Final Fantasy 3 (Famicom): The Walkthrough- a FAQ for beginners By Yoichi a.k.a. Brian McGuire Did I make a mistake (You're not perfect either)? Was there something I missed? Did I give some REALLY bad advice? Got something to say? Insults? Praises? Marriage proposals? Death threats? Send all comments and verbal abuse my way at Yoichi@world-of-nintendo.com Copyright 2000. As long as this document remains completely unchanged, go ahead and post it where ever you want. If you want to alter it, then get my permission before putting it up. ***This was created with the Courier New font at a font size of 10*** Table of Contents: Section 0: The Walkthrough- FF3 in 25 Steps (Since I know it can be annoying to scroll down some ten pages to even get to the first part of the walkthrough, I'm just gonna put that in there first. If this your first time playing though, you should skip down and look over the other sections before playing.) Chapter 1: 4 Boys Fall Into a Cave 1) Ur Cave, Ur, Kasus, Sasson Castle 2) Cave of the Seal, Princess Sara, Jinn, Kazus, Cid, Canaan 3) Road to the Summit, Desh Chapter 2: Warriors of the Sea 4) Tozas, Dr. Schleco, Hidden Road, Vikings, Nepto's Shrine, Big Rat 5) Argas Castle, Tokkle, Ancient's Village, Tower Of Owen, Gishal Chapter 3: Dwarves, Fire, Treasure, Death and Flight 6) Dwarf Cave, Underwater Lake, Guzco 7) Fire Cave, Salamandr, Dwarves' loot, Tokkle 8) Hyne's Castle, Death, Living Forest, Argas Castle, Canaan, Cid Chapter 4: Brave New World 9) Waterworld, Shipwreck, Elia, Sea Cave, Kraken 10) Rupture of the Earth, Amur, Amur Sewers, Shoes 11) Goldor's Mansion, Goldor, Leiprit, Dastar, Salonia Chapter 5: The Kingdom, the Prince, Dorga and More 12) The towns of Salonia, Prince Allus, Dragon Tower, Gaurdia, Treasure 13) Dorga, Dorga's House, Magic Circle Cave 14) Temple of Time, Lute 15) Undersea Cave 16) Salonia Catacombs, Odin Chapter 6: From Unne to Bahamut 17) Unne, Ancient Ruins, Airship invincible 18) Fargabaad, Shinobi, Fargabaad Cave, Cave of Darkness, Hekaton, Titan 19) Dorga's Cave, Dorga, Unne, Keys 20) Floating Continent, Lake Dol, Leviathan 21) Cave Bahamut, Bahamut Chapter 7: Quest's End 22) Ancient's Labyrinth 23) Forbidden Land Eureka, the best Weapons/Magic, Amon, Kinoichi, Scylla, General, Guardian, Ninja, Sage 24) Sylx Tower, Zande 25) Dark World, Cerebus, Echidna, 2-Headed Dragon, Ahriman, Cloud of Darkness Section 1: Pre-FAQ FAQ (Talks about stuff going on in the document.) Section 2: What Do All These Words Mean? (I'll talk about those words you see at the menu after you hit the 'Start' button in a time of non-battle.) Section 3: Status Screen (The secrets behind Strength, Agility, Spirit, Hit%, MDEF, and more are revealed.) Section 4: Classes (Or jobs. Whatever you want to call it, it's a dissection of the possible types of warriors you can have over the course of the game.) Section 5: Hints and Tricks (some pointers on how to make your epic adventure to restore hope in the world a little bit easier) Section 6: Weapons That Do Stuff/Items and Their Functions (By far the longest title of a section. It talks about the special capabilities which are present in a certian item or weapon.) Section 7: Let's Talk Magic (If you really wish to fill up your wizards' spells collection which give you the best results, look here.) Section 8: FF3 Potpourri (Just random clips of interesting things about FF3.) Section 9: Credits (What, did you think I could do it alone? Well, I probably could have, but here's a list of those who have helped make better this FAQ.) Section 0: The Walkthrough- FF3 in 25 steps ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 1: 4 Boys Fall Into a Cave... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter One will see the Light Warriors accidentally realizing their destiny, Lifting a curse of an evil dude of fire, Receiving (and destroying) an airship. You're party will climb to the top of a mountain to find an amnesiac warrior only to jump all the way down afterwards. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1) Ur Cave enemies: Goblin, Eyefang, Carbuncle, BlueWisp, Werewolf It seems evil has reared its ugly head upon the world, again. So who do they summon the services of, the strongest and most skilled legions of men and women across the land? Nah. You get to guide four amberdextrious, orphan (so you get to name them) identical twin (okay, technically they're quadruplets) boys on their way to victory over the ultimate evil. Anywho, it seems these four children seemed to be walking along minding their own business when they suddenly dropped into a cave. After recollecting their thoughts, they got up, and started examining the setting. It is now that they are confronted by a few GOBLINS. Their wussiness is great and they are easily dispatched. But they can do respectable damage if they chose to pile up on the same warrior. You can pile up on the same goblin if you wish- after you kill the target, somebody assigned to fight it will move on to another enemy, unlike previous FF adventures. After defeating them, be sure to collect the first two chests you come to, a POTION and LEATHER SHIELD lie within them. As you walk along the path, one of the character is your party mentions the suspicious-looking rock. Push it by facing it and pushing 'A.' The path will open. Get the LEATHER SHIELD in the chest just to your right. Now go to the doorway you see. Take the very first left path you come to a chest holding a SOUTHWIND. Go back and take the right path to come to a chest with a POTION. Go back and go straight up to get a POTION in a chest. Take a right from there and some trusting soul will suggest drinking from it. Do so to return to prefect health. The chest above the spring holds a SOUTHWIND. If you go left for a while, you'll notice a door. Don't enter it yet. Instead, build up your characters till you reach level 4, 5 would be even better. Whenever you think you're ready, go through that door mentioned in the previous paragraph. Proceed toward the WIND CRYSTAL. While doing so, you'll be attacked by the one who guards the crystal. BOSS: LandTrtl. Difficulty level: 1.5 Recommended level: 4-5 HP: 120 Weakness: Ice Don't use any items unless you really have to. Save your ice stuff. Just keep attacking it. If somebody gets weak (kneels when HP goes less than 1/4 max), move 'em to the back row by pushing the Right key and selecting. Eventually, it will fall. After completing the task, you are to speak to the Crystal. Yer not allowed to proceed any further on this journey until doing so. Speak to it, and it will grant you its powers, the jobs FIGHTER, MONK, WHITE WIZARD, BLACK WIZARD, and RED WIZARD. Watch the scene and walk your way to the star that lies just above the Crystal. It'll warp ya out of the joint. Now it's time to ditch the ONION KID distinction and change jobs. One must unequip all if one wishes to change from one job to another. At this point in of the game, I'd recommend a FIGHTER, MONK, WHITE WIZ, and RED WIZ in that order. Now re-equip everything and head back into the cave you just came out (you may want to get a couple stalves for a white wizard the town). After entering, go down the path. Walk through that suspiciously long inlet you see through a false wall (plenty are the false walls in this game). You'll find yourself in a room with two chests, 1000 GIL each. Get out the same way you came in and through the doorway you see. Walk along this path collecting the various treasure you find (COPPER RING, 2 LONG SWORDS, NUNCHUCK, and SLEEP SPELL). Give the swords to your fighter (both of them) and the ring to a mage. Don't give the nunchuck to a monk, yet. Now retrace your steps out of this cave. UR Inn Free ------------------------------------ WEAPONS: COST: ATTACK: HIT% ------------------------------------ Knife 20 6 85% Dagger 60 8 85% LongSword 100 10 80% Staff 40 3 50% Nunchuck 60 12 70% ------------------------------------------ ARMOR: COST: DEF: EVAD%: MDEF: ------------------------------------------ Cloth Outfit 50 1 0% 1 Leather Outfit 95 2 1% 2 Leather Helmet 15 1 1% 1 Leather Shield 40 3 3% 3 Copper Ring 80 1 2% 1 ------------------ ITEM: COST: ------------------ Potion 150 Eyedrop 40 Antidote 80 ---------------------------------------------------- MAGIC: COST: EFFECT: BUY? ---------------------------------------------------- W Pure 100 Cures poison status Yes After getting out of the cave, you no doubt see a town south of you. It's probably a good idea to make your way towards it. First, go into the door marked INN and plop into a bed- it's free here. When your stay is over, walk out. You'll notice your HP/MP are completely restored. Pretty good for ten seconds' sleep, isn't it? Anyways, now go by the inn (you should buy the PURE SPELL from the magic shop for a white/red wiz at some point soon. Walk right at the second row of flowers through the trees to find 3 POTIONS down the well. Get out of there and and head right and upward through a path in between trees. At the edge of the patch of grass you'll find a POTION. Now head by that older guy in the grass. Follow that path, which contains enemies like Killer Bees, into the house. Search the pots to find a couple of ANTIDOTES. Next, pull the torch, just as that guy advises, to find treasures like a LONGSWORD, 2 LEATHER OUTFITS, DAGGER, and CURE SPELL (give to white wiz, if you don't have one, red wiz). Leave the house and go to the trail of grass below it to find a POTION at the edge. I would stick around this area for a while to build up experience and skills, until level 6, 7 if you're patient. After staying at the inn at Ur (it's free in case you've forgotten) and buying some items from the item shop held within the wall of the inn. When you buy items, or anything for that matter, buying four saves you roughly 10 percent. Buying ten saves you about 40 percent. Get four POTIONS, ANTIDOES, and 10 EYEDROPS. Now make your way to the armor shop. Buy the best stuff you can, like leather vests for whoever doesn't have one, rings and what not. Sell all extraneous equipment (this means the shields and clothes). Get to the weapon shop and get some a NUNCHUCK for a monk (NOW equip them in both hands), and two staves for the white wiz. Sell your crap and move on to the other town (you may want to stop in the elder's house here, it's where you live I believe). Now that you're ready for the next part of the game, go south to the nearby town of KAZUS. Talk to that dude by the fire, and you'll find that this place is having some problem with ghosts. Everybody here was turned to a ghost because of a curse put upon the town by some jerk named JINN. Go to the inn, and head over to the ghost who's just standing still. That would be Cid, the skilled airship mechanic. After speaking to him, you'll be enlightened of an AIRSHIP hidden in the DESERT just west of Kazus. Leave the town, but before doing that, go to the unmarked building you see close to the magic shop. That row of grass (the row without any stones), leads to some pretty interesting stuff if you head leftward (ZUES' RAGE and MITHRILL HELMET to be exact) into the trees. Now you may leave. When you find yourself outside the town, head west to that patch of desert Cid was talking about. Walk straight to the airship's steering wheel and face it. Press 'A' and you get to fly around the area (it's not to big as you can see). Go northwest of Kazus to find SASOON CASTLE. Enter the castle at once. Important new stuff in Sasoon Castle: WEAPON: COST: ATTACK: HIT%: ----------------------------------------- Wooden Arrow (2) 6 90% Holy Arrow (5) 13 85% <--- Holy elemental Bow (50) 5 90% W.Slayer Sword 1000 15 80% <--- Holy elemental It seems Jinn's curse has victimized this place as well. Head up a couple screens upon your entry until you fond yourself in a room with those two chests holding 1000 GIL each (they're not hard to reach). Now go up the stairs and through the other doorway too find a LEATHER SHIELD and ICE SPELL waiting for you in chests. From there, you can go to the throne room, where you can discover the location of Jinn (SEALED CAVE to the north). You'll also find out that PRINCESS SARA is the keeper of a MITHRILL RING. Sara was supposedly captured by Jinn, and the king wants you to track her down. The ring Sara holds can capture Jinn when he is weak enough. From the throne room, go down a few screens so you can get to the castle's towers (NOTE: in the castle's towers, enemies such as DARKEYE and ZOMBIE will attack). In the right tower, you'll find 20 HOLY ARROWS 40 WOODEN AROWS, A POTION and a BOW in chests. The red and black wizards can make use of some bows and arrows, equip them if you want to. Head back down stairs as far as you can go, but before that you should take a snooze in the bed that's at the top floor. After you go down, head to the left tower. As you make your way up the left tower, you'll encounter upon treasure such as 20 HOLY ARROWS, and 20 WOODEN ARROWS. At the top of the left tower, there is a chest containing a WSLAYER SWORD. This is a holy elemental sword that only red mages can equip. When you first stick your head in the chest and take sword, a Griffin appears. Not hard at all, just go at it with you best attacks (NOT your SOUTHWINDs), and it'll die in a hurry (100HP?). It's probably a good idea to bash the undead monsters of this tower to build up because you've a sword specialized for keeping the undead at bay, and your white wizard's Cure spell hurts the undead. Leave whenever you want to, and get back to Ur to stay at the Inn. Now it's time to do that cave... 2) Cave of the seal enemies: Skeleton, Mummy, Shadow, Lurawai, CurseCoin Recommended Level: 7-8 Recommended Party: Fighter/Monk/White Wizard/Red Wizard (Black Wizard?) As you can see, undead enemies make up the great majority, so it's definitely a good idea to bring a white wizard (Cure) and red wizard (WSlayer) along for the ride (but then again, black wiz can use the Holy Arrows). Potions also hurt undead monsters, but don't use them for that purpose. Walk down the path-it's pretty straightforward. The first chest you can possibly come to has a POTION. The second one has a CURE SPELL, which should be given to the red wizard. Now walk your way to the second floor. The chest within your field of vision has 500 GIL in it. That skull in the top right will reveal a doorway when pushed. That passage leads to the princess. That ring mentioned in previous paragraphs is in her safe possession. It is decided that she will follow your party around as you make your way through the rest of the cave. In the lower right corner, there lies a treasure chest holding a SOUTHWIND within. Go back upward and continue following the path as usual. The other chest in this place contains an EYEDROP. As you make your way down the path, you'll see Jinn. Heal up before the battle then come fourth... BOSS: Jinn Difficulty level: 3 HP: 450-500 Weakness: Ice Strong against: Fire (heals him) The fighter and monk should FIGHT. The white wiz should use a SOUTHWIND in the first round of fighting, then have him cast CURE on whoever he hurts in all other rounds. The red and black wizard should cast ICE, which is good for 40- 80 Damage to Jinn each time it's used. This really is an easy fight. When you've finished him off, you are transported to Sasoon Castle and Jinn, safely stored within a mithrill ring, is tossed into the castle's basement pond. Walk around the castle a little bit, and you will see the curse has been lifted, and the Princess will follow you no more. Make your way to the throne room and speak to the King. He is grateful for what you have just accomplished. So grateful that he wishes to help you on your journey over evil, so he gives you a CANOE. Just as all of us FF1 vets will remember, this thing allows you to transport yourself across shallow lakes and rivers. You can't get your airship back without it. KAZUS Inn: Free ---------------------------------------- WEAPONS: COST: ATTACK: HIT% ---------------------------------------- Mithril Wand 400 5 60% Mithril Knife 500 10 85% Mithril Sword 500 17 85% -------------------------------------------- ARMOR: COST: DEF: EAVD% MDEF -------------------------------------------- Mithril Armor 350 3 3 3 Mithril Shield 180 5 7 5 Mithril Helmet 130 2 4 2 Mithril Gloves 120 1 5 1 Mithril Ring 120 2 7 2 ---------------------- ITEM: COST: --------------------- Potion 150 Antidote 80 Eyedrop 40 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MAGIC: COST: EFFECT: BUY? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B Sleep 100 Makes target so tired they fall asleep and very vulnerable No B Fire 100 A mild blast of heat hits enemy/s for wimpy fire damage Yes B Ice 100 A sorta cool rush of cold stuff goes to hit the target No -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- But anywho, the curse of Jinn is no more. Now would be a pretty good time to check up on our friends in Kazus, who were victimized by the curse. All shops are now open for business. As you walk into town, Cid (the airship dude, remember? Found in future Final Fantasies?) will confront you immediately. He is going to follow you around for he needs to be in CANNAN. That's on the southern part of the continent. Just one problem: a big-ass boulder keeps you from proceeding any further. If you talked to Cid a few times, you'll get the knowledge of a man named TACA, the town's blacksmith. But before you talk to him, stay at the inn, which is of no charge once again. In the pub portion of the inn, there's a kid who tells you to search one of the walls in the mine. The far upper part of the town contains the mine, you can't miss it. Walk through the mine- it has a very basic path (NOTE: Some fairly tough undead monsters such as Shadow lurk within). Go to the very top of the mine, and search that spot three steps from the left. This reveals a passage leading to two chests holding MITHRILL SWORDS. Equip them on a fighter and head out. Now the time comes to visit Taca. His house has the shortest distance to the mine (you know, that thing you just came out of) and is unmarked. Go in and speak to the one who dwells within. This will cause him to install some sort of battering ram on to your airship so you can make clear the path. Leave the town, stay at the inn if you want to. Get on the airship and ram into the boulder that is an inconvenience to you. The boulder will be gone, so will your airship (doh...). But the sacrifice was worth it for you can now proceed to the next part of the game. Walk southward and you'll come to a town, CAANAN. CAANAN Inn 40 -------------------------------------- WEAPON: COST: ATTACK: HIT%: -------------------------------------- Iron Arrow (5) 17 85% GreatBow Bow (600) 8 85% (Mithril Wand) (Mithril Knife) (Mithril Sword) ---------------- ----------------- ARMOR: ITEM: COST: ---------------- ----------------- (Mithril Armor) Potion 150 (Mithril Shield) Antidote 80 (Mithril Helmet) Eyedrop 40 (Mithril Gloves) (Mithril Ring) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MAGIC: COST: EFFECT: BUY? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- W Cure 100 Restores several HP to one warrior; some to all warriors No B Bolt 700 Shocks enemy/s for a little bit of lightning damage Yes B Venom 700 Gives poison status to an enemy No B Blind 700 Deals blind status to cut the victim/s Hit % by something No ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just when you head a couple steps into this place, Cid will follow you no more. He's got personal matters to attend to. Journey through this place a bit. You'll notice that the shops suck. You should already have this stuff. The only thing that even comes close to wanting your business is the BOLT SPELL. Somebody in this place said there was a magician who came strollin' through and dropped a magic potion or something. Head over to the magic shop and go up, over to the ladder and into the water. Just follow this path until you can't (NOTE: every time you step through a waterfall, you'll lose 1 HP). You should find yourself on an island that's two-square units (it's small). Search the part you can't walk on, and you'll get an ELIXIR. Now follow the path out of the river and back onto land. You don't have to do this next part, but I'd do it. I think it's fun collecting treasure. Anywho, go into Cid's house which is in the top left corner of the town. Go up to Cid's sick Granny and give her the Elixir (push 'B' while facing her and pick Elixir from the menu). The medicine will immediately heal Cid's Granny of whatever sickness she might have had. Talk to Cid when you've given her the Elixir and he'll tell you to pull the candle. Do that and follow the path normally to a room with several treasure chests. These chest hold 20 IRON ARROWS, BLIND SPELL, FENIX DOWN, SOFT POTION, MIDGET BREAD, GREATBOW BOW, and POTION. Go to that small ladder in the bottom right corner of the room and walk right through the false wall. 20 IRON ARROWS, 2 SOFT POTIONS, and a FENIX DOWN await you within treasure chests. Now get back up into town. I'd recommend selling the weapons and Blind spell to one of the shops before exiting the town. Head to the southern portion to lead you to the nest part of the game. 3) Road to the Summit enemies: Rustbird, FireFly, DiveEagle, Ruku Recommended level: 8-10 Recommended party: Fighter/Monk/White Wizard/Red Wizard (Black Wizard?) Important thing found on the Road to the Summit: MAGIC: COST: EFFECT: BUY? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- W Aero 700 Hit's target/s for a little bit of wind damage No Upon your entrance to the Summit, you will no doubt notice that big ol' creature flying to the mountain. Stay tuned. The enemies here are noticeably tougher than before. The chest in the lower right corner holds a SOFT POTION. Be sure not to miss the AERO SPELL (for the white wiz), which exists in the upper right area of this place. The chest close to the path out of here contains another SOFT POTION. Now head up to that path you see that leads upward. This will bring you to a higher point on the mountain. Walk up to get even further up the mountain... Oh wait here comes that dragon again. Darn. We were doing so well, too. The dragon probably thinks that your party were intruders or food or something. He'll bring you up to his nest. Your party comfortably fits in the nest and you have ample room to walk around. This is one big nest. When you're there, you can't help but notice that flame burning in the top left part of the nest. Go check it out- nothing else to do. When you do, a dude will pop out. This dude is DESH. Desh is a warrior who has a purpose to serve- he just forgot what that purpose is. Some of the townspeople in Canaan probably said some stuff about him. Soon after you are introduced, you'll be interrupted and a boss fight will ensue. BOSS: Bahamut Difficulty level: Yes. HP: Yes. Weakness: Uhhh... Strong against: Meet Bahamut. Looks imposing, doesn't he? Desh suggests running away like a scared person. Good idea. His HP is in the five-figure range. If you DO happen to somehow beat this guy (by some random act of God or cheating), the same thing happens as when you run. So do that. It could take a few tries, but you will pull it off. When you do that, Desh will give you a copy of the MINI SPELL for it would only be going to waste while in his possession. Be sure you don't throw the thing away; you can't proceed to the next part of the game without it. He'll then follow your party around in hope of discovering just what the hell his purpose might be. You all then jump down. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter Two: Warriors of the Sea ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Your party somehow survives the monumental leap from the Summit. You'll soon get to see even more of the world on which you're currently present. You can visit a vacant castle, a town in turmoil, a town of the wise and learned. There seems to be a disturbance in the seas, a whirlpool which nobody can seem to get past. After climbing a Tower, and eliminating the disturbance, more of the world still be revealed to the Warriors of Light. But first, it's to a town of the tiny and seabound vikings who are stranded because of an angry creature of the sea. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Man, what a fall. Okay, you're in some new territory now. Walk into the small forest next to you, and you'll find a recovery spring there. Use it if you wish (before you recover, change your RedWiz to a Black Wiz). Talk to Desh a few times, and I think he'll tell you of an important town with a maximum height so small, only midgets can get in. Get out of the recovery spring and head to the southern portion of the large forest in which you find yourself. Give the Mini spell to somebody who can cast it, and then shrink everybody. You can shrink your entire party at once by pressing right once to select everybody (in case you haven't already figured it). But all must be small. Even if one warrior is of normal size, your access to the town will be denied (this goes for all other instances for which a change in status in needed). The town is in the northwest part of the far southern portion of the large forest south of the spring. If that explanation confused you, just go to the far southern part of the forest, and walk all over while MINIed. You'll eventually find yourself in the next town. TOZAS Inn 80 --------------- ITEM1: COST: --------------- Potion 150 Antidote 80 Eyedrop 40 --------------- ITEM2: COST: --------------- MidgBread 200 --------------- ----------------- MAGIC: (Aero) (Fire) (Bolt) (Blind) (Venom) (Ice) (Sleep) ------------------ TOZAS. This place is tiny. If you talked to Desh upon your entry, he suggests moving all warriors to the back row because your attack and defensive power will be reduced to 1, no matter what you're equipping. Good idea for the only way to fight battles is with magic. If you spoke to some of the locals, you'd become aware of DR. SCHLECO, who seems to be ill to the point of no return. His house is in the top left corner of the town. But before heading there, it may be a good idea to buy some MIDGET BREAD (5-7) from the store that sells them. They allow you to get a better glimpse of the world as long as you're on the world map yourself. Now, to the house of the sick doctor. When you enter this dude's house, go upward down the path. On your way there, examine the shelves for such interesting treasure as CURE2 SPELL, BURNING STAFF, CLOTH, MITHRILL RING, and POTION. Now speak to the sick one in the bed. He will ask for an ANTIDOTE. Give him one, and he'll show you a path which will lead you to the next part of the game. You should definitely have a white mage in your party at this point because he can equip that burning staff, which gives you unlimited uses of a weaker version of FIRE. Follow the newly made path provided by Dr. Schleco and enter the doorway you'll come upon. The chests there contain a MITHRILL WAND and MITHRILL RING. Enter the stairway there to reach the HIDDEN ROAD. The enemies here aren't particularly tough (Darkface, Leprechaun). You can run if you so want, but you should definitely fight most of these battles with your magic. The fighters and monks should DEFEND in hopes of dodging an attack (what else are they gonna do? FIGHT?). This place is a mere two rooms with nothing else that can possibly be of any interest to anybody. After you clear that place (you can unshrink yourself now), head north to that cave you see. It's the VIKING BASE, and it's your next stop. VIKING BASE Inn 40 --------------------- ITEM: COST: ----------------- Potion 150 Antidote 80 Eyedrop 40 --------------- MAGIC: --------------- (Fire) (Bolt) (Ice) (Venom) (Sleep) (Blind) --------------- Don't even think about touching that ship in the water. The people here are discouraged because an enraged monster of monumental strength has kept the vikes' from trading with others thus shooting the economy in the kidneys. These people will reward you greatly if you subdue the creature. But anyways, in the first room of the base, the chest through the false wall has 300 GIL. The next room (it's not a real room at all but I think you get the picture) has three chests through a false wall. You'll have to do some fancy maneuvering within the walls, but it's worth it for the important level 3 black magic spells ICE2, FIRE2 and BOLT2. Now to get ready for the next part of the game. Have at least two black or red mages in your party. Change jobs and divide up the magic among your mages equally. Make sure both/all mages have at least one level one attack spell and one level three attack spell. You may have to visit the magic dealer in the inn to meet your needs. After you've done all that leave this place at once. But are those vikings really sad because there's a monster in their way, or are they just really bad at making profits? Let's see if they're telling the truth, or if they're just masking their problem so you wouldn't notice. Save your game. Save it again. Now that you've made sure you've saved it, let's take this boat for a ride and see the world. Sounds fun doesn't it? Off we go... Uh oh... here's NEPTO (see BAHAMUT). Well let's just do out best against this dude now that we're here and we can't seem to run away. Oh, we can barely touch the dude (thankfully we saved the game, right?). If some mighty warrior were to come along and conquer the beast, do you know what the reward is? YOU GET TO FIGHT HIM AGAIN. Yay! Fun times 4ever! Anyways, as soon as you're finished acting like an immature five-year old, let's advance to the next part of your epic quest. Head northward from the base and follow the path. You'll eventually come to a temple. Enter it. This is the Shrine of Nepto. 