Solo White Mage Guide
-by Zzonkmiles
Copyright 2006 by Zzonkmiles (knozzmoeking AT hotmail DOT com)
Version 1.00 (9-28-06)
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-----TABLE OF CONTENTS-----
(Note: You can copy and paste these sections into your browser's search
string to make it easier to access the section you specifically want to
read.)
Introduction, Ground Rules, and Preliminary Information
Part 1: Starting the Game
Part 2: Getting the Ship and Getting Stronger
Part 3: Managing the PNEOP
Part 4: Nightmare #1: The Marsh Cave
Part 5: Getting the Mystic Key and Treasure Raiding
Part 6: Nightmare #2: Melmond and the Earth Cave
Part 7: Crescent Lake and the Castle of Ordeals
Part 8: The Gurgu Volcano
Part 9: Nightmare #3: The Ice Cave
Part 10: The Class Change and the Waterfall
Part 11: Onrac and the Sea Shrine
Part 12: Lefein and the Mirage Tower
Part 13: The Sky Castle
Part 14: The Temple of Fiends Revisited
-----INTRODUCTION, GROUND RULES, AND PRELIMINARY INFORMATION-----
This guide is written to get you through Final Fantasy (tm) for the NES
with one White Mage. It is one of the three most difficult possible ways
to beat the game (the other two nightmarishly difficult challenge quests
being a solo Thief and a solo Black Mage).
Is this quest for you?
Simply put, a solo White Mage (hereafter, WM) is insanely difficult and
will require a lot of luck, patience, and strategy. A WM is a poor fighter
(even worse than a Black Mage, because at least a BM is capable of
inflicting multiple hits with a regular weapon far sooner than a WM can).
In addition to this, the WM cannot equip much in the way of armor aside
from bracelets. The only offensive magic in the WM's arsenal is HARM
spells (and later on FADE), thus meaning that he will have to rely on
killing lots of undead enemies in order to level up. This quest is
recommended only for the most advanced players who are well familiar with
this game and its mechanics. It is a quest for people who don't mind
battles that last 20+ rounds or lots of leveling up.
These are some important issues to keep in mind if you are considering a
solo WM quest or a solo quest in general:
1. Enemies that paralyze you are particularly dangerous. 3 Geists might
not seem all that tough, but once you are paralyzed, you are pretty much
dead. A solo quest means only one character will be the target of each
enemy attack. So even if you overcome paralysis in one round, another
enemy might paralyze you a second time two attacks later.
2. You should run away from every enemy you can when you are in a dungeon.
Dungeons are NOT the place to try and gain experience points or gold. Save
your leveling up for the overworld. In any dungeon, your goal is to
conserve resources, make it to the end, and defeat the boss there.
Obviously, there some enemies from which you cannot escape, so you should
save your resources for these fights in particular, not that nice-looking
group of 4 Green Ogres in the Earth Cave that will add 1200G to your
wallet.
3. Raiding treasure chests is not as important, especially if it is
guarded by a spiked square (monster square) or if you have to go too far
out of your way to get it. Granted, some items you can find in treasure
chests may be worth a lot of money when sold, but it might not be worth it
if you have to use an extra 10 heal potions and a few spell charges to get
them. Also keep in mind that the WM can't equip most of what you find in
the treasure chests to begin with, and gold is not too much of a problem
either because of all the leveling up involved and the fact that your money
will generally be spent on potions and magic spells for only one person.
4. Learn how much damage an enemy can inflict with a critical hit. Always
try to keep your HP above this level in battle. You'll be able to
eliminate the threat from regular attacks by using the RUSE spell, but
critical hits cannot be avoided. More information about RUSE will be
given later in the walkthrough.
5. Soft potions and the LIFE spell are useless. Since this is a solo
quest, if you are turned to stone, you are dead. And you have no need to
revive your other characters since this is a solo quest, right? So save
your money.
6. As with any solo quest, each level up is critical. If only one of your
five attributes increases when you level up, you might want to consider
resetting and trying again. It helps to save your game shortly before you
know you're going to level up so as to avoid having to repeat tasks in an
attempt to get the most out of each level up. Strength, agility, and
vitality are the three most important attributes you should look for when
your level goes up. It makes a tremendous difference, particularly in the
earlier stages of this quest. However, once you find items like the Mage
Staff or Thor's Hammer later on, your strength rating becomes less
important. Of course, you could opt to make your quest more difficult by
simply accepting whatever level-ups the game gives you and not try to cook
your stats, so to speak.
And finally, having said all that, it is important to state that when
conducting a solo quest, there are a few important ground rules you should
follow:
1. Only the WM can carry weapons and armor you find. It is considered
cheating (and not a true solo) if you give something like a Heal Helmet to
a dead character and then swap it out with something else so you can use it
later on. Your three dead warriors are not to serve as warehouses for
items you want to use at selective times.
2. You can only save the game as the actual NES cartridge would allow you
to. This means you can only save your game at the local inn or by using a
tent, cabin, or house. It may be tempting to use an emulator save state in
the middle of the Ice Cave, but that is considered cheating, unfortunately.
3. Only the WM is allowed to attack enemies and receive their resulting
experience points. Your other three characters cannot participate in any
battle whatsoever, either as attackers, enablers, or as damage shields.
These characters should be killed off in the first battle you encounter and
should remain dead for the rest of the game.
Are you ready? Here we go!
-----PART 1: STARTING THE GAME-----
Register four characters as you would with any regular team. Make sure one
of them is a WM, obviously. While it doesn't particularly matter who your
other three characters are, I recommend choosing three Black Mages because
they are the easiest to kill off due to their poor HP.
When the game begins, go to the weapon and armor shops in Coneria. Buy
your WM a Wooden Hammer and Cloth. Buy Small Knives or Wooden Staffs for
your BM, but do not buy them any armor. The point is, you just want to
give them something cheap that they can use as an item in battle.
Remember, they are not allowed to attack anything. As for magic, you
should have enough gold leftover to buy CURE, HARM, and RUSE. FOG is a
nice spell to use because it's stackable, but the other three spells are
much more important. You will naturally need CURE to refill your HP. HARM
is the only attack spell available to you, and it affects all undead
enemies. And RUSE will make it much more difficult for enemies to attack
you. If you use RUSE twice, you will almost be completely protected from
enemies' physical attacks. (Sometimes you may need three RUSEs.) If you
are sufficiently protected by RUSE, only critical hits will damage you.
Equip your WM's hammer and armor and then head outside. Make sure your WM
is in the back of your party so as to make it easier for your other three
characters to be killed off in the first battle. When you enter your first
battle (usually against a group of Imps), have your WM cast RUSE twice and
have your other three characters use their Small Knives or Wooden Staffs as
items repeatedly. This will effectively waste their turns in battle while
the Imps slowly drain their HP. Your RUSE-protected WM should not sustain
any damage, unless an Imp lands a critical hit. Remember, your other three
characters CANNOT attack any of the Imps. Once your other three warriors
are defeated, you can let the WM finish the battle by trading blows with
the Imps. This is when your solo quest truly begins.
Return to the Coneria Inn to save your game and replenish your spell
charges. And also, if you die, you don't want to have to go through the
trouble of registering new characters and killing them off again, right?
When you are finished, go back outside and fight Imps until you reach Level
2 (L2). It is not necessary to use RUSE when fighting only 3 Imps, but you
might want to use it if you are fighting 5 of them. (Get used to using
double RUSEs at the start of almost every battle from now on unless you are
sure you can kill the enemies fairly quickly.) Remember, each stay at the
Coneria Inn will set you back 30G, which is the value of 5 Imps. So try to
fight as long as you can before returning to the inn to recharge. Also
take care not to stray too far from Coneria because you are at your most
vulnerable right now.
Once you reach L2, you should trek northwest to the Temple of Fiends. Run
from all enemies you encounter in the field on the way there. As for the
temple, although there are some treasure chests to be found here, it is not
in your best interest to try and fight your way to them. The goal is to
get to Garland without having to use any of your spell charges. Run from
any enemy you encounter so you can conserve your HP.
When you enter the battle with Garland, cast RUSE twice and then just
attack with your hammer. That's about all you can do. Garland can only
use physical attacks, which should miss you almost every time. However,
if he lands a critical hit, then use your final L1 spell charge on CURE
(assuming you have no heal potions) and then resume fighting. This battle
will take awhile, seeing that the WM is far from an offensive powerhouse,
so be patient. After Garland is defeated, talk to the captured princess
and you'll be whisked back to Coneria Castle. Talk to the princess and the
king and you'll get the Lute as well as access to the main continent. Save
your game at the inn and get ready for your next challenge.
-----PART 2: GETTING THE SHIP AND GETTING STRONGER-----
Your next task is to successfully make it from Coneria to Pravoka. (Ignore
raiding the treasures in Matoya's Cave for now.) This is very, very
difficult to accomplish. The main threats to your progress are Wolves,
which often appear in groups, and Mad Ponies, which appear in groups and
can hit you multiple times. Obviously, you should run from any enemy you
encounter. If you are finding it too difficult to make it to Pravoka, you
might want to stay in the Coneria area for a little while and hack and
slash your way to L4, which is when your WM will receive his next major HP
boost.
