ELEMENTS: SOUL OF FIRE
-Walkthrough-
By Prometheus
NOTE: Both this walkthrough and several supplementary spreadsheets are included in the download of the game.
Table of Contents
Section 0: Party Recommendations
Section 1: The Fated Day (opening scenario)
Section 2: Search for the Sage (to Alavon)
Section 3: All Fired Up (Alavon - liberation to Fire Element/Kingdom of Ashe)
Section 4: Testing the Waters (Arean Revisit, Winstar)
Section 5: Death to the Emperor (Fiyara)
Section 6: Trapped! (Glymac)
Section 7: New Horizons (Ikory, Mesomia, Haine)
Section 8: The Sun Sets (Hobo - Bog of Styx, Elysium Falls, Valley of Sol)
Section 9: In the Wake of a Tragedy (Last of Hobo, Veya)
Section 10: Death from Above (Cambria)
Section 11: Maximus Returns! (Carlo, Islan, Southern Islet)
Section 12: Return to Fiyara
Section 13: To Endoria (Fauston, West Behgar, Mirror Maze, Behgar Jungle)
Section 14: Endoria and the Cave of Destiny
Section 15: Faust’s Mansion, the Legacy of Blood
Section 16: The Long Barren Road
Section 17: Heights of Nadir and the Castle in the Sky
Section 18: Palace of the 4 Elemental Gods
Section 19: The Omega Colony
Section 20: This Is It! (Elemental Shrine)
Section 21: Postgame (Saruma, Iron Emperor, Dark Saint, Arena Challenge)
Section 22: Achievements
Section 0: Party Recommendations
As there are 21 playable characters in the game, you have plenty of options. Some parties will, of course, be more challenging than others. Prometheus’ own recommendations are found in the Boss Profiles spreadsheet.
Generally, if you want a party that makes the going easier, use any combination of Romeo, Ezra, Jessica, Ryota, and Maximus (you may even wish to swap them out every so often so that they can all be leveled up when you need them). A party of that nature will maximize support and power, which is what you need to plow through the many tough boss fights. Maximus is slow, but can deal unbelievable, even criminal damage when Charged. Romeo is faster by comparison, so you may find him more reliable (of course, using both is great too). Ryota is the fastest of the three but not quite as strong; however, his Smoke Bomb can render many enemies completely harmless (as long as they don’t use magical attacks), and his Calthrops can deal incredible damage to bosses that are grounded and not resistant to them. Jessica keeps everybody’s Attack buffed. Ezra can pitch in for healing (though late in the game, you’ll also get advanced healing items that may effectively replace him; on the other hand, using Ezra could save you money as you won’t need to buy as many HP restoratives). Ezra’s Light magic is also very useful for destroying the prolific Demon-type enemies in the game.
Any character can be good if you give them the right equipment. Prometheus observed that one of the challenging aspects of this game is that character strength is very equipment-dependent. Even someone like Erin can be a damage-dealing beast with the Black Leather Corset and Hobo Lily, for example. Leah gets the Union Ring to add to this combo, making for something truly fiendish. By the way, female characters level up faster, so that may be something else to consider.
Pica can be difficult to use because she’s very weak by default, and must survive boss battles to gain her skills. But if player feedback is any indication, sticking with Pica can be very rewarding. If you have a lot of patience, you could give it a try. Prometheus has certainly made an excellent case for Pica in this guide.
Sybil is also useful for healing, and gets more powerful healing skills than Ezra. However, unlike Ezra, she doesn’t get any attack magic. She does have a couple of other useful skills, though, like raising Will (which constitutes magic defense) with Encase/Encasing Orb, nullifying enemy buffs with Nullify, and protecting the party from status ailments with Blessing (enemies tend to use lots of status effects).
Karma was another of my personal favorites. She’s very good if you can get all of her best stuff, which is hidden late in the game; speedy and powerful. Reuel is another heavy-hitter, using unique equipment. Luna can be surprisingly powerful, as well. Esther’s Ice magic can be useful in certain situations, and she can lower enemy attack and defense, making their attacks more manageable and increasing the party’s damage output. Boaz is fast and has strong Dark magic, but isn’t as physically powerful as some of the other characters; as well, many enemies resist darkness.
It’s up to you how you want to form your party and conquer the game. Personally, I recommend using a variety of characters to gauge their strengths for yourself and get a feel for what’s right for you. If you really like the game, you may want to play more than once and use different characters on subsequent playthroughs for a new challenge. Take your time and enjoy!
Section 1: The Fated Day
After gaining control of Leonardo, proceed through the house until you encounter two mysterious armor-clad foes. After the following story scenes, you’ll have Leah in your party and will enter the sewers. Be sure to pick up all the treasure along the way, and don’t hesitate to heal; the Slimes are pretty weak, but Leah is especially vulnerable at this point.
BOSS – King Archimedes: Before the fight, equip Leah with the extra defensive gear found in the sewers. Leonardo is at less risk of dying due to higher base hp. Attack with both characters, using medicine to heal if hp drops below 10.
Don’t forget to upgrade your equipment in town, and in every town; keeping up to date is absolutely critical in this game. Check all boxes, barrels, dressers and so on, even fireplaces. You’ll find money and items that will make a big difference!
Prometheus recommends buying extra Battle Sashes and Bandanas (the latter available in the next town) for future characters.
Section 2: Search for the Sage (To Alavon)
Head northeast from Reikya to reach the town of Neevah. There are a couple of diversions you can take, but watch out for the eyes in the trees; walking near will initiate a battle with powerful Ice Nymphs (needless to say, they’re weak to fire, but they can confuse you, so they’re dangerous). To the south is a snowfield, but you can’t do anything there for now. To the northwest is a spring where a fairy will commission a quest.
Check all the boxes lying around in Neevah, and check the fireplace in the clinic; all for important items. Again, they’ll make a huge difference.
BOSS – Cockatrice: Assuming you have upgraded to the best equipment available in both towns, Cockatrice is very manageable at level 5. However, the party will be thrust into a new dungeon following his defeat with no turning back and no immediate healing available. (Party is fully healed after boss victory only) Level 6 adds a degree of safety for this, and reduces the number of potential consumables you may use getting to that next healing point.
Whatever level you use the basic strategy remains the same: Pound away using your strongest regular attacks and heal if your hp drops to a dangerous level. Pep talk can also be used for a small stat boost that will persist until death or the end of the fight.
After the battle, you’ll plunge down into the Arean Caverns. Make your way through, picking up all items you see, and be careful about the battles. I recommend using the Life Booster you get on Leah, and the Mind Booster on Leonardo so he can use his Fire magic more freely. Use both characters’ magic on the Deadbats to kill them quicker, and use fire on the Yetis. Deadbats can poison you with their bites, so stock plenty of Antibiotics.
When you reach the frozen tunnels, stay away from the paths with bones for now. You will die if you try to fight the Crystal Eaters at this point.
In town, heal and upgrade your equipment, then proceed to the theater for a boss battle.
BOSS – Jack: Before starting the fight make sure you have a few antibiotics and eyedrops. Other status effects won't bother us nearly as much as poison and blind. Also make sure to equip the Parka on Leah. Even though Parka would be a bigger upgrade for Leonardo than Leah, her lower hp pool can make surviving this fight difficult for her. I opted to do this fight at level 7 because we will meet a third Hero soon and it’s more efficient to level together.
I suggest using special skills to quickly dispatch ???.
Pound away at Jack using regular attacks. The number of balls he is holding provides a rough indication of hp. We will be fully healed and then the real fight begins.
Regular attacks are still the way to go here, but heal poisoned heroes with antibiotics immediately. If your heroes become confused I suggest waiting it out; they will recover next time they take damage. As always, heal when appropriate. This fight isn't too tough normally, but Jack does have a lot of dangerous skills. Don't be frustrated if you get unlucky once or twice, and if you are really struggling go back and grind out another level or two.
Note: Crystal Eater can be defeated now that you have Pica in your party. Use Wink, retrieve Cinnamon's pets and trade them in for a new accessory.
Once you’re finished in the Crystal City, proceed to the sewers. You will lose Leah early on, and the going can be tough with just Leo and Pica. You have to trigger three switches to open the way forward.
In Ben’s timed maze, if you can make it to the bottom within the time limit, you can obtain a Detox Ring, which will prove very useful when fighting him. But you need some pretty impressive manual dexterity to pull it off.
Use normal attacks against the first and second rats, and Leonardo’s Fire magic against the third. The second and third rats will debilitate you with blindness and silence, respectively, rendering themselves invincible; stock Eyedrops and Screamers to prepare.
There’s a very easy trick to catching the second rat. Either stay right where you are and he’ll run right back to you after his route has finished, or immediately run all the way down to the bottom-left corner and wait for him to run into you. The second way is quicker. Don’t worry, there’s nothing in all those dressers, so you don’t have to check them.
When you’ve defeated all three rats, you’ll have to enter a password. This is different from the earlier password. It’s the numbers of the rats in the order they’re standing, so pay attention to their names and the way their eyes look when you fight them.
BOSS – Bigger Ben: Leonardo should attack primarily with his spells, his physical attacks will lose effectiveness after Bigger Ben casts Bolster. Pica should confuse him using Wink whenever she can. Magic damage does not cancel confusion. Leonardo and Pica should both use curative items as appropriate. Giving Leonardo the Detox ring is a good idea to avoid poison damage. Big Ben has approx 550 hp. He can hit himself for upwards of 70 damage, while Leonardo's fire spell is unlikely to do more than 25 a hit. Pica can easily die to his attacks, especially if Bigger Ben lands a critical hit. If this happens Leonardo needs to use an adrenaline and power drink on her while she continues to use Wink as much as possible. Make sure Pica survives the fight to earn her first special skill – Halitosis.
Following Ben, you’ll find yourself in Pepp Mausoleum. Leonardo and Leah’s Elemental attacks are highly effective against the undead. Make your way to the top.
Goth x 8: Use cinder burst with Leonardo, pebble whirl with Leah, and wink with Pica. If you start the fight fully healed with the equipment I recommend it should be a cinch. Goth's sometimes drop Thug Bands, a useful accessory that increases strength by 25. Reload a couple of times until you get one or more. I recommend getting at least 2 as this will be the best-in-slot accessory for physical attackers for the next several areas. If you plan on grinding out some Life Boosters from Cave Bears in an upcoming one-time dungeon, these items will make a big difference.
Goth Lord: You don't need to fight him right away but if you do he will fully heal you the first time of battle. Use cinder burst every turn. You need to do about 900 of damage before he will trigger a scripted attack. Keep your hp over 200 to ensure you survive it. If you choose not to fight him immediately, you will find an armor upgrade nearby that makes it much easier.
Pica can equip the Goth Robe found near the Mausoleum. But I suggest you unequip her before entering Alavon.
If you can beat the Goth Lord, you’ll be able to buy Pepp Pep at the bar. If not, don’t worry; you can come back later and buy a membership, or get it from ambassadors found throughout the game (though it’s cheapest at the bar).
Proceed east across the Valley of the Dead to reach the territory of Alavon.
Make sure to speak to the old lady on the Alavon plains before entering Alavon. She is in a cabin directly south of the gate to Alavon. This is vital to starting a sidequest. If you don't you will miss the chance to net several unique pieces of equipment. This sidequest is extremely easy to miss. New to version 1.2, this quest can be triggered at later points. Speak to her now anyway though.
Poke around Alavon for the money in the treasure chests, then go to the east river and cross the bridge. A scene will start, and Leonardo will again be plunged underground - this time alone. Do your best to dodge the speedy enemies, quickly reunite with Leah, and make some new friends.
After obtaining the Party Ball, you will have to assemble a party to storm the castle. Stripping armor and accessories off non-active members to equip to someone else might make it easier, seeing as the shops haven't opened yet. If you have been following this guide you should have plenty of battle sashes and bandanas, which is a good start.
Section 3: All Fired Up
You need to find three keys to make it to the throne room of Alavon Castle. One is hidden in a bush outside the main entrance, another held by guards in the west courtyard, and the last is given to you by Phoebe in the dungeon (check the grate outside the castle to descend into the tunnels that lead to the dungeon). When fighting the boss, just GUARD with Romeo; don’t attack.
After conquering Alavon Castle we have a couple of important tasks to do. First talk to Phoebe to get Ezra a special item and then loot the Castle treasury for some power-ups. You can also see a scene between Leah and Pica if you enter the temple that provides an automatic level-up for both. You may wish to hold off on the latter to maximize the experience gain. I haven't tested to see how late this scene can be triggered.
Upgrade equipment at the shop. Buy the maximum number of Pepp Peps (8) from the ambassador. We pretty much want to carry 8 of these at a time as a rule and save them for boss fights. Finally make sure to talk to Granny on your way out of town to make sure we trigger the sidequest.
Alavon Forest is our next destination, past the light-blue barrier that Esther can dispel. There are many secret passages in Alavon Forest. You have to find four orbs and place them atop the four towers in the central zone. If you see treasure chests that you can’t reach, try pressing against the trees around them.
Gain a quick level with Esther as soon as you can; she’ll learn Frost Razor, which rips through the enemies here.
The gate screen can be traveled to using the Land drum so stock up on Pepp Peps and any other necessary supplies before and after the boss fight.
BOSS – Great Mantis: The Great Mantis hits hard, and your heroes will die if you are not properly prepared. Esther, Leah and Romeo are all weak to wood, so if you choose to use one of them for this battle, enchanted leaf might be a good choice of accessory. Pica should defend and use curative items, as she is extremely fragile at this stage of the game. Leonardo's regular attack and Jessica's Psi Dart are both reliable sources of damage. Leah is a good choice for a 4th despite her wood weakness due to a high hp pool and solid physical defense. A conservative strategy should get you through this fight, but really as long as Pica survives anything is fine.
Next are the badlands. This area is pretty short, but you may find the battles tough. Again, Frost Razor will do the trick, especially combined with Leonardo’s Fire attacks. At the end, you’ll have to fight two enemies with Leonardo alone. With Pepp Pep in stock, it shouldn’t be hard.
After getting Boaz you should head back to Pepp City to visit the bar. Or you can wait and do it when you trade in the next Bigger Ben item. This will also add Pepp City to Pluto's map from the land drum.
With Boaz having joined the group, you can begin your ascent of Mt. Loki.
Keep an eye out for some rare drops on Mt. Loki. Several characters can equip scorpion tail, a weapon dropped from scorpions. Fire chibis are the first of many enemies that drop chibi cleats. Salamanders drop salamander's blood, a rare consumable.
BOSS – Nidhoggr: Heal up and stock up on Pepp Peps before facing this boss. Similar to the last fight, Leonardo and Jessica can both inflict steady damage, and Pica can die in one blow if she isn't defending. She can do some ok damage if she charges up the turn before with Whet, but it’s a big risk to take, especially since Nidhoggr evades some attacks. The last member of the party should focus on keeping everyone else healthy. Trade in your statue at Bigger Ben when you restock and heal after the fight.
Note: Scorpion tails drop very rarely. The area after Nidhoggr is a good place to fight scorpions and you can warp out to heal. This weapon is a big upgrade for Pica.
The objective in the Kingdom of Ashe is to find keys that will allow you to enter the different district buildings.
2 man-eaters guard a secret entrance to the building on the right. This can be a tough fight. Jessica's Psi Dart does lots of damage to them. You may wish to use the Stamina Ring for this fight; it can be found atop the building near the man-eaters. Inside the southern entrance, pass through the right wall and once outside, walk one step down, then walk left and up. You’ll be on top of the structure; make your way up to the chest.
In the secret entrance behind the man-eaters, there’s a trapped chest. Winning the fight nets you Ruby Shards. These, along with other kinds, are needed for a side quest. Be sure to save at least one of each kind of shard; you can use or sell the rest.
Hellbender has about 2000 HP. He hits hard and absorbs fire damage. Jessica and Boaz can both inflict good magic damage against him. If Leah has learned Earth Spike (level 24) that will do lots of damage. Esther and Romeo both have fire weaknesses so be wary of using them in this fight. For your efforts you retrieve white knuckles. This weapon will make the main boss of Ashe, Fafnir, a lot easier. Hellbender is in the basement of the West district building.
Mimics are a reoccurring enemy throughout the game that guard unique equipment. They can be aggravating because they have an instant-death attack that removes the character from the fight (slurp). They also hit hard physically using double attacks. Leonardo is immune to slurp but your other characters are not. If this fight takes a turn for the worst just reload, if a major damage dealer goes down early it’s probably not worth it. This Mimic has about 1500 hp and always drops Ruby Ring. The Mimic is on the top floor of the West district building.
BOSS – Fafnir: Fafnir can silence your heroes so I suggest equipping voice amulet to your primary spellcaster. Priest cap also prevents silence if you use Ezra. Fafnir absorbs fire and darkness damage (lava lance still does damage though). There is a long cutscene before this boss. I recommend having Leonardo use pep talk on first turn as the stat bonus will persist as long as individual heroes are alive. Jessica should consider casting telepathy on the primary spellcaster. If Leah is level 24 using earth spike, will inflict heavy damage. Pica is still pretty fragile so defending with her is the best option. Remember, she needs to survive the fight to learn skills from Bosses.
After you defeat Fafnir, you can dispel the barrier on the beach south of Alavon and enter the Seaside Cave.
Seaside Cave: Wacky Moles can drop Power Ups. Shielders rarely drop Crystal Slab. You will have other chances to find crystal slabs later in the game so do not waste your time getting them now.
BOSS – Uvula: Immune to fire damage. Uses stomach acid every turn, which can cause poison. 2 detox rings make this fight easier. Pound away with your best attacks and spells, healing as necessary.