4) Nepto's Shrine enemies: Lilliput, Puti, PoisonBat, WereRat Recommended level: 10-11 Recommended party: (Red Wizard/Red Wizard/White Wizard/Black Wizard) Important stuff found in Nepto's Shrine: WEAPON: COST: ATTACK HIT% --------------------------------------- Serpent Sword 1500 25 80% <--- Bolt elemental ARMOR: COST: DEF EVAD% MDEF ----------------------------------------- Caprace Armor 1250 4 4 4 Caprace Helmet (225) 3 5 3 You don't have to have the party listed above, in case you're too lazy to change jobs (and I can understand), but it'll make life much easier if you did. But there ain't nothing wrong with running. I like to have two red wizes, a black wiz and a white wiz. The heavy fighters should be red wizes. I picked red wizards over black ones because you'll probably gain a level sometime in this place, and the black wizard's HP progression sucks. The monsters here will mostly hit you with magic, so that's something to think about. On the first floor, follow the path straightforward until you find a couple of holes. Take the left one to find chests holding CAPRACE ARMOR and CAPRRACE HELMET. Leave that little room the same way you came in, and head down the right hole instead of the left. A SERPENT SWORD awaits in a chest as you walk the path. Keep walking your way through this floor. At the end you'll find a boss... BOSS: Big Rat Difficulty level: 4 HP: 450-500 Weakness: None Strong against: Level 1 and 2 magic If you've got three warriors who can each use one of those level three spells you found in the Viking Base, you've got it made. If you were lazy and didn't change jobs, well, use those Oddball items you've been keeping all this time. There is no better time to make use of them; this is what they've been waiting for. Use the strongest magic (not Aero) and those items. The white wiz should use a SOUTHWIND or something for the first round, then heal whoever the Big Rat hurts. The rat can do impressive damage, so watch out. Keep your HP up and before you know it, you'll be on your way to victory. When you've defeated that rodent, pick up NEPTO'S EYE and head on out of this place the same way you got here. When you make it out, you should really put the eye back in its place (what else are you gonna do with it?). Face the empty socket and hit B. Select the eye from the menu, and the task will have been accomplished. Nepto is thankful for what you have done, and rewards you by giving you the WATER FANG. Now he'll be in a peaceful state and be a hassle no more. Unshrink and change the jobs back to what they were before. Now you may take the ship for a ride. Stop at the Viking base if you need to recharge. The Vikings are ecstatic now that Nepto is no longer in an irritable state. They reward you by allowing you to keep the ship that is clearly within walking distance from where you are currently standing. Well, now that you've got a ship, you might want to explore the world a little bit. Go a little north and a little west of Nepto's Shrine to find the vacant ARGAS CASTLE. Enter and go two screens up and pull the torch farthest to the right when you reach that room. Follow the path it reveals, but do not yet go into the doorway. Instead, go right as far as you can then down through a false wall. This leads to three treasure chests containing 1000 GIL apiece. Now head back to that door you had previously ignored. Enter and you'll come upon six chests totaling over 10,000 GIL. Next, head back to that room with the four torches. Go up a screen to find yourself in the Throne Room. As you walk across the room, the first door you'll come to leads to a recovery spring. To the right of the table is a pillar. Go just above it and head straight down through the center. This secret passage has two chests, SOUTHWIND, and BOMBSHARD. Head in between the chests and walk right through yet another false wall. This will lead to a PARALYZER. Now exit this castle at once for you've got no business to be here at this time. Important stuff found in Tokkle: WEAPON: COST: ATTACK: HIT% -------------------------------------- 3-Part Nunchuck 3000 25 70% Freezing Staff 3500 8 50% <--- Ice elemental (GreatBow Bow) ARMOR: COST: DEF: EVAD% MDEF ------------------------------------------ Kenpo Outfit 2000 6 8 6 Now, get on your ship and go south and a little east from Argas to the village of TOKKLE. Something really funky seems to be going down at the current moment. The building have been damaged and the townspeople are scared stupid. The area furthest up and to the left in this place has a LAMIA SCALE hidden. From there, go to the unmarked house just to the right. This is the Elder's house. Go through the fireplace to find a 3-PART NUNCHUCK in the pot furthest to the right. The two chests hold a KENPO VEST and a FENIX DOWN. Now leave that house and head to the lower left corner of the town. The trail of grass that leads into some trees gets you a GOD'S WINE when the proper spot is examined. Get out of that area and head to that suspicious-looking patch of grass left of that above unmarked building to get a GREATBOW BOW. Go back down and get to the rightmost part of the town. A patch of grass here holds a FREEZING STAFF. The next town's pretty cool. ANCIENT'S VILLAGE Inn 120 -------------------------------------- WEAPON: COST: ATTACK: HIT% -------------------------------------- Killer Bow 2000 15 85% Bolt Arrow 30 30 85% <--- Bolt elemental Ice Arrow 30 30 85% <--- Ice elemental Fire Arrow 30 30 85% <--- Fire elemental Burning Staff 3500 8 50% <--- Fire elemental (Serpent Sword) (Freezing Staff) (W.Slayer Sword) --------------------------------------------- ARMOR: COST: DEF: EVAD%: MDEF: --------------------------------------------- FlameMail Armor 2500 5 6 5 <--- Fire elemental; Strong v. Ice Headband Hat 1200 4 6 4 Wizard Outfit 2000 9 7 9 (Carapace Armor) (Kenpo Outfit) --------------------------------------- ITEM: COST: ITEM: COST: ----------------- ----------------- Potion 150 EchoHerb 100 HiPotion 1200 LuckMalet 100 Soft 800 Antidote 80 MaidKiss 100 Eyedrop 40 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- MAGIC: COST: EFFECT: BUY? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- W Sight 100 Magic MidgBread; shows more of the over world Yes W Cure2 1500 Gives you way more HP than its level ancestor Yes W Exit 1500 Escape from virtually any dungeon or town Yes W Wash 1500 Much like eyedrop, this cures blind status Yes (Fire2) (Ice2) (Bolt2) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Now leave Tokkle and walk west across that desert that besieges you. This will take you to the ANCIENT'S VILLAGE if you walk westward enough. Lotta good stuff here. Make sure your fighter has two Serpent Swords and you have two WSlayers for a red wizard. Magic spells EXIT and SIGHT are both good buys. So is WASH, but not yet at this point in the game. The armor shop is where it's at. If you could only get one or two items from the armor shop, get two Wizard Outfits. This will make the defense of you wizards, well, much higher than you're used to seeing as far as magicians is concerned (at least that's how I had felt). And, at last, some new items! It's probably a good idea to walk around the continent once to make your party stronger. If you're good, level 11 will be fine. For must of us, however, level 12 would be more like it. Whenever you're ready, head back to your ship and sail back to the peninsula Argas Castle can be found. Get off and walk west from the castle. As soon as mountains keep you from further traveling west, turn north and head in that direction. As soon as you find a pass in the mountains, follow it westward. Eventually, you'll reach the GURGAN VALLEY. Enter it. Walk left then down, and take the stairs. You may speak to the Gurgans if you wish. They'll give you some interesting views of the future (Desh says some stuff about 'em). The Gurgan down the stairs will give you the important TOAD SPELL and he reminds us that destiny awaits for Desh. Head back to your ship and sail to the next part of the game. THE TOWER OF OWEN lies northeast of the Gurgan Valley. Go there. 5) Tower of Owen enemies: Lilliput, Pugman, Farjalug, Putimage, BloodBat, Ohishuki Recommended party: Fighter/Monk/White Wiz/Black Wiz --> Red Wiz Recommended level: 11-12 Time for the tower. Be sure to have plenty of antidotes and eyedrops before you enter; a few echoherbs and maidkisses wouldn't hurt either. Enter the tower and make your way to the center of that structure that takes up much way too much space. "But only a frog could get through there!" I believe is mentioned by somebody within the vicinity. That's right. Cast Toad on yourself, enter that space in the middle, and you'll somehow end up at the next part of the tower. Un-Toad yourself at once and make your way up the tower. The path is not exactly rocket science- it's pretty easy to follow. On the second floor, get the chest in the lower right corner to find a MAIDKISS. The chest on the fourth floor has a TRYVING SWORD, which is once again for the red wizard only. On the fifth floor, talk to Desh to figure out what to do next (pull the gear eight steps from the left to open a wall). The chest on this floor contains a MAIDKISS. On floor seven, the two chests to your right hold a BOMBSHARD and an ECHOHERB. FLAMEMAIL is waiting to be taken from the upper left chest on the ninth floor. The middle chest on this same floor has a SALAMAND SWORD. The chest on your way to the doorway contains a ZEUS'RAGE. MEDUSA waits for your arrival on floor 10. BOSS: Medusa Difficulty level: 3 HP: 900 Weakness: None Strong against: Black magic This is one of many bosses who will be especially strong against black magic. Basically, just keep hittin' her- she's a real wuss. The only thing you'll have to look out for is her ability to turn somebody to stone (it's gradual and usually ineffective, though). Just keep hacking' away and she'll be finished before you know it. When you're victorious, a short scene will ensue. His words of wisdom direct you to the Dwarf Cave. He then goes to a battle the fire and preventing any further uncertainty. You'll be warped out of there. That whirlpool that you no doubt noticed is now gone. Get on your ship and head northward through the newly created path. Turn east and follow the coastline south until you see a town lying up against some mountains. GISHAL Inn 120 ---------------- ITEM1: COST: ---------------- Carrot 150 ---------------- ITEM2: COST: ---------------- Magic Key 100 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MAGIC: COST: EFFECT: BUY? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ W Toad 700 Turns target/s to/from that disgusting creature No W Size 700 Similar to the Toad spell, kills enemy in battle No B Ice3 3000 A snowy thing pelts the target for alright ice damage Yes B Shade 3000 Makes an enemy shadow bound and thus paralyzed No B Break 3000 Gradually turns an enemy to stone NO!! W Libra 3000 Makes known the target's HP and MP totals No W Confu 3000 Confuses the victim so much they don't know who to hit No W Mute 3000 Opens up a can of Shut Up so the victim can't use magic ?? This would be GISHAL, a farming community. There really isn't much to talk about as far as this place is concerned. The magic shop's only important spell is ICE3, which should be last black magic spell you'll probably consider buying for a REALLY LONG time. A magic key store exists in this town. I'd buy 10 of them (you can go back to Argas if you want and collect that treasure now if you want, but that stuff's not to useful now). The house near that big carrot patch has a couple of CARROTS hidden within pots. The bottom right edge of this town has two MAGIC KEYS hidden in the grass. I do not believe reaching the island in the middle of this place is feasible. Get out and get to the cave Desh spoke of earlier. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 3: Dwarves, Fire, Treasure, Death and Flight ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Here, the Light Warriors can experience a greater coming of age as they reclaim the Fire Crystal. But before that, you are to find the one who has the Dwarves' valuable treasure. You will also help out a floundering village, save an ungrateful tree, and speak to Cid, the master mechanic who will give your party the gift of flight. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sail back toward the Tower of Owen. Pass it by and keep sailing west. You'll soon reach a crescent-shaped island. Enter the southern cave; the other one is one of fire, and it's of no interest to you now. DWARF CAVE Inn 80 ----------------------------------------- WEAPON: COST: ATTACK: HIT%: ----------------------------------------- Salamandr Sword 3000 32 80% <--- Fire elemental Tonfa Nunchuck 500 20 80% Shining Staff 3500 8 50% <--- Lightning elemental (Serpent Sword) (WSlayer Sword) (3-Part Nunchuck) ------------------------- ARMOR: COST: ------------------------- Ice Armor 2400 Ice Helmet 1200 Ice Shield 1800 (Kenpo Outfit) (Wizard Outfit) ITEM: COST: ITEM: COST: ----------------- ----------------- Potion 150 EchoHerb 100 HiPotion 1200 LuckMalet 100 Soft 800 Antidote 80 MaidKiss 100 Eyedrop 40 This is the DWARVES CAVE. Walk along this place and speak to the ones who dwell within. You'll hear that a character called GUZCO has stolen the dwarves' treasure. What they want back the most is their prized HORN. You have been selected to find and kill Guzco, and at least get the horn back to where it belongs. You will not be able to touch the horn that remains for a magic barrier keeps you at bay. As you can see, most of the stuff you can buy here is pretty good, but I wouldn't buy too much now. When you feel ready, head to the left doorway of the main room of this place. Walk up to the lake, turn the party into frogs, step in the water, and de-frog the party. This is the UNDERGOUND LAKE. 6) Underground Lake enemies: Bomb, Manticore, RuinWaze, Boulder, Sea Devil, Merman Recommended level: 12-13 Recommended party: Fighter/Monk/White Wiz/Black Wiz --> Red Wiz This place could prove to be pretty tough; Bombs can take away upwards of 500 HP per explosion and Boulders can petrify you upon attack. Many of the enemies are weak against lighting. The first chest you come to will hold a SOFT POTION. Walk through the false wall (it's kind of obvious) to proceed. The next room is very small. The first chest on B2F contains a ZUES'RAGE. So does the second one. The third and fourth chests each contain a SOFT POTION. The two chests on B3F each contain 300 GIL. Keep walkin', and before you know it, you'll encounter the enemy. Heal up and prepare to fight Guzco. BOSS: Guzco Difficulty level: 5 HP: 1500 Weakness: Nil Strong against: Black magic Be sure your fighter has FLAMEMAIL equipped, because Guzco can launch ice magic at you. This is a considerably tougher boss than Medusa, but just as long as you have fighting warriors alive, taking away 1500 shouldn't be too much to ask. After the fight, pick up the horn Guzco was guarding. As you walk away, a white segment will follow you around. Suspicious? Get out of the lake and get back to the that platform the horns should be standing. You'll be allowed go onto the platform to put the thing back. Face the logical spot of the missing horn, press 'B' and select the horn from the inventory. A startling revelation unfolds as Guzco (that segment) has been following you in your shadows. Guzco will go on to steal BOTH horns and run a few feet north to the FIRE CAVE. Guzco has apparently unleashed the awesome power of fire or something, which is not something the world wants to see (duh). You must once again save the dwarves' (and the rest of the world, for that matter). Go to the inn, buy some stuff. Make sure you buy one of every piece of ICE paraphernalia in the armor shop. This is the only time in the entire game This is the only time I ever recommend dropping some money on a shield. It would definitely be a good idea to build up a couple of levels before embarking upon yer next mission. 7) Flame Cave enemies: Crocotta, Balloon, Red Mallow, Adamanti, Milmecoret Recommended levels: 14-15 Recommended party: Fighter/Monk/White Wiz/Black Wiz --> Red Wiz Make sure your fighter has equipped all that Ice protection before heading into this cave. That chest you can see from the entrance is accessed by going down and to the right contains a SOUTHWIND. This is the only chest in the floor. The second floor is a tad mazey, so it's a bit tough to explain, so bear with me. Take the first intersection down to receive an ICEBLADE SWORD in a chest. Go back up and take the next intersection left, then down the next intersection, which leads to a HIPOTION. Go up as far as you can to lead you to another HIPOTION. Then go down and proceed to level B3F. If you go straight up then left, you can get a POTION in the chest. If you went straight up, you could get a HIPOTION from a chest. Now push that rock that sticks out like a sore thumb. Doing so will reveal a passage that leads to the final portion of this place. The next room is very small; through that door lies the FIRE CRYSTAL. Heal up and head to the that door. Proceed in its direction, and Guzco, err, SALAMANDR will attack. BOSS: Salamandr Difficulty level: 7.5 HP: 2000+ Weakness: Ice?? Strong against: Black magic You would think that such a creature of infernal heat would be easily dispatched with a black wizard's ice magic? Well, no, not even close. Sure, Ice3 may dish out respectable damage on some occasions. Usually, it's frighteningly weak, and often completely ineffective. Salamandr has a bitchin' FLAME attack which can wipe out your entire party in two rounds. Keep everybody alive for as long as you can by casting some Cure spell on the entire party each time. Chances are that everybody in your party will die except your fighter, who is covered head to toe with that ice stuff I hope you got at the Dwarves' cave. That Flame attack does only like 50 DMG, and regular attacks will always do 1 DMG (to your properly equipped fighter). If your fighter is the only one left, just keep hackin' away. You may want to use that GOD'SWINE on him at the beginning of the battle, but I wouldn't. If his HP drops below 100, use a HIPOTION. Victory will be yours. When you're through with that ordeal, speak to the Fire Crystal. It will offer you its power: the jobs HUNTER, KNIGHT, THIEF and SCHOLAR. That star in the back lets you leave (Duh). Step on it (what else are you gonna do with it?). Important treasure found in the Dwarves' Cave: WEAPON: COST: ATTACK: HIT% ----------------------------------- Ice Book (1650) 32 70% <--- Ice elemental Fire Book (1650) 32 70% <--- Fire elemental Light Book (1650) 32 70% <--- Bolt elemental (Killer Bow) ARMOR: COST: DEF: EVAD% MDEF: --------------------------------------------- Knight Armor (3750) 12 9 12 Hero Shield 3500 10 10 12 Gauntlet Glove (1250) 2 8 2 Scholar Outfit 5500 15 12 15 Scholar Hat 7500 5 10 5 You should bring the news of your victory back to the dwarves. Go a few feet south to their cave. Five steps into the joint, you'll be interrupted by some dude who appears out of thin air. This news he brings is not uplifting- that ransacked village TOKKLE is in greater pearl than ever before. He also talks about HYNE and the scholar's special ability. He'll then depart in a way similar to his choice of entrance. Well, that was unexpected. Proceed regularly trough the cave, and you'll find that the mood is noticeably more lively by talking to some of the locals. One of them gives you a MAGIC KEY. Speak to the dwarf standing still and he'll allow you to get some fabulous treasure. Follow him. The bottom of that big ol' ladder lies a revivification spring. You may want to use it. ;-) But now, on to the good stuff. OTTERHEAD, ELIXIR, GAUNTLET GLOVE, KILLER BOW, ECHO HERB, SOFT POTION, SCHOLAR OUTFIT, SCHOLAR HAT, FIRE BOOK, ICE BOOK, LIGHT BOOK, KNIGHT ARMOR, HERO SHIELD, CARROT and 2 FENIX DOWNS populate the treasure chests. Phew! So you now have those new jobs. You should definitely change you fighter to a KNIGHT as soon as you get enough space in your inventory. The thief doesn't have much of a use yet, but stay tuned. A rookie scholar will do as much damage as your rookie knight, maybe more. But his use fades quickly. Same thing for hunters, but their usefulness falls at a much slower rate. Make sure you're at least at level 15 before proceeding to the next part of the game. Remember that guy who told you that bad stuff happening to Tokkle? Well, he's not bluffing. He expects your party to come to the rescue. So does everybody else. It's probably a good idea to help them out. Get on your ship and head to Tokkle. In case you forget where it's at, go east until you reach the Tower of Owen, and go south through that pass and you'll be right there. Head in, but make sure your party is at full or nearly full HP/MP before doing so. Before you can walk three steps into the town, some bad guys will surround you, capture you and imprison you within depths of HYNE CASTLE. 8) Hyne's Castle enemies: Lamia, Pharaoh, Lemwraith, Daemon Recommended level: 15-16 Recommended party: Knight/Monk/White Wiz/Black Wiz Important stuff found in Hyne's Floating Castle: WEAPON: COST: ATTACK: HIT% -------------------------------------- King Sword (2500) 80 50% Rune Bow (1500) 25 90% (Holy Arrows) Talk to the others around you and you'll realize that the evil KING HYNE has taken control, and none can end his reign of terror except the Light Warriors. One of your cellmates will give you a LUCKMALLET once spoken to. I don't suggest going over to the cell next to you for the one who dwells there is a Daemon. Cast MINI on yourself and enter that small hole in the upper left corner of you jail cell. Return to normal size at once. A good idea for this place is to be very conservative with your black magic for a reason you'll discover later. It's probably a good time to tell ya that this place is a real pain. You'll be GLAREd to the point of no return. It might not be a bad idea to run away from some of these battles for they can get really friggin' annoying. Now for the walkthrough. The chest at the bottom right section contains 20 HOLY ARROWS. The lower left part of the room has a false wall that leads to a FENIX DOWN and the doorway to the next floor. The next floor has three doors upon entry. The left one has two chests holding 100 GIL and 30 GIL. Ignore the left door. The middle room's treasure holds over 6000 GIL. The right door has two chests holding a FENIX DOWN and a ZEUS'RAGE. Now get out of that room and get around that big-ass room in the center to go through door at the center on the other side. Get the chest you see to your upper right to find a KING'S SWORD. Proceed by passing leftward through a false wall on the leftmost portion of the room. Now get the FENIX DOWN from the chest on the right side of the room. Floor 5F has a RUNE BOW in the upper right part of the room. Go through the door you passed up to find the enemy... BOSS: Death Difficulty level: 8 HP: 1500+ Weakness: Varies Strong against: Varies, Weapon attacks In some translations, Hyne referred to as Death. That's what I've always preferred calling him Death even though it's not right. This fight can prove to be easy, but I think we can all agree that it's, well, annoying. I would definitely change your monk to a SCHOLAR so you can SCAN and see through Hyne's WALLCHANGE. For the first round, a knight or monk or hunter should defend if you got 'em. Scholar should SCAN every time because Hyne supposedly changes his weakness every three rounds of fighting, but I've had instances when it was two rounds of combat between a change. You wizards should do something small like give a potion or something. After you discover his weakness, exploit it. Hope to God he'll be weak against Cold so you can douse him with Ice3 and Antarctics. A white wiz should heal whoever is hit with his level 3 black magic (Ice2, Fire2, Bolt2). When you're done with him, some important-looking dudes from Argas will come through the door and give you props for a job well done, followed by the shipment of you to the LIVING FOREST. Walk up a bit and the fairies will speak to you then give you the WIND FANG. The forest, represented by the ELDEST TREE, will then thank you by saying they need to rest for the next millenium and no visitors shall be allowed. Even access for the Light Warriors will most surely be denied. You're Welcome. Important stuff found in Argas Castle: WEAPON: COST: ATTACK: HIT% ------------------------------------- Medusa Arrow (50) 20 100% <--- Turns victim to stone in most cases (Ice Arrow) (Bolt Arrow) (Fire Arrow) (Killer Bow) (Flame Book) (Ice Book) (Light Book) Now that you saved the Kingdom of Argas, it's a good time to just invite yourself to their castle and barge on in. Your ship is in the same place you left it- just north of Tokkle. To get there, just keep following the eastern coast till you run into Tokkle. Get into your ship and head back to Argas Castle (north and a bit east of Tokkle in case you forgot). Enter the castle and go straight up until you reach the Throne Room. Speak to the King to receive the TIME GEAR. He'll also tell you of Cid's existence and all. The soldiers sitting around the table don't really have anything interesting to say. You were here to loot the place, but you haven't yet discovered all the treasure. Get to the small room with the torches and pull the fourth one. Keep walking just like you did before, but this time, walk all the way up the stairs. Follow the path right to eventually reach a locked green door. This can be open by facing the door, pressing 'B' and selecting a magic key from your inventory, or by putting a thief in the lead (hit select) to take advantage one his abilities (lockpicking!). In this room, you'll find 20 ICE ARROWS, SCHOLAR OUTFIT, ICE BOOK, FLAME BOOK, LIGHT BOOK, and 20 FIRE ARROWS. Now leave this room and head left to get to the other room. (NOTE: The stuff you find here is valuable. Some items, like the arrows, you will want to keep. Other items, such as the books, merely take up space. Leave to sell unwanted material at the nearby Viking Base.) Get the door open somehow and speak to the white wizard. This'll get you 2 ELIXIRS. Now go right in front of that small space which separates you from the treasures you see, face down and press 'A.' This leads you to such interesting treasure as 20 BOLT ARROWS, 20 MEDUSA ARROWS, and a KILLER BOW. Now get to Canaan. Canaan is not far away, it's a bit east of the Viking Base. Barge into Cid's house which is in the top left corner of the town. Get into Cid's face and show him the Time Gear by pressing 'B' and selecting Time Gear from the inventory. He'll go outside for a few seconds to mess with your ship. When he returns, you'll find out that your ship can now fly! Hell Yeah! It can travel across all terrain (except mountains, of course) free from any enemy interference (for now at least). Its landing capabilities are limited to deep waters, though. I would go to the Ancient's Village (westernmost town?) to buy 10 more Bolt Arrows, a FlameMail (assuming you don't still have one) and 99 POTIONS. You are now ready to ditch this pop stand at once. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Chapter 4: Brave New World ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The four discover a world of water and someone who can see the special powers welled up within you. After you reclaim another Crystal, the over world suddenly becomes visible for some reason. Now, you're to find some Old Men, the enemy of gold, and two new towns before the fourth chapter is finished. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Keep flying in any one direction until you get off the Floating Continent. As soon as you get off the continent, you'll be surrounded by water as far as the eye can see and then some. You are supposed to find a shipwreck beside a very small island. (Sight spell or MidgBreads anyone?) You basically head east a long way and a bit south and you'll find your destination (I could be wrong, however). Check the map periodically to check your progress. When you do find the shipwreck, land in the water and walk into the wrecked ship. Walk regularly through the first couple levels. While walking the trail, get the ZEUS'RAGE and BLOOD SWORD from the chests. I don't recommend equipping the Blood Sword. It has a lower attack power than the Iceblade, but it drains HP from the enemy. Only problem is that it's too inconsistent to really be worth holding on to IMO. Approach the girl in the bed, hit 'B' and select Antidote from your inventory. This cures her of her ailments (duh). When she's healed, she sees the power vested within the Light Warriors and says she can be of help. It agreed that she will follow your party around (her name's Elia in case ya didn't know). You have no further business being in this defunct ship, so make your way outta here. WEAPON: COST: ATTACK: HIT%: ------------------------------------- Blood Sword 16500 35 80% <--- Drains HP from the non-undead From there, go south a long ways and a little bit east (Sight magic and Midget Bread anyone?). You should come upon an island with plenty of mountains, a temple and a cave. Land your ship in the water at the southern part of the island so you can walk to the shrine. Go ahead on in. First head right to restore HP/MP. Now, I would definitely change the white wizard to a HUNTER a this point in time. Equip the hunter with a Killer Bow and Bolt Arrows. Go back leftward and take the upward path this time. Examine the shard of Crystal, and Elia will advise gettin' to the SEA CAVE, so do that. Leave the shrine and make your way due north and you'll be at the Sea Cave in no time. 9) Sea Cave enemies: Twinhead, VenomToad, Roper, Cocktrice, Agaria Recommended level: 16-17 Recommended party: Knight/Monk/Hunter/Black Wiz or Red Wiz The first thing you should know about this place is that there is absolutely no treasure whatsoever in this place. I really recommend taking a hunter along because each time he uses a bolt arrow, it's like a cast of the Bolt spell. A black wizard isn't all that useful, but this place is easy enough so you might as well just leave him in there- this will probably be his final chance to do anything. Anywho, follow the path. When you come to the door, Elia will start praying thus breaking the seal which would have prevented you from entering earlier. The first three rooms are very straightforward. On floor B3F, take the lower path. The next room is very basic as well, and through the door is the WATER CRYSTAL which is guarded by KRAKEN. Elia returns the shard in an excited haste, and when she does, Kraken floats an arrow her way. Now the Warriors of Light must toil through another boss before they can proceed any further. BOSS: Kraken Difficulty Level: 1.5 HP: No more than 2000 Weakness: Bolt or Ice Strong against: Nil, really Nope, that difficulty level is no misprint, you won't even have to heal up beforehand. Heck, even black magic does respectable damage (Ice3 in particular). Keep on hackin' away. Ya know, I'd have a saved state right before I walked in that door, and I'd go in and fight her like four times more than I normally do just because I felt cheated. The only reason the level of difficulty is a 1.5 and not a 1 is because she may knock one of your warriors with a critical hit for alright damage, but still nothing to get to scared over. She also has moderately strong level three magic, but you'll probably kill this overgrown octopus before that happens. If somebody gets weak (won't happen), have the hunter cast Cure2 on them. She'll be dead in no time. After you've struggled through that ordeal (yeah, right), Elia will help excrete the powers of the Water Crystal, which are the jobs: GEOMANCER, DRAGOON, VIKING, M.KNIGHT, KARATEKA, CONJURER and BARD. She then passes away never to be seen by us again. At the current moment, geomancers, dragoons, m.knights, conjurers and bards are all bad selections for you can't get proper supplies for them now. If you have a scholar or red wiz, ditch them immediately. You'll probably want to do the same with your black wiz- they're simply not as useful as they once were, and their usefulness will, for the most part, decline as the game progresses. Make your monk a KARATEKA and change the black wiz to a THIEF. But back to the game and the story and what not. Upon unleashing the power of the Water Crystal, your party was knocked out cold by an earthquake. The quake was of such powerful force and magnitude that the rest of the world has somehow been revealed. Your party has been knocked out for three days, and when they finally arise from their slumber, you'll find that some residents from the town AMUR found them and brought them in for shelter. Speak to the people in both levels of the inn (and the rest of the town for that matter), and you'll find that some evil doer by the name of GOLDOR has chained up your ship nice and tight. Don't leave the premises of the town yet- all paths will eventually take you to one of two destinations: GOLDOR'S MANSION (south), and the STATUES OF THE QUEST (north); both lead to death. AMUR Inn: 200 -------------------------------------- WEAPONS: COST: ATTACK HIT% -------------------------------------- Battle Axe 5500 45 60% M.Star Axe 8000 50 70% M.Gouche Knife 7000 30 100% Boomerang 9000 35 70% Kaiser Claw 7000 36 100% -------------------------------------------- ARMOR: COST: DEF EVAD% MDEF -------------------------------------------- Viking Helmet 3000 7 10 7 Viking Armor 4000 10 8 7 Hero Shield 3500 10 10 12 Thief Gloves 2500 3 9 4 <--Strength +5 DarkSuit Outfit 3800 8 70 5 <--Agility +5 DarkHood Helmet 2000 5 8 5 <--Strength +5 Blackbelt Outfit 3000 11 10 5 <--Agility +5 Chakra Helmet 2000 9 10 6 <--Strength and Vitality +5 ----------------- ----------------- ITEM: COST: ITEM: COST: ----------------- ----------------- HiPotion 1200 LuckMalet 100 Soft 300 Antidote 80 MaidKiss 100 Eyedrop 40 EchoHerb 100 Carrot 150 Any who, leave the inn and change to the jobs listed above, but don't buy anything yet. Go right, ignoring the shops, to cross the bridge to the next island. Enter the unmarked house and go up to JIRU, who will explain the situation. Then a short scene involving some OLD MEN will ensue. Jiru will take you outside to unlock the watergate allowing you to venture into the town's waterways. This is to allow you to enter the AMUR SEWERS, but it's time to get some cool stuff hidden in grass of various locations. Enter the water, and first go to the island just above you to get four CARROTS. Go back into the water and go left at the first opportunity. Go up that small waterfall and get to that bigger island covered with grass. The upper right corner has a DARKSUIT and two spaces at the upper left area contain a DARKHOOD and THIEF GLOVES, which is all you will need as far as armor is concerned for your thief. Next go back down that waterfall and head back to where you entered the waters. Get back onto land, head into shops, buy necessary equipment. This would mean 2 BOOMERANGS for a thief (who goes in the back row), and a CHARKA HELMET, and a BLACKBELT OUTFIT for your karateka (you could get him a KAISER KNUCLE or two, but I wouldn't recommend it because he fights well with fists and you'll soon get two stronger claws). Now go back into the water and make your way to the lower right corner of the town into that stone structure you see. 10) Amur Sewers' enemies: DrkFoot, GiganToad, TwinLiger, Storoper Recommended party: Knight/Karateka/Hunter/Thief Recommended level: 18-19 Important stuff in the Sewers: WEAPON: COST: ATTACK: HIT% ------------------------------------- Catclaw Claw (7000) 42 100% Thor Hammer (7000) 30 70% Oriaicon Knife (6000) 45 100% <--- Drain HP from the non-undead (M.Gauche Knife) ARMOR: COST: DEF: EVAD%: MDEF: --------------------------------------- Power Ring (1250) 4 11 4 <--- Strength +5 The first floor isn't hard to figure out. Head leftward on to B2F. Collect the CATCLAW CLAW from the chest and move on to B3F and you'll come upon those four Old Men who think they are legendary heroes or something. They seem to be losing to some strong force... such as Goblins. You will have to face eight of them. It will be a hard fight (note the sarcasm), but you can do it. After struggling through that great force of evil, those dudes will admit their mediocrity and then they'll start running around like a bunch of idiots. Proceed to B4F. Go left, stop at the bridge, and head down till you can no longer. Go right through the false wall to lead you to an M.GAUCHE KNIFE and THOR HAMMER. Exit the room the same way you came in and go straight left until you find yourself in another small treasure room. The chests in this small room has an ORIAICON KNIFE and POWER RING. Give the ring to the karateka so that character finally has something to put on his hands. Be sure you keep this ring; it's valuable for a VERY long time, don't sell it until you can get CRYSTAL stuff. Leave this room the same way you got in. Then head up, then left and follow the path till you reach a doorway. Go in it. Here you'll find DELIA, keeper of the FLOATING SHOES. She'll toss you a pair. Then the four Old Men come storming in to remind you of their phoniness (How were they able to get by Storopers if they were having trouble with Goblins?). Turns out they're a little bit better than mediocre after all. Delia will toss you the real deal and now you can get to Goldor's Mansion. One of the Old Men uses Exit magic (actually, it was just an Otterhead) and you're warped out of the joint. Go to the inn, rest up, buy some (10-20) HIPOTIONS, and sell the stuff you know you won't use. Now leave the town and go south. If you go east of the mountains, you'll see a CHOCOBO FOREST. In here, you can find a place to put a FAT CHOCOBO when you use a CARROT. Stick your equipment for mages here. If you want to make your life a little easier, you can catch a roaming chocobo and you get to ride to the mansion free from enemy attack. Go south WEST of those mountains and across the desert and head north to come to the mansion of Goldor. 11) Goldor's Mansion enemies: Nitemare, GoldKnight, GoldBear, GoldEagle Recommended party: Knight/Karateka/Hunter/Thief Recommended levels: 18-19 Important stuff found in Goldor's Mansion: WEAPON: COST: ATTACK HIT% ---------------------------------- Shiny Sword (2500) 5 20% Dragon Claw (9000) 48 100% <--- Fire/Bolt elemental If you insist on having a black wizard in your party, here's where you will really begin to realize his futility. Enemies who have 'gold' somewhere in their names usually have high magic defense (hence, no attack magician in the recommended party). Enter the mansion and go straight upward to the next floor ignoring all those rooms. Walk up, left, down and right to make your way around that big-ass structure. When you get around, 12 chests will meet the eye. 11 SHINY SWORDS and a DRAGON CLAW (NOW equip both claws) are within the chests. All of us who have played FF2 can remember the weakest sword in the game, the Blood Sword. It had an attack power of zero (0). But if you had two warriors remotely skilled in swords, the Emperor (last boss) became the easiest last boss in the history of Nintendo. The special virtue of the Blood Sword is that's the Emperor's weakness. The game gives you two of them. The Shiny sword can't cut butter too much better, and I strongly doubt these things have a special use of any kind (there are eleven of them. 11!). If anybody out there knows its special use (if it even has one), could ya mail me? I'd really appreciate it. But they DO sell for 2500 Gil a pop. Pretty good. But now back to FF3. After you collect the treasure, I'd recommend walking out and all the way back to Amur to stay at the inn and to sell your crap (like Shiny Swords). This is strictly for level-building purposes, so you don't have to do it. Go back to the first floor of the mansion. There are four rooms here, but the only room that you should care about is the upper left room. Open the door somehow and walk through the false wall in the upper left corner. The next room is very small. The following room is kinda mazey, but simply walking along the bottom row through several false walls will make life a bit easier. Keep following the path, and after a while, you'll come to a room. Heal up and proceed to face... BOSS: Goldor Difficulty level: 6 HP: 2300 Weakness: None (VERY) Strong against: Magic Goldor's kinda tough. You may recall somebody mentioning something about him having perfect magic defense. This is half the reason to lose your black wizard when you did. He has a relatively weak regular attack which won't do any more than 200 DMG. He has level 3 elemental magic (like Ice2), and a nasty Ice3 that will take away like 500 HP, 800 to a karateka who makes use of the BuildUp command. But, one attack after he's been BuiltUp will get Goldor about halfway dead, so the karateka should do that. Everyone else should fight, but if someone gets weak, the hunter or white wiz should Cure2 them. The only thing to fear here is that he might go after the same warrior every time. If he does that, he'll probably die. Hopefully, he won't go after your karateka after he's been BuiltUp, cuz he's the majority of your offense. After you have proven yourself better than him, he'll break the gold crystal as a final act of dignity or something. This is okay, for the Gold Crystal is not as important as one may think. When he dies he will leave behind the KEY to your ship. Go up to it, examine it, and the lock which once restricted your ship to a very small area will somehow evaporate. Now leave this place somehow, get back to Amur, stay in the inn, buy 30-40 more HiPotions (and a couple of Otterheads maybe). Now leave Amur, step in your ship, press 'A' and fly outta here. Okay, this next part is pretty tough to explain, but I'll do the best I can. Head to the southern tip of the continent Amur is on. and head east until you reach the floating continent. Go due south when you find it and you'll eventually stumble upon the town of LEPRIT. LEPRIT Inn 200 ------------------ MAGIC: COST: EFFECTs: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- C Choco 100 B: Stumbled; The stupid bird trips thus having no effect W: Escape; Makes party get away from the battle S: Chocobo Kick; A pesky birds kicks around a monster C Shiva 700 B: Icy Glare; Hits an enemy with a cold frosty blast W: HypnoBeam; Makes all enemies sleepy and easy targets S: Diamond Dust; Hits all enemies for exceptional ice damage C Ramuh 1500 B: God's Thunder; Shocks one enemy with a jolt of lightning W: Mindblast; Puts all enemies into a catatonic stupor S: Heaven's Rage; Impressive lightning damage on all enemies C Ifrit 3000 B: Flames of Fury; A powerful fireball falls on an enemy W: Recovery; The Light Warriors all regain a few HP S: HellFire; Flames of the depths of Hell burn all enemies C Titan 5000 W: Punch; Earth elemental hits one enemy hard B: Kick; Hits enemy harder S: Earthquake; Rocks all enemies for awesome Earth damage --------------------------------- ITEMS: --------------------------------- HiPoiton 1200 Antidote 80 Soft 300 Otterhead 2000 EchoHerb 100 Carrot 150 Eyedrop 40 MidgBread 200 --------------------------------- This is a conjurer-oriented town. Go up and to the left a bit till you see a small forest with some suspicious-looking grass. When you see a row of three patches of grass, go left to find a TURTLSHEL and ELIXIR. Now go right to that forest, and you'll see some more suspicious-looking grass. Make yourself even with the pond you see and walk into the trees to get a FENIX DOWN at the end. Now get out of the forest and now, we must do some business with the town's shopkeepers. Strip your thief of everything and change his job to a CONJURER. You should still have some stuff left over from your mages, don't get your shorts in a knot if you sold that stuff. Get your new conjurer a FEATHER, which is good for one LONG-ass time, CHOCOBO, SHIVA, and RAMUH espers (Yeah, that's what I'll call 'em in this game), IFRIT too if you're in a buying mood, and come back and by TITAN when you get the MP for it. All of the magic spells here are good buys. Sell your thief gear and leave this place hoping that you saved some money for the next town. Head back to your ship and levitate. Just east of those mountains you see lies the kingdom of SALONIA. Don't fly too close to the castle for you will most certainly be shot down if you test 'em. Go a but east of Salonia and turn south to come to DASTAR, a bard and geomancer community. DASTAR Inn 320 ------------------------------------- WEAPONS: COST: ATTACK: HIT%: ------------------------------------- Giyman Bell 4500 25 80% Mandora Harp 8000 40 70% ------------------------------------------- ARMOR: COST: DEF: EVAD% MDEF: ------------------------------------------- Gaia Outfit 4200 16 12 8 Bard Outfit 5500 15 18 7 Feather Hat 8000 7 10 8 <---Agility +5 Rune Ring 5000 5 10 6 There are two EARTHDRUMs hidden within Dastar's upper grass. I would change your hunter to a GEOMANCER. You may have noticed his use dissipating at Goldor's Mansion, and that slide is just going to continue. If you do, you'll have no means of magical healing except Ifrit's crappy Recovery thing. Now you will need even more HIPOTION. You should also get him some snappy swag from the armor shop. Head back over to Salonia, but go just to the southern edge of the kingdom. Land your ship in the water and walk over to the marshy area to break in these new jobs, and to gain more exp and gold. Get at least to level 21, head back to Amur, buy 50 HIPOTIONs , then fly back to Salonia. Fly right in front of the castle with your tongue hanging out spewing some obnoxious utterance of mockery. They will shoot you down. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 5: The Kingdom, the Prince, Dorga and More -------------------------------------------------------------------------- It seems the Light Warriors are stranded in a distinguished kingdom during a civil war. Whateva. You'll have to find the banished prince and a possessed king. After eliminating an evil-enduced bird summon, another new door of possibilities opens up for your guys. You'll need to see Dorga, a wise dude of magic, and he'll explain why the world is in disorder. You will also probably wish to do a few side quests for some good stuff. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Well, you seemed to have come to this place at the wrong time. Right away, turn around back to the world map. It's time to see what this well-developed kingdom has to offer. First get to NORTHWEST SALONIA. (NOTE: Most of the shops will be closed until you've killed Phoenix) NORTHWEST SALONIA Inn 320 -------------------------------------- ITEM: COST: ITEM: COST: ----------------- ----------------- HiPotion 1200 LuckMalet 100 Soft 300 Antidote 80 MaidKiss 100 Eyedrop 40 EchoHerb 100 Carrot 150 MAGIC: ------ (Fire2) (Cure2) (Ice2) (Exit) (Bolt2) (Wash) Not much for you to do in this part of town. The magic shop and library are closed now. The inn is open for business. Now leave this place and go due south to SOUTHWEST SALONIA. SOUTHWEST SALONIA ------------------------ ARMOR: COST: DEF: EVAD%: MDEF: MEVD: --------------------------------------------------------- WhiteRobe Outfit 7000 20 12 14 2 <--- Sprit +5 BlackRobe Outfit 7000 20 12 14 2 <--- Intelligence +5 (Rune Ring) (Gaia Outfit) (Scholar Outfit) (Scholar Hat) Southwest Salon's where it's at. Enter and go straight up. Talk to that guy you see just across that bridge. He'll tell you to go into the bar. Do what he says- it's a trap, but a pathetic one so you've nothing to worry about. Some dudes seem to be making life kinda difficult for some kid. Go to save him from future torture. Some GoldKnights will confront you. Kick their asses. The kid's gonna follow you around. Prince Allus (the kid you just saved) was banished from the castle for some reason. Leave the pub and cross the bridge left and head into the water. Go down to the unmarked house you see, and get down to the lower left corner of the town. Talk to the man to receive a WIND JAVELIN. Head back on up, go into the water and make your way due east to that guy an the island. He'll give you a DRAGON ARMOR when spoken to. It should also be noted that there's a free Fat Chocobo for you in lower right house here. In that room, go through the left indentation to find several CARROTS within chests. Now leave the town. Head east, but not to the southeast portion of the kingdom, but to NORTHEAST SALONIA instead. NORTHEAST SALONIA Inn 320 ------------------------------------------ WEAPON1: COST: ATTACK: HIT% ------------------------------------------ Wind Javelin 10000 50 80% <--- Wind elemental Thunder Javelin 8000 35 80% <--- Bolt/Wind elemental ------------------------------------- WEAPON2: COST: ATTACK: HIT%: ------------------------------------- Golem Staff 13500 16 70% <--- Earth elemental/Strength +5/Randomly Rune Staff 18000 20 80% casts Break Flame Wand 3000 12 70% <--- Fire elemental/Strengthens fire magic Ice Wand 3000 12 70% <--- Ice elemental/Strengthens ice magic Light Wand 3000 12 70% <--- Bolt elemental/Strengthens bolt magic (Shinning Staff) (Burning Staff) (Freezing Staff) --------------------------------- ITEMS: COST: ITEMS: COST: --------------------------------- HiPoiton 1200 Antidote 80 Soft 300 Otterhead 2000 EchoHerb 100 Carrot 150 Eyedrop 40 MidgBread 200 --------------------------------- ---------------- MAGIC1: ---------------- (Break) (Libra) (Ice3) (Confu) (Shade) (Mute) ----------------------------------------------------------------- MAGIC2: COST: EFFECT: BUY? ----------------------------------------------------------------- B Bolt3 5000 An okay blast of lightning will hit stuff No B Kill 5000 Obliterates all enemies on the screen Yes B Erase 5000 Eliminates an enemy's special defenses No W Cure3 5000 Imagine Cure2, only better Yes W Life 5000 Revives a swoon soul to minimal strength Yes W Safe 5000 Improves a warrior's armor by something No Buy a Wind Javelin and leave this place and go due south to SOUTHEAST SALONIA. In Southeast Salonia, one of the locals will tell you about GAURDIA, the one that only dragoons can defeat. That's food for thought. There's really nothing worth spending time worrying or typing about in this part of town except that DRAGON TOWER in the middle. You'll have to do some maneuvering to reach it. Enter the door when you reach it. (NOTE: You don't have to do this, but if you want some dragoons...) 12) Dragon Tower enemies: Catoblapas, Needler, Sandworm, M.Helcan, Sorcerer Recommended level: 21-22 Recommended party: Knight/Karateka/Geomancer/Conjurer Important stuff found in the Dragon Tower: WEAPON: ----------------- (Thunder Javelin) (Wind Javelin) ARMOR: COST: DEF: EVAD%: MDEF: ------------------------------------------- Dragon Armor (4000) 15 10% 15 Dragon Helmet (4000) 7 10% 7 The explanation may be confusing because most of it is about traveling through false walls. This part is made up of four parts. Enter the tower and go right to the indention through a false wall. Follow this path until you can walk through the right indentation of the of the lower right part. Then go up the false wall in the middle of that part. Follow that path the path until you reach the right indention of the top right part. Walk left through that wall and continue walking to go through the fake wall of the left indention. That way will eventually bring you to the doorway you have to go through. Keep going up the stairs until you reach the top. There are two roads to talk through- let's do the top first. You'll find a bounty of treasure waiting for you: a FENIX DOWN, 2 DRAGON ARMORS, THUNDER JAVELIN and 2 DRAGON HELMETS. The lower path has 2 THUNDER JAVELINS, FENIX DOWN, 2 DRAGON HELMETS and DRAGON ARMOR. Be sure to take both paths. Now get out of here somehow. I suggest using an Otterhead. The game was trying to tell you something by giving you all that dragon (should be DRAGOON, they missed an 'O' but anyways...) equipment. Change everybody's job to DRAGOON. Chances are, you'll have to use that Fat chocobo in Southwest Salonia. Everybody's HP should be at least 850 before continuing to the next part. If needed, go back to the Dragon Tower and fight enemies. The area outside of Salonia is not exactly prime-level building ground (I've once walked around for nearly 2 and a half minutes trying to run into a fight). But as soon as you've done that, head into SALONIA CASTLE, which is obviously in the northern edge of the center of the kingdom. Making sure your HP is full, proceed upward until you are stopped. The King apparently gives the guards the permission to let your party and Prince Allus to enter the castle. He'll even give you guys a room. Hmmm... Awfully generous from somebody who recently banished his own son from the premises of the castle for absolutely no reason whatsoever (suspicious?). Nobody can get to sleep, so your HP will not refill. After a little while, the King of Salonia will come stormin' in with some character of evil called GIGAMESH (Gilgamesh is future FFgames?). Gigamesh controls the King and the King stabs his son with something. Soon after the king snaps out of it and shakes all evil influence. Now Gigamesh is pissed. He's a pushover in future FF games (FF5 in particular), and he's is no different in FF3. He can't fight the Light Warriors himself so he calls on a boss... BOSS: Gaurdia Difficulty level: 9 Weakness: Aero/Wind HP: 5000 Recommended level: 22-23 Man, talk about tough. You should be fine if your party is at level 22, 23 would be more like it though. Make your all dragoon party JUMP each time. If you're lucky, you'll get somebody to land square on his head for over 1000 DMG. But chances are, you'll have more misses than orgasmic blasts of power. Your success will not depend on picking the correct commands at the correct times; it'll depend on when your party decides to Jump (a precursor to several future boss battles including the last one). His mighty BOLT attack will do a good 400 HP of damage to every warrior, so if somebody gets hit three times, they're done for. But you're entire party can evade his Bolt attack if he waits to attack. But if you're party waits a while before they decide to jump, they'll be hit. Eventually, he WILL fall. Jumps, if they hit, can do anywhere between 100-1200. You'll usually get it around 600 if you're at level 22. Just after the fight, the King dies. I guess the elimination of evil took too much out of him. Prince Allus laments for a short time before assuming the position his father just vacated. Gigamesh seems to have scampered away or something. You are now free to roam around as much as you want. (NOTE: You should probably return back to the jobs you had when you first arrived. This will involve spending some time with the Fat Chocobo in Southwest Salonia. You're going to want to keep some of your dragoon items, however) Imprint Stuff found in Salonia Castle: WEAPON: COST: ATTACK: HIT%: ------------------------------------ Earth Bell (2750) 30 80% <--- Earth elemental?/Randomly stuns enemy (M.Gauche Knife) (Thor Hammer) (Golem Staff) (Freezing Staff) (Medusa Arrows) ARMOR: COST: -------------------------------------------- Rusted Armor (250) This can't be equipped (Scholar Hat) (Viking Armor) (Viking Helmet) (Dragon Helmet) (Gaia Outfit) If you go around to talk to some of the people, you'll discover the fact that there's a whole bunch of treasure scattered throughout the castle. In the room of the Gaurdia fight, there exists a false wall on the right wall between those two stools you see. Follow the path by walking right and down where a dozen chests are ripe for the pickin' (remember two words while looting- Fat Chocobo) : 2 HIPOTIONS, SCHOLAR HAT, GOLEM STAFF, THOR HAMMER, FREEZING STAFF, M.GAUCHE KNIFE, 20 MEDUSA ARROWS, and 4 RUSTED ARMORS. Next go down those stairs. Go to the rightmost part of the platform you see and walk across the invisible bridge to encounter upon the treasures of EARTH BELL, GAIA OUTFIT, VIKING ARMOR, DRAGON HELMET, VIKING HELMET, and RUSTED ARMOR. After you're done in here, retrace your steps back to the room in which you fought Gaurdia and leave it downward. Head to the lower left room and get to the spot just to the left of the table and examine it by pressing 'A.' Go straight through the path provided and down the stairs. Then go left through a false wall, up, right, and left through another false wall to another staircase. Follow the path provided to find two FENIX DOWNs. See that important-looking dude leftward across the wall? Stay tuned. Now retrace your steps out of the treasure area. The bottom right room outside the room in which you fought Gaurdia has some scholars. Speak to then, and they'll whip up an airship and return (gotta love somebody who can just construct an airship in a few seconds flat). You may now leave this place for good. You may have noticed that the karateka character has been a less than stupendous force of defense. That's why I suggested keeping the dragoon equipment (1 Wind Javelin and 1 Thunder Javelin and some armor). You will probably want to periodically switch jobs from karateka to dragoon and back. The plan I used, up to the Bahamut fight, the job of choice was mostly karateka. But from the minute I was finished with that cave to the time you can get ninjas, it was the dragoon that was the dominant class. Basically, the rule is make him a karateka, and if you fell he is taking to much damage, change him to a dragoon. So just pretend the recommended party reads Karateka- Dragoon whenever another dungeon is forthcoming. For the Temple of Time and Undersea Cave, it'll be all Karateka though to save inventory space. Now it's time to move on. Make your way back to Amur and fly due west. You'll eventually reach the continent various people have mentioned. If you tried to fly through the pass in the mountains before, your access was most certainly denied. Fly around this continent until you find a pass in the mountains. This is why your ship is so fast- so it can turn aside the powerful winds of this continent. Fly through the path until you find a house. You will be attacked by some fairly though monsters for this part of the game, but you should make it just fine. Land your airship in the grass (this one can be set down on land) and walk into DORGA'S HOUSE (did you see that town in the middle of the mountains? That's DORGA'S VILLAGE. You can buy most of all the magic in the game here. It can be reached by going east of the continent so you can see the town, then going slightly north of it, submerging underwater and following the highlighted path). DORGA'S HOUSE Inn Free -------------------------------------- ITEM: COST: ITEM: COST: ----------------- ----------------- HiPotion 1200 LuckMalet 100 Soft 300 Antidote 80 MaidKiss 100 Eyedrop 40 EchoHerb 100 Carrot 150 --------------------------------------------------------------------------- MAGIC: COST: EFFECT: BUY? --------------------------------------------------------------------------- B Fire3 10000 A Flame's gonna come and start hittin' stuff No B Bio 10000 A kinda strong venomous attack No B Warp 10000 Warps you to the previous level of a dungeon ?? W Aero2 10000 Much like black magic; a disappointing wind attack No W Soft 10000 A spell just like the potion with the same name Yes W Haste 10000 Makes your WEAPON lighter (not weaker) to raise Hit% YES! (Cure3) (Life) --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Walk in and you will be confronted by MOOGLES upon your entry. Dorga will come to see what's up. After a quick examination, he realizes your importance, and he tells the moogles to shoo. Dorga is very wise. He'll give you the 411: All this chaos and pandemonium has been caused by the one called ZANDE. It is then agreed that he will follow your party around through the MAGIC CIRCLE CAVE. Just go straight through this place. Refresh yourself at the Recovery Pots stored right there. Go to the spot to the left of his bookshelf and examine the spot while looking up to gain a HIPOTION. Now yank that candle and walk to the end of the path provided. It seems that this entire cave has a ceiling height of 12 inches at its highest point. You'll have to be MINIed, and your should turn one of your heavy fighters into a THIEF. Don't worry about giving him any equipment. 