Final Fantasy Tactics – Guides and FAQs
FAQ/Walkthrough by Szamar_Madar
Version: 1.0 | Updated: 06/25/06
Final Fantasy Tactics ------------------- FAQ/Walkthrough Szamar Madar Szamar.Madar@gmail.com June 13th, 2006 __________________________________________________________ ================== TABLE OF CONTENTS =================== 1. Walkthrough [A000] Chapter 1 - The Meager [A001] Chapter 2 - The Manipulator [A002] Chapter 3 - The Valiant [A003] Chapter 4 - Somebody to Love [A004] 2. Sidequests [B000] Beowulf and Reis [B001] Cloud and Worker 8 [B002] The Deep Dungeon [B003] 3. Tips & Misc Info [C000] 4. Legal Information [D000] ________________________________________________________ ========================================================== ______________________________________________________________________________ ============================================================================== [A000] Walkthrough ============================================================================== Select the New game option and you will be prompted to enter your name. The default name of "Ramza" will hereafter be used for the remainder of this guide. Next enter your real birth date and watch the game's opening cinematic. We are thrust immediately into a battle outside of the Orbonne Monastery. ------------------------ 0.01 - Orbonne Monastery ------------------------ Enemies : Lezales [Knight], Chemist [x1], Archer [x3] Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : N/A This battle is entirely inconsequential in the big scheme of things. It serves primarily as an introduction to the battle system. Regardless of whether you main character survives or not, the outcome will be the same. With the exception of Ramza, the AI will control each character automatically. You'll find you spend more time watching this battle than actually participating. During your turns it would be best simply to move Ramza beside the nearest enemy and use his basic attack. With the powers of Agrias and Gafgarion on your side, it is impossible to lose this battle. Before you proceed to the next battle you should understand the following concepts: moving your character, attacking, and CT count. The latter is a variable that increases automatically for each unit. You can see it below their HP/MP. When it reaches 100 then that character will get his/her turn. By looking at the CT count of two characters (say 42 and 82) then you can determine which one will get a turn first. In this case it would be the unit with 82 CT. ______________________________________________________________________________ ============================================================================== [A001] Chapter 1 - The Meager ============================================================================== -------------------------- 1.01 - Gariland Magic City -------------------------- Enemies : Squire [x4], Chemist My Party : Ramza [Squire] Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 1 Prior to almost every battle there is an attack formation screen. How you position your units here translates directly to their position on the battle map. Unfortunately you are given no indication as to what the map looks like, so unless you are familiar with the battle it really makes little difference where you assign your character. Four Squires and two Chemists are automatically placed into your main party before the battle begins. Select three Squires and one Chemist for this battle and press the start button when you're ready to begin. Unlike the previous battle, if you lose here then it's game over. We should begin by getting a few ground rules out of the way. Any characters who die will remain on the ground for a few short turns to give the player a chance to revive them. If the number above the corpse reaches zero for more than the length of a single CT count rotation, that character will die and be removed from your party permanently. In the case of Ramza, the game will be over. If the battle ends after a unit has died, but before that unit is eliminated, then they will be saved and remain in your party. One final note: guest characters (like Delita for example) are controlled automatically by the AI. They can die, but not be eliminated. Ramza and the Squires will be your offensive battlers in this fight, while the Chemist will serve as the healer. A Chemist can throw healing items up to three panels away, so keep him/her as close to your battle party as possible. Your team neither outnumbers the enemy party nor out-levels them. Since this is the case your best chance of winning comes from outsmarting them. The enemies will split up and attack your party equally with little to no focus. Your goal should be to keep units together and aim your attacks at a single enemy. If you can get close to their Chemist and take him out then that puts them at a severe disadvantage. By the same token you need to make sure that your Chemist is well protected. If you are unable to move close enough to attack, then try this trick. Move out panel outside the enemy's movement radius so that they cannot reach you on their next turn. To see an enemy movement radius simply highlight them with your cursor and press the X button. Another trick to keep in mind is that if your unit neither moves not acts in a turn, their next turn will come much faster. Moving and acting both consume extra CT. With each unit that you eliminate, the battle will become that much easier. With only a single enemy left you can often stand around while the other enemy corpses yield items and crystals (that is if Delita doesn't finish the battle for you.) After the battle is over you will find yourself on the world map. You now have access to the party screen. You can save and manipulate your party. Cities (like Gariland Magic City for example) typically have shops where you can upgrade your equipment. Those players who wish to recruit units they name themselves will have to use the Soldier Office. Just three units will cost all of the money you start out with, but it's best to do now before you begin to power up your default characters. Regarding learning new abilities, leveling your party, and everything else you can do at this point; there is plenty of information on each of these subjects elsewhere in the guide. ---------------------- 1.02 - Mandalia Plains ---------------------- Enemies : Squire [x4]. Thief [x1], Red Panther My Party : Ramza [Squire], Squire [x3], Chemist Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 1 When the battle begins you will be given one of two options: Our duty is to destroy the Death Corps, and Saving him is our priority. Select the first option. This way, if Algus dies the game won't end. There are no negative repercussions for choosing this. Even if he dies in battle he will be alive when it's over. Delita will move off on his own; don't worry about him, he's not your concern. Just focus on keeping your own party members alive. With two guests in this battle who are undoubtedly more powerful than you are, it will make things quite a bit easier. Move your entire party out toward the middle of the field gradually and try to focus all your attacks on one enemy at a time. If you find that you've got the upper hand in battle and victory is inevitable, then you might want to consider having your less active characters perform actions on your party. Since you receive EXP and JP for just about any action, using an item on a party member (whether they need it or not) or even attacking them can be worthwhile just for the experience. The higher the level of the unit you target the more EXP you will get. Be careful to avoid being surrounded by the enemy. You may need to move your units around the field even if you have a good attack position at the beginning of the turn. Also keep in mind that you have a better hit ratio from the side and behind, so quite often you'll find yourself moving almost every turn. When the battle is over you'll now be able to fight random battles at Mandalia Plains simply by moving to it on the world map. The enemies you fight in random battles will roughly equal your current, thus regardless of how far in the game you are, all maps will still provide at least some challenge. ------------------- 1.03 - Sweegy Woods ------------------- Enemies : Bomb [x2], Goblin [x2], Black Goblin [x2], Red Panther My Party : Ramza [Squire], Squire [x2], Chemist Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 3 I would suggest at least one random battle in Mandalia Plains before taking on this fight. You will encounter some new and dangerous foes here in the woods. The typical player might see their first game over screen during this fight so think carefully and plan ahead. You start the battle beside a bridge so use that to your advantage. While it is possible for enemies to jump in the water and attack, what you're trying to avoid is moving too far and being surrounded. Let the enemies cross the bridge first and then surround them with your party. The Goblins and Red Panther aren't too much to worry about. Even the Bombs themselves tend to stick with just a bite attack. What you need to watch out for most of all is the Bombs' special attack they tend to use when low on HP. The Bomb will approach the largest group of allies it can find and use a wide radius explosion attack doing damage to everyone within two panels or so. The "Oil" condition will increase all fire elemental damage as well, but at this point in the game it's not something you have to worry about. Every enemy on the field is equipped with the Counter Attack ability. This means that every time you attack them you're likely to be attacked back. To even things out a little bit make sure that you avoid attacking with extremely weak characters. You can also try using the Basic Skill "Throw Stone" which attacks from a distance and cannot be countered. More than likely either Algus or Delita will move off and do their own thing and be killed in the process. Once again I remind you that guests can be killed, but not permanently. The more enemies your guests lure away the easier it will make your job. You will be able to focus on a smaller number of enemies and keep your HP up for the remaining forces on the other side of the map. ---------------------- 1.03 - Slums of Dorter ---------------------- Enemies : Archer [x3], Wizard [x2], Knight My Party : Ramza [Squire], Squire, Wizard, Chemist Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 4 The hardest battle thus far will truly test the strength of your party. You may find it difficult to win this battle at any level lower than five, however with proper strategy you should be able to manage. If you've built your party up enough to include Wizards at this point it will give you a powerful advantage. Aim for the Wizard and the Knight directly in front of your party and let loose some magic of both of them simultaneously. The Chemist in your party will be working overtime in this battle to restore the HP of all the units picked on by the archers above. Unfortunately it's difficult to hit them given their height advantage, but Delita should start the battle by hopping up the side and distracting them for the time being. You likely won't be able to rely on him to actually finish them however. Have your Squires move forward and attack with Throw Stone to start. Failing that they should stick with the Accumulate ability to build EXP and increase attack power. Killing the Wizard should take priority over the Knight since their HP is low and they are easy to defeat. Be very careful because their magic is powerful and can target multiple allies in a "plus sign" grid. Try to keep your party members outside of this formation. Given the attack range of some of these Archers, you may find it best to just leave dead characters dead and take on a more offensive attack strategy. You'll end up wasting too much time with Phoenix Downs as the characters inevitably get picked off immediately after reviving. Once you manage to take down the Wizards, go for the Knight. The Archers are easy to kill once they are your only remaining targets. ------------------------------- 1.04 - Cellar of the Sand Mouse ------------------------------- Enemies : Knight [x3], Monk [x2], Archer My Party : Ramza [Squire], Squire, Wizard, Chemist Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 4 Allow Delita and Algus to move in first and wear the enemies down a little bit. The two of them aren't likely to last long and will end up either dead, or retreating to a corner. I would suggest moving your entire party toward the door with the Monks so that you can overpower them quickly. Anytime you are unable to attack in a turn, try to use the Squire ability "Accumulate." If you have a Wizard in your party it would be best to position him/her outside the wall of structure so they may attack without retaliation. Remember when using Wizards to take the enemy's CT count into consideration when casting magic. If their CT is high they will often have a chance to move and avoid the magic before it is cast. Another solution to this is to cast the magic directly on the unit itself, but in that case you risk having the enemy move to include a member of your party in the spell radius. The Chemist should also remain out of harm's way, but close enough to throw items to your wounded fighters. If you have garnered enough JP to learn the Auro-Potion ability by this point it will really come in handy. The Knights should be the last enemies you defeat simply because they will take longer to kill than any other enemy. The Archer can heal himself so don't leave him at low HP for long. Once you manage to get your entire party within the structure it should be no problem to start cornering the enemies one by one and eliminating them with your more powerful characters. After the battle the shops will upgrade their equipment list quite a bit. It is now much more beneficial to your party to start branching out from Squire and Chemist into other more powerful job classes. Before the next battle you must proceed back to Igros Castle. -------------------- 1.05 - Thieves' Fort -------------------- Enemies : Miluda [Knight], Thief [x3], Priest [x2] My Party : Ramza [Knight], Wizard, Monk, Summoner Victory Condition : Defeat Miluda! Recommended Level : 6 Unlike prior battles you