IV. WALKTHROUGH AND BATTLE STRATEGIES - MAIN QUEST 00walk0 ******************************************************************************** You'll begin by entering the protagonist's name. Ramza is the default, so that's what I'll be using throughout the guide. ---CHOOSING YOUR BITHDATE--- Next up is your birthdate, which determines your Zodiac sign. A character's Zodiac sign affects his/her compatibility with other units, which can make your attacks and/or healing somewhat more or less effective. In a regular game, it's not too important to give Ramza a particular Zodiac sign, so you can enter your own birthday or whatever else you want if you'd like. But, if you're feeling especially strategic, you may want to give him a particular sign depending on your game plans: > If you want to maximize the damage Ramza can do to enemy bosses, Capricorn is probably your best bet; you'll get this sign if you enter a birthdate between December 23rd and January 19th. > If you plan to use Ramza as a support/healing character, Pisces will give him good compatibility with a number of key allies. You'll get this sign with a birthdate between February 19th and March 20th. (Virgo -- August 23rd to September 22nd -- will give him compatibility with quite a few party members as well.) > If you want as wide a range of Zodiac signs as possible, you could make Ramza a Taurus, Virgo, or Sagittarius, as no other story characters have these signs. ---THE FIRST BATTLE--- The game starts at Orbonne Monastery. A band of enemy knights shows up, and you have to fight. ---Battle 0: Orbonne Monastery-------------------------------------------------- YOUR FORCES: Ramza, Agrias [guest], Gaffgarion [guest], Ladd [guest], Alicia [guest], Lavian [guest] ENEMY FORCES: Lezales (lv 9 Knight) Fuchs (lv 6 Chemist) Biggs (lv 7 Archer) Diesch (lv 6 Archer) Wezlef (lv 7 Archer) VICTORY CONDITION: KO all enemies LOSS CONDITION: Ramza dies or all allies are KOed/Stone WEATHER: Day, light rain (no special effects) MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 14 x 10 Grassland Tanglevine 50% Wooden Floor Will-o'-the-Wisp 16% Ocean Torrent 14% Obstructed -- 9% Flagstone Contortion 9% Stone Outcropping Tremor 1% --STRATEGY-- This battle is pretty much automatic, as everyone except Ramza is controlled by the computer. Gaffgarion and Agrias will take care of most of the enemies without any trouble. You can have Ramza attack the enemies with low HP to help finish them off, and let Gaffgarion and Agrias save their attacks for the stronger enemies. Even if Ramza just stands still, though, the other characters should be able to finish off the enemies on their own, though, so it doesn't matter too much what Ramza does. It's possible that one or more of your weaker teammates--Alicia, Lavian, and Ladd--will get KOed. Don't worry; none of them can die permanently in this intro battle. It also doesn't matter if any of their items get broken, as those will come back as well. BATTLE TROPHIES: None -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After Gaffgarion and Agrias finish wiping out the enemies, there will be some story scenes, and Ramza will enter into an extended flashback. %%%CHAPTER I: THE MEAGER%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%walk1 All of Chapter I is a flashback to Ramza's days as a knight-in-training with the Order of the Northern Sky a year prior. You (Ramza) and Delita will be at the academy in Gariland, where you receive the assignment to defeat some thieves entering the town. You are automatically joined by four other Squires and two Chemists. ---INITIAL PREPARATION--- Before the first battle begins, you'll be given a chance to save. Save your game so that you won't have to repeat the intro battle! After you save, you'll deploy your characters for the battle. If this is your first Final Fantasy Tactics experience, you might want to check out the "Basic Mechanics and Tactics" section for some general gameplay information. (Some of this information is also in the tutorial, but I've included some additional material not covered there.) Press Ctrl+F and enter 00basic to jump back up there. ---Battle 1: Gariland----------------------------------------------------------- YOUR FORCES: Ramza, Delita [guest], 4 others ENEMY FORCES: Chemist (lv 1, male) Squire (lv 1, male) Squire (lv 1, male) Squire (lv 1, male) Squire (lv 1, female) ALLY: Ramza - lv 1 Squire - Bravery 70, Faith 70 Equipment : Broadsword, Leather Cap, Clothing, Battle Boots Abilities : Mettle GUEST: Delita [Sagittarius] - lv 1 Squire - Bravery 71, Faith 55 Equipment : Broadsword, Leather Cap, Clothing Abilities : Mettle, other abilities random VICTORY CONDITION: KO all enemies LOSS CONDITION: Ramza dies or all allies are KOed/Stone WEATHER: Clear day (no special effects) MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 15 x 10 Flagstone Contortion 28% Canal Torrent 25% Roof, Chimney Wind Blast 17% Grassland Tanglevine 17% Wooden Floor, Coffer Will-o'-the-Wisp 8% Bridge Wind Slash 3% Obstructed -- 1% --STRATEGY-- The key in this battle is to advance slowly and not to let your characters get spread out. Stay on the left side, away from the bulk of the houses. The enemy Chemist has the ability to heal the other enemies, which can be a pain. If you have the chance to take him out, do so; otherwise, he'll heal the enemy soldiers you've been attacking. Actually, you can stop him from doing this even if you attack him just once. He'll use up his turn healing himself instead of healing any of the other enemies. Attack from the enemy from behind or from the side whenever possible, as you're more likely to land a hit that way. In general, rear attacks are best as they also cancel out enemy shields -- but at this point, no enemies have shields, so side and rear attacks will be equally effective. At the end of each character's turn, you choose which direction they facing. Make sure you end your turns facing the enemies, which will make it harder for them to hit you from behind! (When possible, you can even put your back to the side of a building to protect it completely!) Make good use of your Chemists for healing--you start out with 5 Potions and you can use them to heal a character who gets injured. If you don't have teammates who need healing, the Chemists can also attack. (Chemists have an inherent Throw Items ability, so they don't have to be next to a character to use an item on him/her. This is NOT true for other characters using the Item ability.) Don't worry about Delita. The Guest AI is pretty reckless and it's likely he'll get himself KOed. But since he's a Guest character, he can't die permanently and will be revived at the end of the battle. BATTLE TROPHIES: 2000 gil, Mythril Knife, Phoenix Down, Potion -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---THE MAP SCREEN--- After you win the battle against the thieves, you will go to the map screen. You can click on Gariland to visit its shops. The Tavern is used to hear information about the game's story and world. Later on, you can also use it to enter the multiplayer mode and to run Errands for extra JP and money. The Outfitter is used to buy equipment and items. Finally, the Warriors' Guild allows you to recruit new human characters to your roster. ---RECRUITING CHARACTERS--- You may want to stop at the Warriors' Guild to recruit some new characters. In particular, look for characters with reasonably high Bravery, especially if your current characters don't have very good Bravery. Bravery affects the your chance of using Reaction Abilities and the strength of some attacks -- higher is better, of course! (Although there are abilities to raise Bravery later, you probably won't get them right away.) You may also want a character or two with high Faith to turn into a magick-user. A second thing to look at is the character's Zodiac sign. Taurus and Capricorn characters will be particularly effective against the bosses in this chapter and the next, so getting some of those signs on your roster will give you a bit of a leg up. If you want to spend the time, you can mine the Guild until you get just the character you want. If you don't like the character that appears; simply select "Don't Hire." You won't be charged anything and you can select Male Soldier or Female Soldier to roll another character. You can keep doing this until you get some high Bravery characters ... but it's certainly not necessary to spend the time here if you don't want to. There are a few gender differences to be aware of. Male characters tend to have more HP and Physical Attack, while females have more MP and Magick Attack. So, if you have a gender-mixed team, it's best develop female characters towards being mages and males towards being fighters. More importantly, however, many of the game's most powerful items can only be used by female characters, so female recruits tend to be more useful overall in the long run. This is probably the only time in the game that you'll want to use the Warriors' Guild. If you lose any of your main team members later in the game, you're usually better off resetting. It's tough to replace high-level characters who have already been built up with a lot of abilities! ---SHOPPING--- Each town has an Outfitter where you can buy items. As you progress through the game, you'll see new items available in the Outfitter. Different towns will offer different items, as well. Broadly speaking, castles have one set of equipment, whereas towns and cities have a different set. ---New Items for Purchase------------------------------------------------------- TYPE PRICE WHERE DETAILS Broadsword Sword 200 Garil./Castl Atk: 4, 5% Parry Dagger Knife 100 City/Castle Atk: 3, 5% Parry Rod Rod 200 City/TrCity Atk: 3, 20% Parry Oak Staff Staff 120 City/TrCity Atk: 3, 15% Parry Leather Cap Hat 150 City/TrCity HP +8 Clothing Clothes 150 City/TrCity HP +5 Potion Item 50 Any Restores 30 HP Antidote Item 50 Any Removes: Poison Eye Drops Item 50 Any Removes: Blind Phoenix Down Item 300 Any Removes: KO, restores minimal HP -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You should definitely stop by the Outfitter in Gariland to buy some Potions. If one or both of your Chemists has enough JP to learn the Phoenix Down ability, learn that ability and then buy a few (1-2) Phoenix Downs at the store. Phoenix Downs are great to have as they allow you to revive a KOed character. You'll also want to equip one of your Chemists with the Mythril Knife that you picked up as a Battle Trophy in the first battle; it's stronger than the Daggers they currently have. If you recruited some female characters and plan on using them as fighting units, buy them Broadswords to replace the Daggers they start off with. Male characters already start with a Broadsword. ---A NOTE ABOUT TREASURE HUNTER--- From this point forward, you can use the Chemist's Treasure Hunter movement ability to find hidden items on each battle map. In my opinion, the Treasure Hunter ability is rarely worth using. The items that you can get with Treasure Hunter are usually just gear that you can already buy in stores. Moreover, you need a LOW Bravery statistic to get the equipment with Treasure Hunter, but a HIGH Bravery statistic is better for everything else in the game. It's just not worth it. Much later in the game, there will be some rare items that you can get with Treasure Hunter, but I'll alert you to these when they appear and you don't really need to worry about Treasure Hunter until then. But, if you DO want to go for the Treasure Hunter items, I've listed their coordinates in each battle strategy. The coordinates are given relative to a particular corner. First, identify which corner is the reference corner using the tile height and terrain type information I've provided. Then, tap the analog stick (on the PSP) or swipe the screen (on an iPhone/iPad) to change your perspective. Keep doing this until the reference corner is at the bottom of the screen. Start at this corner. Then, tap the LEFT and UP arrows on the D-pad to move the cursor the specified number of spaces (e.g., Left: 2, Up: 3 means 2 tiles to the left and 3 tiles up). (See the Treasure Hunter & Traps section for a more complete description of the Treasure Hunter mechanics.) ---ONWARD--- Save the game by pressing Triangle and choosing Data, then head west to Mandalia Plain. As soon as you try to leave the city, you'll have a flashback (yes, a flashback within a flashback) to the death of Ramza's father Barbaneth. After that sequence has ended, you'll be back in Gariland. Click on Mandalia Plain once again and this time you'll actually get there. ---Battle 2: Mandalia Plain----------------------------------------------------- YOUR FORCES: Ramza, Delita [guest], Argath [guest], 3 others ENEMY FORCES: Thief (lv 2, male) Squire (lv 1, male) Squire (lv 1, male) Squire (lv 1, male) Squire (lv 1, male) Red Panther (lv 1) GUEST: Argath [Virgo] - lv 2 Squire - Bravery 73, Faith 59 Equipment : Longsword, Leather Cap, Clothing, Battle Boots Abilities : Fundaments, other abilities random VICTORY CONDITION: KO all enemies LOSS CONDITION: Top option - Ramza dies or all allies are KOed/Stone Bottom option - Argath is KOed or Ramza dies WEATHER: Clear day (no special effects) MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 13 x 12 Grassland Tanglevine 70% Obstructed -- 17% Stone Outcropping Tremor 13% --STRATEGY-- At Mandalia Plain, you'll meet Argath, under attack by the Corpse Brigade. You can choose whether or not to help him (bottom option) or just go after the Corpse Brigade (top option). > If you choose not to help Argath (top choice), your goal is just to defeat all the enemies. It doesn't matter if Argath is KOed during the battle or not. Choosing this option also adds 10 points to the Bravery score of every character in your current squad, including Delita and Argath. 2 points of this change will remain even after the battle. > Choosing to help Argath (bottom choice) adds an additional requirement to the battle: you'll have to keep Argath from getting KOed during the battle. This option has no effect on your team's Bravery. Neither option has any real long-term effect on the storyline. (They only change the dialogue in one other story scene.) So, the first option is clearly the best as it makes the battle easier AND gives you a boost in Bravery. If you DO choose the second option for whatever reason, you will need to protect Argath from being KOed. In this case, you'll need to start moving a Chemist towards Argath right away. Fortunately, Argath will probably flee away from the enemies and into one corner. Heal him just to be on the safe side, and then you're free to concentrate on the enemies. Attack the enemies from above if you can, and guard your back with the rocks scattered about the battlefield or with other ally units. Remember that if you act without moving, or move without acting, your next turn will come sooner than if you both act AND move. So if there's no real need for a character to move or to take action, don't do it just for the heck of it. Your next turn will come sooner if you don't. You'll encounter your first monster here in the form of a Red Panther. It's the toughest unit in the enemy forces, but it's not too bad. Be warned that, like all monsters, it may counterattack you whenever you attack it. Don't attack the Red Panther using a character who's low on HP, or the counterattack is liable to KO you! (You CAN avoid the counterattack by using the Squire ability Stone to attack from a distance, but this ability is really too weak to be worth using.) The Red Panther can also poison you, which causes you to lose a little HP after each turn you take. You can cure this with an Antidote if you want, but it's probably not necessary--the poison wears off after a short amount of time, anyway. This may be your first chance to pick up crystals or chests. When the counter over a KOed enemy unit goes down past 0, the unit vanishes and is replaced with a crystal or treasure chest. Pick these up by moving onto the tile with the crystal or chest. > Picking up a chest will give you an item. These are typically items you can buy at the Outfitter anyway and generally are not too important to collect. But early on, chests can still be useful to grab as money is tighter. > Picking up a crystal will either heal the unit, or in some cases give you the option of learning many of the defeated enemy's abilities. (Note that although you point the cursor at an individual ability, you actually learn ALL of the abilities offered, regardless of what you pick!) Crystals from monsters will only ever give you the option to heal. When given the chance to learn abilities, that's generally the best choice (unless you're in desperate need of healing), as this permanently adds abilities to the character! Crystals from humans are great to pick up as they can teach you new abilities, so grab them when