------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Final Fantasy V Low-Level Guide
Version 2.1 (9/17/2001)
by Bob the Almighty ([email protected])
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Table of Contents:
 I.) Date/Version History
II.) Introduction
III.) Basic Tips and Strategies
IV.) How You Can Help
 V.) Walkthrough
VI.) Disclaimer/Copyright
VII.) Credits/Thanks

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I.) DATE/VERSION HISTORY
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Version 2.1 - 9/19/2001
  I corrected a few errors and added the fist part of the world three
walkthrough, which leads up to the pyramid.

Version 2.0 - 9/17/2001
  The walkthrough for the second world is now complete.

Version 1.1 - 9/15/2001
  Added some more detail for the first world's walkthrough and fixed some
  spacing errors.  Also started on the walkthrough of the second world,
  which covers the game up to the town of Kelb.

Version 1.0 - 9/14/2001
   This was the first version of this guide.  Pretty much covers the world in
   its entirety.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
II.) INTRODUCTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Final Fantasy V is a unique game in that the game can be completed at insanely
low levels.  How low you ask?  Levels about six and seven.  It may seem
impossible, but it CAN be done, and if you follow this guide, it WILL be done.

A low-level game is not as hard as it may sound.  This guide will contain
strategies for all the major bosses as well as a general walkthrough to help
you on your quest for Final Fantasy V l33t-ism (elitism for those of you not in
the know).

A word of advice though, you shouldn't even attempt a low-level game until you
have completed the game at least once normally.  A low-level game can be quite
tedious, especially if you don't know your way around.  For that reason I
recommend that you don't even try until you have finished the game once, twice
preferably.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
III.) BASIC TIPS AND STRATEGIES
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

* The back row was put there for a reason, so use it.  In the first couple of
boss fights, you can pull through while in the front row, but I'd suggest the
back row for any boss fight that doesn't require physical attacks.

* I will cite the '!Guard/Cover' combo quite a bit.  Instead of explaining what
it is every time, I'll explain it here.  Basically, you want to make one
character a knight (I'll use Bartz for this example).  Next you want to make
sure your other characters are in near-fatal status (low HP and limping).
Knights will 'Cover' members who are at low-HP (providing that the attack
wasn't a magic attack), thus during the boss fight Bartz will take all physical
attacks.  Now what you want to do is have Bartz use the '!Guard' command.
!Guard reduces all physical damage to zero.  Since Bartz will automatically
'Cover' his allies (all who are near-fatal), he will take the hit and since
Bartz is !Guarding, he will take zero damage.  Basically, Bartz will protecting
the party (Cover) and taking zero damage while doing so (!Guard).  That is the
'!Guard/Cover' combo.

* Throughout the guide I will be telling you to 'break' rods during boss
fights.  It's really quite simple.  What you do is go to the Item command and
hit up to the Right/Left hand menu and click on the rod and hit the accept
button.  Doing so will 'break' the rod, but release a level 3 attack spell at
the same time (i.e., when you break an Ice/Fire/Lightning Rod; you'll release
an Ice/Fire/Bolt 3 attack respectfully).  Since you 'break' the rod, it
disappears from your inventory afterwards.  If you need to break more rods in a
battle, go to the Item list, click on the rod in question, and then go all the
way up to the Right/Left hand menu and equip the rod in the right hand.  Then
just click on it and hit the accept button and you'll break your new rod as
well.

* Restoring your health might appear to be somewhat a problem.  Since your
levels are low, you can't cast good healing spells such as Cure 3 or Whitewind.
Instead you're stuck with a crappy Cure 1 and Cure 3, but it should do the
trick for a while (given your low HP amount).  You can steal Tonics and Potions
from almost every enemy, so items are always a good choice.  During battle, the
Healing Staff proves quite valuable as well.  Form a White Mage and equip them
with the Healing Staff you find in Tycoon Castle.  This will cause your White
Mage to heal any target he/she attacks.  So if someone is low on HP, you can
just have your White Mage attack that ally, thus refilling his or her HP.

* Money will be extremely hard to come across during a low-level game since you
are essentially not fighting random battles.  Because of this, refrain from
spending your money on equipment and magic.  The only magic I advise you to buy
are the White Magic spells 'Cure' and 'Antdot' and the Black Magic spell
'Bolt.'  As for equipment, it will prove to be almost useless.  A Gold Armor
won't be doing you much good at level 5 anyway.  Your money is best used on
elemental rods and the Ninja's Fire/Water/Lgtning Skills, as rods and skills
will be your best method of defeating a lot of the bosses in the game.

* Don't be afraid of a majority of the bosses' attacks.  When you first played
through the game, you might have noticed Ifrit's Blaze taking off 120 HP or so.
You might wonder how could a level 4/5 character survive such an attack.
Well, the truth of the matter is that a lot of attacks are based on
percentages.  Sure when you fought Ifrit last time, he was talking off 120 HP
with his Blaze attack, but that's because you had over 400 HP!  Since it's
based on a percentage, as opposed to a direct amount, that very same attack may
only take off 20 or so HP on a level 5 character.  As you go through the game,
you'll notice that it's like this with a lot of bosses.

* Beside boss fights, you'll se that I list the characters, their levels, and
their jobs.  You don't have to match up your jobs to mine, as it really doesn't
matter.  Just try to have all the jobs I have.  If I have Knight by Bartz and
Blue Mage by Reina, feel free to make Reina a Blue Mage and Bartz a Knight.
Basically, just don't take my party line-up to heart.

* It shouldn't be mentioned, but running away is the best away to avoid
leveling-up.  That being said, run away from every fight unless noted.  In the
beginning you will just have to hold down the R1/L1 buttons (or R/L if you're
playing the ROM) but you should strive to have each of your characters either
learn the Thief's '!Flee' ability or the Ninja's !Dustb' ability, as they both
make escaping from battle a lot easier.

* There's a way of fighting battles without earning Experience (or Gold for
that matter).  You can use the Trainer's '!Catch' skill to capture weak
monsters, thus killing them.  Note that monsters need to be at one-eighth of
their total life to !Catch them, unless you are equipped with the
'KornagoGourd' relic, in which they will need to be at one-half life.  A good
way to !Catch enemies is to have a Blue Mage (or someone else with !Blue) cast
the 'Doom Claw' spell, which will bring the enemy to single digits.

* This basically is in line with the above tactic, but after you acquire the
Trainer class, you can start picking up Blue Magic spells from enemies.  Either
!Control the enemy and have him target a Blue Mage (or someone with 'Learning')
or just wait it out.  After your Blue Mage has been hit, revive him or her if
needed and attack with the 'Doom Claw' Blue magic spell and then !Catch the
enemy.  If there's more than one enemy in the battle, you will have to !Catch
them all.

* There's a couple of good pieces of equipment you should look out for in a
low-level game.  First off is the Hair Ornament; it will cut the amount of
Magic Points used for spells in half.  The Elf's Cloak relic is also very
important; it increases a character's chance of evading an attack (with such
low HP, almost any attack can kill you).  The Ribbon is useful in any game,
low-level or not since it protects your status.  Protect Rings are pretty
useful in that they put you into 'Regen' status, but with such low HP most
physical attacks and kill you in one blow.  Finally the Flame Shield and Ice
Shield are both helpful, as are the Flame Ring and Coral Ring, since they all
help absorb and defend against certain elements.  Still, above all that, the
Elf's Cloak and Hair Ornament are the most useful so they should take priority
over everything else.

* Try to keep a good supply of Phoenix Downs and Tonics with you.  Tonics are
no problem to come across, but Phoenix Downs carry a heafty price tag of 1,000
Gold.  Once you get the airship in the first world you can buy normal items in
Rikks village for half-price, so that's the best time to get some extra Phoenix
Downs.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IV.) HOW YOU CAN HELP
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This guide is by no means a 'definite' guide.  Just because I list one strategy
does not mean that there are not others.  Because of that, I'm encouraging you
to send in your own strategies.  There's more than one way to skin a cat and in
the world of Final Fantasy V is no different.  The more methods this guide has
to killing bosses the better.  Not everyone plays the same way, so giving the
gamer a larger variety of options will help make this a better guide.  I'll
give credit where credit is due (providing that you were the first one to
inform me of a specific strategy).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
V.) WALKTHROUGH
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This walkthrough isn't intended on being the most precise and in-depth
walkthrough around, it's only meant to help you finish the game at low levels.
For that reason, I won't be pointing out where every chest is or when you
should learn new blue magic spells.  First off, not every chest should be
opened (as many hold experience-giving monsters inside them that wish to level
you up).   Secondly, obtaining blue magic is rather pointless since you have to
kill all the enemies to learn the spell (which results in experience as well)
and chances are, you won't even have enough Magic Points to even use the spell.

This walkthrough will be straightforward, it will tell you what you need to do
in a specific area and that's pretty much it.  I take it that anyone even
interested in a low-level game has played through the game at least once, so I
won't be pointing out where the various towns and the like are.
Lastly, I won't go into things such as item lists, spell charts, ability list,
or monster data in this guide.  This guide isn't meant to be a tell-all about
the game, in fact, far from it.  There's plenty of other great FAQs and
Walkthroughs over at Game FAQs that cover those things.
With that said, on with the walkthrough!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WORLD ONE: BARTZ'S WORLD
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-A: OPENING SCENE
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The game starts with a king leaving his daughter behind, a lonely traveler
accompanied by his chocobo, and a mysterious meteorite crashing into the
ground.  When the opening scene has finished, you should head towards that very
same mysterious meteorite and before you know it, our nameless hero is already
thrown into battle!

After battling the goblins that attack Reina, you'll gain some experience
(might as well suck it down, you don't have much of a choice) and meet up with
Reina and Galuf.  After talking to them, they'll head their separate ways.
Before you leave the meteorite, pick up the Phoenix Down hidden towards the
right of the screen.

Follow Reina and Galuf to the mountains towards the west on Boko, you'll enter
two sets of battles with more goblins.  Afterwards, Bartz will join Reina and
Galuf on their quest.

Enter the cave that follows.  Run away from every fight and pick-up any chests
along the way.  Once you reach the pirate's hideout, jump aboard Faris's ship
and try to cast off.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-B: THE WIND SHRINE
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After trying to take over the pirate's ship, you'll find yourself prisoners of
Faris and her band of pirates.  A short scene will follow, then you will be
given the option to have someone pilot the ship to the Wind Shrine or not.  If
you chose no, you will get to go where ever.  You should do that and
immediately head to the town of Tule.

Pick up all the various items in the town, most of which are hidden, they
shouldn't be too hard to find.  Don't open the chest in the second floor of the
Beginner's Hall, as a monster guards it.  You'll be back before you know it to
claim your Leather Shoes anyway.  Don't worry about buying any weapons, armors,
or items, instead hit the magic shop and buy 'Cure,' 'Antdot,' and 'Bolt.'
Make sure you play the piano in the pub while in town.  When you finish your
rounds, leave Tule and head towards the Wind Shrine.

