Final Fantasy I/II Advance - Final Fantasy I Soul Of Chaos Boss FAQ by: transience written: 6/12/2004 version: 1.0 Introduction: FF1 Advance (or Dawn of Souls, if you prefer) has, as you probably know, four optional dungeons, termed the Soul of Chaos. These dungeons consist of random floors, followed by a boss from a previous/future Final Fantasy, depending on how you want to look at it. This FAQ is to help you defeat these bosses. --- Copyright: Get this: I wrote this thing. I'd prefer it if it stayed that way. Thanks. This should only be posted at GameFAQs. If you want to use it for your own site, send me an email. --- Version History: 0.5 - Did the Earth and Fire Shrine section. 1.0 - Finished the guide; added new strategies. Table of Contents: I.) Things to know II.) Earth Shrine a.) Echidna b.) Cerberus c.) 2-Headed Dragon d.) Ahriman III.) Fire Shrine a.) Scarmigurion b.) Cagnazzo c.) ValValis d.) Rubicante IV.) Water Shrine a.) Gilgamesh b.) Atomos c.) Omega d.) Shinryu V.) Air Shrine a.) Chupon b.) Ultros c.) Phantom Train d.) Deathgaze VI.) End --- I.) Things to know - First of all, how do you access the Soul of Chaos dungeons? You can enter the shrines at any point in the game, but in order to actually enter the dungeon, you need to defeat the fiend that corresponds with each dungeon. Here's a list of where they all are: Earth Shrine - Northwest of Cornelia (prerequisite: must have defeated Lich) Fire Shrine - one of the holes in the dragon islands (prerequisite: must have defeated Malarith/Kary) Water Shrine - whirlpool east of Melmond (prerequisite: must have defeated Kraken; must enter via ship) Air Shrine - north of the ice cave (must have defeated Tiamat; only accessible by canoe) - Secondly, the floors are at random, but not randomly generated. What this means is that you have no idea what floor will come next, though they will all come eventually. For this reason, exit and teleport won't work. You can save anywhere in the dungeon, and dying is not game over. - How long are the dungeons? Earth: 5 floors Fire: 10 floors Water: 20 floors Air: 40 floors - It should be mentioned that, with the exception of the Air dungeon, you cannot fight all the bosses in one trip. You'll need four trips for the Earth dungeon (yes, that means four times of doing the annoying floor with the million enemies on-screen), and twice for the Fire and Water dungeon. - What's the most important spell in the game when dealing with SOC bosses? Temper, the level 2 black magic spell. Temper ups your strength by something like ten points. Temper stacks, so casting it over and over will turn any character into a killing machine. I've gotten a red mage to do upwards of 10,000 damage using temper. Also, when you get to the Sea Shrine, you'll find an item called the Giant's Gloves, which casts Saber when used in battle. Saber the spell isn't so great because only a black mage / wizard can cast it on themselves, but with the Giant's Gloves, whoever uses it can cast it on themselves. Find this item. It's on the second floor. - After buying the fairy from the Caravan, you can go back there and buy in-battle status-up drinks. I don't use them a lot, but they do help occasionally, and you might not know about them. - Not everyone will be using the same party, so adjust your strategies. I've done the Soul of Chaos bosses with a knight/monk/white/black, with a thief/red/white/black, and with a solo red. I'd definitely suggest having a white mage for the harder SOC bosses, and having a red/black mage is also very helpful, if for nothing else besides Temper. After that, it's up to you. --- II.) Earth Shrine Ahh, good old FF3. When you reach the fifth floor, you get four choices of boss: Cerberus, 2 headed dragon, Echidna, and Ahriman. My advice is to hold off on Echidna and Ahriman until after you've gotten the Airship, since they have death attacks. The other two? Very beatable, even on low levels. --- A.) Echidna HP: 4800 Attack: 50 Accuracy: 50 Defense: 50 Agility: 30 Intelligence: 30 Evasion: 1 Magic Defense: 70 Treasure: X-Potion Weaknesses: none Resistances: Quake, Lightning, Time, Paralysis, Darkness, Silence, Mind, Fire, Ice, Stone, Poison, Sleep, Confusion, Death Suggested Level: 30+ Strategy: Echidna is a death machine. Both Death and Earthquake will do instant death to one character and the whole party, respectively. I've seen Echidna do Flare, which is brutal, but I've only seen that once. Other than that, Echidna is absolutely a piece of cake. Its physical attack won't likely top 100 damage, and only its instant death attacks stop you from