Section 4: Testing the Waters
With the Sea Chime you have the choice of 2 locations: Winstar or Arean. Granny suggests you go to Arean first and while I agree, you should stock up with new equipment at the Winstar shops before returning home. While you are in Winstar you can trigger the start of a long sidequest as well as pick up a valuable armor from an orphan.
Arean: We have a couple of things to do. Start by returning to the Fairy Pond to continue the sidequest and pick up a bunch of helpful equipment for Pica. Then visit Neevah to add the location to our land drum, buy some new items from the shops, a bunch of dynamite, and a knuckle weapon we can buy from a crack in the wall. Finally stop by the school to pick up a pointer before triggering a cutscene at home.
Note: The first 2 fairy pools can be found in Pepp Valley and Alavon Forest. You may have located them in your first run through the area. Both are slightly hidden. There is no hurry to go back and do them immediately, next time you trade an item into Bigger Ben would be fine. This sidequest cannot be completed for a long time.
Race Chibi: To ensure the fastest time for this trial, you will want to plan to rapidly kill the enemies in Kingdom of Ashe. You should plan on a party of only two characters to save time. Many of them are immune or absorb fire or dark attacks, meaning you will need a character with a powerful multi-targeting magic attack to clear the area the quickest. Chances are you do not have a character with optimal spells for this challenge yet. Pica can accomplish this effectively after clearing the Titans on Fiyara island. It can be done sooner, but a larger margin of error is helpful, as the second trial can be challenging. Even after learning the shortcuts you still need to juke as many enemies as you can and escape many you do encounter. Not being able to 1-hit KO enemies with multi-targeting spells also makes it more challenging, though still achievable. Both rewards increase agility, which is situationally useful for some fights but not indispensable.
Once you obtain the Tome of Illusion from Joe, head to the snowfield south of the forest. A new area will be revealed.
BOSS – Ruiner: The ruiner is divided into 4 parts. You can defeat them in any order, they have about the same approximate hp of 1000. They are immune to fire magic. This boss shouldn't give you too much trouble, simply focus fire and heal as appropriate.
BOSS – Mazda: This is by far the toughest fight so far in the game. Make sure you have 8 Pepp Peps ready before this fight. Mazda is immune to dark magic and ice magic. Absorbs light. Mazda can cast a variety of status ailments including intelligence down, silence and confuse. For that reason, there are many acceptable accessory choices. Pica gets a great skill from this fight, so she is mandatory. Ezra is highly recommended because he absorbs Mazda's light magic. He can also cast light barrier on allies to reduce the damage they take. For your last character I recommend whoever is the stronger of Jessica and Esther – both have decent Will with the right equipment. Jessica has better utility but lower will.
Start the fight with Pep talk. Leonardo should be casting Infernal Dragon or attacking physically every turn. Ezra can heal and cast light barrier (Pica won't survive candela beam without it). Pica can cast blast, defend and use curative items as appropriate. Jessica can reduce Mazda's magic attack with amnesia, buff party members or attack. Revive dead heroes as appropriate.
Note: You can unlock Fiyara early by speaking to an old man in Winstar.
While we can begin a preliminary exploration of Fiyara the two major dungeons are both blocked off until Winstar is completed. If we do decide to push forward ahead of schedule we will be well rewarded for our efforts. Most crucially, Pica will learn 3 skills from non-challenging bosses, and heroes can upgrade their armor at the shop in town. Some of the regular encounters may prove challenging however, so if you do choose to go here first you may want to run first, and fight second, at least until you reach the equipment shop. For the purpose of this walkthrough, we will complete events in Winstar before entering Fiyara.
Make sure Boaz and Leonardo are ready for battle before entering Winstar castle. You will fight 2 mountain lions, and then Czar. Czar is immune to dark magic. Czar can paralyze, confuse and poison your heroes so consider equipping accessories to prevent these effects. Use pepp peps to heal your heroes in a crunch. You should be able to take him down without too much trouble. There are a few items you can find in the castle before chasing after Abigail.
We have a couple of important objectives for the upcoming area:
1. Fight Night Hawk and trade in with Bigger Ben for a useful weapon.
2. Fight Rockfeller with Pica in your party (you will need dynamite)
3. Visit the fairy pond (only accessible with rope found after defeating Rockfeller)
4. Pick up the Emerald Ring and Emerald Shards.
5. Pick up at least 1 Bow of Sagittarius, a rare drop from Centaur. This is an active battle item that isn't consumed upon use. We need 2 of them because 1 will be traded in as part of a sidequest. We will encounter another enemy that drops Bow of Sagittarius later in the game so we don't need to pick up extras right now.
There is a land drum checkpoint at the base of Mt. Gareth. You can warp back to here from other points in the dungeon.
BOSS – Rockfeller: Immune to dark magic. Casts earth magic and has a hard hitting double attack. Leonardo should attack normally, and Pica can use Candela beam. If Leah is in the party she will absorb his rock spike and can cast earth barrier spells to reduce damage to other party members. Has roughly 6000 hp.
BOSS – Abigail: Immune to Dark and Earth magic. 2 rounds of sentries before fighting her that can be dispatched with group magic. Infernal Dragon and Celestial Sphere guarantee 1-hit ko.
Leonardo equipped with Garuda talons hits upward of 1K a turn. He can be further buffed with pep talk (recommended), empower (recommended), flex (not recommended). Pica can also do 400+ a turn with candela beam, maybe with telepathy for extra power. Ezra and Jessica were there for utility and healing but with Leonardo doing the heavy lifting, other heroes can fight cautiously. Abigail may cast Dark Guard, a spell that reduces damage, but the effect will wear off eventually. Make sure to grab the spear on the cliff outside before warping to town.
Section 5: Death to the Emperor
Fiyara: There are a limited number of rock turtles on the beach (they don't respawn). They have a tiny chance of dropping valuable accessory Carapace ring. While we can fight them it’s unlikely you can farm them efficiently, so I suggest coming back later and harvesting 4+ rings.
Before exiting the beach you come across a boss (but really more like a mini-boss).
BOSS – Blue Titan: This barely qualifies as a boss fight. While Blue Titan hits hard, he only has about 2000 hp. Spam your strongest spells and make sure Pica survives the fight. Your heroes will be fully healed after your victory.
Between the Blue and Green Titan you can find a Fairy Pond hidden in the forest.
BOSS – Green Titan: Like his brother, Green Titan can scarcely be considered a boss. With 3000 hp he will also go down quickly. Make sure Pica survives.
BOSS – Red Titan: Like the previous 2 titans, Red Titan is not very intimidating. He absorbs fire magic, but will go down quickly to your strongest attacks.
Note: Now is a good time to complete the Chibi Race sidequest I spoke about earlier. If you have have been following this guide you have all the equipment you need to complete this sidequest safely and speedily. The new magic Pica learned from the Titans will allow her to dispose of all but the strongest enemies in Kingdom of Ashe in one hit. Race shortcuts are listed in another section.
Race hints: While this challenge can be completed with a party of any size, a party of 2 is by far the most efficient. You'll save a couple of seconds every battle you don't run from instead of clicking the attack or guard command. Leonardo should also equip a speed accessory so he can try to escape battles. Shortcuts become available only after attaining the first reward. Jessica with Mind Wave (learned level 27) can also be a good choice for this challenge.
I did it 681 seconds on my first try this playthrough. I think any time under 20 minutes gets a reward though. Equip motor skates to Leonardo upon victory and heal up. The second version of the race is a lot tougher, though still manageable with the list of shortcuts I've provided. Just as important as knowing is avoiding as many fights as you can, sometimes waiting for an enemy to walk past a route instead of fighting them, etc. The next challenge needs to be completed in 6 minutes.
I did it in 315 seconds, but I have the shortcuts pretty well memorized by now. Trying to beat the time limit on the same run you learn the shortcuts would be unrealistic.
Arean-Alavon Cross-Country Race – Shortcuts
1 home bottom of stairs
2 neevah foothills top right to left of trees
3 neevah mines screen 1 through wall directly to stairs
4 neevah mines screen 2 bottom right wall near stairs down
5 neevah mines screen 3 bottom right corner loop though
6 neevah mines screen 3 after 1st shortcut below bridge to left through wall to stairs
7 neevah mines screen 4 immediate right on entering the room
8 neevah mines screen 5 (room with crystal eaters) go right, then through upper right corner-highest
9 sewers screen 1 straight up through wall
Sewers screen 2 go left and around not a shortcut
10 2ndscreen mausoleum right and down through wall
11 3rdscreen mausoleum up and left through wall
12 to right of alavon gate up from tree grove into wall
13 1stscreen mt. Loki directly up from tree through wall
14 3rdscreen mt. Loki up left up between tree and rock
15 3rdscreen mt. Loki left and above intersection after other shortcut
16 3rdscreen mt. Loki left and up previous shortcut
17 Volcano 1 immediate bottom right corner, down left down
18 Volcano 1 continuation from previous, to left side and down
19 Volcano 1 another continuation, to right side and down
20 Volcano 1 4th continuation, to left side and down
21 Temple 1 right and below from entrance, has some dead ends so don’t push up too far
22 Temple 2 upper left corner, straight down
23 Temple 3 once outside, cut through building
Fiyara – Imperial City: Before entering the Library, make sure to upgrade equipment at the shop and stock up on anything else you might want. You will lose Leah and Boaz for large parts of the next area so be sure to remove any equipment from them you might want to use on other characters.
When you are ready speak to the Librarian to trigger an event battle. This enemy has roughly 2500 hp. You will automatically be taken to a dungeon after the cutscenes. Healing points and an item shop are available inside the dungeon.
Many of the enemies in these dungeons are limited, so be sure to pick up all the items as well as a few mage rods while you are here. If Romeo is in the active party when you encounter Troy, the dialogue will change slightly.
There is a trapdoor in the throne room that leads to a pit of sand sharks. Going through it is the only way to unlock the final door on the ground level.
Before going past the throne room to the turrets you may consider leveling some heroes, since you can heal conveniently in this dungeon. Pica can hold her own pretty comfortably with all the skills she has amassed, so if she has fallen behind getting her up to Lev 25 or so will give you a little more breathing room for some of the upcoming boss fights.
BOSS – Wyrgan: Wyrgan can inflict many status ailments on the party, including fear, sleep, poison, blind, burned and regain some hp with his drain fangs ability. He can buff himself with Howl. Immune to water, thunder and dark magic. He will also rarely use the deadly chomp +1 attack. Leonardo should attack using infernal dragon or regular attack after buffing the party with pep talk. Pica will do good damage with candela beam. Ezra can spam celestial sphere if you use him. Luna or Ryota equipped with balance garb is a good choice for a 4th character as they will not be affected by status ailments. With a full supply of Pepp Pep and one or more characters healing as appropriate you should be able to take Wyrgan down. As always, make sure Pica is in the party and survives the fight. Wyrgan has approximately 10000 hp.
If you use Ryota you can also use Caltrops, but Luna has superior stats with the Space Rune so it’s up to you how you want to approach this fight.
Mt. Marine: Make sure you have 10+ Dynamites before entering this dungeon. You will use one in this dungeon to get to the Mimic and a several more at Glymac. You won't be able to return to Arean to buy more for a while, so this is your last chance. You need Luna to jump across a rock in the river.
BOSS – Spires: Spires don't have a lot of hp, but they can output a lot of magic damage, so you will want to try and take them down quickly. They are immune to physical damage. Leonardo and Ezra should attack with Infernal Dragon and Celestial Sphere respectively. They do even more damage when they die, activating a self-destruct attack. Pica should usually defend. If you kill them all in the same turn its unlikely Pica will survive. I killed off 2, revived and healed Pica before killing the last 2 with infernal dragon while she defended. Make sure she survives the fight, healing before the Spires self-destruct if necessary. I used Leah as a fourth since she is strong versus Thunder.
Section 6: Trapped!
Prison: Maximus will rescue you, and you can get a new weapon in the back of your cell if you have dynamite. To rescue the rest of our party we are going to need to defeat Metal Guards in the bottom level until they have dropped all their cell keys. There is a healing point on the first floor. Surveillance and Metal Guards can both drop scrap metal.
One of the cells leads to Doom Mecha, a strong enemy that drops a Gold Statue for Bigger Ben. Before fighting him you may want to go to the first floor to reacquire Boaz, as well as stock up on Pepp Peps. Doom Mecha can 1-hit KO your characters with his physical attacks. If you wish to face him now our strategy is hoping he uses his beam attack on the first turn while we dish out as much damage as we possibly can. Equipping our heroes with agility-increasing items might also work. He is immune to physical damage. He only has 2000 hp so he will go down quick to your hardest hitting magical attacks.
After escaping the prison, head north to the imperial fortress. Fall through the trapdoor to encounter a room full of Wrackers. These enemies drop the very valuable Chaos Ball, a weapon for Luna that can cause confusion. This will be your only chance to get this weapon. Since the drop rate is low, you may want to use a party of only Leonardo or Leonardo and other dead heroes, so you can finish your turn quicker (only one person guards).
BOSS – War Machine: This boss has some hard-hitting regular attacks, both individual and group. After using pep talk first turn, I attacked using my strongest magic attacks and with lightning damage. I used Pepp Peps for healing, and revived Pica once when she couldn't tank a hard-hitting physical attack. War machine has approximately 10000 hp.
Note: Maximus is very useful for this battle. Using Charge, he can deal decent damage despite the boss’s high defense.
If you explore the castle carefully you may come across a secret chamber with an occult symbol in it. My first time playing the game I was sure there would eventually be a boss fight here, maybe even an optional superboss. After checking with the game creator I was informed it was for flavour only, there are no items or enemies to find here at any point.
If you talk to people around town and in the castle they will tell you a lot about the world's history. You can look forward to lots of exciting locations to visit. Also, if you stop by the smith you can pick up a piece of scrap metal, as well as be told about a sidequest to discover the legendary sword Excalibur. The shops in town also open so make sure to outfit your heroes with the best gear money can buy.
If you have activated Granny's sidequest you can pick up Youth Ring from a Cabin in the woods. You can also rest there for free.
BOSS – Master Geranium: Immune to air magic. Casts splinters, a spell that does 10% damage to your hp every turn its active. Can also cast sticky sap, a spell that stops you from acting. Infernal Dragon, and Homing Missile both do good damage. Ryota or Luna equipped with Balance Garb can negate all negative status effects so they are a good choice. Master Geranium has approximately 13000 HP. Also note we can heal Pica pretty efficiently with Vital Mix from the shop instead of Pepp Pep.
Mine Puzzle 1: After turning the switch to the left of the track on (the lever will lean right) hit switches 1, 3, and 4. You can use dynamite shortly after getting off.
Note: Steel Dragon is an optional extra enemy. Rewards: Life Elixir, Knight's Armor, Great Axe
Mine Challenge: This a very tough challenge, and was mandatory in the original version of the game. Generally, put enough time into practicing anything and you can learn it. It took me over 30 minutes the first time I did it. I'll give a little advice, in terms of how I approached it. First I found it easier to do without sound.
Then learning the track can be divided into 3 parts. Normal jump, rail jumping, and the long jump over the gap. The timing on rail jumping is the most difficult part in my opinion. After completing each section, it should get easier. For your efforts you earn a Phoenix Feather. In previous versions, some of these items were in different locations.
There is one wracker in a chest. If you didn't pick up a Chaos Ball earlier this is your last chance to get one. This enemy may not have been here in previous versions.
You will lose Maximus after the fight with Rysh so make sure to unequip any equipment you might use on other characters. There is a warp point just ahead of Rysh so warp to town to heal up and stock up on supplies (Pepp Peps).
BOSS – Rysh: Evil Power buffs his physical attack. Poison breath poisons. Roar causes flinching. Hush: A silencing move. Leer causes instant death. He also has some hard hitting multi-hit attacks. Lucky for us, many of his ailments aren't that dangerous, nor do they always connect. We lose Maximus and the Iron Rune after this fight.
Neptune is free with Rysh's death and the world map really opens up. I am going to detail some of the characters and items we can pick up before exploring new dungeons but if you want to jump ahead feel free.
Section 7: New Horizons
I suggest making a backup save. Some cutscenes may vary depending on the choices you make, and you can see the different options without too much extra effort by following this guide.
Arean: School quiz answers - Elite Archimedes, King Archimedes, Luminaya, Cairo, Wild Pup, Halitosis, Elemental Rings, Pepp Pep, Salty, 16, Kage, The Stables, Yokoi, Guardian Bracelet, Dirk, Pillow, 12, Pepp City, 5, 13. You get a Diploma for answering all questions correctly. If you stay the night at Leonardo’s house, you can obtain the Union Ring for Leah. You can obtain 2 Mind Boosters from visiting Alavon school with Ms. Aris’ pointer, then go back to Arean to talk about meeting her father.
Alavon: Bigger Ben trade for Mecha Ball. (Requires the statue you got from Doom Mecha in Glymac.)
Fiyara: Ryota and Luna get 1 level and a cutscene when you go back to the Inn. Arguably, they should lose 1 level for the mean things they say to each other. Mt. Marine summit and the castle are blocked off if you wanted to check out either.
Carlo: Talk to a girl at the Inn to hear about the teeny bikini sidequest. If you look at magazines your self-confidence will fall (you lose one level of experience). Loot the northern house to find a lot of equipment. You can also read the bookshelves to learn more about Jessica's backstory (human trafficking). Maximus is visible at the northern exit but it is highly recommended that you not speak to him until later. You lose the chance to collect some very valuable equipment if you get him too early.
