The questions before diving into the past were this: did I want to go to 50 with this promoted character? I absolutely would for unpromoted. And second, which SAMPLE to take? It didn't take me long to settle on underwater. PRESSURE would be excellent insurance on KARY and KRAKEN, and the snakelady was still weak to water. BUBBLE CURTAIN would be fantastic on LICH, TIAMAT, and CHAOS. Finally, the water floor aside, there wasn't a lot that resisted it. As for levels, I decided no, let's do it at 41 (which I reached for the next strong HP up) and see what happens.


Look at this awful damage. Just look at it! This is why artificial terrain is bad. You could legitimately get just as much damage out of FIR2 or something. It's like CLOSE IN has a much lower multiplier than other abilities. It was thankfully sufficient on some of the water floor enemies (which had the potential to be the biggest threat), but against these menaces and their 200 magic defense? Yeah, it was bad. I just had to hope I didn't run into them.

LICH got off NUKE before I could BUBBLE CURTAIN. Wasn't too tough to kill before the second one at least, but that did not bode well. I was down to half my heal potions before the midway point. Never a good sign.


I actually bumped into the 3/64 slot on the fire floor. They were promptly washed away.

KARY got off a hit before PRESSURE, but she was reduced to uselessness from there. WATERSPOUT dealt with her. And thankfully, the water floor played nice. That was what I was most concerned about. KRAKEN got PRESSUREd before he could attack. From there, CARVE MODEL handled him.


But this was bad. I was down to just 9 potions after claiming the Masmune. I took advantage of a new item FFR added, the WARP stone, which you can claim from Coneria's king after breaking the black orb. Its intended purpose is to let anyone escape from the temple one time without needing one of the vanilla mages or a Time Mage. I instead used it to skip part of the walk back after getting the legendary sword.


Yup, WORMs ran me out, then TIAMAT attacked physically before I could get PRESSURE off. That and BUBBLE CURTAIN did neuter her offense. I just had Guo Pu buff and attack with the sword from here and eventually finished her off.


Here's the stats. And to say it again: just 135HP. I am royally screwed, needless to say.


It was die or do this (and move first which Guo Pu did), and I told the game in no uncertain terms where to shove it. I mean, it was just going to boil down to "run the temple until I don't lose too much health", and without this delicious cheese I'd just end up employing the same strategy against CHAOS I'm going to in the unpromoted game. I just felt like it wouldn't prove anything except that I had the patience to do so. And well, I did - it's just that I have other games I want to play. No need to run it a second time (and probably many more times) just for that.

After all, I was about to run through the latter half of the game a second time!

######


Waterfall was basically the same unpromoted, only that without a water SAMPLE, I couldn't easily kill these things before getting the Defense. They could hit pretty hard if Guo Pu failed enough runs.

Since I didn't take them off the table for unpromoted Guo Pu, he could merrily Zeus through the Sea Shrine just like anyone else. Later on, I could add Mage Staff and Black Shirt (if I wanted to spare the slot) into the mix. Yay spellcasting items!


KRAKEN could still be PRESSUREd. And Defense Sword was in play here too just like anyone else could use. I went with PRESSURE anyway because that renders him harmless sooner: one turn versus three. I defensed up too, because why not?

I got WarMECHed again in the Floating Castle. I knew it was coming, but I thought I could try to get across the bridge in one encounter since I had one a step before going into the bridge. Didn't happen. I tried STARDUST in desperation but nothing got rolled.


TIAMAT could be Bane Sworded just like anyone else could. I didn't need to: I could still mess with her with STARDUST. This doesn't have perfect accuracy, so this was hilarious to see. She stayed paralyzed for the rest of the battle while I tested COSMIC RAYS stacking. Results were unclear, but it made PLASMA do enough through resistance (398 on the finishing blow) together with the bell.

Blessed Bell can still be obtained with Geomancer. However, I found it couldn't be used by Geomancer! I know it could in earlier versions, so this had to be a bug, a silent nerf, or I was wrong. Either way, you really shouldn't be able to trade for it and lock yourself out of bells with the class, so I filed a complaint, heh.


KARY was confused with the Wizard Staff as usual. But she kept breaking out so I just stopped. Defense up for extra safety and attack with Geomancy anyway since even resisted it was a bit more consistent than physicals. I fought fire with fire because it did more than attacking, and got a rare roll to finish her.

Oddly, I was at the end of the game at a lower level than I was with Elementalist: 33 vs 41. Fighting less and trying to figure out a bug will do that. But I went ahead and took him to 50 anyway on the VAMPIREs. It only occurred to me that I should've been listening to a Castlevania soundtrack, but Sonic 3D Blast is a good one too.


Here's what Guo Pu's stats looked like before starting the descent. Could I have gone lower? Yes. Didn't feel like it, though, and I had something extra in mind.

It's ToFR where things started to get different. Geomancer Guo Pu would have one big advantage over Elementalist Guo Pu: spellcasting items, meaning the ability to Defense and Heal Staff. I wouldn't have to worry about running out. However, the huge downside was limited spell charges and being limited to that awful artificial set.


Turns out that spellcasting items really do simply and homogenize things. I had Black Shirt ready for Gas Ds, but none showed up. PHANTOM got killed in two CARVE MODELs. Nothing helped against LICH so I just splattered him with two CARVE MODELs too.


But KARY and KRAKEN's physicals could still be dealt with with Defense. That is the other side of the spellcasting item coin: without them, against KRAKEN specifically, it's just "reset until he doesn't kill you". It's subjective which option is better. But more importantly, so could everything else's physicals be annulled. I didn't even need to bother with that flimsy Heal Staff. Guo Pu simply had enough potions to make it through.


I actually used geomancy against TIAMAT. I wanted to save the big stacks for CHAOS. True, Power Gauntlet exists, but there was a very convincing reason not to use it in this case. I was just past six hours on the game clock when I started the final battle.


I didn't talk about or use the FORGED IN spells very much. They're better suited for supporting a party than a solo Geomancer. FORGED IN IRON increases power and, more importantly, critical hit chance by 10%. This was how I intended to beat CHAOS last time and how I had to this time. CARVE MODEL only does so much, and I'd have to resort to TERRAIN rolling eventually due to only have six spell charges at max. That would be more than enough time for CHAOS to kill him with accumulated damage into a NUKE.


Defense thrice, and once SLO2 didn't land (first try, woo!), that was basically game set. He used a lot of his skills at first; Guo Pu got to resist SWIRL and TORNADO due to a change to the Ribbon in this version that hasn't yet been walked back and might not be. They're now of the water and wind element respectively, and as of 2.1, Ribbon's resistances expanded to include those (not WALL, though). Even if this wasn't the case, I still could've resisted SWIRL by equipping the Water Armlet from the Sea Shrine at least.


The first attack stunk, but then the criticals started rolling in. Actually, he hit for 1220 damage on one swing before CUR4 negated it. But with this, Guo Pu swiftly brought an end to things.

And that's solo Geomancer complete, both with and without promotion. This was one that I wanted to do for a while, just because of how good it is in FFR compared to that awful FF5 Geomancer. It's funny how while it's still very much recognizable in its luck-based roots, just a couple small changes turn a class into a legitimate force of nature. Allowing you to cast geomancy directly is huge, and yet, it kept a shackle on with the limited spell charges. You eventually do have to start rolling with TERRAIN if you want to keep going. It's pretty neat design, and like I said in my job comments - while Geomancer technically has unlimited spell charges, the same can be said about any mage who holds a spellcasting item. Any new class that can break from ITEMS spam is good in my book. I do think artificial terrain sucking so bad and being so prevalent was taking it too far, but the good outweighs the bad here.

I liked the idea of doing a run where I promoted and another where I didn't. Probably not going to do it for every challenge I do, that said. But in this case, they played differently enough to make both runs worthwhile. SAMPLE does a lot to help Elementalist in elemental dungeons, makes for interesting gameplay, and it didn't feel out of place. No terrain really stands out over another, and most have at least one good reason to take them. I personally felt it made for the more interesting run.

Is that it? No, there was still one last thing to do before I could call it a challenge.


EAT SHIT. That said, this took a bit of luck to take it on without PRESSURE's nonsense, even at a higher level. I tried to get STARDUST to land but it never did. It boiled down to Guo Pu not getting ambushed, and then an insanely lucky WarMECH miss on turn 1 after just one Defense use. After three, I used COSMIC RAYS and attacked away with PLASMA. I just had to hope it didn't use NUCLEAR too much, and it didn't.

Okay, now that's it. Don't expect more soon: I have to save Concordia and become the hero Erdrick, and am way overdue with killing the Seven Heroes. My next FFR challenge might be something of a party variety. I have a few different ideas. Thanks for reading, and see you then!

Index

The name 'Geomancer' can send a chill down the spine of Final Fantasy players everywhere. It debuted in the third game in the series and has since then consistently been a frustrating RNG class and always being at the mercy of what's around it. Even in FFT where they're at their best and can always do the same thing as long as they're on the right terrain, it's primarily for its stats and equipment making it an excellent carrier class. Thankfully, while FFR makes them take after the main series, they're a lot better.

What's in a name? Geomancers in canon are said to use feng shui to perform their psuedo-magic. Their Japanese name, Fūsuishi, directly references this. One of the first uses of the term in recorded history is in The Book of Burial, which is commonly attributed to the poet Guo Pu. He is also renowned as a geomancer himself. Why not? I could only think of one fictional character who used it (Mononobe no Futo), but a little bit of a historical reference wouldn't hurt.


Here's the base stats of the class. Geomancer is everything you'd expect out of a magic class: lots of INT and not much of else. This being FF1, it was naturally possible to manipulate growths, and I would do that for STR and VIT at every level up, as well as INT when reasonable in the event that it did not have a fixed growth, and sometimes AGI as well.

Geomancy has no base power provided, but instead seem to scale off level. It can be used one of two ways in FFR. First, you can select one of four spells from the MAGIC menu. These all begin with one spell charge, and they gain an additional spell charge for the first on the list (which is always a damage spell of some kind) on levels ending in 5, and one for the rest on levels ending in 0. Alternatively, you can use the TERRAIN command to use a random one for free. When doing so, there is a decent chance to restore one spell charge for all levels in the current terrain, and around a 5% chance of one of two rare spells specific to the terrain that can only be used in this way.

This one simple change alone does a lot to help Geomancers' viability. Instead of rolling the dice every time, you have a certain degree of control over what is going to happen. A small degree. Do keep in mind their very limited spell slots.


It's worth noting that, aside from a weird bug I ran into later, each different terrain has its own spell slots. For example, I could use the second slot LEAF SWIRL in the forest, then go to the grass terrain and still use the second slot SHINING FLARE. These were multi-targeting spells that respectively did non-elemental and fire damage. At level 1, these weren't enough to consistently kill IMPs, but they usually did at level 2.


Though there are some flaws with Geomancy. One of the biggest being this: the aritifical terrain. This horrible terrain set is used in many different places: the Temple of Fiends (and return), the Marsh Cave, Northwest Castle, Ordeals, the Waterfall, and Mirage Tower. Of the four you can use naturally, CARVE MODEL is simply a ST non-elemental attack. Geomancer later gets equipment to boost certain elements, so this is notably underpowered by comparison. CLOSE-IN is an AoE non-elemental that can inflict darkness. MARBLE ARMOR just boosts party absorb by 20%, and FORGED IN IRON damage/critical by 10%.

