_____ _ _____ | __ \ ( ) | __ \ | | | | _ __ __ _ __ _ ___ _ __ |/ ___ | | | | ___ _ __ | | | || '__|/ _` | / _` | / _ \ | '_ \ / __| | | | | / _ \| '_ \ | |__| || | | (_| || (_| || (_) || | | | \__ \ | |__| || __/| | | | |_____/ |_| \__,_| \__, | \___/ |_| |_| |___/ |_____/ \___||_| |_| __/ | | | |___/ __ _ _ __ __| | / _` || '_ \ / _` | | (_| || | | || (_| | _____ \__,_||_|_|_|_\__,_| _ / ____| | | / ____|| | (_) | (___ ___ _ _ | | | (___ | |__ _ __ _ _ __ ___ \___ \ / _ \ | | | || | \___ \ | '_ \ | '__|| || '_ \ / _ \ ____) || (_) || |_| || | ____) || | | || | | || | | || __/ |_____/ \___/ \__,_||_| |_____/_|_| |_||_| |_||_| |_| \___| | _ \ | | | | | | | || | / _ \ | |_) | ___ | | ___ __ __ | |__ __| | | || |_ | | | | | _ < / _ \| | / _ \\ \ /\ / / | |\ \ / /| | |__ _|| | | | | |_) || __/| || (_) |\ V V / | | \ V / | | _ | | | |_| | |____/ \___||_| \___/ \_/\_/ |_| \_/ |_|(_) |_| \___/ (no, I didn't take a long time to play with the ASCII title creator) Welcome to my guide for the two new dungeons of this wonderful game. I decided to write this because I felt gamers needed more advices than ''spam Ultima till death''. In this guide, I will give a lot of advices to players who want to go through the two new dungeons at a fairly low level without using the over powerful magic Ultima. By ''fairly low level'', I mean something between level 30 and 40. If you play the game normally, which means, without levelling your warriors like mad or without running away not to level up, chances are you'll beat Kefka at a level around 35. At this level, Kefka is a tiny bit challenging for the inexperienced player, but I still beat him rather easily (without Ultima of course). For this guide, I will presume that you are a level between 35-40. If you are above 50, you don't need any guide. Going below 30 is very possible, but it would be more frustrating than challenging (in my humble opinion, of course). Whatever, isn't the most important thing about this game is having fun? If you have no fun thinking of a new strategy to beat some bosses, than level up your guys all the way, I don't mind. I'm writing this guide to provide players an interesting challenge that is not too frustrating nor too easy. Have fun! If you find anything that you judge that could help others, feel free to email at Thunder_Max@hotmail.com . But please, don't send things like : level up Locke to lvl 99 and have him equip two Ultima Weapons + Master's Scroll, or use Ultima till death. I think it's obvious. But still, if you're lvl 99, you don't need a guide at all. This guide is made for those who want to do the Dragon's Den below lvl 40. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summary (Ctrl+F is your friend) 1 - What this guide presumes (001) 2 - Setup for the Dragon's Den (002) 3 - Character Analysis (003) 4 - Party Analysis (004) 5 - Walkthrough for the Dragon's Den (005) 6 - Hints for the Soul Shrine (006) 7 - Conclusion (007) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- What this guide presumes (001) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like I wrote in my intro, I presume you are about lvl 35, which means that you are not overly powerful at all. I also presume that no character is a magi master. That means that most of your characters knows a good spell or two, but no one (well, maybe one or two, but not too many) knows Reraise, Quick, Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, etc. all at the same time. Most of my characters knew only one of the highest magics. So it will be a good idea to team up your strengths. I also presume that you don't use Ultima at all. Why? Because if you master Ultima, you don't need a guide. Spam Ultima from the beginning to the end with a Celestriad and the game will be a joke. Use it if you really want, but for this guide, I presume you don't have/use Ultima. I also presume that you have every character and that you got most of the treasures and espers found in the game. While I provide some info how to get the most hidden items, I suggest you to check out one of the other wonderful walkthrough found on this site. If you want a little challenge that is fun and not too hard, I suggest you to have these prerequisites before starting the Dragon's Den: - No characters above lvl 35 - No character knows more than two of these spells (but you can cover all these magics with all your warriors): Holy, Flare, Arise and Reraise and Curaga (those 3 magics count for two), Firaga and Blizzaga and Thundaga (those 3 magics count for two), Flood, Meteor, Meltdown... - No character has Ultima or uses Ultima in the dungeon (at least for the Dragon's Den) - No character uses Quick. There are two reasons for this. 1- It makes the game too easy. 2- The real reason is this one: I am convinced there is a bug involving Quick. Each time I have a character using Quick, and only one, it seems the enemies stop attacking for a looong time. I've got the time to cast Quick, do my 2 commands, give a command to all my other characters, recast Quick, do 2 other commands, give another command to all my other characters and cast Quick again without being attacked once. Plus, it seldom happens that the time bar of the character who casts Quick doesn't reset to zero after the 2 commands, giving him the opportunity to attack or cast Quick again. Using Quick is ruining the game. - Another very optional rule is not to unequip your characters when you switch group in the Dragon's Den. That means that if you equip the Master's Scroll to Locke before starting the dungeon, you don't unequip it to give it to Setzer when you switch to his party. Or another example, if you equipped Celes with double Lightbringer, you do not unequip them to equip Terra with them when you switch to her party. It makes the whole dungeon WAY harder, but it's more fun. The only exception to this is the Cursed Shield. If you want to uncurse it, I suggest to always have somebody with it in your party. However, after having tried a couple of times, if you feel a boss is impossible without a certain item equipped on another character, by all means, unequip it to give it to your other guy. This game is all about fun anyway. Feel free not to respect these conditions. I don't mind, really. I'm just offering you something interesting to have fun with. Nothing more. So play the way you believe you will have fun. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Setup (002) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Before entering the Dragon's Den, I strongly suggest to have the following: - At least ONE character masters Reraise (good luck beating the Fire Dragon without Reraise, or without having over 6000 Hps) - That most, if not all, characters have Osmose and Rasp (good luck beating the Skull Dragon without those...) - At least ONE character knows Reflect (good luck beating the Holy Dragon without it, unless you're pretty high level of course) - To have a couple of Ribbons You can survive without anything else. Still, I might suggest a couple of things: - If you plan to use Mog or Gau, you may want to bet at the Coliseum a Behemoth's Suit. This armor is the best piece for Strago and Relm. You should have gotten two in the cave by the Veldt. Betting the Behemoth's suit will give you a Snow Scarf, a WONDERFUL piece of armor for Gau and Mog (Umaro has it equipped by default, but you cannot remove it from him). This beauty will reduce all physical damage taken by those two to ridiculous level. While Locke, fairly equipped, was being hit for over 1000 damage, Mog was hit for 88 damage with the same attack... Remember that if you get a Snow Scarf, you will have a very good character in Mog or Gau, but it will Strago or Relm will be less well equipped. Considering you have two Behemoth's Suit, I suggest you bet one (remember to save before betting it!!!). - Since we don't use Ultima here, why not take the Ragnarok Sword from the old man in the weapon store in Narshe instead of the esper? It's your choice, but I took the Ragnarok Sword and bet it at the Coliseum for the Lightbringer, the best weapon in this game. Don't forget to uncurse the Cursed Shield, found in a house in Narshe. To uncurse it, equip it on a character for 256 battles. I STRONGLY suggest you equip a ribbon to the guy who uncurses the shield, or else, he'll have plenty of bad status effects. For some unknown reasons, GOGO CANNOT UNCURSE THE SHIELD. So don't equip it to him. By the way, I didn't have the Paladin Shield for the whole Dragon's Den, so it's no big deal if you don't have it. Still, the Paladin's Shield is so wonderful that it changes a whole character into a magic defense powerhouse. - While levelling up your guys in the normal game, always check how far they are from the next level between the fights. When you know that the next battle will level up somebody, equip that character one Esper that raises the magic power (like Valigarmanda (man I preferred Tritoch!!), Zona Seeker, or, less good, Maduin or Cait Sith). This way, your characters will have a very nice magic power. At this point of the game, my Locke had 65 magic power unequipped... Let's just say that it transforms and average caster into a monster. I suggest you build the magic power to all of your characters for the other stats are not worth it, including strength (it doesn't have a great impact on the damage you deal anyway). The ONLY exception to this might be Locke. You may want to build his Hps fast so he can deal incredible damage with the Valiant Knife. However, keep in mind that you do not need to equip HP plus Esper to your guys a lot if you want them to reach 9999 at level 99. In fact, you only need to equip them a good HP plus esper like 2 or 3 levels. So if you build Locke's hps fast, you won't have the ''best'' stats at lvl 99, for you would have wasted some levels in unnecessary hps. However, if you don't plan to raise your guys to lvl 99, building Locke's HP does a wonderful job with the Valiant Knife. I'll explain how this wonder knife works in Locke's section. - The Miracle Shoes are a relic the gives your character the protect, shell, haste and regen statues. They are little beauties. To get some, bid an elixir at the Coliseum. Win the fight and you will get a Rename Card. Bid this item again and win the fight. You will get the Miracle Shoes. I suggest you get a couple, but they're just nice. - While fighting Kefka, bring Locke (or Gogo with steal if you hate Locke) equipped with the Thief's Bracers. At the third round, steal both enemies. The girl has a Ragnarok Sword (bet it for another Lightbringer) and the guy has an Ultima Blade. While the Ultima Blade is worthless under level 50 (but afterwards, it becomes the best weapon in the game), another Lightbringer is more than welcomed. - Buy a lot of Circlets. Not essential, but boosts all stats and give a decent defense. Second best head piece after the Genji Helmet (which are not buyable) - Having 4 Angel Wings is nice for the Earth Dragon. I beat it without them, but still, it can help. - You can get more Genji Armor by bidding the Chocobo Suit, Tabby Suit, Nutkin Suit and the Moogle Suit. Just keep bidding the item you win and you will eventually get a Genji Armor. - You can get more Pinwheel for Shadow by bidding Fuma Shuriken, which are buyable. