LABYRINTH OF TIME GUIDE
for Final Fantasy (I) on the PSP
By KaonNemesis
Version 1.1
August 7th, 2007
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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The Labyrinth of Time is a brand new dungeon for the PSP version of Final
Fantasy (I). It's a VERY tough and challenging dungeon not available until the
end of the game. It consists of random floors, each with a puzzle that you must
solve. To make it even more "fun" you must seal off your commands at the start
of each floor and are given a time limit to complete the puzzles! Oh yeah, and
you can't save once you start the dungeon. However, it does contain some pretty
fun puzzles (and lots of frustrating ones), the last entries for your Beastiary
(196-203), and some of the best items in the game. Also, it does get easier as
you learn how it works and start seeing Challenges/Floors that you're familiar
with (as long as you don't get that damn "Marching Orders" Challenge... I hate
that one, lol).
In order to open up the Labyrinth of time you must defeat the four fiends
(Lich, Marilith, Kraken, and Tiamat). Once you've done this travel to Cornelia
(the starting town) and you will find a cloaked figure near the fountain in
the middle of town. Talk to the cloaked figure and it will walk away (this
part isn't really necessary). Next travel to the Chaos Shrine (where you
originally fought Garland) and witness the cloaked figure use a door at the
back of the Chaos Shrine. Simply walk to where you saw the cloaked figure use
the door and press "X" to make it appear. SAVE before you go any further!
Each floor begins with you sacrificing abilities (such as the Flee command,
Magic, Fight, Items, Dash, etc) to the Light of Time orb. Each ability has a
time value assigned to it and you are allowed to sacrifice a limited amount of
abilities in order to gain more time. You are limited to how many abilities
you can sacrifice and you do not have to sacrifice abilities up to the limit
either.
To use the Ability Sacrifice menu use "X" to sacrifice an ability and "O" to
get an ability back (while highlighting it) if you change your mind. The number
of abilities that you can sacrifice is listed near the bottom right hand side
as the limit. The amount of time you'll gain by sacrificing an ability is
listed on the bottom left hand side and the total time you will get is listed
on the bottom right hand side. If you want to cancel the Ability Sacrifice menu
just press "O" before confirming. When you're done confirm your selections and
the Orb with disappear, turning into a portal leading to the floor. You cannot
change your selections after this point.
Once you progress into the actual stage for the floor the timer will begin
counting down. You must find the Tablet for that stage as fast as possible to
start the Challenge. Random enemies will be encountered until the Challenge has
been started, but not during it (until time runs out). Time continues to
countdown during BATTLES and the Challenge! If time runs out at any point you
will begin losing HP and MP every few seconds and random enemy encounters will
start again during the Challenge. Note that this cannot kill you though, only
bring you down to 1 HP.
Each Challenge is a different type of puzzle that must be solved before time
runs out in order to open the Blue Seal for the floor. Challenges can be
attempted again if you fail but there is usually a penalty, such as losing
time or an enemy encounter. If times runs out then only the Red Seal will
become active after solving the Challenge. However, if you do solve the
Challenge before time runs but then runs out afterwards you will only suffer
the HP/MP loss and the Blue Seal will remain open.
Occasionally you will get a bonus floor in between floors, called the Inner
Sanctum, which is a small room that has a Blue Seal, a Red Seal, and a Pot. The
Blue Seal takes you to the next floor. The Red Seal can be used to go back to
the tower's entrance. The Pot can be used to clear any negative status (eg. KO,
Stone, Poison, etc) and fully restore your party's HP and MP!
Also, very rarely the cloaked figure will appear just after you start a floor
and "lend you some power", granting you a gift. I don't know what triggers it,
as I've only had it happen a few times for me. The gifts I've been given so far
have been: a Potion, an extra 120 seconds, and removing all random encounters
from the floor (including when time ran out)!
If your party dies in the Labyrinth of Time your game is over, you do NOT just
appear outside the dungeon (like the Soul of Chaos dungeons). You also can't
use Teleport, Exit, or Emergency Exit to get out, so make sure you're committed
to completing the dungeon when you start!
The Labyrinth of Time can be done as many times as you like and every version
of Chronodia will always be back for you to fight again (like the bosses in the
Soul of Chaos dungeons).