Take to the Chancellor to the left and pick-up your five Tonics from one of the
soldiers there.  Head towards the boss picking up the Leather Cap and Broad
Sword along the way.  Once you get to the top, prepare to fight the game's
first boss, Wingrapter.

BOSS: Wingrapter - Bartz (level 2, Bare), Faris (level 3, Bare), Reina (level
1, Bare), Galuf (level 1, Bare)

Pretty easy stuff. Just attack, you should have at least two Broadswords. Just
remember not to attack once the Wingrapter raises its wings, which is usually
after you get in about 5-6 hits. Shouldn't be too much of a problem. Its Air
Wing only takes off a certain percent of your life, so you should be able to
finish him before anyone dies.

After the boss, head up to the next screen (there's a Staff hidden towards the
bottom right of the screen), up again, and you will receive the crystal shards
of the Wind Crystal, along with your first set of Jobs.  Once you have the
shards, you can leave the shrine via the warp in the back.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-C: SHIP GRAVEYARD
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You might one to take this time to form a group of thieves and steal some
tonics from the enemies around the Wind Shrine.  After you steal all you can,
just run away from the fight.  The Nut Eaters and Killer Bees are pretty easy
to steal from as well.  If you run low of life, just restore your HP/MP with
the pot inside the Wind Shrine.  You might want to do this for a while, to get
a steady supply of Tonics.

When you're bored of stealing Tonics, head back to Tule, stay the night with
Zok, and head out.  Once Faris rejoins you, make all your character's Blue
Mages, go back to the Beginner's Hall and fight the monster-in-a-box.  It will
be a Goblin.  Just wait until after he uses 'GobPunch' on one of your Blue
Mages, then finish him off.  Then fight around so that Reina and Galuf are
level 2 (exactly two fights with two Steel Bats [located in the cave leading to
the pirate's hideout] will earn you 8 Exp, which is just enough, plus you can
learn the Blue Magic spell 'Red Feast' as well).  Then turn everyone into a
Black Mage, place everyone in the back row, and stop by the Wind Shrine again
to refill your HP/MP.

When you're done, go to the Torna Canal.  Run from every fight and then
encounter the boss of the canal.

BOSS: Karl Boss - Bartz (level 2, Black Mage), Faris (level 3, Black Mage),
Reina (level 2, Black Mage), Galuf (level 2, Black Mage)

Once again, pretty basic. Just have everyone in the back row and attack with
Bolt (which you should have bought in Tule, along with Cure). About 6 or so
Bolts should do Karl Boss in nicely.

After the fight, you'll find yourself in the Ship Graveyard.  Go through the
level, picking up all the various items, and work your way to Siren.

BOSS: Siren - Bartz (level 2, Blue Mage), Faris (level 3, White Mage), Reina
(level 2, Blue Mage), Galuf (level 2, Blue Mage)

Providing that you have learnt the Blue magic spell 'Goblin Punch' in Tule
village (from the monster-in-a-box in the Beginner's Hall) and you followed my
suggested levels (at is, everyone but Faris should be level 2), you should have
no problem. Just constantly cast 'Goblin Punch' for about 240 damage each. I
decided to make Faris a White Mage in case I needed to heal, she starts at
level 3 anyway, so her Goblin Punch wouldn't have been as strong as the others.
Siren should fall after four Goblin Punches from level 2 characters.

(Thanks to AWJ for pointing out at Goblin Punch w/level 2 characters is the
best way to defeat Siren)

While you are in the Ship Graveyard, there's a somewhat tedious way to pick-up
some Ethers, which sell for good money.

Form a party of four thieves and steal Ethers from the UndeadRusks
(LumberBeasts if you're playing the Anthology translation). Ethers sell of 375
apiece, and you really need the cash for the extra Fire, Ice, and Lightning
Rods (unless you want to be stuck casting Fire, Ice, and Bolt 1 the entire
game).  For every two Ethers you sell, you'll have enough cash to purchase one
elemental rod from Karnak.

(Thanks to AWJ for telling me about stealing Ethers in the ship graveyard)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-D: NORTH MOUNTAIN
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After you feel you have stolen enough Ethers, leave the Ship Graveyard and head
toward the town of Kerwin.  Take to the lady in a yellow/green dress near the
docks and then the person in the room above the pub.  You can pick up 1000 Gold
in the pub (you'll have to go through a false wall and check a jar) as well as
an Ice Rod hidden in some crates that the bottom part of the dock-area.  Also
don't forget to play the second piano.

When you're down in Kerwin, exit and head towards North Mountain.  Just run
away from all the fights and avoid the poison followers and you are set.  Save
and the save point (after all, it seems like a reasonable place to save) and
prepare to fight the next boss.

BOSS: Magissa - Bartz (level 2), Faris (level 3), Reina (level 2), Galuf (level
2)

Specific jobs really don't matter here, just make sure one of your characters
is a Black Mage equipped with the Ice Rod you find in Kerwin. All you have to
do is 'break' the Ice Rod and it will cast the Ice 3 spell and kill Magissa in
a single blow before she can even summon Faltzer. However, Magissa will usually
attack first and kill off one of your characters with an elemental spell. As
long as she doesn't kill off your Black Mage, you're fine. Whether you want to
use a Phoenix Down on the fallen character is up to you.

After Magissa is defeated, you'll reach the top of the mountain where a scene
will take place.  After that, you will get your dragon.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-E: THE WATER CRYSTAL
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

At this point, it would be wise to go to Tycoon Castle and pick-up all the
goodies there, most importantly the Healing Staff.

Now you should head towards the town/castle of Walz.  Loot them for all you can
(which isn't much) and go speak with the King of Walz.  You should also buy two
Long Swords.  Before heading to the Walz Tower, fly back to the Wind Shrine and
get form a Knight and beat down the other three characters to near-fatal
status.  The best strategy for the upcoming boss is the '!Guard/Cover' combo I
listed above, so you need to weaken your characters prior to the battle.  Once
everyone but your !Guarding Knight is near-fatal, ride the dragon to Walz Tower
and save your game outside.  Make two of your remaining there characters a
Knight (give your non-Guarding Knights the Long Swords you bought) and the last
a White Mage with a Healing Staff.

Enter the tower and run away from all the fights, if anyone dies, just do a
soft-rest/reload save state (whatever floats your boat).  Pick up all the
treasures and save your game at the save point.  Go up and fight the renegade
Garula.

BOSS: Garula - Bartz (level 2, Knight), Faris (level 3, Knight), Reina (level
2, White Mage), Galuf (level 2, Knight)

This is a fairly easy battle, but also fairly long. Use the '!Guard/Cover'
combo in this battle, I made Bartz my !Guarding Knight (make sure you don't
give your best sword to your !Guarding Knight, as your other Knights will need
it to do better damage).  Throughout the rest of the battle, Bartz should
!Guard/Cover for zero damage while your white mage uses tonics/Cure on Bartz to
keep his HP up (one of Garula's attacks, Charge, will cause HP leak on Bartz)
and your remaining Knights attack with their best weapons (be sure to move them
to the front row if they are still in the back). If you picked up the Heal
Staff in Tycoon Castle, you can just give it to your White Mage and have
him/her constantly attack Bartz to refill his HP. It should be a fairly lengthy
battle, but nothing that you shouldn't be able to handle.  After Garula falls,
get the Water Crystal shards.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-F: THE STEAM SHIP
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you are patient, you can earn some AP outside the meteor near Walz.  You can
fight wild Garulas there, they won't put up much of a fight so you can defeat
them for 1 AP each.  It's probably because I'm lazy, but I don't think the
amount of AP earned is worth the amount of time Garulas take to kill.  Besides,
there's not really any skill that you need right now anyway.

Enter the meteorite near Walz and make your way towards the town of Karnak.  Go
the weapon shop and try to buy an Ice Rod (you'll purchase one for an insanely
low price).  You'll get thrown in jail/released before you know it.  Head back
to Karnak and buy more Ice Rods.  The prices have increased since you were
thrown in jail, so if you didn't get your cheap-ass Ice Rod then, you have to
pay full price now.  A total of four or five Ice Rods should do.  If you have
been stealing Ethers, sell them now.  Like I said above, for every two Ethers
sold you have enough cash to purchase on Ice Rod.

Anyway, once you have at least four Ice Rods, go to the Fire Ship (make sure
everyone's in the back-row, from here on in, just make that a habit).  Like
always, run from every battle and work your way up to the save point and save
your game and prepare for the next boss.

BOSS: Liquid Flame - Bartz (level 2, Blue Mage), Faris (level 3, Blue Mage),
Reina (level 2, White Mage), Galuf (level 2, Blue Mage)

Providing that you spent some time stealing Ethers in the Ship Graveyard, this
battle is going to be extremely easy. I chose to make my characters Blue Mages
instead of Black Mages since they have more Hit Points. Anyway, just equip your
Blue Mages with Ice Rods and your White Mage with the Healing Staff. In my
game, Faris had learnt 'White level 1,' so I gave that to her as a secondary
skill. Be sure to have everyone in the back row during this fight. Anyway, when
the boss is in his 'human' form, just break an Ice Rod and it should do about
1400 damage. He'll counter with 'Flame', which shouldn't take off too much HP,
just have your white mage cast Cure on everyone and it's all good. Sometimes
Liquid Flame will do a physical attack for about 40 or so damage, if that
happens just have your White Mage attack that person so the Healing Staff will
refill his/her HP. Anyway, after the first Ice Rod, the boss will likely change
into his 'hand' form. Whatever you do, don't attack with an Ice Rod. Instead
just keep your HP up (I just had Reina attack those who weren't at full-health)
and simply unequip an Ice Rod from one of your Blue Mages and attack him
bare-handed. This will most likely cause the Liquid Flame to revert back to his
'human' form, so just break a second Ice Rod for another 1400-1500 damage and
guess what... he's dead.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-G: THE FIRE CRYSTAL
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Not much to say for this next part other than run to the room before the save
point and refill your HP/MP.  Then save your game.  You should have about 9:45
or so to get out.  Just run from every fight and avoid all the chests (as they
have monsters in them that will give you experience) except for two.  The very
first chest you see (in the western side of the game dungeon) has 2,000 Gold in
it (no monster either), so grab it and make towards the main hall.  If you take
the eastern hall from there (that leads to the balcony/roof area [for lack of
better term]), you'll see a chest just before the stairs leading to up to the
roof.  It has 2,000 Gold in it as well.  Once you get both chests, exit the
castle via the entrance and do battle with Iron Claw and three Narnaks.