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Characters analysis (003) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In this section, I will give my comments on every characters. Remember that most characters are decent and can be made good warriors. Use the one you prefer, but still, I will tell you who I believe the best are :) Keep in mind that, for this part, I will explain how to build each characters without having to unequip the others. By that, I mean that you do not unequip all your characters while you switch groups. So, if Locke stars the Dragon's Den with the Master's Scroll, you don't unequip it to give it Setzer when you switch to your group. This is very optional, but it makes the game more fun, in my humble opinion. - Terra / Celes - I put the two girls together for they are nearly identical. The only difference between the two is their skill. Runic sucks. You won't use it often. Trance is pretty good, but since it takes so long to build once it is used, you won't end up using it often. And since the Dragon's Den don't give you any magic points, it will be impossible for you to build you Trance timer in the Dragon's Den. So, considering both abilities are worthless in the Dragon's Den, that they have very close basic stats and that they can equip exactly the same equipments, they are identical. These beauties can equip the best swords in the game as well as the wonderful Minerva Bustier. This little beauty will absorb water, earth, holy and poison damage will negating fire, ice, lightning and wind damage... And it gives you a 25% mp bonus!!! The Minerva Bustier alone makes Celes and Terra two of the best characters of the game. And since you should have at least two (2 found in the Cave of Umaro and another found in the Tower of Kefka, too bad nobody can equip the third!), both girls can equip it! So, both will be invincible to elemental magics, both will be able to deal nice damage with magics and both can equip the Lightbringer! The Lightbringer deals wonderful damage, gives incredible bonus stats and evade bonus, takes some mana to deal critical hit, has a 1/4 to cast Holy, does the same damage in the back row... wow... However, don't use the Master's Scroll with the Lightbringer because it will remove the possibility to cast Holy after you attack. In the Dragon's Den, I suggest you split them up in two different groups so you can have two beauties absorbing magics in two groups. Since Celes' special weapon, the Save the Queen Sword (I love this ridiculous name lol), has a wonderful evade while Terra's Apocalypse is inferior, I suggest to have Terra with a Genji Glove and two Lightbringers (if you don't have two, just equip her the Apocalypse or the Excalibur) and Celes on the back row with the Save the Queen and make her a caster. If you insist on having both girls attack, have them both equip a Genji Glove + a Lightbringer + their special weapon. Remember the Lightbringer does the same damage in the back row. They are wonderful choice for the Soul Shrine. Recommended equipment: Setup 1 Terra (back row) ---------- R. Hand : Lightbringer L. Hand : Lightbringer Head : Circlet Body : Minerva Bustier Relic 1 : Genji Glove Relic 2 : Hero's Ring / Ribbon (against some bosses, you will have to equip a Ribbon) Celes (back row) --------- R. Hand: Save the Queen / Excalibur L. Hand: Aegis Shield / Force Shield Head: Circlet Body: Minerva Bustier Relic 1 : Hero's Ring Relic 2 : Miracle Shoes / Ribbon Or setup 2 Terra (front row) ---------- R. Hand : Lightbringer L. Hand : Apocalypse / Zantetsuken Head : Circlet Body : Minerva Bustier Relic 1 : Genji Glove Relic 2 : Hero's Ring / Ribbon Celes (front row) --------- R. Hand: Lightbringer L. Hand: Excalibur / Save the Queen Head: Circlet Body: Minerva Bustier Relic 1 : Genji Glove Relic 2 : Hero's Ring / Ribbon - Locke - Locke is like the two girls, minus the Minvera Bustier, plus the Valiant Knife. He has a lower basic magic power and a higher speed value, but no big deal. Since you must absolutely use him in the World of Balance, you will have the time to equip him with espers that give him magic power bonuses at level up. By the time I got Relm, who has the best basic magic power, Locke had the same magic power she had. Steal is not wonderful, except for the two enemies of the third part of Kefka's fight (the lady that heals the guy), where you can steal a Ragnarok Sword and an Ultima Sword. Locke has the best array of weapon in the game, including the all powerful Lightbringer. He has access to great armor pieces set, like the Genji pieces that boost the defense and magic defense. However, he has nothing like the Minerva Bustier, making him inferior to the two girls on the defensive aspect (still, he ranks third with other characters on this point, so he's still pretty decent). However, what makes him really shine is that marvellous little Valiant Knife. At first, you might think it sucks (at least, I thought!) because its attack power is very ordinary, but this beauty is simply the second best weapon of the whole game, and the best against bosses, after the Lightbringer (of course, the Ultima Weapon is way better, once you are something like lvl 60-65, but since it's a low level guide, the Ultima Weapon sucks at level 35). What makes this beauty marvellous is that it adds, to the normal damage it deals, an amount of damage equal to the difference between Locke's Max Hps and his currents hps. For example, if when Locke's health is at 100% he attacks 1 500 damage with the Valiant Knife, if he gets hurt for 1 000 damage, his next attack will do 2 500 damage!!! If he's current hps is 2 000 below his max hps, he will do 3 500 damage!!! And plus, the weapon IGNORE DEFENSE!! That means Locke will always do the same damage to ANY ENEMY, including bosses who have wonderful defense!!! It is the only weapon in the whole game that does that, the other being the Ultima Weapon. Equip Locke with the Muscle Belt (relic that adds 50% more hps) or the Red Cap (25% more hps) and he will deal wonderful damage while being at the same health than other characters. Equip Locke with the Master's Scroll and the Muscle Belt, don't heal him to full health, just keeping him at a decent level so he doesn't die, and he will be THE damage dealer of the bunch. If you want to add to the insult, equip him the Paladin's Shield once you have it and he will be simply the best fighter of the game. The only magic he really needs is Quick. I was dealing 40 000 dmg per turn with him alone against the Kaiser Dragon at level 42... And over 70 000 when I fought the Kaiser in the Soul Shrine... I strongly suggest taking him with the two girls to the Soul Shrine. Recommended equipment: Locke (front row) ---------- R. Hand : Valiant Knife L. Hand : Paladin's Shield / Aegis Shield / Force Shield (against massive magic users bosses) Head : Genji Helmet / Red Cap (if you don't equip the Muscle Belt, their effects don't add up) Body : Genji Armor Relic 1 : Master's Scroll Relic 2 : Muscle Belt / Ribbon - Edgar - Edgar is like the two girls, minus the Minvera, and like Locke, minus the Valiant Knife, plus the Tools and the Spears. At low level, his tools can come in handy, for he can do very decent damage with his Drill and can dispatch some annoying enemies with his Chain Saw. When in party with casters, his Debilitator can create some weaknesses to exploit, which is very good. At higher levels however, his tools will become useless, but for now, they're decent. He has access to the same equipment the previous three could equip minus the Minerva but plus the Royal Crown (decent if you want to save on the Genji Helmet) and the Red Jacket (absorbs fire, pretty good). However, you only have one of these two and Sabin can also equip them, so you'll have a choice to make between the tow. He has access to the same weapons the girls have plus the Spears, which are all less good. However, if you want Edgar to really shine, I suggest to equip your best spear (it's important), along with the Dragoon Boots and the Dragon Horn. Put him in the back row (jump does as. Jump. Watch the wonderful damage (jump does more damage when Edgar is equipped with a spear rather than a sword). This is really effective against normal fights. However, against some bosses, you might want to play it safe and have Edgar ready to cast some healing spells rather than have him lost in the air. Also, keep in mind that while Edgar is in the air, the monsters will concentrate their attacks on the other three (I suggest not too put Edgar in the same group as Locke, if you keep his health low like I suggested, for Locke will take more hits and will be more likely to die). This way, Edgar won't be wonderful in fights against bosses. Still, his Drill makes him decent. Note that the new magic Valor (given by Gilgamesh) also works on his tools that do physical damage like drill and chainsaw. Since Sabin will always be on the ground, taking the hits, while Edgar will be high up in the air, I suggest leaving the best equipment to other characters (for the Dragon's Den of course, if you take him to the Soul Shrine, equip him as best as you can). So leave the Genji Helmets and Armors to other characters and leave the Red Jacket to his brother. Also, since he can use the Force Armor and his brother cannot, it is a good idea to equip him with it. Overall, Edgar is a pretty decent character, but not as good as Terra, Celes, Locke and Sabin. Still pretty good. Recommended equipment: Edgar (back row) ---------- R. Hand : Radiant Lance / Longinus L. Hand : Thunder or Flame or Ice Shield Head : Circlet Body : Force Armor Relic 1 : Dragoon Boots / Miracle Shoes (for bosses) Relic 2 : Dragon Horn / Ribbon - Sabin - Sabin is a brute. There is no need to write a lot about him, he's just a brute. Put him in the back row. Phantom Rush all the way (to get it, fly around Narshe and spot some trees that form a +, walk on the center tree with Sabin and enjoy). When there are a lot of enemies, you can do Razor Gale. Remember that both are magical damage, so putting him on the back row will just reduce the damage Sabin takes while dealing the same damage. The only magic Sabin needs is Quick, and even if he doesn't have Quick, he's still wonderful. He's the best damage dealer for a low level game after Locke (with the Valiant Knife setup, of course) and the magic user with the Soul of Thamasa and Celestriad/Gold Hairpin combo. He doesn't have a lot of weapon but we don't care. His armors are so-so, but we don't care. His Red Jacket will absorb fire, which is nice. Phantom Rush all the way. A wonderful choice on any team. Recommended equipment: Sabin (back row) ---------- R. Hand : Tigerfang / Godhand L. Hand : Thunder Shield (his Red Jacket absorbs Fire, so you don't need the Flame or Ice Shield) Head : Circlet / Royal Crown Body : Red Jacket Relic 1 : Miracle Shoes Relic 2 : Earrings (I know it seems funny, but it boosts his Phantom Rush damage!) / Ribbon - Cyan - If you want Cyan to be decent, make him learn Quick. Otherwise, Cyan is a pretty bad character. His Bushido techniques take just too long to build up. The best one if Tempest (the 7th) but enemies will have more than enough time to kill you before it the gauge reaches the 7th digit. However, the magic Quick stops time. It will leave you more than enough time to make Tempest twice, without being hit by the enemies. In this way, Cyan will be a very decent character. However, you have to be very patient because it takes a long time... But the good thing is that his Bushido techniques do the same damage on the back row. So put him there. A fun way to equip Cyan is with the Genji Glove + Master's Scroll + Kazekiri + Kazekiri. If you equipped Cyan with an Esper magic boosting each time he levelled up, he should have a decent magic power, between 40 and 50. Each time Cyan will attack with a Kazekiri, he