you see them. Monster crystals are only necessary to pick up if you need healing. You may also want to grab crystals just to prevent the enemies from claiming them, as enemies can heal themselves with crystals too! If one of your OWN units gets KOed, you must act to revive the character before the countdown runs down and the character is lost permanently. Right now, you've got two ways to revive a character. If one of your Chemists learned the Phoenix Down ability and you have Phoenix Downs in stock, you can use a Phoenix Down to revive the character. Or, you can hurry and clear the battle before the countdown runs out -- when you win a battle, any characters who have been KOed but not completely erased will be brought back to life. BATTLE TROPHIES: Potion x2 --TREASURE HUNTER ITEMS-- Put this corner at screen bottom: Height 1, Stone Outcropping POOR ITEM GOOD ITEM TRAP Left: 4, Up: 8 (height: 2, Grassland) Hi-Potion Broadsword none Left: 0, Up: 12 (height: 1, Grassland) Potion Dagger none Left: 8, Up: 6 (height: 0, Grassland) Eye Drops Oak Staff none Left: 4, Up: 0 (height: 0, Grassland) Antidote Rod none -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---STORY EVENTS--- When the fight concludes, Argath will join as a guest regardless of which option you chose before the battle. Back on the map, go on up to Eagrose Castle. You'll have a brief chat with Dycedarg, then Zalbaag will send you to rendezvous with his spy at Dorter. ---JOB CHANGES--- At this point, you might want to consider changing some of your characters to new jobs. Chemists are really more useful than either White Mages or Black Mages, so keep your Chemists as-is. But you might want to change some of your Squires to Knights, since Knights have more HP and damage potential than Squires. (I made Ramza into a Knight at this point.) Archers should also be available at this time. They can be useful in the early game, but for the next few battles you may want to focus on melee combat. At any rate, it may be a good idea to keep at least one Squire, though. Why is that? As long as you have at least one Squire active in battle, everyone will earn some JP towards that job, and that will help you buy useful Squire abilities like Counter Tackle, Move +1, and JP Boost. Move +1 and JP Boost are particularly useful. JP Boost increases the amount of JP you earn, and will help you learn all the other abilities faster. Learning this ability is a VERY good investment. It'll also help you out in some of the future battles if you're able to teach Argath a simple Black Magick spell. This is pretty tricky, though, since he doesn't participate in any of the random battles and can only earn JP in the story battles. So, the only way to do this is to have your Chemists take enough actions during the story battles that Argath gains some JP in the Chemist job and is able to unlock the Black Mage job. It's cool if you can do this, but don't worry too much about it if you can't; it's not *necessary*. ---SHOPPING AT EAGROSE--- Before you leave Eagrose, stop by the Outfitter. There's new equipment for sale here. ---New Items for Purchase------------------------------------------------------- TYPE PRICE WHERE DETAILS Plumed Hat Hat 350 TrCity/City HP +16, MP +5 Leather Clothing Clothes 300 TrCity/City HP +10 Mythril Knife Knife 500 Castle/City Atk: 4, 5% Parry Longsword Sword 500 Castle Atk: 5, 10% Parry Bowgun Crossbw 400 Castle Atk: 3, 5% Parry Escutcheon Shield 400 Castle Phy.Evade: 10%, Mag.Evade: 3% Leather Helm Helm 200 Castle HP +10 Bronze Helm Helm 500 Castle HP +20 Leather Armor Armor 200 Castle HP +10 Linen Cuirass Armor 600 Castle HP +20 Battle Boots Shoes 1000 Any Move +1 Echo Herbs Item 50 Any Removes: Silence Maiden's Kiss Item 50 Any Removes: Toad Gold Needle Item 100 Any Removes: Stone -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stock up on Potions, then arm your characters with the new gear. Make sure all your Squires and Knights have Longswords, the best weapon available to them right now. And if you changed any of your characters' jobs, be sure they have equipment that goes with the new jobs. You can safely skip the Mythril Knife, though--it only increase a Chemist's attack power by 1 point, and they don't do much fighting, anyway. The shop also sells Battle Boots, which increase your movement range by 1 tile. As handy as this is, they're pricey, so you won't be able to afford them for your whole team. ---TRAVEL & RANDOM BATTLES--- Your next story destination is the Siedge Weald, to the east of Gariland. Head down that direction. Mandalia Plain is now a green dot on the map, which means there's a chance you'll get into a random battle when crossing it. Random battles are similar to story battles, but feature a somewhat random selection of enemies and contain mostly monsters rather than human enemies. In Chapter I, you'll mostly fight basic monsters, but there's a rare chance you'll encounter a second type of enemy party that may include humans or more advanced monsters. Because Delita and Argath are Guest characters, they will not participate in random battles, only story ones. In random battles, you do have the choice of whether or not to deploy Ramza, whereas he is always REQUIRED for story battles. ---MULTIPLAYER MODES--- On the PSP version, when you get to Gariland, you'll see a scene at the Tavern about the game's multiplayer modes. Both of these modes are now unlocked, and you can play them by visiting a Tavern in any town. Melee Mode is a "versus" mode that pits your party against another player's. Rendezvous Mode is a co-op mode in which you team up with another player to challenge various missions that will become unlocked as you play through the game. Right now, there's only one mission available, "Chocobo Defense." Both modes allow you to earn and keep JP and items; when you get to a high enough experience level, you can even obtain items that you can't get anywhere else. Another nice thing about these modes is that you can't permanently lose any items or characters, so they're risk- free. (Melee Mode does cost gil to play, though.) You can check them out now if you want, although at this point, the Rendezvous Mode mission may still be pretty challenging. Check out the Multiplayer Modes section below for more information on the modes' rules and for strategies for the Rendezvous Mode missions. (Note that both modes are playable only over a local, "ad hoc" connection.) The iOS version unfortunately does not have the multiplayer modes (at least as of this writing), but you'll eventually be able to buy the special rare items that PSP users can find in the multiplayer modes. If you don't have a chance to play the multiplayer modes, don't worry, you definitely don't need to play multiplayer in order to complete the single- player game. ---SHOPPING AT GARILAND--- The shop in Gariland sells different items than the one in Eagrose, so stop by the Outfitter before you leave town. The Gariland shop offers Plumed Hats and Leather Clothing, which are better armor for your Squires and Chemists. (Unlike in a lot of games, armor in FF Tactics doesn't actually reduce the damage you take; it gives you more HP or MP. Still, it helps you stay alive longer!) Pick up these upgrades as well; you want to make sure your Chemists stay alive so they can heal people! The Plumed Hat in particular is a good buy; it costs less than the Leather Clothing but gives you a bigger HP bonus! Don't forget that you can change Delita's and Argath's equipment, too, despite the fact that they're guest characters. You can (and should!) have them learn new abilities, too! Continue on to the Weald and you'll encounter a third story battle. ---Battle 3: The Siedge Weald--------------------------------------------------- YOUR FORCES: Ramza, Delita [guest], Argath [guest], 3 others ENEMY FORCES: Bomb* Bomb* Red Panther* Black Goblin* Black Goblin* Goblin* Goblin* * The levels of these enemies depends on the highest level on your own roster. VICTORY CONDITION: KO, petrify, or recruit all enemies LOSS CONDITION: Ramza dies or all allies are KOed/Stone WEATHER: Day, light rain (no special effects) MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 12 x 11 Grassland Tanglevine 65% Marsh Quicksand 21% Bridge Wind Slash 5% Soil Sinkhole 4% Obstructed -- 4% Stone Outcropping Tremor 1% --STRATEGY-- This battle is nothing but monsters; watch out for their counterattacks! If you do have some range attacks, those will keep you safe from the counterattacks -- all monsters can only counterattack at a range of 1 panel. But it doesn't really matter either way, since these monsters aren't too tough for the most part anyway. Take out on the enemies on the higher ground first before you start crossing the water. Otherwise, you'll expose yourself to attack from above. BATTLE TROPHIES: None --TREASURE HUNTER ITEMS-- Put this corner at screen bottom: Height 4.5, Grassland POOR ITEM GOOD ITEM TRAP Left: 0, Up: 10 (height: 3.5, Grassl.) Echo Herbs Bowgun none Left: 6, Up: 5 (height: 2, Grassland) Hi-Potion Leather Cap none Left: 1, Up: 3 (height: 3.5, Grassl.) Phoenix Down Escutcheon none Left: 5, Up: 0 (height: 1.5, Grassl.) Potion Leather Helm none ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You may want to gain some levels and abilities before proceeding on to Dorter. You can do this by strolling back and forth across the Mandalia Plain or the Siedge Weald until you get into a random battle. Beat up the monsters to earn extra Exp and JP. Make sure your Chemists have learned both Potion and Phoenix Down. You can skip the abilities for all the items that cure individual status condition; most of these conditions aren't that bad and when you get Remedies, those will cure *any* negative status. Learning Move +1 for as many characters as possible is also very helpful. When you enter Dorter, there will be a cutscene, and then you'll be tossed into a battle at the Dorter Slums. ---Battle 4: Dorter Slums------------------------------------------------------- YOUR FORCES: Ramza, Delita [guest], Argath [guest], 3 others ENEMY FORCES: Knight (lv 4, male) Archer (lv 3, male) Archer (lv 3, male) Archer (lv 3, male) Black Mage (lv 3, male) Black Mage (lv 2, male) VICTORY CONDITION: KO, petrify, recruit, or Vampirize all enemies LOSS CONDITION: Ramza dies or all allies are KOed/Stone WEATHER: Clear day (no special effects) MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 16 x 10 Roof Wind Blast 39% Soil Sinkhole 36% Ocean Torrent 11% Grassland Tanglevine 9% Coffer Will-o'-the-Wisp 3% Flagstone Contortion 3% --STRATEGY-- The enemy has Archers and Black Mages, who both have ranged attacks and can hit you from a distance. This means that you'll need to be more aggressive; if you hang back at a distance, the enemy can keep hitting you from afar! Since you start on the street and the enemy has the high ground, Archers are not particularly useful here; they won't have a clear shot with their bows. On the other hand, Move +1 is a great ability to have as it helps you quickly close the distance between you and the enemy's ranged attackers. When one of your characters gets hit with a Black Magick spell, the characters in adjacent tiles also take damage. There are two ways to avoid this. While the spell is still charging, you can move the other characters out of the way, or you can kill the Black Mage charging the spell and stop the attack entirely! Since the spells do quite a bit of damage, it's great to take out the Black Mages as soon as you have the chance. They don't have much HP so you can finish them off easily. (Note that spells can also have a "friendly fire" effect -- if another enemy is in range of the spell when it goes off, they get hurt too! You can sometimes use this to your advantage by positioning targeted characters next to enemy units.) To check when the spell is going to be fired, press the Circle button when it's your turn, then use the Triangle button to bring up the menu and choose Turn List. If you have Black Mages of your own, you can also use these area damage effects to extend the effective range of your magicks. If the range of your magick is one tile too short to hit an enemy, you can target the tile directly in front of the enemy and the magick will still hit the enemy thanks to the area effect. This is a good tactic for hitting more distant enemies, like you see in this battle. Just make sure the enemy won't be able to move out of the way before the magick activates! Two of the enemy Archers are on the tall building beside where you start. At the beginning of the battle, Delita and Argath will begin climbing up the building to attack them. Let Delita and Argath handle those two Archers, and send at most one other character up the building. The rest of your team should advance down the street. Take out the Black Mages first since they can do so much damage. It's likely that one or more of your characters will get KOed during the battle. Remember that if the counter over their head goes below 0, you lose the character permanently. To avoid this, when a character's counter gets low (0 or 1), use a Phoenix Down on him or her. Even if another attack KOs the character again right away, the counter will be reset and you've bought yourself a few more turns to finish the battle. This is a pretty tough battle. If you don't win at first, try again, or build up your levels first. BATTLE TROPHIES: 500 gil, Iron Sword, Hempen Robe, Ether --TREASURE HUNTER ITEMS-- Put this corner at screen bottom: Height 1.5, Soil POOR ITEM GOOD ITEM TRAP Left: 0, Up: 4 (height: 1, Soil) Antidote Leather Armor none Left: 6, Up: 1 (height: 9, Roof) Echo Herbs Mythril Knife none Left: 4, Up: 12 (height: 3.5, Grassl.) Eye Drops Clothing none Left: 7, Up: 14 (height: 1.5, Soil) Phoenix Down Longsword none -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Upon your victory, you'll be able to visit the town. There's no new equipment to buy, but stock up on items. You'll want at least 10 Potions and 4 Phoenix Downs. Potions are cheap (50 gil each), so there's no reason not to carry plenty. Also, winning the battle at the Slums will have netted you an Iron Sword, which is a better weapon than anything you can find in stores. Equip it on one of your characters. Again, you may want to build levels before proceeding to the next battle. When you're ready, go on up to the Zeklaus Desert, where you'll have a battle at the Sand Rat's Sietch. ---Battle 5: The Sand Rat's Sietch---------------------------------------------- YOUR FORCES: 1st Squad - Ramza, Delita [guest], 1 other 2nd Squad - Argath [guest], 2 others ENEMY FORCES: Knight (lv 5, male) Knight (lv 4, male) Knight (lv 3, male) Monk (lv 4, male) Monk (lv 3, male) Archer (lv 3, male) VICTORY CONDITION: KO, petrify, recruit, or Vampirize all enemies LOSS CONDITION: Ramza dies or all allies are KOed/Stone WEATHER: Clear day (no special effects) MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 11 x 10 Soil Sinkhole 38% Grassland Tanglevine 26% Flagstone, Stone Wall Contortion 26% Obstructed -- 9% Coffer Will-o'-the-Wisp 1% --STRATEGY-- You'll deploy your characters in two squads for this battle. Be sure to deploy somebody with the Items command (either a Chemist, or another character who's learned the ability) in the second group. There are two entrances to the fort. When the battle begins, send most of your characters towards the entrance that's closer to Argath. This is where the bulk of the fighting will take place. Argath will probably make a suicide run into the building, but keep healing him anyway. If you were able to give him a Black Magick spell, he'll be very helpful. Don't crowd the doorway or you'll get in trouble. Let the enemies come outside to you. Meanwhile, Delita will head towards the other entrance. You might want to send one other character with him. Hopefully, Delita's squad have the chance to sneak up on the enemy Archer from the rear and take him out so he can't keep shooting at the main squad. Remember that if a character doesn't move on a particular turn, his or her next turn will come quicker. If you don't need to move to land an attack, stay put and you'll get more turns. This is especially helpful for your Chemist; by having him/her remain stationary and throw items to the characters who need healing, you'll get more turns and more chances to heal. This is a difficult fight--the toughest in Chapter I--so it may take you a couple tries. BATTLE TROPHIES: 500 gil, Hi-Potion, Blind Knife --TREASURE HUNTER ITEMS-- Put this corner at screen bottom: Height 3, Soil POOR ITEM GOOD ITEM TRAP Left: 9, Up: 10 (height: 3, Grassland) Eye Drops Leather Clothes none Left: 4, Up: 5 (height: 0, Grassland) Potion Bronze Helm none Left: 2, Up: 6 (height: 2, Coffer) Hi-Potion Plumed Hat none Left: 0, Up: 10 (height: 0, Soil) Antidote Linen Cuirass none -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After you win at the Sietch, you'll