BOSS: Iron Claw - Bartz (level 2, Blue Mage), Faris (level 3, Blue Mage), Reina
(level 2, Blue Mage), Galuf (level 2, White Mage)

After the last boss fight, Reina learnt 'White level 1' so I turned her into a
Blue Mage w/ level 1 White magic as well (the same as Faris). I made Galuf the
resident White Mage w/Healing Staff for his battle so I have three people that
can cast Cure. Make sure you place everyone in the back row (heck, they should
be there already). Anyway, the battle starts out with the Sergeant and three
Karnaks. Just break an Ice Rod to get rid of the Karnaks and have someone cast
'Cure' on the party while waiting for Sergeant to transform into Iron Claw.
Keep your HP up with Cure/Healing Staff until Iron Claw uses 'Doom Claw' on one
of your three Blue Mages (you may want to defend with your characters as well),
then break a second Ice Rod on Iron Claw and he should be finished.

After the battle, you'll gain some experience (115 to be exact...damn Karnaks)
The experience form the Karnaks should level-up your characters some (in my
game both Bartz and Faris leveled-up to 5 while Reina and Galuf leveled-up to
4).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-H: THE LIBRARY OF ANCIENTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

That covers all the bosses up till the Fire Crystal. The next two bosses, Ifrit
and Biblos, are weak against Ice and Fire (respectfully) so you should pick up
some new rods in Karnak. Two chests in Karnak Castle have 2,000 Gold and no
monsters, so that's 4,000 Gold right there if you bothered to pick them up.
You may want to steal Ethers again if you're still short. Lastly, now that the
flames are gone in the town of Karnak, you can pick-up a free Fire Rod on the
walls that surround the city.  Three of each should do, but you might want to
play it safe and get four Fire Rods and four Ice Rods, besides the more the
merrier!

Now time to seek out Mid, so head to the Library of Ancients.  Refill at the
magic pot and decent into the library.  I shouldn't have to say this by now,
but make sure everyone's in the back row and run away.  Before you know it,
you're facing Ifrit.

BOSS: Ifrit - Bartz (level 5, Blue Mage), Faris (level 5, Blue Mage), Reina
(level 4, Blue Mage), Galuf (level 4, Blue Mage)

I'm not even going to go into detail here.  Two Ice Rods should kill him.  His
signature 'Blaze' attack is nothing to fear as the game works on percentages,
not direct damage, remember?

As you continue on through the dungeon, you'll eventually come to the bookshelf
that guards the path to the save point.  You'll have to click on the book to
encounter the fight.  Normally, you would just kill the Page 32 (or whatever)
and move on, but since you're not trying to earn experience, just run away
instead.  After the battle, the passage will still be open.  Just go through,
save it, and equip some Fire Rods because you have yet another boss fight on
the way.

BOSS: Biblos - Bartz (level 5, Blue Mage), Faris (level 5, Blue Mage), Reina
(level 4, Blue Mage), Galuf (level 4, Blue Mage)

If you're like me, you favor Blue Mages for breaking Rods instead of Blue Mages
or Red Mages.  If that's the case, then you're very likely going to learn
'MagHammr' during this fight (not like you'll ever use it though).  Anyway,
count them, one, two, three Fire Rods and he's out.  Pretty easy, huh?
After defeating Biblos, pat yourself on the back (because you earned it!) and
talk to Mid.  After a brief talk, he'll turn off in search of Cid, which is
your cue to restore at the magic pot and hike back to Karnak...

..Once you're back in Karnak, visit the pub (play the third piano too, if you
haven't already) and head upstairs.  Mid will follow you in and Cid and Mid
will race off to the Steam Ship.  A short scene will follow and then you will
have control of the Steam Ship.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-I: CRESCENT ISLAND
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One of the first things you should do is start earning AP.  Since you can't
fight random battles (due to the whole 'gaining experience' thing), set sail
for the Jachol Cave in search of Skull Eaters (just run from the Nut Eaters,
there's nothing you can do about them).  Skull Eaters are infamous for being
tough bastards, but there's an easy way of dealing with them: don't fight them.
Instead make a party of four knights (or four characters with the !Guard
ability) and simply !Guard throughout the entire battle. After about 3 rounds,
the Skull Eater will run away and you'll earn 5 AP, which is a lot, especially
this early in the game.  I would suggest in teaching everyone either the
Thief's '!Flee' skill or the Ninja's !Dustb' skill, as they both help you run
away from battle.  Also the Trainer's !Control and the Blue Mage's !Blue are
useful as well.  Other than that, learn abilities to your heart's content.

(Thanks to AWJ for the above mentioned method of dealing with Skull Eaters as
well as a nice way to rack-up some Ability Points)

Chances are you will have at least one character die from time-to-time.  Since
you're stuck with very low magic points and 1000 Gold is a lot to spend on
Phoenix Downs, you might want to wait until after you have the airship.  Once
you have the airship, you can quickly return to the Library of Ancients or the
Wind Shrine and restore your HP/MP/status for free.

At any rate, if you do decide to earn some AP now, you might as well stop by
Jachol Village and purchase Cure 2 (620 Gold) and Raise (700).   Although they
both use up quite a few MP (mainly Raise), they'll prove to be helpful,
especially after you find the Hair Ornament (Golden Hairpin) or two.  You
should also play the fourth piano while you are there.

Whether or not you head to Jachol now or wait is you call, but you should head
to Crescent as soon as you can.  There are a few things to do in Crescent.
First play the fifth piano.  Talking to the bard afterwards will net you the
'Strength Song' (as well as getting you closer to becoming a piano master!).
Afterwards leave the town and enter the forest south of the town where you will
find a black chocobo.  w00t.

There's some easy money to be made around Crescent, all of which involves
stealing (which should come as no shock to you).  The Crescent enemies hold
'Silver Bows,' which are VERY easy to steal and sell for 750 Gold each.  Also
BioSoldiers have 'Battle Axes' on them, which are pretty common as well and
sell for a decent 325 per ax.  The luckiest of thieves will snatch a 'War
Hammer' from a BioSoldier, which sells for a massive 3,200 Gold!  Although the
money is easy, it won't be uncommon for a character or two or die during
combat.  Without much means to heal, you might want to wait to you have your
airship, as was the case with the Jachol Cave.  But the inn is very cheap here
(especially when you look at it in context with the amount of money there is
here to be made) so if you must, you can just stay at and inn after every
fight.  The inn in Crescent charges 30 Gold.  Some time spent here translates
into a healthy supply of elemental rods and ninja skills, so it's in your best
interests to do invest that time either now or after you obtain the airship.

(Thanks to Armisael for informing me of the riches to be made on Crescent
Island)

Some places you should drop by on your black chocobo are Bartz's hometown
(Rikks Village) and Easterly Village.

First at Rikks, you make purchase the various 'skills' at the weapon shop and
in good quantity.  They have pretty much the same effect as the elemental rods,
but can be purchased for 200 gold apiece.  Not too shabby.  You should at least
get some Water and Lgtning Skills, as they will do wonders for the next two
boss fights.  Three of four Water Skills and Lgthning Skills should suffice for
now.  You can also learn Temptation Song in Bartz's old house (after playing
the music box).

Next up is Easterly.  I wouldn't worry about Ramuh for the time being.  You
won't be summoning him anyway.  There's not much to do in Easterly other than
learn the Toad spell and the Love Song, so do that and be done with them.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-J: SAND TIDES DESERT
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Form a party of three Ninjas and one White Mage and head towards the Library of
Ancients.  Inside you'll meet up with Cid and Mid and they'll send you to the
Sand Tide Desert.  Before you head there, it wouldn't hurt you to use the magic
pot to restore your status.  Then head to the Sand Tides Desert and prepare to
fight the SandWorm.

BOSS: SandWorm - Bartz (level 5, White Mage), Faris (level 5, Ninja), Reina
(level 4, Ninja), Galuf (level 4, Ninja)

By the time I got here, all my Ninjas had learnt level 1 White, so I had them
all equipped with that as their secondary skill to help with healing.  This
fight is pretty easy as long as you invested in a few Water Skills (you did,
didn't you?).  Three of them should take him down.  Just beware because the
boss has a tendency to change holes quite a bit.  SandWorm's Demi spell
shouldn't hurt you too much as long as you have someone casting Cure 1 on the
party every so often, but his Quicksand will take off a lot of your life (in my
game it was talking off 60 HP from my entire party).  So try to keep your HP
above 60 (Cure 2 would help if you bought it), but you really shouldn't need
too much healing.  Like I said three Water Skills ought to send him to his next
life.

You might want to run back to the Library of Ancients and heal up/save now.
After saving your game, it's time to go through the Sand Tides Desert.   The
enemies here are tough and take off over half your life in one hit (even while
in the back row), so play it safe.  Heal up with Tonics if you have to, they
are easily replaced.  If you took the time to build up some AP and learnt !Flee
or !Dustb, it would be a good idea to equip them now since they will help you
run away.  If not, it's no biggie.  It's annoying, but you'll find your way
through soon enough.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-K: THE AIRSHIP
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After emerging from the Sand Tides Desert, follow the path to the town of Gorn.
Chase around Reina's father for a bit and you'll end up in a new area.
There's no monsters here, so take your time.  You can complete a mildly
humorous event and pick up the white magic spell 'Mini' and two Shurikens in
the process.  You can also save your game and rest here, which I advise that
you do.  Continue on and you'll meet up with Cid and Mid as well as your next
boss, ClayClaw.

BOSS: ClayClaw - Bartz (level 5, White Mage), Faris (level 5, Ninja/Blue Mage),
Reina (level 4, Ninja/Blue Mage), Galuf (level 4, Ninja/Blue Mage)

This battle will be short with Ninjas/Blue Mages in your team.  Have Ninja's
!Throw Lgtning Skills (which will do 900-1000 or so) or Blue Mages break
Lightning Rods (which will do about 1500 or so).  The boss has 2000 Hit Points,
so two or three attacks should do him in depending on which you use.  Lgtning
Skills are cheaper (200 gold compared to 750 gold), but Lightning Rods will do
more damage.  ClayClaw packs a punch though and can kill any character in a
single blow.  You can try the !Guard/Combo if you like, but I'd much rather
just throw two Lgtning Skills and be done with it.  I was fortunate enough to
have ClayClaw first attack me with a Tail Screw, then I just threw two Lgtning
Skills and finished the battle with everyone alive.

After the battle you have the airship.  Fly over to where the town of Gorn is
and it will rise up from the ground.  Before heading back to Cid and Mid, check
your inventory for Ice Rods.  The next boss has a weakness against Ice, so
hopefully you still have three Ice Rods left.  If not, head to Karnak and buy
some.  If you're low on cash then the town of Crescent should be your first
stop.

After you have your two Ice Rods, change all your characters into Blue Mages,
but do NOT equip any Ice Rods.  Make a pit stop at the Library of Ancients/Wind
Shrine to heal up and return to Cid and Mid.  After some talk, head over to the
meteorite near Tycoon and save your game.  Enter the Tycoon and prepare for a
boss fight.

BOSS: Adamantaim - Bartz (level 5, Blue Mage), Faris (level 5, Blue Mage),
Reina (level 4, Blue Mage), Galuf (level 4, Blue Mage)

At the start of the battle, Adamantaim will most likely attack twice.  His
attacks will most certainly kill two characters.  That is why you want the Ice
Rods unequipped.  With two of your Blue Mages dead, they can't use break any
rods, so if you had them equipped then you have to revive first.  So keep them
in your inventory.  Have your two living Blue Mages equip the rods and break
them.  If you're lucky Adamantaim will only attack once during his next turn
and will kill another Blue Mage.  Have your last remaining Blue Mage break the
third and final rod and the boss is no more.