has a 50% to invoke Razor Gale (exactly like Sabin's blitz). Cyan will literally destroy any group of enemies, except for bosses... In fact, he will be useless against bosses with this build... and since his defense will be so low (no shield and no evade to compensate), he will get killed rather quickly. And besides, Locke and Setzer do better uses of the Master's Scroll. So I suggest the first build, with quick and his best weapon. Not my favorite character, but he's still ok. Recommended equipment: Cyan (back row) ---------- R. Hand : Mutsunokami / Zanmato L. Hand : Aegis Shield / Force Shield (for magical bosses) Head : Genji Helmet (if you have a second) / Circlet Body : Genji Armor (if you have a second) / Force Armor Relic 1 : Miracle Shoes Relic 2 : Gigas Glove / Ribbon - Setzer - The dilemma: should I give the Master's Scroll to Locke or Setzer? Tough choice; both characters make a wonderful use of the relic. Forget Setzer's Final Trump. His weapon of choice is the Fixed Dice: he will roll three die that will deal damage equal to the product these three die multiplied by his level per 2. If you are lucky, even at low level, Setzer can deal incredible damage with it. However, since the damage he deals is incredibly inconsistent, you'd better use it along with the Master's Scroll to have more chance to get a nice 9999 damage. So, Master's Scroll to Locke or Setzer? The thing is, Locke can still be decent without it. If you made Terra or Celes a caster, give the Lightbringer to Locke, put him in the back row and he will deal nice damage. Setzer, without the Master's Scroll... is pretty poor. Slot is awful and can even kill your entire party (like with an unlucky Crusader Esper summoning). Gil Toss (equip him the Heiji's Hitte (why did they retranslate this relic name into that??) to change Slot into Gil Toss) is ok I guess. At level 40, it will deal close to 2500 on an enemy. The damage is divided between the enemies though, so 2 enemies will suffers something like 1250 d amage each. However, once you've bought Gilgamesh, you won't need money anymore, so don't worry about wasting it. But since Setzer's Fixed Dice are very inconsistent compared to Locke's Valiant Knife, I prefer to give Locke the Master's Scroll. If you do so, give Setzer some healing spells and the Heiji's Hitte. Recommended equipment: Setzer (back row) ---------- R. Hand : Fixed Dice L. Hand : Thunder or Flame or Ice Shield Head : Circlet Body : Force Armor Relic 1 : Heiji's Jitte Relic 2 : Miracle Shoes / Ribbon - Shadow - I'm not a fan of Shadow. He's not bad, but most characters are superior to him. His weapons are bad. His armors are ok. Throw is good early on but lacks punch later on. However, since his thrown weapons ignore defense, he can deal ok damage on some bosses. His scrolls do a little bit less damage then the ''*****aga'' magics. Still, the little Shurikens do the job in normal fights. I suggest you put him in the back row and keep spamming Shurikens. Because of his lack of punch against bosses, I made him a healer (I know it looks weird, but eh). Use him if you like him, but I don't recommend him particularly. Recommended equipment: Shadow (back row) ---------- R. Hand : Kagenui / Oborozuki L. Hand : Thunder or Flame or Ice Shield Head : Circlet Body : Black Garb / Genji Armor Relic 1 : Gigas Glove / Hero's Ring Relic 2 : Miracle Shoes / Ribbon - Strago - You've guessed it, Strago is no fighter, so put him in the back row. At a low level and without Ultima, Grand Delta is a killer. In fact, Strago was one of my best damage dealer thanks to this Lore (to learn it, go fight Hidon in Etbot's Rock, north of Thamasa, kill every Erebus and watch him cast the magic). Mighty Guard is really nice, putting protect and shell on all your characters. White Wind is a replacement for the cure magics, although it heals everyone with Strago's current HP's, so if he's weak, use a Cure. Dischord will help Locke steal by halving the enemy's level. All other Lores are not worth mentioning. Strago is a good candidate for the Soul of Thamasa, but since he has his Lores and little Relm has absolutely nothing, I'd rather give it to Relm. Put Strago on the back, build his magic power, use Grand Delta, Mighty Guard and other regular magics and he's a pretty decent character. Note that if you didn't bet a Behemoth Suit for a Snow Scarf for Mog or Gau, then Strago and Relm will have a Behemoth Suit each. If you bidded one, then you will have to equip the Nutkuin Suit on one of the two. Your choice. Recommended equipment: Strago (back row) ---------- R. Hand : Magus Rod / Stardust Rod L. Hand : Thunder or Flame or Ice Shield Head : Circlet Body : Behemoth Suit / Nutkuin Suit Relic 1 : Gold Hairpin Relic 2 : Earring / Ribbon - Relm - Relm is saved by his wonderful basic magic power. But however, if you built all your character's magic power like I told you, most of they them will have a magic power comparable to Relm's (in a normal gameplay where you fight and run from battles normally), making her sole advantage useless. Relm is like Strago minus Grand Delta and Mighty Guard. Sketch is awful. Control is a tiny bit less awful but is still awful. She can wear the same armor pieces than Strago plus some not worth mentioning exceptions. She has the same weapons than him, plus the brushes (and they're all awful). There's only one decent build for that little pest: magic all the way. Put her on the back row, give her the Soul of Thamasa and a Golden Hairpin (or the Celestriad later) and she will become a very good character (but still, all characters are good with the Soul of Thamasa....). Make her learn Quick and do the following (with the Soul of Thamasa of course): select a normal magic then select Quick. She will cast her first magic then quick. After that, you will be able to do 4 other magics (since you get two turns of two magics). It works for every other characters, but since Relm is awful, we'd rather make her useful, eh? Recommended equipment: Relm (back row) ---------- R. Hand : Rainbow Brush / Angel Brush L. Hand : Thunder or Flame or Ice Shield Head : Circlet (are you still surprised to see this?) Body : Behemoth Suit / Nutkuin Suit Relic 1 : Gold Hairpin / Celestriad Relic 2 : Soul of Thamasa - Gau - Bleh. I hate Gau. There are some decent rages, but getting them is a pain in the... And being in a rage in a boss fight is far from being recommended. So you'd have to make him a caster. He's an ok caster, but because of his equipment, Relm will always be a better one. He's a defense brute with a Snow Scarf, but I'd rather give it to Mog. Use him if you really like him, but I suggest to not even bring him in the Dragon's Den. Still, once he gets his Dueling Mask, couple that with the Snow Scarf and he'll become one of the best tank in the game for he will receive half damage from elements. Give him the Paladin's Shield and he'll be a tough nut to crack (I still prefer to give it to a front row guy, like Locke... well, he's the only one, with Umaro, that I put on the front row). Put him in the back row and he'll become a decent healer. Recommended equipment: Gau (back row, well, you could put him in the front row) ---------- R. Hand : None L. Hand : Thunder or Flame or Ice Shield Head : Circlet /Dueling Mask Body : Black Garb / Snow Scarf (if you have one spare) Relic 1 : Hero's Ring (boosts all of his damage) Relic 2 : Miracle Shoes / Ribbon - Mog - If you have only one Dragon Horn and gave it to Edgar, Mog is not wonderful. However, since some normal fights in the Dragon's Den will give you a Dragon Horn, you can do the same combo, Dragoon Boots + Dragon Horn, for Mog and he will be as good as Edgar (remember that you can put him in the back row). But like I said for Edgar, I'm not a fan of jump against bosses. I'm not a fan of his dances too, even though there are a couple of nice effects. I just don't like not to know what's coming up. Earth Blues is ok, I guess. The best use I can see for Mog is to make him a healer. Put him the Snow Scarf and in the back row and no physical damage will ever get him. Give him the Paladin's Shield and he will be defensive brute. But still, Locke does a better use of that shield since he is on the front row, so I'd rather give Mog a Force Shield. This Shield is awful against physical damage, but Mog is already great on this point. So make Mog a tank and put him on the back row. For normal fights, make him jump or dances the Earth Blues (or anything else) and for bosses, let him be the healer. He's overall a pretty good character thanks to his Snow Scarf. You might consider him for the Soul Shrine. Recommended equipment: Mog (back row, in normal fights) ---------- R. Hand : Radiant Lance / Holy Lance / Gungnir L. Hand : Force Shield Head : Circlet Body : Snow Scarf / Diamond Vest (Mog if you don't have a Snow Scarf, Mog is a bad character) Relic 1 : Dragon Horn Relic 2 : Dragon Boots Mog (back row, against bosses) ---------- R. Hand : Radiant Lance / Holy Lance / Gungnir L. Hand : Force Shield Head : Circlet Body : Snow Scarf / Diamond Vest (Mog if you don't have a Snow Scarf, Mog is a bad character) Relic 1 : Miracles Shoes Relic 2 : Ribbon - Umaro - Hmmm.... A berserked yeti that does what it wants... I'm not a fan of him, still, he's funny to watch. Against bosses he's awful and will often provoke unwanted counter attacks that can screw your party. Let's face it, he's a bad character. At first, he doesn't attack harder than other characters on the front row and you cannot control it. Thanks to his Snow Scarf, he will absorb ice damage and will receive half damage from fire magics, but that's it. However, once he gets his Bone Wrist, he becomes... decent for most battles. He will deal very nice damage, but still, against some Dragon's Den bosses, he will provoke some unwanted counter attacks... I still don't like him much and I strongly don't recommend you ever take him, unless if it's for the fun factor. Don't forget that you cannot equip him, besides relics, and that his stats cannot grow because he cannot equip relics. Recommended equipment: Umaro (front row) --------- Relic 1 : Bone Wrist / Hyper Wrist Relic 2 : Gigas Glove - Gogo - Go check his status. Press select. Choose ''Blitz'', ''Magic'' and something else (''Items work fine I guess). And you've got a tiny Sabin that knows all the magics that the characters in his party know. Gogo does everything the other characters do, but in less good. If it wasn't for his blitz and his wide array of magics (he knows every spells the 3 others characters in his party know), I'd say Gogo is pretty weak due to horrible equipment and horrible stats (and you cannot build them since he cannot equip espers). Gogo would be the only character that would make a great use of the Merit Award, but for some unknown reasons, he cannot equip it... But still, Phantom Rush is Phantom Rush, even if it deals just a bit less damage. Put Gogo on the back row and spam Phantom Rush or make him a caster and he'll be decent. Don't try anything else with him or you'll be disappointed. Mimic is not really useful, though he can cast the same magic your last character casted without the mana cost. Once again, DON'T GIVE HIM THE CURSED SHIELD!!!! He cannot uncurse it for unknown reasons, but it's like that. Recommended equipment: Gogo (back row) ---------- R. Hand : Mythril Rod (it sounds stupid, but if you gave the Magus Rod to Strago, it's the only weapon that will raise his magic power... and you don't need anything else with Gogo) L. Hand : Whatever shield you have left. Head : Circlet Body : Magus Robe (eh) Relic 1 : Gold Hairpin (if you have any left) / Ribbon Relic 2 : Miracle Shoes / Earring Just remember that it's all right to take one character just because you like him for whatever reasons not related to combat. Also keep in mind that all characters can become powerhouses when they know the best magics. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Party analysis (004) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- So, you enter the Dragon's Den and wonder how to split your guys? I recommend covering each field of magics as best as possible. For example, it would be a good idea to have, in each party, somebody who masters the basic elemental spells like Firaga and Thundaga. It is absolutely essential to have at least one decent healer in each group. Curaga is far from being essential but having one guy in each party who knows it will help a lot. Quick is not essential but it makes the game 3 times easier. For gameplay reasons, I suggest not to abuse of it. You can do the dungeon without having anyone knowing this magic. In each group, you should have at least 2 characters whose jobs are simply to deal damage. Do not hesitate to switch one of them to a supportive function when needed. Also, keep him mind that a lot of bosses from the Dragon's Den will counter attack a lot of your attacks. So, sometimes, when you're in trouble, it's often wise to stop attacking at all and take a break. I used the following parties to do the Dragon's Den. I used the builds I explained in the last part. While I recommend you to do your own parties at your taste, I suggest you to keep the same logic: 2 damage dealer, 1 healer, and 1 mage. Of course, it is very probable that you didn't level up a couple of characters and you'll have to take them even though they know no magics. It's ok to have useless characters in your party, just be sure another character can cover its function. Also note that relics like the Gale Hairpin of the Ward Bangle makes your life way easier. If you don't know what to equip to your guy who doesn't know any magic and is not even strong, these might be a good idea. Note: since the dungeon is incredibly big, I suggest having the group with Mog a little stronger than the others, for you will find yourself using the Moogle Charm (I refuse to say Molulu's Charm!!) very often. This little beauty let you walk freely without encountering random battles. You can find it at the exact position where you found Mog in his cave, just face the wall he was looking at and press A. It will often happen that you'll be at the end of nowhere with that group and will arrive head to head with a Dragon. Better be ready and be sure that group is decent and can do the job. In my game, I put Locke and Strago with Mog to be sure that I'll be ready to face anything. Since you'll probably end up fighting bosses often with Mog, I suggest you get that Snow Scarf like I told you earlier. Group 1 ---------- Locke Cyan Strago Mog Group 2 ---------- Celes Edgar Shadow Gogo Group 3 ---------- Terra Sabin Setzer Relm In Group 1, I used Locke and Cyan for damage dealing. However, since Cyan was far from wonderful (he didn't have Quick...), I put my best mage with them, Strago. Mog was a tank healer with his Snow Scarf. In Group 2, I used Edgar and Gogo (with Phantom Rush of course) for damage dealing. Celes was my mage and Shadow was healing (I know it sounds weird). Of course, he was also throwing shurikens in normal battles. In Group 3, I used Terra and Sabin for damage dealers, Relm on the healing job, and unfortunately, since Setzer sucked, I had to put Relm and Terra as magi. Setzer was throwing his Fixed Dice and some Gil at the enemies. If only we had another Master's Scroll... I used Shadow, Mog and Setzer to uncurse the Cursed Shield. However, I strongly recommend you to remove it against bosses or you'll have a corpse lying around in each fight. I let Gau and Umaro on the bench because they are too unpredictable. However, Gau makes a very good healer if he knows the right magics and has his Snow Scarf. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Walkthrough for the Dragon's Den (005) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I quickly repeat the rules I will follow. Feel free to respect them or not, but for the fun and challenge factors, I strongly recommend you to follow them. - Don't level up a character above 40. Don't feel bad if you've got one or two at 42, but don't abuse the levelling. - Don't use Ultima (makes the game too easy) or Quick (makes the fights bug (see the ''What this guide presumes'' section for explanation) at all. - Don't have anyone with too many magics. Not more than two or three major spells like Holy, Flare, Meteor, Flood, Meltdown, Reraise, Curaga, Firaga, Blizzaga, Thundaga, etc. - Don't switch your equipment in the dungeon. This rule doesn't apply to the Cursed Shield and the Ribbons. You can skip this rule only before the Holy Dragon fight (you might need magic defense equipment) and before the Kaiser fight. Remember that there is absolutely nothing to brag about finishing the Dragon's Den spamming Ultima and Quick, in particular if you consider Quick bugs the game by stopping all enemies for several rounds. Note that any party can be used the following. This dungeon is not like Kefka's Tower where parties can never met. In this one, you can do almost everything with only two parties. Often, I ended up with my third party staying on the save point for obvious reasons. Feel free to explore the cave with the party with Mog, equipped with his Moogle's Charm, to avoid random battles. In this walkthrough, I will use the parties I've explained earlier, with Mog being in the first party. However, feel free to do as you want. This place is very confusing, so I'll try to be as clear as possible. You will see several shining spots: they are seals. Each seal will break when their dragon dies. For example, the Ice Dragon will remove the ice seals and the Fire Dragons the Flame seal. Not too complicated. - Group 1 - Enter the right cave. Go right all the way then up (this is the only place where you can go anyway). You will already meet your first boss, the Ice Dragon. -------------------------------------------------------- Boss: Ice Dragon HP: 32 000 each Weak against Fire Absorbs Ice -------------------------------------------------------- Obviously, if you've got some Ice Shield left, equip them. Right at the start of the battle, he will create 3 copies of himself and you'll have to kill the 4. The more dangerous thing with them is their normal attacks, which can deal a lot of damage. Note that each dragon will counter attack most hit they receive with a physical attack or Blizzaga. A very annoying attack they also do is Freeze: this will put the stop status on your character (ribbons will prevent this). Have Dispel ready to remove it. They also do Freezing Dust, which will freeze a character. Cast any fire spell on a frozen character to restore him to normal condition (obviously, cast your lowest fire spell to be sure not to kill your character...). Be ready to cast Golem (absorbs some physical damage), Fenrir (Image on everyone) then Phantom (Vanish on everyone). These espers will give you a nice start. The trick for this battle is to kill a dragon at a time. Focus your fire on the first dragon then switch to other. Each dragon has barely over 30 000 hps, so they won't last that long. Obviously, have everyone who knows Fire 3 cast it. Fire 2 is ok. Don't attack all dragons at the same time or you'll have a nice counter attack from each dragon. However, with Vanish, you should be able to take it. So, cast Dispel on any stopped character as soon as it is stopped, cast Fire on any frozen character as soon as possible or else you might have a nice stopped/frozen quatuor. Keep attacking only dragon at a time and keep your health high. This fight is pretty tough, one of the hardest of the dragons. -------------------------------------------------------- For your efforts, you will get the Final Trump for Setzer, an inferior weapon compared to his Fixed Dice. I don't suggest you equip it. After the fight, you might want to go outside and save, for the first save point is a bit further. Anyway, from the Ice Dragon, go back near the entrance (don't go outside where the other groups are) and take the stars just next to the exit. Continue till you find a switch. Step on it and press ''Select'' to switch to the 2nd group. - Group 2 - Enter the left entrance. Enter the 2nd door from the left (the one that just opened) and go up all the way till you find a switch. Step on it. Switch to group 3. - Group 3 - Enter the left entrance. Enter the same door Group 2 just entered. You will notice that a rock popped up just under Group 2. Step on it, claim the super Rename Card. Note that you can bid it at the Coliseum for some real nice Miracle Shoes. Go back in the room with 3 doors and enter the right one. Go up all the way till you find a dead end. Stay there and switch to Group 2. - Group 2 - Go back outside and take the right entrance. Go where the Ice Dragon was and go up all the way then left. Enter the door and go down all the way to find a wonderful Hi-Ether. Woopie. Go left all the way and step on the switch. Switch to Group 3. - Group 3 - A rock will have popped out the lava just in front of you. Jump on it and step on the switch. Switch back to Group 1. - Group 1 - Go back outside. Enter the left entrance. Enter the leftmost door. Go up all the way near the lava pool. You will remark that there are three stones on the lava. Jump on them. From here, you've got several choices. First, you can go save on a save spot nearby (optional, but safer). To go there, enter the door just left to your Group 1. Ignore the first door just in front of you and continue to your left until you see another door on the north wall. Enter it and save. Note that if you bring all three groups together in this very place, you can switch your characters. It might be a good idea if you realize you made a bad group. Whatever, go back where you were near the lava pool (you will see your third group from here). You will see the Storm Dragon nearby. You've got two choices: to beat it with the first or the third group (you can always beat it with the second of course, but, it involves a lot of running). I'll go with the third group (it really doesn't matter). Step on the switch with Group 1. This will make some rocks pop up in front of Group 3. Switch to Group 3. - Group 3 - Step on the rock in front of you and prepare for a boss fight. This fight will be way easier than the first one. Don't forget to remove any Ice Shield you may have equipped for it has a weakness to wind (as well as the Cursed Shield). -------------------------------------------------------- Boss Fight: Storm Dragon HP: 62 000 Weak against Lightning Absorbs Wind -------------------------------------------------------- Start the fight with Zona Seeker to raise your magic defense (it casts shell on everyone). Then Cast Golem and Fenrir to avoid some of his attacks. Phantom will not last long because he casts many spells on the entire party. Casting Protect on everyone is far from being a bad idea. The Storm Dragon has nothing really particular. It is probably the most straight forward fight of the Den. His attacks are pretty strong and he can deal wind damage to all characters, but once your party is well protected with shell, protect, image, you won't have any trouble. Start the fight cautiously and attack him with your best shots. He seems to seldom