Hobo: Some equipment and Spicy Herbs lying around town. Don't leave yet or speak to the purple-haired kid in front of a house in the eastern part of town. There is a lot for us to do on this Island, but it is better to wait for the moment.
Ikory: Get a new hero, rose pendant in temple, wraith rags in graveyard. At night search town for the thief (1st south by entrance to town, 2nd right side of temple graveyard, 3rd left bottom fence, 4th bottom right corner against house). After getting Sybil you can speak to someone in town to open Mesomia on the world map.
BOSS – Thief: Like the Titans at Fiyara, calling him a boss is a bit of a stretch. He has some annoying status effects, and does decent enough magic damage, but with only 8000 hp you should take him down pretty easily. For some extra security you can equip Ryota or Luna with a balance garb. You can also equip Leonardo or another hero with a temperance ring to prevent him from getting flustered. No matter how you approach it though, this fight shouldn't give you too much trouble.
Go back to the same place the next night, and the Thief will offer you the Scales of Libra for $100,000. If you have the money, don't hesitate – just buy them. This is one of the most useful items in the game. It's an active battle item that cancels all status effects on your party, both good and bad. It can be used indefinitely.
Note: Some new locations on the world map (Mesomia) open up after acquiring Sybil. Before we go there, let's visit Haine and proceed SE to Hesterville. There is a cutscene we need to trigger before we can explore the entire island, as well as a field item – rope. Like dynamite, you'll regret not having plenty on hand, even if you don't use it in battle. I recommend picking up 10 or so for the moment, and some more when the budget allows. Save some money for the shops coming up in Mesomia though, they are very useful.
Nino Bay (NE Mesomia): Use a newly acquired rope to get the meteorite, find Dragon Claws (Emperor Fiyara's former weapon no less), and buy some new equipment from the shop. If you have the cash, I recommend getting 3 shark skins. If Ryota is in the party you get additional dialogue speaking to people.
From Mesomia beach: The enemies here are pretty dangerous, at least compared to what we have encountered so far. I won't judge you if you try to avoid most of them for the moment. Continue forward and go NE from the signpost to discover Yayrie village.
If you head NW from the signpost instead you will find Granny Granny's cabin, where you can acquire a new piece of equipment and rest. Finally if you continue just a little farther to the West you will learn a new location to travel to and from on the Land Drum: Mt. Sirius.
There are a few items at the shop you might want to purchase, as well as some very handy equipment Pica can equip hidden in town. Don't trigger the fight with 3 hidden baby devils hidden in a chest. We will encounter these enemies regularly later in the game. While they are beatable with the present party, it’s about the equivalent of a boss fight in difficulty right now.
I bet you are looking forward to trying out your new gear, and you should be. You can tackle the countries in any order you choose. Believe me, having the best equipment makes it much easier. For the purpose of this walkthrough I will be going in order of least difficult to most difficult. And like I said: DON'T TALK to MAXIMUS AT CARLO until I indicate it's ok. 100% completion will be impossible if you speak to him too early.
Ikory is a good starting point. Our reward for completing the dungeon is the Moon Rune, a great item that gives a HUGE boost to Pica's stats. Since we are forced to put Pica in many boss fights, we might as well go for the item that makes her stronger first. This dungeon does restrict us to 2 heroes at a time but enemies also fight only in pairs. I suggest stocking up on lots of vital mixes from the town shop before leaving, as some of the enemies here can sap mana with drain wand (unless you equip an accessory to prevent it). Pica has to fight the boss at the end of the dungeon by herself, so consider pairing her with Leonardo for some extra experience.
Stay at the inn in Ikory and choose to wake up at night, then enter the forest with just two characters in your party.
Rainbow Forest: Lunar Mage can drop Sorceress Hat – even though we found one in Yayrie village more are helpful if we want to use a party with multiple female spell-casters. Dwarf Stars can drop stardust. Moonwalker can drop Mirror Specs and Pixies can drop fairy charms.
There are special lit spots where you can stand. If you have certain characters in your party, they’ll gain a level:
Screen 1 – gray portal in nw corner, surrounded by blue. Will increase ryota's level by 1.
Screen 2 – white/red surrounded by aquamarine. Sybil.
Screen 3 (left of Screen 2) – gray/green surrounded by purple. Romeo.
Screen 4 – gray/blue surrounded by yellow. Esther.
Screen 5 (right of screen 4) – surrounded by red. Jessica.
Big Boy and Dizzy Lizard on Screen 5 – Big Boy has about 5000 hp, hits hard and can do chomp. Dizzy Lizard has about the same amount of hp, can confuse and has an instant death ability. This can be a relatively tough fight depending on your party and equipment. Make sure to start with full hp, focusing fire on one enemy until they go down. I used physical attacks from Leonardo and magic from Pica (candela beam is a good choice). They guard a phoenix feather. They both drop life elixirs.
Screen 6: Surrounded by green. Luna.
For activating all 6 of the portals you get (in addition to the free levels) rainbow beads.
BOSS – Kyubi: If you have been following my guide, you should equip Pica with a pocket knife, fairy shield, imp shawl and heiress pendant. For her hat you can focus on damage with the sorceress hat, or if you prefer maximizing defense before damage, the fur hat is better. Kyubi absorbs light damage and has some status effects like blind, flinch and afraid. Homing missile does good damage as long as you aren't blind (when it will miss). Drain attack doesn't miss so use this when you are blinded and don't want to use a turn healing. She heals herself regularly so this can be a drawn out fight. She can also heal you since you will absorb moon attacks.
Note – Unlike how Leonardo looking at dirty magazines can damage his base stats, Pica's newfound confidence does not change any of her base stats.
For winning you earn Moonlight, a move that lets Pica heal herself both in and out of battle. Pica can also now equip the Moon Rune, an accessory that raises light/sun defence and increases her base stats by a staggering 50%. This is a nice improvement over the heiress pendant.
Our next objective is to recruit a character at Mt. Sirius (discovered from the Mesomia shores). Enemies here drop some very useful gear. Spiny Shrubs drop Poison Barb, a weapon that can be equipped by many heroes. Wallabrats drop Imp Shawl. Nefarious drops Druid Cloak – armor that increases intelligence a lot. Additionally – we can heal for free at Granny Granny's cabin while we look for these items or just level. For example – Esther can 1-hit KO a group of Spiny Shrubs with her arctic chill one screen below the cabin for some easy farming (and equip her with the golden feather so she always acts first).
When you are ready – it's time to tackle Mt. Sirius:
Meteorite screen 1: Save before starting this. The key to traversing this map is recognizing that all meteorites travel diagonally and that there are diagonals that are safe to rest at. Whenever you find one of these points save, and you will make your way across eventually. This is the first of many of these challenges and the easiest.
Meteorite screen 2 (to west): Save before leaving this. You have to fight one more enemy before meeting a new hero. Corpse has 9000 hp, is a regular enemy later in the game, and may drop a life elixir. He should be a pushover but if you are struggling Pica or Ezra can take him apart with their best light magic.
Note: You should probably hold off on exploring past meteorite screen 3 to the east – if you do you will encounter some new enemies and find some items but you will eventually be stopped from going farther by an aura barrier.
After you visit Yayrie Village with Karma and speak with Wakanda, Islan becomes available on the world map.
Haine: A tree here can be cut down with Maximus later. Our goal is the Lost Temple, out in the canyon (northeast of the shore). You need rope from Hesterville (southeast of the shore) to get there, however.
Havoc Hatchet: Found in Hesterville (in a crate accessible from the southeast entrance, from the canyon). You can give it away for free, sell it for 1775, sell it for 3550, or sell it for 7100. Keeping it is recommended.
Lost Temple: Gastronomes can slurp to both kill and remove a character from your party– make sure to reform a full party using the party ball when this happens. Some chests that look like they may be enclosed actually have nearby secret passages. If you bought a silver pistol in town, you may wish to equip it on Boaz to fight Lashers. They are only located in one section of the temple.
Hellion is a very tough enemy located in the basement of the Lost Temple. He can stun the whole party with roar, or kill off multiple heroes at a time with multi-hit attack Fury. He can also use lock-on, a skill that guarantees he will kill one hero next turn. I recommend assembling a party with high evasion since it is unlikely you will survive when even one swipe of Fury connects at this stage of the game. Equip yourself smartly using the general guidelines I suggest and you will eventually take him down. He has about 5000hp.
Here are some heroes you may consider:
Leonardo – 28% with karate garb
Boaz – 50% and higher with wraith rags – using silver pistol and battle scarf
Ryota – 38% with dark hood, black tights, black belt – using smoke bombs in battle to lower accuracy
Luna – 91% with golden shield, feathered cap, dancer's leotard
Esther – 78% with golden shield, dancer's leotard, feathered cap, black belt
Pica – Can get up to 100% evasion using wraith rags and chameleon mask.
Obviously the big items are dancer's leotard and wraith rags, but some other items do a lot for their slot. Golden shield +10%, black belts +12%. Fairy shield does an awesome 25%. Leonardo's pep up skill is also useful. There is only a small chance that you have acquired Chameleon Mask so far– a rare helmet that increases evasion by 25% rarely dropped by Gilded Lizard. Only equipable by Pica and Boaz.
You can trade this Golden Statue in for butcher's edge, currently the best-in-slot weapon for Boaz and Ryota (but a slight downgrade to Romeo's Scimitar). Speaking of valuable equipment, Witch Doctors can drop voice amulet – one of the more useful status-preventing accessories.
When you reach a warp, go back to town, heal your party, and stock up on all necessary supplies. Save your game and what's this: Only Leonardo is fighting?
BOSS – Wall of Death: You need to defeat this boss in 9 turns. If you are not able to do enough damage he will use Crush on his 9th turn, a skill that will defeat all your surviving heroes. His attacks are fairly predictable up to that point though – arrows every turn. To achieve this you need to average about 1500 damage a turn. You decide whether you want to start with infernal dragons or pep talk on turn 1 and physical attacks from the unknown heroes. Continue with infernal dragon and physical attacks, using Pepp Peps to replenish Leonardo's mana the same turn he goes below 1000 mana. The 2 unknown heroes can heal themselves with snooze and get a temporary attack boost when they awaken.
Section 8: The Sun Sets in the Tropics (Hobo Island)
I suggest making sure you have the best equipment from Haine, Yayrie Village, Nino Bay and the Scales of Libra before going. Also if you have only 1 shark skin from Nino Bay, I would suggest picking up 1-2 more because it is the best armor for several heroes at this point in the game, including one we will soon acquire. Ropes will also be useful – I recommend carrying 20+ with you at all times, including going into this island.
Talk to Elias. Head south, and find spicy herbs hidden in woods. Then talk to Nalin. Our mission now is to head east and locate Elias' missing sister.
You can pick up a couple of spicy herbs around the island but before you can explore the rest of the island you will be forced to go into the Bog of Styx. Somehow Boaz is separated from the rest of the party and this becomes a solo dungeon. Unequip any equipment you might want from other Heroes for Boaz and then enter. Make sure you are stocked up on vital mix and some angel tears. If Boaz runs out of hp in this next section it is not a game over.
Mimic – very difficult to beat by Boaz himself. It's possible but since you can go down to slurp at any point, coming back with a full party is advised. If you do try it I would suggest butcher's edge, battle scarf, and wraith rags and chameleon mask for max evasion. Can do over 1K damage a hit, but it will take more than a little good luck to do the 5k damage you need to. Similarly, Gourmet and Geo Crystal enemies are dangerous to fight on your own.
Note: Pick up 2 bows of Sagittarius from the dark knights here if you don't have them already. (You might want to wait until you get your other party members back rather than face them with Boaz alone, though.)
You can heal, pick up some equipment from chests, and buy Pepp Peps before fighting the boss. This is your last chance to buy Pepp Peps until you can exit the continent so buy the maximum amount and save them until you encounter the boss of the Valley of Sol. Save your game. Boaz receives some assistance in his fight against Cerberus – and his hair turns blue.
BOSS – Cerberus: This is a really easy fight – your hero has been superpowered by an unknown force. Cerberus has 3 heads, each has about 7000 hp. Heads will occasionally revive but with only a fraction of their base hp.
Hobo Festival: This scene will vary depending on the characters you have. Differences:
Notably – Esther has a different scene if Maximus is there.
Ezra has a different scene with Sybil.
Pica has a different scene with Karma.
Nathan has a scene with Nalin.
Romeo has a different scene (with Trevor instead of by himself)
When the dust settles we have a few new things we can do around town, including shopping at the newly opened weapon shop. Also, talk to Elias (in his house). Also, we want to pick up a couple of items that were too difficult for Boaz to get by himself in the swamp. Finally head E, to Elysium Falls. We will go to the Valley of Sol later. Also, I strongly encourage you to keep Nalin in your party for the rest of your duration on the Island.
Note: There are sections of this upcoming dungeon (and of several others) that are not accessible until we have a raft. We cannot assemble a raft until we get Maximus.
The actual dungeon begins when we reach a waterfall and an entrance to a cave. This portion of the map can be traveled to with the land drum.
Seductress is a one-time enemy found in Elysium falls that drops the Golden Demon Statue. She inflicts a large variety of status ailments on your party that can be tough to overcome, and has strong physical and magical defense. The easiest way to defeat her is to level Sybil to 31 and cast Blessing – a spell that wards off status ailments. She has about 4000 hp. She is weak to light damage so Pica and Ezra can make short work of her if left to cast unimpeded.
Before the boss we reach a warp, so go back to town and stock up on vital supplies. We also see a pier to use for when we get a raft.
But wait. Apparently the Sun Rune isn't charged enough to break down the barrier. In the party ball, Nalin will concede as much, motioning us onward to the Valley of Sol. Still much stronger for our efforts.
Head south from the village and through the wilds to reach the Valley of Sol. Note another pier for the raft when you reach the lake.
There are switches hidden under some rocks so if you don't see a path to the next area search nearby rock formations to reveal a likely exit. The first rock switch is blue, but later ones will not be as obvious.
Face puzzle: All the rocks have to face each other. That means you will see the backs of the bottom 2, and the 'chins' are pointed to the center panel.
AB
CD
You can probably figure this out on your own but I have an easy way to solve it if you don't want to.
There is a simple technique to do this. Starting in the top left, touch all the rocks in order going clockwise. Do this 6 times, and THEN STEP INTO the center. A warp point will appear, the top entrance will open and the puzzle will be solved.
ABDC
ABDC
ABDC
ABDC
ABDC
ABDC
Use the warp at least one time, otherwise it will not appear at the bottom of the mountain for future uses.
Save and heal your heroes before going to the next screen. It's crucial that Nalin be at least level 33 for you to get a reward in an event later in the game. Make sure to bring Pica into the party.
Nalin gets wrecked before the next fight – oops. You get her equipment back though so don't worry.
BOSS – Kaiser Rex: Kaiser Rex has a lot of hp, but only uses physical attacks. Use Pep Talk on the 1st turn, then use your hardest hitting attacks. Kaiser Rex is susceptible to Caltrops. Technically, you could use a 100% evasion strategy on Pica to guarantee your victory but equipping her to maximize intelligence is likely to finish the battle quicker. Leonardo can revive allies with his pep up skill.
Section 9: In the Wake of a Tragedy
While Erin suggests we visit Elysium Falls we have a couple of other things we want to do first. Talk to people around town to get a new destination on the world map. Visit Nalin's room (twice). Go trade in our statue to Bigger Ben. We can trade in Spicy Herbs for Neo Tonics back in Pepp City.
On our world map we have several choices –
Elysium Falls on Hobo
Islan
Mt. Sirius
Veya
And Carlo which I strongly discourage.
One of our major priorities over the next several dungeons is getting every hero to that crucial level 33. There is a reward for getting every hero his complete skillset, even a hero like Nalin whose stay in the party is short-lived.
Generally I hold off on leveling Heroes without illuminated Rune Skills for last as they tend to be less useful in general than the other heroes. For example – Leonardo and Ezra both get strong magic nukes way ahead of everyone else, making them a superior choice for most situations.
Getting Elias some levels over the next several dungeons might be a good idea, as he is required to participate in a boss fight on Mt. Sirius to illuminate his rune and is a bit fragile.
BOSS – Oroboros (Elysium Falls): Soul division, destroys your mana. Approx 45K hp. Oroboros is a strong boss, with the ability to hit hard, attack multiple heroes in the same turn, and destroy your mana with soul division. He also will rarely inflict ailing on the party, which should be removed immediately with Scales of Libra. He also has the most hp of any bosses we have fought so far. Lucky for us, his defensive stats are underwhelming, and we can dish out over 5K damage a turn using our strongest attacks. The hardest challenge for this fight is staying alive. I recommend a party of Leonardo, Pica, Sybil and another damage dealer (for me Leah). Leonardo should buff stats the first turn. Sybil should heal, nullify dark guard, and defend otherwise. If Sybil can't keep up with the damage other heroes can use recovery items (Leonardo can also use Pep Up).
Note: After this fight, Boaz and Erin can visit the bar in Pepp City for a scene.
BOSS – Quetzalcoatl (Mt. Sirius): Elias is a mandatory party member, if he dies at any point during the fight it's game over. Use pep talk and wind spirit dance the first turn. If you use Sybil you should cast blessing. Elias can also cast camouflage and empower on Leonardo. From there on he should defend. He can also cast camouflage to increase his evasion for the duration of the battle. Quetzalcoatl can double attack, blind with meteor shower, body whip, poison with wormwood, and silence the party. This is a tough battle for this stage of the game. Quetzalcoatl has 45K hp. The skill he gives Pica, Star Power, is super useful. It’s vital that Pica survives this battle.