Here's a much better strategy for defeating Adamantaim from AWJ:
"You can kill Adamantaim in one turn by releasing captured Sand Bears. There's
no practical way to prevent him from killing two members first, though, so have
all four members capture a Sand Bear before taking him on (note that you don't
get EXP for captured monsters. Capturing monsters instead of killing them is
actually a good method for avoiding unwanted EXP in some circumstances.)"

(note: You can fight Sand Bears in the Sand Tides Desert)

I was also unaware that capturing monsters (with the Trainer's '!Catch'
ability) did not result in earning experience points, so that's also quite
helpful.

Now that you have the airship, you might want to go earn some AP in Jachol Cave
if you neglected to do so before.  If you waited until now, you have the perk
of being able to fly to the Library of Ancients/Wind Shrine to restore and
revive your characters should the Skull Eater kill a character or two.  Once
you have learnt !Guard, you should change that character into a Thief or Ninja
for their high speed (so you can !Guard before the Skull Eater attacks you) as
well as earn AP for either the !Flee or !Dustb skill.  Also the Trainer's
'!Control' skill is well worth the effort to learn.  If you have the patience,
I would learn '!Blue' as well - It's a great second ability for Trainers in my
opinion (you can cast 'Doom Claw' on the enemy, dropping its HP, and then
!Catch it with ease).  Getting your White Magic up to level 2 or 3 should be
helpful as well.  In addition, learning '!Mix' is recommended also.  After
that, learn any abilities you see fit.

These next few boss fights will require a lot of elemental rods and ninja
skills, so head back to Crescent and steal some items for quick cash.  While
you're there, land the airship on the launching pad and return to Cid and Mid
when the newly acquired Adamantite.  They will upgrade your airship so that you
can reach the Floating Ruins of Ronka.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-L: SIDE-QUESTS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Before you go trigger-happy though, you might want to tie-up lose ends in the
first world.  This includes buying any magic that you might have missed (and
you might as well - if only to make your magic screen look nice, since money is
easy to come across now), defeating Shiva and Ramuh, and picking up some Blue
Magic spells.

If you do decide to buy some more magic, make sure you have Cure, Antdot, Mini,
Mute, Cure2, Raise (all White Magic) and maybe Demi (Time Magic) at the very
least.  The remaining magic isn't very practical (as your levels are too low
for your Black Magic to be useful, the choice of Summon magic available for
purchase is laughable, and there's no useful Time Magic anyway).  Anything else
bought isn't really necessary, but makes him feel like my game is more
'complete,' so I just bought them anyway.  Next we'll go after Shiva and Ramuh,
starting with Shiva first.

Shiva is located in the waterfall at the top of Walz Castle (just walk right
through the waterfall to find the passage).  You'll have some random battles,
so just run away or use !Flee/!Dustb.  Go up a few floors and you'll notice an
orb (???) of some sorts.  This would be Shiva, cure up if you have to and
prepare for battle.

BOSS: Shiva - Bartz (level 5, Blue Mage/Ninja), Faris (level 5, Blue
Mage/Ninja), Reina (level 4, Blue Mage/Ninja), Galuf (level 4, Blue Mage/Ninja)

There's a number of ways to finish this battle.  You can break two Fire Rods or
throw two Fire Skills and Shiva's out for the count.  If you bothered to buy
Fire 2, you could instead make Black/Red Mages and attack with Fire 2 as well,
or summon Ifrit with a summoner.  In all instances Shiva should be defeated in
two moves.

Next we hit Ramuh, but first you should !Catch some Sand Bears in the Sand
Tides Desert.  The easiest way to !Catch monsters is to use the Blue Magic
'Doom Claw.'  If you took time to learn !Blue, a Trainer w/!Blue combo would
work nicely.  If you didn't, just have two Blue Mages and two Trainers in your
party.  Then go to the Side Tides Desert.  Run around (near the entrance) until
you fight a Sand Bear, have someone with !Blue use 'Doom Claw' against it and
then !Catch it.  You need to !Catch two Sand Bears, but it's always a good idea
to !Catch more so you can have back-ups (Sand Bears will be useful during the
Archeoavis battle).  If you're using two Blue Mages and two Trainers, once the
Trainers !Catch their Sand Bear, you can switch roles (that is, make your
Trainer a Blue Mage and vice-versa).  Don't worry about losing your captured
monster because the game keeps them saved for you, so even if you switch
classes and later return to the Trainer, it will still have your captured
monster.

After you !Catch at least two Sand Bears, head for the forests that surround
Easterly.  Wonder around until you encounter Ramuh.  It's a good idea to have
your quickest character, usually Faris, equipped with either !Flee or !Dustb so
you can hastily run away incase you fight a normal battle.  Sooner or later you
will enter a battle with Ramuh.

BOSS: Ramuh - Bartz (level 5, Trainer), Faris (level 5, Trainer), Reina (level
4, Trainer), Galuf (level 4, Trainer)

The ease of this battle depends on how many Trainers you have with captured
Sand Bears.  Ramuh will sometimes kill off a character, so if you only have to
people that can release a captured Sand Bear, then you may have to revive a
Trainer if he or she is killed.  At any rate, once the battle starts just !Free
two Sand Bears which should do about 2,100 each.  Since Ramuh only has 4,000
HP, he will be finished after only two attacks.

If you want to, you can now pick up some Blue Magic spells that you may have
missed (which is probably a lot).  It's fairly annoying process, especially
since it requires you to !Catch various monsters and you can't !Catch a monster
until you !Free a monster you previously caught.  So you basically have to
enter a battle, have the spell hit a Blue Mage (or someone with the 'Learning'
ability), then !Catch ALL the monsters in the battle (so you won't get
experience points for a single enemy).  Next you have to !Free all the captured
monsters (so you can catch monsters for the next spell) while being sure you
don't kill off all the monsters the battle (or else you will gain experience).
Like I said, it's pretty annoying, but if you want the spells, you have little
choice.  You should, at the least, learn 'Level 5 Doom' from a Page 64 in the
Library of Ancients; it would help you in the boss battle prior to obtaining
the jobs of the Earth Crystal.  Also try to learn 'BlakShok' from a black flame
near Crescent.

Don't forget to explore Jachol Cave if you have yet to.  You'll find some
semi-useful items (a Shuriken, a tent, and a Shock Whip as long as you didn't
free Lonewolf from his prison).

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-M: THE FLOATING RUINS (PART I)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Are you ready?  I mean ARE YOU READY?  Yes?  Good, I hope so because this
series of events will be somewhat tough.  For starters, you have to fight your
way through a series of FlameThrowers and Missile Launchers.  They shouldn't
prove too much of a threat, but it can be annoying.  I recommend bringing along
a slew of Lgtning Skills and Lightning Rods, with a focus on Lgtning Skills
since they are cheaper.  You may want to return back from the Floating Ruins to
heal and purchase more Lgtning Skills and that's fine.  What I would do is
'lift-off' (for lack of a better term) from the Wind Shrine.  That way if you
need to fallback and heal, you're already at the Wind Shrine, plus to the
northwest of the Wind Shrine lies Rikks, the town that sells the ninja skills.
Once you have a fair amount of Lgtning Skills, I'd say about 20, although
that's a bit excessive I admit, prepare to engage in a series of easy, yet
annoying battles.  Take off and approach the first of the rocket guns and
you'll enter a battle with either Flame Throwers or Missile Launchers.

BOSS: Flame Throwers - Bartz (level 5, Ninja), Faris (level 5, Ninja), Reina
(level 4, Ninja), Galuf (level 4, Ninja)

These are the more annoying of the two.  They can be easily defeated with three
or four Lgtning Skills, but they use the Blue magic spell 'Burn Ray' quite a
bit which will eliminate one of your characters.  Ninjas are pretty quick
though, plus they offer the chance of a preemptive strike, so you should have a
good chance of getting them before they get you.

BOSS: Missile Launchers - Bartz (level 5, Blue Mage/Ninja), Faris (level 5,
Blue Mage/Ninja), Reina (level 4, Blue Mage/Ninja), Galuf (level 4, Blue
Mage/Ninja)

Lgtning Skills and Lightning Rods will shock these things into oblivion in
record time.  Missile Launchers are actually easier than the Flame Throwers
because they tend to attack with skills like 'Missile,' which I recommend you
learn with a Blue Mage (or Ninja with Learning) and 'Rocket Punch.'  Neither
attack is fatal, they just attack off a percentage of your Hit Points, so you
should have plenty of time to take them down before one of your characters
falls in battle.

Once you have you have destroyed all of the Flame Throwers and Missile
Launchers, it's time to take on the main foe here - the Soul Gun.  If you're
low on Lgtning Skills, pick some up.  Fallback and restore/save your game as
well.

BOSS: Soul Gun - Bartz (level 5, Blue Mage), Faris (level 5, Blue Mage), Reina
(level 4, Blue Mage), Galuf (level 4, Blue Mage)

Soul Gun is accompanied by two launchers in this fight, luckily all three are
weak against lightning.  I would advise you to use Blue Mages over Ninjas for
this battle for two reasons - you can instantly defeat the two launchers with
one casting of Level 5 Doom and Lightning Rods do a fair deal more damage to
the boss than the Ninja's Lgtning Skills do.  It's going to take a lot of
Lightning Rods to do the trick (I used eight!), but it's the most reliable
method I have fond.

Unfortunately, the launchers are worth 5 EXP each, so you'll end up earning 10
EXP for this fight.  Thankfully no one leveled-up in my game (although Reina
and Galuf are both 5 EXP away from level 5...).

After the battle you should leave to the world map to heal and save your game,
among other things. This will be the last time you will have a party of four
members in this world.  For that reason I recommend if you intend of stealing
from enemies on Crescent in order to earn some cash for elemental rods and
ninja skills, you do it now.  You also aren't giving the option to purchase
elemental rods in the second world, only the weaker ninja skills.  Throughout
the entire second world I only broke two Ice Rods, so that should tell you
something.  I would at least try to get ten or so rods (three of which should
be Ice Rods), just so you can always use them if you need to.

I'll admit that I probably was over zealous (perhaps way over zealous) when it
came to purchasing my elemental rods.  I spent about 40 - 50 minutes or so
stealing in Crescent, next thing I know I had about a bazillion Silver Bows and
Battle Axes (well, not a bazillion, but you get the idea) and even three War
Hammers!  I ended up purchasing 33 of each type of rod.  I assure you though
that purchasing that many rods is insane.  I was just talking to some friends
of mine on MSN and decided to earn some cash, before I knew it I have close to
70 Silver Bows!  Anyway, a lot of the bosses in the second world can be killed
my more efficient means than breaking rods so don't worry about creating a
stock pile as huge as mine.  I just lost track talking to some friends and then
ended up with a crap load of Silver Bows.