rescue the Marquis. You'll also pick up a Blind Knife. It's not stronger than the other knives you already have, but it does inflict Blind status on enemies (making their attacks easier for you to dodge), so give it to a Chemist. ---ZEKLAUS WILDERNESS--- Zeklaus Desert now becomes another "wilderness" location where you can get into random battles. The map you'll see in random battles at Zeklaus Desert is actually completely different from the Sand Rat's Sietch map. ---Extra Battlefield: Zeklaus Desert-------------------------------------------- MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 18 x 10 Sand Sandstorm 62% Stone Outcropping Tremor 36% Obstructed -- 2% Note that there's a very valuable pair of Battle Boots stashed on this map that you can acquire with the Treasure Hunter movement ability. As with most good Treasure Hunter items, your chance of getting this item goes UP with LOWER Bravery. --TREASURE HUNTER ITEMS-- Put this corner at screen bottom: Height 1, Sand POOR ITEM GOOD ITEM TRAP Left: 2, Up: 7 (height: 2.5, Sand) Phoenix Down Blind Knife Sten Needle Left: 0, Up: 11 (height: 0, Sand) Echo Herbs Battle Boots Degenerator Left: 6, Up: 8 (height: 0, Sand) Hi-Potion Thunder Rod none Left: 6, Up: 17 (height: 0, Sand) Potion Iron Sword Hypnogas -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---NEW MISSION & SHOPPING--- Return to Eagrose Castle. You'll meet Duke Larg, and then Dycedarg will let Ramza and friends in on the next mission against the Corpse Brigade. The shops at all three towns will now be stocked with new items. ---New Items for Purchase------------------------------------------------------- TYPE PRICE WHERE DETAILS Ice Rod Rod 400 TrCity/City Atk: 3, 20% Parry, ice elemental, Boosts: Ice, Spell Effect: Ice Flame Rod Rod 400 TrCity/City Atk: 3, 20% Parry, fire elemental, Boosts: Fire, Spell Effect: Fire Thunder Rod Rod 400 TrCity/City Atk: 3, 20% Parry, lightning elemental, Boosts: Lightning, Spell Effect: Thunder White Staff Staff 800 TrCity/City Atk: 3, 15% Parry, Removes (from target): Doom Red Hood Hat 800 TrCity/City HP +24, MP +8 Leather Plate Clothes 500 TrCity/City HP +18 Hempen Robe Robe 1200 TrCity/City HP +10, MP +10 Blind Knife Knife 800 Castle/City Atk: 4, 5% Parry, Inflicts: Blind Iron Sword Sword 900 Castle Atk: 6, 5% Parry Longbow Bow 800 Castle Atk: 4, 0% Parry Buckler Shield 700 Castle Phy.Evade: 13%, Mag.Evade: 3% Iron Helm Helm 1000 Castle HP +30 Bronze Armor Armor 800 Castle HP +30 Shoulder Cape Cloak 300 Any Phy.Evade: 10%, Mag.Evade: 10% Hi-Potion Item 200 Any Restores 70 HP -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- At Eagrose, you can buy Iron Swords for both your Squires and Knights, as well as Escutcheons, Iron Helms, and Bronze Armor for any Knights you have. Gariland has better light armor, used by jobs other than Knights. If you're using mages, you can buy new rods and staves at Gariland and Dorter, as well as Hempen Robes, which will give them more MP. All towns also carry a new accessory: the Shoulder Cape, which will boost both your physical and magick evade rates by a little bit (10%). It's not really as useful as the Battle Boots, though. But the most important new item isn't actually an equipment--it's the Hi-Potion, which is now for sale under Items! Hi-Potions restore 70 HP instead of the 30 you get from a regular Potion. Since you should have a lot more than 30 HP by now, you'll need the healing boost. You can't use Hi-Potions unless you've learned the Chemist's Hi-Potion ability, so be sure to have your item-users learn this ability. Since there's a lot to buy, you might not be able to afford to buy all of the new gear. Aside from restocking your item supply, the priorities are probably the Iron Swords and Bronze Armor at Eagrose, and the Leather Plate or Red Hood at Gariland. Note that the Iron Helm and Bronze Armor both give you the same HP bonus, but the Bronze Armor is cheaper! If you can't buy all the armor, the Bronze Armor is definitely a better buy than the Iron Helm. After you're done shopping, your new destination is the Brigands' Den, south of the Mandalia Plain. ---Battle 6: Brigands' Den------------------------------------------------------ YOUR FORCES: Ramza, Delita [guest], Argath [guest], 3 others ENEMY FORCES: Milleuda (lv 7 Knight) Thief (lv 6, male) Thief (lv 5, male) White Mage (lv 6, female) White Mage (lv 5, female) BOSS: Milleuda [Virgo] - lv 7 female Knight - Bravery 68, Faith 58 Equipment : Iron Shield, Bronze Shield, Iron Helm, Chainmail, Power Gauntlet Abilities : Arts of War, random action ability, Parry, random Squire support ability, Move +1 VICTORY CONDITION: KO Milleuda LOSS CONDITION: Ramza dies or all allies are KOed/Stone WEATHER: Day, rainstorm (evade rate vs. bows x 1.33, fire dmg -25%, lightning dmg +25%) MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 12 x 10 Wooden Floor Will-o'-the-Wisp 37% Ocean Torrent 30% Flagstone Contortion 21% Grassland Tanglevine 12% --STRATEGY-- You may want to deploy more male characters than female ones here since there's a chance that one of the male Thieves can Charm a female character, making her temporarily fight against you. But this is pretty unlikely, so don't go out of your way to adjust your roster. Also, if you happen to have any male Pisces characters, or Taurus and Capricorns of either gender, deploying them here can be useful. Milleuda, the boss here, is always a female Virgo, and the three Zodiac signs listed above will do extra damage to her. (You can only prepare your Zodiac signs in this way when fighting bosses; non-boss enemies have randomized Zodiac signs.) It's definitely not essential to have them, but it'll help you out if you do. I recommend standing up on the cliffs on the left side of the fort when possible; you have a height advantage there. Since you should have Hi-Potions now, use them for all your healing needs--the 30 HP from a regular Potion just doesn't cut it now. There are two White Mages here. Check their status; at least one of them will have Black Magicks as a secondary ability. A Black Magick-wielding mage is the most dangerous, so if either or both have Black Magick, you'll generally want to target them first. (You can use the same tricks you used in Dorter to avoid their magick.) However, one of the White Mages might have the Items ability. If an Item-using Mage comes out of the fort and starts using Hi-Potions, you'll need to concentrate on KOing her instead to prevent her from healing all the other enemies. If either mage starts casting Cure, note that you can stop it more or less same way you can stop a Black Magick spell -- either take out the enemy they're trying to heal, or KO the Mage herself. After you've taken out the White Mages, concentrate on Milleuda. Her attacks are quite strong. If you have the Rend Weapon or Rend Armor abilities (both from the Knight job), you may want to try them on her. Breaking her weapon will greatly reduce her attack power, and breaking her armor will reduce her HP total. If you already have a Thief, you could try stealing her equipment too, as she's got a nice set of gear, but you'll be able to buy all her stuff eventually. The Thieves here may swipe some of your armor, or at least your headgear. Although this might be annoying, it's not really too bad; you can just re-buy the items after the battle. What's more deadly is the Steal Heart attack they may use on your female characters, which will temporarily turn them to the enemy side. That's why it can be advantageous to deploy more male characters here. Milleuda is the game's first boss character. KOing a boss will end the battle instantly, even if there are other enemies left standing. If you're in danger, you can take her out quickly to end the fight. But if you've got Milleuda cornered or otherwise have the upper hand, you may want to finish off the other enemies for more Exp & JP, then let them die completely so they turn into a chest or crystal. BATTLE TROPHIES: 700 gil, Iron Sword, Bronze Shield --TREASURE HUNTER ITEMS-- Put this corner at screen bottom: Height 2, Wooden Floor POOR ITEM GOOD ITEM TRAP Left: 0, Up: 0 (height: 2, Wooden Fl.) Phoenix Down Longbow none Left: 8, Up: 10 (height: 2, Grassland) Antidote Flame Rod none Left: 4, Up: 9 (height: 3, Wooden Fl.) Echo Herbs White Staff none *Left: 7,Up: 10 (height: 10, Wooden F.) Eye Drops Ice Rod none * Requires Jump of 4 or greater. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---STORY SCENES--- The Brigands' Den is easier than the Sand Rat's Sieve, so if you won there, you should be able to attain victory here. Following the battle, there will be a cutscene at Eagrose as the Corpse Brigade strikes back. Victory at the Brigands' Den will have earned you a Bronze Shield, which is a more effective shield than anything else you've got at this point. Don't forget to equip it. Strip Argath of all his equipment, as he'll be leaving your party shortly. Go back up to Eagrose. A series of scenes will follow in which Ramza and Delita decide to rescue Tietra, and Argath leaves. Return to Gariland. As you cross Mandalia Plain, an animated cutscene will play. ---JOB CHANGES--- At this point, you'll probably want to start changing jobs, if you haven't already. If you can change any of your characters to Monks, do so; they're very strong fighters. If any of your characters have enough JP to buy the Knight ability Equip Heavy Armor, a good strategy is to learn that ability and then make the character into a Monk--the heavy armor will make up for the Monk's otherwise poor HP count. It would also help to have a Black Mage and Archer. But, you'll still want a healer, so the best move is to change a Chemist to another job and then equip Items as a secondary ability. Before switching out of the Chemist job, though, you need to learn (and equip) the Throw Items ability. Without Throw Items, your items will have a range of only 1 tile, and, as Sonic would say, that's NO GOOD! Keep in mind that male characters generally have somewhat higher HP and Physical Attack, while females have somewhat more HP and Magick Attack. So, it makes the most sense to assign fighting jobs like Knight and Archer to males, and magick- oriented jobs like Black and White Mage to females. Also remember that a higher Faith makes your magick stronger, so when you're deciding what character(s) to turn into a mage, it's advantageous to pick someone with a high Faith. If you change jobs, be sure to buy matching equipment for your new jobs. If you've got an Archer, you'll need to decide whether to use a crossbow or a regular bow. A crossbow only require one hand, allowing you to equip a shield. On the other hand, bows deal more damage, have a longer range (which increases even more when you have a height advantage), and fire in an "arc" pattern that often allows you to shoot over obstacles in your way. Since Archers are usually in the back line and don't get attacked too much, a shield isn't too important. Regular bows are almost always the best choice. For Black Mages, you can choose between the Flame, Ice, and Thunder Rods (sold at Gariland and Dorter). These rods boost the damage dealt by your Fire-family, Blizzard-family, and Thunder-family magicks, respectively. A good trick is to buy a particular Rod and then learn some of the spells that go along with it (e.g., buy the Ice Rod and then try to learn Blizzard and Blizzara). This will increase the damage you can do with your magick. (The rods will also increase the power of the Ifrit, Shiva, and Ramuh summons, respectively.) These rods also sometimes cast Fire, Blizzard, or Thunder when executing a physical attack, if your Black Mage happens to get caught in a melee. As far as choosing between the Fire, Blizzard, and Thunder families of magick, they all do the same amounts of raw damage under normal circumstances. They differ only in their elemental affinities, which means they can do more or less damage in certain cases: > Fire magick does extra damage to a number of early-game monster types (Skeletons and Ghosts), but it gets weaker during thunderstorms and doesn't work against the Bomb family. (It also does more damage to enemies afflicted with Oil status, but this status condition almost never happens.) > Blizzard magick is good against many late-game monsters, but the only early- game monster family weak to ice is Goblins, which are pretty easy anyway. Blizzard magick gets stronger during a snowstorm, but these are very rare. > Thunder magick gets stronger during a thunderstorm, and no monsters are immune to it. But, only one monster family (Mindflayers) is weak to it. Overall, Thunder is probably your best pick early on. Nothing is immune to it, so you can use it against any enemy, and it gets stronger during thunderstorms, which are pretty common during the rainy months. Fire is OK too, but Skeletons and Ghosts it's effective against are usually fairly easy to defeat anyway. Blizzard is less useful at first because fewer monsters are weak to it, but you'll definitely want to learn it later in the game since it's the best against late-game monsters like Malboros, Hydras, and Red Dragons. ---ITEM SUPPLY--- Aside from re-outfitting yourself after any job changes, you may want to hold off on any equipment purchases. While you could now buy some of the equipment upgrades you might not have been able to afford after the Brigands' Den, there are even better items coming after the next battle. So, you're probably better off saving your money for those. Of course, if any of your equipment was stolen by the Thieves or broken by Milleuda in the last battle, be sure to replace it. You'll also want a good stock of Hi-Potions (12 or so) and Phoenix Down (6 should be sufficient). After restocking your item supply, go north from Gariland to the Lenalian Plateau for another battle against Milleuda. ---Battle 7: Lenalian Plateau--------------------------------------------------- YOUR FORCES: Ramza, Delita [guest], 4 others ENEMY FORCES: Milleuda (lv 8 Knight) Knight (lv 6, female) Knight (lv 5, female) Black Mage (lv 6, male) Black Mage (lv 5, male) Time Mage (lv 5, female) BOSS: Milleuda [Virgo] - lv 8 female Knight - Bravery 68, Faith 58 Equipment : Mythril Sword, Bronze Shield, Barbut, Chainmail, Shoulder Cape Abilities : Arts of War, random action ability, Counter, random Squire support ability, Jump +1 VICTORY CONDITION: KO Milleuda LOSS CONDITION: Ramza dies or all allies are KOed/Stone WEATHER: Clear day (no special effects) MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 11 x 11 Grassland Tanglevine 50% Stone Outcropping Tremor 24% Lake Torrent 21% Soil Sinkhole 3% Obstructed -- 1% --STRATEGY-- Again, Taurus, Capricorn, and male Pisces characters will do extra damage against Milleuda since she's a female Virgo. Play the first few rounds defensively to prevent any early casualties, and use the high ground to your advantage. Send one or two characters after the Black Mages, and possibly the Time Mage as well. If you have an Archer, send him/her up onto the tall ridge and shoot down on the enemies. Firing from a high place increases the range of bows. After knocking out the Black Mages, concentrate on Milleuda. This time, she has the Counter ability, which means that whenever you hit her with a close- range attack, she has a chance of striking back. So, be sure not to use any close-range attacks against her unless your HP is high. A good strategy is to attack her with long-distance attacks like bows and Black Magick, which won't allow her to counterattack. As in the last battle, Milleuda might use her Rend abilities to break your gear. Again, as soon as Milleuda goes down, the battle ends, even if other enemies are still standing. BATTLE TROPHIES: 1000 gil, Silken Robe, Battle Boots --TREASURE HUNTER ITEMS-- Put this corner at screen bottom: Height 7.5, Grassland POOR ITEM GOOD ITEM TRAP Left: 6, Up: 6 (height: 2.5, Grassl.) Hi-Potion Iron Helm none Left: 4, Up: 8 (height: 5, Grassland) Potion Buckler none Left: 4, Up: 0 (height: 5.5, Grassl.) Eye Drops Bronze Armor none Left: 0, Up: 5 (height: 4, Grassland) Antidote Red Hood none -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---EQUIPMENT UPGRADES--- After you win the battle at the Plateau, the shops will again update their shelves with new equipment. ---New Items for Purchase------------------------------------------------------- TYPE PRICE WHERE DETAILS Ringmail Clothes 900 TrCity/City HP +24 Silken Robe Robe 2400 TrCity/City HP +20, MP +16 Mage Masher Knife 1500 Castle/City Atk: 4, 5% Parry, Inflicts: Silence Mythril Sword Sword 1600 Castle Atk: 7, 8% Parry Battle Axe Axe 1500 Castle Atk: 9, 0% Parry Knightslayer Crossbw 1500 Castle Atk: 3, 5% Parry, Inflicts: Blind Silver Bow Bow 1500 Castle Atk: 5, 0% Parry Bronze Shield Shield 1200 Castle Phy.Evade: 16%, Mag.Evade: 0% Chainmail Armor 1300 Castle HP +40 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- As