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Final Fantasy V (SNES)

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Walkthrough
First World

--- "The Mysterious Meteorite" ---

The game begins at Tycoon Castle, where a young girl named Reina is talking
with her father, the king of Tycoon. It seems that the wind hasn't been
quite normal lately, and the king is heading to the Wind Shrine to find out
the reason why. The two talk for a while, then the king climbs on his dragon
and flies off, telling Reina not to follow him. You'll then see various
scenes of Faris, a pirate; Galuf, an old man in a cave; and Princess Reina
again. Eventually, the scene will change to a forest where a man and a
chocobo are resting around a campfire. At this point, an extremely
pixellated meteor (yes, even in the PSX version) plummets from the sky and
crashes near Tycoon Castle. Curious about the 'earthquake', the man jumps on
his chocobo and runs out of the forest towards the fallen meteor to
investigate.


- Tycoon Meteor -
Treasures: Phoenix Down

You now have control of the man (whose name is just "?" for right now) on
the world map. There are no random battles, as you're riding on the chocobo,
so just head for the meteor to the east. Once you arrive there, the man will
tell his chocobo, Boko, to wait at the entrance while he goes in alone.
Follow the path until you come to two goblins who are holding Reina hostage.
The man surprises the goblins, and they attack him. This is an easy battle,
as neither of the goblins have more than 20 HP, and they can't do more than
3 or 4 damage to you. After beating them, Reina introduces herself to the
man, who reveals that his name is Bartz. (Actually, you can rename him
whatever you'd like at this point, but Bartz is the default, so I'll refer
to him by that name.)

Reina then joins you, and the two then start to leave the meteor site, but
stop when they hear a sound coming from the other side of the meteor, and
decide to investigate. It's Galuf, the old man from the intro. However, he
seems to have amnesia, and can't remember anything except his name... After
talking for a while, Reina says she's leaving for the Wind Shrine, and Galuf
suddenly remembers that that's where he was headed, too, and asks her to let
him come along. She hesitates for a moment, but ultimately agrees, and the
two of them head off, leaving Bartz alone.

Before leaving the meteorite area, walk down and right through the trees
just below where you met Galuf to find a Phoenix Down. Now leave the crater
and Bartz will automatically hop back on Boko, then you'll be back on the
world map.


--- "The Silent Wind" ---

Well, it's not much fun being alone, so...why not follow Reina and Galuf?
After all, it's not like you've got anything better to do, right? :)

Head northwest to the narrow path in the mountains. Here, the scene will
change to that of a narrow valley, where you'll see Reina and Galuf being
attacked by more goblins. Run through the valley, defeating the goblins
along the way, and rescue your two friends-to-be. After this, there's a
scene where Bartz decides to go to the Wind Shrine as well. He claims his
father's dying wish was for him to travel the world, but Galuf knows the
truth. :)  Unfortunately, the meteor's shock has blocked the way leading to
the village of Tule, but the travelers are determined to find a way through.

Back on the world map, head north. It seems a new cave has been formed in
the mountains, so save your game, then enter. Once again, Bartz will tell
Boko to wait outside while he and the others go in.


- Cliffside Cave -
Treasures: Leather Cap

Upon entering the cave, just keep heading forward until Bartz points out a
healing spring. This is a good place to stop and fight some enemies to gain
levels. The only things here are Steel Bats, and the crab-like Diablos,
neither of which are much of a threat. Build your members up to level 3 or 4
(using the spring to heal when necessary), then enter the upper door. Here,
you'll fight Stropers (weird plant-like things), but they're not any more
difficult than the other two enemies. Walk around the room, then climb the
stairs where you'll see a pirate flip a switch to open a door in the cliff.
After he leaves, you can do the same. First, though, grab the Leather Cap
from treasure chest on the left ledge. Now flip the switch, and open the
cave, which leads deeper into the cave. As soon as you enter, Bartz will
rush through the opening in the upper wall and you'll see a ship sailing
into the cove... but the wind has stopped... How can a ship move without
wind? Hmm... Worth investigating. After you re-enter the cave, continue
through the cave to the left and enter the upper door. (By the way, don't
bother with the lit cave opening Bartz ran through earlier, since it just
leads to that small mountainous dead end on the world map. You can save
here, but otherwise, there's no reason to come out here.)

You'll now be in a pirates' base, which means that strange ship you just saw
was a pirate ship... Since they need a ship to reach the Wind Shrine, Reina
suggests that they ask the pirates to give them a ride on theirs. Bartz
reminds her that these're pirates they're dealing with, and that he doubts
they'd agree to something like that. Galuf, however, has a 'better' idea...
Just steal the thing! Anyway, since there doesn't seem to be anyone around
now (that's awake, anyhow), feel free to explore the base. There's another
skull switch on the lower-left wall of the base, but it doesn't do anything
for right now. There are also two 'houses' here, both of which are guarded
by sleeping pirates, which you have no way of awakening. Just ignore these
distractions, and cross the long wooden bridge on the right, which leads to
the ship. Once onboard, you can climb down the stairs and look around if
you'd like, but there's nothing of interest there, so just examine the
ship's wheel at the far north end.

Well, you've succeeded in stealing the ship...or so it seems... Try as he
might, Bartz is ultimatly unable to get the ship to move. To make matters
worse, the pirates pick this moment to return, and you end up captured by
Faris, the captain. At this point, Reina, in hopes of persuading the pirates
to take her to the Wind Shrine, shows Faris a pendant, and reveals to the
group that she is actually the princess of Tycoon. This doesn't faze the
pirate captain much, though, as she decides that Reina would fetch a nice
ransom. She then has you thrown in the brig!

After some dialogue, the scene changes to Faris, who has the same type of
pendant as Reina... Having a sudden change of heart, Faris releases you,
saying she decided to bring you to the Wind Shrine. Reina asks how they
intend to get there, since the wind has stopped. Faris then shows the
princess the secret of her "Windless Ship"...to everyone's surprise, it's
actually being pulled by a huge water dragon hamed Hydra!  Faris then joins
the team, and you're returned to the world map, where you can now control
the ship! Sail out of the small channel, and a pirate will stop you and ask
if you want him to show you where the shrine is. If you want a guided tour,
say yes, and you'll sail there automatically. Whether you agreed to this or
not, before entering the Wind Shrine, sail west to the small village of Tule
to get some supplies.


- Tule -
Treasures: Tent x2, Tonic x2, 150 GP, 100 GP, Ether, LeatherShoes x2,
           Phoenix Down x2

As soon as you enter the village, Faris and the pirates, true to their
nature, run off into the pub. Faris will leave your party, but will rejoin
when you leave.

Anyhow, the first thing you should do here is to talk to the old man
wandering around near the entrance of town. He offers to take you to the
Beginner's Hall, which, if you're a first time player, you should definitely
accept. (Actually, you could just walk here...it's the house on the far
lower left corner of town.) Enter the house near where he 'drops you off',
and talk to the woman at the desk; tell her you're a beginner, and she'll
let you in. (If you tell her you're not, she'll kick you out. Literally. =P)
This place is something of a no-brainer. Talk to everyone for tips and info
on most of the various gameplay features, and be sure to take the items
(Tent, Tonic, Ether, Phoenix Down, and 100 GP) out of the barrels, boxes,
and jars. Upstairs, there are more people with more advice for you. The
treasure chest here contains a monster, but it's just a single goblin. After
defeating it, you'll receive a pair of Leather Shoes that you should give to
Bartz. Ok, that's all that's here, so talk to the lady at the front desk
again to leave. With that out of the way, feel free to explore the rest of
the town.

When you enter the weapon and armor shops, Faris momentarily rejoins, to
make sure she's not left out in the equipment upgrading process. :)  The
leather equipment at the armor shop is pretty weak, but it's all you can get
for now, so you might as well outfit your team with it. Also, be sure to buy
enough Broadswords for everyone. (If you don't have enough money now, build
up a little bit and buy the rest.) Since your characters can currently equip
anything, there's little reason to buy the weaker Staffs and Wooden Rods
now. There's also a magic shop in town, but since no one can use magic yet,
don't buy any of it unless you have some extra cash. If you'd like some
treasures, there's 150 GP in a barrel to the right of the inn, and a Tent
and Tonic are in some boxes near the bridge. Get the items, then cross the
bridge and enter the house on the other side. Reina will explain that this
house belongs to Zok, the man who built the waterway connecting the east and
west oceans, but he doesn't seem to be home, and there's nothing of interest
in his house, so just leave for now. Now, pick up a Phoenix Down and another
pair of Leather Shoes by examining the box and bush on either side of his
house (you'll have to walk through the woods to get to them).  The only
other thing to do here is visit the pub, so do so. Talk to all the pirates,
then stand on the left side of the stage where the dancers are. They'll
begin to dance, then jump off the stage when they're done, allowing you to
reach (and play) the piano there. Since there's a nice reward later for
doing this later on in the game, by all means, go play it! Finally, go
upstairs, where you'll find Faris, asleep in one of the rooms. A quick peek
in the captain's room drops some rather obvious hints that the mighty pirate
is actually a woman!

Anyhow... After talking to everyone and taking everything, leave Tule, and
Faris will rejoin you. From here, you have a choice of actions: You can
either head directly for the Wind Shrine, or you can return to the pirates'
cave to check on Boko. If you don't feel like going to the back to the cave
right now, just go down to the Wind Shrine section; if you want to look for
Boko, check the sub-quests section ("Boko").


- Wind Shrine -
Treasures: Tonic x5, Tent, Leather Cap, Broadsword, Staff

When you feel you're ready, sail northeast to the Wind Shrine. Upon entering
the shrine, head for the left room and talk to the people there first.
You'll learn that the King Tycoon went to the crystal room on the top floor,
but that he hasn't come down yet... You'll also learn that when the wind
stopped, monsters effectively took over the shrine. When you regain control,
examine the pot at the bottom of the room and you'll be fully healed. Now
talk to the man standing to the left of it to get five Tonics, then leave
this room, head right, and enter the door.

At this point, I suggest building your levels; you'll probably want to be on
about level 5-7 before moving on. Don't worry if you get hurt, though, since
you can go back downstairs and use the pot to heal anytime. 

But anyway, when you've had your fill of building up, go back down and heal,
then return to the second floor. Here, head left and take the chest to get a
Tent, then backtrack slightly and enter the door you just passed. This leads
to a small room with a column of light in it...this is a save point. Save
your game, then go through the lower door.

In this next section, take the door on the right to collect a Leather Cap,
then take the left door to a winding room with two doors and a big
eagle-type monster blocking another door. There's also a secret shortcut in
the left wall below the door you can see from the entrance...take it if you
want. Anyway, before confronting the "eagle", examine the two side-rooms.
The one on the right is empty, but the one on the left (near where the
secret passage is) has a treasure box containing a Broadsword. Get the sword
(and equip it if you didn't buy enough at Tule), then 'talk' to the eagle;
it will jump forth and attack you... It's not really an eagle, but rather
the Wingrapter, an eagle-like dinosaur.

- Boss Battle -
Wingrapter - Lv: ??   HP: <500>   (Don't have Scan/Check yet) 

Well, if you've played just about any other Final Fantasy game, you'll
probably already know its typical "First Boss" strategy. Well, it applies
here as well. Basically, the boss can only be attacked when it's not in its
'defensive stance', or not only will your attack fail, but you'll get
counterattacked. In this case, if Wingrapter's wings close, don't attack
him. You should probably be strong enough to beat it before it even closes
its wings, though, if you're on at least level 5 and have a Broadsword
equipped on everyone. Just watch out for "Air Wing", which does about 40
damage to the whole team... (Well, if you wanna get technical, it does
damage equal to 25% of Max HP. Bleh.)

After beating this foul fowl (ok, unnecessarily bad joke =P), continue up
through the door it was blocking and you'll come out in a room with vines
all over the walls. Before entering the center door, push against the wall
in the lower right corner and follow the invisible path to claim a staff.
Now go in the door and you'll be at the room with the Wind Crystal.
Unfortunately, though, it seems you're too a bit too late, as the crystal
has already shattered, and King Tycoon is nowhere to be found... The
following scene shows the four crystals lending their essences to Bartz and
the group, then an image of King Tycoon appears and explains the power of
the crystals, and tells you that you're the four "chosen warriors"; the
keepers of the four essences. Reina doesn't understand, and asks her father
what he means. He explains that a great evil is trying to return, and urges
you to protect the other three crystals... After talking, the image vanishes
and the shards of the crystal grant you their powers...that is, they allow
you to access the job system! You're given a set of basic jobs: Knight,
Thief, Monk, Blue Mage, White Mage, and Black Mage, then you regain control.
You're finished here, so walk around to the back of the room and touch the
swirly tile, which will warp you back to the beginning of the shrine.

This is is a good time to start using jobs. I suggest turning Bartz into a
knight, Galuf into a monk, and the remaining two should alternate between
thieves and the various mages, but feel free to use whatever you'd like.


--- "To the Eastern Land" ---

Now leave the shrine, and return to Tule. Start by buying all the magic from
the shops here if you haven't already done so, and head for Zok's house; he
is now home, so go talk to him. Reina will explain to the old man that they
need the key to Torna Canal so they can pass through to eastern Walz in
order to protect the crystal that lies therein. Unfortunately, Zok seems to
have lost the key, but he insists that you stay at his house for the night.
In the middle of the night, Bartz wakes up and walks outside and has a
flashback about his late parents talking about the crystal. He then goes
back inside and talks to Zok, who apparently had the Canal Key all along,
but didn't want to give it to you out of fear for Reina's safety. Having
seen her determination, however, he reconsiders, and decides to give you the
key. Leave town and board the ship again, there will be a short scene in
which Faris leaves her pirate crew, and you'll regain control. Before
heading east to Torna Canal, however, there's something you might wanna do.
If you have a Blue Mage, you can learn Aero from the Mauldwin enemies at the
Wind Shrine, Gob Punch from the Goblins on the world map, and Red Feast from
the Steel Bats inside the first cave.


- Torna Canal -
Treasures: None

When you arrive at the Canal, use the key to open the gate, then fight the
monsters for a while to build up your new jobs. After you've had your fill,
sail through the waterways until you come upon a whirlpool, which threatens
to suck your ship in! As you draw closer, you discover that the whirlpool
isn't natural... It was created by a giant scorpion monster called the
Karl Boss...

- Boss Battle -
Karl Boss - Lv: 5   HP: 650    Weakness: Lightning

This is a pretty routine battle. If your monk has learned Store, use it for
a quick 200+ damage. Lightning and Fire magic also work well, so if you have
a Black Mage (or someone with Black magic), use them. In general, Karl Boss'
attacks are pretty weak, but watch out for its Tentacle attack, which can
paralyze you, and Tail Screw, which reduces one member's HP to the single
digits. Overall, though, you should win without too much trouble, and you'll
earn yourself a Tent when you win.

After defeating the thing, it gets its final revenge on you by pulling
Hydra into its whirlpool! It then vanishes along with your sea serpent
friend, and without him to guide it, the ship then begins to drift... After
a few days, the ship finally comes to a halt at a rather unpleasant spot...
The graveyard of ships...


- Ship Graveyard -
Treasures: Flail, Tent, 990G, Phoenix Down x2, Antidote x2, Tonic, World Map

Unfortunately, there's no place to save your game here, but if you need to
restore your HP, you *can* rest in the bedroom on Faris's ship. Do so if
you get weak. As for enemies here, they're mostly undead, meaning Fire and
Cure magic is effective against them. The non-undead enemies (CrystSlugs and
LumbrBeasts) are also of little threat, and give you a *lot* more Exp and GP
than the enemies you've been fighting. In addition, the CrystSlugs sometimes
drop Elixirs!

Anyway, enough about general area features... Leave Faris's ship, and head
down along the broken boards until you come to a rock. Press against it a
few times and more rocks will appear in a chain below it. Jump across them
to reach a chest containing a Flail; if you have a White Mage, equip it,
then return and rest in Faris's ship again. Now go back to the wrecked ship
and enter the door. Climb down the steps and go in the center door to get a
tent, then go down through the door on the right and climb down into the
water on the left side.

Navigating this next area is easy if you're using a console, but it's
extremely difficult if you're using an emulator. There's a transparent layer
of water over the screen in the next couple of areas...this is no big deal
if you're using a console, but when using certain Emulators, all that
appears is the water. I'm aware that most emulators have button functions
that disable certain parts of the background, but unfortunately, if you
disable the water, the ship itself also disappears, meaning you'll have to
stumble around blindly in the darkness... For this such reason, I've
included two seperate walkthroughs for this area: A basic one for those
playing the console version, and a step-by-step (literally) walkthrough of
the area for those playing the ROM.

PSX/SNES Version:
You'll now be in the hold of the wrecked ship. First, climb down the stairs
and examine the crate with the skull on it to get 990 GP, then go up until
you see two doors. Take the upper one, then climb down the stairs and go
under the wooden platform to get a Phoenix Down. Leave this room and take
the lower door, then climb down the steps in front of you and go down the
stairs in the corner of the room. In this next room, go right, then up to
get a Tonic (yay), then go right and through the door (watch out for the
pitfall near it), and keep going until you reach a room with a few beds.
<Note: Unless you're curious, or for some reason want a super-detailed
walkthrough here, skip the next section and go straight to "Both Versions".>

Emulator Version:
Keep in mind before reading this, that this walkthrough leads to all the
treasures, as well as the end. And a big note here...do *not* count the
square you're standing on as a step, as if you do, the directions will come
out wrong, and you'll end up lost. Thus, when I say "down 1, left 3", it
means press down once, and left three times. Anyway, with that out of the
way... From the stairs leading down into the water, take 6 steps down, 6
steps left, and two steps down. You'll enter a staircase leading down to the
flooded hold of the wrecked ship, which is where it gets *really* dark.
(Note: I don't feel like repeating the word 'steps' over and over again, so
when I say "down 6, up 1" I mean go six steps down, and one step up.)  From
the entrance to this room, go left 3, down 3, and left 3. Now face up, and
press A. You'll get 990 Gil from a crate that you can't see. Now go left 1,
up 3, left 1, up 5, right 1, up 5 more, and right 3. This puts you between
two doors, an upper one, and a lower one (Neither of which you can see).
Head up 2, and you'll enter another room. This one is mostly above water, so
you should be able to see where you're going for the most part. Despite what
appearances would suggest, though, there *is* something in that dark water,
so walk down to the little staircase sticking out of the water on the left
side of the room. From here, go down 1, right 1, up 6, and right 1. You
should be facing an invisible chest. Press A to get a FenixDown (Phoenix
Down), then follow the previous directions in reverse (left 1, down 6, left
1, up 1, for the lazy) to get out of the water. Since that chest is all
that's here, just leave the room and return to the darkness (ok, that
sounded weird...).  Now go down 3 and enter the lower door. In this next
room, go down 12, and right 3 to go down another staircase you can't see. Go
right 2, and up 5. At the end of this path, press A to get a Potion (yay),
then go left 2 and up 5, and you're almost finished. This last room is only
partially underwater, so I'm not sure whether or not you're able to see
where you're going... Anyway, go left 1, down 2, right 1, and down 6, and
you're finally at the exit! Just watch out for the pitfall directly left of
the exit...


Both Versions:
In the "Bedroom", the group will split up and talk for a while... During
the following scenes, your suspicions are confirmed, Faris *is* in fact, a
woman! After drying off, the group will decide to rest. In the morning, go
up into the room where Reina went to change her clothes earlier. There's a
save point here (which...I don't remember seeing in the ROM)...it's been a
while since you last saved, so do so, then keep going up the stairs until
you reach the exit. Now cross the fallen mast, and instead of jumping on the
rocks, head down across the series of half-submerged wooden platforms. Now
jump on the wrecked ship on the right and enter the door. On the floor is
the World Map, a valuable special item that, for some unknown reason,
functions in all three worlds. =P  Take the map, then go down the seaweed
covered staircase on the right, collect the three chests to get a Phoenix
Down and two Antidotes. There's nothing else in here, so leave the ship, and
jump across the rocks on the right side. There's a treasure chest on this
sunken ship, but when you open it, the rest of the ship rises out of the
water! (Wow...that's some chest! O_o)  Walk across the newly-risen ship and
jump across...yep, you guessed it...*more* rocks at the end!

After the jump, you'll end up on a beach, where something rather odd
happens... Bartz's mother...or rather, someone who appears to be her...
appears and puts Bartz in some sort of trance. The same thing happens to
Reina and Faris when "King Tycoon" appears. Finally, a little girl calling
Galuf "grandpa" shows up, but since Galuf has lost his memory, he doesn't
remember who the girl is, and thus, isn't affected by her hypnosis. At this
point, a strange woman calling herself the Siren appears and attempts to
steal the souls of Galuf's three unconcious friends... Galuf then wakes up
his friends by shouting at them (and slapping them =P), which causes the
three illusionary family members dissappear. Disappointed by Galuf's
actions, Siren attacks you.

- Boss Battle -
Siren - Lv: 2   HP: 900   Weakness: Fire (When undead)

No, that's not a typo. Siren really *is* on level 2. O_o   I'm not sure if
the low level has anything to do with it, but this is probably the easiest
boss battle you've fought so far. Siren almost never attacks, preferring to
cast stat enhancing spells such as Protes and Haste on herself. She'll also
occasionally waste her turns casting Scan on you. =P  As for a plan of
attack...well, initially, magic doesn't really work very well on her, so
just stick with physical attacks. The entire battle pretty much changes
after you do enough damage, though, when Siren becomes undead. In this
palette-shifted form, Siren stops wasting time with worthless spells, and
attacks more often. She also has a higher defense, but is susceptable to
fire and curative magic. Thus, adjust your strategy accordingly, and you
should have no problem here. When you defeat Siren, you'll get 5 ABP and a
BronzeShield.

After the battle, walk up through the crack in the cliffs and you'll be back
on the world map! The first thing you should do is save...it's been a while
since you've been able to do so. With this horrible place now just a memory,
head southwest to the town of Kerwin.


--- "Dragon Quest" ---

- Kerwin -
Treasures: Ice Rod, Antidote, 1000 GP

When you arrive at Kerwin, everyone is talking about either the wind having
stopped and ships being unable to sail, or the dragon that was seen on the
North Mountain. After you've spoken with everyone, buy some supplies and new
equipment at the stores. The only new weapon you can buy is the Long Sword,
so if you have a Knight or Blue Mage, buy some. As for armor, buy a Bronze
Helmet and Bronze Armor for your Knight (you should already have a Bronze
Shield from the battle with Siren), Bronze Plate for lesser fighting
characters (Monks, Thieves), and Cotton Robes for the magic users. Finally,
there're two new spells for sale: Sleep (Black) and Protes (White). Buy them
both.

Anyhow, with shopping done, search the town for treasures! You can find an
antidote by searching the barrels in the lower section of town, and an Ice
Rod can be found in a box behind the item shop also in the lower section of
town. (You'll have to go through a hidden passageway between two sets of
boxes to be able to reach it.) Finally, a quick 1000 GP can be found in a
barrel in the pub. Walk through the wall below the two jars in the lower
left corner of the room to find it. Oh, and speaking of the pub, there's
also another piano there that you should play. After taking the items and
talking to everyone, just leave town; there's nothing else here. Next stop?
The North Mountain!


- North Mountain -
Treasures: Phoenix Down, Soft, MythrilHelmt

>From Kerwin, head to the northeast through the woods until you come to the
mountain; enter it then go straight up and into the opening in the cliff
wall. In this first section of the mountain, there're two things of note:
the first being the two chests in plain sight that contain a Soft and a
Phoenix Down, and the other being the Blue Magic "Flash" that the 'Stones',
big headstones with faces, use. The only problem is, Stones don't start with
enough MP to use Flash, so you'll have to use an Ether on them before you
can actually learn the spell. Sort of a waste if you ask me, since you can
easily get it later, but it's there if you wanna learn it. Oh yeah, you can
sometimes steal SilvrGlasses from Stones...get a few if you can, since
they're a bit better than LeatherShoes. Anyway, after getting these goodies
(or not =P), exit through the lit passageway on the left side of the room,
and you'll end up outside, on an upper ledge of the mountain. Continue up to
another small cave entrance, which is just a small tunnel leading to the
other side of the mountain. Back outside, cross the bridge and go inside the
next tunnel, but be careful of the purple flowers. As someone in Kerwin
said, these are poisonous, so if you step on one, your whole team will end
up poisoned. The only thing in this cave is a save point, so save your game,
then take the south exit.

Here, head left for a little ways, and Reina will spot her father's headgear
and rush over to pick it up. No sooner does she take it, however, then she
gets shot by an arrow and poisoned, and the cliffs start to crack. To make
things worse, a female poacher named Magissa appears, claiming that she came
here for that dragon, but that the princess of Tycoon would be a much better
'trophy'. This angers Faris, who then attempts to jump across the crack,
only to have it widen on her, making her fall in! Magissa taunts you, but
her humor is short-lived, as Faris actually manages to climb back up the
cliff! She then throws a rope across the chasm so Bartz and Galuf can join
in, and with the team back together, Magissa attacks.

- Boss Battle -
Magissa - Lv: 8   HP: 650
Faltzer - Lv: 8   HP: 850   <Shows up later>

This is a pretty ordinary battle, but Reina starts out poisoned, so cure her
immediately, then focus on Magissa. Since her Drain and Bolt spells hurt
pretty bad, it'd be a good idea to have a second healer on hand just in
case. Magissa also uses Aero from time to time; it's pretty tough to learn
it here, but you should already have it. Anyway, after a few rounds of
fighting (and assuming you didn't already defeat her), Magissa will call her
husband, Faltzer, into the battle. Now things start to get interesting...
Keep attacking Magissa, who'll likely cast Regen on Faltzer (don't worry, it
only restores his HP by like 4 points), and she'll fall pretty quickly. Once
she's out of the way, attack Faltzer with everything you have. Like his
wife, Faltzer has a powerful attack (Tackle) that really hurts you, so be
sure to keep healing. Since Faltzer has no real weaknesses, just attack him
physically, and he'll eventually fall as well. Upon winning, you'll receive
6 ABP, a Whip, and a Power Drink. (The latter will only be obtained if you
*didn't* defeat Magissa before she called Faltzer.)

After the battle, the first thing to do is equip the headgear that Reina
picked up a moment ago...it's a Mythril Helmet. Now climb up to the top of
the mountain, where you'll find the injured dragon... Fortunately, there is
some Dragon Grass growing nearby, so Reina goes over and picks it, even
though it means crossing the poisonous purple flowers... Reina uses the
precious herb to cure the dragon, then passes out. Thankful for what she did
for him, the dragon returns the favor and heals Reina, then allows the team
to fly on his back! There's a rather amusing scene where Bartz shows a
"disinterest" in heights, then you gain control of the dragon! It can fly
over land and water, but not mountains, so you can go back to anyplace
you've been previously, plus two new areas: Walz, and Tycoon Castle. If you
want to explore Tycoon, look down at the sub-quests section ("Quick Stop at
Tycoon"), but if you just want to continue the game, head south to Walz.


--- "Water Crystal Crisis" ---

- Walz Town -
Treasures: SilvrGlasses

When you arrive in Walz, head for the town first. There's not that much
here, but talk to everyone and be sure to upgrade your equipment -- the Iron
Armor is a good buy for Knights, and the Kung-fu Suits are a good buy for
everyone else. Battle Axes are the only new weapon for sale here, but none
of your current jobs can equip them, so don't bother buying one. Likewise,
the magic shop here sells Time and Summon magics, but since you don't have a
Time Mage or a Summoner yet, there's no need to buy these, either. Aside
from the stuff at the shops, the only item to find here is the SilvrGlasses
in the jar that's inside the lone house on the left side of town; take them,
then leave for the nearby castle.


- Walz Castle -
Treasures: Phoenix Down, Tent, 490 GP

Inside Walz Castle, head immediately for the throne room. Reina warns King
Walz about the crystal, and urges him to stop using the machine to amplify
its power out of fear that might shatter. The king, of course, refuses,
giving the old "There's no proof it'll happen again" speech. Before he can
even finish, however, the ground begins to shake, and another meteorite
falls from the sky, crashing down east of Walz Tower! The king and several
soldiers then rush off to investigate, leaving you alone in the castle.

After they leave, feel free to explore the castle. There isn't a whole lot
here, but you can get a Phoenix Down, a Tent, and 490 GP from the storage
room, and there're two small side areas here: the basement, and the water
tower. You're probably not strong enough to tackle either of these areas
yet, but you can try if you'd like (see the sub-quests section; "Treasure of
Walz"). Oh, and *don't* release Lone Wolf from prison, or it'll return to
haunt you later... (Though releasing the other prisoner results in a rather
amusing scene. :) Besides these few things, though, there isn't much else to
do here now, so just leave and head for northern Walz Tower.


- Walz Tower -
Treasures: Silk Robe, Maiden'sKiss, SilvrArmBand, Ether

Once you arrive in Walz Tower, you'll learn from a couple wounded soldiers
that a normally tame monster called Garula (you might have seen him in Walz
Town) has gone berserk and is trying to destroy the crystal... After talking
to the soldiers, climb up the tower, which until the fourth floor, is very
linear. On the fourth floor, you'll find King Walz, who says he was attacked
by Garula, and begs you to save the crystal. Now, instead of going in the
upper door, walk into the water on the left side of the room and climb the
vine covered pillar. You'll end up in a room with a treasure chest
containing a Silk Robe; get it, then jump back in the hole, and enter the
door. Use the save point in this room if you'd like, then take the nearby
treasure chest to get a Maiden'sKiss, and enter the next door. In this room,
you'll encounter groups of RicardMages and IceSoldiers, which are a fairly
easy to defeat, and are a good source of Exp and ABP (a group of three
RicardMages, for example, is worth 3 ABP). In the next water-filled room,
you'll fight "Y Burns" (can you say "mistranslation"? =P). They give a lot
of Exp as well, and you can steal Mythril Knives from them; just watch out
for their damaging Air Wing attack. Generally, the tower is again pretty
straightforward from here, so just keep going until you reach a water filled
room with three ivy-covered pillars in it. Like the one you encountered
earlier here, you can climb these. Don't bother with the center pillar,
since it just leads to an empty dead end, but be climb up the other two.
On the left, you'll find a chest containing a SilvrArmBand, and on the
right, you'll find a chest containing an Ether, and the door leading to the
crystal room.

In the crystal room, you'll find a foreign-looking soldier trying
unsuccessfully to protect the crystal from Garula. He's easily taken down by
the beast, however, which then turns and attacks you...

- Boss Battle -
Garula - Lv: 5   HP: 1200

Despite what his appearance may suggest, Garula isn't all that difficult.
He usually attacks several times in a row, though he doesn't do all that
much damage unless he uses the Charge. This attack averages about 80 damage,
and slowly reduces HP. A barrage of normal attacks is all you really need to
do to defeat Garula, but if you wanna get cheap, you can exploit his one
major weakness...he can be turned into a frog! =P  If you've learned it,
cast Toad Song on him (if it misses, just try again until it hits). If you
decide to do this, be sure to also cast Mute on him, which prevents him from
casting Toad on himself to reverse the effects. When you defeat Garula,
you'll get 5 ABP and a Potion.


Despite that fact that you defeated Garula, the overworked crystal still
shatters, and the orange-garbed guard who seems to know Galuf dies... Pick
up the pieces of the crystal to acquire a whole set of new jobs, which
includes Summoner, Sorcerer, Red Mage, Time Mage, and Berserker. However,
there is one piece you can't get. Don't worry about this, you'll be able to
get it later. Once you've gotten all the accessable crystal shards, Walz
Tower begins to sink and your characters are thrown in the ocean! All looks
hopeless, but suddenly, out of nowhere, who should appear but your old
friend Hydra! Hydra picks your team up and drops them off at a nearby
beach, then, having used up the last of his strength, goes out to sea to
die...

Return to Walz Castle and talk to everyone. You'll learn that a soldier
from far off Karnak was found in the meteor near Walz Tower, and he claims
that he was warped there while investigating a similar meteor that fell near
Karnak Castle. Speaking of Karnak... The bedridden king tells you that this
is the very location of the Fire Crystal, which is also in danger! Leave
Walz and return to the meteorite crater near where the tower used to be,
there's now a small opening -- enter it and pass through the small meteoric
tunnel until you come to a warp tile. Touch it and sure enough, you'll be
warped to another meteorite! Now head outside and proceed northwest to
Karnak...


--- "The Dying Flame" ---

On your way to Karnak, try to learn the '????' Blue Magic from the Wild
Dogs. They rarely use this, but even worse is that its name doesn't appear
when they *do* use it. Since ???? does damage equal to the amount of HP the
user has lost, my advice here is to turn all your members into Blue Mages,
then just sit around, not attacking, until one of them uses an attack that
looks slightly different, and seems to so nothing. 

Anyway, whether or not you learn this strange Blue Magic, proceed north
until you come to a field, then turn left and go south through the forest to
find the town of Karnak.


- Karnak -
Treasures: None

When you arrive at Karnak, you'll find that there's surprisingly little to
fo here... Before shopping, talk to the people, and you'll learn that a man
named Cid created the machines that amplified the power of the crystals.
They say that he tried to get the Queen of Karnak to shut off the one
powering the Crystal of Fire, but she refused, and he was thrown in jail as
a result. You'll also hear from the townspeople that monsters are trying to
get the crystal, including a strange werewolf, which was seen coming out of
the nearby meteorite... The last thing of note that you'll hear from the
people is that people from the Ancient Library in the south kept coming up
to Karnak for the same reason as Cid: to get the queen to shut off the
crystal amplifier. She eventually got so sick of them, that she built a wall
west of the castle to keep them out...

Hmm...the only other things of note here are the piano at the pub (be sure
to play it), and the fact that the magic shop is temporarily closed. You'll
also notice that the items in the shop are mysteriously inexpensive... It'd
be great if you could buy all the stuff you need at these insanely low
prices, but unfortunately, when you try to buy something (or even if you
cancel out of the window without buying anything) you'll be caught by some
soldiers and thrown in jail, being accused of being...a monster? Well, at
least you get to keep the one cheap item you bought. ^_^


- Karnak Castle -
Treasures: None (Actually, there're a bunch of chests here, but they're all
           blocked in one way or another.)

Well, you monsters, you're now you're in jail... There's not much you can do
to escape, so just wait until the old man in the next cell blows up the wall
next to you. He complains, saying that he used the last of his gunpowder,
and only succeeded in blasting into another cell. =P  He then introduces
himself to you...he is the legendary Cid, and he explains to you pretty much
the same thing you heard about him back in town, but he goes into greater
detail. He says that he read in a book that the crystals used to be much
more powerful than they are at present, and that he built the amplifier
machines in order to emulate that power. Unfortunately, overpowering the
crystals only caused them to shatter, and when he realized this and tried to
get the queen to shut off the machine in the castle, she threw him in jail.
After talking for a while, the chancellor shows up and tells Cid that a
crack has formed in the Crystal, then releases him, who refuses to do
anything unless Bartz and crew are also set free. The chancellor reluctantly
agrees, and sets "the monsters" free. The chancellor tells you that they
shut off the crystal amplifier machine, but the power of the crystal is
still being drained! Cid then realizes that the fire-powered steamship
outside must be draining the power, and rushes off to try and fix it.

You'll now regain control. There are a few treasures in the prison, but you
can't get them, as the Fire Crystal has been going nuts and is spewing fire
everywhere, and the flames seem to be convieniently blocking your way. Leave
the dungeon and you'll be in Karnak Castle. All the treasures and most of
the doors are being blocked by more flames, so ignore them and leave the
castle. On your way out, you'll meet the werewolf everyone was talking
about, but the guards set off a small explosion, scaring him off.

Back in Karnak City, you'll see that without the crystal, the item prices
have skyrocketed! Oh well, it's good stuff, so be sure to buy new equipment
here. There's also one new item at the armor shop: Plumed Hats. Buy whatever
you need, then head to the Magic Shop, which is also opened now. The new
Time Magic isn't all that special, but the new white and black magic is!
The White Magic store has Cure2, Raise, and Muddle, and the Black Magic shop
has Fire2, Ice2, Bolt2, and Poison...buy them all! With this new magic, you
should be strong enough to defeat Shiva at Walz Castle ("Treasure of Walz"),
or you can just head for the Fire-powered Ship.