The last two don't help a solo Geomancer much. Them showing up in TERRAIN is annoying. But what's worse is the rare spells. CHASM isn't too bad: it's a Stone-elemental AoE that can sometimes instantly KO an enemy. But MIRROR is awful: this, yeah, let's say this inflicts reflect on all party members. You want control of when reflect happens, and it's badly flawed in FFR anyway: half the enemies you'd want to use it on can just decide to jump around in their AI scripts, completely removing the point of it. It works the other way too: you can reflect spells onto the enemies. You can do funny things like killing undead with healing spells. But geomancy can be reflected too. Keep spamming TERRAIN after a MIRROR, and you might just give the enemy a buff.

That said? It's GARLAND I was up against for now. He's the biggest fraud in all of Final Fantasy. It just took a bit of luck with CARVE MODEL and TERRAIN and I won.


Pravoka uses the ocean terrain. It's actually not the worst thing on the ocean due to THUNDERBOLT, a ST attack that can inflict stun (a one-turn paralysis). CALM WATERS heals and sets regen, healing the recipients for 10% of their max HP at the end of every turn. The other two are AoE water spells - a new element added for FFR. There's not a consistent rhyme or reason to what's weak to it besides fire enemies (KARY included), but it should be obvious that anything water-related resists it. The PIRATEs don't count and were easily washed away by this.

That said, yeah. It was hard to be on the water. KYZOKUs were destroyed, and single SHARKs were fried. Everything else was bad and I ran from.


But Geomancy was good enough to play on the Peninsula of Power even at a low level! TANGLEVINE was a multi-target spell that had a high chance of paralyzing stuff. The basic grass set is actually one of the best; the other two are WIND GUST, a solid wind-elemental ST move that GIANTs were unfortunately resistant to, and SUNBATH, a healing spell. Healing spells in geomancy are crazy. At their best, they leave HEL3 in the dust and come a lot sooner.


Oddly, FrWOLFs were the big target again! They were very vulnerable to paralysis (contrast GIANTs who were rarely affected or ZomBULLs who weren't as much) and SHINING FLARE finished them off. I got Guo Pu to level 10 before heading down into the Marsh Cave.


It was the Marsh Cave all right. The strategy on the randoms was to run like hell. The strategy on the WIZARDs was to just use CLOSE-IN and hope they were wiped before me. Oddly, while darkness status is normally unnoticeable, it absolutely made the difference and saved Guo Pu in one try. But it still sucked. I got annoyed after five failed attempts at or after beating the WIZARDs (to say nothing of getting to them) and went back to add more levels. This was supposed to be more of a fun/chill run. I expected to add even more for the Earth Cave and Ice Cave anyway. I got to level 15 for now.

The problem with Geomancer was turning out to be spell charges. While they're technically unlimited through lucky use of TERRAIN, they are at the same time very limited. As a point of comparison, at the level 15 I eventually went in at, the other pure caster classes have 5 charges of level 3 spells and 4 charges of level 4 spells. Red and Blue both have 4 and 3 there respectively. Geomancer is stuck with 2 AoE spells and 3 ST spells.

It didn't take too long after that. One thing I did on my winning run was use CARVE MODEL to kill CRAWLs whenever one (not two) showed. This worked and one shot them each time, but I was out of them by the time I hit the WIZARDs. It was a two pack and a close game, but I made it through. The dangerous fights on the way out were actually GARGOYLEs! Those things hit really hard and killed a few runs on their own. This was not one of them. I saved as soon as I made it out and smirked when I saw I was one step away from another encounter.


That said, if there is one thing Geomancy is good at? Sheer damage on the ST attacks. I was actually flipping a coin (rolling a 1d20?) and trying to see if I could get MIRROR out of TERRAIN. Instead I got a high damaging CARVE MODEL, and a second finished him. First try, no RUBs today.

I bought a Silver Bracelet at Melmond after taking care of the key business, then went to Crescent Lake to grind. My goal was level 20 for the Earth Cave. One of the most fun spells in forests was SNARE. This is supposed to work like STUN, BLND, and XXXX - that is, anything under 300HP that does not resist the element gets hit, in this case, with an earth-based instant death move. Unfortunately, it was bugged and still sometimes missed, and Ozmo couldn't reproduce it so hasn't fixed it.

The Earth Cave had STALACTITE and EARTH EMBRACE and a single and multi target offensive option respectively. They were unsurprisingly in the Earth-element. It's terrible in FF1 and even FFR: it existed solely to make enemies resistant to the QAKE element. Only FFR's RAMUH is weak to the element and, being an Evoker boss, would not be seen here. Despite this, the element is actually solid in the dungeon. COCTRICEs and EARTHs obviously resisted it, as did the VAMPIRE, GAROGYLEs, IMAGEs, and even the rare OOZE. But it would work fine on WIZARDs and even LICH himself.

There were also two support spells here. EARTH BLESSING was another good heal spell, AoE not that it mattered, that increased absorb by 10% as a small bonus. And MINERAL SHELL gave Earthspikes, which causes half the damage dealt to be reflected back at the attacker. Might have to use both against the VAMPIRE.


Waiting for me in this formerly empty upper left room was the first bell of the game. Aside from a special late game one, these weapons universally have 15 attack, 15 hit%, 0.5% crit, and boost geomancy spells of one element. Naturally, the Earth Bell boosted earth spells. By how much? Well, I saw the rare CAVE-IN spell do like 200 to the wolves in here without the bell, but it cracked over 400 with it. So I'm thinking anywhere from 1.5× to 2× damage, or some sort of other potency boost.

The only downside to these is that they only affect one element, and often come midway through their relevant dungeon. Of course, there's ways to make that not as big an issue.

Guo Pu only had 18 luck, which did not give him good odds of running. At his level of 20, he had just over a 50% chance. Instead of trying to win a coinflip against the legions of undead, it often felt better to use EARTH EMBRACE instead. This was enough to one-shot the zombies, if he was lucky enough to go before them or not get paralyzed. No such luck with IMAGEs or COCTRICEs though. It would take multiple castings.


The first time I reached the VAMPIRE, he instantly paralyzed Guo Pu and that was the end of it. I employed spikes as planned the next time, but there was a problem: the buff only lasted two rounds. My luck with dodging paralysis or DAZZLE was going to run out long before his HP, and that's what happened. The third time, I just threw up my arms and used STALACTITE just to see how much it would do before preparing for bell-based violence.


Oh. Well. That works. Got him in two. I had to fight him one more time when I failed my run out, but it went just as well as before.

I gained a level outside, got the ROD, and went back in. It shockingly only took attempts to make it to the bottom from here! It was an insane run that I really shouldn't have won. Guo Pu had to tangle with small groups of IMAGEs and a five-pack of COCTRICEs. I just tried to end them with EARTH EMBRACE instead of trying to run. Between these, a WIZARD group, and a couple MUMMYs, there obviously wasn't enough spell charges. So I actually had to roll with TERRAIN, sometimes against the deadly enemies themselves! He 1v1'd an IMAGE for a while and avoided petrification. Even after this, a TROLL kept critting him at absurdly low odds on the bottom floor. Thankfully, I did survive that and moved onto LICH.


After all the trouble the Earth Cave usually gives me in solos? Going first and instantly killing the boss was catharthic. Like I said, LICH does not resist earth. Strange, but it's true: even in vanilla, I've murdered him with QAKE a couple times in the final dungeon.

Moving onto the midgame, all three of the damn things were horrible! For different reasons that I'll get to when relevant. I started off in Ordeals as usual. This would get me a Gold Bracelet and Zeus.


It wasn't just bad luck in Ordeals, it was the geomancy set. Artificial is horrendous, I can't stress that enough. Geomancy's scaling seems to level out after a point, and not only do these skills not benefit from any elemental bonuses, but they also seem to just be weaker. Not only that, but TERRAIN rolling is equally bad. At least in the elemental dungeons you might get healing or a moderate offensive buff if you want to fight with bells. In artificial? Anything from bad buffs to actually bad buffs.

The first time I made it to the Zombie Ds, they showed in a pack of two. Artifical sucked so bad that Guo Pu just died miserably. Even the second go at them - after a lot of runs failed due to being damaged to death by physicals or FIR2 and the odd MEDUSA petrify - it was a tight win.


The Ice Cave needs no introduction. Besides a single target and multi target spell, it has two others in its geomancy set: ICEWALL was a strong heal and AICE. FORGED IN ICE gives a 20% power bonus and infuses the weapon with ice. Even with changes to the formula made in version 2.1 to make the Spellblade job actually work, nothing here was weak to ice. Unlike the Earth Cave, undead universally resist the ice element, so I had to use Zeus. It was better than trying my luck with running.

Actually, there was an update released partway through this that silently nerfed (not even listed in patch notes) spellcasting items by making them no longer benefit from INT. Strange change after having them work like that for so long. I wasn't about to let that affect this challenge midrun, especially given why it was made, so I stayed on the old version.

But besides the usual suspects, everything else could also be a problem. I actually died a couple times to FrGIANTs and even a GrPEDE because of their ice resistance. I had to either spam Zeus and hope it rolled well or try to physical them down with a lousy bell. The only things in the cave that didn't resist ice were the EYE, SORCERERs, and MAGEs. Yeah, the boss and the worst possible things to be fighting. Actually, I could splatter single SORCERERs nicely with ICE PILLAR. MAGEs could theoretically be silenced by WHITEOUT, but it rarely seemed to proc and their ambush rate was too high. Many attempts made it far. Then one run failed for a novel reason: an unwanted level up on the way. That was the last straw, and I pulled out to go gain some more levels.


After a bit of time on the peninsula, I went down into Gurgu. One nice thing about Geomancer is that they render the party immune to damage tiles if they're the visible character. You also still don't get encounters on them, so it's just a good little bonus. Much like the Ice Cave, a lot in here was resistant to fire. FIREWALL and FORGED IN FIRE were other elemental equivalents. HOTSPOT just did single target fire. MAGMA SURGE was the AoE spell that could inflict burn. Nothing in the documentation says what this new status does. I mean, it's some sort of poison variant given how I saw something die from burn damage, but any other effects? Opacity sucks.

Guo Pu again suffered deaths at the hands of hard-hitting fire-resistant enemies from time to time. My target was way on the bottom floor: the Flame Bell was here. This would boost the damage of SHINING FLARE.

I thought I could fight KARY while I was at it, but she did too much damage and Guo Pu had no way to kill her before she killed him. So it was back down to grab the bell again before going back on the grind. I hit level 28, good for 79 magic defense, before making more attempts at the Ice Cave.


I wasn't encounter watching since it was late, and regretted it: I kept getting MAGEs and SORCERERs. Although now I was high enough level that the latter would sometimes run, which led to a bit of comic relief at least. This actually happened twice.

And that was all there was to it: resetting a lot until you get through. When it comes to a FF1 solo, the Ice Cave is not a matter of skill, but a matter of patience and how much you're willing to grind to tilt the odds. Same for the Earth Cave. It's sort of why I'm starting to sour on them, might have to do more party-based challenges. Someone on the FFR server, I believe yusiko, made a remark to the effect that the Ice Cave is the actual final dungeon of a solo. And my fellow soloist Wrolyn says every one homogenized afterward. Honestly, I'm inclined to agree with both. This isn't to say things were going to be smooth sailing for Guo Pu for the rest of the game after this or that it would be identical to every other solo, but this was the last major obstacle.