Once you make it to Pravoka, immediately save your game at the inn. Then
go to the armor shop and buy some Gloves. They only add 1 point to your
armor rating, but that's better than what you have right now. Now you
should enter the battle with the Pirates. Once again, the key here is to
use your two RUSE spells immediately in order to nullify the Pirates'
attacks. If you are at L4, your HP should be in the low 80s, which should
be enough to survive their initial onslaught while you are using RUSE,
barring any critical hits. Once you are fully protected, just pick off the
Pirates one by one. At L4, you have enough spell charges for 2 RUSE spells
and 2 CURE spells.
Save your game again and get ready to hack and slash some more. The
question now becomes where to gain levels. The enemies in the sea are too
difficult for you to fight at L4, so you might wish to fight a bit longer
around Coneria or in the area right outside the Temple of Fiends, where
Gray Imps are more commonly found. The groups of Wolves and Mad Ponies
around Pravoka are not worth the hassle. Ogres are a dicey proposition,
but it's high risk and high reward. Once you get a bit stronger, you can
try to kill Sharks in the ocean. Sometimes the Sharks will appear with a
Sahag or a Red Sahag. These battles will be even longer. In the event
that you encounter this group, kill the Sahag first. Don't bother fighting
groups of Sahags or Kyzokus. Immediately run away from Odd Eyes because of
their tendency to paralyze you each round. If an Odd Eye paralyzes you,
you are pretty much dead meat, especially if it is coupled with a group of
Sahags.
Your primary goal right now is to save up 1500G so you can buy HRM2 from
Elfland. Don't worry about L2 magic spells for now. If you are feeling
lucky, you can raid the two treasure chests in the Dwarf Cave. That will
make it much easier to reach your goal of 1500G. Once you get this money,
go to Elfland and buy HRM2. (Also buy the Cap from the armor shop here or
pilfer the one from the treasure chest in the Temple of Fiends.) Aside
from RUSE, HRM2 is your most important magic spell. This spell will allow
you to take down groups of Ghouls and Geists with confidence (that is,
assuming they don't paralyze you first). And more importantly, this spell
will allow you to have a fighting chance with the famous peninsula
northeast of Pravoka (PNEOP).
-----PART 3: MANAGING THE PNEOP-----
Using the PNEOP will make leveling up and gaining gold much easier.
However, the PNEOP is quite frustrating to take advantage of with a solo
WM. The only enemies you can fight are Zombulls, since they are
susceptible to HARM magic, the only offensive magic you have. You will
have to use RUSE 3 times in order to prevent them from hitting you (barring
critical hits). This means you won't have enough spell charges of
HARM/HRM2 to kill them easily. So you can only kill MAYBE 2 Zombulls at a
time. Three might be too difficult at first. And four will be impossible
with such a limited supply of magic. Count on using 3 HRM2 spells to bring
down a Zombull, although sometimes only 2 spells are required.
What about the other PNEOP enemies?
Frost Wolves: These are probably the next easiest things to kill,
relatively speaking, but you probably won't survive their multiple FROST
attacks in the first round. MUTE will give you a fighting chance, but you
probably don't have this spell yet because it's not a high priority right
now. Run away.
Trolls: HARM doesn't work on them and they hit multiple times, often for
criticals. They're also worth less gold and XP than Zombulls. Not worth
it, even if it's paired with Zombulls. Unfortunately, you can't run from
the Zombull/Troll group, so just let them kill you or reset the game if you
meet them.
Tyro: If you can use RUSE enough times to defend against its attacks, you
can TRY to defeat this enemy since it appears in isolation. It's worth 3
Zombulls in terms of XP, but it's not worth much gold. It has a ton of HP
too, so this battle might be too frustratingly long for it to be worth it.
Wyvern: These are worth even less gold than Tyro and have more HP than a
Zombull. Not worth it.
Giant: These are worth less gold and XP than a Zombull and have more HP.
HARM won't work either. Not worth it.
All of these enemies can easily kill you, so it's best to use a tent and
save your game near the PNEOP so you don't have to hike from Pravoka every
time you are defeated.
If you are able to defeat one or two Zombulls, immediately save your game
with a tent and head back to Pravoka. The next things you want to buy are
MUTE and INVS. You won't need to use MUTE anytime soon (unless you want to
try your luck with Frost Wolves), but you WILL need INVS. INVS is
basically a poor man's RUSE. So, one RUSE and maybe three INVS spells will
offer roughly the same level of protection as two RUSE spells. Another
advantage of INVS is that it uses L2 spell charges, thus keeping your L1
charges available for CURE and HARM. Consider using RUSE and three INVS
spells when fighting only one or two Zombulls.
Right now you are in level-building and fundraising mode. Whether you use
the PNEOP, the ocean, or Ogres around Elfland is up to you. Some may
consider ignoring the PNEOP because of how easy it is to be defeated there
and opt to fight other enemies the traditional way (with RUSE and your
hammer) instead. How and where you fight is up to you here.
Here is a list of the things you want to buy, listed in order of
importance:
1. Copper Bracelet (the best armor you can equip until you get the Mystic
Key)
2. CUR2 (for obvious reasons)
3. 75 Heal Potions (for the Marsh Cave)
4. 25 Pure Potions (for the Marsh Cave)
5. 15 Tents (use these for emergency saves if you are trapped in the
wilderness and are not confident you can make it back to the inn without
being defeated)
6. AFIR/AICE/ALIT (you won't use these spells for awhile, but you will
certainly need them later)
Total cost: About 16,000G
-----PART 4: NIGHTMARE #1: THE MARSH CAVE-----
Once you've bought all these goodies and have reached about L13 or 14, you
are ready to attempt the Marsh Cave. This is the first area in which you
realize how miserably difficult this solo quest is. Almost every enemy in
the cave can either poison you or paralyze you. Paralysis is the worst
thing that can happen to you because it will be almost impossible to
recover from it.
It will take a long time and many attempts to conquer this cave.
Basically, this trek can be divided into four parts:
1. Successfully making it to the Wizards that guard the Crown.
2. Hoping only 2 Wizards are guarding it. If there are 4 Wizards, start
over. MAYBE you can kill 3 Wizards, but it's very tough to survive the
first two rounds, depending on when the WM uses RUSE in the battle.
3. Actually surviving the battle with the Wizards. This fight will easily
take more than 20 rounds.
4. Making it out of the cave alive.
Needless to say, you should run from absolutely every enemy you encounter.
You don't want to burn HARM spells on Bones and Shadows because they are
not worth the gold or XP. The only exception to this rule is if you
encounter a group of Ghouls and Zombies. If this happens, immediately cast
HRM2 and hope that you can execute the spell before they attack and
paralyze you. You should keep your HP maxed out at all times because you
never know when you'll be ambushed.
Do not bother with claiming any of the treasure chests here. Your goal is
to get the Crown and get out as fast as you can. Fundraising and level-
building are to be done outside. There are too many dangerous enemies here
to make treasure hunting worth it. If you want to raid the treasure
chests, do so after you've successfully made it out alive with the Crown
and grabbed the Mystic Key.
Enemies you DON'T want to encounter:
Ghouls/Zombies: This is the most dangerous group of enemies you can meet
in the Marsh Cave. The Zombies themselves aren't much of a problem, but
the Ghouls have the ability to paralyze you, and they often appear in
groups of 2 or 3 (or even 4). This enemy group will put an end to your
Marsh Cave adventure fairly often. They reside on the first two floors of
the cave.
Crawls/Bones/Red Bones: This is the second most dangerous group you can
run into. Bones aren't too bad, but if the Crawl paralyzes you (a 95%
certainty, given its ability to hit multiple times), you're finished. This
group is less dangerous than the Ghoul/Zombie group simply because you will
only encounter 2 Crawls at most in battle, as opposed to up to 4 Ghouls.
Still, encountering this enemy group also usually means the end of your
adventure because the Bones will wail on you while you are immobilized.
Other enemies to watch out for:
Gargoyles and Scorpions: They hit multiple times and they hit HARD. If
you are unable to run from them after two rounds, you are probably not
going to survive the third.
Muck: These hit only once per attack, but they can pack a punch. These
can be dangerous in groups.
Enemies you WANT to encounter: Shadows, Arachnids, Scum, Werewolves, and
Spiders
Now, when you battle the Wizards (assuming only 2 or 3 are on the screen),
you have to consider a few things. First, do not waste your time with
INVS. You want to build your evade rating as quickly as possible. So use
RUSE twice before you begin your offense. Secondly, a Wizard, like any
other enemy, can only inflict damage with a critical hit if you are
protected by a double RUSE. A Wizard's critical hit will take around
90-105DMG each time at your current level, so you want to keep your HP
above twice this amount. Even if you think you're safe with 175HP
remaining, you can be killed with two consecutive critical hits. In the
event that you are hit by a critical, use your heal potions to replenish
your HP and keep using them until your HP is at the safe level again (at
least 210HP). Try not to use CUR2 because you might need the HRM2 spells
when you are fighting your way out of the cave. Also, your WM's standard
attacks will usually miss, as will the Wizards'. You can have several
consecutive rounds of nothing but misses on all sides. But do not be
inattentive and miss the fact that a Wizard actually landed a critical hit
on you. In other words, don't just start pushing the A-button robotically
without monitoring your HP.