- Fire-Powered Ship -
Treasures: Cottage, Elixir x3, Phoenix Down, Thief'sGlove, MythrilGlove
           Green Beret, Moonring, World Map (if you didn't get it already)

As soon as you board the ship, Cid will greet you and tell you the situation
of things. He says that he was right, that the engine *is* still draining
the crystal's power. Unfortunately, monsters appeared in the machinery, and
they're unable to do anything at present, so he asks *you* to go down and
stop the engine. When you regain control, enter the upper door on the ship,
then climb down the stairs. You'll be in a high-tech looking room full of
passages. There are monsters here, though none of them are very tough, and
you can learn a couple of low-level Blue Magics from some of them. You can
learn Flash from the shadowy Cool Dust enemies if you didn't get it earlier
-- they'll use it when they're alone. You can also learn Exploder from a
Mottletrap by casting Bolt on it. To find a Mottletrap, just defeat a
Defeater (that sounded weird ^_^), and it'll leave two Mottletraps in its
place.

Anyhow... Start by going in the silver door (it looks like a box, but it's
really a door) near the entrance to get a MythrilGlove, then take the ladder
to the upper level where a chest containing a Cottage lies in wait. If you'd
like a couple of Elixirs, go up the left ladder, and down the right
staircase to get two. After getting the items, take the uppermost door,
which leads to an elevator. Flip the switch, and the elevator will rise,
bringing you to an upper part of the ship. As soon as it stops, exit and
take the Phoenix Down from the nearby chest, and if you didn't already get
the World Map in the Ship Graveyard, you'll find one by the chest. Head left
through the next door; it's another elevator, this time, going down. After
riding it, you'll come out on an upper ledge with a pipe line and a treasure
chest that you can't get because the conveyor belt leading to it is running
in the wrong direction; ignore it and go in the pipe. Follow it until you
reach a ladder, then climb down it and keep going until you reach a room
with three doors and four pipes. Depending on which pipes/doors you enter,
you'll get different results...

Pipe 1: Going in here just drops you back to the room you just came from. In
other words, there's no real reason to jump in this one.

Pipe 2: This is where you want to go, but be sure and collect the other
treasures in the other pipes first. This pipe will bring you to a room with
a staircase and a door. First, go up the staircase and flip the switch, then
go in the door that appears and grab the Moonring fron the chest. (Note:
This item has no icon, and such weapons will be classified as 'other'
weapons.) This is a fairly powerful weapon, but only Thieves (and Ninjas)
can equip it, so give it to your thief for a much needed attack power boost.
Now go back and enter the door you passed earlier; you'll be faced with two
more doors. The one with the one-way conyevor belt leads back to the pipe
room, so only take it if you missed something there. The other door leads to
a room with a save point. Save, then continue through the door behind it.
(See below)

Pipe 3: This will drop you on the ledge with the treasure chest you saw
earlier, but couldn't reach. Open the box to get a Thief'sGlove, which
increases your chances of stealing something, plus gives you a nice defense
boost; give this to your thief, if you have one. All in all, the item you
get here is nice, but you have a long walk back to the pipe room...

Pipe 4: Go in this pipe and you'll end up in a room with a door, a
staircase, and a treasure chest you can't reach because of a conveyor belt.
Climb down the stairs and loop around in the pipes, eventually you'll come
out on the ledge with the treasure box you just saw, it's a Green Beret.
Take it, then go in the door, which leads back to the room with the four
pipes.

Door 1: This is where you came in. You can also leave via this door if you'd
like. ^_^

Door 2: This is where you come from if you jumped in pipe 4 and went in the
door.

Door 3: You come out of here if you take the door with the conveyor belt in
front of it after jumping in pipe 2.

After jumping in pipe 2 and passing through the save point room, you'll be
in a room full of switches and floating platforms. Start by flipping the
first switch, which moves the platform you're standing on up to the next set
of switches. Pull the first one and it'll move a small platform over to a
ledge with a treasure box on it; you can't reach it yet, but by doing this,
you'll be able to shortly. Go down and flip the next switch, which extends
the platform you're on over to the left, creating a bridge. On the other
side of the bridge, flip the two switches; one of them will break the bridge
you just crossed (you have to do this), and the other one will pull a small
platform up so you can walk down to the lower switches. In order for either
of the switches here to be of any use, you *must* be standing on the wire
platforms. The lower one will bring you back to the start of the room, the
upper one will bring you up to the ledge with the treasure chest and a door.
If you flipped the switch earlier, you can now take the treasure chest to
get an always needed Elixir. Take it, then go through the door to the ship's
engine room. Here, you'll meet the missing Queen Karnak, who seems to be
controlled by someone or something... Whatever the case, she sics the Liquid
Flame on you...

- Boss Battle -
LiqudFlame - Lv: 19   HP: 3000   Weakness: Ice

This battle is pretty tough. Liquid Flame has three different forms, each
with its own set of attacks: A humanoid form, a tornado form, and a 'hand'
form. The humanoid is probably the most dangerous of the three, as its
Blaze attack does damage equal to 25% of *max* HP to the whole team! Use
Cure2 after this happens. The tornado form is rather weak...it has a high
evade rate, but low defense, and its Magneto spell isn't very dangerous
(all it does is pull members that are in the back row up to the front row),
but it will cure itself by using Fire2. The hand also has a high evasion
rate, and its attacks are also weak. Its "Shock" attack paralyzes you, and
it can cast Fire2, which does about 250 damage to one member. The Liquid
Flame seems to change form everytime it's successfully attacked, so keep
this in mind. All three forms are weak against ice, so use Ice 2, Shiva, and
the Sorcerer's Ice 2 Sword to inflict massive damage, and, as usual, Store
also does a lot of damage if it connects. When you defeat the Liquid Flame,
you'll get 6 ABP, and a fire-related item which depends on which form it was
in when it fell: A Fire Rod if it was in humanoid form, a Fire Bow if it was
in tornado form, and a lowly Fire Skill if it was in hand form.

After beating the flame, the queen tells you that she was being controlled
by a demon, who is the *real* cause of the shattering crystals. She explains
that a demon is trying to resurrect himself by shattering all the crystals,
then tells you to try and protect the Fire Crystal. The engine of the
steamship has exploded, so go in the pipe behind it to get to the room where
the crystal is.


- Karnak Castle -
Treasures: 2000 GP x3, Elixir x6, Shuriken, LgtningSkill, HuntingKnife,
           Elf Cloak, Esna (White Magic), Ribbon

When you reach the crystal room, the werewolf that everyone in Karnak fears
shows up and greets Galuf; it seems that he's not your enemy at all, but is
actually rather friendly. The werewolf explains a bit about the crystal, and
talks about a demon. As they talk, an obviously possessed soldier enters the
room, turns the amplifier machine to full power, babbles something about
breaking some kind of seal, then disappears (I guess he dies), leaving the
crystal to shatter! Bartz runs up and tries to shut off the machine, but
it's no use...the guard has effectively jammed the switch, and it can't be
stopped! Since the machine is now at full power, and is rapidly sucking the
power from the crystal, there's no way to prevent it from shattering! The
werewolf goes over to try and stop the machine manually, but fires burst out
and all hell breaks loose! Your team tries to save him, but fails when the
room becomes completely engulfed in flames, and the floor beneath you
collapses. No sooner do you fall through the floor than the crystal
shatters, and the werewolf dies... To make matters worse, without the
Crystal of Fire to power it, Karnak Castle begins to weaken, and will
explode! You have 10 minutes to escape from the doomed castle before it is
completely destroyed, but numerous treasures and monsters will *not* make
escaping an easy task! Of course, if you're a coward, you can just escape
from the castle, but brave warriors don't fear death, and will seek out the
goodies, regardless of the danger.

You start the escape in a room with a save point, save if you want (do
*not* use your main save, though, or you may end up being trapped here),
then quickly run to the previous room and examine the jar to restore HP &
MP. After being healed, run to the right and climb the stairs to return to
the prison where you and Cid were held earlier. The fires are all out now,
so you can collect the treasures in the other cells. The one on the left
contains 2000 GP, while the other one holds an Elixir. (Note: All the
treasure chests except for the ones containing 2000 GP contain monsters, and
you'll win the afformentioned item after the battle. You will occasionally
fight Gigas enemies here- they can use both Aero and Aero 2, which are Blue
Magics, and when defeated, they *always* drop useful Giant Drinks.) Take the
right staircase up to the next floor. There're two more chests here, one
contains a Shuriken, and the other contains a Ribbon. Be sure to, at the
very least, get the latter! There are no treasures on the next two floors,
so just rush through them to the main room. Here, enter the nearby door and
you'll be in a room with several treasure boxes. Two of them contain
monsters and Elixirs, while the other one holds 2000 GP. Take the items,
then climb the upper staircase, which leads to a treasure chest containing a
valuable Elf Cloak. After getting it, return to the treasure room and take
the lower door, which is just a quicker route to the next treasure room.
This room has three Elixirs, 2000 GP, and a staircase leading to a treasure
room, which contains a HuntingKnife. Whether or not you want to risk getting
these items, go back to the main room of the castle and head down. (There is
absolutely nothing in the throne room, so ignore it.) There are two treasure
boxes here containing a Lightning Skill item and the valuable Esna spell;
collect them both (or at least Esna), then rush outside, where you'll be
attacked...

- Boss Battle -
Sergeant - Lv: ??   HP: 1000
Karnak   - Lv: 19   HP: 140
Karnak   - Lv: 19   HP: 140
Karnak   - Lv: 19   HP: 140

This seems exactly like an ordinary battle...that is, until you realize that
this isn't an ordinary sergeant... After inflicting about 500 damage to him,
he'll reveal his true form, a multi-limbed demon called Iron Claw...

- Boss Battle -
Iron Claw - Lv: ??   HP: 1000

Yes, this is actually the same battle, and it's fairly easy, although I hope
you have more than a minute remaining. Iron Claw uses the Doom Claw skill on
you a lot, which lowers your HP to single digits, plus paralyzes you as
well! You can (and should) learn this, though, as it's one of the Blue
Magics. (And you won't get another chance at it until much later.) Besides
that one spell, there is nothing in this battle that you haven't seen many
times before, so just hurry up and beat this loser before you run out of
time.

After beating Iron Claw, quickly escape from the castle. No matter how much
time you had left on the clock, the castle will explode, taking out part of
the wall to the west of the castle as well. After the explosion, you'll end
up in a field south of Karnak, where three pieces of the fire crystal will
come down and lend you their powers. You can now use the Ninja, Trainer, and
Geomancer jobs. Before moving on, though, return to Karnak.


- Karnak -
Treasures: Fire Rod

Back in town, the fires that once burned here are all gone, and the people
are devastated by the loss of the crystal and the castle. The queen managed
to survive the explosion, and is resting at the inn, but she seems to be out
of it, and doesn't say anything important. You're also told by some people
at the Pub that Cid returned to the Fire-powered ship. Before leaving town,
there's something of note you might wanna investigate. You might've noticed
earlier that there was a staircase north of the inn that was blocked by
flames. Well, since they're gone, you can climb up it and explore the top of
the wall around town. You can get a Fire Rod by checking the lone barrel at
the end of the left path, but that's...about it. Get it if you want, then
return to the Fire-powered ship.

Here, you'll find a very depressed Cid. He talks for a moment about how it's
all his fault that the crystals shattered, then retreats. You can find him
back in Karnak, on the second floor of the pub, but he just tells you to
leave him alone... Since there's not much you can do to cheer him up, just
do as he says... There's nothing more to do in Karnak, and since the wall
leading to the Ancient Library has been destroyed, I guess it's time to move
on.


--- "Knowledge and Mystery" ---

>From Karnak, head to the southeast. I urge you not to go through the desert,
as the Quadrharpies there are *very* strong. They can cast Aqua Rake, which
your Blue Mage can learn, but it does a lot of damage, and can wipe you out
if you're not strong enough. Go around the desert, then head southwest until
you find a small forest with a shrine in it. This is the Ancient Library,
but instead of going in, fight around in the forest for a bit, as the
Mithril Dragons (yes, they spelled it correctly here...don't ask why) can
use Pep Up, a Blue Magic. Since it's a healing spell, they obviously won't
cast it on you willingly...you'll have to control or confuse them. =P 
Anyway, once you have this skill, head inside the library.


- Ancient Library -
Treasures: Ether, Phoenix Down, Ninja Suit, Ifrit (Summon Magic)

The first thing to do here is talk to everyone. You'll learn that Cid's
grandson, Mid, has gone to the basement to look for something, but hasn't
returned yet. They wouldn't really be worried, though, if it weren't for the
fact that many of the books down there are possessed by monsters, so they
ask you to go down and search for him.

Before going down, though, go upstairs and examine the pot to restore your
HP, MP, and status. If you'd like, you can also go up to the roof and fight
a possessed book, but it's not necessary, since you don't get anything for
doing so. When you decide to go down to the basement, you'll have to go
through a series of strange puzzles, and fight some rather bizarre enemies.
There're several Blue Magics you can learn here, as well. First, 'Page 32'
can use Aero 2, which you can learn if you missed it back at Karnak. Second,
'Page 256' uses Moon Flute, and if you use the Cntrl command, you can make
them use Guard-Off. Finally, the Page 64 enemies use L.5 Doom. The biggest
problem with learning this skill, though, is that unlike in FF6 and FF7, you
have to get *hit* (and killed) by it in order to learn it... Since all of
your team members are probably on the same level (and will consequently all
get killed by the spell), this is rather difficult to do...well, unless you
go about it the right way. Kill off a character whose level is a multiple of
5 (probably 15 at this point), then build up the rest of your characters
until they gain a level. (If you're picky about keeping your characters
close, wait until they're close to gaining a level anyways.) Now revive your
last character, make him/her a Blue Mage or equip the Learning ability,
fight a Page 64, let it cast the spell, and proceed to win the battle.
Ta-da! Trust me, it's a lot less complicated than I just made it sound, and
learning this spell will be a *big* help later on...

Anyway, you won't fight any enemies in the first room, but there's a puzzle
of sorts here. Start by just walk straight up to the first bookshelf, and
it'll slide away, allowing you to pass. Now walk over to the left and step
in the small opening in the bookshelf, and the first bookshelf will slide
back into its original position, creating a small passage that you can walk
under on the right side of the room. Go under the small holes and climb the
staircase up to the top of the shelves. Walk to the right and keep following
the narrow path until you reach the edge, and the same bookshelf will slide
over again, creating a 'bridge' you can walk on. Go to the right, but before
climbing down the staircase, walk to the far end of the platform -- the
bookshelf will slide over one last time, allowing you to pass. Now go
downstairs and examine the loose brick on the floor, a secret passage
leading further down will appear.

This lower floor is dark, and you can only see a short distance around you,
but it's not a very big area, so it's not a problem. Head right to get a
chest containing an Ether, then go through the south exit. Here, go down the
ladder and through the next door, where you'll be blocked by a sentient
bookshelf. O_o  Since there's no way to get by it now, leave this room, and
climb the ladder next to it. Though it appears to lead nowhere, examine the
shelf at the top, and a secret passage will appear -- go through it and
walk along the top of the shelves to reach a small empty room with just a
book in it. When you go to read it, however, it bursts into flames, and
Ifrit pops out of it, saying that he'll only answer the call of those who
can defeat him in battle...

- Boss Battle -
Ifrit - Lv: 22   HP: 3000   Weakness: Water, Ice

A rather uneventful battle. Ifrit only has two attacks: Fire2, which hits
one member for 250-350 damage, and Blaze, which is the same thing Liquid
Flame used. Ifrit is weak against water, so Aqua Rake is effective against
him, doing about 500 damage, but it's hardly worth the ludicrous casting
cost, especially since he has a much bigger weakness: Ice. Both the Black
and Magic Sword versions of Ice2 do upwards of 700 damage to him, and are
considerably cheaper, too! Overall, he's not that difficult to beat, and
when you win, you'll get 5 ABP, a Fire Skill, and the Ifrit summon spell.

With Ifrit as an ally, return to the previous room where that bookshelf
blocked your way. Seeing that Ifrit is with you, though, it moves aside and
allows you to pass. Before proceeding forward, though, pass under the
bookshelf on the left (the one with the ladder behind it), and grab the
chest from the balcony to get a Ninja Suit. Equip it, then go back and enter
the upper door. This next room is also dark, but it doesn't make navigating
any more difficult. Climb down the ladder, then turn left at the fork
(there's no reason to go right, since it just leads to a dead end), and
you'll come to another fork. Go south first to get a Phoenix Down from the
chest, then go right and through the door. Right next to the door you come
out of is another door, which leads to a miniature version of the "Puzzle"
room from the beginning of the basement. All you have to do here, though,
is stand in front of the upper bookshelf, which causes to slide away, then
climb up the small ladder and search the shelf behind it, which causes the
shelf you just moved to slide back. Now, on the other side of the room,
ignore that obvious door (which leads to a dead end balcony), and climb the
small ladder near it. Examine the shelf at the top, and a possessed book
jumps out. After defeating it, a secret passage will appear where it was,
leading to a room with a save point; save your game, then take the right
exit. Enter the only door in this next area, and you'll finally find Mid.
Unfortunately, before you can actually reach him, the king of all possessed
book monsters (or something like that) jumps out and attacks. Oh well, we
needed another boss battle here. ^_^

- Boss Battle -
Biblos - Lv: 24   HP: 3600   Weakness: Holy, Fire

Argh! This is one hell of an annoying battle! First off, Biblos starts the
battle by casting Protes, rendering physical attacks nearly useless. Second,
he absorbs all elements except Holy (which you don't have yet) and Fire.
Finally, he has a whole mess of annoying attacks, including a low hit-rate,
rarely used, hard to find, and single targetting blue magic (MagHammer).
This reduces MP cost by 1/2, but he rarely uses it...still, this is the only
place you'll be able to get it for a while. His other attacks include "Wind
Slash", which does about 250+ damage to the entire team; "Thread", which
causes Slow status on one member; and the rarely used "Dischord", which
drops the target's level by 1/2. Fortunately, this has a very low hit-rate.
Oh, and for those who've played FF6...No, this isn't a Blue Magic, and it
can't be learned, so don't waste time trying. Anyway, as for attacks to use
against it...well, you don't have much of a choice here... You don't have
any Holy magic yet, so stick with Fire2, which does ~700 damage. (Fire2
Sword and Ifrit don't work as well, though...)  This works fine, but as the
Biblos starts to lose HP, he'll counter with Drain (~300 damage) when hit
with magic. After this happens, you seem to be screwed, but you actually
still have a trump card left...Poison. Yes, Biblos *can* be poisoned, and it
does like 300 damage to him everytime it takes effect. The best part is that
he won't counter with Drain when losing HP, so just sit around for a while,
healing when necessary, and the Biblos will eventually just die on its own!
When you win, you'll get 7 ABP and a Hard Body (chemist item).

After the battle, talk to Mid, who apparently didn't even realize you were
fighting behind him... (Talk about being out of it!) Before you even get to
say much, Mid tells you that he's finished down here, and opens up a secret
passage leading back to the second floor of the library. When he emerges
from it, all the scholars are surprised by his sudden appearance, and thank
you for finding Mid (who apparently didn't even realize you were looking for
him =P). Mid acknowledges you, but is rather preoccupied with a book he
found that has something amazing in it...a way to repair the Fire-powered
Ship! (How'd he even know it was out of commission? Guess news travels fast
here...) He says that Cid could easily put these plans into effect, since
nothing ever stumps him. Faris, however, tells Mid that he must be talking
about the old Cid, since the one they met seems to be making a habit out of
being stumped. Shocked to hear this, Mid runs off to have a word with him.
Might as well follow him.


--- "The New Ship" ---

Back at Karnak, pay another visit to Cid. It seems Mid hasn't arrived yet,
and Cid just gives you the brush-off once again. As you're about to leave,
however, Mid shows up and smacks some sense into the old fool, lecturing him
about not giving up just because of one failure. Cid realizes that his
grandson is right, and regains his confidence. Mid then pulls out the book
on repairing the Fire-powered Ship and shows it to Cid, and the two of them
rush off to make the repairs.

Back onboard the ship, you'll be met by Cid and Mid, who suggest that you go
below and get some rest while they finish up the repairs. Bartz agrees, and
automatically goes below deck. Almost immediately after entering, Galuf
complains that his head hurts again, then, remembering the exchange between
Cid and Mid back in town, has flashbacks of similar events between him and
his granddaughter, Krile. (Who's actually the girl Siren created an illusion
of back at the Ship Graveyard, if you'll remember. =P)  The others ask Galuf
if he's alright, and he says that he is, and that he suddenly remembered
something important...that he's not from this planet! Obviously, Bartz,
Reina, and Farisare shocked at hearing this, but after it wears off, Galuf
continues, saying he also remembered why he came here. He says that he
doesn't remember all the details, but through a series of flashbacks,
explains what he *does* remember. Thirty years ago, he and three others came
here by meteorite, and used the power of the crystals to seal away the evil
Black Mage, X-Death. He goes on to say that if all the crystals shatter,
that X-Death will revive... Fortunately, one crystal still remains, and if
they can protect it... After Galuf finishes talking, you'll regain control.
Now head back above deck, where you'll find both Cid and Mid catching a few
Z's. =P  When you wake Cid up, he says that the ship's as good as new, and
that you can use it to find and protect the Crystal of Earth. With that, he
leaves for the Ancient Library along with Mid, and you gain control of the
Fire-powered Ship! Once again, the oceans are yours for exploration!

There's a lot you can do now, including two sub-quests ("Wizard of Thunder",
and "Jacohl Cave"), but watch out, as unlike the safe waters of the inner
sea, there *are* monsters in the waters of the outer sea. Explore the ocean
if you'd like, but ultimately, you'll want to head south to Jacohl Town,
which the southernmost dot on the left side of the world map.


- Jacohl -
Treasures: None

Wow. There's a whole lotta nothing in this town, and I'm not even sure if
you have to come here... Heck, I don't even think the *game* knows what the
point of this town is, as it can't seem to get the name straight. I've seen
it called both "Jacohl" and "Jachol" at different times. I'll just use the
spelling I prefer. =P 

Anyway, aside from the piano at the pub, and some good items for sale at the
shops, there's nothing to do here. There's a lot of talk of Jacohl Cave,
which you can explore later (see sub-quests; "Jacohl Cave"), and of Crescent
Town in the far east.

Since it's obvious the Crystal of Earth isn't in this remote hamlet, let's
see if it might be at this Crescent Town. To get there, return to the ship
and just sail to the east until you find a crescent-shaped island with a
town on it. Not too difficult to guess what this is. =P

Before entering, though, and assuming you don't mind fighting a few random
battles, there're a few things you can get here. First, the pirate/hunchback
things called "Crescents" occasionally drop Death Sickles. Since items are
dropped fairly reliably in FF5, it shouldn't take long to get one, either.
While not the greatest Axe available, Death Sickles randomly cast Doom while
attacking, and have a pretty good attack power. Also, you can learn Blue
Magic "Black Shock" from the BlackFlames, though you'd already know this if
you did the Easterly sub-quest. Anyway, after getting the goodies (or not),
enter the town.


- Crescent Town -
Treasures: Str. Song (Song)

As soon as you enter, the village gets rocked by a violent earthquake. As
the townspeople run around in a panic, Bartz notices something happening
outside... Try to leave town, and there'll be a scene in which a whirlpool
appears, sinking your ship! Since you're stranded here (and consequently
have nothing better to do), you might as well have a look around... In the
house at the southeast corner of town is another piano, and a bard who'll
teach you Str. Song if you talk to him. Several people in town are also
talking about a Black Chocobo having been seen in the forest to the south.
Black Chocobos can supposedly fly...... Hmm...worth investigating.

Leave town, and head for the small circular forest in the immediate south.
There, you'll find the chocobo everyone was talking about, and Bartz
decides to catch it! It runs faster than you do, but it's actually not that
hard to catch. When Bartz commands the chocobo to fly, however, it tries,
but ends up crashing back in the forest, and the reason for this is soon
apparent, as it coughs up two crystal shards. =P   Bartz then picks up the
shards, which grant you the Bard and Hunter jobs, then jumps back on the
chocobo for another try at getting it to fly. This time, he succeeds, and
you gain control of the flying bird! It's pretty much the same as the flying
dragon, except it can fly over low mountains, and can only land in forests.
With it, you can easily reach Easterly if you decided not to bother going
there by ship, and you can also do one new sub-quest ("Hometown Memories").

When you're ready to move on, return to the Ancient Library, where you'll be
greeted by Cid and Mid. Bartz tells them that the Fire-powered Ship sank,
but they don't seem too concerned, especially since they have some good
news. It seems that King Tycoon was found! According to local reports, he
was sighted in Karnak, then headed southwest through the Desert Sand Tides,
a strange place where sand currents flow like water, towards the "Town of
Ruin" (Gorn, actually). When asked how the king made it through, Cid
explains that those who saw him said he was floating... Though the group
doesn't have an immediate way of getting past this area, they decide to
follow him through the tides anyway...


--- "Shifting Sands and Ancient Ruins" ---

Now leave the library and head along the narrow trail to the west. At the
end, you come across a huge desert...this is the Desert of Sand Tides;
enter.


- Sand Tides -
Treasures: None

You can try to move forward all you want, but ultimately, the currents of
the shifting sands just shove you back. After trying once, Cid and Mid
arrive and urge you not to give up, as they have a plan for how to get
through. It's a risky one, but it's a plan nonetheless. If they were to call
one of the giant sandworms that live here, then kill it, it should form a
bridge across the sand. They then ask if you're willing to try this; if you
aren't, say no, and go back and stock up or whatever. Otherwise, say yes,
the scientist duo uses a bell to call a sandworm. As it approaches, Bartz
and the team attack!

- Boss Battle -
Sandworm - Lv: 18   HP: 3000   Weakness: Water

This is probably the easiest battle in the entire game if you learned Aqua
Rake, as it does about 4500 damage to the worm, killing it instantly. If you
don't have this spell, however, it'll take a while longer. The Sandworm
peridocally pops in and out of three holes, and if it changes its position
before you attack, you'll swing at empty air. Just time your attacks, and
use Ice2 and other magic, and it should fall fairly easily. You'll get 5ABP
when you win, but for the first time, no cheap item. =P

After the worm goes down, it'll die in a position which conveniently lets
you enter the desert. There're actually many ways of getting through the
Sand Tides, and there're probably easier ways than what I have, but here's
one way of handling this place.

Walk all the way to the end of the bridge, and step into the currents on the
right. When you stop, walk (avoiding all currents) to the left, then down,
and to the left again until you see a long stream running down. Step into
it, and you'll be swept onto a one-square "island" with a cactus on it. From
here, cross over the one-square current to the right, then continue to the
right and stop at the currents. Now turn and go south, where you'll find a
long, narrow stream heading down. Ride it, and at the end, head left and
step into the south-moving currents once again...just a little further, and
you'll be finished! Walk left a little ways, until you spot three one-square
currents leading down. Step on any of them, and you'll be pulled to the
right, towards the exit. Walk south a bit, and...voila, you're outta here!

Back on the world map, head south until you reach a small town. This is
Gorn, where King Tycoon was supposedly headed...


- Gorn -
Treasures: None

Hmm...this town is sorta...dead, and there doesn't seem to be anyone around.
However, when you start to walk up the stairs in the center of town, King
Tycoon appears and runs off! There seems to be no pattern in where he runs
to, so just keep chasing him around until he eventually ends up inside the
house on the hill. When you approach him, both Reina and Faris will call out
to him ("Father"...), but before you can actually reach the King, a pit
opens below the team and swallows them!

After the fall, the group ends up in some strange ruins, seperated from
Galuf. (Actually, he just landed in a walled-off section of the same room,
but they don't know that. ;)  Having heard Faris call King Tycoon "Father",
Reina realizes that Faris really *is* her lost sister; Faris admits this,
and apologizes for not doing so sooner. After their 'reunion', Bartz notices
that Galuf is missing. Figuring they'll meet up with him later, the group
starts to walk out. (Check out Galuf's actions at hearing this. =P)  The old
man then jumps in a hole below him, and climbs out through another one right
below your team. He rants at you for trying to leave him behind, then
rejoins. =P

Back in control, leave this room through the only door here, and keep going
until you reach a room with a suspicious square tile on the floor. When you
step on it, your team is teleported far across the ocean, eventually ending
up under Crescent Island! During this time, there's also a short scene in
which Cid and Mid return the Black Chocobo to the nearby forest.


- Underground Ruins -
Treasures: Shuriken x2, Mini (White Magic)

No sooner do you materialize, then the device you used overloads (most
likely from age and lack of use) and breaks apart. The group manages to make
their way out of the room before it completely collapses, but are left with
no way back... The only option now is to find another way out. Start the
search by climbing up the stairs, and making your way into the big opened
room with the statues in it. Here, take the lower door, which leads to
something that would appear to be living quarters. The room on the right is
a lab of sorts, the room in the middle is a bedroom (which you can rest in),
and the room on the left is a library. You'll probably also notice a small
room with three chests hovering below the bedroom. There's a switch in the
left room that opens it, but it doesn't seem to work at first. There are
actually two ways to use it:

The hard way: A note below the switch directs you to the flowers in the
middle room. Examine the far right section of the flowerbed, and you'll
receive another note, which mentions a paper in the left room. This said
paper initially makes Bartz think this is a waste of time, but then he finds
*another* note. This one just says "Check the urn". ...Yeah, this is getting
old, but follow the directions, anyhow. The urn the note means is the one on
the far right in the left room. Check it, and a surprised frog jumps out,
runs into a bookshelf and knocks a book off it, then disappears out the
door. From the book, you'll be told to go six steps down, four steps right,
and pull. These instructions lead you...back to the switch where you
started. Pull it and the wall opens.

The easy way: When you first examine the switch, it asks if you want to push
it. Say "No". Then you get a message asking if you want to pull it. Say
"Yes". The wall opens without all that running around. =P

Grab the three chests to get two Shurikens and the Mini spell, then return
to the previous room. The upper door here is locked; the switch next to it
will open it, but it also does something else... When you press it, the
scene shifts to the Chocobo Forest, which begins to shake. A hole then opens
in the ground, swallowing Cid and Mid. =P  The scene then shifts back to the
team, and the locked door opens. The room above it has a save point in it.
Save, then continue up, and down the long staircase, where you'll find...the
Fire-powered Ship! Yep, it was actually dragged down here during the earlier
earthquake. =P  You can't actually use it, though, so cross over it, and
you'll come across a second ship. This one, with propellors on it! As soon
as you board it, Cid and Mid arrive, and are absolutely astounded by this
craft. Realizing what this is, they run downstairs to get a look at the
mechanisms...follow them. In the lowest room of the ship, you'll find the
two messing with the machinery. They explain that it's an ancient airship,
and after they get it working, everyone returns to the deck for grand
launching!

Before they can move, however, something goes terribly wrong...something
seems to be pulling the ship back down! Bartz walks over to the side of the
ship to take a look, and discovers that a monster is actually hanging from
it! Fight time!

- Boss Battle -
Clay Claw - Lv: 43   HP: 2000   Weakness: Lightning

Don't be intimidated by the higher than normal level -- this palette swap
of Karl Boss is easy. Sure, it has that annoying "Tail Screw" attack, but
given its major weakness to lightning and very low HP, it probably won't
even be able to use it. Just use Bolt 2, Ramuh, or attack it using the Coral
Sword or Lightning Bow; all do over 700 damage. Three hits, and bye-bye Clay
Claw! Note that if you don't have any magic users in this battle, nor did
you buy any lightning-elemental equipment, you can still win this battle via
lightning. How? Simple. If you have someone with the Steal/Mug skill, you
can steal a Coral Sword! Anyway, when you win, you'll get 5 ABP and an Ice
Bow.

With the beast dead, Bartz lands the airship back in the ruins. It sustained
some minor damage during the battle, but Cid and Mid quickly patch it up
using parts from the now defunct Fire-powered Ship. The two of them then
leave, saying they plan to use the materials in the ruins to continue their
search for the Earth Crystal. After they leave, Bartz takes control of the
wheel, and *you* gain control of the airship! This is truly the ultimate in
transportation! In addition to having a new view of the world while riding
it, you're now able to pass over even the tallest mountains! Furthermore,
compared to previous vehicles, this thing is blazingly fast! It can also
land on either plains or water (it turns into a normal ship if you do this).
With the airship, there's simply *no* place you can't get to! Well...except
for one enigmatic location... West of Tycoon lies a small island with a
temple on it. A temple completely surrounded by mountains. None of your
vehicles will get you inside, but don't worry, as you'll be able to visit
this place much later on.

This is a great opportunity to go back and build levels, finish sub-quests
(this makes the Jacohl Cave sub-quest a breeze, as you can bypass the
puzzles if you land in the mountains), and pick up missed Blue Magic. When
you feel you're ready, head back to Gorn. Before you arrive, though, you'll
witness a strange scene... The town itself explodes, and a *huge* building
rises up out of it and begins flying in the air!

To find out just what this is, return to the underground ruins. As soon as
you try to leave the ship, you'll be stopped by Cid and Mid. Bartz starts to
tell them about what just happened at Gorn, but they say they already know,
as they saw it happen through their telescope. Cid then pulls out a book,
and explains to you just what those ruins are... It seems that those're
ruins from the ancient Ronka civilization, and that the Crystal of Earth is
inside! What's more, he says that it's what's being used to make them fly!
Apparently, the flying machine there was disabled because cracks started to
form in the crystal, but Cid says that someone must've restarted it... Reina
and Faris consider for a moment that it might've been King Tycoon, but
quickly dismiss this theory, and Bartz asks the scientists how they can
reach the ruins. Without a moment's hesitation, Mid responds, saying they
need Adamantite to allow the airship to fly that high. Fortunately, it just
so happens that Galuf knows where to get some -- the meteorite he used to
get here! The others question just how Galuf, an amnesiac, knew that, but
decide not to debate it, and fly off to get the mineral.


- Tycoon Meteor -
Treasures: Adamantite (Story Item)

Back at the old meteor site, head straight for the meteorite, and examine
the front of it. Galuf walks over and messes with something on the side of
it, and a passage opens.

Inside, all you have to do is take the blue stone, the Adamantite, off the
back wall. Wow, that was easy. However, the story gods intervene, and you're
attacked on the way out...

- Boss Battle -
Adamantaim - Lv: 20   HP: 2000   Weakness: Ice

Since this boss has a high evade rate, high defense, and attacks twice,
you'd almost think it was difficult. And if you said that, you'd be wrong.
Notice his level? Yes, it's a multiple of five. Can you say "L.5 Doom"? =P
However, if you don't have the spell, it's still easy to win -- use Ice2 for
about 600 damage. It's not quite as fast, but it gets the job done. Victory
earns you 5 ABP and a Turtle Shell.

Once the stupid turtle is out of the way, return to the underground ruins,
and Cid and Mid will use the Adamantite to enhance your airship. After
resting, you'll be told that you can increase altitude by pressing the X
button during flight, then pressing "up" when the arrows appear. However,
Cid warns you that getting inside the elusive ruins won't be easy, as
they're protected by powerful cannons. Nevertheless, if you hope to protect
the Earth Crystal, you'll have to get rid of them...

Back in the air, follow Mid's directions to reach the ruins. As Cid said,
before you can actually enter, the cannons must be dealt with. Fortunately,
there aren't all that many -- just two on each side of the ruins, for a
total of four. Also, despite the warnings, they're not *that* dangerous...

- Boss Battle -
Rocket Gun - Lv: 23   HP: 2500   Weakness: Lightning
FlameThrow - Lv: 22   HP: 2400   Weakness: Lightning

This isn't actually one fixed battle, I just classified the enemies together
because they're so similar. When you attack each cannon, you'll fight either
two Rocket Guns, or two FlameThrowers. Flame Throwers are easy to defeat, as
their only attack seems to be Burn Ray (a Blue Magic), which does a measley
200 or so damage to a single member. Rocket Guns are a bit more dangerous,
since their chief attack is Missile (another Blue Magic), which takes 3/4 of
your HP away. They'll also occasionally use Rocket Punch, which does a bit
less damage (about 1/3 HP), but causes Confusion. Since both types of
cannons are weak against Lightning, hit them with Bolt2, Ramuh, Lightning
Skills, and Lightning-based weapons. Overall, these battles aren't really
that difficult at all.

Once all four cannons are out of commission, the "Main Gun" emerges from the
front of the ruins... You're probably beat up from fighting the lesser
cannons, so go back and rest, then return and attack!

