddle, but you probably don’t have Blow Fish, that is if you were following my strategies. This is how we’re going to learn lots of Lores. Note that the only ones that you HAVE to learn are Big Guard and Sour Mouth, but it’s also a good idea to learn Aero and Step Mine. Bring a party of Sabin, Edgar, Strago, and Relm. First stop off on the plains around Kolinghen. Sketch the Harpais for a chance to cast Aero, and sketch the Muus for a chance to cast Pep Up. If you don’t want to use Sketch, you can always just fight a Harpy, which are near Thamasa, and confuse it for a chance to see Aero, and if you encounter a group of Muus, you can wait and they’ll cast it. Next, go to the plains around Maranda. When you encounter a group of Crawlers, first confuse them with NoiseBlaster. They’ll start casting Step Mine. Then use Bum Rush to kill them one at a time until there is only one left. Smack it if it’s still confused. It will eventually cast Dischord on you. Kill it once it has. Keep walking around until you encounter a Reach Frog. Wait for it to cast Rippler. Remember that if Shadow is in your party when you do this, Rippler might steal Interceptor from him, which is VERY bad. Now walk around in the desert near Maranda until you encounter a Cactrot. Once it casts Blow Fish, kill it with Pummel, Bum Rush, Drill, Chain Saw, or Step Mine. Next, head to the Solitary Island. Keep walking around in the desert until you encounter an EarthGuard. Pray that Relm can use Sketch on it before it dies of seizure, and also pray that when she does sketch it, that she casts Big Guard. Note that this is the only way to learn Big Guard in this challenge before Kefka’s Tower, and you WILL need it before then, so stop complaining about the friggin glitch and just do it. You can learn Lvl 5 Doom, Lvl 3 Muddle, and Exploder by going to the veldt. You can encounter Apokryphos or Trapper for the first two, and you can encounter a Bomb, Grenade, or Balloon for the third. Also, many of Gau’s rages cast Exploder, so give that a try if you don’t want to wander around on the veldt for ages. Finally, you can learn Sour Mouth from the Mad Oscars in Daryl’s Tomb. The Lores that we haven’t learned yet (except for Grand Train) are ones that have to be learned by going into a dungeon that we either shouldn’t, or don’t want to go to yet. But like I said, that’s EXCEPT for Grand Train. So let’s go and get it. Head to Thamasa. ===================================================== *Thamasa Revisited and Ebot’s Rock* Bring Strago and Relm to Thamasa and you’ll watch a scene. After that, you can enter Ebot’s Rock. Bring Shadow, Strago, Gau, and Sabin. This place is pretty straightforward. Just run around collecting coral from the chests. I’m pretty sure that you need to feed the stupid chest 25 corals AT ONCE, not in multiple smaller feedings, if you want to get by him. Once you feed it enough coral, it’ll let you through to Hidon. The enemies in here are not hard at all, though the Hipcamps counterattack with Flash Rain, which hurts, so be ready to cast Pearl Wind. In any case, eventually you’ll fight Hidon. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Hidon- First, cast Big Guard. Now, we want to get rid of the Hidonites. Have Gau use Behemoth, have Sabin use Air Blade, and have Shadow throw Skeans (it doesn’t matter which ones). Strago can cast Aero if you want him to attack, but these things are fast, so you might need to heal. Once Hidon is alone, he’ll cast GrandTrain. It should do about 1000 damage to your whole party, which isn’t a huge deal, since your party should have around 1500 hp. Just use a couple of potions on Strago, then have him cast Pearl Wind, and you’re good to go again. Have Shadow throw Ninja Stars at Hidon, have Sabin use Bum Rush, and have Strago cast Aero. Hidon should fall quickly. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After Hidon dies, watch the scene. Once you have control of your party again, head to Triangle Island. ===================================================== *Triangle Island* Bring the same party. Let Zone Eater engulf you. Then, once you’re in the cave, just make your way to the room where Gogo is. Once you have him, leave. It should be noted, however, that the enemies in here are HARD. The main ones that you’ll want to watch out for are Ogors, Coverts, and Karkasses. I’ve seen Ogors triple cast Zombite, which, as the name implies, puts a character into Zombie Status. Karkasses counterattack EVERYTHING with Lifeshaver, and Coverts are basically like the Ninjas