Be warned that this dungeon is EXTREMELY frustrating! Don't even bother with it
if you like your sanity intact. It's not necessary to complete it to beat the
game and there likely aren't any more challenges after this where you will need
to use the rewards you get for completing it. However, if you like a good
challenge, enjoy puzzles, or need to complete everything in the game then by
all means give it a shot. Just remember that you CAN'T SAVE once you start it,
so be sure you have some time available before starting.
Flee and Dash are good abilities to start with for sacrificing. Next you might
want to consider Half Defense and Half Evasion (if your level is high enough).
Curative Items isn't bad either if you feel you need the extra time. Magic is
okay to sacrifice if you've completed all of the Soul of Chaos dungeons fully
(and have all the rewards as a result) because you can just use items instead.
However, be warned that sacrificing both Curative Items and Magic can make
things pretty tough seeing as you will only be able to use heals/life in
battle, which is obviously very limiting (and pretty frustrating). Black Magic
is a good one to sacrifice though, since you can just use items to cast it
instead.
However, once your levels are high enough Flee and Dash then become the biggest
benefit to making it through floors quickly, especially once you hit level 99
and don't even need the experience any more. You can just run from every
battle, even those you are forced to fight for Challenges, there are none that
you can't escape from (besides Chronodia of course). So you can basically
sacrifice everything else (including Fight and Magic) besides these commands if
you'd like. Even Dash isn't so necessary (it just makes things quicker).
As mentioned above, it's recommended that you've fully completed all of the
Soul of Chaos dungeons (Earthgift Shrine, Hellfire Chasm, Lifesrping Grotto,
and Whisperwind Cove), including doing multiple trips through to defeat all of
the bosses. This will mean that your level is likely high enough to handle the
Labyrinth of Time (around 60+) and also mean that you have several powerful
items, such as Judgment Staff (Flare) x2, Lightbringer (Holy), Rune Staff
(Healara), and Sage's Staff (Life). You'll also have some very powerful weapons
and equipment, such as Ultima Weapon (All), Ragnarok (Knight), and Murasame
(Ninja). However, while Ultima Weapon is powerful be careful using it since
it's dependant on the user's HP and you'll be constantly taking lots of damage,
often severely limiting its power. I'd also recommend having a Protect Ring on
everyone as well, since lots of monsters in the Labyrinth of Time like to use
instant death type attacks. By the way, if you end up sacrificing Magic or
Curative Items, be aware that the Black Wizard may actually heal better using
the Rune Staff than the White Wizard using it, since all magic cast from items
is still dependant on the user's Intelligence and the Black Wizard has the
highest of all the classes (until the higher levels, where they tend to level
out for the Wizards). In fact, I usually like to switch their roles in here,
having the White Wizard use the Judgment Staff to cast Flare (for free) and
have the Black Wizard constantly heal with the Rune Staff, since more healing
power is much more beneficial than a little more damage.
Bring lots of Potions, Ethers, and Phoenix Down. You may need them, depending
on what abilities you decide to sacrifice.
While on the floor where you sacrifice abilities always recuperate before
touching the Orb, your abilities are all opened beforehand but are locked
immediately afterwards.
It's a good idea to have a pen and paper handy while doing the Labyrinth of
Time. A lot of the puzzles are much easier if you can write down some of the
details for figuring them out. Make sure you put your PSP in standby mode
though while you're doing this so you don't waste time!
If you're going to try to unlock all of the Challenges then I highly suggest
passing them within the time limit to break the Blue Seal regardless if you
were trying to follow a path to a specific version of Chronodia. The paths to
Chronodia are known and easy to do any time, but you never know when you'll see
a Challenge again (and it could be a long time), making them much more
"valuable" to unlock when you get the chance.
For some reason the Primeval Pit floors seem to be the most rare (at least they
were for me). If you're having trouble reaching them then here is a guaranteed
path to get there: B-R-B-R-R-[Primeval Pit]. B-R-R-B-R-[Primeval Pit] works
also. Just break the seals in either of those orders and the 6th level will be
a (random) Primeval Pit Challenge. Furthermore, if the Primeval Pit Challenge
that you get is one you already have then break the Red Seal with that one too
and the 7th floor will also be a Primeval Pit!
Play away from friends and family, in private, so that you won't expose others
to the amount of swearing you'll be doing while trying to complete this
dungeon...