have fought, the objective here is to eliminate the leader and not the entire group. Despite this you will often find yourself defeating all the enemies regardless as you progress toward the leader. Miluda is a powerful Knight with a high HP value. You're also facing off against two Priests and three Thieves. The attacks you need to watch out for are the Thieves' "Steal Heart" which can confuse your units, and the Priests' Black Magic spells like Ice. Since the battle map is so small and the main path so thin, a character like a Wizard or Summoner will thrive in this battle. Enemies are unable to spread out giving those characters a chance to target up to three or four units at a time with their magic. Simply remain in your positions at the start of the battle and let the enemies come to you. You should focus on eliminating the Priests before the Thieves due to their low hit points and tendency to heal other weakened characters. Once Miluda is the only unit remaining you can surround her and bring her down easily. Try not to give her the chance to use any "Break" abilities. They have a chance side effect of destroying your equipment. The shops have been upgraded quite a bit. Now is a good time to update your equipment. ---------------------- 1.06 - Lenalia Plateau ---------------------- Enemies : Miluda [Knight], Knight [x2], Wizard [x2], Time Mage My Party : Ramza [Knight], Wizard, Monk, Summoner Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 7 The central path on this map once again makes it very beneficial to have wither a Wizard or Summoner. I found the scales of the entire battle were tipped in my favour from a single summoning of Titan used right at the beginning on the enemies hiding at the back. Among the enemy units is a Time Mage. This magic user will constantly cast the "Haste" spell on other enemies increasing the speed at which their CT recharges and giving them more turns. While not a powerful character, it would be in your best interests to eliminate her quickly before she gets every one f your enemies moving faster than you. Focus your energy on the Wizards using powerful ranged attacks. I suggest some of the lower level Charge abilities if you have an Archer. People using Monks will find the Wave Fist attack especially effective. Avoid grouping too many party members together otherwise you risk being mass- targeted by the WIzards' Black Magic. Send a couple of people up the left side to deal with the Knight while your most powerful mages stay back and control the middle of the map. -------------------- 1.07 - Windmill Shed -------------------- Enemies : Wiegraf [White Knight], Monk [x2], Knight, Yellow Chocobo My Party : Ramza [Knight], Wizard, Monk, Summoner Victory Condition : Defeat Wiegraf! Recommended Level : 9 Facing off against Wiegraf is going to make this battle difficult. Often people find it takes a fair amount of level building before they are prepared for this fight. Keep in mind that you do not necessarily have to defeat every enemy. Bringing Wiegraf down to critical HP is all that is required. I would highly recommend a Summoner for this battle. Like the previous fight, given the proximity of the enemies at the start it makes them extremely effective. Couple this with Delita's tendency to act as fodder for drawing the enemies to him and you've got a recipe for success. One thing you certainly want to avoid is positioning your party members in a plus sign pattern. Wiegraf's primary attack is the Stasis Sword which has a hit radius similar to magic, without the charge time. It can also inflict the Stop status on a party member rendering them completely unable to do anything for a few turns. Move your melee characters forward a few panels to start, but not far enough so that they are in danger of being attacked on the first turn. They should use Accumulate to build their attack power while remaining out of the way. The Wizard, Summoner, Archer and other long range attack should get offensive right off the bat. If Wiegraf is out of range then focus your attacks on some of the weaker enemies. The Chocobo is able to cure wounded comrades so it should be one of the first to go. ------------------- 1.08 - Fort Zeakden ------------------- Enemies : Knight [Algus], Knight [x3], Wizard [x2] My Party : Ramza [Knight], Wizard, Monk, Summoner Victory Condition : Defeat Algus! Recommended Level : 10 This is a very difficult battle. Remember that the main focus in this battle is Algus and there is no obligation to eliminate all of the other enemies. Since you will have to split your party up you will lack the strength of numbers and be forced to take on multiple enemies at a time. Make sure that each of the two characters you place in the formation complement each other well (with respect to battle abilities.) Ramza and his partner will start along with Delita near Algus while the remaining two will find themselves on the opposite side facing a Knight and Wizard. Physical attackers will do well on the opposite side whiles mages are strong when accompanying Ramza due to the tightly knit group of enemies on that side. Algus is now equipped with a bow that has a chance of inflicting the Darkness status when it hits a party member. Characters with that ailment will have a much more difficult time hitting the enemy. The Knights with him will be able to protect him from characters who move in fast while the Wizard is able to pick off any straggles. If you have a ranged attacker alongside Ramza (an Archer for example) his/her main target should be the Wizard unless you're going after Algus exclusively. It might be a good idea to move the two extra units on the opposite side over toward Ramza right away, completely ignoring the enemies at the back. This way you will have a much better chance of defeating Algus quickly. Even if you are aiming to kill all enemies, as a group of four you will find it will probably go a lot faster. Completion of this battle marks the end of the first chapter. ______________________________________________________________________________ ============================================================================== [A002] Chapter 2 - The Manipulator and the Subservient ============================================================================== A number of new recruits will join your party at the start of this chapter. The majority of players will find these non-unique characters completely useless. It's best to just stick with the party you had before. ------------------------ 2.01 - Dorter Trade City ------------------------ Enemies : Thief [x2], Wizard [x2], Archer [x2] My Party : Ramza [Knight], Wizard, Monk, Summoner Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 10 Both Gafgarion and Agrias are now guests in your party. With the help of these two powerful characters you will likely find battles are much easier to win. Gafgarion's Night Sword is able to siphon HP from the enemy while Agrias can use the same Stasis Sword attack which Wiegraf used at the windmill. The enclosed road will make for a very interesting battle here. Both you and your enemies are forced to keep the parties crammed together. In doing so both teams are at high risk for being targeted by area attacks, especially those of a Summoner. For that exact reason, your first targets in this battle should be the two Wizards. If they are out of reach try picking off the Archers. The Thieves in this fight really don't pose much of a threat at all. They have a tendency to take your equipment, but at this point in the game you aren't wearing anything you can't just as easily buy back again. Here's a good tip to keep in mind when the battle is over. Both Agrias and Gafgarion are equipped with better equipment than you are. Since they won't necessarily remain in your party forever you should take advantage of this and remove it all. Outfit your Knights with this powerful equipment and then replace theirs with whatever you can purchase in stores. -------------------- 2.02 - Araguay Woods -------------------- Enemies : Black Goblin, Goblin [x5] My Party : Ramza [Knight], Priest, Monk, Summoner Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 11 This battlefield is populated almost entirely by Goblins with one obvious exception. The Chocobo is not your enemy here, rather it serves as a guest. Select the first option and if you win the battle with the Chocobo alive you will have the opportunity to recruit it afterwards. There is one thing to keep in mind above all else: Goblins have an extremely strong weakness to ice. The Wizard in this fight who has learned the Ice 2 spell will be your strongest ally. The same thing can be said for Summoners with the Shiva spell. Gafgarion is well aware of this weakness as he has a tendency to set Night Sword aside in favour of the basic Ice spell here. Also note that regardless of what the animation looks like, Agrias' Stasis Sword is not an elemental attack. More than likely the Chocobo will run and hide in a corner. This is exactly what you want. Send at least one party member to go and protect the Chocobo from any advancing Goblins. Keep in mind that he does have Choco Cure, so it will take more than a single Goblin to bring him down. Assuming the Chocobo does not die it will join your party after the battle. From this point on you will begin to find random Chocobo eggs in the party formation screen. These eggs hatch into new Chocobos periodically including black ones and the powerful red ones. Boco is also the first "unique" character to join your party. While you are more than welcome to destroy the eggs I would suggest you don't permanently remove Boco. He's one of a kind. --------------------- 2.03 - Zirekile Falls --------------------- Enemies : Gafgarion [Dark Knight], Knight [x5] My Party : Ramza [Knight], Priest, Monk, Summoner Victory Condition : Save Princess Ovelia! Recommended Level : 12 Unfortunately, Gafgarion has decided to betray your party. Lucky for you there just-so-happens to be a great trick you can use to make this battle easier. Before you trigger the battle go into the formation screen and remove all of Gafgarion's equipment then change his job to a Priest or Wizard. When the battle begins you'll be facing off against an unarmed opponent who can do nothing more than poke you for minor damage. There are still many other more difficult enemies you need to take care of. Delita will serve as a guest in this battle along with Agrias; the two of them now share the same job class. Your goal is to keep Princess Ovelia from being killed. A task made easier by the protective MBarrier spell she casts on herself. Delita will be fine by himself taking care of the three Knights on the opposite side. All you need to worry about at this point are the two Knights near Gafgarion. If you chose not to weaken him prior to the battle you will have to contend with the powerful Night Sword attack not only weakening your party, but also keeping him alive. Melee attackers may have trouble hitting the Knights, but mages' and Agrias' special abilities will be able to cut through the defenses regardless. Don't leave your magic casters alone near the bottom as at least one of the Knights fighting Delita is likely to try to attack from that direction. ----------------------- 2.04 - Zaland Fort City ----------------------- Enemies : Knight [x2], Wizard [x2], Archer [x2] My Party : Ramza [Knight], Priest, Monk, Summoner Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 14 Select the "don't want to get involved option" before the battle begins. Mustadio is an Engineer equipped with a gun making him a powerful long ranged attacker. You will likely find that this is the most difficult second chapter battle thus far. The enclosure of the Archers and Wizards gives them the freedom to attack from a distance and wear down your party as you attempt to infiltrate the inner area. Have your Wizards and Summoners stand outside the wall and cast magic on the inside. Do your best to keep them separated so that they are not both targeted by the enemy Wizards' Black Magic. Physical attackers should go over the wall if possible, and failing that, through the main door. Mustadio will be quite a big help himself assuming he isn't killed. His gun, while not particularly powerful, has exceptional range and a 100% hit ratio regardless of enemy direction or protection. As you attempt to eliminate the Wizards with magic he will usually finish off any remaining HP they have after a powerful spell. Once your party is able to get through the main gate have them regroup. The Wizards should be dead by this point. Agrias doesn't seem to understand the concept of "door," but if you can lure the enemies near the wall she will use Stasis Sword while standing on the other side. With the Archers out of the way and your mages protected by the wall, the Knights will fall quickly. ------------------- 2.05 - Bariaus Hill ------------------- Enemies : Knight [x2], Archer [x2], Summoner [x2] My Party : Ramza [Knight], Priest, Monk, Summoner Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 16 This battle introduces you to enemy Summoners who will prove to be by far the most devastating enemies you face here. Fortunately their powerful magic is offset by their pathetic HP, and with a character like Mustadio by your side you should be able to eliminate them quickly. The Knights will be difficult to kill without some serious effort on your part so leave them be for the moment. Send your Wizard or other long range attacker up the same side that Mustadio takes in order to finish off the Summoner which Mustadio attacks first. As for the rest of them you can pretty much take them head on. Any abilities that target numerous enemies at once will help out quite a bit. Have a Summoner from your own party target the conglomeration of Archers and Knights that tend to gather around the centre of the field. Given that at least one of the enemy Summoners will likely be able to cast magic before being killed you should have a plan for keeping your party in good condition. The Moogle summon allows you to heal many party members quickly with the drawback being only 20 - 30 HP at a time. Cure and Cure 2 are useful, but the Monk's Chakra is the most powerful. The difficulty with Chakra is that you must carefully position your units together on a flat plane. -------------------- 