13) Magic Circle Cave enemies: MageFlyer, DkKinght, DevilHorse, BullMan, MarGoyle Recommended party: (Anything with a thief is fine.) Recommended levels: 22-23 Use the thief's ESCAPE ability in each battle to experience minimal damage for the battles are not worth fighting. Much like the Sea Cave, there is no treasure at all with the depths of this cave. The first floor is straightforward. On B2F go right and through the door. For B3F you must go left, then down and through the door you see. Now walk to the transporter. Well, it seems the end for Dorga's life is not far. He must be transported to the depths of some other cave to locate the EUREKA KEY. His final words of wisdom to you is get the LUTE to awake the second member of the triad of mystery, UNNE. Before he goes, he also somehow gives your ship the ability to plunge underwater (who-hoo!). The cave will promptly collapse upon use of the transporter. Dorga warps you out just in time. (NOTE: Some people would say to do the UNDERSEA CAVE section first. You are probably going to be ending up doing them both, but I'll put this first because Dorga just mentioned it.) Before you forget, let's get that LUTE. It'll require several MAGIC KEYS or a THIEF. I recommend the former. Change your thief back to the heavy fighter he once was. You should definitely have an OTTERHEAD if you are using the recommended party or some other party without an Exit caster. (I hope I don't need to tell you to unMINI yourself.) The Lute is in the TEMPLE OF TIME. Fly your way through the pass in the mountains and go east to the Salonia continent. At the southern tip of the continent, there exists a couple of horns. Plunge your airship into the water by pressing 'A' over some deep water area, in this case, it's the space between the horns. Enter the building you see and you're there. 14) Temple of Time enemies: Dirai, KingLizard, SeaKing, MagicChimera, Behemoth, Dragon Recommended party: Knight/Karateka/Geomancer/Conjurer Recommended level: 22 or higher Imprint stuff found in the Temple of Time: WEAPON: COST: ATTACK: HIT% --------------------------------------- Defender Sword 16500 95 80% <--- Vitality +5 (Orialcon Knife) ARMOR: COST: DEF: EVAD% MDEF ------------------------------------------------------------- Diamond Shield 18000 13 14% 15 *All Diamond swag is strong v. Bolt Diamond Helmet 20000 8 12% 9 Diamond Armor 33000 18 10% 10 Diamond Ring 10000 6 12% 6 Diamond Gloves 15000 6 10% 5 Over the course of the next three sections or so, you'll be spending the majority of the time in unorthodox settings. That means the geomancer is really going to be of good use. Well, walk down then left until you come to a door. Open it for a DIAMOND HELMET in a chest. Give it to your knight (that Ice Helmet is getting pretty old). The locked door just to the right of that contains a chest with a DIAMOND RING held within. Leave that room and head straightforward to the doorway. The chest in the upper right corner of the small room you now find yourself in has a DEFENDER SWORD. Then go to the door to lead you to B2F. Head due right and open the door that leads to a chest with a DIAMOND ARMOR. Now leave that room and walk into the water. The top left room's treasure is of ORIALCON KNIFE and DIAMOND GLOVES. The top right room has the doorway to B3F. On this floor, head downward along the path. The bottom left room holds a DIAMOND SHIELD. The bottom right room on B3F contains the LUTE you'll need to wake up Unne. Now leave this place (Otterhead anyone?) somehow. After leaving the temple, head to some town and sell all loose equipment (the Diamond Shield is good, but it's probably better to just hold two weapons), stay at some inn, and restock the potion supply. Now you don't have to do this next part, but I strongly advise it because you'll find tons of really cool treasure, and it's also arguably the best level-building area of the game. Fly around until you find the continent Amur is on. Go a little bit east of it, and fly south. There will be a triangular island that has to be good for something. Go a couple paces south and a couple paces east and submerge. There will be a cave with the original title of UNDERSEA CAVE. Go ahead and enter it. 15) Undersea Cave enemies: SeaWitch, Dosema, KillerSnail, Olg-Hai, Aegil, Kelipe Recommended party: Knight/Karateka/Geomancer/Conjurer Recommended level: 22 or higher Important stuff found in the Undersea Cave: ---------------------------------------- WEAPONS: COST: ATTACK: HIT%: ---------------------------------------- Tomahawk Axe 20000 60 80% Triton Hammer 20000 85 80% Ancient Sword 16500 5 80% <--- Holy elemental; Often stuns enemy Lamia Harp (10750) 0 80% <--- Often confuses enemy AirKnife Knife (5000) 60 100% <--- Wind elemental Blood Javelin (10000) 70 80% <--- Wind elemental/Drains HP from non-undead (Defender Sword) -------------------------------------------- ARMOR: COST: DEF: EVAD% MDEF -------------------------------------------- Reflect Armor (17500) 20 12% 20 Aegis Shield (14000) 16 16% 16 (Diamond Shield) (Diamond Helmet) (Diamond Armor) (Diamond Ring) (Diamond Gloves) If you ever run out of room in your inventory, I'd advise walking out of here, flying northwest back to Amur to sell the stuff you don't plan on using at all, staying at the inn and restocking your supplies. Proceed through the first floor regularly heading leftward for the most part. The chest just to your left upon your entrance to B2F contains a DIAMOND SHIELD. Now go straight right to eventually come to a chest that holds a DEFENDER SWORD. Now make your way to the lower left corner of the pillar to find a TOMAHAWK AXE. Now go to the doorway you see just to the right of you to head to B3F. Go down the first bridge, then go left at your first chance. The four chests that sit there hold DIAMOND ARMOR, AIRKNIFE KNIFE, DIAMOND RING, and LOKI HARP. Go down the bridge you can to find treasure such as FENIX DOWN, ELIXIR, and DIAMOND GLOVES. Next proceed left through that false wall you can see. All four chests you can see are guarded by fairly strong enemies. The one that holds a BLOOD JAVELIN (top left) also holds a Peryton. The bottom right chest holds a TRITON HAMMER will lead to a fight with an Eater. An AEGIS SHIELD awaits in the top right chest, but so does a ZombieDragon. A DeathClaw (divides when hit with most weapons if still has HP left, heh) protects you from the REFLECT ARMOR in the bottom left chest. Now make your way back to the entrance to the floor, but take the path leading downward instead of the one that goes rightward. Walk the path, and the first chest you come to has an ANCIENT SWORD (keep for a little while- very low attack power but often paralyzes enemies). Now head downwards to find four more treasures bound within chests: DIAMOND HELMET, DIAMOND SHIELD, GOD'S WIME, and some other item that I am not sure of (you can forgive me, can't cha?). It is definitely a good idea to build levels until you reach 29 at least, if you're not there already. The enemies here pack a fairly good punch, but it's nothing to wet your pants over. You don't have to, but it should not really take you that long. This IS, after all, prime level-building ground. Now find some town, and sell the stuff you don't plan using at all through the game (sell Aegis; I used it in the next part- there's one in a chest). Stay at an inn restock (find a Fat Chocobo, if you wish, and put your karateka material there. This next part's all dragoon with a Wind and a Blood Javelin). Also, if you like white wizards but haven't been using them, you should go to Dorga's Magic Shop talked mentioned when Dorga's House was talked about and you should pick up CURE3 and HASTE. Make your way to Southeast Salonia and sink into the water just south of that town. Enter the opening to the SALONIA CATACOMBS. 16) Salonia Catacombs enemies: Fura, BossTroll, Cyclops, Valar, Kenkos Recommended Party: Knight/Dragoon/Geomancer/Conjurer Recommended level: 29-30 Important stuff found in the Catacombs: WEAPONS: ARMOR: ----------- ------ (Giyaman Bell) (Gaia Outfit) (Reflect Armor) (Golem Staff) (Aegis Shield) There's nothing tricky about the first couple rooms. When you get to a room that meets you with a really big intersection, go right and follow the path. Head left in the indentation to come to a chest that holds a GOLEM STAFF. Leave the indentation, and continue following the path until you find chests of AEGIS SHIELD and GAIA OUTFIT. Now go back to the entrance and head to the left intersection. Follow this path, and enter the rightward indentation to pick up a REFLECT ARMOR from the chest. Return from the indention and continue walking the path up then right. A GUIYMAN BELL greets you in the chest you see. Now go back around and enter the door just to the right. The next two rooms are simple, regular things. See that imposing figure of existence right in front of your face (looks familiar)? (If you like white magic, change your geomancer to a white wizard and give him an Elixir. I don't recommend doing that, however) Talk to it. BOSS: Odin Difficulty level: 6.5 HP: (Probably less than) 7000 Strong/Weak Against: Nothing This is the first FF game that really involves Odin. As you may expect, he's got that signature move that involves slashing the target(s) for hefty damage (ATOM EDGE- 400-1000+ to who ever it hits). He can also chose hit one of your guys with a really strong physical attack which will, uh, kill him. A dragoon should jump with hopes of avoiding Atom Edge. The geomancer should give a God's Wine to a knight with doubled-up Defender Swords. The white wizard should haste the knight, and then cast Cure3 every time because you never know when he'll whip out his Atom Edge. The conjurer should just call Titan every time. It's really not that hard of a fight. Chances are, you'll be able to withstand that Atom Edge. When you beat him, he'll deem the Light Warriors worthy and you'll get a copy of the ODIN ESPER. MAGIC (Odin): ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- C White: Barrier; Casts Wall on your party Black: SwordCut; Hits one enemy like a crazy person Summon: Atom Edge; Slashes all enemies to kill them unless he gets scared ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 6: From Unne to Bahamut ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dorga's Dream World counterpart, Unne will be of great help now. You'll get a Fang to blow up stuff and one helluvan airship. You'll see mystic knights, a cave of darkness elemental, three new jobs, and you'll visit two potent monsters who were dispatched by Noah. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Leave, recover, sell, stock up, the usual. If you chose to have a white wizard during the Odin fight, might as well keep him that way. If he's a geomancer, you should just leave him that way one, even though he will not as useful as he used to be. But whatever party you chose to have, it's time to make use of that Lute that's been sitting in your inventory for a little while now. On the continent Salonia is where you'll find Unne patrolling the Dream World or something. Near the southern edge of the continent (the horns) is where she currently rests. The cave that holds her can be reached from the east or the west. Land your ship and walk on into the cave. Walk through the cave, and go up to the one in bed. Walk rightward through the false wall just to the left of her bed, get to the bed and face Unne, press 'B' and select Lute from your inventory (it's not as complicated as I made it sound ;-). After the Lute is done making noise, Unne will rise from her slumber and get the blood moving again. When you next have control, speak to her, and she'll speak of a rockin' airship. Make your way out, and you will be given the WIND FANG. She suggests going to the ANCIENT RUINS which lies to the north. It is decided that she's gonna follow your crew around. Head to the Ancient Ruins, but not quite yet. You told you can shatter some statues with dem fangs (commonly referred to as the Statues of the Quest). Let's do that. Get into your ship and fly west then north to an area north west of Amur. Land your ship on some grass, and walk (yeah, ya haveta walk) through the first three rows of statues that would have given you death had you walked through them at an earlier time. But don't go through the fourth one- it's still gonna kill you. There, now those three fangs you once had are no longer your responsibility to hold (in other words, you'll have an extra three spaces in your inventory). Okay, now for the ruins. From there, get to Salonia kingdom (it's not that hard), head west to the nearby mountains and scan them over. You'll no doubt notice a river that makes its way through the mountains. Fly over the river going west, north, east, north, west and north (really, it's not that hard). Land your ship and get into the cave. 17) Ancient Ruins enemies: ZombieDragon, Pyralis, Azreal, Eater, Sirenos, Garb, Haniel, Balfrey Recommended party: Knight/Karateka/Geomancer/Conjurer Recommended level: 30-31 Walk the path which leads basically rightward to the Adamantie. Let Unne send the inconvenience to the Cleft of the Dimensions. Head down the newly created path and go to the first door you come to for a REFLECT ARMOR. The next door on the path has places to blow some money (make sure you stay at the inn, though). If you don't have an Ancient Sword, I advise getting one. The next door you'll come to that doesn't lead to a place that sells stuff will get you to B2F. ----------------- RUINS Inn 200 ----------------------------------- WEAPONS: COST: ATTTACK: HIT% ----------------------------------- Rune Bell 5500 40 100% Eleven Claw (9000) 37 100% (Blood Sword) (Defender Sword) (Tomahawk Axe) (Triton Hammer) (Ancient Sword) ------ ARMOR: --------------------------------- (Diamond Shield) (Diamond Helmet) (Diamond Armor) (Diamond Ring) (Diamond Gloves) ---------------- ITEMS: HiPotion 1200 Eyedrop 40 Soft 300 Antidote 80 MaidKiss 100 Carrot 150 EchoHerb 100 -------------------------------- On B2F, life is going to get a little bit tougher. Splitting enemies such as Haniels and Balfrey lurk here. Most of them (the green ones) will split when hit with the weapons you have, assuming their HP does not run out. When they do divide, the new one will have the exact same as its predecessor. So if a mage was to attack one of these things (with 2000 HP) with his knife of wussiness (for 100HP), the divided enemy will have 1900 HP, just like its originator. This is a really good way to get gold, but these enemies give off terrible EXP and they hit pretty hard. It's also pretty time consuming, so I'd keep the splitting to a minimum. An enemy can't divide when asleep (Shiva effect) or while paralyzed (Ramuh effect, Ancient Sword), so a skilled conjurer's a plus. But on with the walkthrough. Go down, right, and down the next path which leads to a CHAKRA HELMET within a chest. The door in the lower left corner has a chest with a BLACKBELT OUTFIT inside. Now head back to the path and continue upward. Then go left at the second intersection you come to. The chest behind this door conceals a RUNE BELL inside a treasure chest. Leave that room at once and continue going right through the door you will find next. ELVEN CLAW hides within the chest, but your karateka, if you've got one, will do more damage with no weapon equipped. Leave that room and go up at the next intersection you see and then right and go through the door. The next floor is straightforward. On B5F, you'll probably notice that life will get distinctly tougher still (like it did for me). But you'll make through, just keep at it. Just make your way straightforward through this place- nothing special. A transporter on B8F is on the other side of a long bridge. Step on it to lead you to your new airship, the INVINSIBLE. AIRSHIP INVINSIBLE Inn Free ---------------------------------------- WEAPON: COST: ATTACK: HIT% ---------------------------------------- GreatAxe Axe 14000 85 80% Inferno Book 16500 65 80% <--- Fire elemental Blizzard Book 16500 65 80% <--- Ice elemental Illumina Book 16500 65 80% <--- Bolt elemental Loki Harp 40000 60 100% Yoichi Arrow 200 70 100% (Defender Sword) (Rune Bell) -------------------------------------- ARMOR: -------------------------------------- (Diamond Shield) (Diamond Gloves) (Diamond Armor) (WhiteRobe Outfit) (Diamond Helmet) (BlackRobe Outfit) (Diamond Ring) (Gaia Outfit) --------------- --------------- ITEMS: COST: ITEMS: COST: --------------- --------------- HiPotion 1200 Antidote 80 Soft 300 Otterhead 2000 EchoHerb 100 Carrot 150 Eyedrop 40 MidgBread 200 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ MAGIC: COST: EFFECT: BUY? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ B Quake 20000 A somewhat strong erthal spell that just doesn't cut it No B Brak2 20000 Turns one enemy to stone with a VERY high success rate Yes B Drain 20000 Takes a target's HP and adds it to the caster's HP ?? W Cure4 20000 Recovers a non-wounded warrior to 100% full strength YES W Heal 20000 Recovers any status aliment No W Wall 20000 Protect a warrior from some magic attacks with a wall No Man, is this thing's the shi...bomb. It's got a free bed to recover, a Fat Chocobo area and vending machines which will do business with you. This thing can even jump over small inconveniences such as thin strips of mountains which have kept you from previously reaching certain areas. The only complaint one could have about this ship is that it flies at a disgustingly slow pace. Anyways, Unne will say Adios to your party. But before ditching your party, she will explain pretty much what was just said but 5 seconds ago. But now it's time to continue your journey. Head east and south a little bit until you reach the continent of Salonia again. If you would have bothered to speak to the people within Salonia, you would have gotten wind of a town for paladins (or as they're called in this game, M.KNIGHTs). When at the Kingdom of Salonia (you will probably want to buy a copy of Cure2 from the town and give it to your geomancer), go southwest into the break in the mountains. Follow the very basic path, which involves jumping, to the next town. FARGABAAD Inn 640 ------------------------------------ WEAPON: COST: ATTACK: HIT% ------------------------------------ Asura Sword 20000 65 100% <--- Darkness elemental Yoichi Bow 42000 50 100% (Yoichi Arrow) Kotesu Sword (10500) 125 90% <--- Darkness elemental/Found in F. Cave Kiku Sword (11000) 105 100% <--- Darkness elemental/Won after Shinobi ------------------------------------------ ARMOR: COST: DEF: EVAD%: MDEF: ------------------------------------------ Demon Armor 25000 17 15% 17 Demon Shield 12500 12 14% 12 ----------------- ITEM: COST: ----------------- HiPoiton 1200 Carrot 150 MidgBread 200 ----------------- MAGIC: ----------------- (Fire2) (Cure2) (Ice2) (Exit) (Bolt2) (Wash) FARGABAAD- the mkinght town. The first thing you should do is to go above the weapon and armor shops that greet you upon your arrival. There is a forest to the right; some of the trees extend pretty far left. Get to the spot to the left of the space between the two trees. Walk right into the trees and follow the path, and you'll eventually come to the Fargabaad Falls. Walk up to the man you'll find in this room and speak to him. After doing so, you get to fight Shinobi, an annoying ninjawuss you'll encounter upon many a time later in the game. A KIKU SWORD will be yours when you win. Now leave the Falls, but don't go right back into the trees. Instead, follow the path of water downward onto the island. 2 HIPOTIONS, DEMON ARMOR, and DEMON SHIELD lie in the grass on the island. Now it's time to bid your geomancer a fond farewell. Strip him bare, change his job to an M.KNIGHT, sell your geomancer stuff, and equip that DEMON wear. (Please note that the mknight, also known as PALADIN in some translated versions, is equipped with Demon armor and his weapon of choice is the Dark Sword. The mknight seems to take on a dark form/element. This is interesting because in the game just following this in the series, FF4, the game's protagonist, Cecil, begins as a Dark Knight. He equips gothic paraphernalia like the Black Sword and Darkness Armor. He was a warrior of the element of Darkness. But over the course of the game, as I'm sure you all know, Cecil undergoes a radical conversion to a Paladin, who was, in that game, a character of Holy elemental. New and improved Cecil could now equip mainly holier things such as the Legend Sword and Crystal Mail. The mknight/paladin job are opposites in the two consecutive games. Even this game's mknight looks much like Dark Knight Cecil. What gives? I guess mknight is just another word for dark knight or something.) But enough about that. Do you see that cave at the top of the town? Well, it's got come cool stuff in there. It's also got splitting enemies (DeathClaw, Haniel, Balfrey, Sirenos, Garb). The beauty of the mknight is that his dark swords will not cause these enemies to split when attacked. His weapons are the only ones that with that attribute. There is plenty of great treasure in this cave (THOR HAMMER, DEMON ARMOR, KOTETSU SWORD, and ASURA SWORD). I recommend going into the cave and getting this stuff, because chances are, you'll need it. I had too much trouble walking around the false walls, mapping out the steps and remembering the treasure (and I'm really sorry), so it's up to you to figure it out. When you're finished with that town, leave it and take your airship for a ride. Head north around the mountains and westward, and you'll be near Amur again (I think). On the north side of the continent Amur is on, there is a big set of mountains with a whole lotta holes. Enter the indentation which is on the west side of the mountains. Jump your way through the maze. I think you can do it- it's not exactly quantum physics. Hopefully, those pesky airbound enemies will leave you alone. If not, the airship's cannon blast will help you out (as if you need it). Eventually, after all that hopping around, you'll find yourself at the CAVE OF DARKNESS. 18) Cave of Darkness enemies: Haniel, DeathClaw, Sirenos, Garb, Balfrey, Chronos, Varasago, Hellhorse Recommended level: 31-32 Recommended party: Knight/Karateka/MKnight/Conjurer --> MKnight Important stuff found in the Cave of Darkness: WEAPON: ------- (Kotesu Sword) (Kiku Sword) ARMOR: COST: DEF: EVAD%: MDEF: -------------------------------------------- Genji Armor (20000) 24 20% 24 Genji Helmet (16000) 10 15% 10 Genji Shield (19000) 20 20% 20 Genji Glove (15000) 9 15% 9 This place is no picnic. Many are the people who have complained about the difficulty of this place. Every enemy splits after you attack it assuming it still has HP or is conscious except for Hellhorses. Nobody should have a shield. These enemies will just hit right through Aegis as if it's not there. The knight should have swords of Defender and Ancient in hopes of paralyzing and thus preventing the enemy from splitting (doubled up defenders just won't do the trick). I also found the karateka's BuildUp attribute to often produce disappointing results (you may want to Defend until your conjurer casts a spell). Because of that, I've had my karateka die at times. You may want to exit and switch him to a dragoon if you find he's taking too much damage. The conjurer has a certain amount of usefulness to him. The Shiva (Hynobeam) and Ramuh (Mindblast) calls might put enemies into a hypnotized daze effective enough to keep them from dividing. Black magic may actually be kind of useful, but I definitely don't recommend having a black wizard unless you've had one all this time. Same thing goes for a white wizard. The problem with magic, especially callers, is that it runs out. When it does, this leaves them nothing to do besides running (makes you defenseless), moving from back row to front row (useless), and attacking with their mighty mighty staves. So after the conjurer runs out of magic, take that mknight equipment I hope you got in Fargabaad and put it to use. Another point to mention is that at first the mknight's defense will be less than respectable. It's just something you're going to have to live with until you get treasure. Buy 99 HiPotions and an Otterhead from the Invincible before entering the cave. Don't forget that mknights can use the same magic the hunter can. Now let's get in there and kill 'em all!! (warning: my explanations can be a bit confusing, so I put more letter in all caps to make it easier for you to find your place if you get lost) Enter the cave. Talk to the wounded mknight if you want to. He'll tell you just how hard this place can be, heh. Go right through the false wall that will eventually lead to a LAMIA SCALEd chest if you want it. Head down the main path which will eventually lead rightward through a false wall. You'll also encounter another wounded mknight along the way. Speak to him. The chest right there along the path holds a KOTESU SWORD. Go through the door and head right through a false wall. Then go up, right then down through a door. Walk straight through B2F and you'll be lead to a chest with a PARALYZER within. Return to the path you were originally traveling up through a false wall until you can't anymore. Now travel left through a false wall containing a LILITHKISS in a chest. Now go right through the obvious false wall that will lead you down. Now go down till you can't, then left till you can't, then up so you can find go through a door (By now, you should either get the idea or be completely confused:) On B3F, follow the path until you find a leftward indentation with an obvious false wall. Walk through it, and you find THREE PASSAGES. The top one will lead you to GENJI GLOVES (eventually) whereas the other two lead to one another. Now leave this room the same way you got here and get back on to the main path on which you'd been traveling and enter the pass on the other side. You should see FOUR PASSAGES. The FIRST and THIRD passages both lead to the FOURTH one (so ignore them). The SECOND PASSAGE will take you to B4F. Just like before, some passages meet you upon your entry. Only one is worth caring about: the LOWER RIGHT one. Next proceed regularly through B5F. The first two passages you'll come to will, once again, waste your time. The third pass will eventually lead you a KIKU SWORD (ditch your conjurer, or other mage, and make him your second mknight NOW if you haven't already). Now, head right through an obvious false wall. Now go down and leftward around the walls. Soon you'll be met with more passages. Take the SECOND PASSAGE if you wish not to waste time. Walk through B6F like any other floor. Head rightward and you'll come to several passages, again. Only one of them are of any importance, again (THE TOP ONE). Follow the path to soon reach B7F. Head right through the false wall to lead you to a GENJI HELMET (Genji... Yeah!). Now return to the original path and you will be met by, SURPRISE, more passages (ACK! Take THE LEFT ONE!). You'll promptly come to a room with a choice of four different passages. The UPPER ONE is the only one which is of any significance. Head right then up and you'll soon come to B8F (more Hellhorses here, thank God). Head down through the pass you see to bring you to GENJI ARMOR. Now go back up and left all the way across the bridge and INTO THE WATER. Ignore the first false wall you can see heading right across the water instead. Keep going right, and you'll be met by three more passages. The one on the RIGHT's the only one worth typing about. This is the last passage dilemma you'll come to in this cave (yes!). Head down through that right passage, then left when you can, then upward when the path leads you that way. Heal up, (Man, I hope you have an Otterhead or a cast of a level 3 spell and Exit) and examine the EARTH FANG. This guy will attack. Boss: Hekaton Difficulty level: 2.5 HP: 6400 Weakness: Earth? Strong against: Nothing If you made it through the cave okay and can heal up to a decent HP level, you are going to pound this guy so far into the ground you'll laugh obnoxiously. If you had a conjurer all this time and still have a Titan call left, his Kick effect could deal upwards of 2000 HP. But I just charged at him with a the party KN/KA/MK/MK. This guy will probably fall after one round, but it might take ya two if your guys decide to hit him a bit easier. Don't BuildUp with the Karateka. You won't need it, and if he attacks him critically, he can get hit for 3000+ HP. This guy's a wuss, but he does hit pretty hard doing at least 1000 HP each hit (usually more like 2000 though). You won't need to use Haste or a God's Wine. You shouldn't spend time healing either. Just keep Fighting, and you'll be victorious and the fourth and final elemental fang will be yours. Get out of here after you're done with him. I don't think you'll be able walk out, nor will any sane person ever WANT to go just walk through this again, heh. Now get back on to your airship. It's time to make use of that fang you have just earned. Jump your way through the maze and you'll eventually be really close to the Statues of the Quest (should be a bit west when you leave the mountains. Get out and walk in that final statue barrier to smash it. Fly through the path which goes east, which will involve jumping and annoying air enemies. Soon you'll come upon a temple. Stop and land the ship right in front of it (stay in the bed if you haven't already- that's always a given). If you're lazy, don't reconvert your second mknight back to a conjurer- you're about to make him something better. Head into the temple (it's called the ANCIENTS' LABRYNTH, by the way) and go straight up and through the door. Walk two steps up, and this boss will try to get cha. BOSS: Titan Difficulty level: 3 HP: 7500 Weakness: Earth? Strong against: Nothing Hmmm... seems you've been confronted by Hekaton's cousin or something. Whatever the case, it is clear wussiness runs in the family. This guy has a higher body defense than Hekaton, so this fight should be longer. He can cast FLARE, which is good for 1000+ damage to a single warrior. But his magic will not be strong enough to kill one warrior with one