There are 30 different Challenges in total, luckily it seems like the most
you'll have to face is about 7-11 of them during one run through the dungeon.
Below is a table listing all the Challenges. You can use this table to
sometimes determine which Challenge you'll be facing when sacrificing abilities
by looking at the floor name and number of abilities that you can sacrifice.
For example, say you're on the Modern Maze floor and you can sacrifice 7
abilities, you'll know that the Challenge is going to be "Neat and Tidy" and
can plan accordingly when sacrificing abilities.
After there are descriptions for each of the Challenges (that I've encountered
so far). I'll try to give as many tips as I can to help beat them, but a lot of
them just come down to your own puzzle solving abilities.
No Challenge Floor Sacrifices (Time)
___|_________________________|____________________|_________________
01: Faeries' Frolic.......... Modern Maze......... x1 (Very Short)
02: Faeries' Farce........... Modern Maze......... x1 (Very Short)
03: Neat and Tidy............ Modern Maze......... x7 (Long)
04: The Guardian............. Medieval Dungeon.... x1 (Very Short)
05: Path of Light............ Medieval Dungeon.... x2 (Short)
06: Labrynith of Darkness.... Medieval Dungeon.... x2 (Short)
07: Scavenger Hunt........... Medieval Dungeon.... x3 (Short)
08: March of Souls........... Medieval Dungeon.... x3 (Short)
09: The Bat Cave............. Medieval Dungeon.... x7 (Long)
10: Bat-a-bing!.............. Ancient Catacomb.... x2 (Short)
11: Trial by Fire............ Ancient Catacomb.... x3 (Short)
12: Fire Drill............... Ancient Catacomb.... x5 (Average)
13: Specter Inspector........ Ancient Catacomb.... x5 (Average)
14: Beat the Heat............ Primeval Pit........ x5 (Average)
15: Thunder Alley............ Primeval Pit........ x6 (Long)
16: Mechanical Madness....... Primeval Pit........ x6 (Long)
17: Stone Trap............... Primeval Pit........ x6 (Long)
18: Flower Sale.............. Primeval Pit........ x7 (Long)
19: Breakout................. Primeval Pit........ x6 (Long)
20: Mirror-image............. Primeval Pit........ x8 (Very Long)
21: Marching Orders.......... Original Chaos...... x4 (Average)
22: Twin Statues............. Original Chaos...... x3 (Short)
23: Note for Note............ Original Chaos...... x4 (Average)
24: The Path to Peace........ Original Chaos...... x4 (Average)
25: Slay or Be Slain......... Original Chaos...... x5 (Average)
26: Labyrinth of Trials...... Original Chaos...... x8 (Very Long)
27: Labyrinth of Disasters... Netherworld Crypt... x7 (Long)
28: Step by Step............. Netherworld Crypt... x7 (Long)
29: Trick Statues............ Netherworld Crypt... x7 (Long)
30: Traveling Salesman....... Netherworld Crypt... x8 (Very Long)
01: Faeries' Frolic (Modern Maze) - Very Short (x1)
- A faerie will show you her "dance" and you must remember it. Her "dance" is
her facing several directions in a specific order. Once she's done showing it
to you she will go off the screen and then 5 faeries will come down and do
their "dances". You must pick out the original faerie by recognizing her
dance and then speaking to her to pass the Challenge. If you choose wrong
you'll have to start over again. The "dance" isn't too long so it's not too
difficult to remember, but if you're having problems just write down the
sequence of her dance (using left/right/up/down) to easily pass this one.
02: Faeries' Farce (Modern Maze) - Very Short (x1)
- A block of 9 treasure chests is in the middle of the area and you must guess
the correct one. You can talk to 7 faeries to try to determine which is the
right one. However, one of the faeries will lie to you. An incorrect guess
will cut your time in half. A logic puzzle, it helps to write down what each
fairie says and then go over it afterwards. I like to use X's and O's in a
3x3 grid (representing the chests) to mark down what the fairies say, which
usually reveals which one is lying.
03: Neat and Tidy (Modern Maze) - Long (x7)
- 8 blocks are found around a room with wandering robots. You must push each
block up onto the flashing squares. However, if a robot touches a block any
time after it has been moved from its original position it will disappear.
Talk to a robot to reset the blocks not on the flashing squares to their
original position, including the ones that have disappeared. There's really
no penalty for blocks disappearing or doing a reset. A pretty easy puzzle.