before, you'll find heavy armor and most kinds of weapons in Eagrose, and lighter armor in Gariland and Dorter. Buy what you can and replace any items that Milleuda may have broken. Skip the axe. Although it looks powerful, the amount of damage it deals is randomly determined, and not exactly what you see previewed. That means it may fail to deliver a killing blow when you need it most! ---DRAGONS--- If you're crossing the Lenalian Plateau after the initial battle, you may sometimes encounter a Dragon monster in random battles (only when entering from Dorter). If you already have an Orator on your team, you can use Entice or Tame to recruit the Dragon onto your team. Although monsters aren't usually the most useful units, this is a much stronger monster than you can usually find at this point in the game. You can also breed it to get even stronger dragons: Blue Dragons and Red Dragons! ---RENDEZVOUS MODE--- At this point, you should be in great shape to win the Chocobo Defense mission in Rendezvous Mode, so if you'd like to check that out, you can earn some extra items and JP. Strategies for these missions are available in the Rendezvous Mode section. Otherwise, forge on from the Lenalian Plateau to Fovoham Windflats, where you'll square off against Wiegraf and his Chocobo Boco (a reference to Final Fantasy V). ---Battle 8: Windflat Mill------------------------------------------------------ YOUR FORCES: Ramza, Delita [guest], 3 others ENEMY FORCES: Wiegraf (lv 9 White Knight) Boco (lv 7 Chocobo) Monk (lv 7, female) Monk (lv 6, female) Knight (lv 6, female) BOSS: Wiegraf [Virgo] - lv 9 White Knight - Bravery 71, Faith 64 Equipment : Mythril Sword, Round Shield, Barbut, Chainmail, Shoulder Cape Abilities : Holy Sword, random action ability, Counter, random Squire support ability, Jump +1 Immune : All negative status except Blind, Silence, Oil, Slow, Stop, Immobilize, and Disable ENEMY: Boco [Aries] - lv 7 Chocobo - Bravery 68, Faith 48 VICTORY CONDITION: Reduce Wiegraf to critical HP (< 20% of max HP) LOSS CONDITION: Ramza dies or all allies are KOed/Stone WEATHER: Clear day (no special effects) MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 10 x 8 Grassland Tanglevine 48% Soil Sinkhole 21% Obstructed -- 18% Brick Wind Slash 5% Roof Wind Blast 4% Stone Outcropping Tremor 3% Flagstone Contortion 3% --STRATEGY-- Like his sister, Wiegraf is a Virgo. He's male, though, so this time Taurus, Capricorn, and FEMALE Pisces characters are the ones to deploy (if you happen to have them -- if not, don't sweat it). Wiegraf is the only real threat here; most of his companions are pretty weak. Start moving along the bottom of the cliff and quickly take out the Chocobo (Boco) and the Monk. Wiegraf and the other enemies will soon move down to fight you. Finish off any enemies that are low on HP, then go after Wiegraf. Wiegraf uses a couple different special sword techniques that allow him to attack from a distance and (unlike magick) don't require any charge time. Most of the time, he'll use Northswain's Strike, which strikes a single character (usually for about 35 HP or so). If your characters are close together, he may also use Judgment Blade to attack a "plus-shaped" group of tiles. These attacks are pretty strong, but Wiegraf doesn't have a great defense. If you hit him with a few strong attacks (Mythril Swords, black magick), he'll go down quickly. Just stay healed! Because you're fighting in such close quarters, watch out for the "friendly fire" effects of your own magicks! In general, if one of your allies is standing right next to an enemy, a useful trick is to target the tile right BEHIND the enemy to avoid hitting your ally when the magick goes off. For instance, if your characters are positioned like below, target the space marked with a *: *EA (A = ally, E = enemy) This way, you'll still hit the enemy, but the magick is positioned so as not to harm your ally. But make sure that the magick will activate before the enemy can move. This battle isn't too difficult if you have good jobs. You need only Wiegraf's HP to critical status to win. (If your last hit manages to KO him outright, the outcome is the same.) BATTLE TROPHIES: Hi-Potion --TREASURE HUNTER ITEMS-- Put this corner at screen bottom: Height 1, Grassland POOR ITEM GOOD ITEM TRAP Left: 6, Up: 9 (height: 4, Grassland) Hi-Potion Mage Masher none Left: 3, Up: 5 (height: 6, Grassland) Phoenix Down Hempen Robe none Left: 0, Up: 0 (height: 1, Grassland) Echo Herbs Leather Plate none Left: 5, Up: 1 (height: 1, Grassland) Potion Shoulder Cape none -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Zeklaus Desert, Fovoham Windflats now becomes an entirely different map if you return to it for random battles. ---Extra Battlefield: Fovoham Windflats----------------------------------------- MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 14 x 9 Grassland Tanglevine 62% Stone Outcropping Tremor 24% Ocean Torrent 12% Obstructed -- 2% --TREASURE HUNTER ITEMS-- Put this corner at screen bottom: Height 10.5, Grassland POOR ITEM GOOD ITEM TRAP Left: 0, Up: 2 (height: 10, Grassland) Phoenix Down Silver Bow Sten Needle Left: 2, Up: 7 (height: 1, Stone Out.) Eye Drops Battle Axe Death Trap Left: 5, Up: 8 (height: 1, Stone Out.) Antidote Mythril Sword Hypnogas Left: 11, Up: 4 (height: 1, Grassland) Echo Herbs Knightslayer Degenerator -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Nothing is added to the shops after the battle at Fovoham, so if your item supply is okay, you can continue directly on to Ziekden Fortress, the final battle of the chapter. There, you'll find Tietra being held captive by a Gragoroth, a Corpse Brigade knight. Argath arrive with some troops, and you'll find yourself battling an unexpected enemy. ---Battle 9: Ziekden Fortress--------------------------------------------------- YOUR FORCES: 1st Squad - Ramza, Delita [guest], 1 other 2nd Squad - 2 others ENEMY FORCES: Argath (lv 10 Knight) Knight (lv 8, male) Knight (lv 8, male) Knight (lv 7, male) Black Mage (lv 9, female) Black Mage (lv 8, female) BOSS: Argath [Virgo] - lv 10 Knight - Bravery 32, Faith 67 Equipment : Knightslayer, Round Shield, Barbut, Chainmail, Power Gauntlet Abilities : Arts of War, random action ability, Auto-Potion, Equip Crossbows, Move +1 VICTORY CONDITION: KO Argath LOSS CONDITION: Ramza dies or all allies are KOed/Stone WEATHER: Day, light snow (no special effects) MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 13 x 9 Snow Snowstorm 96% Bridge Wind Slash 3% Wooden Floor Will-o'-the-Wisp 2% --STRATEGY-- You'll deploy in two squads again for this battle. Deploy your best damage- dealer along with Ramza in the first squad. The characters in the second squad are going to be largely useless as they start far away from the action. If you want to pick and choose Zodiac signs, Argath is again a Virgo and susceptible to Taurus, Capricorn, and female Pisces attacks. Luckily, you can almost beat the whole fight just using Ramza. Just go after Argath and completely ignore the other enemies. Argath only has a crossbow, so he can't do much damage to you and is useless at close ranges. Just chase him down and hit him with your strongest attacks, like Knight and Monk attacks and Black Magicks. You'll want to block Argath from climbing up the stairs to the roof of the fort, as he has a good sniping point if he gets up there and it's slow climbing up after him. If you position your characters between him and the stairs, he shouldn't be able to climb up there. Argath does have the Auto-Potion ability, which gives him a random chance to heal himself with a Potion when you hit him, so you may want to avoid using very weak attacks against him--the gain from the Auto-Potion may heal him more than you hurt him for! (The ability isn't always activated, though. And Auto- Potion also can't protect him whenever you land the killing blow.) Again, as you soon as you knock down Argath, the fight--and the chapter--ends. The dialogue between Argath, Ramza, and Delita here will be a little bit different depending on whether or not you chose to help Argath back on Mandalia Plain. BATTLE TROPHIES: None --TREASURE HUNTER ITEMS-- Put this corner at screen bottom: Height 1, Snow POOR ITEM GOOD ITEM TRAP Left: 0, Up: 0 (height: 1, Snow) Eye Drops Silken Robe none Left: 2, Up: 6 (height: 2, Snow) Hi-Potion Chainmail none Left: 5, Up: 4 (height: 0, Snow) Antidote Ringmail none Left: 9, Up: 5 (height: 7, Wooden Fl.) Potion Bronze Shield none -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After you kill Argath, there are a couple FMV scenes, the fort blows up, and the chapter ends. The game will give you a chance to save, and then you'll move on to Chapter II.
miércoles, 18 de mayo de 2016
%%%CHAPTER II: THE MANIPULATIVE & THE SUBSERVIENT%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%walk2 You now return to the present, at Orbonne Monastery. It's one year after the events of Chapter I and your current mission is to rescue Princess Ovelia. ---CHARACTER RECRUITMENT--- After a brief chat, you'll be given a chance to add Ramza's fellow mercenary Ladd and both of Agrias's Knights (Alicia and Lavian) to the party. There's no real reason not to take them along, so sign them up! They start with a bare minimum of abilities, though, so they probably won't see much use compared to the characters you're carrying over from Chapter I. However, you MUST keep Alicia and Lavian (as well as Agrias, of course) on your roster to complete the Agrias's Birthday sidequest in Chapter IV. Don't dismiss them or let them get permanently killed if you want to complete all the sidequests. (It's fine if they're KOed as long as they don't ever turn into a crystal or chest.) Ladd, on the other hand, is not required for any of the quests. Agrias and Gaffgarion will also join as Guests. You still have all your characters from Chapter I (except Delita) as well. ALLY: Ladd [Capricorn] - lv 8 Squire - Bravery 63, Faith 60 Equipment : Iron Sword, Red Hood, Ringmail Abilities : Fundaments, random other action ability ALLY: Alicia [Pisces] - lv 8 Knight - Bravery 61, Faith 62 Equipment : Iron Sword, Buckler, Iron Helm, Linen Cuirass Abilities : Arts of War, random other action ability ALLY: Lavian [Aries] - lv 8 Knight - Bravery 62, Faith 61 Equipment : Longsword, Escutcheon, Bronze Helm, Bronze Armor Abilities : Arts of War, random other action ability GUEST: Agrias [Cancer] - lv 10 Holy Knight - Bravery 71, Faith 63 Equipment : Mythril Sword, Mythril Shield, Golden Helm, Golden Armor Abilities : Holy Sword, random other action ability GUEST: Gaffgarion [Virgo] - lv 10 Fell Knight - Bravery 61, Faith 67 Equipment : Mythril Sword, Golden Shield, Close Helmet, Plate Mail, Power Gauntlet Abilities : Fell Sword, random other action ability ---JOB & ABILITY UPGRADES--- You'll see that Ramza's appearance has changed at the start of the chapter. His Squire job is now able to equip heavy armor and shields, plus he has a new ability to learn, Steel. Steel gives a character a +5 Bravery boost during a battle, and some of this increase will remain even after the battle. Raising your Bravery makes your Reaction Abilities and some attacks stronger, so this is a good ability to learn. If Ramza has some spare turns near the end of a battle, you can spend them using Steel to boost up characters' Bravery. At this point, you should have had all your characters upgraded from the beginning Jobs (Squire or Chemist) to more advanced ones. In particular, you'll want to have a Monk, Archer, Black Mage, and maybe a White Mage somewhere in the party. I like making Ramza into a Monk. You'll want to have him learn either the Monk's Chakra ability or the Time Mage's Teleport for use in a battle near the end of the chapter. An Orator can also be useful to have on the team, but might take some time to get, as you have to get the Mystic job up to job level 3, and Mystic itself requires job level 3 of White Mage. If you want to take the time to unlock Orator, you can also have another character acquire the Thief Job, which is unlocked by getting Archer to job level 3. When you've got your team organized, go north to the only location available to you: Dorter, where a battle awaits you. ---Battle 10: Dorter------------------------------------------------------------ YOUR FORCES: Ramza, Gaffgarion [guest], Agrias [guest], 3 others ENEMY FORCES: Thief (lv 11, male) Thief (lv 9, male) Black Mage (lv 10, male) Black Mage (lv 9, male) Archer (lv 10, female) Archer (lv 9, female) VICTORY CONDITION: KO, petrify, recruit, or Vampirize all enemies LOSS CONDITION: Ramza dies or all allies are KOed/Stone WEATHER: Clear day (no special effects) MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 11 x 9 Roof, Chimney Wind Blast 36% Flagstone Contortion 36% Grassland Tanglevine 26% Obstructed -- 1% --STRATEGY-- There's no boss here, so you'll have to wipe out every enemy on the map to win. If you've got good jobs, though, this battle should be no problem. Just move up the path and take out the enemies as you go. The Black Mages and Archers do the most damage, so when you've got a choice, go after them instead of the Thieves. Agrias is given a random action ability when she joins. If it's a magick ability, beware; the goofy Guest AI has a nasty habit of casting spells indiscriminately on your own people. You can either de-equip Agrias's magicks from the menu beforehand, or pay attention to which she enemy she is targeting and stay clear. One other small caution: A character with Jump 4 can climb up onto the house nearest your start point, but can't get back down. Of course, you'll get the character back after the battle, but they'll be out of action for the rest of this battle. So, either don't climb up there (there's not much reason to do so, except one Treasure Hunter tile) or use a character that has Jump 5. BATTLE TROPHIES: 1000 gil, Flame Rod, Mage Masher, Phoenix Down --TREASURE HUNTER ITEMS-- Put this corner at screen bottom: Height 16, Chimney POOR ITEM GOOD ITEM TRAP *Left: 9, Up: 8 (height: 9, Chimney) Potion Ice Bow none Left: 6, Up: 0 (height: 5, Grassland) Ether Round Shield none Left: 4, Up: 6 (height: 9, Roof) Hi-Potion Shuriken none #Left: 0, Up: 0 (height: 16, Chimney) Echo Herbs Barbut none * Requires Jump of 4 or more to reach. # Requires Jump of 5 to reach. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Once you've cleared this battle, you'll have access to all of the map again. ---MONSTER CHANGES--- Most of the random battle locations (green dots) now have a somewhat different mix of monsters. The second type of enemy party, which often includes more powerful monsters as well as the occasional human, now shows more frequently than it did in Chapter I, though the basic set of monsters is still the most common. Check the Random Battles section if you want the complete list. ---ERRANDS--- You also now have the ability to take Errands at taverns. These involve sending your generic (non-story) characters away for a few days in exchange for gil and a small amount of JP. The amount you earn isn't generally huge, but this can be a good way to use characters you weren't going to deploy in active combat. While the characters are away, you can continue on without them. Or, if you just want to pass time, you can walk back and forth between two blue dots on the map, which will never trigger any random battles. (You can use Eagrose & Ziekden Fortress, or Dorter & the Monastery.) Once the Errand is done, you'll have to return the appropriate Tavern to collect your characters and reward. Four main errands are available right now: ---New Errands------------------------------------------------------------------ CITY DAYS COST APPROX. REWARD Mount Gulg Mother Lode Eagrose 15-16 600 2549 gil, 103 JP, artefact Bandits Dorter 11-13 3100 14400 gil, 137 JP Shoreline Defense Gariland 8-9 3050 11114 gil, 94 JP Miner's Tale Gariland 8-11 600 2726 gil, 108 JP The Gariland Magick Melee Gariland 14-16 0 22265 gil, 166 JP, artefact > Month of Virgo only -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Bandits" at Dorter and "Shoreline Defense" at Gariland are likely to be the most profitable. If it happens to be the month of Virgo, Gariland will offer another errand, "The Gariland Magick Melee." This one doesn't cost anything and has a great payday, so take it! But, if it's a different month, it's not really worth passing time just to get that one errand. As noted above, two of the errands will yield artefacts. These don't actually do anything; they just show up on your Chronicle screen to add more background to the game world. You can maximize your reward from each errand if you send characters for the maximize number of days. Having the right jobs, Bravery/Faith stats, and experience levels will also add a few extra points, but the differences are actually pretty small and not usually worth bothering with. If you want to squeeze out the maximum