- Boss Battle -
Soul Gun - Lv: 36   HP: <9000>   Weakness: Lightning
Launcher - Lv: 50   HP: <1500>
Launcher - Lv: 50   HP: <1500>

Ugh. This is an annoying battle. Initially, the main gun doesn't do anything
except "charge up", while the two launchers shoot missiles at you. These cut
your HP in half, and cause Old status. Since neither of the launchers have
more than 2000 HP, it's best to deal with them early on. This is easily
accomplished by using L.5 Doom. After they're gone, blast the main gun with
your most powerful lightning attacks, and hope you destroy it before it
finishes charging. If it succeeds in doing so, it'll fry you with "Beam
Cannon", a devastating attack capable of doing over 500 damage to the entire
team! Fortunately, after using it, it takes a few more rounds for the main
gun to charge back up, in which time, you should be able to finish it off.
There's no way to know exactly how much HP it has, but I estimate it's about
9000. (Note: From here on, whenever you see an enemy's HP in <brackets>, it
means that it showed up as "????" when scanned, and what I have is a rough
estimate.) When you win (and it may take a while), you'll get 7 ABP, a Dark
Matter, and two Potions.

After scrapping the cannon, all that remains where it once was is a huge
hole, which you can now use to *finally* get inside the ruins! Fly in it,
then get off the ship, and you'll be at the entrance to the Ronka Ruins...

- Ronka Ruins -
Treasures: Potion, Phoenix Down, Elixir, Gold Armor, Gold Shield, 5000 GP,
           Shuriken, AncientSword, Moonring, Power Wrist, Ether, Cottage

Once inside, start by going down through the door, then loop around the path
and go down the stairs. In this next room (as well as most of the ruins in
general), there're "invisible bridges" over the holes. You can try to find
these on your own, or you can use a Thief (or the "Secret" ability), which
allows you to see them. Anyway, head all the way to the right, then cross
the bridge leading to the lower platform; grab the chest here to get a
strong suit of Gold Armor, then go down the nearby staircase. This is where
the ruins start to become something of a maze...

Before going anywhere, though, there're two vital Blue Magics here that I
*strongly* urge you take the time to get! First off, it's important that you
have the Trainer's "Control" ability, as you'll need it to get both of them.
In other words, if you don't know it, learn it! The first of these spells is
Blow Fish, which is learned from Lamias. They never actually use it on you,
but you can force them to if you control them; just make sure you revive the
victim before the end of the battle, as they'll likely get killed by it.
(That, or just heal them, if they somehow had more than 1000 HP.) The other
Blue Magic here is White Wind. The Fan Wizards use it, but since it's a
healing spell, you have to control these guys, too, to get them to cast it
on you. Now you're probably wondering why these spells are so valuable...
Well, I'll tell you. White Wind restores the HP of all allies equal to the
current HP of the user, so if the user has high HP, it guarantees full
healing for the entire team! As for Blow Fish, its fixed 1000 damage may not
seem like much in the grand scheme of things, but it *can't be blocked*!
Yes, this spell can even take out super-armored enemies (like Harpies and
SkullEaters) in one hit! If you miss either of these spells, I can almost
assure you that you'll end up struggling later on, so by all means, take the
time to learn them!

After learning both spells, head left across the small hidden bridge, then
continue in the same direction until you come across four narrow walkways.
Skip the first and third ones (which lead to dead ends), take the second one
to get a chest containing an Elixir, then take the fourth one to reach the
other side of the chasm. Walk to the right a bit, and you'll see two flights
of stairs. Don't take the upper one yet, but feel free to go up the ones in
the lower wall, which leads to small room with just a Save Point in it. Save
if you'd like, then leave and continue to the right. Along the way, grab the
chest to get a Phoenix Down, then proceed down the long, narrow path, and go
down the stairs at the end. Go up the other staircase in the small room you
end up in, then follow the path around the room, and pick up the Gold Shield
from the chest at the end. Once you have it, backtrack to the stairs I told
you to skip a moment ago, and take them up to the next floor. Now pass
through the series of small rooms this leads to, then, in the first one you
come to where you can't immediately see the next staircase, head right and
through the door, then up the stairs in this room. Now go straight up and
get the Potion from the chest, then bypass the lower door and go down the
stairs, which eventually leads to a treasure room. In the direct center of
this small room, as well as the space to the immedate right of it, you'll
find a hidden pitfall. Avoid these by going around to the left, and claim
the chests to get 5000 GP, a Shuriken, an AncientSword, another Moonring,
and a Power Wrist. Equip the new goodies if you can, then return downstairs
and go in the door directly next to the stairs. Just go south here, and
climb down the stairs. Ignore the pitfall in the next room, since it seems
to have no real use, and loop around to the left to the next staircase. Man,
this place is monotonous. ^_^

Before doing anything else, take the lower staircase to reach another save
point; save, then go through the door and up the stairs in the previous
room. Now walk down through the door and down the steps to get two chests
containing an Ether and a Cottage. There's also a Blue Magic you can pick up
here, though not quite as essential as Blow Fish or White Wind. Aquaus,
those nasty dark blue hydras, use L.4 Quarter when you kill them. Pick this
up if you can, but it's not necessary to build levels if you're unaffected
by it. After getting these things, go back upstairs, enter the door next to
the staircase, and flip the switch on the wall to make the final staircase
appear. Yes, you're *finally* at the end! ...Well, almost. In this garden
area, you'll find the missing King Tycoon confronting a strange winged snake
monster. Though Reina and Faris are overjoyed at seeing their father, the
feeling doesn't seem to be mutual, as he just orders you to defeat the
monster blocking the path...

- Boss Battle -
Archeoavis - Lv: 21-24   HP: <7500>   Weakness: Wind (Changes randomly)

Ok...this is a weird battle. First, Archeoavis can change his weak point at
will. It starts out as Wind, but almost immediately changes. His level seems
to fluctuate randomly, as well -- it starts at level 21, but I've seen it go
as high as level 24. Anyway, on to the actual battle... This weird serpent
has a lot of powerful attacks, which include Air Wing and Blaze -- two
attacks you've likely already had the 'pleasure' of being pelted with -- as
well as an alternate version of Blaze (same name, different animation). This
new "dark" version still hits the entire team, but it seems to cause even
more damage than the original, and it also slowly reduces their HP... Since
Archeoavis's weakness changes so frequently, casting spells is generally a
waste of time, though I suggest trying to sneak in an Aero 2 early on if you
can, to do a quick 1000+ damage. Other than that, just use Monks or
Berserkers, and attack physically. After the serpent goes down, for no
reason I can see other than to make an already annoying battle even moreso,
it gets revived by the power of the Earth Crystal!

- Boss Battle -
Archeoavis - Lv: 20   HP: <3000>  

Fortunately, this second stage of the battle is considerably easier. You can
beat up the "reborn" Archeoavis normally, or you can get cheap and just blow
it away in one hit with L.5 Doom. =P  Either way, once you defeat it, it'll
(thankfully) stay dead, and you'll get 10 ABP and a Hero Drink.

After the guardian of the ruins is out of the picture, King Tycoon runs
right past you into the Crystal Room, laughing the whole time. Inside, as
the king messes with the crystal machine, it becomes quite apparent that
he's being controlled... Bartz and Galuf step forward to try and stop him,
but Reina and Faris run in front of them, refusing to let them hurt their
father. Bartz orders the girls to get out of his way, but they again refuse.
At this point, the possessed king turns around, walks towards you, and
threatens to kill you. The rather shallow threat is cut short, however, when
the ground begins to shake, and *another* meteor plummets to Earth!
Immediately afterwards, the wall in back blows opened, and Galuf's
granddaughter Krile runs in and fires a bolt at King Tycoon, knocking him
back. She then runs over to Galuf, who upon seeing the child, completely
regains his memory! As Reina and Faris run over to the injured king, Krile
tells them he should be fine, as she just used a weak spell on him. As Krile
finishes speaking, King Tycoon wakes up, and is overjoyed to see Faris, his
lost daughter. The reunion ends abruptly, however, when the sound of
shattering crystal is heard; yes, the poor overworked Earth Crystal finally
explodes, and with all four crystals gone, the seal is broken...
The scene shifts to the "Sealed Forest" on the world map, which begins
erupting with lightning. As the fireworks end, a ball of light slowly rises
out of the woods and flies off...

Back at the ruins, the ball of light appears atop the machine, and
materializes into a mysterious caped man -- the evil Black Mage: X-Death.
It was a valiant effort on your part, but alas, his revival attempt was
successful... After laughing in Galuf's face, X-Death commands the crystal
shards to destroy you! Bartz tries to go against the evil mage, but only
succeeds in getting blasted back. X-Death laughs at his feeble attempts,
then mocks Galuf, saying that the crystals of this world are gone, and that
his world is next. That said, he disappears, and the possessed shards once
again prepare to attack. Sick of this abuse, and wanting to protect the
others, King Tycoon then steps forward and begins to 'duel' with the shards!
Though he takes quite a beating, the king urges you to stay back as he
continues this strange psychic battle. Eventually, he manages to defeat the
crystal shards, but unfortunately, the 'battle' has taken a great toll on
him... He collapses, and realizing his end is near, apologizes to Faris for
never being there for her, then asks Bartz to take care of his daughters.
Sadly, despite the pleas from Reina and Faris, the brave King Tycoon passes
away... Afterwards, the crystal shards begin to sparkle, then float over to
Reina, and grant the team their last ounce of power... Samurai, Lancer,
Dancer, Chemist...

Following the tragic scene, the ground begin to shake once again...without
the crystal to power them, the ruins are beginning to fall apart! After a
close escape, the ruins crash to the ground and explode, and the team
regroups aboard the airship. Reina and Faris mourn for their father, and
Bartz confronts a worried Galuf. He asks the old man what's wrong, and Galuf
simply says that they gotta make their move now. Bartz is confused, but
Galuf fills him in... He explains that X-Death is an evil Black Mage from
his home planet that came to here 30 years ago to destroy the crystals.
Galuf continues, saying that he and three other "Dawn Warriors" used their
power to trap X-Death here, and they thought everything was fine...until
recently, that is, when Galuf realized that something strange was happening
to the crystals, and traveled to this world by meteorite. He says that he
was too late, though, as X-Death succeeded in destroying the crystals, and
has headed back to the other world. Bartz hangs his head in shame, and asks
Galuf if this is all because they overused the power of the crystals. Galuf
says that it's really the Dawn Warriors' fault, as they're the ones who
sealed him here, instead of returning him to their planet, as he begged...

After the conversation, the scene fades to Krile's meteorite, where Galuf
says he and his granddaughter are following X-Death back to their world. He
bids his friends farewell and starts to walk away, when he's stopped by
Bartz, who announces matter-of-factly that they're going with him. Galuf
sternly declines, as this is the last meteorite, and if they went, they
could never return home! He and Krile then step inside the meteorite, and
the two of them disappear into the sky in a flash of light...

Regaining control of the airship, just land. As soon as you do so, Faris
and Reina walk over to Bartz. After discussing the recent events, the
three of them agree that Galuf is one of the team, and that they should go
help their friend in his battle against X-Death. Unfortunately, there's
still that little problem of how to reach Galuf's home planet, since the
meteors no longer have enough power... With only one option left, Bartz and
the crew decide to seek help from Cid.


--- "Last Minute Details" ---

If you return to the underground ruins, you'll find the place deserted --
Cid and Mid aren't even there, and I don't believe the game gives you any
clues as to their whereabouts, either. You can wander around the world
aimlessly until you happen to find them, or you can just go to the Tycoon
Meteorite site, which is where they currently are. =P


- Tycoon Meteorite -
Treasures: None

Outside the meteor, you'll see the Black Chocobo. Since this bird seemed to
be Cid and Mid's main mode of transportation, it would stand to reason that
they're nearby. Go inside the rock, and you'll find the two. Bartz asks them
what they're doing, and Mid explains that the adamantite was emitting
abnormal levels of power. Cid finishes, saying that they just wanted to
return the stone to where they found it. He then pulls it out and shoves it
across the floor, but upon crossing the warp tile, there's a strange
reaction, and the tile begins absorbing power from the adamantite! Realizing
that this could be used to their advantage, Reina asks Cid if they could use
the stone's power to help them get to Galuf's home world. Mid tells her
there's not enough adamantite left to completely repower one meteor, but if
they could power up all four of them a little bit, then maybe...

With that, everyone exits the meteor, and the scientist duo mounts the
chocobo, and flies off in the direction of the next meteorite: Karnak.


- Karnak Meteor -
Treasures: Titan (Summon Magic)

At this next meteor site, just talk to Cid. He and Mid step inside, but
quickly retreat, exclaiming that it's become a den of monsters! They leave
it up to you to clear the place, and just wait by the entrance. Fortunately,
I don't believe there're any random battles inside, so make your way back to
the warp tile, where you'll find something sitting on it! Upon closer
examination, you'll find that it's actually a monster called Titan, which
promptly attacks.

- Boss Battle -
Titan - Lv: 1   HP: 2500

Easy, even with only three members. Titan doesn't seem to have any special
attacks; the worst he can do is about 200 damage with "Critical". Whoopee.
Just use whatever you want on him, but keep your HP up, as when his HP hits
0, Titan uses Earth Shaker, doing ~450 damage to the entire team. Oh well,
no big deal. When you win, you'll get 5 ABP, a Potion, and the powerful
Titan summon spell.

With Titan out of the way, Cid and Mid are free to power up the meteor, and
upon finishing, they fly off to the next site: Walz.


- Walz Meteorite -
Treasures: None

Here, all you have to do is talk to Cid and Mid, and they'll enter and power
up the meteorite. That's it. ...Or so it seems. Just as you're about to
leave, you're ambushed by strange bomb-like creatures...

- Boss Battle -
Byurobolos (x6) - Lv: 22   HP: 1500

Well, I suppose I should warn you. From this point on, FF5 is full of trick
battles, and this is the first of many. It seems ordinary enough, until you
defeat one of the Byurobolos, and it casts Arise, which revives *all* the
others you've killed! There're many strategies here, but the one I prefer is
simply to kill them all at once. This can be accomplished rather easily by
using Aqua Rake, Water Skills, or the Samurai's $toss. Just watch out, as if
a full-strength Byurobolos uses Exploder on you, you'll die unless you're on
an obscene level. (I was on level 31, and they still killed me. :-/)  When
you defeat them all, you'll get 5 ABP, and...that's it. No cheap treasure
this time. =P

This meteor is officially finished, so everyone now heads for the final
location: Gorn.


- Gorn Meteorite -
Treasures: None

At this final meteor site, Cid and Mid enter, but they don't come back out.
Upon investigating, you'll find that something has captured them! When it
spots you, though, it releases the scientists, deciding that heroes would
taste better. Or something. ^_^

- Boss Battle -
KimaBrain - Lv: 19   HP: 3300

Are you getting sick of these pointless filler battles? Well, this is the
last one, thankfully, but it's also the hardest. KimaBrain's chief attack is
Aqua Rake, which isn't that damaging anymore, but is still annoying. It also
occasionally uses the "dark" version of Blaze. If you'd like, you can steal
a Dragon Fang from this mutant, but other than that, there's nothing
particularly special about this battle. Just use physical attacks, magic, or
whatever, and you'll eventually win. When you do, you'll get 6 ABP and a
Phoenix Down.

Ok, you're *finally* done powering up the meteorites... Cid shows you a map,
and explains that a warp point leading to Galuf's world was created at the
point where the path of the four meteors intersect: the bird-shaped
peninsula in the center of the world. Bartz and the others thank the
scientists for all their help, then head off...

I may as well warn you now, once you leave this world, you won't be
returning for a *long* time. Furthermore, you'll never have access to Walz,
Easterly, or Rikks again. With this in mind, I've made up a checklist of
various things to do before jumping into that portal...

- Did you get Shiva from Walz Tower?
- Did you get the Elf Cloak, 2000 GP, and Speed magic from Walz Basement?
- Did you get all the treasures in Tycoon Castle?
- Did you get Ramuh from Easterly Forest?
- Did you get Mini from the underground ruins?
- Did you get Toad from Easterly Village?
- Did you learn TemptSong at Rikks?
- Did you learn Str. Song at Crescent Town?
- Did you learn Love Song at Easterly?
- Did you stock up on the cheaper items at Rikks?
- Did you learn all the possible Blue Magic?
- Have you seen all the scenes at Rikks?

Also, there are some useful items sold in the shops here that aren't
available in the second world, so stock up now. At the very least, get four
of each elemental rod before you go to the second world; they'll increase
the damage done by elemental spells. It may seem a bit excessive to get four
of each, but hey... you never know when you'll want to mess around with a
team of four Black Mages. =P  It might also be a good idea to get four of
each elemental bow, but this isn't as important as the rods. And don't worry
about the rings sold in Easterly; while they won't be sold in the second
world, you'll be able to get by without them, and you'll have another chance
to get them later, so don't feel pressed to get the huge amounts of money
needed for them right now. =P  Other than that, buy whatever you feel you'll
need.

If you're done with everything, head into the portal. Bartz, Reina, and
Faris say their goodbyes, then fearlessly jump into the portal, which throws
them into space... Farewell, Earth...

%%%Second World%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

--- "A Strange New World" ---

Following a brief flight, Bartz, Reina, and Faris find themselves alone on a
tiny island in the middle of the ocean... It doesn't seem like there's a
whole lot to do here, but every few minutes, you'll be stopped by Reina, who
suggests you rest in the tent. Since you've nothing better to do...why not?
Of course, if you don't *have* a tent, you can get one by defeating a Pao,
the only enemy on the island. Anyway, use the tent, and your team'll gather
around the campfire for a late night conversation. After a few moments of
silence, Faris says she has a question for Reina, and asks her why she
risked her life back on the North Mountain to save the dragon. Reina asks
her sister if she remembers their mother, to which Faris says she remembers
bits here and there. Reina explains that whenever she sees ths dragon, that
it reminded her of their mother. Faris asks Reina what she means, but before
she can give an answer, a winged demon swoops down from above, grabs the
girls, then flies away. It returns a moment later to claim the last
remaining member of the group...

- Boss Battle -
Abductor - HP: 22   HP: 1500

You may only have Bartz here, but it's not that difficult of a battle. The
Abductor has a nasty attack called "Hurricane" that drops your HP down to
single digits, but its attacks are otherwise relatively mild. If you're
feeling either lucky or insane, you can try to steal an Earth Robe, though
it's not necessary, since you can buy these fairly soon, anyhow. Note that
you don't *have* to win this battle, since the outcome is essentially the
same if you lose, but if you do, you'll get...uhh...1 ABP and an Ether. Yay?

If you lost the battle, all that happens is Bartz gets knocked out, then
wakes up in a prison alongside his friends. If you won, the following scene
is a bit more detailed. You'll be back in the forest with a chest in place
of the monster, but it doesn't contain treasure -- it contains gas, which
knocks Bartz out. He then wakes up in a prison alongside his friends. Gee,
that certainly was useful. ^_^

After awakening in the dungeon, the group quickly discovers where they've
been taken... X-Death's Castle! X-Death walks up and 'greets' the group, but
is interrupted when one of his lackeys runs in with news that Galuf and his
troops have already arrived at the Big Bridge. X-Death takes the news in
stride, and just orders the underling to "prepare the giant mirror". The
lackey runs out, and after it returns with the mirror, X-Death turns to his
prisoners and exclaims that they're gonna help him "defeat" Galuf...

Meanwhile, at the Big Bridge, Galuf, Krile, and a bunch of soldiers are
preparing to strike. They're stopped cold, however, when reflections of
Bartz, Reina, and Faris appear in the sky, and X-Death's projected voice
tells them to get back or their friends die. Galuf takes the threat very
seriously and orders his troops back. Back at the castle, X-Death orders
a strange ninja named Gilgamesh to watch over you, then leaves. Galuf tells
Krile he needs to borrow her dragon, then jumps on it and flies off towards
the castle, landing on the roof.

- X-Death's Castle -
Treasures: None

After climbing down into the castle, Galuf immediately grabs the stolen
crystal shards (which you never actually *see* get taken) from the nearby
chest, and you *finally* regain control!

There's actually not a whole lot to say here. The two front doors are
locked, but a Save Point and a pair of healing springs can be found by going
through the door in the back. Heal/Save if you want to, then go downstairs.
This place is completely linear, but there *are* monsters here. Turn Galuf
into a monk and give him White Magic or Chakra as a second command, though,
and he should be fine. When you reach the dungeon, you'll be "caught" by
Gilgamesh.

- Boss Battle -
Gilgamesh - Lv: 26   HP: <2500>

Surprisingly, Gilgamesh is a major wuss! I don't think he has any special
attacks, and if you changed Galuf into a monk as I recommended earlier,
you'll be able to take out this cocky ninja in two or three hits. After
doing enough damage to him, Gilgamesh runs away. =P

With the "guard" gone, Galuf frees his friends, and after a brief exchange
of dialogue, rejoins the team. There's nothing else here, so just make your
way back to the entrance. The lower of the two doors in the first room --
the one that leads outside -- is now unlocked. The upper one can't be opened
until quite a bit later, though, so ignore it and go outside.

Once you leave the castle, you'll have a chance to learn Doom Claw and Black
Shock if you didn't already; wander around here in the plains until you
fight a shadowy thing called a "Blockhead". They sometimes use Black Shock,
and if you control them, you can make them use Doom Claw on you. The
tree stump-like enemies called Trents also use Doom Claw occasionally, but
since it's not available for use by the control command, learn it from
Blockheads instead. Other than that, there's not really anything to do here,
so just head to the bridge. Save before you go in.


- Big Bridge -
Treasures: None

On the bridge, pass through the first small room, and Galuf warns you that
it's gonna be all monsters from here on. He's right, too -- as you run
across the bridge, you'll be constantly attacked. Fortunately, all the
monsters here are simple, so just keep going until you reach the building in
the center. As you try to leave through the back, you'll be stopped by
Gilgamesh, who says he was waiting for you.

- Boss Battle -
Gilgamesh - Lv: 28   HP: <5000>

Gilgamesh is a bit stronger this time, but he's...well...still a wuss. He
still only uses weak physical attacks, so there's little actual danger. The
only thing you should know about this battle is that L.4 Quarter will hit,
but it does 0 damage, so don't waste a turn trying it. Other than that, just
keep attacking him with whatever you want (and Steal a Hero Drink if you'd
like). Eventually, he'll start to ramble on about how you're "so much
stronger than he is", while casting Haste and Protes on himself, then says
he was lying, and uses Jump on you. Pathetic. ^_^  After this, just keep
attacking until he again runs off.

After beating Gilgamesh for the second time, keep running across the bridge
(fighting more wussy monsters along the way), until you catch up with Krile.
As soon as you see her, though, she warns you about "the barrier", and as if
on cue, a barrier appears around X-Death's Castle. To make things worse, the
initial force of it is so overwhelming, that it sends Bartz, Galuf, Reina,
and Faris flying into the air! After the power fluctuation ends, Krile steps
outside to look for her grandfather, but finds no one...


Meanwhile, the group lands on a small hill far away from civilization. Galuf
immediately realizes that they're in "Guroceana", or literally the middle of
nowhere, and curses their luck at ending up in such a remote location. Bartz
apologizes for showing up here, since if it weren't for them, Galuf's attack
on X-Death would've gone better... The group (minus Galuf) then jumps down
and walks away, and are followed by Galuf, who says he's glad to see you
regardless.

Back on the world map, you're...well...in the middle of nowhere, on a barren
peninsula far north of X-Death's castle. As Galuf noted, there's a whole lot
of nothing around here, so just head right until you reach a small town in
the forest.

- Lugor Bordertown -
Treasures: 100 GP x??

Well, this little country village doesn't really have all that much to
offer in the way of treasures, but there's a bunch of good stuff for sale.
The stores sell powerful new weapons and armor, the item shops sell Potions
and Chemist items, and the Magic Shops sell level 4 White, Black, and Time
magic. The Earth Robes are a good buy, since they'll increase the damage
done by Titan. Which is pretty good to begin with. =P  Buy what you can
afford, then head for the pub. Inside, through a long secret passage in the
left wall, you can reach a small room with a piano in it. Also, if you're
desperate for money, you can dance on the stage, which earns you 100 GP each
time you do. =P  It's also worth mentioning that there's a little girl in
the armor shop who lost her ribbon; while this has no real point now, it
will later, so remember her location. Finally, if you stay at the inn (which
is free the first time you visit), there'll be a fairly pointless scene
where Bartz again apologizes to Galuf for ruining the attack on X-Death's
Castle. Galuf tells him to stop apologizing, since if it weren't for them,
he'd probably have ended up getting killed, anyway. After the scene ends,
you're pretty much finished here, so just leave and head further south.

Along the way, you'll pass by an old castle surrounded by water. If you
talked to everyone in Lugor, you'll know that this Kuza Castle. It's best to
heed their warning and stay away from this place, but if you have the Cntrl
command, go ahead and enter. Inside, you'll encounter mostly Shield Dragons.
They have a massive amount of HP, powerful attacks (that can also confuse
you), inherent Reflect status, and tend to run away when their HP gets low,
but they're still easily defeated. How? Control them! Once one is under your
control, force it to repeatedly cast Blaze on itself, while the rest of the
team defends. After five hits with their own attack, the Shield Dragons die,
and you'll get an incredible 2500 Exp! Definitely a great place to gain
levels, but it's still a bit dangerous... Anyway, you can also find the
twelve legendary weapons (more about these later) on the top floor of the
castle, but they're protected by magical seals, so you can't take them now.
Thus, aside from gaining Exp, there's not a whole lot to do here... Just
leave here, and continue south.

When you run out of land, head east, then north until you come upon a small
forest surrounded by mountains. When you try to pass through it, you'll
enter an area inside it, where you'll find a strange creature near one of
the trees. If you've played FF3, FF6, or FF9, you should know what this
little guy is...a moogle! When you try to approach it, though, it quickly
runs off, and in its haste, steps on some weak ground and falls in a hole.
Deciding to help the cute little winged teddy bear, Bartz and the others
jump in after it, and land in a large underground waterway...

- Waterway Cave -
Treasures: 4400 GP, Phoenix Down

This is a really annoying area, where you'll end up getting carried from
place to place by currents. Also, like the Sand Tides back in the first
world, you'll actually be forced to fight random battles while being dragged
along!

Anyway, you don't exactly have much choice as of where to go from here, so
just step into the water, and you'll be swept east to a small ledge. Step
off it, and you'll be swept east again to another ledge. Before going back
in the water, walk over and grab the chest for 4400 GP. It doesn't matter
where you re-enter the water, since both paths take you to pretty much the
same place, and there aren't any chests along either one. After riding these
currents, you'll end up on a narrow cliffside with a chest on it. Grab it to
get a Phoenix Down, then head right and up the steps, where you'll find the
moogle being assaulted by a skeletal monster...

- Boss Battle -
Tyrasaurus - Lv: 29   HP: 5000   Weakness: Fire

This thing can be a real pain. While its physical attack and PoisonBreath
aren't that bad, it can use Blue Magic "????" on you, which given the amount
of HP it has, can prove lethal... Fortunately, it's weak against fire, so
use Fire2, Ifrit, Fire Skills, and other fire-related attacks for quite a
bit of damage. If you'd like, you can also steal a Gold Shield from
Tyrasaurus, but if you're gonna try for it, do it before you start
attacking, so you won't get slaughtered by ????. When you win, you'll get 9
ABP, but no treasure.

Though you protected it from the monster, the scared little moogle runs away
from you. Reina walks over and assures it that they're not gonna it, then
the moogle dashes outside the cave and runs erratically across the world
map, eventually disappearing into a large forest.

Back on the world map, follow the moogle! While you don't have to do
everything he just did, try not to cross the desert. There're powerful
monsters in it that have five-digit HP, and are capable of using an attack
(Maelstrom) that reduces the entire team's HP to single digits. Needless to
say, defeating a monster like this would take forever at this point, so just
walk along the plains and forests to avoid them. When you reach the forest
where the moogle disappeared, keep walking around it until you get pulled
into another area: the Moogle Village!

- Moogle Village -
Treasures: 1 GP, 10000 GP, Ether, Phoenix Down, Cottage, Dancing Dirk,
           Elf Cloak

As soon as you enter the village, the timid moogles notice you and scatter.
You can try to find them, but they'll just run away if you do... Also, all
the small treehouses are locked for right now. Just head to the east side of
the forest, and you'll find a moogle cowering behind the treehouse. This is
actually the one you just saved, and after talking to it, it realizes who
you are and calls all the other moogles back (saying you're a friend, I
guess), then runs inside the nearby treehouse. Since the moogles now know
you're not a threat, they give you free run of the village. While they're
not much for conversation ("Kupo!"), the moogles *do* have an assortment of
useful treasures lying around. In the house your moogle friend ran inside,
there're six chests which he'll let you take. Open them all to get a Phoenix
Down, an Ether, a Cottage, 10000 GP, 1 GP (uh...yay?), and a Dancing Dirk.
This is a weird weapon that randomly activates the "Dance" command when
attacking. O_o  Now go back to the west side of town and enter the two
houses here. In the one on the left, you'll find a silent moogle and a
locked chest, while in the one on the right, you'll find a moogle costume.
If you wear this, then talk to the silent moogle in the previous house,
it'll mistake you for a girl moogle, and offers you the contents of the
locked chest, an Elf Cloak, as a token of its affection!

After getting all the chests here, head back over to the treehouse with the
six chests in it, and you'll find the moogle standing outside it. Talk to
him, and he jumps on the tree and starts acting weird. Meanwhile, at a
distant castle, Krile is wandering around wondering what to do, and a moogle
runs up behind her, Kupoing like crazy. Krile then immediately runs upstairs
to a tower where her dragon is resting, and tells the soldier that her
grandfather is in Moogle Village. The soldier is confused, but Krile
explains that moogles are telepathic, and can communicate with each other
over great distances. She then stops, realizing the dragon is injured, and
wonders aloud how she's gonna get there. The dragon "speaks", and allows her
to fly on it once more... Krile mounts the dragon and flies off...

Back at Moogle Village, the moogles all appear to be doing some strange
dance, while Krile flies overhead looking for the village. Through
telepathy, the moogles inform her that the entrance is near "the nose", and
an outline of a moogle's face appears over the forest. Now easily able to
locate the village, Krile lands, and is met by a very surprised Galuf, who
asks her how she knew where they were. Krile explains simply that the
moogles told her, and says that they'd better return to the castle quickly.
Everyone jumps on the dragon, while the moogles wave goodbye as it flies
off. :)


--- "Dragon Quest 2" ---

- Val Castle -
Treasures: Hero Drink, Telepo (Time Magic), RegalCutlass, Angel Robe,
           Lamia's Harp

The dragon lands in the courtyard of Val Castle, Galuf and Krile's home. The
team dismounts, and after a brief bit of dialogue, Krile flies off to let
the dragon rest. As she disappears from view, a group of soldiers run over
to welcome back their king... Galuf!

The scene then fades to the throne room, where Galuf asks his soldiers about
X-Death's activity, and the status of the troops. They say that X-Death
hasn't made a move since the barrier went up, but that they lost a
considerable amount of troops in the battles against him and Gilgamesh...
After the status report, Bartz walks over to the throne and asks Galuf if
he's really a king. Galuf dismisses the soldiers, then turns to Bartz and
asks him if he's surprised. Bartz admits that he is, and jokingly asks the
old man if he should call him "King Galuf" from now on. Galuf laughs, and
says it's not necessary, since before they knew he was king of Val Castle,
they just knew him as their friend: Galuf. After a bit more talk, Galuf
rejoins the team, and you regain control.

Still in the throne room, the first thing to do is grab the Hero Drink from
the chest on the left, and the valuable Telepo spell from the hidden chest
below it. Once you have them, head upstairs to the dragon tower, where
you'll find a very despondant Krile. She explains that the dragon is dying,
since even though it was badly injured, it still tried to fly... Feeling
somewhat guilty about it having nearly killed itself to help them, Faris
queries about how they can help the dragon. Reina says that Dragon Grass
could cure it, but that she's not sure if there's any on this world. Galuf
tells her that some might grow in the Valley of Dragons, but that no one has
ever returned alive... Of course, Bartz isn't one to let something
insignificant like that stop him, and readily agrees to go! With your new
mission, leave the castle interior and head out to the courtyard.

First off, go into the pool of water below the shops on the west side of the
castle, and you'll get sucked into the moat. From here, go all the way
around to the other side and search to find a "Great Sword" (actually a
RegalCutlass). This is a nice, strong weapon, so equip it on anyone you're
using as a Knight or Sorceror, then head back to where you got sucked into
the moat and hit the switch to go back to the pool. Now, go into the shop
itself. With the exception of the Gauntlet at the armor shop, the stuff sold
here is exactly the same as in Lugor. Buy whatever you missed earlier, then
head up the stairs to the roof. Head straight east, and you'll go down a
second set of stairs hidden behind the turret. Go downstairs again here, and
you'll be in a small room behind the Weapon and Armor shops. Open the chest
for an Angel Robe, which only Chemists (and Travellers) can equip, then go
to the south wall. One of the sections (the one with the small switch on it)
moves aside when you touch it. Go through, then head to the counter. The
merchants get annoyed with you, and one of them gives you a Lamia's Harp to
get you to go away. =P

That's it for the treasures, but don't leave the castle yet! Instead, head
for the basement in the east wing of the castle. The RockStatue enemies here
are a *great* way to get ABP and money; they're worth over 500 GP each! If
you fight two of them at once, you'll get 4 ABP, and if you fight five of
them, you'll get 8 ABP. They're easy to kill, too; just cast L.5 Doom on
them. ^_^  If you don't have L.5 Doom, load up on Softs at the item store;
using a Soft on one of these things kills it. This obviously isn't as fast
as L.5 Doom, since you have to kill them individually instead of all at
once, but it's still a *lot* faster than trying to kill them normally. If
you *do* have L.5 Doom, start by getting everyone to learn the "Blue"
command who doesn't have it already; once that's done, give it to everyone
as their secondary command. Now start building up until you have enough
abilities to satisfy you; you won't be able to come back here for a while
once you leave, but it's not *that* long, so you don't have to overdo it.
Also, you can sometimes steal Double Lances from them, which are good
weapons for Ninjas and Thieves; actually, for a "rare" steal, they don't
take too long to get.

Leave the castle; the guards warn you that you won't be able to come back
once you leave, and ask if you're sure you want to go. If you still want to
build up in the basement or do anything else here, say No; otherwise, say
Yes. Once you do, you'll be thrust outside...and immediately attacked by an
Abductor. It's stronger than the one you fought earlier, but still easily
beaten, so I won't bother giving a strategy for it. ^_^  From here, you can
go north to a town, or northeast to find a cave; see the Gilgame's Hoard
subquest for details on the cave, though you really don't stand a chance at
it right now. So head to the town unless you're insane. =P

- Kelb Village -
Treasures: Tonic x8, KornagoGourd, Requiem (Song)

Once at the village, Galuf mentions that the Valley of Dragons should be
just beyond the north gate, and you regain control. Strangely, with the
exception of a few sheep, the village seems completely deserted, and all the
shops are locked... What's more, the gate at the north end of town is *also*
locked... With no other choice, Galuf says that they'd better ask Kelga for
some assistance. Well, you're not gonna get anywhere without opening that
gate, so you'd might as well visit this Kelga person. He lives in the large
house hear the center of town, which by coincidence, happens to be the only
one that's not locked. =P   Inside, you'll find another deserted house, and
the back door is also locked. When you start to leave, however, a voice
orders you to freeze, and three werewolves 'drop in'. Bartz prepares to
attack, but Galuf stops him, saying they're not their enemies. At this
point, a regal-looking werewolf walks in from the back door, and is greeted
by Galuf, who introduces him as Kelga, one of the Dawn Warriors! Kelga then
notices the team, and asks who they are. Galuf explains that they're from
the planet X-Death was sealed on. Kelga takes this the wrong way --
mistaking you for X-Death's henchmen, he bitches you out for breaking the
crystals and freeing the black mage. Galuf tries to set things straight, but
the stubborn warrior just knocks him aside, and challenges Bartz to a duel.
As the duel begins, the other werewolves leave, and Reina and Faris join
Bartz, only to be told by him that he'll take care of this one himself. The
girls back off, and Kelga starts off with his special "Pine Attack". It has
no effect on Bartz, though, as he easily counters it and knocks Kelga back
through the door before an actual battle even begins. =P

The scene then fades to Kelga's bedroom, as Galuf gives the injured werewolf
an earful. Kelga seems to ignore the criticism, and just whines about how
Bartz stopped his attack. Bartz just shrugs, and says he learned it from his
father. Galuf and Kelga ask what his father's name is, and facefault at the
answer: Drogan. When asked what the surprise is all about, Kelga explains
that Drogan, along with himself, Galuf, and another man named Zeza, was one
of the Dawn Warriors!