Veya: Leah goes missing partway through this dungeon. Pepp Peps sold for 500 gold and a healing point are found in the foggy woods near the end. After a short event battle you will get Leah back and the Sky Horn.
After getting the Sky Horn revisit Hobo and talk to the townspeople to put Cambrian reefs on the map (only accessible by Sea Chime).
Section 10: Death from Above
Cambrian Reefs: We will permanently lose access to this dungeon later in the game. Big Pearls and Viking's Helmet are both very valuable. When we reach Aquarius Castle we will be able to access it using the Sea Chime. Aquarius Castle is also a limited area. I will warn you before it expires. Also we will revisit anyway. There is a secret room hidden in this castle – save before looting it. After speaking to King Poseidon we can visit Cambria using the Sky Horn. (But you have to leave the underwater section with the Sea Chime and be on dry land before using it.)
Surface Cambria: There’s a fairy priestess cave in the northwest (need dynamite). The village of Hazel is to the southwest; be sure to pick up the cyan headband along the way. In Hazel, note the girl talking about the Mermaid Leotard. Triton's Tower is added to the world map after events transpire in the village of Hazel.
Ms. Pearl trades: Pearl Necklace. Special dialogue – Bath, kiss (gives Leonardo 1 level), Hazel Omelette if Leonardo visits alone. For additional ones will need to trade goodie eggs (dropped by certain bird-type enemies). You must bring her several pearls to get all these scenes.
Triton's Tower: There’s a secret room to your immediate right with a block puzzle. Tower Keys are used automatically, so you might not notice when they are used. If a door is locked, try returning once you find one in the dungeon. There are 4 tower keys to use in total. When you reach a warp point, save, heal up, return to town to stock up on supplies if needed, put Pica in your party and get ready to fight Octoboss.
BOSS – Octoboss: Immune to fire, can poison, blind, slow. Does a lot of damage with glitter rain (gold magic attack all). Body whip. Sharpen. Use the Scales of Libra to manage ailments. Esther can do a lot of damage with wave chain, especially if buffed by Pica's star power. We have some gold accessories that can reduce glitter damage but for many characters it isn't worth the trade-off in physical defense.
After the fight we obtain Ondine. Ondine is only available to fight for the duration of this dungeon so level her to 33 for a later reward. Before we do move forward in the dungeon and obtain the Aquarius Castle Key. Return to Aquarius Castle, get the treasure and then level up Ondine to 33. Stock up on Pepp Peps and other supplies before taking the warp to fight Kiwa. This boss fight also becomes significantly easier when Ondine is at level 33, as there are portions of the boss fight when only she can inflict damage. After completing this dungeon we lose access to all underwater areas.
BOSS – Kiwa: When power overflows Ondine has to use water magic to damage him. Ondine's equipment returns to us after the fight. Use Star Power on your hardest hitting heroes. Ondine's healing water will hurt Leonardo, but heal the rest. Razor torrent can paralyze. Hush can silence. Kiwa is immune to fire damage. Also uses glitter rain.
If you return to Hazel village you will notice 2 things. First, the shops have acquired all the equipment sold at Aquarius Castle. Second, one of the villagers there wants you to give her the Mermaid Leotard. If you do she will give you the Teeny Bikini in exchange. The Teeny Bikini can be traded for a Black Leather Corset at the Carlo Inn. If you trade in either the Mermaid Leotard or the Teeny Bikini you will never get the chance to use them again. Black Leather Corsets can be found later in the game, but they are a very rare drop, and will become available only shortly before the final boss. In short, it will be extremely cumbersome (2% drop rate from an enemy that is part of a series of scripted battles). Additionally, you will need to acquire a Black Leather Corset to complete one of the game's most-challenging and most-rewarding optional sidequests. The vast majority of players will not complete this sidequest until the post-game, if at all.
The Mermaid Leotard and Teeny Bikini can both be situationally useful, although not nearly as useful as the Black Leather Corset. The Black Leather Corset allows several of the female heroes to assume a role of dominant physical attackers (coupled with other equipment), able to KO powerful enemies in a single blow and become the primary damage dealer for many boss fights. Paired with the Hobo Lily, a helmet that increases all stats including attack by 20% it is virtually impossible for any of the male heroes to match up to the firepower at this point in the game. Note: As powerful as combinations like this are, it will come at the expense of defense.
For the purpose of this walkthrough, I will not be trading for the Black Leather Corset. That is because I want this walkthrough to be accessible to all players, and many players will miss the opportunity to obtain an early Black Leather Corset by reacquiring Maximus too early. Also, because the game's increasing difficulty means many players will not seek the help of a walkthrough until even later in the game when things get really tough. Make no mistake, trading for the Black Leather Corset will make the game easier.
RPG perfectionists looking to create a perfect save file should also hold on to either the Mermaid Leotard or Teeny Bikini since they can obtain Black Leather Corsets later (albeit with great difficulty). Of the 2, I tend to think the Mermaid Leotard is more useful. Dodging 100% physical attacks is great but if our hero is going to melt to a single magical attack because of 0 will, I would prefer to take the small defensive stats and hope the 25% agility boost is useful. 25% evasion bonus is also nice. Really though, whichever you choose is to be of little consequence as neither of these items is likely to be featured for your heroes regularly or recommended for boss fights.
Note – This game has only 4 save slots so if you aren't sure what you prefer you can make a backup save slot. The game's first save file has the name save1.rxdata. You can copy and rename these files in another folder to create additional backups. I like to use parentheses after the core file name, so I can delete them and move them back into the main folder for no trouble. For example save1.rxdata (just killed Kiwa).
Mermaid Leotard: 50 Defense, 50 Will, Evasion +25%, Agility +25%
Teeny Bikini: 0 Defense, 0 Will, 100% Evasion
Black Leather Corset: 100 Defense, 50 Will, 0% Evasion, Attack +25%
Black Leather Corset can eventually be upgraded as part of a side quest.
Section 11: Maximus Returns! Loose Ends, White Water Rafting and the Frozen Isles
Carlo: Before speaking to Maximus make sure you have picked up all the items in Carlo. The Black Leather Corset can also be acquired here if you so choose. Leonardo fights this event battle alone. Defend after Maximus charges, and heal as appropriate. It's not a difficult fight.
Before exploring Carlo we have the opportunity to pick up some new items with Maximus. Start by returning to Glymac and sleep at the Inn. Maximus can also get a free level up by stopping by his home in Alavon. Next visit Haine, there is a tree you can chop down to visit a Fairy Priestess. After that, visit the log Cabin on Mesomia to find the raft. A Poison Barb is nearby. After that we are going to revisit various locations on Mesomia, Hobo and Cambria where we can use the raft.
Nino Bay: Cutthroat Dagger and Megalodon Tooth. You may fight Killer Fishmen depending on the path you take across the Bay.
River of Decision (South of Yayrie Village): Left branch has Fairy Pond and Insomnia Choker. Right branch has golden enemy, Toxic Thorns.
Cambria: Golden enemy, Remora, at base of Triton's tower (accessible by raft).
Hobo: South of Hobo on path to Valley of Sol. Spicy herbs and golden enemy (Bladefish)
Elysium Falls: Warp to the top and take the raft down. Going left, then right earns you a Phoenix feather. The other directions drop you off in parts of the dungeon we have already explored.
When you are ready, go back to Carlo and head north to the main lab. One of the scientists there will tell you how the code system they use to lock up their secret labs. I suggest you write out the sequence from A-Z if you want to unlock the doors by yourself. And save here so you can speak to the scientist for hints in case you get it wrong. Otherwise the solutions will be provided by me.
Password Key: A1 B2 C3 D4 E5 F6 G7 H8 I9 J1 K2 L3 M4 N5 O6 P7 Q8 R9 S1 T2 U3 V4 W5 X6 Y7 Z8
Our next objective is the storage facility on west side of the woods. ITEMGATE: 92547125
Pick up 4 Filter Goggles from a chest. Now it's off to the secret lab on the east side of the woods. We can take the land drum back to the main lab to save some time if we have gotten enough dark katars.
Before entering the east lab it is recommended we pick up at least one dark katar from the dark horse enemies. We lose access to this dungeon shortly after obtaining the Rune of this Island, and won't have any additional opportunities to fight the dark horse. Multiple heroes can equip dark katars.
Secret lab #2: LOCKDOOR: 36324669
There’s a warp before the boss. Note the 3 land drum warps on the continent: CSO's front gate, Carlo Beach, Secret CSO Lab. NEWBIRTH: 55529928
BOSS – Elf x 2: The next 2 boss fights will be very easy if you have been following my guide. While it is possible to beat Twin Soul without Filter Goggles it will be much easier if you do. You should kill both elves in the same turn, to earn 2 thinks ups, gold and experience. If you kill only one, the fight will end automatically and you will advance with no reward. Glitter Rain, Infernal Dragon and whatever other mass magic attacks you want to use should take care of this no problem. You are fully healed automatically before the next fight.
BOSS – Twin Soul: This boss uses only 2 attacks, radiation and inner light (a healing ability). Heal as necessary. After winning you have 5 minutes to escape the Island (saving is temporarily disabled). You need to decipher one final code on your way out. LEAVENOW: 35145565
The land drum is also disabled, all enemies are missing and the main lab will be locked if you try to stop by. You have plenty of time to escape. You will exit to the world map automatically upon reaching the beach. There should only be one place on the world map we have yet to fully explore. Onward to Islan. Before going I suggest stocking up on lots of pillows, sacks, angel tears and some defrost potions.
Islan: The old man here is able to Bless your heroes – providing a substantial stat bonus for one fight. Additionally, if you bless your heroes and return them to the party ball, they will retain that blessing until they are next used.
Leonardo needs to use all his mana to melt the ice towers. Enemies here can drop several stat-boosting items, while snow sprites drop snow coat, a rare armor that may be useful for some upcoming bosses. Eventually you will reach great-granny's cabin where you can heal up and get a new item. Save before exiting north of the frozen lake and put Pica into your party. A boss is coming up.
BOSS – Kraken: Can blind, slow, poison. Immune to fire. Sybil can prevent negative status effects with blessing. Pica can use magic attacks or buff heroes with star power.
BOSS – Kirin: Can silence all with Hush. Sybil will absorb some magical attacks from him.
If we visit Ikory at night after obtaining the Element of Heart we can see an optional scene. Finally, visit Yayrie Village and speak to everyone in town to have a new location added to our world map.
Southern Islet: This dungeon has a lot of secret passages. Make sure to check behind all waterfalls, and if you see a chest in an out of the way place explore for secret passages. After reaching the 2nd warp, save. Remove Sybil from the party if you have her.
BOSS – Ruiner Mk-II: If you picked up a couple of Snow Coats from the previous dungeon you might want to equip them on some of your characters, as this boss can freeze your heroes. Each part of the boss has about 15K hp, so focus fire and heal as appropriate. If you prevent freezing this fight is much easier. Esther can absorb ice magic, heal and remove armor.
Make sure to reread the letter in your inventory after regaining control of your party in Ikory. Then search the temple to find the Heart Lockett. This item is extremely useful.
Section 12: Return to Fiyara
Fiyara Castle: Enter through the rebel base. After you reach the warp point, prepare for a boss fight. Leah and Ezra will be incapacitated, so if they are part of your active party you may want to sub them out.
BOSS – Yasushi and Troy: Troy absorbs light magic. Yasushi can slice off 75% of a single hero's hp in a blow. Both Yasushi and Troy have roughly 30K hp. Troy and Yasushi are relatively non-menacing, and you should be able to deal with them without much difficulty.
Don't eat food off the table in the banquet hall. Also read the note about pressing the torches in a certain order to unlock part of the castle. Make sure to fall through the trapdoors at least once when you reach them – they bring you to an area with a valuable piece of equipment, plus the sharks there drop a valuable accessory.
BOSS – Emperor Fiyara: Pica doesn't get a skill for this battle, but can still be a useful addition.
SKILLS: Soul Division can burn off mana. Dark Guard. Blades of Wrath (attack all). Hush. Dark Surge. I used Luna as the primary damage dealer. Use Pep talk, Flex and Star Power. Eventually he will cast Hell’s Fury, ending the battle. He has 70K Hp. Kit's Bandana will be equipped to Jessica automatically after this fight. It can be useful, so you may want to unequip it for another character to use.
Following the battle with Emperor Fiyara, you return to Alavon. Talk to Granny after you leave town, she will tell you that she needs a Panacea Root. We owe it to this woman.
Head back to Arean, make sure we have 3 or less members in our active party and then speak to Joe.
Super-duper Secret Character Alert!!! Joe can only be added and removed from the party from Leonardo's home in Arean. Joe is permanently equipped with White Gloves and Black Suit. He is a unique hero for several reasons. He has no strengths or weakness and can't change 3 equipment slots. His base stats have significantly improved from the start of the game. He can equip a helmet and accessory. With a base attack of 200 Joe can handle himself comfortable through the next area of the game. You may choose to eventually buff his damage further with megalodon tooth (50% strength), battle scarf, or best of all Union Ring.
Section 13: Behgar Island – To Endoria
The people around Fauston have a lot of useful hints for us. Make sure to hear about Methuselah, to get a new location on the World Map.
Lydia the tailor wants: 2 feathers of a rare bird, a special headband and a small, high-quality piece of gold. If you speak to her with black leather corset unequipped she wants the spiritual remains of a demonic being. But she will only ask for this after you’ve brought her the other items she requested and made a new piece of equipment from them.
Another citizen of Fauston mentions that the Halo is needed to survive Hell's Fury. If you recall, that is the spell Emperor Fiyara used to wipe out our party with the last fight.
There's also a lot for us to buy, including a secret shop full of accessories. I suggest buying 1 of each weapon, then before buying anything else use the sky horn.
Stick to the right side of the map, then walk north. When notified of something mysterious choose to investigate. The man here can teach our heroes their ultimate elemental attacks. He asks us to reduce our party size to teach us. Unfortunately, we cannot do this with Joe in the party. I suggest buying them as soon as we can afford them. They cost 100K each, so we will need a total of 700,000 gold.
Leonardo – Seraph's Breath
Romeo – Storm Force
Esther – Frozen Eruption
Boaz – Daylight's Requiem
Nathan – Zeus' Lightning
Ezra – Sacred Radiance
Leah – Terra Crush
Now return to Fauston. We can speak with the guards to the mansion north of town to advance the plot but I suggest exploring the East district first. The enemies here aren't too tough, but the block puzzles will take a few moments of thought. If you screw up a puzzle you can enter the party ball to reset.
After a cutscene we should use the Sky Horn and visit West Behgar.
West Behgar: Eventually you reach an elemental barrier. You can't go through it, but speak to the Necromancer here to open 2 new locations on the world map. North Behgar and East Behgar. Outskirts of Endoria is also added to our Land Drum.
North Behgar: Jessica is kidnapped as you enter this area. Some of the areas you venture into off the main path have some carefully hidden items.
In a cave here you can fight Dragon God – an optional enemy with roughly the same strength of a boss. Prepare for him the same way you would a boss, he has approximately 75K hp. Make sure you have a full supply of Pepp Peps. He can attack hard physically and magically, can also inflict burn. He drops the valuable dragon armor as reward. Some of the new elemental attacks (for example sacred radiance) you learned may also be useful for this fight. Pica also learns a skill from this fight. If this fight is too tough for you right now or you would like to reorganize your party (Joe needs to be flown back to Arean if you have him) you can always come back a little later. We will find some useful equipment even in this next area that might make the fight that much easier. Dragon Armor is best-in-slot for Maximus and Romeo right now.
Saving is disabled when you get to the temple area so make sure to save outside. After going through the temple you will go through an Event battle and save Jessica. Soon thereafter you will meet a savage in the jungle who will show you some dance moves. Hey, didn't a mystic in town talk about that? Consider making a backup save here if you want to solve this puzzle on your own, otherwise I will provide it for you. The order is 2 steps left, 1 step north, 1 step east, 1 step south, 1 step east, 1 step south, 1 step north.
Also save before taking the raft, as it’s possible to drown if you are a poor sailor.
Immediate down - death
Right – left – up (returns you to earlier section of the dungeon)
Right – left – left (dragon shield and dragon gloves)
Right – down – down – (returns you to earlier part of the dungeon)
Right-down-right – down (earlier section of the dungeon)
Right-down-right-left – left (earlier section of the dungeon)
Right-down-right-left – down – left (beginning of the dungeon)
Right-down-right-left- down – right (I think this is the Dragonblade and/or a Phoenix Feather, forgive me if this is incorrect) This equipment can be a big help fighting Dragon God, if you opted to wait.
South of the raft screen we enter the Jungle Maze. Follow the dance steps exactly or we will be returned to the entrance. The order is 2 steps left, 1 step north, 1 step east, 1 step south, 1 step east, 1 step south, 1 step north. When we exit we will see the savage again. We have added a new location to the Land Drum – Maia's Garden. I suggest returning to Fauston to heal up, and restock on crucial supplies before proceeding farther. Make sure Pica is in the active party, we have a boss coming up.
We have a 2-stage boss fight coming up and are fully healed after the first. We have lots of great equipment from the last 2 dungeons so make sure to equip accordingly. We also probably don't want to use a hero that is weak to wood.
Suggested Party: A conservative lineup would be Leonardo, Pica, Esther, Maximus. It has plenty of healing and wood resistance. Plus Maximus equipped with Halberd does extra damage to plants. Of course, we can also inflict heavy magic damage with our new spells. Buffing Leonardo's intelligence and letting him burn the boss to the ground makes the rest of the party less important.
