sirsystemerror | FF1 Spellslingers Part II

In the Waterfall, there were more MudGOLs, monsters that resist a ton of elements. Earth is not one of them, so the otherwise very silly QAKE spell came out. It's a bit pointless to get this, but there's really little other use for our level-6 spell charges. There's not a lot we can snipe with RUB that doesn't have a better way to go about it (maybe KARY2), and though STUN is nice (auto-succeeding if the enemy does not resist Status if they are under 300HP), we're really better off getting up a defensive line.

The going to the CUBE and first Ribbon was smooth. The Waterfall is short enough so that I could use my spell charges with relative impunity, though I avoided single MudGOL battles due to their being ineffecient. At the end, I fought the MUMMY group as much as I could before EXITing out. Burn kept snuffing it in these fights, irritably.

Everyone hit Level 20 from this venture. I naturally bought ICE3 for the Black Mages. I also got CUR4 and HRM4 for Heal, the latter of which will play an important role later! Thankfully, I don't need to waste money on Gold Bracelets, as between the White Shirt, Black Shirt, and Opal Bracelet, I'll have all the armor I could ask for. Also, check out some of those sell prices.

I went for Sea Shrine Bottom first, for no other reason than to prove I could do so. I had an unfortunate wipe when LOBSTERs went crazy on me. Chil survived, but then got destroyed by GHOSTs. I pondered picking up WARP, but decided it wasn't important enough to warrant with EXIT around. But on the other hand...

It's a tough call, really. WARP is nice, but I decided against getting it. These kinds of situations are pretty much the only times I'd really want one, and I'd thusly want it on all three to account for all possibilities. But I'd be using FIR3 charges throughout most dungeons except for this one, really, so I wouldn't get too many uses out of it. I'd either be deep enough in so that I wouldn't have enough to get out, or would have enough power to manually retreat. It does have a niche use of grabbing a treasure and falling back, but none are really relevant aside from the ProRing/ProCape in the ToFR. Still, I get it for Chil, just in case.

I went ahead anyway into the lower levels, and successfully cleaned out the treasures of the lower floor, but had to EXIT out. Used too many spell charges, and had nothing left for Kraken. And speaking of ProRings, after that, I got Burn one, bringing him to a fair 33 Absorb.

I went into Mirage Tower after this...and even the Sky Castle. I mean, why not? I picked up the third Ribbon, a ProRing, and the White and Black Shirts. I would've gone further if I had enough potions, but I'd forgotten to make a shopping trip. Of what I had to fight, the Blue D fight could've gone better. It's weak to Fire, but I kept getting awful rolls on the damage, so it was slow. I also saw an EYE, that GLANCED Zap, but was LIT3ed to death shortly thereafter.

All this was also as a form of leveling up. I will need to do some hardcore grinding - there's just no way around it for the ToFR - and don't even have my first shot of level 8 spells yet. I don't know how much I'll need to do, but clawing out as much as I could beforehand would help.

The next two fiends weren't going to be a problem, so it was really just a matter of preference which to take on first. I decided on TIAMAT for variety's sake.

While deciding and picking up NUKE for later, one of the games 1/64 encounters accousted me. T REX isn't as terrifying as WarMECH (who actually isn't 1/64 in the NES version), but it's probably scarier than IronGOL. The dinosaur smacked Heal down to 1HP, but I froze it to death shortly after.

Another trip in got me the rest of the treasure, including the ProCape which took Burn to a respectable 51 Absorb. I EXITed out after that and made my way back in. But then

I couldn't help but try to fight it. Even if I was probably going to die And indeed, it wiped out most of my chances right away, by killing Heal. Zap was left with 1HP after a NUCLEAR, and the other two dropped to its big physials.

Well, I have one chance. Every status spell in the game has a 3/256 of success, even against enemies that resist it. WarMECH may resist the Poison/Stone element, but-you know what? Let's skip the formalities and get to my point.

I hate this game. I'm sorry I even tried this, because now what kind of a spot am I in? I either have to get Zap through TIAMAT, or through a plethora of random encounters on the way out. Well, at least it makes for exciting reading.

All the nasty physical attackers plus the possibility of SORCERERs made me press onward. The situation as it stands: we need to BANE TIAMAT. We're out of BRAK, and have only two spell charges. Let's rumble, one-on-one!

Round one saw TIAMAT do a physical. I'd loaded up Zap with all the equipment so this only did 68 damage. Zap's BANE missed.

TIAMAT resists all conventional elements, as well as the Earth from QAKE. There's no resistance to Status, but I wouldn't be able to take out the big dragon with just that, though. It was sink or swim with the next cast.

And Zap swam.

This tomfoolery put him way ahead of everyone else in experience. I'll be coming back later to scrap that robot proper, but seriously - what the hell, game?

The going to KRAKEN was easy, and he even easier. A successful SLO2 crippled his attack multiplier - it's worth noting that said spell is non-elemental, unlike SLOW which is status-elemental. It wouldn't have mattered for this fight anyway, as KRAKEN doesn't resist status. What matters is he couldn't do what he did to Heal anymore, and we were set to LIT3 him down. I gave NUKE a spin for fun because Zap had a charge for it, and he actually delivered the kill with that low roll.

Beyond this lies a bunch of grinding, scrapping a robot formally, and hoping that all these spell charges can last throughout the final dungeon. And if not, well. We did it once before, we can probably do that again.

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