killing it straight after Lich. Once you get the airship, hit Gaia and buy some protect rings to offer some resistance to death. Protect rings don't seem to give full resistance, but it's better than having Earthquake kill three of your dudes outright. To do damage, haste and temper your life away. --- B.) Cerberus HP: 4000 Attack: 40 Accuracy: 60 Defense: 50 Agility: 50 Intelligence: 40 Evasion: 50 Magic Defense: 60 Treasure: Kotetsu Weaknesses: none Resistances: Quake, Lightning, Time, Paralysis, Darkness, Silence, Mind, Fire, Ice, Stone, Poison, Sleep, Confusion, Death Suggested Level: 25+ Strategy: Cerberus utilizes two attacks. One is a physical attack that doesn't do much (maybe 150 to a weak character) and his Thunderbolt. Thunderbolt can do 300 damage to all your characters, essentially killing a lower level party. Be sure to grab Nulshock from Provoka for this fight. Cast Nulshock on your first turn, cast Temper and Haste on your strongest character, and hope that he doesn't do Thunderbolt over and over. I find healara to be a lifesaver in this battle. Heal spells are so much more useful now that intelligence governs healing. Anyway, if you're having problems, get a couple of levels and try again. He's not too hard. If his physical attack is annoying you, slowra might cut the damage a little. --- C.) Ahriman HP: 5000 Attack: 60 Accuracy: 65 Defense: 50 Agility: 30 Intelligence: 50 Evasion: 25 Magic Defense: 100 Treasure: Dry Ether (Megaelixir in chest) Weaknesses: none Resistances: Quake, Lightning, Time, Paralysis, Darkness, Silence, Mind, Fire, Ice, Stone, Poison, Sleep, Confusion, Death Suggested Level: 30+ Strategy: Probably the hardest of the four FF3 fiends, Ahriman is a combination of Cerberus and Echidna. Ahriman will do Blaze, which does the same kind of ugly damage that Cerberus's Thunderbolt did. Be sure to have Nulblaze for this fight. Ahriman also does Earthquake, so you'll want protect rings to up your resistance to death. His other attacks are his physical attack, which is survivable (hits harder than Echidna's, but not as hard as 2-Headed Dragon's; maybe 150 to a weak character) and Cura, which heals him for like 200. Once you've got your Nulblaze cast, temper and haste your best attacker and do your best to keep him alive. If Earthquake kills someone, phoenix down and do your best to keep them alive. Once you've tempered enough, he'll go down in a couple of hits. --- D.) 2-Headed dragon HP: 4500 Attack: 60 Accuracy: 50 Defense: 50 Agility: 30 Intelligence: 10 Evasion: 30 Magic Defense: 50 Treasure: Bard's Tunic Weaknesses: none Resistances: Quake, Lightning, Time, Paralysis, Darkness, Silence, Mind, Fire, Ice, Stone, Poison, Sleep, Confusion, Death Suggested Level: 20+ Strategy: 2-headed Dragon's Physical Attack (which is all he does) can absolutely maul you on low levels, doing upwards of 500 damage. This, of course, is enough to one-hit you. However, he has one sexy weakness: slow. Be sure to buy Slowra in Melmond and hit him a couple of times with it. His damage will drop considerably, with him missing some of the time. Once his attack has been tamed, Temper your strongest character, use haste, and start mauling him back. He'll go down in a few rounds. Thanks to Animalspawn for the Slowra strategy. --- III.) Fire Shrine I like the fire dungeon - the lava lets you walk without getting into encounters, and the overworld level totally rules. Boss-wise, on floor 5 you can fight one of two bosses, and the same for level 10. Behind Rubicante is the elusive fourth ribbon, so be sure to get that if you can. Three of the four bosses use special attacks that you can't cast Nul- spells on, so ribbons (which halve special attack damage) are very helpful, almost necessary. I've beaten all four bosses without ribbons and under Level 35 (for Scarmiglione, I had the one ribbon that Rubicante drops), but it's definitely not recommended. A.) Scarmiglione (form 1) HP: 4000 Attack: 19 Accuracy: 50 Defense: 10 Agility: 10 Intelligence: 160 Evasion: 10 Magic Defense: 160 Treasure: none Weaknesses: none Resistances: Quake, Stone, Death, Time, Poison A1.) Scarmiglione (form 2) HP: 7046 Attack: 46 Accuracy: 40 Defense: 20 Agility: 10 Intelligence: 100 Evasion: 10 Magic Defense: 140 Treasure: Lunar Curtain Weaknesses: Fire, Dia Resistances: Quake, Time, Poison, Ice, Stone, Death Suggested Level: 40+ Strategy: Form 1 is pretty much a joke - he'll do Thunder to one character, which hits for about 250 and can be halved with Nulshock. Just pound away like usual. Form 2, however, is nasty. Poison Gas can hit for like 500 to