A flashback is now shown of the Dawn Warriors on Earth, gathered around a
defeated X-Death. Unable to kill him, they assume he's immortal, and plan to
seal him here. Drogan, however, is against it, as X-Death is a 'criminal'
from their home planet, and shouldn't be sealed here. The others convince
him that there's no choice now, and he reluctantly agrees. A scene is then
shown of the crystals creating a magic seal in the forest near Tule, and
X-Death disappears. Afterwards, the scene fades to inside a meteorite, which
the Dawn Warriors are using to return home. Galuf asks Drogan if he's really
going to stay on this planet, and Drogan says that he is. Galuf asks him
why, but he leaves without giving a reason... With that, the flashback ends,
and the scene returns to Kelga's bedroom. Kelga now apologizes for his
earlier actions, and agrees to open the gate for you.

After the long sequence of events is over, the villagers come out of hiding.
The streets are bustling with activity, and all the shops are now opened.
The magic shop just sells the same old stuff you've been seeing since Lugor,
but there're *two* Weapon and Armor shops here! The first set just sell the
stuff from Val and Lugor, but the second set sell new equipment. It's mainly
for Monks and Ninjas, but it's strong, so if you're using either job, buy
it! You can buy Shurikens and Skills here, too. Before leaving, there're a
couple other things you can get. First off, you can learn the useful
"Requiem" song by talking to the werewolves to the right of the north gate.
Second, if you're too cheap to stay at the inn, sit at the left side of the
table in the back room of the inn, and the werewolf there will prepare you
a free HP/MP restoring meal. He'll then throw in 8 free Tonics for dessert.
I think you can do this as many times as you'd like, too. Finally, if you
check the well, an old man will pop out and start begging you for a frog.
No, casting Toad on yourself won't impress him, so go outside and catch a
Kornago (one of the ugly orange frogs). This is a bit hard to do, since they
run away when their HP gets low; try controlling one, then casting Demi on
it a few times. =P  When you finally catch one, bring it to the old guy, and
he says that he'll give you a "pot" in exchange for the Kornago and 10000GP.
Yeesh. Well, if you decide to make the trade, he'll give you a KornagoGourd,
an accessory that increases the success rate of the Catch command.

After getting everything in town, exit through the north gate, and head
north through the forest until you reach a mountain. This is the feared
Valley of Dragons...


- Valley of Dragons -
Treasures: 5000 GP, 7000 GP, Phoenix Down, Cottage, Coronet, Wind Sword,
           Bonemail, Golem (Summon Magic)

Most of the enemies here are pretty weak; however, the PoisnEagles have a
high evade rate. Try using the Aim command to kill them easily. Also,
DrgnZombies and Skelesaurs have high HP; however, they're also undead, so
the Requiem song does quite a bit of damage to them and doesn't cost
anything to use. The DrgnZombies always drop Dragon Fangs, too; keep this in
mind if you like the Mix command. =P Also, if you missed MagHammer earlier,
you can learn it from the Drippys here. Control them, then just have them
use it on you. =P  The only other enemy of note is "????", a strange stone
robot that attacks you once and then immediately runs away. If you get the
first strike on one, you might be able to kill it, but it just runs away,
anyhow.

As for the dungeon itself, the path is fairly straightforward. On the first
screen, go into the first cave entrance you see for a chest with 5000 GP.
Then go back out and continue along until you find another cave entrance.
Go through the passage inside, and you'll come out on another part of the
mountain. There's nothing here except another cave entrance, so go in.
You'll soon see a chest; open it for a cottage, then continue along the
path. You'll be back on the mountain; follow the extremely straightforward
path to another cave. Go through it, and you'll be on the mountain yet
again. There are two things of note here: First, if you examine the pile of
bones that's directly below a rock, you'll get the Bonemail. This is
powerful armor, but it has the unfortunate side effect of making the wearer
undead. What's worse, it usually gets optimum-equipped when you change
jobs... =P  Unless you want to be thorough, don't bother getting it, as it's
just a nuisance. You can't even sell it for much. The other thing of note is
that you can get the Golem summon spell now. Remember that annoying "stone
robot" that kept attacking you and running away? Well, in this area, you'll
also randomly encounter him, only in a different sort of scenario...

- Boss Battle -
DrgnZombie - Lv: 37   HP: 4000   Weakness: Fire
Skelesaur  - Lv: 37   HP: 3000   Weakness: Fire
Golem      - Lv: 3    HP: 2500   <He's an ally! Don't attack him!>

This is a weird battle. Initially, it appears Golem found some help and is
trying to kill you, but you'll soon learn that it's almost completely the
opposite, as the monsters turn and attack Golem! Despite that he probably
annoyed you throughout the entire trip here, protect him...you'll see why in
a moment. First off, don't use Ifrit, Fire Skills, or anything else that
hits all enemies, since they'll damage Golem, too -- stick with Fire2 and
Burn Ray. The Requiem song, if you learned it back in Kelb, is also useful
here, since it hits both monsters, yet won't hurt Golem.

If you defeat both monsters without killing Golem, you'll get the useful
Golem summon. If you did kill him, don't worry, you can just fight this
battle again. =P  You can skip this for now if you want, but it'll make the
boss much easier...

Anyways, keep going until you come to yet another cave. There doesn't seem
to be anything in here except a stone door that won't open and a switch you
can't get to, but if you wander around in the upper-right area, you'll find
a hole. =P  Open the nearby chest for a Phoenix Down, then go through the
metal door to the left. This leads to the switch, which opens up a passage
outside the cave. Go back to the room where you fell in, climb the stairs,
and go through the doorway; you'll come out of the door that wouldn't open.
(It still won't; it's a one-way door. =P) Go back out and go along the new
passage to find another cave. Don't worry, this is the last one here. =P
Inside the cave, there are passages to the left and right; the left path
leads to chests containing a Coronet and Wind Sword. The right path leads
on. After following it a short distance, you'll find a chest with 7000 GP.
Shortly after, there's a small doorway in the south wall; go through it to
find a Save Point. Use it, then go back and continue along the path; you'll
be back out on the mountain soon enough. The path is, as usual, fairly
straightforward. At the end of it, the party will approach the Dragon Grass.
Reina will try to pick it... But suddenly, it grows and tosses her aside.
The party realizes that the grass must have mutated into a monster, which
is probably what killed off the Dragons. Since you need to get that grass,
you'll have to fight it...

- Boss Battle -
Drgn Grass     - Lv: 33   HP: 12000
Drgn Bulb (x5) - Lv: 31   HP: 100     <Appears Randomly>

The Dragon Grass doesn't seem to do anything except make Dragon Bulbs grow.
The Bulbs, however, are *extremely* annoying; though their "Dust" attacks
don't do much damage, they cause various status changes, including Blind,
Poison, Aging, and Charm. If you've got Golem, use it right away, and it'll
block all of the Dust attacks, making this fight much easier. If you *don't*
have Golem, it might be a good idea to bring a Dancer with a Ribbon into the
battle and use him/her to restore status for the other characters with Esna,
or the "Recvr" command if you have it. Aside from the status changes,
there's nothing difficult about this battle; so use group attacks often to
kill the bulbs while still causing some damage to the main plant. Titan
works well here. Winning this battle gets you 10 ABP and an Elixir, and
possibly some Phoenix Downs.

After defeating the mutant grass, it returns to normal, and Reina
immediately picks it. Well, you have what you came here for, but make sure
to get the Golem summon before leaving if you don't already have it. Once
you do, walk or teleport out of the mountains, and return to Val.

At the gate, Galuf announces his return, but is declined entrance, as the
soldiers believe it's just one of X-Death's tricks. Being left with no other
alternative, Galuf decides to use his 'secret weapon'...he jumps in the
moat! Nah, he's not losing it; remember when you came down here earlier?
Yep, he intends to get back inside by way of the drain! =P  Reina and Faris
immediately jump in after the old man, and after a moment's hesitation, so
does Bartz. When you regain control, walk around to the left and pull the
switch, which literally sucks you back inside. First thing you should do now
is talk to the gate guards. They apologize for not trusting you, and open
the gate, which you can now use to freely get in and out of the castle.
Anyway, with this out of the way, head back to the dragon tower. The
soldiers along the way tell you that Krile began to feel sick and went to
her bedroom to rest, so before actually going up to heal the dragon, pay her
a visit. The girl seems to be somewhat out of it, though, as she starts
babbling something about how "Gill is calling", and tells you to "hurry to
where Gill is". A rather confused Bartz asks who Gill is, and Galuf explains
that he's a 700 year old sage who forsaw the crystals shattering... He
continues, saying that Sage Gill might know of something that can help them
defeat X-Death. Krile starts babbling about how she "must visit Gill", and
Galuf agrees to go instead, then tells Krile that they managed to get the
Dragon Grass. Excited at this, she urges you to hurry upstairs and cure the
dragon! Before leaving, Bartz asks Galuf where exactly they can find Gill,
and is told that the old sage lives in a cave on a small island across the
ocean to the northwest of the Valley of Dragons.

After all the talk is finished, head upstairs to the tower. There, Reina
immediately tries to feed the Dragon Grass to the injured dragon, but it
refuses to eat it. Bartz says he isn't surprised, since it's what caused
them to go extinct, but Reina's determination is too strong, since if the
dragon doesn't eat the grass, it'll die. In desperation, and despite the
fact that it's poisonous to humans, she takes a bite of the Dragon Grass to
prove that it's safe. Seeing that there's nothing wrong with the grass, the
the dragon eats the rest of it and completely recovers. At this moment,
Krile runs up to the tower and gives Reina some medicine to cure the poison,
and after everyone finishes repremanding Reina for that stupid move, Krile
collapses. Everyone (except Bartz) panics, but she insists that she's
alright, and gets back up. Galuf tells Krile to go back in and rest, and she
thanks you for helping the dragon, wishes you good luck, then waves goodbye
as the team mounts the dragon and flies off.

                    --- "Twilight of the Dawn Warriors" ---

Well, now that you have the dragon, you're back in the air! Ok, so it's the
same type of dragon you had way back at Walz, meaning you can't fly over
mountains, but hey, at least you can fly! The only way off the Val continent
is through a small opening east of the Valley of Dragons. If you continue
north from here, you'll find Gill's cave, but before you enter, do a bit of
world exploration! You can return to everyplace you've previously been,
except X-Death's Castle, which is surrounded by a forcefield. There's also
one new location you can reach: Surgate Castle, which I'll get to in a
minute. There's still, however, some land you can't reach...mainly, the two
forests in the west that're enclosed by mountains. You'll be able to the
areas beyond them a bit later, but for now, don't worry about them. Finally,
much like that mysterious temple in the first world, there're two weird
towers completely surrounded by mountains. One is just south of the huge
desert near Lugor, and another is on a small island in the southeast, near
where Crescent Town is in the first world. These *do* play a part in the
game, but trying to get inside them now will earn you little more than a
headache, so just ignore them. =P

Just head for Gill's island. As soon as you try to enter, however, the
ground begins to shake, and the entire island sinks into the ocean!
Afterwards, in a sinister looking castle, X-Death gloats, saying that this
is what happens to those who defy him.

You're then returned to the world map, hovering just over where the island
once was. Since it's obvious that you're not gonna be able to meet with the
sage, you're gonna have to find something else to do. Pay a visit to Kelga,
and...well, this conversation is so messed up, that it's hard to summarize.
Here's everything that's said, exactly how it appears from the game:

[Begin Conversation]
Kelga: "No Gill island?"
Is X-Death to be blamed
for this too?

Kelga: "Most likely.
He knows this will
be his last battle

Attack his castle!"
Kelga: "Impossible. You
saw the barrier, nothing
can get past it!

(There's a brief pause and a blank box; it looks as though some dialogue was
skipped.)

......I@That's it!"
Kelga: "We've got Zeza!
He said he was taking
his fleet to destroy
the barrier tower!"

Galuf: That right?
He a friend of yours?"
Galuf: Zeza is one of the
Four Dawn Warriors. His
castle is north of
Dragon valley!"
[End Conversation]

I...have no idea why this conversation is so screwed up. My best guess is
those 'out of place' lines ("Is X-Death to be blamed for this?" "Attack his
castle!", and "He a friend of yours?") are Bartz or Reina talking, but that
they forgot to include their names beforehand. As for the "......I@That's
it!" line...Well, I have no idea. Looks like some screwed up code. For the
record, A similar 'conversation goof' happens in the Beginner's Hall at
Narshe on the FF Anthology version of FF6.

Anyway, from what I'm able to pick out of this conversation is that you're
supposed to go to Zeza's castle, Surgate. I mentioned this just a moment
ago, so pay it a visit.


- Surgate Castle -
Treasures: 5000GP, Float (Time Magic), Song of Speed (Song)

When you try to open the gates, you're stopped by some guards who demand
that you identify yourselves. Before anything else is said, however, another
soldier shows up, tells the two gate guards that that's Galuf, King of Val,
then escorts you inside. He informs you about Zeza's fleet having left to
attack X-Death's castle, then says you can take anything you need from the
castle.

After regaining control, you're given free run of the castle! There's not a
whole lot here, but loot the place anyhow. Start by taking the staircase on
the right side of the room, which leads to the shopping area. The armor,
magic, and item shops don't carry anything new, but Knights, Samurai,
Berserkers, and Lancers might appreciate the new weapons you can buy here!
When you're done here, go back upstairs, and head down the staircase on the
lower left, which leads to Zeza's bedroom. Here, examine the red book laying
on the desk to learn the Song of Speed, then go back upstairs and take the
staircase just above you. This leads outside, then to a library. Some of the
scholars here are examining a really old book of which half is missing. Hmm.
Wasn't there a similar book at the Ancient Library back home...? Well,
there's nothing you can do with this book, so go upstairs to the other part
of the library. The old lady here grumbles about people not returning books
to the shelves...do her a favor and clean the place up. Simply examine the
three books on the table, and return them to the correct shelves. "Weird
Ronka" goes on the "W-X" shelf, "Register of Monsters" goes on the "R-S"
shelf, and the "Forbidden Book" goes on the "D-F" shelf. Note that you can
only carry one book at a time, so just pick up another once you've returned
one to the shelves. When you're finished putting the books away, talk to the
old lady again. She thanks you for saving her some work, says she's going to
her room, then walks up and opens a secret door on the north wall and
leaves. Follow her, and you'll end up in another room of the library.
There's a book on the table here that says something about giving a lance to
a mage, but I'm not entirely sure what it means. Go downstairs and grab the
only chest here to get 5000GP, then take the south door to go to the outer
courtyard. Head left under the bridge, and enter the building, which is
another small storeroom. The chest here contains the odd Float spell. Get
it, then leave the castle. You've found everything.

Now, to actually continue, fly a little east of X-Death's castle until you
see a bunch of ships in the water. This is Zeza's fleet. You can land on
the largest ship, so do so. Though it'd be a good idea to save first.

- Zeza's Ship -
Treasures: Genji Glove

When you land on the ship, you'll be greeted by Zeza, an old friend of
Galuf's. After some brief introductions, Galuf will ask if Zeza can get the
party inside X-Death's castle. Zeza laughs and says you're halfway in
already, then you regain control. If you talk to the soldiers, you'll get a
clue about what Zeza's planning; when you talk to him, he tells you to get
some rest. Since there's nothing else to do, you might as well. Go down the
stairs on the deck, then go down another set of stairs. There are two rooms
you can enter here; there's not really anything to do in the room on the
left just now, so do what the soldier tells you and go in the room on the
right. Choose to rest.

You'll be woken up suddenly; the ship is under attack! Go above deck and
talk to Zeza, and several monsters will appear. Zeza will start fighting
one, and their battle will carry onto another ship. When you regain control,
you can fight the monsters wandering around; they're Gobbldigoos, and
they're very easy. Note that if for some reason you haven't learned GobPunch
yet, this is a good chance to do so. Fight or ignore them as you see fit;
just head towards the front of the ship. You'll *have* to fight a Gobbldigoo
now; after you beat it, you'll get a quick look at how Zeza's doing. Keep
going forward, and you'll run into your old pal, Gilgamesh. No, I don't
really know what he's doing here, either. =P

- Boss Battle -
Gilgamesh - Lv: 31   HP: 8888
Enkidoh   - Lv: 29   HP: 4000   <Shows up later>

The single most important thing to do here is to steal from Gilgamesh. He
has the Genji Glove, the best gauntlet in the game! Furthermore, this is the
only place you can get it! If you miss it, you're screwed. Anyhow, Gilgamesh
is a bit tougher here, if just for the fact that he can use the annoying
Missile spell, and the even more annoying Doom Claw. (Both are Blue Spells,
so you might want to learn them if you haven't already.) The rest of his
attacks are fairly weak, however, so it's nothing you can't handle. After a
while (I'm not sure whether it has to do with the time, or how much damage
you've done to Gilgamesh), Gilgamesh will summon Enkidoh, a palette-swapped
version of the Abductors you fought earlier. It immediately uses White Wind,
which will probably heal all the damage you did to Gilgamesh. Blah. After
this happens, focus all your attacks on Enkidoh, and don't bother with
Gilgamesh until the irritating green demon is out of the way. Be careful,
though; Enkidoh knows Red Feast, which may very well kill a character if
you've done a lot of damage to him. When he goes down, the battle will be
easy again. Just defeat Gilgamesh. You won't get any ABP for winning, but
you'll get a Gold Shield.

After you beat Gilgamesh, he tries to drag you into the ocean with him, but
you grab onto the ship and he's the only one who falls in. =P  He'll drift
away, but you'll start to lose your grip... Just as you fall, though, the
Dragon saves you. It drops you back on the deck. Zeza gets back on the ship
and goes below deck; follow him. Go to the third level of the ship, where
the beds are; use them if you want, but to continue, go into the room on
the *left* (where there was nothing before). Talk to Zeza, and he tells you
to go to the other side of the box. (You'll understand when you see it. =P)
Do so, and examine the box; you and Zeza will open up the box, revealing a
passage. You'll automatically enter, emerging in a small room. Talk to Zeza
and you'll see that you're in a submarine! Zeza explains that you're going
into the barrier tower through an undersea tunnel, and automatically takes
you there. When you arrive, leave the submarine and talk to Zeza. He'll blow
a hole in the wall, allowing you to enter the actual tower.

Note: If you go back in the sub and examine the steering wheel, Zeza will
offer to take you back. You can also go to the room down below to rest.
Keep this in mind if you have trouble.

- Barrier Tower -
Treasures: 9000 GP, 18000 GP, Blood Sword, HairOrnament

Soon after entering the actual tower, Zeza will explain what you're supposed
to do. He'll go down below to the power room, while you climb to the antenna
at the top of the tower. When he cuts the power, you'll destroy the antenna.
He gives you the "Whisper Grass", a sort of walkie-talkie, so you can
contact him when you reach the top. He then leaves. You can follow him if
you want, but you won't get very far. =P

Also, you can get a new Blue Magic spell here, as well as an old one you may
have missed. The Traveler enemies use Time Slip (you can control them and
have them use it on you) and the Neons will often use Flash as a
counterattack.

Anyways, go up the stairs to find a Save Point. (There's a little alcove
that looks like a door in the room you come in, but there's nothing there.)
In the next room are two chests. The near one has 9000 G, while the far one
is a monster-in-a-box. Usually, it has a Red Dragon, but you might end up
fighting two Yellow Dragons instead.

- Battle -
Red Dragon - Lv: 30   HP: 7500   Weakness: Water, Earth, Ice

This battle is weird. For some odd reason, the Red Dragon is considered
undead. For this reason, despite that it *will* hit, L.5 Doom doesn't work.
And don't even bother trying to use Phoenix Downs or Life magic for an easy
kill; they don't work either. Anyway...on the first round of the battle, the
Red Dragon usually uses Atomic Ray, which does about 700 damage to the
entire team! Heal up immediately, because it may use it again! The dragon's
"Critical" is strong, too, doing about 700 damage to one member. Since you
can't take the easy way out, you'll just have to stick with normal attacks.
In all honesty, Ice attacks like Shiva and Ice 2 aren't all that effective
(maybe it's because they're so outdated...), so try Requiem (since the
dragon is undead), Titan, Water Skills, and $toss. Incidentally, you can
Control the dragon; it has L.3 Flare (a Blue spell) in its command list, but
unfortunately, you can't target yourself with it, only the Dragon. To get
around this, you have to give it Reflect status; then when it casts L.3
Flare, the spell gets reflected to you, and you'll learn it if your level is
a multiple of 3. =P (Reflect works a little strangely with the Level spells
in this game... If a character with Reflect is targeted by the spell, it
bounces whether or not that character is at an appropriate level. However,
it only hits the target it gets reflected to if *their* level is
appropriate. With that out of the way, be warned that L.3 Flare *will* kill
whoever it hits at this point.) If you're going to try this, make sure all
four characters are either Blue Mages/have Learn (making them all Blue Mages
is easier =P) and that their levels are all multiples of 3, since the spell
reflects to one of your characters at random. Unfortunately, you don't have
the Reflect spell yet. But there *is* still a way to learn L.3 Flare here.
Give someone the Mix command, and have them mix Dragon Fang + Phoenix Down,
then use it on the dragon. The resulting effect, "Dragon Armor", gives it
Reflect status. Now you can learn the spell. =P  Also, you might want to try
to steal from it; usually, you'll get a Potion, but sometimes you can steal
a Fire Ring. This seems to be extremely rare, though; I've stolen a Fire
Ring *once* in about 50 tries. =P  If you *really* want to get one, you'll
need a *lot* of patience. If you steal a Potion, either escape the battle
and check the chest again, or cast Return. Either way, you can try again,
but don't expect your luck to be much better. Sure is a lot to say for one
enemy, isn't it? =P

- Battle -
YellowDrgn (x2) - Lv: 38   HP: 8500

You won't be able to learn L.3 Flare or steal a Fire Ring if you get this
battle, but you get more Exp, GP, and ABP than from the Red Dragon. It's
really rare, though; you might as well be trying for the Fire Ring. =P
Anyways, these guys aren't undead, and absorb lightning. They also have a
ton of HP. There isn't a lot to say about them, just kill them. =P Try using
the Earth command; you might get Sonic Boom, which will do a lot of damage
to whichever dragon it hits.

After either fight, you'll get a Blood Sword from the chest. This is a
strong weapon that also drains HP, but it has a very low hit rate, so I
don't recommend using it. Go south from the 9000 GP chest and you'll be on
the outside of the tower.

>From here on, watch for a new enemy, the LvlTripper; it uses L.4 Quarter
fairly often, so try to learn this spell if you haven't already. You can
also make it cast L.2 Old and L.5 Doom if you control it, but as with the
Red Dragon, you can't cast these spells on your party. However, you can
learn them using the same trick as for L.3 Flare: Use Mix with a Phoenix
Down and Dragon Fang to give them Reflect status. =P  The spell bounces
back to one of your characters, who will learn it if they're at an
appropriate level. This is a good way to learn L.5 Doom if you missed it.

Anyways, head up the stairs on the left and go through the door. You're in a
small room with nothing in it but some stairs. At the top of the stairs is a
door, which leads to the outside of the tower again. Take the stairs on the
right and go in the next door. There's a chest with 18000 GP in here; other
than that, it's pretty much the same as the last one. Take the stairs, go
through the door, you're outside the tower again. Now take the stairs on the
left, and go in the next door. Just before you do, Zeza will contact you and
say that he's almost ready. Go through the door; it's another boring room.
Climb the stairs and go through the door at the top, again.

You're outside, again, but this time there are stairs on both sides. The one
on the right leads to a Save Point, and goes further up the tower. The one
on the left leads to a small room with a chest. It's a monster chest, and
again, you might fight a Red Dragon or two Yellow Dragons. After winning,
you'll get a Hair Ornament, a useful helmet for magic-users. It has 0
defense, but it halves the MP cost of all spells! If you're using someone in
a mage class, give this to them right away. Anyways, go to the Save Point
room, save, and head out the door. Yeah, you're outside again, but this is
the last time. =P  Climb up a bit more, and you'll be at the top! As you
attempt to destroy the antenna, however, the screen goes dark, and an
ominous voice says that you'll never leave here alive...

- Boss Battle -
Atomos - Lv: 41   HP: 19997

This battle is, quite simply, insane. =P  Atomos will cast Comet on a
character (sometimes twice) and often kill them, and will slowly suck dead
characters towards it. And in case you're wondering... No, you can't just
use Mix to give everyone Reflect, you'll *still* get hit by the comet. =P
Anyways, once Atomos sucks in the dead character, they're gone for the rest
of the battle. You have two choices here; you can either try desperately to
revive dead characters ASAP, or you can "sacrifice" a character; let them
stay down while Atomos sucks them in, and he'll be much less dangerous. The
latter method is easier, but the fight's still tough. The best attacks to
damage him with are $toss and Titan (with Earth Robes equipped), especially
if you want to keep all your characters alive; try to make sure that
everyone can use one of those abilities. You might also want to cast Shell
if you get the chance. Other than that, there's not a lot to say about this
fight... Atomos has an obscene amount of HP, and no real strengths or
weaknesses. You'll get 12 ABP and a Dark Matter for winning, which is kind
of a rip-off considering how hard this guy is. =P

After beating Atomos, the antenna will blow up. Now there's a fairly long
story scene; I won't bore you with the details, but basically, Zeza is
trapped in the power room. He says the tower's about to explode, and that
he'll meet you at the sub. You'll escape on the Dragon, despite Galuf's
protests about leaving Zeza behind; then the tower explodes, and X-Death's
barrier goes down.

The scene shifts to the submarine dock; Galuf is waiting. Talk to him a few
times, and he'll eventually decide to leave. (Note: There's a small glitch
in this part; if you had Galuf leading the party when you fought Atomos, the
party will use his sprite, even though he's standing off by himself. So it
looks like there's two of him. =P  The party's sprite will change if you go
to the menu and return, though.) The scene shifts inside the sub; Bartz and
Faris will decide to use it to go to Gill's cave. After a little more
dialogue, you'll be in control of the sub!

Note: Although the barrier is down, you still can't enter X-Death's castle
yet. The door leading upstairs is locked.


--- "The Underwater Sage" ---

If you use the world map while underwater, you'll see three blinking dots.
The one in the northwest leads to an underwater cave where you can do a
simple sub-quest ("Female Chocobos and Summoned Monsters"). The southwest
one leads to a dead end, but if you surface, you'll be near a village where
you can buy powerful new equipment and spells (I'll cover this place later,
but I recommend coming here as soon as possible). Finally, the dot that's
a little northeast from the continent Val Castle is on is Gill's Cave, your
next destination.

- Gill's Cave -
Treasures: None

Dock the submarine and follow the path. There are two kinds of enemies here:
Radiators, which can probably be killed with one hit from Ifrit if your
levels are average; and Metamorphas, which change into various other
monsters, use one attack, and change back, then repeat the pattern. Some of
the monsters I've seen are Ghilacats, Elf Toads, Y Burns, Fan Wizards, and
DrgnZombies, as well as Ifrit and Ramuh. O_o (They can probably turn into
Shiva, too. =P) Note that these monsters are *not* the same as when you
fight them elsewhere; they're at different levels, don't have the same
attributes, (Fan Wizards don't absorb wind, and DrgnZombies aren't undead,
for instance) and probably inherit the Metamorpha's HP. (I can't tell,
because they have ????/???? HP when you scan them.) These things have a
whopping 7000 HP, and only give up 3 ABP when you beat them, so you might
want to run. However, you *can* pick up some Blue Magic here by waiting for
them to turn into certain monsters; Elf Toads use Toad Song (in case you
missed it) and Fan Wizards use Aero 3, which you haven't had a chance to
learn yet. Speaking of Blue Magic, the Radiators can use Red Feast.
Anyways... The easiest ways to beat the Metamorphas are 1) Learn Aero 3 and
cast it on them before they change, since they're weak against wind; 2) Wait
for them to change into something fairly weak, then use an instant-death
move. =P

Anyways... You'll soon come to a room with four empty treasure chests, one
full chest, and four suspicious-looking sections of wall. =P  Open the chest
in the center; Bartz will find a big stone in it, and you'll be given the
choice to take the stone. Do so, and the door you came in through will
close. This should give you some idea of how this part works; put the stone
in one of the chests, and a door will open. The center chest just opens the
door you came in through, so there's not much reason to bother with it right
now. =P  The upper-right and lower-right chests open up dead ends, so ignore
those, too. Instead, put the rock in the upper-left chest and go through to
find a switch. Use it, and a path will open up. Now go back, get the rock
out of the upper-left chest, and put it in the lower-left chest. Go through
the door that opens up and follow the path to the next floor.

On the next floor, go to the lower-left to find a path; it'll be invisible
until you get near it. Follow the path to a switch, which will make a
staircase appear. Go down the stairs to the next floor. From here, the path
isn't too complicated; there's a few more "hidden" paths like the one on the
previous floor, but they're not hard to find. Just keep going until you
reach a pond. Examine it, and you'll see a turtle, then you'll be given a
choice to jump in the pond. Do so, and you'll emerge in another pond. Go up
and you'll meet Sage Gill.

Sage Gill tells you that X-Death is looking for something in Moore Forest,
just west of Surgate Castle. He explains that X-Death was originally a tree
in Moore Forest, transformed by evil spirits, then gives you the "Elder's
Branch", which you'll need to get in. That's all there is here, so just cast
Telepo to leave.


--- "Into the Forest" ---

- Moore Village -
Treasures: HuntingKnife

The most notable thing here are the shops; the armor is great, the weapons
aren't bad, and you can buy Level 5 spells. Other than shopping, the only
things to do here are play the piano (if you've played all the other ones so
far, you'll get the message "Just a little bit more, and I'll be Piano
Master!") and get the HuntingKnife in the upper barrel on the left side of
the pub. There's a locked door on the southwest side of town, but you can't
do anything with it. Yet. The people here will also give you some hints
about getting through the forest to the east, which is your next
destination.


- Moore Forest -
Treasures: 2500 GP, 4900 GP, 9500 GP, Ether, Phoenix Down, Cottage, Elixir,
           Giant Drink, Ash, Mace, Aegis Shield/Flame Shield, Flame Saber

Go into the forest; the Elder's Branch will let you in. Unless, of course,
you haven't gotten it from Gill yet. =P  At any rate, there are some new
enemies here... The GalacJellies are somewhat annoying, as they have a high
evade rate and resist or absorb most elements. However they also have very
low HP; use Aim, Critt or Earth to kill them easily. Another enemy of note
is the MiniMage; you can learn a new Blue Magic, Little Song, from them.
It's not in their Control list, so you'll just have to wait for them to use
it on you. There's nothing too special about the other enemies, except that
they may take a little while to kill. =P  The encounter rate seems a little
high, though, so this place can get annoying.

Anyways... A little north from the entrance is a chest with 2500 GP. On the
east side of this area, there's a tree with a knothole in it; just beside it
is a chest with an Ether. Get the chest, then examine the knothole (someone
in town gives you a clue about this) and a passage will appear. Go through
it to emerge in another section of the forest.

This area is quite big, and extremely empty. Head north for a while to find
a chest with 4900 GP, then go east and north a bit to find two tree with a
chest between them. Open the chest for a Phoenix Down. Now go back south and
make your way to the east side of this area to find a chest with 9500 GP.
Get it, then backtrack to the west a little bit to find another tree with a
knothole. Again, examine the knothole to reveal a passage. That's all there
is in this area, despite its size, so just go through the passage to reach
another section of forest. Thankfully, we're almost done. =P

When you emerge from the passage, there's a treasure to the west; you'll
probably see it right away. It's a Cottage. Get it, then go east until you
see another chest, which has a Giant Drink. Go north a bit, and you'll see a
weird yellow ring, which is actually a Save Point. Use it, then go north and
west a bit to find a chest with an Elixir, then go a little further north
for another chest with a Mace. Go back to the save point and save. Then go
back to where the Mace was and follow the path to the west; suddenly, the
forest will burst into flames! When you regain control, try to make your way
around the flames towards the tree just north of you; then walk across the
tree's roots to find a chest with an Aegis Shield. However, you might want
to leave this alone... you'll see why in a minute. Anyways, wander around
for a while until a Moogle pops out of a hole. Go into the hole after it...
well, *fall* into, actually. =P  When you hit the bottom, you'll find a
healing spring; however, a Moogle is blocking the exit. Wait a little bit,
and the Moogle will eventually move out of the way. Now go out to emerge
from the hole. If you didn't get the Aegis Shield before falling down the
hole, examine the chest it was in for a Flame Shield; otherwise, the chest
will be empty. I'll leave it up to you to decide which shield you want.

Note that the path you came here through is blocked off; in a way, this is
a good thing, since you don't have to worry about whether you missed getting
anything special from the other chests. =P  Anyways, head west a little bit
and you'll come to a clearing. There's a chest by one of the trees with Ash
in it; this item is completely useless. It can be thrown, but the damage it
does is pathetic. =P  On the west side of the clearing is a chest with a
Flame Saber. If you take the south exit, you'll be on the world map; take
this opportunity to save. To continue, though, you'll have to go north from
the clearing; it looks like you're at a dead end, but the Elder's Branch
will open up a path for you... Cast Float on your team, then go through
the path and go inside the tree. When you do, four crystalline monsters
will attack you...

- Boss Battle -
<Fire Crystal>  - Lv: 77   HP: 7777
<Wind Crystal>  - Lv: 77   HP: 7777
<Earth Crystal> - Lv: 77   HP: 7777
<Water Crystal> - Lv: 77   HP: 7777

(Note: None of these monsters actually have names. The Fire Crystal is the
one on the top, the Earth Crystal is the one at the bottom, the Wind Crystal
is the one on the left, and the Water Crystal is the one on the right.)

These guys are almost as annoying as Atomos, if you don't do this the right
way. At first, they'll just use physical attacks, which can be easily dealt
with by summoning Golem. When one of them gets low on HP, however, it starts
using a powerful spell of its element. Cast Shell on all your party members
before you begin actually attacking, so you'll be in less danger. Note that
Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth are the *only* elements that will have any
effect on them, and each of the crystals absorbs its own element. So don't
bother with Ice, Bolt, or Bio spells. Focus on one crystal at a time; if you
get two or three of them casting spells on you at once, this will be
*really* hard. If you only have one doing it, though, things get much
easier. The Water Crystal will use Aqua Rake when it gets weak, and the Wind
Crystal will use Aero 3; if you don't have these spells, use a Blue Mage in
this fight for a good chance to learn them. If you know all the spells,
however, and are just looking for an easy victory, just use $toss. Two of
these will kill all four enemies. =P  You'll get a nice 15 ABP when you
defeat them all.

After the battle, X-Death appears and said that you just did him a favor by
destroying the seals on the crystals! He takes control of the crystals and
uses their power to bind you.

The scene shifts to Val Castle; Krile senses that the party is in danger,
and gets on the dragon to save them. Back in the forest, X-Death gloats over
you, then gets knocked out by something. Krile walks in and tries to help
Galuf...but then X-Death appears and traps her in a strange field. After
playing around with the field for a while, he resumes zapping your party
with the crystals. However, after what happened to Krile, Galuf gets
determined, and starts fighting back, shattering the crystal in the attempt.
He saves Krile from the field, which engulfs him, but that doesn't stop him.
Then he attacks X-Death.

- Boss Battle -
X-Death - Lv: 63   HP: <10000>

X-Death uses lots of powerful spells, but you can't possibly lose this
battle, as Galuf keeps fighting even when he has 0 HP. =P  Keep hitting him;
after about 10000 damage, he gets angry and blasts you with Flare, Holy, and
Meteo. After this, every hit will result in some more conversation until the
battle ends. If you have it, L.3 Flare is a good way to do the first 10000
damage quickly. =P

After being defeated, X-Death takes the crystals and retreats. Bartz, Faris,
Reina, and Krile recover, and turn to Galuf, who's on the verge of death
after fighting so hard. They try to help him, but nothing works, and he
passes away... Krile is upset. You'll regain control, but you can't leave;
just wait around until Krile says she hears Galuf's voice. There will be a
short scene in which she talks to his spirit, then she'll inherit all the
abilities Galuf learned and take his place in the party. You'll
automatically get on the dragon and fly out.