counter attack physically, so don't dish out your hits too quickly and take the time to heal yourself. Near the end of the fight, he will raise his speed and evasion. No big deal. He seldom uses his Icarus Wing which seems to be a physical attack that does... big damage, but you won't die from if you're in the back row and have protect. He might cast Tornado that will put all your characters (that do not block it of course) near death. So be ready to cure. Play defensively and this fight will be very easy. Thundaga does the job too. -------------------------------------------------------- You will get the Longinus for your efforts. This is the best spear for Edgar, I suggest you equip it. Go up and you will find an Elixir. Then, go right and take the stairs. Go to your right and enter the door on the north wall. Save your game, then switch to Group 1. - Group 1 - Enter the door on your left and go right all the way to the save room. Instead of entering the door, step on the switch just south of it. Switch to Group 2. - Group 2 - Go back to your right and enter the door. You will see that you can now go north and have access to the save point room. Enter the save point room. - Group 1 - You've guessed it, this is optional, but enter the save point room. Now, if you want to switch your characters, just place a character on the red point. Save your game. From now on, you will have several possibilities and many ways to do the rest of the dungeon. I will provide what I found to be the best way to go through it. Feel free to do as you please. Now, you have immediate access to the Earth and the Blue Dragons. Let's kill the Earth Dragon. Choose a party and get out of the save room. I strongly recommend you take the party with the most people equipped with whether a Minerva Bustier, a Force Shield or a Force Armor for these beauties will halve earth damage. Go all the way left and enter the door on the north wall (the one I told you to ignore earlier). Go up and you will see the Earth Dragon. If you have 4 Angels Wings, equip them to each character. If you have less than 4, don't equip any, I'll explain. Put all your characters on the back row. Prepare for a tough fight. -------------------------------------------------------- Boss Fight: Earth Dragon HP: 58 000 Weak against Wind and Water Absorbs Earth -------------------------------------------------------- First off, DO NOT CAST FLOAT. Immediately when he spots a character with the Float status, the Earth Dragon will cast 5 000 G, which will put all your guys to the ground. Immediately after, he will cast Magnitude 8 and then Quake, which will heal himself and has good chances to kill all your guys. If you have all your guys equipped with Angel Wings, 5 000 G will not work but he will still keep casting Quake and will heal himself. Cast Float on him to prevent this. However, if you only have 3 or less Angel Wings, do not equip them for he will keep spamming Quake and your other characters will have no chance of survival. You do not need 4 Angel Wings, but it helps a lot. As always, start the fight with Fenrir and Golem (keep Phantom for the end of the fight). If you're unlucky, he will start with Quake. Ouch. You might be dead without even doing a thing. If it keeps happening, equip the Muscle Belt on a character, a Guard Bracelet on another, a Red Cap, Force Armor, Force Shield. Reraise is always a good idea. This should do the job. Reraise is also always a good idea. Your characters should be on the brink of death, but eh. He also uses Magnitude 8, a less powerful (but still very powerful) version of Quake. On top of that, his physical attacks are killers, so take the time to cast protect on everyone. I have tried this battle several times to find the best strategy and it seems that sometimes, he almost never casts Quake. Other times, he casted Quake four times in a row. When this happen, with low hps and without 4 Angel Wings, you can't do a thing against him. Hopefully, Flood works well against him, so keep using it with Phantom Rush to down him. Later on, the Earth Dragon will become enraged. He will immediately attacks you with a barrage of 4 hits and will always do so from now on. It seems he doesn't use Quake at all from this moment (though I'm not sure), so now would be a good time to cast Phantom or Vanish to be sure someone survives. I won't lie to you, there is a deal of luck for this battle. If he keeps casting Quake, forget the win without 4 Angel Wings. Otherwise, you have a chance. I still beat him several times, but he's rough. I found the best to beat him was to deal as much damage as possible quickly. Keep casting Arise on fallen characters (I had only one guy with Arise, so I had to use Raise and had the raised character heal himself!) and spam Flood and Phantom Rush. Use Phantom Rush once he becomes enraged. After a couple of shots, you should have him. Good luck. -------------------------------------------------------- You will get the not so wonderful Godhand after this fight. Why not so wonderful? Did you ever attacked with Sabin? No, of course. Why attack when you can do Phantom Rush... Plus, this weapon doesn't raise his evade and the Tigerfang raised more his Magic Power, Sabin's most useful stat (Phantom Rush IS magical, not physical). I don't suggest you equip it at all. Whatever, bring your group back on the switch south of to the save point to open the way south. Choose a party to beat up the Blue Dragon. This fight is waaaayyyy easier, so don't worry. Keep in mind that we won't be using this group for a while after. I chose Group 3. - Group 3 - Go south all the way until you find a door that was previously blocked just south of where the Ice Dragon was. Enter the door. This place is the Dragon Temple. Go north until you find a switch (Press A to call the turtle). Press it: it will allow you to fight the Red Dragon. Continue north to find the Blue Dragon. Save (you can always switch to your group who is still in the save point room) and prepare for a rather easy boss fight. Unequip your Fire Shields. -------------------------------------------------------- Boss Fight: Blue Dragon HP: 57 000 Weak against Lightning Absorbs Water -------------------------------------------------------- Right at the start, he will use Rippler, which will give... poison to one your character. If it misses (it often misses), he will keep his poisoned status. Remove the poison from you guy if you feel like it, no big deal. He can stop a character with Blue Fang, so be ready to dispel. Like the other dragons, he attacks fairly hard, so use protect, Fenrir and/or Golem. He can deal interesting water damage to all your characters with Tsunami or Aqua Breath, so use Zona Seeker to shell your entire party. He can also deals some lightning damage with Flash Rain, but nothing too scary. If you casted shell on everyone and have a character or two that keeps healing, you can't lose this battle, even if you try hard. Attack him the way you want. Thundaga does a quick job. -------------------------------------------------------- You will then obtain the majestic Save the Queen (funny name, Celes must be from London I guess), by far the best weapon you'll get in this place. This weapon does not have the punch of the Lightbringer because it doesn't deal as much damage from the back row, doesn't give as much stats bonuses, doesn't cast Holy on hit... but still, it gives so much evade (less than the Lightbringer, again), that it becomes a really good protection weapon. I like to give it to Celes, put her on the back and make her a caster. You can take the second Lightbringer to Terra. Double wielding Lightbringer is just plain wonderful. Don't forget that you can put her on the back row for the same damage. Whatever. If you want, it is a good time to get the crappy treasures on the far side of the place. They're not good, but for the purpose of this guide, I'll go get them anyway. Do as you want, but if you want them, take the group that killed the Blue Dragon and bring it back to the beginning (outside). Take the left entrance then the leftmost door. Walk to the left and take the door. Explore the place (it's closed, don't worry) and find the two treasures: a Remedy and an X-Potion. Yay! Stuff I'll never use! Take this party back to where you killed the Blue Dragon. If you have the Moogle's Charm equipped (Molulu's Charm) on this group, you might want to switch positions with another group, for a lot of walk awaits you. If you don't mind fighting, you can leave this group here, where you killed the Blue Dragon. Also, be sure that the group you leave where you beat the Blue Dragon can deal some damage without having to use the ''Magic'' command. You'll understand why later. For now, pick two groups that will do the next part. I will use Group 1 and 2, do as you will. Choose a Group that will fight the Red Dragon. Be sure that at least one character knows Reraise for the next fight or it will be IMPOSSIBLE at a low level. You'll see why. Be also sure that at least one character of the two groups know Reflect. - Group 1 - So take the group who will fight the Red Dragon, and from the save point room, go to the right and a bit down to find a new door. Enter. Go left and a bit down and go up the stairs. Say hello to your new friend, the Fire Dragon. Equip Fire Shields and prepare for... a weird fight. -------------------------------------------------------- Boss Fight: Red Dragon HP: Don't worry about his hps -------------------------------------------------------- Right at the start, he will... sacrifice some life power to gain more power... all right... Meanwhile, casts Golem, Fenrir, and Zona Seeker and keep yourself at all. Do nothing else than healing for it is absolutely impossible for you to hit him at all. You've heard me: whatever you do to hurt him, it will do zero damage. And while you pump your party, the Red Dragon likes to... casts Meltdown, Blaze, Flare Star, Red Fang (kills somebody), Flare (this one is non-elemental though, not fire based), and other nice spells that might wipe your entire party if you do not have any fire absorbing/negating/halving equipment. He also likes to attack like mad, he will sometimes hit something like 6 times in a row. Be sure to have your guys in the back. The key to win this fight is to ALWAYS have to character with the auto-life status, i.e., with Reraise casted on them. Because, after a couple of turns, the sympathetic Red Dragon will cast the slightly powerful Utlima spell that will absolutely annihilate all your party. And right after that, he will cast Flare that will kill another character. And then... he dies. Yeah. He dies, like that. So, after Ultima, your two guys that have been reraised will come back to life and one of them will die from Flare. Of course, I suggest you put Reraise on the most possible number of characters, but two is the bare minimum. It happened to me once that Celes blocked Flare with a Mag. Evade of 128 (the maximum), but don't count on this for I think I was just plain lucky (it wasn't with the Paladin's Shield, a shield that likes to block any kind of attacks). So, Zona Seeker, Golem, Fenrir, Arise like mad, Reraise like mad, Curaga and you'll win. It might take a couple of tries, but eh. -------------------------------------------------------- You'll get the Apocalypse, a strange name for a sword usable only by a girl who cares most about little children. Whatever, this weapon is ok for it gives nice evade bonuses. But it's nothing compared to the Lightbringer and less good than the Save the Queen, so unless