After you have a decent amount of rods (don't worry about being over excessive
like I was, about ten rods should be more than enough), the next thing you
should do is !Catch four more Sand Bears in the Sand Tides Desert.  Remember
once you !Catch an enemy, that enemy will always be caught until you !Free it,
so you can switch jobs and come back to your Trainer class later and you will
have your captured monster waiting to be used in combat.  Once you have
successfully captured four Sand Bears, it is time to attack the Floating Ruins.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-N: THE FLOATING RUINS (PART II)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I decided to split up the Floating Ruins section.  The past part was more or
less getting prepared whereas this part will cover the actual dungeon and
bosses you encounter along the way.  A word of advice, the !Flee or !Dustb
commands make this level a lot less annoying.  Your weak characters can easily
fall by a single hit from the dungeons weakest foe.  Because of that your best
chance of survival is running away and running away fast.  I'm not really going
to go into the dungeon layout or whatnot as you should have a general idea of
where to go.  Having a thief in the party would be helpful (for the 'Dash' and
'Secret' abilities) as would a Ninja (for the 'First Strike' ability so that
you can run away faster).  Don't bother with learning Blow Fish or White Wind
here.  Blow Fish isn't worth its cost in Magic Points and White Wind does
little good when your max HP is barely 100, if that.  Your goal here is to get
through this place as quickly as possible to reach Archeoavis, whom you will
plummet to death with your Sand Bears, so I hope you took the time to !Catch
them.

Don't fret if you die in combat a few times or choose to do a 'soft reset' and
attempt it again.  The place is fairly long and your HP is incredibly low.
About what the extent of what you can do is hope your Ninjas' 'First Strike'
ability kicks in.  This dungeon may prove to be incredibly annoying, especially
if you are playing the game on your PlayStation with no save state.  It may
prove to be even more annoying, as well as the game in general, if you are
playing the game on your PlayStation 2 because you then have to put up with
that crap saving glitch, hehe.  Trust me, it doesn't affect the game play but
when you have to exit in and out from the field to the save menu four times
just to get to save your game...  Anyway, you'll come across two save spots
during the course of the dungeon, use them.  Last thing you want to do is
restart the entire dungeon all over because you neglected to save your game.

When you finally reach the top floor, don't be so quick to talk to Reina's
father.  Instead, convert everyone into his or her Trainer class.  Also equip
!Blue as a secondary skill to one of your characters and make sure that
character has enough current MP to cast 'Level 5 Doom,' which uses up 22 Magic
Points, so make sure you have at least 22 Magic Points.  If you don't, you
should use an Ether or even an Elixir if you must.  Anyway, once everything is
set-up, speak with Reina's father, who wishes you to battle the Guardian of the
Ruins, a dragon called Archeoavis.

BOSS: Archeoavis (level 19) - Bartz (level 5, Trainer), Faris (level 5,
Trainer), Reina (level 4, Trainer), Galuf (level 4, Trainer)

By !Freeing all four of the captured Sand Bears, you should defeat this money.
Its spells aren't much to worry about as the damage is merely proportional to
your health.  However, his Talons attack would take off about 100 HP, making it
a very good chance that a character will die if it uses Talons.  If someone who
has already released their Sand Bear dies, you don't have to worry about
reviving them.  However if someone who has yet to !Free their Sand Bear or
someone with the !Blue Magic ability dies, revive them A.S.A.P.  After the
fourth Sand Bear the boss should perish.

Or does it?  Almost as soon as the battle is over, a rematch is taking place...

BOSS: Archeoavis (level 20) - Bartz (level 5, Trainer), Faris (level 5,
Trainer), Reina (level 4, Trainer), Galuf (level 4, Trainer)

Since this time Archeoavis is level 20, don't think twice about casting 'Level
5 Doom' for a quick and effortless victory.

After a long sequence of events, you will find yourself without Galuf.  Land
the airship anywhere and Reina and Faris will approach Bartz about following
Galuf into his world.  Bartz agrees and the party decides to ask Cid for help.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1-M: THE METEORITES
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Your first objective is to return to the airship docks and meet up with Cid and
Mid.  You'll find a note in the bottom part of the 'base,' or whatever that
place is.  Anyway, the note will lead you to the Tycoon meteorite where you
will find Cid and his grandson Mid.  They'll explain that if you can gather the
combined energy of the remaining meteorites, you can in turn activate a gate to
Galuf's world.

Your goal now is to visit the three remaining meteors and defeat the boss of
each of them.  Doing so will open the warp to Galuf's world in the middle of
the Bartz's world (you can pinpoint the specific spot by viewing the map).  So,
let's get cracking - you're almost done with the first world!
Let's start with the Walz meteor.

BOSS: Byurobolos - Bartz (level 5, Ninja), Faris (level 5, Ninja), Reina (level
4, Blue Mage)

This should be an easy battle.  Start out by having each of your Ninjas throw a
skill (doesn't matter, I used Water Skills).  Then have your Blue Mage break a
rod (Fire, Ice, Lightning, it doesn't matter).  Then finish things off with
another skill and that should be that.  You shouldn't be attacked at all during
this fight.

(Thanks to Armisael for telling me to break an Ice Rod between the second and
third Water Skill)

The next two will be a little bit more complicated in method, but just as easy.
Let's go after Karnak's meteor first, but before you do so, head to North
Mountain and !Control a GhilCat.  Make him cast 'Float' on your party.  Then
head back to the Sand Tides Desert and !Catch some more Sand Bears.

BOSS: Titan - Bartz (level 5, Trainer), Faris (level 5, Trainer), Reina (level
4, Trainer)

Titan will usually start off my killing one of your party members with a
physical attack.  That shouldn't be a problem.  Just !Free two Sand Bears and
he's dead.  His finishing move is 'Earth Shaker,' a quake spell that with kill
off your party if you're not floating.

Now last meteor and that is the meteor of Gorn.  Before you head over there,
you should stop by the Sand Tides Desert and yes, once again !Catch some more
Sand Bears.  Try to one for each character.

BOSS: KimaBrain - Bartz (level 5, Trainer), Faris (level 5, Trainer), Reina
(level 4, Trainer)

KimaBrain has a nasty habit of casting AquaRake for its first attack.  If it
does so, you will die.  It's that simple.  Just keep fighting it again until it
starts with a physical attack.  Chances are someone will die, but just
retaliate with two Sand Bears and you're done.

Now that you have cleared the last of the meteorites!  Before entering Galuf's
world, you should do a few things.  First the battle with Gilgamesh on the
bridge is going to be tough, so you should !Catch a Sand Bear for each of your
characters (one should already have one).  Second, you should buy some of the
game's basic items, such as Maiden Kisses and Softs.  You should buy them in
Bartz's world because you will receive a discount if you purchase them at
Rikks.  Once you're finished with that, it's time to enter the second world.
Head your airship to a little strip of land just to the southeast of Tule (if
you're having trouble finding it, bring up the map).  Park your airship beside
the warp point and then proceed to save your game.  Enter the portal and you
are done with the first world!  Your levels should be 5 and below right now if
you followed my guidelines.  Phew... only two more worlds to go!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WORLD TWO: GALUF'S WORLD
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2-A: EXDEATH'S CASTLE

The first thing that you should do when you enter Galuf's world is to use a
Tent.  A scene will occur and Reina and Faris will be abducted, leaving Bartz
alone to fight the next boss fight.  It really makes no difference whether you
win or lose, so I'm not even going to go into strategy here.  For simplicity's
sake, I just let him die.

Some scenes will follow and when they are finished you find yourself in control
of Galuf alone.  Crap!

First thing you should do is head to the north room and you'll find a save
point.  Use it in case the enemies get the best of you.  Make a Blue Mage out
of Galuf and give him the '!Flee' or '!Dustb' commands.  Just up ahead is a
room where you can restore HP and MP - use it if you must.

Now you'll begin the race towards the prison cells and ultimately a battle with
Gilgamesh.  With only one character in your group, you may have to attempt it
quite a few times.  It's times like this that I wish I was playing the ROM
version for save states, but oh well.  It's more rewarding this way... I guess.
Sooner or later you'll make to where Gilgamesh is located.  Before
encountering him, use Tonics to max out your HP, then met up with Gilgamesh and
cross your fingers.

BOSS: Gilgamesh - Galuf (level 4, Blue Mage)

You want Galuf to be a Blue Mage with a White Magic secondary skill.  Hopefully
you have your White Magic up to level 2 by now.  Quickly cast 'Mini' on
Gilgamesh and hope it works.  Once Gilgamesh is in 'Mini' status, his attacks
will do little to harm you.  From there you should cast 'DoomClaw' to lower his
HP.  Your MP is limited to just barely having enough to cast 'Mini' and
'DoomClaw,' so if either doesn't work then you may have to restart.  Once you
have him in critical condition from 'DoomClaw,' a simple physical attack should
do him in.  Just for laughs I used 'GobPunch' against him.

(Thanks to Armisael for telling me to put Gilgamesh in 'Mini' status first)

After the battle, Galuf will regroup with Bartz, Reina, and Faris.  Make your
way back to the save point (which should be a lot easier now) and restore your
health in the room above.  You can !Catch Shell Bears in Exdeath's castle.
They are similar to Sand Bears when you !Free them, but a bit weaker.  For
anyone who does NOT have a Sand Bear caught (most likely Galuf), try to capture
them.  You can fight them in groups of one, which is the easiest way to !Catch
them.  Then leave the castle and head towards the Big Bridge.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2-B: BIG BRIDGE
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Unfortunately, you're going to have to level-up some here since some battles
are forced upon you.  Elemental rods and Ninja skills should suffice.  Starting
out, you are forced into the first battle on the bridge.  One Lgtning Skill
shall kill them.  Then you will earn 225 EXP, which will cause everyone to
level-up to 6 except for Faris, who will level-up to 7.

After the first battle, move IMMEDIATELY to the right-hand side of the bridge
AFTER you cross the first pillars (the first ones after the last fight).
Staying in either the middle or traveling to the left-hand side of the bridge
will cause you to enter another battle.  The right-hand side is the only way to
get passed without encountering the second wave of enemies.  Crossing over to
the right too soon, however, will have you jumped by a different group of
monsters.  So after you pass the pillars, move towards the right.  Once you
enter the mid-way point class change before trying to exit.  Now is the time to
change back to your Trainers.  When ready, try to exit out the back... you'll
encounter Gilgamesh.