from the floating continent, except they do A LOT more damage. The key is to kill everything quickly. Sabin should always begin the fight with Bum Rush. If what he hits doesn’t die, have Strago cast GrandTrain and have Shadow throw a Ninja Star if you’re only fighting one enemy. Gau should just stick with Behemoth for multiple enemies, or Woolly against a single enemy. You should be alright, unless you get a very bad combo of enemy attacks used against you. It’s sometimes better to just run. After Gogo has joined, head to Figaro Castle. ===================================================== *Figaro Castle Revisited and the Ancient Castle* Bring Sabin, Shadow, Gogo, and Strago. Give Gogo the Lore, Blitz, and Throw commands. From now on, unless I say otherwise, Gogo will always have these three commands. Talk to the guy who makes the castle move underground. As it is doing so, you’ll stop halfway there. Choose to explore and head to the dungeon. The enemies in here require a little bit of explanation. Everything in here has very high magic defense, so the only spell you can use to damage these things is GrandTrain. Also, everything in here has high HP, higher than the damage that Bum Rush can deal. I find that a good way to do things is to have Strago cast GrandTrain, then have Sabin and Gogo use Bum Rush to finish them off. Shadow can throw things if you want him to, but his Ninja Stars will likely not be strong enough to kill anything, even after being hit by GrandTrain, and it would be a waste to use the more powerful weapons that you’ve kept on your on these things. If you are pincer attacking your enemies, however, then Shadow’s Ninja Stars can do as much as Bum Rush against an enemy whose back is turned to him. Also of note is that the enemies in here will start using different Lores if they are the only enemy left alive. Goblins will cast Lvl 3/4/5 Muddle/Flare/Doom, Figalizes will cast Dischord, and Enuos will cast Cleansweep. Obviously, we haven’t learned Cleansweep yet, so if you want to, you can learn it from them that way. Make your way through the place, collecting the treasures as you go. For the sake of completion, I want you to fight the Master Pug in the chest. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Master Pug- First, have either Gogo or Strago cast Big Guard. Then have Shadow and Gogo use Shadow Edges on themselves. Once your defenses are set up, have Shadow throw Ninja Stars, have Sabin and Gogo use Bum Rush, and have Strago either cast GrandTrain, or heal with Pearl Wind. You should win without much difficulty. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Save your game once you get to the save point. Then head up to the ancient castle and watch the long boring scene. Afterwards, go through the opening to the left of the entrance to the castle and open the chest to fight KatanaSoul. For an easy win, give Gogo the Tools command, and have him use Noiseblaster. KatanaSoul will probably kill himself with Slayer Edge. Once in the castle, make your way up to Odin’s statue, and examine it to get his useless magicite. Then, from the right throne, walk down exactly five steps and you should be standing on some steps. Press the OK button and you’ll open up a new passageway on your right. In the next room examine the shiny thing on the bookcase, and then get an X- ether from the bucket, then head downstairs. Time to fight our first Dragon. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Blue Dragon- He will start the fight by using Cleansweep. Have either Gogo or Strago (whoever is ready first) cast Pearl Wind, and then have the other cast Big Guard. Shadow should use a Shadow Edge, as should Gogo the next time he gets a turn. After that, Shadow should throw Ninja Stars, Sabin and Gogo should use Bum Rush, and Strago should cast GrandTrain. If your party’s HP drops to around 1000, have someone use Pearl Wind. If you beefed up your defenses, and if you keep an eye on your HP, this fight will be easy. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We’re done with this place now, so head back to the airship. It’s time to take on the phoenix cave. ===================================================== *Phoenix Cave* You know the drill for this place, I’m sure, meaning that I won’t have to type as much for you (yay). Put Celes, Edgar, Sabin, and Gogo in the first party, and put Shadow, Gau, Strago, and Umaro in the second party. This cave is also divided into two different areas, the dark caves and the fiery caves. The enemies in here aren’t too difficult, but they can be if you don’t know what you’re doing, so here’s my advice. Against the enemies in the fiery caves, use multi-targeting attacks until everything dies. Against the enemies in the dark caves, use single-targeting attacks to take them out one by one. It’s all easy from there. Have the first party enter first and step on the first switch. Then have the second party go in that way. From there, just solve the various puzzles and make your way to the area with the save point and the Red Dragon. I would get the first party (the ones that will be fighting the dragon) to the little straightaway and have them sit there, and then have the second party save your game before you actually take him on. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Red Dragon- He’s harder than the Blue Dragon, but still easy enough. In the first round of attack, he will likely hit you with a multi-targeting attack. Have Celes cast Cure on the party, have Sabin use Mantra, and have Gogo cast Big Guard. After that, each round, have Celes cast Ice2, have Sabin use Bum Rush, have Edgar use Drill, and have Gogo cast Pearl Wind. With this strategy, you should win fairly easily. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After you’re done with him, just finish the cave and watch the scene. Once Locke joins, it’s time to get Cyan. ===================================================== *Maranda, Zozo, and Mt. Zozo* Take Shadow, Strago, Sabin, and Gogo and go to Maranda. Send Lola’s letter to Zozo, buy the Rust-Rid, and head into Mt. Zozo. The enemies in here are nothing to worry about at all. Just make your way to the save point, save your game, and then open the chest to release the Storm Dragon. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Storm Dragon- The usual strategy applies here. First round, cast Big Guard and Pearl Wind to heal the damage from Storm Dragon’s opening attack, then just use your strongest attacks and heal for an easy victory. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the battle head up to where Cyan is and he’ll join you. Replace Gogo’s Blitz command with the item command. Also, replace Sabin with Cyan. Once you’re ready, head to Doma Castle. ===================================================== *Doma Castle* Take a nap in one of the rooms and you’ll be sucked into Cyan’s mind. Gogo and Shadow can use Fire Skeans to take out large groups of enemies in this place, and Strago can cast GrandTrain. It should be noted that you can learn Lv? Pearl and Roulette from critics. Just find your characters and make your way to the fight with the stooges. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -The Three Stooges- Take out Curley, the top stooge, first, as he will cast Life2 on his brothers if one of them is dead. Other than that, the usual Big Guard + Pearl Wind + Strongest Attacks strategy will get the job done. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After that, make your way through the rest of Cyan’s mind. Eventually, you’ll fight Wrexsoul. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Wrexsoul- When Wrexsoul uses Zinger and disappears, kill one of your characters by throwing shurikens at him. If he reappears, use a phoenix down on the fallen character, cast Pearl Wind, cast Big Guard, and then throw Ninja Stars at Wrexsoul. If he doesn’t reappear, just repeat the process on another character until he does appear. This fight is actually very easy, as the SoulSavers’ spells are weak, and Wrexsoul is no threat whatsoever when he's visible. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Afterwards, a scene will occur, and Cyan will learn all of his useless Swdtechs. Now it’s time to get Terra back, so head to Mobliz. ===================================================== *Mobliz Revisited* Your party should be Gogo, Gau, Sabin, and Shadow. Give Gogo the Blitz and Lore command. Go into the leftmost house, go down the stairs hidden behind the bookcase, and watch the scene. Then you’ll fight Phunbaba. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Phunbaba- Have Gau use Woolly. Have Shadow throw Ninja Stars, and have Sabin and Gogo use Bum Rush. Eventually, Phunbaba will blow away two characters. Then Terra will join the fight. Have everyone use their same tactics, and have Terra cast Fire2. If you need to heal, have Gogo cast Pearl Wind, or have Terra cast Cure2 (she should be a high enough level to know it). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Watch the scene, and Terra will join you. You’ve now completed all of the quests, but there are still a couple of things that we want to do before we take on Kefka’s Tower. First, you have the option of getting the following rages, although they aren't necessary: - Goblin - Boxed Set (better version of Behemoth) - SrBehemoth In any case, take a party of Terra, Gau, Shadow, and Gogo and head to Narshe. ===================================================== *Narshe Revisited Again* Head up to the snowfields and fight the Ice Dragon. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Ice Dragon- In the first round, have Gogo cast Big Guard, have Shadow throw a Shadow Edge, have Gau use Toe Cutter, and have Terra Morph and cast Cure2 to heal any damage done by Ice Dragon’s opening attack. In all subsequent rounds, have Terra cast Fire2 to attack or Cure2 to heal, have Gogo use Bum Rush to attack or Pearl Wind to Heal (opt for Pearl Wind over Cure2, unless Gogo’s HPs are low), and have Shadow throw Ninja Stars. The only real problem with this fight is that Ice Dragon likes to use North Cross a lot, which can potentially freeze your entire party. The good news is that even if the worst happens, and everyone gets frozen and you can’t heal, Gau will still be healed by Ice Dragon’s attacks (save for his physical, of course, but he will use Ice-elemental attacks more than he will use his physical), so this fight is more or less certain to be a victory. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now head back into Umaro’s Cave. Open the chest that I told you not to open before. You’ll fight the Pugs. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Pugs (x3)- These guys would be impossible if it weren’t for the throw command. Have Gogo and Shadow use Inviz Edges on themselves, and in each subsequent turn have them throw shurikens (no point in wasting ninja stars). Those two can’t be killed this way. To speed up the process, have Terra Morph and cast Fire2, and have Gau use any of the three new rages that he has, they’re all good. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, now that we’ve done that, it’s time to take on the Dirt Dragon, so head to the Opera House. ===================================================== *Opera House* Bring Shadow, Sabin, Gogo, and Strago. By now, these four should have a fairly high average level, at least 38. You don’t have to be this high a level to win, but if your characters' max HPs aren’t at least 1900, your entire party could be killed instantly any time that Dirt Dragon gets a turn. Personally, my party’s average level when I fought Dirt Dragon was 40. This is the hardest dragon fight by far, so I don’t feel that level 40 is over- levelled. Go to the room with the switches in it that you went to in the WoB and flip one of the three that are side-by-side. You’ll drop down on to the stage, where the fight with the Dirt Dragon takes place. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Dirt Dragon- First, a little explanation about Dirt Dragon’s attacks is in order. His physical isn’t too much to worry about, but that’s about his only attack that we can say that for. He has a random counterattack called Horned Tusk that deals around 1800 damage to a character WITH safe on them. His other attacks are Slide (700-800 damage to entire party, with shell on them), Magnitude8 (900-1000 damage to entire party, with shell on them), Quake (1700-1900 damage to entire party, with shell on them), and 50 Gs, which dispels your entire party’s float status, if you have it on one of your characters. The only two characters that could have Float inflicted on them are Gau and Gogo using a Rage with auto-float. While this would mean that 50 Gs wouldn’t be able to remove their float status, it’s still a bad idea to do that, because none of Gau’s rages that have auto-float are strong enough for our purposes. Because of this, your party will be taking the full force of Dirt Dragon’s spells. It’s important to keep your party’s HP above 1900, so that Quake doesn’t kill you off in one hit. Dirt Dragon will likely open with a multiple-targeting attack. Pray that it isn’t Quake. You’ll probably need to heal, so the first chance you get, have either Strago or Gogo cast Pearl Wind (whoever’s HP is higher). You may need Sabin to use Mantra first, to get better results. After you’ve healed, whoever didn’t cast Pearl Wind should cast Big Guard. Shadow should just throw a Shadow Edge. Have Gogo do the same when his next turn comes up. For the remainder of the fight, Sabin and Gogo will be using Bum Rush, Shadow will be throwing Ninja Stars, and Strago will be using Pearl Wind. The best way to recover from Quake is to have someone use an X- potion or an elixir on Strago or Gogo, then have him cast Pearl Wind, or to have Sabin use Mantra, followed by Strago and Gogo both using Pearl Wind. If you follow my advice, you should be able to win without too much fuss. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After that gruelling fight, there’re only three things left to do before we take on Kefka’s Tower. To level everyone except for Locke and Cyan (Relm and Cyan if you don’t want use Relm), to defeat the White Dragon in the Fanatic’s Tower, and to defeat Doom Gaze. Because we WILL need Terra and Celes to know Fire3 and Ice3, respectively, if we want to make it to the White Dragon, defeat him, and make it out alive, we will them up, first. We should also have Gogo and Umaro at level 41 (because we don’t want them to be vulnerable to any of the Lvl X attacks, and this will become somewhat of an issue at Kefka’s Tower) each, since we’ll be using them, too. If you want to level all of your characters at this point, then by all means, do so. Frankly, I really don’t care if you use equipment when you’re levelling up your characters. It’s not related to the challenge, since all it does is speed things up. I would suggest taking advantage of this, but just make sure that you don’t equip any items that would teach you any spells. The best place for your characters to level up (now that they have equipment) is the plains around Dino Forest, NOT Dino Forest itself. Tyranosaurs, and especially Brachosaurs, are too powerful to take on consistently. Plus, the lowest experience you’ll get for one battle in the plains outside of the forest is 1804, which is still very nice. In any case, once you have Terra, Celes, Gogo, and Umaro at their required levels, head to the tower. ===================================================== *Fanatics Tower* As you already know, your party should be Terra, Celes, Gogo, and Umaro. Give Gogo the fight, magic, and item commands. Item is pretty self-explanatory as to why you should have it, but there is a reason that you need the magic AND fight commands. See, what the game does in this tower is disables all commands other than fight and item, and change your character’s fight command into magic. This is why we need Gogo to have the fight command. However, without the magic command, Gogo can’t use his spells outside of battle. It’s messed up, I know, but it’s the way things are. This is by far the most challenging area of this challenge so far. In fact, part of actually making it to the White Dragon is pure luck. You’ll understand why by reading my enemy strategies below. Note that each enemy’s HP count is the number in their name multiplied by 10. So Lv10 Magics have 1000 HP. Lv10 Magic: These things are easy. They have level one elemental spells and a few status spells. They should go down quickly. Lv20 Magic: The first difficult enemy you can encounter. These things love to cast gravity spells on your party. This isn’t a problem if there are only Lv20 Magics left in the battle, but if that’s the case, then they will begin casting X-Zone somewhat frequently. Other than that, they use a couple of status spells. However, what makes this thing such a pain is the fact that it has auto-reflect. Since auto-spells can’t be dispelled, and since you usually can’t have reflect on any of your characters in this place (there’s an exception, read Lv30 Magic’s strategy), the only ways for you to hurt this thing are 1) By casting drain on it, and 2) if Umaro attacks it. The best way to kill these things are to cast berserk and Haste on Umaro. Berserk won’t stop Umaro from occasionally using his flying tackle, so it’s only a good thing for him. Lv30 Magic: These things are fast, and excluding counter-attacks, the only spells that they will cast are the level two elemental spells. This makes them potentially very dangerous. However, they do have one major flaw that you have to take advantage of if you want to beat them. If you attack one of them with anything, they will always counter-attack with one of three spells: Osmose, Imp, or Reflect. If they cast reflect on even one of your characters, that character can’t be hurt by them anymore. Basically, the best way to kill them is to use multi-targeted spells and pray that one of them casts reflect on one of your characters. Then, you can just sit back and watch them kill themselves. Lv40 Magic: The only thing to note about these things