Once the Wizards have been defeated, grab the Crown (double check to make
sure!) and then do your best to make it out alive. Again, don't worry
about the treasure chests. Try to take the most efficient path to the exit
that you possibly can. You want to take the fewest possible steps to the
exit because that will give your enemies the fewest possible chances to
attack you.
Again, this is a very, very difficult dungeon to complete. If you find
yourself struggling, then by all means, leave the cave and go raise your
levels some more. Your armor rating of 6 will not change (Copper Bracelet,
Cap, and Gloves), but your max HP, strength, and agility can change with an
extra level up or two.
Once you've made it out of the cave with the Crown, it's time to battle
Astos.
-----PART 5: GETTING THE MYSTIC KEY AND TREASURE RAIDING-----
Once you make it out of the Marsh Cave, immediately save the game with a
Tent. The next thing you want to do is hike north to the Northwest Castle.
Use another tent outside the castle to save your game and then enter the
fight with Astos. If you have at least two L1 spell charges and one L2
charge, you should be able to battle Astos without saving at the Elfland
Inn first.
You should use MUTE in the first round. If it doesn't work, try it again
in the next round. There is a strong possibility Astos will successfully
RUB (kill) you in the first round, so if that happens, just start over from
where you last saved (outside the castle) and try to use MUTE again. Once
it works, cast your two RUSE spells and patiently hack and slash. Astos is
very difficult for your WM to hit, so you will have to rely on critical
hits to damage him. He won't kill you once his magic has been taken away
with MUTE. So patience is all you need here.
Once Astos is defeated, take the Crystal to Matoya's Cave and then use
Matoya's Herb on the Price in Elfland Castle. Once you get the key,
immediately raid the treasure room in the castle to find the Silver Hammer,
an upgrade that will take the place of the Wooden Hammer you bought in
Coneria.
Now that you have the key, you can raid the treasure boxes in the Marsh
Cave, the Northwest Castle, Coneria Castle, and the Temple of Fiends. The
most important treasures are the Were, Dragon, and Rune Swords, which can
be sold for lots of money; the Silver Bracelet, which is a major armor
upgrade; the Power Staff, which can be sold for lots of cash; and the TNT,
which you need to progress to the next part of the game.
Points to remember about treasure raiding:
1. If you do decide to get the Silver Bracelet, head back to the bottom
floor of the Marsh Cave and claim the treasure in the lower left corner.
To avoid the spiked squares in that room, once you go through the door,
walk up to the top wall, walk over two spaces to the right, walk down to
the bottom wall, and approach the chest from the bottom left. The other
chests in the locked rooms are not worth it, as they are guarded by spiked
squares. Even though you might be sick of the Marsh Cave, it is highly
recommended that you go back in there to claim the Silver Bracelet.
2. The Northwest Castle's treasure room has spiked squares. One of these
squares presents you with a Mummy encounter. Mummies are worth 300XP each
and are much easier to kill than Zombulls. Consider using this as a safer
alternative to the PNEOP if you are looking for extra cash and experience
points without all the hassles of being thrashed by Trolls and Frost
Wolves.
3. Even though this is a solo quest, the treasures in the Dwarves' Cave
and Coneria Castle are so numerous that it will be impossible for your lone
WM to carry everything on one trip. So by all means, let your dead
characters carry the extra items you can't carry. Item storage in this
case is different from giving a dead character an item that you want to use
later. So for the sake of convenience in this particular case, just grab
all the treasures and leave.
-----PART 6: NIGHTMARE #2: MELMOND AND THE EARTH CAVE-----
After you've given the dwarf the TNT, you will have access to Melmond and
the Earth Cave, your next source of misery. Make sure you have 99 heal
potions and about 30 pure potions before you reach Melmond, as there's no
item shop there. You should be at about L15 and have the following magic
spells: CURE, HARM, RUSE, ALIT, MUTE, INVS, HRM2, CUR2, AFIR, and AICE.
Your equipped weapons and armor should be the Silver Hammer, Silver
Bracelet, Cap, and Gloves. If you don't have the Silver Bracelet, you can
buy it in Melmond for 5000G.
You will be able to buy some useful magic spells in Melmond. CUR3 and HRM3
are must haves. HEL2 is not useful in this solo quest despite its
beneficial bug because you only need to heal one character, as opposed to
four. Thus, CUR3 is more effective in this regard. As for the LIFE spell,
it's useless, unless you decide you don't want to continue this solo quest,
which is totally understandable.
You can reach the Earth Cave by following the coastline to the west then
south. Pitch a tent outside the cave's entrance and get ready for your
next major task.
The Earth Cave is just as difficult as the Marsh Cave, or perhaps even more
difficult. The Earth Cave has 5 floors, most of which are very long.
Because of the nature of this quest, you will have to do a bit of
backtracking. There are more enemy combinations to fear in this cave than
in the Marsh Cave as well. Your quest is as follows:
1. Make it to the Vampire and kill him.
2. Make it out of the Earth Cave alive.
3. Get through the Titan's Tunnel and make it to Sarda's Cave.
4. Go back to the Earth Cave and make it to Lich.
5. Kill Lich.
Enemies you DON'T want to encounter:
Specters/Geists: You will find these enemies on the 3rd floor and below.
They can appear in groups as large as 9, thus meaning that paralysis will
almost always result in death. It's best not to take any chances with
running from these. Just cast HRM2 and hope your attack occurs early in
the battle round.
Geists/Ghouls: These enemies appear in the overworld and are just as
dangerous as the Specter/Geist group for the same reason. Remember this
when you are hiking to Sarda's Cave. Use tents regularly to save your
game.
Wizards: These begin to appear on the 3rd floor and appear in groups of up
to 4. The problem is, even with your Silver Bracelet, they still hit hard
and you can't run from them. Fortunately, the Silver Hammer will make
fighting them a bit easier, but it's still very tough and will take a long
time to bring them down. Sometimes you will encounter Wizards in
consecutive battles, which is extremely frustrating.
Coctrices: These pests don't look all that intimidating, but they can
randomly petrify you, thus putting a quick end to your adventure. Run
immediately.
Images: While not as lethal as the Specter/Geist group because of their
smaller numbers and inability to score multiple hits, a group of Images
still has the potential to paralyze you. These appear in groups of up to
6. Run if you're feeling lucky. Otherwise, just use HRM2 and pray for
good timing.
Other enemies to watch out for:
Giants and Trolls: You'll never face more than two of these at a time in
this cave, but they still hit harder than any enemy you've met so far.
Run.
Earth: This enemy guards several treasure chests in the Earth Cave. Avoid
him at all costs, for obvious reasons. You should not encounter this enemy
at all unless you mistakenly touch a spiked square.
Enemies you WANT to encounter: Asps, Cobras, Gargoyles, Arachnids, Green
Ogres, Oozes, and Werewolves/Gray Wolves
Do not bother with collecting any treasures on the first two floors because
of the spiked squares. The only exception is the Coral Sword in the upper
right corner of the second floor. Sell that for cash. As for the third
floor, the treasure box in the upper center of the floor about one-third of
the way to the Vampire can be accessed by approaching it from the right
side. If you try and approach it from below, you'll be greeted by a spiked
square featuring an Earth.
You should have 1 or 2 level 5 magic charges now, which you should save for
HRM3 to use on the Vampire. One HRM3 should be enough to kill the Vampire,
but if that's insufficient, finish him off with HRM2. Don't bother with
trying to heal yourself when fighting him because he hits hard and doesn't
have so much HP. Because offense is more important than defense in this
fight, don't worry about RUSE either. Once the Vampire is vanquished,
claim the Ruby in the treasure room he was guarding and then make a hasty
retreat.
Remember that the third floor is when the enemy groups become dangerous
(Wizards, Coctrices, Specters/Geists), so take extra care to conserve your
resources and find the most efficient path to the exit. In the event that
a bat is blocking the way, wait for it to move out of the way, as opposed
to trying to detour around it. Remember, you want to minimize the amount
of enemies you encounter. You never know if that Coctrice ambush will
happen three steps away from the staircase or something similarly cruel.
Immediately save your game once you get back outside. Return to Melmond to
replenish your magic or simply use a house. Then travel through the
Titan's Tunnel to the northwest and head south to Sarda's Cave. Remember
to use your tent to save periodically as you walk to and from the cave
because of all the undead enemies lurking here. After getting the Rod from
Sarda, go back to Coneria to replenish your potion supply and then return
to the Earth Cave for the final assault.
When you go back to the Earth Cave to take on Lich, do not worry about any
of the treasures at all. Simply take the quickest route to the stairs.
You will likely encounter the Image group or the Specter/Geist group at
least once or twice, so luck will play a major role in being able to make
it to Lich. As for Wizards, if you get sick of encountering them after 15
attempts to get through the cave, it's perfectly understandable if you want
to reset the game.