cast if he's got something equipped. Now it should take at least eight casts of the spell to kill off your entire party at this point if you don't ever heal. Now if it takes you more than eight rounds of fighting to beat this guy, then you're pretty sad. If somebody dies, so what. The fight will last two or three rounds tops if you have a good party. I would not Haste up anybody at all here, either. After you beat him, go up and speak to the EARTH CRYSTAL. It will grant you its power: the jobs of WARLOCK, SHAMAN, and SUMMONER. Change whoever was/is a conjurer before to a SUMMONER. Before doing so, you'll probably want to take a look at the BAHAMUT section first. Well, about these jobs. The warlock, an improved black wizard, still falls brhind in the usefulness category. His magic is obviously stronger than his predecessor, but it's still nothing worth caring about. The shaman is the same thing, only instead of black magic, white magic's his schtick. You'll probably find the shaman to be more useful for a longer period of time than the summoner, but not for now. Remember being told to get your butt over to Dorga's House? Well, if ya don't, I'm here to tellin' ya. Head away from the labyrinth and then west to the continent Salonia can be found. Get back to the Ancient Ruins and get back into your speedy ride. Then head back to Amur and go due west to Dorga's house (hey, that's how I remember its location). Travel through the path in the mountains fighting off the enemies you have encountered upon numerous occasions. Land the ship in the grass and save your game. Enter la casa de Dorga and you'll be shipped to DORGA'A CAVE. 19) Dorga's Cave enemies: Cyclops, Peryton, Nemesis, Humbaba, Ogre Recommended level: 32-33 Recommended party: Knight/Karateka/MKnight/Summoner Once in the cave, take the path that leads leftward. The top path leads you nowhere. Then go down. The first path here will also waste your time. Keep following the path, then head into the door. Go left and get the chest for 20000 GIL. Keep following the path ignoring the door you'll come to in favor of a treasure chest holding 20000 GIL. Now go through the door and into the doorway to take you to B2F. Go up as far as you can then head left to a room of 3 BARRIERs within chests. Leave that room and go rightward till you get to a door. This is an entrance to a small room with a doorway and a chest bearing a BARRIER. Go down and take the stairs to B3F. Follow the path down then right till you get to a door. Heal up and get on in. You'll find Dorga and Unne, but now you'll have to eliminate the evil from their systems. BOSS: Dorga Difficulty level: 5 HP: 4500 Weakness: None Strong against: Nothing really Dorga's not is too difficult. Chances are, he'll bust out a QUAKE spell for respectable damage. He has a pretty high body defense rating. Your karateka should BuildUp, the heavy fighters should obviously just attack regularly, and you conjurer should give a God's Wine to the karateka. He can also BRAK2 and DRAIN which can yield devastating results. If a warrior gets turned to stone, have a mage give 'em a Soft Potion. This isn't a terribly hard fight if you are at level 33 or something. After you're done with him, Unne will attack leaving you no time at all to recover. BOSS: Unne Difficulty level: 3 HP: 4800 Weakness: Nothing Strong against: Nothing Unne will probably start off by casting WWIND on a warrior thus reducing his HP to single digits. Don't worry about it. Because after that, she'll cast WALL on herself, which is also of no concern to you unless you have a warlock (you don't have one, do you?). Her body defense is considerably lower than that of Dorga's, so this fight will be shorter. She also has a moderately strong cold elemental attack which you won't see unless you're really unlucky. Just have everybody go all out with offence (no God's Wine or BuildUp!). She'll be gone in one or two rounds tops. After both fights, talk to both bodies. They will inform you of the next part of your journey. They'll also give you the SYLX and EUREKA KEYs before fading into oblivion (never shall I say die!). When you've got the keys, leave this place somehow. Instead of making use of the keys, it's time to do a couple of sidequests. These adventures are but sidequests, so you don't have to do them, but it would be most advantageous to you if you did do them. Get into your ship, zoom your way through the path in the mountains fending off the various enemies that will attack without a problem. Get to Dorga's Magic Shop which is that town in the mountains on that same continent. Submerge into the water just east and north of the town and follow the highlighted path provided for you. Get above the water, land your ship and enter the town. Buy all the Cure spells, Haste, Wash, Life, Soft, all the call espers, and the other spells that are worth buying, those being the most essential. Give those to the mknight. Now make sure you do the same for your summoner, or whoever else you may have in the bottom two positions in your party. Trust me, you'll be using them later. As soon as you're confident you've bought all the magic you need (which includes very little black magic), leave the town, go into the water, follow the trail eastward and get above ground. Make your way back to the Invincible (I wanna say you go east) and get back to the Floating Continent (here's how I remember to get there, though there might be a better way: Go to the Horns of Salonia, a bit west and then go due south). Go north and a bit east of where you'll first end up, and you'll be near the Gurgan Valley. The Lake right there is where you want to be. Fly over to the southern part of the lake and jump over that little piece of mountain. Land on that piece of dry land, and get out of the ship. Take your canoe and trip over that swimming thing that makes an obvious presence to you. This will take you to the lower depths of LAKE DOL. 20) Lake Dol enemies: Planktae, SeaLion, Orosogo Recommended level: 33-34 Recommended party: Knight/Dragoon/MKnight/Summoner (NOTE: Just so you know, you should have gotten a WHITEROBE OUTFIT for your summoner if you haven't already, for later purposes). Important stuff in Lake Dol: WEAPON: ARMOR: ------- ------ (Thor Hammer) (Aegis Shield) (Reflect Armor) The enemies here hit kinda hard, so if defense is your thing, you'll probably want to put a shield onto your knight and/or mknight. If you chose to include a dragoon among your ranks, make sure he's got Javelins of Thunder and Blood. When you fall into the lake, walk the path normally. The first four chests you see hold 3 HIPOTIONs and an ELIXIR. Keep walking, and go through the door to B2F. Follow the path and go upward to find the interesting treasure of WHITESCENT, AEGIS SHIELD, LAMIA SCALE, GOD'S WINE, and TURTLESHELL. Then head downward and go to the doorway leading to B3F. The bottom left path has chests carrying IMP'S YAWN, and LILITHKISS. The upper right path leads you to BLACKHOLE, THOR HAMMER (man, how many of these things are they gonna give you?), REFLECT ARMOR and DARKSCENT. The top right also leads you to the next floor. Walk the path as usual and you'll find a boss at the end. BOSS: Leviathan Difficulty level: 7.5 HP: 6800 (probably less) Weakness: Thunder Strong against: Nothing Leviathan has that BIG WAVE thing you may have seen in some other games like FF4 and FF5. As you may expect, it has devastating results. Two may wipe out your party. The dragoon will jump and hopefully be missing that Big Wave attack, and if he's skilled enough, he'll take away upwards of around 2000 HP thanks to that Thunder Javelin. You may want to change your summoner to a shaman for Hasting and healing purposes, but I don't think that's necessary. I just had my conjurer give my mknight a God's Wine and then he summoned Ramuh. Chances are that he won't give you two Big Waves consecutively, so you should be pretty well off, although party members could die if the fight lasts three rounds or more. He has good body defense, be he's strong against nothing in particular. Chances are, it'll only take two (don't forget to ditch those shields!). MAGIC (Leviathan): ----------------- C White: Stony Glare; Petrifies an enemy Black: Tempest; A big wave douses all enemies for good water damage Summon: Tsunami; Potent water-elemental fun for all enemies Get back onto your airship and fly your way over to the southwest portion of the Floating Continent. There, you should find a cave which can be easily accessed by jumping over some mountains. Now enter CAVE BAHAMUT (Hmmm... I wonder who we'll find at the end of this place). 21) Cave Bahamut enemies: Pterosaur, GtBoros, Ligers, QLamia, Grenade Recommended level: 35-36 Recommended party: Knight/Karateka/MKnight/Summoner (Shaman??) Important stuff in Cave Bahamut: WEAPON: ------- (Golem Staff) (Kotesu Sword) You may just want to change your summoner to a SHAMMAN now because you may be doing that for the boss, and I'd advise you keeping him that way for the rest of the game. Just be careful not to let him use any level six or seven magic (Odin and Leviathan). Anywho, walk the first floor normally. The first chests you come to hold GOD'S RAGE and EARTHDRUM. Continue right then up to find the treasure FENIX DOWN, and NORTHWIND. Go back down and follow the path to the doorway. On B2F, follow the path leftward. The first chest you'll come to holds a GOLEM STAFF. As you continue walking the path, GOD'S WINE, LAMIA SCALE, CHOCORAGE, TURTLESHELL will meet you from treasure chests. In the room before the fight, ELIXIR, FENIX DOWN, DARKSCENT and KOTESU SWORD will be in the chests. Stop several steps before you get to the end and heal up. Now I'd switch your conjurer to a SHAMMAN. If he's left with no more level 6 and 7 magic, give him an elixir. Walk right a couple more steps. Some commotion will occur. I wonder what it can be? BOSS: Bahamut Difficulty level: 9.5 HP: 7800 Weakness: Nada Strong Against: Most things... To those who have skipped to this section with a conjurer, this is for you. Remember how you beat this dude in other FF adventures? Casting WALL on your party members in hope that his MEGAFLARE deal would bounce off and douse him for substantial damage? He's got MegaFlare here, too. Your conjurer can conjure ODIN and you might just get its white effect thus giving everybody a Wall. By doing this, it's possible to easily dispatch Bahamut at level 33 (NOTE: some spells that hit the wall bounce back). But I don't advise it because the enemies may be a bit tough and if you do not get Odin's white effect when conjured, you're probably screwed. And if you set up your defenses (Barrier items can also be of good use) in the first round and Bahamut chooses to MegaFlare you in the third round, your walls *may* gone by then. Plus, I think you'll find it's so much more fun to just use your weapons to beat the Hell out of him. ;-> But if you've gotten those extra jobs, here's what I recommend doing (you COULD re-change your fourth position character back to a conjurer and try that conjurer thing explained above or use the BARRIERS in the first round, but...). The knight and mknight should Fight, the karateka should BuildUp, and the shaman/summoner should cast Haste or use a God's Wine on the karateka. Just hope and pray that Bahamut chooses not to MegaFlare in the first round, otherwise it's curtains for him (the karateka may not die, but his day will truly be ruined). The next round, assuming Bahamut didn't MegaFlare you the first time around (which he won't), the three heavy fighters should Fight, and you should Haste up the knight. Now it is during the second or third round in which Bahamut will most likely first unleash MegaFlare. It's in the second round, probably. If it does not happened the second time around, Haste up your mknight. If it doesn't happen in the third round, something's wrong and you'll have his esper on a silver platter. The round after he MegaFlares you, have the mknight cast Cure2 on all and have the shaman cast Cure4 on all. You'll be doing this because he might whip out MegaFlare within another round or two, and you're trying to get your guys strong enough to stand up to another MegaFlare. You should win in the second or third round- a Hasted and BuiltUp karateka really does a number on him. Attack magic really doesn't produce worthwhile results. He barely feels spells casted by a black wizard or warlock. The difficulty level is, after all, a 9.5 for a reason. Your success will probably be determined by how long your guys wait to attack or heal. At level 38, however, the battle should be no trouble at all. MAGIC (Bahamut): ---------------- C White: Aura; Unlike in FF2, this Aura is useful- it Hastes the party Black: Rend; Just as it sounds- ravenously kill an enemy Summon: MegaFlare; Hurts all enemies really badly After beating him, he'll deem your party worthy you'll get to call him in battle. You'll have to retrace your steps and walk all the way out of the cave in order to progress to the next part of the game. Before progressing, I'd recommend just hanging around the first floor of the cave to help break in your shaman and to build up your experience levels to at least level 39, 40 would be even better. This cave is pretty good level-building ground and your ship's just outside the cave which means easy recovery. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 7: Quest's End ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yep. It's time. Between now and your triumph over evil, you'll cross plenty of interesting moments. A series of potent weapons and nasty enemies await you. Do your final preparations in the Invinsible before attempting to claw your way through the levels ahead. Unlock the doors to Sylx and Eureka to get even stronger. Get thrown into the Dark World and let DarkCloud kick your ass. You will revived and sent to reclaim the Dark Crystals which will save the Warriors of Darkness. Then the final battle is your next concern. With help from the four recently rescued Dark Warriors, you'll conquer the ultimate evil and restore the virtue of hope to the world. What will come about for the Light Warriors? All will be revealed in the end. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ayyit. So you're coming down the game's home stretch. You're going to be spending the remainder of the game at the area by the ANCIENT'S LABYRINTH. So you should scamper on over there. But before doing so, you're going to need to make sure you've done a couple things. First of all, you should definitely get all those worthwhile spells if you haven't already. You also should do some final shopping for potions. You should have 99 HiPtotions and 99 Softs. Now, take the Invinsible and get away from the Floating Continent. Sell all potions that aren't HIPOTIONS, SOFTS, FENIX DOWNS, or ELIXIRS. You have spells to cure all other ailments (Wash, Pure, Soft, Life, maybe Heal- inventory space is imperative. You're gonna have to carry around some Fenix Downs and Softs in case your shaman receives one of those aliments. Scoot over to the Ancient's Labyrinth (insert directions here). Land the airship right in front of the temple. Buy any equipment you think you'll need (make sure you have one of either outfit- WHITEROBE or BLACKROBE and an extra DIAMOND RING). Now use a carrot and call the Fat Chocobo. Take everything you think you won't need and sell it. If it's a borderline call, you should probably sell it (NOTE: even though your second position character will predominately be a dragoon for a while- still take along something the karateka can use as armor (BLACKBELT OUTFIT) because you'll probably want to change to him a certain times like level-ups, so I hope you still have that Power Ring). After you've sold all your stuff and you have money spilling out of your pockets, stay in the bed to recover. Now depart. This might just be the last time you'll use the Invinsible in the entire game. Save your game and get on into the temple already. 22) Ancient's Labyrinth enemies: GtDaemon, UnneCln, DorgaCln, Thanatos, BoneDragon, KBehemoth Recommended level: 39-40 Recommended party: Knight/Dragoon/MKnight/Shaman Important stuff found in Ancient's Labyrinth: WEAPON: COST: ATTACK: HIT% --------------------------------------- Break Sword (15000) 120 80% <--- Randomly casts Break Ultimate Wand (10000) 20 80% <--- All elemental; Randomly casts Break HellClaw Claw (20000) 60 100% <--- Darkness/Poison elemental Holy Javelin (22500) 100 80% <--- Holy/Wind elemental (GreatAxe Axe) ARMOR: COST DEF EVAD% MDEF -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Crystal Shield 50000 20 20% 20 <--- Strength, Agility, Vitality +5 Crystal Armor 65000 28 20% 28 Crystal Gloves 50000 10 15% 10 Crystal Helmet 50000 12 15% 12 Protect Ring (15000) 7 15% 7 <--- Vitality +5 Enemies will attack you in groups of no more than two. That's why we've canned the summoner in favor of a shaman. This is nothing a few heavy fighters can't handle. Thamatos can cast Brak2, but it has a relatively low success rate. When you run into BoneDragons, your dragoon should just Defend and let the other three take care of 'em (Draining Attack + Undead Monster = HP Drained from you). Most of the enemies won't be to much of a problem. GtDaemons can summon a DorgaCln or an UnneCln (I forget which one). So hurry up and kill them before they can. This place is a cake walk compared to what you may be up against. Take either path upward and go right to find a chest consisting of an ELIXIR. Then go leftward and through the door to move on. Head upwards to find two chests: DARKSCENT and CRYSTAL SHIELD. Get back to the main path and follow it upward to find a chest encasing a CRYSTAL ARMOR (Mmmm... Crystal- you know that a Final Fantasy game is beginning to wind down when you start getting Crystal Armor). Go back on to the main path and eventually you'll find a chest to the right with a DARKSCENT. Keep walking the main path all the way up ignoring the first rightward path you come to. If you head to the right after that, you'll find CRYSTAL GLOVES in a chest. Then get back to the rightward path you had previously ignored. Take it to proceed to the next screen. Go right and down the intersection. The first turn leftward will get you to a chest that keeps a CRYSTAL HELMET safe for you to take. The first turn rightward leads to a chest that holds a GREATAXE AXE. Then go down to find a FENIX DOWN, BREAK SWORD, and ULTIMATE WAND. Go back up and continue following the path. On the next screen, a chest that is first visible to you holds a FENIX DOWN. The one in the upper right corner contains a PROTECT RING. Now go back down and to that rightward intersection you see. Follow this path and head into the door to which you will be brought. The left chest has a HOLY JAVELIN within. Its right counterpart has a HELLCLAW CLAW (a claw of poison/darkness elemental- HellClaw + Elven Claw = effective against a select few, but I have no idea what that select few consists of) inside. The above door leads to the outer world. Now you are faced with a choice. You can do one of three things. 1) The first of the three involves you walking back to the Invincible, and selling the stuff you don't plan on using (GREATAXE and HELLCLAW mainly). This will free up a couple of precious spots in your inventory, it'll get you more gold, and it'll get you more experience. You can also restock and rest. The rule of thumb is that if you had a sizable amount of trouble making your way through the Labyrinth, then you should do this. You, eventually, will have to get to one of the other two choices. 2) The second choice is the one accepted by most, and involves your party going straight to the FORBIDDEN LAND EUREKA to collect the game's best stuff. All the enemies will be kinda tough (well, more annoying than tough), you'll probably have to come here again because you won't have enough Gil, and you will spend more time building levels if you pick this choice instead of the third one. But, with all that being said, you're obviously supposed to do Eureka first then Sylx, and I'll be sure to point that out. You don't even have to do the second choice (or the first one for that matter) at all during the entire game. But, unless you wish to make the journey much more difficult, you will eventually get to that. 3) You're probably going to hate the third choice, but I love it. It's not the best choice; some will consider it the most bone-stoopid advisory they've ever seen from a FAQ, and you're obviously not supposed to do this, but then again, it's okay to do things a little but out of whack sometimes (not to mention fun). Choice number three will see you going to the end of the SYLX TOWER, all 14 rooms or however many you'll have to do. When you get to, as I like to call it, "the room," you must turn around and walk your tired tail all the way back to the first room. You will then proceed to slice your way through the Forbidden Land Eureka, waltz your way through the Sylx Tower a second time and then moving on to 'the room.' The first time going through will be Hell. You'll probably be completely killed off a couple times. Your trip back to the first room will be much easier. Your stint in the Forbidden Land Eureka will be a breeze. As will your final trip through the tower (you know, when you enter 'the door'). By doing choice number three, you'll have much more money, you'll have absolutely no trouble with any of the bosses, and you'll definitely never have to come here again to buy anything, you'll probably never have to build any more levels for the rest of the game. This choice is only for the daring (or those who don't mind using the save state feature on our emulators, heh).* (NOTE: The third choice does not actually lead to more exp than choice two. That is something you may have thought when reading the paragraph). But, because you're probably going to do the Eureka part first, I'm just gonna explain that part before the Sylx Tower part. If you chose to do Sylx first, just skip down a bit to that part, kay? So go straight up upon your entry through the door. Go straight up again and get right up to the barrier. Select Eureka Key from your inventory and you'll be allowed to proceed. Do so. 23) Forbidden Land Eureka enemies: Sleipnir, Abai, Haokah, Acheron, Oceanos, Ninja Recommended party: Knight/Dragoon/MKnight/Shaman Recommended level: 41+ (NOTE: This will be explained as if you're doing this before Sylx) Important stuff found in Eureka: WEAPON: COST: ATTACK HIT% ------------------------------- Shuriken 65500 200 100% <--- Throw once for optimum damage FullMoon (31000) 160 90% Masmune (32500) 160 90% <--- Darkness elemental; Agility, Vitality +5 Excalibur (32500) 160 80% <--- Holy elemental?; Strength +5 Ragnarok (32750) 180 100% <--- Holy/Darkness elemental; Strength, Agility, Vitality +5 Eldest (32500) 30 90% <--- Bolt, Ice, & Fire magic stronger/Spirit, Intellect +5 ARMOR: COST: DEF: EVAD% MDEF: -------------------------------------------- Ribbon Hairpiece (5) 9 10% 9 <--- Strong against all elements/ Prevents all status aliments except death Welcome to the Forbidden Land Eureka. Supposedly, this place holds weapons of such awesome strength, far greater for any human to handle. So they've been safely sealed up in this place and not a single person could ever be allowed to enter (hence the name). But you're here. You should also be aware that some pretty powerful bosses guard these four weapons of might. But anyways, the monsters here aren't terribly scary. Sleipnirs hit pretty hard and they can turn you to a frog with ease. Abais are simply annoying. Hoakahs have a strong thunder attack, but yield great experience when defeated. Ninjas are the toughest enemy out of the bunch, and you will run into only ninjas in the last couple parts of Eureka. It should also be noted that you can't warp out of Eureka- you'll have to walk all the way back to the spot you entered. Walk down and take the first intersection right to encounter upon chests holding NORTHWIND and ELIXIR. Then basically go down, left, up, and right to get more treasure (BOMB R.ARM, GOD'S RAGE). Head back over to the middle and down into the doorway you see. When on B2F, go down then right when you reach the first intersection. Enter the room and get the items in the chests: NORTHWIND, FENIX DOWN, and GOD'S RAGE. The room's left counterpart has a BOMB R.ARM. There's a chest hidden within a wall in the left side of the room (you can see it). Walk up three steps from the bottom right corner of the wall of that encasement, then go left. Walk in the wall to find a RIBBON HAIRPIECE. The ribbon is just like the ribbon in other FF games- fairly low body defense but a very high 'other' defense. It is guarded by a pesky ninja. Ninjas have a notable weakness against brakish magic. If you have a warlock, you can cast Brak2 and turn his body into little pieces of ninja kibble. The best way to dispose of this ninja is to just put your shaman in the front row while holding a couple of Golem stalves. Let him whack away and he'll eventually stone the ninja to death, especially if your knight gets something to happen with his Break Blade. Give it to your shaman (told you that Feather hat was gonna be good for a while, and you'll be using it again pretty soon). Get out of that room and go down into the room a bit below you. It leads to a chest in which a SHURIKEN is present. Go back up and follow the path and you'll eventually be let out of the room. On B3F, follow the path as usual, immediately to the left is an ELIXIRed chest. Go back onto the path and keep following it. You'll come to another SHURIKEN within a chest. Get the FENIX DOWN in the last chest on the path. Go into the doorway to proceed to B4F. Walk along the path normally until you find some suspicious-looking object placed on the floor. Heal up, examine it, and you'll be confronted by some mean-lookin dude. NOTE: If you done the Sylx Tower first, here's where the game's gonna start to get really fun ;-> BOSS: Amon/NeoDeath Difficulty level: 6 HP: 8000 Weakness: Varies Strong against: Varies I guess it seems that Hynne's buddy has been assigned to guard the first untouchable weapon. He has WALLCHANGE like Hynne, but he lacks the absurdly high body defense that made Hynne unique. He'll change his weakness every two or three rounds, but you probably shouldn't worry about that because you have abandoned attack magic all together, right? Just Haste your knight or mknight, jump with the dragoon and then when he unleashes his impressive FLAME attack, have the shaman keep Cure4ing the party, and you'll beat this guy. Hope he WallChanges every couple rounds so you don't get Flamed more than once. When you've eliminated Amon (I like NeoDeath better), you'll receive the FULLMOON BOOMERANG for your mknight. To give your party more defense, put your mknight in the back row and give him FullMoon and a Crystal Shield for a really high absorb, but a diminished offense. You should try that for a bit, but if you're not impressed, move him back up and give him his most powerful weapons. As far as the game's concerned, follow the path regularly and go through the door to B5F. Head down the bridge you see. First go left when the path divides to get a FENIX DOWN from a chest. Then go straight right till you see the second forbidden weapon. Heal up and examine it, and its defender will come at cha. BOSS: KUNOICHI Difficulty level: 7.5 HP: 9600 Weakness: Nothing Strong against: The usual Don't be fooled by that sissy pink out fit- this ninja has a high defensive rating and can really hit. Kunoichi will lead off with a MINDBLAST. Mages are much more likely to be paralyzed from MindBlast than heavy fighters. Hopefully your dragoon will jump before MindBlast is cast. Just fight this boss as usual. His/Her physical attacks are good for 1500+ damage. If three or four party members get stunned, you're in some trouble. But if it's effective on just one warrior, then this fight will be pretty easy. You'll get the dark sword MASMUNE for your struggles. With those two weapons, your mknight can become a walking temple of destruction. Head leftward back to the middle and go down the ladder you see. Get the FENIX DOWN from the chest you see and go in to the door which will get you to B6F. On this new floor, make your way right, then down at the path. Go up to the weapon, heal up your guys, examine the weapon, and then you'll fight... BOSS: General Difficulty level: 5 HP: 12000 Weakness: None Strong against: The usual This guy's got a nasty physical attack, good for 2000+ damage, and the ability to cast Flare. But this guy's not gonna paralyze anybody in your party. Haste up your knight, then heal whoever this guy hurts. He'll only hurt one warrior at a time, so the fight won't be terribly hard. He can kill if he hits somebody and follows it up with a Flare spell before the shaman chooses to act. EXCALUBUR will be yours when you win the fight (Excalubr's a SWORD, in case you didn't know). Equip the sword on your knight, go back up, then head leftward until you find a broken bridge heading leading down. Walk across it going down. When you can no longer go down, turn right. When your rightward travel ceases, go down. Then right, and up the bridge which will lead you to the next part of the game. Go up the ladder and turn left. Now you'll be confronted by... BOSS: Scylla Difficulty level: 5 HP: 10000 Weakness: None Strong against: Wimpy stuff I've only seen Scylla use a physical attack and cast Flare in battle. She has a tendency to concentrate on the same party member (or so I think). Just fight this battle exactly like you've fought the others. She doesn't have a terribly high defense rating, so she'll be dead in two or three rounds of fighting. When you've dispatched Scylla, you'll get an ELDEST STAFF as a reward. You'll also get the game's best jobs, NINJA and SAGE. The great virtues of these jobs have already been previously mentioned- the ninja class can equip almost all weapons and armor, and your sage class can use every magic. You can switch jobs now, if you want, but you're probably a bit too curious to find out what's with that weapon sitting there to your right. Heal up and examine the weapon. I think you know the drill. BOSS: Gaurdian Difficulty level: 8 Strong against: The usual HP: 14000 Weakness: None (see a pattern?) Chances are, he'll lead you off with a strong QUAKE spell. He'll then hopefully cast WALL on himself thus wasting a turn. If he quake's your party and then attacks then without healing, chances are they'll die. He has pretty good defense, so you'll need three rounds if you haven't walked through Sylx yet (if you have walked through Sylx, you can defeat him in one round if all the cards fall right:-). A RAGNAROK SWORD is yours as a reward for your troubles. Now you've seen everything that the Forbidden Land Eureka has to offer except what's though that door. So enter it. Those little patches of water are recovery springs. Walk up some more and you'll see some human salesmen (I though this place is supposed to be to good for humans, hence the 'FORBIDDEN' in the title. Those guys will sell you level 8 magic. The four chests in the room hold 2 FENIX DOWNS and 2 ELIXIRS. Now, it's time ta use dem jobs!! Room in your inventory is probably not great- so sell your crap. Here's a list of the stuff you should keep: -Four 'strong' heavy-fighting weapons (the ones you just got) and shurikens -Three or four weapons for mages: 2 Golem Staves (if it's just one, don't worry), an Ultimate Wand, and an Eldest Staff -As far as armor for heavy fighters is concerned, just keep the Crystal stuff. If you haven't yet been through Sylx, you only now have one set of Crystal armor. If that's the case, just keep your best armor (Genji) and sell it when you return later. -The armor for mages, err, sages is simpler. 