is that they can cast vanish, which can screw Umaro’s attacks up. Other than that, they only use a few status spells. Nothing to worry about. Lv50 Magic: Uses poison and status spells. Also nothing to worry about. Note that they are weak against fire, so one casting of Fire3 from Terra (hits for 6000 damage against a single target that’s weak against Fire, if you’re at level 43 exactly) , or a casting of Fire3 from Gogo (hits for 4000 damage against a single target that’s weak against Fire, if you’re at around level 40) and any attack other than drain (they’re undead) will take them down. Lv60 Magic: These things are also not too threatening. They have one strong attack, Pearl, which will kill one of your characters in one hit (maybe not Umaro), but other than that they just use status spells. They are also weak against Fire, and since they have 6000 HP, just have Terra cast Fire3 on them once to take them out. Lv70 Magic: The hardest enemies that you will encounter in this place. They have auto-reflect, they will never come in a group with Lv30 Magics, they’re fast, and they cast the level three elemental spells. If you encounter one of these, it will be pure luck if you manage to beat it. Go with the "cast Haste and Berserk on Umaro, then cast Drain like hell" strategy, and hope for the best. In any case, just make your way up the tower until you get to the door in the middle of the flight of stairs on the third screen, and enter. Inside you’ll find the White Dragon. Walk over to it to initiate the fight. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -White Dragon- This thing is surprisingly easy. Just hit it Fire3 and Ice3 like crazy, and heal as necessary. Its only attack is Pearl, which you can recover from with little fuss. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once you’re done with him, make your way down to the bottom of the tower. Be sure to collect the Air Anchor. Also, the Stunner is nice to have as a throwing weapon, so take that too if you want. Now the only things left to do are to level your characters up to 41 each (save for Locke/Relm and Cyan) if you haven’t already, and to kill Doom Gaze. For Doom Gaze, your party should be Terra, Shadow, Gogo, and Strago. Terra should already be level 43, so that's fine, but if the other three aren't at level 41, you should train them until they are (you could probably get away with them being level 39, just make sure they aren't level 40 when you fight Doom Gaze). After that's taken care of, go to Thamasa and buy 8 Pearl Rods. Now you're ready to fly around for ages and fight him (it’s irritating, I know, but just keep at it). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Doom Gaze- Doom Gaze will open the battle by casting Lvl 5 Doom in a vain attempt to score an easy win. Take this opportinity to have Strago cast Big Guard on the party, for Shadow and Gogo to each throw a Pearl Rod, and to have Terra Morph. Don't have her cast Fire3 just yet, as she may need to heal; Doom Gaze will counterattack Throw with a physical attack of his own, and by this time he may be about to use another attack. In any case, using Shadow and Gogo to throw Pearl Rods, and using Strago and Terra to heal, with Terra occasionally attacking with Fire3, you'll beat him fairly easily. You may need to find him and fight him twice, as he will escape after a short number of turns, but twice would be the maximum, IMO. On the other hand, you could be lazy and just have Gau use the Osteosaur Rage (it casts X-Zone). But I'm sure you're all better than that :P. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once he’s out of the way, there’s only one place left to go: Kefka’s Tower. ===================================================== *Kefka's Tower* Before you go there, be sure that you have the following: - 99 Potions and Tinctures - A healthy stock of Phoenix Downs, Remedies, Tents, and Warp Stones - 99 Shurikens and Ninja Stars - 10 Blizzards, Thunder Blades, and Pearl Rods - A few elemental skeans (20 of each will do just fine) - The Air Anchor Tool for Edgar - The Sour Mouth Lore for Strago - A Rage that casts Slow 2 (I used Buffalax, but there’s probably a better one out there) - The Magic Urn Rage Got all that? Good. Now for the “briefing”. First, about random encounters. There are a LOT of different enemies you can encounter in this place, and I’m kinda lazy, so I’m not going to list a strategy for each one. On a whole, they aren’t that hard, anyway, so there’s almost no need for it. I can give you a couple