04: The Guardian (Medieval Dungeon) - Very Short (x1)
- Travel through a labyrinth and find the treasure chest with the light in it.
However, there are dragons patrolling the dungeon (along set paths), if they
come within 3 paces of you they will spot you and cause you to re-start the
labyrinth from the beginning. There are three treasure chest throughout the
labyrinth that may contain the light. The chest that contains the light is
random but the labyrinth and dragon patrols are always the same. Follow the
correct route (which is fairly obvious) and Wait out the patrols until it's
safe to proceed. The labyrinth and patrols seem to be the same every time and
the light always seems to be in the third chest you check.
05: Path of Light (Medieval Dungeon) - Short (x2)
- Once you walk into the challenge area a light will appear and take a specific
path through the maze. You must follow the path it took exactly to pass the
Challenge. If you stray off the path you will need to start over (and watch
the light travel the whole path again).
06: Labrynith of Darkness (Medieval Dungeon) - Short (x2)
- Find the chest with the light in it within the labyrinth. The tough part is
that the screen is mostly dark and you must light candles to increase your
viewing area. Candles are found throughout the labyrinth and can be lit for a
limited amount of time before they go out again. Not too hard if you stick to
it. The chest is always in the same location and the general layout of the
labyrinth is always the same. However, the placement of the small boulders
changes each time through, the way through is not always the same.
07: Scavenger Hunt (Medieval Dungeon) - Short (x3)
- You have to find a key buried in the ground and are told how many paces away
it is. Walk that many steps (in any direction) and try digging. Either you
will find the key or you will be told how far away it is from your current
location. Sometimes (usually) a monster will drop down and fight you if you
guess wrong. Just keep on going and eventually you will (hopefully) narrow
down the search area. I guess you could use grid paper to try to do it
logically, but I don't think it's really needed.
08: March of Souls (Medieval Dungeon) - Short (x3)
- A line of 9-10 characters will quickly walk by and you will be asked 3
questions afterwards about their order. Pretty tough, especially considering
you need to start over from the beginning (and a different line-up) if you
get a question wrong. There can be the following characters in the line:
dwarf, beaver, pirate, mermaid, dancer, faerie, bat, elf, dragon, and a
broom. Though not all of those will appear in every line-up and sometimes
there will be doubles (or more). What I did was use abbreviations for each
character type (such as "dw" for dwarf, "ba" for bat, "dr" for dragon, and so
on), then as they walked by I quickly wrote down each of them using these
abbreviations.
09: The Bat Cave (Medieval Dungeon)- Long (x7)
- Start on the left side and walk all the way to the right to the cloaked
figure. Remember how many bats you saw total, how many were moving, and how
many were not moving. The cloaked figure will ask you a random question about
the bats. Answer correctly and you complete the challenge, fail and it just
resets you to the left again. Pretty easy.
10: Bat-a-bing! (Ancient Catacomb) - Short (x2)
- A line of bats circles the perimiter of a large room and you must make them
go into a specific area (shown at the start of the Challenge). Whenever the
bats run into you they'll change their path to go at a right angle from you
towards the middle of the room (no matter which side of the room where they
run into you). From here they will take a RIGHT turn at any obstacle that
they run into besides you (such as rocks). You have to figure out which path
would lead them to the goal area based on the re-directs along the way. Not
too difficult, it's just time consuming trying to figure out the right path
(especially if you sacrificed your Dash command).
11: Trial by Fire (Ancient Catacomb) - Short (x3)
- A group of 20 candles are in a room, 5x4. You must light them all to solve
the pattern. However, lighting one will affect all others in a plus shape
from that point as well. If they're lit then they'll become unlit, and vice
versa. The trick here is that the candles already lit when you start the
Challenge are VERY important to solving the puzzle! Figure out the solution
based on these candles. If you're having problems you can try using pennies
arranged in the same manner as the candles, using heads for "lit" and tails
for "unlit", and try to find a solution flipping them over as you would
interact with the candles in the puzzle. I found it not too difficult if you
do it this way. Be warned, there is one variation of this Challenge that
cannot be solved! If the initial candles lit are the one in the first row/
first column and the one in the third row/first column (only 2 candles lit)
then it CAN'T be solved. Exit the room to reset the Challenge to one of the
different variations.