2.06 - Zigolas Swamp -------------------- Enemies : Ghoul [x2], Skeleton [x2], Bone Snatch, Floatiball My Party : Ramza [Knight], Wizard, Monk, Summoner Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 16 Much of your success in this battle will depend on Mustadio himself. He has an incredibly useful ability (in the right circumstance) called Seal Evil which can instantly petrify undead foes from a great distance with good accuracy. Since you do not control him here you will simply have to hope he realizes this and uses the ability from time to time. There are a couple of other things you should be aware of. You can walk through the water without any difficulty, but if you end your turn while still in the water your unit will automatically be poisoned. Below the height indicator is a note that displays the depth of water. If you stop in water with a depth of two you won't be able to act that turn. Undead creatures inherently have a weakness to fire magic so both Fire / Fire 2 and Ifrit will be very useful in this fight. Physical attacks are difficult due to the awkward terrain so move slowly and remain out of attack range if you are unable to get close. Both the ghosts and skeletons have attacks which can target up to two or three panels away. With all of these advantages on your side, all things considered the battle is relatively easy. The more characters you have capable of attacking from a distance the better your chances of victory. -------------------- 2.07 - Slums in Goug -------------------- Enemies : Thief [x2], Archer [x2], Summoner [x2] My Party : Ramza [Knight], Wizard, Monk, Summoner Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 17 The Summoners are back and once again they are the most daunting foes present on the field. Given their position it will be difficult to reach them before they begin their normal routine of summoning and retreating. It's imperative that you focus on one at a time and do not let up under any circumstance. Both Summoners will repeatedly summon the healing Moogle until their HP is fully restored effectively making every prior attack a complete waste. As a welcome chance from previous battles, I personally found that the Monk's Wave Fist was the key technique in this fight. Monk's are an extremely versatile class available early in the game which combine both strong, ranged attack power and the ability to heal and revive in the same moveset. With the gaps between roofs always seeming to get in the way, the Wave Fist attack will allow you to use a physical attack almost every turn regardless of position. Mustadio's death is almost an inevitability here considering where he starts. Fortunately he is still a guest and cannot be permanently eliminated. Once he dies just leave him dead. Unless you have a Priest with the Raise 2 ability it's not worth it. When the Summoners and Thieves gather together on the side it will be a good opportunity for you to use both magic and summons. Remember that the main focus must be the Summoners who need to be killed before they have a chance to steal. Avoid getting too close to the Thieves or you risk succumbing to the "Steal Heart" ability which turns one ally against you and will make it almost impossible for you to win the fight. Your only chance is to attack them physically, thereby waking them up before anything else goes wrong. The Archers have a tendency to hide in the corner and mind their own business. In all likelihood you will forget about them entirely, however once you just the roof gap you'll suddenly find arrows raining down on your head. Have one powerful melee fighter (a Knight perhaps) branch off from the rest of the party and take on the Archers alone. After the battle you will have the option of recruiting your first truly unique specialty character: Mustadio. I consider him to be one of the best characters in the game and often use him in my final party, thus I would recommend dropping one of your current party members in favour of him. Mustadio should remain an Engineer until he masters the job and should then become a Chemist since they can also equip firearms. Along the way it may be a good idea to make him an Archer and learn the first four Charge skills. They are extremely effective when equipped with a gun. Make sure that Mustadio is well equipped if you plan to continue using him. --------------------- 2.08 - Bariaus Valley --------------------- Enemies : Knight [x2], Wizard [x2], Archer [x2] My Party : Ramza [Knight], Wizard, Monk, Summoner, Mustadio Victory Condition : Save Agrias! Recommended Level : 18 Your goal is to protect Agrias, who really doesn't need much protecting. In reality your primary focus should be on eliminating every enemy. This task is made a little more difficult by forcing you to split your party in two. At the start of the battle try to avoid moving your troops forward if you can help it. Let the enemies come to you. This way the Wizards will be too far out of range to use magic on their first turn, then you can move in and attack when they are closer. Mustadio's long range attack is great for picking off the Wizards little by little, despite its lack of power. Agrias will usually clean up whatever messes you leave behind on the more populated side of the field. Try to keep her front and centre of everyone because she has an extremely high rate of defending and dodging enemy attacks. Having one magic user on each side is beneficial. A Summoner on Agrias' side is especially useful to weaken those Knights. One option you may want to consider is using Mustadio's Arm Aim ability on the Archer on Agrias' side early in the battle. She has a tendency to whittle down the HP of some of your weaker characters. The Wizard on the opposite side paired with the Archer is able to heal himself and his teammates. I suggest you focus on eliminating him before anyone else. A strong physical attacker paired with a mage on that side of the field should be more than enough to take on the two enemies. Successful completion of this battle finally bestows Agrias upon you as a playable character. She will be one of your most powerful fighters for now and for much of the rest of the game so make sure to place her in your active party. After learning Gained JP Up and perhaps Move+1, the next ability you learn should be Lightning Stab (her best) followed by Holy Explosion. ------------------------------- 2.09 - Golgorand Execution Site ------------------------------- Enemies : Gafgarion [Dark Knight], Knight [x3], Time Mage [x2], Archer [x2] My Party : Ramza [Knight], Wizard, Monk, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 21 This infamous battle often gets the best of new players to the game, forcing them to battle endlessly in Bariaus Valley in order to build levels and abilities. It is truly the hardest battle you have faced up to this point. With the Dark Knight Gafgarion leading a group of enemy troups, they outnumber you by three. Once again you must split your party in two. Place Agrias and a Wizard or Summoner together on the second formation panel and the remainder of your party with Ramza on the first. Agrias and the magic caster will be able to multi-target the more condensed enemies around them this way. I don't hesitate to tell you that a well leveled Mustadio will typically be the MVP in this battle. Gafgarion's Night Sword will likely make or break your victory so he has to be dealt with quick. One suggestion is to begin the battle with Mustadio (who acts quickly) and use Arm Aim on Gafgarion. On average it will have about a 60% chance of success (more often than not) and when it does work it will give you an enormous advantage. Take this opportunity to eliminate Gafgarion quickly before he regains the ability to heal himself. If Arm Aim misses you'll be in trouble, but there will always be another chance next turn. Focus on no one else until Gafgarion is dead. It is not necessary to kill him; simply attack Gafgarion until he reaches critical HP and he will escape from the battle. At this point you can turn your attention toward the Archers. The Knights in this battle have high HP values and are equipped with the Weapon Guard skill reducing the successful hit ratio of your physical attacks by a lot. Given the time it takes to eliminate them it is best to take on the Archers first. If Agrias has Lightning Stab it will seriously benefit you here. Much the same applies for Holy Explosion. If not then you will have to hope for good placement of the enemies in order to use Stasis Sword. The Time Mages should not be dealt with until every other enemy is dead. While they are obnoxious to no end, they pose a very minimal threat. Inevitably your party will end up under the Slow and perhaps Don't Move ailments, but you'll be able to manage regardless. A few extra tips to help you in this fight. If an Archer begins to charge an attack at one of your key characters, you can sometimes position a stronger character in between them to receive (and even deflect) the attack. Mustadio's Arm Aim can be used in a similar fashion to stop both Charge and magic attacks from resolving even after they are already in progress. If you have a Monk in your party, the Chakra and Earth Slash skills are invaluable in this fight. Mustadio's normal attack will be one of the most effective tools you have for eliminating weak enemies with a 100% hit ratio before they are able to heal or hide themselves. A good tip to know before going into this battle is to equip the Diamond Armlet on all your characters. Not only does in increase your physical and magic attack by one, it also completely negates the Slow status. ----------------------------------- 2.10 - At the Gate of Lionel Castle ----------------------------------- Enemies : Gafgarion [Dark Knight], Knight[x3], Archer [x3], Summoner My Party : Ramza [Knight], Wizard, Monk, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 22 The battle at Lionel Castle is the game's first "two part" battle. What this means to you is that following your victory here outside the gates, you will have the opportunity to save and heal your party, but not visit the world map. Say for example that you are strong enough to win this battle, but not the one after it. If you save in between them, there is absolutely nowhere you can train your party and you will be forced to either find a way to edit your party in the menu so that you can win or start a new game. For this reason you have two reasonable options: either don't save between battles, or even better, save your game between battles on a separate save slot. Another difficult battle awaits you here as you take on Gafgarion for the final time. Ramza will be all alone on the other side to the gate in a on-on- one situation with the Dark Knight himself. Positioning of your other characters is very important, the reason is something we will touch on in just a moment. Mustadio should be placed on the second row in the panel second to the left from your perspective, second to the right from the characters' perspective. This is the pre-battle formation I refer to. If Agrias has Holy Explosion she should be placed in the back row, second panel from the right looking at it from your perspective. The Summoner in this battle poses an enormous threat to your entire party. His Ramuh spell is devastating, and the close proximity of your party coupled with the short distance between where the enemies and allies begin make you a very easy target. Ideally the Summoner should be dead before he even gets a turn. From where I suggested you place Mustadio he has a clear shot between the enemies and the torch to hit the Summoner without having to move. Not having to move is important here because it means he will get his next turn faster. The same applies for Agrias. She will be close enough to hit the Summoner with Holy Explosion without having to move. It is likely that Mustadio's shot and Holy Explosion will not be able to eliminate the Summoner. You will have to find a way to finish him off. I personally suggest a Monk's Earth Slash, however an Archer's normal attack or a Ninja's throw ability would also suffice. A Chemist also equipped with a gun is a worthwhile addition to this battle party. As for Ramza I highly recommend you make him a Knight. The reason for this is that he needs some way to get the advantage over the powerful Dark Knight Gafgarion. That advantage will be the Knight's "Weapon Break" ability. While it only has about a 35% success rate (attacking from the side) on him, you will likely be able to try at least three times before his Night Sword brings you down. The odds are in your favour. Once his weapon is gone Gafgarion poses about as much threat to you as an infant child. Of course the other option is to try and defeat him in a battle of attrition; your raw physical power versus his. Note that down at the bottom on Ramza's side, beside the gate, is a brown switch. If you move directly next to this switch Ramza will automatically open the gate allowing the rest of your party to pass through. This option is best for players who are unable to beat Gafgarion alone (or simply want to speed things up.) As for the rest of the enemies, they should not be difficult to defeat. An effective tactics I employed was gathering my party around a Monk in a plus sign formation. Each turn the Monk would use Chakra, healing the entire group almost back to full health. The shape of the formation also allows you to cast Cure 2 on every member of your party. The enemies simply cannot keep up with you. The reason this is so effective is because aside from the Summoner (who should already be dead) the enemies do not have any units who can attack multiple characters in such a formation (like a Wizard for example.) --------------------------- 2.11 - Inside Lionel Castle --------------------------- Enemies : Queklain [Impure King] My Party : Ramza [Knight], Wizard, Monk, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat Queklain! Recommended Level : 23 The Impure King is a very dangerous foe. In an interesting twist you will find that he does not typically attack by depleting your HP, rather with extremely debilitating status ailments. His primary attack is called "Nightmare." It targets in a plus sign shape and inflicts one of two random effects: Sleep or Death Sentence. You will most likely find