I was about at the end of my patience for level 28 when I finally got a run that made it through. Way too many were ended on B3 by MAGEs. Actually, twice they jumped me in the tiny room in between the square room and pit room. That's just spite. I actually survived all four RUBs, only to die to the LIT3s when WHITEOUT didn't silence them.

Final dungeon down? Well, there's still the rest of the game to deal with.

Next | Index

Each character you can switch into the party at the end of the GBA version and its derivatives gains two pieces of armor from the Cave of Trials that exclusive to them. All provide stat bonuses that can actually put them ahead of the original final five. For Edward, these are the Red Cap and Red Jacket. The Cap gives him +10 stamina and sports 10 defense/evasion, and 12 magic defense/evasion. It lowered Edward's attack compared to the Green Beret with how the multipliers lined up and the stat bonus is whatever, so there's no qualms with replacing it with a Ribbon. Red Jacket meanwhile, gave +15 to strength and agility! Absolutely fantastic.


In spite of this, it was imperative that he did NOT equip either of these when traversing the cave due to a weird quirk in how FF4 handles the fire and ice elements. If you resist one, you're weak to the other unless your equipment also grants resistance to it. This would cause these particular enemies to instantly kill Edward if they were to ambush him. Yes, it's called Blaze, but it's ice elemental. Similarly, he needed to have a Diamond Armlet on in case two Thunder Dragons ambushed him. It meant being vulnerable to Malboros' Bad Breath, but Edward could just confuse them or run.


I eventually made it through the cave; the enemies were primarily from the Underworld dungeons and not too dangerous. This brought Edward to the bosses, and his was the Gigas Worm. This fight is incredibly dull. It only attacks physically and occasionally throws out Vampire, a weak attack that inflicts HP Leak. The physicals were manageable, even with it countering every attack of his own. It was slow enough that he had ample time to heal up. Edward just had to tear through its 55000HP with arrows from the back row and...


Finally, an actual weapon.

Okay, that's underselling it. Apollo's Harp is an incredible salve. 98 power, effective on dragons, and +15 to Strength, Spirit, and Agility! Edward was suddenly up to 133 attack, with full power from the back row. Stronger than any bow/arrow combination he could use. At long last, Edward was starting to get good.


Here's it in action against the Storm Dragon. This damage was a massive step up from what Edward was doing before, especially since it was hitting a racial weakness. The only reason it wasn't doing even more is that it absorbs the fire element of the harp. This works out to halving the damage of a physical attack.


My next stop was the Lunar Subterrane. The Ribbon and Protect Ring were both down there, and both would be excellent additions to Edward's equipment. Just because I had a new weapon doesn't mean the Lamia's Harp time was over, though. Again, both of these enemies would petrify themselves when charmed. Very good for the Selene Guardians anyway, because they used it against Edward if they hung around too long.

Defeating White Dragon was a simple matter of hiding beyond the Maelstroms. Much like Storm Dragon, it resisted the fire element but was still a dragon. To contrast, I was hitting other dragons in the depths for 9999. And after defeating it, Edward reached level 70. The time had come at long last.

First, let's look at his stats at this point without equipment. 42/41/26/28/28. Not that great. But now here's the table of his eight possible stat-ups for his last 29 levels.

~ -1 Str, -1 Agi, -1 Sta, -1 Int, -1 Spi
~ -1 Str, -1 Agi, -1 Sta, -1 Int, -1 Spi
~ -1 Str, ±0 Agi, -1 Sta, -1 Int, -1 Spi
~ -1 Str, ±0 Agi, -1 Sta, -1 Int, -1 Spi
~ +1 Str, +1 Agi, ±0 Sta, +1 Int, +1 Spi
~ ±0 Str, +2 Agi, +2 Sta, +2 Int, ±0 Spi
~ +3 Str, +3 Agi, ±0 Sta, ±0 Int, +3 Spi
~ +4 Str, ±0 Agi, +4 Sta, +4 Int, +4 Spi

Yes. Seriously. While he has four negative possibilities, those last two are downright insane. And I'm free to manipulate these. The only question is, how much of each do I need to maximize those stats?

Well, it's going to come down to some mix of options 7 and 8. So I really only need to focus on AGI and STA. STA needs 73 more and AGI needs 58 more. So 18 levels to max AGI 20 levels to max STA. Not possible...except that's before factoring in his equipment. Both Apollo's Harp and the terrifying weapon he gets access to in the postgame give +15 to AGI, and the latter gives +15 to STA. Similarly, Red Jacket gives +15 to AGI. The Vishnu Vest in the postgame gives +10 to that and STA.

With Vishnu's boosts in play and one of the harps (which will always be the case moving forward), his AGI is 66. This means 11 boosts will be needed at most. So the rest can go into option 8, which should be enough to maximize stamina and will be just enough for intelligence.

The rate of leveling in the final dungeon was as insane as it always was, to where I frequently had to stop and save. It was more imperative than with any other character that I optimized Edward's level ups.


I got the Protect Ring on the way down, which provides resistances to the main three elements in addition to just being an excellent piece of armwear in general. The Lunarsaurs guard the Ribbons. Edward couldn't survive their Bios, so I instead threw up Reflect from a Curtain and laughed as they reflected Bad Breath off it onto themselves. The fight was a formality at that point. The Ribbon doesn't quite do what you would expect: in the SNES version, there were some status ailments it did not protect against. In this version, it now does protect against Sleep and Confusion, as well as the sometimes positive Berserk. As for Paralyze? Tough darts, grind out either a Crystal Ring or Pink Tail for Adamant Armor at 5/6272 odds. Alternatively, get high enough STA so it barely lasts any time.


Speaking of rare odds, I amusingly ran into Flan Princesses without a Siren! I just had to try fighting them. No Pink Tail, not even any other drop out of it, but I didn't get screwed on the subsequent level-up either. I wouldn't be going for it this run either.


Dark Bahamut was simply a slaughter with Apollo's Harp. This is what happens when the enemy has no resistance. For Ogopogo, Edward simply hid past any Tidal Waves. The sea serpent couldn't really do much with its physicals. And as for Plague? Well, Edward had to use archery to kill in time, but not big deal there.


There was a very funny way to fight Ivan Ooze. By hiding at the start and at his fixed Reflect points, Edward could force the monster to heal and haste him instead. It was spite, of course. For that matter, it wasn't going to be much trouble to escape from the enemies down here, either. Since Edward can continue to run while in hiding, it doesn't matter how long it takes.

Back on the planet for more optional bosses. I'd beaten Asura a little earlier by just holding down attack and having her loop Life on herself. Leviathan was the same as the later palette swap: hide behind the Tidal Waves. Odin of course gives a really blatant cue for Zantetsuken.

For the rest of the Cave of Trials bosses, I hid behind Death Mech's Lasers and Globe 199. As usual, Master Flan is the most dangerous opponent. He was fast too, even if I used Spider's Silk. The trick lied in his recasting Reflect: he followed a Thundaga-Flare-Drain pattern, and would most often cast it after the second looping of it. This allowed Edward to dodge the higher damaging spells, until he suddenly started going Thundaga before the recasting (and going right back to Thundaga after). Still, not as bad as Flare.


As for Bahamut? You'd think I'd just hide past the Megaflares, right? Well, you'd be WRONG! It just didn't do enough damage to worth worrying about, so it was just a "hold down A" fight. It even missed Edward outright one time.


So all that was left was to get to level 99. Big Z was going down either way, this was just for convenience's sake. I just fought outside the last save point because almost everything down there was a dragon. Look at these glorious stats. Even without equipment, AGI was still 74 and STA was 98, the other three were naturally maxed.. He is the one of two characters able to get 99s across the board; the other is Rydia and she needs Adamant Armor for it. Edward doesn't even need the Hero's Shield, which Rydia and Kain need to reach the effective max! This man is no longer spoony, but supreme.


Zeromus always telegraphs his Big Bangs by playing a shaking animation before it happened. Edward was just too fast and could dive out of the way consistently. It was funny too: the background just sort of awkwardly shifted in the other direction while no other part of the animation played. The big boss did occasionally throw out another spell, but these were survivable and sometimes just whiffed entirely. Edward was doing around 3000 damage per attack.


And eventually, that was it.

Think that was good? This isn't even Edward's final form. I'll dive into the postgame next time to show how he really gets crazy.

Next | Index

This is a list of materials that can be POACHed from monsters when an Archer or Ranger kills them with a melee attack. If a monster has multiple drops, you only receive one at random. They are grouped by sprites; note that while there are two dragon sprites, both have the same set of drops.

FANG:
Exclusive: Imps, Pedes, Snakes / Nonexclusive: Ankylos, Catmen, Chimeras, Creeps, Gators, Hydras, Ochos, Nagas, Sharks, Snakes, TIAMAT, Tigers, Tyros, Vampires, Wolves, Worms

ASH:
Exclusive: Ghosts, LICH, Mummies, Skeletons, Zombies / Nonexclusive: PHANTOM, ZombieD, ZomBULL

BLOOD:
Exclusive: Squidmen / Nonexclusive: Giants, KARY, Ogres, Snakes, Vampires

EYE:
Exclusive: Big Eyes, Beholders, Medusas, / Nonexclusive: Giants, KRAKEN, Ochos, Ogres

GEL:
Exclusive: Slimes / Nonexclusive: KRAKEN

HIDE:
Exclusive: Horses, Sahags, Trolls / Nonexclusive: Anklyos, Bulls, Catmen, Chimeras, Gators, Hyenas, KARY, Tigers, Tyros, Wolves

SCALE:
Exclusive: / Nonexclusive: Dragons, Hydras, Nagas, TIAMAT, Worms, Wyverns

TAIL:
Exclusive: Fish, Scorpions / Nonexclusive: Bulls, Dragons, Lizards, Hyenas, Manticores, Sharks, TIAMAT, Tigers, Tyros, Wyverns

TONGUE:
Exclusive: DarkElves / Nonexclusive: Creeps, Lizards

WING:
Exclusive: Coctrices / Nonexclusive: Chimeras, Dragons, Manticores, Wyverns

#####

By family...

- Anklyos: FANG, HIDE
- Beholders: EYE, (PHANTOM: ASH)
- BigEyes: EYE
- Bulls: HIDE, TAIL, (ZomBULL: ASH)
- Catmen: FANG, HIDE
- Chimeras: FANG, HIDE, WING
- Coctrices: WING
- Creeps: FANG, TONGUE
- DarkElves: TONGUE
- Dragons: SCALE, TAIL, WING (ZombieD: ASH)
- Fish: TAIL
- Gators: FANG, TAIL
- Ghosts: ASH
- Giants: BLOOD, EYE
- Horses: HIDE
- Hydras: FANG, SCALE
- Hyenas: HIDE, TAIL
- Imps: FANG
- Lizards: TAIL, TONGUE
- Manticores: TAIL, WING
- Medusas: EYE
- Mummies: ASH
- Nagas: FANG, SCALE
- Ochos: FANG, EYE
- Ogres: BLOOD, EYE
- Pedes: FANG
- Sahags: HIDE
- Scorpions: TAIL
- Sharks: FANG, TAIL
- Skeletons: ASH
- Slimes: GEL
- Snakes: FANG, BLOOD
- Spiders: FANG
- Squidmen: BLOOD
- Tigers: FANG, HIDE, TAIL
- Trolls: HIDE
- Tyros: FANG, HIDE, TAIL
- Vampires: FANG, BLOOD
- Wolves: FANG, HIDE
- Worms: FANG, SCALE
- Wyverns: SCALE, TAIL, WING
- Zombies: ASH

- LICH: ASH
- KARY: BLOOD, HIDE
- KRAKEN: EYE, GEL
- TIAMAT: FANG, SCALE, TAIL

- No drops: BROOMs, Elementals, Gargoyles, Garland, Golems, Hades, Pirates, Sentries, Warriors, WarMECH, summon bosses, blue mage pets (including ZoneEATER)

Index

Bahamut's Cave had more threatening enemies; particularly the Lamia Queens which could cause a softlock situation. The big dragon itself was the first of many enemies that resist everything and anything, just because. A lot of endgame FF3 bosses do that, and hey: it affects physicals apparently, and the endgame ultimate weapons are elemental. Have fun.