Krile now has all of Galuf's abilities, and whatever he had equipped is in
your inventory. Krile starts as a Traveler with no equipment, so fix that
situation. =P

--- "Showdown with X-Death" ---

You're about to go to X-Death's Castle, but you'd better be ready. Build up
your jobs in the basement of Val Castle if you need to, buy whatever you
think you'll need, and finish up the sidequests if you haven't already. This
is a big area, so stock up and prepare for a long trip, then head back to...


- X-Death's Castle -
Treasures: Ether x2, Elixir x2, 9900 GP, 8000 GP, DiamndShield, Ice Shield,
           Partisan, Gale Bow, Blizzard, Kotetsu, Double Lance, Wall Ring,
           MagiShuriken, Genji Helmet, Excalipur, Carbuncle (Summon Magic)

The locked door is now unlocked, so you can go through... don't mind the
wounded soldiers, just go through and up the stairs. But take a detour to
use the healing fountain if you need it.

Starting on the second floor, you'll meet some new enemies. I'm not sure
just when all of them start appearing, so I'll cover them all now. The
Blind Wolves, Twinlizards, Magic Drgns, BlakWarloks, and Red Dragons can
all be affected by L.3 Flare if you have it. AdamnGolems can't be hit by
L.3 Flare, but they can be destroyed instantly by using Softs on them. Titan
will be useful on most of the other enemies, especiallly RflecMages. If you
encounter the A Rage enemy, though, kill it first; it uses Arise on any
other dead enemies when you kill it. You can also control it and have it
use White Wind on you to learn the spell if you haven't already. (Or just
for some cheap healing =P)  You can learn L.3 Flare by Controlling a Red
Dragon, casting Reflect on it, and having it use the spell on itself; the
spell will bounce and hit one of your party members if he/she is at a level
that's a multiple of 3. They only appear on the higher floors and the
basement prison after the castle's "transformation", though. You can also
learn L.2 Old and Aero 3 from Magic Dragons. One *extremely* nasty battle
that you may see on the higher floors is against three Blue Dragons; you'll
only see one, but there's really three of them. They'll do *serious* damage
to your team, and what's more, you can only hit one at a time. If you manage
to defeat them, though, you'll get 15 ABP, which is the most you've gotten
from any non-boss encounter up to this point. =P This battle is pretty rare,
though, so just hope you don't get it. =P  That covers most of the enemies,
but be warned: The encounter rate gets high in here, and the battles can be
pretty tough. If you thought Moore Forest was bad, this place is a lot
worse. =P

Anyways, on the second floor, ignore the stairs going up for now. Instead,
go around the wall to the south to find two chests containing an Ether and a
Diamond Shield. Then go upstairs; you'll soon come to a dead end. Turn
around and leave; Bartz will comment, then Krile will run back. You'll
follow her, and she'll say it's an illusion. The scene shifts to Kelb;
Kelga, surrounded by his followers, is getting weaker. He sees Galuf's
spirit, who apparently fills him in on what's happening with your party.
Kelga dies, but uses the last of his strength to dispel the illusion... Back
at the castle, you'll see the results. Ugly place, isn't it? =P  A stairway
just appeared, so use it. (Note: After the illusion is dispelled, the
*entire* castle changes, lower floors included. The healing springs no
longer work (as they're now lava), and if you'd like to find a Red Dragon a
bit earlier, they now appear in the very bottom floor, where you were held
prisoner when you first arrived here.)

The path is pretty linear here, with only one detour. When you see a chest,
go towards it; you'll notice it's blocked by a wall. There's a very
suspicious gray thing on the wall just to the west, so examine it. It's a
switch, which takes the wall down. Now you can get the chest, an Ice Shield.
Go back to the path, which will eventually take you upstairs.

The path in this room is very linear here, too. Get the chest at the end
(Ether), then go through the door. This room has a path along the outside,
and a small stairway leading into the lava; change one of your characters
into a Geomancer and the lava can't hurt you, so go into it. Head left, then
go straight down at your first chance. You'll see a chest in the wall; if
you've got a Thief or the Secret ability, you should see how to get it, but
if you'd rather not set those, just head straight into the wall when you're
lined up with the chest. It has a Gale Bow. Now get out of the lava and go
around. You can now get to the stairs, and a chest with an Elixir. Get it,
then go upstairs.

Here, there's a tile that looks like a skull, and a small bridge that
doesn't go anywhere at the moment. Step on the skull tile, and the bridge
starts moving. You can stop the bridge with the X button (or, if you're
using an emulator, whatever button you're using for "confirm") to get to the
chests and the stairs. The left chest has a Blizzard sword, while the right
has a Kotetsu katana. The stairs are the way ahead. Be warned, if you stop
the bridge at the wrong place, you'll be attacked, sometimes by a Harpy. Get
the chests, then go upstairs to find a Save Point. Use it, and continue to
the next room.

First, head east; you'll see a chest in the wall. The secret passage is
better-hidden than the last one was, so you might want to use Secret or a
Thief for this one. It has an Elixir. Follow the path all the way to the
west to find a chest with 9900 GP, then backtrack and go along the path over
the lava. Go through the door at the end and you'll be on a short stairway.
There's nowhere to go but up; on the next floor is a short path leading to
another staircase going down. Hmm... That was pointless. =P  You'll probably
notice the green summon orb on a nearby platform; you'll be able to get
there soon enough.

Go down the new staircase; this room is filled with lava, so make sure you
have a Geomancer. You'll see a staircase blocked off by walls; ignore this
for now and go all the way to the east and up the stairs for a chest with
8000 GP. Go back down; there's only one other stairway you can reach right
now, so go up it. You'll see the summon orb again, but you still can't reach
it. So, go east. You'll step on a skull tile, which makes a path leading to
another stairway disappear. Don't worry about this right now. Keep your
Geomancer for this part; the platform you're on has a ton of hidden holes
under skull tiles, and the Geomancer will stop you from falling in when you
find one. The chest on the east side has a Double Lance. The skull tile on
the south side makes the path reappear; just be sure not to step on the
first skull tile again when you go over there. =P  Go down to find a save
point, then go back upstairs and make your way to the skull tile on the
north side. When you step on it, you'll be teleported right in front of
the summon orb. Examine it, and as usual, fight the summon monster to get
it.

- Boss Battle -
Carbuncle - Lv: 1   HP: 15000   Weakness: All

He has inherent reflect status, but the fight's not too hard despite this;
use Summons, physical attacks, or spells reflected off your own party
members to get around it. After a while, Carbuncle's reflect status goes
down, and it becomes weak to *all* elements. At this point, you should
easily be able to finish him off, but if for some reason you don't, the
reflect status goes back up again, and Carbuncle starts casting nasty spells
like Doom and X-zone on you. You can steal a Wall Ring from Carbuncle, and
when you win, you'll get 11 ABP and the Carbuncle summon spell.

After beating Carbuncle, go down the stairs. You're now between those walls
that blocked off a staircase in the lava room. Step on the skull tile and
you'll warp to another spot in this room. Now make your way back to the
skull tile-filled platform and the save point below it. Save, then go on to
the next room. Make sure you have someone who can steal.

There's nothing in this room except an empty chest in the middle. Ignore it
for now, and take the staircase on the right, which leads to a room with two
chests that contain a MagiShuriken and a Partisan. Collect them both, then
go back downstairs. Normally, nothing special happens if you go up the
stairs in the center, but if you tried to take the empty chest, Gilgamesh
will make another appearance. =P

- Boss Battle -
Gilgamesh - Lv: 53/67   HP: <15000>

Gilgamesh uses Little Song, Toad Song, and Flash, so try to learn them if
you haven't already. His physical attacks do around 400-500 damage, but
that's easily healed. Careful, though; he can use Hurricane to knock a
character into single-digit HP. Still, pretty easy. What else did you expect
from Gilgamesh? =P  After a while, he'll transform; however, he's actually
*weaker* after this. =P  His physical attacks do only 30-50 damage, and I
haven't seen him do anything else. =P  Once he transforms, start stealing to
get the Genji Helmet, the best helmet in the game. Eventually, X-Death gets
sick of his imcompetent flunky and casts X-Zone on him. =P  When this
happens, the battle ends. When you win, you won't get anything except the
Excalipur sword, which does 1 damage with every attack. However, it has a
high attack power, and thus usually gets optimum-equipped. Bah. =P  You can
throw it to do a lot of damage, though, so you may want to hold onto it.

Once you win, go back to the save point and use it, then go through the door
where Gilgamesh stopped you. From here on, there's nothing of note until
X-Death; however, once you defeat him, you won't be able to return to
the second world. There isn't as much here that's as important to get as
in the first world, since you'll be able to return here soon enough, but
there *are* a few things you won't be able to get once you leave... Here's
the final checklist for the second world:

- Did you get Shoat from the north forest?
- Did you get Carbuncle from X-Death's Castle?
- Did you get all the treasures in Moogle Village?

Don't worry about shopping too much this time; you'll be able to get back to
all the shops soon enough. Once you're ready, go and face X-Death.

When you meet X-Death, he gives the typical villain speech about how you'll
never be able to stop his plans, etc. =P  Then the fight begins.

- Boss Battle -
X-Death - Lv: 66   HP: 32768   Weakness: Holy

X-Death often casts Condemned at the start of the battle. If you want to
learn it, I recommend bringing a Blue Mage and someone with Time Magic. If
X-Death doesn't cast Condemned on your Blue Mage at the start, cast Return
and try again until he does. =P  As for the actual battle, X-Death has some
*very* strong attacks. However, if you cast Float, Golem, and Carbuncle,
you'll be defended from his worst ones. With Reflect up, you'll have to rely
on items and White Wind for healing, but he probably won't be able to even
*hit* you most of the time. For actually damaging him, L.3 Flare is probably
the best attack available; still, it's not too big a deal if you don't have
it. Just use whatever you can; long-range attacks are best, though, since he
can use Rev.Polarity and switch what row everyone's in. If you're at a
decent level, this shouldn't be too hard. You won't get anything from this
battle, unless you happen to learn some Blue Magic here.

After the battle, the crystals suddenly shatter, then the screen distorts
and fades...

%%%Third World%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
(Note: Please forgive my sloppy story summaries here. I didn't take notes as
I did in the past two worlds, so stuff may be inaccurate. Feel free to mail
me and correct any mistakes I may have made.)

--- "Celebration at Tycoon" ---

After the screen fades back in, your team ends up in a field. After
everyone wakes up, Reina and Faris notice something strange in the north...
Tycoon Castle! Apparently, you've somehow returned to your world... Sorta.

Back on the world map, you'll immediately notice that things have changed
somewhat... If you check the square-button world map, you should notice that
the landmass has increased. Well, we'll worry about that later. For now,
just head north to Tycoon Castle.


- Tycoon Castle -
Treasures: None (But you can pick up some you may have missed earlier)

Upon entering the castle, head straight inside, and you'll be greeted by the
chancellor, who is overjoyed to see both princesses safe. Faris is a bit
confused, but the chancellor clears things up... Faris really *is* Reina's
lost sister! (But I absolutely refuse to use that god-awful name they gave
her in the PSX version. ^_^)  He then says that a banquet to celebrate their
return is currently being prepared, and invites Bartz and Krile to join in.

A bit later, as the celebration begins, Reina takes her place on the throne,
and the chancellor pulls a reluctant Faris out of one of the bedrooms...and
she's wearing a dress! =P  Bartz shows his obvious 'interest' in her, then
a bunch of people in the room start dancing, and Krile walks out to the
balcony. Ok, that was actually sorta hard to summarize, but story stuff
isn't that important in FAQs. Anyway, you'll now regain control, but Bartz
is alone... Start by following Krile out to the balcony, where a short
conversation follows. She says that she feels somewhat anxious, as if her
grandfather's spirit was telling her that they have to hurry and stop
X-Death *now*. She shrugs it off, however, and rejoins. After this, start to
leave the throne room. As you do, Krile steps forward and asks what they're
gonna do about Reina and Faris, and Bartz says that they've got no choice
but to leave them here for now.

Before leaving the castle, there're a couple little scenes you can see that
explain a bit about Faris. First, go to the east tower and talk to old lady
Jenica to see a cute little scene involving Reina and Faris as children.
Afterwards, return to the king's bedroom and read the diary on the table to
see another flashback of Faris as a child. She sure has changed since then.
If there're any other flashbacks here, I haven't yet seen them... Anyhow, if
you missed any of the chests in the castle earlier, get them now (though you
can't enter the west tower, so if you missed any of the items inside it,
you're screwed now), then leave the castle. When you start to walk out the
gate, though, a soldier runs up and bowls Bartz and Krile over, then runs
inside, saying he has to tell everyone that the bridge to the west was
finished. At hearing this, Bartz begins to wonder if Boko is still in the
Pirates' Cave, and Krile asks "What's a Boko?". Bartz tells her that it's
his prized chocobo, but Krile starts to tease him about how he can barely
ride a dragon, so there's no way he could ride a chocobo! The two of them
then have a little mock fight, and afterwards, you regain control.

There aren't any monsters on the world map for the time being, so just head
west across the new bridge until you come to the Pirates' Cave. As soon as
you try to enter, you'll be met by your old friend Boko, as well as a female
chocobo named Koko. Yep, not only has Boko completely recovered, but he's
found himself a wife! After all the introductions (via Krile's amazing
chocobo language skills), Boko tells Koko to take care of herself and their
coming child (yep, Boko's gonna be a father, too =P), then gladly 'rejoins'
you!

Being able to ride Boko allows you to explore the world a bit more. Boko is
just an ordinary yellow chocobo with no special abilities, but riding him is
faster than walking, he can cross shallow rivers, and you won't encounter
any monsters while riding him. Head north along the new road (which is
actually part of the Guroceana wilderness from the second world) until you
hit a small village, Tule. You can enter and talk to the people if you'd
like, and the woman at the front desk of the beginner's hall will now tell
you about the wonders of the "Traveler" and "Mime" jobs (er...you don't have
the latter yet, do you? =P) if you tell her you're not a beginner, but
there's nothing overly important here, so you can skip it without missing
much. From Tule, head west across the lakes, and upon trying to pass through
a narrow path between the cliffs, you'll be pulled into a small area.


- Tule Canyon -
Treasures: None

The only thing to do here is head south. After a bit, the ground will begin
to shake, then ultimately gives way, dropping Bartz, Krile, and Boko down to
a small underground cave. After hitting the ground, Bartz and Krile start
getting into an argument over whose fault it was they ended up here, but
it's cut a bit short when a pair of pincers pop out of the ground...

- Boss Battle -
Antolyon - Lv: 34   HP: 8100   Weakness: Water

Honestly, couldn't they have gotten this name right? It's supposed to be
"Antlion". ^_^  Oh well, whatever. This battle would be easy if you had your
entire team, but since it's just Bartz and Krile, it's kinda tough. Physical
attacks don't seem very effective, so stick with Ice3 and Aqua Rake. After
the antlion takes about 6000 damage, it'll run away, and you'll get 5ABP.

After chasing off the monster, Bartz grumbles about falling in a monster's
nest, then you regain control. After a couple seconds, a rope is lowered
into the pit, but everytime you try to grab it, it gets pulled up a little
bit. After an amusing scene where Bartz tries a bunch of things to try and
grab it, the person at the other end decides that she's had enough fun, and
allows Bartz and his friends to climb up. ^_^  At the top, you'll be met by
none other than Faris. Yup, she was the one toying with you. Anyway, after
she chews you out for leaving her behind, she explains that being a princess
isn't a life she cares to lead, then rejoins your party. Just before
leaving, Krile mentions having been pricked by a thorn...

After you're finished here, you'll automatically be returned to the world
map. Just keep heading west from here (you might notice your airship sitting
on the bird-shaped peninsula, but there's no way to get to it just yet), and
you'll eventually come across a cave in the mountains. Enter.


- New Cave -
Treasures: None

This should seem familiar... Very soon after you enter this small cave,
you'll find...Sage Gill! After Bartz flips him over (he was laying on his
back =P), Gill laughs, and says that the shock of the two worlds melding
together must've flipped him over, and that he can't do a thing when that
happens! At this, Bartz realizes that X-Death wasn't lying after all... Gill
is also amazed by this, and explains that the legends were true...the two
worlds really *were* one. He then tells you the legend of how 1000 years
ago, a demon called Enuo controlled the power of the Void...the power of
"Nothingness". After a long battle, the people were eventually able to
defeat Enuo using the power of the 12 sealed weapons, but they were unable
to destroy the Void. As a desperate last resort, the people split the
crystals in two in an attempt to seal the void, which resulted in the planet
being split in two as well, and the power of the Void ended up sealed in a
dimension called the "N-Zone", trapped between the two worlds. (Yes, this
summary seems hurried...but this really is pretty much all Gill says about
the old legend.)

Bartz starts to mention something about the crystals having been destroyed,
but before he can finish, Krile collapses in pain, mumbling something about
the thorns. Suddenly, some splinters of wood rise from Krile, which float to
the center of the room, then transform into...X-Death! (Hey, he *was* a
tree...so I guess he can transform into wood at will. It's not really
explained that well, though.) X-Death starts laughing about how his real
goal is to control the power of the Void, which is why he merged the two
worlds together in the first place! He basically says that he intends to
succeed where Euno failed, and with the two worlds reunited as one once
again, the N-Zone is also trying to return. To demonstrate his new power,
X-Death begins by sucking Tycoon Castle into the Void! A brief scene shows
of the chaos there as Reina tries to escape, and a short while later, the
entire castle collapses into an ominous black hole... Bartz and the team,
highly ticked off at what he just did, and very worried about Reina, start
threatening X-Death, but he just effortlessly blows them back across the
room with a bolt of lightning as they try to step forward. He then continues
to gloat about his new power, and blows Bartz and the group back yet again
as they try a second time to attack him. At this point, Gill has apparently
had enough of the arrogant mage, and literally throws himself at X-Death,
knocking him back. =P  He and X-Death begin to duel, but after a while,
deciding that it's a waste of time to fight with a reptile, X-Death uses
the power of the Void to cause a weird gravity reaction, which sends your
team flying... X-Death laughs again, and the scene fades.


--- "Secret in the Desert" ---

A short while later, your team awakens in a field, and Gill asks Bartz what
the building in the south is. Bartz takes a look, and tells him that it's
the Ancient Library. Gill gets excited at this, saying that the library was
in the other world all along, and now that they can put the two halves of
the Sealed Book together, they just might have a chance at defeating
X-Death. He takes off ahead, and you're automatically brought to the
library.


- Ancient Library -
Treasures: MP Song (Song)

Upon entering, Gill is greeted by scholars from Surgate Castle, and everyone
enters the "study area" in the back to discuss their next move. Gill turns
the staircase into a table by flipping a switch, and after everyone sits
down, two scholars reunite the two halves of the sealed book, which Gill
proceeds to read. It mentions the 12 legendary weapons sealed in Kuza
Castle, and that the key to breaking the seals lies in four hidden
lithographs. It then gives clues as to the whereabouts of them...

- "With the spirit of the past, one is protected by the earth."
- "In an island temple, one is protected by wind."
- "In a place deeper than the ocean floor, one is protected by flame."
- "Behind the place where the water falls, one is protected by water."

After revealing the clues, the book also reveals that "their servants" were
also sealed up, and that when the lithographs are moved, their power will
be released... Finally, it says to "throw this book into the gate, and the
way to the seal will be shown to you", meaning you need the book itself to
break the seals at the locations where the lithographs are hidden. Gill and
the scholars immediately realize that the first of the clues likely refers
to the pyramid in the nearby desert. Bartz and the others agree to look for
it, Gill gives them the Sealed Book, and you'll regain control.

The first thing you should do here is go up to the roof, where one of the
scholars will teach you "MP Song". I might as well warn you... You won't be
able to return to the library after completing the pyramid, so get this as
soon as possible. Also, if you missed anything in the basement, get it now.
Finally, if you'd like to read the Sealed Book again, you can do so by
talking to either Gill or the scholar in purple sitting at the table in the
lower right corner of the room. Anyway, when you're ready, head out to the
west. (Though should the need arise, you can buy supplies at Surgate, which
is now located immediately north of the library.) Isn't that new world map
music just...depressingly cool? ;)

Before you actually reach the desert, you'll come across a small circular
patch of trees in the middle of the road, which is pretty much all that's
left of Moore Forest. Here, you'll find the Elder's Tree, and there'll be a
bit of dialogue in which the team reminisces about all the lives that have
been lost... Now leave the forest via the the path on the left, and continue
towards the desert. There's another short scene when you first enter, in
which Bartz and the others comment on how the Sand Tides have completely
stopped, and that without the crystal the Earth is beginning to weaken...
Afterwards, you're returned to the world map. Since the Sand Tides have
stopped flowing, you can now just walk across the desert, which is, of
course, where you'll find the pyramid. (You can also walk across the desert
if you'd like, and you'll find Moore Village on the other side. But there's
no real need to go there just yet.)


- Pyramid -
Treasures: Dark Matter x7, Elixir x4, 8000 GP, 9000 GP, 10000 GP, 12000 GP,
           Ice Shield, Flame Shield, Ribbon, HairOrnament, Protect Ring,
           Hex Ring, Thornlet, Crystalmail, White Robe, Black Robe,
           BlackCostume, Earth Hammer, Cottage

Ok, you're here, but you're not exactly inside yet. Walk up and examine the
door, and the Sealed Book will react. The two gargoyle statues on either
side of the door then come to life and attack!

- Boss Battle -
Gargoyle (x2) - Lv: 33   HP: 5000

These demons are *really* irritating. They're easy enough to defeat, and use
only moderate strength physical attacks, but if you kill one, it just comes
back to life with full HP! The only way to you can win is to defeat both
Gargoyles at once. This can be accomplished easily by using spells like the
third level black magics, Aero3, Aqua Rake, or just $toss. You'll only get
10 ABP for your reward, though...

After you've defeated the gargoyles, the pyramid door will open. Step
inside...

This has to be one of the biggest areas in the game. There're a total of 28
chests here, and more than half of them also contain monsters. Definitely
not a place you'd want to try and explore fully with only three characters.
For this such reason, I've included two walkthroughs here: a "quick run",
which skips all treasures and side paths (which I recommend using for your
first trip through), and a detailed walkthrough leading to all the treasure
chests, for once Reina rejoins.

Quick Runthrough:
>From the entrance, head left, enter the door, and head up the stairs to the
next room. Here, go down, and the doors will close behind you, trapping you
in a room with a pair of snakes that you have little choice but to fight.
Once they're dead, flip all three switches to open the three doors, then go
up the next staircase. Ignore the three chests here (all contain monsters),
and go up the stairs on the right side of the room. Just be careful, as the
staircase will occasionally change to a "slide", which dumps you down to the
spikes below. This next area is a small maze filled with sand and robots. If
you can, try to avoid the robots, though they can be killed instantly by the
Sorcerer's Bolt3 sword, should you get caught by one of them. Ignoring the
rest of the distractions here, examine the coffin on the left side of the
room. It'll open, but a mummy jumps out, which you have to fight in order to
proceed. In typical RPG fashion, you'll end up fighting three of them,
but Fire3 will blow them all away. After they're out of the way, walk
through the passage behind the coffin and ascend the stairs. Use the save
point in this next room if you'd like, then move on. Go down the path to the
right, ignoring the secret passages, and climb the stairs here to reach a
room with three "sand waterfalls". Press the buttons near them to shut them
off, then climb the stairs in the lower part of the room. In the next area,
climb the stairs in the center of the room, and maneuvering your way through
the room with the moving holes, go down the stairs to the left. (Note: Even
though this is a quick runthrough, you might wanna go for the chests in this
room -- none have monsters in them, and they contain a Protect Ring, Ribbon,
and HairOrnament) Finally, carefully climb the stairs here, and go through
the door, which leads to an altar with the Lithograph on it. Well, that's
the quick way through the pyramid, but since there's so much treasure here,
you're definitely gonna want to return here once your team is back together.
For now, though, just skip to the paragraph beginning with "After taking the
lithograph".

Detailed Walkthrough:
I hope you've got a good hour or two to spare, because this place takes a
*long* time to fully explore. Before I actually get started, I'd like to
note that the enemies here are, for the most part, undead. For this reason,
L.5 Doom won't work on the large number of Level 35/40 enemies here, but
Requiem (and the Excalibur) are very effective. Anyway, start by heading all
the way to the left, bypassing the door for the moment, then heading up
until you come across three switches and a field of spikes. Press the
switches on the left and right (ignore the one in the middle), which forms a
safe path through the spikes. (Note that you *can* walk over spikes, but if
you do, you'll take damage, and your entire team will get poisoned.) Now
head down and right, but along the way, you'll find a weird "sand waterfall"
(which I'll refer to as a "sandfall", since you'll encounter more of these
later) blocking your path. If you step into it, you'll automatically be
pulled down the pit near it into a basement. Since there's no way around it
for the moment, just jump in. When you land, immediately grab the chest. It
contains monsters, but when you defeat them, you'll get an Ice Shield. After
getting it, head up a climb the stairs to get back to the main room, except
on the other side of that sandfall. Make your way down the long hall, and
climb up the nearby staircase, which leads to what appears to be a series of
tiny rooms. Using the thief's "Secret" ability reveals some small secret
passages connecting the rooms, so make your way through here, and go down
the stairs. You'll now be in a small enclosed area with a single coffin in
it. Open it, and you'll be ambushed by the king of all mummies!

- Boss Battle -
GrandMummy - Lv: ??   HP: 6000   Weakness: Fire

Heh. This isn't really much of a boss battle, but the GrandMummy is a unique
enemy, so... All you really need to do here is cast Fire3, which does about
5500 damage, then use a decent strength physical attack to finish it off.
You'll get 5 ABP and a Potion for your 'hard-earned victory'. =P

Once you've defeated the mummy, enter the coffin behind it and take the
chest to get a Hex Ring, a cursed accessory with extremely high defense, but
with the side effect of putting the wearer in permanent "Condemned" status.
Like the Bonemail, this also frequently gets auto-equipped when changing
jobs, etc. In fact, you might not wanna bother taking it at all. ^_^  Ok,
you've got everything on this side of the pyramid, so return to the entrance
now. (You can flip the switch near the sandfall to shut it off, BTW.)

Ok, now go in the door nearest to the entrance and climb the stairs behind
it. You'll end up in a room with three doors, all of which close once you
enter the hall with the switches. Defeat the snakes that pop out, then use
the switches to reopen the doors: the one on the left opens the lower door,
the one in the middle opens the upper door, and the one on the right opens
the central door. Continue up the stairs, and open the three chests directly
above you. They contain, from left to right, a Flame Shield, a Dark Matter,
and a White Robe. All have monsters in them, as well. After getting them,
climb the stairs on the right side of the room, but watch out, as every so
often, the steps leading to the staircase will change into a slide, which
causes you to slide down to some spikes below. Ouch. ^_^

In this next room, which is a small maze filled with sand and robots, smash
or avoid the robots as you see fit (Bolt3 does about 5000 damage, and Bolt3
Sword kills them instantly), and grab the two chests on the side altars to
get two Elixirs (one from each chest), then check the coffin on the ledge
between them. You'll get attacked by three generic mummies, which can be
taken out easily with Fire3, and can be instantly killed by Fire3 Sword.
Once they've been defeated, take the chest in the back to get a Thornlet.
Like the Bonemail and Hex Ring, this helmet has high defense, but it slowly
decreases your HP, and also gets auto-equipped often. Bah. Anyway, whether
or not you want this, go to the lower left side of the room and flip the
switch to lower the spikes (watch out...it also releases a pair of snakes),
and grab the chest at the end of the path where they once were to find
monsters and a powerful Black Robe. Give this to a mage as soon as possible;
it's really good. You're done with this room, so examine the coffin above it
to fight three more mummies, then take the staircase behind it to reach a
small room with a save point in it. Save, then proceed forward.

Wow... This is long. And you're not even half done. O_o  In this hallway,
head left and through the door to find a pair of chests containing monsters,
which give up Crystalmail and Dark Matter when defeated. Get both items,
then head back out to the hall and head right. There's a door at the top of
the right hallway, but it's locked from the other side, so don't worry about
it for right now. At the *bottom* of the hallway, there's a secret passage
leading to two small rooms. The lower one is empty, but the upper one has a
chest containing monsters and a BlackCostume. Now head back to the left, and
climb up the lower staircase. Oh, one odd thing about this room is that
occasionally, you'll encounter the "Bludgeoner", a mini-boss of sorts, in
random battles.

- Boss Battle -
Bludgeoner - Lv: 41   HP: 6000

Like the GrandMummy, the Bludgeoner is more of a unique enemy than an actual
boss. It has low HP and no real strengths, so just beat it to death with
physical attacks and magic. You won't actually get anything for winning,
(well, you get small amounts of Exp and GP, and 7 ABP =P) but before dying,
the Bludgeoner says that you'll "never defeat his brother in the tower". Um,
ok.

This next room has three sandfalls in it, all of which can be deactivated by
flipping the switches next to them. Before doing this, though, let yourself
be pulled down the first one, and you'll reach a previously inaccessable
room containing a chest with monsters and a Dark Matter. The secret passage
to the left leads back to that locked door you just passed a short while
ago, so just make your way back to the room with the sandfalls. Don't bother
falling down the other two, since they just lead to an empty room and a room
with a chest you should've already gotten anyhow. (The rooms that the lower
secret passage in the previous hallway lead to.) Instead, enter the door on
the right side of the room. The room behind the door has four chests in it,
which are blocked by a wall with two switches. Pressing the one on the right
causes you to fall back to the room where you just found the Dark Matter,
whereas the one on the right causes the wall to slide back, allowing you to
get the chests. On the left, both chests contain monsters and Dark Matter,
and on the right, the chests contain 8000 GP and 9000 GP, respectively. No
monsters in these. =P  Phew. You're now finished in the sandfall room, so
head down and enter the staircase at the bottom of said room.

You're almost at the end... Have patience. Start by going up the staircase
in the center of the room, which leads to a room with three chests and some
moving pits. Actually, the pits don't really move...the room just alternates
between two 'phases'. It's hard to explain...you'll understand when you see
it. Basically, the best way to deal with this room is to look for tiles that
*don't* turn into holes in either phase, then use that opportunity to grab
the chests and cross over to the two staircases. The chests here contain
three very valuable items: a Ribbon, a HairOrnament, and a Protect Ring, and
surprisingly, none of them have monsters inside! Before going down either
staircase, however, let yourself fall down any of the pits, and you'll land
in an sealed room with a chest containing an Elixir. After getting it, go
through the upper door, and head right through the secret passage to get two
chests containing 10000 GP and a Cottage, then head back to the left. A
chest in another secret passage this way holds monsters and an Earth Hammer,
whereas another secret passage nearby leads back to the area just below the
room with the moving pits. Climb back up to the room in question, and first,
take the stairs on the right. One chest here contains a large sum of money
(12000 GP, to be exact), and another contains monsters and a Dark Matter.
After getting them, return once again to the pit room, and this time, go
left. The chests here contain an Elixir and another Dark Matter (with...yep,
yoy guess it, monsters). But these're the last of the chests here! Yaaay!
Head up the staircase here, and you'll find the Lithograph on an altar in
the next room. Yes, you're *finally* done with the entire pyramid! =P

After taking the lithograph, the floor begins to rise up, and you'll end up
outside, on the very top of the pyramid. As soon as you arrive here, the
ground begins to shake, and you're shown a scene of the bird-shaped
peninsula sinking into the ocean, and a dragon rising from up from where it
once was... This is Bahamut, King of the Dragons... He flies to the pyramid,
but instead of attacking you, he merely states that he'll be waiting for you
on the North Mountains, then flies off. After he's gone, Faris notices
something in the distance...a ship! There's a short scene of a ship sailing
up and docking on the shore near Surgate, and back at the pyramid, you
regain control.

You're done here (for now), so just leave, and head back towards the Ancient
Library. Along the way, you'll pass through the Elder Tree's Forest again,
where you'll be stopped by a flying dragon, which lands, deposits an
unconscious Reina on the ground, then flies off. Your team immediately runs
over to see if Reina is all right, but as soon as you approach her, she
stands up and states that "this body is mine"! Someone (I have no idea who)
then shouts that Reina is possessed by Mellusion, one of the demons that was
sealed in the N-Zone! To make matters worse, your old buddy X-Death also
picks this moment to show up for his usual round of taunts. His first order
of business is to "cook that turtle", which he does...by sucking the entire
Ancient Library into the Void! (See why I told you to get MP Song as soon as
possible? ;) X-Death then orders Mellusion to kill you, and taunts you about
having to fight your friend. Fortunately, the little dragon returns and
apparently sacrifices itself, which causes the demon to leave Reina's body.
Seeing an opportunity, Bartz and the others attack!

- Boss Battle -
Mellusion - Lv: 29   HP: 20000   Weakness: Fire (At beginning of battle)

Mellusion is immune to physical attacks (even $toss does 0 damage) as well
as any elements other than Fire, Ice, and Lightning. She'll be weak against
one of these, and absorb the other two; when she uses WallChange, her
weakness shifts. There are essentially two ways to win here. Either scan her
whenever she does WallChange, then cast a spell of the appropriate element
(Fire 3, Ice 3, and Bolt 3 are your best options right now); or cast
non-elemental spells, like Comet and Blow Fish. Defeat her for 20 ABP.

Once Mellusion is dead, X-Death disappears. Reina then wakes up, babbles
something about "the darkness consuming her", then rejoins your party.
You're then automatically returned to the world map. Oh, and you might wanna
consider doing something about Reina, who rejoins the party dead. ^_^

Well, since you've got noplace left to report to, you're gonna have to find
something else to do, so you might as well head for the ship that docked
near Surgate -- it belongs to you, anyway. =P  As soon as you board it,
the ship takes flight, and the team begins talking about X-Death and the 12
sealed weapons, among other things. Meanwhile, in the heart of the N-Zone,
X-Death is having fun with his new little toy, and decides to test it
further. He sucks Walz and Easterly in the Void, and the scene shifts back
to the airship, where Bartz screams for him to stop. If anything, though,
X-Death just gets more heartless, as his next two targets are Moogle Village
and Rikks, Bartz's hometown! At this, Bartz completely loses it, and starts
flying the airship across the world at super speed for no particular reason.
After a moment, his friends are able to calm him down... Thankfully, X-Death
doesn't suck anything else into the Void, so the world is safe... But for
how long...?   You now regain control of the airship...


--- "The Land Unknown" ---

...Ugh. Why'd they have to add that irritating propellor sound? ^_^  Anyway,
now that you have the airship, you've got pretty much the full run of the
world. You still can't get to a couple places, though (such as the huge
desert on the east side of the world and the cave near Easterly, neither of
which have anyplace to land), and your submarine seems to have mysteriously
vanished, so there's no more underwater travel. For a while, anyway.
Finally, your dragon and black chocobo have also vanished, but you can get
them both back really easily. Now down to the...err...good stuff. I guess.
Most of the areas from the previous two worlds are still here, but there're
a few that aren't. Here's the lowdown of what's no longer accessable, not
counting areas that were already destroyed:

- As you already know, Tycoon Castle, the Ancient Library, Walz, Easterly
  Village, Rikks, and Moogle Village were all sucked into the void. Nothing
  remains of them except huge black holes where they once were.
- X-Death's Castle is gone, but the N-Zone entrance is pretty close to where
  it used to be.
- The caves connecting Val and the Big Bridge seem to have mysteriously
  vanished. Too bad, too, since the "Gilgame's Hoard" sub-quest would've
  been a lot easier in the third world.
- The little tunnel near Lugor where you rescued the moogle in the second
  world is gone, as is the small forest where you first met the moogle.
  Actually, the forest is still there, you just can't enter it.
- What remained of Moore Forest is now gone; all that's left is a small
  forest west of the desert where the Elder's Tree is.
- The Sand Tides have stopped flowing, so there's no more need to enter. You
  can now just walk through the desert.
- Speaking of the desert, the Ship Graveyard has been covered by the one in
  the northeast. Good riddance, I say.
- The north entrance to Jacohl Cave (the one in the mountains) was covered
  up by Val Castle. Actually, this is to your benefit... (See the "Cave to
  the Locked Basement" sub-quest.)
- The underground ruins where you found the airship are covered up by the
  appearance of a tower from the second world. You can open it again later,
  however.
- Both chocobo forests (the one near Crescent Town, and the one on the
  forest island north of Moore Village) are gone without a trace.
- The Big Bridge, while still in existance, can't actually be entered
  anymore. In fact, it doesn't really even connect to anything now.
- All the meteorites are now gone. They're not needed, anyhow.