BOSS – Maia: Can make flinch and poison with thorn whip. Powerful physical attack. Wood magic attacks. 90K hp. After the fight we get a new character and a key item. Go to town stock up on supplies then off to East Beghar.
East Behgar/Mirror Maze: Mirror Maze can be a slightly confusing dungeon to navigate, because some of the paths overlap. You may enjoy exploring it on your own, and simply checking the guide afterward to see if you missed anything. Otherwise detailed directions are provided below.
Prometheus wanted me to note that the directions here may be confusing and/or inaccurate.
The entrance hall has 5 warp points we can use from the get go. Arranged and labeled as followed:
Upper left: Warp 1
Upper right: Warp 2
Lower right: Warp 3
Top Middle: Warp 4
Lower left: Warp 5
From Warp 1 you will discover the Goddess Tiara. In addition to the way you came into the room (warp 1). There are 3 additional warp points you can access. From left to right I will label them
Warp 6, 7, and 8.
Warp 6 is a single room with Psycho Discus and a monster.
Warp 7 has Master Headband, an upgrade for Leonardo. Warp 7 is situated in the upper left corner of the room. There are several other warps labeled as follows
Warp 8: Upper Right Warp 9: Situated between 4 pillars in the center of the room. Warp 10: Accessible from the lower right corner.
Warp 8 takes us to a mirror maze. A careful search of the area will turn up a Winged Mask. For the rest of the treasure, we will need to use a different entrance.
Warp 9 takes us to the Halo – a Leonardo-exclusive Helmet required for our next fight with Emperor Fiyara.
Warp 10 brings us to a room with Pugio. Warp 10 is situated in the top of the room. There are 3 additional warps at the other cardinal directions. Left labeled warp 11. South returns us to the entrance hall connecting to Warp 3. And to on the right side of the room is Warp 12.
Warp 11 takes us to a room with 2 warps, 1 in the south and to the right. The southern warp connects us to the entrance hall (Warp 2). The right warp here is labeled Warp 13. Here we cross a bridge and take the only other available warp, now labeled Warp 14.
Warp 14 is located in the top right corner. There is a treasure chest with an Opal Crystal nearby. The warp to the south (hence referred to as Warp 15) takes us to a room with a gold monster and a message on the wall. The message is important – When one stands alone reflected in the mirror a soul will go free. The warp on the left brings us back to a previous screen (Warp 12?). Like previous golden monsters, Shining Dragon may KO your characters with a single attack. With about 8K HP though, he will go down quickly. Throw a diploma on Boaz and he should go down with a single casting of Daylight's Requiem.
If you have been following carefully we have cleared 3 out of 5 of the warps in the entrance hall: Warp 1, Warp 2 and Warp 3.
Warp 4 (top middle) is situated in the upper left corner of the room you warp to. There are 3 additional warps we can take from here. From left to right Warp 16, Warp 17, and Warp 18.
Warp 16: Warp 16 is situated in the upper left hand corner. There are 2 additional warps in this room. 1 in the south (Warp 19) and 1 more in the the upper right hand corner (Warp 20). Warp 20 brings us to an enclosed room with Angelic Bodice. Warp 19 brings us to the shrine of Marid, Guardian of the Body Element. “If one who has conquered their Darkness stands at the top, they will be granted a wish.”
We will revisit this room later in the game, but for now, there is nothing we can do here.
Backtrack and go to Warp 17. There is a mystic cape in this room. South of the mystic cape is Warp 21. Warp 22 is on the left side of the room. Warp 21 takes us to a room with several large mirrors. Remove everyone else from the party (if Joe is in the party the game won't register him) and look at the mirror for a scene. At the end receive the powerful Phoenix Claws. Now backtrack and go left to Warp 22.
Warp 22 brings us to a room with multiple warps and two treasures. Magic Barrettes and Starlight Dress. Warp 22 is the lower of 2 warps on the right side of the room. There are 2 additional warps on the left side. The warp immediately above us is labeled warp 23. Warp 23 brings us to a room with a Phoenix Feather. Warp 24 is in the upper left corner. Warp 25 is also on the left side of the room but lower.
Warp 25 brings us to a room with a death tag and warp 26. Warp 26 brings us to a room with Holy Miter and another warp (warp 27). Warp 27 brings us to an enclosed space with White Shroud.
Warp 24 brings us back to the mirror maze. Make it through the other side (warp 28) to find the 2nd Body Rune fragment. The 2 fragments automatically join and form the illuminated Rune of Body. Trevor can equip it, as well as use the skill Superpower. We can use the land drum to return to the entrance.
We have one last section of the Mirror Maze to navigate to get all the items. Go to the lower left corner (warp 5).
Warp 5 is the rightmost warp in a room of 3 warps. The left warp is warp 29. The middle warp is warp 30. Warp 30 takes us to the mirror maze again. We can retrieve Glass gun before exiting the mirror maze once again. Warp 29 takes us to a room with Onyx Crystal and another warp, which connects us to familiar Warp 18. The circuit is complete.
With the holy miter, white shroud, heart lockett, new magic, and new weapons, Ezra has become way more useful.
Finally, stop back in Pepp to trade in our golden statue for Dragon Chakram. Also stop in Haine. Talk to someone in Haine to receive Hester's Charm and the Sheriff's Vest.
Section 14: Endoria and the Cave of Destiny
Save before doing anything in town. There are several unexpected ways we can die. We can sleep safely in a bed in the mansion. We can also find a murder hook. Make sure to check the closer to earn a skeleton key. We are going to need to collect lots of skeleton keys, so practice for these. King Corpse is a rare random encounter and always appears with 4 corpses.
Clue about treasure of the necromancers: Follow the light, from left to right... farthest left, to farthest right... deepest left to deepest right. The order of the bookcases is 2, 5, 1, 6 , 3 ,4. As a reward we get a lot of death tags.
Note: Poison Potions don't always poison.
After speaking to the chief we can enter the Cave of Destiny. There are a couple of fights we want to watch out for. First the King Zombie like we mentioned before – we need to amass about ten keys (or more?).
Be careful of Demon Chibis – they have an instant death retaliation move as well as other instant death abilities. This isn't to say the other enemies here aren't also dangerous, since several more of them have instant death abilities, but they’re the most dangerous. If you encounter them, just RUN AWAY.
Cave of Destiny: After the entrance, the first Stairway will be labeled Stair 0.
Aside from the entrance, there are 2 exits from the first room – 1 on the left labeled Stair 1. 1 on the right labeled Stair 2.
Follow Stair 1 to another staircase and a treasure. We can now return to the entrance hall and follow Stair 2.
Stair 2 continues to another Stair (Stair 3).
From Stair 3 we reach a room with 2 chests. There is another stair directly above us (stair 4), south of us (stair 5), a skeleton door in the upper left hand corner, another stair going down below that (stair 6), and in the bottom left corner a staircase going up (stair 7). The skull door contains the weapon Reaper's Scythe.
Take stair 7 up first. This leads us to another staircase and a skull shield. Now return and take stair 4 to discover staff of necromancy. Return to the big room again and take stair 5. We have to navigate through a dark room with occasional purple lighting to reach the next set of stairs (stair 8). There are a couple of shortcuts if we veer off the illuminated path.
Stair 8 takes us to a room with lots of spider webs and heavy chains. Continue to Stair 9.We see gravestones on a bridge. Continue immediately south to see a door requiring a Skeleton Key to open. If you have one you can use it to find a Rose Pendant. After continuing to the right we will see a staircase going up (stair 10) and a staircase going down (stair 11).
Go up the stairs first. Navigate through more tombstone and take another stairs up to face a Glutton. Glutton is a powerful enemy that drops Neo Tonic. We will face several more of them over the course of the dungeon. In addition to hard hitting physical attacks, gluttons can use inhale – like slurp from mimics, except it targets your whole party. Leonardo is immune. Heavy chains provide immunity. And if you have Joe he is also immune. Glutton has approx 50K hp.
Now go down stair 11, we will be in a room with poison on the ground. Saving is disabled while you are on the toxic surface so be cautious, saving and backtracking as necessary. Your characters will take damage (2% of max hp every couple of steps) as well as additional damage every turn from the surface in battle so avoiding battles and escaping is recommended. We can get a game over if we don't watch our health. Our short-term objective is to hug the left wall until we can duck into an alcove. From here we can go down a set of stairs. We should continue following the path until we find a pitchfork. Once we return from the alcove we should escape to stairs in the bottom left (Stair 12). Continue following the path and we will reach a warp point, connecting to the Cave of Destiny entrance. A path leads to a stair going up on the left.
The path on the left eventually reconnects to Stair 6 we mentioned earlier, with some goodies on the way. And another path leads down deeper into the Cave.
From Stair 6: Stair 6 also leads us to a room with poison floors. After we reach the end of the poison path we will see a stair to the right (Stair 13) and more poison floors to the south. Follow the path south to find Berserk Herb.
Stair 13 takes us to a room with 2 staircases. To the lower left, Stair 14, to the lower right Stair 15.
Stair 14: Go south. At the intersection go left to find a skeleton door and the Lifesickle. Then follow the path right to Stair 16.
Stair 15: Stair 15 is situated in the upper left of a large room. Follow the path to reach an intersection.
Follow the path south to find a skeleton door with another Rose Pendant. Then go north up a staircase (Stair 19?) You will find a Dark Tonic nearby. Continue following the spiderwebs down to the lower left hand corner of the room, picking up a Spider Web before taking the stairs (Stair 20) down. Here we will encounter another glutton so equip heavy chains and prepare to slug it out.
Stair 16: This room has two additional exits. A stair to the far right (Stair 18), and a hidden exit to the south. Go south first. Upon exiting south follow the path right, and down 2 sets of stairs to discover Horned Flail. Follow the path right to find Lilith's Gown.
We have successfully cleared the first half of the Cave of Destiny.
Cave of Destiny Section 2: Put Pica in the party.
BOSS – Evil Root can inflict lots of nasty ailments, and will dispel positive buffs on the party. Ryota or Luna with Balance Garb is recommended to counter these with scales of libra. Branch and Bud are revived but with less than initial hp – clearing them with infernal dragon is one solution. Also does magic damage with wood but if you can manage the ailments the rest of this fight isn't too tough. He has about 80K hp. Pica is mostly a utility hero in this lineup but can heal herself with photosynthesis and increase attack with star power – if the boss uses a turn casting dispel instead of disabling our party that's a good result for us.
Continue down the path, and when given the chance go right to the threshold. Continue right as far as the path allows, then take the path north. (Ignore the stairs to the south for now) Continue following the path north to reach a warp point and from there another Glutton. Now backtrack to those stairs we ignored.
In the next room, ignore the immediate walkway to the south and go right. Take the stairs in the upper right hand corner of the room. The chest nearby contains a Phoenix Feather, but triggers an enemy encounter (trap). Continue north until you reach a warp pad and find a Titan Blade. Now walking south as far as you can go until you are forced to walk left. Go up the stairs and navigate to a nearby staircase. You should be in a room with blue spiderwebs and a treasure chest containing Gleipnir.
We should now return to the southern path we ignored previously. Follow it down the stairs, up the stairs and discover a nearby plague vial before following the blue sparkles to another exit. Go through a giant archway and prepare for a boss fight by stepping on the red tile between two purple torches.
BOSS – Ancient: Dangerous, but many weaknesses to exploit. Immune to dark magic. Can dispel. Stone gas. Ailing, petrify, burn. Hard hitting physical attack. More so if uses evil power. Leah is immune to petrify so she is a good choice for this battle. Also she can use a weapon that does extra damage vs undead. Rarely uses shadow of death, a move that can kill all party members. Ezra is immune, you also have items that can resist it. But in my experience he doesn't cast it enough and it doesn't have a high enough hit % for using special accessories to be worthwhile. He also is a dragon, so Dragon Chakram can also inflict good damage.
Recommended party: Leonardo, Leah, Ezra, Pica. Leah can be switched out for a damage dealer with Dragon Chakram.
After this boss save and walk immediately right into the wall. Here we can encounter Saruma, an optional superboss. Defeating Saruma at this point of the game is unrealistic but we can safely say hello. More importantly, we should trigger the warp point so we can revisit him without traversing long portions of the dungeon in the future.
Now we want to go back to the section of the cave immediately below the mid-warpoints. From there go south and follow the sign west to the Guardian. Soon you will reach a large marsh. Search carefully to find Vampire Fang. You will randomly encounter Lemurs in this area, a powerful enemy with instant death abilities. You may wish to equip Rose Pendants on your heroes to cross this area more safely. When you find a staircase take it. Continue through the cobweb-laden room to another staircase going down. You can fight a Glutton in this room if you discover the hidden passage to it.
Now take the stairs to the right. Go through the cobweb-laden room once again and activate the warp point. You will need the Rosetta Keystone from the Ancient to open the door. Before confronting the Guardian of Spirit, circle around the back of the room and pick up a Golden Stud. We can return to the Tailor in Fauston. If we give her: Master Headband, 2 Phoenix Feathers and the Golden Stud we obtain the Phoenix Headdress.
Master Headband stats: 55 Defense, 27 Will, 10% increase of strength, dexterity, agility and intelligence
The Phoenix Headdress also has 55 Defense and 27 Will, but provides a 20% bonus to strength, dexterity, agility and intelligence.
I also suggest you buy 99 poison potions and bloody tears, as well as any weapons you haven't. We will permanently lose access to the shops here after an upcoming event. Make sure Boaz is level 33.
BOSS – Osiris: Uses Strike Down frequently. Exodus (magic damage). Dispel. Glare (petrifies). Double attack (strong). Death touch – near fatal damage with status effects. Hush. Soul division. Vitality drain. Shadow of death. Life drain. Has some extremely dangerous abilities. The best thing going for us this fight is that we can counter his instant death abilities with our equipment, which he uses a lot. Ultimate magic attacks are recommended as the primary damage method, with other characters healing and negating ailments. Only has 100K hp.
After the Cave of Destiny, pick up the black diamond. Also make sure Erin and Elias are level 33.
Section 15: Faust's Mansion, the Legacy of Blood
Stock up on all necessary healing supplies before approaching the Mansion. I am getting a bad feeling about this place.
Follow the light downstairs. We need to search rooms to find a key (it is assigned randomly). We will fight random enemies and can heal by sleeping in any available bed. This is a one-time dungeon, you will not get a chance to fight many of these enemies again. Keep searching and eventually you will find the Basement Key.
Take down the stairs and you will find a room full of locked doors like the upper hallway. Keep searching and you will discover the following:
(Treasure by room)
Upper left – Speed Ring
Left Middle – Power Ring
Lower left – Iron Maiden
Upper right – Defense Ring
Right Middle – Mystic Ring
Lower right – Black Armor
Keep exploring the dungeon. In the next room take the door find a Crosier. Then go back out to the next room and push a crate to reveal a new staircase. This next room has flashing panels that will warp you back near the beginning. Treasures found in this room include ectoplasm, prayer beads, white ether, and ghost sash. Take another stairs lower. Hopefully you have another skeleton key left over from the last dungeon, if not king zombies can be encountered at a low rate. Get the last treasure, steal the key from the shining light in the next room and prepare for a boss fight. Put Pica in your party.
BOSS – Gatekeeper: Like many bosses on this continent, Gatekeeper has an instant death ability (leer). Compared to Osiris though, his ability is cast less often, and less accurate so you may choose to risk equipping your heroes with damage dealing accessories instead. Gatekeeper does heavy magic damage and can poison your party. Pepp Peps, Life Elixir and Photosynthesis should let you stay on top of it. On the 16th turn you will be crushed.
Continue down the corridor and there will be a heal point. You need Ezra in your party equipped with Crosier to win.
BOSS – Faust: Strike him (repeatedly) with the crosier. It can take awhile for the staff’s effect to manifest, and it can be challenging to keep Ezra alive in the face of Faust’s Dark attacks. You may want to equip Ezra with one or more articles of equipment that grant defense against Darkness. Your party is automatically healed, then you face Legion.
BOSS – Legion: Takes heavy magic damage. Evades physical attacks. Vitality drain. Dispel. Silent darkness. Use all your best magic for this fight. If you have all of Elder Methuselah’s ultimate attacks, they’ll really help.
After Legion, Elias and Erin are sent home to recuperate, and any items they were equipped with return to our inventory. Make sure to visit them (speak to Erin from the foot of the bed) to learn our first combination skill.
Section 16: The Long Barren Road
In the southern part of this area you can fight King Mimic. He is a powerful enemy, with the ability to slurp, inflict various status ailments, heavy magic damage and solid physical damage. He can also heal himself to the tune of 9999 hp. If a key character is slurped in the first few turns just reload and try again. After inflicting roughly 55K of damage the battle will become a scripted event, and you will receive the Quartz ring. Pica does not learn any abilities from this battle.
As you continue along the path you will notice bombable areas in the walls. Not all of these contain items. It is my understanding, that they may contain items if you missed treasure in previous areas (such as Faust's mansion.) One of them contains the last necromancer from Endor.
Gemstone Cavern: When you reach Troy you will fall through the floor. There is a secret passage to your immediate right. Continue until you reach an area with lots of gangplanks and crystals. If you take the stairs below it takes you to an area with randomly encountered Earth eaters and a couple of treasures.
Crystal Puzzle:
left
right, middle
left, right, middle
right, middle, left, right, drop
This takes you back to the start of Gemstone Cavern. Now head to where you first saw Troy.
BOSS – Troy: Absorbs light. Kill off the lovebugs before fighting Troy, as they can heal him. He isn't too threatening an enemy.