all. You'll definitely want ribbons for this fight (or a whole lot of HP). If you can survive Poison Gas, this fight is pretty simple - his physical attack does maybe 100 damage max (although it poisons) and he doesn't do anything else. Ignore the Fire/Dia weaknesses, his MDef is too high to bother with it. Haste and Temper your best attacker and go nuts, making sure he stays alive. --- B.) Cagnazzo HP: 7968 Attack: 44 Accuracy: 80 Defense: 20 Agility: 20 Intelligence: 55 Evasion: 5 Magic Defense: 180 Treasure: Light Curtain Weaknesses: Lightning Resistances: Quake, Time, Poison, Ice, Stone, Death Suggested Level: 40+ Strategy: Cagnazzo is weak against lightning, but he's also got a horrid defence stat, and unlike FF4, you can't stun him with lightning. Cagnazzo's nasty attack is Tsunami, a water-based spell that doesn't seem to have a counter (besides ribbon, which you may not have yet; if you do, by all means). It does about 300 to all, killing a lower-level party. I've beaten Cagnazzo at 30, but that's more because he didn't abuse Tsunami. Cagnazzo's physical attack is pretty weak, but when he hastes himself, it goes up to about 200. Cagnazzo also has immunity to slowra, so you can't reverse the haste effect. Thundaga will hit for 300-350 with a decent black mage, so use that if you like, but I go the tried-and-tested haste/temper route. Healara (or healaga if you've got it) helps against Tsunami as well, and since his agility is low, you might be able to get it in before he hits you with it again. --- C.) Barbariccia HP: 12954 Attack: 88 Accuracy: 100 Defense: 10 Agility: 60 Intelligence: 60 Evasion: 60 Magic Defense: 190 Treasure: Braveheart Weaknesses: none Resistances: Quake, Time, Poison, Lightning, Stone, Death Suggested Level: 40+ Strategy: Barbariccia is very similar to Cagnazzo, only with a stone attack. Its physical attack -hurts-, and it has partial immunity to slowra, but I suggest using it until it hits. Slowra will bring its physical attack from 400+ to under 100. Cyclone, his wind-based special attack, is similar to Tsunami - an all attack that will hit for around 350 to all. His ray attack, similar to the FF4 one, stones you, only this one isn't gradual. Do the usual haste/temper spells on your best attacker, cast healara/healaga if you've got a white mage after Cyclone, and you'll win. Not -too- hard of a fight, assuming you have enough HP to survive Cyclone. --- D.) Rubicante HP: 15000 Attack: 88 Accuracy: 150 Defense: 40 Agility: 50 Intelligence: 65 Evasion: 30 Magic Defense: 220 Treasure: Kikuichimonji (ribbon next to him) Weaknesses: none Resistances: Quake, Ice, Stone, Death, Fire, Time, Poison Suggested Level: 40+ Strategy: That's a freaking lot of HP. That's also one hell of a MDef stat. Rubicante's attacks are all fire-based, so use Nulblaze or a Red Curtain instantly. Ice Shields also are a big help. He has four attacks: Scorch, which hits one guy for about 500 damage (250 with Nulblaze); Firaga, which hits all for about 300 (halved with Nulblaze, again); Fira, which is about half of Firaga; and his physical attack, which hits for a good 400 on a weak character. He's immune to slowra, so his physical attack is the painful one. You can try and up your defence using drinks or protera, but it's likely to be futile. Haste/temper your attacker (use the Giant's Gloves if you have it yet) and use a whole lot of healara/healaga. I find that putting my attacker last in the battle order helps, though it'll likely kill whoever you put on top. If you can get him into a pattern, that HP will go away faster than you think. --- IV.) Water Shrine The FF5 dungeon features the two hardest bosses in the game, Omega and Shinryu, even though the Air dungeon is later on. Both can absolutely annihilate an unsuspecting party. The other two bosses, Gilgamesh and Atomos, are beatable but nasty. Atomos is notable because his item drop casts flare, making it one of the more important items to get. Even if you can't beat Omega and Shinryu, getting this early will help out a bunch. As for Omega and Shinryu, both are nasty. I've gotten them both on Level 49, and could probably do so lower, but I highly suggest having a good chunk of HP to take at least Shinryu on. Shinryu's probably harder, but Omega can maul you with a physical attack. Either way, they should be taken out last, after the Air Shrine, because they're the hardest bosses in the game. --- A.) Gilgamesh HP: 8888 Attack: 70 Accuracy: 110 Defense: 50 Agility: 20 Intelligence: 20 Evasion: 10 Magic Defense: 220 Treasure: Genji Gloves Weaknesses: none Resistances: Quake, Stone, Death, Time, Poison Suggested Level: 40+ Strategy: True to Gilgamesh form, he'll (usually) come out of a treasure chest. Gilgamesh is in one of three or four random spots each time. Gilgamesh's physical attack is absolutely brutal. I've seen it do over 700 damage. The rest of Gilgamesh's abilities are status-based: NulAll and Protect. He's also got the classic Excalipur attack, doing the customary 1 damage. You're likely not going to be able to survive Gilgamesh's physical attack, so I suggest taking your main attacker and hiding him at the bottom of the formation. Use all the temper/haste/Giant's Gloves you can until you can consistently do 2000+ damage and then start crushing him. If he attacks someone, phoenix down them (don't worry about healing them to full - it's either death or the 1 damage Excalipur) and return to pimping out your attacker. With a little luck, he won't get hit and Gilgamesh will go down quickly. B.) Atomos HP: 13000 Attack: 50 Accuracy: 80 Defense: 70 Agility: 10 Intelligence: 130 Evasion: 10 Magic Defense: 200 Treasure: Judgment Staff Weaknesses: Resistances: Suggested Level: 40+ Strategy: First, a rundown of Atomos' attacks: Wormhole, which is an instant death attack; Firaga, which does about 250 damage to all; comet, a hard-hitting attack to one (about 450); and a weak physical attack. To start, cast NulBlaze (although Firaga did 250 to me before and 250 after I cast NulBlaze - I have no idea why), and, if you've got it, NulDeath. Once you've neutralized Wormhole and can survive Firaga, all you have to worry about is Comet. Temper/Haste your attacker again (hide him if you're worried about being hit by Comet) and beat him up. Gilgamesh is harder than him, and you get an awesome treasure to boot. --- C.) Omega HP: 35000 Attack: 115 Accuracy: 200 Defense: 190 Agility: 76 Intelligence: 40 Evasion: 95 Magic Defense: 220 Treasure: Murasame Weaknesses: Lightning Resistances: Quake, Ice, Stone, Poison, Sleep, Confusion, Death, Fire, Time, Paraylsis, Darkness, Silence, Mind Suggested Level: 55+ Strategy: Omega's physical attack -hurts-. I've seen it do over 800. Omega's also got an attack (Wave Cannon) that hits all for about 350. He's got Earthquake as well, death to all as usual. Try Nuldeath or a Lunar Curtain if you need it. Omega's Defense stat sucks, making this fight impossibly long. The trick to it is to up your evasion, and fast. Use the Defender on your best attacker, Invisira, Blink, White Robe, all of them. If he attacks first, chances are you've got a dead dude on your hands. Once your evasion is high enough, start dealing damage. Tempering and Hasting isn't as helpful thanks to the insane defense stat, so use your Judgment Staff and Thundaga and go to work. Feel free to use the Giant Gloves with your attacker a few times, haste him, and deal damage that way too, but it's not the only way to go this time. Make sure to keep your guys alive - a death means you have to pimp out their evasion again, never any fun. If you can't survive two Wave Cannons, i suggest casting Healaga every single fight if you've got a White. --- D.) Shinryu HP: 35000 Attack: 220 Accuracy: 200 Defense: 60 Agility: 87 Intelligence: 70 Evasion: 20 Magic Defense: 220 Treasure: Ragnarok (and Hero's Shield next to him) Weaknesses: none Resistances: Quake, Stone, Death, Time, Poison Suggested Level: 60+ Strategy: If you don't have a White Mage, Shinryu is ugly. He likes to do loads of all attacks, from Flare (probably the most painful) to Tidal Wave (second most) to Thunderbolt or Icestorm (least, at least if you've got a ribbon on). To top it off, he's got high agility, a nasty (though not that nasty, about 450) physical attack, and a lot of HP. How to fight him? Well, his physical attack isn't -too- bad, so while evasion helps, it's not needed. NulAll might help vs. Icestorm or Thunderbolt - if you've got extra Light Curtains, take a turn using them. If you've got a White, use every turn casting Healaga. If you don't, you're going to have to find a way to heal while still trying to deal damage. If you've got a Red, Curaga might help; the Rune Staff that Ultros drops might help as well. Don't be shy with your elixirs and megaelixirs as well - there's no use saving them now. Unlike Omega, you can hurt Shinryu with physical attacks, so build up that strength and maul. Once you're strong enough, you can spend your three other characters' turns healing and making sure your attacker is alive. You can even give them things like Speed Drinks to hasten the process. Giant's Gloves are absolutely needed here. If you've got more