When you finally reach Lich, immediately use RUSE twice. He will probably
blast you in the first round with ICE2, but don't worry about that for now.
After casting RUSE twice, you should cast ALIT, AFIR, and AICE, in that
order. His ICE2, LIT2, and FIR2 spells will take less than 50DMG each if
you protect yourself with the aforementioned anti-elemental spells. Keep
your HP above 150 just in case he lands a critical hit. Once you have been
completely protected by your magic barriers, unleash the wrath of your HRM3
and HRM2 spells. The key to winning this battle is to focus on defense
before you focus on offense. Remember, if you fail, you'll have to deal
with going through all those floors again. Play it safe.
-----PART 7: CRESCENT LAKE AND THE CASTLE OF ORDEALS-----
After destroying Lich, you should sail to Crescent Lake on the other side
of the world. The fastest way to get there is to sail south of Melmond and
then sail west once you pass the peninsula where the Earth Cave is.
The enemies in the Crescent Lake area are significantly stronger than any
you've encountered so far. The main threats are Pedes, which appear in
groups of up to 4 and hit very hard. Fortunately, you can run away from
these and any other enemy in the area.
When you reach Crescent Lake, replenish your potion supply and talk to the
sage to get the canoe. The only level 6 magic spell worth buying is FOG2,
and even that is not particularly useful in this solo quest because of
RUSE. After the class change, you'll want to buy EXIT, of course. Don't
worry about INV2 because RUSE outranks that.
Now that you have the canoe, you have a choice of three places to go: the
Gurgu Volcano, the Ice Cave, and the Castle of Ordeals. You don't have
enough firepower to handle either the Ice Cave or the volcano right now, so
it would be in your best interest to forget about both of these places for
now and head for the Castle of Ordeals, even though you don't have the
airship.
To reach the Castle of Ordeals, sail south and west from Crescent Lake. If
you're having trouble finding the Castle of Ordeals, simply sail due south
until you reach the northern continent and then follow the coast west.
Even though there are no ports in this part of the world map, the canoe
will let you dock your ship at the mouth of the small river north of the
castle.
You should be at L18 or so now with the same weapons and armor that you
were using in the Earth Cave. The Castle of Ordeals is much shorter than
the Earth Cave, but the enemies are much more dangerous. However, the
treasures you can find here will make regular fighting so much easier.
Enemies you DON'T want to encounter:
Red Gargoyles or Mancats: If you encounter these enemies, there's a very
good chance that they will blast you with FIR2. This alone is not too bad,
but when multiplied by six or seven, you're looking at a bloodbath in the
making. Run immediately.
Sorcerers: Do not stick around and do battle with this enemy under any
circumstances whatsoever.
Medusas: They appear in large groups and can petrify you with their GLANCE
attack. Run.
Other enemies to watch out for:
Zombulls: Normally, these would be the ideal enemies to fight. However,
that's only true when you are in level-up mode. The problem with these
enemies now is the fact that you can't run away from them, thus meaning
that some of your magic charges will automatically be burned in the process
of killing these.
Enemies you WANT to encounter: Unfortunately, every enemy in here is one
that must be taken seriously. MudGols and Nitemares are probably the
easiest of them all, but that's not saying much.
Fortunately for you, you won't encounter too many enemies as you progress
through the castle because of the close proximity of the warp gates on the
second floor. You'll probably only encounter three or four battles as you
walk from pillar to pillar. (Remember to take the lower pillar in each
instance where you have to choose between two of them!) The first treasure
chest you encounter is guarded by a spiked square, but you can run from the
MudGols that appear there. This treasure box contains the Zeus Gauntlet,
which is one of the three the most important items you will ever put your
hands on in this solo quest (along with the Masmune and Ribbon). The Zeus
Gauntlet will give you mass offensive capabilities that will allow you to
fight all enemies from now on, not just undeads. This item is particularly
useful against enemies that are weak against LIT. In fact, this gauntlet
will render your trusty Silver Hammer obsolete. Your days of battles that
last 15 or 20 rounds are now officially over.
On the top floor, you will find a Nitemare or two guarding the doorway.
Run from them because they can hit hard. The Heal Staff is in the treasure
box near this spiked square. Use this to help conserve your magic and heal
potions. Follow the corridor to the left and you will find the Gold
Bracelet, which you should equip immediately. This armor will increase
your absorb by 24 points. The Ice Sword you find here can be sold for
cash.
Follow the corridor counter-clockwise and you will find the Tail in the
final treasure box near the throne. Zombie Dragons guard the exit. Even
though Zombie Dragons are the weakest of the five dragons in the game, you
should still take them seriously because of their ability to paralyze you.
Use two or three RUSE spells to neutralize their offense and then use CUR3
to keep your HP above 200 just in case they land a critical. Two or three
HRM3 spells should wipe them out. If not, then use HRM2 or the Zeus
Gauntlet to finish them off.
Exit the castle and immediately save your game when you get outside. Then
make the quick trek back to your canoe and then return to Crescent Lake to
replenish your potion supply.
-----PART 8: THE GURGU VOLCANO-----
You can access the volcano via canoe and sailing northwest from Crescent
Lake. Although many people prefer to tackle the volcano last (or at least
after they get the airship), you are capable of completing it at about L20
with the Zeus Gauntlet and Gold Bracelet.
The volcano is a large place filled with dangerous enemies, many of which
have special fire attacks. However, you can run from almost every enemy
here and you can avoid enemy encounters altogether by walking on the lava,
which will drain you of 1HP per step. There are lots of treasures here,
but you won't need any of them.
Enemies you DON'T want to encounter:
Red Gargoyles: As mentioned in the Castle of Ordeals section, these
enemies appear in large groups and are likely to use FIR2 on their first
attack. Run immediately and pray that they don't burn you too many times
before you escape.
Red Dragons: Unlike Zombie Dragons, Red Dragons are extremely dangerous
due to their potent natural offense and their BLAZE ability, which can
easily drain you of 250HP. You probably won't encounter this enemy
anywhere except on the bottom floor, but even that is rare. Don't even
THINK about fighting this. Run.
Other enemies to watch out for:
Red Giants: These guys hit HARD. Run.
Perilisks: Although not as lethal as Coctrices, a Perilisk still has the
ability to kill you with its SQUINT attack. However, their low HP makes
them fairly easy to kill with the Zeus Gauntlet. Approach with caution.
Red Hydras: The main threat from this foe is its CREMATE ability. This is
about as strong as FIR2, so you are better off leaving these enemies alone.
Fire: You probably won't encounter this enemy anywhere except on the
bottom floor. It also guards some chests, but again, you probably won't do
much in the way of treasure hunting. Fortunately for you, Fire does not
hit as hard as Earth and has slightly less HP. However, you can't run from
it and it is weak against ICE, a spell you don't have access to (unless you
tackle this dungeon after you get the Black Shirt from the Sky Castle). So
the Zeus Gauntlet is the only thing you can use.
Enemies you WANT to encounter: Cerebuses, Wizard Ogres, Bulls, Muck,
Giants/Iguanas, Agamas
In the volcano, it is advisable to walk on the lava as much as you can. It
may drain you of many heal potions, but that's better than being ambushed
by seven Red Gargoyles or two Red Giants. Remember this as you proceed
through the first half of the volcano.
The first few floors are easy enough for veterans to navigate. When you
reach the next to last floor with all the divergent paths and treasure
boxes, you won't be able to hide from the enemies by walking on the lava
anymore. Run from all enemies you encounter and take the stairs at the
southern end of the passage. On the final floor, walk to the left and then
walk down through the lava to Kary's room. The enemies that appear on the
bottom floor are particularly dangerous, so you want to minimize your
encounters here.
When you enter the battle with Kary, start off by casting RUSE three times
because she can score multiple hits that might still pierce a double RUSE
barrier. Once you are protected by RUSE, you should cast AFIR and MUTE.
MUTE is surprisingly effective, so keep trying even if it is not effective
at first. Once Kary is MUTEd, her offense will be completely neutralized,
save for her ability to inflict criticals. Now is when you can slowly
punish her with the Zeus Gauntlet. The entire battle may take about 20
rounds, but once you are protected by RUSE and her magic is contained, you
should have little difficulty defeating her.
-----PART 9: NIGHTMARE #3: THE ICE CAVE-----
This is it. This is the single most maddeningly difficult part of the
entire game. This is the place that will make you wonder if completing
this solo quest is even worth it anymore. The Ice Cave is bad enough with
four warriors, so you can only imagine how it must be with only one.
Almost every enemy in here is capable of killing you instantly, paralyzing
you, or inflicting mass damage in the form of physical attacks, special
attacks, or magic spells. And your WM will be the recipient of all these
lovely gestures. You can count on attempting this cave about 50 times
before you finally make it out alive.
Enemies you DON'T want to encounter:
Sorcerers: The single most lethal enemy in the game will make short work
of your solo WM. All physical attacks will be directed towards your lone
character, thus making the threat of instant death even more likely than in
a regular game with four warriors. It goes without saying that you should
not even think for a second about fighting these.