2 Outfits (White/Black Robe, whateva), 2 rings (Protect and Diamond). and two hats (Ribbon and Feather) -The most important potions: HiPotions, Softs, Fenix Downs and Elixirs Sell everything else. NOW, let's play with these new jobs. In case you haven't figured it out long time ago, you'll be going back to the more traditional party, two heavy fighters and two magicians. Turn your knight and dragoon/karateka into NINJAS. Transform your bottom two characters, mknight and shaman most likely, into SAGES. Now divide your remaining equipment so you can have the most balanced attack/defense numbers. I usually like to give my top sage the Ragnarok and Masmune, and the bottom one a Crystal Shield and FullMoon. But sometimes, I'm in an aggressive attacking mood, and I'd change the weapons to Ragnarok/FullMoon and Excalibur/Masmune. If you've only got three weapons for mages, give one the Eldest Staff and the other one weapons that pretrify (if you have a second Golem Staff, you should obviously give it to the sage with just one weapon). If you've only one set of Crystal Armor, give one ninja the body armor, and the other ninja the helmet and gloves. If you're using the FullMoon/CrysShield ninja in the back row, give all the other Crystal paraphernalia to the other ninja. Give the sages the outfits on their body (duh). Give one sage the Ribbon, and the other the Feather. Give the Ribboned sage the Diamond Ring, and give the unRibboned sage the Protect Ring. MAGIC(1) COST DESCRIPTION BUY? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- B Flare 60000 A somewhat powerful nonelemental(?) shock on one enemy NO! B Death 60000 Kills any non-boss, non-undead target, guaranteed Yes B Meteo 60000 A robust rainfall of meteors bombards all enemies No W WWind 60000 A wind-elemental spell that causes near-death state NO!! W Life2 60000 Revives a wounded warrior to full strength ?? W Holy 60000 Think of it as an 'evil remover' for one target No MAGIC(2) COST DESCRIPTION BUY? ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- S Odin 45000 Slices through weaker foes but gets scared easily No S Levia 55000 A powerful water-elemental Tsunami rocks all monsters No S Baham 65000 Interesting fun for all enemies YES!! ITEMS ---------------------------------- (Crystal Shield) (Crystal Armor) (Crystal Gloves) (Crystal Helmet) (Shuriken) Now for the magic part. The magic here, for the most part, is actually not worth it. The only spell you should DEFINATELY buy is a second Bahamut esper for the Sage who doesn't have it. The only reason I'd buy any of the other spells is to keep the game interesting. You could buy another copy of Odin if you wanted to. He'll slash through all the wimpy enemies you throw at him. But bring on three or four Shinobis and he'll probably be crying to his mommy unless you're at some high level. You could buy another Leviathan esper if you so chose. But what's really the point of Leviathan? To hurl massive water damage at several enemies at once. There aren't any important enemies from here on out who have a weakness of water. But Levia does great damage to all the enemies on the screen, right? Yeah, but isn't that why you have Shiva, Ramuh, Ifrit, and Titan? Calling Leviathan for something Ifrit can probably take care of will just mean one less use of Cure4. One of his espers is plenty. The other dealer's magic, the level 8 magic, the 'best' magic, is not to much to write home about either. Like I said before, the only real reason to get one of these spells is for some variety. For each spell you buy, chances are, you're cheating yourself out of a shuriken. Death, the best out of the 6, will work 100% of the time provided the target is not undead or a boss, no questions asked. I really really like this spell because this is one of the few games out there that has rockin' auto-kill spells. In most games, the instant death spells are barely worth mentioning. WWind, the worst out of the six, also has a disgustingly high effectiveness rate. Only problem is, unless you want to leave your shaman in there for whatever reason, is that Death works great too. Why would you have a spell that simply weakens when you could have one that completely finishes the job? Don't get me started with Flare. This is just common sense: Wouldn't an attack called 'MegaFlare' be much better than one simply called 'Flare' at the same level? Holy is even weaker. Holy can't hurt the upcoming bosses 'at all.' At least Flare dents their foundation. The reason holy is lower on the scale of suckiness is because it really kicks the crap out of undead enemies. Flare, being nonelemental, can't really do substantial damage to any specific kind of monster thereby making it virtually worthless. Meteo is a good spell. It mercilessly pelts its target/s for substantial earth damage. Only problem is that Bahamut is a step or two better, and creatures of the earth element are simply of no concern to you at this point in the game. Besides, you've got Titan. Life2 is a good spell as well. If you think it's worth it, then buy all means pay the price and buy Life2. I never take it, though. It will cause you to afford one shuriken less than if you didn't buy it, and really Life2=Fenix Down or Life magic + Cure4, which is not exactly tedious stuff. You may be saying, 'Hey, I don't see no item shop,' well, go middle of the room and straight up as far as you can go. You should find yourself in a small indentation. Face up, press 'A' and a secret path will be revealed to you. Follow the path and you'll find another human vender (forbidden?). Don't buy anything here except shurikens. If you have already done Sylx, then go ahead and buy as many as you can (first 10, then 4, then 1 will get you the most items, but I think you should have figured that out by now). If you haven't yet explored the depths of Sylx, pretend you've never even heard of that 'secret' item shop. Instead, come back here after you've done Sylx so you can get more shurikens. If you haven't yet done Sylx, you'll only have like 15-20 shurikens after buying them all. If you have been to Sylx, you'll have at least 30 shurikens in your pocket, probably more like 35. After you've gotten your new jobs, it's always been a tradition of mine to beat up on ninjas on the last floor of Eureka until everybody's skill level reaches 2. But whatever the case, it's time to move on. Just retrace your steps on out of this place. 24) Sylx Tower enemies: Bulk, DorgaCln, UnneCln, FlameDevil, QumQum, Gormoree, Plantial, D.General, Shinobi, Thor, Grashara, Y.Dragon, G.Dragon Recommended party: Ninja/Ninja/Sage/Sage Recommended level: 46-47 (NOTE: This is going to be explained as if this is done before Eureka) Important stuff you can get in Sylx Tower: WEAPON: COST: ATTACK: HIT%: ----------------------------------- Eldest Staff (32500) 30 90% <--- Bolt, Ice, & Fire magic stronger/Spirit, Intellect +5 Onion Sword (32750) 200 100% <--- Strength, Agility, Vitality +5 ARMOR: COST: DEF: EVAD% MDEF: ------------------------------------------ Onion Shield (32750) 48 48% 48 Onion Helmet (32750) 48 48% 48 <--- Same special protection as Ribbon Onion Armor (32750) 48 48% 48 Onion Gloves (32750) 32 32% 32 <--- Strength, Agility, Vitality +5 (Crystal Armor) (Crystal Gloves) (Crystal Shield) (Crystal Helmet) Wow, see those recommended levels up there? See that party? And you think you're ready at 42? With your little KN/DR/MK/SA party? Well, you are a brave warrior, I'll give you that. The first couple rooms or so are actually not terribly taxing. But then you'll begin to bump into blockheads like QumQums and FlameDevils. QumQums have powerful spells like Brak2 and Death, not to mention elemental magic (Bolt3, Ice3, Fire3) that's always stronger that yours ever will be. FlameDevils are trouble- if four attack you from behind, you're screwed. Plantials hit hard and can also turn you to stone. Grasharas are annoying idiot giants who pack a pretty powerful punch. Shinobis are even more annoying with their high body defense and their tendency to surprise your party. But then there are those Dragons, in the last couple floors, who dispense ONION EQUIPMENT, the most powerful stuff in the game. They're rare, they usually drop Elixirs when beaten. If you save a state at the beginning of a fight with a dragon, you can defeat it different ways to try to get new equipment. Onion paraphernalia is however, only for OnionKids. But on with the walkthrough. Sylx Tower. Go up and head right at the intersection. Ignoring the obvious false wall, do down to reach two chests with BARRIER and WHITESCENT. Next go back to the false wall you previously ignored to come to be near the treasure CHOCORAGE and EARTHDRUM. Next go upward and a bit left to find an enchested LILITHKISS at the top of the screen. Go through the door if you want. You'll only find insignificant treasure like CHOCORAGE. Go down to get a WHITESCENT from the chest. A chest right and down has a BARRIER. Now retrace your steps around and get to the door in the center of the room. When you get to the door, face it, press 'B' and select Sylx Key from your inventory (I hope I didn't need ta tell ya that). Go on in and proceed to 2F. Go left upon your entry. Staying left, then going down, left and up to a chest which holds an ELIXIR. Then go down and right through the false wall. The chest just above you has a FENIX DOWN. Now go down and then left continuing down the path. Go all the way left to find a chest with an ELIXIR in it. Now go into the door you just passed up which will take you to 3F. Go up then right through the obvious false wall. Then go up through the next false wall which will bring you to a path going rightward. Go into the doorway after collecting the ELIXIR just above it. On 4F, go upward, then right when you can then down. Follow the path as usual collecting the FENIX DOWN and ELDEST STAFF on your path. You're obviously not supposed to do the Sylx Tower before Eureka. You're gonna fight a boss in Eureka to get the 'first' Eldest Staff, but that boss also guards something else. Anyways, back to important matters. Follow the path as usual and into the doorway bringing you to 3F. Pick up the contents within the chest you see right above you for a FENIX DOWN. Continue following this path upward and through a couple false walls rightward. The door to the next part of the game is on the top center wall, but be sure to collect those two ELIXIRS in the chests in the room's upper corners. 5F is kinda mazey; no treasure. First go up. Then head left, then down till you can't. Next it's right, down at the first intersection, and leftward. This will take you up and rightward to the door. 6F, the 'Dragon Floor," as I like t call it is your current location. Get away from the doorway and to the upper right portion of the room to find a chest holding a CRYSTAL ARMOR. Head downward then left ignoring the door you'll see. This will get you to a FENIX DOWN within a chest. Now go back down and rightward to find a doorway. Go in. 7F is a small room with heavy CRYSTAL stuff scattered about the room: a SHIELD, GLOVES, HELMET of Crystal await you as does a FENIX DOWN (you see why I said not to buy the Crystal stuff?). You'll find some Dragons here as well, but they ARE pretty rare. There is door here. This will get you to 'the room.' If you happened to enter a room in which five monumental evil-lookin' statues lurk and there's no music, get out. Get out NOW. You know that if the game gives you such hints, something big's through that door. If you go far enough into the room, you'll never be allowed out. From 7F, walk back. Yep. WALK ALL THE WAY back to the first floor. Yeah, I know, it sounds tedious, but the trip back is much more pleasant. Now, go (back) to Eureka to spend this massive wad of money that's been gathering in your pockets for a long time now. Now just build up your guys until you reach level 49 if you're good, but level 50 for the rest of us. Basically, just walk around Eureka or Sylx for a little while- it shouldn't take very long. Floors 3-4 of Eureka probably yield the most exp, especially Haokahs, Acherons and Oceanos. If you can afford it, buy some more shuriken. You may want to go outside to save your game one last time if you've got it in you. Eventually, you're gonna have to enter 'the room.' Do NOT proceed through 'the room' until you're at least at level 49 and have at least 30 shurikens. Whenever you achieve those numbers, get to the top of Sylx Tower and walk into 'the room', with max HP of course. Make your way up to the center of the mirror. Warning: After ones sees their own reflection in this mirror, their fate will be sealed and they will not be allowed out until you beat the game. Walk up to it, and some puny secretary-messenger guy of evil will start giving you crap. You have to take it for your party is paralyzed, and it seems that the souls of the Demons have been revitalized by your presence. Dorga, with a minimal evil presence within him, sees the Light Warriors are in need of help. So he quickly gathers five supreme souls of good, pretty much ones who have followed you around (Princess Sara, Cid, Desh, Allus, Old Dude from Amur). The five take positions by each one of the statues of evil. Next, you're gonna be shipped to NEVER-NEVER LAND, ER, the DARK WORLD. Walk straight up and speak to that ugly dude standing right there. This is ZANDE, the 'ultimate evil' Dorga and Unne spoke of. You guessed it, you're gonna have to fight him. (NOTE: Shuriken #s are only amount I hope you have) BOSS: Zande Difficulty level: 8.5 Shuriken count at battle's start: 34 HP: 20000+ Weakness: Nothing Strong against: The usual This is going to be a pretty hard fight. He'll lead off by casting LIBRA on one of your party members. The next round he'll use METEO or QUAKE. On the third series, he'll do Libra again, the fourth time around will see him make the use the spell he didn't the first time. This may kill a member or two. This is basically what he'll do for the entire fight with the occasional physical attack thrown into the mix. The strategy I always use to beat him is to have one ninja throw shurikens, and the other one just to attack him with the Ragnarok and Masmune. The shuriken-throwing ninja should throw no more that four (4) shurikens (You go to the ITEM command in battle and switch weapons- remember that after you throw a shuriken, it's gone forever, an you'll have to go back into the ITEM command and select two more shurikens then FIGHT). On the first round, have one of the sages cast Haste on the ninja who has the swords. I don't like casting Haste on somebody throwing shurikens simply because the damage caused and number of hits by shuriken is simply too fickle. Sometimes I've noticed a DECLINE in number of hits after he's been Hasted. It just works much better when used on somebody with swords. The other sage should summon Bahaumt. For the second round, do the exact same thing except the sage who casted Haste will instead call Bahamut. I don't like using Cure4 before my party loses HP because the spell could go to waste. When you summon Bahamut, you're guaranteed it won't go to waste. If you don't have this philosophy, then you may want to have a sage or two use Cure4 on the party now. When Zande hurts your party with a powerful spell on round two, have the sages cast Cure4 on the party every time after that. The ninja who threw the shurikens should Pick up the Excalibur and FullMoon and attack Zane. Because of your sages' Cure4ing of the party, they will be likely have enough HP to survive another powerful spell when it next comes. Zande shouldn't survive to cast a third powerful spell. After you're through with Zande, he'll remind you of the REAL true evil. You'll be thrust into another boss battle before you know it. BOSS: DarkCloud Difficulty level: Infinity HP: HA! Weakness: HA! Strong against: Yes. This fight is bogus. You can't win, so don't try. Let her FLAREWAVE you until you are finished. There's just nothing anybody can do to reduce HP. After Cloud lays the biggest fattest smackdown ever on your party, The five Souls called upon by Dorga will help Dorga and Unne give the Warriors of Light Vitality. You're party will be at 100% HP and MP. It's now time to enter a world of darkness and to return Hope to the World. 25: Dark World enemies: Jormugnund, Kage, Garm, Q.Scylla, DbleDrgn Recommended party: Ninja/Ninja/Sage/Sage Recommended level: 50+ Important stuff found in the Dark World: ARMOR: ------ (Ribbon Hairpiece) Now, you are to fight five additional bosses with no particular weaknesses. The bosses Guard the DARK CRYSTALS which encapsulate the four DARK WARRIORS or something, the Dark World's equivalent to your party, the Light Warriors. You must keep the world form completely falling into the VOID for the rest of eternity, a world in which only evil thrives. You are given a choice of five paths upon your entry. You can't go straight up at the outset to fight the last boss, you'll need the help from the Dark Warriors. Now let's get this trial on. Oh, it should also be noted that the wussiness and the annoyance factor of the enemies is surprisingly high for a final area. That's right- absolutely none of the above enemies will give you a great deal of trouble. Garms can cast Drain on a warrior, but the spell could end up backfiring and hurting the Garm! Q.Scyllas can hit pretty hard, but it's nothing to get all crazy over. Same goes for DbleDragons in the center room. In case you haven't found out earlier, you can't run from the battles. In addition, there are chests in each one of the four rooms before the Crystal Rooms containing RIBBON HAIRPIECEs. They are all guarded by ZandeClns, who are best killed off by casting Death or Brak2 while your ninjas just defend. I don't go out of my way for any of them except the one for my unRibboned sage. First, let's fight the 'warm-up' boss. Head to the upper left path into that into that doorway. Go up and you'll be greeted by three paths. Take the left one. Then head leftward then downward then left through that path then up (I made it confusing on purpose:). This is the Ribbon I always take. After that, it's right, up, right, up, left, up to find the DARK WIND CRYSTAL. Heal up before entering, walk into the room a bit to find... BOSS: Cerebus Shuriken count at the start of the battle: 30 HP: 25000 (lower?) Difficulty level: 4 Cerebus is just going to hit you with a rather insignificant THUNDER attack. Just keep pounding away at him with the four legendary weapons and Bahamut. His defense is not terribly high at all. Count his HP as you come at him. If your party's HP dips below the halfway point, have the sages Cure4 the party until Cerebus is gone. Not hard. Examine the Crystal, save the Dark Warrior trapped within, listen to his story and leave the room. Heal up and leave this chamber, it's much easier to get out than it was to get in. Get back to the area in which you started, and then head down to the lower left quarter. First go all the way left. Next, go down as far as you can through some false walls. Go right to find another chest. After you beat the clone, go back left and upward then right to the path. The piece of wall two spaces right of that chest is a false wall. Walk down when you get there and into the door. This will get you to the DARK WATER CRYSTAL. Heal up, and march on in to meet your next foe. BOSS: Echidna Shuriken count at the start of battle: 30 HP: 30000 (less?) Difficulty level: 9 Basically, use the exact same strategy you used to fight Zande. This dude may METEO you at the first round though. Cure4 your party like crazy. Chances are, he'll give you a break and attack you physically in the second round. If he attacks you physically in the third round, count your blessings, because he'll probably launch a QUAKE down your throat. For some reason, I've always had at least one party member die at this dude, but I've never been completely annihilated. After you've dispatched Ech, examine the Crystal and another Dark Warrior will pop out and give you info. Leave the room, head through that false column, then go all the way up. Eventually, go right then out of this section. Next, we shall go over to the top right room. Enter it and go up upon your entry. Make a right turn through the obvious false wall. Go up a bit and then right which will take you through yet another false wall. Keep following the path, and before you know it, you will find yourself in the room holding the DARK FIRE CRYSTAL. Go the usual. You'll be fighting... BOSS: 2-Headed Dragon Shuriken count at the battle's beginning: 26 HP: 25000+ Difficulty level: 7 Some people go on about how hard this fight can be. This dude can't Quake or Meteo you like other bosses, he'll just attack you normally. Mr. 2 Head hits hard. VERY hard. It's pretty much a guarantee that his attacks will take away at least 2000 HP, no matter what. I've seen him do more than 9000. But the way around this is to put all four warriors in the back row. One ninja will have the FullMoon and a Shuriken every time. A sage should cast Haste on him. The other one should summon Bahamut. The other ninja should throw two shurikens every time. Chances are very slim that 2-Headed Dragon will kill a warrior with one hit, your HP totals should be high enough to withstand that (4G-4.5G). One the sage who used Haste should Cure4 whoever the Dragon attacked. The other one should just call Bahamut every time. You WILL kill him eventually. When you kill that dragon, examine the crystal to retrieve another dark counterpart. Retrace your steps out of here through false walls and everything. It's time to recover that final Crystal. Get to the bottom right quadrant. Walk straightforward through the path which is a bit mazey. When you get to the room's center area go right and into the room. You should probably be at least at level 52 before fighting this next boss. HEAL UP. Proceed and take a look at the Crystal. This thing will attack. BOSS: Arhiman Shuriken count at battle's beginning: 20 HP: 35000 Difficulty level: 10 Arhiman is a prick. He doesn't look all that imposing with that sissy yellow color and that wimpy smile. Don't lets looks deceive you. If he launches METEO followed by a QUAKE, you're screwed no matter what unless you're at like level 55 or something. Think of this fight as another Zande battle minus the Libra breaks. His spells include the super-powerful METEO and QUAKE, and the moderately powerful FLAME, THUNDER, and BLIZZARD (thank God this dude doesn't call Bahamut). The only rest you'll get is if he casts Brak2 and misses. I've never been turned to stone, but he won't usually even use the spell. In the first round of fighting, go with 2 shurikens for each ninja and 2 Bahamuts for the sages. If you have less than 20 shurikens, give him one ninja Ragnarok and Masmune and haste him up. You cannot afford to waste any turns. If Ahriman leads off with something other than Quake or Meteo, have one sage Cure4 the party and the other call Bahamut. As soon as he unleashes one of those super-powerful spells, then have both sages Cure4 the hell out of your party. Chances are you won't use more than six shurikens, eight tops, because one of your ninjas are bound to be killed off. If one of your party members loses all his HP, just keep fighting, because by the time a party member dies, you should be within striking distance of finishing him off. If one ninja dies but both sages are alive, have one sage summon Bahamut and the other one Cure4 the party. If you've just got one ninja and one sage, the ninja should shuriken and the sage should Cure4. If you have just one warrior left standing, this ugly eye should be near death, so just attack with what you can. This fight is a real character builder. Try to finish with 14 shurikens. Count down his HP from 35G. If you don't feel you'll be able to survive without going below 14, than toss more shuriken. This fight is arguably tougher than the final boss. Good luck. If your endeavor with Ahriman is successful, revive your guys and recover your HP, speak to the DARK EARTH CRYSTAL and save your fourth and final homey of darkness. Now retrace your steps to the room in which you came and head straight up to the center door. I think you know what task lies in your near future. This place is complicated, more so than it looks. Upon entrance, go UP 3, RIGHT 4, UP 3, RIGHT 2, UP 8, LEFT 5, UP 3, RIGHT 1, UP 3, and LEFT 3 and into the door (man, I hope that's right :-). Walk straight up the cryptic chamber of darkness (I think you know what's next, heh). HEAL UP YOUR GUYS. Give the sages elixirs. At the end of the path lies your next foe. It's time to eradicate all evil at the source. BOSS: CLOUD OF DARKNESS (never shall I say DarkCloud!) Attack: FlareWave, the same thing you saw earlier (1000-2000 HP per warrior) HP: 45000 Shuriken count: 14 (I've always considered this to be the magic #) Recommended level: 52+ (one of the toughest final battles in the FF series). FYI: You'd probably think such a force of evil would have sort of a weakness against sacred powers, right? No, Holy's good for about 50 HP per use. Flare's good for about 1500, in case you cared. Only three attacks really do what I consider respectable damage against Cloud of Darkness: Dual Onion Swords, Dual Shurikens, Bahamut Summon. It IS possible to win the fight with no shuriken, but let's not try that. Battle Plan if you have about 14 shurikens: The ninjas should each throw 2 shurikens and both sages should summon Bahamut. The ninjas should be strong enough to dish out AT LEAST 5000 HP of damage after each toss, probably more like 7000 would happen most of the time. Your sages should be skilled enough to call Bahamut out for at least 2500 HP of damage, probably more like 3000 would actually happen. This strategy should dish out at least 17000 DMG. This strategy also guarantees you that no turns will be wasted. But this will lead to heavy damage to your party. Three FlareWaves will kill your party if you don't heal (assuming you did those HP gaining tricks I told you of before, your HP should be right at 4500 and a little less for the fourth position). Now if both sages cast Cure4 each time, this would regain a bit more than 900 HP gained per round. This means that your guys would lose about 700 per round. If a 1500 Flare Wave attack hit a warrior with 4500 HP to start, and then lose 700 HP each round after that, they would be able to survive five rounds of fighting, six if they're lucky. If both ninjas chucked stars, you'd get 10000+ HP off from Cloud of Darkness. If this trend would continue, she'll be gone in four rounds at the most. Here are some numbers: CoD You 45000 4500 round 1 -17000 -1500 28000 3000 round 2 -10000 -1500 + 900 18000 2400 round 3 -10000 -1500 + 900 8000 1800 round 4 -10000 -1500 <---Even if CoD went first, you'd be well off + 900 -2000 1200 <---Your shurikens will run out here probably round 5 -10000 -1500 + 900 -12000 600 -10000 -1500 + 900 round 6 -22000 0 <---You could last up to six rounds which could allow to do 67000 damage, probably more. By the time you'll come here, you'll be dancing on her grave. But for the most part, this is a worst case scenario. In all likeliness, your ninjas should do more than 5000, 5500, if anything 6000. And your sages will probably add more like 1000 HP for all warriors. If this happens, she'd probably go down after the first ninja in round four, leaving your party members a cool 1000 HP if Cloud of Darkness FlareWaved you and neither sage decided to heal up. With my level 50 party, I've used this exact strategy some thirty or fourty times and I've been killed off only once. But if you don't have about 14 shurikens, but considerably less, here's an alternate strategy. The ninjas should attack with shurikens until they run out, and then equipping the forbidden weapons, but always attacking. The sages, with max MP of course, should cast Cure4 on ONE party member in every round, including the first. No Hasteing or Bahamut summoning. They should then Cure4 the other two at the next round This fight will be considerably longer, and notably harder. You should eventually take her down. I've beaten it using this strategy at level 50 without any shurikens. But it's always better to have a good amount of (14) shurikens. After you take away the final HP, the game will pause for a couple seconds (for some reason, I've love that short moment of tension) and then Cloud of Darkness will slowly crumble into nothingness. Enjoy the ending which will come up next- you've earned it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There. Wasn't that fun? I hoped you enjoyed playing Final Fantasy 3 as much as I did. And I hope you found this FAQ/Walkthrough helpful. Now try it at a lower level or something. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 1: Pre-FAQ FAQ. Here are some questions some guy could ask me about this document Q: Hey, where's Terra? A: (Reaches back and deals a fresh one) That's FF6, you idiot. This is FF3, for Famicom, the REAL FF3. If you bothered to read the first line of this document, you'd know that. Q: What's with the CAPS? You know it's rude to shout and stuff. A: That's for emphasis. It's for things like treasure, the first time you come across a name, or other times of needed emphasis. Caps are also a good landmark to look for if you get lost in the text (example: if you lost your place in the text and you know you found a WHITESCENT in a chest a minute ago, it's easy to find WHITESCENT in the text because it sticks out more). Q: HELLLLP! The text got all screwed up when I went to talk to the Princess!! (Oh yeah, I'm using a rom) A: You need NeoDemiforces FF3 patch, which is an IPS patch. Excpet no cheap imitations. You'll also need an IPS patching system, which is useful for things other than video games- SMARTIPS is my favorite one. (Oh yeah, the great majority of us are also using roms) Q: Why did the text go all funky? A: Lazy translationists. Q: How do I use all those charts and stats you've got up there? A: There really isn't a simple way to explain this, but then again, the stats boxes/charts are pretty self-explanatory. Under the COST column, it will reveal how much value an item has. If an item is in (parentheses), the item can never be bought, so this instead indicates the price a dealer will pay for one of these items. For weapons, ATTACK is how strong how weapon is and HIT% how often the weapon can hit an enemy. I don't think an equip chart is really necessary. All the classes have a weapon type they can equip (dark swords for mknights, axes/hammers for vikings, javelins for dragoons, stalves for white wizards and so on). This is mentioned in the jobs section of this FAQ. For armor, DEF is its strength- the higher the DEF, the less an enemy's physical attack will hurt you. EVAD% tells you how much more likely a physical attack will not hurt you at all. MDEF is its effectiveness against- GASP!- magic attacks. For the most part, MDEF and DEF numbers for a piece of defensive equipment are similar. As far equipping armor is concerned, heavy fighters (except monks/karatekas) can wear the best body armor, helmets and gloves provided. Magicians and other non-plain fighting classes can put on outfits, hats and rings. Bards and geomancers have their own special outfits. For magic tables, it's simple. The first letter of a row indicates what kind of magic the spell (W-white, B-black, C-call, S-summon) would be. The second part is the name of the spell and the third column is its cost. The message under EFFECT will tell you what the spell actually does in some 50 characters or less. The final column tells you if it's worth buying. The ratings range from a screaming YES!! to an emphatic NO!!. There is some more info about magic in that section of this FAQ. Q: I went into a secret room and I can't get back. What can I do? A: Nothing, you're screwed. Q: Noooooo!! Are you serious? A: Of course not. The way to get back form a secret room that involves a secret passage is simple. Just go back to the space right next to the piece of wall that was moved, look upward and press 'A' and go on in. Q: Hey what's this- BlackWiz--->RedWiz? A: That means as soon as your black wizard has used half of his magic or is about to going a level in a dungeon of sorts, Change his job to a RedWiz for more effective attack power, defense and HP progression. Q: Now what's with GREATAXE AXE? Lol! A: That's just me copying the name of the weapon directly from the game. I know that GREAT AXE was the intention, but I still just like to poke fun at the translation:-) I do the same for most monsters, just copy them as I see them. Q: I can't seem to get the secret treasure laying around in the grass in some towns. What should I do? A: Well, do the best you can, but don't get too caught up in it. You do not NEED any of the stuff you find on the grounds of towns, but it sure is helpful. Q: What's with this 'recommended party' stuff? Don't people usually like black and white mages? A: Okay, my philosophy is a 'get them before they get you' philosophy. That's why I don't care all that much for white or black magicians. You'll see that explanation in the jobs section. Q: But what's with this 'recommended party' stuff? A: It's the party I found to work best for me in that particular situation. You may have different ideas, however. Just like if you usually have a white mage in your party at all times and that's best for you, then have a white mage in there the entire time. Q: Your explanations for some stuff is confusing. Please help? A: Sorry if some of the explanations are confusing, but if you get to puzzled, find a landmark word (in caps preferably) you remember seeing very recently. Head to that point of the walkthrough and try reading more carefully. This why it's good to have Sight magic or MidgBreads. Q: Why do you sometimes say 'east' but it's usually 'right?' A: The cardinal directions are only applied to the outer world. That's just how I decided to do it. Q: Hey, I was able to do most of the things on your guide a level or two earlier. Could you explain this fiasco? A: This is supposed to be a guide for beginners, for those new to the RPG genre. It's definitely possible to do most of the stuff earlier, but if this is your second or third RPG or something, you're better off doing stuff at the recommended level. Q: Why are your HP totals for some bosses are off? A: Well, the HP count is not to be taken religiously, but it's a close estimation. I fought every boss a few times to try to get an accurate total. Q: Why did you chose to divide the chapters the way you did? A: I did that because that was a moment of change in the game's 'feel' (well, you may not have felt any shift in feel, but that's how I did it). Q: What's this I hear about this game being released on another system soon? A: This game, along with the two previous Final Fantasies, are supposed to be released on a system from Bandai called the WonderSwan Color. There are to be some launch titles, this game being one of them. It was rumored to be coming on in America in spring 2001, then it was pushed to fall 2001. It may never be realized at all in the US. Q: Will this guide be good for that game? A: Probably, but keep in mind that this is done for the Famicom version. The thing about black magic may be changed completely, ya never know. Q: Why this game? A: Well, it's a helluva game for starters, but I won't talk about that now. This game is really detailed and advanced for being like 10 years old or something. It's also the precursor to some fine future RPGs like FF5 & Tactics. Q: Why wasn't it released worldwide? A: Well, I'll tell you my theory. Square was having trouble coming up with good, successful games for quite a while, the ggod only pre-FF game I can think of is Rad Racer for the NES. Anywho, Square kept losing money. When they were at nearly bankrupt (that's hard to believe today but it happened), they decided to put all their heads together to make one more game. It was 1987, and that game was Final Fantasy (that's where I think the title comes from). It was a massive hit in Japan. But Square wanted to play it safe with their newly generated money, having lost so much of it in the past, so they didn't release it around da world. Square put together two more games, and two more financial successes. The company now had the confidence to maybe release those games internationally. In 1990, FF1 hit the shelves everywhere, and, low and behold, it was a hit. In 1990, however, the people in Japan were speaking about a new, 16-bit system. It was Square's belief that in order to stay competitive in the market, they too had to jump on the Super Famicom 16-but bandwagon. In March of 1991, FF4, Square's 16-bit debut, hit the shelves, and it was another huge hit. By this time in America, sales in FF1 had peaked a while ago and all were abuzz about 16-bits. Square figured they had to do something. Since they had a 16-bit project in works and ready to go, Square decided to keep FF2 and FF3 from American stores. On the SNES, FF4EasyType, or FF2 American, was unleashed to the masses at about the same time its Japanese counterpart did (7-8 months later). Both games were huge hits, so Square decided to work on a sequel and other things and completely forgot about the second and third installments of the series. Q: I see. A: That's just my theory. My other theory is just that Square thought FF2&3 were maybe just too damn good for us dumb Americans. Q: How good's this game? A: Uhhhhhhh........ Yes. Q: Is it the best ever 8-bit game to be released? A: Aww, nah, not likely. Q: What's this I hear about a glitch which gives you 99 things? A: Well, that's all the time I have fer know. Seeya. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 2: What do these words mean? When you hit the start button out of battle, you'll find a menu. It's not very hard to find out what most of these things do, so descriptions will be brief. ITEM: Displays the collection of things you've picked up and still have. Some items, namely potions, can be used outside of battle by selecting it. MAGIC: Shows what magic a warrior may have in his spell book. Any warrior can put any spell in his spell book, but only jobs who have the ability are allowed to actually use it. EQUIP: Put on/take off weapons and armor to your liking, but not everybody can equip all weapons and all armor, of course. STATUS: In short, it shows you how good a your warrior is. ROW: Select this from the menu to move a warrior to the back or front line of fighting. Magicians belong in the back (except for red wizes) and heavy fighters should be in the front. Some weapons (stuff you throw) will do as much damage from the back row as the front. If you don't release your weapon, damage from the back row will be cut in half, both offense and defense. JOB: The duty you assign to a warrior. SAVE: While on the over world map, you can record your progress in case something happens. This is so you can pick up from where you left off without having to redo everything. CAPACITY POINTS: Tells you by how much you can alter jobs. The higher the skill level, the less capacity points it will take to change back to that job if you decide to switch for some reason. It will cost less capacity points if a magic user wants to change to another magic user than if he was to change to a heavy fighter. Same thing for heavy fighters. It'll cost them more of these if they were to change to a magic user rather than another heavy fighter. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 3: Status Screen Select this from the start menu and you get to find out the effectiveness of that warrior. LEVEL: aka exp level, it's one of the main manipulators of stats. The higher the level, the better the stats. JOB: The duty you have assigned to a warrior. SKILL LEVEL: This stat tells you how great that particular guy is at his current job. The higher the skill level, the more effective the warrior. Skill level is nothing you should worry yourself over too much. If a taoist has a higher skill level, then his terrain ability would be more likely to help than hurt. If a thief has a higher skill level, his steal success rate would improve. If a knight has a higher skill level, then his weapon would be a little stronger. If a black wizard has a higher skill level, his magic would be stronger. I think you get the gist of it. It is raised easier when that warrior does his specialty (like cheer, steal, buildup, scan, fight for heavy fighters and so on). But his effectiveness is based much more on his exp level and the stuff he's equipping. A skill level eight monk would not do to much more damage on an enemy than a skill level one monk, but a skill 34 knight will obviously be more effective than a rookie knight (assuming both knights and monks are at the same exp levels). I think that just about explains it. EXP: This tells you how much experience a warrior has in the form of points. The higher the better NEXT LEVEL: This tells you how much more experienced a warrior must be before he can receive the bonuses of the next exp level. HP: The 'life meter' of a party member. When it runs out, goes to zero, he dies, sort of, he can be brought to life. It also shows how big his life meter can get (max HP). MP: This shows you how much magic is left for a warrior. When that number for that respective level reaches zero, the magician can no longer use spells from that level. STRENGTH: The higher this number is, the more damage he'll be able to squeeze out of that weapon per hit. AGILITY: As this number gets higher, enemies will be able to hit the warrior with less effectiveness. I think if this number is high enough, the faster he'll do something in battle. I also think this number effects attack numbers. VITALITY: I think this has something to do with HP progression, but I'm not completely sure. Characters with the highest vitality (karateka, viking) seem to have better HP progression. But I've toggled with the vitality figures for a difference of 10 points near the end of the game, and the HP progression numbers were not varied all that much, but that's what vitality does, I think. INTELLIGENCE: The strength of one's black magic. The higher the number, the stronger the magic will be. SPIRIT: See previous answer switching 'black' in favor of 'white' instead. ATTACK: The multiplier there tells you how many hits your warrior will get on an enemy with no agility. The number on the right indicates how much each of his hits are. The left number is affected by the weight of a weapon- the heavier the weapon (axes), the lower this number will be. If you equip a shield rather than an addition weapon, this number will be cut in half. The second number tells you how strong the weapon is in the hands of that warrior at that moment. HIT%: This is how good a warrior is at hitting a given target with his current weapons. This will double if he's holding two swords or axes or javelins or something. DEFENSE: The number on the left (multiplier) will tells you how often that warrior absorbs a hit (the effectiveness of the enemies' physical attack). This number will double if he's got a shield equipped. The right number tells how well he can take a punch. The higher the number, the lower the damage per hit the warrior will take. EVADE %: Much like hit %, it tells you how good that warrior is at dodging. MAGIC DEFENSE: As this number grows, the damage caused by an enemies' magic attack will be a lesser number. The default magic defense for any given class is zero (0), so you'll need armor to up this stat. MAGIC EVADE: This tells you how well a warrior completely resists a magic attack. Good to have against spells like Death or Brak2. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 4: Classes. FF3 was the first game (that I know of) was the first to use that jobs system. Now I spoke of the jobs a bit in the walkthrough, but this is a more descriptive effort. ONION KID Well, what can I say. 'OnionKid' is not exactly the most flattering name for a class. These kids are just running around without much of a purpose or anything else like that. They can FIGHT, DEFEND, RUN, and ITEM, but they do none of those things particularly well. Let's give them something to do. 1) Jobs of the Wind Crystal FIGHTER Fighter, what do you think these guys do? Cast powerful magic spells? Of course not. Just as all of us FF1 vets well remember, these guys are pretty awesome. Although they may not be to bright or spiritual, they can hit pretty well. They can equip some really strong armor and most of the swords in the game. They FIGHT, DEFEND, RUN, and ITEM. They have excellent HP progression and can equip shields. You should definitely have one of these guys. MONK Monks never talk and spend all day copying religious books in some secluded area. They wear one-piece robes and always walk with their heads down and hands folded. But not in Final Fantasy, however. These guys, much like the black belt in FF1, practice martial arts. At first, they are better off holding a nunchuck in each hand, but when they reach level 9, they will somehow be able to hit harder with their hands and feet than with any weapon. They have the best HP progression out of all the classes you'll first get to chose. One of the virtues of the monk is that he is an inexpensive character because you need not buy weapons for him except a nunchuck or two. They, much like the fighter, can't think or pray all that well, but they can hit pretty well. The monk can also FIGHT, DEFEND, RUN and ITEM. His one drawback, however is that his defensive abilities are not like your typical average heavy fighter and thus they'll take more damage. WHITE WIZARD These guys are good to have, especially at the beginning of the game. Their main function is to protect/heal the party. He can also use some wind elemental magic. His staff/wand-powered attack sucks as does most of the armor he wears. Their Cure magic hurts undead monsters, and thanks to the cure spell, you'll barely need to buy many potions at the beginning of the game. FIGHT, MAGIC, RUN and ITEM are the commands you'll see for these guys in battle. They've average HP progression, maybe a little bit below average. The white wizard is good for a while. BLACK WIZARD These evil magicians practice, uh, black magic. They can't hit very well with their knives or wands and their HP progression is humiliating. They can't defend themselves all that well either. They can, however, cause damage to several enemies at once with the proper magic. Black wizards can FIGHT, MAGIC, RUN, and ITEM. This job is nifty when you first make use of them, but they'll become less useful as your journey progresses. RED WIZARD Anybody who has really played FF1 inside and out (like yours truly, heh) knows how good the red mage/wizard character was (you may disagree, however). Their role in FF3 is somewhat disappointing compared to the first adventure. At the beginning, they are super useful. They can fight alright with swords, knives, staves, and bow/arrows. They're armor capabilities are also far superior to that of their black and white counterparts, which includes some shields. They can use both beginner types of magic- black and white. Their HP progression is very un-mage-like. But, as time progresses, their physical attacks just don't cut it as their MP would stop growing. They, and to a certain extent the black and white wiz, begin to become rather futile by the time you get around to leaving the Floating Continent. But still not a bad class to have early on. They can FIGHT, MAGIC, RUN and ITEM. 2) Jobs of the Fire Crystal HUNTER Hunters are alright. Some use them as an alternative to a white wizard for a while for he can use all level 1-3 white magic except Aero. They are quick to bust out and attack in battle. Their elemental arrows are sort of like casting its respective spell. They are a great force of defense for you can give them FlameMail or Ice Armor and stick 'em in the back row. They can FIGHT, MAGIC, RUN and ITEM. They use bows and arrows- all kinds. They are, however, a rather expensive class to supply. Their usefulness becomes a bit lessened as the game goes on. They won't be able to upgrade from that FlameMail or those arrows he'll have for quite a while, and he'll become a third wheel. They are useful for quite a while. KNIGHT Oh yeah, knights. Are they good? Uh, this is Final Fantasy, of course the best party is usually going to have one of these guys. The instant you can ditch that fighter distinction, do it, and never change his job from knight until very late in the game. Now it is agreed by FF1 beginners and experts that the knight is the best character (if not the best, then they're #2). They can't use magic in this game, and actually, the knight is just an improved version of the fighter. But this dude can equip most of the best armor and swords in the game. Their HP progression is excellent, and they can use shields (duh). You really shouldn't have to buy anything for the knight except potions- most of their stuff's in chests. They still lack the ability to think or pray straight, but they sure can hit. Command in battle them by selecting FIGHT, DEFEND, RUN, or ITEM. THIEF Oh man do we all (FF1 vets) have our fair share of horror stories to tell you about the thief. Well, I never thought I'd ever say this, but the thief is actually pretty useful. He can pick locks if he's in the lead so you won't have to use any magic keys. If you give him two Boomerangs and stick him in the back row, he becomes a formidable agility machine with alright offense. He can steal stuff in battle, but you'll never steal anything interesting. The most interesting thing about him in my opinion is that his soul is at the robust rating of one. What are you expecting, some lockpicker with morals? He can escape easily from virtually every battle, and he has normal, maybe a bit below normal, and he equips knives. His commands include FIGHT, SEAL, ESCAPE, and ITEM. SCHOLAR This nerdy fella will is well, uh, not completely useless. A rookie scholar will hit you for about as much damage as a rookie knight with the swords he has when you can first get these jobs. And you know what, that's really realistic. Who would have known that some ponytailed punk with is books would hurt someone about as much as some strong guy in armor with two sharp swords? This class, for the most part, sucks because you can never get a stronger set of books for this guy until it's too late. He is really useful for ONE fight. The scholar can see an enemy's weakness and HP with his abilities. FIGHT, SCAN, PEEP and ITEM are your choices for the scholar. Oh, they also have sucky HP progression. 3) Jobs of the Water Crystal GEOMANCER This is a very original job. This dude somehow controls the area's terrain during battle to hurt one or more enemies. The terrain function is sort of like black magic that won't run out. But controlling terrain is difficult, as you may imagine, and the attack can often backfire thus hurting the geomancer. The rule is that the more unusual the setting, the more useful the geomancer will be. Marshes, underwater stages, and air are examples of where he may thrive. It's like casting magic that'll never run out, kind of. They can take the land and control it, but they only have average HP progression. They aren't strong at all; they attack with bells. Yeah, that's right, bells. FRIGGIN' BELLS. A ring of a bell or two is somehow supposed to produce spectacular results as far as hurting enemies are concerned. Well, the bells realistically do minimal damage against the vast majority of all the monsters in the game. These guys look pretty cool and they are a useful addition to your party for a while. They can FIGHT, TERRAIN, RUN, ITEM. The ringing of bells is supposed to HURT? Okay... DRAGOON These guys have an entire kingdom dedicated to them, so they have to be at least pretty good. Though defense is really not their thing, they can leap so high that they would miss all action from a fight for about a full round thus avoiding the enemies' attacks and spells. When equipped with two javelins, they could do impressive damage on the enemy (they can also miss the enemy entirely). Giving these guys shields is pretty useless for this reason. They have bad HP progression for a heavy fighter. They have good agility and their regular attack is respectable. These guys are alright. I alternated my second position character to/from dragoon/karateka. When defense was needed, I employed the services of the dragoon because he can jump over attacks. What can dragoons do in battle? FIGHT, JUMP, DEFEND, ITEM. VIKING Generally inferior to the other heavy fighters, although not a bad character to have in your party. The first thing that you should know is that these guys are tough. They can take a punch better than any other class we have at this point in the game. You give him an Aegis Shield and enemies will rarely be able attack him for more than 10 damage. And for some reason, my viking in the third slot got attacked ALOT more than any of the other three. These guys lack offense. The carry around heavy axes and hammers causing them to simply attack less times. So that Aegised viking won't hit for too much more than 300 damage whereas a knight at the same level would be doing nearly 1000 when holding two swords. Another thing you should know is that these guys have the best HP progression in the game at this point. They FIGHT, DEFEND, RUN, ITEM. I could see using them more often of they had some unique command. HAS THIS EVER HAPPENED TO YOU: I was sailing underwater and was attacked from behind. I tried running three times but was unsuccessful. My caller was even bashed to death. At round four, from the BACK ROW while equipped with a Triton Hammer and Tomahawk Axe at exp level 30 and skill level 24, well, uh, something happened. I had him fight a Charbidiyilis or something like that. My viking stepped forward and attack ONCE (ONE TIME) for 9999 damage. It wasn't even a critical hit either. ONCE. I don't know which weapon it was. You may not believe it, but this surprise blast of orgasmic power did happen. KARATEKA A refined monk. Or put it this way- Knight:Fighter::Karateka:Monk. These guys will hit you with claws until for some reason he will attack more effectively without the assistance of fist enhancement. They have excellent HP progression but a sucky defensive system. At a high skill level, these guys produce the best results when Hasted (much like the master in FF1 produced the best results when FASTed if he was at level 20 or more). They can well up all their power for a couple rounds, but making use of this command reduces his defense dramatically. In battle, they can FIGHT, BUILDUP, DEFEND and ITEM. One of the main advantages to the monk was that he barely required and money to be an effective force of fighting. Well, you're gonna haveta spend some money on these guys when you first get 'em. Near the end of the game, you may find their usefulness tailing off a bit, and that's why I had one of these guys but I changed him to a dragoon at times. There's really not much else to say about the karateka job. MYSTIC KNIGHT The paladin job is completely worthless when you first obtain it. But when you get to the 'splitting cave,' you're gonna wanna have one of these dudes with you. Their dark swords are powerful, and as mentioned before are the only type of weapon to keep an enemy from splitting if they're not stuck or dead. Their defensive capabilities are limited when you first use the mknight, but they'll eventually be able to have a great armor line up with Genji and what not. They gain skill levels in a hurry, they can use all level 1-3 white magic except Aero and their HP progression is great, third best out of the bunch only slightly behind the karateka and viking. For the most part, this class is superior to the knight class, but what really makes up for that is your knight will have a very high skill level by the time you first get to put these guys to good use. I didn't want to can my knight or karateka, but I really really wanted to keep the mknight after that cave. So I just decided to have three heavy fighters instead of the traditional two. Oh, you won't have to pay for ANY of the mknight's equipment if you collect all the stuff before you do that cave. They can be commanded with FIGHT, DEFEND, MAGIC and ITEM. CONJURER Think of conjurers as pre-summoners. They're still trying to master their domain. Conjurers are a good class. Their effects are usually better than that of the black wizard and they also have better HP progression than the black wizard. There are only two things the conjurer has working against him. The first is that he lacks MP. The second is that the magic is unpredictable. If your party runs into a fight with two Zombie Dragons at near max HP, you'll just want Ifrit to just throw his happy fireball of death at the undead creature for optimum damage. But he'll probably just give you your 50 HP you were missing when you first entered the battle. They can't hit very hard with their sissiness rods as you might expect from a magic user. FIGHT, MAGIC, RUN and ITEM with one of these guys in battle. BARD Bards rock. They can do it all- sing, dance, scare enemies away, make your guys more effective, charm you off your feet, perform soothing lullabies to put enemies to sleep... Aw, who the hell am I kidding. For many of us, our first introduction of the bard in the FF games was Edward/Gilbert (FF4). He remains to be one of the most hated video game characters to this date due to his worthlessness. And you know, they're not that much better here. They fight, err, sing, with harps. I really don't know how some dude plucking an instrument that usually soothes the listener is supposed to hurt a monster. The bard is weeeek. He's one of those sissy choir boys who know or may have known before who couldn't do a push-up in their life depended on it. Hell, these guys can't even FIGHT. They can SING, CHEER, SCARE and ITEM in battle. Do you really want somebody so weak they can't fight slowing your party down? Scare, uh, well, there's nothing scary about the bard except his alarming inability to hurt enemies himself. Scare? Have you ever in your life been intimidated by some choir priss walking the hallways of your school? Now, traditionally with musicians, their music is supposed to be more bearable as they sharpen their skills. So shouldn't this mean