yourself hoping for Death Sentence. Your battle formation should have two characters on the far right side (front and back rows) and two characters on the far left. Ramza should be placed somewhere in the middle since he will end up in a specific location anyway regardless of where you place him. Using this formation I mentioned, Queklain will not be able to target more than two party members on the first turn regardless of where he directs his attack. For this battle I set up my party in the following fashion and it was quite effective: (note that you can build a similar strategy still using different party members and job classes.) Mustadio's attack is weak when faced with a single powerful foe, so he spent the entire battle just shooting allies who were put to sleep. It's a good idea to have a "wake up" character since it will takes ages for them to wake up themselves. A Monk served as the primary "resurrector" with his Revive ability. He basically followed around units with the Death Sentence ailment waiting for them to die. Having a Priest with Raise 2 and party members with the ability to use Phoenix Down is also just as good. Queklain does have a wide area magic attack which does between 70 and 100 damage to everyone in the radius. He rarely uses it. As for offensive tactics, Ramza should stick with whatever he is best at given his current job class. The main damage in this battle will come from the following three sources: Agrias (Holy Explosion or Lightning Stab), Wizard (Flare or Fire 3) and Priest (Holy.) Each of those (with the exception of Lightning Stab should do between 100 - 200 damage to the boss. The Holy magic spell is the most powerful attack you can use here. ______________________________________________________________________________ ============================================================================== [A003] Chapter 3 - The Valiant ============================================================================== ----------------------- 3.01 - Goland Coal City ----------------------- Enemies : Mediator, Chemist [x2], Thief [x3] My Party : Ramza [Thief], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Save Olan! Recommended Level : 24 "Save Olan" is a little bit misdirecting. More accurately it should read "Olan saves you" as he is far more powerful than any member of your party could ever be. This is entirely thanks to his spell Galaxy Stop which has an infinite target radius hitting every enemy on the field with Don't Move, Don't Act AND Stop, completely immobilizing them. Even with Olan's power there are still dangers in this fight. The Chemists are equipped with the new Mithril Gun and the Thieves' Steal Heart ability can turn your most powerful party members against you. Try to keep your distance for the most part until Olan is able to attack, then you can judge which enemies you can get close to. I highly recommend you build up a Thief character a little bit prior to fighting this battle. That Thief should head immediately for the Chemists and attempt to steal their guns, not only netting Mustadio a powerful new weapon, but also unarming them in the process. Olan will just keep using Galaxy Stop over and over again, which is great for you of course. Your party should focus on getting up the hill and taking on those Thieves. If you're in close proximity they will usually either do a physical attack or try to steal from you. Only when you are out of reach will they attempt to charm your characters with Steal Heart. ---------------------------------- 3.02 - Back Gate of Lesalia Castle ---------------------------------- Enemies : Zalmo [Holy Priest], Knight [x3], Monk [x2] My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat Zalmo! Recommended Level : 25 Alma will serve as a guest in this battle and help you out tremendously by casting the MBarrier spell on Ramza (most of the time). There are some instances of this battle where she will simply cast it on herself and run away. The Reraise effect of MBarrier will automatically revive the character should he/she be killed in battle. Let the enemies come to you at the beginning while you position your troops. The lack of any powerful magic casting units on their side means that you have control of the field. Guard the stairs and let the enemies move close enough for you to strike. Just keep in mind that within three panels the Monks can use their Wave Fist ability. Zalmo poses almost no threat at all. He is equipped with the Move HP-Up ability which will have him moving about each turn just to garner a measly 24 HP. If you're not planning on going after him exclusively just avoid attacking hi mat all or he'll inevitably just heal it all back. Technically it is not necessary to defeat any other enemy so a few well placed shots fro Mustadio and a jump from your Lancer should be more than enough to finish this battle. Speaking of which I highly recommend you change Ramza into a Lancer for this potion of the game. It is without a doubt one of the most powerful physical attackers out there, and the range and power of the jump are unmatched once you have learned the level 9 skills. A level 2 Thief is the Lancer prerequisite. A final tip for those players who built at least one character far enough to obtain a Calculator, your entire party is positioned from the start in such a way that Height - Prime Number will affect all of them and no more than one enemy. Beginning the battle with Height - Prime Number Haste will give you a huge advantage over your opponents. Those players who do not understand this would be wise to learn how much of an asset a Calculator can be (or rather another character with Calculator Math Skill to make up for their horrible speed stat.) Immediately following the battle, open up your formation menu and remove both the Healing Staff and the Barette from Alma. Both of them are unique items and she doesn't remain in your party for long. -------------------------------------------- 3.03 - Underground Book Storage Second Floor -------------------------------------------- Enemies : Lancer [x3], Time Mage [x2], Chemist My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 29 The Lancers are what make this battle difficult. Similar to Knights, yet superior in almost every way. Their attacks have an attack range of two (excluding their jumps) and their defenses are top notch. The first enemy you should look to eliminate is the Chemist who will otherwise spend the entire encounter healing and reviving his comrades. Mustadio equipped with the new Mithril Gun should do the trick, especially if assisted by Agrias. The remainder of your party should focus on eliminating the Lancers one at a time. Try to surround them as best you can and make sure to attack from behind. It is extremely difficult to make a connecting hit on a Lancer from the front. You also run the risk of falling victim to their jump attacks. The solution is to either cast Haste on your party and try to avoid both acting and moving in the same turn. Enemy Lancers will not jump if they know you will have a chance to act before they land. The Time Mages pose absolutely no threat whatsoever. They will cast Haste magic on the Lancers and spend most of their spare time healing the damage that Mustadio does with their weak Cure spells. The best strategy would be to avoid hitting them altogether until every other enemy is eliminated. ------------------------------------------- 3.04 - Underground Book Storage Third Floor ------------------------------------------- Enemies : Izlude [Knight Blade], Archer [x2], Knight [x2], Summoner My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat Izlude! Recommended Level : 29 Izlude is the only enemy you have to defeat here. Whole he may not be a Lancer, his Knight Blade class entitles him to use the Jump ability. Do your best to keep your party as far away from him as possible at the beginning. To avoid being jumped on you must increase your speed and CT through whatever means possible. That means moving and acting infrequently and casting the Haste spell on all of your characters. Have at least one physical attacker take on the Summoner at the start. Compared to the Summoners you have faced previously this one is pathetic. The main source of danger in this battle is Izlude himself. Given the large amount of damage he can deal in a single turn you will want to make sure at least two members of your party can either heal or revive. Focus the majority of your attacks on Izlude himself once the Summoner is gone. There is little reason to attack the Knights unless they are directly in your path or you cannot target any other enemy that turn. ------------------------------------------- 3.05 - Underground Book Storage First Floor ------------------------------------------- Enemies : Wiegraf [White Knight], Knight [x2], Wizard, Archer [x2] My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat Wiegraf! Recommended Level : 29 You must focus all of your attention on Wiegraf himself. If you are to be successful in this battle you must not even acknowledge the presence of other enemies. Wiegraf is so powerful that allowing him to stay alive and attack for any more than two turns or so will prove deadly to even an overleveled party. The trick is to utilize your most powerful attacks and magic on him after he ambushes your party. Wiegraf will begin the battle by moving through the middle door and attacking your party with Stasis Sword (mostly likely.) There is a chance this could fell one, two, or even three weaker party members. Following this attack you need to move your strongest attackers up the stairs and pummel Wiegraf for all that you have. A Lancer's Jump ability will work wonders in this battle. Agrias' Holy Explosion, Mustadio's with Charge+4, a Priest with Holy, a Wizard with Flare, a Ninja or a Monk attacking normally. All are very effective. With the combined power of all five members you should ideally be able to eliminate Wiegraf before his second attack. This will prevent him from crippling your party further and be fast enough to avoid any attacks from other enemies. Alternatively you can attempt to blockade the door at the start of battle with a fast character, forcing Wiegraf to take another door. This will give you a chance to buff up your party, however you will most likely have to face the entire enemy party rather than Wiegraf himself. The choice of strategies ultimately depends on what works best for the player. ---------------- 3.06 - Grog Hill ---------------- Enemies : Squire [x2], Chemist [x2], Thief, Archer My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 30 Just a typical battle against some not-so-formidable foes. The Chemists are the enemies to watch out for in this battle. Not only are they equipped with Mithril Guns, but they will also use both Phoenix Downs and X-Potions to keep their allies alive. Use whatever ranged attacks you have at your disposal to eliminate them as quickly as possible. Obviously the Squires pose the least threat, and the Thief is nothing to worry about. The Archer is equipped with a Lightning Bow which can do some serious damage over the course of the battle. He should be your next target after the Chemists. The best strategy is to simply run in with swords drawn. Holding back is ineffective due to the guns and bows they are equipped with. You can try positioning your magic units beside the wall on the lower level so that they cannot be targeted by the Chemists' firearms. ----------------------- 3.07 - Yardow Fort City ----------------------- Enemies : Malak [Hell Knight, Ninja [x3], Summoner [x2] My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Save Rafa! Recommended Level : 31 Rafa is in danger from the moment this battle starts. The enemy Ninjas will begin throwing Shurikens and weapons at her from a distance. More than likely you will need to find a way to heal her before your first turn is over. Fortunately she seems to have the good sense to retreat into a corner regardless of what her HP is like. Both Rafa and Malak have similar skills, Heaven and Hell. These arguably useless skills target a plus sign five panel radius and hit five times total in random panels. It could hit one person five times, an empty panel five times, or a combination of both. The combination of Ninjas and Summoners here mean you're in for some heavy damage if you do not act quickly. Allowing any of the Ninjas to use a physical attack will often result in death, regardless of how much damage you have already taken. Fortunately, the Summmoners will stick with the Shiva spell which is relatively weak at this point in the game. When you have done enough damage to Malak to get him to critical HP he will escape from the battle, but you must eliminate every enemy in order to satisfy the victory condition. Using a Lancer's Jump ability on the enemies inside the wall is extremely effective, as is properly timed summon magic. Agrias is a very useful character in this fight. Any ability capable of targeting enemies through the wall is essentially a good bet. ------------------ 3.08 - Yuguo Woods ------------------ Enemies : Wizard[x2], Time Mage [x2], Ghoul, Revnant, Gust My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 32 This battle pits you against a number of undead units. The difference between a normal unit and an undead unit is the permanent Float status and weakness to Holy / Cure / Fire. Additionally, undead units will randomly revive after they die and their counter depletes. To avoid this you must defeat every enemy in a very timely fashion. You can exploit their weaknesses with magic such as Cure 3/4, Holy, Fire 3/4 and Raise. Agrias Holy Explosion should be used as much as possible as well. The best ability you have at your disposal (by a long shot) is Mustadio's Seal Evil. This will instantly Petrify the enemies (making it impossible for them to revive), has a huge attack radius, occurs instantaneously, and has a very high hit ratio. The Wizards should be the enemies you aim to eliminate first, through their primary attack seems to be nothing more than the Poison spell. The ghosts can be somewhat dangerous if they begin using Sleep Touch with any frequency and incapacitate your party little by little. Their inherent teleporting ability allows them to move almost anywhere on the field. ------------------------------------- 