Erase came to the forefront in the infamous Cave of Darkness dungeon. This is a long and winding place filled with splitting enemies with magical resistances. It wasn't action economy efficient, but thankfully, FF3 isn't a game that demands that. I actually did have to Warp out once because I ran out, but played a bit more efficiently and used Erase more aggressively the second time.

The boss just uses physicals. Couldn't win the damage race.


Dorga and Unne were annoying, mostly for the former casting Brak2 on the second part of his spell cycle. Luckily, it could both miss or he could fail to use it, and fell in three turns. Unne was the more interesting one: she used Wall as her second spell. This reflects one spell back at the caster. Unfortunately, using one of the cave's Barrier to cast it on yourself and reflect the spell back doesn't work in FF3. Luckily for Jasper's purposes, Quake goes right through that. (Unluckily, so does Brak2, so I couldn't use them on Dorga either). I just needed to Hi-Potion to avoid her follow-ups.

It was time for the final dungeon gauntlet. I knocked off Titan at the Earth Crystal without incident. This is when you would formally unlock Magus. And in a regular playthrough, it would get obsoleted shortly. Yeah, bad job unlock pacing problems.


By the way, probably should've mentioned this sooner, but running is awful in FF3. It has an incredibly low success rate (unless the Thief's Escape is used), and the runner's defense is reduced to 0 for the turn. This means you can't escape problematic enemies, conserve spell charges as a mage, etc. and just trying can be more dangerous than actually fighting. Yet another reason this game sucks for variants.


Bright side, the Ultimate Rod was here. And what a terrifying ultimate weapon it is. For damage? Uh, no, it's a magical job's weapon. For boosting damage? Doesn't have any and they don't work anyway. But it can inflict gradual petrification on a hit. Two procs and an enemy is dead. There's few if any random encounters this doesn't work on. There's many similar weapons in the game, some accessible much earlier. Single target only, but nice for conserving spell charges.


After passing through, I moved onto Forbidden Land Eureka. Technically option, but it has the ultimate weapons, the ultimate jobs, the ultimate magic, and other stuff available. One of these is the Ribbon, guarded by a weak monster. Unfortunately, it has some holes in its defenses in FF3, but the status and elemental resistances it still gives are still very welcome.


Thankfully, there was a healing spring at the end of Eureka. The L8 spells are exactly as you'd expect: Flare deals massive non-elemental damage and will be the offense of choice on bosses who are immune to all elementals because Good Game Design from now on. The debuting Meteo deals massive non-elemental damage to all enemies. And Death is bad. Not for the reason you'd expect, though: instant death is fanastic, it just has to share space on L8 and other instant death spells do the job just as well.

And yes, I wasn't joking. You unlock the Sage job here. The magic jobs you unlock in the Ancient's Labyrinth would be replaced almost as quick as you got them in the NES version. 3D stuck it there and gave it little spell charges and the inability to use stronger summon effects as a balancing measure, and Pixel Remaster just gave them less in comparison with the other jobs but still plenty. Yet in a casual on the NES, there's little reason not to upgrade here.


I tore through the bosses here without incident. The only one of note was Amon, the Hyne palette and AI swap, and only because he was the only one I fought before getting L8 spells. Had to do some weakness searching, but got the job done.

Had to go back and restock on Hi-Potions before heading up Sylx Tower. I wasn't sure if level 65 was going to be enough, but we'll see.


Here's an enemy being petrified by the Ultimate Staff. I would be getting a free heal after the boss at the top, but it still didn't hurt to do this. More important was to save on potions, which I could do so by employing the Drain spell. Healing around 2000 a shot wasn't bad by any means.

Xande at the top is straightforward: he uses Libra on one turn, and a strong spell the next. Gives plenty of breaks to heal if needed, but I damage raced him without incident without having to.


Also, check out the Magus' hilarious dead sprite in the unwinnable fight after. Fun reminder, there was supposed to be a save point up here. But some tester complained it made the game too easy. And the developers obliged them, possibly out of spite. If I could slap anyone in the game industry, it would have to be that person. Because wow.


This sent Jasper to the final dungeon. But now behold the worst boss of the Dark World gauntlet: 2-Head D. All it does is attack. With 255 attack and up to 32 hits. This is ridiculous, especially against a solo. Your only defenses are the Safe spell (including from very limited TurtlShells) or being in the back row.

It has 29000HP, so Jasper was going to run out of HP far sooner than him. This meant using Elixirs. There are only 23 of them in the game; one which can be used in a plot event. To get more, you need to encounter the Dragons, this game's WarMECH equivalent. Actually more like the Iron Giant equivalent, since you're going for a drop off the rare enemy. I'd done it before, but it takes ages and you're not guaranteed. You could even get Onion equipment instead! The problem is doing this with Jasper is that he uses magic. Can't really effectively hunt them, not even with soft resets.

I got by him once, only to die to one of the other bosses trying to be conservative on the Elixirs, which I would need more of for the final boss. Yeah, this is bad.

So with this, I decided to grind, specifically to level 78. That was when Jasper would hit 9999HP. Which is sooner than Monk, believe it or not. As utterly bizarre and backwards as it seems, it's just how NES FF3 was balanced: later jobs have higher stat totals. I did so in the Salonia Catacombs, because some of the enemies there have a tiny chance of dropping TurtlShells. Not as much as they could though, because of more bad coding. I ultimately got none.


Here were Jasper's stats at this point.

I still lost against the dragon the first time I got back when it moved first before I could heal. That's rare at least, but still another reason why this boss is so horrible. I had made a savestate at the beginning of the Dark World though; absolutely nothing to be proven by making the run up Sylx that many times, just tedium.


I successfully beat it the next attempt. The rest was going to be fairly straightforward. Ahriman and Echidna both cast Meteo as part of their routines. It just meant staying well-healed; like in FF1, enemies in FF3 have a clear order in which they cast their spells. So it was predictable, in other words. Cerberus meanwhile just spams a weak Thunder attack repeatedly. Didn't need to use an Elixir against that.


The final boss uses FlareWave every turn. The damage was much more manageable and less volatile than the dragon needless to say. It was a simple matter of attacking and healing as necessary; DarkCloud could sometimes move first, so I just had to be aware of that. I had plenty of Elixirs to spare at this point...


...so it was just a matter of time.


So here's something fun for you. When searching for Japanese sites for the original version of FF3, I failed to find much of anything. Was hoping there would be some hidden documentation on some of those. But I did find this site, literally translated to Masterpieces to Kusoge. FF3 surprisingly passes the test, but there are a lot of issues in there that are very true. To contrast, FF2 passes as well and it basically says that a lot of the perceived problems with it boil down to misinformation, which results in shooting yourself in the foot, which led to even more misinformation. Having played both original versions, I can say this is indeed the case.

Final Fantasy III is a game riddled with problems, and I can say that with nostalgia filters off, because I have nostalgia for it. Some of it is rooted in the game design itself: the freedom of the job system is weakened by the constant demand to use certain jobs. Or not being able to strategy/status your way out of fights. Even FF1 lets you do that sometimes. If there was any game in the series that needed that fix of a remake, it was this one. If you're going to play it, play one of those. Even the 3D versions which have their own set of problems.

But anyway, Solo Magus. It's pretty good. I wasn't really challenged until the very end when FF3's bad game design really started rearing its ugly head. Solo Black Mage which is more kosher is similar, just without the level 8 spells (forcing Bio against bosses) and weaker spells and health.

So why go this far out of spite? Because Onion Knight's stat growths are laughable. They're effectively an anchor for your party unless you either grind to unreasonable levels: contrast, none of my solos have ever reached the levels needed, or get the Onion equipment, which either requires finding and fighting those infamous dragons or using the item upgrade glitch. Add in limited equipment options, and yeah. It'd honestly be better to leave them dead and have your actual characters get more experience, especially on the Pixel Remaster the fiesta is technically designed for where you can't glitch your way out of it. Furthermore, the "later jobs are better" balancing screws you over a lot more than it does elsewhere. While I do like the idea of Onion Risk in a FF3 fiesta as an analog to the infamous Berserker Risk, it should be optional. Not forced. Hence my names of the dead characters. And I willingly did four Berserkers so, yeah. I'd rather subject myself to a FF3 solo than have to use Onion in a party. Solo Onion included, but I'll cross that bridge when and if I get there.

Though, these side-fiestas are always like this, no special options, so. But the one next month (November 2024) is Final Fantasy Tactics, and I'm definitely interested in that one. If I feel like a playthrough of a longer game.

Index

This is a small reference for the elements in Final Fantasy Renaissance and enemies weak to them, in particular the new ones that were added.

- With weapons, hitting a weakness will effectively add 4-8 damage per hit after defense. A Spellblade/Rune Fencer will deal double damage on top of this. Hitting a resistance has no effect.
- With damaging magic, hitting a weakness with a spell will increase the spell effectivity by 1.5 times and increase the chance of doubling. Hitting a resistance will instead lower it by half and reduce the chance of doubling to zero.
- With status magic, hitting a weakness will increase the chance of doubling. Hitting a resistance lowers the chance of hitting to zero.
- Status attacks from enemies or the Deathknight's EN-DARK will only hit if the enemy is not resistant to the element. The Rune Fencer's tier 2 EN-spells are unaffected by this.
- Certain enemies can absorb elements in FFR: these are all elemental summons and RubyGOL.
- Poison and Stone were one and the same in vanilla. They've been disentangled in FFR, but only COCTRICE and CARBUNCLE have different resistances.