Mages: Not to be outdone, Mages are basically Sorcerers that can use
magic. Their devastating magic cycle starts with RUB. If you manage to
survive that, you'll have to contend with LIT3 and other nasty HP-draining
spells. And to further complicate matters, Mages are more likely to ambush
you than Sorcerers are. Run immediately.
Wraiths, Images, Specters, and Geists: The Ice Cave is crawling with
undeads. As you know by now, being paralyzed is the worst possible thing
that can happen to you in this solo quest. In the Ice Cave, it is common
to face up to 9 undeads at a time. Wraiths in particular hit quite hard,
so they can finish you off quickly once you are stunned. If you face a
large group of undeads and you're pretty deep in the cave, don't take any
chances with running because the penalty for not being able to do so is too
great. Use HRM2 to get rid of them. HRM3 is a heavy duty spell that
should only be used when large groups of Wraiths are on the screen.
Other enemies to watch out for:
Frost Giants: You cannot run from these enemies. Frost Giants have a lot
of HP and hit quite hard. These enemies will often be paired with Frost
Wolves, thus setting up a dilemma. Using RUSE to protect you from the
Frost Giants will leave you vulnerable to the Frost Wolves' FROST attack.
Focusing on killing the wolves leaves you open to being pounded for
potentially over 100DMG by the giant. The best strategy is to protect
yourself with RUSE first before using the Zeus Gauntlet to kill the wolves.
The reason for this is that a Frost Giant's physical attacks are
guaranteed. A Frost Wolf's FROST attack is not.
Coctrices: These deadly birds are roaming around on the top floor of the
Ice Cave too. They team up with Mummies, which can put you to sleep and
make you more vulnerable to being stoned. Run.
Great Pedes: They have a ton of HP and hit HARD. Run.
Frost Dragons: This dragon appears as a regular enemy (sometimes in pairs)
and can attack you in pairs. Its BLIZZARD attack is nothing to sneeze at,
so don't stick around if you have the misfortune of running into these.
Wizards: Now that you have the Zeus Gauntlet, killing these guys should be
MUCH easier. However, these enemies will now attack you in groups of up to
7. Since you can't run, you'll basically have to fight a war of attrition
this time because there are too many of them to make RUSE a viable
strategy. So blast away with the Zeus Gauntlet and hope that they don't
all attack you first.
Enemies you WANT to encounter:
Red Bones: These are the easiest enemies you can fight in the Ice Cave.
They don't hit too hard and they have no special abilities. Sing praises
to the Final Fantasy gods if you run into these enemies. (Then run away.)
It cannot be stressed enough that you should not engage in any treasure
hunting here. The enemies are far too dangerous, so take the shortest
route to the staircase on every floor. Do not attempt to fight anything
except enemies you cannot run from (e.g., Frost Giants, Wizards).
There are 3 battles in particular that you MUST deal with as you progress
through this cave:
1. The small room with the undead spiked square on the bottom floor.
2. The Eye guarding the Floater.
3. The undead spiked square again.
Dealing with the undead spiked square requires a lot of luck. If you are
lucky, they will not place 9 enemies on the screen. (One time I was lucky
enough to find a lone Wraith.) Another good battle for you would be one
that has no Geists or Wraiths at all because Wraiths hit very hard and
Geists are more likely to paralyze you than other undeads because of their
multiple-hit ability. You may even be blessed with a chance to strike
first option. Running is not guaranteed, so you would be advised to use
HRM3 to take the enemies out quickly. Remember, you'll have to deal with
this enemy group twice.
As you already know, the Eye can single-handedly put an end to your quest
with its GLANCE or XXXX ability. You are not strong enough to kill the Eye
in one hit, so you should focus on defense instead of offense. RUSE is not
important. Instead, use MUTE and hope that your battle turn comes first.
A successful MUTE would mean that the battle is yours to win. If it is not
effective, you can only hope that the Eye attempts a physical hit or that
its magic spells are ineffective. If MUTE does not work in the first
round, try it again in the second. Finish the Eye off with the Zeus
Gauntlet once it's MUTEd, grab the Floater, and then fall down the hole to
the small room with the undeads and fight your way out of the cave.
Another point to remember is that the bottom floor (with the undead spiked
square) is the most dangerous part of the Ice Cave, as Sorcerers, Mages,
Frost Giants, Frost Dragons, and Great Pedes lurk there. If you can make
it to the staircase in the bottom right corner, your chances of survival
will increase significantly, as undeads, Wizards, and Coctrices roam the
top floor. But don't breathe any sighs of relief until you actually reach
the staircase leading outside and save the game with a tent.
Good luck.
-----PART 10: THE CLASS CHANGE AND THE WATERFALL-----
Now that you have completed the Ice Cave, the rest of the game should go
much more smoothly. Take the Floater to the desert south of Crescent Lake
and use it as an item there to get the airship. Then save your game at
Coneria and stock up on potions there.
The next thing to do is to get the class change. For an added challenge,
you can continue the game as a White Mage, but here are some things to
consider:
1. The White Mage cannot use level 8 magic. The most important spell you
can learn is FADE, which is a mass damage spell. You will need this spell
when you fight Chaos.
2. EXIT can only be used by the White Wizard. The Sea Shrine and Sky
Castle aren't too tough, but the Temple of Fiends Revisited is a nightmare
for such a weak character. If you don't have EXIT, that means you must
grab the Masmune and kill Chaos in one trip.
3. The White Mage cannot equip Thor's Hammer. Thor's Hammer, the
strongest weapon available to you aside from the Masmune, has the same
effect as the Zeus Gauntlet, but it has the advantage of being a weapon.
Your armor slots will be more precious as you finish out the game.
This FAQ will assume that you opted for the class change.
Fly north to the Cardia Islands, raid the treasures there and get the class
change. Then immediately fly to Crescent Lake and buy EXIT. After that,
fly to the northwestern continent west of the Cardia Islands. A bug in the
game will allow you to land your airship on the small patch of desert there
that hides the oasis. Plunk down 50,000G to buy the bottle, then fly
westward to Gaia (the town surrounded by mountains on the northeastern
continent) to buy the ProRing. Even though you can find ProRings in
treasure chests, you might as well buy this armor now because you won't be
doing much more with your money. The ProRing will protect you from
RUB/XXXX attacks, but it won't protect you from Sorcerers.
Also in Gaia, be sure to buy CUR4 and HRM4. Then follow the sidewalk to
the west, then north and east to the spring where the fairy is waiting.
She will give you the Oxyale, which you'll need to enter the Sea Shrine.
Don't worry about the Sea Shrine just yet though. For now, you want to
make a detour and take on the Waterfall first because it's not too
difficult and you can get some useful items there.
Fly back to the northwestern continent and land your airship as close to
the river as you can. Then follow the river east then north. Save your
game at Onrac if you wish, then continue paddling up the river. The
enemies in the river here are very dangerous, especially Frost Gators.
They are capable of multiple hits and have high attack power. You may need
to use several cabins and houses to replenish your HP and magic here. Be
sure to save your game outside the Waterfall.
The Waterfall itself is a brief dungeon filled with enemies that are tough,
but not particularly lethal. However, you can run from almost everything
in here.
Enemies you DON'T want to encounter:
Gas Dragons: These are the worst dragons in all of Final Fantasy because
the only defenses you have against their POISON attack are WALL (which you
can't use yet), Dragon Armor (which you can't equip), and Ribbons (which
you don't have yet). Fortunately, your chances of encountering this beast
are very, very small. But if you do meet it, remember that you cannot run
away. Use RUSE and the Zeus Gauntlet, mixed with CUR3 or CUR4 when your HP
gets too low (below 150). POISON can take up to about 250DMG from an
un-Ribboned warrior. Good luck.
Other enemies to watch out for:
Wizard Mummies: These enemies are not too hard, but they are powerful and
they have the ability to put you to sleep. This can be lethal if there are
9 Wizard Mummies and Mummies on the screen. Use HRM3 and the Zeus Gauntlet
to finish them off.
Enemies you WANT to encounter:
Nitemares: They can hit you hard and are surprisingly resistant to
physical attacks, but you can easily run from them.
Perilisks: Now that you have the ProRing equipped, they will be unable to
kill you with their SQUINT attack. Use the Zeus Gauntlet on them for easy
gold and XP.
When you finally reach the room with the robot, you fill find the entrance
is blocked by a spiked square containing a mixture of Wizard Mummies,
Mummies, Coctrices, and Perilisks. Coctrices are the worst of the four for
reasons you should already know by now. If there are Coctrices, use the
Zeus Gauntlet to kill them in the first round before using HRM2 on the
mummies. If there are no Coctrices, use HRM3 to deal with the mummies.
Perilisks should be your final priority since they pose no threat.