tips, though. - Surprisingly, many enemies in here are vulnerable to muddle, sleep, mute, and death; all of which are ailments that we can inflict! Noiseblaster and Stone are ways of muddling multiple enemies at once, Sour Mouth is a way of inflicting sleep, muddle, and mute on a single enemy at once, and Air Anchor is a way of inflicting death on an enemy (sadly, it’s our only method, unless you have a rage that uses Doom or Blaster or something). - The enemies that seem to be immune to any status ailments that we can inflict that I know of are: GtBehemoths, Brontaurs, Retainers, Prometheuses, and Scullions. - If you ever encounter a Doom Dragon, RUN. You’ll lose. Seriously. - Same thing goes for if you encounter Outsiders (they usually appear in a pair alongside a Madam). It’s less concrete than with Doom Dragons, but you’ll probably die. - I would also recommend running if you encounter a group of Innocs. All they ever seem to do is muddle your frickin’ characters. Well, that’s it for random encounters. Now, for bosses. We will be doing this in multiple runs. They are as follows: 1. To defeat Inferno 2. To defeat Gold Dragon, Skull Dragon, Goddess and Guardian 3. To defeat Doom 4. To defeat Atma 5. To defeat Doom and finish the game After you’ve finished a run, just warp out of there, restock items if you feel you need to, and head back in to start the next run. Got it? Of course you do, you’re a smart bunch :). Looks like we’re all set to go. **First Run** Put Gogo, Shadow, Strago, and Gau in the Third Party. Give Gogo the Throw, Lore, and Item commands. It doesn’t matter who you put in the other two parties. Oh yeah, and it would be nice to buy 10-15 Blizzards from Albrook. Once you’re in, head to the save point just before Inferno, and then fight him. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Inferno- This is a damn tough fight. First of all, you need to make sure that the first round goes as follows: - Everyone is alive and has over 2000 Hp (isn’t a huge deal if one or two people are 200 below or something) - Everyone has safe and shell on them from Big Guard - Gau is using his rage that casts Slow2 If it doesn’t go this way, give it two more rounds to get that way, and if it doesn’t, you’re probably going to lose, so just reset and try again. Now then, hopefully Gau will have cast Slow2 shortly after using his rage. Once he has, Inferno and his appendages will be much less of a threat. Have Shadow and Gogo throw Blizzards at Inferno. Strago should just sit there and wait to heal, and Gau can just remain in his rage. See, we want to make sure that Inferno never loses even one of his arms. If he does, he will start casting Meteor, which is a problem. Also, his arm will only be regenerated, and once it is, it won’t have the Slow status on it anymore. It’s just easier to go right for Inferno himself. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- With that strategy, Inferno should go down without much fuss, except for the first three rounds, that is. Once you’re done with him, use a warp stone, and then enter the tower again. **Second Run** For this run, we want to balance out our parties, mainly because it’s the longest one, but also because more than one party will be facing bosses. Also, if one of these parties happens to die, you’ll have to start over again, which isn’t fun. These were the parties that I used: 1. Terra, Edgar, Gau, Umaro 2. Celes, Sabin, Relm, Strago 3. Shadow, Setzer, Mog, Gogo At the very least, Celes, Strago, Gogo, and Terra should be the the parties that I have suggested. Otherwise, you can set them up however you want to. Just remember that balance is important. Also remember that the strategies that I have given for the bosses in this run are those for the parties that I have suggested. In any case, set yourself up, and head into the tower. First, take party three to the save point before where you fought Inferno. Save your game and switch to party 1. Head as far as you can with that party and switch to party 2. when you come to the point just before where you fought Atma, with a door above and below you, head into the upper door to get a Tack Star. Then head down, and make your way to the same room that party 1 is in. Press the switch, then head out. Keep going until you reach the room with the Gold Dragon in it. Switch to party 3 and save your game, then switch back to party 2 and start the battle. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Gold Dragon- He’s easy. In the first round, have Celes use Berserk on him, reducing him to nothing but physical attacks. Then, have Strago use Pearl Wind if you need to heal, otherwise have him use Big Guard to take away any remaining threat from Gold Dragon’s physicals. Just attack him until he dies. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Keep going with party 2 until you reach a dead end with a switch. Just set them on the it and switch to party 1. Have party 1 go as far as they can, then switch over to party three. Save your game (you may as well), and then head through the dungeon. In the area with the glowing chest that you need to open to remove the debris that’s blocking party 1, there are two other chests, one containing a Megalixir and another containing a Tack Star. Be sure to take them both. Now continue along until you see Skull Dragon. Just go up and fight it. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Skull Dragon- He’s also not that hard. The only way that he can actually cause damage to your characters is with his physical attacks. You may as well cast Big Guard to remove that threat. Other than that, he uses status attacks, which aren’t really a huge threat, since he can only target one character at a time with them. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once he’s done with, continue along until you reach the same room that party 2 is in, and set party 3 on the other switch. Now over to party 1. Head up to that same room, and go through the door that is not open. Go up the steps and to the LEFT. Head down through the door. Move party 2 off of the switch, and then have party 1 push the weight off the balcony. Now have party two do the same thing for party three. Once you have, move all three parties on to their respective switches. Take party three down to the newly acquired door and press the switch. Now, take party two, and head over to Goddess. (You COULD fight Guardian first, but Goddess is easier, meaning that it’s more “insured” that you’ll get a save point before fighting the next boss.) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Goddess- I was surprised at how easy Goddess was. Basically, in the first round, have Strago use Big Guard, then skip past Relm (note that Relm shouldn’t do anything except use items on people who need help) over to Sabin, who should use Bum Rush and Celes, who should cast haste on Strago. After that, just have her use Ice3. Goddess will counterattack with Bolt2 sometimes, and will attack with Flash Rain or Bolt3 sometimes, but she’s not that fast, so Strago will probably only need to heal about 50% of the time. The rest of the time, have him use GrandTrain. Note that if Relm is the only person that is hurt, it’s not worth it to heal her. Eventually, Goddess will use Overcast, putting your entire party in condemned status. Once she has, you don’t want to bother with healing unless anyone other than Relm is at risk of dying. Now, chances are that you will have done enough damage to Goddess already to be able to kill her before anyone dies, but if that’s not the case, you should still be alright. See, because Strago has Haste on him, his countdown will go faster than everyone else’s. Once he dies, you can revive him and he won’t have the countdown anymore. Just bring him back to full health with an X- potion or an elixir and have him use Big Guard again. If it comes to it that everyone else dies, Strago can help to revive them. Note that this is particular worst-case scenario is VERY unlikely. Goddess isn’t that hard at all. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once you’ve killed her, she’ll disappear and a save point will take her place. Save, and then switch over to party 3 and have them fight Guardian. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -Guardian- He’s not so bad as long as you don’t take your sweet damn time. See, Guardian has numerous “Battle Programs” that he uses to change attack patterns. The ones that he uses early on are not that strong at all. However, later on, the programs that he uses will be overwhelmingly powerful. This means that we have to kill him as quickly as possible, which is tricky as he has 60 000 HP. Here’s the strategy. In the first round, have Strago use Big Guard. From there, have Gogo either heal or throw Ninja Stars, have Mog attempt to use Water Rondo until it works (it’s a great dance for this battle, as it can exploit both of Guardians elemental weaknesses and it has a powerful healing spell), have Setzer use his slots, and have Shadow also throw Thunder Blades. Note that for this battle, it’s actually no