BOSS: Gilgamesh - Bartz (level 6, Trainer), Faris (level 7, Trainer), Reina
(level 6, Trainer), Galuf (level 6, Trainer)

One of your Trainers should equip the Chemist's !Mix ability, preferably Faris,
since she is the fastest.  What you want to do is !Mix a Gloom Gas, which will
Blind Gilgamesh.  To !Mix a Gloom Gas, you combine a Eye Drop with a Dark
Matter.  This will Blind Gilgamesh so that he often misses.  What you want to
do now is !Free a Sand Bear AND THEN A SHELL BEAR (I can't express that
enough).  After the Shell Bear, !Free a second Sand Bear.  The thing is, after
about 4,000 damage Gilgamesh will cast Protect, Shell, and Haste on himself and
will begin to !Jump, which makes him INCREDIBLY hard.  If you !Free two
consecutive Sand Bears, you already done close to 4,200-4,4000 damage on
Gilgamesh, which will result in him using Protect.  Afterwards, your other
Sand/Shell Bears will be doing half-damage, which won't be enough to defeat
Gilgamesh.  However, if you first !Free a Sand Bear AND a Shell Bear, that's a
combined 3,900 or so.  What that means is Gilgamesh isn't weak enough to go
into 'hyper' mode (for lack of a better term).  Now !Free a second Sand Bear
and that will bring your damage to over 6,000, which is about 2,000 more than
what will cause Gilgamesh to go into 'hyper' mode.  Even though Gilgamesh will
then use 'Protect,' your last Sand Bear will only do about half damage (1,100),
but should be strong enough to successfully cause Gilgamesh to retreat.  I've
tried this three times and everytime it worked and it's the best way I have
found to win this battle.

After the battle, I'm afraid I can't help you.  The reason is I can't determine
whether the path is random or pre-determined.  I guess I'll type out what I did
in my game:

I died and/or restarted the entire bridge over at least six times (damn
Gilgamesh...) and each time I used the path that I wrote out before the battle
with Gilgamesh and each time I successfully avoided the second random battle.
However, the second part of the bridge (after the battle with Gilgamesh)
confuses me.  The first time I stuck to the right and fight two random battles.
The second time I once again stuck to the right (I was planning to
'DoomClaw/!Catch' the first random battle since there was only one monster
there), however I actually made it all the way to Krile without fighting a
random battle.  I saved my game on a different slot (because let's face it,
that bridge is hell, at least for me since I'm trying to make a guide) and
tried a third-time, hugging the right wall again.  This time I entered a random
battle.

This leads me to one of three conclusions:

A) the paths ARE pre-determined (which is why I can get to Gilgamesh 10/10
while avoiding the second random battle);

B) the paths are NOT pre-determined (which is why sometimes I would encounter
random battles at the right-hand side and other times not);

C) the enemies are timed (if you don't reach a certain location by a specific
time, you'll enter a fight).

The third conclusion is rather shaky.  In fact, there's little evidence behind
it.  I just noticed that when I avoided all the second part of the battles, I
was running.  The first and third time I was cautious and/or still randomly
picking a path.

I asked AWJ about it and here's what he said:

"I believe the location of the enemies is based on the combination of Jobs in
your party.  All the low-level walkthroughs I've read specifically instruct you
to change all characters to Bares while crossing the bridge (except for the
fight with Gilgamesh of course)."

The party I was using to cross the bridge was four ninjas.  I tried a group of
four Bares and four Red Mages and in both cases I avoided the second battle
before Gilgamesh.  Everytime I was across the second part of the bridge, I was
using four Trainers, yet twice I entered battles and once I did not.  I'm
pretty confused, I will admit.

I don't know...  I have a second save file just before the Big Bridge event.
I'll try missing around with different variations of classes (and not just
making all four the same either, but mixing up the classes) and see what I come
up with.

I'm trying to come up with a definite conclusion about how to get through the
Big Bridge while avoiding all the battles except for the first one, which can't
be avoided.  PlayStation gamers would benefit from this, especially since I
like to play the Anthology version myself.  Those playing the fan translation
on emulators could always save/load state your way through the Big Bridge
though, so it's less of a concern there.

Anyway, someone please email me if they find out what the heck is going on
here.

[UPDATE]  I still don't know what's going on with the enemy locations, but I
realized that you could !Catch the first batch of enemies.  The problem,
however, is battling Gilgamesh without your Sand Bears...  If you !Catch the
first batch and then leave and !Free them and decide to !Catch Shell Bears
instead, the first batch will attack you again when you enter the bridge...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2-C: MOOGLES GONE WILD
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(Don't ask about the name, it was either that or 'When Moogles Attack.'  I
couldn't really think of a decent name for this chapter)

The FIRST thing you should do after leaving the Big Bridge is save your game.
Lugor Bordertown lies to the east of where you land, it should also be your
first destination.  It's somewhat of a long walk, but there's plenty of nice
scenery along the way...  I guess.

Once you do reach Lugor, there's not much you can do.  The sixth piano is
located in the Pub; you'll have to go an invisible passage to see it.  There's
a short event to be seen if you stay at the inn (it's free, for your first stay
at least).  If you have no shame, you can earn 100 Gold by dancing in front of
drunks in the pub too.  There's really not much to do here; the piano is the
only worthwhile thing in this place.  You should towards the Moogle Forest,
which is located southeast of Lugor.  It's going to be a long trip, so bring
along Ninjas (fast and the 'First Strike' innate ability) and equip Faris with
!Flee or !Dustb since she is the fastest.

You'll eventually come up to the Moogle Forest - save your game before
entering.  When you enter, you'll scare a moogle and he'll run away, but not
before falling into a hole in the ground (silly moogle!).  It's your job to
chase after him (well, not really, but you do anyway).  !Flee from every fight
here.  The Underground River is the simplest of mazes (if it can even be called
that) so you should have no trouble making your way around.  There are two
treasures here, 4,400 Gold and a Phoenix Down.  They are both worth getting and
best of all; you don't have to go out of your way to get either.  A
Tyrannosaurus guards the exit of the dungeon.

BOSS: Tyrannosaurus - Bartz (level 6), Faris (level 7), Reina (level 6), Galuf
(level 6)

I didn't bother to list job suggestions.  Just use whatever class you think
needs a couple of AP.  This boss is undead, so just use a Phoenix Down and it's
over.

The moogle will exit the cave and run around the world map for a couple of
seconds to show you the way to its village.  When you regain control of your
characters, you too should leave the cave and follow the moogle's trail to the
Moogle Village.

There's not a whole lot to do in the village.  When you enter the moogles will
run away from you.  Go the house furthest to the right and that moogle will
recognize you as the people that saved him/her.  As a reward, it lets you take
its treasures.  Some of the more important treasures are the 10,000 Gold and
the Phoenix Down.  Also the other moogles will accept you as well.  If you
dress up in the Moogle Suit, another moogle will let you have his treasure, the
Elf's Cloak.  You should equip it immediately.  The Elf's Cloak helps you evade
attacks.  Needless to say, but with such low health it may very well save your
life.  Talking to the original moogle will trigger a scene and Krile will come
to your aid, talking to the Castle of Val.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2-D: VALLEY OF DRAGONS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When you land in Val Castle, Krile will run off to tend to the Dragon's wounds.
After Bartz and Galuf horse around for a bit, you are giving freedom to
explore the castle.  There's a couple of treasures here to get, the most useful
is the 'Teleport' spell.  You can rest at an inn, yet the bastard inn keeper
insists on charging King Galuf and his companies 50 Gold for a room... it's not
really expensive, but it's the principle of the matter!  Talking to Krile on
top of the castle will trigger a scene as well as another goal.  Save your game
before you leave.  Once you exit the castle, you won't be coming back for a
while.  A boss known as Abductor will greet you on your way out.

BOSS: Abductor - Bartz (level 6), Faris (level 7), Reina (level 6), Galuf
(level 6)

Once again, specific jobs don't matter.  The boss can easily be defeated by a
Blue Mage (or someone with '!Blue') casting the infamous 'DoomClaw' on the
Abductor and then someone else attacking it.  For example, I had a party of
four White Mages, three of which had !Blue.  The first one used 'DoomClaw' and
it worked, the second White Mage attacked the boss (bare-handed and from the
back-row, mind you) and killed it.

Your first destination after leaving the Castle of Val should be the village of
werewolves, Kelb, which is straight north of Val.

Enter the big house in the center of the town.  When you try to leave, some
guards will approach you and then Kelga, a friend of Galuf's.  A fight scene
and then a flashback scene will follow.  Once completed, you will have control
of Bartz and company again.  One of the dancing werewolves in the northeastern
part of the town will teach you a new song, 'Requiem,' which rakes havock on
the undead.

You can also get the Kornago's Gourd in this town.  In order to do so, you must
first !Catch a Kornago Frog and trade it (along with 10,000 Gold!) to the man
in the well.  The Kornago's Gourd makes !Catching monsters easier (you only
need to bring the monster's HP down to 1/2 instead of 1/8), but since I mainly
use 'DoomClaw' I really don't find it all that helpful.  I would still pick it
up though, just to have it (besides, it's useful with a certain Red Dragon
you'll encounter along the way).  Money isn't really important, besides you can
steal items from Drippies in the upcoming valley that sell for 550 Gold each.
Kornago Frogs can be found on the world map; they are orange frogs in battle.

Finally, a werewolf in the inn can hook you up 'Kelb style' here.  If you set
down next to him, he will restore your HP, MP, and status completely and give
you 8 Tonics as well.  You can do this up to three times (it beats spending 60
Gold at the inn here I suppose).

Once you complete everything there is to be done in Kelb, pass through the
gates in the back and make your ways toward the valley in the back.

Once you enter the Valley of Dragons, you'll enter battles with Golem, who may
attack you and run away.  Don't worry about him yet, instead focus on finding
the treasure chests (the first chest has 5000 Gold in it) and making your way
through the level.  Once you reach a section of the valley where you see bones
on the ground, you should turn all your characters into bards.  Make sure your
fastest character is equipped with either !Flee or !Dustb instead.

Now we will obtain Golem.  Keep on moving around this area until you see Golem
alongside a DragonZombie and a Skelesaur.  The DragonZombie and Skelesaur will
turn on Golem and begin to attack him.  If you manage to defeat them before
Golem dies, he will join your group as a summon.  Both DragonZombie and
Skelesaur are undead, so the 'Requiem' song will damage them both heavily
without harming Golem (he's not undead).  Four Requiems should do the trick.
Golem will be thankful and join you.  I actually got a 'First Strike' in and
killed both the DragonZombie and the Skelesaur before they even turned around.
Luckily, you won't earn EXP after this battle.

Moving on, the rest of the dungeon is straight forward.  You'll eventually find
a save point.  Save your game and continue.  Before you aproach the dragon
grass, make sure you have a party of Ninjas and Blue Mages (I used four Ninjas
w/!Blue) and then approach the dragon grass.  It's possessed, which throws you
into another boss fight.

BOSS: Dragongrass & Dragonbulbs - Bartz (level 6, Ninja), Faris (level 7,
Ninja), Reina (level 6, Ninja), Galuf (level 6, Ninja)

Have someone with !Blue cast 'DoomClaw' on the enemy and then throw a Fire
Skill.

After the battle you'll pick up the dragon grass.  Change someone into a Time
Mage and use the 'Teleport' spell to exit the valley.  Make your way through
Kelb and back to the Castle of Val.