you don't have a second Lightbringer (which would 95% of you all, who didn't think to steal the third part of the Kefka fight), you will probably not equip it at all. It's an ok weapon otherwise. Whatever, save with your party that stayed home and go down all the way into what looks like a dead end. Look around to find a Magicite Shard. Go up a bit and then to the right until you find a switch. Go down into another dead end to find a wonderful Teleport Stone... Yay. Go back to the switch you just found and step on it. Switch to the other group you wish to bring along (it will be Group 2 in this guide, but again, take the one you want). - Group 2 - Go where you first group is and step on the switch now accessible. It will open the path to your first group. Switch to the First Group. - Group 1 1 Before we continue, make sure most characters of this group know Rasp. If not, switch this party for the one that has the most characters with Rasp and Osmose or you're going to regret it, trust me. Unless you like battles, you will be happy to have the Moogle's Charm. Whatever, go up into the stairs. Welcome to a new place, the Grand Cavern. From here, to save, go up all the way and enter the door in front of you: there is another save point room. Go back to the intersection (really close to where you entered the Grand Cavern) and go to the right. Continue by jumping on the chests, it's pretty straight forward. Once you arrive near a door, don't enter it and instead go to your left. Ok now, you will see the guys that pushed you off the bridges in Gogo's cave... These morons are back for your sake, I suggest not getting hit by them. For now, just jump down and go all the way south to get the wonderful Celestriad. This beauty will allow you to cast every spells and lores for only 1 mp. It almost feels like cheating. Eh. Go back where the green guy that pushes you is. Save with your third group. Jump up to be on the bridge above him. Go on the very left and wait for him to be on the right end. Jump down and quickly go right, out of his reach. If you get hit by him, you will end up in a straightforward maze with nothing but obligatory fights. You'll have to do several more fights + the random fights if you don't have the Moogle's Charm... a pain in the... I suggest you to load if you fall. Go up on the next bridge then wait for the guy to be on the left and jump twice on the right edge (there's nothing on the left). Jump several times up till you find another green guy... Wait for the guy on the bridge directly north of you to be on the far left. Quickly, jump on the bridge, walk left then jump down. If the guy walks to the right, don't hesitate to retreat to your original position. Jump down another time and up the stairs to find an Elixir. Continue north until you find an X-Ether, then go right and follow the path until you reach the most boring boss of the game, the Skull Dragon. Equip all your characters a ribbon or another relic that prevent the zombie status (like the Amulet, the Memento Ring or the Safety Bit). Save. -------------------------------------------------------- Boss Fight: Skull Dragon MP: 14 000 -------------------------------------------------------- If you try to kill him the ''traditional way'', i.e., by depleting his hps, he will simply revive with full health. So forget that: you have to deplete his mps to kill him... (that's why I show you his MP and not his HP). Why did you think I told you it was important to have Rasp, an otherwise almost useless magic? Yeah. Rasp him to death. Even though he's an undead, you can osmose him to refill your mana. I guess the programmers felt bad about this one... and they should. With ribbons, this fight is just long. He keeps counter attacking with Fear, which puts the zombie status on your character. This is not good. He also casts Lvl. 5 Death... which is no good for all you characters who are lvl dividable by 5. Revive them and heal when he attacks. He also uses Disaster, which is bad for non-ribbons wearer. He also does Will'o Wisp which does low damage. He seldom uses Bio. No big deal. This fight is very easy with ribbons, almost impossible without. If you don't have enough ribbons or relics to protect your guys against zombification, I simply suggest you to kill them before entering the fight. Yeah, you read well. Kill them before the fight starts so they don't attack you when they become zombies. It's just long and boring... -------------------------------------------------------- If you didn't fall asleep during the last fight, you will have noticed that you got a new weapon, the Scorpion Tail. This... weapon is for Gogo. Not that you attacked often with Gogo, but still, it raises all of his pathetic stats. So it's not bad, equip it. You will have noticed that a staircase popped just under you. It will let you bypass that stupid place with all the guys that pushed you down. Yay. On to the next dragon. Usually, you're supposed to go back to the Dragon Temple (where you killed the Blue Dragon) to get a hint how to get to the next dragon. But since you're reading this guide, you need not too. Oh joy. With the same group, go down the new stairs and take the first way down. Follow the path to come back where you were earlier. Go left all the way then up into the save room. Save. Exit the save room and enter the door on your left on the south wall. Walk to your right, go up, then left, then down on the bridge.You will see something that looks like a dead end. Go at the end and find the area to find an X-Potion. Go back and all the way up. You will see a 4T anvil. Push it. Come back from the entrance of this place and go left. Step on the switch and switch to Group 2. - Group 2 - Walk up and enter the door. You will arrive in the same room as Group 1. Go right then down and jump on the rock. Go in the down left corner to find a Force Armor. At least a decent treasure chest. Go up and left to find a door. Enter it to find a save point. Save. Ok, now, the big question: does anyone in Group 1 knows Reflect? If not, does anyone in Group 2 knows reflect? I've told you to bring one character who knew Reflect for you're gonna need it now. If you have nobody in Group 1 who knows Reflect but have someone in Group 2, you'll have to switch the position of your 2 groups. Not too complicated. If Group 1 has Reflect, skip the next paragraph. Ok, here's how to switch the places of your two groups. First, have Group 1 move left then immediately up: you will notice that a rock popped up. That's when you pushed the 4T anvil. Jump on it. You will arrive on a little platform with a switch. Step on it and switch to Group 2. Have it go on the platform just under Group 1. Jump on the rock that just popped. Et voila, you're on the same level as Group 1. You can now walk freely to get where you pushed the 4T anvil. - Group 1 - (or at least, the group that has Reflect, doesn't matter which it is) Go where you pushed the 4T anvil. Don't enter the first door yet and continue to the upper right. See those two little lava pools? Go between them and search the rock. You will hear a click. Go back and enter the door you just passed by. You'll arrive in a small new place. At the intersection, go left to find a Magus Robe. Wow. Too bad it's awful. Go back at the intersection and then go to the right then up. Now, equip anything that raises you Magic Defense. Don't worry about Magic Evade, for it will be useless against the Holy Dragon. Save. Prepare for a rough fight. -------------------------------------------------------- Boss Fight: Holy Dragon HP: 55 000 Absorbs Holy -------------------------------------------------------- Ok, this fight is the toughest in the Den, along with the Earth Dragon. I hope you brought Zona Seeker, Shell magic or any relic/armor that puts the Shell status. Cast Hastega as soon as you can too. The Holy Dragon likes to cast a very damaging spell, Saintly Beam, three times in a row. It deals massive holy damage to all your characters. If you don't have a high magic defense, you will most likely be immediately anihilated. As soon as everyone has the shell status, cast Reflect on him: almost everytime you hit him with anything, he will cast Curaga on himself and will regain 6500 hps. It will be almost impossible, at lvl 40 of course, to beat him unless you put Reflect on him: Curaga will bounce and will heal one of your party member. Watch out for Reflect will eventually wear off. Be ready to cast it again. Besides the Saintly Beam, the Holy Dragon will seldom use the very annoying Heartless Angel which reduces the HP of all your guys to 1... He sometimes uses a combo of Heartless Angel + Saintly Beam without letting you the chance to cure yourself. You can't do anything against this, just pray he doesn't do this. He also likes to use Heavenly Wrath which... deals massive damage to one character.. He also uses Holy. Ouch. He likes to chain two or three spells so be ready for a devastating attack anytime. I suggest to even have two guys waiting for him to attack. He will also often counter attack with one the magics I've mentionned earlier. So be ready to heal anytime you attack. Sigh... he's tough. So, have one guy altern between Reflect and his best Cure magic on everyone, have another who will strictly heal (I suggest to spam your best cure spell on everyone as soon as you can, even if your party is full). Have one to always be doing damage (like Phantom Rush) and the other altern between raise, cure and damage dealing. Please, time your attacks with reflect or else you will lose a turn. Reraise and Quick are life savers, but I did it without them. It's incredibly tough, but I did it with all my guys below 40 and without these 2 spells. If you're having trouble to attack 2 turns before reflect fades out of the Holy Dragon, put the ATB on wait (in the config menu). Then, after selecting your attack command, take another character and select ''Magic'' or ''Item'' but don't choose anything: this will stop the Reflect timer and it will last longer. Reflect fades out while the animations play, but it stops when the ATB stops the game. It might be helpful. Well... good luck. -------------------------------------------------------- Yay, a Zanmato. Best weapon for Cyan. Equip him with it for his Bushido will do a little more damage. All right, take the group that just beat the Holy Dragon back in the room where your other group is. From here on, we won't use one of the two groups anymore. Select the group you don't want to use anymore. Let's say it's Group 2. - Group 2 - If you used Group 2 to beat the Holy Dragon, we'll have to put it back on the lower level of this room. Walk back and go down to the right of where you pushed the 4T anvil. Go down the bridge then left, then up to pass on the other bridge. Jump on the rock and you'll be back on the lower level of the room. If you used Group 1 to beat the Holy Dragon, then Group 2 should already be here. From here, take Group 2 and go to the upper left corner of the room and enter the door to go back at the save point. Save and leave your party there. From now, if you want to save, just switch to this group. Switch to Group 3, who's bored to death. Let's give them some action. - Group 3 - From where you killed the Blue Dragon, go down the stairs near the turtle. Instead of jumping on the turtle, go right, down the stairs, then up in the door. You will find several tombstones: check them all. Equip ribbons to all your party members. After that, save with your second party and prepare for a ridiculously easy