3.09 - At the Gate of Riovanes Castle ------------------------------------- Enemies : Malak [Hell Knight], Knight [x3], Archer [x3] My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Save Rafa! Recommended Level : 36 Note the enormous jump in recommend level first of all. This is the game's most difficult two part battle. It is extremely common for players to become completely deadlocked at this point if they save after the first battle without a backup. The battle following this one is, without a doubt, the most difficult battle in the game. Not only that, it is followed by another battle which also has the potential to be "impossible to win." I highly suggest you prepare thoroughly and make at minimum, one backup save before this fight. ThisThis first of three battles is nothing you have not seen before. You should have Ramza and another physical attacker (preferably Agrias) stationed by the gate at the start. Your mages (and Mustadio) will do best back by the corner taking on the Knights. You should also be aware there is a third Knight hidden between the pillars on the castle. There are few special strategies or precautions you need here. Aim for Malak first and eliminate him from this battle. Once he escapes, Rafa will automatically escape as well, though it's not like she was really any help in the first place. Once again a Lancer's Jump ability can make short work of those Archers and Malak himself. ----------------------------- 3.10 - Inside Riovanes Castle ----------------------------- Enemies : Wiegraf [White Knight] Victory Condition : Defeat Wiegraf! Enemies : Velius [Warlock], Archaic Demon [x3] My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat Velius! Recommended Level : 36 The fight against Wiegraf himself is a difficult one. I found that the most effective way to beat him is to make Ramza into a Lancer with either the Auto- Potion (Chemist) or HP Restore (Monk) abilities. Wiegraf will begin the battle with a Lightning Stab, then Ramza jumps on him. Wiegraf is half dead. Wiegraf does Lightning Stab again. Ramza jumps a second time and kills him. FOr this to work you should be at approximately level 35 - 36. What follows the fight against Wiegraf is the most difficult battle in the game. A well prepared party is almost a necessity. Velius has approximately 1000 HP and at his side, three Archaic Demons capable of dishing out intense damage to any character who comes close to them. This says nothing of Velius' most powerful attack, the Cyclops summon which will hit every character within the radius for approximately 250 damage. The Archaic Demons have two primary attacks. The Dark Flare does anywhere from 150 - 250 damage to a single character, which the Giga Flare hits a five panels radius for approximately 100. When not using his Cyclops spell Velius tends to attack a single character for about 250 damage. There is almost no way to survive this onslaught for more than two or three turns unless your party is ridiculously overleveled. For this reason you must adopt an almost exclusively offensive attack strategy. Every character in your party must be able to hurt Velius, otherwise they serve no purpose. At the beginning of battle you should do everything you can to disperse your party as widely as possible. Have magic casters cast their magic and then run for the back. Mustadio can run to the side and still attack. Physical attackers have no choice but to make a mad dash for Velius himself. Ultimately you should make it so Cyclops cannot target more than two, three party members max. Attacks should include physical hits from Knights, Lancers, Monks and Ninjas. Agrias should use her Lightning Stab ability. There is an enormous (lucky) bonus you can get from this. There is a chance that Lightning Stab's attack will inflict Silence on Velius which makes him completely powerless to summon Cyclops. Inflicting the Silence ailment (by any means) will go a long way toward helping you win this battle. In my case, the party I used (listed above) at approximately level 35 was able to win this battle on the first attempt. The key character as usual was the powerhouse Calculator (in fact the Calculator was a Summoner with Math Skill to get around the slow speed of the Calculator class.) Take advantage of Velius' different positions by casting Flare based on Height. This has the added bonus of often targeting the Archaic Demons as well and even destroying them. The demons seem to be immune to Holy, but it works well on Velius. ------------------------------ 3.11 - Roof of Riovanes Castle ------------------------------ Enemies : Elmdor [Arc Knight], Celia [Assassin], Lede [Assassin] My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Save Rafa! Recommended Level : 36 Odd that this battle can be either painfully easy, or totally progress hindering depending on the actions of both the enemies and Rafa. In fact, if you don't have a character (like a Ninja) with a fast speed stat, it is very possible for Rafa to be killed and you to see the game over screen before you've even had a chance to act with any character. What you want to do ideally is place a Ninja in your party and set him at the front of the line on the formation screen. On the first turn Elmdor will almost always move down and use the Muramasa ability on Rafa. Following that you want to move your Ninja (or other fast character) behind the two assassins on the other side of the roof and attack. After that, luck factors in. If Rafa tries to attack the enemies (which she does sometimes) then Celia and Lede will most likely just kill her immediately the next turn and end the game. If she decides to run and hide with the rest of your party (which she also does sometimes) then the rest of the fight is easy. Celia and Lede are Assassins, and with the exception of maybe Astrologist (Olan), it's the most powerful job class in the game. Stop Bracelet is a one panel attack with has a 100% kill ratio, regardless of your level or defenses. Shadow Stick targets one unit from a distance of about three panels and has a 100% Stop hit ratio. Every time an Assassin gets a turn, you can almost guarantee that two of your units will be incapacitated, which is why you must act quickly. As a Lancer, Ramza should immediately Jump on the Assassin who you attacked on the first turn. Agrias should then move up and use Lightning Stab on that same Assassin. Any other characters you have simply need to do everything in your power to focus on one assassin. The reason for this is that the battle is won the instant you knock any one of the three enemies into critical HP. Even if it seems like a kamikaze move, you should do whatever it takes to eliminate one enemy. That's all it takes to achieve victory. ______________________________________________________________________________ ============================================================================== [A004] Chapter 4 - Somebody to Love ============================================================================== ------------------- 4.01 - Doguola Pass ------------------- Enemies : Lancer [x2], Wizard [x2], Archer, Knight My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 38 We are back once again to the typical enemy encounters. In this case you will be facing off against a number of Wizards, Lancers and more. As usual most of your attacks should be focused on the Wizards who are able to do heavy damage to multiple units at a time. Try to avoid doing too much in one turn so that the Lancers don't have a chance to jump. Use magic to kill them quickly and remember to avoid attacking them from the front, it's extremely difficult. Aside from these basic tips there's very little going on in this fight you haven't encountered a dozen times already. ------------------------- 4.02 - Bervenia Free City ------------------------- Enemies : Meliadoul [Divine Knight],Archer [x2],Summoner [x2],Ninja My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat Meliadoul! Recommended Level : 39 The goal in this battle is to defeat the powerful Meliadoul. The Summoners that accompany her are the enemies you will want to eliminate first. Characters you wish to be as close to the front as possible should go on the first row of the second formation screen. It's difficult, but one of the main things you should focus on trying to do in this battle is steal the Defender sword and Chantage accessory from Meliadoul. Stealing success from her ranges in the low 20% - 30% area, so it could take some time. Make sure to eliminate all other enemies first and then try to have Mustadio incapacitate her with Arm Aim and Leg Aim. Meliadoul is equipped with some of the most obnoxious attacks in the game when used against your party. Not only will they do tremendous damage to a single character, they have a tendency to break your equipment with basically 100% success with each use. No doubt you will be replacing a fair number of armour plates if you are unable to defeat her quickly. To end the battle, all you have to do is knock Meliadoul into critical HP. The longer it takes the harder it will get due to her regen status. A few well placed hits from a Lancer, Knight or Ninja should be enough to bring her down. She seems to have uncanny defenses against Agrias' attacks however. ------------------- 4.03 - Finath River ------------------- Enemies : Random Chocobos and Uribas My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 40 This is more like a random battle than anything else. You'll be facing a bunch of Yellow Chocobos, and a random assortment of Black Chocobos, Red Chocobos and Uribas. Black and Red Chocobos both have powerful ranged attacks (Choco Ball and Choco Meteor respectively) so those are the ones you should focus on eliminating first. Make sure to do is quickly before they are healed by the Yellow Chocobos. Basically you main concern in this battle should be attacking the proper enemies, always keeping in mind which Chocobos will move next and which ones are likely to be cured. Neither the Red Chocobos nor the Black Chocobos are able to use the Choco Cure ability. ------------------------------ 4.04 - Church Outside the Town ------------------------------ Enemies : Zalmo [Holy Priest], Knight [x3], Oracle [x2] My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat Zalmo! Recommended Level : 41 Delita will be a guest in this battle. His job class is Holy Knight, the same as Agrias, and draws from the same move set. More than likely he'll be a lot stronger than Agrias. Zalmo is your sole target in this battle, however he starts a fair distance away. Begin by moving your party toward the two Knights and taking them out quickly with Delita's help. This may very well be the first time you have faced Oracles. They are actually one of the weaker job classes. Aside from inflicting a few negative status ailments, they can't do much. Zalmo himself poses very little threat, although he does have the ability to heal himself almost back to maximum HP. For this reason, once you start attacking you'll want to be able to finish the job. If you have a Lancer with the Jump ability it should work quite well since you can target him right from the very beginning. ----------------- 4.05 - Bed Desert ----------------- Enemies : Balk [Engineer], Knight [x3], Archer [x2], Wizard My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat Balk! Recommended Level : 42 Balk poisons your entire party before the battle begins, putting you at a severe disadvantage. The poison can be cured, but unless you have a way of doing it without wasting more than one turn, I would advise you to simply let it run its course and just heal yourself afterward. The most important thing to do in this battle is to steal Balk's Blaze Gun. You will find more of them later, but at this point of the game it's an invaluable weapon for Mustadio. Just think of its 20 attack power as compared to the Mithril Gun's 8. Stealing the gun is a bit difficult since it almost forces you to eliminate all other enemies first, but it's worth it. With the Blaze Gun, Balk is a force to be reckoned with. He is an Engineer like Mustadio, and thus, he is able to use all of the same attacks. The best thing you can do is to actually hide your party behind walls and make it impossible for him to get a clear shot. This applies especially for your weaker units. The rest of the enemies are nothing special. The Wizard uses level three magic so he's probably the one you're going to want to take out first. Use the most powerful attacks you have at your disposal to clear the field, then try to get your hands on the rare Blaze Gun. On the next map, you have a choice f two directions to make your attack. Neither is any more preferable or difficult than the other. ------------------------------------ 4.A6 - South Wall of Bethla Garrison ------------------------------------ Enemies : Knight [x3], Archer [x2], Ninja My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 43 Your first target in this battle should be the Ninja. The Archers will also start putting a dent in your party's HP, but the Knights are far enough away that you shouldn't have to worry about them right away. Nothing too surprising here in this battle. The fact that some of the enemies are position by themselves makes it quite easy to pick them of one by one. ------------------------------------ 4.B6 - North Wall of Bethla Garrison ------------------------------------ Enemies : Archer [x2], Lancer [x2], Monk, Summoner My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 43 This is likely the first Monk you've encountered in a while. Fortunately he is unable to do much damage to your party. You'll want to use Agrias or another mage to target the Summoner over the wall before he is able to do any serious damage to your party. The large wall in this level allows you to hold back and take it easy, but in order to do so you must deal with the Archers. If you are unable to reach the Archer at the top with either magic or ranged attacks, you have few others options aside from the Lancer's Ignore Height ability. ------------------------------- 4.07 - Bethla Garrison's Sluice ------------------------------- Enemies : Knight [x4], Wizard [x2], Archer [x2] My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Open the sluice gate! Recommended Level : 44 The goal of this battle is neither to kill