Once you beat these enemies (or run from them), you'll be able to raid the
treasure chests. These treasures are quite useful. One of them contains
a Ribbon, which you should immediately equip. This wonderful piece of
armor will protect you from every spell out there except NUKE, XFER and
SLO2. Another good treasure is the Wizard Staff, which casts CONF in
battle. While you probably won't use this item too often, it can come in
handy as an alternative to RUSE. The final treasure of note is the Defense
Sword. Even though you can't equip this powerful sword, you can still use
it as an item in battle. It has the same effect as RUSE, thus meaning you
can use it as many times as you'd like.
Be sure to talk to the robot wandering around the room. It will give you
the Cube, which you'll need later on. Once you've taken care of everything
here (getting the Cube and raiding the treasure), use EXIT to leave the
Waterfall. You can fight your way out if you wish, but you never know
exactly what the spiked square will bring you (a Coctrice ambush), nor do
you know if a Gas Dragon will make an appearance. Play it safe. Use EXIT
and then save your game with another cabin outside.
Now it's time to revive the third orb, that of the water. Thus, the next
dungeon on your agenda should be the Sea Shrine.
-----PART 11: ONRAC AND THE SEA SHRINE-----
To access the Sea Shrine, go to Onrac by sailing south from the Waterfall
via the canoe and walking east to the coast. There is nothing you need to
buy in this town. Save your game at the inn and talk to the woman next to
the submarine in the southeastern corner of the town. She will not let you
access the submarine unless you have Oxyale, which you should have already
taken care of.
The Sea Shrine is a large dungeon packed with enemies that are weak against
lightning. Armed with the Zeus Gauntlet, it should be a breeze to deal
with these guys. However, there are some enemies in here that are weak
against other types of magic, so you should tread carefully. At the end of
the shrine lies Kraken, perhaps the most dangerous of the four fiends. You
should plan on making 2 trips through the Sea Shrine. The first trip is to
raid the treasures on the upper floors and to get the Slab. The second
trip is to defeat Kraken.
Enemies you DON'T want to encounter:
Ghosts: GHOSTS ARE EXTREMELY DANGEROUS. Only 4 enemies hit harder than
they do (T-Rex, Sentry, Phantom, and WarMech), but those enemies are either
fought once (Phantom) or are otherwise rarely encountered. Ghosts,
however, are quite common and you can't run from them. To further
complicate matters, they can attack in groups of up to 5. If you are
unfortunate enough to run into them, use RUSE twice (via the Defense Sword)
and hope you survive their initial onslaught. Then use HRM3. These
enemies are likely to put an end to your adventure a few times. Their
ability to stun you only adds insult to injury.
Water: Water is probably the toughest of the four elemental enemies. They
hit the hardest and you can't run from them. It is also worth noting that
they are weak against ICE, which you can't use yet. So you'll have to rely
on the Zeus Gauntlet, but do so after protecting yourself with RUSE first.
Other enemies to watch out for:
Lobsters: They appear in large groups, are capable of scoring multiple
hits and tend to land criticals as well. They are susceptible to CONF,
although finishing them off quickly with the Zeus Gauntlet may be a better
strategy.
Enemies you WANT to encounter:
Wizard Sahags/Red Sahags: Sometimes Wizard Sahags appear with Gray Sharks,
which are much tougher. But other times they appear with Red Sahags, which
you've encountered numerous times in the open ocean. The Zeus Gauntlet
will make short work of these enemies in about two rounds.
Sea Snakes/Sea Trolls: They don't hit too hard, rarely land criticals, and
are easy to run from. But again, because you have the Zeus Gauntlet, you
might as well fry them and rake in the XP.
When you enter the Sea Shrine, follow the path north and then take the
stairs on the right. Those will lead to the floor containing the Mage
Staff and a Light Axe, two very useful weapons. The Mage Staff casts FIR2
in battle, which will make dealing with undeads a breeze. The Light Axe
casts HRM2, which is also useful against undeads. However, the Mage Staff
might be more useful than the Light Axe because enemies that are weak
against HARM are also weak against FIRE, and FIR2 is a stronger spell than
HRM2. Also, there are more enemies that are weak against FIRE than those
that are weak against HARM. Throw the Silver Hammer away (you won't be
using physical attacks on anything anymore) and fill that weapon slot with
the Mage Staff.
The top floor is the mermaids' floor. You will find many treasure boxes
here containing gold, potions, and expensive armor that you can't really
use. However, one of these treasures is the Opal Bracelet, which you
should equip immediately. This is the strongest armor your White Wizard
can equip, so throw the Gold Bracelet away (or sell it if you are somehow
hurting for cash). Follow the passage to the northwest and it will lead to
the northeastern part of the room where there's a room containing a chest
with the Slab.
When you first enter the Sea Shrine, it is advisable to raid the treasure
on the mermaids' floor first before grabbing the Mage Staff and Light Axe
on the floor before it. The reason for this is that the Opal Bracelet's
high defensive power will help protect you in the event that you run into
Ghosts or are ambushed by Gray Sharks. Either way, once you've raided all
these treasures and gotten the Slab, use EXIT (or hike out if you did not
get the class change) and save your game at the Onrac Inn.
Once you've saved and recovered your HP, go back in the Sea Shrine and head
down to Kraken's floor. You don't need to do anymore treasure hunting.
There's another Light Axe and Ribbon to find here, but you won't need them
since this is a solo quest and you have these items already.
Kraken is tough. The main problem with him is his sheer power. He has
many tentacles, which means you can hit you MANY times per attack. One
physical attack from Kraken has the potential to kill you even if you have
maximum HP. Use RUSE 3 times at the start of the battle and hope that he
wastes his turns using INK. Once you are protected by RUSE, use the Zeus
Gauntlet to waste him. If you can survive the first 3 rounds or so, this
battle is easy. But if he lands a physical attack before you can use RUSE,
you might as well be prepared to die.
-----PART 12: LEFEIN AND THE MIRAGE TOWER-----
Once Kraken is defeated, you should paddle back to your airship and fly
south to Melmond. Bring the Slab to Dr. Unne in the northeastern part of
the village so you can learn the Lefeinish language. You won't be able to
talk to the townspeople in Lefein unless you can understand this language.
Sell all your excess armor (the opal equipment that you can't equip) or
throw it away and then fly to the northeastern continent. There is a
fairly large pond there surrounded by a forest south of Gaia. Land your
airship on the small patch of grass in the northwestern part of the forest
and then make the long and lonely trek east and south to Lefein. Here you
will find the same enemies that once terrorized you when you were leveling
up using the PNEOP so long ago. But now that you have the Mage Staff and
much more HP, battling these guys should be easy now.
In Lefein, follow the sidewalk north and then take a right. Then go south
before the breach in the wall and talk to the guy in the lower left corner.
He will give you the Chime that you need to enter the Mirage Tower. Don't
worry about the magic shop here because you won't be needing LIF2. Once
outside of the town, hike back up to your airship, fly back to Gaia, and
buy FADE from the L8 magic shop. FADE is your most powerful offensive
spell, capable of doing 80-320DMG to all enemies. This spell will be
immensely useful when you enter the Temple of Fiends Revisited and fight
large groups of powerful enemies. If you have the gold, also buy WALL.
Even though you have the Ribbon, there are some enemies that can use XFER.
You probably won't need to use WALL, but it's a nice spell to have, just in
case.
Save the game at the Gain Inn and then fly southwest to the large desert.
Land on the small patch of grass along the eastern edge of the desert and
then walk west by northwest to reach the Mirage Tower.
The Mirage Tower has 3 floors and a lot of treasure chests. The treasure
chests in here contain several very useful items, including Thor's Hammer,
which is the strongest weapon your White Wizard can equip (aside from the
Masmune). If you were playing a regular game, you could also take
advantage of the Sun Sword, Heal Helmet, Aegis Shield, and Dragon Armor
that can be found here. But for your purposes, ignore those items because
you won't be needing them.
Enemies you DON'T want to encounter:
Blue Dragons: These are the second most dangerous dragons you will
encounter in Final Fantasy. In addition to being unable to run from them,
they have the most hit points and the highest attack rating. But
fortunately, they only appear one at a time and are very rare. Granted,
one of these dragons is on an unavoidable spiked square, so when you meet
it, protect yourself with RUSE before using the Mage Staff as an item to
defeat him. You also might have the misfortune of meeting this enemy as a
random enemy on the top floor of the tower.
Other enemies to watch out for:
Vampires: You first met the Vampire in the Earth Cave. Now they appear in
much larger groups. Use RUSE, of course, because they can still hit pretty
hard. The Mage Staff is more effective than the Light Axe, so blast away
with that and rake in the XP.
Wizard Mummies/Mummies/Coctrices/Perilisks: This enemy group could also be
found in the Waterfall. The main threat comes from the Mummies who will
put you to sleep and the Coctrices that will randomly petrify you. You can
run from these or opt to kill them off with the Mage Staff. Again,
Perilisks are not a threat to you if you have the Ribbon and ProRing
equipped, so don't worry about the Mage Staff being ineffective on an enemy
that is strong against FIRE.
Catmen: These annoying enemies are poisonous and tend to score multiple
hits, which can drain your HP if you are not careful. You can run from
them, or you can use the Wizard Staff to confuse them before punishing them
with the Mage Staff.