Fire:
- Weapons: Flame Sword, Lava Axe, Xcalber
- Spells: FIRE, FIR2, FIR3 / SCORCH, HEAT, CREMATE, BLAZE, INFERNO / IFRIT:HELLFIRE / EN-FIRE
- Geomancy: SHINING FLARE / WILL O' WISP / BURNING SANDS / HOTSPOT, MAGMA SURGE, FIREWALL, FORGED IN FIRE, (LAVA BURST, CONVECTION)

- Armor Resistances: White Shirt, Ice Armor, Dragon Armor, Ice Shield, Ribbon, Fire Armlet
- Other Resistances: AFIR, WALL, FIREWALL, LEVIATHAN (favor)

- StAtk: IFRIT, PHOENIX
- Weak: Blue D, BONE, BROOM, CREEP, EARTH, Frost D, FrGIANT, FrWOLF, GEIST, GHOST, GHOUL, GrMEDUSA, IMAGE, JELLY, MUMMY, OIL, OOZE, PHANTOM, R.BONE, SCUM, SHADOW, SLIME, SPECTER, TROLL, VAMPIRE, WRAITH, WzMUMMY, WzVAMP, ZOMBIE, Zombie D, ZomBULL / LICH, SHIVA
- Resist: AGAMA, BigEYE, CARIBE, FIRE, FrGATOR, GATOR, Grey W, GrPEDE, GrSHARK, IronGOL, JIMERA, LOBSTER, MANCAT, MUCK, MudGOL, NAGA, NITEMARE, OCHO, OddEYE, PERILISK, R.GIANT, R.GOYLE, R.HYDRA, R.SAHAG, Red D, RockGOL, SAHAG, SeaSNAKE, SENTRY, SHARK, STATUE, WarMECH, WATER, WIZARD, WzSAHAG / BAHAMUT, CARBUNCLE, CHAOS, GILGAMESH, IFRIT, KARY, KARY-2, KRAKEN, KRAKEN-2, LEVIATHAN, PHOENIX, TIAMAT, TIAMAT-2

Ice:
- Weapons: Ice Sword, Frozen Axe, Icepick Knife, Xcalber
- Spells: ICE, ICE2, ICE3 / FROST, BLIZZARD / SHIVA:DIAMOND DUST / EN-ICE
- Geomancy: ICE PILLAR, WHITEOUT, ICEWALL, FORGED IN ICE, (FREEZE, ICE STORM)

- Armor Resistances: Black Shirt, Flame Armor, Dragon Armor, Flame Shield, Ribbon, Ice Armlet
- Other Resistances: AICE, WALL, ICEWALL, IFRIT (favor)

- StAtk: None
- Weak: AGAMA, CEREBUS, CHIMERA, FIRE, Gas D, Grey W, JELLY, NITEMARE, OOZE, PERILISK, R.GIANT, R.HYDRA, Red D, SCUM, WATER / FAIRY, IFRIT
- Resist: BONE, EARTH, Frost D, FrGIANT, FrWOLF, GEIST, GHOST, GHOUL, GrMEDUSA, GrPEDE, IMAGE, IronGOL, JIMERA, MANCAT, MUCK, MudGOL, MUMMY, OIL, PHANTOM, R.BONE, R.GOYLE, RockGOL, SENTRY, SHADOW, SLIME, SPECTER, STATUE, VAMPIRE, WarMECH, WIZARD, WRAITH, WzMUMMY, WzVAMP, ZOMBIE, Zombie D, ZomBULL / BAHAMUT, CARBUNCLE, CHAOS, GILGAMESH, KARY, KARY-2, LICH, LICH-2, PHOENIX, SHIVA, TIAMAT, TIAMAT-2

Lit:
- Weapons: Bolt Sword, Xcalber
- Spells: LIT, LIT2, LIT3 / THUNDER / RAMUH:JUDGMENT BOLT / EN-BOLT
- Geomancy: THUNDERBOLT, PLASMA, (THUNDERSTORM)

- Armor Resistances: Red Shirt, Opal Armor, Dragon Armor, Opal Shield, Ribbon
- Other Resistances: ALIT, WALL, TITAN (favor)

- StAtk: None
- Weak: BigEYE, CARIBE, Frost D, FrGATOR, GATOR, GrSHARK, GUARD, JELLY, LOBSTER, MUCK, NAGA, OCHO, OddEYE, R.SAHAG, SAHAG, SeaSNAKE, SeaTROLL, SENTRY, SHARK, WzSAHAG / LEVIATHAN, KRAKEN
- Resist: Blue D, EARTH, IronGOL, MANCAT, MudGOL, OIL, OOZE, RockGOL, SCUM, SLIME, STATUE, WarMECH / BAHAMUT, CARBUNCLE, CHAOS, GILGAMESH, KARY, KARY-2, RAMUH, SHIVA, TIAMAT, TIAMAT-2, TITAN

Poison
- Weapons: Acid Sword, Xcalber
- Spells: BIO, BIO2, BANE / STINGER, POISON / EN-BIO
- Geomancy: POISON MIST, (SINKHOLE, BOTTOMLESS BOG, ABYSSAL DARK)

- Armor Resistances: Red Shirt, Aegis Shield, Ribbon
- Other Resistances: APOIS, ARUB, WALL, Green Mage (RESIST POISON)

- StAtk: ARACHNID, ASP, CATMAN, GrNAGA, HADES, LOBSTER, MEDUSA, MudGOL, NAGA, NAOCHO, OCHO, PEDE, SCORPION, SCUM, SHADOW, SLIME, WrWOLF, WYVERN, WzMUMMY / BAHAMUT
- Weak: Red D / CARBUNCLE, TIAMAT
- Resist: AIR, BONE, EARTH, EVILMAN, FIRE, Frost D, GEIST, GHOST, GHOUL, GUARD, HADES, IMAGE, IronGOL, JELLY, MANCAT, MUCK, MudGOL, MUMMY, NITEMARE, OIL, OOZE, PHANTOM, R.BONE, RockGOL, RubyGOL, SCUM, SENTRY, SHADOW, SLIME, SPECTER, STATUE, VAMPIRE, WarMECH, WATER, WIZARD, WRAITH, WzMUMMY, WzVAMP, ZOMBIE, Zombie D, ZomBULL / BAHAMUT, CAIT SITH, CHAOS, FAIRY, FENRIR, GILGAMESH, GOBLIN, GOLEM, IFRIT, KARY, KARY-2, KIRIN, LEVIATHAN, LICH, LICH-2, PHOENIX, RAMUH, SHIVA, TITAN, UNICORN

Stone:
- Weapons: Xcalber
- Spells: BRAK / GLANCE, STONE
- Geomancy: (CHASM)

- Armor Resistances: Aegis Shield, Ribbon
- Other Resistances: ASTONE, ARUB, WALL, Green Wizard (RESIST STONE)

- StAtk: COCTRICE
- Weak: Red D / TIAMAT
- Resist: AIR, BONE, COCTRICE, EARTH, EVILMAN, FIRE, Frost D, GEIST, GHOST, GHOUL, GUARD, HADES, IMAGE, IronGOL, JELLY, MANCAT, MUCK, MudGOL, MUMMY, NITEMARE, OIL, OOZE, PHANTOM, R.BONE, RockGOL, RubyGOL, SCUM, SENTRY, SHADOW, SLIME, SPECTER, STATUE, VAMPIRE, WarMECH, WATER, WIZARD, WRAITH, WzMUMMY, WzVAMP, ZOMBIE, Zombie D, ZomBULL / BAHAMUT, CAIT SITH, CARBUNCLE, CHAOS, FAIRY, FENRIR, GILGAMESH, GOBLIN, GOLEM, IFRIT, KARY, KARY-2, KIRIN, LEVIATHAN, LICH, LICH-2, PHOENIX, RAMUH, SHIVA, TITAN, UNICORN

Earth:
- Weapons: Tremor Sword, Xcalber
- Spells: QAKE / CRACK / TITAN:GAIA'S WRATH / EN-STONE
- Geomancy: SNARE, SANDSTORM, QUICKSAND, SUNBLEACH, STALACTITE, EARTH EMBRACE, (BURNING SANDS, CAVE-IN, TREMOR)

- Armor Resistances: Earth Armlet, Ribbon
- Other Resistances: ARUB, WALL, FAIRY (favor)

- StAtk: None
- Weak: RAMUH
- Resist: AIR, BigEYE, Blue D, CARIBE, CHIMERA, COCTRICE, EARTH, EYE, FIRE, Frost D, FrGATOR, GARGOYLE, Gas D, GATOR, GHOST, GrANKYLO, Grey W, GrMEDUSA, GrSHARK, HADES, IMAGE, IronGOL, JELLY, JIMERA, KYZOKU, LOBSTER, MANCAT, MANTICOR, MUCK, NAGA, NITEMARE, OCHO, OddEYE, OIL, OOZE, PERILISK, PHANTOM, R.GOYLE, R.SAHAG, Red D, RockGOL, SAHAG, Sand W, SCUM, SeaSNAKE, SeaTROLL, SENTRY, SHADOW, SHARK, SLIME, SPHINX, STATUE, VAMPIRE, WarMECH, WATER, WORM, WRAITH, WYRM, WYVERN, WzMUMMY, WzOGRE, WzSAHAG, WzVAMP, ZOMBIE, Zombie D, ZoneEATER / BAHAMUT, CARBUNCLE, CHAOS, FAIRY, GILGAMESH, GOLEM, KRAKEN, KRAKEN-2, TIAMAT, TIAMAT-2, TITAN

Status:
- Weapons: Xcalber
- Spells: SLEP, MUTE, DARK, SLOW, HOLD, FEAR, CONF, STUN, BLND / GAZE, SNORTING, FLASH, DAZZLE, (INK)

- Armor Resistances: Ribbon
- Other Resistances: ARUB, WALL

- StAtk: CRAWL, GEIST, GHOST, GHOUL, GrMEDUSA, GUARD, IMAGE, MUMMY, PHANTOM, SPECTER, VAMPIRE, WRAITH, WzVAMP / CHAOS, LICH, LICH-2
- Weak: KARY
- Resist: AIR, BONE, EARTH, EVILMAN, FIRE, GEIST, GHOST, GHOUL, GUARD, HADES, IMAGE, IronGOL, JELLY, MANCAT, MUCK, MudGOL, MUMMY, NITEMARE, OIL, OOZE, PHANTOM, R.BONE, RockGOL, RubyGOL, SCUM, SENTRY, SHADOW, SLIME, SPECTER, STATUE, VAMPIRE, WarMECH, WATER, WIZARD, WRAITH, WzMUMMY, WzVAMP, ZOMBIE, Zombie D, ZomBULL / BAHAMUT, CAIT SITH, CARBUNCLE, CHAOS, FAIRY, FENRIR, GILGAMESH, GOBLIN, GOLEM, IFRIT, KIRIN, LEVIATHAN, LICH, LICH-2, ODIN, PHOENIX, RAMUH, SHIVA, TITAN, UNICORN

Death:
- Weapons: Xcalber
- Spells: RUB, XXXX / SQUINT, TOXIC / EN-DEATH
- Geomancy: DROWN

- Armor Resistances: White Shirt, ProRing
- Other Resistances: ARUB, WALL

- StAtk: None
- Weak: CARBUNCLE
- Resist: AIR, BONE, EARTH, EVILMAN, FIRE, GEIST, GHOST, GHOUL, GUARD, HADES, IMAGE, IronGOL, JELLY, MANCAT, MUCK, MudGOL, MUMMY, NITEMARE, OIL, OOZE, PHANTOM, R.BONE, RockGOL, RubyGOL, SCUM, SENTRY, SHADOW, SLIME, SPECTER, STATUE, VAMPIRE, WarMECH, WATER, WRAITH, WzMUMMY, WzVAMP, ZOMBIE, Zombie D, ZomBULL / BAHAMUT, CAIT SITH, CHAOS, FAIRY, FENRIR, GILGAMESH, GOBLIN, GOLEM, IFRIT, KIRIN, LEVIATHAN, LICH, LICH-2, ODIN, PHOENIX, RAMUH, SHIVA, TITAN, UNICORN

Time:
- Weapons: Xcalber
- Spells: BURST, DIM, MUDDLE, BURST2, DOOM, STOP, ZAP! / GLARE
- Geomancy: ASTRAL BLAST, NETHER BLAST, (VOID, CAVERNOUS MAW)

- Armor Resistances: Black Shirt, Ribbon
- Other Resistances: WALL, Time Mage (RESIST TIME)