12: Fire Drill (Ancient Catacomb) - Average (x5)
- A group of 16 candles, 4x4, are in a room. Above each column of candles is a
tablet and beside each row of candles is also a tablet. Each tablet refers to
the column/row directly below/beside it. You must read the tablets to
determine which candles should be lit (and which should be unlit) through
deduction. Simply walk up to each candle and lite it (or unlite it) by
pressing "X". There are no penalties for the wrong combinations, but only the
correct combination will solve the Challenge.
13: Specter Inspector (Ancient Catacomb) - Average (x5)
- Several characters ("phantoms") will appear and walk off the top of the
screen. When they come back you must guess which one is different among them
from when they first appeared. This goes on for 5 rounds. At first it's only
which character is completely different then it moves on to the direction
they're facing. If you guess right you progress to the next round. If you
guess wrong you have to fight a battle that could be tough depending on what
abilities you sacrificed. You just have to retry the current round though if
you guess wrong, not start all over again (thank goodness), the characters
will even be the same but the one that changes will be different. The first
round has 5 characters and you need to guess which character's different, the
second round has 10 characters and you need to guess which one is a different
character again, the third round has 3 characters and you need to guess which
one is facing a different direction, the fourth round has 5 characters and
direction facing again, the fifth and final round has 10 characters and you
need to guess the different direction again OR which one is a different
character (could be either). This Challenge can be difficult if you have a
bad memory, but just keep at it and you'll get it through the process of
elimination.
14: Beat the Heat (Primeval Pit) - Average (x5)
- You must walk over a bridge and pass through each of the points of light
along the way to pass this challenge. The catch is that as soon as you step
on a tile it will disappear a split-second later. You must walk quickly
across the tiles to the lights along a single path and make it to the other
side. If you fall in the magma you'll need to start over again. Not too hard
if you plan your path out before starting across.
15: Thunder Alley (Primeval Pit) - Long (x6)
- Make your way to the center of the maze to find the chest with the light in
it. However, whenever the screen flashes it means that lightning will strike
you after you take your next 5 steps. Stand near a lightning rod to remain
safe from the lightning, otherwise you will be brought back to the beginning
of the maze. Not too tricky, just make sure you walk around a lightning rod
until lightning strikes whenever you see a flash, and then go directly to the
next closest rod while working your way to the chest.
16: Mechanical Madness (Primeval Pit) - Long (x6)
- Push the robots out of the way by talking to them and figure out a way
through the maze. If you get stuck talk to the red robot to reset the maze.
Not too difficult and you get lots of time for trial and error.
17: Stone Trap (Primeval Pit) - Long (x6)
- Press the wall switches to make specific rocks disappear and clear your path.
However, rocks will only disappear for 10 steps from when you pressed the
switch. You must figure out the correct sequence of switches to get to the
exit. To add a little more temptation to the labyrinth there are treasure
chests scattered throughout the maze that contain some stat enhancing items
(and junk too). Usually the chests bring you to a dead end though and you
must talk to a robot to reset yourself to the beginning of the maze. You get
lots of time for this one so it's worth trying to get the chests, in my
opinion. Once you get a chest once it will be empty the next time you come to
this Challenge as well, so they are one-time only.
18: Flower Sale (Primeval Pit) - Long (x7)
- You are given a specific amount of Gil to spend and must spend it all to pass
this Challenge, no more and no less. To spend the Gil you must buy Flowers
from the various characters walking around the area. The best way to do this
Challenge is to talk to everyone and write down how much each character is
selling for, then figure out who you need to buy from to spend the exact
amount of Gil. There are usually multiples of the same character but you can
figure out which is which by how much they're selling for when it comes time
to buy. Tip: You can check your Gil in the regular menu screen to see if
you've spent all your designated Gil, even if you're capped for Gil (since
you'll technically lose money here).
19: Breakout (Primeval Pit) - Long (x6)
- Press the floor switches to make specific rocks disappear and find a way
through the puzzle. Each switch makes certain rocks disappear/re-appear, and
some even affect rocks further along in the maze (which is the trick to
solving it in the end). Keep trying and eventually you'll get the right
combination. If it looks like you're stuck near the end try going back to
switches near the beginning to see if they affect the rocks near the end.