all enemies, nor a single boss enemy, but rather to pull two switches and open up the floodgates. There are two Knights standing on the two panels up at the top of the gates who will never move for the entire battle unless their HP goes critical. As long as you don't go near these Knights, they can't touch you. As for the rest of the enemies, they are quite powerful. I highly recommend you have at least two ways to revive party members in this battle. Even after all enemies are dead it will still take a few turns to press the switches, you won't be able to finish the battle quickly before dead characters are eliminated. I suggest placing a strong physical attacker with the first formation party to take on those Knights, and Agrias with the second party to make short work of the Wizards. The Archers will once again be a nuisance, so any way you are able to target and kill them way at the back will make life a lot easier for you. Remember to stay away from the Knights on the switches until they are the only two enemies left. Ramza is the only character who can step on the switch panels. All he has to do is move there and it will happen automatically. If you kill either of the Knights on the switches, you will need to wait until their corpses disappear before you can activate them. Following the battle, Orlandu (a.k.a T.G. Cid) will join your party permanently. T.G. Cid is an almost game-breakingly powerful character who is unmatched by any other you have now, or will ever get. He is so overpowered that many people choose not to include them in their active battle party, simply because it makes the game too easy. If you're interested, now would be a good time to do the sidequest involving Beowulf and Reis at Goland Coal City. Look up the sidequests section of the guide (Section 05) for more information. --------------------------- 4.08 - Zarghidas Trade City --------------------------- Not actually a battle, just an encounter with a young girl. Tell her that you will buy a flower. Doing so will allow you to recruit Cloud into your party as a secret character later in the game. -------------------- 4.09 - Germinas Peak -------------------- Enemies : Archer [x3], Thief [x2], Ninja My Party : Ramza [Calculator], T.G. Cid, Beowulf, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 44 The battle at Germinas Peak send a wave of thieves and lowlifes at you. They will use the height and terrain to their advantage, so the best thing you can do is counter with ranged attacks from Agrias, T.G. Cid, Mustadio, and the Lancer's Jump attack. The ninja can do more damage than any other unit on the field so try to take him out first. The Thieves will use the Steal Heart ability to Charm your characters if you get too close. Ranged attacks are best for them. Send a small party up the hill to take care of any enemies behind the large hill, or any that are simply hiding in a corner shooting arrows. ------------------- 4.10 - Poeskas Lake ------------------- Enemies : Archer [x2], Revnant [x2], Summoner, Oracle My Party : Ramza [Calculator], T.G. Cid, Beowulf, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 45 All of the enemies in this battle are undead. This is an indication to bring out the same old tactics, holy / cure magic, fire magic, and Mustadio's fantastic Seal Evil ability. Begin the battle with Mustadio firing an "evil sealing" bullet up at the Summoner perched on the edge of the ledge to get rid of her before she even has a chance to move. If she's wearing a Jade Armlet (which she likely is) then aim for someone else and eliminate her with either T.G. Cid or Agrias. If you're using T.G. Cid and you've grown accustomed to the Night Sword ability, make sure NOT to use it in this battle. Being undead, the opposite effect will occur (enemy gains the HP, Cid takes the damage.) Both of the Archers in this battle are equipped with the rare and unique Ultimus Bow. If you are still in the habit of using Archers in your party then this is definitely something you will want to steal. If you are playing to collect all the rare items and abilities, then a lot of preparation is necessary before moving on to the next two battles. ------------------------------------- 4.11 - At the Gate of Limberry Castle ------------------------------------- Enemies : Celia [Assassin], Lede [Assassin], Apanda [x4] My Party : Ramza [Calculator], T.G. Cid, Beowulf, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 46 The victory condition is to defeat all enemies, however in reality all you need to do is knock either Celia or Lede down into critical HP to end the battle. Before doing this however, there is something you will want to take strongly into consideration. This battle is Ramza's one chance to learn his final Squire ability, the one which thus far has prevented him from mastering the class. In order to learn the "Ultima" spell there are a number of conditions you must first meet. Ramza must be a Squire and have Ultima cast on him to learn the spell. Furthermore you have to actually get the Assassins to cast it. Each assassin has four attacks: Stop Bracelet, Shadow Stitch, Allure and Ultima. First they will try and use Stop Bracelet. This only targets one panel so if Ramza is out of range they will not use it. Next she will likely try Shadow Stitch. The Black Costume makes a character immune to Stop. Equip it and the Assassins won't use Shadow Stitch. Allure Charms a character and the N-Kai Armlet makes you immune to it. With these conditions met, one of the Assassins who is close to Ramza will instead choose to cast the Ultima spell, and if he's a Squire then he will learn it. As for the actual battle, the Apanda's will cast Bio which inflicts negative status ailments and does some serious damage. Ignore them entirely unless the Assassins are out of range. Go on a full out offensive to knock down their HP before the enemies are able to gain control of the fight. Make sure to save your game on a separate save slot. This is a three part battle with no access to the world map in between. ----------------------------- 4.12 - Inside Limberry Castle ----------------------------- Enemies : Elmdor [Arc Knight], Celia [Assassin], Lede [Assassin] My Party : Ramza [Calculator], T.G. Cid, Beowulf, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat Elmdor! Recommended Level : 46 The famous Elmdor battle one of Final Fantasy Tactics' most difficult fights for those wishing to collect all the unique equipment. We'll get to that in a moment. Your only goal here is to defeat Elmdor who has a modest amount of HP. Any party consisting of T.G. Cid and Agrias alone should be able to defeat him before the second turn. Celia and Lede are there to help out. Beowulf aids this battle immensely with his Don't Act sword magic which seems to have a fairly high success probability when used on either Celia or Lede. Mustadio can do the same with a lower hit ratio from a great distance. Try to keep your party spread apart so that when Elmdor teleports and uses Draw Out Samurai sword attacks, they only hit a few people. His other main attack is the Blood Suck which inflicts the Vampire status. Have everyone in your party equipped with 108 Gems to prevent it before beginning the fight. If either Celia or Lede are killed during the course of the battle they will resurrect as Ultima Demons (which are much weaker than their human female counterparts.) Destroy these demons to eliminate the Assassins for good. Elmdor is equipped with a full complement of totally unique "not found anywhere else" Genji equipment. Someone is going to have to steal every piece of it now or forfeit the chance to obtain it forever. This is extremely difficult and should only be attempted by experienced players. That approximate steal success rate on Elmdor is between 15 and 20%, and you're going to want to steal everything. There are a few tricks to help make getting the equipment a little easier. Eliminate the Assassins first and get them out of the way. Don't Act doesn't work on Eldor, so instead you will have to slow him down. Use both the Slow spell (Time Mage or Beowulf) and Speed Break. After doing this, begin by stealing the Genji Shield which is partially responsible for his ability to guard steal attempts. After the shield is gone it should become much easier for you to steal everything else. ---------------------------------------------- 4.13 - Underground Cemetery of Limberry Castle ---------------------------------------------- Enemies : Zarela [Angel of Death], Knight [x2], Bone Snatch, Living Bone, Skeleton My Party : Ramza [Calculator], T.G. Cid, Beowulf, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat Zarela! Recommended Level : 46 Compared to the battles against Queklain and Velius, Zarela is a piece of cake. His main attack is the same as Queklain, the Nightmare which inflicts Sleep or Death Sentence on party members within a five radius. Additionally you will be fighting a number of undead enemies as well, but very few of them pose any threat. For the most damage, use abilities like Holy Explosion and Lightning Stab with T.G. Cid and Agrias. A Lancer's Jump attack is also extremely effective. Mustadio is best left to use Seal Evil on the remaining undead enemies that you face. For the most part, any attack that works well in general probably works well against the boss. His total HP is somewhere between 1200 - 1400. Meliadoul joins this battle as a guest, however due to her unfortunate placement she is virtually unable to actually attack any of the enemies. Her sword skills work by breaking enemy equipment, and since none of the monsters at the back are wearing equipment she is forced to resort to basic physical attacks. After the battle Meliadoul will join your party permanently. ----------------------------- 4.14 - Inside of Igros Castle ----------------------------- Enemies : Dycedarg [Lune Knight], Knight [x5] My Party : Ramza [Calculator], T.G. Cid, Beowulf, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat Dycedarg's elder brother! (?) Recommended Level : 47 The initial stages of this battle have you teaming up with Zalbag to defeat the elder brother, Dycedarg. Dycedarg is accompanied by five Knights just as intent on killing Zalbag as he is. It's extremely difficult to keep Zalbag alive in this battle, but fortunately it's not a necessity for victory. Use whatever means you have at your disposal to target enemies at a distance when they're above you. By this point you're aware of most of them anyway. Zalbag will help out with a couple of basic strikes against Dycedarg, but for the most part it will probably be someone like T.G. Cid who brings him down. Unless Dycedarg is completely out of reach there's virtually no reason to attack the Knights at all. With no ranged attacks there's very little they can do to your party from up at the top. When Dycedarg dies the Holy Stone will appear and transform him into Adramelk, another Zodiac monster. Every one of the Knights disappears (another testament to the uselessness of killing them) and Zalbag will be... dissipated. This battle is much more difficult than the one against Zarela. Adramelk has two extremely devastating attacks called Loss and Seal. The first hits a five panel radius and COnfuses party members with 100% accuracy, the second hits a single party member with 100% Petrify. It is highly recommended that you enter this battle wearing accessories which protect against the Confusion status (N-Kai Armlet). Aside from that you need to take a very offensive strategy and defeat the boss before you end up with a full party of statues. Adramelk has approximately 1500 hit points. ------------------------ 4.15 - St. Murond Temple ------------------------ Enemies : Priest, Summoner, Geomancer [x2], Mediator [x2] My Party : Ramza [Calculator], T.G. Cid, Beowulf, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 48 A typical battle against a number of normal enemies. The main advantage they have is that each of them is able to use ranged attacks from their superior position on top of the church. The two people at the back should make sure to climb up on top of the roof (as opposed to going around the side and meeting the group at the front.) None of the enemies are particularly powerful and even the Summoner won't use anything stronger than Titan. It's mostly just an exercise in patience as you move your units around the field, picking off the enemies one by one. -------------------------------- 4.16 - Hall of St. Murond Temple -------------------------------- Enemies : Vormav [Divine Knight], Rofel [Divine Knight], Kletian [Sorcerer] My Party : Ramza [Calculator], T.G. Cid, Beowulf, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat Vormav! Recommended Level : 48 A difficult fight awaits until you realize that it is only necessary to kill any one of the three enemies before all of them escape. Since Vormav has extremely high defense and HP that target would best be Kletian (who is extremely weak in the defense department). Prepare to lose a few armours here as both Vormav and Rofel use the SHellburst Stab religiously. Aside from this inconvenience it should not be difficult for your party to take down a single enemy given the powerful attacks you now have in your arsenal. The best characters in this battle are T.G. Cid, Meliadoul and Agrias. T.G. Cid and Meliadoul can use the Hellcry Punch, destroying the weapons of your opponents, and T.G. Cid and Agrias can use the Holy Explosion / Lightning Stab to target more than one enemy at a time. ---------------------------------- 4.17 - Chapel of St. Murond Temple ---------------------------------- Enemies : Zalbag [Arc Knight], Archaic Demon [x2], Ultima Demon My Party : Ramza [Calculator], T.G. Cid, Beowulf, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat Zalbag! Recommended Level : 48 Zalbag is a powerful foe with some nasty attacks you'll need to prepare for. Like Elmdor, he likes to use the Blood Suck ability over and over which eventually turns your entire party into a bunch of blood suckers. Prevent this be equipping everyone with 108 Gems before the battle begins. The first thing you should do is have either T.G. Cid or Meliadoul run up to Zalbag and use the Hellcry Punch on him. With no weapon and a completely ineffective Blood Suck he'll be hard pressed to find something he can do to you. All