Upon completing this area you should have at least one of every shard – you should trade in to Dimitri for the Rainbow Ring. Depending on how many sets you have, Dimitri will take the least valuable. If you have all 8 rings, at least 8 crystals, and at least 8 shards he will take the shards. He will also prioritize taking crystals before the rings. I suggest not trading in the rings.
Make sure to save before continuing past the healing point (to the Lake of Fire). You will be trapped until you can complete a series of fights.
4x Death Crow
4x Wicked Witch
4x Gargoyle
4x Leviskull
Lake of Fire: You will want to go north and right until you go through a temple area. There are a couple of secret passages throughout this next dungeon. Make sure to pick up the Ruby Shield.
Eventually you’ll reach an area where you’re walking behind the support columns of the bridge above you. In the temple connected to the bridge, walk behind the stairs.
Hell Kitty: as the last golden enemy, hell kitty is formidable. Spell-seals the party, hits hard physical, magically, has multiple status ailments. Susceptible to caltrops.
After crossing back over the top section of the bridge, you will find your next secret passage behind an empty chamber. It leads to Nidhoggr's Revenge. Nidhoggr as you recall, guarded the entrance to the Kingdom of Ashe. Nidhoggr is an optional boss, so if he is too difficult for you you can come back later.
BOSS – Nidhoggr's Revenge: Ailing, blind, petrify, silence. Immune to fire. Can remove all mana. Hates respawn every 4 turns but with minimal hp so they can be killed off much easier. Glitter rain can do it.
Nidhoggr's Revenge is weak to Light, Ice, and Thunder magic (if you have weapons with these elemental attributes as well, they should also be effective). He's Reptile/Demon, so he's weak to swords, katanas, and staves (but realistically, staves won't be doing much physical damage to him; however, if you have a stronger weapon that is effective on demons, such as Maximus' Ogre Axe, which is available to buy in Endoria before you complete the Cave of Destiny, it may help). If Jessica knows Empowering Force, that will help increase your damage.
We still have a lot to do in this area, so now might be a good time to return to town for supplies and complete some quests around the world.
Big Ben: Slave Driver and Ogre Badge
Rusted sword to smith in Glymac: If you let him keep it you get the Great Cleaver – an item that does heavy damage (1 + 250000) to Saruma. Really, though you should take Excalibur, Romeo's ultimate weapon. Also the rainbow ring if you haven't got it yet.
To the north of this area is a rock-hopping area. Your time to get to each treasure is limited. You can find a power ruby and a berserker bangle.
You will soon reach an area that Leonardo has to traverse alone. Save before trying it. I suggest running from all enemies and maintaining max hp at all times. Also equipping an anti-death accessory is also a good idea. This can be tough. For your efforts, you will receive an armor upgrade for Leonardo. Equip it immediately, you still need to make it back alive before you can save and reassemble a party. Make sure to hit the switch before proceeding to the next checkpoint.
Mt. Golgotha: Save your game when you reach the graveyard area. There are some items hidden here (one requiring dynamite to find). You can also fight an extremely challenging optional boss by examining the lower right plot. Bonepickers have the ability to steal A LOT of your hard-earned cash. You will probably want to reload if that happens.
BOSS – Fenrir: On my first play through, I had to come back and fight him later. He is very tough. It is possible to beat him though with some smart planning and a little luck. I would recommend your heroes be level 60 or higher. Leonardo and Pica are mandatory. Ezra is protected from many harmful status ailments, included his dreaded half-stat move, so is a great primary damage dealer. Leah is a good 4th hero. She can increase physical defence for the entire physical party, combo with Leonardo to wipe out, and absorb one magic attack from Fenrir (mega quake). I suggest equipping her with the Ghost Sash, avoiding all physical damage and many status effects (including the half-stats). Having Pica and Leah defend on the first turn is probably safest.
If you have the teeny bikini, you may also choose to experiment with it this fight. Fenrir has a couple of powerful magic attacks though so it isn't for the faint-hearted. Fenrir Pups will be revived every three to four turns after dying turn but can be cleared with any mass-magic spell you have.
The first turn for this battle is extremely important. Most importantly, we want Leonardo to wipe out the Pups with Flame Meteor. Second in importance is avoiding key status effects. Frozen and lycanthrope can be a big setback. Thirdly, Leah should cast shielding crystal before Leonardo if possible. Pica is mostly a utility hero this fight, and should focus on healing the other heroes.
Ezra is going to be pounding away on Fenrir with Sacred Radiance all fight. Once the fight is reduced to just Fenrir it is a lot more manageable. We are even happy when he revives the pups since that will be a turn where we are otherwise safe from harm. It is crucial that we be spamming spells like infernal dragon or glitter rain every 3-4 turns after they have died. Since they do not have an action the first time they revive, and revive with minimal hp this keeps them from letting us lose control from the fight.
On the first turn he uses a spell that halves all stats for the duration of the battle. For this reason you may wish to forgo some of the usual stat-boosting equipment you might ordinarily use (like hobo lily). Ezra is immune with heart locket.
Fenrir's Pups have an estimated 10000 hp and can be killed with Karma's instant death abilities. They can cause fear, a very disruptive ability in this battle if it interrupts your spells. Fenrir has many powerful physical attacks. He can also freeze your party. Poison, blind, and sleep, Make you flinch. Inflict lycanthropy. If you do manage to defeat Fenrir you may want to return to town and stock up on Pepp Peps and other supplies once again. We have another boss at the end of this area.
The screen to the immediate left of the graveyard has multiple exits. The northeast and south exits both have some treasures. I next suggest blasting open the rocks and walking through the underground passage to set some of your ropes. You now have a shortcut available but we are going the long way first. You will miss out on some semi-valuable consumables (such as a Neo Tonic) but no unique equipment if you do, so it your choice. Anyway assuming you go the long way, return to the beginning and exit to the NE. Read the sign on the way for some clues to the next area.
In short, you need to search for blue-eyed skulls to activate bridges. There is plenty of treasure, as well as plenty of enemies along the way. Eventually you will reach a graveyard in front of the tower. One of the gravestones has some money hidden with it. When you reach the top of the tower you have the choice of exiting north to a bridge or south to a set of stairs. Make sure to take the stairs down first to find the Katana hidden at the bottom of the tower. You will need a skeleton key. On your way out of the tower, speak to someone to learn about the dispel staff. It can be found nearby to the NE, and can be helpful for the next boss.
Taking the other exit north and enter a long corridor with no enemies present. Save your game and prepare for a boss fight before continuing. Leonardo needs to wear the Halo. Put Pica in your party.
BOSS – Emperor Fiyara: Can hush. Powerful double attack. Blades of wrath. Evil power (can be dispelled). 2nd form: Cripple, Ice Belch, Double Attack. Heals with golden sheen. Erode. Dark Power. Tongue Lash. Evil power. Firebolt (can paralyze). Strangle. Dispel. Last Hurrah. Fell swoop. Serpent Fire. Half-moon. Trevor's equipment will automatically be returned to you.
Fiyara's death triggers several events on the global map. You can speak to your party members for clues about some of them. After one more dungeon we will get a warp back to Fauston, but if you are all out of Pepp Peps and other supplies you may want to go. Plus you can do the other events I'm referring to.
In Haine: One of the horses will give you a Neo Tonic.
Visit Glymac next to learn Emperor Claudius is visiting Winstar. Speak to the guard in the dance hall to trigger a key cut scene. If we return to Winstar Arena we can fight another of the Game's optional superbosses, the Iron Emperor. I wouldn't recommend it, but you are welcome to give it a try.
Finally stop by Maia's Garden to pick up a Leaf of Life. Other Leaves of Life can also be found throughout the jungle.
Pepp Peps are sold before the next boss, so if you don't want to spend the extra time backtracking you should be ok.
Section 17: Heights of Nadir and the Castle in the Sky
Speak to a mystic on your way in to be given the Panacea ring. This dungeon is fairly straightforward, so I won't give directions. Keep your eye out for Tartarus Trunks, a rarely encountered, and very dangerous enemy (death tags do not effect it). They drop Panacea roots, which we need to cure Granny. To underscore just how dangerous they are, they are found in the game's final dungeon.
BOSS – Yasushi: Equip Leah with best equipment, including newly acquired Aegis Plate. She will be leveled to level 50 automatically if she has not reached it already. His slice can remove 75% of your hp. His other attacks are much less dangerous. Uses Dark Guard. Heal as appropriate.
When you are finished, walk back to the start of the dungeon and open the earth barrier. Activate the warp to travel back to the start of barren pass. But take the warp right back and continue forward. You will see why in a moment.
Castle in the Sky: After a long cut scene we can summon Vulcan. 3 new locations have been added to our world map: Eldoro Rock, Castle in the Sky and the shady Islet.
You can buy some absolutely crucial items at the shops here: Life Guards, Stat Raisers, and Element Barriers are integral for survival throughout the rest of the game; stock up now and restock often. Rory’s Brew and Regina’s Wine essentially split the effects of a Pepp Pep, and are useful in the right situation.
Exploring the castle: 3 treasure chests are hidden in secret rooms.
Elder Enoch: He will reward you with one of 3 possible rings depending on your answers to a quiz. It's possible there are more than 1 set of answers that gives you the same ring, but I only listed one.
Peace without joy:
Peace without love:
Joy without peace:
Joy without love:
Love without peace:
Love without joy:
Love Ring: no, no, yes, no, yes, yes
Joy Ring: no, no, yes, yes, no,
Peace Ring: yes, yes, no, no, no , no, no
Love Ring: Prevent poison, blindness, silence, burning, and ailing.
Peace Ring: Prevents confusion, fear, flustering, charms and lycanthropy.
Joy Ring: Prevents flinching, sleep, paralysis, freezing and petrification.
If you stay at the inn here with various characters, you can see some scenes from their past via their dreams.
Relic of the Zodiac Reward: If you have the 3 relics of the zodiac you can trade them in for 1 of 4 pieces of ultimate equipment. Scales of Libra are very useful, as not all ailments are easily treated in battle with items. Plus it costs nothing. Since we can collect more than 1 Bow of Saggitarius we don't mind that one.
Metatron Armor: 188 defense, 94 Will, 24% evasion, raises Element def. Leonardo, Ryota, Nathan, Maximus, Romeo
Venus Bikini: 188 defense, 94 Will, 24% evasion, raises Element def. Leah, Karma, Esther, Luna, Jessica
Aesir Circlet: 75 Defense, 38 Will, 19 Evasion, raises all Elemental defense. Leonardo, Ryota, Ezra, Nathan, Maximus, Romeo
Valkyrie Headgear: 75 Defense, 38 Will, 19 Evasion, raises all Elemental defense. Leah, Karma, Esther, Luna, Pica, Jessica
Prometheus noted: “Players who want a perfect-item game should not trade in the relics of the zodiac for a piece of equipment. It is possible, but very difficult to acquire those items from end-of-game enemies.”
The Shady Islet has Pica's last fairy pond as well as some treasures. Go there now, and left from the landing point to find the fairy pond. There are 4 treasures here, each requiring a skeleton key.
Now we can go to the spring at Arean. Say no after the initial cutscene to get Hellion Claws. Then go through with it to get some awesome gear.
Assuming you do go through the transformation (highly recommended) you should immediately go to the Mirror Maze in East Beghar. Not going through with it will reduce Pica’s usefulness and survivability in boss fights considerably, making it that much harder to get the rest of her skills. Proceed to the Body Shrine. Save before triggering a long scene. You will fight 3 baby devils at the end of it by yourself. Make sure you start with your full hp and your best equipment. I recommend switching the moon rune for panacea ring, as you can become confused and flustered in this fight.
Section 18: Palace of the 4 Elemental Gods
Go through the antechamber and you will see a door requiring a skeleton key. From there proceed down the corridor to the left and up the stairs. In this chamber there are a couple scattered treasures, another treasure behind a skeleton door, and a stairs leading upward. In the next room grab the treasure and take the stairs going up again.
This room has 4 exits, 1 in each corner. You entered from stairs in the SE corner. The stairs in the SW corner take you to 2 treasures chests. The stairs in the NW corner also take you to 2 treasure chests. Exit NW last.
Start by going west and examining the statue with dark markings on the floor near it. It has a secret passage hidden behind it. Follow it to find Horned Armor (requiring yet another skeleton key). Return to the secret passage and now go to the rightmost stairs.
Continue out to the balustrade and directly north to a room with invisible walls. You know that it takes a room with invisible walls to find invisible treasure. Just kidding. Meander through this room and you will find a stair exiting north. (The enemies move in a fixed pattern and can be avoided) After exiting you will discover several treasure chests, one containing the valuable cat-o'-nine-tails. Return to the walkway. At the end there is another skeleton door with equipment behind. Then proceed south down the stairs directly below. There are 2 treasures here. Now backtrack all the way to the large room you can see beneath you.
Proceed north to the extended stairway in the back. You will soon see a door marked by a red gem you can't enter. Bear left and go down 2 sets of stairs. You will now have to navigate across a room with tapestries hanging everywhere. Continue south once more to enter a room with 14 staircases (7 north, 7 south). The 3rd one from the left on the top will return you the way you came. The 2nd from the right on the bottom will let you advance deeper into the palace.
After entering the lava-filled room, explore the right corridor, finding a chest and taking the stairs at the southern end of a corridor to another chest. Now go back to the left side of the room. Take the chest and follow the stairs at the south end. You will find a skeleton door containing goliath axe and 2 more treasures.
Return to the main room and take the central stairs south. You can locate a secret passage immediately to your right that helps you avoid enemies if you so choose. There is another secret passage in this room. This one leads you to a trap chest, and a staircase to a solitary treasure chest. The trap chest respawns. There is only one way left to go and Leonardo is forced to huff it solo across the lava.
Heal up, consider equipping anti-death accessories and good luck to you. The enemies in the lava are of a lower class then the rest of this dungeon, and you will encounter the same enemies you did at the Lake of Fire. I have not listed them as regular enemies for this area. You won't be able to save until you reach dry land.
Reassemble your party and continue following the path. You will see a malevolent flame blocking a staircase, followed by stones we can jump on. We need to hit a couple of switches to remove the flame. There is also a treasure out here. Take the stairs down. Save and prepare for a boss fight.
BOSS – Suzaku: Weak to earth, wingblade. SKILLS: Shining Phoenix. Body of light. Pillar of fire. Dispel. Black inferno. Can blind, burn. Suzaku attacks using a combination of physical attacks and fire magic. He will cast shining phoenix on his first turn, have one of your characters dispel it immediately. I used a physical lineup of Leonardo, Reuel and Leah. They can all be equipped with weapons that capitalize on Suzaku's weaknesses. They can be equipped with good fire resistance equipment. Pica should be casting star power at every opportunity, which doubles attack power AND defence.
Blessing: Children of Fire. Leonardo, Ezra, Karma; increased stats. This blessing consists of +500 hp, +500 ef, and +50 to all stats.
You can take a warp to the entrance hall, and from there a new warp is visible. Take it; it leads to behind the red-gem covered door we couldn't open earlier. It can now be opened with Suzaku's Medal. There is another gem-covered door in front of us we can't open.
Paths are available left and right. Go left first. This brings us to an earth-themed area, and the same enemies from Heights of Nadir are here. In the first room you will find a couple treasures, and stairways in the SW and SE corners.
Start with the SW side. Pause before taking the stairs to a lower level. Search to your immediate upper right to discover a secret passage leading to the area the SE stairs would have taken you. Loot this area for treasure then proceed downstairs to a poison cavern. The stairs on the other side of the secret passage take you to the same place.
The enemies in the poison are also categorically weaker than most of this dungeon. They seem to be the same ones from Gemstone Cavern. Take the first stairs out of the poison to a skeleton door and Rory's Helm. Rory's Helm resists lycanthropy and is equippable by Maximus.
Return to the poison and make your way to 2 chests and a flashing crystal in between. The left chest is trapped. Hold off on touching the crystal for now, as this will take us to the boss of the area. We have one more treasure to find before we do that. Make our way north, and take the first stairs available to find a plague vial. Then return to the flashing crystal.
The crystal warps you to a crystal maze. The exit is sealed by a malevolent flame. Going the wrong way triggers battles with diamond clusters. Follow these directions to unseal the exit:
Left side: highest, lowest, middle, switch.
Right side: middle, highest, lowest, switch.
Top: left, left, middle, switch.
You can now follow the stairs to the next Elemental God (Boss).
BOSS – Byakko: Leah is required in this fight. Weak to flails, whips, ice, iron, wood. Byakko starts the battle with fury, which hurts a lot. I suggest defending that first turn. SKILLS: Neutralize. Dark sigh. Polar shift. Evil power. Chomp+1. Golden sheen. This boss takes a little more planning than Suzaku. Even though we can still do great physical damage by capitalizing on his weaknesses, he still hits extremely hard. Defending the first turn is recommended. One possible strategy is using the Ghost Sash on Leonardo and spamming flare dazzle.
Bless Earth Children: Leah, Maximus, Ryota, Luna. His blessing consists of +500 hp, +500 ef, and +50 to all stats. After defeating Byakko we can warp back to the entrance chamber. From there we should warp in front of the multi-colored gem door. This time, we should go right.
Eventually we will reach a room where we can't save. We need to find the switches to unseal the exit, and use the levers to direct the wind. Make sure to grab the treasure behind the skeleton door as well. When we enter the door on the right we will have a mini-game. It's kind of tough, maybe even very but you'll get it eventually. This can be challenging so I wrote down the directions.
Left, left, right, left, right, right speed change
Left, right, right, left, left, left, speed change
Right, left, right.
This takes you to a chamber with Seiryu.
BOSS – Seiryu: Romeo is required for this fight. SKILLS: Whirlbind (clumsy/slow, stop). Atmospheric Rend. Tongue lash. Poison gas. Blessing: Romeo, Jessica, Nathan and Reuel.
