Final Fantasy 1 solo (black-belt) walkthrough
by Aaditya Rangan
contact at
[email protected]
version 1
This walkthrough can be thought of as an addendum to the '4 white mages'
walkthrough at www.gamefaqs.com. It assumes the reader has a fair knowledge
of the games structure, and of dungeon/overworld geography.
Contents:
0: Overview
1: Poof, a Castle
2: Who needs nunchucks anyway?
3: Das Boot
4: The High Seas
5: That Peninsula
6: What Marsh Cave?
7: Boy, where did all the challenge go?
8: Mmmm... Zeus Gauntlet
9: Ice Cave, for lack of a better title.
10: Errands
11: That's All Folks
12: End
13: Epilogue
14: Credits
0: Overview
One of the best features of FF1 is the replay value. Yeah, so you beat it.
But can you beat it with just one warrior? Which warrior can do it? The
most relevant thing to consider is Chaos (of course). The fellow has 2
kilohitpoints, and eventually gets around to casting cur4 (8th round or so).
So you need somebody who can kill him quickly. This pretty much rules out
the wizards, leaving the knight and master as the only candidates. A level
50 master usually outperforms a level 50 knight, with more HP, attack, hit%,
evade. With the armor bug, a master can attain an absorb of 50 combined
with the special defenses of the ribbon. Other than that, it's really up
for grabs. I'd be interested in seeing how far a solo fighter can go. As
for quick tips: Get a turbo controller. Sit close to the reset button.
Don't forget about the ship sub-game, you may need the 100GP.
1. Poof, a Castle. (warrior level 1)
Clone 4 black belts, then shuffle over to coneria. Buy 1 suit of wooden
armor, and 4 nunchucks. Equip everyone with nunchucks, and stick the
cardboard box on the last fellow in your party. Accost some imps, and kill
off all but 2. Then have everyone ITEM (displaying their nunchucks). The
imps will take this opportunity to smack you around, and should polish off
everyone but the guy in the paper bag. Once you are down to one character,
finish the fight. Straggle to the inn, and save your game. No need to
admire the scenery, since you'll have plenty of opportunities later.
2: Who needs nunchucks anyway? (warrior levels 1-6)
Now you are in a bit of a pinch, since you can only handle 1 tussle with the
imps, and they only give you 24 gold (The inn costs 30). So keep on
plugging, taking the 6 GP loss each time, until you are level 2. Sell off
your late buddies' nunchucks to pad your starving wallet. Once you reach
level 2, you can handle 2 fights per inn, and so you'll start making money.
Keep it up until you hit level 3-4. Then you can wander north a bit and
pester the grimps and wolves. Save often, and you'll eventually get to
level 6. Now chuck your 'chucks (and your decrepit wooden armor), and
trundle off to garland's hut. You should be able to afford a TENT or two,
and 20 HEAL potions. After insulting garland's mother, break out your
can-opener, and unleash the whoop-ass. When I was on level 5, Garland
consistently struck me down (followed with an 'I told you so', and a sneer).
But as soon as I reached level 6, I smashed him. He only hit me for 29HP.
Tease the bats and take the princess-shaped teleporter back to the castle.
The man will build you a bridge, and you may as well pick up the LUTE.
3: Das Boot. (warrior level 6-7)
Getting to pravoka is a doozy. You should be able to amass 30 HEALs and 3
TENTs. Start your trek. Madponys, grwolves and creeps will probably kill
you, so be prepared to TENT halfway, and reset a bunch of times.
Eventually, you will reach pravoka. Stay at the inn, and hang around the
outskirts of pravoka. You should be able to kill a single ogre, or a small
pack of wolves. This should boost you up to level 7. Now head back and
accost bikke, the parrotless-pirate. You should be able to extort a boat
out of bikke's buddies (who only hurt me for 90HP). Save, and shuttle back
to coneria. Sailing back will also take a couple tries, since most of the
marine monstrosities will maul you beyond recognition. Incidentally, you
can now play the sub-game (while seated in your seafaring sensation, press
A+B 55 times).
4: The High Seas. (warrior levels 7-17)
Now just putz around on your ship. You should be able to handle 1 shark, a
few sahags, or a few kyzoku. The rsahags and oddeyes will trounce you, so
don't take any unnecessary risks (save at coneria after every battle). You
should slowly make money, and quickly build levels. Once at level 9, you
can stare down 1 oddeye. At level 10, you can take on 2 sharks (and might
be able to handle 2 battles). At level 11, you can poke out 2 oddeyes (with
a little luck), and should be able to handle 2 battles consistently. At
level 15 you can terminate most of the bobbing baddies, and can go 3-5
fights before saving. At level 16, oddeyes RUN from you! And finally, at
level 17 you are the undisputed ruler of the high seas. Strangely enough,
rising from level 14-15 (or 15-16) is easier and faster than rising from
7-8. This is because those trips back to coneria are rather time consuming.
Nonetheless, The total time it takes (from 7 to 17) is under 2 hours.
5: That Peninsula. (warrior levels 17-23)
Now stock up with 99 HEALs and as many TENTs as you can manage. Sail back
to pravoka. Head east, then north. You will run into the
peninsula-of-power. All sorts of monstrous monsters are indigenous to this
2x2 deathtrap. TENT outside, and keep retrying until you win a battle.