After you sneak into Val, head up to where Krile and the dragon are.  You'll
find Krile resting in a bed.  The party will talk with her for a bit and then
head to the top of the tower.  Reina will get the dragon to get the dragon
grass and the dragon will recover.  Afterwards you will have control of the
dragon.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2-E: BARRIER TOWER
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The FIRST thing you should do is learn the !Blue Magic spell 'Black Shock' if
you didn't learn it in world one.  Fly the dragon near the Exdeath's Castle/Big
Bridge area.  You can encounter enemies called Blockheads there.  They will use
'Black Shock' a lot, so just wait until they use it on a Blue Mage or someone
with Learning.  Then just use 'DoomClaw' and !Catch them.  After the battle
save your game and !Free the captured monsters, but make sure you don't KILL
the enemies in battle, else you will earn EXP.  If you !Free a Blockhead, it
will use 'DoomClaw' so you can !Free three of them in a single battle (if you
learnt 'Black Shock' from a group of three that is).  Trents will release a
powerful physical attack (about 1,700) and Water Buses will use 'Pep Up.'

After learning 'Black Shock,' check your inventory for a 'Dark Matter.'  If you
don't have one, you can !Steal them from Dragon Zombies in the Valley of
Dragons.  They are a bit hard to steal, so it might take a little bit.

Once you have 'Black Shock' and a Dark Matter, head towards Gill's Shrine,
located northeast of Val.  When you land, an earthquake will occur and the
island will begin to sink.  You find yourself back on your dragon.  Fly west to
Surgate Castle.

There's two treasures in Surgate, 5,000 Gold and the Float magic spell.  You
should obtain both of them.  To reach both of them you have to help an old lady
return three books to their proper shelves.  It's not too hard, just compare
the name of the book to the shelves and stick it where it belongs.

In one of the rooms you will see a diary of sorts on a desk top.  Pick it up
and read it to learn the 'Song of Speed.'  That covers all that there is to be
done here.  If you've been paying attention to the town folk, you'll know that
Zeza is leading a war against Exdeath with his fleet of battle ships.  Hop on
your dragon and head to that fleet, which is located east of Exdeath's castle.
Save your game and then land the dragon on the largest ship.

Galuf will talk with his old friend Zeza a bit and then you will be told to
rest downstairs.  Change a character or two into the Trainer class and have
someone bring along the !Blue skill.  Then head downstairs and rest.  You'll
hearing fighting above and rush to the main deck.  Zeza and his men will begin
fighting some of the enemies.  Avoid all the moving enemies and head to the
stationary enemy toward the ship's front.  You'll enter a battle with a sole
goblin of some sort (I forget what its exact name was), a single
'DoomClaw/!Catch' combination will work here.  Afterwards form a party of four
Thieves.  Give !Mix to at least one of your characters, preferably two.  Then
head on down and face Gilgamesh yet again.

BOSS: Gilgamesh - Bartz (level 6, Thief), Faris (level 7, Thief), Reina (level
6, Thief), Galuf (level 6, Thief)

Make everyone !Steal until you have stolen the Genji Glove and then quickly
!Mix a Doom Potion.  Doom Potions are !Mixed by combining Dark Matter and
Phoenix Down.  This will instantly kill Gilgamesh even before Enkidoh joins the
fight.

(Thanks to Armisael for informing me that you can use a Doom Potion against
Gilgamesh)

Once Gilgamesh has been defeated, go downstairs and to the right to rest and
then to the left.  You'll meet up with Zeza and he will explain his plan on how
to get into the Barrier Tower.

Once you are inside the tower, go all the way to the left and up the stairs to
save your game.  Then continue up.  In the next room there will be two
treasures.  The one farthest to the left contains a monster-in-a-box, so forget
it (it only has a Blood Sword anyway).  The chest in the center of the room has
9,000 Gold, so you should most certainly get that one.  The next chest you will
come across will contain double the amount of Gold the last chest had!  27,000
Gold in just two chests!  Hey, I'm all for it.

The tower will eventually split into two stair paths.  The path to the left
will lead to you a chest guarded by a Red Dragon or two Yellow Dragons.  The
chest contains the Hair Ornament, a helmet that halves the cost of spells.  The
path to the right leads to a save point, which you should use ASAP as well, and
the boss of the Barrier Tower.

Once you save your game, form a party of Three Blue Mages and one Trainer.
Equip the Kornago's Gourd on your Trainer.  Break two Ice Rods and then !Catch
the Red Dragon.  If your Trainer is killed, revive him or her as soon as you
can.  If the Red Dragon starts out with an 'Atom Ray' attack, it's time to
restart, hehe.  If you get the two Yellow Dragons, you can just cast 'Missile'
on them and then !Catch them.  The person wearing the Kornago's Gourd can
!Catch a Yellow Dragon after one 'Missile,' but someone not wearing the
Kornago's Gourd can't !Catch a Yellow Dragon until you use 'Missile' twice.

After the battle, return to the save point, form a party of four Blue Mages,
and once again save your game.  Continue on and you will reach the top of the
tower and enter battle with an enemy named Atomos.

BOSS: Atomos - Bartz (level 6, Blue Mage), Faris (level 7, Blue Mage), Reina
(level 6, Blue Mage), Galuf (level 6, Blue Mage)

Atomos will start off the battle by casting 'Comet,' which will kill one of
your Blue Mages.  Don't revive him/her, instead have one of your Blue Mages
cast 'Black Shock' to half Atomos's level then a second to cast 'Level 5 Doom.'

After the battle the party will flee against Galuf's wishes and the tower will
explode.  After a short scene, you will gain control of the submarine.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2-F: THE FOREST OF MOORE
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Surface your sub and park it near your Dragon and save your game.  Then
submerge underwater again and go to Gill's cave.  Use the map if you must - it
will be the center dot.

There will be a maze that requires you to move a stone from chest-to-chest to
open various passages.  The stone will start out in the center chest.  Pick it
up and place it in the upper-left chest.  Go through the door that opens and
hit the switch on the wall.  Go back and pick up the stone and place it in the
bottom-left chest.  Go through the passage that opens and eventually you will
find yourself in Gill's chamber.  Talk it up with the sage for a bit and he
will instruct you to go to the Forest of Moore.  He will also give you the
'Elder's Branch' key item as well.  The quickest way back to your sub is to
cast 'Teleport.'

Using the map underwater will show you a white dot in the northwestern
continent.  Go there to obtain the Shoat summon.  Shoat is optional so you
don't have to do this, but if you want a full list of summoning magic you have
no choice.

Once you reach the white dot, you'll come up to a cave that leads outside to a
surrounding forest.  In this cave you will come across Druids and Iron Dresses.
Iron Dresses do MASSIVE damage when you !Free them.  How much you ask?  About
5,900 Hit Points worth of damage!  These guys are BRUTAL.  They are also
necessary to take down Shoat and the upcoming Carbuncle.  They are a pain to
!Catch as well.  You will find Iron Dresses either in groups of three or one
Iron Dresses with a Druid.  DO NOT TRY TO !CATCH IRON DRESSES IN GROUPS OF
THREE!  They will MURDER you.  Instead !Flee or !Dustb from every battle until
you find a Iron Dress/Druid combination.  Just 'DoomClaw' and !Catch the Iron
Dress and run away.  If you want, you can return back to the sub to heal after
ever fight if you need.  Anyway, try to !Catch four of these bad boys.  Once
you have, exit the cave and walk around the forest until you encounter Shoat.

BOSS: Shoat - Bartz (level 6, Trainer), Faris (level 7, Trainer), Reina (level
6, Trainer), Galuf (level 6, Trainer)

Shoat's physical attack is strong enough to kill off a single party member (the
Elf Cloak can help you evade this) as is Shoat's Drain spell (it Drained 450
off Faris, even though she only had 140 or so), not to mention its 'Devil's
Eye' attack, which petrifies a character.  Shoat only has 5,000 HP, so a single
Iron Dress is enough to win this battle.

Once you have Shoat, save your game and !Catch another Iron Dress if you want
to replace the one you just released.  Carbuncle has 15,000 HP so you need
three Iron Dresses to successfully defeat Carbuncle and there's always the risk
of Carbuncle killing off a Trainer with a captured Iron Dress.  If you only
have three Iron Dresses and a Trainer is killed, you either have to restart or
revive.  I would just go ahead and !Catch a fourth one.  It's not like it will
kill you... er... maybe it will.  Anyway, it's now time head for the village of
Moore.

If you've been paying attention to your map, then you should notice that
there's three white dots underwater.  We've visited two of them already, so the
last one (the one farthest to the west) will lead us to Moore, both the town
and the forest.  Let's hit the town fist.

The only thing of major importance here is the seventh piano in the pub, which
you should play.  One more to you become a master pianist!  You can purchase
the level 5 magic here, but it's quite expensive (6,000 Gold each!).  Also make
absolutely sure that you have at least 10 or so Antidotes and Holy Waters in
your inventory.  You won't be using it, but you could buy some if you want your
magic screen to look complete.  Break is the only spell that you could buy
because it helps kill Odin rather cheaply, but then so does Shoat (they both do
the same thing more or less, so either will work).  Don't worry about not
having the money to buy magic here.  Like I said, you won't use it (with the
possible exception of Break), plus you could always come back later when you
have more cash (there's close to 15,000 to be found in the Moore Forest alone).
Once you finish all there is to finish in Moore Village (which isn't a lot),
head over to the forest.

All the treasures here are safe to get, so don't worry about monsters guarding
them.  Work your way through the dungeon to a save point.  Use it and continue
on.  Out of nowhere the forest with catch ablaze.  After a few moments a moogle
will pop-up and offer you shelter in a cave.  Inside you will wait it out until
the fire is gone.  Before you leave you can restore at the pond.  Make one
Samurai and also give the !Mix ability to all of your characters.  What classed
you make your other three characters really isn't important, just make sure
everyone has !Mix.  Then continue on until you reach the boss(es) of the
forest, the Seal Guardians, remembering to pick up the Flame Shield mind you.

BOSS: Seal Guardians - Bartz (level 6, Samurai), Faris (level 7), Reina (level
6), Galuf (level 6)

Have everyone !Mix a Samson Power (Antidote and Holy Water) on your Samurai.
Doing so will raise his/her level by 10.  Since your level effects how much
damage $Toss does, the higher your level the more HP it takes off.  Best of all
is that it won't drain your gold a huge deal (it will take off the amount of
gold that it normally would for your REAL level).  Anyway, after two Samson
Powers I used !$Toss which took off 3,600 HP then I used a third another Samson
Power and !$Toss again and it took over 5,000 HP killing all four Seal
Guardians before they are weak enough to cast their 'near fatal' spells.

A more precise way of doing is to successfully use about ten or so Samson
Powers on your Samurai (which would put his/her level over 100) and then use
!$Toss which will take off 9999 HP.  My problem was that the Seal Guardians
killed off two of my characters early one (as in the first round) so I couldn't
build up to level 100 or so.  As long as you can pull off at least one !$Toss
after two Samson Powers and a second !$Toss after a third Samson Power, you
should be fine.