Now take the warp back to the multi-colored gem door we couldn't open previously. This takes you to an elaborate ice block puzzle spanning multiple rooms. No saving, and the menu is disabled so you can't activate the party ball. There are a couple of treasures along the way, before you reach an ice-sliding puzzle. Once you drop down a level you can save.
If you don't want to solve it yourself it’s not too tough – go up, left, up, right, down. At the bottom you will reach a raft and a malevolent flame. You have a couple of switches to find. I have provided directions to save you some time.
Left, down. Switch.
Left, left, left, down, down. Switch.
Right, right, down, right, down.
Left, left, left, down, up, left. Skeleton door. This has an enemy encounter – shield guardians are immune to physical damage and death spells so prepare a party of spellcasters. Shield Guardians have 15-20K hp each. Erode removes evasion. Use party with Luna casting anti-gravity and spellcasters. This is a tough fight.
BOSS – Genbu: Leonardo is replaced with Ondine for this fight. Genbu uses gel armor his first turn and it needs to be dispelled immediately. He can neutralize, cripple, and use golden sheen. Ondine occasionally takes a break. She can heal the party a bit over 1K hp a pop. Life drain is the most dangerous move. Cold fear and cocytus cyclone also powerful. Can also freeze, use silent darkness, and chomp+1. Bless: Pica, Esther. Ondine.
Before continuing stock up at Fauston. We can get a piece of unique equipment from Fiyara as well. In the pink blooming forest, progress east through the secret passages in the trees until you emerge in a rainy field. Keep heading east and you’ll reach the shrine where you can obtain special equipment once you have all the medals of the Elemental Gods.
Suzaku's Gloves: 61 Defense, 31 Will. Double Dex. Everyone can equip.
Byakko's Armor: 165 Defense, 83 Will. Double Agility. Pica cannot equip.
Seiryu's Helm: 66 Defense, 33 Will. Double Intelligence. Everyone but Pica.
Genbu's Shield: Defense 56, Will 28. Eva +14%. Double Strength. Reuel, Romeo, Leah, Karma, Maximus, Esther, Jessica, Luna.
There is a new warp in front of the multi-colored gem door. Take it. Follow the path until you reach a throne. Sit on it and keep walking. You will randomly encounter Grigori's in this corridor, who can rarely drop Black Holes. When you reach a healing point prepare for a long series of event battles. Return to heal as appropriate (or if you don't want to walk back, you can use sacks/mattresses). Some of these cutscenes will vary based on sidequests you have completed and cutscenes you have seen (Jessica for one).
Reuel: 3x Mischief Maker
Karma: 2 Succubus, 2 Mischief Maker, 1 Infernal Witch
Nathan: 1x Nepenthes
Maximus: 2x Punisher
Ryota, Luna: no monsters
Ezra: no monsters
Romeo, Esther: Dragon Queen
Jessica: 3x Devil Horseman
Pica: Grave Ghoul
After the cut scene with Pica save your game, and make sure to put Pica in the party (you may have to return to the entrance to change party members). You have a boss fight at the end of the next cutscene. In terms of difficulty, he is more like a mini-boss than boss, but he gives a useful skill.
Leonardo: Sealed One
Directions for the next area: east, south, west, north. Activate the warp.
Stock up on any supplies you need. The next dungeon sells restorative items, but has a limited inventory. Pillows, sacks, and mattresses aren't sold for starters so you might want to stock up on 99 of each. Some of the inventory from castle in the sky is available, as well as Pepp Peps. Save before continuing north, as you will encounter a boss.
BOSS – Cugei, Blacksider x 2. SKILLS: Abyss. Silent darkness. Sleep paralysis. Cold fear. Shadow of death (can kill). After 150000 damage the fight will end automatically.
Section 19: The Omega Colony
This is a one-time dungeon. Some of the enemies here can't be encountered again. Save when you reach a healing point. Put Pica in your party and continue north.
BOSS – Ruiner Mk-II: Gremlins have 10-15k hp. Liquid metal makes ailing. Charges. Gigablast. Can slow, make flinch. Can confuse with spinning blade.
Surveillance Tower: There are a couple of treasures along the way. Eventually you will reach a room with a pod. Heal up and put Pica in your party.
BOSS – Mother Eye buffs on the first turn, so have one of your heroes use dispel staff immediately.
Defense Zone: When you reach a warp that takes you to a large area with a lot of enemies. There are treasure chests in all the corners but the NE one. The NE corner brings you to the next section of the dungeon. Here you need to solve a block puzzle to reach the warp point within a narrow time limit. Before you do though, see if you can also reach the treasure chest for a Neo Tonic. Wait to be warped back to the entrance and save. Stepping on the warp will bring you to a boss fight, so make sure you are prepared before continuing.
BOSS – Defense Grid x 4: Laser attacks. Gravity beam. 50K each. You may want to burn a neo tonic or two to keep your party healed.
Production Facility: This dungeon is a little tricky. You need to activate computers to open paths through the dungeon. Start by taking the pipe to your right and using the terminal there. Then go back to the entrance and follow the pipe south, following the path to the level below.
Go left immediately upon your entrance to the 2nd level, following a pipe back upstairs to a treasure. Then return below. At the far right of the room there are several pipes you can use. The middle one brings you to a treasure. The leftmost takes you a trapped chest where you can fight a wreaker. There is also a somewhat disguised path that leads to an inhibitor in the lower left corner. This is the first of many chests in this dungeon trapped with this enemy. If you haven't found a Super Ball yet you can use this chest to acquire one (save and reload until it is dropped). Take the rightmost one when you are ready. There are a lot of treasure chests but before taking any more pipes to the lower level find and activate the 2nd monitor.
In the NW corner, slightly to the right of the entrance to Production facility area, you will find a pipe you should follow to the 2nd level.
Ignore the pipe to your right. It will bring you to the area exit, and we have only activated 2 of the 4 computers we need to open it completely. Follow the left pipe until it circles around the lower area. In the next area there are many openings that look like they may lead somewhere but are in fact part of the wall. However one of these near the upper right corner does bring you to the top floor and the 3rd computer.
When you go back down there are 2 pipes to your immediate right. Both of them take you to the same place, the 4th computer. You may have noticed an inaccessible treasure chest on your route. Go back to the start of the 2 pipes and search the wall carefully to your south. You will discover a neo tonic. Now back to the pipe I told you to ignore earlier and follow it to the exit. You are alerted to a shortcut to circumnavigate the long route. Heal up and prepare for a super difficult boss fight. Or at least a fight with the potential to be super difficult following the wrong strategy.
BOSS – Rune Replicator: Each rune replicator crystal has about 20K hp. They have a variety of high-damage and status-inflicting attacks. Moreover, even after killing them, the Hub can revive them with 9999 hp. They also have their own healing abilities. The simplest way to win this fight is to obliterate them all in the first turn. The key to doing this is with judicious use of Black Hole consumables. It is dropped by several enemies in this dungeon, and found in some chests. I suggest having at least 5 available. Have 3 heroes use black holes the first turn. That should kill all the crystals. If the rune replicator revives them use another 1-2 black holes. A black hole in conjunction with one of Pica's abilities (for example comet rain) should wipe them out again. The Hub isn't that formidable by itself, and you should have no trouble managing the rest of the fight.
Reactor Core: There are more trapped chests in this area. When you reach a certain point of the dungeon saving is disabled.
Panel Unlock Sequence: 561423.
Kill the Panels in the following order:
3rd from left, 5th from left (2nd from right),
6th from left, 4th from left
Leftmost, 2nd leftmost
After the panels you have a very challenging pipe maze to go through. You will end up in a poison area with saving disabled. When you reach dry land save. Take the pipe to your immediate left to find the nebula sword. Next go right and take the path all around the edge of room to find more treasure. Go immediately right from the treasure to discover a secret passage and go south. Follow this path to the next pipe and a warp point back to the Omega Colony core facilities. Heal and stock up on supplies as necessary (if you bought the 99 pillows sacks and mattresses like I suggested you probably won't need to).
Reactor Core B4: There is a visible enemy on the map. Add Pica to the party before proceeding. Death Machine is not too challenging a boss.
BOSS – Death Machine: Nuke, Spinning Blade (confuses), Lock On (can be broken with scales of libra)
After continuing to the room below you can take the right pipe to discover a trapped treasure chest with wreaker. Otherwise you may continue south. Follow the path until you reach an area with a nearby warp, a blocked staircase and a staircase down.
Start with the warp. In the next room you will find a console where you can switch the barriers. Activate it to get the nearby treasures and take the warp north. Activate the console and take the warp on the right. The warps in these rooms are hid behind the green displays. After traversing the series of warps you will reach 2 treasures chest with cosmic signet and celestial coat. Backtrack back to the console and take the warp on the left side.
The staircase at the bottom connects to an earlier room, but the barrier blocks our path. Take the pipe into the left wall. First exit the room north to discover chakra wheel. The left exit leads us to a room with a barrier blocking us. South connects us to a room with staircases leading north, south and one other pipe. Follow the other pipe first and eventually discover red avenger.
Follow the pipe back and continue north. Switch the barriers. We are forced to backtrack again. Go back to the room with the pipe cross and follow the path left. We will receive a new knuckle weapon (yay!). Exit the pipe cross east, and follow the stairs south. The previous barrier is now deactivated, and we can move south. Take another stairs south and go all the way down the south platform. The west warp leads to Wreaker chest. Continue east and get ready to do a lot of walking. But save first. Leonardo is soon going to be separated from the party.
Make sure Luna, Ryota and Esther are all level 33 if they are not all ready. Saving will be disabled when Leonardo is separated. And your speed is slowed to start. Ugh. Walk. And make sure you are ready for battle. At the end you have some dialogue choices so don't click too quickly. Correct answers: No, Yes, No
If you answer incorrectly, you will not get an event battle against Cugei. Winning is not possible. You fight Boaz after that. It's not a tough fight. He has about 50000 hp, but as long as you have some good armor equipped you shouldn't be in much danger of dying. Heal as appropriate.
After a LOOONNNG cutscene, you end up on the shady islet. Go south to visit Esther's grave and find Shamrock, a pretty sweet accessory. Make sure to save. Use the Gilded Key to retrieve Trumpet of the Lion. Speak to everyone around your house, and to Joe and Karma after waking up in the middle of the night. Then go back to bed. (You will notice Pica has been kidnapped!! or is staying with her mom) But Leonardo gets up again. Apparently, the temptation to sleep with a Goth girl was too much for him. Or was it. Go outside.
After a cutscene with Luminaya you will be notified about which characters you inherited skills from: The complete list is Esther, Boaz, Ryota, Luna, Sybil, Trevor, Erin, Nalin, Elias, Ondine. Also, all characters are automatically leveled to 50 besides Joe if you haven't done it on your own. You should notice that you have gotten back all equipped items from Boaz, Esther, Luna and Ryota.
Inherited Skills: Assuming all characters were level 33 and you bought the ultimate abilities of Esther and Boaz, you will inherit a total of 57 skills. Leonardo inherits only Shuriken. Pica doesn't inherit. Joe doesn't inherit. The remaining characters get 7 skills each. You will recognize all but one of the inherited skills as being previously owned by a character. Reuel inherits a new water supermove called Tidal Wave from Ondine that was unavailable while she was in the party. The complete list of inherited skills is listed elsewhere in the guide (in one of the accompanying spreadsheets).
You will also notice Southern Islet is no longer available on the world map. There is nothing new to do around the world but you may wish to wrap up any loose ends before entering the elemental shrine. Rainbow ring, bigger ben, Pica, the 3 combination skills, super skills. Or if you're up for a challenge you can try to defeat a superboss.
First, even if you have high levels and all the best equipment, beating the superbosses will still be very difficult. More importantly, if you can beat the superbosses, the elemental shrine will pose much less of a challenge. Chances are, even if you make a few serious attempts, you will still fall short (especially without my guidance).
When you are ready (make sure you have plenty of healing items and max amount of Pepp Peps) go to Eldoro rock. Play the trumpet and climb to the final dungeon in the game.
Section 20: This Is It! (Elemental Shrine)
You will automatically receive the warp stone, an item that lets you warp to the beginning of the elemental shrine (so you can leave and stock up on healing supplies).
Continue north and you will soon reach an area where you choose between following the path of agility, intelligence, or strength. While we only need to complete 1, we can return and take the other paths at any point. We will need to complete all 3 to get certain equipment. Agility has some tough mini-games so consider not starting with that one if you aren't prepared for some potential frustration there. I will start with the path of strength.
Throughout the shrine you will encounter unlit torches. You will be able to light these with Etheric Light. You will find enough Etheric Light to light all the torches in the dungeon but you may wish to conserve them until you do. Lighting some will allow you access to great items, equipment, or healing while others may do nothing or trigger an enemy encounter.
In this first room you see some treasure chests you cannot reach. We will return to light the torches in this room later. In the next room you will find your first Etheric Light in the corner, and an angel nearby will explain how it works. (You need to take a secret passage to reach it). You have the choice of continuing forward on 3 paths (left, middle, right).
Start with the right. Walking across the lightning floor will trigger battles at fixed locations. If you take the stairs down you will see 2 chests – one is a status-inflicting trap, the other has gold, so you don't need to go downstairs if you don't want to. Go upstairs and there are a couple of important things for us to do. First slip through the secret passage and open the chest. Then go upstairs. Using an Etheric Light here will warp us to a new area with a great reward at the end of it. A locked door with an ultimate weapon. We will discover the key to it later, but it’s important for you to know where it is.
After returning through the secret passage we walk left and north observing the garden below us. We will notice a plaza with 3 unlit torches on the balconies above it. We will also notice that we can reach the current balcony with a rope from below. We will come back here later.
Return to the courtyard with 3 north exits and take the leftmost. There is an Etheric Light here hidden behind a tree. Then continue north to another electric floor area. Take the stairs down to find 2 treasure chests, then come back upstairs and continue forward. Here we can see the other side of the plaza we saw earlier. There is another torch we will want to light, and this balcony is also accessible with a rope from below.
Now go back and take the center path. After going through the electric floor area we reach a large courtyard. There are 3 etheric lights in the grassy area (1 we need to go north 1 screen to find). The left stairs takes us to a torch we can convert to a healing point using 1 etheric light. And another torch we can light to trigger an enemy encounter. The right stairs takes us through a foggy area with fixed battles. We cannot access the menu in this next area so start fully healed and be conservative in battles.
We exit into a room area with a trapped treasure chest and 2 Etheric Lights. Save before taking the next warp point. You will enter a de-facto maze where saving is disabled. At every junction follow this instruction: Right, right, left, SW. From here look for a flashing star that signals a secret path. You will fight see a visible enemy at the end of this map. It is a dragon emperor. Take the warp. You can warp back to the previous area or the start of the dungeon from here. Save before going forward, this is a boss. Version 1.3 adds useful equipment to the starry maze, so you may want to have a look around.
BOSS – Antediluvian: Dragon flare does massive damage. Dark wave may paralyze. Fell sweep: clumsy/slow. Gaia crush (can paralyze). Soul eater, an instant death move. Double attack.
Activate the warp going forward. (In Version 1.3, you can also obtain an Aurora Sword after completing any of the three main paths of the Elemental Shrine.) After doing so you should immediately walk south and light the torch overlooking the plaza. There are a lot of torches we can light and we don't have quite enough etheric light for all of them so hold off on lighting any for now. I will provide a summary of all the etheric lights and torches later.
Return to that plaza, and light all 3 torches (using the rope paths) to discover the signet of corporality. Then use your shrine key at the end of the secret path I pointed out earlier to find Seraph Halberd, an ultimate weapon.
Summary of Strength Path:
7x Etheric Light
4 Torches in Front Room
1 Warp Torch
1 Heal Torch
1 Enemy Torch (and other unknown effect)
3 Plaza Torches
For the purpose of this guide I am leaving the 4 torches in the front room unlit, and light all others. You will have 1 etheric light in your inventory. You can choose how to proceed. Taking another path or exploring forward in the shrine. I suggest choosing another path.
Path of Agility: Ignore the unlit torch in the first room for now. You will find an etheric light in the next one. Continue forward again, ignoring the unlit torches but searching the statue for a switch to reveal a treasure. Take the stairs north to find another etheric light (Note: This room was switched with another in Version 1.3). Then go back to the previous room and take the stairs south.
Saving is disabled in the next area. If you get in a jam and don't want to fight you can use the party ball to reset all enemy positions. Go south first to find a chest with 4 fafnir's rubies. You may want to return to the previous room and save before going north. When you do you will reach an area with darting flames. You need to wait for them to pass and duck into safe locations. If they hit you you will be knocked back to the start.
Take the first path to the right and you will reach an area with 3 unlit torches. The top right triggers an enemy encounter. The lower right adds a chest to a nearby location. The lower left is a flame of teleportation. Saving is still disabled in this area. After retrieving the chest (money) you may want to return to the beginning and save again.
After going back to the flame area exit the room. This area has several exits. Start by following the path to the right you will be able to save in safety. Take the stairs down south to retrieve the coat of many colors (only if you activated the torch) in the area below. The stairs in the NE bring you to a switch that opens a path in the trial of strength (to equipment Kaiser Mail). Finally follow the path to the lower-right stairs to find Radiant Soma. Otherwise enter the dragons head above to find 2 chests (one trapped). Finally, you have a challenge of agility to the left. There is a secret passage to be found on the left side of this room but you will need 2 etheric lights to capitalize on it.