Ok, now for some exploration. From here, pretty much everything is a
sub-quest, but I'm considering the quests to find the other three
lithographs (and the 12 sealed weapons) to be mandatory, which is why
they're listed in the main walkthrough. If you want to beat the game right
now, be my guest -- you can enter the N-Zone at any time by flying over the
"Void Hole" where Tycoon Castle once was, but you'll probably, to quote a
friend of mine, "get your ass handed to you" if you try it at this early
stage. ^_^ 

If you'd like to gather some assorted items and spells, see the "Odds and
Ends" sub-quest. There're two other sub-quests you can also do right now
("Mirages", and "Cave to the Locked Basement"), and with Reina back on the
team, you'll probably want to loot the pyramid, but ultimately, you're gonna
want to head for Kuza Castle, which is located in the place where X-Death
was sealed in the first world.


- Kuza Castle -
Treasures: Excalibur, Assassin, Sasuke, Holy Lance, Rune Axe, Masamune,
           Yoichi's Bow, Fire Bute, Sage Staff, Magus Rod, Apollo Harp,
           Earth Bell

When you enter, you'll find the group of scholars at the entrance hall,
which are the same ones you met *waaaay* back at the Wind Shrine. Most will
give you clues as to where the other Lithographs are found, one will bring
out a jar of healing water he brought from the shrine (which you can use to
restore HP and MP), and the head scholar in the center of the room will read
you the Sealed Book if you ask him to.

Head upstairs, through the halls, and you'll eventually reach the room where
the 12 sealed weapons are...well...sealed! Place the Lithograph on the
glowing altar, and you'll be told that you can unseal three of the weapons
for each Lithograph you bring here. There're four total, meaning you'll
eventually be able to get all the items here. Have a look at all the sealed
weapons (which are listed above), then take the three that you like. I
suggest that the first ones you take be Excalibur, Masamune, and either the
Assassin Knife or the Holy Lance, but it's up to you. (Note that "Apolon
Harp" is really the Apollo Harp, and "Ninja Blade" is really the Sasuke
Knife...wonderful translation, no? Oh, and for the...ehem..."lazy", the Fire
Bute is a whip. ^_^) After you've picked out your three weapons, the
Lithograph shatters, and you're finished here for the time being. As you
start to leave, there'll be a short scene at the N-Zone, where X-Death sends
his monsters out to try and stop you from claiming the 12 sealed weapons.
(...Why bother? If I were him, I'd just suck Kuza Castle into the Void and
be done with it. But I suppose that'd be too easy. =P)

One last thing of note is that if you came here in the second world, you may
notice a bizarre new enemy here. It's not a mini-boss (since you can
enounter them as random enemies), but it's...a palette swap of X-Death!
It's called an "X-DethSoul"; I'm not too sure if there's anything special
about them,  but they always drop Dark Matter when defeated, and for some
reason, the background music of Kuza Castle continues to plays when you
fight them. *shrug*  Just leave the castle.


--- "The Forgotten Temple" ---

Back on the world map, your next mission is to find the second lithograph.
Your only clue to its whereabouts are in the Sealed Book, but it shouldn't
be too overly difficult to find. The clue states that it's "on an island
temple", right? Well, remember back in the first world, there was a temple
on an island completely surrounded by mountains with no possible way in?
That's where the Lithograph is. Luckily for you, the Big Bridge happened to
appear right over that very island, which gives you a way to enter.


- Island Shrine -
Treasures: 12000 GP, 9000 GP, Ether x2, Elixir, Razor Ring, Protect Ring,
           CrystalHelmt, Beast Killer, Circlet, Dragon Fang, Dark Matter

Ugh. This place is almost as annoying as the pyramid. It's not that it's
particularly big, or that it's designed as a maze, it just has some
incredibly annoying monsters in it. The purple-robed Druids can use all four
of the L.# spells. This can be beneficial if you haven't learn them yet, but
since this is *all* they use, they can mess you up pretty badly. The giant
birds called "Tote Avis" are also noteworthy, as they have over 30,000 HP
(not a typo), and no weaknesses. If you encounter them, you're probably
better off running away. The one good thing about them is that you can steal
Ab Splitters from them, which are fairly strong bows (though not as strong
as Yoichi's Bow). The other enemies here are pretty ordinary, but those two
are enough to make this place a chore. ^_^

Anyhow, at the entrance, walk up and examine the door. As with the pyramid,
the Sealed Book reacts, and the two nearby gargoyle statues rise and attack
you. They're the same as the ones you fought at the pyramid, so it's not
necessary to give a strategy here. After you defeat them, the door opens,
and you're granted entrance.

Head up through the door, and in the next room, follow a secret passage up
through the wall on the right to reach a hidden chest containing 12000 GP.
After getting it, go back the way you just came, go down the stairs to the
left, and stand in front of the tube, which sucks you through a series of
pipes until you eventually come out in a doorless room with two switches.
The switches here, when flipped, change the vacuum currents of the tube you
came out of. Or something like that. Whatever the case, there're four
different places you can end up, depending on the positions of the two
switches. Needless to say, you won't get very far if neither of the switches
are flipped, as this just causes you to get sucked back to the room you just
came from. If both switches are flipped, you'll end up in a room with a
chest containing 9000 GP. If only the right switch is flipped, the tube
spits you out in a room with another chest, this one containing an Elixir.
Finally, if only the left switch is flipped, you'll be sent to a room with a
chest and a door. The door leads further in, while the chest contains...
monsters. Even better, it's a mini-boss! Yay! =P

- Boss Battle -
Invisible - Lv: 52   HP: 7000

A pretty normal battle. After a while, he splits into two; both attack, but
only one can be hit at a time. Still, not too tough; just stay healed and
use whatever attacks suit you. You win 5ABP and no items.

- Boss Battle -
Pantera - Lv: 42   HP: 18000   Weakness: Fire

Once in a while, you'll fight this thing instead of Invisible. It's much
tougher; it splits into three images early on in the battle, and they keep
hitting you with Blaster, which can paralyze or kill you. Only one of them
is the real one, and the other two can't be damaged; however, the real one
will stay in the same place throughout the battle. Don't waste time here;
use a group attack to locate the real one, then blast it with Fire 3. You
get 5 ABP and no items; nothing more than you'd get from Invisible. Since
this fight is much harder, I recommend just running away and checking the
chest again to fight Invisible instead.

After defeating either enemy, you'll get the contents of the chest: a Razor
Ring, the second of only two "icon-less" thief/ninja weapons. It's basically
a greatly upgraded version of the Moonring, so if you have any Thieves or
Ninjas in your team, be sure to give this to them.

Ok, enough talk about a single treasure. Head through the door, which leads
to the usual 'small room with a save point'. Save if you'd like, then
proceed forward, and you'll end up in a big wide-opened room. There're three
chests here: The one directly above the entrance contains monsters and a
Protect Ring, the one on the right side of the room (through a secret
passage) contains a CrystalHelmt, and the easy-to-get one on the left side
of the room only contains an Ether. Take them, then go around to the upper
left and take the staircase. There's a secret passage on the right side of
this room that leads directly to the staircase, but unfortunately, you can't
actually *use* it, since there's a hidden pit directly in front of it that
drops you down to an out-of-the-way place on the previous floor. Just ignore
it, and enter the nearby door, in which you'll find a single chest that has
the Beast Killer, a strong whip, inside it. After claiming the treasure, go
back out and walk around the left side of the narrow room. There's actually
nothing at all on down the right hall, so just go up the stairs when you
reach them.

The room you end up in is empty, but the one that follows it has a couple
chests in it. The one on the left has another Ether inside it, while the one
on the right contains a Dragon Fang. Both chests have hidden pits on the
space directly below them, so if you want them, take them from above or from
the side. And don't bother with the two staircases on either side of the
room, as all they're for is a way out of an empty room you end up in if you
fall in one of the pits near the chests. Just go up through the door in the
center. After another small save point room, you'll be in the room where the
lithograph is (though you could probably have figured that one out,
considering the change in music. =P)

Instead of just rushing in the central room, however, check the corridors on
the sides of it to find chests containing a Dark Matter and a Circlet,
respectively. Once you've gotten them, go up through the door, and you'll
find the Lithograph sitting on an alter. When you go to take it, though, one
of X-Death's servants appears to make things more difficult for you.

- Boss Battle -
Stoker - Lv: 7   HP: 20000

Depending on your luck, this battle could be very easy, or very hard. Yes,
there *are* four Stokers here, and at first, all are valid targets. However,
after any of them are hit once, the battle changes, and only one of them
will take damage. Furthermore, this one vulnerable target changes *very*
frequently...we're talking it'll sometimes change three times in a row,
before you can even *move*! =P (You'll know when it does this when one of
them 'flashes', but no attack follows.) So basically, you only have two
choices: you can either use physical attacks and hope you hit the right
target, or you can try mass attacks, which guarantee a hit. The choice
sounds obvious, but watch out, as if hit with the latter, Stoker counters
with the "Dark" Blaze, sometimes 2-4 times successively. While it only does
250 or so damage per hit, this can quickly add up, especially considering it
also slowly decreases your HP. If you intend to fight Stoker this way, I
suggest casting Shell on all allies first (or better, just cast Guardian if
you know it). As for the others of the Stokers' attacks...well, it doesn't
have that many, and they aren't that strong at all. Its only noteworthy
attack is Mind Blast, and only for the reason that your Blue Mages can learn
it, since it isn't that damaging, either. The last thing of note here is
that you can steal a Dark Matter from each of the Stokers, and it's fairly
easy to do so. It may take a while, but since all four Stokers share the
same HP, you'll eventually defeat it, and earn 20 ABP for your troubles.

Once this demon is out of the way, you're free to take the lithograph. Upon
doing so, however, there's a reaction. The scene shifts over to Fork Tower,
(the southern tower from the second world that ended up outside Crescent
Town when the worlds merged) and the barrier surrounding the entrance drops.
You're then told that powerful white and black magics exist there, but that
you must take them at the same time, or they'll explode. (Actually, I think
they meant "or the *tower* will explode". Love this translation. =P)
Whatever the case, you'll get the second lithograph after the dialogue ends.
There's nothing else you need here, so use Telepo to escape, claim your
three sealed weapons from Kuza Castle, then head for that tower!


--- "Seperation and Reunion" ---

Fork Tower is a strange place. Without any actual info, you may not make it
very far, so it'd probably be a good idea to go clue hunting at the nearby
Crescent Town first.

- Crescent Town -
Treasures: None

There's not much going on around here now, but a couple old ladies tell you
about some old legends about tower; they might be more helpful if their
dialogue was properly translated, though. One mentions that "the tower on
the right is the tower of power", and that "no amount of strength can save
you". Another one mentions that the tower on the *left* is the "tower of
power", and that "no amount of magic can save you". These're clues to the
tower, but I think the first "tower of power" should've been the "tower of 
magic". You'll see why in a minute.

In addition to those 'helpful' old ladies, there's someone else of note
here. Somewhere around the east side of town, you'll find your old friend
Mid, who appears to be running around in a panic. Talking to him reveals
that the tower appeared right over the entrance to the ruins, and as a
result, Cid is trapped underground! You'll be remedying that problem soon
enough, though, so don't worry about it. Just head for the tower.


- Fork Tower -
Treasures: Ether, Potion, Wonder Wand, Defender, Holy (White Magic),
           Flare (Black Magic)

If you tried to come here before completing the Island Shrine, you were
stopped cold by a forcefield. Now that it's gone, you're free to enter and
search for the powerful white and black magics said to have been sealed
here. Head straight up towards the two portals, and your team, knowing full
well that the results will be disastrous if the two spells aren't taken at
the same time, decide to split up. Keeping in mind what the two ladies at
Crescent Town said, send two magic users through the portal on the left, and
two fighters through the portal on the right. Once all your characters have
been assigned a path, the game switches to the team that went left.

This tower is really linear, and both sides are symmetrical, so you should
have no trouble getting through here. Heck, it's not too hard to get through
either tower with only a single character. =P  On the "Magic" side, the
enemies, as you'd expect, should *only* be attacked with magic. Physical
attacks will damage them, but most will counter with Meteo, which will
almost certainly kill you. Anyhow, climb up the tower, collecting the chests
along the way to get an Ether and a Wonder Wand, and at the top, the scene
will switch to those who went to the right.

You should be familiar with this path...it's exactly the same as the one you
just went through, only a different color, and it's reversed. As you'd
figure, the enemies here are also the opposite. Only physical attacks should
be used against them, as they'll counter spells with four strong physical
attacks. Though it's nothing compared to the damage of Meteo, it's still
best not to screw around here. Along the way, you'll find chests containing
a Potion, and a Defender (nice strong sword!), and once you reach the top,
there'll be a brief conversation between the two teams regarding the timing.
The right team goes up to take the magic, and they, of course, get attacked.

- Boss Battle -
Minitaurus - Lv: ??   HP: 19850

I guess this guy is the Bludgeoner's "Brother in the tower". Anyways, this
battle is harder than it seems. The Minotaur's attacks are strong (500 to
600 damage worth), and you're unable to use magic here *at all*, meaning
you're stuck using lousy non-magical healing methods (like Potions). Also,
if you've got someone equipped with the Excalibur, swap it with the Defender
you just found. The Minotaur absorbs holy attacks, and the Excalibur (which
is Holy elemental) will actually heal it! Other than that, there's not a
whole lot to say here... Just keep attacking, and try to stay alive. Or, you
can beat him the cheap way: Change into a Knight with the Counter ability,
or a Monk with Guard, and just keep using Guard for the whole battle. Since
he only uses physical attacks, you won't take any damage, and you'll counter
his attacks. =P  Be careful, though, since countering takes you out of Guard
status, so if he hits you again before your turn, you'll take damage. This
is rare, though, and it shouldn't be a problem if you equip a Protect Ring;
if it happens a second time, you'll have regenerated enough to survive. With
this setup, you can beat him with a single character! =P  At the end of the
battle, Minitaurus will try casting Holy on you, but he doesn't have enough
MP. =P  You'll get 20 ABP for winning.

After the battle, you'll obtain Holy, the ultimate white magic, and the
scene will shift to the team on the left, who, upon trying to take the magic
on that side, *also* gets attacked.

- Boss Battle -
Omniscient - Lv: 53   HP: 16999   Weakness: Wind

Contrary to the previous battle, this one is actually *easier* than it
seems. Magic doesn't seem to do much damage to Omniscient, but the reason
for that is simply because he starts the battle in "Shell" status. Dispel
will fix this. ^_^  With his defense back to normal, blast him with Aero3,
as his weakness is wind; Fire3, Ice3, and Bolt3 are also effective. Another
reason this battle is so easy is because Omniscient won't actually start
attacking for several rounds. Usually, he'll just cast status enhancing
spells on himself, which can all be removed with Dispel. The only things to
watch out for are that after he's done pumping himself up, Omniscient *will*
start using powerful attack spells on you. And at the end of the battle, he
casts Flare, which, unlike the Minitaurus's attempt at Holy, *does* work. It
does 2000+ damage (if the target isn't protected by Shell), so it just might
kill the one it hits... Again, you'll get 20 ABP for winning.

When the wizard is dead, you'll receive Flare, the ultimate Black Magic, and
the tower will quietly disappear...


Back on the world map, Fork Tower and the little desert it was sitting in
are both gone, allowing you to enter the underground ruins again. Board your
airship and head down there. When you arrive, take the staircase in the
center of the main room, and you'll find Cid, who appears to be "going for a
spin" on one of the wheel devices. =P  Bartz gets the old man down off of
it, and a moment later, Mid runs in. Cid then announces that he found a book
with some new technology in it...how to convert an airship into a submarine!
Bartz gives them the thumbs up on this project, and the two scientists rush
off to do their job. There's another of those "Ten Cids and Mids are working
on the airship in fast motion" scenes, and a bit later, Mid walks up on the
deck and announces to Krile (who's currently the only one here) that they're
just about done. There's a bit of dialogue between the two, where Mid says
that Cid believes it's his fault that the world is the way it is, and that
he wants to make things right by using his inventions for peace. They talk a
bit more, then Cid and the others show up, and Cid tells them that he's
finished with the upgrade. He then explains the controls of the airship/sub
transformation, which is pretty much the same as when you travelled to Ronka
Ruins back in the first world. The only difference being that the up/down
arrows appear when you press the X button on the ocean, rather than in the
air. Afterwards, he wishes you luck, and the airship takes off, accompanied
by some heroic music.


--- "The Ocean Floor" ---

Now that you have the Submarine back, you'll have access to several more
areas. First off, the Great Sea Trench, which is the lone dot in the middle
of the ocean on the far east side of the world. (You may have seen it in the
second world, but were unable to enter it.) This is where the third
lithograph is, but you might wanna put that off for a second. Other areas
you can go include Walz Tower (See "The Lost Shard" in the sub-quests
section), an undersea cave near Karnak (which is mentioned in the "Odds and
Ends" sub-quest), and a cave in the north that you should just ignore for
the time being. When you've had your fill of undersea exploration, head for
the Great Sea Trench.

- Great Sea Trench -
Treasures: Ether, Phoenix Down, Water Skill, Dragon Fang, Fire Ring,
           KaisrKnuckle, Meteo (Time Magic)

A little ways inside the cave, you'll come to the usual sight: A door with
two gargoyles in front of it that attack when you try to pass. Defeat them,
and the Sealed Book will open the door for you. 

Compared to the Pyramid and the Island Shrine, the Great Sea Trench is
actually fairly short, but the "Unknown" monsters here are quite annoying.
For one thing, they're all pretty resistant to physical attacks, meaning
you'll have little choice but to stick with magic. Holy is effective against
them, as is Requiem (they're all undead). Also, under no circumstances
should you *ever* use physical attacks against one of the drooling pink
demons! They'll counter with "Possess", which kills them, but also removes
the attacker from battle, preventing him/her from gaining Exp or ABP! Should
you encounter a group of them, try using Water Skills plus any third level
attack spells to wipe them all out. A little ways in, you'll also encounter
enemies that appear to be hanging skeletons. These things can use Condemned,
one of the Blue Magics, so pick it up if you missed it earlier. They also
have high HP and the same annoying defense, but can be killed with a single
casting of Holy.

Anyway, from the entrance, head all the way to the right until you come to a
fork in the road. Head south a little ways to get a chest containing a Water
Skill, then continue to the right and go down the staircase, which leads to
a small room with a save point in it. Save if you'd like, then go on to the
next room below. Here, flip the nearby skull switch to make a bridge appear
over the lava, then cross over and proceed to the right. The skull switch
here actually *breaks* the bridge above it, so don't push it, or you'll end
up having to go all the way around the room. There's nothing over there
anyway, so just cross the bridge and go up the stairs.

This next room has a bunch of skull switches in it, but all except one of
them, the one in the upper right corner of the room, cause pits to appear
below you when pressed. The lone exception causes a bridge to appear in the
upper left corner of the room, which leads to a chest containing a valuable
Fire Ring. After you get it, you have two options for reaching the floor
below. The first is to take the staircase in the lower right corner of the
room, but this puts you on a cliff near a river of lava, which you have no
choice but to walk across. (You'll take *massive* damage, but it can be
negated with a Geomancer or his Antitrap ability.) The other choice is to
flip one of the "pit" switches, which also dump you to the floor below. The
two on the right side of the room drop you into little pools of lava, but
the two on the left don't. Press either of them, and you won't have to set
foot in the lava at all.

Whatever you decide to do, in the room you end up in, grab the chest at the
top of the room to get a Dragon Fang, then go down the staircase below it
and to the right. Even if you were able to avoid having to walk in the lava
a bit ago, you'll have no choice here, as the entire room is filled with it.
Give someone the Antitrap ability (or put a Geomancer in your team), and
trek out into it. There's a chest on a ledge in the lower part of the room
containing an Ether, but where you really want to go is up the steps to the
right. Cross over the raised platform, and you'll have to walk down through
more lava. At the fork, going left gets you a chest containing a Phoenix
Down, while going right leads you to the next staircase.

Well, well! This's a surprise! Instead of another annoying enemy and lava
filled battlefield, you seem to have entered a small underground village...
the village of the dwarves! There's a save point in the center of the room,
a shop selling powerful weapons and armor in the room on the right (which is
pretty much the same stuff sold at Mirage Village, minus a few things; talk
to the merchant from the front or back to buy armor, and from the sides to
buy weapons), and some dwarves in the room on the left that will inform you
about the white water spring, which will allow you to recharge your Magic
Lamp! Also, if you go down the long tunnel to the left, you'll find a dwarf
who mentions that there seems to be something strange just above him. You're
then shown a shot of the world map (the item), and the "location marker" is
all the way over on the long, thin continent west of Crescent Town. This is
actually a clue to find Mirage Village. (Though you've probably already been
there if you're following this FAQ. =P) When you're done here, exit through
the stairs in the central part of the village, and you'll end up in a spring
with white water. This is what those dwarves mentioned just a second ago. If
your Magic Lamp's power has been used up, stepping in these waters will
recharge it instantly! Whether you need this feature or not, though, you'll
have to enter the water, as the cave leading deeper underground is behind
the small waterfall here.

You're almost at the end now, but there's still one more lava-filled room to
deal with. As if that and the monsters weren't bad enough already, this one
also seems to be a *puzzle* room! The chest on the ledge just right of where
you came in opens the door next to it, but since the room behind it is
filled with lava, you just end up getting pushed back by doing this. To the
right of this place is another chest, which is behind a closed door that can
be opened by flipping the skull switch on the cliff on the far right side of
the room. It contains KaisrKnuckles, an accessory which increases your hit
rate. After getting it, head straight down, and flip the skull switches in
this order: lower-left, upper-left, lower-right. This causes the lava behind
the door near the chest to drain. After doing this, you can open the door
without being pushed back, allowing you to enter the room with the
lithograph in it.

In the lithograph room, you won't even get a chance to *touch* the artifact
before more of X-Death's henchmen show up...

- Boss Battle -
Triton  - Lv: 37   HP: 13333   Weakness: Ice
Nergade - Lv: 20   HP: 13333   Weakness: Fire
Phobos  - Lv: 39   HP: 13333   Weakness: Earth

Think of this as a variant of the now-familiar Gargoyle battle. If you don't
kill all three of the monsters at the same time, the dead ones will revive
at full HP. What's more, when they do, they'll use "Delta Attack" to turn a
character to stone. Moral of the story: Kill them all at once. Requiem is
*extremely* useful here; if you give two or three characters the Sing
ability, you'll defeat them very quickly. Be careful, though; they have some
powerful spells. Cast Guardian to make things easier. You'll get the usual
20 ABP for winning.

Following the battle, you'll obtain the third lithograph, as well as Meteo,
the ultimate Time Magic (which the game mistakenly refers to as a monster).
Unless you have some unknown reasons for staying here, I suggest you leave
as soon as possible. Isn't Telepo great? ^_^ 


--- "Behind the Falls" ---

The Sealed Book's clue to the location of the last lithograph should be very
obvious: it's at Easterly Falls. The way of actually *getting* there,
though, isn't quite so clear, as neither the airship nor the black chocobo
have any room to land in the small desert near the falls. So what do you do?
Well, a bit ago, when you first got the submarine back, I mentioned an
undersea cave in the north that I suggested you just ignore. It's the same
cave from a the second world which used to lead to the Chocobo Forest, only
now it leads up to the desert next to Easterly Falls. Since it was just used
for a sub-quest back then, though, you may not have actually come here. It's
just a small tunnel with no chests or anything in it that leads directly to
the surface. The monsters here are fairly strong, but they really shouldn't
be anything you can't handle. Anyway, once you're back on the world map,
walk behind the falls to enter the last of the lithograph sites.


- Easterly Falls -
Treasures: Ether, Phoenix Down, Turtle Shell, Giant Drink, 12000 GP, 
           Air Lancet, Rune Edge, Wall Ring, MagiShuriken, Double Ax,
           Protect Ring, Aegis Shield, Enchanter, Artemis, Leviathan(Summon)

This time, the entrance is right in front of you. By now, you should know
the routine: Defeat the pair of gargoyles, and the door will open with the
help of the Sealed Book. Go inside.

In my opinion, this is probably the least annoying of the four lithograph
sites. It's long, sure, but there're no weird puzzles here, and the enemies,
with one exception, are all fairly simple to beat. Just about everything
here is weak to Bolt, so a Black Mage with Bolt3 or a Ninja with Lightning
Skills will be able to make short work of the enemies. The Mercury Bats have
a high evade rate, but their HP is so low that a single Fire/Water/Lightning
Skill or a third level spell will instantly kill them. They can also use Red
Feast, but I see no real reason why you shouldn't already know this skill.
=P  The only enemy I can envision anyone having trouble with are Tonberries
(which are called "Dinglberries" in this game, for some odd reason O_o).
They have just under 40,000 HP, and after a while, they'll start using
ridiculously powerful attacks which can kill a Monk at full HP in one hit.
Furthermore, physical attacks tend to be a bit unreliable against them. The
best thing to do if you meet one of these things is just to run away. Either
that, or try Odin, which *can* kill them. =P They may drop Mirage Vests when
you beat them.

But enough about the monsters. From the entrance, climb up the steps just
above you, then jump down either of the small waterfalls to get to the ledge
below. (Note that you can jump into *any* of the waterfalls here in order to
reach lower ledges, but of course, it's a one-way trip.) Now head left a
little ways, then climb up all the steps to reach a chest containing a
Turtle Shell. After getting it, climb back down and go left, up, then down a
waterfall to get the other chest in the immediate area, which holds an
Ether. There's no reason to go back to the left, as the long flight of steps
there just leads to a dead end, so climb the stairs on the far right
instead. There's a door here, but skip it for a second and go over to the
right to grab the Air Lancet from the chest at the bottom of the staircase.
Once you get it, backtrack and enter the door you just passed. (Oh yeah...
If you want to leave the cave, the waterfalls around here will lead almost
directly back to the entrance.)

It doesn't matter which route you take in this narrow passageway, but I
suggest going right first. The chest on the hill near there contains a Giant
Drink, and by going through a secret passage just below the hill (which you
can see as you approach it), you can find a hidden chest containing a Rune
Edge. After getting both items, go back through the door you just came from,
(ignoring the steps on the left for now) and this time, take left staircase,
which leads to what seems to be a dead end. Walk down a little bit, though,
and you'll see a secret passage going down through the rock towards a
waterfall. Ride it down to a small lake, then walk left and get out of the
water. (Note that there's a flight of steps leading to higher ground on the
right side of the room, but this path just takes you back to the steps I
told you to ignore a second ago. In other words, it leads right back to the
chests where the Giant Drink and Rune Edge were.) Back on dry land, walk up
along the narrow path until you come across a skull switch and a chest
blocked by a waterfall. Pressing the switch causes the waterfall to stop,
but it restarts again after only two seconds. The only way to get past it in
that time is to use the thief's "Dash", which will get you to the chest with
time to spare. Open it quickly to get a Protect Ring, then run back to the
left before the waterfall restarts (or just let it sweep you back down to
the lake below and work your way back to land) and climb down the lower
staircase to the next room.

This gets a bit less complex here. Start by heading left until you hit a
fork in the road, go up to get a Phoenix Down from the chest, then go down
until you reach a second set of crossroads. Going down the lower left path
leads to a chest containing a Wall Ring, while the one on the right leads to
a staircase leading to one of those very familiar tiny save point rooms. One
thing of note is that you may have seen another chest on a distant peninsula
when you picked up the Wall Ring. You can't reach it from this room, but
you'll be able to get it in a little while, so don't worry about it. Save
your game if you'd like, then continue on.

This next section is, for some reason, darker than the other rooms. It
shouldn't make exploration any more difficult, though -- it isn't *that*
dark here, and there's a ring of light around your character. (In fact, if
the "dark room" bug still exists in emulators, you might not even notice the
difference if you're playing the ROM.) Anyway, head down until you come to a
cave entrance just next to the edge of the cliff. It leads to a small room
with a single chest in it that holds the "Artemis" (Yes, just "Artemis"),
the best bow in the game. Its power exceeds even that of Yoichi's Bow...be
sure to get it! Leave the room, and head left after climbing down the cliff.
Be careful of the hidden pitfall just below the long narrow hall to the
north though. Use Findhole to locate it, then just walk around it. At the
end of this path, you'll come out near the chest you saw earlier, but
couldn't reach. It contains the Enchanter, a good sword. Get it, then go all
the way back down and grab the 12000 GP from the chest at the very bottom of
the room. After getting all three chests in this area, either climb down the
staircase near the room where you found the Artemis Bow, or jump down the
pitfall.

Whatever you decided to do, you'll end up in a big empty room with a three
more chests in it. Take the two upper chests to get a MagiShuriken and an
Aegis Shield, but *only* try to get them from the front, as when they're
opened, spikes pop out of the ground above and on both sides of them, and
you'll take damage if you get impaled by one. The skull switches near the
chests will momentarily make the spikes pop up, though, so you can clearly
see which sides to avoid. ^_^  Speaking of spikes and switches, notice that
the lower chest is completely surrounded by spikes? Well, you can lower them
by flipping the skull switch near the chest, but this also causes two holes
to appear in the floor where they were. Grab the chest from the right side
to get a Double Ax, then jump in either of the holes to get to the
lithograph room.

Here, walk around the "donut-shaped" platform, and climb down the steps to
get the lithograph. No, you won't get attacked...yet. Start to climb up the
long staircase above the altar, though, and you'll be stopped by yet another
of X-Death's monsters. Before it gets a chance to attack you, though, the
waterfall behind the demon will part. The sea serpent Leviathan then swims
out and kills it for you. =P  At this point, you'll regain control. You can
leave now if you want, but go up and talk to Leviathan first. He'll say that
he's willing to answer the call of the ones who can defeat him, then
challenges you to a fight.

- Boss Battle -
Leviathan - Lv: 37   HP: 40000   Weakness: Bolt

This battle could be considered a breather after the weird stuff you've been
fighting. There's no special tricks here, and Leviathan only seems able to
do two things: Attack physically for about 800 damage, or use "Tidal wave"
for 800 or so damage to the entire team. Careful, though, as he frequently
takes two turns in a row. As for what you should do...just cast Bolt3, or
have your Sorcerers use Bolt3 Sword. These attacks do more than 5000 damage,
so it shouldn't take many of these to defeat Leviathan. If you'd like, you
can also steal an Elixir from Leviathan. When you win, you'll get a Wall
Ring (the first "boss treasure" in quite some time) and 20 ABP. Also, having
defeated Leviathan, he'll keep his promise, and you'll get the Leviathan
summon spell!

Well, that's it for this place. Walk around the larger "donut-shaped"
platform, and jump in the waterfall you come to at the end of it to return
to the world map.


--- "Final Battle" ---

You should now have lithographs, so return to Kuza Castle and get the
remainder of the 12 sealed weapons. You should have gained several levels
over the past few areas, and with all the new weapons and spells you have,
you should be ready to settle things with X-Death once and for all! Of
course, should you desire to make your team even more powerful, you can pay
a visit to Mirage Village to buy some of the best weapons, armor, and spells
in the game, and the Black Chocobo can help you get the last two summon
spells from the areas in the northeastern desert. (Sub-quests "The Eternal
Phoenix's Flame", and "King of the Dragons".) Also, if you haven't finished
any of the other third world sub-quests, do it now.

Once you've done everything, and when you feel you're ready, fly over the
black hole where Tycoon Castle was. There'll be a Void reaction, and you'll
be sucked into the N-Zone. I hope you're ready, because this place is
brutal! (Contrary to popular belief, though, you *can* leave here. Just
examine the airship's wheel, or cast Telepo.)


- N-Zone -
Treasures: Ether, Cottage, Elixir x2, Dragon Fang, Dark Matter, Blood Sword,
           Thor'sHammer, Enchanter, Power Rod, Coral Ring, Winged Shoes,
           Ribbon, Red Shoes, Prism Dress, Man-eater, Omega Badge

Being the final dungeon, it should come as no surprise that this place is
huge. Strangely, though, it doesn't seem all that "evil". In fact, it just
seems to be made up of a bunch of areas that're similiar to those which have
either been sucked into the Void, or are in some other way off limits. I
dunno if it's intentional or not, but that's how it ended up. ^_^  Each
'section' also has its own monsters, which I'll describe when I get to them.

- Area 1: "Sand Tides"
The first part of the N-Zone appears to be a mixture of the Sand Tides and
beach where Hydra dropped you off just before dying back at Walz. There's
nothing too special or difficult about this place, though. The enemies here
are all easy, so consider it a warmup. The Centipeelrs and Landsquids can
be dealt with easily by use of L.3 Flare, which will wipe out an entire
group of either foe. The Landcrawlrs have a lot of HP (22000 to be exact)
and can use Maelstrom, but there're several simple ways of dealing with
them. If you don't mind the high casting cost, use Aqua Rake. It does over
8000 (!) damage, so three hits with this will kill it. If you decide you'd
rather save MP, though, Condemned will also work. (Of course, you'll have to
be patient...) Finally, if you're lucky, you might be able to steal a
Defender from a Landcrawlr. That's pretty much it for the enemies here.

Like the monsters, the navigation here is also pretty simple. The currents
of the shifting sand are little more than conveyor belts here, and will
usually pull you in the right direction. There're no chests here, either, so
all you need to do is make your way to the door at the end. When you try to
open it, a bunch of monsters will appear and talk about how they've been
sealed in the N-Zone for centuries. Despite how they may talk, though, none
of them actually attacks you -- they all just disappear. Just go through the
door, and you'll end up in an area that resembles nothing less than the
Ronka Ruins.

- Area 2: "Ronka Ruins"
The difficulty of the monsters starts to pick up here, but they're still
easy enough to handle, and you can pick up several Blue Magics you may have
missed. The DethDealers use Roulette, the Cycloskulls use Aero 3, the
LevelChekrs use all the L.# spells, and the Grenades use Exploder. You can
also occasionally win "Rune Chimes" (a decent bell) from the Cycloskulls. No
special tricks are needed to defeat the monsters here; just use physical
attacks and spells, and if you meet an Aquaus, remember that it has inherent
reflect status and uses L.4 Quarter when it dies. ^_^

You'll start this section in a small room with nothing but a couple of
chains in it, which act as a ladder. Climb down them, and you'll come to a
room with four chests in it. The two upper ones contain an Ether and a
Cottage, while the two lower ones contain an Elixir and a Dark Matter.
Nothing too special, but get them if you want, then exit through the door at
the bottom of the room. In the next room, climb down the two pairs of
chains, then head right until you come to three more pairs of chains leading
back up. The one on the left leads further on, the one on the right leads to
a chest containing another Elixir, and the one in the middle leads to
absolutely nothing. The chest on the far right platform in the following
room contains a Blood Sword, and that's pretty much it for this section. Go
up through the door in the middle of the room, then down the chains in the
small room it leads to. You'll end up someplace really weird after this...

- Area 3: "Mirage Village"
Perhaps you'll remember a door in Mirage Village that turned the screen
blue, then just closed again? That's where you'll end up after passing
through the Ronka Ruins. O_o  No, it's not a convenient shortcut back to the
surface, but it *does* seem to be the 'true form' of the village. As some of
the people mentioned when you were there in the real world earlier, time
stood still here while in the N-Zone. And sure enough, it does. You're
unable to talk to any of the people here (or play the piano), and the only
thing that functions at all is the healing pot in the basement. Use it if
necessary, then just leave the village. There are no monsters or treasures
here, so this is a very short area.

- Area 4: "Moore Forest"
Argh! You seem to have ended up in a twisted version of Moore Forest! And
just like in Moore Forest, the enemies here are quite annoying, and show up
all too frequently. L.3 Flare is effective enough against the Jestrexes and
the mushroom-like MossFungi. It doesn't work against the WhiteFlames,
though; try Odin to kill them quickly. Also, they can use White Wind, which
you can learn if you control them.