20: Mirror-image (Primeval Pit) - Very Long (x8)
- You must mimic the robot's movements around the square. You are give some
slack in this, so just stay clam and copy the robot the split second after it
moves (instead of trying to guess which way it's going to). There are 4
rounds of this, each increasingly harder and longer. If you mess up you only
have to restart the current round, thankfully. The last one is pretty long
though. Tip: Turn off auto-dashing if you have it on (and didn't sacrifice
Dash), it makes this much easier to just move at normal speed. This one can
be a real pain if you run out of time and have random battles start
interrupting you.
21: Marching Orders (Original Chaos) - Average (x4)
- You must march in time with a group of soldiers. Go to the empty spot and
move when they do and stop when they do too. They move all the way to the
right first (stopping once or twice) and then all the way to the left
(stopping many times). If you touch another soldier or move when they're
stopped you fail and need to start all over again. Turning up the volume so
you can hear the "whistle" to start marching is the only tip I can really
give for this one. It is a very difficult Challenge depending on how good
your rythm and reflexes are. Good luck if you happen to go over the time
limit and random monsters start attacking you during the march! This one is
a PSP breaker...
22: Twin Statues (Original Chaos) - Short (x3)
- 4 sets of statues are present in the room. You can interact with the statues
by either turning them or pushing them. You must make each set of matching
statues face and push them up next to each other in order to make them
disappear. Once they're all gone you'll pass the Challenge. If you get a
statue stuck you can talk to one of the robots to reset their position.
23: Note for Note (Original Chaos) - Average (x4)
- Eight coloured buttons will play and you need to walk over them afterwards in
the same order they played. There are 3 rounds to this Challenge. A classic
memory game. If you're having problems then just try thinking of the buttons
in a numbered order (1-8 from left to right) and then scribble down the
buttons that light up using these numbers.
24: The Path to Peace (Original Chaos) - Average (x4)
- A robot will try to find the chest with the "light" inside it. Despite what
the tablet says you don't actually lead the robot to the light, instead it
follows a pre-determined path and you must clear it for the robot before it
reaches an obstacle. Obstacles include push blocks and dragon characters. You
must move the push blocks out of the way along the robot's path and defeat
the dragons (by 'talking' to them to initiate a battle). It's a little tricky
but eventually you'll figure it out.
25: Slay or Be Slain (Original Chaos) - Average (x5)
- Kill the specific type and number of dragons. Based on how they appear as
their overworld character (on the map), NOT the Red Dragon you fight after
"talking" to them. There are three determining attributes: number of horns
(none, 2, or 4), length of tail (short or long), and length of wings (short
or long). It's hard to tell them apart and if you fail you have to start over
again. You must complete 3 rounds to beat the Challenge. Note that fleeing
from a battle with one of the wrong dragons will still count as "hurting it"
and cause you to fail. I find that taking quick notes of the dragon(s) you're
supposed to be hunting helps a lot, such as using "2-lw-st x3" to represent
needing to kill 3 dragons with 2 horns/short tail/long wings, or "0-sw-st x1"
to represent needing to kill 1 dragon with no horns/short tail/short wings. I
found that listing them in order from horns-wings-tail helped me to better
logically solve the puzzle when identifying the dragons, since it's then
using a top-down approach to their appearance (as opposed to the way the guy
tells you in horn-tail-wings order). Just pay close attention, keep a tally
of dragons you've killed, walk around the room quickly and you shouldn't have
too many problems.
26: Labyrinth of Trials (Original Chaos) - Very Long (x8)
- Make your way to the end of a complex puzzle maze. Along the way you'll have
to push robots the correct direction, press a button to remove a force field,
and press wall switches to make rocks temporarily disappear, all in order to
proceed to the end. To top it all off you will be attacked by random monsters
in this Challenge, regardless of your time. Think things through carefully
before doing anything and you should make it through this one eventually. If
you push a robot the wrong way and get it stuck talk to it to reset the maze
(and yourself at the beginning of it). For the rocks you'll probably need to
use a combination of switches to get to where you need to go in time, work it
out logically. The end of the maze isn't marked at all but you'll know when
you get there because the Seal will open. Having your Flee command helps a
lot here for saving time...