battle. -------------------------------------------------------- Boss Fight: Gold Dragon HP: 60 000 Weak against Water Absorbs Lightning -------------------------------------------------------- Right at the start, they tell you the Gold Dragon absorbs magic. Imagine he's doing Runic during all the fight. So forget to cast magics that would be absorbed by Runic. Of course, every spells that hit more enemies naturally (that you don't have to press ''R'' to put on everyone, like Flood, which works well), will work. But since Cure and Life magics do not work, you might have to heal with items. However, in three fights, I never had to heal much. If you've got Sabin or Gogo with Blitz in your party, you can cast Chakra to heal yourself. He attacks fairly hard, so cast Fenrir, Golem and Phantom for an easy fight. He seldom casts Plasma which does ok damage to a character. He will also confuse a character with Mighty Claw relatively often... However, if you equipped ribbons, you shouldn't worry about it. His most dangerous attack is the Wave Cannon, but does it rarely. Unless my main damage dealer died, I never healed the many times I beat him. I just keep dealing as much damage as I could and it was always enough to beat him very easily. Use Flood with your mages. -------------------------------------------------------- You will receive the incredibly useless Zwill Crossblade for Locke. Unlike in FF5, this weapon only attacks once. And since Locke has access to much better weapons, you will probably never equip it. You've now beaten the last of the 8 dragons. All seals are now broken, making it possible to finish the dungeon right now. But there are still plenty of treasures left, including many good ones, so, let's get them. First of all, we'll have to bring Group 1 in the Dragon's Temple. I'll describe the simplest way. With the group that just beat the Gold Dragon (Group 3 in my case), go down all the way until you can no more. Then go left and up the stairs. Go near the pond. You will that the turtle is at the north end. Press A only ONCE. The turtle will stay in the middle of the pond. Nice. Switch to Group 1. - Group 1 - Remember the giant stairs that popped up South of where you beat the Skull Dragon just after you fought it? Get at the base of these stairs. Enter the door to the right of the stairs. You will be in the left end of the Dragon Temple. You will be able to take the turtle to the other side. Now, I suggest taking the group with the Moogle's Charm equipped, unless you like to fight. Also, be sure that the group you take has at least one character mastering Reraise. There's a long way ahead. I will use Group 1. Go where you beat the Blue Dragon and enter the door to its right. There will be a tombstone on which you can carve something. I think it's fairly obvious with the hints, but anyway, carve THE KING OF DRAGONS. A door will pop up. Enter it. You will arrive in another new place. There may be a couple of stairs around, but there is only one way. So walk around and collect the Pheonix Down and the Elixir until you find a door you can enter. Save with Group 2. Walk until you see a red spot. Touch it. To your left will be 4 treasure chests. 2 of them have a Monster-in-a-box and they're tough, so beware. The upper-left treasure contains a Ribbon. The down-left treasure contains a Bone Wrist, an EXCELLENT relic for that yeti of yours. If you're using Umaro, I suggest you to equip it. Now the fun begins. Equip ribbons on all members. Open the upper-right chest. -------------------------------------------------------- Boss Fight: Plague HP: 22 000 -------------------------------------------------------- Oooh. A cameo from FF4! That nasty little thing starts by casting Doom on each of your party members. Ribbons don't protect against this status. In less than 20 seconds, everyone will die. I suggest casting Reraise on everyone. He often uses Trine, which gives a different status to each character. Most of his abilities consist of putting a status on a character. He can confuse, blind, mute and stop (ribbons don't protect against stop), but with ribbons, it shouldn't be much of a problem. Just be ready to Dispel the stopped characters. Very rarely, he will deal rather weak physical damage to a character. Since he doesn't have a lot of health, he will fall very fast. With ribbons, you shouldn't be able to lose against him. -------------------------------------------------------- You will get the Angel Brush for your effort, a decent weapon for Relm since it raises a lot of her basic stats. Unequip the Master's Scroll if a guy has it equipped in this party. Save, and prepare for a long fight... -------------------------------------------------------- Boss Fight: Neslug HP: 62 000 Weak against Fire Absorbs Ice, Water, Lightning -------------------------------------------------------- Well, this fight is very long for a good reason: each round, the shell will cast White Wind to heal the hand (your main target, of course) for 9999... And of course, if you hit the shell, it will counter attack with the nasty Megaton Smash which kills the attacker. So, you've guessed it, don't attack it. That is why I've told you to unequip the Master's Scroll. Sabin's (or Gogo's) Blitz is risky for you don't know who it will attack, you might end with the corpse of a bodybuilder in your hands. Neslug loves to slow and stop your characters, so be ready to cast Hastega and Dispel to counter Slow and Stop. It also deals moderate physical damage from time to time. The shell doesn't attack often, but it likes to deal a Megaton Smash from time to time, so be ready to cast Raise. Overall, Neslug will have a hard time killing you and you will have a hard time killing it. I didn't find a way to prevent it to use White Wind, so you'll have to deal more than 9999 damage per round which is a pain in the *** at lvl 40. The best way I found was to spam Firaga on the hand, and cast Osmose (on the hand!!) to refill your mana. Shurikens, Tools (think Drill + Valor), Trance work well. If you have Umaro in your party, he will keep dying, attacking in vain the Shell. After one or two rounds, Neslug will hide his hand (or head, whatever) in his shell. Of course, you've guessed it, stop attacking and take the time to heal. Wait for it to pop up again and unleash your might. So, use your best shots and be ready to lose a lot of time. If you're not able to deal more than 9999 damage per round, you'd better shut down your Game Boy and bring a group who can. Have fun. Feel free to use Quick in this battle: Neslug will almost never attack for the whole fight. I give you the permission to use it since this battle is just painful. -------------------------------------------------------- After this stupid battle, you will get the Gungnir, the best weapon for Mog. From here, go down then left to find the Stardust Rod, a nice weapon for Strago. However, the Magus Rod is way better because it gives 30% more Magic Evade. I don't suggest you equip it, unless you want to free the Magus Rod to Relm or Gogo. Go back to the 4 chests then to the right. Step on the red dot. Follow the simple path and step on every red dots until you arrive in a small room with nothing to do. Step back on the red dot then go left and down in the opening: it is actually a door (it's not that obvious). Go right then down to find another Ribbon. Then go up and step on the darker tile: this is a switch that will open the door on the other side. Switch to the group that was waiting near the Turtle Pond (which, in my case, is Group 3). - Group 3 - Enter the door to the right of the tombstone you carved the words ''KING OF THE DRAGONS''. Take the first stairs down and the take the stairs to your right that lead down. You will see that a new door just opened. Enter it. Walk right and step on the red dot. Walk down to find the Dueling Mask, a wonderful helmet for Gau. It gives so many elemental resistances, some evade, a very good defense and some nice stats boosts. It's frightening. Gau will be a defensive brute with that and the Snow Scarf. Walk back past the red dot (don't step on it) to find 3 other chests. Save. Equip your Ribbons. The left one contains a Genji Glove. The center one contains a Crystal Orb. The right one contains a Monster-in-a-box! (are you really that surprised?) -------------------------------------------------------- Boss Fight: 5 Flan Princess HP: 12 345 each -------------------------------------------------------- I laughed when I saw their name lol! If you've equipped ribbons, this fight poses no trouble. If you didn't, prepare for a weird fight. They cast Imp Song a lot, which transforms all your characters into imp... But... if they cast it while you're a imp, you get back to the normal state. So prepare to see your guys changing forms pretty often. Don't bother removing the status for the Princesses will remove it for you. They also cast Lullaby to put to sleep all your characters. Mega Berserk will put all your characters into a berserked status. Mystery Waltz will drain you some mana. Their most annoying spell is by far Entice, which makes your character attack your party. The only way to remove this is by killing your character (I think). Don't bother hitting them with weapons for they have incredible defense. Of course, Locke's Valiant Knife, the Ultima Weapon and Setzer's Fixed Dice still work well. Since they almost never attack, you will probably not die, even if you don't have any ribbons equipped. I let all my guys go wild without any ribbons equipped and dropped down the controller just to see what would happen... and it took them 10 minutes to kill me. And it was Setzer who did the best of the job with his Fixed Dice. So, equip ribbons! Note that it doesn't prevent the enticed status. Cast any non elemental spell or fire spells. Cast Firaga on the lot to see them melt. -------------------------------------------------------- You'll get the Oborozuki for Shadow. This weapon is by far the second best of the lot (after the Save the Queen) for it will give Shadow a wonderful + 50 evade! Only equipped with this weapon, Shadow will have a basic 78% evade!!! Wow! All right! It's time to finish this place! Walk back with this group where you beat the Blue Dragon. Walk up on the save point, save, and switch to the First Group. - Group 1 - Walk back to the tombstone you carved and step on the dark tile to its left. Switch to Group 2. - Group 2 - Walk up all the way until you find a switch in the floor. Step on it. Switch back to Group 1. - Group 1 - All right, get to the right of the pond and ride the turtle to the left. Continue ahead and will end up South of where you killed the Skull Dragon. Take the giant stairs up, then aaaalllll they way left. You will end up in front of a door that was blocked before. Enter it, and walk north. Step on the switch. Switch to you bored to death second Group. - Group 2 - SAVE. Very important. Walk left then up. Don't stand on the Red dot yet. All right, choose one of the three groups to fight against the final boss of this place. It can be any, it doesn't matter. I suggest you to take your strongest, that's all. Unequip all characters and reequip the ones you're gonna fight with. I suggest everyone has wether a Minerva Bustier, a Force Shield, a Force Armor, a Snow Scarf, the Dueling Mask, etc. or something that reduces that damage dealt by elements (note that while the Merit Award doesn't let you equip the Minera Bustier, it lets you equip the powerful Dueling Mask!). Put your best Magic Defense armor. Magic Evade is nice for this battle, but Magic Defense is