than 600 HP on everyone, Shinryu's not that bad, really, but Flare can mess you up. --- V.) Air Shrine The Air Shrine is a mammoth 40 floor dungeon, but it's actually not that bad. A number of floors are of the silly variety, from hide and seek to beaver-matching to a place where you can buy spells and even rest at an inn. Only the bottom ten or so floors have difficult enemies. The bosses themselves aren't bad at all - Typhon/Chupon is a pushover, Orthros / Ultros and Phantom Train have painful physical attacks but can be tamed, and Death Gaze is hardly the beast that Omega or Shinryu is. --- A.) Typhon (or Chupon) HP: 10000 Attack: 70 Accuracy: 70 Defense: 100 Agility: 10 Intelligence: 40 Evasion: 0 Magic Defense: 190 Treasure: Genji Helm Weaknesses: Ice Resistances: Quake, Time, Poison, Fire, Stone, Death Suggested Level: 30+ Strategy: Chupon does Snort, the equivalent of FF6's sneeze, which is instant death to one guy. His other attack is a relatively weak physical attack, doing about 250 damage. Hide your attacker in the bottom of your party to cut the chances of being hit by Snort and use all the strength up skills you have. Chupon is probably the easiest SOC boss there is. --- B.) Orthros (or Ultros) HP: 17000 Attack: 60 Accuracy: 80 Defense: 40 Agility: 30 Intelligence: 20 Evasion: 0 Magic Defense: 180 Treasure: Rune Staff Weaknesses: Fire, Lightning Resistances: Quake, Time, Poison, Ice, Stone, Death Suggested Level: 40+ Strategy: Ultros is like Kraken, kind of: a nasty physical attack and an Ink attack that causes darkness. The ink attack is utterly harmless, but his physical attack can do up to 800. I fight Ultros by casting lots of stat-ups: Protera, Invisira, and even Blink. With a couple casts of those, Ultros' physical attack can be tamed, even to the point where he misses. Once he's harmless, temper / haste your attacker and go nuts. He's weak vs. fire and lightning, but like all of these bosses, his resistance is so high that it's not worth taking advantage of. Ultros drops the Rune Staff, which casts healara, a nice item. --- C.) Phantom Train HP: 9999 Attack: 200 Accuracy: 50 Defense: 80 Agility: 30 Intelligence: 40 Evasion: 0 Magic Defense: 160 Treasure: Megalixir Weaknesses: Fire, Dia Resistances: Quake, Stone, Death, Time, Poison Suggested Level: 50+ Strategy: The Phantom Train, surprisingly, doesn't do death. Instead, one only needs to look at that Attack stat to see what's up: his physical attack does around 600, killing an average level character. He also does Acid Rain, a spell that hits everyone for about 300. If he casts Acid Rain twice and you don't get a heal inbetween, you're in trouble. My goal in this fight is to increase my evasion as fast as possible: if you've got a Red Mage or a White Mage, cast Invisira with them and use the White Robe with another character. After about four uses, his physical attack should be rendered useless. Meanwhile, use the Giant's Gloves on your attacker (hide him in the lower ranks if you're worried about him getting killed). His HP isn't that high compared to other fiends, so if you can neutralize his physical attack, you've got him, regardless of level. --- D.) Death Gaze HP: 30000 Attack: 90 Accuracy: 200 Defense: 150 Agility: 95 Intelligence: 50 Evasion: 50 Magic Defense: 220 Treasure: Lightbringer (Ultima Weapon in chest) Weaknesses: Fire, Dia Resistances: Quake, Time, Poison, Ice, Stone, Death Suggested Level: 50+ Strategy: Deathgaze's difficulty lies in the numbers: his accuracy and defence are sick. Cast all the evasion spells you want, Deathgaze will likely still get a hit or two in. Cast Temper all you want, it's still going to be hard to do huge numbers of damage. Does this change the typical strategy of how to fight him? Nope. Besides a physical attack, I've seen Deathgaze cast Dispel, and that's all. Therefore, Invisira, Blink, whatever you can do to avoid damage. Because Deathgaze has such a high agility stat, take one character (hopefully, the one with the highest intelligence stat) and use your new Rune Staff to heal any damage you might take from his attacks. Once your evasion is sexy enough, start trying to do damage. I would suggest the Temper/Haste/Giant's Gloves method, although stuff like the Judgment Staff can be useful for doing small chunks of damage. 30,000 HP takes a long time to whittle down, but once he can't do much damage to you, it's just a big, long loop. --- VI.) End dyschordia242@yahoo.com - if you need help, just ask. Anyone with strategies better than what I've written can feel free to contribute. I'd appreciate it, actually.