>From the entrance, walk to the right, then go up and right again when you
reach the tree to get a chest containing a Dragon Fang. After taking it,
head left, up, then right to reach a very big, and very confusing, grove of
trees. Because it's so wide-opened, it's kinda hard to give the *exact*
locations of the three chests here, but I'll try. The one located somewhere
on the west edge of the grove contains a Ribbon, the one in the little
"indent" in the south (where a single tree is) contains an Enchanter (a good
sword), and the one near southeastern corner contains a Power Rod. A little
ways to the southeast of this chest, you should be able to see a path that
leads to a lone tree with a small hole in it. If you remember what you did
in Moore Forest, you should have no problem here. Examine the hole, and a
passage will open below the tree. However, as you try to enter it, the first
of the monsters that taunted you upon your arrival will show up and attack.

- Boss Battle -
WoodSprite - Lv: 68   HP: 18000

There must be some sort of trick to this battle, but I haven't been able to
figure out just what it is yet. When attacked physically, the Wood Sprite
counters with Drain, restoring between 500 and 600 HP. Spells are effective,
but if you cast any on her, she'll cast Reflect on herself. Since you're
screwed either way, your best bet is to try and get creative here. One way
to handle this is to use non-reflectable spells, such as Comet and Meteo,
another way would be to use summons, and the third way would be to bounce
spells off of your own reflect-protected team members. =P  Or you could have
someone physically attack with the Bonemail equipped, so that her Drain
spell is reversed... =P  You can also try using Dispel to get rid of Wood
Sprite's Reflect, but she'll probably just cast it again. Ultimately, this
battle will probably proceed very slowly, but since I don't think the Wood
Sprite has any particularly nasty surprises, just stay healthy and you
should eventually win. Your only reward, though, is 20 ABP.

After the battle, proceed through the new opening, and you'll end up in a
dark cave.

- Area 5: "Waterway Cave"
As far as the enemies here go, they're pretty annoying. Well, the Shoat
palette swaps called "Sybaritics" are, anyhow. They have a good amount of
HP, an annoyingly high evade rate, and like to use Demon Eye to petrify you.
They can be defeated with magic, though. The odd-looking "Ocolus", the
Gremalkins, and the gold "Drgn Grands" are much less dangerous, and can be
dealt with by normal means. These seem to be the only enemies in this part
of the N-Zone, so that's about all I have to say.

Unlike the last area, this cave is very linear, with only one small side
path. Climb down the two flights of steps at the entrance, then head all the
way across the narrow ledge to reach a door. Enter it, and you'll be in a
small room with a chest on a raised ledge near the center. Open it to get a
valuable (and expensive) Coral Ring, then take the exit on the right, which
leads to a small room with a save point in it. You're *definitely* gonna
want to save here, as you'll soon come across a robot that you *don't* want
to mess with! Yes, that little MechaHead-like robot wandering around this
part of the cave is Omega, one of this game's two optional super-bosses, and
there's literally a 200% chance that you'll be completely torn apart if you
get pulled into battle with him now. Beating this guy is a sub-quest in
itself, so the strategy will be listed there instead. (See "The Ultimate
Battles".) You'll win the Omega Badge, a useless decoration, if you can
defeat him, but that just ain't gonna happen now, so carefully avoid him and
continue into the cave entrance on the right, and up through the door.

- Area 6: "Ancient Library"
I'm not sure why I'm classifying this as a seperate area...it's just one
room, and there're no monsters or treasures here. If you'd like, you can
read the two books in the back of the room. One mentions something about
"Gigaflare", which I don't fully understand, and the other talks about Omega
and Shinryu, the game's two optional super-bosses. (Though Shinryu is
mistakenly called "Dragon Lord" here.) When you're ready to move on, check
the book on the table. The room will grow dark, and a voice will ring out,
telling you that you've activated the "dimensional shift". You'll then be
attacked.

- Boss Battle -
Apprehendr - Lv: 59   HP: 22200   Weakness: Fire

This guy is more annoying than dangerous. He can cast Mag Hammer to cut your
MP in half, and he frequently counters with Drain (which only did about 150
damage to me) or Toad. He may also counter by casting Protes on himself, so
either Dispel it or stick to magic; Fire 3 is especially effective. The
fight shouldn't be too hard, just heal the Toad status when he hits you with
it. It has a tendency to fail, though, and he has low HP for a boss, so this
shouldn't be too much of a problem. =P  You'll get 16 ABP and an Ash for
winning, and you can steal another Ash from him during the battle. Um...
yay. ^_^

Once the battle is over, step outside the library room, and you'll be on
some weird 'floating castle'. Or something. (By the way, if you want to go
back to the cave at this point, just check the book on the table again and
leave through the door. It acts as a 'switch', which affects where you'll
end up when you leave the room.)

- Area 7: "Suspended Towers"
Only two enemies here. One easy, one annoying. The DragonAvises can use Air
Wing, and have 7000 HP, but they can be defeated through normal means. You
can rarely steal Artemis Bows from them. The Ninjas, on the other hand, have
a nice high evade rate, as well as 5000 HP. Magic works, but not too well,
so you'll have to use at least three spells to kill them. Blah. ^_^  You
might like to give somebody Aim to make them a bit easier.

This place might look intimidating if you can't see secret passages, but if
you can, you'll see that it's a pushover. Completely linear. Zig-zag across
the ledges here, and at the end, you'll arrive at a...rather unusual castle.

- Area 8: "Dimensional Castle"
Lotsa monsters here. At least, compared to the past few areas. =P  The
SwrdDancers and Death Claws are easy enough to defeat (and the latter uses
Doom Claw), but you might have a bit of trouble with the Iron Giants. They
have quite a bit of HP and no readily exploitable weaknesses. They're worth
defeating, though, as they give 2500 Exp, which ties with the ShieldDrgns
back at Kuza Castle for the most experience given by a single enemy. On the
roof, you'll fight more Ninjas, as well as Furies. They like to cast Doom on
you, but ironically, they themselves can be killed with Doom. Or more
accurately, L.5 Doom. Finally, if you encounter an enemy called "Yojimbo",
steal from it. Usually you'll just get a Cottage, but if you're persistant
or lucky, you may able to steal a Strato, the strongest katana in the game,
from it. (But IMO, Masamune is still better because of its special effect.)

Hmm... For such a small castle, this place is surprisingly big (that didn't
make sense, did it?), and it's home to a whole bunch of X-Death's more
powerful minions. Start your trek through this demon's nest by taking the
lower doors on both the left and right halls, which both lead to small
towers containing a single chest. The tower on the left holds Thor'sHammer,
the best axe in the game, while the one on the right has a pair of Winged
Shoes in it. (You can just ignore the two upper doors on the side halls,
though, as they both lead to empty dead ends.) The staircase in the center
of the room can be ignored as well, since the door at the top is locked from
the other side. Go down the stairs in the back, and you'll end up in a
prison.

There're lots of people here, but they're all a bunch of phonies. Before
trying to pick fights, though, go over to the cell on the lower left and
talk to the guy who looks like a more exotically dressed X-Death. He'll ask
you if you're the ones who possess the crystal shards, and if you say yes,
he'll decide that "you must die".

- Boss Battle -
Azulmagia - Lv: 57   HP: 27900   Weakness: Poison

He uses pretty much every Blue Magic, so if you've missed any, you can try
to get them here. Well, I don't think you can get White Wind, but you can
learn Guardian by casting Reflect on him before he uses it; then it gets
reflected to one of your characters, and you'll learn it. =P  Besides
learning Blue Magic, you can also steal from him; most of the time, you'll
get an Elixir, but once in a while, you'll get a Giant's Glove. If you want
this, bring someone with Time Magic and cast Return if you steal an Elixir;
it shouldn't take too many tries. Anyways, for actually damaging him, don't
cast any Aero spells; they won't do any damage. Try Bio Sword or any of the
big-damage attacks. Use Dispel if he casts Guardian. Speaking of which, if
you already *have* Guardian, use it! Haste 2 is good, as well. Try to kill
him quickly; you don't want him to use White Wind and heal up most of the
damage you did to him, now do you? =P  Also, if you use any of your Blue
Magic on him, he'll "learn" it and will start using it in the battle. If
you're getting desperate, you can try to take advantage of this by using
Exploder on him and letting him learn it; when he uses it in you, he'll blow
himself up, and you'll win. =P  Other than that little trick, there's not
much to say about this battle... You'll get 22 ABP when you beat him.


After Azulmagia is defeated, there'll be a flash of light, then a save
point appears where he once stood. Save your game, then head right. See
those old men running around the cells with the chests in them? Predictably,
they're monsters. And unfortunately, if you want the chests they're
guarding, you'll probably have to defeat them all...

- Boss Battle -
Alte Roit - Lv: 58   HP: 6000
JuraAvis  - Lv: 61   HP: 15000  <Replaces Alte Roit when his HP hits 0>

Kill Alte Roit fast; he can use Encircle to remove a character from the
battle. Cast Return when this happens. (Or reset if he used it on your Time
Mage =P) After he transforms into JuraAvis, use Odin; even though he's a
boss, VengSwrd works on him. O_o There's not really much strategy here, just
keep hitting him. Alte Roit just has a Tonic to steal, while JuraAvis has a
Turtle Shell. Although this is nice, there are easier ways to get them, so
don't worry about stealing, just end this quickly. You'll get 11 ABP and a
Dragon Fang for each one of these guys you defeat, so try to get them all.

Once the wizards are all out of the way (or if you can find a way around
them), take the two chests to get a Prism Dress and Red Shoes, some Dancer-
exclusive equipment that, in addition to having high defense, increases the
chance of Sword Dance being the selected attack when using the "Dance"
command. If you decide that this stuff isn't worth the trouble to get,
though, you can skip it. (You might already have these items anyway.)

When you're finished playing around here, head over to the cell on the upper
right and try to free the woman inside. Before you can do much, though, a
weird eyeball thingy appears and shoves you back against a wall before
finally pulling you into battle.

- Boss Battle -
Catastroph - Lv: 71   HP: 19997

This guy has three main attacks: Evil Eye, which petrifies a character;
Earthshaker, which does about 900 damage to everyone on the ground; and
Gravity 100, which dispels Float status on all your characters. He'll
*always* use Gravity 100 while you're floating... which means that you can
have a very easy battle just by recasting Float whenever he dispels it, and
thereby making him waste all his turns. =P  If you'd rather do this the hard
way, cast Guardian and Haste 2, then hit him hard. Heal whenever he uses
Earthshaker, and use a Soft or Esna on whoever gets hit by Evil Eye. It
shouldn't be too hard to win. You can steal an Elixir from him, (if he has
anything rare to steal, I couldn't get it, and believe me, I tried =P) and
you'll get 21 ABP and a Soft for defeating him.

Upon winning, return to the prison cell, and the woman will run up and thank
you, then gives you a kiss and runs off. Go up the stairs in the cell she
was in, which eventually leads to an upper "balcony" outside the castle.
Before going through the door leading back inside, though, go all the way to
the left and climb down the stairs to get the Man-eater, a strong dagger
that I believe does extra damage to human(oid) enemies. Once you have it,
backtrack to the door you just passed and enter it. In the center of this
room, you'll find a staircase leading down to the other side of the locked
door near the entrance. Flip the switch and it'll open, but unfortunately,
I think it just closes and locks again if you leave the room. In other
words, there's no real need to open it. Instead, go up to the throne room,
and try to go through the left door. The first time, you'll just be pushed
back to the throne, but when you try it again, that woman you just 'rescued'
walks in. She says something about how she gave you her "Kiss of Death",
then reveals her true form: a very badly-dressed man. O_o  Claiming to be
"Harikalnasson", the king of this castle, he/she/it attacks you.

- Boss Battle -
Halycanos - Lv: 97   HP: 33333

Oooh...this is an interesting battle. On the very first turn, Halycanos will
turn your entire team into frogs, simply by laughing. O_o  You can avoid
this, though, by turning your team into frogs before the battle. In this
case, you'll be turned back into humans by his laugh instead. =P  For some
odd reason, though, the "frog laugh" only seems to affect Bartz, Krile, and
Reina, not Faris... *shrug*  After this, Halycanos will probably use Rev.
Polarity, followed by a lot of weak physical attacks and support magic such
as Haste, Shell, and Dispel. No big deal. If he casts Holy, though, you
*will* die. It does well over 9000 damage, and I highly doubt anyone in your
team has anywhere near that much HP. =P  As for actual attacks, stick with
the basics: Physical attacks, Holy/Flare/Meteo, etc. Don't use Summons; he
uses a *very* strong attack if you do. Other than that, no special
strategies are needed here, though you'll probably want to put your team
members back in their proper rows after Rev. Polarity is cast. If you'd
like, you can also steal a Lumino-Staff from Halycanos, and when he's
defeated, you'll win 20 ABP and possibly an Elf Cloak.

With the...uhh..."king" out of the way, you're free to go through the door.
You may want to go back and save first, though, as the next battle may prove
hard... Climb up the stairs behind the door, and you'll come out on the
roof, where yet *another* monster is waiting for you... It warns you that
beyond here is where the power of the Void is kept, and that you'll go no
further.

- Boss Battle -
Twin Tania - Lv: 39   HP: 50000   Weakness: Water, Holy

Although he's not too hard, Twin Tania *does* have a good chance of killing
you if you're not careful. Cast Guardian and Haste 2 ASAP; (notice how I
always suggest this? =P)  he can do a *lot* of damage with Tidal Wave and
Megaflare if you don't. His other attacks aren't too strong, but he can stun
your whole party with Mind Blast. (I don't know if you can learn it here,
though, since it's not quite the same as the Blue Magic.) Stay healthy;
sometimes he'll use Tidal Wave or Mega Flare *twice* before you get a chance
to heal. If you don't have Guardian up, this will be *deadly*. Offensively,
use Holy or Holy Sword for a lot of damage, as well as attacks with
Excalibur or the Holy Lance. When he gets low on HP, he'll start charging up
Giga Flare; at this point, hit him *hard* and you should kill him before he
unleashes the spell. You'll get 24 ABP for winning. You can steal a Phoenix
Down from him; I don't know if he has anything rare to steal, because I
tried 10 times and only got Phoenix Downs. I'd say, don't bother with
stealing, because you've got to worry about surviving.

After the battle, Twin Tania will float back and disappear from this world,
leaving a long staircase in his place. Climb up it and stand atop the tower.
You'll be warped to the final section of the N-Zone... "The Void".


- N-Zone: "The Void" -
Treasures: MagiShuriken x3, Elixir, Genji Shield, Genji Armor, Dragon Badge,
           Ragnarok

Technically, this place is so small it shouldn't deserve its own section.
However, it's so radically different from the rest of the N-Zone that I
figured it figured I'd give it some extra attention. =P 

Anyway, aside from the change in music and scenery, you'll also find that
Telepo no longer works here. It doesn't mean you can't leave...just step on
the tile you ended up on when you warped here, and you'll return to the
Dimensional Castle, where Telepo *does* work. As for the enemies here...
Well, they're all-powerful, basically. Not to mention very annoying. The
Necromancers like to turn you into zombies, the Crystelles absorb most
elements, despite only having 3 HP, the gargoyle-like Belfagels have lots of
HP and no weakensses, and the Mind Flares (...Please...What's wrong with
"Mind Flayer", anyway? Stupid translators.) repeatedly use Mind Blast on
you. (Though you can learn it if you missed it earlier.) The Maximus and
BehemoKings have a ton of HP, and the latter will counter magic with Meteo.
Ouch. The best way to deal with these things is to summon Odin, which will
usually kill them both instantly with VengSwrd. Just be aware that there
*is* a slight risk involved there, as Odin may use Javelin instead, and if
it hits a BehemoKing...you get hit back with Meteo. ^_^  A bit later on in
here, you'll encounter Crystal Dragons. They're strong, but what makes them
noteworthy is that you can occasionally steal Dragon Lances, the best spears
in the game, from them. The last of the enemies here, the Movers, can only
be found in the very last area, and are very rarely seen. They have a lot of
HP, and will try to run before you can defeat them, but if you can, you'll
earn an incredible 150000 GP and 199 ABP! Speaking of ABP, this is probably
the best place in the game to build up your jobs, as the average battle here
yields between 20 and 35 ABP. (Not to mention the occasional appearance of
the Movers. =P)

Anyhow, this place, as I said, is pretty small. Climb down the steps and
open the chest to get a MagiShuriken, then loop around to the left and go up
the stairs, where you'll find an old 'friend' blocking the portal.
Gilgamesh. ^_^

- Boss Battle -
Gilgamesh - Lv: 59   HP: <15000>

Unfortunately, it doesn't play Gilgamesh's cool battle theme here. Bah.
Anyway, this battle is easy...but then, battles with this guy always are. =P 
Gilgamesh's physical attack is actually pretty strong here, but on the other
hand, it's all I've seen him use, so if you're worried about it, just use
Protes or Guardian. Other than that, there's nothing special about this
battle except that you can steal the best shield in the game, the Genji
Shield, from him. After you've dealt between 12,000 and 15,000 damage to
Gilgamesh, he'll start rambling on about nothing in particular, and when he
finishes, the battle automatically ends. No rewards.

When the battle is over, Gilgamesh will just walk away, leaving you to
enter the portal. Do so, then head up and right, down the stairs to grab a
chest containing another MagiShuriken, then down the second set of stairs
and under the ledge to a small set of crossroads. First, grab the chest from
the lower path to get an Elixir, then enter the portal. Here, just head up,
but for heaven's sake...do *NOT* open the chest at the bottom of the steps!!
This is where you'll find Shinryu, the game's other optional super-boss, and
like Omega, he'll tear you apart with incredible ease now. You'll get
Ragnarok (the best sword in the game), and the Dragon Seal, a useless
decoration, if you win, but again, that ain't happening now, so just ignore
the chest. =P (When you *are* ready for the battle, though, the strategy for
it can be found in the "Ultimate Battles" sub-quest.) The chest above this
is safe to open, though, and contains a MagiShuriken. After getting it, head
right and through the portal, and you'll be in the very last area of the
game. Pass by the steps for right now, though, and examine the sparkle of
light on the far left platform. A monster appears and attacks.

- Boss Battle -
Necrophobe   - Lv: 66   HP: 44044    Weakness: All
Barrier (x4) - Lv: ??   HP: <10000>  (Scan/Check/View don't work)
Gilgamesh    - Lv: 93   HP: ????     <Shows up later>

This is a very annoying battle for two reasons. The first is that Necrophobe
can't be hurt at all if the even one of the four barrier devices surrounding
him are up. Even worse is that they all have inherent reflect status. Your
best bet is just to use Bahamut and $toss to wipe them all out at once. The
other reason this battle is annoying is because of what the four barriers
actually *do*. Basically, they like to cast Holy, Flare, and the third level
elemental spells on themselves, which then bounce off and hit your team
instead. These attacks, especially Holy and Flare, *hurt*, and with four
enemies throwing them at you all at once, your team can get pretty messed
up. Guardian is *definitely* a lifesaver here, and Haste2 is useful for
cutting down on the massive speed advantage the barriers seem to have. Once
all four barriers are destroyed, the battle is by far easier. Necrophobe
starts off the actual fight by using his 'full power' on you... Flash. =P
Needless to say, this isn't anything to worry about. =P  He doesn't seem to
have very many other attacks, and is weak to all elements. Just use whatever
(and steal an Elixir from him if you'd like), and once his HP drops to below
10000, something weird happens... Gilgamesh shows up, accompanied by his
cool theme music! =P  However, instead of fighting you, he turns around and
starts fighting *Necrophobe* instead. =P  After this happens, Necrophobe can
no longer be damaged (but he no longer attacks you, either, choosing to
focus on Gilgamesh instead), and Gilgamesh casts Cure3 on himself after most
of his lines of dialogue, so you can't kill him, either. Be sure to steal
the Genji Armor from him, though -- it's the best armor in the game. After
blabbing for a while longer, Gilgamesh decides to "end this", then uses
Exploder on Necrophobe. Necrophobe dies, Gilgamesh dies, and the battle
ends. You don't get anything for winning, though. =P


After the battle, there'll be a lot of ground shaking, then a save point
will appear on the small platform. Heal up, save your game, and make
whatever other last minute preperations you'd like, because at the top of
the staircase in the center of this room, you'll find a portal that leads to
where X-Death waits... I won't go into detail about what happens here, but
let's just say that it involves the Void, and a lot of cool (and not so
cool) stuff happens. When all the dialogue ends, you'll briefly regain
control. You can leave if you want (in which case, "time flows backwards",
and everything that happened in the previous scene is undone), but you've
come too far to run away now! For the sake of the entire world, X-Death must
be defeated! Go for it!

- Boss Battle -
X-Death - Lv: 77   HP: 49001

Surprisingly, this battle isn't all that tough. X-Death can use Holy and
Flare, and his physical attack is strong, but they all only hit one person,
so they're bearable, and can be protected against by Guardian. However,
there *is* one particularly nasty attack to watch out for: WhiteBall. This
spell kills *and* petrifies a team member, and has a high success rate. If
you have Redx2, though, you can treat this in one turn by using Arise,
followed by Esna. Or you can protect against the petrification part by using
Ribbons. Anyway, since this *is* the final battle, and consequently, ABP
doesn't matter at all, I suggest that you change all your team members back
to Travelers. Even if you haven't mastered that many jobs, the simple fact
that they can use two commands and can equip anything will make them more
useful than pretty much anything else here. Anyway, start out with the usual
routine: Guardian and Haste2. It's also a good idea to give yourself an edge
by doubling everyone's max HP through the use of Giant Drinks, or even
better, the "Giant Drink" Mix combo (Elixir + Dragon Fang). After this, just
use your best attacks, since X-Death doesn't seem to have any special
defenses, and once X-Death's HP hits 0, there'll be a violent Void reaction,
and he disappears, only to be replaced immediately by his "Ultimate Form"...

- Boss Battle -
Neo X-Deth <Top>         - Lv: 81   HP: 50000
Neo X-Deth <Lower Right> - Lv: 67   HP: 55000
Neo X-Deth <Center>      - Lv: 83   HP: 55000
Neo X-Deth <Lower Left>  - Lv: 86   HP: 60000

Nope, I'm afraid there's no break between the two battles. In several ways,
though, that's a good thing, since Guardian, Haste, and Giant Drinks will
still be in effect. If you need your HP and MP restored, just use Elixirs;
it's the final battle, so who cares if you use up all your items? =P Anyway,
X-Death's final form is a good deal more difficult to beat than that silly
tree. ^_^  First off, there are now four targets, each with a ridiculous
amount of HP, and there also seem to be several "dummy targets", which can't
be damaged (or targetted normally, for that matter). They don't do anything,
but they're annoying for the simple reason that they absorb hits by 'random
target' attacks such as Meteo and Sshot. In other words, use them if you'd
like, but expect to hit nothing sometimes. ^_^  I'm not really sure whether
all four targets can attack seperately, but if they do, they all have the
same attacks...Which are *powerful*. For starters, "VacWave" does about 2000
damage, and it's frequently used twice in a row! Other attacks include
Fire3, Flare, Holy, Meteo, and two more attacks: UltraGust and Grandcross.
UltraGust (which...is supposed to be "Almagest") does about 1600 damage to
the entire team, and Grandcross is just...ugh...annoying. It does no damage,
but causes random status ailments to your entire team. Stone, Zombie, Frog,
Silence...you name it. ^_^  Finally, X-Death can also use Dispel to cancel
the effects of Haste and Guardian. Re-cast the spells immediately if this
happens! To defeat this miscellaneous being, stick with the basics. Bahamut,
level 3 attack spells, $toss, Holy, Flare, Sword Magic, and physical attacks
with 2-swords are probably your best bet here. The only one of the parts
that has any sort of special defense is the one in the far back, which seems
to resist physical attacks. Thus, your best bet with this one is simply to
stick with magic. This battle will probably take a long time to win, even
with a very strong team, but if you stay healthy, you'll eventually win.

Once Neo X-Death is dead, you've beaten the game! I won't spoil the ending,
but let's just say it's very good. Well, in my opinion, anyway. ;)  Also, if
you're playing the PSX version, leave the game on for a couple seconds at
the "The End" screen, and you'll see a bonus FMV. (Which includes the FMV
version of X-Death, some cute FMV moogles, and some very cool music. =P)

(Random question, though... Does anyone know what the heck Faris uses in
that "Final Stats" part of the ending? Looks like she throws a dragon or
something. O_o)

But...just because you've beaten X-Death doesn't mean you're completely
finished! If you're up to the challenge, you can try defeating Shinryu and
Omega now. You may actually stand a chance with all the job-building you've
probably done in the final areas. ^_^  If you don't care to do this, though,
then take a break. You've earned it.  Congratulations, heroes. :)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
3. Sub-quests
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This is a section devoted to non-essential side-areas. You don't *need* to
visit any of these places or do any of the things here, but the rewards
usually make that worthwhile. Mostly, the reason for these is to obtain
valuable items and spells, but some sub-quests exist solely for the purposes
of character development, whereas others are just for fun. But one word of
note... With one lone exception (Jacohl Cave), the sub-quests here can
*only* be done in the respective world they're listed under. For this
reason, I suggest doing them as soon as possible.

%%%First World%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

--- "Boko" ---

- Cliffside Cave -
Treasures: Tent, Ether, 300 GP, Tonic x5

So you decided to go back to find Boko, eh? Well, head back to cave where
you left him earlier. He doesn't seem to be around, but Bartz spots Boko's
footprints leading into the cave, and decides to go after him. Just make
your way back to the pirates' base, and enter the buildings, which are no
longer blocked. In the one on the left, you'll find a blocked cave leading
to three treasure chests. To get these, go back and flip the switch near the
entrance to the base that didn't do anything when you were here before. The
door in the room with the treasures will open, allowing you to get them: a
Tent, an Ether, and 300 GP. Also, if you've gotten the Canal Key from Zok,
and Faris has left the pirate crew, talk to the people in the main area, and
one of them will give you five tonics (though there's no message indicating
so). Finally, in the house on the right, you'll find Boko, who, sadly, is
injured... There's an old man caring for him, however, and he says the Boko
will fully recover if he can just rest for a while. Since there's nothing
else to do here, bid your chocobo friend farewell for now... You'll meet
again.


--- "Quick Stop at Tycoon" ---

- Tycoon Castle -
Treasures: Potion, Phoenix Down x2, Elixir x2, Cottage x3, Ether x2,
           Maiden'sKiss, Healing Staff, Monster Bell, Katana, Shuriken

This is a simple sub-quest you can do this anytime after getting the dragon.
If you'd like to return to Tycoon Castle, head back to the place where you
first met Galuf and Reina at the beginning of the game; the meteor crater
near the cliffside cave. Now that you have the dragon, you can fly over it
and reach the castle. Once there, talk to the guard and he'll raise the
gate. Now go into the castle courtyard and enter the big double door, you'll
meet the chancellor inside. He talks to the group for a while, then tells
you to rest for the night. You later see a scene where Reina has suspicions
that Faris may be her lost sister, Salsa. (..."Salsa"? What kind of a name
is *that*?! Her name was Sarisa in the ROM...)  In the morning, leave the
bedroom and climb down the stairs. Search the jars to get a Potion, then
exit the room and go right and climb up to the tower where an Elixir, a
Phoenix Down, a Cottage, and an Ether can be found in the jars and barrels.
Also, if you talk to the old woman there, she'll tell you a little bit about
Princess...uh...Faris. (I will *not* say that name again! ^_^) Leave here
and go in the center door in the main room. Don't bother going in either the
left door, as it only leads to the bedrooms, or either of the lower doors in
the center of the room, as they just lead out to a balcony. Neither of these
places have anything of interest in them. Instead, go in the right door and
climb up the stairs. On the 4th floor, there are pots that contain a Phoenix
Down, an Elixir, a Maiden'sKiss, and an Ether. Above the fifth floor is the
dragon's tower, but it doesn't contain anything, so skip it and go back
downstairs. Now leave the castle and go back to the courtyard. Head left and
go to the tower which was previous blocked, and press the switch inside to
open a passage in the wall. Follow the hidden path to a room with a bunch of
treasures and the chancellor. Talk to the chancellor to get the weird
Healing Staff, then take the treasures to get a Katana, a Monster Bell, and
a Shuriken. Finally, check the wall near the pillar on the right side of the
courtyard to find a secret passage leading to a small storeroom full of
chests, jars, and barrels. The chests both contain Cottages, though
surprisingly, the jars and barrels are all empty. Also, for some strange
reason, if you leave and return, the chests here closed; if you open them,
though, you'll just be told that they're empty... *shrug*

Anyway, after getting all the items and talking to everyone, leave and
continue with your quest. After all, treasures and info are really all that
you'll find here. =P


--- "Treasure of Walz" ---

- Walz Basement -
Treasures: Elf Cloak, 1000 GP x2, Speed (Time Magic)

This is a really small area, but it is inhabited by Harpies, seemingly
invincible gargoyle-like monsters. Since you seem unable to defeat them by
normal means, you pretty much *have* to run away. To make this quicker, just
give someone the Thief's 'Flee' skill, or the Ninja's 'Dustb' skill. To get
to the basement, first go to Walz Castle (obviously), then go down the
staircase in the first room, and go through two doors leading to another
staircase. When you arrive in the basement, head over and enter the door on
the right. Check the jars to get 2000 GP (1000 GP in two jars), and the Time
Magic "Speed", which doesn't seem to do much of anything. Now go up the path
to the left and get the valuable Elf Cloak from the treasure box there...and
be sure to equip it! Fortunately, that's all that's in the basement in terms
of treasure, so just get out of there! Well, unless you're one of those
perfectionists who just *has* to have everything as early on as possibly,
you can also learn Moon Flute from the Harpies...but it's difficult...

- Battle -
Harpy - Lv: 20   HP: 666

As I said, these guys're near invincible, but they aren't *completely*
invincible. For one thing, Blow Fish kills them instantly, as does L.5 Doom.
If you'd like to try your hand at defeating them before getting either,
however, it's considerably more difficult. First of all, you'll probably
need to be on a decent level (20 or so), and you'll need to make a team of
four monks (make sure one of them has the "Learning" ability, obviously).
Since you usually end up in back attacks in this battle, start out by having
everyone move to the front row, then simply defend until it uses Moon Flute.
In your berserked state, your attacks should actually be able to damage the
harpy, and you should defeat it with relative ease, picking up Moon Flute in
the process. Of course, since there're easier ways to learn this skill, I
don't recommend even trying this. Also, despite what you may think, these
enemies are *not* very useful for building up. When defeated, they give no
Exp, no ABP, and only 1 GP. Have fun. =P


- Walz Castle Water Tower -
Treasures: Shiva (Summon Magic)

This is a rather uneventful little area, but you can pick up a few things
here. First off, you can learn Toad Song, which will come in handy a bit
later, from the Elf Toads -- they use it if they're alone. Another thing of
note is that you can steal Mythril Swords from the Ice Soldiers. If you're
using Knights or Blue Mages, be sure to swipe a few.

Anyway, as for actual navigation...well, there's really not much to say, as
the first three floors are completely empty...one of those towers where
every floor looks the same, and all you do is climb up the stairs. Yay. On
the fourth floor, you'll see a glowing green orb on an altar. This is
actually the essence of the Ice Queen, Shiva. Walk around the small
platforms here to reach the 'orb', and when you examine it, you'll be
challenged to a fight. While you *can* defeat Shiva as soon as you arrive at
Walz, it's quite pointless (you don't even have a Summoner!), and rather
difficult, so I strongly suggest against trying until you return from Karnak
with Fire2, a better set of jobs, and a Summoner who can actually make use
of this spell. ^_^  Still, if you wanna fight her early on...

- Boss Battle -
Shiva      - Lv: 11   HP: 1500   Weakness: Fire
IceComandr - Lv: 4    HP: 600    Weakness: Fire
IceComandr - Lv: 4    HP: 600    Weakness: Fire
IceComandr - Lv: 4    HP: 600    Weakness: Fire

If you did as I suggested and waited until you got Fire2, this should be
easy. Just have your mages cast it on all the enemies, and you'll clean up.
If you don't have it, though, things are gonna get interesting... The best
way to kill Shiva this early is to make all your characters Knights with
Black Magic. Put everyone in the back row so the soldiers don't damage you
as much. Don't bother healing; just cast Fire on Shiva every turn and ignore
the soldiers. If you go all out, you *should* be able to kill her (it takes
about 10 hits unless you're at a ridiculous level) before any of your
characters are in serious danger. At this point, use a few Tonics to heal
some of the damage you've taken, and then finish off the soldiers with
either Fire spells or regular attacks. Congratulations; you've just beaten
Shiva before getting the second set of jobs, and you don't really have
anything to show for it. =P

Once you defeat her, you'll get the Shiva spell. Now instead of climbing all
the way back down the tower, take the door just below the altar for a quick
exit. And... that's it.


--- "Wizard of Thunder" ---

By now, you've probably noticed a lone dot in the northwest part of the
world map... Well, now that you have a way of crossing the ocean, you can
find out just what it is. To reach it by ship, sail south from Jacohl until
you reach the end of the continent, then sail around it and head back north.
Eventually, you'll come to said location: Easterly Village. (If you have the
Black Chocobo or the Airship, though, just fly here. =P)

- Easterly Village -
Treasures: Toad (Black Magic), Love Song (Song), Ramuh (Summon Magic)

To be truthful, there's surprisingly little in this village. The armor shop
sells special magic rings that block certain elements and status ailments,
but at 50000 GP each, it's highly unlikely you can afford them now... The
*real* reason to come all the way to this remote village is that there're
three new spells you can get here. They're all somewhat hidden, but the
people in town give you clues to finding them if you're paying attention.
The little girl wandering around near the armor shop says she found
something cool near the flowerbed, which is actually a clue to finding the
first of the spells. The flowerbed she's talking about, the one behind the
armor shop, however, doesn't seem to have anything to examine... Don't give
up, though, as if you walk around it for a while, a frog will eventually
jump out and run off, dropping the Toad spell in the process. =P   After
getting the spell, head over to the east side of town. The old woman near
the magic shop mentions a monster disguised as an old man living in the
nearby forests. This is a clue to finding another spell, but you'll have to
leave town to find it, and you're not finished here yet. Anyway, head north
to the sheep pen and talk to the girl there. She warns you not to bother the
sheep in the upper left corner of the pen, but since she's actually given
you a clue to the last spell here, don't heed her warning. If you talk to
this particular sheep from behind, it'll kick you over the fence, where you
can learn Love Song from the minstrel.

Well, that's everything that you can find *in* the town, but there's still
something else here... Remember the old woman who mentioned a monster
disguised as an old man that lives in the forest? Well, that's not a rumor.
Wander around the forest outside of town for a while, and eventually, you'll
be attacked by this "monster"...Ramuh!

- Boss Battle -
Ramuh - Lv: 21   HP: 4000

There's nothing too overly special about this battle. Ramuh will probably
open with Flash, and he can use Bolt2, which does about 350 damage to a
single character, and Shock, which is different from Liquid Flame's attack;
this one hits a single character for moderate lightning damage. He can also
use Thunder, which is basically a lightning-elemental version of Blaze, but
it's pretty rare. Now for your strategy. Well, even though the game doesn't
specifically say so, Ramuh seems weak against water, so use Aqua Rake (if
you have it) for about 700 damage. Aside from that, though, just attack
physically. If you wanna get really cheap here, wait until you're on level
21 before fighting him (which I was at the time), and use Gob Punch on him
for 4500+ damage. There, you just beat Ramuh in one hit. =P  When you win,
you'll get 3 ABP, and a "Ramuh" item. Use this on the sub-screen to learn
the Summon spell of the same name.


Now that you have Ramuh, you've gotten all the spells from this area.
However, I think it worth mentioning that this area is a *great* place to
gain Exp and ABP. On the plains, you'll fight groups of five BlackFlames.
These guys yield 800+ GP, 300+ Exp, and 3 ABP. Furthermore, they're *really*
easy to defeat -- just use your new Ramuh summon on them, and bang, they're
all dead! Oh yeah, you can also learn Blue Magic "Black Shock" from
BlackFlames. In the forests, you'll mostly fight single Mithril Dragons.
These guys aren't worth much, but occasionally, you'll come across a group
of five dinosaur-like MiniDragons. While they're somewhat difficult to
defeat, you'll get 1125 Exp if you win! They have a high evade rate, high
defense, and resist most magic, though, but cast Aqua Rake twice, and you
should be able to wipe them out.


--- "Hometown Memories" ---

You may or may not have seen it while you were there early on, but there's
a small forested village north of the Wind Shrine that's completely
surrounded by mountains. Now that you have the Black Chocobo, you can reach
this elusive location: Bartz's hometown, Rikks.