gil, though, I've covered this system in more depth in the Errands section. ---RENDEZVOUS MISSIONS--- Two new Rendezvous Mode missions are now available in Taverns: Chicken Race and Treasure Hunt, both of which offer better items than the Chocobo Defense mission from chapter I. Chicken Race can be completed quite easily by a small party of Chemists and is great for collecting items at this stage. Treasure Hunt is a bit harder, but if you pick up the chest on the map, you'll get a good piece of equipment. ---EQUIPMENT UPGRADES--- All the stores have new equipment, so pay them a visit to gear up your characters. ---New Items for Purchase------------------------------------------------------- TYPE PRICE WHERE DETAILS Headgear Hat 1200 TrCity/City HP +32, Phys.Attack +1 Mythril Vest Clothes 1500 TrCity/City HP +30 Shuriken Star 50 TrCity/City Atk: 4 Ice Bow Bow 2000 Castle Atk: 5, 0% Parry, ice elemental Javelin Polearm 1000 Castle Atk: 8, 10% Parry Round Shield Shield 1600 Castle Phy.Evade: 19%, Mag.Evade: 0% Barbut Helm 1500 Castle HP: 40 Mythril Armor Armor 2000 Castle HP: 50 Spiked Boots Shoes 1200 Any Jump +1 Leather Cloak Cloak 800 Any Phy.Evade: 15%, Mag.Evade: 15% Holy Water Item 2000 Any Removes: Undead, Vampire -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Remember that you'll have to hike back to Eagrose to purchase heavy armor and most weapons. Conversely, you'll only find lighter armor at the other two cities. Stock up on Hi-Potions and Phoenix Downs, but don't buy any equipment for Gaffgarion. (It's OK to get stuff for Agrias, but her equipment is already really good.) The Headgear is also quite a good buy. It's a good hat, cheaper more effective than the Mythril Vest, and it raises your attack power as well. This is a good chance to build up your characters if you want. But as long as you have new equipment for your main squad of characters and the jobs recommended above, you should be fine. When you feel confident that you're done preparing, go to Araguay Woods, east of Dorter. ---Battle 11: Araguay Woods----------------------------------------------------- YOUR FORCES: Ramza, Gaffgarion [guest], Agrias [guest], Boco [guest], 3 others ENEMY FORCES: Black Goblin (lv 13) Goblin (lv 10) Goblin (lv 9) Goblin (lv 9) Goblin (lv 8) Goblin (lv 8) GUEST: Boco [Aries] - lv 10 Chocobo - Bravery 68, Faith 48 VICTORY CONDITION: KO, petrify, or recruit all enemies LOSS CONDITION: Top option - Ramza dies or all allies are KOed/Stone Bottom option - Boco is KOed or Ramza dies WEATHER: Clear day (no special effects) MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 12 x 10 Grassland Tanglevine 82% Tree Wind Slash 8% Obstructed -- 6% Soil Sinkhole 4% --STRATEGY-- Here you have to save Boco the chocobo from goblins. As when you met Argath, you're given two options, which will affect your victory conditions: - If you choose not to help Boco (top choice), your goal is just to defeat all the enemies, and you don't have to keep Boco from being KOed. However, you'll also suffer a 10 point PENALTY to everyone's Bravery, 2 points of which will remain even after the battle. - Choosing to help Boco (bottom choice) means you must keep Boco from getting KOed during the battle, but does not penalize your Bravery. This time, the top choice still gives you an easier battle, but you'll take a hit to your Bravery for selecting it. Since protecting Boco during the battle isn't hard at all, choose the second option to keep from losing Bravery. Boco will usually retreat into a corner, where will be chased by the lone Black Goblin. Boco can take care of himself just fine, so don't bother going after the Black Goblin unless you've mopped up all the other enemies. The Goblins aren't very strong, especially with Agrias's and Gaffgarion's help, so I recommend just rushing them. Stay out of the ditches. BATTLE TROPHIES: Hi-Potion --TREASURE HUNTER ITEMS-- Put this corner at screen bottom: Height 17, Cross Section POOR ITEM GOOD ITEM TRAP Left: 5, Up: 3 (height: 0, Grassland) Gold Needle Headgear none Left: 2, Up: 4 (height: 1, Grassland) Phoenix Down Mythril Armor none Left: 5, Up: 8 (height: 0, Grassland) Potion Mythril Vest none Left: 9, Up: 11 (height: 7, Grassland) Hi-Potion Spiked Boots none -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---BOCO--- After the battle, Boco will join. Boco just has the same stats and abilities as any other generic Chocobo, so he's of somewhat limited use. (He does have a unique help message when you use the Select button and check his name, but this has no effect on gameplay.) But, if nothing else, you can keep Boco in your party and use him to breed a Black Chocobo, which in turn can give you a Red Chocobo. These colored chocobos are somewhat more useful, so you may want to get one of them. ---ADJUSTING GAFFGARION--- Back on the map, go into your roster screen and change Gaffgarion into a Time Mage or White Mage, or some other crummy job. You have a couple of choices as to do what to do with Gaffgarion's equipment: 1) The next battle will be easiest if you strip Gaffgarion of all his gear, and equip it on one of your other characters. Gaffgarion has good armor, and the Power Gauntlet will give you an attack boost. (It's great for an Archer, or another character who doesn't need the movement bonus of the Battle Boots.) 2) Alternately, there's a bug in the game that you can exploit to duplicate an item. Equip the item on Gaffgarion, then have a Thief steal it during the battle, and you'll end up with two copies. The Power Gauntlet is especially valuable, if you decide to do this. Once you've finished adjusting Gaffgarion's equipment, continue on to Zeirchele Falls. ---Battle 12: Zeirchele Falls--------------------------------------------------- YOUR FORCES: Ramza, Agrias [guest], Delita [guest], Ovelia [guest], 3 others ENEMY FORCES: Gaffgarion (Fell Knight) Knight (lv 11, male) Knight (lv 10, male) Knight (lv 9, male) Knight (lv 8, male) Knight (lv 8, male) GUEST: Delita [Sagittarius] - lv 11 Holy Knight - Bravery 75, Faith 50 Equipment : Coral Sword, Mythril Shield, Plate Mail, other equipment random Abilities : Holy Sword, other abilities random Immune : Chicken, Toad, Charm, and Doom GUEST: Ovelia [Taurus] - lv 5 Princess - Bravery 53, Faith 72 Equipment : White Staff, Wizard's Hat, Wizard's Robe Abilities : Holy Magicks, other abilities random VICTORY CONDITION: KO, petrify, recruit, or Vampirize all enemies LOSS CONDITION: Ovelia is KOed or Ramza dies WEATHER: Clear day (no special effects) MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 11 x 10 Stone Outcropping Tremor 33% Grassland Tanglevine 30% River, Waterfall Torrent 30% Bridge Wind Slash 4% Obstructed -- 4% --STRATEGY-- The mission here is to protect Ovelia, which means you can't let her get KOed. She isn't in too much danger since she can cast Aegis, which puts a whole lot of good defensive buffs on her. She only has enough MP to cast this once, though, and it wears off after a few turns. Just to be on the safe side, keep a healer reasonably close to her. Gaffgarion is now your enemy, but if you turned him into a weak job and stripped his equipment, he can't do much to hurt you. So, worry about the other Knights first. (Plus, if you don't KO Gaffgarion right away, there's a bit of extra dialogue.) Start off by taking out the Knights on your side of the falls. (Delita can do a lot of damage to the Knights on the other side just by himself.) One of the Knights from the far side will probably try to cross over by wading through the base of the falls. Position an Archer on the corner of the cliff and shoot down at the guy. Agrias tends to loiter in the water and may finish him off; if not, send a character or two down after him. A great trick here is to KO one of the enemy Knights while he's standing on the bridge, and then position yourself right behind his body. Until the body decays into a chest/crystal, it will block the Knights from getting close enough to hit you with close-range attacks. Since the Knights have NO ranged attacks, they're helpless and you can pick them off from afar with your own ranged attacks. If you have a Dragoon, you can also use polearms, which have a range of two tiles. If any of the Knights drops to critical HP, he may try to flee up the cliffs. You'll have to chase after him, so it may be useful to bring a character with a good Move range to this battle. (Battle Shoes and Move +1 or +2 will increase your Move range.) If you have a Thief and don't mind exploiting a bug in the game, you can also use this battle to duplicate any piece of equipment you have. First, equip the item on Gaffgarion before the battle. Then, steal it from him during the battle. You'll get one copy then, and a second copy when Gaffgarion's items are added to your inventory after the battle. The downside is that if you give Gaffgarion powerful items, it will make him harder to defeat. But, just giving him the Power Gauntlet works pretty well -- if you turn him into a mage beforehand, he can't do very much damage to even *with* the Gauntlet. BATTLE TROPHIES: None --TREASURE HUNTER ITEMS-- Put this corner at screen bottom: Height 7, Stone Outcropping POOR ITEM GOOD ITEM TRAP Left: 1, Up: 3 (height: 3.5, Grassl.) Ether Leather Cloak none Left: 5, Up: 2 (height: 9.5, Grassl.) Echo Herbs Platinum Dagger none Left: 7, Up: 4 (height: 8.5, Waterf.) Gold Needle Coral Sword none Left: 8, Up: 4 (height: 8.5, Waterf.) Phoenix Down Poison Rod none -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the battle, Delita will leave you with Ovelia. Ramza sets a new course for Lionel Castle, so Fort Besselat disappears from your map, not to return until much later in the game. ---SHUFFLING YOUR EQUIPMENT--- Back on the map, Gaffgarion's items are added to your inventory if you didn't already take it from him. (There's also a bug here that allows you to copy Gaffgarion's items; see the battle strategy above.) Be sure to equip it on your characters since it's good stuff. While Ovelia is listed on your roster as a Guest, she won't actually participate in any more battles. So, you're safe de-equipping her Wizard's Hat and Wizard's Robe and giving them to another character. The Wizard's Robe is an especially nice pick-up since you can't buy them in stores yet. It raises your magick attack, so give it to one of your mages. There's also some new equipment for sale at Dorter and at Eagrose. ---New Items for Purchase------------------------------------------------------- TYPE PRICE WHERE DETAILS Poison Rod Rod 500 TrCity/City Atk: 3, 20% Parry, Inflicts: Poison Serpent Staff Staff 2200 TrCity/City Atk: 5, 15% Parry Cypress Pole Pole 1000 TrCity/City Atk: 6, 20% Parry Wizard's Hat Hat 1800 TrCity/City HP +40, MP +12, Magick Attack +1 Adamant Vest Clothes 1600 TrCity/City HP +36 Platinum Dagger Knife 1800 Castle/City Atk: 5, 10% Parry Coral Sword Sword 3300 Castle Atk: 8, 5% Parry Mythril Shield Shield 2500 Castle Phy.Evade: 22%, Mag.Evade: 5% Mythril Helm Helm 2100 Castle HP +50 Plate Mail Armor 3000 Castle HP +60 Power Gauntlet Gauntlt 5000 Any Physical Attack +1 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's probably worth making the trip back to Dorter and Eagrose as you'll want the new gear for the next battle. In particular, the Wizard's Hat is a nice purchase for magick-users. It's the best hat so far, and it gives you a nice MP and Magick Attack best too. However, you may want to pass on the Poison Rod for your Black Mages. While it does a little more damage physically than the other rods and sometimes poisons its target, it doesn't boost the power of any of your Black Magicks like the Flame, Ice, and Thunder Rods do. Since your Black Mages usually attack with magicks most of the time (I assume ;) ), you're probably better off sticking with your existing rod. The Power Gauntlet now appears in stores, but it's pretty pricey. ---BATTLE PREPARATION--- The next battle is a tough one, so be prepared. You'll want Archers and Black Mages, and, if you don't include a White Mage in the party, one of the characters should have White Magick as a secondary ability. A Black Chocobo can also be helpful, if you can get one. (Boco will randomly lay eggs and they may hatch into Black Chocobos, but there's obviously an element of luck/randomness to this.) I ended up using Ramza, two Archers, and a Black Mage. If you don't have the abilities you want, you can move back and forth across any green dot on the map to fight random battles and earn more JP. When you're ready, go south past the falls to the Castled City of Zaland. ---Battle 13: Zaland------------------------------------------------------------ YOUR FORCES: Ramza, Agrias [guest], Mustadio [guest], 3 others ENEMY FORCES: Knight (lv 13, male) Knight (lv 11, male) Black Mage (lv 12, male) Black Mage (lv 11, male) Archer (lv 12, female) Archer (lv 11, female) GUEST: Mustadio [Libra] - lv 10 Machinist - Bravery 60, Faith 62 Equipment : Romandan Pistol, Headgear, Mythril Vest, Battle Boots Abilities : Aimed Shot, other abilities random VICTORY CONDITION: KO, petrify, recruit, or Vampirize all enemies LOSS CONDITION: Top option - Ramza dies or all allies are KOed/Stone Bottom option - Mustadio is KOed or Ramza dies WEATHER: Clear day (no special effects) MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 13 x 10 Flagstone Contortion 38% Grassland Tanglevine 27% Roof Wind Blast 17% Soil Sinkhole 14% Coffer Will-o'-the-Wisp 5% --STRATEGY-- When deploying your characters, deploy them in the "front" row (i.e., the row where Ramza is already standing). This starts them closer to the gate and allows them to get into the city faster. You'll meet Mustadio, who is being chased by some bad guys. Once again, you're given two options for the upcoming battle: - Choosing the first option means that you DO NOT have to keep Mustadio from getting KOed during the battle. This option raises the Bravery of each character on your current squad (including Agrias and Mustadio) by 5, 1 point of which is permanent. - Choosing the second option means that you DO have to keep from getting Mustadio from getting KOed. However, this option raises all the characters' Bravery by 10, 2 points of which are permanent. In other words, you'll get a Bravery increase either way, but you'll get a BIGGER increase for helping Mustadio. Of course, this also makes the battle harder. So, there's no clear "best option" here. It's up to you which to choose. Since this battle can be pretty challenging, you might want to just pick the first option; it makes the fight quite a bit easier and you're only missing out on 1 extra point of Bravery. The enemy is holed up inside Zaland and launches arrows and powerful Black Magick at you through (and over) the wall. Any melee characters you have will need to rush for the gates. In the mean time, your Archers and mages can fire back with their own ranged attacks. Equip the Archer's Bane reaction ability on any character who has it, as it will help protect you against the enemy arrows. Mustadio will initially do one of two things. Most likely, he'll run up on the top of the gate and attack with his gun from them. This is the "good" outcome since it keeps him relatively out of harm's way. But sometimes he'll stay on the ground inside the city. That's bad news, as all the enemies will pick on him and it's hard to reach for him healing. In this case, your best option is to cast Shell on him to reduce the magick damage he takes. Although you can't throw items through the wall, you CAN cast White Magick through it, so you're probably best off with a White Mage for healing here. If you've been building Ramza mostly for close-range attacks, he may not be much help here. On his first turn, you can have him use Tailwind on one of your Archers or Black Mages to boost their Speed and get them more turns. Then start him running towards the gate so he can get into the city and use melee attacks. Make the Black Mages your first target, since their magick attacks are so strong. Use Black Magick, bows, and the Black Chocobo (if you brought one) to take them out as quickly as possible. Until the Mages go down, keep your characters spread out so enemy magicks can't hit more than one of your characters at a time. After the Mages go down, go after the Archers, then the Knights. If you have a Black Chocobo, you should also check out Mustadio's initial abilities by clicking on his tile. His abilities are randomly determined, but he may have the Beastmaster skill. If so, land the Black Chocobo next to him. Beastmaster will allow the Black Chocobo to cast Choco Meteor, a really strong attack. Mustadio also uses his Aimed Shot abilities to put status conditions on the enemies. Immobilize (from Leg Shot) will keep an enemy from moving for a few turns, and Disable (from Arm Shot) will keep an enemy from taking action. If a bad guy gets hit with Disable, don't bother targeting them any further, since they