that as he gains skill levels, he should be doing less and less damage since his music is becoming better and more enjoyable? They're also way to expensive compared to other classes. That's the bad side of the bard, and it's considerably larger than the good things I have to say about him. First, because I mention it everywhere, I'll acknowledge the fact that his HP progression is decent (white wizardish), suprisingly good for someone who's more destructive with his vocal chords than his physical body. Second of all, these guys are pretty agile and they are quick to act in battle. Third, their cheering actually works. It effectively rouses your party. No, really, I actually got it to work. When you first are able to use these guys properly, their cheer command will not be too much more than a complete waste of a turn. But at a higher level, he really 'rouses the party.' My fighters' got more than 25% stronger when my skill level 1 exp level 42 bard cheered my party. Although I have not yet tried this, you MAY want to carry this sissy around the 'splitting cave' so he can pump up your party so they can kill the monsters in one hit so they are unable to split. However, if one of these scrawny princes was trying to rouse the crowd at a school's pep rallies, I doubt he'd really not do a great job IMHO. 4) Jobs of the Earth Crystal WARLOCK His deeper divulgence into the study of black magic makes his black magic obviously stronger than the black wizards. But they are still only alright. The only advantages these guys have over summoners are a better HP progression and more MP. Other than that, they still can't really hurt bad guys with their wands of wussiness, and their magic's still just a bit too weak. These smart guys might only be really advantageous at one part of the game: at Sylx Tower when your party gets attacked from behind, they can use a fairly reliable Kill spell to get your party out of the jam, but other than that, well, unless you MUST go with a more traditional party... Use the warlock to FIGHT, MAGIC, RUN and ITEM. SHAMMAN Ultimate healers/protects, basically. These guys have been profusely praying and atoning and what not, and my has it paid off. Actually, this guy's but an improvement of the white wizard that came before him. His stalves won't really hurt monsters too badly, his armor is not the greatest in the world, and his HP progression is nothing to write home about. This is, in all likeliness, the most useful of the Earth Crystal jobs. The shaman can FIGHT, MAGIC, RUN & ITEM. SUMMONER Alright, now THIS is how magic should be! No more of this effect nonsense; the summoner is skilled enough to bring out the best (well, usually it's the best) of what the creatures have to offer. Summoning magic is bone-stoopidly strong, really I think you'll be surprised. But, these guys aren't as useful as advertised. Summoning magic is meant to destroy several monsters at once. Only problem is that at the end last stages of the game, you won't really bump into many monsters who travel in packs of more than four, so at the end I just changed him into a shaman. His rods and armor are just what you would expect from a magic user, and his HP progression is one of the other drawback of this class and they have less MP than warlocks and shamen, just like black and white wizes had more MP than conjurers. Command them by way of FIGHT, MAGIC, RUN, and ITEM. 5) Jobs found in the Forbidden Land Eureka NINJA 'You get the jobs of ninja who can equip all weapons and armor...' says the Scylla who guards a staff and the last two jobs. The ninja can equip ALMOST every weapon and armor in the game. They're the ideal fighters. Shurikens rock, too! They're really strong and really fast and they have the best HP progression. Ya gotta have two of these guys when you're approaching the game's end. Good offense with all the weapons the can use and good defense with the armor and agility they possess (Crystal Shields are also alright!). Really, what else is there to say? Oh yeah, ninjas can FIGHT, DEFEND, RUN and ITEM as far as battles are concerned. SAGE 'You get the jobs...sage who can use every magic spell!' Scyalla's statement to you as you approach looks kind of like the opening sentence in the ninja paragraph combined with the quote above. Sages are the magical equivalent to the ninja- they are able to use ALL the game's spells. It's like having a warlock, shaman and summoner wrapped together. Although I've heard talk about their magic being of less strength than warlocks, summoners or shamen or something, but I haven't ever noticed a difference. If their magic IS weaker, it's by such an infindecimal amount that it's really hard to notice. Sages have no reason not to summon Shiva or Ifrit in every battle (don't use up Cure magic) in every turn. They hit pretty well with staves, rods, or books and they're adequate defensively. But they are by no means warriors of exasperating physical strength, and they belong in the back row to FIGHT, MAGIC, RUN, ITEM. Very high MP, best HP progression, what more can you ask for? 6) Job that's Technically not a Job, but I've Gotta Throw it Into the Mix FULLY-EQUIPPED ONINO KID (NOTE: The follow is a tad exaggerated) Fully-Equipped Onion Kids are psychopathic killing machines. An FEOK has two Onion Swords, Onion Armor, Onion Gloves and an Onion Helmet. They have Adamantie-like armor, they don't NEED no stinkin' shields*, and swords so forbidden the only one who dares pick them up is the FEOK. Just imagine that kid who got picked on all throughout his high school days. This dude unleashes the inner power of anger and builds up his body to the point of no return. He exercises too much for his own good, and now he's back for revenge. He can eliminate the entire football team who used to have hours of fun at his expense with his eyes closed. If one were to cast Haste on him, not even the most intense mental institutions (or any single armed force) could hold him down. He is the single greatest fighter to ever live. The ninja pales in comparison to the FEOK, so forget this drivel I was speaking about the ninja being the perfect fighters (okay, maybe a skill level 70 ninja is better than one of these guys at skill level 3, but still). If you happen to come upon all that equipment dropped by those dragons in Sylx, well, the game'll be a bit easier. If you do find all that equipment without much trouble, especially those swords, you're pretty damn lucky, and I will also really hate you if you do happen to accomplish that great stroke of luck (j/k). I think the moral of the story is simple: Don't mess with fully equipped onion kids!! *Read about the shields vs. no shields argument in the 'hints and tricks' part. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Section 5: Hints and Tricks Here are some good things to keep in mind when playing FF3: -In case you haven't already noticed, I'm big on HP progression. If you're ever level-building and within sniffing distance of the next level (or even if you're not purposely level-building) on the outer world, turn your entire party into monks or karateka (if you happen to have viking paraphernalia, use it). They have great HP progression. If you're building up the skills of a black wizard, you're not gonna want his crappy HP level-up bonus. HP bonuses stay with you throughout the entire game. It's easy to turn your party into monks because they don't need weapons, and because it's just one or two fights, you won't need to buy them any armor. After you've gained an experience level, change back to the jobs you had before and go to an inn to get your MP back. Don't do this in dungeons though. -Spend your dough wisely. Most of the essential weapons and armor are found in chests (espically after you get off the Floating Continent). In the game's beginning, most of the important spells (Cure, Ice, Aero, Mini, Toad, Ice2, Fire2, Bolt2) are all found or given to you by one of your hommies (That's why I don't advise buying Cure even though it's an important spell). You're gonna want to accumulate money throughout about 90% of this game, so just keep that in mind. That's a reason why later on in the game, I advised having a bunch of heavy fighters because you don't need to buy them ANYTHING except potions. I don't use white wizards that much for this reason- you're going to be carrying around a bunch of potions anyways. One thing to keep in mind is that you should never go all out when buying weapons for mages. Don't spend half your dough on something that'll increase your magician's attack power by some seven points or so. -Diversify your party. You should make a party based on what your style happens to be. I have a 'get them before they get you' philosophy, and that's one of the reasons I don't care to much for white wizards. You have to customize your party to meet your fighting style. The recommended party I have listed happens to work best for me and I rarely have any regrets ditching my white magician (I usually have more for keeping him in there). You should also never have two party members with the same job in your party at once excepts for those few oddball situations. There is a penalty for this- your skill level progresses at a rate half as fast if you have two members of the same job. And although skill level is not vital, it's still good to be as skilled as you can be. -Over the course of the game, people are gonna follow you around. Talk to them periodically- they sometimes got some good stuff to say. -It's a good idea to keep some spare stuff at the Fat Chocobo just in case you think you will be changing jobs or something like that. Don't sell all that stuff till the very end. -When buying massive amounts of items, buy in bulk. Buying 4 at once will save you some money, and buying 10 at a time will save you even more. -Take some time to level-up. In FF3, you won't need as much time gaining experience levels as most other RPGs. Most exp-building will donw done within the first few stages of the game. -Oddball items (Zeus' Rage, White Scent, and so on) are not all that useful. As far as I'm concerned, they've only three uses: The Big Rat fight, The King Hynne Battle, and something you can give to someone without good regular offense (mages, especially white ones). They're really not important. If your inventory is cluttered with them, get into a fight to use them. Don't throw them out, they're not completely useless. -To shield or not to shield, that's the question at hand here. In FF6, the Genji Glove relic is quite a hot commodity because it allows that party member hold a weapon in each hand to drastically increase your attack power. People are constantly asking 'How can I get more Genji Gloves?' Well, you need not any special item to be a two-handed attacker. Throughout most of the game, two- thirds to three-quarters of it I'd say, it's good to utilize this special feature. But in some situations (Road to the Seal, Salonia Catacombs, Lake Dol and others), it's best to beef up your defenses with the addition of a shield. But one of the first things you should know is that, with *one* exception, shields are never worth buying. You'll find the best ones in chests. Let me lay out a case of two swords vs. shields. A FEOK with two swords he will do great damage, but you'll spend time and money healing him. Give him a sword and a shield, and his offensive abilities are cut by like 75% or something. But just as long as he's got all the good armor with the shield and provided he's not being hit by something called FlareWave or Meteo, the FEOK will NEVER be tagged for more than 1 HP. Even Ahriman and Cloud of Darkness would have trouble penetrating FEOK's Adamantie-like armor for respectable damage (actually, the most damage I've seen one of the shielded dudes take is 172 which isn't repectable at all unless you have less than 1000 experence points). I took one of these guys with a shield (FEOK) to fight the last boss alone without healing up (he had 1500 HP). His HP was nearly 1100 when he finished her off. Then again, it was a long fight lasting 21 rounds. You'll get a similar comparison when you use shields on non FEOKs, but, obviously, not as drastic. Enemies will miss considerably more often and damage taken is cut by at least 50%. But of course, you'll sacrifice some offense. You'll hit for about 25-75% less damage. My advice is this: put two weapons in each hand,and carry around your best shield or two in your inventory. When you feel like he's gettin' hit too much, give him the shield. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 6: Weapons that do stuff/Items and their functions These are your basic common items that can be stumbled upon in FF3. Most of them are probably very familiar to you, but I'm including this stuff anyway. Most of these thing can be bought in item shops enclosed within inn buildings (the only ones that can't be bought are FenixDowns and Elixirs). These can be used in times of noncombat: ITEM: COST: FUNCTION: Antidote 80 Cures an ill warrior (like Pure magic) Carrot 200 Summons the Fat Chocobo to hold your stuff EchoHerb 100 Counteracts an enemy's mute so a warrior may use magic again Elixir (1500) Brings a living warrior to full HP/MP and restores status Eyedrop 40 Cures a warrior's blindness (like Wash magic) FenixDown (1500) Revives a dead dude, but to minimal strength (Life magic) HiPotion 1200 Recovers a bunch of HP (Like Cure1.5?) LuckMalet 100 Changes your size (like Mini magic) MaidKiss 100 Helps you lose that horrible frog distinction MagicKey 150 Unlocks most of the game's doors MidgBread 200 Gives you better view of the over world (like Sight magic) Potion 150 Gives you some HP Otterhead 2000 Makes escaping from dungeons easier, like Exit magic Soft 300 I'll let you guess what the function of this could be :) Now we all remember something we're equipping may have magical use or something (Thor Hammer Light Axe, Mage Staff and many other things from FF1; Bolt Javelin, Masmune, Yoichi Bow and some other stuff from FF2). Go to the ITEM menu in battle and go all the way left to select the weapon you're equipping. If you're folding one of these weapons, then a spell will ensue. Now the spell is generally a weaker version of the spell. Use the Eldest Staff in battle to give 15 HP to all warriors. Cast Cure on your entire party and they'll regain at least 50 HP. WEAPON: CASTS THE SPELL OF...: AirKnife Knife Aero Burning Staff Fire Defender Sword Safe Dragon Claw Aero Eldest Staff Cure Elven Claw Confu Freezing Staff Ice Golem Staff Break IceBlade Sword Ice Lightning Staff Bolt Rune Staff Ice3 Salamandr Sword Fire Thor Hammer Bolt2 Thunder Javelin Bolt2 Wind Javelin Aero Oddball items may be disposable and all, but they must be mentioned. These can only be used in battle but they can be used by any warrior. You can't buy any of these; You find 'em in chests or you win 'em in battles. You use them once then they disappear or something. ITEM: CASTS... SELLBACK PRICE.... Barrier Wall 2500 BlackHole Exit 2000 Bombhead Flare 2500 BombR.Arm Fire3 750 Bombshard Fire2 500 ChocoRage Flare 2500 DarkScent Death 2500 DevilSigh Kill 1500 EarthDrum Quake 1500 Gods Rage Bolt3 750 Gods Wine Haste 1500 Imps Yawn Aero2 1500 LamiaScal Conf 1500 LilithKis Drain 1500 MuteCharm Mute 1000 NorthWind Ice3 750 Paralyzer Shade 1500 Pillow Sleep 1000 Southwind Ice2 500 SplitShel Erase 1500 Turtlshel Safe 1500 WhiteSent Holy 2500 Zues'Rage Bolt2 500 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 7: Let's talk magic So you really HAFTA have a completely filled spell book? Fine. This section is going to talk about what spells you should have game's end, level by level. The spells are going to be rated as far as how great they are compared to the other spells of that level (10 is the best and 1 the worst of course). After the rating part, a commentary will ensue. Now, I'm going to assume that you're going to have two sages by the game's end, so I'll have two lists at times. Now let's get this thing on with. (NOTE: Sage's spells will be listed in order of usefulness) (NOTE: SAGE1 is the 'White' sage, and SAGE2 is the 'Black' sage) Level 1 (100 Gil): spell rating SAGE1: Cure, Pure, Chocobo W Cure 9 SAGE2: Cure, Pure, Sight W Pure 7 C Chocobo 6 W Sight 6 B Sleep 5 B Ice 2 B Fire 2 Early black magic will be COMPLETELY obsolete by the end of the game as your sages will be able to do more damage with their staves or rods or books no matter who they hurt. Cure, on the other hand, is useful in any dungeon at any part of the game. Pure is worth it too. Chocobo's Kick is going to be as strong as level one magic gets, but it will cheat you out of a use of Cure. Sleep is okay too, and you may want to insert it into the second sages' slot instead of Sight, but always I prefer Sight. Level 2 (700 Gil): spell rating SAGE1: Shiva, Mini, Blind C Shiva 10 SAGE2: Shiva, Toad, Bolt W Mini 8 W Toad 8 B Blind 6 B Bolt 2 W Aero 2 B Venom 1 Once again, black magic will not be of great use. Get any one of the spells, but the only ones you're going to use are Shiva, Mini and Toad. Shiva's summon rocks- hits all enemies for good ice elemental damage without costing you a healing spell. In battle, you'll probably make use of Shiva more than any other spell. Mini and Toad are alright too. I've been able to turn ZandeCln's ass to a filthy, disgusting, horrible frog a couple of times. Low-leveled Toad and Mini are better than the best auto-death spells in most games. And although higher-level auto-death spells are more effective, well, Toad and Mini ain't bad for just a mere level two distinction. Level 3 (1500 Gil): spell rating SAGE1: Cure2, Ramuh, Exit W Cure 2 9 SAGE2: Cure2, Ramuh, Wash C Ramuh 8 W Exit 7 W Wash 6 B Fire2 2 B Ice2 2 B Bolt2 2 Sure, those level 3 elemental spells were pretty useful when we first found 'em in the Viking Base, but my have times changed since then. The Ramuh summon is about, uh, 50 times stronger (a little bit of exaggeration on my part, but I think you get the picture) than Bolt2 of the same level. Cure2 gives you plenty of HP, so of course you'll want to have that with you. Exit and Wash are alright, but you really don't need them by the time you can become a sage (you can't really warp in Sylx, Eureka or the Dark World and nobody's gonna try to blind you). They're just more useful than all the black magic of this level. Level 4 (3000 Gil) spell rating SAGE1: Ifrit, Mute, Libra C Ifrit 10 SAGE2: Ifrit, Ice3, Shade W Mute 3 W Libra 3 B Ice3 3 W Confu 3 B Shade 3 B Break 0 Seriously folks, level 4 magic sucks. Break is the worst spell in the game IMHO- completely obsolete by the end of the game (or when you can first get it at Gishal for that matter). The only one that's really worth having after you reach beyond exp level 25 is Ifrit. You can't shut up anybody you need to. Libra works almost all the time, but it's still pretty much a waste of a spell, I just wanted to have a spell called 'Libra.' If you're interested in completing you're spell book, might as well throw in Ice3 and Shade because you'll probably have pity for black magic. Shade works awfully well, too, but, like Libra, you'll never use it unless you want to waste a turn. Shiva is much stronger than the 'strongest' ice spell, which is just pathetic. Level 5 (5000 Gil) spell rating SAGE1: Cure3, Life, Titan W Cure3 10 SAGE2: Cure3, Life, Kill W Life 10 NINJA: Titan C Titan 9 B Kill 8 W Safe 5 B Bolt3 2 B Erase 2 Where level 4 magic failed, its level 5 counterpart excels. Cure3 and Life are two of the most important spells in the game. Titan is as strong as anything erthal will get. Kill will provide 3.5 seconds of the sweetest 8-bit FMV ever created if it's effective (and it is more often than not, a bit more than 50%). Just leave Bolt3, which is once again, inferior to its summon of two levels lower, Safe and Erase on the shelf and get whatever you think is best. Level 6 (10000 Gil, 45G for Odin) spell rating SAGE1: Haste, Soft, Odin W Haste 10 SAGE2: Haste, Soft, Bio W Soft 8 C Odin 6 B Bio 5 W Aero2 3 B Fire3 3 B Warp 3 Haste rocks, I probably don't need to say that. Soft is one helluva spell, too. Odin is okay, but he won't prove to be effective against enemies you really need him to. Bio is okay, but it's really just there for variety. You're not going to be making frequent use of Bio (you may wish to switch it in favor of Warp). Aero2 and Fire3 merely take up space, and you really don't at all need Warp because you have Exit (I've heard some people sing praises of the Warp spell, but I haven't really been listening). Level 7 (20000 Gil, 55G for Leviathan) spell rating SAGE1: Cure4, Levia, Wall W Cure4 10 SAGE2: Cure4, Brak2, Drain B Brak2 8 C Levia 7 B Drain 7 W Wall 6 B Quake 5 W Heal 4 The only spell that's actually of utmost importance is Cure4. The other ones are there merely to make the game interesting. Leviathan's a rip-off, and you probably won't be using it often at all. Brak2 is a mighty fine spell. I must've used it more than 200 times in my life and it's only missed *once* in my memory (and that was when I chose a warlock). Drain is surprisingly effective, but Cure4 is still much better. Quake is, as usual, a step down from its summoning elemental counterpart two levels below. Heal is not at all needed cuz you've already got other recovery spells that WON'T cost you a cast of just about the best spell in the game. That also happens to be the problem with magic at the seventh level- they'll cost you a use of Cure4 as well as at least 20Gs. Level 8 (60000 Gil, 65G for Bahamut) spell rating SAGE1: Baham, Death, Life2 C Baham 9 SAGE2: Baham, Life2, Meteo B Death 8 W Life2 7 B Meteo 6 W Holy 4 B Flare 3 W WWind 2 Much like the magic of level seven, this level has but one imperative spell, Bahamut, and one of your guys should already have it. Death is pretty rockin' too and I advise getting one of those. I don't think any of the other spells are worth it, except for possibly Life2. The black and white magic's only the to keep the game a bit more interesting as far as I'm concerned. Meteo is good, but Bahamut is much better. Holy is just plain weak and Wwind sucks because you have Death available to you. Which is better, 'MegaFlare' or Flare? Most of these spells just keep you from getting more shurikens. Now I hope you don't make any stoopid decisions on the topic of magic in FF3. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 8: FF3 Potpourri This section is a bunch of facts, some more known than others, about FF3. Let's just start with the most obvious one. -FF3 was the first to try the heralded job system which provided more than enough character interaction (a little too much if you ask me) to satisfy your most adventurous desires. -FF3 saw the introduction of several new kinds of mainstay warriors (callers, vikings, geomancer and more). -This is the only game out there (that I know of) in which enemies can make an attempt to run away, but to no avail. -FF3 was the trigger of many traditions including Crystal Armor, Ragnarok, Shiva, Ramuh, Ifrit, Titan, (not that RUBY eater in FF1) and Odin. FF3 also introduced a helluva lota other stuff like plenty of weapons and armor, the ability to purchase a high quantity of an item at once, many secret passages through false walls, the ability to plunge underwater, the ability to control multiple airships, as well as several others I just can't think of at the moment. -This is also the first game to ever keep your characters from swinging at a nonexistent target (as far as FF games are concerned). Damage/healing numbers now bounce atop the target rather than in those awkward boxes seen in FF1 and 2. The English translation of the FF3 Famicom rom is frustrating. Though some lazy soul decided to start translating, and then stop because it was just too hard or something. Many things of different names appear in FF3. There are some different translations, but here goes. Let's start with the jobs. The left title is how the job is known in the FF3 translation I was. The right one is how it is commonly translated, but doesn't appear on the walkthrough: Onion Kid ---> Onion Knight Monk ---> Black Belt White Wizard ---> White Mage Black Wizard ---> Black Mage Red Wizard ---> Red Mage Hunter ---> Archer Geomancer ---> Elementalist, Taoist Karteka ---> Grand Master Mystic Knight ---> Paladin Conjurer ---> Caller Warlock ---> Black Wizard Shaman ---> White Wizard Okay, now here are some alternative names for bosses I've heard being tossed around: Land Turtle ---> Sand Turtle (King) Hynne ---> Death Gaurdia ---> Phoenix Hekaton ---> Earth Paladin Titan ---> Earth Paladin (?) Amon ---> Neo Death, Neo Hynne Kuniochi ---> Pink Assassin, Pink Ninja Scyalla ---> Magic Werewolf (??) 2-Headed Dragon ---> Yellow Dragon Ahriman ---> Plague, One-Eye Now for some items, weapons and armor: SouthWind ---> Antarctic Wind, Icy Wind NorthWind ---> Ice Blast God's Wine ---> Baccus Potion Fenix Down ---> Life Potion Barrier ---> Curtain of Light Leather ---> Hide Ragnarok ---> Armageddon (I'm sure there are several others that I just forgot) 'Translated' espers: Chocobo ---> Escape Shiva ---> Icen Ramuh ---> Spark Ifrit ---> Heat Titan ---> Hyper Odin ---> Catastrophe Leviathan ---> Leviathan (Hey, you got one, Very good! You win a toaster!) Bahamut ---> Bahamur Alternative names for called monsters' attacks: Ramuh Black ---> Staff of Thunder Ramuh Summon ---> Justice Titan Summon ---> Angry Earth, Ground Stomp Odin Black ---> Gungir Odin Summon ---> True Edge Leviathan Black ---> Wave of Water Leviathan Summon ---> Big Wave Bahamut Summon ---> Flare Breath Ayyt, this is the scary part. This is to talk about magic spells. Some of these spells appear in other FF games with different names in some cases. The leftmost column shows changes between different translated versions of FF3. Although most people already know this stuff, it's still good to include. (Sorry, but I didn't include the FF7 and 8 info that was given to me) (NOT the PSX) FF3 FF1 FF2 FF4easy FF4hard* FF5 FF6 --------------------------------------------------------------------- Aero/Air Aero Aero Aero2/Air2 Aero 2 Bio Virus Bio Bio Bolt LIT Bolt Lit 1 Thund 1 Bolt Bolt Bolt2 LIT2 Lit 2 Thund 2 Bolt 2 Bolt 2 Bolt3 LIT3 Lit 3 Thund 3 Bolt 3 Bolt 3 Break Stone Break Brak2 BRAK Break Break Break Blind DARK Blind Confu CONF Charm Charm Confu Confu Muddle Cure CURE Cure Cure Heal Cure Cure Cure2 CUR2 Cure 2 Keal 2 Cure 2 Cure 2 Cure3 CUR3 Cure 3 Keal 3 Cure4 CUR4 Cure 4 Keal 4 Cure 3 Cure 3 Death/Doom XXXX Death Fatal Death Death Doom Drain Drain Drain Drain Drain Drain Erase XFER Dispel Dispel Dispel Dispel Exit EXIT Exit Exit Teleport Exit Warp Fire FIRE Fire Fire 1 Fire 1 Fire Fire Fire2 FIR2 Fire 2 Fire 2 Fire 2 Fire 2 Fire3 FIR3 Fire 3 Fire 3 Fire 3 Fire 3 Flare/Nuke NUKE Flare Nuke Flare Flare Flare Haste/Fast FAST Haste Fast Haste Fast Haste Heal Heal Esuna Heal Esuna Remedy Holy FADE Holy White Holy Holy Pearl Ice ICE Ice Ice 1 Blizrd Ice Ice Ice2 ICE2 Ice 2 Blizrd 2 Ice 2 Ice 2 Ice3 ICE3 Ice 3 Blizrd 3 Ice 3 Ice 3 Kill ZAP! X-Zone Libra/Peep Peep Rabur Libra Scan Life LIFE Life Life Raise Raise Life Life2 LIF2 Life 2 Araise Araise Life 2 Meteo Meteo Meteo Meteo Meteor Mini/Size Mini Size Mini Mini Mute MUTE Mute Mute Scilence Quiet? Mute Pure PURE Heal Antdot Antdot Quake Quake Quake Quake Safe FOG/2 Safe Protct Safe Safe Shade STOP Stop Stop Stop Stop Stop Sight Sight Sight Sleep SLEP Sleep Sleep Sleep Sleep Soft SOFT Toad Toad Toad Toad FrogSng Imp? Wall WALL Wall Wall Reflct Reflct Reflct Warp WARP XZone Warp Dejon Wash WWind/Gale Weak Gale DethClw? WWind Venom/Poison Venom Psion Poison Poison *I've been told that the latest translated version of Japan's FF4 has turned 'Keal' into 'Cure,' 'Rasie' into 'Life,' & 'Arise' into 'Life2.' A word about the monsters/espers you can call: ALL OF THEM are found in almost all of the future FFs as summons (except Chocobo) and most of them have the same attack name as they did in FF3 (examples: Atom Edge, Diamond Dust, Mega Flare). In FF4 Easy, Ramuh was called Indra and Ifrit was Jinn. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Section 9: Credits Well, that's all folks! Much like a movie or television program, this document contains a section at the end to acknowledge contributors. This would be a less effective (or nonexistent) document without 'em. Thanks needs be awarded to the following people: -Thanks to SQUARE for making this awesome game in the first place. They're also the makers of many other cool games (duh). -Mad props for SOM2FREAK or NEO DEMIFORCE (or both) for providing an English translation that's actually effective. Puts the original translator to shame. (I don't know who is really responsible, so I threw 'em both up there) -ALEX JACKSON is better than you at RPGs. He deserves thanks because he somehow figured out (via ROM dumping) everything about the weapons and armor I have shown (except cost), as well as some lesser-known stuff 'bout FF3 (an easy way through Nepto's shrine, skill level penalty, beating Cloud of Darkness without shurikens). Mr. Jackson also helped out with the translation. -BRIAN HAUSER or his older brother MIKE, I STILL haven't been told who (mayorhino@usa.net), is the maniac who gave me the idea to make my FF3 Potpourri part. He gave me about 90% of the stuff found in that section. Although there were a few holes I had to patch up, he got most of that stuff right (the FF1 spells are supposed to in CAPS! QAKE = Quake is false! You got many of the famous FF4 Hard spells wrong, too). -The Gamefaqs regulars (WhPlague, Bob the Almighty, Eddy Hokkido) who spotted some primary errors so I could remove the offensive information. -YOU for playing this great game and using this document to help out. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- And that's that. I sure hope you found this guide interesting and informative. It's something on which I worked pretty hard, so I hope you appreciate it. Other than that, I really have nothing more to say here. Well, I'm outta here. Have fun kids, so long. ~Yoichi 12.09.2000, 4:03 PM JMJ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------