(Thanks to AWJ for the above strategy of defeating the Seal Guardians)

There's also another method that involves the !Mix command to kill the Seal
Guardians.

The Seal Guardians aren't protected against instant death, so you can !Mix four
Doom Potions (Dark Matter and Phoenix Down) to kill them one by one.  Dark
Matters are hard to come by, but they can be stolen in the Valley of Dragons
from DragonZombies.

(Thanks to Armisael for the second tip on defeating the Seal Guardians)

After that Exdeath makes and entrance and a long scene will take place.  After
the scene, Galuf will find himself fighting Exdeath alone.

BOSS: Exdeath - Galuf (level 6)

This is going to be a long battle.  You have to do a certain amount of damage
before this battle ends.  Unfortunately, I did not have the foresight to
realize that and was stuck with a Chemist...  I wish I would have made Galuf a
Trainer and released one of those Iron Dresses, but I didn't, so you know.  You
can't die, so just continue attacking Exdeath and eventually he will go down.
I got bored so I just !Mixed a few Samson Powers so I could be doing some
better damage (I'm sorry but 150 HP per attack wasn't cutting it).

After the battle another scene will occur and Krile will join your party.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------
2-E: EXDEATH'S CASTLE
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Krile will summon her dragon to fly you out of the forest.  Fly your dragon to
the treeless spot of land just directly to the left of Moore.  Get off your
dragon and board your submarine and head towards Exdeath's Castle.  You can
restore and save on the first floor of Exdeath's castle.  Bringing along a
Geomancer is a good idea here, so you should probably change one character into
a Geomancer.  Then continue up through the castle via the stairs in the main
hall.  All the chests in the castle are safe, so don't worry about encountering
monsters while trying to open them.

On the third floor, you'll come to a dead-end.  Turn around and head back and
Krile will sense an illusion.  Kelga will help dispel the illusion so that you
may continue on with your quest.

The seventh floor is going to be annoying, especially for Anthology players.
If you time your jump incorrectly, you will face a random battle.  I wouldn't
worry about the chests (they contain a Kotestsu and a Blizzard Sword, nothing
important).  Once passed the room you'll find a save point.  Now is the time to
go back and get the chests.  That way if you mess up you could just restart.

On the tenth floor you'll come to a room with a bunch of skull tiles on the
ground.  Make your way to the very top one (the Geomancer helps big time here)
and step on it and you'll be warped right in front of Carbuncle.  Before you
chose to fight Carbuncle, make all your characters Trainers.

BOSS: Carbuncle - Bartz (level 6, Trainer), Faris (level 7, Trainer), Reina
(level 6, Trainer), Krile (level 6, Trainer)

Carbuncle will more than likely use a spell of some sort and kill off one of
your Trainers.  That's not a problem since you only need to !Free three Iron
Dresses to finish off Carbuncle.  With three Trainers still alive, that goal
shouldn't be a problem at all.

Chances are you will have one Iron Dress left, you should !Free it as soon as
you can (just not in a battle with one monster).  You now need to !Catch four
Yellow Dragons.  Head back to the save point and save your game.  On the
seventh floor you'll randomly encounter Yellow Dragons.  It seems that
'DoomClaw' won't work on them.  Instead use 'Missile.'  If you are equipped
with the Kornago's Gourd, one 'Missile' should be enough.  If not, then use two
'Missiles' then !Catch the Yellow Dragon.

After !Catching four Yellow Dragons continue on with the dungeon.  Keep on
going and you'll sooner or later hit a second save point.  Use it.  Go up to
the next room.  If you open the chest, a battle with Gilgamesh will start soon.
The battle is somewhat hard (I haven't found a cheap way to finish off
Gilgamesh yet).  The best strategy I could come up with is summon Golem and
throwing ninja skills.  Stealing from Gilgamesh is hard as well (nine times out
of ten you'll get a crappy Potion instead of the Genji Helmet).  The battle
nets you the 'wonderful' Excalipur as well.  You do NOT have to do is battle if
you don't want too by simply not examining the chest.  It's your call.  If you
do decide to battle Gilgamesh, make sure someone has the !Mix ability.

BOSS: Gilgamesh - Bartz (level 6, Ninja), Faris (level 7, Summoner), Reina
(level 6, Ninja), Krile (level 6, Ninja)

!Mix a 'Blessed Kiss' (Holy Water and Maiden's Kiss) ASAP.  Doing so will put
Gilgamesh in 'Haste' and 'Berserk' status.  You may question why you want to
put him do that (especially 'Haste') but it will prevent him from using magic.
Then summon Golem as soon as you can (the Hair Ornament should be equipped
since you may have to re-summon Golem), then just !Throw various ninja skills
(or break elemental rods) till the battle is over.  The hard part will be to
keep your summoner's HP high.  Even with the Hair Ornament you'll only be able
to cast Golem about four times.  You can try to !Steal a Genji Helmet, but I
just gave up after restarting like 20 times...

If the above method is too hard for you, you can just make Bartz a Knight and
use the '!Guard/Cover' combo here.  Just make sure you !Mix a 'Blessed Kiss'
then proceed with the ninja skills (or elemental rods).

If worse comes to worse, you could always just !Free your Yellow Dragons and
!Catch four more, but you probably don't want to do that.

Whether you fight Gilgamesh is up to you (do it for pride!) but Exdeath isn't.
I would make everyone in your group a Trainer with 'Learning' before going up
the stairs leading to Exdeath.  Once you reach Exdeath you should be prepared
for an easy battle.

BOSS: Exdeath - Bartz (level 6, Trainer), Faris (level 7, Trainer), Reina
(level 6, Trainer), Krile (level 6, Trainer)

Exdeath will likely cast 'Condemnd' as his first move (that's why you want
everyone with the 'Learning' ability).  When your turn comes up, one by one
!Free your Yellow Dragons.  Yellow Dragons take off 1/4 of the enemy's TOTAL HP
(not current), so !Freeing four Yellow Dragons defeats Exdeath.

That covers it for World 2!  If you followed this guide you should either be
5/5/4/4 or 6/7/6/6 (depending on whether you used !Catch on the first batch of
enemies in the Big Bridge; I didn't think about that until it was too late...).
Take a deep breath, you've earned it.  One more world to go...

As it turns out, I only used two Ice Rods throughout the entire second world.
I told you that you wouldn't need very many of them.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
WORLD THREE: THE COMBINED WORLD
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3-A: GILL'S SHRINE
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When your characters come to, you'll notice a familiar castle off in the
distance.  It's none other than Tycoon Castle!  Head there and go talk to the
Chancellor.  A celebration will shortly start and a little ways into it Krile
will leave the party.  Follow her to the south to the balcony.  Krile will join
up with Bartz here.  Make your way back to the entrance and Bartz and Krile
will decide to leave Faris and Reina behind to lead their people.  At the
entrance a soldier will come rushing up and inform you that the bride to the
west has been completed.  If this isn't an obvious hint to go cross the bridge
to the west, I don't know what is.  Anyway after crossing the bridge head north
through the mountains and you'll come up to a cave.  When you enter the cave,
Boko of all people (err... of all chocobos) will greet you.  A comically scene
will occur when Boko introduces the party to his wife.  Anyway you now can ride
Boko again.

To find Gill's shrine you have to cross some rivers and small lakes.  Ride your
chocobo back to Tycoon castle and north from there.  Turn west and you'll make
your way through some mountains.  Follow the path and you'll reach the town of
Tule.  Get off your chocobo, form a party of ninjas, equip any Elf Cloaks you
may have, and save your game.  Continue on and you'll fall through a hole in a
valley where your party will encounter Antolyon.

BOSS: Antolyon - Bartz (level 6, Ninja), Krile (level 6, Ninja)

Truth to be told, I honestly haven't found an easy way to kill Antolyon.  He's
level 34, so 'Level 5 Doom' won't work.  'DoomClaw,' 'Missile,' and !Mix have
virtually no effect on him.  Finally you can't encounter battles on the world
map (don't ask me why) so you can't !Catch/!Free monsters.  The boss does have
a weakness to water.  The only way I could win this battle is by !Throwing
Water Skills.  Each skill will do about 1,000 - 1,200 damage against the
Antolyon.  The bad news is that you have to !Throw about eight of them.
Thankfully the Antolyon likes to waste a lot of its turns casting 'Dischord' on
your characters.  Oh no!  The levels of my characters have been halved!  What
does that put me at?  Level 3?  Its physical attack is deadly.  Hopefully the
Elf Cloak will help you evade.  This strategy depends a lot on luck but it's
the only strategy I can come up with right now.

At any rate, after the battle Faris will tease you with a rope for a while and
then lowers it so Bartz, Krile, and Boko can climb out of the monsters nest.
Faris will join the party here, which is pretty damn sweet in my opinion.

After Faris joins Bartz and Krile hop on Boko and continue on the trip.  You'll
go south a bit and will reach Gill's cave.  Get off your chocobo and enter the
cave.  Inside you will find Gill of all people (err.. turtles).  They will take
for a bit and then Exdeath will make an appearance and a scene will occur.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3-B: THE PYRAMID IN THE DESERT
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

When the event is over, you'll find yourself at the Library of Ancients.  Some
talking will begin and you will be instructed to head to the pyramid to the
west.  Before you go you should reenter the library and head towards the top of
the library.  A scholar to the right will teach you the 'Song of Magic,' but I
think you have to first battle the monster in the right-most book.  You can
run-away and the book will disappear.  Afterwards talk to the scholar to learn
the spell.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VI.) DISCLAIMER/COPYRIGHT
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Writing any guide requires work, and because of that I would appreciate it if
you obey the disclaimer.  This work is copyrighted by me, Eric White (Bob the
Almighty), and if you wish to post this guide on your page then you have my
best wishes.  However all I ask in return is that this guide remains unedited
and that you do not sell it for money.  I wrote this guide for free and I want
fans to access this guide for free.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VII.) CREDITS/THANKS
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Squaresoft (www.squaresoft.com) - They made the game and without the game,
                                 this guide wouldn't be here.

CJayC and GameFAQs (www.gamefaqs.com) -  Seeing how this guide is featured at
                                        Game FAQs and since CJayC maintains
                                        the site, they deserve some
                                        recognition.

Alex Jackson (AWJ) - I learnt almost everything I know about Final Fantasy V
                    from his posts over at the Game FAQs forum.  His messages
                    were also what motivated me into attempting a low-level
                    game of my own.

Armisael - Armisael posted a number of messages over at the Game FAQs boards
          detailing his low-level game, making this guide easier to complete.
          We swapped some ideas back and worth as well.

You are viewing proxied material from gopher.endangeredsoft.org. The copyright of proxied material belongs to its original authors. Any comments or complaints in relation to proxied material should be directed to the original authors of the content concerned. Please see the disclaimer for more details.