can't do anything to hurt you for a few turns. A Knight that's been Immobilized is also a low-priority target since he can't move to attack you as long as you stay out of the tiles directly next to him. But the Black Mages and Archers can still shoot even if they're Immobilized! As for the Knights, they'll probably try to climb over the wall on the side of the map opposite the gate into the city. Agrias will attack them, but she can't take them out her own, so help her out with your ranged attacks. The Knights may also use Phoenix Downs to revive any Mages and Archers you KO. Characters revived with Phoenix Down come back with only a little HP, though, so you should be able to knock them back out again with just a single attack. BATTLE TROPHIES: 2000 gil, Mythril Sword, Hi-Potion --TREASURE HUNTER ITEMS-- Put this corner at screen bottom: Height 0, Grassland POOR ITEM GOOD ITEM TRAP Left: 2, Up: 0 (height: 5, Grassland) Potion Serpent Staff none Left: 6, Up: 7 (height: 3.5, Grassl.) Echo Herbs Mythril Helm none Left: 9, Up: 0 (height: 3, Grassland) Hi-Potion Cypress Pole none Left: 12, Up: 4 (height: 10, Chimney) Ether Mythril Shield none -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Again, no matter what option you picked at the start of the battle, Mustadio joins you afterwards as a Guest. ---IN ZALAND--- When all the talking is finished, you're now able to visit the stores in Zaland. There's not very much in the way of selection, but if you didn't upgrade your equipment after Zeirchele Falls, the Adamant Vest, Wizard's Hat, and Serpent Staff are all for sale here. (There's nothing *brand* new.) The Tavern here boasts several new errands: ---New Errands------------------------------------------------------------------ CITY DAYS COST APPROX. REWARD The Hindenburg Zaland 8-15 100 23029 gil, 108 JP Zaland Embassy Antiques Zaland 10-12 6000 954 gil, 105 JP, artefact The Zaland Melee Zaland 14-16 0 20865 gil, 250 JP > Month of Aries only -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "The Hindenburg" has a good gil payout, but you're likely to lose money on "Zaland Embassy Antiques"! There's another very profitable time-sensitive errand here, "The Zaland Melee," that only appears during Aries. Again, it's not worth *waiting* for, but definitely take this errand if it's offered! A new Rendezvous Mode mission is also available in the Tavern. ---LEAVING ZALAND--- Your next stop is Balias Tor. When you first try to leave Zaland, there will be a cutscene. Afterwards, you'll be back on the map, but Balias Tor is still red. Travel there for real this time, and you'll get into a fight. ---Battle 14: Balias Tor------------------------------------------------------- YOUR FORCES: Ramza, Agrias [guest], Mustadio [guest], 3 others ENEMY FORCES: Knight (lv 14, male) Knight (lv 13, male) Archer (lv 13, female) Archer (lv 11, female) Summoner (lv 12, female) Summoner (lv 11, female) VICTORY CONDITION: KO, petrify, recruit, or Vampirize all enemies LOSS CONDITION: Ramza dies or all allies are KOed/Stone WEATHER: Clear day (no special effects) MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 14 x 9 Grassland Tanglevine 62% Stone Outcropping Tremor 36% Obstructed -- 2% --STRATEGY-- This battle can be harder than it looks. The enemy squad has Summoners for the first time (one positioned on each side of the hill), and their summons can do big damage to your team. On the first turn, Mustadio will probably chase after one of the Summoners. Send a fast and/or magic-using character around the opposite side of the hill to take out the other Summoner. The Summoners don't have much HP, so you should be able to finish them off in a couple turns. Meanwhile, have the rest of your squad attack the center of the hill. If you can attack the enemies quickly, the Summoners may squander their turns casting Moogle to heal their allies instead of using damaging summons on you. You're not *required* to keep Mustadio alive in this battle -- if he gets KOed, you won't lose the battle -- but it's a good idea to keep him standing, as his gun is quite helpful. As in Zaland, don't waste your turns attacking enemies that Mustadio has Immobilized or Disabled. A cool trick here is to use the Squire ability Rush to knock the Knights and Archers off the hill. They'll take damage if they fall too far, and you'll put them out of range of attacking you. Since this battle isn't especially difficult, you may want to try to send someone with Treasure Hunter to try to grab the Power Gauntlet at the far side of the map. (The exact coordinates are below.) Power Gauntlets normally cost you 5000 gil, so a free one is great! BATTLE TROPHIES: 1000 gil, Holy Water --TREASURE HUNTER ITEMS-- Put this corner at screen bottom: Height 3.5, Stone Outcropping POOR ITEM GOOD ITEM TRAP Left: 6, Up: 3 (height: 7, Grassland) Gold Needle Wizard's Hat none Left: 0, Up: 8 (height: 1, Grassland) Phoenix Down Plate Mail none Left: 6, Up: 11 (height: 7.5, Stone O.) Potion Adamant Vest none Left: 2, Up: 13 (height: 3, Grassland) Hi-Potion Power Gauntlet none -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Following the fight, a cut scene will pop up back at Eagrose Castle with Dycedarg and Gaffgarion scheming. ---ON TO LIONEL CASTLE--- You can now finally get to Lionel Castle--don't worry; there's no battle! You'll chat with Delacroix and learn about the Zodiac Stones. Agrias and Ovelia will then leave the party. ---PARTY SIZE CHANGE & SHOPPING--- Now that you've reached Lionel Castle, you'll be able to deploy 5 characters in both story and random battles, instead of just 4. If you've been using a core team of just four characters, be sure to get a fifth equipped. Reaching Lionel Castle also opens up a TON of new items in the shops: ---New Items for Purchase------------------------------------------------------- TYPE PRICE WHERE DETAILS Battle Bamboo Pole 1400 TrCity/City Atk: 7, 20% Parry Green Beret Hat 3000 TrCity/City HP +48, Speed +1 Wizard Clothing Clothes 1900 TrCity/City HP +42, MP +15 Wizard's Robe Robe 4000 TrCity/City HP +30, MP +22, Magick Attack +2 Ashura Katana 1600 TrCity Atk: 7, 15% Parry Kotetsu Katana 3000 TrCity Atk: 8, 15% Parry Lamia's Harp Instrmt 5000 TrCity Atk: 10, 10% Parry, Inflicts: Confuse Battle Folio Book 3000 TrCity Atk: 7, 15% Parry Giant's Axe Axe 3000 Castle Atk: 12, 0% Parry Lightning Bow Bow 3000 Castle Atk: 6, 0% Parry, lightning elemental, Spell Effect: Thundaga Spear Polearm 2000 Castle Atk: 9, 10% Parry Golden Shield Shield 3500 Castle Phy.Evade: 25%, Mag.Evade: 0% Golden Helm Helm 2800 Castle HP +60 Golden Armor Armor 3600 Castle HP +70 Crossbow Crossbw 2000 Castle/Goug Atk: 4, 5% Parry Flameburst Bomb Bomb 250 Most Atk: 8, fire elemental Snowmelt Bomb Bomb 250 Most Atk: 8, water elemental Spark Bomb Bomb 250 Most Atk: 8, lightning elemental Rubber Boots Shoes 1500 Any Immune: Immobilize, Lightning Protect Ring Ring 5000 Any Immune: Sleep, Doom Guardian Bracelet Armlet 7000 Any Immune: Immobilize, Disable Mage's Cloak Cloak 2000 Any Phy.Evade: 18%, Mag.Evade: 18%, Magick Attack +1 Ether Item 200 Any Restores 20 MP Remedy Item 350 Any Removes: Stone, Blind, Confuse, Silence, Oil, Toad, Poison, Sleep -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lionel Castle has a lot of really powerful equipment, so load up on it -- you should have a lot of money by now. The Lightning Bow is a great weapon for any Archers you have; it has a fairly high attack power and sometimes casts the Thundaga spell. The Outfitter also has a lot of new accessories -- you might want to pick up a Mage's Cloak or two for your magick users. You can now buy the Remedy item in all Outfitters. It can cure any status ailment, so now there's really no point for your Chemists to learn the abilities corresponding to any of the other status-restoring items. If you go back up to Zaland, you can also buy some new light armor: Green Berets and Wizard Clothing. Keep your magick users equipped with Wizard's Hats, though, as those raise their magick attack. You probably won't have unlocked the Samurai or Bard jobs yet. But, if you have, their specialized weapons are now available. You'll have to hike all the way back up to Dorter to buy them, though. (A lot of the more "exotic" weapons are only for sale at Trade Cities like Dorter.) Buy any stuff you want in Lionel now, as you won't be able to do so later. And since your access to the shops will be blocked off later, it might be a wise idea to buy some spare pieces of heavy armor and helms. That way, if any of your gear gets stolen or broken, you have a replacement. ---ERRANDS--- Also, you may want to send some of your characters out on a errand if you haven't been doing so; you can earn a lot of money from some of them. Lionel has one new errand: ---New Errands------------------------------------------------------------------ CITY DAYS COST APPROX. REWARD My Little Carrot Lionel 15-16 100 14749 gil, 74 JP -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This one can earn you a lot of money. Other good ones to do (if you haven't done them already) are "Bandits" in Dorter, "Shoreline Defense" in Gariland, and "The Hindenburg" in Zaland. Walking between Dorter and Orbonne Monastery is an easy way to pass time and complete the errands while avoiding random battles. You'll want to complete all the errands before you reach Goug, though. Once you get to Goug, it will be a while before you can go back to the other towns to retrieve your characters. ---BATTLE PREP--- If Mustadio has enough JP, pick up the Seal Evil ability for him if you haven't already--it'll be handy in the next battle, as it turns undead to stone. Then head to the fenlands. ---Battle 15: Tchigolith Fenlands----------------------------------------------- YOUR FORCES: Ramza, Mustadio [guest], 4 others ENEMY FORCES: Bonesnatch (lv 14) Skeleton (lv 14) Skeleton (lv 13) Ghoul (lv 13) Ghoul (lv 12) Floating Eye (lv 13) OR Malboro (lv 12) OR Pig* * The Pig's level depends on the highest level on your own roster. VICTORY CONDITION: KO, petrify, or recruit all enemies LOSS CONDITION: Ramza dies or all allies are KOed/Stone WEATHER: Day, rainstorm (evade rate vs. bows x 1.33, fire dmg -25%, lightning dmg +25%, movement through Poisonous Fen tiles at 1/2 normal rate) MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 12 x 12 Poisonous Fen Quicksand 36% Grassland Tanglevine 33% Wasteland, Soil Sinkhole 17% Obstructed -- 7% Tree Wind Slash 6% Stone Outcropping Tremor 1% --STRATEGY-- The last member of the enemy forces is randomly determined: it could be a Floating Eye, Malboro, or Pig. Randomness aside, this is a fairly normal (and easy) battle with a few quirks. First, if you end your turn in the swamp, you get poisoned. (Simply passing through the swamp as part of a move won't poison you, as long as you end the move on dry land.) This isn't that bad, but if you have a choice, stand on land. And be sure not to end your turn in any water where the Depth is displayed as 2. If you stop in water of Depth 2, you won't be able to take any actions, as you're up to your head in water. (The Ninja ability Waterwalking or the Samurai ability Swim would prevent this, should you have either already.) Second, all of the enemies except the randomly determined member are undead. This means you can use heal spells and items to damage them, which is quite effective. And if Mustadio has Seal Evil ability, he may also use that to turn the undead monsters to turn them to stone. Finally, since there's a rainstorm going on, fire magicks will be less powerful while lightning magicks will be more powerful. Use those Thunder magicks if you have them! The storm also means that the enemies are a little more likely to dodge bow attacks, but in most cases the difference isn't big, so go ahead and keep using bows. Other than those three exceptions, there's nothing here you haven't seen before. The Pig shows up pretty infrequently, but if you DO see it, it's definitely worth trying to recruit it using the Orator's Entice or Tame abilities. (Remember that if you're not currently an Orator, you must equip the Beast Tongue support ability to use Entice on monsters.) Once recruited, you can use the Pig to breed pig-family monsters, all of which yield great rare items when poached using the Thief's Poach ability. Or, if you can't recruit the Pig but DO have Poach, you could at least poach it, though you won't actually be able to collect your poached item until Chapter III. Note the Pig can only appear during the initial story battle, not later random battles. In fact, the next opportunity to get a Pig won't be until Chapter IV. So, if you're particularly intent on getting a leg up on the enemy, you could keep entering the battle over and over and resetting until the Pig appears and you can recruit it. But, that's definitely NOT necessary; you can skip the Pig entirely and do just fine! BATTLE TROPHIES: None --TREASURE HUNTER ITEMS-- Put this corner at screen bottom: Height 2.5, Wasteland POOR ITEM GOOD ITEM TRAP Left: 1, Up: 11 (height: 3, Grassland) Ether Ashura none Left: 4, Up: 8 (height: 2, Grassland) Echo Herbs Kotetsu none Left: 6, Up: 0 (height: 2, Grassland) Gold Needle Giant's Axe none Left: 11,Up: 10 (height: 3, Grassland) Phoenix Down Romandan Pistol none -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You can now reach Goug on the map. !!!!!CAUTION!!!!! Before you enter Goug, make sure you've completed any errands you have running, and visited the appropriate Taverns to get the characters back on your roster. As soon as you enter Goug, you'll be locked out of many places on the map, and won't be able to get your characters back until much later! !!!!!CAUTION!!!!! Upon arriving in Goug, there will be a brief scene and then you're back on the map. ---New Items for Purchase------------------------------------------------------- TYPE PRICE WHERE DETAILS Romandan Pistol Gun 5000 Goug Atk: 6, 5% Parry -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Outfitter doesn't have much of anything. But if you've got a Orator or Chemist, be sure to buy them a Romandan Pistol. The Romandan Pistol has a great range, can't be evaded, and is especially useful if you have a chance to pair it with the Knight's Arts of War abilities -- you can use it Rend enemies' equipment or stats at a distance! Before you go anywhere, make sure you're stocked up on Hi-Potions and Phoenix Downs; you'll need them. You may also want to equip the Archer's Bane ability on any characters who have it. Try to leave Goug and you'll be thrust into a battle. ---Battle 16: Goug Lowtown------------------------------------------------------ YOUR FORCES: Ramza, Mustadio [guest], 4 others ENEMY FORCES: Thief (lv 15, male) Thief (lv 13, male) Archer (lv 14, female) Archer (lv 14, female) Summoner (lv 13, male) Summoner (lv 12, male) GUEST: Mustadio [Libra] - lv 12 Machinist - Bravery 60, Faith 62 Equipment : None Abilities : Aimed Shot, other abilities random VICTORY CONDITION: KO, petrify, recruit, or Vampirize all enemies LOSS CONDITION: Ramza dies or all allies are KOed/Stone WEATHER: Night, light rain (evade rate vs. bows x 1.33) MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 11 x 9 Grassland Tanglevine 33% Flagstone Contortion 33% Roof, Chimney Wind Blast 27% Wooden Floor, Coffer Will-o'-the-Wisp 7% --STRATEGY-- Ludovich, the leader of the Baert Company, will appear with Mustadio and Besrudio (Mustadio's father) captive. Mustadio reveals the location of the Zodiac Stone. Ramza forks it over and you find out that Delacroix was in on the plot. It's fight time. The enemy Archers in this battle have a huge range and it's hard to stay out of range completely. So, don't deploy any character who has really low HP as you probably won't be able to protect him/her/it completely. Equipping the Archer's Bane reaction ability will help you a lot, if you have it available. Mustadio will be almost invariably KOed at the start of the battle as he has no equipment and starts right next to the enemies. Don't worry about him. He's still a Guest so he can't die permanently yet. Move your guys up onto the roof. Use ranged attacks (like your shiny new pistols) to take out the Summoners. Note that both Summoners are one side of the enemy roof and both Archers on the other. If you stick towards the side of the map with the Summoners, it may keep the Archers from shooting at you for a turn or two. Kill any unit that moves onto your roof; Thieves first, Archers second. Early in the battle, don't chase enemies over to the other roof, or you'll get surrounded. Just fire ranged attacks at them. (Later, once there are only a couple enemies left, it's safe to jump across.) Your highest priority is to keep your guys healed, not to hit the enemy. Useful abilities here are Chakra, Counter, Firaga/Blizzaga/Thundaga, and Archer's Bane. Bows and guns are also useful for their ranged attacks. You could try using the gun + Arts of