- StAtk: FENRIR
- Weak: ZoneEATER
- Resist: BAHAMUT, CHAOS, GILGAMESH, ODIN

Water:
- Weapons: Tidal Sword
- Spells: SWIRL / LEVIATHAN:TSUNAMI / EN-WATER
- Geomancy: SPLASH, RAPIDS, DROWN, TIDAL WAVE, STORMY SEAS, WATERSPOUT, WATERFALL (SINKHOLE, BOTTOMLESS BOG, QUICKSAND, SUNBLEACH, TORRENT, DELUGE, WHIRLPOOL)

- Armor Resistances: Ribbon, Water Armlet
- Other Resistances: AWATER, RAMUH (favor)

- StAtk: None
- Weak: AGAMA, ANKYLO, CRAWL, FIRE, GrANKYLO, GUARD, HADES, JELLY, JIMERA, MUCK, MudGOL, MUMMY, OOZE, PERILISK, R.ANKYLO, R.GIANT, R.HYDRA, Red D, RockGOL, SCUM, SENTRY, SLIME, STATUE, WzMUMMY / IFRIT, KARY, KARY-2, PHOENIX
- Resist: BigEYE, CARIBE, FrGATOR, GATOR, GrNAGA, GrSHARK, HYDRA, LOBSTER, MANCAT, NAGA, NAOCHO, OCHO, OddEYE, OIL, R.SAHAG, SAHAG, SeaSNAKE, SeaTROLL, SHARK, WATER, WzSAHAG / BAHAMUT, CARBUNCLE, CHAOS, GILGAMESH, LEVIATHAN, KRAKEN, KRAKEN-2, RAMUH

Wind:
- Weapons: Gale Sword, Tempest Spear
- Spells: (TORNADO) / FAIRY:WHISPERWIND / EN-AERO
- Geomancy: WIND GUST, SANDSTORM, (WIND SLASH)

- Armor Resistances: Wind Armlet, Ribbon
- Other Resistances: AWIND, SHIVA (favor)

- StAtk: None
- Weak: BigEYE, EYE, GARGOYLE, Gas D, GEIST, GHOST, GHOUL, Grey W, IMAGE, MANTICOR, MUCK, OddEYE, OOZE, Sand W, SHADOW, SPECTER, STATUE, WATER, WORM, WRAITH / LICH, LICH-2, TITAN
- Resist: AIR, EARTH, GIANT, GrNAGA, GrOGRE, MANCAT, OGRE, OIL, R.GIANT, WzOGRE / BAHAMUT, CARBUNCLE, CHAOS, FAIRY, GILGAMESH, PHOENIX, SHIVA, TIAMAT, TIAMAT-2

Holy:
- Weapons: Holy Spear
- Spells: FADE, EN-LIGHT

- Armor Resistances: None
- Other Resistances: None

- StAtk: None
- Weak: BONE, GEIST, GHOST, GHOUL, HADES, IMAGE, MUMMY, PHANTOM, R.BONE, SHADOW, SPECTER, VAMPIRE, WRAITH, WzMUMMY, WzVAMP, ZOMBIE, Zombie D, ZomBULL / LICH, LICH-2
- Resist: RubyGOL, STATUE / BAHAMUT, CHAOS, GILGAMESH

#####

And here is a list of enemy races. Certain weapons and arrow magic can deal extra damage to them. More are included than in the vanilla game.

Aquatic:
- Effective: Coral Sword, Coral Greatsword, Xcalber, TAIL SHOT

- Monsters: BigEYE, GrSHARK, LOBSTER, NAGA, R.SAHAG, SAHAG, SeaTROLL, SeaSNAKE, SHARK, WIZARD, WzSAHAG
- Bosses: KRAKEN, KRAKEN-2

Dragon:
- Effective: Dragon Sword, Xcalber, Dragoon (DRAGON KILLER), SCALE SHOT

- Monsters: AGAMA, ASP, Blue D, CHIMERA, COBRA, FROST D, FrGATOR, Gas D, HYDRA, IGUANA, JIMERA, R.HYDRA, Red D, SAURIA, SeaSNAKE, T REX, TYRO, WYRM, WYVERN, Zombie D
- Bosses: BAHAMUT / TIAMAT, TIAMAT-2

Flying:
- Effective: Xcalber, WING SHOT

- Monsters: AIR, BigEYE, COCTRICE, EYE, FROST D, HADES, OddEYE, PERILISK, PHANTOM, Red D, WYRM, WYVERN, Zombie D
- Bosses: BAHAMUT, PHOENIX / TIAMAT, TIAMAT-2

Giant:
- Effective: Giant Sword, Xcalber, LEG SHOT

- Monsters: FrGIANT, GIANT, GrIMP, GrOGRE, IMP, OGRE, R.GIANT, WzOGRE
- Bosses: GOBLIN

Humanoid:
- Effective: Xcalber, HEAD SHOT

- Monsters: BADMAN, EVILMAN, FrGIANT, GIANT, GrMEDUSA, GrOGRE, GUARD, KYZOKU, MEDUSA, OGRE, PIRATE, R.GIANT, SENTRY, VAMPIRE, WzOGRE, WzVAMP
- Bosses: GARLAND, GILGAMESH, ZARLYON

MagicBeast: (sic) aka 'magical' or 'demon'
- Effective: Rune Sword, Arcane Lance, Xcalber, SPIRIT SHOT

- Monsters: AIR, BROOM, CATMAN, EARTH, FIRE, GARGOYLE, GHOST, GrMEDUSA, IMAGE, IronGOL, MudGOL, NITEMARE, PHANTOM, R.GOYLE, RockGOL, RubyGOL, SHADOW, STATUE, VAMPIRE, WATER, WIZARD, WRAITH, WrWOLF, WzVAMP
- Bosses: BAHAMUT, CAIT SITH, CARBUNCLE, FAIRY, FENRIR, GOBLIN, GOLEM, IFRIT, KIRIN, LEVIATHAN, ODIN, PHOENIX, RAMUH, SHIVA, TITAN, UNICORN / LICH, LICH-2, KARY, KARY-2

Mechanical:
- Effective: Bolt Sword, Ancient Knife, Xcalber

- Monsters: GUARD, SENTRY, WarMECH

Regenerative:
- Effective: Flame Sword, Lava Axe, Xcalber

- Monsters: CATMAN, HADES, JELLY, PHANTOM, SeaTROLL, TROLL, VAMPIRE, WarMECH, WrWOLF, WzOGRE, WzVAMP
- Bosses: PHOENIX

Spellcaster: aka "mage". There are some differences from vanilla here — things that didn't use spells were removed and those that do were added.
- Effective: Rune Sword, Magemsh Knife, Rune Harp, Xcalber, THROAT SHOT

- Monsters: EVILMAN, EYE, FIGHTER, GrANKYLO, GrNAGA, HADES, JELLY, MAGE, MANCAT, MudGOL, NAGA, PHANTOM, R.GOYLE, RockGOL, RubyGOL, STATUE, WzOGRE, WzVAMP
- Bosses: ASTOS, BAHAMUT, CAIT SITH, CARBUNCLE, FAIRY, FENRIR, GOBLIN, GOLEM, IFRIT, KIRIN, LEVIATHAN, PHOENIX, RAMUH, SHIVA, TITAN, UNICORN / LICH, LICH-2, KARY, KARY-2, KRAKEN-2, TIAMAT-2, CHAOS / GILGAMESH

Undead:
- Effective: Flame Sword, Sun Sword, Lava Axe, Light Axe, Ash Harp, Xcalber

- Monsters: BONE, GEIST, GHOST, GHOUL, HADES, IMAGE, MUMMY, PHANTOM, R.BONE, SHADOW, SPECTER, VAMPIRE, WRAITH, WzMUMMY, WzVAMP, Zombie D, ZOMBIE, ZomBULL
- Bosses: LICH, LICH-2

Werebeast:
- Effective: Were Sword, Xcalber

- Monsters: CATMAN, WrWOLF

Boss:
- Bosses: ASTOS, GARLAND, ZARLYON, ZoneEATER / BAHAMUT, CAIT SITH, CARBUNCLE, FAIRY, FENRIR, GOBLIN, GOLEM, IFRIT, KIRIN, LEVIATHAN, ODIN, PHOENIX, RAMUH, SHIVA, TITAN, UNICORN / LICH, LICH-2, KARY, KARY-2, KRAKEN, KRAKEN-2, TIAMAT, TIAMAT-2, CHAOS / GILGAMESH

Beast: This is not an actual classification in the bestiary but rather a special case for one weapon. Anything that is not humanoid, mechanical, or undead is considered to be a beast and will take effective damage from this.
- Effective: Beast Sword

Index

So now for the big one. I gamed the encounter table once. Can I do it again in the Ice Cave? Not really. B1 has a COCTRICE/MUMMY mix in slots 3 and 4, and undead in slots 6 and 7. Doable. But B2 is laughably impossible to game: slots 1, 2, 4, and 6 are some combination of IMAGEs and WRAITHs. 3 is SORCERERs, 5 is MAGEs. Only slots 7 and 8 are safe, being a FrGIANT/FrWOLF mix and Frost Ds respectively. As you might expect, there's no string of those in the encounter table, let alone any convenient for two rooms. As for B3, MAGEs are in slot 2, WRAITHs are in slot 3, and SORCERERs are in slot 4. The best you can do is be aware of what's coming, and get as high MDef (grinding) as possible.

So nothing to do but go ahead.

Attempt 1: First encounter is WIZARDs. Zeus them down. Second verse, same as the first. Down the stairs. Next is six IMAGEs. I think I'm on encounter 29 here? Of course the first attack stunned. They could barely hurt Mario, so it was a question of whether he would be able to break out and run. He got two run attempts which failed. He eventually did after like five minutes, being down to 170 health. Very lucky there. Next was WRAITHs - yup, encounter 30. He got right out of there on the first turn. So now that I know where I am, I can potentially avoid some of the bigger nasties. Didn't matter because the next undead encounter right before the hole killed him.


Attempt 2: WRAITHs which I ran from. COCTRICE/MUMMY group which got fried. Then a FrGIANT below! Nice! Thanked it with a JUMP. Then a nine mix of IMAGE/WRAITHs. Which I somehow escaped from. I ran into MAGEs in the tiny room and somehow survived that too. Next is a slot 7: safe to make it through the hole room since that's, again, a FrGIANT/FrWOLF. Gained a level from it and onto the undead spike. Eight enemies. Mario ran after the first swing. Slot 1: R.BONES. I made it upstairs before the next encounter, WRAITHs. It's a COCTRICE/MUMMY mix upstairs and I got a chance to strike first. The EYE used XXXX then died. Undead spike part 2: a nine mix.


This time, Mario was not so lucky. Broke out twice, but re-stunned once and failed to run the second time.

You get the idea from here on how encounter counting works. So from here on out, it's just what killed me and anything interesting.

Attempt 3: Dead to COCTRICE turn order.
Attempt 4: MAGEs on the floor below.
Attempt 5: COCTRICE turn order. It even got a crit. Rude.
Attempt 6: WRAITHs right away.
Attempt 7: Again.
Attempt 8: COCTRICE turn order.
Attempt 9: WRAITHs. Can't even make it through the first room anymore!
Attempt 10: A SORCERER mix was coming up on B2. I was right at the entrance, so I had a choice: risk it, or risk a COCTRICE/MUMMY group above. I went ahead because there were a chance of less, pulled the full three and died right away.
Attempt 11: Chance to strike first against WRAITHs, eat it! SORCERERs were coming up again. This time, Mario ran right away. Then died to the WRAITHs in the next encounter.
Attempt 12: No I am not sitting through a nine undead encounter that stunned right away, go to hell.
Attempt 13: Two IMAGEs on B2! I went for the throat here, feeling it was the better play. They indeed died. Still, got killed by WRAITHs in the hole room.