Enemies you WANT to encounter:
Cerebuses: They don't hit so hard and their SCORCH attack is the weakest
of all FIRE-based attacks.
Remember, the Blue Dragon guards the teleport room on the third floor of
the tower. Once you defeat it using the strategy listed above, you will
have access to the Sky Castle, provided that you already got the Cube from
the robot in the Waterfall.
-----PART 13: THE SKY CASTLE-----
The Sky Castle is much larger than the Mirage Tower. There are many
treasure boxes here too. Normally, most of your time in the castle will be
spent raiding treasure, although almost none of this treasure will be
useful for your solo White Wizard. There are several highly annoying or
lethal enemy groups you will encounter here, so take care not to
overestimate your ability to survive.
Enemies you DON'T want to encounter:
WarMech: This is the single most dangerous enemy in the game. It patrols
the narrow corridor leading to Tiamat's lair. If you have the misfortune
of running into it, you probably won't survive longer than 2 rounds because
of his NUCLEAR ability and his ability to hit you multiple times. Oh, and
he can ambush you too. Your solo White Wizard will NOT beat WarMech, so
run immediately and hope that he doesn't kill you before you get a chance
to flee.
MudGols/Sorcerers: This group can be found on the final two floors of the
castle. The MudGols hit hard, but their main threat is their FAST spell,
which they'll use on their Sorcerer friends. A Sorcerer boosted by FAST
will be twice as likely to kill you as an unboosted one. Do not attempt to
fight this enemy group under any circumstances whatsoever.
Other enemies to watch out for:
Sentries: Think of a Sentry as being as powerful as a Ghost with more than
double the HP. You should use ICE against it, but you won't have access to
this spell until you find the Black Shirt. Being paralyzed by a Sentry
could be fatal, so either run away or use RUSE immediately. They are worth
a boatload of XP, however, so you might want to think twice before you
decide to flee.
Wizard Vampires: Wizard Vampires have about 50% more HP than Ghosts, but
they hit just as hard. Fortunately, their magic ability is nothing to
worry about. Take them out with the Mage Staff and rake in the XP.
Evilmen: Do not underestimate these guys. Any enemy that includes NUKE in
its spell cycle must be taken seriously. They are not weak against any
magic, so you will have to use Thor's Hammer or the Mage Staff repeatedly
to kill them. You can also run from them.
Mancats: These clowns from the Castle of Ordeals are back and appear in
larger groups. Fortunately, your Ribbon will greatly minimize the damage
you suffer from 6 or 7 blasts of FIR2, but it will still take a major toll
on your HP.
Naocho: These enemies can be found on the final two floors. They are
poisonous and hit hard. In addition to this, they can score multiple hits.
Be very careful in the event that they start racking up the criticals.
Watch your HP or run away.
RockGols: They hit harder than MudGols and have more HP. Don't take any
chances. Run away.
Enemies you WANT to encounter:
Gray Nagas: Perhaps the easiest 3000+XP you'll ever earn. The challenge
is simply staying awake long enough to deal 400HP worth of damage before
they die.
Manticores: Their main attack is a STINGER attack, which will attempt to
poison you. The Ribbon will completely nullify this. Use the Bane Sword
and happily take the XP they offer.
Eyes: Now that you have the Ribbon and ProRing, these guys are easy. Take
their 3000+XP and smile.
Fighters: These are easy simply because they have no offensive spells
whatsoever to attack you with. In addition, they don't have enough HP to
survive more than a few rounds before they are defeated. Think of these as
another 3000+XP just waiting to be collected.
As stated earlier, the Sky Castle is chock full of goodies. The important
treasures are as follows:
The Bane Sword is in the southern treasure room on the first floor. This
weapon casts BANE in battle, which is a poison gas that can instantly kill
a group of enemies. It is fairly effective even on enemies you meet at
this late stage of the game, so it's worth keeping in your inventory.
The Black Shirt is on the second floor. It casts ICE2 in battle, which is
very useful. By all means, add this to your inventory.
The White Shirt is located in the treasure chest next to the Black Shirt.
However, you should ignore this armor because the Opal Bracelet offers more
protection and the Defense Sword can cast RUSE, which is more powerful than
the White Shirt's INV2.
The Adamant is in the lower left corner of the second floor, but you don't
need it because you cannot equip Excalibur.
The ProCape is on the third floor in the treasure room on the far right.
This armor offers no special properties, but your White Wizard can equip
it. If you have the Opal Bracelet, ProRing, ProCape, and Ribbon equipped,
your armor rating will be at its maximum of 51. If you opt to keep the
Black Shirt instead of the ProCape, your armor rating will be 43. It is up
to you to decide which is more important to you. Keeping the Black Shirt
is probably a better idea because your armor rating is not so important
once you have sufficiently protected yourself with RUSE. (Remember, you
cannot use your three dead characters as backpacks or extra storage space!)
Also remember that you can claim another ProCape in the Temple of Fiends.
Use EXIT and save your game once you've raided the necessary treasure
chests because there are several lethal enemies guarding the final two
floors before Tiamat's lair, particularly WarMech and the MudGol/Sorcerer
troupe.
Return to the Sky Castle and go to the 4th floor. This floor has repeating
corridors. To proceed, go up two intersections and then go left two
intersections. (You could also go down two intersections and then right
two intersections. It doesn't matter.) On the final floor, run from all
enemies and keep your HP maxed out in case you have the misfortune of
meeting WarMech. In the event that you do stumble upon him, run
immediately and hope that he doesn't kill you first. Keep in mind that it
is possible to encounter him more than once as you walk through the long
corridor to Tiamat's lair. Again, keep your HP maxed out at all times.
When you reach Tiamat, protect yourself with RUSE three times and then spam
the Mage Staff/Black Shirt/Thor's Hammer. His magic spells are powerful,
but significantly weakened by your Ribbon. He has 1000HP, so it will be a
long and painfully slow battle. You'll have to use CUR4 several times to
recover your HP. Try to keep your HP above 100 at all times because his
magic spells will take roughly 50-75% of that amount per use. If you're
feeling lucky, you can also spam the Bane Sword once you are protected by
RUSE.
Once Tiamat has been defeated, revive the final orb behind the throne,
escape, and save the game. Now it's time to head back to Coneria for your
final item check.
-----PART 14: THE TEMPLE OF FIENDS REVISITED-----
Once you've flown back to Coneria, stock up on Heal Potions and Pure
Potions (about 30 of the latter should suffice). Now check your weapon and
armor screens. You should have the following items equipped and in your
inventory:
Keep in mind that there is no room in your inventory for the Heal Staff or
Heal Helmet. The Bane Sword and other weapons are more useful at this
point. You are going to have to do A LOT of leveling up in the TOFR in
order to stand a chance against Chaos. You can accomplish this by fighting
the enemies on the first three floors of the temple. Use your CURE spells
to recover HP and use EXIT once these spells have all been tapped out. Fly
back to Coneria, save at the inn, and then reenter the temple and try
again.
There are many enemies in the TOFR that you cannot run from. Some enemy
groups will make mincemeat out of your White Wizard, despite your
impressive inventory. Your inability to mount a potent offense (aside from
FADE) will be your biggest hurdle. And this is complicated by the fact
that you will have too few L8 spell charges to be able to take advantage of
these spells as often as you'd like. Fortunately for you, leveling up in
the TOFR is easy because the enemies are worth so much XP.
You basically have three goals to accomplish in the TOFR:
1. Gain enough levels to be able to use L7 and L8 magic at least 8 times
(in other words, you need to be at about L48 to handle Chaos).
2. Find the Masmune. Level-building is much easier if you have this
equipped. EXIT immediately after you find this.
3. Defeat Chaos, which of course, is easier said than done.
How to deal with certain enemy groups:
1st Floor
Worms: Worms are the best enemies you can fight here because they have no
special attacks, unlike the Frost Dragons and Chimeras. If there's only
one Worm, use RUSE and then attack directly with Thor's Hammer. You can
finally do 2-hit damage by now and occasionally inflict over 100DMG with a
critical. If there are two Worms, use RUSE and then attack both with the
Black Shirt. Remember that you cannot run from these enemies.
Frost Dragons: Run away.
Chimeras: Spam the Black Shirt or run away.
2nd Floor
Frost Giants/Frost Wolves: Use the Mage Staff in the first round. Don't
worry about RUSE because the possibility of being blasted by six FROST
attacks is not worth it. You can use RUSE once or twice after beating the
Frost Wolves before using the Mage Staff again on the giants.
Zombie Dragons: Use RUSE twice and then spam the Mage Staff. You cannot
run from these.
Chimeras/Jimeras: Spam the Black Shirt (or FADE) and rake in the XP.
3rd Floor:
Gas Dragons: Gas Dragons are the worst enemies you will encounter in the
TOFR. They have a lot of HP, hit hard, have a terrible POISON gas attack,
and have a high magic defense. If your level is below 30, you might not
survive a battle with 3 or 4 of these because 4 POISON attacks will drain
you of about 250HP even if you have the Ribbon equipped. In the event that
you do encounter them, use RUSE in the first round and then CUR4 in the
second if your HP is below 200. Then use RUSE again. Finally, use the
Black Shirt (or FADE) to kill them, interrupting with CUR4 when necessary.