War combo to use Rend Weapon on the Archers and prevent them from shooting at you. When the Summoners start charging a spell, use the Turn List to check what it is. If it's just Moogle, you're fine, as that only heals them a little. But if they start casting anything else, it's an attack spell. Try to quickly take out the Summoner before he can finish the spell, or spread your characters out to minimize the hurt. Summon magick does a lot of damage! If the battle drags on for a while, the Summoners may run out of MP. In this case, you can pretty much ignore them completely as they can't really harm you at all. Another way of dealing with the Summoners is to put Silence, Berserk, or Atheist status on them using Mystic or Orator abilities, so they can't use magicks. You could also use a gun + Rend MP to sap all their MP, though with a gun it's easy enough to just shoot them to death directly. BATTLE TROPHIES: 100 gil, Thunder Rod --TREASURE HUNTER ITEMS-- Put this corner at screen bottom: Height 0.5, Wooden Floor POOR ITEM GOOD ITEM TRAP Left: 0, Up: 2 (height: 0, Grassland) Echo Herbs Battle Folio none Left: 6, Up: 4 (height: 6, Grassland) Ether Lamia's Harp none Left: 8, Up: 5 (height: 12, Chimney) Potion Crossbow none Left: 8, Up: 8 (height: 0, Wooden Fl.) Hi-Potion Lightning Bow none -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After this encounter, you check on Besrudio. Mustadio reveals that the Zodiac Stone that Ludovich got was really a fake. ---MUSTADIO--- Mustadio will join as you a normal party member -- now you can control him! The only downside to this is that he can now be permanently killed. Be sure to keep him on your roster; you'll need him to complete most of the subquests in Chapter IV. Musty's equipment is all gone, so be sure to re-equip him. Also, if he learned any abilities while he was a Guest, they're also lost and you'll have to relearn them. Now that you have Mustadio, a good general trick for leveling up quickly is to use Arm Shot or Leg Shot to debilitate the last enemy in a battle. Then, you're free to let the other enemies turn into crystals/chests. Crystals from human enemies are often a good source of new abilities. Also, while the last enemy is Disabled or Immobilized, you can have your characters attack each other to raise JP. As long as you use the right strategies for story battles, you shouldn't really need to grind in this fashion, but it's an efficient way to raise levels if you decide to do so. ---TRAVEL--- The route back through the fenlands disappears, and for the time being, you can't get back to Lionel Castle. If you left any characters there doing Errands, you unfortunately won't be able to get them back for a while. Take the ship (well, just walk across the ocean ;) ) over to the Port City of Warjilis. Upon getting off the ship, you'll see a FMV sequence with Delita. ---IN WARJILIS--- After that scene's ended, you can explore the town. There's no new equipment available, but Warjilis IS a Trade City, which means that the shop offers a fair variety of equipment. You may be able to pick up a few new items if you couldn't afford them earlier. ---ERRANDS AT SEA--- To make some easy money, go to the bar and accept the errand (to find the Highwind!), then go back to Goug and get the errand there as well. (There will be a cutscene with Delacroix's scheming when you leave Warjilis the first time.) ---New Errands------------------------------------------------------------------ CITY DAYS COST APPROX. REWARD Miner Shortage Goug 7-9 100 18915 gil, 96 JP Artificers' Contest Goug 14-16 0 20865 gil, 250 JP > Month of Sagittarius only The Highwind Warjilis 5-8 1050 12579 gil, 98 JP -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just go back and forth between the two cities until both errands are complete. Both are quite profitable, so if you weren't able to afford all the equipment you wanted in Goug or elsewhere, you should be able to get it now. And, if it happens to be Sagittarius, the "Artificers' Contest" errand will show up in Goug; this one can also score you a lot of gil and JP. ---LOST HEIRLOOM--- There's also a new Rendezvous Mode mission, Lost Heirloom, that will have appeared after you completed the story battle at Goug. This new mission is pretty difficult if you don't have a good defense, and the enemy Thieves can charm female characters. If you have a female-heavy party, you may want to wait until you get to Chapter III and can buy equipment that protects you from Charm. Now go up to Balias Swale, where you'll find another fight. ---Battle 17: Balias Swale------------------------------------------------------ YOUR FORCES: 1st Squad - Ramza, Agrias [guest], 2 others 2nd Squad - 2 others ENEMY FORCES: 1st Squad - Knight (lv 15, male) Knight (lv 14, male) Black Mage (lv 14, male) Archer (lv 15, female) 2nd Squad - Black Mage (lv 15, male) Archer (lv 14, female) GUEST: Agrias [Cancer] - lv 12 Holy Knight - Bravery 71, Faith 63 Equipment : Coral Sword, Mythril Shield, Golden Helm, Golden Armor, Diamond Bracelet Abilities : Holy Sword, other abilities random VICTORY CONDITION: KO, petrify, recruit, or Vampirize all enemies LOSS CONDITION: Agrias is KOed or Ramza dies WEATHER: Day, thunderstorm (evade rate vs. bows x 1.33, fire dmg +25%, lightning dmg -25%) MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 12 x 12 Grassland Tanglevine 57% River Torrent 29% Flagstone Contortion 10% Obstructed -- 3% Soil Sinkhole 1% --STRATEGY-- You'll deploy two squads here to save Agrias from Delacroix's Gryphon Knights. This is a really easy fight, so you might want to deploy some weaker characters to give them a boost. Kill the Black Mages first (using range attacks if you have them), then the Archers. Really, your only concern is making sure Agrias stays alive. Because this fight is so easy, it's a good time to let the enemies' counters run out and pick up the loot they leave behind. (Paralyze Agrias or use Mustadio's Arm or Leg Shot on her to keep her from finishing off the last enemy.) BATTLE TROPHIES: Echo Herbs --TREASURE HUNTER ITEMS-- Put this corner at screen bottom: Height 8, Grassland POOR ITEM GOOD ITEM TRAP Left: 2, Up: 1 (height: 10, Grassland) Phoenix Down Battle Bamboo none Left: 11,Up: 0 (height: 15.5, Grassl.) Gold Needle Javelin none Left: 7, Up: 11 (height: 8, Grassland) Potion Flameburst Bomb none Left: 11,Up: 11 (height: 9, Grassland) Hi-Potion Snowmelt Bomb none -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Agrias rejoins, this time as a controllable, non-guest character. Again, if you want to complete all the sidequests in the game, don't dismiss her or let her get turned into a crystal or chest. Agrias comes with her Judgment Blade swordskill, which does fairly good damage and hits a group of enemies. Her next two skills, Cleansing Strike and Northswain's Strike, aren't necessarily a huge improvement over Judgment Blade. You may want to save your JP for Hallowed Bolt--it does more damage, and has a good range. It's likely to be one of your most-used abilities! Divine Ruination is a good buy after you get Hallowed Bolt. It's Agrias's hardest- hitting attack, although its targeting is a little less flexible than Hallowed Bolt's. After Agrias joins up, if you head back down to Warjilis, you'll find the shops have a few new items available. ---New Items for Purchase------------------------------------------------------- TYPE PRICE WHERE DETAILS Osafune Katana 5000 TrCity Atk: 9, 15% Parry Mage's Staff Staff 4000 TrCity/City Atk: 4, 15% Parry, Mag.Attack +1 Brigandine Clothes 2500 TrCity/City HP +50 Iron Flail Flail 1200 TrCity/Castl Atk: 9, 0% Parry Diamond Bracelet Armlet 5000 Any Phys.Attack +1, Mag.Attack +1, Immune: Slow -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Most notably, you can replace your Power Gauntlet(s) with the Diamond Bracelets, which gives you the Power Gauntlet's +1 Physical Attack but also +1 Magick Attack and immunity to Slow. Protection from Slow is pretty handy in the next battle, so buy some of the bracelets for your main squad. Agrias comes already equipped with one, as well. You can also upgrade your Wizard Clothing to the Brigandine, which gives you a few more HP. But you'll probably want to keep magick-oriented characters equipped with the Wizard Clothing or with robes for the magick bonuses they confer. Also available for purchase is the Mage's Staff. It's not as strong physically as the Serpent Staff, but it boosts your magick strength. Since magick strength is more important for magick-users (obviously!), this is a good upgrade. In the unlikely event you have a Samurai, the Osafune katana is also available. Your next stop is Golgollada Gallows. Make sure you're ready; this is a tough battle. Bring your Diamond Bracelets! ---Battle 18: Golgollada Gallows------------------------------------------------ YOUR FORCES: 1st Squad - Ramza, 2 others 2nd Squad - 2 others ENEMY FORCES: Gaffgarion (lv 17 Fell Knight) Knight (lv 16, male) Knight (lv 15, male) Knight (lv 14, male) Archer (lv 16, female) Archer (lv 15, female) Time Mage (lv 15, female) Time Mage (lv 14, female) ENEMY: Gaffgarion [Virgo] - lv 17 Fell Knight - Bravery 61, Faith 67 Equipment : Blood Sword, Mythril Shield, Close Helmet, other equipment random Abilities : Fell Sword, other abilities random Immune : Berserk, Charm, and Stone status VICTORY CONDITION: KO, petrify, recruit, or Vampirize all enemies LOSS CONDITION: Ramza dies or all allies are KOed/Stone WEATHER: Clear day (no special effects) MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 11 x 11 Brick Wind Slash 38% Grassland Tanglevine 36% Wooden Floor Will-o'-the-Wisp 18% Soil Sinkhole 5% Flagstone Contortion 3% --STRATEGY-- The execution turns out to be a trap, and you have to fight Gaffgarion. Deploy at least one strong fighter in the second squad (Agrias is good). For the rest of your team, anyone with a ranged attack is really useful (bows, guns, or Black Magick), and Monks and Geomancers can be good too. Although Gaffgarion seems like a boss character, KOing him will NOT end this battle. You need to take out all the enemies! You're surrounded by enemies. What you need to do to gain the advantage is start climbing up the side of the gate, near where the first squad starts. Move immediately for the scaffolding. Because there are so many enemies here and they all start close to you, you need to limit the number of enemies who can attack you at once. As you move for the scaffolding, you can continue to use your abilities to disable the enemy forces. Abilities that are good for this are Mustadio's Arm Shot, Agrias's Judgment Blade (which sometimes causes Stop), and the Geomancer's Tanglevine (which also causes Stop and works more frequently). Leg Shot is also useful against the Knights, but not against the other enemies, who can all attack from a distance even if they're Immobilized. Once you start getting up atop the scaffolding and gate, you can start attacking. Go after those pesky Archers first. You can use bows, guns, Black Magick, and Agrias's Holy Sword to attack from a distance. These attacks all have an infinite vertical range, so you can use them all the way from atop of the gate or on the scaffolding. Once you have the height advantage, it's a lot harder for the enemy Knights and Archers to hit you, and you can fight them a few at a time. You'll be taking a lot of hits. To make your healing more efficient, don't have your healer move once he or she is in position on the scaffolding; this lets him/her get more turns. Throw Items also has an infinite vertical range, so even if you're positioned up on top of the gate, you can throw items down to characters still climbing up. Using Ramza's Tailwind to increase the Speed of your most crucial characters. If your archers or gunners have a spare turn, you can also have them try using Focus to build up their attack power. Gaffgarion is the most dangerous enemy here; not only does his Shadowblade do good damage to you, it drains HP back to him. If you have a really powerful magick spell (like Firaja or Holy or something), you can try using that to take him out in one shot. Or, use Steal Weapon or Rend Weapon to take away his Blood Sword. Breaking the sword will disable his sword techniques completely. If you steal it, he can still use his techniques (due to a bug in the game), but they will probably only do a few points of damage, making them essentially worthless. Stealing is particularly advantageous, in fact, since the Blood Sword is a rare weapon and has the nice side effect of draining HP back to you from the enemy. If you want to steal the Blood Sword, you'll have better luck if you equip Brawler as a support ability, target Gaffgarion from behind, and/or put him to sleep. (A Taurus, Capricorn, or female Pisces will also be at an advantage for stealing from him.) If you don't steal/rend the Blood Sword, you'll have to knock Gaffgarion down bit by bit. Take out the Archers first, then start hammering on him with your whole team; you need to pile on the damage faster than he can heal himself. He has Counter; attacking from a distance (if you can) is one way to get around this. Or, you can just hit him with Arm Shot: if he's Disabled, he can't use his Counter. You needn't take away *all* his HP; as soon as he gets to critical status, he'll teleport out of the battle. The Time Mages are your lowest priority here. Even though they don't have much HP, attacking them is just a waste of turns as they can't do all that much to harm you. About all they do is cast Slow, and if you brought Diamond Bracelets from Warjilis, you're immune to that. So attack the Time Mages last. If you just can't win, try fighting some battles in Balias Swale to get some better abilities like Arise, Equip Heavy Armor, Auto-Potion, Chakra (which I would strongly advise you to acquire by now), etc. If you deploy Agrias in this battle, there will be some extra dialogue between her and Ramza when she finds out he's a Beoulve. BATTLE TROPHIES: None --TREASURE HUNTER ITEMS-- Put this corner at screen bottom: Height 1, Brick POOR ITEM GOOD ITEM TRAP Left: 2, Up: 7 (height: 1, Grassland) Gold Needle Golden Helm none Left: 3, Up: 4 (height: 1, Grassland) Echo Herbs Golden Shield none Left: 8, Up: 7 (height: 8, Wooden Fl.) Phoenix Down Green Beret none Left: 8, Up: 0 (height: 6, Wooden Fl.) Ether Spark Bomb none -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After you attain victory at the Gallows (it may take a few tries!), you'll see a scene back at Lionel Castle in which you find out more about Ovelia's past and Delacroix's plans. Then you're back on the map. When you move back up to Balias Swale, you'll see a cutscene with Wiegraf. ---MOVING AROUND THE MAP--- Now, you can now wander around the map again. Next up is the final battles of the chapter, which occur at Lionel Castle. However, if you want to travel elsewhere, you can do so. If you click on any of the destinations PAST Lionel Castle, you can walk right through the castle without getting into a fight. Just don't click on the castle ITSELF until you're ready to fight. This way, you can travel up to Eagrose if you need to buy heavy armor. Also, if you accidentally left any characters working on errands in Zaland or elsewhere, you can go get them back now. (Anyone running an errand at Lionel Castle is still unreachable until Chapter III, though.) ---BATTLE PREPARATION--- To prepare for the upcoming fights, you'll want to make sure that Ramza has either the Teleport movement ability (Time Mage) or Chakra (Monk). If you're using Chakra, you can either make Ramza into a Monk or assign Martial Arts as a secondary action ability. It's also very helpful to outfit the rest of your team with Rubber Boots to negate the lightning attacks you'll face -- and if Ramza has Teleport, you'll want to give him the Boots as well. You can buy Rubber Boots in any town, and they're fairly inexpensive at 1500 gil each. Just make sure to buy enough so that you can equip the WHOLE team with them or they won't be very useful. Finally, you may want to bring a few extra pieces of equipment. You'll be facing a sequence of battles with no chance to return to a store in between them, and if any of your equipment gets broken by enemy Knights, you'll want a replacement item in your inventory. When you've done all that preparation, it's time for the final battles of the chapter. Click on Lionel Castle and you'll have no choice but to attack the gate. As Ramza tries to open the gate, Gaffgarion shows up yet again and surrounds the castle. ---Battle 19: Lionel Castle Gate------------------------------------------------ YOUR FORCES: 1st Squad - Ramza 2nd Squad - 4 others ENEMY FORCES: 1st Squad - Gaffgarion (lv 18 Fell Knight) 2nd Squad - Knight (lv 16, female) Knight (lv 15, female) Knight (lv 15, female) Archer (lv 17, male) Archer (lv 15, male) Summoner (lv 15, male) BOSS: Gaffgarion [Virgo] - lv 18 Fell Knight - Bravery 61, Faith 67 Equipment : Ancient Sword, Golden Shield, Close Helmet, other equipment random Abilities : Fell Sword, no second action ability, other abilities random Immune : Berserk, Charm, and Stone status VICTORY CONDITION: KO, petrify, recruit, or Vampirize all enemies LOSS CONDITION: Ramza dies or all allies are KOed/Stone WEATHER: Clear night (evade rate vs. bows x 1.33) MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 15 x 9 Grassland Tanglevine 40% Flagstone Contortion 36% Swamp Quicksand 7% Obstructed -- 7% Stone Outcropping Tremor 5% Brick Wind Slash 4% --STRATEGY-- If you thought the Gallows was bad, here's more fun. Actually, the gate isn't as bad if you play your cards right. When deploying your second squad, any characters that you want in the front row (e.g. melee fighters) should be placed in the back of the three rows (i.e., the top-right) on the deployment screen. You'll be attacked from behind, so these characters will actually end up closest to the enemy. Meanwhile, ranged attackers and magick users should go towards the bottom-left of the deployment screen so they'll end up behind your melee fighters. Ramza starts trapped inside the gate with Gaffgarion, while the rest of your characters have another set of enemies to fight outside. There are a couple different strategies you can use to deal with Gaffgarion: 1. TELEPORT: If Ramza has the Time Mage ability Teleport, you can use that to move him outside of the gate and strand Gaffgarion inside. Take out all the enemies outside, then have Ramza teleport back inside and open the gate. You'll have to be careful not to stand *too* close to the gate when fighting outside because Gaffgarion can attack you through the wall with his sword techniques. This strategy has the advantage of allowing Ramza to help fighting outside. 