Mario has 55 MDef. That means every undead attack is a slightly rigged coinflip in his favor as to whether or not he resists the paralyze, bird stone, or brain suck. He gains 2 per level, so it would be a lot of grinding I hadn't really needed to do yet to try to stack the odds in any appreciable fashion. And as I said, sometimes it was better to fight and kill rather than to try the run. Especially solo SORCERERs: a close to 100% chance of escape (over its corpse) if Mario gets to move vs a less than 100% chance.

Attempt 14: WRAITHs room 1.
Attempt 15: COCTRICEs room 1.
Attempt 16: COCTRICEs room 1.
Attempt 17: WRAITHs room 2.
Attempt 18: Two COCTRICEs survived Zeus room 1 and of course they'd yet to move.
Attempt 19: WRAITHs room 2.
Attempt 20: Undead spike rolled eight. Very dead.

Mmm. I'll cave in and grind some levels after the hundredth attempt. That seems the breaking point of "okay I tried but even I have limits".

Attempt 21: MAGE ambush room 2. Blanked on the encounter table for a second, could've had R.BONEs upstairs instead.
Attempt 22: SORCERERs in the hole room. It isn't exactly safer to dodge them: the small room in-between is 2-6 WRAITHs. They by contrast come in packs of 1-3; you can sometimes survive a paralyze versus a KO, but neither's pleasant.
Attempt 23: I did something creative on 2 WRAITHs/2 IMAGEs in room 2: kill the WRAITHs because the IMAGEs couldn't deal damage. Then may as well kill them too. Then same situation as above ended it.
Attempt 24: COCTRICE ambush room 1.
Attempt 25: COCTRICEs room 1.
Attempt 26: Two WRAITHs room 1.
Attempt 27: Too many COCTRICEs room 1.
Attempt 28: Eight undead room 2.
Attempt 29: Seven undead room 2.
Attempt 30: A lone SORCERER in the hole room landed a TRANCE and kill.
Attempt 31: Nine undead room 2.
Attempt 32: Dead in room 2 to undead again.
Attempt 33: Undead in hole room.


Time to change strategy: I recalled the Berserkers challenge that T-Hawk and Sullla both did (aka armorless). The former at least first tried it. So what if I tried to go for evasion? Mario would have +23% with just a Gold Bracelet on. It was worth a try to give me a little more odds.

Attempt 34: Didn't work.
Attempt 35: COCTRICEs.
Attempt 36: But the evasions never came.
Attempt 37: Undead in the hole room.
Attempt 38: Nice Frost D in room 1. Then undead room 2.
Attempt 39: COCTRICE ambush.
Attempt 40: Nine undead room 1.
Attempt 41: Too many COCTRICEs.
Attempt 42: I made it to the undead spike again finally. Nine damned undead. I flipped the game off in disgust. Then Mario moved first and ran. GrPEDE and R.BONE encounters followed.


Then this happened. That was six failed run attempts. Technically a misplay on my behalf, but screw it, executive decision: grinding from the first time I reach the undead spike after 50. Don't like having to do it, but this is even worse.

Attempt 43: Undead in room 2.
Attempt 44: Undead in room 2.
Attempt 45: SORCERERs hole room.
Attempt 46: COCTRICEs room 1.
Attempt 47: Undead in room 2. After two instant escapes.
Attempt 48: Nine undead in the spike.
Attempt 49: Two SORCERERs landed TRANCE. Then they didn't kill and got killed. Then the undead happened, again.
Attempt 50: Want to know what spite is? One COCTRICE survives Zeus, it's one that doesn't move, and it lands petrify.
Attempt 51: On the clock now. This one ended to undead in the hole room.
Attempt 52: COCTRICEs room 1.
Attempt 53: SORCERERs room 2.
Attempt 54: See attempt 50.
Attempt 55: COCTRICEs room 1.
Attempt 56: The rare nonlethal MAGE ambush after losing track of encounters in room 2 again! Was this a good omen, or did that burn a bunch of luck? I reached the undead spike, and this would not be an instant reset and off to grind because I got chance to strike first. Okay, stop and think. Next is encounter 184: slot 1, R.BONEs. I swapped the heavy armor back in and this time, Zeused their boney asses into the ground. Encounter 185: slot 4, SORCERERs. Strip, not even the Gold Bracelet. There's three: TRANCE, miss, TRANCE, miss, successful escape! Encounter 186: slot 1 again. That'll be WIZARDs up above, which I made it to. Armor goes back on and Zeus. Slot 187, slot 2: that's undead in the EYE room, MAGEs down below, and WIZARDs up on B1. The answer was obvious: pull the encounter before dropping down, hitting level 22 in the process.

HOWEVER, the encounter order from here goes 1-2-7-2-7-2-1-2. This is very dangerous. If I can survive the EYE and undead spike, I'll almost certainly have to fight one set of MAGES. So do I stall? No. Slot 7 on B1 is the same big undead mix from the spike. For that matter, slot 2 on B2, if I want to run around that tiny 1x2 strip, is an IMAGE/WRAITH mix. I have to risk it.

The EYE used XXXX and died. Okay. Switch in Gold Bracelet for the spike.


A six-pack. Paralyzed...recovered with 294! And ESCAPED!


Okay, okay, okay!! Encounter 188: R.BONEs. Chance to strike first and I'm out. Right here. And I make it upstairs before the MAGE encounter!!!


Nice glitch. But slot 2: WIZARDs. Heavy armor is already on and Zeus.


I don't like where this popped up. Encounter 189 is slot 7: the big undead mix here, the same as the spike. Did I have to risk it?


No! I could go back down to B3 and pull an encounter: slot 7 down here is 1-2 Frost Ds! With the Flame Armor, I wasn't afraid of these things! It was even a chance to strike first, so there was zero issue! With this I ran for the stairs, fighting one last set of WIZARDs on B1 before encounter 191, which would've been another slot 7.


And Mario survives the Ice Cave without having to grind after all! Let this serve as how useful encounter watching can be: twice in that winning run I stopped or even backtracked to avoid a deadly encounter. There were still a lot of luck factors involved in this clear, but I was able to eliminate at least some of it with this. It may not be the easiest or quickest thing to do, but sometimes, it can save your run.

Next | Index

B1-B5 | B6-B10 | B11-B12 | B13-B15 | B16-B18 | B19-B20 | B21-B25 | Postgame 1 | Postgame 2


Here's the new sword in action with Shocker against one of the FOEs of the stratum. It was kind of jarring to see it do significantly more damage than the actual physical hit itself or even what a formula would've done.

One of the quests wanted 150 items in the compendium. Already done. Another wanted three Tri-Colors, mineable from B26. Finally, one concering the so-called legendary songstress of Etria, who can be heard in the depths of the forest. I'm given a Vox Stone and asked to go on a tile hunt. It's in B24, with no easy elevator access. This gave a free Angel Harp (Troubadour accessory) and a new daytime song for the town.

So B27 is the infamous pitfall maze, and B28 is mostly one giant mass of damage tiles. The way to get around this is by watching the FOEs, as they never walk over the pits. You'll need the Survivalists' Owl Eye to do this because the Alchemist's sucks and lasts only one step, even if it is global compared to the limited range. But Sunflower had used all but one of her SP and it's very limited in scope.


So I raised one of the farm team up! Farma could use the sword same as anyone, so that helped him. At the very end here, I innovated the Songbird Dojo: this FOE will summon two white blood cells to battle periodically. On Picnic, he could splatter them in one hit each and collect a cool experience payout each time.


There was nothing really do it, just a slow and methodical grind. Could I have looked up a map? Well, yes. I actually did at the very end in order to fill in the blanks in spots where FOEs never tread. But that would be no fun.

Farma had Multi Shot to contribute, but I otherwise mostly ignored battles. Everyone was at 70 anyway and as long as I had all the drops, I was good for 100% completion as far as the game is concerned.


When all was said and doneand the upper part was mapped, everything looked about like this. Next was to take the farming team and head to an unmarked area to access some special gathering spots. There were two in an isolated room of B28 and one in the southeast corner. More stuff which made the ultimate TP boosting accessory.

Two quests resulted from a peek into B29: one was to find the innkeeper's pet. This is a tile hunt you are given like no information about, not even the name of the innkeeper. But you do get the name of the pet. It's on B26. There were hilariously chances to fight a superpowered mouse enemy in an event instead. Just all damage at least. The second was to find a monster that accosted an elderly man on a stroll. It's simply a Clover, no problem. One of the game's rare monsters.

Oh, and on that note, I forgot to get the first one. They're on specific parts of B10, particularly three tiles on the southernmost part of the room before the boss.

B29 itself is the infamous teleporter maze. After seeing the new jelly here was another one immune to physicals, I went back and switched in Allium again. With him and chasers, I made short work of all the enemies on the floor. The only problem was navigation. There is literally nothing to this but trial and error. Stalker was really nice to have here, cutting back on the number of battles significantly.


B30 was when they officially ran out of ideas and just made a bigass winding path. Yet another enemy here resisted all physicals, all the more reason to keep the Alchemist in. There was nothing to it but going forward and killing everything in my way. Songbird FOEs periodically showed up and died in one turn.

I eventually made it to the part before the end, where there was a shockingly convenient shortcut and another healing spring.


Three quests popped up here. One was to fix an elevator on B21. This featured a ton of spider enemies who quickly fully bound my party, but not before I got up Immunize and knocked off half their health. Some Theracia As got Larkspur and Allium back in the game and finished them.

Next up was to find the so-called legendary bird. Jt starts with a long story that has more lore in it than all the other quests put together about a young orphan who stole a piece of meat and ran into the forest when seen. The owner found him and wanted to give him a bigger piece, but he ran again until the owner caught up. They had a laugh until monsters showed up, but then the bird showed up and asked for the meat. It ate it and drove the monsters away. And with literally just that to go on, I have to figure it out. Your only hint is that the boy ran into the forest, so SURELY it's early on, yes? No, it's at the very bottom. Just a horrendously obnoxious venture back to the entrance area. Got some expensive jewels out of it at least.

Last one was another ingredient hunt: made from Stiff Hide (a wolf), Sticky Goo (stratum 2 gels), Gumthroat (Treefrog), Tendon (Immoa), and - for some reason - Drywall (B21 mine). Pretty easy, and they all cooperated.

This unlocked the last quest: to find some ancient relics. As usual as of late, given no information about where they are. There's one each on each floor of the sixth stratum and they were unmarked when going through the first time. Interesting "spot what this is" lore but that's it.


Before the superboss I had to fight my way through the dragon clones, a weird thing that only this game and its remake ever did. They're supposedly the last defense the core has. Considering it's, yknow, the superboss, it hardly needs them. They even take the full two weeks to respawn like many FOEs do, so you can just (have to actually) thread out after beating them. They're so much weaker than the dragons themselves the only thing worth talking about is that it took a while to get their drops.


Etrian Odyssey superbosses are normally about finding ways of smashing the game and therefore them into tiny little pieces. Can't do that here without Picnic mode, and I have enough dignity to go after this thing on Expert.