You can't defend against their POISON attack, but you can at least nullify
their physical hits with RUSE. These dragons are very tough to kill
without the Masmune, but fortunately they are worth a ton of XP. In fact,
killing 8 Gas Dragons will give you enough XP for a level up. So fighting
these is a high risk, high reward proposition.
Badmen: Run away.
Phantom: Use RUSE twice and then spam the Mage Staff. This enemy is
extremely dangerous and powerful. Being on the receiving end of a Phantom
critical hit can be fatal.
1st Basement
Earth: Use RUSE twice and then spam the Mage Staff. These hit hard and
will take a few rounds to be defeated.
MudGols/RockGols: Run away.
Green Medusas: These are dangerous because of their ability to paralyze
you. You are best off using the Mage Staff immediately to pick off as many
of them as you can.
LICH2: Do not attempt Lich2 unless you have at least 400HP. There is no
way to avoid his NUKE spell. Don't waste time with CUR4. Use HRM4 and
HRM3 instead. Keep a record of how much damage your spells inflict. He
has 500HP. Once he goes through his spell cycle (STOP, ZAP!, XXXX), he
will use NUKE yet again. Your HARM spells should kill him before he has a
chance to use a second NUKE.
2nd Basement
Gray Worms: Run away.
Fire: Use RUSE twice and then spam the Black Shirt.
Red Giants/Agamas: If you opted to keep the Heal Staff in lieu of the Bane
Sword, you can use this battle to recover your HP after the terrible battle
with Lich. Kill the Red Giant first (using the Black Shirt and physical
attacks with Thor's Hammer), then kill off all but one Agama. Then keep
spamming the Heal Staff until you are satisfied before dealing the final
Agama his death blow.
Red Dragons: These are very rare, but if you do meet them, use RUSE twice
and spam the Black Shirt. Use CUR4 as necessary.
KARY2: Use RUSE 3 times and then use FADE. You want to keep 3 or 4 FADE
charges left over for the next fiend. If you don't have enough FADE
charges even when your magic levels are maxed out, your level is not high
enough. Kary2 has a propensity to land criticals, so you don't want to
engage in a 30 round battle using the Black Shirt and taking 30DMG every
time. Her magic spells primarily consist of RUB and FIR3, which are no
problem for you now.
3rd Basement
Water: Use RUSE twice and spam the Black Shirt. These enemies hit hard,
so you might only be able to use RUSE once before being forced to use CUR4.
Take these enemies seriously and don't get creative. Use what works: the
Black Shirt. If you opted for the ProCape in lieu of the Black Shirt, you
will have to rely on Thor's Hammer, which is considerably less effective.
Gray Sharks/Wizard Sahags: Use the Bane Sword to eliminate as many Sahags
as you can before taking out the sharks with Thor's Hammer.
Sea Trolls/Sea Snakes/Lobsters: Use Thor's Hammer or the Bane Sword
immediately. You can also run, but this should be an easy group of enemies
for you to kill.
KRAKEN2: He means business this time. His attacks are more powerful and
he can score even more multiple hits than when you first met him in the Sea
Shrine. If he uses a physical attack before you can protect yourself with
at least two RUSEs, you are dead. Ideally, you want to use RUSE three
times, but you might have to interrupt this so you can use CUR4. Do not
bother with FOG2. Once you are protected, unload on him with your
remaining FADE charges. Thor's Hammer is not so effective on Kraken2 this
time around, but that will be all you can rely on once you run out of FADE
spells.
4th Basement
Worms: Worms are exceptionally dangerous now because they appear in larger
groups. Use RUSE immediately, and use it twice. You will note that Worms
have a high chance of getting critical hits, so you will have to monitor
them closely. Use the Black Shirt, as this is the most powerful offensive
weapon available to you now.
Nitemares/Evilmen: Run away.
Sorcerers: RUN AWAY IMMEDIATELY. As your level increases, you may notice
more and more Sorcerers running away from you, but that doesn't matter.
RUN AWAY IMMEDIATELY.
Wizard Vampires/Vampires: Use RUSE once, then CUR4 if necessary, and then
spam the Mage Staff. Two doses of this staff should kill the regular
Vampires. Maybe 4 blasts are needed to kill the Wizard Vampires.
IronGols: These are extremely rare enemies, but you don't have the
firepower to handle them. They are resistant to all magic and have a
strong natural defense too, so it's not worth it. Run away.
Air: Run away.
The Masmune is in the lower right corner of the room. You will have to
walk through the zigzagging corridor in the southeast to reach it. Once
you grab the Masmune, immediately EXIT and save your game.
Once you have the Masmune, fighting enemies becomes MUCH easier. You'll be
able to use items such as the Black Shirt or Mage Staff as supplementary
weapons to finish off weakened enemies. You will also be able to conserve
your L7 spell charges (HRM4/CUR4) and L8 spell charges (FADE) by attacking
the fiends directly. Gas Dragons, Worms, and elemental enemies will also
become much easier to defeat. As for your inventory, the Masmune should
replace Thor's Hammer. The Mage Staff, Defense, and the Bane Sword/Heal
Staff are more important.
Once you've saved your game, go back to the TOFR and keep raising levels.
You might as well wait until you reach L50, although you could probably
handle things at L45 or so. The amount of L8 magic spells available to you
will determine how likely you are to succeed against Chaos. Eight L8
spells should be enough.
When you are ready, go back to the 4th Basement of the TOFR and do battle
with Tiamat2. On your way there, do not use L8 magic under any
circumstances, and limit your L7 magic use to battles in which your HP is
so low that you are on the verge of being killed. You MUST conserve these
spell charges. Your Masmune should replace FADE as a strategy when
fighting the Fiends.
Regarding Tiamat2, he is much tougher than his first incarnation (mainly
because he hits much harder now), and you can't use the Bane Sword either.
Use RUSE three times and then just attack with the Masmune. Some of your
hits will be lousy, but you'll land a few criticals as well. Keep in mind
that his physical attacks are worse than any magic attack he has, thanks to
your Ribbon. Try to use CUR3 to heal yourself instead of CUR4.
Chaos lurks in the 5th and final basement. As you know, he has all sorts
of devastating spells. But as a White Wizard, you can give yourself many
chances to succeed by using CUR4. There are three spells in particular
that you need to be concerned about, however:
CUR4: This spell will essentially reset the battle. Your goal is to
inflict 2000DMG before he has a chance to use this spell.
NUKE: Keep your HP above 400 at all times and have your CUR4 ready to go
when he's about to use this dreaded spell. This spell always follows ICE2
and FAST in his magic cycle.
SLO2: This is the worst possible spell Chaos can use if you are a solo
White Mage/Wizard. If it is effective, you will no longer be able to rely
on the Masmune and will instead have to resort to using FADE. Your chances
of beating Chaos will take a nosedive if this spell is effective. (A
Black/Red Wizard or Ninja would be immensely helpful for countering this,
but alas...)
When you enter the battle with Chaos, use RUSE three times and then attack,
attack, attack with the Masmune. Do not bother with healing yourself until
Chaos gets close to using NUKE. Observe the progression of his spell cycle
and get ready to heal yourself once he uses ICE2. The spell that follows
ICE2 is FAST, which is followed by NUKE. Before he uses NUKE, make sure
you have at least 400HP, so use CUR3 or CUR4 as necessary.
If Chaos neutralizes your offense with SLO2, you will have to rely on FADE
and FADE only, which offers mixed results against Chaos. His magic defense
is very high, thus making FADE a bit less effective than it would be on a
regular enemy. However, that's all you have to work with, and occasionally
it will take more than 250DMG. Once all of your FADE charges are gone, you
will have to revert to your weak Masmune or the Black Shirt. Of course,
you probably won't win the battle at all if things reach this point because
his CUR4 will effectively ruin everything. You basically want to hope
Chaos relies on physical attacks or skill-based attacks, such as INFERNO or
TORNADO. His regular magic spells are the ones you DON'T want to see. To
put it another way, a successful SLO2 followed by CUR4 will reduce your
chances of victory significantly. However, each physical attack he
executes (before SLO2 is effective) is one more round in which you can
slash him with your Masmune without penalty.
Although it may take a few tries, if you manage to survive and deal 2000HP
worth of damage to Chaos, you will have successfully completed one of the
most difficult challenges you could attempt in Final Fantasy. Consider
yourself an elite player. Now sit back and enjoy the ending of the game.
Congratulations.
-----DISCMAIMER-----
This solo White Mage quest was completed by Zzonkmiles and this FAQ is
based entirely on my own experiences with the game. All of the strategies
and information contained in this FAQ are the result of my own original
experiences and research. Any similarities with other FAQs of this nature
are coincidental and have nothing to do with plagiarism.
Please forward all questions, comments, corrections, and/or suggestions to
knozzmoeking AT hotmail DOT com. Thank you.
Final Fantasy is a registered trademark of Square, Inc.
Copyright 2006 by Zzonkmiles. All rights reserved.