Go north to a new area. The torch here can be converted to a healing flame with the etheric light. Go to the room in the right to see the next shrine door and an etheric light (Note: This area was switched with the aforementioned room in Version 1.3). The left door will take you to a chest with 2 elemental barriers. Continue into the next area. There is an etheric light in the lower right corner here. There is another to find if you continue north bear left. You can circle around to a treasure chest containing some money. Finally work your way up the pyramid (some of the paths aren't readily visible but they aren't tough to find).
The next warp brings you to a large area. There is a treasure chest in the NW corner. There are also 2 tablets with writing on them in different parts of the room but you don't need to read them. After a set time you will be warped back to the pyramid. The actual exit is in the SE corner.
BOSS – Hellhound: Always starts with Grave Chorus (can paralyze). Fury. Hell tornado (burn). Chomp+1. Absorbs fire damage. Inferno Beam.
Path of Intelligence: Ignore the 2 torches in the first room for now. The right stairs will lead you to the last shrine door. There is an etheric light hidden behind a pillar on the way. The left stairs leads you to an ice puzzle. There are 3 etheric lights in the next area. Also there is a hidden treasure chest (with money) you can reveal by activating the switches on 2 statues.
You are chased by 8 flames in the next room. You can complete it in 3 steps.
1. Wait for the 4 flames to continue south as far as they can.
2. Walk to the upper left corner, drawing the 4 flames after you. The goal is to have them follow you closely and trap them in the center area.
3. The last 4 need to be lured out of their loop (make sure all are lined up) before they are dragged down and around the square, allowing Leonardo to reach the exit.
The next room has 2 etheric light. Also a torch that can be converted to a healing flame with etheric light.
The cave has a trapped chest. On the next level of the cave there are several treasures, as well as a crack that can be blown open with dynamite. Use an etheric light on the nearby torch to warp to the Elementalist Robe. Also there is a secret passage in this room that leads to a warp crystal and 4 etheric lights. It is a LONG roundabout path to the warp crystal.
Eventually make your way to the accessible flashing crystal to trigger a mini-game.
Crystals are labeled as followed: Upper left (1), Upper right (2), lower left (3), lower right (4). Press them in the following order: 141423
Then: Upper left (1) Upper middle (2) Upper right (3)
Lower left (4) lower middle (5) lower right (6)
3426156
The next crystal challenge has the same positions as a number pad except missing the 5. It will be labeled the same way.
789
456
123
Order: 81766492
You are now in front of the path boss, Pied Reaper. Heal up, add Pica, etc.
BOSS – Pied Reaper: Shining Ray (Blind), Northern Lights (amnesia, blind), Psycho Flash (high magic damage), Soul Eater (instant death), Lunacy (confusion). Absorbs light magic, evades all physical attacks. After defeating Pied Reaper activate the warp, then backtrack to the Shrine door to retrieve another ultimate weapon, the Spear of Destiny.
Elemental Shrine: 2nd Part
(Again, remember to light the torch overlooking a previous area if you haven't)
Assuming you are continuing forward, go immediately left to speak to a gargoyle. He tells you come back later. You can take a nearby raft to a chest with some money. Then circle around to the other gargoyle. Return to the first gargoyle and he will open a bridge to an etheric light.
Next visit the building in the lower right corner (library). Read the key book with the letters MAITAERGEHT. Also one with the phrase: “A clockwise dance will bring a downpour to a dark abyss.” Look at the tablet near the library when you exit and unscramble the letters you learned in the library (if you don't look at the book you can't do anything yet). THE GREAT I AM. Entering this will reveal a staircase. It leads to a chamber with 4 torches you need to light. Your reward is the Sigil of Immanuel, a unique accessory that is very valuable.
Next enter the nearby building. There is a mimic here. The mimic is for all practical purposes a mini-boss, clocking in at approximately 120K hp. He has strong physical attacks, status attacks, and the rare slurp. His physical and magical defence are both high. He drops Soul of Fire, a valuable item that can be found in other parts of this dungeon (namely dropped by the Fire Mink).
Proceed next to the building north of here, with a moat. Our goal is to locate a pit surrounded by flashing tiles and pillars. We need to walk around it clockwise (remember the cryptic message from the library) touching the flashing portals. When we have done it successfully the pit will fill with water. You will see where the water has drained in the next area. Before exploring it, visit the one building we haven't. We need to defeat all the enemies here to reveal a treasure chest.
Now we can go enter the dragon head where the water drained. Continue forward to the big tree. Some new enemies are available to fight here. There are 2 stairs going down. Start with the right stairs. There are 2 etheric lights to extract from crystals down here. Return and take the left stairs. There are 2 treasure chests (1 trapped) and a stairs continuing upward into the dungeon.
After continuing up the stairs you will soon reach an area with some kind of unusual surface. You are slowed and saving is disabled while you are on it. One of the nearby chests is trapped. The next chest has 2 life raisers. After reaching the bottom of the room take the stairs leading down. (ignore the ones leading up for now) We have a vine jumping mini-game coming up. Your reward for making it across is radiant soma.
You have more sticky floors to deal with and will find a leaf of life in the first chest. There is also an etheric light on the next saveable surface obscured from view by the green stuff. Go up the stairs in the center of the room for another vine-jumping mini-game. The reward is also radiant soma.
Note- in previous versions of the game these vine-jumping challenges were both mandatory to reach the end of this dungeon.
After jumping down from the radiant soma, continue to the remaining exit on the left side of the room. Make sure to activate the warp point to the start of the dungeon. Be sure to pick up the Brahma Weapon from the chest before going through the last warp (this chest was newly added to 1.3; previously it was an enemy drop).
Continue forward to a large puzzle. To solve it you should consult the rygu in the choir at the castle in the sky. The solutions are below. Each primary element is surrounded by its altered states.
SOUTH QUARTER
courage, passion, action - fire (flame)
cardinal quality enriched - stars (star)
cardinal quality mutable - light (triangle)
cardinal quality, fixed - sun (sun; yellow and does not have smooth edges)
cardinal quality, transfigured - spirit (cross with brown outline)
EAST QUARTER
energy communication intellect - air (tornado)
cardinal quality enriched - time (infinity)
cardinal quality mutable - mind (candle-thing)
cardinal quality, fixed - purple (lightning)
cardinal quality, transfigured - wood (clover)
NORTH QUARTER
love, emotion, compassion – water (teardrop)
cardinal quality enriched - moon (crescent moon)
cardinal quality mutable – heart (heart)
cardinal quality, fixed - ice (snowflake)
cardinal quality, transfigured - darkness (reverse triangle)
WEST QUARTER
substance, wisdom, resilience - earth (diamond)
cardinal quality enriched - iron (up arrow)
cardinal quality mutable – space (purple)
cardinal quality, fixed - body (flower; 6 petals)
cardinal quality, transfigured - gold (button)
Check the central tablet after putting everything in the right place. The next warp will begin a series of battles leading to the game's conclusion.
3x Sadisticat (charm on death)
3x High Elementalist (omniblast on death)
3x Deathbringer (light's out on death)
3x Demon Commander (lucky shot on death)
Your heroes are revived with 1 hp between battles if they died.
BOSS – Delila/Devil Chibi x 2: Delila will bind the party and heal all hp on the 1st turn. SKILLS: Giga Whip. Astral Meteor. Wings of Darkness. Sensual Lick. Neutralize. Warped affection. Passionate kiss. Double attack. Blessing will head off most of her status effects and break the bound status. Heroes can be intoxicated by her aura. After this fight you can save and reorganize your equipment (but not change party).
BOSS – Astaroth: Begins with Soul Break and Prohibition; will break your will and impose stat limit on first turn. Ezra and Leonardo negate this with the right equipment. SKILLS: Dark guard. Evil power. Nuke. Abyss. Expel (death and removal). Strike down. Hell Tornado. Spinning blade. Double attack. Dispel. I had issues with Pica always dying in the 4th position to expel. (I think he does it at near half hp and always targets the 4th hero) If that keeps happening, you can die and reorganize your party. Alternatively you can try to have Pica killed off before he uses the spell and revived after. She only needs to survive the battle once to learn the skill.
BOSS – Astaroth (orb form): You start this fight fully healed. Guard on turn 1 to protect yourself from Spectral Beam. Has different modes – you can tell which by what he is holding. He holds the symbols we used to unlock the warp to this sequence of fights. SKILLS: Atmospheric Rend. Northern Lights. Star cross. Exodus. Solar flare. If you lose to Astaroth (either form) you can warp back to the start of this battle sequence instead of a normal game over. You keep all experience gained, items found, and skills learned. But not items used.
After defeating Astaroth you are separated from your party. Make your way north to the save point. Doppelgangers have some dangerous abilities so don't be reckless before saving. You will see some of your party members (including former party members) as well as bosses drifting in the mists. Keep walking to begin a long cutscene. You have one event battle with Leonardo, then put together your final party to face Cugei.
BOSS – Cugei: Maintain blessing and omniwall at all times. Alternatively, use Life Guards and Element Barriers; they have the same effects (remember Stat Raisers also; Leonardo’s new skill, Spirit Fire, has the same effect as a Stat Raiser, by the way). If only Leonardo is left alive, use Phoenix Dive and then quickly revive him. While you’ll most likely be drained of your items following the gauntlet of battles leading up to this final confrontation, having a large stock of party-wide healing items (and Unicorn Horns to revive fallen characters) is critical. If Ezra inherited Sybil’s skills, buying healing items is less important, but you should still have some in case of an emergency. If you’re lucky enough to have some rare items like Spider Webs and Dark Tonics, use them as well. Equipment-wise, maximize your Elemental defense, because Cugei hits hard. Before you engage him, look through your available equipment for each character. You need to do some heavy hitting, too, so balance it out as best you can. It might be a long fight, but don’t give up! Good luck!
Section 21: Postgame
Saruma
Outfit your party with Rose Pendants and other equipment that resists instant death. When Saruma is out of HP, he’ll use Strike Down on two characters and then Shadow of Death on the survivors. The Sigil of Immanuel and Signet of Corporality resist Strike Down, so consider those accessories as well.
Iron Emperor
Equip Filter Goggles before the battle, maybe also Radon Rings. Guard on the first turn to survive Gamma Ray Burst. Dispel Great Wall when he uses it on the second turn (with the Dispel Staff). Starting on the fifth turn, he has a chance to overheat, and becomes defenseless. Pound him with all your best physical attacks at this time. The rest of the time, play defensively. He can be harmed by Fire, Water, Darkness, and Thunder magic (and also crystals with those elements, including the Omnicrystal). If Pica is present and survives, she’ll learn Great Wall, which is incredibly useful, especially when combined with other defensive items and skills.
Dark Saint
Sleep in Leonardo’s bed to encounter it. This is a three-stage battle, and it only gets harder. You’ll want all the best equipment you can obtain, probably including duplicate ultimate pieces like Metatron Armor from Carbuncles/Mirages in the Arena.
Arena Challenge
Note: You must have cleared the game and defeated the Iron Emperor before you can take part in this challenge.
You can save every ten battles. If you fail, just reload your save and try again from that point. There are some new and very dangerous enemies to fight, including the Pyromaniac, who can deal over 10,000 damage with its attacks, and several encounters with boss-level difficulty, such as the Fairy Dragon, Dragon Sage, and Bio-Weapon. What’s more, heinous fiends such as Leaf Dragons and Shield Guardians can appear to mess you up. There’s also the Principality, who appears just to expel a character from your party. You’ll probably want to quit and reload if that happens.
For completing 100 battles in a row, you’ll obtain the Shield of Invincibility. You only get one for the first 100 battles you complete, by the way.
Carbuncles and Mirages can appear during the Arena Challenge. If you’ve got characters with maxed out agility and the capabilities to take them out (physical attacks and magic, respectively), you can win some fantastic items from them. See the items & drops spreadsheet for details.
Another enemy with a useful drop is the Dark Dragon; it can drop the Dragon Crest, which doubles both Attack and Intelligence with no penalties – criminal.
Section 22: Achievements
This is a newer section detailing a few of the tougher achievements that have been added to the game since its initial release. Things like Ben’s statues and Fairy Priestesses are not detailed here (as they’re already detailed elsewhere in the guide). Please note, these achievements apply to the Steam version only. There is no in-game reward for completing these challenges (aside from the addition to the ending for the first one).
Happily Ever After: You can get this by defeating the final boss in 30 turns or less.
Speed Slaughter: Defeat the final boss in 10 turns or less. Dark Tonics and Spider Webs will help immensely if you have them (the former to increase your damage, the latter to stop the boss from acting).
Lion Brave: Defeat the final boss with Leonardo alone. It sounds a lot more intimidating than it really is. You’ll definitely want to be equipped with both the Metatron Armor and the Sigil of Immanuel. From there, just slug it out. It took me about 94 turns. You can also use Stat Raisers to increase your power. Be sure to have eight Pepp Peps, as well as a lot of Rory’s Brew and Regina’s Wine. The two articles of equipment I noted will give you dual-layered elemental defense, as well as immunity to all negative status effects.
Match the Maker: Don’t even think about doing this one on your first playthrough. Or second, or third for that matter. You’re going to need to know the game inside and out; what the best equipment for each situation is, what the most efficient parties are, where all the essential treasure is found, and so on. You won’t have a whole lot of time for building levels, either. You’re pretty much going to have to rush through each dungeon, not veering far off the main path, and picking up the bare minimum in terms of treasure.
My fastest clear time was 39:47 (hours/minutes), but any time under 40 hours will do it. If memory serves, I actually made it to the final boss in around 35 hours, but couldn’t beat him. So I left and went back through some dungeons I’d previously rushed through (the Cave of Destiny, all of Central Behgar, and Cugei’s Castle/the Palace of the Four Elemental Gods), gaining levels and getting more treasure. You definitely don’t want to neglect obtaining the ultimate equipment of the characters in your party.
By the way, the threshold for clearing the game is the moment you deliver the last blow to the final boss, so the ending won’t count towards your time. Here’s a good benchmark: getting to Behgar in 19-20 hours. While I’m at it, I’ll also list where I was at various stages of the game while doing a speed run, so you can gauge your progress:
9 hours: Mt. Marine
12 hours: The “Midgame” (right after Glymac when you can go anywhere)
15 hours: Finished Hobo, Veya, and Cambria; on Mt. Sirius, having just gotten Karma
19 hours: Just got to Behgar
22 hours: About to fight Troy in the Gemstone Cavern. Party was Level 40 entering into Central Behgar. Noted that battles were tough at this level.
25 hours: About to go to the Castle in the Sky, party’s levels around 44-45.
28 hours: At the confrontations in the lowest basement of Cugei’s Castle. I leveled my party to 50 before entering the castle. The Snatchers in the cave right outside the castle are useful for this, so long as you kill them in the right order (they counterattack upon death and one of them can paralyze the party).
30 hours: At Omega
As I said, though, I had to do a lot of backtracking and leveling up in order to finish, so you probably have a degree of leeway. You might want to make several alternate save files over the course of the game so you can start again from an earlier point if you mess up, or see yourself not making it, instead of having to start over from the very beginning.
UPDATE: I’ve now managed to clear the game in less than 30 hours, with a playtime of about 28:08 right before the final boss. Makes me wonder just how much the clear time can be cut down…
So I have some insights from this last playthrough. I can heartily recommend a party of Leah/Romeo/Maximus for this challenge. This party (together with Leonardo, of course) can make use of all three ultimate weapons behind the locked doors of the Elemental Shrine, as well as Excalibur; not to mention Leah’s exclusive Union Ring/Hobo Lily/Black Leather Corset combo. Oh, and Flame Meteor too. More on that in a minute…
Where I really shaved my time was from Behgar onward; and mostly Central Behgar onward, interestingly. You’d be surprised how much skipping through the cutscene text cuts down on your time. Leah becomes the big damage dealer for a long while once you get the Black Leather Corset (so you’ll want to delay getting Maximus; personally I used Ryota until I got him). You can get Flame Meteor right after Faust’s Mansion, before Central Behgar, and you should get it immediately. You can use it in almost every single regular encounter and instantly kill everything. I think this is what cut my time so much. Make sure Leonardo’s Agility is boosted as much as possible throughout the game, be it with equipment or Speed Ups/Speed Emeralds. Use all your Agility enhancers on him, and he and Leah will be unstoppable with Flame Meteor. Pack 99 Pillows and lots of Sacks and Mattresses from Fauston, and Central Behgar will be a breeze. I saw Flame Meteor deal up to 20,000 damage to all enemies at once.
Then there’s Maximus. The key to making him great is the Satyr’s Lyre from Saruma. So be sure to get the Bard’s Harp from the Inn scene in Glymac after getting Maximus at Carlo. I recommend fighting Saruma before Omega at the latest; before Cugei’s Castle would be even better, if you can manage to do it. With Leah’s equipment combo, Romeo’s Excalibur, some Spider Webs and Dark Tonics, and the battle items from the Castle in the Sky (Element Barriers, Stat Raisers, and Life Guards), you should be able to do it. And you’ll be well-rewarded. Stat-Raised, Supercharged Maximus, with Genbu’s Shield and the Seraph Halberd, dealt a 223,000-damage critical hit to the Antediluvian in the Elemental Shrine. I couldn’t believe my eyes. You can win many late-game boss fights, including Delila and Astaroth, in a couple rounds, if not one turn or even a few hits.
You’ll probably want to skimp on a few side quests in order to finish the game so quickly. Dimitri’s jewels, for example, and also the springs for Pica. However, I did get all of Ben’s statues so I could get the Ogre Badge. But who knows if that’s really necessary? Who knows just how quickly the game can be finished? Maybe YOU have the answer! ;)