- Rikks -
Treasures: TemptSong (Song)

As far as items go, there isn't much to offer in this small village. The
real purpose of coming here is to learn some background info on Bartz. Talk
to the guy who looks like a scholar in the center of town, and there'll be
a short flashback explaining Bartz's fear of heights. Examining the music
box in Bartz's former house (the one on the far left above the inn) leads to
another flashback, this one of the death of Stella, Bartz's mother. After
seeing it, talk to the bard who now lives there, and he'll teach you
TemptSong. Finally, staying at the inn (which is free) results in another
scene, where Bartz and Faris talk about Drogan and Stella (Bartz's parents).
The only other things of note in this town are that it's the only place in
the first world that sells Shurikens and "Skills", and that the item shop's
prices are half that of normal. Stock up while you have the chance, since
you won't always have access to the village.


--- "Jacohl Cave" ---

The reward for this sub-quest isn't all that great, but it's easy enough to
get. Anytime after getting the Fire-powered Ship, you can reach a small cave
by heading north from Jacohl; the aptly-named Jacohl Cave. =P

- Jacohl Cave -
Treasures: Tent, Shuriken, Shock Whip

The cave itself is pretty small, but there're a few weird puzzles here...
First, head down and flip the lower skull switch, which moves the wall to
the left aside. It also seals the entrance to the cave, but if you wanna
leave, flip the switch near the door to re-open it and return the wall to
its original position. Anyhow, with the wall out of the way, you can
proceed to the south, where you'll come across a wall covered with skull
switches. You've probably noticed that none of them seem to do anything...
That's because all but one of the switches is an illusion. =P   To find out
which is the real one, stand in the hall for a couple seconds, and all but
that one will disappear; its location changes everytime you enter, though,
so I can't tell you which one it is. After locating the real switch, flip
it, and the wall will slide back to the left, allowing you to reach the door
on the right. (Just for the record, should you desire to leave the cave at
this point, flip the skull switch *on* the sliding wall and it'll move
over.) It's locked, but can be opened by flipping the switch hidden inside
the opened chest next to it.

In the next room, ignore that opened chest, and continue up until you reach
a fork in the road. Head left first, which branches off to two more paths,
each containing a chest (Tent in the lower one, Shuriken in the upper one).
After getting both of them, return to the crossroad and head north, then
south again when the path allows it. The chest here contains a powerful
Shock Whip, but if you released Lone Wolf from Walz Castle's prison, all
that'll be here is a note saying the treasure "was taken by Lone Wolf, the
pickpocket"... Also, this is another one of those weird chests that closes
if you leave the room, and is "empty" if you re-open it. Well, you've
cleared out the cave, so you can just leave if you'd like. I think it worth
mentioning, though, that if you head north from the chest with the Shock
Whip, you'll come to a cliff which you can climb. While it just leads to a
dead end in the mountains now, it'll be important much later on, so
remember this.

Aside from the few chests, it's also noteworthy that this is a decent place
to gain ABP in the first world. The Nut Eaters are really easy to defeat,
and give 2 ABP. The SkullEaters are dangerous, though...they usually run
away immediately, and you still gain 5 ABP, but if they attack, expect to
lose more than 1000 HP. Also, they have a high defense, and only "Earth" and
"Critt" attacks seem to damage them. (Well, Blow Fish does, too.) You can
also Control/Confuse them and make them attack themselves, or give everyone
the Guard ability and just use it until they run away. =P

%%%Second World%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

--- "Female Chocobos and Summon Monsters" ---

Just a simple little sub-quest you can do anytime after getting the
submarine. While underwater, check the map, and head for the dot furthest to
the northwest, which is a small cave.

- Undersea Tunnel -
Treasures: None

This is just a small tunnel leading to the surface. The path is straight-
forward, and there're no chests or anything. Just make your way to the exit
on the right side of the cave. Oh, and watch out for the monsters here --
they're quite strong.

Anyway, after exiting the cave, you'll be back outside on the world map, in
that small forested area in the northwest, which is surrounded completely by
mountains. You may have seen place before while flying around on the dragon,
but previously, there was no way in. Since you're here now, you might as
well have a look around! The small circular forest in the immediate south is
home to a chocobo, but unfortunately, it's a female, which Bartz says you're
unable to ride. Bah. Like a lot of "useless" stuff in this game, this bird
has its role, but you can't do anything with it now.

Well, this may have seemed like a waste of time so far, but there *is* a
better reason for coming here. Remember Ramuh? Yep. Same story here. Wander
around the forest, and eventually, you'll get attacked by a strange "cyclops
bull" called Shoat...

- Boss Battle -
Shoat - Lv: 38   HP: 5000

This is a pretty easy battle overall. Shoat's only attacks appear to be a
physical attack, which does ~200 damage, and Drain, which does about 500
damage. Since he has no strengths and fairly low HP, anything will work on
him, but watch out, as when he's attacked physically, Shoat will counter
with Demon Eye, which has a high chance of petrifying the target. This can
be remedied by carrying a bunch of Softs, but if you're worried about it,
you might wanna bring a Dancer in this battle, equipped with a Ribbon.
Anyhow, when you win, you'll get 3 ABP, and the "Shoat" item, which like the
"Ramuh" and "Golem" items, permanently teaches you the respective summon
spell when used as an item.

After defeating Shoat, you're done here. Head back through the tunnel, and
move on.


--- "Gilgame's Hoard" ---

This side quest is *very* annoying, and all you get out of it is money, so
feel free to skip it. If you're feeling foolhardy though, go ahead and
try... Make sure you have Float, though.

Go into the cave near the Big Bridge. The enemies here have the powerful
Earthquake spell; cast Float before you come in so it can't harm you.
Anyways, the straightforward path in the cave just connects the two
entrances, but there's a slightly hidden side route near the West entrance.
If you follow this route, you'll come to a doorway; now comes the annoying
part. Once you go through that doorway, every step you take will give you
money. The first step gives you 10 GP, (whoopee...) then 20, then 40, then
80, and so on, doubling each step up to 40960 on the last step. (That's
81910 GP in total. =P) Okay, that part's not annoying. What *is* annoying is
that every few steps, you'll have to fight a *very* strong monster called
Gilgame! (Hence the name of this side quest. =P)

- Boss Battle -
Gilgame - Lv: 51   HP: 32768   Weakness: Ice

Just looking at this guy's HP should give you a hint about how long this
fight is going to take, especially with his high defense and evade. The
fact that he does *strong* damage with every hit and his "Turtle"
counterattack hits twice (and can cause Poison and Blind) doesn't help,
either. What's more, the usually powerful $toss won't hurt him at all. (Not
that it'd really be worth it, since the only reason to come here is for
money... =P) The fastest way to kill them is to bring someone with the
Summon command and have them cast Golem; while Gilgame hits so many times
that Golem will usually be gone within two rounds, this saves a *lot* of
time because you don't have to worry about healing. It's a good idea to cast
Protes on everyone; I don't know if this will make Golem last any longer,
but at least it means you won't take as much damage if Gilgame hits you
while it's down. Haste2 is a good idea, as well. To damage him, the best
method I've found is to cast Ice 3 with an Ice Rod equipped; this will do
around 3500 damage if your levels are in the mid-30s, which means you can
kill it in 10 hits. This probably goes without saying, but be sure that your
main magic user has a HairOrnament. When Gilgame dies, he uses Earthquake,
which will almost definitely kill you unless you're floating. If anyone dies
in the battle, be sure to re-cast Float after reviving them. Defeating
Gilgame gives you 5 ABP and 5000 GP, and the satisfaction of beating the
damn thing! Of course, the last part is short-lived, as you'll fight another
one a few steps later... Bleah. =P

After beating a Gilgame, be sure to heal up for the next one. And once you
get the 40960 GP, cast Telepo and get out of there; there's one more step
afterwards, but there's no GP on it, and you *still* might fight Gilgame.
(Believe me, I found this out the hard way. =P)  Expect to fight 3 or 4 of
them, though if you're *really* lucky, you might get away with only two
battles. However, it takes around 8-10 Ethers to recover your MP after
beating one, so you probably won't be showing a profit after this. =P  In
other words, this sidequest isn't very rewarding; the only reason to do it
is if you want a challenge or you want to be thorough.

%%%Third World%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

--- "Odds and Ends" ---

There're a lot of assorted little things you can do in the third world once
you have the airship. None of these are major enough to deserve their own
section, so I'm just summarizing them here.

- You'll probably have noticed that neither of your dragons are around. If
  you want one, simply return to the dragon tower at Val Castle talk to the
  dragon. You'll be asked if you want to ride it. Say yes. There, you just
  got your dragon back. =P  Of course, the airship, black chocobo, and even
  Boko are better than a dragon at this point, but it's there if you want
  it. =P

- Return to Crescent Town and play the piano at the bard's house. If you've
  played all the pianos in the first and second worlds, the bard will teach
  you Power Song. If you've played *all* the pianos around the world, which
  includes the one in Mirage Town (see the "Mirages" sub-quest), the bard
  will also teach you LVL Song. So where *are* all the pianos? They're all
  noted in the FAQ, and none of the towns that get sucked into the Void have
  a piano in them, but if you don't feel like searching for them, here's a
  quick rundown of where they all are: Tule, Kerwin, Karnak, Jacohl,
  Crescent Town, Lugor, Moore Village, and Mirage Village.

- Remember that little girl in Lugor Bordertown that said she lost her
  ribbon? Apparently, she's since found it, and will give it to you if you
  talk to her from behind the counter. Yes, it's a Ribbon.

- If you return to the Pirates' Cave, there'll be a short scene where the
  spirit of Faris's old friend Hydra shows up. After a bit of dialogue, he
  disappears, and you get the powerful Hydra summon spell, courtesy of
  Krile's amazing sea serpent language skills. ^_^

- With Boko's help, you can get a neat item from Easterly Falls, but it
  takes a bit of running around. From Gill's Cave, which is where you more
  than likely left him, ride Boko back towards Tule, up past Kuza Castle and
  Lugor Bordertown, across the plains to the west, and into the northern
  part of the Karnak Region (if there's a small square-shaped lake with
  rivers leading into the ocean nearby, you're in the right place). Here,
  walk through the winding mountain rivers, and you'll eventually come to
  the top of Easterly Falls. Walk to the center of the falls to enter a
  small hidden area, which is basically just a close-up of the top of the
  falls. Here, examine the waterfall directly below you, and you'll get the
  Magic Lamp. When used in battle, it uses a summon spell; first it summons
  Bahamut, then the summon cast gets progressively weaker each time you use
  it. Recharge it, and it starts back at Bahamut. See "The Great Sea Trench"
  for how to recharge it. Also, once you have the lamp, the falls will act
  as a healing spring.

- Are you a brave warrior who fights every battle, or are you a coward who
  escapes a lot? Well, in this case, it doesn't matter, as both of you types
  can profit from this. Remember that locked door at Moore Village? It's now
  opened, and going through the small house leads to an invisible path in
  the surrounding forest. Not even the thief's "Secret" ability will let you
  see the actual path here, so just feel your way around, and eventually
  you'll come to a small clearing (which is also invisible, and appears when
  you enter it). Here, an old man tells you that you can take one of the two
  nearby boxes: The one on the left if you're brave, and the one on the
  right if you're a coward. Taking the box on the left gets you the Brave
  Blade, which is an incredibly powerful sword, but decreases in power every
  time you run from battle. Taking the box on the right gets you the Chicken
  Knife, a weak dagger with the exact opposite effect of the Brave Blade: it
  gets *stronger* as you run away. Either way, though, you're only allowed
  to take one item, then the clearing disappears. So what should you take?
  Well, if you haven't run very much (or at all), take the Brave Blade. It
  should be stronger than Excalibur and possibly even Ragnarok. If you
  prefer to run from battles, though, take the Chicken Knife. It's really a
  matter of preference.

- Even if you managed to get most of the Blue Magic, you probably still have
  a blank spot at the bottom of your list of spells. That's because only one
  enemy can use this elusive skill, and it's well-hidden. Begin your search
  by flying to the ocean north of where Walz was, and landing on the water.
  There're a lot of different types of enemies here, but the one that can
  use the spell you're looking for can only be found in the northeastern tip
  of the ocean, where the mountains are. Usually, you'll fight wussy first
  world sea monsters here (Fins, Cybis, Thunderpit, etc.), but after a while
  (and it probably *will* take a while, as it's pretty rare), you should
  come across a Stingray. If you control this monster, you can force it to
  cast "Guardian" (aka Big Guard or Mighty Guard) on your team, which your
  Blue Mages can learn afterwards! If you've played any other recent Final
  Fantasy game, you should know the value of this spell. It casts Protes,
  Shell, and Float on your entire team, and I can pretty much guarantee that
  it *will* save your life many times! Be sure to get this spell as soon as
  possible!

- Well, this really isn't a sub-quest, but I didn't know where else to put
  it, since it doesn't fit in with the "other stuff" section. Once you have
  the submarine, you can find a small underwater cave near the hook-shaped
  peninsula south of Karnak. Inside, you'll meet a strange old man who says
  he's "your psychic friend", and that he knows know why you're on this
  journey. He then asks if you'd like to hear what he knows about you. Say
  Yes, and a box will appear showing the number of battles you've fought,
  the number of monsters you've defeated, the average Exp. per character,
  the number of treasures you've found, and the number of times you've saved
  your game. Of course, this is all trivial info, but it's sorta interesting
  nonetheless. ;) 


--- "Mirages" ---

When the two worlds split 1000 years ago, a town was trapped in the N-Zone.
Since this realm of ancient demons has returned to the real world, so too
has this town. However, it's not actually on the world map, and you find it
in a very weird way. Head for the small lone forest at about the middle of
the long, thin strip of land near the southern part of the world (it's far
to the east of Crescent Town, to be exact), and wander around for a bit, as
if trying to fight random battles. After a while (it shouldn't take very
long), you'll be pulled into what appears to be a random battle, but will
instead end up in the town! (This is *very* obvious on the PSX version. The
battle scene changer was changed to a swirling effect, but the effect shown
when you enter Mirage Village was left as the battle scene changer from the
original SNES version. If that made any sense.)

- Mirage Village -
Treasures: Thief Knife, Mirage Vest

So what exactly is *in* this strange town? Well, there're a couple useful
items you can pick up, but the real purpose of coming here is probably the
the shops, which sell some of the best weapons, items, and spells in the
entire game! In each of them, there're actually two shopkeepers, both of who
sell different items. The first set of shops are in plain sight, but the
second ones generally take a bit of searching to find. Here's a rundown of
what's available:

* Item Shop:
Both item shops are actually located in the same place: the second floor of
the inn. No need for any searching here. The items sold here are common, but
it's worth mentioning that you can buy Elixirs here. Of course, at 50000 GP
each, you probably won't go crazy buying them, but they're here if you need
them.

* Weapon Shop:
The main weapon shop sells powerful equipment. There's nothing especially
worth commenting on, but you may find some of it useful. The secret weapon
shop is fairly easy to find, but I'll cover exactly where it is in a second.
You can buy ninja items here, including MagiShurikens and Double Lances.

* Armor Shop:
The Crystal stuff sold in the main shop is the best buyable equipment in the
game, and the assorted robes are great for mages. The secret store is a bit
tricky to find. There's a secret passage in this room, but it's a dead end,
so just ignore it. Instead, examine the lone crate in this room, which
causes part of the shop counter to slide back. Go behind it, and follow the
secret passage through to the next shop, which sells expensive accessories
that stop certain elements and status ailments. (The same stuff sold at
Easterly Village.)

* Magic Shop:
If you missed any of the low-level magic scattered throughout the game, such
as the summon spells sold at Walz, you can buy them at the main shop. The
secret shop, which can be found by walking around to the back of the left
side of the building, sells some of the highest-level spells for each of the
three basic catagories. Truth be known, though, of these, Arise is the only
one I've gotten much use out of, but if you've got the cash, you may as well
buy them all.

Ok, that's it for the shops, but there's still some stuff here. If you go
into the pub, you'll notice a door behind the counter; it's an alternate
entrance. You can get into it from the north side of the pub. (Obviously,
you won't be able to see it, but it's easy enough to find.) Aside from the
shops, all the hidden stuff in the village is found through this door, so
go through it!

For starters, see that line of barrels near the counter? Check the second
barrel from the bottom for a Thief Knife, a cool weapon that lets you
randomly steal while attacking. Now go downstairs. A guy here says he'll
give you something good if you go around the world by Chocobo. To do this,
go back to where you left Boko, head off in one direction, and keep going
until you get back to your starting point. Now go back to the guy in Mirage.
He'll be surprised that you actually did it, and gives you a Mirage Vest. If
you talk to him after this, he gives you a clue about the Magic Lamp.

There's still more, though. Go past this guy and you'll be outside again.
Keep going to reach the entrance to another building. There's a healing
pot inside; just past it is a staircase. At the bottom is a door, but when
you open it, the screen just turns blue for a second, then the door closes
again. Ignore this, and go past the door to the right side. Go up the
stairs to find the second weapon shop.

Go back downstairs, and head left. Instead of going back up the way you
came, though, keep going left into the wall. You'll see another stairway,
but just ignore it for now and go left into the wall again. You'll find a
piano! This is the last one, so you should be Piano Master now. If not, go
back to the other towns and find the one you missed. Anyways, remember that
staircase I told you to ignore a minute ago? Go up it to find your Black
Chocobo! Talk to it, and you'll fly out of the village. That's it!

With your Black Chocobo, you're now able to reach the desert in the
northeast. It may be a bit early, but there're two sub-quests there you can
try at any point. ("The Eternal Phoenix's Flame", and "King of the Dragons")


--- "Cave to the Locked Basement" ---

Remember Jacohl Cave back in the first world? The north exit seemed to lead
nowhere. Remember the basement of Val Castle? There was no way to open that
locked door. Now that the two worlds have merged, both of these "pointless"
areas have a use.

To start this quest, go to Jacohl Cave, which is now just west of Val. I've
already done a walkthrough of this area back in the first world, so it'd be
sorta pointless to do another one. See the "Jacohl Cave" subquest (above) if
you need any help here. Just head for the north cliffside exit, and climb
up. Since the exit on the world map was covered up by Val Castle, you'll
come out in a different place...behind the door in the locked basement!


- Val's Basement -
Treasures: Odin (Summon Magic)

This place is in pretty bad shape...the pillars have fallen over, and
there're numerous cracks in the ground. In other words, the state of
disrepair has caused this place to conveniently become a maze. Fun. ^_^
Thankfully, it's easy enough to find yout way through here, so I won't
bother saying much else. Before doing any actual exploration here, however,
I suggest going upstairs and saving your game. (Don't worry about the door.
You can unlock it from behind, and once it's opened, it stays that way for
the rest of the game.)

Anyway, at the far north end of the basement maze, you'll come across a now
familiar sight: a green "Summon Orb". Examine it; the summon monster speaks,
asking if you want to challenge him, and that he'll give you only one minute
to defeat him if you accept. Say yes, and you'll be asked you if you're
really sure about this. Say yes again, and you'll enter battle.

- Boss Battle -
Odin - Lv: 2   HP: 17000

The toughest thing about this battle is that you have only one minute to
win. There's not much to say here, other than to use your most powerful
attacks and keep hitting him; $toss is extremely good here. A note: You can
steal a Protect Ring from Odin, but this is *very* hard due to the time
limit. If you're going to try this, you will *definitely* want everyone to
have $toss so you have enough time to kill him after stealing. Also, set the
battle and message speeds to the fastest settings to save time. If you don't
steal successfully by the 30-second mark or so, you might as well give up.
If you *really* want it, reset and try again; otherwise, just $toss him to
death.

It might take a couple of tries, but when you emerge victorious, you'll
receive the powerful "Odin" summon spell. This particular version of the
familiar Final Fantasy Eidolon/Esper/GF/Whatever seems to have a slightly
different effect. Its main attack, VengSwrd, instantly kills all enemies,
but if the enemy is immune to instant death, Odin will instead use Javelin,
a non-elemental attack against a single enemy. This sounds like the version
used in FF7, but I've noticed that on rare occasions, Odin will sometimes
use Javelin even if he *can* kill the enemies with VengSwrd. I'm really not
sure why this happens, but don't worry, I've never seen him attempt to use
VengSwrd on a boss. ^_^

Anyhow, after you've gotten the Odin spell, you're finished here (unless you
want to build up more ABP fighting the RockStatues down here), so head out.


--- "The Lost Shard" ---

Do you remember a long time ago, when the Water Crystal shattered, there was
one shard that you had to leave behind because you couldn't reach it? Well,
now that you have the submarine, you can go back and claim it! While
underwater, check the world map, and you should see a dot in the sea north
of where Walz used to be. This is where Walz Tower, which is still fully
intact, ended up after it sank. Sail over it to enter.

- Walz Tower -
Treasures: None

Since the tower is completely filled with water, you obviously can't stay
here forever. Upon entering, Bartz will freak out and start gasping for
breath, then says that he can only stay down here for about seven minutes or
so. (Seven minutes? O_o  Most people can't stay underwater for more than
*one* minute! He must have some powerful lungs. =P) With that, a timer
appears for the said amount of time, and you'll regain control. Unlike the
last major timed area (Karnak Castle), you *can* take advantage of a thief's
extra running speed here, so having one in the team will help out here. Just
be careful, as there *are* monsters here. They appear to be nameless
'shadows' of various enemies you've encountered here and there. They're not
that difficult, though; they mainly seem to be here to learn Blue Magic
from. If you've missed any Blue spells, take advantage of this. =P

Anyway, aside from the fact that you start at the *top* this time, Walz
Tower is exactly the same as it was when you first came here. It's fairly
linear, and there aren't any treasures here, so just head straight down.
Along the way, you'll see a closed chest that you can reach by climbing up
the hard-to-see vine on the pillar in the room below it. There's no treasure
inside, but it you open it, your air will be replenished, and the timer will
reset to seven minutes. At the very bottom of the tower, where the entrance
used to be, you'll find the missing crystal shard. Of course, just allowing
you to take it and run would be no fun, so as you go to pick it up, a voice
speaks out. It says that the crystal shard gives him great power, then asks
you if you're willing to challenge him for it. It'd be a waste of time to
have come all the way down here just to run away, so accept the challenge.

- Boss Battle -
Gogo - Lv: 77   HP: ????   Weakness: Water

You'll need a couple minutes to spare on your timer, but this battle is
easy. At the start of the fight, Gogo (and yes, this *does* seem to be the
same character from FF6) says that he'll mimic all your moves, and that if
you want to beat him, you'll have to mimic *his* moves. This may sound like
a game of Simon Says, but the thing is...Gogo doesn't *do* anything!
Therefore, to complete this challenge, you have to do the same thing he
does... Absolutely nothing! =P  After a couple minutes, Gogo says you
succeeded, then casts X-zone on himself. You win the battle, earning a
whopping 50 ABP in the process!

Following the "battle", the crystal shard will *finally* come into your
possession, and with it, you'll be able to use the Mime job. Time is still
ticking away, however, so hurry up and get out of that tower! Telepo works,
so use it for a quick exit. =P


--- "The Eternal Phoenix's Flame" ---

Once you have the Black Chocobo, fly straight south from Mirage Village.
You'll soon come to a vast desert, with a patch of forest in it. Land in the
forest, then make your way to the southwestern corner to find a tower. The
enemies in the desert are rather strong; they're the same as the enemies in
the first section of the N-Zone, though, so the same strategies will work
here.

- Phoenix Tower -
Treasures: Phoenix Down x4, 5000 GP, 10000 GP, 15000 GP, 20000 GP, 25000 GP,
           Ab Splitter, Phoenix (Summon Magic)

When you enter the tower, you might be stumped; it looks like there's no way
up. There is, though; walk up to the wall just above the entrance, go left a
space, and examine the wall in front of you to reveal a stairway. You can
also try examining the wall on the right, but if you do, you'll be dragged
into a fight with a strong enemy, and you won't be able to run away. This is
the general pattern for most of the floors of this tower; there are two
sections of wall to examine, and if you examine the wrong one, you'll get
into a fight. I'll split the tower up into groups of five floors; on every
fifth floor is a treasure room, which I'll get to in a minute.

But first... The enemies. They're not all that difficult, but they're
noteworthy for two reasons. First, you can learn several Blue Magics from
them; if you control the Disablers or Sherries, in fact, three of their
commands are Blue Magics. =P  Also, the Serpentinas will cast Roulette, but
it's not in their Control list, so you'll have to wait for them to use it
(and hope it hits someone with Learning). The second thing to note about the
enemies is that you can steal some *very* good items from them. The
Disablers have Wall Rings and Ribbons, the Sherries have Red Shoes and Elf
Cloaks, and the Serpentinas have Prism Dresses and Coral Rings. That's about
all there is to say about the enemies, so let's get back to the tower. =P

Floors 1-5: I covered the first floor a minute ago, and the stairs are
clearly visible on the second, so there's nothing to say. =P  On the third
floor, examine the left section of the wall to go up without fighting; on
the fourth floor, take the right side. On the fifth floor is the first
treasure room; there's two pots here. The pot on the left has 5000 GP, while
the pot on the right conatins a monster: Magic Pot. It keeps asking for
Elixirs; keep giving them to it until it escapes. When it does, you'll get a
*very* nice 100 ABP. Then you'll get the treasure from the pot: a Phoenix
Down. Joy. =P  As you can probably tell, the ABP is a bigger deal than the
treasure. =P  Incidentally, the Magic Pots are *extremely* hard to steal
from, and all you get from doing so is a Potion, so... don't bother. =P  Go
upstairs...

Floors 6-10: The stairs on floor 6 are clearly visible, so go up. On floor
7, the left side takes you upstairs without a fight; on floor 8, take the
left side again, and take the right side on floor 9. The tower sticks to
this pattern until floor 20, so remember it. =P  The tenth floor is another
treasure room, with the same layout as Floor 5; the pot on the left side has
10000 GP, and the pot on the right is another Magic Pot. Defeat it, and
you'll get a Phoenix Down.

Floors 11-15: Floors 11-14 are exactly the same as 6-9. Floor 15 is another
treasure room. This time, the *left* pot contains the Magic Pot (and a
Phoenix Down), while the one on the right has 15000 GP. Go upstairs.

Floors 16-20: Floors 16-19 are the same as 6-9 and 11-14. Floor 20 is...
yep, you guessed it, another treasure room. The Magic Pot and Phoenix Down
are back on the right, and the pot to the left contains 20000 GP. Noticing a
trend yet? =P  Go up.

Floors 21-25: Okay... on Floor 22, the *right* side is the way to go. Other
than that, 21-24 are just like the other sets of intermediate floors, and
Floor 25 is another treasure room, with 25000 GP in the pot on the right,
and a Magic Pot on the left. This time, though, you'll win an Ab Splitter, a
decent bow, from it. Time to go up some more...

Floors 26-30: Take the left wall on Floor 26, left on 27, right on 28.
On Floor 29, there's another wall. Examine the very center of it to find a
stairway leading to Floor 30... Be warned, you may still get attacked when
you open it. Surprisingly, Floor 30 *isn't* a treasure room, but the top of
the tower!

At the top of the tower, find a dragon, and after a long flashback to
Reina's youth, you'll get the Phoenix summon, courtesy of Krile's amazing
dragon language skills (has this become a running gag yet? =P) When prompted
with the question during the flashback, it doesn't matter what you answer;
you'll get Phoenix either way. You're restored to full now, but even so...
get the heck out of there! =P


--- "King of the Dragons" ---

There's more to the big desert than just the Phoenix Tower. In the northern
section, you'll find a mountain; however, it's a *long* walk from the
forest. You may want to use a few Tents/Cottages on the way. Anyways, this
is North Mountain, where you got your dragon waaaaaayyyy back in the first
world.

- North Mountain -
Treasures: Bahamut (Summon Magic)

The layout of the mountain hasn't changed at all, and neither have the
enemies. So you shouldn't have any trouble getting through here. =P Use the
Save Point when you get to it, and you'll reach the top of the mountain
shortly after. Bahamut appears, and challenges you to a fight.

- Boss Battle -
Bahamut - Lv: 99   HP: 40000

This guy is *tough*. At the start of the battle, cast Guardian to cut down
on the damage done by Mega Flare. Even with Shell up, Mega Flare will
*still* hit your team for over 1000 damage, so you'd better have someone
with Cure 3. Haste 2 will be important, as well; if you don't have it up,
you might get hit by a second Mega Flare before you get a chance to heal.
Offensively, use whatever you've got! Holy, Flare, Meteo, L.3 Flare, Flare
Sword, Odin, $toss, Jump, Store and Throw are all very good attacks here.
Basically, just hit him with all your big attacks! On a side note, he can
use Aqua Rake, but you probably already have it, and there are easier ways
to learn it if you don't. =P  As long as you can use Guardian, Haste 2, and
Cure 3, you should be fine. If you *don't* have any of those spells, get
them. =P  When you defeat Bahamut, you'll get 25 ABP, and possibly a Dragon
Fang; you can also steal a Dragon Fang during the battle. However, these are
easy enough to get at Dragon Valley, so don't make a big fuss over getting
them here. =P

After you defeat Bahamut, you'll get him as a summon spell. And a very good
one, at that. =P  That's it for this place, so just teleport out (yeah, it's
easy, but why waste time? =P) and make your way back through the desert to
your Chocobo so you can get the heck out of here.


--- "The Ultimate Battles" ---

Are you ready for a challenge? If you answered 'yes' to that question, then
you might just be ready to take on Omega and Shinryu, FF5's two optional
bosses. These two are far stronger than Neo X-Death, and will easily kill an
unprepared team. In order to stand a chance against them, you'll probably
need the following:

- Very high levels (at least 48). It's essential that your max HP at least
  exceeds 3000, and you won't have time to use Giant Drinks.
- As many jobs mastered as possible. If you have the time and patience, you
  may want to master them all. If not, at *least* have everyone master the
  Ninja job so you can equip two weapons. When you're satisfied, turn your
  characters into either Travelers or Mimes in order to take advantage of
  their high stats, their (or rather, the Traveler's) ability to equip
  anything, and the fact that they can set more than one command.
- The Guardian spell. If you don't have it, you'll literally have no chance
  of victory. Haste2 is also *extremely* useful.
- The Sorcerer's Bolt3 Sword. Make sure the same person also has 2-swords
  and Sshot. (In other words, have the same person master Sorcerer, Ninja,
  and Hunter.) This is only necessary for Omega, however.
- Four Coral Rings. Shinryu opens with an obscenely powerful Tidal Wave that
  does over 7000 damage to your entire team. These will let you survive it.
  You can buy them in Mirage Village for 50000 GP each.
- As many Dragon Lances as you can get. While not *essential*, these weapons
  do about 5000 damage per hit to Shinryu, which helps greatly. You can
  steal them from Crystal Dragons sometimes.

A good general setup for fighting Omega is to give one person Sword Magic,
Sshot, and have him/her equip the Brave Blade and the Excalibur. Another
person should have Blue Magic and the Masamune, so you'll move first, and
can cast Guardian right off. The third person should have Time Magic.
Considering how fast Omega is, Haste2 is *very* useful. Return also helps in
case you need to start over, since you can't run from this battle. The last
character should have White Magic (at level 6), as well as Redx2. (Yes, that
means you'll have to master a Red Mage.)

Against Shinryu, ditch the Excalibur and Holy Lance in favor of Dragon
Lances. Shinryu absorbs Holy attacks, so those weapons will do little good,
while the Dragon Lances do *more* damage to him. Otherwise, the same basic
setup also applies. Shinryu is *far* stronger than Omega, however, so you
may want to consider using an extra healer. Jump is also a nice alternative,
since most of the fighting will probably be done with spears. You can run
from Shinryu, so you won't need Return, but keep the time magic anyway, just
for Haste2 and possibly Meteo. Also, you'll *need* to equip those Coral
Rings, or you more than likely won't survive Shinryu's first attack.

Anyway, after the preperations have been made...it's time to fight! Omega is
the little robot that looks like a MechaHead wandering around the cliff just
outside the save point room in the "Dark Cave" section of the N-Zone. Walk
into him, and the battle begins.

- Boss Battle -
Omega - Lv: 119   HP: <60000>   Weakness: Bolt

Don't let the normal battle music fool you -- this 'bot is no lightweight.
For his very first attack, Omega will probably either use Beam Cannon for
about 1800 damage to your entire team (and this ignores defense, including
Guardian) or Delta Attack, which petrifies a character (and which I've never
seen fail). If he petrifies anyone except the one with Time Magic, you might
just wanna cast Return. Surprisingly, the damage you take from Beam Cannon
isn't as bad as being petrified here. ^_^  Omega's other attacks consist of
Atomic Ray, which does about 2600 damage to your entire team (halved by
Shell), Burn Ray, which does about 1400 damage to one member (also halved by
Shell), Missile (you know what this does), Rainbow Wind, which causes Blind
and Silence to one member (big deal), and, of course, what optional super
boss would be complete without the obligatory single-digit HP attack? Yep,
Omega can use Maelstrom. He may have other attacks, but these're all I've
seen. Once you get a chance to move, cast Guardian, Haste2, and use Bolt3
Sword. After this, you're pretty much set. Omega has inherent reflect status
and absurd defense, so most attacks will either do 0 damage to him or heal
him. Don't waste time having anyone else attack, just stall for time until
your "Sword Mage's" next turn comes up, and have him/her unleash Sshot. Each
attack should do between 5000 and 7000 damage, though despite what it may
seem, this isn't *quite* enough to kill Omega. After the attack sequence
ends, Omega counters four times by using either Rocket Punch (reduces HP by
1/3, causes confusion), Mustard Bomb (does damage equal to 1/4 of one
character's max HP), or Encircle (blows a character out of the battle). If
he uses the latter on the one with Sshot, you might as well just reset or
cast Return, because you're probably not gonna win without him/her. If you
manage to survive the onslaught of counters, a second Sshot will kill Omega.
Your rewards are 50000 GP, 100 ABP, and the Omega Badge, which does little
more than show that you beat Omega. You also get the satisfaction of knowing
you killed an incredibly powerful monster that even those who sealed Enuo
couldn't defeat. ^_^

Now for Shinryu... He's a "monster-in-a-box" in a chest near the end of the
crystalline section of the N-Zone. It's directly at the bottom of a flight
of steps. Open it to begin the battle.

- Boss Battle -
Shinryu - Lv: 97   HP: <55000>

Unlike Omega, there's no real "trick" to beating Shinryu...he's just damn
strong, and you'll have to be stronger! On the first turn, Shinryu uses
Tidal Wave. This does 7000+ damage to the entire team, though with the Coral
Rings equipped, it *heals* you instead! After this, cast Guardian and Haste2
immediately. Truthfully, I'd hate to see what kind of damage Shinryu does if
you're *not* protected. His Blizzard spell did 2800+ damage to my entire
team *with* Guardian in effect, so I'm willing to wager that it'd kill an
unprotected team outright. Shinryu's physical attack is also incredibly
powerful, having done 2500+ damage to a heavily-armored character who had
Protect status. He can also use Roulette, which...well...sucks. (And no, he
can't kill himself with it. ^_^) This is all I've seen him use, but I'm sure
he has other attacks. As for what *you* should do... Just go all out. Use
Flare, Sshot, Flare Sword, Meteo, Bahamut, whatever. Just avoid Holy
attacks, which Shinryu absorbs. A character with a mastered white magic
command, Redx2, and a HairOrnament will be able to take care of most of your
healing, but it's best to keep a second healer on hand in case Shinryu kills
your main one, and Phoenix Downs just aren't gonna cut it, as Shinryu will
probably kill him/her again almost immediately. This battle will take a
while, but eventually, Shinryu will fall. You won't get any money here, but
you'll get 100 ABP and the Dragon Seal, which like the Omega Badge, is just
to prove that you beat Shinryu. Of course, the rewards here are much better,
as you'll obtain Ragnarok, the ultimate sword, from the chest Shinryu was in
after the battle.

If you successfully beat both Shinryu and Omega, then I can pretty much
guarantee that X-Death won't stand a chance against you. ^_^ 

(Note: As I said above, these battles were fought using a team that was on
level 50 and had all jobs mastered. If anyone has beaten them with a more
reasonable team, please let me know. Also, since the battles were over
pretty quickly for me, I'd appreciate it if someone could tell me if
there're any attacks they can do that I'm unaware of.)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Dashboard Clock

P.S. A big thanx to Gamefaqs for letting me use SOME walkthroughs.