27: Labyrinth of Disasters (Netherworld Crypt) - Long (x7)
- Walk around a dark room lighting candles and avoiding robots. Touching the
robots will make you fight a Warmech. Lighting the candles will make the
circle of light around you grow bigger. The candles will go out over time as
well. Once you've lit enough candles you will be able to exit the room (at
the bottom of the area) and break the Seal (not sure how many, but I don't
think you need to light them all). To complicate things even more you will
often see a flash on the screen, which means 5 of your steps later you will
be struck by lightning, sending you back to the start of the maze (but not
reseting it). The way to avoid this is to stay near a lightning rod when the
lightning strikes, which will save you. The only trick here is to stay near
those lightning rods whenever you see a flash. You can walk back and forth
around one to travel the 5 steps and force the lightning to strike there
while your safe.
28: Step by Step (Netherworld Crypt) - Long (x7)
- Travel from one side of the room all the way to the other side (on the
right). The only problem is that the room is full of robots that move as you
move, and if you touch one you'll enter into a tough battle with a Warmech
(2000 HP and they use Nuke). The good thing though is that they drop Genji
Armor (Knight & Ninja) and give great experience, so if you're have the time
feel free to try fighting a few, there's no penalty for fighting them except
for delaying you. Probably the fastest place to level up in the game.
29: Trick Statues (Netherworld Crypt) - Long (x7)
- Similar to the "Twin Statues" (22) Challenge, except this time there are
monsters walking around the area too. However, the trick is that the monsters
only move when you move. If you touch a monster you will have to fight a
"tough" battle. Touch each set of statues together and facing each other to
make them disappear (along with all monsters that match that statue type).
There are 3 sets of statues.
30: Traveling Salesman (Netherworld Crypt) - Very Long (x8)
- A parade of characters walk by and then you are given an "allowance" of Gil
to buy flowers from the ones that walked by. You must spend all the Gil, no
more and no less. When you talk to the characters that walked by they will
offer to sell you flowers, which is how you spend your Gil. However, one of
the characters offering to sell you flowers did not walk by and buying their
flowers will cause you to be short Gil. Also, there are many other characters
walking around the area that did not walk by, talking to one of them will
make you fight a battle against a single Revenant (quick and easy). The best
way to do this is to talk to all the characters and make a note of who is
selling flowers and for how much, without buying any. After you've talked to
them all add up all the amounts and then subtract how much Gil you were given
to spend, the difference should equal exactly how much one of the sellers was
asking for, indicating that one is the liar and the one you shouldn't buy
from. Now you can go buy flowers from the rest. Once you're done go talk to
the guy to complete the Challenge. Tip: You can check your Gil in the regular
menu screen to see if you've spent all your designated Gil, even if you're
capped for Gil (since you'll technically lose money here). Tip 2: It seems to
always be the same 8 characters: red mage - purple outfit, black mage - black
outfit, white mage - red hair, peasant girl - green hair/orange dress,
dancer - blonde/red dress, punk - blue hair/purple outfit, elf - white hat,
sage - blue hat... all of them sell flowers and one is always lying, use this
tip to avoid fighting everyone (if it's correct).
Chronodia is the last boss of the Labyrinth of Time, found on the "Space in
Time" floor. You reach the boss after you have beaten a certain number of
floors (around 7-11). There are 8 versions of Chronodia (No. 196-203 in the
Beastiary) and the difficulty increases as its version number gets higher (196
is easiest, 203 is hardest). The version you face is determined by the order
and combination of Seals that you break along the way.
There are many possible combinations, but the following are proven paths to
each version:
B = Blue Seal, R = Red Seal
196 = R, R, R, R, R, R, R
197 = B, R, R, R, R, R, R
198 = B, B, R, R, R, R, R
199 = B, R, R, R, R, R, B, B, R
200 = B, B, B, R, R, R, R, R
201 = B, R, B, B, R, R, R, R, B, R
202 = B, B, B, B, B, B, R
203 = B, B, B, B, B, B, B
(Thanks goes to someone on the forums for this list, sorry I didn't get your
name.)
As the version of Chronodia increases it gains more "attachments", gets better
stats, and becomes much tougher. Here are the details for each version:
I'm not sure, but it seems that every version has access to all its abilities.
The following is a list of all the ones I've seen Chronodia use so far (and it
has a lot of them):
Melee Attack... Very strong attack.
Seal........... Locks one command (like sacrificing), can only have one sealed
at a time, wears off after about 4-5 rounds.