2. STALLING WITH CHAKRA: Or, move Ramza down to the ground (inside the gate) and have him use the Monk's Chakra ability on every turn to heal the damage Gaff is doing. (If Ramza doesn't have Chakra, Hi-Potions should work too, as long as you have enough of them.) Stay close to Gaffgarion so he won't try to go anywhere else. Don't attack Gaffgarion or open the gate; just sit there and use Chakra. Keep stalling Gaffgarion until your other characters defeat the enemies outside. This strategy won't let Ramza fight outside, but it guarantees Gaffgarion won't attack anyone outside. 3. BLACK MAGICKS: If one of your characters has strong Black Magicks (e.g. a -ja or a -ga magick coupled with Arcane Strength), deploy him/her outside the gate. Use Ramza to lure Gaffgarion near the gate, and then have the Black Mage use magick on Gaffgarion (since Black Magicks can go through walls) to KO him. It doesn't matter if the spell KOs Ramza as long as you KO Gaff because KOing Gaffgarion will cause Ramza to recover with 1 HP. Once you've KOed Gaffgarion, you can have Ramza open the gate and join the fight outside. A nice benefit of this strategy is that Gaffgarion immediately turns into a crystal that you can use for healing or ability learning. (Sadly, you can't learn his special sword techniques from the crystal). But, this tactic only works if you have strong Black Magicks. 4. MAKE RAMZA UNDEAD: You can cast the Mystic Arts magick Corruption on Ramza to make him Undead, which prevents Gaffgarion from draining his HP. (You can either have Ramza cast Corruption on himself or have another ally on the ground cast it on him.) Gaffgarion will switch to regular weapon strikes, though, so Ramza will still need to be capable of beating Gaffgarion in a straight fight. You'll probably only want to use this tactic if Ramza has some strong melee combat gear and abilities. 5. TELEPORT / FLY INSIDE: Alternately, if you have characters outside who have Teleport, you can have them warp inside and help Ramza kill Gaffgarion. Or, if you have two Black Chocobos, you can assign them to the group outside, and use them to fly 2 human characters inside to help Ramza defeat Gaffgarion. The disadvantage to this method is that Black Chocobos aren't very strong themselves. 6. FIGHT HIM HEAD-ON: If Ramza is really strong (and fast), you might be able to defeat Gaffgarion just with conventional attacks. This probably won't work unless you have an advanced job like Ninja, though. Meanwhile, your other four characters have to take on the gang outside the gate. Although you're outnumbered, the enemy Knights and Archers out here often come equipped with weapons that deal lightning damage: Coral Swords and Lightning Bows, respectively. If you equip your allies with the Rubber Boots accessory, they will be completely immune to lightning damage, and the Knights and Archers won't be able to attack them! Just make sure to equip ALL FOUR characters with Rubber Boots -- and Ramza, too, if you're having him Teleport outside of the gate. Otherwise, the enemies will simply gang up on the one character without the Boots. Also, even if you have Rubber Boots, the enemies can still hit with you other abilities -- like the Knights' Arts of War abilities, which can break your gear. If they break your Rubber Boots, you'll be vulnerable again! Focus your attacks on the enemies that can do the most damage to you. The Summoner is definitely the most dangerous enemy whether you have Rubber Boots or not, so try to take him out immediately or use Mustadio's Arm Shot to Disable him. If he does start casting a spell, spread out your characters so he can't blast your whole team. After you do something about the Summoner, check the status screens of the other enemies. Any enemies that have weapons other than the Coral Sword or Lightning Bow can still hurt you with their weapons. So, attack these guys first. Arm Shot is a great ability for this fight, as it reduces the number of enemies that can attack you at once. (You can also use the Mystic's Hesitation spell for the same effect.) Moreover, putting Disable on a character causes him/her to flee into a corner, which means that it will take another turn or two to get back into the battle even once Disable wears off. Note that Disabling a character who's charging up an attack will cancel the attack. This is a good way to stop a Summon or Archer's Aim attack if you've got no other options. For dealing damage, guns are quite helpful as they can allow you to attack without having to Move. Remember that if you don't move during a turn, your next turn will come more quickly, which helps a lot when you're surrounded by lots of enemies! Agrias's sword techniques are also great for damage-dealing, and her Northswain's Strike ability (if you have it) has a chance of instantly KOing an enemy outright. Also, when enemies are bunched together, use Black Magick, Summon spells or Agrias's Judgment Blade to hit more than one enemy at a time. Once you've mopped up most of the enemies outside the gate, move Ramza up to the switch on the left side of the gate and he will open the door. Now, have your whole gang rush inside and attack Gaffgarion. Try to rend Gaffgarion's sword, or even better, steal it. Again, using Arm Shot to Disable him is quite useful, as it not only prevents from attacking you, but turns off his counterattack and prevents him from blocking with his shield. He shouldn't be too much trouble -- the hard part is the fight outside the gate. But, be careful not to let him pick up any crystallized enemies; he can use the crystals to restore all his HP just like you can! Either pick up the crystals as soon as they appear, or position your characters to block his route to the crystals. You do have to take away ALL his HP this time instead of just reducing him to critical, but once you do, he's finally gone for good. BATTLE TROPHIES: 700 gil, Mythril Helm --TREASURE HUNTER ITEMS-- Put this corner at screen bottom: Height 5, Grassland POOR ITEM GOOD ITEM TRAP Left: 2, Up: 6 (height: 8, Grassland) Ether Wizard's Robe none Left: 7, Up: 5 (height: 4, Grassland) Echo Herbs Rubber Boots none Left: 7, Up: 7 (height: 4, Grassland) Potion Golden Armor none Left: 13, Up: 6 (height: 2, Grassland) Hi-Potion Wizard Clothing none -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The save game screen will pop up at the conclusion of the battle. There are another couple of battles immediately after this one, so I recommend saving a SEPARATE slot from your main file. This way, you can go back to your main file if it turns you need to raise more JP outside the castle. After saving, you cut back to Delita and Ovelia at Zeirchele Falls for a battle against the Order of the Northern Sky. ---Battle 20: Zeirchele Falls--------------------------------------------------- YOUR FORCES: Delita, Ovelia [guest] ENEMY FORCES: Knight (lv 8, male) Black Mage (lv 8, female) Archer (lv 8, male) ALLY: Delita [Sagittarius] - lv 25 Holy Knight - Bravery 85, Faith 40 Equipment : Ancient Sword, Golden Helm, Golden Armor, Germinas Boots Abilities : Holy Sword, Arts of War, Counter, Safeguard, Move +1 GUEST: Ovelia [Taurus] - lv 20 Princess - Bravery 53, Faith 72 Equipment : Mage's Staff, Celebrant's Miter, White Robe, Elven Cloak Abilities : Holy Magicks, White Magicks, Counter Tackle, Reequip, Move +1 VICTORY CONDITION: KO all enemies LOSS CONDITION: Ovelia is KOed or Delita is killed WEATHER: Clear night (evade rate vs. bows x 1.33) MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 11 x 10 Stone Outcropping Tremor 33% Grassland Tanglevine 30% River, Waterfall Torrent 30% Bridge Wind Slash 4% Obstructed -- 4% --STRATEGY-- Delita is your only controllable character here. Ovelia is a guest. As before, she'll probably just cast Aegis and run. But now that she has more MP, she can also cast Aegis on Delita on her second turn instead of only casting it on herself. Move Delita across the bridge and start attacking the enemy forces. He has all of the Holy Sword techniques, so use them -- with Hallowed Bolt and Judgment Blade, you can probably hit more than enemy at once. Since there are only three enemies and none of them are that strong, you should be able to defeat them without much trouble. Really, this battle is quite easy; its main purpose is just to give you a chance to play as Delita :) BATTLE TROPHIES: None --TREASURE HUNTER ITEMS-- No Treasure Hunter items can be obtained during this battle. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- You're given another chance to save; again, don't save in your main slot. Then your roster screen shows up, allowing Ramza's crew to learn new abilities or change equipment, which might be necessary if the Knights at the gate used Arts of War to break anything. Also, change out of your Rubber Boots if you used them at the Gate; you won't need them for the next battle. When you leave the Party Roster screen, you'll immediately go to the next battle and start deploying your characters. ---Battle 21: Lionel Castle Oratory--------------------------------------------- YOUR FORCES: Ramza, 4 others ENEMY FORCES: Cuchulainn (lv 20 The Impure) BOSS: Cuchulainn [Scorpio] - lv 20 The Impure - Bravery 70, Faith 70 HP: about 485, MP: about 360 Abilities : Dread, Befoul, Brawler, Swiftness Immune : All negative status except Blind, Slow, and Immobilize VICTORY CONDITION: KO Cuchulainn LOSS CONDITION: Ramza dies or all allies are KOed/Stone WEATHER: Indoors (no special effects) MAP SIZE: TERRAIN TYPES GEOMANCY MAP AREA 10 x 8 Flagstone Contortion 60% Carpet, Stairs Will-o'-the-Wisp 20% Obstructed -- 20% --STRATEGY-- This time you're up against Delacroix, who uses his Zodiac Stone to turn (with some pyrotechnics) into Cuchulainn. This battle can be tricky because Cuchulainn casts a variety of status attacks from a distance while running from you. Plus, unless you have a Ninja or other very fast character, Cuchulainn gets the first turn! To get the jump on Cuchulainn, deploy your 4 teammates as follows: __ \XX\ \ \ \ \ X = character other than Ramza \XX\ --- Ramza can be placed on any other tile because he'll automatically move forward during the pre-battle story events. If you place your characters in this formation, Cuchulainn will have to come down the stairs on his first turn to start casting his magick. Now you can rush him and attack. If you can surround him, he won't be able to flee out of range. If you can't get within striking distance on a particular character's turn, at least position that character on the stairs to keep Cuchulainn from climbing back up. You could also use Leg Shot to Immobilize him, but since you can surround him pretty well with this tactic anyway, it's mostly a wasted turn. (He's immune to Disable, so don't bother trying Arm Shot.) As noted above, Cuchulainn's attacks consist primarily of status-attack magick. (Occasionally, he'll use a physical attack instead.) His Nightmare spell will inflict Sleep or Doom on a group of characters and has a 100% hit rate, and his Bio magicks do damage and inflict various other status ailments. Use the Esuna magick or the Monk's Purification ability to wake up the sleeping characters if you have either available; otherwise, try using weak physical attacks (e.g. Stone) to wake them up. The Doom status will KO your character when the countdown finishes. There's pretty no way to remove it, so just revive the characters after they're KOed. (Striking a character with the White Staff *may* remove the Doom status, but it doesn't always work and isn't worth forfeiting a stronger weapon for.) Other status ailments can be cured with Purification, Esuna, or the appropriate items if you happen to have them. Try to keep your support characters spread out so they can't all be hit with Cuchulainn's magick at once. Since both the Sleep and Doom effects of Nightmare can be prevented with Protect Rings, you might be tempted to equip those. However, if you equip Protect Rings, Cuchulainn will just cast Bio magicks instead. Since Bio is usually more dangerous than Nightmare, you're better off without Protect Rings! Good attacks to use against Cuchulainn include physical attacks and Agrias's sword techniques. Guns and bows are also good, particularly if you trap him down on your level. If he escapes to the top of the map, guns will be less useful because there are usually too many obstacles to get a clear line of fire. The Monk's Aurablast may also be helpful in hitting him before you have a chance to trap him. Magick may be somewhat less useful here. You're in such close quarters that the magicks will probably hit your allies too -- plus you may be halted with a status effect before you can get the spell off. However, if you happen to already have the Lich summon spell or the Time Mage's Graviga, these will do a lot of damage -- they both do damage equal to half the target's max HP, regardless of how high that max may be! Since Cuchulainn has a high max HP (almost 500 HP!), these magicks will do quite a bit of damage. Even Gravity, which does damage equal to 1/4 of its target's max HP, can be useful. Another way to damage Cuchulainn is with the Black Mage's Magick Counter reaction ability. When he casts his Bio magicks on you, you'll cast them back on him (even though you can't normally use them!). In general, a good mix of close range fighters and gun/bow users is probably best here, and be sure to bring one or two characters who can use Phoenix Downs! And since Cuchulainn is a Scorpio, any Cancer or Pisces characters you might have (including Agrias) will do particular damage to him. Cuchulainn is the first major boss enemy you will have encountered in the single-player game. That means his HP and MP are displayed simply as ??? and you won't be able to tell exactly how much he has left. However, when he gets low on HP, his life bar will appear to empty (turning from gray to black) and he will switch to a "critical" standing pose just like any other character. At this point, you'll know you're close to defeating him. He has about 485 HP total. Beat him and he'll blow up (with more nifty effects) and drop another Zodiac Stone. If you've played the original PSone version of FF Tactics, you may Cuchulainn quite a bit more challenging in this version. He's been restored to his original Japanese level of difficulty, so he has higher stats than you are used to! BATTLE TROPHIES: None --TREASURE HUNTER ITEMS-- Put this corner at screen bottom: Height 1, Flagstone - on Ramza's left at start POOR ITEM GOOD ITEM TRAP Left: 6, Up: 3 (height: 5, Carpet) Potion Guardian Bracelet none Left: 6, Up: 4 (height: 5, Carpet) Ether Mage's Cloak none Left: 8, Up: 3 (height: 7, Flagstone) Hi-Potion Protect Ring none Left: 8, Up: 4 (height: 7, Flagstone) Remedy Osafune none -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Delita delivers Ovelia to Duke Goltanna, while Duke Larg maintains Orinus as the heir to the throne. As the War of the Lions begins over these claims to the throne, Chapter II draws to a close, and you're again given a chance to save.
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