the while I had Beowulf with the Break ability going from demon to demon Petrifying them. Their attacks (while not too devastating) can really level your party given you'll be dealing with three of them per turn. Zalbag's Speed Save will have him moving extremely fast if you keep hitting him, but not killing him. With Blood Suck and Move-HP Up he's pretty adept at healing himself. Just focus everything you have on him and eventually Zalbag should fall before the rest of your party. Orbonne Monastery is the game's final destination. At this point you will want to take part in all of the sidequests and extras before going there to finish the game. Once you go there, you won't be able to return to the map. -------------------------------------------- 4.18 - Underground Book Storage Fourth Floor -------------------------------------------- Enemies : Knight [x3], Monk [x2], Archer My Party : Ramza [Calculator], T.G. Cid, Beowulf, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 55 The final string of battles begins with a fight against a number of basic enemy units. Nothing too surprising here, it's the battles to come that you need to worry about. Send all of your units up on top of the books in the middle and just start picking off the enemies one by one. Given that all of the enemies are human units equipped to the max, T.G. Cid and Meliadoul can really simplify things using the Hellcry Punch over and over again. ------------------------------------------- 4.19 - Underground Book Storage Fifth Floor ------------------------------------------- Enemies : Rofel [Divine Knight],Summoner [x2],Wizard [x2],Time Mage My Party : Ramza [Calculator], T.G. Cid, Beowulf, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat Rofel! Recommended Level : 55 A powerful Divine Knight, Rofel will attack with abilities like Hellcry Punch with every intent of destroying your precious Excalibur(s). You can prevent him from doing this in one of two ways: either equip the Chemist's Maintenance ability on every member of your party, or get to him first with your own Hellcry Punch to render him completely helpless. Don't even bother trying to go after the other enemies in this battle. Undoubtedly they will cast spells like Titan and Fire 4, but Rofel should be your only target. Doesn't matter how many of your party members die as long as he goes down. ------------------------ 4.20 - Murond Death City ------------------------ Enemies : Kletian [Sorcerer],Samurai [x2],Ninja [x2],Time Mage [x2] My Party : Ramza [Calculator], T.G. Cid, Beowulf, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat Kletian! Recommended Level : 55 Assuming you are only focusing on Kletian, he is extremely easy to defeat. Being a mage of sorts his defense is lackluster at best. Don't even bother trying to take down any of the other enemies. Undoubtedly they will move forward and throw various shurikens/weapons at your party, but just ignore it and take down Kletian with a few well placed Lightning Stabs. ---------------------------- 4.21 - Lost Sacred Precincts ---------------------------- Enemies : Balk [Engineer],Chemist,Hyruda,Hydra,Tiamat,Dark Behemoth My Party : Ramza [Calculator], T.G. Cid, Beowulf, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat Balk! Recommended Level : 55 The one thing that makes this battle difficult is the terrain. Balk is a good distance away from your party and he moves quickly, making Lancer jumps difficult and all other attacks equally so. What you want to do is take your most powerful characters and send them over the single panel gap in the middle. Other characters with good distance attacks like Lancers, Mustadio and Worker 8 should be firing from wherever they can. The enemies here are extremely powerful and they will undoubtedly take down half your party if given the chance. All that matters is the full out offensive and taking Balk down before he (or his Chemist) can pull him back up. -------------------------------- 4.22 - The Graveyard of Airships -------------------------------- Enemies : Hashmalum [Regulator] My Party : Ramza [Calculator], T.G. Cid, Beowulf, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat Hashmalum! Recommended Level : 55 This final battle of the game is no laughing matter, you would be surprised at how truly difficult it is. Make sure to position your party as spread out as possible in the formation screen so that multi-targetting attacks aren't able to hit your entire party at once. One of the most important things you can do before the battle is put on equipment that protects characters from the Stop status. The boss' "Spell" ability targets a five panel radius and has basically a 100% hit ratio for Stop. His other primary attack is called Melt. This spell hits an enormous radius for approximately 150 - 200 damage to everyone in that area. During this time it seems like most attacks can actually do increased damage against him. Typical attacks like Lightning Stab and Holy Explosion work well. Worker 8 is a good character to have since he is immune to magic attacks. A Calculator in this battle should try using "Level Prime Number" which will likely target the boss, but is less likely to target the rest of your party. Hashmalum has approximately 1600 hit points. -------------------------------- 4.23 - The Graveyard of Airships -------------------------------- Enemies : Altima [Holy Angel],Ultima Demon [x4],Altima [Arch Angel] My Party : Ramza [Calculator], T.G. Cid, Beowulf, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat Hashmalum / Altima! Recommended Level : 55 At the beginning of the battle, Altima isn't really all that difficult. Typically she will go after Alma, giving you the chance to chase her down with your party in tact. She isn't as fast as Hashmalum so assuming T.G. Cid gets the first turn, he will likely be able to move such that his Lightning Stab can target not only her, but two Ultima Demons as well (likely killing them). After that send the rest of your party at her. A Calculator can try Level 4 multiple magic to target her unless height gives a better option. Once she has taken approximately 1000 damage she will transform into the final boss. At this point all the Ultima Demons will disappear automatically. The key to winning this battle (in my case) was Holy magic. A Wizard with the Math Skill ability using Level 3 Holy was doing 512 damage to the boss every turn. T.G. Cid was up there as well of course. There's little more to say than just... spread your party as wide as possible and hit as hard and as fast as you can. Her Grand Cross ability targets a wide radius and inflicts both the Sleep and Poison status, completely immobilizing your party members for a few turns. Keep them out of harms way and don't slow down. She's difficult, but certainly not insurmountable. Good luck. ______________________________________________________________________________ ============================================================================== [B000] Sidequests ============================================================================== ______________________________________________________________________________ ============================================================================== [B001] Beowulf and Reis ============================================================================== During Chapter 4, you have to first travel to Goug Machine city and view the scene there. Afterwards, go to Goland Coal City and visit the bar. Choose "Rumors" and ask about the Ghost of Colliery. Following this head up to Lesalia Imperial Capital and Beowulf will join your party as a guest. --------------------------------------- 1.01 - Colliery Underground Third Floor --------------------------------------- Enemies : Chemist [x5] My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 42 Only Chemists occupy this battlefield. They are equipped with Mithril Guns, Hi-Potions, and Phoenix Downs. This places them more into the obnoxious category than difficult. What you should try to do is focus on one Chemist at a time but not just any Chemist! Ideally they should be alone; a fair distance away from any other who could revive them. From that point you can simply progress from Chemist to Chemist before they even have a chance to react. This especially rings true if you decided to wait until T.G. Cid joined your party. ---------------------------------------- 1.02 - Colliery Underground Second Floor ---------------------------------------- Enemies : Thief [x2], Chemist, Behemoth, King Behemoth My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat all enemies! Recommended Level : 42 This battle poses a little bit more of a threat than the previous one. With the two powerful Behemoths on the field, you need characters capable of dishing out heavy damage in order to bring them down. The Thieves too will get their hands on your equipment (or your heart) if not dealt with quickly. Your first two targets are hidden in a little hideaway just to the right of where your party starts. A lone thief hides a powerful King Behemoth behind him. Have either Agrias or T.G. Cid begin the battle by moving over there and using either Holy Explosion or Lightning Stab to get things started. Once these two enemies are dead you will be able to go for the ones on the hill. As you may have noticed, the Chemist is equipped with the rare and powerful Blaze Gun. If you were unable to steal one from Balk (or have not yet reached the battle in Bed Desert) then this is a great chance to steal it. --------------------------------------- 1.03 - Colliery Underground First Floor --------------------------------------- Enemies : Thief [x2], Chemist, Behemoth, King Behemoth My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat al enemies! Recommended Level : 42 Normally in this situation the best strategy would be to eliminate the powerful Blue Dragons, however you have to keep in mind that the Chemists are nuts about using X-Potions. Given that the dragons have so much HP, it is difficult to kill them before the Chemists restore every last point of HP they had. The first thing you should do in this battle is move your troops up the hill and take aim for those Chemists. The Blue Dragons are likely he most powerful enemies you have faced so far, with the exception of the Zodiac bosses. Their Ice Bracelet attack targets two panels and will do anywhere between 150 and 300 damage to your character. Ice attacks heal the dragon, so stick with powerful Fire magic and physical attacks. The Lancer's Jump is an effective weapon as always. ------------------------------------ 1.04 - Underground Passage in Goland ------------------------------------ Enemies : Sinogue [Archaic Demon], Plague [x3], Ochu [x2] My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Save Reis! Recommended Level : 43 The toughest battle of the four pits you against a hoard of monsters with a purple dragon named Reis in the centre. Reis is powerful enough to take care of herself for the most part, however she's not invincible, so you will still need to move you units quickly in order to get close. Make sure that someone has the ability to heal from a distance in case something goes wrong. Watch out for both the Plagues and Ochus as they are able to inflict negative status ailments on your party along with their attacks. The Giga Flare of the Archaic Demon is relatively weak, but covers a large radius. Have your most powerful characters going in with their strongest attacks and ice-based magic attacks which seem to work well on both the Plagues and Ochus. If you can manage to defeat all of the enemies with Reis the dragon still alive at the end of the battle, both she and Beowulf will join your party permanently. In the long run, Reis isn't nearly as useful as you might hope, but I would consider Beowulf to be the second most useful / powerful character in the game, just behind T.G. Cid. A mastered Temple Knight with a full array of Magic Sword attacks can devastate the enemy. ______________________________________________________________________________ ============================================================================== [B002] Cloud and Worker 8 ============================================================================== After completing the events to recruit Beowulf into your team, and after progress far enough in the game, another event will trigger when you venture to Goug Machine City. When Ramza places the stone into the machine a robotic creature emerges and Worker 8 joins your party. After this event head all the way up to Zeltennia Castle and go to the bar. Ask about the cursed island and it will appear on your map to the north. ---------------------- 1.05 - Nelveska Temple ---------------------- Enemies : Worker 7 new [Steel Giant], Cocatoris [x3], Hyudra [x2] My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Defeat Worker7! Recommended Level : 50 Worker 7 new is exactly like Worker 8. Extremely powerful and extremely robotic. Alongside there are two three headed dragons and three bird monsters accompanying him. Each of these enemies is strong (and annoying) in its own way so it may be a good idea to target all enemies in this fight. The most important thing you can do before the battle is equip accessories that make your party immune to Petrification. Basically the only attack the Cocatoris use is Beak which has a high chance of Petrifying a character. Begin the battle by having T.G. Cid, Agrias and Beowulf take out the Hyudras on top of the pillars. Beowulf's Break should come in handy for that. Afterward you can focus on destroying the birds that come down and send all your attacks toward Worker 7. His attacks will do about 250 damage at long range and up to 400 damage at close range. Also note that his faith is 00 meaning that all magic is completely ineffective. When Worker 7 has taken enough damage to reach 0 HP he will enter backup mode which basically revives him once with a single hit point. Anyone else who gets a turn will be able to finish off the battle without any difficulty Following the battle, Reis will enter the temple and transform back from a dragon into a woman. She still has the same basic breath attacks as the dragon did. Overall she's not all that different (besides now being able to use equipment.) Head back to Goug Machine City (again) and watch