Slow........... Casts Slow on your party.
Stop........... Casts Stop on your party.
Ink............ Casts Darkness on your party.
Kill........... Casts Death on a single target.
Warp........... Casts Death on your party.
Haste.......... Increases Chronodia's number of attacks, pretty much doubling
its melee attack damage (and causing instant death to whoever
it attacks). Not sure if you can cast Slow to conteract this...
doubt it though since it's resistant to Time.
Firaga......... Medium Fire damage to your party.
Thundaga....... Medium Lightning damage to your party.
Blizzaga....... Medium Ice damage to your party.
Thunderbolt.... Medium Lightning damage to your party.
Ice Storm...... Medium Ice damage to your party.
Poison Gas..... Weak damage to your party. Probably casts Poison too, but not
sure since it's never affected me.
Comet.......... Weak damage to your party.
Flare.......... High damage to your party.
While Chronodia is much tougher than Omega and Shinryu, the strategies used to
fight it are pretty much the same:
- Make sure you use the Pot in the room before the battle to clear all status
and restore HP and MP.
- If your level's low or Chronodia's using Haste don't bother buffing your
party, you'll just be killed in one shot anyway. Concentrate on keeping
people alive in this case. Otherwise, Saber/Haste/Temper/Speed Drink/Strength
Tonic are great for your melee members and Protera/Invisira/Blink/Protect
Drink/NulAll are great protection for everyone. All of these can be achieved
on everyone using magic and/or items.
- Always keep your HP up! Use Healaga if you can, otherwise use a Rune Staff or
Potion (X-Pots if you got 'em). You don't want a Flare wiping your whole
party!
- If someone dies bring them back to life as soon as possible using Full-Life
if you can, otherwise use a Phoenix Down or Sage's Staff. More people alive
is more targets and more options for doing things!
- The higher versions of Chronodia have lots of Defense, severly lowering the
damage that melee attacks do. If you don't buff up these characters they will
be almost useless for attacking. Magic (non-elemental) seems to do the best
against it. If you can't buff your melee characters (because they die too
often) then at least have them use items to attack with magic (such as the
Judgment Staff and Lightbringer) or heal.
- Remember, you can attack and heal using either commands, using magic, or
using items. Keep a cool head through the Seals and you should do fine. If
there are no other options (which should never happen!) you can always use
Defend though.
- After Chronodia's first Seal wears off it's completely predictable when the
next one will come. When the Seal wears off you get one round of all your
commands and then the next round Chronodia will do another Seal. Use this to
your advantage! Since Seal does no damage you know you absolutely won't need
to use any healing spells, meaning you basically get a predictable "free"
round for attacking with everyone.
Once you beat Chronodia and leave the Labyrinth you will be shown how long it
took you to clear the entire place, how many battles you fought, and then given
a title (such as "Ultimate Seraph", "Ultimate Master of All", "Cactuar",
"Ultimate Archnemesis", "Ultimate Lord of Souls"). Not sure what exactly
determines the title, but it's likely a combination of time taken, battles
fought, and the version of Chronodia defeated.
After you beat the Labyrinth of Time the first time (and save!) you will unlock
the Time Chamber from the Extra menu on the title screen. The Time Chamber will
allow you to replay the floors that you successfully beat in the Labyrinth of
Time (by opening the Blue Seal). You are given a flat 10 minutes to beat each
one and do not have to sacrifice any abilities in the Time Chamber. You cannot
save after beating a floor again, so any additions to the Beastiary or levels
gained are lost. Press "O" + "Select" to give up during any stage. Can you
unlock them all (and remain sane)?
Version 1.1
- Fixed a few grammar mistakes
- Details: Added note about being able to fight bosses multiple times
- Rewards: Added Red Wizard to classes for Master Shield (thanks Ari86)
- Challenges: Moved tip about unsolvable variation from #12 to #11
- Challenges: Added number of Sacrifices to #14
Version 1.0
- Fixed a few grammar mistakes
- Added more info to the "gifts" that the cloaked figure gives you
- Added a Tip about unlocking Challenges vs. fighting a version of Chronodia
- Added a Tip about a path to Primeval Pit floors
- Challenge #08: Added Sacrifces/Time
- Challenge #24: Added Name
- Challenge #18: Unlocked and added