better. Also, be sure to equip ribbons on the most party members. I didn't break Locke's Master's Scroll + Muscle Belt + Valiant Knife combo nor Strago's Celestriad + Soul of Thamasa combo to wear on though and I was ok. Take the party you'll use and get off the switch. Put your two other parties on the switch then step on the red spot with the party you're gonna use. Walk up and meet your new friend. -------------------------------------------------------- Boss Fight: Kaiser HP: 195 000 (if you cast Libra on it, it shows 65 000, but I think the counter resets twice. I've made several tests and I'm pretty sure that 195 000 is his exact health.) Weaknesses, absorption and immunities vary with the form he takes. -------------------------------------------------------- At a low level and without Ultima and Quick, this fight is pretty rough. With Quick, he will almost never attack (again, don't bug the game!). Well, since we're true warriors and we don't use those two cheesy magics, let's have some fun! First of all, Kaiser uses a lot of different techniques, some of which are pretty dangerous, including Hearltess Angel, Quake and Meltdown (he sometimes casts Meltdown twice, which is pretty painful. As soon as he casts it a first time, I suggest you to equip a Fire Shield to somebody to survive another attack, of course, the Minerva Bustier and the Red Jacket do a nice job here). He seldom uses Mind Blast, which puts different statuses on every party members (there comes the need for some ribbons, be sure you have Esuna to help your unribboned characters!). He will regularly change his magic barrier, changing the skills he uses and the elements he's weak against. For unknown reasons, the skills he uses are the same as his weakness. So if he starts using fire based techniques, use fire magics. You read me. If he uses ice techniques, use ice magics. Be cautious during his ice phase for he will often counter attack with a spell that freezes the character that attacked him. Be ready to cast fire on your party members. However, when he uses his Barrier Change, stop attacking with the same magic for it might heal him. Finally, in a sympathetic end, he casts Ultima. Hope you had somebody with Reraise! As usual, I suggest you use two characters to deal the damage and to heal with the two others. If you have somebody with the Celestriad + Soul of Thamasa combo, keep spamming Cure and Raise magics. Have your other support character cast other spells or assist him in times of need. Start the fight with the usual espers: Golem, Fenrir, Zona Seeker, Phantom. They will provide you the time needed to put all the protection. He often starts attacking a lot of time in a row, so it will help.. I strongly consider putting the Shell and Protect statuses on everyone (remember that some equipments, like the Force Shield and the Miracle Shoes, provides some bonuses to characters, so don't bother casting Shell on a character with the Force Shield equipped). Hastega helps. Float can also be a life saver: he doesn't use Quake often, but when he does, it's painful! Of course, put Reraise on all characters. After having dealt 65 000 damage to him, his health will reset to 65 000 again. He will do this twice. So, in order to beat him, you've got to deal something 195 000 damage. Prepare for a long fight. Remember to have a character with Reraise near the end of the combat! For this battle, I used Locke, Cyan, Strago and Mog. Locke was my main damage dealer, always attacking with his Valiant Knife and the Master's Scroll. At level 40, he was able to deal 20 000 damage per turn when he was low in health (he had his Muscle Belt equipped). Obivously, I never healed him but I was casting on him the following: Shell, Protect, Float and of course, Reraise. He died pretty often, but since he always had Reraise on him, he was always ready to deal some nice damage. Strago was healing the rest of the party and putting reraise on Locke. Cyan and Mog were giving Shell, Protect and Float to everyone. From time to time, I used Cyan's Tempest Bushido. It takes a long time to charge, so try to charge while your character and the Kaiser do some techniques that take a long time to animate. I played rather defensively and I didn't find the fight hard at all. For other characters, Sabin and Gogo can do Phantom Rush, Setzer can do nice damage with Fixed Dice + Master's Scroll. Physical attacks won't do much damage, except for the Valiant Knife, Ultima Weapon and the Fixed Dice. For other characters, you'll have to rely on magical damage. Non-elemental magics, like Meteor or Flare, do nice damage, but the best is to spot his weakness (which is the same element as the skills he uses)and nuke him with the ***aga spells. If you have too much troubles beating him with the party you're using, try another one. Like I said, if you have Locke with the Valiant Knife + Master's Scroll + Muscle Belt, have 3 players support him, play defensively, and you will have a rather easy fight. Good luck! -------------------------------------------------------- Yay ! Congratulations ! You've beaten the Dragon's Den! For your efforts, you will receive the Diabolos Magicite who will teach the all powerful Gravija, who depletes 7/8 of all enemies' health. At first, you might think this magic sucks (like I thought), but in fact, it ALWAYS WORKS. You've read me. Even against bosses. Of course, you won't be able to do more than 9999 damage with it and it won't kill anyone, but it's a wonderful magic for everyone who doesn't have a lot of magic power. It's better than Ultima for this reason. So, usually, in normal battles, have somebody cast Gravija then have someone attack every enemies with the Master's Scroll or another spell and it's over. Now on to the Soul Shrine! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hints for the Soul Shrine (006) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Fly to Mobliz and try to land on the island just west of the city. You will arrive in the Soul Shrine. This place is more long and boring than tough. Since your guys must be pretty well equipped, it shouldn't be a problem at all. You gain both XP and Magic Points in this place, so you'll have time to learn nice magics. And since you must do so many battles (128 in fact), the Cursed Shield will have more than enough time to uncurse. As I said, the Soul Shrine consists of a barrage of 128 battles in a row. It will start with pretty stupid battles from the World of Balance and will end with some boss fights, including the Warring Triad and the two sets of Dragons. It will end with another fight against the Kaiser Dragon. Throughout the Shrine, if you start somewhere around lvl 40, you will gain something like 6-7 levels. You will have a break after a couple of battles to heal, but you won't be able to save (you can still save with Quick Save, but when you load, it will erase your save), so if you die, you'll have to start over. If you leave the place, you'll have to start over. Also, you don't get a thing for completing the Soul Shrine. Still, it's a nice challenge. The fights are predetermined in most part. I won't give you a list of them for I don't have that much time to lose and, besides, there's already a nice guide on GameFaqs. Just keep in mind that battles from the Dragon's Den may pop up at any time, so be ready. Also, some enemies called Glutturns will randomly come ruin your life. Each of them will ask you to give them a specific item: whether an Ether, an Hi-Ether, an X-Ether or an Elixir. If you don't give them what they want, they'll be NASTY. If you kill them, they will give you 50 000XP and 50 000 Gil, which is pretty nice (though the gold is useless of course). The one who asks for ether will start dealing massive physical damage on your party if you don't give him an Ether. Casts Vanish on everyone and kill him, it will be easy. The one who asks for an Hi-Ether will also deal massive physical damage, but before leaving, he will casts Blaster on all party members, and it seems it is unblockable... So cast Reraise on everyone then Vanish and kill him. The last two ones are nasty. The one who asks for an X-Ether will do a lot of status ailments on everyone, annihilating any party not equipped with ribbons. Even if you are equipped with them, he will sometimes use a deadly magic that will put Doom on everyone (which isn't blocked by the ribbon). You might think casting Reraise on everyone will do the job, but it happens that at the end of the countdown, you do not die: instead, you will be turned into a zombie... and for no apparent reason, the ribbon will not protect you against it... So unless you can deal massive damage before he kills you, I really recommend you to give him a couple of X-Ether and he will flee. For the last one, who asks for Elixir, he will cast... Ultima each turn. That's right. So give him Elixirs unless you have above 6500 hps... Also you can steal nice things from them. The Ether one has a Force Shield, the Hi-Ether one has a Celestriad, the X-Ether one has a Master's Scroll and the Elixir one has a Soul of Thamasa. But if Locke doesn't have a Thief's Bracers and is below lvl 60, it will take a loooooong time (unless you're lucky) to steal them. So I recommend you bring your 4 best characters in there. Terra and Celes are wonderful choice with their Minerva Bustier and the Lightbringer. Locke is a great choice with his Valiant Knife. Sabin is always pretty good with his Blitz. If Gau has a lot of magics, equip him with the Snow Scarf and the Dueling Mask for a defensive tank. Gogo is ok but since his stats are bad, there are better options. Setzer is ok for you will probably get another Master's Scroll in the run (you will fight again the Samurai who gives it). Other characters are, in my humble opinion, less good, but still, you can take them if you want. I used Locke, Celes, Terra and Sabin. Since the event is just long and boring, and since dying will make you lose a lot of time, I don't mind if you use Quick, Ultima and Gravija, overpowered as they are. Watch out for the Glutturns, make your guys learn nice magics (in particular white magics) and use the same strategies you used to beat the enemies earlier. In fact, Gravija makes the dragons MUCH easier and besides, you will gain plenty of AP to teach it to your group. Have fun. You will receive the completely useless Master Crown after completing the dungeon. Not even some congratulations. Whatever. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Conclusion (007) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I hope this guide provided smart info that will help you think of other strategies than spamming Ultima with Quick till death. If you find anything good that deserve to be added in this guide, feel free to email me at Thunder_Max@hotmail.com . Feel free to link to this page. If you want to use some info on this page for your website, just ask me and I will give you the right to do so if you give me the credit for. I don't bite. Special thanks to Alain Roberge who provided me some second thought on my strategies. Special thanks to GameFaqs for posting it. Special thanks to Square to have made this game... Well, not a too big thanks, for I was pretty disappointed in this remake in fact. Final Fantasy 3 on the SNES was simply one of the best games ever made and they didn't even put some effort to make it better. They put more effort remaking the very ordinary FF3J on the DS.. I'm not too happy. But eh. Money leads the world. Thank you for reading this guide! - Maxime Gendron Copyright 2007 Maxime Gendron.