More often than not, the giants, zombulls, trolls and frwolves will treat
you like Kleenex. However, eventually you will get lucky and win a battle.
Use up a bunch of HEALs and a TENT, then try again for more punishment.
Keep this up and you'll gain a bundle of levels. When you run out of HEALs
and TENTs, head back to coneria and restock. My HEAL:TENT ratio was about
10:1. You can also meet tyros and wyverns, both of which are terminated
rather easily. You should make it up to level 23 in under an hour.
6: What Marsh Cave? (warrior levels 23-24)
Restock, buy a few PUREs, and fly through the marsh cave. Seriously. It is
ridiculously easy. The undead rarely paralyze you, and the wizards fall
quickly. I fought the wizard battle twice just to make sure it wasn't a
fluke. Honest. It should be a breeze. After you've squashed the wizards,
nab the CROWN and pay astos a visit. TENT outside, then go in for a
massage. Keep retrying until he misses his RUB. You should toast his astos
in 2-3 rounds. Nab the CRYSTAL, sail over to the HERB, then get the KEY.
7: Boy, where did all the challenge go? (warrior levels 25-28)
Somehow, after I excavated all the mystic key sites I was level 25. By the
time I made it to melmond I was level 26. The earth cave was really easy.
The undead didn't paralyze me, the birds didn't petrify me, and the
bulls/ogres ran from me. I got the RUBY on my first try (smashing the
vampire in 1 round). By the time I got the ROD, I was on level 27. I was
able to kill LICH in one try as well. By the time I got to crescent lake, I
was level 28.
8: Mmmm... Zeus Gauntlet. (warrior levels 28-30)
Restock, nab the CANOE, then head over to the castle of ordeal. Make sure
to get the zeus gauntlet and heal staff. The gold bracelet is nice too, but
don't equip it yet. Grab the tail, then kill those zombieds. I fought the
zombieds 10 times before leaving. They are easy to kill, and give you a
decent amount of experience. Once you are on level 30, run over to the
9: Ice Cave, for lack of a better title. (warrior level 30)
This might have been difficult, but I got very lucky, and beat it in one
try. The sorcerers didn't slay me, the birds didn't squint me, and the eye
didn't RUB me. The zeus gauntlet worked wonders against the undead, and
many of the difficult enemies (wizards, grpedes, frwolves, etc.) ran from
me.
10: Errands. (warrior levels 30-33)
After getting the airship, you are free to loot cardia, talk to bahamut, buy
prorings, get oxyale, etc. After taking care of all these minor errands,
you should be level 32 (or higher). Stop by onrac, and enter the seashrine.
Most enemies here are quite easy. Except for ghosts. They will pummel you.
After a couple retries you should be able to get the SLAB, opal bracelet and
mage staff. Now head over to the waterfall. Your mage staff should dispose
of the wzmummies, and you can get defense, ribbon and CUBE.
11. That's all folks (warrior levels 33-50)
Well, you're done. You have all the items you need. Defense casts RUSE in
battle. Heal staff casts HEAL in battle. Ribbon protects against elemental
attack magic as well as various nasty status effects. So make sure to equip
your fellow 'correctly' (ie, everything arranged in the right place). I
arranged his equipment so that his ITEM screen (as seen in battle) looked
like:
+-------------------------------+
| heal staff zeus gauntlet |
| mage staff ribbon |
| wizard staff proring |
| defense opal bracelet |
+-------------------------------+
This way he could access RUSE, HEAL, FIR2 and LIT2 very easily. When any
wimpy monsters come along, just RUSE 2-3 times and repeatedly HEAL to
restore HP.
After leveling up, your attack and absorb values will reset to lvlx2 and
lvlx1 respectively. However, you will still retain the special defenses of
the ribbon. As long as you don't check your weapon or armor status screen,
your attack and absorb will remain at these default values. This allows you
to have an absorb of 50 as well as the special defenses of the ribbon.
Now just build levels. I found that the EYE (in the ice cave) and the
zombieds (in the castle of ordeal) were very low-risk/high-gain
propositions. You can go crush a fiend if you want some excitement. It
doesn't really matter, since the only important thing is your master's
level.
12. Chaos. (warrior level 50)
So you've obtained all the wonderful treasure, trounced the 4 fiends, and
maximized your character. You should have 100 attack, 50 absorb, and more
than 900 HP. Now just go kill chaos. It is somewhat difficult, due to the
various instant-incapacitation attacks (petrify, slay, stun, etc.).
However, the strategy is straightforward. Smash everything, and
defense+healstaff to conserve heal potions. When up against sorcerers, hope
for the best. I found the best tactic is a no-fear magestaff+fight
approach. After a couple retries, you'll reach chaos. It will take 2-3
rounds to kill him. I was really stingy with HEAL potions, and used the
healstaff a lot. So I reached him with full HP (980HP). He hurt me for 426
before he went down. yay.
13. Epilogue
Gee, solo bb wasn't actually that tough. I wonder what else would be a good
challenge? (but not impossible).
14. Credits
Square, for making decent RPG's