the scene where Cloud is beamed into existence using the odd device. He doesn't join your party at this point unfortunately. After the scene head up to Zarghidas. --------------------------- 1.06 - Zarghidas Trade City --------------------------- Enemies : Thief [x3], Squire [x2], Monk My Party : Ramza [Lancer], Calculator, Ninja, Agrias, Mustadio Victory Condition : Save Cloud! Recommended Level : 50 The recommended level is just a formality for this battle considering how late in the game it is, you could probably take these guys on at any level. The two Squires who spend most of their time throwing stones won't pose much of a treat. None of these enemies are going to pose much of a threat. Just keep Cloud alive and that;;s really all there is to it. Inevitably he's just going to run (since he's not equipped with a weapon) so that makes your job a lot easier. After the battle Cloud will join your party permanently. Joining at level one makes training hi ma pain in the ass. Not only is it a pain for that reason, but he can't even use his limit skill without the one unique weapon: the Materia Blade. To get this weapon you must fight a random battle at the Bervenia Volcano (near Igros) and have a character with Move-Find Item equipped. This character must also be able to jump (Lancer ability Ignore Height perhaps?) Have them jump to the very tip top of the volcano with Move- Find Item equipped and that character will find the Materia Blade. Honestly, Cloud really isn't worth the effort it takes to build him up. Once he's on par with your party, his two best Limit skills (Cross-Slash and Finishing Touch) make him a great addition to any battle party, however there are easily five other characters available who are just as good and don't require as much work. Ultimately how you build your party is up to you. ______________________________________________________________________________ ============================================================================== [B003] The Deep Dungeon ============================================================================== After completing the previous sidequests simply head down to Warjilis trade City. A scene will automatically trigger which unlocks the optional Deep Dungeon map to the east. There are a number of things you need to know about this dungeon before you proceed. First of all, it consists of ten completely darkened stages. Finding paths is extremely difficult and the enemies are automatically scaled to be at higher levels than your party (unless your party has reached level 99). It is possible to light up the cave however; every time someone dies and turns into a crystal, the cave will be illuminated a little up to full illumination with four crystals on the map. There are ten levels to the Deep Dungeon, but you will not automatically progress each time you beat one. When all the enemies are killed the battle ends. To actually unlock the next level of the dungeon you must locate the single panel which, when a unit stops moving on, triggers a message that says "we have found a path going further on." Typically this exit panels are in the area around the opposite end of where the party starts, but not always. Each level can be revisited as many times as the player likes. The Deep Dungeon is full of extremely rare items and equipment like the thieves described. In order to actually find it you will need the Move-Find ability. Each level of the Deep Dungeon holds exactly four rare items. For example, both a Blaze Gun and a Glacier Gun can be found on the first level alone. These panels act as traps for character who do not have Move-Find Item, so if you step on a trap then you know where an item is hidden. Each of these panels holds one of two things: an extremely rare item or a Phoenix Down. Every time you step on a panel and get a Phoenix Down it means that you failed to get the good item and you won't get another chance without resetting the game. To increase the probability of getting the good item you must lower the Brave of one character as low as you can. This is done through the use of Mediator abilities. For every four Brave you lower in battle, one Brave is permanently lowered even after the battle ends. The fastest way to do this is with Mustadio's Chicken ability (Brave -50) just make sure to keep it above 10 or the character actually does turn into a chicken. The last thing you need to know is that at the very bottom there is a powerful wizard who can teach a member of your party the ultimate summon spell: Zodiac. This is the reason there is a blank line at the bottom of a Summoner's spell list. All you need is to have one person learn it and then he can teach it to everyone else later. To learn Zodiac you must satisfy the following conditions: the character must be HIT by Zodiac when Elidibs casts it, the character hit must be a Summoner and the character hit must survive the attack. The easiest way I know of is to be at a really high level with good equipment and the Time Mage ability MP Switch. Best case scenario you should get a message asking if you want to learn the spell. After the final battle a little Apanda named Byblos will join your team (assuming he survived the previous battle of course). Teaching the spell to other characters requires you to first find an enemy Summoner, have a person with weak magic power cast Zodiac on the Summoner (so it doesn't kill them) and then wait for that Summoner to cast it again on the Summoner in your party who you wish to learn it. This actually works. Thus, you now know what to expect from the Deep Dungeon and how to prepare for it. I admit I don't have item coordinates and exit coordinates (exit coordinates aren't always the same anyway), but there are widely available in many places online. Good luck, and godspeed. ______________________________________________________________________________ ============================================================================== [C000] Tips & Misc Info ============================================================================== --------- Job Chart --------- ------------------------------+----------------------------------------------- Squire Jobs (Physical) | Requirements ==============================+=============================================== Squire | N/A Knight | Squire (Lv.2) Archer | Squire (Lv.2) Monk | Knight (Lv.2) Thief | Archer (Lv.2) Geomancer | Monk (Lv.3) Lancer | Thief (Lv.3) Dancer (Female Exclusive) | Geomancer (Lv.4), Lancer (Lv.4) ------------------------------+----------------------------------------------- Chemist Jobs (Magical) | Requirements ==============================+=============================================== Chemist | N/A Priest | Chemist (Lv.2) Wizard | Chemist (Lv.2) Oracle | Priest (Lv.2) Time Mage | Wizard (Lv.2) Mediator | Oracle (Lv.2) Summoner | Time Mage (Lv.2) Bard (Male Exclusive) | Mediator (Lv.4), Summoner (Lv.4) ------------------------------+----------------------------------------------- Combination Jobs | Requirements ==============================+=============================================== Samurai | Monk (Lv.4), Knight (Lv.3), Lancer (Lv.2) Ninja | Thief (Lv.4), Archer (Lv.3), Geomancer (Lv.2) Calculator | Priest (Lv.4), Wizard (Lv.4) | Time Mage (Lv.3), Oracle (Lv.3) Mime | Squire (Lv.8),Chemist (Lv.8),Mediator (Lv.4) | Geomancer (Lv.4),Lancer (Lv.4),Summoner (Lv.4) ------------------------------+----------------------------------------------- ------------- Brave & Faith ------------- Every character has two values, Brave and Faith, between 0 and 100. They serve as modifiers for physical and magical damage respectively, as well as other factors like evasion and luck / chance. The higher a character's Brave is the more physical damage that unit will deal. It also means the more physical damage that character will take. Same applies for magic damage with Faith, so basically raising Brave means high defense and low offense, raising Faith means high magic attack low magic defense. Characters like Worker 8 who have 0 Faith (and Innocent status) will take 0 damage from magic. Some non-vital characters whose Brave and Faith get too high (95+) have a chance of completely abandoning your party. Keep this in mind. Also note that a Brave level of less than 10 will turn a character into a Chicken. They gain 1 Brave per turn until they become normal again. Raising and lowering Brave and Faith is done with the help of a Mediator. Raising and lowering Brave can be accomplished by using the Mediator abilities Praise and Threaten respectively. Beowulf's Chicken attack also lowers Brave by a whopping 50 points. For every 4 Brave a character gains or loses, one Brave is permanently gained or lost after the battle ends. For example, a character with 50 Brave who gets boosted to 54 in battle, will have 51 Brave after the battle is over. The same applies to Faith. Raising and lowering Faith is accomplished with the Mediator abilities Preach and Solution respectively. Move-Find Item's success probability is dramatically increased the lower the character's Brave is. For people hunting through the Deep Dungeon for the best treasures, the lower your Brave the better. Brave is also used to determine how often a reaction ability (like Counter) is triggered. The ability will succeed Brave% of the time. -------- Poaching -------- Poaching is a way to acquire rare items and equipment that might not be available through any other means. It all begins with the Thief's "Secret Hunt" ability which allows you get special items from Fur Shops after that character kills a monster (not human) enemy. Many of the rarest equipments are only available through the Poaching of certain monsters. Most monsters have a "rare" Poach item chance, so just because you don't get something good from Poaching a specific monster doesn't mean that monster isn't potentially holding something quite a bit better. ------------ Rare Battles ------------ In Chapter 4 there are some special "rare" battles you can encounter randomly. A rare battle is usually fairly obvious. Rather than facing a few monsters and enemies around the same level as you, instead you might come across a battle against 11 Monks at once (occurs at Grog Hill randomly). Often these enemies are holding rare items so it's a good idea to have a mastered Thief when searching for these. The best one I am aware of is an "all Mediator" battle that occurs randomly on Germinas Peak. At least one of the Mediators will be equipped with the powerful "Stone Gun." With the Stone Gun equipped, the character will automatically be Petrified at the beginning of battle. Use a soft on them and for the rest of the battle the Stone Gun works as an extremely powerful normal bullet-firing gun. Even stronger than the Blaze Gun / Glacier Gun (and some of the Mediators in this rare battle will carry those too.) All you have to do is steal the Stone Gun after the Petrified Mediator is cured. ------------------ Weapon Duplication ------------------ All you need is the Ninja's Two Swords ability for this. Its best described with an example: let's say duplicating the most powerful sword readily available in the game (the Excalibur). Learn the Two Swords ability and then turn that character into a Knight so that they can equip the Excalibur. Typically when you select the "Best" button it will equip the character with the Excalibur at the top and the shield in the second position. Switch them around so that the character is carrying the Excalibur in the other hand (second slot down) and the shield in the main hand (top slot). This can only be done with the Two Swords ability equipped. Now go to a shop that sells Knight equipment. Enter the fitting room and go to "Best fit" for that character. Since the Excalibur is the best weapon it will still be the best fit, but the store automatically moves it back to your other hand at the top. Notice however that when this happens, the colour of the word "Excalibur" turns red as if it were a new piece of equipment you were buying. Exit the fitting room and choose to confirm the purchase and suddenly you now have two Excaliburs in your inventory. Repeat as much as you like. ---------------------------- Unique and Secret Characters ---------------------------- Unique characters can be described as those who say something when you press the select button in the menu screen and click on their name. Even boring or Rad, Lavian etc. that only have basic classes are technically unique characters. All the secret characters like Beowulf, Worker 8, Reis, Cloud, Byblos are all described in the sidequests section. The rest of the unique characters like T.G. Cid, Boco, Mustadio etc. will automatically join your party during the normal progression through the story. --------------------- Cloud's Materia Blade --------------------- This special weapon is required in order for Cloud to perform Limit skill attacks. TO find it all you have to do is take a character with a good jump height and the Move-Find Item ability into a random battle at the Bervenia Volcano (appears on the world map in Chapter 4 near Igros.) Stand on top of the volcano with Move-Find item to automatically pick up the Materia Blade. ------------ Propositions ------------ Most bars in the game offer you the chance to take part in quick little quests which require you to do nothing more than move back and forth between locations and pass a certain amount of time. They don't really serve any great purpose or yield any great items. What they do is give rewards in the form of small JP bonuses to the job classes of the three characters that took part. Note that only non-special classed characters can participate. ______________________________________________________________________________ ============================================================================== [D000] Legal Information ============================================================================== This guide is copyrighted 2006 Szamar Madar. It is not to be reprinted or copied in any shape or form without the author's express consent. This guide is exclusively hosted at www.gamefaqs.com and nowhere else. Please notify me immediately if it is found on another website. End of document. ______________________________________________________________________________
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