But like many Etrian superbosses, the pattern is at least very predictable. For one, it flips if you have ten or more buffs. With Immunize (boosted all the time thanks to Axcela IIIs) covering the defense, that left Trumpet out in the cold. He was replaced with Rotheca. I pulled out some Bravant IIs and bought some more.


It uses elemental nukes on set turns: it opens with a fire one and uses it on every 5x+1 turn. The volt one is used on 4x+1 turns, and the ice one is used on 6x+1 turns. If multiple meet the qualifications, fire will superscede ice and volt, and ice supercedes volt.

At one point, it pulled out a move that bound everyone's everything. I had Immunize up though, so I just used Theracia As and kept going. Besides that scare, its physicals were manageable and it never pulled out its murder move which it can do depending on the situation. There's ways to play the AI around it, worst case.


In the end, it fell. Pretty lucky fight all things considered, but I'm not going to complain.


And maybe the town because apparently the only reason to ever come into the labyrinth is to discover the mysteries. You know, not farming the resources or adventuring for the thrill of it or anything. Hey, at least Primevil can regenerate so the core isn't permanently dead.


That's it for Etrian 1. All in all, they had to start somewhere, I guess.

B1-B5 | B6-B10 | B11-B12 | B13-B15 | B16-B18 | B19-B20 | B21-B25 | Postgame 1 | Postgame 2


So right next to the Geomagnetic Pole in B21 is a Mining Spot with materials that can be sold at a premium. Very good stuff, needless to say. I made back the money from the Meteor Axe and then some: getting up to 400k after other expenditures, including some Landshark exclusive armor with a big STR boost.


While exploring the ruins of ancient Tokyo, I bumped into another FOE. Immunize plus strong attacks with strong weapons put this one to bed quickly. I didn't fight the boss in the way yet, instead just let them stand there.

Because several quests opened up between this and a brief peek into B22. The first of these was the last of the solo quests, and gave a bit of backstory into the guildmaster. It all but says his party was wiped by a Sickwood and he lost and eye and somehow game mechanics did not apply there. So now I have to kill one solo for reasons. There was no follow-up on it before or after.


Besides being terribly weak and spamming poison that Huangshan could shrug off, she could recover damage with Drain even if it was any threat.

Two wanted materials I couldn't get yet. One wanted me to get some offerings for a fallen adventurer, who probably died to a Venomfly ambush on B1, or was just buried there for whatever reason. Just a fetch quest. And one concerned a mysterious girl who lives in the marshes of the second stratum on B7.


Yeah, you can see what a mess this is. This is also part of why I picked up Healing Touch. In the original DS release, this is a crummy skill that can restore up to 50% of max HP outside of battle only with a ten point investment. Here? For just three points you can have an on-demand full heal outside of battle.


Guaranteed ambush aside, I came in with boosted Immunize which instantly shut her down.

Condition is to not kill with fire. Which was already done and resulted in Troubadour's ultimate armor. I'll have to return with Alchemist to get her normal drop.


Then these two got in the way on a bridge. Allslash rapidly brought them bought to their knees. I could use Trumpet to cancel the Ronin's buffs. The Hexer kept missing her debuffs which helped, though I notably had to doublecast Immunize since she canceled it.


However, the dungeon itself for all that it is was pretty obnoxious. Lots of winding paths and dead ends. It took me four or five trips to get through and activate the elevators. I even kept pushing several times a little further past 60 items only to find I had longer to go than I expected. The enemies were for the most part similarly bland. Muskoids were the only thing of any danger, if they got off sleep before I could kill them. It all made for even more grinding. Had to happen sometime.

Even the quests didn't have much going on with them for the most part. Two wanted ten Angel Wings and Gold Furs respectively!! Thankfully I learned the former was not just a drop, but also something I could just take. Another concerned a noble who was having trouble sleeping, which needed a Hexer with Torpor. After that, another quest unlocked where I had to fight some fifth stratum FOEs on B1. No big deal.


Once I finally reached B25, it, too, was just kind of a mess to map? By the end of it I was starting to get really sick of the Desouler bear FOEs, which hadn't been a threat from the first time I saw them. But the real pricks were the Armorolls. Very physically resistant, very common, and could show up in packs of five. I eventually used the Troubadour's elemental infusions to get it done.


Relatedly, I got the Ogre FOE's conditional to kill it in two turns. Took some setup with the backup party due to being physically resistant.


Except backup no more. I actually got so sick of the rollers wasting my time that I booted Protea out of the party for Allium! The rest were nearing 70 anyway and it wouldn't be too much trouble to get him there. With the elemental chasers learned by Larkspur, I could clear encounters turn 1. Then find one to stall on to recover TP, but that's nothing new. It had another practical purpose too: there was one more new FOE down here that wanted a kill with non-physical damage. So that got it done.

But before long, I came to the final boss door, where the massive plot twists that are now commonly known are elaborated upon, and the importance of human curiosity and greed are emphasized. I thought about it, I looked up the stats...


...then I went right in with this party. Etreant is more convoluted than the previous bosses. In particular, he does not like buffs. Five or more, including any party AoE, and he flips his shit, dispels them, and follows up with a big nasty AoE next turn. Except I can just recast, instantly even thanks to first turn. The other thing that went into this is that he could use a move to prevent physical attacks.


The fun thing is that Blazer doesn't count as a physical attack, and naturally, neither do Alchemist formulae. With those two working in tandem, and Sunflower doing her thing when she could, I was slowly but surely wearing down the boss. And I could just keep regenerating TP for the party.


He eventually died. The end.

But there's a postgame. Let's do that.

B1-B5 | B6-B10 | B11-B12 | B13-B15 | B16-B18 | B19-B20 | B21-B25 | Postgame 1 | Postgame 2


I had three quests to do after this. One was to just buy an accessory I'd already gotten the materials for and hand it over for a different one. Another wanted me to get the drop from those tortoise FOEs. Which I couldn't do because they hadn't yet respawned! The other involved going to the next stratum. At the back end of the conveyor maze (something no Etrian really lets you map without being creative) that is B16, I unlocked the Hexer class.


Comes absurdly late, but at least Etrian 1 HD lets you picnic train. So it was finally time to do that with the leftover classes; I needed to for certain drops and quests anyway. Whip Dark Hunter, Sword Dark Hunter, Ronin, Alchemist, Hexer. I simply took them through the labyrinth killing everything in the way, but especially FOEs. I got Fenrir's common drop and Cernunous' rare drop while I was at it.

I used the infamous Frog Dojo after this. The Forest Frog enemies in the third stratum can summon allies. You can kill up to 30 of them in a single fight and earn a huge chunk of experience all at once. It's not particularly dangerous either.

I tried another method by briefly peeking into B17 to go to the Moa Dojo! I like the Japanese wiki description of this: "If you're not satisfied with frogs, head to B17F. Huge Moa has opened a Moa Dojo." Same story, tougher enemies (Immoa in English), doesn't matter, picnic mode. It gave out more and Destruction Begets Decay plays instead, but it's a little more annoying and they seem a bit less likely to summon. So shrug. It was also possible to set up an overnight autogrind with help of the game's walking, autofire, and a Medic with Patch Up. Maybe later.

(Maybe the funniest one on the JP wiki: abusing the fourth boss, which will infinitely respawn as long as FOEs exist and you haven't gone to B21 yet. But that was just on the original.)

They all reached level 48, just for the hell of it and it was the same as my main party. I got these guys up because there were some quests that needed them! A level 20 Ronin first of all. Along the way and gave me a katana I'd already bought...


The chefs were out in force for the quests that were available! One was way outstanding and wanted an Alchemist with Fire Formula learned. This directly led into another quest where I was asked to get the conditional drop of Firebird. This requires a kill with fire damage. I'd actually already gotten it; see, using an Alchemist here is total bait. Anything with a fire component counts. I used the Ronin's Orochi since it was convenient. Another wanted two Musks from the golden deer in B16, a bit annoying due to low drop rates.

There was also a long overdue one where I needed five Insect Eyes, the conditional drop of the stratum 1 butterflies that required a kill with magic. I could finally do it now, which unlocked a second, requiring the Toxic Barb from the Assassin FOE. I thought by now the ones in the hidden area of straum 2 would have revived. Have to wait a bit more or advance time, it seems.

There was one more I couldn't do yet: needed a Fish Fin, a Dry Peach, and a Red Beak. I could get the first from enemies in stratum 3, but the peaches were exclusive to chopping on B18 or Sickwood FOEs (chumps) and Red Beaks were from...wait for it...Redbeaks. A B19 enemy.


While I was thinking of it, I bought the Golem and got the conditional drop, which wanted an instant kill. Ecstasy from Whip Dark Hunter when at low HP is about the only reliable way to do this, so that's what I did. Said conditional made the Meteor Axe, another postgame piece of equipment.


FInally, a series of two quests asked for a solo FOE kill. One involved the bears in the second stratum. There's a shortcut you can use to easily jump one from behind. I used Sword!Dark Hunter for this, since Drain is pretty much tailor made for these. Or I would've if I thought about using her for it and didn't uncharacteristically spend my skill points. I'll be sure to rectify that for the next one. The second was to fight a crab in the third stratum. This was a bit tough: you have to spend one turn in a battle right next to the spawn point, then win or run from it. But I could also set up for a free turn. I settled on Alchemist (!) here and popped a Stonard II that I had to boost his defense. It was enough to prevent a 2HKO. But it turned out to be irrelevant because he made some dodges and could 3HKO.

With all that done, I moved on with the plot. After a ton of stressing from unrelated things and trying to figure out, yeah, I should probably spend some skill points.


Now the bigass downside of this purchase is that it makes my financial situation a bit precarious for a while. This is part of why I picked up Healing Touch, however: a free full heal out of battle for just 3TP plus Immunize can invalidate inn costs for a bit if I need to. And really, there was not much else to spend on for now: there was a new axe I could buy, but I could wait on that. I would simply have to ride it out until the fifth stratum, then I could start raking in the cash.

B17 was a wall maze. Mostly annoying to deal with, and the enemies weren't that much different than I was used to even on Expert. I fought the second of the plant enemies on B18 by following a certain path through the floor. Need to go back for the first.


A big chunk of B18 was a big open area, with a hidden passage needed to be found in order to advance. Also Roningirl and Hexergirl acting suspicious a tile away after telling us that. Considering there was only one part of the map not against the map limit, it was easy to search for. Got a couple level ups mapping it out. The other downsides of the big bad bow purchase is that the forest folk resist pierce, and that Sunflower is so fast that she can outspeed Bravery, even when I boosted Trumpet's Songs to max leevl. On the other hand, Allslash wiped most encounters pretty cleanly. I had to bail eventually since the bag was full.

Two quests came out of it, both from the Carpenters Guild. One wanted me to get three Hard Shards and five Steel Chips for a mere Steelsword. The weapon Larkspur was already using. I had five Hard Shards and three Steel Chips! The other wanted me to kill three monsters on B17.

I took the farming party to gather the goods. And hey, I had like 24k now! I instantly blew it on a katana for the Ronin that I had previously gotten from fighting Royalant again and getting her rare drop which was just a diceroll. I had a plan, you see. I stopped on the floor right before a FOE with a conditional. That conditional, kill while fully bound. The Ronin could easily do the killing part with that katana. Whip Dark Hunter and Hexer pulled off the binding part.


Except...okay then. I guess I have to deal with that. Hit the limit right before the fight too. Stupid Nintendo coding.